~A rift between worlds~ (hermitcraft x dsmp)

Chapter 5

Xisuma PoV:
His talk with Ranboo left him uneasy. He wasn't sure if the SMP'er hadn't lied to him, and he was worried that there would be things happening he wouldn't understand. He pushed those thoughts away and concentrated on flying after Zed, Dream and Phil. The four of them wanted to inspect that strange glimmer at the rift that he and Dream had found before. Only a little while later he arrived and saw the others right at the beacon beam, where he and Dream had dug a staircase down yesterday, so it would be safer going down there. Phil had already spotted him, while Zed and Dream only noticed him once he landed.

After some chatting, they started going down the spiral staircase. The closer they got to where he and the other admin had noticed the glimmer before, the fewer they talked. When the group reached the bottom, Xisuma pointed towards the glimmer, which was illuminating out of a crack in the stone. "I think the only way we can get a better look at that is by digging it out.", he stated. The others agreed.

Because they were a group of four, it only took them a couple of minutes to open up an entrance big enough for all of them into what seemed to be a cave. The glimmer seemed to come from the other side of the cave. They carefully walked towards it, Xisuma going first, the other three behind him. As he looked around the corner, he felt as if his head burst. A headache, stronger then ever before immediately pained him. He grabbed his head between his hands. Behind him, he could hear someone panicking and asking him something. The voice sounded like so far away. Everything was foggy. He didn't see, hear or smell anymore. The entire world seemed to be torturing him. He gasped for air, finding breathing more difficult then it had ever been, and tried to calm himself. He heard someone yelling at him in the distance, but he didn't understand anything. He couldn't focus. He felt as if the world had shut him in with only pure pain, a feeling so burning that he thought he was dying for sure. He tried to focus on breathing, as he felt people pulling him on the edge of consciousness. Suddenly, he felt perfectly fine. Then he blacked out.

Xisuma woke up to someone saying his name. As he opened his eyes and sat up, he recognised the cave around him- he was in the cave were the rift used to be. It seemed that the others had pulled him out of the smaller cave where the glimmer was and brought him back here. "Xisuma! You're awake!" He looked next to him and saw Zedaph walking towards him, a relieved look on his face. "Are you alright?", the hermit asked. "I think so, just a little weary, if anything. Are you all alright?", the admin replied. "All of us are fine, you were the only one who got affected, not even Dream! I was so scared that you wouldn't wake up..." Xisuma stood up and walked over to the SMp'ers together with Zedaph. After he reassured them that he was fine, Dream waved at him to talk privately.

The other admin lowered his voice and said: "The code glitched. When- whatever that was- possessed you, there was something that felt like a rip through the code. I don't think the others noticed, probably just because I'm an admin as well, but you should definitely check if the code is fine." Xisuma immediately opened his coder and checked if there were any big issues in the code. He only noticed minor errors though, which he would repair later on. "It seems mostly fine to me, only some minor issues which I can fix later, once I feel less weary. Did it affect you in any way?", he asked, lowering his tone just as Dream did. The other answered: "It felt like a small headache, nothing too big. Also nowhere near the amount that it affected you. Probably because I'm not connected to this world. Are you feeling alright?" Xisuma looked at the mask of the other admin and thought about how much he trusted him. He felt weakened again, as if the remains of the rift had consumed even more of his admin powers. He decided to tell half the truth.

"I'm a little weary, but I also feel... weakened, in some way. When you arrived, it felt like the rift had consumed a little of my admin power. The same happened again now. I should be able to regenerate it fairly quickly though, so it's no problem yet. I'm only worried if it grows stronger."
"It can take your power?! That's really dangerous! Something like that happened to me once and my entire world nearly got overtaken by some kind of god, who had sucked up most of my admin power. We need to take care of this as soon as possible. I'm not sure if it's smart for you to go back there though, what if it- whatever "it" is- overwhelms you?"
"I'll have to take the risk. I can hardly send someone else to go there and do stuff for me, as it's entirely my fault that the rift had grown this powerful because I was scared to do something against it."
"Still, the rift itself isn't your fault. Right?"
"I don't think that I did anything that could've caused something like this. That's also a thing we need to find out, how the rift even happened. Something or someone must've caused it."
"..."
"I don't think we have the information for that yet, Dream. We need to find out what that glimmer is and-"
"Actually, I do know something."

Xisuma looked at the other admin surprised. Even though he couldn't see his face, the hermit knew that he was remembering something, or focusing on something. "Right at the beginning of this, like a week before our worlds merged", Dream started, choosing his words carefully, "I found the rift underground near the crater in the middle of L'Manberg, a nation. It was small and the world was pretty glitchy at that moment, so I wanted to just fix it later. But through the rift, I saw a person. Only for a split second and I assumed that it was Tommy. Blonde hair, a shirt or jumper with something red, I didn't really think much about it. Now that I'm here though, I'm certain that it was Grian I saw." The masked admin looked sternly at the other. "Could it be that Grian has something to do with the opening of the rift?"

Before Xisuma could answer, Zedaph and Phil stepped over to them. "So, what's the plan now? Do we try going there again or are we being smart and are gonna try and figure something else out?", Zedaph called out while walking. The hermit's admin replied: "I am not feeling good enough right now to go and inspect what we have found any more. I need a little rest, we can continue after that. I'd say we meet again here in two hours, is that fine with everybody?" They nodded, and Zedaph said: "If you don't mind then, I'm gonna fly ahead with Phil. I wanna show him my laboratory, is that good with you?" After everyone agreed, they all went upstairs again and the two of them flew off into the distance.

"So, about Grian", Xisuma started again, I highly doubt that he would know how to do such a thing. He also told me that he saw you through the rift a week ago. The rift opened beneath Grians base and corrupted him in some way, and I doubt that he would get corrupted by something he created himself." Dream looked at the tree line and back at the other admin, when he said: "So... that means we have nothing again?" "I'm afraid so", the hermit responded, "although I might wanna still ask Grian about what he remembers of the rift. As I said, he got corrupted by it, maybe he knows something?" "It's worth a try."

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Alright, I'm sorry that this chapter is so short, I just don't have the motivation to continue writing right now and I wanted to get this out (1378 words) :'). Still, I hoped you enjoyed reading this far, if you have any suggestions on what could happen next, please do let me know :). I have a couple of ideas, but they are all about the end of the story so I'm having a hard time finding something to write before that. Either way, thank you for reading, and I hope you have a great day.
~Jay