End portals suck, so much more than a Nether portal.

Instead of what felt like walking through some weird liquid door, my entire being warps as there's a sense of falling and floating at the same time. Nothing beneath me, senses stretching, limbs flailing, but no gravity pull. Just this mass of confusion and dizziness making my gut clench.

Gravity suddenly yanks at me, information bombarding me as I skid and collide helplessly on rough stone. A cough shuddering my whole body as I try to lift my head, the world tilting and spinning insane. I hate portals.

"Jesse?" Olivia blurs in my vision as she climbs to her feet. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." I cough out my answer, heaving myself upright. Legs wobbling beneath me as I try to stay upright. It's hard, especially with my seething and cramping arm throwing everything off, but I manage.

The air warps as Lukas, Petra, and Reuben pop through too. My skull about to implode and explode all at the same time, my eyes continuing their slow degrade. But it's mostly fine. Sure, fine details are out, but I can still make out the big picture. I'm fine, everything's good.

"Oh great," We all gaze at the black landscape as Lukas speaks, well, I all I can see is black. Maybe tints of purple throw in my view. "It just keeps getting better."

Reuben oinks softly, rubbing up against my legs. Whining as he feels my legs tremor beneath me, the muscles dying for a break. But no matter, we're almost to Soren. He's gonna fix this, he has to.

Almost there.

"Wait," I hear Olivia's panic, trying to blink her back into focus. "Where's Axel? Why hasn't he-"

The air spits him out, Lukas grunting. I hear the amulet clink and roll on the ground, unable to tell where exactly it is until it rolls against my foot. And after falling flat on my face trying to grab it, I heave myself upright again and pocket it.

My lungs, despite the fact I still need air, only wheeze inside me. Whether they've given up, or are too weak to take deep breaths anymore, I don't know. But it's just another turn for the worst I'll have to deal with.

"Get off." Lukas suddenly gasps, ringing a faint alarm bell in my throbbing head as voice continues to quiver. "Oh jeez... oh man... This is- I..."

"Lukas?" I ignore how gruff my voice has become. "Are you okay?"

"What? No, I'm not crying, just- Just look!"

I turn, my vision struggling when only the endstone isn't black, but I hear the strange grunt of an enderman. My heart clenching that while they aren't mad yet, we have no escape if they attack. And there's no way we can fight them, that's impossible. My right arm is almost becoming just as useless as my left, just not as agonizingly painful.

"Hide, now." My legs wobble as I dash off towards a pillar that seems like it can cover us. Endermen buzzing all around us, only barely helping me convince my weary and trembling legs to run.

Crouching behind the pillar, my legs heave in relief as Lukas's quivering whisper floats into my head. "So, so what do we call that? A, uh, 'herd' of enderman? A-a flock of enderman? A swarm?"

I clear my throat, hoping I can say something to calm him down. "I dunno about you, but I'm going with a 'haunting' of enderman."

"Uh yeah..." Olivia gulps behind me, and I'm not sure how exactly terrifying this fuzz of black is to them. "We might want to hold off on the grammar lessons until later. Which way are we headed Jesse?"

My eyesight, although jittery and fuzzy around the edges, doesn't fail to make out the others staring at me when I face them. Petra's and Magnus's words whispering in my head. I don't want to lead, but I can't just let them wallow in their fear.

The amulet's really warm in my hands as I pull it out, strange. But the white glow suddenly flickers. Buzzing and going out without so much as a trickle of light anymore.

"Yep," Internally groaning, and wheezing still, I pocket the amulet again while Petra speaks. "That sort of stuff doesn't work in the Nether, probably not in the End either."

A bitter laugh crackles out of Lukas. "Great, just ah- oh man. So we were trapped, and now we're lost. So we go from a, uh, death machine, that almost drowns us, and now we land here. In the End."

Lukas huffs, resent flowing out of him... which I have no clue on how to deal with right now. "And that's certainly the right name for it, since now, incredibly, we don't even know where we are going."

