#sirben

Fall Angel Fall (Book 1)

Book starts with Evangeline laying on the ground in a rainstorm, with an arrow through her wing. She reminisces morosely for a moment before an unfamiliar person appears, picks her up, and she passes out. She wakes up inside a dirt house with her wing treated and wrapped and is like "?????" for like 12 seconds before she spots her host, Herobrine. They've never met before, but she knows him from the time she helped kick him out of the Nether like 300 years ago because he was being A Big Meanie. He explains that he found her in the rain and brought her inside because if he didnt she would die, and she's like "why would you care" and he's like "idk, I'm a good person now" and she's like "oh ok. I got banished by the way" and he was like "sick me too". A couple of days later she can walk and stuff and they chat and she explains that she and her best friend (Meryl) were investigating the disappearances of some of her fellow soldiers when Meryl was brutally murdered, Evangeline was framed for it, and she was banished before a proper trial could be had. When she protested, she got shot and subsequently fell out of the sky. Herobrine is like "hmm. that sucks. anyway (goes back to gardening)"

That night, Evangeline wakes up to a valkyrie standing over her with a sword, whom Herobrine keeps from murdering her. They kill him and come to the conclusion that whoever had killed Meryl had sent an assassin after Eve to keep her from being able to snitch about the murders, and Herobrine points out that now they're both in trouble because the assassin will have reported her location before trying to kill her, meaning that now he has to leave his home and live somewhere else. Evangeline feels guilty about this and says she'll leave but Herobrine is like "NO im going WITH YOU. sorry." and shes like "??? okay??"

The next day they set off in a random direction. it is late autumn and herobrine is being grumpy about the fact that it's cold outside. Evangeline is a gamer and doesn't care. They walk for a while and eventually go to bed, and Herobrine stays up all night to watch over her instead of letting her take a watch. Evangeline is annoyed by this. On the second day they go to cross a river and Evangeline says it would be better for them to walk IN the (shallow) river instead to throw off anyone following them and herobrine is like ":( it's cold" but she bullies him into it. herobrine proceeds to trip over a rock and fall in the water, getting completely soaked. After Evangeline is finished making fun of him she realizes that he's actually rapidly becoming hypothermic and herds him into a cave to rest and dry off, and promptly gets Flustered when he takes off his shirt.

While hypothermic, Herobrine is slightly more open about his Feelings, and Evangeline begins to feel Feelings.

The next day they continue walking and come across a human town, which Evangeline suggests they enter in search of more supplies as they are running out of food and water. Herobrine points out that everyone hates him, but Evangeline's like "it's fiiiiine, just pull your hood down, nobody will even look at you because im a valkyrie and im cool like that" and he's like ":/ fine". they successfully get into the village, Evangeline pulling her "im a holy warrior of Literal God please give me free stuff" card and successfully getting Free Stuff. Unfortunately, a former friend of Evangeline's named Hannah happens to arrive right after her and runs into her at the general store. Contrary to Evangeline's fears, Hannah is happy she's safe and says that her getting banished was ridiculous and that everyone with half a braincell knows that she would never hurt Meryl, so what's going on?? Evangeline doesn't know but she's glad Hannah is on her side.

Hannah then proceeds to spot Herobrine's glowing eyes and is like "👁️ 👁️ 🫵" at him, to which he points out that he's not breaking any laws since he was only banished from the Nether, not settlements on the Overworld. Hannah gets mad at Eve for hanging out with him, to which Eve points out that she didnt have anyone else to turn to when she got literally shot down from the Aether. Hannah is still mad but lets them leave without raising a fuss and telling all the villagers that Herobrine is there. They leave in a hurry with their Free Stuff.

That evening, Herobrine feels bad and tells her that she needs to stop being so friendly with him because she's going to get a bad rep. Eve says frick that, we're pals. In the meantime, Hannah has made an official report of their location, which makes it to Eve's commander, philza minecra- I mean Phillip Zenith, Commander of the Valkyrian Armies. Philza is also convinced that Eve didn't kill Meryl but she was tried and sentenced before he could do anything about it. technoblad- I mean David Tekno is fairly convinced that Eve has lost her mind, if not before then definitely now because she's hanging out with herobrine, who, as we have discussed, was A Big Meanie. Philza decides he's going after her to learn the truth, Tekno tags along so dadza doesn't get himself murdered by Herobrine.

