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"I gotta say buddy, you're doing pretty well for yourself in this server."
Rain had no idea what the stranger meant by 'server'. He and the Endstone Crusaders were on their way back to Frostbourne Castle when they ran into him. He was an odd fellow. He appeared completely normal at first glance, but if you paid attention, you would notice a strange oddity here and there.
He wore a dark green shirt with a black jacket, blue pants, and brown boots. A completely normal outfit if it weren't for gold elbow and knee guards and blue goggles on his forehead. Odd, but not strange. What was strange was that the man didn't seem to be affected by the cold of the Snowy Taiga. He complained about the cold briefly before seemingly forgetting about it the next.
They found him shouting to himself in the taiga, something about maps not filling in, which didn't make any sense. seemingly carrying no supplies. When he spotted them, ran over with seemingly no caution. Kane and Ciara immediately pulled out their weapons and that seemed to be enough to stop him.
He told them that he was looking for an old friend known as The FuriousDestroyer or PopularMMOs. Neither name rang any bells for them. It wasn't until the man pulled out a picture of a man wearing armour similar to the Grandmaster of the Frostbourne and referred to him as Pat did they understand who he was referring to.
Not wanting to leave this strange stranger to freeze to death, but also not wanting to bring a potential threat to their base, the Endstone Crusaders ordered him to hand over all of his weapons. The stranger, who introduced himself as Dan, complied and gave them a diamond sword, axe and a bow, all three bearings some form of enchantment. Stella identified it as very old magic that not even she fully understood.
When asked how he had gotten hold of such magic, Dan casually explained that he used an Enchantment Table, whatever that was.
When they returned to the castle, Dan was amazed and found entertainment in the most unlikely places, such as an Iron Golem with a machine gun. When they reached the Grandmaster's study, Lord Patrick was left speechless by Dan's presence. Which brought them to the here and now.
"Why are you here, Dan?" Lord Patrick questioned Dan. Dan's expression went from cheerful to solum.
"We got a problem. Bigger than any problem that any of us have ever faced before."
"I also have problems to deal with. In case you haven't realised it, we're at war with the Nether."
"Technoblade is dead."
Rain didn't know who Technoblade was, but from the way that Patrick's expression went from frustration to shock and grief, he assumed he was someone important. Dan also had his head down, sadness filling his being.
"How... that shouldn't be possible. Who did it?"
"A demon named Kindness. It's why I came here."
After a few seconds of merely staring at Daniel, seemingly silently begging him to take his words back, Patrick sighed before looking at Rain and the rest of the Endstone Crusaders.
"Leave us." He ordered in as much of a professional voice as he could. Ciara looked like she wanted to argue against this, but it took only one look from the Grandmaster to silence her. Before they could leave, Patrick ordered Stella to return Dan's weapons to him. She sighed in disappointment as she handed them over to him, but immediately returned to her cheerful state when Dan promised he would bring her some books about this old magic in the future.
When they were alone, Pat asked Dan, "How did it happen? I thought being the avatar of the Blood God made you practically immortal."
Dan nodded and answered, "It does, but not from a curse that slowly destroys you from the inside. When he realised what was happening, when we realised who was responsible, there was nothing we could do to save him."
Pat had never personally met Techno, but he heard stories of not only what a powerful warrior he was, but also of what of the kindness he held in his heart. How despite all of the pain and betrayal, the man was always willing to offer a helping hand to the innocent.
"Has the new avatar been chosen?"
Dan nodded and said, "It's Niki. She shut herself out for hours when the voices started and she realised what it meant. Phil and SB are currently training her,"
"Poor Girl."
Pat knew of the curse that came with being the Avatar of the Blood God, the voices of the previous avatars and acolytes would begin to speak to you, demanding blood for their god.
"Let's hope the voice of her friend is the loudest."
"Let's."
The two remained silent for some time, neither wanting to interrupt the morning silence for their fellow Youtuber. However, life goes on, and they couldn't wait forever.
"Let me guess, you want me to help you to kill Kindness."
Dan shook his head, he tried to laugh but it came out as a pained wheeze of breath.
"I wish. We don't understand what Kindness is yet. She is currently trapped in a netherite sword over in the Shady Oaks server. This is what makes her killing Techno so scary because he never even had access to the server. We used to think you needed to be close to Kindness for her to affect you, but if she can kill you from a different server... No, currently, we're all pooling our knowledge and experiences to form a containment unit for Kindness. It's our safest bet."
