Chapter Text
Neytirix stood behind the tall, thick pillars with the rest of the followers, waiting for Leader Corpse’s signal, but she wasn’t concentrating properly, even though she was one of the only ones who could properly perform the spell. She was just so sick of using it on innocent people to do Corpse’s dirty work, but she didn’t really have a choice. She wanted to secure a safe spot for her family in the ‘hierarchy’ once Corpse was finished reinventing society. She was also indebted to him for keeping them away. She kept seeing the faces of those she turned in monsters. A picture of Dream flashed into her mind. It would only be matter of time before he turned as well. And now, it was BadBoyHalo’s turn.
“Now!” Corpse yelled out to the others. The sound echoed throughout the throne room, but Neytirix didn’t hear it, she was still standing there, feeling sorry for herself. Jake Paul walked past her grabbed her shoulder, yanking her out from behind the pillar. She stumbled and fell over, slamming her skull-face into the marble floor. Ccrtelevison quickly came over to help her up.
“Thanks, CC,” Neytirix whispered. CC looked at her with a worried face.
“Just pay attention,” she mumbled.
Neytirix stood there conflicted as she saw Bad screaming his head off. She didn’t want to watch, but she had to, as she was the one who was supposed to perform the spell. She held up her twisted staff and pointed it at Bad who was sobbing wildly by this point. She began to recite the enchantment.
“The monsters of old and the…” but she was distracted once again. Bad looked at her with watery, red eyes that seemed to pierce through her soul.
“Get on with it!” Corpse shouted.
“I can’t!” she shouted back, “I… I just can’t…” She quickly turned her head away and waited for Corpse to sprint over and plunge his staff through her chest, but he didn’t. He turned away and pointed at the pony.
“Emala Jiss,” he said, “You’re up.” Neytirix moved to the back next to HilariouslyScary and Emala moved up to the foot of the throne where Bad was tied to. She continued Neytirix’s spell.
“The monsters of old and the rulers of new, I present to you a new vessel for you to use.” The other followers began to stomp their feet as she repeated the line over and over again. Bad began to lose consciousness as his eyes rolled back into his skull. Neytirix cringed as an ominous low growl echoed throughout the throne room. But then all of a sudden, everyone stopped stomping and the growl ceased. Bad looked out towards everyone, with sour and cold expression. He looked down at his tied downs arms and someone quickly rushed to untied him. Bad stood up and looked out towards his followers and lifted his arms up, expecting praise. Everyone immediately started cheering, except Neytirix and her friends. They stood there, clapping ever so quietly. Neytirix looked at Bad and just felt horrible. She didn’t even know this man but she felt so sad, like a family member was just ripped away from her. She couldn’t imagine what his friends and family would feel like. The followers were forced to bow for about five minutes and then were demanded leave as Corpse was going to reveal his plans to Bad, who they were forced to called ‘The King of Shadows’.
Once the followers were released, Neytirix muttered something and then teleported herself to her bedroom. Emala and CC were part time guards, so they had to rush off to their positions. So HilariouslyScary was left alone. She stood in the corridor in front of the two heavy doors that lead back into the throne room. She pressed the side her head against the doors to try and hear what was happening but it was no use as they were speaking quietly. She obviously already knew the plan, but she was curious to see if there was some information that Corpse was leaving out. She took a few steps backwards and admired the intricate patterns that covered the door. Her mind then went to Neytirix. She knew she should check up on her friend and head back to the room, but she herself was a bit shocked after watching Bad being forcefully tainted. She wasn’t in the right frame of mind to comfort her friend. Just as she was zoning out, someone put their hand on her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” a voice said as Scary flung herself around to face her confronter.
“Nothing!” she muttered quickly, “I was just… you know… thinking?” It was Azzyland, staring directly at her with a strange, spooky smile, which could only be rivalled by that of Moriah Elizabeth, who was under an insanity spell.
“Thinking?” Azzyland said as she walked around Scary menacingly, “I like thinking. I think a lot.”
You do? Scary thought to herself as she prepared what she was going to say next, and then she muttered, “I’ll just be going, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, but I do mind!” Azzy said as she grabbed Scary’s shoulder as she walked past, once again, “I want to know what’s wrong with that skull-faced friend of yours.”
