Chapter 48: A Brief Experiment


Outside of the Nether, where the air was thick with the smell of sulfur and smoke and whatnot, Steve found himself suddenly more aware of the different scents that were present within the ravine they were in. Though the scent of flowing underground water and the slight fragrance of cavern plantlife managed to reach him, both were overpowered by the smell of the body that they'd found, causing him to inch away from it as he became unable to bear the stench for much longer. Even though he'd placed himself in front of the tunnel that they arrived from and that Malgun had hidden himself within, he could still smell the decaying flesh of Raff, which was slowly beginning to mix with the smell that came from Malgun's own body from afar, making the miner feel utterly miserable.

Somewhat jealous of the fact that the other three present within the ravine didn't seem too bothered by the smell, though all the more thankful that he was different in that regard given the implications, Steve watched as they all stood somewhatt close by the fallen champion's body, examining it closely.

Constiere crouched down to look at Raff's disturbed expression.

"...What's gonna be our excuse for coming across him, again?" He asked, glancing upward to Herobrine for an answer.

Herobrine crossed his arms over his chest, staring intently at the individual placed on the ground.

"It's simple. Steven happened to stumble upon his corpse nearby, and that's all."

"But what about the warped forest fluids? Won't that hurt anyone who attempts to carry off the body?" Constiere raised a slight brow at the other.

"He has a point. What will they make of their own flesh burning off?" Andvari turned to ask Herobrine, who was right beside him.

Herobrine continued staring at the body before closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Most likely, they'll blame Steven for it. We'll wrap the human in something first. That way, no one will get suspicious of the truth."

"...What will they make of finding a pre-wrapped body, though? Steve wouldn't know about the process, would he?" Andvari asked, looking back at Steve curiously.

"We'll worry about that later." Moving to grab the wrapped portion of his cloak around his neck, Herobrine quickly removed the fabric from his body and draped it over the corpse in front of him. "For now, I don't want to look at him."

As Constiere stood back up and moved back a bit, he nodded in agreement.

"...Me neither."

Looking up to find confusion on Steve's face as he stood at the opposite end of the platform, Constiere gave him a small shrug.

"Don't look at me like that, bright-eyes...The Nether's more brutal than we are. If you manage to find any bodies there, they're always messed up."

"Emphasis on the 'if' part of that sentence." Herobrine added. "The Nether rarely leaves leftovers."

Turning to look at Steve directly, Herobrine began to walk closer toward him, arms crossed against his chest.

"I'm going to suggest that we try to attune a pearl as best we can before moving forward. Right now, we have to decide how we're going to navigate things." Herobrine paused, glancing back toward Raff's covered body. "Of course, once he's ready for transport, you'll be carrying him into the village and...well, getting rid of him. We'll be working with the pearls we currently have at our disposal so that we'll be able to leave once you're done."

"...Shouldn't I help with that?" Steve asked. "I mean, I should learn about the full process, at least. What if we need to work double-time when we get to the po-"

"-When we have the rest of the pearls, we'll teach you properly how to fix them once we get a grip on it ourselves. You need to get rid of this man, or else we'll stay here for much, much longer than we need to." Herobrine interrupted, giving Steve a firm, serious look.

Steve stared at him for a solid few seconds before nodding slowly in response.

"...I…okay."

Looking past Herobrine to stare at the covered body, Steve found Andvari crouching down near it.

"...Now, how are we going to prepare him, again? We need to figure that out." Andvari asked, briefly grabbing a corner of the cloak before dropping it gently.

Herobrine turned to look at him.

"...Well first, I suppose that we'll have to get rid of the oils on him so that the villagers don't get burned if they try to examine him, instead of simply wrapping him up, but then…" His words trailed off as he became lost in thought.

Herobrine's eyes slowly shifted to fall upon Steve, his words resting on his tongue for a moment.

"...A quick pardon, but I believe that you'll quite dislike this suggestion." He said to Steve before continuing. "We should search his body to see if he has any valuable information or belongings on him."

