Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1

*set in season 7*

Xisuma had been hard at work for the last few hours on his farm, building, making sure the redstone works, the usual stuff but they couldn’t help but feel like something was off… the air just wasn’t right. He had tried to shake it off for the time being but it was something and they had to figure out what.

The sun was now starting to set, he had been working on this farm since sunrise with the feeling of something being wrong in the back of their head. 

The feeling grew stronger when his communicator started blowing up like crazy with distressed and confused hermits.

<server> ⍊𝙹╎↸ ⋮𝙹╎リᒷ↸

<Mumbojumbo> What’s that?

<Grian> It’s galactic 

<Mumbojumbo> Well yeah I can see that but what does it mean?

<Grian> Idk, I can’t translate it

<Iskall85> Everyone, spawn island, now.

<Mumbojumbo> What? What’s going on?!

<xBCrafted> X probably knows

<Etho> Everyone come to spawn and bring X with you

<xBCrafted> Does anyone know where he is?

<Keralis1> Shashwam is probably still at his base, I can go get them

<Tango> I’m with Iskall and Etho on this, everyone to spawn

<xBCrafted> Thank you Keralis

<Keralis1> You’re welcome Princess:)

<Stressmonster101> Can someone explain what’s going on?

<BDoubleO100> Something spawned in at spawn and we’re trying to get X to tell us what it is

<Keralis1> Shashwammy isn’t at their base

<VintageBeef> Come over to spawn, he’ll probably be here soon

He read through the chat, clipping on their elytra, and headed over to the spawn island. He flew over the shopping district, landing anything but carefully on the small island- they were basically in the water.

“Hello, I’m here now.” He said, making all the hermits go quiet and face them.

“Finally,” Mumbo said, “You might want to check this out, X” He took a step to the side, allowing the admin to walk into the circle of hermits.

“Okay what is it...” They scanned around before locking eye with the creature before them. The creature was sitting down, looking mildly confused, but then simply smiled and stood up when it and X locked eyesight. It looked like a mix between an Enderman and a spider, 4 arms and eyes, an entirely black being with almost like fur that shifted to a purple-ish colour when hit by sunlight. It was at least 7 feet tall with entirely purple eyes with just a pink line to indicate where the pupil was supposed to be along with the inside of its mouth purple.

They stared at each other for a long time, Xisuma’s eyes were filled with terror while the creatures were filled with calm and almost an evil tint to it.

The nonstoping whispers of the other hermits circled around them, from “What is that thing?” to “Is X dying?”. Said man felt like he couldn’t look away from the creature's eyes.

It was his own creation. A creation from trying to fit in with the rest of the hermits since day 1 of Hermitcraft. The reason why he didn’t like to be perceived as XisumaVoid anymore. It was his own darkness.

Due to Xisuma coming from the old and forgotten planet Nooliee, being born in an Admin family AND being a voidling definitely raised his score on Nooliee but lowered his place on Earth with all the actual humans. Hybrids weren’t too uncommon on earth either but voidlings were seen as evil, they were hunted. If the hermits found out there was a Voidling on the server- let alone the Voidling being the admin- X’s rank could crash easily and his so called friends would do nothing but follow their instincts to destroy.

Xisuma took a step back and the creature followed, still holding that eye contact.

X eventually got out a rocket and flew away, the creature following him close behind.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2

No one had heard from Xisuma since he flew away a few days ago with that creature with them. 

Keralis and Bdubs were at Bdubs’ village, laying on the couch in one of the houses, talking about basically everything and anything at the same time when the topic of their admin came into their conversation.

“I wonder what X is doing.” Bdubs suddenly said, changing their previous topic.

“Yeah, they’re probably doing something with the creature we saw? I don’t know.” 

“What was that creature? Like, actually. What was it?”

“It looked like some kind of mix between a spider and an enderman.” Keralis said, thinking back about the creature he and his friends saw a few days ago.

