Hello! Here's another drawing from Foxalotl. A Miesall comforting Xel after he goes to the Void. 

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♪This is the story of the end♪

♪From where shall I tell?♪

(Anyone who gets this reference gets a cookie... Doubt anyone will though... I think it might be fun to include snippets of songs like this every now and then if they fit.-)

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Wiping the sweat off his brow, Ren took a few steps back as he looked down at his tree farm. Every season, he sold wood. It was a lot of work, but it gave him a steady and dependable stream of income from the other Hermits. This grind should just about do it for a few weeks at least... Unless one of the builders were on the move again. There had been a few times where he completely filled all of the chests, only for him to run out of stock by morning. He held his head back and chuckled to himself at the thought, taking another step back. The ledge was closer than he thought, his foot slipping a moment later. 

"Damn it!" He cursed as he fell back and off the platform. For as hard as he had tried to stay alive the last week or two, his eye on the overflowing promised diamonds, only to make such a careless mistake. He rolled around in the air, remembering that he wasn't doomed yet. He tried to open the wings of his electra. It didn't open, wouldn't open. Why now? He cursed some more as he struggled. And, as he clashed with the ground, he realized: he had taken it off at some point and forgot to put it back on. 

Renthedog hit the ground too hard.

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The man woke with a start a few moments later, quickly sitting up and clutching his chest, breathing heavily as the stirring adrenaline within him slowly settled down. His communicator buzzed wildly with messages, but he ignored it for now. To say his fall had been a scare was an understatement, especially after how long he had been intentional about not dying. As he forced his breathing to slow, he found himself beginning to laugh. 

Something about this felt... Different. He smirked in a way that would show the very tips of his fangs. Since it was mid afternoon, his human form had begun to transition back to that of a dog. The fangs were always the first to come out, followed by ears that perked up from his hair. He ran his tongue along his canines, finding the teeth that stuck out from the rest. Sure enough, his fangs were almost fully out again. How suiting. He laughed manically to himself as he got out of bed. As mad as he was that he had made such a simple mistake, surely his fun was just beginning. And would he make this the most over dramatic game? Of course. Drama was what he lived for. If he didn't have drama, he might just permanently die on the spot. 

He headed straight for his vanity, the overpowering feeling of differentage coursing through his bones. The sight that greeted him was not him... not exactly. From his skin to his hair, his eyes and even his clothes, the color had completely vanished from him. "Woah..." he exclaimed, turning around so he could see his tooshie in the mirror. He waved his hips as though trying to attract a mate as he chuckled to himself, unbelieving what he was seeing. "That's... awesome!" Who knew that Grian had gone so far as to even add mods for the game? He really did look dead! "Ladies get in line~"

Excitement filling him, he couldn't help but rush over to his closet, throwing open the door before going inside. Even though it had plenty of space, each rack was overflowing with all sorts of different outfits. Naturally a dog like himself had to be prepared for any scenario after all. The explosions of every color of the rainbow contrasted with his greyed self. He paid that no mind as he walked towards an outfit that he had put on display: a tattered and torn cloak the color of blood with a yellow sash. As he reached out and touched it, however, the color drained away as though it had never been there at all. Much more suiting, he thought to himself as he laughed some more. He quick changed into it, tossing his old clothes aside. Grabbing the scythe on the wall before stuffing it in his inventory, he headed out into the world of the living.

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Xisuma shook his head in frustration, scrolling through the messages again that appeared on his visor from when Ren died. Nearly every Hermit had reacted to the death which stood out with a red name. Some had asked if Ren was alright, but the man hadn't answered any of them. Under normal circumstances, this was fine, but the glitch resulting in that red name put him on edge. Surely it would be a cool feature in the game, but Grian had never asked him to put any special mods in for it. That had gotten him thinking about how adamant the angel had been about not being the game's creator in the first place... 

Something just didn't quite add up, and he didn't like it. The Admin meeting lingering in the back of his mind, his first instinct was to call an emergency meeting and put a pause to all of this. He, of course, did not go that far. Doing that would cause some Hermits -- especially ones named Grian-- to panic. Instead, he had settled on meeting with Ren to get a close look at his code and see if he was alright. If it really was just a name color change... Well, maybe Joe had put it in for someone and forgot to say anything. Heck, even Doc or Impulse could have. 

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to slow down. As Admin, he had to think rationally. It was probably nothing, though he still wanted to investigate this matter privately. Now only if Ren would answer his messages... He sent one more.

Xisuma whispered to Renthedog: Ren, are you alright?

Xisuma whispered to Renthedog: Hey, I noticed a potential glitch in your system. Can I come check it out?

Xisuma whispered to RentheDog: Ren?

Xisuma whispered to Renthedog: Ren, I hate doing this, but I really need to talk to you right now as your Admin.  Please answer me. 

He held his breath, waiting in suspense. He began debating if he should look through the code to find the man's coordinates. He really didn't want to resort to that, but this was an important matter. Thankfully, before he had to really answer that question, the dog finally responded, allowing him to sigh in relief. 

Renthedog whispered to Xisuma: Sorry my man; got distracted. I am okay. Will send coords in a sec <3 RD

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The Speedy Pines Raceway was one of Ren's latest projects, which would likely explain why he was there. Shivering in the snowy landscape, Xisuma stared up at the large sign with it's name imprinted in the familiar Sahara colors. A small part of him was nervous, but he reminded himself to take deep breaths in his helmet. Ren had agreed to doing no tricks; this was strictly a confrontation outside of Demise. He walked through the entrance and into the lodge. A fully furnished area greeted him with couches spread out, many around fireplaces. A dark figure was near one such fireplace. 

