Area77 was gorgeous. Sure, it was bit dangerous but it was still gorgeous either way. With all the amazing builds along with the crazy wacky redstone contractions.

But then, Biffa mysteriously showed up, fully corrupted, attacked some hermits, giving EX the chance to manipulate the hermits' mind and caused them to fall into the hands of corruption.

So, naturally. A lot of the projects there were forgotten. Even the infinity portal. One project Doc was looking forwards to.

Which explains why no one was there to greet Keralis when he came though.

~~~~~~~~~~

Keralis came out of portal and let out a sigh of relief. "We did it, Shashwami!" Keralis called out, pumping his hands up in the air. He turned around to look at his friend, "We did—"

His smile turned into a frown as he stared at not his friend but rather a portal with missing obsidian blocks. "it..."

It was only then, did he realized the literal weight lifted off his shoulders. He opened up his inventory and was utterly confused to find it empty.

"Wha—"

"Did you hear that, Doc?"

"Scar. Ever since the corruption started spreading, I've been hearing lots of things."

"Oh. Right... Sorry."

—<Control: |> >—

Did I forget to mention that the hermits were hiding out in Area77?

Whoops! Sorry.

But now you know!

—<Control: = >—

Keralis whipped his head around as he heard some voices. One sounds completely unfamiliar to him. But the other one?

He took a deep breath and spoke, "Doc. Is that you?!" Silence entered the atmosphere, causing poor little Keralis to think he was maybe hearing things.

Then, footsteps came running towards his direction.

"Xisuma, hold up!"

Said man dashed out from the gray shred thing. He looked a bit different though... His colours seems to have... drained a bit... he still has his colour, of course! He was just in a grayish hue with some bandages tied around in certain areas here and there. Other than that though, he's the same old Shashwami void!

Keralis didn't have enough time to identify Xisuma's expression though as a bewildered smile quickly replaced whatever was his earlier expression.

Oh yeah, don't ask how Keralis knows he's smiling though that mask.

"Keralis?" Xisuma asked, his voice clear with shock and relief. "Yes?" Keralis asked, a bit confused.

"Yo- you're back..." Xisuma said, sounding like he wasn't just with him in the Nether a second ago. Keralis frowned in confusion. However, he couldn't even get a word out before he was interrupted by a giant three sided sword landing in between them.

"FREEZE!"