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Everything flickered violently, lights flashing and screens glitching.
The world was ending.
The Moon was falling, and he couldn’t leave.
His Hermits had all evacuated, all except for him, still digging desperately through the semi-collapsed ruins of his clone’s “evil” base.
They didn’t have long, every single still-functioning admin screen was screaming at him to run, to teleport or log out or get away , get out of the imploding Hermitcraft server, but they couldn’t leave, not without Ex.
He wasn’t here. Xisuma sucked in a cool breath of End air from his air tanks, almost wishing he could feel the burn of the too-hot Overworld air through his armor. All it would do was remind him that this was real, that this wasn’t another one of their nightmares, but at least it would feel, not this numb void spreading in his chest as they scrambled across boulders and holes, dodging floating blocks and trying to keep their feet on the ground.
Where else could it be? Ex hadn’t left the server, Xisuma would have sensed him logging off or teleporting to a world hub, it was still here.
Xisuma didn’t know if respawn was still working, with how the world was crumbling around them. He refused to think about the very real possibility that Ex, with his neverending recklessness, had died. And wasn’t coming back.
“Ex?” Xisuma tried. Chat had long since crashed, he couldn’t send a ping out to his clone. “Ex? EX??”
Yelling their name was getting him nowhere. They needed to go back to their base, he could use some of the more advanced admin setups he had there, if they were still functioning, to do a server wide search for Ex.
Their feet left the ground as he walked into a gravity fluctuation, an annoyed hiss slipping out as he flailed about until the world dropped him again. At least he got a good glide going on his elytra. At least, until he hit another gravity twist and got stopped in midair.
He fought his way through the collapsing world code, swinging around areas where the earth was trembling and occasionally ducking into a gravity well to let a rumble pass before he continued.
The base was more intact than Ex’s, cracks spreading in the foundation and corners crumbling but with the overall build still intact. He rushed inside, stumbling over missing blocks and the world fighting his every step, desperate panic making their movements choppy and grating within his armor.
Hermitcraft wailed in his ears, the not-sound echoing through his mind from their admin connection to the world itself. They didn’t have long, minutes at best.
Rounding a corner, he crashed solidly into another body, red and gray meeting his eyes as he swung his vision up to meet the crimson eyes of his other self.
“About fucking time I found you, where the hell have you been ?” Ex demanded, shaking Xisuma roughly. “Come on, we have to get out of here, knew your dumb ass wouldn’t leave even with the world shaking itself to pieces, overly loyal idiot–”
Ex grabbed his arm, practically dragging Xisuma behind it as they pushed their way through the thickening air. He could feel the molten heat of the air through his armor now, even indoors he could feel the weight of the Moon coming closer with every passing second.
“What are you doing here?” Xisuma managed to gasp out through his heavy breaths, Ex was agile and weaved through the terrain but Xisuma was punching through every glitch in their path.
Ex snorted, shoving a door open to reveal a nether portal, muscling Xisuma into the room and shoving the door shut behind them. “Looking for you, obviously. Why haven’t you left, you complete idiot??”
Xisuma blinked at him. “I couldn’t leave without you.”
“...Oh.”
The silence was broken by an ominous rumble, much stronger than the other shakes that had been background noise at this point.
“Escape now, angst later,” Ex said, shoving Xisuma towards the portal. They hooked an elbow through Ex’s, making sure it would go through with him as the two voidwalkers tumbled through the portal.
The Moon crashed, obliterating the world as the code disintegrated beneath the weight of rendering a colossal object that was never meant to be there.