Chapter Text
I spat into the direction of the priest and watched with satisfaction, as the floor, already covered with many erosion marks, melted under the glob with a sizzle.
He flinched away despite being far enough from my range and pressed onto the mechanism fortifying my magical bonds. Multiple additional ephemeral thorns shot into my naked, caked with old blood, body, from all directions. Unfortunately for him, I felt nothing more than discomfort and, in a state of dizzy semi-delirium, only reacted with a strained grin.
“The void-sick demon over there no longer feels any pain, Alexios,” said a woman’s voice in the background, “Don’t bother with additional bonds, he is perfectly secured. Our Gods assured us that the bonds are unbreakable.” A red string connected their hands. What a joke it was, everyone was blessed by the “gods” to have a “soulmate”, puppeted towards each other to amuse the “divine ones” - gross - like pets. As for me, the bloody red strings connected me to everyone in the Overworld like chains. Another tangled up layer to my confinement.
“Your piece of shit ‘gods’ will rot away like all of you lot, covered in the stench of their own burnt away innards,” I rasped monotonously, “I’ve seen the future and none of you are in it.” That was a lie, I obviously couldn’t see the future, but I had my little pleasures in seeing their faces contorted in terror. It was one of the few things I could do to entertain myself. They had no idea how void contamination actually worked and their “gods” made sure to spin false tales about how terribly dangerous I was.
Quickly, the pair shut the door into my chamber, leaving me alone yet again. That was the norm. Years and decades went by with me in a sleep-like stupor, disturbed from time to time by random priests attempting to converse with a “demon”. Jokes on them, I had no idea where my abilities came from, or even why they insisted on the bindings snaking through my flesh. Only vague whispers of “devil-blood” and “end times” left the priesthood’s collective lips nearby from time to time.
A direct downwards pull sent a wave of pleasure and gravity into me out of nowhere. These pulls were becoming more frequent in the recent years of my captivity, begging me to go somewhere the “gods” clearly didn’t want me to be, as the bonds responded with an angry glow, sending further spikes from their surface into my skin. The dragon used to call me a Nether-rotten, chaos-warped ghoul. Hilarious! I was very much alive, more than alive… unfortunately.
Six hundred fucking years had I been confined, my memory rotting away and time flowing rapidly enough not to notice the years pass by. This sort of immortality was unsuitable for someone of my nature, its source long forgotten.
I glanced at my right arm, old coagulated blood encrusting around my hair and the void sickness veins running all the way down to my fingers under it. A constant tingling passing through the void and into my skin. One of the few sensations that still remained in that body...
I reached out to the dragon and she recoiled from me. A coward, she would dominate the other void creatures but reacted to me as if this was a poison to her. I used to wish that she would take away my mind… once upon a time.
But a different idea was consuming me recently.
Just like countless nights before that one, I reached out into the void and called to it.
Three, two, one… the sounds of teleportation entered the room. The Endermen were never enough to teleport me out of my bonds but the definition of insanity was trying the same thing over and over despite failure, and there was nothing else to try. This time a higher number of them than usual. A spark of anticipation was ignited within. This was going to be very, very uncomfortable…
“Pierce me!” The mental command worked better this time, while the dragon was still unwilling to deal with the violation of her domain. Long limbs snapped into my flesh, starting to burn away, and I responded by leaning into the void even further, directly connecting to the creatures embedded into my body like a parasitic worm in a nest of hornets.
Pure white noise started drowning out my consciousness, but through it I felt the familiar pull to somewhere I couldn’t name grow stronger still. I focused on that pull and willed the void to bring me there again and again.
Glitching and fracturing, the dimensional fabric wouldn’t give in so easily. And the damned red strings on my hands that connected me to every human and bound me to the Overworld started pulling on my finger bones, dislocating them. A disgusting feeling… nevertheless, I called back out to the other force and felt it crawl into my very being and then gradually yet swiftly invade my voidsick blood.
I pulled with all I had and strained so hard my vision started turning white, and then there was an ear-shattering crack of tens of Endermen teleporting at the same time. Everything shifted and turned and twisted, and then my consciousness was violently spaghettified elsewhere.