Steve took a moment to blankly stare at the ground and process his words before looking up to shake his head slowly at the other.

"No." Steve responded quietly at first before a firm look came upon him. "No. We're not doing that to him. He's gonna be buried as he is."

As Herobrine closed his eyes and lowered his head in response, Constiere raised a brow at the miner.

"Why not? It isn't like he's gonna be using any of his stuff anytime soon." He asked.

"No." Steve responded.

"...There's gotta be something interesting on him." Constiere continued, earning a quick, serious glare from Steve in response.

"We're not robbing his dead body, do you understand me?!" Steve nearly hissed at the boy, earning a dismissive shrug in response.

"Okay, okay. But remember, this guy's the only mortal idiot that we encountered that knew how to make portals by scratch. Either he met someone who knew how to make 'em, or he found a way to do it, and kept it around on paper somewhere." The boy pointed toward the covered body.

As Steve crossed his arms over his chest with disgust at the other's words, a look of intrigue came across Herobrine's face as he looked back at the body.

"...That is correct. Raff only got into this situation because he knew how to make Nether portals."

"And he probably knows less than we do, meaning there's no real reason to search him!" Steve argued.

"But how will we know for certain? What if there is something of true note?" Andvari asked, standing back up slowly.

"What else do you think he could figure out or get his hands on?" Steve asked, gesturing to Raff. "He's a simple guy who got...well, lucky. Then unlucky."

"Luck got him into the Nether." Constiere pointed out.

"Luck also got him knowledge about how to brew. You can spot more crimson fungi than Nether Wart on any given occasion in the Nether, and yet, he managed to not consume any and stay alive until now. That knowledge came from somewhere, Steven." Herobrine added, narrowing his gaze at the other.

Steve let out a frustrated sigh, holding up his hands in defense as he found himself on the losing side of the argument.

"Alright, look." He paused, looking between the three in front of him. "If you're all so eager to search his pockets and whatever...Then I'll be the one to look through his stuff." He said, walking forward with slight hesitancy as worry quickly formed on the others' faces. Herobrine quickly went to stand more directly in front of him, blocking him from reaching Raff.

"Uh...are we forgetting about the Nether stuff that's on his body right now? Because I think some of us are." Constiere pointed down to the body with a slightly raised brow.

"And are we also forgetting that the vines that were on him were alive, Steven? Their oils are more potent and harmful." Herobrine asked.

Steve sent glares to both of them.

"Yeah, but I'm the only person here who actually values human life. You guys aren't gonna treat him well, are you?"

Herobrine and Constiere looked at each other for a moment before giving a couple of quick shrugs.

"We've been treating him pretty well so far, bright-eyes." Constiere said.

"What I mean is, are you gonna actually care about how you're handling him?" Steve raised a brow at the two of them, only to receive silence in response.

Herobrine was the first to break it.

"...In all truth, the most realistic answer to that question is no."

"Then I'll look through his things."

Herobrine gave him a small shrug in response.

"Fine. Just let me get as much of the oil off of him as possible, first. It'd be a waste to have to use all your bandages before you actually need them."

As Steve allowed Herobrine to remove his cape from Raff's body and kneel down beside him, he looked over toward Constiere to find the boy eagerly watching the demigod summon his flames and begin working. Steve found himself joining the small audience.

He'd been utterly awed by the other's skills before, but yet again, Steve found himself amazed by the amount of control his brother had over the fire in his hands, watching as the oil sizzled away quietly. As it burned, a faint, strange smell began to arise within the air, adding to the assault on Steve's nose in a strange manner. It smelt like damp leaves mostly, but the scent caused a somewhat dull pulse to come to his head. It came just as soon as it went, however, leaving Steve feeling somewhat disappointed as the previous smells came back to him in full force.

The last of the oils sizzled away from Raff, leaving Herobrine to look up at Steve with a somewhat neutral expression.

"It should be safe enough to touch him now. Try to look through his pockets, and whatnot."

