Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

As Hax ran through the desert, something felt off.

He couldn’t tell what was bothering him. As he imitated blowing up the desert temple, his body still waiting for the sting of an explosion, and ran towards the nearby lava pool he realized. His entire body tensed up as he fell into the lava, he still scrambled to avoid the flowing water as he built the nether portal, his body still started producing more ice as he traveled to the other dimension.

But he felt nothing.

He remembers when he first got into running, how exhausting it was going through the nether. His magic instinctively making his body produce more ice to stay alive. He was born with a distinct disadvantage that he had to get used to. But now it was like he was playing the entire seed in a snow biome. His body never melted, his heart never heated up, he wasn’t exhausting himself or his magic just trying to survive long enough to get to the stronghold. It was almost freeing.

Even as he ran through the stronghold, he was very lost, the slight dampness that usually threatened to melt him if he took too long was no longer a threat. It messed with his muscle memory. Eventually he gave up in favor of building his own end portal and hopping in.

The end is as dead as always. No wind, no weather, vaguely cold but not in the way Hax likes it. More in a way where it’s cold because of the emptiness. An uncomfortable stillness where sound seems to travel forever. Couriway once mentioned that he had no idea how the dragon even flew with air.

Hax internally curses as he messes up his zero, swiveling around to land on the ground. His hands slip on the portal frame blocks as he pulls them out of his inventory. He quickly sets the portal up, staring up at the dragon as it circles above. Hax glances at the screen showing everyone’s progress.

“I’m so stupid!” Hax stands on the edge of the portal frame. He’s unsure if he should go now or wait it out. He stares at the chat, waiting to see who else completed the run.

Hax blinks at the messages, he needs to enter now. He lets the magic pull him through and spit him out in the overworld. His heart is racing as he watches the words announcing the end of the match appear on his screen.

That was incredibly lucky.

Hax floats around the world, waiting for the pull of Nerdi’s magic bringing them to his world. It didn’t take long. The feeling of Nerdi’s magic surrounding him, like most things this run, it felt slightly off. Rather than yanking his soul and body out of one world into another it felt like the magic was asking permission to take him. He lets it, of course, but he wonders what would’ve happened if he hadn’t.

Hax shakes out his body as he materializes in the discussion room. He still has access to the powers but they feel suppressed. Like an unbalance between the creative mode Nerdi gave him and his own ice powers. He does a quick scan of everyone around him before Darvy is dropped into Nerdi’s void. Infume to his right, Feinberg on his left, Altoid in front of him. Infume looks excited but slightly drained, Feinberg seems to be readjusting his head piece, and Altoid was moving around like a hyperactive child.

Hax glances back at Infume. The polar bear hybrid liked to do runs in as human of a form as he could. Unlike Darvy, who was a shifter and likely played the entire seed as a human, Infume could only shift his body so far on either side of the spectrum. Even if Hax can see that Infume only has polar bear ears he’s looked better. Leaving the ranked room and being pulled into Nerdi’s pocket dimension gets rid of any injuries, but the feelings still linger.

Hax doesn’t know what type of nether Infume had but he reaches over and pats him on the back, letting some of his magic seep through. The other smiles at Hax briefly before his attention is back on Nerdi. Hax, however, continues to stare at Infume and the smallest thought passes through.

He could help him.He could help him.

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙ ☃︎ ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Nerdi is human.

Nevermind the two small purple horns, or how sometimes after he respawns he has a small pair of wings and a tail. He pays little mind to them. Nerdi is a human. Both his parents are human, he grew up in a human village. He remembers starting his journey as a normal looking human in his purple hoodie. He’s still human even if he doesn’t look like it, wearing a purple cloak rather than a hoodie.

After all, Nerdi is known for having magic.

Unfathomable amounts of magic flows through his veins. Magic that belongs to the end.

He’s called the Entertainer of the End. The void finding him interesting enough to grant him powers one step away from being a god. His own special category of human. In the same way Hax is snow touched or how Rowl and Silver are plant touched he’s what he likes to call End touched. Magic simply flows out of him.

