An almost won...
The screech of Null was music to Herobrine's ears as the water seemed to burn his face.
He hadn't expected the boy to do such a thing, nor he knew where he had gotten the bottle for it, but it didn't matter.
He was just glad that Nuka choose to not go along with Null's plan after all.
Null meanwhile had staggered back and covered his face with one hand, still hissing with anger and pain, but before Herobrine could watch him any further, an arrow suddenly shot past him and landed right next to Null, whereupon water suddenly appeared, spreading around the arrow and eventually forming a large puddle!
More arrows with the same effect followed, trapping Null, who was still busy getting the water off his face.
At that moment, a huge bubble of water suddenly appeared in the air above Null and then crashed down on him just as he had recovered from Nuka's first attack. Herobrine saw Nuka teleport away before quickly closing his eyes as a torrent of water rushed towards him and poured over him accompanied by another scream from Null echoing off the walls of the throne room.
When Herobrine opened his eyes again, he discovered Null lying on the ground, his eyes squeezed shut, gasping for breath and his whole body shaking in pain.
His body was hissing and smoking in places and he seemed to be struggling to keep his shape, confirmed by a black liquid that had formed around Null and was partially mixed with the water that was still scattered around him.
Herobrine looked at him in surprise!
He hadn't thought it would be so easy to bring down someone who had all the power of the gods at his disposal so quickly.
Did Nuka think this up all by himself? He asked himself with a relieved look at the boy, who was now standing a little further away on dry ground and still looked strangely nervous.
But before he could ask the boy, two figures suddenly appeared, which Herobrine soon identified as Einshine and Jason, who quickly ran towards Null and, with a loud shout, leaned on him and pinned him to the ground!
Null, of course, immediately tried to fight back with a furious growl, but he was so injured and weak that he couldn't fight them off!
At that moment, Herobrine noticed a movement behind him and turned his head around in alarm, but his tension quickly subsided when he saw Roxana's face.
Herobrine couldn't help but smile when he saw her.
"Wh-what are you doing here?" he asked weakly as she knelt down next to him and gently grabbed his cheek, examining him with an expert eye while Herobrine shivered and blushed slightly, which he tried to hide.
"Save your neck, what else," she finally replied with a smile before raising her staff and casting a spell to loosen his chains.
Herobrine, still weak and exhausted from the ordeal of the last few days, would have collapsed if Roxana hadn't caught him, which only made him blush even more.
"Sorry, I'm still a bit woozy..." he tried to explain as he quickly pushed himself away from Roxana, but she just shook her head.
"Oh no, it's all right," she replied quickly as she helped Herobrine lean against the pillar, "You've both been through a lot..."
At these words, she quickly pushed a piece of hair behind her ear and Herobrine could have sworn that she blushed slightly too.
"Hey Nuka!" he heard Jason shout at that moment, who was still trying to hold onto Null together with Einshine, "Get over here and take the staff before he regains his strength!"
Herobrine froze when he heard this and all the joy he had just felt turned into a wave of apprehension.
The staff? He repeated as he turned his attention back to Nuka, who was still standing at the entrance, looking uncertainly at Null But Nuka can't take the staff...He...He's not powerful enough! He'll die if he does!
Jason's words also seemed to have triggered something in Null, because suddenly the eyes of his former accomplice and mentor lit up and a violent flash of light shook the throne room, followed by a violent shockwave that grabbed Herobrine and tore him from the place where he had just been lying.
A second later, his back crashed painfully against a wall and from somewhere he heard the confused shouts of Roxana and the others as he himself tried to get up again!
When he finally managed to open his eyes, he was horrified to see the extent of the destruction.
The columns that had just stood in two rows to the side and supported the ceiling of the throne room were mostly destroyed, just as the floor, torn open by the debris and the explosion, now had several deep and long fissures.
One of the broken parts of one of the pillars had landed just half a block away from Herobrine and, like him, was covered in shards of glass from the windows behind him, which had probably also shattered.
After a quick look around, he was shocked to discover Null standing in the middle of the hall, in a deep crater, his head still held high, clutching the bright red staff tightly and not looking at all pleased.
Behind him, he could dimly make out Jason and Einshine, who had also been thrown in front of two different pillars.
He couldn't tell if they were injured, but they seemed to have taken a beating too, at least judging by their faces.
However, they didn't seem to be able to move despite all their efforts, which confused Herobrine at first, but he realized that this was probably due to Null's powers.
He couldn't see the rest anywhere, but he could hear them moaning around him, which meant that they were at least alive, but probably held in place by Null's powers as well.
But why not me? he asked himself in confusion Did he miss me?
