Sam sighed as Gilded Clover, who claimed to descend from some cousin of Clover the clever, another pony he had no idea who they were, started another long story about her personal life. He looked out the window at the fake grass that littered the lawn. It had been an entire month since Silphen and Sam had fought, and really, not much had happened. He was much too busy playing catch up with Equestrian policy and laws, and his rhetoric was fine, thank you very much Silphen.

Celestia still hadn’t announced their engagement, or the fact she was pregnant. She couldn’t keep hiding it forever though, while Ponyville knew the truth due to one pink mare, and news did travel slowly in Equestria, already the Canterlot rumor mill was running around the idea. It was partially why he was here, at the gentlestallions club with Silphen, who was off doing who knows what. The fact that Celestia was starting to form her baby bump didn’t help matters.

"...and then I received a message to come here and speak with you, saying, 'Fuego demands payment'! Crazy, yes?" Gilded said with a chuckle as he finished his story.

“... Right, riveting story Gilded..” He half heartedly applauded with the rest of the hoofstamps from the surrounding nobles. He really didn’t know why he agreed to these invitations. Wait, he did, it was the publicity. The more he was seen hanging out with affluential ponies, the better his engagement reveal would be.

"So, Sam, was it? What was your story anyway?" One of the older stallions asked him.

“Prince Sam, I understand how you ponies like to use titles. Well, my kind are travelers, hopping from place to place, usually fighting for our right to build wonders more marvelous than your fair city.” He said, waving his hand to emphasise his meaning.

Several of the patrons chuckled nervously and shifted in their seats at the declaration he was a royal. "Indeed? And what makes your lot different from a tyrant like the Mad Mage himself?" The stallion asked, clearly unbothered by the title. "After all, you did take in that dark mage that appeared a month or so ago."

“I will presume this mad mage is a terrible pony who has done some awful stuff. And I’ll say nothing. In fact, giving you empty assurances that my kind is superior to yours would be like you telling me that if I desperately needed it, you would transfer your entire net worth to me. Nopony will believe you. The dark mage that appeared, I assure you, truly wished he was dead after he entered my castle.” Although he didn’t add on the fact that it was Silphen’s alter ego that had caused him that pain. Apparently, when you shove fundamental rules of complex magical interaction out the window, old geezers get crotchety.

The stallion chuckled as he leaned back. "Wise. And yes, the Mad Mage was Celestia's old lover. He was a conqueror and a dark mage of the highest caliber yet recorded. It's only thanks to Princess Luna," he tapped his pendant bearing a crescent moon as he said this. "That her sister even bothered to see his corruption and put an end to him."

“Why, “ he searched his memory for the stallion’s name. “Shining Bit, I’d almost think you believe the wild rumors going about Celestia's pregnancy with talk of long dead lovers like this.”

Bit smirked devilishly. "An old colleague of mine works for her. Says she's been pacing her room in the evening muttering your name and the words 'engagement' like a mare possessed. So unless it is her sister, her married niece, or her student, all of whom are quite clear on their preferences, I would be hard pressed not to believe them."

“I do not believe I have found any reference to Celestia’s sister’s preference in the archives except for a reference to an old poem in which she declares herself lost in a sea of ponies.” He sighed, downing his entire glass. Pony liquor was strong, but apparently the immortal body of a Minecraftian makes alcohol balk at it. “Suppose the length of her delay has truly made it difficult to suppress. And to be honest, subterfuge is never my style. Yes, me and Celestia are engaged. She seems to be fretting about a new topic every day to delay the announcement. Just a week ago, she worried about the power shift of her and I being named a queen and king, but as far as I can tell, the titles are nominal only!”

The rest of the stallions looked at him in shock. And Shining Bit's cigar fell from his mouth as he heard what Sam said. "You… You truly are-"

Suddenly a flash of light appeared from behind Sam, causing the stallion's eyes to cloud over and turn blank as Silphen said, "Sam, try to keep from breaking these ones. It was hard enough containing her nightly visits to your castle for the past month. Also doesn't help that the titles 'King' and 'Quuen' here are the equivalent of Slave Owner back home."

“Oh you know she’s just making excuses at this point, besides, if the title is so bad, why is there even that provision in Equestria’s laws! And don’t tell me because it’s never come up, obviously something had to have come up to have the law so specific. ‘When a princess of Equestria marries a prince, they rise to the nominal title of king and queen!’ Seriously! I don’t understand pony royalty!” He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, much to the amusement of Silphen. Who simply sniffed with a smirk and pointed upward, silently telling him who to complain to about how weird it was.

"You know what I'm about to say…" he said with a faint bit of mirth in his voice.

“And you know I’ve already taken that advice and was summarily shot down. But I’m serious, rumors in Equestria move by word of mouth, so they’re incredibly slow, but even Canterlot is starting to believe that Celestia is having the child of a dark mage, and that he’ll be the bringer of the twelfth apocalypse, whatever that means.” Sam said, purposefully using one of the more outlandish rumors spreading around.

Silphen shrugged, stepping around to put the cigar back in Shining Bit's mouth before stepping back behind Sam and dropping the MIB flash, as he called it, the stallions returning to laughing as if Sam had just told a joke. "Sir, it's time for us to return to your castle. That project should be finished by now." He said, using the words Ashton told him to say. Between himself and the true Archmage, the other guy was the better and being formal and still telling someone to go fuck themselves.

"Ah, a shame then. Perhaps next time you can stay longer, Sa- Prince," Gilded said, looking around the circle of seats pointedly, "Sam. Truly was riveting hearing the story of your people. Minecraftian was it?"

“Yes, apologies for my brevity, but this project is truly an important one.” He said as he got up and walked out of the club with Silphen.

"Sorry about pulling you out sooner than normal, but part of the reason I came back was that Silver Lining finally woke up from her cleansing ritual. Turns out that your Lineage, summarily called Dawnwatcher's, lose their resistance to the sun the more blood they drink in return for not truly having an upper limit to their strength. And it looks like the higher their Vampony tier, level in your case, the longer they're out cold when they get cleansed. So I'd recommend either staying as a Vamp, or getting cleansed yourself soon," Silphen explained, holding out a scroll with a wax starburst and a small bit of green fire burning eternally on the ribbon. Twilight had devised the method of the enchanted ribbon to always have a bit of Spike's message fires so she could send messages to him and Sam in secret without alerting Celestia.

To both of their surprises, Twilight was studying dark magic herself in secret. Ashton suspected she was teleporting herself and those she took to a pocket dimension to avoid tainting her soul since she always came back just as pure as before.

"And what's the other part?" Sam asked.

"The other part is that she apparently had a choice to return to being a pony or stay as a Dawnwatcher Lineage. She chose to stay as a Dawnwatcher," he said with a sigh, still holding out the scroll.

"Of course she did…" he muttered as he took the scroll, obviously, Silphen hadn't read it, or he was being seriously cautious about prying ears. He opened it up and read it.

"Well, I can already see some differences." He started as he looked at the red six above his hotbar. It took a monumental amount of blood, or just a higher quality, to actually increase. And he couldn't exactly go around draining each pony he met, and the monsters of the Everfree were getting wise to the signs of his passing, few that he left. "For one, she describes that all of her upgrades are instinctual, and that a weakness to fire is still present."

"The part that worries me most is the voice she said she heard that she said, in her own words, felt angelic. If that's true then we might have a third Displaced locked away somewhere watching your progress." Silphen said, pointing to a part that was talking about cake and Discord. "And then the fact she turned golden for a few moments before she woke up again."

"Feeling angelic, and being so are two different things. Hell, you have no idea how I do half the shit I do, for all we know, I'm some sort of prison for an ancient evil, and the moment I truly die, we get the second coming of herobrine." He closed the scroll, already having read through it.

