"I figured it out!" Iskall approached Grian and Mumbo.

They turned to look at him and in his hand was a dead fish. Grain raised an eyebrow.

"It's a rotten fish."

"Except that's just it. It's not rotten." Iskall smiled proudly.

Mumbo leaned in a little and then took a step back. "He's right, it's fresh. Grian, the fish survived. We have food!"

The three of them celebrate and run to the beach to stock up on food. Iskall grinned. "See, I told you I was working everything out."

Once they had plenty, they went back the their base and Iskall began to cook. They sat down at a table with their meals, savouring each bite. Iskall finished his off and waited for Grian and Mumbo to be done eating.

"Alright. Time to talk about the plan."

Mumbo looked up. "You have a plan?"

"You bet. We are seriously down on numbers and with Hels betraying us we now have a new, powerful enemy." Iskall pulled out a small glass vial of glowing lime green liquid. "Hels has taken refuge in our old base with Evil Xisuma. This is bad for two reasons. Two of the most powerful people in the world are working together, against us and they also have all of our Iskallium we worked so hard to steal. Except for the vial I keep on me at all times of course."

Iskall thought back to when they attacked the shopping district, just him, Grian, Mumbo, Grim and Hels. Before it was all ruined. It felt so long ago.

"You two ready for another heist?" Iskall looked at them expectantly.

"Are you suggesting we steal the Iskallium back. Why?" Grain didn't look enthused.

"It will give us the strength we need to take him out and eventually become as powerful as gods. It's necessary to our entire plan."

"I really don't think we should be going after Hels right now. We barely outnumber them and they are so much more powerful."

"We're running out of options. We're not just going to be survivors in a wasteland Grian. We're going to rule it. We need the power, we need the Iskallium."

"No." Mumbo spoke up.

"What?" Iskall's face turned dead serious.

"I won't have any part in it. I'm sick of losing and I'm not risking my life this. It's a suicide mission. I'm not going and I don't think of you two should either."

Iskall was lost for words for a few seconds. "What? No we're doing this"

"Iskall, we're not the powerful team we were. Grim, Stress, Hels, Etho, Cleo. They're all gone. If you're not careful you'll lose me. Grian too."

"You two wouldn't leave me. You have no where to go. We're a team."

Grian hesitated before speaking. "We're not following you into this. They'll rip us to shreds and right now I just want to focus on surviving after what Hels did."

There was some small part of Iskall that was screaming at him. Screaming at him not to let this happen, but his emotions took over.

"You know what? Fine." Iskall said coldly. "If the last few weeks have taught me anything it's that the only person I can rely on is me." He grabbed his sword and made sure the Iskallium was safe in his pocket.

"I'll show you." Iskall said to no one in particular. "I'll show you all."

As he walked away, as far away as he could get, it started raining. Rain drenching the dry, dead ground. He walked through a forest that had burned down, the skeletal tree remains casting shadows over him as lightning struck.

Hels. This was Hels fault. All of it. He did this, all of it. He made Iskall into this. He tore it away. It was his fault that Iskall was now truly, completely alone.

As he walked over a lake of obsidian he became aware of something deep in his gut weighing him down. Anger? loneliness? He realised it was something similar to guilt.

Guilt in the shape of the servers old admin.

Xisuma.

——————————————————————————

Ren felt the rubble shift under his feet, walking through the ruins of a town. He entered a house that was mostly intact where an unconscious Grim was tied up.

Martyn stepped up next to him. "You ready?"

Ren shrugged. "I guess so. Grim might not even have the answers, don't get your hopes up."

"It's a start. If it doesn't work we can try your friend Doc next. We got this."

Grim started to stir from his sleep and Martyn gave him a light kick.

"Oi. Reaper boy. Wake up."

Grim sat up, struggled against his restraints and leant his back against the wall. "Alright, I lost. What do you want?"

"I need your help." Ren looked around. It was only him and Martyn there but he knew the rest would join them soon.

Grim scoffed. "My help? What's that supposed to mean."

"Look at yourself Grim. Do you feel whole? Because I don't. We aren't supposed to be separated, we're two parts of one whole. I want to be one again and I want to figure out what's going on. Why did I see all these versions of me, why were there some I didn't recognise?"

