OKAY SO HAHA I KNOW I'VE BEEN OFF FOR AWHILE BUT I WROTE LIKE SO MUCH

I have like...five chapters to post. And yeah some of them are short, but I swear they're good. No more boring expository for this book!
So be warned- some of my A/Ns won't make a lot of sense, because even though I'm posting this all at once, it took me awhile to write all this.

Anyway, where did we leave off?

Right. Herobrine.

Herobrine is way overused as a villain.

GOOD THING I'M NOT USING HIM AS A VILLAIN HAH.

--------------------

"You know who I am, then." Herobrine said softly. I was expecting his voice to be a raspy growl, but it was almost the exact opposite, rich and deep and calming.

Jenni let out a muffled squeak from somewhere behind me, that must have been her panicked version of a 'yes'. Jandro nodded stiffly, keeping a wary eye on the villain and a hand on his sword. I felt frozen, unable to move an inch. He may not have immediately attacked any of us, but that didn't mean we were safe, not by a long shot.

Justin, however, leaned closer to the tall man, looking him over with a curious expression. "I can't say I do..." he replied politely. Jaq made an angry snorting noise. "You don't?! You've never heard ANY stories about him?! Well, someone had a happy childhood."

"I've heard plenty of stories! I just don't remember anything about...whoever he is. I don't recognize him." Justin replied indignantly.

I leaned over to hiss the answer in his ear. "Justin...that is Herobrine. A monster of legend, like 303? We need to get the hell out of here, now."

He looked at me with a faintly baffled expression. "Herobrine? Don't you mean Hero's-Bane?"

"What? Who? No." I objected.

"Yes, she does. I have been known by many names over the years. Herobrine has just become the most well-known. I was called Hero's-Bane in the old years, and many generations later, most dimensions have forgotten that title." Herobrine interrupted. He looked us over with that chilling white-eyed gaze, then continued. "The name does not matter anymore. I am still the being of legend, and people still whisper my stories in fright. Not only am I a legend, I am a slayer of legends. Fighter of gods. Bane of heroes."

"Th-that's very interesting, b-but we r-r-really ought to go now." Jenni babbled nervously, and started to back away. Herobrine frowned worriedly, and held out his hand as though to stop her.

"No, please. I swear I don't want to hurt you. I only wish to help."

"You're evil! How can we trust you?!" Jaq pointed out, waving her sword at him.

"Yes, I am evil. I'm a dark-hearted monster, who's done nothing but kill and destroy. Satisfied?" He relented with a tired sigh. Jenni was still backing away, and Joss looked rather like he wanted to leave as well.

Justin, on the other hand, seemed weirdly unafraid. "Wait, guys. Sure, he's evil, we get it. He can't be worse than 303, right?"

"Exactly. Zelos has terrible plans for you six...and I think I can assist you, at least a little bit." Herobrine said. I lowered my sword, and Jandro did the same. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Because I can. Partially because I'm bored. Because I like seeing my enemies make fools of themselves. And mostly because I don't want to see Zelos back in power."

Jenni stopped trying to get away. "Zelos?" she echoed.

"The being you know as Entity 303. His name was Zelos once, though it has been a long, long time since he was known by that. I doubt he even remembers a time when he wasn't Entity 303. I certainly don't." Herobrine clarified.

"So what does he want from us?" Jaq asked. She was still very on edge, but her interest was piqued.

Herobrine narrowed his eyes at her. "What do you think, Jaq? He wants the Aristan swords."

"But he can't take them..." Jandro trailed off. Herobrine nodded.

"Yes, unless you're dead. Each of the individual swords are powerful, but only when they're wielded by a Shard. To everyone else, they're just an oddly coloured sword. But when a Shard merges all seven of them together, it is a fantastic weapon, that can defeat anything. However, the final form of the Aristan swords can have a terrible impact on the wielder...and impact that even I do not know the extent of."

"So only we can merge the swords." I murmured.

He nodded again. "Yes. And some way, somehow...Zelos is going to escape. He's found a way out of the prison, but needs you Shards to make it work. I do not know what he is planning, though if I did, you can be sure that I would stop him."

A knot of anxiety was forming in my stomach. "Is..." I swallowed hard, trying to think of how to word my question. "Is there any way for us all to make it out alive? Is there any hope for us to return to our lives?"

Herobrine turned his white gaze on me, and I swear I saw some essence of kindness in his blank eyes. "I'm sorry, Jesse. Zelos intends for only one of you will return home, and I have no doubt he will do everything he can to make that true."

Jenni whimpered quietly beside me, no doubt remembering our conversation from last night. Justin shook his head. "B-but no! There has to be a way! We'll all just look out for each other, right? We can't all die in his trials..."

"First, I believe it is a mistake to refer to these only as trials. He called them trials, sure, but he's not truly testing you. For him, saying 'trials' is just simpler than 'death traps', and though the second option sounds much more intimidating, it's unfortunately more accurate. And you saw this maze forming, did you not? If, within the trials he's planned, five of you are not dead, he'll just make more. Entity has been planning this for years, quietly leeching the chaos-power from this place. Here, in this inverted prison, he is more powerful than anything else, even me."

Jaq squared her shoulders, drawing herself up to her full intimidating height. Standing up straight like that, she was nearly taller than Herobrine. "We're powerful too. With our swords, and if we work together, I'm sure there's some way to beat him."

Herobrine tipped his head back, looking up at the sky thoughtfully. He began to speak slowly and passionately, a slight smile appearing on his dark face. "True power, it is not the feeling of a strong sword in your hands, or the triumph of beating a monster. True power comes with mercilessness, the will to do anything you can to get what you want. You don't know what it's like to have the gods themselves doubting if they can take you down. To have the power of the cosmos in your hands. To feel the very world bow to your feet. Nay. All those who have felt that, ended up here a long time ago.

