Chapter Text
Kristin was a little weirded out when she found Phil sitting in his chair wearing some Urahara outfit. She thought it was for a subgoal, until she realized that Phil wasn’t streaming today. It was when he asked who she was and where he was at when things started to get worrisome. Kristin asked the boys in the call if this was some weird prank, when they all responded that he was acting like this ever since then.
“We were fine hanging out after the recording today and then he went silent for a bit. Then boom, suddenly he was acting like this.”
Kristin kept eyeing Phil, who was looking at his painting in the room. “Okay, I’ll take care of it, thanks Wilbur.”
The call ended and she was left with bewilderment and a quiet Phil.
“Talk to me, what’s up? Why are you acting like this?”
Phil frowned, glaring at her with a bored expression and glazed eyes. “What can I tell you that hasn’t been told already?”
She pursed her lips, her mind going through the endless possibilities of what happened. Maybe it was amnesia, he bumped his head and now thinks he is his persona. This is some comical amnesia if that were true, like ones you see overplayed in tv shows. There was one thing that stuck with her however, was the thought of the multiverse. She remembers Wilbur going on about it in one of his usual rants during Phil’s stream.
“If that were true, then there are endless amount of universes where everything and anything exists, the entirety of space, time, matter, energy—”
“Does that mean there’s a universe where the multiverse theory doesn’t exist?” Tommy chided in.
“Shut up.”
Kristin played with her ring. If that were true, then that could mean that everything that’s made up, everything Phil has made—
“You gotta be kidding.”
Phil tilted his head as she started searching for a picture on the computer.
“Do you know what this is?” She said, pulling out the image of Endlantis.
His face was in awe, his eyes studying the pillars of beacons shooting endlessly towards the sky, the sea lanterns illuminating the cool and dark waters, the bright coral and lively fish swimming about. He didn't know why it was so compact, but one thing's for certain.
"That's my home."
Kristin exhaled, coming to the realization that this off-handed theory was true. “Alright,” she started off, not really knowing how to go about this. She told him her theory, that he had woken up in another world. That the version of him was married to her, and that she doesn’t know how to fix this. The man’s face was foreboding upon hearing this, tilting his face downward, his hat casting a stark shadow upon his eyes.
“I understand.” He said.
That was the thing that differentiated her husband from this man: his voice. It sounded so broken, like all his life he wasted his voice yelling into nothingness, or perhaps all his life he didn’t have anything remarkable to say, no ear to listen to him, and so he said nothing at all. That’s the other thing: he sounded so impartial to anything, like he has seen this very thing happened. The stars could fall around him and he wouldn’t cry, or shout at the sky, we would watch with a bored expression in his eyes.
“Well,” she said, bringing her hands together, breaking the silence between them. “It’s really late, so the best we can do is sleep it off.” She got him a blanket and pillow, pushing him out of the bedroom. “You can sleep on the couch for now, also we need to buy groceries tomorrow, so be ready for that.”
The man looked at the blanket and pillow, a little puzzled at her reaction. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
“No problem.” She said, feigning a smile as she waved goodbye. She breathed a heavy sigh as she closed the door, sinking into the floor as she processed everything, her exhaustion weighing on her.
She tucked herself in, an empty space filling the entire bed. With her body tired and her mind awake, she didn’t sleep all too well that night.
-
She found herself alone, sitting on the edge of the bed, mindlessly detangling her hair with her fingers. She didn’t want to leave her room, unable to confront that man that’s sleeping on her couch. Her eyes laid upon the crumbled up grocery list that sat upon the nightstand, utterly cringing at the sight of it. How could she continue about her life when the man she loves was gone? This isn’t a game where she could bring him back with a command, this is real life. A place where magic and wishes are served as sub-par miracles.
Kristin took a deep breath and lifted herself out from her bed. She needed to have some form of hope that everything’s going to be okay. Most of all, she needed a distraction. And so, she grabbed the scrap of paper laying on top of the nightstand, and forced herself out of that room.
He was sitting in the kitchen, taking another piece of bread that was on the table. He looked up at her and gave a small hello. Kristin greeted him back, putting up that same faux-smile as she started to make coffee.
“By the way, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he said, mouth still full of bread. “Do you have a cane by any chance?”
Kristin paused, turning towards him. “What do you mean?”
He mumbled, his face turning to slight detest. “I suppose then that your Philza doesn’t have knee problems.”
“Not yet,” she said, chuckling. “That’s why you have a cane?”
He nodded, letting out a small awkward laugh. “Flying does hurt the knees sometimes.”
She handed him a cup of water, “by the way, do you have another name to call yourself? It’s weird for me to call you ‘Phil,’ not gonna lie.”
He took a sip from his cup, forming an unreadable expression on his face. “There are many names people call me, most notably, the Angel of Death.”
Kristin scrunched up her face. “That’s kind of morbid.”
