Herobrine barely had time to get a closer look at the monster before Roxana grabbed him and pulled him away!
The rest of them scattered, letting out terrified screams, while the monster itself emitted a horrifying scream and gave chase, while Roxana and Herobrine hid behind a building!
"What in the Nether is that?" Roxana managed to say, raising her staff protectively in front of Herobrine, while he leaned against the nearest wall, before sliding slowly to the ground.
"I have no idea," he replied weakly and while placing a hand on his wound, he peeked out from behind the wall.
There, he saw the monster still pursuing the others!
It had a similar stature to an Iron Golem but was vastly different in appearance. Its colors were much darker, and it seemed to be made from the new strange dark blocks with glowing spots or, at the very least, strongly associated with them since its texture and color closely resembled the colours the monster had.
The creature also had two horn-like structures on its head, as if for some form of sensory perception.
That was all Herobrine could observe, as the monster had its back to them and every time he tried to focus on it, his vision flickered as if he were going blind.
Is this how Einshine feels when his mask is removed? Herobrine wondered as he turned his gaze away and tried to suppress the rising panic.
He wasn't accustomed to being unable to see and and he shuddered at the though of havinig this permaently.
At that moment, he heard a scream!
Peering out from behind the wall again, he saw the monster standing over Steve, who had either stumbled or lost his strength and now sat on the ground, looking at the monster in a state of terror that Herobrine had never seen on him before!
The creature was closing in on him!
But before the creature could finish him off, Roxana leaped out from behind the wall with an angry shout and shot a bright beam of light from her staff at the beast!
It responded with a furious growl and charged towards Roxana!
Before Herobrine could fully grasp what was happening, Roxana retreated and jumped to the side just in time to avoid the monster crashing into the wall behind her!
It then turned its attention to Herobrine!
Herobrine froze as he beheld the enormous creature, which looked even more terrifying up close with a massive mouth in front and strange glowing objects in its belly!
He was convinced that his life was about to end!
However, instead of attacking him, the creature's horns lit up, and it turned toward Aurora, who was in the process of helping Steve to his feet!
Herobrine watched the creature with confusion.
Why had it spared him?
Then he realized the crucial detail about this being: it had no eyes!
"Are you okay?" he heard Roxana say in a concerned voice, wherupon he grabbed quickly her arm and urgently placed a finger to his lips!
"Shhhh!" he murmured quietly, while Roxana looked at him, puzzled. "Or this thing will find us!"
Roxana raised her eyebrows in surprise upon hearing this.
"How do you know that?" she whispered softly, but Herobrine only shook his head.
"I'll explain later," he breathed, "First, we need to get out of here."
With these words, he attempted to get up but struggled to do so.
Roxana sighed and helped him to his feet before they both stepped out from behind the wall.
They quickly spotted Jason, who had taken refuge with Nuka on a higher building along with Einshine.
The three of them were observing the monster below, which was trying to reach them.
Before Herobrine and Roxana could signal them, the monster sniffed the air a few times, as if ensuring the trio was still present.
Then it leaned back and emitted a deafening scream that reverberated against the cave walls, making Herobrine's ears ring!
The scream hit Jason with full force, causing him to clutch his head in pain, stagger backward, and then collapse, before falling from the building and landed right at the monster's feet!
"Jason!" Steve called out in alarm,who had hidden with Aurora in a small crevice and now trying to rush out to rescue Jason!
However, before he could do so, Aurora pushed him aside and let out a loud shout, while she hurled her pickaxe at the monster's back, but it shattered on impact!
Nevertheless, this attack drew the monster's attention.
Aurora then drew her bow and fired several arrows at it and although it seemed to cause the creature some pain, it didn't deter it much.
"How many hearts does that thing have?" Steve exclaimed as he rushed over to them now the unconscious Jason on his back, joined by Einshine, who was carrying Nuka.
"Shut up!" Herobrine hissed angrily, to which Steve gave him an indignant look.
"Excuse me?!" he snapped. But before Herobrine could respond, Roxana stepped between them.
"No, he's right," Roxana quietly replied. "The creature seems reacts to sounds. So we need to be quiet to get out of here."