“But did you see Xisuma‘s face? He was terrified! It must have been something he knew what it was. But why didn’t he tell us?” 

“I don’t know, Bubbles.”

They sat in silence for a while, just thinking.

“Do you think it could be dangerous?” Keralis thought out loud.

“If it would have been dangerous then X should probably have said something and wouldn’t have ran away without a word.” Bdubs said. Keralis suddenly stood up from the bed, putting on his elytra.

“I’m going to go check on Shashwammy, I’ll be back in hopefully less than 30 minutes.” They said, stepping outside the building, “BYE BUBBLESSSSS” he yelled, slowly fading out as he got further away, heading over to Xisuma’s base.

Chapter Text

Keralis landed one on one of the roads connecting up his and Xisuma’s base and walked towards their friends base, thinking loudly to himself.

“I really hope Shashwammy is okay…that creature was scary- what even was it? It looked like a mix between an enderman and a spider.” He shivered at the memory.

They walked into Xisuma’s base, repeatedly calling out his name but getting no response.

“Shashwammy? Hello?” He continued to walk around before he found a corridor by Xisuma’s skeleton farm. He walked down the seemingly endless corridor before finding a door. He reached to open it when he heard Xisuma’s voice having a one-way conversation, speaking to himself on the other side of said door.

“ No I can’t. I can’t allow you to do this, I'm sorry.”

“No I can’t! I can’t show what we actually are.”

“I’m going to get thrown out, I’m gonna get hated, I’m gonna get hunted!”

“No- Void why can’t you understand what I’m saying?! NO.”

The speaking stopped for a few moments, Keralis was standing with his ear to the door as quietly as he could, barely breathing. It continued to be quiet before a deeper voice started speaking in a language he’s never heard before.

“ ̇/╎ᓭ⚍ᒲᔑ ᓵ𝙹ᒲᒷ 𝙹リ, ||𝙹⚍ ꖌリ𝙹∴ ||𝙹⚍ ᓵᔑリ'ℸ ̣  ∷ᒷᓭ╎ᓭℸ ̣  ∴⍑ᔑℸ ̣  ||𝙹⚍ ℸ ̣ ∷⚍ꖎ|| ᔑ∷ᒷ. ||𝙹⚍ ᓵᔑリℸ ̣  ᓵ⍑ᔑリ⊣ᒷ ||𝙹⚍∷ 𝙹∷╎⊣╎リᓭ 𝙹∷ リᔑℸ ̣ ⚍∷ᒷ. ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣  ᒲᒷ∷⊣ᒷ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑ ᒲᒷ 𝙹リᓵᒷ ᒲ𝙹∷ᒷ ᔑリ↸ ∴ᒷ'ꖎꖎ ℸ ̣ ᔑꖌᒷ 𝙹⍊ᒷ∷ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ ∴𝙹∷ꖎ↸! ᒷ⍊ᒷ∷||𝙹リᒷ ∴╎ꖎꖎ ʖᒷ ᔑℸ ̣  𝙹⚍∷ ᓭᒷ∷⍊╎ᓵᒷ, ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷ||'ꖎꖎ ∷ᒷᔑꖎ╎⨅ᒷ ⍑𝙹∴ ⊣𝙹𝙹↸ ᒷ⍊╎ꖎ ᓵᔑリ ʖᒷ!  ̇/╎ᓭ⚍ᒲᔑ !¡ꖎᒷᔑᓭᒷ, ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣  ꖎᒷℸ ̣  ⚍ᓭ ᒲᒷ∷⊣ᒷ 𝙹リᓵᒷ ᔑ⊣ᔑ╎リ.”

Xisuma went quiet for a few minutes. Yes, minutes. Keralis was considering leaving and going back to Bdubs’ village before he heard the Brit start speaking again.

“ I’m sorry but as I’ve said: No. I can’t allow you to do this. I’m the admin of a server, people depend on me! But if they find out I’m.. this.. I’ll get killed!”

