Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from Hourglass!

Okay, so I have something to say about my upload schedule. Even despite the fact that I just got back from a duo of week-long trips not too long ago, I'll be leaving pretty soon for yet another trip of a similar length. I'll REALLY try to get out one more chapter before I leave, but I'm not sure how likely that'll be. For sure, however, I'll post another when I get back. I am DEFINITELY getting this story done before summer is over! If I don't...well, then I'll be super disappointed in myself, I suppose. XD So sad.

Replies to Reviews...

Marshman101: She...? Which "she" are you referring to, dude?

By the way, this is a message to everyone who reads my story: I REALLY do encourage you to leave a review if it's not too much of a bother. I can always use the feedback and motivation, guys! Thanks a bunch!

Now, let the story commence!

Chapter 44: Dimension Inception

The Glitch had left Jacque in charge of the Void while it was away. It had decided to take a little stroll down memory lane for a simple bout of fun. As the multiverse's most potent virus, the Glitch had the ability to travel in and out of any dimension it desired, though only for a short period of time. This was why—since its very conception, in fact—it had always sent bits and pieces of itself into said dimensions to corrupt and destroy the contents; were the Glitch to reside inside of a single dimension for more than a few days, the ancient energy that lingered since the Spirits in Between first created the universe would literally dissolve its body until there was nothing left. It was old, OLD magic, yet it was completely immune to decay. The Glitch could not touch it.

And so, it remained stuck inside of the 64th Dimension: the world of Minecraft. There was just one reason why it had been able to stay inside of Minecraftia for the last 421 years—the first 400 being the bulk of its imprisonment, the 20 of its indirect influence upon the universe, and its one completed year of sweet, sweet unbound reign.

"Ever since I was sealed inside that gloomy black puddle they call the Void," began the Glitch as it lifted a hand out of the static-filled darkness below the End. "Arabaloca has been growing closer and closer to this graphical nightmare of a dimension. Oh so tantalizing close!"

Its sharp claws dug into the crisp, brittle end stone that made up the entirety of the floating island, gripping it tight as the Glitch started pulling itself up out of the Void.

"It's all thanks to Sycallion's hateful departure from his older brothers, of course! What a brilliant little plan of his to flee to the other side of this dimension and hole himself away with all the lovable woodland creatures he obsessively admires! To unconsciously upset the magical shell sitting around Arabaloca; a simple quarrel among mortal brothers will break relationships…one between gods will break the fabric of the very universe!"

As the Glitch was hoisting itself up onto the floating landmass, it was immediately greeted with thousands of groans and cries from a sea of Endermen. With the simple swipe of his blackened foot over the ground, the Glitch wiped away half of the island's population and continued to stroll forward over the landscape, mindlessly crushing anything in its way. It picked up one of the obsidian towers, which was but half its height, and began tossing it in one hand. For a moment after catching the structure, it paused to stare at its own claws, then smiled and murmured,

"Heh…from humble beginnings as a simple computer virus to a ghastly glob of living plasma. Such a wonderful transformation, I thought it was! And yet, after consuming this world's rulers, the first of my four desired items allowed me to take on more…devilish features: a tail, teensy horns, a forked tongue, bigger wings…and THEN!"

It tossed the massive obsidian pole into the air and opened its gaping black hole of a mouth, shooting out a hook tongue that stabbed through the falling piece's center and snapped it in half in a rather explosive manner. When the two smoking halves crashed onto the ground, burying another thirty or so Endermen, the Glitch lifted an open claw and declared,

"THEN I consumed the Balance Core; that tricky little block may have slipped out of my grasp once, but the heroes complete overlook of its whereabouts were the perfect opportunity for me to claim it as my own! How simple-minded they are to think that this is the only dimension with a Balance Core! Don't those numbskulls know that having a Balance Core is the only thing keeping a dimension from tipping on its head and wreaking havoc on its insides?! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! What IDIOTS!"

With the last word of its sentence, the Glitch kicked out a leg and sent another purple column flying across the island, chipping off a good chunk of the landform before falling into the endless abyss below.

