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Chapter Text

"The strongest will win no matter what."

Wemmbu wasn't really sure if he expected to win. He didn't know if he was truly the strongest. But he didn't expect it to go this way.

He knew he was low on resources. But with his armor so low on durability, he hadn't even thought about conserving pearls.

But as he fell into the void, out of pearls, no way to escape the situation, he thought of the bitter irony that it would end this way.

Why had he been so determined to kill Parrot? He should have just run when he had the chance.

He checked his inventory again. Nope. Nothing that could save him.

As he fell into the void, it became colder and colder. The wind whipped past him as the last light from the lava faded into the distance.

What about Eggchan? He should have rescued him from the end sooner. He just thought he had more time. And he never really got the chance to explain to anyone the real reason he hid his identity.

It was too late to do anything now. There would be no second chances.

In the near-pitch-black, just before the cold became unbearable and he started taking damage, Wemmbu could almost swear he saw an arrow of slow falling just miss him and fall past into the abyss…

…But what he didn't expect was to wake up and open his eyes again.

"Huh?" For a second Wemmbu didn't even believe what he was seeing. As he opened his eyes, the bright light of spawn during the day was a sharp contrast to the pitch black of the void. He almost didn't want to believe that what had just happened was real.

But it had to be. Because he was back at spawn. And dying had felt so real. Falling into the void was a type of pain you couldn't imagine unless you had been through it.

"Did I just… respawn?" He couldn't believe it. Everyone knew the server was hardcore. You got one chance and that was it. He had never heard of this happening before.

But nevermind about that. He hardly had any gear left in his ender chest, and he needed to worry about escaping spawn and re-gearing. Wemmbu ran past a few random players, who didn't even seem to recognize him as he passed them. So, they were completely new to the server then. He was glad of that, he was pretty sure if they had recognized him he would have been killed again or taken hostage.

He spotted a wither further up the path, and turned back to try and avoid it. But as he turned around, he ran directly into a random player with no armor-

-and he phased right through them.

"What was that?" He reached out again, watching bewildered as his hand went right through them. They didn't even seem to realize he was there.

"Hello? Can you see me?" Wemmbu asked, but there was no response. "Great."

So he hadn't respawned after all. He had just come back as a ghost somehow. Maybe it would have been better if he had died. Wemmbu racked his brain, trying to think of what to do.

He thought of most ghost stories. Ghosts didn't just appear for no reason. They had unfinished business, something or someone in their life they needed to resolve.

"Eggchan." Wemmbu thought out loud. For a second he felt a little embarrassed at thinking out loud like that, but he remembered no one could hear him anyway. But if there was any situation from his life that needed resolving, he needed to save Eggchan from the end.

Wemmbu entered the end portal closest to spawn. It wasn't like he had to worry about being ambushed, since no one could see him anyway. Even with the closest portal, it had been a long trek, since he didn't have an elytra or trident to aid him. After he had arrived at the location of the heavily griefed stronghold, he started to panic that there was no visible entrance and he couldn't break blocks. But he found that if he concentrated, he could phase right through them and straight into the stronghold.

Entering the end, Wemmbu came face to face with the memorable ancient debris door. It was crazy that no one had stolen the ancient debris yet, what with the end being overrun with bandits. He started to phase through the blocks, finding it significantly harder than phasing through stone. Maybe the difficulty depended on how hard the block was to mine?

Getting through the door, he hurried to find Eggchan. As expected, he was still hibernating in the same spot as usual.

"Egg! Can you see me?"

Eggchan didn't respond. He didn't even move one bit. If he had heard him, he would be awake by now.

Wemmbu's shoulders slumped. He had hoped that this would be the answer, but it didn't seem like it. And even though Egg was a scientific researcher or something who might know what was going on, Wemmbu doubted he'd get much information out of him in the current situation. Eggchan hardly even woke up anymore unless it was to talk to Wemmbu.

Disappointed, Wemmbu headed back to the exit portal. But before he left, he tested something quickly. He held his had against the bedrock, trying to phase through it. Nothing happened. It seemed his theory about harder to mine blocks being harder to phase through was correct.

If he was right about everything else, that would be a problem.

You see, when Wemmbu was on his way to the stronghold, he had noticed a complete lack of ghosts. He walked through the entirety of spawn, and yet not a single person recognized him. He had killed a lot of people, so if there were other ghosts walking around they would definitely have noticed him.

But if there were no other ghosts, then that meant he was one of the only ones. And there was one place he went recently, that may have been the reason why.

The dimension under the nether bedrock clearly held many secrets. And the group of players he encountered there who knew how to break blocks seemed like they were in some kind of cult with access to forbidden knowledge. If anyone knew why he came back as a ghost, it would be them.

Unfortunately, if he couldn't phase through bedrock, there was very little chance he could get into their dimension in the first place. Worse, if he got in there, it would be almost impossible for him to get back out. He didn't want to end up like one of those echoes, wandering a lost dimension for eternity.

So instead, he wandered everywhere else. At first, he would almost forget he had died. Someone would look in his direction, and for a second he would think they were looking at him. It surprised him less and less each time he would see them gaze right through him.

After a while, he started to wish he had just died in the void. What was even the point of him being here?

Wemmbu wished he had never stepped on that gold block.

For a while, it was kind of nice to not be seen. To walk into a crowded room, and have no one spare a glance in his direction. When he had been invis, it had been similar, but now he didn't have to worry about splashing invis, and he didn't have to worry that anyone he grew close to would abandon him if they knew who he really was.

That was the only upside.

After a week or so, he grew restless. After two weeks, he started to follow people around. At first he would just pick a random player, but after a while, he became curious about what specific people did on the server. He didn't really have any friends on the server except Eggchan, so instead he decided to follow around his enemies.

At first, he started following around Boosfer, but he was just so annoying that Wemmbu got sick of it within an hour. Then, he followed around Parrot for a while, then JadenMAN.

Now he was stalking LettuceK, who was currently leading a group of lawmen. Wemmbu wasn't quite sure where they were going, but they clearly had a plan. He followed them for a few minutes before he started to recognize the area, and realized that they were near Flame's base.

"Come out here and surrender yourself to the law or we'll have to force you to come with us!" LettuceK announced.

"Bro, seriously, this again?" Flame said, exhasperated as he walked out of his house. "How many players did you bring thi-"

Flame stopped short of finishing his sentence, and looked directly at Wemmbu.

"Wemmbu?"

"You can see me?"

Chapter Text

"How are you even alive?" Flame asked, bewildered. "I saw the death message. I watched you fall into the void. Did you stasis out at the last second?"

"Flame, there's no one there." LettuceK said. "Who are you even talking to?"

"What do you mean no one is there?" Flame grew more frustrated. "Wemmbu is right there. How do you not see him?"

"How can you see me?" Wemmbu asked. "I died. You're the only person who's been able to see me."

"What kind of prank is this? Are you all playing a trick on me? Wemmbu is right there!" Flame started crashing out.

LettuceK looked like he wasn't buying it. "FlameFrags, do you think I'm stupid? Wemmbu is dead. You're clearly trying to plead insanity so you can evade justice." He turned to the group of twenty or so lawmen. "Get him!"

"Alright then, bro." Flame put on his blindfold that he always used during fights, although everyone knew he could see through it just fine. He splashed his potions, and pulled out his sword.

As battle erupted and the lawmen went after Flame, Wemmbu stood off to the side. Flame kept glancing over at him, not sure if what he was seeing was real. Wemmbu realized as he stood there that if Flame was really the only one who could see him, he would also be his only way of getting brought back to life.

