Willow's book of random

The Silver Totem

"Mr Void?"

"Yeah Tommy?"

"Can you tell me about the War of the Silver Totem?"

Xisuma sighed, and looked at the young teen in front of him

"Of course. Follow me."

They walked to the back of the school, and Xisuma opened a random door that Tommy hadn't even seen before. Behind it was a staircase that circled down into the dark.

"Mr Void, where are we going?"

"Well, I figured the best way to tell you is to take you to the core of this whole war. I feel you're strong enough to understand it all, and to respect it. After you."

Tommy looked down, and quickly pushed back the fear that filled his mind. Step by step, they climbed down. The air got colder the lower they went. Soon, Tommy was shivering. And then, they reached the bottom.

"Hey Tommy, you all right?"

"Y-yes sir. I'm f-fine."

X took off his jacket

"Here, put this on."

"Th-thanks sir."

He quickly pulled on the jacket, and then they walked through the tunnel. All the time, Tommy was quiet. He was sure he could feel the presence of something in the tunnels. He had no idea what he felt, but it felt off. Soon, they reached a bunker door. X opened it, and they both stepped inside. Tommy couldn't help to stare. It felt so familiar. 

"Welcome Tommy, to the origin of the Silver Totem!"

He was at a loss for words. The place was huge, and every single wall was covered in photos and papers, excluding one. That one wall was empty, but Tommy couldn't see it clearly, so there could probably be something 

"I found one of our old albums. Honestly, I'm surprised it's still here, I thought Clay got rid of it all."

X walked up to one of the tables, placed down the book, and motioned to Tommy to join him. Once he got there, he opened the book, and started showing the images to Tommy. 

"So, I'm sure you know about the golden totem, also known as the totem of undying. It's a wonderful creation, with the ability to save someone from death itself. But, unfortunately, it only works once, and is destroyed on death. People always wanted to find a way to avoid death forever. So they created the Netherite totem."

"They whAT-"

"Yes, a netherite totem. In theory, it was the perfect item. It would not break at death, and it would be easy to create. And, for a while, it worked perfectly. Until it came into contact with lava and blew the whole first lab, killing everyone inside."

Xisuma went silent for a moment, looking at the death list

"My friend Generik was one of the people who died that night. I always warned him not to play with death, but," he chuckled sadly, "he never listened."

"Mr Void? Who is this?"

X looked at the image Tommy was pointing at

"That was Michael NotFound, George NotFound's grandfather. He was the head of the Netherite Totem experiment."

"Oh."

"Yeah. After that, there was a brief period of silence. Then, a part of the original group, the part that wasn't in the lab that day, came to me, telling me that they had found a possible solution: the Silver Totem. They said that, because the Netherite Totem contained no diamond, it was the reason it was so unstable. The Silver Totem, however, didn't have that flaw. They asked me to be the event recorder. I accepted."

"But sir, why did they try again? Didn't they already learn their lesson?"

"Unfortunately not. The members were quite prone to instability, which meant they did not think like us. But I let them do it anyway. That was my first mistake."

"First?"

"The first of many. Now, here's a photo of the team members. I think you might recognize them."

Tommy looked at the photo. There were only a few people in it, but all the faces, except one, were familiar to him."

"From left to right, we have Dream WasTaken, George NotFound, Sap Nap, Purpled Pearl, Techno Shard, Philza Minecraft and Fang Dean. Out of the 7 here, only five are still alive."

"Techno Shard? Is he-?"

"Techo's father. You know that Techno's uncomfortable with talking about his family, right? This is why."

"Oh. I didn't know."

"He was a good man, but unfortunately his actions hurt Techno himself a lot. Now, the creation of this totem took about a month, but eventually they managed to create it. And to test it, they all took turns killing each other, and be killed, only to be revived once more. They wanted me to test it out too, but I declined. I didn't trust the Totem at all. Then everything went wrong."

"What happened?"

"The totem worked as expected, but it also had a deadly side effect. Every time you were revived, the silver would corrupt your mind more, making you obsessive, violent and slowly destroying any remorse you might have."

"Is that how the war started, sir?"

"Yes. They all became obsessed with the totem, all of them wanting it as their own. A huge fight broke out, led by Techno Shard and Dream. It lasted for months, becoming more and more brutal by the day."

All the time, Xisuma was showing Tommy images from the battle: Burning cities, shattered swords, and many nameless dead.

"The war reached its end in this bunker. The two leaders were fighting in here. Eventually, Dream managed to pin Tech to the wall, and killed him. The blood stains are still there. At the same time, the Silver Totem shattered, and the curse was removed from everyone. The next day, all five of the living members asked me if I could make a new world for them, since they couldn't live in this realm anymore. That's where the Dream SMP started."

"What happened to Fang?"

"Well, after the birth of his son Faun Dean (aka Fundy), he disappeared. We later found him dead in a cave."

"Oh. How'd he die?"

"Too much corruption. He was the one who died the most with the totem."

"Mr Xisuma?"

"Yes Tommy?"

"Why did they go insane again? And why did they specifically have it out for me?"

"Well, my theory is that some of the silver was still caught in their minds, and eventually led them back to insanity. As for why they only attacked you? Well, that is a mystery no one has solved yet."

They sat there in silence, Tommy absorbing all the info he's been given. Suddenly, the lights started flickering, and the air gained an unnatural chill

"Sir? What's happening?"

"Well, they always say ol' Shard never truly left. If that's true, we might have a bit of a problem?"

"Sir?"

And then, all the lights went out. Everything was quiet