The next day, Eve has begun molting, which is good because she'll grow back her feathers and be able to fly again but bad because she is now leaving a very obvious trail. Herobrine is mad about this. Eve is mad about this. Nobody is having a good time.

Suddenly, three valkyries appear in the skies above them. they land and Eve doesn't recognize any of them, but tries to talk to them anyway, despite Herobrine's instance that they get away before they get shanked. The valkyries don't respond, and when Eve gets closer she realizes that they're not breathing. The valkyries attack them and lose, and Herobrine discovers that they all have stab wounds over their hearts preceeding their battle, which means they were already dead. He makes Evangeline leave while he beheads them. Evangeline is big sad because Literally What The Actual Flip Bro, That's Messed Up and herobrine gives her his cloak because he wants her to feel better.

In the meantime, Philza and tecknoblade have discovered Herobrine's old house, where they find the assassin's body buried in a shallow grave. They are now more convinced that Eve and herobrine have gone on a couple murder spree.

The next day it's snowing, which is bad because leaving footprints. Herobrine insists they take shelter in a mineshaft from the storm, Evangeline hates this idea but goes along with it. 15 minutes after, Philza and Techno follow their footprints into it, but are forced to split up as there are two mineshafts. Eve is having a terrible time because she's claustrophobic, and Herobrine's half-a$$ed attempts at comforting her do not work. They find a natural cave which Eve hates slightly less and hang out there for a bit, and Herobrine helps her pluck out all the loose feathers so that she's not leaving them everywhere anymore. Evangeline is steadily falling for him.

Surprise! Technoblade! Tekno finds them and is like "yo, please explain the murder before I axe your sorry butts". Eve tries to explain that the people they killed were already dead and Tekno, who has never heard of a zombie, is like "mmmmmmyeaaaaaahhhh nnoooooooooo I dont think so." Eve convinces him to let them talk to Philza about this when they get up to the surface. Herobrine attacks him with a knife.

Eve tries unsuccessfully to get Herobrine to stop attacking technoblade with a knife. They fight for a while. herobrine fire powers reveal. Techno absolutely owns him and slams a pickaxe through his ribs. Herobrine collapses, Techno moves in to finish him off but Eve makes him stop because actually! no amount of physical damage can kill herobrine, which is common knowledge amongst valkyries but technoblade is not one (he's half-human half-piglin, which, as my brother irl says, is an abomination). Techno agrees to let him just lay on the floor and gasp pathetically while they drag him up the mineshaft to get Philza, but Herobrine abruptly gets up, grabs Eve, teleports (teleportation powers reveal) and sets a support on fire, collapsing the tunnel between themselves and techno and allowing them to escape. Techno is fine, Philza finds him later.

Eve does her best to wrap up his wound while also scolding him for being a dumb idiot since he had literally no reason to attack. Herobrine sort of apologizes but is obviously mad about it and also in pain. Once there's more blood inside him then out, he insists he knows where they are and knows a safe place, and they head off again, gone by the time their pursuers get back to the surface.

Herobrine leads her to A Whole Mansion, which she thinks is really stupid and he refuses to offer any explaination for, just keeps telling her to trust him. She decides she will and they hide out in the garden overnight, and Herobrine sneaks into the building to steal food for them. The next day, upon seeing philza and technoblade arriving, Herobrine insists they hide in the building, which Eve confusedly goes along with and they hide in a cellar. They listen while the owner of the manor says he hasn't seen them, philza and technoblade leave, and then the owner walks into the cellar and is like "hi :3". Surprise! it's steve minecra- I mean Steven Lancaster, Lord of the region of Mosenta and also herobrine's older brother.

Steve is like "what kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into now" and herobrine is like "lots. pls help :(" and eve is like "??????? ???????????????????? ?????? ???????????????????????????? WHYT DIDNT YOU TELL ME THIS BEFORE" and herobrine was like "idk it wasnt important" "IT WAS TOO IMPORTANT"

Steven listens to their sob story and agrees to give them shelter for the night, new clothes, and supplies for the road. Eve goes to bed because Girl is Tired while Steven and Herobrine have some bro time and Herobrine gets a hug for the first time in like 500 years probably. The next night they head out with their new loot and they have a lovely conversation for once that isnt about being on the run and being hunted down by murderous valkyrie necromancers.

