Hello readers! ECG back again with something new. In this chapter, we see some new characters, a new world, and a "Hell" of an adventure. Enjoy!

Chapter 7: Into the Nether

I woke up the next morning feeling like a new person. I was refreshed after an exhausting day yesterday, and was ready to go. I turned to expect Crepa still sleeping beside, but her place in the bed was replaced by an envelope. I tore it open; it was from Crepa. It read:

Dear Ace,

Morning, Sleepyhead! I let you sleep in a little longer because you looked pretty tired. The rest of us are at the base of the mountain. Meet us there ASAP. There's breakfast in the chest in the kitchen

XOXO,

Crepa

(PS. You might notice your jacket and shoes are glowing slightly. Don't worry; Sam will explain that once you get down here.)

I set the letter down and began to put on my usual attire: a light gray hoodie over a teal shirt with a diamond pickaxe on it, as well as blue jeans and brown boots. As I was tying my boots, I realized Crepa was right: My shoes as well as my jacket were both dimly glowing with blue and purple energy. They even felt different; my boots felt lighter, and my jacket seemed colder. I ignored it and headed into the kitchen. In a small chest was some leftover pork chops, an apple, and a bottle of water. I snatched them out and walked out through the trapdoor entrance, eating as I went. When I reached the bottom of the mountain I found Sam, Squish and Crepa patiently waiting for me. Behind them was 4 blocks wide, 5 block high rectangular structure made of pure obsidian.

The whole gang was dressed for adventure. Sam had on a short-sleeve white shirt with black sweatpants and running shoes. Squish had on a green midriff with cutoff hiking shorts with leggings and hi-top hiking boots, with her Slime cap on her head. Crepa wore her usual creeper hoodie, and had brown hiking short shorts and boots on. All of their tops and shoes had the same blue-and purple glow.

"Sup bro. Glad someone decided to finally get out of bed." Sam said. He took a glass bottle out his pocket and tossed it to me. It was filled with an orange liquid that felt cool to the touch. Sam explained to me that it was Fire Resistance III, which would make me immune to fire. Go figure. I downed the small bottle. The air around me suddenly felt cooler, and my breath felt like I had ate a mint and drank a bottle of cold water.

"Thanks, Sam. So what's the deal with my clothes?" I said.

"That sir is also a plus. Your jacket is now enchanted with Fire Resistance I and Protection II. That means you can take no damage from fire, and take less damage from general attacks. Your shoes now have Feather Falling II and Swiftness IV. You now take less damage from falling, and you can now move a lot faster."

"Cool. Squish, wanna help me try this new enchantments out?"

Squish smirked and cracked her knuckles. "I thought you'd never ask." Suddenly, her arms transformed; one changed into double edged sword, and the other changed into cannon, like a green Mega Man. I stood in the offensive stance, pickaxe ready. Fast as lightning, she shot 3 Slimeballs at my face. I easily dodged and stepped back. She started to swing her sword. I bopped and weaved like I never did before, gracefully escaping all of her attacks. Crepa stood with her hands over her eyes. Sam looked on interested. I raised my pickaxe and parried her sword. I realized that my pickaxe had a blue and purple glow as well.

"Not bad, Ace, but let's see how you deal with this! Jerry Slash!"

Her sword grew and slammed into my pickaxe. Surprisingly, I took the blow head on. My pick survived almost unscathed.

"Uhh Sam, what enchantments does my pick have?"

"Efficiency II and Unbreakable III. Your pick becomes lighter and can break blocks faster, and it becomes much harder to break. It also has Boomerang III, which allows your weapon to come back to you if you drop it."

"Kickass!"

Squish growled and said, "Some people just get all the good stuff."

"Squish, what enchantments do you have?" I asked

"My boots have Protection III, my shirt has Thorns IV and my sword had Bane of Arthropods I."

I cringed. I didn't know what the Thorns did, but did know what an Arthropod was. She really did get the short end of the stick. I sheathed my pickaxe and Squish's arms returned to normal. I guess it was draw.

