Chapter Text
This idiot. This fucking moron.
<d3rlord3>
Avery.
What are you doing here?
Why aren't you at the tree?
The lines of text appears at the bottom left of his screen. D3rlord is standing right in front of him on this platform in this god forsaken void where damn creepy eyes stare down at them. Avery grits his teeth. For the next few seconds there was only the sound of loud clicking with each forceful push of his fingers.
<TheMostMayo>
What am I doing here?
What are YOU DOING HERE??
YOU LIED TO ME
THERE WAS NOTHING ON THAT TREE D3RLORD
D3rlord's avatar stays unmoving. There's nothing to be read from his 'body language.' Even the pixels where his face should be are instead just black and gold. It makes his blood his blood boil, but there's also something else nagging at him— something uncanny, more like a spider crawling on his scalp.
He still says nothing. Why won't he say anything. Fucking say something. Avery takes a deep breath to calm himself.
<TheMostMayo>
What are you doing here????
What is this place?
If the situation wasn't so tense he'd be admiring the build right now. Maybe he'd ask what the gold blocks on the ground are supposed to be. If he didn't feel so betrayed right now he might ask D3r about the eyes, what he makes of them. However, as things are right now— well, it's currently the least of his concerns.
<d3rlord3>
Avery
I need you to leave
Now
"Fuck does he mean leave?" Avery mumbles to himself. He's really testing the effectiveness of breathing exercises, this D3rlord guy.
<TheMostMayo>
I'm not leaving until you talk to me
He continues to write. They go back and forth a little; with every sentence the argument becomes more heated and Avery is losing his patience by the second. The conversation is going nowhere. D3rlord's not budging at all, but he sure as hell won't back down either.
<d3rlord3>
You're not supposed to be back so soon
Did you find a skipgate?
A skipgate? Is that what that was called? The fans of his—or rather, D3rlord's—laptop start whirring louder, but he ignores it.
<TheMostMayo>
I guess? It didn't really look like a door though
More like a crack
<d3rlord3>
A crack?
No we don't have time for that
Listen
I need you to leave or else everything will be ruined
He can't do this. He really can't.
I WON'T LEAVE UNTIL YOU_ _ _
The sentence stays unfinished; behind D3rlord a horrifying mass of blocks starts to appear out of thin air. It's a wild but intentional mix of birch, diorite, wool and occasional oddly placed copper blocks. A static feeling builds up behind his eyes as he watches D3rlord whirl around to witness the grotesque amalgamation of blocks becoming a gigantic, repulsing yellow eyeball.
"What the..."
His breathing comes to an abrupt halt as he takes in the sight of this... something that shouldn't be possible inside of Minecraft. Is this the King In Yellow? It must be. But didn't D3rlord say that he went insane from seeing it?
<d3rlord3>
AVERY I'M NOT ASKING
YOU HAVE TO LEAVE, NOW
At this point he can't even bring himself to get worked up about D3rlord's incessant commands nor to feel surprised to see him type in all caps for the first time. No, the buzzing permeating his consciousness takes up too much space for him to think about anything at all.
You fulfilled your purpose at last, lord.
What they don't show you in horror movies is how silently entities enter the space, only to make their presence known with their thundering voice. It's just as D3rlord told him— the King, he's all encompassing. An omniscient, omnipresent existence, or maybe just an omni-everything. Avery understands it now, what he means by it.
His power settles on top and around his mind like a thick layer of grime, infiltrates the ridges and folds of his brain and washes over his neurons, under the axions and through the nuclei, but there's restraint in the powerful tide. Something's holding the King back, and whatever it is, Avery can only assume it's what's preventing him from the fate D3rlord had to endure— but who's to say when this the restraint will fall away?
<d3rlord3>
AVERY
When he finally comes to his senses, D3rlord is already critting him out like there's no tomorrow. Not thinking much about it, Avery presses the key to switch to the sword in his hotbar and starts fighting back. It's all muscle memory, really, and he easily locks D3rlord in a combo, hitting him until he assumes him to be low.
Fool. You still think you can prevent it?
The King's voice reverbs through his skull and sends shivers down his spine. More than mirth and amusement, there's malice and cruelty to be heard. A violent shudder chases through Avery's body as he relays his attention to the giant eye behind D3rlord, but it doesn't seem to be where the voice is coming from— if there's a direction to begin with. It's disorienting, dizzying, how the echoes hit his ear drums from every direction.
D3rlord makes a move towards him but he simply hits him away, this time with his bare hands.
<d3rlord3>
AVERY
YOU NEED TO LEAVE
He looks back down to D3rlord.
<d3rlord3>
PLEASE
Give it up. It almost disappoints me to see one so resourceful become desperate.
The buzzing in his head becomes more of a headache as the King's voice halls through the empty void, or his own head, or maybe it's coming from D3rlord, but he's to seventy percent sure that it's probably not.
<d3rlord3>
Shut up, you bastard
Know your place. Your arrogance has led to this.
Avery clutches his head with his hand and lets out a groan of pain. Every echo thrown back by the void slams into him at full force and crackles with electricity; but underneathe everything he can hear the sound of something cracking. No, it's several things starting to break.
He's so out of it that he doesn't even notice that D3rlord has stopped punching him—or that he was doing it in the first place—and as such he didn't quite pick up on the messages being sent in the game chat as well.
<d3rlord3>
I stand and give my eyes to you
One by one
What? It can't be.
A sudden, distorted ringing erupts from all around him and this time he actually screams— it feels like someone's clawing at his brain, like someone is cutting him open and prying for access that they desperately need but can't have. Avery's hands have left his keyboard completely now. He can feel a dull pain in his scalp from how hard he's pulling his hair.