Steve gave him a quick nod, though a bit of worry arose in his expression momentarily.

"...Wouldn't the oils have gotten into his pockets as well?"

"The oils only latched onto exterior areas. I burned what I could away."

Steve nodded, leaving the other in silence for a moment before speaking up once again.

"...Are you sure?"

Herobrine looked at him, unamused.

"Steven, just do the search, you fought hard enough to put yourself in this position."

Letting out a small sigh in response, Steve began to approach the body on the floor as Herobrine stood up and stepped away. His eyes immediately fell to a small bag upon the other champion's hip, which soon became his initial target. Crouching down, he felt himself grow rather nauseous as the reality of what he was about to do began to overwhelm him. With a look of disgust appearing on his face as he tightened his hold over his nose, Steve, with one hand, opened and dug into the other's hip satchel.

The bag had nothing but paper stashed within it, most of which appeared to be neatly folded up, as far as his fingers could tell. Eventually, as he dug around in a quicker manner due to the smell threatening to trigger his gag reflex in full force, the tips of his fingers grazed against a small, rolled-up ball of paper, gaining his interest. Soon after he'd found it, a crumpled paper came to sit in his hands as he pulled it out of the fallen champion's bag.

Steve glanced back toward the others, who were waiting patiently for him near the center of the platform they were all on.

"Nothing but papers in his bag. They're all nicely organized, except for this one, here." Steve said, tossing the ball slightly up in the air before catching it again.

Herobrine hummed.

"Open it then."

Steve gave a brief nod before moving to poke around and pinch the ball, attempting to find a spot where he could safely unwrap it. Finding a torn corner after a few unsuccessful seconds, Steve began to return the ball to its original state.

The torn corner wasn't the only damaged part of the page. The entire left side was ripped and torn, making it apparent that the page had been taken from somewhere. To his surprise, Steve found the image of a purple silhouette on top of some sort of strange, shadowy platform, overseeing what appeared to be equally-as-shadowy creatures down beneath it.

He stared at the page for a few confused seconds before realization came upon him.

"This is a page from that book! The...Fable...Book? No. Book of Fables! That one!" Steve exclaimed eagerly.

"Achievements of Soul, Steven." Herobrine drew a bit closer to him in order to examine the page. "...The artwork fits, but...did he really tear it out from a copy?"

Steve thought to himself for a moment before slowly nodding.

"...Back in the first village I went to...in the library, I found a translated copy of the...uh, Book of Fables, and...well, the last pages were torn out. I think we just found one of them."

"...Give me that."

Steve immediately handed the piece of paper over to the other, waiting with intrigue as Herobrine examined the page with a bit of a furrowed brow. Looking back down at Steve, his expression grew a bit troubled.

"...What was his title again? He told you, yes?" Herobrine asked quietly.

Steve felt a bit of anxiousness start to rise up within him.

"...Uh...Champion of...Shadows?..."

Herobrine held the paper back out to him.

"...Sometimes, I wonder how humans are able to perceive things in such...well, a flawed manner."

Taking the paper back into his hands, Steve went to look over the contents again, only to find himself somewhat confused as he tried to read the words upon it.

"...Wait...this page isn't translated." He muttered quietly.

Herobrine nodded.

"What it says doesn't make sense in terms of fitting his title. They merely speak about gaining control over the End for a small amount of time. Nothing about shadows."

Steve looked up and raised a brow at him.

"...Nothing? What does it say exactly?"

Herobrine rolled his eyes a bit, turning away from the miner.

"Nothing besides the champion worship and the Aether's usual plan for handling the dragon."

Disappointed that Herobrine hadn't read the passage out to him, Steve's expression soon became rather curious.

"...Why do you think it wasn't translated?"

Herobrine left him in silence for a few seconds before shrugging.

"...Not sure."

"...Do you have any idea why Raff may have taken this page?" Steve asked quietly.

Herobrine thought to himself for a moment before shrugging again.