Steve's anger dissipated upon hearing this.
"Okay," he responded a moment later. "Let's go."
A few minutes later, they all sat in a cave, panting and breathless, with no sight of those strange blocks around them.
"What in the Nether was that?" Einshine finally blurted out.
He stood bent over, hands on his hips, looking just as shocked and disturbed as everyone else.
"I have no idea," Steve muttered weakly.
He hadn't left Jason's side and was casting a concerned glance over him while Roxana leaned over to examine him. "But it doesn't matter anymore. We're done anyways..."
"We should have never gone there," he murmured to himself and then to everyone else. "I knew something was off about that 'good place' from the start."
With these words, he frustratedly pounded his fist on the ground, then ran his hand tiredly over his face and let out a desperate sigh.
"What do we do now?" Aurora asked in a soft voice.
She had crouched against a wall, watching Jason with a distressed expression. "We can't go back there, can we?"
"I'm afraid we must," Roxana murmured quietly. "We don't have time to search for a new lava lake."
Herobrine sight when he heard that.
Herobrine wasn't thrilled about returning to the strange place with the gruesome monster either, but he knew his body couldn't endure another trek through the caves, not to mention Nuka's condition.
"Well, at least we know now that this thing can only find us through sounds and smells," he tried to encourage the others, but Steve just snorted.
"Yeah," he responded gruffly, "but when we build a Nether portal, it's bound to make noise, and that thing will find and chase us again!"
"We need to find a way to keep it away from us," Einshine pondered aloud before turning to Steve. "Do you think we can maybe kill it?"
Steve, however, shook his head.
"I doubt it," he mumbled softly. "It didn't seem particularly impressed by our attacks, and if it has even a fraction of the strength and resilience of an Iron Golem, fighting it unarmed would be suicide."
"Yes," Aurora agreed in a hoarse voice, "especially now that I've used up all my arrows to keep it at bay while we fled."
With these words, she gazed sadly at her bow, which she still held in her hand but was now utterly useless.
"What if one of us distracts it?" Einshine inquired, but Steve shook his head again.
"Too dangerous," he replied sternly. "That thing can knock you out with a single scream, and the darkness it generates around itself makes it far more likely to stumble or fall."
"But what if it's our only chance?" Herobrine asked, to which Steve snorted.
"And who's going to do it?" he asked gruffly. "You and I are too weak. Jason and Nuka are unconscious and need to be carried. So, who will...?"
"I can do it."
Einshine's voice echoed brightly off the dark cave walls, causing everyone to turn toward him, looking at him with more or less bewildered expressions.
"What?!" Roxana finally exclaimed in shock, to which Einshine just shrugged.
"Yeah, why not?" he responded simply. "After all, I'm a Creeper Hybrid. I can sneak better and faster than all of you. And I'm not affected by that darkness thing you were just talking about. According to everything Steve said, I'm the best choice."
"Besides," he added with a dark look at Herobrine, who simply looked away, "it's a chance for me to finally contribute to the group."
"Alright," Roxana sighed in resignation. "Let's give it a try."
A few minutes later, they were back in the strange biome, sneaking as cautiously and quietly as they could toward the crumbling buildings that now seemed entirely innocent and peaceful.
Jason had regained consciousness by now, but he was still quite unsteady on his feet, complaining of a headache and a high-pitched ringing in his ears, so he had to supported by Steve.
In the meantime, Aurora had taken on the task of carrying Nuka, and while she wasn't as strong as Jason, she seemed to manage it well.
Good thing Nuka is so skinny, Herobrine thought, before clutching his head and leaning more on Roxana as the familiar dizziness welled up within him.
A clear sign that the potion meant to alleviate his symptoms was slowly wearing off.
I wonder if Steve is experiencing these symptoms as well by now, he pondered as he looked at Steve, who walked beside Jason, supporting him while vigilantly scanning all sides, presumably looking out for the monster.
However, it didn't seem to be around.
But Herobrine knew that wasn't a reason to be relieved.
It was probably just hiding beneath the ground again, waiting somewhere beneath the stones for a new scream so i could rise up and get them!
