It was chaos by the time we arrived in Urulu. Apparently, most people had already fled the city, but the few citizens who hadn't were in their basements, panicking. Even as we walked by them to deal with the situation, they yelled insults at us and cursed, saying that the sky people ruined their lives. I tried my best to ignore them.

Sparklez had been keeping my old rapier in his spectre dimension, so he had given it to me to use in the battle. I was also wearing a shiny pair of bronze-colored armor, which he had used when he first arrived in Ruxomar. It wasn't very strong, but it was better than diamond, so I was fine with it. Because we would be fighting against flying mobs, and Sparklez didn't have extra angel rings, he gave me a Tinkers Construct bow.

"I can handle the Ender Dragons!" Ianite yelled, flying into the air. "Focus on the withers!"

Alyssa and I climbed onto a house to shoot at Tempest, a wither that was the closest to the city. "Look out!" she screamed as one of it's projectiles was shot right at us.

We jumped to the side, and the middle of the roof exploded and started to cave in. "He's almost at half health!" I called as she started sliding down. "Go back down so you can attack him with your sword!"

She nodded quickly and jumped off the side of the building, landing on the balcony below. I turned back and shot again at the wither. After shooting two arrows, it started to glow and sank lower to the ground. "Alyssa!" I shouted. "Attack it!"

As I climbed down the side of the building, I saw Alyssa furiously swinging her ruby sword at the wither. She was wearing full scaled green armor, but her long ponytail stuck out from underneath the helmet. It swished back and forth as she battled with the wither. By the time I made it down the building to help her out, she had already killed it.

She jogged over to me, wiping sweat off her forehead. "It's down! What do you think the status is on the other withers? And how's Ianite doing with the Ender Dragons?"

Right on cue, a loud crackling noise filled the air, and a burst of purple light lit up the night sky. When we looked up, we saw the remains of the Ender Dragon fading into the stars. "Well, we better go check. Let's head to the other side of the city."

Energized, the two of us sprinted down the long sandy paths. I was focused on trying to find another wither, but Alyssa was observing Urulu's buildings. I wondered how much she remembered, since she had only been six when she lived here. "Over there!" I shouted, seeing Jeriah and one of the Champwans (this was going to get confusing) shooting at another wither. Both of them had perfect aim, and they were able to bring it down to half health very quickly.

"Watch out, we're going to attack it from behind!" Alyssa yelled to Jeriah when we got close. He turned around and nodded, gesturing for Champwan to move to the left.

I ran to the right, going behind the wither, and swinging my rapier at it. It was no math for four highly trained people, and it died very quickly. In that time, I heard crackling sounds as a few more Ender Dragons died.

"You four! Head to the library!" We turned around to see Sparklez flying at us. "There are only a few more Ender Dragons and withers left to fight. Head to safety so we can get out of here as fast as possible!"

"Got it!" I shouted. Satisfied, he turned and flew in the direction of a wither in the distance. "Let's stick together," I told the other three as we began to hurry down one of the paths. We were all out of breath, but we needed to keep running. The sooner we left this city, the better.

"There you are," I heard Dianite say when we finally arrived in the library. "I can see you're tired, but you'll need to hurry down these stairs to get to Dargon. I'll go find the others."

"How many stairs are there?" I asked him, but the god was already gone. As I peered down, it seemed to be an endless amount of flights. This was going to be fun.

After going through the portal, everyone except for the gods found that they were suddenly unable to fly, or even spread their wings. Some sort of strange magic hung in the air, but that was the only clear effect it had on us. All of us had to stick to walking and jumping to get through the maze-like cave systems leading to Dianite's body. I chose this opportunity to speak to my daughter for a longer time.

"So what happened?" I asked her. "I want you to catch me up on everything that happened since I left."

Martha sighed. "Umm... a lot happened. What was going on when you disappeared?"

I thought for a minute. "Not much, I don't think. I believe that I had just given my crown up to Helgrind, and he became the ruler of Dagrun. You and Steve moved into that nearby farmhouse together, I think. Oh yeah, Andor was about ten and Alva was somewhere around Alyssa's age. Five, maybe?"

My heart sank as fear spread across her face. "Oh... that's right. That's before Ianite... Mom... went crazy."

I almost stopped walking. "Wait, what?"

She bit her lip nervously. "This is going to be a lot to take in. Ianite lost control of her powers after you left. Everyone was trying to calm her down... I can't remember the details. I just know that Freya and Alva were trying to help her one day, and then the Taint got to the point of being too much. Helgrind and Andor found their bodies the next morning."

I was almost too shocked to speak. "That's terrible! Oh no... there's more?"

"A lot more." Martha was unable to look at me in the eyes now. "I know this is going to be difficult for you to accept... but Helgrind did some terrible things after you were gone. He blamed Ianite for the death of Freya and Alva, even though she couldn't control her powers. Helgrind, well, banished Ianite from Dagrun. Forever. He denied her existence to Dagrun's citizens, saying that Mianite was the only god. Anyone who worshipped Ianite or Dianite was dead to him."

"But I build Dagrun for Ianite!" I exclaimed, unable to believe what I was hearing. My own son?

"I know, Dad. I tried to tell Helgrind, but he wanted nothing to do with me, either. He allowed Steve to say, but said that I was just a living reminder of Ianite. Plus, he thought I was going to tell everyone in the town the truth about the gods, which I was. But I heard, when I came back, what Helgrind ended up doing to Andor." She glanced nervously at the boy.

Terror shot through me as I took a better look at Andor. There were enormous scars running up and down his back, and he walked with a slight limp. I had noticed it before, but I assumed it was just battle wounds. Had he been... abused? By my son? "What did he do the poor boy? And why?"

"Andor knew who his grandmother was, obviously. He lost his mother and his sister, but he didn't blame Ianite at all. He tried to tell Helgrind, begged him, but it was to no avail. Helgrind started threatening him, so he, too, pretended that Ianite didn't exist. For ten years. Then, finally, someone stronger than Helgrind showed up, and supported him through everything."

"Sparklez?" I brightened slightly. "Did my alternate help him?"

"It was very sweet, what Sparklez did for the boy. Nobody had been there for him for most of his life. Anyway, Sparklez helped him to rebel against the king, and announce the fact that Ianite was real, and that he was one of her followers. Then... what Helgrind did was unbelievable." She glanced once again at his scars. "He sent him to the Inertia. Do you remember it?"

Now I stopped walking. "The prison? Where they torture people? I visited it once, and it was so dreary that it affected me for days. Andor was sent there? Is that where..." I didn't have the heart to say it.

"A while ago, he had purple wings, to support Ianite. The workers forcefully ripped the wings from his back, and then proceeded to beat him as much as they could without permanently injuring him. He had bruises all over his face, arms, and back. We managed to heal most of them, but the scars where his wings were torn might stay there forever, unless there are some seriously good medical professionals over in Gaines's realm."

"Oh." I looked around at the people who were with us now. "What happened to Helgrind after that?"

"It's a long story. To make it short, he ended up being trapped in the Nether, going insane, and then died when World Historian made the area he was in completely collapse."

"So World Historian killed my wife, my son, and destroyed my entire realm?" My fists clenched. "I'm disgusted."

"Martha! Spark!" Dianite called suddenly. "We're approaching the room with Dianite's body. You better get ready, and start walking faster!"

We placed our helmets back on our heads and took out our swords. Martha nodded at the invisible god, preparing herself mentally for the process ahead. "We're ready."