~The First Step~ a Hermitcraft AU

Chapter 16 (Xeluph)

yayyyyy Xeluph perspective

this story has gone really far, last chapter I posted I said we were at 2.3k reads and now we're at 2.5k! like where did y'all come from asdfghljk

thank you ThatOne1Shadow (sorry for ping) for all of the support lately, it means a lot :3

I was pretty satisfied with this chapter, as I think its important to not have a generic villain who is like "mUaHAhAHa world domination! die you peasant!" you know. a lot of stories have that, but the ones I've really liked had more relatable antagonists, and I think thats really important for a good story.

enjoy!

wc: 940

Xeluph sat ramrod straight at the head of the table. Normally the Leader would be in his spot, but he was... currently unavailable. A smile pulled at the corners of his lips.

He cleared his throat, and the entire group of Elders quieted. "Reports on progress of the work on the code barrier?"

"Little progress," said one Watcher. "They have someone fighting back, presumably Xelqua himself. But we've reached one part."

"What's that?" Xeluph asked.

"Part of the player code," the Watcher replied. "He's encased each player in a little protection bubble, but there's a separate part he might not know about where the admin can access location, for teleportation reasons."

"Wonderful!" Xeluph said, actually satisfied, which is a one in three thousand chance. "Can we move them here?"

"...Well yes, but actually no," the Watcher said hesitantly.

Xeluph glared at him from under the mask.

"We can move them now," the Watcher explained. "But we won't be able to touch them as their actual code is protected, only the location stats aren't."

"So if we brought them here, they'd just... be untouchable?"

"For a certain amount of time, yes..."

Xeluph groaned. "What can we do with them then?"

"Manipulate them," somebody suggested. "Put them in a sort of hunger games. Make them suffer. We can do a lot with them without actually touching them."

"True," Xeluph replied. He nodded. "Yes. We'll do that. Any test worlds that we have right now?" he asked someone further down the line.

The Watcher fumbled with some papers. "W-we have... Third Life," he said hesitantly. "Last Life is  in progress, but should be ready soon..."

"Great!" Xeluph said triumphantly. "We'll do that! Explain this world to me?"

The Watcher nodded. "Everybody has three lives. You can do whatever you want, but when you get to your last life, or red life, you have to kill as many people as you can."

"Wow," was the only reply.

"Destroys friendships pretty well, I'd say," somebody murmured.

"We'll need to get them there though," Xeluph said. "What would be the easiest way?"

"We could create a portal for each hermit that we want to fall into," the first Watcher suggested. "We'll have to make sure Grian and his close friends definitely make it in. Some of the others aren't completely necessary."

"That's a plan," Xeluph said. He stood up. "You are all dismissed. You can pause with the work on their code barrier a bit, but make sure that he doesn't repair it."

"Yes sir," came a chorus of voices, followed by the scuffle of everybody leaving. Xeluph smiled to himself and left as well.

He arrived to his own quarters and unlocked the door with his magical signature. It was surprisingly cozy for a man like him, but that was thanks to her.

"Xel!" A female Watcher, wearing a simple white dress and her black hair loose, swept into the foyer to receive him. "How was the meeting?"

Xeluph smiled a smile nobody in the Watcher community had ever seen before. "Fine, my dear. We're making progress towards Xelqua. Soon, he'll be in our grasps. We're just prying at his mind and soon he'll come crying." Xeluph pried off his mask, showing his intense violet eyes that burned with a thousand flames. His close family always said it was a shame that he had to wear a mask. They were met with a stern glare.

Xera kissed him on the cheek. "Well, I suppose that's good... come have a bit of supper."

A little thrown off by the unenthusiastic reaction, Xeluph smiled and kissed her too. "I'm sure it'll be wonderful." He took off his black Elder's cloak and threw it on the couch, but it was picked up by a bit of magic and zoomed back into Xera's hands. She frowned at him before hanging it up on a coatrack. "For such a powerful man, you certainly have no organization." She tsked and headed into the kitchen.

He smiled at her behavior and sat down at the small table the two shared. Xera came with the food and set it down. Food was freshly imported from the overworld so that they didn't have to live on chorus fruit.

As the two conversed and ate, Xeluph couldn't help but lose the cold demeanor and sneer of contempt that he always wore. Not many Elders were married, and as a rather young one, most expected him to be single for life. He'd met Xera during the selection ceremony as her distant cousin was in the running. They'd clicked like two peas in a pod, spending the entire night together.

"Xeluph?" she asked after a slight break in the conversation.

"Yes, darling?" he replied, setting down his fork.

"Are you sure what you're doing is right?" Xera looked down at her plate, biting her lip. Her black hair was wavy and glossy, her lavender eyes soft and friendly.

"Of course!" Xeluph grinned. "Once we get our hands on Xelqua, we can finally begin the reconstruction of the Watcher kingdom. After all, we need somewhere to put our magic, and the players need us for stability!"

"I just..." Xera sighed. "I feel bad for this Xelqua fellow. Being stolen from his server, accidentally filled with too much magic after being tortured, and then being on the run from thousands of powerful mystical beings."

Xeluph thought about this. If it had come from anyone else, they'd have received a slap and a demotion, but he considered it. "It's one person, dear. Think about all of the others who don't have anything and need somewhere to work. It's for our kingdom, and everything will work out, and we'll all have magic and society will be like how it was a hundred years ago."

She sighed again. "Alright. Just promise me one thing."

"Anything."

"Don't kill him, whatever you do. Once you're done with him, let him be."

Xera held her gaze with Xeluph for a few moments.

He nodded. "I promise on our wedding stone."

She smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling. "On our wedding stone."

hope you liked this chapter! as you might have guessed, third life is coming... >:3

I just watched Grian's new episodes with the rift, and as a child me and my friends wrote a story together called The Rift that we actually committed to. it was on google docs and was over 100 pages- wow we were nerds- now that I reread it it was so silly but actually not that bad lol

thank you for reading! have a good day or night, wherever you are!

-Ete