Herobrine's Message (44 page)

For the longest time, the player and the wolf sat in the middle of the bombed-out graveyard that was the Adorian Village. Stan's sadness showed no signs of slowing as he remembered everything that he and Kat had been through together—their first meeting in the woods, their training with Sally and her friends, their quest to take down King Kev, their time on the council, rebuilding Elementia, their war against the Noctem Alliance, their journey to return home to their city, and the last stand, which felt as though it had happened a thousand lifetimes ago.

Suddenly, time stopped. Everything around Stan ground to a halt. His world seemed to pause, as he was hit by a massive realization. He remembered when he had stared into the eyes of Lord Tenebris . . . those empty, white eyes, which pained him to even look at. He had had a feeling that he had seen those eyes somewhere before, although, for the life of him, he couldn't remember where . . .

Not anymore. Stan remembered who the eyes belonged to.

He remembered what seemed like an eternity ago. Adrenaline coursing through his veins and with his entire world on the line, Stan had pitched an Ender Pearl up the wall of Element Castle, and landed on the bridge. He had turned to look
at his adversary, and there stood King Kev, leering at him, his sword drawn and pointed at Stan in a clear challenge. Stan had only had a split second to look into his eyes—eyes, of course, that were unique, different from all other players in Minecraft—before the fight had commenced.

Earlier that night, as Stan had challenged Lord Tenebris, he had been forced to look away. The eyes of Lord Tenebris possessed some sort of demonic power, radiating from deep within them, and making it impossible to hold contact with them. And yet, through all the evil and all the power, Stan had recognized something in those eyes—the same indescribable, unique quality that he had seen in the brief seconds before he had charged King Kev, intent on wiping the dictator off the face of the server. Stan felt as though everything that he knew to be true in the world now hung in the balance as he realized what this meant.

Lord Tenebris . . . and King Kev . . . could they possibly be . . .

Questions erupted in Stan's head like fireworks, as he thought of all the reasons that this couldn't possibly be true. And . . . yet . . . he was so sure. Despite everything that Stan knew to be true that contradicted it, he knew what he had seen. The eyes were the only true way to tell one Minecraft player apart from another, for although skins could be changed, eyes stayed the same regardless of what a
player looked like, even remaining the same across different accounts. But . . . how? Even as Stan's mind kicked into overdrive at the thought that Lord Tenebris and King Kev could possibly be one and the same, he knew that this couldn't be possible. King Kev was dead. Stan had fought him, and he had watched the king die. Furthermore, King Kev had given up his operating powers long before Stan joined the server. If he had them, he surely would have used them when Stan and the Apothecary had threatened his life. And even if, by some crazy stretch of the imagination, King Kev had returned to Elementia with his operating powers intact, Lord Tenebris—or rather, Herobrine—clearly was not a player. He had demonstrated skills and abilities far more than an operator was capable of. Last but not least, there was no way that he possibly could have hacked his way back in because of the Modelock Mod. If what Sally had told him about the mod was true, there was no way that King Kev could have tampered with the code of his own server. Clearly, only Herobrine, a glitch, would be able to bypass the code of Elementia and attain such unbelievable power.

Stan tried to convince himself that it couldn't be true. He had no idea what Herobrine was capable of. It was more than possible that he had somehow changed his own eyes to mirror King Kev's just for the sake of unnerving Stan. Or maybe what Stan recognized in both of them was their
equally sinister nature. Or maybe . . .

Stan was snapped out of his thoughts by the faint crunching of four-legged footsteps on gravel, growing softer and softer. Stan looked up and saw Rex dashing across the uneven street.

“Hey!” Stan called out. “Rex! Where are you going?”

At the sound of Stan's voice, the wolf stopped in his tracks. Slowly, he turned his head to the side and looked up at Stan, his eyes showing an almost humanlike level of importance and determination. Rex raised his front right leg, still looking at Stan, and gave two upward swipes, a clear gesture for Stan to follow him, before turning back around and continuing on.

