Creatures of the Void
Chapter Nineteen
"Player Five"
"Player Five"
The dimensional ruler Muriminus sat upon his throne, idly controlling West Mindeavorian interests in the wake of utter failure. The player initiative had completely broken from his grasp due to the fault of the pesky Omnibrine hunter, the girl, and the strange regenerative power which undoubtedly, as in all the cheesy romantic comedies he had watched as a bored redstone genius, Steve would call the "power of love" or something equally sappy.
Still, at least he had one of the Omnibrine pieces in his grasp, he thought to himself as he gazed up at the cage in which the likeness of his player avatar stood. The cage itself was positioned in the air, dangling by a single iron bar string from nowhere in particular. The position was mostly aesthetic quality, after all.
His musings were interrupted by a high-pitched and somewhat annoying note emanating from the much more interesting orb of piercing white light that had appeared on the edge of his floating island near the cage. It faded to reveal Keaton The Pursuer, holding a charred stone and encased in gleaming diamond. He stood from his kneeling position.
The Omnibrine piece spoke, tersely. "Finally," he said in a voice that could be described as a mutter were it not a normal volume. He drew back his arm, dismantled his iron cage with a single blow, and leapt from it, landing solidly in front of the newcoming human.
"Took you long enough," he said.
"You do know we're enemies, right, Omnibrine?" Keaton asked, somewhat amused.
"In the most mortal way," the blank-eyed Steve replied. "But I do hope we can put that aside for now."
"Sure, but after this we go back to killing each other," Keaton said, and the two turned to face Muriminus.
He descended the dark gray rock platform on which his obsidian throne resided slowly, the calm and casual aura of power exuding from his skin. "Well, well. Great deception," he complimented the two, "amazing job, but unfortunately it was for naught. I realized very quickly that you could have broken through that cage at any time," he addressed the Omnibrine piece, "but were simply waiting. And Keaton, if you thought I didn't know of your status as a player, you were quite wrong. However, there is one thing I am still unsure about," he finished, pointing to the stone in Keaton's hand. "Where did you get my Sinmur?"
"Oh, this?" Keaton replied. "This was once the property of the grand wizard Edward. You'd know him." Worian Fratier was rumored to be a descendant. "I do believe this was the first one ever made," Keaton remarked, turning the stone in his hand. "How would you feel if you knew your edgy doom lair was once the interdimensional version of an Ender Chest? The entire Mindeavorian army was outfitted with weaponry and armor from this exact island, before you made it like this." Keaton gestured to the dark, starless sky and the numerous dark crystals jutting from the ground.
"I'm well aware of history," Muriminus replied, and very quickly moved forward, thrusting his palm out. From it came a violet energy burst which angled toward the ground, refracted off, bent down to the ground, and repeated the process. It happened far quicker than it can be written down, and the energetic beam impaled the Omnibrine piece. Keaton rushed for Muriminus and his diamond sword clashed with Fratier's energy blade. The freed Omnibrine piece dropped to the ground and charged Muriminus, his feet only a bridge to the air as he propelled himself forward at an extreme speed, hitting the dark ruler full-on with his body. The swords broke contact and the two hit the ground.
The demihuman drew back his fist and it ignited, tendrils of flame curling through the dark dimension. He made to attack Muriminus, but was interrupted by a purple Wither Skull summoned between the two. It exploded and the near-human flew up into the air, coated in a lavender fire that burned at his skin like normal fire could not. From the ground zero of the explosion a dark streak leapt into the air, rotating once, before slamming down on the ground next to Keaton - he had just jumped away in time, but a stray block collided with him in the air, damaging him. Muriminus once again summoned his energy blade and went to swing at the fallen Keaton, but Keaton quickly parried it with his own. Muriminus, with his other hand, extended three long claws and swung at the Pursuer, but before he could make contact a burning rope surrounded the claws, pulled tight, and yanked back, pulling Muriminus away from Keaton and around, his face meeting the humanoid's fist (that is to say, the one not holding the sword). The Omnibrine piece was burned and scarred from the flickering purple flames that still licked at his body. To finish the job, he summoned in a sword seemingly made of fire, directly through the skull of Muriminus. The purple fire around him dissipated.
He stayed still for a second, seemingly dead, before simply disappearing in a flurry of black and violet particles. He appeared again on top of the platform in front of which they had been fighting, and stood for a second before emanating from his entire body a white-lavender beam directly at the Omnibrine piece. He jumped out of the way, but the beam followed. Keaton sprinted up the steps, slashing at Muriminus with his sword. He broke off the beam and turned to Keaton, simultaneously pulling the energy blade back into existence. The first attack had been successful, but he blocked the second, re-extended the claws, and did a neat rolling move, pulling Keaton's sword from his hand and impaling him on the spikes. The possibly fatal blow was cut off by Muriminus turning to face the air-approaching the Omnibrine piece and summoning a four-block square, which the Omnibrine piece flew directly into.
