The smoke tasted acrid, burning her throat as she tried to breath, the searing pain of fire tingling on every inch of her skin, even though she wasn't on fire.

Pearl ran through the burning streets of Gilded Helianthia, swerving to avoid burning debris and plant matter in giant burning clumps. Ash drifted through the air, and the smoke was thick and covered everything, making it impossible to see more than a few feet ahead.

Forging her way through the flames, Pearl finally reached the edge of the city, her beanstalk rising high and gloriously intact amongst the burning wreck of everything else.

Her elytra was singed and tattered, holes speckled through where small bits of fire and ash had landed and burned through, but hopefully it was still able to carry her long enough to get up.

Igniting a rocket, she took off, wobbling clumsily through the skies, a pale parody of the swift, graceful flight she was used to. But it got the job done, and she collapsed on the landing platform outside the building at the top of the beanstalk, coughing and wheezing as she took in her first clear breaths in hours and her lungs tried to expel the toxicity it had been inhaling.

Once the fit abated and she could see beyond the reflex tears that had poured from her eyes to protect them from the smoke and from the force of her coughing fit, Pearl sat up and surveyed the area, wincing at the sheer damage her empire had suffered.

A distant yell reached her ears, and she twisted around, grinning in pure relief as she saw Sausage flying towards her, elytra shimmering and whole as he swooped towards the beanstalk.

Ignoring the way her skin burned as she stood up, Pearl waved to catch Sausage's attention and direct him over to land next to her.

Sausage practically crashed into the platform with the speed he landed at, stumbling and barely avoiding crashing into the wall.

"Oh my gods Pearl are you okay, what's happening, why is everything burning, this is even worse than Mythland, oh gods everything is awful Pearl he's back and now everything is being destroyed and oh gods Pearl-"

The stream of words from Sausage cut off as he sagged, Pearl reaching out and grabbing him to keep him from falling over and off the beanstalk. Holding onto his arm to keep him from falling over again (poor guy looked absolutely exhausted, when was the last time he slept-), she led them both inside the building and sat him down on the floor by the wall.

"Oh gods, Pearl," he whispered again, more to himself than to her. He was in some sort of shock, Pearl guessed from his behavior.

"Are you okay, mate? What's happened?" she asked him gently, a comforting hand on his shoulder as she sat in front of him, one leg pulled up and the other bent comfortably in a half crisscross way.

"It's"- Sausage shuddered, blinking hard and turning to look at her- "It's all gone, Pearl. The Grimlands, the Lost Empire, the Overgrown, the Ocean Empire... they're all gone, and the rest are falling too."

Pearl inhaled sharply. "So many? They can't all be gone-gone, they can still recover, right?"

He shook his head, eyes downcast in shame. "Gone, Pearl. And Mythland's doomed, I couldn't bear to stay and watch her die too."

Sympathy rippled through her, an echo of the grief and pain her best friend had to be feeling. "Oh, Sausage, I'm so sorry."

Sausage took a deep breath, rubbing his eyes hard and turning to face her fully, eyes determined, even with the agony she could see reflected in the depths. "It's fine. I'll- it'll be fine. We gotta focus on you right now."

"On me? Why?" Pearl asked, confused. "I'm fine, mate. The fires will burn themselves out eventually, and then we'll rebuild. Sure, it's bad, but it's recoverable."

Sausage stared at her, seemingly waiting for more. She stared back, and eventually Sausage said, slowly, confusion coloring his tone, "Pearl, don't you- have you not- You really don't know yet?"

"...Know what, Sausage? What are you talking about?" Pearl said, spreading her hands out in the universal sign of 'I don't know'. "You're not making much sense, Soos."

He stared at her a bit more, and then, seemingly coming to a decision, Sausage gently took a hold of Pearl's arm and lifted it up, bringing her attention to her own body and the cause for the constant burning sensation on her skin, which she had been ignoring.

Pearl's skin was blackened and charred, the natural warm skin giving way to charcoal-like burns and patches of ashy white that were flaking off.

"You're dying, Pearl. And it's not natural."

She stared at her arm, eyes trailing up the black and white speckled skin up to where her skin vanished up her sleeve, and when she shoved the top of her dress aside, she could see it spreading, the burning sensation she had been ignoring stronger in the areas the burns were infecting and completely numb in the already blackened areas.

"Oh." That was all she could say, really. She knew what the burning was from now. "Take care of my animals for me, Sausage?"

"Wha- No, Pearl, no, you're not dying Pearl, I'll fix this, I'll save you, I can-" Pearl could see the panic in her best friend's eyes, and for a moment the sheer grief and pain of her predicament hit her. She was dying. She was going to die, leaving everyone behind. Sausage had already lost so much, and now he was going to lose her too.

She gave herself exactly five seconds to mourn herself, and then she steeled her emotions and leaned forward, sitting up towards Sausage and grabbing both his shoulders, stopping the mad search he had begun inside his bag, presumably for anything that could save her.

She had to break it to him, tell him that this was the end for her. She understood now, why she was burning.

"Sausage, you can't fix this," she said gently, tightening her grip on his skin, using the contact to anchor both him and herself. "I understand now. My empire burns, and with it, so do I."

Sausage's eyes widened as he understood, and she could see him struggling with the knowledge, grief practically pouring into the air around him from his pain, before the same determination that they both shared lit in his eyes, and he shook his head, tears bright in his eyes but forbidden to fall.

"No, I won't let it happen. We can- we can put the fires out, or shield you from the burning, or- or break your connection to the empire, we have to- there has to be something I can do-" Sausage was rambling, searching for any kind of hope. It was sweet of him to try to help, it was his first instinct for everything, help anything and anyone who needed it, especially the people he cared about. But this wasn't something he could help or fix.

"I need you to promise me something, Sausage." His focus snapped back to her with the words, reading the seriousness in her tone and face and immediately nodding.

"Anything, Pearl, anything," he said, the fervor clear in his voice. Loyal to the bone, this one, she thought fondly. She would miss him.

"Don't let this destroy you," she whispered, the words no less fierce for the volume she spoke them at. "I will die, but you will live on. Don't die with me, Sausage. Live, and be happy. For me, if not for yourself."

She didn't let go until he promised, shakily, and then she let herself go, body sagging as the last of her energy evaporated. Sausage gave a wordless cry, scrambling over to her and carefully cradling her rapidly disintegrating body.

Pearl barely noticed when he pulled a spellbook out of his bag and began frantically searching for spells. She wasn't able to see when he couldn't do the spell because he was crying too hard, the tears falling onto the pages and onto the floor.

She tried to get one last word out, to tell him that it was okay, that it didn't hurt, to say goodbye, to say that she wasn't ready, anything to keep herself from falling, but she couldn't

Pearl died, and her body crumbled to ash in the arms of her best friend, and her story ended.

A second or an eternity later, Pearl opens her eyes. A land stretched before her, white and gold pillars and buildings and gardens all around, the air sweet and fresh and slightly scented with something flowery and natural.

In front of her stood what could be nothing else but a god, the sheer divine power emanating from him impossible to ignore.

"Joel?" she asked, shocked at the sight of the Mezelean king so muscled and... tall.

He nodded, smirking like a cat that had just tricked its owner into giving it more dinner. "Welcome to the Land of the Gods, Saint Pearl."