Notch and the winged warriors gape in disgust, rage, and disbelief at what they have witnessed. What was once a respectable, intellectual, and admirable figure was now a smiling madman with a look of challenge and rebellion in his bright eyes; a man with a strong inclination to fight and kill.

"Herobrine!" Notch screams at the top of his lungs, then swiftly braces himself as a speeding chair flies at him and breaks on his arms that he had moved up over his face to protect it. Soon a table flies at him and he swings a fist at it to smash it to pieces in midair, debris of wood scattering around him. The remaining Valkyries fly back and put distance between the two brothers at war, watching as the Creator dashes at the Destroyer; sending a rolling kick into the man's chest and ramming himself shoulder-first into the stunned opponent. The two smash through another wall and into a storage room, they collide through boxes and shelves of dusty items, including old weapons, tools, armor pieces, scrolls, art pieces, porcelain dishes, old tapestries, rolls of fabrics and linens, and many things of the sort. Various items smash and break, clinging and clanging against the ground as wooden shelves are ripped through like paper.

In the tussle, Herobrine managed to grab Notch by the arm and sling him into a large collection of wooden crates of empty vintage glass potion bottles, the sounds of shattering glass rang from down the hall; causing more Valkyries to take notice and rush towards the two men but dare not engage in the battle.

Notch recovered quickly and vanished from the mess of broken glass and reappeared before Herobrine and threw a punch at him; sending the man smashing through a stack of several barrels, they burst from the impact and red-colored wine gushed and poured down upon the man. It soaked Herobrine's pants and wetted his hair while running down the small gaps between the toned muscles of his bare chest, the drink dripped from the ends of his short bangs down his face and onto the floor. He forced himself to stand and shook his head a few times to get the wine out of his eyes, the drink dripping from him made him feel humiliated and it infuriated him. Hero saw a metal chest nearby as well as Notch approaching, he reached out and threw the iron coffer at the man, his brother slung his arm aside and easily deflected the heavy object that crashed into the nearest cluster of clutter; smashing through more items in the storage chamber. The creator didn't seem phased by the attempt, his expression remained unchanged.

In an instant, Herobrine appeared before his brother with a snarl and sent him down to the ground with a strong tackle. Now pinned down by the neck with a vice grip; Hero rammed his free fist into the creator's face several times without leniency, feeling his knuckles getting hot as he beat them into the face of his brother. But Notch wouldn't just lay there and take it for long, even the crushing force on his jugular didn't hinder him from reaching up and punching Herobrine back before grabbing a fistful of his hair and yanking him down closer to deliver several swift strikes in retaliation.

The mod growled fiercely through gritted teeth as he took a few blows and tried to pummel his target into submission and get him to release the grip tearing into his scalp, he removed his hold from around the man's neck and sent a palm now blazing with fire into Notch's eyes, causing him to cry out and let go and take more punches to the face. Notch then vanished beneath him in an instant.

With a fist now slamming into the ground; Herobrine quickly got up on his feet and created a wave of hot energy that pulsed outward from his body, causing the rest of the wine to evaporate from him in an instant. He then flew straight up through the ceiling, piercing through two floors before landing on the wide-sloped roof of Notch's large Aether palace; panting with eyes narrowed. Several feet before him stood Notch, he was panting too and patting away the ashes of his quickly healing burns from his brow. The skies were clouded and hid the light of the waning moon, low rumbles of thunder sounded in the distance along with lightning flashing here and there from the looming storm.

"Come on brother, we've just barely broken a sweat." Herobrine started with breathy laugh.

Notch held his right hand out to his side and particles in the air came together to slowly form a large gravatite metal hammer, it was as nearly as long as his arm in length and it glowed with a soft violet hue from the many enchantments that were augmented into the weapon. The sight of it only seemed to make the younger of the two siblings more excited, he smirked with glee as Notch spoke. "You've crossed the line this time brother, first my Sun Spirit, and now two Valkyries? You murdered Cloe and Gyssil. You once told me that you'd never harm a single one."

"Bringing out the hammer are we? I didn't think you were going to take this seriously. Good. I would hate for this clash to go stale so soon."

