Chapter 26: Danse Macabre

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The king was facing his throne with his pale while hands behind his back, breathing heavily. He could feel sweat building on him, something he hated. He could think of nothing worse than the news he had just received.

He could hear a faint tapping from behind him, but he didn't turn around. A guest had arrived, a much unexpected one, brought in by very flustered and uncomfortable guards. Apparently they'd found her when there had been seven of them. Two had been killed, and two had committed suicide. The other three had stood their ground, and the person had gotten bored and decided to comply, making it very clear who was in power.

So now they just stood there, tapping against the wall irritably, waiting for the cloaked king to speak or otherwise react. He didn't.

'The shrine was destroyed.' Lady Rosabella's quick, panicked message to him in his mind had given him chills. The words had struck him dumb. That shrine of the Purity Heart's creation had been the key to acquiring the pure artefact, and now that it was gone, what could they do? How could they advance? Was Dimentio invincible, forever?

'You gonna just stand there forever, or are you gonna actually acknowledge that I'm here?' the guest asked him. They were perfectly calm, though their voice was vaguely malevolent.

'You killed four of my people,' the king spat, his voice run through a magical neutralizer so as to not give away who he was. One never knew what people could do with such little information.

'Well, technically, I only killed two. The other two were their own murderers.' He hadn't turned around yet, but the man knew they were smiling.

'Those were your doing as well,' he stated flatly. 'They would not have hurt you.'

'I dunno, they were pretty spear-happy. Besides, can you really blame me?' The king sighed. 'Are they even real people?' they asked. 'They've got all the makings of a human being, all those emotions, and yet...there's something off about them. They go through all the motions, they even seem to be genuine, but I can't shake the feeling it's just one huge puppet show on your part.'

'Not my part,' the king responded. 'The Purity Heart's part.'

'Oh? All pawns of a giant, floating ball of sappiness? What a dismal existence.' The king sighed again. 'You need to cheer up.'

'My friend just—'

He paused for a moment, blinking confusedly. 'Your friend just what?' his guest asked.

'She...just told me—'

'Oh, a she?' Again, the king could see that infuriating smile with the eyes in the back of his head. 'That's adorable!'

He spun around. 'Oh shut up,' he snarled. 'I have just received news that the one thing which could have given us a chance to kill Dimentio has been completely destroyed. The last thing I need is to suffer through smug barbs from someone like you.'

Their eyes widened. 'Whose name did you just say?'

The king glared at them. 'You have much to be caught up on, it seems.'

Knocking on the throne room doors cut their conversation off. A quick snap of the fingers and they swung open; two people strode into the room. 'C'mon!' one called. 'You're so slow!'

'Well boo hoo hoo,' the other snarled. 'We can't all be eternally young like you.'

'Mister King Guy!' called Mimi, her face lit up. 'I found someone who could—' She stopped, looking from the king to his guest. Her eyes stopped on the guest for a moment, and the king swore a very, very awkward memory surface for just a second. He looked at the guest; if they felt the same, they didn't show it. The green girl looked back at the king. 'I guess you found one too!'

'...Mimi,' he greeted. 'You found another ally. Excellent. However...' He shifted. 'Small triumphs cannot discount crippling losses. The Purity Heart shrine was just destroyed. Our last gateway to the Chaos Heart's sister artefact has been neutralized.'

'What?!' the green girl gasped. 'But...that's...!'

'What in the world is going on here?!' Mimi's new friend said, enraged. 'Who are you?!' She pointed a finger at the king's guest. 'And what about you?!' she snapped at the king himself. 'Where am I?! What am I being expected to do?! I just woke up for Grambi's sake!'

'Hush,' the king groaned, rubbing his temples.

'Yeah, listen to the coward in a cloak,' the other one said. 'The last thing any of us want is an old windbag barking our ears off.' Mimi's companion snorted.

'Aaaahhh...' the king groaned. 'You two are behaving like elderly ladies bickering at a retirement home's bingo parlour.' Mimi raised an eyebrow. 'The truth of the matter is this: we must explore alternatives to the shrine's energy.'

'I think we need to actually be told why all this has been going on,' the king's guest said.