"...The endermen are like shadows. In a way, I mean."

Steve became lost in his own thoughts as well, pondering the other's words carefully before a look of realization came upon him.

"The original Champion of Shadows could control shadows, I heard. Maybe, Raff thought that those shadows were the endermen!" Steve said a bit excitedly, happy to have come up with the explanation.

Herobrine stared down at him, unamused.

"Again, such a flawed conclusion to come to. Instead of looking for the actual meaning of the passage, he interpreted things on his own, and set off on a foolish quest. Well, what does that matter now? He's dead."

Grief returned to Steve's eyes, settling in as his entire demeanor fell immediately.

"...I wanted to...well, find more info about his life. Maybe, if this is the page he took…" Steve showed the torn page to the other. "Then that means he's from that village? Or maybe, since he knew about the Champion of Shadows enough to go after the title, he's from Litefall?"

"...Bury him here. We're not carrying him around until we can find his hometown, and I'm sure that your village will find it eventually regardless."

"...They sometimes do transfers, I guess. I…I thought it would've been less trouble to get it right the first time."

Moving to put his hand back in and continue searching, Steve paused as another piece of paper fell from the other's bag. Crumpled up and slightly singed from what was most likely time spent in the Nether, Steve slowly began to unfold it, attempting to be as careful with it as possible.

To his surprise, he was met with the image of what appeared to be some sort of old flyer, with a strange, four-pointed star in the middle. The star was painted in muted colors, but the most prominent color he could pick out was purple.

The image was rather familiar to his gaze. It took him a short while to realize exactly why that was the case.

Steve's eyes widened.

"Brine!" Immediately came out of his mouth, leading to the man in question glancing down toward him with intrigue.

Without a second passing in between them, Steve handed the paper off to the other, who began to read it carefully.

Confusion slowly arose on the other's face before it was slowly replaced with a mixture of added worry and anger.

"...So Raff may have actually been somewhat competent in Aethren."

"What does it say?"

Herobrine looked at him with a serious expression.

"...As feared, someone is summoning the Wither repeatedly. They even had the nerve to advertise their services."

"...Advertise?"

Intrigue rose up among the group as they all drew closer in order to examine the flyer along with Herobrine, waiting for him to speak further.

"I can pluck the brightest stars from the hellish sky below. Come to me, and I can grant you the power to raise champions in your own honor." Herobrine read out loud.

Intrigue soon turned into worry.

"...Geez, imagine wanting to risk destroying the world and letting a tyrannical demon attack everyone with no warning just for a few emeralds, or whatever this dude's asking for." Constiere said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"...He's not asking for emeralds. He's…asking for information." Herobrine muttered in slight disbelief.

Steve looked at him with curiosity.

"...What for?"

"...Seek the tales of old, find me the legends of today, and bring it all to me. Tell me the secrets of the divine."

Silence filled the space between them for a moment, causing tension to arise as they examined the words on the page closely.

Who had created this flyer? What were they doing out there in the world, risking their life for the sake of a few tales and whatnot?

Did they even have a life to risk?

"...Brine. If they're able to write in Aethren, and they're giving up their own safety for this sort of thing, do…do you think that they might…?" Steve's question trailed off.

"...Be immortal? Possibly divine?" Herobrine finished for him. "There's a good chance that might be the case. No mortal, no matter how egotistical they might be, would willingly do something like this unless there was a financial incentive involved. Or at the very least, there's something else of value to gain, like status. They wouldn't do this to get information and only that."

"If you don't mind me asking sir…" Andvari started, gesturing to the paper in the other's hands. "...Who's the author? Would it be worth it to try and send some of our forces over to them to prevent any complications from their end?"

Herobrine thought to himself for a moment before shaking his head.

"...No. Something like this requires direct confrontation. And besides…"

Herobrine gently began folding the paper up, making it into a neat little square before pocketing the information away.

"...If we've already found a fragment of a Nether star, then it's safe to say that he's most likely gathered some information to use for his own benefit. I believe it would be beneficial to pay him a visit, if possible."

