Minecraft Universe, Blocky Planet
The wooden boat barely made a sound as Adrian guided it across the blue sea. He leaned back against the wood, watching the cubic sun climb higher in the sky while Derflinger dozed in his pixelated Netherite form.
Five days of mining, trading, and organizing had done wonders.
The four Shulker Boxes he'd traded more than two stacks of emeralds for had revolutionized his storage system. Each one was nestled safely within his Crystalline Minecraft Pearl with their contents perfectly categorized.
Adrian closed his eyes, mentally reviewing his inventory. The first Shulker Box held his building supplies - 511 cobblestone blocks for defensive walls, 120 dirt blocks for emergency platforms, 51 oak blocks for crafting materials. He'd mined 78 obsidian, enough for multiple Nether portals if needed. The 20 bookshelves and enchanting table would let him enchant equipment anywhere. Five furnaces and an anvil rounded out his crafting capabilities.
The second box made him smile. His precious materials - 165 diamonds, 42 emeralds, enough for extensive trading. Twenty-two blocks of lapis lazuli for enchanting, 41 redstone blocks for mechanisms. The 15 gold blocks, 37 iron blocks, and 61 coal blocks represented hours of careful mining.
His third box focused on brewing potential and combat prep. Twenty-two spider eyes for poison, 60 sugar for speed potions, 50 glass bottles waiting to be filled. The 45 pieces of string could become bows or fishing rods as needed.
The fourth box held his general supplies. One hundred and sixty steaks for food, 64 bone meal and 20 seeds for emergency farming. Sixty-four books and 110 pieces of paper for enchantments and other things, matched with 64 leather. The 124 torches would light any temporary base, while basic tools like shears and a fishing rod gave him options.
Beyond the boxes, his immediate inventory stayed combat-ready. Sixty-four steaks, Golden Apples, and Golden Carrots for healing. Fourteen Ender Pearls for emergency teleports. The buckets of water, lava, and milk could solve many problems.
Besides that, he naturally had his Netherite Armor and Sword at the ready. His bow enchanted with Power V and Infinity along with 120 arrows gave him more ranged options, thought he definitely needed to work on his archery skills in more realistic worlds. Naturally he also had a shield, though he didn't make much use of it.
To top it all off, he kept Louise's wand and 32 TNT in a corner.
A dark shape appeared on the horizon, the edge of a desert biome. Adrian nudged Derflinger who had fallen asleep against the boat's edge.
"Wake up, Derf. We're here."
"Mmm?" Derflinger's voice came from the blocky Netherite sword. "Finally! I hate being on the water. Everything's so... boring."
Adrian guided the boat toward the shore, breaking it down as soon as they reached land. The miniature item disappeared into his inventory as he transformed into his true body.
"Another day of searching?" Derflinger asked from his magnetic hold on Adrian's back.
"Jason swears Endermen spawn more often in deserts at night." Adrian started running across the sand blocks. "And this desert is a mega-biome that goes for thousands of blocks toward Imperial Diamond."
"That big settlement you mentioned?"
"Ten thousand players." Adrian increased his speed. "Biggest one they know of, apparently. But that's not why we're here."
He ran until the sun reached its peak, then built a cobblestone pillar straight up into the air. From this height, he could see for miles in every direction.
"Now we wait." Adrian settled onto the pillar's top. "Night will come soon."
The cubic sun sank below the horizon, and light levels began dropping rapidly across the desert. Adrian scanned the sands below, watching skeletons and zombies spawn in the shadows between dunes.
"You really think this will work?" Derflinger asked.
"Jason hasn't been wrong yet." Adrian kept searching. "He knows more about Minecraft than I do."
A creeper appeared near the pillar's base. Then another. Adrian ignored them, focusing on finding the tall black shape he needed.
"There!" Adrian's voice dropped to a whisper. "Four hundred blocks east."
The Enderman stood motionless between two sand dunes, holding a block of sand in its blocky hands. Purple particles floated around its body as it stared into the distance with glowing purple eyes.