"ʖ⚍ℸ ̣  ╎'ꖎꖎ ʖᒷ ⍑ᒷ∷ᒷ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 !¡∷𝙹ℸ ̣ ᒷᓵℸ ̣  ⚍ᓭ! ᓭ⍑𝙹∴ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷᒲ ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑℸ ̣  ⍊𝙹╎↸ꖎ╎リ⊣ᓭ ᔑ∷ᒷリ'ℸ ̣  ᔑリ||ℸ ̣ ⍑╎リ⊣ ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ᒲᒷᓭᓭ ∴╎ℸ ̣ ⍑. ̇/╎ᓭ⚍ᒲᔑ ⋮⚍ᓭℸ ̣  ⊣╎⍊ᒷ ᒲᒷ ᔑ ᓵ⍑ᔑリᓵᒷ."

The deeper voice spoke again.

*Shashwammy would never hide something from us, especially if it’s putting him in danger, right?* Keralis thought, continuing to listen to the conversation.

“ NO! What can’t you understand with me saying no? I don’t want to.” And with that Keralis heard footsteps coming towards the door. He panicked and started running down the corridor and hid behind the nearest corner, hoping X didn’t see him. He heard the deeper voice speak again.

"||𝙹⚍ ⊣╎⍊ᒷ ᒲᒷ リ𝙹 ᓵ⍑𝙹╎ᓵᒷ ʖ⚍ℸ ̣  ℸ ̣ 𝙹 ↸𝙹 ℸ ̣ ⍑╎ᓭ ᒲ|| ∴ᔑ|| ℸ ̣ ⍑ᒷリ."

It all went silent before Xisuma suddenly screamed out in pain. Keralis peeked around the corner to where the door was but saw no one, even with the door wide open. 

“Shash- Shashwammy?!” He ran down the corridor and looked around, there was a weird black-purple powder smudged on the stone wall. Keralis walked in through the door. It was a giant room with walls made out of white concrete but they were covered in the same black-purple colored powder as the bit outside. The room had no windows, the only light came from some torches at the end of the room. They looked around the room before his communicator vibrated.

<BDoubleO100> Keralis are you and X good?

<Keralis1> I can’t find them

<BDoubleO100> Want me to come over?

<Keralis1> Yes please, meet me at my base

Keralis took one final look around the room before running out the corridor and flying away.

– – – – – 

Keralis landed in his base seeing Bdubs coming flying over. When finally landing he starts speaking.

“Shall we go look for X?” Bdubs says, after gaining a nod from Keralis they start walking over to Xisuma’s base once again. 

“So what do you mean you can’t find him?” Bdubs looks over to the other man.

“I knew where they were, I was basically with him and then they just disappeared. Poof. He was gone.” Keralis said.

“He.. disappeared? What- how?

“I don’t know! They were with someone or something, he screamed and then they disappeared.”

“‘Someone or something’? Do you think it could be the creature from a few days ago?”

“I don’t know, Bubbles. Look- It was here they were!” Keralis started running, stopping at the wall by the skeleton farm where the corridor had been but nothing was there. The corridor was gone. Bdubs came running after him. “There- there was a corridor here. I swear!” 

“Don’t worry, I believe you. How about we go look for him in his towers?” Bdubs gently placed a hand on Keralis’ shoulder.

“Yeah.. yeah, let’s go look for Shashwammy. I’ll start at his bee farm.” And with that the two men went their separate ways. 

– – – – – 

Keralis arrived at the bee farm. 

“Shashwammy? Are you here?” They called out, looking around. After a few minutes of looking around he eventually gave up and turned to leave before hearing a lot of glass bottles hit the floor followed by a small “Fuck” from a british voice Keralis could recogize anywhere but it sounded like 2 people were speaking, both Xisuma and the deeper voice from earlier.

Keralis walks up to where the noise came from,

“Shashwammy?-” He stared at the creature in front of him. It was Xisuma but still not. It had darker-almost black hair instead of Xisuma’s light brown hair along with 4 eyes, completely purple with a line of pink to indicate where the pupil was.

