Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the 50th chapter of Hourglass!
Holy buckets, we're at 50 chapters! I'm close to beating the record set by The Glitch—and those were way shorter, too! Of course, this also means that we really are in the final stretch for this story. Since there's only a month and a half until its conclusion, Hourglass is readying itself for retirement. It's gonna be soooooo bittersweet for me, I can tell you that. *le sad smile*
Replies to Reviews...
Marshman101: The Glitch did that at the end of The Glitch during the final battle, actually! I knew it would be a really cool concept, so I used it way back in 2013 already. XD
SansThePunnist: Pffffffft...I got another chapter done in less than two weeks, so at least I'm getting better! ^^'
THEFIREKING: Plummeting down a bottomless pit, I'm afraid. It just put too much stress on me to keep up two different stories at the same time. Plus, all of the people in that story are gone now, so...it just made me sad to write for it. :(
Herewegoherewegoherewegoherewegoherewego! I'm tryin' to get aaaaaall my creative juices flowing as I get into writing each of these chapters! I'm gonna end this story...this SERIES, in fact, on a great note! Audience or not! :D For those of you who stick around even to this day, though, you know what I'm going to say. ;)
Now, let the story commence!
Chapter 50: Back on the Move
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAHAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
Jacque stood low on the ground of the throne room—which was newly repaired after his lord's previous rage—and watched in silence as the Glitch threw a fit of joy in its seat, claws curled maniacally as it bellowed with laughter. He knew it was better to wait until the cackling subsided rather than questioning it, for the last time that was tried he almost got erased from the multiverse. Ten seconds later, roughly, the Glitch's head lowered as it started to calm down a bit.
"It worked, Jacque! The probe went in to the palace perfectly! And now…MHMHMHMHMWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"
He almost took this as his cue to talk, but the Glitch continued a second later.
"NOW, Jacque, I've not only advanced my plan by three days, but I've taken all the bravery and feelings of power away from the Spirits In Between! The very creators of the multiverse! Ohhhhhh, their grief and their FEAR is so, so tasty! Just as delicious as the panic that our gloooorius heroes are feeling now!"
The Glitch quickly flicked the air, creating a ripple. It opened slowly to show a group of people gathered in the blocky plains, a smoldering city in the near distance: Norman and company, obviously.
"Jacque, come! Just look at them all! Just, just LOOK! It's absolutely wonderful!"
Jacque popped up from his squashed position and flapped his wings, quickly ascending to the same level as the hole. Once he could see properly, he watched as the seven Minecraftians scrambled in and out of their home, breaking everything down in a fever and yelling at each other; obviously, they had realized what just happened and were going to leave immediately.
"It's certainly a mess, Lord Glitch." Jacque commented, glancing up at the black beast.
"THE MOST HILARIOUS OF MESSES, JACQUE! They're like little ants, scurrying left and right, desperately taking down their little home with their little blocky hands! Ahhh, Jacque! THIS is what it's all about! THIS is why I play the game!"
Jacque floated gradually to the floor in front of the throne, replying on his way down.
"It must be fantastic, Lord Glitch. All this power, I mean!"
The Glitch's smile faded just a little at that. It lifted its gnarled hand to eyelevel and curled its claws, slowly giving the rest of his humanoid body a good look.
"Yes, it is…but you know that I still have two more forms left to take. Salutem and the Arabaloca are the two missing pieces to my glorious, nigh-perfect body! It took long enough for me to get my hands on the other pieces; the fact that, among all the dimensions in existence, the guardians of THIS one happened to be some of the weakest, made it more difficult as I needed three of them. Thankfully, the Balance Core—the second piece—was of equal power to the others made by the Mastermind for the rest of the multiverse, so I needed just one! Quite honestly, I'm unsure of which one I'll take first: Arabaloca or Salutem. I'd find great satisfaction in destroying my goody-goody inferior, but Arabaloca might reach this dimension before I can find him!"