"Sweet Artemis, I hope not… You're bad eno- what?" Silphen stopped, turning his head to the side, the unspoken sign he was talking to his other half. "Yes, I know you could kill Sam… No, you can't fight him again!... Why? How about the fact that I like breathing."

"Assuming he's talking about killing me, I know you've told me a little about your magics that affect souls and all… but he is aware my entire thing about an immortal soul is bullshit, right? For all we know, you try and destroy my soul, I respawn."

"And not only that, but I know those spells wouldn't work on you right now because the wound transfer spell didn't work when we fought the first time. Works on a similar principle to Soul magic… What do you mean mist could help!?... Oh, M157… Right, right… Yeah, that might work… But he'd have to accept a handicap. And if he really will spawn Herobrine…? Well, just take a look at the memories of the lore he has." Silphen said before turning back to Sam. "Sorry about all that. Seems he's underestimating the sheer force of power Herobrine holds if he has unfettered control over the modpack you got Displaced with…"

"He's an old man, he probably doesn't understand the words 'more powerful than literal gods'... Speaking of gods… Celestia is wanting to have a treaty signing officially announcing 'Minecraftians.'" Sam made air quotes. "I'm thinking of announcing our engagement afterwards, regardless of what she says."

"She'll likely be too embarrassed to shoot you. Or take her public image into account and break her bed with you. Again." Silphen said coyly, chuckling as Sam punched his arm. There were days he was glad he had turned his fur into something vaguely resembling leather armor now…

"I'm serious Silphen…" he said heavily after he stopped chuckling "Her pregnancy is getting noticeable now. And she's not that sneaky, regardless of what she thinks. The nobles are catching on… and not in a good way. I know you don't much care for noble gossip, but many of them are hoping that Celestia and Luna will one day retire."

"Shit… That means assholes like Blueballs would get put on the throne instead of someone who knows what the fuck they're doing… Yeah, it might be best to do that, consequences be damned," Silphen sighed. "At least she can't stay mad at you. Still blames me for the village wall… Man, how the hell was I supposed to know it wouldn't warp the wood? Only thing I could understand from it, and Ashton whispering in my head at the time now that I think about it, was that it would help me get out. Wasn't expecting it to call down a lightning bolt…"

"Even worse, some of them have their sights set on Twilight." He said, letting the implications go unworded. "She's still blaming you for a lot of things… half of them entirely unrelated, like her cake material shortage."."

"Alright, that one was Jade. She does know that, right?" Silphen asked, stepping onto the teleportation pad he and Twilight had set up a couple weeks ago.

"If she does, I haven't told her… I'm using it as an excuse to cut down on her sugar intake." He said, stepping up after him.

"You're evil." Silphen said, trying his best not to smile and laugh. "Now, what should we do about the rumors of the heart in the middle of the forest? That book was oddly vague…"

"Well, first we need a map of to Everfree to even know where that is… any idea where one is mr. 'We're in a cartoon'?" Sam couldn't entirely believe that, as everything looked real to him., and he really only had one sample size.

Silphen groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He'd been trying to tell Sam where they were, but he didn't seem to want to believe him. Or was just unable to do to how real everything looked. "My best guess would be to ask Night Mother, but… Er, Luna. Stop fucking doing that, Ashton."

"Seriously? Equestria has been a power on the world map for a thousand years, and existed even before that, and nobody has decided to try to live there, let alone explore it?" Sam asked incredulously.

"To be fair, it started off as a grove and just kinda kept expanding. The Castle of the Twin Sisters used to be in a city," Silphen explained.

"Right… well, back on the- hold on a minute. The tribal pony." Sam began turning back before stopping, remembering his first encounter with ponykind.

"Tribal pony…? Uh… The only creature that can talk that should be here is Zecora, a Zebra alchemist and herbalist that rhymes all the damn time and never speaks in direct answers." Silphen said, following after him, before pausing as he saw three very distinct shadows on the ground.

"That was not a zebra. Those stripes didn't even meet!" Sam sighed. "Your turn or mine?"

"Think it was yours." Silphen replied as he took a step back just as three fillies leapt down.

"CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS BOUNTY HUNTERS, YAY!" They shouted all wielding custom made weapons. Applebloom had a set of retractable hoof blades resembling katar on her forelegs. Sweetie Belle, the only one that could be an actual threat even now, was using blunted chakram. And Scootaloo had somehow turned the wing extensions Silphen and Sam had suggested she make into buzzsaws… Luckily they were all hastily made and of very poor quality so even if the other two got lucky, they wouldn't be able to do much more than bruise.

Sam sighed as he took out his shovel, the diamond head glowing. The trio smiled up at him in excitement.

Sweetie Belle lead the charge by throwing her chakram at Sam's shovel, intent on keeping him from swinging at her friends with it. Applebloom and Scootaloo charged in to close the distance, the latter keeping her wings safely held to her sides to avoid hitting Bloom.

Sam parried the chakram, at the end of his single motion hitting the dirt beside Applebloom’s hooves. The filly was surprised when instead of just digging into the dirt, an entire meter square underneath her was suddenly gone, causing her to trip and hit the soft path muzzle first.

Scootaloo looked over, distracted by Applebloom falling over… And suddenly had the chakram smack her in the face and made her fall down in return. Sweetie Belle winced as she pulled her weapon back, glad she brought the blunted one now instead of her actual weapon… "Silphen would have been so mad…" she whispered as she faced Sam alone. Again.

"So… We lose?" She asked, still spinning the disk in her telekinetic grasp, waiting for him to come closer. He sighed as he placed the block of dirt in front of her, the square block came up to the tip of her horn, blocking her vision. He stepped forward and hit the ground underneath her causing her to fall in a similar hole to Applebloom. Sweetie Belle squeaked in surprise as her concentration was shattered, making her drop the practice weapon.

“Yes, next time, make sure your shadows don’t land in front of us.” He said, genuinely feeling bad for the fillies. These fights were just never fair.

"That's not fair!" Scootaloo shouted, being the first to recover. "If Sweetie Belle's frisbee-"

"Chakram." Applebloom corrected from her hole, too ashamed to bother getting out.

"Whatever! If it hadn't hit me in the face I could have distracted you so Sweetie Belle could touch you with it!" Scootaloo kept on, clearly bitter that they had lost to such a clumsy mistake.

"And how well do you think you could have done that, Scoots? Your buzzsaw wings, were they actually bladed, would be a thing to fear… But you barely know how to use them." Silphen said from a nearby tree limb, watching the show from up high.

“Also, never assume what your opponent will do. For example,” Sam said as he hit his jugular with his shovel, smirking as the fillies flinched, and not even a white line was left on his skin after he removed it. His sixteen and a half hearts went down by half a heart in the demonstration.

"Sam and I are basically unkillable as you three are right now. I'd suggest getting actual weapons and fighting Timberwolf pups, but that might not end too well. Sweetie Belle, what did you do wrong?"

"I didn't curve the chakram when pulling it back to me…" she replied solemnly.

Silphen looked down at the glaring Scootaloo, who would occasionally glance at the base of the tree he was in. "Scoots?"

She sighed before sitting down and looking away as she answered, "I was distracted when Sam broke the dirt under Applebloom and didn't see Sweetie Belle's frisbee-"

"Chakram." The other two fillies corrected her.

"Frisbee. I didn't see it coming at me." She said leveling a silent glare that promised tickles unending.

"Bloom, I don't think I can-"

"I kept running rather than jumping over the hole," the last filly said from her hole, finally starting to climb out with the help of Sweetie Belle.

