Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter for the fanfic Hourglass!
Man, I was THIS close to getting the chapter out last night! Unfortunately, there's something seriously wrong with my Internet and it has this weird buffering issue at exactly midnight, so I got cut off as I was just typing up the chapter name. Oh well! Now I'm here, so...yeah. Let's do dis! XD
Anyhow, replies! :D
Replies to Reviews...
Marshman101: Baaaaasically, yup!
Airas Slayer: That's what everyone is saying! XD That we're nearing the end! Well, we've still got two of the three last Spirits to bring back to the Palace of 0, so...what I can tell you is that we're nearly at the 2/3 mark for this story! Also, glad to hear that you're writing a fanfic of your own, dude! :D
tony22445: The reason why the Glitch never just kills Norman has been hinted as since The Glitch, actually. The motive was actually a bit blurred in VOiD because I didn't want to make it too obvious, but now it's been mentioned flat-out earlier in this book. You'll just have to pay attention and look for the signs! Heheheheheheh...
Badgerman: Mobgan...best name. XD Honestly, I think the sight of a twisted, riled up, wild-eyed donkey screeching in my face would be terrifying. This is just me, probably. XD
I'm glad you reminded me of all those plotlines! I've been thinking about all the different things I need to tie up by the finale and I think I've got a pretty good idea on how to do so. ^^ I can't WAIT for that finale, I mean really!
I feel bad for JB too. If I'm honest with myself, though, I feel the most bored when I write for him. I wish I could've gone into his past a bit more...HOLY CRAP, YOU JUST MADE ME THINK OF A REALLY IMPORTANT AND INTERESTING THING I CAN DO INVOLVING HIS EARLY FAMILY! Here's a hint: it also has to do with Auconi's grandfather. :3
Okay, so that's my OLD account. I made a new one for the purpose of the content I want to make, so here's what I'll do that'll let you find it. Search GemsOfChaos as a channel on YouTube. There should be a picture of Sonic holding a Chaos Emerald as the profile pic. One of the first subscriptions you'll be able to view on her channel has a picture of a sloth gleefully holding up an orange donut. The channel will be called Pasty's Bakery. If this doesn't work, then I'll just have to put out a video to get myself out there! ^^'
Alrighty then! Now that that's all sorted out, we can begin!
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 30: Her Last Request
Vanessa sat completely immobile at the tip of the Temple of Night and Day, her legs crossed and her eyes closed. Cantatis was open to Chapter 30: The Pipe, sitting lightly in her lap and emitting a soft red glow. The small amount of wind that managed to reach the core of the jungle rustled the frizz on her red locks, which were pulled back into a tight but comfortable bun. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming, and there was nothing there to disturb her in the wonderful peace and quiet.
"FLIBBERTIGIBBET!"
Vanessa screamed and fell backwards from the lotus position, quickly casting a small red mist cloud that flipped her back onto her feet, keeping her from tumbling down the length of the temple. She raised Cantatis up and transformed it into her signature double-edged sword, her entire body tense now.
"Mastermind!" she shouted, glaring all around her. "You know how much I hate being bugged when I'm meditating! I'll tell you this again: Rexum always said that meditating was—"
Mastermind's head popped into existence in front of her and she brandished her ruby blade instinctively. The dismembered head lolled back and let out a devilish giggle.
"Eeheeheeheeheehee!" the weirdo wizard shrieked. "I know, darling, I know! Rexum always said that meditating was the best way to maintain inner peace for an eternity!"
The head flew up higher into the air, causing the rest of the jester's lanky body to sprout from underneath it. He landed on the top block and clapped his massive gloved hands together, proceeding to get into a crouched position so he could look Vanessa in the eye.
"But you should realize that you'll never find peace as long as you've still got that stick up your backside!"
Vanessa grimaced and allowed Cantatis to shrink back into its book form. She sat down on a block of black wool and leaned on her elbows, staring out into the trees with a stubborn frown.