"Flame, you need to help me. I know we've had our differences, but I need you to help me get brought back to life." Wemmbu tried his hand at pleading for help, but he wasn't sure if he was doing a good job, since you know, usually he just maced people into doing what he wanted.

"Shut up. I'm trying to fight." Flame grumbled.

"Flame, please. I need your help. You can deal with this situation later."

Flame ignored him.

"Come on!" Wemmbu shouted. He waved his hands in front of Flame's face, although he was pretty sure if Flame could see through the blindfold he could see through that as well. Flame clearly knew Wemmbu was there, but refused to acknowledge him.

Wemmbu realized that Flame would probably continue to ignore him. As Flame continued to tear through the group of lawmen with his sword and axe, Wemmbu realized that there was only one way he would be able to get Flame to pay attention to him. He would have to use Boosfer tactics.

"You know, this fight would be a lot easier if you used a mace." Wemmbu said.

"Shut up, bro." Flame grumbled, losing his focus. He swapped to a totem just in time for one of the lawmen to hit him with a fatal blow. His totem popped.

"L. L. You suck at this, man, you're not the strongest on the server." Wemmbu continued to ragebait.

"Like, actually shut up bro. I can't lock in with you yapping like this!" Flame was losing his patience, unable to concentrate on the fight.

"Me?" Lettuce asked. "I didn't say anything."

"Not you! Wemmbu!" Flame said, frustrated. His helmet broke, cracking in half and falling off his head.

"Flame, Wemmbu is dead. You're not getting out of your sentence by pretending to be insane." Lettuce said. He whacked Flame in the head with the blunt end of his axe, knocking him out. "You're coming with me." He started to drag Flame in the direction of the law base. Wemmbu followed them.

It seemed like Lettuce had finally stepped up his prison cell designs, since the cell this time was actually made of obsidian, with enough crying obsidian to make it impossible to light a portal. No mining fatigue, but with his tools confiscated, it would take Flame eight minutes to break obsidian by hand, and the guards checked on them every five minutes.

Wemmbu paced around, waiting for the unconscious Flame to wake up. He supposed that he could just phase through the walls and leave, but there wasn't exactly much for him to do if he left the one person who could see him to rot in a prison cell. Finally, Flame began to stir.

"Where am I?" he asked. He looked up at Wemmbu. "You again?"

"Yeah, unfortunately you're the only one who can see me." Wemmbu responded. "I didn't expect the immortal demon to get captured so easily."

"Bro!" Flame exclaimed, sitting up. "If you had just shut up and let me concentrate on fighting, we wouldn't be in this situation!"

"I needed you to listen to me! I've been wandering around the server for two weeks now, and you're the only person who's seen me! I need your help." Wemmbu pleaded.

"Sure bro." Flame chuckled. "And how do I know you're not just a figment of my imagination? I'm probably just going crazy."

Wemmbu pondered for a minute. How could he even prove that it was actually him and not a hallucination? If he just said something only he and Flame would know, it wouldn't prove anything since Flame would also know that information.

"How about, I help you escape, and prove that I'm real, and then you help me." Wemmbu suggested.

"Like I need your help." Flame said sarcastically. "They'll forget to guard the cell eventually."

"You literally have nothing!" Wemmbu pointed out. "Lettuce took all your stuff."

"Not everything." Flame quickly checked to make sure no guards were watching, then pulled out something stuffed behind his blindfold. Four wind charges.

Wemmbu laughed. "What are you even going to do with that?"

"I'll figure something out." Flame responded. "Now go away."

With some concentration, Wemmbu phased through the wall and left. A guard opened the cell to hand Flame some baked potatoes, then closed the cell door again.

Wemmbu was back ten minutes later.

"I got the combination for the lock." Wemmbu said.

Flame scoffed "Sure bro. Even if you actually have the combination, what help is that? I'm stuck in the cell and you can't unlock anything."

"You can use the wind charges. If you throw them at the right spot on the wall, you can use it to flick the levers." Wemmbu explained.

Flame crossed his arms "I'm not wasting my only four wind charges on the off-chance that you're actually right about this."

"Fine, then." Wemmbu said. He used the only piece of leverage he had left. "I guess you'll just have to be stuck in here with me forever."

"Okay, where do I throw the wind charges?" Flame groaned, standing up.

Wemmbu pointed to the exact spots to throw the wind charges, in order. Flame breathed a sigh of relief when the piston door swung open, proving Wemmbu's information reliable.

The rest of the escape was a breeze, really. Lettuce somehow hadn't considered that he shouldn't leave ender chests lying around in a prison. Flame was out before most of the guards even noticed, and he made his way back to his base. Wemmbu was having a hard time keeping up with Flame's pearls and trident, but discovered that if he concentrated he could teleport directly to him.

"Why are you still following me?" Flame looked behind him to see Wemmbu walking in the same direction as him.

"Because you need to help me. I did my part of the deal, I helped you escape prison and proved I'm real. Now you need to help me get revived."

Flame started to chuckle, then broke into a full on laugh. "Okay, bro. Now why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't, you'll never get your rematch."

"I already got my rematch." Flame pointed out. "That's how you died. I won fair and square."

It seemed like that tactic wasn't going to work. Wemmbu changed strategy. "Don't you care about honor? I helped you escape prison, it's your duty to help me."

"That's not honor." Flame responded. "That's bribery."

It seemed like that wasn't going to work either. Wemmbu realized that the only thing that would work would be the one thing he really didn't want to have to use again. Boosfer tactics.

"How about, because if you don't help me, I'll keep haunting you and following you around until you do. You'll never have a moment of peace and quiet again until you agree to help me get revived."

"Good luck with that." Flame mumbled. The two of them begrudgingly walked off together in the direction of Flame's base.

He would break eventually.

It took two days.

Chapter Text

Every time Flame would fight off another group of lawmen, it would seem like that was the end of it. But they just kept coming. LettuceK was the only constant, always running away like a coward when he was the last one left. This time, some of the lawmen in this group were elytra-mace users.

"Hey! That's my thing!" Wemmbu complained as a random player flew down and slammed Flame with a mace.

Flame ignored Wemmbu.

"You know, if you just took the elytra and mace from the dead players' corpses, you could win this fight in seconds." Wemmbu pointed out. Flame continued to ignore him.

Another elytra-mace user came out of the sky, popping Flame's totem. Flame didn't even use totems most of the time, so the fact that he had one in his offhand during this fight showed how much he was struggling.

"Come on!" Wemmbu gestured to a mace lying on the ground. "It's right here!"

"No. I'm not using unfair advantages in any fight." Flame muttered, quietly to avoid getting caught talking to thin air.

"You could at least run. Why not take the easy way out?" Wemmbu asked as Flame's netherite boots broke, and he had to replace them with someone else's diamond boots.

"I need to win with pure skill." Flame said. "I'm not going to cheat, or run away."

"None of that matters if you don't make it out alive." Wemmbu argued. "You don't want to end up like me, do you?"

Flame sighed and picked up the mace.

That fight was the last straw. After that, it was like Flame realized that something had to change.

"Fine, bro. I'll help you try and get revived." he said. "But if it turns out to be impossible, I can't keep putting up with this from you. You're going to drive me insane."

Wemmbu had known he would come around eventually. He didn't say that, though, because he didn't really need to ragebait Flame anymore now that he had agreed to help.

"Okay. The first thing we need to do is go to the end and talk to Eggchan." Wemmbu said.

