Here He Comes [Ch. 6]

EnderBrine and Daniel were searching down different aisles, scanning every bookshelf and every book. Nothing was going to be left unchecked. Daniel, while holding the torch in his right hand, grabbed book after book off of the shelf. Keeping the lights off in the library kept suspicion levels down. If Daniel and EnderBrine did manage to find the papers, no one else could know about it. This must remain a secret in order for everyone to remain safe.

EnderBrine grabbed a book off the shelf. The cover was blue. He opened the book and began filing through all of the pages, leaving none of them unchecked. Nothing. No pages in that book. He moved the books on the shelf aside so that he could slide the book he took back into its place. Onto the next one.

"Any luck so far, EnderBrine?" Daniel asked from the aisle right next to EnderBrine's aisle.

"No. Nothing over here so far," EnderBrine said as he grabbed another book off of the shelf. This one had a red cover and bold white letters on the cover. The title of this book was The Eternal BlockVerse. EnderBrine opened the book and began flipping through the pages of it.

"How about you? Any luck over there?" EnderBrine asked.

"No. Nothing yet," Daniel said.

As EnderBrine filed through the pages of the book, he began thinking of possible reasons as to why Daniel was so determined to get these answers. Questions were being raised inside of his head. He tried to keep himself from asking, but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"I have to ask Daniel," EnderBrine said.

"Ask what?" Daniel responded.

EnderBrine shrugged his shoulders. "Why are you so keen on finding these pages?"

"Simple," Daniel said, "these missing pages, I believe, might hold the key to stopping Nightmare. While disguising herself as Merlin, she had given me that story to read. I never understood quite why until I found out that it wasn't the real Merlin...but an imposter."

"What was the story even about anyways?" EnderBrine asked.

Daniel knew exactly what the story was about. How could he have forgotten? The plot of that story was still fresh on his mind. From beginning to where the pages were ripped out, Daniel knew almost everything about the story.

"Well for starters, you were in it," Daniel said.

EnderBrine frowned. He tilted his head slightly. He then scratched his head. How could he have been in a story? He doesn't remember ever being in one. He had to clarify Daniel's response.

"I was in that story?" EnderBrine asked in a solemn and curious tone.

"Yes," Daniel said, "the story was written about 235 years ago by an author named Franklin. The story was about these two blockheads named Steve and Alex. Apparently they were the saviors that would soon free the OverWorld and stop Nightmare from remaining in power. It's a massive adventure and mystery story. I read the entire story in one sitting. That's how appealing it was to me. But just as I was about halfway through the final chapter, the story stopped unexpectedly."

"Where did I play a role in that story?" EnderBrine asked.

"Not just you," Daniel responded, "HeroBrine and NetherBrine were in it too. You were all allies to Nightmare, carrying out her evil plans, hunting down wizards and witches. Her goal back then was to rid the OverWorld of any heroes. Doing so would allow her to remain in power for all eternity."

"We helped Nightmare carry out her evil plans?" EnderBrine questioned Daniel to get clarity on his lecture.

EnderBrine didn't find any loose pages in the book he filed through. So he put the book back onto the shelf and pulled out another one. He opened it and began scanning the pages for loose papers.

"Yes," Daniel responded, "how come you don't remember that?"

"I--I'm not sure," EnderBrine answered honestly as he scratched his head once more.

"Hmm, I wonder if HeroBrine and NetherBrine remembered helping Nightmare," Daniel hypothesized.

As EnderBrine neared the end of the book he was scanning, a single piece of paper fell out of the book and fluttered down onto the floor. EnderBrine closed the book and leaned over to pick the paper up off of the floor. There was text on both sides of the paper. After examining the text, EnderBrine realized that he had just found one of the missing pages.

EnderBrine began reading the text on the paper mentally. He didn't want Daniel knowing that he had found one. But why? The text on the page read:

"Where's Sedrick Nightmare?" Steve asked as he had his netherite sword pointed directly down at Nightmare. She was laying on her back on the snow-covered ground. She was resting her elbow on the ground as well. She had her other hand pointed straight out in front of her so that shield her face from Steve's pointy and dangerous sword.