In the meantime, Philza and Techno have decided that maybe they went to the nether for some reason? so they go to the Nether to talk to the Nether Queen, who was established 300 years ago after Herobrine got ousted. she's a regular human who got granted eternal life because she was doing a banger job of being queen, and philza is a little leery about whether or not that might be affecting her psyche at this point- oh no she's hot. anyway the queen hasn't seen them but she'll keep an eye out. also they're flirting. techno has things to say about this

The next night, Eve and Herobrine are walking again when they get attacked by another valkyrie zombie, but this one is meryl. oh no.

Eve is obviously Very Thrown Off by this but the logical part of her brain allows her to fight and defend herself. Unfortunately, she's off her game enough to let Herobrine get whacked where he was already injured and get knocked down, and eve gets disarmed and pinned against a tree. Instead of killing her though, Meryl just stares at her, expressionless, with tears in her eyes, which is enough for Eve to decide that she's still conscious and insist that they don't kill her. Herobrine reluctantly goes along with this and they manage to trap her and get her tied up instead. Eve starts crying (girl has had a hard week) and herobrine gives her a hug (girl is also down bad).

They drag a very angry and wiggly meryl back to Steve's house, where they appropriate his dungeon as a holding cell and explain what's going on. They come to the conclusion that a golden apple may be able to cure her, if her wounds are what are keeping her in a half-alive state. With this in mind, Steven somehow gets a message to Philza and Techno and summons them to have a nice friendly chat about zombies and such. They arrive and manage to have a diplomatic talk with Herobrine despite their murdery last encounter, and Philza is glad that Eve is ok. Philza goes off to get a golden apple, Techno goes off to acquire a potion of weakness since he says that should help.

While all this is happening, Eve and Steven are watching over Meryl one evening and Eve asks him why Herobrine seems to have a weird vendetta against piglins. Steven explains that about a year after Herobrine was instated as the king of the Nether, a group of assassins broke into the castle and brutally murdered him, except he can't die so he was just left in excruciating pain until he was found and treated. This gave him a lasting paranoia which eventually turned into the tyrant that he had come to be known as.

Once all the materials have been gathered, they force feed Meryl the golden apple and Eve takes a stress nap. herobrine wakes her up from the stress nap because meryl is cured YAY!!! Meryl explains that she doesn't remember much after being murdered, only faint images and sounds. Eve is just glad she's okay. Since Meryl is no longer dead, Eve can no longer be banished for her murder, so her innocence is offically proven. Herobrine points out that the people that tried to take them out are going to do so again. Philza acknowledges this and says they're going to launch a full investigation now.

While people are chatting, Herobrine slips out, and Evangeline has a bad feeling so she follows him. She catches him trying to sneak off into the current snowstorm, calls him out, then confesses her love for him. Herobrine takes a solid second to process this and then very firmly rejects her, saying he's a terrible person and they should never see each other again. 10 seconds later, they both get knocked out and kidnapped.

They wake up in a dungeon, chained up next to each other, and Evangeline immediately recognizes that they're in the Aether. Herobrine is bound in magic cuffs that block his powers so he can't teleport. After a slightly awkward but mostly on-topic assessment of where they are (in a dungeon), their captor appears.

Enter, Sirben (💃✨)

Sirben is very angy that they managed to cure one of his zombies, and demands to know how they did it. Evangeline wont tell him so he beats her with a zappy stick until Herobrine tears his chains out of the wall and beats HIM with the zappy stick. Unfortunately he's wounded and not feeling so great so he can't defend her further, and Sirben ultimately decides this is too much to deal with and leaves them alone for now.

In the meantime, the gang at Steven's house has noticed that they're missing and has come to the correct conclusion that they got kidnapped, and are on their way to the Aether to regroup. On the way, they get attacked by valkyries, but not zombies this time, these are Sirben's goons. Steven reveals his earthbending powers by absolutely clowning on them. Also, Meryl is feeling kinda funny.

