Chapter Text
The bard and the human finally reached the end of the long cavern tunnel, but the path forward abruptly vanished. They stood at the edge of a massive drop-off, staring out into a sprawling, pitch-black abyss.
"Woah, that goes on forever," Venti breathed, leaning cautiously over the sheer ledge.
Oliver stepped up behind him, peering over the bard's shoulder. "That's right..." Oliver muttered, a sudden realization washing over him. "I completely forgot Minecraft updated to this!" The hollow space beyond the ledge seemed infinite. Jagged stalactites hung from a ceiling that was easily a hundred blocks above them, and the cavern floor plunged at least a hundred blocks down.
"The Caves & Cliffs update dropped a year or so before I got picked for the internship..." Oliver whispered, shaking his head at the overwhelming scale of the generated terrain. "I seriously forgot how much bigger this game got." He sighed, looking out at the expanse. "I'm not saying we can't explore all of that, but how do we even get down without breaking every bone in our bodies?"
Venti stepped away from the edge and smiled brightly. "We do what I always do when my sweet little human gets stuck up high~!" The bard wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, pulling Oliver flush against his chest in a tight, secure hug.
Oliver gasped softly. "Oh! Right!" He giggled, melting into the embrace and burying his face into the crook of Venti's neck.
With a powerful surge of Anemo energy, Venti launched them both off the ledge. The wind caught them perfectly, carrying them out of the tunnel and into the massive, open expanse of the cavern. "What are we looking for again?" Venti asked over the soft, rushing air.
"Iron!" Oliver replied. He pulled his head away from Venti's neck, squinting at the dark terrain rushing by below. "But... I think that's Deepslate down there. It only spawns in the lowest parts of the Overworld, beneath the stone layer. I have no idea if you can even break it with wood. I don't remember how it works." Oliver pressed his cheek against Venti's chest again. "Still, keep an eye out for a mineshaft. If this works exactly like the game, the shafts should have chests. Hopefully, I can find some good loot."
"Ooh! Chests, you say?" Venti beamed, his eyes lighting up. "Interesting! We have treasure chests scattered all over our world, too. Who placed them there? Only time knows!" Venti chuckled cryptically.
Oliver blinked. He looked up at Venti's face. "Wait, seriously? Who did place the chests?"
"Hmm~ No idea!" Venti hummed innocently.
Oliver sighed. Of course Venti would dodge the question. "Too much of a lore drop?"
"Well, if you must know, I placed... a few," Venti giggled. "Only a few! I have no idea who found them later on, though!" Venti chuckled. "Forgot which ones I placed though, and ended up finding my own stuff... A little embarrassing,"
Oliver snorted. "Very~!" he shook his head with a smile, turning his attention back to the cavern floor. "Just look for the mineshaft, remember?"
"Yeah, I remember," Venti nodded confidently. "I'm sure I'll recognize one, no problem. Even if it is made out of those cubes. Would it be tucked into the side walls of the cave? If it is, we might need to get a little closer to see."
"Closer to the walls?"
"Yeah," Venti said. "Hang on!" He held Oliver tighter as he shifted the wind currents, drifting them smoothly toward the jagged perimeter of the massive cavern.
"Woah!" Oliver gasped as the stone wall rapidly approached.
"Don't worry, I've got you. Just like when we were in that dark abyss place."
"Ugh, please don't remind me of that. I was absolutely sure we were gonna die," Oliver groaned, hiding his face in the bard's tunic.
"Well, I would have made sure that didn't happen," Venti said softly. As they glided along the cavern perimeter, his teal eyes scanned the shadows. "Hmm," Venti hummed. "I see something ahead, but it doesn't really look like a mineshaft. It looks more like a... half-finished wooden bridge?"
"Huh?" Oliver pulled his face away, twisting his head to look. "Wait! That's it! That's the mineshaft inside of the deepslate area!"
Venti arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Really? That doesn't look like a mine to me. Why does it stick all the way out here, just hanging over the abyss?"
Oliver shook his head, "Yeah Minecraft's got some... questionable terrain generation,"
"Alright. Well, I'm landing here," Venti announced, hovering toward the floating wooden structure. "This wood should be solid, right?"
"Definitely. Physics doesn't exist in Minecraft! Haha!" But a split-second later, Oliver froze. He vividly remembered the grass blocks flying chaotically through the air when the Wither attacked them. "Uhh... actually, on second thought, fly into the actual tunnel entrance in the stone wall. Let's not risk standing on the broken bridge."
"Sure thing," Venti smiled. Instead of touching down on the oak planks, he glided smoothly over the gap, steering them straight into the dark, wooden-framed tunnel embedded in the deepslate wall.
Venti gently lowered his feet to the pixelated floor. "There we go! Solid stone blocks!"
