Pix glanced away from the mangrove forest as Katherine landed next to him. "Did you bring the-"

"Torches, flint and steel and TNT? Yes. And some fire charges. We aren't gonna burn the forest down with just some torches." The dark haired woman added wryly.

Both Pix and Katherine had come to the conclusion that the sculk mainly thrived in the mangrove forests, and as bad as they felt about potentially burning down Shelby's empire, they had to get rid of the sculk. And instead of looking through each individual part of the forest for the sculk vines, Katherine had reluctantly suggested burning the forest down- after making sure that there was nobody in the forest, of course.

"Okay then. We better hurry up." Pix added quietly. I hope this works.

If it doesn't... then I don't know what will.

——

Surprise Sausage pov be upon ye

Sausage stared at FWhip with a mildly alarmed expression. "Katherine and Pix are DOING WHAT?!" He shrieked, more than a little startled.

The goblin had just brought him the rather shocking news that Pix and Katherine had decided to an incredibly stupid thing- burn down the mangrove forest. Apparently they thought that destroying the sculk- or at least a massive part of the sculk- would potentially break its control over the infected emperors.

Sausage had no idea whether it would work, but it was incredibly stupid nonetheless.

FWhip shrugged. "I just told you. I thought you might be able to... stop them?" The shorter man added uncertainly.

"I'll try my best, but-" Sausage broke off with a sigh. "Where's Joey? He might be able to talk some sense into- oh, who am I kidding, he'll encourage her. Maybe... Jimmy? Pix and Katherine have some respect for him. Maybe they'll listen to him?" FWhip shrugged.

"I don't know, Jimmy's not that intimidating, so-" The goblin broke off, staring at his communicator. "Uhhhhhhhh-"

"What?" The brunette asked slowly, glancing at FWhip's communicator. Oh- too late.

-.-.-

SmallishBeans: uhhhhh guyssss

SmallishBeans: so I was flying over the Evermoore, being awesome

SmallishBeans: (as usual)

SmallishBeans: and uh

SmallishBeans: it looks very

SmallishBeans: on fire???

SmallishBeans: (Shelby's empire, not me)

SmallishBeans: (then again I am very hot so)

ShubbleYT: WHAT?!

SmallishBeans: oh I forgot Shelby could see this

SmallishBeans: oops

MythicalSausage: oops indeed

SolidarityGaming: what????

ShubbleYT: you BETTER be joking, Joel

SmallishBeans: uh

SmallishBeans: this seems like a good time to go mining

SmallishBeans: have fun with that Shelby

-.-.-

——

Pix glanced between his communicator and the blue-tinted flames that were currently enveloping the mangrove forest. "Okay, we have like ten minutes till the whole Sculk Alliance just shows up and murders us, so we should probably leave." He said thoughtfully.

"Yeah... that and the fire is getting kinda- out of control." Katherine added, coughing awkwardly and waving her hand in an odd gesture to attempt to clear the smoke surrounding her head. "I mean, I can't really- see that much, but-" She shrugged as Pix glanced around awkwardly.

"Yeah- I can't either, even with my glasses." The brunette muttered. The glasses probably aren't helping, actually. "We should get out of- oh. They were- my rockets are very gone." He was pretty sure that Katherine pulled a face, but the smoke around them was rapidly getting thicker, so he wasn't entirely sure.

"I have some spares. I mean, we'll have to be a bit more careful with the rockets, but- as long as we try to glide a bit more than usual we should make it back to our empires. Just about." The leader of Glimmergrove said quietly.

Pix nodded uncertainly as she handed him some rockets, adjusting his elytra and glancing up at the smoke. I really hope that worked. Because if not... I don't know what's going to happen next.

——

As soon as Pix landed in his empire, he was greeted by an irritated shriek as Sausage rushed over to him, quickly followed by Jimmy.

"Pix. I just have one question-" Sausage was cut off by Jimmy's annoyed shout, causing Pix to wince slightly.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" The blonde haired man demanded.

"Well, it was honestly an impulsive decision, so there wasn't that much thinking behind it, but mine and Katherine's logic was that- you know- the sculk mainly grows in Shelby's empire, and if we destroyed the sculk..." Pix shrugged. "Sorry." He added quietly.

Jimmy's expression softened slightly, but he still looked angry. "I get that you're missing Oli, but burning down an entire forest is not the correct solution, Pix. You should have at least thought about it a bit more."

"I know." It was only at this moment that the gravity of what he had done really dawned on him. "Oh my god, I know." Pix mumbled, letting out a sigh. "I'm sorry."

Jimmy sighed. "I'm sure you are, but- there's not much we can do now. I- we really have to hope that it worked, Pix, because if it didn't, the Sculk Alliance are going to murder us all." He added with a hopeless shrug.

"Yep. I'm- gonna go see if Katherine's okay, actually. Gonna prevent any violent murdering, you know." Sausage added awkwardly before flying away. Pix watched until his friend disappeared out of his field of view, before looking back at Jimmy, who still looked deeply troubled.

"How... on fire was it?" Jimmy said slowly. "Like- on a scale of just a teeny bit of fire to... Shelby's empire is gone, how bad was the fire?" The canary hybrid added awkwardly.

"Uh... Probably 'months of work to repair it but there might still be some do it left'...?" Pix said, wincing as Jimmy sighed.

"Pix, I- I don't know. I don't know what to do. This is- I'm not sure." The blonde finished lamely. "This is probably the biggest crime that has- ever been committed on the server, but also it's against a bad person, but also she's not a bad person because she isn't in control of what she's doing- I don't know." Jimmy glanced at Pix again. "I don't know." He repeated uncertainly.

Pix and Katherine really just said 'haha I miss my partner, arson go brrr'

Jimmy is very disappointed but also he's a pathetic wet cat of a man (/j /aff) and he's never dealt with anything like this so he doesn't know what to do

All I'm gonna say is Pix and Katherine need to watch their backs because uh (spoiler alert), burning down Shelby's empire did not work (surprise, surprise) and now the Sculk Alliance is not very happy to say the least

And the next chapter is chapter 13... unlucky for some.

ALSO

Seth189 started an Olix fic (IM NOT THE ONLY OLIX AUTHOR NOW HAHA WOOOOO) so go check it out >:D (sorry for any unwanted tags btw king)