Keystones and gateways

     I froze up... I literally couldn't think of any possible explanation for what I was seeing! I kept blinking until my eyes began to hurt. I pinched myself, but it was all in vain. This wasn't a dream. I wasn't hallucinating. This was real! Trying to stop myself from shaking so uncontrollably, I began to look around, and gain a feeling of my alien surroundings. I was standing in the middle of a huge open space. Massive! Humongous! It was no less a large space than it was a large... Void! I stood upon some strange type of rock; it looked like it was composed of many hundreds of shells, but it was perfectly smooth. Large pillars of what appeared to be obsidian climbed higher with no noticeable purpose, and then I realised I was surrounded... Thousands of Endermen stood around in the distance and close by, but only one seemed to be taking any notice of me... There was no way I could determine the difference between males and females, even if they had those classifications, so I could only refer to it as an 'it'... It stood there for some time, not doing or saying anything. Just staring at me, it's mouth agape, it's piercing purple eyes staring right at me. I was more than intimidated. I was literally scared for my life! After a while, it closed it's mouth and spoke to me, in a smooth, but incredibly deep voice. If it had't been for the almost deafening silence then it would likely have been impossible to hear it at all!

"Welcome Syeonyx. Welcome, to The End!"

The End...? Going back through everything we had been told about Endermen, I recalled The End being a place. A physical location that could accessed through... Through a new type of portal... But we hadn't been through a portal! We had stood in the entrance of an abandoned building of god only knows what age! How had I managed to get here? And where were the others? I assumed I had suffered a similar fate to the other four - I hoped OROTHO had understood and carried out my instructions - so where were the others? If the same thing that happened to them happened to me, shouldn't we be in the same place?

"I sense that you are confused, anxious, troubled. Do not be afraid. We are not here to hurt you. We brought you to this place to better understand us. You were brought alone to ensure you did understand us."

I was definitely confused... "Us"...? I looked around at the other Endermen, and seemed a little bewildered at how they were involved. If they had been involved in bringing me to this place, surely they would be interested in my presence...?

"I see your mistake, Syeonyx. Our use of the collective terms 'we' and 'us' is not misunderstanding on yours or our part. We are all one. We are collective. Each of us you see before you is singular in nature, and yet collective at the same time."

If this Enderman was meant to be making me understand then it wasn't doing a very good job... What did it mean by them all being one and not one at the same time?

"Your thoughts are clouded, confused. Do not take everything you see before you to be so literal. We are the manifestation of a single conscious. We are the separate, uniquely defined individuals of a single thought process. We all share the same conscious and yet we retain our own unique elements of individuality. You are different to us however. Your thoughts are your own. You possess only the feelings and emotions of yourself, and do not share them amongst your species as a whole. We however do."

I was beginning to think that this Enderman was trying to tell me that each individual Endermen shared the same brain! Like they were all linked together through some link... Telepathic or something like that...

"Your crude words for our being are correct. We share the same consciousness so that we can each feel and understand the same throughout every one of us. Using more of your archaic terminology, consider us a single 'brain' with many billions of tendrils stretching out, searching, seeking. Each of us is a unique tendril, possessing our own traits, but everything we see, feel, do, is shared throughout all of us."

So they were basically all the same possessing the same brain, but with unique traits...? Okay, I could understand that... Just. But that still didn't explain why I was here! Where any of the others were and whether we could get back from... Wherever the hell we were...

"You are here because you are the first worthy members of your species to enter into our world. You stepped into our once great city in your dimension and possessed no thoughts of violence or upheaval. You sought knowledge rather than power. You sought answers rather than objects of value. Those that came before you were not worthy of the information we wish to bestow upon you and your fellow brothers. You are aware of our mighty portal system that is interlinked throughout your world. You are also aware of its potential, but some of your species wish to abuse that potential. The gateway they 'possess' and which to activate contains evils unimaginable and it must remain closed! We greatly value the efforts you and your brothers have made to keep it closed, but we sense that it isn't long now until these evils are released."

It must be referring to HoN Co.! We've been attempting to stop them from activating the master portal for some time now, but we've reached a stage where we can do no more! We have no more portals to destroy, and HoN Co. are still likely to possess the means with which to make more!

"This 'master portal' you speak of is the gateway. It must remain closed, but there is another way to ensure it is never opened. There is an item of ultimate power within The End that can destroy the gateway in an instant. The Ender Keystone. You must use the Keystone by placing it within the opening of an active portal."

It's here? Brilliant! I could take the Keystone back with me to the others, head to the tower and destroy the master portal by the end of the day! For a moment, for a fleeting speck of a moment, I thought that this horrid nightmare would come to an end; HoN Co. would be defeated in their attempts to merge dimensions and release the evil, and would be exposed to the world!

"I am sorry, Syeonyx. But this is not the case. I cannot simply give you the Keystone, as you are currently not here."

Now I was confused. The first thing it had said to me was 'Welcome to The End'... If I wasn't where it said I was, where am I?

"You are between dimensions. An astral plane of existence known simply as the Aether, the space between dimensions. You are neither in The End nor Minecraftia. You are between them. The only way to access The End is through a unique portal. For purposes of communication only, I have summoned you to this higher plane to inform you of this. You must find this portal, activate it, step through into The End and take the Keystone back with you. I will be waiting."

A portal? Planes of existence? How did I get to the portal? And how do I activate it?

"The portal requires twelve objects that cannot be obtained in your world. These objects are unique in nature. When we decided to close the gateway to evil, we did so through sacrifice. The Keystone was used to close the gateway, and then taken to The End. It was then sealed using the eyes of twelve individuals of our being. The eyes were hidden throughout the Nether before every last one of us returned to The End, sealing the portal behind us. We are trapped here, in the hopes that the Keystone is never found. If used incorrectly, it can be used to activate the gateway as well."

So the Keystone used to close the gateway is now sealed in another dimension that can only be accessed by finding the portal and activating it using the twelve Eyes Of Ender? But not only that, if the Keystone is used incorrectly, then it can actually activate the gateway rather than destroy it?

"Yes, Syeonyx. Once you possess the Keystone, you must place it within the opening of an activate portal. Only then will the gateway be sealed forever. I am returning you to your world. The other five brothers have been imbued with the same knowledge. You will know what to do."

Wait... Five? I thought OROTHO got back to the base? But before I could protest, the Enderman had grabbed me, and I suddenly felt nauseous once more! Closing my eyes, I waited until the sickening feeling ceased. Opening my eyes, I found I was back where I had been standing before. Everyone else was standing around me; everyone was silent...

"Was that just me, or did everyone just disappear?"

"Has everyone just experienced the same thing? The Enderman? Keystones and portals?"

Everyone nodded. Remembering I had taken a photo when I had got there, I took out my camera to prove that I hadn't just dreamt that. But flicking through the stored images, the one I had taken was missing... The counter showed that I had taken a photo recently, but it wasn't present on my camera at all! It skipped a number instead!

"I think we need to tell COLUS what just happened..."

Syeonyx signing off