This is Book 2 – Daughter of the Demon by WonderWriter2000

Book Two

Daughter Of The Demon

 

          Herobrine was cold. So very cold. 

And then he was hot. So hot. He felt like he was going to melt into a puddle right there. It was like his body couldn’t make up its mind. Wherever he was, it was dark. Very dark. All he could see was blackness. It reminded him of something. He couldn’t put his finger on it. But it came to him, in waves. Waves of feelings. Sometimes it was only enough to annoy him. Sometimes he felt terror worse than he had ever felt before. He would scream and scream for no one but the darkness to hear. Sometimes it felt like the blackness was mocking him. 

     But one day, or year, or moment, or however long he had been there, something changed. Like he had been doing a lot, he was wondering. Wondering about the physical world. Surely this wasn’t it. He would have seen something by now. At least, he thought. He really wasn’t sure anymore about anything. And every day, he felt himself sort of not caring anymore. He didn’t care that he hadn’t gotten the satisfaction of seeing the User-that-is-not-a-user killed by his own two hands, or watching the User-that-is-not-a-user scream with agony and grief as he watched Herobrine destroy everything that pitiful User cared about. He didn’t care he never saw the User-that-is-not-a-user on his knees before him, weeping for mercy. 

     In fact, a small part of him was glad he never saw that. He wasn’t sure why. It felt like there was two different people in side his head. It had always felt like that, but the part of him that was glad Gameknight999 wasn’t dead had always been small. So small. But now it was big. And he was having nearly constant headaches. It felt like there was something driven into his brain, a little triangle. Like a computer chip

    He was thinking about all that, suddenly he heard footsteps. And then he saw a person. A woman. A young woman. She had no unibrow, but no Username. She was obviously from Minecraft. “Hello, Herobrine.” The woman said cooly. “Who are you?” The virus said roughly. He coughed. His voice was rusty. He must have been here for a while. 

     “You know exactly who I am.” The woman said smoothly. Herobrine eyed her. She was not tall, but not short. She had golden blonde hair that went only a ways down her shoulders. She wore a blue dress. It wasn’t long, but it wasn’t short either. The same was with the sleeves. The dress seemed to shimmer with- something. Herobrine thought it magic, but it wasn’t enchantment. It was something different. Herobrine hadn’t seen something like that since, well, never. But deep down inside him, he knew he had. He just couldn’t remember. A part of him deep down said he was that type of magic, but that was ridiculous. 

      “I’ve never seen you before in my life,” he said truthfully. At least, he thought it was the truth. There was so much about himself he felt he didn’t know about. So many memories. So many feelings. 

    “Oh, you haven’t, have you?” The woman said. She leaned closer. “I’m your wife.” “WHAT?!?” He yelled. “Your wife,” she repeated. “In a way.” “I don’t have a wife!” He fumed. “You probably know me better as That old hag! or, That old lady! or even That old geezer!” 

    Herobrine scoffed. “I only ever called one person that, and their long gone.” “Oh, is she?” The woman challenged. “Oh course- wait, I never said it was a girl!” The woman closed her eyes and it seemed like her body was waving and reforming. When she opened her eyes again, she was a old hunched woman with a cane. “Oracle?” Herobrine asked in amazement. “But I killed you!”

    “You killed my body, but not my soul.” She said. Her voice was now raspy and scratchy. She morphed back into her younger self. “I was old in the outside, but on the inside I was always young.”

   “Well, what are you doing here?” Herobrine snapped. “I must tell you something. Something important. Something I’ve hid from you since we met.” 

“What? Where am I?” He asked. “When you tried to go to the Overworld through the Gateway of Light, you were trapped in the machine the User-that-is-not-a-user uses to get back in forth from our worlds. His father broke the computer chip you were in. I had to use my magic to bring back pieces of the chip so you would be here in one piece. Herobrine looked down, but all he saw was darkness below him. “Where’s the REST of me?” He cried. “All I was able to bring back was your eyes, mouth, ears, and your brain. The rest was beyond my control.” “And I’m glad,” said another voice. 

    Herobrine would have jumped if he could. Who said that? He thought. But, now that he thought about it, it was less like a voice and more like someone thinking it. His not-there skin prickled. Someone else was there.

    But before he could say anything, the young-Oracle spoke. “Herobrine… you have a daughter.” THIS was not what he was expecting to come out of her mouth. “I have a what?” “A daughter. I never told you because I knew you would come after her.”

   “How did this happen?” He yelled. “I’m just as confused as you are.” She said. “It started when I first appeared. I was right by you. I was aware from the start that something was wrong. Something was instantly off. After words, I made my home in the jungle. I was feeling worse and worse. Then one day, my stomach was swollen. Then I realized. I was pregnant. Two months later I gave birth.”

    “Well, where is she?” Herobrine asked. “And why does it have to be a girl? I would have liked a boy much better.” This time, what he heard in his head was a growl. The Oracles eyes narrowed and her voice lost its softness. “You do not get to call the shots, virus.” “Oh, who says I don’t?” He challenged. “But seriously, where is the brat?” 

   A frustrated yell filled his head. The Oracle turned from him. She stared at somewhere beside them. “You can come out now,” She said.

    At first, he didn’t see anything. Then, he realized the air the Oracle was looking at was shimmering and wavering. And suddenly, like she was un-fading in a way, a tall but not skinny girl was there. She glared at Herobrine, as if he had already done something to make her want with every fiber of her being to attack him. She had long hair that hung down to her waist. Her hair was a strange mix of black, brown, and blonde. She had hazel eyes that glittered with inner loathing. 

      “Ohhhhhhh,” he said slowly. “Ohhhhhh,” she mocked. She held a sword that to Herobrine looked perfectly normal, but it was of some kind of clear substance he didn’t think he’d ever seen before. He shook his nonexistent head. “Stupid inner self!” He thought. 

     “Well, how do you know she’s mine?” He asked. “Show him,” the Oracle said. The girl nodded. Suddenly, her eyes lit up. They weren’t white like Herobrine’s, or even one solid color. They were a mix of all sorts of colors, constantly changing and fading. There didn’t seem to be any walls or floor in this place, so the light bounced off of everywhere. 

   To anger him even more, his other self was in awe with the colors. His other self even showed a bit of care for the girl, and that frustrated him to no end. 

    The Oracle bowed her head. “We’ve done what we came for,” she said. “Let’s go, Sky.” “Sky?” Herobrine echoed. “What type of name is that?” Faster than he could blink, a white arrow embedded itself below him. Looking again, he saw the arrow was quarts. The bow was white and pale gold. “Next time I won’t miss.” 

     “So what do you want to call her?” The Oracle said. Sky spun around and glared at her mom. “You can’t be serious!” She snapped. “He’s your father,” The Oracle said. “He can call you whatever he wants.”

      Herobrine was quiet. “I will call her Void.” Void started forward, fuming. The Oracle grabbed her and held her back. “Sky,” she said. Void was shaking with fury. “Let’s just go,” she said. 

 

                                  And they were gone.

 

    Chapter Two

 Meeting the Merciless 

 

     The silvery mist swam around Gameknight999. He stalked through the Land Of Dreams, waiting for some evil being to appear at any moment. He had suddenly appeared here. All he could think about was Crafters voice floating around in his head. As if on replay, over and over again he heard Herobrine’s daughter, Herobrine’s daughter. 

     This was bad. Very bad. If she was as bad as her father, the world was doomed. She would know by now not to try and go to the physical world with him. Even if she didn’t know, who was to say she wanted the same things?

   “Gameknight…” he heard. “Great,” he thought. “Now I’m hearing things!”

   “Gameknight…” he heard again. Gameknight froze. That was not in his head. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…” “Show yourself!” He yelled. At first, it was quiet. And then, the same feminine voice called out sweetly, “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” 

   Gameknight glared at the empty air. “And why not?” He challenged. “All in good time,” the voice said sweetly. “All in good time.” 

      “Where are you?” He yelled. “I’m everywhere and nowhere,” the voice said calmly. “I am the past, the present and the future.” This last word dragged out into a slow hiss. “I am the sky. I am nothing. I am everything. I am as insignificant as a silver fish, I am as important as life itself. The world rotates around me. The world has forgotten me. 

     “I am the Void. The Void is me.”

“And I come for you.”

 

     Suddenly, the air seemed to be full of thousands of winged terrors. No, millions. They screeched at him, screamed and screamed and he screamed too. Little evil bats. Horrible evil bat demons. And then they all scattered in front of his face, as two evil swirling balls of light that glowed like the sun came closer and closer and he knew the end was near. 

 

 

             Chapter Three

                   Attacks

 

 

           Gameknight jumped up with a start. He gasped in air. Looking around him, he recognized the obsidian and cobblestone walls of his castle. “Hello?” He called. The door opened, and Stitcher ran in. “Your awake!” She yelled. Gameknight shook his head like he was trying to clear cobwebs. “I had the weirdest dream,” he said. “I was stuck in the Far Lands, and then I was here, and Crafter said something about about Herobrine having a daughter…” 

    Stitcher laughed nervously. “Huh, wow! That is so weird!” Gameknight glared. “Stitcher,” he said warningly. “What are you not telling me?” She sighed and flopped down on the bed next to him. “Well, your gonna find out eventually,” she said, rubbing her eyes. He noticed she had huge bags under her eyes and she seemed to be about to slump over and fall asleep right then. “Stitcher, why are you so tired?” He asked. “You look like you haven’t slept in days!” 

   “That’s because I haven’t,” she said yawning. “I’ve been with Harvester helping Morgana. Miner and Farmer are complaining we’re taking all the melon and gold for healing potions.” She suddenly jumped, her eyes wide. “For healing potions,” Gameknight said as he connected the dots. “Uh-“ Stitcher said. Then she stopped. “No, I got nothing.” She said with another sigh. 

      “And you said with Harvester,” Gameknight said. “So it IS true! Come on, we got to go find everybody!” “Woah woah woah,” Stitcher said, grabbing him. “Don’t worry. Every bodies fine. We have absolutely everything under control.” 

       At that exact moment, the watcher in the watchtower started screaming “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” Stitcher crossed her fingers, but of course Watcher then had to scream “AGAIN!” Gameknight glared at the red headed girl. “Under control, huh?” He snapped. Stitcher gulped. “Okay, so maybe not EVERYTHING,” she said.

    Gameknight ran out of the room, finding himself in a cobblestone hallway. He ran down to the tunnel leading into the village. The usually calm place was erupting with chaos. People were running around and archers were sprinting towards the walls. Warriors in iron armor were clustered around the village gates. “Gameknight,” a voice said behind him. Crafter was there, looking as exhausted as Stitcher. Never less, he was wearing armor and his enchanted sword was at the ready. 

    “Crafter!” Gameknight snapped. “What is going on?” Crafter leaned against his sword. “Not now,” he said. “There’s a battle out there.” He turned to go, but Gameknight grabbed him. “Not until you tell me,” he said. “And besides, you look exhausted. If you go out there, you’ll get hurt.” 

    Crafter wanted to say no, but Gameknight had a real point  there. His friend deserved the truth, and he really was about to fall over. “Fine,” he sighed. “Let’s go to the crafting chamber.” He started to go, trying to walk like normal. But Gameknight still asked, “Why are you limping?” His eyes trailed down to Crafters blood-soaked leg. Crafter just shook his head. “Let’s just go.”

   Gameknight grabbed Crafters arm. “I can walk by myself,” Crafter complained. But as soon as Gameknight let go, Crafter collapsed. Gameknight helped him up. “By yourself, huh?” He said. When they finally got to the watchtower, Gameknight insisted on breaking the block over the hidden ladder. They moved into the tunnel. Crafter nodded to the guards, and the iron doors swung open. Crafter led Gameknight down a new hallway and into a room with wool chairs. Crafter fell over onto the nearest chair. Stitcher, who had been silently following behind, sat down too. 

      Gameknight didn’t sit. Instead, he paced around the small cobblestone chamber. “So?” He snapped. “What happened?” Crafter looked at Stitcher, and she knew he wanted her to talk. She sighed, but started talking. 

    “About a month ago, this girl appeared at the gate. And she, well,” And this is what she said. 

 

    Hunter smiled. “Can’t catch me!” She called over her shoulder. Stitcher laughed. “Your on!” The two sisters ran around the village square. The village had been peaceful ever since Gameknight had left. 

   But not for long. 

 

   Suddenly, Hunter slammed into Digger. “Sorry,” she said. One look at Diggers face told her something was very wrong. She went pale. “What’s happened?” She asked. “There’s someone at the gate,” Digger said, his voice shaky. A few minutes later, the whole village was clustered around the gates. 

   “What’s going on?” Herder said, appearing next to Hunter. The usual wolf trailed behind him. She shrugged. “I don’t know. Digger said someone’s at the gate. He looked pretty freaked out, though.” She turned to Digger, who was next to them. “What happened?” She asked. 

    “I was standing guard,” Digger said loud enough for everyone to hear. His booming voice silenced the crowd instantly. “When all the sudden, someone appeared.” 

  “Which way did they come from?” Someone shouted. Digger shrugged. “That’s the thing. They didn’t come from anywhere. One minute everything was empty, and then they were just- there.” 

   Suddenly, the gates banged open. A hooded figure stepped into the middle of the villagers. Everyone backed up so fast, the stranger was quickly in a large clearing. There was something creepy about this person. 

   Hunter wanted to take out her bow and shoot them, but she knew it would be ridiculous. Instead, she carefully notched an arrow but didn’t raise her bow. Instantly, she felt better. “Who are you?” Stitcher said bravely. “Who are you and what do you want?”  

       Nothing happened. And then, a quiet but firm sound filled the air. And then a loud, girlish voice came from the figure. “I wish to speak with your Crafter,” she said. Someone ran off to the crafting chamber. A moment later, Crafter stepped out of the crowd. The person with the female voice gave everyone the creeps, but somehow Crafter was able to look right into their would-be face. 

     “Yes?” He asked calmly. The hooded figure looked down and- pulled off there hood.

     It was a girl, no younger than sixteen. A gasp went through the crowd when they looked at her face- she was a user. The gasp almost turned into a scream when they saw something else, she had no username. Crafter froze. 

       “I’ve come to give you a warning.” She said slowly. Hunter couldn’t help but notice how pretty she was. She was tan with long hair that reached to her waist. It couldn’t seem to decide on a color, she was an array of blonde, black, hazel, brown, a rich red the color of blood. She even saw a few hints of purple. She had red lips and sharp cheekbones. Her eyes also seemed a mix, there was brown and black and dark green and bright blue and reds and purples. She wore a dress of black material, that caught the light and dazzled them with every color of the rainbow. It was so long her feet were covered. 

    “A warning about what?” Crafter said. “A warning about me,” she purred. Hunter saw she was actually walking slowly around him, forcing him to walk into the middle of the clearing. “You still haven’t told us who you are,” Crafter said. “They call me Void,” she said. Her voice had only the slightest bit of spite in it when she said that. Hunter saw, behind the coolness of her face, there was a deep rage in her eyes. She hated something, or someone,  but the anger wasn’t directed to them. No, it was someone far away, someone who had in a way scarred her into hating them.

    “Void?” Crafter asked. Suddenly, the cloak disappeared from around her shoulders. A few people screamed. “Let this be a lesson to you and your pathetic User-that-is-not-a-user,” she snarled. “You think Herobrine was bad? Just you wait. I am ten times more powerful than he could ever be, and, unlike my preceder, I have smarts.” And she stared to laugh. She slowly levitated in the air, and her eyes suddenly exploded with light and color. Magenta and cyan and blood red bounced off the walls of buildings and nearly blinded people. Everyone was screaming now. 