"Ready?" Adrian transformed to human form and grabbed Derflinger from his back.
"Always ready! Just don't let it teleport away."
Adrian destroyed the blocks beneath him one by one, creating a staircase down. The Enderman remained in place, seemingly fascinated by its sand block.
"Remember," Adrian whispered. "Sharpness V should tear through it in two hits. Maybe even one with your fire aspect burning it."
They reached the ground, and Adrian ran closer to the Enderman. At fifty blocks away, he stopped.
"Here we go." Adrian raised his head and stared directly into the Enderman's face.
The Enderman's jaw dropped open in rage, releasing an otherworldly screech that caused him to flinch slightly. Purple particles swirled around its body as it teleported directly in front of Adrian.
"Now!" Adrian swung Derflinger in a horizontal arc.
The enchanted Netherite blade made the Enderman flash red, and flames soon covered it entirely. The creature screamed and tried to teleport away, but Adrian had already brought Derflinger down for a second strike.
The Enderman exploded into pixels, leaving behind a single Ender Pearl.
Adrian transformed instantly into his Primal Zerg form and snatched up the Ender Pearl. The smooth sphere radiated cold energy, completely different from the other Ender Pearls in his inventory. This one was fresh, still containing the Enderman's Essence.
He swallowed it whole.
His enhanced digestive system went to work immediately. The pearl resisted breaking down at first, maintaining its cubic form even as stomach acid bubbled away. Adrian almost felt as if the pearl was trying to teleport away from inside him.
"You okay, partner?" Derflinger asked from his back.
Adrian couldn't answer. The pearl finally cracked, releasing what felt like liquid void into his stomach. It burned cold, spreading through his body like ice in his veins. His stomach churned as it tried to process this alien substance that seemed to exist between dimensions.
This wasn't just DNA or biological material. No, it was something else entirely. Pure dimensional energy extracted from the End itself contained within the Essence. Adrian's body struggled to adapt it, trying to create something that could contain and channel this power, but in the end his organs started shifting, making space for something new.
A new organ began forming below his heart. It grew rapidly, consuming biomass as it took shape. The organ looked like a small purple crystal surrounded by specialized tissue. Every few seconds it would flicker in and out of reality, as if it couldn't decide which dimension to exist in. Small tendrils grew outward from the tissue, connecting to his nervous system. Each connection sent jolts of pain through his body as it adapted to channel the purple energy.
The Void Magic Fragment in his brain responded to the new connections to his nervous system, and the specialized neurons glowed slightly as they attempted something, but it fizzled out.
Adrian triggered the internal crystal, and purple particles immediately poured out of it to surround his body as reality bent around him. He vanished and reappeared thirty blocks away with just a thought.
"Whoa!" Derflinger yelped. "That was different from an Ender Pearl throw!"
Adrian tried again, this time focusing on a distant dune he could see. The teleport worked perfectly.
No projectile needed and no pearl consumed.
He spent the next hour testing his limits. The crystal seemed to fill up with energy out of nowhere, allowing rapid teleports without strain. He could blink to any visible location, or up to thirty-two blocks away even through solid matter. When a skeleton shot at him, his body automatically dissolved into particles to avoid the arrow.
"I'll call it Void Step," Adrian decided.
"Can you reach the End from here?" Derflinger asked.
Adrian focused on the crystal, feeling the connection to something vast and empty beyond normal space. The same space that it drew its power from. "Maybe. The crystal seems to resonate with... something that could be the End. Let me try a few more tests first."
He approached a nearby water source block and reached toward it. The moment his claws touched the water, he flinched hard. The crystal organ pulsed erratically, and purple particles scattered chaotically around him.
"Agh!" Adrian jumped back. "That's unpleasant."
"What happened?"
"Water interferes with the Void Step somehow." Adrian circled the water carefully. "It doesn't just block teleportation - it actively hurts. Like the crystal wants to reject reality wherever water exists."
He tested this theory by walking through a light rain that started falling. The drops stung against his scales, but the pain remained manageable. The crystal adapted somewhat, but Void Step refused to work until he got under cover.
