Novels2Search
Win or Lose
Chapter 16: Playing With Fire in The Rain

Chapter 16: Playing With Fire in The Rain

"So Stephanie, what is in that small container you brought? I'm assuming it is for me. It smells good."

She blinked, she expected him to start the talk where they last left off regarding the command cube, but this topic was nice and not as intensive. Yet. 'Might as well enjoy it while it lasts.' She thought.

"It's a plate from that planned dinner I had with my brother and my friends earlier today, I wanted to spend some time with them as we used to years ago. Everyone is so busy nowadays, and our time is now limited. Bringing them smiles and joy is the best thing I could ever give them because they always gave it to me, especially when my brother and I first moved into the village and struggled to get settled in. They're wonderful and kind people, even though I know that you'd never agree. Thought I'd do something nice for them while I could, better than doing nothing with my remaining time I suppose." She shrugged then paused, avoiding Herobrine's gaze and his reaction, still wondering why he was so calm and not interrupting her or throwing insults.

Herobrine remains quiet with a frown, he left the miner pretty banged up earlier and that man still went to her dinner. Did the miner tell her about their little quarrel? Or perhaps he made an excuse? If Stephanie knew then there's a good chance that she would have said something about it by now, or not even show, but she hadn't, she was here. She wasn't acting out of the usual or seemed to be pretending. He knew that he had broken the miner's hand and left him with many bruises and bleeding from cuts, there's no hiding that kind of damage. Herobrine had let himself get so lost in his need for revenge and enjoyment that he almost killed the guy, not something he should do just yet. Steve hadn't told her it was him who hurt him, that was something he concluded. He let the thought slip for now as the woman began again.

"Anyway, I made a bunch of steak, baked chicken, cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, fried apples, rolls, fried mushrooms with glow berry sauce, as well as a cake. I made sure to put a little bit of everything in it for you to sample it all." She paused and waited for a response but surprisingly only received silence, so she continued. "I had made so much food, I decided to share some with you; though you'll need to heat it, that's not a problem for you of course." She pulled the cape a little more over her head. "Hope you at least enjoy it, I don't have many talents but my brother and my friends often tell me that I can cook."

"You can sing. You can dance. Those are exceptional talents, for a human like you at least."

The woman bit her lip, not expecting him to bring up those topics. "Well, I suppose I can. You've seen me dance already but I don't think I'm all that great at it, and sing? You have yet to hear my voice when it comes to that. Humming isn't singing." She lightly nodded. "But yeah, I suppose my singing voice is pretty decent according to my friend Alex."

"I can't wait to hear it. Speaking of which, do you have that song and dance for me yet?" Hero asked, gazing down at her from a side glance as they walked through the long grass. "Ever danced in the rain before? The dance you did for me a little while back would be fitting on a night like tonight." He raised a brow at her. "So?"

Stephanie did her best to keep her composure, taking a deep breath and trying not to walk into an unnecessary conversation or anything potentially inappropriate. "Not really. Besides, I'd probably slip and fall if I danced out on all this wet grass. That would be embarrassing." She chuckled nervously at the thought.

"Not if I catch you."

Stephanie softly gasped as his arm slid from over her shoulder and down around the small of her back with his hand now resting on her waist, he tightened his hold around her and pulled her closer to him. Stephanie made no attempt to hide the surprise on her warm face, still processing the sudden contact. She nearly dropped the container of food. "I- I suppose... As for your song... I haven't finished it yet, I'm trying though. It's just difficult to write on it right now."

"What about another worship session? Don't have to sing about me, you can always display your talent with a different song. Have any sessions planned for me before tomorrow night? You can still do one tonight if you wish. I can reward you for it."