Oliver let go of the bard, stepping back to get a look at their surroundings.
"So, are we good? This is a mineshaft? A good one?" Venti asked, looking around at the cobwebs and support beams.
Oliver nodded slowly. "It's a mineshaft, alright. Whether it's good is up for debate. There's no telling if it'll actually have chests. Or even exposed ores."
"You said something about needing wood earlier," Venti pointed to a thick oak planks acting as a support beam. "Is that wood good enough?"
"Hmm." Oliver stepped up to the beam. He reached out, his fingers tracing the blocky surface, genuinely captivated by the texture. "This dimension is literally just Minecraft with ray-tracing on," Oliver muttered in awe. "Look at the fibers in the wood. It's like having shaders on. But it's still pixel-like. Interesting,"
He took a step back and balled his hand into a tight fist.
Venti arched an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
Oliver didn't answer. He just pulled his arm back and punched the wooden block as hard as he could.
"Ahh!" Oliver instantly recoiled, cradling his hand against his chest. "Ow, that hurt..."
Venti stared in utter bewilderment, wondering why his boyfriend had just randomly squared up with a pillar. "Babe? Are you trying to break it like that? I... I don't think it's physically possible to break solid oak planks with your bare hands. Unless you're built like Varka, of course. And even he would have trouble with wood this thick." But as Venti looked closer, he noticed a faint, jagged crack spiderwebbing across the block's surface. He blinked. "Wait a minute. That wasn't there before. Babe, did you do that?!"
Venti spun to look at Oliver, a teasing grin spreading across his face. "Are you secretly a little sexy powerhouse~?"
Oliver just giggled, rubbing his bruised knuckles. "I—well, this is just game logic! Steve can break stuff by just punching it!" He narrowed his eyes at the plank, raised his fist, and slammed it into the wood a second time.
"Ahh!" He winced louder, shaking out his hand. His knuckles were already turning an angry red.
Venti quickly lunged forward, catching Oliver's wrist before he could take a third swing.
Oliver didn't fight it. He let out a defeated sigh. "Yeah... it looks like the dimension does work like the game. See? The block is cracking. But I'm... I'm not Steve. I'll break my hand before I break the block."
Venti nodded firmly. "Which is exactly why I'm not letting you punch it anymore. Come on, we must be able to find a tool lying around."
Oliver nodded, turning back to the dark tunnel. "Let's try to find a chest. Hopefully, there's an axe inside. Or better yet, a pickaxe."
"They don't have swords?" Venti asked.
"Swords? In a mineshaft? I don't think they spawn in these loot chests..." Oliver thought out loud. "I guess for logical reasons... well, as much logic as Minecraft can actually have." Oliver said. "Swords do spawn in Ancient Cities down in the Deep Dark, though. But there is no way in hell I am ever going—"
Skurlk.
Oliver froze. His blood ran cold at the sickening, wet sound, instantly followed by a low, vibrating hum that echoed through the stone.
Venti stopped dead in his tracks. "What was—"
Oliver moved with speed, slapping his hand directly over Venti's mouth. He stood entirely paralyzed, his eyes locked onto the ground in pure panic. Venti arched an eyebrow, looking up at his boyfriend with wide, deeply confused eyes.
Slowly, carefully, Oliver lowered his hand from the bard's lips. The mineshaft tunnel split into a four-way intersection just ahead of them. Hugging the wall, Oliver crept forward and carefully peeked around the wooden support beam to look down the corridor to their left.
A sickening, bioluminescent blue hue pulsed faintly in the distance, bleeding into a suffocating, pitch-black abyss. The sculk infection had completely overtaken the tunnel, breaking off all the torches and drowning the area in unnatural darkness.
Venti leaned over Oliver's shoulder. "Ew! What is all that glowing blue muck?"
The exact second Venti's voice broke the silence, the Sculk Sensor triggered.
Which, in turn had instantly setting off a Sculk Shrieker hidden in the dark.
An agonizing, soul-piercing screech violently bounced off the cavern walls. The sheer volume of it made Oliver—and even the Anemo Archon—flinch in sheer terror, they almost shit their pants.
Instantly, the torches in their section of the mineshaft flickered violently before snuffing out completely. A oppressive darkness swallowed them whole.
Ba-dump
A massive, terrifying heartbeat echoed from the depths.
Oliver slowly backed up, his heart pounding out of his chest, and looked frantically down the opposite tunnel. After a few agonizing seconds, the torches flickered back to life. The darkness lifted.
The Warden wasn't coming.
"C-Come on, Venti," Oliver whispered frantically, grabbing Venti's hand and practically dragging him down the fully lit hallway. "We are not going into the Deep Dark."