When they entered the end dimension, it looked deserted, as usual. Seeing the ancient debris door, and seeing that no one was around, Flame began to mine it. "So where even is this guy?"

"I can show you, once you're done stealing that ancient debris." Wemmbu said.

"It's not like anyone was using it." Flame responded. Entering the partially destroyed base, Flame stuck the ancient debris in a random furnace before looking around.

"He's through this wall." Wemmbu said, pointing.

"How did I not see that?" Flame pondered, seeing now how obvious of a hiding spot it was. He mined through. "Yo, wake up!"

Eggchan yawned, coming out of hibernation. "How long has it been?" he said, opening his eyes. "Wait, FlameFrags?"

"Yeah, bro. I need to talk to you." Flame said, multitasking as he placed down his ender chest and pulled out a shulker of random resources. He sorted through it, looking for something.

"Tell him I died for real this time." Wemmbu said. "I don't know if he knows yet."

"What do you need to talk to me about?" Egg asked. "Why are you even here, anyway?"

Flame pulled the smelted netherite scrap out of the furnace. "Wemmbu is dead." Flame announced. "I mean, actually dead this time."

"I know, bro." Egg said. "Parrot told me, like two weeks ago. How are you this late?"

Flame opened a crafting table and started crafting a netherite ingot with the netherite scrap and some gold from his ender chest.

"That's not the only thing I needed to tell you." Flame continued. "His ghost is literally haunting me, bro."

"Huh?" Eggchan scratched his head, confused.

"Wemmbu came back as a ghost." Flame said, crafting a smithing table. "And I'm the only one who can see him."

"You know, maybe I shouldn't be asking this, since you could probably kill me in five seconds," Egg began, "But why would I believe you? Do you have any proof of this?"

"Tell him the codeword is hostage." Wemmbu interjected.

"Apparently the codeword is hostage." Flame told Eggchan. He took off his diamond boots and opened the smithing table.

Eggchan stopped in his tracks. "Where is he? Is he here right now?"

"Yeah, he's over there." Flame pointed to where Wemmbu was standing. "Side note, do you have any netherite upgrade templates?"

Eggchan's bewildered gaze turned towards where Wemmbu was standing. He dropped a whole stack of netherite upgrade templates in Flame's direction, and then took out a notepad and pen, scribbling notes furiously.

"I have questions." Egg said. "How long have you known about this?"

"Is that a question for him, or me?" Flame asked, upgrading his boots to netherite.

"How about both?" Egg replied.

"I've been a ghost since I died. I didn't know he could see me until two days ago." said Wemmbu. Flame repeated it back to Eggchan, who was taking notes.

"Interesting." Eggchan said. "The academic journals will be fascinated."

"Can we get to the point?" Wemmbu said. "About if there's a way for me to be revived?"

"Give me a second bro, we're getting there." Flame said.

"Does he still look the same as he did when he was alive?" Egg asked.

"Yeah, pretty much. Just without any items." Flame explained. Egg wrote some more notes.

"Have you ever been able to see ghosts before?" Egg asked.

"I'm the only ghost on the server." Wemmbu said. "Which is why we need to figure out how I can be revived!"

Flame repeated back the part about Wemmbu being the only ghost on the server, but not the part about him wanting to be revived.

Egg continued to ask more questions, about everything imaginable. He took notes meticulously. Flame started to grow fed up with the questions.

"Can he go into the nether?" Egg asked, writing more notes on his notepad.

"If he can go into the end, I assume he can probably go into the nether." Flame said. Wemmbu nodded. Flame continued to speak. "Look, can we get to the point?"

"Sure." Egg replied. "And what point is that?"

Flame looked towards Wemmbu, prompting him to answer.

"I think the reason that this happened is because of that dimension I told you about below the nether." Wemmbu began, addressing Eggchan even though he knew he couldn't hear him. "Remember the gold block that I stood on that made me lightheaded and made me feel like everything was spinning? I think that the players down there are using that gold block to revive lost souls, and that's why this is happening. Have you ever heard of a way to revive dead players, in your research?"

"Something about a dimension underneath the nether, and a gold block. I have no idea what he's talking about. But he wants to know if you know how to revive dead players." Flame explained poorly.

Eggchan looked towards the spot he assumed Wemmbu was still sitting. "Sorry bro, I don't know any more about that than you do. But I can talk to my colleagues, and see if they're working on any papers about revival."

Wemmbu didn't have the heart to ask Flame to tell Egg that he had moved spots half an hour ago, and that Egg was looking in the wrong direction.

"Well, thanks for trying bro." Flame said, walking away. He turned back. "Wait, I think Wemmbu would want you to have this." He tossed a mace in Egg's direction. "It's not Gambit or Crucible, but you should keep it, and remember by it that he's still here with us."

Flame continued to walk away, reaching the exit portal.

"Wait!" Wemmbu said. "Tell him I love him. And tell him I'm sorry I didn't live long enough to be able to save him."

Flame didn't say anything as he stepped through the portal.

Chapter Text

2.5 weeks ago

"Eggchan." Parrot walked off the obsidian platform and approached him decisively. "I'm sorry about what happened."

Egg stood opposite him, utterly confused. "What do you mean? What happened?"

"Wait, Flame didn't come to tell you?" Parrot questioned. "Of course not." he said to himself. He looked down at the ground, bracing himself. "Wemmbu is dead."

"Yeah, I know." Eggchan said. "I was the one who told you, remember?"

Parrot chuckled. "No, I mean, he's actually dead. I know about how he faked his death. The jig is up."

"Huh?" Eggchan questioned, feigning confusion.

It took a long time for Parrot to convince Eggchan that Wemmbu was actually dead. It wasn't like he could just prove it by showing Egg the maces, or a dead body. Everything had been lost to the void. The only proof Parrot had were all the shulker boxes he stole from Wemmbu during their fight. After a few hours, Egg seemed to realize that there was no chance Parrot would commit this hard to lying to him, with such a consistent story.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry." Parrot said.

"Sorry for what? Flame was the one who killed him." Eggchan pointed out.

"For the part I played in all this." Parrot explained. "Flame may have gotten the final blow, but I'm the one who exhausted all of Wemmbu's resources. It's my fault he didn't have enough pearls or rockets. I understand if you're mad at me."

"I'm not." Eggchan said. "It wasn't really your fault. You couldn't have known that would happen."

"Thank you. And I just wanted to say, I'm sorry for your loss. I know he meant a lot to you." Parrot flew away, going back through the portal.

But even though Eggchan wasn't mad at him, Parrot couldn't help but feel guilty. Wemmbu had been a bad person before, sure, but his reputation as the Invisible Knight was nothing but good. Maybe he had really turned things around. And what had Parrot done? Pried into his identity, commited crimes in his name, and unmasked him to his greatest rival.

If Boomie deserved a fresh start, why didn't Wemmbu?

There was nothing to do to change what had happened. Wemmbu was dead, and the server was hardcore. But Parrot was left carrying the guilt of what he had done, and not entirely sure whether his actions were justified.

Present day

After Wemmbu and Flame's visit to the end, the logical next step was to talk with Boosfer, the only other person who had been to the dimension in the nether void.

"Do we really have to?" Flame groaned as he headed towards where Boosfer was living. "I'm sick of this guy already."

Wemmbu followed behind. "I know he's annoying. But we have to put up with him for a while. He could have spotted something important in that dimension that I didn't see."

They were already almost at the door, but Flame was having second thoughts. "Weren't you there the last time I interacted with him? You know how he is."