Stephanie frowned. "I can't, my mind has been too... preoccupied as of late, I don't feel like singing, dancing, or anything right now. I'm stressed." She swallowed nervously, still inwardly reeling from the closeness. "I don't even want to be out here tonight if I'm being honest," She noticed Herobrine's smile falling into a frown. "It's not that I don't want to see or talk to you, I've just... been in a gloomy mood today is all since it's been a rough day for me. It's a little chilly out here too." When she said this, Herobrine made them come to a stop, Stephanie could suddenly feel the warmth radiating from his body as if he had just stepped out of the Nether realm, so she huddled close to him in spite of the uncomfortable nearness of his impressive and alluring physique. She looked away to hide her bashful expression. "Thanks."

Something about the way the woman pulled herself closer to him with an arm and hand resting on the side of his torso just felt so good, it made Herobrine wonder how such a beautiful gem would ever want to get this close to him; let alone touch him despite his history and goals. He liked the way she made him feel, it was akin to enjoyment, respect, and gratification. It was invigorating. Especially when her lips met his for the two times that they did, the feeling was almost indescribable and highly desirable.

He was suddenly interested in the fact that she was unwed and alone if the small number of things in her house were anything to go by, he wondered how considering she was unlike most humans he'd encountered. Beautiful, and courageous, and her touch was so warm and soft; nothing like he'd experienced before.

"I'm curious, why do you live alone, Stephanie? Surely a woman of your age would have a partner by now?"

The Stonewall sibling sighed and averted her eyes from him again but this time in embarrassment, not expecting such a personal question out of nowhere. "That would probably be because I have a tendency to attract the wrong type of men, the kind that try and take advantage of my generosity and kindness and or never truly return the affection. Or I get hit on by complete jerks, most of them are self-centered and rude. Then there's the very few that act 'kind' but it's a facade to try and get into my bed, just the worst." Her gaze moves to meet his. "Judging by someone like you; I'd say that trend continues. The question is, which group do you belong to?" Stephanie stifled a chuckle when she looked up and noticed his expression, a sly grin crossed his face. "Or are you in a category all of your own?"

He laughed, white eyes meeting her violet gaze. "Hold up now mortal, who said I was interested in you like that?"

She shrugged. "You like being touched by me, and now you apparently like to talk to me too. Besides, how can I ignore the way you've been holding me since we met? Like right now? Maybe you're unfamiliar with how it all works, but you're interested in me in some way or fashion; even if it's simply physical and only temporary."

His grin widened. "I will admit, I do find you fascinating. You're very different than most humans, though I don't normally keep them alive this long to experience this sort of thing. Still, to have one willingly approach me and not battle to the death is certainly a different experience than what I am used to." He leaned into her a little. "Especially when they keep coming back despite the fear and consistently make contact with me, it's an extremely rare one-in-a-million occurrence. The one and only mortal being in all my existence to do it. You."

Steph felt her face going hot, and her smile fell. "That's only because I challenged you for the sake of my brother and my friends, you were the one who gave me the chance, more time." She sighed. "Maybe if you'd give other humans the chance to get to know you then you'd find more of them like me; the kind that would rather talk than fight or run away. Ones that are friendly and understanding."

"Unlikely." Herobrine shook his head with a light huff. "I don't have the patience for you beings, it doesn't help that I am a modification designed to kill you creatures either."

Steph lightly gaped. "Designed to kill? Modification? What do you mean?" She asked curiously with a tilt of her head.

When her eyes met Herobrine's again, his looked away, it was pointless trying to explain mods and even the basic fundamentals of their- his world, he simply didn't have the patience to tell her everything and make it make sense; not when she wasn't going to be around for too much longer. He frowned at the thought and made them start walking again as the rain started coming down more heavily.

"Hey wait." She came to a sudden stop after walking a few steps and in turn, made Hero stop in place. "What... are you?" His white eyes dart over to hers but he said nothing. He tried to pull her along with him but she refused to move, instead of forcing her to walk; Herobrine angrily huffed and remained in place. The woman was testing his patience, he was not in the mood tonight; especially not when his hunt was spoiled by an unwanted visitor.

"Does it matter?" He asked heatedly, the friendly mood now gone with his patience quickly dwindling.