“H-how should I know?” HilariouslyScary responded slightly worried, “I’m not Neytirix and I’m not her parent.”
“I thought you guys were close,” Azzy whispered as she put her arm around Scary, “After all, we always seem to hear you guys talking about some stuff that makes us question your loyalty to the King.”
“We?” Scary asked with an anxious gaze, “W-we? What do you mean we?”
“Oh, ya know, Tabbes and NerdECrafter, my girl gang,” she said taking her arm off Scary and pushing her away, seemingly in disgust, “And I love the fact that you didn’t question the fact that I confronted you about your weak allegiance to the King.”
Scary stared at her for a few seconds before muttering, “You said ‘the fact’ twice.”
“SHUT UP!” Azzyland snapped as she pointed her dagger-like nails at Scary’s throat, “Why didn’t you…”
“Because there’s nothing to question,” a voice said sternly, cutting Azzy off, “This is a scary profession. We are only people, and we get freaked out sometimes. Being scared doesn’t mean they’ll back down from their duties.” Azzy turned around and saw NerdECrafter.
“Craft-y, I was only testing her!” Azzy quickly chimed as she walked towards NerdECrafter.
“You know, you don’t make sense sometimes Azzy,” NerdECrafter muttered, “You forget that HilariouslyScary here is a talented wizard, and you have no power unless Corpse gives you his blessing. She and her friends could easily kick your ass, so stop pestering them. Also, I just don’t understand what you say half the time. You’re not funny.” Scary giggled as a gawking Azzyland stormed off.
“That was weird,” Scary muttered.
“Everything here is weird,” NerdECrafter replied. But before she could say anything else, Scary thanked her and scampered off. Not wanting to seem suspicious to the guards, she decided not to follow Scary and instead go to the next best person; Neytirix.
NerdECrafter made her way to bedrooms, keeping an eye out for Neytirix’s room, hoping she would still be in there. NerdECrafter had the ability to read the minds of her allies, so she quickly glanced into Neytirix’s just as they were let out of the throne room, checking to see what she was thinking.
Eventually, NerdECrafter found the room. Its door was painted beautifully with both grim and brightly coloured characters (What else would you expect? The two people living in that room are both epic artists!). NerdECrafter knocked on the door and waited for a reply. A few seconds later, she heard a muffled “I’m coming!” and then Neytirix opened the door. They said hello and NerdECrafter stepped inside. She was shocked to see Emala Jiss and ccrtelevision there, but she tried her hardest not show her shock.
“What are you two doing here?” NerdECrafter tried to ask casually, “Don’t you have guard shifts?”
“Oh, we were let off early,” Emala replied, “There were too many off us and Tabbes didn’t trust us enough to guard the other ‘vessels’.” CC laughed awkwardly and rolled her eyes. NerdECrafter knew she could trust Neytirix, as she had shown signs of regret from day one of joining Corpse and his vile cult, and Emala Jiss had shown a similar disgust. But not ccrtelevision. Though NerdECrafter was much closer to CC than the others, she wasn’t able to determine whether or not she could trust her. It wasn’t that CC had shown a lot of faith and allegiance to Corpse and now the newly crowned king. It was that she didn’t seem to show faith to anything. She just didn’t seem to care about either side. She seemed the least bothered out of everyone about BadBoyHalo’s ‘coronation’ but she also didn’t seem to care about the rumours of a possible rebellion against him. NerdECrafter just wasn’t sure if she could trust her. She had to come up with a way to talk to Neytirix alone without making CC, or even Emala suspicious. NerdECrafter didn’t mind sharing the information with Emala as well, but she though it would be a bit weird if only two out of the three people in the room were allowed listen what she had to say. NerdECrafter had to come up with an excuse, and fast, as she had been standing in the room silent for about thirty seconds and CC began to look at her funny.
“Can I speak to Neytirix?” NerdECrafter eventually spluttered, “In private?”
“Why can’t you say it in front of us, Jackie?” CC asked, still having a funny expression on her face. NerdECrafter was starting to panic at this point, so she muttered the only excuse she thought would work.
