Chapter Text
The broken courtyard felt smaller under the weight of the fading afternoon light.
Ruined stone pillars cast jagged shadows over the dirt, stretching out toward the surrounding forest like dark fingers.
Nufuli had fought Sharpness enough times to know his habits.
He knew the way Sharpness moved when he was confident. The way he rushed when he got impatient. The tiny, almost imperceptible pause before he committed to a heavy strike. Most of all, he knew the frustration that built in Sharpness when a fight took way too long.
Sharpness was good.
Very good. Incredible even.
But he was predictable when he was angry, and that was why Nufuli smiled when Sharpness missed his swing by a hair.
"Too slow."
Sharpness clicked his tongue, swinging his sword back around with a sharp cut through the air. "Keep talking shit."
Nufuli stepped backward, sword raised defensively. Sharpness pressed the attack immediately.
One strike. Blocked.
Second. Dodged.
Third—
Nufuli caught the flat of the blade on his guard and shoved Sharpness away with all his weight. Sharpness stumbled back several blocks, his boots skidding through the loose gravel.
"That's three," Nufuli said.
"You're counting now, huh?"
"Someone has to."
Sharpness let out a harsh laugh. "Then count this."
He charged again, his form aggressive and heavy. Nufuli grinned, bending his knees to prepare a clean counter.
Then Sharpness stopped. Not because Nufuli had made a move. He simply froze mid- stride.
His sword lowered until the tip nearly touched the grass. His tense shoulders relaxed, dropping as if all the adrenaline had instantly vanished from his body.
Nufuli's grin faded into a frown. "...Sharpness?"
Sharpness didn't answer. Something about his presence had shifted completely. It was subtle at first—his shallow, heavy breathing slowed to a quiet, steady rhythm. His head tilted slightly to the side, his jaw relaxing, and his face settling into a strangely blank stare.
Then he raised his head.
Sharpness's eyes were no longer green. They were red. Not glowing with magic or anything. But an unnaturally deep, blood-red color staring directly into him.
Nufuli's grip tightened around his hilt until his knuckles turned white. "What the hell...?"
Sharpness smiled slightly. It wasn't the arrogant smirk he wore when he was winning a fight. It was smaller, calmer, and almost amused.
"You're Nufuli."
Nufuli raised his guard higher, shifting his feet to stay balanced. "Obviously."
The stranger in Sharpness’s body looked at him for several agonizing seconds, taking in his stance, his weapons, and his expression. Then he spoke softly.
"Interesting."
"What's interesting?"
"You remind me of someone."
Nufuli's expression hardened into a glare. "Who?"
The faint smile vanished entirely.
"Someone I don't particularly like."
Nufuli didn't understand. He opened his mouth to ask, but he never got the chance.
The red-eyed Sharpness moved.
Fast. Far faster than Sharpness ever had.
Nufuli barely brought his sword up in time to block the incoming blow. The sheer force of the impact rattled through his arms and sent his feet sliding backward across the dirt. His eyes widened.
Sharpness had never hit that hard.
Nufuli immediately tried to counter, driving his blade upward.
He didn't block. He simply twisted his body around the arc of the sword and struck Nufuli's wrist with the butt of his hilt. Pain shot through Nufuli's arm, and his sword nearly flew from his fingers.
"You're holding your weapon too tightly," Sharpness, or whoever in his body remarked smoothly.
"What?"
"You do that when you're nervous."
Nufuli lashed out with a quick kick to create space. Sharpness stumbled back a step, then laughed softly. It wasn't the laugh of someone losing a fight.
It was the quiet chuckle of someone who had just figured out the rules to a game.
"You really are similar," the man muttered.
Nufuli rushed him, putting everything behind a wild, furious strike. This time, Sharpness didn't meet the attack head-on. He stepped neatly to the side, letting Nufuli's blade cut through empty air.
Before Nufuli could pull back, He kicked his legs, and forced him down onto one knee. A hard kick sent Nufuli's sword skittering across the courtyard stone.
