Episode 18: The Nether Journey (1)

******* Queen Thea's POV *******

"My Queen, the battle is over and the enemies are completely routed." The general of my army said while bowing at me.

"Good," I said while staring at the burnt village in front of me.

'I wonder if he is all right?' I suddenly asked myself.

I can't believe the things the Kingdom of Xaerin has done.

They tried to conquer the western cities of my kingdom but failed so they decided to start raiding small villages. They looted and burned down every village in their path. They even reach the village in the furthest east near the Forest of Monsters.

The kingdom doesn't have enough soldiers to take on the field to repel the enemies so most of the nobles just decided to hole up in their castles but not me.

I can't take any more news about villages being burnt down so I decided to gather up as much of soldiers that I can possibly muster in the capital and quickly head into the battlefield.

I only have 500 soldiers with me but all of them are mounted knights and have the best leather armors and stone weapons. 100 of them are my personal guards so they are equipped with iron armors and iron weapons. I also have a very experienced general leading the army.

All of my vassals said that I'm crazy about leaving the capital and not thinking about the future of the kingdom but I ignored them all.

The general also said that I don't have to join the battle but I can no longer sit on my throne while I let others fight battles for me.

The nobles in this kingdom are really selfish. They didn't even let the refugees inside their castles and closed their gates shut.

The people are the foundation of this kingdom. How can they just turn blind with their suffering and not provide them any aide?

"We also caught a prisoner coming from the Forest of Monsters. He is a weird one though." The general said while staring at the forest beyond the burnt village.

"Weird one?" I stared at him with a bewildered look.

"Yes, my queen. He keeps saying that a blue monster is chasing him to kill him though we didn't see anyone following him." He said while looking at the forest past the burnt village.

"Blue monster? Just ignore him and execute him like the rest."

"Yes, my queen."

I don't like executing people without a trial but these people don't deserve a chance. They ravaged small villages and enslaved innocent people. Even with my kind nature, I can no longer ignore all the things they have done.

All of them also said that all of the people that are enslaved are sold to the slavers in the southern kingdom.

Bastards.

I can't imagine what kind of horror my people are facing.

I have to find a way to save them.

I can't waste any more time talking about a crazy person that came from the forest.

I started moving my horse on the battlefield.

I can see lots and lots of dead enemy soldiers in the ground.

How can their king order his soldiers to burn down innocent people houses?

The greed of the King of Xaerin knows no bound.

He keeps invading other kingdoms to expand his dominion.

The kingdom he attacks most is the kingdom I ruled. The Kingdom of Astikuviel.

He just keeps on finding a reason to invade this kingdom. His latest excuse is that the current ruler is not of noble's blood and don't deserve to rule.

My father and mother are both commoners.

They said that my father died when I was young on a monster invasion so my mother decided to take up the marriage proposal of one of the kingdom's prince.

My mother has quite a beauty and managed to get the attention of one of the princes in the kingdom. She keeps on refusing the marriage proposal at first but she was worried about me and wanted to give me a better life.

The reason that I'm the current ruler is that there is no one left alive to appoint to rule.

All of the royalty is now dead defending the kingdom from human and monster invasions. Even my only half brother is also dead defending the kingdom from the southern invasion and my stepfather from defending the east border from monster invasions.

I'm the only left that can be crowned since I'm a royal princess by name.

There is a lot of people opposed to giving me the crown. Some of them even tried to take over the throne by force.

I planned to refuse the throne because of a lot of conflicts but decided to accept it.

I need this power and authority if ever I want to find my father. My mother's dying wish is to know what really happened to him. I just need to take care of all of the invaders first.

I looked around and notice something weird.

They said that the Kingdom of Xaerin has sent more than 3000 soldiers to invade but there are only about 200 dead bodies here and they are equipped with the cheapest equipment.

Where are the rest of them?

"My queen! An enemy is approaching in the north. There is about a thousand of them!" A messenger suddenly appeared and gave terrible news.

"What?"

Another two messengers appeared and also gave terrible news.

Three armies are coming from the north, west, and south.

Each army has about a thousand soldiers in them.

I see.

This was a trap.

My name in the kingdom is synonymous with kindness since I spend most of the kingdom's treasury to feed all the poor. All of the nobles said I'm not fit to rule and keep asking me to give up the throne and hand it to them but I ignored them and even cut back the expenses for the kingdom's military.

The King of Xaerin probably knows I won't stand by and let my people suffer.

