A Crown of Broken Runes (ACOBR)

The Meeting

Grian's shoulder was throbbing with pain by the time he flopped to the ground in front of his base. An arrow was embedded in his upper arm, lacing his shoulder with waves of agony. He had really messed up.

It was going so well...

He lamented.

What did I do wrong?

He winced, pulling himself a bit farther into his base so no curious eyes could see him. He feebly downed some golden carrots, quickly healing the wound, but the arrow remained.

Ugh... this is gonna take a while to go away...

He sighed and tried to carefully remove his bloodied jumper. Luckily, the arrow's shaft pierced his shirt not far from where he had cut the wing holes. With a small snip, he was able to painlessly remove the garment. Next, he began to wash off the blood, but instead paused, and stared at it curiously. The blood on the top was a bright purple, but the blood underneath from the initial wound was a normal blood red.

Purple blood is kind of cool.

Something vibrated softly against his leg. After a moment, he realised it was his communicator. He finished washing off the blood and retrieved it, reading what it had to say. Apparently, Impulse was now arranging a server-wide meeting.

Oh no. Did he see my face?

He thought back, remembering what had occurred that day. No, no, there wasn't any flicker of recognition on either of his friend's faces, only a cold fury in Impulse's as Bdubs had died. The communicator hummed incessantly as the server reacted to Impulse's messages. He didn't see what the big deal was.

I didn't do anything wrong.

He groaned. This was an issue. The messages rapidly flooding in seemed to agree that the meeting would happen in 45 minutes, give or take. He hoped that the arrow would disappear before then. He knew he shouldn't have put himself in danger of discovery like that, but... it was so exhilarating. Bdubs had cheated death, so it was only fair that Grian remedied that.

You murdered your friend.

A traitorous part of his mind whispered softly.

He shook his head.

"No, no!" he responded, talking to himself, "It was part of the puzzle! It was all in good fun! It was only fair for him to die. Anyways, I didn't kill him, the golem did!"

But you enjoyed it, didn't you? You liked watching your 'friends' struggle and die.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to ignore his own dark thoughts. He stood, shook himself, and began to mumble quietly, reassuring himself.

It was all for the right reasons. It was just a game, right?

Only a game.

~ ⬩ ᒲᒷᒲ𝙹∷╎ᒷᓭ ⬩ ~

"Thank you all for coming!" Impulse said, standing over the crowd of hermits. The soft buzz of chatter silenced.

"We're still missing a few people, but they will be here soon I hope." Bdubs stood beside Impulse, his face pale.

Mumbo frowned.

I wonder what happened.

Impulse continued talking.

"About an hour ago, as some of you saw in the chat, Bdubs was killed by an iron golem." Heads nodded in the crowd. Beef arrived, drifting into the crowd on his elytra.