ARE YOU READY????
I apologies in advance for any hermits being ooc, at the time of writing this I only watch 7 hermits, Grian, Scar, Xisuma, Impulse, Bdubs, Ren and Iskall.
TW blood, wounds, a panic attack, death mentioned/implied etc.
also in this chapter Xisuma is referred to as Xisuma Void, the space is not an accident because that's his and Xae's last name.
Xae watched as everyone around them rushed around the Shadow Emporium. Today was the day, it all was leading up this this. After standing for a bit True shouted at them to be useful and get ready so they did, checking the durability on their elytra, sword and armor. They were about to head of to the meeting spot to head to Hermitcraft but they spotted something out of the corner of their eye. It was the enchanting table with the book floating above it. It wouldn't hurt anyone if they brought it along to read. Right? The grabbed the book and placed it in their inventory, nobody would notice. Then they left the room and set out.
***
They stood with everyone else by the portal only one person was missing and that was Npc. Xathan glanced over at Hels, Hels caught them looking at him he sent a glare their way. They still hadn't made up yet from the fight a couple days ago. Xae sighed and sat down on the hard ground. They pulled out their book and began to read.
"Is that...the enchanting book?" Asked True. Xae nodded.
"Stop taking that thing, its just a book!" Exclaimed Hels, looking very annoyed.
"I'm never gonna stop," they laughed, turning the page.
After a while Npc finally showed up.
"Look who's finally here," said Hels, annoyed out of his mind.
"I was busy!" Claimed the half robot, Hels was about to argue more but Badtimes interrupted.
"Lets just get going," he said, standing between them. Npc nodded and went into the portal first, followed by True a grumbling Hels, the flame on his helmet flickering dangerously.
"You ready?" Asked Badtimes. Xae nodded and followed the vex through the portal.
***
Xae found theirself in a large open field only interupted by a giant building with the letters Y, W, and C in the center.
"Where the heck are we?" They wondered aloud. Hels slapped a hand over their mouth, glared at them and motioned to the entrance of the building, two men were standing in the entrance. One had messy brown hair and was in a Willy Wonka style outfit with an elytra that looked like some kind of golden bird's wings, the other looked almost exactly like the knight standing next to them, the armour was more shiny and he had blue eyes instead of orange-red. His hair was also lighter than Hels', his elytra was also dragon wings like Hels' but it was blue instead of blood red.
"That's ImpulseSV and Welsknight, they're hermits," he explained, he attempted to whisper but was a bit louder than intended and Welsknight looked in their direction and froze. ImpulseSV did the same. He looked confused and looked back at Welsknight. His mouth moved up and down as if he was talking to Welsknight, Welsknight's mouth moved too.
"What's going on?" Asked Npc glancing at Hels.
"I...uh, so this world is the opposite of ours, there are opposite versions of each of us, I may have visited here a couple times and I've been caught by my counter part before, Wels," he said nervously.
"So he recognizes you?" Asked True. He nodded. Xae looked back at the two figures, Wels motioned to the Willy Wonka's wrist and he nodded, Wels walked up to the group.
"What do you want and who are these people?" Asked Wels, his voice sounded a lot like Hels', arms folded and a glare aimed at the nether knight.
"These are my friends, True, Npc, Badtimes and uh... this is Xae," He said clearly still annoyed at Xae.
"You didn't answer the rest of my question," Wels' hand was on the hilt of his sword as if he was ready to attack if they did something he didn't like, "So let me ask you again, what do you want?"
"Simple really, you don't like us, we don't like you. So best way resolve it is in a battle," said the knight simply.
"So you want a war?" asked Wels. Hels nodded, Xae just looked between the two, the stories didn't add up, they had said that Hels and the Hermits were at war, not that they were declaring war today. They slowly started to inch away, Npc noticed though and grabbed their arm.
"Where are you going?" he hissed while Hels and Wels argued.
"I...I'm not ready for this," Xae said quietly.
"Of course you're ready, I'm just as nervous as you, but there's no going back, this is war."
"╎ℸ ̣ 'ᓭ ᔑꖎꖎ ꖎ╎ᒷᓭ, ᒷ⍊ᒷ∷||ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ ╎ᓭ ᔑ ꖎ╎ᒷ," muttered Xae as Npc held him in place.
"What's wrong with your friend?" asked Wels, his hand was clutching the hilt of his sword. Hels turned around to see Xae repeatedly muttering the galactic, trying to break free from Npc's grip. Before anything else could happen a large amount of hermits came in on their elytras, landing near Wels. One of them looked awfully familiar in a green suit similar to Xathan's.
