Stan had helped the new Lazuli Republic begin repairs on their city, delegating supplies from the storehouses of Element City. At the same time, he had ensured that the Ironside Kingdom had all they needed to survive in their temporary shelters until Stan returned from his journey and could help them find a new place to build their city.
Although Stan knew there was much work to be done, he wasn’t going to rush this journey. He had made a promise, and he was going to fulfill it.
Stan reached the top of a particularly tall sand dune and realized that it would provide him with an excellent vantage point from which to scout out what he was looking for. He peered through the darkness, and after scanning the horizon for a few seconds, he saw a strange color in the endless hills of sand. He looked closer and realized that it was an oasis, a pool of water surrounded by grass blocks. It was the perfect place for what Stan was going to be doing.
As Stan made his way over to the oasis, he remembered his favorite part of the past day. Right before he had left for the desert, a familiar voice had rung out in his head, clear as day. Stan had taken leave from Elementia for a while, returning to SalAcademy.
For the longest time, Stan told Sally everything that had happened in one long, rambling story, while Sally just sat there and took it all in. She hardly reacted to it in the slightest. All that changed was her smile, growing larger and larger the more that she heard. By the time that Stan was finished, he had one question.
“Sally, do you think it was a mistake—disbanding the countries, separating the people, and starting over?”
For a moment, Sally just stood there, thinking. Finally, she looked him in the eye and replied, “I’m not sure, noob.”
Stan stared back. He didn’t know what to say. Then, slowly, Sally’s smile returned, but now it wasn’t the huge smile it had been—now, it was Sally’s trademark sarcastic smirk. At that moment, it struck Stan that it didn’t matter if it was a mistake or not. What was done was done, and he would just have to go with it. The important thing was that, no matter what, his friends would be there by his side . . . including Sally.
Or, at least, most of them would.
Stan was now upon the oasis, and he forced himself to clear his mind. As much as he wanted to dwell on the sweet sensation of victory, and the thrill of sharing it with Sally and the rest of his friends, he knew that he couldn’t. Not now. It wasn’t a time for celebration.
The oasis was small. The pool was a square of three-by-three blocks, which had several odd blocks of water jutting off it. Stan reached into his inventory and pulled out a wooden shovel. He had crafted it with wood from the jungle he had just emerged from not long ago. If he was going to do this, he was going to do it manually.
Stan walked away from the oasis and immediately began to dig through the sand until his shovel struck a hard surface. Switching the shovel for a wooden pickaxe, Stan harvested the sandstone block, and a second one beneath it. He continued to dig around in the hole, expanding it as he harvested more and more sandstone blocks. Sand would periodically fall down to where he was attempting to dig, and he would clear it out with his shovel.
After several minutes of digging, Stan had enough sandstone. He placed a sand block down and then jumped on it, repeating the process until he had climbed his way out of the sinkhole. Stan made his way back over to the oasis and, sandstone in hand, he began construction.
First, he built a sandstone pillar, three blocks high, at each corner of the pool of water. This left a cross of water between the pillars. Stan then built a sandstone staircase on the grass, three blocks high, which extended over the water to be level with the tops of the pillars. He filled in the cross pattern on the top block of the pillar until he had a sandstone platform, elevated above the water by the four pillars.
Stan pulled a chest from his inventory and placed it in the center of the platform. He opened it, revealing several vacant compartments. Stan took a deep breath, reached into his inventory yet again, and pulled out a diamond sword, glowing with an enchantment of Knockback.
His eyes teared up as he remembered the time he had spent wielding this sword and, more poignantly, the time that he had spent with its owner.
Stan had never met anybody like DZ before, and he doubted that he ever would again. On the surface, he seemed to be an offbeat, somewhat crazy player who took everything with a grain of salt and never failed to make you smile with his sheer zany charm. While that was still true, upon getting to know DZ better, Stan realized that he was much more than that.
Beyond being a master swordsman, DZ’s wild coating was merely a facade, behind which hid a deep, introspective person who was trying to find his place in the world. He was an incredible friend, steadfast and loyal, who had sacrificed his own life so that Stan could escape Mount Fungarus.
Stan had never gotten a chance to thank DZ. And now he never would.
As a tear rolled down Stan’s face and he gave a sniffle, he placed the sword carefully into the chest. It lay still, immobile, yet still alive with the blue enchantment that shimmered and glowed like the stars in the heavens above.
Stan reached into his inventory one more time, his hands shaking now. As he struggled not to break down into sobs, he pulled out another diamond sword. This one was glowing even brighter than DZ’s, bearing three different enchantments of Sharpness, Fire, and Knockback.
Gas-Powered Stick. Kat’s sword.
Even after all this time, Stan could not pinpoint the reason that he had asked Kat to join him on his journey to the Adorian Village when he was learning to play Minecraft for the first time. It was probably a foolish thing to do. After all, she had just burst out of the woods and tried to kill him and Charlie. Yet, for whatever reason, Stan had asked that Kat join them, and she had agreed.
