The Evil Emperor was still laughing. Honestly, at this point she was more impressed by his lung capacity than anything else. His dark, billowing cape set over his pure black armour, while naturally inspiring a healthy amount of terror, could be bought. But enough lung strength to sustain a full force evil maniacal laughter for a solid five minutes?

That took dedication.

“Hero! Beware!” Qube yelled from her sky hole. “It’s the Evil Emperor! He’s… evil! Teehee!”

Why must she teehee even in the face of certain doom?

“Meh, it’s not like he can get away with anything,” the Saviour shouted back.

“Defiant, eh? I like your spirit!” the Dreaded Ruler bellowed. “But it will take more than the steel in your eyes to defeat me!”

“I think I got everything I needed here, so I’m about ready to set off,” the Hero called up to Qube, ignoring the evilness made manifest in front of him. “Once he’s done I just need to follow the road out the entrance, yeah? No special tricks?”

“Your words do not wound me, Hero!” The Evil Emperor sneered.

Qube was starting to suspect that the Evil Emperor was just as bad at listening as the Chosen One.

“I was going to kill you, but now … now I think it would amuse me to see you try and fail to fulfil your Golden Prophecy. Your ignominious failure would discourage others from rising up to challenge their rightful ruler. You may bow to me, and thank me for giving you these extra days of life.”

Qube puffed up in indignation. How dare this Evil come into their village and insult their Golden Prophecy! Had he not seen how the Hero had Awoken? They had all lived their very lives by it and he thought he was going to get away with sneering at it? She twisted, wrapping the rope attached to her ankle around her leg, drawing her a tiny bit closer to the Hero, who still held one end of the rope like she was a demented kite.

She just had to get out of this sky hole and then they could stop this Evil Emperor. Wait. She paused in her rotations for a second. Wasn’t the Evil Emperor supposed to destroy something? A wave of pain and nausea hit her as she contemplated this.

“Do not vex me, Hero!” The Evil Emperor seems oblivious to the fact that the Hero was tugging at his Qube kite, trying to unravel the rope she’d tangled around herself.

“I see I must teach you a salutary lesson in respect. Very well!” The Evil Emperor thrust forward his arm, fingers of darkness wrapping around the space next to the Hero, before dragging the empty air towards his Evilness. He gripped at where neck height would have been in the emptiness and lifted his arm up into the air, like he was holding something aloft.

What was the Evil Emperor doing? Qube asked herself through the pain. More than that. What was he supposed to destroy? She felt like she was on fire, her mind screaming as the Prophecy tried to keep her off that mental path. The Hero smirked at the Evil Emperor’s empty hand.

“Oh, you are so broken,” he said. “I love it.”

The Evil Emperor flicked his spare hand and a wicked looking knife appeared.

“Let this be a lesson to you of what happens to those who oppose me!” he cried, and plunged his blade into the nothingness he was pretending to hold. Qube screamed. The Golden Prophecy burned. It burned. It burned.

The Hero yanked hard on the rope holding her. With a ‘pop’ the sky released her and she fell face first into the ground. She screamed into the dirt. The Hero was at her side in a heartbeat, taking one of the few precious healing potions and pouring it into her mouth.

“Please work, please work, please work, these are so expensive,” he whispered. In the background the Evil Emperor continued to stab at the empty space he was holding, before making a severing motion. He turned towards where the Hero had been, gloating.

“Let your weakness burn you, worm!” he cried, miming kicking something on the ground to the Hero. “Let it consume you! Gather your power, and come at me again.” He abruptly pivoted, so he was facing the Hero.

“I will keep the head. Can’t have you resurrecting your little crutch.” The Evil Emperor gave a razor sharp smile. “Who knows? Perhaps you might become something worthy of me killing.” His smile widened. “But I’d better be thorough. Just to make sure.” He stretched out his arms, and the blackness grew.

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And then Qube was gone.

---

She awoke in a space that was wrong. She… she couldn’t be here. Her heart felt like it was jackknifing in her chest, she couldn’t seem to breathe properly, she was so cramped and small. She was surrounded, pressed in by objects she couldn’t see, they were all around her and yet not touching her at all. She was trapped.

And then - space! Air! Light! Freedom! She tumbled out of an impossibly small hole and onto grass. She rolled, gracefully rising up, already ready to take on the Evil Emperor.

Only to find herself standing next to an open field with no one but the Chosen One around for as far as the eye could see. They were at the very edge of the woods that had hemmed her in her entire life and in just two steps she would leave their protection for the first time. A faint path, no doubt worn down by the endless passage of Mr Clockwork, was the only sign of civilization.

“Whe- where’s the Evil Emperor?”

“Oh he left once he was done,” the Chosen One said, casually fishing some more items out of his backpack. Qube looked at him, then his backpack, then all around them. There was no sign of anything else he could have carried her in.

“Did you…”

“It took ages to get you to fit in my backpack,” the Hero said absentmindedly searching through his jam jars. “I think the only reason it worked was because the system thought you were… you know.”

