Story A Reluctant Terrarian

[Spyder Z]

I'M DONE! It's been over 8 years since I started this, but I'm finally done! Hell, it's been 4 years since I posted that I was going to try and finish it. But no more! I'll update Mon-Wed-Fri (Starting Tonight) until I reach then end. Then I'll post the Epilogue the following week, this way I have time to address anything I may have missed along the way. As I finish a "Chapter", I'll post it to FFN, AO3, & DevianART for folks that want to read a Chapter at a Time (Links in the OP). I may take a few tries to get the quirks of this Board's formatting right again, so please forgive me in the interim. ;P

 

[Spyder Z]

Coming to the nurse's housing, he could see the assembled army of the dead haloed around the small rise, called forth by the Blood Moon and its dark power. As he approached the mass, he began forming the dirt into a tunnel that extended before him, cutting a line through the zombie, building it as he went, and pulling it up from behind him, he used the earth to keep the dead from getting too close. Without its influence within him, he wasn't certain that he could walk through them unmolested, and he was uninclined to take a chance on it.

As he closed in he built up in an easy slope, further separating him from the dead and preventing the sharp rise from slowing his momentum. A few of the Demon Eye seemed to take his moving construction as a challenge, and he was mindful of their slow wobbly assault, building out from the walls to divert their paths when they came too close. It seemed that they weren't blind to him after all.

"YOU!" its voice, coming from both outside and within his head was somehow even more terrible in its force, and for a moment, he paused his steady march to the door, which was now a stones throw before him, "It seems that after all this time, there is still something left in you that needs instruction."

He ignored its taunting, and continued toward the door, still building the structure around him to keep the Demon Eyes at bay, and just before he reached the door, The Groom stepped out to face him. He knew he didn't have time for its games, and tore the earth from beneath it before it had chance to begin whatever it had planned.

huhuhuhehehehahaha... it began laughing from the mouths and spheres of every dark thing moving in the night, a sound that echoed not just in his ears, but in his mind as well. Any moment now it would take hold of him again, but before it did... The builder MUST survive the night.

He pushed forward with the cloud of earth that he'd gathered as he made his way here, filling the small structure from the back, and forcing the dead out. Just as the last of the demon eye was separated from the corner where the nurse and builder huddled, he could feel its presence forcing its way back, accompanied by a sensation not unlike a blade being thrust up the length of his spine. No! I cannot let you-