His ears were pointed and long, fading into a black towards the end. His mouth had two long black lines from each corner of it reaching back to his jawline, about an inch or less away from the mouth on the lines there were two black, pointy fang-like things.

 His face was scattered with black almost like scales under and around the eye area reaching down on his neck and purple glowing freckles. His scar, which consisted of two lines crossing his face with one line reaching from his forehead, going over his nose and down his left cheek to his jaw and the other one which started from his left ear, going over the cheek and through his lips, ending at the right jawbone illuminated a soft magenta. 

Keralis looked down towards X’s clothing as he wasn’t in his regular bee suit. He was wearing a white t-shirt stuffed into a pair of green trousers along with a purple robe that was down to his knees. 

Xisuma’s hands had long, black, claw-like fingers and the man had grown a few inches as well, going from a 6’3 to around 7’2.

Keralis’ eyes stared at Xisuma’s, who was searching for a way out of this, once more. 

“You’re a voidling?” He says and with that Xisuma had taken a leap, kicking off the wall, jumping over Keralis and started running. “H-Hey!” Keralis ran after him.

Xisuma ran through a tunnel in the bee farm with Keralis not far behind him. 

“Shashwammy! Slow down!” He continued to run after Xisuma who was desperately trying to get away. Straight forward, a sharp left turn here, down here, etc. 

Eventually they got out and out into the jungle.

“Leave me alone.” Xisuma mumbles, running through the jungle around his base.

“Nope. Not until you slow down.” He was starting to get tired but he kept running after him.

Xisuma ducked under a branch that Keralis apparently didn’t see so he crashed into it and fell to the ground.

“Ow- S-Shashwammy!” They call out as he watches Xisuma run away. He gave up chasing them so he stood up and walked back to X’s base. “Bubbles?” He called out when at the base, said mans head popped up.

“You found him?”

“Let’s go home.”

“W-what?”

“Let’s go home.” Keralis said, starting to walk back to his base, Bdubs followed close after.

– – – – –

It had been around a week since Bdubs and Keralis had been at X’s base. Neither of the two men had even mentioned the other day but there had been some times where Bdubs started to question if anything specific had happened during that day. 

For example: Any time he and Keralis had been at the shopping district and seen X walk somewhere, Keralis had straight up turned around and started walking the other way and today Bdubs wanted to know the reason for it. 

“Keralis? Where are you?” He yelled out in the city.

“Bubbles!” Keralis runs over to his friend and wraps him in a hug. “Hi, how are you?” 

Bdubs returned the hug. “I’m doing alright. I came here to talk with you about Xisuma.” He watched as his friend's expression changed from bright and happy to almost angry and scared. 

“Mhm…” Keralis stared at the ground. “How about we talk about something else instead? Scar’s becoming the mayor! How does that feel?” Keralis started walking, pulling Bdubs along.

“It.. feels weird to be honest, don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely happy but it’s just a lot of pressure.” He says.

“Mhm, would you like some tea?” Keralis offers.

“Yeah, I could go for some tea.” He says before remembering the reason he came there. “Wait no- I want to know stuff about X. Why are you refusing to speak about him? Why are you ignoring him whenever we see him?-”

“BDUBS I REALLY CAN'T TALK ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW SO WOULD YOU LIKE SOME TEA, YES OR NO?” Keralis shouts. 

Bdubs stared at his friend in shock. Keralis was never this protective to talk about anything, even if he really didn’t want to talk. 

“Bubbles I’m sorry. You said you wanted tea so c’mon.” Keralis started walking.

– – – – – 

They were now in Keralis’ office, drinking some tea in silence until Bdubs decided to start talking.

“Keralis, please. Could you just tell me something about what happened between you and Xisuma?”

Keralis’ eyes stared at him and if looks could kill, Bdubs would have dropped dead right then and there. Keralis reached over the desk and grabbed Bdubs’ shoulders, continuing to stare at him.

