Chapter Text
The Hermits have recently transitioned into the sixth season of Hermitcraft. While it wasn't exactly the most favorable start, like usual, a couple of death messages here and there from the occasional shenanigans that occur in good old Hermitcraft fashion, it didn't stop the ever legendary Hermits from already getting to work.
Some volunteered to work on Spawn, just to make their starting area more welcoming and memorable. Designing Spawn was always one of the most important builds that would last and develop for the rest of the season: that was where they would usually set up shops, create districts, or even just a simple place where all of them can gather without needing to hand out directions for each player if ever there were emergencies or announcements that the communicator wouldn't be able to satisfy.
As the season progressed, there was nothing short of expectations from Mumbo Jumbo and his rather large sorting system in his orange-shaped dome. He supposed he'd fix the framework later, after receiving so many comments from passing Hermits about how it looked, rather… squished.
Regardless, he continued with his redstone.
Oh, and who else on Hermitcraft would be doing redstone? Let's see…Tango…Doc…maybe even Impulse…
Right, so, they were Xisuma’s biggest fears.
The admin practically dreaded whenever he flew by and examined their storage, noticing the large amount of redstone in either one or two double-chests, even worse if they were in blocks, not to mention the plentiful repeaters, comparators, pistons out of all things, and everything that Xisuma would find in his nightmares.
The admin wasn't a stranger to their creations lagging the entire server, or maybe even mob farms breaking and reaching the mob cap of a chunk and completely devoiding it of the spawn rate in surrounding chunks, too many present entities in a certain area of blocks due to hoppers too full to pick them up, or even perhaps the beloved traps that he had fallen into one-too-many times, not that he would ever admit that.
Xisuma would spend forever fixing whatever was causing an immense lag in the server, which was usually either Mumbo’s or Doc’s doing. Usually, the worst-case scenario was when the creeper hybrid would, once again, surpass his expectations and do something that would make his nights sleepless.
Yet, despite all the warnings, the speeches, the scoldings the admin sent toward the creeper, Xisuma would once again show up to fix a glitch in the server.
It was about 12,000 blocks from Spawn, and as tedious as the journey would be, nothing proved impossible for his Elytra and admin powers, though he avoided abusing them to fix a simple server glitch. Figuring it wasn't anything big, as no breaches in the firewalls and antiviruses were identifiable, and his Voidwalker nature couldn't pick up any new energy signatures, he fetched some fireworks from Keralis, along with a few baked potatoes from Mumbo, and set off for the 12,000 block journey.
While it was odd to have a glitch so far away, since most of the Hermits have been recently doing most server activity relatively close to Spawn, so there was no way they were loading in chunks, the admin didn't question it.
When Keralis asked why he needed so many rockets, Xisuma simply gave him a look, and the other immediately understood. “Stay safe, Shashwammy! Stop by for dinner, though. We’ve got a barbecue night planned. It’s on xB!” The Hermit called out to the admin as he took off for the sky, only managing a wave back as the green-armored man disappeared into the clouds.
Xisuma soared through the server, passing over ConCorp, the Mumball, and more bases he couldn’t tell from his place in the sky. He held his rockets firmly in his off-hand and his communicator in the other, the numbers of his coordinates rising rapidly as he sped through chunks.
He was honestly glad about the creation of the Elytra; it was currently the quickest transport tool, even beating a fifteen-heart horse, and being able to propel further with rockets just added a thrill factor they could never get enough of. Though it took forever to find, and you’d need to either defeat the dragon first or risk branching out from the main end island to the outer end islands, which was going to cost a thousand block bridge while the dragon was actively swooping in and/or shooting out balls of dragon flame.
Was it worth it in the end? Absolutely.
Shaking his head, Xisuma used another rocket, occasionally checking his communicator so he wouldn’t skip over it, only to be disappointed to learn that he’d only traveled a couple of hundred blocks. It was almost tempting to simply spam a bunch of rockets, see if that changed anything, or speed up the traveling process, but he knew better than to waste them.
