#also something something helsknight making some kind of point about how

[silverskye13]

random thought, but i had a vivid image of, if helsknight and welsknight ever saw each other without armor (or just helsknight out of his armor tbh), helsknight showing welsknight the scar tanguish gave him and saying "this was intended for you."

i don't know how in character that is, but tbh it's haunting me. maybe it's part of helsknight's revenge against welsknight or something, calling out his unknightly behavior and unhonorable conduct.

"You didn't answer my summons."

Helsknight froze. It was a quick, momentary startle, a short-circuit of normality. The moment he did it, every instinct told him to keep moving. That old command [Do something.] blared loud in the quiet surprise of his mind. So he moved his hand to pick up the brush on his table, and pretended to be unconcerned.

"I'm not a dog. You can't call me to heel," Helsknight said simply. He smirked and growled, "Though if you feel like losing some limbs, feel free to try."

Behind him, Wels shifted uncomfortably. Helsknight liked making Wels uncomfortable, he didn't handle it well. He was a creature used to comfort and ease. Inconvenience often galled him more than a sword to the throat. Different tactics for different battlefields, and this battlefield was a delicate one.

Helsknight was cleaning his arms and armor, which was one of several reasons why he hasn't leaped for a fight when Welsknight had called him to one. He was only in a tunic and breeches. It was luck he even had his boots on. He had offered to run errands with Tanguish, but Tanguish had said he was visiting his church and wanted to go on rooftops. So Helsknight stayed home, and he left his boots on. That was the other reason Helsknight hadn't answered the call: Tanguish wouldn't know where he was, and he knew Tanguish got paranoid about being left behind. Besides, Helsknight had chores he could do at home [like cleaning his arms and armor] so he stayed. Cleaning the chainmail was almost a formality. Hels was hot and dry, and he wore it often enough that the rings clattering together cleaned themselves. But sometimes he just liked putting an extra shine on things, so he took out his brush and oil and started brushing it down for any miniscule specks of rust or broken links he could find.

Wels, always keen on the times he wasn't wanted, decided now was the perfect time to show up in his living room. He stood awkwardly, waiting on Helsknight to make some aggressive movement. When none came, he cautiously stalked further into the tiny living space. His emotions were loud and uncomfortable without the distance between their respective worlds to dampen them, and they clung like smoke against Helsknight's skin. Caution at an unfamiliar space. Disgruntlement at being ignored.

[Guilt, like ash on a burn.]

"Is this... Yours?" Wels asked, glancing around.

"No, I'm just squatting in a random house. Sounded like a fun way to spend a Tuesday."

Helsknight felt the ant-bite sting of vicarious agitation and smirked. He was already getting on Wels's nerves.

[Good.]

"Couldn't build something nicer?" Wels snapped impatiently.

"I'm a fighter."

Helsknight found a place on his chainmail to brush down and got to work. The rough, grating twinge of the coarse bristles on chain made Wels wince. Helsknight always found the noise pleasant. Like scratching an itch.

"So?"

"I have better things to do than spend hours building the perfect house."

Wels scoffed and looked around the room with renewed disdain. "Where's your little devil?"

It took Helsknight a moment to place what he was asking. He sneered, a quiet bearing of teeth, and caught the flicker of red in the reflective shine of his chainmail. Wels looked pointedly away from him.

[Like ash on a burn.]

"Not feeling remorse... are we, crusader?" Helsknight asked, finding a new place to polish. The coin-drop clatter of chain, and the shrill scrape of bristles filled the silence like an accusation.

"Of course not," Wels sniffed disdainfully, still refusing to meet Helsknight's eye.

"Careful." Helsknight murmured, that red flash reflecting off his chainmail again, anger simmering. "Lying's a sin."

"Why would I feel remorse for protecting my home?"

"A crusade well fought I'm sure."

"It's not a crusade!" Wels snapped, his own anger a living thing raising hackles. "A crusader invades! A crusader fights a holy war just for the principle."

"Right. And you're fighting because--"

"Because I'm protecting Tango."

"-because it's for his own good?"

Wels didn't exactly wince, but he did still, as though he'd heard someone draw a blade from its scabbard. Helsknight might as well have unseated his sword. He had stopped scrubbing, all pretense of work falling. The need to pace, to circle, to corner, rose up in Helsknight like a waking beast.

"Interesting choice of words. Protecting." Helsknight said, his voice low, his hands still. "I was under the impression they were friends. Do you often protect Tango from the people he's begging you to spare?"

"That doesn't matter." Wels said so firmly it was almost convincing. Almost. "People are convinced they need an abusive relationship. That doesn't change the fact it's bad for them."

"So many interesting words today," Helsknight hissed. He stood like a dark tower rising, all embered fury slowly stoking. Wels didn't bother turning to face him. He could feel his intent like thunder. "Abuse. Brings to mind the image of power. I do have a question."

"I didn't come here for your stupid questions."

"No, you came here looking for a fight."

"I didn't."

"You really do need to tame that lying tongue."

"I didn't come here for a fight."

"Did it feel powerful?" Helsknight demanded, pacing a step, and loathing the tiny room for denying him the space to circle. "The voice. The command. How did it feel."

"Shut up."

"To have someone begging you not to hurt them," Helsknight continued relentlessly. "Not your stupid play fighting on your stupid little server. True, shaking, terror. Did it feel good, crusader? Just?"

"I told you to shut up!" Wels shouted, taking a threatening step forward only to find Helsknight had closed the space between them and stood looming like a rook on a tombstone.

Fear, a caged thing howling, battered against Helsknight's anger. It made Helsknight feel almost giddy, the crash of malicious schadenfreude and self-righteousness against Wels; a flickering thing of brittle will. They made a terrible ouroboros together, fear feeding anger feeding elation feeding fear. They were always like this. No matter how calm either of them tried to be, once anger kindled in one, their emotions burned until there was nothing left but fury and loathing. Helsknight had been made to cut Wels down to size.

"Do you know what that kind of fear does to people?" Helsknight demanded again, his voice so near a whisper it was smothering. They were so close together, but they made so little noise, all will and wide eyes. "What happened to mercy for the helpless, crusader?"

"He wasn't helpless," Welsknight said, trying very hard not to back down. "He stabbed me."

"And a drowning rat bites. I wouldn't call it an apex predator. Certainly I wouldn't call it a danger to you, with your full armor and sword." Helsknight bared his teeth at Wels, something like a bitter grin. "I wasn't wearing armor."

Wels looked down, where Helsknight had drawn up his tunic to reveal the new scar in his abdomen. Wels looked like he'd stopped breathing.

"This was intended for you," Helsknight said. "You should thank me."

"You're-- you're here telling me he's harmless," Wels laughed nervously. "But he almost killed you. You."

Something in Helsknight snapped, and in the moment it took him to reach for it with white knuckles and compose it again, he'd shoved Wels hard in the chest. It didn't knock his other half off his feet, but he stumbled back hard enough hit the opposite wall. Not hard enough to hurt, but certainly hard enough to warn.

"He did," Helsknight snarled, pacing forward slow steps. "That's what terror does to helpless people, crusader. It makes them bite. It makes them beg. It makes them clamor to live. You. Did. That. What did it feel like to abuse that kind of power Wels? To turn someone into a scared animal? To make someone so desperate they would almost kill a friend? Did you find your righteousness there crusader?"

Helsknight didn't know what he planned on doing. Violence was in his blood like a serpent, and he wanted it. And Wels knew he wanted it. There was the ring of drawn metal, and the silver-bright glint of an enchanted blade in a dark room. Helsknight's advance stopped at the top of Wels's sword, not close enough to hurt, but close enough to warn.

"Stop." Wels said. A command. A plea.

"I'm unarmed."

"That doesn't matter."

Helsknight smiled, and there was loathing and euphoria in it, and the wine-dark dread of Wels right on the other side of it. The knowledge of a line crossed, a battle he hadn't even realized he was fighting made forfeit.

"Fine." Helsknight said. "My blood's already been spilled once on your behalf. At least this time do it with your own sword, coward. I'll make it easy for you."

He took a step forward, and nudged the blade with a knuckle, resting the point against his scar. The metal was cold, even through his shirt, the enchantments alive and writhing so close to his skin.

"How cruel have you gotten while I wasn't there to keep you in check, crusader?"

There was a long breath of silence between them. Helsknight stood, precarious and predatory, daring Wels to kill him. And Wels stood there, and dared himself to as well. And the room was dark, lit only by red anger and blue dread, and the pale, languid flicker of enchanted steel. And neither of them breathed. And the universe watched.

A loud clatter sounded on the roof. Both knights looked up towards the ceiling, Wels in startlement, and Helsknight in resignation.

"And he stays my hand once again," Helsknight sighed.

"What--?" Wels didn't get his full question out before Helsknight moved. He knocked the sword aside and lunged forward to grab Wels's shirt. In a move that would've made Martyn proud, he dragged Wels forward into his knee, knocking the wind out of him. In the time it took Wels to collapse to the floor, Helsknight had taken his sword, and held the point beneath his other half's chin.

"Go home Wels," Helsknight said, "before I send you there the hard way."

Wels, breathless on the ground, let out half a strangled laugh. "Why don't you?"

"Because I was asked nicely not to go running off and killing you."

"Helsknight?" A loud knock sounded at the door. Tanguish's voice, a bright comfort even in spite of its concern, called to him. "Is everything okay? I thought I heard something fall."

Helsknight glared meaningfully down at Wels, who only hesitated long enough for Helsknight to draw back the sword before slipping back to his world. The moment he did, Helsknight felt his breath leave him, the great void of being left to his own thoughts and emotions. In the wake of everything that was Wels, he felt ridiculous.

[What in hels had he even been about to do? Die on someone's sword to prove a point? Idiot.]

"Helsknight? The door is locked."

"I'm coming," Helsknight called, pausing only long enough to hide Wels's sword beneath the couch, where Tanguish couldn't see it and inevitably worried about it. He checked his tunic to make sure he hadn't managed to actually stab himself [he hadn't] and went to let Tanguish inside.

[kirbee-hd]

And that's it

(Well it was a while ago but stuff came up)

I would like to start this off by congratulating everyone, even if you didn't get it right you still tried and that's all that matters

Now on to the correct answer, yes?

Now you see dear Hermitcraft viewers, I've noticed a large amount of confusion regarding this poll. As many of you pointed out, all of these are cannon to hermitcraft, that is true. However "which one of these is not cannon to Hermitcraft" was not the name of the poll was it?

For you see...

Minecraft YouTuber Docm77 got his arm ripped off by Minecraft Developer Dinnerbone (basically a God) long before he joined Hermitcraft

Therefore this was the event that did not happen on the Hermitcraft server

thanks for voting, all the answers will be under the cut

"Someone feeds a dead body to an alien in front of said dead body's friend" was actually kind of wrong (sorry, I'm only human). What happened was that while Scar showed Doc his pet alien during the Area 77 arc in season 6. It is heavily implied that Scar fead Etho to said alien. This happens around 1:53-4:40

"A war started over what type of dirt should be added to the shopping district" was a story arch in season 7. In this arch Grian tries to keep the mycelium shopping district. However Scar, who was the mayor, wanted it to be changed to grass.

"Herobrine shows up after some time travel shenanigans" is also something that was technically incorrect (woops). Herobrine actually showed up during said time travel shenanigans. This happened during the Area 77 arc, when the Hippies got Grian's time machine back and accidentally got transported to an earlier version of Minecraft. This happens around 8:49-10:00

"A hippie finds a hyperdrive under a giant plant and proceeds to travel space" is a reference to renbob. Scar used a hyperdrive to travel to hermitville, but it crashed and mutated a plant into becoming Scara. Later on Renbob steals the hyperdrive and spends the rest of Hermitcraft traveling space. This happens around 0:00-2:13

"One guy has the power to turn into a ghost whenever he gets paid enough" is a reference to a gimmick that Joe Hills has for his Hermitcraft streams. When given enough donations she expands his face cam to the point where it fills up the entire screen. Once that happens if you continue donating they'll start to lower the "Joepacity" face cam, this state is called "The Jhost". He does this in a lot of streams but I'll link one example, it happens around 1:49:41-1:50:49

"Someone defeats their evil clone in a rap battle" is a reference to WelsKnight and HelsKnight (I'm surprised how many people didn't know about this). WelsKnight makes a clone of himself that gets possessed by the embodiment of his dark side from an alternative dimension who wants to take over Hermitcraft. How does Wels deal with him? Through a rap battle of course. This happens from 18:54-21:54

"An unknown object fell from the sky and made everyone switch their bases" was another one that I got technically wrong (my bad). In reality only the people what signed up got to swap their bases. What happened was a mysterious object with a timer fell from the sky and dispensed the message "HCBBS". This device asked for people to give their names to it so they can be "part of the change over". In reality, "HCBBS" stood for "HermitCraft Big Base Swap" and everyone who submitted their names swapped their houses with a random Hermit who also signed up.

The last option was meant to be a "see results" option. Unfortunately I didn't convey it correctly.

