Hardcore Return: War

Preparations

*sneezes* Oh, would you look at that? A chapter is up... oh well

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[Aria POV]

I feel my mind slowly easing itself into a calm state as I sit cross-legged in my mindscape, alone. I was trying to focus on my ender-half, coax it out once more and practice holding it. If I could do it while I was sleeping, my theory was that it will help how long I could maintain it while I'm awake. It's been a few actual days since we arrived, or maybe just one? I lost count since I have spent a majority of it bedridden and struggling to recover.

Only yesterday could I finally sit up without coughing up blood.

I shake my head slightly, regaining my focus. I could feel the ender-half coming closer, but each time it was near, I would lose it. My mind was borderline straining. It was closer than the last time I tried, but I could feel it slipping away again. I growl, trying to call it out, but I was losing the battle again...

Until it suddenly stops.

I feel a foreign power ever so slightly sink in, and the ender-half was reacting to it, drawing towards me a bit more easily. I try to hold back another growl. "Go away, I am trying to do this on my own." However, I feel his footsteps appear and grow close despite my asking him to be gone.

"You always were stubborn."

He stands just behind me, I can feel it. I keep my eyes closed, pushing his power out and refocusing on the ender-half. I could feel it already slipping away again, and I open my eyes to watch it slink back into the darkness just ahead of me. I reach out for it, hoping to grab even a sliver of it, but it is gone and I let out a defeated sigh.

"Dang it..."

I return to my sitting position with an aggravated huff, glaring at the shadow being cast over me. 'Don't like that...' I swiftly stand and turn to my left, ignoring him completely. Taking a few steps, I begin trying to remember how I controlled the ender-half before, but his voice echoes beside me.

"I had helped you there too, you know."

I try to ignore him again. Talk about the most annoying house guest ever. Uninvited, rude, and doesn't know when to go away because he's unwanted. I hold that all in, putting up a block in my own mind from him. It was something I had learned fairly easily, and it was obvious that it had shocked Herobrine at how quickly I figured it out.

I continue walking, trying to ignore his very existence in my mind.

His voice makes that very difficult.

"You know, I could be more helpful if you'd just let me-"

I whirl around on him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and dragging him extremely close to my face.

"Listen here, you bright-eyed, murderous maniac. You have no right to ask or even insinuate a level of trust like that. I know enough of what that could do, and I will not give you that kind of power. Not while my friends are around for you to torment again."

My voice was low, the venom dripping from each word. I could feel my ender-half basically crawling up my leg and into my being easily with the rage and anger flowing from me. Herobrine's gaze was unemotional, the initial shock from my sudden movements gone after my first few words. He was gazing into my own eyes with a cold expression that was teetering on the edge of determination.

Until a smile breaks across his face.

I growl, feeling my face shift. "What?"

He speaks, haughtiness evident in his voice.