The king walked over and sat in his throne. 'This world was created by Dimentio very recently following his strife with individuals in a now-dead dimension.'

'We were all a part of that, actually,' Mimi chimed in.

'Then we are all aware of what transpired. It has become very clear that in the creation of this new dimension, which Dimentio views as "perfect", various monuments were erected and imbued with the Purity Heart's energy as a way to find it if necessary.'

'And of course it is necessary,' his guest quipped. The king nodded. 'The world does feel pretty full of energies. The Chaos Heart's is everywhere, and I'm guessing the other one is the Purity Heart's. The fainter one.'

'Yes, undoubtedly,' the king responded. 'I believe that the Chaos Heart must have shut it away somewhere. That is the point of the monuments, the trials. They contain within them pockets of energy which must be released to tear a hole in the Chaos Heart's defenses so that someone can slip through and find it themselves.'

'And that's where Rosy comes in, right?' Mimi asked. 'She leads the other guys to the places so they can go in and get that energy released.'

'"Rosy"?' the king repeated, dubiously.

'I thought it was cute!' the girl replied with a grin and a blush.

He shook his head. 'You are correct though. That is her point.'

'So without the last monument, what do we do?' the green girl asked. Nobody had an answer to that.

'Is there no backup plan?' the king's guest asked. 'Anything that can be done to give one last push in the event of a failure?'

The king tapped his foot, his face concerned. 'There is...one thing. One thing here, in fact, in my kingdom. Near my castle.'

'Well then why not do that?'

'It is...unadvisable. It is very dangerous.'

'Well it's all we've got!' Mimi told him. 'Besides, how much more dangerous could it be?'

He supposed she had a point. 'Very well. I shall tell Rosabella to lead them here. They should be safer under my wing anyway.'

'If that's all, I'll be going,' his guest said. 'See if I can make a few friends.' They left. The king was not sure he trusted them with their "friends".

'I suppose I'll do the same and wait for them to come to us,' Mimi's companion told them, following suit.

The king looked at Mimi, and Mimi looked at the king. 'So...' she said, balancing on her heels. 'What's beneath the cloak?' She gave a mischievous smile. 'Is it a mask?'

The king regarded her closely; she didn't look like she had any malicious intent, but he had to admit he did not like where this line of questioning was going. 'On occasion,' he answered truthfully.

'You used a simile,' she noted. 'Just like Dimentio does.'

The king drummed his fingers on the arm of his throne. 'Yes, I appear to have picked up the habit. What began as mockery is less so now.'

She stared at him with her shining, red eyes; in them were all the hidden depths he knew she possessed: clever and sly, fun-loving and playful, devious and wicked, loving and loyal. Every aspect she had had shined like a star, playing off of each other and creating a beautiful person. She might have originated as Rose's corpse given life, but she was so much more than a copy of anybody. He felt his heart pounding and wondered whether Dimentio had also felt the same things as he was when he looked at her. Having even this in common with him made him feel more than a little uncomfortable.

'Mimi...' he whispered faintly to himself.

The look in her eyes changed; she'd heard him. 'Who are you?' she asked him. Her voice was full of curiosity, but tainted with an edge of suspiciousness. 'Take off your hood, let me hear your real voice. What are you hiding from me? From everyone?'

His voice caught in his throat. He couldn't reveal himself to even her. He couldn't let anyone see him. It was too dangerous, and...if he did, nobody would trust him. They already had Dimentio to deal with, they didn't need anything more. 'I am hiding myself,' he told her, 'to protect myself in case of the possibility of Dimentio searching your memories. I cannot let him know who I am. My power is in anonymity.'

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. 'Fine. I guess that's okay.' It was clear from her gaze that it was not okay. 'I'll go too. Leave you alone with your mysterious thoughts.' She left too.

The fake king was alone, heart still beating hard. He was shaking, his knees were weak. Oh how he longed to tell her. Maybe she would accept him. No, that was ludicrous. She would sooner kill him. He would be secret until they killed Dimentio and saved the worlds. Beyond that...

He stared at his hands; white skin, pink fingernails; the antithesis of Dimentio and his people. He couldn't do anything after this. He didn't know if he would continue existing. Even if he did, it would be better if he simply disappeared.

