Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

William awoke to sun shining down from a blue sky.

The feeling of grass at his fingertips.

A light breeze brushing across his hair.

The sight of trees, tall and thin, with leafy branches and canopies.

When he sat up, he saw the grass around him was completely flat and uniform. Some blades poked up, which waved slightly in the breeze. Some distance away the grass rose up suddenly about maybe half a metre, like a step on a staircase.

He peered closely at one of the trees – it looked like a tree, but at the same time it looked like no tree he had ever seen. It appeared to be composed of lots of multicoloured squares arranged in a grid, reminding him of some sort of old-time video game.

What were those squares called again? Pixels?

William couldn’t be sure what was going on – he didn’t know much, but he was sure the real world didn’t look like this. The world he remembered in his head was one of curves and variety. The real world had buildings and cars and people. Not like these trees, which all looked simplified and the same.

What the real world also didn’t have was giant green bouncing blobs.

His eyes widened as the blob continued to bounce towards him. It hopped maybe once every four seconds, the pixels that made it up vibrating and wobbling in increasing frequency before hopping again, as though it was readying internal hopping muscles.

He was wondering how such a… strange organism, like a pile of slime from some science class, could exist, much less jump around like that, when he realised it had gotten within hopping distance of landing on him.

He was too slow to react. The blob landed squishily against his body, causing him to involuntarily stumble backwards. A stab of pain shot through him, feeling like someone had pinched his arm.

“Ow!” he yelled, taking some steps backwards. He stared directly at the blob. Impossibly, some words appeared above it – ‘Green Slime: 28/28’.

What is this? Words don’t normally appear over things when you look at them.

The blob – the Green Slime – took another leap towards him, but William had moved far enough backwards that it landed just short of him. He was shocked at how high it could jump.

What do I do?

He ducked as the Slime jumped, but to his relief it sailed over his head, landing behind him. So he broke into a run, trying to get as far as he could from the Bouncing Blob of Doom. When he snuck a look behind him he could see he not only seemed to be outrunning it, but it seemed to have lost track of him and was hopping in a completely different direction.

Whew. At least it doesn’t have a death wish for me.

He suddenly ran into something else that felt just as squishy as the Green Slime and got knocked backwards, more pain flashing through his body.

Another slime – this one was blue. And rather fittingly it was labelled with ‘Blue Slime: 50/50’ as he looked at it.

What do the numbers mean? he wondered just as the Blue Slime launched itself at him, again slamming into him with its sludgy exterior. He was again knocked backwards, the very collision repelling him with force. More pain.

The world’s been infested with slimes! HELP!

That was when he got what he wished for.

“Yaaarrgh!” he heard someone yell. From his right.

He glanced just in time to see two people – people! – running towards him. Like everything else in this strange place their appearance looked oversimplified and pixelated, but the sight of living, breathing, and talking people did wonders for the worries rising inside him. The person in the lead was male and dark-skinned, with a mop of strangely pale-green hair. He wore a long brown coat over a blue shirt, gray pants and black boots. The other was female, her skin a light brown, her hair a dark brown ponytail. She wore a pink shirt with an orange heart on it and light blue pants.

The guy was holding out what looked like a pointy orange sword as he charged at the Blue Slime. He thrust out the sword and it made contact. An orange number 5 popped out of the slime and hovered in mid-air for a second before fading into nothingness. As it did, the numbers on the Blue Slime’s label changed to ‘45/50’. A green bar, about 9/10-th’s full, also appeared above it.

The guy’s attack did not stop for a moment. He kept stabbing at the Blue Slime, and more orange numbers spurted out. 5’s and 4’s, once a flashing number 10 appeared. With each attack the numbers decreased by whatever number popped out, and when they reached 0, the Blue Slime disintegrated in a slimy explosion with a squelchy noise. Some objects that resembled pixelated orange coins spurted out alongside a blue ball, which flew into the guy’s body and vanished.

“Are you alright, dude?” he asked.

William snapped out of his amazement long enough to answer. “Yeah.”

As he looked at the guy he saw he also had a label. ‘Sid: 100/100’.

“Did you just wake up too?” the guy – Sid – asked. “You looked like you had no idea how to fight back.”

“I don’t,” William said. “I mean, where did you get that… sword?”

“I had one when I woke up,” Sid said. “And so did Robyn.” He gestured to the girl, who held out a sword of her own. Upon looking at her, William saw she indeed had the label ‘Robyn: 100/100’.

William held out his hand too, and was shocked to find an orange sword just like theirs was also in his hand. When he stared at it, a blue box filled with lines of text popped up.

“Quick Copper Shortsword,” William read out loud. “Five melee damage. Four percent critical strike chance. Very fast speed. Weak knockback. Plus ten percent speed.”

Sid looked confused, then peered at his own sword.

“Oh, wow, I had no idea that happened,” he said.

The girl – Robyn – peered at hers too. “The sword’s not the only thing I have,” she said. “I have a Light Copper Pickaxe and a Massive Copper Axe.”

Sid held out a tool that looked like the sort of thing a miner might use.

“My Copper Pickaxe is unhappy,” he groaned. “That’s sad.”

William found himself holding out his own Copper Pickaxe and then his Copper Axe as well. He wasn’t really sure how he was switching the items in his hand, especially since whenever he switched from one to the next, the previous one would just seemingly vanish into nothingness until he wanted to hold it again.

“So your name is William?” Sid asked.

“Yes,” he said. It suddenly struck him that even though he could remember his name was William, he couldn’t remember anything else about himself.

Who was he in the real world he could remember? He could remember people, adults, kids, teenagers, elderly… but nothing about anyone in particular. Who were his parents? His friends? Was he married? Did he have kids? Siblings?

“You can probably tell from looking directly at me, but I’m Sid,” he said.

“I’m Robyn,” she said.

William nodded again, but wasn’t sure what else to say.

That was when he spotted a fourth person standing some distance away. He seemed to have white skin, wore a pale green shirt and blue jeans.

“There’s someone else over there,” William said, pointing.

Sid pivoted on his feet.

“Oh, great! The more, the merrier!”

William followed Sid and Robyn as they all walked over to the person. He was standing at the edge of a cliff that overlooked a large valley filled with grass, trees, rocks, lakes, and winding rivers. Snowy hills rose up in the distance, their presence hiding whatever could lie beyond it.

If not for the strangeness of this world, William would have almost found the view beautiful.

“Hello?” Sid called.

The person stayed where he was.

Sid stepped right up to him and tapped on his shoulder, and that caused him to turn around. He had brown eyes, and his light brown hair hung over the front of his face.

“Greetings, Sid. Is there something I can help you with?” he asked.

Chapter Text

William took in the strange man’s appearance once again. His label read ‘Andrew: 250/250’. He had gathered that the numbers seemed to be some sort of rating. When Sid had hit the Blue Slime with his sword, it caused the first number to decrease, and when it had hit zero, the slime had died. So the numbers were some sort of life counter, the first number being how much life they had at the moment. The second number was probably the maximum life amount.

But what struck William as odd right away aside from Andrew’s strange response was how much life he had. 250. That was way more than Sid and Robyn, who each had 100.

William at first had no idea how much he had, but when he thought about looking at his life, suddenly he could see it superimposed in a corner of his vision. He had 90/100 life, which was visualised as a set of five beating hearts. He assumed he had only 90/100 due to getting hit by the slimes earlier, right as he saw the counter tick up to 91/100.

So I guess life slowly comes back after awhile. That’s good to know .

“Uhh…” Sid said, “I don’t know what we need help with. What do you think? Andrew?”

“I am here to give you advice on what to do next,” Andrew said. “It is recommended that you talk with me anytime you get stuck.”

“Okay…” Sid said. “What advice do you have?”

“You can use your pickaxe to dig through dirt, and your axe to chop down trees. Just keep hitting them with your tools until they break!”

His language felt strange to William. Andrew didn’t seem like an ordinary person. He was talking as though he was some sort of teacher or instructor.

“Oh. Sounds good, mate. I’ll go try that out.”

Sid held out his pickaxe and began bringing it down into the grass. With the first swipe a square of grassy cover was broken apart, revealing dirt beneath. With two more swipes the dirt beneath was freed, rushing into Sid’s body and leaving a square-shaped hole in the ground. The dirt block then appeared in Sid’s hand – he must’ve picked it up – and he placed it on the ground next to the hole, creating a brown cube sticking out of the grass.

“Huh,” he said.

Robyn tried her axe on one of the nearby trees. It took much longer for anything to happen with the trees than Sid with the dirt block, but before too long the entire tree disintegrated into objects that appeared to be a boatload of wooden planks along with a few acorns. All of these items rushed into Robyn’s body and disappeared.

He turned back to Andrew. “Who are you?”

Andrew stared at William for a moment before speaking.

“I am the Guide.”

Sid stepped back over to the Guide.

“What now?” he asked.

“You can access the crafting menu with your mind,” Andrew said. “When you have enough wood, create a workbench. This will allow you to create more complicated things, as long as you are standing close to it.”

Robyn stepped over to them.

“What do you mean, with your mind? I’m confused.”

While Andrew kept talking, William stepped over to a different tree and chopped it down himself. He felt a rush, like wind, as the wood and acorns all rushed into his body – 47 wood to be exact, and 4 acorns.

It seemed like items that were found in the world could be automatically picked up just by standing near them, and then stored in his… body . And, from the feel of things, without any hindrance of weight or having to carry everything around in his arms. William had no idea how that worked. It seemed to violate all known laws of physics.

When he held the wood in his hand he found he could place it on the ground in a similar way to how Sid had placed the dirt block, which formed a cube of wood.

He tried using his mind to navigate to the ‘crafting menu’, as Andrew had put it, and to his shock it appeared, superimposed over his vision. He first saw where all the wood and acorns were stored – it was a grid of 50 squares, 10 across, 5 down. Named the ‘inventory’, it contained his copper shortsword, pickaxe, and axe in the first three slots in the top row, and then the wood and acorns in the fourth and fifth slots. There were also four slots that were for coins and four more for ammo, and one which had a picture of a trash can on it.

From there he found the crafting menu. It seemed to display a list of items which could be ‘crafted’, and the ingredients each needed. The first was that two wooden platforms could be crafted using a single plank of wood. The second was the workbench, which needed ten wood.

He thought of crafting one, which deducted the amount of wood in his inventory from 46 to 36, and a workbench appeared in the sixth slot of his inventory.

He held it and placed it down on the grass in front of him.

Checking the crafting menu again, he found there was now a much larger list of items that he could craft. Most of them needed wood, including things like wooden furniture, fences, signs, and doors, but what caught his eye was the wooden sword down the bottom, which listed that it dealt 7 melee damage – two more than the copper shortsword.

He wasn’t sure why a sword made out of wood would deal more damage than a sword made from metal, but he crafted one and held it in his hand, then gave it a swing. It curved through the air with a whoosh of wind.

“Oh wow, William’s figuring stuff out quick!” Sid said, stepping over to him.

“I made a wooden sword,” William said. “It deals more damage than our copper swords.”

“Huh. Really?” After some time Sid had crafted a sword for himself.

“Awesome!” he said, then pivoted on his feet. “Hey, Andrew! What should we do next?”

“Once you have a wooden sword, you might try to gather some gel from the slimes. Combine wood and gel to make a torch!”

“Ohh! So that’s what gel must be for then!” Five seconds later Sid was holding a stick with a burning flame on the end.

“This is making me feel like I’m in some medieval adventure movie,” he said.

“Anything else?” William asked the Guide.

“You can build a shelter by placing wood or other blocks in the world,” he said. “Don't forget to create and place walls.”

“A shelter?” Sid murmured. “Why would we need one of those?”

“In… case more slimes start attacking us?” William suggested.

Both of Sid’s shoulders bobbed upwards by one pixel each – a shrug. “Honestly, they’re not that hard to kill. And we’ve got better swords now!”

“Might still not hurt to make one,” William said. “Just in case.”

“Alright. You can do that. I might have a quick look around.”

“Alright.”

After Sid left, William got to work. He chopped down more trees and started placing wood, first starting with walls, and then the ceiling, basically making a big wooden box in the forest.

He noticed some oddities as he built – he could place blocks much further away than his arm could reach. If he held a block of wood and swung it in his hand, it would place itself against whatever block he was looking at, as long as he was standing up to five blocks away from it or so. He also discovered that blocks didn’t fall if no other block was connected to them, which he found especially strange. Gravity didn’t seem to affect everything in this world.

“Weird,” he said.

For finishing touches to the house, he added a door and moved the workbench inside. He lastly crafted four wooden chairs and set them around the workbench. One for him, Robyn, Sid, and Andrew.

Though in honesty, he still wasn’t sure what to make of Andrew. The Guide didn’t seem to have any tools of his own, and didn’t try to or offer to help with construction.

Robyn mostly stood guard, attacking any slimes that got too close to where William was building. She chopped down a few trees herself and helped with some of the walls, but didn’t do or say much else.

William himself wasn’t too sure what to say either, internal thoughts still dwelling on big questions. Like, how ? And why ? How were they here in this world, and why were they? These were questions he had no answer for, and he had no real way of knowing how he could find answers to them.

It was shortly after the shelter was complete that William noticed the sun had been moving across the sky all day, and was already beginning to set, which felt strange, since it didn’t feel like a full day had passed. He wondered if days went faster in this strange world.

He took a look at the shelter from a distance. It wasn’t anything special, just a wooden block in the forest. He felt like the next thing he should do was make it look nicer, things like adding a sloped roof, or maybe some more rooms or storeys first. But for now, this would keep the slimes out. He hoped.

Sid got back shortly after.

“Have you seen the sun is setting?” he asked.

He hadn’t. William took a look at the sky, and noticed he seemed to be correct. He’d been so focussed on fighting off slimes and building that he hadn’t even noticed how fast the sun had been moving – he could have sworn it had been much higher in the sky, and in the other direction, when he’d first looked. Were days that much shorter?

“I figured once it got dark,” Sid said, “I wouldn’t be able to see, and I’d get lost.” He took a look at the shelter William had spent the day creating. “Looks good, dude.”

“Thanks.” 

“I didn’t really find anything out there except some more slimes.”

William nodded. “Well, let’s go inside.” 

He supposed that spending time just now building up the shelter had been a good thing. If more slimes came for them at night, they wouldn’t be able to see them that well.

Or what if… there are worse things than slimes? What kind of monsters of the darkness came out in this world? Vampires? Ghosts? Boogeymen?

Robyn and Andrew the Guide were already sitting on two of the chairs inside the house. Sid sat next to Andrew first, so William took the remaining empty seat next to Robyn.

As the sun lowered itself below the horizon, the outside world became too dark to see, almost a black void, as though the inside of the house, lit by torches Sid had placed, was the only thing in the world.

“You should stay indoors at night,” Andrew said. “It is very dangerous to be wandering around in the dark.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re doing,” Sid said.

Right as he said that William heard a rotting, ragged growl.

Chapter Text

William’s first reaction to the sound was to tense up.

“What was that?” he cried.

Andrew got up from his chair. “How about I go check?”

He was almost to the door when Robyn shouted, “Wait, NO!”

The Guide opened the door.

And that was when several putrid, stinking zombies spilled inside.

They all had rotting, pale green skin and were dressed in ragged brown clothing, all smelling like rotten meat and vegetables ground up and left outside for a few months. One had black hair, another had no hair, leaving its brain exposed. The third appeared to have a Blue Slime encasing its entire head, giving it the out-of-place appearance of an alien in a spacesuit.

They lashed out at the Guide, landing several blows that all dealt around 20 damage each. He was knocked backwards but still had over 180 life left, and began walking to the other side of the room.

Sid was the first to lash out with his wooden sword, his blade lashing across all three zombies at once. Robyn and then lastly William joined the attack. William noticed the zombies had around 80 or 90 max life, which was higher than the slimes, and almost as much as him and Robyn and Sid. But they dealt more damage than their swords did – the slime zombie landed a hit on him that brought him from 100 life down to 73.

He grit his teeth. If we get to 0 life, we’re going to die. That was something he hadn’t really thought about before – what happens in this world if they die? He knew how it worked in the real world – actually, nobody really knew for sure. Many religions believed in heaven or some sort of afterlife.

But this world had wildly different rules. Maybe dying wasn’t the end.

Could it mean going back to the real world? he thought with hope. But that thought was superseded by a more distressing one.

Or what if we… really die. For real.

Whatever was the case, he was not keen on finding out.

A few more zombies managed to get into the shelter with the door still open, including one that looked female. Then one stepped in holding a long, bloody claw. It lashed at Robyn, dealing 34 damage.

She cried out in pain and stumbled backwards. William saw why – she’d taken a lot of damage, and was only at 15 life. Another blow would kill her.

“No!” he cried, and leapt at the zombie with the claw, hitting it backwards. The zombie tried to swipe at him but that was when something shot into its face, dealing 7 damage.

It was an arrow.

William risked a glance backwards to see Andrew the Guide was holding a bow in his hand, and was notching another arrow, which shot forward and into the zombie’s face. It erupted into a mess of bloody chunks and body parts with a rasping roar. Several copper and some silver coins popped out and rushed into William’s inventory.

He, Sid and the Guide’s arrows continued peppering the zombies. Sid managed to get the door shut, and then they finished off the remaining undead.

He and Sid collapsed into a sitting position against the wall, panting. Sid was left with 43 life, and William himself only had 28.

“May I suggest crafting a campfire?” Andrew said. “It boosts life regeneration.”

“Thanks for nothing,” Sid muttered. William figured he was mad at the Guide for letting the zombies in, though a few seconds later he had crafted a campfire and placed it down in front of him. A warm, orangey glow began emanating from its roaring flames.

William briefly worried that the campfire could burn their house down, but then again if Andrew knew that, he wouldn’t have suggested crafting one.

Then again, he was stupid enough to open the door and let the zombies in.

Thankfully the shelter did not catch fire as their life slowly regenerated. However, the zombies hadn’t let up on their assault on their shelter. William began to hear the door rattling and thumping, accompanied by groans and growls from the zombies.

“How do you get arrows?” Robyn asked. “I made a bow out of wood earlier, but… there wasn’t any arrows in it.”

“You can make arrows out of stone and wood,” Andrew said.

“And where would we find stone?”

“Sometimes you can find stone on the surface, but given our current situation, you might want to try digging underground.”

Robyn shakily got to her feet and began bringing her pickaxe into the grass floor. Her work was slow, but she soon began digging a hole in the floor, heading underground to find stone.

William thought about helping her, but his mind was more preoccupied with the zombies still banging on their door.

“Do you think they’ll be able to break in?” he asked.

“Don’t worry,” the Guide said. “We are perfectly safe in here.”

Sid stood up, casting a wary eye at the door. It was still pounding violently.

“There must be like seven zombies out there,” he said. “That door’s not going to stand a chance!”

Before Andrew or William could say anything, he had charged outside with a loud “YAAARRRGGHHH!”

For a horrible moment William worried Sid was going to get instantly ripped to pieces by all the grasping hands of the zombies, but he somehow managed to swipe them all aside. Not only that, but as he ran further outside the zombies all turned away from the door to amble after him, leaving the shelter alone.

William ran to the doorframe. One of the zombies was holding a torch, so he could see Sid combatting the horde with his sword. Zombie after zombie got destroyed with his swipes. For a second it looked like he was making headway, until something moving so fast that William barely saw it swooped through the air and knocked Sid on the head.

“Ow! What was that?”

Another one swooped, and this time William saw what it was – a giant flying eyeball. It was grotesque, trails of blood flinging off its retina as it flew. Sid must’ve spotted it too, as he tried to jump to avoid it.

And he did. He soared at least twice his own body height into the air.

“Holy cow!” he cried. “Did you see how high I just jumped?”

He was interrupted by another eyeball grazing his arm.

William ran forward, first cutting through the remaining zombies, including the one with the torch. Thankfully it dropped all 12 of its torches, which he snatched up, though doing so immediately plunged them into darkness. He quickly swapped to one and planted it on the ground, again lighting up the ground around them. Just as he did, an eyeball swooped down from the sky, which he managed to hit away like a baseball. It flew back up and out of the torchlight, seemingly vanishing.

Another flew downwards – this one coloured strangely purple. He missed it, the eyeball grazing his stomach and dealing 29 damage. He did get to see the eyeball’s label – ‘Demon Eye: 112/120’.

“We’re getting swarmed!” Sid cried.

“Head back inside!” William shouted.

Unfortunately, another group of zombies blocked their path. Some Demon Eyes swooped over their heads and towards Sid and William, which they continued to hit away, but they just kept coming back.

That was when more arrows began pouring out from the house, battering the zombies. Most took multiple hits to die, but when the wave fell, William spotted Robyn standing in the doorway.

“Hurry!” she called, firing more arrows, this time at the incoming Demon Eyes.

Sid and William rushed forward, ducking the swooping Demon Eyes, and through the doorway. Robyn slammed it shut.

“Let’s not go back out there again,” William grumbled.

Sid moaned. “Thanks for the save, Robyn.”

She held up her wooden bow and twirled it in her hands. “You’re welcome.”

***

Some time later the sun began rising. William risked a peek outside and spotted the Demon Eyes all flying away, to who knew where, and the zombies also beginning to amble away, disappearing in the shade of the forest.

“I congratulate you,” Andrew said. “You survived your first night.”

“No thanks to you,” Sid said. “You opened the door to let that first wave of zomberts in.”

Andrew seemed to shrug.

“The first night may be over,” William said. “But now what?”

Chapter Text

“We need to make the shelter better,” William said. “So no more zombies or eyeballs can get to us.”

“Perhaps. But I think we should explore the world and see what we can find,” Sid said. “There must be more than trees. I mean, those zombies and eyes must come from somewhere, right? If we find out where they’re coming from, we could put a stop to them.”

“You have a point. But,” William shook his head, “What we need to do is play it safe. You can’t just go rushing into danger. You almost got yourself killed last night when you rushed outside. I’m sure the door would’ve held. The Guide said so.”

“The same Guide that voluntarily opened the door to let the freaking zombies in !” Sid said, his voice rising. “He might be full of information, but he’s not one of us. He’s not human like you and me.”

Not human? “What do you mean? Andrew looks pretty human to me!”

“What I mean is…” Sid sighed. “Never mind. Look, he’s got info, but he’s dumb. You, me and Robyn… we’ve got each other. As long as we stick together, we can survive anything the world throws at us!”

William sighed. “Okay. I’m staying here, though.”

Sid shrugged. “Your loss.” He began walking away. “I’ll be back.”

William watched him go and sighed. He’d better not get himself killed. He turned back to the house and headed back inside.

Robyn’s mining tunnel had gotten even deeper since the previous night. It went deep into the earth, a natural staircase carved out from mining the square blocks, every step of the way lit by torches. At that moment William could see her heading up the stairs towards him, some sort of orange stone was in her hand.

“I found copper ore!” she announced, smiling. She looked around the house. “Where’s Sid?”

“He’s… gone off exploring,” William said.

She nodded, not appearing to care as much about Sid’s safety as William, then turned to the Guide. “Andrew, what can you do with… copper ore?”

“Now that you have some ore,” the Guide said, “You will need to turn it into a bar in order to make items with it. This requires a furnace!”

“A furnace?” Robyn narrowed her eyes. “How do you make that?”

“You can create a furnace out of torches, wood, and stone. Make sure you are standing near a workbench.”

Robyn stepped over to the workbench and crafted a furnace. She set it up against the wall next to the mineshaft entrance. A wave of heat rushed out from the furnace.

“It’s getting a little hot in here, with the furnace and campfire and everything…” William said, trying to pick at his pixelated clothes. It didn’t seem to be possible to actually pull at your clothes in this world.

“Maybe you can make a new room and move the furnace in there?” Robyn asked. “You said you were planning on expanding the house.”

“That’s a good idea. I might do that. Make like a forge. Could make it out of stone blocks too, so it fits.”

She nodded. “Okay. I’ll turn the copper ore into bars.”

She stood near the furnace, and a few seconds later she was waving six copper bars around the room.

“Okay, Andrew… can you tell me what you can make with these?”

She gave the bars to the Guide.

“Oh, wow. He’s displaying a list of everything you can make with copper bars,” she said.

“Yes,” the Guide said. “That is one of my functions.”

Functions? What a strange word. William was once again reminded of how Sid had said the Guide was not human .

Maybe he’s right.

“Looks like you can make Copper Pickaxes and Axes,” she said. “Though we’ve already got those. Not sure why you’d want to make more of them.”

“Unless they wear out or something,” William said, glancing at the pickaxe in his hand. It didn’t seem to be showing any signs of wear and tear… yet.

“You can also make armour,” Robyn continued, “And a watch… ooh, a bow… and an Amethyst Staff…” She paused. “Huh. Apparently there’s two different types of swords. The shortswords we started with, and there’s a broadsword that you can make. Which does more damage than our wooden swords.”

“Huh,” William said. “Then what’s the point of the shortswords?”

Robyn shrugged as she took the copper bars away from the Guide. “Well, I’ve only got six bars. Enough to make a copper broadsword, but not much else.”

“Even if you had more, you can’t actually make most things with metal bars yet,” Andrew said. “You will need an anvil.”

“An anvil?” Robyn muttered.

“You mean like the things that always slam people on the head in old cartoons?” William asked.

Andrew did not seem to understand his comparison. Instead, he just said, “You will need iron bars in order to craft an anvil. Or you can purchase one from a merchant.”

A merchant? William wasn’t sure where they would find a merchant in this world. The world that seemed to be empty of life except for themselves. There were no other people or buildings anywhere else, at least not that he had seen. Just the Zombies, Slimes and those flying eyeballs.

Then again, we’ve barely moved far from where I woke up.

Maybe Sid is onto something with his exploring idea. There could be a town. Somewhere out there. Where we might be able to purchase an anvil.

Robyn held up her pickaxe.

“Well, I guess iron is the thing that I’m going to go find next,” she said, then headed back underground.

William went digging with her for awhile, turning up lots of dirt and stone, but no more ores. At around midday he headed back up to the surface in order to expand on the house while Robyn kept digging.

He decided to focus on defence first, marking out a perimeter around the house using wooden planks, making sure to leave plenty of space for expansions. He then began erecting a wooden wall eight blocks tall on the perimeter, reinforcing it with stone. He crafted grey bricks out of stone at the furnace, thinking they’d probably be stronger than stone. They also looked nicer than the rough stone blocks.

While he was building the sun began to set, and Sid returned at around the same time. He looked different somehow – at first William thought he was wearing a hat on his head, then realised it was actually a nest with a bird in it, resting on his head.

What happened to him? Did that fall out of a tree?

“Heyyo, Willy!” Sid called.

William sighed. Inwardly he still felt a bit annoyed at Sid for almost getting them killed last night.

“I found loads of loot!” he went on. “Like, you see this finch on my head? I found a magic wand thingy that summons it! It attacks slimes and other bad guys, protecting me from danger!”

“Where did you find it?” William asked.

“In a giant tree,” Sid said. “There was a way down to a basement in the tree that contained a chest.”

A basement? A chest? “And… you thought taking everything there was the best thing to do?” William asked. “Did it look like someone lives there? What if that bird belongs to someone?”

Sid shrugged. “Well, nobody seemed to be home or around, not for a long time due to all the moss growing everywhere, so I thought, finders-keepers. Look, if it does turn out someone was there, I’ll give it back. But that wasn’t the only thing!” He took out a long, curved item and threw it up at William. He wasn’t prepared for it, so the item actually ended up grazing his arm for 8 damage, almost knocking him off the wall. The item spun through the air as it returned to Sid’s hand.

“Sorry,” Sid said. “But it’s a boomerang ! Found that in a chest in a random cave. Almost certain nobody lived there. But look, now I can attack enemies from a distance like Robyn can, but without having to use up arrows! The boomerang and finch always come back!”

William groaned and rubbed where the boomerang had struck him.

“Did you at least find any iron?” he asked.

“Nope. Is there a way into the fort? That wall looks too tall to jump over. Good work on it Will – gotta keep those zombies out. Though… heheh… it’s also keeping me out.”

William shook his head. “No. Go work on your own instead of running around looking for treasure like a pirate.”

Sid’s face fell. He frowned. “Alright.” He headed off, in the direction of the setting sun.

Chapter Text

William was standing outside within the walls when Robyn returned.

“Find anything?” he asked.

“A bit more copper, but no iron.” She looked around the tall walls that surrounded them.

“The walls will keep the zombies out,” William explained.

At that moment he spotted a Demon Eye flying down towards them – he had placed torches all along the top of the wall, so he spotted it long before it reached them – and at that same moment an arrow from Robyn shot into it, knocking it off-course.

“Have you seen Sid?” Robyn asked.

William hesitated. “Yes,” he said. “But… he left.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Why would he do that? He’ll get killed out there.”

William shrugged. He’d been mad at Sid gallivanting on his own quest and stealing things from chests, but truthfully he was already regretting sending him away like that – he hadn’t considered what Robyn would think. And now he wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell her he had been the one to tell him to leave.

He jumped up some wooden platforms built into the side of the wall and peered over the edge. There was no sign of Sid.

He and Robyn headed back underground, digging separate tunnels, though William wasn’t working long before he heard Robyn call, “I found a cave!”

He headed straight for her and stepped into the cavern. The walls were built from a mix of dirt and stone, along with some veins of red clay in the ceiling. Some ancient-looking ceramic pots were scattered throughout the cavern, which dropped various items when smashed including torches, some rope, and one contained a Lesser Healing Potion.

They shuffled through the cave, Robyn placing torches. A Red Slime tried to jump upon them from a crevice in the ceiling, but William fell upon it with his sword, Robyn shooting it with arrows, and it quickly split into gel. They soon came across a small pond, and William spotted a large vein of white ore on the other side.

“Could that be iron?” he muttered.

He pulled out some wooden platforms and built a bridge to the other side. Robyn pulled out her pickaxe and dug away at the ore.

“It’s not iron,” she said. “It’s silver.”

“Silver?” William repeated.

“At least there’s a lot of it.”

They mined up the whole vein, and were about to return to the surface to show it to the Guide when William spotted something through the crevice that the Red Slime had fallen from.

“It’s some planks of wood,” he said.

“Down here?” Robyn muttered.

William was just as confused. Planks were a man-made material, which could only mean one thing…

He felt the rope that had come into his inventory from the pots they’d smashed, and tried throwing it up at the crevice, but that just caused it to come out as an item on the ground. That wasn’t what he’d wanted to do. 

Robyn involuntarily picked it up, and she must’ve thought he’d thrown it on purpose, for she said, “Good idea.”

She placed one of the ropes on the ground, then another on top, and kept placing them, going upwards, eventually looking like a fireman’s pole stuck up in the middle of the cave. When she grabbed onto the rope, a strange wooden tool with wheeled spokes appeared in her hand, latching onto the rope.

“Okay…” she murmured, then she began rising up into the air, the tool carrying her upwards along the rope. With her other hand, she kept placing more rope, going further upwards and into the crevice.

William grabbed the rope himself. The way this rope  stood freely without needing something to latch onto was definitely something that wouldn’t make sense in the real world, but it had already been well-established that this world had different laws of physics.

When he got to the top, he was faced with what appeared to be a wooden house. Definitely man-made, but abandoned, from the looks of the chunks torn out of the walls, floor and ceiling, and the cobwebs growing all throughout it. Robyn stepped forward, swiping the webs aside with her sword. The cobwebs turned into items that rushed into her inventory.

“I hope there aren’t spiders here,” William muttered.

