It appears I'm in the perfect place to witness the apocalypse.

I'm just flying over the server from Scarland when the ground below starts to shake, chat filling with messages in seconds.

And then the world splits in two.

Like some supernatural blade slicing straight through the server, a ravine of Sculk tears through the ground, barely misses Scarland Castle, not stopping, continuing out of sight. I glide past, landing on the roof of Impulse's mega-shop Ibuy.

cubfan135: iBuy now

I repeat the message again and again through the terror of chat until everyone agrees. Part of me wants to investigate the abyss further. Part of me is still terrified of the Sculk and stays rooted where I am. How far down does it go? Where does it lead? Already, tendrils of the Sculk creep up the edge of the pit, choking the ground.

'Oh my goodness.' EX is first there next to me, Jimmy and Tango close behind. 'This isn't good.'

'It's tearing the server apart. The Sculk is destroying Hermitcraft. There's nothing we can do... Oh my goodness... Oh my goodness.'

'Jimmy, breathe.' Tango puts an arm around his shoulder as he continues panicking. It only helps a little, but my attention turns to more and more hermits appearing, the ones still underground the most grave of all of us. 

'It's gone right through bedrock,' xB explains. 'Me and Hypno tried to see how far down it went... it just didn't stop.'

'Like it's some weird giant gateway to the Land of Souls. It did come from the portal,' Hypno adds.

'The portal? That's really not good.' Grian starts pacing, wings raised behind him. 'What's the plan?'

'Investigate closer,' suggests Cleo. 'Ask Pix to go down it.'

'We're not sending Pix into the sculk-ravine.' Cleo glares back at EX. 

'He's the most likely to understand what it is!' they justify.

'I agree with Cleo,' Martyn replies, crossing his arms. 'Not the sacrificing Pix bit, but getting closer to investigate, asking him if he knows anything...'

'Who'd be willing to talk to him though?' 

Jimmy raises a tentative hand at the question.

'I mean... I know him a bit from Empires... Tango can come with me.'

'As long as you promise to stay safe, Tim.' Grian replied. 'But what'll the rest of us do?'

'We do need to look a bit closer... understand it more. xB, Hypno, you said you'd explored it a bit?'

'Yeah... it's really deep, and full of Sculk. There doesn't appear to be a bottom.'

'Can we burn it?' Badtimes suggests. We all glare at him. 

'...why would we burn it?'

'How else are we going to deal with this magic f***ing pit in the middle of the f***ing server? As fun as it could be to shove one of you a***holes in, I don't want to fall in myself. I have big plans for arson, and murder, and chaos and that THING isn't going to stop me!'

'Our response to everything can't just be fire, Badtimes!'

'Have you got a BETTER IDEA Littled***?'

'Get PIX to explain it! See if it leads to the Land of Souls, maybe use it to our advantage! I'm not here for sad crimes, Badtimes!'

'Oh, f*** you...'

The two divulge into argument. I just stare into the pit severing straight through the home I always thought was safe. EX joins me.

'What do you think?'

'Me? I don't know... I just want to stay away from it as much as we can.'

'Shouldn't we try and close it?'

'How? Even if we had enough grass, or any other way to cover it up, it'd just break through again.' ...or drag us into the depths before we even try. I add silently, fighting the ghost of Sculk creeping up my legs.

'You think?'

I nod.

'And we don't know if it will spread again anywhere else. Destroy the server another way.'

'I might be able to try a few admin things... but if the Sculk knows I'm admin... I've had enough trouble with creatures in my mind making me do evil.'

For a moment I think he's a Vexling, but then his time as 'Evil Xisuma' rises into my mind. Trying to destroy the world. Xisuma fighting against him...

'Do you... know what caused that stuff? Because me and Scar...'

'It's not the Vex. It's complicated, and personal and... we've got more important problems right now.'

'Yeah.' 

'So what's the plan?' Impulse interrupts our conversation to ask. 'Can we control it somehow?'

'Watchers didn't help last time, but maybe now Pearl's been taken...'

'No way, we're not asking the Watchers for help,' Jimmy immediately rebukes. Tango takes his hand, nodding in agreement. Grian falls silent.

'Cub, any help from the Vex?' Jevin suggests alternatively.

'Unlikely.' I reply, remembering the conversation I was forced to have before. 'Unless False and Tango can convince them to do anything...'

'Even for Scar?' Grian frowns.

'Vex aren't sentimental. They might think he betrayed them by being possessed by the Sculk, or... well they just won't be willing to help.' I refuse to mention the possibility that Scar's lost his magic as well. Most of the group probably don't know I've lost mine.

'I can tunnel bore it,' offers Doc casually. 'TNT normally solves these kinds of problems just fine.'

'I have a new best friend,' Badtimes replies simply. 'Fire, TNT, any other great ideas?'

'Badtimes, NO,' EX snaps to a loud fart noise. 'Firstly, TNT won't work, everyone will've tried TNT. secondly, we've already said NO FIRE!'

'F*** you! Fire's fun! Fire WORKS!'

'Fireworks? There's a huge variety of those,' I reply. Badtimes pauses. 'Surely I can make some incredibly rare fireworks and shoot the sculk with it. It'll do damage.'

'Fake Vex has a point.' Badtimes points at me. 'I'm happy to shoot explosives at jerk plants until they f*** off. Even if they're not proper explosives.'

'Our plan isn't to destroy the Sculk!'

'Then what is our plan?! We can't f***ing talk to it, beg for it to bring back Scar and Pearl. Even if they're not already dead, or possessed into being too cool to defeat.' Scar appears in my mind, just like in my nightmares, grinning and covered in sculk. 

'We're not too late to save them,' I snap back, harsher than I meant. 'That's not happening.'

'You can't control it, dumb**s. It's SCULK. It's a b****.'

'Can we get back on topic, please?' Grian interrupts 'Badtimes is right, we need to do something. And if that's not destroying the Sculk...'

'If we attack the Sculk, it'll attack us. It's simple as that.' EX explains bluntly. 'We can't get around that.'

'Then what do we do?!'

'Investigate! Figure out what's going on! Talk to Pix! I don't know!' 

We all fall silent at EX's outburst.

'Just... as long as we stay safe and don't do anything stupid, do whatever you want. And if you find out anything useful, tell me.' He calms down enough to say. 'This meeting is now over.'

This sucks

But next chapter won't

:)