"At least I won't dissolve in the rain." Adrian sighed. "But no teleporting while wet."
He turned his attention back to the distant pull he felt. The crystal resonated with something impossibly far away, yet somehow right next to him. Like a door that existed everywhere at once.
"Here goes nothing."
Adrian gathered power in the crystal and reached for that connection. Purple particles exploded outward from his body as reality twisted violently. The desert vanished, replaced by absolute darkness for a split second.
Then they were somewhere else entirely.
An endless void in every direction. The only solid ground was the pale end stone island they stood upon. Strange chorus plants grew in twisted shapes, reaching toward a sky that didn't exist. Everything had a slightly purple tint from the ambient light that seemed to come from nowhere.
"The End." Adrian breathed deeply, feeling the crystal organ resonating with the very fabric of this dimension. "We made it."
"This place feels wrong." Derflinger's voice was quiet. "Like we're somewhere we were never meant to be."
Adrian walked to the edge of the island and looked down into the infinite nothing below. "No, this feels... right. The crystal belongs here. I can sense the connection now, all Enderman teleportation draws power from this place."
He tested Void Step again. Here in the End, teleportation felt completely natural. Distance seemed meaningless as he blinked rapidly between chorus trees. The crystal drew power directly from the surrounding Void, eliminating any and all strain or limits.
"I wonder..." Adrian focused on a distant floating island barely visible in the void. Purple particles swirled around him as he vanished, reappearing instantly on the far island. "Perfect! Range seems unlimited here as well."
"That's great and all," Derflinger grumbled, "but can we go somewhere less... empty?"
Adrian laughed and prepared to return them to the desert. But first, he harvested several chorus fruits and stored them in his Pearl before focusing on the connection to the overworld.
In moments, they reappeared in the desert.
"That was something else." Derflinger spoke up. "But what happens when we leave Minecraft? Will you still be able to teleport?"
Adrian hadn't considered that. The crystal organ drew power directly from the End's Void. Without that connection... would it work at all?
"The Void Magic Fragment might help." Adrian started running across the sand. "It tries to interface with the crystal, but fails. Maybe because it's incomplete?"
"You mean the piece you got from the Void Mage you killed?"
"Yeah. It's only a quarter of the Void Magic from Brimir, right?" Adrian jumped over a small ravine. "A complete set might let me connect to Void dimensions in other universes."
"If they exist."
"If they exist," Adrian agreed. "For now, let's focus on what we can do here."
Adrian transformed into his human form and climbed the nearest dune. Somewhere out there lay Imperial Diamond.
"Time to test this properly." Adrian focused on the furthest point he could see. Purple particles swirled around him as he vanished, reappearing atop another dune nearly a mile away.
"This is much faster than running!" Derflinger exclaimed from the sword on his back.
Adrian kept teleporting across the landscape. Each jump covered massive distances as he aimed for the highest points he could spot. Dunes gave way to plains, then a savanna biome.
"Look!" Derflinger spoke up after their twentieth teleport. "On the horizon!"
Adrian stopped on a tall acacia tree. Far in the distance, cubic skyscrapers pierced into the clouds. Even from here, he could see the scale was immense, nothing at all like the wooden houses of New Haven.
More teleports brought them closer. The buildings grew larger with each jump until Adrian stood on a hill overlooking Imperial Diamond.
"By the End..." Adrian whispered.
The city was absolutely massive and even with his enhanced vision, he couldn't see where it ended. Large structures of quartz and concrete reached toward the sky, connected by sky bridges made of glass and iron. Streets of stone brick formed perfect grids between the towers, filled with players going about their business.
Different districts showed unique architectural styles. One area featured pagoda-inspired builds with red and gold accent blocks. Another section held Roman-style monuments and coliseums built from granite. The center housed the modern skyscrapers that pushed against the height limit.
"Ten thousand players built this?" Adrian watched redstone-powered minecart systems zoom between stations.
"More arrive every day!" A voice called from below.
Adrian looked down to see a player in Netherite armor waving at him.