"Well that was fun. Ok, Sam, so what's the plan?" I asked Sam. He patted the tall structure. "This is a Nether Portal. When activated, we can step into it and be transported into the Nether."

My eyes widened, realizing what he just said. We were finally going to the Nether!

"Excellent! So how do you activate it?"

Sam frowned. "That's the only problem. We have no idea how to do that."

I stared at him and then facepalmed hard. "You mean to tell me you are a redstone master and have memorized every enchantment ever, and you can't figure out how to trigger this thing?"

"Yea, that's the jist."

"Think about it; what's the first thing you think of when you think of Hell?"

"Umm, death, despair, eternal suffering?"

"Noooo you idiot!" I took a Flint and Steel out of my backpack and knelt down in front of the portal. I clicked the Flint and Steel together and sparks flew. It ignited a block of the obsidian. At first nothing happened, but then the fire spread throughout the inside frame of the portal. The fire then grew purple and then formed a purple transparent wall that covered the entire inside of the portal. The Nether Portal had been activated. Everyone cheered at the accomplishment and got their backpacks on their backs.

"Ok, so who's going first?" Sam asked. Squish bravely stepped up. "Let's get this over with." She took a running start and dove into the portal. She disappeared with a purple flash, now in a totally different dimension. Sam was up next. He cautiously stepped into the portal, and with another purple flash he was gone as well.

"Ok, Boomstick. You're up,"

Crepa shrunk back from the portal. "Umm honestly Ace, I'm not sure."

"What do you mean? I mean, this is the whole reason we came out here."

"I know, but now that I'm here… it's just so scary. I'm sorry Ace."

"Hey it's alright, Crepa. Would It be better if we went at the same time?" I held out my hand. Crepa took it and smiled. "Thanks, Ace."

"No problem Boomstick. I always got your back."

"Yeah, from the depths of the Nether to the end of the End."

"Oooh I like the sound of that. Where'd you hear that?"

"It's been my motto since I was seven. From the depths of the Nether to the end of the End, I'll always stand by my dearest friends. I think it was from a song."

"Well wherever it came from, I think it's pretty cool."

"Great. I'm glad to hear it. Ready to do this?"

"On my count," I said, crouching for the jump.

"Ok; 3…2… ONE!"

And with that we lept into the portal, and my vision went purple….

We landed on a red kind of rock. It was warm to the touch and looked slightly softer than regular stone. We heard our names being called and saw Sam and Squish standing at the edge of a cliff.

"Dude, you have GOT to see this!" Sam yelled. I ran towards him and took in the majestic view.

The Nether was a giant cave of red rock (which was called Netherrack according to Sam). A giant pool of lava spanned as far as the eye could see. Lava flowed from the walls as well as the ceiling. Glowstone stalagmites hung from the ceiling.

"Holy Notch…" I whispered. I looked to my left to see my friends with the same facial reaction. All of them were speechless. I clapped my hands. "Well guys, let's start moving. If we want to see this place for its true glory, I say we get-"

"Searing Shot!"

FWOOM! A comet-like fireball crashed into me and sent me flying into a nearby wall. Though the impact still hurt me a tad bit, I was completely unharmed by the fire. I reminded myself to mine Sam some redstone later. As I got up, a figure completely covered in flames flew down towards me. When it landed, the flames disappeared to reveal a woman. She was about an inch taller than me. She was a blonde and had golden eyes. Her skin was deeply tanned, which was easy to see why. She wore a dark red two-piece bikini, with golden boots and matching gauntlets. 6 golden rods floated around her. In her hair were two hairpins that looked like eyes…

Great, another half-mob. Just what I needed. But what mob could she represent? Damn I knew I should've gotten my lazy ass to read that book about Nether mobs! I thought.

The woman yanked me off the ground and pointed her fist just inches away from my face. Her hand ignited; I knew I had Fire Resistance, but a punch to the jaw would still hurt nonetheless. She glared at me and spoke in an icy tone (no irony intended).