Stan was floored. His head felt like it was about to explode as he tried to process everything. So many different thoughts, feelings, and emotions were welling in Stan that he felt as if he were about to blow a gasket and pass out in the street. Then, all of a sudden, he decided to stop. Everything that was running through Stan's head stopped. He took a deep breath and stored the thoughts in the back of his mind for later. He stood up from the ground and pocketed the Potion of Harming and the enchanted golden apple. His mind was clear, and he began to follow Rex.

As the wolf led him through the streets of the Adorian Village, Stan pondered what he was doing. He was following Rex through the bombed-out village . . . but why? Where
was he going? He realized that he might be going crazy, but it wasn't his lunatic thoughts that were driving him to follow Kat's pet—it was his instincts. A feeling of anticipation washed over him and he felt as though there was something mysterious somewhere in this village, which he would find if he just kept following Rex.

After leading Stan down countless ruined streets, past destroyed houses, Rex finally arrived at the outer wall of the Adorian Village. Although the village had been blown sky high, the wall remained largely intact, except for a crater that had been blasted into the wall, leaving a hole in the base just wide enough to walk through. Rex made his way into the crater and up the other side, walking through the hole with Stan right on his tail.

Now, they were in the Great Wood, which stretched right up to the wall of the Adorian Village. Stan made his way through the trees, having to jog so that he didn't lose sight of Rex. As he made his way through the floor of the forest, weaving through blocky tree trunks as the moonlight cast ominous shadows onto the forest floor, Stan looked around nervously. He clutched his axe, prepared for hostile mobs to sneak out from around the corner of a tree at any moment. And yet, the farther they went, Stan didn't even
see
any mobs as he glanced through the darkness. He had seen monsters lurking in the shadows of the Great Wood even in
broad daylight . . . why weren't there any now?

Rex continued to walk forward, and as Stan followed, he realized that the wolf wasn't just ambling around randomly. He had determination, and he knew where he was going. The longer they walked, and the farther that they traveled from the Adorian Village, the more Stan felt a curious sensation that they were approaching something. He had no idea what, but Stan knew that they were getting closer and closer to something.

Finally, after walking for many minutes, Rex emerged from the trees and into a clearing. The clearing was a totally flat circle of grass blocks, not large enough to hold an NPC villager's house. A light fog swirled around the ground as Stan stepped into the clearing, something that he had never seen before in Minecraft. Rex's ears perked up, and his tail wagged as he bounded across the clearing, plopping down loyally at the feet of the player who was standing on the other side.

Stan's heart began to race as he stared at the player. He knew this player. While the stories and rumors had circulated among Stan's friends since their reunion, Stan himself had only seen the player once before. Just days ago, Stan had stood outside the Nocturia complex, debating whether to pull the lever that would detonate the entire city, when the player had appeared in a gust of snow and ice. His black cape and
hood that covered the upper half of his face, his deep blue pants and brown shoes . . . Stan had seen them all before.

“Please,” Stan whispered to the Black Hood. “I'm in my most desperate hour. My army has been captured, the Adorian Village is gone, the Noctem Alliance has taken Element City, and one of my best friends is dead. Can you help me?”

For a moment, the Black Hood said nothing, standing perfectly still as the fog danced quietly around his feet. The faint moonlight still came down from the sky, radiantly illuminating the Black Hood. A half-frown was plastered onto his face as he looked back at Stan.

“Please,” Stan repeated, his voice ripe with desperation. “You must have brought me here for a reason.”

“That I did, Stan2012.”

Stan gaped at the Black Hood, his eyes wide and his jaw hanging half open. The Black Hood had just spoken to him—something that had never happened to him, or any of his friends. He had what sounded like a Swedish accent. Stan was about to ask him what the reason was when something happened that made the question die in his mouth.

The Black Hood raised his right hand and grabbed the top of his hood. In one single motion, he pulled the head covering backward, revealing his whole face. As he put his hand back by his side, Stan could see that his hair was brown,
and that the Black Hood looked nearly identical to himself. Except, that was, for the eyes.

The eyes of the Black Hood were as white as snow, and shined as radiantly as the moonlight above. For a split second, Stan panicked, fearing that Lord Tenebris had materialized in front of him, before he realized that this was clearly not the case. Where Lord Tenebris's eyes were unnatural and sinister, and caused physical pain when looked into, the eyes of the Black Hood were the polar opposite. They were warm, inviting, and Stan found himself drawn into them like a moth to a light. As he stared into the eyes of the Black Hood, he felt that all was right in the world, despite his bitter knowledge that this was as far from true as possible.

