by Mark Mulle
it. Luinda read the answer in their glum faces.
“What if I told you,” she said. “That I knew of a spell, a weapon in fact, that is powerful enough to match even him?”
Alex stared at her.
“Considering Herobrine took on at least two hundred Mobs single handedly without so much as a scratch, I’d say that would be a terrifying weapon.”
“Oh, yes,” said Luinda. “Terrifying indeed! But then, Herobrine himself is terrifying, is he not? Why should you expect the only thing that might defeat him to be any different?”
“So, you think this thing could actually beat Herobrine?” Steve asked.
Luinda smiled.
“The Ghost is a being of great mysteries. Only fools have any certainty where he is concerned. It is possible that, as you say, he is indestructible. However, if he can be killed, then this weapon of which I speak will be able to do it. Nothing survives its wrath.”
“Hold on,” said Alex. “Just what does this spell or weapon or whatever it is do?”
“Do?” Luinda repeated in surprise. “Why, it destroys. It destroys everything.”
“So, how is that better than Herobrine? I mean, isn’t that exactly what he wants?”
“I misspoke,” said the witch. “I should have said that it destroys anything it is commanded to destroy. It can tear through obsidian as if it were leaves. Draugr and all his army wouldn’t have lasted five minutes against its fury.”
“And, you have this thing just tucked away in your inventory?” Alex asked incredulously.
“No, no! Of course not!” Luinda said. She seemed a little annoyed at being so abruptly removed from her rhapsodies of the object’s destructive power. “Goodness me! Do you think I’d be taking so much trouble telling you about it if I did?”
“Then what…”
“You see, dear, I know how to craft this weapon, but I don’t have all the materials I need, understand? And I can’t get them on my own.”
Steve and Alex looked at her suspiciously.
“So, you need us to get them for you?” Steve said. “That’s the real reason you’re here?”
“Dear me!” she exclaimed. “You are a suspicious one! No, no! Of course if I had the means to craft this object, I would have shared it with you anyway! My dear, I am very fond of you both, especially dear Alex. You saved my life, and I merely wish to repay you by giving you the means to defend yourselves when that monster returns.”
“Sorry, Luinda,” said Alex. “It’s just a little strange is all; did you ever tell Draugr about this thing?”
“He knew, dear,” said Luinda. “He pursued it for years, until he stumbled on the legend of the Obsidian Cube and decided that would suit him better.”
“And you haven’t really made clear just what this…weapon is,” Steve said.
Luinda gave him an odd little smile.
“Well,” she said. “It is difficult to describe just what it is any more than I have already done. It is called ‘The Wither.’”
Steve and Alex both felt a cold chill run down their spine at the name.
“Not a nice name, I admit,” said Luinda. “But as I said, it can be controlled, and it is no danger to any save its master’s enemies. With it at your side, you would need fear nothing ever again. Not even Herobrine.”
The Miners looked at each other.
“Luinda…” Alex began.
“Oh, don’t say anything just yet!” said Luinda. “There’s plenty of time, dear. Think if over, talk about it, and then tell me what you think. This is only an offer, after all; not an ultimatum.”
“Well, there’s one more thing I’d like to know,” said Steve. “What exactly would you need from us?”
“Ah,” said Luinda. “That is the difficult part. You see, in order to construct the Wither, I lack two essential ingredients. And both can only be found in one place.”
She gave a rather wicked smile.
“The Nether.”
Steve and Alex’s jaws dropped in horror. They had heard rumors of the terrible land of perpetual fire and darkness, where it is said that the souls of the evil are condemned to endless suffering, but it had never occurred to them that it would be possible to actually travel there.
“Are you insane?” Steve shouted. “Even if we were willing, how on earth could we even get to the Nether?”
“Oh, that is perfectly possible,” said Luinda. “You needn’t worry about that.”
“Okay,” said Alex. “Assuming we could get to the Nether, could we hope to survive it?”