"We're not dead at least!" That's what most important, the only reason why I'm suffering through the seething purple parasites in the first place. "That's what matters. If we're alive, we can still do this."

Lukas sighs, and I gulp, his face kinda jittery and concerned. "Sure Jesse, sure."

"We must find Soren." I refrain the urge to cough out phlegm, bad timing. "We aren't stopping until we do that."

"Face it, we might never find this guy."

"There he is." I whip around at Axel's words, and sure enough, I can't see anything past a certain point except for a large floating structure. But guessing on the other's gasps, Soren's there.

"Did that just happen?" I ignore Lukas, my attention snapping my lungs, airways almost completely blocked with phlegm. "I- I can't believe that just happened. Am I the only one that's surprised? Because that was- I mean... it's like we conjured him."

A low growl seems to come my airways as I simply try to breathe, almost unable to hear Petra. "It's him! That has to be him!"

I force my attention back to the goal, getting to Soren past all the endermen. Oh boy, another heap of pain and suffering here I come.

I edge out in front of my friends, as if I could shield them from the endermen, trying to smoother the cough struggling to burst forth. "Okay people, let's go."

"Jesse, that's not a good idea." I pause, the words distorting my quick little pep talk I was trying to give my legs to move again, and of course seeing worry again on Lukas's slightly fuzzy and darkened face. "Actually, I'll go first."

Lukas takes a few steps forward past me, and I strain to pick up on his hushed whisper. "Please Jesse, I can do it."

"Great," I make a weak gesture for the others to get going, still in the process of convincing my body to go forward. "Let's pick up the pace shall we?"

The others run past me, and I take the back. Really glad that I can just follow to the footsteps of the others, giving my eyes a chance to hopefully recover some more. Besides, no one can really see me sway as I try to run with the others. Legs throbbing and wobbling to keep me both standing and running forward.

Thankfully, my balance doesn't give out. But I really need to be careful about that. With my left arm so stiff and piercing and crashing wave upon wave of misery that it cannot help me run, I need to either adjust or figure out some new way to move quickly. And galloping is out.

They all stop, the short jog exhausting my legs, but we're good. I'm good. No one's dead, just got to get to Soren and everything's going to stay that way.

I continue walking, knowing if I stop I'm never going to start again. "Way to go Lukas."

Since there's light now, it's easier to see his lips crack into a smile... eyes still crinkled in worry. "Yeah, thanks Jesse."

After hauling myself up a couple of steps, I take a moment to try and make out everything that's jittering rapidly in my sight. End portal, at least we can get out of here. And... oh holy crap, I am going to DIE going up those stairs!

There are a lot of sighs, but no one stops. Whimpering as quietly as possible, I drag my legs up. Trying to cough silently to try and breathe better as my legs burn and clamp as I hoist myself up step after step... after step...

My head begins to burn, as if I'm standing too close to a fire. My arm withering and contorting, almost all the way up to my shoulder. The limb so stiff, so in pure terrible agony, that just even raising it to shoulder height will kill it. Seriously. The arm will just fall off, or completely die and forever go limp.

Everyone else gets to the top, Axel voice drifting into my head, my head suffocating in misery. I heave myself up the last few steps, staggering onto the platform and nearly falling flat on my face. Balance... oh balance please, please don't fail me now.

Rubbing my bursting temples, my legs jiggle as I get to the next set of stairs. Not stopping before I start up the first one, knowing I'm already so far behind. Gritting my teeth and forcing my bones to go up faster, no matter how much the muscles gripe. No matter how much everything burns, just a little faster.

I push myself a little farther a little faster, groaning and focusing on my drilling pain searing from my arm to ignore my legs. Going up a little better-

A cough erupts from my lungs, throwing my very delicate balance off. My legs shaking underneath me, my one good arm waving around as I feel my weight tipping further and further back...

Oh no, no no no no no NO!

In a fury, I snap my limbs around. One of my dead legs flying back and pushing forward while I thrust my hips forward, my right arm launching forward and takes the first jolt onto the stairs. My body, thankfully, flopping forward with an oof.

