Chapter Text
The mysterious Serpentbound disappeared through the nether portal after finalising their 'deal'. Flame waited for the soulkeepers to walk further than one block away from them before he slowly stood back up. Luckily for himself and Boosfer, Serpentbound's portal was still lit. They stepped up to be in the purple haze, but Boosfer grabbed him by the arm, "what if it's a trap, Immortal Demon?"
Flame paused as well. He was a naturally cautious person, and there was no guarantee Invis would be waiting on the other side. He didn't even consider the man an an ally to blindly follow.
They both stepped back down and decided to explore. They didn't really have a choice, though, as the soulkeepers and carefully replaced the last block of blackstone, sealing the corridor behind them. Flamefrags waited. Only when the footsteps had faded into the endless halls did he finally exhale. Sighing, he put on his armour. It felt weird not to.
"Let's explore." Boosfer had also put on his armour, except for his helmet for some reason.
"That's what I'm- nevermind." Flame ignored Boosfer's ragebait and began walking down the aisles of nether portals. Some were labelled with various locations, but Flamefrags didn't recognise any. For the majority, glass bordered both sides of it, preventing any 'intruder' from stumbling in.
One empty obsidian frame stood at the end of the furthest aisle, pristine, as though it had only just been built. "Why build a portal if you aren't gonna light it?" Flamefrags wondered out loud.
Boosfer shrugged, standing in the empty frame, "maybe they ran out of flint?"
"Bro we are literally in the Nether. Surely they have some gravel."
"Look around, Flamefrags! They look like they've been snorting basalt dust and emeralds since the dawn of time." Boosfer huffed and stepped back down.
The distinct, rare sound of a pickaxe breaking through blackstone echoed around. They took off their armour again and Boosfer could've sworn he felt his heart drop as the soulkeepers walked towards them.
It was the largest group so far. Eight soulkeepers - no, seven. Between them walked someone else. A scrawny guy wearing a copper helmet, his hands bound tightly together with rope. Unlike the ghost in the brewery, this person looked alive. And terrified. It stumbled as the soulkeepers shoved it forwards towards the unlit Nether portal.
Boosfer frowned, but it happened too soon. Too quickly. One of the soulkeepers pulled out a netherite sword, flickering embers enveloping it from the fire aspect enchant - something they definitely didn't have in their previous fight. "P-please." The copper helmet whimpered, but they didn't show any mercy. They swung their flaming sword down the center in one swift swipe. The dead body erupted into flames - the well-known aftermath of killing someone with a fire aspect weapon. However, this flame felt... alive. Malicious.
It danced around the disintegrating body and the stagnant soulkeepers, its formless body making its way to the border of obsidian. After a few seconds of the flame binding itself to the outer edges of the dark-purple block, the orange flame mutated into purple. The portal had been lit.
"They... lit it. They lit a portal with a pers-" Flame clamped his hand over Boosfer's agape mouth. He quietly shushed him, and they slowly backed off. They would've ran if the soulkeepers didn't start talking.
"What do we... do about the... intruders..?" The soulkeepers stared at the glimmering, purple hue.
"They'll... show up. Maybe... Serpentbound will... ask for them too..?"
"No... he only asked... for Wemmbu..."
Boosfer's stomach dropped. 'No...' he thought. Not here. Not now, after all the efforts he put in keeping Wemmbu's secret. He forced himself to slow down his anxious breathing. The soulkeepers quietly drifted away from the freshly lit portal, their conversation holding no worry about Boosfer and Flamefrag's presences in the Underworld.
Only when their chatter faded out did Flamefrags finally lower his hand. "...'Wemmbu'? Did I hear that right?"
Boosfer awkwardly chuckled, "that was weird. Like, 'top three things they've said' weird."
Flamefrags stared after the soulkeepers, his fading invis revealing his expression. His forehead was scrunched up so much that his blindfold looked like it needed ironing - badly. "So Invis didn't kill him."
"Guess not..."
"I knew it."
Boosfer turned to him, his green face visible as well, "uh, you what?"
"I knew Invis was lying. I knew you were lying, everyone was lying-" He chuckled like he had just one a long, treacherous inner battle.
"I wasn't." Boosfer mumbled.
"What was that?"
Boosfer opened his mouth. And closed it. Flame continued before Boosfer could begin his specialty of bullshitting. "Wemmbu probably fell into the Underworld. He was here for months, and just as we three came here... they sold him to that Serpent guy." He folded his arms, visibly pleased with himself. He didn't stop, "so Wemmbu is alive. And Invis is still somewhere here, very vulnerable"
Boosfer's eye twitched. "...Right."
"I knew the stories were suspicious. No witnesses, no death message, the one rumor-spreader couldn't keep his story straight."
"...Right... Right! Super suspicious," Boosfer laughed, perhaps far too loudly.
Flamefrags looked as him strangely, "why are you laughing."
Boosfer clamped his mouth shut just as Wemmbu and Flamefrags had done earlier. "I'm not."
"I just heard you, bro."
"I laugh when I'm stressed..?"
Flamefrags took a step towards him, and one strong part of Boosfer regretted keeping his helmet off. "You're stressed? Why?"
Terrified, and maybe slightly impressed by his interrogation skills, Boosfer changed the subject, "do we keeping looking? Or do we risk it and go through the snake man's portal?"
"Keeping looking for what?"
"Invis, duh. You were so eager earlier. Do you not care they said they killed Wemmbu?"
"Fine." Flamefrags scratched the fabric of his blindfold, "we'll find Wemmbu after we find Invis. I can either kill him, or he can tell us what he knows."
