Frantic tapping drew Max's attention, she was still leaning against the stone wall of Notch's castle, trying to make sense of what All had said. She turned her head to see who was making the noise. Notch stood there, and let out an audible sigh when He saw it was only Max. When His guards had come to him saying there was a 'Magical lady that knocked out George without lifting a finger!' He had freaked out, thinking that perhaps Ender had once again returned. But no, it was only the Akroatis, who He guessed also could be called a 'Magical lady that knocked out George without lifting a finger!'
"Hello, Notch," she greeted him.
"Care to tell me why the guards are saying you attacked them." He spoke the Minecrafter language so the people behind Him -currently armed with whatever they could find, from diamond swords to dirt blocks- would not attack His guest.
"It was self defense. I was conversing with All and-"
"All? I thought you refuse to speak to It?" He made a shooing motion with His hand towards the small crowd to disperse them.
Notch mulled over that. Injuring one Minecrafter to save the life of another. He supposed those weren't the worst odds. He shook his head slightly, and sighed. "How are we going to save him?" At her surprised look He said, "he is one of my creations, I will do my best to keep him alive."
"All said the cure to that strange creature's poison is in the End."
Notch frowned at that. "I apologize, but I cannot teleport you there." She opened her mouth to ask why, but He interrupted. "It has been many, many centuries since I have stepped foot in Ender's realm. It is very likely the terrain has changed, and if I do not know the terrain, you will probably appear into a block. You will die instantly, and Wither will be ejected from all sides of the cube. I imagine it is not pleasant to be exploded, I have not experienced it, but my Brother has, back before Ender was created. It took Him four-hundred years to recover, and we had a group of the strongest Witches to help Him."
Max's face took on an expression of sympathy for the white-eyed God; He had been through some very bad experiences, and it sounded that even without the evil Goddess, His life would be misery. It was almost as if the universe hated Him. She had to suppress a chuckle at that preposterous thought; she knew the universe, and It hadn't shown any signs of hating a single one of Its children. Her mood turned sour when she remembered the situation. "Can't you teleport us to the portal at least?"
Notch shook His head again. "The same problem as the End. I do not know the area well enough to reassure your safety. I remember the last time an Akroatis died, a cloud covered the land, shielding the monsters from the sun. No one could even smile during that year, and everyone burst into random crying fits once a week. My plan is to keep you alive as long as possible, I'm not taking any risks."
The Mincrafter blinked, digesting this new information. That hadn't happened when they all believed Herobrine and Ender dead. Could it be that she meant more to All than Its children? All's silence on the whole matter answered her question. She opened her mouth to speak, but again, Notch interrupted.
"Yes, I know It favours you. Frankly, I don't care. What is the use of worrying over something you can't change?" She tried to speak again. "No, I am not a hypocrite. Those years after the War of One Battle were spent mourning, not worrying. And-"
"Will you let me speak, you pain in the cow udders of a God!" Max shouted, tired of Him talking over her. He stopped at the outburst, mostly because of the odd insult.
"...Cow udders?" He managed to ask.
"Shush, shut up, be quiet, shut your pie hole, close your mouth or I'll close it for you. Whichever of those you'd prefer, do it!" She snapped, annoyed with the sound of His voice. "Now, I was trying to ask where the dang portal is!"
"Oops." He said, embarrassed. "Er... I'll be right back." He teleported away, and reappeared minutes later, but He had brought someone with Him.
"Hello, Max." Herobrine said, His eyes were a little red still, but were almost completely healed from the Ender possessing Him stuff.
"Hi." She gave a little wave. He smiled at her. Max thought of the God as somewhat a friend, not as close as Wither, but more a friend than anyone else she knew. The God was nice to her when they were both in a good mood, and if not, they would entertain each other with hours of bickering. But because of her solitude, and refusing to leave her home unless she desperately needed something, she didn't see Him often. "What are you doing here?" She asked.
"Apparently you need a guide," He replied. "My Brother cannot make a being intelligent enough to not lead you in circles for years on His own. He provides the idea and thoughts of the creature, I provide the body. When I create on my own, the product is generally a monster, a being without the ability to think on its own. Notch has not created anything else as far as I know. But if He has I imagine it would be little more than a single thought floating in nothingness without a physical form."
Max nodded in understanding.
"Close your eyes, Max. The power needed can blind you." When she complied, there was a loud flash of light. Yes, loud. She could hear the light forming into a shape, but she could not tell what shape. The high pitched noise and bright light stopped after a few minutes.
Wither carefully balanced the plate of food. He had found the kitchen easily enough, He didn't even have to turn to dust, He simply went the direction the delicious smells were coming from. The Chefs had given Him a plate and told Him He could take all the food He could carry. Unfortunately for them, they underestimated Wither's stacking and balancing capabilities, so they were now frantically trying to fill the pantry back up so the castle residents would not go hungry.
He snickered at the memory. The looks on their faces when He piled almost every food item in that kitchen on a single plate had almost made Him drop said plate. People stopped and stared at the tower of food when He walked past, ceasing whatever activity they were doing at the time. They had stopped talking, eating, laughing, crying, working. One lady had dropped her baby, which Wither caught with His free hand. He had scolded her for dropping her child, turned her hands blue without her noticing, and had gone on His way.
He wondered if the lady had seen her discoloured hands yet, or if she was still watching the place He had turned the corner in awe.
