Herobrine

Several months have passed since our adventure in the Underworld. We managed to settle in that cold land, where we found ourselves after leaving the portal.

Snow-covered plains, impenetrable stretches of taiga – that was all that there was here.

I spent several days exploring the surroundings, but never came across any familiar places. Our flight through the Nether led us to the other side of the world. I regretted losing our small farm at the foot of the mountains, but also felt reassured. Surely, we now left Herobrine far behind and he would not easily find us this time!

I was so naive...

We settled near the portal. Several days after our arrival, we had already built a new house out of pine logs. Steve decided not to stop there. He continued to expand our hut until it became a large, two-story building with many rooms, which we turned into bedrooms, pantries, a kitchen, and a laboratory. The last was a small room where Steve prepared potions from the ingredients we gathered in the Nether.

He honed his skill, making potions to give strength or speed, heal wounds or increase damage dealt by our weapons, and concocted poisons. Combined with our enchanted weapons and armor, these potions made us nearly invincible, at least to monsters, who fell at a single strike of our swords!

For a couple of months, we lived in a steady way of life, established routines, made a glass greenhouse where we could grow vegetables, domesticated local cows, and even tamed a pair of wolves.

Steve remained loyal to his mining passion and dug a long passage deep in the hill to access nearby coal to burn in our fireplace. This time, he did not come across any abandoned mines teeming with monsters, so I could calmly help him on occasion. In the cozy underground corridor illuminated by protective light of the torches, I felt safe and spent long hours working diligently with a pickax.

At a measured pace, the days passed one after another until He arrived.

As became usual, I was tinkering in the mine, while Steve was preparing dinner. Suddenly, my pick broke through the thin wall into an empty space ahead. It didn't surprise me, since I've already came across such small, closed-up caves before. This time, though, I saw a light gleaming through the hole.

Curiously, I expanded the passage and cautiously stepped through.

I found myself in a cramped room similar to those, which contained treasure. There were no chests there, though. Nor were there any hostile monsters nearby. Only dim red torches lined the room.

It was the first time that I found a room without any treasures, so I spent a bit of time tapping the walls, hoping to find a hidden treasure. Still with no success. Why would someone create a room like this deep within the rock and then hide the entrance? Or maybe there never was an entrance?

Perplexed, I left the mines and headed to find Steve to ask him about that.

Already on my way to our mansion, I noticed the unusual behavior of tamed wolves, who served as our watch dogs. The animals whined, cowering against the wall, with their tails tucked between their legs. They shivered and pulled against their leashes, fearfully looking at the thickets of nearby forest.

Uneasy, I wondered what agitated them and looked there as well. I saw nothing.

It was already dusk, so it was hard to see anything in the swiftly falling darkness. Still, I was sure that something terrible was approaching our house. SOMETHING scared those wolves. I untied the faithful animals and with a loud growl, they fled.

"Steve!" I called out to my friend.

"Yes, Davis?"

"Come out here for a minute… And grab a weapon!"

"What's going on...?"

My friend did not take long. He jumped out of the house fully armored and with his sword at the ready.

"Who do I need to teach a lesson here?-" He boldly began to say, but didn't finish as a short, piercing scream came from above and a ball of fire exploded near the porch.

"A Ghast?" Steve whispered in disbelief as we, dumb founded, looked at the white creature soaring above our Nether Portal.

"But… How?"

A second fire-ball hit the wall of our house. Pine wood burst in bright flame.

"Fire!" I screamed, but my friend did not appear to hear me. Numb with horror, he stood frozen, his gaze fixed upon something in the forest.

I followed his eyes and felt a wave of keen despair wash over me.

Among the trees stood a man. Despite the freezing cold, he wore only a blue tank top and dark cyan trousers. His white eyes quietly watched us, glowing in the evening twilight.

Before us stood Herobrine, himself.

He ignored all the warnings and traditions. He did not wait until late night and came after our souls after the sun had already set. How did he find us so quickly?

Maybe for a super-natural creature that was not so difficult after all.

There was no time for asking questions.

"We're out of here." Steve grabbed me by my sleeve and dragged me away. We fled without knowing where we were going. I glanced back and saw our house, which had already become a home, consumed by flames rising all the way to the roof. All our things and possessions would be lost, burnt up. Let them. So long as we would manage to survive.

Our attempt to escape had failed.

From the snowy fields, countless numbers of zombies were approaching toward us. It was as if Herobrine had called all the undead of the world to come here. They blocked our path to freedom and any attempt to break past would end in our imminent deaths. Still, Steve was not ready to give up.

"Since we cannot fly away, we will dig away!" He declared and pointed to the entrance to the mine.

We rushed into the dungeon, away from our pursuers.

A little further in, Steve paused and began hitting the ceiling with his pickax. Clearly, he knew what to do. Gravel broke and fell, blocking the way in. There was no way back now.

"Let them dig before they can get to us." My friend huffed.

We ran again, deeper and deeper in, and the thought on how we would get out of this place bothered me more and more. We had just buried ourselves within our own mine, which may very well become our grave.

