Book Three: Part 2 Herobrine’s Message. Sean Wolfe Fay

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СКАЧАТЬ group of trained assassins to track Stan down, Lord Tenebris found it difficult to believe that Drake hadn’t delivered Stan to him yet.

      Lord Tenebris stood up from his throne and stopped using his clairvoyance, looking once again into the plain stone brick–block room, flickering in the light of the torch. The time had come, he decided. The military offensive was now over, and the Noctem Alliance had a strong foothold in Element City. There was no purpose in his staying in Nocturia any longer. It was time for him to return to the city that he had worked so long and hard to conquer.

      Lord Tenebris took a deep breath, focussed intently on the Council Room of Element Castle, and vanished in a puff of purple smoke.

      G felt disgusted with himself as he dragged himself up the quartz stairs towards Tess’s office. He still couldn’t get the image out of his mind of the wounded recruit in a blue and green jumpsuit, lying on the ground and clutching the cut on his side. He had stepped in and declared the round of the sparring tournament over, and ordered that the fallen recruit be given medical attention, but the two soldiers overseeing him had cut him off. He could vividly remember the Noctem captain in the metallic Creeper costume staring him in the eye and growling those hateful words.

      “If you’re a true Noctem corporal, you’ll tell him to finish the job right now.”

      Despite the fact that every fibre of his body was telling him to stand up for the fallen recruit, G found himself unable to speak. Before he could, though, a messenger arrived and told G that Tess was looking for him. As G had left to make his way to the stairs, the two corporals had turned back to the sparring recruits, and right before G turned a corner, he heard one of them say, “All right … finish him!”

      G still couldn’t get the sound of that last shout out of his head. He could only imagine what they were doing to the wounded player now … and here he was just walking away. Even if that player was in training for the Noctem Alliance, he didn’t deserve the abuse and harassment that G was sure was coming his way. In fact, he had half a mind to turn around and go help that player, but he knew that he couldn’t. Jayden had been willing to sacrifice his life to keep G in Nocturia, and there was no way that he was going to risk anything until he cured Mella and Stull, regardless of what the cost may be.

      Finally, G reached the top of the staircase, and was standing at the threshold of General Tess’s room. The room was beautifully designed. The walls were made out of quartz blocks fashioned into different patterns, the floor was carpeted with blue-wool blocks, and the ceiling was covered in glowstone blocks. A fire burning eternally in a Netherrack fireplace projected a warm glow into the room, and picture frames, showing pixel-art paintings, hung on the walls. There were glass windows that revealed the howling storm outside, and behind a cedarwood plank desk sat General Tess, her diamond sword hanging in an item frame behind her.

      “Greetings, ma’am,” G said automatically, suppressing his self-loathing for the time being.

      “You took a long time,” Tess retorted, not bothering to return the greeting. “Please try to be quicker next time, Corporal.”

      “Yes, ma’am,” G replied, his disgust with himself now replaced with irritation at Tess.

      “I have a task for you,” Tess continued. “I need you to patrol the grounds again.”

      “Yes, ma’am,” G replied, glad that it was only a mundane task that was being asked of him, and he turned back down the stairs to go carry it out.

      “Oh, and one more thing, Corporal,” Tess continued, sounding almost lazy. G turned around and watched as she reached into a chest next to her desk and pulled out a Potion of Slowness. “Tell Captain Zingster to execute those twenty Elementia prisoners today instead of tomorrow. Now that we’ve taken Element City, there’s really no point in keeping hostages any more.”

      G’s eyes widened, and he did all that he could to hold back a gasp of horror. Regardless, Tess still raised an eyebrow, setting her glass back down on the table and glaring at him.

      “Do you have a problem with that, Corporal?”

      “No, ma’am,” G replied quickly, the gears in his mind spinning as he tried to work out how he could possibly save these prisoners without arousing Tess’s suspicion.

      “Well then, get to it,” Tess ordered, taking another sip of potion as she reached into her desk a second time. G was about to go down the stairs when he paused for a moment.

      All throughout his stay in Nocturia, G had spent hours upon hours with Tess. Because of her constant presence, incredibly high expectations of him and casual talk as if they were the best of friends, G had felt incredibly awkward and hated every minute of it, but he had forced himself to do it for the sake of Element City. And he had done his job quite well, never letting on to his aversion to Tess, and always letting her feel like they were becoming close friends. And perhaps now would be the perfect time to try to get some payoff for all his hard work for the sake of rescuing those trapped players from Element City.

      “Um … excuse me, ma’am?”

      “Why are you still here, Corporal?” Tess asked in irritation as she glanced up. She had been searching for food in the chest, and hadn’t realized that G hadn’t left yet.

      “Well, because I have a suggestion for you.”

      “I don’t want to hear it, Corporal. You have duties to attend to.”

      “Please, ma’am, I think that it may be important.”

      “Fine!” Tess shouted in frustration. “What do you want, Corporal? And make it fast. I have a lot of work to do, and so do you!”

      G took a deep breath, and let it out before continuing. “Well, it occurred to me that the war in Elementia is going to be over soon and it seems like we’re on the verge of winning. I think that, if we’re going to rule over the citizens in Element City again, perhaps we might be able to get more support from them if we were to be a bit lenient.”

      “Oh?” Tess asked, her eyebrow raised suspiciously as she eyed G. “And how do you propose we do that, exactly?”

      “My suggestion,” G replied tentatively, aware of how Tess was probably going to react to his proposal, “is that we don’t execute the soldiers just yet. We hold them captive here until—”

      “That is a preposterous idea.”

      There was a moment of silence as Tess glared at G, and G struggled to hold his feelings in. He knew what he had to do, and even though he was aware that he was pushing his luck, he tried to press on.

      “Well, the reason I think that is—”

      “What are you trying to say, Corporal? That the atrocities that the soldiers of Elementia have committed during the war deserve to go unpunished?”

      “No, of course not, but—”

      “Then I see no reason why this conversation should continue.”

      “Please, listen to me!” G exclaimed, something snapping in his head as he felt a surge of anger toward Tess for all the wrong reasons. “I’ve been following you faithfully since the day I arrived here, and I’ve devoted my life to you. The least you could do is hear me out!”

      Tess’s face took on a dangerous look. “You’re treading on thin ice, Corporal.”

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