The rest of his thought was cut short as a pair of arms encircled him immediately followed by a strangely familiar tightening in his neck before the world disappeared in a flash of purple.

~~~~~-----~~~~~​

"Damnit Tam!" he shouted as his friend appeared in front of him, blinding him in the dim illumination provided by the Demon Altar across the room, "I told you I was fine by myself!"

"Well, I can see that..." Tam responded with a frown, unmoved by his outburst, "What I'm having a harder time understanding-"

"I was just..." he tried interrupting as he attempted to come up with an excuse, Curious the voice provided.

"Curious?" Tam asked.

"Wait! You heard..." he stopped as Tam's eyes narrowed, "I mean..." Hehehehehahahahaha....

"I'm not seeing the humor here," Tam responded to his... his laughter... Wait, its laughter... No.. Was he laughing...

"I..." The Demon Altar, something about being this close to it was causing him... You meddle in things beyond you little wizard... he said, as he took a step towards... Wait... "No!"

"Oooookay," Tam grabbed his arm, "That's enough Demon Altar for-"

He swung out with the other arm and before he could connect, a small explosion of fire between them tossed him back out of the room into the cavern corridor that lead down to it. Laying crumpled in the dirt, he could hear it begin to laugh... Hehehehehe...

"Annnd..." he felt Tam's hand for only a moment before the tell tale sign of Tam's teleportation preceded another flash of purple light, this time followed by him being blinded by the sunlight, "... we're out of there." Tam finished his statement as they thumped onto the grass.

You let him command you thus? The voice taunted him... but it was quieter.... like it had been in the past. Not like it had just been in that room below. He lay there for a moment, letting the sun warm him, and trying to figure out what he was going to do next.

Hehehehehehe....

 

[Spyder Z]

I was out of the smaller light, and unsure what to do next. The light in front of me was beginning to fade once more and I had no more light to give it. Looking around, I could see... Another larger light in the distance, a much brighter light, and it was coming this way... But between the light and I was the wrongness, a large concentrated mass of something that I just knew wanted to consume the lights.

I reached out for that other light, but I could not get through the mass, and then just as I was about to give up, the mass was gone. Or more accurately, it fell. And what rose in its place was a thing beyond words. Coming from the very depths of my nightmares was a mass of... pulsating, shifting, organic material. As if the insides and outsides of every living thing I had ever seen was sewn together in a massive moving edifice... and it was definitely moving. I watched, unable to do anything more than that as the mass enveloped the smaller light, blinking it out of existence in the process.

NO! I screamed, reaching out for the light that had just vanished, but it was too late. The light was gone, and only the edifice remained. And it had heard me. I had no where to run, had no idea even where I was, when the towering nightmare construct shifted towards me.

Ow! Something hit me, hard, and without transition I was snapped back to myself, and my surroundings. We were, the stranger and I, huddled together in what I assumed was the same corner we'd been in what seemed like a lifetime ago, only now, we were surrounded by... dirt? The stranger was unconscious, lying before me, at just the same distance as the light had been and there was a soft glow coming from a small quivering pink gelatinous mass of some kind, and within it, "My Ring!"

The mass condensed, and presented my ring from within it, up to meet my reaching hand.

"Th... Thank you.." I wasn't sure how to respond to a glowing pink thing, or if it even warranted a response, or hell, if it were even capable of accepting whatever response would be appropriate for such an encounter.

If it wasn't alive, it was certainly mobile, as after I took my ring, it *Shlp, Pop, Tss* bounced to the dirt wall, and seemingly melted into it, leaving me now in darkness.

Kaaaa...thhhhhyyyyy...

I could hear that voice again. And it sounded even less like Johnathan now than it had before. As I tightened my hand around my ring, I could see the world begin to shimmer much like it had before, a hint of that terrible edifice becoming visible once more, and I loosened my grip shutting my eyes to it.

Kaaaattttttthhhhhhyyyyyyy....

The voice called out to me again, and I didn't know what to do. I knew it wasn't my Johnathan... But... for a moment I could feel him when I looked at the ring... I don't know how I knew that, but in the same way I knew the stranger was somehow connected to the light I'd seen before, I knew Johnathan was connected to the light in my ring. And with nothing else to go with, and no idea what I was about to do, I squeezed my ring and tried focusing on it as the world shimmered once more.

Everything once again became a cascading cacophony of light and colors, and I could see that towering edifice of pulsating flesh far closer than anything in me could handle, and I almost lost my focus. Instead, I tightened my grip on the ring and looked around to find... There.

Below me, the mass of wrongness was somehow connected to the edifice, and there I could see what I was looking for. The faintest hint of a light, of my Johnathan, almost completely obscured by the wrongness emanating from him in waves. I reached out towards that light, and was forcibly rebuffed by the towering...

 

[Spyder Z]

"They call it the Wall of Flesh," Tam informed him as they sat in his spell lab.

Perinque had been at their home waiting when they arrived, and had refused all his attempts to talk to her, turning away whenever he tried, and he'd finally just given up. She stood leaning against the door frame, wearing that impossible clothing that made it hard to see her clearly.

You have lost them, but I... He was working on tuning the voice out... The voice of this Wall of Flesh as he now knew it was called, but it was likewise impossible. The best he could manage was to focus enough on other things that it was only a hindrance to his listening, instead of a distraction.

"And?" he asked, urging his friend to continue his explanation.

"And I don't have too much more than that to work with," Tam sighed, "I've been trying to figure out ways to reach out to the Guardians that are left... But as it turns out, the kid's connected to the last of them," he finished with a shrug.

"I mean, the Eye of Cthulu and the World Worm are still around... Sort of... But they've fallen to to its corruption, and it's only a matter of time before he does as well."

"Who does?" he asked his friend, noticing as he did that Perinque head dropped a little at that.

"The kid... Or more accurately, the dungeon guardian connected to him. Skeletron," Tam answered, looking at the ceiling with a frown, "I mean, he doesn't know what's going to happen to the kid when he succumbs... But he's done all he can to buffer him from it."

"So the kid's like me then? He's got a voice of something in his head?"

Shaking his head, his friend turned his frown to him, "No. What you've got whispering guardian's only know what into your head is much worse. This Wall of Flesh is not of this world. Or at least, it wasn't until recently... Which is really a difficult frame of time to gauge, as what's recent to an eternal guardian may be-"

"Ahem," Perinque cut in, speaking for the first time, "Tell him about your plan."

"Sorry," he smiled a little as Tam winced, it was nice to see even a little bit of the way things used to be from his friends, "I got carried away again," his friend continued, taking a deep breath before he did, "Anyway, this Wall of Flesh is somehow connected to the Corruption. They're not sure if it caused it, or was caused by it, as it wasn't really a force of note until more recently..." Tam shot a glance at Perinque before continuing, "But either way, they think that as long as the corruption exists, its power will only grow."

"Oh," he spoke into the silence that followed that proclamation, "So what, we just get rid of the corruption and perhaps it will go away?" he chuckled at the absurdity of that statement... but Tam was not laughing, "You've got to be kidding me."

"Listen," Tam put his hands up to forestall a further reaction, "I know it sounds ridiculous, but hear me out-"

"That's not a plan!" he shouted, "That's a suicide mission!" Hehehehehe.... "And the voice agrees with me!"

The look Tam leveled at him caused him to rethink his last words, "What I mean is, the idea of us going to fight the corruption has it laughing."

Tam was giving him a peculiar look, and seemed about to say something... But then shook his head muttering, "an even worse idea."

"We're not just planning to charge into the corruption looking for a way to clear it out," Perinque cut in, getting the conversation back on track, "We're planning on trying to contact the World Worm."

HAHAHAhahahahahahahaa...

"Oh," he retorted, "It loves that idea too..."

"I'm not really concerned with what the voice in your head does or does not enjoy," Perinque cut in, "And the only reason we're telling you what's going on is so that you'll stop trying to get yourself killed while we look for a solution to..." he could even hear the frown in her voice, "whatever's happening to you."

"The dungeon guardian said that the World Worm went into the corruption to find a way to stop it," Tam continued, "So even though it's been corrupted... There's a chance that enough of it is still around to maybe give us some insight into what we could do about it."

"Because that worked so well with the Eye guardian," he snapped, hating the wince it brought to Tam's face.

"We've been able to reach out to the Eye of Cthulu since then," Tam responded, surprising him, "Through its totem... another one of those eyes we used to summon it the first time," he added.

"And you say I'm trying to get myself killed," he shouted, "After what happened that first time! Are you serious?"

"We did not fall," Perinque snapped, cutting his yelling short.

"But you could have..." he responded in a quieter voice, "you almost did even..." he finished weakly as he remembered that night.

 

[Spyder Z]

"Here again Tam?" he asked, as he looked at the ruined remains of a place he once called home... in a time long since passed and until recently, nearly forgotten.

"You know I no longer use that name Gaul," a voice that he hardly recognized responded, "or should I be calling you Guile now?"

"Call me what you will, but tell me," he turned to confront the ancient wizard, once his friend, and now a mere skeleton of the person he once was, "Why are we here!? The Builder is not yet safe and until the Blood Moon sets, his life remains in flux."

"You think I do not also feel the weakening of the rules," Tim, as he now called himself, retorted, "It is for that reason that I chose now to act... That I can act..." he finished in a quieter voice.

"We do not have time for your foolishness wizard," he snapped back, noting the sharp look the skull somehow managed to convey in response, "take me back above that I may serve as a distraction to the Wall. He has manifest the Crest on some of his builds, and given time, he may be capable of ending this."

The torches on every wall erupted in a brilliant light, and a wave of fire washed the room, removing the cobwebs but otherwise doing no damage the mostly ruined contents therein.

"Do not talk to me about the crest!" the skeleton's voice boomed from every corner of the structure, as the symbol of the land began to glow from almost every surface, "You once manifest the crest on everything you crafted!"

"My time is long past,' he snapped, "You know as well as I that I am now no more than a puppet for the Wall's amusements!"

"And yet," Tim responded, throwing something at him that he instinctively pulled to his hand, "even after all this time you can still wield the Hero's Sword."

He looked at the shimmering weapon he now held, and for a brief moment considered...

"No!" Tim shouted, but too late. He destroyed the blade and tossed its hilt back to the skeleton before him.

"My time has passed," he repeated, "Take me above, or stay and wait for it to find me. It is only the Builder's life with which you toy."

He was crushed violently against the wall by an invisible force, and the broken blade was driven through his hand in the process, pinning it to the wood beside him, causing him to shout in surprised pain before...

"Hehehehehe..." he began to laugh, almost involuntarily, so deeply had the Wall become a part of him, "Do you now intend to end me Wizard?"

"I was prepared for..." Tim did not finish his words, but instead walked over and pulled the sword hilt from his hand, still holding him to the wall with his magic, "whatever needed to be done."

He laughed again, was this how it would end? Could it end for him here? Was he to be that blessed, a final gift from a one-time friend?

The wizard pulled a small doll from his robe and pressed it into his bleeding palm, causing a sensation not too far removed from the pain inflicted upon him by the Wall when it felt the need to instruct him. Screaming out at the unexpected pain, he tried pushing against his invisible bonds to no avail.

"What is this!?" he roared, as the doll was pulled away. A doll he noted looked suspiciously like himself, only cut open down the middle, and within it, "A Life Crystal? What kind of foolishness are you intending with this?"

As he finished speaking, the doll sealed itself shut and pulsed once with dim red light as it did. A pulse that he could feel in every fiber of his being. At that, a large ashy creature stepped in through the open doorway and stood behind the skeletal wizard.

"I..." Tim began, before turning and handing the doll to the demon, watching it leave with it before speaking again, "this was not the way I wanted this to go."
"What have you done?" he yelled, "Working with Demons now are you? How little humanity you have left," he tried lashing out with his words.

"Humans are but one of the many creatures of the land," Tim spoke, his head hanging and his voice soft, "Goodbye... Friend," he finished, raising his hand and causing that familiar tightening in his neck before the small room vanished from his sight.

----------

I fell to my knees... I know... Had I eyes, I knew they would be clouded, I'm sure... It was too late to change things now... I pray... With him gone, the spell was coming apart and I could hear the whispers beginning again... I've done the right thing. It was my idea, it had to have been... Oh Perinque... She would understand... Forgive me... She had to understand... It was the only way...

**********

Okay! Chapter 28 Finished! It's finally time to move to the next chapter... since we've been in this one for a few years... -.- I'll update the full chapter sites later today (FF.Net, AO3, dA) and of course the Table of Contents when the next chapter starts Friday.

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 29: Bound by Blood

He was back above ground, and the Blood Moon was still out. Tim it appeared, had learned to teleport others without touching them... But there was no time for considering such things. Nor for worrying over what had been done to his hand, which was already healing over. Looking around, he quickly got his bearings and began moving towards the Nurse's housing once more, again pulling dirt and various resources from the earth into a cloud above him as he moved.

Change Already he thought to the world. The rules were failing, and the Wall of Flesh was taking every advantage of that. It had never taken another host, even during a Blood Moon... Couldn't he would have said before, and yet this night... If it could break the rules so, perhaps he could do more...

Coming upon the crowd of undead, he brought together wooden swords out of the various trees he'd managed to mine on the way, and at a thought, the swords struck out at his targets, all without his even needing to slow down. This power was an impressive extension of the already impossible power the builder possessed. After his conversation with Tim... It did not escape his notice that each sword was emblazoned with the World Crest.

He wasn't sure what he was intending, only that perhaps by distracting it for long enough, the change would pass, and the Wall's power would return to its normal limitations. Of course the Wall would devise a new kind of Hell to inflict upon him for this transgression, but the Builder would survive. Why didn't you entertain Tim's offer? the voice... No this was his voice... And it was the momentary confusion that answered his question. He was too far gone. His time had long since passed...