Finally, the tunnel led us to that small treasure room lined with red torches, about which I never had the time to tell Steve. At the sight of it, Steve stopped and clasped his head with a groan.

"No, not again! Again His tricks…"

"What are you talking about?"

"Its Herobrine. I've already came across such places before! He is mocking us." Steve said.

Meanwhile, my eyes ran across the small room and noticed changes. It became wider and the far wall now had a small opening. It was definitely not there when I first came in, but it was a way out.

"Maybe its our enemy luring us into a trap, but there is no other choice, anyway. Lets go… And be ready for battle." I said gloomily and Steve nodded.

We ran along the perfectly straight, man-made tunnel. It led forward at a slight incline, which took us lower and lower. Sometimes, rows of red torches lined the walls, as if hinting at who it was who made the way. Their dim light did little to dispel the darkness that dwelling here. And strange, dark mist appeared swirling along the floor.

"Nether fog." Steve whispered. "We are at the bottom of the world, we cannot dig deeper."

Only now I noticed that we were walking on unusual stones, gray with black veins. I wanted to break off a piece as I once did with obsidian, but my diamond pick would not even leave a scratch.

"Its Adminium. Bedrock. Don't bother." Steve looked with dejection into the endless tunnel that lead who-knows-where.

Suddenly, he squinted and made a joyful exclamation. Looking closely, I noticed that one of the walls of the mine seemed slightly different in color. Instead of stone, it showed a layer of gray bricks, some of them cracked.

"How about a little detour?" My friend brandished his pickax and thrust it into the brick wall.

Indeed. Herobrine expected us to play along and walk into his trap? Eat your face! I also grasped a pickax and joined my friend, breaking through a passage.

Just behind the brick wall lay a spacious hall, lined with rows upon rows of high bookcases. Smells of musty old wood and dusty books permeated the air. The Ancient library silently welcomed its visitors.

"Where are we?"

"It's an abandoned Fortress. I've already seen one before." Steve walked along the bookshelves, looking at the edges of their covers.

"Something horrible happened in the past, forcing people to build such deep, underground shelters… As you can see, that didn't save them. Now, these fortresses stand abandoned."

"… You are mistaken." Came an indifferent, calm voice. "My servants now fill those places."

Startled, we turned and stared.

A familiar human figure stood framed in the broken passage.

"Did you really think that you could escape from me?" Herobrine's words mesmerized. "It's useless to run. I can feel every step, every heartbeat in this world. I am tied to it… I am this world."

With a trembling hand, Steve took a power potion from his belt and drained it in one gulp. I saw the muscles bulging as my friend raised his sword and rushed at the enemy!

Herobrine casually swatted Steve away like an annoying fly. Just a flick of his hand threw my friend against a shelf and it burst into chips, sending piles of books falling to the ground. There was no time left! The flint lighter seemed to jump into my hand, and I flicked it on against the nearest bookshelf. Dry, brittle pages burst in flames, instantly engulfing it. Another flick and another shelf set on flame.

Herobrine recoiled away from the fire, hiding his face behind the back of his hand raised in defense. As all creatures of the night, he did not like bright light.

Taking advantage of the delay, I lunged toward Steve and pulled him up to his feet, and together we dashed through the countless corridors of the fortress. We ran through the halls and tunnels, past the stairs and barred rooms, until a heavy iron door bared our path.

Noticing a button on the wall, Steve pushed it. An unknown mechanism worked and with a creaking sound of long lack of use, the passage opened. I quickly shattered the button with my pick, just as we slipped through before the door began to close behind us.

"I hope this will delay him." I gasped and we both turned to look at the room we just entered.

A very strange room.

There was no other way out of it. In the center stood a brick well with lava, over which hung a ring made out of unknown material. Brick steps rose to this ring, where hung the flaming cage of the spawner. Immediately, I smashed it to bits with my pickax, but not before a few insects slithered out of it and escaped to lurk among the cracks of surrounding stone walls.

We climbed the stairs to take a better look at the ring.

A dozen of dark, pearly stones decorated the horizontal frame, dimly resembling eyes that seemed to watch us as we stood there. One spot where an eye should have been lay empty.

Bam-m!

A powerful blow shook the heavy iron door, bending its form. The White Eyed one was already there, at the threshold. A little more and he would break through that flimsy barrier to reach us.

"I think I know what to do." Steve said hurriedly. "Just don't ask how I know that."

He fished out a pinch of fiery powder from his alchemist stocks, made from the Blaze rods. Then, he took out the Ender pearl, which we had from that long-ago encounter with the Traveler of the Land. And he sprinkled the pearl with the powder.

The Blaze dust hissed as it touched the dark green sphere. I gasped in surprise. In Steve's palm now lay an "eye" exactly like the others.

My friend reached out his hand and placed the missing element into the frame.

And the portal activated!

Darkness grew inside the frame… no, not darkness. A starry sky. Myriad of bright points flickered at us from the other side.

Bam-m!

A crumpled piece of metal that was the door flew across the room. With his bare hands, Herobrine had knocked down the iron door. His shadow appeared from the corner corridor, approaching.

Steve and I looked at each other, and then simultaneously jumped into the unknown world before us.