Herobrine's Message (42 page)

The other tower,
Charlie thought desperately to himself, fixing his eyes on the tower at the other end of the bridge.
There's a staircase into the castle in there . . . if I can just get into the other tower . . .

A massive blast erupted right in front of Charlie. He grabbed Dr. Pigglesworth's reins and yanked backward on them, causing the pig to squeal and screech to a stop less than a block away from plummeting into the abyss below. He glanced around wildly, looking for an escape route, but there was none. The hole in front of him blocked his route into the castle, and the entire castle bridge behind him had been completely blown apart, leaving nothing but a sheer drop to the rotunda floor hundreds of blocks below.

The Wither was levitating directly above the hole it had just blasted into the ground. The beast took in a raspy breath,
and in a burst of light, a skull shot out of its mouth. This projectile wasn't black like the others. It was light blue and traveled much more slowly—headed for Charlie.

He had nowhere to run. All he could do was steer Dr. Pigglesworth out of the direct path of the slow-moving blue Wither Skull before it struck the single, tiny remaining piece of ground he was standing on and exploded.

Stan devoted all his willpower to moving the arm that was holding his diamond axe, but it was no use. Lord Tenebris's supernatural grip on him was too powerful. He glanced over at Cassandrix and Leonidas, and saw that they had given up fighting, recognizing the futility. They were only focused on Kat.

Kat stood in front of Lord Tenebris, her diamond armor shimmering in the glowing orange light of the fire. Although her arm was still in position from her deflected attack on the Noctem leader and she, too, was totally immobile, she glared at Lord Tenebris with a defiant look on her face.

“So,” Lord Tenebris whispered, his white eyes staring deeply into hers. “You thought you could trick me.”

Kat said nothing. She just continued to stare unwaveringly into the empty white sockets of Lord Tenebris's eyes, almost radiating her hatred of him and the Alliance he commanded.

“Perhaps you didn't understand me, Kat,” Lord Tenebris continued in a soft voice that sent chills down Stan's spine. “If you care for your people in the slightest, I believe that it would be in your best interest to bow down to me.”

“Never,” Kat growled, speaking for the first time since entering the council-room chamber. Her face was contorted with grit and determination, and no fear showed in her eyes as she stared down her opponent, her resolve blazing as brightly as the fire that surrounded her.

Lord Tenebris's eyes widened. Within an instant, all sense of restraint and subtlety went right out the window. His face twisted, his features accentuated by the fire, and he seemed to be the embodiment of a demon as he stared back at this player who defied him.

“I said . . .
BOW!
”

Kat sank to her knees. Her hands were forced down onto her thighs, and slowly, she began to lean forward, her head moving closer and closer to the floor. She was shaking like mad, streams of sweat trailed down her face, veins popped in her head, and her teeth gnashed together as she did all she could to battle Lord Tenebris's telekinetic grip. Despite all her efforts, her head continued to sink. Right as her forehead was about to press into the stone-block ground, she spoke.

“No . . . you . . .
don't
!”

It was as if Stan was watching in slow motion. Kat's head
snapped upward, her body flying up out of the kneeling position, arching backward as she broke free of Lord Tenebris's hold. As the force of her motion carried Kat upward and back onto her feet, she let the arrow notched in the bow in her hand fly forward, directly into Lord Tenebris's unguarded chest.

Lord Tenebris glanced down at the projectile protruding from his heart. He didn't look pained, or angry, or even surprised. He merely looked confused, as if he had no idea where it had come from. Stan could only see the expression for a split second, however, before Kat's sword struck Lord Tenebris across the forehead.

Lord Tenebris stumbled backward, dazed and unprepared as Kat let loose another blow, this time across his stomach. The Knockback and Fire enchantments on the sword took effect as the supreme leader of the Noctem Alliance burst into flames. Kat didn't stop. She was like a machine, rushing forward and delivering strike after strike after strike to Lord Tenebris, sending him flying farther and farther backward across the council-room floor.

Stan felt himself released from Lord Tenebris's psychic grasp, but he was still unable to move. He could only watch as Kat dominated Lord Tenebris, the foe that they had been fighting against for months.

Within seconds, Lord Tenebris had been pushed all the
way across the floor. He slammed into the elevated platform on which his throne was perched with a dull smack. He slumped down, his back against the wall, and his arms, legs, and head limp as he sat in the midst of the ring of fire, flames engulfing his entire body.