“Who . . . who . . . who are you?” Stan managed to get out.

The Black Hood stared directly back at Stan, and, for the first time since he'd shared a glance with Leonidas all those weeks ago, he smiled.

“They call me Herobrine,” he replied.

T
he Black Hood watched, slightly amused, as Stan stood at the far end of the clearing, clearly flabbergasted. He had expected such a reaction when he finally revealed himself to Stan. He chuckled inwardly. This was the first time that he had fully revealed himself to a player in many years, and the reaction was just as priceless as he remembered. The brief moment of humor was bittersweet, though. The Black Hood knew that by revealing himself to Stan, he had driven the nail firmly into his own coffin—he undoubtedly had only hours to live now.

Although the Black Hood let out a sigh of resignation at this thought, he knew it was worth it. Stan needed him. Elementia needed him. Minecraft needed him.

“But . . . what . . . how the . . . who . . . I thought . . . ,” Stan sputtered, his eyes darting around wildly as he tried to comprehend the impossible.

“I realize what you must be thinking, Stan2012,” the Black Hood said wryly. “Just minutes ago, your life was completely uprooted by a player bearing my name and likeness.”

“So . . . you're really . . . Herobrine?” Stan replied weakly.

“Yes,” the Black Hood replied plainly.

“But . . . I thought . . . I thought Herobrine was
evil!” Stan cried. “So you . . . you can't be Herobrine! You've been helping my friends and me for weeks now!”

The Black Hood looked at him sadly. “Stan2012, the popular belief that I am a violent, demonic glitch is no longer true. To be frank, the majority of the atrocities committed in my name since the days of Minecraft Alpha, including everything that Lord Tenebris has done, were in fact not my doing. I still fully blame myself for them, but I was not the culprit . . . not directly, anyway.”

Stan stared at the Black Hood, as if trying to detect any hint that he was lying. When Stan saw none, he closed his eyes and pressed his hand to his head.

“Okay . . . let's say I give you the benefit of the doubt, and believe that you really are Herobrine. If so, then . . . what . . . are you?”

The Black Hood was silent for a moment before responding.

“To tell you the truth, Stan2012, I'm not sure. I don't know where I come from, how long I have existed, or anything regarding my nature or what I am. However, Stan2012, you needn't tell me that this is your most desperate hour . . . although I have the power to see all that has ever happened in Elementia, I don't need to use this power to see that you need me.”

“Oh, I see,” Stan spat bitterly. “So you're like, I don't
know, my omnipresent spirit mentor who knows
all who once was, and all that will be
, and is now coming to show me what my future will be like if—”

“Do not ridicule me, Stan2012,” the Black Hood cut in, a frown returning to his face. “I have information that you desperately need if you are to save yourself and your country, but if you want it, then I demand that you take me seriously.”

Stan's eyes widened. As skeptical as he was about all the Black Hood was saying, for some reason, Stan felt compelled to believe the Black Hood, although he had no idea why. Perhaps it was because of the truth that seemed to shine from his eyes, perhaps it was because this being had clearly defended his friends in the past. Whatever the reason, Stan trusted him.

“Our time here is short,” the Black Hood continued, as if he could sense that Stan had opened up and was ready to listen to him. “Lord Tenebris intends to hold his deadline for you, and will begin to execute your friends if you do not return by sunrise.”

“Hold up . . . back up,” Stan said slowly, as he realized what the Black Hood being Herobrine meant. “If . . .
you're
Herobrine . . . then what is Lord Tenebris? How did he manage to get powers even stronger than an operator if he isn't Herobrine?”

The Black Hood sighed again. “Because, Stan2012, Lord
Tenebris
is
an operator. He's been an operator of Elementia since the day the server was first created, and since then, he's only grown stronger and stronger through his own twisted experiments.”

“But . . . how is that possible? In the history of this server, there have only been two operators, Avery007 and King Kev, who're both dead!”