Steve raised a slight brow at the other.

"You keep saying 'he,' who is this guy? What's his name?"

"...All it says at the bottom is 'Sir Andres.' It also says to find him 'where the ends of the forests meet,' wherever that may be."

Constiere let out a small scoff at the information.

"So...we're never finding him, is what you're saying."

"We'll look at the map and take our best guesses, but for the moment, we'll just have to rely on the mobs to keep an eye out for us."

Silence followed his words for a moment before a small hum escaped Steve.

"...Maybe he's in a clearing?"

"Possibly, but we'll never know unless we go actively searching for him. Whether we have the actual time for that at the moment is up for fierce debate, of course." Herobrine responded.

Another hum left Steve's lips as he glanced downward, soon after directing his attention toward the body once again.

"...I'll check to see if he has anything else on him, then…well, I'll carry him out of here. I think that he's suffered enough." He said quietly, earning some nods in response.

"And while you're away, we'll try to figure out how to attune the ender pearls, now that we have the needed supplies." Herobrine added on as Steve gave him a quick nod back in response.

Moving to continue searching through the other's pockets, Steve eventually found himself pondering about the creator of the strange flyer that they discovered.

Sir Andres. Sir Andres. Andres. A knight, perhaps? The god of…Strength, if the highly-feared Wither was his enemy? He'd never heard the name before, so...who was he?

As Steve found himself being approached by no answers from either his brain or the bag he was pulling his hand out from, his thoughts soon shifted over onto trying to figure out how he'd tell his village about Raff.

How should he set things up? How would he be able to keep his true knowledge about the other hidden enough to not bring himself into suspicion? If he just walked into the village carrying the man, how would people react? He hadn't been keen on approaching the dead champions too much in the past, so what would he do if people questioned the reason for his change in attitude now?

He continued to think about his plan of action as he looked through the fallen champion's belongings.


After finding nothing else but personal notes (as well as some intriguing brewing recipes), Steve decided (and strongly insisted) that it was time to lay Raff to rest within the village.

He struggled to put aside his nausea as he carried Raff out of the cave, but once he did, he found himself still debating on what he should do concerning telling the story of Raff's discovery. He didn't even know whose door to knock on first.

After managing to move Raff outside to lay against a tree without dropping him, he found himself standing in front of the other for an extended amount of time, unable to tear his eyes away from the champion's limp form. He'd long since closed the other's eyes for him, finding it difficult to stare into his slowly dimming, vibrant eyes. Though some parts of his skin were a bit patchy due to having fallen victim to the twisted vines in the Nether, the rest of his skin was very much cold and unsettling to touch.

"...I'm sorry." Steve said to the other in a hushed whisper, knowing that he wouldn't receive a response. "Raff...I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

Standing in silence for a moment, the miner let out a quiet sigh.

"...I'll be right back."

Stepping away, Steve found himself even hesitating to leave Raff by himself, unable to defend against the elements or mobs that he knew would come soon enough. Eventually, he forced his two feet away from the other, breaking off into a small sprint toward Highland.

Steve ran back to the village in order to try and make the other's discovery look as authentic as possible. After passing through the front gate, his immediate instinct told him to run to Almun, but he knew well enough that there wasn't really anything the blacksmith could do apart from helping construct a casket of some sort. His next idea for someone to reach out to was the Elder, and that was a choice that he wished to avoid if he could. Even though the man organized all of the burials and whatnot, Steve didn't want to talk to him anytime soon. Heck, he didn't even want to see him in any way whatsoever, even from a distance.

Despite his wishes, he knew that he had to deal with Raff sometime soon. So, in order to fulfill his current task while also making sure he was comfortable with the situation, He went into the town hall and decided on only speaking with the desk attendant there.

Putting on his most worried expression (which wasn't exactly difficult for him to muster) as he approached the desk, he began to speak.

"Uh…hello?" He waved in order to get the attendant's attention.