Nufuli stared up from the ground, breathing heavily. For the first time, he realized he’s on the verge of death for the first time. He was fighting someone who knew every move before he made it. Someone who wasn't angry, wasn't excited, and wasn't even trying. He was looking at Nufuli like he was solving a simple puzzle.
Sharpness crouched down in front of him, meeting his eye level.
"You're strong,"
"You're creepy," Nufuli hissed through his teeth.
"That's fair."
He stood back up and looked around. As his gaze swept over the ruined courtyard, something caught his attention beneath a pile of crumbled rubble. A small, familiar gleam of redstone dust rested near the base of a broken wall.
His eyes narrowed slightly. He walked over, knelt down, and ran his fingers over the red powder.
"...Jude."
Nufuli blinked, rubbing his sore wrist. "What?"
Sharpness didn't answer him. He followed the faint trail of redstone with his eyes, looking toward the far side of the courtyard. Hidden partially beneath dirt and dead leaves sat a weighted pressure plate.
Nufuli's face pale. "You set that?"
"No." His smile returned, full of genuine amusement this time. "But I know who."
Jude had been looking for them for nearly twenty minutes.
He had heard the distant sounds of clashing metal from the nearby settlement and followed the noise through the woods, expecting to find the usual sparring match.
He definitely wasn't expecting to see Nufuli pinned on the ground.
Jude had formed an alliance with Nufuli recently, and his first instinct was to step out and make sure his ally was fine. But he stopped dead in his tracks behind a thick oak tree when he saw Sharpness standing over Nufuli with that cold, unfamiliar smile.
And then he saw the eyes.
Jude stayed hidden behind the trunk, his heart hammering in his chest.
That's not Sharpness.
He had seen Sharpness's eyes a hundred times before. Olive green. Always olive green. But the person standing in the center of the courtyard had eyes like fresh blood in the fading sunlight.
The posture, the quiet stillness, the calm look on his face. It was entirely wrong.
Sharpness turned his head smoothly, staring directly at the tree Jude was hiding behind. Their eyes met through the branches. Jude instinctively took a step backward, his boots crushing a twig.
The stranger didn't look surprised. He smiled, a spark of instant recognition flashing across his red eyes, as if he had been waiting for Jude to show up all along.
Nufuli spotted him from the ground. "Jude!"
The man glanced down at Nufuli briefly, then looked back up at Jude. "So." Knowing he had been spotted, he slowly stepped out from behind the trees and walked toward the center of the courtyard.
Nufuli pushed himself up slightly.
"Jude, don't—"
"I'm not going to hurt him, so stop playing the hero role," the man said without even turning around. His voice was quiet, almost gentle, which only made Jude's skin crawl even more.
Jude stopped several blocks away, keeping a safe distance. "Sharpness?" He stared at the man in front of him.
“No, you're not him.”
The red-eyed figure tilted his head and smiled. "No."
Jude's chest felt tight. "I figured."
"Did you?"
"You're not him."
The stranger's smile widened slightly. "Good."
Jude frowned, his arms tense at his sides. "Good?”
"I was worried you'd forgotten everything."
Jude stayed silent. Everything? What is he talking about? And why him?
Sharpness took a slow, deliberate step forward. Jude's feet moved on their own, taking an immediate step back to keep the space between them.
He noticed all of it, his eyes tracking the movement with faint amusement. "You're afraid of me."
"You're wearing Sharpness's face."
"That isn't an answer."
Jude glared at him. "You don't act like him. You don't stand like him."
"No." "Then, who are you?"
Silence fell over the courtyard. The wind rustled through the dying leaves of the surrounding trees before the answer finally came.
"Severe_once."
The name sounded unnatural coming from Sharpness's voice.
“Or people called me severance.”
Jude's eyes narrowed. "Since when does Sharpness have another name besides Conexion?"
"Since before you knew him."
Jude's tone hardened. "You know me."
"Yes." "How?"
Severance stared at him for a long moment, his harsh expression softening just a fraction. "Because he likes you."
Jude froze. "What?"
"And he hates you," Severance added smoothly.
Jude's face went completely blank. "...Sounds about right."
A quiet, genuine laugh escaped Severance's throat. "You really are interesting."
