//------------------------------//
// Searching the Nether 
// Story: Minecraft: A New Adventure 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

Following their venture into the Desert Crypt, and not finding any of the Soulstones that they needed to tackle the three powerful beings that served Herobrine, Null, and Entity, Octavia and her friends returned to their village so Pinkie could go over the items they had found earlier and see what they needed.

"So, we failed to find an undead Soulstone... do we have any other ideas where we might find one?" Alex asked, as none of them were used to failure, in terms of finding what they required to improve their standing in this world, and this was proof that even with Pandora's power she couldn't see everything, otherwise the stone would be in their possession.

"I'm thinking the jungle temple that Raijin is guarding might hold what we seek." Octavia answered, as she had taken the time during their flight back to the village to wonder why the dragon was guarding a temple, of all places, which meant that it was either linked to his master, the mysterious Pandora, or it held something for their quest, "That pattern we found on the wall earlier might be a clue to find the aberrant Soulstone, since it seems like something we have to call forth with some sort of ritual setup. As such we can focus on traversing the Nether to find one of it's dungeons, which has to hold the Soulstone we're after, before worrying about the other two that seem to be in the Overworld... we can summon whatever monster the image in the crypt was talking about once we have the demonic and undead Soulstones."

"Okay, so back to the Nether... we had better be prepared for a long journey." Steve remarked, because he didn't like the Nether and this world's version of it was more hostile than anything he or Alex had seen, save for the Warden and the rest of the new Sculk Dimension.

Pinkie nodded her head in agreement, as she knew that preparing for a trip to the Nether was important, especially since she had to make sure they had canteens that were filled with water, check their armor to be sure each piece was ready for a return trip to the Nether, and ensure the Morocks were ready for such a trip. Based on what they knew there were no dungeons near where their portal brought them to, nor were there any on the path to the Fortress or Bastion that she and the others had cleared out to obtain the last of the items to reach the End. As such they would have to spend an unknown amount of time in the Nether, searching for a dungeon that would hold a demonic boss for them to take down, as Pinkie was sure that they would find Battle Towers during their search, likely a distraction for everyone, so they needed to be prepared for a long stay in the Nether. It was for that reason that she spent her time crafting more canteens and making sure all of their armor was modified with the special liners they had discovered earlier, to help them out in the overly cold and intense heat environments, and when she was done she'd turn in for the night.

When the early morning hours of the morning arrived the group gathered in front of the Nether portal, where Pinkie held out a few scrolls, allowing the others to claim their Warp Scrolls so that the moment they discovered the item they were after they could warp out of the Nether and return to the Overworld. With those handed out she also gave them a couple of other items, such as several canteens made out of dragon bones, which were far stronger than their old ones and, as an odd addition, she was sure they contained more liquid, as well as medkits that were enchanted to be eternal, as in all of them wouldn't break. The last item was mostly in case someone got hurt while they explored the Nether, since it was a hostile environment and was incredibly warm, so her preparations were to ensure that everyone survived this portion of their quest, which the others accepted and stashed away as they readied their various weapons. In the following moment they moved through the portal and found themselves back in the Nether, which looked the same as before, though Pinkie made sure the area was clear so the others could call their Morocks, and once that was done they started searching the rest of this dimension.

Octavia found that the natives of the Nether still disliked them and attacked the group on sight, where she and Pinkie just focused on wiping out all of the demons and other monsters that were in this dimension, leaving Steve and Alex to track down a dungeon that would have the Soulstone they required. It was the easy way for them to go about this, since none of them had any idea where to find what they were looking for, though it wasn't long before Alex spotted a Battle Tower off in the distance, where Pinkie delved into it as he and the others searched the surrounding area. Sure enough Pinkie found that there was nothing of real value inside the Nether Battle Tower, save for more treasure to add to her hoard and more diamond items to add to the armory, before she regrouped with them and they resumed their travels. The other aspect of her tackling the Battle Towers was that it gave the others a short period of rest so that their Morocks could recover from having to travel in this massive fiery dimension, and giving them a chance to drink some water as well.

One thing Octavia discovered as they traveled was that there was a massive space in the lava where nothing was around it, save for a few Netherrack blocks that formed a flat patch of land to stand on, which Pinkie confirmed they could use as soon as all of the Soulstones had been obtained and the Soulcubes were ready to be used.

As they traveled through the Nether, searching for a structure that Pandora claimed existed, Alex and Steve noticed that all of the monsters were far more aggressive than what they were used to and what they had seen during their previous visits to this world. It was like the Admins knew what was going on and wanted to stop them before they reached the end of their quest, to stop them from reaching the three powerful beings that served them in the other dimensions, which had to explain what was going on right now, even though Pinkie focused on taking all of their enemies down. Octavia also did her best to make sure the demons were convinced that fighting them was a bad idea, sending bolts of lightning either at a few of them, to tear her targets apart, or at the ground to convince her targets to back off, though Pinkie was doing most of the fighting right now. She didn't argue with Pinkie because her friend was itching for a fight and cut through of the rest of the demons, clearing the area while gathering anything of importance before regrouping with the others, before she spotted something off in the distance.

It was a crimson structure with blocks that had pentagrams on them, where they could feel the demonic energy coming from it, causing the group to land at the opening before finding that it went down into the ground, where they took a few moments to dismiss the Morocks and drink some water before heading into the dungeon.

Sure enough they found that it was a lot like the Desert Crypt, where there were rooms that eventually linked up to the chamber that would bring them down to the next level, which seemed to be a common thing in this world, possessing all sorts of Spawners that created more enemies for them to deal with. As such they broke into their two groups and went off to tackle the enemies who were gathering around in the chambers, Pinkie hacking and slashing as Octavia used her magic in combination with Steve's sword and Alex's arrows. While there were stronger enemies for them to deal with, since the Nether's inhabitants were stronger than most of what the Overworld could throw at them, save for the Warden and what else might be lurking in the Sculk, they were able to cut their way through their enemies and gathered new items that, in the end, would be handed over to Pinkie whenever they grouped up. In one of the bigger rooms they found a demon that was known as a Cacodemon, a round floating head of sorts with short arms and stumpy legs, with a massive eye and large sharp teeth, but Octavia spiked it with several ice spikes, weakening it so Steve and Alex could cut it down.

With that done they found that a number of items spilled out of it's body, where they found a great deal of diamonds, a few demonic charges that were likely an attack that the Cacodemons used in combat, before they smiled as they spotted a twisted red Soulstone, which had a green slit in the middle of it.

"It can't be... is that what I think it is?" Steve asked, as he wasn't expecting to actually find a demonic boss, which was what the Cacodemon was, even though they had taken quite a bit of time to track down a Nether dungeon, or Demonic Temple as Pandora had called it earlier, and he honestly wasn't believing what he was seeing.

"Yeah, a demonic Soulstone." Pinkie replied, where she picked it up, after collecting the other items, before juggling it for a few seconds as more of them suddenly showed up in her hands, causing the others to chuckle for a moment as she put all of them away and they pulled out their Warp Scrolls, "One down, two to go."

The others nodded their heads for a moment as they activated their Warp Scrolls and returned to the Overworld, as there were two more targets for them to claim before worrying about the powerful enemies that served the Admins and they were interested in seeing what was lurking in the Jungle Temple.