The instant Dave's soul snapped back together, it did so with the enthusiastic elasticity of a rubber band that had been stretched to its very limits, and then suddenly released. The sensation was not unlike being doused with a bucket of ice water, or perhaps a more accurate metaphor would be having one's soul suddenly ripped apart and stitched back together with the finest cosmic thread.

In that electrifying moment, things rebounded back into focus with astonishing clarity. Dave blinked, his eyes adjusting to the sudden influx of vibrancy that saturated his surroundings. He drew back his tingling hand, which had been reaching out towards the space where Cedez once stood, and winced as if he'd just touched a live wire.

The spot where Cedez had been was now conspicuously vacant.

"What?" Dave stammered, his gaze sweeping across the verdant expanse of the meadow before him.

"What the hell?!" He spun around, his heart pounding in his chest.

Murdoc and the snail were gone, too, as if they'd never been there at all. He was somehow back at the green meadow surrounding the lighthouse smithy.

Dave rushed into the smithy, his mind racing with questions and confusion.

"What’s going on?" He demanded when he spotted Remicra, her violet-blue scales glinting in the light of the forge. “How did I get here?!”

"Hrmmm?" The dragoness turned, her brow furrowing in concern. "Why are you flapping around the meadow like a wild rabbit?"

"Cedez," Dave demanded, his voice tight with anxiety. "She was with me a minute ago. I grabbed her wrist and yelled at her, and... now she is gone. Vanished, like smoke in the wind. We were in the Rimzadria Estate... not here."

"Who's Cedez?" Remicra tilted her head, orange tones running through her scales. "Rimzadria Estate?"

"Cedez... the dark foxgirl, I... errr," Dave stammered, his confusion mounting. "The Sovereign of Shandria... come on. What the hell is going on around here?"

"I don't know who or what you're talking about," Remicra said, her voice laced with genuine bewilderment. "Shandria doesn't have a Sovereign. Never did. Lord Burgundy rules it."

Dave blinked, his mind reeling as he tried to make sense of the situation.

"I don't understand," he said, his voice shaking. "What…?"

"Did you bake your head in the sun too long, master?" Remicra growled, her eyes narrowing with concern. "You're not making any bloody sense right now."

The hair on the back of Dave's head stood up, an uneasy shiver running down his spine. He looked around the smithy and saw that the once-green trees were now painted with the fiery oranges and reds of autumn. The world had changed in the blink of an eye. And there, around Remicra's neck, was a collar that hadn't been there moments before.

"What the shit," he muttered, running a hand through his ginger hair. "No, no, no, come on... this isn't what I..."

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The violin strings in his soul vibrated, the haunting melody adding to the cascading, rising tension that gripped his heart.

Amidst the swirling chaos of his thoughts, one thing was crystal clear: something had shifted, and Dave suddenly found himself in a world that was both familiar and frighteningly different. And with every passing moment, the lines between reality and illusion seemed to blur further, leaving him questioning everything he thought he knew.

Dave stared at Remicra's collar, his heartbeat intensifying.

"I freed you," he said, his voice tinged with disbelief. "I scratched those damned runes on that collar off, I saw you rip it in half yourself!"

"Clearly I did not rip anything off," Remicra replied, tapping the thick metal collar on her neck. "Were you perchance accidentally hit by one of the wardspells? You seem exceptionally confused. I did tell you to hire a runemancer to assist you with the study of the ward, but nooo, you never listen to me."

"I... errr," Dave sputtered, his confusion only growing. "I freed you," he insisted.

"That would be highly illegal," Remicra said, her voice firm but not unkind. "We've discussed this before. Please refrain from freeing me. By Imperial Law, you cannot free a collared slave who committed murder."

Dave rubbed his head, his frustration mounting.

"Sherlock, what's going on?" He thought.

"If I had to hazard a guess," Sherlock replied, his voice the soothing balm of reason amidst the chaos of Dave's thoughts. "We somehow lost a few months. It is autumn."

"Sherlock, this is a goddamned Dyson sphere, why would there be an autumn?" Dave thought back, staring at the orange-leafed trees surrounding the smithy.

"I do not possess a definitive answer as to how autumn would occur on a Dyson sphere," the violin sang back. "Why not ask Remicra how many months it's been since you've met her?"

"Remy, how long have we known each other?" Dave inquired, his eyes searching his companion's face for any sign of recognition, any clue that would help him make sense of the strange world he now found himself in.

"Three months," Remicra said, her tail thrashing with agitation. "You stumbled into my smithy and wouldn't leave me alone."

"I, erm, and then?" Dave asked.

"And then you found a crashed skyship and sold a large shard of magisteel for gold and leased me and the smithy for a year from Lord Burgundy's estate manager, Sir Ishkiss," she recounted.

"Sir Ishkiss?" Dave blinked. "Burgundy leased you to me? Why?!"

"Lord Burgundy owns most of Shandria," Remicra said. "I'm not that important in the grand scheme of things. He has far friendlier blacksmiths on hand who reside in less dilapidated smithies."

"Different timeline? Alternative events?" Dave muttered to himself, his mind racing. "The shadow? Did she take herself out of the equation?"

He rushed upstairs, his footsteps echoing as he ascended the circular stairwell to the top of the half-ruined lighthouse.

Upon reaching the summit, he scanned the horizon. There was no dark shadow over Shandria, no ring of black clouds circling the city.

"God damn it, Cedez," Dave gulped, his heart drumming in his chest. "This isn't what I wanted!"

Suddenly, a warning bell resounded from the city, its urgent toll magnifying across the walls. Mage-lights ignited atop towers, gargantuan defense hexagrams flaring to life and covering the city in flickering barrier shields.

Dave stared out onto the mountains, his eyes widening in horror. A wave of dark something was coming, pouring through the passes like a malevolent tide.

As Dave stood there, staring at the growing tide, he realized with a sickening lurch that it was composed of people. Millions of people wearing white skull masks. This was no mere incursion – it was an invasion, a tide of summoned humanity pouring forth from the Dragon Emperor's domain.