"Wels, what's going on, Impulse just frantically typed stuff about Hels, and evil versions-" Before the man could continue Hels pushed Wels out for the way and walked up to the man, standing directly in front of Xae, clearly not wanting to show weakness.
"I'm Helsknight, you're Xisuma Void, right?" he held out his hand, smirking. Xisuma stared at it suspicusly but shook his hand anyways.
"You still didn't answer my question," Stated Xisuma.
"He seems to be really fond of that," commented Wels, who had went to stand with the hermits.
"Oh shut up," grumbled the knight. Xae tried to tug free from Npc but the robot's grip was as strong as, well, steel.
"You have two choices," said Badtimes, stepping up, "You can either surrender or...we can have a battle." Xisuma looked at the hermits and then at the small group, not seeing Xae behind the knight.
"Xisuma," said a man with green hair and a blue shirt with an 'at' symbol, "We don't have to do what that say."
"I know Joe, but... They're a small, group we can beat them in battle," said Xisuma, pulling out his sword. The rest of the hermits did the same, and soon Xae was plunged into a world of war. It was chaotic, the sounds of swords clashing, bows and crossbows shooting, and arrow almost hit them in the side but they had managed to dodge it just in time. After maybe ten minutes of dodging projectiles and people in general they ran into True.
"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed.
"I, uh... I don't-"
"We're loosing, even with Badtimes' powers, use your lighting or something!" Xae nodded, they may not agree with what was happening but their friends needed help. They took a deep breath in and stood perfectly still, holding their hands out, trying to will the lightning to appear. One of the hermits stopped at stared at Xae confused, they were wearing a red suit and a large red top hat, he looked a lot like Badtimes actually. Then he froze as if he realized Xae was trying to use magic, he dashed out of the area.
"Run!" He shouted just as the lightning erupted from Xae's hands, it wasn't enough to kill someone but they could knock someone out for days with it. Everyone near them stopped fighting and dodged the lighting. Xae quickly pulled out a sword and went to the nearest person. It was a woman with short brown hair in a pink jacket. Before they could get a hit she striked, making a bloody gash in their arm. Xae let out a yelp.
"That hurt!" they exclaimed, attacking the woman agian, their swords clashing. She stumbled for a moment when she heard them talk. It was enough for them to knock her onto her ground, they pointed the tip of their sword at her throat, she glared at him.
"Why do you sound just like Xis-" Her eyes widened, "EX?" Xae looked at her confused.
"E...X?" They echoed, "My name's Xath-" Before they could finish they were cut of by a shout. They looked over to see Xisuma had Hels pinned to the ground just like Xathan had the woman pinned on the ground, almost like they had the same fighting technique.
"Xae!" Shouted Hels. Xae ran, leaving the woman, forgetting about their fight with Hels, they couldn't let him die. Xisuma was frozen as if Hels had said something he couldn't comprehend. Xae stood in front of the knight, netherite sword pointed at Xisuma.
"Leave him alone," They said. Xisuma stared at them in shock.
"Xae? What happened to you?" Xathan stared confused at Xisuma. Xisuma sheathed his sword and stepped forward. Xae stepped back.
"I, um..." They stepped back another step.
"Xae? You know who I am right?" said Xisuma. Xae shook their head. They looked over at where Hels was sitting, looking between the two.
"You know him?" said the knight looking between the two.
"I- I don't know! I'm the amnesiac here, why are you asking me!" exclaimed Xae. Xisuma just stared at Xae.
"Am-amnesiac? as is amnesia?" Xathan nodded their head.
"Now how do you know me?"
"I'm X, your brother," and then Xae's whole world flipped upside down, but before they could process what this meant they felt a sharp stab in their side. turning around they saw a man with messy brown hair in a lime green shirt with a robot eye holding a sword covered in blood, looking down they saw a large wound in their side, and the world faded to black, the last thing Xae remembered was hitting the ground with a dull thud, was Hels and Xisuma shouting their name.
ʖꖎ𝙹𝙹↸ ⍑ᔑᓭ ʖᒷᒷリ ᓭ⍑ᒷ↸, ↸ᒷᔑℸ ̣ ⍑ ⍑ᔑᓭ ʖᒷᒷリ ᓭ⚍ᒲᒲ𝙹リᒷ↸
sorry, not sorry. (please don't kill me) 1672 words. Now that is a decent chapter. Songs for today is Karma by AJR, I'm Ready by AJR and Stronger by The Score lol. There will be a small hiatus of about two weeks for suspense.