“Me too,” she said. “They give me the creeps.”

“Same.”

She smiled slightly. “At least I’m not alone in that.”

He found himself smiling back. “Yeah.”

The house had a set of steps made from wooden platforms that led up to a second level. On that second level were two things that ended up interesting both William and Robyn.

The first was the golden treasure chest sitting in the corner of the room.

The second was the painting, which resembled a vase of sunflowers. The painting triggered some sort of… memory, in William. No, not a memory, something in the general knowledge of the real world he had in his mind.

“That’s Sunflowers,” he said, pointing. “A painting by Vincent Van Gogh.”

The look that flashed across Robyn’s eyes told William she was coming to the same realisation. “Oh my god, you’re right. What’s it doing in this place?”

William wasn’t sure.

She bent down at the chest. Her touching it caused it to automatically open.

“Huh. This chest has an inventory,” she said.

“What’s inside it?” William asked. He remembered Sid had mentioned finding a few chests in seemingly abandoned locations.

Was this a regular thing in this world? Finding treasure chests in random, abandoned locations, ripe for the taking?

The more time William spent in this world, the more it seemed that was the case.

“A Precise Band of Regeneration,” Robyn said, pulling it out. It was a red bracelet with a heart design on its side. She tried sliding it onto her wrist, and it slid up and around her upper arm.

“There’s also some arrows,” she continued, “Some more healing potions, some… recall potions, and quite a lot of silver coins.”

Looking around the house again, William said, “I wonder who built this house?”

“Whoever did, I don’t think they’ve been here in… perhaps years,” Robyn said. “Do you think this means… we can take everything in here?”

“I think you might be right,” he mused, thinking once again about Sid.

As well as everything in the chest, they also took the Sunflowers painting. The item was indeed labelled ‘Sunflowers’, though its painter was listed as ‘W. Garner.’ William had no idea who that was.

Upon returning to the surface it was dawn, and William decided to start expanding on the house itself. The first new room he built adjacent to the existing shelter, out of grey brick, and he placed the furnace inside as well as the gold chest from the underground house.

He then built two more rooms, creating a second storey and adding a staircase in the first room. He put the sunflowers painting in one of the new rooms and a table and chair facing it. He wasn’t yet sure what to do with the other room, but his thoughts were interrupted when he heard someone knocking at the front door.

Andrew seemed unwilling to answer, just sitting in the first room like always, so William opened the door, thinking it was probably Sid.

It wasn’t. It was a man with a long grey beard, a brown coat, and beret.

“Sword beats paper! Get one today!” he said.

William stared at him.

“Who are you?” he asked. All he could discern was that the man’s label read ‘Gilbert: 250/250’. The same amount of life as Andrew the Guide. Still, that told him nothing about who this man was.

“You want apples? You want carrots? You want pineapples? We got torches!”

William shook his head. “That’s not answering my question.”

“Check out my dirt blocks; they are extra dirty.”

He groaned. He turned to the only other person in the room and yelled, “Andrew!! What is this man doing here?”

“That, my friend, is the Merchant,” Andrew said.

The merchant? William felt like Andrew had mentioned a merchant at some point.

“There are a number of different citizens that can move into our town,” Andrew said. “They can be attracted here through a variety of different means. For example, I believe Gilbert here arrived because you have gathered plenty of money.”

William himself didn’t have a lot of money, only a few silver coins. Though he remembered Robyn had said there’d been quite a lot of silver coins in the chest they’d found underground. Had that been enough for Gilbert to arrive here?

“In addition,” the Guide continued, “Each citizen needs a room to live in, which needs to contain a chair, table and light source. If there are spare rooms and the requirements for a citizen to arrive are satisfied, they will move straight in.”

William looked back to Gilbert, who had already moved through the doorframe and seemed to be staring at the wall. He realised that when he’d made the room with the Sunflowers painting in it, he had put a chair and table in, and some torches as well. That counted as a room, so that combined with Robyn’s money meant Gilbert arrived.

This world is strange , he thought. Real life certainly didn’t work like this – random people didn’t show up invading your house if you built an extra room.

“Well,” William said, “If he’s a Merchant, what does he… do?”

“The sun is high, but my prices are not!” Gilbert said cheerfully.

William held out his hand, and suddenly his inventory popped up. This time in addition there was a list of items that the Merchant was selling.

He quickly skimmed them. Some he had seen before, like a copper pickaxe and axe, torches, arrows and rope, but a few he hadn’t, like the mining helmet, piggy bank, and –

“An anvil !” William exclaimed. He ran over to Robyn’s mining tunnel and yelled down it, “Robyn! This guy’s selling an anvil!”

She quickly ran back upstairs and checked the Merchant herself.

“It costs fifty silver,” she said. “I’ve got sixty-five silver right now. Should we get it?”

“I don’t see why not,” William said.

Robyn bought it, and set it down in the forge room next to the furnace.

“We’ve got nine silver bars. That’s enough to make either a broadsword or a bow.” She clicked her tongue, thinking for a moment. “I’ll make you a sword.”

“Okay,” William said. “Then let’s go back underground and get some more silver for a bow for you.”

Before they did leave, he headed to the room he had left empty and set up a table and chair for the next citizen.

Robyn and William dug deeper, eventually uncovering another cave. This one was bigger, comprising of a network of tunnels that wound in numerous directions. Some more slimes – these ones colored red and yellow – attacked them, as well as some small, flying cave bats, but they fought past all of them with little trouble. William felt like he was getting good with the sword, especially since his new silver broadsword dealt so much more damage than the wooden one.

The ores they mined consisted of a fair amount of copper and even some iron, as well as some green-speckled rocks that yielded emeralds.

The highlight, however, was undoubtedly the life crystal.

It was a red, heart-shaped crystal that hovered in mid-air just above the rocky ground. William smashed it with his pickaxe, and the life crystal rushed into his inventory.

“What does it do?” Robyn asked.

“It reads, ‘Permanently increases maximum life by 20’,” William replied.

“Ooh! That sounds useful.”

William smiled. He held it out. “You can have it.”

She looked surprised. “Really?”

“Yeah. I got the new sword.” He threw it on the ground. “You can have this.”

“Thank you,” she said as she picked it up.

There was a ‘ding’ noise as she held it in her hand and swung it in the air. A green number 20 rose up from Robyn, and her label changed to ‘Robyn: 120/120’.

“Awesome.”

Deeper into the cave, they came to a deep hole. Nothing but darkness could be seen beneath, but on the other side the tunnel continued onwards.

And William could spot some shining yellow ore on the other side.

There was no question what that was.

“Gold!” he exclaimed, placing down platforms to build a path across.

He was not expecting to get hit while halfway across and fall off, into the dark chasm.

Chapter Text

He landed hard, losing half his life. It was pitch-black down here – the only light came from where he’d fallen from above. He heard a growling sound – the same as a zombie.

Oh no! There’s zombies down here!

He desperately put down a torch so he could see. He spotted something shooting through the air and jumped to the side just in the nick of time.

Then the object’s thrower stepped into the light.

Not a zombie. It was a skeleton, wearing nothing but a faded golden chestplate. Its eyes shone red in the light, and it opened its mouth and roared.

It then made a throwing motion with its arm, and another projectile – a sharpened bone – shot forward.

William dodged again, and swiped out with his silver broadsword, dealing 7 damage to the bag of bones. Much less than what the sword was listed as dealing – 11 – he presumed the chestplate blocked some of the damage.

The skeleton’s bones rattled as the sword struck it, and it yelled out again and tried to run forward, but William hit it again, stopping its charge. However, on its next charge it slammed into him.

He took 44 damage, leaving him on just 8 life. This was the lowest he’d ever been. Pain shot through his entire body, his arms and legs, reminding him that he was in mortal danger.

But he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get out of this one. The skeleton moved fast, was bulkier than him, and even if he tried to run it would just throw another bone at him to end his life.

He was doomed.

He spotted Robyn above, but he knew there was little even she could do. The skeleton had too much life remaining – 106.

“Drink a potion!” she cried.

Of course! They’d found some Lesser Healing Potions in the chest earlier!

He swigged it, surprised at how fast it was – simply holding the potion and putting it to its mouth caused it to disappear. He felt a bitter-tasting liquid fill his mouth, and his life was somewhat restored, up to 58. He’d be able to take another hit.

The skeleton didn’t stop its attacks for a moment, of course, but he felt a bit more confident. He attacked again, swiping at the skeleton over and over. Arrows from Robyn above also rained down, many planting themselves into the skeleton’s skull. Each blow knocked it back a few steps. It was slow going, but he quickly found a good timing in his swipes to keep the skeleton away.

That was when another mob hit him from the side. It was a black-colored slime, so dark that it was almost invisible against the grey stone.

He grit his teeth, his arms rushing with adrenaline. Somehow he knew he was going to stand no chance against both of these foes at once.

“Try the Recall Potion!” Robyn yelled from above.

That had been the other type of potion they’d found, but somehow in that moment William couldn’t remember what they did. But he trusted her. He held up one of the cyan-coloured potions and drunk it.

There was a bright blue flash of light and a sound like some sort of electronic machine charging up. Next thing he knew, he found he was lying on his back in the forest. At the exact same spot where he’d first appeared.

Robyn appeared next to him in a similar blaze of blue particles. She’d also drunk a potion.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

He groaned.

***

The walk back home was painful and arduous – he was only left on 25 life. He tried drinking another potion but found he couldn’t for some reason. Its icon was crossed out in his inventory, but he was too mad at himself and that fact to wonder why.

He should have known that trying to mine underground would be just as dangerous, if not more, than trying to explore the surface.

He got back to the shelter just as the sun dropped below the horizon, and sat down in a chair opposite the Guide.

“Fat lot of help you were down there,” he grumbled.

It was then that he noticed who was sitting next to the Guide. Another new citizen – this one was female, wearing a white shirt and a hat with a red plus over a blonde ponytail. A Nurse, obviously. He could guess what she did, but he didn’t feel like using her services. He wanted to remember this pain, so he would know to never step outside the safety of their home again.

***

Next morning William didn’t want to head underground again.

Robyn tried to convince him to go, but he was hearing none of it. She just nodded and went down by herself.

He paced around the outside of the shelter for most of the morning. He didn’t even feel like expanding on the house, and it was because of one question on his mind.

What was the point ?

There seemed to be nothing in this world except for monsters trying to kill them all.

In the real world, William was sure he’d never been as close to death as he had been yesterday. He’d never had to fight zombies or have lethal bone projectiles get thrown at him.

But that had all happened to him in the days since he and the others had woken up in this world.

And he suspected it would continue to happen.

Until they all died.

That was when someone wearing a fur coat and a helmet that looked like it had belonged to a Viking landed in front of him.

It was Sid.

“I’m back, Willy!”

He groaned. “Can you not call me Willy?”

“Sure thing, Willy.”

William groaned again. “How did you jump over the wall?” he demanded.

Sid patted a bottle filled with icy snowflakes that was strapped to his waist. “This bad boy is the Armoured Blizzard in a Bottle. It lets me double-jump, just like in a video game! Watch!” He jumped up, then impossibly jumped again while still in mid-air, a spray of fine white snow shooting out from his feet. He easily soared higher than the wall that William had worked so hard to build.

“I went to those snowy mountains on the other side of the valley,” he continued. “Spent the first night there freezing in an icy cave, no thanks to you. But I survived, dug deep, mined some gold, killed some Flinxes, and I made this!”

He held out a staff with a curved end that was coated with a poof of light purple fur. The fur glowed, and suddenly one – no, two – creatures appeared beside him. They looked like big balls of light purple fur with legs and noses.

“Thanks to my new fur coat,” he boasted, patting his attire, “I can summon two creatures! I outnumber you now! And I say that means I’m in charge!”

William shook his head. “I built everything in this shelter. That means it’s mine.”

“Just because you made it doesn’t mean it’s always going to be yours,” Sid said, his eyebrows furrowing. “Especially if someone stronger than you comes to take it away!”

He pointed his staff, and the two purple furballs charged at Sid. Each time they rammed into him he took 8 damage. He tried to hit them away, but they just kept coming back. He tried to rush for Sid, but a quick glance told him that he definitely didn’t stand a chance – according to his label Sid had 200 life now. That meant he’d found five life crystals! How had he found so many when he and Robyn had only found a single one?

He grit his teeth and sliced at Sid, but to his dismay his weapon only did 5 damage. He was armoured.

In response Sid held an icy boomerang and threw it forward. It slashed across his face, dealing 17 damage.

“Do you surrender?” Sid asked as the boomerang returned to his hand.

“Guys! Stop!”

William craned his neck and spotted Robyn running towards them.

“Why are you attacking him, Sid?” she asked.

“He refused to let me into the fort when I last came,” Sid said. “So I’m letting myself in by force!”

To emphasise his point Sid threw his boomerang at William again. His life dropped to 24.

“You can’t kill each other over something like this!” Robyn screamed. “We’re the only three real people we’ve seen in this world!”

“I’m sure he’ll just come back to life if he dies,” Sid said. “That’s how videogames work.”

Another boomerang strike. His life was now at 9. One more hit would kill him.

“A videogame?” Robyn asked inquisitively. “What makes you think this is one? I mean, I don’t know much, but I do know there’s no such thing as fully transporting yourself inside one!”

“Perhaps, but I can’t think of any other reason,” Sid said. He took a glance at William, seemingly sizing up how much life he had left.

“Don’t do it, Sid,” Robyn pleaded. There looked to be tears in her eyes, little blue pixels forming in their brownness.

“I’ll prove it,” Sid said, then threw the boomerang one last time.

In response William drunk another Lesser Healing Potion.

His life shot up to 59, allowing him to survive the blow that would have killed him.

“That’s enough, Sid,” William said. “We don’t know what happens when we die in this world, yes. But at the same time, we don’t know the answer to that question in the real world, either. What makes you think you have the right to take someone’s life just to answer the question? The question that you could be very wrong about?”

“You don’t want to be a murderer, Sid,” Robyn said. “Do you want that on your conscience?”

Sid looked between them, seeming to consider.

“Fine,” he sighed.

William exhaled. He looked up at the sky, which had darkened due to the setting sun.

It was at that moment that he had a chilling feeling, as though an evil presence was watching him.

Chapter Text

Still looking at the sky, he spotted a large, shadowy form passing in front of the moon.

“What was that?” Robyn asked.

So William hadn’t just imagined it.

“Look, there it is!” Sid said, pointing.

William spun around and spotted it again for a brief moment before it dipped down into the trees. It looked to be round and bulbous, like a Demon Eye.

But there was no way it could appear that big without being close enough to be visible in the torchlight.

That meant… it was really big.

That was when it crashed through his wall.

Bricks and planks flew everywhere as an immense, bulging eyeball shot forward. Its iris was a deep blue, its pupil a dark mauve. Bulging veins of blood ran across its sides towards its back, where like the smaller Demon Eyes they were used to seeing, patches of blood flung off from its retina.

A label popped up on it. ‘Eye of Cthulhu: 3640/3640’

It had over three thousand life.

They were doomed.

The Eye slammed into William and then Sid behind him, knocking both of them over like bowling pins. William took 29 damage, leaving him with 17 life.

“William, use the Nurse!” Robyn cried, getting out her bow. He noticed she’d upgraded it to an iron one. “I’ll go fight that thing!”

He ran inside. Since it was night-time, all of the citizens had gone to sit or stand in their respective rooms. He ran past Gilbert the Merchant and into the Nurse’s room.

Looking at her label, he saw her name was Emily. “Can you heal me?” he asked.

She cocked her head, then splayed out both arms. “Dear friends, we are gathered here today to bid farewell…” she dropped her arms. “Oh, you’ll be fine.”

He smiled. “Okay, then fix me up!” He thrust out his hand, expecting it to open up her shopping interface like with the Merchant. He saw one option – that getting healed would cost 80 copper.

He did it, and felt all the pain in his wounded body instantly subside.

“I managed to sew your face back on,” the Nurse said. “Be more careful next time.”

Sarcastic sense of humour. Nice.

“Thank you,” he said, before dashing outside.

He saw Robyn was running along the wall, shooting arrows at the Eye. They appeared to have been tipped with flames, lighting up the sky and setting the Eye on fire. Tiny little number 1’s constantly emanated from it as the fire burnt it, but overall it was barely making a scratch. The Eye still had over 3000 life.

Sid was throwing his Ice Boomerang at the Eye, and his purple fluff-ball-summons were chasing the Eye along the ground, jumping at it, but for the most part the Eye was flying too high for them to reach.

William looked down at his own Silver Broadsword and realised he was going to have the same problem. He didn’t have a ranged weapon of his own for the Eye.

“William!” Sid called.

He spun to him just in time to see his icy boomerang flying towards him. But it wasn’t spinning – it had just been dropped in item form.

Sid was giving him his boomerang.

William snatched it up. “Thanks!” he yelled.

“No problem! Just help us take it down!”

William took a quick look at the Ice Boomerang’s label – it dealt a whopping 16 melee damage. Way more than his Silver Broadsword.

He threw the boomerang at the eye. It struck it in the cornea and spun back into his hand, and he threw it again.

Sid ran for the Eye and drew a sword of his own. He jumped up, and using his double-jump he was able to slice into the Eye’s side.

“Attack me, monster!” he shouted.

He got his wish – the Eye charged for him, but that proved to be a mistake. On the Eye’s part. Once the Eye got close enough to the ground the two purple summons jumped up and bit at it with their… noses? Beaks? Whatever they did, they dealt a decent amount of damage to the Eye, more orange numbers than William could count flashing up.

The Eye flew back up and began shooting smaller eyes from its iris. One flew towards William – he had a split second to notice its label – ‘Servant of Cthulhu: 12/12’. A throw of his boomerang hit it out of the sky.

The Eye made another charge, this time at Robyn. To his horror, she wasn’t able to get out of the way in time, and got knocked off the wall, landing on the outside.

“Robyn!” William cried. He ran for the wall, bringing his copper pickaxe through the wood layer, then the stone layer. On the other side he saw Robyn was trying to place torches to light up the area while dodging the miniature Servants of Cthulhu.

William ran towards her and began slashing the Servants out of the air with his broadsword.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said as she continued to shoot arrows into the Eye. William turned to throw his boomerang in the same direction, noting that it was about to get put down to 2400 life.

But that was when the Eye stopped suddenly and began spinning around in mid-air. With an ear-splitting roar, the iris and pupil were shed from its face, revealing an open maw lined with razor-sharp teeth. Four or five Servants flew from its mouth as it transformed, which barrelled towards William and Robyn.

“Eeeek!” Robyn screamed.

William sliced the Servants out of the air. One managed to hit him, dealing 24 damage, but that same one also dropped a red heart upon being sliced in half. The heart flew into William like an item, but instead of being added to his inventory it healed him for 20 life.

Uh… thanks?

The Eye pointed itself at them and charged forward, roaring again as it did so. William and Robyn jumped out of the way and ran back towards Sid.

“It’s got some sort of second phase!” Sid cried. “Be careful!”

Right as he said that the Eye suddenly shot forward much faster than it had before, additionally roaring at a much higher pitch. It slammed through William and Robyn, damaging them by about a third of their life.

The three of them continued to keep fighting the Eye in the night. William and Robyn had to use the Nurse twice each during the fight due to the Eye’s frantic dashes hitting them too many times, while Sid, who had more life, tried his best to keep the Eye focussed on him. The Eye was soon almost continuously dashing frantically, moving so fast Robyn could barely hit it with her bow, and it didn’t help when Sid’s summons got distracted by a random zombie that had wandered over to where they were fighting.

This was the longest fight William had ever been in, and he’d even stopped looking at how much life it was on, his mind on two things only – throw his boomerang at it and make sure it didn’t crash into him.

But before too long, the Eye exploded into blood and slabs of retinal substance, Sid having dealt the killing blow with another double-jump-assisted sword strike. It additionally dropped a load of healing hearts, some sort of red-and-black item, and what looked like a shield but with its open mouth plastered onto the front. All the items rushed into Sid’s inventory, as he had been closest.

William exhaled. He had never been in a fight that had boosted his adrenaline so much, not even when he’d encountered that skeleton in the underground. He was shocked they had all survived. The Eye had been the most powerful foe they had fought so far, coming from basically out of nowhere with little warning.

But they had done it.

They had defeated the Eye.

***

“You should have the Shield of Cthulhu, William,” Sid said once they’d regrouped inside.

William stared at him. “Why?”

“Because I think you’ll need it the most,” he said, handing it to him. “You went into this battle with just a sword and no life crystals to your name. If you’re going to be living out your knight-in-shining-armour fantasies, you’re gonna need a shield.”

William chuckled. “Thanks.”

He held it up and inspected it. It read that it could be used to dash into an enemy, which dealt 30 damage. On first trying it he crashed straight into the opposite wall of the room – he’d grossly underestimated how far the shield would let him dash. The impact didn’t hurt like it would in the real world – only getting hit by an enemy seemed to hurt in this world.

If I’d had this when facing that skeleton, I might not have needed to drink a Recall Potion! he thought with a smile.

Sid chuckled and stood up from his seat. “I might as well depart for greater adventures,” he said. “You can keep the boomerang too – you used it very well.”

William stared at him for a moment before shaking his head.

“I’d like you to stay, Sid. After we took down the Eye, I… had an epiphany. It’s that… we’re never going to be safe anywhere. The Eye tore through the wall like it was nothing. And I feel like… we’re only at the beginning. Stronger beings will come after us.

“The only way we were able to take down the Eye was because the three of us all worked together.” William gestured to Sid and Robyn, then looked directly into Sid’s brown eyes. “You were right, Sid. Holing up in the fort until the end of time isn’t the way to go. We will have to go into the great big world out there, in order to become stronger, so we can defeat anything else that comes after us.”

Sid smiled and extended his hand.

“Stronger forever?”

William took it. “Stronger forever.”

Chapter Text

It was raining.

Robyn stood on top of the wall encircling the base, her new golden bow humming as she shot arrow after arrow into the slimes that were constantly falling from the sky.

Both William and Sid were on the ground, William’s blade cutting the slimes to pieces while Sid’s Flinx summons attacked them. There were green, blue, and even purple slimes, which may have numbered many, but individually were easy to take down.

“How much longer is this going to keep going?” Robyn heard William groan as he ducked a hopping Purple Slime.

“It’ll keep going until it stops,” Sid said. “At least we’ll have lots of gel for torches after all this.”

Robyn glanced around, her eyes blinking through the rain. It was then that she spotted something big and blue in the distance.

“Guys!” she called. “What is that ?”

Sid and William both turned to where she was pointing.

It looked to be an enormous Blue Slime, making immense leaps into the air as it came towards them. A large golden crown studded with rubies and other gems rested upon its slimy dome, marking it as some sort of king. Embedded inside the slime appeared to be a figure dressed in dark clothing. 

This… king slime must’ve swallowed them up recently, she thought.

Robyn aimed her bow into the sky and fired, the flaming arrows arcing through the air and into the King Slime, setting it ablaze. Sid’s Flinxes were the next to rush forward, biting at it. As the slime took damage, blobs began falling off it, which formed into smaller Blue Slimes. Some of them had spikes on them, which leapt towards William as he charged and shot their spikes at him.

He held out his shield and dashed to the left, dodging them. The Shield of Cthulhu he now held allowed him to move with the speed of the Eye from which it had come. He then dashed forward, the sharp mouth on the shield colliding with the Spiked Slimes to damage them. But then the King Slime made a massive leap, landing against him.

“Dang! He just dealt 60 damage to me!”

“Keep your distance!” Sid yelled.

William dashed away, hurling his Ice Boomerang backwards and hitting one of the Spiked Slimes. He began twirling his Flaming Mace – a new weapon he’d recently found in an underground chest – and flung it towards the slimes. The massive iron ball bowled through multiple of them, damaging them all and setting them on fire.

“How much health does that thing have?” Robyn yelled. She was too far to see its label.

“Less max than the Eye did,” William said. “Right now it’s down to 2100.”

She kept pouring arrows into the King Slime. It had gotten closer now, maybe fifty blocks away from the wall. At the same time, it looked like it had gotten… smaller, as though all the damage they dealt that caused Blue Slimes to fall off it was causing it to shrink. However, its smaller size meant it became lighter and more agile, hopping towards the wall faster and faster.

Before too long it had reached the wall, and tried to jump up and at Robyn. She walked backwards, intentionally falling off the wall, dodging the King Slime which only landed on top.

1500 health, she thought. We can do this .

She noticed one of the new citizens stepping out beside her. It was Durim the Demolitionist, a dwarf with a big red beard and a golden mining helmet.

“It’s a good day to die!” he yelled at the King Slime, lobbing an explosive grenade up at it.

Sid jumped onto the wall next to the King Slime and directed his Flinxes at it, however the king only jumped over them and landed on Sid.

“Ow!” he cried. “You weren’t kidding about that damage, Will!”

William climbed onto the wall and flung his mace at King Slime again.

That was when it vanished, appearing to implode itself into nothing.

“Where’d it go?” William shouted.

Right as it appeared right next to Robyn. 

She unintentionally let out a little squeak of fright and jumped backwards, firing arrows into it. 

Get away from me!

Luckily, she managed to avoid getting hit by the King itself, though one of the Spiked Slimes that split off of it managed to shoot a spike into her armoured shoulder, dealing 36 damage.

Robyn jumped onto one of the platforms attached to the wall and then jumped again on top of the wall.

“It’s almost down!” Sid yelled.

700 health.

Many arrows, mace throws, Flinx attacks, and dwarven explosives later, the King Slime erupted in a sludgy explosion, its golden crown flinging off. The figure inside seemed to disintegrate as well, leaving only some of their clothes.

William and Sid stepped forward to mop up the remaining Blue and Spiked slimes. Once they’d done so they sifted through the items King Slime had dropped.

“Ninja shirt and pants,” William said. “Increases critical strike chance.”

“Oh, hey, a slime gun!” Sid said. He picked up a blue weapon that looked like a water pistol, and squirted it at William. He was suddenly covered with dripping blue sludge.

“Ow! Hey!”

“Don’t worry, it’s harmless. It says so on its tooltip!”

William groaned. “Whatever you say. There’s also a solidifier and some Royal Gel… it says equipping it causes slimes to become friendly… that could be useful…”

Robyn nodded at the two of them discussing the King Slime’s drops and hopped down from the wall. On the outside. It was time to return to what she was doing before the slime rain had started.

***

She sat at the lake in the valley, holding her iron fishing pole, a line cast out in the water among reeds and water lilies.

Fishing was something she was fairly certain she had never done in the real world, though without any memories of her past she had no way of knowing for sure. She had noticed one could make a fishing pole out of wood early on, but hadn’t really thought it would be useful at all since the focus at that moment had been on basic survival against the slimes and zombies that were trying to kill them every day and night. But she’d found fishing to be the only real way she could avoid William and Sid.

Ever since that fateful night of the Eye’s attack, she’d found it hard to trust either of them due to what they’d done. Sid had almost killed William, and would have if William hadn’t had Lesser Healing Potions on hand. And William… 

I’m not sure how to feel about him. He lied to me.

He’d said at one stage that Sid had come to their base but then left immediately after, but when Sid had returned, he’d said William had been the one to send him away.

The conflict between them had mostly arisen due to their disagreement on how to approach survival in this world, and thankfully it did seem that, after the Eye’s defeat, they had mended their differences and had come to an agreement.

So why can’t I trust them?

A part of her felt like she must’ve been a loner in the real world, too, which was why she’d come to prefer the solitude she’d found in fishing. Fishing turned out to be a surprisingly lucrative deed in this world, since it was possible to fish up crates that contained ores, bars, and other treasure. One item that she’d managed to get from a crate just after returning to the pond after King Slime’s defeat was a Tsunami in a Bottle – which seemed to be another double-jumping accessory similar to Sid’s Blizzard in a Bottle.

The others didn’t mind Robyn fishing, only seeing the returns of her efforts, namely the aforementioned crates and the fish itself. While there didn’t seem to be a thing as starving to death in this world, the fish could be cooked and eaten to provide what Sid described as a ‘buff,’ that increased their general health regeneration for several minutes.

But for Robyn personally, fishing was a time of peace and quiet, a time when nothing was trying to kill her. A time when she didn’t have to talk to anyone.

Until a red-haired lady came running at her screaming.

Robyn almost dropped her fishing pole in fright as she sprung to her feet and took in the woman’s appearance. She had dark skin and wore a teal tank top, blue jeans, and a pair of big brown boots. But the most striking things about her appearance were the big red ears poking out from the top of her head, and her bushy red and white tail that twirled around behind her. 

She looks like she’s part fox.

“Who are you?” Robyn asked. She read the woman’s label – ‘Hayley: 250/250’. A citizen, but why did she look so frightened?

“Oh, thank god!” she cried, “I need your help!”

Robyn tilted her head. “With what?”

“It’s my brother! He’s in danger!”

***

Robyn brought Hayley back to the base, and let her explain to William and Sid what had happened. William was now wearing the ninja armour that King Slime had dropped in addition to the iron helmet he had previously made.

“So… my brother and I were travelling through the Desert,” she explained, “And suddenly this sinkhole opened up beneath us! He pushed me forward, which saved me, but he fell in himself! I wanted to help him, but… like, it’s weird having instincts and all, but the Desert really made me want to run away!”

Robyn watched William and Sid exchange a glance.

“Well, we haven’t been to the Desert yet,” William said. “But sure, we can go there and look for your brother.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you!” Hayley cried, running forward and enveloping him in a hug. William clearly wasn’t expecting it based on the awkward look on his face. Robyn herself felt a pang of… she wasn’t sure what feeling… but something about it put her off Hayley and she wasn’t sure why.

Get a grip on yourself, Robyn. Can’t you trust anyone?

Sid seemed to notice Hayley had a tail for the first time, as he tried reaching out and touching it. Upon doing so she let go of William and spun to him, an annoyed look on her face.

“Oi, staahp pulling on my tail, bro! It’s, like, totally real, and totally hurts when you pull on it!”

“I didn’t pull on it…” Sid mumbled. “I was just wondering… um… why do you have a tail? And ears?”

“I have the same ears as everyone else, you know,” Hayley said, flicking them.

“No, I meant… um…” he pointed up at the top of her head.

“Oh, these ears? Totes better to hear you with!”

He laughed. “Better watch what I say then.”

“So…” William began, still looking a bit frazzled from the sudden hug, “What… type of citizen are you?”

“Well, I, like, looove animals a lot!” Hayley grinned. “I tried to pet this weird looking fox one time, he sooo bit me, and now I became like one!” She splayed out her arms.

“Rad!” Sid exclaimed.

“So you’re some sort of… zoologist?” William asked.

Hayley seemed to consider this before nodding. “You could call me one if you want, though that word’s, like, too fancy. Just put me under ‘Animal lover’!”

“So what do you sell?” Sid asked, putting out his hand to open her shop interface. “Guide to Critter Companionship, Squirrel Hook… Leather Whip. 15 summon damage?”

“The whip is best used if you fight using summons,” Hayley explained. “The sound of the whip will focus where they will attack. If you hit an enemy, it tags them, increasing the damage your summons do.”

“Wicked!” Sid exclaimed. Seconds later he was holding a handle with a brown leather strap hanging from it. He swung it, and the whip snapped out. “Now I feel like Indiana Jones!”

“I have no idea who Indiana Jones is,” Andrew the Guide said, who’d just wandered into the room.

“Oh, heeeyy!” Hayley exclaimed, stepping over to Andrew. “I’m Hayley, the Animal Lover!”

