The Paragon

     We stared in disbelief at the Enderman, who simply stared back, giving no emotion away at all. How could that be the Paragon? He was meant to be at the top of HoN Co., according to Jeff! Why was he here? How was he here?

"What do you mean that's the Paragon? The Paragon is the C.E.O of HoN Co.! Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am sure. We have watched you with keen interest since your first visit to our city. We have watched you enter their places and speak with the scientist. He was the one that gave a name to this otherwise faceless evil."

"How do you know he's evil? We thought that everyone within HoN Co. thought the master portal was used to allow access to the energy contained within the Nether? How is he evil?"

"He is the only one that knew of the true cause to the activation of the portal. He knew from the start that activating it would not allow you to enter into the Nether and take what you wanted, but was a way of merging the two dimensions together. This was done intentionally. He has no intention of harvesting the energy, and the fabrication that was crafted which allowed others to think this was possible was established. He knew that if anyone was to know the true purpose, his project would be shut down."

"How was he able to continue? Surely there are others out there who work within HoN Co. that knew this would be the true outcome from activating the master portal?"

"There were, but the Paragon made sure they remained secret. His initial attempts at thwarting these ideas was to state that the merging of the two dimensions would occur on a small scale, and the energies would still harvestable. However, there were many scientists who continued to explore this and realised he was wrong. He killed them."

"So anyone who wouldn't listen to his lies died?"

"Yes. These mysterious deaths were not connected in any way so no-one took any notice of the pattern."

"This is sounding more and more plausible by the minute. But... What would he have to gain from destroying this world by merging the dimensions? There is nothing he would gain that would outweigh the consequences!"

"There is, as he is not of this world. He was the evil we locked the Nether away from many thousands of years ago. His idea had lasted since before the portal was deactivated, and he has strived this long to reactivate it."

"Wait... He's not human?"

"No. He is one of us, and yet not one of us. He was a single Enderman, and individual like us, however he was born without the unified connection that joins everyone of us together. He was able to think freely of his own accord. He matured in our world with the resentment that we did not expand to colonise the planet. After many hundreds of years he left us, vowing to make something of this world. It was then that he found the Nether through the portals we used. He liked the Nether, far too much, and worked hard to find a way to bring it into this world."

"But why? Why not just head into the Nether and live there on his own?"

"Because I felt like I was leaving everyone behind unpunished!"

We turned to see the Paragon metres away from us! He had made his way down from the base of the tower and had managed to sneak up on us.

"I vowed I'd make something of this world, and I did! I set out to find a way to make this world into one that I enjoyed, completing my goal and showing everyone the potential I alone had."

"You did all of this because you thought the Endermen weren't outgoing enough!?!"

"No! I did this to prove a point! As an individual maturing within an environment where I was told I could not make an impact individually, I began to resent the idea that I wasn't able to make anything of myself. As a freak of nature, one born without the connection, I was singled out and put down regularly. I left on that day to prove to every Enderman in existence that being an individual made me more powerful than all of them combined!"

"But why not just establish your own empire out in the world by yourself! You'd prove to everyone you were powerful!"

"With who!?! I was the only individual of my species in existence! There was no other intelligent beings on this planet; your species hadn't even climbed out of the trees when I set off alone."

"He found the portal and attempted to activate it. We found out, learning of his plan and attempted to stop him. The only way we could was to deactivate all of the sub-portals around the planet, and seal away the only method of activating it with us."

"I've been activating portals for millennia trying to get the Nether to merge with this world! MILLENNIA! And now I've succeeded! There is nothing you can do to stop it!"

"So you set up HoN Co., a mining company, when humanity reached an industrial age and got people to find more portals for you? Once you found them, they were activated, linking back to the master portal? Why have scientists though? You already know what the portals do..."

"They were a cover. Early on when the first portal was found, the public got wind of it, and it proved to be the find of the century! I couldn't sit about letting this incident lay idle! I requisitioned a team to work on it so that it seemed HoN Co. took an interest in this new phenomenon. This kept others out of the way, and this way I was able to more accurately control what happened when a portal was found."

"Why are you telling us all of this? Are you going to kill us?"

"Kill you!?! Why would I do that? I never set out to kill anyone... Not directly anyway... I'm telling you all of this because I take joy in the fact that there is nothing you can do to stop it!"

The Paragon disappeared from view right in front of us, although whether he turned invisible or literally disappeared I didn't know!

"We can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"The people under the employ of HoN Co. are merely victims then. They are not as evil as he is if they are willing to think for themselves. My people will aid them in fighting the Nether creatures back. We may not be able to destroy the portal, but we may be able to help the people here live long enough to escape."

We watched as many more Endermen appeared into view, dotted around the landscape, and began to intervene in the battles that had begun between the creatures of the Nether and the guards and soldiers below. A number of times the guards mistook the help for another attack, and began firing at them instead, but as fast as they could fire their weapons, the Endermen would simply disappear from view and reappear elsewhere.

"What do we do now then? All we can do is help them out..."

"Then let's help them! You three get your rifles out. They're not as powerful as pistols but we know they work! Target the Ghasts first, while we try to get the word out to the other guards not to attack the Endermen!"

Reassembling the rifle, I joined COLUS, UOPETA and Joe in taking shots at any Ghasts or fire creatures that entered our scopes. We couldn't tell if what we were doing was helping at all, but we only slowed down to reload. Luckily there was little aiming involved as we were very close to them. Despite what had happened, despite what we had been told, I fought with the others as though my life depended on it, and with the events yet to unfold, that was definitely going to be the case!

"Wait! I have an idea!"

Syeonyx signing off