Slowly but surely, the man behind the desk looked up to meet his gaze in a somewhat bored fashion.

"...Yes?"

"I...uh, I was setting out again, but when I got into the forest, I...I found somebody."

The attendant raised a brow at him.

"...Were they…alive?"

Steve looked down for a moment before closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"...No. I think he was a champion. He…he was prepped for the journey."

The attendant took a piece of paper out from a pile, beginning to write on it as he took in the miner's information.

"...And where did you find him?"

"...Just past the mines. On the hill. I left him where I found him; right up against a tree."

He received a small nod in response.

"...Noted. I'll tell the medical center to prepare for his arrival. We'll try to determine his identity and origin, and if we don't find anything…well, he'll go with the others."

Not exactly liking how the man in front of him simply reduced the other fallen champions as being mere other bodies under the earth and nothing more, Steve found himself only nodding slowly in response, trying to keep his emotions as much under wraps as possible.

"...Okay. Thank you."

"We will be asking for your assistance, however. Would you perhaps mind bringing him over to the center?"

Steve thought to himself for a moment, finding nausea slowly rising within him as he thought about carrying Raff once again before looking back to the attendant and nodding.

"I'll bring him here in a few minutes. Don't worry about it." He assured with a small, faulty smile.

The attendant nodded and went back to writing up his paper. Stepping back, Steve left the building, making his way back to the body he left behind as quickly as he could.

Raff was soon brought over to the medical center, leaving Steve in a slightly awkward position as he had to wait for the attendants there to make accommodations for the fallen champion as best they could. Once Raff was left comfortably upon the examination table present there, Steve left promptly, giving the fallen champion one last quiet apology before saying goodbye, walking off back to the mines.

When he finally returned to the ravine that the others were still in, after experiencing a slight scare given to him by Malgun near the entrance (being rather thankful that the other had waited before even considering to shoot into the darkness), Steve found them crowded around what seemed to be a makeshift fire pit, which was currently holding a single ender pearl and blaze rod within it. Beside the pit laid what seemed to be a small pile of somewhat sparkling ash, as well as tiny fragments of shattered glass. Andvari was sitting on the ground with a slightly worried expression, Constiere was sitting across from him with an annoyed look on his face, and Herobrine sat cross-legged in the middle of them, eyes solely focused on the firepit in front of him, his brow a bit furrowed in thought. Finding that Steve had returned to the area, Herobrine looked up at him slowly with a bit of a frustrated expression.

Steve gave him a brief look of confusion.

"...You brought the pearls out?"

Constiere and Andvari nodded at him. Herobrine remained still and silent.

"...Any luck?" Steve asked wearily, ending his words with a nervous chuckle.

Herobrine continued to stare at him, though this time he broke the silence.

"...I tried lighting up one of the rods in order to start making the powder. It started burning, so I put a pearl in. The pearl shattered."

Slowly nodding, Steve approached the firepit, sitting down just across from Herobrine carefully.

"...I remember Almun stating that all we needed to do was grind down the powder. Like, just shave the rod down in order to get it."

Herobrine took his words into consideration for a moment before slowly shrugging.

"...I thought that this process would have to be more active to produce such a powerful tool, but I may have been entirely mistaken."

Moving to take another rod that was currently placed right beside him, Herobrine began to drag it against the ground within the pit, soon finding the rod slowly beginning to produce a slight amount of powder as it was ground down.

As Herobrine paused to stare at the rod within his hand, Steve found himself amused to find embarrassment soon crawling onto the other's features.

"...Hey, it's okay. Seeing the blazes and all, I would've assumed that burning the rods was the best thing to do-" Steve started with a sympathetic expression.

"-Shut up." Herobrine muttered, keeping his eyes planted on the blaze rod.

Steve stifled a snicker and simply shrugged at him.

"...Just saying. I would've made the same mistake."

Glancing to the two mob generals that were with them, Steve found added amusement in their expressions as well, with Constiere, in particular, struggling a bit harder to contain himself.

