𝐋𝐀𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄'𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 || gameknight999

EPILOGUE

WONDERING WHY IT CAN'T HAVE JUST BEEN NORMAL

===

Angel's return to Minecraft was gradual.

It took a few days for her to even want to play the game again, and even then, she refused to play it on anything other than singleplayer Creative. She knew it was stupid for her to be scared, but the thought of being thrown back into the middle of a war, every movement and sound assaulting her senses as she risked getting as hurt as she had been by Hunter's arrow, was terrifying for her.

Clara and Tom had helped her through it, of course, just as they had helped her through everything else that had happened in her life. She was so grateful to have relatives like them that actually cared about how she was doing mentally. Tom felt bad especially, given that it was his invention that caused Angel's fear of her favorite game, but Angel didn't blame him.

She blamed herself. It was her fault that she got attached to someone she had barely known. Losing him hurt more than the arrow that had pierced her heart, since even that had faded away. A few weeks had passed, and she still hadn't completely forgotten about Erebus, no matter how much she wanted to. She was much more comfortable playing Minecraft now, however, and had started playing on multiplayer servers in Survival - however, she still refused to touch the VR headset.

It was through mere coincidence that she happened to join the server currently in the middle of another great war for Minecraft.

Angel watched the computer screen intently as her character strode through a thick forest, the sound of Led Zeppelin's second album coming from the vinyl player on top of her bookshelf. Despite it not matching with the mood of the game itself, it gave her something to listen to that wasn't anything that could send her mind back to what had happened a few weeks ago. She refused to think too deeply about it, not wanting her feelings to get in the way of her living a normal life again.

Nodding her head slightly to the Lord of the Rings-inspired song "Ramble On", she glanced around, the sounds from her keyboard joining the music as she surveyed her surroundings. A village was in the distance, and she decided to go over to it, hoping to grab some loot since she didn't have much of her own. The landscape near the village began to render, and Angel noticed her game starting to lag slightly, huffing in annoyance.

As she approached, it soon became clear why.

She caught sight of a few entities by the village, which soon grew into hundreds - no, thousands of beings, all engaged in a war that was far too familiar for her to be comfortable with.

"What the fuck?!" she yelped over the vinyl.

It was almost exactly the same as it had been at the Source - users, iron golems, and villagers were locked in combat with countless monsters at this simple village that lay near an ocean. Drawing closer, Angel could see, off to the side, that goddamn User-that-was-not-a-user that had started everything - Gameknight999, and his friends.

"Why is this happening again?!" she snapped to herself. "Jesus fucking Christ...!"

Gripping a little tighter onto her mouse in frustration, she moved even closer to the chaos, grateful that she was unable to hear the sounds of battle for now; she didn't think she could handle that. As her eyes swept the battlefield, she could see the chaos starting to abate slightly, a certain man on top of a tree shouting orders and immediately drawing Angel's attention.

"Holy shit..."

It was the mysterious shadow-crafter, the one with those burning white eyes that Angel had seen back at the Source. Memories flashed in her mind, memories of him and his words to her just before she had entered the Stronghold-

One side's hero is another side's villain.

The fighting stopped. Monsters began to regroup behind the treeline, gathering behind four beings that appeared to be the leaders of the army - a large zombie with a golden crown and several scars; a tall skeleton with an equally massive bow; a blaze who was on the verge of causing the whole forest to burn down-

And Erebus.

The breath was rent from Angel's lungs as she beheld him, standing at the head of the army of Endermen, an unfamiliar user child in his grasp. Those crimson eyes looked the same as that which had been embedded in his ender pearl, renewed with that hostile and confident light that had drawn Angel to them. It was him, he was here, he was alive.

Leaping up from her chair, she moved over to her vinyl player, lifting the needle from the spinning record there and dashing back to the computer. Grabbing her headphones, equipped with a microphone, she plugged them into the computer, not caring about the noise anymore. It was Erebus, she needed to speak with him one last time, and she didn't care about the consequences anymore.

As soon as she put the headphones on, she dashed over to the treeline, her hands nearly trembling with how excited and nervous and overwhelmed with emotion she was. This was not how she expected this day to go at all, but she didn't care right now.

"Erebus?" she called through the microphone, her voice soft as she watched the King of the Endermen turn to her, his eyes wide. This was almost too good to be true. "Erebus, it-it's me, it's Angel- I'm not wearing the VR system right now, but it's still me, it's Angel..."

He tilted his head to the side, his familiar voice flowing through Angel's ears like a melody, though his words were far less pleasant to hear. "I'm not Erebus," he said calmly.

Angel blinked. "What?"

Not-Erebus held no recognition in his eyes for her. "Erebus was my predecessor," he explained. The invisible hand of realization started to grip at Angel's insides as he spoke. "My name is Feyd, the current King of the Endermen. My Maker, Herobrine, created me after Erebus failed to destroy the User-that-is-not-a-user."

Feyd looked up at the shadow-crafter that was standing on top of the tree, surveying the good guys as they, too, retreated to the village.

"Wait..." Angel muttered, looking down.

Herobrine? As in, the urban legend on the internet?

It would make sense, since all of the shadow-crafters had -brine at the end of their names. This would mean that he would craft heroes, except in the eyes of the good guys, they would be villains...

One side's hero is another side's villain. It all made sense to her now.

"Holy shit..." Angel whispered.

If Feyd was to be believed, Herobrine created the powerful monsters that led this army now. The scarred zombie, the tall skeleton, the blaze, Feyd - this had to have meant that Herobrine had created Erebus and Malacoda as well.

Did this mean he had the power to bring them back as well?

Movement caught her eye, and she looked up at the monitor again. Herobrine was there, pulling the user child from Feyd's grasp none too gently. Glowing white eyes seemed to peer past the screen, boring into Angel's soul as another realization struck her.

This time, it was hopeful.

"I'll see you again soon, Angel," Herobrine said, grinning at her as he and the child disappeared. Behind the screen, Angel began to laugh, a plan starting to form in her mind, filling her with a light and a warmth she had thought would be extinguished forever.

God had taken everything that meant something to her once. She was not going to allow Him to do that again.

===

TO BE CONTINUED IN ...WELL, BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE