Welcome to the Nether! Please Ignore the Killer Bras and Don’t Startle the Carrots

After stepping out on the other side of the portal, Louis instinctively patted himself down.

Looks like everything’s still attached.

When he looked up, he froze.

“Where... am I?”

An endless hall stretched before him.

Wood-paneled walls rose into vast pink storm clouds crackling with white lightning.

Gigantic pieces of furniture drifted among them.

Dressers. Tables. Cabinets. Shelves.

Below, arcane mist concealed an abyss of living magic.

Floating platforms hovered like islands above it, connected by narrow walkways that stretched across the haze.

Wait. Why am I alone?!

“Hello? M-Miss... Witch?” he called, turning around in panic.

Isn’t she here?

No answer.

His heart skipped a beat.

Then a familiar voice came from behind him.

“What did you just call me?”

Louis spun around.

There she was, standing on one of the walkways amid pink clouds and crackling lightning.

“Miss Witch...!”

Relief flooded through him as he rushed toward her.

“Thank God, there you are. For a second, I thought...”

“Call me Miss Witch again and I’ll throw you into the Nether!”

Louis stopped.

“Nether...?”

She pointed downward where the pink clouds churned ominously beneath them.

“That.”

“Uh... okay.”

He scratched his cheek.

“Then what should I call you?”

She folded her arms.

“My name is Elaine. But a pervert like you can call me Mistress.”

Louis sighed.

“How many times do I have to say it? I’m not a...”

A violent rumble cut him off.

One of the floating dressers above them shuddered violently, its drawers bursting open.

The contents spilled into the magical clouds below, where the lightning immediately intensified.

Elaine’s face paled.

“Oh no.”

Louis squinted into the mist where dark shapes darted through the haze.

“What is that?“

“Run.”

“What?”

“RUN!”

She grabbed his wrist.

A second later, something burst from the Nether below.

Shrieks echoed through the hall.

Striped fabric. Fluttering wings. Rows of sharp teeth.

Panties again?!

Louis craned his neck.

No. Those are...

“Bras?!”

Elaine yanked her hat lower and quickened her pace, her nails digging into his wrist.

“Quit staring at them, pervert!”

The flying bras gathered overhead, then dove in a perfect V-formation.

Elaine and Louis sprinted across the narrow walkway.

On the next floating platform ahead stood a small building.

“There! We need to get inside!“

The entrance was only a few steps away, but the bras were closing in.

Louis glanced back.

Damn it. We're not going to make it!

Without hesitation, he grabbed Elaine and tackled her down the walkway.

“Get down!”

The bra swarm shot overhead, their snapping teeth missing them by inches.

“Phew...” Louis muttered, watching the creatures disappear into the distance.

“That was close. You okay?”

A soft moan.

“H-hah...“

Only then did he realize where his hands had landed.

Two soft mounds beneath his palms.

Lowering his gaze, he met a pair of wide green eyes staring back at him in disbelief.

The skin beneath Elaine’s violet bangs turned steadily crimson.

He jerked his hands away.

“Uwah! S-sorry, I was just trying to...”

Before he could finish stammering out an excuse, Elaine’s heels were already crashing into him.

“P-PERVERT! GROPER! SEX OFFENDER!”

The killer-bras screeched again, as they were circling back.

Elaine immediately stopped kicking.

“Crap. Here they come again...“

Without looking his way, she extended a hand, her face still crimson.

“I’m not getting tackled by you again, idiot.”

Louis blinked.

“What?”

“J-just take my hand. Hurry!”

He grabbed her hand, and she pulled him upright.

Together, they sprinted toward the small building while the bra swarm descended behind them once more.

“Move!”

Elaine threw the door open. 

They dove inside.

SLAM.

The door shut.

But one of the bras became trapped in the frame, writhing and hissing.

Elaine sighed, then touched it with a finger glowing faintly with magic.

Instantly, it went limp, turning back into an ordinary bra.

Louis leaned against the wall, breathing heavily.