"Yeah, Boosfer likes to rage-bait." Wemmbu began. "But it doesn't help that you, well, have a tendency to fall for the bait."

Flame looked offended and opened his mouth to protest, but the door swung open to reveal Boosfer.

"Who is it?" Boosfer said as he opened the door. "Oh, Flame! My best friend!" He opened his arms for a hug.

Flame crossed his arms, scowling at him. "I'm not your friend."

"Of course you are, with everything you've done for me!" Boosfer said. "You're always willing to help me out."

Flame started getting worked up.

"Don't fall for the bait." Wemmbu said. "You need to get over yourself."

Flame glared at Wemmbu not-so-subtly. He turned back to Boosfer.

"We need to talk about Wemmbu." he said.

"I already told you, ClownPierce killed Wemmbu." Boosfer said. "I can't believe you're still looking for him after this long."

"Nah, for real," Flame said "I know Wemmbu was the invisible knight, and faked his own death."

"Whaaaattt????" Boosfer said unconvincingly. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Bro! You know what I'm talking about." Flame started crashing out. "You know how Wemmbu really died, right?"

"Yeah, ClownPierce killed him." Boosfer responded nonchalantly.

"No, I killed him. He fell into the void during our fight a few weeks ago." Flame said.

Boosfer walked into his house. "What do you mean, a few weeks ago? Wemmbu's been dead for months."

Flame and Wemmbu followed Boosfer into his house. The decor was exactly the level of class that you would expect from a man like Boosfer, with bright green walls, floor, and ceiling.

"Just ask him about the nether void." Wemmbu instructed.

"What do you know about the dimension below the nether bedrock?" Flame asked.

Boosfer grabbed a spatula and started stirring some disgusting green concoction that was cooking on his stove. He held up a finger to tell Flame to wait and tried a spoonful, making a show out of tasting the food he was cooking. "What do you mean, dimension under the nether bedrock? Are you making that up or just crazy?" He added more of some kind of spice to whatever he was cooking.

"What even is that?" Wemmbu questioned about the spice Boosfer was using. He went in for a closer look at the jar. The label read 'arsenic'.

"Bro, can you two stop it?!" Flame said. "Oops, wait, I mean can you stop it, Boosfer?" He tried to cover for his slip-up.

"Fine." Boosfer said. "I'll tell you information about Wemmbu and the nether void. But first, I need you to wash all my windows. I can't focus on this conversation until I have a nice view."

"You're just using me again, bro!" Flame said, exhasperated. "I'm not going to let you string me along!"

"Then I guess you don't really need that information that much." Boosfer said.

Flame turned to Wemmbu. "Should I just kill this guy?"

Wemmbu shook his head furiously and made a slicing motion with his hands. "NO, bro. Do NOT do that."

It was already too late, and Flame started trying to stab Boosfer.

"Flame! What are you doing! Don't kill him!" Wemmbu yelled.

"He's not going to help us anyway." Flame grunted. "He's more useful to us dead."

"Who are you even talking to, Flame?" Boosfer said, grabbing a kitchen knife and attempting to fight back.

"Killing him is a much bigger problem than letting him live!" Wemmbu tried to explain.

"You don't want me to kill him?" Flame said. At this point he had dropped all facade, and it was obvious that he was talking to someone Boosfer couldn't see. "You didn't strike me as the merciful type."

"Why do I feel like the third wheel right now?" Boosfer said.

"Listen, Flame!" Wemmbu began. "He's been to the nether void! If you kill him, he could come back as a ghost and then we'd both have to put up with him until we sort this out!"

Flame stopped attacking Boosfer. "Oh. Why didn't you just lead with that?"

"I was getting to it!" Wemmbu said. "If you had just listened to me-"

"Bro! I have to put up with you, literally every moment of every day! God forbid I try to tune you out and make my own decisions for once!" Flame crashed out.

Boosfer sat back in the corner eating a bag of popcorn. He made the 'cuckoo' gesture with his finger.

"It's not like I want to be in this situation either!" Wemmbu yelled. "You murdered me, and now you're the only person I can communicate with. Do you even know what that feels like!?"

"I wouldn't call it murder." Flame said. "You were kind of asking for it! Just because you died doesn't make you some kind of tragic victim! Do you know how much of a stain you are on the server? Everyone hates you!"

"Of course I know everyone hates me!" Wemmbu said. "Why do you think I tried to hide my identity?"

"Okay, bro." Flame said. "We both know that's not the real reason."

Boosfer finished his bag of popcorn and stuffed a second one in the microwave. "Are you and Wemmbu gonna stop arguing like an old married couple, or should I leave?"

Flame and Wemmbu both turned to stare at Boosfer.

"How did you know I was talking to Wemmbu?" Flame said, surprised.

"You made it extremely obvious." Boosfer said. "Blah blah blah, it's obvious you're seeing his ghost. I can't help you with that."

"You don't have any more information about the nether void?" Flame asked.

"Nah, I just wanted free labor. This whole endeavor of yours is doomed. There's no way you're ever reviving him, or banishing his soul from the mortal plane, or whatever you're trying to do."

Flame started to leave. "Thanks for wasting my time, bro. Some help you were."

Boosfer chuckled. "There's only one way you can deal with this. I'm not a marriage counselor, but the two of you just need to learn to get along."

"Never." muttered Wemmbu.

When Parrot went into the end to find another elytra, he didn't expect to see Eggchan back up and walking around.

"Yooo, Parrot!"

"You're awake?" Parrot said.

"Yeah, FlameFrags came by yesterday and woke me up. I'm feeling a lot better." Egg said.

Parrot raised an eyebrow. "What would Flame need from you?"

"Uh, oops. Nevermind. Forget I said anything."

Parrot continued with his endeavor to find another elytra. But the entire interaction with Eggchan kept coming up in the back of his mind. What could Flame possibly need from him, and what would be enough to break Egg out of his depressive spiral? And why was Egg so unwilling to talk about it?

Parrot needed to get to the bottom of this.

Chapter Text

After the conversation with Boosfer, Flame took a break from helping Wemmbu, since LettuceK was still sending hordes of lawmen to try and kill him. Wemmbu took a break from hanging around Flame, because as much as Flame was getting sick of Wemmbu, Wemmbu was getting sick of Flame as well. He spent a few days stalking people on the server, this time with the express goal of finding information about revival.

At first, he had just been walking around aimlessly, looking for something interesting to watch. But when he walked past Parrot's potion shop and spotted Parrot and Theo acting shady, the opportunity to gather information was too important to pass up. He walked up to their conversation and started listening in.

"What did you find out?" Parrot asked Theo. He looked around quickly to make sure no one was watching. "You managed to avoid getting spotted by Eggchan, right?"

Eggchan? Wemmbu was intrigued. What would Parrot want from spying on Eggchan? This had to be important.

"Of course." Theo responded. "I don't think I even needed the invis. For a man with a giant eye for a head, that guy sure is blind."

"Well?" Parrot said expectantly. "Did you see anything important?"

"I don't think so." Theo said. Parrot started to leave. "Wait, there is one thing." Theo finished.

"What?"

"Does Eggchan usually have a mace?" Theo asked.

"No, definitely not." Parrot confirmed.

Theo shrugged. "Well, he does now. That's gotta be important, right?"

Wemmbu considered whether he should tell Flame about this development right away. He felt a sense of urgency, being concerned for Eggchan who was doing a terrible job of hiding the mace. But it seemed like a better idea to continue listening in and see if they revealed any more information.