He slouched against his throne, staring at the unmoving, closed doors. Out there was a fake world, one woven of darkness and chaos. In a time before now, many dimensions existed, and none of them could possibly take him.

He snapped his fingers and the Light Prognosticus appeared. He opened it.

All is black.

That was the only message. Every other page had nothing on it. 'All is black...' he repeated solemnly.

And it was true. The future was a blank page. Nothing was certain. Nobody could know what would happen. The king, though, could see his own future written within that sentence. Blackness all around. Completely vanished from the world.

There was no world for him outside those doors. After they took down Dimentio, the only thing the future held for him was death. He knew that with all his heart.

Rose

The three of them sat around Fawful's electronic fire substitute in complete silence. O'Chunks was lying on his back, staring up into space, his hands behind his head. Fawful sat up, hunched and keeping his eyes locked on the lamp. Every now and then he would take out his storage cube and browse through its contents, maybe mutter about how their supplies were getting low. Rose had her knees propped up against herself and compulsively brushed her hair out of her eyes, even when it wasn't blocking her vision.

Their last task had been completely levelled. Rose wasn't exactly an expert on technology or magic or anything, but she couldn't think of anything they could do now, and was completely sure that Fawful, O'Chunks, or either of their faceless guides could either.

A chill went through her and she looked behind her. Nothing was there. Nobody was staring at her. Waiting for her to do anything. Ready to kill her if she didn't.

Her heart was pounding. Dimentio's plan to kill Fawful had failed. That meant that he needed a leg up, and she knew for a fact who would need to do that. She still remembered the menacing voice in her ear, threatening her with death, again.

She shouldn't do anything. She should just wait, stay with Fawful. Then, when Dimentio struck, she would fight with them. They would die, of course, but at least she'd go out fighting.

Or, maybe, there would be no fighting. Maybe Dimentio would find her and kill her quickly, and Fawful and O'Chunks would find her body slumped somewhere, lifeless and covered in blood.

Tears began to well up in her eyes. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to have to go through the pain again. Was preventing that worth betraying Fawful? The boy who trusted her, who had fallen for her? Was it worth betraying O'Chunks? She thought she heard a sound behind her, some sort of faint order on the wind. She turned again; nobody. She wiped away her tears, fighting back a whimper.

Was it really worth it?

Princess Rosabella

Former princess Rosabella stumbled across the landscape. She was still shaken from what she had just seen.

She had no idea what had transpired at that shrine, but obviously Dimentio had something to do with it. The entire structure had been destroyed by a flying, metal machine. She had seen everything from afar, and it had filled her with horror.

She didn't know what to do. She knew he wouldn't know either. She knew Fawful wouldn't, that O'Chunks wouldn't, that Rose wouldn't. Nobody knew anything. Dimentio had struck, and they had begun to buckle under the force.

She felt like crying. Everything she had done had been done with a single goal in mind: restore the worlds and save the lives of the people Dimentio had killed. She didn't want to let their demises be in vain, and it was looking like they would be. They were failures.

Why had it come to this? Why had Dimentio found that book, the Dark Prognosticus, and dabbled in its magic? Why had he killed her, and then the entire castle? Why had he destroyed all worlds? Why couldn't she have grown up and become a queen? Why couldn't she have cleared Dimentio's name, given him special status, anything other than all this? Why did so many have to die?

She hung her head. She should have seen it coming as soon as he started wearing the mask all the time. She never saw his face, and it would have been because he'd begun to change. Nobody ever saw his face. And the dimensional magic, that too. There had been so many warning signs.

She heard someone advancing towards her. She turned in the direction of the sound, backing up. 'Who's there?' she called. If it was a rabid animal or Dimentio, she could flip out back to the castle for a moment to get her bearings. If it was one of Dimentio's people, maybe she could brainwash it for...something. She didn't know what. Nobody answered, however. She took a breath. 'I said who's there?!' she yelled in what was hopefully a threatening voice.

She got her answer in the form of a timid, terrified voice. 'I'm sorry...' it said.

The sound of energy whizzed through the air, coupled with a bright light. It got her before she could react.

