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This feels wrong.
Mugm swallowed down his words. His spine tingled, his throat was dry, his hands wouldn’t stop shaking. Everything in his body was telling him this was wrong. The location, the conversation topic, and even the looks shared between both parties. Every little detail Mugm picked up on made his blood pressure spike and his head spin with how terrified he was. It was strange - he never had this intense of a reaction to a simple talk with people.
Except, these weren’t just any people. The Oldies were a team that had lied to, manipulated, and backstabbed him countless times, and Mugm’s teammate, Puki, thought their alliance was still salvageable. Oh, he was going to be so wrong.
Just the look in Wyll’s eyes as he spouted nonsense about ‘I don’t know where we stand’ and ‘we can talk this out’ told Mugm exactly where their relationship lied. In ruins. In the dust, forgotten way before the day WhatMax had broken his gem. The Oldies were never on their side and had played them since the very beginning. How could Puki blatantly ignore that?
Still, it wasn’t that they were discussing their sides in the war with enemies that made Mugm want to crawl into a hole and run away. He couldn’t shake that something far worse was going to happen. To him, This negotiation had only one direction it was going in - the clear cut answer of finality that Wyll’s team was not on their side. No more lies, no more deception, just the clean truth.
But Puki really wanted to believe that wasn’t it. Mugm didn’t know why, why he valued some damned traitors over their own team, but it was his teammate. They were brothers in arms and could not afford to lose each other in the server. He was going to stand next to Puki and trust that perhaps he was a bit paranoid and the lingering anxiety from the previous fight was making him act up.
(That fight, Mugm had died alone. He died without the arms of his brothers to lift him up, waiting to hear if they had helped him in the little way they wanted. Mugm had given them the green light to rescue him, had cried out that he was going to die, and they completely ignored him. It was fact. They hadn’t come to his aid even though he begged them. Was this what brothers did to each other? Friends? Acquaintances? How was he left to the wolves by the people he trusted the most?
Hopefully it was the last and only time. The wound from Yungwill’s killing blow ached with something that wasn’t his usual loss of pride or the anger of respawning for the fiftieth time in two hours, it ached with the realisation that his brothers had left him to die. The realisation that they had no intention of turning back to save him. They could’ve, but they didn’t, and whose to say they wouldn’t do it again?)
Mugm’s eyes couldn’t stop darting around the area. They landed on everyone at least five times before he realised and forced them onto the circle of golden blocks in front of him. He just couldn’t stop thinking the worst was going to happen.
Goosebumps ran up his arms and his blood rushed to his head, thundering in his ears at the pace of a fleeing hare. His fingers tapped around the hilt of his sword. His nails dug into the leather wrapping of the handle. His sweating hand gripped his Puff gem so tightly to the point its sharp facets were painfully drawing blood from his palm. Mugm’s breaths came short and shallow, his body light as if he had been hit with levitation a hundred blocks above the ground. All his blood was running to his fingers and toes, ready for a fight.
When that fight happened, Mugm couldn’t move, stuck to the ground as Wyll suddenly cobwebbed his legs and drew out a crossbow. Time moved in slow motion as Mugm realised what was happening, body locked in pure fear. His hands couldn’t move. His eyes couldn’t pull away from the rocket being strung on the riser.
Suddenly his world was a flash of white and fire. Pain pain pain ran through his system but Mugm couldn’t do anything, frozen to the ground. Blue blinded his vision and sparks lit up all over his skin. Embers of the exploding firework dug into his exposed arms, neck and face, feeling like hot sand blown into his face from the desert. Mugm gasped and quickly got a hold of himself, slicing through the webs with his sword. The fire spreading up his body was easy to forget with the adrenaline rushing in his blood, until Wyll fired another rocket.
It hit him straight in the neck. Everything burned, spreading from the inside out and engulfing him in all its destructive fury. Mugm tried to scream, tried to plead, but nothing left this throat. All he could think about was how much it hurt to be killed by fireworks and how defenseless he felt cobwebbed to the ground.
Mugm_ went off with a bang. How amusing. He didn’t put up a fight as he was killed right in front of his brothers.
Mugm expected to wake up in his bed. He didn’t trust that his teammates had broken his bed and it would’ve been nice to be cushioned under a blanket, given a couple minutes for the fog of respawn to slowly recede. Unfortunately, he didn’t have that luxury.
Mugm sucked in a sharp breath, jolting up from where he was sitting. Wooden planks under his fingers. His base was made of stone.
“Get out!”
He barely registered Nezoshoki’s voice before something sharp wedged itself into his back. Mugm groaned and tried to blink through his distorted vision, fumbling for his Puff gem. Please please please.
