Oli never expected the attack. None of them did. He was just walking around Chromia, humming a tune of his own invention to himself, and thinking of the multiple ways he could have made a better rule if he had actually thought about it when he put on the Crown.
Maybe I should have said 'no fighting' or 'no hurting anyone' instead. No wait, that's even worse, then if Xornoth attacked we wouldn't be able to fight back. Katherine came out of a house and he greeted her a good morning, and then noticed the bags under her eyes and her unsettling frown. Oli hadn't seen her really frown much yet. "Are you okay?"
The princess shook her head. "Had a rough night. I was dizzy, drowsy, and had a headache all at once. I feel better today, now that I'm less sleepy, but my thoughts still feel so weird." She gasped and held her head. "My headaches are worse now, though."
"Maybe fWhip can brew a potion to heal headaches," Oli offered, but just then Katherine's eyes widened and she threw the bard onto the ground. Oli scraped himself up quite a bit, and thought that it was quite rude of the princess to do that to him out of nowhere, when he looked up and saw Hermes and Lizzie with their weapons drawn. Oh. That's not good.
Xornoth shot bolts at lightning at them, and Oli somehow managed to dodge. He had no idea how he hadn't died yet since he first got the Crown, although he had several close calls, one even involving a lava pit. But now his life was flashing before his eyes again, a common occurrence for him.
The bard ran to Katherine for safety as Lizzie swung her sword at him. Pearl and fWhip ran out of a building, drawn by the commotion, their weapons unsheathed. fWhip threw a couple splash potions at Lizzie, but with her cat agility she dodged it.
Pearl rushed at Xornoth with her ax raised, but she had to be on the defensive when Xornoth started discharging deadly voltage. Oli just crouched in a corner, shield raised, hand on his sword just in case he really needed it. He couldn't die; he was too important. Or rather, the Crown that he wore was too important.
Katherine joined Pearl in fighting Xornoth, but they had to discard their weapons, the metal was attracting the lightning the demigod shot at them. Pearl found a sharp rock on the ground that was shaped somewhat like a dagger and used that, and Katherine grabbed some potions that fWhip tossed to her to use as projectile weapons.
Oli grabbed his bow and shot at Lizzie, but she caught the arrow in her teeth and used it to stab fWhip. The mechanic flinched but whacked her on the head with his shield. Oli readied his bow again, aimed, and shot at Xornoth. The arrow whistled through the air and... missed, just by a fraction of an inch.
Oli swore and reloaded, but Lizzie was bearing down on him now. She'd grabbed fWhip's potions that hung from his belt and threw all of them at him, and the resulting mixture left the alchemist lying on the ground, unconscious.
Oli, panicking, used the arrow he held as a weapon rather than his sword. Lizzie narrowly avoided getting poisoned and started clawing at his face. Oli yelped and hit her with his bow. With a snarl, the cat brought out her ax and chopped the bow in half. "Xornoth!" Lizzie yelled.
Oli snuck a glance at his comrades, and found Katherine favoring one arm and Pearl fallen on the ground, half unconscious. Katherine was how single-handedly wielding her battle ax and stopping Xornoth from getting to Oli, but the problem with metal weaponry arose again.
The thing was, there really wasn't another work around; they were too close to each other for bows, and all the potions were used up. Lizzie swiped at Oli's face again and he blocked with his shield, though the cat's claws gouged deep lines in the wood. Lizzie switched back to using her sword, and she managed to break right through the shield and cut into Oli's side.
The bard let out a girlish scream, and Xornoth looked up from his battle with Katherine, pleased. He electrocuted Katherine and threw her to the ground, then walked towards Oli, laughing menacingly all the way. "Where are your friends?" Oli glanced around desperately.
Katherine was slowly getting up, but the excess electricity was still running through her body and it evidently hurt. Pearl was next to her, fully knocked out now. fWhip was still asleep on the ground; Oli hoped the random mixture of potions thrown at him didn't have a deadly effect. Then Xornoth picked up a fallen sword and drove it right through him. The bard's last thoughts entailed his surprise at being the last one to fall, right until he died.
Dying was a painful process. Respawning was only slightly less so. Oli was getting pretty used to it by now, but dying was still to be steered clear of at all costs. Besides, everyone knew that one day, they would stop respawning. Best to avoid death in general.
Oli strained to keep from floating into the great beyond, and fought harder to respawn. Finally he woke up, breathing heavily, in the bed he'd brought into Scott's room. He hurriedly rushed downstairs and out the door. He found his stuff lying on the ground and picked it all up. He had everything. Everything but the Crown.
He went back in and took some healing potions and gave it to Katherine and Pearl, and he was picking fWhip up to bring inside when he heard the shout. "Oli!" He turned around and saw that all the emperors who had left the day prior had finally come back. "Scott!" Oli cried joyfully.
"Both of you! You've been rescued!" The other emperors came running up to him. "What happened?!" "Xornoth attacked," Pearl slurred, still a little groggy from the concussion, although the potion that had been splashed on her was slowly bringing her back to health.
"fWhip!" Wizard Gem shouted, and she rushed to him, checking his pulse. "He got a lot of potions thrown at him," Oli said worriedly. "I think they might've mixed or something; I'm pretty sure weakness potions and harming potions don't knock you out."
They brought him into Scott's house and put him on a free bed. Gem started casting all the healing spells she knew, helped by Shelby and Sausage, and within a few minutes fWhip was awake again. "fWhip!" Gem cried, hugging him. fWhip yowled.
"Gem-!"
"You promised to stay safe!" "I know-"
"Don't ever do that again!"
"I can't help it if Lizzie's actually a pretty good fighter!"
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Ocean Queen Lizzie asked, frowning at him.