"I have fun sometimes! I had fun when I trained with Rexum, at least…"
She sighed as blissful memories of surfing towards Whirlpool Alley with Rexum came to mind. She'd gotten to fight side by side with the greatest magician and literal guardian of the entire dimension…now she realized that she should've cherished those moments even more when they were actually happening. The Mastermind sat down next to her, crossing his skinny checkered legs and joining her in staring at the trees.
"Well, that's an attitude I'll just have to fix, then! Perhaps I should make your training regimen even MORE interesting!"
Vanessa looked over at him apprehensively. Whenever he used that word, whatever the case may be, it always implied something terrible would happen soon.
"You kidding?!" she exclaimed, standing up again and backing away from him. "For the last twenty chapters of this story you've been putting me through the worst or most MORONIC training imaginable! You're supposed to be helping me become as great of a magic user as Rexum was and yet all I've done so far is mow the whole jungle, feed your stupid pets, and act as a punching bag for Sunshadow! I want to learn something for once!"
She let out an exasperated sigh, closing her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, the Mastermind had disappeared from his seat. A moment later, she felt a tap on her shoulder and whirled around, coming face to face with the creep again.
"But you have learned very much, I'd say. Endurance, young lady! Endurance! And humility, of course. Both of these qualities are important for becoming a fully-fledged dimensional guardian!"
He hovered around in place and faced away from her, tapping his chin with a nimble forefinger. Rolling his eyes upward as though he was thinking hard, he added,
"However, if you really, really want me to change up your training, then I can. It won't be very easy, of course, though Rexum was able to pass this particular setup on his very first try."
Vanessa's head perked up slightly at these last words. She inched forward, giving Cantatis a quick glance before returning her gaze to the joker's back.
"Wait a second, are you saying that YOU trained Rexum?!"
The Mastermind grinned broadly and whirled back around, getting back in Vanessa's face with a look of total glee.
"What, did you think he was older than me? Listen, Ms. Bookshelf, I may still look young and gorgeous, but I've existed since the dawn of the last original dimension ever created! And that was…"
He paused, looking up at nothing for a moment as he legitimately tried to remember.
"Y'know, I'm not sure anymore…a long, long, long, long, long, loooong time ago, though! And he was just like you when he started: pessimistic, stiff, and jealous a greater wizard's power."
Vanessa was immediately ready to retort, but the moment she even opened her mouth, one of the jester's gloves floated off his solid white hand and put a finger over her lips.
"Shush!" he said, still smiling as he looked down at her. "If you really want to be able to endure the rest of your training, you'll need to first experience it at its most unbearable! Then every lesson following that will be learned with a whole lot better efficiency! Only then will you truly be able to become my last student."
The young witch lifted the book in her hands close enough to her heart to feel them both pulse in sync. Ever since she fused souls with Rexum, Cantatis itself would vibrate whenever it got near her chest. It was the main reason she always had to keep it several blocks away at night, otherwise it kept her up. Still, the rhythm also reminded her of the fusion event when it first took place almost a month ago.
"Besides, Vanessa!" said Mastermind, bopping her on the nose to grab her attention. "You've not only got your magic powers, but you've got a piece of Rexum, too! Do you know how powerful you could become if you go with me on this whole witch training business?"
Vanessa swatted away the finger in her face before getting to seriously thinking about the man's words. She tried to picture a young Rexum training with this wacko, but it was an extremely difficult image to conjure. Even so, when she imagined herself slowly growing into as amazing of a spell caster as him if not even better, it was something that she couldn't have possibly wished for more.
"So, what do say?" asked the Mastermind, cocking his head curiously.
Finally, Vanessa couldn't contain her inner excitement any longer. She felt like she had no choice but to become Rexum's successor! …wait a minute, he asked her to do that.
Well then, it was settled.
"Whatever I need to do," she said, the words sounding regrettable in her mind, "I'll do it! For Master Rexum!"
The Mastermind turned on his heel and pranced over the top of the temple, jumping down onto the forest floor far below.
"I'm your master now, kid!" he shouted.
