It was strange being encased in lava and not dying or even feeling its heat, not needing to breathe and drawing all energy required from the molten rock itself. Fire had used Fire Resistance potions very often but after over a year without them he was surprised by not being hurt but not nearly as much as the others who in general had never fallen in lava. In the first second they panicked and tried to swim back to the surface, but then they remembered that they had the potion and relaxed.
They could see as well as if they were underwater, only with a red tint. Fire gave them a sign to follow him and began swimming downwards with powerful movements of arms and legs but then remembered that the others still had to learn how to navigate the dense fluid. He slowed down and looked out for obsidian, he didn't see any. As soon as freeZe, TehLulz, Ambigious and Unchosen had caught up to him he started swimming downwards slowly, always looking for the black volcanic glass.
Suddenly Fire heard something and wildly gesticulated to tell the others to move away from the middle. The lava rumbled and vibrated. In the deep, just at the edge of Fire's vision huge bubbles of gas came up out of the depths of the volcano, shooting up very quickly and pushing a wave of magma up to the crater. As it passed by it almost smashed them against the wall. If someone would have been in the middle they would have been thrown out of the volcano, hitting the ground with no chance of survival. After the current had slowed Fire gave the others a sign to continue and took the lead again.
Hundreds of meters and half an hour later Fire spotted a small black and purple rectangle. He signaled to hurry and swum downwards faster. The next thing he felt was the sinister aura of the portal, it was no good feeling like the aura of diamonds but he had gotten used to it since he had all kinds of magic going on in his base.
They were only a few meters away from the purple portal, Fire gave the others a sign to stop, then he swam towards the portal and went inside it. As Fire entered it he felt a slight resistance since the portal wasn't completely fluid. The insides of the volcano began spinning before his eyes and then he blacked out.
He woke up on the other side of the portal, he was not tired in any way and started observing his environment. He stood in a small circular cavern with a man-made tunnel leading out into the main caverns of the Nether. The heat was enormous. The next one to come out was TehLulz. Ambigious, Unchosen and freeZe came followed, still a bit dizzy.
As Fire saw that they were fully there again, he asked: "Do you have any combat experience?"
freeZe answered: "Yes."
A double "No" came from TehLulz and Unchosen.
Ambigious answered last: "Not really. I got into fights once or twice, or ten dozen times if you count those with freeZe."
Fire answered: "Okay, that will make it somewhat more difficult. I'll tell you the strategies for the mobs in here. So, the pigmen are dangerous because of their speed and their swords, but just ignore them, you know how it is. The magma cubes are a little more difficult, you can just stomp the tiny ones but for medium and large I would recommend dodging and throwing rocks at them, without a blade of any kind you pretty much can't deal damage. The ghasts… I think you know how to handle those. But be careful, you should kick the fireballs back instead of punching them or it will hurt. If you see a blaze or a wither skeleton, tell me."
Unchosen asked: "Okay, where do we need to go?"
Fire was walking into the tunnel and said: "Come, I will show you when we are outside."
The tunnel was narrow and the heat coming from the netherrack was insane, the rock was rough but not jagged so it was surprisingly comfortable to walk on, even without shoes. As they stepped outside of the tunnel, a panorama opened up before them.
They were standing in a lower section of the Nether, the lava sea was just a few meters away and more lava was pouring down from the ceiling onto the overhangs above them. Zombie pigmen were wandering around on the netherrack, ghasts were flying high up on the ceiling, always letting out their sad cries and moans. The whole scenery was dramatically illuminated by the yellow, sun bright light of glowstone crystals hanging from the ceiling, the eternal fires on the netherrack and by the lava sea from beneath, leaving little room for shadows. In the distance, they could see a Nether Fortress towering in the middle of the lava lake, giving it an even more sinister look than it would have had normally. Blazes, zombie pigmen and wither skeletons were patrolling the buildings and bridges made of the dark red nether bricks.
freeZe poked Fire in the shoulder and said: "Fire, why are you shimmering?"
After she said that everyone else, including Fire, noticed that Fire's scales were shimmering in the darkest of blacks like the shell of an insect.
Fire said: "The lava burnt away the dust and dirt from the year in the quarry, this is how my scales look normally."
Ambigious laughed. "Nice! Let's go!"
Fire took the lead once again, going up the hill to their left and explained the route he wanted to follow: "We will go on the left side of the lava sea and then cross a lava river, then we will go into that Nether Fortress over there, I have some friends living in there, somewhat weird but nice people."
freeZe answered while climbing up the hill: "Very strange friends you have there, living in a Nether Fortress with all those mobs…"
Fire chuckled: "I know right, you all will have a little shock when you see them I can imagine. Have I ever told you about the Wither cult?"
Ambigious replied: "No, you haven't."
Fire grinned. "Okay, then I won't spoil your surprise."
They were halfway up the hill as they heard a scream different from the usual ambient ghast noises. Suddenly a fireball impacted five meters to their right, setting some more fires.
"Up the hill!" Fire yelled.
They climbed the hill more quickly now, which was not easy with the boiling heat around them, at the top was a small platform. Fire stopped at the very front and signaled the others to continue running. Fire noticed that the ghast shooting them was pretty big compared to the others, it seemed to be an alpha ghast of sorts.
The ghast breathed in with its tentacles swirling through the air and shot a bolt of compact flames at Fire. Everything slowed down, he was about to try something very risky but if it worked, it would help then throughout the rest of the journey through the Nether. The fireball now was only five meters in front of Fire, he formed a bowl with his hands towards the fireball, shielding his face and put one foot back to support him. The projectile hit Fire's hands with force, it didn't explode.
It pushed Fire backwards over the rough netherrack, someone without Fire's resistant scales would have had the skin on their feet torn off. The fireball decreased in speed quickly until it stopped and stayed afloat in mid-air. Fire was surprised that he actually stopped the fireball but the ghast was at least twice as surprised. It made a confused face, which turned to respect and then to terror, it floated away screaming loudly. The others carefully walked towards Fire, who was cooling his hands
freeZe asked Fire: "This is enormously good or terribly bad, right?"
Without answering Fire asked: "Did anybody keep their bottle?"
"Yeah, I kept it." Unchosen said and handed it to Fire, so did everybody else.
Fire thanked them and walked over to the orb of fire still floating there.
"Err, what do you want to do?" TehLulz asked.
Fire replied short: "Bottle it."
He stuck the neck of one bottle into the fireball, to everyone's surprise it started pouring into the bottle, filling it up. He corked the bottle again and filled up the other bottles.
"What can you use that stuff for?" Ambigious asked with an interested voice.
"I really don't know, I will have to try it out." Fire answered and added: "Let's go, we need to get to the fortress."
He took the snowball sized fireball that was left and carried it in his hand. They started walking again.