Despite her rush of adrenaline, Kat took a moment to catch her breath, never taking her eyes off Lord Tenebris. As she stood in the center of the chamber, the eyes of her three friends locked on her with awe and utter disbelief, Kat came to an alarming realization. Lord Tenebris was still alive! If he had died, she would have seen the telltale burst of items around him—even in the fire they would linger for an instant before being burned into oblivion.

She had delivered sword blows to all of Lord Tenebris's vital points, and he was sitting in a vortex of fire. Kat knew that if he was still alive, he wouldn't last much longer. She could very easily just stand by and let the fire finish him off. But . . . no. Kat knew that she couldn't do that. After all that this demon had put her and her friends through in the past months, she wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than delivering the killing blow herself.

Kat grasped the hilt of the diamond sword firmly in her hand. She glared at the unconscious form of Lord Tenebris. Her eyes flashed, and she let out a savage cry as she rushed forward, her sword trailing behind her, and when she was
just a few blocks away from Lord Tenebris, she leaped into the air, soaring through the flames and bringing the blade down with all her might.

The diamond sword halted in place when it was just pixels away from the crown of Lord Tenebris's head. Kat had frozen in midair.

Lord Tenebris was still lying in a slouch against the throne platform, limp and unconscious . . . limp, that is, except for his hand. His blocky right hand was raised, clenched into a fist, and suspended directly in front of Kat's face. All at once, Stan felt Lord Tenebris's grip tighten again. He was totally unable to move, leaving him, Leonidas, Cassandrix, and Kat to watch as Lord Tenebris opened his eyes.

The Noctem ruler stood up straight. Detestation was ripe in every line of his still-burning face as he inhaled deeply, then let it out. In an instant, all the wounds that Kat's sword had inflicted upon him vanished. The arrow popped out of his chest and fell into the fire, to be consumed by the inferno. The fire erupting from his body extinguished, and he was totally unaffected by the flames all around him as he began to fly upward, his hand still outstretched toward Kat, who levitated slowly upward with him.

The two players, one standing upright, the other still in the final stage of a killing blow, continued to float upward, until finally, they were level with the platform on which the
throne sat. Lord Tenebris looked up at Kat. He was looking at her differently now, as if he was just realizing what she was, and that something was horrifying and detestable.

“Why, Kat?” Lord Tenebris asked, sounding disgusted. “Why do you fight me? Why do you continue to fight when you know you cannot win?”

“Because I used to be like you.”

Kat was no longer angry or shocked. She spoke with a passion, a drive that outshone anything that her anger could ever produce.

“I was violent, I was arrogant, I wasn't afraid to step all over others for my own good. I thought that others were lower than me, even when they were kind to me and showed me mercy. I realize now that kindness and mercy made them higher than I could ever hope to be.

“Lord Tenebris, I will never stop fighting you. As long as you're still brainwashing the misguided players of Elementia, manipulating their hatred instead of curing it, I will
always
be there to stop you. You can do whatever you want to me. You can torture me. You can terrorize me. You can kill me. But no matter what you do, I will never break!”

Lord Tenebris said nothing. There was a long silence, during which he just stared at Kat, an inquisitive look on his face. Then, without warning, he jerked his right hand hard to the left.

Kat was flung through the air across the room and hit the left wall of the council room with a smack. Lord Tenebris then quickly moved his hand to the right, fist still clenched, as Kat followed, hurtling through the air at breakneck speed as she hit the opposite wall with a smack. Over and over, Lord Tenebris jerked his hand in every which way, sending Kat bouncing from wall to wall, accented by a pronounced smack, and an occasional crunch.

Finally, Lord Tenebris slowly lowered his hand, and Kat hovered near the ground. She was unconscious, her limbs sprawled out around her and various wounds covering her entire body, but her sword still tightly gripped in her hand. Lord Tenebris took a deep breath, flipped his hand upward, and then unclenched his fist.

Kat was launched into the air. No longer held rigid in place by Lord Tenebris's mind, she spiraled through the air, spinning ungracefully like a top about to fall over. She continued to fly upward, losing momentum until finally she peaked, and she began to fall back to the floor, rapidly gaining speed.

She never reached it.