The world below him never ceased to take his breath away every time. Even though he had been on the server for years, building, improving, living, he could never seem to get enough of how beautiful their world was, as new as it might be. There was something so fascinating to him about watching how animals interacted with each other, or how the trees seemed to speak through their roots, and how his Voidwalker nature could feel the light, heartwarming, but overall natural energy emanating from the beings that surrounded him.
Xisuma continued to appreciate the life below. The clear skies allowed for the sun to make the surface beneath glow faintly and reflect on his dark purple visor. In all honesty, he could just relax like this for a bit longer, extend his travel, give his admin duties a break for once, considering it wasn’t that big of a threat, simply another average day in Hermitcraft.
The thought was tempting, really. It seemed like a nice day to settle into the meadows, have a picnic with the local sheep, and maybe even converse with the bees. But he knew better and quickly shook the thought away. Maybe when the server’s in perfect shape, then he’ll invite Keralis to join him on a picnic.
Just to ensure he’d actually follow through with it, he quickly saved the coordinates of the meadows before spending another rocket, sending his entire being piercing through the sky. Thank goodness for his helmet; otherwise, his face would’ve been a mess.
After what felt like days, Xisuma finally neared the server glitch. He sighed in relief as he checked his communicator and, yup, he had successfully traveled 12,000 blocks out. Normally, he avoided long trips, but he did for the sake of the server.
He landed about a hundred blocks away just to let the chunks finally load in, stretching his arms, groaning as he stretched out his back. By Void, he was sore; he wondered how the other Hermits could fly for so long without getting some sort of ache somewhere. He felt old just stretching out the pops in his back.
Xisumavoid: My back hurts
Xisumavoid: Flying sucks
ImpulseSV: You can do it!!!
Docm77: old
Xisumavoid: This is your fault
Docm77: ???
Xisuma sighed as he tucked his communicator into his pocket and began walking toward the server glitch, his helmet hissing as it retracted, taking a bite out of a baked potato, snacking as he made his way over. He honestly had no idea what to expect; it could've been just another duplication glitch or a command-only mob somehow spawning onto the server. He even chuckled at the thought of Herobrine.
Heh. Herobrine.
He made an ‘oh’ noise as he placed a bed down a good distance from the glitch before deciding to put his spawn on top of a tree, just in case the glitch somehow killed him.
When he finally stepped into the chunk, his foot phased through the grass completely. He yelped as he swayed forward, flailing his arms around to regain balance before he eventually fell through the blocks completely. He started gliding around, struggling to see and ramming into blocks. He couldn't tell which were tangible and which weren't; blocks obscured his view. He felt like he was swimming through an opaque liquid, dreading that he'd phase through the entire chunk completely and into the Void.
Of course, out of all the bugs possible, it just had to be a no-clipping bug.
With little time to spare, having noticed that he reached the deepslate layer, he managed to glide into a cave, slamming face-first into a wall of stone with a grunt, followed by the cracking of his helmet’s visor. Even the mobs in that cave seemed too stunned to attack upon seeing an armored man clip through a wall of stone.
Xisuma groaned as he flipped onto his back, having lost at least a few hearts from continuously taking damage after cluelessly crashing against multiple blocks. “Okay, that's new.” He groaned as he groggily pulled out his communicator and checked his coordinates, once again a hundred blocks away from the server glitch. Well, this is frustrating.
He started building up to the surface once more, formulating a game plan. Occasionally, he'd build up into another cave, but the mobs seemed to be avoiding him. Either he wasn't within their line of sight, or the glitch was causing the mobs to act strangely, but he didn't complain and continued bridging up.
When Xisuma resurfaced, he sighed and placed his hands on his hips, staring at the blank opening before him that was the ‘server glitch.’ He brought up a panel and started running diagnostics on the area before opening another panel to survey the firewalls and antiviruses software.
He then experimentally threw a piece of baked potato onto the chunk and watched as it phased through completely, staring at it with a puzzled expression. How the hell does a server glitch disable the collision detection for an entire chunk??
Well, questions for later. He pulled out a couple of building blocks as the diagnosis returned with the exact coordinates for the glitch, which happened to be in the middle of the chunk. Great. Gotta love server maintenance.
It looked strange, to say the least. Bridging over to the center of the chunk of grass seemed so weird. He would look like a maniac to any normal player audience right now.