I often get told by friends that, whenever I explain Hermitcraft lore to them, it just sounds weird. Like, some stuff you would make up while on crack. Ans considering how popular these types of polls are getting I decided to try something

[theminecraftbee]

random rundown of fic ideas I have on the docket for at some point in the future, if anyone is curious (or wants to take from these concepts to use themselves because these are Long Bois so I’m probably saving them for november):

in a timeline where ren’s kingship immediately goes horrible dictatorship, joe hills accidentally discovers he has the superpower of Time Loop, and sets out to figure out what went wrong, fix it, and save his friends. the trick with this fic, however, is that it would be a single king oneshot taking place entirely over one of the loops, at least a dozen attempts in, and ending with the end of another failed loop. it’s all about the middle bits here.

pearl wakes up as a horrible monster in an unknown laboratory with no idea how she’s gotten there, what she is, how to talk, or what to do from here. fic is about her escaping, piecing together what happened to get her into the situation she wakes up in, and getting back home again, somehow.

xisuma tries to deal with his emotions about season eight. bluntly this one would be about abuse, and reconciling that is the word that describes what happened to you. I’ve wanted to write this for months. we’ll see.

double life cast is mysteriously swapped with their hermitcraft selves, as told from cleo’s perspective as she’s suddenly in a world with a person who claims to be her best friend that she doesn’t remember, on this massive ocean base that she doesn’t understand, trying to just… deal with that. this would be a very focused on “joe and cleo as friends” fic, but with the angle of “cleo wakes up suddenly not knowing who joe is and joe is faced with a cleo who doesn’t have a decade of history with him”. really want to write this in some ways.

vague “something about helsknight because I have ideas about what helsknight is but I have since ditched the fic concept I originally had for the helsknight interpretation I wanted to use so I need to figure out where else I can get it to work and also NOT have him be too much like the man in the striped suit in my recent fic”

rare new techno/sort of sbi fic from me, recycling aspects of a VERY old bedrock bros concept I never wrote. set in a world where people have various minor magical gifts/superpowers, old war god/demon technoblade is retired, thank you very much, and largely haunts a farmer’s market where he’s in a totally normal competition with the other local potato salesman and is maybe friends with the farmer’s market gang (featuring niki and sophie and probably connor along with obviously squid, amongst others). one day however one of his regular customers, out of desperation, summons techno to make a pact, a thing techno hasn’t done in decades. this person is tommy. wilbur is missing. he wants techno to help save him. cue adventure. at some point in my head this was supposed to be a superhero sbi fic send-up so there MAY be superheroes in the background but this has turned way more into the magical realism wheelhouse I reside in over time so you know. maybe not. anyway this is a BIG maybe since I largely sit in hermitcraft these days but I am still fondly attached to “old god techno and tommy, desperate regular human, end up bonding” because I came up with the basics back in november 2020 and have just never have successfully written it and also it’s morphed actual plots and basically every beat but that part like twelve times so we’ll see.

false ends up back in her homeworld, but fwhip and I think maybe shelby also end up there accidentally with her and also it turns out that false’s old world kind of sucks so they have to try to get fwhip and shelby home while false faces internal conflict over whether she stays in her homeworld or goes back to empires. this one relies on knowing a BIT more about false before I’m comfortable writing it though.

anyway I think those are all the main docket ideas for “next big thing second tries to write” but this guarantees none of them because, like, you never know if a new idea will take over my brain between now and november or anything else,

[theres-an-impulstor-among-us]

Here’s the ask to answer for your next try, lol. If only the people knew what we’re doing..

I don’t know what you’ve been planning with this, but I am scared.

Make me cry, Vaunna. Good luck!

we went for the happy kind of cry last time and it did not work SO here’s the soul-destroying kind of angst :3 good luck everybody

btw this is an AU to my fanon. it is in no way canon, it’s just a thing i thought might make Raven cry so :3 (and honestly im super proud of it so im happy whether or not it succeeds LOL)

a/n: bc a lot of my helsmits have the nickname Hels now, i’ve decided not to shorten their name to Hels when i’m writing them so that’s why Helsknight is continually referred to by his full name. sorry if it’s kinda awkward but it’s the way i wanna write it :)

…

Emerging from the forest, Wels takes in a deep breath of fresh air and sits down on a rock, the Yes Wings Club building in sight. After a nice walk out here with his hels counterpart, he needs to rest his legs for a moment.

“What is this?” asks Helsknight, approaching his counterpart with a thin pink object in his hand.

Wels glances up. “Oh, that’s an allium. It’s a flower.”

Helsknight stares at it for a moment. “What’s it for?”

“It looks pretty.”

“It does look pretty,” agrees Helsknight. “But is it functionally useful?”

Wels thinks for a moment. “It helps bees make honey. And you can give it to someone you like to show that you like them. But really, it’s just pretty.”

“Huh. Back in Helscraft, nothing exists just to be pretty.” After a moment, Helsknight sighs. “If I was in Helscraft, I’d just toss this back on the ground. Useless.”

“You’re not in Helscraft anymore,” Wels responds warmly. “You’re in Hermitcraft. If you like the flower, you should keep it. Useless doesn’t necessarily mean worthless.”

“That’s… That’s true.”

After a moment, Helsknight offers the flower to Wels, who gives a pleasantly confused frown. “What are you doing?”

Helsknight coughs awkwardly. “You, uh… You said you can give flowers to someone you like. I like you. Kind of.”

A wide grin appears on Wels’s face as he accepts the allium from his counterpart. “Aww. I think you’re actually starting to fit into Hermitcraft life.”

“How dare you,” Helsknight deadpans.

Wels laughs. “It’s not so bad. You seem a lot happier now than you were a few weeks ago. Maybe sometime soon, we can go ask Xisuma if you can be properly integrated into Hermitcraft.”

Helsknight stares at him hopefully. “Really? Do you think he’ll say yes?”

“If he sees how much you’ve changed and how valuable a member you can be, I think he might!”

“Wow…” Helsknight gazes down at the ground. “I can’t believe it might actually happen. I might never have to go back to Helscraft again.”

“If I have my way, you’ll stay here forever,” says Wels. “Anyway, you said you wanted to spar, right? It’s getting close to sunset; we’ll have to go home soon.”

“Oh! Yeah, yeah, let’s do it.”

Wels jumps up from his perch and the two start sparring with their swords. Within a minute, Helsknight sweeps Wels’s legs out from under him, causing him to crash to the ground, losing his weapon. “Hey!” Wels yelps. “That’s cheating!”

Helsknight laughs as he points his sword at Wels. “I believe that’s called a checkmate.”

Wels chuckles back and is about to respond when they both hear a voice scream Wels’s name from the direction of the Yes Wings Club building.

“Impulse?!” gasps Wels. “What is he-?!”

“Get away from Wels!” Impulse yells, charging at Helsknight with a sword. As the helsmit was not expecting an attack, Impulse is able to knock the sword out of Helsknight’s hand with no trouble.

“Impulse, don’t!” Wels yelps, struggling to get up. “He’s good now! He’s not evil anymore!”

But Impulse is already attacking Helsknight, who is unable to properly defend himself without a weapon.

Wels scrambles to his feet. “IMPULSE, STOP! HE’S NOT A THREAT ANYMORE!”

As Helsknight stumbles, Impulse lunges, clearly not thinking straight, clearly just trying to defend Wels from what he perceives to be an attack on his friend.

But he’s going to kill Helsknight. Forever.

So Wels shoves Helsknight out the way of Impulse’s attack. Impulse tries to stop his strike but it’s already too late.

Impulse’s blade pierces the centre of Wels’s chest and goes straight through the other side.

Letting go of his sword in shock and horror, Impulse stumbles backwards.

Helsknight quickly catches Wels as the latter’s knees sag and he lowers his counterpart to the ground, pulling out Impulse’s sword and tossing it away. He tries to stop the bleeding but it’s no use; the wound is too severe.

“Wels, I’m sorry!” Impulse cries. “I’m so sorry!”

Wels grasps weakly at Helsknight’s wrist, causing the latter to lift his torso up onto his lap. “Hels, don’t blame yourself,” Wels whispers. “P-Please. This was m-my choice, okay? Mine.”

“Wels…” Helsknight gazes down at his counterpart with anguished eyes. “Why would you do that for me…?”

“B-Because I like you,” rasps Wels with a weak smile. “Kind of.”

Helsknight squeezes his eyes shut, not trusting himself to speak again.

Finally, he feels Wels’s hand slide off his wrist, and he knows it’s over.

Welsknight was slain by impulseSV

Several seconds go by.

“Wh-Why isn’t he respawning?” Impulse croaks, starting to panic. “Why is his body still here? WHY ISN’T HE RESPAWNING?!”

Helsknight gazes down at Wels’s body with tears in his eyes. “I… Part of me didn’t think it was actually real…”

“WHAT’s real?” demands Impulse, his voice shrill with panic.

“It- It’s called the Hels Curse,” Helsknight explains shakily. “If a helsmit is directly or indirectly responsible for their counterpart’s death, their counterpart won’t respawn. It’s- It’s permadeath. And the curse is extremely specific, so it doesn’t matter that you were the one who killed him. Because you were aiming for me and he pushed me out of the way, I am indirectly responsible for his death.” Helsknight hangs his head and gently touches Wels’s shoulder. “He’s gone. Forever.”

His chest feels so heavy, weighed down by the knowledge that his best friend is dead. Wels loved Helsknight so much that he willingly sacrificed his life for him. That thought alone is enough to make a few tears flow from his eyes.

For the first time in his life, Helsknight is crying.

But after a few seconds, something springs to his mind and he hurriedly wipes his eyes. There IS something he can do. Another mechanism of being a helsmit that he can use here.

“This is your fault!” Impulse screams suddenly, kicking Helsknight away from Wels. “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!”

“Wait wait wait wait!” yelps Helsknight, frantically backing away from the furious hermit. “I can save him! I can save him!”

Impulse freezes in the process of picking up his sword. “What?”

“There’s a thing called the Altruist Failsafe,” Helsknight explains hurriedly. “Helsmits are created from the energy and lifeforce of their hermit counterparts. That’s why the curse exists: when a helsmit kills a hermit, they absorb the rest of their lifeforce, which is why they don’t respawn. But it also means they can give their lifeforce back to their hermit counterpart.”

Impulse stares at him suspiciously. “Are you saying you, an evil hermit, would sacrifice your life for Wels?”

Helsknights nods earnestly. “Wels took the blow you aimed at me. I was meant to die, not him. He deserves to live, not me. I can’t live in this world without him.”

With that, he moves over to Wels’s body and kneels down by his side. Impulse steps back, watching him with a mix of suspicion and curiosity.

Helsknight presses his hands to the centre of his chest and closes his eyes. After counting to three, he slowly moves them away from his chest, drawing out a small glowing red heart.

This is Helsknight’s lifeforce and without it, he can feel his strength already draining away.

So he quickly but carefully moves it down to Wels and pushes it into his chest the same way he had drawn it out of his own.

Immediately, Wels’s body starts to glow.

Helsknight rises unsteadily to his feet and staggers a few blocks away. He kneels beside the rock Wels had been sitting on earlier and props himself up against it, gazing up at the stars one last time.

They’re so beautiful.

Impulse, kneeling at Wels’s side, watches him. He watches Helsknight’s chest stop moving. He watches the light leave Helsknight’s eyes.

And at the same moment, Wels’s eyes open and he takes in an involuntary breath.

“Wels!” Impulse gasps. “You’re alive!”

Wels blinks in confusion, his gaze flickering all over as he tries to register where he is. “Wait, what happened? I-I’m supposed to be dead.”

“Helsknight gave his life for you,” explains Impulse quietly. “Some kind of… altruist thing, he said?”

“Oh-!” Wels’s heart freezes as his gaze lands on the limp body of Helsknight, propped up against the rock. Oh no! Nonononononono!”

He scrambles over to Helsknight and lifts his body onto his lap, trying desperately to awaken his counterpart. “Hels! HELS! NO!”

As it becomes increasingly obvious that Helsknight is dead, Wels hugs his body close to him, fighting back tears. “Why, Hels…?” he croaks. “Why would you do that for me…?”

“I’m sorry, Wels,” Impulse whispers, standing a few blocks behind Wels. “But… But you’re alive now. Isn’t that the best outcome?”

It takes Wels a few seconds to register what Impulse just said. “W-What…?! No!”

“A world where you’re dead and your hels counterpart is alive is not a good world, Wels,” says Impulse gently.

“I don’t care!” Wels’s voice cracks halfway through his sentence. “There’s a reason I jumped in front of your sword!”

Impulse, clearly taken aback by how furious Wels seems to be at him, gives a deep frown. “Wels, I don’t think you understand: you were permadead! You weren’t gonna respawn!”

“I KNOW!” Wels roars. “Hels told me about the curse!”

Impulse’s eyes widen in shock as he realises what his friend is trying to say. “Y-You were really okay with permadying for him?”

Wels carefully lowers Helsknight’s body to the ground and stands up to face his friend. “YES because HE would’ve permadied if you’d killed him! You just don’t LISTEN, do you?! I tried to tell you!”

“I-I’m sorry!” Impulse cries. “I saw him attacking you and I thought-!”

“I TRIED TO TELL YOU HE WASN’T A THREAT!” bellows Wels, unleashing all his grief and fury. “I TOLD YOU HE WAS GOOD NOW! AND YOU KILLED HIM ANYWAY!”

“I just wanted to protect y-!”

SLASH.

impulseSV was slain by Welsknight

Wels collapses to his hands and knees, his sword falling to the ground surrounded by Impulse’s items. He’s just killed his friend, but he no longer cares. Impulse will respawn. Helsknight will not.

He can’t believe Helsknight is gone. Not just gone but he sacrificed his life for Wels. He remembers Helsknight telling him about both the Hels Curse and the Altruist Failsafe. Part of him always knew he would die to the Hels Curse, but he never expected both of them to come into play within minutes of each other.

After a moment, he picks up Impulse’s shovel and starts to dig a hole in the ground not far from Helsknight’s body. When this is done, he carefully lifts his counterpart’s body into the hole and gently places Impulse’s sword in Helsknight’s hands, arranged so that the blade lies pointing towards the foot of the grave.

He sits back on his heels and takes a deep breath, letting tears fall from his eyes.

“Whenever death may surprise us, let it be welcome if our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear and another hand reaches out to take up our arms,” he says hoarsely, reciting an old soldiers’ prayer that he had learned during his service.

With that, he methodically fills in the hole and sticks his sword in the ground above its head as a makeshift gravestone. And as a final touch, he plants an allium over the site. The allium that Helsknight had given him just half an hour ago. When everything in the world was good and the future felt bright.

As Wels turns to leave, he spots an iron sword lying on the ground a little way off. He realises with a jerk that it’s Helsknight’s sword, lying where its owner had dropped it when he had been attacked by Impulse.