"Jesse?" Only pure pain exists in my left arm as my right trembles to lift me up. Not dead.... I can get up now. Come on, I'm past halfway up with these accursed stairs.

"Jesse?" The panic in Lukas's voice, all because of me, gets my legs to shuffle underneath me again. "Are you-"

"Tripped." I cough, forcing my weary lungs to breathe harder. "I'm good, just tripped."

Groaning, I heave myself up. Taking another step forward and actually leaning way too far forward. Just to make sure I don't kill myself by falling backwards and extra motivation to get my legs to work.

With legs ready to fall off by the time I get to the top, I notice how much harder it is to see. I can make out my friends just fine with them so close, but everything else is just black. Black with just a little bit of fuzz of yellow.

Olivia I think says something from the ground, since I'm sure she's just soo tired, but I ignore it. Not daring to focus my energy on anything except heaving myself more stairs. Soren... get to Soren... Soren will fix all this.

I'm pretty sure I hear them groan by the time my dead legs almost get me mostly there. That's fine, they won't take as long as me anyway. I'm not letting anything going to hold them back. Not my arm that purple parasites have claimed for themselves. Not my failing body. Nothing.

But I'm still surprised when I reach the platform first, finally looking up and seeing a ladder. Great, I don't even have two arms to climb this. I have one completely exhausted one and that's it.

"Well dude," Axel laughs nervously behind me. "I think this one's all you."

Grunting, which admittedly was part cough, I begin to climb it. I go as fast as I can, knowing that they might think I'm actually going a bit slow. But at least balance isn't needed here and my one arm can help getting up.

My head refuses to give me a break, and I have to ignore that when I get to the top. There's a trapdoor here, which leaves me a few options on how to open it. Either using my left arm, not possible, letting go and opening with my right, asking for me to fall, grabbing the ladder with my left and opening with my right, still sucks, or using my head.

Using my head it is! Purely because that pain is the least intense of them all, even cool blood rushes around once I head butt it open, that's fine. Could've been much worse.

The glaring light pierces my poor eyeballs as I drag myself up, and I opt for not having them open at all. But as I lay and pant desperately on the ground, I can't help but notice how... soft it is?

"What do you see?"

I grunt, not technically seeing anything, and peeling my eyes open. The pain buffering for just a moment when I lay eyes on blurred colors mashing around in my vision. Aren't I in the End?

Coughing, and forcing my lungs to produce some loud noise, I shout back down at them. "I'm hallucinating. Only logical explanation."

I continue to lay on the incredibly soft surface. My muscles pleading with me to never move from this one spot, ever. But when I hear the others climb up the ladder, I roll to the side. Using a hill, still super soft, to help me up and then use it for balance before stumbling down.

"So bright..." Olivia groans alongside Lukas, as I try to see my surroundings properly. Since I haven't fallen again and there's now actually adequate light, things are a bit better. Enough to make out a forest at least....

Forests this soft don't exist. I'm not in that much pain to believe otherwise.

Ignoring the grunts and groans of Axel falling on Lukas again, I climb up a hill. Terrible, absolutely terrible to go against gravity again. Thankfully, the big reason I use to keep myself from just collapsing, it's all flat from here. No more stupid stairs to fall, no more hills, just... my dying legs only have to hold up my weight and that's it.

"The ground is almost squishy...?" With my right arm, I get the muscles to poke a tree before letting it fall limp again. I know the feeling, it's exactly the same as a really nice wool bed that I would love to sleep in right know.

"It's wool." I cough, facing the others that have climbed up to me. "Everything, all of it, all wool."

"Wait..." I suck in a dry breath past the phlegm, even I can hear the angry growl from Lukas. "You're telling me that we've been resting all our hopes on this guy, and the whole time he's been building some totally artificial Happyland?"

Silence... his words cracking the hope in the air. My legs wobble beneath me, feeling the extra weight of hopelessness descending on us. Oh no, no way is my left arm being brutally murdered by purple parasites just for Soren not to live up to the legend.

"Well uh, it's real world." I wince, even Axel's carefree words have taken a serious hit.

