The Skies of the Nether

Atop the long line of desert carriages heading deeper into the desert with every passing colour, I hesitate to explain what had suddenly appeared in front of us.

It was something akin to the malaise, it was closer to something like the corruption in fact.

Crawling across the golden sands like some sort of virus, large red lined roots snaked across the sand like some sort of cancerous growth.

Connecting to each other, much like kinter, the glowing wood that I had the pleasure of finding underground, these trees looked exactly like them, except more red.

Covering the clear blue skies devoid of clouds with thick red, the intertwined red leaves looked deceivingly soft.

They were disgustingly soft when I touched them from atop the carriage though.

Ignoring the soft yellow fruit things growing on the trees, I shook off the vines clinging on my body.

Jumping off the carriage, I slowly walked past the carriages and touched the red trees.

Then I just punched it with an arm infused with malaise.

'Ow'

Breaking the tree into a piece of wood that I took I to my inventory, I silently read it's name, and boy was I confused.

[Crimson Stem]

'Didnt I hear that Rosetta has no Crimson biomes nearby? Then what the hell is this?'

I had my suspicions, but I really was surprised when the truth came to light that this was the Crimson.

My surprise was met with even more surprise however as my ears twitched and caught the vestiges of a conversation being spoken not far from my spot.

"Why is the Crimson here? Isn't our kingdom only bordering one evil biome? Why is there suddenly another one?"

"That's because it's not the crimson"

"So it's not that our kingdom missed a few crimson cultists and they successfully brought a piece of the crimson into the desert and protected it long enough for it to proliferate?"

"...Well the last half of what you said is correct"

"Then what's the first half of it then? Don't keep me waiting man."

Turning to look at the three people talking to each other, I could tell that they seemed to be mercenaries unaffiliated with any of the people here.

That is to say they were random mercenaries either following the Sevallian people or were people picked up along the way by the Rosettan people.

On that note, I have a feeling that everybody but the Sevallian people know what the hell this was.

...was I a Sevallian without ever knowing it?

Pondering on the origins of this world, the three others spoke loudly enough that those paying attention could hear them.

"It's the Nether."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What?"

"Aren't you going to go into detail on what the Nether is?"

"No"

"Why?!"

"Because I know jack shit dumbass"

'Well that's a strong friendship'

Thinking that, I took a new look at the Crimson wood trees and finally realized why they looked so familiar.

'I never thought how chunky these Minecraft trees would be in reality.'

Absurdly thick in width and length, the crimson Stem was already twice as wide as my waist.

Touching the crimson tree that was so low hanging that it dragged it's red leaves against the ground, I realized a few other things that were probably a very big problem.

Like how the hell did this place pop up?

Last I checked evil biomes only took over areas instead of manifesting trees out of nowhere.

For example, like in the jungle where the Sevallian people were given the first taste of land that's not inflicted by the cursed energy malaise.

It was originally a normal jungle of green before the corruption took hold of it, the purple greenery could testify for that fact as all the corrupted plants were basically carbon copies of their previous greener brown forms.

If one could get past all of the eyes and teeth the corruption sprouts out of the bark that is.

Thinking back to the strange purple eyes staring back at me in the forest I shivered.

If I wasn't chased by not one, not two but three bosses that day then I would've done everything in my power to destroy them.

They just gave me a strangely icky and disgusting feeling.

But besides that.

Since when did Nether take over tree?

And what even made the Nether decided that Crimson Trees would be used instead of their blue Warped tree counterparts?

Questions and questions upon questions.

Also, another question, when the hell did we get surrounded?

Staring at the group of Antlions on one side of us clicking their thick manidbles menacingly on the left.

I turned to my right.

And lo and behold, creatures that I don't even know the name of.

---

A contingent of the Nethers forces slowly made their way forwards.

Led by a towering three meter tall black skeleton carrying a large black great sword that appeared normal sized in its hand, the various skeletons clattered along behind it.

Slamming the stone sword into an antlion, a black smoke suddenly burst out before swallowing up the Antlion causing it to visibly decay.

Following their leaders example, the various white skeletons raised their bows and fired out a hail of arrows that were by no means poor in aim.

If you were dead but still couldn't aim a bow despite the stupidly long time, then you should just die again.

Taking that saying to heart, all white skeletons fired their bows, loosing the bone white arrows at their enemies, causing the feathered fletchings to sink deep into their exoskeletons.

Crushing and punching the various Antlions around it in a deceptive show of strength that didn't fit the thin skeleton in the slightest.

An aura of decay filled the area.