Herobrine continued grinding the rod down into a fine powder, going faster as he found shame fueling his actions. Several times, he had to pause in order to move some of the resulting powder off to the side to provide himself with more room to work, but eventually, they were met with the sight of a small pile of blaze powder in front of them. As they stared at the pile, they found themselves slightly amazed by the sound of sizzling that seemed to come from the powder itself.

Briefly reaching out to touch it, Steve soon pulled his hand back as he realized that he might not get the results he was initially expecting with his actions. He instead continued looking at the powder with curiosity and awe.

"...I think we can put the pearl in it now." He said, earning momentary confusion from Herobrine.

"...Just like that?"

Steve shrugged.

"That's what Almun said. He said to bury the pearl in the powder for a few minutes, then it's ready."

"...Seems relatively simple enough." Andvari noted.

Constiere let out a bit of a hum.

"The hardest part of all this was getting the materials in the first place. Good to know."

"What's going to be even harder will be finding more pearls to prepare." Herobrine stated, placing the other pearl they had into the pile carefully before covering it up with the dust, trying to bury it as best he could before pulling away.

The group was left in silence for a moment or so before a small sigh escaped Herobrine's lips, leading all focus to shift back to him.

"...When this pearl is attuned, we'll head out immediately. However…we're going to have to consider where to head next, in general. The pearl will tell us if we're close to the portal, possibly, but…in what direction should we travel?" Pulling out their map, Herobrine glanced over it for a few seconds or so before lowering it slightly. "...Considering that the End is a realm that the divines, well…usually, they'd try to keep humans away from it, but...where could an End portal possibly be located?" He asked quietly.

"...The one we found and got rid of was near the ocean, wasn't it?" Constiere looked up and asked him.

Andvari nodded at his words.

"Yes. That one, however, had easy access through a cavern tunnel connected to the outside. It seemed to have that on purpose."

As Constiere let out a quiet "Oh, right…", Herobrine let out a small hum.

"...It was placed relatively far from the nearest city, so based on that, I believe that we should direct ourselves to areas placed away from civilization, at the very least."

Finding an empty space upon the map, Herobrine pointed promptly to it, soon turning the map around for the others to see.

"This area is close to our current location. We may want to start our true search around there."

"...What's there?" Steve asked curiously.

Herobrine glanced up toward him.

"...Nothing. It's an empty location far away from the closest village, which, at the moment, is yours."

Steve let out a small hum.

"...We found a village that hadn't been noted on the map before. What if there is something there?"

Herobrine turned the map back to himself.

"...We won't know until we arrive there ourselves."

The group continued to discuss and debate their plan of action for a few minutes, going into brief debates as they went along. They continued until the sound of sizzling soon grew strong enough to turn their focus into brief confusion. A small rumbling sound slowly came to their ears as their attention was soon brought back down to the ender pearl in the pit, which was currently shaking the blaze powder off of itself a bit violently. As soon as it emerged, Herobrine went to put the map down next to him and grab and hold the pearl within his hands, examining it with surprise in his gaze as the others joined along with him.

The ender pearl had changed from a dark turquoise color to a strikingly vibrant green, pulsing with a sort of unfamiliar energy that brought a sense of awe, yet also dread, to them. As they stared at the pearl, the group was generally surprised to find a pupil staring right back at them.

Constiere was the first to break the silence that had formed.

"...Okay, that's like, super creepy to look at." Constiere said, pointing at the pearl.

Steve nodded in agreement.

"Creepy…but kind of cool, actually."

"Whatever the case, it's going to be helpful, nonetheless. Hopefully." Herobrine added, carefully placing the pearl back down.

"...How will we transport it? Should I take it somewhere to be safe?" Andvari asked, looking up toward Herobrine for a response.

Herobrine thought to himself before shrugging.

"...Possibly. Ender pearls are already fragile as is, who knows how this...eye will hold up within, say, Steven's backpack."

As Herobrine glanced the miner's way, Steve gave him a shrug in response.