"I don't know, I guess I'm just one version of you. But I'm my own person, I have to be."

"You're missing so much Grim. Every part that you're missing is part of me. Every part I'm missing is a part of you. There's no Ren and Grim. It's just Ren. And right now neither of us are him." Ren looked back as False, Jimmy, Scott and Bigb joined them. "You're not just joining me, not more than I'm joining you. The two of us won't cease to exist, we will just be whole."

Grim opened his mouth to speak but suddenly Ren gasped with a massive pain in his skull. He instinctively turned around to see what had struck him but there was nothing there. Ren realised that the pain was a headache and he dropped to his knees, holding his head. He looked up to see Martyn run towards him but everything went black.

Ren was standing in a grassy plains. He once again saw a version of himself that he didn't recognise. This time, instead of being dressed as a king, he was wearing a cloak. He almost looked like an assassin.

The other Ren turned in time to see Pearl run at him. He swiped with his sword, the blade grazing Pearl's arm as she jumped back. Ren followed this by opening his hand, molten lava burst out, burning Pearl. The lava pooled on the ground and the two fought in it. Ren appeared to be immune to its heat and he finally struck Pearl down, she collapsed at his feet and died.

The other Ren looked down. "I'm sorry Pearl, I'm so sorry."

He ran away into the trees. Ren ran after the assassin version of him. What was this? It was horrible.

Ren ran up just in time to see an explosion, leaving some assassin version of Martyn in a crater, dead. Ren saw Scott run out of the smoke until he met the other Ren on a hill.

"No more running Ren!" Scott loaded his bow and Ren charged.

Ren sliced at Scott before he could draw back his bow and Scott managed to push him away, the blade opening a gash in shoulder.

Scott shot multiple arrows to Ren, the assassin shielded his face with his arm and they stuck into him. Ren ran forward and more arrows lodged into his shoulder and gut.

With many arrows sticking out of him, Ren still charged and an arrow hit his hand, he attacked with his fist and clawed at Scott.

"Just die Ren!" He drove his sword into the other Ren's stomach.

Ren's attacks became weak and Scott stopped fighting back, knowing he had won. He held Ren up, leaving the hermit weakly clawing at him. Scott let go and Ren fell to his knees. Scott pushed Ren back with his foot and he rolled down the hill. Ren turned over to look at Scott.

Scott couldn't make eye contact so he looked at the ground as the zombie grabbed hold of the other Ren.

It was at this moment that Ren was suddenly back in the house. He was breathing heavily and Martyn and False were by his side. He saw Grim was also holding his head in pain.

"Did you see that too?"

Grim nodded. He looked up and saw Scott. "Ren! Get away from him." He stood up and backed against a wall, his hands still tied.

Scott looked confused. "What? Why?"

Ren felt a fear in his gut. He wanted to get away from Scott too.

Grim looked panicked. "You're a killer. He's going to kill us."

Jimmy tilted his head. "Scott wouldn't hurt a fly."

"Not here he wouldn't. Some other version of him would though." Ren stood a little further back. "I saw some other version of us. Scott killed Martyn and I. But I'm not a killer either, and I killed Pearl. It's like a different world there."

Grim walked next to him. "You're right Ren, we need to figure this out. Maybe if we become whole again, it will solve this and we wont have any more visions."

Ren nodded. "Thank you Grim."

"I'll be honest, I don't really know how to do this."

"I think if we're both willing to it should be easy." Ren took both of Grim's hands. Suddenly it was like neither of them had a physical form, they both walked forwards, merging into one person. Suddenly Ren and Grim were gone and Ren was whole again.

Once again everything went black. Ren found himself in the wooden room filled with doors and he understood that he had to do the same as last time. He walked until he found a door that led to a version of him in his log shop. If he walked through it he'd become Ren again. Just Ren.

Before he got the chance to open the door, something heavy hit him in the back of the head. He collapsed and looked around, seeing all different versions of him surrounding him.

The red king looked down at him. "You've been in charge long enough. It's my turn."

——————————————————————————

Sometimes I read back through these chapters and see just how many spelling mistake there are
I really should be editing these better
My bad guys

Next chapter: Painless