[~Prologue: Pandora's Vault Prison Escape~]
An arc of flame lashed across the weeping obsidian ground, scorching it as it did, while a green humanoid creature with a hideous, marred visage, a gaping mouth and black pits for eyes winced.
Adorned on the creature's head was a crown and his body was covered from head to toe in black Netherite Armour—some of the strongest armour in all of the Greater Dreamlands, enhanced with magical enchantments to add to the protection that the armour provided.
The creature's opponent wielded a Netherite sword, coated in fire and with an edge so sharp it could cut through large chunks of mountains in a single swing—a devastating weapon indeed, and one that not even the armour-wearing creature could fend off against for too long.
The creature's Netherite sword was not as heavily enhanced as its opponents, but that hardly mattered. For in the creature's mind, this fight would be easy, seeing as its opponent wasn't wearing the same armour as it was.
The creature lifted its sword above its head, aiming to strike horizontally and end his wretched fight with the escaped prisoner of Pandora's Vault, as well as to find the far more high-profile prisoner that had made his daring escape with this one.
The sword came down, falling faster than any normal person should've been able to react to. But his opponent, the creature knew, was not an ordinary person.
With a quick vertical strike of his own, the opponent was not only able to deflect the attack but due to the waves of fire lashing off of the blade, he was still able to hit his opponent, causing the creature to stagger, gasping in shock. Closing the distance, the prisoner escapee lunged forward, reared his fist back, and punched the creature right in its vapid face.
The creature staggered once more, black blood trickling from where its nose might have been, before having to roll just out of the way to avoid a downward slash from his opponent, grunting all the while.
The prisoner escapee didn't give his opponent the time to recoup its balance, as he wildly slashed at the creature with successive blows, each slash cutting across the armour, weakening it, and causing cracks to form, before the would-be Warden jumped back to avoid a devasting kick, which would have surely knocked him into the wall.
"You will not be leaving this place, Technoblade!" The creature hissed, doubling the grip on the hilt of his sword, as the crimson-eyed prisoner frowned, eyes burning with the will to push onward.
"That's what you think, Sam," Technoblade rumbled, lunging forward as he reared his sword back. Sam drew up a shield to prevent the thrust from piercing through his weakened armour. The result was the shield being destroyed, and Sam just barely parried the following vertical slash from Technblade, the arching flame coming off of his blade burning Sam's face just enough to make him stumble into the wall.
Sam growled in pain, thrusting his blade forward, striking his target true as his blackened blade punctured a hole through Technoblade's stomach, ichor trailing down his tattered white blouse.
Technoblade bit back the urge to grunt, slamming the pummel of his sword into Sam's face, forcing him to let go of his weapon, and to fall to the ground. Without any hesitation, Technoblade drew the two-foot-long blade out of his stomach, wincing at the pain for just a moment.
The piglin, demon, human hybrid weighed his options. He was wounded, but not enough to forgo the fight for his freedom. He also knew that the person who was relying on him was probably getting impatient.
Sam, now on the ground, stared up at Technoblade who now wielded both swords in both of his hands with a burning fury in his eyes. He sheathed Sam's sword on his back, before bringing out a red potion—a healing potion—and drank it back, the wound in his stomach healing over in a matter of seconds.
Sam knew that his only chance at winning this was to lunge forward, grab his sword off of Technoblade's back, and continue the fight. Off in the distance, he could make out the visage of a white mask, the perpetual smile plastered on it enough to send shivers down Sam's spine.
If he got out… The Greater Dreamlands would be put into peril once again. Everything had been his fault, and now he was mere moments away from being released.
It was Sam's duty as Warden to make sure he never made it out. So he had a choice to make. And it wasn't hard to pick the choice he knew would save the most lives. Technoblade was a threat, but he was far worse.
Drawing out his bow, enchanted with the same flame that Technoblade's sword had been, in the time it took to blink, Sam drew back the bow's string, loaded an arrow, and fired over Technoblade's shoulder.
The arrow flew just past Technoblade's face, scratching his cheek and leaving a small burn mark streaked across it, and struck its target true, straight in the chest, making the mask-wearing individual stagger back and shout in pain.
Technoblade's nostrils flared with anger, as the would-be escapee roared. He raised his sword into the air in a downward striking position, as Sam's eyes widened. It happened faster than he could block with his greaves. The Netherite blade thrust down and into Sam's chest, shattering his chest plate and going through his heart, causing Sam to sputter his blackened blood out of his mouth.
Sam's eyes immediately dimmed, the black pits became darker, and his whole body went limp, the fragments of his Netherite chest plate lying around him in his blood, looking like the fallen warrior he had been.
Technoblade stared down at the corpse, the blackened blood pooling around Sam as his chest raised and lowered with quickened breaths, all the while he sheathed his blade back to his hip.
The fight had been far from easy. Sam had been no pushover with the blade, and it showed in how he fought. Though his style was defensive, it was more than enough to put the piglin, demon, human hybrid on edge.