The Amalgamob lifted both twisted fists and readied to smush JB into the floor. JB rolled out of the way by a quarter second and groped the rough walls desperately as he pulled himself to his feet. In an even slimmer time frame, he was able to leap frontward and avoid a snap from a pair Enderdragon teeth, sprinting down the hall as fast as his legs would carry him. He glanced back a few seconds later to see that the monster was quickly gaining on him, romping forward on all fours like a wild animal. JB turned his head back around and somehow increased his speed further, reaching the intersecting hallway in four seconds flat. When he dashed left down the passage, he felt the powerful surge that shook the whole structure as the Amalgamob's body crashed into the side wall before scuttling forward again.
JB sped miraculously fast down a series of snaking halls, small passages, and staircases. Slowly, he could sense that he was getting higher and higher in the tower. But that meant he'd eventually run out of places to run! Just as this thought was coming to his mind, he darted down another corridor and felt his blood run cold as two zombie guards appeared in his sight. They were quickly alerted by his presence and held up their bows, taking aim at him.
JB's mind raced for a way to dodge the attack, but could only be aided by his Minecraftian instincts as they let the arrows fly. He held his stone sword diagonally across his chest to block the oncoming projectiles, hoping he'd get lucky. One of the arrows deflected off of his blade and spun noisily into the iron bars of a nearby cell while the other embedded itself in his right forearm. He gasped heavily as the pain blew away his other senses. For some reason, his legs continued to churn on, moving him forward as the monster behind him got a block closer by the second. Then he saw the two take aim with a second round of arrows. This time, his inner player really kicked in and he dodged both arrows by jumping to the right just as they were let go. Not a second later, a mixture of mob screeches echoed behind him; still running, he saw the Amalgamob stumble for a moment in its pursuit, trying to scrape off the two arrows lodged in its right knee. A small puff of white particles issued out of it as a cluster of Endermites despawned from the damage.
JB clearly hadn't been paying enough attention to the undead archers ahead, but moments later he was stopped by a forceful bonk to the noggin. He fell onto his back and slid for a block and a half on the rough ground after being close lined, but his iron helmet took most of the blow and he was able to scramble to his feet and avoid a swipe from five clammy fingers. He'd only gone six more steps when he heard the agonizing shrieks of the undead behind him. The bigger monster must've eaten the two smaller, weaker ones.
While his transformed friend was busy eating fifty-ish pounds of rotten flesh, JB scaled the next staircase and reached what he thought was the sixth or seventh floor; at this point, it was impossible to tell thanks to there being no windows. Every hallway, every cell, every line of torches along a wall, each of them looked identical to him. The path stretched on for the longest time, especially in his particular situation.
To his great relief, he saw a bright light coming up ahead and immediately recognized yet another staircase. He knew there was no way back down the building, so he'd just have to hope that these guys installed a ladder on the side of the tower. His legs had lost their previous energy by now, so climbing this last staircase was a real hassle. It didn't really help that this was the tallest he'd scaled as of yet.
JB emerged out onto the roof and was greeted with the rising sun. Not taking any extra time to admire the beauty of the glowing forest, JB sped straight for the edge of the roof. He leaned over a block of iron ore and stared down the side of the building, scanning the walls for a ladder of any kind or maybe even a set of stairs. No such luck, of course, so he ran to the next wall and did the same. He'd only just gotten to the third edge when he heard an ear-splitting donkey shriek behind him. He almost lost his balance from being startled and quickly turned around to face the behemoth once again. The mobs that made up the monster were all hissing, spitting, and growling at him simultaneously, some of them even able to look at him with glassy eyes.
"Not like this…not like this…" he muttered, hands quivering as he held his measly stone sword.
The Amalgamob took a heavy step in his direction, swatting at him from a distance with the tangle of mob feelers on its left hand. After checking what little health his sword had left, JB knew that he was out of options. At this point, he doubted that there'd be a ladder on the wall he hadn't yet checked. He closed his eyes, breathing heavily through clenched teeth, and only subjected himself to listening to his pursuer's gurgles and cries. As he felt the tower shake with more of the creature's steps, he began to whisper a prayer.