Looking at the Antlion patrol that had now been reduced to rotten meat sacks in crackly shells peppered in arrows, the Wither Skeleton lifted their head.

Because not far from their position in the dense brown blue forest of twisting vines was a group of Piglins.

Piglins that, if they weren't wearing a mask, were shifting to the naked eye and decaying at a visible rate.

Bits of pink flesh falling to the ground, the green bits of bone poked out of their rib cages as the Piglins slowly transformed into their undead form of Zombie Piglins.

The only form of Piglins that could survive outside of the Nethers toxic fumes without any aids.

Writing these facts down in a little note book, the Piglins researcher emotionlessly wrote this fact down on a leather book with a charred coal pencil.

It really seemed that the forces of the nether could barely survive in the overworld without the aid of the toxic Nether gases that were well, native to the Nether realm.

At the least the overworlders they ever so oftenly raid for resources also couldn't survive the Nethers toxic gases.

At least not after the overhaul that is.

Thinkjng of that fact, the Piglins Scholar quickly closed their notebook before taking a look at the Wither guard dispatched to aid the Piglins in their research for now.

Nodding their head, the Wither Skeleton nodded their own head in reply before crushing the still struggling Antlion under the heel of their foot.

Thinking for a moment, the Piglins scholar, alongside a few others opened their notebook.

Opening the notebook again, various notes entered it's vision.

Rubbing their hairy chin, the Piglins scratched at the respiratory over their mouth and continued to write into their notebook.

And in general Nether script, the words read.

[Until the entrance to Hell is found and reopened again the invasion plan has to be pushed back indefinitely]

[Primary missions]

[Must be completed soon]

[The king is getting impatient]

Thinking for a moment they wrote another thing down in Nether script.

[Use the stored ghast bombs to destroy the Antlion Queendom and retrieve pupae for further research]

Leaving behind the zombified Piglins behind who were thrashing in their chains, the Wither Skeleton stared at them.

Letting it's fellow guard walk ahead, the Wither skeletons arm was raised to the sky and brought down in a cleaving motion.

Leaving behind a trail of death and decay, the leftover Piglins not completely zombified squealed in pain before fully succumbing to the transformation.

Breaking the chains that bound them, almost immediately they ran towards the forest of blue.

Blocking them, the Wither Skeleton, without any remorse in any inch of its black bones kicked them away from the general direction of the Piglins Researchers.

"SQUEE!!!"

In abject pain from the dull sensation of death penetrating it's organs and all of its nerves melting in real time, the zombie Piglins sensed a pitch black aura in front of it.

Eyeing the Wither Skeleton in front of it with a mixture of fear, confusion and hunger, it lifted it's arm and pointed behind it.

Opening it's pitch black mouth, a dark ominous voice fit perfectly for horror tales escaped it.

"Go"

And hearing the painfully eargrating voice of the wither skeleton, it went.

---

In the Antlion nest.

A dense network of tunnels unfolded beneath the desert.

Despite popular belief, due to the large weight of the sands stacked atop of each other, the tunnels were forged into sand stone ones where the Antlions currently moved from within.

Dragging over large corpses of various pig like beings, even more numerable in number however were their own bodies which were unceremoniously dumped into the antlion graveyard.

And despite popular belief once again, Antlions, a cousin of the Ants also had various facilities in their super colony that were segregated accordingly.

And this one particular alcove filled to the brim with rotting corpses and bacteria was the graveyard.

A place where the dead would gather until they turn into the fertilizer of their mushroom meals the next cycle.

But strangely enough, this permanent cycle etched into the brains of the Antlions since the start of their birth was about to change.

A dying antlion slowly dragged themselves forwards through the whole network of antlion tunnels.

Covered in decaying matter that slowly fell apart as it walked, other Antlions, as if sensing the impending death of their comrade did nothing to help them, showing the heartless nature of the colony.

Or in actuality, doing nothing but give way to the dying antlion showed their respect to it.

But nevertheless, that was the time of death of the Antlion warrior.

Dragging itself deeper into the graveyard and arriving at its pinnacle.

Serving as an unsuspecting carrier, the Antlion dumped the body knots jaws onto the graveyard and tilted its head where it breathed it's last.

But what was the body you may ask?

Tumbling down the hill of corpses unfit for antlion consumption, it slowly skidded to a stop and revealed what it was.

And it was there, that a black skeleton wearing a blackened armour set that seemed fo be scorched with fire lay.

Tilting it's head up, it's black skull seemed to grin in the darkness.

+++

Tree