“It’s a message from Leader Corpse.” CC’s odd expression ceased and Neytirix stared NerdECrafter dead in the eye, worrying if something bad was about to happen. NerdECrafter stepped outside the room with an anxious Neytirix following close behind her. She felt horrible for lying to Neytirix, but she knew it was for a good cause. Neytirix closed the door behind herself and instantly started apologising.
“This is about the ritual thing, isn’t it?” Neytirix began muttering, “I swear, I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful or anything, I just panicked!”
“Okay look,” NerdECrafter said feeling bad for lying to Neytirix, “You’re not in trouble with Corpse, I lied so I could talk to you in private.” Neytirix’s face turned from a worried face to an upset yet relived expression.
“What is so important that you couldn’t say it in front of the others?” NerdECrafter gave an uneasy expression. She had to come up with yet another excuse. She wasn’t used to lying this much. She was always very brutally honest.
“Um…” was all she could say at the moment. She looked at Neytirix, debating whether or not this was a good idea (This is the second time I used ‘whether or not’, sue me). She pulled out a crystal from her pocket and quickly shoved it in Neytirix’s face. Neytirix grabbed it hesitantly and inspected the crystal.
“Uh, thank you?” she said slightly concerned. NerdECrafter pulled Neytirix by the shoulder next to her and whispered in her ear:
“Make the right decision or hand me in.” Neytirix stood there shocked, but before she could say anything, NerdECrafter moved away from her.
“Whatever you chose, I won’t be mad at you.” NerdECrafter muttered with a smile. She then quickly turned around and walked away briskly, with her hands shaking slightly and her face sweating wildly.
After five minutes of anxiously walking past shadow guards and avoiding eye contact with a still angry Azzyland, NerdECrafter finally made it back to the sanctity of her room. She locked the door flopped down onto her bed. Her hands were no longer shaking, but her face was still somewhat sweaty. She exhaled loudly and made her way to the bathroom to wash her face. As she walked, she looked at the many broken sculptures that were hanging on her wall. They were all her own creations that were once living, breathing creatures that fought alongside her in battles. She washed her faced and stared at her reflection, that slowly morphed into the one person she didn’t want to see.
“Nerdy!” the reflection chirped.
“Witchy…”
The reflection folded her arms and looked at her with an animated face of disappointment.
“You’ve been a very bad girl!” the reflection muttered, “He’ll find you, and when he does, he’ll be mad.” NerdECrafter scoffed and grabbed a towel off of the rack.
“Corpse doesn’t need to know,” NerdECrafter said confidently as she wiped her face, “He’s not going to find out.” She paused and stared her sentient reflection in the eyes, “And you aren’t gonna stop me.” She walked out the bathroom and her reflection called out her.
“Those are some big words coming from a mere vessel.” NerdECrafter turned around in shock, expecting to have another long argument with herself, but WitchECrafter was gone, and she was just staring at her own regular reflection.
She walked uneasily over to her bed and flopped down of it. She whipped out a crystal, the same kind of crystal she had given to Neytirix. She quietly spoke a name and double tapped the crystal, sending a signal to one of the rebels. After a minute of waiting, the crystal flashed, meaning someone had received the request to talk (vc?). She fiddled with her hands and waited for someone to speak up.
“Hello?” said a voice coming out of the crystal.
“I think I’ve messed up…”
…
“And she just handed this to me!” Neytirix cried as she shoved the crystal in CC’s face in the same way NerdECrafter handed to her. CC held the crystal in her hand and inspected it from all angles. It was a mostly transparent, pinkish colour and it was shaped like an elongated hexagon. It was flat, smooth and about a centimetre thick. She tapped on the shinier side of the crystal and it instantly lit up, looking almost exactly like a modern touch-screen phone. Like a normal phone, it had a few different icons or apps, however, it didn’t have as many default apps on it like a normal phone (Like seriously, I DON’T NEED MORE THAN ONE NOTE TAKING APP! Looking at you, Samsung!). One icon stuck out in particular, mainly because it was a simple black square. She looked up from the crystal and ushered Neytirix and Emala over.
“Well, that doesn’t look suspicious,” CC muttered sarcastically as she handed the phone to Neytirix.
