Tales of Minecraft: The Curse (Remake)

25: Is it really.....?

Alex's POV
I had read of the Nether being described as 'hell', but I didn't really appreciate that description until I was standing there. The ground was the consistency of dirt, except that it was a deep red and heat seemed to radiate from it. Above, there was no sky, only a roof of deep red rock and grey, ashen air. Just by flicking my eyes around, I could see islands of red rock and dirt hanging over a massive sea of lava. Everything was red or black or orange. It really was hell.

"Lovely, cheery place, isn't it?" Luke commented, coming out of the portal last.

"I'm going to assume that that was sarcasm," Jade said.

Luke grinned at him. I rolled my eyes and took a better look at the area we were in by walking a little closer to the edge of the platform. I had read that the Nether was populated with strange creatures, such as part-zombie part-pig men, flying wailing heads, skeletons as black as coal and howling creatures that blazed with fire. I couldn't see any of them, however, at least from my position.

"There are no monsters," I said, accidentally interrupting a conversation between Zip and Tim.

"What?" Tim asked.

I waved at the area around us. "There's supposed to be all sorts of strange monsters here, but I can't see any of them."

"That's good, right?" Luke asked. "That means we don't have to fight anything."

"True," Zip said. "But the question is: Where did they go? And why?"

We stood in silence for a moment, pondering these questions. Then Jade pointed to something buried in the red rock wall behind us.

"Is that glowstone?" he asked. "Cause it looks like a stone, and it's glowing."

The purple portal had disappeared at some point since Luke had stepped through and now we could see a set of yellow stones half buried in the rock. I walked up to them and tapped them a little. They made a light ching sound.

"Yup, that's glowstone," I said.

Tim pulled out his axe and scratched off the surface of the stone while I held the all-important potion underneath to catch the dust. It trickled into the liquid, which slowly turned from pink to a pearly white. I capped the lid back on and handed it to Zip.

"Alright," she said, putting away the bottle back in the leather bag and tying it to her belt. "So we're in the Nether and the potion is ready. According to what Alex heard from the Zombie King, the source of the curse is in a castle in the Eastern Nether."

"Herobrine's castle," I corrected.

"Are you sure Alex?" Luke asked.

I nodded. It made sense, and something inside told me that it was true.

"So we have to find a castle," Zip started, "and th-"

"Like that castle just there?"

We spun around and looked at where Luke was pointing. There was an island in the middle of the lake of lava, a brown metal drawbridge connecting it to the landmass that we were on. A large castle, made of deep red bricks and black windows, stood in the very centre, surrounded by high stone walls. The iron gate was wide open.

"Can you start mentioning these things earlier Luke?" Tim asked.

"What?" Luke said. "It's pretty obvious, not my fault that you guys don't look."

"I don't know if that's Herobrine castle," Zip said. "If it was, there would be monsters guarding it, or at least the gate would be closed and the drawbridge would be up."

"It is his castle," I said before I could think.

"How come you're so sure?"

I could only shrug. "Who else would build a castle in the Nether?"

There were a few nods. Zip shifted her sword that was at her side like usual.

"I don't know guys," she said uncertainly. "This all seems way too coincidental. I mean, we come out of a portal that was conveniently near us, and it takes us right next to Herobrine's castle? Something's up."

"Do we have another option Zip?" Jade asked.

She gave a heavy sigh. "No, we don't. Stay on your guard. I have a really bad feeling about this."

We started heading down from the platform we were on to the castle drawbridge down below. There was a track that was steep and slippery and we followed it down, almost slipping several times but managing to keep our feet. The track spat us out just at the edge of the drawbridge. We slowly walked across it, our weapons out, watching all around us. I wondered if this was a trap. No, I knew that this was a trap, but we couldn't avoid it. We came to the large iron gate and stared up at the massive castle.

"Soooo..... What now?" Luke asked.

"We go to the Great Hall," I answered instantly.

My friends all stared at me. "How do you know that?" Tim asked.

"I.... don't know," I admitted.

Zip gripped her sword tighter. "This is definitely a trap," she muttered. "Come on, let's spring it."

We walked through the castle, which was completely empty except for us. Presently, we came to a set of large double doors made of a deep purple (almost black) stone. The handles were pitch black and shaped like a shark tooth. Zip put her hand to one of them, glanced at us to make sure that we were ready, then pushed the door fully open.

The room was massive, made of a black stone and it was completely empty. Carvings of skulls and various weapons decorated the walls and the ceiling high above. Torches hung at regular intervals, casting a low light that only just illuminated the room. Sitting next to the wall at the other end of the room, directly opposite us, was a strange glowing stone that rested on a small podium. The stone was continually changing colours, from green to white, to black, to yellow, to purple and back to green. We slowly walked into the room, our weapons up, watching the stone.

"So all we need to do is walk up and dump the potion on that stone, which I'm assuming is the source of the curse since it's doing that weird colour change thing?" Luke asked. "This is way too easy."

"How did you know this was here Alex?" Zip asked, suspicion in her voice.

"I don't know!" I said. "I just.... knew somehow."

Zip turned away, scanning the walls like she was looking for something.

"We know you're here," she called. "We're not stupid."

Her words and her brave tone echoed on the walls and faded away. We stood and waited, every muscle in our bodies tensed. The yellow flames of the torches suddenly became white and the room was filled with light. My eyes squinted as they tried to adjust to the sudden light change. Something dropped down from the high ceiling behind us and landed with barely a sound in front of the door, which shut with a loud bang. I jumped and spun towards it. A figure was standing there, a slight grin on his face, wearing his trademark blue shirt and purple pants, his eyes flashing the same colour as the torches.

"Herobrine."

Chapter in original book: First half of 30

The next chapter is the classic 'Time to explain every single thing in this book' chapter that I always seem to have, so sorry 'bout that. I'm going to completely change most of it, so hopefully it's not as boring and a lot less cringy.