Born A Soldier (Reader X Herobrine)

Chapter Eighteen

Finally.
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     "It started with your betrayal, brother. You knew I needed your help, yet you still chose mortality over our own plan! Because of you, I had to rethink our plan to make up for your absence, costing the movement a near century! We could have been emperors, Steve! Yet you THREW it all away!"

     The older man watched the engaged one with a still, calm, studying expression.

     Herobrine spoke again. "Don't you miss our little excursions?.. Just brothers being brothers..? Don't you miss being gods...capable of doing anything when we put our minds to it?" A more somber, almost sorrow tone had taken shape on the immortal. Steve was silent, still, clearly thinking. Then, he slowly leaned forward, looking Herobrine directly in the eyes.

     "When I see your eyes... I don't think of power. I don't see a god... I don't even see my brother. .... All I see is a man who sold his soul for power, and couldn't even find anything to do with it.. I left, not because I hated you, but because I finally realized what it was turning us into... What it was turning ME into... I hope you will understand..someday."

     "IF I am even given another day.." Herobrine scoffed, again crossing his arms. Steve just nodded.

     "Indeed.. I am trying to give you as many days as I can...but justice is still due.. And if not paid through forgiveness...it must be paid in blood."

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     Indeed, the trip was long and tiring. It had been a while since your last hike, usually on missions with your fellow soldiers, so your feet had lost their ability to become numb quicker, stuck in uncomfortable soreness.

     Your old group of monsters had only grown closer, now that you saw the need you had for them being on your side. You didn't talk against Herobrine around them, instead focusing on simple bonding moments that made them more like friends. You wanted, at the very least, for them to hesitate if told to kill you..if the time came. The hardest one to bond with by far was Bart, who was closed off to all friendship in general. After a week of travel had passed, however, he was at last beginning to accept you as a decent acquaintance. As for the week itself, it was mostly boring. You could do little but talk to the gang: Mandie, Bart, Billy, and the triplets as you walked from one small base to another. All the bases of which wove through a mountain range and their occasional oasises. For the first time, you tasted the sour glow berries, which made for an interesting side dish when put together with normal berries and some slices of bread.

     Anna was doing fine too, by the way. She had quieted down a lot; had changed from her usual bubbly self. You greatly wished that this was a short term thing, since it hurt to think that all this might effect her long-term. Hopefully...it was just her way of saving her energy and waiting for the right moment to run away.

     At last.

     After an entire week of travel, you had arrived.

     Wedged in-between a cluster of sheer cliffs, stood a collection of rickidy forts make of creaky wood and crumbling cobble. It was scarry enough thinking that soon you would have to scale that hazard; even more terrifying when you realized that this was THE final destination.

     On the ground now, Herobrine looked at a collection of his soldiers, giving them a simple order as he pointed to Anna, "Keep her here, and set up camp... (Y/n), Mandie and Harben, come with me. You were then accompanied by your two enderman escorts, one of them in particular beaming after her own name called by the king himself. Looks like she had been growing up the ranks as you had been stuck at the bottom.