Technoblade looked over his shoulder and saw the man he had been helping to break out of this blasted place pull the arrow he had been struck with out of his chest, whilst tipping his mask up and over his mouth to drink a healing potion to recover from the wound.
"Are you alright, Dream?" Technoblade asked as the man in question grunted, wiping the excess liquid away from his lips, putting the mask down back over his face as he coughed.
"Could be better," The man quipped, leaning against the wall, fatigued from the actual escape. His body was thin, and he looked malnourished. He was dressed in a green hoodie with a pair of brown leather gloves, a pair of black pants—not to be confused with Netherite Armour—and a pair of Netherite boots.
Over his body was a longbow, along with a quiver filled with enchanted poison arrows and a Netherite dagger on his hip—the only real weaponry he had on him other than that were a few splash potions of harming, along with a stick he could use to cast some form of magic—a kind of magic he had tried and failed to use whilst they were in the prison due to his weakened body.
The man was a wreck, and was useless in a fight—at least at the moment—so he had to play the role of Damsel in distress. Not a role that any man would've liked to be in. "At least Sam's dead…"
"For now. I don't know how many lives he had left. For all I know he could come back at any moment," Technoblade replied as Dream scoffed.
"He had one life left. That was his last one, he's Dead, Techno," Dream refuted, standing up with the help of the wall next to him. "Now let's get to that Nether Portal before the others are alerted. Everyone's going to feel Sam's death and come rushing to the prison to scope things out," Dream said as Technoblade frowned.
"You've made an attempt before, haven't you? Where's the portal then?" The only other one here can be activated from the outside. Unless you can make another one," Technoblade stated as Dream nodded, motioning Technoblade to follow him back where they had come.
The warrior had no idea what it was that Dream was planning—it was really hard to tell on the best of days, and impossible to tell on the worst of them. Whatever it was though, despite the limp, Dream had walked with the confidence of someone who had done this trick over a thousand times.
"We need to go somewhere to recoup, but anywhere in the Greater Dreamlands is a no-go due to the bounty we'll no doubt have on our heads thanks to Tommy and Tubbo," Dream began as they continued down the winding halls of the prison.
It was built like a maze, meant to confuse and trap anyone within. The Warden of the prison obviously had short-cuts he could take, and could use those to ensnare those who even so much as attempted to flee. But seeing as Sam was dead, they now only had to worry about everyone else catching up to them.
Be that as it may, Technoblade was still confused, seeing as Dream was speaking total nonsense. The Greater Dreamlands were separated from the rest of the world beyond. It would take a miracle to get off of The Greater Dreamlands.
"I don't suppose you have a way of getting us out of The Greater Dreamlands, then?" Technoblade asked, narrowing his crimson eyes at the back of Dream, who chuckled.
"I wouldn't have offered if I didn't, would I? All I have to do is get his attention," Dream said as Technoblade raised yet another eyebrow. Whose attention? And how? They were in a prison, with the only other people inside the place being the corpse of Sam—which if Technoblade were to guess was now nothing but dust in the wind by now—and himself and Dream.
"What are you talking about, Dream?" Technoblade asked as Dream said nothing. He simply continued down the hallway, before making a sharp right. The man clad in green stopped dead in his tracks once he turned right, before looking over his shoulder.
"Stay back," Dream said, before grabbing his staff out of his inventory. The staff in question was large, made of wood with several carved patterns deep within the wood. The patterns looked like something Technoblade would've seen inscribed within Dessert Temples within the vast sands of The Greater Dreamlands. The only difference was that they seemed to be representative of entities not native to this world.
And that was when Technoblade realized just what exactly Dream was attempting to do. A small smirk weasled its way to the piglin, demon, human hybrid's face. Of course, Dream would call upon him to get the man out of his current woes.
The staff glowed a vibrant green, as a magical aura warped its way around the man. It whisped off of him like fire, and it even looked the part too. The only thing that it didn't share with fire was the burning or heat. It was pure magic, the same magic that could be honed by witches with their potions, only far more potent.
Wielding magic within The Greater Dreamlands was forbidden. It would give those like Dream an upper hand that most wouldn't. Being a Magi was rare, and to be born one was even more so. It was why this world was so disconnected from the outside world. The Greater Dreamlands would've stood no chance against the newly changed and morphed world that was The Overworld.
Dream slammed his staff down on the ground, causing a wave of magic to surge upward, almost like he was creating a portal. The green energy swirled into a single focal point, before expanding outward into what looked like a black hole, though it was far less destructive.
As a result of the portal's creation, a massive, pale white hand reached out and grabbed both of them, just as the sound of hundreds of footsteps began to echo in from behind them. Technoblade was able to glance back, and witness Tommy, Tubbo, Ranboo, and a whole bunch of other people stare in pure disbelief at the scene before them.
And just like that, Technoblade and Dream were whisked away, into lands unknown, by The One Above All.