Sorry for the wait, but there were a few things I wanted to fix with this chapter. For one thing, there were a lot of stuff I had to change for not making sense.

Also, I had a few ideas for this chapter, but most of them ended up not working out, so I just decided to go with the plot of the original chapter.

Anyways, enjoy.

Krios

I Take Training A Bit Too Far

Right at that moment, when those weapons were flying at me, I should have died.

Instead, I took a step backwards and tripped over a rock.

The weapons sliced over my head so close that I felt my hair part. The weapons slammed into a house behind me, causing it to collapse.

I scrambled to my feet and started running.

I could hear the whistling of the weapons again, which meant they were on my tail.

I ran around a corner, and luckily flying weapons can't turn corners, so they sailed past me.

I groaned as I became aware of my throbbing feet, which had been all cut up from me running for so long.

And then I heard the man say, from right behind me, "Boo."

I turned around and saw him smiling sadistically as multiple spears cut through the air, aimed directly at my chest.

I barely had enough time to think 'welp, I tried' before suddenly I felt a hand wrap around my neck and drag me backwards.

Suddenly I was falling through a long and dark tunnel, the weapons getting farther and farther away. I saw a bright light hurtling towards me, getting closer and closer.

Or maybe it was me getting closer.

I suddenly landed on solid ground, and my knees immediately buckled. I fell forwards, landing flat on my face.

"Don't worry, you get used to it." someone said.

I got to my feet, staggered off, and vomited behind a rock.

I felt someone smacking me on the back, and instantly lashed out, thinking it was the man. I felt my fist connect with someone's nose.

"Ow!" someone yelled. "What the hell?"

I looked up.

It was Jax.

"YOU!" I shouted. "What the hell is happening?"

Jax grabbed my wrist. "Listen, there's no time. I'll explain later once we get to the Aether. Klith is hunting for you."

"No no no, you are not pulling the 'I'll tell you later' on me! And what do you mean the Aether? Aether as in the dimension Aether? And who's Klith?"

"Like I said, I'll explain once we're safe. First I need to find the entrance."

"Entrance to what!?"

Jax looked at me like I was an idiot. "Entrance to the Aether, where else?"

That's when I noticed that we were in the ravine that I had nearly died in. In fact, I could still see the lava pool where I had pushed in the rock golem. Good times.

But before I could finish reminiscing about beating a rock golem to death, a spear cracked the rock I'd vomited behind in half.

"How'd he find us so fast?" I cried as I stumbled backwards.

As for Jax, he seemed to be searching for something as he muttered under his breath.

"Found it!" Jax shouted as he slammed a block of cobblestone down.

"Found what?" Klith said from behind Jax.

Jax dashed backwards as a scythe split the stone between his feet.

A wall in the ravine cracked open, revealing a white portal.

"Ah. An entrance to the Aether. I've been looking for this. Thank you for leading me here." Klith sneered. "I'll see you in the Aether, Jax."

"I don't think so," Jax said as he flicked his hand at Klith.

Spikes of obsidian erupted from the ground in a pyramid-like shape around the man, trapping him.

"TONI, RUN!" Jax shouted.

I sprinted towards the portal as Klith cursed and violently smashed at the obsidian, shattering it bit by bit.

Jax grabbed me and pushed me into the portal.

As my vision went a blurry white, I saw Jax place down a block and jump into the portal.

I heard an explosion and a scream of frustration, and then everything faded away.

And then everything slowly came back into focus.

?-?-?

When I stumbled out of the portal, I was about to vomit again.

Jax leapt from the portal and pressed a button next to it. The white portal vanished with a sound like shattering glass.

We were standing in an enormous blackstone corridor crowded with people. Elaborate black and white murals of monsters and sword wielding heroes covered the walls, and portals with quartz frames lined the walls.

We probably looked horrible. People stared as they passed by, snickering and whispering to themselves as they went.

"He can't come through now," Jax panted. "He's probably throwing a tantrum on the other side."

"If anyone's throwing a tantrum, it's me." I shouted. "EXPLAIN. Who was that guy? Why was he trying to kill me? Why can you teleport? What is this place? WHERE AM I!?"

Jax put up his hands placatingly. "I swear I'll explain. Just follow me."

"You better explain," I said as threateningly as I could.

As we left the tunnel, I tried not to look too impressed, but my curiosity was overpowering my frustration.

Skyscrapers stretched into the night sky a distance away, and we walked through what looked like a market, stalls selling everything you could imagine everywhere. Lanterns lit up the entire place, hanging from tree branches, roofs of stalls, and there were even some soul lanterns placed in what looked to be a specific pattern across the whole place. I heard a man arguing with a villager about the price of some glowstone, and somewhere a man was yelling "Golden apples, nice and juicy! Come get your golden apples!"