"Despite all the complications that could have been prevented, the Mastermind still chose to keep this secret from the glorious "heroes of the prophecy." The creator of the cores, of all people!"

The Glitch suddenly bent down into a crouch, clasped its arms to its side, and tensed up for a moment. A second later, it let loose a powerful burst of plasma beneath its gnarled feet and rocketed up into the air, splitting the gargantuan island in half from the jump and flying up into the blackness above. It soared through the chilling air at high speeds for only a brief couple of moments before its horns broke through the crusty base of the Nether, splattering lava on every surface within a 300-block radius. It regained its balance after landing in the disturbed sea of magma, which only reached its ankles, and began to slosh forward. It payed no mind to the hanging Netherrack formations that it tore through face-first and continued to monologue.

"In any case, this world's Balance Core had just enough magic contained within its six sides to allow me to take THIS form! Finally, I have legs, arms, hands, and feet! Bigger horns, broader wings, and a longer tongue, too! Never in my 421 years alive have I felt so enabled! It was about time I said goodbye to looking like a blob anyway. It certainly makes holding my scythe much more convenient."

The Glitch stopped in front of the late Herobrine's castle and glanced casually down at it, a small smile forming in that uncomfortably crooked mouth of its. It watched for only a little while as zombie Pigmen, Blaze, and Wither skeletons alike all scrambled around in fear, all immediately aware that this was the end of the line for them all.

"After Arabaloca, goody-goody Salutem will be all that's left for me to DESTROY!"

In a single swipe, the Glitch's plasma claws shredded through the entire fortress right to left, collapsing the structure in a billowing cloud of blackened particles. Thousands of mob cries went down with it, dying out in a matter of seconds when not a single one of the creatures inside survived the attack. Now that Herobrine's stronghold was demolished, the Glitch continued onward and brushed its remains aside as it strolled, shaking the rough red mountains around it with every step.

After a bit more walking, the Glitch gazed up at the low ceiling and paused for just a moment; then it sucked up all the hot air around it and blew through tight lips, blasting a hole right through the Netherrack roof. With the opening wide enough even for the Glitch, it climbed out of the Nether itself and reentered the upper layer of the Void. Looking back down at the hellish world beneath its feet, the Glitch continued with,

"It's been very nice of Satan to set his pets on the other Spirit brothers; it makes things much, much easier for me, at least! It's a shame, though, considering I'll be ending his life in a couple days on my path to total destruction…"

This time, the Glitch extended its two drippy, skeletal-looking wings and stretched them wide, limbering up for a moment before taking flight. Even with these being the least aerodynamic pair of wings in the world, they had no problem propelling the viral beast upward at great velocities. This trip took a little longer than the other ones thanks to how far away the Overworld was from the other dimensions within the dimension, but in less than a minute its noggin hit bedrock—and broke it, of course. It was funny, because despite how distant it was, the Overworld was barely as big on its y-axis as the Glitch was tall. It was weird considering how infinitely long and wide the world was, though.

"I still can't see the appeal of this dimension; a wasteland of mismatched cubes is nothing special to my gaze." remarked the Glitch as it left the underground in an explosion of dirt and stone.

Billions of gallons of the flowing, crackling black plasma that covered the world around the Glitch spilled into the hole it had just created, though still failed to drain away completely. Underneath the charcoal waves, the recognized that it was now standing in what was once the Bloody Mountains; this was where Markus Cobweb and his lazy, good for nothing friends all hid away after they were ambushed on the run. Of course, every snowy peak that once stood there had been consumed by the flood. Now, the Glitch's glorious black plasma stretched for thousands of blocks in every direction, churning violently with a mind of its own.

"Complete barrenness…" murmured the Glitch, smiling wickedly at the dark, desolate landscape. "They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so that must explain why this appears utterly beautiful to me! No force alive can halt the flow of my plasma; in a matter of days, the entire Minecraft Dimension will be drowned in black as my very first victim on this wonderful trail of destruction! It's impossible that ANYONE could escape the flood's wrath! WITH THE AETHER, END, NETHER, AND VOID UNDER MY CONTROL, NO ONE IS SAFE! MHMHMHMHWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAA!"