Qube had no idea what he was talking about, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Now was finally her time to shine! This was her first true day as his guiding light outside the village!

“Ah, is that why you tried the sky trick first?” she asked, rubbing her chin.

“No, just didn’t think of it until I tried to drag you away,” he said frankly. “You are surprisingly heavy.”

“Makes perfect sense,” she lied smoothly. “And the Evil Emperor?”

“Oh yeah,” the Hero said, eating directly out of one of Adlerman’s jars. “He did the usual thing. So cliche.”

“Was anyone hurt?” she asked worriedly. The Hero paused halfway to shoving a marmelade covered hand into his mouth.

“...No?” he said eventually.

“Then what did he destroy?” She flinched, waiting for the Prophecy to punish her for that question. Instead she felt… nothing. No pressure. No pain. Just… her. The Hero regarded her for another moment.

“The… buildings?”

Qube instantly relaxed. Thank goodness for that! The houses could be rebuilt, but if any of her fellow villagers had been hurt she would have felt terrible.

“Well, that’s a relief! Now, it’s time to set off to make things right!” she said cheerfully.

“Sure thing,” he said, licking his hand clean. “Where’s the forest’s heart? Is it this forest? Or a different one?”

Qube froze in place, her mind whirling with possibilities.

“Cobbletown!” she blurted out. “It’s the Castle’s Town, that’s where we start. It’s a short distance towards the mountains.” Not for nothing had she spent her life studying maps of the area. Not to mention going to Cobbletown first allowed her to pick up supplies for herself. For some reason it hadn’t occurred to her to bring provisions for herself. Both the Hero and her had instead been solely focused on getting him ready for his trip, rather than both of them. ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘it makes sense. He is the Hero, after all’. But that didn’t eliminate her need to have her own bedroll and tent.

“To Cobbletown then!” he declared and slapped her on the back, sending her staggering forward out of the woods and into the green fields she had dreamed of her whole life.

---

It took about five minutes before something tried to kill them. The only warning Qube got was a low, guttural growling before three wolves emerged from a tiny bush. They ignored her, their entire focus instead on the Fighter in front of them, sword in hand.

“[Lesser Shield]!” Qube shouted, her silvery magic immediately surrounding the Chosen One. The foremost wolf lunged at the Chosen One, only to smack face first into the magical shield. It backed up, shook its head, then tried to bite the shield. It couldn’t get any purchase on it, so instead it ended up rubbing its teeth against the shield, its lips smeared against the near invisible barrier. There was something both hilarious and horrifying about watching a hungry wolf ineffectively trying to gnaw its way through the shield protecting her best friend, Qube reflected. The other two wolves also started trying to bite through the shield, to no avail.

Confused, and increasingly irritated, the wolves circled the shield, trying to find a gap they could exploit. Qube skipped backwards, but they continued to completely ignore her.

The Chosen One started laughing, and sheathed his sword.

“Why aren’t you attacking them?” Qube whispered, trying not to draw the wolves’ attention.

“They can’t get through the shield,” he shrugged.

“Yes but they still might try to eat me,” she hissed.

“I get the impression they’re not going to do that,” he said, still smiling. “You’re not supposed to be here. I’m not supposed to have your shield.” He started laughing again. “Oh this is even better than I thought it would be! This is amazing.” He pushed past the wolves and continued walking. “Come on, I want to see how far they’ll follow us.”

“You’ll be sorry when they eat my face off,” Qube muttered, but still followed.

After another five minutes of the wolves ignoring Qube and gnawing at the shield (and another five recasts of the shield spell), they reached a stone bridge crossing a river. The instant the Chosen One set foot on the bridge the wolves abruptly lost interest and turned away, heading back to their original tiny bush.

Qube had been ruminating on what the Chosen One had said earlier.

“What do you mean, I’m not supposed to be here?” she asked. The Chosen One paused.

“Well…” He seemed to think deeply. “The Evil Emperor, he… said our Prophecy was false, right?”

“The blackguard!” Qube said, her eyes flashing.

“So that implies he has his own Evil Prophecy, yeah? Which is why he thinks ours is false.”

“I… suppose so,” she said, frowning. She’d never thought about that before.

“Right. Which obviously wouldn’t have us setting off from the village as a team. Cuz that’s how we win in the Golden Prophecy.” He was looking at her intently.

“Oh! And because the wolves were attacking you, they’re Evil, which means they would be following the Evil Prophecy! Which wouldn’t have me as your Guiding Light.” Qube beamed. “They probably just thought I was some random passerby!”

“Sure, let’s go with that,” the Chosen One said.

She nodded, amazed by the Hero’s insight.

“They’re going to regret ignoring me!” she said, puffing out her cheeks. In the far distance they could see the spires of the castle just coming into view. The Chosen One looked at her, a strange smile lilting on his lips.

“I believe they will.” He gave a quiet laugh as she looked at him quizzically. “This is going to be even more fun than I thought,” he said, and grinned.

And on the horizon, the castle waited.