She was in a square, barking orders in the foul tongue of the End. Some woman with metal arms on her back stood beside her, pouring over a book of notes and looking quite distressed. She looked like a scientist. I was crouched atop a roof, assessing their strength.

There was a blacksmith's shop in the corner, a table stacked with chains out front. Seeing a 50% discount sign in the midst of all this was troubling.

"I can make out eight endlings and the researcher. No sorcerer-looking types. All muscular and stabby-looking. Can you… I don't know - sense any more in the area? In the buildings or something?"

"No. I cannot do that."

"Then, we're about to find out."

I picked out a window that looked opportune and warped inside. There was no one inside. I peered out the window, crouched back down. I asked the book to open a rift around the point I needed and fired through. I peered back over the windowsill and saw an endling choking on its own blood, the bolt slotted right through the base of his neck. I breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down. Now I only had to do that… six more times before I could face the Ender one on one. Or more, depending on accuracy.

I heard them already maneuvering into defensive positions. All it would take was for the Ender to order them to search the buildings and things would get a lot more difficult.

"I wish we had've thought this out more. Is there a way I could maybe see where I'm shooting? This works when they already know where I am but not so much in a stealth context."

"There is a method… however it may be painful."

"Can I get an explanation please? That's a little too vague."

"It is possible for us to submerge ourselves in the void, longer than we have done while teleporting. We can position ourselves just at the threshold of where the void meets the location of our victim, your body submerged enough to not be easily seen, but your eyes close enough to the air to aim a clear shot. However, your body could burn from spending that much time in the void, even with my protection. Probably not enough to kill you. But even a slight burn from voidfire can be incredibly painful, and you have seen first-hand how destructive the void can be."

I hardly even hesitated: "Let's do it."

And so I stood up, held my breath and plunged into the void. It was not like being in the void I had fallen into in Zine Craft. That had been an absence. This was an in-between space, packed with fire and pain. And the burning was worse even than the touch of an Endling. The grip of Hamish's talons about my neck seemed trivial compared to the perpetual searing. But I endured, and quick as I could I dropped in and out of realities, firing crossbow bolts and somehow always finding my mark. Soon, there remained only the Ender and her scientist.

I emerged on the rooftop I had been on previously and spent some time inhaling unburnt air. Purple particles rose from my armour, but aside from that sickening resemblance to the creature of the End, we were unharmed. I took a moment to wonder if there was any connection between those particles and the endlings' immunity to voidfire.

Then, I arose, set my crossbow aside and drew Apotyre. I looked down and willed the book to zap the scientist with a low dose of lightning. Enough to paralyse temporarily and disable her arms, like a golem struck by lightning. The Book wasn't encouraged by my rhetoric about her not looking like much of a combatant, but didn't defy me. The Ender nudged her companion with a heavy, armoured boot and looked up.

"Hello General," she greeted without emotion.

"Hello Ender, Captain of the Guard," I responded dryly and officiously.

There was a pause.

"I suppose this is where you would explain to me your purpose. That you're going to kill me for some crime I've committed."

"Normally it might well be," I conceded with a shrug. "But that's not what's happening today."

I stepped off the roof and into a rift, materialising just above her and swinging down. Apotyre caught her shoulder-guard and knocked her off-balance but left her otherwise unharmed. Intent on milking the element of surprise for all I could, I grabbed her arm, warped inside one of the apartments, and hurled her into a desk.

She went crashing through the old wood and onto the ground, but her agile form was rising again. I gestured forward and lightning burst from between my fingers, but the blast was deflected by her sword. That was when things started to turn against me.

She was upon me in seconds, and we began teleporting around the room, frantically swinging and parrying. I gave it my all but she was obviously more experienced, carrying the momentum of blows through teleports and batting me around the room. I was lucky for my obsidian breastplate otherwise I would have been split in half several times over. I knew I needed a change of tack.

She broke my guard and sent me wheeling back, but I regained my footing and charged at her. She tensed, ready and able to withstand the weight of my body, but then I teleported and slammed into her from the side. We went crashing out the window back into the square. After trading a blow or two in midair we separated and warped to the ground.

However, where the Ender landed in the middle of the square to try and dominate the space, I landed right beside the blacksmith's and its table full of chains. There was one with a hook on its end, glowing with enchantments, that looked perfect for my needs.

She teleported in and slashed upwards at my face. However, I dodged and the second her arm lowered again I lashed out with the chain. The enchantment worked, wrapping around my opponent and binding her arms, leaving me with a sizable leash.