Fawful

The dim light of the Bean's lamp illuminated the night around him, and gave him heat. The light reflected off his spiralled glasses, blocking the anxiety and pain in his eyes from any onlookers. His body still ached. His broken bones, his cuts, and his bruises had all been healed, but shadows of the agonizing and humiliating defeat were still prickling under his skin. He could still feel the soles of the Mario Brothers' boots on his head, and the hard strikes of their hammers.

He beat the ground with his fists, his enormous teeth clenched. Why could he never beat them?! No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much he fought, no matter what was on the line, they always won! It didn't matter whether it was fighting for Cackletta, fighting for himself, or fighting for the fate of the entire multiverse, they always beat him within an inch of his life! While fighting this time he'd held on to a foolish hope that maybe he could win if he had the right goal in his heart. He thought maybe since he was being the "good guy" this time, he could triumph against all odds and beat his adversaries at least.

Not so. It would never happen. They were too powerful. Even under the control of Dimentio, they would beat every single foe that stood against them. You'd almost think they were the main characters of a video game or something.

Fawful suddenly realized that he would really like to play one right now. Just sit back, turn on the power, and escape from his troubles for maybe an hour. But video games were gone now too, so that was out of the question.

Hello? he thought, calling out his mind to whoever could listen. Maybe their guide would hear him, console him, tell him that everything was going to be okay and that they still had a chance. Or maybe, just maybe, the mysterious man behind it all would respond. He seemed to have all the answers. Surely there was something they could do. Dimentio couldn't possibly win. It wasn't fair. Respond? he thought, sending out another message. I have loneliness... Nobody was there. Maybe nobody ever would be.

'O'Chunks?' he asked.

'Yeah?' the Scotsman replied. He sounded exhausted.

'Do you think we will have death?'

'...' He didn't answer.

'I am not wanting to die again. I have had death the time of twice already.'

'I don't wanna die either,' the man replied. 'But...wha's left teh do?'

'I am not knowing...'

Suddenly, there was movement behind them. They both turned to see Rose coming towards them, dragging something behind her. In the light of the lamp, she looked like she was in extreme pain. 'Rose?' O'Chunks said.

'Rose!' Fawful hopped up. 'Do you have wellness?!'

She was panting with effort, trying to transport the thing behind her. 'I...found...' she gasped, then tossed the thing onto the ground before them. 'I found her.'

They both looked at what Rose had brought: a person. It was a girl who looked exactly like Rose with only a few differences, the most notable being her pink hair and more flushed skin. She had a scorch mark on her chest and was breathing weakly. 'Who...?' Fawful asked. A creeping sensation had begun to move up his neck.

'This...this is our guide,' she said. 'The one who's been making us follow her for a long time.'

''Ey!' O'Chunks suddenly exclaimed. 'I know who that is!' They both looked at him. 'She's that princess lass who Dimentio grew up with!'

Fawful took a second look and realized O'Chunks was right. She completely matched the girl who he'd seen before, in Dimentio's memories. 'Oh...wowing. But...' He looked at Rose. 'Did you have the attacking of her?'

She nodded. 'I...I don't think we can trust her!' she exclaimed. Her voice was shaking. 'I mean...think about it. She's been hiding herself from us for the entire time she's been leading us!' The pink-haired girl groaned, rubbing her scorch wound. 'And what about that other guy? We know even less about who he is! She knows though, I know she does!'

Fawful eyed the princess cautiously. Rose had a point. 'Yesing...that has truth,' he agreed.

'And besides...she led us to the shrine, right? The one we nearly got killed at! We got ambushed there, and she wasn't around for it, was she? Isn't that...isn't that a little suspicious?' Rose's voice sounded a little agitated.

'Yer kinda right,' O'Chunks concurred. 'I mean...we should be able the trust 'er, right?'

Fawful crossed his arms. 'This has much truth,' he said, nodding.

'We...we should interrogate her,' the white girl told them.

'Mm.' The Bean nodded. 'O'Chunks have the supporting of her.' O'Chunks walked over and sat her up, holding her up by the shoulders.