He didn't even acknowledge the promise he made many years ago about leaving the Valkyries be, Notch took this as a sign that Herobrine had lost his sense of awareness and tutelage. He didn't even care about them one bit anymore, they no longer meant anything to him unlike how they used to when he once trained a couple factions. Same with the rest of the mobs, it was all about himself now and this disgusted and greatly disappointed the creator. The signs were there a while back, but he kept ignoring them; now he's faced with this mess. Herobrine was a man who has gone and lost his mind, now a traitor to everyone but himself. Notch felt the weight of the blame upon himself and exhaled heavily, Herobrine changed and it was his fault for giving him power and distancing himself from him in his work. However; there was no time to mull over his mistakes. His grip on his weapon tightened.

"About time."

"You wanted my attention. Well, now you've got it." Notch then squeezed the leather covered handle of the hammer more and felt its power surge through him and add to his own, the weapon's glow intensified and he held it close and his dark eyes brightened and shined with an illustrious golden glow. "You may want to summon that sword of yours because I'm not going to take this lightly this time around, Herobrine. You wanted to fight? Let's go."

Hero laughed but never lost his exhilarated expression, it only seemed to grow with Notch's seriousness. "How long has it been since I've seen you this enraged brother? I can't even remember, imagine that. It's been so long since we've had such a fierce battle, I have eagerly awaited such a day to challenge you once more."

The creator scowled. "You can't defeat me, you've never been able to beat me. I don't see why you always insist on fighting, that command block and the power you originated with will never be enough, yet you'll continue to throw yourself at me."

The white-eyed man shook his head, his muscles tense up. "You still don't get it? It's not about defeating you or having the power to do so, it never has been. You know that I enjoy a challenge, but it's never been just about winning, not even as much as improving or honing skills. But look at you." Herobrine smirked though his eyes were narrowed, he was angry. "Always making assumptions. I already told you that my power meant nothing to me when it came to you brother, but here you go again; avoiding the real issue. Had you used your head, you would have known what I wanted from the very start. Yes, I do miss our great battles of old and we will get to that, but that's not the point I'm making here. What I want is-"

"Enough!" Notch interfered and began taking steps forward. "I'm done listening!"

"Listening?" Herobrine scoffed in offense, his stance shifting to one ready to fight as the wind began to pick up and blow violently through his short hair strands. His anger spiked and his darkened tones revealed it as did the flaring glow of his eyes. Thunder growled in the sky above them, as if expressing his growing rage. The weather seemed to become more turbulent with the growing tension between the brothers, the thunder rumbled more loudly and frequently as the lightning flashes cast light over part of the men's faces.

"You stopped listening to me a while ago, now that you've finally decided you want to talk; you won't hear me out? All because I slay a fire beast that does nothing but sleep all day long and defend myself from a few winged women who chose to take me on?"

Notch kept moving forward with an intimidating slow stride, and the quartz tiles of the rooftop shifted out of place with every step as the building itself shuddered from under his seething rage. "Let's see if you come to regret those decisions of yours brother. I've let you get away with too much for far too long, but no more. Killing and using Valkyries like they are nothing when they highly respected you. Breaking my Sun Spirit to literal pieces of smoldering coals." He stopped in place when he was just a couple of feet away from his brother. "I won't forget to add the increasing number of humans you've been slaying recently, nor the younglings that you were told not to touch. You have time and time again broken my rules, but I always gave you leniency and only scolded you because you were 'my' brother and I loved you that much! ... I made a mistake." He finished more quietly with his expression falling for a moment.

Herobrine's eyes widened slightly, and he lightly gaped at the words coming out of his brother's mouth.

"If I meant anything to you, anything at all, then you would have obeyed my rules and listened every time I asked you to stop when you acted out of place. But you don't love me, you don't give a shit. Your actions already proved that, even before now. You're not the Herobrine I once knew."

The white-eyed man's anger broke for a fleeting moment as a flood of pain filled his chest in an instant.

Notch's eyes narrowed thinly. "And until you change and return to that brother I once cherished so much, you are not welcome here in the Aether. You're not welcome to stand here before me."

Rage rushed back into Herobrine's being, shoving the feeling of hurt and betrayal aside as his eyes burned brightly with resentment, the whisps drifting around his face increased in brightness. "You- This is your fault, for choosing THEM over ME!" He barked and lunged forward with his diamond blade forming in his hand midair as he swung it down at Notch.