~~~~~----------~~~~~

He waited until they'd been gone for at least an hour before he made his move. Remembering the conversation he'd had with Tam back at the Dungeon, he decided to make use of his friend's Invisibility Potion. It must have been rather effective, if Tam had thought maybe he had heard him moving about while invisible.

He knew She's left her guard on you again without having to be told. And if he were to so much as step out the door, it would be no time at all before Perinque knew he'd left. But they'd not had reason to guard the basement, and knowing a little about which of Tam's potions were which, and having over the last few weeks spent more and more time down there talking to his friend, it was easy enough to find the potions he was looking for.

He's taken most but not all of them, he realized. Tam always did leave a few behind... Just in case. Grabbing what was left, he moved back upstairs before tucking those he was not drinking into the pouches. Tam had made those, and thankfully they still worked for him.

What am I doing? He paused as he was about to drink the potion. Tam will know what I did... but... he had to. They were on a suicide mission, and the voice... the Wall... it had promised, Come to my Altar, and I will provide you all the insight you desire. He did not trust that voice. But he had to do something to try and protect his friends. If they were willing to risk the Corruption to find a solution, how could he do any less?

Drinking the potion, he sat for a moment with his eyes closed, as the effects of the tonic shivered through him. After a moment, he looked down at himself, and jumped a little at the closeness of the floor. No, that wasn't right. It wasn't the closeness... Just the unobstructed nature of it. He'd never considered before how you never really see the floor at your feet without obstruction before...

He was wasting time. Crawling to the window he Ow! inhaled sharply as he punched the wall beneath it. Moving about while invisible would take some time getting used to... Time that he did not have. Closing his eyes, he noticed how he moved slower, more carefully with his eyes closed, and imitated that movement when he opened his eyes once more. As even though he could see his environment, it was as if his eyes were closed when it came to where he was in it.

 

[Spyder Z]

The towering column of flesh surged towards me, and though I was not sure how, I attempted to keep it from reaching me and succeeded... though I could feel that it would be a very short-lived success.

Huhuhuhuhuhahahahaha...

It began to pulsate vigorously, roiling with the laughter that was now coming from every direction as faces boiled across its surface, bobbing in and out of the edifice seemingly at random... until...

Kathy! It was more Johnathan than before, and I could see his face pulling out from the mass as it extended towards me... Kathy! The lights surrounding me flashed and almost went out, but I knew...

Kathy! Kathy where are you? The face screamed out, and as it neared, I could see that the eyes were missing... Kathy! Oh god! Kathy! Where did you go?!

I wanted to shout back, let him know I was here but to do that, I would have to let go of the lights... and there was no light from Johnathan in that face. His voice tore at me, but I tuned it out and looked again for that faint hint... there... still at the base of the thing.

"You think you can resist ME?" It stopped calling out to me, and spoke using the mockery of Johnathan's voice from before. "Little fleshling, your power here is borrowed, and running out. I am unstoppable. I am endless. I am-"

"Get out of my Husband!" I screamed back at it as I grabbed the little bit of light left that felt right at the base of the edifice. This time I was able to reach it, and once more, the world around me shattered, only this time... I was left in darkness instead of light.

- - - - - - - - - -

Nearing the base of the hill the Nurse's Home sat upon, he froze at the sight before him. Something was happening to the Groom, and he didn't know whether to stop it, or to let it continue. Keeping his swords busy with the ever-present hoard of undead, he watched for a moment at a distance.

"Get out of my Husband!" the Nurse's voice resonated in the air surrounding the Groom, and a brilliant flash of light burst from the broken husk, enveloping the base of the hill, and the undead swarm surrounding it. Caught up in the light, he felt a warmth from it, unlike anything he could recall in what seemed an eternity on Terraria... and though it was good, it resonated against something in him that resisted such things... and he was violently reminded of what his life had become...

~ ~ ~ ----- ~ ~ ~

huhuhuhehehehahaha... As he entered the room with the Demon Altar, the Wall began to laugh, and he knew he was laughing with it. Yesssss......

The voice, it spoke through him, It is time, and he felt compelled towards the altar. "Wait!" he shouted at it, fighting the desire to approach, "You promised insight!"

The compulsion increased, but he was still capable of resisting... even if only just, and the laughter quieted, Indeed, and insight you shall have. Come to the Altar, and ALL will be revealed.

It was now or never. He knew it was foolish, but if there was any hope that this could provide him... even enough understanding to warn his friends it was too late... then it was a risk worth taking. He approached the altar. Tam had named it so, and the thing fit the name well. Being outside the corruption proper, it was easier to see where the base began, which only enhanced the wrongness that the thing emanated. Before he fell the last time, he could feel something while near them, and though he seemed to have lost that sense, the altar was no more comforting now.

They looked something like giant waist high zits, erupting from the earth and composed primarily of solidified fleshy material at the base, with bits of claw and toothlike bone clawing out from the top like a perversion of the jaw on a giant worm. Coming closer, he could see the flesh and bone that formed a flat surface in the center, where one would almost expect to see a throat.

Touch the Altar... the voice commanded him... and so he did.

 

[Spyder Z]

What is a Hero? There are as many answers as there are bodies littered about in the wake of a "Hero's Journey". Innocent creatures and vile beasts alike. When it comes time to "Play the Game", there is no difference between the two. Whether Hero or Villain, Light or Dark... the difference is where your friends live, or indeed, if you have any friends at all. I had fancied myself a "Hero" at times. Come to this strange land to enforce some kind of vision... Had in fact, come more than once. Sometimes to build great things, and others... to take what resources the land would allow, before leaving the world to rot in my absence.

Hero and Villain both, there is no difference at the end of a life. I have died countless deaths, and I will die countless more. I have Loved, and Hated... Killed and Saved... Fought and Fled... more times than I have mouths to recall... What is a Hero? Is it a "Hero" that sacrifices themselves to save a friend? That throws their life away, knowing that never again will they be able to protect those they love?

