"Sacrifices?" Mumbo felt himself pale at the thought. Why would they have even been sacrificing each other in the first place.

     "Why are you here? Does Hermitcraft even know you are here?" Grian asked, demanding for answers.

     "That old wheeze? Hermitcraft is a fool to think she can claim whatever she wants! This was my land! She can't kick me out!" Mumbo looked over at Grian, wondering what he was talking about.

     "She?" He asked him.

     "Long story short, we all kind of unknowingly worship a very powerful goddess. She doesn't like to show herself and doesn't like actually being worshiped to. She is one of the most forgiving deities but she doesn't like others." He had his arms crossed, looking the god up and down. "She wouldn't let some god get into here, especially a corrupt one."

     "You've talked to a goddess before?" Impulse asked, looking like his mind just exploded.

     "I don't trust deities. If Xisuma and Hermitcraft wanted me to join, she was going to have to let me interview her. Anyways," he turned back to the god, a glare on his face, "leave or else I will summon Hermitcraft here. She will put an end to this!" The god sighed, sinking back into the hole.

     "Fine, but if I don't get sacrifices, I will be back." They left without another word.

---

     "What the heck just happened?" Pearl asked after a second of silence. Grian just sunk to the ground, looking exhausted.

     "I guess you all want me to explain." They all nodded their heads, gathering around him in a circle. "Where should I begin?"

     "What were you saying about Xisuma?" Impulse piped up.

     "Xisuma is an admin, aka he is the champion of the goddess he serves under. He has devoted himself to her and when he leaves, it will be given to another person. It goes on and on and on until Hermitcraft disappears."

     "How does a goddess even disappear?"

     "It's complicated but basically, if the civilization or thing they have control over dies or if everyone forgets about the deity. There are tons of gods and goddesses that disappear after a short time." He explained while the other listened intently.

     "How have you known other deities?" Scar wondered. Grian tensed slightly.

     "I will serve under you forever." His head was bowed he pledged himself. A burning pain erupted from his arm and back.

     "I've been to other places." He wrapped his hand around the dull thudding that he felt against his arm. It was hidden by a sweater but he still knew where it was and he could see it hovering in mist about the fabric.

     "Other places with deities and from what I can tell, not good ones." Pearl observed quietly. Grian let go of his arm, squeezing his eyes closed.

     "I don't like to talk about it." He quickly muttered under his breath.

     He opened his eyes again and saw that everyone was looking away. None of them met his gaze.

     "Okay, then we won't talk about it." Scar assured, still looking at the grass on the ground in front of him.

     "It's been a long day, why don't we just go and..." Impulse hesitated. He seemed unsure of what to say.

     "Do whatever we were doing before! That way, we can just think about this later." Pearl suggested in his stead. They could all hear the implications in her tone though. 'Forget this ever happened.'

---

     Pearl was unsure what was making her so nervous all the sudden as she walked to her base on the mountain. She was usually so confident and sure of herself. But she didn't want to leave at the moment.

     Hearing a stick break, she jumped, looking around and trying to find where the sound came from. Her heart was racing. She took another few steps before feeling a chill up her spine. It felt like she was being watched.

     She hurriedly walked down the mountain, planning on going home instead.

---

     Mumbo stepped into the nether portal, feeling queasy all of the sudden.

     He brushed it off as still being nervous about Boatem. He had felt sick thinkint about sacrifices and gods and goddesses. It was too much to think about.

     The swirling of the nether portal didn't help, he was feeling light headed at this point. The heat wasn't helping. Blinking, everything felt like a stop motion video. Every blink and he was somewhere new. Blacking out, he felt his feet hovering, like he wasn't on the ground anymore.

     With a start, he realized he was laying on his back.

     His vision cleared and he found himself on his bed. Looking at his comm, he realized he had walked into lava when he had blacked out. There was no use in leaving his bed if he was just going to pass out again. He curled up in the blankets and went to sleep.

---

     Scar was going around, restocking his Swaggons with new inventory.

     It was going swell when he realized he ran out of materials. One stack off! Groaning, he closed his shulker box with a tap before heading back to his base to get more.

---

     He had just gotten back to his Swaggon, new materials ready to be loaded up. He had gotten distracted a few times when coming back.

     Opening the chest and the shulker, he gaped. Instead of bringing stone, he brought cobblestone! How had this happened? He went back to fix it again.

---

     "Stone, stone, stone..." he was muttering to himself as he located it and put it into the chest. He blinked and it was suddenly deepslate.

     Scar was so frustrated that he threw his shulker and the chest down, deciding it was better to go home for the day.

---

     Impulse was mining for materials for his base when  his picaxe was close to breaking. With a sigh, he loaded everything up, and heading to the closest xp farm in the end. Arriving, he stood and waited for the endermen to drop. He stood there for around a minute, looking up into the system. Oddly, there were none. Going to the next Endermen farm, he saw that there were none their either.

     He shrugged it off as a glitch, deciding to just go home for the day.

---

     Grian was feeling nauseous and paranoid.

     There was nothing to it, he could deal with it for as long as he could. He wouldn't let it affect him. He hummed "Mumbo AFK" as he mined deepslate for his shop and inventory. It was alright.