   And in a puff of teleportation particles, she was gone. 

 

   Stitcher finished. “Ever since then, we keep getting attacked by all sorts of monsters. Sometimes, we see Void in the back of the mob.” Gameknight was worried. No, terrified. He had nearly died hundreds of times fighting Herobrine, he couldn’t do it again. And Void sounded much stronger. “What do you think?” He asked Crafter. But his friend was fast asleep. “Let him sleep,” Stitcher said. “He’s been awake for a week.”

    “Why?” Gameknight asked, shocked.  Stitcher shrugged. “We told him to rest, but he kept himself busy helping everyone. He’s been avoiding us for the last few days.” She struggled to her feet. “You get some rest,” he said. “Thanks,” she said. She curled up in her chair and fell fast asleep. 

   Gameknight left the chamber. Outside, the  sun was setting but the sounds of battle still filled the air. He ran up onto the wall where there was archers firing down at the mob. He looked and saw it was consisted of spiders and a few creepers. 

    “Look who’s up,” a familiar voice said next to him. Hunter smiled at him. He didn’t answer. He was busy scanning the monsters, looking for the girl that had been it haunting the village and now he realized, his dreams. 

    “What is with you?” Hunter asked. She realized. “Did they tell you about Void?” Gameknight nodded. “Oh,” she said. She scowled and shot at the nearest spider a little harder than she needed to. “Did they tell you about the explosion?” She snapped. “No,” Gameknight asked surprised. “What explosion?”  

    “When she finished talking with Crafter, there was a big explosion. That’s how Crafter got hurt. Baker and Farmer got hit pretty bad too. When all the dust settled, she was gone.” 

    Gameknight took out his bow. He looked around the battle field. There weren’t that many monsters left. Then, out of the corner of his eye, there was a flash of blue. 

      “I’ll be right back,” he told Hunter. Shoving past archers, he walked across the wall.  The figure walked away to. They started to run. So did Gameknight. They ran all the way past the archers. Gameknight’s was slowly gaining. He could see it was a girl. And then-

    “Gotcha!” He yelled, grabbing her. The girl screamed. “Monet?!?” He shouted. “What are you doing here? Your supposed to be watching the digitizer!” 

    His younger sister looked sheepishly up at him. “Hi, Tommy.” She said weakly. “And don’t use my real name online!” He dropped her onto the cobblestone. “Well, I found your note, and I looked for you at the village on the computer. But you weren’t there, and everyone looked really worried, and the wall needed to be repaired, so I came in.” 

    “But who’s watching the digitizer?” He said, fuming. “Well, I called Shawny, but he was sick, so I looked through your phone book and found another number. I called her and she’s watching us right now. “She?” Gameknight asked. Now he was confused. 

   Then he heard some one in the chat. “Hey, guys. Everything okay down there?” Someone said. “See? That’s her now!” Monet said. “Hold on, I’m coming,” the voice said. A user suddenly appeared in front of them. A girl with light purple eyes, a orange hoodie, hazel hair, jeans and sneakers. “Hi Gameknight,” she said, punching the air in a wave. “Remember me?” 

    Gameknight did remember her. It was WonderWriter2000, they had met a few years ago when he was still a Griefer. “Monet called me and told me to come over,” she said. “I’m in your basement now. It’s kind of crazy. Did your dad do all this?” She disappeared. 

      Gameknight glared at his sister. “I can’t believe you barged into Minecraft and let a stranger into the house,” he scolded. She turned her nose up. “Well, I’m glad I did.” She said. “I’m a good archer and you know it. The village needs my help if there gonna fight this Void girl. 

    Gameknight just shook his head. It was gonna be a long day. 

 

    Chapter 4

Void

 

   Gameknight placed the last block. “Done,” he sighed. He had been helping the NPCs rebuild their wall after Void’s attacks. “Gameknight!” Someone behind him snapped. He turned to see Crafter standing behind him, scowling. 

    “Why did you let me fall asleep?!” He yelled. Gameknight smiled. “Crafter, you literally hadn’t slept in a week. What was I suppose to do?” 

    “Wake me up!” His friend fumed. “You needed that,” Gameknight scolded. “You needed help standing!” 

   “But you needed me!” Crafter said. “Nothing happened,” Gameknight said. “We just rebuilt the wall.” 

    “You still needed help.” Crafter said stubbornly. “Crafter, everyone in the village pitched in. Nobody needed you.” Crafter leaned against the fresh cobblestone. “I guess it was kinda nice,” he said. “See?” Gameknight said, jumping down. “I’m done here. I’m gonna check on Monet.” He ran into the village. He heard laughing. Monet and Stitcher had there bows out and were shooting just above a sleeping pig. 

     “What are you doing?” Gameknight asked suspiciously. Monet was giggling so hard it took a moment for her to say anything. “Watch,” she said. Gameknight noticed the pig was right next to the village wall. Monet carefully aimed about a block above the fuzzy pink animal. She shot the arrow, piercing the wall. At first, nothing happened. Then the pig snorted and stood up, a confused look on it face. It looked over its shoulder and saw the arrow. It made a high pitched squealing sound, jumping three blocks into the air. It was if it realized how close it had gotten to being pierced. It looked frantically around and glared at them. Then it plopped back down and instantly started snoring. “See?” Monet boasted.         

     Stitcher was laughing so hard she couldn’t say anything. Even Gameknight smiled. The pig really was funny. “Anyway,” he said to his sister. “It’s my turn to patrol. Want to take a walk?” “Sure,” Monet said, shrugging. “Bye,” she called to Stitcher. “See you later,” Stitcher said. 

  The siblings walked out the gate, the constant east to west breeze ruffling their hair. “It’s weird,” Monet said. “It’s so pretty, but just yesterday this was a battlefield.” They walked mostly in silence, walking around the village. 

   At one point, they saw a rabbit with four little babies trailing behind. A startled bat woke up, squeaking madly, and flew off.  A wolf howled somewhere up the mountain. Others joined in, creating a orchestra of sound. But after about an hour, Gameknight started to worry. He couldn’t figure out why,  but something told him there was something wrong. 

    “Let’s head back.” He said. Monet nodded but didn’t say anything. The whole way, the feeling just got stronger and stronger. By the time they were back in the village, Gameknight was sprinting. “Wait up!” Monet yelled. Gameknight ran up the steps onto the wall. But then he stopped. “Gameknight!” Monet yelled. “What’s-“ Gameknight pointed wordlessly at the other side of the wall. She went quiet. 

              Way at the back of the village, on the wall, was what could only be described as a body. 

 

              They crept around the side, peering around the roofs of houses. “Take of your boots,” he whispered. She nodded and mouthed “Ok.” The figure didn’t move. They came closer and closer, when about ten blocks away from the body a cool voice suddenly spoke, causing them to jump. “Hello User-that-is-not-a-user. Look who finally showed up.” The figure suddenly disappeared in a puff of teleportation particles, and a girl was suddenly standing in front of them. Gameknight blood went cold. Void. 

         Stitcher was right- she really was pretty. But from the looks of her, she didn’t really care about it. Her eyes were dull and weren’t glowing. She was with them, but her mind was somewhere else. Gameknight gripped his sword. “What are you doing here?” He said in what he hoped was a firm voice. 

   Void snapped back to reality. “Watching your village to think of the best possible way to attack it,” she said. Gameknight blinked. She was so straightforward, it was like she didn’t care what they did. His first thought was she thought if they attacked she could defeat them, but he couldn’t help wondering if that was really it. 

       “Your not welcome here,” he said. He wasn’t sure what else he was supposed to do. She looked at him. “Was I inside the village?” She asked. Now Gameknight was really confused. “No?” He said. “Then was I trespassing?” She said calmly. “No,” he admitted.

     “Was I hurting anyone?” She pressed. “No.” Now it was her turn to blink. “So… you have no real reason to arrest me, do you?” She smiled, and Gameknight realized what she was up to. His confusion was replaced with frustration. “Have you been playing with me the whole time?” He said, anger bubbling up inside him. 

     “Pretty much, Officer,” she laughed. “Your just like your father,” Gameknight snapped. “You think hurting other people is just a game.” Void went as cool as a icy tundra. Fear prickled down Gameknight spine. He felt Monet, who had been quiet this whole time, stiffen behind him. 

    “Never mention my father again,” she said. Her voice was full of spite. Even her eyes were the color of ice, literally. “Why? You upset I trapped your daddy in a little machine?” He mocked. Void looked down. When she looked back up, her eyes were a dark shade of magenta. There was a forced smile on her face. “Actually, no.” She said in a to-sweet voice. The 

    Her eyes narrowed. “Because, trust me, the man is never gone, no matter how hard I try.” For some reason, this last part was directed more at the air than them. Her eyes turned red, glaring right into him. “Let this be a lesson to both of you. You have not heard the last of me, and you definitely haven’t seen the last of ME!” 

      And with that, she disappeared. 

 

 

        Chapter 5

Potions and Planning

 

 

   Gameknight and Monet ran back inside the village. “Crafter, where’s Crafter?” Gameknight yelled. “Here!” His friend yelled, waving. The siblings sprinted up to him and both started shouting at once. “Woah! One at a time! Start from the beginning,” Crafter said. Gameknight took a deep breath and explained everything. Crafter was silent the whole time, listening carefully. 

           “Has there been a pattern?” Monet asked when they were done. “Like, in the attacks.” Crafter looked at her, surprised but pleased a at her question. “Actually, yes.” He said. “Good idea, Sister-of-the-user-that-is-not-a-user.” Monet beamed. Crafter took a piece of paper out of his inventory. “I noticed something, so I wrote it down here.” The paper was covered in neat writing. 

       “Basically, the first week it was zombies and skeletons, then it would be zombies and spiders. On Sunday the monsters wouldn’t come. The next week, that’s what we prepared for. But instead, it was skeletons and enderman, then skeletons and creepers. And on Monday there were no attacks.” 

         Gameknight cocked his head at the paper. “What about the number of monsters?” He asked. “So far, its been adding ten monsters every week. So, now we’re up to fifty. The types of monsters are split evenly. Void must be pretty good at math.” 

      Monet looked worried. “I don’t like that she knew so much about our world. She’s smarter, too.” Gameknight looked worried too. “Monet’s right,” he said. “She knew a lot.” 

      Crafter shrugged. “Who knows what Herobrine taught her? Anyway, these week it’s spiders and creepers and spiders and skeletons.”

    “Gameknight, have Crafter give you the paper,” he heard WonderWriter2000 say. “Crafter, can I see the paper? Gameknight asked. His friend handed it to him. Suddenly, WonderWriter2000 appeared out of the middle of the air. All the villagers around them dropped everything they were holding and crossed their arms across their chests. “Hand me the paper,” Wonder keyed in the chat. Gameknight tossed it to her. She studied it. 

     “Okay…” she said after a while. “So, this week it should be Wednesday she doesn’t come. And it looks like… next week she’ll come in full circle! It’ll be back to zombies and skeletons.” “But how does that help us?” Gameknight asked. “Easy,” she said. “All we have to do is surround the front of the village with hidden dispensers. We’ll put arrows in them first, then healing potions. We’ll put tripwires all around them, sending out the arrows. They’ll think it was only arrows and they used them up, go in the middle of the circle, and BAM! We activate them again and they’ll die a miserable potiony death.” 

       Everyone was staring at her. “I need a book and quill,” she said. Monet gave her one. Wonder wrote down all her plans and handed the book to Gameknight. She disappeared in a blink in a eye, her server thread shooting upward into the sky. All the villagers dropped their arms and picked their tools back up. “Well,” Crafter said. “She’s… energetic.” Gameknight laughed. “Yep,” he said. Crafter frowned, looking down at the book. “The idea is not bad,” he said. “Tricking the mobs into thinking they had used up all our traps so they would surge forward. I can’t wait to crush Void. It won’t just be a attack on her- Herobrine needs to pay for what he did.” 

           “This isn’t about Herobrine,” Monet snapped. “And look at yourself! Your excited about destroying her. She’s just a girl! For all we know, Herobrine told her we’re trying to wipe out all the creatures of the dark in Minecraft or something.” Crafter looked at his feet, ashamed. “Your right,” he said. “But  she’s definitely evil. Once we heard her scream about taking Minecraft for herself. She’s young, but she still has to be stopped. She’s probably a virus just like her father.” 

     Monet sighed. She knew he was right. “I’m going to go ask Builder about these plans,” Crafter said. “Can you guys go see if Morgana can get us those potions?” Gameknight nodded. “Follow me,” Monet told her brother. They wound back through the village, through the tunnel into Castle Gameknight. Monet pushed open a door on the side of the cobblestone passage, and they stepped into the basement.       Morgana had turned the whole place into a dark potion brewing lab. Torches flickered in the corners and at least twelve brewing stands were bubbling like mad. “Hello, dearest,” a scratchy voice said from the darkness. 

             Morgana stepped out of the shadows. Her robes were wrinkled and her hat was crooked. “Gameknight999,” she said. “Nice to see you again.” “Hi, Morgana,” Monet said, running up to the old woman. “We need healing potions for a new battle strategy.” 

    “They have to be splash potions,” Gameknight added quickly. Morgana looked thoughtful. “Hmm,” she said. “Luckily for you, I just made a new batch. Their not splash potions yet, but I can add in some gunpowder. There’s also some extra in storage. Monet, you know where it is, can you go get it?” 

    Monet ran off. Morgana moved to one of the brewing stations. She carefully took potions off and set them in a chest. Monet came back a moment later, with Harvester behind her. “Gameknight!” Harvester yelled. She ran and hugged him as hard as she could. He laughed and hugged her back. “It’s good to see you, to, Harvester,” he said. Monet stepped forward, grinning through a armful of bottles. “Me and Harvester have have been down here a lot,” she said. “She told me all about the Far Lands and how you guys got out.” 

          “Yep,” Harvester said. “Where’s Smithy and Fletcher?” Gameknight asked. “Smithy’s helping out with rebuilding the wall and other things,” Harvester said. “He loves building. And Fletcher-“ 

   As if on cue, the door opened. “Harvester?” Someone called out. “Harvester, are you down here?” 

      Fletcher stepped out of the doorway, the dim torchlight glinting off her waist length black hair. “How do you see down here?” She said, laughing. She caught sight of Gameknight. She froze. “Uh… hi,” she said. “Hi,” he said. 

     “What do you need?” Harvester asked. “Uh, Smithy and I need your help,” she said. “We’re getting the beds today, remember?” 

    “Oh, right.” Harvester said. “Bye, Monet!” She ran out the door, Fletcher right behind her. Gameknight turned to his sister. “Beds?” He asked. “Crafter gave them a old house to stay in,” Monet told him. “Their still not sure if they’ll stay or go back to the Far Lands.” 

     “How would they do that?” Gameknight asked. “No idea,” she said. “I hope they stay,” Morgana sighed. “Harvester has been a big help.” 

      “Well, they don’t know. Harvester really likes it here, Smithy isn’t really sure what he wants, and Fletcher is having problems getting used to being around people again.” 

     Morgana walked to a brewing station. She scowled. “Great!” She sighed. “Another mix.” “Huh?” Gameknight asked. “Sometimes when I’m trying to make, say, a fire resistance potion, a scrap of blaze powder will still be there. It’ll be a mix of both potions. I always throw them away, it’ll probably poison someone.” 

     She handed Gameknight a bottle. It was mostly red, but he could see bright pink streaks. “Huh?” He asked. “It’s Rejuvenation and Healing,” she said. Gameknight studied it, holding the bright liquid up to the light. Click. The puzzle pieces were starting to fall into place. Hope was starting to blossom in his chest. 