"Yes." She countered, giving him an annoyed look of her own. "You're not like us, you're not like mobs, you're not like the animals, and you have strange powers that none other have. You are nothing like anything I've ever seen in this world. You are similar to other legendary beings, however; beings that aren't like us humans or anything in the world either. You call yourself a god, but are you really like Not- him?" She quickly corrected and used one hand to hold part of the cape over her head to better keep herself dry in the pouring rain.

"You said you were a modification, well what is a modification exactly? Why do you have all these amazing powers? Why do you have that cube?" She looked at him with growing intrigue. "What are you Herobrine?" She asked again.

His eyes narrowed. "You don't need to know."

"But I want to know."

The man shifted from one heel to the other, placing his free hand on his hip yet not letting the woman out of his grip. He softly glared at her, he was surprised that she wasn't cowering under his irritated gaze like she usually would. "It's too complicated for creatures like you to fully understand, not even the highest-tier mobs would be able to understand without having to waste time learning what all the mods are or what makes up this world. To a simple mind like you it's a physical realm, nothing more, but in actuality; it is much more. Every single thing in this world is comprised of numbers and letters, though mostly numbers. Every strand of hair, every drop of blood, every fiber of your clothing, light, sound, the clouds, the rain, my flesh, even the blades of grass." He glanced at their feet before returning his gaze to her. "You, me, all living and non-living things around you; we're all lines of numbers. Coding in one giant data bank."

"What?" Stephanie blinked, softly gaping in confusion. "Numbers?" She then looked down at the box of food in her hands, and then back to him. Everything was made up of numbers? It didn't make any sense to her. 'How?'

The man nodded then shook his head as she stared at him with a puzzled look, wanting some explanation, he could tell by the look on her face that she was not even close to having an understanding. "It's a waste of time trying to explain it because there is nothing for you to gain from this knowledge, you can't manipulate nor change these letters or numbers at will anyway. For you it is nothing, but for one like me; everything." He then looked down at the food container and his eyes glowed briefly, making it scatter into dust and disappear; causing the woman to stare at her hands in awe before glancing back at him. He'd worry about it later.

"You are right, I'm not of this world; I'm ... an addition." He stated bitterly and looked away with now brightly glowing eyes, his hand slipped off his hip and he clenched and unclenched his fingers a few times.

"An addition?"

"It's not something I'm going to talk much about, you humans were once part of a mod, but then were fully integrated and meshed into the world's code so you belong here. But I'm not like you. I'm a modification, a 'mod' for short." Herobrine quietly seethed to himself, he hated that even after all those years, Notch made them fit perfectly into the world's coding and database; almost as if humans had always been part of the world like all the mobs and animals alike. But no other living mods got the same treatment, not even him. Then again, his modification was far too complex, too large. What few alterations he underwent in his lifetime took a lot of time and work to do, he still didn't even know what Notch had done to him and his code.

His being altered the world's entire coding just to have him walking around on it, just existing as himself even without the command block in possession was a load on the world's functionality and data bank. There were only a few other mods that exceeded his data limit and processing size, the entirety of the Aether and all it contained being one of them.

"You don't belong here?" Stephanie gazed up at him, feeling a little sad for the guy.

Her soft empathetic tone was enough to cut his sharp anger in half right then and there, frustrated; he simply nodded with a heated grunt. "Yes, I wasn't originally part of this world or made by your creator. I have my own lines of code for my creation, not to survive and thrive, but to kill. It has always been this way, hunt and kill anything with a username; it's in my programming." He scoffed as he realized that he was probably confusing her more. Humans weren't aware of the true world, the one in the background that can't be seen by basic eyes; not even mobs could see it.

"I can do much more than that now, and I don't have to, but I stick to my program; it's better that way. And before you ask, programming means sticking to what I was made to do and doing it without a second thought or fail- automated, like how a redstone machine functions on it's own. I hate you humans, so I will do my job. Only this time, much more thoroughly and permanently." He finished darkly.

