The Bull's Horns

Ch 15: Ren's Reckoning

"I've never seen that gem before," EX hummed as they scanned over the page with muted curiosity. Mumbo, on the other hand, felt a bit frozen as he stared at the page and its picture, it was an overwhelming yet underwhelming revelation at the same time. This simple gem had a hand in his past and was now causing havoc in the present, but now he knew its name and its unresearched malicious nature it didn't feel so simple anymore. Such a simple name felt too underwhelming, too simple, for an item that can and has caused so much damage.

His uncertainty must've shown on his face as EX cleared their throat before standing, "I'll uh... go get X." A sliver of worry could be seen through the twin's walled-off facade before they left the room. He could faintly hear their footsteps head down the hall, presumably to wherever Xisuma was along with a quiet conversation when they found him. He fiddled with his hands as he tried not to eavesdrop but luckily, they were too far away and too quiet even for his fuzzy ears. It wasn't long before footsteps returned and Xisuma stepped in without his twin, Mumbo hoped he didn't accidentally scare the evil twin off.

"Did you have an alright nap?" X greeted with a smile as he leaned on the doorframe, "I hope EX didn't scare you, I needed to take care of the admin panel and I didn't want to leave you alone."

"Y-yes. They didn't scare me but Um," Mumbo floundered and clutched the book tightly in his lap, "I know what's wrong with Ren!" He suddenly blurted out before cringing and mumbling an embarrassed sorry.

"It's alright. What's wrong with Ren?" The admin quickly took a seat next to the other hermit, glancing between him and the book in his lap.

"He hasn't been acting himself lately, enough that Doc was worried about him," Mumbo loosened his grip on the book and passed it over so Xisuma could read the page. "That crown Ren's been wearing since he started his monarch story has this gem in it and... I recognize it." He watched intently as Xisuma read the article; the admin's face pinched in worry.

"Oh... This isn't good," The admin sighed.

"Exactly, we need to get that crown away from him before anything happens." Mumbo dreaded the thought of Ren possibly going after another hermit due to the delusions of a harmless-looking gem.

"Now slow down. It says not much is known about this gem, we could be hurting him more than helping if we take the crown off of him," Xisuma pointed out as he looked back at the book.

"Pants... Yeah. But how would we figure that out? This is the only book EX and I found so far about it." Mumbo glanced around the room again at the various books, wondering if there could be another updated volume that had more information.

"This must be the only book I have on it then if EX helped you. He knows every book in here," X sighed and placed the book on the coffee table, a sudden determined look in his eyes. "Give me three days, and I'll ask around if anyone knows more information about that gem. If not, we'll take the crown, store away the gem, and help him as best as we can from there."

Mumbo nodded, "Sounds like a plan. Thanks, X." He hoped for Ren's sake that Xisuma found something wherever he looked, he hadn't considered if there would be adverse effects if they were to cold turkey him with the gem's influence.

A small smile returned to the admin's face, "Now in the meantime, I want you to take it easy. I know you want to help Ren, but you have to take care of yourself too."

The mustached hermit had to suppress an eye roll, "You sound like such a parent," He halfheartedly huffed with a telling smirk.

"Perks of being an admin for this long I guess," X chuckled before standing, "I'm going to start contacting some other admins and friends of mine as soon as I finish up the server pruning. You're welcome to stay, I think EX already disappeared for the day, so it'll just be you in here."