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Pix could hear nothing but the sound of the sand under his feet as he trekked through the desert, solemn and emotionally exhausted. Guilt weighed heavily on his shoulders and while he hadn't been the one to land the killing blow on the enderdragon, he was responsible for spilling most of its blood. Gem...Fwhip...Scott, Shelby, Kathrine, Pearl...all of them had tried so hard to keep it alive for even a moment more.
He remembered the flashes of their deaths as Sausage blew the end crystals they were placing up with maniac glee and eyes red as blood, he remembered calling out their names as their bodies burst into magic and their items left behind. Yet he still fought on the wrong side of the battle...if only he'd stopped to listen, then maybe everything would have turned out differently.
The Copper King...no, he wasn't a king...he was a fool who just unleashed a great evil beyond even he, an oracle, had ever seen before.
He'd lost track of how many days he'd been walking, his mind too burdened to care anymore. But he could not die, not of hunger, not of thirst, not even of age. A pitiful existence awaited him, one rightfully deserved for his actions. No village pitied him, no wandering traders offered him wares, even the elements themselves were out to get him.
When Pix slept, he was never greeted with dreams, only nightmares of destruction and chaos, of corruption and pain, of corpses and blood...of the other Empires destroying each other in barbaric warfare.
If only he could turn it all back...undo his mistake.
His vision began to blur as the world around him started spin. Conscious thought was long gone by the time he collapsed into the cold sand.
Fwhip had him at sword point, a murderous glare in his eyes as blue met brown. "Why did you do it, Pix? All of this is your fault."
He tried to reply, but no words came out. He...he was sorry! He...he hadn't known!
Blood splattered on his face.
"Traitor!" Gem cried, amethyst crystals trapping his legs and preventing movement.
Kathrine, Pearl, and Shelby stood at her side, disappointment and disdain in their eyes. "What are we going to do with him Gem?" Pearl asked, her voice dark and full of malice.
"Toss him in the dungeon to rot. He doesn't deserve to see daylight."
Cold stone and chains greeted his every waking hour
Joel lay broken and motionless before him; his eyes dull and empty with death. Lizzie grieved over his body in anguish at the loss of her husband.
The second she noticed him, the Ocean Queen's eyes glowed blue with vengeance...with hatred..."YOU!" she snarled, "YOU DID THIS!"
Pix couldn't breathe as the whirlpool suffocated and drowned him.
Scott held him against the wall, a dagger against his neck. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you." the elf said, his voice cold and sharp.
Pix couldn't form words...he couldn't speak! He wanted to apologize for everything but couldn't! He was sorry! So, so, sor-
He never finished the thought as the blade slit his throat.
Jimmy trembled in fear, his body covered in new and old wounds. "Pix...why? I thought...I thought you were my ally and friend..."
'I still am!' he wanted to cry, but his voice wouldn't budge again as usual.
"You left us, Pix...you left us all to die..."
At that, Jimmy's quivering form fell limp and lifeless at his feet. When Pix dared to look up he saw them all, every ruler, even Sausage and Joey...dead...corrupted.
And it was all HIS FAULT!
He jolted awake, sweat dripping down his back as his vision slowly welcomed reality back. His heart was racing as he gasped for the cold air of the moon-lit desert. His body shook and it wasn't long before Pix realized his face was wet with tears...he was crying.
He shook his head to try and purge the nightmares from his mind, but failed. With a sigh, he got to his feet again and took off aimlessly once more, there was no going back to sleep for him now, not after that.
Then, the sky drew dark as thick clouds blocked out the moon and his vision went black once more. But it was not in the embrace of unconsciousness, he could still see a short distance ahead of himself...no, he was blinded...a blindness spell...
Pix already knew who it was. "What do you want?" he asked, voice full of exhaustion, "If you're here to kill me then make it quick."
Xornoth entered his view, "Quite the contrary, Copper King. It is not death I wish to bring you, it is release from your burden."
Pix gave a pained chuckle at the demon's words, "If you think thanking me for my help in killing the dragon and getting you to full power is going to make me feel even the slightest bit better, then you would be mistaken. My burden is rightfully deserved, my actions had consequences and now I have to live with them until they are undone."
"And yet instead of trying to undo them, you're out here alone in the desert, wasting away in your exile. You are powerless and unprotected, Copper King. Shunned and abandoned by those that once trusted you."
Blinded by darkness and distracted by the demon before him, Pix was unaware of the red tendrils that had begun coiling around his legs, preventing him from movement. "Tell me, Copper King. What will being out here accomplish for you? Do you think that if you're gone long enough that they will simply forget you existed? Question who the corrupted structures in the sands once belonged to and what they once were? Perhaps they were a once-proud empire that acted as an oasis, a place where life and death were worshiped. Perhaps a kingdom abandoned by its ruler and left to rot in corruption's wake."
Stop...
"Or perhaps you expect to return once they've all killed each other in true mortal fashion? Too afraid to face the punishments they'll give you for your role in killing the dragon like the traitor you are? The seeds of distrust are already there, all it'll take is influence to get them to grow."
Stop...
"And yet you miss them, don't you? Worry about them now that you cannot see their fates? The gullible Codfather and the lovers of land and sea. The chaotic tinkerer and the loyal wizard. The gentle farmer and the selfless fae. The naive gnome and the ignorant elf. Even the idiot king and the parrot hybrid...you worry how they are faring without you, if you could ever be forgiven by them"
Stop...
"But we both know that, even if you did return after this exile...by then who do you expect to be but a hollowed shell of yourself?"
"STOP! Please...just...stop..." Pix begged between sobs, "What do you want..."
Xornoth's grin grew wider as he used a claw to tilt the fallen ruler's head upwards to meet his gaze, "I want your loyalty, Copper King...and I'm not giving you a choice."
There was no time to respond before agony coursed through Pix's body, a scream tearing from his throat as he collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain. His eyes opened enough to see the pulsating red and purple webs snaking up his flesh, corruption searing into skin as it traveled.
He tried to fight it, he tried to resist the influence that had started clouding his mind...
...and he failed.