Herobrine and Eve, still in jail, have a long conversation about her love confession and who he is as a person and why he doesn't feel like he deserves her love. He brings up the time he ordered a third of the population of the nether capital city executed because he was afraid they would overthrow him, which she agrees was in fact Really Really Bad but also it's been centuries, he's going to live forever, and he can't do anything to undo it so he's going to have to live with it, and also hiding in the wilderness is never going to do anything for his reputation as a reprehensible tyrant. Herobrine doesn't really agree with her. he tells her that he doesn't love her, but he does care about her as a consequence of watching over her through so much. Because he cares, and also because Sirben made it very clear that he was going to kill her, Herobrine kisses her because he wants her to be happy before her inevitable death.

Sirben then proceeds to separate them, taking Eve into another room so he can interrogate Herobrine about the cure and also make grandoise threats, including that he's going to kill Evangeline in some gruesome way and also that he can find a way to kill Herobrine somehow (Herobrine, suicidal: cool 👍). In the meantime, Evangeline tries to subtly question the two goons watching her, but they are smart enough to not actually tell her anything.

When they're brought back together, Evangeline trips over her feet and bumps into her guard before she's chained up again, at which point she reveals to Herobrine that she stole the key to their chains because she succeeded her sleight of hand check. They break out and start trying to navigate their way out of Sirben's lair.

In the meantime, Philza and the gang are back in the Aether, where they meet up with Meryl's commander (Erika) and start trying to plan how to find the bad guys. Meryl claims she feels drawn in a certain direction, the gang hypothesizes that she's still connected to the bad guy somehow, and they decide to follow her vibes into the horizon.

While trying to escape, Eve and Herobrine duck into a room that they quickly realize is filled with the bodies of dead valkyries which are most likely zombie fodder. They get into a fight because Herobrine wants to behead them but Eve insists that they can be cured so they shouldn't. While they're arguing, the zombies wake up and capture them (oops). They're dragged out into the hall where Sirben rendezvouses with them, and he makes some vague comment about unexpected guests and takes them to a large, dome-shaped room with a giant glass skylight over an altar. Turns out the vibes gang are incoming fast with many angry valkyries, and Sirben is trying to kill Evangeline and then escape through a Nether portal he has in his base. Herobrine can't really do anything to stop him as Eve is brought up to the altar and Sirben goes to kill her, but he's stopped at the last moment by Philza making an epic entrance through the skylight and smacking him. Chaos ensues.

In the resulting battle, many of the zombies are bound or incapacitated, the goons are either captured or killed, and Eve and Meryl reunite and hang out with herobrine and try to stay out of harm's way. Sirben tries to slip out through the nether portal without anyone noticing, and Evangeline takes advantage of her finally healed wings to catch up to him and steal & break his zappy stick, breaking his connection to the zombies and also Meryl. Sirben, now stickless, escapes into the Nether.

Post battle, all the goons are imprisoned or dead and the zombies are just kind of lost and wandering while treatment is gotten for them. Meryl recognizes that her bestie is Down Bad. While Eve is celebrating though, Herobrine approaches her to tell her that he's Leaving Forever, Sorry, bye, and he disappears through the Nether portal (where, if you recall, he was banished).

Herobrine proceeds to go to the Nether Queen's castle and turns herself in. When she asks him what the flip he's doing there, he tells her that he wants her to lock him up for all eternity so that the nether doesn't need to worry about him anymore. She says no, she has her own ideas.

In the meantime, Meryl and Evangeline are awared medals of valor or something for revealing Sirben's plot, and they get a pat on the head from Notch and he says they did a great job. Notch also makes a comment about how he wishes Herobrine was there too. Eve also misses him and she is sad.

Sirben is not having a good time in the Nether. It's hot and he almost got gored by a hoglin. he also just lost the zombie army he's been building up for years, AND he lost his zappy stick, but he's not too concerned about that, because his boss is gonna absolutely clown on these idiots, you'll see.

THE END

Fly, Phoenix, Fly (book 2)

Book begins with the Queen of the Nether getting visited by a young lady who’s bringing the corpse of a young piglin man with her. Young lady (Alex) claims that this piglin attacked her and acted sick/feral, and she was forced to kill him in self defense. Nether Queen has Herobrine check out the body, and he comes to the conclusion that Sirben is responsible. Cut to the Aether, where Evangeline and Meryl have been summoned by Philza to the Nether because of something mysterious, but they’ve both already decided it’s probably Sirben since they both have personal experience with him. Also, it’s been 40 years since the end of book one. And Eve is still in love with Herobrine. They go through the nether portal and are immediately greeted by a strange cloaked man whose disguise lasts all of 12 seconds before Evangeline outs him as being Herobrine, sent to guide them from the portal to the castle. She demands to know where he’s been/how he’s been and he’s just like “oh yeah I work for the nether queen now” “what? for how long?” “for 40 years”. Eve is Madge.