"I mean, if we wrap the eye carefully, maybe it won't break up in there?"

"I don't exactly wish to test that theory at the moment. We can keep it safe elsewhere until we need it. Andvari, will you please?" Herobrine responded, turning to look at Andvari.

With a small nod, the enderman carefully scooped up the pearl from its place on the floor, taking it within his hands before standing back up and teleporting away. As the enderman left, Herobrine stood up as well, dusting himself off a bit before beginning to walk off toward the entrance of the cave. He paused before getting too far away and looked back toward Steve.

"...When he returns, we'll leave. You've made sure that the village is aware of that foolish champion, correct?"

"Raff." Steve corrected, glaring momentarily at the other. "And yes. They're going to identify him properly, and hopefully...they'll know where to bury him."

Noticing Steve's briefly upset expression, Herobrine let out a small hum before resuming his walk.

"...Yes."

As Herobrine drew closer to the cave tunnel that led away from the ravine, he stopped once again.

"...Do not have doubt. I've said this before, but I'm sure that your village will honor Raff. I hope that you know that my words were genuine."

With that, Herobrine went to go discuss things with Malgun, leaving Steve and Constiere alone with each other as they all waited for Andvari's return.


Shorter, in-between chapter today folks! Don't worry, I'm gearing up to hit y'all with the big stuff soon enough lol

Okay so...this quarter, I'm enrolled in a fun little writing class. We were taking a look at literary journals and whatever, and we were given an assignment to write the first draft of a story that was to be sent to one of said journals. My brain was mostly being used to work on that this past week, sorry y'all. Usually, when I write stories, ideas take literal ages to develop and form within my head, so making something up THAT quick was rough. Procrastinated with writing this chap tho, so sorry. I ended up having to move an entire section to the next chapter due to it not fitting in this one properly (with themes and such), so I had to take some extra time with replacing that as well.

(BTW, I also got into Legends:Arceus, and it's pretty fun! It's pretty hard tho, it's a HUGE shift in difficulty from other pokemon games, so I'm fighting for my life at all times XD)

Speaking of writing, I continued with some minor cleanup on previous chapters! Shortened some things, fixed some errors, all that jazz lol. I find it funny how a few of the chapters that I thought were kinda weak when I originally posted them ended up being some of my fav chapters lol. Had to revisit them; tbh, I've been slacking on doing my usual re-reads, and I think it shows lmao. I might take some extra time to finish with that (I'm literally on Ch. 15 as of writing this) so…idk.

Anyhoo…we're finally beginning to move on from Highland a bit! I know we've been stuck here for a moment for character-building reasons, but y'know how it is, lol. I've actually been thinking about uploading a google drive with some of the locations mentioned in this fic in it, and Highland Village is looking to be my first upload! Idk how else to distribute it lol, I'm used to unzipping/zipping files and just dropping them into my saves, so that's the way I'm gonna do it. Hope to have that ready soon enough!

Moving on, time for some facts! Of fun!:

1.) Raff is actually from Litefall! He idolized the founder of the city growing up, so that's why he set out for his title. He stumbled upon the library in the village that Steve found, and discovered two copies of the Book of Fables, one fully translated, and one not. He stole the untranslated copy, and, to prevent anyone from going after the same title he was aiming for, he ripped out the section that mentioned the endermen. He ended up running into someone that helped him with learning Aethren (guess who), and became set on gaining control of the End in order to properly fit his title. The thing is, his own translation (as well as the translation he ripped out) was heavily flawed, so after misinterpreting the words and also learning about Herobrine, he became misguided about what he had to do.

2.) If you've visited my Tumblr, there's a good chance that you've already seen (and known about) Sir Andres. Originally, he was intended to be a skeleton, but you'll eventually get to learn who he is!

3.) Herobrine initially wanted to carry Raff out of the Nether as a sort of apology to him, in respect.

That's it for now, see y'all next chapter! Leave a review if you have any thoughts!