Stephanie stared with half-lidded eyes, wanting so much to ask him why he hated them so much; but she was certain he still wasn't going to answer that just yet. They weren't close enough for him to share such a secret, not this time so she decided to ask about something else. "Okay, then what about these numbers you can see? Like my hands?" She held them out before her as raindrops pelted her palms and rolled off of her skin and to the ground below. "I can't see them, only my flesh. You say that everything is made up of letters and numbers, that you're not part of this world; is that why you can see them but I can't? Because you're a 'mod'?"

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The man softly grumbled to himself, not happy with the current topic either. "Just forget about it mortal, trying to explain things would take too long. It took me almost fifty years to understand this world and some of its complex functions at just the basic level, the rest of it took more time on my own. If it weren't for Notch, it would have taken even longer just to know how this world works and how to change it." He ignored the woman's surprised gasp and startled look. "I don't have the time to tell you much because you can only see from one perspective, one dimension, unable to see the world behind what you see in the physical realm. Unlike me; you cannot see a world of limitless numbers, lines of coding make everything before you, everything that you are, exist."

"Notch taught you?"

The man blinked and then growled and removed his hand from around her; feeling very tempted to shove her away or even strike her from hearing that name roll off of her lips. Herobrine had realized what he said and snorted angrily at his mistake, he didn't want her to know of any of his connections to that bastard; now she knew and this enraged him. "Do not speak of that traitor. Ever." He warned.

"Traitor?" Steph asked cautiously, furrowing her brow. "You knew him?" She whispered.

"I will not speak of it." He growled again.

The woman was at a loss for words, she knew Herobrine hated the god with an unbridled passion, but the fact that the creator taught him about their world and coding, whatever it was; left her in complete shock and bewilderment. This tidbit of information changed everything that she thought or was told about the stories of the creator and the destroyer. She had a feeling that the things Nigel had told her earlier that week weren't right. Herobrine claimed he was an addition to the world, so he couldn't have been around from the very beginning. He also seemed to know the creator, and by the sounds of it; almost on a personal level if he got a lot of his knowledge from Notch.

Then it clicked, those words he spoke of the other day, about being abandoned. And right after he had struck her out of rage for saying Notch's name aloud. Now traitor? Herobrine clearly had something against the guy, his goals reflected that notion as did his anger at the very mention of the man. But why exactly? Were they once friends? What caused him to hate the creator so badly? What did he do to betray him? Was it Notch the one who abandoned him; if that was who Herobrine was referring to that night that he said he was abandoned? She wasn't sure if he meant the creator, but she was sure Notch would do no such thing. But if she could get an answer or some kind of lead, then it could potentially open up more information which could then be used to form a solution to stop his genocidal goal. It was a stretch, it might only anger him further, but Stephanie had to try. This was her last night unless she won the next challenge, she had to take the risk. The more she got to know him, the closer she could get to him she reasoned.

"Herobrine." She started softly. "What was he to you?"

The man snarled, stepping away from her and leaving her out in the rain; she didn't seem to care about getting wet anymore as she stood there staring at him with rain droplets soaking through her navy dress shirt and hair. "I just told you, I will not speak of it so don't ask."

"Please, he's the reason why you want to kill all of us, right?" She guessed, by the brief surprised look on the god's face; she had guessed right or close to it. "I mean, why else?" She gestured. "If you hate us so much and him too; then it only makes sense since he made us."

"Mind your own damn business woman."

"Why do you keep this kind of thing to yourself?" She stepped closer to him, "Why are you so afraid to speak about it, to hear his name from me? To talk about him?"

"I'm not afraid to, I just don't want to. Now shut it. I'm warning you human, don't test me." He glared with a scowl as lightning flashed behind him; obscuring his face in shadow for a short moment though his eyes continued blazing in bright white with wisps flaring from them. "You will die tonight if you keep pressing." His deep echoing voice came out with such hostility; yet almost in a restrained way, the lady noted. He was holding back.