"That must be why Flame went to visit him." Parrot theorized. "To give him a mace. But why now? Wemmbu's been dead for weeks."

Theo chimed in. "And it's not even one of Wemmbu's maces either. Wemmbu fell into the void. Where would Flame even get a mace?"

"Maybe he already had one." Parrot pointed out. "If he did, he's not the kind of person who would use it in fights."

"Whatever it is, maybe we should back off." Theo argued. "Eggchan seems like he's feeling better than before. And this situation isn't really our business, they haven't done anything to hurt anyone. We should assume Flame has good intentions this time."

"I disagree." Parrot said. "We don't know what Flame's intentions are. Whatever he's doing, it's shady. I think we should take precautions in case this turns out to be something nefarious."

After that, their conversation trailed off into less important matters. In the midst of it, Wemmbu was left worrying. If Parrot was really onto Flame and Egg hiding something, it meant they had limited time to act. Parrot certainly wouldn't be on board with resurrecting Wemmbu, and he would likely stop at nothing to intervene. If they wanted to move forward with a plan, they had to act quickly.

"I got the Law off of me for now." Flame told Wemmbu. "But I'm almost out of gear, and most of the merchants won't let me buy from them anymore."

"I have bad news too." Wemmbu said. "Parrot is onto us. He knows you gave Eggchan a mace, and he's starting to get suspicious of you."

"Well, that might be a problem," Flame began, "Because he's the only person who's still willing to sell me potions!"

"You can't meet with him!" Wemmbu said. "He's eventually going to find out our plan, and try to stop it. We need to act as soon as possible, and go to the nether void, before he gets the chance to stop us."

"Well, I can't go to the nether void without any supplies!" Flame shot back. "I need potions if we're going to be fighting."

"What happened to not needing unfair advantages?" Wemmbu teased.

Flame looked offended. "Potions are different from a mace and a nuke!"

"If he's the only person that will sell you potions, I guess you kind of have to meet with him." Wemmbu relented. "But be careful," he warned, "Parrot always assumes the worst. If you're acting even slightly off, he'll assume you're planning to kill everyone on the server or something. So you need to act like you can't see me. No doing what you did with Boosfer."

"Of course I'll be careful." Flame agreed. "But I don't think he's as big a threat as you think he is, bro. You're just worried because he helped me defeat you."

Parrot had agreed to meet Flame in a hidden location in a dark oak forest. It was pretty far out, but understandable since neither of them were willing to be spotted together.

Flame arrived to the spot, out of breath from the long walk. Parrot was already there, setting up brewing stands.

"I thought you'd never show up." Parrot said. "You're going to have to give me a moment, I'm still getting set up here."

Flame looked annoyed. "Wait, you haven't even brewed the potions yet? What am I even here for, bro?"

"He's definitely trying to extract information from you." Wemmbu warned. "He wants to keep you waiting to trick you into revealing something."

"Raw materials are easier to carry than potions." Parrot explained, although it sounded more like an excuse.

Parrot placed ingredients in the brewing stands, and the two of them began to wait.

"So, what have you been doing lately? Just dealing with the law, or anything else?" Parrot asked, making small talk.

"Don't answer that." Wemmbu instructed.

Flame said nothing, looking down and sharpening his sword.

Parrot walked around him, waiting. "Not feeling very talkative today, are we?"

"What would we even talk about, bro?" Flame said. "You're the one who decided to keep me waiting and make me come all the way out here."

"You're lucky I'm even selling to you at all." Parrot said. "Your reputation is pretty bad right now. I can't be seen selling potions to you."

Flame continued looking down, not wanting to chance looking around in case he made it obvious he was seeing someone who wasn't there.

"On that topic," Parrot began, "You are going to pay for those potions, right? You're asking for a lot of potions, and I know you usually like to rob people, so just wanted to check."

"Oh, yeah." Flame placed down an ender chest and started digging through it, looking for anything of value. "Uh, one sec, bro." He didn't have much left after all his run-ins with the Law.

He pulled out the smithing templates he got from Eggchan, handing them to Parrot. "How about 63 netherite upgrade templates?"

"Weird one, but I'll take it." Parrot said. He put the netherite upgrade templates in a shulker.

They sat there in silence for a solid ten seconds, before Parrot spoke again. "Have you talked to Eggchan lately?"

"Uhhh…" Flame stammered, trying to figure out what to say. He paused, leaving an awkward silence.

Wemmbu started to get concerned. "You need to say something. Don't tell him the truth, but say something." he suggested.

"Why are you asking?" Flame said.

"Nevermind." Parrot responded. He handed Flame several shulkers of potions, enough to last him weeks, and started picking up his stuff, leaving the forest how it had been when he arrived. Flame immediately took off.

As soon as they got far enough away that Flame was certain he wasn't being followed, he turned to Wemmbu and started talking to him. "That wasn't so bad, was it bro? We got the potions."

"You didn't completely screw it up." Wemmbu said. "But he definitely still suspects you. You shouldn't have met with him."

"Speak for yourself, bro." Flame said.

Wemmbu wanted to argue more. But there wasn't really a point, was there? Flame's say was final, and he could just refuse to help him if he wanted. When Wemmbu was alive, he took that control for granted. No matter how good or bad at PVP someone was, they still had their ability to communicate. It was surely how Eggchan had survived that long. But now, Wemmbu didn't even have that most basic of freedom. Flame was the one who could interact with the world, and his decisions were final.

Wemmbu hated being at the mercy of his worst enemy, but he supposed that was what he deserved, after what he had done. He had been so obsessed with becoming stronger than FlameFrags, and now Flame was the one with complete control over him. This was his unfinished business, his price to pay.

Now, as they stepped into the purple glow of the nether portal, there was only one thing left to do. It was time to take on the nether void.

Chapter Text

"Remind me why we're doing this again." Flame griped as he grabbed some bedrock breaking materials from his ender chest. "Why can't we just use the hole that's already there, bro?"

"When I fell into the void through that hole, I was walking for hours trying to find anything. If we open a hole directly above their headquarters, we can save a lot of time." Wemmbu explained.

"Fine, bro." Flame said as he started setting up the equipment.

The air crackled with heat, and the temperature got even hotter as Flame slowly broke through the bedrock with TNT explosions that released clouds of smoke. The sounds of nether ambience could be heard as hot clouds of ash drifted through the air. To anyone else, this heat would be stifling, but being from the nether, Flame was right at home in it.

Wemmbu stood there in silence as Flame worked. He had so many questions, but he didn't know what was the right time to ask. Finally, he broke through the silence in the air.

"Why did you try to save me?"

"What?" Flame asked, caught off guard.

"When I was falling into the void, you tried to save me." Wemmbu said. "You tried to shoot me with a slow falling arrow. Why?"

"Bro, I don't-" Flame stammered. "I don't know."

"And you spent so long looking for me." Wemmbu said. "I thought you would be happy to never see me again, but you stopped at nothing to find me."

"Well, you faked your own death and hid after our fight." Flame said, igniting more TNT to break a piece of bedrock. "How else was I supposed to get my rematch?"

"Is that really all it was about?" Wemmbu questioned. "No one tries so hard to find someone who they only want to fight. Why do you care about me so much?"

"I wanted to show I'm better than you, that I can win with skill alone. But it's more than that," Flame continued, "beating you was the best challenge I've ever had. Without you as a rival, I had nothing to do. No one else posed enough of a challenge."

"You never wanted to kill me?"

