A/N: Hey, Ender here. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Minecraft or Shadow of Israphel


Israphel's POV

When I found Zeren, he was a mess. I had a vague idea of what he had been going to do after running into Milota, who apparently was not very happy with him at the time, so she followed him for a bit to get on his nerves. I really doubted that he had even been aware of this, when he was focused on something it was almost impossible to get him to do anything else or even notice basic things in his environment.

I found him unconscious halfway blasted through a wall two rooms away from Sallen's lab. Leaving him for a moment, I made my way over the rubble from half demolished walls to what seemed to be the epicenter of the blast. Upon reaching what I figured was the boundary of Sallen's lab, the debris cleared out. The force of whatever had happened here had blasted all of the rubble to the sides of the room, leaving an almost perfectly circular space in the center. Long streaks of gray powder were burned into the previously pristine netherbrick floor, along with strange green swirls that converged in the center of the room.

"What happened here?" I murmured, taking a few steps towards the spot where the radiating swirls and streaks originated. Looking closer, a pattern emerged at the very center of the strange pattern. "What the?" I gasped, recognizing the pattern on the floor as a strange version of a teleport circle. What really was strange about it was that instead of being drawn into the floor as the circle usually would be, it was etched almost a quarter of a block down into the solid netherbrick, the bottom lit by a green luminescence brighter than the faint swirls on the ground, but still the same startling color.

Deciding that I had spent enough time considering the ruins of whatever had happened here, I rushed back to where I had seen Zeren, hoping that his wounds had not been enough to end his life in the time since I had left him.

Upon reaching the spot where he lay, I sighed in relief. His wounds were awful, but they were something that he could recover from. It would be difficult, but in the end he would survive.

"But in what state?" I murmured, taking in the full scope of his wounds. All of his limbs seemed to be broken, his wings being the most damaged out of them. Long burns streaked down the front of his body, scorching the flesh almost down to the bone. Several large lacerations crisscrossed his face, one cutting directly across his eyelid. "Well, someone will need to be in charge while he recovers." I reasoned "And it makes sense that I would be just the lord to choose. After all, I was appointed to be his heir just recently."

I picked up the injured lord around the waist, figuring that he was injured pretty much everywhere anyway, so a bit more damage would not be of notice. Heaving the injured lord up onto my back, I grunted in displeasure at the rain of dust and drops of blood that showered onto me as I moved Zeren. Muttering under my breath about how I better get something out of this, I made my careful way over the rubble, trying not to bang the injured lord against the jagged surfaces that I encountered along the way.

Upon finally making the trip up several flights of stairs to Zeren's rooms, I dumped Zeren onto his bed, trying to lay his limbs in a way similar to where they normally were. Then I went to find Milota. She would know what to do with Zeren, who to call to help him recover from whatever had happened between him and Sallen.

Teloxen's POV

I had fled when Sallen had told me to, running from a fight I was too terrified to even begin. If I had dared to be a part of the fight, I would have been next to powerless though, for the runes that still marked me allowed Zeren to control my powers.

The area surrounding me was some part of the Overworld I had never been to before. I had not had much of a choice in portals, and so had simply used the first one that had turned up. Fat raindrops began to fall from the darkened sky, quickly saturating the ground around me. Clutching my injured arm closed to my body, I wrapped my wings around myself to preserve what little heat I could while I looked for a sheltered area.

I felt the link I had with Sallen abruptly break, and I froze, waiting for several terrifying seconds to see if it would reconnect. When it did not, I slowly sank to the ground, sinking a bit into the marshy ground. The absence of a link meant something had happened to Sallen to make him undetectable to my powers. I did my best to push the most likely option from my mind, that he had fallen to Zeren's power and been killed.

"No." I whispered, staring up into the rain filled sky as if to defy whatever cruel lord of fate would dare to command such a thing. "No!" I cried, my voice louder than before, filled with a desperation that I had hopped not to experience again. "Don't leave me! I don't wasn't to be alone again." When no otherworldly forces responded, I knew it was time to do something, anything, to get me out of this state.

