NovaOrAvon: Thank you! I'm really glad you like the story so far and that you find it unique. Though I was under the impression that there was a fair share of stories that had the mobs play the role of feared/misunderstood targets or outcasts (such as Changing Destiny), but I haven't been actively looking around lately so I can't speak with authority on that.
I'm also glad to hear that you ship Jack and Andr, because… Well, let's just say that that means I'm not the only one.
As a side note, I mess up with exact dates and times for things all the time, so you're certainly not the only one.
Chapter eleven: Divided we fall
After lunch—at least, that's what the mobs said it was; Jack still couldn't tell time here—the human stood up from his makeshift seat and proceeded to head back towards the intersection. He hadn't even made it out of the breakroom when Minerva suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
Jack frowned at her. "What?" he gruffly said.
"First of all, you could try being a little more polite."
"Not my forte," Jack said. "I reckoned you already knew that by now—especially after that letter. Besides, Herobrine told me in that dream of mine that we had to hurry."
"What's a few more hours after a year and a half?"
"Well then, what do you want me to do? Sit down and relax? Not my forte either."
She let go of his arm. "Come with me for a sec."
She led him to the room where they'd found the message. Jack frowned. Was there something else there?
Minerva walked over to the staffs in the corner, grabbed one and tossed it over to him. He caught it and observed it. The weighty staff was a little shorter than he was and seemed to be made of gleaming silver or steel.
"You ever used one of those before in a fight?" Minerva asked.
"Once," Jack said, remembering his battle with Raulyn. "Had some practice before that. Learned some more from my friends in the Overworld later on—" He cut himself off when Minerva swung her sword at him. He backed off and raised the staff weapon defensively when she attacked again, resulting in a blade lock.
"Once, huh?" Minerva said with a grin. "Who'd you fight?"
Jack paused. "Someone…" he finally said. "Someone who ended up stabbing me in the stomach."
Minerva gave a push with her sword and backed away. "Really? Did they have poison on their sword?"
"Don't think so."
"Well, I do." She moved in for another attack, which Jack deflected.
"You're crazy," Jack grunted.
"Relax, this is just training. Nobody's going to poison you."
"You sure? What about Blazette?"
She chuckled, then she attacked—for real this time, it seemed. Jack was able to defend himself at first, but she was too fast for him and ended with the tip of her sword against his neck. Immediately after that, she backed away. "You're not bad," she said, "for a human. Let's try that again."
Jack reassumed his stance, grumbling. "You could at least warn me next time you try to slice me to pieces."
"Where's the fun in that?" She slashed at him a few times, and he blocked, backing away. "So, about Áhýdan…"
"Right," Jack said, moving to the side before his back hit the wall. "You were going to tell me about him."
"I don't know much." Their weapons clashed, but it was evident that Minerva was still holding back in her attacks. "Like I said, Herobrine doesn't talk much about his past."
"So he and Herobrine have a history, then?"
"They go way back." She feinted a slash. Jack was just able to stop her following attack from striking his back. "They used to be like brothers, basically. Then Áhýdan went insane, forcing Herobrine to lock him away in the deepest part of the Nether."
Jack frowned, suddenly remembering something the very last segment of his dream—a four-sentenced message, spoken by a foreign voice, accusing Herobrine of being the real enemy.
HEROBRINE MADE ME INTO WHAT I AM TODAY.
"That's it?" Jack skeptically asked. "He just went insane? For no reason?"
She shrugged. "That's what I've heard. But my gut tells me that there must've been something that made such a powerful creature as him go mad."
"Any theories as to what?"
"Well, apparently something or someone wronged Áhýdan in some way, and Áhýdan wanted revenge. Judging from what I and the others have learned so far, our main theory is that Herobrine tried to stop him from getting that revenge, and Áhýdan's short-temperedness couldn't cope with that." She shrugged. "We can't know for sure though. What we do know is that Áhýdan's apparently made himself at home in his new prison."
"Made himself at home? What does that mean?"
"He's been…messing around. It's a madhouse down there, from what I've heard. In order to make sure he doesn't get killed, Áhýdan created his five 'Trials' to stop any human associate Herobrine might've chosen."
"Sounds cheesy."
She grinned. "Oh, trust me; from what I've heard, they're more like death traps than they are trials. He even gave each of them a name."