The three of them make their way towards the castle, Herobrine pointedly ignoring them while Eve and Meryl go “?????” At each other. When they reach the castle they are brought up to speed on the situation, and they agree with Herobrine’s opinion that Sirben is to blame (minecraft zombie piglins????? 😱). They decide that they (along with Philza, Techno, and the queen, who insists on coming along because she’s bored) will go with Alex to the spot where she found the zombie piglin and then search around there for evidence that will hopefully lead them to Sirben.

The next day, they all set out. Herobrine is still pointedly ignoring Eve, but in a scene from his POV it’s revealed that he’s very much in love with her and is having a very hard time not showing it, hence the ignoring. The queen is very much aware of this and forces them to talk to each other. It’s also revealed that Herobrine has been sending letters back and forth with Steven (bros :) ).

After a couple of days they make it to where Alex found the piglin, and they start hunting around for clues. They find plants that seem to be withered, but before they can make any progress they get attacked by hoglins (which aren’t scared of warped mushrooms like they’re supposed to be and scatter. Philza grabs the queen (oh yeah, they’ve also been dating for like 40 years now) and flees, Eve brings Alex to a safe place and then returns, and Herobrine grabs her and teleports away from danger while Meryl flees with Techno. Meryl and Techno find Philza and Mumza, while Alex finds Herobrine and Eve. Neither group knows where the other is, and both of them start walking in the wrong direction to find the other.

While walking through a warped forest, Eve and her gang encounter an Enderman, who plucks a few mushrooms and then vanishes. In the meantime, the queen and her party are in a soul sand valley. Also, over the course of these chapters we see a series of flashbacks from Herobrine’s childhood (smol baby) to when he was a young man (30-100) and is established as the king of the Nether. he was, in fact, a good boi.

Eve’s party eventually descends into a ravine because Herobrine insists that it’s the sort of place that the queen would take shelter in. Unfortunately, she’s not there. Eve keeps arguing with him but he keeps brushing her off and ignoring her, which pisses her off enough that she confronts him directly, accusing him of leaving her to go serve the queen. Herobrine admits that he came to the Nether in the hopes of being locked up forever, and apologizes for brushing her off. Immediately after, they are attacked by hoglins.

After getting out of the ravine, Herobrine points out that there’s a boar spear sticking out of the hoglin and suggests they try to kill it to win the favor of whoever was trying to do so in the first place. Evangeline agrees, and they leave Alex in a safe place (much to her chagrin) while they fight it. They successfully take out the hoglin, only to realize that it’s a zombie. A second hoglin sneaks up on Evangeline and gores her, injuring her badly, and Herobrine teleports with her to safety and cauterizing the wound to keep her stable while Alex brews healing potions.

By the time she’s woken up and is doing okay again, Herobrine is acting a lot more affectionate, immediately offering to carry her so she doesn’t have to walk. The next time they rest, Alex interrogates Eve about her relationship with Herobrine since she has observed very mixed signals from them. Eve tells her that she still has feelings for Herobrine, but he doesn’t return them and she can’t force him to, so she’s not going to try. In the meantime, Philza and the gang finds a piglin village where all the inhabitants are dead and crumbling into black dust.

Herobrine continues to carry Eve the next day, and as they’re walking they encounter a pair of piglin hunters. They explain how Eve got injured, and it turns out that those piglins were tracking the hoglins that attacked them, since they were ‘strange’ and not deterred by warped mushrooms like they’re supposed to be. The hunters invite them back to their camp, and Herobrine reluctantly accepts at the promise of being given fresh supplies.

The piglins bring them back to their camp, where they’re welcomed. Herobrine is a little uncomfortable around them, but after 40 years in the nether his piglin phobia has reduced considerably. The piglins celebrate because the hoglins were murdered, and Herobrine invites Eve to dance with him. Bewildered, she accepts. Alex is now more confused.

