HEROBRINE RETURN§

Nick hurriedly slipped behind a pillar as he heard the sound of growling zombies. He was heavily wounded, bruised all over, and was tired from all the fights. He was able to infiltrate the witch's hideout, the hideout was, surprisingly, inside a mountain that's why none of the kingdoms, except Hermitcraft Kingdom, immediately took notice of it.

He quickly and quietly sneeked unnoticed passed all the mobs. The news that he got in was quick to spread for it's hard for him to move around because the mobs are everywhere.

Nick peeked sideways, certain the coast is clear, he made a run towards a black door and quietly shut it behind him.

"Find that intruder! Lord Herobrine must be notified at once! You there, send a skeleton bird to him! Search every room of this place if you had to, he must not escape alive!" Nick heard the witch gruffed.

Nick sighed, he's starting to regret coming here alone, he could have taken Grian, Jerald, Scar, or anyone countable.

Unexpectedly, a green light faintly glowed behind him. He slowly turned around and in an instant his jaw dropped open. "Wow," The only word that came out from his mouth. He didn't expect to find himself inside the room his been searching, "This is it! The potion room!"

The place was full of various potions like strength potions, night vision potions, potion of invisibility, and fire resistance and etc. Mainly, the room is full of fire resistance.

Nick immediately took action to look for the potion he was looking for. He looked under the lowest shelf, he peeked on the highest shelf, and he searched everywhere the potion might be. "Where did they hide it?!" He anxiously said.

At that moment, the door flew open and the witch and five more mobs appeared. Nick locked eyes with the witch, he saw her eyes are burning with furry. "You sneaky rat! Kill 'im!" She ordered as the mobs attack him.

The only thing Nick could do was to dodge, duck, jump, and run. "Cut his head off! I'll be so lucky to have the ancient tech-armor fall into my possession. No wonder you made it far!" The witch chuckled wickedly.

A zombie grabbed his arm and it tightly gripped it's grasped, Nick foresee a skeleton aiming an arrow at him thus he quickly moved and pulled the zombie as a shield. The zombie let out a terrible growl and hurled him against a bookshelves.

He painfully hit the bookshelves by such force causing two of the bookshelves to collapsed. A glowing light escape the gap behind the bookshelves and this caught Nick's eyes. He seized that opportunity and forced himself to stand up and pushed away all bookshelves down. He finally found it! The potion of life!

"Damn it! You worthless walking bones and corpses. He's taking the potion!" The witch yelled.

At the same time, Nick grabbed the potion. He dodged a pouncing zombie but an arrow hit got him on the ankle, but, still he was determined to get out alive as he hurriedly place down a tnt near the wall. He secured the potion as he tried to defend himself, again an arrow struck him on the shoulder.

Kaboom! The wall was blown away by the tnt and made a hole. Filled with dread, the witch angrily grabbed an acidic potion and directly threw it at Nick. Nick didn't have any chance to avoid it as the potion got him on the left eye, the pain was a thousand times the burn. He groaned and took a couple of step back and,unfortunately, he tripped over a plank of wood and fell off.

The witch smiled cruelly imagining him laying dead down below. As she took a peak, she didn't see his body down below but a river. The smile on her face vanished, "Fools! You let him escaped! Summoned every mobs you can find and search for him! The potion is way to valuable to lose! Go!" The witch barked at the mindless mobs. "Herobrine will have my head on a platter if he finds out about this!"

"Hmm...can you just make a new one?" The guardian zombie foolishly inquired.

This angered the witch and punched him on the cheek, "Fool! That potion required rare items to brew it!"

~~~

Meanwhile, Nick was washed up on the riverside somewhere in an unfamiliar forest. He woke up staring at the sun, he shielded his eyes from its ray. He was surprised that he can't open his left eye and he still feel a slight sting of pain.

He dragged himself out of the water and limped toward a nearby tree. He sat down under its shade and let his head rest against its trunk. Nick pulled out the potion and was relief that it's tightly seal and still full.

"I'm glad." He whispered. Unconsciously, he closed his eyes and took a rest. Not knowing, if he'll survived to see the other day or not.

~~~

In the dark dungeon, Hypixel knocked on the door five times before a guard let him in along with the two rulers and Jerald. Jerald was stunned to see Herobrine, not knowing he's actually Steve, all chained up.

Steve was staring on the cold floor, he didn't even glanced up as the door open. He'd been miserably trying to convinced them that an invasion will take place in the next four days but none of them listened.

"I-is he for real?" Jerald continue to stare at him.

Hypixel came and poked him with a stick. Steve didn't made any move.

"H-how?" Jerald surprising glanced at Hypixel.

"My hired mercenaries took him down three days ago. He'd been locked up here since then, he tried to trick us by trying to convince us that an invasion will occur four days from now on. I don't trust him." He said in disgust.

"Why'd he left the Nether alone and let himself get caught?" Jerald suspiciously asked.

"That's why you are here. We want you to make him tell you the truth." Vash said.

Jerald did try to talk to him but it was futile for he refused to speak. "Maybe...he's really telling you the truth." Jerald finally said.

"Don't tell me you're taking his side, Guardian!" Vash eyes him.

This frightened him a bit, "Ah...no, oh great ruler, it's just maybe he's telling you the truth."

"Well...I don't trust him! Maybe we'll try again tomorrow, maybe he'll speak then." Yrinia said as she headed to the door followed by the others.

Jerald glanced over his shoulder and took a last look at him. Something is bugging him, somehow, he doubted that's Herobrine. If he's really Herobrine, he would have escaped from the cell days ago and he wouldn't let himself get caught by some mercenaries. Jerald was quite certain that the real Herobrine would threatened them and thrash around.

Jerald can't blame the rulers for being blind, accepting Herobrine is tough for them since he slaughtered a lot of peole since he rise up and burned many villages to ashes. Jerald also have doubts but he somehow trust him a bit.

He knew that Herobrine, if he's really him, is giving them a warning. Thus what ever happens, he'll get his people ready for the incoming battle, if there's really an upcoming war!