"Tam! Look out!" Perinque screamed as she lept between him and the impossibly large jaws of a creature emerging from the corruption.

Or is it a "Hero" that runs from danger, leaving one loved one behind in the hopes that they can save another?

Teleporting away, Tam looked back, and could see nothing of Perinque. Even after the thing that had been the World Worm burrowed back into the corruption... there was no sign of her. Waiting long enough to be sure that... there was no time now to mourn, he continued to teleport away...

Perhaps a "Hero" is one who upon learning of their powerlessness... is willing to sacrifice everything for a chance at something more...

Gaul immediately felt a pain incomparable to any he'd ever experienced. Worse even than giving himself over to the voice, and far worse than anything he could have previously imagined...

When time is a fancy...

Hours passed... Days... Weeks... Years... and still the pain continued. Though what is pain, when there is no relief? How do you quantify that which is all you know, and all that you are...

And life becomes a exercise in patience...

He stood there, and yet, was not there at all. He saw cities and castles... Battles and even Wars that rocked the very foundation of the world.

Even simple questions can seem impossible to answer.

Time ceased to have the same meaning it once had. How do you measure time when there is no beginning nor end? He found himself standing in the ruins of a city that reached to the stars and turning around, saw an endless plain stretching from horizon to horizon.

What is a "Hero"?

It was not through a sharing of knowledge that he gained insight into all that Terraria offered. When you have seen entire worlds come and go... lives beginning and ending in the time it takes to finish a breath...

Why do you ask?

There is little left to surprise you. And less you have not seen. As a vessel for such knowledge, it is only natural that one would share... educate... possibly even Guide others...

Perhaps we should find one...

Good... Bad... These were constructs, put together by flickering lights in the endless void of existence. Less did the labels matter than...

And ask them...

What makes them tick.

What makes a Hero? Maybe this stranger knows?

"You look lost..."

 

[Spyder Z]

Stepping out from the remains of a human structure that had long since been consumed by the land, the demon considered once more how chaotic and distressing the lives of humans were. Standing taller than the average human, the demon had to hunch over to exit the structure, and though the artwork that so fascinated it was somehow preserved within the structure, the demon still closed the door in an attempt to further protect it from the potential mischief of the hell bats or a passing lava slime.

Looking out at the warm landscape before it, overflowing with lava and the ashy earth that broke it's surface, the demon could feel the bone serpents borrowing beneath the ash, and watched as the fire imps fell from the top of the caverns in their game of daring. Several imps would fall at the same time and the last to teleport away would be the victor. What the victor gained was beyond its ken, but there were times that dozens of imps would rain down from above. Some demons would take these occasions to dart into the falling imps, changing the game from falling to hunting and occupying the two groups at times, for an entire heat cycle.

Gathering a ring of the surplus magick in the air, the demon prepared to join in the imps at play when it felt the call. It was a burden to the demon that its fate had been tied to what was once a human. Somehow the remains of the once human had managed to keep animate beyond the human's typical lifespan. Even in death however, it still reeked of humanity.

Feeling the call the demon released the gathered energy in a slow lazy wheel and opening its wings, lept into the air before propelling itself upwards towards the caverns above. Unlike its brethren, it could leave the confines of Hell at will. That was a gift the human remains had traded for its obedience. Free of the shackles of its kin, the demon had initially attempted to overpower the once human, but it was better steeped in the intrusive magicks that had permeated the world and quickly overpowered it. Thus the demon learned to obey.

Arriving in a clearing that resonated with the magick of the remains, it heard "I have discerned how your kind bound themselves to the service of the land," as it approached the once human's still form. The remains would ramble on at times saying things that had little meaning to the demon, but it retained the words nonetheless.

"I have devised a... similar binding..." the remains spoke, "but it requires a component I can not currently safely approach," it concluded.

So it would be a harvest then. A purple light flashed in the demon's eyes as it considered the hunt. Hunting outside of Hell was among the few pleasures that made this obedience tolerable. The once human was less and less capable of maintaining its hold on the remains that it held, and thus the demon was sent on various hunts when it required some component or another in large quantity.

The remains animated forming again the frame of a human, though it no longer needed such pretense. Once formed, it pulled a small human reproduction from beneath its robe and handed it over to the demon, "I need you to find a life crystal, and place it within this shell," it commanded him. Looking the reproduction over, the demon recognized the tainted vessel and its claws tensed, almost dropping the reproduction, snapping its gaze back to the remains.

"It is safe... enough," the remains responded, "look again," and it did. The reproduction, it noticed, was interwoven with the shackles that had once bound the demon, and a dark portent loomed within the demon. This was not a magick the once human should possess... and yet... "Now go, the world will soon change, and we haven't much time left," the remains commanded.

For a moment, the demon considered refusing the command and it began to gather trace amounts of the ambient magick... but another look at the remains reminded it of the last time it had refused, and releasing the magick, the demon turned from the once human to begin its hunt. It wondered briefly if it would outlive this blasphemy...

 

[Spyder Z]

"Where," I was surprised to hear my voice so loud in the darkness, and paused for a moment before continuing, "Where am I?"

I didn't even know who I was asking, but it seemed the appropriate question to ask after... whatever had just happened.

"You are in the silence between worlds," a voice I almost recognized responded... only it sounded... calmer, than I'd ever heard it before.

"What do you-"

"It is unimportant," the voice interrupted, "What matters now is whether or not the Builder awakes."

Of course, the builder. I didn't understand what was happening, hadn't understood throughout the entire previous day and yet, one thing I did know, was that "The Builder" was in some way important to whatever was going on here.

"Kathryn..." a small voice called out in the darkness, and my heart leapt! It was my Johnathan! He was here too! "Johnathan!" I called out to him, "Where are you?"

"Kathy... I... am... MINE!" his voice distorted, and the thing that had taken Johnathan was speaking in his place, "You have destroyed the last of your Johnathan little fleshling," the thing said, "and now I will take YOU!"

- - - - - - - - - -

He knew the darkness well. Had come to it many times over the course of his existence. Thanks, he imagined, to the Nurse's power, it was here that they would ride out the change... and he was unsure if that was for the better or worse. At this point, it was beyond his control, and so he waited.

"Where," he could hear her, though her voice seemed to come from a distance, "Where am I?"

"You are in the silence between worlds," he answered her. He knew as he did that the answer would not console her, but it was the only answer he had. Where this place was remained outside even his understanding. It was the place where builders slept, and the darkness from whence the Wall reached.

"What do you-" she began to continue her questions, but there was nothing more to tell her that would do any good, so he interrupted "It is unimportant," and decided to add, "What matters now is whether or not the Builder awakes." For that he also knew, would determine their fates.

He could not imagine how they had arrived here without falling, and he knew that they had not... but here they were, and unless the builder awoke... here they would likely stay. He had expected these waves of change to bring about something... but this... this was something else...

"Kathryn," a small voice he attributed to the groom called out in the darkness, and he was suddenly wary. He had witnessed the Wall take the groom, and though it could speak with the voice of all that it had collected, he knew that the groom was no more.

"Johnathan!" the nurse called out, and he began trying to move towards her voice, "Where are you?"

She did not understand, would not believe him, and he did not know what its game was. What he was certain of however, was that she would not enjoy whatever it planned. As he could do nothing at this point to ward or ware the builder... he could at the least attempt to guard the Nurse. For were the builder to succeed, he would need her assistance.

"Kathy..." he could already hear the Wall coming through, "I... am... MINE!" it said, and he could feel its presence begin to gather in the darkness.