'Pressing huh?' Stephanie bit her lip at an abrupt and intrusive thought, but it gave her an idea; not the best but it could lessen the tension between them. It was a gamble. She had already come this far, time to go a little further. She then walked up to him and pressed her body into his, staring up into his eyes with a soft sympathetic gaze as she lifted her arms and draped them over his chest and shoulders, her fingers gently digging into the fabric of his shirt. Touch was the key she reckoned and it seemed to do the trick as his expression dropped a little, one of his arms then snaked around the small of her back and held her close to him with a semi-tight grip.

"You're playing with fire, woman." He quietly grumbled from anger and sudden arousal.

"Well, then it's a good thing it's raining right now. I'm practically soaking wet." She countered, not backing down from his intimidating gaze while still looking up at him with amorous eyes. She saw that doing so held his attention despite the deep angry frown etched on his face, she couldn't help but also take the time to admire his striking white irises with thin strands of silver around his pupils like a sunburst. His eyes were beautiful and almost hypnotic while up so close. "What did he do to you? You can tell me." She said softly as she stroked one of her hands over his right peck and down his torso, leaving a trail of an electrifying sensation in its wake that stirred something in the man.

"There is nothing to tell you, nothing to gain but everything to risk, watch yourself." He warned softly.

"I have one more night left, I know what I'm risking. Please, just let me help you?" She asked as her fingers trailed delicately over his abs like a harp.

The man softly groaned, his eyes quickly fill with desire and hunger. "I know what you're trying to do little woman, I know manipulation. Tread lightly." He whispered darkly before letting out a heated breath.

Stephanie ignored his warning, her fingers continued to dance along his strong physique. "Please, I can help you understand."

He squeezed her more tightly against him, causing her to yelp and wince a little as well as grow a bit anxious from the bodily contact in certain places, she took notice of his growing desire poking into her and blushed. "Don't tempt me woman, or I'll rip your clothes off right here and have you right now, all night. I will not tolerate your attempts of manipulation of that sort while in a tempered mood, not without a price. Is that understood?"

The woman's expression fell and she pouted slightly with an irate look. "Well if you'd just answer some of my questions then I wouldn't have to try, asking surely isn't going to work so what else am I going to have to do to get any? I'd rather not stoop down to seduction, but it seems to be the only thing keeping you from taking my head off my shoulders."

"You aren't long for this world, so why bother asking?"

Steph puffed up her cheeks and glared at him. "Well it's not like I have any way to fully escape my fate, even if I prolong it; I'll eventually slip up or you'll grow tired of me and end these meet-ups." She says as she removes her palm from over his abs and jabs him in the chest with a finger. "I'm obviously going to do everything within my power to either convince you to stop this war, or at the very least; make things clear about you and whatever goal you have. If I'm going to die then I'm going to at least try to die with some answers so I can make peace with it all, I don't want to die but I definitely don't want to die just because you hate my kind. It's clearly more than that."

"I'm not changing my mind mortal, there is nothing you can do to stop me." He replied coldly.

"Oh? You never know 'Mr. King of Mobs'." She jabbed him with her finger again, violet eyes narrowed. "You might know so much about the world around us but it is clear you don't know much about connections or compassion, almost always so grumpy and in a sour mood or bitterly angry. Why do you want to stay in a mood like that all of the time? You may think that getting rid of us will make you happy, but it'll be fleeting joy; I guarantee it. You can call kindness a weak emotion and stay far from it, but it's more powerful than you know; and once you get a good taste of it, you'll be hooked." Her expression softened and her tone quieted. "You already seem to like it from what I can tell, but you're so caught up in past bitterness that you can't move on from it. It's because it's all you've known for so long, isn't it? And you call me weak?"

He tensed up as a spike of anger shot through him. "Watch yourself, woman. You are nothing compared to one like me, I don't know where this little defiant attitude of yours came from, but it better cease." He glared down at her.

"I'm not scared of you, at least not right now; you're being ridiculous. Why do you refuse to talk about Notch? Why can't you tell me why humans all have to die? Surely, this is something that has gone on for a very long time but you're refusing to let it go and taking your anger out on us humans."