With this great cackle, the Glitch charged forward through its new ocean of plasma in a moment of cruel, childish glee, splashing giant waves of the stuff this way and that. Chances of survival were slim as there were only a handful of areas across the entire Overworld that remained untouched at the moment.

And in the Nether, there was but one.

"Hey, Jackery! How're we doing on food?"

"Amya, for the billionth time would you stop calling me by that name?!"

Deep in the fiery depths of Minecraftian Hell, a decent-sized cobblestone house stood at the edge at the edge of a Netherrack hill, almost a hundred blocks over a sea of bubbling magma that's smoke could bring any man to tears…and sweat. Jeff, who was busy digging around in one of their chests, returned to his search and added,

"It looks like we've got rations for another, erm…yeah, I'd say about two more days for the four of us! Three if the zombie doesn't need to eat anything!"

Across the room, Evan's head rose up off the pillow of his bed and he said,

"Man, I can't believe you just went there…"

He was still a little woozy from their last ordeal, so his nut returned to rest on the fluffy white pillow moments later. Jeff rolled his eyes and replied,

"Sorry, sorry…hey, Evan! Make sure you don't fall asleep over there, or that bed's gonna wake up you back up in the most volatile way possible."

Evan merely let out the typical zombie groan in response and closed his eyes, trying to get comfortable again. Not TOO comfortable, however, because his second death would preferably be not by spontaneous combustion.

"When are we going to leave the Nether?" he asked, turning over on his side to stare at the wall. "I mean, zombies' bodies only half work; my sweat glands are broken, so the heat is literally killing me!"

JB, who was sitting on another bed just a few blocks away, glanced over at him and said,

"Evan, if we tried to leave the Nether, well…there's no guarantee we'd teleport somewhere that isn't already covered over by the Glitch's plasma. You were out cold, but the Master Map showed that the waves were moving, like, tens of blocks a second if not more. So even if we land five hundred blocks away, we'd be dead in a few minutes."

Jeff nodded in agreement and added to their conversation with,

"JB's right. Our best shot is to gather up some of the glowstone in the area and go up to the Aether. Technically speaking, I'm still an Aetherian since I died here on the Overworld—only by the Glitch's, well, glitches was I able to survive the fall from there to here—and the viral monster has basically taken over that entire dimension. It's a real nightmare up there, but we'll have a better chance of finding a safe hiding spot. Maybe then we can wait out the war and…hope that Norman can finally win…beat the Glitch's ass and save the whole universe for good this time."

The three of them stayed quiet in the room for some time, none of them having much to really add on the subject. After a near minute of awkward silence, Amya kicked open the wooden door in the far wall and jutted into the room, closing it hastily behind her. Seconds later, a loud series of sickening splats and sucking noises came from the other side of the wall and grabbed their attention. They all stared at each for a few moments before Amya coughed and wiped a stream of sweat from her forehead, seriously winded.

"Holy crap, you guys!" she gasped, turning on her heel and peering out the holes in the wooden door to watch her attackers. "Y'know, those magma cubes sure are a lot more difficult to kill when they're pumped full of bugs! The Glitch gave 'em the ability to absorb blocks, so…yeah, my TNT did absolutely nothing. Not to mention one of them almost ate my sword."

Jeff stood up from his crouched position and walked past the two individuals in bed to reach the door. Lightly moving her aside, he too stared out through the windows and was immediately startled when he saw that every one of the fiery slimes had lost most of their physical features in favor of adopting two solid red eyes like that of the Glitch itself.

"Yeesh…" he breathed, turning away to look at the three teenagers in the room. "Well, if we can't kill them, then…sorry, but we have to move our base again; we'll eventually need to go out for supplies, so staying put just isn't an option."

He jabbed a finger at JB, who immediately stood up in response.

"Yeah?"

"Johnny, I want you to take half of our supplies; I'll take the other, and Amya," he said, giving her an important look, "can you distract the mobs outside while the two of us carry Evan out the back?"

Amya sighed, running her skinny fingers through her hair and clenching it painfully as she considered the situation. After a bit of contemplating, she crossed her arms and stared him right in the eye, transferring her reluctance simply through her gaze.