"You think you're really clever, don't you?" he heard Null hiss at that moment, who was still standing in the middle of the throne room and looking around with a hate-filled expression, "You think you can defeat me just because you've discovered my weakness?"
He laughed coldly.
"You idiots! I have the power of all the gods in my hands! No one can stop me! Even if you pour 100 BLOCKS OF WATER ON ME!"
He literally screamed the last words as the throne room shook again with a tremor and Herobrine held his hands protectively over his head as cracks formed in the ceiling above him and some dust and debris trickled down on him.
"The only thing you've managed to do now," Null continued caustically, "is to make me angry! And that... that was a big mistake, my friends! And mistakes... demand consequences!"
With these words, he turned around and Herobrine froze when he spotted Nuka, who had previously been hidden by Null and to whom he had now turned around!
(change of view)
Nuka froze and his head shot up when he heard that.
He had been trying to pick himself up from the slippery and destroyed ground until just now, after he too had been thrown away by the sudden explosion, but stopped at Null's words and not a small amount of panic shot up in him when he saw that he had turned towards him.
Luckily he hadn't been hurt, but the dizziness and the beeping in his ears weren't exactly pleasant.
Before he could jump up or escape in any other way, something invisible grabbed him around the neck and yanked him forward!
A second later, Null's hand grabbed him where his strength had held him before and held him up in the air, slowly cutting off his breathing.
"You know, I really thought I'd be nice by letting you go," Null hissed softly as Nuka thrashed and kicked, fighting desperately for air, "Just because you're my son! But look what it's gotten me!"
He snorted contemptuously.
"I should have known better! But no, I thought just because you were my own blood, you deserved my pity!" he continued with an amused shake of his head before his face darkened and turned back to Nuka, "But you don't!"
"You don't deserve anything!" he hurled at Nuka before swinging and throwing him with full force against one of the remaining pillars, which also cracked and cratered from the force of the impact, "Your powers, your friends, your life, everything I've given you!"
"You're nothing but a mistake!" he finished in a quietly threatening voice, "And in more ways than one! But I will correct that now!"
With these words, he drew the sword he had taken from Herobrine when he was captured and stepped towards Nuka. He was now lying in great pain at the bottom of the pillar, still struggling to breathe.
The words he had just shouted still echoed in his head and he couldn't help but think if what he had said was really true.
Null...Null only said things to make me sad! Right...? But I can't help but think he's not even wrong..
Yes, he hadn't earned his powers or his life...even his clothes were either stolen, given or borrowed, but...but surely there was something else that he could consider truly his own except...except his mistakes...
No, that's not true! He protested desperately I...I can't just be a mistake! There has to be something I did right...
Are you sure about that? A soft voice in his head suddenly replied After all, you haven't done much right in your life so far, if anything. Heck, even now you can't think of anything good you archived...
Nuka froze as he thought about it.
That was true.
His whole life had been marked by a series of terrible failures...no matter how hard he tried to do something… every time he just made it worse or failed...
Even now, he hadn't managed to take the staff from Null...
Even though he knew that it would have saved the world...that it would have saved Herobrine.
But instead he had hesitated...hesitated and allowed Nulls to break free and won the fight and why, because he had been afraid...afraid that it wouldn't work, that maybe he was too weak after all...that he would die...
Something he would do one way or another... because he had failed...
Nuka swallowed hard and felt tears well up in his eyes as he realized that Null was right after all.
He really was nothing more than a mistake...
"You're a disgrace to me and my powers," Null continued dismissively as he reached out a hand and pinned Nuka down with his powers while pointing the sword at his chest, "And nobody gives a damn about you!"
"Yes I do!"
Out of nowhere, Herobrine suddenly jumped into Nuka's field of vision and threw the surprised Null to the ground.
Nuka didn't know where he had come from, nor where he had gotten the strength, but he was incredibly grateful that he had shown up.
Apparently not everyone didn't care about him after all.
Herobrine's intervention had also freed him from Null's powers again, so he made another small attempt to sit up and froze when he saw the staff lying just a few blocks away from him, along with the sword that Null had probably lost in the heat of the moment.
Shocked, Nuka stared at it.
He knew he only had seconds before Null would be done with Herobrine and take the staff back, so he had to react fast!
Sure he was still scared and didn't want to die but that didn't matter anymore!
The only thing that mattered was that, contrary to his expectations, he suddenly had the chance to save Herobrine and the others!
And this time he would take it!
Nuka swallowed hard and took another deep breath to brace himself for what was to come before he reached out, pulled the staff towards him with his strength and grabbed it.