“I know what he really is.”

Chapter Text

Chapter 4

"I know what he really is."

“W-what? What do you mean by that?” Bdubs stared at him as Keralis let go of his shoulders and stared at the floor instead. 

“Keralis answer me. What did you see? Why have you been ignoring X for the last week?”

“I told you. I know what he is.”

“Yeah but what is he?” They made eye contact again.

“..I know you’re probably not going to believe me but I think Xisuma’s a voidling.”

Everything froze. It went quiet and cold.

“A voidling.. Xisuma is a voidling?” He asked, Keralis nodded slowly. “And you decided to wait a week to tell me this?! There’s a voidling on the server, a thing who is only going to create more destruction, shenanigans and chaos. A power hungry and bloodthirsty creature is on the server and you didn’t tell anyone?!” Bdubs yells.

“I didn’t want to bring more attention to the thing that I found! I found it, I kill it!”

“Oh so you have a plan of destroying it now as well, huh?”

“I do actually, and that creature would have been gone by now if you hadn’t been nosy and started talking about it.”

They stare at each other for a few moments, neither of them saying a word until Bdubs decides to break the silence.

“Well if you have a plan, how about we destroy it together then?”

Keralis blinks and stays quiet for a minute or two.

“Okay, but you have to follow it carefully.”

– – – – –

Keralis and Bdubs snuck into Xisuma’s base in the middle of the night. They’re equipped with everything they need, armor, shields and swords, Keralis even brought with a bow in case they needed it.

“Okay, I'll stay here, you go further up the base. Does that sound good?” Keralis whispered followed by a small nod from Bdubs before he took off running away. The plan was to go from different sides of the base to trap XisumaVoid in the middle, in that way it would be easier to kill it than running after it throughout the entire base.

He walked around, pushing on every door he found and trying to look at as much area as he could. There was one door, far down in another corridor that was locked, *It’s definitely here.* He thought and pushed on the door again even if he knew it wouldn’t work but surprisingly after a few attempts it did indeed open.

He stuck his head in and looked around before some random force pulled him inside and locked the door behind him. Keralis held his sword tight as he looked around in the room, it was mostly dark other than the only lightsource being a giant window to outside along with a dark figure standing in front of it. 

“I’ve been waiting for you, Keralis.” He recognised the voice immediately, Xisuma. “You seem very shaken up, would you like some tea?” 

“Don’t try to mess with me. I know what you are, you can’t hide it.” Keralis highered his sword as Xisuma turned around with a smile.

“And what am I?”

“Evil.”

“‘Evil’? Oh I am far from evil, my friend.” Xisuma started laughing and Keralis took a step closer.

“Don’t think you fool me, I know what I saw, I know what you are.” He said and not even a second later he found himself pinned to the wall by the throat by Xisuma who had a small knife as well. He put his sword against Xisuma's side. 

If Keralis was going to be honest he was too scared to actually hurt Xisuma. Cause he knew that under all of that Voidling, rage and destruction, there was the shy, tea loving admin he had grown to know.

Xisuma blinked and opened 2 more eyes as the two he had before turned entirely purple.

“I could kill you right this second, but I am not going to. While yes, it would be fun to slit your throat and watch you bleed out on the floor I think you deserve more of a.. grand death.” It was the deep voice talking with a strong accent of something he had never heard before. It smiled. “You want to kill me and I want to see Xisuma suffer so how about this: Tomorrow, in the middle of the shopping district, in front of everyone. Only one survives.” 

Keralis couldn’t answer. He wanted to get rid of what this thing was but he didn’t want to hurt his friend.

“I’ll take that as an agreement.” It picked up Keralis and threw him against a wall before turning around, breaking the glass and flying away.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5

Keralis stared at himself in the mirror, he was actually about to do this. Meeting Xisuma in a battle at the shopping district. And even better, it was raining out so fighting would be even harder. How wonderful! (sarcasm)

They had agreed on no armor but things like potions, shields etc were okay.