“It's possible because Lord Tenebris and King Kev are the same player, Stan.”

The Black Hood allowed Stan a moment to process this. The Black Hood knew that Stan had guessed at this while he was grieving in the Adorian Village, but it didn't make the information any less difficult to comprehend. He watched as Stan struggled to process the claim. The Black Hood could almost see Stan making a mental list of every single reason why that couldn't be possible, before turning to face him.

“I don't believe you,” Stan said bluntly, though he still sounded is if he were trying to convince himself more than anything. “That's not possible.”

“Well, Stan2012, why don't you tell me why you think that, so that I can explain to you why it is,” the Black Hood replied kindly.

“Ha!” Stan scoffed. “How would you know anything about Lord Tenebris or King Kev? How do you know anything about this server?”

“You're forgetting who you're talking to, Stan2012,” replied the Black Hood with a smile. He pointed his hand down at Rex, who was still curled up at his feet. The wolf began to levitate into the air and looked around wildly before his tail began to wag. Rex started to fly through the air on his own, paddling his legs as if swimming, as Lord Tenebris continued to talk, absentmindedly keeping his hand pointed at Rex.

“I am the one true Herobrine, Stan2012. I have access to the history of every Minecraft server in the world, including this one. In fact, I first came here because I sensed a great disturbance in the balance of this particular world. I have since familiarized myself with all that has happened in Elementia since its creation, and I will be more than happy to answer any questions that you have.”

The Black Hood guided Rex downward, and the wolf touched down on the ground, returning to his sitting position, as Stan stared in wonder. After a moment of stunned silence, Stan finally gathered his thoughts and replied.

“Okay, fine. First of all, King Kev is dead! I watched him stab himself in the chest with his own sword, and then get blown to bits as the tower exploded. Can you explain to me
how
he survived that?”

“King Kev didn't survive the Battle for Elementia, Stan2012. He died in the tower, just like you thought that he did.”

Stan did a double take. “But . . . then . . . how . . .”

“Tell me something,” the Black Hood said. “What did King Kev look like right before he died?”

As wildly as his head was spinning, Stan tried to think back to that day all those months ago. “Well . . . I knocked him into the tower against the wall . . . and I hesitated to stab him for a few seconds . . .”

“And what did he look like during those last seconds of his life?” the Black Hood pressed on.

Stan stared at the Black Hood incredulously. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Answer the question, Stan2012,” the Black Hood replied, a bit more sternly this time.

Baffled as to why the Black Hood was so focused on this minute detail, Stan pictured the fight in his head once again. “Well, King Kev got knocked to the ground, he was really weak from our attacks . . . he got slammed into the wall, and accidentally opened all the windows . . . and then I wasn't sure if I could bring myself to kill him, he looked so pathetic . . . his face was screwed up in anticipation, just waiting for me to finish him off . . .”

“That wasn't anticipation, Stan2012,” the Black Hood replied. “While you were debating whether or not to kill King Kev, he was quickly setting himself up for the greatest escape in the history of Minecraft.”

“What does that mean?” Stan demanded.

“As King Kev lay with his back to the wall, he knew that he couldn't win the fight,” the Black Hood explained. “Between fighting Avery007, Apothecary1, and you, Stan2012, King Kev had been weakened to the point where fighting was futile. He knew that he had failed, and that his only chance to maintain power in Elementia was to start over again and build a new empire from the ground up: The Noctem Alliance.”

“But that still doesn't explain how he escaped!”

“He escaped by changing the game mode of Elementia,” the Black Hood replied. “As he sat against the wall, he changed the difficulty setting of Elementia from Hardcore PVP to Normal PVP as quickly as he could. This meant that players who died could respawn. As soon as he did so, he killed himself, respawning at Spawnpoint Hill and immediately proceeding to change the difficulty setting back to Hardcore PVP, so that, once again, any players who died would be banned from Elementia.”

Again, the Black Hood stood quietly for a moment, as Stan tried to digest what was being explained to him. Moments later, Stan replied. “There's no way that that happened.”

“And why not, Stan2012?” the Black Hood replied patiently, as he prepared to rebut each of the arguments that Stan was about to throw at him.

