Grian couldn't remember how long he and Evil X stayed out in the Helsian plains. They had started expanding out, lucky that they had only ran into one beast since they arrived in this dimension.

He still couldn't figure out how to fly, or if he was even capable, but he had quickly learned how to glide. This made him responsible for gathering most of the hard to reach materials; though Evil was pretty insistent on trying to help.

While trying to figure out where they were, Grian took it upon himself to climb one of the tallest trees they could find and look out over the terrain. It was a vast forest which never seemed to end. Trees expanded as far as he could see, with the occasional pillar of stone and dirt stretching up towards the sky.

Or what Grian assumed was the sky. It was a pale red, and lined with a dense fog. He could have sworn the sky was supposed to be blue.. as much as he liked red, it was quite overwhelming.

He had dismissed the thought, telling Ex what he had seen. He didn't seem completely upset about it, content to simply gather as many materials as they could store in their chests.

That was when Grian suggested they moved. Evil wasn't completely on board at first but Grian insisted. There was a field only a few hundred blocks away, a break in the tree-line. Something about it felt safer, just from a quick glance.

He insisted, and insisted, and finally - Evil gave in, or just got annoyed enough to agree. So they gathered as many materials as they could hold - and dragged a couple of chests all the way to the field.

They set up near the middle of the clearing, it was massive and took several hours to explore from one tree-line to the other, but it was perfect.

Grian had been right, it did feel safer. Like the monsters of the woods couldn't even approach them.

Ex began to gather, and Grian began to build.

So far they had a small wooden cube, with log pillars. Grian was on inside at the moment, digging up the dirt floor. He wasn't sure what Ex was up to, but he tried not to worry about it.

He shoveled a mound of dirt into one of the empty chests, sneezing as some of the dry dust puffed into the air.

Right as he did, a loud bang sounded off from behind him. He nearly jumped a foot in the air, dropping his shovel. He paused for a moment before turning and running outside in panic - afraid a monster had found them.

Instead, he saw Evil, his hand extended as he stood over the fried corpse of a large hog.

Evil looked at him, clearly smiling, "Look! That was me! It charged me and I shocked it!"

Grian blinked, cautiously approaching the dead animal. He pushed it lightly with his foot, "Huh, I guess we're having pork for dinner."

"Awesome!" Ex put his hands on his hips with pride, "I am so sick of bread!"

"Hey!" Another voice interrupted them, and both men turned towards the sound with wide eyes. "That was mine you little brat!"

Ex took a step forward and Grian took one back, flaring his wings. Evil raised his hand confidently, "Don't you come any closer," he yelled back, "I'll do to you what I did to that pig!"

The figure approached quickly, hardly giving the man a chance to react. He was wearing dark grey armour, pulling out a sword as he ran.

Grian looked to Ex with panic, eyes wide, "Any time now, mate!"

Ex waved his hand, "I- I'm trying!"

The knight ran closer, growling and Ex cringed right as the man swung his blade towards them. Grian leapt back, barely dodging the sword and the bolt of lightning that hit the attacker. He clattered to the ground in front of them, landing just on top of the hog's corpse.

Both men stared down at the body in shock, hair staticky. Ex blinked, "I guess we're having angry man for dinner too."

Grian flinched, "We are not!"

Evil shrugged and Grian bent down, pushing the man's body away from the pig's. He moved the knight's helmet slightly and tested for a pulse.

"Oh thank Void, you didn't kill him."

"Too bad."

Grian glared before standing up, "Let's bring him inside, he's out cold."

"What? You want to keep him?!"

"Of course! We haven't seen anyone else, Evil! He might be just as confused as we are, or maybe he even knows us!"

Ex grumbled, kicking the body with his foot, "I sure don't know him," he pouted.

"Be nice."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

It was almost an hour later when the mystery man woke up. Grian had been finishing up his build in the meanwhile, letting Evil handle the job of guarding the unconscious visitor.

The build had expended quite a bit, Grian zoning into his creative space as he worked. It was a rather basic rustic house, but Grian was quite proud of the work he'd done considering their limited resources.

When the knight awoke, he seemed pretty upset.

He opened his eyes slowly, and Ex tensed, pointing his own sword at the man. The man glared at him, "What do you think you're doing!"

"Uh," Ex raised a brow, "Making sure you don't attack one of us?"

The knight narrowed his eyes, "That wont stop me!"

He tried to push himself up but fell back down with a yell. His body ached, and he hissed in pain. "What did you do to me?!"

Grian had noticed the commotion by now, and approached the man's other side, "We didn't do anything. You attacked us."

"Well," Evil lowered his sword slightly, "Might've electrocuted you a bit."

The knight grumbled and laid back down, closing his eyes. "Do what you must. I will die with honor."

Evil laughed and Grian rolled his eyes, "We're not going to kill you, not if you're not going to hurt us."

The man opened one eye, looking up, "Hm, that's fair I suppose." He untensed, "May I ask who you two are then?"

Grian and Evil both introduced themselves, and the knight shared that his name was Helsknight.

"Rather literal, isn't it?" Evil scoffed.

"That's rich coming from someone called 'Evil X'" Helsknight responded.

Grian sat down in the chair next to the bed, "So," he started, "How did you get here?"

Helsknight hummed, "That is a good question. I'm not sure."

Evil and Grian shared a glance as the knight continued, "I actually believe I've managed to lose my memories. I just woke up here, and I hardly remember anything from before. Like this, for example," he raised his hand - pointing to a shining green heart reflecting on the surface, "I certainly don't remember having this before. Nor do I know what it means."

