The feeling of being torn apart came and went in a split-second, leaving me disoriented and dazed. The heat was nearly unbearable; it took me a moment to realize that we were no longer in the cool confines of the subterranean laboratory, but that we were in an entirely different place, in an entirely different dimension.
Still, we were not exposed to the elements; we seemed to be inside of a small building, its walls plaster and its floor linoleum, much like a waiting room at a doctor's office. The lights were harshly fluorescent, and there was no air-conditioning to speak of in the entire complex. As I rose off the floor, I found our slightly insane host, Dr. Latner, pecking at a small keypad next to a large sliding door.
"Is this…"
"The Nether? Yes, you are one of the few who will be witness to his inferno, and hopefully you will survive to tell the tale," Latner spoke. It was a phrase like this that gave me the idea that he was a bit unhinged after being shut up in his research chamber for over two months, without any human contact.
"Well…that was easier than I thought."
"Excuse me?"
"Getting here…I thought it would be more difficult that just stepping through a portal," I said, helping Max up off the floor. Despite the fact that he was hostile, I was beginning to appreciate his company; it would've been difficult to work with Dr. Latner alone.
"It is just as simple as that. Surviving, on the other hand…that is a different matter. However, we all are very well outfitted, so we should be able to take care of whatever proves to be an obstacle."
The doctor was referring to our .50 caliber sniper rifles, massive beasts that could punch through solid metal with ease. It was difficult to carry, even with my experience with firearms; with some difficulty, I hoisted the monster over my shoulder and followed Latner out of the sliding door, which admitted us into the hellish landscape of the Nether.
The sky, wherever it could be seen, was a sickly crimson color, the horizon miles away from us. We were basically on a giant floating island, hovering over a sea of fire, a massive ceiling of Netherrack suspended over us, as if by magic. Nothing in this place gave me any sort of comfort; I was beginning to doubt if Miguel was going to live through this.
"How long will we—"
"We still have a little less than eight hours. Plenty of time to retrieve what we need and get back, provided we don't run into any obstacles on our way," Latner said. He was leading our little convoy down a path made out of stone bricks, which meandered its way down a steep cliff and onto a plain of hell dirt.
"What kind of obstacles? And what is your plan, anyway?" I asked him. Max remained silent behind us, trudging down the path without saying a word.
"Well…there is a breeding ground for ghasts about two miles from here. It's not too long of a walk, but we do face a minor obstacle along the way."
"Which is?"
Latner pointed in the distance, and I squinted to see what he was seeing. I could barely make out the smudgy silhouette of a massive set of turrets and towers rising in the distance, almost as if they rose up out of the magma sea.
"What…is it?"
"A fortress…none of us know how it got there, but everyone knows to steer clear. Unfortunately, that's the only known route to the breeding grounds. There's probably another, but our time is limited, and we can't risk forging another path just for the sake of safety."
Though crazy, Latner had a point; we had limited time, and I would have to risk whatever dangers lie within the fortress to save Miguel's life. We had to press on, no matter the consequences.
There were pigmen down on the plain, but they seemed to be ignoring our presence. Several times, as we descended down the hill and onto the flatlands, I passed by several of the hideous undead, and none of them made a single move to attack or even interact with me.
"What's with these things? First they attack us, and now—"
"We're not on their turf," Latner answered Max, who had finally spoken up. "We figured that out the hard way—if you step on the Netherrack or soul sand, they instantly become hostile. Something to do with their territory…anyway, we just stick to the pathway, and they will not obstruct us."
I noticed that the pigmen would not touch the pathway at all; they wouldn't even attempt to cross over it, preferring to stay on their reddish brown soil. I was glad that they left us alone; it was bad enough that there was a horde of the beasts waiting for us at the door when we returned.
We were now lower than we started, down about a hundred feet over the boiling sea. Geysers of fire shot up thirty feet in the air, casting globules of burning liquid even higher. The heat was unbearable; it was like the hottest summer ever, but worse still. We were approaching what looked like a massive, hollow cuboid suspended over the magma, and I hoped that the interior would be slightly cooler than the outside.
"The fortress is right through that slit," Latner spoke to us, pointing to a small man-sized hole in the wall about ten feet above us. A staircase made out of stone brick led up to the aperture. "It'll be another quarter of a mile before we reach the actually fortress, but for all intents and purposes we are now in the danger zone."
"The danger zone?"
"It's the fortress. You didn't think we could waltz right in there, did you?" Latner asked. I stuttered, unsure of how to respond to this.
"No…the guardians of the fortress will not be too keen to let us pass through. Fiery demons…there's always more of them, no matter how many you kill. There are some safe passages, but it would be wise to follow my direction when it comes to the more open areas," Latner explained. He began to climb up the staircase, visibly handicapped by the massive sniper rifle.
"No wonder nobody ever wanted to come to this place. It's a goddamn deathtrap," Max groaned, ascending the stairs after Latner and I.
"It is dangerous, yes. But you are exaggerating. Stay with me, and you'll survive. I've been down here countless times, and the only thing I may have lost was my sanity."
I bit my tongue to keep from laughing; even the doctor himself admitted that he was a bit crazy, and there was no arguing about it now.