Flame shrugged. "I thought I did. But when you fell into the void, I realized that I don't want you dead. Why would I want to be the strongest player on the server if there's no one to challenge me?"

"I guess that makes sense." Wemmbu said.

"What about you, though?" Flame asked. "Why did you fake your own death? Was it for power? To escape the consequences of your actions? Did you just not want a fair rematch?"

"It wasn't really any of those things." Wemmbu said. "My reputation was in shambles, and I just wanted a fresh start, without the mistakes from my past."

"Really?" Flame was taken aback. "That's it?"

"I spent so much time trying to become the strongest." Wemmbu explained. "But after all of it, once I succeeded, I felt empty. Everyone on the server hated me, and I was no closer to finding fulfillment. So I wanted to start over."

"That's because you only care about becoming more powerful, and using your mace and nukes." Flame accused. "If you were fighting fairly, you would feel accomplished when you won."

"Maybe you would." Wemmbu looked away. "Maybe becoming the strongest just isn't meant for me."

"So what now?" Flame asked.

"I don't know." Wemmbu responded. "Maybe if I get revived, I'll try to save Egg. I hope you find the rival you're looking for."

With a final blast, the last of the bedrock was worn away, leaving a hole directly into the void. Flame started organizing his inventory, putting away what he didn't need and taking everything important out of his shulkers. He braced himself to jump in and turned to Wemmbu. "If you've been lying about this and I just fall into the void, I'll find a way to kill you a second time."

The two of them jumped down the void hole, Flame preparing to throw an ender pearl to break his fall. After a suspensefully long fall, the void dimension came into view and Flame fell directly through a hole in the ceiling of the cult's headquarters.

He landed with a pearl directly into the center of a group of several players, Wemmbu falling just behind him.

Wemmbu looked around at the players. They were sitting at a meeting table. He recognized most of them as the players he encountered the last time, including the ones who had died.

"They definitely have revival. Boosfer and I killed some of them last time, and they're back." Wemmbu told Flame.

The final member sitting at the head of the table was the only one Wemmbu didn't recognize. They were invisible, and seemed to be the leader of the group.

"FlameFrags. What brings you to this dimension?" the invisible player asked. Their voice was clearly altered by a voice changer, sounding inhuman and artificial.

"I want to know about revival." Flame announced confidently.

"That knowledge is forbidden." the invis player said. "If you seek it, it will come at a price."

Flame chuckled. "And what would that be?"

"You must join our ranks. A strong player like you, our forces would be unstoppable!"

"No." Flame laughed. "I'm not doing that."

"Well then." the invis player responded. "We will have to kill you."

"Try me." Flame said, putting on his blindfold and splashing his potions on himself. The group erupted into battle. It was an outnumbered fight, but Flame was used to fighting outnumbered as a solo player.

As the fight went on, Wemmbu began looking for possible escape routes that Flame could use. Flame might be able to win, but they needed a plan in case something went wrong. There were several exits that were partially blocked off, but they would all be easy to pearl through. But as he looked around, he spotted the gold block that had started this whole thing in the first place. It was as if it was calling to him.

Was that the key to getting revived?

Wemmbu didn't have much time to worry about that, as the cult members splashed Flame with harming potions. They seemed to have an unlimited supply of them. Even if Wemmbu could get revived now, he would be in danger. He needed to make sure he wouldn't immediately get killed again.

Wemmbu looked back over at the fight to see Flame manage to kill one of the attackers.

"If you want to kill one of us, you'll have to kill all of us." another attacker warned.

"Go for the weakest ones first." Wemmbu suggested. Flame started targeting the player who seemed to be the worst at PVP.

Someone tried to box Flame in, but he reacted too quickly and pearled out before they could trap him. "Is that all you got?" He continued going for kills, making quick work of the weaker players with his combat skills.

When there were only four players left, Flame started chasing down the player who seemed to be the weakest one remaining. That player made a beeline for a very specific direction, headed for an obvious fall trap underneath the meeting table.

"You really think you're gonna get me with that?" Flame laughed as he pushed the player into their own trap. But as he peered over the hole, he didn't expect the player to seemingly vanish completely during their fall and pop up right behind him.

"You should have joined us when you had the chance." they said, knocking him into the hole.

Flame woke up, his head throbbing. "What happened?" He took his blindfold off and looked around.

He was trapped in a box made entirely of glass, too thick to pearl through. Wemmbu was standing just outside the box.

"They captured you." Wemmbu said. "And by extension, me. The exits are blocked off and I can't use pearls."

"What kind of chungus trap was that?" Flame complained. "Bro, I don't even understand how they pulled that off."

"I don't know either." Wemmbu said. "But we're both stuck here until you figure out a way to escape, or negotiate for a way out."

"Can't you teleport? How are you stuck here?" Flame said, confused.

"I can only teleport to you!" Wemmbu explained. "And in case you haven't noticed, you're stuck in a glass box!"

Flame held up his hands. "What am I supposed to do?!"

It was then that their four remaining captors pearled into the room.

"We have you trapped." said their leader, the invis one. "There's no way out."

"Yeah, cause you used a stupid trap against me!" Flame yelled. "That shouldn't have even been possible!"

"I would explain to you how it works, but I'm afraid you're not smart enough to understand." the player responded. "There's only one way out of your… predicament. To join us."

"I don't need to join you." Flame said. "I'll find a way out."

"Unfortunately, there's no way of that happening." the mysterious player responded. "You know, you could have become one of us. One would think that a man known as the 'Immortal Demon' would give anything for actual immortality."

"That's not why I'm called the Immortal Demon." Flame replied through gritted teeth.

"And why's that?"

Flame stood up in the glass box. He addressed everyone in the room. "I'm not known as the immortal demon because of unfair advantages, or cheap tricks, or godlike powers. I'm known as the immortal demon because no matter what gets thrown at me, no matter how low the odds, I always find a way to survive. You can trap me all you want, but just know, I will escape. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but I will find a way. And when I do, the first thing I'm going to do, is I'm going to kill every last one of you. That's why I'm the immortal demon, bro."

The invis player began to slow clap. "Bravo. Great speech. But you are never getting out of this cage. We will be watching you every moment of every day." They turned to one of their three henchmen. "You keep watch. We need to go mend our armor."

They started to leave the room, two other players following behind them while one more stayed behind to guard. Wemmbu stood waiting, hoping they would break the blocks in front of the door and give him a chance to escape.

The invis player turned back just before he reached the exit. "And don't think we're not watching that little friend of yours as well." They turned their head to look directly at Wemmbu.

The three players pearled out of the room.

Chapter Text

An expression of shock crossed Wemmbu's face. "Wait, you can see me as well?" he asked the guard.

"Yes." the guard responded. "Did you really think we wouldn't be able to, with all our power over life and death?"

"Please let me go." Wemmbu begged. "I'm not the one who got us trapped, and it's not like I can do anything except watch. I don't deserve this."

He was, of course, lying. There was one thing he could do. He was pretty sure if he stood on the gold block again, he could get revived.

The guard did not respond to his pleading, likely thinking the same thing.

Flame looked up through the glass to the hole in the ceiling of the building. If only that single glass block wasn't there, it was a straight shot directly up through the void hole out of this dimension. Unfortunately, there was no way to place blocks, so even if he had brought ladders, he wouldn't be able to ladder glitch out.

Were they really trapped forever?

"Bro, why didn't you warn me about the trap?!" Flame berated Wemmbu.