"I did no such thi-!" The bald man had been cut off mid-sentence as his hammer was struck.

A loud echoing clang of metal and diamond rang throughout the air and caused a few small sparks to fly as both men pulled back their enchanted weapons and brought them back together in a quick parry. Grimacing, both brothers swing their weapons with precision and force, creating swishing sounds through the air followed by metallic clanks multiple times with looks of determination and ire etched on their faces.

Hero was quick to change up the pace of the battle by reeling back then swinging his weapon low to get past the broad range of the hammer and managed to slash it across the creator's knee. In return, the flat face of the hammer struck his shoulder and sent him stumbling back several feet with a pained grunt as the wind burst and fire aspect enchantments burned and rattled throughout his body. He dug his bare heels into the rooftop tiles as he passed over and ripped through them, leaving a trail of shattered quartz in his wake until he came to a stop and readjusted his fighting stance. Notch hissed as he looked at the red splotch rapidly spreading over his right kneecap and staining his dark grey trousers, it's an injury that was already beginning to heal with a soft glow showing through the small tear through the fabric. He glanced up to see Herobrine recovering quickly from the strike and now flying at him with his sword ready to strike again.

The diamond was deflected with ease of the hammer's size, but the creator had not anticipated Hero's empty hand to coil into a fist and smash into the side of his face. He staggered back from the strike and then quickly leaped backward to avoid the sword that came close to grazing his collarbone, he then swiftly counterattacked with a strong rolling kick of his boot into his brother's jaw as he charged forward; causing the younger to fall backward onto his back with a pained gasp and drop his sword from his grasp.

Herobrine had no time to recover as Notch was quickly standing over him and now swinging the hammer down upon his chest with much force. The power of the weapon came crashing down like a two-ton pillar crushing him beneath its massive weight, blood shot out of his mouth and he gaped in a silent cry of pain as several ribs cracked and snapped under the pressure on the right side of his torso; piercing his lungs and one even gouging into his heart. The enchantments doubled the pain and wracked his body with agonizing pulses of elements tearing through his nerve endings like a tempestuous whirlwind and boiling his blood in various places of his upper torso like a volcanic lake.

When the creator pulled the hammer away, Hero wrapped his hands around his throat as he coughed continually and began drowning in the blood that was quickly filling his lungs and throat. The tears of pain, the guttural coughs, and the gurgling blood being spat up on the rooftop and the entity's chest; cooled the creator's anger. Notch now wore a look of pity with a hint of regret as he let his hammer hang loose at his side, there was a noticeably large indentation in his brother's chest; the now tainted crimson-colored flesh of ruptured blood vessels obscured the crushed muscle tissue and broken bones under small protruding mounds. He was surprised he didn't accidentally smash the man's heart in his heated strike, had he not redirected his aim a little and lessened the force in his swing; his brother would have died instantly.

"Herobrine..."

Out of nowhere; a crackling sound echoed as a powerful bolt of lightning struck the elder brother before he even sensed it coming, he gnashed his teeth and painfully cried out as the feeling of fire flooded his veins and sparks danced along his entire body as he was engulfed in the intense light and heat for a brief moment. His body went rigid and his limbs spasmed as the currents violently ripped through him, burns formed all over and from within him in seconds. But he was more resilient than the younger brother, he remained standing as the bolt quickly faded; this was Herobrine's little attempt to retaliate even in his weakened and vulnerable state at the gates of death. Notch let his hammer fall from his hand and smash to the rooftop as he felt his muscles begin to loosen up, he fell down on a knee and softly groaned from the full body ache, even his clothes were now singed in various places and reeked of a burning smell with a few wisps of smoke coming from his clothes.

His eyes were shut as he began speaking, his voice sounding exhausted and hoarse. "I've been shocked... much worse than that before, by energy generated from your actual being; it's way worse. But... I applaud your effort in directing natural lightning to my exact coordinates; you always have something- ... ... " He breathed with a pained grunt. "Up your sleeve. RNG ... manipulation." He chuckled softly despite the pain, even now he could appreciate how well his brother fought, his cunning tricks, and his capabilities to manipulate code.