“I’d like to see how you can jump mid air with no magic. Regardless, Silphen, this has been enough of a distraction, heal their bruises and let’s get going.” Sam said, his shovel nowhere to be seen.

"Yessir." Silphen said, leaping out of the tree and floating down. He first placed a hand on Applebloom, who had a little bit of road rash from her grinding halt in her hole. Next was Scootaloo who was trying to keep her slowly forming black eye as a trophy to show off to Rainbow Dash, but was distracted by one hand while the other darted in and healed the little pegasus, much to her dismay. Sweetie Belle accepted her check up, and Silphen turned to Sam and shrugged, not having found anything that needed to be healed since she fell a short distance straight down onto her hooves. "Done. Off to Zecora the zebra's house?"

“Still refuse to call that thing a zebra. But yeah.” Sam said, waiting for Silphen to lead the way.

"Well too bad. She's a zebra." Silphen said as he quickly began heading out for the herbalist's tree hut thing that she lived in. "Besides, they don't have lions to contend with here, so the stripes aren't for protection!"

“First of all, that protection thing isn’t confirmed, pretty sure.” He countered, walking behind Silphen.

"It makes the lions see a shifting mass of black and white and scares them off, so it is protection." Silphen argued.

“Still think that’s bullshit, a lion wouldn’t be scared by colors.”

"Scares off plague flies, scares off lions. Logic checks out." Silphen shot back with a shit eating grin.

“Now I know you’re making it up, and you just claimed lions are as dumb as insects.” Sam shook his head.

"No, it's true! They sedated a fly, and placed it in a container over some zebra print. When it woke up it began trying to escape, refusing to land on the print. When they slid it off so it could 'land' on a solid white area, it seemed to calm down and land for a few seconds before flying again!"

“Still doesn’t explain how lions would be afraid of it. Again, flies are way different than lions.” Sam said, trying to get back to the main argument.

"It's because they're scared off by other animals bigger than them. They wouldn't be able to see where one zebra ends and the next one begins. Therefore, while they would rush at the herd, it's more to see if it is one massive animal, or if it's a large animal protecting a whole bunch of smaller prey! They're scared off by it!"

“Both of you are wrong. My stripes a sign I don’t belong.” The deep rhyming accent caught both of them off guard. Looking over, the Zebra in question was standing there, saddle packs over her withers as she stared at the two.

"Hey, Zecora. A pleasure to finally meet you. Mind elaborating what you mean by that? Because we were talking zebra's from a different world." Silphen said, explaining what the argument was over.

“My stripes are painted on. A sign my home I may never tread upon.” She answered. “A different world you say? What does this fiction portray?”

“Ixnay on the displaced ey, Celestia’s really the only one who knows we come from another world, and even then, we start talking about other worlds, the ponies are going to start invading other realities like a cute warhammer 40k.” Sam whispered to Silphen, making him sputter to keep from laughing.

"Discord would approve. And besides, she's technically a resident of your domain now, so…"

“Your words I can hear, but their meaning still isn’t clear.” Zecora spoke up, causing Sam to jump.

“Right… Minecraftians,” Sam said, pointing at the two of them. “Go from world to world building wonders and sometimes civilizations.”

“Seems like an exciting life, but one filled with strife. Was there a reason you were coming this way? Or is your sense of direction in disarray?”

"Actually we were coming to try and find you. Do you think you could make us a map of the Everfree? Or know someone that could?" Silphen asked, his tone turning serious now that they were getting to business again.

“A map you need, a reason why before we proceed.” The rhyming Zebra intoned.

“The heart of the forest. I need to get some materials from there.” Sam explained. Of course, he wasn’t about to say that the materials he needed were undead souls, as he couldn’t do much against magic users without it. Plus, he hoped to make the nether portal there, so that if anything came out of it, it had a horde of undead to go through before it then had to go through the forest full of monsters.

“A place of dread you seek. I fear if I give you directions, your outcome will be bleak.”

"I have my spells to deal with them. Both light and dark. So they won't be a problem for me. And Sam here is a beast with a blade, so they won't even be able to touch him unless he wants them to." Silphen explained, showing her what he meant by creating a shadow skeleton and then blasting it away with holy energies.

“You forget that I’m also undead. Just cause I no longer have the nasty fangs and red eyes, doesn’t mean my heart is still beating. As far as I know, the undead don’t really attack the undead.” Sam said.

“I doubt you will be persuaded otherwise.” The zebra mare sighed. “But if you went without my help and died, my own values I would have to analyse.”

The mare turned and started trotting back the way she came. Both Sam and Silphen ignored the fact that due to how her tail was positioned, that when she turned they saw under it. Soon they came up to a shamanistic looking tree with a door put at the base. Zecora pushed the door open, looking back for them to walk inside.

As they did so, The place smelled of something pungent, The first room was pretty bare, the only space taken up was the walls, filled with masks and baubles. Two rooms could be seen through carved doorways, the first one containing a bed with some sort of spotted leather blanket? The second had shelves filled with potion bottles, or at least they assumed so. The center of that room was filled with a fireplace lined with dirt and stone, a large cauldron half the size of Zecora sat above it.

"Have you been there yourself, Zecora? Or was it just too dangerous, even for you?" Silphen asked, genuinely curious. He knew she could survive the occasional manticore, but a horde of undead? Different story.

“Of course I haven’t set hoof in such an evil place, Mad you’d have to be, expecting the grove to show any grace. Warning signs I spotted though, there the timberwolves do overflow.” She spoke as she looked throughout the tree for the map. Sam saw her open up a box with some sort of necklace with a red ruby stylized with wings and a horse head with a horn before closing it and tossing it into a corner.

“What was that?” he asked curiously, alicorns, as Silphen had told him what ponies with wings and horns were called, were apparently a really big symbolism thing, and never lightly used. Kinda like stylizing something in the shape of a deity.

“An evil object that grants you power, wear it too long, and your goodness it will devour.” She said, not even looking back. Sam was really curious, but thought that it could wait until they got back to ask more about it. Since he had woken up here, he found that things that tried to affect him merely became debuffs, as a quite unsuccessful mind control attempt by Silphen, on Sam’s request, showed.

"The Alicorn Amulet," Silphen said, making an effort to avoid snatching it. "Will take as much as you get. It's a very nasty thing. Not surprised it's here as well… Think of it like the Carnage symbiote from that one world."

“So mind control? Also Carnage?” Sam asked, confused. Silphen’s response was interrupted as with an “ah.” Zecora produced a piece of parchment in her mouth. She came on over and Sam took it, looking at the crudely drawn map. It outlined the forest, with markers like her hut, the castle, and even ponyville. Several other places were also marked with what he guessed were names of herbs. Apparently the swamp, simply named bogg, took up half the forest, and the danger zone, listed as Heart of the forest, was literally north of the bogg. Off the trail to the castle by what he estimated to be a mile. He’s literally run over the top of it before.

“That’s… surprisingly close to the path… I thought you said Timberwolves swarmed the place? How come travel- wait, don’t answer that.” He stopped himself, remembering that nobody actually visited his castle, and all the timberwolves were now too scared of him to actually accost him.

“Well, with this we now know where we’re going. It’s pretty easy to get to, hell, I’ve ran over the top of it before.” He said as he turned towards Silphen, who was smiling faintly and shaking his head.

"Only you would think running over the area is normal. Whatever, let's get going. Thank you, Zecora. We'll come back to seal that artefact in a proper vault at a later date, alright?" He said to the zebra, jerking his head towards the chest with the amulet still inside.

