A Crown of Broken Runes (ACOBR)

Update

This was bad.

This was really, really bad.

The mask was gone.

Xisuma dug up some dirt on the jungle floor and dropped down, down into a chamber he had hoped he would never need.

A large stone chamber echoed as Xisuma splashed down, a small pool of water breaking his fall. A rough, unadorned alcove held a single chest. Xisuma approached it, removing his helmet. He took a deep breath. The underground air was musty and stale, but he didn't mind.

After Generkib had passed on his role as admin, he had shown Xisuma a secret. The thing that gave admins power over their servers.

Rust fell to the floor as Xisuma creaked open the latch of the chest. Inside, small, grey objects sat. They were blurry, as if you were seeing them on the edges of your vision, and no matter how hard you tried to focus on them, they remained blurred. Xisuma reached out and grasped one, taking a deep breath in. He closed his eyes, and let go.

~ ⬩ ᔑリ↸ ⬩ ~

It was like a fever dream. He saw a surge of files and code. The name "Minecraft," flashed before his eyes. He saw the nether shifting, new fungi and structures rising from lava and netherrack.

~ ⬩ ⍑ᒷ ⬩ ~

He opened his eyes. A cool draft swept in from the outside of the cavern as he lay there on the ground. The world felt different. A shiver ran down his spine and he shook himself.

It was chilly, far too chilly. He needed to get somewhere warm. Rubbing his arms, he checked his communicator.

Currently, every single player except himself was in an offline state.

Good. No problems there.

A player who enters the offline state simply disappears. No one knew quite where they went, but they were no longer shown on the "tab" screen of the communicators. Different hermits would come online at different times, but it was very rare for all of them to be offline at once.

Very lucky, I suppose.

He flew out of the underground chamber and covered it up, placing grass and stone over it, and finished the job by replanting some shrubs. Once he was finished, it looked as if he had never even been there.

He realised that his elytra no longer resembled bee wings. It was back to its normal silvery appearance. His doomsuit was now an odd shade of purplish-red. As he fastened on his helmet, he found that it too was purpley, several thin white feelers poking out of the sides.

Xisuma ran a few tests to make sure all was in order. He placed a torch and made sure it lit its surroundings correctly. He looked at the world around him, making sure nothing had glitched. There would likely be some issues with farms, but he was sure those could be easily remedied.

Now, to check out the new nether.

The bee man took off once again, darting up onto a hexagonal platform. An immense nether portal, surrounded by another giant hexagon, loomed above him. He was glad that he had repaired all of his armour and tools before the update; who knew what he would find on the other side. Without further adieu, Xisuma stepped in.

This was much better. He kept his eyes closed for a moment, basking in the warmth. When he opened his eyes, however, he was dismayed to see that he was completely encased in netherrack.
His suit now shone a beautiful crimson, and his body felt much warmer. With a twirl of his hand, he took out a pickaxe and began to mine his way out to explore the new nether.