"You know nothing!" He angrily pushed her away from him, causing the woman to slip and fall to the wet grass below. "If you do not silence that tongue of yours then I will." He scowled with gnashed teeth.

Stephanie remained on the ground for a moment while gathering her thoughts and courage, she wasn't getting through to him but had to keep trying; the following night was the next challenge one that she was sure to lose. It's now or never, no matter the risk. She forced herself to stand before marching right back to the white-eyed deity and grabbing onto his bicep before wrapping her arms around it and clinging tightly to him so that he'd be forced to hurt her to get her away from him; which hopefully wouldn't happen. "I won't remain in silence," Her fingers tenderly sway and dance on his skin as he tried to pull away from her; causing the man to grunt in annoyance because her touch felt good even while being pissed off.

"Let go." He commanded and shook his arm roughly, but she still clung on. She remained around his arm even as he lifted it, lifting her up off her feet in the process.

"No!" She refused and held onto him, squeezing him more tightly. "I want answers!"

The man growled before lowering her and his arm, letting her feet touch the ground.

Suddenly the rain began coming down like a torrential downpour, making the woman gasp and move closer to the man as thunder rolled loudly above them with flashing bolts of light stretching across the sky like a long tree root. He snorted angrily, the woman still refused to budge, and though it would be so simple as to teleport away or teleport her away; something about the fight in the small woman and having her on him kept him from using a command. Such stubbornness and fight along with her touch only served to arouse him more, even while on the tempted edge of delivering a wrathful deadly strike to her; he relented.

Hero's eyes glowed brightly and in an instant, the woman found him and herself in a quieter place that was both somewhat sheltered but also very dark. There was a musty smell in the air, like that of fungus and moss, and soft droplets hitting small puddles sounding in various places around them. It was a cave.

Herobrine pulled himself away from the woman and she glanced around as she found herself in a dark lengthy cavern with the only light source being the god's eyes flaring brightly in anger as he trod through the tunnel ahead with heavy steps echoing all around them. She quickly followed, almost tripping once as she stumbled over a slick and slippery surface on the moss-covered stone beneath her feet.

"Wait!" She stumbled again, but this time landed with her hands out in front of her, catching herself from hitting the ground; she then pushed herself back up and moved more carefully through the cave after her only light source and protector. Her eyes darted to the darkness around her, it made her feel terribly uncomfortable and a little nervous; almost afraid of what could be lurking in the off-shoot tunnels nearby. "Herobrine, slow down; I can't see!" Stephanie nearly fell again, this time spraining her ankle just to catch herself. "Agh. Where are you going?" She asked with frustration and ache. "Why did you bring us here? Where are we?" She softly glared at the man as he moved further into the dark while ignoring her; his cloak was now casually hanging off his shoulders, and his hood was now down. "Hero!"

She was about to shout again until she suddenly appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye and was gently backed against the wall with his hands on both sides of her waist, she didn't even get time to protest or question him before he brought his mouth over hers; ignoring her muffled surprised gasp or widened eyes. She didn't fight back or try to pull away as he slipped past her parted lips; exploring her, tasting her with a vigorous hunger. Her face went flush and heat blossomed throughout her body as he kept her pinned to the stony surface and kissed her with glowing eyes staring right into hers. She didn't respond to the movements of his lips or tongue, she just let him do as he pleased; not exactly disgusted or repelled by such an action. To her, it felt like he was preoccupying himself, almost as if creating a distraction for himself.

And it felt good.

The kiss was rather short, his tongue slid under and wrapped over hers one last time before he pulled away, and the glow of his eyes seemed to lessen in their intensity as he breathed. He said nothing before releasing his grip on her and turning away, partly covering his mouth and chin with one hand as the other rested on his hip; looking at nothing in particular but seeming lost in thought.