"You have destroyed the last of your Johnathan little fleshling," it taunted her as he continued to try and reach them, "and now I will take YOU!" it shouted, and without knowing what he was doing, he reached out as he had done with the materials before and grabbed the Wall's presence.

 

[Spyder Z]

Leaving the small human structure, the demon considered briefly what it had just witnessed. Through some magick unknown to it, the remains had bound the cursed vessel to the reproduction it now held. It could feel the resonance of the vessel from within... and though it made no sense, there was no sense of corruption upon it. It was as if the vessel had been purged of its taint... though the demon knew that to be impossible.

The... the... the... path... path... path... before the demon was clear. It... it... it... had... had... had... to return to Hell, where it... it... it.. could... could... could... reconcile this new information with its kin. The walls before it warped and shifted as a wave of change passed through the caves. Though it... it... it... was... was... was... familiar with such things, there had never been a change of such magnitude before. Stone, Ice, Sand, Corruption, Crimson, and all the forms the land knew were taking shape and dropping from it at an accelerated rate. Careful... careful.... careful... not... not... not... to move too close to the walls, the demon proceeded below, unfazed by the reverberations of change. The world had changed before, and would change again. This, it knew, was not of concern. What had happened to the vessel however...

Arriving at a break in the caves that opened to the warmth... warmth... warmth... below... below... below... the demon was quickly surrounded by those that had felt its descent. This was a time of great consideration, and a decision made now could shape the very fabric of the world. Upon revealing the... the... the... reproduction... reproduction... reproduction... to its kin... kin... kin... the final thread in the once human's magick took hold...

The eyes of the reproduction flashed a violent pearly purple hue and it became, aware. The demon immediately realized... realized... realized... the... the... the... trap... trap... trap... too... too... too... late... late... late... as the eyes of its kin lit up with violent pearly light that it could feel spreading out to fill all of Hell.

"What!?..."What!?"..."What!?" a voice spoken from the mouths of every demon below, "Impossible!"..."Impossible!"..."Impossible!" it screamed... screamed... screamed..., and all of Hell screamed with it. In a time before tongue, demonkind had shackled itself to service of the land with a power long since forgotten. The symbol of this binding, the bracers worn by all its brethren, were woven into the reproduction... a reproduction that now bound the taint to demonkind. The presence that had infested the world now had a home not only in Hell, but in all of the demon's kin. It could see the rage infecting them as the thing... thing... thing... realized... realized... realized... its... its... its... predicament, trying fruitlessly to leave and finding the binding of the demons holding it below as the world took on its new shape.

Furiously the thing redoubled its attempted to escape Hell, driving its kin to throw themselves at the tunnels above. The bracers held, as they had since their inception, and it was held with them. The demon knew what would come next. Had known since the reproduction's spell took hold. The final wave of change passed, and all of hell was silent in its wake. The eyes of its kin were turned to it, and it closed its eyes as they tore it apart. None of the others could touch the reproduction however, and it fell directly into the fabric of the world as it slipped from its claws.
It had wondered idly in the past what it would be like to return to the magick of the world. To be wholly consumed by the force that formed slimes and shaped the land. The force that bloomed flowers and consumed the remains of the fallen. It was like-

- - - - - - - - - -​

Another Chapter Down! This ends Chapter 29: Bound by Blood, Friday we enter the final chapter "Chapter 30: An Awakening of Sorts", and after that the Epilogue. I feel like I'm writing for myself around here at this point, but that's okay! I'm happy to be finishing it up where it started (Sorta... the old forums died with the "Original" start ;?).

 

[Spyder Z]

Chapter 30: An Awakening of Sorts

He could feel the change pass, and still they remained in the darkness. A darkness broken only by the stifled sobs of the Nurse. The Wall had been wrenched away the moment he grabbed it, and a sensation that built in the back of his neck exploded through him, and was gone. Still he was in the darkness, and he was grateful for the respite. He knew better than to relax, for any moment the Wall would make its presence known once more, and the pain it would inflict would be worse by far than he could imagine, having been thwarted in its grasp for control of Terraria.

"Guile?" the Nurse's voice whispered out, tentative, almost inaudible even in the silence of the darkness.

He was not certain what succor he could provide her, for he knew nothing of their future, but he responded nonetheless, "I am here."

There was something odd about the darkness. Something there that he could not define. It wasn't a presence; he could not feel the Wall...

"What just happened?" she asked, her voice no louder than before.

He could not answer her, could hardly process the question as he realized that he could not feel the Wall. Even when released, the Wall's presence had hovered at the edges of his awareness. Its power was too vast for it to be any other way. But here, in the darkness, and for the first time he could remember in an eternity of lives, he was not only free of its grasp, but free even from the sense of it... and he dared not consider the implications of this.

"Guile?" the Nurse repeated, a fraction louder and with a hint of alarm creeping in.

"I cannot answer that," he replied, "because I do not know."

He knew that this answer would do nothing to ease the fear she was beginning to exhibit, but he was too distracted by his own situation to consider the impact his words would have on her. And so, the silence stretched on.

"Uuuuuhhhh" a groan came from somewhere else in the darkness. It was the Builder. He had survived. A tension he had not known he was holding loosened, but only slightly.

"Where..."

"The silence between worlds," he answered the question he knew was coming, "and before you ask, I do not know how we came to be here."

The darkness took on a sharp feeling, and he could sense the Builder rapidly collecting himself somewhere nearby.

"Kathryn?" the Builder asked the darkness.

"What's going on?" she replied, the alarm still loud in her whispered response.

He knew the Builder still associated him with the Wall. He himself had drawn little distinction until moments ago. But this would not be something he could communicate in any meaningful way at the moment, and so he remained silent.

"I don't know," the Builder answered her, "I think..." he started, "I think I've been here before, but I can't..." he trailed off, remembering, Guile assumed, the time he had fallen. Perhaps he had fallen again, it would explain the Builder's presence at least.

The darkness hardened, "What are you going to do with us now?" the Builder asked.

"Nothing," Guile responded, adding in the event that his assumption was correct, "You have fallen before, you should know now how to awaken."

The Builder did not respond. Nor did he appear to leave.

"You pulled me out before," he finally answered, low and with a tinge of remembered fear.

Guile knew that it was the Wall he was referring to, but he still did not believe he could convince the Builder of that here in the darkness.

"Then move as if you are waking from sleep. Rise from the Darkness-" the Builder's presence was suddenly gone. Guile had not expected so quick a success, and he was left stunned for a moment before...

"Now what?" the Nurse asked, slightly louder than before.

"Now..." he had no time to consider his response before everything he knew ceased to be.

 

[Spyder Z]

He was standing in the light of the sun. Its warmth was pleasant on the absurd amount of skin his tattered garments exposed. He felt, refreshed. As if he'd just woken from a restful sleep. Considering the drastic change from the darkness moments before, he was surprised that he could see at all. And he remembered the Darkness. The last memory before that was a pleasant sensation at odds with the chaotic struggle to stay alive, followed by the weight of what seemed like an unreasonable amount of dirt, considering that he had been pressed into the corner of a structure by waves of nightmarish creatures at the time.

His memory before then was a mess. It seemed that every horror the night contained had gathered to tear him and- the Nurse!

"Kathy!" he shouted, unsure why he was so confident that this was her name.

A slap that knocked him from his feet seemed to come from the air itself. And in its wake the nurse was standing above him, a momentarily confused expression on her face, before her eyes found him and rage consumed her face.

