The castle
A short time later, Nuka turned a corner and stopped in surprise!
In front of him rose Steve's castle. It already seemed large and powerful from afar, but now that he was standing directly in front of it, it seemed even more intimidating and that was saying something.
Nuka swallowed and felt himself getting goosebumps as he looked at it. If he went in there, he wouldn't come out alive.
"Come on," Herobrine said at that moment, letting go of Nuka and walking a few steps in front of him, "I want you to take a good look at the castle and try to memorize as much of it as you can, paying attention to weak points so that you have some advantages in battle, okay?"
Nuka nodded and followed him while still looking at the castle in awe.
Of this he was sure, they had definitely set themselves a formidable task in destroying it.
The castle seemed to be at least four stories high and made of all kinds of wood, which created a nice pattern on the high walls, and had a large tower at each corner that reached from the ground to the roof. It also had many windows through which one could see well into the interior of the castle, but most of them were too high and the lower ones were covered by a rubble stone wall that enclosed the whole castle. This wall also had a tower of the same material at each corner, but not half as high as the towers of the castle.
In addition to its incredible size, the castle had an incredible number of small, loving details and Nuka felt a stab in the heart when he thought that this work, in which someone had invested who knows how many hours, would soon be destroyed.
It must be incredibly old, he pondered as he continued to look at the castle, wondering if Steve had built it all by himself, but he quickly discarded this thought. After all, the castle was there before he, Herobrine and Notch became gods, and even if it wasn't that old, it was far too large to have been built by just one person.
I mean even Herobrine didn't build his castle himself, and his is only half the size of this one, he added, glancing at Herobrine, who was strolling a few feet in front of him, pretending not to care about the castle at all.
Does he know that this castle is bigger than his? He asked himself, but even though he was curious about the answer, this time he was wise enough not to ask him about it, because he didn't want to risk ruining Herobrine's mood more than it already was.
With that thought, he turned his gaze back to the castle and continued to examine it, whereupon he almost ran into Herobrine, who had suddenly stopped at a corner and was looking at something Nuka couldn't see.
Curious, Nuka looked over his shoulder to see what Herobrine was looking at, and his mouth dropped open in amazement when he saw a gate as big and wide as an entire house, with quite a few people going in and out through a pretty and equally wide stone staircase.
"Do you see that?" murmured Herobrine at that moment without taking his eyes off the gate, "That's the main gate. One of the most heavily guarded points of the whole castle, so you should pay close attention to it, since most of the guards will be there at the time of the attack, and probably more will come out of the gate, understand?"
Nuka just nodded in response as he continued to eye the main gate, and he felt himself getting goosebumps as his eyes roamed over the guards standing there, talking or doing other activities.
They looked different from the guards at the cafe or at the city gate, because instead of normal iron armor, these guards all wore diamond armor, sometimes more and sometimes less enchanted. They also seemed to be much more alert.
He knew these guards.
He had encountered a few of them before and even though it hadn't happened often, just remembering them made his heart tighten.
They had been the ones who had gone the farthest, held out the longest, and fought him the hardest. Yes, they had even given him some pretty nasty injuries, almost getting him caught, but miraculously he had always managed to save himself from them.
And that had always been a fight against two or one, but here there were so many that Nuka already shuddered at the thought if they should attack all at the same time. Now it was clear to him why Herobrine needed his help. Against so many, so well trained and above all clever fighters probably even a god like him would have had some difficulty.
"Say," he spoke after a while, after Herobrine had left again and made a not too small arc around the gate, "Steve is the god of the sky, isn't he?"
Herobrine nodded grimly. "And the one of the overworld," he added, while Nuka looked at the two banners that were hung on either side of the gate and were equally huge. They were mostly blue, with a few clouds in the background and a large diamond sword in the center.
"Maybe," Herobrine suddenly added with a nasty grin, "that's why he doesn't have any special powers."
He laughed softly. "I mean, what can the sky offer?"
Without waiting for an answer from Nuka, he went on and Nuka followed him, taking a good look at those two banners. He had often seen these things hanging above the entrances of towns and villages or as flags in the wind, but he had never known that they actually belonged to Steve.
"I wonder if he's there now?"
"Who?" asked Herobrine, turning to him as he walked, and Nuka nodded his head in the direction of the castle.
"Well...Steve," he replied, looking up at the castle with concern, "I wonder if he's home?"
"Maybe," Herobrine murmured thoughtfully, while he also looked at the castle with a quick glance, before turning away and walking on, "Or maybe not."
Great, Nuka thought, annoyed. What am I supposed to do with that answer?