Fawful stared at her. She opened her pink eyes, looking at him with despair. 'Fawful...'she whispered. 'Why?'

'We should have knowledge of the same question!' he barked. She winced. 'You have had secrecy with us, and that is not pleasing!'

'I couldn't...let you know anything! I can't! Please, just let me go right now! Please trust me!' She was begging with him now.

'Noing!' he snapped. 'The time for trusting is not the time which is now! Now is the time of answers!'

She turned her head away from him. 'I...I can't say anything. I'm sorry.'

Fawful gritted his teeth. Anger and frustration was beginning to well up in him. She had told them nothing their entire time here, while they had risked their lives and almost died several times, and she had the nerve to keep quiet now? How dare she?! He took out his blaster and pointed it at her face; she, Rose, and O'Chunks all jumped. 'I have fury!' he shouted. 'Your secrets enrage Fawful, enrage him like a test with no right answers! If you are not telling us your secrets, then I am blasting you until you are gross oatmeal!' He turned the power up to full for emphasis.

'Fawful, don't...don't kill her!' Rose exclaimed.

'Yeah, yer goin' too bloomin' far!' O'Chunks cried, backing up and bringing the princess with him.

'Well then...what?!' he demanded. 'What can be done?!'

'I...I don't know, I just brought her here,' the girl sighed.

They all looked back at the princess, who eyed them all helplessly. She wouldn't be giving them any suggestions on how to interrogate her. 'Well...yeh remember what tha' other girl did teh Mimi? She searched through 'er memories with the Chaos Heart.' Their captive's eyes widened for a brief moment and Fawful knew he was onto something.

'Yeah...yeah!' Rose exclaimed. 'If you could bring spirits back to life, we could probably do that too!'

Fawful nodded. 'If you will not be telling us, then we will be telling ourselves.' He took a step forward.

'Fawful please don't do this!' the princess pleaded. 'You don't know what you're doing!'

The Beanish boy glared at her. 'I have knowledge of enough.' He placed a hand on her head, closed his eyes, and tried to draw upon the Purity Heart energy that he hoped he possessed innately.

There was a moment when he couldn't see anything in his mind's eye. He reached out for the princess' memories, struggling to view them. Then, suddenly, they flickered to life. They were fuzzy; she was fighting against him, but he pushed harder. He wouldn't be bested this time.

Who is your master being? He centred around this single thing he needed to know. Slowly, a memory formed before his eyes. The princess was talking to her superior. Talking about him.

'What's he going to have to do?' The voice was the princess'. The vision was still blurred, but it was clearing slowly. The figure she was talking to had gotten up out of a throne and walked to the centre of the chamber in which they were talking.

'Fawful will complete the trials and then be led here,' the figure told her. His voice was, for once, not filtered and completely clear. A dark, terrified feeling suddenly took hold of him. 'We will bring him into the castle, treat him like the hero he is.' Fawful could recognize the voice.

'And then what...?' the woman asked quietly.

The figure turned around. Even before he saw his face, Fawful knew who it would be, who the horrible voice belonged to. The mysterious man's identity was no longer a mystery, and the truth was the most horrifying thing that the Bean could imagine.

It was Dimentio. His yellow and grey eyes shined, scrutinizing the princess Scrutinizing Fawful. 'And then, we will kill him.'

The vision ended. Fawful took a shaking hand off of the princess' head, staring at her in terror. 'You...' he whispered. 'It...'

'Fawful, no, it's not...' the pink-haired girl pleaded. 'It's not what you think!'

A force like a mallet slammed against his chest. 'You had the tricking of me!' he screamed at her, making them all recoil.

'F-Fawful!' Rose gasped. 'Who did you see?!'

The Bean choked on his own words. 'Dimentio!' he cried. 'It was being Dimentio this whole time!'

'Fawful, don't believe it!' the princess begged. 'It's a trap I swear!'

The boy aimed the blaster at the woman. 'YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS A TRAP!' he screeched wildly. 'YOU AND YOUR KING OF EVIL!' He pulled the trigger and fired at her. Rose screamed and slammed into the princess; the two of them hit the ground and the blast struck O'Chunks in the armoured chest, knocking him over with a winded groan of pain.

