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

Chapter 29

By the way, the first sentence of this chapter is 71 words long. :)

The day after Grian had escaped quickly became stay-away-from-Herobrine day since, upon appearing in his presence, you would be promptly yelled at, threatened to be turned into a rodent or spider, told that everything was your fault and your fault only and have stuff that happened to be most convenient thrown at you until you promptly scarpered and asked whoever was nearest that wasn't also in a bad mood what happened. As it happened, Martyn, Cleo and Etho all had to face this, with the latter already chased away from his imprisonment, bleeding badly. The Arctic fox had eventually found an opening and ran off, finding Martyn standing tiredly with a headache outside. 

'What happened?'

'Herobrine yelled at you too?' The newly-crowned king sighed. 'It's mostly because Grian got out and he realised that Cub wasn't going to let his curse of shared-injuries bother him when it came to fighting.'

'Shared injuries?'

'Apparently whenever Cub hurts Scar, or Herobrine, he feels all the pain himself. Also, he dies too if he kills Scar.'

'That should be more helpful.' 

'Yeah... if Cub wasn't Cub.' 

'True. I also saw the messages about Stress and Wels... so Jevin's on our side.'

'Apparently. Though I wasn't told about it, and he's not come back here.'

'Must be one of the ones like Tango and Doc who Herobrine can sometimes force into helping. Unlike us who're truly loyal to him.'

'Well, when the final battle comes, we'll come out on top, and they'll realise what their mistake was this whole time.' 

The conversation was interrupted by what sounded like a full set of armour being thrown against the wall. Etho looked over at Martyn,

'Herobrine?'

'Herobrine.'

'Should we try to talk to him?'

'Tried that. Almost died. Don't want to do it again.' 

'Fair enough.' 

'What should we do instead?'

'Practice fighting?'

'Yeah!'

'WHY?!' Herobrine snarled, pacing the room. Everything was going wrong. His plans. His carefully figured out plans. All gone. The watcher had been set free. Cub had betrayed him.  And their side had way more players. If this were to come to a fight, as he expected it would, it would all be far too tight. 

Just accept what you've got. The  side of his inner thoughts that wasn't GoodtimeswithScar sighed. You're almost in control of Hermitcraft, and you have the Vexlings on your side. All you were wanting to get out of this was a physical form. And you've got one. 

IT'S NOT ENOUGH. He yelled back. I NEED MORE. THIS PLAN NEEDS TO WORK. BUT THESE STUPID HERMITS KEEP RUINING IT FOR ME!

'MARTYN!' He screeched. 'I WANT TO TALK TO YOU!' 

No reply, so he summoned the fake-king with magic instead. He appeared in the middle of the room, mid-swing, and promptly dropped his axe. 

'Herobrine. What did you want?'

'Who's still given me their unwavering loyalty?'

'Me, Etho, Cleo... Joel I guess, but he's a dog. Tango and Doc sometimes... oh, and Gem.' Martyn looked up from his fingers. Herobrine scowled at them.

'Why are there so few of us?'

'Well, Cleo can summon us some armour-stands to assist us...'

'I̶̢̘̗̙̮̖̣̦͚̠͚̘̬̳͕̤͙͌̃̊̀̿̓́́̂̂́͑̕͝Ṯ̷͔̭̔̽̓͘͝'̶̧̢͕̤̤̲̞̪̞̳̺̝̌̈́̃̎̀̊̂̈́S̶̨̧̧̠̪̭͇̱̲͍̬̻̝͉̻̆̀͊͗͒̀͛̂̈͌ ̷͔̬̺͖̆̀̒̈́̈̒̈̌̀̓̊̍͒̚ͅǸ̸̡̨̮̝̞̭͎̯͔͚͋̾͒̾̅͛Ö̶͍͚̦̗́̿́̀̋̔̂̾̕͘͠Ţ̷̺̖̘͕͚͎̠̹͈͓̫̹͖͔̟̭̀̍̂̀̆̌͒̌̿͑̿́̃̊̆̚͝ ̵̧̨̬̼̬̭̯̠̦͋͂͂̎̒̾̏͒̊͊́͋ͅE̶̢̡̼̰̝͍̬̼͎̗̟̩̙̻̙͉̾͛̄̑̉̋͌̍̏̍̓͂͠ͅͅN̵̡̢̼̳̳̹̙͍͔̦͆͆͊͂͋̍̇̂͑̑̂̓͝͝Ǫ̵̧̢͙̱̼̠̙͓̹̹̣̰̰͕̝̼̥͒̀̀͒̽̊̇͘Ŭ̸̘̜̫̘̲̱͉̹̬͎͙̿̓̚G̶̤̬̩͓̩̯̳̀̽̒̈̔͗̑̽̒͗͘̕̚͝͝͝H̸̨̪̪͚͙̭̗̯͒̄̔͆̋͐̀̿̀̈̃͋.' 

'Calm down! Please!' Martyn backed away, almost tripping on his cloak. Herobrine resumed his pacing. 

'It's not enough. It'll never be enough. I'll fail this and return to being nothing. Less than nothing.' In his furious panic, it was like he'd forgotten that Martyn was there, at least until he spoke again.

'Herobrine?'

'GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!' He threw the sword he was holding at Martyn, who promptly scarpered,  swearing that he wouldn't return until the glitch was in a better mood. 

Hypno walked the remains of their hang-out with disbelief, still bleeding. The other three seemed equally shell-shocked, other than TFC, who simply sighed. 

'We should find the rest of the hermits on our side. I think they're over at Boatem village.' 

He set off, and Iskall and Beef followed behind, the latter pausing to make sure that Hypno was actually coming. Eventually, he turned, and with a heavy heart, set off with the others towards Boatem. 

It was a long journey, especially without elytra, and the place was deserted. The only movement came from what Iskall recognised as Grian's starter base, and they all crept over to it, wary of anyone watching. 

As they got nearer, they heard Cub's voice from inside. Hypno glanced over, as if wondering if it was safe for them to enter, but opened the door anyway. 

'Hypno?' Jevin stood there, looking highly uncertain. The black-clad hermit froze. Why was that murderer here?! What had happened? Was everyone lying about being on their side? What if him, Iskall, Beef and TFC were the only ones left who weren't fighting for Herobrine? 

'Hypno, are you ok?' He snapped out of his moment of panic at Pearl's question. Unable to find a coherent answer, he replied with an 'uhh... what?'. 

'We're Not on Herobrine's side, Hypno.' False added. 

'Then why is that MURDERER here.' He pointed right at Jevin, who shrunk away. Almost instinctively, Cub stepped in front of him.

'If Jevin hurt you, Herobrine made him do it.'

'How do we know he won't kill for him again?' He challenged.

'It's alright. I can go and mope with Tango...' Jevin muttered back sullenly. 

'You are not within the same rank of untrustable as Tango, buddy..' Skizz called down from halfway up the stairs. 'Stay here. It's only Hypno that doesn't trust you.' 

'We're also here, by the way.' Beef appeared over Hypno's shoulder. 'Me, TFC and Iskall. Tango burnt down our old place.'

'Hey!' Pearl called over. 'Come in, if Hypno decides if he wants to enter or not.' 

As though broken from a trance, Hypno entered, letting the other three in. TFC closed the door behind. Cub sighed. 

'Right. Everyone gather around. We're going to win this.'

'How?' Pearl argued back. 'Herobrine can't die permanently!'

'Yes, he can.' Cub slammed something on the table with more force than necessary. 'And I'll explain how.'

Rubbish ending.