"They're back!" Andor cried, pushing past all of us to get to the sky people. Exhausted and covered in blood, they appeared in front of us. "Where's Helgrind?"

They all exchanged looks. "Sparklez, you know him best," Jericho muttered, folding his arms. My mouth dropped open as I realized what must have happened.

Sparklez sighed and looked at Andor sympathetically. "I... I'm sorry, Andor. The place we went to was like... a weird version of Dagrun. Everything was made of flesh and guts, and the ocean was made of blood. We saw Helgrind there, but... he was different. Weird. And apparently you were there too, but we didn't see anyone but Helgrind. I think it's because he's the only one that actually existed in that place. Everything else was a nightmare."

"Did he think that was his town?" Andor gasped, his turquoise eyes wide with horror. "Did he think that all of the flesh and guts were his kingdom?"

Sparklez nodded. "It wasn't him. Something was off. We were trying to get him to come back with us, but then..." his voice trailed off.

"What happened?" Dianite yelled, his metal hands clenching into fists.

"World Historian appeared," Waglington said, seeing that Sparklez didn't want to continue. "The guy who wrote all of the books in the library. He... he thanked us for the quintessence. And then we were gone, and Helgrind was left behind. I don't know what became of him."

Andor was silent for a while. "So does that mean that World Historian can drain quintessence? He was the one that ruined the land? He's the one that killed Ianite?"

"Yes." Sparklez's voice was incredibly quiet. He had been very close to the goddess. "I don't know how a regular person became more powerful than a god, though."

"Oh my gods," Dianite said quietly, and then much louder. "DON'T TELL ME HE'S BACK!"

Everyone flinched. "Who? What do you mean, 'he's back'?" I asked, my voice shaking.

I had never seen Dianite looked so horrified. "That... he... World Historian isn't a regular person. I thought he was gone. He... he was the one who killed me ten years ago! He was the hooded figure everyone saw! It's all making sense now, and I hate it!"

Everyone exchanged confused glances. "What did he do before? How did he leave? You know him?" Firefoxx blurted out a bunch of questions.

Dianite looked like he was about to faint. "World Historian was my father. He married a mortal to have me, Ianite, and Mianite. He was less of a being and more of a smoky figure who entered the mortal world just so he could have more control. He's insane. He's always been."

"Then why did he leave for so long?" Jericho asked. Nothing seemed to be making sense.

Dianite shook his head slowly. "His own greed ended him. He messed with things that were far too dangerous. There's something terribly, terribly wrong with him, but the problem is that he's also incredibly, incredibly powerful."

"Why has he been draining the quintessence from the world?" Sparklez asked. "He's going to kill everyone and everything! I thought he wanted control."

"He doesn't care about mortals. He doesn't feel like he needs to rule over them to have power. If they cause him trouble, he'll just wipe out the entire race. He's been coming in the form of black smoke and everything of quintessence, I know he has. He doesn't like the fact that his children have more power than he does."

"There was something like that in our realm," Firefoxx said suddenly. "He was mostly focused on Tom. But we all saw him. Although where we come from, he referred to himself as the Shadows. And he didn't write any history books, as far as I know."

"The Shadows were just a trick," Jericho said, rolling his eyes. "Dianite made it up to test Tom's loyalty."

"That's what Mianite did about half a century ago," Dianite said suddenly. "Mianite pretended that World Historian was just a smoky figure he created, in order to see how trustworthy his followers were."

Jericho looked appalled. "Oh. But our gods never told us the truth about him! Even Mianite and Ianite told us that the Shadows were just a trick."

"I can only speak for my realm," Dianite said, "but it seems like the gods in yours had the same ideas as us. Ianite and I wanted to pretend that our father didn't exist. He was on another level of abusive. We became strong adults, but we needed him out of the picture. Anything to deny his existence and live our own happy lives."

"But does that mean that the Shadows are destroying the Realm of Mianite right now?" Sparklez said suddenly. "Are our alternates suffering the same things we are? Are they dying?"

Everyone turned to look at me. I was frozen. Shell-shocked. My hands were clamped over my mouth in absolute horror. For all I knew, Alyssa, Spark, and Jeriah were dead by now. Because of me.

"But... I can't just bring them here!" I gasped, the realization hitting me. "Then they'll just suffer under the hands of World Historian! Both realms are trapped with a demon that we can't escape, I bet. And we don't have a way to leave!"

"That's a lie." Dianite's face showed no emotion. "We have a way to leave. You see... Deviser Gaines isn't from this realm. He came from another one, and the portal to go back is in the laboratory. We were planning on reviving me, and then escaping through the portal before World Historian could attack us."

"So do you think I should try to bring the others back?" I asked, suddenly feeling like I needed to hurry.

"Yes, maybe you should. They probably aren't as capable of handling the Shadows as we are with World Historian. You never know what could happen to them," Dianite sighed.

"Well, we need to go gather our items if we're going to be leaving soon," Sparklez said, gesturing for the others to leave with him. "I'd love to meet our alternates when we return, though."

"That's a good idea," Dianite said. "Mot and I will go bring back the alternates, and meet you when we're done."

My heart pounding, I walked across the decaying bridge to get to the portal platform. Most of them were lit up, with signs placed next to each saying where they were to. They looked bright and happy against the darkening sky and the destroyed land. However, the one on the end blended in with everything else. It was dark, since the portal was down. It's white frame was faded and dirty.

"It looks sad," Dianite observed quietly. "It hasn't been touched in two years."

"Well, hopefully it'll look better after this." I walked up to it and opened the portal control block. It was already wired up to the Realm of Mianite, so all I needed to do was activate it again. After doing so, the frame began to glow. I stepped back and turned to look at Dianite.

His metal face was shining in the orange light of the setting sun. "So what happens now?"

"Ianite has to activate the portal from her end, and then we can reach the alternates." I sat down on the edge of the platform and let my legs hang over the void. "We just have to wait."

He sat down next to me, and his hand was inches from mine. "I don't mind waiting, if it's with you."