Pat didn't fail to notice the way Dan rubbed his right arm. The body part that became wrapped with nether fungus when under the control of Kindness. At least, from what he heard.
"Who else is taking part in this effort?"
"Pretty much all of us Ogs... some people from Empires... a few Hermits..."
"Anyone from the Dream Smp?"
At the mention of the server, something in Dan seemed to change. His posture straightened, his eyes grew, and his fingers dug into his trousers. Pat had seen reactions like this many times during the war. They never meant anything good
"Something happened..." Dan began, his voice shaking with... what? Pain? Fear? Guilt?
"A sort of reboot happened. I don't know all the details... I think it has something to do with nukes. The point is... Do you know how sometimes when we hop to a new server, some of our memories or personality may be blocked out to make the story more interesting?
Pat nodded. He hated this feature. Every Youtuber hated the feature. It was why Stampy rarely left his Lovely World. He didn't want to forget. None of them wanted to forget even a bit of who they are but had accepted it as the price for their gifts.
Dan continued, "When the reboot happened, everyone was still online, and I'm not sure what happened, but from what I've seen, they don't remember."
Pat's heart skipped a beat, but not in a good way. "What? What don't they remember." He asked in a whisper.
"They don't seem to remember anything. Their history, their relationships, and their status as Youtubers. All... gone. Tommy is friends with Dream of all people! The Syndicate were the only survivors. Kristin saved them by taking them to the End Dimension before dragging them to The Lobby. She's currently studying in whatever library the gods keep from us not only how to erase the amnesia on that server, but also Kindness."
"Anything useful?"
"Only that she is connected to that one demon from Empires."
Pat sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. This was so much to take in. Technoblade's death alone was enough to shock him, but with everything else going on and his own demons.
"I'm sorry, Dan. I would love to help, but I'm not sure how I could. Yes, I've killed monsters and demons from all over the place, but I never really took the time to study them. Besides, I've got a war to win, these people depend on me, and the Nether Horde is growing more powerful. Especially with their king back from the dead."
"Look, I understand if you're not ready to face your past. I understand, I really do. But if we don't stop Kindness, there won't be anyone left to face."
"This has nothing to do with... that. I've moved on. I have a girlfriend... she's a scientist you know. She has this amazing Wingsuit. Better than any Elytra out there. They need me here, and as I said, I wouldn't be much help to you."
"What if we helped you win the war?"
This statement took Pat by surprise. Dan was offering him help to end the war against Naeus and his Nether Horde. Did the other YouTubers know he was making such an offer? Was he always planning to offer a helping hand or did he just say it out of desperation? At the end of the day, did it even matter? Even if only a tiny percentage of the Youtubers came to help, it would increase the odds of victory in humanity's favour more than the Ender Watchers and maybe even their End Crystals.
"You help us contain Kindness, even if it's just providing us with some of the technology from this server, and we'll come back with the best PvPers and strongest magic users that we can."
A few hours later, Pat left his study, surprised to see the Endstone Crusaders waiting for him, even if they didn't have the patience to stay awake. Rain and Stella were leaning against each other next to his door, Ciara was sprawled in the middle of the hall and Kaine was asleep on a chair that he had taken from who knows where.
Pat sighed and reached into his inventory, something he hasn't done in front of others in years. From it, he pulled out a Seek goat horn. He took a deep breath and blew into it. The same trumpet sound used by the Pillagers came out. It was enough to startle the Endstone Crusaders awake. All of them jumped up, ready for action, with the Dragon Tamer almost losing his one good eye to one of Stella's horns.
"What's going on?! Why would you do that?!" Ciara questioned, pulling out her Ender Karambits. Pat never admitted it, but he had wanted to use them ever since he saw their teleportation abilities. Sure, his armour let him teleport short distances, but the Karambits were basically sharp Ender Pearls and looked awesome.
"We need to make some changes to our winning strategy," Pat explained.
"What do you mean? Where did Dan go?" Rain questioned.
"He's gone back to where he came from. I'll be following him soon, but I need to gather some items and talk to some people first. I won't be back for a while. I plan on leaving Hilda in charge until I return."
"What do you mean? Where are you going?" Kane questioned.
"Home. And when I return, I'll bring heroes not even Naeus could defeat."