"When you're done gawking at the scenery, if you'd follow me," Jax said, breaking me out of my thoughts. I repressed the urge to kick him in the shins and followed him.

"How come we can see the sky?" I asked him. "I thought we were in the Nether, or maybe some other dimension?"

Jax rolled his eyes. "No, we're not in a dimension. The portal we jumped through is a transport portal. It just takes you to somewhere else in the Overworld. And by the way, we're underground. And that obviously isn't the actual sky. It's just an illusion. What's really up there is bedrock."

"Bedrock can't be mined." I snapped.

"No," he agreed. "But it can be created with magic."

"Magic," I said flatly.

"Yes, magic."

"You're kidding? Real magic? Like in the stories?"

He snorted. "Obviously."

I scowled. I was tired of him treating me like a little kid. I stepped in front of him, blocking his way. "Listen, you told me you would tell me what is going on when we got down here. We're here. So tell me." I crossed my arms.

"I'll explain—"

I let out a humorless laugh. "Oh, whoopdeedo. Let me guess. Later. In a few hours? A week?"

Jax groaned. "You are stubborn."

"Thanks. It's a family trait."

"Listen—"

"No, you listen." I interrupted him. "My sister is probably dead, or captured, or brainwashed by now. My house got set on fire. My dad is—" I stopped.

Jax had a weird expression on his face and was about to say something when I interrupted him.

"Listen, I just want to know what any of this has to do with Herobrine, or whoever the hell this 'Klith' guy is—"

"Listen Toni," Jax held up his hands placatingly. "I swear on Notch's name that I'll explain once we get to Valaither. Okay?"

"Why are we going to Valaither?" I asked.

"Valaither is where we train all of our new warriors." Jax told me.

I was confused. "Why are you taking me there? To train me to fight?"

"Yes." Jax smiled. "You did quite the work on that rock golem, no?"

I was flabbergasted. "How…how did you—"

"I was there when you killed it. I was about to interject when you went crazy on the thing. Pretty impressive, I must say." Jax explained.

"Well, why were you there in the first place?" I asked.

Instead of answering, Jax just walked past me.

I turned and stared at Jax's back.

Did he really think I had a chance at being a warrior?

Yeah, right. It was more likely that Klith would give me ten diamond blocks and my parents back as an apology for trashing my village.

After that, we walked in silence.

Eventually after a bit of walking, the number of stalls started to lessen, and we came to an enormous gate engraved in an even larger wall made of obsidian.

Multiple bored looking guards dressed in some dark armour were playing with cards on top of the wall. One of them noticed us and flipped a switch, opening the gate.

We walked through the gates into a grassy courtyard with a few flowers and statues. In the centre of the courtyard, there was a large stone fountain. Behind the fountain lay an enormous mansion. I'm talking woodland mansion sizes here. This thing was huge.

I noticed that the back wall had a huge crater in it, which was being worked on by multiple people that were placing obsidian and arguing with each other. One of them, a guy with shaggy blond hair, noticed us and called across the field.

"Hey, Jaz! Nice to see you here! Who's that you got there? Your girlfriend?" the boy laughed.

Jax rolled his eyes. "Still working on the wall, I see. Didn't you start at five P.M.? Why are you still here?"

Jared observed one of his fingernails in a bored manner. "We took a break. Or two. Or three."

"There's no time to be slacking around like that." Jax snapped. "There could be an attack any day."

Jared sneered. "What, you think you're better than me, Gax?"

"I never implied—"

"Just remember," Jared smirked as he pointed from himself to Jax, "who's the superior here."

Jax snorted. "Whatever, Jared. Toni, follow me."

He grabbed my wrist and dragged me into the mansion before stopping and backing up to meet Jared's eyes.

"AND MY NAME'S JAX, YOU MORON!" Jax shouted.

We walked through a door and into a hallway. "Who was that guy?" I said, glancing behind us.

Jax frowned. "That was Jared. He learned a little fire magic one day and now he thinks he's the reincarnation of Notch or something. Come on, follow me."

This raised more questions than it answered, but instead of elaborating Jax took me to a desk that had a balding man behind it.

"Ralph, I've got a new trainee here."

"Do you now?" Ralph murmured. He seemed to be more invested in a book he was reading than Jax.

"Yeah, can I have a card?" Jax said.

Without looking away from his book, Ralph reached under his desk and then gave Jax a card. "Room 304."

"Thanks." Jax turned and gave me the card. "See the number? That's your room."

I blinked. "But I just got here. How do I already have a room?"

Jax shrugged. "I dunno, I never asked. Anyways, you see that elevator over there?" Jax pointed to a nearby elevator. "Take that to the third floor, find your room, and get some rest. You earned it. Also, there's some combat training at the arena at around 12:00 A.M. that I suggest you come to."