Jude didn't like the way he said it like he was examining a rare artifact. Severance continued to walk forward until only a few blocks separated them. Jude forced himself to stand his ground this time.
"You're wondering how much I remember," Severance said quietly.
Jude said nothing, watching his movements closely.
"I remember enough."
"Enough for what?"
"To know you aren't from my world."
Jude's pulse spiked. "What world?"
Severance didn't give an answer. Instead, his gaze shifted toward the side of the courtyard where Nufuli was standing back up, gritting his teeth as he retrieved his dropped sword. Severance watched him with clear dislike.
"He's different," Severance murmured.
Jude followed his look. "Nufuli?"
"Yes."
"Different from what?"
Severance's eyes darkened, the red turning a deeper, darker shade. "Someone I knew."
"From where?"
"Somewhere Sharpness can't remember."
The silence that followed was heavy and suffocating. Severance lowered his eyes, his gaze landing on Jude's hands, then moving down to the leather tool belt around his waist and the pouch containing small bits of redstone dust. Severance smiled softly.
"You always carry those."
Jude looked down at his own belt. "These?"
"Your traps."
"You know about those?" Jude asked, his voice dropping.
"I know how he uses them."
"Sharpness doesn't build traps," Jude insisted. "He hates redstone."
Severance's smile turned cold. "He does now."
Jude felt an icy chill run down his spine. "What did you do?"
"Nothing." Severance took a step to the side, gesturing toward the edge of the courtyard wall.
Behind him, Jude finally saw what he was pointing at. It was an intricate redstone mechanism hidden beneath the floorboards—a trap Jude had built weeks ago and completely forgotten about. But someone had found it.
Someone had altered the wiring, connecting it directly to a secondary tripwire concealed in the rubble where Nufuli had been standing moments ago.
Whoever did it understood redstone perfectly.
Nufuli realized it too, his head snapping toward the stone floor. "Jude…"
He mumbled, his voice full of warning. He wanted Jude to back away, to run, to get out of this bizarre situation. But he couldn't move without risking triggering another danger.
Jude stared back at Severance in disbelief. "You built my trap."
Severance nodded faintly. "I improved it."
"You tried to kill Nufuli."
"No," Severance corrected smoothly, turning his head back toward Nufuli. "I let Nufuli defeat himself."
Jude felt a wave of nausea. This wasn't Sharpness at all. Sharpness fought with raw force and emotion. Severance had turned the entire area into a quiet puzzle, sitting back and waiting for someone to make a wrong step. And he had understood the mechanics faster than the person who built them.
Severance turned back to face Jude. "I wanted to talk to you."
"Why?"
"Because you're always the first person here who realized I'm not him."
Jude swallowed hard, his throat dry. "And what happens now?"
Severance's face relaxed into a strangely gentle look. "Nothing."
He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Not tonight, at least."
Suddenly, Severance's posture shattered.
His eyes flickered violently.
The deep red fading, blurring, and fighting against a wave of dark green. His face twisted in pain, panic, and absolute confusion. He grabbed his head with one hand, letting out a soft gasp as his knees gave out beneath him.
Jude watched as the blood-red color vanished completely, replaced by familiar olive green eyes.
Sharpness stumbled forward, hitting the ground on one knee. "What...?"
Jude rushed forward and caught him by the shoulders before he could fall completely.
Sharpness blinked rapidly, shaking his head as if waking up from a deep sleep. He looked around at the ruined courtyard, then at Nufuli standing a few feet away with a drawn blade, and finally up at Jude, who was holding him up.
"Jude? Why are you here? Why are you two staring at me like that?" Sharpness asked, his voice slightly raspy.
Jude couldn't bring himself to answer.
Sharpness frowned, looking genuinely bewildered as he rubbed the back of his neck. "What happened? Did we start sparring already?"
Nufuli looked at Jude with wide, terrified eyes. Jude looked down at Sharpness.
Those olive-green eyes looked back up at him—completely normal, completely confused, and completely innocent.
And in that moment, Jude realized the worst part of it all. Severance hadn't been pretending or hiding.
Sharpness genuinely had no idea he existed.