Alex and Leona were standing right alongside Steve. They too were looking down at the defeated Nightmare. EnderBrine, HeroBrine, and NetherBrine were nowhere to be seen. So much for helping Nightmare when she needed assistance the most huh? What "useful" assets they were. They may have looked tough and strong, but deep down they were actual scaredy-cats. They weren't easily scared though. The only thing they feared most was what Nightmare could've done to them if they didn't agree to help her. After all, she did come to them to ask for help.

The sky was now a bright blue color. Clouds omved across the sky, occasionally blocking the sun's light from hitting the ground. Leona's hands were glowing a bright red color. If Nightmare had tried to make a move, Leona wouldn't hesitate to use her powers on her.

"Why'd you assume you'd win this fight?" Steve asked Nightmare, "Don't you know the saying?"

Nightmare squinted her eyes at Steve. She shook her head.

"What saying?" Nightmare asked.

"The bad guys always lose the fight in the end," Steve said, "and if I recall correctly, there's never been an incident about the heroes losing a battle. I can say this though. You did, after all, put up a formidable fight. You even brought your minions to help you. But now look at you. Your minions abandoned you and left you to fend for yourself."

Nightmare chuckled and shook her head dramatically. She looked up at Daniel, Alex and Leona. "Maybe that was the plan all along. Have you ever thought of that?" Nightmare questioned.

Steve looked over to his right at Alex and Leona. They looked back at him. No one said a word. Steve then focused his attention back down at Nightmare.

"I'm fairly certain we've thought of everything," he said, "you can't trick us anymore. Your little charade is over now. Just surrender already!"

"If you so wish," Nightmare said as she hoisted herself back up and off of the ground. Once she was standing up straight, she held her hands out in front of her. Daniel put his netherite sword back into his inventory. But when he pulled his hand out of his inventory, he was holding a set of shackles in his hand. He took one step closer towards Nightmare. And right as he was going to put the shackles on her hands, she suddenly vanished into thin air.

POOF!

And just like that, she was gone. She left no trace of her presence behind. Steve, Alex, and Leona all looked around at their surroundings. They had thought that Nightmare would have reappeared somewhere nearby. But she didn't. She was really gone.

"Where'd she go?" Alex asked Steve and Leona.

"Hopefully anywhere but here," Steve suggested as he then changed the topic of the conversation, "and now that she's out of our way, we need to go and find Sedrick. He must be held captive inside her castle somewhere. We're not leaving until we find him."

"How are you so sure he's even still alive?" Alex questioned, "we have no idea what she did to him, muchless how she even found him. I thought he perished at the end of the ocean battle?"

"If that was the case, he wouldn't be where he's at right now," Steve responded.

EnderBrine had finished reading the double-sided page. Good thing he did finish it because Daniel came walking down the aisle he was in. EnderBrine quickly put the page into his inventory and returned the book back onto the shelf.

"Find anything yet?" Daniel asked.

EnderBrine shook his head back at Daniel. "No. I'm afraid I haven't. How about you?"

Daniel shook his head. "Nothing yet for me either. Maybe the pages aren't even here. Maybe she hid them somewhere else? But the only question is where would she hide them to begin with?"

As EnderBrine and Daniel theorized as to where to look next for the pages, HeroBrine was busy searching through everything in the room Nightmare had previously stayed in when she was undercover.

In the corner of the small room was a white bed. Resting up against the dark oak paneled wall, was a double stacked bookcase. There weren't very many books on the shelf. It was only half full of books. The bookcase looked empty almost. Hanging from the ceiling were four lanterns. The lanterns were hanging from the ceiling by chains.

The room had two medium-sized windows in it. The moonlight from outside shined into the room through the windows. On the other side of the room were three furnaces, and two crafting tables. Next to the furnaces were large chests. HeroBrine wondered what was inside of them.