For once, Venti didn't argue. He hurried alongside Oliver. "Normally I'd be all hot and ready for a fight, but something about that was genuinely unnerving," the bard admitted, glancing over his shoulder. "More so than the Wither."
"Hearing that from you is surprising," Oliver managed a weak, shaky smile.
"Though I'm sure I could have taken it on!" Venti quickly defended himself, puffing his chest out. "But the great Archon is on a break from big surprises like that right now."
"Hey, Venti..." Oliver said softly. "It's okay to be scared."
Venti giggled, the tension leaving his shoulders. "Trust me, I know. And I was! ehe!. That was definitely a scare. It felt like a completely different vibe entirely. I mean, regular dark caves are nothing, but there was something so wrong with that sound."
"Trust me," Oliver exhaled, finally slowing his pace. "We all thought the exact same thing when Mojang dropped that update. Jeb must have been chugging Potions of Swiftness when he and his team came up with that shit!"
Venti burst into a fit of soft giggles. He had no idea what Oliver was talking about, but the human's exasperation was hilarious.
"The weird part is that it still feels like Minecraft to me, but it's genuinely terrifying," Oliver shuddered. "And actually being here? Experiencing it in person? No thanks. Shit, I didn't even feel this stressed in SOMA's dimension..."
Venti laughed. "Yeah, this place is something else altogether!"
As they walked, the stone floor transitioned into wooden planks lined with old, rusty minecart tracks.
"Yes! Okay, this means we might actually find a chest!" Oliver cheered.
And right on cue, as they rounded the next corner, a lone minecart sat abandoned on the rails, a wooden chest resting squarely inside it.
"AH HAAAA! YES! FOUND IT!" Oliver sprinted toward it. "Let's hope for good loot!"
"It has to be great loot if I'm around!" Venti smiled proudly, planting his hands on his hips. "Now, if Benny were with you, maybe not so much~"
"Hey, don't be mean to Bennett!" Oliver laughed as he threw open the heavy wooden lid. He peered inside and immediately gasped. "Yes! Look! Jackpot!" He reached into the chest and pulled out a massive, pixelated tool. "And it's Iron, too! Such a lucky find!"
He held it up to the torchlight, admiring the blocky craftsmanship. "So cooool!" Oliver cooed, swinging it experimentally through the air. "I'm literally holding a Minecraft tool! And it's surprisingly light!"
Venti stepped up, eyeing the strange, pixelated object. "Hmm. Why does this remind me of Ajaw looking at this?"
Oliver froze mid-swing. "Uh, who?"
"Ajaw. He's always hanging out with Kinich."
Oliver blinked slowly. "Again... WHO!?" He let out a frustrated, dramatic groan. "Who the heck is Ajaw, and who the hell is Kinich?!" Oliver dragged a hand down his face, the reality of his situation setting in. "I should practically just give up on Genshin Impact. Even if I ever get a normal life back in my dimension, I've missed way too much shit to catch up."
Venti snorted, giggling into his hands. "Yeah, Kinich. He always has Ajaw by his side."
"He?" Oliver's eyes widened. "And I missed another male banner. Welp, there goes my dream of collecting all the guys."
Venti burst into a fresh fit of laughter. "Okay, I really need to see what this game looks like in your world. For you to react like this, it must be something dire!"
"Well, not really. It's not like I need it to breathe." Oliver paused, a terrible idea of a pun forming in his head. He looked at Venti with a totally straight face. "Well... I do need you to breathe. Because you knock the wind out of me~ Mr. Anemo!"
Oliver immediately cringed, his entire body shutting down in regret. That entire thing... definitely sounded better in his head.
"I am never doing that again," Oliver muttered, staring at the floor.
Venti threw his head back and howled with laughter. "Hahaha! Wow! I mean, the setup was there! But you executed it terribly!"
"Man, that was horrible," Oliver groaned, hiding his burning face behind his free hand.
Shaking off the embarrassment, Oliver reached back into the chest. "Ooh! Look what else I found!" He pulled his hand out, holding up a bright red, perfectly cube-shaped fruit. "Look!"
Venti gasped, his eyes going as wide as saucers at the sight of the square fruit. "OH MY WORD! AN APPLE?!"
Oliver snorted and handed it over.
"Awwww, for me!?" Venti beamed, taking the blocky apple like it was a sacred artifact. "Awww, thanks!" He inspected it from every angle. "Look how ripe and juicy it is! It's so perfect, and... CUBEY!"
Without hesitating, Venti took a massive bite out of the cube. His eyes fluttered shut in pure bliss. "Hmm~ mmm~ HMM, SO GOOD!"
Oliver had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Some of the words he was saying, was definitely lines he heard in the game, but with a more frantic twist. "Geez. Are apples just a drug to you?"