“I assure you, the amulet is perfectly safe with me, it is your own safety that I cannot guarantee.” The zebra mare said, beginning to put things back. The two left, as they only had to cross a small stretch of the forest before reaching the path to the castle. An hour on that and they turned right into the underbrush. The forest here was more wild than that of the path, as plant’s competed with each other for the small bits of sunlight that came through the canopy like snakes intertwining.

At several points they had seen a few timberwolves, but they had growled and backed off on seeing Sam. While they were in this forest they couldn’t be killed, but Sam had gotten very good at one shotting them before they could even get close to hurting him. The Underbrush eventually thinned, before disappearing entirely, the area being drowned in pitch blackness, and the trees became gnarled and twisted as they reached for the canopy, competing with each other for all the sunlight they could get.

“Think this is it?” Sam whispered. The entire area was silent, even the sound of wind through the leaves was absent.

Silphen grunted, eyeing one of the trees warily. He didn't like this place, and his every instinct was telling him that he was surrounded. As both light and sound had gone, so too had scent. He couldn't even smell Sam who was right in front of him. "It's quiet… and scentless… Everything is screaming that we're surrounded…" Silphen whispered back.

“Pretty sure that’s…” He trailed off as decayed heads popped out from behind trees. Each of them in different stages of decay. What they did have in common though was that they were all equine heads. All of them were paying attention to Silphen, silently watching, waiting.

"Fuck…" Silphen said, conjuring a bolt of shadow magic. "Fire…?"

“Remember not to kill them all, we’ve got to get their souls, otherwise I can’t build my hexblade armor.” Sam said, already placing down a stone brazier.

"Right…" Silphen said, duplicating the bolt of magic repeatedly and starting to fire into the crowd, aiming at their limbs to disable them.

Sam quickly placed the two pedestals, looking like open, outstretched hands, he needed for this ritual down. Placing a pile of bonemeal, grinded from the bones of monsters he’s slayed, into the unlit brazier. He looked over as the undead were advancing entirely on Silphen. And with the ritual being here, he couldn’t use any aoe spells.

Silphen huffed as he doubled the output, using both hands to direct the volleys in two separate directions. Turning back to the ritual, Sam placed a pile of redstone each on the braziers. Afterward he took out his Flint and Steel, with a single crack as he smacked them together, the brazier lit up. First devouring the bonemeal as white sparks flew off of a floating symbol that looked like a skull. The first redstone was consumed as he looked back at Silphen. Hoping desperately for the ritual to hurry up.

12…

He growled as a faint purple mist began to flow from the corners of his eyes. He was starting to get pissed with how many undead there were. He kept on the move, always aiming at the legs and kneecaps, always aiming to disable…

Sam’s eyes widened as he thought the undead that had appeared were going to be it, only a few forty or so, but when he saw streams of them coming from the darkness of the trees that even his night vision was having trouble penetrating… They stepped over the bodies of their dismembered fellows like they were large rocks.

As one side of the encirclement came close to the ritual, he slashed out with his sword, the magic infused blow decimating twelve of them, only for more to take their place.

11…

Silphen's eyes narrowed as he dodged an arrow shot from behind him. He glanced back and saw that one of the undead was riddled with arrows and was wielding a bow coated in an oozing black aura of magic as it pulled another arrow out of itself to launch. He didn't let it and sent a single arrow of fire back, piercing it's head and exploding it.

Sam was starting to worry as he raised a wall to slow down the undead’s advance on one side, turning around and slashing at a zombpony he swore was basically a skeleton at that point behind Silphen. It was a waste of his extremely limited mana, but so was Silphen being temporarily taken out of the fight. He swore as he realized a lot of the undead were going for the ritual instead of Silphen, and the ritual hadn't even consumed the second pile of redstone yet.

10…

Silphen growled as he noticed it as well, stomping to forcefully drag the undead away using earth magic to pull the ground back. He howled in pain as one of them made it to him, jumping up and biting his shoulder.

Sam grit his teeth, what he said to Zecora was true, the undead really were ignoring him, as he wasn’t part of the living. He needed something to hit a lot of them. He looked at hotbar, spellbook, sword, pickaxe, orangish red feather, shov- wait. The hotbar slot that he usually kept empty was filled with a pixelated orange and red feather, hovering over, the item appeared in his hand, it was really a feather. He saw the name of the item, Displaced_Token_Vargas, at the same time he heard the message.

”To those without hope, and any who seek true challenge, summon forth the Hero of Flame, Vargas! I shall burn away all your problems, all for the simple request of a duel thereafter!”

This was just like his and Silphen’s. He looked around, already the undead had climbed up over, through, and around his wall, being undeterred by mortal limits. Silphen was practically being overwhelmed. He said fuck it.

“Yo Vargas, I summon thee… Quickly!”

9…

The feather was tossed out of his hand by some kind of wind, flames blazing out of it as it flew through the air in front of him. It reached a point a few feet above Sam’s head, before the inferno expanded outward, fire coiling unnaturally to form some kind of gateway between him and the zombponies shambling closer. The gates swung open silently, and with a rather loud battlecry, a red-headed human flew out, a flaming greatsword swinging out ahead of him, decapitating several of the decaying monsters in one swing.

With what little light the gateway brought, the two could make out that the newcomer bore steel armor decorated with orange flame patterns, with a red vest tucked underneath the breastplate and his single shoulder guard. He carried his greatsword effortlessly with one arm, gloved hand tight around the grip.

“Huh? Where the heck is this?” The man said, his red eyes looking around in curiosity as the gateway faded away, leaving only a smoldering feather to float gently to the ground.

"Shut up and thin the horde! There's too many for us to be picky now!" Silphen shouted, as he switched tactics and began firing blindly into the horde, killing some and injuring many, choosing to ignore his wound for the moment. There were too many around him for him to take even a second to heal himself.

“We just have to last until the ritual is finished! Then we can make a break for it!” He yelled. His own Mangled Mana key-like energy sword blasting a group of undead to pieces, while his other hand grabbed a zombie and threw it into its fellows. Buying some precious seconds.

8…

“Heh, well all right then!” Vargas nodded, and he swung his blade to the side, the flames licking across it suddenly blazing more intensely. “I’ll burn them all away!” He rushed forward, his greatsword leaving a blazing trail behind it as the zombpones were cut apart like foul-smelling onions, flames leaping from one body to the next as his crimson cape flowed behind him. He laughed as he leapt past one trying to swing at him, leather boots slamming against a tree as he launched himself back into the horde.

His blade came down like a blazing meteor, cutting clean through one unfortunate zombpone and sending flames rushing around the impact zone, catching at least a dozen of the shambling corpses aflame.

Sam wasted no breath in communicating anymore, his mana bar was already down to less than half. A swing that brought only a few zombponies around Silphen to dust brought that amount lower. He took out his shovel in his other hand, hitting the earth underneath a few of them, with the sound of rotten flesh meeting hard earth, two dozen foes were sufficiently trapped in a several meter square hole.

Silphen himself had given up trying to shoot the horde, and donned his armor from when Sam and he had fought the first time, shield and all. He swung, cutting down several zombponies that turned into undead ice golems. He then roared in defiance and the golems he now controlled roared in unison. He refused to die here. Fuego was still out there. So he started slashing and bashing.

7…

The flaming greatsword burned even brighter as it ripped through the skulls of another dozen zombpones, Vargas grinning ear to ear as he let the momentum of his blade carry him, spinning around almost like a top and ripping through as many as he could before he started to grow dizzy. “Man, how many of these things are there?” He laughed, righting himself and crushing the face of one overly eager zombpone with the chained pommel of his greatsword. “There doesn’t seem to be an end to them!”