When he reached the center, he began building up, occasionally looking up to see nothing but the clear sky. He was starting to believe he had made a wrong diagnosis…
As he jumped up to place another block beneath him, his head hit something above him, knocking him off balance. He gasped as he flailed around again, only one foot left to balance on the cobblestone tower. Maybe he shouldn’t have skipped out on those yoga lessons, because his balance was terrible.
Xisuma’s foot slipped, and he swayed backwards, almost falling headfirst with a high-pitched yelp. “O-oH Void-!” He squeaked as he reached out helplessly to the sky.
He didn't expect the sky to actually answer his silent plea for help.
A hand reached out, catching him before he plummeted straight through the ground. Xisuma gasped as he stared at his savior, the hand that hadn’t been there previously, and its owner now revealed itself to him.
His hands shook as the being grasped his wrist, eyes staring straight into his own, his helmet nonexistent to their gaze.
A Watcher.
Xisuma had to retract his hand. He screamed at his body to move, panic coursing through him as his mind did everything to command his frozen body to no avail. He avoided looking, avoided speaking with it, drowned out every sound around it. “Oh V-Void,” He breathed, more like begged, his voice strained like he was on the verge of throwing up.
The Watcher moved, and Xisuma had never flinched so violently before. It reeled him upward, dangling and shaking him as though he were a piece of meat. Well, he supposed he was. Oh, humor him, Universe.
The Watcher, about five times his height, lifted him higher until their eyes met. Xisuma felt a wave of nausea and fear wash over him as his mind scrambled to try to understand what he was staring at. The Watcher was much more humanoid than the fair share he'd encountered before, though that was simply a metaphor as he struggled to even describe to himself what his eyes were perceiving.
He felt something leak from his eyes, unable to look away despite the panic that was screaming at him to do so. The Watcher examined him, and Xisuma shuddered in its grasp, feeling the many eyes crawling over his form. Though it was the only subtle movement he's made in a hot minute, he couldn't stop the anxiety that spiked when he did, waiting for the inevitable.
Then, he closed his eyes. His eyelids felt gross, sticky, hardening, and crusting over his eyes, the smell of iron polluting his helmet. But how? He thought. How was a Watcher on their server?
He should've felt it the moment it arrived, should've at least seen it in the diagnostic, yet there were no clues to its presence. That staticky feeling coursed through his body, hot and cold pulsing on his skin as the Watcher continued to examine him, turning him around and jostling him a couple of times.
Xisuma was so sure he was about to throw up.
When the admin opened his eyes, he could only let out a pathetic screech as he stared down into the open jaws of the Watcher. “Wait wait WAIT WAIT WAIT-!” Xisuma begged, squeezing his eyes shut tight as he held out his free arm in front of him, making a stop gesture.
The Watcher paused, glaring at him as it closed its snake-like jaw, wings angrily ruffling, clearly dissatisfied that the admin was asking for mercy. Now, how dare he?
When the glare from the Watcher persisted, Xisuma hastily pulled something out of his inventory, causing it to tense, ready to tear him in half, until its eyes landed on the object in his hand, which resembled nothing like a sword or weapon. “I’ve got food! I've got food, j-just put me down! Please…?” Xisuma begged, chuckling nervously and clasping his hands together.
It stared intently at the piece of baked potato before taking it with one of its many hands and dropping Xisuma. It seemed to have forgotten that the blocks beneath them had collision disabled, and could only watch as Xisuma fell through the floor with an echoing yell.
Xisuma watched in horror as he plummeted toward the Void, bracing himself for suffocation and damage. Something grabbed onto the nape of his armor and yanked him upward just before he hit y-level -64. Still, even so, the admin refused to open his eyes, already feeling the energy emanating from his savior.
“Iᒲ ᓭ𝙹∷∷||,” The Watcher whispered, almost in an apologetic tone. The admin screamed as he slapped his hands over where his ears would be, coughing as he retracted his helmet and threw up his lunch into the Void. Blood ran down the sides of his face, his helmet slipping off and disappearing into the endless darkness beneath them.
