When it happened, everything seemed to go silent.

The birds stopped singing.

The wind stopped howling.

The hermits, worried about what was next, stopped the commotion.

Cleo and Joe, who were rejoicing about Cleo's recovery of her memory, froze.

Ren, who was eating with his new friends, dropped his fork.

Under the rubble of Xisuma's base, Gem surfaced. Not even she could bring herself to say anything.

Grim stumbled through the forest and rested against a tree, knowing he was helpless for what was going to happen.

Hels and Evil Xisuma sat in a bunker under Iskalls fortress.

And finally, Iskall, Stress, Grian and Mumbo. The group couldn't tear their eyes away from the sky.

Everything went to hell, literally.

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The cracks that spanned across the sky shattered. It looked like there were holes in the sky. Iskall knew better. Those holes weren't in the sky, they were in their dimension.

Out of some of those holes, waterfalls of lava poured out. When it hit the ground, it created rivers. Some of it gathered in pools, some set fire to the forest.

Out of others, giant chunks of netherrack dropped down. When it hit, it embedded itself in the floor. The grass around where they hit instantly turned to dark grey. The death started to spread, anything growing out of the ground, killed.

For a second, Iskall found himself unable to move. He finally got himself going. "Grian, Stress, Mumbo. Let's go!"

The four of them took flight, dodging the raining netherrack.

"Where are we going?" Grian shouted.

"Anywhere! We need to take cover!"

They got to the jungle when a chunk of netherrack hit Mumbo's elytra. He went tumbling down and hit the floor with a sickening thud.

The rest landed next to him. He was definitely injured, barley able to talk.

Grian swung his arm around his shoulder but froze. He watched a massive piece of netherrack crash through his mansion. It was like it was cut in half.

"No..."

Iskall helped Mumbo onto Grians back. "Grain! We have to go."

"But, my mansion. I never even finished it."

"I know. But now isn't the time to shut down. You're the only one with strong enough wings to carry Mumbo."

"Right. Yeah..." He took off into the air, the other two following.

They dodged one of the pillars at Mumbo's base as it fell down. Some of the grey from the raining netherrack spread to Iskalls tree. It turned black and the leaves fell off. His omega tree was dead.

He paused for a second but he knew he had to keep going. He swerved around a lava stream and landed by his cave entrance.

"Into the cave! It's our best chance." He shouted.

The rest followed him in. The descended deeper and deeper, listening to the thuds and watching the roof shake. Finally, silence.

They gently put Mumbo down and walked to the surface.

"This can't be real." Stress whispered to herself.

Every single field of grass, every tree and every bush was dead. It has all turned dark grey and the only exception of colour was the lava that formed pools and rivers. The sky was a blueish grey and filled with smoke.

They all stood there in silence for a few minutes. All
That could be heard was Grians gentle sobbing.

Mumbo limped out of the cave. "What just happened?"

Iskall walked forward, the dead grass crunching under his feet. "Hels got what he wanted."

"I think we lost"

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All four were speechless, lost for words.

"I can't believe it. You can't tell me Hels was in charge this whole time." Mumbo sat down, still injured.

"So I guess that explains everything. Did he make me want this? Make me want to kill? To rule?" Iskall spoke angrily.

He wasn't sure what to feel. It wasn't him that wanted this. It was Hels, but he still felt the same. He still wanted to be the king. The king of this broken world.

He shook his head. "This changes nothing. Hels betrayed us. He's our enemy now."

"There's only four of us. Where's Etho?" Stress asked.

"He's gone. Don't worry about him."

"I screwed up so bad. I shouldn't have left him."

Iskall knew she wasn't talking about Etho.

"Hey, Grim left you. The only thing that's left is Ren and he's far away now. I saw him sailing away." Iskall didn't mention that he thought he saw Grim earlier.

Iskall passed Mumbo a health potion. "Mumbo and Grian. See what you can salvage from your base. Strong building materials, weapons, explosives. Anything."

The two nodded and stared the trek to their bases.

"Hey, dude?" Mumbo slowed down.

"Yeah?" Grian stopped next to him.

"Do you still feel like Grian?"

"Of course. It's who I am."

"It's just that, we were never in control. We hurting people. Doing things Grian and Mumbo wouldn't do."

Grian shrugged. "I still feel like me. I just want different things."

"The shopping district."

"What about it?"

"We blew it up. The explosions did a lot to damage to the whole place and the area surrounding it."

"So? I don't care about the barge." Grian continued to walk.

"I'm not talking about the barge, Grian. You know what was right next to the shopping district?"

Grian said nothing.

"Grumbot. I don't know if he survived."

There was a long pause. "He's just a machine."

Mumbo stopped walking when they reached Grians base. "And the mansion is just a house! He had thoughts and feelings."

"You're right. I'm sorry."

They began to search what was left of Grians chest monster. They grabbed what they could and Grian sat down on the steps. "I can't believe our bases are gone. I never even got to finish the back."

Grian snapped himself out of it and stood up. He walked down to Mumbo and hugged him. "Grumbot is okay. I know it. Let's head down to your base."

The began to walk to the rubble of Mumbo's base.

Mumbo noticed a figure in the jungle. "Hey! That's Grim!"

Grim looked over to them. He turned the other way and ran.

"After him!"

Grian took off into the air and grabbed Mumbo after realising his elytra was still broken. The flew above the tree line and swooped down to Grim.

"Now!" Mumbo yelled.

Grian dropped mumbo and he fell onto grim, tackling him.

"You're coming with us" Grian stated.

A few minutes later they were back outside the cave.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in." Iskall smiled down at grim.

"What the heck, Iskall! You said Ren left." Stress approach Grim cautiously.

Grim grumbled. "He did. We both have separate body's now or something. I'm really not sure."

"You left me."

"I know. I don't want to be here anymore. I just wanted to be Ren again. It didn't work. I wasn't angry at first. Just confused. I wonder if Ren and I are whole. We're missing pieces of our mind."

"Im not staying." Grim continued. "I've changed my mind, Im going to find Ren, and im gonna blow the sucker up."

"What would that do?" Stress asked.

"I don't know. Do I need a reason?"

Grim punched Mumbo in the face, spun around and started to run off.

"Leave him." Iskall turned away. "He's out of our hair now."

"Now what?" Mumbo wiped blood from his nose.

"Well I guess we adjust." Iskall grabbed his sword.

"Adjust to the new world."

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Well I don't really have anything to say so...

I hope you're doing well :)

Next chapter: Grief