Parallels- an MCSM AU [COMPLETED]

THIRTY- ...I Will Raise Hell

warning: some detailed gore dead ahead

...haha, dead ahead...that was unintentional i swear-

anyways. i take my murders very seriously, so proceed with caution.

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The diamond sword was dragged roughly down, opening a horrible gory crevice along the left side of Jo's body. Her armour may have been named 'Swordbreaker', but it didn't seem to do any return damage to the heavily enchanted weapon, the crimson-stained tip of it visible all the way through her body from where it had been stabbed in.

The blade was yanked out with almost as much force, droplets of thick red liquid dripping off it as Essa lifted the sword and examined it.

Jo convulsed as she dropped to the ground, a small gasp accompanying the stream of red that trickled from her lips. A ghastly pool of blood began forming around her almost before she'd fully collapsed, leaking steadily from the terrible wound.

Her eyes focused on me for half a second, lit with horror and betrayal, before they stilled and clouded over forever.

A slight rumbling shook the ground beneath my feet, swiftly worsening into what felt like a full-blown earthquake. I stared around, wondering what was happening, before my eyes caught on the gate to Jo's timeline. The white smear in the air was shaking, something that I didn't really think was possible until I saw it for myself.

Then it exploded.

A blast of white light shot out of the gate, temporarily blinding me. The quaking of the ground intensified, so much that I could hardly stand. When I opened my eyes again, I saw that the gate was still emitting light, though now in tendrils instead of one big blast. The stems of white stretched out in all directions, like they were searching for something to grasp onto.

Two of them shot towards me, and though I tried to dodge out of the way, they grabbed ahold of my limbs and I screamed. Although I didn't exactly feel them, a sickening sort of pain had suddenly pierced my mind, making me almost dizzy with agony. It was a deep-rooted, nauseating ache, all laced with the ill feeling that something had just gone horribly, impossibly wrong.

I distantly heard Jacek and Julia's voices as well, but couldn't make out what they were saying through my haze of pain. More tendrils had sought me out now, and the dreadful feeling was only worsening.

Pure unfiltered pain, everywhere. It hurt worse than any injury I'd ever received in my life, even worse than when Mevia's axes had plunged into my chest in the Old Builders' games. At least then it had been a swift, sharp blow, and then I'd died. This time, it seemed neverending, the sick pulsing feeling only intensifying the agony wracking my body.

I managed to focus on the gate that had led to Jo's timeline, seeing that the bright glow it had previously held was gradually fading, being sucked away by the branches of light. As the last throes of light vanished, another brilliant flash lit up the In-Between, and I shut my eyes once more.

Images of memories blazed behind my eyes, though none of them were quite my own. It was all of Jo's life: the moment she met Reuben; her and Olivia building the treehouse as new spawns; she and Axel fighting off skeletons; her talking to Lukas at EnderCon; defeating the Witherstorm, running through the Portal Network with Ivor...every little bit of her hero's journey thus far, played out behind my eyes in extreme fast-forward.

Then, all of it vanished. The light, the anguish, the memories, everything. I dragged in a shaky breath and dared to open my eyes.

I'd somehow ended up on the ground, crouched on my hands and knees. To my right, Julia had collapsed all the way, looking almost like a second corpse before she slowly lifted her head and began to push herself to her feet.