“And I’m Andrew, the Guide,” he replied.

William looked between Sid and Robyn.

“I guess we might as well go check out the Desert now,” he said.

Sid snapped his whip into the air and hummed part of some tune. “Ad-venturrreeee!!”

Chapter Text

Unlike the lush green of the forest, the Desert was a barren wasteland of yellow sand. Cacti dotted the rolling dunes. The only enemies to be seen were some Sand Slimes and Vultures, the latter which would fly up and try to swoop if attacked.

“I don’t see any sign of the sinkhole,” Sid said as they approached a pond of teal-blue water. “There’s this oasis, which is nice I guess.”

William tried chopping down the palm trees that surrounded the oasis. “It’s a different type of wood,” he said.

“Like how the snow biome has boreal wood,” Sid said.

Robyn said nothing, her eyes constantly scanning the horizon both for the sinkhole but also any signs of danger. It was then that she spotted something sticking out from the sand, clashing against the smooth dunes.

“There,” she said, beginning to run towards it.

Sid sped past her – the Hermes Boots he had recently found in a chest underground allowed him to run much faster than either of them.

“It’s not a sinkhole,” he said. “But it looks like a tiny pyramid.”

When Robyn caught up to him she could see what he meant. It looked to be constructed from some sort of sandstone brick, pointing only about four blocks tall.

William got out his pickaxe and began digging at the sand surrounding the base of the pyramid.

“It goes downwards,” he said. “It’s not a tiny pyramid – it’s just the top of a pyramid that’s mostly buried!”

He dug into the sandstone brick. Some time later he broke into a musty staircase that led further downwards. It soon led into a large, ornate room lit with desert torches. It was decorated with yellow banners depicting hieroglyphs. Several pots were scattered across the room along with a golden chest.

Sid smashed the pots to collect the coins and other items within, while William went for the chest.

“There’s a Sandstorm in a Bottle,” he said. He turned to Robyn and said, “Do you want to have it?”

“No need,” she said, then did a double jump using her newly-fished Tsunami in a Bottle, a burst of water spurting from her feet.

“Oh.”

“Looks like you can keep it, Will,” Sid chuckled.

There was another staircase that led deeper into the pyramid, however it led to a dead end after several flights of steps. So the three of them returned to the surface and kept trekking.

“Looks like we’re coming up to the end of the Desert,” Sid said after awhile, “There’s more forest ahead.”

Robyn looked ahead, her eyes blinking in the intense sunlight.

“Hold on,” she said. “Why are those trees… red?”

As they approached the strange red forest the sky around them seemed to darken. It was still day, the sun hanging in the sky, but it seemed like some sort of grey shade was high in the sky.

On closer inspection the grass was red too. Some spiny-looking bushes grew in patches alongside the trees, which sported dead-looking grey trunks and ragged red leaves.

“I don’t like the look of this place,” William said. “It’s giving me goosebumps.”

I feel the same, Robyn couldn’t help thinking. The entire place looked like something had consumed the flesh of an entire forest and regurgitated it inside-out.

“Hey, look! There’s eyeballs in that cave!” Sid exclaimed.

“Ew!” Robyn screeched softly.

Sid stepped into the cave, which was more like an overhang than a cave. Inside the eyeballs that he’d pointed out were resting on mounds of some sort of fleshy substance. He snapped his leather whip at one of the mounds and it burst apart in a squelchy noise, dropping some coins.

That was when Robyn heard a loud, guttural roar. The very sound caused her stomach to drop.

“Uh… guys? We should get out of here,” she said.

That was when a creature stepped into the daylight.

It looked humanoid, with fleshy, naked skin, its malformed head elongnated, its jaw the size of its torso. It had a single, empty eye, which looked to be the size of Sid’s face. Its label read: ‘Face Monster: 140/140’.

Eeuuwww!

“Run!” William shouted.

Sid sent his Flinxes after the Face Monster to slow it down while the three of them ran back the way they’d came, towards the Desert.

“Incoming!” Sid cried.

Robyn looked up just in time to see a flying monster overhead. This one was named a Crimera, and it had a teardrop-shaped body with spines all along its side. Its eyes and mouth sat at the base of the teardrop alongside some nasty-looking curved horns.

She aimed her bow upwards and fired, one flaming arrow knocking the Crimera for a spin. Luckily, they didn’t face much more resistance before escaping back into the safe dunes of the Desert.

“What the heck is that place?” William groaned.

“I don’t know,” Sid said. “My best bet is, it might be where the Eye of Ka-choo-choo came from.”

William and Sid hadn’t been able to agree on how to pronounce ‘Cthulhu’ after the Eye had invaded, so they’d just invented their own pronunciations.

Robyn glanced back at the crimson forest, and her eyes were drawn to a splash of green standing out amongst the red of the forest and the yellow of the sand. It looked to be a slim woman, with long, bushy hair the colour of grass.

“Guys?” Robyn said, glancing at the others. “There’s a woman there.”

William and Sid spun around and looked where she was pointing.

“I don’t see anyone there,” Sid said.

Robyn looked back. The woman was gone.

What? I swear, she was right there!

“Whatever,” William said. “Remember, we’re looking for Hayley’s brother. He fell down a sinkhole in the Desert. We should keep looking around.”

A sandstorm began whipping up as they continued. The sound of whistling wind ran through Robyn’s ears along with particles of sand. She squinted to try to keep it out of her eyes and struggled to keep her footing, the wind itself trying to push her in the other direction. A rolling tumbleweed slammed into her, dealing 55 damage.

“We need to find shelter!” William shouted over the wind.

“You’re the builder!” Sid yelled. “We could build our own!”

“Oh! Yeah!”

He quickly erected a wall of wooden planks, which Sid and Robyn crouched behind. Another tumbleweed – apparently enemies named Angry Tumblers – rolled past them, but Sid’s Flinxes knocked it to the side.

William soon managed to encase them in the wooden box, now protecting them from the sandstorm.

“Let’s wait it out, then keep searching once it’s over,” he said.

Sid laid down on the rough sand. “I might take a nap until it’s over.” He pulled his viking helmet down over his eyes and lay still.

Robyn sat against one wall, bringing her knees up to her chin, her eyes on Sid. Days and nights cycled much faster than they did in the real world, meaning there was no real way for them to get any sort of sleeping schedule or even to sleep for long periods of time. So the three of them had begun just trying to get some rest whenever they could. But at that moment she was too tense to rest, her mind still going through the creepy crimson forest they had found.

William sat on the other side of the shelter and faced her. “How are you feeling, Robyn?”

She grumbled. “Fine.”

He nodded, taking off his iron helmet.

“I feel like something’s been bothering you,” he said.

She tensed.

“You don’t… really talk much,” he went on, “And especially not much since we took down the Eye. At first I thought it was because of how… powerful it was, because of the fact that we all almost died, but… Look, I just want to make sure you’re alright. Living in this world is hard when everything’s trying to kill us.”

Robyn stared at his blue eyes. What he was saying did make sense. But it wasn’t the Eye of Cthulhu that scared her. Not completely, anyway.

“Sid almost killed you,” she blurted. “And you lied to me.”

William stared at her.

“When did I lie to you?”

“I…” she hesitated. “When you said Sid went away… you never told me… you made him go away…”

William sighed. He shuffled in his sitting position over to her right.

“I admit I was a bit of a jerk at first,” he said. “But Sid and I… we’ve agreed on a common goal now. To get stronger so that whatever this world throws at us, we’ll be able to take it down.”

Robyn sighed.

“Are you worried… about us fighting again?”

“No,” she said. “I’m just…”

She wasn’t sure what to say. That she didn’t trust them? Because of the lie, and the fight?

“Sid thinks this whole world is a videogame,” William said.

She had kind of gathered that from when they’d been fighting.

“He told me the reason why he thinks that is because of how the world is set out,” William went on. “Like, think of all the treasure chests we’ve been finding. If we found a treasure chest in real life, someone would have had to put the chest and everything in it there. But in a videogame, he said, the items inside can just be… randomly placed.”

“Oh,” Robyn said softly.

“He also said he thinks citizens like Andrew the Guide aren’t real people. They’re just people designed and placed in this videogame. All the slimes and other monsters we’re fighting, too. He says they’re all like NPCs.”

“NPCs?”

“It stands for something… can’t remember what he said, though.”

“Do you believe him?” Robyn asked.

He threw a glance at Sid.

“Some bits of what he said might be right,” he said. “But I think this world is more than a videogame.” He looked back to her. “You said it yourself. You can’t transport yourself inside one. Not yet anyway, technology in the real world that we know of isn’t that advanced.”

Robyn looked down at her knees. “Why is it that we can remember certain bits of the real world but can’t remember anything about… ourselves?”

William sighed. “I don’t know. Not even Sid has an answer to that one. But what I do know is that we’re all in this together. That means we have to look out for each other.”

Robyn glanced at him. He looked to be a mixture of ease, but also apprehension.

There was a lot in this world that they could come to understand. 

But the bigger questions… they were clearly affecting him.

Chapter Text

When the sandstorm let up, it turned out their shelter was right next to the sinkhole.

Fifteen blocks across, the walls made of layered orange sandstone, looking to become harder in substance the further it went down. Robyn could hear squeaks of some sort of creature down below, but she couldn’t see anything… yet.

“Hayley’s brother must be down there,” Sid said.

“So will a boatload of enemies, no doubt,” William muttered.

“We’ll be careful. We’ve got a bed.”

Sid had discovered at some point that beds could be used to set your ‘home point,’ which was the spot where you would appear after using a Recall Potion. By default their home point was back in the forest near home, where they’d first woken up, so Robyn, William and Sid had all set their home points to the shelter next to the sinkhole. Therefore, if things went horribly wrong down in the sinkhole, they could just drink a Recall Potion and teleport back up there, then heal up and head back down again.

The sinkhole sloped steeply down, but the three of them were able to slowly traverse downwards by dropping down each ledge. William placed torches, while Sid got out his Flare Gun and shot some flares downwards.

The flares lit up the sinkhole in a cylinder of light as they flew downwards. Robyn thought she saw something spindly, with lots of legs and claws, get illuminated on the way down, but it went even further before hitting a sandy bottom.

Was that a spider? Please don’t be a spider.

They carefully climbed down to the bottom of the sinkhole. Once there Sid fired more flares in each direction. Some only hit close-by walls but a few shot down tunnels made from hardened sandstone. One landed next to what looked like a collection of bulging white sacs.

Eggs? Ewww!

She began feeling like she was shaking, worried that something was going to leap out of some dark crevice and gobble them all up for breakfast.

“What are those?” Sid said, placing torches to light up the entire tunnel, oblivious to fear as always. Robyn reminded herself of how Sid thought this entire world was just a videogame. This probably explained why he had a complete lack of fear at that moment.

“It might be best to leave those… things, alone, Sid,” William said.

Robyn inwardly agreed with him but said nothing.

Sid ignored him and hit one of the egg sacs with his whip.

A tiny, grub-like creature burst out and leaped an impossibly large distance forward. Sid dodged to the side, seemingly anticipating it, but the grub latched onto William.

“Agh!” he cried, swinging his silver broadsword.

Robyn aimed her bow but was afraid to fire, in case she hit William.

Sid’s Flinxes rushed forward, and began biting at the grub, knocking William over but also pinning the grub so it couldn’t escape. The two of them easily overpowered it and it soon died, bursting into a couple of silver coins.

“Why did you hit that?” Robyn demanded.

“Hey, we didn’t know what they did! What better time to find out than when nothing else is attacking us?” Sid replied.

She groaned. That makes sense, but I don’t have to like it.

“Let’s just find Hayley’s brother and get out of here,” William said. Having had that grub biting all over him, he looked as shaken as she felt.

The tunnel had led to a dead end, so Sid elected to blast further downwards with some bombs. There turned out to be another cavern not far beyond, this one similarly tube-shaped, except there was another underground house inside. It was made from the same sandstone as the surrounding walls, making it blend in with the cave more, however its cubic structure still made it stand out. Inside was a sandstone chest containing an ornately-decorated weapon named the Storm Spear. William picked it up, and gave it a swing. It launched some sort of electric pulse forward.

“That looks quite shocking ,” Sid said.

“Ha ha,” William muttered sarcastically.

“People better watch out, you might just charge into them.”

“Okay, that’s enough jokes, Sid.”

It was at that moment that Robyn spotted something charging out from the darkness, and she shrieked.

It wasn’t a spider, but it was still a creepy-crawly, completely unlike any she’d ever seen. It ran on four spindly legs, had two massive clawed jaws at its front, and two red eyes.

Robyn tried shooting it with her bow, but while it did some damage it did little to slow its charge. It eventually slammed into her, its claws raking across her silver chainmail, dealing 46 damage to her.

William ran and attacked with his new Storm Spear. He kept stabbing it forward, the weapon’s attack combined with its electric shocks being able to keep the creature at bay, and eventually destroy it. It dropped some of its claws upon death, which rushed into William’s inventory.

“What was that thing?” Sid said.

“It was called an Antlion Charger,” William muttered.

Robyn breathed. “Thanks for saving me, William.”

He smiled. “You can always count on me, Robyn.”

Something about the way he said that made some sort of tingly feeling rise inside her.

“Let’s move on,” Sid said.

They kept on moving through the spindly tunnels. A few more Antlion Chargers attacked them, but they mostly came at them alone, and the combined weapons of the three of them were able to take them down before they could do any real damage. Sid dispatched any more eggs they found as well. They also came across a strange type of cactus that was round, shaped like a boulder, and when Sid tried picking it up with his pickaxe, it came loose from the ground, rolling right over him and dealing a whopping 169 damage. It was lucky he had the most health out of all of them.

“Okay, never touch those things,” he groaned. “Got it.”

Right at that moment two Antlion Chargers came rushing out of the darkness.

“Cactuses!” he cried. “I’m still low!”

“We’ll cover you!” William said. “If they get too close, use a recall!”

He rushed forward with his Storm Spear while Robyn shot arrows into the Antlions. One of them was larger than the other, with 220 max health, but they soon managed to take it down.

William spun around and he suddenly pointed. “Sid! Behind you!”

“Aw, nuts!” Sid snapped out with his leather whip at two more Antlions that had come up from behind him. These ones had bodies shaped more like a dragonfly’s and whirring wings reminiscent of one. His Flinxes leapt up and bit at them, and the two flying Antlions soon fell.

Sid then deftly spun around, shooting Flares in all directions that weren’t lit. One of the flares uncovered a tunnel with three more Antlion Chargers and a flying Antlion rushing towards them.

To make matters worse, Robyn began hearing the sounds of scraping in the walls, sounding oddly like a train chugging, and a sand-coloured worm emerged upwards right in front of her like a cobra popping out from a basket. She screamed as it arced forward, its clawed mouth scraping her copper helmet, before digging back into the ground behind her.

“We’ve got to take cover!” William cried.

The three of them ran in the other direction, eventually reaching a dead end. William quickly built up a wall of wooden planks, blocking the Antlions from getting to them. That didn’t stop the sandworm, though when it dug its way out of the wall William slashed his Storm Spear through its side, quickly cutting it to pieces.

Sid got out his pickaxe and dug through the sandstone, emerging into a brightly-lit cavern just as something smacked him in the forehead.

“Ow!” he cried, rubbing his noggin.

Robyn’s eyes fell to the object that hit him. It looked like –

“A golf ball?” Sid groaned. “What is a golf ball doing down here?”

“Oh. That might’ve been me. Heheh,” a voice came.

Robyn looked up to see a man dressed in a green-and-white vest and a white cap. He was holding out a golf club and had several more strapped to his back. And his skin tone looked about the same as –

“Are you Hayley’s brother?” William asked.

“That I am,” the Golfer said. “The name’s Madison. Harry Madison.”

“I’m William and this is Robyn and Sid,” he said, pointing at each of them in term. “Hayley came to us and told us you fell down a sinkhole in the Desert.”

“Ah yes, that did happen,” Harry said. “I wandered off-course and fell into a golfing hazard I never imagined I’d encounter. Been stuck down here in this sand pit for days. It’s a good thing you can get water out of cactus, though truthfully it has been getting a bit boring just playing the same hole over and over again. Look, I’ll show you.”

Before any of them could say anything Harry had stepped over to a white tee stuck in the sandy ground and placed a golf ball on top. He then struck the ball with his club, and it flew across the cavern, ricocheting off some bones and fossils sticking out of the floor, ceiling, and walls, before hitting a flagpole and dropping straight into the hole.

“See? That was my seventeenth hole-in-one in a row.”

“Yeah, we get it,” Sid said. “Good news for you is, Hayley sent us to find you, and here we are.”

“Oh. Great!” Harry said. “I kind of know the way back up to the surface, but could never climb back up. I came from over there.” He pointed to a crevice in the wall on the other side of the cavern.

“We came from just here,” William said, pointing backwards with his thumb, “I guess we went different ways.”

“Though our way is blocked by a cactus-load of Antlions,” Sid said.

Harry smiled and nodded knowingly. “Then we should head through my way.”

***

Harry’s path up to the surface started out claustrophobic but thankfully there were no Antlions in the tight spaces, and no more sandworms came after them. They soon emerged into another sandstone house.

“I sheltered in here for a little bit,” Harry explained, then pointed to the house’s chest. “I drank all the healing potions in there already.”

Sid heaved it open.

“A Snake Charmer’s Flute,” he said. “In the words of Indiana Jones, ‘Snakes? Why’d it have to be snakes?’”

“I tried that out earlier,” Harry said. “It summons some rope snakes that go up into the air. Though it’s a bit useless down here when all the tunnels have such a low ceiling.”

William picked up the painting that was in the room with his pickaxe.

“Andrew Sphinx,” he read.

“Andrew?” Sid said. “I wonder if that has something to do with Andrew the Guide?”

“Well, I remember what a sphinx is in the real world,” William said. “The painting kind of looks like one. Except it’s got something green on top. Looks like a hat.”

The four of them kept moving, heading up an ascending set of tunnels. Robyn brought up the rear. At one point when they were clambering along a wide ledge that sloped upwards, a pitch-black drop beside them, she cast her eye backwards.

“Uh, guys? There’s Antlions coming up behind us!”

William spun around and threw his Ice Boomerang, hitting one of the flying Antlions that was pursuing them. Sid hit a nearby cactus-boulder with his pickaxe, sending it rolling down the slope, where it subsequently crushed three ground Antlions in a row.

Robyn started shooting at the flying Antlions with her bow, but one of the flying ones rattled its jaws and flew at her. She screamed and jumped to the side, causing it to swoop straight into William’s mace.

“I’m not the type to scream and thrash around just because my ball lands in the water,” the Golfer said, placing a golf ball on the ground. “I stay calm, and collected, and focus on the next shot.”

He struck it, and the ball bounced between the bodies of each of the flying Antlions, damaging them. It even hit some of them twice.

“Come on!” Sid yelled.

That was when Robyn spotted more Antlion Chargers coming from ahead of them. One slammed into her, knocking her backwards and off the ledge they were standing on.

“Robyn!” William cried.

She landed in darkness. All around her she could see egg sacs and hear the obnoxious clicking noises of Antlions. When she held up a torch, she could just see at least two or three pairs of red eyes.

She couldn’t help it. She cried out, tears of fear coming to her eyes.

“Robyn!” William yelled again. “Use a Recall!”

She would have but one of the Antlions leaped out of the darkness and into her, knocking her over. She’d been knocked down to 36 health.

No! No! Nooo!

The Antlion screeched at her and made to charge again, but an icy boomerang hit it.

That was all the push she needed. She grabbed a Recall Potion and drank it.

Suddenly she was in the shelter they’d built earlier, lying next to the bed.

She groaned, all the adrenaline still coursing through her body, but she knew she was safe. She realised at that moment something like this had happened before, but it had been William who had fallen, and she had been the one to save him.

William! What about the others? Are they safe?

She stood up, drinking a Lesser Healing Potion to restore her health a little, and stepped outside.

Right as she did she spotted something purple rising up out from the sinkhole. It suddenly hardened, emitting a purple glow, and she could see it was a long, thin snake.

Sid must’ve made it to the bottom and used his Snake Charmer’s Flute.

She looked down, and could see Sid, William, and the Golfer each climbing up the rope-snake. At the top they leapt off and onto the edge of the sinkhole.

She laid her eyes on William, who was gasping and panting, probably also from the intense escape they’d all just undertaken.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she blurted.

He looked to her.

“I’m glad you are too,” he said.

At that moment she knew she could trust him.

She could count on him.

***

Upon returning to the base with Harry the Golfer, his sister was overjoyed, pulling him into a hug. Then she hugged William, and Sid and then Robyn.

“Girl, you rock!” she exclaimed.

Robyn smiled. “Thanks.”

That was when the front door of the base swung open.

Beyond was a woman with bright green hair.

When Hayley released her from the hug Robyn stepped forward.

“It’s you!” she exclaimed in recognition. “I saw you back at the crimson forest!”

Sid and William seemed to notice the woman too because both of their eyes shifted to her.

“Yes, I was there,” she said. “I have been observing the three of you for some time, and I think it’s time to reveal myself.” She paused. “And tell you that the world is in grave danger.”

Chapter Text

William eyed Nissa the Dryad carefully. She appeared to be a young woman, but her eyes and the way she poised herself made her seem so much older. Her long green hair was tied in a bushy braid that ran down to her waist. She didn’t appear to be completely human - her body was a strange mix of human skin and lush green vines and leaves that wrapped around her torso, arms and legs.

“So why are you here?” William asked. “Why have you been… observing us, as you said?”

The Dryad leant forward, putting her arms on the table.

“It’s because of the Eye.”

The Eye.

“You know where it came from, then?” William asked.

“Didn’t we already figure that out?” Sid said. “It came from that crimson forest. The same place where Robyn said she saw you.”

“It might have come from there, yes,” the Dryad said. “But that is hardly its full backstory. You know its full title is the Eye of Cthulhu.”

“I thought it was pronounced Ka-choo-choo?” Sid said.

“No, it’s Cthulhu,” the Dryad corrected, saying it like ‘K-thoo-loo.’

“Oh.”

“Why is it called the Eye of Cthulhu , then?” William asked. “Do you know what this… Cthulhu is?”

“Cthulhu was a creature of immeasurable power and unknown origin,” the Dryad said. “Its seemingly sole purpose was to rain destruction on, and to have dominion over, all sentient life that flourishes on the world.

“None could stand against the advances of Cthulhu. The very fabric of the world seemed on the precipice of doom. Until…” she hesitated. “My people arose to wage battle against Cthulhu. We… had an unparalleled connection to the world, so we were truly the last hope against annihilation.

“We were… alas unable to kill Cthulhu. But with our combined power, we were able to cripple Cthulhu’s ability to wreak further damage upon the world, by ripping out Cthulhu’s eyes, part of its skeleton, and chunks of its brain.”

“Ew,” Robyn muttered.

“Ultimately, this substantial damage forced Cthulhu to retreat to the dark side of the moon, where it dwells to this day.”

William glanced out the window, where the moon was visible in the night sky, feeling shivers come over him.

“As for… my people, sadly, they all perished. I am the sole survivor.”

“Oh,” Sid muttered.

“That sounds… terrible,” Robyn said.

“So…” William said. “You’re saying that the Eye that we fought is… it’s Cthulhu’s gouged-out eyeball?”

“Yes,” the Dryad said.

“We haven’t seen Cthulhu, but Cthulhu has seen us,” Sid said.

The Demolitionist, who was passing through, laughed ribaldly at his joke.

“It’s hard to say if the Eye is still acting under influence from Cthulhu or not,” the Dryad said. “But what I can say is that the Crimson is a single emergent being connected to the world, sharing a hive mind.”

“A hive mind?” Sid exclaimed.

“The Eye might have been infused into this hive mind somehow,” the Dryad said. “But at the end of the day, it was still just an eye. Within the Crimson, there are far greater beings. Ones that are behind controlling the will of the Crimson. It wishes to consume all there is, believing doing so will restore balance to the world.”

William clicked his tongue. “Could the rest of Cthulhu’s body parts be in the Crimson too? Like you mentioned his brain and skeleton…”

“Perhaps, but I have been unable to delve deep enough to find out for sure,” the Dryad said. “The Crimson threatens to consume me into its hive mind. I cannot let this happen, for if it were to gain my power…”

She trailed off, but William understood.

“So you need us to enter it ourselves then?”

“More or less. You must do what you can to cleanse this world of the Crimson, before it takes over.”

***

Next morning the three of them were heading off to the Crimson. They crossed the Desert, and soon found themselves in the crimson forest once again.

“I wish we didn’t have to come back here,” Robyn said. “It’s scary.”

William had to agree with her. The last time they’d come to the Crimson, he too had developed a rather uneasy feeling about this place. There was an eeriness about the biome that felt like there were… much more powerful things that could be unleashed.

“Lighten up, Robyn,” Sid said. “It shouldn’t be that bad.”

“Aren’t you scared of what the Dryad told us?”

“Not really. The world’s a videogame, and many videogames have lore written into them. Pretty standard stuff. The Dryad gave us all that exposition, and has basically now sent us on this quest. And I doubt she would have arrived if she didn’t think we were ready. That’s just how game design works.”

William eyed him. He still found all that he was saying hard to believe, but on the other hand he wished he could be as confident as him.”

“Where do you think we should look?” he asked.

“Nissa said she can’t get deep enough into the Crimson,” Sid said. “I guess this’ll be like the sinkhole. We’ll keep exploring until we find what we’re looking for.”

Several Face Monsters and Crimeras attacked them while they explored the eerie red wastelands. It wasn’t too long until they found a large red boulder that towered over them, appearing to be around the same size as the base back home. Hollowed into one side was a tunnel entrance, which appeared to lead downwards into the earth.

“Whatever we’re looking for, it’s got to be down there,” Sid said. stepping boldly forward.

“Be careful,” William warned.

The tunnel was made completely from some sort of bright red stone. Several stalagmites and stalactites that looked like great big sharp teeth dotted the tunnel, which William stepped around. He noticed Robyn, who was keeping watch behind them, appeared to look as anxious as he felt about this place. Sid, as always, confidently strode forward, placing torches on the walls every so often to light their way. One of his torches lit up a spindly eight-legged creature, causing Robyn to scream.

“Die, spider!” he cried, snapping his leather whip at the arachnid and sending forth his two Flinxes. The summons fell upon the spider – named a Blood Crawler – and pulled it to pieces in seconds.

“Come on!” Sid said.

William cast a glance back at Robyn. She was standing completely still, her feet planted to the ground like a tree.

“You okay?” he asked.

He’d been worried about her ever since the Eye had attacked and she’d grown more closed-off from him and Sid. Sid had barely seemed to have noticed this about her, but William had. He kind of had a combination of mindsets from both Sid and Robyn, both an eagerness to explore and grow stronger, but also a general cautiousness of everything. He felt it was down to him to keep an eye on both of them (no pun intended).

“I’ll be fine,” she said, though from the way her voice shook, she didn’t sound like she would be.

“Hey, I found a pile of eyeballs!” Sid shouted from below.

William and Robyn headed down the tunnel to where Sid was standing next to a glowing pile of flesh with eyeballs sprinkled across the top.

“It’s not breaking with my pickaxe,” he said.

“Maybe try a hammer?” William suggested.

Sid got out his wooden hammer and slammed it against the object. Suddenly he cried out as a red number 100 rose from him.

He’d lost half his life.

“Stop!” William shouted. “That thing could kill you!”

A green number 50 popped up from Sid as he drunk a Lesser Healing Potion.

“I’ve got one more idea,” he said, dropping a lit bomb at the base of the object.

After he stepped back, the bomb exploded. Some of the surrounding red stone blocks got destroyed in the blast, however the object, and the blocks that it was resting on, remained unaffected.

“Oh, come on,” Sid muttered.

“Let’s leave it,” William said.

They continued down through the tunnel. It consistently sloped downwards, sometimes making sharp twists and turns, but never splitting off into multiple paths. They passed some more of the strange indestructible eyeball objects, and eventually emerged into a vast crimstone cavern.

“Wow,” Sid said. “This place is biig ,” he said.

“Watch out, there’s Crimeras,” William said, pointing.

“I’ll place down some rope so we can get down. You two fend them off.”

William glanced at Robyn as she began opening fire at the Crimeras. He turned back and hurled his Ice Boomerang at one of them, knocking it backwards. Before too long Sid had placed enough rope to reach the bottom of the cavern, and he jumped onto it and slid downwards.

William came down after him, followed by Robyn. At the bottom he spotted two Life Crystals resting next to each other. Several more tunnels branched off, heading off to unknown destinations. A couple of Blood Crawlers and a Face Monster was heading towards them, but Sid already had his Flinxes after them, and was snapping at the monsters with his Leather Whip.

“Should we split up and cover more of those tunnels?” Sid asked.

“I say we stick together,” William said. He saw Robyn nodding too.

“I’d vote for splitting up, but it seems I’ve already been outvoted,” Sid chuckled.

They picked one of the tunnels and headed down it. A few more Blood Crawlers were in it, though they were again torn to pieces by Sid’s Flinxes, dropping coins and vertebrae. At the end was a glowing red object that resembled –

“It’s a heart,” William said. “An actual, beating heart.”

“Not like those cartoony love hearts that Life Crystals are shaped like,” Sid muttered. “Do you think it might be Cthulhu’s heart?”

William somehow suspected if Cthulhu’s heart really was down here, like what the Dryad suspected, it would be way bigger, but he said nothing.

“I’m going to blow it up,” Sid said, stepping forward. “And I’ll use dynamite since that makes the biggest boom.”

He placed a lit stick of dynamite on the floor below the heart and hurried backwards. It obliterated the heart in a massive blast, also destroying a lot of the crimstone blocks surrounding it, causing them to fall downwards like rubble.

William felt a horrible chill go down his spine.

Sid stepped forward and sifted through the debris.

“Oh, hey!” He held up what looked like a red and grey pistol. “The heart dropped a gun! It’s named the Undertaker!”

“Why was there a gun in Cthulhu’s heart?” Robyn asked.

“Who cares?” Sid said, twirling the gun in his fingers like a cowboy. “This baby’s going to provide me with some much-needed ranged fire.”

The three of them returned to the central cavern and picked a different tunnel. A Face Monster stood guard, but it was easily dispatched by Sid’s Undertaker.

This feels too easy, William thought to himself. Hadn’t the Dryad said something about every creature in the Crimson being part of a hive mind? Surely that meant every enemy in the entire place should be upon them by now?

At the end of that tunnel was another heart, identical to the first one.

“If the first heart was Cthulhu’s, then whose is this?” William muttered.

“Maybe these aren’t Cthulhu’s hearts?” Robyn said.

William was wondering what it could mean as Sid blew up the second heart. He heard intense screams echoing all around them. Robyn covered her ears at the sudden sound.

Who was that? he wondered as he stepped forward. He picked up a weapon that looked like a pike, made from the same material as Sid’s pistol. It was named The Rotted Fork.

“Another spear,” Sid said. “Is it better than your other one that shoots electricity?”

William tried stabbing forward the Rotted Fork.

“It does slightly more damage,” he said. “But it doesn’t seem to shoot anything.” He looked to Robyn and stepped towards her, holding out the Rotted Fork in two hands.

“You can have it,” he said. “Use it if too many bad guys get too close for comfort. Use it to push them away.”

She took it without looking too closely at it, just staring at him.

“Okay. Thanks.”

William was still wondering where the screams from earlier had come from as Sid blew up a third heart.