Fawful ran away from all of them. He felt like his chest was about to erupt, like his brain was going to burst out of his skull. He didn't know anything anymore. All this time, from all sides, everything had been against him. Dimentio as a direct force, and Dimentio in the shadows, guiding him, watching him, striking every time he could while keeping him under his thumb. He never had a chance. Every single thing they had been told, everything they had done, was a lie. He had been nothing more than a doomed soul walking the planet, destined to fail, a corpse performing a grim dance to entertain his spectators while they prepared a noose for his lingering spirit.

He screamed into the night. He heard a shout behind him, Rose's, but he didn't turn around. He heard O'Chunks too, but he would not stop. He could not stop. He could do nothing but run away to the ends of the earth, and when he got there all that he would find was a dead end.

He found a village by accident, a small hub for Dimentio's people, and ran right in, screaming like a madman. All around him were people; blue-skinned, black-haired, and all of them regarded him with a very faint, dull shock. He heard voices around him.

'It is him!'

'His Majesty's enemy!'

'Kill him!'

Their voices were so dull. Fawful could hear the emotion, the muffled anger, the stifled hatred. They were there, but their hearts weren't in it. He stopped and yelled, all of his fury and betrayal rushing out of his mouth. He fired his blaster at one of the people; they dissolved into black mush. He killed another, and then another. A young man, an elderly woman, a small child, a baby. They all fell before his blasts, crying out in voices which seemed barely interested in the carnage.

He hated everything. He hated every single one of these pathetic shells of people, he hated every single atom that made up this cursed world. Most of all, he hated himself. He hated himself for being so weak that he could not beat two human plumbers and save his mistress. He hated himself for not even being able to beat them when pumped full of dark energy. He hated himself for accepting the wish of a Shayde in the Underwhere who he had never known, who had turned out to house the most devious and dreadful soul in the entire history of the multiverse.

As he laid waste to more and more people, he could feel tears going down his cheeks. They were familiar tracks, ones he was sure must be burned into his face now. 'I...have...fury...' he whispered, shaking.

There was nothing left for him.

?

'Help me.'

Rosabella's plea had been the most terrifying thing the false king had ever heard; it was weak and pathetic, and utterly hopeless. In his mind, it had been little more than a haggard whisper, and when communicating through thoughts a person's tone was always indicative of their situation. As soon as he'd heard he had immediately left. He would have to save her himself.

Princess Rosabella was in trouble; deep trouble.

What happened?! he called out to her through his own mind.

'Rose captured me...' was the response. 'Fawful read my memories, and...'

Oh Grambi damn it. What did he see?! What's he doing?! No no no this couldn't be happening.

'Rose is taking me to a village, following Fawful...'

'WHAT?!' he screamed out loud. In the middle of all those people?!

'Mister King Guy!' It was Mimi's thoughts. 'We're all following you like you told us to. What's going on?'

Fawful's...gone off the rails, he answered, clenching his fists. He ran into a village of Dimentio's people, along with Rose and O'Chunks. I fear they will be overrun by the inhabitants and killed. Was this Dimentio's doing, all this madness?

'So we're gonna drop in and help him, right?'

That is correct.

'What made him go "off the rails"?'

...I don't know. He could guess, though. Who knows what he saw in Rosabella's memories?

He saw the village, and knew Fawful was there. Screams and shouts could be heard erupting from the town, and flashes of bright light and waves of sound signalled Fawful's mad assault against the townspeople. Down there! he ordered his three allies, and dove down into the crowd.

The entire village was in an uproar, and people were all moving towards the square to have a piece of Fawful. A single thought was on their minds: kill their god's mortal foe. There was no way the Bean could hold them all off. Strength in numbers was enormous.

Princess, where are you?! he called.

'I'm...Rose dropped me, she got scared. I'm...I'm in a street somewhere.'

I'll find you, he told her. Mimi, I need you to find Rose, she's a girl who looks just like you. Exactly like you, with white hair and red eyes.

A ripple of confusion could be felt from Mimi. 'Rose...I don't like the sound of that, for some reason...'

It doesn't matter, just find her and protect her!

