"Hello, what's your name, Ren? That sounds familiar. My name? Hehehe, that's for another day."

Grim felt like he had just woken up from a long sleep, even though he knew no time had past since Iskall and Grian ran inside. He kneeled in front of the town hall. He felt warmness flowing back through him, regaining colour. But part of him fought back. He was splitting down the middle. It hurt so much. It felt like his soul was being torn apart. He watched as the others came back outside holding a lot of shulker boxes. He blinked and suddenly he was back at the hidden base. He had felt the time pass though. Mumbo hooked him up to a machine and looked at the readings. He felt his soul split further. He screamed. It pulled further and further and suddenly, it shattered.

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Iskall watched as Grim screamed. It was filled with a sound of pain Iskall had never heard before. When it stopped, the life behind Grim's  eyes seemed to disappear. He was back to Grim now, no longer split down the middle.

"Mumbo, what happened?" Iskall gulped.

"His soul. It was like it was tearing it self apart, it broke. He has no soul."

"Is he dead?" Iskall asked.

"No. He is just without a soul."

Grian looked at the two of them. "Can we fix the soul?"

"I sure hope so." Mumbo said.

"Do we really need this guy?" Hels asked.

"Believe it or not we do, stupid." Mumbo snapped.

"How tired are you Mumbo?" Grian asked curiously. "You don't usually snap like that."

"I haven't slept since this all started."

"Ok you three should sleep, I'll watch Grim." Iskall spoke up.

Mumbo flopped on the couch and passed out. Grian looked around. "Come on hels. Let's get some sleep."

"Nether knights don't need sleep." Hels said, although it was obvious he was tired.

"This one does. Let's go." Grian grabbed Hels and took him to one of the bedrooms. While the three of them slept, Iskall was busy making a machine.

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Grian stepped out of his bedroom the next day. The room had multiple beds and one of which was occupied by a sleeping Hels. The flame pouring out of his helmet sparked a calmer orange, he looked quite peaceful. When Grian walked to the main room he found Iskall had fallen asleep over a machine. When he walked over he tripped over Mumbo, who had fallen of the couch and was now sleeping on the ground. Grims eyes were open, staring at the roof. Grian managed to pick up Iskall and lay him of one of the couches and put Mumbo back on the other one. He sighed and looked at the machine Iskall had built. He wouldn't have a clue how it worked. Grian was terrible with redstone.

"It better work." A voice from behind startled him. Hels stood against a door frame. Now awake.

"How do you know what it does?" Grian said, confused.

"It's gonna fix Grim, obviously."

Grian paused. "You care about him don't you?" His face broke into a huge smile. "Deep down your just a big softie."

"No." Hels said quickly. "We just need him."

"Yeah sure buddy." They heard a groan as Mumbo got up.

"Ow, why does my back hurt so much?"

You slept if the floor most of the night." Grian replied.

"That makes sense." Mumbo said, nodding. "I'll got wake up Iskall." He left the room as Grian sat down. When Iskall returned he grabbed the redstone contraption and filled the power module with iskallium. He looked at his hard work then turned to the others. "Ok I think I realised something. You three need to do something for me." He scribbled something down on a piece of paper and give it to Grian. "You need to somehow kidnap these people."

Mumbo peered over at the list. "How the heck are we supposed to do that?"

"Figure it out smart guy. Hels stay here with me. I need your help."

"Ok, whatever." He seemed quite relived.

"Now let's get to work." Iskall said.

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Mumbo and Grian walked along the server. They exchanged glances but rarely talked until Grian broke the silence. "So who's first?"

Mumbo looked at the paper. "We'll try Cleo, should be easy enough."

"I don't know. We shouldn't underestimate her." Grian said.

"Yeah I know. Here we are, Cleo's zoo." They walked across a bridge into the zoo. Mumbo spotted Cleo and silently poked Grian and pointed to her. Grian nodded and snuck up behind her. He grabbed her and held her still to control her. She tried to scream but Grian put his hand to her mouth. She managed to free her arm and elbowed Grian in the face. She got out his arms and said. "Grian? Mumbo? What the hell are you doing. Oh god Stress was right."

She started to pull out a book which confused Mumbo but before she could Grian grabbed her again and Mumbo stuck a needle in her neck and she passed out. Grian let her drop to the ground as Mumbo said. "What was that book?"

Grian picked it up and examined it. "It seems to be some spell book for controlling armour stands."

Mumbo sighed. "We dodged a bullet there."

"Who's next?"

Mumbo looked at the paper again. "Hmm, let's try Etho."

The two friends walked down to Ethos base having a friendly chat, enjoying each other's company.

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Iskall stood over Grim with Helsknight in the background. Iskall pointed the device he had been working on at Grim and pulled a trigger as a green beam shot out and hit Grim, his eyes started growing green.

"What's this doing?" Hels asked.

"Resetting his brain. We need to remove the thought of Stressmonster from his head." Iskall fiddled with the device. "Maybe with that and a bit of help from iskallium we can fix his soul."

"I sure hope it works." Hels looked at his friend. Wait. Did he just say friend? No, he meant... what did he mean? He shook his head. Hels doesn't do friends.

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The voice spoke to Grim.

"Ren! You need to keep fighting. For the sake of all of us. I'll tell you my name. My name is"-

The voice was cut off. Grim tried to hold onto the thought of his dear friend, Stress. But he could feel her slipping away. Suddenly, he stood in a black void. Small silver shards were everywhere. He couldn't move. He remembered what the voice said. Keep fighting. He put everything he had into it. He took one step. He took two steps. He felt like he might collapse from exhaustion. He managed to touch a shard. He put all of his will into it as all of the shards floated into midair. They started to connect together. His soul was being fixed. He felt undead life flow back into him. He woke up.

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Well there goes that motivation streak. I've just been writing things down then instantly scratching them. That's why it's taken a while to get this chapter out.

Who's the voice??? Oooooo spookyyyyyyyyy. Hehehe.

Next chapter: The will to live