He picks it up and inspects the blade. A memory of Helsknight crafting this sword resurfaces and what he was talking about as he did.

If our battle cry has reached even one receptive ear.

He recalls the way Helsknight spoke about Helscraft back then, how it’s a horrible place because the universe gave the best worlds to Hermitcraft and abandoned Helscraft to fend for itself. How passionately he spoke about wanting to create a better life for his Hels siblings.

And another hand reaches out to take up our arms.

His hand closes around the hilt of the sword and he lifts it aloft, closing his eyes against the rain that has started to fall from the darkening sky, as if the server itself is weeping for Wels’s loss.

“I’ll fight in your name, Hels,” he vows. “I won’t let your sacrifice be in vain.”

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 55- Hell’s Chosen

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU, designs, ideas belongs to @theguardiansofredland)

The hermits discover a dark past to their paladin knight, does this change their perspective of him, or will it save their unlikely ally? 

Warning: Some description of wounds (i think)

________________________________

All eyes were on Wels. Very few had a look of knowledge. TFC, for one. But Tango’s visible confusion gives way to a much softer, quieter version of the hellfire wizard. “Helsknight? You mean the marauder from years ago? But he died.” 

“You’re right, he did. And I killed him. I buried him so deep inside me, and vowed to do whatever I could to be a better man. When Helsknight died, Welsknight was born.” Wels’s fingers are tight in the bloodstained fabric, knuckles turned white as he’s forced to relive, to speak of his dark past. 

“No no no no. You’re joking, right?” Doc shakes his head. Even he feared Hell’s chosen knight. Wels can’t possibly be that same person. Wels, a quiet, collected paladin with the heart of gold and courage of a lion. “I mean...no one ever told the story of Helsknight with a tail.” 

“Less limbs to get cut off if it’s protected by armor.” Wels points out, flicking the lionesque tail. “You want proof? What was the last time anyone ever saw Helsknight?”

Doc cocks an eyebrow, then waves his hand. “Hels and his band of bad guys attacked one of Ventus’s- the God of Judgement- temples. But the attempt was failed, and Helsknight himself was left behind as he bled out...from his neck…”

The entire group stares as the scar that Wels reveals, running from his collar to his clavicle. TFC doesn’t stare like the others. He’s known all of this the whole time. Tango shakes his head. “But you’re nothing like Helsknight. He murdered and killed for fun, to cause chaos and bring hell onto Lairyon. Wels, you’re…” 

“A changed man. Just like Apatia can be- if you give him the chance. Like the woman who healed me did, like X and TFC. Tango, if you don’t let Apatia give his chance to change and rectify what he can, then you can’t let me be any different. You can’t be a hypocrite and pick and choose.” From between Wels and Tango, Apatia groans. The blood has stopped, Ren’s work healing leaving a sloppy open wound behind. 

Apatia was pale, paler than he already was. Almost the same color as Grian, as the latter continues to recuperate from the torture he faced. But unlike Grian’s shallow, soft breaths, Apatia’s runs ragged and harsh. His jaws are clenched, fighting off the pain. With the remaining bandages and healing salve, Wels wraps up the stump of Apatia’s tail fin. 

Tango and Doc are still quiet, trying to comprehend the news that’s been delivered to them. It all makes sense, but their eads still struggle to put the two completely different personas together. As if they’re different people all together. 

Everyone knows who Helsknight is- was. He appeared as if from nowhere, like a demon spawned straight from hell. And immediately, he began reeking havoc. His band of villains attacked and raided. They were more than just some lowly bandits, or even a mafia. Helsknight was a villain, killing without mercy, without remorse, and without discretion. It wasn’t until their botched attack on that temple that ended the reign of terror that Hell’s chosen knight left on Lairyon. Just as quickly as Helsknight appeared, he faded into nightmares and horror story. Kids were told to watch out for the knight with one eye, because he’d pluck out their own to replace his. 

But Welsknight? He’s calm and collected, if a bit snarky. Even when battling even the husks, he always hesitates to strike a killing blow if there’s a potential to save the life instead. Wels is jovial, and a great baker, and tells great stories. Sure, he’s a great knight, but Tango once saw Wels cry over a dead fish he found at the beach. He’s a paladin, not a barbarian. 

Helsknight supposedly died years ago. Welsknight joined the hermits a few years back. Though there’s a span of time in between the day Lairyon celebrated the defeat of Hels and Wels following TFC back to Eremita, it begins to all make sense. There's a reason why Wels never talks about his past. Never visits home. Never explains how he got many of his scars.

Like puzzle pieces, it all falls together and paints a picture. Doc’s jaw clenches. As much as he hates to say it, or even think it, Wels is right. If a monster like Hels can become the man before Doc today, then maybe, just maybe , theres hope for Apatia. 

So long as he lives. The hermits are so focused on Apatia, their argument on whether he should live or die, no one notices Grian rouse from the darkness that still grips him. No one noticed the sky open up, both in Grian’s eyes and the sky beyond the windows. No one notices him weakly clamber out of bed, nearly falling flat on his face, and walking over to join them in the group. 

“What are we on about?” Even when he speaks up, the other hermits are so used to his voice that it hardly registers. 

“Welsknight was once helsknight, and whether we should save Apatia’s life or not.” Tango shrugs, his red eyes glaring down at Apatia with distaste. He still hates the man, but at the same time… they’re supposed to be the heroes. 

“As your resident healer, I think we should. But...I’m not sure why he’s here in the first place.” Ren looks up, realizing who is speaking, and scoops Grian into his arms. His tail wags loud and heavy, banging against the other hermits with every oscillation. 

“Welcome back to the land of the living, my dude!” Ren only sets Grian down when TFC reminds him that Grian is still working towards regaining his life, his color. He’s still slightly unsaturated, his skin missing the tint of pink, the red of his robest boarding the color of dried blood. Ren sets Grian back on the bed, trying to force the angel to rest. But now that Grian’s awake, he’s ready to cause trouble and start his day- even though he has no clue what time it is. 

“What’s going on? I...I don’t remember much. When did you guys save me? Why is Apatia here? How did you find me?” The questions fall like rain in a storm, impossible for the hermits to catch every last drop. 

It’s TFC that manages to slow the downpour. “Hold on, hold on Grian. Why don’t we start from the beginning? We’ll fill you in on everything, in time.”

----------------------------------------------------

All the hermits, once again under the safe canopy of the massive oak tree in their guild hall. Grian is wrapped in a warm, soft blanket- knitted by Stress- and a mug of warm apple cider rests in between his pale hands. “I can’t believe you guys came for me.” 

“Of course we were gonna save you, Grian.” Scar practically laughs at the mere idea of leaving him behind. But for Grian, who’s been kicked out of so many guilds for his troublemaking, it really shows how much they care. 

A rumble of agreements follow, and after a few more minutes of quiet comforting, it’s Grian himself that changes the subject. “Dolios is getting more powerful by the minute. I could feel all the energy flowing through those leylines, into him and that monster, Eurynomos. We can’t delay this any longer. Dolios has to go down.” 

“But we don’t even know how. We can destroy as many crystals as we want, but he’ll just keep making more. He has more power than a bunch of lowly mercenaries. He even beat Apatia, one of his own Councilmembers. One of the strongest guildmasters in all of Lairyon.” BDubs points out. Everyone goes silent as they remember the man in their infirmary. The stranger- he’s not a hermit, yet he’s among them. 

Grian looks up, pale face and hollowed eyes alarming for the hermits. He hardly looks to be among the living, but less like a dead man walking like he was before. “Xisuma, your brother mentioned something about the ancient ones. DO you think there could be a clue for us there? In the past?” 

X sighs, leaning back in his chair as he considers the question. “If the answer to ending Dolios’s dark reign truly lies in the past, then we’d have better luck finding the answer ourselves. Thousands of years, eroded by time, by kingdoms and cultures rising and falling, not to mention the disappearance of the ancient ones. There’s a reason ancient magic is dead- because none of the books teaching it survived.” 

“There’s one person we know who has studied the ancient ones for years.” Joe’s voice cuts through the crowd, looking around. Every other hermit is lost and confused, but Joe can see the mixed emotions raging in Xisuma’s eyes. “Besides Ex can take care of the island, of Apatia while we’re searching.” 

“Ex chose to leave Eremita. Why in gods’s names would he want to come back, to help us?” X growls. 

“Because he’s your brother. He helped us save Doc. He’s been helping us, helping all of Lairyon- in his own weird, Ex way. He’s not the villain here, he’s your brother.” 

X clenches his jaw. The scar over his eye burns at the memory of their fight. The words he said to his brother, and the worst responded in kind. Xisuma still received letters from Ex, but he only opened them when Cleo’s cider had clouded his better judgement. And he never responded. 

But he also remembers the moment, after years estranged, he laid eyes upon his twin brother, crammed into the bookstore he was running. The moment of relief, of happiness to see Ex alive and well. Their identical faces, like mirror images of one another. His hair pure white, like the bright sun in the sky. Even now Xisuma remembers how often he’d complain he could always find Ex hairs on his clothes. 

And that Ex helped them save Doc. All these years fighting, Xisuma can’t believe he’s going to be the one to concede defeat. But for the fate of Lairyon, he guesses he has to. He pulls off his mask, turning it over in his hands, running a thumb over the scratched out symbol. He swallows his pride, and stands. “I’ll get the letter to Phoebe. What’s one more stranger to the island?”

[sweetest-honeybee]

Wels and Hels Become Smol

This s what I’m counting as a ‘First Chapter’ but let me know what you think! I’ll write more if y’all like it :D

Summary: Tired of his evil clone, Wels asks Beef to make a new machine to pull Hels out of history. Though....It doesn’t really work that way. Some malfunctions cause a bit of de-aging.

TW: Smoke, sparks, the kinda stuff in terrible machinery. Also brief blood mention but overall not a very triggering chapter.

Characters: Welsknight, Helsknight, VintageBeef, Xisuma

Enjoy!

—————————

It was inevitable. At some point, Wels was going to go back up to Beef asking if by any chance he could get rid of Hels. And at some point, Beef was going to comply and create a whole new machine to test out on the knights. And at some point, Wels was going to drag Hels out of his dimension to use the machine and Hels was going to dread losing his body that he only just got a couple weeks beforehand.

So, that’s where they were now. Underground in Beef’s testing room while Wels discussed the instructions with Beef and how the machine worked, which it probably wouldn’t. Hels on the other hand just sulked against the wall with his arms crossed. He had no sword, no armor, a wrapped arrow wound on his arm from having to be forced down there after being held at bow point.

Beef really wasn’t all too excited if he were being honest. Mostly since he didn’t have a lot of faith in the machine working but surely if he reversed some settings here and there, Hels would disappear and the Hermitcraft server would have one less evil doppelgänger to worry about. Though, his cloning machine was technically successful and Hels really hadn’t done any harm since he just stayed in his dimension. There wasn’t really a need for this.

But, either way, it came down to Wels, who made it very clear that he held such a distaste for his evil counterpart. That being said, Beef instructed both knights to step inside the machine at the same time holding a clock. Really, he intended for it to work like a time machine but without Wels going back in time. Essentially, if it was going to work, he would be able to pick and choose what did and didn’t happen on the day Hels was created and thus Hels would disappear and the whole thing would be forgotten.

Reluctantly, Hels shuffled inside the glass tube connecting from the ceiling to the floor with Wels and snatched the clock from the patiently waiting Beef outside of it. Weld rolled his eyes but who was he to judge. He certainly didn’t want to be erased from history more than Hels did but it had to be done if the evil hermit had ill intentions for their lovely server.

“And you’re really sure you wanna go through with this?” the butcher clarified before he handed Wels his clock. A bit of guilt emerged with what he was about to do, but again, it was Wels’s decision.

Wels hardly hesitated with his answer. “Yes, I do. If Evil Xisuma can escape banning then I’m not risking anything.” The knight eyed his counterpart as he said it, only earning a hard glare in return.

“You were better off just killing me,” Hels replied with a sneer. “Let’s just get this over with.”

Beef shrugged, handing Wels his clock. He took a last glance at Hels who made an obvious commitment to avoiding eye contact. Before the butcher could really dwell on it further, he shut the iron door on the machine and moved behind a newly mined out area in the back of the room. Thick layers of glass separated it from the machine for the sake of his own safety and redstone connected to a leaver trailed from the machine through a small hole by his feet.

“Alright, you guys ready? And again, Wels, you’re absolutely positively 100% sure you want to do this?”

“Yes,” both knights dragged.

Beef sighed. “Okay, here we go then.”

The butcher took the lever and flipped it, almost kind of surprised that it even turned on. Lights and buttons on the wall flashed periodically, the smooth whirring noise lasted more than five seconds, and neither of the knights expressed any unusual discomfort from what he could see. Good signs, that meant that he could open the control panel and begin removing Hels.

Though, he must’ve spoken too soon when the whirring began becoming choppy, sparks replacing its paused seconds. Where the sparks came from, bits of smoke emerged and the moment the other two saw it, they, even Hels, sent Beef very worried expressions.

The malfunctions continued when various beeping voiced from the machine and the clouds of smoke grew larger.

“Ohh….that cannot be a good sign,” Beef muttered, pulling his hands to his hair. Admittedly, he should’ve just shut off the machine but he was too busy freaking out.

“Uh, Beef?” Wels began, his voice sounding muddled from the loud sounds in the room. Yet, Beef could hear him. The knight pointed at his clock. “I don’t wanna assume but I don’t think this was supposed to happen!”

That earned a smack upside head from Hels.

“Just give it a second I think it’ll figure itself out!” Beef decided, still ignoring the lever beside him.

“Oh for the love of- I’m breaking out!” Hels announced. Before his fist even made it to the glass, every light in the room shut off with a loud crack, the machine shutting down with it and the sound of shattering glass.