Lord Tenebris glared at the falling girl with empty, unfeeling white eyes. Closing one eye, he took aim, drew back his fist and, when he had a clear shot, pushed his hand forward, an invisible pulse of energy leaving him and heading directly for Kat.

The explosion rocked the council room.

Ordinarily, Stan would have panicked at being unable to raise his diamond axe to block the attack. Ordinarily, he would have had to grit his teeth as the shockwave from the explosion crashed over him, sending ripples through his body as if it were made of gelatin. Ordinarily, he would still be in shock, trying wildly to figure out how Lord Tenebris had survived the assault he had just endured.

But Stan didn't think any of that.

Instead, all he could do was stare, seeing but not believing, not feeling, not comprehending, at the body of Kat, lying in the center of the council-room floor. She was sprawled out face-down on the ground, her limbs crooked, as the perfect ring of items sat on the floor around her. A slight distance from her hand, her diamond sword lay on the ground, having left her hand for the last time, still glowing with many marvelous hues from its various enchantments.

S
tan had been in Elementia for over half a year now. In that time, he had made many friends, a good number of whom had been struck down in the battles against King Kev, and then the Noctem Alliance. He had seen terrible things, but after he had gotten through the death of DZ, more than a month ago, he thought that he could handle anything.

And yet, as Stan found himself unable to remove his eyes from the center of the council-room floor, where Kat's body had vanished, leaving only her sword and other items in her inventory remaining, Stan found himself completely and utterly floored with disbelief. This wasn't just another one of his friends, this was Kat . . .
Kat
, who had been with him through thick and thin since he had first joined Elementia, who was his closest friend other than Charlie, who had come so far, changing from a girl who leaped out of the woods to ambush unarmed players into a brave warrior who would give her all to defend those she cared about.

Was that player . . . was Kat . . . one of his closest friends . . . really gone?

A shriek of anguish sounded to Stan's right, and he whipped his head to the side to look at Cassandrix. She had completely lost it; her eyes were wild, her face was twisted with insane fury, and although her teeth were
gritted, a wild cry of hatred still radiated from her mouth as she rushed toward Lord Tenebris. Stan found this the most odd—he was still unable to move.

Lord Tenebris stared at her in surprise before leveling his right hand directly at her. She froze in place for a moment, bending forward from the weight of Lord Tenebris's invisible grip, but with an animal cry she snapped back upright again. Stan watched, thoughts and emotions exploding within him like fireworks, as Cassandrix slowly struggled forward. Somehow, she was managing to fight through Lord Tenebris's psychic hold, her eyes nearly dripping contempt as she advanced on the flabbergasted demon. He seemed nearly unable to move as he watched in incredulity as Cassandrix stood in front of him and drew her sword, raising it over her head.

“
ENOUGH!
” Lord Tenebris bellowed. In two rapid motions, Lord Tenebris stretched out his arms to either side of him, fists clenched, before sending them slamming together directly in front of Cassandrix's face.

The white-clad Spleef player found herself flying backward across the council room, unable to resist the sheer power of this blast. At the same time, Leonidas, who had been standing beside Stan with his mouth hanging open, totally nonplussed by what he was seeing, shot forward, as if he had been hit by an equally powerful energy blast from
behind. The two players flew across the room at nearly the speed of sound. In the exact center they collided, their heads bashing together and bouncing off each other with a loud crack. Stan watched, his heart plummeting, as Cassandrix and Leonidas fell lifeless to the floor in a crumpled heap.

Stan glared at them intently, refusing to accept what he had just seen, refusing to imagine what Lord Tenebris had possibly just done to his friends. Stan's heart gave a tiny jump as both of the players let out tiny moans of pain. They weren't dead. They were just unconscious.

Suddenly, Stan became aware that somebody was standing directly in front of him. He allowed his gaze to move away from his two comrades, and slowly looked forward to stare into the blank, callous eyes of Lord Tenebris.

“Ah, President Stan,” Lord Tenebris said with an evil smile, no trace of sympathy or regret on his face. “You have no idea how long I've waited to be in this position. Just you and I . . . face to face.”

As much as he wanted to look away, Stan didn't let himself. He had no idea what Lord Tenebris was about to do to him. All that mattered was that he did all he could to spite this demon. Stan refused to give Lord Tenebris the satisfaction of seeing him back down and submit to him. And so, he forced himself to look Lord Tenebris directly in the eyes as he spoke.