He gazed down to see Herobrine rolling over onto his side as a soft glowing effect began consuming his chest cavity, his ribs materialized into their correct places, and his body began to heal rapidly. Notch's small smile faded.

"Don't make me kill you Herobrine, I've never been pushed enough to do it with you as my brother. I know how much you hate dying, I've seen you face death enough times to get the picture. Just stay down. If you get up; we'll be forced to drag this fight out even longer. I'm done. I'm done with it, the fighting, the argument. Please, just stay down and accept the consequences of your actions. The punishment will be just, but you'll get through it and I'm sure you'll understand with time. Stay down." He repeated. "It'll be easier for us both."

But as expected, Herobrine slowly but surely pushed himself back up onto his hands and knees; still coughing the excess fluid out of his body as the damages within began to mend.

The creator sighed with aggravation and disappointment as he watched the mod nearly fall over while trying to raise one of his arms as if visually stating that their battle wasn't over. "Instant healing huh?" He started with a sarcastic tone and a shake of the head as he forced himself to stand back up on aching legs. "Sometimes I wonder why I allowed you to have that capability. If you don't suffer anything then you'll never learn, you still haven't yet. I'll have to do away with that command." He said quietly as he watched his brother struggle. "Or maybe I'll just slow it down a little more. At the very least; I'll have to make Diamond your primary weakness and give it double damage on you, maybe then you'd finally understand how humans feel when you torment them with great injury and or slow deaths. It'll be a wake-up call in future conflicts, hopefully."

He placed his hands on his hips as he looked up into the sky with a heavy heart, small droplets of rainwater began pelting his face. "Pain isn't a teacher I wanted you to have brother, but it looks like Compassion isn't enough anymore is it?"

"Damn... you..." Hero muttered with hoarse tones as he used the palm of his hand to try and wipe the blood from his face and chest.

Notch rolled his eyes. "Pain it is then."

"Then do it..." Hero panted as he looked up at his brother for a long moment while trying to breathe; he wheezed with every breath due to the healing punctured lungs. "Kill me, death is a pa-.. pain," He hissed as he finally moved a hand forward and forced himself up onto his feet but with a slight stagger and was somewhat hunched over. "A pain I... am greatly familiar with. I can take it." He coughed again and spat out more blood.

"I know you can." He said blankly. "It would be simple to kill you and just not resummon you, and there we go; peace and quiet for the Overworld and humans." His gaze returned to his brother as he finished those words to see Herobrine now gaping in shock with a look of fear. He sighed and softly smiled with a subtle dip of his head. "But you are my brother, I don't think I'll ever go that far because I still have the capacity to care unlike you; let's hope it stays that way for your sake."

Herobrine shook his head, his anger flaring back up. "Care? You want to give me a weakness and double it? And the humans, you focus more on them and give them a form of power over me and you call that 'care' 'for my sake'?" He asked heatedly. "Preposterous!"

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"You're a god, you already have more than enough power over them. I set boundaries." The creator looked away. "We're not going to keep arguing over this, I gave you rules to follow when I presented you with godhood; you've broken them all," He then looked back at Hero with a hardened expression. "For some, way too many times, and others, they were never meant to be broken. From now on, there will be consequences to your actions for every rule you break. I was a fool to let you do as you pleased before, power has changed you, and not receiving proper chastisement has only made it worse. You only care about yourself anymore and trample everyone else."

"Stop putting words in my mouth damn it!" With a roar, Herobrine ran at the bald man; Notch grunted, then moved forward with a shout to meet his brother halfway.

Both men rammed their heads into each other forcefully, creating a loud thud between them along with a small shockwavewave of energy forcefully shooting outwards from the collision; even blowing back a few Valkyries flying in the air that had been following their leader. Blood oozed and trickled from their busted temples, sliding slowly down their faces before pattering down onto the rooftop along with tiny droplets of rainwater, it began to gently rain upon them as they stayed locked in place, neither man moved as they glared into each other's eyes and took deep and long breaths.

"Damn," The bald man was the first to blink, he cursed from the instant splitting ache. "That hurts." Blood pooled between the gaps of his gnashed but self-realigning teeth and let it ooze over his bottom lip. Herobrine spat a bit of blood out of his mouth.

