Enderblight, Part One

A full moon illuminated the speckled starry sky. Of course, no one knew how bright the night was, since the thick branches completely shrouded the forest in darkness. It was impossible to see five feet in front of you, which was what made this forest the perfect spawn for mobs. The trees were crawling with them. Entering this forest at night was certain death; everyone knew that.

Everyone, that is, except for five or so Illagers combing through the forest.

"Split up! Find him!" a scarred vindicator shouted at the pillagers. "If we lose him I'll make you into the next ravagers!"

The pillagers split up and thoroughly searched the trees, shooting anything that moved with their crossbows. Their noise attracted the mobs, which hindered their search. Every few blocks they were stumbling into a zombie with outstretched arms, craving their flesh. The vindicator was quick to plant his axe in between the eyes of whatever creature crawled out of the shadows. A creeper snuck up on him and hissed, warning of an impending explosion. But with one quick slice of his axe, the creeper was no longer a threat.

Unknown to the Illagers, an Enderman was hiding behind a nearby tree. His breathing was heavy and his legs were shaking, like he had been running for quite some time. He gasped for air and dared to peer out from behind his tree to see how close his pursuers were.

"There he is!" a pillager shouted. Three arrows lodged themselves into the tree trunk and the Enderman panicked. He started running as fast as he could away from the Illagers.

"Kill him!" The vindicator screamed. More arrows came sailing towards the Ender, one of which pierced his back. The Ender screeched in pain but instead of teleporting out of harm's way, he just kept running.

The more of a commotion the fight caused, the more mobs began attacking the Illagers. At first it just seemed like mobs following their instincts, but their attacks were quickly growing more coordinated. It was as if something—or someone—was commanding them. The Illagers didn't notice, of course. They were far too preoccupied with their prey to worry about the mobs. The Enderman noticed, though, and relief flooded him. He was close. Very close.

Lightning flashed across the sky, even though there wasn't a cloud in sight. The Illagers stopped chasing the Ender for a brief moment to peer at the sky. The thunder sent shivers of fear down the pillager's spines and the vindicator scowled. "Impossible," he hissed.

A scream cut through the forest. The Illagers froze at the sight of one of their comrades with a diamond sword shoved through his chest. The sword was violently ripped out, revealing a dark figure holding the weapon. It was too dark to see his features other than his glowing white eyes.

"Impossible!" the vindicator shouted at the feature. "You can't—" he never got the chance to finish the sentence. The figure moved swiftly to grab the vindicator by the throat and throw him into a trio of gawking pillagers. The figure then vanished and reappeared behind another pillager to slit his throat open. By then the vindicator and pillagers had gathered their bearings and stood up. One fired at the figure but the arrow stopped in midair right in front of the figure's glowing eyes. The arrow suddenly whipped around and shot towards the pillager with unbelievable accuracy. The arrow went right through the pillager's brain and was buried so deep that almost none of the shaft was sticking out.

The figure glared at the remaining two Illagers. "I thought I told you people to stay out of my forest," he said in a low, menacing voice.

"This can't be happening! You're—" the vindicator began but was cut off by the figure teleporting right in front of his face and startling him into silence.

"I'm what?" the figure asked in a mocking voice. "Dead? Tch," he scoffed, "There is no force you could muster that could kill me. But killing you is rather easy." He swiftly plunged the sword into the terrified vindicator's chest.

The figure ripped his weapon out and turned towards the remaining pillager, but he was gone. He had run off into the forest in pure terror. The figure chuckled. "That should teach them to leave me alone. But do make sure that he makes it home, will you?" he said to a nearby zombie. The creature moaned and all the mobs in the area turned towards where the pillager went. They all scuttled, crawled, or shuffled after the fleeing pillager.

The figure sheathed his sword. "Now let's see what we have here." He walked over to the cowering Enderman, who was still hiding behind a tree. His breathing was still heavy from exertion, and he had a hand over the arrow wound. "Hello there. I mean you no harm." He had instantly snapped from a terrifying shadow in the forest to a much less threatening version of himself.

The Enderman coughed. His entire body was shaking like a twig in a storm. "H-h-help…." He managed to say, before passing out in front of the figure.

