Not long later, Xelqua felt Mumbo's breathing even out as he relaxed and leant onto him. The Watcher carefully removed himself and gently lowered the redstoner down onto the bed, picking up his mask as he did so and putting it on. He glanced around, seeing that everyone was still asleep and safe, before wandering down what was going to be the path - marked with concrete - until he was about five metres away from the hole where he'd emptied out the sea.

The dragon followed, walking beside him, at the size of a large cat, and looking up at him every few seconds. When he stopped, he sank down to the ground and sat cross legged before lighting his hand with a small, tender flame.

Using his magic, he slowly began constructing two figures out of stone. He sat, staring at them as he slowly built them up. He could've simply made them in a few seconds, letting the magic do the work in making them accurate, but instead he did it himself. He thought carefully about every detail instead of just letting it fall into place. He thought about the precise sizes and shapes things were, and slowly they started coming together to look like Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹.

He built T∴𝙹 holding their staff, with the phoenix sat on the top, it's fiery tale hanging down and past it's owner's hand, it's wings neatly by it's side, sat obediently, ready for anything. He built Oリᒷ in a similar position, summoning their staff from against the bedpost and slipping it carefully into their hand. He chuckled sadly as the dragon flew around the statues, landing on Oリᒷ's arm and looking at them curiously.

The sun was rising as he finished off the last details, indenting the Watcher symbol on their masks and around the edges of their cloaks where they met the ground, just like there were symbols on his own. The hermits had woken up one by one and were watching him as he officially finished. The dragon sat on Oリᒷ's staff, completing the memorial.

He tried not to let any tears pass his eyes as he looked up at the accurate stone figures.

Eventually, he stood up and turned around. Everyone looked at him.

"Yesterday, I lost a lot of things." He started, speaking loud enough for everyone to hear, but not yelling or shouting. "I lost my home, safety and two people I had wanted to protect. In their last moments, they protected me, which is how I got here. I'm not going to lose you all too, even if you hate me now, which I would understand. I- I'm going to leave, before I'm found, so that I don't put you in any danger. I thought, since today will probably be the last time I see you, I'd say goodbye properly this time." His voice was wobbling slightly. "I was selfish and power-hungry last time I saw you, I was irresponsible and childish. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry it had to end like this, it's my fault."

He turned around, looking at the Watcher statues for the last time and giving them halos made of magic for a few seconds before looking away again and summoning a portal against the cliff. The dragon jumped down from Oリᒷ's staff and followed as he was about to walk into the portal.

"Wait," Pearl said. Xelqua turned and faced her, realising with a bit of surprise she had a couple of stray tears slowly making their way down her cheeks. "Please don't go away again." He stood silently.

"We'll help you," Iskall said confidently.

"What?" He replied.

"Help you fight the danger, whatever it is." The Swedish hermit elaborated.

"You can't, they'd- they'd kill you within seconds. Even if they didn't, you wouldn't be able to harm them." Xelqua said, looking at the group, worried that they didn't seem keen on backing down.

"We can work something out." Etho said.

"We're not going to let you face whatever it is alone." False said, glancing around at the others.

"But-" The Watcher started.

"No, you don't get a say in this. We're going to help you." Mumbo said.

"Why? I was horrible to you all, I- I don't deserve-"

"Whether you deserve us or not is irrelevant, you have us." Scar said.

"You're a hermit, we don't care if you're also a Watcher, you're a hermit to us and always will be, no matter what you do." Xisuma said.

"No, please don't do this, I can't lose you all." Xelqua replied.

"And we can't lose you." Pearl said, stepping forwards and putting herself between him and the portal.

"Agreed." Iskall said, joining her. The rest of the hermits did the same.

"No... but you'll all... you'll all..." He couldn't bare to say it.

"I'd rather die fighting for you than live having given up on you." Mumbo said firmly. Xelqua glanced around at them all.

"And you all feel the same? Because I can't guarantee you'll be okay..." Every single hermit nodded. "Okay then, we can try. We have a few hours at most to prepare."

* * *

When he finished explaining what had happened, everyone stared in silence.

"I'm not sure whether I'll be able to win." He said, looking down at his feet, where the dragon stood. The only sound was of people shuffling their feet as they stood in front of him as if he were on a stage.

"Did you say... only magic can hurt Watchers?" Etho asked contemplatively.

"Yes." Xelqua replied.

"Could you, theoretically, put some sort of magic on our swords so that they'll actually deal damage?" The white haired hermit suggested.