He picked up the item it dropped – a staff with what looked like a red orb on the end – just as a roar emanated throughout the tunnel.

At that same moment a massive pale red mass appeared in front of him.

“Holy cactus!” Sid shouted, jumping backwards with assistance from his Blizzard in a Bottle. “ That must be Cthulhu’s heart! It’s so huge!”

William stared at it warily, reading its label.

“No, that’s a Brain!” he cried. “The Brain of Cthulhu!”

Right as he said that several flying eyeballs started flying down the cave, peppering the three of them like the sandstorm from earlier.

“Agh!” Robyn cried, flailing her Rotted Fork around in an effort to try to hit the eyeballs, but they all flew past them and began orbiting around the Brain.

“Fire!” Sid shouted, holding out his pistol and firing some rounds into it. Most of them hit the eyeballs – William noticed they were named ‘Creepers’ – but they seemed to hold up very well even to bullets.

“Fall back! Into the cavern!” William yelled.

Right as he began running in the other direction the Brain appeared right in front of him, appearing to fade out of nothing.

He glanced behind him. It was gone, and the Creepers were all flying towards him once again, towards the Brain.

This thing can teleport!

He tried stabbing at the Brain with his Storm Spear, but it did nothing – no knockback, and he wasn’t even sure if it did damage. Then the storm of Creepers rushed through him and the others again, bringing him below half his life. He began feeling like his arms had grown weak, and the world around him began to darken.

No! What’s happening? Agh!

He saw Sid was pointing his gun at the Brain, but no bullets were coming out.

“It’s not shooting! Come on, I still have bullets left!” he cried.

He saw Robyn seemed to be spinning uncontrollably around, arrows flying in almost every direction except the Brain, before flopping down to the ground.

The Brain must be… cursing us somehow! It seemed to be affecting them all in different ways, too.

There was a blaze of blue particles as Robyn disappeared, having drunk a Recall Potion to escape.

“No! Do something! Flinxes!” Sid cried.

The Flinxes rushed forward, but the orbiting Creepers overpowered them, knocking them aside.

“I’ll try this new weapon!” He held out the rod with the red orb on the end, and began shooting out what looked like a bunch of pale red clouds.

“Why aren’t they doing anything?” he yelled.

“Sid!” William shouted. “We need to get out of here!”

“But the Brain!”

“We’ll come back for the Brain! It’s overwhelming us!”

Sid grit his teeth but nodded, before drinking a Recall Potion.

William pulled one out himself and put it to his lips.

Chapter Text

“If Cthulhu’s Brain really is behind the Crimson, there might be no way you can win,” Nissa the Dryad said. “It could anticipate your every move and react accordingly, with the very biome under its command.”

“But we got so far into it!” Sid said. “We blew up three of the hearts down there before the Brain even showed up!”

“The Brain might have anticipated you’d show up and lured you into a false sense of security.”

“We fought a few enemies on the way, but they were almost always alone or in small numbers, and were pretty easy to take down,” William said. “So I think you might be right there.”

“You’re lucky you were able to escape,” the Dryad said.

“You were the one to send us down there in the first place!” Sid exclaimed.

“I was, but I would have thought you would be more careful after what I had told you. Instead, you fell right into the Brain’s trap and almost died.”

“What a scam,” Sid groaned, leaning back in his chair such that his head hung backwards.

William eyed him but kept on speaking to Nissa. “Do you think it will come after us? Like what the Eye did?”

“I doubt the Brain would leave its home,” the Dryad said. “But it could send other beings.”

“Well, we know we can’t take on the Brain,” Sid said. “But now that we know what we’re up against, we can try again!”

“I advise against that course of action at the moment.”

“Nissa is right,” William said. “There’s probably other ways we can get stronger first. Finding more Life Crystals might be a good start. So would upgrading our armour and maybe our weapons too.”

Sid stared at him, but nodded.

“Okay. Let’s do this.”

***

During their travels to the Crimson, not one, not two, but three new citizens had arrived, taking up residence on the second and third levels that William had built on top of the ground floor of the base. Andrew the Guide brought them all out and introduced them to William, Sid and Robyn.

The first was Luigi the Painter, who was a young man wearing white overalls and a red cap, and always carried a paintbrush and bucket wherever he went. The second was Akbar the Dye Trader, who wore colourful, flowing robes and had a purple afro.

The third, and most well-received (by mostly Sid), was Tony the Arms Dealer. He was dark-skinned, with a mop of black hair, wore a grey leather jacket and blue jeans, and had a Flintlock Pistol strapped to his hip.

“As you can probably tell, I sell guns and bullets,” he said, lovingly caressing his pistol and blowing on the end of it. “Might I ask, what class of weaponry do you each specialise in?”

“Class?” Sid asked. “What do you mean?”

“You might have noticed each weapon falls into one of four types,” Andrew the Guide said. “Melee, ranged, magic, and summoning. It’s often a good idea to specialise in one type of class, since many types of armour and accessories are designed with a certain class in mind, and hence benefit people who do so.”

William realised that among the three of them, they kind of had chosen their own classes without ever really meaning to. William had mostly used melee weapons like swords, spears, and his boomerang, because of his desire to protect his friends at close range. Robyn used bows, keeping her distance in a quiet, reserved way. Sid had his Flinx summons in battle, but intent on dealing as much damage as possible, he also used other weapons like boomerangs and now guns to supplement his summons.

“I’m melee,” William said.

“I use bows and arrows,” Robyn said.

“Bows and arrows?” Tony stood up. “They’re wildly outdated.” He stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. William found himself tensing at the gesture. “If you want to try out any of my guns and bullets, I’ll offer you them on the house.” He smiled.

Robyn shook her head and tried to shrug off his hand, but his grip was firm.

William wasn’t having it anymore. He didn’t like the Arms Dealer invading her personal space. “Hands off,” he said, batting Tony’s arm away. “If she doesn’t want your free stuff, she doesn’t want it.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“I’ll take your free bullets,” Sid said, holding out his own gun, the Undertaker.

“Hey, this ain’t a movie, pal. Ammo is extra.”

Sid raised an eyebrow, then sighed.

“Well, what guns do you sell, dude?” He stepped forward, and stuck out an arm to bring up the Arms Dealer’s shop interface.

After looking through it for about thirty seconds, Tony smiled. “I see you're eyeballin' the Minishark… You really don't want to know how it was made.”

“Forty-four gold?!” Sid exclaimed. “That’s outrageous!”

“The best guns fetch the best prices.”

“You mean the highest prices,” Sid quipped.

“Yes. See? Best prices. For me, that is.”

“I hate to interrupt,” Akbar the Dye Trader spoke up. “But upon arriving to your settlement I could not help but notice how overcrowded it is.”

William turned to him. “Is that a problem?”

“Indeed it is! When I’m not doing business, I’d much rather be alone, yes? I hate feeling crammed in!”

“I’m with Akbar,” Luigi the Painter said. “I doubt I’ll like all these people makin’ noise when I’m painting. Plus, the Forest is boring! It’s just green and brown! Where’s the variety?”

“The Forest does not inspire me either,” Akbar added. “Don’t like, don’t like.”

“Well, we set up our base in the Forest because this was where we first… appeared,” William said. “I mean, if you don’t like it here, you are welcome to take your business someplace else.”

Neither Akbar nor Luigi looked very happy with him.

***

William and Sid spent most of the next few days underground, hunting for Life Crystals. They found enough to raise everyone up to 240 life each, though William felt they’d still need way more before they’d have a chance against the Brain of Cthulhu.

They also found William a pair of Flurry Boots in the underground snow biome, which allowed him to run at a very fast speed similar to Sid and his Hermes Boots.

On the third day after losing to the Brain, the Dryad came to William with a status update on the Crimson.

“I have been observing the red grass slowly spreading through neighbouring forests,” she said.

“The Crimson spreads?” William exclaimed.

“It seems so. It doesn’t seem to be capable of spreading through the Desert, so at least it can’t spread directly to your base. But given time, it will go around the Desert and reach your base.”

“How much time?”

“It’s spread is slow, so I’d say at least a hundred days.”

That’s a relief to know, at least. They weren’t in any urgent danger from the Crimson, but it would come for them eventually.

“There are ways that you can slow it down, or even halt the spread altogether,” the Dryad continued. “Using Purification Powder you can purify Crimson-infected blocks. In addition, sunflowers can be planted on grass, and the Crimson will be unable to spread through the grass it is planted on.”

“We could… at least contain the Crimson in that way, then,” William said, though he wasn’t sure if he, Sid and Robyn would be able to do this undertaking. They were all busy doing other various tasks in order to become strong enough to defeat the Brain of Cthulhu.

 “Nissa,” he asked, “Do you think you can plant a perimeter of sunflowers around the Crimson? To stop it from growing too much bigger?”

“I can provide the sunflower seeds, but I will need assistance in planting,” she said. “Either from yourself, or Robyn or Sid.” She put a finger to her chin. “Or perhaps you can look for one or two volunteers among the other citizens.”

That was an idea, one that William hadn’t thought of.

“I’ll ask around.”

“Good,” the Dryad said. Right as William turned to head off, she called, “One other thing, William.”

William turned back to face her.

“There has still been talk among many of the citizens that this area is becoming too dense, in population. I dislike the feeling. Plus, I wish Tony would stop flirting with me. Doesn’t he realise I’m 500 years old?”

It seemed Luigi and Akbar weren’t the only ones with complaints about all the citizens being crammed into this one small fort. It also seemed that Tony the Arms Dealer was trying to hit on every female in the fort, not just Robyn.

“I’m working on that,” William said, though in truth he hadn’t worked on the crowding problem much at all, with all the time he and Sid had been spending underground.

***

“So who do you think would be up for the sunflower-planting task?” William asked.

The Guide clicked his tongue. “Well, if nobody else is willing, I will do what needs to be done.”

William truthfully hadn’t been expecting that Andrew himself would be willing to put himself in the potentially dangerous chore of planting sunflowers to contain the Crimson.

“Aside from the Dryad, I can’t say many of the other citizens are very… nature-oriented, though…”

“Oh, hey, Andrew!”

It was Hayley the Zoologist entering the room. She stepped up to them and smiled. “What are you two talking about?”

“Planting a perimeter of sunflowers around the borders of the Crimson to stop it from spreading,” William said.

“The Crimson? Yech!” Hayley stuck out her tongue, her eyebrows furrowing, “Still, I’d rather, like, not have the homes of all my squirrel and bunny friends be invaded by the mindless Crimson! Can I, like, get in on helping?”

William smiled. “Of course. So far it’s just you, Andrew and –“

“Hey, that’ll be no problem! The two of us will be able to get all those sunflowers down!” Hayley said cheerfully, prancing over to Andrew and putting her arm around him. He smiled but looked a little taken aback by her cheerfulness.

“ Three of us, Nissa the Dryad will be there too,” Andrew said.

“Right. Yes,” the Zoologist said. “But see? We’ll be the dream team!”

“Good to hear,” William said.

He began leading them back to the Dryad. In the next room he found Sid approaching Tony the Arms Dealer.

“Make it quick, Sid. I’ve got a date with Emily in one hour.”

“Woah,” Sid exclaimed. “You’re dating Emily ? The Nurse ? You don’t waste any time, dude!”

“Yeah, yeah, now show me the coin, and I’ll show you my musket balls.”

“Dude, I don’t want to see your – wait, what’s that?” Sid looked confused. “A Forest Pylon?”

Tony shrugged. “It’s not a gun or a bullet but it’s in my shop.”

“A Pylon is something you can place down,” Andrew explained. “It functions as a waypoint, meaning you can teleport from one Pylon to any other Pylon.”

“Oh! Sweet! They’re a bit pricey though… and I’m saving for a Minishark!”

Tony smiled. “I look forward to taking your money.”

“Of course you are,” Sid muttered, then stormed off.

“I should point out a few more things about Pylons before you get too excited,” the Guide added. “Pylons only work if there are at least two or more citizens living nearby.”

“Really?” William murmured. “Anything else?”

“You can only buy and place one of each type,” Andrew said.

“One of each type? What types are there?”

“There is one for each type of biome, and they are sold only when a citizen is happy enough in that biome.”

William looked to the Arms Dealer. If he had to guess, he was feeling pretty happy about going on a date with Emily the Nurse, and also probably due to Sid promising to buy the Minishark from him one day.

“So, there’s a Forest Pylon,” William said, “I presume there’s also, like, a Snow Pylon, and a Desert Pylon…?”

Andrew smiled. “You catch on quick, William.”

***

William stood out the front of the base.

At first he’d tried to keep it neat and nice-looking, building the wall around the outside and then building the blocks of rooms inside. But now looking at it… it looked exactly what the citizens thought of it. A cramped set of apartments.

He’d built the wall, constraining the floor space the base could take up, long before he’d known so many citizens would move in to inhabit the base, so he’d had no idea he’d ever need to plan ahead for their arrival.

It probably is about time we expand on this at last, though, William thought to himself. They’d spent the last week or so on basically nothing but mining and exploring. He hadn’t spent much time building at all lately, only haphazardly throwing together extra rooms on top of the existing structure whenever the rooms all became occupied by citizens. Lately it felt like citizens were arriving faster than he could build new rooms. He hadn’t been able to put any time or effort into anything.

He truthfully missed building.

He supposed he could understand why Robyn kept to herself fishing. It was a peaceful pastime. Just like building.

But the Pylons that Andrew had told him about had given him an idea.

An idea that would not only solve the overcrowding problems, but it would also enable them to quickly travel between all the different biomes in the world.

And best of all, he felt it would finally be an excuse to relax from all the stress and high-adrenaline adventure they’d been on.

Chapter Text

The first thing William did was ask around and see which citizens would be interested in moving to the Desert.

“The Desert would be really nice,” Akbar the Dye Trader said.

“It wouldn’t be my first choice,” Luigi the Painter said. “But I’d prefer it over this boring Forest. I need to get out there and see some different scenery!”

“Ya know, the Desert is secluded and great for business, if you catch my drift,” Tony the Arms Dealer said. He put an arm around Emily the Nurse, and said, “Whattaya say, babe? Would you like to move out to the Desert?”

Emily seemed to blush. “Um… sure.”

Tony gave her a kiss on her nurse cap.

“I guess that settles it,” William said. “I’ll build four houses in the Desert, and set up the Desert Pylon there, while also setting up the Forest Pylon, which I previously bought from Tony, here.”

Which will be one village down. But why stop there?

***

Robyn sat at the lake she frequented, crates and fish piled up beside her.

“Hey, Robyn,” a voice came.

It was William.

She turned around where she was sitting and spotted him padding towards her. He stepped onto the platform she’d built out over the lake and sat down next to her, his legs dangling over the edge.

“How goes your fishing?” he asked.

“I’ve… caught a lot of crates as you can see here,” she said, patting the nearest crate.

“Impressive,” he said.

Silence fell between them.

“I also caught these boots,” Robyn said, raising up one of her feet to show him, crossing her leg across her other leg. They were bright blue and had ocean-blue fins coming off behind them.

“What do they do?” William asked.

“They’re Sailfish Boots. They work like Sid’s Hermes Boots,” she explained.

“Nice. I got one of those myself, from the Snow biome. Flurry Boots.” He raised his shoe and similarly crossed it across his leg, placing the heel against hers. The contact made her flutter inside.

“I…” she trailed off, suddenly losing what she was about to say.

“I wanted to ask you something,” William said. “Well, two things.”

She tensed.

“First, Sid and I have been mining while you’ve been fishing, and we discovered you can make grappling hooks out of different coloured gemstones.”

“Grappling hooks?”

“The Guide said they’re handy for climbing hills or around caves. Anyway,” he pulled two items out from his inventory and threw them on the ground next to him, “We crafted three hooks, one for each of us. Sid took the green Emerald Hook just because it kind of matched his hair. That leaves this red Ruby Hook or the blue Sapphire Hook.”

“I’d like the blue one,” Robyn said.

William seemed to raise a pixelated eyebrow. “That was a fast response.”

“It’s my favourite colour,” she said, looking down at the ground, now feeling a bit embarrassed.

William looked out at the water. “I don’t remember if I had a favourite colour.”

“I’ve kind of decided it’s blue now,” Robyn said. “The colour of the sky at daytime, and the colour of the water where I fish.”

The colour of safety.

She stood to pick up the Sapphire Hook, and William picked up the remaining Ruby Hook.

“I’m hoping next time we face off against the Brain, these will come in handy since we’re fighting it underground,” William said. “Now, the second thing I came to you about. To solve the… overcrowding problem of the citizens in base, I’m going to build some new villages for them.” He motioned off to the distance with one of his arms. “One in the Desert, which I’m about to head off and do, and,” he pointed in the other direction, “One in the Snow biome.”

The Snow biome. “Wow,” Robyn said, almost involuntarily. “I mean… that sounds cool. Creative, too.”

“Thanks,” William said, smiling and looking down at the water. Robyn did so too, staring at their reflections. At his reflection.

“We’re going to link it up with Pylons, too,” he added. “So we can teleport between each village.”

“Cool,” she said again. “So… um, what did you want me to do?”

William turned back to face her.

“I was wondering if you’d be willing to… you know… go to the Snow biome and pick a nice spot for the Snow village?”

“Um…” Robyn hesitated. “I guess I can do that, but… if you’re going to be building the village, why don’t you choose?”

“Because… I guess I don’t want to feel like I’m making all the decisions? I mean, I value your creative input, and Sid’s, too, if you have any…”

“It’s fine,” Robyn said. “I’ll do it.”

***

In truth, one reason why she’d agreed to his request was because she’d begun feeling like she’d caught every type of fish that could be caught in the Forest, and was curious if fishing in different biomes led to different catches. It would also be a nice change of scenery.

The Snow biome was vast, but largely flat, with lots of boreal trees densely packing the area. Some Ice Slimes leaped after her, but they were too slow to keep up with her Sailfish Boots.

She thought back to that encounter with William. The way their boots had touched… something about it made her feel… good? Nervous?

She felt like she was getting to trust him more and more, and she’d realised something about him - of the three of them, it had been her and William who had been more scared of the new world around them when they’d first woken up. But once they’d taken down the Eye, he’d seemed to have stopped being so scared, now with a purpose to work towards: Getting stronger, building up villages, and discovering the answers to the big questions about this world.

Robyn was sure she wouldn’t have been able to handle all that if she’d been on her own, so William both focussing so much on those goals while also being there for her and looking out for her… something about that comforted her.

After some time, she came to a large frozen lake. She spotted penguins sliding across the lake, some of them diving into the water. Framing the lake, to both the left and the right, were sets of mountains that rose sharply into the air, some of them seemingly touching the clouds.

Wow, she thought, This might be a good spot for the Snow village. Especially if built into the side of one of the mountains… imagine the view!

She sat down near a section of the lake where the water was exposed, and cast her line inside.

The cold bit at her skin, but the warmth of a campfire she placed enabled her to tolerate sitting by the frozen lake as she fished. It wasn’t long for her theory that different biomes had different fish to be confirmed, as she pulled up some Atlantic Cod and Frost Minnows. Then she was surprised to find a new type of crate – a Frozen Crate. Eager to see what was inside, she opened it up.

Inside was a pair of Ice Skates.

“These’ll be fun!” she said out loud.

She put them in one of her empty accessory slots. Even though she was already wearing Sailfish Boots, which were logically something else that went on her feet, both items seemed to function. She skated out across the ice, past some of the penguins, then did a spinning jump complete with a double-jump from her Tsunami in a Bottle.

She found herself giggling upon landing.

That was fun! I’m so glad William made me came out here…

She wondered what he’d think of the spot she’d picked out for the village.

Then she was struck with an impulsive wish that William could be here.

Ice-skating with her.

She found herself involuntarily and uncontrollably smiling and blushing at the thought, for some reason she could not explain… unless… no, it couldn’t be…

Her train of thought was thrown off the rails when she slid to the other side of the lake and laid her eyes on what she would come to know as the Dungeon.

It was a dark building, standing out in stark contrast to the white snow all around it. It rested on top of a hill that sloped gently up from the lake. It appeared to have a large entrance with a hanging section held up with pillars, and beyond that, a larger building with battlements.

What is this place? she wondered. They’d found some man-made-looking structures underground before, but none this big. And certainly none on the surface.

She cautiously trudged up the snowy hill towards it, her golden bow held ready. The snow slowly turned into dark blue brick, carved out in a long staircase. Her boots padded on the old brick, and eventually she ascended to the entrance.

There, she spotted someone with their back to her. An old man, fittingly labelled ‘Old Man: 250/250’. He appeared haggard, with wild, long grey hair, a red cloak, and torn blue jeans.

“Hello?” Robyn called.

The Old Man turned around, and Robyn found herself staring into his red eyes.

Glowing with some sort of energy, swirling with darkness.

“Who are you, stranger?” the Old Man asked.

His accent sounded vaguely familiar to Robyn, like something she might hear in the real world. Posh and antiquated, but at the same time gaunt and weary. This man looked and sounded like he’d been under some sort of burden for years.

“My name is… Robyn,” she said, hesitating. “What about you?”

The Old Man said nothing, only raggedly breathing in the cold wind.

“Do you need any… help?” she asked.

“I… do,” the Old Man said, then raised one of his arms and coughed into it. “But not now. Come back at night if you wish to enter.”

“Enter?” Robyn looked beyond him, beyond the entrance of the Dungeon. In the darkness that lay beyond it was impossible to tell what was contained within.

“I cannot let you enter until you free me of my curse,” he said.

Curse? She looked at his unnatural eyes again. The way they glowed red, the way yellow energy seemed to swirl around them.

“Now tell me about you , stranger,” the Old Man said, dragging out the word ‘you.’ “Do you possess the strength to defeat my master?”

“I…” Robyn hesitated. “Not on my own. But my friends…”

“Tell me about your friends then,” he said, stepping forward. His eyes seemed to glow brighter as he got closer. “Do they?” He looked at her slowly from top to bottom, as though sizing her up. Robyn tightened her grip on her bow, in case she had to fire.

“If they stand at a similar strength to you, then you are far too weak to defeat my curse,” he said. He stepped right up to her, only thirty centimetres away, and looked at her directly in the eyes. “Come back when you aren’t so worthless.”

Robyn tore her eyes away from his and ran as fast as her Sailfish Boots could carry her down the hill.

Chapter Text

“You know, I’d really like to use Durim the Demolitionist as a range target sometime,” the Arms Dealer groaned.

“Well, I wanna strap you , Tony, to a rocket and watch what happens!” Durim retorted.

Sid’s eyes flew between them, an amused smile growing on his face. He knew William was currently at the Desert with Akbar the Dye Trader and Luigi the Painter, building the new Desert village, and that when he returned, Tony and Emily would all head over there, and the Desert village would become officially established.

Durim was tossing a stick of dynamite between his hands. “I wonder what happens when I –” BOOM! “Oh, sorry, Sid, did you need that leg?”

When the smoke cleared from Sid’s vision, he took stock of his life – 23 out of 260. He also noticed the entire room around them had literally been blown to pieces. Thanks to there being no gravity for most blocks in this world, the walls and ceiling of the room above them remained standing, but basically everything else near him was toast. Tony and Durim were still alive, both on around 40 or 50 life.

“Well,” the Arms Dealer said. “Just as well I’m the one who’s moving!”

“What the cactus?” Sid moaned. “Durim, did you seriously just detonate some dynamite in the house?”

“That I did,” he said.

Sid couldn’t help himself. He started giggling.

“There, see, he thinks it’s funny!” Durim exclaimed, a wide smile forming across his beard. “It’s living proof that explosives are da bomb around here!”

Tony groaned.

“Eww, what happened to your face?” Emily the Nurse asked as she stepped into what was left of the room.

“Durim tried to blow me to pieces!” Tony shouted, pointing at him.

Emily sighed. “Whatever. All I see are a stitch-load of people who need healing, so here we go again.” She started throwing syringes at the Arms Dealer, who smiled as his life was restored to full, then frowned as she restored Durim’s life to full.

“Hey, come on, he was the one who blew up the whole room! He doesn’t deserve your healing!”

“Maybe not,” Emily said. “I’m getting tired of having to sew his limbs back on every day. Wish he’d be more careful.”

“Whether or not you heal me, I’ve got dynamite! My own special cure-all for what ails ya!” Durim held up two sticks of dynamite in his clenched fists so they looked like dual thumbs-ups.

Emily sighed and turned to Sid.

“You left your arm over there. Let me get that for you.”

Sid chuckled and raised his arm at the Nurse (both of which were still attached to his body despite the citizens’ banter around losing limbs). Seconds later he was fully healed, and got to his feet.

He turned to the Forest Pylon, which stood outside, thankfully having not been obliterated by the explosion, just as it whirred electronically and Luigi the Painter appeared in front of it in a spray of particles. Seconds later William appeared, followed by Nissa the Dryad.

“What the brick happened here?” William shouted once he’d taken in the scene.

Tony pointed his finger at Durim like a seven-year-old. Sid’s eyes shifted to William, just waiting for him to freak out.

“Eh, I was planning on blowing the whole thing up anyway,” William said. “Rebuilding it to look nicer than an ugly wooden block.”

Tony’s face fell. “Well, that’s a load of musket balls.”

“In other news, we’ve got the Desert village set up,” William said. “Four rooms. As Tony and Emily requested, two are connected. Luigi did a great job on painting, and Akbar and Nissa did a great job on decorating it with colourful flowers.”

Nissa smiled and gave a slight bow.

“Finally!” Tony exclaimed. “I never have to see your dirty face again, Durim!”

“And I never have to see your womanising looks!” Durim shouted. Sid noticed the Nurse raising an eyebrow.

“Aaanyway,” William said, “Just step over to the Pylon and use it. Let’s get this over with.”

Tony, Emily and Luigi stepped up to the Pylon.

“Um… William?” Luigi asked, turning to him. “It’s not working.”

“What?” He stepped forward. “What’s wrong?”

“It says ‘Defeat the current threat before using the Pylon network!’”

“Current threat?” Emily exclaimed. “What current threat?”

That was when a short, pale-green-skinned creature draped in lavender robes appeared out of thin air in front of her.

Sid had a split-second to take in its label – ‘Goblin Sorcerer: 80/80’ – when a grenade from the Demolitionist and a gunshot from the Arms Dealer both simultaneously hit it, causing it to instantly die.

“That was my kill!” Tony groaned.

“Nope, I dealt more damage, so it was my kill !” Durim retorted.

“Goblins!” Gilbert the Merchant, who was standing on top of the wall, yelled out.

Sid, William, and the citizens all climbed up the inside of the wall to stand on top.

Sure enough, there was an invasion force of goblins coming straight towards them. Some were large and covered with metal armour. Others were slim, wearing masks, and dashing quickly forward with their knives out. A few more Goblin Sorcerers like the one that had just been blown up/shot were visible, and they each launched glowing purple balls of energy towards them.

“Come on!” Sid cried out, and he cast his Flinxes forward, into battle.

William jumped off the wall, and ran forward with his Flaming Mace swinging around him. He swung it forward, the mace slamming straight through a column of Goblin Warriors and setting them ablaze.

The rest of the citizens got in on the action. Sid noticed the Demolitionist throwing grenades at the army while the Arms Dealer took potshots at them with his flintlock.

“Five!” Tony shouted. “Six!”

“Seven!” Durim cried out boastfully as one of his grenades obliterated a brown-suited Goblin Peon.

The Dryad raised her arms as green light began emanating from her feet. Leaves began swirling through the air in a spherical aura that quickly expanded. When the aura crossed over Sid he felt like his body was being coated with a thin film of energy. The Dryad was helping to protect them.

A line of goblins wearing green hats raised their bows into the air, and fired a volley up at the wall.

“Take cover!” Sid cried, ducking the wave of arrows. He saw Gilbert get struck in the chest and fall backwards off the wall, though he only took 32 damage out of his 250 life. The rest of the arrows somehow missed him, Durim and Tony. One hit Nissa, but she barely got knocked back at all nor took any damage. Sid began erecting some battlement-like walls out of wood for them to hide behind.

“William, take out their archers!” he shouted.

“On it! Have you seen Robyn?” William yelled back.

Sid shook his head. “No!”

He knew she was probably off fishing somewhere. That meant unless she got jumped by goblins too, she was unlikely to be coming back. They’d have to deal with the goblins on their own.

William drove his Storm Spear through the line of archers, strafing from left to right with multiple swipes in order to knock as many of them off-balance as possible. However, the Goblin Warriors began moving forward to block him, and he could tell that with 220 life, they’d each take awhile to take down.

Sid spotted Harry the Golfer sidle up beside him, armed with his golf club. He struck a ball into the oncoming goblins, the ball ricocheting between so many of them that Sid began losing count.

“Show-off,” he chuckled, clapping Harry on the shoulder. His Flinxes were helping William with the Goblin Warriors, and they were slowly managing to bring them all down.

That was when more Goblin Sorcerers began appearing on the wall with them.

The first appeared to Sid’s left, just beyond Durim, who was laser-focussed on the battlefield below. Sid swung his Undertaker around and blasted the Sorcerer in the eye. He fired three more shots before the Sorcerer lost all its health and burst apart into flesh.

Then something hit him from behind, and he fell off the wall on the outside.

He realised a couple of Sorcerers had teleported onto the roof of the base. Durim and Tony both turned around and began firing up at them, though Durim’s thrown grenades fell short.

“I’ll show you!” Durim cried. He jumped forward, but at the same time threw a perfectly-timed grenade below him. It blasted him upwards, allowing him to land on the roof, where he threw two more grenades at each of the Sorcerers, blasting them apart.

“Stop stealing my kills!” Tony called.

“Then stop softening ‘em up for me!” Durim laughed.

Sid ran forward, towards William, and lashed out with his leather whip at the archers. The Flinxes ran towards the archers he had tagged and finished the job, and Sid moved onto the next group of archers.

“I think we’re beginning to do this!” William called.

Sid double-jumped up to get a scope of how much of the army remained.

“There’s still a lot of them remaining!”

“Fall back to the wall!” William said. “Let them get in range of Durim and Tony!”

A golf ball from Harry flew over their heads as they ran backwards, allowing the Goblin Army to advance. Grenades and gunshots began striking the goblins as well. Sid sent his Flinxes back at the front lines, and watched as they bit apart a Goblin Thief, then a Peon and an Archer.

It was then that he felt in his inventory the magical weapon he’d gotten just before the Brain of Cthulhu had spawned – the one that had shot red clouds. Named the Crimson Rod, he’d somehow never tried using it again after it had failed to save them from the Brain, and it had stayed in his inventory the whole time.

Maybe let’s try it now?

He thrust it out, and a round red cloud shot forward. It stopped in mid-air and opened up into a longer shape, and blood-red rain began pouring from it. Some Goblin Warriors were unlucky enough to walk beneath as they stepped towards Sid, and they took massive damage.

This could come in handy.

He snapped his whip, and the Flinxes moved forward. Between his whip, the cloud, and the Flinxes, the Goblin Warriors quickly melted.

He looked up at the crimson cloud again as it kept raining down. Definitely going to be handy. If I use it correctly.

“I see Robyn!” William cried. “She’s attacking them from behind!”

Sid double-jumped up again, and saw some of the goblins at the rear end of the army had burst into blue fire. Robyn was pouring arrows into them that had been tipped with ice torches. Frostburn arrows, and they were dealing hefty damage to the ranks.

“Here we go, boys!” Sid shouted.

***

The Goblin Army began fleeing once a considerable majority of their ranks had been depleted.