The Glitch bent over in its seat and picked up Jacque with no warning, staring intensely into his minion's eyes with a look of dangerous glee. Its grin widening yet, it declared,
"Jacque, this is all so exciting! In a matter of days—Minecraftian days, at that—I'll be three-quarters of the way to reaching my perfect form! That crusty, ancient Spirit magic that keeps me from lingering in other dimensions will shatter upon my command and I'll be able to sweep the ENTIRE MULTIVERSE OFF ITS FEET! ONE DIMENSION AT A TIME FOR ALL ETERNITY! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
In its fit of manic laughter, the Glitch haphazardly dropped Jacque to the floor and leaned back in its throne to gloat. Jacque hastily unstuck himself from the ground after hitting it with a loud splat, ruffling his plasma body; even as the right-hand man to the Glitch, the sound and magnitude of that laugh sent shivers up his metaphorical spine. After a whole minute of this crazed cackling, the Glitch straightened up in its seat and gave a metallic sigh, folding its rippling black arms.
"Of course, I can't just sit around and watch until the days are up! There's still three of the Discarded left to murder! And since Ben failed to perform his duties correctly…perhaps I should, well…"
Jacque looked up suddenly at the Glitch, its crimson eyes large now.
"You don't mean…put me inside of Mr. Grass? …do you?"
The Glitch's smile returned a second later, somehow even creepier than before, and it muttered,
"Not quite, no. I have someone else for you to possess this time. I'm not just interested in breaking Norman's spirits, you know. Perhaps I should try my luck on another subject!"
Jacque paused, blinked, and tried hard to think of who it could possibly be referencing. There were so many different heroes that were a part of this final quest, but which one did his lord have its big red eye on?
"Then…who do you have in mind?" he asked, now legitimately curious.
The Glitch too gave a pause, drawing it out for dramatic effect before slowly turning its head to look back down at its minion. Then, with a painfully crooked grin, it said,
"Mr. Ironblock and his friends, it seems, haven't yet been found by the plasma waves in the Nether. I believe they've had it easy for long enough now, don't you agree?"
After finally recovering from his injuries, Evan was able to walk around and help Jeff, JB, and Amya with any more jobs in or out of their cobblestone house. Today happened to be a supply-gathering day, which he had secretly been hoping would pass before he was healed up—so he didn't have to also deal with the glitched mobs outside. He was just glad that he himself wasn't becoming bugged since he too was technically a mob.
"Do we have to, Jeff…?" he groaned, glancing sideways out the one-block opening in the wall; a zombie Pigman stared at him from a distance with great distaste. "What if we all get killed? I just got better, too!"
Jeff stepped forward and put a hand on Evan's head, noogying the zombie kid for a moment and saying,
"You're a soldier, aren't you? C'mon, be brave!" he chuckled.
Evan grimaced, pushing him away and replying,
"Yeah, but I was always the worst one! You of all people should know this; you saw me in battle! I'm a coward! I'm a wimp! I'm a…um…"
Across the room on the staircase, Amya shouted,
"A grade-A noob?"
Evan pointed at her with a tight smile, declaring,
"Exactly!"
JB walked calmly over to stand against the nearby wall, lifting a hand.
"Evan could stay here with me and organize the supplies." he offered, gesturing at the stack of chests in the corner of the room. "And if it's any consolation, I'm not the greatest fighter either!"
Jeff repositioned his iron sword over his shoulder and gave Evan a good look, one eyebrow raised as he contemplated what to do. Considering the magma cubes out there were absorbing Block attacks, surprise projectiles like arrows would honestly still be the smartest choice. He eventually shrugged, shook his head, and said,
"Sorry, bud! We need your archer skills."
Evan inwardly sighed, painful nerves settling in his belly the moment he thought of fighting glitched Nether mobs; what horrendous abilities did Ghasts have now?! Nevertheless, he found himself standing atop their cobblestone home a minute later, Amya on his right and Jeff on his left. He glanced up at their leader with an apprehensive look, proceeding to grumble,
"So, like…what if this just ends up like our last mission? Y'know, where we're frickin two blocks from death every ten seconds?"
Jeff patted his shoulder in a fatherly sort of way, gesturing out towards the mob-dotted red landscapes ahead.
"Evan, we're just going to get some Ghast tears and rotten flesh…I suppose a Lavafall tongue if we're lucky, too. If we can brew up a poison-remedy potion, we'll have enough bacon to last us for weeks! Alright?"
The cowardly zombie gave an airy sigh, turning his head to look straight again.
"Well then! I think as long as I don't see a single one of those Lavafalls, I'll be good! Yeah!"
