A Glitch of Magic - a Hermitcraft (and third life?) Fanfiction

Chapter 21

'Hello, BigB.' 

His eyes flashed open, memories running in his head. Trying to find Grian. Fighting. Watching the others fall around him, before unconsciousness hit him. 

He thought he was dead.

But still. 

He was alive. 

'W...what's...going on?' He managed to say, getting to his feet. He was in a decently large room, with stone walls and a throne in front of him, made of blue crystal. Diamond? His first thought was, but quickly shot down. No, it wasn't diamond.... What was it? 

'Don't worry.' Herobrine grinned from upon the throne, bringing BigB back to what was actually important. He was completely unarmed, but he still let a hint of aggression into his voice as he spoke again.

'I'm not going to join you, you know.' He spat. A laugh in reply. 

'I didn't think you'd want to at first. I didn't give any of the others a chance, I admit, to explain me why. But go ahead, tell me. Why don't you want to join me? Why should I let you have your freedom?'

'Because you're destroying this server, and ruining the lives of everyone in it. Grian's one of my best friends, and you're trapped him.'

'Your best friend that never contacts you?'

'I... Grian kept in touch!'

'When?'

'Regularly.' Answering quickly, BigB refused to be thrown by the questioning. 

'How regularly?'

'Regularly enough to know that you're wrong. You don't even know anything about me.' 

'I know more about you than you do.'

'You're lying.' 

'Fine. Phantom?'

Herobrine's closest slave stepped from the shadows, eyes bright blue and a pair of half-vex, half-phantom wings behind him. There was a sword in his hand. 

'What did you want?' He stared at the ground, refusing to look his master in the eyes.

'Kill him.' 

After a moment of indecision, Phantom pounced. It was all over in seconds, body lying sprawled in the middle of the room, blood spreading slowly across the floor. Bdubs stared at it uncomprehendingly. 

'Well done. Clear this corpse up, so we're ready for our next victim.'

Listlessly, he obeyed, bile rising in his throat as he dragged the body of his fellow third-lifer away. He felt the burning eyes of Herobrine on him as he reached the edge, turning to watch as Joel stumbled in, still hurt from the battle, limping, blood plastering his hair. Even before Herobrine opened his mouth, he spoke.

'I'm not joining you.'

There was no reply from the glitch, merely a curious head-tilt. 

'Whatever happens if I don't, I'm not joining you. You're nothing but a monster.'

'Alright.'

'W...what?' 

'Phantom, bring her in.'

For a moment Bdubs was confused, but then he remembered, and left the room. He didn't want to do this. He couldn't do this. Not in front of Joel. But he had to obey. Obey on his own, or be forced into doing stuff much worse. 

He return a few minutes later, dragging behind him a terrified player. Joel froze at the sight of her.

'Lizzie... no...'