“Let them go,” William said. “They know not to mess with us.”

“What if they do come back?” Durim asked.

“Then we’ll be ready for them.”

“The right answer.”

“So how many kills did you get in the end, dwarf? ” Tony asked.

Durim smiled. “Thirty-three. What about you, human? ”

Tony smiled wider as he boasted, “Thirty- five! Oh yeah!!”

Durim groaned. “How did you?”

“I was counting and everything! Ask the Golfer. He’ll tell you.”

Again, Durim groaned.

“Forty-seven,” a new voice came.

They both turned to find Luigi the Painter walking towards them, reloading a paintball gun.

“That’s not possible!” Tony exclaimed. “You weren’t even there!”

“Was I? I was attacking their flanks. Had practically half the army to myself.”

Both the Demolitionist and the Arms Dealer shook their heads, grumbling. It seemed like they finally agreed with each other on something.

Chapter Text

William led Robyn and Sid down the tunnel into the heart of the Crimson, ready to confront the being that had thrashed them the last time they had been here.

It had been a week since the Goblin invasion. That week had been full of mining, exploring, upgrading, building and rebuilding. But now they were ready.

William looked down at his attire and at his two friends. He was kitted out in glittering golden armour – the best possible they could craft at the time. As the one with melee weapons, it was important he had the most defence. He had two swords in his inventory, one newly crafted, the other recently found in a chest on a floating island that he had reached using a gravitation potion, and he planned to use both of them against the Brain.

Robyn was clad in shining silver armour, and held a Tendon Bow in her hands, crafted from Crimtane that they’d gotten from the Eye of Cthulhu as well as the small amounts they’d turned up while mining. Sid still wore the same armour he’d had when they’d fought the Eye – Viking Helmet, Flinx Fur Coat, and Silver Greaves – and was armed with his Leather Whip, Flinx Staff, Crimson Rod, and perhaps most importantly his Minishark. He’d managed to get it at a very low price once the Arms Dealer had moved to the Desert with the nurse. Being in his favourite biome with the citizen he loved the most had brought down his prices.

As for accessories, the three of them had managed to locate a Goblin Tinkerer, named Mrunok, tied up in one of the mining tunnels they frequented. He’d explained he had been exiled from the Goblin Army for being intelligent and pacifist. Once he’d moved into the Snow village, he had provided them with two very important items. The first one was the Tinkerer’s Workshop, which allowed them to combine their accessories – the three of them now each had different-coloured Horseshoe Balloons, crafted using Lucky Horseshoes found in chests underground, and two Shiny Red Balloons from floating islands and a Sharkron Balloon from Robyn’s fishing. The second item from the Goblin Tinkerer were Rocket Boots, which could be combined with each of their fast-running boots to create Spectre Boots.

Sid had been excited beyond belief to have Rocket Boots, but on his first time trying them he’d ended up ramming his head into the ceiling, then crashed into the wall. It was a good thing he’d been wearing his helmet. And that hitting your head on the ceiling didn’t damage you in this world anyway.

But regardless, after some practise the three of them had quickly become proficient at flying the short distances their boots now provided. He was sure their new ability would end up being invaluable during the upcoming fight.

He emerged into the large cavern where several tunnels branched off.

“No sign of the Brain.”

He dropped straight down to the cavern floor. His Horseshoe Balloon meant he no longer took fall damage, so he didn’t have to use the rope they’d laid last time. It still felt strange being able to fall so far but feel absolutely no pain in his legs upon landing.

Robyn and Sid came down after him. They had discussed this beforehand – if the Brain didn’t show itself, they would destroy some more Crimson Hearts. There were more tunnels that they hadn’t been down, which each had a Crimson Heart. Sid counted three hearts remaining.

They weren’t sure if the Brain would keep coming back after every single Heart’s destruction, or if they’d have to destroy three more. Sid planted a bomb at one of the Hearts and ran back to the central cavern, and it detonated.

William felt a horrible chill go down his spine. He remembered the same chill after destroying the very first Heart.

“No sign of the Brain,” Sid said.

“Okay. So we have to destroy two more,” William said.

While Sid destroyed the second one, Robyn ran to where the first Heart had laid to pick up its drop, which turned out to be an accessory named the Panic Necklace.

“Get into position while I set a bomb on the third one,” Sid said.

William and Robyn flung their grappling hooks up to some wooden platforms that they’d set up criss-crossing across the cavern at multiple levels. They hoped these platforms would help with manoeuvrability.

“Throwing bomb in three! Two! One!”

A few seconds later Sid came running back into the cavern, and William heard an explosion.

The Brain of Cthulhu appeared.

Its fleet of Creepers flung themselves to the Brain’s defence, but William, Robyn and Sid were ready. Robyn started firing Frostburn Arrows at the Creepers, while Sid set up a rain cloud using his Crimson Rod to damage the Creepers. William held the sword from the floating island – the Starfury – and swung it. The blade hit nothing, the Creepers being too far away, but a star shot down from above and slammed into some of the Creepers.

The Brain teleported close to Sid, but that proved to be a mistake on its part, as Sid set forth his Flinxes to deal massive damage to the Creepers. He snapped at all of the Creepers with his Leather Whip, and before too long the Brain teleported again.

“I think a few of them died!” Sid exclaimed. “There’s items on the floor! Looks like extra Crimtane ore!”

“Keep it up!” William shouted.

The Brain next teleported close to him, so he switched to his Blood Butcherer, a large sword forged from Crimtane. He slashed at the Creepers as they flung themselves at him. A few hit him, but he had plenty of life to withstand them. More Creepers died, dropping more Crimtane ore and a new item he’d never seen before named Tissue Samples. One of the Creepers knocked him off the platform, but he double-jumped with his sandstorm and his Spectre Boots kicked in. He hovered over to a different platform, fine white mist and a deep rumbling emanating from his boots.

The Brain kept on teleporting around the cavern. More and more Creepers fell, and before too long the last one died.

That was when the Brain opened up, revealing a maw containing a Crimson Heart with an eyeball embedded inside.

Then it disappeared.

“It looks like it’s damageable now!” Sid cried.

“How much life?” William asked.

“1700!”

The Brain roared as it teleported close to Robyn, but she shot arrows into its fleshy hide, setting it on frosty fire.

Next it appeared next to William, and he slashed at it with his Blood Butcherer. Then next to Sid, then Robyn, then Sid again.

“I swear, there’s extra things slowly fading into existence around it!” he shouted as he fired at it with his Minishark.

William peered closely right as the Brain teleported in front of him. Suddenly it began appearing as though he was surrounded by four brains. Three were far more transparent – obviously they weren’t real ones. But as William hit the real one with stars from his Starfury, he couldn’t help but notice that the fake ones were becoming more and more opaque.

When the Brain teleported to Robyn, William was beginning to have trouble telling which was real. Robyn seemed to be having the same problem, as her first arrow shot straight through one of the images of the Brain. However, her second arrow made contact, lighting it ablaze, and she kept firing at that one before it disappeared again.

“The real one’s still on blue fire!” Sid exclaimed. “Robyn! Make sure to keep shooting it!”

“Got it!” she called.

A few times the fire went out before Robyn could get a shot in, but the three of them were able to keep hitting the real one wherever it went.

Before too long the entire Brain split apart. The illusions vanished, and a pile of Crimtane ore and Tissue Samples fell to the cavern floor.

“We did it!” Sid cheered.

William heaved a sigh of relief. The Brain had started out being the one foe that had almost killed them, but now after some preparation it had become one of their easiest and quickest fights.

Sid stepped over to the pile of items and picked everything up.

“Hey, a Brain of Confusion! Has a chance to create illusions and dodge an attack! I’m putting that on!”

William chuckled.

“Let’s head back to Forest village,” he said.

Upon using recently-acquired Magic Mirrors to return home, Sid said, “We must celebrate! Last time we fought that thing, we thought it would be impossible to defeat! But we took it down!”

That was when he almost stumbled over an unconscious man on the ground. He appeared to be heavyset and bald, with bushy eyebrows. William had never seen this citizen before – had he literally just arrived?

“Hey man, are you okay?” Sid asked, reaching down.

The man got up. William saw he was wearing a white apron over a blue shirt.

“Huh? How did I get here?” he murmured, wiping his forehead. “The last thing I remember was a portal opening up in front of me…”

William could see Sid staring at him with a rather what the cactus? look on his face.

“Well, okay,” he said. “What’s your name, dude?”

“Paddy.”

“Cool. What type of citizen are you? What’s your job?”

“Well… I guess until I can find another portal… do you know any good places to set up shop? Would love to open up a bar here.”

Sid turned to William with the biggest grin on his face. “Now we know how we’re going to celebrate!”

Chapter Text

Robyn was almost certain she’d never been a drinker in the real world.

She decided to return to the Snow biome. In the week since the Goblin invasion, William had managed to both rebuild the Forest village but also construct the Snow village as well. The houses were built from boreal wood, snow brick, and lit with icy torches. Fewer citizens lived out here – only Mrunok the Goblin Tinkerer and Durim the Demolitionist, the latter who had been told that if he blew up his house again then he’d have to rebuild it himself.

She remembered when she’d showed the spot on the side of the mountain to William. His mouth had literally dropped at the vista, and he’d said, “This is perfect!”

And Robyn had been so glad she’d had her silver helmet on because she’d blushed so hard, her face had probably gone redder than the Crimson.

She walked across the snow, up to the Dungeon.

This was the fourth time she’d visited the Old Man at the Dungeon. Each time it had always been daytime, and each time he kept reminding her that “my master cannot be summoned under the light of day.”

Robyn could only wonder who, or perhaps what, his master was.

“Robyn,” the Old Man said.

She took off her silver helmet, and felt the brisk wind blowing through her hair. “Hello.”

She still wasn’t sure what to call him. She’d asked at least once what his name was, but each time he’d either avoided the question or just stood there silently, as though he couldn’t remember.

Or maybe he didn’t have one.

“I had a Goblin Scout come across the Dungeon yesterday,” the Old Man said.

“A Scout?” Robyn murmured.

“Your village may still have eyes on it,” he said. “All of them, perhaps.”

Robyn wasn’t sure what to make of this information. She hadn’t told the Old Man much about their adventures regarding the Eye or Brain of Cthulhu, but she had once mentioned the Goblin invasion.

“Where did he go?” she asked.

“Back the way he came,” the Old Man said. “Though I doubt the direction he set off matters.”

Robyn frowned slightly.

“How is William?” he asked.

Last time she’d been here, she had told the Old Man all about the story when she’d shown William the snowy mountains.

“He’s good,” she said. “He finished building the snow village.”

The Old Man nodded slightly.

She couldn’t stop thinking about William. He was always so kind and sincere to her. And generous, too. And he… he made her feel happy.

When William had told her how perfect the site she’d chosen for the Snow village was, she felt that had been the happiest she’d ever felt since waking up in this strange world.

Far happier than the satisfaction of victory against the Eye or the Brain.

She thought, but found herself unable to say it out loud, I think I like him.

***

When she returned to the Snow village she found William waiting, talking with the Goblin Tinkerer. He must’ve upgraded his armour – he was now dressed in a red and black suit of armour that looked like it was made from Crimtane. It seemed that he was trying to reforge his Starfury, but the Goblin Tinkerer kept giving it bad modifiers.

“Oh, whatever. I’ll take Deadly,” William muttered after awhile.

“ Pleasure doing business with you, William,” the Goblin Tinkerer said, smiling widely before heading back into his house.

He turned and spotted Robyn, then smiled.

“I had a feeling I’d find you here,” he said.

“I thought you were celebrating with Sid?”

“He’s trying to build the Tavernkeep a bar. Just between you and me, his building skills are kind of…” He held out a hand and waved it slightly, making a “meh” sound. “But, he tried, and that’s what’s important.”

Robyn smiled through her helmet. That was another thing. He was genuinely good-natured.

“There’s something I want to show you,” he said.

She straightened her posture. “What is it?”

“It’s here in the Snow village.”

He led her up a stone path that led higher into the mountains. Before too long they came to a conspicuously cubic formation of snow set into the mountain wall.

“What is this?” Robyn asked. She was intrigued. Curious. But nervous, too. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever liked anyone in the real world, but the anticipation rising inside of her… it felt real. So real.

William got out his pickaxe, and started digging away at the snow on front. Behind, there appeared to be a house, made from boreal wood like the others.

But it appeared to be painted.

Blue.

“What is this?” Robyn asked again.

Is it… could it be…?

Before too long William had carved away the entire front of the snow block, revealing the house.

“I… ah… I built a house for you,” he said, smiling. Was he blushing too? Or was her eyes just playing tricks on her?

I can’t! Oh my god…

“I gave you the best view I could find,” he added, then pointed out a gold-plated arm. “Take a look.”

Robyn turned around and looked upon the snowy valley.

It was breathtaking – she hadn’t been this high before, and somehow that made everything seem all the more impressive. The frozen lake before looked so far down, glittering in the snowfall as it spread out, leading up to the mountains on the other side of the valley. To the right was the snowy forest, and to the left was the hill that led up to the Dungeon.

Somehow, she couldn’t see the Dungeon at all through all the snowfall. As though it wanted to remain hidden.

“W-What do you think?” William asked. Was that a nervous stutter? Or was it just his teeth chattering in the cold?

“I…” her breath caught.

What do I say? Aah! What do I say??

“I love it.”

Oh my god, did you just say that word?

She didn’t want to turn around to see how William’s face reacted to that. She was too anxious.

He heard snowy footfalls that signified him walking up beside her.

“I… hoped you would,” he said.

She kept staring out at the view, not sure what else to say. Silence began building up like a wall. One that was slowly layering itself with more and more blocks the longer she let the silence grow.

What now? What now??

“Come on, I’ll show you inside,” he said.

Oh. Yeah. The inside. Of course.

Robyn turned and followed William through the front door. She noticed him taking off his crimtane helmet as he did so, but Robyn herself still felt too… she wasn’t sure… she didn’t want to take her helmet off, not when she was smiling and blushing so much.

The first room inside looked… it looked cosy . A fireplace sat on one wall, casting a warm orange glow into the room. A sofa sat in front of it, facing it. Some chests rested on platforms along another wall. A painting of what looked like a snowy landscape sat on another wall.

“I painted everything myself,” he said. “Your favourite colour.”

“It’s…” Robyn really didn’t know what to say. How long had William spent on this house? For her?

He did this for you.

All of this.

Come on Robyn, you know what that means.

“Good,” she said finally.

The second floor was the bedroom. The bed inside faced out an open window which showed a view of the white valley outside.

“Wow,” she said.

“Yeah. Wow,” William said.

More silence.

What do I say? He did this for me!

Do I say thank you? Is that it?

“Thank you.”

No! You’ve gotta say more! Tell him how much he means to you!

She couldn’t.

Tell him!

“Sid’s thinking of living in the giant tree where he found his Finch Staff,” William said.

You lost your chance, Robby.

The moment’s passed.

“Cool,” was all she could say as she turned to face him.

“I’ll probably end up helping him a ton since… well, you know. He tried building the bar for the Tavernkeep, but… well, I’ll just say he’s got much to learn.”

She found herself chuckling. The bar somehow looked uglier than the original house after Durim accidentally blew it up, but William was too kind to trash-talk Sid. “Thank you for building this for me,” she said.

 He smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“Why did you keep it a surprise?” Robyn asked.

Oh, gawd, why did you ask him that sort of question? It’s so confrontational!

William seemed to smile, then hesitate, then smile again.

“I… felt like it.”

Oh my god, you hurt his feelings! Say something!

“I liked the surprise.”

He smiled. “Thank you.”

***

When William arrived at the Desert village he walked in on a standoff between the Arms Dealer and the Painter.

“Um… what’s happening?” he asked.

“Tony and Luigi got into an argument over whether or not Luigi exaggerated how many goblins he killed when they invaded the Forest village,” Akbar said. “So they’re having a wild-west showdown.”

William glanced between the two of them. They stood at opposite ends of the road that carved between the two sets of buildings in the village, facing each other. Tony’s hands were centimetres away from his pistol, while Luigi’s paintball gun was strapped in a similar position to his waist.

He could feel their tension as they stared at each other. A light sandstorm had blown up, blowing an Angry Tumbler through the village, which rolled past all of them. The scene felt like any one of the western movies that William found himself knowing from the real world.

“Draw!” Akbar shouted.

Tony’s gun was out in a flash and there was a bang as he fired.

But another Angry Tumbler had rolled in the bullet’s path, blocking Luigi. The Angry Tumbler, now angry at Tony, rolled hazardously towards him and slammed through him.

“Musket balls!” Tony shouted.

Luigi shrugged. He hadn’t even touched his paintball gun at all. “I guess I win by doing absolutely nothing. That means my numbers were real, Tony .”

Tony groaned. “First the Demolitionist, now you… my rep’s going to plummet real fast.” He stormed off, into his house.

William was so stunned at the scene that he’d completely forgotten why he’d come here. After searching his memory, he turned to Luigi.

“I sent Sid to find a location for a village in the Jungle,” he said.

The Jungle was a new biome Nissa, Hayley and Andrew had discovered on the other side of the Crimson while planting the sunflower perimeter. After Sid had built the bar for the Tavernkeep, the citizens had returned to the Forest village with the news, Nissa saying she would like to live there, and William had suggested to Sid to go check out the biome to find a good spot for a village, similar to when he’d sent Robyn to the Snow biome.

Robyn’s reaction to the house he’d built for her had truthfully felt a little bit… stilted, he supposed. He hadn’t really been sure why he’d built the house specifically for her, he’d built the first two for the Goblin Tinkerer and the Demolitionist, and had gotten working on the third house before even realising there was no real need at that moment since only two citizens had been interested in moving to the Snow biome. In the end, he’d decided to build it with Robyn in mind, painting it her favourite colours, largely as a thank-you for picking such a great location for the village.

While building he’d noticed some sort of large, ancient stone citadel further into the Snow biome. He had taken a quick closer look, but ultimately decided it would be best investigating with Robyn and Sid by his side.

“The Jungle?” the Painter said. “That might be a more interesting place to paint than here. The Desert seemed like it would be less boring than the Forest at first, but all there is out here are endless sandstorms, and also I’m getting a bit tired of the sound of Tony’s gunshots. A man’s gotta paint in peace!”

“Fair enough,” William said. “Well, so far you’re only the second citizen who’s been interested in moving to the Jungle, so that’s good to hear.”

“Who’s the other citizen?” Luigi asked.

“Nissa the Dryad.”

Luigi nodded, then smiled. “She’ll be as peaceful as the nature itself. I’ve been meaning to ask Nissa if I can paint her – for the pretty colours, of course!”

William instinctively raised an eyebrow, then sighed. “Well, okay then.”

Chapter Text

That night William called Sid and Robyn back to the Forest village, using a Wormhole Potion to teleport to Sid in the Jungle, and finding Robyn fishing by the lake in the Snow biome.

“So, there’s a new development I would like to share with you all,” he said.

“Did ten new citizens arrive while I was in the Jungle?” Sid asked.

“Believe it or not, no more citizens have shown up since we found the Tavernkeep,” William said. “Good job on the bar, by the way – it came out better than I was expecting.”

“Cheers,” Sid said, raising an arm at it in the background. It was basically a big wooden box with one door and the word ‘BAR’ badly spelt out with stone blocks over the entrance. Yes, it looked ugly, but none of the citizens seemed to mind.

“So what I wanted to tell you is that I discovered something in the Snow biome,” William said.

Robyn’s head seemed to perk up, though he couldn’t tell what her facial expression was since she had her silver helmet on. William kind of wished she would take it off while they were having conversation, but wasn’t sure how to politely ask.

“Did you find the Dungeon?” she asked.

He stared at her. “You found it too?”

“Yeah. A big, dark building at the back of the Snow biome on top of a hill,” she said. “Did you see the Old Man pacing around there? He looks… troubled.”

William shook his head. “I didn’t see any Old Man, I didn’t get too close to this… Dungeon.”

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Sid said. “We should go investigate. There must be loads of treasure inside.”

“We can’t!” Robyn cried out suddenly. “I mean, the Old Man told me – he won’t let us enter until we free him from his curse.”

“Well, he’s just an Old Man. What could he do to us?”

“He’s been cursed ,” Robyn said. “He could do things to us that we… I don’t know, can’t even imagine. For all we know, if we try to enter the Dungeon, we instantly die, or become cursed like him.”

“Robyn is right,” William said. “We should do what the Old Man says. Free him from his curse.” He stared at her. “Did he share any details on how to do that?”

“He said only at night can we try to free him from his curse. By summoning and defeating his master.”

***

The three of them trudged up the snowy hill that led to the Dungeon.

When compared with the Brain of Cthulhu, they had made some minor upgrades – Sid had upgraded from his long-worn Flinx Fur Coat to Obsidian Armour, and had crafted a new whip named the Snapthorn using materials he’d found in the Jungle. He’d also crafted for William a new sword – the Blade of Grass, and an upgrade to his Ice Boomerang, the Thorn Chakram. William himself had upgraded to Crimson Armour almost immediately after they’d returned from fighting the Brain.

They approached the entrance to the Dungeon. There William could see the Old Man, just as Robyn had described. Old, wearing ragged clothing, and with cursed red eyes.

Looking between Sid and William, the Old Man said, “Strangers, do you possess the strength to defeat my master?”

Sid brandished his Minishark and summoned his Flinxes by his side. “I believe we do.”

“Between the three of us,” William added.

“Battle my captor, and free me,” the Old Man said. “Then, I will grant you passage into the Dungeon.”

William looked to Robyn and nodded.

She stepped forward, holding her arm out as though she was about to open up a citizen’s shop.

However, when she touched the Old Man, he vanished.

Only to be replaced by a massive skull the size of the Eye.

The skull roared as it rose up. Two large skeletal arms folded out from behind it, hands flexing their bony fingers.

William looked between the skull – ‘Skeletron: 8800/8800’ and its hands – ‘Skeletron Hand: 1560/1560’.

This was more life than they’d ever had to face on any creature before, more than twice than the Eye.

They were going to be in for a big battle.

The left hand shot forward, slamming down where Sid was standing. He faded as a couple of illusions rotated around him – his Brain of Confusion had protected him. He pointed his Flinxes forward and began opening fire upon Skeletron’s head.

Robyn did the same with her Frostburn arrows, and William hurled his Thorn Chakram at it.

Skeletron surged forward, arms swinging and slamming.

“We’re barely doing any damage!” Sid cried. “Each of my bullets are only dealing 1!”

“Maybe we need to destroy its hands first!” William shouted as one slapped him in the face, dealing 32 damage.

“Good idea! I can barely dodge them!”

The three of them began focussing on Skeletron’s hands, but the head roared and shot forward, spinning through the air.

“Watch out!”

They ran, out of the Dungeon entrance. Skeletron’s spinning head pursued them down the brick steps and onto the snow, then raised up and swiped out with its hands.

“Focus on that left hand!” William pointed.

Robyn shot it with Frostburn arrows, illuminating it with icy flames. Sid whipped it with his Snapthorn, and the Flinxes jumped up to bite it.

“My Flinxes are barely doing any damage even to the hands,” Sid muttered. He switched over to his Minishark, which dealt more consistent damage. Between them it didn’t take long for the left hand to break apart, the bones in its arm collapsing to the ground.

“Let’s give ourselves a big hand!” Sid cried. “One down, one to go!”

At that moment a small glowing skull shot out of Skeletron’s skull. It shot towards him, but he dodged it by jumping over it. He flew over Skeletron’s head using his Spectre Boots.

More glowing skulls began shooting out. William realised they could curve slightly to chase after them, as even when he dashed to the side with his Shield of Cthulhu, one of the skull projectiles tuned in mid-air and glanced against his chest.

The remaining arm grew more frantic, slamming its palm onto the ground over and over and at one point managing to knock William backwards and into one of the pillars that held up the Dungeon entrance. It soon fell too, breaking into bony fragments, but Skeletron’s head only doubled up on its attacks. It roared and began spinning towards William.

He wasn’t able to get out of the way in time. He took 54, then 52, then 55 damage, unable to escape from the grinding force of Skeletron’s head.

Pain… Pain, PAIN!

He desperately thrust out his grappling hook, impacting it on the snowy hill. He was pulled out from Skeletron’s jaw, and double-jumped to get further away from it.

“Come after me, you bonehead!” Sid cried, his Minishark roaring bullets at Skeletron.

He got his wish, as the head rushed after him, shooting a volley of homing skulls. Sid jumped up, flying over Skeletron’s head, and most of the homing skulls lost track of him and flew off into the night.

William drank a Healing Potion and ran back into the fight, swinging his Starfury to bring falling stars upon Skeletron’s head.

He watched Robyn firing arrows at Skeletron as it spun after her next, but she was able to run out of the way in time.

The three of them continued their deathly dance with Skeletron for so long that it was almost sunrise when he was finally brought down. Its skull fractured, splitting into pieces, revealing the Old Man encased inside. He fell, his body slumping against the Dungeon stairs, amidst a pile of items. One appeared to be a miniature version of Skeletron’s head, while another looked like a grey sofa with red pillows.

Sid stepped forward, picking up the skull.

“Skeletron dropped his mask!” he exclaimed.

“Huh,” William said.

“It says it’s a vanity item.” Seconds later, his obsidian helmet was suddenly replaced with a skull. “Neat! It looks like I can wear it over my armour for decoration!”

William saw that Robyn, meanwhile, was kneeling besides the Old Man. He still wore the same clothes as he’d been wearing before… Skeletron had appeared, but they seemed to have repaired themselves, no longer showing holes or raggedness. His hair and beard were also less unruly, and he now sported a red hat upon his head.

And he had a new label.

‘James: 250/250’

***

James was still unconscious when the three of them brought him back to the Forest village.

The Forest village had changed a lot since the days of the overcrowded fort. Gone were the walls, instead a collection of wooden houses with sloped roofs and stone foundations dotted the landscape. The boatload of extra rooms on the original base had been removed, leaving only the first room with the tunnel leading down the mines, and the grey-brick forge, which both served as like a memorial of their humble beginnings.

William had set up a row of chests on platforms, which were currently the foundations of what he planned to be their shared storage and crafting area. The one chest that had been placed in the forge had quickly grown into an uncontrollable chest monster, until William had gone to the trouble of organising and cataloguing every item they owned into several categories, such as ores, or plants, or blocks, and then sorting them into new chests.

James was brought to one of the spare empty houses on the outskirts of the Forest village. Sid placed down the grey sofa that Skeletron had dropped, and they rested the Old Man on it.

“Are you sure putting him on that sofa is a good idea?” William asked, “It came from Skeletron after all…”

“Since when has anything dropped by bosses ever caused us any harm, anyway?” Sid asked.

William shrugged.

“I noticed the sofa is named ‘Chippy’s Couch.’ No idea who Chippy is, otherwise I’d return it to him –”

The Old Man groaned.

“He’s waking up,” Robyn said, stepping forward.

James sat up on the couch, rubbing his forehead.

“Are you okay?” she asked. William noticed her taking off her helmet.

“Never… felt… better!” James exclaimed, smiling.

Robyn smiled back. “I’m happy you are!”

James patted the couch he was sitting on. “This couch is reasonably comfortable,” he said. “Every man needs a good couch in their life.”

Sid chuckled.

“Do you remember me?” Robyn asked.

James stared into her face.

“I don’t… know. I… I remember I was cursed…”

“Do you remember who cursed you?” William asked.

James shook his head.

“Everything that happened while I was cursed… it feels like a pile of unorganised clothes. I’m… not sure how to put it all together.”

“It’ll be okay, you’re safe now,” Robyn said.

“Yes, you are,” Sid said. “We defeated your master, and lifted you from your curse. That means we can enter the Dungeon now, right?”

“Dungeon…” James murmured, then seemed to stare blankly ahead. “I’m having vague memories of tying up a woman and throwing her in a Dungeon…”

“A… woman?” William exclaimed.

Chapter Text

The three of them stepped forward, walking past each of the blue brick pillars at the entrance of the Dungeon.

The room beyond was dimly lit with some ghostly green lanterns. Some shelves containing books sat on the wall. At the floor was a large square hole, which seemed to lead deeply down. More light could be seen below from more lanterns and what looked like some flaming blue candles.

“Okay,” Sid murmured. “This Dungeon is a lot bigger on the inside. Like the TARDIS. Which makes sense, since James sounds so British…”

William wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Something he remembered from real life that William didn’t? 

“Let’s go,” William finally said. “We’re looking for this woman that James tied up when he was cursed, and also for any treasure we can find. But be careful. I suspect even with his master dead, this place won’t be ready to give up its secrets.”

The three of them cautiously climbed down the deep shaft of the Dungeon. They passed more shelves containing books. William tried picking some up but they all just popped out as generic green books in his inventory. None of them could be opened or read from what he could tell.

They eventually emerged into a large square room. Dangerous-looking spikes ran along the walls. An old-looking table and chair sat at the bottom with a green-flamed candle resting upon it. Next to that was a golden chest.

“Awesome! Loot!”

Sid flew down to it and landed next to the chest.

“Hey, this thing won’t open!”

William landed next to him.

“It looks to be locked,” he said.

“Locked? Cactuses, how are we going to get a key for it?”

“There’ll probably be a way.”

That was when they heard a growl like one from a zombie or skeleton.

A door opposite them burst open, and three skeletons charged into the room. They were each clad in rusty red armour, one with a spiked helmet upon its head. Looking at them, William could see they were labelled ‘Angry Bones: 140/140’.

“Of course there’s gonna be skeletons down here,” Sid muttered, summoning forth his Flinxes. Robyn shot at the Angry Bones with Frostburn arrows and William slashed at the monsters with his Blade of Grass.

The Dungeon turned out to be filled with these enemies. It was a maze, filled with numerous traps. Blocks that shot poisonous darts at them, collapsing floors that led to pits of spikes, rotating spiky balls attached to chains, and blazing wheels of fire that rolled along the ceiling and floor. And everywhere they turned in the dingy sage-green tunnels there were Angry Bones lunging themselves at them. They were fairly easy to kill, especially from a distance, as they weren’t really armed with any ranged weapons, but were still numerous. There seemed to be an endless supply.

At one point some Dark Casters appeared. They were skeletons wearing bright blue robes, armed with a similar spell to the Goblin Sorcerers from the Goblin Army, shooting bright blue balls of cerulean energy at them. William discovered he could destroy their energy balls with a swipe of his blade.

At that same moment a large, navy-coloured slime landed on top of him, falling from a tunnel in the ceiling.

“That slime’s got a key in it!” Sid exclaimed. He ran forward, his Minishark pouring bullets into it that eventually burst the slime apart. Sure enough, it dropped a Golden Key, which he snatched up.

“There’s a chest right over there,” William shouted, pointing at a ledge across a deep shaft they were fighting near. He threw his Thorn Chakram at a distant Dark Caster, breaking its skeleton into bones.

“I’ll try opening that one!” Sid ran over and jumped across the shaft. He double-jumped in mid-air and his Spectre Boots carried him the rest of the way. On the other side he slid the Golden Key into the lock, causing the chest to open with a click .

“The key busted itself upon using,” he said. “But there’s cool stuff inside! William, you might find this weapon handy.”

“What is it?” he shouted, slashing at a wave of Angry Bones with his Blade of Grass.

“An upgrade to your Flaming Mace!”

William turned and sandstorm-jumped to the other side. He smiled upon reaching inside the chest and pulling out the weapon – a Blue Moon. He swung the bright blue mace in the air, the flail emitting an eerie blue glow.