…
I felt myself falling and then a terrible shockwave passed through m-
…
…ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
I was a buzz within the nothingness, something rude and loud starting to crawl into me…
My mind slowly came to and my vision dizzy, everything around in the hues of scarlet and blaze, my body sluggishly reconstituting itself, extreme discomfort spreading through my nerves. My bones started snapping back into place from being crushed and shattered by… probably the extreme force of the fall, the flesh peeling back onto them with horrible squelching, being reborn yet again from countless failed attempts to destroy it as I felt the void spread further into my torn muscles… the dragon surely would be able to control my movements if she ever attempted to.
But my heart was fluttering with… satisfaction, something that called me here was still within my body, pulling onto me forward in several slow crawls. As my vision cleared more, I realized where I was.
“The f- agh- fucking Nether!” I hiss-yelled out in elation. They would NEVER let me escape Overworld to any other realm, and especially not to the Nether! Not when I… when I… damn it, I couldn’t remember the reason but something about this very realm of overgrown flesh and flame was calling to me, waiting for something I’ve long forgotten.
Blood was still spilling from my body all over the fleshy rock around, the skin not fully restored yet, and as I kept dragging my splattered lower body, the force abruptly stopped. A moment of eerie silence filled my mind and even the strings, that my fingers started feeling again, were not tugging on my almost healed fingers, as if blocked by this very realm’s nature.
Attempting to observe the situation around me, I hadn’t fully registered an arcane feeling of weakness flooding my form from below. I felt rooted in place, my strength suddenly leaving me, siphoned away somewhere else… I started feeling the unbearable heat around me and my wounds… my wounds, despite having healed far enough not to spill blood around anymore, were no longer closing… A mixture of terror and excitement filled me. If my powers were gone, did that mean… Did that mean I could finally die?! Oh what a relie-
“Ȁ̴͚ä̸̜a̵̼̽á̸̼ḁ̴̈́a̵͔̍a̶̲͒a̵̧̛a̶͖̐ą̵̍a̴̅͜ȁ̸̬ä̶̙́ả̴̘a̷͕̒ă̴͚a̸͉͑!!!” a terrible and earth-quaking, not quite a howl, not quite a rumble, entered the now sensitive ears. I turned towards the source of the sound and saw a… no, felt a massive surge of power that hit deep into my very being, reverberating within my very bones and making me scream without any sound… a power of a level I had never even felt from any “god” that had visited the cult to check on my state of captivity and then…
What the fuck was that!
A creature of the same flesh as the Nether itself, fleshy and fiery, tore out of the spot not too far away from me not to see it, but way too close for my comfort, and it was…
An overwhelming complex sensation of terror, arousal and absurdity filled me as the final pieces of the chaotic flesh fell off its… no… judging by the wildly oversized and clearly not usable for its assumed purpose appendage (or two? I couldn’t see properly) between its - his - legs, this definitely was an extremely masculine vaguely draconic humanoid, messing with my desensitized to attraction head by simply existing over there. The priests over at my place of confinement were all scrawny and unimpressive little fucks compared to me, so I had long forgotten what desire felt lik-
Shit! How could I not see it before! A sudden memory laser-shot into my mind.
The banished god of destruction! The fucking banished god of destruction, now warped by merging with the chaos at the heart of creation, was suddenly awake. What morons the “gods” had been, imprisoning one of their own in a way that would not only give birth to an entire realm of destructive existence, but also empower him eventually to this extent! An intense urge to laugh started clawing at my consciousness, but I was still too stunned to even move an inch.
The being groaned, his eyes slowly, but surely managing to open, then glanced at his clawed, red, and filled with ridges and scaled magma valleys, giant hand, and flinched, bringing it away immediately from himself. He gasped in a reverberant astounded tone and looked all over his armor-skin on his limbs, grasped at the hard and rough protrusions growing all over his body and flailed around, clearly starting to panic. The god snapped his hands to his head, meeting massive uneven horns growing out of his forehead and moved his hand all over his distorted and hardened facial features and reflective keratinous growths that looked almost like a beard.