My goodness, I never thought I'd be so relieved to return to the Nether, Herobrine bitterly thought as Steve suddenly halted and indicated with a wave of his hand that he wanted to build the portal right there, shortly after they reached the lava lake.
Shortly after, they all turned to Einshine, who simply nodded before moving away from them and climbed up the nearest building while Steve got a water bucket.
Shortly after doing this, he turned to Einshine and gave a thumbs-up, which was his signal to get started.
Einshine needed no further encouragement.
"Hey, you big, weird, creepy monster!" he shouted loudly, jumping up and down and clapping his hands. "You really seem to want a snack, right? Come and get me!"
With these words, several loud screams followed, along with the familiar heartbeat and darkness, and once again, the ground cracked open, and the monster emerged with a roar!
Herobrine tensed up as he saw it, and the others seemed alarmed too, but they knew they couldn't make a sound, or their entire plan would be ruined.
"Finally! I thought you'd never show up again!" Einshine continued to keep the monster's attention on himself. "Now I can finally see what you're really made of! Come and get me if you dare!"
With these words, he jumped from the building and disappeared from Herobrine's field of view.
The monster roared again and actually started chasing him!
I really hope he doesn't mess this up, Herobrine thought worriedly, before turning to Steve, who was quickly placing blocks and, with the help of water and several buckets of lava from the lake, was gradually building the frame of a portal.
Herobrine never thought it was possible to build a portal so quickly, and he was both impressed and envious that Steve knew this technique.
In the background, you could hear the monster's loud screams and Einshine's mocking voice, accompanied by loud crashes and breaking sounds, probably from the buildings that the monster crashed into.
But before Herobrine could contemplate this further, Steve lifted the final bucket of lava and poured it into the water, instantly turning it into obsidian, completing the portal.
"Finally," Roxana whispered, relieved, "now we just need to light it."
With these words, she turned to Steve, who rummaged in his pockets and eventually pulled out several wooden blocks, before placing them beside the portal next to the lava.
It seemed like an eternity before one of the blocks caught fire and the portal activated with a loud noise.
"Finally!" Roxana exclaimed with relief before grabbing Herobrine by the arm and quickly pushing him toward the portal. "Get in, get in!"
The others didn't need to be told twice.
One by one, they disappeared into the portal, until only Roxana and Herobrine remained.
Herobrine grinned.
"Ladies first," he said politely, making an inviting gesture towards the portal. To his surprise, Roxana shook her head.
"No, you go first," she replied seriously. "I just need to fetch Einshine."
"Don't worry," she continued with a smile. "I'll be right with you."
Herobrine froze when he heard this.
"What?" he replied, startled. "Roxana, wait—"
But before he could say more, she grabbed him and pushed him backward through the portal!
A second later, Herobrine landed on the all-too-familiar hard Netherrack ground, with the portal shimmering in what appeared to be some cave in front of him.
But Herobrine didn't have time to look around more closely!
He he jumped up immediately and wanted to return through the portal, but Steve stopped him!
"Where are you going?!" he asked sternly, grabbing Herobrine's arm and spinning him around, but Herobrine just shook him off irritably!
"Let go of me!" he snapped angrily. "I need to go back! Roxana is not—"
But before he could finish his sentence, he heard the portal rush behind him, and a short while later, to his great relief, Roxana and Einshine popped out of it. However, they looked pretty frightened and exhausted.
"Oh Notch, close it, close it!" Einshine exclaimed in panic shortly after, and Roxana raised her staff, firing a bright beam of light directly at the portal, which shattered with a loud clatter!
"Thank goodness..." Steve muttered a moment later, and the others also breathed a sigh of relief. "I never thought I'd be so glad to be in the Nether..."
"Yeah, it's really not the best place, is it?" Roxana replied with a weak smile, shuddering as she rubbed her arms.
Herobrine looked at her amused, but then he noticed something alarming! Why was she shivering?!
Why could he see her breath?!
Why was ist...cold?!
Alarmed, Herobrine turned around and quickly climbed, ignoring the calls of the others, toward the cave's exit, where he was met with a terrible sight.
Everything was...frozen..?