     He knew how to stop Void. 

     Gameknight took a deep breath. He tilted his head back and- gulped down the potion. Morgana and Monet gasped. Part of him thought he was going to fall over dead. But instead, a warm feeling spread through his body as healing searched for any pain he had. He suddenly felt stronger and faster, and like he could sprint through fire. 

             He looked up and saw bright pink spirals above him. The girls looked at him with huge eyes, mouths wide open. He grinned at them. “Do I look poisoned to you?” He teased. “It WORKS?!” Morgana yelled. 

     “I know what to do now!” He yelled triumphantly. “I know how to stop Void! And the monsters! We’ll use potions of weakness and healing for the zombies, and I’ll figure something out for Void! I gotta go get Crafter!” 

        He bolted out of the room, the potion helping him sprint with ease. Monet laughed. “You heard the User-that-is-not-a-user!” She said. “Let’s go!” She spun around, but Morgana yelled “Wait!”. 

    Monet stopped, her blue curls still bouncing. Morgana smiled at her, and handed the girl a potion. Orange and silver spirals looped around and around in the glass bottle. “Fire Resistance and Swiftness. In case you need proof.” Monet grinned. The old woman smiled back. 

     Monet ran after her brother, hope blossoming in both their hearts. 

 

            Chapter 6

   Spying and Stalking

 

      Gameknight paced back in forth. The potion was starting to wear off, but he wasn’t tired in the least. His excitement was building, actually. Crafter was watching him, a skeptical look on his face. “So… you want us to make half potions?” He asked. “Do they even work?” 

      Monet stepped up. “Try this,” she said. She handed Crafter a bottle with orange and silver swirls. He still didn’t look sure, but he took the bottle and uncorked it. He took a sip. Pale orange swirls filled the air above his head. 

     Monet took a flint and steel and lit a fire. “Step into it,” she said. Crafter cautiously stepped forward. The speed suddenly kicked in, and he shot into the fire faster than he thought. He yelped and jumped. 

         But nothing happened. The flames licked at his robes, but didn’t spread up his clothes. The young boy with ancient eyes stared down at the at himself. “Woah,” he said. “I know!” Gameknight said excitedly. “And if we get more of these, we can use them!” Monet cheered. “How about… weakness and healing? For the monsters! If they don’t die from healing, at least they’ll be weak.” “Great!” Gameknight said. “Void! Here we come!”  

 

                       Void stared down at the peaceful village from a rocky ledge above. She advanced her eyesight, so she could see everything. Her eyes danced with every color imaginable. Her crystal sword was in her hand, and she rolled it back in forth on her palms. Her face was focused on the village, but her mind was elsewhere. Like she had been doing lately, she was scowling at her own thoughts, anger etched into her face. “Get OUT!” She screamed at herself. “GET OUT OF MY HEAD!” But of course, the power in her swelled up even more. Her eyes glowed like to intense suns as the intruder fanned the flames of her anger. “Don’t,” she thought hard. “Don’t! Don’t! Don’t!” 

     But it was to late. The rollercoaster of emotions was already flooding through her. Happiness, anger, grief. 

     Happiness at who. Anger at what. Grief, never ending grief at truth. 

    And most of all, guilt. Horrible, overflowing guilt so bad she felt she would burst. Like she would melt into a puddle and the guilt itself would suck her up. So bad a terrifyingly large part of her want to just fall off the cliff and end it now. She shook her head. Suddenly, the music jerked back, as if something had wounded it. For a moment, Void was relieved. Then she panicked. She tried as quickly as possibly to shield herself, but it was to late. A entirely new presence filled her, like a horrible drink was being poured into her mind. She shoved her panic deep inside her, determined to show no weakness. Actually, she was feeling many things. Anger, sadness. Terror. All she let through was a hint of annoyance. “Get. Out.” She said out loud. She tried as hard as possible to get rid of it, but it was like trying to push water out of the way. Her eyes started to glow, red taking over until she was bathed in the color of dried blood. Void fumed. She closed her mind. Slowly, the presence faded. She breathed a deep sigh of relief. But she was still nervous. It was happening more and more. She glared down at the village. But for now? 

       There was a village that needed destroying.  

 

Chapter 7

 

                  Mix-up

 

                         Gameknight stared down at the soon-to-be battlefield. Monet jumped up onto the wall beside him. “You ready?” She asked. Gameknight narrowed his eyes. “Never better,” he said. A long, sorrowful moan came from the woods. “Here they come,” he said under his breath. He raised both his swords above his head. 

     “Three,” Monet whispered. The moan suddenly got louder as another decaying creature joined in. “Two…” a skeleton jingled.  “One!” She yelled. Gameknight put out his swords together in an X. And then- 

     Two zombies walked out of the woods. 

    For a moment, everything was silent. Murmurs of confusion were the only sound. Void suddenly appeared on a tree, grinning. Gameknight’s heart sank. What must have been thirty skeletons walked out of the cover of the trees. The moonlight made their pale bodies seem to glow. 

     Gameknight gave a sigh of relief. Everything was going to work out great. Those zombies must have been lost or something. Then he heard something. Laughing. He looked to Void. She was grinning, her eyes a dazzling mix of shades of blue and green. She raised her hand, and a beam just like one from a beacon shot out of it. As one, the entire army of villagers turned to see a mob of creepers headed straight for them. “IT’S A TRICK!” Hunter screamed from the top of the watchtower. 

 

                The whole thing. All the battles she had done before had been one big trick.  Gameknight felt his blood go cold. They weren’t ready for this. The pattern was to throw them off. He and everyone else in that village was doomed. 

     Unless. 

 

    The word bounced around in his head. Unless. Unless. Unless. The puzzle pieces started to click into place. There one one thing left to do-

     Void suddenly clapped, so loud it echoed around them over and over. Clouds filled the sky, the moon shining weakly through them like a dying lantern. A lighting bolt suddenly hit the ground right in between the armies. When Gameknight could see again, a lavender Nether Portal was there. Orange shapes flew out of it,  slowly morphing into view. The blazes shot into the air, searching hungrily for prey. Most of the village screamed, but Gameknight didn’t even notice. He bolted to Crafter, who was in front of the watchtower listening to instructions yelled down by Hunter and Stitcher. “Ender pearl,” Gameknight panted as soon as he was in earshot. Crafter looked at him, surprised as he took one from his inventory. Gameknight grabbed it sprinted inside. His muscles burned as he scaled the ladder, but he didn’t care. “Gameknight?” Stitcher said as he came up. The User-that-is-not-a-user ignored her. He took perfect aim. He threw the orb as hard as he could. Pain filled his senses as he suddenly landed on leaves. He looked up to see Void sending directions to her army. He climbed up the branches towards her. Without looking at him, Void said simply, “So. You NPCs finally figured out how to use double potions. Its about time.” 

       “Stop the attack!” Gameknight yelled. He drew his swords. Void looked at him and then did the same. Gameknight gulped at the sight of the clear sword, glimmering in the starlight. “What are you going to do?” She asked calmly. Not in a mocking way, but in a strangely curious way. Gameknight was confused about her, again. “Why do you do that?” He asked. She just stared. 

       “Do what?” She asked. “Do- that!” He shouted over the noise. “Be so- confusing! You act like you don’t care about anything!” “So?” She asked. He was fuming. “You are in a TREE!” He yelled. “In a WAR ZONE! In front of the VILLAGE you are trying to DESTROY!” Then Void did the worst most infuriating thing she could have done. 

       She shrugged. Gameknight growled.  “Why do you care so much?” She suddenly blurted out. “Huh?” He asked, caught off guard. “Why do you care so much?” She asked again. “You know that people leave, right?” She said. Her eyes went sort of glassy. “People leave,” she said. It was creepy, like she was reading off a book in her brain. “People leave and you don’t know why. They just disappear and you can’t stop them. One minute their with you, and the next your alone. And you think their just hiding, that you’ll find them, but you keep looking and looking and their nowhere.”

     Why aren’t you called Brine?” He blurted out suddenly. He didn’t no what else to do. He wasn’t sure what else to do, so he fired back at her with another question. She suddenly snapped back to life. “Wha-what?” She asked. “Why aren’t you called VoidBrine?” He asked. He really was curious. “I mean, your a shadowcrafter to, right? What kind of name is Void?” She stared at him. “That’s what I’d like know,” she said slowly. 

      He opened his mouth to respond, but suddenly pain filled him as the sharpest fastest blade Minecraft had ever created stabbed him. He felt a flash of terror. He felt something beside his own blood on the blade, villager or monster or some other creature. But the blade had been clear. 

   He fell to his knees, clutching his side. He felt something hot drip on his neck. He looked up, shaking, to see Void with her blade outstretched. “Cool, huh?” She said. He moaned. Reaching up, he felt a cut on his head where he fallen. He was more scared of Void than he had ever been of Erebus or Herobrine. The worst part, he hadn’t even seen her coming. She hadn’t even teleported yet. He reached into his inventory and grabbed a bottle of healing and strength Morgana made for him. He sucked at it like a baby on a bottle. Spirals floated above. 

      Void kicked at him. “Get up,” she snapped. “I don’t attack people who don’t fight back. Gameknight struggled to his feet. He barely stopped himself from collapsing. He took one shuddering breath. He had one more trick. Void suddenly teleported behind him and slashed at his back. He held up his iron sword to block the attack, but wasn’t fast enough. Pain flashed through him. He staggered, but didn’t fall. He flashed red. Looking at his steel blade, he saw it had nearly been cut cleanly in half. Before she could attack again he threw a maroon and green bottle. The action took the last of his strength and he fell to his knees. 

      The splash potion of harming and poison flew through the air spinning like a football. Void looked calmly at it. Right before it hit her, she lifted her hand. It stopped in midair inches from her face, still spinning. It started moving again, faster and faster, but in the opposite direction. Gameknight watched, hopelessly, as the bottle smashed against the trunk of another tree. She looked down at him. “Thanks,” she said. Her voice was cold. 

         “Let me give you something in return.” She drew her own splash potion.  Gameknight was shocked. There must have been at least four different types of potion in there. She threw it. He raised his sword to stop it, but once again he was to slow. 

       The bottle smashed into him, knocking him the rest of the way over. He felt sick. He was dizzy and nauseous. The world seemed far away, like he was seeing and hearing through a cloud. 

      Void stepped over to him. She looked to the village. Slowly, a evil grin formed on her face. “Well, well.” She said. “Looks to me like your precious village isn’t doing so well.” 

     “No…” Gameknight said in a hoarse whisper. “Oh, yes,” she said. She held out her sword tip and scraped a line in his chest. He was hoping- no, praying that the potion would numb the pain, but the agony was still unbearable. All he could do was moan. She grinned and sheathed her sword. “Good-bye, User-that-is-not-a-user.” She said. 

      And she was gone in a cloud of teleportation particles. 

 

     Okay, everyone I will probably not be posting any more chapters for a week because I’m going to Idaho to see my cousins. Thanks for reading! 

 

 

 

               Chapter 8

     Messages 

 

        Void paced in front of her top general, a huge skeleton named Rakier. “You directly disobeyed my orders.” She said slowly. Rakier was cowering at her feet. “Please!” He begged. “I’m sorry. The monsters would not listen! I could not get them to do what you said!” 

     Void slowly drew her sword. The User-that-is-not-a-users blood still caked it, making a magenta light on the ground. It made Void smile. “Maybe,” she said slowly. “Maybe you need a lesson on following directions.” 

   “P-p-please!” Rakier whimpered. Void’s smile grew. Her eyes suddenly glowed bright white. The Music of Minecraft suddenly burst into song. Void scowled and the white faded away. She shook her head rapidly. “Wha-what?” She asked, confused. “Rakier- what happened?” The skeleton stood up.         “You- you were angry.” He said. “That the monsters started killing. And- your eyes glowed and you got out your sword and-“ 

      Void moaned. “Not again,” she said. She looked up at the skeleton, her eyes wide with fear. “Rakier… I’m scared. It’s happening more and more. What do I do?” 

       The skeleton looked at her with loving eyes. “We’ll figure something out,” he promised. She smiled at him. “Your the best friend I’ve ever had,” she said truthfully. “Same with me,”  he said. “If it wasn’t  for you, I’d still be the small skeleton that could barely hold up a bow. Your magic is awesome!”

       She smiled. “I’m going to go wash off my sword.” “Hey!” Rakier complained. “We drink from that stream!” 

     “Why else would I do it?” She teased. “Relax, I’m just gonna pour water on it from a bucket.” Rakier looked at her, obviously nervous. “What?” She asked. “It’s just…” He said.  “Do we really have to attack the User-that-is-not-a-user? I mean, you don’t really seem that into it.” 

     Her eyes glowed. “We defiantly have to,” she confirmed. “No one messes with my parents.” She looked straight into where his eyes would have been. “You and me are the only ones that know the truth. And I really, really hope it stays that way.” 

    Void spun around and ran off. She was fast, causing many of the monsters around her to turn their heads. It wasn’t like the armies of blood hungry creatures Herobrine had commanded. All the monsters here were calm. Unlike her father, she cared about her army. She helped the wounded and anyone hurt couldn’t fight. Only a quarter of her army would go out at a time, giving the others time to rest. They all stayed in a huge clearing in the middle of a beautiful forest. The zombies and skeletons had been given helmets, but they still were nervous. So Void has created sun shields, a entire half of the clearing that was covered in magic glass. They could see everything so clearly through it it was like after a hundred years they could finally be back on the sun. 

    The sun shield also covered the fountain right in the middle of the clearing. It was a XP fountain, but one very different from the others. The XP was very constant, and it flowed out of four quarts blocks in a tall pillar. Out of the block sprouted quarts branches, dotted with emerald block leaves. 

      The emerald blocks also dripped XP that the branches caught. The blocks had been carved to dip down in the middle, and wounded mobs could stand in the small waterfall. 

    The tree was planted on end stone that stretched ten blocks in every directions. Enderman could teleport on this and get power like they did in the End. By the trunk was a descending tunnel that leaded into a large cavern. Walking by, Void smiled as she felt the heat of the lava pools and heard the moans of contentment. 

    The trunk of the tree was covered with quickly growing moss. So were the quarts pillars placed every few blocks around the endstones edge. The spiders could eat without having to take from dungeons or Mega Taigas. 

     Suddenly, a small spider jumped out at her. Void smiled. “Hello, Sharm.” She said, petting it’s fuzzy head. She had  taken the time to memorize the monsters names. The small spider grinned. “Thisss spiderr iss happy Void iss here.” She rubbed against Void ankles. Void loved the little spiders running around. She hadn’t intended to have them. She made sure all her mobs were of age to fight. But one of the Sisters has given birth. The babies weren’t allowed to fight, of course, and neither was their mother who had to take care of them. 

     Right then, their mother Sharg ran up and scooped Sharm up. “Sorrry,” she hissed. “It’s fine,” Void said. She ran the rest of the way to the small creek at the edge of the clearing.         Going towards the end so everyone else’s water was clean, she carefully put the blade in the water. Void tried not to watch the red come slowly off. It was to gross. 

      Suddenly, a scream put a sudden end to the peace. It startled her so much she almost dropped her blade.  She scrambled to grab it. For a moment she was annoyed that her  blades handle wasn’t normal. Hers was crystal dotted with diamonds and emeralds. It also had Redstone streaks. At least, she was hoped it was Redstone. 