“Wait, where’s Robyn?” Sid asked.

William realised with a sinking feeling he wasn’t sure.

“Robyn!” he called.

***

Robyn wasn’t sure when or how she’d gotten separated from the others. Maybe it was when one of the floors had collapsed and she’d fallen into its hidden tunnel. Or at some point in the endless waves of Angry Bones.

She felt like she could really use their help. She had grappled to the ceiling, where the Angry Bones couldn’t get her, and was firing Frostburn Arrows down into them. But each arrow could only damage one at a time, and more kept arriving every minute. She needed William’s sword to cut through all of them at once or maybe Sid’s Flinxes.

A ghostly Cursed Skull phased out from a nearby wall. She turned and fired arrows at it, destroying it in a few shots.

Then more Dark Casters appeared around her.

She fired arrows at them all, but their rain of blue energy shots overwhelmed her. She was going to need to drop from where she was grappled, otherwise she’d be a sitting duck against them. But she’d need to deal with the Angry Bones below.

Then she spotted a tunnel leading off, and got an idea.

She dropped, landing on the brick floor, and sprinted for the tunnel. The Angry Bones pursued her, but she outran them thanks to her Spectre Boots.

Behind her she desperately placed some stone blocks she had on hand, sealing off the tunnel from the Angry Bones. At the same moment two Dark Casters teleported in front of her, but now she could deal with them both freely without the Angry Bones attacking her. She fired and fired, and soon they both dropped dead, arrows sticking out of their bones.

She wheezed, still feeling tense from that escape. The Angry Bones kept roaring behind her, but she knew they couldn’t get to her. She had earned a brief moment of respite.

She stepped into the room she had walled herself into.

It was rather brightly lit compared to some of the other rooms she’d been in, with candles and chandeliers, lamps and lanterns. A large painting rested on one wall, which appeared to depict the Brain of Cthulhu.

I wonder who would paint that? she wondered.

There were two chests in the room. One was a locked golden chest, like one from earlier that she had figured out to open using a Golden Key that had dropped from a skull pot. Upon opening this one with another Golden Key, she found it contained a blue sword named the Muramasa.

The second chest was different. This one was coloured red and black, like the colour of William’s Crimtane armour. When she stepped up to it and tried to open she found it was locked, and neither the remaining Golden Key she had on hand nor the Shadow Key she had found in one of the previous gold chests worked.

She sighed. Guess we’ll have to figure out some other way to get this open.

That was when the entire room around her went dark.

She gasped, glancing desperately around, her Tendon Bow in hand. She even put a hand on the Muramasa she had pulled from the chest.

Then a figure, draped in blue hooded robes and wearing a mask, appeared.

Its yellow eyes stared down at her.

***

William and Sid kept on fighting their way through the Dungeon.

They had tried retracing their steps, looking for Robyn, but found no sight of her. They were now trying to explore some alternate routes she might have found herself going down, but the trail, if there was any that could be discerned, had gone cold. At this point they were basically aimlessly moving through the Dungeon, hoping to eventually stumble across Robyn.

Or the woman that James had mentioned.

They had found a fair amount of new items both from chests and also placed throughout the Dungeon. William had picked up a Cobalt Shield and a blue sword named the Muramasa, which dealt slightly less damage but swung much faster than the Blade of Grass. Sid had found a Handgun and Magic Missile in the chests, and picked up an Alchemy and Bewitching Table from the Dungeon’s furniture. The latter item he discovered gave him a magical buff that allowed him to summon an extra Flinx, meaning he now had three of them under his command.

At one point they found themselves in battle against a massive wave of Angry Bones, Dark Casters, and a few floating Cursed Skulls.

“Aaaaaggghhh!” Sid cried, mowing his Minishark across the crowd. William slashed at the Angry Bones with his sword. It was then that one of those Cursed Skulls phased out of the floor and hit Sid from behind.

“Cactuses! I can’t attack!” he cried.

William grit his teeth. He’d experienced this a bit earlier – the Cursed Skulls seemed to have the ability to inflict this curse that prevented them from being able to use their weapons for a few seconds.

“Fall back!” William cried.

They ran up some stairs and through a tunnel that slowly sloped upwards, the Angry Bones in pursuit.

That was when he accidentally tripped a pressure plate. The ceiling ahead of them burst open, and a bunch of round, grey things fell downwards.

“Boulders!” Sid shouted.

William grappled to the ceiling as the wave of boulders rolled forward. Sid jumped over them, narrowly avoiding getting bowled over. The boulders rolled down the tunnel and barrelled through the Angry Bones, turning all of them into a pile of bones.

“Well, at least they took care of that problem,” Sid muttered.

William dropped from the ceiling, but didn’t notice the other pressure plate he landed on, which opened up the floor beneath them, revealing a pit of spikes.

“Musket balls!” Sid cried as he and William fell. They both again narrowly escaped being impaled by the spikes by double-jumping out of the pit and Spectre-Boot-flying up to the far ledge.

“Whew,” William muttered.

He and Sid stepped forward into the next room. He heard another click , and realised this time Sid had been the one to trip a pressure plate.

The entire roof above them burst open, dropping down boiling-hot lava.

William glanced behind them only to find the way behind had sealed itself off.

“Run!” He and Sid ran forward to the far wall. There William brought his Deathbringer Pickaxe into the wall, carving a small opening that they could take cover in from the lava. Beyond that was another room – joy! He and Sid ran through, and he managed to seal it up using blocks of stone just as the lava viscously oozed onto the floor.

They had saved themselves.

“What kind of madman would set up so many traps in this place?” Sid muttered.

“You mean what kind of mad woman would?”

The two of them turned to find a redheaded lady wearing yellow overalls. She had a large red wrench strapped to her back.

“Who are you?” Sid asked.

“The name’s Kayla,” she said. “I’m the Mechanic.”

The Mechanic? “Did you get imprisoned down here?” William asked.

“That I did,” she said. “Some creepy Old Man tied me up and threw me down here. Then this crazy lunatic told me he’d release me if I built mechanical parts of Cthulhu for him.”

“Hold up,” William held up his hand. “This… lunatic made you build mechanical parts for Cthulhu ?”

“Yeah, keep your ears open! What choice did I have? When I refused to do what he asked, he said he was going to curse me and make me do the work anyway. So I just did what he asked. I figured that way I’d at least keep my free will and could maybe… you know, escape, or even better… sabotage his work.” She smirked. “I kind of did both but neither really worked out. I built the mechanical eyes, spine and skeleton for Cthulhu. When it was time for me to start work on the new brain, that was when I tried to escape from the Dungeon. But that creepy Old Man was in the way, turning into a giant floating skeleton of doom. I just said, ‘Nope,’ and holed up in this room and rigged the entrance with all those traps.”

“So you were the one to put up all those boulders?” Sid exclaimed.

“Exact-a-mundo!” Kayla said. “Should’ve known something was up when you triggered my lava-flow trap, none of the skellies could ever get past the pitfall filled with spikes!”

“What about this… lunatic , that made you build the mechanical parts?” William asked. “Tell me about him.”

Kayla shrugged. “I don’t know what to make of him, really. He’s crazy, probably more so than that creepy Old Man. Always roaming around wearing a big blue cloak and a mask that makes him look like an echidna.” She stepped forward. “He’s the leader of the Cultists.”

“The Cultists?”

“People who are trying to bring Cthulhu back to life.”

***

Robyn felt like she must’ve blacked out, for she woke up sprawled across the uncomfortable brick floor of the Dungeon.

Craning her neck around, she saw she was in the same place she last remembered being in – the room with the Brain of Cthulhu painting. All of the lanterns and chandeliers were lit once again. The crimson chest remained sitting in front of her.

She shakily got to her feet. 

What was that… or who was that… person that I saw?

She shook her head, and stepped over to the stone barricade she’d set up. She couldn’t hear any Angry Bones on the other side, so she mined through it and headed back into the Dungeon.

She tried to find her way back the way she’d came, soon coming across a solitary Angry Bones dressed in dark armour. She aimed her Tendon Bow and fired 

“Ow! Wait, Robyn! It’s me!” The figure held up his hands.

She’d completely forgotten Sid had been wearing that silly Skeletron mask ever since it had dropped from it. A red-headed woman she had never seen before was next to round the corner, a citizen named Kayla. Then William.

“Robyn!” he cried.

He ran forward, arms splayed out, then seemed to slow down a few steps from her and lightly touched her arms.

“I thought we’d lost you,” he said.

“I’m… still here,” she said, though she once again wondered what exactly she had encountered back in that room.

“We found the woman that James threw down here,” Sid said, then gestured to the redhead. “This is the Mechanic.”

“Very nice to meet you,” Kayla said, then turning to Sid and William, “And thanks again for rescuing me. It was just a matter of time before I ended up like the rest of the skeletons down here.”

Sid laughed. “Well, time to take you home to where some humans reside…”

Chapter Text

William sat at the bar, facing Paddy the Tavernkeep, who was wiping a wooden table with a cloth.

“…and so then I told her, ‘Why purify the world when you can just blow it up?’” Durim the Demolitionist finished.

Both the Tavernkeep and Tony the Arms Dealer, who was sitting across from Durim, both burst out laughing.

“You are funnier than you look,” Tony said to Durim. “Places like these are good for getting people to come out of their shell, just like with bullets.”

“I’ll drink to that, aye!” Durim said.

The two of them clinked their drinks and took a swig.

“In honesty, Nissa the Dryad seems nice,” Paddy said. “Maybe, if I can find another portal, I should bring her back with me.”

Both Durim and Tony laughed loudly again.

“As if! She’s 500 years old!” Tony shouted.

“I wasn’t meaning like that ,” Paddy protested.

Durim and Tony laughed once again.

“How is the Desert village?” Paddy asked.

“Ten times better ever since Luigi moved to the Jungle,” Tony said. “Though even Akbar’s kind of getting on my nerves too.”

The Tavernkeep sighed. “Can’t say I blame you. His eccentric and narcissistic personality really makes me want to smash a table!”

“You should do it, aye!” Durim shouted. “Let out all your inner explosives!”

“Not tonight, boys,” Paddy said. “I’ll save it in case any goblins from my world follow me through a portal.”

“Speaking of goblins,” Durim said, “Next time something invades our town, don’t forget we need to gang up on Luigi so he doesn’t get more kills than us!”

“Of course,” Tony replied. “But I’m still going to beat you!”

“Not if I blast past the competition!”

“What do you think of Mrunok, barkeep?” Durim asked. “That goblin like which you speak?” He jerked a thumb behind him. William turned his head to see the Goblin Tinkerer sitting alone at a table behind them, seemingly listening in on their conversation.

“I like him,” Paddy said. “It shows you can’t always judge a person by their… origins. He’s an alright sort.”

Mrunok seemed to smile slightly upon hearing that, though William couldn’t help but notice he’d been sitting at the table with his drink in front of him for the last twenty minutes without taking a sip.

What was he doing? Was he waiting for someone?

Right as he was thinking of that, a shock of red hair entered the bar. Kayla the Mechanic.

William had been feeling bittersweet ever since they’d rescued her from the Dungeon. She’d revealed that there were people… dangerous-sounding people… at work trying to bring Cthulhu back to life. The mechanical parts she’d been forced to build had been intended for that, though since she’d never finished Cthulhu’s new brain it at least meant they weren’t immediately in danger.

Locating and destroying these parts was a new thing on his list of priorities. But they’d explored practically all of the Dungeon and hadn’t found anything else. If he had to guess, the cultists must have moved out.

The Mechanic cast a sidewards glance at Mrunok before stepping up to the bar.

“May I offer you a root beer?” Paddy asked.

Kayla shrugged. “Sure, give it to me in a square cup.”

William didn’t think twice about the odd request until Mrunok suddenly blurted out laughing behind them. She glanced behind at him again then stared directly forward.

Tony slid his seat closer to Kayla. “So I hear you are a Mechanic?”

“Indeed, I am.”

“Would you like me to press your pressure plate?”

Durim practically spat out a mouthful of ale.

“If you want to order one, sure. They’re for stepping on,” she said.

Kayla was saved by Tony’s advances when Paddy returned with root beer in a square cup. She thanked him, then stood up and went to sight out an empty table.

“What’s with all the hitting on again, Tony?” Durim asked. “I thought you were seeing that Nurse?”

“We… had a falling out,” Tony said.

“What about?” Paddy asked.

“Something about not liking the Desert heat anymore.” He shrugged. “Why else do you think I’m here?”

Paddy nodded. “Fair enough.”

William looked to the bar entrance just in time to see Sid enter. His head swivelled between Mrunok and then Kayla, who were sitting alone on different tables, before striding over to Mrunok. He whispered something in one of his big goblin ears, and then stepped over to William.

“Hey-ho. How’s the night?”

William shrugged. “Just felt like I should check on how the citizens are doing, happiness-wise. Everything seems fine, aside from the usual internal squabbles.”

Sid nodded.

“What did you say to Mrunok?” William asked.

“I told him he could perhaps start a conversation with Kayla by mentioning he was also imprisoned and outcast.”

William looked back at them. Mrunok had moved over to Kayla’s table and was standing over her table, seemingly asking if he could sit there.

“How come?” he asked.

“Well, basically it started the other day when I went to the Snow village to get some reforging done by Mister Goblin,” Sid said. “And you know how the Mechanic wanted to live in the Snow village?”

“Yeah,” William said. “I built her house near his and Durim’s.”

“Indeed. But when I got over there, I could not even begin to tell you how distracted he was, always making goo-goo eyes at her. He gave me so many crap reforges, dude. Then he asked me if I had ever… talked to her by chance. And something about her making his cadillac core function properly or something.”

“Okay…”

“Anyway, so after I was done with reforging, I went to check out what Miss Mechanic was doing,” Sid continued. “She was trying to put blinking lights all over her house, making it look kinda like Christmas. Believe it or not, she asked me if he said anything about her, by chance .”

“Oh.”

“So I thought, ‘Hey, these two have the hots for each other, but neither are really trying to initiate anything.’ So I decided I’d…” He cast his gaze over at Mrunok and Kayla, who were now sitting and chatting, “Give them a push.”

“Oh.”

“Yup. Love is in the air.”

“So what are you then?” William asked. “Some kind of matchmaker?”

Sid shrugged. “Perhaps. But it’s not just them I’ve been noticing.”

William sighed. “Who else? Did someone else try hitting on the Dryad?”

“Luigi, I think,” Sid said. “But he’s having about as much luck as Tony did.” He cleared his throat. “But that’s not who I was meaning. The people I’ve been noticing are…”

“Yes?”

“You and Robyn.”

William stared at him.

“What?”

“You know… you built a whole house for her, and when she got lost in the Dungeon, you sounded so genuinely worried for her… especially when we found her again.” He smiled. “You can be honest with me, I promise I won’t tell anyone… do you like-like her?”

William kept staring at him.

Honestly he’d never once thought of Robyn like… that .

But could he?

Did he?

He cared about Robyn like a friend. Almost like a sister.

But at the same time… He cared about Sid like a friend too. They all came into this world together and had gone every step of the way together. Their friendship was bound by being mutual allies in their quest to survive this world.

But Sid was implying that to him, Robyn was… special.

Was she?

He wasn’t sure. He built the house for her as a gift, as a thank-you. Nothing more. Right?

“Well, no pressure, you don’t have to tell me,” Sid said finally. “The other thing I want to mention is the Jungle.”

William nodded, grateful he was changing the subject. “What is it?”

“I explored a different area of it, and… there’s something I found.”

William stared as Sid told him.

“You’re kidding,” he said.

***

“Robyn.”

“Hi James,” she said. “How is the Ocean?”

“It’s certainly a nice change of pace from the freezing, dingy Dungeon,” the old man said.

In the days since she, Sid and William had freed James from Skeletron’s curse and rescued the Mechanic from the Dungeon, two new villages had been constructed by William – one in the Jungle, and one on the beach neighbouring the Ocean close to the Jungle.

There were two other inhabitants of the Ocean village. Roxanne the Stylist had arrived at some point after Sid had found her webbed up in a spider cave. The other was Bart the Angler, who Robyn had found floating asleep on the Ocean after she had helped James settle into the village. He was a kid who didn’t sell anything, but instead tasked Robyn with fishing up rare, unique fish from a variety of different biomes. She’d again found the fishing quests a welcome distraction, not just from her feelings for William, but also from the Lunatic Cultist.

The being that she believed she had seen in the Dungeon before blacking out.

The same being who the Mechanic had said had been the one to force her to create the mechanical recreations of Cthulhu’s body parts.

Robyn had told William and Sid what she’d seen, but upon leading them to the room where she’d encountered him, they’d found nothing. Neither Sid nor William had had any idea on how to open up the locked crimson chest, but they wondered what could be contained inside.

“Ever since moving in here,” James said, “I’ve enjoyed just living and enjoying the simple tasks. Things like painting my house, tending to my garden, and decorating my house with the warm glow of orange torches.”

“I can relate to that,” Robyn said.

He gave her a kindly smile. “You do fish a lot, young lady. Is there a particular fish in the sea you’re looking for?”

Robyn felt her cheeks flare up, wondering if he was referencing to the ‘plenty fish in the sea’ metaphor and how it related to… to love .

“I fish for the process,” she said.

He nodded.

“I’ve come back to terms with my profession myself,” he said.

Robyn raised an eyebrow.

“I am a Clothier,” James said. “Mama always said I would make a great tailor. I don’t think she ever thought I’d be cursed to guard a Dungeon. It was… I remember it being lonely. I once made a friend out of leather. I named him… Wilson.”

Robyn smiled. “Wilson.”

“Every day, more vague memories come back to me,” James continued. “Including ones that include you. I remember you being kind and concerned for me. Very few people would be that way to a man in my state. For that, along with that you were one of those who freed me from my curse… I cannot thank you enough. I trust you with my life, Robyn.”

Her smile grew. “Thank you.” She hesitated. “Can I trust you to keep a… a secret?”

“Of course. If I tell anyone, I deserve to be cursed again.”

“Okay. Um…” Again she hesitated. “You know how you asked if there’s a fish in the sea I’m looking for?”

The Clothier nodded.

“There is one… fish that I have my eye on.”

Before she could say any more, there was knocking on the door behind her, making her jump.

She spun around and opened it.

It was William.

Oh, god! I almost told James I liked William right in front of him!

“Hi,” he said.

“H-Hi,” she stammered. Her heart was racing. Fast.

“Sid and I are going to head into the Underground Jungle,” he said. “Because of something he found.”

“What did he find?” Robyn breathed.

“He found an abandoned hut, a cave lit up with torches, some dug-out mining tunnels, and looted chests.” He leaned towards her. “There’s another human in the Jungle.”

Chapter Text

William led Robyn to the Jungle village, which was a collection of huts made from Rich Mahogany wood with leafy roofs. Sid was waiting there.

“You two ready?” he asked.

William looked to Robyn. She had upgraded to Necro armour, crafted with bones they had obtained from the skeletons in the Dungeon, but still wore her Silver Armour in her vanity slots. A part of him wondered why she’d made that choice. Did she just prefer the look of Silver Armour?

“Sure,” Robyn said.

Sid nodded.

“I wish you luck on your journey and on locating this person,” Nissa the Dryad said, sitting cross-legged in front of a tree.

The three of them set off through the dense foilage, following Sid. William hacked aside the overgrown grass and plants with his Muramasa, while Sid snapped out his new whip – a Spinal Tap – at the Jungle Bats that tried to swoop at them.

“Here’s the shack,” Sid said sometime later.

William took it in. It sat on top of a large hill, and appeared to be made from pinkish Rich Mahogany wood, the wood type native to the Jungle. There wasn’t much in the interior, and the floor hadn’t been paved over with wood or brick or anything, just being grassy and growing with leafy bushes and flowers. 

Outside, laid up against one of the hut walls, were some flower pots that seemed to be having some herbs growing inside, namely Daybloom, Moonglow, and a little bit of Blinkroot.

“Whoever lived here must’ve liked growing plants,” Sid said upon inspecting the pots. He pointed away from the house. “The cave that I think they explored is that way, on the other side of the hill.”

The cave he led them to was overgrown with grassy mud, vines hanging from the ceiling, and was dotted with flowers and other plants. William swung his sword through the vines to clear their path, unveiling bugs and grubs of different colours that would slowly scamper away to avoid them. The path sloped steeply downwards, and he could see it was already lit with torches, though not nearly as densely as he and Sid normally lit caves – there were huge spaces of darkness in-between each one. Whoever had done the lighting appeared to have been trying to conserve torches.

Or maybe they hadn’t been as afraid of the dark.

“A bit further down here the cave stops,” Sid said. “And that’s when I found a tunnel our missing person dug out.”

It turned out to be a deep shaft going straight down at the bottom of the cave. Rope had been placed going down it to provide accessibility, which Sid slung himself down first.

The shaft opened out into an enormous cave. However, unlike the normal underground William was used to, which was made of stone with patches of dirt, this cave remained as grassy as the surface. The walls were made of dark brown mud, dense thickets of vines hung from the ceiling, and the ground was covered with plants of several colours – mostly green, but also blues and pinks of some flowers.

He could see some enemies – Hornets, creatures with long, curved bodies and whirring wings, and another named a Man Eater, which appeared to be a long, stretching vine with a chomping mouth on the end.

The Hornets spotted them instantly and began flying towards them. As they did so William spotted some spiky projectiles being launched forth from their stingers.

He dropped from the rope and brought his Muramasa into one of the Hornets’ bodies. He sandstorm-jumped in order to keep hitting it, and by the time he was flying under his Spectre Boots’ power the Hornet split apart, dropping a stinger item that flew into his inventory.

His Spectre Boots running out of thrust, he grappled to a grassy wall, but at that moment the Man Eater had stretched over to him to try to take a bite out of him. He stabbed out at it with his Muramasa, pushing it backwards, then swung his Blue Moon around and thrust it out a few times before eventually also destroying it, its head bursting apart into greenery and its vine falling limp to the ground.

Robyn and Sid landed next to him.

“The Underground Jungle’s full of deadly baddies,” Sid said.

“I’ve been poisoned,” Robyn said.

“WHAT?” William found himself shouting, louder than he’d intended.

She stared down at the ground. William could see her armour was glowing with a slight green tinge and red number 1’s were constantly popping up from it.

“It’ll wear off after some time,” Sid said. “Don’t worry about it too much.”

William sighed in relief. “So what are we looking for?”

“This was about as far as I got last time,” Sid said. “Before deciding to go back and call in you guys. My best guess is that if we follow the trail of torches, we’ll find whoever came down here.”

“What if they’re dead?” Robyn asked.

Sid paused.

“They could be.”

William stared at his friends in silence.

It had been some time since they’d considered the bigger questions about the world – like how they’d gone from the real one to here, or what happened after they died. Their quests involving the Brain of Cthulhu and Skeletron as well as building the villages for the citizens had taken up most of their attention.

But thinking about it at that moment, the one thing he knew for sure was that he did not want either of his friends to die. He and Sid had started out as rivals, but Sid had quickly become one of his most trusted allies and friends.

And he could say the same for Robyn too.

But what Sid had told him… that kept sticking with him, and he found himself doubting what he had said but at the same time wondering… Did he like her? Was it possible?

I mean, how am I supposed to even know if I… like someone? He thought to himself. From what he could remember from the real world, it always sounded like a big deal. But in practise… he had no clue, and nothing to go off of. Aside from perhaps some of the other citizens, like the Mechanic and the Goblin Tinkerer, but even then he still wasn’t sure what caused them to be… attracted to each other.

If only I could see what you looked like more, he thought, casting a glance to her silver helmet.

They delved deeper into the Jungle. Sid spotted a small shrine built from gold bricks that contained a chest that appeared to be covered with ivy, however the chest was mostly empty – the previous human must’ve already looted it. However, on the other side of that same cavern was what appeared to be a large mahogany tree carving itself through the mud. When Sid dug into the trunk, he found another chest, this one actually appearing unlooted. It contained an item named the Feral Claws, which he gave to William because it enabled him to swing his swords faster.

“The torches lead in here,” William said, pointing to what appeared to be another dug-out tunnel, this one leading horizontally. He, Sid and Robyn walked through it before emerging into another large cavern, however William found himself stepping on some sticky yellow blocks.

“What the…” he muttered, trying to jump from the blocks but barely able to get more than a metre off the ground.

Sid picked up one of the blocks with his pickaxe.

“Honey block? Delicious,” he said.

“There’s more honey over there,” Robyn pointed.

William looked and spotted what appeared to be a crusty wall of honey at the far end of the cavern. However, this wall was speckled with yellow and black hexagons.

“That’s not honey,” Sid said. “It’s a giant bee hive.”

“Looks like the torches lead over there,” William said. “There’s even an opening into it. Our missing human must’ve dug in there.”

“Now who would be dumb enough to dig into a giant bee hive?” Sid muttered.

The three of them flew over to the bee hive, dodging flying stingers from Hornets, and scrambled inside.

The interior of the bee hive was completely made from the hive blocks. Below them was a large pool of what looked like liquid honey, and a wooden platform stretched all the way over the pool to the other side.

“Be careful,” William said.

“What if there’s bees in here?” Robyn asked, sounding worried.

“Then bee careful,” Sid joked.

William groaned, and looked up at the ceiling.

Right as a massive insect dropped on top of him with a roar. He jumped with fright, falling off the platform.

Landing in sticky, liquid honey, he looked up just as the giant bee charged forward, straight through Sid and Robyn, then turned around and backwards. Sid was able to jump over the bee, but Robyn was hit once again.

“That’s a freaking Queen Bee!” Sid cried.

William threw out his grappling hook to bring himself back up to the platform.

“I guess this… thing killed whoever last came down here?” William said, looking around the hive.

“Maybe, but there’s three of us!”

The Queen Bee hovered menacingly above them, her giant wings whirring. Stingers began shooting out of the array of hexagonal holes at her underside, which William dodged, and she followed up the attack with a swarm of miniature bees that launched from behind her. He swung his Muramasa several times, hitting all of the bees out of the air as though he was being attacked by a baseball-pitching machine.

Then the Queen Bee dropped down and charged at William and Sid, but they both jumped over it. When she charged back she charged at them still in mid-air, so they dropped back down to the platform, resulting in her charging straight over them.

William cast a glance at Robyn, whose armour was again glowing with a green tinge. He saw Sid was the same.

“Her attacks are poisonous!” William shouted.

He looked at her label to check her life – about 4200 left out of 4760. Much less health than Skeletron, but she was already putting up quite a fight.

The three of them kept on fighting, but the Queen Bee’s attacks were relentless. Her stingers began shooting faster, and she started charging faster and faster as well. At one point she unleashed a series of charges knocking Robyn back and forth like a volleyball, before sending her plunging into the pool of honey.

“Robyn!” William cried.

The Queen Bee next focussed her attacks on Sid, launching a volley of stingers at a speed that rivalled his Minishark. He choked and gagged from the poison, before similarly falling off the platform and into the honey.

William grit his teeth. He needed to keep the Queen Bee’s attention away from his friends.

But how long could he last against her?

The Queen Bee charged again, but William charged forward with his Shield of Cthulhu. He had two shields equipped – both the Cobalt one from the Dungeon, which prevented him from being knocked around by attacks, and the Cthulhu one, which let him dash.

He found to his astonishment that when he slammed into the Queen Bee’s charge, the Shield of Cthulhu dealing damage to her thanks to the dash, she would just fly right past him without dealing damage. He was able to come to his senses quick enough to turn around and dash the other way, bringing his shield back into Queen Bee again as she made a return charge. On her third charge he mistimed and took some damage, but due to his Cobalt Shield he didn’t get knocked off the platform.

He began throwing his Thorn Charkram at the Queen Bee as it tried to shoot stingers at him, but it switched to launching bees, which blocked the Charkram, so he sandstorm-jumped upwards and swung at the Queen Bee with his Muramasa, which both hit her and also instantly killed the smaller bees she summoned.

It was then that the Queen Bee tried to shoot forward into him, but he grappled to the ceiling, the retracting hook allowing him to dodge her charge. He found himself next to a ledge with a strange glowing orange larva. 

Encased inside appeared to be a slim figure.

A person.

He gasped.

Almost without thinking, he swung his sword forward, cutting through the larva.

It split apart, unveiling a young woman holding a golden staff with a ruby on the end. She wore green armour that looked like it had been made from leaves and was held together by vines and hornet stingers. A red jungle rose was tied in her blonde hair.

Upon seeing William her grey eyes widened.

“Did you… kill the –”

At that moment the Queen Bee shrieked from below, a swarm of bees flying up at them.

“Not quite yet,” William said quickly, and unlatched his hook, dropping downwards. His sword arced through the air, cutting through the entire wave of bees, and he drove it through the Queen Bee.

The girl dropped down too, holding out her ruby staff. Red blasts of magic shot out from the end, shooting into the Queen Bee, who shrieked again and charged towards the girl.

She grappled upwards using a hook that looked like it had been fashioned out of ivy. The Queen Bee narrowly missed her, then turned for a return charge at where the girl was grappled. She dropped down, and the Queen Bee passed over her.

William spotted Sid emerging from the honey at that moment, and he flew up to the platform where they were standing. On seeing the girl he gasped, but quickly composed himself and extended a hand.

“Hey there, I’m Sid,” he said in an unusually husky voice.

“Fight now, introductions later!” the girl shouted.

With the girl’s help, William and Sid were able to eventually take down the Queen Bee. Her drops all fell into Sid’s inventory, though his inventory must’ve gotten full, so the rest ended up lying on the platform.

William breathed a sigh of relief and drunk a Healing Potion to top up his life.

Wait. Where’s Robyn?

He glanced down to the honey pool. She hadn’t surfaced.

He desperately jumped down, and into the honey.

Sinking deep into the viscous liquid, he felt his feet touch solid ground. Reaching forward, he felt nothing, so he tried taking a few steps forward.

Soon his hands brushed against hard metal. Robyn’s silver armour. He put two hands on her, and hefted her to the surface.

He gasped as he laid her out on the hive blocks next to the honey pond.

“Robyn!” he cried.

Inwardly he felt his heart pounding. What if she was dead? What if she’d drowned in the honey, and he’d just hauled her corpse out of the liquid?

He’d never get to figure out how he felt about her.

Chapter Text

William breathed, then looked down at her again. Her label read: ‘Robyn: 67/320’.

He almost laughed. He’d gotten so caught up in worrying about whether or not she’d died that he’d completely forgotten that in this world there was an easy way to check.

She was still unconscious. Not moving. But he knew she’d be alright.

At that moment she gasped, her body straightening out.

“Robyn?”

Her head turned to face him. She reached up to her helmet, and it disappeared, revealing her face.

William stared at her as he took off his own helmet.

“William,” she said, and suddenly leant forward, putting her arms around him.

He was suddenly struck with fluttering feelings inside of him.

He was so happy and relieved that she was okay.

Did he like her after all?

Robyn only hugged him for maybe a second or two, but to her it felt much longer.

Most of that time was occupied by her thoughts clashing in her head:

Oh my gawd, you’re hugging him? What’s he going to think of you?

Shut up! Robyn honey, you know you like him. The next step was always going to be letting him know you like him. This is a great start!

Are you sure he’d even like you back at all? He’s always spending his time building and mining!

He built a house for you, Robyn! He went out of his way to do it for you! And he really put effort into it! Blue paint and everything!

You’ve got to do something for him, Robyn.

She awkwardly got to her feet.

“Um… so is the Queen Bee dead?” she asked.