And recently he found out that at a flick of a wrist he could grant someone else something close to godhood. Something only found in legends. The power to grant creative mode. He had been hanging out with a childhood friend of his, an astronomer who was partially interested in travel.

"Isn’t this cool Winston?!Isn’t this cool Winston?!" Nerdi nearly shouts as he hands the very concerned professor blocks. They’re on top of his tower, a spot Winston rather enjoys using for his research.

“I fear the end has made quite the decision allowing you to tap into its power,” Winston says, turning the block around to study it, “Surely you’re not going to announce to the entire universe you can do this.”

Nerdi’s lips form a line as he falters in his block handing.

“Nerdi..” Winston stared at the other over his glasses, “Do not,”

“I’m not going to just announce to the entire universe my abilities,” Nerdi swings his legs as he floats above Winston, “Butttt I think it could be really fun if I gave it to one of my runner friends.”

“I’ll never understand you runners,” Winston rolls his eyes, “You could do so much with your respawn ability, and yet you all chose to kill a dragon as fast you can.”

It was funny walking up to a few of his friends and asking them if they wanted to participate in his experiment. He is an entertainer after all. He grants one of his friends godhood and the rest of them try to find out who it is. An imposter game.

Nerdi trusted his friends.

He smiled, almost manic, as he handed the power over to Feinberg. The last round Infume had been caught too easily and that was no fun. He watched as Feinberg adjusted to the new feeling before he gathered his magic to send them to run. It certainly must have been stressful for Feinberg, but it was so fun for Nerdi.

He smiled and laughed with Feinberg, the two of them floating in the void, afterwards. He praised Feinberg. Holding out his hand for Feinberg to give the power back. Feinberg had laughed, told Nerdi it was fun before giving up the power. It had been fun. He wanted to do it again.

Nerdi must’ve had too much trust in his friends.

Hax HackingNoises. The snowman smiled up at him as Nerdi handed him the power. The first time he did this it was fun. This time was even better. He had never felt so stressed watching his own game.

Nerdi was vibrating with excitement as he dropped Dravy into his magic induced void after the first round, making sure to grab ahold of the penguin shifter’s soul so he couldn’t respawn without Nerdi.

“You scared me Hax!” Nerdi says, floating around Hax.

“I did so bad!” Hax covered his face with his hands, a small pile of snow was forming at his feet, “I’m sorry Nerdi!”

Nerdi laughed as Hax rambled. This was so exciting.

“My goal was to do better than Infume that one round, so I’m safe now,” Hax said, shaking his hands slightly to get the ice off of them, “The nerves are off.”

“I don’t think anyone is sus of you yet, so I guess in that sense you’re doing well.”

“I guess so but I made some critical mistakes,” Hax laughs, as more snow piles up. Nerdi wonders if the creative mode boosts Hax’s power.

He’s a little disappointed that Hax chooses not to do any of his sabotages, but it’s the first round. He pushes everyone back into ranked and makes sure to grab Darvy’s soul floating in the void. Instantly Dravy’s voice fills his mind. It’s always nice to have someone else to talk to when he’s spectating his games.

Nerdi doesn’t know what expression he has as the rounds continue. Feinberg just calls him a freak and Erik questions if he’s okay. It’s absolutely beautiful. The source of his power is entertainment as much as it is the void. Magic thrums through him, he’s getting excited and it’s powering him.

“And with that Silverr has been eliminated,” Nerdi materializes himself in front of the runners and drops Silverr into the void, “Which means that HackingNoises the imposter has won!”

Nerdi throws his arms out dramatically, he probably has a manic smile on his face as Hax laughs at his win. Nerdi sits there, kicking his feet, as he listens to the souls and the two runners talk. It’s more like a yelling match but they’re relatively civil so Nerdi considers that a win. He swivels himself to land on the ground and pats Infume, who's pulled on the drawstrings of his hoodie to hide, on the back. Before turning to Hax, and giving him a pat too.