I easily batted the sword from her grip but it wasn't the end of the fight. She ran in and kicked me square in the chest with her powerful legs, then moved to stomp on my face with the spiked metal cleats. I rolled and slammed my sword into her knee. She buckled. I rose and tried to hit her in the face with the pommel of my sword. She ducked under, rose and headbutted me before teleporting. I was brought with her and landed awkwardly, rolling awkwardly down the slope of a rooftop and dislodging tiles as I went.

As I slid over the edge I teleported us back to the ground. I slammed chest-first into the ground and felt the wind pressed out of me as gravity's promise was satisfied. However, before I even had a moment's recovery we teleported again.

This time we were in a room made almost purely of obsidian. Endstone-framed display bookcases were everywhere, and a staircase let up to a spire filled with windows looking out on many disparate scenes. I didn't wait for her to shoulder-charge me to teleport us back.

As she collided with me in a horrible clang of metal we arrived just outside the inn's stables. It wasn't the ideal spot, but there was next to no one there now. Her men had emptied it out, and a shell had ruptured the upper floors. I skittered across the ground and she charged in, ready for another assault. I tensed my grip and a pulse of electricity shot along the chain. The Ender froze and began to twitch, then fell limply down before me. I scrambled over, not losing a grip on the chain for a second, and listened for breathing. She was still alive. We had successfully pacified the Ender.

I stood up and laughed incautiously.

"Well, partner, we did it," I thought.

"I will admit, I had my doubts."

"Oh, me too. She kicks like a horse on potions," I grumbled to myself.

Only one thing was left to do, the same thing we did to all Endling prisoners in the Onslaught. A mutilation, to make them weak. To stop them teleporting. I raised my sword and swung it down.

It never connected. A bronze-coloured arm blocked it.

I looked up, and I locked gazes with the glowing red eyes of the warlord I had tried to appease just a few days prior. The same being that had stolen an Eye of Ender from the Silhouette and gotten me into this mess. The being which had captured Astro and Destiny and David and Tyron and so many others. Who had placed worlds beneath his boot: The Entity.

"What was that you said about becoming a king?" thought I. I squinted as the twilight of the early evening made my enemy hard to look at. "Tonight we take a crown."

"This may not be the optimal time for that."

I teleported behind the Entity and brought Apotyre down as hard as I could. The blow bounced off its shoulder, not even leaving a scratch and I retreated. It turned to face me. In its other hand was an immense obsidian zweihander, nearly as tall as me. It slowly began to advance and I began to slowly back away. The light glinting off it's helm was sharp as a sword, obscuring my vision.

"You are a-nuisance, let go... of the chain," it droned. "I have-other-ma...tters to attend to."

I realised I was still holding the chain with which I had restrained one of his top captains, and then grew reassured. I smirked and rattled the chain in defiance .

With improbable speed the zweihander swept forth and cleaved the chain in two. I barely had time to notice before it was swinging again, the book only just teleporting me to a safe distance in time.

I willed the book to teleport me inside of its guard and attempted to plunge the point of my sword between the plates where its stomach met the chest, but to no avail. It glanced off again and it kneed me in the gut. I felt my breastplate physically rattle as I doubled over. That was diamond plated with obsidian. Nothing should rattle it!

I didn't even have time to call upon the book to teleport me away and rolled out of the way of the zweihander.

"I need voidfire, now!" I raised a hand, and a purple fireball began to form. I stood up, back straight and shoulders back, ready to hurl the flame at its face and melt it away. It turned to face me and I jerked my arm forward.

A white-gloved hand caught my wrist and the ball of flame flew wide, incinerating the wall of a nearby house in seconds. Another manifestation of the Entity, clad in the same bronze armour, had intervened. I didn't have time to register this though, as I was hurled into the path of the oncoming zweihander.

I slammed into the edge of the blade, and it cracked the obsidian. It cracked the mods-damned obsidian! A breastplate created by Herobrine with the sole purpose of being indestructible, and this thing had cracked it in the space of mere minutes... The blade ate right through until it lodged mere inches from my beating heart. I stared into those red eyes in terror, for those were the eyes of death. I turned my head away and I saw two other manifestations with identical swords approaching. The first manifestation shunted me onto the ground and no sooner had I landed on my buckling legs than another zweihander caught me and sent me flying off my feet at an impossible speed. Already, the three Entities were chasing me, ready to dismember me endlessly.

The pain and fear were blinding, and I had the impression something was screaming at me, but I couldn't think. My mind was empty. I wanted to sleep. But then, just before I reached the ground and the Entity came to finish me off, I was enveloped by purple flames.

I skimmed the dirt and slammed into a tree. And that's when I acquiesced to the darkness.