Muriminus turned back, but Keaton was gone, and then again behind him (Muriminus wondered for only a split second how that was possible), attacking. Muriminus kicked out behind him, turning, and summoned the beam again, firing it directly onto Keaton. Keaton fell back, landing below the threshold of the platform, and his armor cracked. It had been reduced to nearly nothing with a single hit.
The Omnibrine piece clashed violently with Muriminus, their swords and limbs moving at breakneck speed, matching each other. Muriminus for a second feared fighting the full Omnibrine in hand-to-hand combat. He teleported in front of the recovering Keaton and, with his palm, impaled Keaton on a purple energy beam. He retracted the beam and fired it into the air, where it caught the Omnibrine piece in the process of leaping to get behind him. He slammed it down into the ground behind him, the Omnibrine piece colliding hard with the crystalline rock. Muriminus prepared the powerful giant beam once more. Tendrils of light purple energy curled around his body. His hands glowed, and his eyes shifted hue. His entire body prepared to fire-
Keaton stabbed him from behind with his diamond sword. He tapped into magical power and raised Muriminus up and backwards, sending him flying into one of the large crystals coming out of the island. Keaton immediately drew back a bow and sent a power-enchanted arrow into the crystal as well. It violently exploded, tossing Muriminus like a ragdoll. He met with the flaming fist of the demihuman (who really did look exactly like Steve), and fell into the ground, cracking his stone platform. the Omnibrine piece stayed floating for a second, and then fell down to deliver the final blow.
He froze in midair. Keaton, who had been rushing up the stairs of the platform to attack, also couldn't move. Muriminus stood calmly. "Well, my friends, I've enjoyed this farce, but I'm afraid you've won this game. I definitely underestimated you, and will not make the same mistake next time." As he said the words, pebbles rose from the ground around him. His wounds slowly closed, slashes covering themselves with a windbreaker of skin, stab wounds regenerating from the base like holes filling to the brim and hardening. Spots where skin showed through his charred exterior shell quickly recovered themselves with a sootlike surface. "Now..." he raised from the ground with a single finger one of the explosive crystals.
In an instant, snapping from calm to animated, he spun, slamming the crystal into the Omnibrine piece, breaking the motion spell. Keaton resumed his run to attack, but Muriminus fired a purple wither skull, blasting Keaton back with purple flame. Keaton landed in agony on the ground, and behind him the crystal slammed into the ground with the Omnibrine piece on the end, exploding violently. Keaton quickly poured water on himself, extinguishing the flames, but Muriminus was already upon him, slashing with vigor at the player. Keaton, having brought backup weapons to the fight, attacked back, slashing with an iron sword, enchanted with knockback. Muriminus landed on his feet, prone to leap, and did, pushing with extreme strength Keaton off the edge of the island over the Omnibrine piece. Muriminus disappeared in a particle cloud, leaving Keaton floating over the void. His teleport led him to the Omnibrine piece, but the Omnibrine piece was no longer on the ground, instead flying out to Keaton, and making one giant sky circle, heading back to the island, where he drove a singular fiery fist into Muriminus whilst setting Keaton on the ground.
Muriminus slid back what was probably about sixteen inches, then returned the attack at tenfold strength, punching the Omnibrine piece extremely hard. He slid back and collided with Keaton. They slowly stood up, facing the dark ruler before them. Muriminus, without hesitation, fired from his palm the beam. It zig-zagged up and down like a lightning bolt, and struck Keaton directly on. It went through, bent down, and struck into the ground behind him, bouncing back up and through him again, and again, and again, so fast it could not be counted. The beam dissipated and Keaton fell to the ground, disappearing, leaving behind his items. Muriminus turned the beam on the Omnibrine piece, but he wasn't there.
In an instant the Omnibrine piece had risen into the air, glowing orange. "Of the two choices you could have made there, that was worse." Absorbing energy from the player death, he floated, his blank white eyes tinted orange. The perimeter of the island floating in the void lit on fire, the flames burning all around. The explosive crystals reflected his light and glittered a tangerine shine.
The Omnibrine piece launched a tidal wave of fire at Muriminus, blasting him backwards. "It's been fun, Worian, but I'm going to be going now. Hopefully I see you again, and we fight!" he yelled out. The humanlike being extended his arms out, and above him formed a dimensional portal. Muriminus looked up at the Omnibrine piece and flew, speeding at him. He shot a high-powered lava jet into Muriminus, knocking him backwards into the ground. "This one's for my counterparts," he yelled, and fired thirteen flaming pellets in the direction of all the explosive crystals. "I'll be seeing you!" He flew through the portal and was gone as explosions ruptured the floating island and tore it asunder.