Like an old distant memory so long ago, a small comfort and a familiar sense of joy brought tensions low. Herobrine was the first to grin, then as if it was infectious; Notch himself grinned, and almost immediately both men broke out into a light breathy laughter that soon grew loud, neither refusing to move from their place but laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation despite their aching heads. They laughed for a minute then fell into a short spell of silence as they caught their breaths.

"It has been... too long brother," Herobrine broke the quietness first as he spoke between breaths. "This is how we ended our first-ever battle as brothers, a memory I highly treasure."

"I remember."

"Your skull is as thick as ever, it's... so difficult to get through to you. Thickheaded imbecile."

"You're the one to talk." Notch beamed with confidence, chuckling a bit as he did. "It takes a hard head... to know one." He breathed. "Stubborn ass."

Hero laughed at the endearing insult then raised his arm and wrapped it around the back of Notch's head though not moving his busted temple from his brother's, his arm rested tightly on Notch's neck with his hand balled into a fist. The creator mimicked the action and threw his arm around Hero's neck in the same fashion, the two laughed again and tightened their hold on one another; a type of embrace that only they knew and acknowledged specifically for each other and none else. Neither brother cared as the rain began to pour down upon them and wash away the blood or as the wind whipped and beat around the loose ends of their clothes and hair in multiple directions, they remained in place for a long minute before finally pulling away and relaxing with their deflated postures.

Herobrine let out a long breath of reprieve as he rubbed at his now aching head with his palm, his eyes soon dart toward a few Valkyries now flying out the large hole he punched through the roof; they arrive to find that the tension between the brothers had calmed and lowered their weapons. "Sorry, we kind of wrecked your place Notch. It was fun though." He said as he stretched his aching muscles.

The elder brother chuckled softly before sighing and massaging his aching temple with a soft grimace. "It's a mess to deal with later, don't worry about it. I do miss the heat of battle; that much is certain. ... But," He paused, looking into Herobrine's eyes with a more serious expression forming on his face; his arm dropped to his side. "We can't do this anymore."

The white-eyed man blinked and nodded. "Of course, your habitation is no place for battle on the scale in which we operate. We can always move it to an open desert or better yet; try a hollowed mountain." He put a hand on his chin and smirked as he thought with much vigor. "Yes, an empty hill with many stalagmites and stalactites would provide us with much to use to our advantage, same with cave tunnels, mineshafts, ancient cities, and underground springs and aquafers; I'd love to see what tricks you could try to get me with when battling underground. I don't think we've ever tried fighting below the surface before. The Nether doesn't count."

Notch frowned and shook his head, he avoided eye contact with his brother as he spoke; his dark onyx eyes fixed on the damaged rooftop. "I meant fighting in general, Herobrine." He softly gestured with his fingers, taking notice of the other's silence and holding of breath. "I know you miss our battles, builds, and drinking nights; but those times have passed and I don't see them returning for the foreseeable future." His frown deepened as Herobrine gave him a confused and slightly disappointed look. "There's still so much work to do in perfecting some code before I uh..." He paused with an uncomfortable look as his brother lost his smile and looked troubled. "It's a great project, one day you'll see. You always wanted to be a god and have your own world, this project will make it possible. One part of it even involves you and a bit of your code that I'll have to tweak, it won't hurt though, I promise. I don't won't spoil the surprise, but I'm sure you'll one day appreciate it. Maybe in a couple of centuries give or take? I hope. Depends if you can control your temper and are open to ... certain options." He said with waning confidence, his grin dropped as he noticed Herobrine's negative reaction.

"Project?" The burnet shook his head, eyes narrowing as the brotherly feeling fled. "The only project you ever work on is those damn humans, ever since you've deconstructed the NPC mod and made them, that's all you've ever been interested in aside from a few world patches and fixing glitches in the system. I saw some of your notes earlier this week. Human generation and genetic distribution modification, fleshing out the creation of more procreated humans. Manipulating data that is unnecessary, unwanted. Who cares if the offspring have to look like the parent humans or receive their traits? They're all the same regardless."

"Hero-"

"Don't play ignorant with me Notch, I'm not naive. What could you possibly be working on that I would approve of if it involves those pitiful creatures? Especially if it involves me with them. Unless it's a newly generated world without them in it, then I'm not interested."

The bearded man furrowed his brows with a melancholy frown. "Brother, you ... you can't leave this world." His head swayed from side to side.