“Well, first off, you need operating powers to change the
game mode of the server!” Stan said. “And King Kev gave up his operating powers a long time ago.”

The Black Hood chuckled. “King Kev
said
that he gave up his operating powers a long time ago, you mean. Think about it, Stan2012 . . . did you ever once see or hear of any evidence that King Kev truly gave up his operating powers, beyond the fact that he never used them?”

Stan opened his mouth to respond, but the retort died in his mouth when he realized that the Black Hood was right. Throughout his time in Elementia, Stan had been told that King Kev was once an operator but had given up his powers in order to keep his people happy. However, he had never once heard of
how
King Kev had given up his operating powers, or, in fact, seen any proof that he had, beyond the fact that he had never used them.

“But . . . then . . . okay,” Stan continued, collecting his thoughts. “If King Kev had operating powers this entire time, then why didn't he use them when he was fighting me on the bridge? I mean, I understand why he didn't go using them all the time if he was pretending that he had given them up, but I think he probably would have been okay with using them if his life was in danger!”

“And therein lies King Kev's fatal flaw,” the Black Hood replied sadly. “He is arrogant, and he thinks very highly of himself. He was too overconfident to use his operating
powers to finish you off quickly. He wanted to toy with you first before destroying you. This trait, and also this fatal flaw, have carried over into King Kev's new identity as Lord Tenebris. Even when Avery007 challenged him, King Kev was far too proud to use his operating powers. If he didn't beat Avery007 fairly, in equal combat, his pride would have been hurt.

“And besides,” the Black Hood continued before Stan could respond, “even if King Kev hadn't been too full of himself to use his powers, he wouldn't have anyway, on the off chance that somebody might find out. If the upper-level players discovered that King Kev was deceiving them, their faith in him as a ruler would have vanished.”

The Black Hood paused yet again to let Stan absorb what he had just said. Stan looked desperate, grasping at straws to try to find another reason why King Kev's return was impossible. Finally, he spoke.

“Okay, let's say by some crazy stretch of the imagination, what you're saying is true. King Kev kept his operating powers this entire time; he changed the difficulty setting of the server, which allowed him to respawn; then he immediately changed it back. Well, if the server was changed off Hardcore PVP mode, even for a few seconds, then shouldn't at least one other player have respawned? I mean, we were in the middle of a huge battle. Players were dying all over the place.
Shouldn't somebody have died and then respawned in those few seconds that King Kev changed the difficulty setting of the server back to Normal PVP?”

The Black Hood smiled. “Can you think of nobody who somehow managed to respawn in Elementia without explanation, Stan2012?”

As soon as he said this, the memory returned to Stan in a flash. He remembered when he and his friends were tunneling back into Element City and had been ambushed by ELM underground. They were about to be overwhelmed when a giant mass of prisoners barreled through the tunnel, driving the bounty hunters away. Leading the charge was a player with a wild glint in his eyes . . . a player that Stan knew to be dead . . .

“Sirus,” Stan breathed.

“Yes,” the Black Hood replied. “Sirus666 was killed during the battle of Elementia at the exact moment that King Kev changed the difficulty setting of the server to Normal, and thus, he was able to respawn along with King Kev. They both returned to Spawnpoint Hill at nearly the same time. Of course, King Kev hid, terrified of being seen, but Sirus666 had been hit by a hallucinogenic potion at the time, so even though he saw King Kev duck into the woods, he didn't recognize him.”

Stan's head was spinning as all the information came
together. He had been expecting to be able to punch dozens of holes in the Black Hood's argument, but yet . . . somehow . . . Stan found that it all made sense.

“So . . . ,” Stan whispered weakly, “it's . . . true? Lord Tenebris and King Kev . . . really are the same player?”

“Yes,” the Black Hood replied.

Stan sank to his knees and put his head into his hands. The Black Hood gave a sad sigh as he watched Stan try to comprehend this horrible truth. For the longest time, Stan had believed that King Kev and Lord Tenebris were two different entities, one of whom had built off the back of the other, and had fought independently of each other to take him down. But only now did Stan see that it was all the work of a single player, who had defied death itself to return to Elementia and do all that he could to destroy Stan and his friends.