Startled, the butcher covered his face, only peeking through his fingers when all he heard was silence. No snarky comment from Hels, no attempt at an uplifting comment from Wels. He pulled his hands from his face, trying to look through the thick layers of smoke in the room on the other side of the glass. He couldn’t see the figures of either knight and at that moment, he began panicking, wondering if he had just erased both of them from history all together.

Quickly, he ran into the clouded room, glass crunching under his feet, muttering curses along the way. The entire tube was no longer there, just in shards on the floor. He waited for a second, watching the smoke thin a little more before continuing. Thankfully, some light from the doorway emerged, casting yellow rays into the room. Beef squinted into the used-to-be machine with the new source of light, seeing two much much smaller figures, not hardly a block and a half tall. One stood, wobbling for a second, then falling into the glass from tripping on a wad of something beneath its feet.

And at that moment, Beef heard a child crying.

Oh, oh no. Oh no, no, no, no.

He took off his apron, using it to fan away the smoke. He crouched down near the little figure, letting the light do its work for him. The crying continued, then another child’s cry began and now both of them were crying. As the smoke cleared, two of the smallest toddlers he’d ever seen looked right at him. Sets of the biggest, bluest and reddest, tearful eyes rested on him. The blue eyed toddler notably was covered in scratches from his fall onto the ground.

“Oh my….Wels?” He looked at the red eyed toddler. “Hels?”

For some reason, that only made the blue eyed one, which he’s now assuming is Wels, cry again. Probably since Beef was looking on the brink of a lot of external panic. Hels followed suit, sniffling and then choking on a high pitched sob. The butcher rushed to soothe the both of them, picking them up and moving them upstairs- noting how they were too small for their adult clothes and were now naked. They coughed and choked on the leftover smoke through their tears and that really just made him feel worse.

Finally upstairs, he opted to put the two in the animal farm room. He sat them down on the sandstone and it took a few seconds to get them to release their hands from his shirt. Hels complied, calming down to sniffles and moans. Wels on the other hand didn’t let go. The little knight simply tucked his face into Beef’s chest sadly.

“Wels, buddy, you need to let go so I can get the blood off of you, okay?” Wels moved his head, tilting it up at him. Who was he kidding, Beef’s heart melted at the little guy. Though, the snot running down his mouth was a bit of a pain since he now had it all over his shirt.

“Okay,” the toddler mumbled. Beef let out a sigh of relief, thank god he knew words. When did children even start speaking, he was unsure, but Wels understood him and that was all that mattered.

With that, he sat him on the floor next to his twin, Beef moving to grab some wool from the sheep for makeshift bandages. When he turned back from his crafting table, he found the knights staring at the pigs. Despite their still shared worry and obvious fear, they occasionally giggled at the pigs who squealed and oinked at them.

“That a piggy?” Beef tested. Just to see what they knew.

“Piggy,” the two said back to him. “Piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy, piggy!” At the word, they erupted into a fit of snorts and laughs, momentarily forgetting their previous moods. That was until Beef approached Wels with a bucket of water and the wool cloths.

“Be brave for me, okay? You’re a tough knight,” he ruffled the child’s hair and was pleased when he stuck out his legs to him. “Thanks, bud, won’t be more than a minute.”

With a patience he didn’t know a toddler could have, considering Wels didn’t hardly squirm away from his grip, he finished in no more than a couple minutes. He washed off the little knight’s knees while the other decided he was bored and went to stick his hands up in the glass pig pen. The butcher’s heart warmed at the sound of the little giggles from it when the pigs didn’t hesitate to lick his hand. Hels pulled his hand back with a squeal, grabbing his counterpart’s attention.

Wels pointed at the pigs, looking at Beef. “Piggy?”

“Sure,” Beef exhaled with a shrug. He left the knight to have his fun with his twin, and the pigs. Now, he needed to make them some clothes. Maybe armor? The thought of toddler sized knight’s armor made him chuckle to himself.

He went to the sheep, grabbing red and blue eyes from the chest. With haste, he sheered the newly died sheep of both colors and set off to the crafting table on the other side of the room while the boys moved to the cows. Sewing wasn’t hard, that was a skill he needed in survival. He knew how to make shirts so it was just like making tiny versions of those shirts and with leg holes and buttons. Easy onesies for the twins.

Momentarily, he was distracted by the two mimicking the mooing coming from the cows. He already knew that would get annoying very quickly.

Beef had a thought while he was making the onesies. We’re they potty trained? Did he need to make diapers as well? How on earth do you handle a toddler? Shaking his head, he opted to make some cloth diapers for the both of them, not wanting to be wrong if he guessed they were already potty trained. The last thing he needed was an accident.

Finishing the onesies and diapers, he whistled at the boys, catching their attention. He held up the onesies and they dramatically awed at his craftsmanship. Beef couldn’t help but to feel a bit of pride at that.

Eagerly, they stumbled up to him to put on their new clothes. One at a time, he clipped the diapers on the, with a safety pin. Then, he slid the onesies on the two and marveled at how they giggled at each other happily, poking at each other’s outfits. Gosh, it was so darn cute.

Now, the real question came to mind. What on earth does he do with them? He’s nowhere near fit for fatherhood at the moment and he needed a lot of alone time to fix that machine. He’d have to explain to Xisuma what happened, won’t he. He’s already imagining how that conversation would go. Hey Xisuma, I just turned two of your Hermits into children please help me. That would end in either utter confusion or laughter. Probably both, knowing the admin.

“Alright then,” he began. The knights looked up at him expectantly. “You guys wanna see Xisuma?” They tilted their heads in unison at the question.

“Is Suma?” Wels asked.

“Iggsooma,” Hels added, as if he were correcting his twin.

Beef grinned at their odd little relationship. “Yeah! Xisuma!”

He threw on his elytra from his inventory, dark wings spreading slightly behind his back. Again, the knights awed at him and he couldn’t help but to laugh. The butcher scooped them up into his arms, the two still weighing not nearly as much as he thought they would but working with sandstone was no easy task.

The trio made their way out of his desert village. He moved Hels to sit with Wels on his other arm so that he could fire off his rockets. As soon as he was in the sky, the knights were squealing with delight at the shrinking ground below them. It took no time to reach Xisuma’s jungle, but where the admin was right now, Beef actually had no clue. In chat, he said something about the iron farm so he flew into the landing bay on it.

Letting both toddlers down on the floor, he pulled out his communicator, letting his friend know that there was an urgent meeting they needed to have up there. It took no time for Xisuma to reply with a yes, much to Beef’s relief. Pocketing his comm, he turned to where the knights ran off to. Really, they were quite interested in the assortment of colorful shucker boxes laying on the floor.

Not to much of his surprise, he already heard another set of flapping wings landing on the bay.

“Alright then, what seems to be the- oh my goodness me.” Xisuma paused abruptly at the sight of the toddlers. Who he could only assume was Wels and Hels given Beef’s message. “Why are they children?!”

Ignoring his concern, they ran up to him happily.

“Suma!” the blond yelled.

Xisuma crouched down, meeting their height as best he could. They were just so small, he wouldn’t have ever expected this. They giggled at his silly looking helmet, the white feathers on the sides were certainly a sight to behold. He ducked his head to let them poke and prod as they pleased.

“Beef, what did you do?” the admin asked.

“Ah, long story. Wels created an evil doppelgänger of himself and in attempts to remove him with a new machine I made, I uh….” he gestured at the two. “That happened.”

“O….kay then. Well, what exactly do I do? I can’t really just change their ages through coding.”

Beef’s stomach sank. “You can’t?”

Xisuma chuckled at how Wels sat promptly in his lap, looking up at him with a snort. Hels copied him, sitting next to him. “Hm, no, I don’t believe so. You’ll need to fix that machine of yours.”

“Well, I uh, need alone time for that. I can’t take care of children at the same time.”

Xisuma nodded, wrapping his arms around the toddlers and standing, carrying both of them while they swung their legs. “Yeah, they’re adorable, I’ll admit, but I don’t have a place to keep em’ nor the time to look after them.” He walked over to Beef, plopping them in his arms. The other stumbled, concern spreading across his face.

“Who do I take them to, then?”

The admin tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I believe Cleo used to be a teacher in her older days, I think preschool might’ve been a part of that? If not, ask Stress or, I dunno, Joe? They seem fit for the task.” Finally, he shrugged. “Anyways, I’ll be off then. If there’s any trouble, you know where I am.” He waved, the knights waving back happily.

“Bye bye Suma!” they said. Xisuma laughed, nodding off to them before flying out of the landing bay. Beef in return huffed.

Why did Wels have to go through with such an idea.

[silverskye13]

I'm wondering what kind of thought process you have for choosing which character get which brackets for their thinking? cause I think the ones you chose fit rly well, especially the {} for wels and [] for helsknight, for some reason they feel very correct

Mostly just vibes, tbh!

Tanguish got (parenthesis) because it's what is grammatically correct [you probably notice I put my personal thoughts in brackets. It was really hard to break that while writing the fic, and if I go awhile between chapters, I will fall back into bad habits and put all thoughts in brackets again, whoops.] His inner thoughts in parenthesis are primarily observations tied to his emotions. He doesn't really think thoughts, he feels thoughts.

Examples:

(The hermits never know what they’re doing, but this isn’t something Tanguish knows. Sometimes he wonders about it, but he hasn’t quite figured it out yet.)

(But he wasn't lying, and he wasn’t a knight, and this shouldn’t matter, it really shouldn’t.)

When I decided I wanted to have other POVs in the fic, I kind of had to case what parenthesis I had left at my disposal. Unless I wanna get silly with it, for the most part, all that's remaining is [], {}, <>, ||, and maybe /\ if I wanna play around a little.

Helsknight has very rigid and straightforward inner thoughts. I wanted to keep most of his internal monologue to tactical information.

Examples:

[Enchanted netherite, because of course it was. He could recognize enough of the symbols to know it was an efficient workman's tool, but sharpness felled people just as well as trees.]

[Control the situation. Put distance between Tanguish and the danger. Keep the Demon busy long enough for escape.]

For that, the brackets make the most sense. He's thinking rigid truths and commands. It also feels close to his personality? I guess? A bit hard to explain, but to me, every action he takes is framed in something. He has rigid codes that he measures himself by, like he's constantly bookend-ed. He breaks those bookends when he's angry, and it's a physical wall that brings him pain when he breaks it. He needs [solid, rigid] visuals for that bookend-ing. Brackets were best.

Welsknight then, I wanted to be visually similar to Helsknight, in which case {} would work well, and their distinctive shapes made me think of something,,, I dunno,,, fancier is a bad word. But the curly brackets are a little needlessly complicated. That complication has a use in coding, but on a standard keyboard, for writing purposes, its unnecessary. I like what it implies about how everything with Wels in the story is gilded, covered in unnatural perfection and holiness. Wels's [mostly unseen] issues in the fic are that he has a problem with ideals. Helsknight is the gritty, grimdark reality of what being a perfect knight is, with all its internal battling for perfection, and all its self-sacrificial, borderline suicidal heroism. Welsknight, however, is the projected ideal of what a knight should be, the glitz, glamour and chivalry. He is light that is blinding, but ultimately harmful, ungrounded. His is the idea of a crusade, not because it is right or just, but because thats what knights are supposed to do, and this is the nearest evil to hand. Something superfluously curly works nicely for his thoughts.

Tango gets the <> for his thoughts, both because I like how pointed and analytical it is [carrots are used for coding and tags in html], how well it meshes with him as a game developer and programmer, and also because it looks a lot like his problem of lancing through things. He is a little spear of a guy. He sees a thing he wants -- or wants to avoid -- and he leaps for it. He ignores Tanguish's warnings, because they're uncomfortable, and there is a different reality he would rather deal with right now, thank you. Sharp little thoughts for Tango.

[Jazzhands!] So, yeah!

[silverskye13]

just binged all of redstone and skulk in one go. HOLY SHIT!!! i left some comments on ao3 but that wasn't enough. i needed to come to your tumblr too bc this fic has Changed Me A Little. it makes sense- i've been subscribed to you on ao3 for a while (remember hound's tooth? i think that was when i started following your writing. and monsters splitting hairs, although i'm not quite caught up on that one), and that was for a good reason- but tanguish and helsknight are something else! part of why i like fanfiction is because i get to see more of characters i already like- it takes a special fic to get me so invested in characters i've basically just met! and you do it so well! like. the subtle character things! the way i can pick out the hermits' (and martyn's, but i'm calling him a hermit for the sake of convenience) traits in the helsmits, but warped and twisted around like a funhouse mirror? fantastic. i love it. im eating that shit up. the ilttle differences and similarities between tango and tanguish, helsknight and wels (bc he isn't acting very knightly right now), impulse and the demon- it's so cool to see! i also saw the other ask you got where you talked about your process, and how you give your characters a list of traits as a guide to writing them- i'm definitely going to have to borrow that trick. it works! so well! it shows in your writing in the consistency of how the characters behave!

some other thoughts i had while reading:

helsknight being religious probably has a lot more to do with him being a knight than wels being a lutheran irl (which is where his name comes from and i find that hilarious), but still. if it's unintentional it's hilarious and if it's on purpose then it's a fun easter egg!

i relate to and understand tanguish, because i too would want to befriend helsknight, and also because if a bunch of big scary people basically adopted me and tried to teach me how to use a knife i would be so pathetic about it.

i relate to and understand helsknight and tango, because tanguish is the weirdest little cat ever and i too am captivated by his pathetic little freak charms, and i want to be his friend.

i neither relate to nor understand wels, because 1) if i saw my friend's presumably-evil counterpart skulking around the shopping district i would likely call them first (just seems like the polite thing to do, and also bc if helsknight showed up and the ppl who found him didn't call wels about it i feel like he'd probably be more than a little pissed), and 2) look at tanguish. he's just a little guy. he's a little guy and it's his birthday. how could you be mean to him.

tl;dr: redstone and skulk has compelled me to the point that leaving comments on ao3 wasn't enough, i needed to ramble straight into your inbox because it's just so good.