The Watcher watched, its multiple eyes blinking in confusion and without cooperation before they locked onto the trickling crimson from between Xisuma’s fingers. Its eyes widened before one of its hands reached up to Xisuma, only to hesitate, not wanting to harm the admin any further.
The Watcher wished to apologize, looking around in the Void as if there was someone to help it, yet all it could gaze into was the haunting nothingness that stared back at it. It was unbothered by the eyes; it had been watched and watched; the Void’s piercing gaze was nothing to it. But maybe it was affecting the admin as he started shivering, clearly unwell.
With a powerful flap, the Watcher resurfaced with the admin and gently placed him onto the ground outside of the glitchy chunk. When it expected him to stand as before, the admin clumsily swayed back and forth for a few moments before falling to his knees, coughing and hacking as more red pooled beneath him.
Xisuma shakily un-pocketed his communicator with a heave as the Watcher lingered over him, its many stares not failing to spark that staticky feeling over his entire body. He tried to call for Keralis, only for his fingers to slip and not press anything, blood smearing all over the screen. His vision swam too much for him to actually focus on the screen, and breathing overworld air without his gas mask to filter it was doing his lungs some work.
Xisuma’s lungs began to burn, and there was an ache in his elbow, and an even worse one pulsating throughout his entire body. No amount of knowledge about the Watchers could’ve prepared him for this, not even having time to acknowledge which one it was.
Oh Void, he just hoped it was neither One nor Two.
·﹃
﹄·
When Xisuma didn’t come for barbecue night, Keralis was starting to worry. As they sat around the bonfire, with Biffa very amused to watch as Jevin ate away at the barbecue stick he was given, considering his body was mostly translucent, Keralis was very worriedly checking his communicator for any updates, his leg bouncing up and down anxiously.
“I know you’re staring,”
xB ceased his grilling when Keralis spoke, and he hadn’t picked a stick from the plate of already grilled barbecue. “Something on your mind?” xB asked, tilting his head to the bright-eyed Hermit whose eyes seemed just the very bit dull. “Shashwammy hasn’t come by. He said he’d just go out to check a server glitch, and he’d drop by to join us. And he’s not here!” Kerlis lashed out, huffing as he folded his arms. How could he not be upset that his best friend wasn’t fulfilling his promise?
“I’m sure he’s alright. We can go check on him now, if you want?” xB offered, waving the pincers around as he flipped another stick yet again. Keralis sighed, then paused, staring into the distance as his goat-like pupils dilated until his irises were consumed with darkness. It was always an uncanny sight to see Keralis using whatever Eldritch trick he’s got up his sleeve, but they were only unnerved by the inhuman display; they were confident Keralis would never hurt them.
Then, Keralis was with them again.
“He's not ANYWHERE near us, not at his guardian spikes, not at Spawn…” Keralis was almost panicking when Jevin hopped next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Keralis whipped around so quickly that his goat horns nearly rammed into the other’s face full-force.”Woahh, buddy, calm down! Just breathe it out, okay? Breath it out…” Jevin coaxed the Eldritch into calming down, rubbing his back supportively.
“Don’t need to worry ‘bout Suma! He's the best fighter I know in this server, ‘side from False, of course,” Biffa chimed in as he took a bite out of his stick, earning hums of agreement from his friends. “And I bet he's set his spawn in his base anyway, but if not, he'd respawn back at Spawn anyway,” xB added.
“Say, how about we continue the night by going X hunting?” Jevin suggested, watching from the corner of his eye while pretending he hadn’t just seen Keralis brighten up.
xB chuckled as he started flipping the coal over onto the colder side to ease the flames and shut the grill. “Let's get going then. Where'd ‘Suma say he was headed?”
“12,000 blocks from Spawn.”
“Oh, okay—12,000 BLOCKS??” Biffa choked on the water he was drinking, excusing himself in between coughs while Jevin, this time, shifted from patting Keralis’s back to Biffa’s. “Excuse me? Has he got any reason to? I swear, everyone’s been going crazy distances ever since the Elytra was invented, geez..” xB rubbed the back of his head before he began to undo his apron that read ‘World’s Best Dad’ with the ‘Dad’ part scribbled out and replaced with ‘Hermit.’
