𝐋𝐀𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄'𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋 || gameknight999

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

I SUGGEST THAT WE KEEP THIS INFORMAL

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Abidan had returned, escorting Angel, Malacoda, and Erebus back to the mountain where Angel had originally been held with Nigel and the wither skeletons. Angel was returned to her cage, which had since been repaired, and left alone with nothing but her thoughts. This was the last place she wanted to be, since she knew that her thoughts would not provide her any comfort in her distressed state.

Was she really as bad as Malacoda thought she was?

Of course she was bad. After what she had told him, of course she was bad. Even if Malacoda waited for the NPCs to defeat the Ender Dragon and unlock the Source, she had still told him valuable information that could have been used to defeat the heroes and get to the physical world. What's worse, she hadn't even done the same thing for the heroes when they had asked her for information. She was no better than Erebus or Malacoda.

The silence was deafening. Angel could clearly hear the intrusive thoughts echoing in her head, calling her a traitor, a villain, and everything else that she deserved to be called - she hated it.

She certainly would have preferred this silence over what followed it, however.

A high, drawn-out scream pierced through the silence, and Angel's heart in turn, distant enough to be faint but loud enough to bring her into a state of panic. No intelligible words were spoken, but the voice was all-too familiar to her.

"Erebus!" Angel shrieked, leaping up and grabbing at the bars of her cage, as if her fear could bring her the strength to break them herself. "No, fuck!"

Why hadn't she expected this? Malacoda hadn't specifically said that he would let Erebus go for good. He was still getting hurt, hurt because of her, because of her desperation to maintain her morality, and the sound of his screams and choked cries of pain made it very clear that whatever Malacoda was doing, it was bad.

It was her fault, her own fault, her own most grievous fault.

No God could substantially forgive her when she couldn't forgive herself. It didn't matter whether Erebus was a villain or not. He didn't deserve this, and Angel had brought it upon him simply by existing, simply by following along with a storyline she had no business intruding in.

It was far too familiar for her, the way her chest tightened, the way her breathing picked up as she started to hyperventilate, the way her whole body felt numb, weak, burdened by guilt and self-hatred to the point where she couldn't stand anymore. She didn't bother to resist as she fell to her knees against the bars of her cage, letting the awful panic wash over her like a tsunami, wave after wave crashing down on her until she was drowning, until she could barely breathe, until she could barely think about anything other than how terrifying Erebus's screams sounded in her mind.

Hands pressed over her ears as she curled up in the corner, drawing her knees to her chest and burying her face in them. She could never do anything right, could she? Leaving Erebus only led to him getting hurt, and her in turn as the guilt bore down on her. Abandoning Gameknight and the NPCs left them without a warrior, without a source of help, and tore the moralities from her body as she chose to help a villain.

There was no way she could appease both, there was no way for her to choose without being hurt. Right now, however, both sides of the equation were causing her an unbearable agony, something it had been so long since she had experienced and something she had prayed she wouldn't have to experience again.

It was just like back at home. The choice between what she knew was right and what she thought was right was one she had to decide long ago. And here it was again, being lived out in Minecraft, tearing away at Angel's sanity, rending the breath from her lungs and the strength from her body.