Chapter 16: Dead Voxel

Warning: This chapter contains mild blood. (Nothing too intense.)

"Is this it?" I asked.

"What do you think?" the librarian was quick to respond.

"Right..."

We gathered around the structure of the portal, both to get a closer look, as well as to stay warm.

The central part of the structure was the obsidian frame, which was four blocks wide, and five blocks tall, making that fourteen blocks total. Of those fourteen blocks, only ten of them were actually obsidian! The four corner blocks did bear a resemblance to the volcanic material, but a strange purple substance was dripping through their dark blue cracks.

The ground that surrounded the frame was composed of a dark red material that I wasn't familiar with in the slightest, and was overall uneven, as many holes filled with lava were intercepting its surface.

While the spectacle did give off a foreign aura, the frame itself didn't appear to have any sort of warping capabilities.

"So, how do we activate it?"

Gordon, who had huddled around the lava patches along with the other, non-Council members, got up again, and approached Rana, who had been standing closer to them.

"Johnny told me to give ya this," they said.

"Flint?" Rana questioned, holding up the item in confusion. "How's that gonna help?"

"It's for flint n' steel. The portal 'll activate only when it's lit, 's what Johnny said. Ye've got iron, dontcha?"

"Yeah, we do," was her response.

Of course, we had quite a few resources with us that could prove useful on our journey; wood, cobblestone, dirt, coal, iron, as well as the gold we had found in the desert temple. In other words, we took anything that could be of use. While Rana was busy crafting the item that would serve as a lighter, I decided to investigate the portal a little more thoroughly. On the other side of the frame, was a solid block of gold and I was surprised that I hadn't noticed it earlier.

That aside, a solid block of any material could be crafted from, and into, nine units of said material. In this case, we could potentially get nine more gold ingots for ourselves, which could be useful for crafting armor.

Carefully, I bridged my way toward the valuable block, covering a lava pit with cobblestone in the process. While mining the gold with an iron pick, it occurred to me that I couldn't figure out how this block ended up here! It couldn't be natural... Had someone else been here before?

Foolish though it may have been, I took the potential bait anyway. Thankfully, the block wasn't a trap, so after drawing a sigh of relief, and informing Rana of my find, I gave myself some distance to place down a crafting table and use up the gold to craft two shiny, gold helmets.

'This should suffice!'

In the meantime, the townsfolk were still gathered around the remaining heat sources and were discussing some topic or another. I couldn't quite make out what it was, but they seemed to be having a good time.

Once I rejoined them, preparations seemed to be complete. Rana clicked the flint and steel's components together, and sparks flew off toward the frame, lighting a small flame on the obsidian ring.

The fire began growing exponentially in size, becoming hotter in the process. We all took a step back, when the entirety of the frame's inner size became ingulfed in a massive, sweltering, cracking inferno. The fire turned a blue so bright, I had to cover my eyes.

Once the cracking settled down and the temperature dropped sharply, we slowly peeked at the now-active portal. On the inner side of the obsidian frame was now a thin, almost opaque barrier of a dark purple color. Along its surface were many magenta spirals that swirled in a mesmerizing, almost nauseating manner.

Rana and I exchanged glances of uncertainty before drawing closer to the portal. We didn't get very far before a voice called out from behind us. It was Sebastian.

"Do not haste, adventurers. There is still something that needs to be done."

One by one, the villagers came near us, and each one handed us a gift to aid us on our journey. Simon and Ashley gave us two water buckets and eight cooked steaks, respectively.

"We can't have ya go extradimensional on us on an empty stomach!" said the latter, with a confident grin. Gordon followed with a few iron ingots, stating that that was all they had to give. We could perhaps craft some additional armor with those. Next, Catherine handed us an empty locator map, as well as two portions of our favorite lunch, one for each.

Lastly, Emily bashfully moved closer to us, and gifted us two potion regular potion bottles, along with one that was of a different design than what I'd been used to. Rather than being spherical, it was more oval-shaped. The cap was merged with the bottle's neck, and the glass appeared to be slightly thicker. As for their contents, the first two held a glowing orange liquid, while the other held...water?

"I...wish I could give you more... Good luck."

"...!?"

"Thank you..." Rana replied slowly. It was clear we were both quite surprised by Emily's sudden break from silence, so we didn't know how to properly react. Regardless, I built off of Rana's response by saying:

"Thanks, all of you. We'll do our best."

All of them did gestures of acknowledgement.

"Just know this, young ones; we will be waiting for your return. Take care," Sebastian stated. Gone was their aloofness, now replaced with genuine sentiment. We thanked them and walked toward the portal.

