The reason
It was silent.
Nothing could be heard except for Notch's heavy breathing as he knelt here, exhausted, between two pillars.
These pillars, along with a few others in a row, supported the high ceiling of Steve's throne room.
Notch didn't know how he had gotten here.
The last thing he remembered was being grabbed by Null and dragged through a portal.
After that, he had awakened here, chained between these two pillars, with no way to move and no one in sight.
At first, Notch hadn't been disappointed.
In fact, he had been relieved, fearing that if someone were to come to him, it would be no one other than Null, and that wouldn't be good for him, to say the least.
To be honest, he was surprised he was still alive.
However, by now, he had become incredibly thirsty and hungry. He could also clearly feel the deterioration of his body.
His broken arm burned like fire, and any movement made it worse, so he desperately tried to move as little as possible, but he kept drifting in and out of sleep, wich inadvertently causing new movement and also new pain that always jolted him awake.
A terrible cycle he couldn't escape.
Notch swallowed and tried once again to blink away the tears caused by the pain in his broken arm.
Sweat dripped from his forehead, and he took another deep breath in the hope of calming his trembling body, but it was futile.
Maybe that's why he brought me here, thought Notch wearily as he closed his eyes and gritted his teeth to stifle a cry of pain. Maybe he wants to torment me with sleep deprivation and pain until I go mad...
With this thought, he forced himself to lift his head and look around the throne room once more.
Many banners were burned or torn to shreds, and the rest of the hall was also in poor condition.
Most blocks were burned or missing large pieces, as if they had been struck by an explosion or something very powerful.
Especially in front of the Thron, there was a massive burn mark, and Notch shuddered as he looked at it.
He didn't know what had happened there, but it definitely couldn't have been anything good.
But the worst, the absolute worst, were the bloodstains everywhere on the floor and walls, along with parts of broken armor and swords casually thrown into the corners.
All clear signs of the desperate battle that many Minecrafters had fought against Null... and lost.
Notch lowered his gaze, feeling shame and guilt welling up within him.
How many had died here?
How many he couldn't protect?
I wonder what happened to the rest of them, he added in his thoughts as he lifted his head again and looked out of one of the many windows, where the sun was disappearing, and the sky was already darkening. Null couldn't possibly have killed all of them, could he?
At that moment, he heard footsteps echoing loudly in the empty castle. He turned his gaze to the door and froze as he saw Null, who strolled in with a satisfied grin.
"Greetings, Notch!" he continued a moment later in a mocking tone as he continued to walk toward him, swinging the staff casually from one hand to the other. "How do you like my hospitality?"
Notch didn't answer him.
Instead, he looked at him uncertainly, doing his best not to show his fear.
"Why did you bring me here?" he finally dared to ask, to which Null only grinned and shrugged.
"Where else should I take you?" he replied amusedly. "To the End?"
He snorted.
"Why would I do that when I now have this beautiful, enormous castle?" With these words, he turned away from Notch and settled on the throne, causing Notch to stare at him angrily.
This isn't your castle! he wanted to shout at him. Nothing here belongs to you! But he remained silent.
"What... What do you want from me?" he finally broke out with a trembling voice. "Why... Why am I still..."
"Alive?" interrupted Null, who had been sitting on the throne until just now, observing the staff.
He turned to face Notch and shrugged.
"Quite simple. I had hoped to find your brothers first so I could get rid of all of you at once, but it seems they are determined to make it as difficult for me as possible!"
With these words, his expression darkened, and Notch could see his hands clenching into fists as he stared at him in surprise.
They've escaped, he thought, and a wave of relief and hope washed over him.
"Oh, don't look so hopeful," Null snarled disdainfully. "I assure you, I will still find them sooner or later, and than they will pay!"
Notch looked at him in shock when he heard this.
"B-but why... Why are you doing this to us?" he asked a moment later with a desperate voice. "What... what have we ever done to you to deserve all of this?"