"You," she spoke in unrestrained anger, "do NOT get to call me that." With those words, her anger dissolved as quickly as it had arrived and she fell sobbing to the ground beside him.

Confused, but not daring to interrupt her, he stood back up and moved a respectful distance away, staying close enough to guard her if something burst from behind the trees. He took in their surroundings for the first time. It was lightly wooded where they were, and the structure stood, not on a hill, but in a small clearing nearby. Much like it had what felt like a lifetime ago when... Guile... his mood darkened at the thought of the evil he'd experienced the night before.

Looking around, he was mildly surprised to see him lying nearby, face down in the grass. His first instinct was to press his sword into his tormentor's back, but he knew it to be a useless impulse, even though his sword was automatically in hand at the thought. Even after what he had experienced, in part because of what he had experienced, at Guile's hand, he could not bring himself to challenge his power. He knew he was nothing more than a plaything of the evil thing before him, and as he now had someone else's life to concern him, he could not throw his own away with a useless assault like that.

He looked back at the nurse. She had collected herself and was sitting with her arms around her knees, her expression vacant, as if she were somewhere else in her head. He didn't know how to proceed.

----------​

It was dark. But not the darkness, just dark, as if my eyes were covered. I took a mental inventory of my extremities and finding them all present, I moved to clear the darkness from my eyes. It appeared I was lying down, outside, in the dirt. It had been quite some time since I had simply felt the dirt on my skin, breathed in the earthy scent, and so I continued to lie there for a while, listening to the sounds of a soft sobbing, and movement nearby. The air felt nice, and I... I felt... I...

Something was different.

Pushing myself to my feet, the sun was too bright and I had to squint, blocking it with my hand for a moment as my eyes adjusted. When did the sun get so bright? A gentle breeze sent a light shiver down my spine, and I almost fell over in shock. The world seemed to have come to life around me. It was as if my senses had begun working, only I hadn't noticed how muted they were before. What in the Cursed Guardians was happening here?

 

[Spyder Z]

I was tired beyond comprehension. The events of the night before had drained me in ways I could not articulate. And nothing since had rested me enough to change that. Sitting on the ground in a lightly wooded area I have never seen, staring at a structure that was supposed to be atop a small hill, I did not have the reserves to deal with this. And yet...


Holding my knees to my chest, I looked around again. Nothing had changed, save for Guile standing now. Had he been... it didn't matter. The man who was both my captor and a buffer between me and the nightmare I can not believe I experienced, let alone survived, was pacing a few steps away, and he appeared to be distracted by something he was considering.

I could probably slip away, though to where, in a place that apparently changed its terrain on occasion, I could not imagine. I was not only lost in an unknown place, but probably under the influence of some kind of neurological effect that affected me enough to cause hallucinations and confused my memories of simple things, like the location of my home... or... and this is what I meant. That little shack felt somehow connected to me, and that was clearly insane. I just wanted to lie back down and rest. I didn't even care that I was sitting in the dirt.

----------​

He made up his mind. Turning to the nurse, he tentatively said, "Are you okay?"

She chirruped in a way that startled him, and laughed a hollow laugh that unnerved him, but in a mostly normal way before snapping, "Okay? Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?" before pushing herself to her feet and glaring at him with a poorly contained fury.

"I mean, Sure, I've been kidnapped for the Lord only knows what twisted reason by a half naked man and taken to a place where apparently dead people walk, my new husband among them, and dosed with some unknown hallucinogenic so that I see lights that glow and pulse as I imagine reaching for them while a towering pulsating column of mangled flesh threatens to Kill Me," she shot out in a single breath, "But you know, nothing to worry about. It's all Okay."

"I-" he tried to say.

"OF COURSE I'M NOT OKAY!" she shouted instead, "NONE OF THIS IS OKAY!" she added, gesturing around herself frantically.

He didn't know how to react. It's not like he didn't agree with her. Nothing about this place was okay, but she was the only other person who seemed to understand that, really, she was the only other person, since whatever Guile was certainly wasn't human, and Katherine's husband had been killed. He didn't know how to convince her that he was on her side. She was certain that he'd kidnapped her, and if what Guile had told him before was true, he almost had. Unintentionally.

"I..." he tried to start.

"Stop." she commanded, before taking a deep breath, "Just stop."

So he did.

----------​

"It is time now to consider you next course of action," I informed the builder, seeing that his conversation with the Nurse was over.

He stiffened before slowly turning to face me, "You..."

"Saved us," the Nurse cut in, "That second light," she continued, wincing a little as she turned to face me, "That was you, wasn't it."

I was not sure what she was referring to, though I assumed it had something to do with her power, "I, do not know what you mean."

"Last night, when Johnathan," her face took on an agony I could almost feel, "when, whatever that was was trying to kill us... you were coming to fight it, weren't you?"

"I-"

"That thing was him!" the builder snapped over my words.

 

[Spyder Z]

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Save them? Had Guile somehow gotten to her?

"He was behind everything that happened last night!" he shouted, turning to face Kathryn.

"I-" Guile attempted to speak again.

"No!" he shouted, cutting him off, "I don't know what kind of twisted lies you've manipulated her with, but I will not let you pretend you're not a monster after last night." He knew it was foolish to yell at Guile like this, but at this point, he'd seen how much power beyond inflicting pain that his tormentor wielded, and if he was going to die, he'd die making sure the nurse wasn't fooled by... whatever he was.

"He was not the monster," the nurse snapped at him, "I don't know how, but I could see the... the thing-"

"The Wall of Flesh," Guile supplied.

"The," she frowned as she continued, "Wall of Flesh," she seemed to be turning the name over in her mouth, "and I could see..." she gestured to Guile, "him."

"It was a trick," he tried to tell her, "He's been manipulating things here since I first woke up in this place."

"It's all a trick," she spat out, "but that doesn't change what I saw."

He didn't know how to respond to that. Clearly Guile had done something to fool her, and she hadn't seen what he'd seen, so he didn't know how to convince her.

"I don't know how," she continued, "but I could see a light coming out of you last night while you were fighting. And when the Flesh wall thing was getting ready to kill us, another light came to the fight, and it was him," she again gestured at Guile.

"That's impossible," he stated flatly, "I know you haven't been here long, but I've seen the horrible things he's done-"

"Like What?!" Guile snapped, surprising him. He'd seen a lot of reactions from the guide, creepy, sarcastic, evil, amused, but never, he realized, anger like this. He wasn't sure why, but it caught him off guard.

"What exactly have I done to you?" Guile continued, "Besides scare you and cause you temporary pain?"

"Temporary Pain!?" he shouted back, "Temporary Pain doesn't begin to cover," he gestured around wildly, "whatever it was you did to me!"

"Truly?" Guile continued angrily, "Show me the scars, show me the proof of this pain I've so grievously afflicted upon you!"

"I..." it was ridiculous that he was defending himself to this monster, "I don't have scars, I never have scars! Even when I was torn to shreds by zombies," he felt sick just remembering that, "I don't get scars!"

"And yet you continue to complain about things which no longer affect you!" Guile yelled back, "This has ever been your failing. You refuse to progress and spend all your time complaining about-"

He punched him. He knew he shouldn't have, knew that it was a waste of time, but it was too much. What he didn't expect, was to hit him. Even more surprising was when Guile hit him back.