“I̵ a̷m̸… I̵ ̴a̸m̵ h̷i̸d̷e̴o̶u̵s̴!” He cried out in a deep pulse full of grief. A very primal part of me disagreed, extremely offended by the statement, and intrigued by the hypermasculine looking creature in front of me. The god violently started thrashing about, as if attempting to separate his spirit from his body. After several seconds, he gave up and plummeted onto the ground, clutching his head and hitting his horns on the rock over and over again, clearly failing at whatever that attempt at giving himself an improvised plastic surgery was. “A̵a̶a̷r̷g̸h̴!.. i̵t̸ ̴f̶u̵s̸e̴d̶ w̵i̷t̶h̴ m̷y̸ e̶s̸s̴e̴n̵c̸e̶!.. H̴e̸ w̴o̸u̷l̴d̵ n̸e̶v̵e̴r̴… ̵S̵t̴e̷-”
Out of nowhere, the dragon - took over me, no longer feeling blocked by whatever had just been drained out of me, and instantly forced my hands upon my neck, her murderous intent spreading through our void connection. Then-
The monstrous god was immediately in front of me, pulling the hands away from my neck with force, slightly stretching my tendons in the process. I expected a burn, but it never came. His hands were soothingly warm and felt more like rubber than what their deadly texture implied. His bright eye sockets, swirling in the colors of superheated lava, widened almost impossibly and tears of fire and blood spilled from within his sockets. Up close he was dwarfing me, making me feel claustrophobic… in a tantalising manner, as I had been used to being the larger person even when compared to the “gods”…
“Steven?!.. Steve… why did you come to free me, you know I let them seal me away so that you cou-” All his three eyes focused onto my void-sick veins, “What has happened to you?!” The god scream-whispered, his body trembling. Apparently, he knew my name? The dragon attempted to force my hands out of his and it caused deep gashes where his claws met my flesh while the dragon was yanking on my muscles.
“H̷̰̅ơ̸̥w̸͘͜ d̸̟͝a̷͖͋r̵̻̿e̴̹̽-,” a shift in space was felt and he madly pulled on something while pushing me away into the nearest soft-ish flesh mass. A blast was sent through the air and then there was the dragon. Right. There. He teleported the fucking dragon right in front of himself! Just what kind of powe-
Crunch! I had 0 idea what was going on and simply concealed myself behind a meaty wall, hoping that I wouldn’t end up in the crossfire of whatever was going on. It was utter chaos, flame with void-stuff both swirling all around me while the ground was quaking. Another series of crunches and a dark animalistic yowl were heard. I peeked out from behind the wall to immediately regret it.
He- He was FEASTING on the dead dragon’s head, consuming its brain like a wild beast in a feeding frenzy, his already distorted features were even further contorted, rows of blade-like teeth crowding within his drooping with giblets maw and his serrating claws tearing into the flesh as fire was emanating off him in droves, a terrible burning stench reaching me at the worst possible moment. Right when my face scrunched up, he saw me and instantly covered himself up with his giant arms covered in dragon’s ichor, obviously ashamed of himself.
“St- Steven… You… Oh… you must be disgusted by m-” his luminous eyes then snapped to the countless strings attached to me, starting to pull on me yet again. In a moment, he was in front of me yet again, grasping my shoulders and torso. “What. What is that, Steven?!”
“I don’t even fucking know You. Let me go!” I needed to, had to run away all of the sudden, unable to handle the situation any longer. But the hands didn’t budge. A deep sniffle reached my ears, “Steven, plea-”
“No! Why the fuck would I tell you anyth-”
“A̵n̶s̵w̷e̴r̴ m̸e̴!” The reverberant quake of his voice passed through my very being and I felt my resistance falter as he recoiled from his own shout, “I’m sorr-”
“Agh! It’s the shitty fate strings, they bind me to the Overworld, away from YOU, apparently!” I yelled out right into his face, watching his face contort in a sickened fury as he reached the most likely realization.