After dinner, the highlord of the camp calls them all in to speak with him. They explain who Sirben is and what they suspect he’s doing, and it turns out that the zombie piglin that attacked Alex came from this camp. The highlord sends out Eve and Alex to talk to Herobrine alone, and reveals that Herobrine was responsible for killing his grandfather about 400 years ago. Herobrine apologizes, which the highlord is not satisfied with, but Herobrine promises to do his best to protect the Nether by dealing with Sirben. The highlord agrees to give them supplies and tells him to never come back, or else.

The following chapter begins with a flashback of Herobrine being attacked in his castle and left for dead. In the present, shortly after leaving the piglin camp, he and the girls find a bloodstained feather, directly after which Sirben reveals himself along with two huge, black skeletons. Eve and Sirben banter for a bit, then Herobrine notices a crest on a banner that a skeleton is carrying, which is the same crest as the assassins who attacked him wore. He promptly spirals into a panic attack. Sirben leaves, the skeletons go to attack them, and Herobrine grabs the girls and teleports away.

Eventually, they get far enough away and Herobrine has calmed down enough to explain what freaked him out. Eve is sympathetic. They find a cave to hide out in for the night, and Alex goes to bed, leaving Eve and Herobrine awake. Herobrine refuses to sleep because he’s afraid of having nightmares. They talk for a while, which culminates in Evangeline demanding to know why he’s been acting weird and Herobrine admits that he’s in love with her, but he’s been avoiding her because he doesn’t deserve the happiness that she would bring him. Eve gives him a hug, then kisses him and he starts crying. In the meantime, Philza and the gang finally make their way back around to the capital.

The next day, Eve’s gang agrees (reluctantly on Herobrine’s part) to let her fly around to scan for any sign of Sirben from the air. She heads out and makes it back safe, reporting that she found tracks in a soulsand valley. In the meantime, Techno and Meryl head out to track them down, this time with a lodestone compass so they don’t get lost themselves.

Eve and the gang pass through the soulsand valley, which is Annoying because the sand is basically quicksand. They lose the trail in a crimson forest, and Eve flies off again. This time, she finds a sword abandoned in the middle of a clearing, and while investigating it is kidnapped by Sirben and his piglin brutes. When she doesn’t come back, Herobrine and Alex go in search of her, and they find her sword, which Sirben left intentionally to bait them into following.

Sirben ties up Eve and leaves her in his base, which is a cave system (RIP claustrophobic Eve), with the express purpose of baiting in Herobrine. Eve tells him he’s going to get smacked. Sirben, who has ego problems, doesn’t believe her. She also notices that he has a bunch of captive hoglins. Herobrine and Alex track down the camp (which is covered with the same crest as the assassins that attacked Herobrine), and devise a plan to break in and save her.

Herobrine teleports into the caves and murders every piglin that he comes across, eventually locating Sirben in a larger room and attacking him. He’s promptly attacked by wither skeletons, which are far stronger and faster than he expects, but he manages to hold them off until the hoglins (which Alex released) flood the cave system and destroy everything in their path. Herobrine slips away and finds Eve, kills her guards, and gets out with her safely. As they make to leave, they notice Sirben escaping, and Eve goes after him, but she doesn’t take him down before he reaches more wither skeletons. He and Eve have another shouting match, then one of the wither skeletons attacks Sirben and cuts off his wing, causing him to fall off the ledge and land in the forest below. By the time Eve and the gang get to him, he’s dying, and he explains that a single blow from the skeletons inflicts Wither, which is lethal. He says that his master is named Null and that it’s impossible to kill him. Eve sits with him and holds his hand while he dies.

With Sirben dead, the gang heads through the tunnel that he was about to flee through in search of Null. During a rest stop, Eve and Herobrine talk about Sirben’s death, then they kiss more, despite Herobrine’s insistence that he’s going to leave her after this mission and they shouldn’t make the separation harder (because he doesn’t deserve to be happy etc etc etc). In the meantime, Meryl and Techno find the camp where they stayed and talk to the Highlord about where they went.

When they get to the end of the tunnel, they spot a group of piglin brutes leading a prisoner, and Eve convinces them that they should rescue them because they might have info for them. Eve and Herobrine beat up the piglin brutes and rescue the woman, who is a former member of Null’s cult, and she leads them back to the bastion where she’s been living.

