Freeze or Fall

Chapter 27: Puzzles

Taurtis had been falling for longer than he'd expected.

Shock still enveloped every inch of him, the temporary body he had dissolving in the bitter cold.

What had happened? He wasn't sure.

He realized he'd been screaming. Since when?

Pain flashed through him again, tearing through his mind and only leaving panic.

Then there was no pain, just a dull ache.

A confused voice was the last thing he heard before everything faded away.

______________

Ex wasn't sure where he was exactly, but he did know that he'd gotten sent here by a glitch. Wasn't the first time he'd been void-jumping and ended up somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.

This void was pretty normal, inky blackness all around, bitter air, the screaming-

Wait.

Ex confusedly looked up, only for some glitchy player to crash down in front of him, unconscious.

"...What the-"

_____________

Grian sensed something wrong the moment he stepped into the singleplayer world.

Npg was sitting calmly on a chest in front of the portal.

"Npg?"

"I'm not Npg. I'm Ex."

_____________

Npg was tired.

He was his normal self once again, but he was tired.

The previous day's work had been energy-consuming, even for a dedicated builder like himself.

But he could finally relax.

All it took was some minor channeling, and Ex had taken the reigns.

Npg could finally rest.

______________

Confusion.

That was what he was feeling.

Robot Grian seemed to understand, helping the smaller to shakily stand. "You don't know what happened, do you?"

He shook his head.

RG's face softened a little. "Here, come with me. You should meet the others."

_______________

Joe had been writing in his journal for a while. Taking notes, putting things together...

This corruption was sentient.

He'd heard that voice come from Xisuma, one not human by any means.

It had been a break of character, a warning from the enemy.

Something about Scar's account and the events from the last season made Joe wonder.

Evil Taurtis had likely been infected by this corruption, but in a different way.

From what Scar had said, ET had claimed that he'd lost all memories of the event where he'd been infected. And when he was being used, he couldn't remember a thing.

So on one hand, we have the ET everyone saw, the one who'd caused the tragedy of last season.

But that meant something strange.

ET had implied that he was sometimes not being used.

Almost as if...

Almost as if his body was a host for the corruption.

The hivemind.

Now Joe knew enough about alters to know that they needed a host. Most of the time. He knew about Evil Xisuma's predicament as well.

But ET's case was different.

The hosts had been the ones put in that mindscape.

But ET wasn't a host. He was an alter. Still an alter.

Then... Had the corruption killed his host and taken over?

No, alters were connected to their hosts, Joe knew that.

So the host was still alive somewhere.

Something struck him. An offhand comment when the rescue team had been telling everyone about last season's tragedy.

Joe began scribbling more notes into the journal.

ET had been working with Ex. Or so he thought. Ex had pretended that he was still angry at Xisuma, had played a victim role. Just so that he could manipulate ET into somewhat sabotaging himself.

Ex had supposedly helped in a dying wish.

Alters can't die unless their hosts do.

Joe wasn't sure what Ex's goal was, or if he'd achieved it, but one thing was for certain.

Ex knew of ET's plan.

Only two others could've known. Sam, and the host.

Ex was working with the original Taurtis.

Ex was a voidling. He must've been in that end void, ready to save his brother.

Joe's eyes widened as it all clicked.

Ex was ready to save whoever fell into that void, and had the help of Taurtis.

It might've just been a hunch, but Grian's death message had taken abnormally long to register.

A spark of hope lighted in Joe.

There was a chance Grian was alive.