Hero's Bane

Chapter 69: You're The Shield

"Execution?!" Steve shouted and quickly clenched his fists, he expected that he would be doing something to stop Herobrine but not just going out there to get a the death sentence carried out. He hadn't done anything wrong.

"Are you mad!" Nigel took a step forward and grabbed a hold of the iron bars. "You said you had a plan to get Steve to make Herobrine leave the village alone, I didn't think you were going to force him to go out there and be publicly murdered! What happened to being forced to stay in the village eh?"

"I have my reasons Mr. Benrad Woodwork. I have spent a large portion of the day pondering on what I should do and if it would even be possible to stop Herobrine as the miner here had mentioned earlier. I've come up with the limited options I have and I am not pleased. I doubt forcing the miner into residency will have any affect."

"It's because you can't stop him!" Steve interrupted and moved closer to the barred wall.

"I know that now, you've said many times and made your point clear that not even you can." The village chief huffed. "However, I still intend to try or at least get proper justice carried out before the end."

"By killing Steven?! An innocent man?!" Nigel barked and banged his fit on the bars. "If anything then that would just make Herobrine even more livid! You can't possibly fathom the suffering you'll undergo if you go through with this."

Morrison sighed and stared emptily at the floor before looking intently at the old adventurer. "I look at it this way Nigel; if I can't save my people, then I'll make sure that we all go down together respectively and with justice served to the one who brought this doom upon us. I'd prefer to save my people, so far that plan seems to be very unlikely unless a certain miner can do something for me?" He briefly glanced at Steve. "We can't run away or hide from this impending attack, the demon is restless and relentless. No matter how far we go; he'll follow and we'll surely bleed on his hands eventually.

So leaving is not an option and neither is fighting since no one in this village has the strength to match the monster's. Besides, Steve said that we'd all be the same in his eyes right? There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that we'll all suffer greatly as we die, demons are demons you know. They don't think; they just do and enjoy the sick pleasure of one's pain and agony. But let's not think on that at the moment, we still a very slight hope. I have but two options left." Morrison glanced at his hands and rubbed them together to warm them up from the cool atmosphere of the room, he then looked at the miner with a deep frown across his face. "Steve, you have only two choices here. You get to pick only one though, just keep in mind that our blood will be on your hands regardless of either choice, should blood be spilt at all that is?"

Steve ground his teeth and glared darkly at the old chief standing on the other side of the iron bars, so far his situation seemed tough and it was about to get even more demanding than what he would like; he could just tell from the cold voice of the older man.

"Your first option is the more dead-end one so to speak, one that I doubt you'll chose. We'll just go ahead and take you out to the public meeting platform and have you bound before reading off your charges, I'll then have my team of archers put you down. It's not a good way to go and I've seen a black arrow execution before, once when I was but a mere child. There hasn't been an execution of the sort for decades since, but that can happen again today."

"Charges? I haven't done anything wrong." Steve growled lowly with sharply narrowed eyes.

"That's where you are wrong. I assume that it is your fault that Herobrine is coming to kill us all in the first place right?" He inquired with a raised brow and folded his arms after seeing the miner blink and lightly gape before looking down at one of his hands, now uncoiled. Steve then took a few steps back in what looked like a stunning realization, no longer blind by his half of the argument. "He didn't show us this intention until you came to our homeland and stirred up some trouble I believe. We were only going about our lives like we normally do and trying our best to avoid incurring his wrath as much as we can. I take it from your physical and emotional response that you are indeed why we have all been marked for death? Correct me if I am wrong."