A Crown of Broken Runes (ACOBR)

Watching

It stared at him. He stared back.

A tiny blue bird let out a tweet of anger and blinked, looking away.

"Yes! I won! In your face, Professor Beak!" Grian shouted loudly, pumping his fist and rattling the circular windows of his tiny hobbit hole.

The little parrot gave another indignant squawk, and hopped to Grian's shoulder, giving him a tiny nip of affection. Grian poured a handful of seeds into the bird's enclosure, and the feathery pet eagerly flapped back over to gobble them up. Grian straightened. It was odd, being back here. It had been a while. He had come here to deposit some more doors and to check up on Professor beak, and all seemed to be in order.

His footsteps padded out of the doorless entrance. He absentmindedly began to kick along a piece of birch left on the floor, the only remnant of the wooden doors that once stood there.

A warm, humid breeze tugged at his cloak as he swep outside. Equipping his elytra awkwardly over his wings, he leaped off the ground. A small flash lit up the jungle as he fired off a rocket, propelling him through the leafy canopy. As he glided over the jungle landscape, he had an idea. He should go visit Mumbo! However, as he approached, he had an gut feeling that Mumbo wouldn't be there. He checked his communicator, and a new message from Scar glowed on the screen. He alighted upon the top of a tree and read it. Grinning, he turned back towards his base. It was time.

Once he arrived, he searched through the chests, finally finding what he was looking for. In his hand he held a clear flask with a bent neck. It was filled with a pearlescent, almost metallic-looking liquid. It was an odd shade of cloudy indigo. As Grian held it, the glow from his hand made it look like the smoke from the crater. Grian took off again, tucking the bottle into his inventory.

He would watch them from the shadows, invisibly.

~ ⬩ ⎓∷𝙹ᒲ ⬩ ~

Scar had just alighted upon the roof of the townhouse. He folded his elytra, and inspected his work. The townhouse was magnificent, overlooking the entire shopping district. He jumped down, and looked at the massive tower of glittering gems, refracting light into rainbows that were crawling along the walls. The Diamond Throne was many times taller than him. He sighed, wondering who would eventually get to sit upon such a glorious throne.

He turned, and that's when he noticed the tower. It was spooky, and gave off the same vibe as the ones he had seen out the window on the day the world broke. He glided down, tripping as he landed, and inspected the building curiously. It rose out of the water just off the shore of the shopping district. It was dark, foreboding, and eerie. Scar didn't want to enter alone.

"What is this?" He asked himself aloud.

Sitting on the shore of the island, he typed out a message on his communicator.

ᐸGoodTimeWithScarᐳ Guys I found something.
ᐸGoodTimeWithScarᐳ Come to the shopping district.

After a few minutes, Mumbo arrived, along with Ren. They alighted next to Scar.

"It's over there- see it in the water?" He asked them, pointing towards the massive structure.

The three hermits stood for a moment, staring at the imposing column of stone.

"Well what're we waiting for? Let's go!" Exclaimed Ren, cracking a smile, "I'll race ya!"

With that, they all rushed down to the entrance of the temple, the shadow of the huge obsidian arch casting an ominous shadow over them. Tall purple glass windows let an eerie purple glow seep across the sandstone floors.