He shrugged. “I suppose so, but I’m used to it by now.”
“I’ll just call you Philza then.”
Philza gave out a small chuckle. “It’s been ages since I’ve heard anyone call me by my actual name.”
He took another sip of his cup, a strand of hair falling in front of his face. He cursed as he moved the strand away, making Kristin giggle. She then pulled a hair tie from her wrist, handing it to him.
“Here, for your hair.”
Philza grabbed the hair tie, heat rising from his cheeks. “Thank you.” He then tied his hair in a sloppy ponytail.
They talked a little more once breakfast was finally made, which was quite an amusement for both of them. The Angel had not experienced the taste of anything other than meat, bread, and golden food, so when he saw a plate with sausage, egg, and beans, he practically scarfed the whole plate down. Kristin, when she saw this, basically hollered, and added more things to her shopping list, telling Philza that he had to try them.
Once breakfast was over, Philza slowly got up from the table, notably cringing at the pain from his knees. “I suppose we should get going.”
Kristin lifted her brows. “You’re not going out looking like that.”
“What’s wrong with how I look?”
She stifled a laugh, not ready for her to tell him that he looks like a literal anime character. “You’ll stick out like a sore thumb here.” Kristin went into her room, grabbing a shirt and pants her Phil would wear. “Here, try these on.”
Philza was still confused, but obliged as Kristin pushed him into the bathroom. He stood so awkwardly after he came out, the fabric he was wearing was less soft, less flowy. He still wore that grey robe of his, which looked somewhat of a bathrobe in Kristin’s eyes.
“You’re still going to wear that robe?” She asked as she grabbed masks for herself and Philza.
“Yes,” he said sternly, refusing to let out an explanation.
She raised her brow, but didn’t want to press it even further. “Okay,”
-
This wasn’t what the Angel expected when Kristin said that they were going shopping. A village perhaps, but not this.
Never before such opulence laid upon his eyes. It made him quite overwhelmed, with the amount of people that were at the store and how garish the fluorescent lights made his eyes burn. Kristin explained to him while in the car (the fast mechanical thing that made him swear that he would never take the elytra for granted) that people are currently staying inside their homes due to some illness going around. If that were true, then he couldn’t imagine what this store would look like with people crowding the aisles. Philza continued to walk behind Kristin as he wandered his eyes in wonder, questioning how one person can consume so many needless things this store provides. They were walking past the produce section when Philza laid his eyes on a pile of golden apples, to which he walked over and grabbed a few.
“How do you produce so many gapples?” He said in astonishment.
“What—oh,” she said, softly laughing when she saw him with a handful of gapples. Even with a mask on, he could see her smiling with the way her eyes creased. “Those are just regular yellow apples, Philza.”
His enthusiasm hindered, remembering that Kristin said that there’s no magic here (which is debatable, considering they just traveled here using some mechanic vehicle). He was about to explain that to Kristin when something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. A strange cloaked figure was watching them from afar, their face obscured by their hood. Before Philza could point that out, he felt the slight tug of his robe.
“C’mon, let’s get you some knee braces.”
He turned to look at the cloaked figure, but when he did he saw no one there.
They eventually got everything needed at the store, and ordered some take out for them to eat back home. His knees were starting to ache more from all the walking they did at the store, and was very grateful that Kristin bought him a cane for support. He could see the cloaked figures appear more frequently now, stalking them like vultures to a corpse. Kristin said that there is no magic here, so why do they seem to appear so sporadically?
Unless they are not from here at all.
He grabbed Kristin’s arm as they got out of the restaurant, hastily walking as the cloaked figures kept nearing them.
“I don’t mean to alarm you, but we’re being followed.” Philza said into her ear.
Kristin looked at him in curiosity, but continued to follow his lead. They both kept walking, increasing their pace Kristin noticed more cloaked figures in the city.
“This way.”
They turned to an alleyway, now running into a dead end. The cloaked figures finally caught to them now, halting them in their tracks. The five of them had dark dust smeared on their nightshade cloaks, it reminded Kristin of the bedrock haze that used to be in the game.
“Who are you?” Kristin yelled out.
One cloaked figure spoke, letting out a drawn out, gurgling noise. “We are the survivors of the fallen, held together by the ashes of the dead.”
“That’s awfully vague,” she mumbled. “Where the hell is my husband?”
“Where he is we don’t know,” one croaked out.
“And we don’t really care either,” another one heckled.
“It wasn’t part of our initial plan anyways,” a fourth one rebuked, “if it weren’t for some angel halting our ambitions.”
Phil’s expression turned to anger, putting the pieces together in his head. “You have some nerve tampering with teleportation. You know what you just did? What consequences have you brought?”
“A few mistakes will happen,” the fifth figure said, their laissez-aller stance going against the tense atmosphere. “What matters is what happens in the long run.”