----------​

I was just so angry! The Builder was incompetent, but he could learn to overcome that. The Builder was a coward, but exposure would fix that. The Builder was weak, but his power would only grow. That the Builder was Stupid! There was no cure for that. And I hadn't lost EVERYONE I LOVED to listen to him whine about a little pain and his ever present cowardice!

Every point was punctuated with a blow laid upon the Builder, knocking him from his feet to the earth before I followed with a continued assault, every further hit a memory from my time before all that had occurred. Memories that felt fresh, as if they had only happened the day before, instead of many eons ago.

A sword came to the builder's hand and I immediately wrest it from him, driving through his chest into the earth below, ignoring the surprised screams of the nurse from nearby.

 

[Spyder Z]

I could not believe what just happened. It had happened so fast that I could not stop it, not that I was sure I should have. First the two men were fighting, and then a sword appeared out of nowhere before Guile used it to kill the Builder. One minute fighting, the next minute he was standing over the corpse, looking down and... crying?

I didn't know what to do. Should I run? Was I going to be next? Not allowing me time to make up my mind, he turned to me and said, "He will return. I will not," before turning to walk into the sparse forest. What does he mean he'll return? After watching him slowly disappear into the trees, I looked back to the body only, it was gone. In its place was a sword sticking up from the ground beside what looked like a headstone made of sticks and stone. Approaching it, I saw a message carved into the base, "You were impaled by Gaul."

----------​

I continued to my home. A small cave the builder had dug out only days before. I made it to the center of the small room before collapsing to the floor. Perinque... Tam... what did I do.

The tears that had never found their way to surface were now pouring down my face. Tears for the friends I lost, tears even for the lives I had witnessed taken by the land over the eternity of my enslavement. Lives for which there were not enough tears in the world. Even sparing only a single tear for each life would leave me here for years. It was all Too Much.

I do not know how much time passed before sleep overcame me. It had been an eternity since last I slept, and if I never woke, that would be a blessing too large to ask of this cursed land.

----------​

I watched him sleep from the shadows, my robe blending into the darkness and covering the bones that made up what remained of my physical form. It had worked. He was cursed in a way that he did not understand, but until the curse claimed him, he would have peace. What little peace a soul troubled by eons of enslavement could hope for at least. A small pink slime came through the earth beside me, having felt the change as I had.

"What now my friend?" I asked, my voice low enough to keep from waking Gaul.

She moved forward to touch our friend. We had all lost so much. All of us damned to the land, and no hope for redemption, our hope resting on the shoulders of a builder that seemed unfit for the burden. Perhaps this cycle would not end as we wished. Perhaps the builder we sought was still to come. So much had been put at stake here, and to consider it all lost. I could not allow myself to consider that too deeply.

Pinky returned to my side, pausing a moment to reach out to me, before leaving once more through the earth. She was right. There was nothing to do but wait. Even now the whispers were growing louder. The Change had provided a brief repose, but such things were always fleeting. She could no longer speak, but I could see that she struggled with corruption as much as I. Though she had her family to keep her, where I was alone. Able only to act in brief moments of lucidity. I pulled at the fabric of the world, and moved through to caverns below, where my madness would be less likely to harm the living above.

 

[Spyder Z]

He was surrounded by darkness. Guile had surprised him by first allowing him to hit him, but then moreso when instead of doing whatever it was he was so fond of doing, he punched him back. He had been so surprised by the assault that he did nothing to defend himself until after he was knocked off his feet. At that point he pulled his sword to his hand, which Guile took advantage of by using it to stab him through the heart.

He just floated there in the nothingness for a few moments, not sure what he should do next. It shocked him actually, how calm he was about the whole thing. There was no doubt that he had died this time. He could still feel the memory of the sword parting his chest. Only, it was just that, a memory. While he could not see himself, he felt fine.

He tried looking around, but it became immediately obvious that this was pointless. He'd just recently been in this darkness, only he'd heard Guile and Kathryn talking then, and he pulled himself out of it by-

- - -​

He was standing once more in the light of day. Looking around, he tried to find Guile, and was relieved not to see him nearby. Not that he knew what he would have done had he found him. Something had changed in his guide, and he didn't understand it enough to do anything with that information. Somehow he seemed less, terrifying. Though that had not stopped him from stabbing a sword through his heart. He winced at the memory of moments ago, but it was not with the kind of fear that normally accompanied such things. Had he changed as well?

He noticed a small cross nearby with a sword plunged into the earth beside it. Without approaching, he knew that it was where he had died... though could you really call it dying if he was unharmed by the experience? He decided to walk over to it, and saw something scrawled across the bottom, "You have been impaled by Gaul." Gaul?

An unease still stirred at reading those words. He felt as if he was just kind of skirting the fear that should have consumed him, but perhaps if he could keep it at a distance... he pulled the wooden sword from the ground to his hand and turned away from the tombstone. He looked around and found the structure that had been under assault the night before. Kathryn was sitting against the wall, with her knees pulled to her chest and her head down.

As he approached, she looked up with fear, a fear that widened into shock as she quickly stood up and held her hands out as if to ward him off. "You were just..."

"Dead. Yeah, I know." he muttered, stopping his approach.

She stood there staring uncertainly at him, "So this is just another thing that happens here?" A flash of something took over, "Then why didn't it work for Johnathan?"

"I..." he didn't know what to say, "I don't know. He..." he thought back to when the well dressed gentleman, when Johnathan, was still alive, "he never healed from his injuries either."

"Of course he didn't," she replied before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

 

[Spyder Z]

I knew I was wasting my time. Nothing here made any sense. Being here didn't make any sense. Last night didn't make sense. And this apparently immortal being didn't seem to want to kill me. I needed to make due for the time being so that I could have time to find my way back home. No amount of distress was going to make that easier, nor bring Johnathan back, and as petty a concern as it seemed in the grand scale of things, I was hungry.

"I'm hungry," I said, changing the subject.

He seemed caught off guard by the sudden shift in conversation. Good, let him be off guard.

"I..." a mushroom appeared in his hand, "I've got this."

It wasn't like the mushrooms you got at the store. It was too colorful. Too plump. But now was not the time to be worried about such things. Nor did it make sense to spend the energy worrying about how it just appeared out of nowhere. If he wanted me dead, he wouldn't have saved me last night. It was very unlikely to be poisonous. So I snatched it and took a bite.

Just like everything else in this place, eating the mushroom wasn't an experience I could have expected. In a single bite, the entire thing dissolved, and I could feel the mass of it in my mouth as I chewed the surprisingly supple plant. Upon swallowing, I could feel it sliding down my throat at its own pace, causing me to cough in surprise, though it hadn't actually choked me.

And just like that I was no longer hungry. That was convenient.

It was time now to move forward, I needed to keep my momentum going, "What are you planning to do with me now?" I asked.

----------​

She still thought he had some kind of malicious intent for her. Even less than that, he didn't even have any idea what he wanted for himself, let alone what to do regarding her. He had no interest in trying to deal with whatever was going on with Guile Gaul?, and he hadn't really considered how or why he was able to survive being stabbed in the chest. What he did know though was-

"I can finish furnishing your home-" she snapped out a laugh in response to that.

"Oh good," she replied, "I was just lamenting the lack of curtains on the holes in the walls."

"I'm just as lost as you are," he snapped back, "You keep accusing me of having some kind of ulterior motive, but I woke up here with no idea who I was several days ago."

She frowned at that, "Why should I believe you?"