     For a moment she thought back to her parents death. It was the same sound. Scared and angry monsters moaning and crying out. Actually, she had lost both of her parents. She had seen both of them. One of the deaths was so crazy and unexpected that it would scar her for the rest of her life. The other she thought of when ever she wanted cheering up. 

    She teleported to the sound. A zombie named Po-man was laying on the ground, still flashing red. Void slashed at the intruder with her sword, not bothering to look at them. She scooped up Po-man and teleported her to the fountain. She placed her gently under one of the branches where she could get as much XP as possible. 

    Void appeared back in the middle of the growing crowd, which calmed when they saw her. She saw the intruder struggling to its feet. Most of the mobs screamed, and she saw why. It was a Iron Golem, the arch enemy of all monsters. 

    But instead of attacking, Void grinned. “Look, everyone!” She shouted. “Looks like the User-that-is-not-a-user sent us a little present!” She grabbed some rope from her inventory and before it could even try to stop her, Void had teleported around him and his arms and legs were tied. 

    The mobs cheered, but she held up a hand to silence them. “It isn’t really over till we greet the whole present, is it?” She said. All the monsters looked at each other, confused. Void smiled, the pointed at two different trees. Suddenly, the leaves disappeared and two villagers fell to the ground. 

   There was a gasp. Void beckoned to both of them, and against their will they were dragged across the grass towards her, kicking and yelling for help. “Not so fast!” Void yelled. She teleported suddenly, and came back with a squirming girl under her arm. 

    “This was your plan?” Void said laughing. She tied up the girl. She snapped her fingers and the other villagers were tied to. She smiled and dropped the girl, who was trembling. “Hello, Monet113.” She turned to the other villager, who had a confident look on his face. “Crafter.” She looked to the last villager. For just a moment, her heart stopped. She barely stopped herself from gasping. 

   A lanky boy with long black hair struggled against his bonds. 

   She knew this boy. 

Well, not exactly. She had been invisible at the time. Still. She gulped. “Herder?” She said. It came out as a question. Suddenly, the Music of Minecraft swelled. She scowled and waved at the air as if the bat it away. “Go take the other two somewhere safe,” she snapped. “The girls the User-that-is-not-a-users sister, and the others his best friend.” 

     The monsters were startled into action by the sudden out burst. Void waved her hand and both their inventory’s clattered onto the grass. She scooped it all up in a shulker box. “I’ll take care of this one,” she said, gesturing to Herder. Even though she could tell he was trying not to, he paled. Rakier grabbed Crafter and Monet. He tugged them off towards the woods. Monet tried to shout, but Rakier hit her with his bow. She shrunk back, obviously frightened. Crafter leaned on her and whispered in her ear, probably reassuring her that it would be fine. 

     Void forced herself to look away. She grabbed Herders rope and tugged him off. She wasn’t planning to, but for some reason she wound up by the tree.  She sighed and tied him to one of the pillars. She adjusted his bonds so he could use one arm but couldn’t reach his inventory. 

     Herder stared at her the whole time. She wanted to look away, but she knew she couldn’t. Weakness was not what she did. “What are you looking at?” She finally snapped. He gave her a satisfied smile. “You do know he’ll come back for me, right?” He asked. “Gameknight would never abandon me.” 

   “I’d be surprised if Gameknight’s even still alive,” She said without thinking. She suddenly snapped back to her senses. “Wait, did I just call him Gameknight?” Thankfully, Herder seemed to shocked to notice.  “What do you mean?” He asked. He was trying to hide the fear in his voice, but wasn’t doing well. 

     Void grinned. “Well, let me count.” She said. She ticked the reasons off on her fingers. “First I hit him on the back, then pretty sure I cracked some ribs, then slashed his chest… oh, then I poisoned him. I guess you left to trail me a little to quickly to stop by and chat.”

     Herders eyes went wide. He threw himself against the ropes as hard as he could. All Void did was laugh. “Don’t worry,” she said a fake soothing voice. “I bet he went quick. Real quick.”

    “No!” Herder yelled. He fought harder than ever. Void laughed again, but for some reason it wasn’t funny anymore. Void went quiet. She suddenly snapped back. She tightened the ropes. Herder went quiet and stared right into her swirling eyes. She tugged at her hair. Her eyes dimmed until they were no longer glowing. 

   It’s his fault, she thought. He made him soft!

 

But if it’s his fault, then why do I care so much?

    She moved the ropes around so he could use one arm but couldn’t reach his inventory. She sighed and teleported away.        

    The Iron Golem was warily looking around himself, probably because he was surrounded by growling monsters. She calmly walked through the crowd. “Thank you for your little gift,” she said. “I think it will be very useful.” 

   The monsters cheered.

         Void took something out of her inventory. “Give this to the User-that-is-not-a-user,” she said. It was a small vial with a greenish liquid. “Tell him if he ever wants to see his friends again, he’ll drink this.” She had an idea. She took out her sword and the golem cringed. She carefully took out her pick and knocked one piece of crystal off. She’s sheathed her sword and pick and took out a stick. Her hands started to glow a soft magenta. She crafted, using the code altering skills Herobrine had passed onto her. 

    The glow faded as she finished. She held her creation up in the air. 

   The shard had grown six times its original size. She had created a dagger. The golem was shaking, it’s metal joints creaking. “Tell the User-that-is-not-a-user his next present will be this,” She said. “Now, will you do these things?”

   The Iron Golem opened its mouth, and started to talk in a loud hollow voice. “Never,” He creaked. Void shrugged. “Then I have no use for you,” She said. “Monsters…” 

      The army slowly closed in, growling and clicking. “Okay, okay!” The golem boomed. “I’ll tell him!” Void slowly turned around. She held her hand up to stop the mobs. They moved back, grumbling under their breath. She smiled sweetly at the golem. “Liar,” She said. She suddenly appeared next to the golem. Before he could stop her she appeared next to him. She put her hand on his shoulder. The golem froze. “This is what you are going to do,” she said. “You are going to go back to the village. You are to give the User-that-is-not-a-user his present. Then you are to tell him exactly what happened here. Then, when he has heard it all, you are to attack him. Kill him if possible. If you are attacked you are to return here.” 

    The golem nodded. “Go,” she instructed. It lumbered off, still looking dazed. She smiled and teleported to a nearby tree. Rakier came over. “Wow,” he said. “Your good.” 

     She grinned. “It’s a gift,” she said smugly. “Let’s see Gameknight999 stick around now.” She laughed, making the very Music of Minecraft swell in sadness and pain. 

 

 

                 Chapter 9

    The Right Direction

 

     Gameknight was hoping to faint. He was hoping to die. With every breath he hoped it was his last. There was more pain than he ever thought humanly possible. Wonder was freaking out back in the physical world. She was begging him to stay alive, to fight back, but he just laid there dreading every moment. In the movies, it shows the hero laying half dead, unconscious on the battle field. Then a helicopter would come and lift him up. Two days later he was back to fight off the robots or Nazis or whatever. 

     But that never happens in real life. 

   In real life, a girl comes and wrecks your entire world. You underestimate her, thinking that you’ve been through enough to face off her and win yet again. 

   But she beats you bad and for once you realize what it was like to the people you attacked. You realize what you had put people through that were being forced. And you realize the good guys don’t always win. Or, maybe, your the bad guy and just didn’t realize it until the good guys are their to destroy you. 

    At least, this is what Gameknight was thinking. The world still seemed so far away. Like it was only him and his thoughts. Silvery mist swirled around in his head. He knew he was almost in the Land of Dreams, but could still only see it. He wasn’t in it. 

    Yet.

Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name. Actually, screaming. “Gameknight!” It was right below him. “It’s no use,” another voice said miserably. “We’ve been searching for hours. She probably killed him.”

   “No!” The first voice wailed. “He can’t be gone!” “But we saw him fall! Gameknight would never fall unless…” 

    The first voice started crying. They leaned against the tree. It rocked Gameknight just a bit. Pain filled him and he gave a small gasp. “Wait!” The second voice said. “I heard something!” 

    He heard someone building upwards. Suddenly, Hunters head popped up. “Gameknight!” She cheered. She crawled up. Stitcher appeared to. She visibly relaxed. “Your alive!” She sobbed. “We’ve been searching all day! The entire village has!”

   All day? He thought. The entire village? Wow. 

Hunter gasped. “What did she do to you?” She said. She grabbed some wool from her inventory and tried to stop the blood. The pain snapped him back. All the sudden it was like he had suddenly zoomed back into the world. All the mist was gone from his brain. He cried out in pain. He gasped, every breath hurting more and more. Tears formed in his eyes. Against his will, they flowed down. “Look! The spirals are gone!” Stitcher said. Gameknight moaned. Hunter jumped up and yelled, “We found him! We need help! Quick!” 

    Responding calls answered her. She grabbed a torch and started waving it in the air. Only then did he see they were in a thick fog. “I couldn’t stop her,” he moaned. “She was to fast. I- I couldn’t figure out how to fight her.” Stitcher felt his forehead. “I- I think he has a fever,” She said worriedly. 

   Gameknight felt himself slipping back away. Silvery mist swirled around him. And he saw things. Horrible things. First, Herobrine’s death but from a nether rack ledge above the battle. And he was smiling. Then, a diamond blade streaking down onto a long stick and him sobbing uncontrollably without making a sound. 

   Gameknight suddenly gasped in pain as he felt someone lift him up. He woke with a start, struggling against his captor. He calmed when he saw it was just Digger. His back was being touched and was hurting uncontrollably, but he stayed as quiet as possible. “Your hurting him!” Hunter snapped. “What am I supposed to do?” Digger boomed. “He’s hurt on all sides.”

    “Flip him over,” Hunter commanded. She carefully moved him over onto his only good side. She suddenly cursed. “What is it?” Digger asked. “He’s hurt on his head too.” He heard Stitcher move up behind him. “Looks like he fell.” Hunter snorted. “Good observation, genius. Ow!” Stitcher had probably punched her sister. “Not now guys,” Digger said. “We have to get Gameknight to Healer.” 

    They carefully walked back down through the trees. Gameknight couldn’t really see, but he felt them walking around craters, probably from creepers. He heard other people come and meet up with them, until the entire village was walking together, helping their fallen leader. Suddenly, their was a rumbling sound in the distance. There were whispers. “It’s an Iron Golem!” Someone shouted. “See,” Gameknight mumbled. Digger and some other villagers carefully turned him so he could watch. From the fog, a huge shape emerged. The Iron Golems red eyes flicked from side to side as he watched the villagers stop. He seemed to be looking for something. Suddenly, he saw Gameknight. The golem lumbered towards him. Digger backed away slowly. Gameknight tensed. There was something off about this golem. He looked dazed. The golems eyes rolled back in its head. “Hello, User-that-is-not-a-user,” It said creepily. “Woah,” Wonder said. “What’s up with him?” 

     “Thank you for your little gift,” It said. It’s voice was weirdly flat, like it wasn’t talking for itself. It laughed. “Like my little powers? Their the same ones that are going to crush you like the infestation you are. Don’t worry about your friends. Their in a safe place. A very safe place.” The golem laughed again. “Heal fast, User,” It said. “Your precious villagers are going to need someone to fight for them. We both know their worthless.”

    Gameknight was shaking with fury. “I was going to just have the golem tell you what happened, but I’m really bored here so I’m talking to you live from the camp. I even made a iron earpiece to connect to this golem like the things you use in the physical world. It’s a little ironic, isn’t it? You send someone to spy on me, but I’m the one watching you. Oh, right. This is yours.” 

   The golem handed something to him. He looked at it, confused. It was a square vial full of some kind of lime green liquid. The sun was burning through the mist, and the strange potion seemed to glow. Hunter snorted. “As if he’s going to fall for that- Gameknight, no!”

    He drank it. Stitcher moaned and covered her eyes. “I can’t look!” She wailed. Gameknight looked around, confused. “Uh… nothings happening.” 

    “Oh no!” The golem said in a fake scared voice. “It’s doing- exactly what it should be doing! Stand up, dummy.” Gameknight was even more confused. He slid off Diggers arms. He was still sore but could stand up fine. “Wow,” He breathed. “Awesome!” Wonder chatted. “But that’s not all,” the golem said. “Here’s the real reason I want you to be in walking condition.” She started laughing. Suddenly, in his vision blue arrows appeared. “Wait, what?” He asked. “Those arrows only you can see,” Void said. “Just you. They point toward where ever I want you to go, on whatever path I want.”

     He stared at the arrows, which were moving in the same direction to the north. “Hope you li- hey!” Gameknight turned to look at the golem. “What are you- Gameknight!” He froze. Void had not said that. The voice was full of panic. “Gameknight, don’t go to Dragons Te-“

    The voice screamed. Suddenly, the sound disappeared. But the golem was still standing there, looking dazed. Suddenly it lurched forward. Gameknight ducked right as it swung its arms at him. Hunter grabbed her bow, but right then Wonder appeared. They all dropped what they were holding and crossed their hands against their chest. Wonder stayed there until the golem was gone. “It was under a spell,” she typed to Gameknight. “It’s was being controlled.” 

    Gameknight told this to the others.  “So?” Hunter asked. “It still attacked you.” Gameknight glared at her. “But it wasn’t it’s fault,” He snapped. “It was Void. And who was that?” Hunter bit her lip. Stitcher looked at the ground. Digger shifted uncomfortably. Gameknight glared at them. “Guys?” He said, his voice rising. “Who was that?” 

    “You see…” Digger said. “Herder and Crafter went to trail the monsters and tell us of their position.”

  Gameknight’s blood went cold. “You mean…” He said. Digger nodded. “That’s not the worst part,” Hunter said softly. “How can this get worse?” Gameknight moaned. “Your sister was with them!” Stitcher blurted out. Gameknight swiveled around to look at her. “What?!?!” He yelled. “How could you let her do that?!” 

     “We tried to stop her!” Stitcher said. “But she ran after them!” Gameknight fell over. Digger grabbed him. “I can’t believe this,” Gameknight moaned. “Monet followed me into Minecraft, Herder, Crafter and Monet are captured, there’s a half stranger at the Digitizer,”

   “Hey!” Wonder said.

   “And, oh yeah! A crazy Herobrine girl is slowly destroying me!”

He sighed and looked at the ground. The villagers are quiet. Suddenly, Hunter stepped forward. “If she’s gonna destroy you, she’s gonna destroy me too.” Stitcher stepped up, too. “Voids gonna have to get me to.” Gameknight stood up. His side hurt, but he ignored it. He did his best to ignore the arrows, but wasn’t doing so well. He was proud.

     One by one, all the villagers came and stood by their leader. Gameknight smiled. It reminded him of a time when he had been in the Great Zombie Invasion. Something Weaver had said came back to him. Villager mountain. 

   The pieces began to click into place. What the voice had said. “Gameknight, don’t go to Dragons Tee-“

   Dragons Teeth!

      His heart started to pound. “That’s it!” He yelled. They all looked at him, confused. “That’s what?” Stitcher asked. He looked at her, his eyes shining. “I know where Void is!” He shouted. “At least, where she’s headed.” 

    “Where?” Hunter asked. “Dragons Teeth!” Gameknight said. Hunter stared at him. “Where?” She asked. “Dragons Teeth,” He repeated. “Never heard of it,” she said. “Of course,” He sighed. Of course. Hunter hadn’t even been born yet during the Great Zombie Invasion. None of his friends had. 

    “Dragons Teeth is four mountain positioned in a square,” He explained. “During the Great Zombie Invasion, Herobrine kept all his forces there. That must be where Void is going! And I bet she’s bringing our friends with her. Let’s go!”