"He said to find Rayko." I whispered, trying to shove myself upright in the marshy area and finding it more difficult than I had expected. "And he said to be safe. I've got to do that. To...To remember him." Opening my mind, I reached out to the various lords I could sense, being sure to do so in a way that would not allow them to detect me. A thin link stood out to me, and I reached for it, clinging tighter when I felt Rayko's presence. A wave of startled confusion came from Rayko, as well as a force trying to push me away. Trying to focus, I sent to him "Rayko, it's me."

The resistance stopped and he tentatively sent "Teloxen, is that you? What happened?"

"Sallen sent me away because Zeren came to confront us." I sent, the sending filled with desperation "And now I can't sense him, and I don't know where I am."

Rayko's presence shifted for a moment before he sent "Okay, come find me. I know you can. I would give you directions, but they wouldn't help since you don't know where you are. Be careful though, you know where I am staying right? The lords around here may not be favorably disposed towards you."

"I know." I sent, before loosening my connection to him, keeping just enough that I would be able to track him. As I was about to begin traveling though, a stray link caught my eye. Focusing on it, I saw that whoever it belonged to seemed to be in the same area where Rayko was. The link connected to many of the other lords in the area, but what really struck me as strange about it was the color. Most creatures would have a single color as a link, which varied from race to race, but stayed constant for each individual. Magic users might have a bit of an overlap, but you could generally still tell their race. Lords were a bit more difficult. They often had multiple colors based on their race and skills, but they frequently changed. This link was like those in that several colors ran through it, but the colors themselves where what struck me as strange. Usually the colors would be at least related in some way, like Shadow's purple and black or Notch's gold, yellow and light blue. But even I could not figure out what kind of lord would possibly have the colors gray, magenta, light purple and electric green.

Reaching out hesitantly, I gasped as the link seemed to force itself towards me. Whoever it was should not be able to sense me yet, but it sure seemed link they could from what I saw here. Hesitantly taking hold, I felt a rush of emotions from a very unfamiliar lord run through me.

"Ah, I wondered when you would find me." he sent, strangely cheerful considering that I had entered his mind without consent, at least not in name. "You were still little when I left, so you probably don't remember me. I'll see you later. Probably when you meet up with Rayko."

"Wait, who even are you?" I asked, confused by the entire situation.

"I'll tell you when we meet." he said "Until then, it is not safe. Those who would come after me would use you for information, and I would not with that on almost any other lord." he abruptly broke off the connection, leaving me almost more confused that I had been beforehand.

"Well, I guess the only way to figure out this mystery is to get going." I sighed, managing to extract myself from the gloopy mud. Righting myself, I set off in the direction that Rayko's link was leading me.

Sallen's POV

I winced as I gradually returned to consciousness, every part of my body screamed in agony from the movement. Instead of continuing, I opened myself to the surrounding area.

"So you're awake." said another lord, the one who had allowed me to escape from Zeren.

"Yes." I said, coughing slightly as pain ran thorough me from the effort of talking. "What will the long term consequences of this be for me?"

"We will have to see." he said mysteriously "You know how easily things shift, but I expect that it will be a positive outcome. Some trends can be reasonably guessed at."

"Well can you at least tell me where I am then?" I sent "Surely that would not be too much to ask."

"Sure thing." he said "You are on the border of the plains and forest near Steve's castle. I'll watch out for you until someone trustworthy turns up or you are healed. Until then, rest. You shall not be harmed."

"I trust you." I sent "Do not make me regret doing so."

"Aww, you trust me? I'm touched. So many just assume I'm the bad guy without even getting to know me because of what I do." I drifted off as he continued to rant about this, complaining all about the unsavory lords he had met over time.


A/N: Will Zeren recover? Will Teloxen find Rayko? Who is this lord who is helping Sallen? I hope you guys have enjoyed. Please consider leaving a review, or if you have any questions for the characters they can also be sent to me. Have a great day and I shall see you all next chapter. Bye! :D