Boosfer nodded. Flamefrags walked away first, silently realising they were stuck in the portals room. Luckily it seemed to be the most important one, though. However, Boosfer didn't move. His thoughts remained fixed on one sentence, repeating in his head. 'He only asked for Wemmbu.' Not Invis. Not after the invisible nuisance Flame had spent hours chasing, but the Wemmbu he had spent months looking for.
Boosfer rubbed the back of his head. If Flame ever realised those two names belonged to the same person...
"...Boosfer?"
"Hm?"
"You coming?"
Boosfer huffed loudly, "oh I know you want me to." He followed after Flamefrags, casting one final look towards the portal before following deeper into the endless rows of portals, all presumingly lit the same, disturbing way. He muttered under his breath, "please don't die, Wemmbu."
--
Working in the farland's city was somehow worse than being imprisoned in the Underworld. At least prisons admitted they were prisons - keeping him in an iron cage with strange mechanics that prevented him from escaping through normal means. Serpentbound, on the other hand, insisted that it was a repayment. A chance for Wemmbu to reflect, to bring the farland's city back to the status it had before Wemmbu first came to it.
They said he'd never see anyone again. Wemmbu thought they meant outsiders, as barely any knew about this place. But they meant absolute isolation. He hadn't seen them in days, despite living in the same, giant castle as them. It was like they were monitoring him.
"...Thirty-two..." He absentmindedly tossed another half-stack of emerald blocks before glancing over the endless trading hall. Hundreds of villages, alive. On the Unstable SMP - at least outside the farlands - villagers were basically myths. The few remaining villagers and naturally spawning zombie villagers had long since been raided, griefed, or killed. He hadn't even seen one of the bizarre species since the Mafia days. Emeralds were finite. Villager resources like Mending books and experience bottles were treasures. And here? Librarians hummed to each other. Farmers shuffled in their cramped stalls. And Wemmbu - perhaps the most trapped of them all, was putting these unimaginable displays of wealth in labelled chests.
"Hey!" A pubescent voice called out from the balcony above, "Wemmbu!"
He looked up. Firestar was leaning against the railing, waving sarcastically, "you've only filled half the chest."
Wemmbu forced a smile, "I'm getting there."
"Not quickly enough."
Wemmbu joked, "I should quit. No employee benefits."
Firestar laughed. "No, you couldn't."
Wemmbu didn't respond. Firestar sighed and walked out of the hall, ending the only interaction he'd had in days. His fake smile instantly vanished. "God I hate these people." He muttered, shoving another row of emerald blocks into the chest with more force than necessary.
They really though this would work. That after taking him from another dimension, he'd just accept it. To happily trade, restock, work, repeat forever. Wemmbu snorted. His hand drifted to his inventory. His maces, his gear, still there. His folded elytra. Wind charges. A totem. Shulkers full of additional wealth. Serpentbound hadn't confiscated a single item. Not his armour, not even his ender chest. He was almost insulted. It was either they were complete idiots... or they genuinely didn't think he could escape. Or would.
He glanced around the trading hall. Three visible exits. Five if he used his elytra, and more if he used a pickaxe. No one around, but he doubted they had anything better to do than to make sure he was 'repaying' him. Wemmbu continued trading while quietly planning in his head. He couldn't fly out. Rockets simply fizzled out before working, exactly like before. The farlands must hate him in particular. He hummed, bringing a pile of incredibly rare enchanted books into a different chest.
Everyday when he woke up in that same TNT bedroom, he'd follow the same routine. Break and replace the bed to not make the same mistake as Egg, go into the rooms filled with chests worthy of envy, and look at the newly updated signs on the floor - new tasks for him.
"Restock the enchanted golden apples." Wemmbu would fly out to the repeating dungeons and collect each apple mindlessly. The occassional sound of elytra reminded him that he wasn't alone nor free.
"Restock the maces." He'd go to the nearby, floating trial chamber to open the vaults, biting back his disgust as he made them stronger.
He placed another stack of lapis on a shelf, eyes drifting towards one of the enormous, glass windows overlooking the white void outside. Endless white. He thought back to the Underworld, silently debating which prison was more annoying. Boosfer would still be making jokes. Flame was probably still trying to find him - either as Wemmbu or Invis.
Wemmbu winced, "actually..." maybe not. If Boosfer had kept his mouth shut, Flame would still think he were dead. He wondered whether that was easier. Being in denial if he was dead, or being hunted.
"Wemmbu?"
He looked up. Serpentbound stood in the doorway, smiling as though he wasn't forcing Wemmbu to work for him.
"Two interactions in one day? You're spoiling me."
Sepentbound chuckled, "aren't I? There's a reason for it, too. You've been working well - ignore what Firestar says. You know, teenagers."
Wemmbu bitterly smiled, "I'll kill you."
SerpentBound laughed. "I appreciate the honesty." He tossed a stack of breezerods at Wemmbu, "you looked like you were running low. Both you and Nitenly likes using these."
Wemmbu accepted them, "so when do I earn parole?"
Serpentbound's smile grew wider, "you don't. You'll stop asking eventually."
"Oh."
With that, Serpentbound simply walked away. Wemmbu stared at the breezerods for several long seconds, "they're actually insane."
What kind of warden gave their prisoners more supplies. He looked back into his inventory. Maces, totems, elytra, enough food for weeks. And now the breezerods that Wemmbu probably farmed for. He didn't have his orbitals asides from the few in his ender chest, but he could easily flatten their city without them. And still... no way out.
At least not without giving up his identity. But he will find a way. If the orbital cannons didn't work in the farlands city like it did everywhere else, then maybe Nether portals would work differently than in the og farlands.
He'd show them that capturing him had been such an expensive mistake.