"You have experience with corporeal power, the simple things that make you stronger. Some of you, I see, have had brief contact with deific power, though it was not your own. Myself, Null, the Ender Dragon, Entity 303...we are chaos-power. We have the ability to effortlessly destroy and kill, and we pull power from the bedlam we leave behind. This has labelled us 'evil', and 'monsters', but it's just who and what we are."

He then leaned forward, lowering his voice. "The only way to defeat Zelos is to use what you have. Human stubbornness, determination, and belief. Five of you are likely to die, I'm afraid, and he will gain more power from your loss. But part of being a Shard means you always have a chance, no matter the odds. You are more powerful than you, or he, know. Corporeal and chaos-power can be equal, if used right, and you six are the very embodiment of corporeal power. The one who makes it to the end of these trials will have the ability to defeat Entity- all you need is an Aristan sword and a solid will, which I believe you have."

There was silence for a moment, as this sunk in. "I think that would be a lot more encouraging if it wasn't coming from a legendary villain. No offense." Jenni said with a small smile.

Herobrine grinned. "Believe it or not, that's not the first time I've heard that. Nevertheless, the meaning is the same no matter the messenger."

He had a point. As much as I didn't really want to dwell on the fact that we were taking advice from Herobrine, he was kind of the best we had at the moment. Justin, yet again, seemed to be the most okay with talking to him. The rest of us were calmer now, but we were understandably still a little freaked. "Do you know how to solve the maze? I feel like the sooner we get out of here, the better."

Herobrine nodded. "Correct. You need to simply get to the center of the labyrinth, and you will be transported to your next trial. But as you get closer to your destination, it'll get more dangerous. More mobs, and many more of Entity's terrible traps. You'll have to be very careful where you step. And you should keep an eye out for Null, too. I've seen it swooping around like a madman, and it'll gladly attack you should you happen to cross paths. There won't be anything else in this cursed place that will help you like I did- I'm possibly the only being here that has any shred of sympathy left for anyone."

"Do you...have any idea what else might be in store for us? What 303 might have planned?" I asked. Herobrine shook his head slowly. "Not really. He shares his plans with no one, and I would not confer with him even if he was willing to tell me. Zelos is wild and unpredictable, but do not mistake him for a lunatic. He is cleverer than you know, and he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He seems to have a particular obsession with memory, however, so I wouldn't be surprised if he incorporated some of your memories in the trials. Other than that, I'm just as clueless as the rest of you."

"How are we supposed to get out of the maze? All we can really do is wander aimlessly- this­ has been no help at all." Jaq complained, bringing her compass out again. Herobrine reached out his hand for it, and she gave it to him.

"Ah. It's working fine- Entity just decided to give you an extra, unnecessary difficulty. Go North, and you'll find the center quick enough."

Jaq took the compass back, replying with a small, grateful, smile. "Thanks. For that, and just...thanks. You've been a big help."

He smiled gently, or as gently as he could despite how terrifying he still was. "Of course. A villain I may be, but I do not believe in pure hopelessness. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear, a lesson I learned many centuries ago. Best of luck, young Shards." With a nod and a swish of his cloak, he turned and began walking slowly away.

With a few still-dazed looks and murmured 'thank-you's, we went back to the task at hand- surviving and solving the maze.

It was much easier now that the compass was working. With a direction to aim towards, we felt less lost, and hit far fewer dead ends. Herobrine was right, though- the further we went, the more monsters there were. The maze was less quiet now, growls and clatters and hisses coming from all around us, blocked only by the impossibly high walls. At one point something tall and dark went screeching past an alley in front of us, but it didn't stop long enough for us to identify it, a fact I was rather glad of.

We walked for a little over an hour, anticipation growing with every corner we turned. We're getting close, we're getting close, I thought with every beat of my heart.

Finally, with one last corner, we entered the home stretch. A long aisle that led into what looked, from the outside, like a huge dome. It had to be the center.

Jaq yelled in triumph and prepared to bolt forward, but Jandro grabbed her arm. "Jaq, wait! Look!"

He pointed to the ground, which was dotted with pressure plates, buttons, and tripwires. There would be no running through this trap.

"Shit. Nothing's ever easy." I cursed. "D'you think these have the same effect as the one back there?"

"You mean, a huge explosion that would kill all of us in close range or alert all the nearby monsters to where we are? Yeah, probably." Jaq snarked.

"Quit being dramatic. We just need to be careful." Jenni commanded, stepping forward. She began gracefully picking her way down the passage, making it almost look easy. I followed her, then Jaq and Jandro, then Justin, and finally Joss.

We had made it more than halfway when disaster struck.

To this day, I have no idea how we didn't hear that skeleton coming. There was just the slightest rattle, and I whirled around just quick enough to avoid getting an arrow in my side.

"WATCH OUT!" I hollered, and the others finally noticed the monster as well. It fired another arrow that went whistling past Jaq, and before we could do anything, had readied another. We were trapped. We had to try to keep going forward, but we didn't want to risk getting an arrow through our backs if we turned away from the skeleton.

It looked at us with those blank eyes, like it was deciding who to aim for. After what felt like forever, but was only a few heartbeats, it settled on Joss, who was still the nearest to it. It released the arrow...and missed.

The arrow landed barely an inch from his foot, sinking deep into the wooden pressure plate he was standing next to. The click that it made was far too loud.

It felt like time had stopped. We were all frozen, to terrified to move, and it felt like something was squeezing all the air out of my lungs. I somehow met Joss's eyes, teal pools of pure unfiltered terror. I willed myself to move, to run, to do something, but my body wouldn't respond.

Then the ground below Joss's feet exploded.

------------------------

first Shard dead

one down five to go