"I don't care what you believe," he replied, "the fact is, I don't know what I'm doing here either and the best I've come up with so far is to at least make this stupid place as comfortable as I can while I'm stuck here!"

She seemed unfazed by his outburst before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. That seemed to be how she collected herself, so he stood by and waited for her to respond.

"Fine." she said finally, "Build me some curtains."

He smirked, for the first time that he could remember doing so since he'd awoken in this strange world.

"What is your name anyway?" Katherine asked him, and it took him a few moments as he realized that Guile had never bothered to ask.

"It's-"

"Kristian the Merchant has arrived!" an unknown voice cut in.

---------- ---------- ----------​

Authors Note: That's it! We made it! The End of "Book 1", the only "Book" I'm likely to write in Terraria (Unless something changes IRL). It's been a LOOOOooooonnnnngggg journey, and the beginning is a bit rougher than I like, though going back to re-read it, not as bad as I was worried it was. In ANY account, next week I'll post the Epilogue to seal this Terrarian's journey with a bow. Thanks to all 3 of you reading this (Mom, Dad, and whoever else you are out there! ;P) and I hope it's been an enjoyable ride.

 

[Spyder Z]

Epilogue

I woke up and lounged happily in the makeshift bed I'd cobbled together from the remnants of buildings long ago swallowed up by the world. You would think that after enough time had passed I'd get over so simple a pleasure, but if such a day was coming I could not see the first hint of it.

This must be how Tam and Perinque felt every day I thought. Fighting the earth to make things without the power of a builder was a challenge I had hardly grasped in the short window between losing my power and losing my soul. But there was a certain pleasure in bringing shape to the world with my hands instead of by my will alone.

Stretching, I reluctantly rose from the bed and surveyed the room. The broken chests I'd salvaged from that structure were symbolic in a way. I was broken, in ways I still didn't understand. But I was free. The voice was gone. Whatever it was that Tam, Tim now I suppose, had done had seen to that. He had seemed regretful at the act, but could I see him again, I would thank him for the gift. It was his remorse that told me there was an unknown cost to this freedom, but it was a cost I gladly paid in ignorance.

Taking my quiver from the wobbly weapon rack I'd salvaged, I slipped it over my shoulder and picked up my bow. It was lucky the world had not consumed these remnants from my past, as it was unlikely I could have managed to put their like together again. I'd also found a wooden boomerang in a chest some time ago. But it was damnably hard to use without the Builder's power, and I had not taken the time to work out the way of it yet.

I decided to leave the climbing supplies I'd gathered, as I had no intention of traveling below the surface today. I would enjoy the sun and travel towards the collection of structures the Builder had erected. Now that he and the Nurse were no longer alone, the Builder had taken the time to construct more dwellings for the companions his actions brought into the world.

Stepping out from the cave, I foraged around for a mushroom to sate my hunger when it inevitably arrived, and upon finding one, started towards the structures.

Squirrels made their way along the treetops above me, and the occasional slime popped its way through the forest, oblivious to my passing. I kept my eyes out for a small pink slime in hopes that my old friend might make an appearance, but if she were watching, she did so beyond my view. I knew that my once friends struggled with the corruption of the world, and that without a change lingering, or the draw of the Wall of Flesh, it was unlikely they could act of their own volition. This did not stop my wishful thinking however, and so I continued to spare that small attention to my surroundings as I walked.

The first of the structures came into view. It was the home given the Merchant, Kristian he was called, and it was no more inspired than the Nurse's home had been. Approaching it I noted he was out, and sparing no more than a glance at the interior with some minor jealousy at the new bed within, I continued on to the Nurse's home.

She was home, as often was the case, and she smiled at my approach.

"Hey Gaul, what brings you out of your cave?"

I returned the smile. Kathryn was more at ease these days than she had been in past. This was due in part to the loss of her memories from before her arrival in Terraria, but it was the same for all inhabitants of the land. I had no memories of a life beyond the fabric of this world, and it was impossible to know if I had lost something from the time before my eternity of enslavement.

"I have come to see how the Builder progresses," I answered her.

It was a strange conflict of desires that drove me these days. I had spent so long watching for a Builder that would end the cycle, that I found myself lost when I realized that though it still guided my actions, it was no longer a matter that concerned me. I was free of the Wall, and without that presence, the end of this cycle meant an unknown change to everything I'd known for most of an eternity. And I couldn't care less.

"He's been gone for a few days now," Kathryn said, "and he's begun exploring the corruption, so I'm a little concerned," she added.

"And the merchant?" I asked.

"Kristian," she emphasized his name, waving her arm in a loose gesture towards the east, "is exploring the nearby hills. He claims to have seen someone in a purple hat while out a few days ago, and he's intent on seeking them out."

"The Travelling Merchant has begun to visit it appears," I said almost to myself.

"So there's actually someone out there?" she asked.

"I believe so," I answered, "though I have not seen him myself."

"Well that's a relief, I was beginning to wonder if he had imagined it."

"And yourself?"

"Hah, I'm trying to figure out how to distill the healing power of the mushrooms into a tonic," she stated.

"Have you attempted to bind it with gel?" I asked her.

She frowned at me, "Slime slop? You want me to try and blend mushrooms with slime slop?"

I shrugged, "It is the way-"

"Of this world, yeah, yeah," she muttered, "I don't think I'd want to drink that concoction."

"It is fortunate that the Builder will most like be the one to consume it then," I responded to her distaste, tossing her a silver coin I had scavenged from below.

Her eyes briefly glowed with her power and she pocketed the coin, "So that you may see it come together," I answered the question remaining in her gaze.

"You know he's got a name," she changed the subject with the hint of a smile returning.

"I am aware that he refers to himself as-"

"Guile," his voice interrupted our conversation.

"Speak of the Builder," I chuckled to myself, though I knew this would not be a pleasant conversation.

As if in response to my thoughts, a wall of stone rapidly came into being between myself and the buildings I had come to see. He had become even more confident in his skill it appeared.

"Gaul," the Nurse spoke on my behalf, "was coming to see how you were doing."

"You are not welcome here," he said to me, speaking as if the Nurse had not spoken.

"I am quite aware of your misguided-"

A shaft of stone jutted out from the wall in my direction, stopping just short of touching me. There were limits to his power, and yet he still insisted on attempt to cow me.

"Leave," he threatened, though we both knew it to be a hollow threat.

My time with the Wall during his awakening had left irreparable scars on his temperament towards me. No attempt at pleasant conversation would change that anytime soon. Nor would the words of his companions sway his distrust.

"Have you encountered a Demonic Altar in your exploration of the Corruption?" I asked him. For though I no longer had the power of a Builder, some remnant of the presence the Wall exerted over the land remained to me, and I knew he carried some small number of the lenses dropped by the Demon Eyes that came with the darkness.

"He asked where you were," I could hear the shrug in her voice from beyond the wall.

"If you combine lenses at a demon altar," I continued without waiting for his response, "you might be able to find a way to summon The Eye of Cthulu."
Not that I was confident the Builder was prepared for the encounter. Though now that he could fall without fear of corruption, it mattered not whether he was prepared, and it would perhaps inspire him to take more seriously his development.

"You will want to wait until night before using it, though," I added, "And it would be wise to find somewhere free of obstacles, as it is surprisingly nimble for so large an entity, and you will want the freedom to move unobstructed."

There was no response, nor did I expect one. Turning, I walked back into the sparse wood. I had served my role as his Guide, and now I could return to my idle distractions.