Crystal Horrors: Stories from Before the Rift | Stevetober Prompts

Day 1 - World

[Emerald Steve's POV]

...Why did this happen?

I was running to warn the village about the End Crystal explosion, and... suddenly I'm here. Surrounded by nothing but a blank, empty, white abyss. Nothing is here except for me and this strange screen-like thing in front of me.

I look down at myself, and look at my hands... I'm see-through. Like a spirit. Did... did I die? How? I was far from my lab where the End Crystal was...

Wait! The others! What happened to Alex and the Guardian?! And Sabre?!

I frantically look around, calling out for them. I try running around to see if they're somewhere else in this endless void, and I notice that the strange screen follows me around. I run for what feels like hours, yelling and screaming for the people I spent my last moments with until my voice gave out.

I eventually stop after that, and with nothing else to do, I sit down on the floor and just... try to make sense of all this. I'm in the middle of who-knows-where with no one else, nothing except a weird screen in front of me, and I'm most likely dead. Am I even still in the Overworld? Or am I in some incomplete part of the Spirit World? I don't know... I wish I could just see another person right now, I don't want to be isolated again...

The weird screen that's been floating around me suddenly expands, and I jump back. Before I can do anything else, an image appears inside the screen.

I see... colorful walls, surrounding a tower, a house, a lake with many bridges over it, what seems to be a temple, a strange stable connected to a chicken pen, and a giant, multicolored tree. All of the structures inside the walls match the many colors of said walls, and smaller trees like the colossal one are spread around the area as well. The only thing out-of-place is a hill that has entirely white trees and what seems to be a shrine of some sort. It... looks a little like a town.

Wait- Are those people?!

I lean in closer to the viewing window, noticing many forms of people all scattered about the little town. Two I recognize- Alex and the Guardian. The others surrounding them... I don't know.

Next to the lake, I'm able to identify a Yellow Steve covered in scars, a small Green Steve, probably a child, a small Purple Steve, also likely a child, a peculiar Blue Steve that has... sheep's ears? And a strange Red Steve with a lab coat and goggles. They're all in the same place, looking around confusedly. The Yellow Steve and the Red Steve seem to recognize each other. So do the Green and Purple Steve children when they notice each other's presence.

In another area, near the house and where Alex and the Guardian are, there's three more people. A strange Steve that's a mix of red and some strange purplish-pink, another strange Steve that mostly blue and green with bits of purple, and only has one eye, and... Hm. That Red Steve looks a little off... why does he have adventurer's gear?

Nearby the strangely blank hill with the shrine, I see two more strange Steves. One is pure white, completely without any color. The other is his complete opposite, and has every color of each Chromatic Steve on him, even some that aren't actually found normally. They're hugging each other and crying, yet have smiles upon their faces. In fact, now that I look a little closer... they seem almost exactly alike, minus their coloration.

Finally, where the colossal tree is, there's two figures I don't recognize swimming out of the pond in front of the prismatic tree. They both have blonde hair, yet I know they're not some kind of Yellow Steves because of their tan-peach skin color and how they have various other hues on their clothing. One has a red and black hat while the other has a white mask with a design etched in dark grey, moved to the side of his face. As they get to the pond's shore, a Steve that looks as if he's made of stars and nebulae flies out from behind the giant tree, and goes over to the strange beings and helps them out of the pond. All three of them jump when the being with the mask and the galactic Steve talk at the same time, but then laugh and introduce themselves to each other. Hey, wait a minute... those two figures look a little like Sabre.