“They… they tortured you?! Bound you, confined you?! That was never the deal! I!..” He turned away from me and bellowed out so hard, chunks of blood and lava sprayed out of his mouth, thousands of teeth lining it and a long, thick tongue flailing in the air. Electricity spread through me all the way down my spine. What a tongue it wa-
He whipped his head back to the strings as they started tugging me, attempting to yank me out of the Nether. “No. They broke the agreement. And so shall I!” He grasped them and then they disintegrated into nothing from my side. Did he seriously think that was enough to negate them? I had been holding the power of destruction before his revival drained it out of me, I surely had tried that before!
“That won’t work! They are generated by the shitty ‘gods’ that control mortal fate!” I screamed out at him in frustration and extreme stress. “And now, thanks to your little immortality negating trick, they are going to hunt me down and finally end me! I’m a goner!”
He squeezed me closer to himself, clearly not letting go and kept on sobbing and shaking in semi-fury. “I’m… No, Steven. I will… I will drown them all in ash and erase everything that ails you...”
An intense laughter finally escaped me, my fit causing him to stare at me in confusion and surprise. “You- hahahaha- you really are- hahaha- you are INSANE! Battling alone against all of them?! Just to free me from the strings?! I don’t even know you! You are seriously insa-”
He brought me closer yet, his body almost enveloping me completely, seemingly uncaring of both of our naked states. This deranged god had no idea I was going to start humping his oversized bumpy leg if he kept insisting on invading my personal space with his form sending electricity through my skin! “Please, endure this, Steven…,” a moment later, I felt reality shift and found myself elsewhere, losing my balance from the teleportation. The smell of pine hit me like a truck… A forest. He sent me to a damn Overworld forest! It was only a matter of time until I was found and-
My void-sick veins burned, there was a horrifying screech. The veins started glowing a flaming color, and I felt another presence, much stronger than the dead dragon’s. I felt colder immediately, my previously overheated from the Nether’s properties body no longer burning up.
“Hah!.. So that’s what eating the dragon’s brain gave him! Void control! Just how much more overpowered could he get! Maybe they sealed him for a reason!” I yelled out in frustration, not handling the aftershocks of being transported well at all.
Out of nowhere, the strings reformed and I got smashed into a tree as they pulled on me. That was it, Steve was going to be no mor-
Snap. Snap-snap-snap. One by one the strings were rapidly breaking from their sources. He was killing the humans in droves! He seriously was mad, if he continued this, his kind would surely descend upon him!
I shouldn’t had thought that.
The next moment, all of existence shook around me, the foundation of the planet itself making me bounce up into the pine tree. I held onto my dear life as bits and pieces of the visions of the terrible battle were leaking through my void connection.
Death, the pure sensation of devastation was being sent to me over and over as parts of the Overworld kept shattering and vanishing into nothing. But the suffering wasn’t mine… wasn’t his, it was Theirs. Impossible rage and regret spread through reality, screaming filled my mind all the way, drowning out my being, and I lost consciousness.
…
I woke up, my head, heavy like lead, laying down on very strange material… a mixture of strange porous stone and… ugh, not flesh again. I crawled up and pushed myself against the nearest pine- no, not pine, this tree was weirdly teal and glowing… Everything looked abnormal, the sky a strange purple tone. My void veins were… fully blackened like tattoos, no presence within. Did he fucking die in the fight? Oh well, damn it al-
The strings! They were gone! I looked around for them but couldn’t find them anywhere. An indescribable feeling of freedom flooded me and I screamed out in deep joy, unable to contain myself for several long moments. I was going to be free! I could do whatever! An intense desire to live returned to me, new determination defining me. And then I noticed it.
The Overworld? Was gone. The world around me was a mixture of the Nether and the End. Whatever that unwell god has done, I had never expected THIS. An entire realm swallowed by chaos and darkness. Vanished!
Howls of strange monsters filled my ears. But happiness spread upon my face from ear to ear. Everything that bound me was gone and I was going to survive in this new reality the best I could.
But of course, I was blinded by the euphoria. When I finally saw what kind of creatures were making those sounds, I instantly realized the horror of my new existence…
I was fucked. Big time… or so I thought…