A warm fire crackled in the hearth. The Ender was snuggled up in a comfy bed, though a good portion of his long legs were hanging off the end. His eyes slowly fluttered open and groaned in pain. The arrow had been removed from his back and the wound had been dressed. He slowly sat up in bed. He was in a small, well-furnished room with a large map of the Overworld and Nether hanging from the wall and a desk pushed up against the wall. The Ender quickly saw that he was not alone in the room; the figure from the night was with him as well. Now in a well-lit area, his features were easy to see. He had messy brown hair that curled around his jaw and a few faint scars on his face. He wore a plain blue shirt and pants. He had an enchanted diamond sword on his back, which was the exact weapon he had used against the Illagers. His eyes didn't glow as brightly in the light, but they were still completely white. When he saw the Ender sit up, he smiled.

"Ekawa er'uoy, ha. Tnemom a rof ereht deirrow em dah uoy," he said in near flawless Enderese.

Instead of responding in his native language, the Ender just stared at him. "I-I'm sorry. I don't speak… that."

The figure raised an eyebrow. "You don't speak Enderese?"

"Of course not. Herobrine, it's me," the Ender said.

Herobrine hesitated for a moment. "A Common-speaking Enderman should be jogging my memory, but it isn't. Clearly we've met before, since you know my name, but you're going to have to remind me of yours."

"It's me. I'm Steve."

Herobrine just blinked at the Ender. There was several minutes of silence as all the wheels in his head turned. His expression then darkened as he came to a conclusion. "Look, I don't know how you heard about him, but-"

"I'm not impersonating anyone, if that's what you think," The Ender inturrupted him. "You have to believe me, I'm Steve! I can prove it!"

Herobrine's expression didn't change. "Fine, then. What did I get you for your 30th birthday?"

The Ender thought for a second "A diamond pickaxe enchanted with Fortune III."

Herobrine's eyes widened. He fumbled for another question, still not believing the truth. "When's my birthday?"

The Ender blinked a few times. "That's a trick question, right? I don't even think you have one and if you do, you've never told me what it is."

Herobrine put a hand over his mouth. "Steve!?"

"Yeah, it's me," Steve said with a small chuckle.

"STEVE!?"

"Yup."

Herobrine's brain still wasn't quite comprehending this. He stared and stuttered while his brain malfunctioned. "Wh-b-th-th… HOW!?"

Steve hesitated, then sighed. "Those Illagers that were chasing me? They, well, they... kidnapped me. They thought I was you, even though I told them over and over. They demanded a bunch of stuff from the that I couldn't give them, so they decided they were going to kill me. But since you're immortal, they came up with… this." He gestured to himself. "They were going to turn you into an Ender, kill you, then destroy your pearl so that way you can never come back."

Herobrine stared at Steve, still freaked out but now also mildly panicked. "That is… not good." He stared at the floor. "That plan could work. If they had actually gotten me instead of you…" he shuddered involuntarily. He looked up at Steve, his eyes now burning with anger. "I'm so sorry, Steve. Mark my words, though, I will make them regret this." He drew his sword.

"Woah woah woah! You can't actually be planning to confront them. They can actually kill you, Hero! They could completely erase you from existence!" Steve exclaimed.

Herobrine scoffed. "They'll have to catch me first. They threatened both my life and yours, and I'm not going to let them get away with that. Come on, let's go." He opened the door and walked out with Steve trailing behind him.

Herobrine's home was a base carved deep in the earth. The walls were made of stone with small veins of deepslate reaching up the walls. The floor was marbled with stone and deepslate, a sign that the base was at the 0 Y level. Mobs were everywhere in the halls, preforming small tasks, but all of them parted when Herobrine walked past them. Some of them even bowed when they saw him. He was truly their king.

"You're in charge until I get back," Herobrine said to a random creeper. "Continue improving our defenses and increase guard around the perimeter of the forest. I don't want a single Illager anywhere near the base and if anyone sees one, I want to know immediately." The creeper nodded and crawled away to accomplish his orders.

"I assume you have a plan," Steve commented.

"Nope!" Herobrine exclaimed with a confident smile on his face. "The only plan I've ever had in my life is to go in swords blazing, and that's what I'm going to do here."

Steve stared at him, unamused. "How have you been able to stay alive this long?" he demanded.

"It's a very long story, but the point is I'm immortal," Herobrine said with a sly grin. Steve scowled at him.

"You have to remember that the Illagers could actually KILL you," Steve reminded him. "We have to be smart about this, or we're both going to die."

Herobrine let out a long sigh. "Fine, fine. What is your brilliant plan, then?"