“Enough to pretty much decimate Equestria! At least that’s what the book said!” Sam yelled over the horde, he was in the thick of it as all the undead ignored him, creating ditches, and occasionally cutting into the ranks, needing to use two slices now that his mana had ran out after a zealous swing.

"Uncle Iroh!" Silphen shouted as he kicked one zombpony, blocking an arrow from another, and cut the head off a third, adding it to his growing army. He then lept back and took a deep breath in preparation for the spell he was about to use.

6…

With a chime, the redstone dust went up in a puff of white sparkles. The ritual began emitting a chiming tinkling noise. “The ritual’s halfway done!” Sam called out as one zompony bit his arm after he swung at another group, he caved it’s head in with a punch before finishing off the other undead that had aggroed onto him. Silphen then released the spell, bellowing as he breathed fire almost as hot as the sun out onto the unending wave of shambling dead.

“Oh, we’re doing a ritual then?” Vargas yelled back, smashing his fist through a zombpony’s head while his sword continued cutting apart the endless horde, leaving a blazing trail of bodies in his wake that only seemed to pile up as he almost danced back and forth.

5…

“You’re lucky he’s a fire guy, and my armor pretty much has full fire resistance! The residual heat from that spell is enough to flash cook the insides of somebody!” Sam yelled out as he swiped at the now bloating undead, wrinkling his nose as the stench of cooked insides was awful.

"That's why I warned you!" Silphen shouted back, the purple mist flowing freely from his eyes and maw. He growled as he turned back to rekilling the corpses. As he reached for more magic, he realized what he was doing and understood why he wasn't attacking his allies then.

He had a reason to live. A reason to stay good, even if he lost his soul to corruption, he would never lose his desire to protect Aurana. Silphen smirked as he began slinging every spell his other half gave him as quickly as they came.

Vargas swept through another wave of zombponies, his sword carving through their bodies and ground alike as he cut out a large groove in the ground beneath them, and a wall of flames burst up in front of him as he landed next to Sam, blazing carcasses stumbling through and falling into a heap barely a foot beyond. “Killing zombies is cool and all, but they barely give me a good fight!” He grinned, breathing heavily. “Either of you good at fighting, by chance?” He asked, lunging forward and spearing a groaning carcass upon his sword, letting the flames burn it until it melted to the ground, before continuing with the killing.

4…

“I’m pretty much best at single targets!” Sam yelled as a dozen zombies were once more obliterated after his mana regened enough for another powered swing. “Although I’m finding my mana endurance needs more work!”

"I'm best at versatility, but need a second to switch gears!" Silphen called out as he ducked a volley of ooze tipped arrows, looking over and seeing a line of the archer corpses. "Got a firing squad!"

Vargas rushed over, cutting down anything in his path and using the fiery greatsword to deflect oncoming arrows as he charged the archers’ position. “Not for long!” He shouted, his blade cleaving through the closest and sending limbs flying.

3…

Silphen chuffed as he sensed the horde growing desperate as it felt it's demise coming. He turned his focus to slashing anything rotting that moved. He didn't have time to check if it was still groaning or not, not at the moment.

Sam rushed back to the Brazier, knocking back a zombpony who was about to smash it’s hooves down onto the ritual before decapitating it. This unfortunately let the undead he was keeping at bay through, closer to the ritual.

“Hey, watch out for that one!” Vargas called out, abandoning the last of the archers to charge towards them, his sword held high with both hands. He cut through two offending equines without pause, and added a final burst of speed to his charge, bringing his blade down hard on the rotting flesh of another zombpony about to disrupt the ritual.

2…

Silphen blinked in shock as he went to cut through a zombpony… only for it to float up and over his head. "FUCK! SPECTERS!" Silphen called out as he realized what it was when it screamed at him in rage.

Sam turned around, only to blink in surprise as the Specter, entirely unfooled by his undead nature, swiped at him with a hoof. It got a sword swing into its side for the trouble, but that barely deterred it as it tried to push its way past him.

“What’s a specter?” Vargas asked, grabbing a pony by its neck and swinging around. He let it go after a moment, flinging it through a group of other zombponies, who fell like bowling pins. “These things aren’t really great opponents, so if you’ve got something better for me to fight, let me at em!”

1…

"Ghosts, basically! Use magic or be a Minecrafter!" Silphen called out, launching a blast of pure mana at it. He then looked around and saw more floating up. "Fucking hell!"

“I’m taking that item from Zecora’s! Damn whatever terrible price I most likely don’t have to pay, this is annoying!” Sam yelled as he obliterated a second one next to the ritual brazier, along with several zomponies next to it, his mana dipping back to near zero.

“Oooh, okay!” Vargas grinned, cutting down several zombponies as he leapt up to stand by the brazier. A specter flew close, and his sword shot up, the flames reaching out and consuming the creature in its entirety.

0…

With a chime, and an explosion of white sparks, the undead in the clearing grunted as their flesh was vaporized. Sam ignored the blueish white gems piling up at his feet, his inventory and backpacks unable to hold them all.

“Run! Before we have to do that all over again!” He shouted as he took off back the way they entered, ignoring the brazier and the two pedestals, they were cheap, and he didn’t want to give any undead that had survived a chance to surround them again.

Vargas shrugged, sliding his sword behind his back before rushing after Sam, the flames somehow not burning away his clothes as he jumped past large roots and tree branches.

Silphen brought up the rear, taking a second to grab and store a couple fistfuls of the gems. He glanced back after a few minutes and swore. "Keep going! They're following, so I need to take a second to create a barrier spell!"

The wolf then jumped up to one of the branches of the trees and pulled out his book, flipping it to the Fire Element section, he called out, "Arde et irreme, murus flammae gehennae!" The spell caused a wall of black flames to erupt in front of him, burning anything that touched it to ash. Not even the Specters could get through, thankfully, so he dropped back down and ran on all fours to catch up.

After a minute of running, Sam looked around. Seeing as they weren’t followed, he stopped. “Right… Proper introductions I guess, I’m Sam, he’s the wolf that currently goes by Silphen, as his alter ego took his real name for himself. And that entire exercise we just did was useless, because I’m taking that amulet from Zecora and just making myself power armor, waiting to find ender pearls be damned.” He said, first pointing to himself, then the catching up wolf.

“And I’m Vargas, hero of fire!” The warrior replied, stopping next to Sam. “So wait, was that horde of zombies really the only reason you guys summoned me?” He asked, scratching his head.

Silphen came to a stop next and stood up straight with a sigh. "Silphen Dardo. Archmage of what Sam and I have decided to call ourselves. And honestly? He summoned you. I don't know how long he's had your Token, and quite honestly, I don't care. You said those things weren't much of a fight? How about you try me? I'd like to see how far I've come this last month and I'm certain Sam still has some leftovers from our first unfortunate fight, the cheating prick…"

“Right, yeah, your Token did say you wanted to fight whoever summoned you. Let's make a detour first, I’m requisitioning that Amulet of the Alicorn or whatever you called it in my name as prince of Equestria. I only fought equally to you at the end because I had a mana regen three potion.” Sam said, shaking his head in exasperation.

"Technically just the Everfree, but yeah. You need more mana, and the last time we tried mixing mana it ended with you respawning and Ashton having to take over to heal our battered near-corpse…" Silphen said, shivering at the memory of almost dying from the effects of the reaction. Turns out you try mixing two mana sources from wholly different systems and you run into the same problem as most other folks attempting to create a M157 spell… Explosive dissatisfaction.

“Well sure, I’ll fight one of you.” Vargas nodded, “But Sammy’s right, let’s make that detour! I’d rather not fight either of you when you’re all tuckered out! That’d make it too easy!” He laughed slightly at that, before shaking his head. “Ah, man it’s been a while since I could relax… so, mister glowy blue, where to?”