"Even after almost dying multiple times?"

Jax smirked. "There's no rest for a warrior."

"I never even agreed to being a warrior," I complained. "I kill one rock golem and suddenly you think I'm the second coming of Notch or something."

"You're not far off the mark," Jax muttered quietly to himself. Jax then looked up at me.

"You'll need all the training you can get. Klit—a bunch of mobs will be after you now."

I sighed and looked down at my feet. "So I don't have a choice."

"Not unless you want to hide underground for the rest of your life."

"Fine. I'll become a warrior or whatever." I sighed. "Just let me get some rest, huh?"

Jax nodded. "Sure. You've had a long day." Jax then glanced down at my bare, bloody feet. "Oh, and probably put some healing potion on your feet. It might help."

"Ah, okay." I said as I gingerly walked towards the elevator. As soon as I got in, I saw that there were a lot of buttons. Like, from one to around fifty.

I don't remember the mansion being this big. What is this, a skyscraper?

I pressed button three. As the doors began to close, Jax shouted "THE ARENA'S ON THE TWENTY SEVENTH FLOOR ON THE HALLWAY TO YOUR LEFT!"

The doors shut.

Bland elevator music drifted through the speaker. There was a poster to my left with a creeper on it that said 'Nice house you've got there…it would be a shame if anything were to happen to it.'

I wondered if anyone would get mad at me if I took it down.

The doors opened with a ding, and I stepped into a hallway.

The hallway was pretty much your average hotel hallway, and I found my room pretty quick.

I found some comfortable slippers that I put near the door for tomorrow.

It only occurred to me once I was laying in my bed that Jax hadn't given me the explanation he'd owed me.

?-?-?

I had another cryptic dream. I wasn't surprised.

Your father's death was only the beginning.

Another dream? God, I'm getting tired of these.

There will be more to come.

Yeah, yeah. Keep yapping. Just let me sleep, for Notch's sake!

If you knew what is good for you, you would leave. Now.

They are lying. They are all lying to you!

And besides…I would let your sister live.

My sister…Cal. I miss her.

Wait. She's alive?

No, that's impossible—that's—

I woke up with a gasp.

My first though upon waking up—it's impossible.

Sure, I would like to hope, but…

Cal surviving? The odds of that were minuscule at best.

I groaned and laid back on the bed. I wanted some more rest.

I glanced at the alarm clock by my bedside. It was 12:16. I'd never slept that late before.

I stared at the clock for a moment.

There's some combat training at the arena at around 12:00 A.M. that I suggest you come to.

I bolted upright.

I'm late!

I tumbled off my bed and ran for the door, quickly kicking on my slippers and running for the elevator.

As soon I got into the elevator, I mashed the 'floor 27' button.

Was it floor 27? It was, right? At least I hope it is.

I danced on my toes like a kid waiting for a bathroom stall to open up while the elevator slowly ascended. As soon as the doors opened, I instantly ran out and turned to the right.

And then I tripped over a potted plant.

I landed flat on my face with a thud.

I sat up and gingerly rubbed my nose, which had been the first thing to hit the floor. I looked to the side and saw a door labeled 'arena'.

This must be the arena, I thought, because I was smart that way.

I gently opened the door to see Jax saying something to a bunch of other kids about the same age as me.

Jax was now dressed in a brown leather jacket and was wearing a pair of sunglasses that would have looked cool if it wasn't for the fact that he was the one wearing them.

And besides, we were inside. Why did he need sunglasses?

I just stood there awkwardly until Jax noticed me.

"Toni," Jax said. "you're late."

I wasn't quite sure what to say, so I settled for being snarky.

"Well, am I not allowed to rest after almost dying multiple times?" I snarked.

Jax chuckled. "That's a warrior's job description. Almost dying, and then getting rest."

"You make this job sound so appealing," I muttered to myself as I sat.

A lot of people seemed to be looking at me, which made me a little uncomfortable. I wasn't very used to being noticed. I was usually just the bookish girl, the smart girl, the shy girl, the girl no one cared about.

"Now that you've heard the basics about combat, (I shifted uneasily) I've got a little challenge for you." Jax smiled as he pulled ten cyan egg shaped objects with green spots. That's when I realized they were eggs.

"If you can kill all ten zombies, I'll let you leave. If you don't, well, you'll have to start again. I'll demonstrate."

Jax turned and threw the objects into the air.

They hit the ground, and suddenly ten zombies appeared with a crack.

Spawn eggs?

As they stood, Jax pulled out his large sword.

Two of the zombies charged, and Jax took both of them out in one swing. Another ran at him, but Jax dashed to the side and tripped the zombie. The zombie went sprawling. It tried to get up, but Jax impaled the zombie in the back of the head and swung it at the zombies, knocking two of them down.