Evil leaned forward to look at the heart, "Huh? How come yours is green?" He raised his own hand, "Grian and I have yellow!"

There was a confused pause, before Grian hesitantly spoke, "I.. think it's how many lives we have left.."

"What?" Hels and Ex spoke together.

"When I first woke up, it wasn't actually here, in this dimension I mean. It was... I don't know, this dark tower-y place. Evil was there too, but he was unconscious. We uh," he ran a hand through his hair, "We were crushed by a rock. Our hearts were green before that."

Evil hummed and Hels cocked his head, "Interesting... but how many does that mean are left?"

Grian took the knights arm gently and lifted it, pushing the green heart with his fingers. The same text he had seen earlier appeared, "Three Lives Remaining."

"Well, I suppose that question is answered. How unfortunate."

Grian gave a small smile, "At least we have more than one, right?"

Ex stared at his own wrist for a moment before shaking his head, "Whatever, that doesn't matter." He crossed his arms, trying to hide the glowing heart, "More importantly, Hels, where did you get your cool sword?"

"It's Helsknight." He corrected, "And I crafted it myself, you know. It was difficult, to say the least, I had to go deep into a cave, and gather only the finest of materials I could find! It's pure steel, that sword. Very high quality for only a few days work."

He seemed quite proud of the work, and Grian glanced at the sword leaning against the wall, it did look nice. Especially compared to their wooden ones. He turned back to the knight, "You.. went mining?"

"Of course! When I awoke, there was a horrid beast near me, most likely waiting for me to die so he could eat my body, but I will not go down so easy! Bravely, I ran into a nearby cave and gathered those materials so I could fight the monster!"

Evil raised a brow, "Did you?"

"Well.. no, it had fled in terror before I returned."

This sparked an argument between the two men, which Grian was quick to ignore as he delved into his own thoughts. Why didn't he and Evil go mining at all! They both knew very well how to make pickaxes, the next reasonable thing would be to go mining. They could have at least made stone swords! Or found steel of their own! He looked up at the men, still quarrelling. Stone would make a good floor..

"Would you two hush?" Grian crossed his arms and both men went quiet. "Evil, he's still injured, let him rest."

Helsknight smirked, "Yes, I'm very tired, you know!"

Evil rolled his eyes, walking towards the door as Grian stood up, "There's some pork in the chest next to you," Grian added, making his own way to the door, "Feel free to eat what you need."

The knight nodded, watching carefully as the two men exited the room, "Thank you."

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

Grian and Evil both took turns taking care of the bedridden knight. He was getting better quickly, but seemed to be enjoying the attention so Grian dealt with it a little longer. He and Evil had also started a small mine outside the house, getting stone, coal, and steel - as well as some other ores which neither of them knew what to do with. The mines were littered with tiny beasts, far easier to handle than the large one they had first been attacked by.

Helsknight eventually got sick of being stuck in bed. He followed the men down to the mines one day, excitedly taking out some of the smaller mobs they'd found lurking in the tunnels while the other two gathered more materials. Evil had started working on an expansion of their home. It wasn't quite as... refined as Grian's style. He had used pieces of stone and cobble to make a large, rounded tower on the back edge of the house. It was... abrupt and wasn't what Grian had in mind for the expansion - but he appreciated the effort.

It took a while for Hels to say anything nice after regaining his energy, but he did compliment Grian's build once. "It reminds me of where I used to live, I think," he had commented, "At least the town. There was a castle too."

Their farm was growing as well. Hels had even managed to wrangle another couple of hogs and began breeding them, it was clear he had gotten sick of the bread and beats. Hels and Evil handled most of the mining and wood gathering after that, while Grian farmed and continued to expand their home, making individual rooms for all three of them. Evil had even managed to find a water source, which made Grian realize.. none of them had needed water since waking up - though a nice bath was more than welcome.

It was at least three or so weeks before anyone else arrived.

At the time, the three men still lived in the same rustic house, despite the fact Grian had begun to build other houses outside of their own, a bit further down the field. The three men had just started construction on a castle when two others approached them. A man named BadTimesWithScar, who they called Bad, and a woman named SereneAngel who they just called Serene. They both stayed together in one of the other houses in the town.

Then more began to arrive. TargetTek and Bull. Then HelsGlazes, SideOfTheBed, PhenomUS, TrueSymmetry. Parson, Keralis2, and Halfslab. More and more bases expanded - more hands working and more mouths to feed. Each one with different memories, names they didn't feel connected with anymore. Pasts that didn't feel quite like their own.

Most with a little green heart on the wrist, some with yellow. Some with red.

It was what they all had in common, what kept the community together.

As their town grew, Grian and Serene began to fight for power. Grian had always been the one in charge, seemingly less aggressive than most of the others that had stumbled in. But he still lived out in his first build, away from the town. The group needed a leader, and a system of power. Evil and Hels defended their brother, and Serene backed down, but she wasn't happy about it.

Then on, Grian was in charge. They had named their dimension "Hels" (mostly due to Helsknight's insistence.) He kept the Helsians together and working hard - but allowed them their freedoms and as much distance as they wanted. He set prices and a team of guards, enforcing payment but regulating costs. The market did most of the work afterwards, and Grian could return his passions back to finishing the castle.

It took several months, but things had returned to what the Helsians would refer to as "normal." They were comfortable with the leadership. It felt as if they had new purpose in their new lives. jobs, a reason to work, entertainment, freedom.

And fighting.

But that was part of the fun.