Welcome To My Dark Side

Chapter 19 Frostbite And Then Captured

The dawn came faster than Lyria could have imagined. It felt like she had not even been able to fall asleep before being shouted at first thing in the morning. She rubbed her sleepily eyes as she somewhat trudged to where the soldiers were gathering by the ancient portal. There was screeching and scrambling amongst the soldiers who were preparing for their advance and soon they would surpass the front lines in the Nether to continue the attack against the enemy. Lyria begrudgingly came up to Fractureverse Hilda like she was instructed. "I'm here Commander." She said sluggishly. "Good now I want everyone through this portal no more than a few minutes after myself and Captain Lyria have crossed through." Fractureverse Hilda announced as she, followed by Lyria stepped through to the other side.

The intense heat of the Nether hit Lyria like a wave. She still had a fever and so the scorching temperatures heightened her symptoms. However Fractureverse Hilda took no notice of her sickly state and expected Lyria to keep up with her as she led the army past the front lines and further into the heart of the Nether. Lyria felt like she was hallucinating and kept seeing movements in the undergrowth although this could have just been the local wildlife hiding in the foliage. "C...com...ander..can we s..top?" Lyria coughed. "No!" Fractureverse Hilda replied annoyed. Lyria said nothing more but she found that she was having to drag her legs along the floor because she was over exhausted, which could have been caused from the lack of food.

A few hours later Lyria could barely keep her eyes open and her feet hurt from a number of blisters. "Can I take my jacket off?" She asked, her voice was hoarse as she was losing her voice. "No! Everyone else is roasting in their armor so stop complaining about your jacket. It's part of your uniform and everyone has to keep their uniform on and I'm not allowing exceptions." Replied Fractureverse Hilda. Lyria desperately needed to rest and she was pouring in sweat from her fever so she tried to ask if she could. "Commander please can we stop?" She begged. "Stop whining cause you'll give away our location to a potential ambush!" hissed Fractureverse Hilda. Lyria had reached her breaking point by now and broke into a coughing fit. She could not stand on her feet anymore and she decided to take flight with her elytra even though it was breaking the commander's orders. She knew that whilst there was nothing anyone could do when she was hovering in the air, she would certainly face unpleasant consequences when she eventually came down.

"Get down at once! You'll alert the enemy flying around like that." Fractureverse Hilda whispered in anger. Lyria ignored her request and remained where she was. She would only come down if she was allowed to rest for a while. Fractureverse Hilda was about to try and persuade her to come down but suddenly loud cries came from all sides followed by enemy soldiers emerging from their hiding places. They had walked right into an ambush! Chaos quickly ensued. The Fractureverse Nether army was soon overwhelming the unprepared Fractureverse Frostbourne army. Swords clashed and blood split. Lyria was still in the air at this point but she had frozen not knowing what to do. After all, her side was in the wrong by invading the Nether. She wanted to do the right thing but she did not know what that was.

The Frostbourne were losing and Fractureverse Hilda soon found herself in a one on one fight with Fractureverse Hogsworth. Initially she was winning and had knocked his sword from his hand but when his troops started to finish off the Frostbourne's they joined him and they began to corner the commander. "Lyria get down here at once and help me!" Fractureverse Hilda yelled infuriated at the girl's lack of assistance throughout the entire battle so far. Lyria had heard her cries but remained paralysed in the air. Fractureverse Hilda looked around at her fallen troops. Defeat was inevitable. Even so she still tried to take out as many enemy soldiers as possible even if it cost her her own life.

There was nowhere left for her to go and she was completely surrounded. All of her soldiers were now dead as they had chosen to fight to the end rather than surrender. Fractureverse Hogsworth knew that this would likely be the commander's way of thinking however he was determined to do everything to keep her alive so that she could be taken prisoner. The Nether badly needed information about the Frostbourne but they had never been able to take a Frostbourne soldier prisoner because they would rather fight to the death than admit defeat. "Lyria help!" Yelped Fractureverse Hilda out of desperation. She knew that they would not kill her but she wanted to do everything to prevent herself from being put into a situation where she may reveal information. Lyria was her last resort as all the others were dead and she could not hold off forever since she was tiring.

Once again Lyria had heard Fractureverse Hilda's panicked screams. This time she did turn around to find the commander attempting to fend off many of the enemy soldiers. 'This is not how I remember things happening.' She said to herself as her memories brought her back to the time that the Frostbourne had successfully fended off the Nether in the overworld in her reality. She assumed the fever was adding to what she thought were her already muddled memories. While she was lost in thought something painfully smashed into her side causing her to become disoriented and she ended up tumbling to the ground as a result. When she hit the ground she was just about to fall unconscious but not before she saw Fractureverse Hilda had been successfully captured by the enemy. The battle was over and they had lost.