Once Hero stepped out of the castle, everyone heard the thundering of hooves on the grass. They turned as a saddled stallion burst from the stables, past the guards and right to Hero, who looked up at its direction. He raised an open palm, and the stallion nipped at his fingers playfully. Hero grinned slid his hand along the horse's face, and onto his neck. He greeted him, "How are you doing, buddy?"

He cooed at the horse as the others mounted the ones provided by the military. Steve asked Hero whether he needed help steering Kaizer, his stallion. The horse huffed grumpily at that, and Hero just needed help getting on. Steve did so, and the horse made sure Hero was safe and holding on tight before moving. Steve got on his own horse, deciding to join the group in case anything would happen.

Kaizer was instructed to follow Seto, and Steve would be following beside him. The gates soon opened, and Seto galloped off on his mare, and the others soon followed. They rode through town as civilians watched from their homes. Hero ducked his head, not wanting any clues about the attack reaching outside the castle. Steve looked at him sadly, and did his best to shield him from peering eyes.

Seto led them to a quieter part of town, and to the far side, where the walls ended. Guards on duty at the nearest guard tower looked over curiously, spotting their lieutenant and general among the crowd. Seto dismounted once a tiny cabin came to view, and tied his mare to a few fences out front. The others followed, while Hero let Kaizer wander a bit, but made sure he would be there when they were done.

The group followed Seto to the door, and waited as he knocked carefully. They heard the rustling of keys and multiple padlocks, before the door swung open with a creak. Seto peered in too early, as he was greeted with a wand to the chest. However, Brice shot out and pulled Seto back, putting himself in between them. His hand still firm on Seto's cloak, the blond stared at the old woman holding the wand.

Steve slowly got out his pistol as well, unconsciously pushing a confused Hero behind him. Ty's wings flared at the sight of danger, and he let out a low warning growl. The area around Mitch grew warm, and the grass at his feet slowly started to burn. Jason was just startled, but he dropped to a defensive stance soon. Sky narrowed his eyes at the wand, fists clenching at his sides.

The old woman stared at all of them, before tucking away her wand, scoffing. She turned to her home, drawling, "Get in. Why do you always have to be early? Damn."

Brice realized what he was doing, and quickly removed his hand from Seto's cloak. The warlock stared at his back as the blond followed the old woman in. Seto's hands lingered over the spot where he touched, before he sighed and followed. Ty and Sky grumbled angrily as they went in, followed with a relieved Jason. Mitch calmed down before entering, and Hero just calmly asked Steve 'what in the fuck happened'.

The lieutenant just tells him not to worry and leads him in, mindful of the clutter on the floor. It proved to be a difficulty because there was shit everywhere. Potion bottles, random baskets, and Steve swore he saw a bottle of strange black liquid back there. He pushes rubbish out of the way, but Hero smashes into a potion bottle hanging from the ceiling on some rope. What the fuck was it doing there in the first place?

The general seethes, and Steve becomes more careful. The rest were at the 'lounge', if you could call it that. There were only two seats next to each other, and Ty decided to occupy both. Seto and Brice settled for ignoring each other, and the others just awkwardly shuffled around. Sky was gently prodding random things scattered about out of curiosity.

They watch as Cindy shoved Ty out of one chair, and take a seat. The enderdragon snarls, but managed to fit on one tiny chair, tail tucked around his feet. Cindy spoke, her voice hoarse, "What do you need?"

Seto steps forward with a gentle smile, "Ms. Fray. I hope you remember me-"

She snapped, " 'course I do. Foster, right? Your mother was like a little sister to me. Congratulations on your promotion, by the way. Your dad would be proud."

Seto does not smile, and Cindy notices. Her eyes immediately go to Brice, who was somehow affected by her words too. He looked genuinely upset for his ex-friend. She narrowed her eyes at them, switching back and forth. She noticed the distance between them, before she finally asked, "Okay, the fuck happened to you all?"

Jason and Mitch were a little surprised at her vulgar language, but they just went along with it. Before anyone could even begin, she did a double take at Hero and grinned wickedly, "Your highness! What can I do for you? How's Lady Aether-"

Hero stiffened and cut her off immediately, earning a strange look from everyone else, "Please focus on the task at hand."

She raised an eyebrow, before she seemed to realize something. She snapped back to the others, "Right. Sorry, sir. Get to it, Seto."