Now that we were up close, I could make out some faint, purple dust particles floating through the air around the frame, as well as low, sinister grumbles. I gave Rana her gold helmet which she proceeded to equip, and I followed. A new bar popped up, right above the heart bar. It was made up of ten chestplate icons, one of which was colored in.

I studied Rana's facial expression. She seemed nervous, but that was understandable. To be honest, I felt a little uneasy myself...

"Are you ready?" she asked me.

"I think so. You?"

She took my hand before responding with a "Yeah...". While it did take me by surprise, that gesture of hers gave me comfort, so I reciprocated with a squeeze. After checking behind us one last time, we took a step forward and entered the portal, the townsfolk's cheers barely audible anymore.

...

When Johnathan had told us that passing through the portal would lead us to another dimension, I expected that the transition to the other side would be seamless, like submerging in a body of water.

Instead, the transition was agonizing, borderline vomit-inducing. It felt like the world was spinning one way, while I was spinning the other. Purple was all I could see, until I haphazardly stepped off the obsidian.

Although my sight was still fuzzy, the smell of gunpowder and the sudden spike in temperature hit me all the same. I also felt Rana retract her hand hastily, so I quickly checked up on her, not having paid attention to our surroundings yet. She was leaning forward with one hand placed on a nearby wall, while clutching her stomach with the other.

"Rana, are you okay?"

"Ugh...I feel like I'm gonna be sick..."

I gently patted her on the back, as she tried to regain her balance. In the meantime, I looked around the environment. The color red was absolutely dominant. We seemed to have warped beneath an overhang. We had a beach of some type for a view, only instead of a sky-blue sea, we had a seemingly endless stretch of fire-red lava.

The sand beneath our feet was significantly darker and more fluid, making walking through it take a lot more effort. Upon closer inspection, I could've sworn I saw the shapes of screaming faces on it, but it was probably just pareidolia. The strange, dark red block that had surrounded the portal back in the regular world was abundant here, much like how stone and dirt were abundant back home. I didn't have much time to investigate further, because Rana was coming to her senses.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"Yeah...I thi-" she froze.

"What's the matter?"

She turned around to face me, while staring intently at her hand. I couldn't tell why, until she started talking after a gulp.

"Does...does this look like blood to you?"

She showed me her palm. Her fingertips had red, dripping splotches on them, but I couldn't really tell whether it was blood or not. At least, I couldn't, until I traced the stains with my thumb. As I took some of the liquid with that action, I began to believe Rana's suspicion was correct. She didn't seem wounded, though.

"Are you hurt?"

"No. At least, I don't think I am..."

"Then where did-"

I felt something tap on my helmet.

I whipped my head upwards to the ceiling of the overhang, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I took off my helmet to see what had happened and saw...a drop of blood. It was so bizarre, too; I hadn't seen blood at all, nor had I ever bled in the regular world, so why here?

"I think it has something to do with these blocks..." Rana suggested. "Let me try something."

She pulled out an iron pickaxe and mined some of the red material from the wall near her, while I inspected the ground to get a better look at its properties.

This block, whatever it was called, looked sort of like cobblestone, of all things, and had various shades of red on its surface, black cracks and sporadic white dots. When I gently brushed the block with my hand, blood began to slowly ooze from the cracks. It was incredibly uncomfortable to look at, and the general environment wasn't helping at all. Had Rana not called out to me, I would've started feeling squeamish.

"Steve, this thing is so brittle, look!"

One swing was all it took to reduce this material to a miniature version of itself, making it far less durable than stone, and barely sturdier than dirt.

"Oh, great! My pickaxe is all dirty! I hope my clothes don't get too messy..." she complained.

Not really wanting to think of the laundry I'd have to do once this was over, I asked of the block's name.

"It's called...Netherrack?"

"I see..."

"..."

"..."

"Man, it's hot in here..." she said, as she unbuttoned her raincoat, removed it, and tied it around her waist. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt underneath. She was right, too. This place was scalding. Even the desert couldn't compare to this...

During a short pause, the only things audible were sounds that resembled distant, high-pitched cries, and low, droning hums. Air currents, perhaps?

"So, what now?" Rana slowly started.

"I don't know... We're supposed to find a fortress of some kind, right?"

"Right..."

We took a look around us. It had just sunk in that we hadn't even taken a step in this place, yet it was already clear as day, that the Nether was exceptionally inhospitable. I mean, there was a sea of lava stretching out before us, a red fog was obscuring any possible distant lands that could be out there, and we barely had enough walking space. We weren't making any sort of movement, but that made sense. This was a daunting task, but we had to get it done eventually. The problem was just 'when to start?'

"Ah! Catherine gave you a map, didn't they? How about we check it out?" I suggested.

