Quest for the Emblems

Chapter 22

The wither flew up and fired its heads at the group, and they quickly dodged. "Don't let those things touch you, it will make your skin wither away!" George informed them, as they continued dodging the rain of attacks.

Karl fired an arrow, effectively damaging the creature. Sapnap, George, Eret, and Tubbo lent their support. The fight continued with the long range attacks dealing the damage, while the others kept it distracted.

Then Karl saw his arrows being absorbed into the wither's body. Their magic attacks also seemed to no longer be effective. Fundy called his wyvern and together they flew up to the wither. Fundy slashed at it as he passed by, and the wither let out a terrifying noise.

"Weapons still damage it!" He yelled, as the wither made its way closer to the party. The close combat fighters closed in for the attack as Fundy landed and rushed in to join them.

"No! Get away!" George yelled, the fighters turned their heads and looked at him in confusion. They didn't see the wither suddenly glow with a bluish light.

"Look out!" George yelled as the Wither was about to explode.

Thanks to the warning, Skeppy and Bad managed to avoid it completely, Dream was also able to grab onto Tommy and pull him away, but Fundy was frozen in place. He closed his eyes waiting for the blast only to be shielded by Wilbur, who was flung to the side and hit a wall of netherrack.

The close combat fighters were quick to charge in and attack, but Fundy couldn't tear his eyes away from Wilbur's body.

A word that Fundy thought he would never say again suddenly slipped passed his lips. "Dad..."

"Dad!" He yelled as he ran over, tripping on his feet on the way and tried to hold Wilbur.

He yelped in pain when he felt a burning sensation, and quickly drew his hands back. His fingers had turned black, but after a few seconds returned to their normal color. He glanced down at Wilbur, whose skin was slowly turning black and rotting away. Wilbur gritted his teeth, trying to 'pog' through the pain as Tommy would have termed it. He forced a smile when his eyes focused on Fundy's crying face.

"Niki!" Fundy yelled and the cleric was quickly at his side. Tears were falling from her eyes as well as she tried to heal Wilbur.

"You're so much like your mother," Wilbur suddenly said to Fundy with a small smile. Fundy wiped his tears, trying to focus on what Wilbur was saying.

"We were crazy and stupidly in love, we were much too young when we had you." Wilbur reached up with his unwithered hand to wipe Fundy's tears away. "But we knew that we could do anything as long as we were together." He continued before he placed his hand back down by his side.

Wilbur closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, clenching his fist in pain as the wither effect continued to rage his body. "You don't know this, but our village was attack one night by mobs. You were sleeping and I managed to get you out, but I lost your mother."

Fundy's eyes widen, he had always been curious on how his mother died. The only memory he had was suddenly waking up in his father's arms, and being dropped off at the orphanage. Wilbur telling him that his mom was dead, and that he would go find the person that did it.

"After defeating the sorcerer I asked Philza to look after you. I needed to earn money before I could take you in. Unfortunately I couldn't find a decent job, and ended up nearly starving to death." Wilbur then turned his head towards a tearful Niki. "but she saved me..." Wilbur continued, shooting his friend a grateful smile.

He then returned his gaze to Fundy, "She helped me get back on my feet, and soon we were gaining money through the guild. I told her about you and she encouraged me to get you back. You were already twelve by then," Wilbur paused for a moment to catch his breath as the pain seared through his body.

"Philza sent me a letter about a flying competition that you were participating in, and I went to pick you up. But when I saw you wearing fancy clothes that I could never buy you, living a life that I could never provide for you, I realized that you were probably going to live a better life with Philza than with me."

Fundy remembered that day, through the years he still held onto the hope that Wilbur would come for him. When Philza told him that Wilbur used to be a wyvern knight in training, he immediately wanted to be one too.

He trained hard so that he could master the skills, and show them off when Wilbur finally came. When he was 12 he entered the flying competition and won. He had seen Wilbur in the crowd as he was flying by, and went to look for him after he was given his prize. His hopes and happiness shattered when he saw Wilbur riding away from the castle, without ever speaking to him

When he learned about Wilbur's happy life, his admiration for his father suddenly turned to hate. Hatred for leaving him and going off to start a new life without him, but now all that hatred had disappeared and all that remained was love and guilt.

"I'm sorry Fundy," Wilbur's voice broke his thoughts. "I'm sorry for not being the father that you wanted."

Fundy shook his head and reached for Wilbur's hand. Ignoring the sting that surged through him, now that Wilbur's hand had been withered. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't know, forgive me for hating you." He sobbed.

"There's nothing to forgive," Wilbur said with a smile, then withdrew his hand from Fundy's so that he wouldn't get withered. He then turned his head to Niki who was crying as she continued to try and heal him. He could tell that she was getting tired but still she refused to stop.

"Niki it's okay, you don't need to push yourself to this extent, it isn't good for you." He told her gently.

Niki shook her head, "You guys finally made up, I'm not going to let you die now! I'm going to heal you, and we're going back home to L'manburg." She then lifted her head and smiled at Fundy, "Where you guys can become a family again."

Both Fundy and Wilbur smiled at her, "Family huh?" Wilbur said, his eyelids suddenly feeling heavy. "I kind of like the sound of that." Wilbur's body suddenly went limp and his eyes closed, as the wither effect now covered 90% of his body.

"Wil?" Niki called, her voice shaky.

"Dad?" Fundy tried shaking Wilbur gently, despite the sting he received from the wither effect.

Wilbur didn't respond, his face slowly turning pale before the wither effect slowly crawled over it. Behind them they could hear the wither screaming out its last before it exploded and dropped its core.

"DAD!"