<d3rlord3>
Shadowed shore far undone
To you I pour corroded sun
No. What are you doing? Stop this at once!
Avery doesn't understand what it's saying, but it sounds enraged. He just barely has the energy to distantly wonder what D3rlord could be doing to elicite such a reaction, but the thought doesn't linger for long as a piercing pain wipes everything away. Another yell of anguish tears itself from his lips, drowning out the cracking he's heard before that is now growing in volume and frequency.
<d3rlord3>
Wake me as one
In an instant the pain starts to peel away like ferrofluid being pulled by a magnet. All the power that soaked his mind before is starting to leave, and though Avery can't quite believe his mind after what just happened, he could swear that there are fissures appearing in the very fabric of reality when he opened his eyes. They're scattered throughout the void, in the yellow eyes, between them, beneath them. But neither the King and D3rlord acknowledge it.
You invoked the spell. Why? How?
Now lucid enough to make out the meaning of most words, Avery removes a hand from his hair to open world chat again. He reads all that D3rlord has said and wonders whether the King's influence is jumbling words into poems and riddles. Shadowed shore and corroded sun.
<d3rlord3>
Come again?
No, D3rlord is speaking normally again. Were those odd strings of words intentional then? Avery doesn't know. The fissures in reality have started to grow in size, and he can vaguely see what's on the other side now, blurry images at the end of pitch-dark tunnels. It reminds him of the mud brick tunnels that suddenly went dark in D3rlord's footage.
Silence. It can't be. How do you know that spell?
It was a spell? What spell? Do those even exist?
The mind must be clean. The mind, it must be clean. Why would you invoke that spell?
The mind must be clean. Sounds like something his mom's yoga instructor would say. With relief Avery realizes that the pain has subsided enough to have stupid thoughts like this. But this isn't the time for it.
The King's voice is becoming more and more distorted, fragmented and panicked. Whatever that spell is, it seems it's somehow hurting it. Are they actually winning against this eldritch being?
You are ruining yourself.
What?
<d3rlord3>
Your universe is looking a little unstable.
Silence. You fool. Don't you realize you're destroying your own mind too?
Destroying his own mind? Avery looks at D3rlord, who has his back facing him. He stands fearlessly before the king and stares it directly in the eye. Avery doesn't know what exactly what's happening and it drives him insane. But if the King's words are anything to go by, and the fact that D3rlord is not denying it—
You'll cease to exist when we merge. There will be nothing left of you.
No. No that's not fair.
<TheMostMayo>
D3rlord
Whatever you're doing, stop it
I didn't come all the way here for you to just sacrifice yourself like that
D3rlord turns around, finally looking at him now.
<d3rlord3>
Avery
Cancel the spell. Cancel it.
<TheMostMayo>
WHAT?
STOP IT
I CAN'T LET YOU DIE LIKE THIS
<d3rlord3>
Avery
There's no other way
<TheMostMayo>
Yes there is
There must be
The rifts are growing in numbers. Some have started to appear on the platform as well, all around them, and in the back of Avery's mind, an idea starts to form.
Release the spell. Repeat it.
<TheMostMayo>
Take it back
Whatever it is that you said, take it back
<d3rlord3>
No
If I don't go through, it'll get you instead
Fine. If he's so adamant on keeping him safe. In the background the King is still chanting his objections.
<TheMostMayo>
It won't
<d3rlord3>
It will
Avery leads his character towards the nearest gate to his left and stands right beside it. From up close the rift looks like someone broke a mirror, except the cracks of the mirror has a faint purple glow.
<TheMostMayo>
No it won't, because whatever is at the other side of this will
<d3rlord3>
Avery
Don't
<TheMostMayo>
Do what the King says
Cancel that spell
Or else I'll jump in
<d3rlord3>
Avery, I don't know what's in there
I can't see it
Please
For your own sake, don't do it
"For my own sake, huh?" Avery whispers. The words taste bitter on his tongue. "Whatever is there to save anyways."
Avery inches towards the gate. A third of his screen is already covered by the edge of the rift and the darkness within it.
<d3rlord3>
AVERY
D3rlord's avatar sprints towards him but Avery hits him away and steps a bit closer to the gate.
<TheMostMayo>
Stay back
D3rlord halts in his movement. Half of his screen now. He can feel a static feeling crawling up his arms now. It's a bit different from the King's. Instead of a manic sensation he feels as though he's burning up, like the atoms in his arm have become unstable and are shaking violently in response.
<TheMostMayo>
Repeat the spell D3rlord
Just do it
There was a pause. Hesitation. Avery stares into the black slit of D3rlord's helmet. It's all just pixels—uncanny pixels—but right now it doesn't seem as irritating as before. His silence now tells him more than it hides from him. Good.
<d3rlord3>
I stand and give me eyes to you one by one
Shadowed shore far undone
Yes. Yes! Undo the spell. Cancel it.
<TheMostMayo>
Shut up King
Just wait until we find a way to fuck you up
<d3rlord3>
To you I pour corroded sun
Wake me as one
The same crackle that happened when D3rlord first evoked the spell can be heard, but this time the pocket dimension they're in seems to stabilize instead.
<TheMostMayo>
Thank you D3rlord
The King's power extends to brush over his mind again—it feels weird as it intertwines with the tingling in his arms—but he won't let it this time.
<TheMostMayo>
I'll find a way, I promise
<d3rlord3>
You said you'd jump if I didn't revoke it
The buzzing in his head is back. He has to hurry now.
<TheMostMayo>
I didn't say I wouldn't if you did
He sees how D3rlord runs towards him, but it's too late. He turns towards the crack fully and walks into the darkness. The last few messages appear in the world chat before the crack closes behind him. Avery ignores them.
"Idiot."