The Journey of the Divine

Chapter 19: Into the Nether

Aphmau's POV

Did I faint? No, I wouldn't be thinking straight like this if I did. I vison cleared and I looked around me. There was so much red..., oh no, we must be in the Nether. Beside me I saw Irene getting up from the ground.

"Irene! How did we get here?", I questioned, but I then saw shadow knights walking towards us talking. "Hide!", I began to try find cover but Irene stopped me.

"Don't worry, they can't see us. We're not really in the Nether, this is some-what like a vison. And they can't hurt or see us..., hopefully Shad can't either.", she mumbles the last part, but I still heard.

"W-what does that mean?", I asked her.

"This is his Dimension. When we banished him here he was able to manipulate it to his needs. So he may or may not know where here. So, since we already know that he obviously has it out for me mostly I'll look for him and if he can sense me I'll draw him away from you while you search for Laurance. And if he's in danger then we'll know where to find him.", she said and I nodded. We then both went our separate ways. Let's just hope she finds Shad and I don't.

I walked around the fortress looking for any sign of Laurance. You know the Nether can be really nice once you're not running for your life from Shadow Knights, Ghast and Blaze. I came to the dungeon looking at it to see if there was a clue. I came up to each cell look inside of them quickly, but when I came up to one I stopped. I saw a black-haired man who had his head down and was chained. He looked like he's been through a lot. His family and friends must be so worried about him. But I can't do anything about it now. Hopefully soon we can help him if he doesn't give in to them.

I ran to another cell just further down the hall in a separate room. I entered seeing that all the cells were empty. Shoot! Where could he be then? Just then a wave of darkness rushed over me and I blacked out for the second time today! I opened my eyes again to be in a black room and Laurance standing above me in his Shadow Knight form. I don't know how but, when I first saw Laurance in this form, yes it was scary at first but I knew that it was still Laurance and that his would never hurt anyone out of evil. He crouched down to me and held out his hand. I reluctantly took it because of the dreams I've been having.

"A-are you the real Laurance?", I asked before taking his hand.

He stayed silent for a while and then said, "I am if you want me to be.", his said in a flirtatious voice. This had to be him! I grabbed on to him hugging him while we got up, only he didn't hug back. I looked up at him and saw hurt and grief in his eyes.

"Laurance?", oh my Irene, please don't stab me again. I looked down getting ready to feel pain again.

He used his hand to bring my head up again gently, I saw his eyes become blue again, as if he knew that I was scared. He wrapped his other hand around my waist and brought his mouth to my ear, "Why Aphmau?", he whispered sending a chili down my spine.

I looked back at him and his eyes were red again. "W-w-what are you talking about?", I stuttered.

He let go of me and glared, "You and Aaron," I froze. He knew, "Why did you do it Aphmau?", he said again in a tender yet somehow menacing tone.

"...."

"Exactly, I didn't just nearly get killed TWICE for you so that you could break my heart, neither did Garroth.", he said still sending me chills.

"Laurance,", I said still partially holding on to him.

"DON'T 'LAURANCE' ME APHMAU!"

*Meep! * Laurance hardly ever shouts at me like that, "L-Laurance, r-relax, I know that you're shadow is just getting to you.", I said without thinking. I mean yeah, Garroth wasn't as loud with me as he was now so it must have been.

"Heh-heh, Aphmau, Aphmau," he said calming down a bit grabbing my arm tightly and a somewhat evil smirk came on his face, "This is just a side of me you haven't seen, this is the real me.", every word he spoke made me feel like crawling up in a ball and hiding in a hole.

I quickly put away that fear and looked him straight in the eyes and dragged my hand away from him, "NO! This isn't Laurance! You aren't him!"

He grabbed my arm again and threw me on the ground. "You're right Aphmau. I'm not the Laurance you knew and never loved. The thing is, if you can't love me at my worst you can't possibly love me at my best, and right now I'm at my very best.", he said pulling something from behind his back, it was a stuffed toy that I had given Levin when he was a baby.

"Why do you have that?", I asked, "you're n-not going to hurt Levin and Malachi are you?!"

He looked at me then the bunny and then me again, "If it hurt you then of course I will. Anything to see you suffer, just like I did." Then Levin and Malachi seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Although I could tell they weren't the real ones I still couldn't let him hurt them.

"You wouldn't!", I shouted.

"Just watch me", he said walking over to Levin first and pushing his sword into his side.

"AHH!", Levin screamed and fell.

I quickly ran on to him to heal him. Nothing worked. Laurance just watched my panic and cry over my son's body and grinned. Then we saw going over to Malachi to kill him, who was frozen, shocked at his brother's death.

"This isn't real. This isn't real.", I kept telling myself.

Then saw soon as I took my eyes off Laurance I hear a blood curling screaming from Malachi. I looked up and saw that Laurance had slashed at him and was now standing over his dead body.

"WHY! HE LOOKED UP TO YOU! YOU NEVER WANTED ANYTHING TO HAPPEN TO THEM!", I yelled at him.

His sword evaporated into the air and he walked back towards me. "GET AWAY!", I shouted backing away from him.

"What happened to you always going to be my friend no matter what happens? And being there for me no matter what? Well, as you can see no one is here for you, like how no one was here for me."

"STOP! STOP! DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! YOU AREN'T LAURANCE!"

"Well, then since I'm not the real Laurance then you obviously won't have a problem with this.", he drew his sword again and was about to slash at me when I was darkness again and woke up back in the Divine Dimension.