Disclaimer: I'm not creative enough to own Minecraft

Chapter 14: rifts

I woke up to bright sunshine and a loud bell.

"Ugh…who turned on the sun?" I heard Elda say sleepily.

"Sun? Are we in the Overworld?" Aqua asked.

There was a knock at the door "Maillie hassssss asked me to inform you we are at a structure that appearsssssss to be your housssssse" I heard the voice of a creeper. I remembered Maillie telling me her first mate was a really friendly creeper, which was kind of cool.

"Thank you!" I called out. I heard footsteps, and jumped out of bed "I guess that answers that question"

"Come on, let's eat before exploring!" Elda said, before running out.

"Wait for me!" Aqua called, running out after her.

I noticed Blazette was awake, but was quiet "is something wrong, Blazette?" I asked.

"Just a bad dream" Blazette said quietly. Due to her fiery nature, that wasn't normal.

"Come on, tell me about it" I said, sitting near her "it must have been pretty bad to get you like this"

"I don't usually have bad dreams" Blazette said "so it just spooked me a bit"

"What was it about?" I prompted again.

She sighed "rifts" she said simply "I dreamed we were trapped in the rift dimension, the place where time doesn't exist, and space is at times infinite"

"Wait, that exists?" I asked.

"Yes, though it's rare to see it naturally in the Nether" Blazette said "man made rifts are practically harmless, as long as it's only one."

"What about natural ones?" I asked.

Before she could answer, a bell rang again "I'll tell you later" Blazette said, getting up "I think that's Maillie trying to get us up"

We walked out and found the three girls eating. "Morning sleepy heads" Maillie said playfully "have a nice rest?"

"Yea" I said with a yawn "are you coming exploring with us?"

"For now, yes" Maillie said "mainly because I know exactly where to explore"

"And where is that?" I asked.

She smiled "meet me on the ground when you're finished" she said. She walked off, leaving us to finish.

We climbed down "ok, what's got you so excited?" I asked.

Before she answered, Elda gasped. "A RIFT GATE!" she screamed, running over to a nearby structure "I haven't seen one of these in AGES!"

"That…wasn't there before…" Blazette said wearily.

"Rifts act a bit oddly, you know that" Maillie said "I guess a few Endermen built the structure, and the rift followed."

There was a small area of floor that was stone brick, with two pillars rising up. The pillars were far enough apart that someone could walk between them. Between the pillars, if you went from east to west, was what looked like a portal the size of a door.

"I'M GONNA BE FIRST!" Elda yelled excitedly. Before anyone could stop her, she ran into the portal. The portal immediately closed, and a black sphere appeared. I say sphere, but it was a bit misshaped.

"W-where'd she go?" Aqua asked.

"That's a rift gate all right" Maillie said "Alex, read from the book"

I opened my book to the rifts "one of the easiest dimensions to get to is the pocket dimension, accessed solely through rifts" I read "rifts can be created as a bridge between space and time. Using rift signatures, you can get from one place to another instantly. Using dimensional doors, you can create a pocket dimension, where time is blurred, and space is vast. Pocket dimensions can sometimes bridge other dimensions. Rifts spawn naturally too, however. The most prominent case is rift gates, whose open portals lead to dimensional dungeons. Dimensional dungeons are rooms filled with mazes, traps, multiple doors, and Monoliths, which will be explained in the next chapter. No further details have been recorded."

"What it didn't tell you, is that rifts create a door if you exit through them" Maillie said "as long as Elda has some sense, a door should appear right about…"

The rift turned into a wooden door from out of nowhere. It opened, and Elda stepped out "sorry, got side tracked" Elda said.

"Its fine Elda" I replied. "Come on!"

We went inside, one by one, with me going last. After an initial blur of darkness, I found myself in a single, stone brick room, with a door at the other side, and one behind us.

Most of the dungeon was a blur, as we went through the criss-cross maze of doors. We finally came to a room with a single doorway, which lead to a block of diamond.

"Ooo" Aqua said "I've never seen it that big!"

Maillie giggled at Aqua's comment, though I couldn't decide why. "Well, it shouldn't be too hard to get" Blazette said.

Aqua started walking forward "Aqua, wait!" I called.

"Relax, I'll be fine" she replied.

Maillie watched carefully "Aqua, there are traps everywhere, you know that" she said.

"Of course I know that!" Aqua replied. But she wasn't careful enough.

As she stepped through the doorway, Maillie saw the trap "Aqua! Trip wire!" Maillie warned.

"Huh?" Aqua asked, as she walked through the doorway, snapping the string.

At first, nothing happened, but then TNT dropped. I moved Aqua back just in time.

"Back through the door!" Elda said.

"We can't all get out!" Blazette replied.

"We have to do SOMETHING!" I said.

The TNT was about to explode "oh, for the love of…" Maillie jumped in front of us, pressing a button on her wrist.

A large force field popped up just as the TNT exploded. It protected us, but the ground was destroyed, and we plummeted. I lost all sense of direction besides up as I fell into the void. After a few moments, I felt excruciating pain as the Void tried to rip my body apart. The light faded, then hearing, smell, taste…I became numb as my eyes seemed to close by them self…and then I was alone, without a single thing telling me I was alive…I was floating in a sea of nothing, and I lost consciousness…

Yay! Another chapter done! I know a cliffhanger depicting the death of a character, especially the main one, is pointless due to the universal rule that you don't kill the main character, but why not, right? Besides, this sets up the next chapter perfectly, so I'm happy with it. I might have depicted the sensation of being "voided" a bit too much, but I wanted to emphasize how I think it feels to fall into the void. Remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!