Keralis huffed, folding his arms. “Something about a server bug,” Just as he said that, he started doing that stare thing that he died earlier, though this time his eyes were glowing a faint yellow as he stared into nothingness, occasionally squinting and probably surveying the entire world, trying to search for any sign of Xisuma.
He blinked a couple of times, tearing up as he continued to search through the whole server, flashes of greenery and nature flashing by like a sped-up slideshow. He sniffled as tears started flowing down his face, but he didn’t stop, not until he spotted any sign of Xisuma.
He paused when he finally hit the 12,000 block mark, where he spotted, in the thick of an oak forest, a small hut made of oak wood, a faint light emanating from the one-block hole that served as a window, guarded by an oak trapdoor. He couldn’t make sense of what was inside before xB shook him awake.
“Keralis? Keralis! KERALISS!!” Keralis gasped as he returned to his body, shaking his head as he started wiping at his face, where golden tears had begun to stain his cheeks. Jevin offered him a paper towel, which he accepted with a muffled ‘thanks.’
xB sighed, watching the other wipe at his face. “You’ve got to stop overdoing that. We get it, Eldritch whatever beyond player comprehension, I know, but not in this body, you’re not,” He huffed as Keralis simply stared back at him, not a thought behind those big ol’ eyes. “Right…let’s just get going. Though, take care of yourself a bit more, buddy,” xB walked up to them, patted Keralis’s back, before they headed to their respective bases to gear up.
“Meet up at Spawn?”
“Gotcha,”
“Right by me then,”
“I'll bring the rockets!”
·﹃
﹄·
Xisuma could barely stress the amount of pain he was feeling. The world shifted in colors when he tried to open his eyes, blinded by the torch above his head. A blinding white pain split his head in two, or at least felt like it, wincing and closing his eyes once more with a groan.
The soft, woolly mattress beneath his fingers felt almost foreign, his entire body still shivering, and he was certain his helmet wasn't on his face. He realized hours ago that he hadn’t brought a spare with him. Though that part didn’t worry him, how he could breathe so easily without it brought him dread.
Was he back in the Void? It was the first question he asked when he regained consciousness. He wanted to check, for the split second that he opened his eyes, he managed to spy a window next to his bed, but he knew the consequence the moment he opened them.
Something shifted beside him. He froze immediately, his blood running cold. Wasn’t he 12,000 blocks out? What Hermit would…
Oh, right, the Watcher.
Xisuma felt it shift beside him, and suddenly the faint light through his eyelids faded. “Sorry,” Came a whisper, and he flinched, expecting a pain to ripple through his ears like earlier, bracing himself for the nausea that was to come. Except, it didn’t.
A warmth blanketed his body, and Xisuma couldn’t help but relax despite how tense he was. He was so sure that his mind was playing a trick on him, and he shouldn’t have been able to hear that voice; his eardrums had ruptured earlier, and he was fairly sure it had damaged the inner nerves. Or maybe it was in his head?
Xisuma tried to open his eyes again, though this time, the light was easier on his eyes. The skin around his eyes still felt gross, scratch that, his entire face felt gross. He figured it was the blood from earlier, now coagulated and cracking.
“I couldn’t clean you up.” The Watcher hummed, and Xisuma hesitated to look, but the allure of curiosity was stronger than his sense of caution. Eventually, the admin slowly turned, facing the Watcher, who seemed smaller than what he had envisioned and remembered. Not just that, but it was less painful to look at it, though there was still a dull ache behind his eyes when he would stare; he could actually comprehend what he was staring at, too.
Lesser arms, lesser wings, maybe just three pairs, two on its back, one on its head, and its face—
Xisuma could’ve sworn he screeched when his eyes landed on its face, backing away and crumpling the blanket against his legs, but he couldn’t hear anything. It was Xelqua.
The Xelqua.
A man transformed into a higher being, the Watcher of reason and mischief. Though that didn't make them any better, maybe even worse, for their strong bloodlust and wanton pranks that may or may not lead to death.
Xisuma can remember it clearly, back in his college days, when to-be admins who took the course were taught about Watcher meticulously. An entire semester was dedicated to how to program the right security against them; messing up was unaffordable, and their professor, while she was kind for the following semesters, was particularly rigorous about the topic of Watchers.
