Chapter Text
Demise had ended. But the hermits weren’t quite back to normal yet. Many of them were still grey, still technically undead. Mumbo had quickly gotten to work on a device that would, somehow, restore color and life to the hermits, but that wouldn’t work on everyone. So many people had changed more than just their colors.
One of those people was Ren. His clothes and voice were still Grimdog’s. He would have to find a different way of returning to his normal self, and he had a theory: if Ren was killed by the rules of Demise, now that the game was done, he might just return alive. So, he sought out the one person who was, technically, still on an opposing side.
They met up in the Sahara meeting room. “Hello, Mr. ...Grim?” Iskall asked tentatively.
“No Grim here anymore,” Ren replied. “Ahem. At least, he’s not supposed to be. ...I need your help.”
He briefly explained his idea to Iskall. “So, yeah. Does that make sense?”
Iskall frowned. “Hmm... nope. Doesn’t make any sense.”
“Okay. Good,” Ren said with a laugh.
As they left the building, Iskall casually put their hand on Ren’s shoulder, but pulled away when Ren flinched. “Sorry.”
“You’re good, dude,” Ren reassured them. “Must have been a static shock or something.” He grinned. “For a moment, I almost thought I felt my heart beat!”
Iskall cackled at Ren’s mock-flirtatious smile. “How romantic.”
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Iskall set forth five challenges for Ren. It almost felt like being back on the Demise Dares field -only this time, he would only win diamonds if he survived every challenge... and survival was not the final goal.
Still, he did well in two of the challenges. Sure, Iskall almost killed him with an arrow, but that was an accident. And that arrow delivered a bit more of the same energy shock that he had felt when Iskall had touched him outside Sahara. Ren questioned Iskall about it, wondering if his friend was actually dabbling in magic for once. Iskall looked thoughtful, hand drifting to their dragon headpiece, then replied, “No... not on purpose, anyway.”
Water caused his first Demise, but lava caused his second. To Ren, the flames felt like they were burning away his deathly pall. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking as he fell to his knees on the shore of the lava sea.
Iskall looked on with bated breath. The moment Ren vanished into code, Iskall felt what they now recognized as Stress’s magic, filtered through the original dragon head into a spell that encouraged and brought life.
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Ren felt a cool breeze on his skin. He actually felt the cool breeze, and the concrete platform below him. He looked around, finding himself at the original worldspawn. At the sight of his red shirt, Ren grinned harder than he had in a long time. He was back, baby! And the voice, cloak, every trace of Grimdog had vanished - forever.