Grian: There's something weird in the shopping district

Renthedog: ???

cubfan135: what kind of weird? 

Grian: weird shop.

GoodTimeWithScar: what kind of weird shop? 

Grian: Everyone meet by the TCG store?

Grian closed chat, wings half folded as he stared at the shop in front of him. It wasn't even a shop, really. More of a board with a whole lot of signs and hermit heads on it, with a skeletal hand above, holding a whole bunch of diamond blocks.

The thing was, he knew exactly what it was.

He'd built it before in Season 6.

But he definitely hadn't built it now.

Which meant either another hermit had, or...

'I definitely recognise this...'

Grian let out a yell, wings shooting out into the face of the hermit just behind, turning to see them on the ground.

'SCAR! DON'T- DO THAT!'

'Do what?!' Scar, still holding a hand to his forehead, sat up.

'Sneak up behind me and... And scare me like that!'

'I'm sorry!'

Grian sighed, recovering enough to hold out a hand to help his friend up

'I'm sorry for whacking you in the face...are you alright?'

'Yeah, I'm fine... But what is this thing? Why does it look familiar?'

'Demise. This was the sign up for Demise before. In Season 6. But I didn't build this one, and it looks like everyone's signed up for us...'

'Demise? Again?' Another hermit, thankfully not scaring the pair as much as Scar had, landed.

'Hey Cub... Only thing is, I didn't build this one. And I don't know who did.'

'Weird... What does the writing say?'

'It's some kind of poem thing... I thought we should wait for more hermits to appear before fully researching it.'

Luckily, the trio didn't have long to wait as the trio of Beef, Doc and Jevin appeared, still mid-argument about TCG.

'Beef, are you sure Jevin's allowed to use that many fishing rods? I swear you nerfed those things...'

'Dude, I only had 2!'

'You had 3!'

'Who won?' Cub ran over, excited by the TCG talk, as Doc sighed and pointed at Jevin.

'He got super lucky though... what's going on here?'

'Someone's decided everyone's now playing Demise. Like Season 6...'

'What?' 

'I definitely didn't see this last night when I was restocking.' Beef frowned, walking over as Cleo landed, joined by the Soup Group. From there, more and more hermits started to filter in, some recognising the build and others confused. But none of them seemed to know where it came from as Grian started to talk.

'First question, did anyone build this?'

He pointed to the build. 

'Didn't... you... do it last time?' Tango frowned. 

'Yeah. But I didn't build this. Unless I was possessed. Which... is more possible than I want to think. But... anyway... if no one made this...'

'Watchers?' Pearl frowned. 

'Vexlings?' Added Scar a moment after, shuffling closer to Cub. 

'I don't know... 

'We should wait and see how badly the... 'dead' are affected before panicking... when does it say the game begins?' Xisuma, stepped towards the front of the group. 

'Uhh, it's all in a riddle... hang on...'

'24 dying to get to the prize

Out of the ground, the grey skins rise

Tricksters and traitors, betrayal and lies

Welcome, hermits to the game of demise

The dead will plot for living to die

But if hermits kill players, the player survives

Teamwork allowed, all traps undenied

These are the rules to the game of demise

The game's begun, but don't try to hide

Just gather weapons, prepare for the ride

By this time tomorrow the first will've died

Be gone, be out of the game of demise .'

Silence for a moment as Grian finished. He looked around at the hermits... Stress was standing closer to Iskall, Ren was hidden somewhere behind the other hermits, slightly pale. Doc muttered something that was probably reassurance from next to him. Impulse raised his hand.

'So... this is just Demise again?' He frowned. 

'Except we didn't... plan it. Which is... weird.'

'I mean... weird death games have been fun before...' Muttered Scar. 'When I actually have friends in them...' Cub put an arm around his friend's shoulder. Grian continued.

'I think we should all play this really carefully... check durability on elytra before flying... don't take any risks... sleep every night away. And try to stay together. Because... when the red names come... it's going to get a lot harder.' He explained. 'Any questions?'

'What's... Demise?' Gem raised her hand slowly. Pearl gave a nod.

'So... it's a game where you need to stay alive, and if you die, you need kill other people until one winner is left.' Grian explained. 'Like... the life series, but on Hermitcraft, with one life, and the ghosts are trying to kill you. And you can't directly kill someone. If everyone knows what the life series is...'

A few nods, a few grimaces, mostly from former life-series members... Ren... Impulse... Tango... and of course Scar, who was still just staring at the ground.

'If that's all, the meeting is over... stay safe everyone. And... good luck.'

Slowly, the hermits started to disperse with mutters and instant changing of elytras or wonders of whether the nether was actually safer... soon there were only a few left, including Ren, hunting for fireworks.

'Hey, are you alright?' Grian ran over to where the half-dog was, still slightly pale. Ren glanced over, giving a nervous laugh.

'Yeah, I'm fine dude... why?'

'You're shaking.'

'Oh... yeah.' Ren looked over at his hands, trying to still them, then at the ground. 'Listen, dude. I'm fine. It's just... normal levels of nerves. Life series levels, y'know?'

'Ren, what's wrong bro?' Iskall ran over from where he was sorting his inventory. 'And don't try to lie. You're omega scared.'

'It's... it's just stupid... because I died first last time, I'm scared I'll die first again... and lose control and start killing people again...' Ren let out a choked sob, burying his head in his hand,

'Hey, hey it's ok.' Comforted Grian, hugging him as he started to cry. Iskall joined in, all three just comforting each other until Ren pushed away.

'Well... I should head back to my base... I'll see you around. Good luck.'

'Wait, I can come too... if your base is towards mine.' 

'Yeah, yeah that'd be good... thanks, dudes.'

'No problem.'

Grian and Iskall were just ahead as he took to the air, heart still racing as he crossed the mountains... then Scar's base...

A crack. 

Iskall let out a yell as his elytra broke. Ren dove after, Grian behind him, trying to find a water bucket, any way to survive the landing...

He placed it down. 

Iskall landed in it.

But Ren didn't.

Renthedog hit the ground too hard.

Yep.

It's a Demise book

:D