“That was great,” Nerdi smiles and Hax smiles back, “How’d you enjoy it.”

“It was so stressful, but fun” Hax laughs, he readjusts his scarf, “Being in the nether was weird too.too.”

“I’m glad you had fun,” Nerdi laughed, then held out his hand, “Just hold my hand and I’ll take the powers back.”

Nerdi expected it to go how it had gone with Feinberg, Hax would grab his hand, Nerdi would take the power back, and Hax would go on his way. Except it didn’t go how he expected. Hax stood there staring at Nerdi’s outstretched hand.

“Hax?” Nerdi tilts his head, waiting for Hax to grab his hand.

Hax reaches out his hand, before pausing. Nerdi is just able to brace himself as he sees frost climb Hax’s fingers before he’s being shot backwards by a blast of ice. Nerdi slams against the wall, feeling the way the temperature drops significantly. He’s leaning against it, holding himself up, and does a scan of the room.

Infume is knocked out, his body a lump against the wall. His head hurts, whether it’s from the blast or the yelling of all the souls he’s not sure. Feinberg is especially loud, yelling commands at Nerdi and lecturing the others. He tightens his grip on the souls, it makes them louder but he can’t lose them.

Hax is standing surrounded by ice and snow. The room is cold but his breath is colder, little bits of frost leaving his mouth as he breathes. His hands seemed to be gathering snow in them, readying for an attack. He doesn’t move though, just waits for Nerdi to make a decision. Hax hand raises slightly as Nerdi shakes his head and refocuses on Hax.

It’s a stand off for a few quiet minutes. With Nerdi trying to think and Hax ready to fight. Except Nerdi is stronger than Hax, magic wise at least. The souls of the other players are urging him to hurry up. Nerdy surges forward, running at Hax as he shoots a stream of ice straight towards him. A shot meant to kill. Not that it does much, he’s overflowing with magic at the moment and one small spell shatters the ice. He knows Hax is taken aback, the snowgolem faltering in his stance as Nerdi makes it to stand right in front of him.

"You can’t kill meYou can’t kill me,” He grabs Hax’s arm, it’s beyond freezing, “Give up the power, HaxGive up the power, Hax.”

It’s unsettling, the way there’s a frown on Hax’s face, his head tilted slightly to the right as if thinking. Nerdi could see a sliver of the snowman eye, black like coals. He doesn’t think he’s ever heard Hax so quiet.

“..Just hand it back, I don’t want to force it out of you,” Nerdi begs, he takes a glance down at his hand. His fingers are coated in frost, “We don’t have to do this!We don’t have to do this!”

The temperature is dropping rapidly, he’s going to freeze to death if he doesn’t do something quick. He takes a glance at Infume, still knocked out but his body is reacting to the cold allowing him to shift his body even while unconscious. Nerdi goes back to staring Hax in the eyes, readying to forcefully take the power out of Hax, but his concentration is broken as Hax places his hand on Nerdi’s. He flinches as it feels like Hax shot ice directly through his veins.

Now Nerdi may be the closest thing to a god in terms of power but he’s still a human. He pulls his hand back right before he starts taking freezing damage. Purple magic swirls around him, Hax tenses, readying for whatever he’s about to do. Nerdi lets his magic pulse out, pulling the room out of his void and back into a world. The lack of anyone still in the room and voices yelling in his ear tells him he put too much power into it,

Nerdi shakes his head, he’ll find the souls and Infume later, for now he needs to stop Hax. He knows he's being uncoordinated, he knows he’s putting too much magic into simple tasks. But he doesn’t care, as long as the void exists he’ll have magic and he can always rebuild his tower later. Nerdi slams into the wall he was attempting to open, still too uncoordinated.

He rushes up his stairs. The weather is cloudy and cold, he holds onto his hood to keep it from blowing off. Nerdi uses his magic to boost himself up to the top of his tower and over the railings. When he lands Winston is still there, wearing a coat and looking up into the sky.