His thoughts begged his killers for mercy but Mugm knew they wouldn’t give him such a thing. They had trapped him in a cage, two players with their swords at his neck in seconds and the rest of their team either hunting down Puki and Merffinn or watching like vultures, ready to swoop in for the feast. The Function had no intention of letting him escape with his gem.
Once his fingers curled around the gem, energy and life flowed through him like he was revived. Mugm choked on the blood surging up his throat. He leapt for the edge of the wall, fingers digging into the dirt as he desperately tried to swing himself over the top. The dirt crumbled under his weight and he fell.
No, was all he thought as he scrambled for a hold in the wall. Mugm searched for anywhere he could get out. There was a ledge but Tyrad was guarding it. Everywhere else was too high for him to even get his fingers over the edge. Mugm ran around the base of the prison, looking for a weak point, anywhere where he could escape.
Blood spilled all over the floor as Alreys’ sword sliced through his skin. Mugm fell back onto the prismarine but quickly got back to his feet, out of breath and wounded all over. In a second, Rylan had his sword straight through the centre of Mugm’s chest, piercing his heart.
Was this how it was going to end? He slumped forward on the blade, shakily breathing out. His blood poured down the sword and pooled around his feet. The gem in his hand pulsed one last time, a reminder of how fragile his life was and how he couldn’t lose it here. Mugm closed his eyes, weighed down and tired as the energy was sucked from his soul. The gem shattered on the ground by his dead corpse.
Mugm woke again, sluggish and blinded by the bright, distorted lights in his blurry vision. His hand found his gem just as someone came over to him. He tried to push up and get away, but they caged him underneath. There wasn’t any time. He needed to get out.
“Mugm, wake up! It’s now or never-” It was Nezo. Mugm barely saw a sliver of his wide eyes before the arc of a diamond sword descended on his back. Nezo cried out as he fell forward, chin dropping onto Mugm’s shoulder. Warm blood soaked his shirt as Mugm registered what had happened, face to face with Dabbycat with a body collapsed over him. Nezo had used himself as a shield.
Whatever. He couldn’t feel sorry for him now, he had to find a way out. What did he mean by ‘it’s now or never’? Mugm groggily shoved the disappearing body off him and narrowly dodged Dabby’s sword. Instantly, his eyes landed on it. A wooden staircase up to the top. He leapt for it, hoisting himself easily over the edge because this time the block didn’t break under him.
“Get away! get away! Are you out?” Nezo’s voice faded behind him as he blindly jumped from the top of the prison to the ground. His knees almost buckled under him but Mugm needed to run. His gem was on the line. Everything was on the line and he couldn’t die here-
He checked behind his shoulder before a firework exploded at his feet, knocking him over.
“Uh- they’re chasing they’re chasing,” he gasped for his breath and pulled himself off the ground. “They’re firing rockets-”
Mugm’s life burst into sparks of fire as another firework hit him square in the back.
This time he was standing against the prismarine wall when he respawned, Rylan turning towards with his a blood thirsty grin and a sword pointed straight at his heart. Mugm moved at the last moment, his arm suffering the blow as warm blood spilled. It burned. The fire aspect from Rylan’s sword scorched the skin and left tingling nerves in its wake. Tears brimmed at the corners of his eyes but Mugm saw had an opening. He booked it, leaping over the ledge and flying past Tyrad with the smallest hope that he could escape.
His hope was shortly lived. Someone’s sword sliced straight through from his shoulder to his waist and Mugm was gone, waking up again in the same prison for the third time.
The gem in his hand was a dull grey. It barely shimmered when the light hit it, the energy pulsing through the material lacking compared to its original glory. Mugm woke up slower than before, his eyelids shut tight. Even when he pried them open, his vision was near gone. His body could still move as he grabbed the wall and pulled himself up.
Holy hell . His body burned and ached with every move and the thundering in his head made it hard to not vomit all over the floor when he forced his consciousness. He felt woozy from bloodloss even though he just respawned and his body was as fresh as ever.
Someone grabbed him by the back of his head and slammed it into the wall. Mugm grabbed at their arm and kicked instinctively, earning a jagged elbow to his neck. The diamond armour dug relentlessly into his bare skin and he choked out a pleading noise.
“Merffinn and Puki!” Mugm shouted, his voice hoarse. Nezo couldn’t help him anymore as he was stuck in the same situation but surely his brothers could break him out. Surely.
Mugm knew his brothers were out there. They were definitely right by the vault but why hadn’t they even tried to set him free? Were they going to leave him behind? Mugm inhaled sharply at the thought. No, they wouldn’t… right?
“I’m not going to go in there and let myself get death trapped!” Merffinn’s voice reached his ears. Mugm’s stomach dropped. He cried out as a sword dug into his back and stole his life, mind spinning on Merffinn’s words.