"I don't want to know their names. Just what they involve. If Herobrine wants me as his 'associate', I want to know what to expect."
She attacked and he blocked. As the two weapons made contact, Minerva swiftly kicked his knee. Surprised by her strength, Jack struggled to keep his balance. Minerva prepared for another attack, but Jack moved his staff weapon so that one end deflected Minerva's blade while the other hit her cheekbone.
The two combatants moved away from one another, recovering. There was a brief silence between them.
"Sorry," Jack said.
"No, no. That was good. I just wanted to know how hard you could hit." Minerva smirked. "I'm going to stop holding back now though."
"Great," Jack sighed.
"Áhýdan's Trials…" Minerva said. "I don't know for sure what they involve. No one does—not even Herobrine, I think. He's been losing control over the prison to Áhýdan recently."
"Áhýdan's conquering his own prison? Then what's the point of keeping him there in the first place?"
She rolled her eyes, then attacked. Jack was just able to deflect some blows, after which Minerva backed away again.
"It's not Herobrine's fault," Minerva said. "Áhýdan is…merging with the chains that keep him in that prison."
"'Merging'?"
"Even Herobrine didn't anticipate it—and that shows just how smart Áhýdan is. Right now, Áhýdan can move freely through his prison, but thanks to those chains he can't travel to other worlds. He's trapped. Ironically enough, binding himself to those chains like he's doing now would—theoretically—grant him near unlimited access to most other worlds, and seeing how destructive he is nowadays, that's going to cause problems."
"Slow down," Jack said. "I'm about as sharp as a baseball bat. Are you saying we have to stop him before he can fully merge with these chains of his?"
"Unless we want to see him level a few worlds in a fit of rage, yes."
"You knew this all along, and you didn't think my sudden arrival had anything to do with it?"
"Honestly, I expected Herobrine to ask for our help when the time came. Why he waited until now probably has something to do with the weird ways he and his supernatural friends think and act. Why he'd choose a human over a group of mobs is completely beyond me though. No offense."
"None taken. I'm assuming he had me come here so he could take me back home."
They clashed again.
"You really want Herobrine to take you back to your world?" Minerva softly asked.
Jack gave her an annoyed look. "Minerva. I've got people who care about me there. They have no idea where I am right now."
"But what about your friends in the Overworld?"
"Like I said, they'll understand." For the first time, Jack attacked. He couldn't land a hit on her, but it didn't end in his defeat either. "You got separated from Athena, remember?"
Her eyes narrowed. "That's different. Going from the Nether to the Overworld and back is just a matter of walking through a portal." She pointed at him with her sword. "It doesn't work like that for most worlds. Should you return to your world, I doubt you'd be able to come back here easily."
He huffed. "Are you seriously saying I should just…just walk away from my family?!"
Her gaze softened ever so slightly.
"Look," Jack said, "I don't like leaving the Overworld mobs either, but I don't see any other way. I like having friends, but at the end of the day, blood is still thicker than water."
She attacked. Another blade lock. They glared at each other. "Find a way, then," she said. "Before you leave."
"Mystia has been trying to bring me back, but she hasn't even been able to give me a one-way ticket so far—let alone a way to go back and forth. You just said it was impossible!" He felt her add more force to the blade lock, and he responded by doing the same.
"I said it probably wouldn't be easy," Minerva said, "but I don't know if it's possible or not. All I'm asking is for you to be patient and reconsider your plan before you meet Herobrine."
"Oh, and you would surely take your sweet time 'being patient' if you knew where Athena was, wouldn't you!"
That made her eyes go wide. With her sword, she shoved her opponent's weapon to the side, after which she sliced a horizontal cut just above his right knee with rage-fueled speed.
Surprised, Jack collapsed to one knee—dropping the staff weapon—as Minerva backed away. Jack looked at the cut with a grunt; a dark grey liquid had mixed with his blood. The wound wasn't remarkably deep, but it hurt badly nonetheless.
Within a matter of moments, a sharp prickling sensation engulfed his entire leg. That must've been the poison Minerva had mentioned. Jack grunted as the pain spread.
"Minerva!" Iris' stern voice sounded. From the corner of his eye, Jack saw her figure approach.
Minerva growled and walked out of the room.
Iris walked over to Jack. "Stay calm," Iris said. "She didn't give you a lethal dose. If she had, she wouldn't have been so dismissive about it."