     Gameknight sprinted towards the North. “Gameknight!” Hunter called after him. He glared at her. “You can’t stop me,” he warned. “Oh, I can’t wait to go slaughter some mobs with you,” She said. Some people laughed. “Except we need to prepare.” Gameknight looked down at himself. Void had completely shattered his diamond armor. “Oh,” he said. “I forgot.” More people laughed. “Okay, I’ll wait two hours,” He warned. “But then I’m leaving.”

 

       Void broke the sound connection. She spun around to face Herder, fuming. The lanky boy was cradling his arm where she had hit him. But he still looking up fiercely into her eyes. “You are very stubborn.” She said slowly. “Am I?” He said. “I didn’t notice.” 

    “You think your so smart,” she spat. She teleported away. She appeared on the newest addition to the Feeding tree- the Dome. It was a, well, dome. It’s made of green stained glass, like leaves. But she stood on it whenever she wanted talk to the monsters. 

    All the mobs walking by formed under the branches. Even Herder leaned against his pillar, still nursing his arm. 

   Void waited patiently until all the mobs were watching. “You all know were going to Dragons Teeth,” She said. The crowd moaned and clattered in agreement. “But thanks to someone,” She said, gesturing to Herder. His eyes widened in fear as the mobs turned to look at him, growling. “They know to early to go there. They were supposed to be led farther south until we were ready.”

      The monsters looked hungrily at Herder. “Don’t attack him,” She ordered. “He’s still useful. Besides, the User-that-is-not-a-user isn’t here to watch. Anyway, now we need a faster way to get to that mountain. Which is why we’re teleporting.”

     The monsters looked around, confused yet excited. Even Herder perked up. “Everyone will be assigned a Enderman. At least, if they agree.” She looked to the shadowy creatures. They nodded their dark heads. “Good,” she said. “I understand we don’t have enough Enderman for everybody. So, the other half of you are going to fly.”

     Now the monsters were really confused. “Fly?” A skeleton clattered. “Are you crazy?” Void just smiled. Suddenly, she held her fingers to her lips and let it a high pitched whistle. At first, nothing happened. Then blue and white shapes flew out of the woods. “Meet the phantoms!” She yelled. The phantoms looked down on them from the sun shield. “Some of you will be riding on them through the skies. We leave at dawn!”

     The mobs cheered. “By the way,” she said. She started ticking things off her fingers. “Zombies, skeletons, and phantoms, you no longer  burn in the sun. Spiders, you don’t always have to click and can attack during the day, creepers don’t die after exploding, Enderman can go back in water again and can attack however they want, oh, and zombies can put their arms down. Enjoy your powers!” The mobs ran off to try it out. The phantoms shot into the sky, determined to play in the clouds. Void teleported down. She leaned against the tree, looking smugly at Herder. “You’ll never get away with this!” He screamed, fighting the ropes binding him. “You’ll lose!”

      She smiled. “Will I?” She said softly. “Will I?”

 

Chapter 10

Desert Battles 

 

      Gameknight ran through the plains biome. The rest of the villagers was behind him. The sun was setting, and he wanted to reach the village before night fall. In Minecraft, nighttime was monster time. They ran over a small rise. “There!” Mapper yelled. “Just over that hill!” Gameknight shifted around his armor uncomfortably. He had needed to grab some iron armor because his diamond was now bits of jewels scattered around the forest. 

        He jumped up the slope, timing the jumps perfectly so he wouldn’t stop sprinting. Then he saw it. The walled town was full of warm torchlight. The watcher shouted from the top of the watchtower. The gates swung open as the exhausted NPCs approached. Gameknight walked inside. Instantly, he felt better. They had tried to use the minecart system, but every time Gameknight went under ground the arrows would point straight up and he wouldn’t be able to see. 

Besides, it would be a big shock if Void didn’t know about the system. Besides, it couldn’t get them all the way there anyway. It couldn’t go across the Great Chasm. It did go around, but it was way to slow. They had to get there, fast. The arrows seemed very intent on getting him to go south, towards Everest Mesa he learned after he talked to Crafter about it. Crafter said it was the largest and tallest Mesa in Minecraft. Void probably wanted them to climb it so she had time. 

    The village Crafter came forward. “Who are you and what are you doing here?” He asked. Gameknight stepped into the light. The crafters eyes traveled from his face to his user name, then the area above his head devoid of a server thread. His mouth dropped open. “I am Gameknight999,” he said. “We are on our way to Dragons Teeth to stop Void. Could we stay here tonight?” 

   “Of course!” The Crafter stammered “We’ll set up beds. We’ve heard of Void. We’ll do anything to stop her. Is there anything else you need?”

   “Some food will be nice,” Crafter said. “We’ve been sprinting all day. We need to try and hit the mobs before their ready.”

      The crafter signaled at a group of farmers. “Go harvest the crops for our guests,” he ordered. They nodded and ran towards the farms, hoes at the ready. 

     The NPCs from the plains village ran inside their houses to get ready. They filled up all the areas indoors, but it was a clear night so beds were spread out in the village. Gameknight collapsed into one by the wall, exhausted. “God night,” Wonder said back in the physical world. But Gameknight was already asleep. 

 

            The next morning, Gameknight woke to the sound of armor being put on. “I thought you should sleep in,” a voice said. Gameknight sat up and rubbed his eyes. Crafter was sitting on the edge of the bed. “Not me!” Piped up Hunter, who was sitting cross-legged on the grass, twirling an arrow like a top. “Let’s go!” 

     Gameknight climbed into his armor. The rest of the villagers were already there when he approached the gates. He noticed their were significantly more than yesterday. “Where did all these people come from?” He asked. “There from this village,” Hunter said, grinning. “They all wanted to come and join the fight.” 

     Gameknight looked proudly at the brave NPCs. They were all willing to die to protect the ones they loved from Void. “Let’s get going!” He yelled. They cheered. He ran to the top of the formation, where his friends were waiting for him. He smiled and started running. 

 

         Herder closed his eyes as tightly shut as possible. The wind blew his long hair back. “Oh, stop being such a baby!” Void called from the back of the phantom in front of him. She tugged on his rope. He peeked at her. “It’s a lot easier when you can teleport!” He yelled back at her. He was almost a hundred blocks in the air, flying above the Overworld. “Why couldn’t she let me teleport, like Crafter and Monet?” He thought. “But no, I’m her special prize she won’t give up. It makes me sick!” 

            He looked down again. Now that he was mad, it didn’t seem nearly as scary. It was actually a stunning view. The different mobs below were like colorful threads on a green blanket. (I’m a baker, so I can’t say a green velvet cake. That is NOT a thing, people! Also this makes more sense.) 

      He looked and saw Void was for once not trying to hide the fact she was staring at him. She was twirling her long hair around her finger. If she hadn’t been so evil and holding a rope with the other end tied to his body, he would of thought it was cute. He got comfortable on his phantom. It was much roomier than he thought. It’s back wasn’t covered in spikes, but instead nice and smooth. It was going to be a long day.

 

       Gameknight was the first to see it. “Desert temple!” He yelled. The looming shape of the ancient structure looked inviting, with the red shapes standing out against the pale sand. They had reached the Great Northern Desert hours ago. Unlike its name, the desert certainly didn’t feel Northern. Sweat dripped into Gameknight’s eyes. He wiped it away with his soaked sleeve. They reached the structure, shade being seen for the first time all day. 

         Gameknight drained a bottle of water. The glass burned his hands, being out in the sun all day. But Gameknight couldn’t care less. He walked into the building. A blast of cool air hit his face. He took a deep breath. He pointed to Digger. “Take a group down to get the treasure,” He said. “Remember to get the TNT. I’m afraid we’re going to need it.” He turned to address the rest of his army. “The rest of you, take a break. This isn’t going to be the last we see of the desert.”

      There was sighs of relief. Some villagers placed down blocks of wool, while others just collapsed into the shadowy corners. It was cooler, anyway. 

    Gameknight went into one of the side passages, running up the sandstone steps until he was on the roof. He scanned the desert, looking for shadows that were a little to like spiders, or any moaning cactuses. “Hi to you to,” a voice said teasingly beside him. He jumped. He hadn’t even noticed Hunter standing there. He grinned at her. “Anything?” He asked. “Nada,” she said. “Good.” The User-that-is-not-a-user-said. They watched the pale terrain in silence, as the sun began to set and the sky blushed bright pink.

        Suddenly, Hunter gave a small gasp. “What is it?” Gameknight asked. 

     “I thought I saw something,” she said, obviously shaken. “Out there. At the edge of the horizon.” Gameknight squinted, shielding his eyes from the setting sun. “I saw something to!” He yelped. “Like… purple dots?” 

     “You think it could be a spider?” Hunter asked. “No…” Gameknight said. “The only spiders with eyes like that are the ones from Herobrine, and Void doesn’t seem to be the kind to recreate the queens. “So, what is it?” Hunter asked.      Gameknight gasped. “That’s what!” He said. He pointed out into the desert. A Enderman suddenly appeared. It pointed at them, letting out a high pitched scream. Right then a blue and white cloud filled the air above the shadowy mob. Gameknight banged his sword against his chest plate. “We’re under attack!” He screamed. Hundreds of Enderman appeared, each one carrying a monster in their shadowy arms. Scared NPCs flowed out of the temple, quickly grabbing weapons. “Builders!” Digger boomed. “We need a wall!” 

      They nodded. A cobblestone and sandstone wall slowly worked its way up. Archer towers made of dirt sprouted. 

    “What are those things?” Hunter asked, pointing at the blue and white flying objects. “No idea,” Gameknight said. Then he saw their eyes. “Wait…” he said. His eyes widened in fear. The mobs eyes were a bright green, glowing in the setting sun. “Their phantoms!” He said. “Phantoms?” Hunter asked. “What are those?” 

     “Flying demons,” Gameknight said, shaking. “So, you know, the kind of stuff Void would use for a pet.”

      Hunter was quiet. “Gameknight?” She asked. “Yeah?” He replied. “Do phantoms spawn at night?”

    “Yeah.” 

“So they burn in the sun?” 

     “Yes.”

 “So why are they still here?” 

   “What do you mean?”

    “Their not burning, Gameknight.”

   “What?”

    “I said their not burning. The suns still there. So are the zombies and skeletons.”

       “What?” Gameknight yelled. He looked. Sure enough, they weren’t burning. “Void must have done this,” He growled. “Uh, duh.” Hunter said. “This isn’t good.” 

         Archers were in the towers, arrows bristling out. But the monsters were careful to stay out of range. Void suddenly appeared in front of the mobs. Growls of rage came from the villagers as bowstrings were pulled in further. 

     “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she called out in her teasingly sweet voice. Her eyes glittered. “I mean, you can. I’m not stopping you. But I don’t really feel like dying today.”

     Some of the monsters laughed. 

     “…So I’ll just redirect them to your little friends here.” She nodded to the huge skeleton Gameknight had seen before. He disappeared. When he came back, he was holding three ropes. Gameknight’s blood went cold. Herder, Monet and Crafter were on the other end. Monet and Crafter were gagged and bound, but Herder for some reason just had the rope around his waist. He was staring, disgusted at Void. 

         “Let them go!” Gameknight yelled. Monet tried to yell up at her brother, but it was muffled. The skeleton glared at her, and she shrunk back. Void smiled. “No thanks!” She said. “I see your enjoying my present.” Gameknight scowled. The arrows were still driving him crazy.  “Why don’t you just come up here and finish this?” Gameknight yelled. Voids smile grew even wider. “My pleasure,” she said. She appeared only a few blocks from him. She signaled at her army. They started to slowly approach. Instantly, arrows flew around them, but for the first time zombies could use their arms however they wanted. They drew shields and blocked the barbed sticks. Gameknight glared at Void. She just smiled. Then she realized Hunter was there. “I’d go, villager,” she spat. “It’s all right, Hunter,” Gameknight said. She looked at him, annoyed. 

   Hunter sighed and climbed down the steps. Gameknight’s could see she was nervous. He turned his gaze to Void. She had been staring into the desert, but snapped back. “Ready?” She challenged. Instead of answering, Gameknight swung his sword. But he knew these teleporters. At the last minute, he swiveled around and bent low, trying to strike where he knew she would show up. But her blade smashed into his armor, with Void not moving an inch. 

    “What are you doing?” She asked. She swung again, and he barely stopped the blade. “Your so confusing!” He yelled at her. “I’M confusing?” She asked. “You just swung at someone that wasn’t even there!” She gave him a confused look. Suddenly, a rage filled her eyes that Gameknight had never seen. “This is for the Ender Chest!” She screamed, swinging her sword, then teleporting behind him. Her eyes glowed bright white. But even with her suddenly anger and hate, Gameknight easily blocked the attacks. It was if he knew these exact moves, everything that was about to happen. 

      But the acts weren’t Void’s. 

    She swung at his head, but just before the sword touched him it’s wielder collapsed onto the pale sandstone. He stared at the moaning girl. Gameknight took a moment to glance back at the battle. The huge Skelton and Hunter were having a shoot out. Suddenly, another flaming arrow came out of an archer tower and struck the bony monster in the side. It fell over, disappearing from sight. Void had struggled to her feet, but fell back to her knees when she saw it. “NO!!!” She screamed. Gameknight stopped. It didn’t sound like she was angry. Actually, he had done that before. When someone he loved was hurt and he didn’t know how to help.

    She glared at him with more hatred than he had ever known. “You’ll pay for that, you u-“ She was cut off by a cheer from the villagers. They both whipped around. The monsters were getting beat, bad. Void growled, turning her gaze back to Gameknight. “Another time,” she said. “Then you’ll know what happens to people who mess with Void.” She teleported away. Gameknight watched her appear amid the retreating mobs. She grabbed the arm of the skeleton, who, unfortunately was still alive. Even from there Gameknight could hear her yelling. Digger suddenly ran up, followed by Hunter and Stitcher. “We did it!” His friend boomed.

             “Yeah,” Gameknight said, not really hearing. “Gameknight?” Stitcher asked anxiously. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” “Ahhh… yep,” he said. “But, did you see Void’s face when that skeleton got hurt?” Digger shrugged. “No,” he said. “You were the only one at the right angle. But let me guess- anger.” “Not at all,” Gameknight said. “She looked- sad. No, devastated.”

    Digger just shrugged. Gameknight sighed and stared out back into the desert. He knew Void was out there, even though he couldn’t see any of them. They had all flown and teleported off. 

   And she had his friends. His blood boiled with rage. He was gonna get them back.

     Even if it took his life.  

 

     Void teleported down onto the desert floor. It’s true that her need for revenge against the User-that-is-not-a-user was stronger than ever, but she had still secretly sent the signal to retreat. It wasn’t the time yet. Those pesky villagers threw them off guard. She wasn’t sure what was going on. She had directed the arrows to go south. Gameknight must have realized what Herder was talking about. The villagers had the upper hand now. They could hit right as the monsters reached Dragons Teeth, when their backs were still turned. 

   Of course, this was just what she was thinking. She was also yelling insults at Rakier at the same time. She grabbed his bony arm. “I can’t believe you-“ she said. She then teleported far away, out of earshot. “Are you all right?” She burst. “Rakier? Please, please be okay!” The skeleton stayed still. “Please wake up!” She whimpered. Rakier groaned and stirred. 

     “What-“ He said. He groggily struggled to his feet. “Your okay!” Void cheered. He looked at her, annoyed. “Of course I’m okay!” He snapped. “It was just a graze.” Void glared at her general. “A GRAZE?” She snapped. “You passed out! I watched you collapse! I- I thought you were dead!” 