William nodded. “Yeah. And we found the missing person.”

They double-jumped back up to the platform, where Robyn saw Sid with who she presumed was the other person. She was pretty – long blonde hair, grey eyes, and her armour made her seem like a fierce amazon warrior, so much more beautiful and better than her. Robyn self-consciously rubbed a hand along her own hair.

“This is Meg,” Sid said, then gestured at William and Robyn. “Meg, that’s William, and that’s Robyn.”

“Hi, guys!” Meg said brightly, stepping forward and smiling. “Thank you all for saving me from the Queen Bee!”

“How did you end up in that… larva thing?” William asked.

“She poisoned me so hard that I practically fainted,” Meg explained. “I woke up trapped in the larva, unable to move. All I could do was think about trying to bust out of there, blast that bee to pieces, then burn this stupid hive and the entire jungle to the ground!” Her voice turned loud and boisterous with that last part. Then she smiled, her eyes seeming to flash with energy. “Only joking, I’m not that anti-environment. I really did worry I was doomed to that prison for eternity… until you, William, got me out of there.”

“Well, you’re very welcome,” William said. “That all sounded… painful. But you’re safe now. We found your house on the surface and followed the torches that led down here, then into this bee hive.”

Meg just kept grinning at him. “Well, thank you all again for getting me out of there. Do you guys live somewhere with more people like you?”

“We’re kind of the only humans on the planet,” Sid said. “There are other people, but they’re… like, NPCs.”

She nodded, seeming to understand without needing further explanation.

“The Queen Bee dropped quite a lot of stuff,” Sid said, then suddenly was sitting on the back of a large bee that was wearing goggles. He rose slightly into the air, buzzing sounds emanating through the air. “Including this. Bee-autiful, if I do say so myself.” He smiled. “I’m gonna name you Barry .”

Robyn noticed Meg rolling her eyes.

“That’s cute, but can your bee do this?”

She got out what looked like a yellow gun with a large round barrel with hexagonal holes on the end. As it started clicking, numerous bees started shooting out. They flew forward, bouncing off the walls of the bee hive.

Sid chuckled. “Oh, that reminds me, Robyn.” He flew over on his bee’s back, then threw out an item at her. “A new bow for you.”

Robyn picked it up. It was a bright yellow bow with a bee’s face set into its centre. It was, rather appropriately, named ‘The Bee’s Knees.’

“Thanks,” she said. Reading that it only worked with regular wooden arrows, she equipped some and fired it. A column of five bees shot forward, which upon hitting the hive wall split out into a small swarm of bees.

“This is un bee lievable,” William said.

Sid laughed. “I thought you never made jokes, William.”

He shrugged. “First time for everything.”

Meg laughed. “That is just bee -autiful.”

As the three of them kept laughing, Robyn looked between William and Meg. She couldn’t help but worry that Meg would try to attract William’s… attention , since he had been the one to break her free.

***

They decided to continue exploring the jungle. To Robyn’s horror, Meg seemed to hit it off pretty quickly with William. He delegated the next few Life Crystals they found to her since out of all of them she had the least amount of life, and they also found some underground houses with accessories that Meg didn’t yet have, such as Hermes Boots.

They also found a few more jungle shrines. One which William found contained an accessory named the Anklet of the Wind, which increased movement speed. Another which Robyn opened contained a gun named the Boomstick. She tried giving it to Sid since she knew he was the resident gun-lover of the group, but he just said, “Nah, you can keep it.”

It was a bit later when they came across the wall.

It was made from some sort of orangey-brown brick, and completely flat. William grappled to its side and tried digging into it, but to no avail. Sid even tried blowing it up with dynamite, but the explosives didn’t even make a dent.

“So we found an unbreakable wall,” Sid muttered. “Great.”

“Wait. I see someone,” Meg said.

Robyn spotted who she must’ve been talking about around the same time – it appeared to be a green-skinned humanoid creature. He (or she?) was dressed in a vivid patchwork of colourful feathers and leaves. The creature wore a horned skull over their face, so Robyn wasn’t sure what to make of this creature at first. They were sitting cross-legged in front of the wall on a grassy ledge that stuck out from it, facing it.

The four of them flew, jumped, or grappled over to where the creature was sitting.

“Who are you?” William asked.

“Which doctor am I? The Witch Doctor I am,” the creature replied.

Robyn saw him exchanging a glance with Sid. She could see from the Witch Doctor’s label that their name was Zop’a, and they had 250 health. The same amount as a citizen.

“So… are you a citizen?” Sid asked, apparently coming to the same conclusion.

“Choose wisely, Sid, my commodities are volatile and my dark arts, mysterious.”

“How do you know my name?” Sid asked.

“He can probably read your label,” Meg said. “Like how we can read his. Open your eyes.”

“Oh. Duh .”

“I think I know what this wall is,” she added, pointing. “It’s the Lihzahrd Temple. I came across its entrance at some point a long time ago. Locked. The only information I could really find out about the temple from the statues out its front was that the Lihzahrd are constantly in worship of an ancient idol.”

“An American Idol?” Sid asked.

Meg shook her head. “ Ancient idol. You need to open your ears too, Sid.”

Robyn wondered if Sid would take umbrage at her making fun of him, but he just chuckled.

“Still,” Meg added, “I’ve never seen a Lihzahrd outside the temple before.”

“Wait,” Sid said. “This… Witch Doctor … is a lizard?”

“Lih zahrd ,” she corrected, pronouncing the second syllable with emphasis.

“The nature of hearts is magic,” the Witch Doctor said. “The heart of magic is nature.”

“And I guess the magic of… nature is… hearts?” Sid asked.

The Witch Doctor seemed to pause. “I have never considered that before.” He stepped to his feet. Robyn noticed his feet were long and clawed, kind of like a dinosaur’s, and a tail sprung out from behind him. He held up a blowgun and turned and shot a Hornet that had shot itself towards them with one fluid motion. The dart that hit it split it apart in one shot.

“To answer Meg’s observation, my people have become close-minded in the fruitless worshipping of their deity,” the Witch Doctor spoke. “I believe in the individual spirit, and the healing of such.”

“Um… okay,” Sid said.

“How do your kind perceive the world?” the Witch Doctor asked.

Sid seemed to shrug, the look on his face seeming to say, ‘No clue.’

“We believe in working towards common goals together as a team,” William spoke up, “Putting together everything about each of us.”

The Witch Doctor seemed to consider this.

“Very well. I wish to meet other individuals of your kind who might think like me.”

“Even if they’re human?” Sid asked.

“The species does not matter. Only the mindset does.”

“Well,” William said, “You can definitely come with us, and move into one of the villages.”

Meg smiled. “As will I, of course.”

Robyn looked between them again and found herself frowning slightly.

Chapter Text

“One Bloody Manowar for you,” Robyn said.

The names of the fish Bart the Angler kept sending her to catch kept on getting more and more ridiculous, especially since they all actually existed and not one had been a story he’d just made up. The Bunnyfish, the Derpfish, even a Dynamite Fish at one point. The Demolitionist had lost that last one because it had ‘grown fins and swum away,’ then Bart had stuck it in Durim’s toilet for a rather… explosive surprise.

“Woah. You actually did what I asked, and survived?” The Angler looked incredulous. “You’re still in one piece though, how boring!” He scratched at his curly brown hair beneath his hat. “Now your reward… take this life preserver!”

He thrust a big white rubber ring in Robyn’s arms.

“I’ve already got one of these.”

“Hey, you get what yer given, errand monkey! Anyway, you are done, the grand Bart dismisses you!”

Being used to his rudeness, she left the Angler’s hut, went through the Ocean Pylon to the Forest Village, and headed towards the newly-completed storage building in the middle of town. William had built it to look like a giant chest, complete with iron bricks making up its latch and stone and wood making up the casing.

She flicked a switch, causing the blocks on the front entrance to turn transparent. The Mechanic had sold William a lot of the wiring he’d needed for creating this fancy door. The blocks that turned transparent were possible thanks to invisible devices named actuators. When he’d tried to explain wiring to her it had seemed confusing and a bit nonsensical - something about the wiring being invisible unless you held a wrench? At least it worked.

When she stepped inside, she spotted the distinctive blonde hair and green jungle armour of Meg.

She was rifling through a chest close to the ground on a shelf to the left.

“Oh, hi…” she peered directly at her, probably reading her label, “Robyn! How are you?”

“What are you doing in here?”

“I am searching for seeds.”

Seeds? “What for?”

“For planting and brewing potions.”

“We’ve got potions,” Robyn said. “I sometimes get them from crates that I fish up.”

Meg pointed out a finger at her. “That’s right, you’re the fisherman of the group. Fisher woman , rather. You must be very respected by Will and Sid, your stockpile of fish is bountiful.”

“I just fish a lot,” Robyn mumbled.

Meg nodded. “Well, I brewed a lot of potions while I was in the jungle. They mostly required herbs and a few other ingredients, which were easy to come by. The jungle’s bursting with them. I’m not sure if I would have survived there without them.”

Robyn remembered there being some plants growing in pots next to Meg’s hut. “Did you wake up in the jungle?” she asked. “The rest of us all woke up in the same place here in the forest.”

“I did. I couldn’t explore far from where I put my hut because of jungle bats and the Snatcher plants. I never knew the rest of you guys were out there. Sometimes… it got… lonely. I found myself better at handling the underground by keeping to the less wide-open spaces. I collected jungle spores from the grass and stingers from hornets, which I used to craft my armour.” She gestured at her attire. “Then I mined some rubies and gold and used it to craft this ruby staff right here.” She held it out for Robyn to see. “You’ve seen falling stars before, right?”

Robyn nodded, though was a bit unsure at her sudden change in conversation. During the night, streaks of light could often be seen in the sky that would slam down on the ground, leaving behind a yellow star item that would glow and sparkle with radiance. Robyn had tried crafting them into jester arrows before, but they’d been hard to come by and didn’t provide much in the way of arrow count.

“I got a lot of them while waiting for herbs to grow for potions,” Meg went on. “I crafted them all into Mana Crystals, letting me use my staff for a very long time before draining, and then began using them in magic power and regeneration potions. With that, I practically had mastery of the jungle. Could have called myself Jungle Queen. But then I made the dumb mistake of digging into a beehive, and coming across an actual queen.” She chuckled.

“Why did you go in the beehive?” Robyn asked.

“I suppose I was just… overconfident? I’d generally stayed away from them, thanks to my common sense from what I remember about real life. But I was not expecting to come across such a behemoth of a queen! Or for her to trap me in that larva. I was stuck in there for… I don’t know how long. And when I got cut out… I was not expecting to see William there.” She smiled, which caused Robyn to cringe.

God, no, what if she likes him too? Aahh! She wasn’t sure if she could handle being in the losing corner of a love triangle.

“Anyway, that’s my story,” Meg said, suddenly giving another one of her trademark smiles. “What about you, Robbie? Can I call you Robbie? Got any epic tales? It’s so nice getting to know you all.”

“Um… I prefer Robyn,” she said. “I guess we got attacked by a giant flying eyeball, then found a giant flying brain in the Crimson, then a giant flying skeleton…”

“Why are there so many giant flying things in this world? Couldn’t whoever created the world come up with anything cooler?” When Robyn didn’t respond, she just smiled again and said, “You’re a quiet one. Which I totally get. But anyway, the village Guide, Andrew, was telling me that some of the fish you’ve been catching can be brewed into new types of potions. Such as Endurance, Heartreach, Rage…”

“You can take it all,” Robyn said.

“Oh. Really? Just like that? Thank you so much!” Meg flashed yet another wide smile and adding two thumbs-ups. “With the herbs I’ve been growing, I’ll be able to make so many potions for you all! We will all be unstoppable killing machines!” She flexed her arms like a bodybuilder. “You definitely won’t regret this!”

Robyn returned her smile but still felt a sickening feeling inside.

***

William watched Sid throw bomb after bomb into the hole.

He and Sid were searching the Jungle for Life Crystals and also for Anklets of the Wind, largely so everyone could upgrade their Spectre Boots to Lightning Boots.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been this deep before,” William said. “There’s lava everywhere down here.”

“Me neither,” Sid said. “I’m surprised the entire place isn’t on fire.”

William chuckled as Sid dropped down into the hole. He followed him, and they emerged into a small cavern. Sid pointed his Hornet Staff at some Spiked Jungle Slimes and they shot forward, shooting stingers into the slimes. He’d used Bee Wax dropped from the Queen Bee to craft the staff as well as the new set of Bee Armour he was wearing, which in tandem with his Bewitching Table and the Pygmy Necklace he’d bought from the Witch Doctor allowed him to have five summons at once.

William then spotted a large mahogany tree, which they dug into the side of and checked the chest within. One last Anklet of the Wind – they now had one for everybody.

“It feels like we’ve explored and dealt with all the major threats from every biome now,” William said. “The Snow, Desert, Crimson, Dungeon, and now the Jungle.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Sid said. “I think we’ve achieved what we originally set out to do. Become stronger than everything in the world. There have been a few close calls, but things have been largely safe for us all ever since we destroyed the Brain of Cthulhu.”

“Unless there are other places beyond the Oceans,” William said.

“I don’t think there are,” Sid said. “I checked using a Water Walking Potion at some point. The Oceans all have some sort of invisible wall I can’t pass, and nothing but water visible beyond them. It’s the edge of the Earth.”

“The sky’s a no-go too,” William said. “When I used a Gravitation Potion to get my Starfury from a floating island, I tried seeing how high I could go. The sky got dark enough that I might have almost entered space, but eventually I hit an invisible ceiling that flipped my gravity back to normal. There’s nothing up there.”

“So there really is nothing else for us to deal with,” Sid said. “The world is in our hands.”

It’s a cage , William couldn’t help thinking.

“Unless there’s something still to find deep underground,” Sid added. “I haven’t yet found any invisible wall at the bottom of the world. Or some sort of unbreakable stone, like what’s in that temple.”

“What about the Cultists?” William asked. “Or the temple? Do you think there is any way to enter it at all?” Meg had taken them to the entrance to show them – a locked door with a keyhole – but none of the keys that they’d obtained from the Dungeon worked on it. Not even the Witch Doctor could get it open.

“There should be,” Sid said. “But I think as long as the Witch Doctor’s people don’t bother us from their temple, we’ll all be fine. And as for the Cultists… we’ll keep searching the Dungeon, see if they’ll show their faces or if there’s some sort of secret door we missed. But without the Mechanic, they can’t finish trying to bring Cthulhu back to life.” He held up his Magic Mirror. “I’ll pop back up to the surface.”

William nodded. “I might check around for some more Life Crystals.”

“Alright.” Sid vanished in a spray of blue sparks.

William considered what Sid had said. They had started out in this world struggling to survive against basic zombies. Now they were practically the peacekeepers of the planet. Everything that could be a threat to them had either been destroyed or detained.

As they had just talked about, the only loose ends were the Lihzahrd Temple and the Cultists in the Dungeon. But William felt confident that even if either did become a threat, he and his friends would be able to deal with them. Just like how they’d been able to deal with everything else that had attacked them in the past.

He kept digging downwards. The mud he was mining through soon turned to a strange, purplish silt. Ash Blocks. He’d never gotten this type of block before.

He kept digging down, and soon emerged into a massive cave.

It was like a brand new world down here, stretching out in all directions. But this one was covered with ash and lava. A square, black building rose up in the distance, lit with eerie purple torches.

Hell. The Underworld. That’s what this place was.

Then he spotted two monsters flying towards them. Their red skin glowed in the orange light of the lava, their leathery grey wings flapped hard, and glowing purple sickles emanated in their hands before being thrown forward.

“Nope,” William said, before sealing up the way he’d cut out.

Chapter Text

William wished he’d never discovered the Underworld.

After all they’d been through, he’d finally begun feeling like they were at the end of all the hardship they’d had to go through. All of the bosses they’d slain, all of the places they’d explored. There was little else in the world that they hadn’t been to, and it seemed like they were as strong as they could get using all that they had found.

He felt like they were at the peak of what was possible in this world.

But the Underworld had opened up a new can of worms.

He knew, was almost certain, that whatever lay in the Underworld was meant to be their final challenge. He was sure of it. Sid had said that this world was meant to be a videogame. While William didn’t completely think this world was a videogame, based on the nature of the citizens and what had gone on throughout the history of this world, there was no denying that certain aspects of the world felt like they’d been meticulously designed and set out in some sort of progression path. By the people who had made this videogame.

Surviving on the surface had been the first challenge. Then mining underground had come next, then facing the Crimson, then the Dungeon and the Jungle.

If there was any place meant to be the endgame of this videogame, it would be… down there .

But he didn’t want to deal with it.

He wanted to enjoy the peace they had earnt for themselves. They had grown strong enough to live safely in this world, and could protect their homes and the citizens from anything that raised its head.

Except, perhaps, the Underworld.

William decided not to tell anyone about discovering the Underworld. But word began to get out around the citizens – Tony the Arms Dealer began talking about hearing about “some kind of doll that looks like Andrew the Guide being found in the Underworld.” And of course Andrew himself knew about the Underworld, telling William that it was “made of a material called Hellstone.”

It soon transpired that Sid had discovered the Underworld himself not long after William had. He’d blown out a tunnel straight downwards from a spot near the Forest village using bombs, not intending to stop until he reached the “invisible floor” of the world. And of course he’d found the Underworld, and being nowhere near as fazed by it as William had, he’d gone straight off to explore it. And he’d returned with a lot of Hellstone.

“Look at my new impy boys!” Sid exclaimed, waving around a red staff with a glowing orange design on the end. He’d used his Flinx Staff against every boss they’d encountered up to that point, but had now already abandoned his new Hornet Staff for the Imp Staff.

“Cool,” William said.

“No, it’s hot. Very hot,” he joked. “But I feel like you’ll find Hellstone even more useful than I have, William.”

“Me? Why?”

“According to the Guide, it can be crafted into Molten Armour, and its bonuses specifically benefit melee damage! And also there’s a new sword – a Fiery Greatsword, which deals 40 damage! I suspect that’s more than anything you have right now!”

It was.

“And what’s more,” Sid added, “The greatsword can be combined with three other swords to get… an even better sword!”

“Really?”

“Really. I even crafted everything for you already!” Sid began throwing items at William. Fiery Greatsword, Molten Armour, a Sunfury – an upgrade to his Blue Moon – and a Flamarang, which seemed to be a boomerang coated with Hellstone and set on fire.

William looked down at the items in his inventory, and reluctantly equipped the new weapons in his hotbar, and put on the armour. His defence total went from 27 to 33. As he walked he noticed he began leaving fiery trails everywhere, though these particles seemed to be purely visual, not actually setting anything on fire. He hoped.

“Let’s get the three other swords from storage and go put them together,” Sid said.

The three other swords turned out to be the Blade of Grass, the Blood Butcherer, and the Muramasa, which William already had on him. They could only be crafted together at one of the weird unbreakable red eyeball thingies they’d found back in the Crimson, which apparently were named Crimson Altars . Upon forging the swords together, they turned into an iridescent purple blade named the Night’s Edge. By default it did 42 damage, but William’s Molten Armour boosted it to 50.

This sure felt like a final sword, if there ever was going to be one. A culmination of the swords William had crafted or obtained throughout his journey.

He felt like there had to be something to fight in the Underworld – there had to be. It was what the design of the videogame seemed to be leading up to. The Crimson, Jungle and Dungeon had all had bosses associated with them.

But one thing that all those bosses had in common was that they hadn’t had to fight them until they found them.

The same is probably the case for the Underworld, William thought to himself. And even if we do fight it… that ought to be the end of everything. Right? One, last final challenge.

But he was nervous.

He knew they could survive and live perfectly well without beating up whatever it was that was in the Underworld.

But somehow he suspected Sid would want to fight it.

That was how Sid worked.

He unwaveringly and fearlessly took on anything that threw itself at him.

So why couldn’t William feel the same way?

In this new armour, with this new sword, he should feel more confident. But he didn’t.

“The other thing I figured out is that… well, remember the Shadow Keys we found in the Dungeon?” Sid asked, snapping William out of his daze.

“Yeah?” William asked.

“Turns out there are Shadow Chests in the Underworld that they unlock,” he said. “I only found two. One had the Sunfury I gave you, and the other had this.”

He held out an item that looked like a big red rose.

“It’s a magic weapon,” Sid said. “Keep this between you and me, but…” he hesitated, “I’m going to give this to Meg at the party.”

William somehow wasn’t surprised. Sid couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of her ever since she’d been rescued from the bee hive.

“Wait, what party?”

Sid cocked his head. “Have you been living under a block? This new citizen arrived recently – Star the Party Girl. She sells a cactusload of items for throwing parties, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to celebrate!”

“Celebrate?”

“You know, celebrate all the victories we’ve had, and the towns you’ve built, and all the people we’ve brought together. It’s going to be in two nights’ time, in the Jungle village. I’ve been working with the Party Girl and the Mechanic and a few other citizens on getting it set up. It’s going to be glorious!”

William nodded, but still felt nervous. “Sid, have you ever… wondered how we are meant to escape from this world?”

He looked at him oddly. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you know… at the beginning we woke up in the forest with nothing in our hands but those copper shortswords and tools. We all know this game isn’t… our true lives, because we can remember… a world where everything isn’t square. Where everything isn’t made of pixels, or trying to kill us. All along I’ve been going along with you to get stronger, so we can avoid dying. But…”

“But what?”

“But it bothers me that I can’t remember who I was in the real world. Or why we’re in this world in the first place. How did we get here?”

“You know, the same thing could be said about the real world too,” Sid said.

William shrugged. “I guess you’re not wrong there. But still… I can’t help but keep wondering if there is a way to answer those questions. Because we know there is another world we truly came from. A real one. And this world… it’s artificially constructed and designed.” He clicked his tongue. “It’s not real.”

Sid didn’t seem to know what to say for a moment.

“Well,” he finally said, “If there is a way to escape, it will be through playing this game to the end. And don’t you worry, you’ve got me on your side.”

William chuckled. “Thanks.”

***

Upon returning to the Forest village they found Andrew the Guide groaning on the grass. 

His life was at 156 out of 250.

“Andrew?” William asked, kneeling down beside him. “Are you okay?”

Suddenly a big red number 39 rose out of him.

“Andrew! What’s hurting you?”

“Find… Tony,” the Guide got out in-between ragged breaths.

“Don’t know what good Tony will do ya,” Sid said. “But luckily the Nurse should be around here somewhere.” He ran off. “Emily! The Guide’s dying!”

William got to his feet and ran for the Forest Pylon. He teleported to the Desert Village, where sure enough he found Tony, practising firing a quad-barrelled shotgun at what looked like a stuffed target dummy resting on a block of sandstone. The gun blasted four bullets at once, but they were wildly inaccurate.

“Tony?” William called. “Andrew the Guide was asking for you.”

Tony looked at William in consternation, then glanced at his target dummy.

It was when William took another glance at the target dummy that he realised it wasn’t a target dummy. It looked to be a doll that resembled –

“The Guide?” William stepped over and picked up the doll. In his inventory it read ‘Guide Voodoo Doll’, with the tooltip ‘You are a terrible person.’

“Sid brought that thing back from the Underworld,” Tony said. “He wasn’t really sure what to do with it, so I just took it. Figured it would be good for target practise.”

William stared at the doll in horror.

“Well, whatever this thing is, shooting it was hurting the Guide,” he said. “We found him lying hurt in the Forest village.”

“Oh. Um…” the Arms Dealer held his shotgun upwards. “Well, I guess sometimes life gives you bullets, then.”

William shook his head, then used the Desert Pylon to head back to the Forest village.

He found the Guide seemed to be okay, being healed up by Emily’s syringes. He had a grim look on his face, which did not seem to be improving even as Emily healed him.

William couldn’t help but wonder why this sort of item existed in the world.

What purpose did it have?

Chapter Text

“How are you feeling about Sid’s party tonight?” James the Clothier asked.

Robyn shrugged.

“Do you think you’ll… tell William?”

Again she shrugged. She’d finally told the old man how she felt about William after they’d returned from their expedition in the Jungle.

She’d hoped that telling him, the person she trusted most outside of William and Sid, would help take that load off her chest, or at least help her figure out what to do about it. 

But so far, it hadn’t.

“I don’t think I’ll show up,” she said. “I’ve got fishing to do…”

“You always have fishing to do,” James said.

“It’s helpful.”

“Yes. But there is only so much fishing you need to do.” The Clothier sat down on Chippy’s Couch. “You have worked hard towards freeing the land from everything evil. You should revel in celebration. With your friends.”

Robyn stared down at the palm wood floor.

The Clothier stood up, stepped forward and put a hand on Robyn’s shoulder. “Come with me.”

They headed out onto the sandy beach. The Ocean village consisted of three large houses constructed out of palm wood. Bart the Angler’s was the furthest from James’s and closest to the sea. It was decorated with a mess of fish in item frames, anchors, and other artefacts from the sea.

James led Robyn into Roxanne the Stylist’s house, which sat in-between James’s and Bart’s. The inside of the house looked like a typical barbershop like what Robyn could vaguely remember from the real world, with a white-and-black chessboard-patterned floor, some glass walls that might have meant to be mirrors (she guessed mirrors couldn’t be crafted in this world), and several seats facing the wall. A staircase led upwards in one corner of the room, to the Stylist’s living area.

Robyn had seen the Stylist around once or twice but had never actually spoken to her. She was the sort of woman who always had too much makeup on all the time, and Robyn kept swearing that her immaculate strawberry-pink hair must be a wig. She wore a purple apron, blue jeans, and high heels.

“Here for another beard trim, James?” Roxanne asked in a simpering voice.

“Oh, you know what I’m here for,” James said.

The Stylist gave a grin. “I know, hun. You told me this young lady needs a new haircut.”

Robyn felt her face flush. She glanced worriedly at James, wondering what she had gotten herself into.

“Oh, you poor, poor thing,” Roxanne said. “Just… just sit down here. It’ll be okay.”

Robyn reluctantly stepped forward and sat down in one of the chairs. Roxanne began examining her hair.

“Oh, god, girl! Did you even try to brush your hair today?” she exclaimed.

Robyn shrugged. “I left my hairbrush back in the real world,” she mumbled. Did she even have a hairbrush in the real world? Surely she did?

“Don’t you worry,” Roxanne said. “Mama Roxanne is here to help. I’ll have you looking pretty in no time!”

The next ten minutes was a blur of cutting, chopping, and styling. Roxanne gossiping kept Robyn’s mind from drifting off. She craned her neck backwards a few time, watching James standing in the background. He had a slight smile on his beard, one that seemed easy-going, to say ‘Everything will be all right.’

“You’re looking amazing already, doll!” Roxanne exclaimed after some time. Robyn had no idea what she looked like, due to the ‘mirror’ in front of her not actually being a mirror.

“Are you finished?” Robyn asked.

“Just about!”

Robyn got up from the seat and turned to face James. He stepped forward.

“Robyn, you have been a great friend to me ever since you lifted me from my curse,” he said. “You helped me out of a place I couldn’t escape from. The least I can do is give you this.”

He winked at the Stylist, who flicked a small switch on the wall that Robyn hadn’t noticed. A section of the wall opened up, revealing a mannequin clothed with the most beautiful dress she had ever seen.

Robyn couldn’t take her eyes off of it once she saw it – she’d just never seen anything like it! Not in this world, maybe not even in the real world. It was coloured with an exquisite blue gradient, fading from an ocean blue to an icy blue.

She spun back around to James. “Did you… did you make that yourself?”

“Indeed I did. Easily my best work. Not even a curse could make me lose my touch.” He smiled. “The colours came courtesy of Akbar the Dye Trader. Intense Blue Flame Dye, he called it. I was reliably informed blue was your favourite colour?”

Robyn rushed forward, enveloping him in a giant hug. “Thank you! Thank you, thank you!”

She felt James patting her back. Upon looking up at him, he said, “Now go catch that fish of yours.”

***

The turnout at the party was massive. It seemed like every citizen had shown up, all crammed into one massive dance floor and party zone. The same citizens that had previously complained about being cramped together all the time were now having the time of their lives. William could see colourful balloons decorating the walls, bubbles floating through the air, and fireworks shooting into the sky. Sid and Star the Party Girl had done a great job, he had to admit.

Durim the Demolitionist laughed as he watched the fireworks shooting one after the other into the sky. “Brilliant! Colourful explosions!” He, like nearly every other citizen William could see, was wearing a colourful party hat.

“I wanted to see how your kind celebrate,” Zop’a the Witch Doctor said. “I am not disappointed.”

Durim laughed. “This is how humans do it, aye. But dwarves? We tend to have pretty explosive parties.”

“I would like to see that some day,” Zop’a said.

“Anyway, parties are always a good excuse to drink!” Durim shoved another tankard of ale down his throat.

William wandered onto the dance floor. He could see Tony the Arms Dealer dancing with Emily the Nurse – he guessed they’d gotten back together at some point. He could also see Kayla the Mechanic slow-dancing with Mrunok the Goblin Tinkerer, which looked a little awkward since Kayla was much taller than Mrunok. He could hear Kayla saying, “I did all of the wiring for the lights and the fireworks and everything.”

“It is truly magnificent!” Mrunok exclaimed.

Kayla smiled. “What do goblins normally do when they party?”

“Oh, they’re a lot like humans. They both have games like ‘Pin the Blame on the Human…’ er… I don’t play that game at my parties.”

William passed Hayley the Zoologist, who was talking with Star the Party Girl.

“So… uh, I can’t wear the hat. Because of these.” Hayley reached up and tapped her fox ears. “Sorry. I’m still here for the party!”

Star gave her a beaming smile. She had shoulder-length pink hair and wore a blouse of about the same colour. “No worries! The more, the merrier!”

Hayley smiled back and walked over to Andrew the Guide, who stood still, seemingly doing nothing but observing the event, though he did have a party hat placed rather obliquely upon his head.

“Um… hey, Andrew!” William noticed the Zoologist sounded a tad bit… nervous?

“Hey, Hayley,” Andrew said.

“I was wondering… if you’d like to dance?”

The Guide gave her a dreary look. He’d been looking like that ever since the Voodoo Doll incident the other day. William still couldn’t put his finger on what was going on with him. He’d tried asking, but the Guide hadn’t said much.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Andrew said.

The Zoologist stepped backwards as a frown creased itself onto her face, then walked away, her head down.

William passed a few more of the citizens. The Dye Trader said, “I truly love parties, so many beautiful colours and happy people.” The Tavernkeep told him that he didn’t think any kobolds would crash the party. Gilbert the Merchant said that the best way to party was buying things from others, especially from him. Harry the Golfer claimed to be having trouble concentrating on his swing due to the party, though once he struck the ball with his iron, it ricocheted between a bunch of different lamps and lit them all up.

There was one person he hadn’t seen yet, however.

Robyn.

He spotted Bart the Angler, and began walking towards him. If there was anyone who’d seen her, it would be him. He was currently eating his way through an entire bowl of cookies and potato chips.

When Bart noticed his approach, he looked up at him and said, “What, you think I like parties because I am a kid? Well, you’re right, so get to partying!”

“Have you seen Robyn anywhere?” William asked.

The boy shook his head. “Dunno, don’t care. I only need to see my helper minion once per day for her to catch me my special fish! Now, scram!”

William turned away and spotted Sid talking to Meg. Sid was wearing a black tuxedo with his Skeletron mask, looking more like he’d come for a Halloween party than a regular celebratory party. From the looks of things, he was presenting her with the flower he said he had found in a Shadow Chest, and to his astonishment, she accepted.