He did a quick search through his inventory. A sword, a shield, a bow and some arrows and a few health and strength potions. Keralis knew that Bdubs would bring some extra stuff so he didn’t bring a lot of health stuff, hoping that Bdubs would cover it up.

“Okay. I can do this. That creature needs to go and the hermits have chosen me. It.. is not Shashwammy. Shashwam would never hurt me.. and I would never hurt them… ” He goes quiet, did he really still want to do this? It was Xisuma. It was his best friend. “No.” He shakes his head, “It’s not Shashwammy, I can do this.” And with that Keralis leaves for the shopping district.

– – – – – 

He landed in the shopping district, nearly falling over. All the hermits were standing in a big circle around someone who was laughing and screaming uncontrollably, XisumaVoid. Keralis took a few deep breaths before approaching the circle, pushing himself between two hermits and standing face to face with the creature he used to call his best friend.

A few cheers could be heard from the hermits around Keralis as said man made eye contact with XisumaVoid who had an unsettling smile on his face, slowly walking closer to him.

“Oh you’ve finally arrived, I was honestly starting to think you bailed on this. You’re not as weak as you seem.” The deep voice spoke, the smile still in place. ”Only one leaves alive, that’s what we agreed on, right?”

“Get your talk out of the way already, I can’t listen to an entire speech from you, let’s just get on with it already.” Keralis responds, raising his sword and shield, earning a laugh from XisumaVoid. 

“You sure aren’t anything like he says you are.. Well, you asked for a fight.” Its face goes emotionless as it throws itself at Keralis, swinging its axe at his shield which Keralis barely managed to get up.

XisumaVoid was strong. Every hit hurt Keralis’. He took a few steps back to try and catch his breath but XisumaVoid was fast and didn’t let its opponent relax. It hit again, slashing up Keralis’ arm, said male yelled in pain as blood flew out of his arm.

He managed to step back from XisumaVoid, even if it was only a few steps it gave Keralis some time to think, even if he wasn’t able to do much of it before XisumaVoid was on him again but this time he had a chance to fight back.

Keralis took out his own axe and gained some confidence, swinging at XisumaVoid who immediately backed off. Keralis smiled before running towards his opponent and swinging his axe at it, hitting both the right arm and the chest.

XisumaVoid said something that sounded like a curse word but in another language as it backed off again, a purplish-red blood pouring down its chest and mixing with the rain but it didn’t take long until it was back and attacking Keralis again.

They got in a few good hits on each other, XisumaVoid was heavily bleeding from almost everywhere and even had it hard to stand up at this point. Keralis backed off and drank a health potion before picking up his bow.

XisumaVoid stared at Keralis for a good minute or so, almost waiting, before starting to yell at him.

“Come on, shoot me already! You already have the lead, shoot me!” It was both the dark and the lighter voice screaming at him. It was wearing a smile at the same time it’s eyes looked sad and almost afraid. 

“What are you waiting for?! Shoot me! SHOOT ME. Everyone is waiting, they’re excited- they’re cheering you on! Come on, SHOOT ME.”

Keralis was frozen, he didn’t do anything and this only seemed to aggravate XisumaVoid even more, its screams turned louder and louder, yelling the same thing over and over again. 

“SHOOT ME.”

Keralis lowered his bow, staring down at the ground as tears streamed down his face while XisumaVoid continued to scream at him. What was he doing? He couldn’t kill his best friend! No matter what kind of “monster” he was.

XisumaVoid goes quiet, staring at Keralis before breaking out into maniacal laughter, raising its own bow at his opponent and without hesitation it lets go of the string.

“KERALIS LOOK OUT!” Mumbo screams, Keralis looks up right in time for the arrow to hit him in the middle of his forehead. Blood flies everywhere as Keralis lies motionless, slamming onto the ground lifelessly. He was dead.