“Zecora’s tree… hut… thing… Zecora’s.” He said finally, shaking his head as he started walking… “As I said, gotta requisition that Amulet of the Alicorn. Is it named that because it gives you the mana of an alicorn, or just the raw power or something?”

"A bite from column A, a scribble of section beta, and sprinkle of choice charlie." Silphen said, shrugging as even he didn't know for sure one way or the other. The show never went into too much detail over it, and they were clearly in a different timeline from the show itself.

“Meh, doesn’t sound like my kind of thing.” Vargas shrugged, his armor clanking from the movement. “I’m more of a ‘make my own strength’ kind of fighter, you know?”

“Yeah, well minecraft is pretty much ‘yours if you own it’ type of strength. Plus I still have to figure out these values, since I don’t actually have a number on my mana, all I know is that what I would be using those souls for would’ve cost me several days for only sixty mana.”

“What do you guys even need these souls for, anyway?” Vargas asked. “I mean, this doesn’t exactly sound like clean magic, considering you need souls for it.”

“I was going to use it to contact some sort of eldritch powerful being who would then give me secrets unending, then use them to create a metal alloy that would be mana conductive, while rigid. All stuff my fiance would definitely freak out over if she ever found out.”

"And promptly blame me for suggesting it to you to try." Silphen added with a chuckle. "That aside, we should probably get going. I can make a quick one use portal circle to get us back home, Sam, but I'll need a second to talk with Ashton about the specifics and ensure I don't accidentally send us into a wall or your super smelter."

“Right, I’ll just get the amulet then, I can make it faster by running over the forest… No idea how I’m going to get that thing off of Zecora, but mentioning Sunshine’s name might do it. And ‘mr Technically of the everfree’, my domain is a tributary to my fiance’s kingdom, and our engagement is official despite her being too scared to announce it, so I am still Prince Consort of Equestria.” Sam snarked.

“Huh, well congrats!” Vargas clapped him on the back. “Never met the ruler of Equestria before, but I’m sure she’s a great person!” This caused Silphen to sputter as he raced to keep from laughing. Last thing he needed was Sam punching him in the gut again.

"Working in the portal!" He called out before turning away to work on it, switching with Ashton for a bit to laugh his ass off safely. There were perks to have a split soul like his.

“Yeah, our first meeting she killed me… after eating my only cake… I was pretty sure this all was a dream when she teleported us to her old bed though…” Sam sputtered.

“Well, that’ll be quite an awkward honeymoon!” Vargas laughed again, glancing at Silphen briefly. “So, we’re to wait here while you get your fancy amulet, yeah?”

"Not quite, friend. Silphen told me he used a spell to create the equivalent of an amaterasu wall to hold back the dead. It'll hold them back for a good while, but not long enough for Sam to get to Miss Zecora's place and return in time for us to use the portal configuration." Ashton said from the ground, a small circle carved into it at his feet. Sam nodded as he started hopping up the trees, disappearing into the foliage.

“So we’re fighting more zombies?” Vargas sighed, crossing his arms. “Yeah, I guess that’s okay. I’m sure I can find some entertaining fights with them.”

Ashton chuckled as he stood up and turned to face him, the portal circle finished. "No, Mister Vargas, you shall be fighting Silphen. The other half of my soul. As I, Ashton, am the other half of his."

“Oh?” The flame warrior perked up at this, giving the wolf a once over. “Well, you can definitely give me a better fight than those zombies. Though, I guess that isn’t saying much, now is it?” He pulled out his sword, the flames burning brighter the moment his hand gripped the handle.

Ashton smiled as he glowed in a rainbow of colors flowed over him and he took a step forward. "Do try, Mister Vargas. I assure you, if I were to fight, you would not win. No, the pleasure you'll find will be from Silphen, whom needs more training."

“Oooh, confident are ya?” Vargas grinned, tossing his sword up in the air. “You’re really just gonna show off this…super magic sparkly stuff, then tell me I’m fighting a rookie instead?” He gave a mock sigh as his sword fell back to earth behind him, blade first, and sank halfway down the sword. “You really know how to irritate someone, don’tcha?”

Ashton bowed slightly, confident in his wards against everything he had seen from Vargas, and several things he'd seen from people like Vargas in his original world. "I do try to have fun where I can, Mister Vargas. I was one of the ten deadliest beings in my universe before being torn away from it. Silphen is using our power for different means though, and I don't particularly blame him. Now, shall we go so you can have your spar with someone closer to your skill level?"

“You have no idea what my skill level even is, wolfie.” Vargas grumbled, pulling his sword out with ease and holding it over his shoulder. “I mean, really, what have you seen? Me fighting a few zombies?” He rolled his eyes as he walked to the side. “Whatever then, let’s get this done with.”

Ashton nodded and stepped into the circle with him, the portal opening beneath their feet and depositing the duo in the courtyard of the refurbished Castle of the Twin Sisters. "As I said, Mister Vargas. Closer. You won't be able to harm me unless I allow it. Feel free to try if you doubt me."

“Sure.” Vargas grinned. “How’s about this? I mop the floor with the rookie, then you give me one move.” He twirled his flaming sword around. “I’ll show you just how strong I really am, wolfie!”

Ashton smirked and bowed, dropping the defenses he had and stumbling as he switched back with Silphen. "So… How you wanna start…?" Silphen asked.

“The first attack is yours, rookie!” Vargas said, hopping side to side and stretching his arms out. “I’ll go a bit easy on you, so make it count!”

Silphen nodded and took a deep steadying breath as he channeled all the mana he could control safely and imagined himself coated in a suit of armor made of an alloy made from Wakandan Vibranium and Wolverine's Adamantium. The spell took several seconds to forge the new metal, especially since it didn't actually exist in this world. When he opened his eyes and saw Vargas still standing there, he became nervous. He then created a crystalline sword that looked an awful lot like the one he had been using to fight the zombies and swung at him..

Vargas’ blade exploded into a whirlwind of fire, intercepting the crystal sword and stopping it in its tracks, a wave of heat burning at his fur like he had suddenly stepped into a volcano.

“Decent enough form, fancy weapon,” Vargas said, pushing forward and knocking Silphen backwards. “But there’s not enough strength behind it.” He doused the flaming inferno around his sword, and lunged forward, swinging his blade at the wolf’s abdomen. Silphen gasped in pain as heat exploded across his gut and was flung backwards, purple arcane runes appearing across his armor.

"Fuck, that's hot… And heavy…" He looked up and changed the form of his crystal blade into that of a rapier, making his intentions to switch from strength to agility clear.

Vargas was upon him quicker than the wolf thought he could move, his blade heating up further. “Oh, one of my pals uses one of those!” He kept only enough distance between them for his sword to reach, and with each strike that Silphen barely deflected, he felt the heat generated by the broadsword grow more intense.

Silphen grunted, letting one of his strikes through to get a little bit more kinetic energy stored up, then punched the ground and willed the armor to release everything it had stored up in a blast. He wanted as the runes faded he was left glowing faintly as heat emanated from his suit. "So… this is why they don't use it for more than a shield… fuck, it's hot in here…"

“And it’s only going to get hotter!” Vargas grinned, having been knocked backward slightly. “Now, which will fall first? You, or your armor?” His sword burst into flames once again, not quite as hot as before, but hot enough. “Let’s find out!” He launched himself forward again, sword swinging out even faster than before, only to see Silphen throw his own blade down to the ground, trying to remove his helmet.

"Me!" He shouted. "You… You won't be able to break this stuff! It… it's an alloy of Wakandan Vibranium and Wolverine's Adamantium!"