The warlock decided to cut to the point, "I lost my magic. General Persson lost his sight and powers. Commandant Dahlberg over here lost his powers as well. Ty's the only enderdragon hybrid in the world, and he's stuck in half-form, same thing with Jason over there, who is a wither. Mitch's a blaze hybrid, and he's unable to control his powers. His best friend also has recently gone missing."

Seto points as he goes, and Cindy studies them all carefully. She looks at Brice and asks slowly, "Let me guess, Purton is here because your bond broke."

Everyone stares at the two men strangely, except Hero, who knew about them. At the same time, he could not even see them. Sky just looked at Brice for context, but the blond avoided eye contact with everyone. Seto flinched as Cindy asked, "And you still have not told the others? How many years has it been, Foster? You know the Minecraftian society has become more accepting."

Hero hummed from his side, "That's very much true. If they could get over a couple of murders, surely they'd be fine with your... Arrangement."

Both Seto and Brice stared at him, offended. Brice lashed out, "Come on! It's private."

Cindy remarked smartly from her chair, "You still defend the bond that's clearly nonexistent."

Seto's eyes widened, "It- What?"

The older warlock leaned back in her chair and explained, "There's nothing there anymore, Foster. I casted a spell as soon as you came in. I got nothing."

Hero raised his head, "That's not normal. Have you encountered these before?"

Everyone else were just dying for context. They had no idea what their conversation was about. Cindy noticed and answered, "Any of these cases you brought to me, no. However, I have some idea where this may originate from."

She stood up and walked to what was supposed to be her shelf. She rummaged through random objects, before pulling out a thick and old book. She came back and dropped it on the coffee table in front of her. The group began to gather behind her, peering at the book as she flipped through. She asked the group, "Has any entity or creature attacked any of you?"

Steve spoke up immediately, "Hero got attacked. It was what took away his eyesight."

Cindy hummed thoughtfully and ordered, "Describe the entity to me."

Hero raised an eyebrow but replied, "All I remember is a moving shadow, and a pair of glowing green eyes. It's the last thing I saw."

Her breath hitches and everyone peered closer as she flipped erratically through the pages. She finally settled on a page but asked, "Have you heard of the cases concerning the West?"

Hero, Steve and Sky perked up. They all nod, and Cindy said, "This may be linked to the shadow. I have records of a spike of missing cases in the West and there was always..."

She paused. She bit her lip and Steve leaned over to read where her fingers were trailing at. His eyes widened as he read aloud, " 'Both spikes have been followed with reports of mysterious shadow with glowing eyes. Reports of this creature does not occur once the spike has died down.' "

Ty swung his tail around lazily, "So this shadow thing only comes after people start wandering into the West? It's called called the Forbidden West for a fucking reason."

Hero narrowed his eyes, "No one can possibly survive there. The missing cases either stayed missing or turned up as dead bodies slumped against the wall. I had a team specifically for collecting the mangled bodies."

Steve gulped, "You've been there once, right? You told the soldiers one time during Bonding Night."

Jason huffed from his corner, "You have Bonding Nights? Lucky."

Sky rolled his eyes but they all paid further attention as Hero said, "I can tell you all again."

Cindy's eyes sparked with something akin to excitement.

-

It was shortly after we've plotted most of the map of Minecraftia. We had no records about what happened in the West, so I brought two of my soldiers with me to check it out. It was afternoon once we got there, and we realized how there was nothing within a 15-mile radius of the walls. No villages, no people, not even animals. Just endless plains of grass with the occasional tree or bush.

We found one of the gates, and it had been rusty. We could just open it with a kick. We did, and the thing actually broke. We let the horses wait outside the walls, and went in. We tried calling for anyone who lived there, but we could hear nothing but our boots. We ventured further into the woods, and it seemed like it had turned night. The canopy over us was so thick that it blocked most of the sunlight.

While we wanted to explore, we also wanted to find out the reason of what was causing the missing cases. We also wanted to know what was so interesting about the West for so many people to venture in and go missing.

I had been leading the group, until we heard something. It was like multiple whispers, and it was circling around us. We had our backs to each other and got out weapons just in case. One of my soldiers was sort of a clumsy person, so he dropped his pistol when he got it out. When he bent down to get it though, he screamed.

We turned to see what caused him to scream, and looked down to see a black hand shoot out from the ground and grab the pistol. It looked like its black skin was melting and peeling off the flesh, and the soldier stepped back, obviously shaken. I kicked the hand, and it released the pistol. He picked it up quickly and now our eyes were on the ground.