"I'll find a way Notch, or you can find one for me since you can make them; I'm confident in your abilities as the creator. You open up the possibilities for so much when you're not wasting time making the mortals more adaptable to their environment or cranking up their intelligence. That's the last thing those creatins need, they're already too hardy." He softly hissed with a look of disgust.

Notch exhaled calmly. "I'll... see what I can do. But, I need you to understand. I have a lot to do and ..." He paused again and pinched his lips into a fine line as he thought of what to say. "It's going to require more picking at the NPC mod's coding and more experimentation to have the perfect setup for the humans in the database, that way when they die their data can be archived and saved in the system and allow you to have access to it; especially if want access to their memories or revive them. Besides, they're still barely stable even after all these years and need just a bit more work. I've got plans, not just for them; but for you as well Herobrine. I wish I could tell you everything here and now, but I feel it'll turn you against me if I do. It's..." He brushed his hands over his face. "Frustrating."

The white-eyed man snorted. "Forget about them and everything will go back to the way it was Notch; I guarantee it. There would be no need to stress yourself over this 'project', you won't have to waste any more time and you'll be able to come out of the damn clouds for once; like you used to."

The creator shook his head. "Going back to the way it was is not part of my plan, I've got the future in mind to worry about." His frown deepened. "You don't understand now, but you eventually will. Now... about your punishment..." He looked away.

"Punishment?"

Notch nodded and folded his arms before returning his gaze, seeming annoyed with his brother's incredulous tone. "Well yeah, I can't get you to listen and you've become unhinged. If you're so willing to kill mobs of the Aether now, that tells me that you don't have any respect for me or my wishes. Not anymore. You're being banished from returning here until I have deemed that enough time has passed."

Hero gaped with disbelief before his anger welled up once more, he took a step closer to his brother with his fingers coiling. "You can't do that, how else would I get to see you, brother?"

The other man shrugged. "I can do it and I will. We'll start with a twenty-year ban and go from there. Maybe by taking accountability for your actions from now on, you'll behave better and actually learn something for once."

"Twenty years? That's unfair!" He barked.

The creator glared at Herobrine before placing his hands on his hips and tilting his head back. "Unfair? With all the other rules you've broken on top of what transpired today and you think that what I just declared as your punishment is unfair? You should be thankful that I didn't kill 'you' and leave you dead for twenty years instead, that would be more fitting as far as the humans are concerned. Ninety-five of them were archived into the database in just three days I noticed this morning, that's way too many kills in such a short time period; nearly half were women and children. I don't want this punishment any more than you do, but I have to change things now or there might not be a future for anyone."

Hero growled then strode forward and grabbed Notch by the collar of his shirt while trying to tame his anger and not lash out at his brother and make the situation worse. It was very difficult to restrain his rage but he fought to control it, Notch wasn't moved and only looked more upset with him. "Don't you dare do this to me, I'll accept something else as punishment, but just don't leave me down there." He pointed downward. "You almost never leave the Aether anymore. Don't abandon me with them Notch." He finished with quieter and pleading tones.

"I'm sorry, but this punishment isn't just for you, I'm at fault too; for letting you get your way for far too long." He grabbed his brother's hand and pried it off his shirt before casting it aside. "You're not the only one suffering this decision brother, but maybe in a couple of decades, we can start over. Maybe you will have finally learned something after all that time and have matured as a god, learn to be accountable and accept boundaries." He watched as the brunet shook his head in disagreement.

"No!" Herobrine shouted. "Don't Notch!"

"Start abiding by the ground rules that I originally put into place, then we'll talk. Until then..."

"Give me a year!"

"Twenty years!" Notch snapped back, making the wind suddenly shift in the opposite direction. "Abide by my rules, stop killing young humans, stop mass murders, stop messing with my Valkyries, stop needlessly killing everything in your path, go back to having gratitude, be more humble, have a shred of decency and respect, and make some friends already. Start giving a damn about the humans and learn from them. Apparently, you've already learned a few things and put them to practice quite a few times now." He gestured in annoyance. "I wished it was their basic set of moral standards you would learn to use."

"Why should I?!" Herobrine countered aggressively. "They are prey and they will die! You are to blame for all of this! You started to care for them more than me, your own brother!"