"What does that mean?" he asked, to which Herobrine just shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, Steve has always been an adventurer and free spirit, and that's why he loves to travel to the unknown and explore things there." He told Nuka. "That is why he often leaves his country alone, which only proves to me that he is not fit to rule."
At these words, a malicious grin lit his face, before he turned to Nuka, serious once more. "Besides, it doesn't matter if he is there or not. He can't do anything against us anyway!"
At that moment they turned a corner and Nuka looked around in surprise.
They had now arrived at what seemed to be the back of the castle, where there was a large square that was relatively empty, with the exception of a crowd of people crowding around something Nuka couldn't yet see.
Curious as to what they were interested in, Nuka stepped closer and froze as he stared in shock at a large circular hole at least 6 blocks in the ground covered by a web of chains.
On the sandy ground he could see two people standing. The older and taller of them, wearing armor, was probably a soldier or a bounty hunter. The younger of them was a red-haired boy who could hardly be older than Nuka, wearing tattered, dirty clothes, very emaciated and with his foot chained to an obsidian ring in the ground.
Both of them held iron swords, but the boy seemed so weakened and exhausted that he could barely lift it. And the wound on his shoulder probably didn't make that any better. Nuka swallowed hard as he recognized the boy from one of the wanted posters that hung on the wall.
As far as he knew, the boy was a Creeper hybrid and had been wanted for treason, endangering the public, and theft, but that was mostly standard for all hybrids, so his bounty hadn't been particularly high. Normally, stealing food was not a particularly bad crime and was punishable by prison at most, but that did not apply to hybrids and at the thought of what the boy was facing, Nuka's heart contracted painfully.
"You fought well Hybrid," the Minecrafter meanwhile continued in a triumphant voice addressing the boy while pointing his sword at him, "It was fun fighting you and it was very entertaining for me and my people, but now it's over." At these words his smile disappeared and his look became sinister and hateful.
"Now you will die and pay the price for your crimes!" he snarled with snide. The crowd next to Nuka cheered and shouted wild insults in the boy's direction. Nuka's gaze wandered to the boy who had lowered his eyes and looked as if he wanted to disappear into thin air. Nuka could literally feel the humiliation he had to endure and pity rose up in him.
This is terrible, he thought as he turned around and frantically looked at the people passing by around him. He doesn't deserve this! You can't just kill him like that! Please...you...you can't possibly all be okay with this...
Nobody seemed to be interested in what was happening down there.
At that moment, the Minecrafter charged forward and attacked the hybrid, who desperately raised his sword to defend himself against him, but barely managed to block the first blows before the sword was knocked out of his hand, sending him to the ground with a scream!
The Minecrafter just grinned wickedly at this before placing a foot on the boy's chest and pointing the sword at his chest. Nuka's heart leapt.
He knew what was about to happen! No!
He thought in horror, but before he could stop it, the Minecrafter raised the sword and stabbed the boy in the stomach!
Startled, Nuka gasped and clutched his chest as he heard the boy's scream, but it quickly weakened and eventually turned into a gurgle before falling completely silent and his body went limp. The crowd, however, continued to cheer in approval. Some of the spectators began to congratulate the Minecrafter, while Nuka stood by in shock, unable to comprehend what he had just witnessed.
How can they do this? He thought, numbly watching the boy's blood spread more and more on his clothes and pool across the sand. Some soldiers came and began dragging his body away.
How can they all do this and even approve of it?! This boy had done nothing! Nothing at all that justifies a punishment like this! And yet it happened! And all because of this stupid law that forces hybrids like him to hide in the shadows and then steal or even murder to survive!
Tears welled up in his eyes and he felt an incomprehensible anger and sadness rise up inside him as he turned to the crowd still standing next to him, determined to confront them, but at that moment someone grabbed him by the arm.
Startled, he turned and saw Herobrine standing there, staring at him with a mixture of anger and pity.
"We're leaving!" He growled, and without another word pulled Nuka along with him.
Nuka stumbled after him, too shocked to say anything back as the scene of the execution played over and over before his eyes. He hardly noticed how Herobrine pulled him through the city and through the gate, past all the people and the guards, out into the world where the sun slowly began to sink behind the horizon.
By the time the moon rose, they were back in the shelter of the grove, where Herobrine teleported them both back to the castle, leaving Nuka alone outside his bedroom door without a word, while Nuka began to ask herself a terrible question.
If they're going to execute a hybrid like this without him having done anything particularly bad, he asked himself fearfully. What are they going to do to me if they catch me?