“Long run?” Kristin whispered to herself.
Philza stayed quiet as he tried to channel his blade, preparing for whatever comes at him.
“Our king will be grateful when he sees the Angel of Death has fallen.” The first figure rasped out.
The cloaked figure unveiled their axe, lifting it up and plummeting it down on Phil’s head. Kristin turned her head away, waiting for the impact when Phil quickly dodged the hit, bringing him and Kristin to the right side of the alleyway. Philza then materialised a sword, slashing the two cloaked figures that flanked him. The two figures quickly turned to black dust as he then switched to a bow, aiming the arrow at the second cloaked person, who was easily sniped in the head. The third person ran up to attack Kristin, but she lifted up the take-out bag and smacked them in the head before anything could happen. Meanwhile Philza lifted his sword and swung it at the first cloaked being, who blocked it with his axe. They went back and forth, slashing and blocking their hits as Kristin stood there in awe and in fear, adrenaline filling her veins. She had never seen anyone as agile as Philza was at this moment, as if he had seen this all played out before. As Philza dodged the being’s hit, he saw a figure rising above Kristin, slowly reaching out to her in an attempt of revenge. Philza’s eyes widened as he quickly threw his cane to Kristin.
“Behind you!”
A shot of adrenaline pulsed through her as she grabbed the cane, quickly turning around, and without looking, she used all her strength to bonk the cloaked person on the head. They turned to dust, causing Kristin to huff out a brief instance of relief. Philza meanwhile sweeped his legs around the first cloaked figure, causing them to fall in defeat as Philza pointed his sword towards their throat.
“Well go on then, kill me.” They said, apathetic of their death. “We shall return soon.”
“Why are you doing this?”
The cloaked person gave out a scathing laugh. “Like I’m going to reveal all of our plans to the likes of you.” He then tilted his head to the sky, gasping for air. “I can already feel the world succumbing into the void.”
Philza gave them a swift stab, his emotions detached from his actions as he saw the being turn into black dust. Kristin said nothing, just stared at the dusty remnants of the being as she handed Philza back his cane, her head lost in thought.
Philza then broke the silence. “We should probably get home.”
“...Right.”
“You alright?”
Her heart was pounding in her head as her hands began to shake, unable to contain the energy that’s pulsing through her veins.
“I’m fine,” she finally said, forcing a smile underneath the mask. “Who were those guys?”
“Some occultists who worship a deity called the Ender King.” He said, putting a hand on his head. “They tamper with the laws of teleportation in order to appease their king. I was supposed to stop them, but…” he trailed off, a growing pain sprouting upon his head. “I can’t seem to remember.”
Cool, so some cult from another dimension may have taken her husband. Kristin briefly sighed as she quickly recollected herself. She then playfully nudged Philza. “Well I don’t know about you, but I had enough chaos for today, yeah?”
Philza cracked a smile. “Chaos is part of my life, Kristin. It practically follows me.”
“Of course it is.” She chuckled. “Let’s just call an uber and go home.”
Philza pursed his lips. “Those cars of yours are far too slow for my taste. An elytra is way better.”
She tilted her head in curiosity. “Elytra?” Kristin had to admit, she always wondered what flying an elytra would be like ever since they were first introduced in the game.
Philza started to grin, a glint of mischief in his eyes, the same kind of mischief Kristin would have everytime she shot a nerf dart at Phil, or when they passed a sub goal. “Do you want to see what it’s like?”
“Yes.” Kristin said without hesitation.
Philza grabbed her wrists, a gust of wind starting to form around them.
“Hold on.”
Kristin was then lifted up a thousand feet up in the air. She felt Philza’s arms wrapping around her body, carrying her high above the ground. Her screams of terror and amusement seemed inaudible to the people down below, which were just tiny specs now. Philza laughed as they glided through the air. For the first time since he got here, he was finally in his element. Kristin turned towards him and saw the grey robe outstretched like a pair of black wings.
So that wasn’t some weird robe, Kristin finally realized. That’s his elyra.
Kristin spotted the apartment after flying through the air for a couple of minutes. She pointed it out to Philza, who gently lowered himself towards the ground.
“Watch this,” he said as he started to let go of Kristin’s body. “Now straighten your legs and start walking.”
Kristin did as she was told as they both started to walk in the air, gracefully getting closer and closer to the ground. Kristin giggled as she continued to walk, the stress and adrenaline of what happened in the alleyway subsiding. As her foot touched the ground, she gasped, her body processing what just happened.
“You’re a natural.” Philza giggled.
Kristin laughed as well, spinning around. She still felt as weightless as she was when she was in the air, like one leap from her could make her soar.
“What the hell was that?”
Kristin turned around to see Tommy and Wilbur a few paces away from the apartment’s entrance, their mouths agape.
She sighed. There was some more explaining to do.