Lavafalls were some of the most frightening and elusive mobs in the entire Nether. Hiding in vertical columns of falling magma across the Nether, they were only visible when the spout severed in the middle and showed a pair of rocky red teeth. Needless to say, if you spotted one it was probably too late: "Scaring Cringy 10-Year-Olds Since 2318."
To occupy herself, Amya had been tugging at her newly-crafted orange t-shirt—to match her eyes! Finally, after finding a hundred different way to play with a single article of clothing, she just couldn't stand it anymore and bounced up in the air.
"Jeff, let's gooooo!" she shouted, tightly gripping the two little TNT blocks in her hands. "I'm ready to take revenge on those magma blocks! Especially that one that tried to eat my sword—the I LITERALLY just got."
Jeff rolled his eyes, setting them forward again when he was finished and promptly taking a step forward.
"Well, c'mon then! I can't imagine those plasma waves are limited to the Overworld, so it's likely we don't have a lot of time anyway!"
Evan scurried forward to follow his new friends, speedily catching up to them as they started to descend the great Netherrack hill. While he was jumping from block to block behind them, his thoughts turned sour as he thought again of mutated Ghasts.
"I bet their fireballs have a boomerang effect or something…" he muttered, gripping his bow tighter as he followed Jeff and Amya into the unknown.
"Let's go, come on! Keep on hacking away at that roof, Carol!"
"Norman! Where do you want me to put these excess potion supplies?!"
"Hey, HEY! Don't put that away, that's my sword!"
These were the sounds of a group of people desperate to get on the move. Whatever just happened to the world around them—Norman assumed it was the Glitch's doing—had caused them to lose exactly three days' time in their journey. And since their final destination was about 52 hours away…
"We have LITERALLY no time, you guys! We need to leave!"
Adrian snatched up his banjo out of the dirt and leapt back towards the rest of his group, shouting,
"Sorry, sorry! Almos' left it!
After tearing down their temporary home in record time, our seven protagonists finally were able to get a move on to their final destination: Glowstone National Park. Ten seconds within starting their speed-walk towards the oncoming forest, Astrid let out a loud sigh, paused for a moment, and then said,
"So! Looks like we've got one more Unforgiven Spawn left to kill, huh? What do you think it'll look like?"
Beside her, Auconi's face contorted into a nasty grimace. He promptly replied with,
"How 'bout we don't even talk about that right now?"
Astrid took a sharp intake of breath, immediately feeling the discomfort creeping into the air around them.
"Ohhhkay then! Anyway, how long did you say this trip was going to take?" she added, clapping her hands together and glancing over at Norman.
Norman paused for a moment, suddenly blanking on the exact numbers, but Bailey piped up the next second in his place.
"A little over two days, Astrid. Two and a quarter!"
Trying to use what few math skills she still had, Astrid tried to figure out how much time they'd have left once they actually got to Glowstone. It took her nearly twenty seconds, but she did get it!
"We're only gonna have, like, a little over a day! To find Sycallion, save him from the last Unforgiven Spawn, and also not die brutally in the process! We're so screwed!"
Norman gritted his teeth and looked at her while he sped along, shouting,
"We are not screwed! We've…at least, I'VE worked so hard and so long towards beating the Glitch for good, and I'm not giving up here! It's taken away my wife, my son, my friends, and almost took away my parents—and will easily do all that even more if we don't stay determined! All this time, I know the Glitch has been removing all the people that matter the most to stop me from moving on in this long, drawn-out pain of a journey, but I am NEVER giving in! If there's the possibility of bringing back every single victim of the Glitch,"
He suddenly turned to Auconi and said,
"Like Darcy!"
Then to Adrian and Astrid, who were jogging one in front of the other.
"Or Kelsey!"
And finally, to Bailey. They exchanged a surprisingly emotional glance, locking eyes as they instantaneously thought of their lost comrades.
"So many of our friends, Bailey…"
He then returned his attention to the forest ahead, continuing with his little speech.
"And all the other billions of its victims, even the ones outside of the Minecraft Dimension, who were robbed of their right to pursue happy, wonderful lives! As long as that slim chance remains, I'll follow it to the very end! We've already dealt with a hellfire-spewing horse hybrid and…and whatever the last Unforgiven Spawn was supposed to be! We just have to hold on long enough to take care of one more monster! Despite this unbelievable time change, despite how tired we'll all likely be by the time we reach Glowstone National Park, despite ALL the hardships we've faced thus far…can we do it?"