"How was I supposed to know they would pull a disappearing act? I didn't even know that was possible!" Wemmbu shot back.

"Okay, bro." Flame responded. "Well now we're both stuck here forever because you made me come down here!"

Wemmbu laughed. "You're the one who killed me in the first place!"

As the two of them argued back and forth, the guard assigned to watch them stepped in closer, observing their conversation. He stepped up right next to the glass cage, listening in.

Flame started to get enraged. "Well, if you had just left me alone-"

He heard a sound from above him and looked up.

Through the hole in the ceiling, Parrot came crashing down, carrying a mace. As he fell, he brought it down directly on the guard who was watching the argument, killing him instantly.

"Huh?" Flame and Wemmbu both said, at the same time.

"You might want to equip your totem." Parrot warned Flame.

Flame equipped his totem just in time for a TNT minecart to come crashing down through the same hole Parrot had come through, breaking the glass cage that enveloped him, as well as the blocks covering one of the exits, and instantly popping his totem.

"Well this is an insane turn of events." remarked Wemmbu.

"How did you even know to come here?" Flame asked.

Parrot launched into an explanation. "You see, when I went to the end a few days ago, I noticed Eggchan was acting suspicious. He mentioned that he had talked to you, and I needed to find out more."

Wemmbu snuck out of the room through the hole created by the TNT in the middle of Parrot's speech, unnoticed by Flame. Now was his opportunity to get revived before Parrot tried to stop the plan. He ran through the building, noticing a lack of any of their captors. They must have gone somewhere else to repair their armor.

Wemmbu stared at the gold block embedded in the floor. So this was what had started this whole thing, huh?

It looked just like any other gold block, but there was something about it that just felt off. Ever since he had first seen it, it just looked important and powerful in a way that Wemmbu couldn't quite put his finger on. He took a deep breath in and stepped onto the block.

As he did, it was as if the world itself stood still. The ash floating in the air came to a standstill, and the passage of time seemed notably absent.

Then, just like what happened the last time, Wemmbu started feeling dizzy. Everything felt like it was spinning under him. The previous time he was here he had stepped off, but this time he stayed on the block, watching everything fade around him as he lost consciousness.

Wemmbu woke up on an armchair in a well-decorated but unfamiliar room. The gentle sound of relaxing music played around him, and Wemmbu took a look around, confused.

"How did I get here?" he said to no one in particular.

"You're here. I knew you would make it." a voice said from behind him. It was familiar, but Wemmbu couldn't quite tell who it belonged to.

He turned around to see Rejoice standing in the doorway.

"Rejoice?" Wemmbu blinked his eyes in shock. "Are you alive?"

"I'm not alive, you're dead." Rejoice said. "I've been watching your whole journey. You've come so far."

"So that's it?" Wemmbu asked. "I'm moving on to the afterlife?"

Rejoice started pouring a cup of tea. "If you want. That's the thing about revival. It's up to you."

Wemmbu thought about it. "I don't know. I'm not really sure what I want anymore. But I missed you so much. I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

"It's okay, I'm happy here!" Rejoice said. "And we'll meet again one day regardless. I don't want you to choose to stay here just because you feel bad for me. It wasn't your fault."

"Thanks." Wemmbu looked at the floor. "But I still don't know."

"Why's that?" Rejoice asked.

"I think if you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have wanted to live." Wemmbu said. "But now, seeing how everyone has moved on so quickly, I don't see the point. They don't care about me anymore, and my only legacy is one of destruction."

Rejoice handed Wemmbu a cup of tea. "Maybe that's what the server at large thinks of you, but not everyone feels that way. Eggchan cares about you. I care about you. Flame considers you a worthy rival, and he went all this way to help you."

Rejoice continued. "Even Boosfer, he may have shown it in a weird way, but he still cares about you. He lied to protect your identity even after you were long dead. And Parrot has changed his mind about you."

"What?" Wemmbu paused. Parrot had changed his mind?

"He didn't come to the nether void to stop you and Flame. He came to help, because he believes everyone deserves a second chance. You deserve a second chance."

Wemmbu thought about it. There really were people who cared about him, even despite everything he had done. But maybe they shouldn't have. "Look, I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm a terrible person. As soon as I had power, I went mad with it. I hurt anyone and everyone to achieve my goals."

"Wemmbu, have you ever thought about why you did that when you did it? It wasn't really the power you had. It was because you had nothing to protect. Only after Eggchan got trapped in the end did you hurt everyone else."

"Huh." Was that really the reason?

Rejoice continued. "You're not a terrible person. No one is. You just need something to protect, something to make you care."

"But how can I make it up to all the players I've hurt?" Wemmbu asked. "Why should I get a second chance, while they stay dead?"

"Don't you get it, Wemmbu?" Rejoice said. "Revival is possible! The process is different for everyone else than it is for you, but there is a way. You can save them, give everyone else a second chance as well."

"I guess." Wemmbu said. His eyes lit up. "I can try to revive you!"

"Don't." Rejoice said. "I'm happy here. But there are plenty of others who would love a second chance."

"But how can I show everyone I've changed? Will anything be enough?"

"I don't know." Rejoice said. "I don't have the answers to that. But what matters isn't what people think of you. What matters is that you're trying to change, and that you care. That's the version of Wemmbu that Eggchan and I care about."

Wemmbu sat in contemplation for more than a minute. Then, he stood up. "I've made my decision."

As the eerie sounds of the nether void echoed around him, Parrot continued his explanation. "It was then that Theo revealed to me that Eggchan had a mace. I knew this had something to do with Wemmbu's death, but I wasn't sure what yet. So I took a look at Eggchan's scientific research. Lo and behold, he was asking the scientific community for input on the possibility of ghosts and revival. That was what it took for me to put everything together."

"But how did you get a mace?" Flame asked.

"When I found out what was going on, I went to talk to Eggchan again." Parrot explained. "I told him that I could help, and that I wanted to use revival to bring back the lives of innocent players. And I promised not to stop you from reviving Wemmbu. That was all it took, and he told me everything I needed to know. He gave me the mace to help me in my quest."

Flame looked around, where was Wemmbu anyway? He supposed that could wait until he got the answers to his questions. "You're not going to try to stop us?"

"I suppose," Parrot said, "I've realized the error of my ways. I realized that letting one guilty player live means nothing compared to all the innocent lives that could be saved. I'm willing to help, as long as I can use this knowledge and try to revive innocent players later."

"Then first of all," Flame said, "we need to kill the remaining three members of this cult before they kill us. They're probably about to come back."

Parrot held out the mace awkwardly to Flame. "Maybe you should use this, I'm not very good with it."

"How about," Wemmbu said as he stepped back into the room. He was fully alive now, and Parrot could see him, "I have a better idea."

Chapter Text

"It worked? You're alive?" Parrot couldn't believe his eyes.

"While the two of you were yapping, I went and stood on the gold block that started this whole thing." Wemmbu explained. "That's the key to revival." He started taking the armor off the guard's corpse. It was only at half durability, but it would have to do. He put it on.

Parrot handed him the mace, an elytra, and some rockets. Flame tossed over some golden apples and pearls.

The door to the building swung open, and the three of them stood close together. Flame used his potions to pot up the group.

"I'm not giving you a refund on those." Parrot joked.

Wemmbu braced himself for a fight, holding the mace in one hand and golden apples in the other. "Alright, let's do this."

"Get them!" ordered the invis leader of the cult. "Target Wemmbu!"