“Is that a challenge?” Vargas asked, having stopped mid swing. “I mean, I can get this sword pretty hot, you know.”

"Melting it and breaking it are two separate problems…" Silphen said as he growled and simply willed the armor to come off of him and let him breathe normally. "Fuck… So while you could easily melt it, you'd have to get it almost as hot as the sun itself. If not hotter. And by then, whoever's inside the suit will have died long ago."

“Ah, fair enough!” Vargas nodded in understanding. “I suppose this is my win then?”

*Yeah, yeah… Just give me a second to catch my breath and switch with Ashton…" Silphen replied, willing the rest of his suit to take the form of a bracelet on his right wrist.

After a few seconds, he stumbled and Vargas felt the same murderous intent he had earlier. Ashton turned to face him with a smile.

"Impressive, Mister Vargas. Though I do wonder how you'd fare against someone that can phase through fire and metal…" He said as the rainbow of colors flowed over him once more.

“Well, we can always find out.” Vargas grinned, and the flames surrounding his sword burst out once more. Energy burned around Vargas, his armor glimmering in the heat. His hair waved about, seeming almost like the very flames that burned along his sword as he held out his blade, the clinking of the pommel’s chain drowned out by the roaring inferno. “Now, I believe you agreed to let me hit you as hard as I can, right?”

Ashton smiled like a madman, putting his arms out to the side in invitation. "Come, Vargas God-burner! Come and try to cut me down! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

“Alright!” Vargas grinned, grabbing his blade with both hands. “I’ll show you that Dandelga can cut down anything in my path!” He rushed forward, blade low and cutting through the floor before reaching the wolf. “Infinity… Burst!” With a yell, he brought his sword up, and Ashton sensed that something was off.

He put his hands out to block the strike, grunting in surprise as he felt the blade itself bite into his palms for a second before flinging him backwards, a gout of extremely hot flames roaring around him as they spread all across the courtyard, though they phased right through Ashton himself. He looked down at his shaking hands and chuckled, he clearly miscalculated something, but he couldn't think of what. "Well I am very impressed… Is your blade perhaps a divine metal or infernal metal? Those are the only things I can think of for you being able to still harm me in my current state, God Slayer Vargas."

“Hell if I know!” Vargas grinned, the roaring flames of his sword dying out as Vargas settled down, though the flames that now filled the courtyard did not dissipate. “All I know is, it makes me more fired up when I use it!”

Ashton looked around the flaming courtyard and paled slightly. "Shit…" He quickly began applying as many blunt force and slashing force defenses as he could, fully expecting Sam to return any second now.

“My topiaries…” The voice came from behind Ashton. Sam was there, looking through the slowly burning doorway. His eyes were glowing a bright crimson instead of the navy blue he had set them as to hide his vampiric nature. The twisted mana blade in his hand was sparking ominously.

“Oh, hey Sam!” Vargas waved, finally taking note of the fiery destruction he had caused, “Sorry about your courtyard, mister arrogant god over here didn’t think I could hurt him, so I obviously had to prove him wrong!”

“Did he now…? And did he tell you I have entire areas cleared so that his fire spells don’t burn down the forest… or my courtyard…?” Sam said calmly as he slowly walked up to the wolf.

Ashton seemed nervous, but didn't let his fear reach his voice. "Apologies, Mister Sam. I had forgotten about that area… And underestimated how powerful Mister Vargas' flames were…"

Sam sighed and raised his sword up… only to bonk the wolf on the head gently with the flat of it… knocking him to the floor and out cold despite all his defenses against such an attack. Sam looked at the cobblestone beneath the wolf worryingly, as cracks had spread from his small tap.

“Shit… Gotta reevaluate how much that does…” He muttered.

“Well, I see I have a bit of training to do back home!” Vargas grinned, his hair seeming to almost glow, and wave about like actual flames. “I put my all into that strike, and only scratched wolfie? Oh, I can’t wait to kick both of your asses!”

“For a minute, I thought you were going to decide to fight me next. Guess you’ll be wanting to go back?” Sam sighed, pushing Ashton with a diamond boot, nodding when the unconscious wolf grunted.

“Yeah, I recognize an impossible fight when I see one.” Vargas said, gesturing to the unconscious wolf. “He can act cocky all he wants, but I definitely could have beaten him. Would be a rough fight, but it was possible.”

“What makes me so impossible? Pretty sure I just surprised him… and me. Seriously, this Amulet is crazy, I had to use a full bar to use a fully amplified spell like this before, now it barely takes a twentieth.” Sam asked, shaking his head in wonder.

“Well, if you think so.” Vargas shrugged, “Though I can’t guarantee the safety of your courtyard if we fight.”

“Then let's take it somewhere else… You don’t mind waiting like… say five minutes for me to make a gigantic field over the top of the forest out of obsidian, right? Otherwise our only other recourse would be fighting in the mines.”

“Sure, whichever you want!” Vargas replied, sheathing his blade behind him. “I should have enough gas in the tank left for another fight, so you best make it a good one!”

“Right. Kinda wished I had builders wands or something, would make this take a minute instead…” Sam muttered as he took out his spellbook and once more launched himself through the tree cover. A few minutes later he landed back down, the courtyard fire had already gone out.

“Right, well, it’s done. You have a way up?” Sam asked.

“I mean, not really.” Vargas replied, gesturing behind him. “No wings and stuff.”

“Right, let me just place this… together with this… alright. Just trust this, you’ll bounce a little upon impact, but it won’t hurt at all, Used this to tackle my fiance out of the air once.”

“Alright then,” Vargas leapt up, landing on a flat plane of obsidian after bouncing a few times. Unlike actual volcanic glass however, this stuff didn’t break or crack due to his weight. Sam followed up after him, landing without bouncing behind him, a pie tin in his hand.

“You want this before or after the fight? May as well send you off with a little gift. Apparently all the stuff I make is super delicious and nourishing or something,” Sam asked.

“I’ll go with after,” Vargas replied, pulling out his sword. “Food’ll taste better after a fight.” He swung it against the obsidian floor, testing its durability. “Tough ground… so, how we doing this?”

“I’ll be honest,” Sam said, Shrugging as the pie in his hand disappeared. “I spent two weeks fighting for my life when I first got here, so I never really learned how to hold back. This obsidian is the hardest block I can currently make, and impervious to heat as well, so pretty much don’t hold back.”

“All out it is then!” Vargas nodded, igniting his blade once more. An instant later, he closed the distance between them, greatsword already swinging for Sam’s neck. With an equally fast swipe of Sam’s hand, his mana blade impacted the greatsword, a second wave of force from it reversing its momentum as Sam took out his spellbook, internally nodding as his thirty seconds of speed nine only took up a sliver of mana.

The swordsman used the momentum, spinning around and turning his horizontal slash into a downward blow, flames roaring out ahead of the sword like they had a life of their own.

Sam parried the attack from the side, letting the flaming sword crash into the obsidian floor as he backed away, moving like he was teleporting. He circled around to the right side before striking with a horizontal slash at Vargas’ shoulder. The blade dug an inch into the spiked armor before Vargas swung about, blowing out a wave of fire from his sword and obscuring himself from Sam’s view, but only for a moment as he burst through the dissipating flame wall, sword held at his hip as he pushed it ahead of him in an attempt to stab the minecraftian, flames boiling around the tip of his blade.

Sam grinned ferally, his fangs showing as he let the sword spear him through the chest, ignoring the seven hearts of damage it dealt, and ignoring the ‘on fire’ debuff as his sword disappeared from his right hand into his left as he stabbed it into the fiery figure’s stomach.