We stepped out from the slightly cooler interior and out into the harsh heat once more, facing a giant conglomeration of dark black bricks reminiscent of a castle from an old fairy tale. There were massive towers, huge walls, enormous support pillars and a large gate that would admit us into the complex. We stood about a thousand feet from the entrance; it was only a matter of a simple, short walk and we would be in the so-called "danger zone".
I remembered Latner's advice and stayed behind him as he led the way into the fortress via the brick pathway. The complex seemed deserted; there wasn't a single sign of life inside or outside, save a few pigmen stranded on a floating island below us.
"It seems empty…"
"For now. That will change soon," Latner responded to Max, who was the last one inside. The gates were open; there was nothing obstructing us from entering.
"The path to the breeding grounds is on the opposite side of the fortress. It's not a straight shot, either…I need each of you to take a different route and meet up at the central plaza…"
Latner directed me to a corridor that ran down from the left side of the entrance hall; Max went down the other way, and Latner disappeared down a staircase that was the only other way to leave the main hall.
We were split now; I had no idea why Latner divided us, but the fortress felt eerily similar to the sanitarium I was trapped in no more than an hour ago. This entire operation felt similar; crawling down a dark, dank hallway towards an objective that had never seemed more obscure. Nevertheless, I pressed onwards, hoping that this corridor led to the plaza that Latner spoke of.
The corridor opened up and became an open-air walkway; the red sky of the Nether swirled around the tops of the towers, and the red fog made visibility extremely poor. That may have been one of the reasons that I couldn't spot my attacker; I may have been so focused on reaching the tower ahead of me that I simply did not notice the three fiery missiles exploding behind me.
The explosions threw me flat on my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I was caught unprepared, completely unaware; I had no idea what was attacking me. My first thought was that a ghast was attacking me; but I remembered the stories well, about the shriek that came before the fireball. There had been no shriek, just the roar of the explosion and the sudden burst of heat.
As I tried to get back up, I realized that my shirt was burning; I flopped down onto the bricks as another wave of fireballs streaked past, smashing into the rails that lined the walkway. Luckily I was able to put out the flames before they burned my flesh, and began to sprint down the rest of the walkway, trying to get a visual on my opponent.
Shrouded by reddish fog, the fiery figure had no legs, or arms for that matter; it was mostly flames, a small conglomeration of flame and smoke with eyes that burned brighter than anything I had ever seen, and small, burning rods revolving around it. I had no idea what it was; it seemed to be hesitating, as if it was waiting for me to make a move.
Bad idea.
The sniper rifle cracked, knocking me backwards slightly. The round hit its mark, though; the floating menace was destroyed by the bullet, the rods blown outwards and the smoke and fire disintegrating as those eyes fizzled into nothingness. There must've been some sort of body hidden within that fire; otherwise the bullet would have shot straight through.
Shaken and in pain, the skin on my back still warm from the flames, I descended down the furthest tower and finally reached the plaza. I was evidently not the first human being to be there; there were skeletons all over the open area, littering the plaza alongside shell casings, magazines, discarded weapons and other assorted gear. It looked like it had been a massacre; there was no sign of any other creature or being at the scene.
A few second later, Latner emerged from a staircase at the far back of the room. He seemed unfazed by the scores of skeletons lying about, as if he had seen it before. Something told me he had seen it before.
"All of this—"
"Our first encounter with the blazes. Terrible fight; many of the men fell off the towers or walkways. Quite a few of them were trapped in here and massacred by the fiends."
"You mean those things? That thing that…attacked me?"
I was trying to recover my breath, having lost in during the skirmish with the fire creature Latner had called a "blaze".
"I told you we wouldn't go through this fortress unmolested. They don't take kindly to intruders here…how many did you have to take on?"
"Just one. But that was bad enough…" I gasped, sitting down against the tower's stairwell as Max came in from the far side of the room, nearly collapsing against a wall.
"They do not know we are here yet. They come out in great numbers if they figure out that there's an intruder. We should consider ourselves lucky," Latner spoke. He was dead serious, I could tell; it was quite obvious that he had had previous experiences with the blazes.
"Well, we must push on. We have a little more than seven hours on the clock. We can travel safely from here."
Latner showed us a passage that led far from the center of the fortress; it was dark, and felt like a furnace, but it was a welcome respite from the guardians who were almost certainly searching for us amongst the towers and turrets.
"Why did you help me?" I asked Latner when we were in view of Netherrack once more, clear of the fortress.
"Why?"
"You…did not protest, or complain. I never even really asked for your help…why did you?" I asked him.
He hesitated for a few minutes, and I waited for his answer.
"The world has gone to hell…common courtesy has been all but abandoned," Latner spoke, no longer eccentric but solemn and suppressed.
"And?"
"This might be my final act as a human being. The horde is at the door of my lab, I am working my way through this deathtrap once more…I figured it would be good to do someone a good favor before I died."
It sounded like bullshit to me; something to do with karmic balance, or some of that crap. But I was in no mood to argue with him; I was grateful that he was helping me, and in the end, he may be the one who saved Miguel's life.
"Anyway—"
"Hush…we're here."
We were on a cliff overlooking a massive open space the size of ten football fields. The creatures floating around in it were enormous, about the size of two monster trucks; giant, gelatinous white behemoths resembling jellyfish, their eyes tiny gray slits leaking small trails of a clear substance.
Tears.
"You two set yourselves up in the positions I give you. I've got the perfect plan to handle this."