Oh my gosh! Firstly: thank you for all the kind words! I'm glad you're liking my writing so far, and thank you both for the comments and the scurry into the inbox. I love hearing people's thoughts, even if I don't have the spoons to respond to everyone all the time :'D

For your bullet points:

-- I didn't know Wels was Lutheran! I knew he was ex-military, and at least in my family's trends, military and religiosity go hand in hand, so it makes sense. But still! Learning new fun facts! I know nothing about the Lutheran Church [I was raised Baptist.] Probably gonna do some reading later.

-- I feel like Tanguish is going through that phase of "all the biker/military uncles have decided I'm one of them for some reason" and as someone who has gone through that before, for the same baffling non-reasons [used power tools in their presence once, a la Tanguish barely participating in a fight once] I sympathize. Very interesting somewhat scary people. Why did you invite me to sit at your table. Why do you keep slipping me tequila and buying me knives like I'm in on the joke.

-- Tanguish is such a specimen we all just want to look at him under a microscope. He is so scared yet so brave. He thinks knives are scary but he leaps off buildings. He's scared of getting hurt and seeing blood but he has no regard for his personal safety. How do you fit so many oxymorons in such a tiny body---

-- Wels please, he's a little guy and it's his birthday! Stop bullying him!!

Addendum: I agree Jackrabbit is very Tanguish coded. It is now on the playlist.

Want to live like an animal?

By the skin of your teeth?

Put your good face on, you're foolin' no one

You're a jackrabbit underneath

One step forward, step right back

Run for the hills, honey, run for the hills, honey

Run for the hills, don't look back

[theminecraftbee]

(update i’m still thinking about this so -)

Joe sits on the roof of his house. He takes a deep breath in, and he takes a deep breath out again. It's noon, he thinks. Scar's normally just a com call away if something goes weird. Also, he has a whole basement of wordle ghosts, which probably won't help that much, but they did push a world border once, and...

Joe sighs. Breathes out. Says: "You know, I'm pretty sure you're not my subconscious?"

An echoing voice lets out a sardonic snort. "That implies I'm someone's."

"I mean, you could be something else? Despite what it may seem, I'm not a total expert on the occult. I mostly just make things up. It works better than you'd think, given the amount of occult that I deal with."

Helsknight steps out from the shadows. It's noon, so Joe thought he'd had managed to avoid there being too many shadows around. Unfortunately, Joe lives in a haunted house, so, joy, he's doing this confrontation where Helsknight can blend in and out of the world easier than usual. Maybe he should have done it from the farm? Oh, or his megabase location! Mind you, there's no megabase there, but it's in the middle of the open ocean, so the fiery knight would have had a disadvantage -

Ahem.

"I'm your worst nightmare," Helsknight says, in the somewhat concerning tone of voice of someone who's stating fact, rather than trying to make any kind of threat.

"I thought you were Wels's? Er, considering."

Helsknight regards Joe. He doesn't say anything.

"My point is, you've been followin' me lately, for some reason. And I've been wonderin' what I've done to deserve your tender ministrations," Joe says.

"Not a fan of the fire?"

"I do live in a wood house, and fire tick may be off, but I do still sorta want there to be less fire raining around in it. I worked pretty hard to wreck it in a way that was aesthetically pleasing, and all."

"Oh, how destruction can be beautiful."

"Isn't it most beautiful in the things we build out of it?"

"...cute."

"Aw, thanks, I try to be!"

Helsknight looks at Joe a while longer. "I didn't expect you'd realize I was here," he says.

Joe could say a lot of things about how Helsknight isn't all that subtle, even if he'd been following someone who wasn't particularly adept with ghosts, but he decides he probably shouldn't. He's capable of deciding he shouldn't say things. He doesn't do it often, but he's capable of it. Instead he says: "I work in mysterious ways."

"Or just like confusing people."

"Maybe so! But not as much as you're confusin' me since, like I said, I didn't do anything to deserve being followed."

"Consider it an observation. I was... curious."

Joe squints. "Curious?"

"Curious," repeats Helsknight. "And if you know what you're doing, you won't be curious back."

"I'm not very good at that."

"Well. You have been warned."

"I feel like that’s hardly a -" Joe starts, but Helsknight melts back into the shadows again, and Joe's left staring after where he'd been. There are embers where he'd been standing.

"...this is going to end poorly," Joe mutters. "Can't say exactly how it'll end, but - poorly. Poorly for sure."

He knows better than to try to get more out of Helsknight now, though. He probably won't answer if he calls him out again. So Joe will just wait for now. Sit, and wait, and maybe try not to panic if there are any more incomprehensible hails of arrows. He can do that, right?

He's... going to have to ask Welsknight about this too, isn't he? He'd been hoping to leave the knight out of it, Wels had been stressed lately as it was, but... He's going to have to ask. Before he picks up a Joesknight or something. What would a Joesknight even be like? Joe's not sure, he's not particularly knightly. He'd be terrible at doing paid work for a lord! Very much not his thing!

He sees embers in another tree and sighs. First, though, to invest in fire extinguishers. Just in case.

[silverskye13]

How did you come up with the hels story?

So there is a fic on AO3 Still Can't Shut The Closet Door by bananasofthorns and there is another fic that I thought was by betweenlands , but I just scrolled through their blog and couldn't find it - about Wels leaving season 8, while Hels sits in the shuttle with him, mocking the fact that he's running away. [I know theminecraftbee made a follow-up fic to it... Maybe they made the first one too sjdjfh I need to get better at bookmarking things].

I had Tumblr-osmosis'd enough about Hels to know he existed by the time I read those, but still knew next to nothing about him outside of "probably riding the post darkiplier/anticepticeye wave", so reading this really interesting take on a dark mirror character as something akin to intrusive thoughts, not entirely real but still incredibly physical, was really really cool to me. And then that sat in the back of my head for a couple months slow-burning.

Converging on this I've also been trying really hard to lower my personal standards on writing. Previously most ideas I had never made it to text, because if I couldn't polish it into a long fic or something I deemed high enough quality to throw on AO3 standalone, I'd just drop it. But I've been trying to change that, because that was more creativity stifling than anything else. So I've started just opening the Tumblr app and word-vomitting my quick ideas to see what happens.

That was the first Wels / Hels fic, with Wels in the cave talking to his double in the dark. I was really leaning on the idea of a double who's so tightly bound in whatever Wels is that they can feel each other's emotions. Very soulmate-ish. And it turns Hels into something less like intrusive thoughts and more like a personal thundercloud. He's weather in the fact that he kind of just happens, and he follows his own logic, and that logic is mostly "I have what I consider rational reasons for hating Wels." Because at the time I was also kicking around the fact that if current fanon likes the idea of Hels as intrusive thoughts, has anyone ever done anything with the fact that intrusive thoughts, for all their badness, always feel painfully rational when you have them. Even intrusive thoughts about self harm, logically you can think "I know what x neurological problem is, I know this is a symptom of that," and still think it makes total sense that you're doing whatever you're doing. It's not until you're no longer under that influence that you can look back and go, "Woah shit, that was kinda messed up, huh?"

So I took that concept and I shoved it in a quick fic. And I left the fic pretty open ended in case I wanted to kick it around some more. There's a lot of implied things [hels can go between dimensions. Hels and Wels can feel each others' emotions, sometimes so intensely it has a physical effect, Hels exists but only his effects are really witnessed by other people, etc]. And then when I posted it, and other people started talking about those things I'd hinted at but had no plans for, I kept thinking about those things, and I got more ideas about them. Now it's kinda snowballed. I get to chase threads where I find them. Maybe the hermits and helsmits are two halves of a whole, and at some point those halves have to rejoin? Maybe Helsknight hates Welsknight so much because he feels self righteous as a knight, and he thinks Wels is a mockery of knighthood? Maybe that feeling is mutual? Maybe only some hermits have helsmets, and maybe those hels don't manifest the same way every time. Maybe The Red King could be a hels, or human!Cleo. Maybe the hels don't think they're the hels at all. Maybe they're incredibly aware they are, and that their days are numbered. What does that do to someone, to live your entire life knowing you weren't supposed to exist, not in a creation vs evolution existential way, but in the sense that you were made of someone's issues, and when they rectify those issues and move past them you no longer have a personhood? Do you fight it and become your own person, or do you submit to what you believe is the natural course of the universe?

To be honest! I've just been having a lot of fun with how much it all evolves, and how informed it is by other people yelling in the tags about little ideas I threw in flippantly that could have really interesting implications if you followed the thread a little further. That's kinda just the fun thing about fandom in general, and something this little snippet-on-tumblr style has really facilitated? The idea that an idea can start as one thing and dramatically snowball into a dozen others because no idea exists in a vacuum and you're allowed to be inspired by everything. It's a lot of fun! It's like playing in a sandbox, or really, like playing in Minecraft. You don't know what you don't know until someone else does, and suddenly a while new world has opened up to you, like learning you can use stairs to build a roof for the first time.

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 11

Summary: Hels recognizes an all too familiar avian builder and he and Ex start on making dye from flowers after discussing their evident mental issues.

Characters: Helsknight, Evil Xisuma, Xisuma, Grian (briefly)

TW: None that I know of

———————

The night rolled by and soon it was Saturday. Hels had stayed in the same room for the night, wondering on the side where he’d stay when they eventually kicked him out of here. Not through hate, he assumed, just because his stab wound didn’t look more like he barely scratched himself and Stress decided that morning that they’d undress it and let it do its own thing.

All while the lady gave him more candy of course.

He opted to not wear his armor. That could be a mistake if he crossed Wels for any reason, but he knew the admin wouldn’t let him lay a finger on Hels unless the dark knight was the one provoking him. Chivalrous and fair, but Wels stuck by what he stood for and that wasn’t anything in Hel’s taste. To be blunt about it, the knight hated him and for good reason.

Not that it mattered, Hels was supposed to be the villain in the little hero’s book. He couldn’t give more than a mere thought to it.

Anyways, he pushed the thought to the side for later. If he came across Wels during their outing, he would cross that bridge when he got to it. He had an Evil Xisuma to visit if the guy didn’t already plan on dragging Hels out of the clinic himself. He also came to wonder why the Hermits had a clinic. They just respawned if they died.

Not that it didn’t sound unpleasant. His stomach churned at the idea of falling off a cliff and not but a second later waking up in your bed with a cold sweat. He shivered just thinking about it. He’s probably better off without respawning.

He was getting sidetracked again. Damn anxiety, why did Wels have anxiety? He was a knight and while Hels made it evidently clear of the other knight’s various phobias, he still was surprised at the sheer amount of things Wels was likely put off by. But anxiety? That was different, he knew. If he got the chance, he’d probably ask Ex about it. Ex was Xisuma’s clone or something, maybe he was a part of the same general concept.

And again, sidetracked. Was this how Ex’s mind worked? The man had a habit of jumping from topic to topic within a short span of time, Hels soon realized. Before he could think on it further, he threw on the, admittedly quite fancy, outfit he was given- courtesy of Mumbo Jumbo- and left the room.

That was until he quickly realized he had no clue where he was going even with the various signs above his head. After a few wrong turns, he finally found an elevator and sighed a breath of relief. After a short ride, he found himself in what he assumed was a lobby, a quite noticeably excited Evil Xisuma standing with his counterpart.

At the sight of Hels, the two smiled. That was quite odd for him, to have people smile at him when they saw him rather than scampering away in fear. Well, now that he wasn’t the ruler of Hels anymore, he supposed the lack of intimidation wasn’t as bad of a problem as it initially was before. He had nobody to please.

Hels joined the pair and with one short conversation and another spine crushing hug- to which Xisuma laughed at the strangled noises from Hels- the trio left for the garden.

But what he didn’t expect when he got to Ex’s flower shop was an all too familiar read sweater and wheat blond hair. The figure opening some chests for white tulips.

Both Xisuma and Ex must’ve noticed how suddenly the knight stopped in his tracks and turned. Following the rather intense glare Hels was sending him, their eyes landed on one of the other Hermits- Grian. While Ex merely raised a brow at the odd situation, Xisuma seemed to catch on quickly.

“Ah, I think I know. One second.” Xisuma left the trio to approach Grian, a new grin plastered onto his face as he went. Hels and Ex couldn’t hear their conversation with how far away they were, but with the expressions and gestures and Grian’s brief glance at them, he mouthed the word “Oh”.

When both Grian and Xisuma began to return, Hels put a hand to the hilt of his sword, his glare hardening more than ever. They walked up to them.

“Hels,” Xisuma began. “This is Grian. Grian, this is Helsknight, Wels’s evil clone. Hels, Grian wants to know if he in any way was related to the incident the other day.” Xisuma talked slowly and simply, as if Hels was a child. A very tall child.

Yet, his softer tone let the knight’s hand loosen a bit around the sword. He glanced up and down at the builder, as if he was searching for something. Eventually, he huffed.

“You’re not him,” he concluded, shoving the sword back into its sheath.

Grian glanced at Xisuma who simply shrugged. He looked back at Hels. “Not who?”

“The little demon of yours, the NPC.”

Instantly, Grian’s face twisted into deep concern at the all too familiar name. “Oh...What did he do?”

Before Hels could answer, Ex chimed in. “Um, can we talk about that later? We have some stuff to do.” Wordlessly and with a glare from Xisuma, the other 3 nodded, Grian mumbling something along some kind of apology. Within seconds, he flew off and out of the shopping district.

Inevitably, that was going to be brought up later.

Xisuma clapped his hands together. “Well, I’ll leave you both to it then. Ex, don't make him do anything too strenuous and don’t be rude.” With a nod from his counterpart, Xisuma left as well to some other shops nearby.

“Phew, thought you were gonna kill him for a second. I mean he’ll respawn, but that would still cause commotion. Anyways, the garden is another shop or two down. One of the other hermits helped make a greenhouse!”

Abandoning his previous mood, Hels chuckled at the sudden change in Ex’s train of thought. He then became curious.