Vargas’ breath left him as the blade went through him, pulling his own sword out and using his leg to push himself off of Sam’s blade, a trail of glowing blood trailing his path. “Nghh, damn that sword hurts!” He grinned, clutching his wound. “Didn’t expect that…” His sword’s flames burned brighter as he held it to his left. “Let’s see what other surprises you got for me!” Leaping forward again, the flaming swordsman wielded his weapon like a hammer, jumping into the air and raising it over his head. Flames once more built around it’s blade, obscuring it from view as he brought it down upon Sam.

Sam grinned as he licked the glowing blood off his blade. His eyes widened as suddenly the flames around him went out as Blood like mist began emanating from him. Before Vargas could even see what happened, Sam moved out of the way, his sword crashing once more into the obsidian floor as his forearm suddenly felt a prick. Looking over, Sam was there, his mouth latched on and grinning as a small dribble of Vargas’ blood escaped.

Vargas gave him a brief, concerned look, before promptly driving his fist into Sam’s face, following it up with a blazing swipe from his blade into the minecraftian’s leg. Sam took the punch, using it to kick himself off of Vargas while also unbalancing him, the swipe going just under his legs as Sam landed several feet away, wiping away the golden blood that had splattered on his face when his forceful removal caused two gashes to open up on Vargas’ arm.

“In the name of my fiance, why are you so delicious!?” Sam shouted as he charged back at Vargas. Blood Rage, his new upgrade, had already healed him back to full red hearts, and he took enough blood to sustain it for a few more seconds. Sam slashed overhead, putting both arms behind the swing.

Vargas blocked the blow with his own two handed grip of his blade, using his immense strength to shove the blade back. Before Sam could recover, a fist struck his face from the side, and Vargas drove his sword through the sudden distance between them, intense flames reaching out from the blade and blazing across Sam’s armor.

Sam smirked, his neck making a disconcerting cracking sound as the punch impacted him and took off three hearts. The flames blazing across him were surprisingly pleasant as he looked at his fire resistance buff. Apparently Vargas was like a living potion for him.

He smirked as he selected his spellbook, it’s pages flipping as he put his hand on Vargas’ sword before casting a spell he wanted to try out. Soon the gigantic greatsword was flung deep into the obsidian, breaking through like King Arthur’s sword. With the few seconds Sam bought he reached up and returned the favor, slugging Vargas in the jaw. The swordsman reeled back, staggering slightly, before righting himself and sending a blow straight into Sam’s chest, sending him flying backwards from the sheer force of the blow and taking off another three hearts.

It was at this point Sam noticed Vargas was no longer grinning. He paused, the blood mist dissipated as he stood up from his crouch.

“Something the matter?” He asked, slightly worried that he had damaged the greatsword or something. Vargas leapt to the buried sword, gripping it with both hands and wrenching it out of the obsidian ground.

“You’re a vampire then?” He grunted, the flames of his sword burning much hotter than before.

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that earlier, you taste a lot different from monster blood.” He smiled relieved, spinning his sword in his hand as he prepared for Vargas’ charge.

Vargas’ expression didn’t change. Instead, the fire of his sword tripled in intensity, and he lowered slightly. “Then I have no reason to treat this as an honest fight.” He stated. “Infinity Burst.” He rushed forward, gripping his weapon with two hands as the inferno grew behind him.

“I’m from The Abode of God! It was never a fair fight to begin with!” Sam smiled as he laughed, not catching his naming mistake as he readied his stance to parry Vargas’ next attack. The flaming swordsman swung his sword up as soon as he was in reach, a cacophony of flames flowing along with the blade as the two blades met, the full strength of the swordsman in this one blow.

Sam grinned ferally as the obsidian cracked under their feet. The flames washing over him harmlessly, Sam’s eyes widened as he pushed back, forcing his body through the air as his sword crumbled in his hand until not even dust remained, his spellbook opening in his other hand as back to back balls of blue energy flew straight at Vargas.

Silphen jumped over the edge at that point, catching Vargas as he was flung back. "Woah! You good, Vargas?" He asked as he inspected him. He knew the hole in his gut wasn't a good sign, so he began to heal the flaming swordsman. The blazing inferno that was his sword had suddenly dimmed to only a few flames licking up the blade, and the warrior was clearly much paler than he had been earlier. It was possible that the flames from his sword had made it less obvious, but he had clearly lost a lot of blood.

“G…goddamn…” Vargas groaned, dropping the blade and letting it clatter to the ground. “Hate…cowardly… vampires…”

“Shit…” Sam said as he landed. “That looks really bad.”

The irony was lost on Sam, as he had a large gaping hole where his left lung was supposed to be, instead a dark empty blackness sat there in place of visceral organs and tissue. He had never been hurt by something that hadn't instantly killed him, or was put down before it could be noticed, and the monsters he had fought definitely hadn’t said anything about it.

"Sam, you think you went a touch too far with this? You could've killed Vargas! And as far as we both know, killing a Displaced is a BAD THING!" Silphen shouted, clearly irate with him before turning to Vargas, who he had been healing this whole time using magic to replace the lost blood. "And Vargas, he became a vampire to track me down when Tyrant Tia wanted my head, so that part's on me, not him…"

“So… he chose to be one…” Vargas coughed bitterly, his irritated scowl returning. “Even… worse…”

“Vampires here also live semi-harmoniously with the living… actually, all of Luna's guards are vamponies as they call themselves.” Sam said as he walked up, poking at the infinite darkness in his body. It felt cold to the touch. “And honestly, how was I supposed to know he was so hurt! He broke my sword, my magic sword no less! Seriously, that thing repairs itself off of my magic!”

"So what!? You almost put Vargas six feet under! That alone would… Where's the amulet?" Silphen asked, suddenly remembering where he had been. He hoped Sam wasn't being affected by it, but… there was a reason he called it the 'perfect corruptor' in the other universe…

“It’s on me, I thought it’d be best to hide it since I told Zecora it was going in the vaults…” Sam sighed. “And yeah, probably should have at least tried to hold back… but you know I’ve been fighting nothing but monsters since I got here, and those fights are kinda to the death.”

Vargas slowly got to his feet, color returning to his skin as he bent down to recover his weapon. “If I had known you were a vampire, I wouldn’t have even bothered with the fight.” He muttered, putting his sword in its place behind his back. “Go ahead and send me back.”

“Right…” Sam said, sounding a bit dejected. “Just a minute.”

He searched through his inventory for a little bit, before a three tiered cake appeared in his hands. “This was going to be used as a fiance bribe but… man, sorry about almost killing you in the fight. Take this and the pie.”

"Oh, and my Token. Might not like Sam, but I'd still like to meet your friends!" Silphen said as he called forth a version of his Token to give to Vargas.

The swordsman took both items, his features softening a bit. “Thanks. And for the next time, getting run through the gut is usually a bad thing for us humans.” Vargas said after a moment. “And for whatever it’s worth, I enjoyed the fight, somewhat.”

"I mean, I could've resurrected you, but it's more the fact of the matter." Silphen said with a shrug.

Sam said his own admin command to summon his diamond sword of a token before balancing it on top of the cake, then putting a pie on top of that. “And with this, the summoning is complete! See you next time!”

Vargas nodded, as the same fiery gate that brought him to this world reformed, and he walked through, letting the flaming doors slam shut behind him, before fading.

“Right… Now how about you start fixing my shrubbery Silphen. You should remember what it looked like before you burned it down… After that, go visit Aurana, your prince demands it.” Sam said, turning to the wolf, causing him to since before nodding and jumping back to the ground to go about following the order.

Author's Note

Vargas is owned by Warmaster. The same guy as our last crossover chapter!