"What are we supposed to do now that Xornoth's got the Crown?" Pix asked, bringing up the elephant in the room. Then he winced and complained about headaches, and everyone looked worriedly at him. "He won't use it to make a rule," False said, and Oli realized for the first time that she was in the room with the rest of them. He clumsily unsheathed his sword and pointed it at her. "What are you doing here?!"
"Relax, she's on our side. I think," Scott said, taking the bard's sword and putting it away. "You think?!" Joel cut them off. "What do you mean, Xornoth won't make a rule?" Oli noticed that the god was moving and talking rather slowly, and when he asked about it he was told that the same thing that had happened to Sausage of Sanctuary was now happening to him.
"Xornoth told me he needed the Crown for a spell to get his body back, and thanks to some kind of magic mumbo jumbo, he needs the Crown to have not been used to make a rule for the spell to work." False explained to Joel.
Shelby made a little sound, and everyone turned to her. "Oh, what False is saying is true. A lot of spells that require magic artifacts for channeling need the artifacts to be at their full power. In other words, not doing anything, like using its magic for a rule." "Xornoth, uh, also said he needed a sacrifice," False said carefully. "He's going to kill the ender dragon."
"No! That demon is keeping his claws of Gregory!" Oli shouted. He started to storm out the door, but fWhip grabbed his hand. "None of us are going out alone." "I don't have the Crown anymore; Xornoth won't bother with me. And I need to go protect Greg!" The emperors looked at each other. "We're not stopping you, but you should take someone with you." Gem said, and a lot of people nodded.
B"I'll go with you," False said softly, and Oli glared at her suspiciously. "Yeah? And why should I trust you, you've been working for the demon!" "I'm not anymore," False said painedly. "I'm the best pvper, I can help protect Gregory." Oli had to admit she had a point. Sausage suggested that he go along too, and Oli finally caved and let them both come.
He was determined to keep an eye on False, however. The rest of the emperors stayed in Chromia to make plans against Xornoth; confident that both Sausage and False could protect Oli if anything bad happened, and that their small group of three was sneaky enough to get into where Oli had hidden Gregory without Xornoth noticing.
As they flew to Olipeligo, Sausage asked if False was okay and what Xornoth promised her and all that, and False asked, "Sausage, are you just trusting me instantly? Even after what I did?" "Of course," Sausage answered easily. "I've been corrupted by him before. I know how it feels."
"But I wasn't corrupted. I joined on my own."
"Oh, I know how manipulative he is. It was probably only a little bit your own. And I joined on my own too, so yeah!"
False and Sausage chatted a little while longer about corruption and demons, and Oli felt a little sorry for False, what with how guilty she sounded, but a voice in his mind reminded him, she could be faking. Don't trust her.
Oli ran to a secret hideout in a hill, the entrance shielded by sweet berry bushes and heavy vines, and went inside. Curled up in the middle of the room, Gregory the baby ender dragon raised his head, and lit up in happiness at seeing his papa.
He jumped off, tail wagging, and greeted Oli, who immediately checked to see if he was okay. "Is he still wearing the egg?" Sausage asked in surprise. "Yeah, Greg never wanted to leave it. And it's like his own custom armor now!"
"Well, too bad the shell won't stop us from killing it." Sausage, False, and Oli whirled around to see Xornoth, Lizzie, and Joey standing in the doorway. Oh no. They followed us. I lead them right to Greg.
Xornoth discharged lightning all over inside the little room. Greg roared and curled tighter inside his shell; the three emperors lay on the floor, shaking from the voltage. A lone spark made some of the plants catch fire; soon the whole room was ablaze.
Xornoth laughed, Hermes' childlike face suddenly looking menacing in the firelight. False recovered first and fought savagely; the rule of no killing was gone and she didn't have to restrain herself. But neither did Lizzie and Joey. Joey fought Sausage and Lizzie went for a rematch with Oli. Oli, still stunned, couldn't stop the mayor from slitting his throat with her claws.
But just before she actually struck, False moved in between them and took the blow. The cat's claws raked across her neck and the mechanic fell to the floor, coughing up blood. Oli looked at her, shocked. "What are you doing?" "Proving you can trust me," False gasped. "I'm sorry for not trusting you sooner!" Oli shouted as Lizzie, giggling with glee, grabbed her ax and chopped the tinkerer's head off. The bard looked away from the gruesome spectacle and found he could move again.
He ran to Greg, who was cowering in front of Xornoth. Oli pulled out his sword and swung it at the demon-possessed boy. He managed to just narrowly miss some vital arteries as Xornoth pulled out his own blade and countered. Oli struck again and again Xornoth parried.
Just when the swordfight was getting interesting, however, Lizzie took the opportunity to splash a potion onto Gregory to put him to sleep and pick him up and carry him out. Oli gasped and turned to follow her, but Xornoth's blade met his throat and Oli realized that he had foolishly forgotten to set his spawn somewhere nearby.
Oli woke up in Scott's room and rushed downstairs, startling the other emperors, who quickly realized something was wrong. "Xornoth's getting Greg!" Oli gasped, and several emperors got up to follow and help him. But not all of them.
God Joel was sitting placidly in the corner staring into space without blinking, Princess Katherine was twitching and moving slowly, Pix the historian was holding his head with his eyes shut, and the goblin fWhip was mumbling about how his thoughts were slipping from his mind.
Oh no. I know what's happening. Time was running out. What had happened to Sausage was now happening to the other reincarnated emperors. And with Xornoth getting an upper hand, this was the worst possible time for it to be happening.
Suddenly Lord Sausage rushed into the room with them, breathing heavily. Oli's breath caught in his throat. Sausage must've died and respawned here, which meant only one thing.
"Xornoth's got the ender dragon."