But to his confusion, Null only snorted.
"Oh, please," he replied contemptuously. "It's not about you... It has never been about you or any of your stupid brothers! You are just collateral damage that is inevitably caused when I want to achieve my goal."
"Your g-goal?" Notch asked confused. "But what do you want to achieve with all of this?"
Null remained silent for a moment before sighing and slowly approaching Notch.
"You really have no idea, do you?" he asked with a scornful look at Notch. But before Notch could reply, Null sighed in annoyance and turned away from him. He then raised the staff and tapped the floor with the normal end for a moment.
A short moment later, a thin ring of red light formed, spreading across the floor like a wave, then climbing the walls and pillars to the ceiling, where it subsequently disappeared.
However, that wasn't what shocked Notch!
Behind the ring of light, for a brief moment, he could see a darker blackness in which several rows of green-glowing zeros and ones were placed, adorning all the blocks, before returning to their normal texture, making everything look normal again.
"What... what was that?" he finally whispered softly, to which Null simply shrugged.
"No idea," he replied plainly, turning around to look at him with a serious expression. "But that's what the world is made of. Every block, every creature, everything you can imagine is made up of these numbers."
"Well, except for the two of us," he added, while Notch sat there, staring at the ground in dismay as his tired brain tried to process this world-shattering revelation.
"E-everything is made of it?" he repeated softly, lifting his head to look at Null in despair. "E-even Brian and Steve?"
"Oh, I doubt that," Null replied plainly. "They are something entirely new, but they also don't belong in this world, just like us. But unlike them, we come from somewhere. And that somewhere is behind these numbers."
With these words, he turned around and stared so intensely at the wall as if it were deliberately blocking his path.
"There must be something behind them," he muttered softly, more to himself than to Notch. "There just has to be. Where else could they have come from?"
Notch only looked at him in confusion.
He had no idea how to interpret Null's behavior.
"From... from whom are you talking about?" he finally asked softly, to which Null sighed in annoyance.
"Ugh. Well, what do you think?!" he snapped at him angrily a second later. "I'm talking about the people who created the world in the first place and left behind all these ruins! Ruins that pop up with every new update, even though you didn't create them! The ones from whom both you and I descend!"
Notch looked at him in shock when he heard this.
What was Null talking about?
Could he really be right about what he was saying, or was he simply insane?
"What are you talking about?" he finally burst out, looking at Null with fearful eyes and trying to distance himself from him, which caused another surge of pain. "They can't be my ancestors..."
But Null simply smiled at that.
"Oh really?" he asked as he took a step closer to Notch, his grin widening. "Then why why can you speak a language att ingen annan talar?" (that no one else does?)
Notch froze when he heard this.
"How do you know this language?" he asked in disbelief, to which Null simply sighed in annoyance.
"I don't know," he replied before taking a step back and looking at him with a contemptuous gaze. "And it seems that you can't remember anything either."
He sighed.
"Too bad. I had hoped to learn more about these former builders if I told you all of this, but it seems like it was just a waste of time."
With these words, his face turned dark again, but before Notch could respond, he shrugged before casting another glance at the staff.
"Well, it doesn't matter anyway," he continued with an indifferent tone. "What matters is that I know there is something else behind these numbers, and I will get there!"
,,I already have the key." He added with a brief look at the staff, "I just need to find out where the door is."
With these words, he turned back to Notch and raised the staff.
Notch, knowing what Null intended to do now, tryed to lay back as best as he could, overcome by a wave of fear and panic.
"Wait!" he managed to say just in time before Null could finish him off with an energy beam. "You can't do this! Please! You... you will destroy this world if..."
But Null simply snorted contemptuously.
"Do you think I care?" he asked contemptuously. "Listen! I don't care about this world! It's nothing more than a prison that I've been trying to escape from for centuries, and this time I will succeed!"
Notch could only look at him in shock.
Nothing more than a prison? he thought in dismay. But why do you think that? This world is not at all how I would imagine a prison...