“I told you so Nerdi,” Winston says, still facing away from him.

“..He’s going to come back,” Nerdi stays on his side of the tower, “I need- I’m going togoing to stop him.”

“Look around Nerdi!” Winston motions around him, snow has started to fall, “I don’t think you will, not soon enough at least.”

“I gave him that power!I gave him that power!” Nerdi is shouting over the wind now, “I should be able to take it back, even if I have to force it.I should be able to take it back, even if I have to force it.”

Winston turns around, staring him down, “And why didn’t you?”

“He-”

“He was stronger than you thought, right?” Winston steps closer, “Your magic enhanced his own, he’s stronger than you because he’s using your magic.”

“But Infume and Feinberg-”

“Mr.Feinberg can not dispel his lighting magic without an outlet and Mr. Infume has no magic,” Winston hugs his coat closer, “Had either of them gone mad with power it would have been easier to take him down. The snowman had one taste of what it was like to not be at a natural disadvantage and went crazy.”

“..I still need to try, it’s my magic only I can take it back,” Nerdi is shivering now, his cloak doing nothing to protect him from the incoming blizzard.

“And how will you do that?” Winston takes a jack out of a chest and hands it to him, “I know you players can’t die but you worry me Nerdi.”

“I’ll have a fail safe,” Nerdi takes the jacket from his friend and puts it on, “Even if Hax kills me I’ll come back. Eventually.”

Winston stares at Nerdi for a good long moment, the only sound being the wind blowing around them before the villager pulls Nerdi into a hug, “I trust you.”

“T-thank you,” Nerdi melts into the hug, his shaking arms wrapping around his friend, “But what about you?’

Winston doesn’t let go, “I’ll leave. I’ll go hide.”

“Where will you go?”

“..The End.”

“What?!What?!” Nerdi pushes Winston back, holding him by his shoulders, “Y-you can’t-”

“The end is your domain. The snowman will not follow me into it,” Winston pats Nerdi’s arm in comfort, “I’m not going to fight the dragon.”

“You’re going to the islands,” Nerdi’s grip tightens, “Winston what are you doing?”

“I’ll need to make some preparations, as do you,” Winston grabs Nerdi’s arm and gently pushes them off his shoulders, “One of us needs to be alive.”

“..Okay,” Nerdi nods.

“You make sure you’re ready to fight the snowman,” Winston stares into Nerdi’s eyes, serious, “And make sure that if you fail-”

“I won’t fail.I won’t fail.”

“If you fail,” It’s Winston’s turn to grab Nerdi by the shoulders, “You need to make sure someone else won’t”

“How do I do that? It’s not like I can just give them instructions on how to stop Hax.”

“You’re smart Nerdi,” Winston’s gaze is intense, “You’ll figure it out.”

“You’re not very helpful,” Nerdi laughs slightly before he bites the bottom of his lips, he’s not as confident as he felt earlier now. His mind is running a million blocks per tick. What does he need to do? How can he do it?

“Start with who you want to stop the snowman if you lose,” Winston’s voice snaps Nerdi out of his train of thought, “And keep in mind that you have some souls to find as well.”

“Yeah, the souls,” Nerdi shakes his head before turning to jump over the railing, “Want help getting down?”

“I’ll be fine Nerdi,” Winston waves him away, “Go make your preparations.”

Nerdi stares at Winston before hopping over the railing and letting his magic float him down. Walking into one of them rooms he pulls out the disks storing what he recorded earlier. He flips it over a few times before placing it in a chest right next to the Feinberg one. He’s already got multiple machines set up around his tower, courtesy of Winston, all he really needs to do is alter them slightly and make sure Hax can’t use them.

Nerdi raises his hand into the air, gathering his magic around him, before placing it against the wall. He intricately weaves his magic throughout the whole tower, allowing it to fuse with parts and enchant them. Nerdi’s got an endless supply of magic but the entire process takes concentration. He feels out of breath by the time he retracts his hands, catching a glimpse at his appearance in the quartz.

