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I thought that this was only going to be like 15 chapters, but here we are, at twenty chapters, and the climax hasn't even happened yet.

I will give everyone a heads up, this chapter is a royal fucking mess.

Cw: blood, death, violence, pain, mild swearing

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Grian's pov

"Run!" shouted Mumbo. Grian half ran, half flew away. He took a quick look behind him and saw a cloud of smoke. He went faster.

Into the chorus plants he went. Deeper and deeper and deeper, until he was completely out of breath.

Grian turned around.

"Oh thank Notch. They didn't follow us in here," he said to himself, "Wait, where are the others?" he glanced around.

"Mumbo? Scar? X? Where are you?" the builder started moving around in what he assumed was the way to the other side of the island.

"False? Pearl? Tango? Come on, where are you? If you're here, please come out. This isn't funny..."

Scar's pov

As soon as he heard Mumbo warn them, he had blindly sprinted off into the chorus. Yes, Scar had escaped. But now, he was pretty sure he was lost. He already had an awful sense of direction. Throw in endless chorus plants and he was screwed. 

He wandered around, calling the other's names. After what might have been a few seconds, a few hours, or even a few years, the elf heard a sound behind him.

Behind him was a creeper on the edge of a village.

It flashed white before exploding and killing him on the spot. 

He respawned and went back over to where he was before. Grian, Scott, and a few others were there. He looked down at his life-bar on his forearm. Great. I'm the first yellow name.

Xisuma's pov

As soon as Xisuma ran into the forest, he knew something was wrong. Everything just felt off. There was a mist over everything. He could only see a few feet ahead of him. The only sounds he could hear were his footsteps and his heart racing. 

But he couldn't quite put his finger on what exactly the problem was. That is, until he saw his brother and those people attacking their house. Oh crud, this is a corrupt chorus forest!

He closed his eyes and forced himself back into reality. Xisuma pulled some cloth out and made a jarryriged mask to keep from inhaling the fumes that caused the hallucinations.

I should try and find the others.

False's pov

False trudged through the mist. All around her were tall, thin, purple stalks. False passed a boulder that looked familiar. 

Am I going in circles? She pulled out her sword and carved a line on the boulder. "Only one way to check," the blond muttered to herself." She continued on in a straight line.

Five minutes later, she arrived at the same boulder. "I'm pretty sure I didn't take any turns, or if I did, I definitely wasn't so off that I got back here in five minutes."

She sat down and tried checking her coords on her communicator. The screen flickered for a second before giving static and then turning off completely. 

"What the heck? Something's definitely not right."

Mumbo's pov

Mumbo had been walking for who knows how long. Years, days, seconds, he had no clue. All he knew was that he was tired and lost and his arm hurt like hell.

The world started spinning around the suited man. From tiredness or pain, he could not tell.

He sat down before his dizziness brought him down the hard way and closed his eyes for a second.

When he opened them, Grian was in front of him. He was on a cobblestone bridge above the nether roof.

Grian was a red name.

A red name.

Mumbo was stuck a hundred meters above ground with a red name on a one-wide cobblestone bridge.

Grian's eyes danced with a fire of murderous insanity.

"You know, there's a way we could still be friends," said Grian.

Grian's pov

Grian's train of thought was cut off by a strong scent flooding his nose. Mist clouded his vision. The world spun around him. He was dropped into Third Life.

"Fight! Fight!" chanted the ghosts. Scar and him were the only ones left.

Complying with the ghosts' wishes, he and Scar went to the highest point in the desert and set up an arena. It was a loose circle-bean shape of cacti with two flames at the entrance.

Scar's pov

Scar looked at his own grave.

It said 'Here lies Scar "It was just a prank" '

Grian explained what happened and Scar extracted a promise that he would serve him until he lost his green life. Scar dragged Grian off to the desert on the back of a llama.

Xisuma's pov

Xisuma tried to recall everything he knew about the corrupt chorus. He sat on the ground and double checked his mask. If any of the chorus fumes got to him... Well, they would be stuck forever. None of the others knew the tricks to survive the cursed forests, and he didn't have his helmet to protect him. 

The green-armored man racked his brain for information.

"What do I know, what do I know? Uhh, I know that the corrupt chorus fruit teleportation can be controlled and used to travel thousands of blocks, if you know where you're going. That's not helpful. Ugh, why can't I remember things? Why did I have to derp right now?

"Oh, wait!" X said, jumping up, "That's how you get out of these places. You have to force the forest to not shift by tying string behind you!" The admin searched his things for string.

"But of course I don't have any!" Xisuma groaned and sat back down.

False's pov

"Something's definitely not right here." She was about to start trying to figure out exactly what that was when a strong smell hit her nose.

False sniffed the air. The air was permeated with a strong perfume scent of chorus fruit mixed with fermented spider eye.

"What in the name of-" she started to say. Then the world blurred around her. It felt like she was stuck somewhere between realities.

She panicked. Everything around seemed to have layers of the forest, the overworld burning, and the void. Her body felt like it was being ripped back from front.

No, no that's not what it feels like. She went to her automatic anti-panic routine. She had practiced it so many times, it felt as natural as breathing.

What I feel is endstone. The endstone is cold, ruff, and hard. She attempted to move her real body. 

Finding success, False bent her head down and sniffed her jacket pocket. She always kept mints in there for situations like this. She smelled them. The mints drew the chorus-spider eye smell out of her nose.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked around. She forced herself to focus on the chorus plant layer of reality. Finally, she was completely back.

"What in the nether was that? That was weird.

"Okay, so what do I know so far?" False said, trying to gather her thoughts and formulate a plan, "I know that I crossed paths with a boulder again despite going away from it. I know that I got half dropped into another reality. And I'm pretty sure that the forest is changing around me."

False stood up. "Well, I know how to test that." She walked a little ways away from the rock she had marked. The mist obscured her view. She walked back the way she came. The rock wasn't there any more. "That answers the question." False stood and thought for a second. "What if I tie a string behind me?" pulled out a stack of string and began walking and tying it behind her.

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Is this an awkward place to end a chapter? 

Yes.

Have I been writing this chapter for like, two weeks?

Yes.

Do I need to get my schedule back to having the next two chapters written because I f*cked it up because of this chapter?

Yes.

In other words, this is where the chapter ends.

     -Meep

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