The Beast Ch. 11

Using the same method that we used to find each other, we stumbled upon a very alert, concerned Tempus.

"Manjatu! What did I tell you? What was the first thing I said? Don't split up! And what do you do? Get teleported to the Alternate!"

"What alternate?"

"Humans... alright, we still should be on our way to the center. We've lost a lot of time."

"You better talk on the way."

"Well, I won't be talking very long, because it teleported you close to the middle. We just have to walk for a couple hours. But that's still cutting it short. If Archana is right and your friends are not dead already."

"Lovely."

"Shut up, Mitch."

*********
"Legend says that when the Nexus was first created, as a realm where the code of all players could live and be stored, it was created by a brother and sister. The sister wanted the place to be a safe haven, while the brother wanted this place to be more like an Underworld. As the siblings worked their magic, they constantly fought. Finally, the brother left the sister alone to finish the creation and name it after herself. What the sister did not know was what her brother left behind, and what he had created behind her back. He was building an alternative Nexus where the dead souls of characters killed would reside. No gift of respawning. When they separated from a quarrel, he would make a secret portal and teleport away to his realm, which was named after himself. There, he started experimenting. He created glitches and viruses, and laughed with glee when he set them on mortal players and watch them suffer. He would sometimes disguise himself, lure out an unsuspecting player, and infect them, controlling their mind, body, and the infection inside them. Tell me, have you ever heard of the game AdventureQuest 2?"

"What's AdventureQuest 2?"

"Exactly. The brother completely bugged out the game. It's wiped out from the Nexus entirely. And, from the trouble you've caused me, it looks like Minecraft is his next target. The way he went about AdventureQuest is that he picked a player and modified him. The player was totally overpowered, and he sold an item, promising customers that it would do the same to them. The item carried a virus, that, once equipped, infected the player, making them completely under the Brother's control."

I stopped walking.

"Does that mean-"

Tempus turned around, not daring to make eye contact. "I'm sorry, Soleil. I didn't want to tell you. Your "merchant" is Siphon. And the "item"...well..."

Looking down at the fireball in my hand, it started to all make sense. Seto and I being possessed. Destroying the town. The Brother was showing off his power, ready for customers to come in and do the dirty work for him. I hugged Mitch and sobbed into his hood. I was as good as dead. I was no help. I was infected. I was now a merchant, selling a virus.

******

An hour later, we approached a dome. The center of the Nexus. To our right, we could see the light purple of the sister's domain.

"So what's the plan?" Mitch asked, chewing on some leftover cake from his backpack.

"Crack the code."

"More like a goal than a plan."

"I haven't been here either, Manjatu."

"I don't speak German."

"It's not German."

"Guys... I'm about to go full zombie and you are talking about what language Tempus speaks."

"Right." Tempus said. She walked up to the door of the dome. Pressing her hand to the door, it opened. Her eyes flashed for a moment, but the emotion was masked before I could read it. Surprise? Fear?

We walked into the dome. It was like being in a dark purple cloud of numbers, with a computer in the middle. Tempus went to the computer, and pulled out a piece of metal.

"Character in another game call this a paper clip. It's thin, metal, and not heavy. Perfect for jacking up a coding system."

She went over to the computer and ripped the cover panel off. Inside were wires and panels, all buzzing with electricity.

"You might want to stand back." Tempus said, a maniacal glint in her eyes. "I've been waiting years to do this."

She threw the paper clip in and we watched the coding explode in a cloud of numbers. We thought it was over. Mitch and I hugged and laughed, celebrating our victory while keeping our friends alive. Or so we thought.

"That's cute." said a deep voice behind us. We turned around to see a dark man with white, soul-eating eyes, holding a dagger to the throat of a beautiful woman with light purple hair and a white, flowing dress. She was protesting all she could.

"Brother, please-"

"Shut up, Nexie, I'm having fun. I'm about to crash another game and shut another part of your half down. My slave's immortality is gone now now, but he is still alive and kicking. You're out of time. And I have a servant to punish."

"Umm...Tempus?" Mitch called, scooting towards the locked door out. "I think it would have been nice to mention the Brother's name during that story session! I didn't expect to be meeting Herobrine today!"

"Sorry, didn't exactly think about it! He's not messing up my world."

I had yet to move. I stood there, paralyzed, not with fear, but against my will. Flame was crawling up my sleeve, licking my face. I could feel my muscles twisting and contracting. Herobrine laughed, a cold, deep, excruciatingly painful laugh. He released Nexus, and I saw Mitch and Tempus run to her out of the corner of my eye. He was toying with me.

"Well, if it isn't my little merchant. It pleases me to know that you are alive and well. " A shiver rushed down my spine as I tried not to cry out from his invisible torture.

"What are you doing to my friends?" I demanded, displaying strength I wasn't even sure was real.

"I think you already know, sunshine. You saw it for yourself. And you can't resist forever. I already own part of you." His sinister smile turned into a grin.

The pain became even more unbearable. I started feeling knives stabbing my gut, but I would look down and there would be no wounds. He would put in my mind a vision of my leg being cut off, and I would experience all the pain and dizziness, but my body would be perfectly fine. I screamed for him to stop, but that only provoked him. He was planting images of Sky, Cupquake, Jerome, Seto, everyone I cared about, dying cruel, bloody deaths.

When Herobrine seemed done with his fun, he reached to take my code from my soul. I closed my eyes, accepting my death. But I felt his body fall away, and I opened my eyes.

Nexus was standing at a distance, holding Herobrine in a beam of energy.

"Go home, brother. Playtime is over." And he disappeared. Nexus turned to Mitch. "Are you ready?"

"What's going on? I couldn't hear you over my own screams."

"You need to get back to your own world. Siphon is mortal now, but the infection has already taken over the squids. Archana's vision is about to take affect, if you don't stop him in a few hours. I need some code from the world to make a portal, and since you girls have extra abilities to fight Siphon, Mitch has volunteered."

"You're dying? No! I can't let you do that!"

"He won't die. Once I use him, he will return to the camp, where Archana and Kevin are. He can monitor you and send you chat messages. I will personally help him." She smiled at us sympathetically, like a guardian angel."

Mitch grabbed my hands. "I'll respawn when he's dead. You can do this. I believe in you."

"But I don't want to leave you!"

"Just for a few hours. Then I'll be back." Mitch nodded to Nexus. "They're ready."

Nexus gathered energy in her plams, facing the Canadian.

"Three, two, one!"

The last thing I saw before I was teleported was Mitch's body exploding in a ball of light.