His horns grew out again. The small wings that sometimes appear on his back are bigger than he’s ever seen them. What’s new is the fact his eyes are now purple instead of blue and his finger tips look stained with the void. He didn’t realize he used that much magic.

Nerdi shakes himself, changes in appearance aside, he has an overpowered snow golem to defeat. He runs around, trying to figure out what he wants to do next. Hax, despite how it sometimes seems, is smart. He’s actually incredibly smart. Nerdi needs to make sure whatever he’s setting up isn’t too hard for the average person but just complicated enough that Hax would need to think about it. It’s made a little easier as he makes sure to specifically enchant things to work for everyone but Hax. Even if he’s slowly starting to doubt that'll even work anymore.

Nerdi bursts into his own room, throwing things around as he searches. When he finds it he holds it out way too triumphantly for just a bucket. He smiles at it as it shimmers in his hands. The bucket, very lovingly named Nerdi’s bucket by Winston, is embarrassingly the most impressive enchantment he’s ever done.

Nerdi spins around, slipping against the floor as he runs to find Winston. He thrusts out his arm, holding the bucket towards Winston, “If someone brings you the egg give this to them.”

“A bucket?” Winston grabs it and turns it around, studying it.

“It’s enchanted. As soon as the dragon egg leaves their inventory then it’ll give them a riddle and with that riddle they’ll unlock the key,” Nerdi knows he’s never looked further from human. His head is heavy from his horns and his back aches as his wings hang out from the slits in his cloak, “Hax won’t be able to access anything because it needs my magic and only my magic.”

“Pray tell what this..key is for,” Winston is eyeing Nerdi suspiciously.

“Information about Hax’s power, my power, and possible retrieval of everyone’s soul,” Nerdi closes his eyes as he talks, the adrenaline starting to wear down, “And, a limited version of creative mode.”

“Nerdi!”

“I know I know!I know I know!” Nerdi wonders if he looks desperate as he stares Winston in the eyes, “It’s the only thing I can think of cause if I die, who knows how long it’s going to take for me to respawn!”

“...Is there anything else I should be aware of?”

“If I die my magic will disperse around the tower, and hopefully will lock Hax out completely,” Nerdi thinks, going through everything he set up, “And that’s die as in my soul returns to the void, not I die and my soul lingers around the world looking for a spot to respawn.”

Winston nods, “Keeping the tower safe.”

Nerdi nods as well, “And, that same magic is going to upload a camera log. Mostly just in case they catch anything.”

“And who are you entrusting to find out about all this?”

“I picked someone random from HBG,” Nerdi shrugs slightly, “They’ll work together.”

“And is there anything else you need to do?”

“Yeah,” Nerdi rubbed his face, “I’m going to steal one of your empty journals and write a note. And I need to enchant the discs.”

Winston tosses Nerdi a book, which he barely manages to catch, “Get going, I doubt we have much time.”

Nerdi writes. It’s a quick note, enough information to get whoever reads it going. It’s not the prettiest handwriting but at least it is legible, at least he hopes it is. He’s preparing to open the ceiling hatch when a small ding sounds through the tower.

Nerdi and Winston make eye contact, both of them holding their breath as the sound of the door opening. Hax was here. He took a lot less time finding his tower than he would’ve liked, he’s not even done preparing. Winston nods and Nerdi passes him the book before he turns to run down the stairs, making his way towards the discussion room. Hax stands there, in the middle of the room, surrounded by snow golems.

“Hax,” Nerdi steps closer, the room temperature is somehow colder than outside.

“If I kill the dragon of this world, do you still keep your powers?If I kill the dragon of this world, do you still keep your powers?” Hax holds out an eye, “You can’t respawn the others if you have no magic.You can’t respawn the others if you have no magic. ”

“They’ll still respawn, this isn’t a hardcore world,” Nerdi prepares his magic he needs to either succeed or distract Hax long enough for him to finish his setting up in case he fails.

