CHAPTER 8

A soldier escorted Cyrena into Haurus's throne room. Haurus scowled down at Cyrena, but she bravely scowled back. Unlike most of the people dragged before the king, she had no fear of him. She remained upright while the soldier bowed.

"You failed," Haurus said with a hard frown.

Cyrena scoffed. "Your majesty, I nearly died." The soldier stared at her in shock for being blatantly disrespectful to the king.

Haurus sneered at the sarcasm in her tone. "Cyrena, you are one of my top assassins. How did you 'nearly die' to a Human?"

"You did not send me after a normal Human and we both know that," Cyrena snapped. "When you said she had Herobrine's powers, you never mentioned that she actually had control over them! This is your fault for sending me, who's main weapon is METAL, after someone who manipulates electricity! Can you not see the very obvious problem here!?"

"That's enough, Cyrena!" Haurus snapped. The power in his voice was enough to silence her. "It doesn't matter who I send you after, I expect you to complete every instruction I give you!"

Cyrena looked him dead in the eyes and said, "This is why you're constantly disappointed with everyone around you."

Haurus covered how speechless he was with a fierce scowl. "Get her out of my sight," he hissed. Cyrena couldn't wipe the smirk off her face as she was escorted out of the room.

Haurus folded his arms and scowled at everything around him. If even Cyrena couldn't defeat this Human, then he had a serious problem on his hands. He did NOT want this to turn into another thirty-year chase like it did with Herobrine. He did not have that kind of patience anymore, especially for a Human. If he wanted this to get resolved quickly, then he was going to have to think outside the box.

Herobrine stared at Entity and Null in sheer terror. The two casually surveyed the military camp, then Null raised her staff. "Leave no survivors," she ordered her army.

And chaos erupted.

Nether portals appeared throughout the camp and wither skeletons poured out. Herobrine drew his sword and used it to deflect the swing of one of the skeletons. He thrust the blade through the ribcage of the mob, but that did nothing to the skeleton and it slashed his arm with its stone blade.

Herobrine cried out in pain as the gash across his arm turned black. The wither effect caused his skin to crumble away like ash wherever it touched, causing him to shriek in pain. He used the broad side of his sword to knock the skeleton off its feet and he crushed its skull under his boot. By now, the camp was a battlefield. Piglins formed defensive lines, raining arrows down upon anyone that they saw with their crossbows. The wither skeletons fought recklessly with no regard for their undead lives, their only mission was to kill as many Aetherians as possible. Something had been lit on fire, filling the cloudy sky with thick black smoke. An Aetherian commander was screaming orders, but his voice was drowned out by the sounds of war.

Another skeleton challenged Herobrine by swinging its stone sword at his head. He deflected the blade and swung his own weapon through the skeleton's head, slicing it cleanly like a watermelon. Herobrine barely had enough time to block another swing from a new skeleton. It's hollow, lifeless eye sockets seemed to stare straight into Herobrine's soul. He broke several ribs of the creature with another swing of his sword, but it wasn't quite enough to kill it. Its sword managed to leave a small dent in the chestplate Herobrine was wearing, which wouldn't have been a bad thing if it wasn't for the wither effect. Black lines spread from the dent, decaying the metal and leaving a large weak spot on his side. One of the Piglins noticed this and shot Herobrine in this weak spot.

Suddenly, a green tentacle flew from nowhere and lifted this Piglin into the air, strangling it. Herobrine looked at the source of the tentacle and realized it wasn't a tentacle, it was instead a vine. The plant guy from earlier had the small pot in front of him, controlling the massive vines from his plant. He and Herobrine's gazes met for a brief moment and they exchanged nods of acknowledgement.

The two stood at each other's backs, defending each other. The plant guy's giant vines wrapped around wither skeletons and crushed their bones. Herobrine blasted the Piglins with fire and struck them down with lightning.

A small, one-block-wide portal with no frame appeared in front of Herobrine and a lit block of TNT popped out of it. He barely had any time to react before the TNT exploded, sending him flying.

Herobrine's ears rung painfully. His vision spun as he slowly sat up. Blood trickled down his face from a large gash in his forehead. His armor was burnt and he was missing a few pieces. He tried to stand up, but his knees turned to gelatin and he ended up on all fours. The TNT had also sent the plant guy flying, injuring him about the same amount and burning a large portion of his plant. The tents from the camp around them were on fire, but the fire was blue. Soul fire.

A figure emerged from the soul fire. The flames licked her robes but didn't burn them, or her. She instead ran her fingers through the flames, playing with them like it was water trickling off a building. Her glowing white eyes were locked on Herobrine's.

"N-Null," Herobrine coughed out. He tried again to scramble to his feet, but he couldn't quite get his feet under him.

"Interesting. I didn't think there was another set of twins at this time," Null mused. Her voice was smooth as silk. "Tell me, where is your sibling?"

"W-why should I tell you?" Herobrine said with a scowl. He finally managed to stand, but he was not confident that he could walk.

"Hmm, you're right. It's not important, I just wondered if they were here to watch you die."