"My queen. We will do everything we can to get past them so make sure to take that chance to run away and get back to the capital." The general said this and started giving orders to the army.

"No. Tell the army to prepare to move." I ordered him after thinking for a while.

The general suddenly looked at me with confusion.

"What are you talking about, your grace? We are surrounded and got nowhere to go."

"We can run east and prepare to fight them there."

The general didn't answer and just stared at me with a horrified look.

His reaction is understandable since there is nothing but monsters in that forest but we have nowhere to run.

I don't want my army to fight a losing battle and just sacrifice themselves to save me.

Even though the enemy of my enemy is also my enemy, we can use the monsters in the forest as a distraction to be able to fight the enemy back and kill them all. All of the soldiers in my kingdom have experience fighting monsters so we have an advantage over the enemies in that forest though I'm not sure if this is a brilliant idea.

"Also, don't kill that prisoner you said came from the forest. We still need him." I quickly said to my general while starting to give orders to the army to start moving east since the general just turn quiet.

The general is still silent but after a while, he followed my orders and prepared the entire army to move.

I looked to my army one last time before heading out.

I hope I'm making the right decision.

******* Carolus' POV *******

It took a couple of days to gather enough obsidian to build the portal room.

The portal itself only needed around 10 obsidian to build but I decided to enclosed the entire room with obsidian.

I don't want any dangerous beings on the other side of the portal walking freely in the overworld.

I also built the portal room in the basement for added security since it will take a couple more iron doors for the enemies to break down before they can enter this world.

I was worried at first about being able to breathe since the room is fully enclosed but it seems that when you open up the portal, it is automatically connected to the other side and there is a breathable air there.

In the game, it takes a while before you transported to the nether when you step in the portal but here, you can immediately see the other side. This is the primary reason I decided to cover the entire room with obsidian.

After inspecting my inventory for the tenth time to make sure I didn't forget anything, I started walking inside the portal room. I leave a 2-block hole on the side of the room so I can just walk in and out and deactivated the portal for the meantime.

"I don't know why are you willing to go this far to help my people my lord but I hope you have a safe journey," Arthur said while bowing.

"I'm leaving you in charge of my territory. I hope you don't turn anyone into a zombie while I'm away."

He flinched after hearing me.

"Of course, my lord." He bowed again but this time he bent his body so low.

Bloody Arthur.

He went crazy and feed my prisoner to a zombie.

I know his reason for doing it but man, he is one crazy bastard.

I also feel sorry for his people that been sold to slavery.

I should try and save them after gathering things in the nether though I need to focused on finding a way back to my world.

Well, there is a good thing about having two zombies waiting to be cured. I can know if they turn into a different person once there are cured though I doubt that will happen. I just have to try and find out for myself.

Arthur and his people will probably be fine while I'm away.

I gave Arthur my enchanted diamond spear and also gave him an enchanted iron armor.

My spear has all the enchantments I could possibly put so I'm sure he can kill anything that dared to attack this place. I just hope that the three giant monsters won't invade this castle.

I also named the spear Excalibur for some reason. I thought it would be funny since this guy's name is Arthur.

I was thinking of giving him a different kind of weapon but decided on a spear since he is quite skilled at it.

The armor is also enchanted to highest enchantment you can put on iron armor. I was going to craft him an entire set of diamond armor but I don't have enough diamond in my inventory.

The mine shaft is also about to run out of resources to mine so I'm not sure where to gather more ores and diamonds. I decided to mine only within my territory since I don't want to accidentally run into trouble like what happened with the zombie tunnels.

I stared in the portal for a moment before turning around to cover the hole in the room with obsidian.

I also place the missing obsidian in the portal and activate the portal using flint and steel.

The portal slowly shines purple until it became clearer and I can now see the other side.

I can see fire, lava, and other things but luckily, there are no hostile mobs nearby.

I took a deep breath.

The smell I keep smelling coming from the nether is not pleasant but I ignored it and just equipped my armor and weapon.

I don't know how far I'm going to travel to find a nether fortress to hunt a blaze. I don't even know if nether fortresses or blazes exist in this world since I can't find information about them anywhere.

I planned on bringing my horse to the nether but decided not to since I don't want him to accidentally fall into lava and die. I also don't want to die with him. I just have to do this by walking.

I wonder how long will I take before I can get back home? I hope I can find a blaze quickly.

After checking the inventory for the last time, I started walking towards the portal.