“Why didn’t you use your magic earlier?!”

“Because large-scale magic is dangerous near the netherclouds,” Elaine replied while pulling the garment free. “The risk of an arcane chain reaction is simply too high...”

Louis nodded, understanding absolutely none of that.

His eyes drifted toward the black bra in her hands.

It consisted mostly of straps and embroidery.

Some sections were almost transparent.

What... kind of bra even is that?

When Elaine noticed where he was looking, she hurriedly hid it behind her back and kicked him in the shin.

“T-this isn’t mine! And I told you to stop staring, creep...”

Then she pointed toward the darkness of the room.

“Come on.”

Her expression grew serious again.

“We still have a world to save.”

🪄🪄🪄

Only a single lamp illuminated the area in front of the door.

Beyond that, Louis and Elaine were surrounded by absolute darkness.

“It’s pitch-black in here...”

As soon as he spoke, Elaine rose onto her tiptoes and reached up toward the lamp overhead.

The moment her fingertips brushed the flame, the flickering light flowed into her hand like liquid.

It gathered there, condensed, and stabilized into a glowing sphere floating above her palm.

“You were probably looking forward to groping me in the dark, weren’t you?“ she said with her usual mischievous smile. “Imagining all the things you could get away with while I couldn’t see where your hands were wandering...”

“I-I would never do anything like that!” Louis protested immediately.

He hurried after her as she ventured deeper into the now-illuminated corridor.

The floor beneath his boots felt strangely soft.

“Where are we, anyway?” he asked, lifting one foot and staring at the sticky pink fluff clinging to his sole. “And what’s this stuff? Looks like cotton candy...”

Elaine crouched down and stroked her chin thoughtfully.

“Hmm...”

She tore off a handful of the fluff, sniffed it, then casually popped some into her mouth.

“It is cotton candy.”

His brow furrowed.

“But... why?”

Elaine didn’t answer.

Instead, she continued snacking contentedly until she spotted something else hidden among the sugary wool.

“Oh? What’s growing over here?”

Louis crouched beside her.

“What did you find?”

Grinning from ear to ear, she turned around and held up something long and slightly curved.

It was coated in something dark.

A chocolate-covered banana?!

Elaine slowly opened her mouth.

“Aaaah...”

She stuck out her tongue.

But just before it touched the banana, her eyes slid toward Louis, who was staring at her wide-eyed.

She froze.

Her grin became positively devilish.

“Hm? What exactly are you thinking about right now?”

Louis nearly jumped out of his skin.

“N-Nothing at all!”

“Oh, really?” Elaine rose to her feet and stepped closer, her grin even wider. “Are you absolutely sure you weren’t imagining me putting something else in my mouth besides this banana?”

“N-not at all!” His face turned bright red. “I definitely wasn’t thinking that!”

“Then why are you blushing so hard? You gave yourself away, closet-pervert!”

The banana slowly drifted toward her tongue again.

“Watching me do this is getting you all worked up, doesn’t it?”

“No!“

A rustle.

Both of them froze immediately and the banana slipped from Elaine’s hand.

“What was that?”

The glowing orb brightened as she pointed it toward the darkness.

Louis swallowed.

More monsters?

For several moments, they saw nothing.

Suddenly, tiny orange creatures appeared in the beam of light.

Large eyes peered back at them from beneath leafy green hair.

Squeeeeaaak!

The strange little beings scattered in alarm and vanished back into the shadows.

Louis blinked.

“Were those... carrots?”

Elaine nodded, the amusement vanishing from her face.

“It looks like the Ley Nexus has chosen my kitchen as the primary host for the arcane reality distortion.”

“And that’s... bad?”

Without answering, Elaine raised the light sphere and pointed it farther down the corridor.

At the far end stood a large wooden door.

Two crossed cooking utensils, a spoon and a spatula, were mounted above it like a coat of arms.

“Well...” Her expression darkened. “We’re about to find out. We’re reaching the core of the anomaly.”