“Not for a long while though, right?Not for a long while though, right?” Hax tilted his head, he had a smile on his face, “I’ve had some practice killing the dragon using this creative mode, haven’t I?I’ve had some practice killing the dragon using this creative mode, haven’t I?”

Nerdi clenches his fists. Normally he’d beat Hax in a fight with magic, but if Winston was right Hax was as strong, if not stronger, than he was. And Nerdi had no hope in beating Hax in a sword fight either. He just needs to grab Hax long enough to take his powers back.

Hax shoots a wall of ice at him, he slices it. It’s harder to break than before, and doesn’t shatter, only breaks where Nerdi slices it. He wonders if the longer Hax has his powers the more it resonates with his body.

“You want to see what I found out recently?You want to see what I found out recently?”

Nerdi ignores him, gathering his magic to blast Hax, who hucks the eye he was holding. Nerdi moves his head out of the way so as to not get bonked by it however his magic follows. He whips around, his purple magic surrounds the floating eye before it drops. Nerdi turns to stare back at Hax, his eyes wide. This has happened before, once or twice, his magic follows the eye and it becomes unbreakable.

“You shouldn’t know about thatYou shouldn’t know about that,” Nerdi narrows his eyes.

“I didn’t know anythingI didn’t know anything,” Hax smiles, he sounds as excited as he always does but there’s an edge to his voice that makes Nerdi tense, “Your villager friends keeps some wonderful notes though!Your villager friends keeps some wonderful notes though!”

Nerdi jumps at Hax, wanting to make contact with him. Hax dodges easily causing him to go tumbling. Hax sends another ice blast his way and he has the reaction to block it. Or he would’ve had Hax not thrown another eye. The ice hits him and it feels as if it pierces his very soul. Nerdi collapses, his body shivering and by the stinging he guesses he’s also taking freezing damage.

“Why?” is all Nerdi asks as Hax stands above him. He doesn’t get an answer. Hax instead reaches around his face and blasts him with ice.

Nerdi gasps, dragging himself out of the powdered snow. The entire world is covered in more layers of snow and ice. He shivers looking around, trying to mark his surroundings through the thick fog. He slowly trudges forward along what he thinks is a path. He’s rewarded when he sees a tower. It’s his tower, just with ice spikes sticking out of it.

Nerdi brings his hands to his chest as he walks, summoning his magic to warm himself. His magic seems depleted. Nerdi frowns, that’s never happened before. He can still cast no problem but he can tell it's significantly less than before.

Nerdi stares up at his tower. It looks threatening and unwelcoming in the snow. He pushes the door button, flinching back slightly when he sees the snow golems still in the discussion room. His eyes follow a trail of snow leaving the room and going up, exactly where he’s headed. He pauses on the staircase, looking out into the horizon. This used to be a plains biome.

A strong gust of wind causes Nerdi to shiver, he needs to continue up and hope that Hax isn’t just waiting for him at the top. He walks, breathing a sigh of relief not immediately seeing Hax standing in the doorway.

He walks over and grabs the disc out of the chest. Magic flows through him as he works to enchant it before he hears a noise behind him. Nerdi barely has time to turn around and register the floating pumpkin and sword before he’s dead.

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Hax stares at the two broken discs before shoving them into a chest. He hopes Nerdi didn’t have a backup recording. He turns around and stares at a camera mounted in the corner. There’s a small light blinking red on it, he frowns slightly, that could be problematicthat could be problematic. Hax raises his hand and shoots a blast of ice at it, watching it snap off the wall and shatter on the ground. He dusts off his hands before walking out, humming happily to himself.

