Chapter Text
Prior to the ascension of the Nether Crown, the Nether existed in a state of lawless peril. The dimension was marked by ongoing anarchy, as poachers, mercenaries, and thieves built Nether portals carelessly as their personal instruments of chaos. Monolithic frames of Nether portals once littered the treacherous landscape. It was only with the rise of the Nether Crown that order was imposed: the construction of Nether portals was henceforth strictly regulated, permitted solely under the Crown’s oversight. This decree led to the creation of an unprecedented network of portals and highways, constructed by the Crown itself. The resulting infrastructure stands as the most sophisticated and expansive system of transport the server has ever known.
–Excerpt from “Volume 5: The Nether” by the All-Seeing Eye, published in the 34th year of the reign of King ParrotX2
The first thing Flame noticed after stepping out of the portal was the suspicious lack of heat. It wasn’t as cold as Merchant City he was in a second ago, but he remembered the Nether to be a lot warmer than this.
Curious, he looked around. He was in the Portal Hall.
The Portal Hall was held up by dark arches, gilded with gold and netherite that curled through the deepslate bricks like vines. The portals sat snug inside these tangled arches and pillars, which wrapped possessively around the obsidian frames like cages, both protecting and trapping the swirling purple light. The hum from the portals almost sounded like distorted player laughter, tempting players toward adventure like a siren’s song.
Beyond the gentle song of the portals, Flame could hear the quiet tick of redstone machinery. Following the sound, his eyes trailed up to rows of dispensers tossing wind charges through ice and snow blocks overhead, acting as a cooling system. These weren’t common in the Nether, as most of the Nether’s population are adapted to the heat. They were certainly still present in public infrastructure that the Overworlders might travel to, such as Festival grounds, and occasionally turned on in the Castle for Overworld visitors.
Surrounding the group were multiple portals, each large enough to accommodate happy ghasts and other means of transport. One led back to Merchant City in the Overworld, another to the soul sand valley, another to the warped jungle, and one even reached the Nether roof, though that last portal was mostly closed off, since both the Nether highway and the gold mint were located up there.
“Flamm, where do we go from here?” Wemmbu asked, gazing at the different portals looming over them.
“Not far,” Flame responds.
Due to security reasons, there were no portals directly leading into the Castle nor major Nether fortresses in the Portal Hall. Those were connected through a different system of highways and portals closed off to civilians. That didn’t matter too much, though. They could see the castle looming in the distance from where they stood in the hall. It was massive, sure, but still less than a thousand blocks away. Besides, they had the happy ghast they’d just rented to carry them the rest of the way.
“What’s this, the District 13 reunion?” A familiar voice asked behind him, just as he was about to explain the travel plans. It was Mapic, a demon. He’s a decent fighter from what Flame saw in the battles against the LAW.
“We’re only missing the King and his crew,” Added Jumper, a bunny hybrid. Flame remembered her running a spy network or something along those lines.
“Yo, yo, yo!” Flame sighed internally as he recognized the owner of the third voice, walking behind the previous two. Jumper and Mapicc he tolerated, but this was Spoke, a voidling infamous for his pranks and annoyingly good traps. The phoenix dreaded whatever mischief the voidling would be planning in the Nether.
“Immortal Demon, you live here, right? Mind if we crash at your place?” Spoke asked.
Shit, here we go again.
“Are we there yet?”
This was officially the 10th time Spoke asked, and they were only halfway through the journey. Yes, Flame unfortunately counted. Flame realized that responding in any way would just result in the voidling saying something like, “too bad you still live with your parents,” or “it’s not my fault you live so far off from civilization that there isn’t even a portal to your house”. Flame also realized that any form of rebuttal would backfire, as the voidling would just stick his tongue out and laugh at him for stuttering. By the third “are we there yet?” Flame realized that Spoke was just ragebaiting, and he was falling for it.
“No,” Flame responded through gritted teeth, statement final. The phoenix swears that he’ll stoop the happy ghast in a descent so steep to ensure that the boat Spoke is leashed and would crash into the Castle walls.
What felt like an eternity later, the squad finally arrived in front of the Castle gates.
“Why are we stopping at the Nether Castle?” Spoke asked. “Won’t we get killed, like immediately?”
There were several murmurs exchanged throughout the group. The Nether Castle was widely regarded as one of the most secure structures on the server. Every inch of this place was supposedly lined with traps, and a single misstep would be fatal. Inside, it was rumored to be pure luxury. Some said the floors were made of blocks of solid netherite, and the carpets woven with gold. Of course, these were just stories. Hardly anyone ever got close enough to see any of it for themselves, let alone live to tell about it.
The group watched in shock as Flame dismounted from the happy ghast, each of them silently hoping he would survive whatever rumored horrors awaited him.
The guards, to everybody’s surprise, scrambled into a salute upon seeing the phoenix.
“Glory to the Nether Crown,” they chanted in unison.
Flame nodded, acknowledging the guards. Ashen, being the excited puppy he is, jumped out of his boat to circle the guards. Waiting for Flame to turn around, the guards fed a small piece of hoglin steak to the wolf and snuck in a few head pats, immediately returning to the salute before the phoenix could notice.
Ashen nuzzled his snout against Flame’s thigh, signaling to him to enter the Castle.
“You go first, boy,” Flame said, ruffling the wolf’s fluffy ears. “Go find Dad, Pops, and Mane. I’ll come later, okay?”
Ashen let out a sad whine, but being the good puppy he is, he bounded through the gates, going straight for the throne room.
“Flame, I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Warned Spoke. “Just because you got spared doesn’t mean your wolf here will.”
Lomedy also looked worried. “Let’s leave as soon as we return our happy ghast. That merchant we rented this happy ghast from did say the guards will take our ghast.” Lomedy supplied, hopefully, guessing as to why they were here at the Castle.
“So that’s why we didn’t get jumped.” Eggchan assumed.
Sending Ashen to the Castle, Flame turned back to the others. The phoenix blinked at the confused group.
“Aren’t you guys coming?” He asked.
“Uh, why exactly should we waltz to our deaths by entering the Nether Castle, the most fortified structure in the server, unannounced?” Wemmbu deadpanned.
Flame was so confused. “So? I live here, bro.”