“Ex, are you...alright…in the head? You tend to jump back and forth between different topics faster than most people I know.” While they walked, Ex skipped in his steps a bit.

“Hm, I’m not sure. Xisuma said there’s definitely something. Something called um….AHDD?”

“You mean ADHD?”

“I think so. He said it means my brain isn’t wired to follow the normal train of thought and I have some trouble with other things of the sort.” Ex spun his fingers around the sides of his head to emphasize his point. They kept walking.

“Problems like what?”

Ex thought for a second, trying to recall what Xisuma had told him. “I’m not sure. He says it’s stuff like transitioning from different tasks or….like starting new tasks or trying to stop doing tasks. It also means I mostly pay attention when it’s a topic I’m interested in.”

“Huh, sounds about right. Well, I thought I’d ask.” Ex perked up.

“What about you? Anything wrong in your head?”

Hels hummed and absentmindedly answered. “Anything Wels struggled with. Usually just anxiety and some phobias, nothing too extreme.”

“What are you anxious about?” The greenhouse was coming up on a small hill.

“Well, I’m high and mighty, but sometimes I start questioning it. And the questioning leads to further thought about it, which usually just spirals into hours of overthinking. Sometimes even an anxiety attack.” The lack of restraint from pouring out that answer surprised the knight briefly.

“What’s that?”

“An anxiety attack?” They approached the greenhouse and stopped at the doors.

“Well, I kind of know. But yeah, that.”

“Just means I get really scared and cry in a corner mostly. But they’re different for others. Some like being touched during consolation, others don’t. Just depends.” They walked inside and the aroma of the fresh plants came at them instantly.

“Do you like being touched during an anxiety attack? What do I do if you have one?”

“We can save that conversation for a later date, okay?” Hels huffed. Ex nodded. With the sight of the flowers, Hels could practically see the counterpart’s mind shifting gears.

“Okay, so I mostly need help with the tulips. Xisuma said nothing too strenuous, so you can pick some and give them to me while I make dye. Good?”

Hels nodded. “Alright, let's start then.”

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 19

Summary: Hels and Wels get a bit of an examination, there’s a sappy apology, and Evil X accidentally confesses his love for Hels.

Characters: Helsknight, Welsknight, Evil Xisuma, Xisuma, Beef, Doc, and Tango

TW: None I think

—————————

Beef certainly wasn’t expecting Wels to look so...different already. When Doc landed and practically threw the knight into one of the back corners of the room, Wels glared at him through the wool with blood red snake eyes. Doc removed the cloth around his mouth. Wels grinned evilly at Beef, showing off a pair of fangs and licked them slowly.

“Hey, Beef, you gonna make me a little angel again?” He batted his eyelashes at the butcher. “Wouldn’t want me getting loose, huh?” He wriggled in his place on the floor while Doc tied his ankles together.

“He’s changing at a much faster pace than Hels is. That was so….sudden,” Beef observed.

“Yeah, where’s Hels, anyways?” Doc asked, noticing how the dark knight wasn’t on the table. Beef snickered, briefly distracted by the question from Wels’s current state.

“Went outside to play with the piglets. I made a pen out back a few days ago and the dude is obsessed with them apparently.”

“Ooo, sounds like someone plans on making bacon later,” Wels stated from the corner. The creeper gifted his teeth.

“Keep talking and your dinner will be more wool. Don’t think I won’t clock you too. Xisuma’s strong but he’s not mutant,” Doc replied without turning to look over his shoulder at Wels. Beef stared at Doc with wide eyes.

“Xisuma punched him?!”

The creeper shrugged. “Wels seems to know how to push his buttons. Got him right in the jaw twice and Evil Xisuma had to keep him to doing it again,” he chuckled.

“I- Okay then. Where’s Xisuma? I thought he was coming with Tango and Evil Xisuma.”

Doc rubbed his neck. “Xisuma must’ve gotten overwhelmed or something, I don’t know. He looked like he was gonna pass out so I just brought Wels here and had the other two take care of that.” Their communicators buzzed, catching their attention. Beef hummed.

“Speaking of the devil, here he comes.”

As if on cue, Xisuma, Tango and Ex landed in front of the doorway. As they walked in, Tango and Xisuma marveled at the cloning machine. Or well, whatever it was. They didn’t imagine Beef wanted more clones running around possibly causing more problems like this. Nonetheless, the machine in the center of the room was one crazy looking contraption.

“Hey guys!” Greeted Beef. “Hels is out back and Wels is in the corner over-“ Beef turned, now noticing how long the silence was lasting. As Beef looked, he didn’t find the knight in the corner. “Oh no.”

The others peered around the machine where Doc and Beef were searching. Only was it when Beef walked out the suspiciously ajar back door, did he find Wels completely free of his ropes in the small pig pen with Hels.

“Wels, how did you-“ Beef was interrupted by the loud squeak erupting from one of the piglets. Wels had one of them held in his arms with a grin.

“I didn’t know you had a pig pen over here! Look how cute the baby pigs are,” the knight cooed. Somehow he was even fine with Hels sitting next to him as well. Both held and petted the babies happily.

Now Beef was confused. Very confused. He stepped back inside, not even knowing how to behind to describe what had happened. He wasn’t even sure how Wels managed to get out of the ropes, let alone explain how his personality completely reversed from his previously sadistic self. Perhaps he only switched back and forth rather than being completely evil in the span of three days.

“He- He’s playing with the pigs. He’s in the pen with Hels and they’re playing with pigs.” The butcher rubbed the bridge of his nose. “His entire personality just did a full 180, too.”

The other three made their own confused expressions. Evil Xisuma, surprisingly to the other two, spoke up.

“That’s not surprising. When I found him he was freaking out about nearly killing Tango. Didn’t seem very evil to me.”

“So it’s not constant then….” Doc added. “That’s odd. Hels is going through such a slow, but much more constant change from what I’ve noticed.”

“Yeah he’s been at it with the pigs for over an hour now,” interjected Beef. “No signs of changing anytime soon.”

“Exactly, but Wels is full on Jekyll and Hyde. And the switch is much more apparent and more aggressive. Hels doesn’t do more than crack a few jokes and play with the animals,” Doc continued. “I wonder why that is….” he thought aloud.

Ex also added an important point. “He said he didn’t know what had happened. Like he didn’t remember anything.”

At those observations, Tango suddenly felt guilty for what he said prior. Though not as guilty as Xisuma still was. The poor guy was still hesitant about speaking up about the situation. He simply watched as the others discussed. That was until Beef brought it up.

“Right right. Well, we need to get going with this stuff. I was gonna have Suma try to slap in some commands but….” he turned his head to the admin. “I think that’ll wait. Punching Wels over and over is probably just gonna make it worse after he’s already provoked.” He eyed Xisuma pointedly.

Xisuma shuffled sheepishly, feeling the other pairs of eyes on him. “Alright,” he agreed. “But if he’s threatening anyone, I’m interfering.”

Ex chuckled. “No you’re not.” X glared at him, but rolled his eyes. If he was going to try anything, Ex would just hold him back again. Not what he preferred by any means, but nobody was getting hurt at least. He’d rather not keep punching his friends in the face.

Beef clapped his hands together. “Alright! Let’s get on with this, shall we?” The rest nodded in unison. “Great! Evil X, go retrieve the boys and the rest of us will start on some kind of analysis.” With a nod from the evil counterpart, the others split up for their tasks and Xisuma stepped outside.

As Ex walked out back, he couldn’t help but to awe at the knights happily playing with the piglets. Hels especially, even if it was only because of whatever was happening to the two. It was too overbearingly cute to see the usually hateful and malicious knight pull the baby pig up to his face, only to laugh when it licked his nose.

Sadly, Ex had to stop their activities. “Alright, that’s adorable, but we’ve gotta do some tests on ya’.” He pulled the piglets from the two and made a gesture for them to stand while he closed the pen. They followed his directions with little to no hesitation, which he personally found odd considering Wels’s previous mood, but again, he had another one of his mental switches.

Not to mention the fact that Wels was perfectly fine with being around Hels, let alone barely three feet apart behind the fence gate. The knight even would grab some of the pigs and show his counterpart, usually pointing out how some had little brown spots or that some of them weren’t actually pink with awe. It really was interesting. That only made him wonder if Wels had been doing this a couple weeks ago and the Hermits just happened to meet up with him while he was in his happier state of mind, and also somehow avoiding provoking him into lashing out again.

As they made their way back inside, Beef had the two sit on two tables sat far across the room from each other, Wels’s little table surrounded by iron bars and an iron door for the access to get inside. Visibly, everyone saw the knight grimace at his setup and pulled their hands to the hilts of their swords in case a Wels was to throw another tantrum.

But he didn’t. With a worried expression and a shake of his head as if to block off the ever growing hateful thoughts, he walked inside the cage and sat down. Hels on the other hand didn’t have precaution of any type, really. Just a stone table held up on fence posts which he gladly sat on much to Ex’s personal dismay. Oddly, he missed how rude Hels used to be. He was more confident, stronger, and for some reason, Ex weirdly admired his hateful personality. He loved it better when the knight would throw offhand insults jokingly and ask questions about how the over world worked. Even if he wanted to destroy the Hermitcraft server, but Ex knew he could prevent that himself.

Now, the used-to-be dark knight was now swinging his legs back and forth while he sat on the table like a child. Ex couldn’t help but to stifle a laugh at that.

“Alright, Doc, you take Hels, I’ll take Wels. Just poke around, ask some questions if you need to, write down the current changes. I can probably give a good estimate on how long they have before they’ve completely swapped,” Beef explained. “I’m not exactly an expert on this whole thing but I did make the machine after all.”

With a nod from the creeper, the butcher pulled a lever on the side of the room, making glass panes lifted from the floor to separate both parties from each other. Ex stayed on Hels’s side with Doc while Tango stood with Beef and Wels.

For a few minutes, the room was fairly silent minus the occasional “Open your mouth” or “Can you show me your hands”. Tango and Ex watched as the men observed the knights, carefully trying to not provoke either of them into a sudden change in personality. Though Hels still interestingly kept a quite calm and happy demeanor and followed his directions with no hesitation.

Wels on the other hand? Beef felt like he was walking on eggshells. He was closed into the little cage with Wels with enchanted diamond armor- though no sword- and worrying he’d set him off with a jab to the wrong part of his body or the wrong request. However, Wels followed his directions as well, but much sadder than his counterpart. He decided to speak up.

“I’m sorry.”

Beef looked up while the others in the room also turned. “What was that?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

“Wels, you weren't in control of that,” the butcher replied with a sigh. “You have nothing to say sorry for.”

Wels begged to differ. “I do, Beef. And I don’t know what’s happening and it’s….terrifying not being able to control the outbursts, but just know that….I’m sorry, Tango. For hurting you.” Wels peeked around the butcher and peered outside, speaking to Xisuma. “And I’m sorry for whatever I did to you. I don’t know what I did but I heard from outside that I’ve done something to you and I’m very sorry.”

Everyone became silent at his apology. Really, if anything, it made some of them feel worse like the admin outside the building. But still, they accepted his apology happily.

“That was the sappiest apology I’ve ever heard.” Everyone turned their attention to Hels who stared down the other knight with a smirk. “Seriously, you didn’t have to go on about it. I’m sure they already know.”

With a burst of excitement, Ex pulled Hels into yet another spine crushing hug which he reciprocated by patting the other on the back awkwardly. Ex didn’t mind, however, and pulled away with a smile.

“You’re still in there!”

Hels eyed him curiously. “Uh, yes? Is something wrong with you or what?” He peeked around Ex. “Is something wrong with him?”

Ex simply laughed. “No, no, I just….missed how rude you were? That actually sounds odd when you say it out loud.” Nonetheless, the others got the gist. They smiled as well.

“Also what was he apologizing for anyways? Tango doesn’t look injured in the slightest,” asked Hels. He eyed the demon. “But I can change that.” Tango shifted uncomfortably.

Beef rolled his eyes. “There’s the Hels I expected. Be nice, bud. He’s been through a lot today already.” As if to try to seem like some kind of authority, the butcher put his hands on his hips which only earned a laugh from the others. Though, his statement still stood.

“Pfft, alright ‘dad’, whatever you say,” the knight replied sarcastically. That only brought a flush across Beef’s face and wide eyes.

“I uh- okay then,” he stammered. “Well still, just….be as nice as you’re able to.”

With that, the men continued on their examinations, now with more uplifted spirit. Beef could easily point out how oddly pointed Wels’s ears were, how much sharper his canines were becoming, and how dark of a blue his irises were- much to Doc’s frustration. The creeper couldn’t seem to point out any significant changes to the other knight. Nothing more than shorter, but still pointed ears and less of the red scales dotted over his cheeks. He hadn’t seen Hels in person enough to see anything too obvious.

Ex decided to butt in Doc’s examination. Easily, the counterpart could point out that Hels’s eyes were no longer slitted pupils, how much shorter his nails were as opposed to his previous claws. He confirmed the lack of the scales and the ears easily, and how Hels’s own fangs weren’t as long, nor as sharp, as they used to be.

“His hair is lighter, I think,” Ex added, finally. All of his observations brought Doc’s jaw to the floor. Hels mirrored his expression as well.

“You….really pay attention that much?” Hels asked slowly.

“Just need something to do when I’m with you. You’re very different from Wels. You’re taller, for some reason. Your tail is about five feet long, your pupils grow when you’re looking at something you’re interested in, and you always sneeze two times around the oxy daisies,” Ex listed.

Even Tango was gobsmacked by the amount of details. “You just happen to notice those things?! Yeesh, if I didn’t know better I’d say you liked him.”

“Well, yeah I like Hels a lot! He’s my friend, I think?” Ex turned to Hels. “Hey, are we friends?”

Hels just shrugged. “With that much random information, might as well be. Don’t get your hopes up, I’ll just complain the whole time.” Ex grinned in response.

Yet, Tango shook his head with a laugh. “Not what I meant, but I guess that works, too.”