Jack looked up; Iris was offering her hand. He took it and lifted himself up, balancing on his good leg.
"Shit," Jack growled as he leaned against the wall. The pain was slowly spreading to the rest of his body. "That poison…"
"Hold still." She kneeled down and examined the cut. "It's not too deep, but I don't want to take any chances. I brought something in case one of you would get hurt during this training session."
She offered what looked like a healing potion. It wasn't the one she'd taken from Jack; this bottle was larger, and the glass seemed a little worn. Jack took it with shaking hands and gulped it down. He felt the wound close, but the poison was still in his veins. It had spread to his torso, although the pain gradually lost its potency as it diffused.
"The more the poison spreads," Iris said, "the less effective it becomes. Eventually your body will purge itself. Just wait for a bit and you'll be fine."
"Thank you," Jack said.
She regarded him. "Look," she said, "I heard the entire conversation. What you said—"
Jack felt his anger return. "She was the one who said I had to stay here!"
"And she was in the wrong," Iris calmly said, completely unfazed by Jack's outburst. "But Athena is a sensitive subject, too. Minerva's really ashamed about abandoning her, so bringing her up in any way can have bad results—especially during a heated discussion."
"Then why does she want me to abandon my world?"
"She doesn't want you to abandon your world or the Overworld—just like she doesn't want to abandon us if she finds Athena."
"Should be easy for her to do, since the only thing that separates the Overworld and the Nether is a magic portal."
"She has the means to get to Athena and back, yes. But she doesn't know where Athena is. You have it the other way around: You know exactly where your family is, but you can't get there."
"You going to tell me I should wait, too?"
"No. I'm not going to pretend to know the right answer here. If I were in your or Minerva's position, I don't think I would do things any differently." She paused. "Wait for a few minutes, then talk to her. Clear the air. You might never get the chance again."
Jack instinctively wanted to object, but he forced down his lingering anger and nodded silently.
Mystia and Sylvia looked up from the maps before them when the door to the Realm's new conference room opened. Mystia immediately straightened her back and drew her lips to a line.
Athena and Yaebi used thick white blankets of wool—there were a lot of sheep in the Realm—to protect themselves from the sun, but they lowered them once they were inside. They were followed by Cassandra and Ari.
"Well, well, well," Mystia said with a hint of smugness in her voice. "If it isn't the skeptics whose first instincts were to leave without all the answers."
She was met with unamused looks.
"And their younger siblings, of course," Mystia hastily added.
"You want a bigger team or not?" Cassandra asked. "Besides, you were the one who suggested some of us go to a rendezvous point."
"Alright, alright." The witch gestured to the maps. "Sylvia and I have been looking at these maps, trying to design a strategy to get into Ironhand. Thing is, most ideas we've had so far require certain mobs—Andr's teleportation power could come in handy for reconnaissance."
"To find the Nether portal," Sylvia added. "None of the maps we have here show where in Ironhand it is."
As if on cue, the door opened again, and Andr entered the room. She was followed by Cupa.
"Hey," Cupa softly said. "Gelli said you guys were here to form a plan, so…"
Mystia looked at the girl in green, her eyes narrowed. "Well… If it isn't the one who came up with the whole spy theory—"
"Can you stop being smug for two seconds?" Cassandra interrupted. "You just mentioned that Andr's teleportation would be helpful, so stop complaining already."
Mystia threw up her hands. "What? Cupa is one of the reasons why our group got divided in the first place."
"I know that," Cupa said. "I know you're angry. I know that my 'spy theory' hasn't exactly been speeding things up, okay? And I'm sorry, I really am. All I wanted to do was rationalize the situation and make everyone aware of a possible danger."
"A few weeks ago," Mystia said, "you said that you hated seeing Jack get an enemy's treatment."
"I do, I just…" She trailed off. "I'm sorry."
"That's easy to say after the fact."
"Alright," Ari intervened. "Enough already, Mystia. You can yell at us whatever you want after our mission is done. Until then, we're supposed to work together. Can you do that? 'Cause there's going to be little room for error once we leave the Realm."
The witch grumbled something, but nodded.
Ari glanced at Cupa—who was looking to the ground in shame—and gave her an encouraging slap on the shoulder.
Not long after, the door opened again. Gelli and Kelly entered hesitantly.
Athena showed a small smile upon seeing them. "Well… Looks like we're not so divided after all."