Almost everyone was smiling now; talk of bringing back lost friends and ending their dreary quest were really pumping them up. Norman was right! They only had one more of Satan's pets to take care of and then Arabaloca could be snatched back by the Spirits! And everything would be over!
"Hell yeah, we can!" Astrid declared, piercing the air dramatically with her sword. "Let's kick some devilish butt!"
Immediately, Astrid sped up in her walk and sprinted forward, leaping into the air with a heartfelt cry. When she landed, she got up heroically and joined the rest of the group as they caught up.
"Er, Astrid?" Adrian muttered, raising his pan for her attention.
"Yeah?" she said, turning her head around to look back at him with a big ol' grin.
"We do have two days of walking t'get through first."
Her smile faded slightly as the information was reestablished in her brain. She faced forward again and pursed her lips, feeling a bit awkward.
"Ah. Right."
Vanessa bounced around in the Mastermind's arms as he came to a jogging stop. He set her limp body down on the golden shore before the moonlit ocean and sat beside her, crossing his lanky legs together. He set his twisty staff on the ground, Ridere and Clamatis uncurling from each other to lounge in the sand with open mouths. With a small smile, the jester wove his gloved fingers in Vanessa's mess of red hair and sighed.
"If we weren't currently being chased by fatal flows of pitch plasma, I'd be able to appreciate how innocent she looks when she's all tired out." he muttered, laughing slightly.
He turned to Salutem, who had settled atop the water to rest; considering his many other impressive powers, breaking the physics of non-solid blocks was a pretty casual action for him.
"Salutem, how much time do you suppose we have before the waves catch up to us again? You were originally made from the stuff, so I figured you would know best!"
Salutem's icy blue eyes shimmered just like the water he stood on; just as his colleague had asked, he was surveying the distance to gauge how much time they had before they needed to flee yet again.
"As far as I can see, we have roughly four Minecraftian hours left before we must go…and in that time, I'm going to attempt to contact Farixz and find out what is going on with the environment. Something tells me the changing skies had quite a bit to do the energy surge that passed through the dimension."
The sun and moon pupils of the Mastermind's eyes spun around in a moment of sudden recognition; he tilted his head, eyebrows raised as he said,
"You felt that too, huh? I suppose it did feel different from the usual spurts that come from the plasma waves. It felt…all-encompassing, if that makes any sense."
"Yes, it does. I have very little doubt that Arabaloca has changed course. Wherever it has moved to, it is now much closer than it was before. I'm not sure how close, exactly, but unnervingly so."
The Mastermind's lip curled up a little and he gave a nervous giggle, reaching over with his free arm to pet Ridere's snow-white head.
"Would you say that also means your evil twin is actually closer to getting another of its desired…objects? The only one left besides you?"
Salutem let out a low-pitched buzz—perhaps a sigh—and closed his eyes again. As he began to concentrate his energy, he murmured,
"Yes, that would be true. Now, however, I am going to do just what I said I would do. Until I have solid confirmation from Farixz, I will try and keep a positive outlook…no matter how difficult that disgusting black patch of space makes it for me…"
The Mastermind nodded, uttering a quiet "hm" and respectfully giving Salutem the space he needed to think. He lowered his head to his young trainee and breathed softly through his nose, letting a bittersweet grin return to him. In a brief moment of care, he even felt a spark of Rexum's soul come from inside her while she slept.
"Rexum, I swear I'll do my part keep this dimension safe. If it means I can help pass on your legacy through this little dork, I'll do it all."
Well, it looks like we're entering the final stretch, guys! Three days, one Spirit, one Unforgiven Spawn. Sure, things might have taken a turn for the worst for our heroes, but they ALWAYS pull through somehow! Even when they really do lose everything, like...like at the end of VOiD.
Sometimes I look back and wonder to myself, "What on earth was I thinking back there?" XD
Will Norman, Bailey, Adrian, Astrid, Auconi, Carol, and Sabrina be able to make it to Glowstone National Park in time? Will Sycallion perish in the monstrous clutches of the lone Unforgiven Spawn? How will the Mastermind, Salutem, and Vanessa be able to escape those relentless plasma waves that are tearing the dimension apart? And what sorts of terrifying and deadly glitches will the Nether crew encounter in their quest for supplies? These questions will, um, probably be answered in the Chapter 51 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 [~]