'What about me?' This time it was the guest who had shown up at his door.

Find O'Chunks. He's a large man with a red beard. A thought occurred to him. On second thought, Mimi should find O'Chunks and you should find Rose. I've got the princess.

'I'll get Fawful.' Mimi's companion this time.

I would expect nothing less.

He dashed through a side street, shooting a blast of magic right through a middle-aged man running to tear apart the Bean. His body slumped, but he barely showed any pain. Dimentio's creations were becoming less and less humanlike. How ironic. It was just what the magician had wanted.

He saw Rosabella. He made to run towards her through the crowds that ignored him, but something stopped him in his tracks.

'What's that?' It was a simultaneous thought, given out by Mimi, both of their allies, O'Chunks, Rose, and the princess. Suddenly, every single person stopped moving, and one more energy blast could be heard from Fawful before he too looked where everyone was facing. The king looked up.

Floating over the town like a puppet dangling from strings was a familiar figure: Dimentio. His cold eyes watched over the scene with malicious contempt, but otherwise he did not move. He seemed to be able to see each and every one of them; his eyes darted back and forth, looking at every one of his enemies. They locked onto the king's, and the king stared back.

A terrible feeling had seized him. They were trapped. He had been backed into a corner. They were more than easy to dispatch right here. That had been Dimentio's plan: make Fawful a wild card, then when other people arrived to get him back on their side, take them all out. Everything had fallen into place.

He smiled at Dimentio, though. All around him were the jester's citizens. They were, in a certain sense, his children. He knew Dimentio well, and he knew for a fact that Dimentio would never, ever kill them. They were special. They were "perfection". At worst, he would float down and kill Fawful, be precise about it. They could battle on the ground, enough to get away. This was okay. They could still make it out of this ahead.

Slowly, Dimentio raised his arm; dark energy began to collect on his palm. Those eyes, those dark, desperate, wicked eyes, bore a hole through the faux king's head, and suddenly he realized that he had underestimated just how much Dimentio wanted them all to die. His eyes widened, his mouth dropped, and he felt like he had just been slapped across the face. He had read Dimentio wrong.

He was wrong.

Raw panic gripped his heart and he turned towards the princess. PROTECT THEM! he screamed in his thoughts to everybody, allies, enemies, and Dimentio alike, and ran as fast as his legs could take him. From Dimentio, a single word travelled down; it was a tired, but triumphant, snarl.

'Die.'

He shot the blast.

'ROSE!' howled the king. He leapt the rest of the distance between them, wrapped his body around hers, and erected a barrier around them both.

*Chaos*

The entire village, people and all, exploded. The dark blast detonated with the force of a very small atomic weapon; a shockwave blew the foundations of the houses apart and threw people through the air. Dark magic erupted out from the projectile, causing a howl of rushing air and a crackle of energy to buzz over everyone's ears. Darkness covered everything like fire, cleaving through the houses and breaking them into particles. The people didn't scream, but they ran from the blast in their own suppressed fear. It separated their skin from their bones, melting them like heated butter. Their skeletons, broken and cracked from the shockwave, fell apart and disintegrated into a powder. A cloud of dust blew outwards over the landscape, ripping the plantlife out of the ground and flinging bits of soil and stone far from the village.

Then it was over. Where there was once a village there was just a black stain on the world, devoid of life, smouldering with the remains of dark magic. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed.

Dimentio, the world's creator, stared at this stain with an empty expression. He hung there like a doll for a few moments, his eyes scanning the blackened and lifeless ground. Then, without a sound save for his distinctive ping!, he left.

Bodies littered the ground, frozen and battered, among the rubble. They were the bodies of those who stood to oppose the world's god, and who had felt the full force of his rage and desperation.

Dimentio was gone, all the village's inhabitants were dead. Those still in one place were in no condition to see. Nobody noticed the three saucers float down to the wreckage with metal claws outstretched. Nobody noticed them pick up some of the bodies. Nobody noticed them fly off with them.

They, too, left the stain. Those who remained stayed lying on the ground, surrounded by destruction. Eventually, they would summon the energy required to leave and recoup. For now, they remained still like corpses, blanketed by their failure.