Word count: 1500 Recommended Song: Golden Age by Zayde Wolf

A device hummed in the corner of a dark room, gloomy by choice. The owner of the device walked up to it, fingers twitching in anticipation. He carefully poured a strange bubbling red liquid over it.

A temporary break in the humming occurred as it sucked the liquid up, now glowing red.

"Yes. YES!" The man cackled evilly. "It is ready for transport now."

He snapped his fingers and the device disappeared. "Do your work my friend."

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Xisuma was sitting in his base when he felt a strange disturbance. It was probably nothing. Xisuma ignored the twinge in his stomach that told him something was wrong. He needed to deliver some freshly forged tools to False. Now was not the time to get caught up in strange feelings. False was not one that had patience.

Xisuma hid his admin wings with a ball of light and took off the regular way. The others knew he was an admin, but X didn't like taking advantage of the abilities. It felt unfair in a way. Xisuma hadn't had to deal with any major problems since world five. The others relied on him to take care of any issues that came up. Not the small ones, just the ones that were beyond their abilities.

As Xisuma glided, firing a rocket on occasion, he thought of his days back at Admin School. The academy that taught everything from command blocks to viruses. Those things were required for admins to know.

"Hey, World to Xisuma!" A voice broke him out of his thoughts. "You okay there X?"

Xisuma shook his head to clear his thoughts. He managed to take off his mask, still a little confused. As he looked up, Xisuma saw False looking down at him with concern.

"I've never seen someone plumment down so fast."

"Plummet?" Xisuma tilted his head in confusion. "I was just flying- oh" He had looked down to see a landing pad, which explained his lack of broken bones. "How did I stop flying?"

False shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know to be honest. You were one of the lucky ones. A bunch of people just crashed and respawned."

Xisuma shrunched his eyebrows and got up. "That isn't good." False responded by handing him his hermitphone. "Why-"

"Just look."

Xisuma looked at the phone, eyes widening as he looked at the chat.

Iskall fell from a high place

Doc was too high up when he fell

Stress hit the ground to hard

Ren fell from a high place

Iskall> "Dude what happened?"

Mumbo> "I have no idea. All of the sudden my elytra turned back into metal blades. I'm surprised I didn't die. My base has a death toll on me now.

Stress> "I don't usually fall, but I just all of the sudden tripped and fell into the ocean. It shouldn't have killed me, but it did.

Grian fell from a high place

Grian> "Don't worry that was on me. Forgot to repair my elyta."

Xisuma hurriedly typed in his own message.

Xisuma> "I'm looking into it as we speak. I was lucky enough to land on the slime blocks near False's base."

Iskall> "Glad to hear that someone is on the job. I don't know what we would do without you X."

Xisuma put the phone back in his pocket. He turned and was about to fly away when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Ahem?" False stood with her hand outstretched and an impatient look on her face. "Forgetting something?"

Realization dawned on Xisuma's face. "Right! My helmet! Well I'll be off False!" Xisuma popped the helmet back on and launched himself using a rocket. False shook her head, playful exasperation written on her face. She turned around and walked to her base.

"Oh Xisuma. You always forget the strangest things." She laughed to herself as she continued the project without the aid of tools.

Three weeks later.

Ren narrowed his sky blue eyes at an empty chest. The chest used to be full of diamonds. Now he had to reach in till his shoulder to scrounge up anything. He felt a buzz in his satchel. Pulling it out caused it to light up with a message from Grian.

"Get rich quick!" It simply said. Keralis would love this, Ren thought. He tucked the phone back and went to his rocket chest, which was thankfully not empty. It was nestled in the maze of greenery and light, despite being underground.

Running his fingers through his tousled hazel hair, Ren prepared for flight. One miscalculated jump could end his life. It wasn't particularly horrible, it just hurt and was a pain to get all your stuff back.

It was a wonder how Scar had stayed alive for so long. Usually the man had to respawn at least every day. Oddly enough, Scar wasn't one of the victims of the elytra failure. Ren closed his eyes. He didn't have to do this. Mining is all it took. No. His elytra morphed into the customary wings, designed to catch air for proper flight. They weren't actual wings, just gliding tools. His were mottled brown, to match his hair.

Phswew! The rocket fired and Ren launched out of the ground, elytra spread wide open.

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The minigame district. Of course. Ren glanced at the popping lava in a glass tube. That... didn't look good.

Grian popped out from behind what looked like a fish tank. "Ah! Yes, Ren." Grian smoothed his red sweater. "How would you like to earn fifty diamonds?"

Fifty diamonds, Ren sighed, wistfully thinking of his empty chest back home. He quickly composed himself, adjusting his satchel.

"Well you know fifty diamonds," Ren glanced at his fingers trying to seem nonchalant. "That will pay for my Sahara membership. Kind of ironic huh?" He glanced at Grian.

Grian grinned sheepishly. "Well, yeah. I guess that is my fault. But you can't turn away from the chance to get them back."

Ren winced. He was so gullible. "I mean, that's my weakness."

"Of course there is a catch." Grian leaned back on the glass.

"Isn't there always?" Ren raised an eyebrow. Grian gestured back at the dispenser. "Choose your fate."

That would have sounded ominous if a bunch of raiders hadn't just moved up behind Grian. Ren had to hide a snicker. Grian noticed it too late. The forbidding raiders had taken a shot.

"Oww!" Grian yelped. He pulled out his sword and eliminated them.

"Choose your fate huh?" Ren laughed. "You're lucky that's not permanent." Ren indicated the arrow lodged in Grian's arm. Grian winced. "Yeah, better pick it quick huh?"

Ren pressed the button. A piece of paper popped out. "Escape the aquarium?" Ren read looking up. Grian now had a mischievous grin. "You're looking at it."

"Oh..." Ren stared at the magma cubes on the bottom. Oh was right. This would be a close one. Okay. Ren backed up so he could get a running start.

"Three, Two, One!" Grian shouted. Ren sprinted at the aquarium. As he swam towards the dirt block he felt the tug of the magma. No, Ren thought. He wished he had his pickaxe but that was in his satchel. And his satchel? Well, that was in a chest. Punch you faster you little fist! Ren was panicking. The world was growing slowly darker. He had reached his limit when the ice broke. He leapt out desperate to get air into his burning lungs. Ren overshot. He found himself tumbling out of the aquarium.

He hit the ground, hard. Ren found himself dying, yet again. His body flashed red and vanished, items littering the ground.

"Ren has met his demise by falling from a high place!"

Grian stared in shock at what had just happened. Demised? And a voice to top it all off? Something was amiss. Between the odd death and the failed elytra, Grian started to worry about what was happening to their world.

Mumbo rushed over to where Grian was.

"Did you hear that?"

Grian nodded numbly. "I have a feeling something horrible just happened to Ren. And I might just be responsible."

Mumbo looked at Grian in shock. "What?"

"We need to tell the others, now. Especially Xisuma. For the meantime, we need to keep people from dying."

Mumbo looked at the minigame Grian had set up. "Does that mean tearing this down?"

Grian looked a little sheepish. "Stress already signed up...."

"Grian!"

"I have to... Its a contract."

"Oh this isn't going to be good..."

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Ren squinted around the dark room. No use. It was still pitch black. Where was he? He smelled fresh pinewood. His gut told him to push up. Bright sunlight pierced the stone cold darkness, making Ren temporarily close them. He was in... A coffin? Ren looked down to see now gray skin and clothes.

"Welcome, Grim Dog." A deep voice whispered. "You are now the dead, the gray skin, the fear of those alive. Your job now is to strike the still living......."