The winter wind blows all around him, he tightens his scarf around his neck. Not that he needs it, it's more for aesthetic purposes at this point. Hax continues to happily hum as he reaches into his inventory and pulls out an eye. He still has an astronomer to hunt down after all. He’s only slightly annoyed that the villager picked up the eyes he threw earlier.They’ve got Nerdi’s magic stored in them after all.They’ve got Nerdi’s magic stored in them after all. Hax tosses the eye into the air, watching it as it travels.

He’s a runner, this isn’t anything new to him. His feet crunch in the snow as he walks, standing under and looking up at the floating eye before it breaks. Hax stares into the horizon, most of his view obstructed by the snow just how he likes it. He takes a few steps before he's pulling himself off the ground, flying will always be faster than walking. He holds onto his scarf and hat as he flies.

He’s not actually sure how much time he has until Nerdi respawns. He’s also unsure how long it would take for him to respawn everyone else. They’re not that powerful but if he’s going to fight 9 other runners he’d be at a disadvantage. Well, he thinks it’d be 9 other people. He’s not actually sure where Infume is. Infume had disappeared. The whole time Hax had been covering the world in snow and ice he hadn’t seen the polar bear once.

It’s a few minutes till he spots something in the distance. A camp. Hax lands. There’s a campfire still going strong, he’s honestly impressed. He circles the camp before finding a 1 block hole and peering down it. One eye toss confirms that this is the stronghold. Without much thought he jumps down. Ice shoots out from his feet as soon as they touch the ground, covering the entire stronghold just like the surface above.

Hax presses the button, opening the iron door in front of him, and walks through. He wanders for a bit, there are signs of life but he can’t find anyone. He tenses as a familiar sound rings through his soul. The opening of an end portal. Hax frowns as he runs back to the start. A cave straight through the side of the stronghold reveals a staircase he hadn’t seen before. He walks down it. The air feels stale as he descends further down. The portal room is right there.

Hax walks up and stares at the filled portal. It almost feels like Nerdi’s magic is seeping out of it. It also feels like the closer he gets to it the power given to him is trying to leave. The portal is almost daring him to jump in and see what happens. Hax scowls and walks away, he has a feeling if he hopped in Nerdi’s magic would disperse leaving him with only his ice.

Hax surfaces and notices that the world is stuck at night, though he’s unsure if that’s his doing. There's nothing left to do but wait for Nerdi to respawn and kill him again.There's nothing left to do but wait for Nerdi to respawn and kill him again.

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅̩̩͙‧͙ ‧͙̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆

Fulham lounges at the bottom of his pond, scrolling on his communicator, when he gets a very concerning message from Nerdi.

A video file. WIth no other message attacked.

Fulham squints his eyes as he watches it. It’s Nerdi emerging from the snow? Was this recorded on Nerdi’s communicator camera? Nerdi seems to look around before walking towards a structure in the distance.

He recognizes it. It’s Nerdi’s tower from his home world.

Or at least he thinks it is. The whole world is covered in snow and ice spikes stick out of the tower in unnatural ways. Nerdi opens the door to a room filled with snow golems, a little odd. But everything about his whole situation felt odd. He watches as Nerdi grabs a disc from a chest before turning around. Fulham jolts upright, bubbles leaving his mouth as the video cuts after a sword comes down onto Nerdi.

He stares at the finished video, replaying it to make sure he saw everything correctly. The exact same video plays and ends. Fulham puts it on replay as he starts to swim towards the surface. He grabs his glasses, which are floating in the water, and puts them on. He can see the video more clearly but it doesn’t change anything.

Fulham pulls himself out of the pond, shaking off the water as he reverts his form to a more human one. He speed walks past everyone to head straight to his room. Even ignoring Couri shouting at him for tracking water into the house. He accidentally slams his door close as he focuses on the video. There’s something distinctly Nerdi about it, like he wove his magic into the video. He probably did and Fulham is just not magic enough for it. He quickly flips through the members of HBG that are here at the moment. Not a single one of them has enough magic to be able to detect anything.

Fulham scrolls through his list of contacts before landing on Gradient Gray.

Fulham puts his communicator down, only to pick it back up when he hears the notification sound. He didn’t expect an immediate response.