"They don't have to be your enemies!"

"But they took you from me!" Hero barked in defense. He beat a hand against his chest to drive the point of the matter home. "Why do you spend days, upon weeks, upon years locked in your palace and working on their code; improving those pathetic creations you call humans?! Why waste so much time on them at all?!"

"Because I made them, ... for you!"

Herobrine lost his anger in an instant and stared at his brother, puzzled and in shock. "What?" He whispered.

Notch just stared back at him for a moment in silence, he could tell by Hero's expression that the argument had probably concluded. He brushed a hand over his head and his dark eyes looked out at the storm slowly dissipating from the sky; soft traces of the moonlight could be seen between some of the clouds. "Brother, there is something very important that I must tell you, you're not going to like it; that much I know. But it's been a plan in the works for nearly half a century now and I hadn't intended to tell you until the right time came. But I suppose, now would be that time since I can't convince you to be a proper god and get you to behave on a consistent basis.

You're going to have to start caring again, not just about this world, but everything that is in it so that it will continue to thrive and give you a sense of purpose for many ages to come when I'm out of the picture."

"Out of the picture?" He replied quietly with a tone of confusion with a hint of worry, everything felt... off. "Notch, what do you mean? You're..."

Notch nodded, and his frown deepened. As he opened his mouth to speak, his lips moved but no words came out. Even the wind and light sprinkle of rain came to silence. It seemed like the whole world around Herobrine had gone dead quiet as the man before him spoke with a solemn expression, the white-eyed man couldn't remember the words at that moment yet knew what the creator was saying. At the same time, he felt an excruciating and unexplainable pain blossoming throughout his chest and it moved through the rest of his body by just those words alone with an incredibly uncomfortable heat. The feeling of dread and sorrow ripped at his consciousness like the claws of a dragon tearing into its prey, the feeling of thousands of skeleton arrows pierced his chest. His throat tightened, the palms of his hands were squeezed tightly shut as he tried to keep them still.

Words were now being exchanged between brothers but neither voice could be heard, the colors began to blend, and forms were distorted and fading. Sorrow soon turned to rage and resentment, and then it all went white.

...

"Herobrine."

White eyes dim in and out for a moment longer before Herobrine snapped out of his memory from the voice calling out to him, the smell of smoldering flames soon filled his nostrils. As Herobrine returns to reality, he finds that he is holding the corpse of a brunet man off the ground; his hand was buried deep into the mortal's upper chest cavity that he had pierced it through. Blood soaked the man's shirt and shorts and had dribbled and dried on his hand, around his wrist, and partially on the underside of his arm. Red covered the dirty wooden floorboards beneath them, it was saturated into the fibers of the oak wood and left an uncleanable stain. By the feel of the cool and somewhat stiff flesh around his hand, Hero could tell that the human had been dead for a few hours; a man he had killed before getting lost to another moment in time.

He glanced at his surroundings to find the house he had invaded a short while ago for a hunt, part of it had been burnt up in flames; a fire he set at the entrance and back door to keep his prey from fleeing but didn't burn much due to a recent heavy rain. What wasn't destroyed by the fire was broken or smashed to pieces, the bedroom Herobrine stood in had a tipped-over dresser with a large crack down the side, a broken standing mirror, a wooden desk missing a leg and tilted at an angle, and a few clothes and decorative items were scattered across the floor along with window glass fragments and busted clay pot shards. On the bed was the body of a dead woman lying on her back in a bloodied nightgown, she had long golden locks that reminded him of a Valkyrie from his memory. There was a long gash across her neck made from a blade and she died with eyes wide open and locked in horror.

At his heels a few feet away was the body of a young burnet boy, with a quick scan of his eyes; Herobrine could tell the child was at least a little over seven years of age, it was obvious with the partially crushed head what had killed him, Hero remembered him dying fairly instantaneously with a stomp of his foot; making a nasty mess on the wooden floor and the bottom of his boot.

Herobrine grabbed the dead man by the shoulder and yanked him off of his hand before carelessly discarding the body to the ground, his eyes glowed and the blood on his hand and arm dissolved into millions of tiny particles like sand and slipped off from his flesh with ease. He then sighed and raked a hand through his hair, his mind still reeling from the awful memory that had taken him prisoner. He moved away from the bodies and towards the window; he stared out the partially shattered frame of the single-floor house; seeming almost absent-minded in his silence. Not even the successful hunt could distract him as his heart wrenched at the thought of Notch's dreaded words that still haunted him to that very day.