Were they really giving up? Was this who the people he considered his brothers were? They had left him for dead twice in a row all for their own lives. Mugm stared into a black void of where he should be seeing things, lying on the ground and wondering why he even trusted them more than himself in the first place.
“I wanted to be a good person.”
“They might already think of me as a villain but i want to prove them wrong.”
“I want to prove to them that even though i never actually cared, that could always be different.”
All his words started coming back to him as he heard the footsteps thundering towards him. These players who he had tried to save from his own wrath were farming him for energy, dead set on breaking his gem. What was even the purpose of trying to prove them wrong if all they wanted to see was a villain? All the work Mugm had put in for the past few months was for nothing . In his hopes to turn over a new leaf, people had stepped all over him, his teammates had left him for dead, and now he was on the brink of losing his gem.
Was being good really worth it?
Think about it. Good people are stepped over because they will not retaliate in fear of being seen as evil. A good person is always weaker compared to a villain, someone unrestrained by morals and completely free to do whatever they wanted. A hero could never be free.
“They’re literally going to break his gem!” Nezo pleaded to Puki and Merffinn. Mugm, blind and body unable to move as the energy supply in his gem slowly dwindled, could only imagine what he was seeing. Nezo was probably crouched in a corner getting farmed for energy or was forced to watch Mugm get killed over and over again, unable to do anything to save his teammate.
Mugm, as yet another sword severed his neck could only feel anger, regret, and sorrow. He felt pure rage bubble in his veins at the voices of his ‘brothers’, scared to even try and save him. He felt regret for deciding to be a good person and putting himself through all of this pain. Hs felt sorry for putting Nezo through all of this. His only teammate who had the guts to walk into a deathtrap had to watch him die over and over and over until The Function was satisfied. And last of all, Mugm felt sorry for his team. Even though they had left him to die, he couldn’t even blame them. They were two against at least twenty other players and they were probably trying their best. His useless revenge had only got them stuck in this position and it was only fair that he’d have to suffer. Mugm felt a tear slide down his cheek for himself, a tear of recognition that his journey to be a hero would never be completed.
It was pitiful how he deceived himself into even believing he could change.
“No, they’re trying to focus on breaking his gem,” Merffinn realised sadly. The call went silent as Mugm rose up from yet another death, cracked gem in hand as he tried to leap out of the prison.
They had built the wall higher making it impossible for him to escape. As he fell, Mugm knew Rylan’s familiar blade in his side as his world went dark.
His gem laid fractured in his palm. Its pure white shards dull and brittle as Mugm felt the tiniest pulses of energy. It was trying to give him something, anything, to escape, but his teammates had let him die too many times. Puki may have been trying to mine in and save him, WhatMax may have been trying to distract the whole server, but Mugm’s gem was already too far gone for him to even try anymore.
Mugm tried to get them to help with the little time he had before someone jumped him. He tried to formulate a plan before devolving to plainly begging them to just try. His ‘brothers’ weren’t folding. Mugm simply went quiet at the end of his rant, quietly accepting the truth.
They had done it. The Function had done it. They were going to break down the Brotherhood, starting with him and his gem.
Mugm was truly going to lose his gem here. He couldn’t help but think back to the previous season and his villainous streak. No one could even compare to him (except maybe Wyll) and he hadn’t given them a chance to. Back then, he wouldn’t have let this happen. Back then, Mugm would’ve listened to his instincts and prioritised himself over his teammates. Back then, Mugm wouldn’t have found himself in the deathtrap of the rest of the server.
Why did I ever even try to be a good person? He asked himself as he lifted himself from the ground, the one sign of life that gave everyone the excuse to jump into the pit and kill him.
Mugm knew the blood dripping from his mouth. He knew the bile up his throat, the familiar weapon lodged in his body. Mugm knew how it was going to end from the very beginning - with his gem broken, his team morale depleted, and the ‘alliance’ between The Brotherhood and The Oldies diminished.
And as he stood on top of the prison, finally free, Mugm knew that he nver wanted to be chained again. He never wanted to be held in a pit and hit around like a piñata. There was nothing to his name but Mugm was going to change that. They may have defeated him for now, they may have won the battle, but he would win the war.
It was all clear to him now. From the start, he wanted to save the server from his wrath. Mugm had repressed his thirst for power and pretended he cared when all of this facade never really mattered to him. He had the power to overthrow a 1v7 in the past, who’s to say he didn’t have it now?
This server wasn’t salvageable. If they wanted a villain, then so be it. Mugm wouldn’t listen to them if they cried for mercy - they certainly hadn’t when he did.
Last season was just the beginning.