     The picaxe sounded like it was going to break. He would usually go to an ex farm but he had already wasted so much time with talking to Boatem. Grian grabbed out some bottles of it, splashing himself and the picaxe. Looking at the durability, he saw he was off by a few bottles. He shrugged it off, throwing some more down before going back to work.

---

     Grian double and rechecked how many stacks he had. The answer never came out the same. He frowned but was still willing to mine more so he continued. The nausea grew and his spine tingled with every time he got confused. His picaxe was a dead weight, him having to get more bottles so he just decided to craft a bunch of stone tools he could use. He could go on for days!

     A force pushed against him. It sent him tumbling back, going all the way to the staircase. He was forced up, and had to go all the way up the the surface. The force didn't stop. Grian tried pushing back, his feet digging into the grass. It was no use, he was pushed back all the way to Boatem.

     He pushed and pushed with all his might but it then stopped just as he reached the area surrounding the starter bases. Grabbing out rockets, he soared into the sky and went full speed at the invisible barrier. He let out a scream as he collided with it, falling down and plummeting to the ground.

---

     The scream outside didn't comfort Pearl at all. It scared her a lot more. She was just starting to feel the creepy crawlies going away from the safety of her house.

     She jumped when there was a knock on her door. Peaking out the window, she saw Scar, a frustrated look on his face. She opened it apprehensively.

     "What are you doing over here, Scar?" She asked him.

     "Grian slammed into some invisible barrier and fell but I can't seem to get the right amount of materials to go and help him. It's so frustrating, I keep grabbing the wrong thing or the right amount. Impulse is trying to go out to get some ingredients for healing potions." Pearl nodded her head. She went inside to her storage to grab the items they needed. Being inside her house made her feel better. More confident. Scar watched from where he was sitting on a crafting table. He was counting slime balls he had in his inverntory, going over the numbers over and over again.

     "Alright, let's go." She said, pulling her bag closed. Scar nodded his head and followed her out the door.

     Pearl was starting to feel way more confident as they got closer to the Boatem hole. She felt like she had a pep to her step. Scar was looking a lot less frustrated as well from where she could see.

     "Mumbo!" Pearl waved to her neighbor who was sitting outside his house, drinking something.

     "Hey, Pearl! Hey, Scar!" He greeted waving a hand in greeting.

     "What are you doing out here? Did you hear Grian screaming?" Scar asked him.

     "Yeah but I started feeling a bit sick. I'm starting to feel a bit better now though." He got up, leaving his drink on the chair. "What happened to him anyways?" Mumbo asked, joining them in their walk.

     "Grian hit something in the sky and fell. I don't know what it was though. He keeps mumbling about some barrier." Over time as they left the village, Scar started to sound a bit more frustrated. Pearl could feel her spine start to tingle again and Mumbo's face was turning pale.

     "Ah!" Pearl let out a startled scream when something touched her shoulder.

     "Hey, don't worry, it's just me!" Impulse said, finally coming into view.

     "Don't go sneaking up on people!" She stomped her foot in annoyance, face going red with embarrassment.

     "I thought my rockets would indicate I was coming up, but alright." He shrugged walking with them.

     "Did you get the potions?" Scar asked, Impulse's smile turning into a frown.

     "It seems the mobs farms are glitched or something. I couldn't get a bit of potion."

     "If you needed potions you could have asked me," Mumbo laughed, holding up a few bottles. "I stole these from Grian a few weeks ago. I was drinking one to stop feeling sick earlier." He handed one to Scar who frowned at it.

     "Isn't this a weakness potion?" He asked, tilting the bottle to read the label.

     "No, it is a healing pot." Pearl pointed to the text. Scar still looked unsure but nodded his head anyways.

     They finally reached where Grian layed on the grass, passed out from the fall. He didn't look too injured and a few potions would definitely fix him up.

     Pearl definitely felt a bit of worry bubble in her though.

     He looked dead from where he was, what if he turned into a zombie? She shook her head, that was silly. The only zombie person she knew was one of the kindest people she has ever met. There was no need to be scared of zombies.

     "Does anyone have a bucket?" They turned their attention to Mumbo whose face went from pale to a sickly green.

     "Hey, let's get you sitting down," Impulse and Scar helped him to the ground, Pearl emptying her water bucket a few blocks away before giving it to him. "There, there. Why don't you and Scar get to work on Grian while I help Mumbo?" Impulse suggested, holding out one of the other healing potions he had. Pearl took it with a nod and got to work with Scar.

     It was an uncomfortable few minutes, Scar messing up every single step, Pearl trying to shake the gruesome thoughts from her mind and Mumbo gagging into the bucket. But once those minutes were done, it got better.

     "Ouch," Grian groaned after just waking up. He sat up with help, taking in the scene around him. "What happened to you guys?" He asked them, holding a hand to his head.

     "Mumbo got nauseous looking at your wounds, Impulse was supposed to get materials for potions for you, Pearl here has been jumping every few minutes and I haven't been able to do anything right!" Grian paused, taking in everything.

     "Well that makes a lot of sense!" He face palmed with a sigh.

     "What does?" Impulse asked quietly.

     "This was all Boatem's doing. I guess I should explain more about the deities."

Words: 2180
Written: Sunday, September 19th, 2021, 3:15 pm
Edited:
Originally Posted: Sunday, September 19th, 2021, 3:16 pm