"It's real evidence that Soren's whacked." My heart lurches, suddenly all the pain I've been forcing myself through feels needless, and I should just wallow on the ground until the purple parasites dig into my heart.

"What a waste-" Lukas scowls, throwing a piece of wool on the ground- "We came here for nothing." He storms through the others, and my twitchy sight catches the shattered faces of the others. Depression shadowing on Axel's, terror cracking on Olivia's, helpless rage burning on Petra's. 

My heart continues to beat in my hallow body, and as long as it does, as long as it has the strength to beat, I am not giving up on them. Not until then. My friends are getting through this.

"What are we even suppose to do-"

"We came to get that bomb." My words scrap out of my throat, yet burn determinedly inside.

"Just look around Jesse!" Lukas whips to me, boiling frustration steaming from him. "If the greatest builder of all time has spent years-"

"Well he should have plenty of time to help us then." I snap back at him, refusing to let Lukas take away anymore hope. "We did not dance around death so many times to give up now. We're at least finding Soren before we give up on the entire freaking world. We do not go down without a fight."

He huffs, his face crinkling up as he violently shakes his head, and spins on his heel. "Whatever. I've had enough crazy for one day."

Petra grunts, her form still jittery as she strangles the air. "Ugh! What furball is stuck in his throat?"

I clear my throat, deciding that whether they like it or not my lungs get to breathe as hard as they can. "No clue, but it might be best to give him a bit of space for now."

Reuben whines softly, following Olivia and Axel as they mutter amongst themselves. Petra begins to turn with them, almost leaving and giving me a just to rest by myself, before she stops.

"Ooh! We have a mystery lever here!"

I grunt, trying not to think about my legs jiggling beneath me. "My favorite...."

She doesn't say anything and I know she rolled her eyes at me. Chimes go off, and rolling my head around on my tired neck, I spot a chunk of redstone lights turn on. That's probably important.

"Okay, not gonna lie, hoping that something a bit more exciting to happen."

"Here, let's make a deal." I scan around for Lukas, spotting his black jacket in the fuzzy wool forest. "You look for more mystery levers, I'll talk to Lukas."

"Deal, never good with sappy stuff anyway." She walks off, and I willingly drag myself over to the guy who just kinda blew up. The same guy who's been every stubborn about figuring out what's wrong with me. And the guy who is probably about to do something that's going to make my life harder.

The purple parasites seethe inside of me, and I bite my lip to keep myself from grabbing it. It's like they know they're about to be discovered, twisting and plunging fiery roots of death all throughout the limb. Yep, heart's still beating though. I can get through this.

My legs continue to shake beneath me though as I slowly get closer and closer, and I'm starting to get slightly worried if they'll just collapse on me. I'm not the fittest guy ever, but I should still have enough muscles to hold myself up.

"I don't want to hear it."

Well that's a great start. Not even all the way up to him yet and I get that. Why did I think that I had the mental energy to do this when I have to think through a headache?

"It's either listen to me or your thoughts, and I'm willing to bet your thoughts aren't exactly... helping you very much."

Lukas sighs forcibly, glaring at me. "Okay, yeah, I didn't handle that every well."

I grunt, able to give him a weak smile. "That's the understatement of the century. Do you want-"

"Just stop Jesse!" He plunges a hand into his air, frustration melting into some sort of boggled exasperation. "I'm sorry, I know I'm being terrible right now. But I'm just so..."

Lukas sighs, shaking his head sullenly. "Terrified is a good way to put I suppose."

He pushes against the tree he leaning against, sighing and running his hand through his air again. Lukas stays turned away from me, an incredibly long silence which is filled with my pulse drumming in my skull and accompanied with fiery daggers of doom cutting into my arm.

"What's wrong with you?" He turns back to me with his arms crossed, my mouth dry on how to respond. "Don't deny it. Despite how useful it would be, you're not using your left arm at all and-"

"I said why, didn't I? Ivor hurt it back in that library place." Since it's otherwise empty, I can feel my stomach churning guiltily. I can't say anything. Sure, lying's bad and everything, but he just broke down. There's no way I'm just going to add this to the pile of 'crazy'.