    “Of course I’m not dead.” He said gently, wrapping his bony arms around her. Void realized she was shaking. “I can’t lose someone again,” she said softly. “I couldn’t protect them before. I can’t do it again.” 

   She stepped back. Then she noticed Herder. He was staring. She shifted uncomfortably. “What are you looking at?” She snapped. He ran off, probably to tell his friends what he had just saw. She sighed. It wasn’t a problem. It wasn’t like he’d ever come out of this alive. 

    “Let’s go,” She said suddenly. Before, her anger at Gameknight had been small. But now, it was personal.

    Her eyes glowed. She was coming. And this time, she had nobody to stop her. 

 

       Chapter 11

 Herder

 

 

    Herder rushed across the desert sands to Crafter and Monet. “You guys!” He panted. “You won’t believe what I just saw!” He quickly explained everything he’d overheard Void say. Crafter looked at him, confused. “So?” He asked. “You heard her upset her general almost died. Of course she was angry! I would be!” Herder let out an over dramatic sigh. 

     “But she cared! That’s her weakness. And what do you think she meant by she couldn’t lose someone again?” Monet thought hard. “I bet,” She said slowly. “She’s mad because my brother killed Herobrine.”

   Crafter snorted. “So she expected us NOT to get rid of her psychopath father who was trying to murder all of us so she would get a bedtime story?” 

   “It must have been a blow, though. I mean, having your father die. I don’t know what I would do if Monkeypants was gone.” Monet said sympathetically. Crafter glared at her. “I can’t believe your taking Void’s side again! Her dad almost killed Gameknight and then would have used you to get to the physical world!” Monet’s face turned pink. “I am NOT taking her side!” She yelled. 

    “Something wrong?” Someone said calmly behind them. The trio all yelled and spun around at the same time. If Void has been upset before, she had recovered well. None of them knew how long she had been there. Her eyes glowed dangerously, changing colors quickly. Herder groaned. 

     “None of your business!” Monet snapped. “You know,” Void said lazily. “My eyes aren’t the only special thing about me. I also have perfect hearing.”  She spun around to face Crafter with her sword out so fast that he jumped. “You be quiet about me and my dad unless you want there to be a new bedtime story- one everybody who cares about their kids avoids telling unless they enjoy their children having nightmares for the rest of their lives. You know, the one where someone is magically forced to kill his own friend.”

   Crafter went pale. “As for you, Monet,” Void continued. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Monet interrupted, sighing. “I stuck up for you and now you want to cart me around like you did with Herder since he was the last person your dad became.” 

    Herder went pale. “I didn’t even think of that!” He gasped. Void’s eyes turned bright red. Monet froze. “I was going to say to shut your mouth about why I’m attacking. Unless, of course, you want to join Crafter on your little hunting trip.” She laughed and flipped her hair. “Although, if you must know, this does have to do with revenge.” 

          She disappeared, then reappeared at the front of the army, mounting a phantom. Instantly, Enderman appeared and wrapped their cold clammy arms around the three. “And I would never take Void’s side,” Monet snapped. Crafter huffed. “Good,” He replied. “First time I met her, she tried to blow me into little bits!” 

       Both stared the other direction, ignoring the other. Herder just shook his head as they started to teleport. “That’s really why?” He mumbled. “Because Herobrine used my body?” 

 

 

            Void gently nudged her phantom to turn. She scanned the horizon. The villagers were just starting to move. She laughed. They were so slow. How had they survived this long? 

   Then she scowled. She knew why. Her eyes blazed as the phantom returned to the group. They talk about him like he was this powerful figure, but really he was weak and useless. Still. He had his advantages. 

       She looked worriedly down at the teleporting Endermen. Rakier had insisted he was fine, but he was almost limp as he teleported. She hoped he would be okay. The sun was just starting to set. Soon, it would be night and the monsters would be able to relax. She smiled as the stars started to peak out. But then she saw something on the horizon. Little places where the stars were blocked by something. She grinned. It was the mountains. They were almost there. 

 

 

         Darkness cloaked the Overworld, clouds blocking the moon. It was almost pitch black. Void had let the monsters rest, take a break for the night. They were way ahead of the villagers, and tomorrow they would have to fight at Dragons Teeth. Herder, Crafter, and Monet were tied to a fence post. Crafter and Monet were asleep. Herder, on the other hand, couldn’t sleep. He stared upward, at the tiny muffled dots that would have been stars. It was so dark, he didn’t notice the shadow slinking towards him until it was to late. Suddenly, a hand shot out and covered his mouth. He tried to scream, but it was muffled. “Be quiet!” The person hissed. They pulled out a small knife. He tried to scream again. But instead of slicing him into little bits, they cut through the ropes. He stood up, confused. “Who are you?” He asked.  “Go!” The person said, ignoring his question. “But my friends!” He blurted. “They’ll be fine!” The person said, shoving him away. “Someone’s coming! Go now!” Herder hesitated, but then ran off, looking over his shoulder. His savior waited till he was totally gone. Then, they collapsed. Their hood fell off, exposing the face of a girl. Void couldn’t believe what she had just done. But at the same time, she was glad she had done it. “What did I just do?” She asked softly. 

     But then she stood up. “Go, Herder,” She called out. “Go.” 

 

 

     Gameknight watched the sun start to rise from the top of the makeshift wall they had set up last night. The poor villagers had finally gone to bed. Gameknight though he wouldn’t be able to sleep. But he nearly passed out the night before. But now he was wide awake. 

      He suddenly saw something- or someone- coming across the dunes. The Watcher overhead in a dirt watchtower banged on an iron chest plate. Everyone jumped out of bed. Archers took their places on the wall, and sword men grabbed armor and weapons. Gameknight stared at the dark figure towards them. Something about it looked eerily familiar. He squinted, but it’s was just to dark. 

     “Into your positions!” Digger demanded. The figure was waving its arms above their head. 

     Gameknight tried to put the puzzle pieces together, but they were just to messed up. “Ready, aim…” Digger shouted out. 

    Then it clicked. 

“DON’T SHOOT!” Gameknight yelled, jumping off the wall and standing in their way. The figure came two more steps, then collapsed. Gameknight ran to their side. He lifted them up gently. “Hi, Gameknight,” Said the lanky boy. “Herder!” Gameknight cheered. He helped his friend into the camp. All the NPCs gathered around them, fully awake now. As if it didn’t want to miss the excitement, the sun started to rise. 

    Herder was grinning, his face hot and sweaty from running all night. Stitcher and Hunter shoved through the crowd. “Your okay!” Stitcher shrieked, hugging him tightly. “I’m fine, really!” Herder said. “Where’s Crafter and Monet?” Hunter asked. “Void still has them,” Herder said. “Someone helped me escape, I’m not sure who.” 

    Then his face went serious. “We HAVE to get to Dragon’s Teeth before Void does,” he said. Gameknight sighed. “I just wish there was a way to keep Void at bay,” he said. “Like what she did with you and my sister and Crafter.” Herder grinned. “I already thought of that,” he said mysteriously. “But I left it a ways away. We’ll come across it when we get going.”

     Gameknight sighed. “The sooner these arrows are gone from my brain, the better.” Hunter smiled. “Well, what are we waiting for?” She asked. “Let’s get going!” 

 

     Crafter sat up, rubbing his eyes. The desert sun was already warming the landscape. Monet was still sleeping next to him, snoring softly. He gently shook her awake, then turned to do the same to Herder. His blood went cold. 

    Herder was gone. “Monet!” He gasped. “Get up!” She shot up, her bright blue hair full of knots and sand. “What?” She asked, shaking her head and covering Crafter in gritty bits of eroded rock. Wordlessly, he pointed a shaking finger at the empty spot next to them. Monet’s face went pale. Void suddenly appeared next to them, fuming. Monet jumped up and pointed at her dramatically. “What did you do with our friend?” She asked angrily. 

     “What did I do?” Void growled. “What did YOU do?!” “Nothing!” Monet yelled. “We were asleep! It had to be you! You took him for your witch potions or your stew or something!” 

    “Uh, Monet?” Crafter asked. Void was red in the face. “What would I want with him?” She yelled. “Monet?” Crafter asked. “Oh, come on! It’s obvious you like him!” Monet said. Void looked like she was going to be sick. “Ew! I’d rather kiss a zombie!” She turned to an actual zombie behind her. “No offense.”

     The monster shrugged. “Oh-Can takes none,” he said simply. “Oh-Can would not either.” 

     “MONET!” Crafter yelled. She spun around. “What?” She asked. “Void didn’t do it,” he said. “Look. The rope is cut. She would have just used her magic. Someone else freed him. And from what it looks like, it was a sword.” Monet huffed. “Well, she still likes him,” she whined. 

 

      And Void snapped. 

She just snapped. She wanted to tell them. She wanted to tell them everything. About her life and why she was doing this and just let it out, finally. “You want to know why I really am so interested in him?” She growled. “Fine. I’ll tell you. It’s because-“

      An Enderman suddenly appeared next to Void and whispered something in her ear. The girls pink face went as white as a sheet. She dropped to her knees, her eyes zoned out and flat. “Rakier,” She whispered. “He’s gone.”

 

        Gameknight was staring in amazement down at the desert ground. Herder had somehow grabbed the large Skelton on his way back, and now the general was roped, gagged, squirming, and yelling muffled things up at them. He was tied to a cactus that pricked him when he got to close, the sharp black spines scratching into his pale bones. He glared up at the circle of villagers, a horrible look in his eye. 

     “Herder, this is perfect!” Hunter cheered. “Finally, we have some leverage against Void!” Herder beamed at the praise. “Should we go then?” Stitcher asked. Herders grin turned to a scowl. “No way,” he said firmly. “I have some questions first.”

     He dragged the still screaming skeleton across the sand, then placed a block of dirt on the ground and roughly threw him against it so he was sitting up. Then he yanked the gag out of the monsters bony mouth. 

     “What’s your name and what are you doing?” Hunter asked before they could even catch their breath. They glared up at her. “I’m trying to stay alive, thank you very much.” “His name is Rakier,” Herder informed them. Rakier glared even harder at Herder. “You,” he snarled. “Yeah, me.” Herder said impatiently. “You escaped,” Rakier commented. “Guess we’re smarter than you thought,” Herder said hotly. Rakier snorted. “Yeah, right.” He said. “I saw the figure come towards you. Your lucky I thought it was just Void.”

         “Back to the questions,” Gameknight said. “First thing- what’s Void planning?” Herder interrupted. “You can get that all from me,” he said. “I heard it all. This is what I’m really wanting to know.” He knelt down next to Rakier, his sword in his hand. “Why is Void doing this? I know she told you something. I want to know exactly what it is.”

     Rakier glared at him. “Why would I know anything?” He asked. “You and Void are close,” Herder said. “I’ve seen it and I heard what she said yesterday. She said she can’t lose someone like that again. What did she mean?” The skeleton looked Gameknight square in the eye. “Aw, are you to afraid to ask anything yourself so your having the baby do it?” He mocked. The User-that-is-not-a-user glared at him. “Just answer the question,” he growled. “No,” Rakier said flatly. “This isn’t the USA,” Gameknight snapped. “You don’t get a freedom of speech. Now spill.” 

        “What?” Rakier asked, confused. Gameknight shook his head. “I shouldn’t have said anything. Just tell us!” Rakier scoffed. “And why should I?” He asked smartly. “Because if you don’t, we kill you!” Hunter said brightly. Gameknight frowned at her. “And if you tell us, you live.” 

     Rakier sighed. “Um, yeah, I got that.” They all looked at him, agitated. Even Stitcher looked frustrated. “Tell us!” Hunter said, her voice rising. “No!” Rakier yelled. Herder pressed his sword to the skeletons ribs. Rakier screamed. Herder looked down at the monsters side in surprise. There was a scorch mark, the bones around charred an ugly black. Herder smiled. “Looks painful,” he remarked. Rakier glared up at him with dark, hate filled eyes. Herder pressed it again. Rakier screamed once more, his pain filled wails filling the desert. “Tell us!” Digger boomed. Rakier looked up at them, shaking. But still, he shook his head no. 

       Gameknight was filled with fury. Um, Gameknight? Wonder typed timidly from up in the Physical world. I think your going to far… that’s to much…

     But the User-that-is-not-a-user was beyond the thought of stopping now. He wanted Crafter and Monet back, now. He wanted all his friends safe. “Tell us!” He demanded. Some of the villagers stepped back, shocked by their usually calm leaders sudden outburst. Gameknight drew his sword and hit Rakier. The skeleton flashed red, shrieking in agony. 

      STOP! Wonder chatted. It actually made a sound to him, vibrating in his brain. He was so shocked he dropped his sword, and it hit Rakier square on. He gave one small gasp, then fell unconscious. Gameknight groaned. Now look what you made me do! He thought back at Wonder angrily. He stormed off, ignoring her cries of protest. His friends stared after him, eyes wide and jaws dropped.

     Slowly, they started to move again. Gameknight glared at the shapes of the four mountain peaks, slowly getting larger with every step. “I’m coming, Void,” he said under his breath. 

     And it was at that moment, right then that Gameknight999 became the villain of our story.

 

Plot twist- NAILED IT!

 

Chapter 12

Imprisonment

 

     Void glanced worriedly over the defenses. They had reached Dragons Teeth, and now they had walled themselves in. This either meant they were safe-

     Or they were trapped. 

Never before had she felt so scared. Without Rakier, she felt-

Her heart sunk every time she thought about it. She was alone.

    Again. 

        She teleported to one of the other peaks, frantically searching the horizon. They were going to be here soon, she was sure of it. Then, she heard what she had been dreading- someone banging the flat of a sword on a chest plate. She teleported down to the wall, where many other monsters were gathering. The NPCs had arrived.

       Gameknight stepped out of the crowd, the others shrinking away. They were still nervous after his outburst earlier. In all their time with him, they had never seen their friend act that way. He came forward, the end of a rope in his hand. Void’s blood went cold when she saw what was at the end of it. 

    Rakier.  (Yeah- you probably saw that one coming.)

“Give them back!” Both of them yelled at the same time. They both glared at each other. “Fine,” They both snapped. Void jumped off the wall and grabbed the prisoners, then teleported 20 blocks away from the enemy (the NPCs). She dropped the ropes. Crafter and Monet instantly bolted back to their friends and family, and their binds were quickly cut. Monet walked towards her brother, and he reached to embrace her, but she stepped away. She pointed to Rakier. She said something along the lines of ‘This isn’t how we do things.’ Gameknight looked at her coldly. ‘It is now,’ he said. 

      Void stepped closer, trembling. “Now give him back.” She said, trying up to cover up the fact that her voice was cracking. Gameknight have her an eerie smile. “Not until you get rid of these arrows,” he replied. 

      Void had forgotten all about that, actually. She snapped her fingers and Gameknight smiled as they finally disappeared. “Now!” She snapped. He glared at her. “Call off the army,” he said. Rakier squirmed. “Don’t!” He yelled. Gameknight pressed his sword against the skeletons neck. Rakier opened his mouth to shout something, but the user slashed at him and he screamed. The look in his eyes changed from bravery to fear. 

      “Okay, okay!” She yelled. She sadly signaled to the monsters, who walked down off the walls. They spilled out behind her, and villagers surrounded them. “Now,” she ordered, her eyes blazing red and black. Gameknight gave her a toothy smile. Void felt a burst of terror she hadn’t ever expected. That look wasn’t from him. 

       “No,” he said. 

And he let the blade fall. 

In that instant, Void saw it all again. The crazed, insane look on his face, the fear but accepting she saw on the victims, and the faces of the creatures surrounding them. Some looked pleased, most looked horrified. What was happening right then was a reflection of what had happened all that time ago. And he seemed to be enjoying it as much as he had the first time. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t go through it again. The pain, the suffering.