Slowly but surely, throughout the course of their quest to take down the Kingdom of Elementia, and the months succeeding it, the girl who had jumped out of the woods, demanding that he and Charlie give her all that they had, ceased to exist. She had transformed, slowly but surely, into one of Stan’s best friends in Elementia. She had lost her reckless abandon and disregard for others, gaining wisdom and compassion while not abandoning her willingness to take risks. She always took care to tell people exactly what they needed to hear, even if they wouldn’t like it. Perhaps above all else, she was fiercely loyal to those who deserved it, and was unwilling to take crap from anybody.
As Stan traveled across the server in the race to take down King Kev, and then navigated the republic through the minefield of the Noctem Alliance, and then struggled to take back their server from Lord Tenebris’s forces, he had always been amazed to have such amazing friends. Charlie and Kat were the two best companions that he could have ever hoped to have, and Stan had legitimately felt like the three of them could accomplish anything that they wanted to together.
The fact that one of them was now gone forever tore Stan’s heart to shreds.
Stan couldn’t stop the shaking, nor the sobs escaping his mouth, nor the tears now rolling down his face in waterfalls. All he could do was place Kat’s enchanted sword into the chest next to DZ’s, propped up against the corner with dignity. Stan took a deep breath and, before he could look at the weapons of his two deceased friends one more time, he closed the chest with a creak and a bang.
Even with the weapons no longer in front of him, the grief of it all spiraled around him, threatening to consume him as if it were all hitting him again for the first time. DZ . . . and Kat . . . two of his closest friends . . . dead . . . and gone forever . . .
Stan took a deep breath and looked up into the sky. If he looked carefully through the blurry lens of his teary eyes, he could see the cosmos moving above him. This server, Elementia . . . it was such a beautiful place. This game, Minecraft, held so much wonder, so much potential, and so much freedom—and, less than two days ago, it was all on the brink of extinction.
And yet, it would survive. And the owners of the two blades now sitting safely in the
chest before him were the reason for it.
Kat and DZ had given their lives to the revolution against King Kev. Images of the dozens of things that his friends had done flashed through Stan’s head.
Kat leaping out of the lava sea, surrounded by a red aura, stabbing Becca through the back and flinging her into the molten pool. DZ leaping into a pit of Zombies and taking them all out in seconds with two slices of his sword. Kat in The End, fighting off dozens of Endermen all at once. DZ thrusting his sword into the neck of the Ender Dragon, causing it to burst into radiant light. Dozens of other images rolled through Stan’s head.
Stan’s sobs ceased, but the tears continued to roll. The more he thought about the fact that he would never see either of his friends again, the more it felt as if some sort of dark void had opened within him that threatened to steal his happiness and never return it. And yet, as Stan realized what they had died for, and that the game of Minecraft had been saved because of them, he knew that he would be able to go on with his life. It would be very difficult, and the pain would never go away fully . . . but he would live.
Stan pulled the blocks of sandstone from his inventory and surrounded the chest with a ring of them. He then proceeded to cover the ring with a three-by-three square, hiding the chest from view. Never would anybody guess that two enchanted diamond swords were hidden inside. They would remain there forever. If someone were to climb the stairs to the top of the monument, they would find two signs that Stan had placed on top, side by side. They read:
KITKAT783 “KAT”
AND
DIEZOMBIE97 “DZ”
HEROES OF
ELEMENTIA
R.I.P.
Stan descended the sandstone stairs and surveyed the monument. It expanded upward, out of the oasis, and looked striking against the flat expanse of the desert and the short cacti within it. Any players who saw it would climb the sandstone steps and learn the names of these two marvelous players who had sacrificed everything to save the server they loved.
Stan took a deep breath and, tears still flowing from his eyes, turned his back on the shrine and began to walk out into the desert. He extracted a diamond axe from his inventory and clutched it in his hand. Stan knew that the mobs would notice him, and he would have to fight them off. It was what he wanted. Months ago, DZ had asked him on his deathbed to wander the desert for a week after Stan won the war, remembering him and detaching himself from worldly problems.
Stan would do exactly what his friend had asked of him. His stomach rumbled, and it occurred to him that he would also have to hunt his own food while he was out here. It was as if he were a new player, alone and vulnerable in the world for the first time. With a slight chuckle at the thought, Stan wiped the tears from his eyes and set off to hunt.
As he watched Stan leave the shrine and make his way out into the desert to begin his vision quest, the Black Hood smiled as his cape billowed slightly in the wind. The people of Elementia were in good hands. The Black Hood knew that, whatever happened between the players of the server, Stan would always be there to keep them in balanced order.
The Black Hood chuckled ironically at the thought. Here he was, glad that Stan would be able to use his great powers to protect Elementia . . . when he himself could just as easily do the same thing. And yet, the Black Hood knew that this was a foolish thing to think. By speaking to Stan, and helping him attain his own operating powers, the Black Hood had nailed his own coffin firmly shut. In fact, he was absolutely astounded that he had participated in the battle itself and was still alive at all.