"Why, out of all of our disputes did that one hurt the most?" He silently asked himself as he somberly watched the heavy clouds drift across the darkening sky.

"Because that was the day our brotherhood truly died, even before Iron Gate."

The white-eyed man felt his fingers coil tightly into his palms, his demeanor grew hard and anger flared up and consumed his sorrow like a ravenous beast. He didn't bother to turn around to face his brother, he couldn't stand the thought of looking that ghost's way and being able to keep his temper in check. "Did I ask you?" He asked with a heated tone, keeping his gaze on the sky for his own sake.

"If it's not me, then who? You?"

Hero growled.

"I think we both know the answer to that. Why even ask in the first place? You went against my will, against the plans I had for you because you wanted to get back at me. You seemed to be doing fine at just that, but maybe not so much now."

"My plans haven't changed."

"Is that so? Because to me, you suddenly seem quite uncertain of this genocidal war on humans, that woman has only further strengthened this hesitancy; seeing as she has something to offer that you haven't had in a very long time. You have decimated thirteen villages and slain well over two hundred people already in this little plan of yours, but it has come to a sudden stop; you've given more time to them. It has been two days that you've gone without killing any of them... until now, that's odd for someone like you to miss the daily hunt."

A smirk formed on the god's face. "It's only been one day without a kill, seeing as I had to deal with your 'command curse' and suffered it for a bit. But you are wrong, a little break in this war isn't because of my hesitancy. I know what I want and I am fully committed." His posture became firm with his conviction.

"Then why stop your generals and armies from marching?"

These words make Herobrine's grin fall.

"You could have sent your armies all over the other provinces and left this one alone for the time being, but all of them are awaiting the order, you've had all week to send them out and yet haven't uttered the command. Don't fool yourself, brother. I know the old you is still in there somewhere."

Herobrine felt the soft tap of a hand on his shoulder and he snapped, he threw his arm and shoulder out as he turned; rejecting the attempt at comfort. "Don't touch me, Notch." He hissed as the bald man took a step back while lowering his arm in dejection and frowning deeply. "I've already won the war, it was won the moment I made my decision. I am only on a short delay for the clean up and that is all. My generals are at the ready, but it is I who will see this plan through at the forefront and witness the destruction at my own leisure."

"Won?" Notch huffed. "But at what cost? Because as far as I'm aware, you've lost more than you've gained." White eyes stare at the man. "You're going to lose much more if you continue down this path, those humans are yours; made specifically to give you direction and fulfillment in life. I deconstructed the NPC mod and created them for you, to fill this empty world with unique and interesting people to care for. You've wanted to be a god, to have a world of your own, to govern it. Don't you remember those days of old? You wanted to be just like me, I gave you so much and then some to make that dream a reality. Now this is what you do with it?"

He ignored his brother and returned to gaze out the window, his tone bitter and grave. "They're mine to do with as I please, they'll fulfill my desire for revenge and that'll be the end of it."

"Because of me huh?" A heavy sigh escaped the elder brother. "A little word of warning, if you actually win this war, you'll lose your soul, and you'll never achieve contentment and purpose. Win or lose, choose wisely brother. When they're gone, when the modded mobs eventually die out; you'll be all by yourself. You will lose everything."

There was a soft chuckle of disbelief. "Lose everything? Heh. There's nothing left to lose," Herobrine said softly to himself with half-lidded eyes and a deep frown.

With a long pause and no other response, Notch spoke once more. "You may want to leave soon, that woman should be heading out in a bit and there are new monsters spawning outside of her village."

The white-eyed man turned back around and Notch was suddenly gone. Hero walked through the bedroom, stepped around the corpses, and entered the living area. His heavy footsteps echoed throughout the room, bloodstained boots stepped over the small strangulated body of a young blonde girl and strode through ash and broken glass out the front door. Herobrine held out an arm as he now walked towards the woods, his dark grey hooded cape materialized in hand and he threw it over his head and shoulders as he vanished through the trees.