"Oh, good idea! Let's...see...?"

I took a glance at the map and saw...nothing. The marker that was supposed to depict our location and the direction we were facing, was spinning around like crazy, even though we were standing perfectly still. Additionally, no matter how much we moved, no terrain would show up.

"Well, that plan goes out the window," Rana stated in defeat.

"Right... We may have a solution for the heat, at least."

"What may that be?"

I showed her the two potions Emily had given us, which turned out to be fire resistance potions. We downed the spicy concoction, and the sweltering feeling was reduced to a mere warmth. When the potion took effect, an icon appeared on the top right corner of my vision.

After confirming that Rana had seen the indicator too, I inspected it further. It depicted a black shield with a flame printed on the front. When I focused on it, I learned that the heat resistance effect would only last for the following 8 arbitrary units of time, so for the rest of the day. Hopefully, we'd find a colder location by the time it would run out.

"Anyway, there's not much left to do. Let's just go and explore," I suggested.

"Alright...Should we mine our way up?"

I nodded in response. Since we were probably at "sea" level, up was the way to go. We mined our way upwards through the netherrack, creating a makeshift tunnel. It was somewhat claustrophobic, but we didn't have to burrow for long before resurfacing.

We ended up on a clearing and set down a torch to mark the location of the tunnel for future reference. Taking a few steps forward, we took in the atmosphere. Ash drifted through the air, illuminated by the light of bright, golden, stalagmite-like formations, as well as by the occasional lavafall that cascaded from above.

The terrain was wonky and uneven, but not in the same sense as a jagged mountain; it looked...fractured, almost? Some landmasses were either floating in mid-air, or thinly connected to other landmasses. Fissures and ravines were fairly frequent, as well. On an unrelated note, netherrack was the most prevalent block, but now I could make out other kinds.

Off in the distance, opposite of where the lava sea was, what appeared to be glowing trees were shining through the mist in a cool blue color. The way the blue was sticking out amidst the red, made for a strangely beautiful contrast.

In fact, I feel like that could apply to the Nether in general. Chaotic and inhospitable, and yet, in a bizarre way, kind of beautiful. Beautiful to look at, at least; the heat and the smell were still tough to stomach, and breathing wasn't that easy...

I directed my gaze to my companion, but she seemed sad.

"What's wrong?" I asked as softly as I could.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. I'm fine."

"You seem under the weather."

"Well...I don't really want to talk about it right now. I'll tell you later," she replied with noticeably less emotion than usual. Although I did feel sort of bad that she didn't want to share her emotions with me at the moment, I set my selfishness aside, and respected her wishes.

'Wait a minute...Is this how she feels when I don't share my emotions with her?'

"It's okay, I understand. Wanna go check that area out?" I suggested.

"Yeah, let's do- Ouch! What the-!?"

Rana reacted to the sudden pain by stumbling toward my direction, as if to get away from some unseen enemy.

I whipped my head toward the location where she had been standing and saw something small wiggle in place. It was a tiny creature that strongly resembled a slime like the ones in the Overworld, but instead of green, it was dark brown, which made it easier for it to hide in the environment. It seemed less fluid than a slime, and its eyes were a vibrant orange, like magma.

With little warning, this pest contorted and launched itself at us with a power so alarming that shouldn't even be possible for a slime of this size. As it jumped, its glowing core was made visible through horizontal cracks across its cube body.

I raised my shield, which I realized was becoming my go-to combat tactic, and absorbed the impact. Power or not, this lava slime was still not massive enough to cause a problem. Before I could get a chance to strike back, Rana walked up to the stunned foe, and dished out the strongest kick I'd seen, sending the poor thing flying off to a ravine. It didn't bother us again.

"Impressive. Are you okay?" I asked.

"My calf hurts a little, but I'll live," she replied while rubbing her leg. "Anyway, let's keep going. We have a world to save, or something..."

I nodded, and we began heading to the blue forest. My mind raced back to the fact that what would've been the weakest enemy, a pet almost, in our original world, was able to at least hurt us here...

As Rana was walking ahead, I noticed that her calf was red...

I hoped this wasn't going to be as big an ordeal as I imagined.

...

A/N: Hi! Here's a fun little fact for you all: Did you know that when Netherrack was originally introduced back in Java edition's 1.2 alpha, it was named "Bloodstone"? That's what inspired the bleeding property of Netherrack in this story.

Speaking of Netherrack, you guys know of the "new" default textures the game has had for...three years...? (As of 2022.) I guess they're not that new after all...Anyway, I really like them, but I can't help but feel like Netherrack got the short end of the stick. It's way less detailed than it was before!

What? That has nothing to do with the story? That's true, but I wanted to get it off my chest...