"AAAAAAGH!" the plant guy suddenly shouted, snapping both Herobrine and Null's attention to him. He ran at Null with a sword, ready to kill her with it. She didn't seem frightened by him, though, or even the slightest bit amused. She swung her staff hard, smacking it against the plant guy's skull and emitting a loud CRACK. She opened her hand and a portal appeared between her and the plant guy, and with no time to stop, he ran right into it. A second portal appeared over the wreckage of a tent and the plant guy fell right into it. Several of the poles were upright and broken, making them sharp and skewering him like a kabob. Herobrine couldn't tell if he was dead, but he had definitely stopped moving.

With the other Aetherian out of the way, Null's attention was back on Herobrine. He readied his sword and stood his ground, but deep down, he was very afraid. Null was clearly very powerful because she was an eldest twin, but so was Herobrine. He could do this.

"NULL!" A new voice shouted, interrupting the tension between Null and Herobrine. Entity teleported between them, his blade dripping with fresh blood. "Haurus and his reinforcements have just been spotted east of here! They'll be here in just a few minutes, we need to retreat! We don't have enough power to face him right now!"

Null just smiled softly and put her hand on her twin's shoulder. "Oh, my sweet, scared little brother. You really think I didn't prepare for this? I ordered the Piglins to build twenty more portals when the battle began. We'll have more than enough wither skeletons to face Haurus and whatever 'reinforcements' he brought."

Entity frowned. "I still don't think this is a good idea."

"Entity, we will be fine. I just need you to be that big, bloodthirsty brute I know you can be and kill some Aetherians, okay? Starting with that one, over there," Null said, gesturing at Herobrine.

Entity grinned and turned toward Herobrine. "My pleasure," he said with a sadistic glint in his eyes. Oh no.

Null teleported away, leaving Herobrine and Entity. Entity raised his sword to Herobrine and he readied his own weapon, electricity crackling on the blade.

Entity swung first, aiming for the weak spot in Herobrine's armor. He deflected the blow with his blade and blasted fire at Entity's face, but he teleported out of the way before the flames could touch him. He reappeared behind Herobrine and brought his sword down, attempting to slice him in half. Herobrine brought his blade up just in time, locking his sword with Entity's. His white eyes stared right into Entity's red ones. Entity smirked and shoved Herobrine off balance. In that brief moment of weakness, Entity swung at Herobrine and tried to decapitate him. Herobrine dodged the blow, saving his neck, but he didn't completely avoid the blade. Entity's sword slid across Herobrine's face, slicing across the bridge of his nose and into his cheek. Herobrine cried out in pain and teleported a few feet away, clutching the wound. Blood trickled through his fingers and down his face.

Entity grinned and brandished his sword. "You really thought you could face me? I've been training since before you were born!"

Herobrine wiped the blood off his face, though it was almost instantly replaced. "Maybe, but my eyes look like this for a reason." Electricity crackled through his hair.

Herobrine swung at Entity but his sword was met with a powerful blow from Entity's. Entity sent Herobrine's sword flying out of reach. Before Herobrine could even react, Entity grabbed Herobrine by the throat and slammed him into the ground. Herobrine fought against Entity's grip, but he tightened his hand around Herobrine's throat. He gasped for air and clawed weakly at Entity's wrist as his face turned red, then purple.

"That's what you thought, huh? That those pretty little white eyes of yours meant that you were worth something?" Entity chuckled as Herobrine writhed under his grasp. "That little extra power you have means nothing. I have less than you and here we are, me slowly crushing the life out of you. Who's more powerful now?" Herobrine was quickly growing weaker and his vision was growing dark around the edges. No no no… he couldn't pass out!

With a grunt of effort, Herobrine looked Entity in the eyes and wheezed, "You… may have… less magic than… me, but that… just… means you can't… do… this." Herobrine closed his eyes and let his body surge with power.

Electricity coursed through Herobrine's body. He latched his hands onto Entity's wrists and glared at him. Entity screamed in pain as hundreds of volts flooded through his body. The heavy armor he was wearing was just conducting the electricity better, making it so much worse. Herobrine kept this up for as long as he could, but Entity's hand was still locked around his throat and he still couldn't breathe. When Herobrine let go, it seemed like he had held on for just long enough. Entity slumped to the side, electrocuted and fried. He had brand new electrical burns across his face that were still smoking slightly. Herobrine gasped for air for a moment, just breathing and recovering. He definitely had a bruise around his neck and the slash across his face still ached, but he was alive. Tired and injured, but alive.

"Four realms," someone breathed. Herobrine looked up to see at least a dozen Aetherian soldiers staring at Herobrine. Right in front was even the great King Haurus. While everyone else looked at Herobrine in awe and amazement, Haurus didn't share that feeling. Instead he looked… scared.

Herobrine struggled to his feet. "Y-your majesty," he said with a small bow. It hadn't quite dawned on him how impressive what he did was. He just defeated Entity, one of the two most wanted Aetherians in the four worlds, and probably put on one heck of a light show doing it.

Cheering broke out amongst the small crowd. The soldiers ran up to Herobrine, giving him pats on the back or just clapping for him. Herobrine managed a weak smile for the crowd, even though he was in a lot of pain. King Haurus then waved his hand, silencing the crowd and parting them so he could approach Herobrine. Herobrine lowered his head in respect, but Harus put his hand on his shoulder.

"That was very impressive, soldier," Haurus's booming voice was clear. "Someone take him to the doctors, get his injuries looked at." He then looked down at Entity, who was still a smoking heap on the ground. "And arrest that man," he ordered.