Frostbite | Hermitcraft AU | (OLD)

Chapter 23

"What happened here??" Tango exclaimed, as they arrived at Impulse's temporary house. There were burn marks on the trees and the grass around it were scorched. 

"There's so much blood everywhere..." Mumbo pointed out, "That's never a good sign..." There was indeed a lot of blood, lots of light green mixed with dark green, with a hint of red as well. 

"The light green is Impulse's and the red is Grian's, I'm assuming," X said, "And the dark green is Cleo's..." 

"Guys?" Zedaph called, from the house, "There's something in here you might want to see..." He looked nervously back inside, as the others came over. X's stomach dropped as he saw the message on the wall and the bloodied wings on the ground.

"T-those are Grian's..." Mumbo whimpered, as he saw the torn lilac wings on the ground. 

"What does the message say?" Scar asked, as X stared at the Latin writing on the wall. 

"A vitae erat amissa, alio capta, sed non in eodem sensu," X read out, "A life was lost, another was taken, but not in the same sense..." He looked at the wing on the ground, then back at the wall. "It's written in red blood, meaning..." X was quiet, putting all the pieces together, then choked, "Impulse was caught. And Grian's dead." 

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"I don't understand you," Cat said, "How do you trust Kye, even though I told you not too??" Snowfall leaned against the cavern wall.

"Why shouldn't I? It's not like a fallen angel is any different than a demon," Snowfall said, "And besides, Ace is with her so she can't do anything against us." Cat groaned. 

"Do you know how small Ace's attention span is?? I don't think he would even care if they found Sharky!!" Snowfall snickered. Cat frowned. "What?" 

"SHARKY?! What type of name is that?!" Snowfall laughed as Cat rolled her eyes. 

"Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I can't believe you'd trust Kye with such as important task. First of all, HOW SHOULD A LITERAL 10 YEAR OLD KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS. And second, she's a fallen angel, and angels of any sort can't be trusted." Snowfall scoffed.

"First of all, I don't care that she's 10. It's experience. And second, I also don't care if she's a fallen angel, if she's a part of our group, then she can be trusted." Cat growled. 

"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you if she betrays us."

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"Y-you're trusting me with this??" False said in disbelief, as Hayden dropped the robotic animal in front of her. Hayden nodded. 

"It's shouldn't be that hard to control a protogen, right?" Hayden said, "It's just like a normal demon, but with some robotic parts." False looked back down at it, a hint of uncertainty in her eyes. 

"I mean, if you're sure," False mumbled, "I can try..." She looked nervously at Beef, who had already possessed his demon's body. He rubbed at his own snake-like tattoo, like what Iskall had, the symbol of the guard, and nodded reassuringly. False sighed, as the rest of them watched her enter the protogen. 

"𝚅𝙸𝚁𝚄𝚂 𝙳𝙴𝚃𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙴𝙳," it said suddenly, its face lighting up with a red exclamation mark, "𝙸𝙽𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙸-𝚅𝙸𝚁𝚄𝚂 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝚃𝙾𝙲𝙾𝙻𝚂. 𝙸𝙽𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚂𝙴𝙻𝙵-𝙳𝙴𝚂𝚃𝚁𝚄𝙲𝚃 𝙼𝙾𝙳𝙴 𝙸𝙽 𝟹, 𝟸-" it then went blank, confusing the others. 

"Uhh...what happened?" Hayden asked, tapping the black screen. She jumped as the screen turned back on, revealing two bright white eyes. 

"Did it work?" said False, the protogen's mouth in sync with her voice. 

"I think it actually worked!" Hayden exclaimed. False looked at her new body and sighed in relief. 

"Oh thank god it worked. I panicked when it was initiating self-destruct mode," She looked at the others as she stood up. "Since we all have our temporary bodies now, what's the plan?" 

"I guess it would be looking for Hypno and Xb," Iskall said, "But that's up to what Hayden thinks." They all looked at her, eager to see what she thought. She froze, clearly uncertain of what to do. 

"Uhh, yeah! I guess we should look for your friends first. We can figure out how to get Kye after we do that," Hayden said nervously. She looked at Ari, "We should probably get going, thanks for the help, Ari!" Ari blushed as Hayden hugged her tightly. 

"You're welcome and just be careful, okay?" Hayden nodded, as she let go of her. She smiled. 

"I love you, Ari." 

"I love you too."

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"Tango?" Xisuma popped his head into Tango's tent, as the rest of them set up a base for the night. The red-eyed male sat on the ground, staring at the floor beneath him. His knees were to his chest as he played with the tufts of grass. "Are you okay?"

Tango looked up, but was quiet. He then shook his head slightly, looking back down. X realized.

"It's about Impulse, isn't it?" Tango nodded, as X sat down beside him. "It's okay! Even though we can't bring Grian back, we can get Impulse! All we have to do is figure out a good strategy to rescue him." 

"That's not what I'm worried about," Tango choked, "What if Snowfall does the same thing to Impulse that he did with the others?! Like make him a literal demon?!" He looked at X, trying to push back the tears, "We don't even know if we can bring them back...from being a demon..." X paused, as he watched Tango bury his face in his knees. His face then lit up, as he got an idea. 

"Actually Tango, there might be a way..."