I heard the laugh as clear as if he were beside me. I instantly stopped what I was doing, spinning around. 'Shit...Sjin!' A thought I never wanted instantly crossed my mind as I sprinted back to our marble 'house'. It was the closest thing to a house for now. Swapping my pickaxe for a sword, I easily traversed through the tunnels. More laughter...ugh, he's such an asshole! Taunting Sjin like that! My pace slowed as I caught the sight of marble and torches. I only need to get to the edge of the marble structure before I saw it. The sight almost made me throw up. My body felt weak as I slowly took the steps towards the lifeless body. No...Why did he die? I fell to my knees beside Djh3max. My hands were shaking, taking a few moments to steady before I attempted to find a pulse. There was none. The sight of the blood staining the previously clean white surface made me feel even sicker. I closed his eyes, slowly standing up. 'We'll avenge you. Either by killing him or curing him.' I nodded, turning away from the horrible scene. It was becoming unbearable to look at. Damn it, Alsmiffy! Damn that bastard Taint! I noticed torches leading away from the marble, so I decided to follow that. It was a start, at least. But, after a while, the torches suddenly ended. 'Sjin...now how am I supposed to find you?!' I cursed to myself, taking out my own torches. There were many pathways to follow. 'Pick one and pray?' I shrugged, taking off down one of the paths. There was no sign of Sjin, and now I was lost. 'Maybe I shouldn't have just run blindly into one of them.' I sighed, lighting up the way with torches. They were less frequent than Sjin's – he'd been spending too much time with Xephos. The spaceman needed his light, after all, so Sjin must have picked that habit up from him. I winced when I felt something lodge in my back. I glanced back, seeing a skeleton.
"Fuck you." I muttered. Slashing straight through it was easy, its bones collapsing onto the floor. I decided to leave the arrow where it was, for now, seeing as it wasn't too painful. Soon I heard more mobs around. "Great. Just great." I shook my head, running down the tunnel. I doubted Sjin was down this one by now – I would've found some kind of trail by now. The mobs were soon gathering around me as I tried to escape. "Shit..." Soon I began to slash wildly, which seemed to do the trick. I found an opening, running through. 'Light...just gotta find light...' I thought to myself. 'Shouldn't be too hard, right?' I sighed. Oh how wrong I was. The search for an opening seemed to take hours, all the time being bombarded by mob after mob after mob. I ended up being blown back by a creeper, bitten by a few spiders and clawed by zombies. Not to mention an arrow in my shoulder, just inches from where the last one was. I wished this would end. It was too painful; soon I would die. 'No.' I reminded myself. I couldn't give up. Sjin was out there somewhere. I needed to survive. If he had gotten out, I would need to be there for him. Light...am I dying? I can't be! No...Wait...that's...!
I burst out of the tunnel, onto the lush green grass. For a few moments I just lay on the ground, recovering. Breathing heavily; in, out, in, out. I smiled. I haven't done that in a while. I sat up slowly, my wounds being worse than before. "S-Shouldn't have rested..." I murmured, shaking my head. 'Sjin...' That's right. I stood up, groaning. Gripping my hand around the arrows, I yanked them from my back, crying out as I did. Only now did I realise that my flying ring had disappeared. "What? Where did that go?" I sighed, holding my head. "Great..." I muttered as I stumbled further away from the tunnel. Damn it – night. Why couldn't it have been day?! It's also sunset, meaning the night is only just beginning! "Just my luck!" I shouted. That was a mistake. I watched as zombies and skeletons turned to me, being alerted by my shout. Face-palming, I twirled my sword once. "Come on then...fight me!" And so they did. But...as the battling progressed...I began to hurt less. I didn't even notice as a zombie cut under my eye, causing it to bleed. My pain just disappeared. Why?
H̵͖͉͢è͙̹̪̲̤l̴͉̭͍̱̤͙̗̥͢l͝͏̺̞͜o̮͙͈̺̙̣ ̜̫͈L̳̯̠̮͇̘͚̜͍a͉̳͓̩͚l̙͎̻̻̦͚̲ṋ̠̥̺a̻͈͉͈ͅ.
"Fuck off, Livid!" I muttered, the mobs depleting. I was left alone by the mobs, for now. Kneeling on the ground I panted heavily, trying to recover faster. "Leave me alone..." This is why there was no pain.
W̮̣͈͔̟͈h̥̙̜y̺̲̮͎ ̹̺̭̺͇d̬͇̘͇̟͚o͙ ͈͙̤̱͖̫y̦͕͈̹o̮̭u͓͕̫̺̦ ̻̪h̷͎͕͉͓̦̪͔ͅa̧̼͈t͙̮͜e̺̳̱̗̩̙͚͚̞̘̤ͅ ͉͓͚͍̲̻̝̩m͔̫̬͙e̯̝̥,̠̝̗̜ ̞̞̻̣̟̮̝̫͖L͓͙̻̘̗͓̗a̠͎l̩͔̻̫n̹͙̺̰͉ḁ͎̤̪?̗͙͈̪̙͔͚̱
I had to ignore him. Shut him out. I curled up on the ground, rocking myself gently. 'It's just your imagination, Lalna. He doesn't exist.' I thought. I could hear his deranged laugh that was not dissimilar to Alsmiffy's. Then he vanished. 'Good.' I sat on the ground. I closed my eyes, trying to relax, but my pain was slowly returning. 'Ignore the pain... Gotta get going...'
"Oh, look what I found!" Shit. "Hey, let's just keep you trapped here, and wait for your friends to find you! You're too weak to fight, Lalna, so we'll let them do the fighting!" Fucking Alsmiffy. Just who I wanted to be greeted by. I watched as the taint surrounded my frail body. Fine, let it surround me. He said he'd wait, so let him. They'll stop you, just you wait.
[O̡̖͕̗͍̲͓̙n̛̖̼͖͎̜̦͕͎̤è̠͉̟̜͍̲͓͟ ̷̠̺͔͜d̘̭̝̗̜͙͙͟ͅͅa̠̹̼y̧͚̞̤͖̫̝̲͎͢͟, Lalna. One day you will a̴̞͜c̘̲̞̣͘c̵̨͉̗̤̹̭͙̳̤̫e̵̥̝̘̭͚͉͘͘p̡̭̺̤̭͔̝̜̙t̴̩͉͕̲͇̯͖̹me.]