Ex had to think for a moment about what the demon meant before his eyes widened. “Oh! You mean romantically, don’t you?” The counterpart laughed nervously, a flush creeping across his cheeks but it wasn’t too noticeable to the others. “Well, I mean Xisuma had to explain that to me. I suppose that’s a yes to that.”

From outside, they all heard a bark of laughter, quite obviously belonging to their admin.

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 29

Summary: Wels has a bit of a...discussion...with The Lord of Darkness

Characters: Wels, The Lord of Darkness (Hels, Ex, Xisuma, Tango, Doc, Keralis, Beef mention)

TW: Wels gets attacked so uh there’s that I suppose but nothing overly descriptive or gorey

——————

Wels didn’t know where he was. He was floating in darkness, nothing around him, nobody there. Everything was deafeningly silent.

You’re one of my best soldiers, Wels.

He turned to look around, finding nobody.

Why do you want to run?

He turned again, eyes landing on something in the distance. Tall, had red eyes of some kind, and weirdly enough, whatever shadows the creature was made of, they still stood out on the Void where he was. It was painfully obvious that sea shanties weren’t getting this to quiet down. He opened his mouth anyways, finding that no sounds came out of it.

Weird.

Wels didn’t panic, not yet. It wasn’t worth panicking yet when he still didn’t know what he was here for. Lashing out would probably just try to make the situation worse and fuel that weird other side of him that seemed to crave violence. That must’ve been what happened before he blacked out again, but this time not returning to any familiar sights in the overworld. Then one particular memory stood out to him among the rest he tried to recall before this moment. Beef, Xisuma’s base, the obsidian cell, Doc complaining about how loud he was singing….what time was it? Had it been hours? Days? But nonetheless, he remembered the name of this vile creature.

The Lord of Darkness.

You remember me, don’t you, Wels.

The Lord was now by his side, clawed fingers trailing over his neck. Briefly, a sting shot through his throat and he gritted his teeth. With a cough, Wels let out a pained noise, then a gasp, then a growl, and finally he spoke.

“Why am I here.” He snapped his head towards The Lord. The creature laughed.

“You best not question The Lord of Darkness. Your little twin is beginning to realize that those efforts are futile.”

Wels raised a brow, The Lord stepping to stand tall in front of him. “Helsknight?”

The lord scratched at his chin thoughtfully. “Yes, he’s falling soft. He failed my tasks, so he’s being punished for his disobedience.” In his palm, The Lord generated a small glowing figure of Hels and another of Wels. “I might as well let you in on my little secret since you’ll never be revisiting your body permanently ever again.”

“Wait what? You can’t do that!”

A sinister chuckled left The Lord. “Oh but I can, watch.” The figure began moving, the little Hels growing wings and hovering above the other little knight. “Hels used to be my champion, my strongest soldier. He was fueled by more rage than I’ve ever seen in an Evil Hermit.”

Then, the Hels figure lost its wings and fell back onto his palm, looking around with confusion while the Wels figure drew his sword. Quickly, the sword was lifted above its head and brought down on Hels. The two dissipated into smoke.

“But you, you’re stronger. You have more will than anyone, I believe you could potentially replace him.” The figures reappeared as life sized holograms a few feet away from them. “So I’m using you to punish him.” A figure of Xisuma and Evil Xisuma also generated. “And these two as well. Evil Xisuma also failed my tasks so Xisuma will do my bidding.”

“What are you doing to us? How do you play a role?” Wels asked.

“Simple, I use their malicious energy to fuel you and Xisuma. Without that, they’re nothing and really,” he laughed, ”they will die but who am I to care about that.”

Wels was only further confused. “Then why isn’t Xisuma here?”

“Because, my dear knight,” he pulled Wels’s chin upwards, claws just barely grazing his cheek. “They don’t know what’s happening to him, yet.”

The world shifted around them, bringing them to the roof Toon Towers. A bit away from them, there was Tango curled up painfully and Wels saw himself standing with the bloodied sword. The redness of his eyes was so disturbing, even if he’d seen them on Hels. The scene began playing as if it was in fast forward, Ex killing Tango, Wels panicking, Xisuma and Doc landing on the roof. After a second, it slowed down again. Wels was tied up, the knight expected as much. Though, he did notice that Xisuma didn’t seem like himself. No red eyes or snarky insults, but practically felt it in his own face when X threw a punch at past-him because of a mere insult to his brother. After witnessing another punch being thrown, Wels had figured out what The Lord meant.

“Oh no….” he muttered. “He’s still in the overworld, isn’t he.”

“Yes, on his way to see Evil X now, in fact with your friend Keralis. I made my own little introduction to them in that cell. Impulse and Doc were easy kills.” The Lord pulled up a screen displaying Hels leaning against Ex on the ship, noticeably very tired and if Wels knew anything, he simply just looked sick. “Yesterday, he visited Evil Xisuma to discuss some private matters of their own.” The Lord began to laugh. “He thought a mere confession of love would break him out of my grip.”

“Confession of love? I thought he-“

“He’s all of your hatred, yes, but you Hermits seem to have a habit of changing my little minions. Evil Xisuma especially, I’d say the two have been quite….” The screen changed to the two Evil Hermits sharing a kiss. “Intimate.”

“Oh. Well, at least he’s happy, I suppose?” He glanced at The Lord. “Is that supposed to make me hate him or something? I don’t really have a problem with,” he gestured vaguely, “all that.”

A soft chuckle was heard from The Lord and he shook his head. “No, no, but it’s useful information for my scheme. Soon enough, they’ll be dead as long as I use you and Xisuma. And with you two, I’ll destroy your world.”

“Why do you want to destroy the server,” Wels interjected. “Every time someone from Hels comes here, you always have this intent to just….destroy everything we love.” He glared at The Lord. “And every time, you’ve failed.”

“I’m not the one failing, Welsknight. They do.” The Lord made the images and the figure around them dissipate with the wave of his hand. “I come from a world made of all hatred and malice. In Hels, it’s our responsibility to influence your world, since not everything is sunshine and rainbows.”

“And your point is?”

“We have our intentions and you have yours. If you met our world, just one at a time, you’d want to destroy it too.” He moved to stand beside Wels, staring off into The Void with the knight.

“We wouldn’t,” Wels muttered, his hands balling into fists. “If you know what happened then you should know that Xisuma’s reaction to Evil X was not to kill him or destroy the world he came from.” He stepped away from The Lord, eying him angrily. “You know what he did?”

“Oh, please humor me, Wels. What did he do.”

“He took him with kindness.”

“He banned him, Welsknight, one of the worst possible things that could happen to any of them. And he would’ve done the same to each and every one of us.” The Lord stood taller, eyes glowing a brighter red.

“And he realized his mistake.” The knight stomped with his continuation. “And we took him in with fairness, a promise. That we would never hurt him or anyone he considered a friend.”

“Watch your tone, boy.”

“And for months he’s grown! He’s not your little puppet anymore!”

“I said….” The Lord lifted his hand, fingertips glowing an every red, a ball of light emitting from his palm pointed towards the knight. “Watch your tone.” That said, the ball of light shot from his pal and knocked Wels back with a force to throw him at least twenty blocks.

He landed on his back on some kind of surface in The Void. Solid ground of some kind knocked the wind out of him and he turned over weakly with groan.

“You know I’m right,” he spat. Wobbling in the process, he stood up and turned to face The Lord of Darkness. “You’re attacking me because you know we can change Helsknight for the better! All of the Evil Hermits for the better!” Another blast sent him flying even farther away.

“You Hermits! That’s all you do! You steal my subjects away from me, changing them from what they were destined to be! Do you even know what you’re doing to the world by doing that?!”

Shakily, Wels pulled himself to his knees. “It’s,” he coughed, “It’s not their destiny.” He turned to The Lord. “They’re not made to be pulled around by chains their whole lives! You’re starving them of freedom!”

More balls of energy came and went, throwing the knight every which way. He was right, he knew he was with the confidence of a thousand men. Where they were, this was his mind. He should be the most powerful here, more than The Lord of Darkness, be he wasn’t. Farther and farther he went until The Lord decided he had enough of pathetic attempts at changing Wels’s mind. He stomped over to the knight who took another hit, just barely standing once more, and picked him up by the neck.

“You will regret this, Welsknight. Your world and everything you love will be gone once and for all and me and my minions will roam free of your pathetic lives. You all won’t be around anymore, destroying the balance.” Wels kicked and scratched at The Lord’s cold, dead hands around his throat but to no avail.

“You- you don’t need them for balance-“ the knight croaked. With that, the hand around his neck tightened further and it brought a whimper from him. “You’re wrong….”

“Am I? You don’t sound so sure, Welsknight.”

“I-“ He sputtered as he finally realized he couldn’t breathe anymore. “I can’t-“

“I think it’s time you sleep again, Wels.”

With a sickeningly crimson glow around the two of them, he closed his eyes knowing that this was probably the last time he’d be fighting his inner demons. He was exhausted in his own mind. Hurt, angry, guilty, just wishing for everything to be over.

He thought of Hels. How he finally found his own home and happiness and how it was going to be torn away from him. He thought of Beef, how he dragged him into all of this. Xisuma, Tango, poor Tango, the sight of the injured demon was still fresh in his mind. Impulse and Doc were killed by The Lord of Darkness, probably suffering as they speak. Wels began to feel like he’d done more harm than good, even if it wasn’t in his control. He was losing the trust of some of his closest friends who just wanted to help him out of this state of mind. It felt like a worthless attempt to fight any longer. He couldn’t change anything even when he wasn’t under false control.

So, with those final thoughts, he gave in. His mind still screamed at him to not let go but what was it worth if he tried. What did he gain from splitting headaches and aching limbs and just fighting. Who was he saving when it only brought more distress.

Maybe Xisuma would have better luck fighting off the voices in his head.

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 17

Summary: Wels basically tries to kill Tango.

Characters: Wels, Tango, Beef mentions

TW: Hella violent chapter, includes blood and pain

———————

Even a couple days later after his little dispute with Beef, Wels was still quite annoyed. For those couple days he decided to just stay around his base, careful not to wander over into Beef’s territory. The butcher was now the last person he wanted to see right now and he was fine with staying home alone if it meant he didn’t.

But inevitably, he’d have to leave for some particular reason at some point. Today was that day and he was going to have to meet with Tango. He already rejected the offers to visit or receive visitors from other Hermits, but suspicion was bound to rise if he continued to reject the many invitations. Especially since he started in the series so late. The others wanted to see him again.

That being said, he laid in bed wondering if he could come up with some kind of excuse. He had to breed cows for hours, his portal needed some recalibration, he needed to grind for new stuff because he lost all of it again, something like that. It would be believable but Beef was bound to chatter off to someone.

Not that Wels thought anything was wrong. He was still the same old chivalrous knight he was for years beforehand, Beef was just overreacting. But if the butcher happened to tell Xisuma what he thought, the admin would definitely ask some questions.

While he thought, his communicator buzzed a few times. Kicking off his blanket with a groan- despite being only noon- he saw that Tango was persistent in making sure Wels left his house. There were at least ten new messages pestering him to come over.

Mostly with bribes for good trading which Wels knew he probably wouldn’t be able to turn down if he tried. He needed some stuff that Tango was willing to trade for a lower price than the shops in the shopping district. The buzzing continued.

<TangoTek> Helloooooo

<TangoTek> Wels

<TangoTek> I’ll give you a bunch of iron

<TangoTek> Gunpowder?

<Keralis> I’ll take some

<TangoTek> :(

<TangoTek> I can see you reading my messages

<TangoTek> Please come over

<MumboJumbo> What on earth is going on?

Wels rolled his eyes. Desperate much? He winced at the thought. No, no, Tango had a point. He’d never call him desperate just for wanting to see him again. Actually that was odd. Wels was not the type to ignore everyone.

Was that what Beef meant? Of course not, Wels felt fine. Great, in fact. He hadn’t felt this good in ages, just a little more irritable than usual, he supposed. Maybe he was just stressed from continually trying to avoid everyone. He really did probably need to see someone.

And that someone would be Tango, he guessed. Might as well. His communicator kept buzzing repeatedly. With a sigh, he finally replied.

<TangoTek> WWWEEEEEELLLSS

<Welsknight> I’m coming over

He threw it back into his pocket and left his bed for the first time in probably at least 24 hours. Stretching his legs felt odd after being still for so long when he was used to walking around every day. Still, he threw on his armor and elytra, not immediately noticing how grey his feathered wings looked than usual.

Wels assumed he wouldn’t be gone for long so food wasn’t necessary- not that Tango wouldn’t lend him some if it became a problem. However, he still kept his sword on his hip if there were any….complications. Unknowingly, he snickered at the thought. With a last look in the mirror, he decided that he was fully ready to leave, completely disregarding his feathers’ new color.

As he walked out the front door, his head turned to the general direction of Beef’s village. An intense scowl crossed his face but before he could think further, he fired off his rockets. He had no time to keep thinking about that lying little butcher.

He winced at the thought again. He didn’t like Beef much now, but that was a bit harsh. Either way, Beef was going to start drama if this continued and Wels wasn’t a fan of being in the middle of one huge argument, especially something having to do with Helsknight of all people. The dark knight was also one of the last people he wanted to see either. He was almost too glad that Evil Xisuma kept him so far away from Wels.

Though, he was beginning to not like Ex either, to be honest. Avoiding the other hermits for three days left more time to think and most of his thoughts consisted of recalling different memories of other evil hermits who threatened to destroy something they loved. Evil Xisuma was certainly one of them.

The counterpart thankfully lost most of his power over the last couple of years. Ever since he decided to move back into the Overworld, he wasn’t granted as many abilities by Xisuma as he had when he lived freely off of the powers given to him by ‘The Lord of Darkness’.

But Wels was getting sidetracked. He plastered on a grin and kept his pace, soon eyeing the colorful asymmetrical buildings on the horizon. The sight always brought on a chuckle from the knight and the grin quickly softened into a more genuine expression. Despite his previous thoughts, he was beginning to grow more excited to see his demon friend.