The fight started. While it was technically a 3v3, Wemmbu's armor was at half durability already, and he didn't have most essential items for combat like a sword, axe, or shield. Which is probably why the cult was targeting him, they knew he would be the easiest to take down.

As they fought, the invisible player started addressing Parrot. "Parrot, you could join us. Why help these people when all they care about is their own power? If you joined us, we could be something truly special."

"Bro." Flame said. "If that didn't work on me, it's definitely not gonna work on him."

While the other players chatted in the middle of their fight, Wemmbu was chugging gapples, barely managing to stay alive. He tried his best to stay airborne constantly to prevent any of the attackers from hitting him. Flame and Parrot should have at least given him a totem.

"If you have the power of revival," Parrot addressed the cult as he fought. "Why have you been keeping it to yourselves all this time? You could have revived so many innocent players."

"You'll understand in due time." said the invis player.

With a forceful strike from one of his attackers, Wemmbu felt his helmet crack and fall off his head. If they were going to win this fight, they would have to start winning now.

Flame got the memo that they needed to lock in, and he got one of the players into a nasty combo. He popped the player's totem, and Wemmbu came in immediately after, macing the player in a fatal blow.

Their victory was short-lived, as Wemmbu's boots and leggings broke in quick succession. Parrot tried to body-block the two remaining attackers, preventing them from getting to Wemmbu. It wasn't that helpful, but it at least held them off for a bit longer. While Parrot kept the invis player distracted, Flame dropped the other guy.

The final player, the mysterious invisible player who seemed to be the group's leader, was the only one left. Instead of continue to fight, the player stepped back and pearled away. Wemmbu knew why all too well- the death message would unmask the player's identity.

"You win - for now." the player said. "But this isn't over. As one of the others said earlier, if you want to kill one of us, you'd have to kill all of us."

The invisible player dug into the ground and blocked up behind them.

As soon as the player seemed to be gone, Parrot handed Wemmbu a spare set of diamond armor. "Sorry, I didn't know your armor was that low."

Wemmbu put on the armor and handed back the elytra and rockets to Parrot.

"Finally, bro, we did it." Flame said, relieved. "Now we just have to escape this dimension."

Parrot checked his inventory. "Uh oh."

"What?" Flame said.

"There's only enough rockets left for two of us to escape." Parrot said.

"That's okay, I can just pearl out." Flame confidently threw a pearl straight up in the air, but it fell right back down again.

"It's too high. One of us will have to stay behind." Parrot said.

"Isn't Theo up there?" Wemmbu asked. "I thought he was the one who threw the cart down."

"Yeah, he was earlier." Parrot explained. "But he needed to take off, something about being late for a cart PVP convention."

"Well, if one of us has to stay behind, it shouldn't be me. I have almost nothing." Wemmbu said.

"I'm not staying behind. Wemmbu is the one who used up all the rockets!" Flame said.

"The whole point of us coming here was to revive me! It would be ridiculous to leave me here!" Wemmbu argued.

"I'll do it." Parrot stepped up, handing both of them elytras and the few remaining rockets. "I need to find out more about the secrets this place holds anyway. Now that I know revival is real, my goal is to revive the innocent players of the server. I'll find my way out eventually."

"Good luck, Parrot." Flame told him. "I'll throw the elytra back down when I get up there, I don't want it."

"Yeah, good luck." Wemmbu said. "Thank you for the second chance."

The two of them flew back up and into the regular nether.

"Finally." Wemmbu said after they landed. "Can you place down an ender chest?" He didn't have much in there anymore, but at least it would be something.

Flame finished throwing Parrot's elytra back through the void hole. He placed down an ender chest and Wemmbu opened it. It was empty.

"I should have expected. There's nothing in there." Wemmbu groaned, that was going to make regearing a lot harder.

Begrudgingly, Flame reached into his own ender chest and pulled out a few shulkers. He placed them down, one containing spare tool sets, one with an assortment of potions, and one with a random assortment of useful items.

"Sorry I don't have any spare armor sets, I'm low on resources right now." Flame said. "I have four netherite ingots, but I traded all my netherite upgrade templates to Parrot so you'll have to get those yourself." He handed the netherite ingots to Wemmbu.

Wemmbu finished sifting through the shulkers and grabbing what he needed, then picked up the netherite ingots. "That's okay. I don't need netherite upgrade templates."

He put netherite trims on his diamond armor, then splashed invis.

"Really?" Flame asked. "I know it's you now bro, why are you still doing this whole secret identity?"

"I dunno." Wemmbu said. "I guess it's just… something to protect."

Eggchan was sitting at his desk, peer reviewing another academic paper, when he heard the familiar sound of someone entering the end. He immediately hid in his usual spot, not being sure what their intentions were.

"Egg?" He heard the sound of the familiar voice changer Wemmbu always used as the invisible knight. Could it really be him?

The invisible player walked up to the spot Egg was hiding. "Egg, I know you're in there. The codeword is hostage."

Eggchan dug out of his hiding spot. "It really is you? Revival is really possible?"

"Yeah, it's really me." Wemmbu quickly checked around to make sure no one was listening in. "It's Wemmbu."

"I missed you so much, bro." Eggchan said. He came in for a hug.

"I missed you too." Wemmbu said. "I just want to say I'm sorry. For everything I did in my past life. I forgot how much I care about you, and I hurt everyone else because of it."

"It's okay," Eggchan reassured him, "I waited for you because I knew you would come to your senses eventually."

"I'm going to save you." Wemmbu professed. "I'm going to get more gear, and then I'm going to go to the farlands to rescue you."

"Really?" Eggchan was enthused.

"Yes." Wemmbu said. "And when I do, you and I are going to go on so many more adventures together."

During the process of regearing, invis Wemmbu ran into Parrot in Capitol City.

"Parrot!" Wemmbu said. "You made it out of that dimension?"

"Oh, hi." Parrot replied. "Yeah, I did. I still have more to do there, I haven't finished finding out about revival, but I'm going to go back later when I have more people."

"I'm going to the farlands soon," Wemmbu said, "But when I get back, Eggchan and I will be happy to help."

"I heard you were doing the invis thing again. I felt bad about impersonating you, so I pulled a few strings to get you allowed back in Capitol City." Parrot said.

"I appreciate it." Wemmbu replied. "Do you want the elytra back?"

"No, you can keep it." Parrot said. "It's kinda my fault you lost the old one."

"Thank you." Wemmbu started to walk away.

"Oh, and by the way," Parrot continued, "I'm offering you free invis potions for life in my shop."

"What?" Wemmbu asked. "Why?"

"Because every second that you're invisible is a second that you're not hurting any innocent players."

Before he set off on his trip, Wemmbu found the time to talk to Flame.

"Flame!" he said. "I just wanted to stop by and say I appreciate you helping revive me."

"Well, if I hadn't, you would have annoyed me until the day I died." Flame pointed out.

"Did we ever find out if you can see ghosts in general, or just me?" asked Wemmbu.

"No, I still don't know." Flame said. "I'm hoping I don't have to deal with more of this."

"Well, good luck fighting Lettuce." Wemmbu said. "Unfortunately I can't help with that."

"That's okay." Flame laughed. "Maybe it's the challenge I was looking for."

The two of them departed, Flame for his base and Wemmbu for the farlands. And finally, the rivalry between them seemed resolved. Maybe they weren't friends, but they still cared for each other.

And as he started on the long journey to the farlands to save his best friend, Wemmbu finally understood what he was meant for. He didn't need to be the strongest like Flame, or the smartest like Parrot.

He just needed to be someone who cared.