So he walked over to the first chest and opened it. When he looked down into the chest, he could see many different items, valuable ores, food, and some mysterious bottles. The glass bottles had strange looking liquids in them. HeroBrine was curious to find out what was in the bottles, but stopped himself from becoming distracted. He was only here for one thing and one thing only...the suspected missing pages to the story.

One thing HeroBrine was confused about was that he didn't know how many pages there were. Daniel never mentioned that to him. So he didn't know if he was looking for two more pages or seven more pages. The only way to find out was to search the chest. He reached with both of his hands, down into the chest. As he was digging around, the items inside of the chest were gently being tossed around. There was so much random stuff in it, that it made it difficult to find what HeroBrine was really looking for.

"They won't be in there," a demonic, deep sounding voice said from behind him. He was so startled that he quickly turned around to see who it was that had said that to him. Once he was turned around, Nightmare was seen floating just above the ground. She was holding her right hand out. Rotating continuously around in her hand, were four white pieces of paper.

"You again!" HeroBrine said, "you sure have an immense amount of courage coming here. Do you know how powerful I am? Or did you forget?"

Nightmare shook her head and smiled. "No," she said, "I'm counting on it."

"You know you're not going to get away this easily now," HeroBrine mentioned, "you're no longer in control of me!"

"I'm quite aware," Nightmare said, "no need to remind me."

HeroBrine tilted his head as he realized something about Nightmare. Something was off about her. HeroBrine could sense it.

"Something's off about you Nightmare," HeroBrine stated, "You're growing weak. Your powers are slowly dwindling. You're dying, aren't you?"

"Who said that?" Nightmare asked.

"I did!" HeroBrine responded, "in order for you to stay alive, you need to steal magic from other witches and wizards, am I right?"

Nightmare shook her head a few times. "I will neither confirm nor deny that. It's my problem, not yours."

Right after she had said that, the ground began to shake. The lanterns hanging from the ceiling began to sway back and forth. The ground was shaking in a rhythmic way. Nightmare glanced over to her left over at the window. She smiled brightly, looking back over at HeroBrine thereafter.

"He's here," Nightmare said.

"Who's here?" HeroBrine responded as he tried very hard to keep himself from losing his balance.

"You'll see," Nightmare answered, vanishing into thin air right after she had said that. When she vanished, the pages she had in her possession dropped to the floor. HeroBrine ran over to them and picked them up. He quickly put them into his inventory and ran out of the room in a hurry.

Once he was outside in the hallway, he could see dozens of guardsmen running down the hallway towards him. What's going on? Why were there so many guards frantically running towards him? Instead of stopping, they ran right past him, turning left to go down another hallway.

HeroBrine was curious. He decided to follow them. As he was doing that, the ground continued to shake. When he was running down the hallway, he ran directly past Daniel and EnderBrine. They were just walking out of the library. The oak wood door closed right behind them.

"Hey HeroBrine!" Daniel shouted.

HeroBrine ignored him and continued to follow the guards. EnderBrine and Daniel looked at each other. After they had done that, they began running down the hallway, following HeroBrine and the guards. The both of them were also curious as to what was going on. Why was the ground shaking?

The guardsmen barged through the doors, and dispersed once they were outside. HeroBrine ran outside, as well as EnderBrine and Daniel. Once everyone was outside, they were all looking all around them. Elderon was also looking. He was sleeping when the ground began shaking. The shaking had woken him up from his sleep.

"Over there!" One guardsman shouted as he pointed at what was coming towards them. HeroBrine, EnderBrine, and Daniel all looked in the direction of where the guard was pointing. The shaking grew more violent as the thing got closer and closer to the Kingdom. Then, once it was close enough, everyone realized what it was exactly that was causing the ground to shake and rumble violently.

It was the Golem Monster. It's dark green eyes glowed brightly. It's arms swayed forward and backwards as it walked towards them. Daniel, HeroBrine and EnderBrine mouths all dropped. When they had seen exactly what it was, they were starstruck.

"Uh oh," HeroBrine mumbled to himself, "this can't be good."