"Dear Lord Notch," he murmured, his words shaky beyond compare. "please accept me into your Aetherian kingdom as I soon move on into the afterlife. I hope that I have lived a life in your honor and I wish to join you in eternal happiness. And please…make my passing as painless as you can, I beg you…"
A particularly thunderous step hit the stone tower and he was knocked off of his feet, forcing his eyes open as he tumbled backwards into the tower's edge. He scrambled for better footing as the whole tower began to tremble consistently. Which all the stomping this thing was doing, this crumbly, crusty old manor would probably fall right down into the trees in a few minutes. All of a sudden, JB's eyes widened as an idea hit him.
"Amen…" he finished, standing up and pushing off of the block-high edge guard and regaining his balance.
The Amalgamob was about twenty or so blocks from his position now. For any other regular-sized mob, this would seem like quite the distance. Obviously this wasn't the case now. JB stayed where he was, waiting with his sword held out at arm's length. Slowly, as his plan became clearer in his head, the shakiness in his grip started to fade away and his focus returned. It slowly clambered towards him, and once it had gotten to the twelve-block mark the Enderdragon head began to growl and snap at him. JB huffed through his nose, furrowing his brow and tensing up as he prepared to make his getaway. Then, just five blocks further down its path, the creature lunged.
JB jumped out of the way as the creature came careening towards the edge. It teetered over the short barrier, struggling to keep itself from falling off the edge. JB could feel the entire tower creaking under the weight that had been placed on the one corner alone. As the Amalgamob was able to get its traction back, it squished its villager/witch combo foot into the stone and leaped toward JB with extreme velocity. JB barely avoided the snap of a Shulker shell on his head as he ducked and dove underneath the creature, sliding painfully across the rough stone. He crawled through its legs and jumped back to his feet a few blocks away as it flailed around, looking with all available heads for him. When he turned his head, he saw the eyes of a single wolf go red as the melty canine spotted him.
JB had to jump out of the way again when a massive mob fist smashed into the ground where he'd been just a second ago. The tower shook violently at this single impact and JB nearly lost his balance again as the floor began to tilt upward in front of him. Even as big as the tower was, its height to base ratio was unbelievably one-sided; considering its Jenga-esque construction, they'd be plummeting over a hundred blocks to the forest floor in about a minute. And yet, even as the tower was beginning to lean dangerously far, the Amalgamob roared and thrashed as it lumbered toward him. JB had no time to react as a Ghast tentacle wrapped around his gut and pulled him backwards.
He instinctively held his sword out behind him, blindly stabbing at the fleshy, muscly monster as it brought him close. The blade unfortunately scraped right across its iron torso, barely making a slit in its big black ribcage. He twisted his head to see the Enderman head gaping at him with its unnaturally wide jaw, screeching as it prepared to bite through his skull. The many tendrils wrapped around his arms and legs as he struggled, ceasing his movement. He'd been caught, so that was pretty much it.
He squeezed his eyelids shut, cringing at the corrupted sounds burning in his ears, and quickly made a choice to accept his fate. If only he could have told Morgan something about his feelings towards her. If only he could have gotten ANY hint about it whatsoever. He almost swore she felt the same way, but now it was too late for any of that nonsense. He was going to be eaten alive in a matter of seconds and there truly wasn't anything that he could—
"HOLY BUCKETS!"
JB's eyes shot back open and he looked around for the source of the voice. Almost immediately, he saw somebody standing atop the final step of the center staircase. Flaming red hair, tiny stature…annoyingly bubbly voice. He immediately recognized who they were despite not knowing them for more than two days.
"AMYA!" he screamed, struggling some more.
The Amalgamob's Enderdragon head let out a fierce, infuriated roar and threw JB to the floor. With only a few hearts left in him, JB hoisted himself up on his elbows and stared in both relief and sheer fear at the little girl.
"Whoawhoawhoa!" she shouted, waving her hands at the mob mass that was now targeting her. "Tooooo much ugly. TOO MUCH NOPE!"
The Amalgamob's assortment of body parts growled and murmured, twitching incessantly as it eyed a new piece of meat. Granted, Amya didn't look like she had much muscle to begin with, but it seemed to make little difference to the Amalgamob. Amya's were locked with the deep, dark pupils of the Enderdragon head. It growled at her.