“You know, Stan, I could have destroyed you a long time ago if I had wanted to,” Lord Tenebris continued. “It would have been so easy for me to just teleport into Element Castle and kill you in your sleep from the start. However, I didn't. You are the player who killed King Kev, and went on to create the most disgusting regime in the history of Elementia. I figured that it would be best to let you think that you had a sporting chance before I crushed you. After all, it's like they say . . . the higher you are, the harder you fall.”

Stan still didn't break his gaze. Staring into the eyes of Lord Tenebris was one of the most difficult things that Stan had ever done—the two empty voids of whiteness seemed to project some sort of dark sorcery that made Stan feel as if his soul were being withered away the longer he stared. It was only Stan's desperation to deny Lord Tenebris his satisfaction, and the knowledge that he was about to die anyway, that empowered Stan to keep looking.

“But oh, Stan,” Lord Tenebris replied, sounding wild and manic as he licked his lips. “Your fall has scarcely begun.”

Lord Tenebris drew back his right hand, and Stan tried to brace himself for the blast, forgetting that he was still bound rigidly in place. Instead of firing at Stan, however, Lord Tenebris punched upward, and a second later, the roof of the council room exploded. Lord Tenebris bent his legs and leaped into the air, rocketing into the sky. Stan felt his insides
squish into the lower half of his body as he accelerated to match Lord Tenebris's pace in the space of a split second. He could only close his eyes as he flew upward toward the open sky above, falling debris and rain battering his face like a barrage of bullets.

Within seconds, Stan had burst through the hole in the council-room roof. He looked down and realized with a start that he was flying nearly fifty blocks over the castle. His stomach clenched as he stared down at the castle and the city far below him, terrified to think of what Lord Tenebris was planning to do to him up here. Refusing to look down any longer, Stan turned his gaze out over the sprawling metropolis and saw the smoke rising from the distant battle zones.

“Don't worry, Stan, I'm not going to drop you,” Lord Tenebris said smoothly. Stan looked above him and saw Lord Tenebris staring down, wearing a sadistic leer. “I just figured that up here would be the best place to enjoy the show.”

Stan barely had time to question what he meant by that before he felt a light-speed rushing sensation, not unlike when he used an Ender Pearl, which lasted for the blink of an eye before he felt normal again. Jolted by the unexpected teleportation, Stan opened his eyes, and repositioned himself. He glanced up at Lord Tenebris, who was looking down with an ecstatic expression. Stan followed his gaze to the ground. What he saw made his heart nearly stop.

Below him was the Avery Memorial Courthouse, in front of which the entirety of both armies, close to seven hundred total players, had congregated. However, they weren't fighting, and as Stan focused, he realized with a horrified jolt that all his men had been totally surrounded. Less than half the troops wore diamond armor, and they were all huddled together in a cluster, unarmed with their hands above their heads, looking nervously at the ring of armed black-armored troops that surrounded them.

Lord Tenebris cackled above him. “Honestly, Stan . . . did you really think your army stood a chance? The Noctem Freedom Fighters are the highest-level players on the server, fighting with the highest tier of weaponry, fueled by the blazing convictions of their belief in their superiority. Did you think for even a second that you could train your pathetic, spoiled lower-level subjects enough to match them . . . and in just
one week
, no less?”

Stan didn't care how Lord Tenebris knew that they had been training for only a week. He barely even heard him at all. All he could do was look down into the diamond mass that, based on the cloud of gray smoke rising from the ground, had just been sprayed with a cloud of knockout gas. His fear for his friends' safety coursed through his veins as he thought of Charlie, Jayden, Ben, Bob, the Mechanist, Commander Crunch, and so many others who were down there,
and now totally at the mercy of Drake and Spyro.

“Don't worry, Stan, my generals aren't going to hurt them now that they've stopped fighting,” Lord Tenebris said, as if he could read Stan's mind. “They won't do anything without the go-ahead from me, and we still have some business to attend to before we can address those traitors.”

Stan barely had time to ponder what he was talking about before they were again hurtling through space at the speed of light, then coming to rest in midair. Stan opened his eyes, still dazed from the teleportation but wondering where they were, and what Lord Tenebris was going to unleash on him next.

Stan looked up, and immediately, something felt wrong. The sky above him was dark, and he could see countless stars, and the white rectangle that was the moon. And if he could see the sky, that meant that there were no more Withers around, which meant . . . they weren't over Element City anymore. Stan looked down, and his racing heart stopped dead.