He frowned when He saw a bright light coming around the corner. That was where He had left Max, He thought as He promptly dropped the plate of food, the food fell and blocked the hall behind Him. But that didn't matter, He had to make sure His best friend was okay. He smoothly turned into the dark-grey monster He had used to defeat the monster with the hammer. He flew into the air, speeding up now that He didn't need to push anyone to the side so He could pass.
Worry filled Him, and He could feel a power infused head ready itself to destroy whomever dared to harm Max. What if she was actually hurt- or worse. He didn't know what He would do without Max, she had always been there, even when He was created. Heck, she had been the one to help Him out of the crater. I haven't even given her her birthday present. He thought, then pushed that thought forcefully out of His mind. Now was not the time to be worrying about gifts, now was the time to be wondering why was this cursed hallway so long!
After what seemed like hours, but was actually minutes, Wither reached the end of the dreaded hallway. As soon as He turned the corner He shot the fiery head at the source of light, which was followed with surprised yells. The light disappeared immediately, and He saw Max, Notch and Herobrine all glaring at Him. To be more specific, Max was glaring at Him, while Notch and Herobrine were charging Him.
"Ahh!" He yelled, and morphed back to His regular form before He was speared with two very pointy swords.
"You fool!" Herobrine yelled at the younger God. "That was my last sculpture!"
Notch was still getting over the fact that the monster that He thought had invaded His castle to kill His people was actually Wither, so all He could do was nod in agreement with His brother.
"Wha..?"
"They were giving us a way to go to the End, and you ruined it." Max told her bewildered friend, a hint of anger evident in her voice.
"I-I thought you were in trouble." He said meekly, ashamed that He made Max mad.
She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, reminding herself that it wasn't His fault, that He had been trying to save her. She turned to the Two, "can't you make another being?"
Notch shook His head. "My Brother creates sculptures which I then give life. He must disassemble the mound of clay so I can fit it with a spirit. He said that was His last one, and it takes days for Him to make more. Neither of Us know how to get there without teleporting. I'm sorry to say that you are stuck here-"
"Hold that thought." Herobrine said, interrupting Notch. "I think I can still provide the body."
"How?"
"I can replicate my own if I concentrate. We can use that." He closed His eyes and began to glow the same colour as His eyes before Notch could protest. He then seemed to split, and the two Herobrines pulled apart. They stopped glowing white, and the one on the right opened His eyes. He staggered a bit before speaking, "remind me to never do that again."
Wither watched curiously. "Why didn't you just do this?" He split into two smaller versions of Himself.
"Two reasons, Wither. One: We need a body without life, a new one that is just an appearance. Two: that skill belongs to you alone. Neither my Brother nor I can do that." Herobrine recovered quickly from His split.
"Strange, don't you think?" The Wither on the right asked His counterpart. "Indeed." He replied.
Max walked over and ruffled both of Their hair*, making Them try to duck out of reach. What they weren't expecting was her foot to appear in front of Them. So They tripped over her outstretched leg. "Next time, ask before destroy." She scolded. They nodded before rejoining into a single Wither. She pulled Him up and dragged Him over to the wall she had been leaning against.
He watched as she closed her eyes to shield them from the blinding glare that began to come from the Two. The replica of Herobrine seemed to rip apart, while still holding together, almost like an afterimage of His eye. Something formed in Notch's hands, fizzing in and out of existence. Of course, it is very hard to describe something being created, but these are the words Wither would later use to tell Max what had happened. Obviously, she had no clue what He was talking about. Sadly, Wither's explanation was the best was to describe what was going on, if others had been there they would have said: "Gah! My eyes are burning!" because if anyone else had been there, they would be mortals, since all the living Gods were already there. And any hypothetical others would then have their eyes melted as no mortal can watch a living being be created.
When the light faded, Max opened her eyes. A man was laying on the ground, his eyes closed. He looked exactly like Herobrine, even wearing the same cyan shirt and purple-ish blue pants. He opened his eyes, which was the only difference between the mortal and God, while Herobrine's eyes shone white with His power, this new man had normal blue eyes. Max wondered what was with this guy and blue.
He seemed dazed, then when his eyes cleared he suddenly backed up quickly, startled at all the people. He bumped into Wither, who gave a cheeky wave, with frightened the man even more, causing him to fall to the ground and crawl backwards into a corner. "W-who are you?" He asked, panicked.
Though all words sounded the same to her, Max could always tell is someone was speaking the language of the Gods by their voice shivering, which was the only good way to explain it. So when this man's voice shivered even though he was supposed to be a simple Minecrafter, Max looked to Notch for an explanation. But since Notch was busy trying to calm the newcomer down, so All answered instead.
They created Minecrafters originally with Their language, It said. What is the point of creating something when neither of you can understand each other? It was later that Minecrafters developed their own tongue.
Max noted the explanation, then went back to studying Herobrine's duplicate. It appeared that Notch was successful in His mission of calming the man. Notch looked slightly uncomfortable with how much he resembled Herobrine, it must have been weird to have what seemed like Two brothers, when in reality, only one was related and the other He had just created to go to the end to save the Akroatis's dad so she won't have the Universe destroy His realm.
It seemed Herobrine was also a bit put off, but He spoke anyway. "Do you have a name?" He asked His lookalike.
"I-I think so," the man replied. "My name is..." He thought for a moment, "Steve."
*Is that the way to grammar it? I can't tell and it is bugging me immensely*
Since I haven't updated in a while, have a longer chapter! Hehehe, I have thrown Steve into the mix. I want to see if any of you can guess why I just didn't make Notch give Max a compass. If anyone gets close to the truth, I will give them a shoutout next chapter.