Steph swallowed nervously as her heart thundered almost with the intensity of the storm on the surface, she was glad he was looking away because her face burned; this time he was the one to initiate a kiss and he did way better than she expected the human-hating god to do without her participating. Even better than the men of her past relationships, which was quite shocking. But why? He was so mad at her, so why do that? She wondered. Before she could speak, he spoke first.

"You wouldn't shut up, so I shut you up myself." His words came out still heated but without the burning sting to them.

And he couldn't just mute her, a command he had recently used on her? She thought.

"It was either that or suffer the potential of violence at my hands, I have a very short fuse woman; sometimes it is difficult to steady my quaking hands." He sighed and gave Stephanie a side glance; still facing away from her. "Fortunately, you can provide just the right kind of attention to pull my focus away from my anger, but I would advise you to tread lightly from now on. My rage is like an all-consuming beast, a deadly windstorm; it is not so easily stopped or avoidable. Your lips won't always subdue my wrath, so don't push it."

Stephanie decided not to retaliate, not only because the kiss took her by surprise and left her feeling weak-kneed and shaking, but also because she didn't want to provoke him and risk him going further than that. It looked as though she'd have to find another way to get him to talk, but only when he was in a better mood, or being ruthlessly shoved to the ground or kissed would be the least of her worries.

Her eyes dart from him to the ground, he was being rather quiet now; probably trying to calm himself. The guy was so quick to anger, no wonder he was such a violent being.

"Stephanie Serene Stonewall..."

Her eyes moved back up to him at the mention of her name, but he was still facing away. "What?" She quietly asked.

"Why are you the way that you are?" He asked rather softly.

"What do you mean?" Stephanie gave him a nervous look with a slight tilt of her head.

The white-eyed man turned back around to face her, his glowing eyes revealing his serious expression; his coiled fists made him look daunting but the woman was surprisingly calm despite the hostile encounter moments ago. "I meant what I said." He took a few steps toward her, making Stephanie subconsciously back into the wall of stone when he got too close. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gazing intently into her eyes for the truth, for answers. She shuddered beneath his heavy but careful touch.

"Why are 'you', the way that you are? What drives a human like you; who is aware of their situation and imminent demise, willingly chooses to embrace it?" He paused before huffing and glancing away briefly, what he said sounded absurd. "Well perhaps 'embrace' isn't the right word for it, but you could have taken action for self-preservation and the protection of your brother and the rest of the miserable villagers you care so much about.

You knew when you held my command block yesterday that you could have 'real' power, you were even able to activate a command; and not just a small simple one at that; but one that affected the entirety of this world. While I was out you could have made a move that would have stopped my plans, perhaps even done away with me for good. All you would have to do was tell your brother, tell the authorities of your village, and even attempt to kill me with the command block itself.

You may have not known this at the time when I was vulnerable, but without that block, I am not immortal. Not entirely."

Stephanie's eyes widened and she gaped.

"If you had just attempted to kill me or had notified someone with enough strength and diamond weapons; I could have been killed rather easily. All you'd have to do was just choose to take advantage of my debilitated state and the world of humans would have been safe from my hands, the mob armies would have quickly collapsed too without my lead. Yet you threw away the perfect and quite possibly the only chance to save those who you love and all other mortals, for no good reason. If you had just taken the opportunity to kill me, you wouldn't be out here right now, you'd be at home safe and sound and resting knowing that humans were safe from me.

So what I can't understand is why you didn't even try, you cried and begged for my mercy multiple times, tried and managed to earn my favor, seduce me, and for what? A little more time and some leniency of my wrath? For answers? This pales in comparison to just wiping out the threat of you mortals in one swing, saving your brother, your village, and even your own life. I laid in your home for several hours, locked in a weakened state from my carelessness and the curse of the damn cube regarding my power and you humans. You were supposed to have done the smart thing, the right thing that any sane mortal would do with their enemy at their mercy. But you did nothing, nothing but leave me to rest peacefully in the comforts of your home.

Are you that moronic?" He finished, so puzzled and yet strangely intrigued by the woman.