       And she teleported.

She appeared right in front of the sword, and it crashed into her. She collapsed, the whole world going into a daze. She could make out the blurry form of Monet113 running up and dragging her brother back. Void was crying, but smiling at the same time. “I did it, Rakier,” she said softly. “I didn’t let him take you this time.” 

 

       Crafter and Monet talked softly, scared someone would hear them. “What do you think is going to happen now?” Monet asked, scared. Crafter shook his head. “I don’t know,” he admitted. They both glanced over their shoulders at the same time. They were standing next to one of the mountains that made up Dragon’s Teeth. Void and Rakier were both tied to a tree, it’s trunk standing flimsy against the mountain side. Rakier was asleep, his breathing weak. Void was sitting with her legs crossed, mumbling to herself. She looked awful. 

          “Why’s Gameknight acting this way?” Crafter asked. “He’s never, ever, done like that in all the time I’ve known him. When he attacked Rakier… it was like he wanted to do it.” “Didn’t you see his face?” Monet asked miserably. “He did. He was excited to kill him. I’ve never seen my brother like that.” 

          Crafter sighed. “It’s just a stage,” he said. “Right. Just a stage.” Monet agreed. They looked at each other. A sinking feeling entered their stomach as they realized neither of them believed a word of what they had just said. Monet swallowed deeply. “Just a phase.” She said slowly. 

       They both turned their head at the same time, startled, as they heard something mumbled behind them. “Infection,” Void mumbled. “What is it?” Monet asked, kneeling down beside her. “Infection,” Void said. Her eyes were weirdly glazed. “What do you mean, infection?” Crafter asked anxiously. Void stared at something across the clearing. “Infection,” she said one more time. They followed her gaze, hearts pounding. Gameknight was standing there, pacing. He was next to an ancient lava flow, cascading down the mountain. The two friends looked at each other. “I’m going to go talk to him,” Crafter said. 

        Gameknight paced back in forth. The warm heat off the lava filled the air. He took a deep, sulfur filled breath. He gazed happily at the corner where the monsters were huddled together. They were under constant surveillance, but they didn’t appear to have any want to escape. They looked terrified. They were shaking, whispering to each other and huddling all together in a tight, shivering ball. It made him smile. 

       “Gameknight!” He heard behind him. He scowled. Really? He thought bitterly. You can’t leave me is long? But he turned, a fake smile plastered on his face. “Yes?” He asked. It was Crafter. “Are you feeling okay?” The villager asked anxiously. “I mean, you’ve been acting- weird.” Inwardly, Gameknight was fuming. Of course I’m fine! He said to himself. You don’t see me dying over here, do you? 

      But he still gave him a painfully fake grin. “Of course!” He said through gritted teeth. Crafter looked like he was going to follow up, but changed his mind. Instead, he looked over to the single scraggly tree. “What are we going to do with Void and Rakier?” He asked. Gameknight shrugged. “Kill them, of course.” He said simply. Crafter stared at his friend, openmouthed. “But- but-“

       “Why shouldn’t we?” The User snapped. “And the monsters need to go, too.” Crafter finally seemed to get his words back. “But with Herobrine…” he trailed off as he saw Gameknight’s cold glare. “Right. Herobrine was three times smarter, three times smarter, and three times stronger. And that’s his daughter. Do you really think we should let her rise to her full potential?” Crafter shifted uncomfortably. “But… if we kill all the monsters, won’t everything get thrown off balance again?” 

         Gameknight scoffed. “So?” He harrumphed. “I don’t care about balance. I care about power.” “But we CAN’T.” Crafter said firmly, finding his voice again. Gameknight was quiet, staring horribly at his thought friend. Finally he said, “You do not get to call the shots, villager.”

     He walked away, leaving Crafter standing shocked behind him. 

 

 

 

 

 

        Chapter 13

The End

 

It was dark, everyone asleep. Void sat quietly, staring at the sky. She occasionally glanced over at the monsters. They had passed out on one another, exhausted after their long day of worrying about their future. Rakier, too, was unconscious. Void was worried about him. It was still uncertain if he was going to make it. The burn on his side was starting to look nasty. And then…

    A shadow jumped out at her. She lept to her feet, startled. Her rope yanked. She relaxed when she saw who it was. It was Herder. He had snuck up behind her, which was no easy task. He had moved like a shadow, creeping like one of his beloved wolves. 

      “What are you doing here?” She asked as softly as possible. She already knew the answer. “Breaking you free.” She gave him an anxious look. “Do you know how much trouble you could get in?” She said in hushed tones. Herder nodded. “Gameknight- Gameknight’s being weird,” He said, his voice cracking. “No, it’s more than that, he’s scary now.” He gave her a brave look. “I want you to stop him.” 

       He looked up at the stars. “And I know it was you who set me free.” He added. “What do you mean?” Void asked hurriedly. Herder sighed. “Now I’m just returning the favor,” he said. He grabbed his sword and swung at the rope. It cut easily and slipped from the girls waist. She smiled at him. He smiled back. They stayed that way for a minute. “Remember when you first captured me?” Herder said after a pause. “I still have the mark from where you hit me.”

    Void laughed. “Good old times, wasn’t it?” She joked. Herder chuckled. “It seems so long ago now,” he said. They were quiet again. “Take care of Rakier,” Void said suddenly. Herder looked at her, surprised. “Aren’t you taking him?” He asked. Void sighed. “No,” she said. “He would slow me down, and speed is of the essence here. Besides, he might get even more hurt.”

      “But, but where will you go?” Herder asked. Void smiled at him. “I know a cave,” She replied. “Goodbye, Void.” Herder said. Void turned to go, but paused. She knew she had to leave, but something was tugging at her. Her heart. 

     This is what made her do what she did next. She turned back to face the boy. “Actually… it’s Sky.” She said.

    There. It was out there. The one word that she had been hiding for months. The one even Rakier didn’t know. The one that made her, whenever she stared up at the beautiful blue canopy that covered the Overworld, made her cringe. But she knew in that moment he wouldn’t tell a soul. 

    Herder smiled faintly. “Sky,” He echoed wistfully. “I like that.” Sky/Void couldn’t help it. “Me, too.” She said quietly. Then she was gone, disappearing into the shadows as easily as Herder had came. 

 

                                                    *

 

       Gameknight paced. Void was gone, but the little idiot hadn’t taken any monsters with her, not even the skeleton. He had instructed for a platform made of hay bales to be put up in the middle of the clearing and all the monsters to be placed on it. There hadn’t been enough, so a lot of mobs were sinking into unroped wheat. Once they were all on, wooden fence had been placed along the edges so they couldn’t escape. Everyone was gathered around, unsure what was happening. So were the mobs. 

       Gameknight smiled. It was almost time. He turned to see Herder standing there, looking confused. “What are we doing?” He asked suspiciously. Gameknight sighed. “We’re-“ He began, with every intention to lecture the annoying little brat. But he stopped. He looked over at tree, where the half of rope hung and the skelton searched frantically for their friend. Then he looked back at the boy. He knew the rope had been cut, but he had thought Void had finally realized she could use her sword. But now that he thought about it, he remembered tying her up himself so he was sure she couldn’t do just that. 

        “You twerp!” Gameknight hissed as he realized. “You let her go!” Herder didn’t try to deny it. He simply nodded and, before Gameknight could grab him, walked himself over to the tree. The user looked momentarily confused, but he followed anyway. Herder stopped and Gameknight tied a new rope around him, pulling it a little tighter than he needed to. “Gameknight, what are you doing?” Someone cried behind them. Crafter, Stitcher, Hunter, Digger, and Monet were standing there, looking horrified. 

     “I let Void go,” Herder said blankly, sinking to the ground and crossing his arms. “But- but-“ Crafter spluttered. “I need to teach this kid a lesson,”Gameknight said in a unnaturally low voice. “He can’t mess with my plans and get away with it.” Then he stomped away. 

    “Herder, why would you do that?” Stitcher wailed. Herder was silent. Then he looked up and said, “Because now she’s our only hope.” Monet was trembling. “I’m sure I don’t know what your talking about,” She said shakily. Herder gestured hopelessly at the huge crowd of monsters on the platform. “Don’t you know what he’s doing?” He said sadly. “He’s-“

        They were interrupted by the sound of a sword banging against a chest plate. “We better go,” Hunter sighed. She reached to untie Herder, but he swatted her hand away. “Leave me here,” he said. “I don’t want to get you guys in trouble.” They looked at each other, but didn’t argue. 

     When Gameknight was sure all the villagers were at the platform with him, he created a small dirt tower underneath himself. Everybody quieted down looked up at him expectingly. He smiled. “I’m sure you all are wondering what this is all about,” He called out. The words echoed around, bouncing off the cliffs. A lot of ears pricked, then went back to grazing and snorting and whatnot. All but one. One pair led to a mind that started to buzz with excitement. This was it. This was what they had been waiting for. 

     “Now,” Gameknight’s voice boomed. “I would say that the monsters have found themselves in hot water, but with what’s about about to happen, mentioning water is a little too cruel. So, without further ado, let’s just get on with it.” He reached into his inventory and drew out flint and steel. 

    At first, everyone was quiet. Then the monsters screamed, running as far from him as possible. The villagers were shouting and pointing. Gameknight struck as hard as he could, sending sparks up into the air. Most of them fizzled out, but one found its way to the hay. There was a pop, a string of smoke, and a flame suddenly came to life. It spread shockingly fast, getting larger and blowing smoke into the air. The villagers looked at each other, horrified. There were about to witness a massacre! 

       The flames were licking up the wooden posts keeping the poor monsters prisoner. They moaned and wailed and clicked. Then, right as the first part of the fire reached them, they heard an explosion. A huge cloud of purple steam billowed up, rolling up over everyone and putting out the flames. 

     It started to clear as soon as it had appeared, and a figure appeared in the middle, legs spread wide and arms out wide. 

Void had arrived.

 

                                        *

 

      Gameknight leapt from his pillar and sauntered over to her. She pointed at the fence, and it disappeared. The monsters ran off the still smoking hay. Then Void walked over and slaughtered the User-that-is-not-a-user. 

     I’m kidding! I’m kidding! You guys can not take a joke. 

And yes. It’s me, WonderWriter2000. So I like writing in second person! If you don’t like it, why don’t you go read something else? Go on! Shoo!

 

 

 

        Okay, I’m done pouting. 

(This idea was taken from In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz. Check it out, but read the first one A Tale Dark And Grimm.)

 

Here’s what really happened.

     Gameknight sauntered over to Void. She pointed to the fence without ever taking her eyes off the approaching enemy. The monsters ran off gratefully. “I was wondering when you were going to show up,” He said. Void raised her sword, pointing the clear blade right at his chest. He sneered. “Go,” She said firmly. “Who do you think your talking to?” Gameknight growled, his sword out to. “I know exactly who I’m talking to,” She said calmly. “Good,” He said slowly.

    The villagers and mobs had spread out into a circle, watching their leaders battle. Monet had gone and grabbed Herder and Rakier, who was finally awake. Now he was freaking out, watching the two circle slowly around each other. 

       “Leave,” Void snapped. Gameknight looked at her, amused. “As if I would,” he said. His voice had taken on a certain tone, a certain smoothness, that made everything he said sound imposing. “Go!” She yelled. Now Gameknight stopped, glaring. “What are you doing?” He growled. “Where’s your other sword?” Void mocked. Gameknight looked down. Sure enough, he was only holding one sword. “Uh, right,” he said. He grabbed the sword, but it slipped around in his hand and he almost dropped it. Void took a deep breath. She only had one shot at this. She had to get it right. Looking around her, she saw all the villagers and monsters huddled together. If she failed…

     They were all doomed. “See?”  She said. “See what?” Gameknight asked. “Your not you,” She pointed out. “What’s that supposed to mean?” He growled. “Go already!” Void yelled. “We both know that isn’t going to work! Your not strong enough! Just give it up already!” The crowd whispered, not sure what was going on. Gameknight took a step forward, eyes blazing. “You little-“ “ENOUGH!” She screamed. “Go! Leave! Nobody wants you here!”

        “Stop!” He lunged, and the villagers and monsters screamed. His eyes had gone so pale that all you could really see were his pupils. But Void was ready. She sidestepped him, and he ended up behind her. “Don’t you get it?” She shouted. “You can’t!” “Enough!” Gameknight yelled. “You think your so smart! It isn’t going to work! I will have this body!”

       The crowd backed away, terrified. Gameknight’s eyes were still paling, and all the sudden they were completely white. He let out a hiss. “You can’t-“ He suddenly paused, his mouth moving up and down like a fish. He swallowed, and tried again. “I will-“ He choked, grabbing at his throat. 

      “No,” He hissed. His face changed from fury to shock. “Give up,” Gameknight growled. “You won’t-“ He tensed, his face twisting. “Stop!” He gasped. “Let me go!” “Don’t fight,” He growled at himself. “You can’t stop me user- No! My friend- You can’t defeat- Good beats e- YOU USER!” 

    Void couldn’t contain herself. All the rage that had been boiling inside her for days flowed out. “YOUR JUST A WEAPON!” She screamed. Everything went still. Void hadn’t put any thought into what she had said, but it did the trick. The words bounced off the mountains, growing fainter and fainter. Gameknight froze along with them. His face went  as pale as his eyes. “I’m a weapon,” He whispered. “I’m a weapon, and it’s all I’ll ever be.” He said it so softly Void could barely make it out. Then she was distracted by something that seemed more important. At that moment, the blue in his eyes rapidly showed up again. A split second later, he was back to normal. Gameknight stayed standing for a moment longer, then collapsed onto the ground in front of him. 

         “Gameknight!” Monet yelled. She rushed forward, hoisting her limp brother up. The others came forward too. Rakier appeared at Void’s side, and she leaned against him. She was painfully aware of the fact she was suddenly exhausted. She wanted more than anything to sleep, but she knew if she did she might not wake up again. 

     “Wake up!” Monet cried. “I know what to do,” Hunter said firmly. She grabbed a water bucket and dumped it on his head…

    Right as he woke up. “Ahh!” He yelled. “That’s freezing!” He looked around himself, at all the villagers and mobs standing open mouthed. “Uh, hi,” Gameknight said sheepishly. “What did I miss?” Void sucked in air. She couldn’t breath well. “Void!” Herder said, rushing over. Gameknight looked around, confused. “Where am I?” He asked. “What’s happening? And why is there so much hay?” The clearing was now covered in the golden strands. “Are you okay?” Herder asked Void worriedly. “Wait, why are we helping her?” Gameknight asked. “I thought she was the bad guy! I’m so confused.” 

       Monet looked at him, surprised. “Don’t you remember?” She asked. Gameknight shook his head. “The last thing I remember doing is interrogating Rakier. Everything after that is all hazy. It’s, it’s sort of coming back to me.” “We came and captured all the monsters,” Crafter said. “You used Rakier as leverage against her. You, well you sort of attacked him.” Gameknight paled. “I did what?” He gasped. “I don’t remember any of this. And seriously, what’s with the hay?” “You tried to kill the monsters with it,” Crafter said slowly. “Wait, with hay?” Gameknight asked. “You put them on it and lit it on fire. Thankfully, Void got there just in time.” Stitcher said. “But why would I do that?” He asked. “And I thought you said we took her prisoner!” Digger shrugged. “Herder let her go.” 