Below them sat the Adorian Village, surrounded by forests and illuminated with torchlight. The wall still stood strong, but there were no guards in sight.

“I have to say, Stan, there was one thing in particular you did that impressed me. I was very surprised that you managed to take this village from me,” Lord Tenebris said slowly.
His face was stagnant, and Stan couldn't read his emotions. “Of course, from what I've heard, the assassins whom Drake hired ended up helping you indirectly, so perhaps I shouldn't give you too much credit. Nonetheless, you did manage to catch me off guard, which is not something that is easily done.

“And what a perfect place for you to set up your base of operations! I mean, the Adorian Village was founded out of the belief that new players ought to be treated like toddlers who need their pathetic little hands held as long as they're playing the game. I suppose that you could call the Adorian Village a symbol of all that you stand for, Stan.”

Lord Tenebris's lips curled upward into a wily smile. Suddenly, Stan realized with a horrible lurch of his stomach what Lord Tenebris was implying.

“No, please don't,” Stan stammered.

“Do you know what I need to do, Stan?” Lord Tenebris asked in a mockingly playful voice. “I need to do something big, something grandiose. It must be something that will last, and serve as a reminder to the posterity of the power I possess, and what happens to those who are foolish enough to fight back against the most righteous ideals of the Noctem Alliance—”

“Lord Tenebris, I'm begging you!” Stan pleaded, and before he could stop himself, he blurted out, “There are
civilians down there! Dozens of players who are too weak or too wounded to fight are in that village right now! And there are NPC villagers, too!” Tears were gushing from Stan's eyes, as he desperately tried to appeal to the heartless monster who possessed him, willing to do anything to save Oob, Mella, Stull, and the rest of his players.

Lord Tenebris's eyebrows raised for a moment, but then, without warning, he looked enraged. “Do you mean to tell me,” he growled, “that you have more soldiers down there? And they abandoned you because they were too terrified to face my men?”

“No!” Stan bellowed. “They're just civilians. They couldn't fight even if they wanted to! You said that you wouldn't attack civilians! Please, at the very least, bring them back to Element City, with the rest of my people! Your soldiers are there, too!” Stan cried, suddenly remembering. “The troops we captured in battle are imprisoned in the village! Are you really going to kill your own men?”

But Lord Tenebris paid no attention. The gale-force winds from the council room had returned, kicking up from nowhere and swirling around Lord Tenebris like a cyclone. The clear night sky above them was rapidly being overrun by looming gray storm clouds. Far below, Stan could see players swarming out of the houses, gazing up at the sky and trying to figure out what was going on.

Lord Tenebris took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Then slowly, he stretched his right hand out over the city, and opened them again.

Instantly, every single house in the village burst into flames. Even if Stan wasn't being held still by Lord Tenebris, he still would have been frozen, in body and mind. The people below screamed in horror as their dwellings were engulfed in the blaze. Stan saw several players pointing up to the sky at them. He, too, looked up at Lord Tenebris, waiting to see what else this fiend could possibly do, and saw that his hand was glowing with a radiant light. Without warning, the light intensified, shining so brightly that Stan was forced to look away. Back down in the village, the winds were blowing even harder now, and Stan could see his people struggling just to stand upright.

There was a crack of thunder, and a bolt of lightning struck the roof of the Town Hall, causing a chunk of it to be blown away in the static discharge. In the split second after the strike, everything was silent, and Stan felt as if the air were alive, as if all the energy around him was evaporating. Then, in an instant, the dark night sky was filled with light, sound, and power as thousands of thunderbolts rained from the heavens, covering the Adorian Village in blinding light. Stan closed his eyes, but the radiance was so bright that it scorched Stan's retinas even through his eyelids, sending his
senses into overdrive with the cyclone winds and sounds of explosions below.

Slowly but surely, Stan's eyes adjusted, and he even found himself able to open his eyes a little. Looking down at the Adorian Village was still like looking into the sun, but Stan managed to glance up at Lord Tenebris, whose glowing hand seemed nearly dull in comparison to the flashes below them. As he looked up at the face of his captor, Stan's already crippled heart felt like it took another ice-cold stab as he saw the twisted features, illuminated and shadowed to look infernally cruel and evil in the light.