Me: *posts story*
*turns around to grab the next chapter*
*turns back to already see a review*
Happy to see you here FFF! but jeez, that was fast lol
CHAPTER 1
The zombie moaned and reached at Alex with decaying arms, but with one quick slash of her sword, she decapitated the mob. She glanced up at the sky, which was washed in shades of pale pink and gold. Another zombie shuffled towards her, but she simply stepped out of the shadow of the trees. The zombie continued reaching for her, but as soon as it stepped out of the shade, its skin began to catch fire. Alex watched as the mob burned to death in front of her, then scooped up the last remaining rotten flesh. With the sun clear of the horizon, she sheathed her weapon and started heading home.
Alex reached the top of a small hill, where she could see her entire village. The village wasn't very big; it was home to only a dozen or so villagers. It was right on the outskirts of the North Forest and a small river ran through it. Small wooden bridges connected one side of the village to the other. A fisherman tossed his line into the water, a blacksmith hammered on a new sword, and someone gave a wandering trader three emeralds for a book. The sun rising over the horizon bathed the village in gorgeous golden light, making everything appear picturesque.
Alex headed down into the village and headed over to the wandering trader, who was looking at the town message board. The town message board was simply a board in the center of town with important notices and wanted posters tacked to it. Most of the posters were frayed at the corners from being posted for so long. The wanted posters took up most of the board and featured two Illagers with nasty scowls, a Piglin with a missing eye, an infuriated Enderman, a Human in a black cloak, and an Aetherian with glowing white eyes. Most of them had been posted for as long as Alex had lived in the village and at that point, no one paid them any attention. Well, everyone except the wandering trader, that is.
"Hey, Copper! Whatcha doing?" Alex called.
The wandering trader looked over as she walked up. "Oh, hey Alex! Just debating whether I should take that poster down." He pointed at the wanted Aetherian one.
Alex looked up at the poster. It was clearly the oldest of the poster, since it was wrinkled with water damage and a large chunk of the corner was missing. It read:
WANTED
Herobrine Stonewall
The poster then had a picture of the Aetherian. He wore a ragged light blue shirt that had several holes and blood stains across it. His brown hair was a messy, greasy disaster on his head and his goatee was grown out. One of his eyes was bruised and swollen shut, and he had several cuts and gashes across his face. He fiercely scowled at whoever took the picture. His eyes lacked any pupil or any color, they were just glowing white. The poster then continued:
For Murder of the First, Second, and Third Degree, Arson, Treason, Defying Banishment, Escaping Prison, Aligning himself with Enemies of the Overworld, Nether, End, and Aether, and Conspiring against the King of the Aether, King Haurus.
REWARD: 10,000 EMERALDS
"Take it down?" Alex asked, looking at Copper.
"You haven't heard? Two days ago, he was captured," Copper said.
"Really?" Alex looked back up at the poster. "Took them long enough. He has a list of crimes a mile long and this has been here forever."
"Right?" Copper chuckled. "He might escape again, though, and then it would be a waste to take the poster down," he said with a sigh.
Alex sighed as well. "I get he's an Aetherian, so he's already overpowered, but you'd think at this point they would have figured out how to keep him in a prison cell. Or better yet, skip the trial and go straight to the execution. They shouldn't be letting a man this dangerous be running around the Tetraverse," she said with a head shake.
"I agree. Maybe this time, they'll finally pin him down, though," Copper said hopefully.
"Maybe."
"But enough about that. You have any trades for me?" Copper asked.
Alex grinned. "You know I do."
A year or so ago, the town's iron golem had been destroyed in an Illager raid. With no one to protect them from the mobs, Alex had to step up to defend the village at night. Not only is she paid for her work, but she also gets to sell the parts of whatever monster she slays. She made good money doing it, even though it meant she was awake most nights.
After trading away her monster parts to Copper and a few other villagers, she had made herself a lovely little sum of fifteen emeralds. She headed back to her house, which was on the side of the village closest to the forest. It was a bit larger than traditional villager houses since it had to have room for her crafting table, furnaces, storage chests, and other important items. Because of her nocturnal lifestyle, she had thick curtains over all the windows. Alex threw her emeralds in a chest, along with her armor and sword, and flopped in bed. She was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
The Aether was arguably the most beautiful dimension in the Tetraverse. Massive islands floated in the sky, holding small towns or forests of blue flowering trees. Water from streams fell off the sides of the island and into the void below. The inhabitants, the Aetherians, looked like Humans but usually had some sort of defining feature like odd eye, hair, or skin colors. They could wield powerful magic and teleport from island to island. They were easily the most powerful and influential of the races, and King Haurus ruled the other dimensions in everything but name.
On one of the largest islands was a grand and impressive castle. Its tallest spires touched the sky and its walls were impenetrable. It was made of stone bricks, but the walls were lined with precious resources like diamond, emerald, and gold blocks.
The throne room was the grandest and most impressive room in the castle. Marble pillars held up the ceiling fifty blocks up. The floor was swirling patterns of glazed terracotta and large glass windows looked out upon the world outside. The king sat on a throne of marble and gold. He had neatly cropped, dark hair and piercing yellow eyes. A red cape hung from his shoulders and a jewel-imbedded crown sat on his head.
Two guards dragged in a half-incapacitated Herobrine. His wound hadn't been addressed at all, so he left a small trail of dark blood. His hands were bound behind his back and the cuffs shimmered with enchantments, a preventative measure that kept Herobrine from using his powers. Haurus sneered at Herobrine, particularly at the bloody mess he was making on the floor.
"Your majesty," the soldiers bowed before the king. Herobrine, not knowing what else to do, bowed as well.
Haurus scoffed. "That is clearly not the real Herobrine."
The guards exchanged puzzled looks. "Uh, forgive us, your majesty, but we are quite certain he is real."
"He would never bow to me," Haurus scowled at Herobrine. "Who are you?" he hissed.
"Not Herobrine, apparently," he said with a shrug. Haurus's scowl hardened. Herobrine flinched from being under such a terrifying look.
"Your majesty, we found this on him." One of the soldiers pulled out a shimmering diamond pickaxe and presented it to the king. Haurus picked up the weapon and examined it. He had definitely seen this weapon before, being wielded by Herobrine. It was undoubtably his.
Haurus turned the weapon over in his hands and continued glaring at Herobrine. "I still believe that this is a decoy. He does have that insufferable shapeshifter on his side."
"With all due respect, your majesty, these cuffs are designed to unmask shapeshifters and lift disguise spells, so there is no doubt that this is the real thing," one of the guards cautiously stated. He flinched when Haurus glared at him.
Haurus laced his fingers together and thought hard. Clearly this was no disguise or decoy, but there was no way this was the real Herobrine. He wasn't behaving like himself, and his arrogant, stubborn personality is hard to miss. Unless…
Haurus chuckled as he came to the conclusion. "You're a fool, Herobrine, and a coward. You feared me removing your powers again, huh? So you did it yourself? Looks like that spell backfired." He smirked. Herobrine just blinked a few times since he had no memories to reference to figure out what Haurus was talking about. "Double the bounties on Herobrine's little followers. He had to have given his memories and powers to one of them," Haurus ordered. "And as for him? Take him away. He's useless to me currently." He waved the guards away. The guards obeyed and took him away. "And someone clean up this mess," Haurus added, gesturing at the blood smears.
Herobrine was a fool. He should have known that he couldn't pull off a spell like that, and now he was paying the price. It was still irritating that there was still a little piece of him floating out there somewhere. Haurus was confident, though, that it wouldn't turn out to be a big issue. He would simply clean up this little mess, execute Herobrine, and finally end this once and for all.