Fulham stares at his screen. If he remembers correctly Andronicus had told him that Gray’s magic was different. His entire body was constructed using Magic, making him acutely sensitive to magic in the air.

Fulham turns and walks out of his room, again ignoring everyone else as he breaks into Nerdi’s room. He shivers as Nerdi’s magic washes over him. The entire room was enchanted so that you couldn’t find anything unless Nerdi wanted you too. Fulham just blindly opened a drawer and sitting on top of the pile of stuff was a book. A book titled ‘Tower Infrastructure Notes’. Probably what he needs. He grabs it, opening to a random page.

Cool. Awesome.

He has a password now.

Just not the application to get into it. The application mostly lives on Nerdi’s communicator, it’s his tower after all. But he knows there’s a back door to it, Poundy has, somehow, jokingly broken into it so many times. He’s walking out of Nerdi’s room when someone walks through the front door. A ‘speak of the devil and he shall appear’ situation.

“PoundCake,” Fulham shoves his communicator into Poundy’s face, “Hack into Nerdi’s tower’s cameras for me.”

“..Let me get through the door first,” Poundy blinks, gingerly taking Fulham’s communicator, “Why do you even want me to do this?”

“I have the password to get in but not the fucking application.”

Poundy raises his eyebrow and stares at Fulham before he sighs, “Here-”

Fulham swipes his communicator back and scurries back to his room.

Fulham stares at it before slowly typing the string of characters he was given.

Fulham enlarges the screens, allowing multiple of them to float around him. Most of the cameras weren’t receiving signals and the few that were couldn’t see much. His eyes gravitated to the little notification on the recorded logs button.

There were millions of logs. Nerdi really needed to clear these out.

There was only one video from the past 24 hours. A 1 minute and 10 second long video. He clicks into it. Most of the cameras still had no signal but the rest sat comfortably recording in night vision mode. Fulham’s eye catches onto movement, it’s hard to see what’s happening due to the angle but someone’s there.

The figure snaps their head around at the sound of a ding before they speak.

“Oh my god, he’s back.Oh my god, he’s back.”

Fulham flinches. It’s Hax’s voice, a bit muffled by the wind and annoyed sounding, but something about it is off. It feels like Hax knows he’s being watched and is going to reach through the screen and attack him. Everything about the voice is Hax, but it feels so off.

Fulham watches as Hax slashes himself with an invisibility potion and quietly flies around the rocks, since when can Hax fly? That’s when he notices Nerdi on the stairs. This is the security camera view of the video Nerdi sent him. Okay, so Hax killed Nerdi. Why? He doesn’t know yet. His eyes follow Hax as he sneaks up behind Nerdi and kills him. Picking up the disc Nerdi dropped to examine it. He breaks the chest the other disc was in before placing them both on the ground and shattering them with an anvil.

“Hopefully he didn’t make a backupHopefully he didn’t make a backup,” Hax says before he turns to face the camera. Logically Fulham knows this is a past recording but it doesn’t stop him from holding his breath as if Hax was going to notice him.

It’s a few quiet moments before Hax shoots a burst of ice towards the camera, leaving Fulham looking at another ‘No Signal' screen.

He replays the video a few times, there’s also probably something in this one that he can’t sense. When he can’t see anything he sighs and opens his chat with Gray again.

The next step is easy enough. Enhance the image and scan the QR code. Which opens a file. There are two folders in the file, one that needs a password and is so enchanted with magic even he can feel it, the other is a remote join world button. Fulham pulls it up on one of the floating screens. It’s the join button to Nerdi’s home world. He bites his lips, what should he do? He should probably make sure Nerdi is okay right?

Fulham stared at the join button. He was just going to go in, see what was going on, make sure Nerdi is fine, then ask others for help. He glances up, noticing the winter jacket in his closet. He might need that. Fulham snatches it before pressing the join button. His body is a whirl of code as he’s transported to the new world.