They were taught to remember the telltale signs of them within a server, how to get a momentary upper hand against some of the known ones, like One or Two, but there was barely anything on a rather new page about a new Watcher, Xelqua. A new Watcher was never a good sign.
He remembered other professors worrying about them, how he would pass by and see their worried glances more than their regular, schooled but tired ones. How they reconsidered not letting them graduate.
Before him was Xelqua. And oh my Void, he couldn’t help but cower against the corner, his hands shaking as they clutched the blanket at his lap tight enough that it started to groan under the strain. But, as the admin, he held his ground.
“What do you want?” He wanted to say, but he only felt his heart drop when he heard nothing. He swallowed hard, remembering not to panic and reminding himself of the events earlier. A loss of hearing was nothing a forced respawn couldn’t fix. Except, he remembered that the Watch—Xelqua—caused it, slowly losing hope that respawn could fix the damage.
‘Damage caused by Watchers is typically irreparable unless caused by lesser ones like the late Oblivis.’ One of the lines of text from his old textbook popped into his head, and he could only feel his frown deepening. Xelqua tilted their head, multiple eyes blinking at their own accordance.
“Art thou well?” The Watcher asked; however, the admin could finally confirm that they were using some sort of telepathic line to communicate, and—wait, did they just ask if he was okay?
Xisuma blinked a couple of times in disbelief. Did a Watcher just…what????
“Art thou well, O’ Voidwalker?” They repeated once more, and Xisuma felt the need to answer lest he face some sort of consequence. He nodded slowly, not wanting to jostle another headache. Realizing that he had been staring for longer than necessary, he averted his gaze, the dull ache in his skull calming slightly.
Xisuma opened his mouth to speak, hesitating. “I’m fine,” He mumbled, not before jumping when the door to their small oak hut burst open.
Xisuma watched as three of his Hermits burst in, Keralis standing in the lead and baring his fangs toward the Watcher, who screeched in turn as their wings flared open, standing in front of Xisuma and effectively blocking their view of the admin.
The admin could only watch this go down without a sound.
·﹃
﹄·
To say they weren’t getting increasingly anxious with how Keralis was acting toward the oak hut was a lie.
Ever since they landed near that thing, Keralis hasn’t stopped growling, urging to bulldoze in without a plan. While Jevin and Biffa tried to calm the Hermit from simply barging in, xB was trying to get a peek inside.
“Come on, buddy, calm down! What if you accidentally wake a sleeping ‘Suma? We don’t want an angry ‘Suma now, do we??” Biffa strained as he pulled at his friend, who was very carefully making his way to the hut, held up by both of his friends, whose feet dragged against the soil and created a mound around their shoes.
“Yeah! Angry Shewma is not a fun Shewma! Come onnn–” Jevin huffed as he tried pushing Keralis back by the chest, only ending up with a missing shoe and a burnt foot. While the others were desperately trying to stop Keralis from going full-on haywire, xB managed to get a peek.
All it took was xB to scream in horror as he managed to get a glance of the inside.
The Hermit burst inside, essentially knocking the door off its hinges, but that wasn’t his main focus. When his eyes landed on Xisuma, smeared with a dark crimson having spilled from practically every part of his face; his nose, his eyes, his ears, and his mouth, Keralis couldn’t help but let out a loud growl toward the other being in the room.
A Watcher. Filthy, disgusting, immoral creatures they were.
Keralis’s pupils narrowed when the Watcher screeched at his arrival, standing between him and Xisuma. Were they preventing them from getting their admin back? Their CLEARLY unwell admin?
Watcher or not, Keralis had sworn to himself that if ever came a time, he’d fight god and win if it meant keeping his friends safe.
“Watcher,” Keralis warned lowly, staring straight into their eyes, ignoring the toll that it had on his mortal body. The Watcher stared right back into his eyes, challenging him, their gazes unwavering as the Watcher became more distorted with each passing second, dissatisfied.
The magic flaring from either of the beings was suffocating for the regular Hermits; Biffa had stepped back, holding a hand over his nose and face scrunched up, and pulled Jevin along, who had to cover his eyes, tears flowing down his face from the sheer burning sensation. xB had recollected himself, grabbing both the Hermits and pulling them further from the hut.