"Is this why you turned Brian against me for this back then too?" he asked softly, to which Null laughed amusedly.
"Oh, no, that wasn't me," he replied with a smile as he lowered the staff. "You managed that part quite well on your own. I was only interested in him back then because he had obtained the power of the moon, which I needed to get out of here."
"But despite your actions back then, he was still against joining me," he added with a thoughtful look before turning back to Notch and grinning. "That's why I had to help a little."
Notch could only look at him in confusion. "What do you mean?" he asked softly, to which Null grinned.
"I admit that you obtaining Solar's power and banishing him to the Nether was not part of my plan."
He sighed.
"What a shame," he added a moment later with an evil smile aimed at Notch. "All those destroyed villages and cities, all for nothing."
And with those words, he transformed into Herobrine.
Notch stared at him for a moment, bewildered and dismayed, not knowing what Null meant by it.
But then he understood.
"It was you?" he asked softly, looking at Null, who continued to stand there and grin. "You did that back then? You destroyed all those towns and villages in his name... in his form, and... and blamed it on him?"
Null's grin widened in response, before turning back into his true self.
"Congratulations," he replied a moment later. "You catch on very quickly for someone who's been chained up here, hasn't seen food or water for a day, and is dealing with a broken arm on top of it."
Notch stared at him, feeling a whole bundle of emotions welling up inside him.
All those years, all those centuries, he had blamed himself, endured the guilt and pain that had haunted him since that day, and now it turned out it may not have been necessary at all?!
All his suffering, Brian's suffering, all their suffering could have been avoided?!
"As I said, it wasn't my plan to lock him in the Nether for 300 years," he heard Null say while he simply stared at the ground, barely able to contain his anger.
"But look at the bright side, because of that, you and Steve became gods, which means I can finally was able to take your power and escape from this world. So, everything did turn out for the better after all, at least for me."
"Stop..." Notch whispered softly, his voice trembling with anger.
"Did you know that I was the also one who got him out again?"
"Stop!" Notch hissed loudly before lifting his head and glaring at Null with anger in his eyes. "I don't want to hear any more about what you've done to ruin my life and tear my family apart, all for nothing but your own pleasure!"
"Oh, it was never for amusement," Null replied plainly ,,though it is quite a nice side effect to see you guys suffer."
With these words, he grinned again before turning his gaze back to Notch, who was still glaring at him in anger.
"It's quite funny," he continued a moment later. "After all this time,you still care about him. But even if you had the chance to tell him what I just said, he wouldn't believe you."
"And you know what's even funnier?" he added a moment later before taking a step forward and grabbing Notch's chin firmly, forcing him to look directly into his white eyes. "None of this would have ever happened if you had just told them the truth back then."
Notch froze when he heard that, and with horror, he realized Null was right.
He was still to blame for everything, no matter how he turned it.
"But enough of that," Null continued with a calm voice, letting go of Notch and looking at him with a satisfied grin. "Even though I do enjoy your suffering, it's time to end your pathetic life and get back to searching for your brothers."
With these words, he raised the staff again to finish Notch off, but this time, Notch didn't stop him.
He just sat there, looking at the staff exhausted and defeated, ready and even a little relieved that his suffering was about to end.
But before he could think any further, he suddenly had a violent coughing fit that shook his entire body and made his nose bleed.
"Interesting," he heard Null say a short while later as Notch tried to recover from the coughing fit and looked exhausted at the ground in front of him, where he could see some blood from his nose was dripping on. "Really interesting."
"You know what?" he added a moment later before lowering the staff and kneeling down next to Notch. "I think I'll let you live a little while longer so I can see if my assumption is correct."
"So, you can consider yourself lucky," he continued without hesitation, then turned away from Notch and walked to the center of the hall. "Because now you get to see what happens when I try to make a new update!"
With these words, he raised the staff and slammed it forcefully onto the ground, whereupon the world shook and started to transform!