"Hey, X." Ren's unusually gravelly voice spoke from his place. He turned, letting his hood fall down to reveal his sickly grey skin. "You wanted to talk?"

"Ren!" The Admin exclaimed before he could help it. He rushed over, taking ahold of the dog's arm. He tugged on it so he could see it better. "You've-- you've lost all your color!"

"I know." the other chuckled darkly. "Isn't that great?" 

"Wa-- no! No one told me people would be changing color in this game! And-- and your name is red in chat, too!" He forced himself to let go so he could walk around the couch and sit beside his friend.

Despite how much Xisuma was close to panicking, this didn't seem to bother Ren in the least. He gestured to the table in front of them where two cups of steaming tea waited to be consumed. "Here, how about you have some tea and we can figure this out, okay? You don't have to worry though, really. I feel just fine my dude." He assured.

"R...right..." Xisuma sighed as he picked up the cup nearest to him. He held it in both of his gloved hands, feeling it's warmth begin to expel the cold from his body. 

"You've been under a lot of stress again lately, haven't you?" The dead man asked, looking over his sunglasses. His own greyed out eyes showed genuine concern for his friend as he spoke this. "Xisuma, I know being an Admin is hard work but... you need to remember to have fun sometimes, my dude."

Something about the dog's gentle words caused Xisuma to stare into the semi-transparent green liquid before him. He could see his own reflection in it if he looked hard enough. Most noticeably, his own eyes had bags underneath of them. After the scare at the Admin meeting a few weeks ago, he had spent nearly twice the amount of time checking and rechecking the server to see if anything was off. To help hide this from the others, he had sacrificed some of his sleep so he wouldn't look like he was missing. Maybe that had been a bit overkill, come to think of it. 

He sighed. Ren was most likely right; his server mates usually were whenever they questioned if he had been working too hard. He tried to rub his forehead as he became aware of the stress behind his eyes, but of course his helmet got in the way. He put his drink down just long enough to take it off, allowing himself to actually rub at his eyes. "You're right..." He admitted, suddenly feeling as though he could cry. With a bad tendency to bottle things up, it sometimes all came out at once. He was so good at hiding things that he often even deceived himself. "It's just-- just another rise in bugs is all... I need to make sure to protect this place, you know?"

His words caused Ren to slide beside him, giving him a side hug. "Oh X... You put so much pressure on yourself... You need to remember that we'd do anything for the void who saved us." He explained, rubbing his friend's arm. 

"I-- I know, but... I'm supposed to be the Admin... and I signed up for this job. You all didn't..." X found himself reasoning. It was all he could do to prevent himself from crying. It'd be such a disgrace to cry. "If I can't handle it all myself, what kind of Admin am I anyway?"

"Human." the dog explained. He paused before laughing. "Well, a Child of the Void. Player, hybrid, what difference does it make? You aren't some kind of god, my man. You couldn't possibly do it all by yourself. Isn't the whole point of leading a world to build community? And what's community without teamworkage?"

The terminology made the leader laugh. Ren sure did love adding '-age' to random words. "You're... you're right..." He agreed, a shy smile peaking through as the urge to cry lessened. Something about the man's words made him recall the one boy he had bumped into at the meeting. Hadn't he told the one in training that being an Admin was all about community? Ironic that he still needed to be lectured on that himself. 

"I may not be an Admin, but you got Joe, don't you? And if things are bad, I'm sure Doc and whoever else has training would be happy to help." The dead man assured, patting his friend's back a few times before parting from his hug. "Now... drink up. It'll make you feel better. Promise." And Xisuma listened, lifting the cup up to his lips and taking a swig. He had thought it had been green tea, but it surely didn't taste like it. 

"Hey Ren, what kind of tea is--" As Xisuma looked from his drink back to the other, he was met with a smirk with fangs fully sticking out. It was at that moment that the familiar aftertaste spread through his mouth: poison, mixed with a potion of harming. "R-Ren!! You-- you poisoned me?" He immediately began to feel the effects; the room beginning to spin as his stomach cramped up so bad he feared he'd throw up right there. The man must have had brewed the most powerful poison for the occasion. He heard laughter from far away as his distorted voice exclaimed, "But-- but we agreed! No Demise! A truce..." He slid off the couch, falling to his knees. His entire body shook as he tried to keep himself from fully laying on the ground. Red hot pain seared through his body as he fought off the urge to succumb to death. He heard his murderer speak from somewhere far away, but he was too far gone to decipher the meaning. At last, he no longer had the strength, everything fading to black.

Xisuma was killed by Potion using magic

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"How are you feeling, X?" the reaper asked a few minutes later, having had booked it all the way to his victim's base. Thankfully, the void had yet to get out of bed by the time he had arrived. 

"I... feel..." X began, slowly sitting upright. "Like I want to kill someone." He laughed. 

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I legitimately don't know when this became about Xisuma- this book was supposed to be about Grian. 

And also, halfway through this I realized Demise 1 didn't have red names... and poison can't kill, but it was too late to change it. Oh well. Anyway, I'm so excited for this arc. I finished the first draft of this within 48 hours of posting the chapter before it which is something I haven't done in quite some time. 

Edit: Thanks to my friend StartheDrawer, I changed it so the poison had a bit of harming in it, which in fact will kill. <3