Venti giggled, chewing happily. "They're just sooo good! I love apples. And this? This blocky goodness? SOO GOOD!" He took another huge bite. "Mmhh-mmm! Such a nice treat to have after that scare earlier!" He swallowed the last piece and tossed the pixelated core onto the ground. "Hmm, that hit the spot! I was feeling a bit peckish earlier," Venti sighed contentedly, patting his stomach.
Oliver blinked. "Oh crap, were you hungry? You should have said something."
"Well, remember, I am an Archon! I don't need to eat much." Venti tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Though, it has been a while since my last meal. I forgot how many days it's been. An Archon can live up to five months without food. Still, our tummies do start to growl after just a week, ahaha." He shot Oliver a cheeky, sideways glance. "Not that you ever mind hearing them rumble, though~!"
Oliver rolled his eyes, blushing furiously. "Okay, don't start teasing me!" He quickly looked back down at his new tool to distract himself. "Huh... it's glowing purple. That means it's enchanted, too! Score!" He looked back at Venti with a wide grin. "Though... I have absolutely no idea what it's enchanted with."
"Enchanted?" Venti asked.
"Yeah. You usually do it with Enchanting Tables or anvils." Oliver turned toward the solid stone wall, making absolutely sure he was facing away from the Deep Dark biome.
With a giddy smile, Oliver swung the Iron Pickaxe into the stone block. It shattered instantly, dropping a tiny cube of cobbled deepslate.
"Hehehehe!" Oliver giggled, utterly delighted. "I'm playing Minecraft in real life!"
Venti smiled warmly at his boyfriend's joy. "You seem to be having fun now! At least we're not terrified anymore."
"Yeah, this part is incredibly chill." Oliver swung the pickaxe again, quickly mining out a small, 2x1 tunnel into the rock face.
"I guess you're making your own tunnel? Are we looking for more ores?" Venti asked, walking closely behind him.
"Yes!" Oliver said over the sound of breaking stone. "To make a sword. Though, I actually have to find enough iron to make an axe first. I need wood to craft sticks for the sword handle. And I'm not planning to punch that oak support beam with my bare hands again."
"I definitely won't let you," Venti agreed. He paused, tilting his head as he processed Oliver's logic. "Ollie? You're mining for ores to make an axe so you can harvest wood, right? But... don't you also need wood to make the handle for the axe?"
Oliver froze mid-swing. Slowly, he let his head fall forward until his forehead hit the deepslate block with a dull thud.
Venti snorted. "I'm sorry!" he giggled, trying and failing to hide his amusement.
"Ugh, Minecraft," Oliver groaned into the block. "You gotta get this thing, to get that thing, so you can get the other thing! It's an endless loop." He lifted his head, shaking it in frustration. "Well, at least it's not like a typical Silent Hill game, where you have to find a key, to open a tool chest, to find another key that opens the breaker room, just so you can flick on the lights to see a hidden key in the dark, and then take that key to unlock a puzzle. You solve the puzzle, and what do you get? Another fucking key to open the main door. You do all of that just to get clapped in the ass by Pyramid Head."
Venti had absolutely no idea what a single word of that rant meant, but he laughed brightly anyway.
Oliver sighed and went back to mining. Swinging the pickaxe was actually effortless, the tool doing all the heavy lifting. As he carved deeper into the tunnel, a familiar rhythm took over, and he started to gently bop his head.
"So we back in the mine—" Oliver swung the tool into the stone. "Got our pickaxe swinging from side to side—" He rhythmically bashed the left wall, then the right. "Side-side to side!"
Venti froze, watching in bewildered amusement as Oliver spontaneously broke into song.
"This task, a grueling one, hope to find some diamonds tonight, night, night—" Oliver struck the walls on beat. "Night-night, diamonds tonight!"
Venti burst into laughter, completely losing it. Oliver started giggling too, but he refused to stop his performance.
"'Cause, baby, tonight, the creeper's tryna steal all our stuff again!!!!" Oliver belted at the top of his lungs, echoing down the empty tunnel.
"Ollie, what are you singing!?" Venti wheezed, clutching his stomach. "When did you become a bard~?"
Oliver laughed, leaning on his pickaxe. "Haha, it's just a song from my world."
"No duh~!" Venti teased, wiping a tear from his eye. "Where else would it be from? It sounded like you were just narrating exactly what you were doing! Trying to find diamonds, eh~?"
"Well, believe it or not, judging by the deepslate, I'm pretty sure we're exactly on diamond level! And I have an Iron Pickaxe to mine them. So if I come across any, I am definitely taking them." Oliver grinned, imagining the sheer power of the weapon. "A blue Diamond Sword infused with Cryo energy? That would be legendary!"
Venti giggled, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "Well, let's find some diamonds, then! Might as well make your new weapon truly your own!"