Evil Xisuma walked back into the fortress, exhausted. He entered the throne room, Hels had tipped over and destroyed all the thrones except his and made a new one for Evil.

Hels was tinkering with something while sitting on his throne. Evil walked up to him.

"Wow, you've got a new look"

Hels looked up and chuckled. He was now wearing armour so dark it was almost black. "Yeah, if I'm destroying everything I figured I better look the part. Did you get it?"

Evil opened the bag he was holding and showed him the scraps of netherite.

Hels eyes glowed brightly with flames. "Perfect." He took the bag from him.

"You still haven't exactly made it clear what you need them for." Evil took a seat on his throne.

"To put it simply, more destruction. More power."

"Are we really going to destroy everything?"

"Of course. That's nothing to be sad about. Existence is impermanent as it is. Don't you want to be on the winning side for once?"

Evil looked up. "Well, yeah."

"We'll take it away from them. The gods who wronged me and let my world die. The hermits who have always been against us. Iskall. He killed your brother and remains a threat. I don't know how much control I have over him."

"You're right. Destruction. That's what I've always wanted, right?"

"That's right. Now I've got to get to work." Hels took the netherite scraps and went to the workshop.

Despite being exhausted. Evil Xisuma went outside and to the destroyed shopping district. It's had been wiped out when it was blown up and again when hell rained down.

He knew the hermits were just beneath him, in decked out. He couldn't see any around though. He walked over to the statues that were almost finished being built. One of Vintage Beef and the one of the admin, Xisuma

He sat down against the statue of his brother and took his helmet off.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you brother. I'm sure you're doing ok up there with dad."

He lit a cigar. "Did dad ever tell you about daisy? She was the cutest little bunny. She was killed, as an attack on dad and wow, it made him mad. I don't think there was a single demon left when he was done. I hope Daisy is up there with the two of you."

"I suppose I'll never get to see you guys again. I'm no admin. Who knows what afterlife awaits me. It's gets lonely, being the last of the family. You freed me from that horrible place and now you're gone. I guess your not truely gone though. You'll always be with me. You'll fight with me."

Evil Xisuma stood up and threw away the cigar. He looked over and saw Joe standing a few meters away. Evil prepared to run but Joe just nodded.

"Me, Keralis, Bdubs and X have been on Hermitcraft since the start. I miss him too."

Evil placed his hand on the plaque. It read 'Xisuma. Hermit, admin, derp and friend'

"You'll be with me. Until the end, brother."

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Iskall was struggling and Grian could see it.

He was going around, making plans like they hadn't just lost. They had lost so many people since they started. Grim, Hels, Etho, Cleo. Even Stress was looking closer and closer to leaving with each passing day.

Underneath his confident exterior, Grian could see he was struggling to keep it together. It rarely came out but when it did it was short outbursts that he instantly regrets. One of those outbursts was how they lost Etho.

"Alright!" Iskall clasped his hands together. "Stress, I need you to find out if there are any cows left. We're running low on food and we need to eat."

Grian tilted his head. "What would we feed them? There's no grass, no wheat. How could they survive?"

"We'll figure that part out. First we just need to know if there's any left."

Stress nodded and left without a word. Grian hesitated before speaking.

"Look, Iskall. Why are we still trying?"

"What do you mean?" Iskall put whatever he was working on down and turned to Grian.

"Isn't there a point where we just need to quit. We lost. We need so many souls to harvest if we want the power and immortality you've been talking about. There's hardly any souls left. For all we know the hermits didn't survive."

Iskall contemplated his words. "It's not time to stop yet. We are going to be an unstoppable force."

Grian sighed. "An unstoppable force? Iskall, we're struggling to survive. We lost nearly all of our Iskallium. Actually, we didn't just lose it, it now rests in the hands of the enemy."

"Grian. Drop it. We need to survive, yes. But we need more. We need something to fight for."

Grian decided to shut it and left it at that. He shouldn't fan the flames. Mumbo knew that. He barely spoke of anything negative when Iskall was around. In fact, he barely spoke at all in Iskall's presence.

An hour or so later, Stress came back. She shook her head upon arrival.

"Not one cow."

"Crap." Iskall paused. "You searched everywhere on the island?"

"Obviously I didn't search everywhere. But I saw enough to know that not much survived. The occasional dog, cat. Nothing to eat."

Stress almost seemed to blend into the landscape. Sometimes Grian didn't even register her colour. Just various shades of grey. Grian sometimes forgot she was just a victim to Demise. His own game.

Stress was more straightforward than Grian. He needed her to knock some sense into Iskall.

Grian looked towards Stress. "You need to tell Iskall it's time to slow down."

Iskall tilted his head. "Grain seems to think that we've already lost. That everything we've done is pointless. What do you think Stress?"

Stress looked at the ground then stared Iskall straight in his eye. "I was only here because Grim was here. He's gone now so let me ask you this, Iskall. Why am I still here now?"

Iskall said nothing.

"Go on. Give me one good reason why you shouldn't lose yet another member of your team."

Iskall started to look a little infuriated. "You give up too easily. The world will bow to us yet."

"Really? You barely have a plan and we've just been assuming you were right about everything. That you knew how to lead us to victory and give us untold power. You know what I think? I think that you're just a delusional man who lost and isn't getting back up. You almost got victory Iskall. You're not getting that close again."

Iskall stormed towards Stress. "You don't understand anything! Have I not given enough? I killed Xisuma. Haven't I fought through enough battles? I will get the victory I deserve Stress. No matter how long it takes, no matter how many I have to hurt, kill."

"You're right" Iskall continued. "I can't think of a single reason why you should be here. So go on, run after Grim again. Pretend he cares about you. You'll just end up lost."

Stress stepped closer. "In another life, we were best friends Iskall."

"In another life." Iskall repeated.

Stress turned around and left. Grian lost sight of her almost instantly.

Iskall turned from angry to calm almost instantly. "Well. We're back to just the three of us."

Mumbo stood up. "That- that was really harsh, Iskall."

"Sometimes it's how it has to be done. It's just us architects now. How it was meant to be."

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Sorry that I took such a big break between chapters
Sometimes real life stuff takes priority
We don't talk enough
What's your favourite colour?
Mines purple :)

Next chapter: In Another Life