Ewendere; A FunCraft Fanfic

Chapter 10, Where's Oli?

 "Guys, what's going on? Have you found Ewendere?!" Callum stopped in his tracks waiting for a response from the others, had they found Oli yet?

 But no one replied, he could only hear the brief silence over the chat at first. Listening closer, Callum could faintly make out the sound of someone speaking, but the voice was high pitched and unrecognisable. He looked over at Scott, whose teal-haired avatar was standing beside his own. Suddenly, Callum jumped slightly as the voice turned dark and gruelling as if a filter was added. That voice was then followed by another sound that was all too familiar to him, the piercing stabbing sounds of hit damage. Whatever was happening, they were under attack.

 "Oh no..." Scott must have heard the sounds too, "I hear hits, that can't be a good sign."

 "What do we do?!" Callum shouted back hysterically, "should we look for them and help fight?!" 

"No guys" Finally, it was Joel who responded to their concerned conversation, his voice tainted with struggle in battle. "You need to keep looking for Oli, finding him will hopefully secure our plan. Don't worry, we'll all be fine."

 "JOEL, BEHIND YOU!" Yammy shouted over the chat, his attention was turned back to the battle leaving Scott and Callum.

 Callum looked back at Scott, "he's right, if we find Oli then he might know how to get out of this debacle." In truth, he just was only thinking about finding Oli and seeing if he was safe.

 Scott's avatar nodded, "Ok, but where would he be? As far as we know, the entire mansion has been checked top to bottom."

 Callum scratched his head, "well then, maybe we're missing something. Is there any place in a woodland mansion that's hard to find? Like a secret room or passage or something." Scott seemed to pause for a moment to think, looking around the corridor they stood in. Seconds later, his fingers clicked over his microphone.

 "Callum you fox-skinned genius! Woodland mansions do have secret passages, the loop around the mansion through the walls!" With that he took off back down the way they came, Callum following him close behind.

They checked every room they had already checked again, hoping to find the hidden entrance to the passage.

 A minute of searching passed, when Callum stopped again as another new sound emerged from the server's audio. Some sort of music, echoing but soft, distinctive notes. Was that...a piano?

 "Do you here that?" he asked Scott as he tried to figure out where the sound came from. Oli plays piano, but that couldn't be him, could it? 

"Over here" Scott's call broke Callum's thoughts, he looked to his direction before running to the wall he was pressed against. It was a piano, he'd forgotten for a moment that this server was modded.

 "Have you guys found something?" Callum barely detected Lauren's bewildered question over the chat in conflict.

 But without a word of confirmation, he and Scott began viciously digging through the walls to reveal a passage leading upwards. They ran up the narrow stairs, the sound gradually getting louder the further up they climbed. The stairs suddenly turned a corner to reveal a small room with a stone entrance that led one block into a wall. Hung on the side of the entrance was a single leave. Callum stared at it hesitant, before shaking his head clear and pulling it. The wall blocking the entrance was pulled away by leavers to show an iron bar cell. He looked closer through the bars to see the very piano that led them here. And playing the piano, a basic sounding but still beautiful rendition of Für Elise, was the player Callum had been searching for this whole time. They had found Oli at last.

 He gasped and copped his hands against his mouth, ever so glad they had finally found his best friend. He wanted to type into the chat and tell Oli how relieved he was to have found him safe, but he quickly stopped himself before Ewendere could see the message.

 "Oli!" Scott shouted with the same relief, before taking out his diamond pick to mine the bars out. He came close to breaking them, but as soon as he did the bars just instantly replaced themselves. Luckily, the sound alerted Oli of their presence as he jumped off the piano stool and ran towards the bars separating him and his friends. Callum pressed his avatar as close as he could to the bars while Scott just stared puzzled as he continued mining the bars.

 "Gah! They won't break!" he stepped back annoyed, mining the floor with his pick to check it was working. Callum looked directly at Oli, he could feel the gaze of his soul once again, reminding him of their meeting back at spawn.

 He turned back to Scott, "How are we gonna free him?"

 "Not sure, only that mining the bars doesn't seem to be working."

 Just as he said that, Oli started crouching and jumping madly, he must have been trying to tell them something. Callum threw the spare book and quill he had on him at Oli, who replied almost instantly.

 He opened the book from his hot bar and read aloud, "replace the bars with different blocks when they break, It's an old trick I saw on destroying respawning blocks."

 "Right!" Scott announced as he began mining the bars again, "When I break the bars, you place down dirt in their place." He did just that, swiftly and with delay breaking the dirt to open a gap in the cell.

 "It worked!" he exclaimed as Oli ran out beside him, he passed the book back excited to be able to talk to his friend again.

 "Thanks for the rescue guys, but we can't celebrate yet. You need to kill Ewendere, that will free her hold on my soul, so we can delete the server with her inside it."

  So the plan was right all along! Callum thought to himself.

 "Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Joel must have heard him read out the message.  

"We've found Oli! And he says killing Ewendere will work!" Callum shouted back triumphantly.

 "Oli? He's safe!?" the whole server sounded relived to have found their captured friend, everyone was shouting excitedly. But that only lasted briefly. A small cry escaped from Yammy, only to quickly be muffled by fast and all-too-familiar zapping noises.

 "YAMMY!" Lauren shouted above everyone else, "SHE'S BEEN TAKEN!" Callum looked down at the chat to see a new message from the game, "Yammyxox was killed whilst fighting Ewendere." 

"NO!" he gasped in horror. One friend found wouldn't save everyone else from being preyed upon, and they needed to act quick before it continued. Callum turned back to Oli and Scott, "We need to fight, NOW!"

 There was no need for a reply, as all three FunCrafters ran faster than ever back down the passage stairs and into the corridor.