Sips sat in a chair next to Zylus' infirmary bed, staring sadly at his heavily breathing grandchild. His head suddenly popped down as he stared the ground, biting his lip and fighting back tears.

"This is my fault…" he mumbled to himself, Ridge over hearing him. He walked over and patted Sips on the back.

"Believe me, Sips, it isn't your fault at all. It's Israphel's fault," he said, trying to comfort Sips during his grieving. Sips looked Ridge in the eyes, his brown eyes looking dead as night.

He hesitated, then asked, "Ridge… will he get better?" Ridge's eyes widened slightly, and then he looked at the ground. He had to be honest with Sips, especially now.

"I… I don't know," Ridge began truthfully. "I've… never seen sand taint like this…" Sips looked at Zylus again and sighed. He hadn't been entirely truthful either.

"It wasn't the sand that did this…" he mumbled, which seemed to catch Ridge's attention. How could it not have been the sand? "It was him… It was Israphel… he did this. He just… touched him, and he fell over… and I just stood and watched…" Sips choked out, tears falling again. Ridge looked at Zylus' pale, shaky body.

"This is worse than I thought, then… I have to tell them… Do you want to be in the call?" he asked, just in case Sips just wasn't ready yet. Sure enough, he wasn't and shook his head, just staring at Zylus. Ridge looked to his watch and opened the call list. He called everyone except Zylus and Sips. Everyone answered, too.

"Ridge, good to see you."

"Ridge, do you know where Sips is? He said he needed to teleport to Zylus an-" A panicked Sjin said quickly, but was interrupted by Daltos.

"He's fine… Zylus isn't…" Daltos said solemnly, sounding very hurt and sorrowful as well. Zoey's eyes widened.

"What? What happened to Zylus? Did you actually murder him?" she asked. Rythian sort of chuckled at that, but Daltos looked quite cross.

"No! I wouldn't! That dispute was settled ages ago! It… wasn't me," he explained, his voice cracking a little towards the end. Though you could barely tell, it looked as though Daltos was crying. Everyone was now wondering what had happened. But Toby just knew exactly what happened. And it had him written all over it.

"Zylus was touched by Israphel," Ridge said, his gaze solemn. "I don't know how to treat this, though… the sand taint was way easier… But this is a curse afflicted directly by Israphel. It has the same symptoms, however, of someone with the sand taint, just more intense. From the looks of it, it looks like it'll…" Ridge trailed off, realizing Sips was still in the room. He walked outside and kept talking. "Sorry. Anyways, from what it looks like, this new curse will… kill him. It's like Israphel is just cutting every string of his life and tying them back together so he could cut them again."

"Listen," Lewis began, staring at each and every panel with confidence and reassurance. "Israphel has attacked one of our own. All of us can agree that this is way too far than killing any random person. I, no, we will not stand for this. This is the time we end Israphel once and for all. If he wants war again, then a war is what he'll get. Are you all with me?" There was silence for a little, until Hannah decided to speak up.

"I'm with you, Lewis," she said. Nilesy nodded, signaling he was too. One after another, everyone agreed. Lewis smiled a little.

"Great. Shall we set up a meeting?" he asked. Ridge nodded.

"It can be at my place. I have a few plans of attack ready," he said. Lewis nodded in agreement. Hannah sort of giggled a little.

"Oh, Lewis, you're being the leader already? I've always loved that about you," he said, making Lewis' face turn bright red. She laughed again, until a bang was heard from Nilesy's and her end. Toby's eyes grew. No… Not Hannah, too… he thought. Lewis' eyes widened.

"Hannah, Nilesy, stay right where you are. I'm going to teleport," he demanded and exited the call, Hannah and Nilesy following.

"I'm… going too…" the shaky voice of Toby said. Martyn was about to detest, but Toby had already exited the call.

"I'm going to end the call now… good luck to all of you," Ridge said, and ended the call. He went back into the infirmary and searched the cabinets for the same thing he used for the sand taint, hoping to maybe use it to cure Zylus by intensifying the mixture.

AT OWL ISLAND

Hannah waited for the beeping from her watch to go until she walked to a good place to scope out where the bang might have been. She looked at her watch, the request for teleportation beaming on the screen. She pressed accepted and waited. Soon enough, her boyfriend had appeared just next to her.

"Where is it?" Lewis asked, looking around cautiously. Hannah shrugged her shoulders, looking around as well. She saw that the runway had a little peach spot on it, realizing it must be the sand. Then, tension then took over her body as she realized that she hadn't seen Nilesy in a while.

"Nilesy?" she called out.

"Huh?" the pool boy's voice sprang back, his head poking from behind the melon farm. Hannah let her tension go at the sound of his voice and hopped down from her trees, waiting for the two men to follow her to the runway. Nilesy slid down the tree and Lewis leaped down, landing gracefully on his feet. She walked over to the shore and decided it was about time to build a bridge to the runway, getting out some dirt just for the moment. She then reached the runway and careful drew her sword, Lewis following her cautious action and Nilesy just behind them, no sword in his possession. Hannah stepped forward a little to examine the sand, but couldn't really see it well because of some bushes.

"Lewis, I'm going to go get a closer look, OK?" Hannah said, walking forward without giving Lewis anytime to detest. Nilesy stepped from the bushes as well, but that seemed to be as far as he'd go. Hannah walked just to the edge of where the sand met with the runway. Evaluating the situation, she called back to Lewis, "It looks like just sand… only a slightly reddish color… Most definitely the work of Israphel."

"Hannah!" she heard Nilesy shriek as she felt the presence of someone behind her. She just knew that it was Israphel, reaching to touch her to give her the same fate as Zylus. She suddenly felt someone ram into her, making her stumble over, away from the sand. She then sat up to see that Nilesy was standing in the place she was just seconds ago, except Israphel was there as well, touching his back. Lewis ran over to Hannah and tried to help her up, but she refused to get up as she helplessly watched her partner then fall to the ground, shaking and coughing like crazy. Already on the verge of tears, she tried to call out to her shivering partner, but all that came out were whimpers. The pale faced man soon faded away, and she began to really cry and crawled to her friend.

"Ni…les…y…" she whined and rested her head on the pool boy, accidentally getting tears on his tan button up shirt. Lewis just stood and watched, his lips quivering a little.

Another down… a voice sprang through the air, most likely heard around all of Minecraftia. The pool boy and the pool bickerer…. What a coincidence… Let's see who else I can get to fall… Enjoy the show, heroes… The voice soon stopped, leaving only the sound of birds and wind. Lewis clenched his hand in a fist and began to let tears of his own fall down his cheeks. Two people that he had let become guardians of Minecraftia on the brink of death, and only Notch knows how many more were to come.

"You… will… pay, demon…" he let out in a shaky voice, biting his lip and staring at the ground. This was only the beginning of the war.

Hey, MinktheWarrior here! I hope you all are enjoying the story so far. I know I'm having a blast writing it! More to come for sure! Now, lets keep a list of people brought down!

Zylus, Nilesy