All of the zombies dissolved, except for the two that were knocked down.

The remaining four zombies charged, evil in their dead eyes.

Jax charged. He sliced one zombie straight down the middle, turned, and decapitated two other zombies.

The one remaining zombie backed up, and the two zombies that had been knocked down got back up.

They all surrounded Jax, snarling like rabid wolves.

I noticed a glint in Jax's eye as they all ran in.

Jax raised his sword high in the air and slammed it into the floor.

A crown of obsidian exploded from the ground around Jax, impaling the remaining three zombies and reducing them to dust.

Jax yanked his sword out of the ground. He blew a strand of hair out of his face and smirked. "And there's your demonstration."

Showoff, I thought. But I couldn't help being a little impressed.

"Ok!" Jax clapped his hands. "Your turn."

Everyone, one by one, tried their hardest. A blond boy punched a zombie in the face so hard it's head literally went flying off it's shoulders. A girl with pigtails swung her sword, slicing five zombies at the same time.

Everyone who had killed ten zombies could have left at any point, but they hung around just to see how the others did.

I got nervous. Everyone seemed to have at least one cool move. I wouldn't have anything. Heck, I didn't even know how to use a bow and arrow. I'd never even swung a sword before, so I didn't get how Jax had expected me to actually be competent.

So when it was my turn, I tried extremely hard.

Maybe a little too hard.

In fact, the only zombie I managed to kill at first was when I tripped and thrust my hands out to break my fall, accidentally killing a zombie with the sword in my hand.

I hope I wouldn't be asked to fight with other people. With my skills, I'd probably end up killing all of my teammates instead of the enemy.

I got back up and backed away from the zombies charging at me.

One zombie ran forwards, and I clumsily swiped at it with my sword, dealing a tiny bit of damage.

The zombies started closing in.

I started backtracking again, only to run into another zombie.

The zombies took this as a sign of weakness and charged. I yelled as the zombies grabbed me. One of them gave me a solid punch in the jaw.

I hit the floor with a heavy thud. My iron sword clattered a few blocks away.

I pitifully tried to crawl over to the sword, only for a zombie to grab me and kick me over.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jax with his hand on his sword's hilt, and everyone else…

They weren't even watching.

Some of them were chatting. Some were half watching me while talking. A few turned to leave.

See? They don't care. A sinister voice hissed into my mind. None of them care. At the end of the day, you're just another body they're going to throw at the mobs.

"Shut up," I muttered.

You're helpless.

"I said shut up."

You don't matter.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

I felt a rush of adrenaline, and suddenly I felt supercharged.

I vaguely saw the area around me lighting up, igniting with energy.

The punches and kicks suddenly stopped, and the smell of smoke drifted into my nose. I looked up, and saw that the ground around me had been scorched black. Two of the zombies had disappeared, and the remaining zombies staggered to their feet, scorch marks covering their clothes.

I didn't give them a chance to recover. I picked up my sword and screamed as I ran at them. I slashed my sword outward in a huge arc, catching six zombies at once and knocking them back.

A zombie ran at me, but I dodged and impaled the zombie through the chest. Two more charged at me, and with a flash of iron, they were both turning to dust.

I turned to see the other six zombies I knocked back running at me. They hadn't taken me very seriously at first, but I could tell that they were serious now.

I dashed forward and cleaved one of the zombies in half. The next zombie didn't look very enthusiastic to attack, so I ran to it and sliced its legs out from under it.

The remaining four surrounded me, and one of them kicked me in the back of the leg, making me drop to one knee. The other zombies began scratching and swinging at me.

I screamed, more out of fury than pain. And then, another rush of adrenaline.

It's kind of hard to tell you what happened next. Electricity arced from the entirety of my body into the ground, and the ground…it didn't exactly explode, but it was pretty close.

The ground cracked and shattered, and there were lots of pops and snaps as electricity burst from the ground into the zombies.

I could hear everyone else shrieking and covering their eyes, but for some reason the light didn't bother me as much. I could see the vague silhouettes of the zombies, and I watched as they vaporized, one by one.

When the smoke cleared, I saw people shielding their eyes. The clothes of the people closest to me were a little greyer in color. Jax's sunglasses were steaming.

Everyone slowly put their hands down.

And they looked at me.

I shifted uneasily.

"Um, sorry?" I offered.

Jax dropped his sunglasses on the ground. The black plastic melted slightly onto the ground.

Jax smiled.

"Well, that was interesting."

I don't have anything to say here, so…

Leave a review! They motivate me to get off my arse and actually write, so reviews would be nice.

Anyways, uh…see you in the next chapter, I guess!

Krios