Forewarning: (Slightly graphic) Death.
Accept it, accept it, accept it... The voice echoed.
No! It could destroy Minecraftia! Grian fought back.
Minecraftia will be destroyed anyway. Everyone you love... images of Mumbo, Pearl, Xisuma, False, the hermits... all of them dying, a sword stuck through them like Grian.
I can't! I won't! I promised! Grian could feel the nothingness taking over. He was nearly dead.
You must accept the void! It's the only way to save them! Take your place as Minecraftia's leader! Rise, Xelqua! Accept the void!
A-accept it? Grian thought of everyone he loved. Everyone was going to die. Dead like his mother and father. He couldn't save his parents. But he had a chance to save his new family.
Accept the void! Accept the void! Accept the void! The voice begged.
I... I accept the void.
Hevonir surveyed the destroyed admin grounds. Hundreds of watchers and admins alike littered the earth. But the most satisfactory corpse had to be the prime admin, laying in the center of a small clearing. Slew by the head watcher.
Hevonir smiled. All his enemies had been defeated. Notch's descendant had been too weak to accept his birthright... and now he had paid. As Hevonir turned to attack the main headquarters building, a loud whooshing noise filled the admin grounds.
"No..." Herobrine's descendant gasped as he was thrown out of the air by a spasm of bright pale blue. The prime admin's body floated into the air, spinning in a beam of light. His eyes were closed as if the watcher-prime was merely sleeping.
Grian gradually regained his senses. There was no pain... no fear... and then there was agony. A hot white light erupted in Grian's chest, sending spasms up and down his body. Grian screamed as every hair on his body felt like it had been lit on fire.
His muscles were all pulling, his bones were being crushed, and his entire body felt like it was imploding and exploding at once. There was so much light... the magic was killing him. He couldn't hold it, it was too much. Grian felt his skin sear as his magic marks burned, overloading.
Any second now he would explode, it was too much to bear. But if Grian died holding Notch's power, Minecraftia would end. Grian was the last descendant. He would take Minecraftia to the grave.
Grian's head pounded, his tendons strained, and his entire body shook violently. He could feel the wound in his stomach melding over. Yet there was still more magic. More and more and... boom! A powerful pulse of light exploded from Grian's body. Boom! Boom! The light continued to spasm.
With each spasm, Grian was pushed closer and closer to the edge...
Then with a final burst of blue, the same color as the void, the beacon vanished and Grian was falling to the ground like a rocket. Just as Grian was about to hit the ground he regained control of his senses and suddenly he wasn't falling. He was flying!
Grian felt the exhilarating rush of the air as he hovered above Minecraftia. So this was what it felt like to be a higher power. Grian felt completely in control, painless, and carefree. It was as if he had been born again, fresh and new.
Grian's prime robes had fallen off, of course. He was now merely wearing his tattered, stretched pants and the golden ring around his neck. Grian's bare back and his magic marks were exposed in the moonlight. They were now a blue color, not gold.
"Notch." Hevonir breathed. Grian whipped around to face Herobrine's descendant, and the peace was refueled with rage.
"Herobrine." Grian's voice came out controlled, though Grian himself shook with anger. "Well, you're dead," Grian smirked.
"You were dead!" Hevonir cried. He too trembled in rage.
"Obviously not." Grian just laughed.
Hevonir sent a bolt of red magic at Grian. Grian caught the ball of red and disintegrated it in the palm of his hand. "Herobrine, you've become too cocky. I gave you your powers." Grian was filled with the knowledge of Notch. "The void didn't corrupt me... you did. You traitorous creeper!"
Grian's eyes began to glow a light blue color, and several blocks of grass were uprooted from the earth. The blocks swirled up and floated around Grian. "Now you'll pay!" Grian's voice thundered. It sounded as though he spoke with a hundred voices and a wave of magic knocked Herobrine from the sky.
"So I bent your mind a bit! The void was already driving you crazy!" Herobrine yelled. Grian roared. Suddenly it felt like Notch and Herobrine were the ones fighting, and Hevonir and Grian were merely their tools.
"You killed Xicom!" Notch yelled, sending a barrage of magic-infused grass blocks at Herobrine. The grass blocks knocked Herobrine lower and lower down the sky.
"He was weak! He refused to fight you! His death was well-deserved!" Herobrine yelled. Grian couldn't control his body, it was moving of its own accord. Somehow Notch has taken control! Grian felt relieved for a second... and then petrified. If Notch had control over the living from the grave... what else did his powers entail?
"And now you'll die for him!" Notch roared, spinning in midair and releasing a barrage of poisoned daggers. Herobrine was back up against the wall of the admin headquarters.
A dagger pierced Herobrine's shoulder, pinning him to the wall behind him. Herobrine cried out in pain. A second dagger pierced Herobrine's shin. A third cut his ear open. The fourth impaled itself right in Herobrine's chest.
White blood seeped from Herobrine's wounds, and his glowing eyes faded in and out of transformation. "Niaya... Zebdar... finish this." Herobrine gurgled his last words and then went limp.
Notch turned to Gem and Scar. Grian knew in an instant that Notch was going to kill them. Grian watched through what seemed like Notch's eyes as Zebdar and Gem's eyes faded back to normal. They were free. But Grian wasn't.