The Black Hood knew that he was dying, however. From the moment he had spoken to Stan, he had felt his energy dimming. When Stan had struck him with his sword, the Black Hood had been totally drained of all power, just barely hanging on to enough consciousness to tell Stan that Lord Tenebris had been defeated for good. Since then, the Black Hood had been biding his energy, and not until now had he managed to take physical form.
The Black Hood heard a roll of thunder crash over the desert. He glanced off and saw sheets of rain bombarding the distant jungle. To any players in the vicinity, including Stan, it would appear to be just another thunderstorm. But the Black Hood knew better. He felt a shift in the energy of the server there, a presence that he hadn’t felt in months, since the day that he had first entered Elementia and attempted to use his powers.
The Voice in the Sky had returned.
The Black Hood stood perfectly still on the crest of the hill, his eyes closed. He had helped Stan to defeat Lord Tenebris and save Elementia, along with all other Minecraft servers. He had brought Rex into the woods, removed his collar, and returned him to the family of wolves from whom he had been separated months before. And now, as a last order of business, the Black Hood had seen Stan, building and hunting in a way that he still, to this day, found most fascinating. Now that he had seen it for one last time, all was done. There was nothing left for the Black Hood to do in Elementia . . . or in Minecraft.
YOU HAVE INTERFERED WITH THE AFFAIRS OF PLAYERS FOR THE LAST TIME, the Voice rang out in the Black Hood’s mind as another thunderclap sounded overhead. NOW, AS PUNISHMENT FOR YOUR TAMPERING, YOU SHALL DIE.
“I accept my punishment,” the Black Hood replied aloud.
Another roll of thunder, and the Black Hood felt himself begin to fade. His very existence started to thin out, like threads being pulled one by one from a tapestry.
I may be leaving this world, the Black Hood thought peacefully to himself, as his ability to think began to fade as well, but at least Minecraft, a game of such wonder and promise that had never been seen in the world before, lives on . . . and will live on forever, as long there are others who are willing to build.
And with that final thought, the Black Hood ceased to exist, never to return to Minecraft again.
THE END
AUTHOR’S NOTE
FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for reading Herobrine’s Message. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did enjoy it, please tell your friends and write an online review so that others can enjoy it too.
—SFW
CONNECT WITH SEAN
: www.sfaywolfe.com
: www.facebook.com/elementiachronicles
: @sfaywolfe, #ElementiaChronicles
: SeanFayWolfe
Links to buy Sean’s paperback and ebooks are on his webpage.
Links to Sean’s online games can also be found on his webpage.
Go to www.goodreads.com to rate and/or review this novel.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As the Elementia Chronicles trilogy draws to a close, I find it more bittersweet than anything else. Over the course of writing the series, I truly feel as if Stan, Kat, Charlie, and their friends have become a part of who I am, and it saddens me to see them go. Writing the Elementia Chronicles has been the greatest experience of my life, and there are several people who have helped me to share my story with the world.
I would like to thank the South Kingstown High School Drama Club of 2014–15. It truly was thanks to you guys that high school was not just tolerable, but amazing.
I would like to thank Lindsey Karl, Matt Schweitzer, and Julie Eckstein, my team of promoters at HarperCollins who helped me to get the Elementia Chronicles out into the world.
I would like to thank Pam Bobowicz, my editor, for helping me transform my rough drafts into full-fledged novels.
I would like to thank my brother Eric, who always knows what to say to keep me humble.
I would like to thank my brother Casey, the first megafan of the Elementia Chronicles and the one who convinced me to share my story.
I would like to thank Rick Richter, my agent from Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, for helping me join HarperCollins and for always offering up his expertise and wisdom.
I would like to thank my grandmother, who is not only probably the biggest fan of the Elementia Chronicles, but has also supported me in everything that I do, from writing to beyond.
I would like t
o thank my dad for being a one-man tech-support team and helping the Elementia Chronicles break into the digital world.
I would like to thank my mom for devoting countless hours to promoting and beta-reading the Elementia Chronicles, and for doing everything in her power and more to help me find success with my work.
And last but not least, I would like to thank all my fans, from those who read Quest for Justice when it was first self-published to everybody else. It’s your praise, criticism, and support that inspires me to share my stories, and the Elementia Chronicles would not be where it is today without you.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo credit: Ashley Richer
SEAN FAY WOLFE was sixteen years old when he finished the first book of The Elementia Chronicles in 2013. He is a Minecraft player and an author of action-adventure tales. Sean is an Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, a five-time all-state musician, a second-degree black belt in Shidokan karate, and has created many popular online games in the Scratch programming environment. He goes to school and lives in Rhode Island with his mother, father, two brothers, three cats, and a little white dog named Lucky.
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CREDITS
Cover art © 2016 by Max Gonzalez
Cover Design by Victor Joseph Ochoa
COPYRIGHT
THE ELEMENTIA CHRONICLES BOOK 3: HEROBRINE’S MESSAGE. Copyright © 2016 by Sean Fay Wolfe. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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