"Ohhhhhhkay, I guess…I'm normally open to fighting things, but this is the first time I'm unable to blow stuff up! …whatever, life's life I guess!"

As Amya started making her way to the set of cobblestone stairs inside their cobblestone home, JB and Jeff took to their two chests and hurriedly emptied out the contents. Once the rectangular boxes were both devoid of any supplies, they dashed to Evan's bedside and hoisted him up into the air, carrying him to the stairs that Amya had just scaled. Up in front, JB gave Jeff a very brief glance and said,

"So, um, how many times do you think we're going to have to change location? These mobs don't seem to be letting up any time soon, I mean."

Jeff shrugged, though JB likely didn't see him do this, and replied,

"I don't know, buddy. Like I said, I'm just hoping that Norman finds another way to beat the Glitch. If he does that, then the whole world can go back to the way it was before…damn it, I just realized how little I appreciated my old life before the Glitch was in the picture. I don't know what I'd give to be living back in Smelttown with my wife and baby boy…even if it meant having Gina Deadbush as my boss again."

There was a moment of silence between them as they left the house through the roof and started running down the other side of their hill. Then, as they were about to reach flat ground, Jeff had a sudden thought and spoke it aloud without a second thought.

"Huh…I wonder where she ended up."

"No…oh no, indeed!" muttered Farixz, quickly rising up off his throne. "It has happened again…"

His younger brothers Serisdo, Thorvon, and Froace all stopped talking amongst themselves and glanced at him, immediately alerted by his sudden movement. He'd just been sitting there for hours—or minutes, or days, whatever; there was no telling how much time had passed inside the 0th Dimension. Serisdo hovered upward from the ground and met his height, raising a ribbony wing and asked,

"What is it, Farixz? Is it possibly—"

"—the second Discarded." Farixz interjected, folded his own wings together as he began to ponder the situation. "There's something odd about the way the Glitch has been eliminating each of the Discarded. The heroes have but seven days, eight hours, and twenty-four minutes to reach Glowstone National Park and locate Sycallion…and yet, it has decided to wait for several days before claiming the next victim. It's certain that Norman will issue a day completely for recovery, especially after what he has just witnessed."

Farixz turned his head to look at Serisdo, then at his other two spiritual siblings as well.

"The Glitch is running out of time. It still has three of the five Discarded to remove from Norman's life, so what exactly is it trying to do by waiting for so long?"

Thorvon waved a wing in the air, grabbing the others' attention first before continuing with his own declaration.

"I believe it's simply due to Ben's inadequate performance while inside of our friend Adrian. There were more complications with killing off the Discarded than he—and for that matter, even the Glitch—could anticipate. I only wonder how it will go about taking care of the last three."

The four of them stood in a silent square, all contemplating the situation quietly in their minds. Of course, it wasn't like they weren't all reading each other's thoughts anyway, so whether or not they spoke them aloud didn't really matter. After ten hushed seconds of pure thought, Farixz cleared his nonexistent throat and announced,

"I sense Firzon will be arriving soon now that Baal Reincarnate is dead; the seven heroes still standing inside the battlegrounds will be meeting him in a matter of minutes."

Thorvon hummed lightly as a new realization came to him. He glanced around the room at his three brothers and paused for just a second before adding one last report to the conversation.

"Unfortunately, it seems Firzon's greeting will be filled will much…disapproval, of all things. Rather odd emotions considering they just rescued him from demonic enslavement, though it's obvious our Minecraftian and Earthly friends will have a difficult time convincing him to return...a VERY difficult time."

Man, why are the younger Spirits in Between so full of pride? It's caused so, so many problems for the universe! I sure hope they can do something, because otherwise the multiverse itself is literally doomed. :/

Will the plasma flood drown out our heroes before they can reach Glowstone National Park? Will Jeff, Amya, JB, and Evan be able to survive in the slowly-crumbling Nether? And how will Norman and the others be able to send Firzon the Fifth back to the Palace of 0?! Find out NEXT time on 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 [~]