"I don't know, maybe..." the Watcher hybrid replied, before summoning a sword that had been left on the floor and coating it with harmful magic, so that it glowed purple and had an occasional flame flicker off of it. He carefully put it too his bare hand and scratched his palm lightly, not enough to reveal any blood but enough so that he'd feel it for a few seconds.

And he did.

"Etho you're a genius..." he muttered. The Canadian chuckled.

"So, would it also work for armour?" Iskall asked.

"Probably not, because if Watchers can hurt each other they'd be able to hurt you even if you did have some sort of magical presence..." Xelqua replied slowly, thinking it through as he spoke. "But, if I gave you a presence anyway they wouldn't be able to directly do anything to your body..."

"What does that mean?" Ren asked.

"Um, you're all humans... or close enough, anyway," he said, glancing at Doc, Cleo, the Voidwalker twins and a few others, "meaning you have no protection against me doing this," he lifted up Gem, changed Iskall's green t-shirt to a blue one, swapped where False and Jevin were standing and made Scar's hat even bigger than it already was so that it fell to his shoulders and covered his entire head (how could he resist?) in the same second.

"Woah, cool!" Gem said as he lowered her back down.

"Dude! Turn it back!" Iskall said, looking down at the dark blue material and pulling at it in disgust. He chuckled and did so, just as Scar said;

"I love it," his voice echoed from inside the inside of the red top hat, "please don't turn mine back." Everyone laughed, and Xelqua shrank it back to the size it had been at at the start of the season, and they all erupted into more laughter as the former mayor crossed his arms and pulled a sulky face.

"So," X said as everyone calmed down, "magic covered armour and weapons, is there anything else we can do?"

"Try not to die." Xelqua replied usefully. "Honestly, I don't know."

* * *

Xelqua sat silently on a shulker box, staring at the statues of Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹, wishing he could talk to them. He'd started off scared, had moved through different levels of confidence and emotions, ending up where he wanted to be, with the Watchers, until something had gone wrong. Something always had to go wrong, had to disturb his life like a storm at sea knocking everything out of place in the captain's cabin of a pirate ship.

And now he didn't even know what he wanted anymore. If he could change the universe to fit him, he didn't know what it would look like. He didn't know whether he'd be a Watcher or a hermit. He didn't know whether he'd be at the home of the Watcher temple in the End, or here on Hermitcraft building his mega base manually and pranking Scar. He didn't know where he stood anymore. His life had slowly been falling apart, even if at first he thought it was coming together.

He felt like he was in a book, and each page had been written by a different person who hadn't read the pages before theirs'. Nothing made sense anymore. His life was a puzzle, but each piece of it was from a different set. It was a piece of music, but the melody was made up of random notes and the harmonies didn't fit together in the slightest.

Then he sensed something, inhaling sharply.

And apparently, so did the dragon, which stopped playing around with Scar and Impulse and let out a low growl-like sound. It ran over to him, looking him in the eyes through his mask. All the hermits looked at him as he cleared his throat.

"We don't have long." He announced, stroking the dragon with his right hand and putting the hood of his cloak up with his left. "Five minutes at most." He specified.

Everyone started equipping their gear, setting their spawns and organising their hot bar. They were preparing, Xelqua knew it was what they should be doing, but it made him feel slightly sick. He didn't want them to have to prepare, he didn't want them to be fighting this battle with him. Was it too late to leave?

Could he run away?

How long could he run for?

He sighed, leaning his forehead against the dragons.

He couldn't do this. He couldn't beat T⍑∷ᒷᒷ last time with two other Watchers on his side, so why should he be able to now? Did he even deserve to win, after what he'd put everyone around him through?

He breathed slowly and steadily, forcing his anxiety down. Now wasn't the time to let it bubble up to the surface. He didn't feel like he could win, didn't feel like he could protect his friends, didn't feel like he could save the server or himself.

But he had to.

He stood up, casting a small spell to make the hermits undetectable to T⍑∷ᒷᒷ, and made his way over to Oリᒷ and T∴𝙹's memorial, standing in front of it as his friends hid, as they'd discussed, for the element of surprise.

Dark grey clouds closed in and the ground began to rumble as T⍑∷ᒷᒷ was making an entrance.

Xelqua spread his wings and the dragon grew to it's full size behind him, also spreading it's wings.

A large portal constructed itself in the entrance of the cave.

Xelqua took a deep breath.

A dark figure came out of the purple doorway-between-dimensions.

Xelqua took another deep breath.

And he launched himself upwards.