“Oh, the Nether is extremely dangerous,” the witch admitted. “But it is quite possible to pass through it alive, if you are bold and doughty of arm, as I know perfectly well you both are. If you passed through Draugr’s castle alive, you will have a good chance of surviving the Nether as well.”
“I only survived that because Draugr needed me alive,” Alex said.
“Well,” said Luinda after an awkward silence. “This time you will have your friend by your side.”
Steve and Alex exchanged doubtful looks.
“Luinda…” Alex began.
“Don’t say anything just yet,” said Luinda hastily. “There’s plenty of time. At least, I hope so. Talk it over between yourselves. Sleep on it. Decide whether you prefer to be secure in the future and face danger now, or be safe now and face greater danger in the future.”
It was fairly obvious which one she thought was preferable.
Alex told Luinda to make herself at home and the two miners went off to the palace to think about what she had said.
“So what do you think?” Steve asked at once.
Alex shrugged. “I don’t know. I think she’s right, that we need to be prepared if Herobrine comes back, but…well, have you ever heard of this Wither thing?”
He shook his head.
“Maybe there’s something about it in one of these,” he suggested, gesturing at the shelves of books. He and Alex had labored many long hours over these books, and had learned much from them, but most of the books were written in a strange, complicated language that they only partially deciphered, so much of the knowledge they contained was still locked away.
“Probably,” Alex agreed. “But the question is, do we want to risk spending however much time it would take to discover it?”
“He’s not coming back anytime soon,” Steve pointed out.
“We don’t know that,” Alex replied. “Yeah, the Far Lands are…far. But we don’t know what Herobrine is capable of. From what we saw, I think he’s entirely able to travel night and day at high speeds. It’s already been close to a year; he could show up at any time.”
Steve thought about that, frowning. He himself was pretty certain that even Herobrine wouldn’t be able to make the journey back from the Far Lands in a year, or even two. That is, assuming Herobrine could even get out of the Far Lands, since Steve had sent him pretty deep into them and from the brief glimpse he had gotten, they wouldn’t be easy to escape. On the other hand, if it turned out he was wrong, then he, Alex and the whole village would be doomed.
“So, you think we should do it?” he asked.
“Maybe,” Alex said. “I don’t know. If it’s even half as powerful as Luinda says, I think we need this thing, but going to the Nether…”
“Perhaps only one of us should go,” Steve suggested. “That way the other could stay and look after the village…”
“Don’t even think about it,” Alex answered. “You know just as well as I do that if we do that, then whoever gets left behind will just come after the one who went in anyway. If we do this, we do it together.”
Steve laughed.
“I don’t know which is more reassuring; that you just admitted you’d come after me, or that you’re so certain I’d come after you.”
She smiled at him.
“I think both have been pretty well proven from experience,” she said. “But let’s not talk about that now. Are we doing this, then?”
Luinda was delighted to hear that they had resolved on the attempt and assured them that there would be no trouble in sending them to the Nether as soon as they were prepared. First, though, Steve and Alex decided they needed a few days to gather their supplies and set the village in order before they could make the attempt. The village defenses seemed strong enough to withstand an ordinary Mob raid, but the two Miners checked and double checked everything just to be safe.
Steve was especially worried about the Monster Spawner he and Shulshm had discovered in the mines. He thought for sure that there would be more and wondered what they might portend. Until he could investigate further, he decided that he and Shulshm needed to block up all their mineshafts to ensure the village’s protection against an attack from underground.
Stormcloud he entrusted to Alex’s friend, Mrena, who often helped supervise the animals. She had never cared for a horse before, however, and Steve spent a day with her learning the animal’s habits and needs and in constructing a simple stable for him. He’d make a better one when he got back, he decided.
This done, he returned to the palace to equip himself for the journey into the Nether. He had no idea what they were likely to encounter, but he guessed it would all be extremely nasty. As such, he equipped a diamond sword, diamond pick, and a full set of diamond armor, plus a bow and two stacks of arrows. Alex was the archer, but he wasn’t a bad shot. In addition, he also took a full stack of steaks, two stacks of cobblestone, a stack of dirt, two stacks of torches, a