         “But why can’t I remember?” He asked, voice cracking with fear. They all looked to Void. “Herobrine,” She said. “What?” Gameknight asked. She took another breath. “Herobrine was infecting you.” Gameknight stared at her, shocked. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “He was- he was taking you over. Controlling you.” 

      “But how?” He asked. “And how do you know?” She could feel herself losing herself every second. “Because he’s doing it to me too,” She said. Instantly she could feel him inside her, angry and powerful. “Your- your kidding.” Monet said. Void shook her head. “But why would he do that to his daughter? Void-“   

      “Don’t call me that!” Void snapped suddenly, her eyes burning magenta. Monet stepped back, surprised. “My name is-“ Void said. “Is-“ She had to gasp for breath. “Her name is Sky,” Herder said helpfully. “How do you know that?” Stitcher asked. He shrugged. “She told me last night.” “But why do you have two names?” Gameknight’s asked. “Void is just what my dad calls me,” She said. “I was raised by my mom. I only met my dad once.” They all looked at each other. They had never once thought about her having a mom. “Who is she?” Stitcher asked gently. “She’s dead.” Void said sharply. “I- I’m so sorry.” Stitcher said after a pause. “But… who?” Void opened her mouth to tell her, but nothing came out. The words stuck in her throat. She hadn’t breathed the words in years. 

     She went back to the day she had met her father, in the Digitizer. 

“Sky-“ Her mom had started. “Stop.” Void/Sky said. “Just stop.” “Honey,” Her mom said gently. “I told you he would!” Sky snapped. “I told you he would ruin everything. He wants to change me. I can feel it. I knew I should never had come here.” “You mean we should never have come here,” Her mom said. “No, Mom!” Sky yelled, spinning to face her. “Just me. Because your gone. Your dead! Your not coming back. Don’t you get it? Your just a spirt now, and you just used your only chance to ever come back. Spirts can only come back once, for a few hours. You just used it to confront the person who killed you and made me come with you.” Her voice cracked. “Goodbye, Mom.” She disappeared, reappearing somewhere in the Land Of Dreams. Her mom sighed, and then slowly disappeared, fading into nothingness. 

 

         Sky struggled for breath. She had to say it now. This was her last chance. She needed to get them on her side. “The- the” She stuttered. The Music of Minecraft suddenly swelled. “The Oracle,” She blurted out. Darkness clouded her vision. The world was swirling. Before they could say anything, she pressed on. “When you guys went and met her, I was there. Just hiding. I was with the wolves when Herder came in. I hid my self, and watched him. Our alpha really liked you,” She said, smiling at the boy. “I watched the battle. And I watched you guys leave.” Her voice cracked. “My mom wanted me to go introduce myself and escape with you guys, but I wasn’t about to leave her. Later, Herobrine and his army arrived. He still didn’t know about me, so I was going to stop him with the element of surprise on my side. But before I could, my mom turned me invisible, muted me, and put a spell on me that stopped me from moving. I know she was protecting me, but I still hate her for it.” She trembled. “I watched Herobrine kill my mom. Right in front of my eyes. Then they left, and eventually the spells wore off. When I went back outside, it was nighttime again but I was pretty sure I’d been there for more than one day.”

    She looked up, tears streaming down her face. “Why didn’t you take her with you?” She asked sadly. “You had more than enough boats.” Gameknight’s looked down at her, surprised. “I wanted your mom to come with us. But she wouldn’t leave.” Sky’s eyes widened. “I never knew that,” She said. Then she shook her head. “I blamed a lot of people after that. Herobrine, of course, and Gameknight for not killing Herobrine when he had the chance. Herder, for playing with the wolves and making them soft so they wouldn’t finish off the zombies. Hunter and Stitcher, for not being able to shoot far enough to reach Herobrine. Monet, for leaving the temple and not staying to protect my mom. All you guys, for leaving us there.” 

     She closed her eyes. Her mind was swimming, everything she was doing was in a daze. “Me and my moms spirt went and saw Herobrine in the digitizer. Afterwards, I suddenly wanted revenge. Not to kill you, but to have Gameknight leave and only come back if he needed to. But now I’m pretty sure that was my dad starting to get in my head.” 

    “But what now?” Monet asked worriedly. Sky took a big breath. “Now my dad takes me over.” She said. “And you guys kill me.” “No! We are NOT going to do that!” Herder said. “You have too,” Sky panted. “It’s the only way to stop Herobrine. But don’t do it now, then he’ll go after Gameknight again. He has to be in my body.” 

     “Can’t we get him out?” Monet asked hurriedly. “Like what you did with Gameknight?” Sky could barely shake her head. “No. That time it was because he wanted me more, and this time he can use all his energy on me.”

         She was lying down now, and barely had any energy left. “Rakier,” She hissed. “Protect…” She trailed off, pointing one shaking finger at Gameknight. “Prophecy,” She murmured. “Must find… the Hero…”

And then she slipped into the darkness of her mind.

 

       “Sky? Sky! Wake up!” Gameknight shouted, shaking her. She suddenly sat straight up, startling him into falling backwards. She stood shakily to her feet, eyes shut tight. Her face was scrunched up, as if she was in pain. “Sky?” Herder asked timidly. Her eyes suddenly opened wide, and there was a flash of magenta. “Oh, thank goodness.” Stitcher breathed. But then it became paler and paler, until it was a bright white. Herobrine blinked, no longer used to the bright sun of the Overworld. He was suddenly attacked by so many feelings, the smell of the mountains, the cool air, the feeling of the breeze on his skin…

      A the sight of all his enemy’s right in front of him. “No,” Gameknight whispered, still on the ground. “Gameknight999,” Herobrine purred in Sky’s voice. “Good to see you again.”

     Then his manically evil laughter filled the air, bouncing up and down the mountains in a horrible echo, and for the first time in history the Music of Minecraft fled.  

 

The End?

 

         Thank you guys so much! I love writing, and it was so fun to write about Void. Don’t worry, this is DEFINITELY not the end. We could very possibly be years away, depending on how much I find time to write. Below is the Prophecy from the first book the Far Lands. It also includes the signs, the letter from M, and also the mural section. I would like to thank Mark Cheverton, of COURSE, and also TheSnakeWhoKills, RaiderUnbeatable, Moussa, MC Rocks, and all the other people that have commented on my stories. It means SO SO much to me! I won’t name everyone because that would take ages, but your supported is what has helped me want to keep going. When I get bored, I think of how I can’t let you guys down. Also, now that this part is over, there will be a separate series I will be doing and posting that isn’t going to be Minecraft, but it’s going to be mostly based off of this one. There will be similar characters and plots but different places and some new people as well. I hope you enjoy it! I don’t know a title yet, but when the first chapter is posted I would love to here some suggestions from everybody. This is WonderWriter2000, finishing her book FINALLY and saying thank you once more.

 

And this is what he saw.

 

     THE PROPHECY 

 

He smiled. Oh, good. He thought. It’s my story. Nothing to worry about. But his smile faded as he kept reading.

 

   THE PROPHECY

 

At the beginning, the Far Lands and the Overworld were nearly the same. A portal was always wide open and anyone could go from side to side. But The One Who Must Not Be Named did not like having it wide open, so The Evil One had a Far Lands Wizard close the portal by stopping the magic river that was the Far Lands portal. But this caused horrible destruction to both worlds, and the Far Lands went through horrible war after horrible war. This is what killed off most of the wizards and warlocks. But the Overworld suffered many times more. The One Who Must Not Be Named created the Four Terrors Of Minecraft. The Eyeless One almost took complete control. But the worst of the Four Terrors Of Minecraft, The Sorcerer Of Blood, attacked the One Who Must Not Be Named in a desperate attempt to take over Minecraft himself. The plan did not work, but the challenge weakened The One Who Must Not Be Named and Minecraft was free at last. Eons later, a strange wave went over the land. All the villagers lost their  memory and their hands were locked across their chest. They did not know what had happened, and began to recognize it as The Awakening. 

 

 

   Gameknight chest tightened. “They mean…” he said softly to himself, “There was a long war before The Awakening? And the villagers had free hands?”

 

The villagers had their own Prophecy, one about a User-that-is-not-a-user that would come from the Other Place and save them from many horrors. The time this Prophecy started is unknown, but it is thought to have been created soon after a small war the villagers of the Overworld call The Great Zombie Invasion. It is unknown, but it is thought The Blood Sorcerer was an important part of that war, and The One Who Must Not Be Named played a small part as well. 

 

    Gameknight’s blood turned to ice. A small war? The Great Zombie Invasion? If that was small… then what were the other wars before that like?

 

This is all in the future.

 

No it’s not! He thought.

 

Help will be sent to the User-that-is-not-a-user long before this happens. 

 

What help? He thought furiously.

 

There will be a savior.

 

If that’s the Oracle, you can kiss Minecraft goodbye! 

 

The Hero.

 

Sorry, but the only Hero I know that isn’t dead or locked in a destroyed computer chip is, oh, I don’t know, NOBODY?!?!

 

At first, the User-that-is-not-a-user and the Hero will be enemies.

 

Who is it, Entity303? 

 

The Hero will be defeated by The-user-that-is-not-a-user.

 

Oh, great! So I kill the only one who can save the world!

 

But the Hero will come back. 

 

Oh, do they?

 

And they will take the place of the User-that-is-not-a-user. 

 

Oh, they will, now?

 

They will lead the Villagers and Humans of the Overworld and the Villagers and Wizards and Warlocks of the Far Lands.

 

Oh, so this involves the Far Lands now, does it?

 

They will defeat The One Who Must Not Be Named and bring peace to Minecraft. 

 

I’m sorry, but I already have! 

 

And the Hero would no longer have any more to do in Minecraft, and they will leave with the User-that-is-not-a-user to The Other Place. 

 

Oh, so now I’m taking people away?

 

Minecraft will have no more reason to fret. 

 

“So that’s it? All I have to do is leave Minecraft and everyone will be happy?” Gameknight yelled. He stopped suddenly,  realizing that he had picked up the book and was clutching it so hard his knuckles were turning white. “Ahh…” he said. His friends were all standing around him, staring at the book with pale faces. “Did I say that out loud?” He said weakly. The look on their faces told him all he needed to know. 

   “But wait, there’s more,” Harvester said. Gameknight flipped the page. 

 

       THE PORTAL

 

It read in big letters. Gameknight scanned the page. “It’s all about how to get back to the Overworld,” he said. “There’s a Desert well straight ahead from the hole. I’m supposed to stand next to it and say this code.” He gestured to the page, where a long poem had been written in some sort of fancy scrawl. 

   “But there one more page!” Smithy said. “What does it say?” Gameknight flipped the page again. His eyes widened as he saw the page. “Woah,” he breathed. “What?”  Fletcher said. She sounded anxious. There was no doubt about the Overworld now. Gameknight cleared his throat.

    “Whoever finds this,” he began. “Watch your back.” He stopped, confused. “Keep going!” The three NPCs urged. “Their coming. The shadows. They’ve always been coming. They are getting stronger. The One is getting stronger. The Maker. He comes. Ever forward. They will find me. I will be done for. She will be done for. The world will be over. The Blood Sorcerer. The Hero. The User-that-is-not-a-user. They are one and the same. Together. Apart. The One Who Must Not Be Named. He will not stop. The shadows are coming. Always coming. 

The Void will rise.

The monsters will cower.

 The villagers will die.

 The humans will rebirth.

 The Shark will swim through the seas and have the water. 

 The Snake will slither forward and rule the land. 

 The Panther will pounce and rule the night.

 The Blood Sorcerer.

 He will be last.

 He will control all.

 The sun will be put out.

 The moon will shatter.

 The stars will fall. 

The rain will turn to acid.

 The forests will burn. 

 The jungles will be everything.

 The jungles will be deserts.

 The deserts will be swallowed by the ocean.

 The oceans will dry. 

 The sand will be glass.

 The glass will be nether.

 The nether will be stone.

 The stone will be bedrock.

 The bedrock will be Void.

 The Void will be all.

 

I am evil.

I am kind.

I am power.

My name is M-“

 

  Gameknight stopped. His eyes widened with fear. “What?” Harvester asked. “What’s their name?” Gameknight shook his head. He mumbled something they couldn’t hear. He held up the book. 

    There was no name. M was it. But there- right there- under the last line was a splatter of something. Something red. Something the color of dry blood.

 

The Mural

 “What is it?” Fletcher asked. Gameknight looked up and gasped. A mural as painted up on the wall. It was actually more like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Gameknight had seen them once in a museum on a field trip. The first picture was of four people standing in front of a well. One of them had little lines above there head. 

    It’s me, he realized. The next panel showed him again, on what looked like a wall. People were all around him, and he could see the tips of houses behind them. The village! He thought. Right in front of him, literally floating in the air, was a girl. Long hair flowed down her back, and she wore a dress that seemed to shimmer even on the wall. But the creepy part was her eyes. They had been painted with all different colors. 

   The next panel showed Gameknight in an arena like area fighting a NPC with strange eyes. On a closer look, he realized they were bright white. His heart sank. Oh, no. On a closer look, he saw hundreds of stands. Every single one was filled with NPCs. He saw his friends, but the weird things were there were two other people with names above their heads. 

    Next was him helping up someone with white eyes, and him talking to a smiling Herobrine. And there he was holding his swords against a girl with black eyes, and him and an User-that-is-not-a-user girl on horses while he carried a chest. And there was Herobrine with three other people, and Gameknight yelling at him to come back. Then Gameknight on the ground with Herobrine standing above him with a sword. And then him and Herobrine holding swords while something that looked half bird half human stood in front of them. And then Gameknight on his knees as Herobrine stood in front of him with his arms outstretched. A black user with red eyes and no server thread stood behind Herobrine.

    And then-

 

Gameknight moaned. “No, NO!” He said. Because, in the next panel, a picture of Herobrine on a small pillar was etched into the stone. Villagers swarmed around them, and the same two girl users were in the background. And Gameknight-

  Gameknight999 was bowing to Herobrine. 

Gameknight’s head swam. He held his head in his hands and moaned. He completely missed the next few panels- Herobrine floating in the air with a red ball of magic in his hands, his mouth open as if he was screaming in agony. The bird man was floating in front of him, his eyes wide in shock and terror as he started to fade away. Then a confused looking user standing with a sword in his hands as Gameknight looked on in awe. The name, unlike Gameknight’s, was as clear as day. 

   HEROBRINE

 

Then Gameknight was enveloped in white light, and so was Herobrine. 

 

    Gameknight opened his eyes but didn’t see any of it. Instead, this was what he saw. Two glowing white eyes had been painted on the wall, with the word Herobrine painted above them. Gameknight stared at the floor and closed his eyes. He didn’t look up for a long time.

 

Signs

“What?” Gameknight asked. “We missed a page,” she said. He handed him the book and they read it together. 

 

 

                          SIGNS

 

     When the Prophecy starts, there will be a series of events leading up to it. 

 

    First, the User-that-is-not-a-user will enter Minecraft for the first time. 

 

Gameknight’s blood ran cold. The Prophecy had started before he had even known villagers were alive?

 

     Second, the User-that-is-not-a-user will be trapped in the Far Lands and in his entering the Overworld will open the portal. The first sign may not start the Prophecy, but this will. 

 

   The Void will rise and come as a girl.

 

 

   The Blood Sorcerer will come back from the dead. 

 

    The Panther will pounce. 

 

 

   The Snake and the Shark will attack.

 

 

   The One Who Must Not Be Named. 

 

 

  They will return.

 

 

 

          The Last Battle For Minecraft

 

Gameknight moved his hand away from a spot where the red ooze had leaked through and stuck the pages together. He quietly put the book back. 

And they kept riding.

 

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