Chapter Text
He had seen the small, orange and shiny resin on the fake tree. He had forced JJ to get close to the tree as the guy was determined to chase him. He had triggered the trap he knew was going to be there. And he watched as it had gone off. He watched as the TNT lit up and blew up, taking JJ with it. He watched as the ground broke and the tree was destroyed.
His head spun as soon as he realized what had happened. The explosion rang in his ears, even minutes after it had gone off. Actually, did he even process what had happened? He hadn’t expected the explosion to be that loud and close, honestly. His head hurt a lot. And his body ached.
At some point he climbed out, not paying mind to the golden pickaxe breaking apart, and he just started.. Walking. He wasn’t entirely sure where he walked. He didn’t really care. His eyes were locked forward, his pace was even and quick despite the small limp he had, and he just wasn’t thinking. Or was he thinking too much?
JJ had deserved it. It was life or death. Kill or be killed.
That was always how the demonic avian had been raised as soon as he entered the fighting life. That was reinforced when he was being taught by Mineminner and Manepear.
He didn’t regret it. The whole purpose of the Purge was to pick off the weak. So clearly JJ had just been weaker, right?
The black fake sky seemed to sway. As if it was too hot and humid and the demonic avian was starting to see things, as if he were in a desert. For a moment he thought he saw a star, but he knew that was impossible. He missed the stars.
Would Egg have tried to get him to spare JJ somehow? No, surely not. Egg hadn’t stopped him whenever it was necessary. And surely this was necessary.
(..His body felt too warm.)
Maybe the demonic avian could take a nap before he and the group went to.. To.. To leave- yeah, that. Well, no, that would be stupid. He had to kill Arachn1d. He had to make sure Egg would still be with him. If they stayed in here any longer more players could show up and ruin their chances.
(His ears rang too loudly.)
How long had he been walking?
Where was he?
Was he close to the middle? He wasn’t very sure.
He was never sure of anything at this point.
He didn’t like that, honestly. He missed when he was actually sure of himself and could do things without questioning it until an hour or so later.
(His wings and tail felt too numb.)
The demonic avian just wanted to go home at this point. He wanted to go to the End and stay with Minute. The demonic voidling was probably the closest person he could consider as a parent. Mane was close, but then he.. What did Mane do again? The demonic avian knew that the lion hybrid had done something, thinking about him always made his chest tighten his mind reel with betrayal. Yet he couldn’t really remember what Mane had done right now. His mind wandered way too much to stay thinking on one thing.
(His limbs were too tired.)
Was he almost there? He felt like he had been walking for hours. And yet his posture never changed, his pace never slowed or increased, and his mind continued to stay broken. He was losing his mind, honestly. It felt like his instability grew more and more every single day, every single hour, every single minute, every single second.
At some point he made it to where he wanted to be. He guesses, at least.
He was at the middle area, four tall pillars towering up to join the ceiling. He could see the mountains of chests. He could see the gaping hole that was where everyone had been standing before it disappeared beneath their feet with no warning. At least the bodies that were on the cobwebs were all gone by now, though. The blood still stained the white spiderwebs.
Standing on the tallest chest was surprisingly easy despite how disoriented he felt. He felt really dizzy.. But he didn’t want to succumb to it and pass out. Not until he knew Egg, Jaden, and Yungy were safe. Not until Arachn1d was dead. Not until the demonic avian knew his own mace wasn’t going to kill him because of his poor life decisions when he was younger.
But Void, everything hurt. If it were almost anyone else they probably would have fallen over by now. They would probably be sitting on the chests instead of standing on them. They probably wouldn’t be in his situation, actually- almost anyone would have made the smart decision to not make a contract, to not continue digging this hole, to not.. To just give up on the fighting.
Then eventually he was on the ground, with Egg, Jaden, Yungy, CodMaster, and BanditKing all there. (When did he get down-? When did they get here?) “Wemmbu?” Egg said softly.
The demonic avian’s gaze slowly drifted to look at Egg. He was in his fully humanoid form. His expression was.. Sad. Or dim. Not the usual nonchalantance or the regular smirk. It threw the demonic avian off for a few moments. He saw Egg’s mouth move, as if he were speaking. But the words didn’t reach the demonic avian’s ears. They were ringing too much to listen or hear.
Then he watched silently as Egg walked over, putting a hand on the demonic avian’s shoulder. He still didn’t move. He knew that CodMaster and BanditKing were bickering somewhere, Jaden and Yungy were talking softly, and Egg was just.. Staring at him with concern in his sky blue eyes.
Soon enough the angel wrapped him in a hug, letting the demonic avian just rest his head on Egg’s shoulder. It was.. It was nice. After what had felt like hours of being alone and just walking, it was a breath of fresh air.
“We’ll be okay,” Egg said, almost inaudibly. It was just loud enough for the demonic avian to hear.
And all Wemmbu did was hum quietly. His eyes felt wet, and his breathing started to become uneven. He could feel his wings droop as much as the armor would let them, and his tail couldn’t even be bothered to wrap around his leg. It just went limp and slightly touched the cold ground.
“..I want Minute,” Wemmbu mumbled quietly. His volume was the same as Egg’s, so quiet only the angel would be able to hear.
“I know,” the angel hummed.
The two of them stayed like that for a while. It felt like a long time, yet at the end it still didn’t feel long enough. Wemmbu just wished he could stay in Egg’s arms until they both felt numb and their limbs had fallen asleep. He wanted to just stay with Egg, make sure he was within arms length at all times. He didn’t want Egg to leave again.
But then they had to climb out. So someone started towering with dirt while the rest of them used water buckets to climb up. It was quick, there was a little laughter to try and lighten the mood, and there was an odd sound.
An odd sound.
Wemmbu glanced around, and noticed faint ender pearl particles.
“..Egg?”