"GRIAN! That was awesome, man!" Scar flew over to Grian and leaned forward to give him a hug.
"GET AWAY!" Grian screamed, managing to regain control of his mouth for less than a second. Notch hissed and raised one of his hands. Two invisible grips latched themselves on Scar and Gem's necks.
"Aah! Grian-" Gem gasped for air, "what," Gem huffed, "are - you - doing?" Gem's face was getting paler. Scar was wriggling frantically, trying to push the hand off him.
"Once you're gone I'll be the only higher power again. It was a mistake to give them their power. They can't be trusted. Only I can rule Minecraftia." Notch's voice boomed. Gem and Scar's faces were turning blue. Grian fought with all his strength, but he couldn't regain control over his own body.
I trusted you! Why are you doing this! Grian screamed.
"Foolish boy. Never trust anyone. Not your friends, not your family, and definitely not a higher power. Those in authority only think of themselves." Notch answered.
You're wrong! Pearl leads Minecraftia single-handedly and she's the most selfless person I know! Gem and Scar didn't have a choice but to accept their powers! I forced them to! And now you'll kill them for it? Grian knew his friends didn't have much time left - they were fighting for seconds of life.
"I'm afraid it's too late." There was no remorse in Notch's cold voice.
Grian had to fight him off. Grian remembered why he had managed to survive taking on Notch's power... by thinking of his friends. Now his friends were going to die at his hands.
Grian thought about when he first met Gem, a bubbly level four taken under Xisuma's wing. He remembered the first weird rush of adrenaline that he now knew as the higher power aura, hidden from everyone else.
Grian remembered just this past week, Scar had saved Grian's life. Since then Scar had been the most funny, awesome fellow prankster to get to know.
Grian thought of all the dead admins that littered the grounds below. They would all die for nothing once Notch took over. He only cared about power.
Grian had to fight. To defeat Notch once and for all. To save his friends. To save Minecraftia!
With a surge of power, Grian forced his hands to unclench, and the arms choking Scar and Gem vanished. Grian forced his head to turn, to survey the damage. Grian fought his grandfather to move every step of the way.
What he was about to do would probably kill him. But that was good because Grian was too much of a threat now to live. Grian got down onto one knee, letting his new powers flow through him for the first time. And the last.
"Xelqua?" Grian heard a voice he didn't think he would hear again. He strained to turn his head to face her. Pearl was standing some feet away. A level nine admin Grian recognized as Myth Sausage and a figure wearing a dark blue cloak stood behind Pearl.
"Pearl." Grian fought just to say the name aloud, "I'm sorry." Grian managed.
"Sorry for what? You defeated them." Pearl was confused.
"At what cost?" Grian asked. Pearl surveyed the hundreds of admins littering the ground, her face somber.
"Xelqua, it's not our fault-"
"But it is, Pearl. And I'm going to make it right. Now get back. I'm sorry." Grian repeated.
Boom! A circle of blue magic exploded around Grian, cracking the ground. "⎓∷╎ᒷリ↸ᓭ 𝙹⎓ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ !¡ᔑᓭℸ ̣" Grian whispered. A circle of blue ruins surrounded the first circle.
"!¡ᔑᓭᓭᒷ↸ ʖᒷ||𝙹リ↸ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ↸ᒷᔑ↸." Grian spoke, and another circle of ruins branded the earth.
"∷╎ᓭᒷ ⚍!¡ 𝙹リᓵᒷ ᒲ𝙹∷ᒷ." The third chain of ruins built onto the last.
"⎓𝙹∷ ||𝙹⚍∷ ⋮𝙹⚍∷リᒷ||ᓭ リ𝙹ℸ ̣ ᒷリ↸ᒷ↸. ∷╎ᓭᒷ ⎓∷╎ᒷリ↸ᓭ. ∷𝙹ᓭᒷ! ∷╎ᓭᒷ! ∷╎ᓭᒷリ!" Grian shouted. The circles glowed with a fierce blue light, and an explosion of bright blue racked the grounds.
Pearl watched, awestruck as hundreds of silhouettes got to their feet, dragged from the realm of the dead back to the living. She had never seen any power strong enough to raise the dead. Yet hundreds now awoke in the span of seconds.
It was terrifying, amazing, and... awful. Pearl shielded her eyes as the light burned even brighter before fading back to nothing. The admins yawned and stretched as though they had awoken from a deep slumber. Pearl turned to look at Grian - and her breath caught in her throat.
Grian crumpled the ground, his breathing labored. His heart slowed. It was too much magic. He had used up every last ounce of it. He had saved them. But he couldn't save himself.
What have you done!? Notch cried. With Grian's last breaths he whispered, "╎ ᓵ⚍∷ᓭᒷ ||𝙹⚍ ᔑリ↸ ʖᔑリ╎ᓭ⍑ ||𝙹⚍ ⎓∷𝙹ᒲ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∷ᒷᔑꖎᒲᓭ 𝙹⎓ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ꖎ╎⍊╎リ⊣ ⎓𝙹∷ᒷ⍊ᒷ∷!" And then he had nothing left to give.
A/N: I've been working on these past 5ish chapters for SO LONG in the past 2 days. Because of WiFi I couldn't upload them, so you just get a massive load dumped on you in 10 minutes. Thanks for the support and please vote if you like this story!