Hero's Bane

Chapter 22: Is Wrong

Darkness had surrounded Steve after feeling a heavy pressure weighing on his head and shoulders, it was a recognizable feeling he had felt once before but it was a completely different this time. In the black that encircled him; he could hear muffled voices shouting, the tones grew louder and more define with each second and yet he couldn't distinguish any of the voices or completely make out what any of them were saying. The shouts sounded hostile and bitter, now this was starting to seem familiar and he didn't like it one bit. Here he was in this darkness but he felt something brush against him. He quickly shrunk back in fear, unsure of what was touching him. A minute passed and now he had more things brushing up against him nearly on all sides but what ever was making the contact wasn't directly assaulting him at least.

"What's going on?!" The miner shouted, but received no answer.

The blackness that obscured his vision slowly began to lighten to his surprise, but instead of fading into white it faded into a pallet of warms colors and moving forms of what looked like people. Steve blinked and shook his head over and over, hoping that doing so would clear up the haze and slowly he found himself surrounded by blurry beings.

"People?" He asked quietly to himself. It was now clear that he was standing in a large crowd of enraged villagers, that explained the voices. He was completely enclosed by idle bodies that raised their arms in the air and shook fists, torches, and even weapons of various sorts. Steve turned to each side to notice that all of the people around him were facing in a single direction, he couldn't see too well with all of arms and bodies blocking out his sight but this mass of angry men and women was definitely starting to seem pretty familiar. A small object quickly flew above his head and Steve watched it as it disappeared over the crowd, then another.

"Murderer!" A lady in an old-fashioned brown dress to his side screamed in anger, she then reached down to pick up a small stone before chucking it over the other enraged civilians.

Steve could suddenly understand all of the voices around him, they were all bursting with rage. So many words of hate and resentment filled his ears, it was then when everything was coming back to him. Steve started to push himself through the congested crowd towards a large stone column that stood high and blocked out the setting sun, he received a few weird looks and rude comments from the people he accidentally bumped into but chose to continue disregarding the bad remarks.

"Hey!" A random man in the mass grabbed Steve by the shoulder and spun him around after the miner had inadvertently stepped on his heel. "Watch it klutz!"

"Uh? Sorry!" Steve said with light sincerity before turning back to weave through more bodies, something in his gut told him to get to the front of the crowd pronto. The more further he made it through the crowd the more of the stone column he could see, and it wasn't long before he caught a glimpse of glowing orbs piercing the shadowed stake. Steve froze in his place and his eyes widened after he made it closer to the pillar.

... ...

"Herobrine?" He quietly asked while gaping up at the being restrained to the stone, but his own voice was drowned out by the angry crowd labeling the half god as a monster and murderer. Everything was coming back to him now and he feared looking into those white eyes, afraid that he'd be attacked somehow if he did but he couldn't help himself. Those eyes though, weren't trained on the miner specifically, the focus was on the entire crowd before him and Steve was just another speck in the sea of people.

He watched as Herobrine grimaced, then the being closed his eyes and sharply wailed in pain out loud. Steve's gaze moved downward to the immortal's torso and that was where he saw blood seeping from several wounds that trailed down his shirt and even down to his pants. Bright threads of light glowed from the gashes, once the glow died down that is when a sharp object was plunged into the being to replace the healed one.