“I wonder what it does?” Neytirix said as she tapped on the icon, but nothing happened. She tapped on it again. And then again. And again. She ended rapidly typing on the icon but nothing was happening.
“Geez, it must be broken or something,” Emala said leaning over the screen, “Try clicking on another icon.” Neytirix clicked on the camera icon and it worked fine. The three stared at the crystal and then looked at each other.
“I am way too tired to figure this Ney,” CC whined as she flopped onto the bed, “It’s clearly magic. Maybe Scary can figure it out?”
…
HilariouslyScary sat inside the cafeteria munching away at a sandwich with a frown on her face. She kept thinking about that group of friends they had kidnapped earlier, and she felt horrible. They had been sitting in the room for a while now without any food or water and she couldn’t help but feel anything but pity for them. She scratched her head and scrunched her eyes intensely in an attempt to rid her mind of those thoughts, because she was doing the right thing. Aren’t I? she thought. She was about to slap herself in the face when she heard the cafeteria doors open and chirpy voice saying “Howdy hey!”
“Greetings, Rea,” Scary said to the quickly approaching chirpy GinjaNinja, “Whatcha doing?”
“Gettin’ food!” Ginja called out as she jumped over the serving counter, “You?”
“Ya, know,” Scary said trying to mask her concern, “Eatin’ food!” but Ginja could see through it.
She rummaged through the fridge and jumped over the counter armed with a loaf of bread, a couple slices of ham and a tub of pudding. She walked up to Scary and sat next to her.
“So,” Ginja said as she opened the plastic bag encasing the bread, “Tell your auntie Rea what’s wrong.”
“You know those people we, uh,” Scary looked around anxiously, “Kidnapped?”
Ginja looked up at Scary with her face full of bread.
“Yeah…” Ginja mumbled with her mouth full, “I try not to think about it too much.”
“I just can’t stop thinking about what’s gonna happen to them? And they’re stuck in there, without any food or water!”
GinjaNinja looked at her and sighed.
“You’re right,” Ginja whispered, “They have suffered quite a bit, the poor guys.”
They sat in silence for about 20 seconds. Scary was looking at the ceiling, analysing the battle depictions of old wars.
“Maybe you should get them some food?” Ginja muttered, “I mean, they aren’t useful if they’re… you know, dea-”
“I get it Ginja,” Scary quickly uttered, “You’re right, I should get them something.”
Ginja smiled and carried on eating.
The two talked for about 15 minutes, complaining about random stuff. Scary was half way through telling her weird encounter with Azzy, when Ginja’s phone began to buzz wildly with text messages. The group tended to text each other when they were within the castle grounds since phone calls were usually being bugged (get stick bugged lol). Ginja got out her phone and opened the messenger app and was instantly hit with hundreds of frantic texts messages from Neytirix, all of them saying “IS SCARY WITH U?”.
Ginja frowned and gestured to Scary.
“I think she’s looking for you,” Ginja garbled as she swallowed her food.
“Who?”
“Neytirix!”
“What?” Scary muttered, “Why didn’t she just text me? My phone’s right here!”
She stuck her hand in her crossbody bag and rummaged around. After tipping the contents of the bag onto the table, she looked at Ginja, feeling slightly annoyed at herself.
“I think I misplaced my phone…” she said slowly as she scraped her stuff back into the bag, “Did she say why she’s looking for me?”
“No,” replied Ginja, “all she said was ‘meet me at our dorm’ and ‘It’s urgent’.”
Scary looked at her confused.
“Well,” Scary said standing up, “I better get a move on then!”
She waved goodbye to Ginja and quickly jogged to the door.
…
“Honey, I’m home!” Scary sung jokingly.
“Took you long enough!” Emala muttered angrily.
Scary walked to her bed, plonked her bag down and whispered to Neytirix, “Geez, what’s up with her?”
Neytirix shrugged and smiled, “I guess she’s just feeling a little… horse.”
Scary giggled and CC rolled her eyes.
“I’ll just… I’ll just go sit in the corner of shame,” Neytirix muttered awkwardly
Scary laughed and followed her.
“So why did you need me so desperately?” she said.
“Because of this,” CC said handing her the crystal, “Do you know what it is?”