"The others may buy that, but it doesn't explain why you yanked it back when I tried to help you up before you ran into Ivor."

Conflict burns within me, my mouth remaining sealed. I mean, how freakin' nice it would be to tell someone. Just so I don't have to be strong around someone. But I can't make him feel worse. If finding this 'Happyland' blew him up so much, then how can I expect anything good by telling him?

The silence persists, and my legs are completely ignored as I feel myself getting split. I can't tell him, it's not a good thing. I can tough it out longer, I can ignore this guilt bubbling in my stomach, I just-

Lukas scowls, glaring at me. "Oh so I tell you what's bothering me and now you have nothing to say about it?"

Huffing he rolls his eyes, walking back to his tree. "Just leave me-"

I grab his shoulder as he passes me, gulping and completely terrified at the consequences of this. "Are you... are you completely sure you want to know?"

Lukas's anger crinkles up while he faces me. "Yes, I thought I made that quite clear."

"Well then..." I grab hold of my left sleeve, grimacing already. "Just- just brace yourself."

I pull it up, Lukas instantly recoiling at the purple infestation on my arm. I squirm too, it's so much worse than last time I looked. The parasites have completely taken over my forearm, small wisps of them almost at my wrist. And I really don't want to pull the sleeve up farther to see how far the parasites have gotten up my upper arm.

"Jesse... that's- I-" The color has just drained from his face as his head snaps up to me and then back to my arm, his voice climbing higher in volume. "Just- oh my-!"

I clamp my right hand over his mouth. "No screaming, I have not covered this up just for you to scream it to the world. Okay?"

Lukas nods, eyes still set on the horror scene sprayed out on my arm. Once I remove my hand, thankfully no screams, I push the sleeve back down. My eyes finally getting around to informing me that my left hand as become gray in color.

"So..." I shuffle, reminding me of my exhausted legs again. "That's kinda why I didn't want anyone to see it."

"Jesse...?" With his eyes as big as they can be, Lukas stares at me. "What is that?"

"You think I know?" I sigh, dragging myself past him and sitting on a big wool bush. "I have no clue what it is, just that the Wither Storm gave it to me... like what? Only two days ago when it was unleashed?"

Lukas just shakes his head, completely... thrown off. "But, like, when? How? We've been with you the entire-"

"No, there was one moment." While my legs are grateful to finally not be in use, my arm twists and withers excruciating with all the attention on it. "Running out of the dome, I tripped. Everyone was ahead of me when I got caught in the tractor beam. I was stuck in there for so long trying to pull myself out, but I suppose I never really left it though."

With a sigh, Lukas sits next to me and rubs his temples. "Okay, okay.... Yeah, no." He whips to me, shock and horror jittering around in my eyes. "How the hell have you be able to hide that? Does it look worse than it is?"

I laugh, which soon becomes a cough as I yet again have to clear my airways. "No, it hurts more than it looks. It's some sort of disease or sickness, I think. Maybe it doesn't have a name. 'Curse of the Wither Storm' sounds like a good fit."

"It's definitely a sickness, because no offense, you don't look... well, you look horrible."

"Isn't it great what stress and disease can do to you?"

Lukas narrows his eyes at me. "Speaking of which, you should really tell the others. It'd help with-"

"Lukas, what part of showing my friends the purple death on my arm sounds like a good idea?" I shake my head, pushing myself up when I remember that we still have a job to do. "Besides, I wouldn't want to freak them out even more."

"Come on Jesse-"

I grunt, a glorified cough basically, and drag my shaky legs over a lever that catch my eyes. "No, I can't do that to them."

"Well telling them now is certainly better than if you fail-"

"No!" I whip at him, glaring at him. "I swear Lukas, I am not going to fail my friends. I'm going to keep them alive, no matter how strong this thing gets."

I turn away from him, listening again to my heart continuously thump in my chest. "I don't care what it takes, what I have to do, I'm going to make sure every one of them makes it out of this alive."