He opted to land on one of the rooftops and pulled out his communicator. Wels didn’t immediately type in any messages in case Tango was somewhere nearby or flying around while he waited for Wels to arrive. That assumption seemed to be correct when the bat winged figure came into view about a hundred feet away and quickly made its way over.

When Tango landed, the knight was pulled into a spine crushing hug followed by some pats on the back. Awkwardly, Wels just lightly patted the other on the back, not really reciprocating the hug as enthusiastically as Tango probably would’ve liked.

The demon pulled back but kept a hold on the knight’s shoulders which Wels gladly showed some disdain towards. “Jeez, where have you been, man?! Nobody’s heard from you for a couple days now!” At the uncomfortable expression from Wels briefly glancing at his hands, he pulled them away.

“Just needed to be away from people for a while, ya know? I had some personal stuff going on.” He picked something dirt off his shoulder and flicked it away absentmindedly as if Tango dirtied his shirt sleeve.

“Oh, anything you wanna talk about?”

Wels shook his head. “No, no, just Helsknight stuff.” He clapped his hands together. “Anyways! You had some trades in mind? I’m really running out of iron and I’ve got beacon pyramids to build.”

Abandoning his previous worry, the demon lit up with a snort. “I may know a guy….” Tango eyed Wels with a grin. “Iron shop sells a stack of blocks for a diamond, I’ll give you two stacks for a diamond. Or, if you can provide me with a ton of concrete, we can work something out there.”

The knight thought for a second, considering the offer. “Hm, that sounds like one hell of a deal. I’ll think about that while we discuss some other deals.” Wels brushed his fingers over the hilt of his sword absentmindedly. “Heard from the grapevine that you have a creeper farm too.”

Tango eyed the hilt curiously. His eyes followed back up to Wels. “There’s a TNT and rocket shop in the shopping district, but if you want to be fully self-sufficient, I’ll just let you use the farm whenever if there’s something you can offer of equal value.”

“Awesome, one more thing. Obsidian, tons of it, just tons of obsidian. It’ll make sense in a couple months, but I can’t say what it’s for right now.”

Tango raised a brow. “Tons like….a hundred stacks? Or….”

“About four hundred stacks.”

The demon’s jaw practically fell to the floor. “F- Four hundred?” He rubbed at his neck and whistled for emphasize the amount. “That’s….a lot. And a LOT of hours. Even with efficiency and insta-mine, that many stacks is still days worth of mining.” He sighed. “I’d love to help with that but I’m not exactly made of diamonds or have that much time on my hands. It’s not exactly something that can be automated like iron or gunpowder.”

Wels rolled his eyes which Tango made a confused face to.

“Fine, fine,” Wels began with huff. “I’ll find someone else then. Make it four stacks of iron blocks for a diamond and I’ll give you half my loot from the end for the creeper farm.”

Tango stuttered at the utterly ridiculous proposal (though some shulker boxes would be nice, but Wels didn’t visit The End often). “Wha- four stacks of iron blocks?! For a diamond?!”

The confusion didn’t phase Wels in the slightest. “Yes, that is what I said.” His gaze hardened on Tango, fingers tightening around the hilt of his sword. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Is there a proble- Wels that’s the worst deal I’ve ever heard of! I mean I guess a few shulkers would be nice for the creeper farm but you rarely visit the end!”

“Four stacks.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

Slowly, the sword was being pulled from its sheath. Tango noticed instantly.

“Put the sword away, Wels. You’re better than that,” he gulped. His voice wavered ever so slightly which Wels merely smirked at. This wasn’t like him….

“Four stacks, Tango. Or we’ll have a better form of negotiation.”

Tango lifted his hands defensively, moving one to the hilt of his own sword. “Okay, please tell me that you’re Hels in disguise or something. You’re not actually going to try to threaten me into a deal here, right?”

That seemed to set off something in Wels’s mind when Tango saw the familiar bright blue eyes bring on a redder hue.

And that in itself was already more concerning. Almost too quickly, the knight lost his previously colder stare and lashed out.

“Argh!” The knight unsheathed his sword. “Why do you guys keep saying that?! I’m fine! I feel fine! I-“ Wels swung once at Tango. “-Don’t-“ The demon drew his own sword to block the hit with wide eyes. “-Want-“ The knight swung again. “-Anything-“ Swing. “-To do-“ He lifted it above his head. “-With that-“ He threw an intense glare at Tango. “-Stupid knight!” He brought the sword down, only narrowly missing Tango’s left.

Frantically pulling up his inventory, the demon threw on his armor. He ducked and hopped around and leaned away from each swing of the blade. Each time, he tried to persuade the knight into calming down but evidently to no avail while the other spewed curses at him.

“Wels- Wels stop! I’m not fighting!” Tango took some rockets and flew away, Wels only just on his tail. “What’s gotten into you?!” He shouted. He felt the blade just barely nick his boot. “I’m sorry I said that-!” He turned and took his own swing at Wels, grazing his shoulder. “We can talk about this!”

“I don’t need to talk! I’m not-“ Wels swung again. “I’m not anything like him!”

Only now while the knight struggled to balance himself out after the swing did Tango notice how dark his feathers were. Were they that grey before? The sun was shining right on them earlier, they seemed so light before. With a closer look, the demon could see feathers falling to the earth with each frantic flap, revealing patches of dark skin underneath.

“Okay, okay! You’re not but will you stop trying to kill me?!” Using a kick to the other’s chest, he boosted himself away from Wels. Wels on the other hand only kept struggling. Flying wasn’t his strong suit, Tango knew, and he’d use that to his advantage.

Using another couple of rockets, he tried to get as far away from Wels as possible. Mostly, he flew in circles around him to keep an eye on what he was trying to do. Wels mostly just sent glares in his direction because he knew that he wouldn’t maneuver his way towards Tango that quickly. That in itself only angered him further.

While he flew each lap around him, he took the chance to talk at least some sense into him.

“Wels, what’s going on? Did something happen?” He asked from afar. Wels didn’t answer, still giving him the death glare. Tango spoke again, this time touching on something a bit more personal. “What did Hels do?”

The knight’s hands balled into harder fists around the sword. “I don’t need to tell you anything!”

Tango sighed. He was running out of rockets. “Okay, you don’t, but whatever you’re going through doesn’t justify trying to kill your friend!”

“You-“ Wels growled “- are not my friend!”

As Tango circled by too close this time, Wels swung once more, slicing a straight line across his side and into his right wing. With an audible gasp, the demon was sent flying with now broken elytra into the direction of the towers. The familiar blue concrete came into view quickly and he already knew how much the impact was going to hurt from previous experiences. God, how much he hated respawning. He was almost certain he was going to die the second he made contact with the roof.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, he initially felt his face slam into the cold concrete roof but in a panic, he took his wings to shield himself from further impact. It was a pathetic attempt at not injuring himself more than he already was. His armor shattered and disappeared in a wisp of blue and purple, leaving room for scraping his arms and legs.

His bad wing burned when it tore further and when he finally landed, he laid on his side and curled in on himself with heaving breaths. It hurt, everything was hurting and he hated that he wasn’t dead already. His sword flew off somewhere else but he assumed Wels would just put him out of his misery.

Wels landed and practically stomped towards the demon, sword still in hand. Tango could only watch as blood- his blood- dripped down the blade disturbingly. On the bright side, he wouldn’t be awake for much longer, he was out of it. He coughed meekly.

“N-nngh….hh….” he muttered out. He couldn’t speak. It hurt to move anything in his face. He simply opted for closing his eyes. Hopefully, someone would come and see what happened. Wels needed some serious help.

And as if his prayers were answered, he heard an all too familiar deep voiced, robotic accent.

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 12

Summary: Grian wonders a bit about the Hels dimension and Hels (the knight) has a lovely nap in the greenhouse.

Characters: Grian, Helsknight, Evil Xisuma

TW: None

——————

Grian couldn’t help but to wonder about the incident involving the NPC. With some further questioning, Xisuma had told him that it was the NPC that landed Hels in the Overworld. That there were other evil alter egos of all of the Hermits and they successfully attempted dethroning Hels from being champion.

Oddly, Grian felt a bit bad about it. He didn’t know why for sure but he did. The builder thought he banished the NPC or at least disabled him without a second thought that maybe he’d be back.

But Hels wasn’t one of their main dimensions. From Xisuma’s research, it was like the Nether just darker and moodier and almost all the land was covered in lava. He said plants don’t grow there, most entities don’t last more than a day upon spawn. There were still some entities that belonged in the Nether that resided in Hels, but not many. It was mostly overrun by overly competitive player-like mobs. Namely, the Evil Hermits.

Absentmindedly, he began continuing on the back of his castle. He needed something to do while he thought about it, after all. Grian wondered further.

NPC Grian wasn’t exactly what he’d call the official “Evil Grian”. But if the universe said so, he supposed it wasn’t too much nonsense. The thing was a demon after all.

Quickly, the builder ran through stacks of concrete and prismarine.

But nonetheless, he still felt bad. It wasn’t his fault that Hels was stabbed and almost died, though technically Grian was the one who summoned the demon in the first place and banished him to a random dimension fit for his actions. Grian also thought about the fact of survival. He would’ve guessed that NPC wouldn’t have survived this long, not unless he was endowed with powerful abilities.

Which he certainly had but it was bound to run out at some point.

How did the Evil Hermits survive? Why weren’t they killed off? None of the other Hermits made clones of themselves like Wels did. Wels has said that Hels said something about finally having a vessel or something. It only made his head hurt to keep thinking about it.

Nonetheless, despite his demented personality, Grian hoped that Hels didn’t hold a grudge against him for too long.

Finally, he was out of materials. Only about a quarter of the back was left to finish so he called it a day.

While Giran continued with his own activities, Ex was having a lovely time rambling about how to make flower dye to the knight sitting across from him on the floor.

“So basically, you just grind the petals up in the bowl here with a little bit of water. If you want darker colors, just add some squid ink. With lighter colors, you have to take some white dye and slowly add the other color because you can’t make light colors the other way around.” Ex thought for a second. “Kind of like paint!”

Hels hummed in response, continuing to pick and replace tulips while Ex continued to ramble.

“Hm, I should try painting. Maybe we should do that next time like finger painting. I think one of the Hermits figured out how to make canvases to paint on. Lots of wool involved since we can’t get cotton. Oh! Speaking of wool, I took up a knitting class a while ago. We can try that too and I can help you! I think you’ll look nice in a sweater. Anyways-“

The knight simply began tuning out Ex’s random thoughts, occasionally nodding or ‘mhm’-ing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the afternoon sun beginning to set, casting an orange glow in the greenhouse over the various flowers.

Had they really been there that long? That time span was quite a jump from how long their last hang out was. Without thinking, Hels yawned, catching Ex’s attention immediately.

“You tired? You can stop if you like, I have another batch I need to make so I can restock so I won’t be stopping for a little while.” Ex continued grinding at the petals while he spoke. Hels stopped his task with a grunt and leaned against the trap doors outside the flowerbeds, opting to just watch while Ex finished his work.

It was odd to see him with so much concentration given his general personality.

The sun lowered even more and a dim blue rested over the room. The soft grinding of the stone, occasional paper-like brush of the new flowers pulled away from their pile, and the crickets chirping outside brought on a serine night. Without thinking much about it, Hels closed his eyes. Though he didn’t intend to fall asleep, the knight rested further against the trap door, soon going more limp to indicate that he was now sleeping.

Well, a nap wouldn’t hurt.

Ex didn’t immediately notice while he was in the zone that Hels had even fallen asleep. Not until he grinded out the last few petals an hour later and dumped the remaining dye into a bucket that was placed between him and Hels. He stopped and gazed at the sleeping knight, only this time he didn’t see the peaceful expression Hels wore the day before. A frown spread across Hels’s face, almost as if he seemed sad.

A scowl, Ex could probably dismiss. But this didn’t sit right. Apologetically, he shook Hels’s shoulder.

“Hels...Hels wake up.” The action seemed to startle the knight out of his sleep. He jumped and sat up quickly, looking around frantically. That was until he rubbed at his eyes and sighed through his nose.

“I ‘m….I fell asleep,” he pointed out groggily.

Ex merely stared at him with a hint of worry. “You looked sad...And what was that? You nearly jumped out of your skin!”

Hels was still processing what the man was saying but managed to catch on to what he implied. “Nnn....Nightmare...I thiiink….” He yawned widely. “We done yet...? ‘M still tired.”

Ex chuckled at his quite drunken tiredness, thought the nightmare part was somewhat concerning. Again, like the day before, he wondered if Hels knew what he was even saying. Perhaps that was a habit of his that Ex seemed to discover. The knight looked around blankly, eyes stopping on a bundle of roses in the corner and making a face at it.

“What on Earth is that….” He then blinked a few times, eyes widening briefly. “Oh wait, still greenhouse. M’kay then.”

Without thinking, Ex began to laugh. “Hels, do you hear yourself?”

“Jus’ tired, we’re goin’ home now.”

“Alright then, I suppose I’ll just stock in the morning. We’re gonna go to my house then since you don’t have a place at the moment.” Giving him a hand, Ex lifted Hels from the floor. Now, the knight seemed a bit more awake at the sudden movement.

And became aware of the aching in his lower back and rear from his hour long position.

“Unfortunately, my place is quite a ways away so we’ll have to fly. Do you know how to use elytra? I have a couple in a chest near the door.” Hels nodded and the two each grabbed a pair.

Ex watched as Hels’s eyes widened in a sort of wonder at how the bug-like wings morphed into deep black and red bat-like wings. The knight looked back at him as if to say ‘Did you just see that?!’. The other grinned as his own set slowly changed into sharp dark grey feathered wings.

“Okay you’ve got to lend me one of these.”

“All yours! Just follow behind me. Shouldn’t be more than a five minute flight.” Hels nodded once more for the millionth time that day and the two hopped into the sky with rockets in hand.