Grian barely arrived in the shopping district in time to see the explosion. The fighting stopped, everyone turning at the spectacle of the entire crastle turning to dust. He landed, shock filling him. Impulse had done it himself. He didn't even need to come back, except to see.

Pearl stepped through the crowd, walking slow, dream-like, until she reached the crater. No items remained. The tiny crown was gone, right as Ren reappeared in the direction of the actual spawn. 

He was in tears, a mess. Grian flew closer, landing next to Pearl. Doc made his way over too, a victorious glint in his eyes. 

'You win.' The 'king' whispered. 'Everyone listen.' heads turned in his direction. 'I am a man who once ruled the world. And now I stand here with nothing but a crater and the memories of what I have caused. I hereby denounce the throne, and the need for a king on this here server.'

'A place that I will happily fill with a queen.' Pearl grinned, and the phantoms landed behind her in various levels of injured, bloodcrazed and just respawned. 'And my first decree as queen of Hermitcraft is...'

'No.' Grian finally spoke. 'No more monarchy. No more hybrid empire. It's over.'

'You can't stop me.' Pearl hissed. Grian stepped back, before opening his communication with Impulse again

'There is TNT placed under your base, Pearl. And any moment now Impulse can light it. Or, you give up on a monarchy, give up on your kingdom, and we can all return to normality and peace.'

She stepped back. Gem mumbled something to her which she didn't reply to, deep in thought, eyes closed. Martyn arrived too, standing with Ren. A strange silence had fallen over the server. Phantoms still filled the slowly-lightening skies. Grian stared up at them, knowing they could still kill him. 

'Well?' 

Pearl clawed at Grian, who stumbled away, tripping and crashing to the ground.

'Dop, light it up.'

'You got it Gop.'

A pause

ImpulseSV blew up

'NO!' Horror and pain filled Pearl's voice as she took to the air. Grian followed, as did anyone who still had wings or elytra. The smouldering mess of what used to be Pearl's base came into view. By this point it was day and the phantoms landed passively in front of it as though their purpose in life was lost, barely remembering to pull up hoods or put on helmets. Impulse joined Grian, staring silently at what he'd done.

'You- you...' Tears threatening to fall, Pearl turned to the pair. 'You destroyed it all...'

'Pearl. I'm sorry. But we said we would.' Even Grian wanted to cry at the sight of what he'd caused. Utter destruction to the most beautiful base on the server. Pearl let out a scream of emotion, unable to stop crying.

'Well?' Ren asked as he landed. 'Do you give up.' 

She glared at him, tears streaming down her face, before summoning a portal away.

PearlescentMoon left the game

'And you don't need to blow up my base to make the Perimeter surrender.' Doc spoke. 'It's faced enough TNT already this season to make it. And we never wanted a part of this war anyway. I'm glad it is finally over.' 

'So am I.' Impulse replied with a small laugh of disbelief. 'It's over... we've... won.' He hugged Grian, who hugged back after a second.

'Yeah. You did it, Impulse. Well done.' He murmured. No one spoke for another moment, still in shock about what had been done, and all that they'd lost on the way, until Ren finally found his voice again.

'I'm sorry, dudes.' Ren stepped over again. 'I'm sorry for everything...'

'We forgive you.' Impulse smiled over at him, hiding the mistrust he knew he'd feel towards the dog forever. 'Don't worry.' 

'I... I don't know what came over me.' 

'The same thing that came over you in Third Life.' Martyn figured. 'Moral of the story, Ren can't be king or he'll try to kill everyone.' 

A laugh back.

'Yeah... that's fair.'

'Well... what now?' Oli asked. 'Pearl's gone, Ren and Doc have surrendered... your shopping district is gone...'

Grian stepped away from Impulse.

'Well... we can rebuild and recover, that's for sure.' He figured. 'And then... try to get over everything as much as we can. Find a new normal.' 

'A new normal...' Agreed Impulse. 'Set up some new precautions against everyone's powers, see if we can find some kind of magic to fix the worst of it.' He glanced at Bdubs and Sausage. 'And from there...' He shrugged. 'Just be hermits again.'

A general murmur of approval followed. Grian and Impulse exchanged another smile, before the former stepped away. 

'I'll be back.' He promised. 'There are a just a couple people I know who won't want to miss the celebrations...' Impulse nodded, understanding, before letting him walk off. Grian quickly summoned a portal and, with another nod, stepped through to Season 6 again.

'Scar? Cub?' He called, looking around for either as he arrived in Concorp. It didn't take long for them to appear. 

'Grian! Did you win?' Scar smiled as he ran over.

'Ren's gone.' Grian replied with a smile. 'And Pearl is too.' Hermes appeared behind them, running over and giving a huge hug. Grian grinned as he hugged the child back. 

'He's almost as chaotic as us.' Cub laughed. 'Perfect little vex.'

'I don't think it's possible for anyone to be as chaotic as you are, Cub.' Replied Grian, holding Hermes as he stood up again. 'I'm glad he's been safe here. And... you have too.'

'It's a lot better than Season 9.' A pause followed. Hermes looked around at his new friends. 

'Yeah... yeah...' They all knew what he was there to ask. 'I'm not... It's alright if you don't want to stay but...  just for the celebrations.' Grian insisted. 'Knowing the others we're going to have a huge party or something to celebrate Ren and Pearl's defeat before we deal with the aftermath' The convex looked to each other.

'We can't promise we won't blow anything up... or cause chaos.'

'Scar.' He looked sheepishly away at Grian's sigh. 'It's Hermitcraft. We expect both.'

'Just one last day?' Cub shrugged. 'A chance to say goodbye, eat some cake, cause a bit more chaos... Can't be too bad.'

'You're right... let's go.'

Only one chapter left!