Hama goes to take a nap and Herobrine sneaks off to treat his wound and have some alone time, which Eve crashes because she wants to spend as much time as possible before he leaves her. When Hama gets up, she explains to them how she was born into Null’s cult and left when she became elderly, which made her a target for the younger, more bloodthirsty members. She describes Null to them and explains his wither powers, and says that the cult worships him and he has lots of wither skeletons. She also says that he was directly responsible for the attempt on Herobrine’s life, since he was doing such a good job uniting the Nether and that was a bad thing for Null, who thrived on chaos. They ask her where to find him, and she says she can’t tell them, but she produces an old map that she says her parents had. Alex, being a mapmaker, is able to read it and can lead them to Null’s fortress. In the meantime, back at the Nether Castle, Philza tries to propose to Mumza but is interrupted by the castle being attacked by wither skeletons.

On their way to Null’s castle, Herobrine tries to convince Eve to take Alex and leave once they get there in an attempt to keep them safe, but Eve refuses since she wants to protect him to. They argue, and then he kisses her. Alex is very confused about the current state of the ship.

Over the course of these chapters, we get a series of flashbacks of Herobrine growing more and more cruel and paranoid, including how he murdered a valkyrie woman named Angela because he was afraid she was a spy from Notch. This ultimately culminates in him having a third of the population of the capital executed, following the death of his most trusted advisor, Mikkael.

In the present, Eve and Alex chat about family, and Eve explains to her how valkyries who suffer severe injuries or mental trauma retire from fighting and take care of the young valkyries instead.

The wither skeletons at the nether capital are currently breaking into the castle, and Philza manages to convince Mumza to flee to the Aether with him for safety. As they’re fleeing, the wither skeletons break in and attack them, and Philza is forced to break through a window with her to escape. The moment they reach the Aether, he proposes and she accepts.

Eve and her gang encounter another zombie piglin, this one being a member of Null’s cult, and they follow his tracks to the cult camp, where they find that the zombification has spread and infected the entire cult (L). Herobrine is also being more affectionate towards her now. In the Aether, Philza and Mumza meet up with Erika (that’s Meryl’s commander) and Notch, who is obviously concerned about the fact that there are animate skeletons that 1-hit KO anything they touch. They all decide to go through another portal to scout out the situation. Upon arriving, they conclude that the city is so far safe, but the castle is completely overrun by the skeletons. They decide that the plan will be for Notch to go in and start beating them with his hammer while the valkyries drop big rocks on them.

Eve and the gang reach the lava lake that Null’s Nether Fortress is located in, and they stop one last time to rest before they attack. They’re all stressed, but they’re trying their best to keep up morale. Eve tries to convince Herobrine once more that he’s not an irredeemable piece of trash, with debatable success. Meryl and Techno are getting close to finding them.

The next day, Herobrine goes to the fortress alone to confront Null, and he gets his attention while Eve sneak attacks him. At the capital, Notch engages the wither skeletons, and he gets withered but fights off the infection. Philza and Mumza watch from a distance with Steven (who’s also there), until they’re attacked by wither skeletons and Philza carries her to safety. Steven joins Notch at the castle to help him fight, despite Notch’s protests that he should keep back.

At the nether fortress, Eve and Herobrine continue to fight, and they encounter a wither skeleton made from the remains of Sirben. Upon taking out all of the wither skeletons, Null attacks them himself, and Eve manages to push him off the fortress, but he throws an ender pearl and teleports back up. He almost manages to kill Herobrine, but Eve pins Null down for just long enough for Herobrine to run him through and kill him. The wither skeleton reinforcements beginning to arrive start to crumble, and Eve and Herobrine hug. Eve is the only one to spot a wither skeleton archer before it fires on them, and she blocks the shot with her wing to keep it from hitting Herobrine, who she suspects would be killed by wither. Herobrine is distraught as she begins to die, but Meryl and Techno arrive just in time to get her to eat enough of a golden apple to save her, and Meryl carries her back to the Aether for further treatment. At the capital, the rest of the wither skeletons crumble.

Eve wakes up in the Aether with her wing destroyed, but with Herobrine there waiting for her, and he doesn’t waste any time in professing his love for her and proposing. They get married, and become a set of surrogate parents for the young valkyries while dealing with their own demons.