All throughout the city, a tremor was felt and a second sun lit up the sky for a brief moment, as the crystallised core that had been stuffed into the Dwarf's mouth had finally detonated. Thankfully, his gargantuan body had taken the brunt of the blast, and saved part of the city from total destruction.

But even with his body smothering the blast, there was still a giant crater carved deep into the ground.

All that left of the dwarf was a bloody splatter on the ground, and a few chunks of indistinguishable meat, that was somehow still hairy, scattered here and there. Some of the chunks even landing on top of buildings, or crushing smaller invading beasts beneath them like deadly dwarven nugget meteors.

However, as deadly as these meaty meteors, or meaty-ors if you're nasty, were to the surrounding area, nothing was as dangerous as the second proceeding the explosion.

After the light had dimmed and the earth had stopped trembling, all at once every single puppet paused for a single second. Their bodies swayed as they stood, their attacks freezing mid movement as no commands registered within their empty heads.

The ones controlled by the Unkindness of Spirit Animals were the lucky ones, as the raven commanders took control immediately after. But even they felt an unyielding loneliness as their connection to their master had been ripped out of them, like removing their heart and still living on without it.

They still operated as they had been created to do, but without Seth's micromanaging, they were forced to use only the moves they had been programmed with. They were forced to adapt to what was happening around them to the best of their abilities, but it meant that they made mistakes.

Mistakes that, over the course of hundreds of battles, were quickly piling up.

Bob, with his arm turned into a blade, finally cleaved the final head from the Triclops and, finally, put the beast down for good. He had felt the missing connection at the same time as the puppets, as had his brother Omelette no doubt, but he did not require Father to function.

However, that didn't mean the connection wasn't still important to him. It was his intelligence that made him aware that something had happened to his Father, but what it was he had no idea.

Fearing the worst, Bob dissolved into a black cloud of dust and soared through the air, his body weaving back and forth like a giant eel swimming through the ocean. When he passed over the battlefield, and saw no body to speak of, he immediately diverted his path to one particular building.

The church that some of the people had erected for their Lord, and where they went for their worship. It was not big, as not many were that devoted just yet, but their numbers were steadily growing. But that was not why he was going.

Bursting through the doors, Bob reformed his body back at a human size, leaving black dust and dirt particles coating the entirety of the floor. Yet those cowering within the church didn't complain, only knelt at the sight of him and pressed their heads against the ground in reverence.

They did not dare look upon the child of their Lord, not without his permission. Bob did not care for their dramatic, overzealous actions and instead focused on a single object that hung over the priests alter.

When this church had been built, unable to dissuade their actions, Seth had given them a gift, in a round about way. He had used his [Life Lantern] and it's soul powered flames to illuminate the construction yard as it was being built.

These zealots, however, had taken it as a gift. That they could see their Lords existence through the perseverance of the eternal flame. It is why they named Bob a, Child of the Light.

It was that flame that Bob came to find. The flame that flickered softly above its pedestal. A small flame, but a flame nonetheless. He was still alive. But that begged the question... Where in the world was he?

***

"Wake up... Hey, Wake up!"

Astra nudged Seth gently as she crouched next to him, gazing at the skinny young man with the moon-kissed skin as she wore a complicated expression, although to most people this expression would look like nothing more than an irritated scowl.

She paused for a second, watching him lay in the grass, sleeping so softly like a little angel despite everything that had happened. Blinking softly, she let out a soft sigh as she rubbed her hands together, before reaching out towards him and ever so softly tapping her finger against his nose.

BZZT

A single bolt of electricity cracked in the air, leaping from her finger tip and striking Seth on the nose. It was nothing more than a little jolt of static electricity, but it was enough to jolt Seth awake.

Sitting up quickly, Seth's eyes snapped open as he immediately let out a sharp yelp of pain as he batted at his nose. The smell of ozone filled his nostrils.

He balled his hand into a fist, ready to leap into action once more, when he saw Astra crouching next to him with her regular scowl on her face, although he could swear that he saw the hints of a smile playing on her lips.

Relaxing his fist, Seth placed his hand down onto the ground and slowly laid back down as the pain his chest flared up once more from his, most definitely broken, ribs as they stabbed into him. If Astra was looking at him like that, then it meant his plan had worked and things weren't looking dangerous.

All he needed was a quick lay down to regain his strength and everything would be fine. A quick little rest on the nice cold, hard... grass?

Seth frowned and, ignoring the screaming protest of the ribs jagging into him, sat up quickly once again and immediately started to look around his surroundings with his face twisted in utter confusion and horror. No matter where he looked, however, nothing was familiar about his surroundings, bar for the company he was currently keeping.

Regardless of where he looked, there were absolutely no signs of civilisation. There were no buildings, new or old, nor any roads or even any signs of the battle that had just unfolded. There was nothing there that should be, and yet there it was. Or should that be, there it wasn't.

They seemed to be currently sat in the middle of some kind of meadow, with luscious green grass covering the ground as far as the eye could see. Quite literally, as far as it could see. The boundless green fields extended on for miles, from horizon to horizon, there was just grass.

This picturesque image was at least broken up by the appearance of the occasional tree, ones with bubble gum pink leaves, dotted across the endless meadow.

As if that wasn't bad enough, as far as Seth could see, apart from himself and Astra they were completely and utterly alone. There was no Omelette, no Manticore, no Giant Dwarf ready to cleave their heads from their shoulders. There was no one. Not even the puppets that had been holding back the...

Seth's train of thought slowed to a crawl, before trailing off completely as he realised something he should have from the moment he woke up. He dove into his mind, plunging deep into the recesses of his subconscious and ruffled through it for something specific. But just like with the meadow itself, no matter where he looked or how hard, there was nothing.

His mind was usually filled with dozens of sensory sources, approaching the triple digits easily, and although he toned 90% of them out at most times, they were still there when he looked and if he needed them. But now, no matter how hard he looked, the only source of sights and sounds echoing within Seth's mind were the ones from his very own eyes and ears.

He should have realised it at first, but it was like wearing a watch for a dozen years and getting used to its weight so much that you felt it on your wrist even when it had been stolen.

Or like listening to a song on repeat and still singing it in your mind after it has finally finished. His mind had grown so used to the noise and toning them out to focus on what he was doing at the time that it simply didn't realise the absence of that sound until he went looking for it, making up its own in the meantime.

Not even Corvus' sensory inputs were there, and he always kept that line open. He tried to connect to Bob or Omelette, to send them mental messages and asked them dozens of questions each. But something was blocking every single one from getting through.

No... Blocking wasn't right. It was more like they just... didn't exist, that the signals were being sent out into the ether, never to reach anyone of importance. It was a disturbing feeling, realising this. It was like finding out the friends you had been talking to for years were simply figments of your imagination.

If it wasn't for Astra sitting next to him now, he would have thought the entire thing was just a dream, and that he was sitting in a rubber room with rats nipping at his toes, mumbling to himself about magic and monsters. At the very least he knew that, as unbelievable as it sounded, his world was real and not some fictional tale spun from the head of a madman.

So that was something, at least.

Seth took Astra's outstretched hand and rose to his feet, wincing with every movement as his ribs screamed in protest. He let out a long sigh as he brushed the hair from his face.

"Where the hell are we?"