Another World || Hermitcraft & Empires SMP

Chap.8 || Missing

TW:
-Mention of killing

It was Scott. 

Everyone stared at him, he was leaning on the wall with his arms crossed. 

"You have to contain him in a crystal, you can't kill him." He spoke, "Well why can't we?" X asked, "We're connected by souls." Just as Scott says that, X heard a buzz coming from his bracelet. 

Everyone was too shocked to hear or notice the buzz but X did, he quietly summoned his admin panel. Grian noticed and leaned over to see what was going on, he saw X click on the server controls, then he scrolled down. 

X froze in his place, Grian looked around the screen before finding what shocked X. 

Permadeath was on. 

Grian and X were completely fixed on what was on the screen to realize that the hermits were calling them. "Hello? X? Grian? You there?" Scar called waving his hand in front of their faces. Grian and X snapped out of their shock and snapped their head back. 

"This is bad." Grian whispered loud enough for everyone to hear. "What is?" Mumbo asks, "I- Uh- N-Nothing! A-A-Absolutely nothing!" Grian stumbled over his words but managed to blurt out a lie. But everyone can clearly see through his lie. 

"We can tell you're lying Gri, what's wrong X?" Iskall asks, "I- Uh-" Xisuma tried to think of something but it's clear he couldn't come up with anything, "I-It's something in the server control's!" X stuttered, he hates lying to the hermits but he didn't want them to worry. 

Everyone stared at X suspiciously before staring at fWhip, he understood what they meant and opened the server controls. He scrolled around before finding out why they looked scared, "Permadeath is on..." he whispered looking up at everyone in the room. 

Some hermits were about to speak up when the ground beneath them shook, it was another earthquake, they were used to it so only some of them stumbled around. Nothing else happened after that, which was weird. 

"Permadeath is on!? Can't you change it back?!" Pearl yelled in a panic, "I can't!" X replied. 

"It's because he's in control." A voice said. 

Scott. 

"Only Xornoth can change it back." He explained, "How do you know that?!" A hermit spoke up, Scott sighed "I told you, we're connected by souls." "What do you mean by that?" "He's my brother." 

Everyone went dead silent. 

All eyes were on Scott, no one dared to say a word. "We're not the same, we're the successors of 2 gods, an evil and a good one." 

"I'm the good guy." 

"And I'm the bad guy." A demonic low voice spoke. 

Everyone glanced around the room in a panic, all the rulers immediately recognized that voice. "Xornoth..." Gem grit her teeth. 

Grian suddenly felt weaker, the light on his bracelet was flickering. "H-He's breaking through!" Grian yelled trying to make his magic stronger. 

Everyone started to panic even more, the admins and rulers ran out while the other hermits watched from Gem's balcony knowing they probably shouldn't interfere. 

Xornoth was floating right in front of the barrier, some hermits were pretty frightened at his appearance. 

"Isn't that adorable, all the hermits fighting for their beloved server." Xornoth smirked, his magic was getting stronger and he managed to break through Grian's barrier. "I'm going to corrupt this place just like your empires." Xornoth smiled breaking through fWhip's barrier. 

X was clearly struggling to keep the barrier up so Gem stepped forward and summoned her staff pointing it at the ground. The amethyst that was on top of her staff started glowing, she pulled her staff up to the sky, everyone watched in awe as a strong purple dome covered her entire base. 

Xornoth groaned, "I'll get you all next time." He said before disappearing, Gem sighed and looked back at everyone. "He shouldn't be able to break the barrier." 

"Thank god, I thought we were gonna have to fight." X chuckled, they all headed inside and continued discussing as if Xornoth never attacked.  

Mumbo clapped his hands together, "Right, So you and Xornoth are brothers." Scott nodded, "We aren't the same, I promise." Gem gave a reassuring nod to Mumbo. "Alright, then how do we defeat him?" A hermit asked, "As I said, we have to contain him cause we're connected by souls. If you kill him then I die, if you kill me then he dies." Scott explains. 

"We contain him by using a spell Gem knows." He added, Gem smiled and nodded. "But he's extremely powerful and it can't be done easily." He finished, "But for now, you guys will take these amethyst crystals and place them around your base. It'll fend off the corruption for a while since I can't protect everyone's base." Gem explained placing down a shulker box, she handed everyone a stack of amethyst. 

"Xornoth may be targeting one of us so its best if Scott stays with us." fWhip says pointing at Gem, Scott, and himself. "I'll keep the barrier up so Xornoth doesn't get in." Gem exclaims. 

Another rumble was heard but there wasn't an earthquake, Pearl saw something red in the corner of her eye and turned towards it. "Oh you have got to be kidding me." Pearl groans making everyone stare at where she was looking at. 

"WHAT IS THAT!?" Stress yells pointing at the red corrupted tentacle that sprouted beside Gem's stable. "That is a corrupted tentacle Xornoth made. I guess it somehow slipped in." Gem sighed, "It's normal though, just ignore it." The wizard added. 

"Hey guys?" Scott said as if he just realized something, Gem turned towards him "What?"

"Has anyone seen Sausage and Impulse?" 

Word Count: 946