The soldier was trembling, and we tried to comfort him. The hand seemed to retreat, as it left a gaping black hole in the soil. The hole was leaking with some sort of thick black liquid, and none of us wanted to touch it. We were slowly easing through the way we came from, until I felt something cold wrap around my boot.

I looked down and saw another hand. Its black fingers were curled around my boot, and I looked back at my soldiers. Similar hands had grabbed them as well, and the soldier from earlier screamed again. He shook it off desperately and took off running. The other soldier and I did the same thing, and ran after him so he would not get lost.

We saw him dash through the gate and that was when multiple hands shot out from the ground and tripped the two of us. We collapsed and as my head collided with the grass I heard someone whisper against my ear, but there was nothing there. It said something like, "It's not your time yet."

The other soldier had black hands all over him, and some of them were dragging him deeper into the forest. There were only hands loosely holding on to my limbs, unlike him. I wriggled free and got my pistol. Thank god I had the marksman ability, because I shot the hands so they could retreat to the ground. One wrong move and I could have shot him.

I made sure he was alright until we both heard a growl. We both looked towards the forest, and saw a black canine of amazing height. It was extremely thin, however, as you could see the bones poke out underneath its thin fur. It had wide eyes of green, and was staring at us. Its jowls were stretched further past its cheek, and it seemed to be smiling.

It was bizarre, until the canine started walking towards us. It started jogging, then once it broke to a sprint, I dragged the soldier away. I pulled him, and I could feel the canine snap at our feet. Once I passed the gate though, the canine stopped running. It just stared at us at the gate, with that creepy grin. Under the light, I noticed how it seemed to have the same texture as the hands from the ground.

Black gooey liquid seemed to melt and peel off its pelt. Black drops seemed to form puddles of the thick substance on the ground. We found the other soldier catching his breath on his horse, and mounted our own. We eventually rode away, and back to the North. The soldier who ran away first had to go through therapy, and soon he quit. The other was just shaken, but he was okay.

Then we passed the law of West being closed off and forbidden.

-

Cindy wrote down a couple of notes on the book with a pen that she probably pulled from the cluttered floor. She then said, "I think it is safe to say that the canine and shadow you saw were the same entity. They both are black, and they both have green eyes. They both seem to be hostile towards you as well. The canine stopped chasing you once you left the walls, so the shadow must be some sort of guardian of the West."

Mitch gulped, "Could it be the one who killed the missing people?"

Steve sighed, "Possibly. All the bodies were mangled beyond recognition. They had several bites all over them, and some even had limbs and body parts chewed off the bone."

Cindy spoke up, "And you heard that comment about it not being your time, Hero. It has been years, and the shadow came back to you, and took away your eyesight and possibly your powers. It may have retreated to the West, and if we connect it all..."

Seto snapped his fingers as soon as he got it, "Everything we've lost. It's in the West! It must have been Hero's time, so that was why the shadow came back. We may be somehow pulled into all this."

Mitch gasped, "Jerome's in the West?"

Cindy nodded, "This could be part of something huge. The other two spikes, we didn't get much information out of it."

Sky folded his arms, raising an eyebrow, "Sounds kind of far-fetched to me."

Ty huffed, "Whatever. Seems fun. Instincts can be a real bitch, okay?"

Cindy raised her head to Brice, "I'm afraid you can't follow. You were not born with any powers, and you may end up a body. You should trust your friend instead."

The blond grimaces, but does not say anything. Hero spoke up, "So... We're going to the West?"

Mitch turned and yelled, "Of course we are! We can save Jerome before it's too late. You can get back your eyesight and powers!"

Hero raised an eyebrow and looked uncertain, "We do not know what will be waiting for us on the other side. We may not even come back. Even if we do, who knows how long it could take?"

Cindy frowned, "Your highness, with all due respect, the shadow most probably meant that it was time for you to go the West. You, above all, should trust yourself. After all, you-"

Hero's brows furrowed as he snapped, "That's enough sharing of secrets, Fray. I get it. Fine."

Steve looked at Cindy strangely, "Why do you call him that anyway? He's a general, not a king."

Hero looked sharply towards the warlock's direction, daring her to speak a word. The warlock catches his drift, and lied easily, "Just a little inside joke. Nothing too big."

Seto looks between Hero and Cindy. "...Right."