"State your business here, cold one." She said. Now I'd love to say that I easily overpowered the strange woman and became the overlord of the Nether, but I hate to lie. I was scared shitless, and couldn't utter a single word. I could tell the lady was losing her patience, and just before she fried me, Crepa stepped in and stopped her.

"Whoa there hot stuff! Let's be reasonable. We're just mere adventurers from the Overworld. Please, we mean from no harm."

The woman looked at her and back at me, as if deciding who to burn first. Finally, she put her hand down.

"Your friend has saved your life, cold one. I would've torched you to death had she not spoken up." She said to me, extending her hand in a friendly handshake. I shook her hand; it was warm, not surprisingly.

"My name is Comet. I am a half-mob, part Blaze and part human. My apologies if my first impression was slightly intimidating. I have lived here all of my life and am very protective of my homeland."

I waved it off. "It's no problem. I'm Ace, full human."

"I'm Crepa! Half-creeper!" Crepa cheered.

"I'm Squish. Half-slime." Squish said with a smile.

"And I'm Sam. Full human." Sam said shaking Comet's hand. Comet looked delighted.

"Excellent; well I guess you should come along with me to my abode near the Nether Fortress. I hope you like Nether Wart soup-"

Suddenly, we heard a sound that sounded like the mixture of a cat's meow and a sniffle. I probably wouldn't have been fazed by it, but Comet froze like she had just seen Herobrine.

"Shit…" she whispered.

"What is it?" I asked her. Then I heard the sound of a fire charge flying through the air.

"GET DOWN!" Comet screamed. We hit the dirt and a huge fireball whizzed over our heads and crashed into a nearby wall. I swiveled my head to the direction the ball came from, and my eyes widened. It was a giant, white, cubed jellyfish. It had 9 white tentacles protruding from its bottom. Its eyes were closed and its face was stained with tears. I recognized from stories of the Nether. It was a…

"GHAST! Get back!" Comet yelled. We rolled out of the way as the Ghast shot another fireball. There wasn't much I could do with only a diamond pick as a weapon, so I deflected any fireballs that came my way and tried to throw Netherrack at it. Comet took to the air, blasting bursts of fire at the large beast. Squish bombarded it with Slimeballs and Sam shot arrows into its skin. Crepa threw Fire Bombs that ignited on impact and Sticky Bombs that glued themselves to the Ghast before exploding; a result of Crepa being around a Blaze and a Slime for so long.

Despite all of our efforts, we couldn't seem to beat this thing. It was very agile for such a huge creature, and it was hard to dodge its fireballs and its tentacles that swiped at our feet and tried to knock us down. Just when it looked like we were equally matched, we realized the thing was a mutli-tasker. While 8 of its tentacles had been busy attacking us, the last one was snuck around and grabbed Sam and lifted him into the air.

"Hey, put me down you overgrown crybaby!" He screamed, struggling to break the Ghast's grip, but the tentacle was too strong. The Ghast slowly floated away.

"Hey, you get back here! Sludge Gunner!" Squish launched a huge ball of green energy at the Ghast. The Ghast quickly turned around and launched a huge fireball at it. The fireball turned it into ash and still came hurtling towards us. I braced for impact, but then Squish ran in front of the group. She yelled, "Stockpile 5!" Suddenly, she grew into a giant dense wall of slime and took the full brunt of the fireball. The shockwave was still enough to send me flying headfirst into a wall. I felt my arm snap in the process and was on the brink of unconsciousness. I scanned the battlefield; Comet and Crepa were lying on the floor. Squish was nowhere to be found. I caught a glimpse of the Ghast floating away. In a fit of rage, I threw my pickaxe at it. It missed by a mile and fell into the lava below. The last thing I remembered was thinking about how hard it was going to be to craft another one of those things…

Well that escalated quickly… What does the mysterious Ghast want with Sam? And will our remaining heroes survive their trip to the Nether? Find out next time!