Yeah, this situation wasn’t built for humans or slime alike.
A Watcher. On Hermitcraft. The image—could he describe it as that?—of the Watcher was beyond anything he could put into words. Even so, he knew that Watchers were not a good sign on the server, on any server, really. Not good at all.
“T⍑𝙹⚍ ⎓𝙹𝙹ꖎ╎ᓭ⍑ ∴∷ᒷℸ ̣ ᓵ⍑, ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ᓭℸ ̣ ᔑリ↸ ʖᒷ⎓𝙹∷ᒷ ᒲ|| !¡∷ᒷᓭᒷリᓵᒷ ᔑリ↸ ↸ᔑ∷ᒷ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ᓵ⍑ᔑꖎꖎᒷリ⊣ᒷ ᒲᒷ..” Xelqua hissed with an air of dominance, the oak hut around them dissolving with the glow of purple light into the ground and leaving them exposed to the night air. It doesn’t take long for Bdubs to realize that night had dawned and slept to skip the night.
The moment the morning star was in the sky, both parties aimed to strike.
Until Xisuma had finally caved in, accessed the admin panel, and manipulated a cage of barrier blocks around them. Keralis seemed to shrink, folding his arms, displeased by the trap, while Xelqua huffed when their magic pierced through and created a giant crater in the ground that led straight to the Void.
“No fighting.” While Xisuma looked more crazed than serious right now, the firm tone in his voice was enough to set both otherworldly beings in their places. In all honesty, the barriers weren’t anywhere near enough to hold either one of them back, but neither seemed to want to face the wrath of the admin, who looked beyond stressed out, eyes red and face drawn up like he had eaten a raw animal. Maniacal, basically.
Xisuma knew Keralis would listen to him; he was even confident in it, but he was surprised that Xelqua wasn’t doing anything. Had he any motive?
“Shashwammy, we gotta kill this guy.” Keralis deadpanned at him, gesturing to the Watcher beside him, who seemed unaffected by his words, his eyes pleading at the admin. “F𝙹𝙹ꖎ╎ᓭ⍑. F𝙹𝙹ꖎ╎ᓭ⍑ ╎リ↸ᒷᒷ↸ ᔑ∷ℸ ̣ ℸ ̣ ⍑𝙹⚍, o ʖᒷ╎リ⊣.” Xelqua’s many eyes rolled, the number of eyes seeming to have a greater impact on the message, causing Keralis to gasp.
“D-Did you see that? Did you see that, Shashwammy? T-They just-!” Keralis looked to be on the verge of ripping through the barrier blocks and launching at the Watcher, stammering over his words in pure disbelief, letting out a frustrated growl as he clenched his fists.
“Stop! Stop! I can’t hear you, and frankly, it’s giving me a headache trying to read your lips,” Xisuma sighed, holding up a hand to Keralis to calm him momentarily. Keralis raised a brow. “Wait, you can’t hear? I-I mean, sorry, sorry,” He didn’t know how to go about this, unsure how he’d communicate with his admin.
Xelqua was strangely cooperative. While they could easily escape, especially since their magic had made a literal hole through the barrier block as if it were nothing, they had decided to stay and observe, a smile forming upon their nonexistent face as they watched the interaction.
Xisuma was going on about something until the Voidwalker’s words started to slur, his skin paler than it already was, and constantly running his hand through his hair. “I don’t know if what I’m saying ish ‘ven clear but, uh..” The admin’s hand faltered, leaning against Keralis’s barrier containment.
“K-Keralis? Keralis, I’m going to fall.”
Just as Xisuma managed those words, Keralis had already hopped out from the top of the barrier cage and caught the admin before he kissed the dirt. With the admin of Hermitcraft out cold, the Hermits in the area began to panic.
Keralis never took his eyes off the Watcher, afraid that if he blinked, they would disappear into the world and wreak havoc, while Biffa and xB rushed over to take Xisuma out of the other’s arms.
“Oh dear, there goes ‘Suma…” Jevin chuckled nervously, looking around before his face fell as he brought out his communicator.
“I’m calling Doc.”