She growled back.
"Alright then!" she declared, clapping her hands together and smiling mischievously. "Now that I'm out of that silly cell, guess I can do my thing again!"
Moments later, after a returned growl of even greater volume, the Amalgamob galloped forward on four limbs and threw itself at her. Just a few blocks from her position, Amya threw up her hands and uppercutted the beast with a wall of.
A wall of…
"Oh my Notch!" JB gasped, the whites of his eyes growing in surprise.
When the Amalgamob stumbled backwards in shock, shaking its head in confusion and pain as it tried to clear up a bit of dizziness, a solid blockade of the iconic Minecraft explosive was revealed. It lowered out of sight one row at a time, giving way to Amya as she took a bounding step forward.
"Aren't I cool?" she giggled, silently poking fun at JB's expression.
The Amalgamob turned a couple of its main heads to look at Amya, who was skipping nonchalantly in its direction. It shrieked with a set of higher-pitched mob sounds and whirled on her, throwing a fist and trying to skewer her with the Elder Guardian's extended spikes. Instead, Amya dashed to the side, making a little "boop" noise when she did it, and then raised one hand, creating a TNT item block in her hand. She squeezed it once and suddenly set it to blow, spinning around in one fluid motion and chucking it at the donkey head's flapping chops. Unfortunately for the wild-eyed jackass, the TNT landed square on its tongue and then exploded in its mouth. JB winced at the sight of flying donkey jawbones and eyeballs. He heard a splat to his right and had the misfortune of turning his own head, spotting the donkey's gooey tongue splattering the stone not far from him. He was just glad to be able to keep the vomit in his throat when that happened.
Meanwhile, Amya was using her miniscule, light-footed tactics to dart this way and that, avoiding the Amalgamob's swipes. The tower, of course, was still tipping, and the monster was the first one to start truly losing its standing. Amya somehow ended up on top of the Enderman head and was bouncing up and down on it, forcing it to clamp down painfully on its own teeth several times over.
"For the freak of nature you are, you're not that good atWHOA-HO-HO-NO!"
It was at this moment that the tower's angle reached 70° and the Amalgamob could no longer support itself on its own convulsing legs and feet. It toppled forward and smacked awkwardly into the slanting floor; Amya used the Enderman head as a springboard one more time to escape the fall and landed just four blocks ahead of it. She grinned at her successful landing and whirled around to beat up her attacker some more, but was caught off guard as one of the guardians on its right arm took aim and shot her in the chest with a laser. She flew back and hit the ground headfirst, going limp in a fraction of a second.
What terrible, terrible luck that was.
"Amya!" JB shouted, trying to peer around the mob mass to see if she was okay.
The Amalgamob twisted its already deformed body around some more to let the Enderdragon head stare directly at him. It gave yet another reptilian cry and then began to slide straight toward him, though it was probably unintentional considering the tower's current condition. They'd reached a near 60° slant by now and there was nothing that could stop the building from falling the full way. JB had a sudden image of several hundred zombies piling on top of each other in a grumbly mess at every low point of each floor. His attention was immediately returned to the monster as a Blaze rod smacked him like a fiery backhand, sending him flopping backwards across the stone slope. His back hit stone a few seconds later and he groaned from the impact, coughing slightly at the sharp pain of loose rocks digging into his armorless back.
Even with the beast in pursuit of him and the tower toppling right underneath him, JB remembered that he needed to take a moment and heal up. He feverishly searched through his hotbar for some nourishment. He found a couple cooked porkchops at its end and took them out in a haste, cramming them in his mouth to get some health back. When he looked back up at the Amalgamob, it was coming up on him fast and he didn't have any time left to run down the side to avoid another strike. He couldn't even wipe his face free of grease from the meat before the colossus fell right on top of him, one leg on either side of his body and both hands pinning him up against the stone. The edge guard started to crack from the pressure, though JB was busy using his sword to wildly swing and stab at the thing on top of him, deflecting as much damage as he could to keep himself alive.
"OHNOTCHOHNOTCHOHNOTCH!"
Many of his hysterical cries were reduced to gibberish as all energy was focused into fending off the 10-ton freak of nature snapping its many sets of teeth at him. The Enderdragon head leaned forward and smacked him in the face with its nose, knocking his head backwards like a punching bag. In a sudden haze, JB shook his head slowly while still maintaining his random sword swings. When his vision cleared, he saw the massive maw of the Enderdragon head opening up to bite his head off his shoulders. His eyes widened as it got closer and opened further, revealing its purple, slippery, slimy throat.
But then something else caught his eye. Held in the back of the throat was yet another entity's head. This entity, however, was that of a player. Morgan, in fact. It was as though she was trapped inside of the monster and was slowly being swallowed up, for she struggled and grunted and shook her only visible body part: her head. Suddenly, her eyes opened wide and locked with JB's. She clenched her teeth as a flow of tears soaked both her cheeks.
"Johnny…please…" she whimpered through the open mouth of the Enderdragon. "Do it…"
JB's jaw had legitimately dropped now; he was in total shock. Morgan's teeth gritted audibly and she repeated her words.
"Do it…kill me…"
The teeth of the Enderdragon came down without warning, just barely grazing JB's iron helmet and banging him on the head. He shrieked an unmanly shriek and stared in horror as they opened a second time, ready to chomp right through his metal cap. Morgan's head came into view again and her eyes looked like they were beginning to lose some of their chocolate hue.
"Kill me, Johnny! KILL ME, PLEASE!" she screamed, mouth open wide as she wailed her demands. "JUST STAB ME! DO IT!"
JB shook his head slowly, eyes still broad as he tried to take in the horror before him.
"I…Morgan, but—"
"I'M SERIOUSLY BEGGING YOU, JOHNNY! I'M NOT GOING TO LIVE AS A MONSTER! THIS THING IS EATING ME UP, TOO! IF YOU DON'T—"
The sharp mandibles of the black dragon met with each other, cutting off her next words and sending JB's iron helmet toppling half-eaten off his head and into the gelatinous mass of a magma cube below him. The jaw unhinged for the third time, revealing Morgan's head once more.
"—AND I'LL JUST GO OUT KILLING EVERYBODY ELSE IN THE WHOLE FUCKING OVERWORLD! DON'T LET IT HAPPEN! PLEASE, JUST DO IT! FOR ME, FOR YOU, FOR LITERALLY EVERYONE!"
JB just couldn't come to terms with what was happening now. He could feel his body itself start going into shock. Never in his life had he experienced this much trauma, not in his humble bed and breakfast establishment in the jungle; the place where he baked bread and straightened bedsheets and counted what little money he received every month. No, this was just too much for him. When he didn't respond, Morgan shut her eyes and shook her head, letting out a line of sobs.
"DO IT FOR ALL THE MOBWHISPERERS WHO'LL DIE BY THE HANDS OF THEIR OWN BEST FRIENDS!"
JB's breathing was extremely irregular and copious amounts of sweat were streaming down his light skin. His panic was gone now, only a numb feeling was left. He'd never actually gone into shock before, but he could at least sense that that was what was happening now. As his eyelids began to lower, JB heard a loud blast in his muffled hearing. The sound of thirty mobs crying in pain was also heard, plus the feeling of an arm wrapping around his own.
It was after this last sense was triggered that he fell unconscious.
Jesus, I don't think I can stress how friggin scary this monster is! It's hard to describe with just words! It's times like these when wish I could draw...
What is going to happen to Morgan inside of her new monstrous body? Will JB wake up inside of the Overworld or in the corrupted, twisted, devilish new rendition of the Aether? And what exactly will Vanessa need to go through in order to become as great of a magic user as the great wizard Rexum?! There are probably, most likely, 99% possible answers to these questions in the next chapter of Hourglass!
This is Pastrinator64, your fellow writer and reader, signing out!
*throws sugar bomb and disappears behind its cloud of fine white sugar*
...Goodbye for now...
~Pastrinator64 [~]