“Wow, this is a very powerful weapon! Look at that damage number!” Meg exclaimed once William had stepped closer. She cast it, causing a fireball to shoot forward, bouncing off the floor a few times before dissipating against the wall.

“Indeed it is, m’lady,” Sid said, saying m’lady in an intentionally fake deep voice. He put out a hand. “Care to dance?”

“Hmmm… I appreciate the offer, but nah. I’m not a dancer.” She left him looking flustered.

William spotted Roxanne the Stylist, who was talking with Star the Party Girl.

“I may have gotten my hair done up just for today, but honestly, I just want to pop balloons with my scissors,” Roxanne said.

“Well, I’ve got a ton of balloons! After the party, we can have an after-party, which is all about you, popping balloons!”

“Murdering balloons sounds like fun!” Meg said as she sidled up to them.

“Hey, look who just arrived!” Roxanne exclaimed, raising a corner of her mouth in a smile.

William at first thought she was meaning Meg, but then he noticed her pointing with her scissors.

He turned and had his eyes blown wide open.

***

This is it, Robyn .

She took in the entire scene. Travelling from the Ocean village to the Jungle village through the Pylon network, she’d felt much more… confident? She felt ready, to tell William her feelings for him.

She saw some of the citizens were dancing, some were sitting and drinking, some were standing in conversation. She searched for William, and spotted him standing near the Stylist and Party Girl.

And Meg.

Her chest tightened.

***

William tentatively took some steps towards her. She was dressed in a pretty dress dyed with a mesmerising cerulean gradient. Her brown hair was long, running down to her waist, and it rippled in waves as she came towards him.

He didn’t know what to say. She’d never put this much effort into her appearance before. Heck, she normally just simply wore armour.

Two things flashed through his mind. The first was that he realised he’d never once considered the possibility of Robyn liking him in return.

Maybe she’d just been too afraid to acknowledge it.

Like him.

The second was that if this was true, it meant…

She did this for me .

***

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey,” she replied, her breath catching, trying her best to keep eye contact with him. She couldn’t help thinking that his hair was the most pleasant shade of brown. He was dressed in his normal clothes – a red shirt and white pants – not his armour, and had a party hat resting upon his head similar to what the other citizens around were wearing.

He was about to say something, but Meg beat him to it.

“Girl, you look so adorbs!” she exclaimed, and of course she was smiling. “If cameras were in this game I’d get a selfie with you! Where’d you get such a pretty dress?”

“Um… uh…” Robyn stammered.

“It’s a secret? Got it. What do you think, Will?”

“Uh… um…”

Robyn never thought it would be possible to smile and flush at the same time. Especially not for William. He looked so… so dorky but so… cute at the same time!

“Good answer as any,” Meg said after William said nothing. “I’ll leave you two at it.” Right as she turned to walk away, Robyn noticed her flash a quick thumbs-up.

In an instant she realised she’d never had to worry about Meg.

“Seriously, you look great,” William suddenly blurted.

Aaah! My heart!

“Thank you,” Robyn replied, inwardly feeling giddy, hot, tense, every awkward emotion thrown together in a blender.

“Sid’s thrown this party to celebrate all our victories and achievements so far,” William said. “Though… all that definitely didn’t come without the fair share of… um… near-death experiences .”

“Yeah,” Robyn said, then found herself giggling.

“But now… where we’re at… all that struggle to get to this point… somehow it all feels worth it. We’ve tamed the world. As a group we’ve become strong enough to handle everything that’s been thrown at us.” He paused. “But in all of this, it’s not the power we’ve gained or the victories we’ve had that I find most extraordinary. It’s not even building all the houses for all the citizens.” Again, he paused, his breath catching.  “It was meeting you.”

That was when Robyn keeled backwards.

***

Darkness swirled.

Energy hurled.

An ornate, round object.

Yellow burning behind.

Engraved upon it.

Was the face.

Of the being.

Chapter Text

“Robyn!” William cried.

Nothing seemed to be stopping her from making her mad dash away, almost bowling over a couple of citizens in her path.

He made after her, but watched as she approached the Jungle Pylon outside and vanished in sparks.

He wanted to follow, but thought better of it.

Maybe she doesn’t like me.

He sighed.

How could I be so stupid?

He turned back to the party.

This isn’t the real world.

He looked around at the citizens dancing together, some in pairs. Emily and Tony, Mrunok and Kayla.

Nothing here is real.

“Hey, has anyone seen Andrew anywhere?” Sid asked as he stepped casually over to William, completely oblivious to what had just transpired.

“I saw him earlier,” William murmured, pivoting around on his feet, but for the life of him he could not spot Andrew’s light brown hair. He did spot Hayley standing alone in one corner, looking dejected from the Guide rejecting her dance request earlier.

Where has he gone? he wondered, beginning to get a bit worried. But Robyn came back into his mind, and somehow a missing citizen didn’t seem to matter as much.

“He’ll turn up.”

***

The next morning he hadn’t turned up.

“Was it something I said?” Hayley cried, wiping her eyes with one hand and holding a bunny in the other.

“We don’t know for sure,” Sid said. “We’ve searched all five villages. No sign of him.”

“Do you know any places he normally frequents?” Meg asked.

“He rarely ever leaves the Forest Village. He’s good at providing us with information, but he literally has no other personality or interests.”

William could hear Hayley sniffing across the room.

“Could anyone else in the village help us find him?” Meg asked, putting a finger to her chin in thought.

“Probably the best thing we can do is put together a search party and head off,” Sid said. “Search everywhere.”

“I’ll help,” Hayley said, putting down the rabbit. “I’m so worried for him. I’ll never rest until he’s back here, safe and sound!”

“Well, we’ve got one volunteer,” Sid grinned, then looked to Meg. “Can you ask around and see if anyone else wants to help?”

“I will.”

After Meg left, Sid turned to William. “You alright, man? You’ve barely talked much all day.”

William didn’t really feel like being drilled at the moment, so he just shrugged.

Meg returned a bit later with Harry the Golfer and Zop’a the Witch Doctor.

“If my sister’s going to be going into dangerous territory with you lot, I’ll be here to look out for her,” Harry said.

“Fair enough,” Sid said.

“Andrew the Guide is a kindred spirit of nature,” Zop’a said. “It unnerves me that he should be missing. I should be able to find him.”

“How?” Sid asked.

“Magic, my friend.”

“Well, that’s good enough for me. Where do you think he is?”

The Witch Doctor pressed his cane into the ground. “I sense he is somewhere very deep underground. So far that… he may well be in another world.”

William exchanged a look with Sid.

“The Underworld!”

***

William had only gotten a fleeting glimpse of the Underworld before, but the thought of voluntarily going down there… it scared him.

After they descended down the rope that Sid had laid down in the hole he’d bombed out, William looked to Robyn. They’d ran into her just before leaving, and she’d also agreed to come with them.

Although, something still seemed unusually off about her. She was back in her silver armour, and wouldn’t even look at him.

He couldn’t be sure why. Maybe last night she’d been about to… tell him , but had panicked and ran, and was now hiding inside her helmet instead of openly expressing herself.

He wondered if he should say something. Something to console her. 

But what?

The heat of the Underworld hit him like a sauna. Molten lava bubbled in pools, a thick haze filled the air. Pillars of rock held the ceiling up, and in the distance was a collection of buildings built out of dark brick.

“It was over there that I found most of the hellstone I mined for you, Will,” Sid said, pointing at the buildings.

“Zop’a, do you have a better fix on Andrew?” Meg asked.

“He is definitely down here in here… this hellish realm,” the Witch Doctor replied, “In the direction that you are pointing.”

“Let’s go.”

Enemies of the Underworld felt to be more sparse than some of the other dangerous areas of the world such as the Dungeon, but its sheer size meant they came for them often, and they were all tough to take down. The Hellbats were evasive and tiny, the Lava Slimes burst into lava that flowed everywhere upon being defeated, and the Demons – the winged creatures that William had seen when he’d first poked his head down here – were relentless, unleashing wave after wave of magical purple scythes that spun at them with the ferocity of a chainsaw.

The dark-brick houses were lit with eerie purple lights, filled with black ceramic pots, and contained furniture that appeared to be constructed of hardened magma. They took a quick rest-stop in the first set of houses which Sid had previously explored, which was interrupted when an enormous serpent made completely from bone burst out from the floor and tried to snap at them. Some swings from William’s Night’s Edge and fireballs from Sid’s Imp summons quickly decimated it, but not before the Zoologist screamed and cowered in a corner.

“Nothing down here is a harmless little critter,” she whimpered.

“Uh… well, there’s this thingy,” Sid said, pointing at a glowing orange snail on a nearby wall. Its shell was made of black rock and it oozed a trail of boiling hot slime that William reckoned would probably burn his finger off if he touched it. Hayley didn’t look impressed by it.

“We must move,” Zop’a said. “I feel the Guide getting farther.”

More Underworld traversing, into territories unexplored, not even by Sid. He eagerly mined up all the Hellstone he spotted, even drinking an Obsidian Skin Potion and fearlessly diving into lava to get some.

A part of William wished he could be as undaunted as Sid. Nothing ever bothered him.

The next set of houses was absolutely infested with Lava Slimes, but Harry managed to whack most of them out into the nearby lava lake using his golf club.

“I’ve never intentionally landed that many balls into water hazards before,” he muttered.

“Hey guys! There’s two Shadow Chests down here!” Sid called.

William dropped down to the level below and found Sid twisting a Shadow Key into each of the locks. Meg opened the right one first.

“It’s a Flamelash!” She held up a short staff with a fiery tip. It cast a small ball of fire that danced in the air before a swing sent it flying to the opposite wall. She reached back in and pulled out a potion filled with fiery yellow-orange liquid. “And some potions. Lifeforce Potion. Increases max life by 20%… sounds like an invaluable effect. Wonder how you brew it. And an Inferno Potion. Ignites nearby enemies… You might find this useful, William, since you like to attack with swords.”

“Thanks,” he said as she handed her the potion.

“There’s a Hellwing Bow in this one,” Sid said. “Hey, Robyn! We’ve got another bow for our resident archer!”

William watched as she came down, a flat look on her face, and she took it from his hands without a word.

“And thank you too, Sid!” Sid said in a mock imitation of Robyn’s voice, before bowing.

“We are getting closer,” Zop’a called from above. “I believe he has stopped moving.”

The next stretch of terrain was rugged ash but mostly lava-less, with many pillars of ash and stone rising up to the ceiling. Some glowing red shrubs grew out of the ground, which Meg picked up to add to her herb collection.

“Andrew!” Hayley suddenly shrieked before running forward.

William spotted him at that same moment. Some distance ahead, standing at the edge of a cliff that overlooked a massive, seemingly endless ocean of lava. Mercifully, no Demons or anything else seemed to be in sight. He ran after Hayley, who slowed to a stop as Andrew slowly turned around.

“I thought you’d be here eventually,” he said.

“Andrew, I…” Hayley stammered, “I just want you to be safe. This place…”

“Yeah, it’s too dangerous for citizens,” Sid said, sidling up beside William.

“I am aware,” Andrew said. “I ordinarily would never come here, but for one reason. A storm is coming, and the world… it needs to change in order to be truly at peace.”

“What are you talking about?” Meg asked.

The Guide didn’t exactly answer her question. “The four of you… William, Robyn, Sid, and now Meg… you are the greatest people I could have had the privilege of guiding. You are trustworthy, kind, moral, and honourable. You are fit for the purpose that I guided you for.”

William tightened his grip on his sword, locking the Guide in his steely gaze.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t say any of this sooner… you’d only try to stop me… but changing the world requires me to die. The Order of the Guide sent me for this purpose, and I must see it through.”

Order of the Guide? What…?

“No!” Hayley cried, rushing forward and taking Andrew by both hands. “Please, you don’t have to do this.”

“I must,” Andrew said. “It’s why I distanced myself from you lately, including… at the party. I’ve known my time is coming.”

“You don’t have to die!” she was practically shouting, tears streaming down her cheeks, her fox tail drooping to the ground. “When I first became a werefox, I thought I’d be better off dead. Not until I found my purpose. To be closer with the animals of nature.”

“To die is my purpose… Hayley,” Andrew replied.

“It doesn’t have to be. Please.” She stared deeply at him. “Stay with me.”

In the pixels of Andrew’s body William was sure he could see him relaxing, his muscles loosening. Could he be changing his mind?

He would never know.

A blood red fireball shot down from above and burnt itself into Andrew’s body, its shockwave blasting Hayley backwards. A wave of scarlet flame burst out.

“Andrew!” Hayley screamed.

The flames dissipated, leaving Andrew frazzled, but alive, with 1 life left.

Then he teetered backwards.

Into the lava.

A guttural roar shook the world.

Chapter Text

William could never have imagined in a million years the being that would rise from the ashes.

A massive, fleshy mass, covered with crimson bubbles and ridges. Several eyes and mouths sprouted as it grew larger, the mouths ringed with deathly sharp teeth, the eyes bloodshot and bulbous. It oozed from the lava where the Guide had fallen, stretching up to the very ceiling of the Underworld, forming a massive wall in front of them.

Fitting, considering the label that appeared when William stared at it. ‘Wall of Flesh – 11200/11200’.

“What the cactus…” Sid gasped, looking lost for words. A reaction William had never seen on him.

He glanced at Robyn, who looked similarly stunned, then at Meg, whose head was turned backwards.

The fireball that hit Andrew , William couldn’t help thinking. Meg was trying to see where it had come from. Its trajectory suggested it had come from somewhere in the ceiling, from one of the many ash pillars behind them.

But there was nothing. No-one that could have unleashed the flame of death.

We’ve got a bigger problem to deal with though.

A VERY big problem.

The Wall of Flesh.

A being that appeared to be the culmination of the essence of the Crimson.

Dozens of red tendrils stretched forward from the Wall, each with a biting mouth on the end of them. They reached forward, their mouths grasping for something to feed on.

At that moment they were all reaching for Hayley, who still stood in shocked silence.

“Hayley!” William shouted, rushing forward. Three of the grabbing mouths – named The Hungry according to their labels – were about to chomp down into her, had he not swept his Night’s Edge and knocked them all away.

“We’ve got to bring this thing down!” he shouted. He twirled his Sunfury, the flaming spiky ball on a chain spinning fast, and slung it out for some more damage to The Hungry, the Sunfury’s blaze setting them on fire.

“Everyone drink the potions I gave you!” Meg shouted.

William quickly reached into his inventory to do what he said, starting with the Inferno Potion she had found for him in a Shadow Chest earlier. A bright ring of fire burst out around him, lashing at The Hungry that were reaching for him.

“Woah, that is so cool, dude!” Sid exclaimed. “I want one!”

Several of the other Hungry reached over William’s head to try to bite into the others, but they were all ready. Robyn was the first to spring into action, the call to battle overwriting whatever emotions were keeping her subdued. Her Hellwing Bow hummed as it launched a swarm of magical flaming bats at The Hungry, pushing them backwards. Sid’s Imps shot fireballs into the fray while Meg cast fiery bolts using her Flamelash. Even the Witch Doctor and Golfer were getting in on the action, Zop’a firing darts from his blowgun, and the Golfer doing what he did best.

“The Wall’s coming towards us!” Meg cried.

William glanced at it and with a sickening feeling realised she was right. He grabbed the Zoologist by the arm and pulled her backwards, slicing at more Hungry that tried to bite at them. Before too long the Wall had oozed onto the ledge, engulfing the spot where she had been standing. And it didn’t stop there.

“Harry! Zop’a! Keep Hayley safe!” William shouted, thrusting the panicked Zoologist at them.

He heard a new, unfamiliar sound, and spun around to see bright purple lasers were being shot out of the Wall’s many eyes. The lasers that impacted with the ground sent up clouds of ash, and one hit Sid’s side.

“Agh!” he cried, falling to the ground.

“Sid!” Meg shouted, and ran forward to haphazardly pull him to his feet.

“Fall back!” William cried.

The Wall’s expanding presence pushed them back into the houses where they had found the Shadow Chests, then over a lake of lava that Sid had built a platform bridge across for the citizens. William was grateful for the space to stand on, but in such a narrow space the Wall’s lasers were able to overwhelm them, pushing them further back. Some of The Hungry burst apart in their attacks, but each one they cut away was replaced by two more, like a perverted form of hydra.

“Robyn, Meg, focus on hitting the Wall itself!” Sid shouted. “William, you and I will focus on keeping the Hungry away.”

William nodded. He sandstorm-jumped up, bringing his sword through five different Hungry at once. He could see Robyn’s flaming bats piercing through the Hungry’s defences and into the Wall’s flesh, while Meg manoeuvred her fireballs around the Hungry and into whatever exposed eye she could hit.

As powerful as their small army was, the Wall was practically an army itself. Its mouths burped small red worms that burrowed their way towards them and quickly turned the walkable ground into a minefield, while the eye-lasers only continued to up and up in frequency. Not only that, but the Wall itself felt like it was growing and flowing exponentially faster. Sid manoeuvred everyone across the Underworld’s treacherous terrain, anything to get away from the Wall, but even his directions weren’t keeping pace. The Wall would overcome them eventually.

“We’re getting close! 2000 health left!” Sid called.

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up!” William shouted.

“I’ve been constantly out of mana for a while!” Meg shouted. “I’m barely able to get off any shots!”

William made to run away so he could get a more distant view from the close-quarters battle he’d been waging against the Hungry, but the tentacly veins around him seemed to be keeping pace with his Lightning Boots. Glancing back, he realised in horror that the Wall itself was oozing at the same rate as his running speed.

And he was beginning to tire.

“William!” he heard Robyn cry as the Wall caught him like a fly on a car windshield.

But William was prepared. He drove his Night’s Edge into one of the Wall’s eyes. Some of the Hungry bent around to try to pick him to pieces, but he swung his Sunfury in semicircles in front of him to keep them away.

He saw fiery bats streaming into some of the other eyes – Robyn was dialling up her attacks. Meg had switched to her Bee Gun, unleashing a swarm of bees to rival Robyn’s bats, together tearing apart The Hungry that remained and into the Wall.

And that was when William fell.

The Wall behind him collapsed, breaking apart into fleshy chunks, but the momentum sent him flying forward, and he ended up face-planting on the obsidian-brick roof of an underworld house below.

He could hear no more guttural roars. No more Hungry chomps, no more laser blasts. Just a voice, ethereally whispering in his ear. “ The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released .”

He heard footsteps approaching.

“Hey there, champ.”

He held up his head to see Sid standing over him.

“Thought we were going to lose you there. But we did it.” He exhaled, the battle now over.

“Is Andrew there?” Hayley cried. “Is he alive?”

Sid looked out at the bloody remains of the Wall of Flesh. “I don’t see him. I’ll go check. There’s probably at least some loot or something.”

William got to his feet. He saw Meg on her knees on the ground near him, looking similarly relieved that this battle was over.

“I miss the giant flying things,” she muttered.

Sid returned from the haze, now wearing a green cap on his head for some reason.

“It dropped some quite good stuff. This hat,” he pointed up at it, “A new whip for me, named the Firecracker. A Warrior Emblem that’s just dying to be given to William. And a Demon Heart for each of you, which increases your accessory slot count by one.”

William looked down at his hands as Sid handed him the two items, and in that moment it hit him.

The Wall of Flesh, the final boss of the world, had been defeated. At the cost of the Guide, but it was gone.

Was this the end? Was this their happily ever after? Peace and prosperity for all in the villages?

William began to laugh, realising this huge weight had now been lifted off his shoulders. Off of all of their shoulders.

They were all safe.

Then his laughs faded.

We might be safe, but… we’re still trapped.

There’s a real world for us out there, where we all came from.

But we still have no way of getting out there.

His gaze landed on Robyn, who was standing with her back to him, facing away from the Wall of Flesh’s remains, her head down. He watched as she reached up to her helmet and gently slid it off, unveiling her long, brown ponytail.

He stepped forward. If there was ever a time to talk to her about their feelings for each other, it was now.

“Robyn?”

Her head shifted.

“Are you okay?”

She turned around.

Her eyes were glowing red.

“The world’s guardian has been defeated,” she said in a dark voice. “Now nothing stands in their way.”

Chapter Text

William stared hard at her.

It… it can’t be…

Robyn made the first move. She thrust out her Hellwing Bow and began firing rapidly.

William only had a split-second to react, bringing up his shield to block the bats. He glanced back just in time to see Meg and Sid flying towards him.

Sid was the first to attack, swinging out his new Firecracker whip at Robyn’s side.

“Snap out of it!” he shouted. “Or my Imps will open fire!”

She didn’t, instead drawing her other bow – The Bee’s Knees – and began firing bee-arrows at him. Sid tried to dodge but her aim was true and the bees broke apart in formation to chase after him. Before too long he fell to the ground, screaming as the killer bees swarmed all over him.

Meg was next, casting bouncing fireballs at Robyn with her Flower of Fire, but William watched in horror as she drew the shiny blue blade of a Muramasa – a weapon he had no idea she’d had. She jumped up and slashed Meg out of the sky.

William cried out and sandstorm-jumped at Robyn, Night’s Edge swinging. She blocked with her Muramasa, but William’s momentum pushed against her and sent them both falling to the ground. Upon scrambling to their feet Robyn charged and made several rapid strikes. It was all William could do to parry each swipe with his larger sword, but he couldn’t fight back – he couldn’t hurt her.

The girl that he liked.

Robyn accelerated her attacks, and before too long a swipe caught William’s wrist, causing him to drop his Night’s Edge. He cried out as more sword swipes raked across his Molten Armour. His life dropped fast, and Robyn only stopped, holding her blade against his neck, when his life had reached 15. Another hit would kill him.

“It is time to execute you all.”

Her voice… it was so dark and otherworldly. There was no way this was Robyn.

His thoughts were interrupted when a golf ball conked Robyn on the head.

He craned his neck to see Harry the Golfer. The Zoologist and Witch Doctor stood some distance behind him.

“Big mistake,” Robyn said. “I would have spared you.”

William watched, horrified, as she dashed at the Golfer, using a Shield of Cthulhu of her own, and cleaved her Muramasa straight through the Golfer’s chest.

His sister screamed as he was split apart.

William’s stomach sank.

His eyes fell to the pieces of the Golfer as they rolled across the ground. An arm, a piece of torso… his head…

The brutality…

He forced himself to look away, to look at Robyn, as she turned back to face him.

“You’re next.”

That was when Sid came flying forward and screaming a battle cry. He was propelled by his Frostspark Boots, his Minishark and Imp summons firing. Robyn took a lot of the hits, her life falling fast, but she just nonchalantly pulled out a Magic Mirror and disappeared.

William gasped.

He’d been so sure… so certain that their journey had been over.

The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released .

But it was only just beginning.

The world’s guardian has been defeated. Now nothing stands in their way.

And Robyn…

She was gone.

*** 

“…and right as the Wall of Flesh fell,” Sid finished, “I heard whispering in my ear. We all did, from some… voice. The ancient spirits of light and dark have been released. ”

William watched the Dryad closely. Her expression had been like stone ever since Sid had started recounting the story, and now she seemed to be deflating.

“And right after, that was when Robyn turned against us. She killed Harry and almost killed the rest of us, but we drove her away.”

“What did she say to you again, William?” Meg asked.

William blinked, fazed at the sudden question. “Uh… that the world’s guardian has been defeated, and nothing stands in… their way.”

“What does all this mean?” Sid muttered.

“Well…” the Dryad pursed her lips. “To begin with, the world has a Guardian, who serves as the world’s master and core.”

“And Robyn said it had been defeated… wait. Are you meaning the Guardian was… that wall thing?”

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Nissa said. “The Guardian may have rested in the Underworld, and had a form that could cause some to believe it had links to the Crimson, but in truth its role was to keep the world intact and in balance. The Crimson existed, yes, but the Guardian kept it in check, allowing it to thrive without overcoming everything.”

It was then that William noticed that Nissa didn’t seem too happy about the situation.

“Are you saying the Crimson could consume the whole world? Now that the Guardian is gone?” Meg asked.

“Actually, it probably won’t,” the Dryad said. “There is one contingency the Guardian had set in the event of its death. It unleashed the spirits of light and dark. While this will amplify the Crimson’s coverage, it has also created something new – the Hallow.”

The Hallow? Another biome?

“The Hallow functions as an overcompensation of purity, taken to the absolute extreme. It might appear friendly and happy on the surface, but underlying all the glitter, it similarly seeks to cover the whole world before the Crimson can. It is on no side but its own.”

William looked between Meg and Sid. Meg looked worried at this, though Sid didn’t seem fazed. If anything, he almost looked excited at having the opportunity to explore another new biome.

And William himself… he didn’t know what to think. His mind was still back in another place. 

A very… dark place.

“Let’s get back to Robyn,” Meg said. “Do any of you have any idea why she suddenly switched sides like that?”

“William knows her better than me,” Sid said. “What do you think?”

William felt unease rising as the two of them stared at him. It was bad enough that Robyn had just betrayed them, but talking about it would only mean reliving the worst memories he now had of this world.

The way she had… murdered the Golfer in cold blood, eviscerating him with a sword like what William often used. The look in her eyes as she’d turned to him. Glowing red, darkness around the edges.

But looking back on it now, he realised it wasn’t on Robyn that he had first seen those eyes. He’d seen them somewhere else before.

“The Old Man,” he blurted.

Sid looked at him oddly, Meg looked at him confused.

“I think she was possessed. Cursed. Like what James the Clothier was before we fought his master, Skeletron. Before we freed him.”

Sid gasped. “Are you sure?”

William could only nod.

“If that’s the case, then it is clear that the Cultists from the Dungeon are still at large,” Nissa said. “Hiding, but still active and a very real threat.”

“It must’ve been a Cultist that shot the fireball that knocked Andrew into the lava,” Meg added. “They have very powerful magic on their side.”

“Ungodly magic,” Nissa agreed.

“Speaking of Andrew, remember what he said?” Sid asked. “He told us the Order of the Guides specifically sent him to change the world, which happened when we defeated the world’s Guardian.”

William remembered. “He said that… we were fit for the purpose he guided us to.”

“Which turned out to be destroying the Guardian, disrupting the balance of the world!” Meg exclaimed.

“He’s been using us all along,” Sid groaned.

“The Order of the Guide does not work like that,” Nissa said. “They are dedicated to the preservation and distribution of knowledge.”

“Then why did they send him to essentially make us destroy the Guardian?” Sid argued. “If anything, they’ve probably given the Cultists exactly what they want. A Cultist was ultimately the one to knock him into the lava, summoning the Wall. Right after we defeated it, Robyn tried to take out the rest of us!”

“Nothing about this sounds good, I agree,” Nissa said. “But the Order must have had some other reason for destroying the world’s Guardian.”

Now nothing stands in their way , William found himself thinking, remembering what Robyn had said.

Whose way was she talking about? She hadn’t said ‘my’ way, so she hadn’t been meaning her own way, or the Cultists.

They already knew the Cultists’ long-term goal – to bring Cthulhu back to life. They’d tried to do that by getting the Mechanic to build mechanical body parts for him. But because the Mechanic had barricaded herself away before she’d built a new brain for Cthulhu, that hadn’t worked.

What were they going to try now?

After William voiced his thoughts to the group, Nissa said, “The Cultists will likely remain hidden, but they will reveal themselves when they are close to being ready. That will be when you strike.”

“Then we’d better make sure we’re strong enough to take them on when that happens,” Sid said. “There are two things I can think of doing to get us started. The first is that we should check out the Hallow, see what that offers us. The second –” he pulled out a shiny hammer made from white metal, gilded with gold, and a red ruby in the centre – “Is this.”

“What is that?” Meg asked.

“Where did you get that from?” William asked at the same time.

“It’s named the Pwnhammer,” Sid said. “The Wall of Flesh dropped it along with the Firecracker whip I tried to attack Robyn with when she turned. It’s labelled that it’s strong enough to destroy Crimson Altars.”

“Crimson Altars?” William wondered out loud, before he remembered what they were – when they’d first tried venturing into the underground Crimson, they’d found those strange, fleshy masses, covered with piles of eyeballs. They had proven unbreakable, even with bombs, and had even damaged Sid when he’d tried to strike it with his hammer. The only use for them he knew of had been when he’d had to forge his Night’s Edge.

“There must be a reason that the Guardian dropped this,” Sid said. “And I’m sure it’s to give us something for us to become stronger.”

“What if it unleashes something even worse?” Meg countered, “What if it accelerates the Crimson, causing it to grow over the whole world in one big swoop?”

“If those altars had that power, we’d already be dead,” Sid said.

“I believe it’s worth a go,” Nissa said.

“It’s one of the only things we can try,” William muttered.

Chapter Text

They teleported to the Desert Village, which was closest to the Crimson, but William was not expecting it to be so… close .

Already it had expanded, faster and farther than William could have imagined. In the nearby forest, he could see it had completely obliterated the sunflower perimeter Nissa, Hayley and Andrew had set up earlier. In the desert, it had begun spreading straight through the sand, turning the sand a mottled reddish-gray. It couldn’t do that before. It had almost reached the sinkhole where they’d found the Golfer.

The Golfer… William tried to shove him to the back of his mind, but nothing could keep out the sight of Robyn’s Muramasa skewering him like a Slime.

He spotted Akbar the Dye Trader ahead, staring out at the bloodied desert ahead, and walked towards him.

“This ugly brown and red is consuming the desert!” Akbar said. “It’s draining the colour from my palettes!”

“How fast did the Crimson spread?” William asked.

“I was staring out at this view in complete peace not even a day ago,” the Dye Trader said. “Now, it is revolting, repulsive, unpalatable.”

It seemed like what the Dryad had been saying about the Guardian’s defeat amplifying the Crimson was very true.

“If the Crimson’s already spread this much, we’re going to need to find another way of keeping it at bay,” William muttered. “Otherwise it will take over your village.”

“I could try buying some Purification Powder from the Dryad,” Meg said. “That clears away the Crimson.”

“You do that at some point,” Sid said, then hefted his Pwnhammer in a large swing. “But for now, we’ve got altars to smash!”

Sid and Meg began heading towards the newly Crimson-ed desert, but something caught William’s eye. Through the window of the Dye Trader’s house, he spotted a familiar painting on the wall. Andrew Sphinx, the sphinx with the green cap on its head, which he had picked up from an abandoned house in the Underground Desert.

He turned his head to Sid, who now wore that same sort of green cap. Which, he remembered, had been among the loot of the Wall of Flesh.

Which had been brought forth by the death of Andrew the Guide.

He couldn’t help but wonder whether this was a coincidence. Had whoever designed the painting known this would happen?

He shook the thoughts from his head and followed after Sid and Meg.

Earlier, most of the enemies of the Crimson had become relatively easy to take down with their powerful weapons from the Underworld, but it quickly became apparent that in addition to the Crimson’s more powerful spread, new enemies were spawning that were so strong that even their ‘powerful weapons’ were struggling against them.

Crimslimes the size of boulders leapt towards them, accompanied by mummies wrapped in blood-soaked bandages. The Blood Mummies ran towards them faster than any other ground-based enemy William had encountered, and only got faster the lower their life fell. Not to mention the fact that both types of enemies had life counts of around 400 – again, far more than any regular enemy William had seen before. They also seemed to be armoured enough that it rendered some of their lower-damaging weapons useless. Sid’s Minishark and Meg’s Bee Gun could barely deal more than 1 damage per hit, though the rapid-fire nature of both weapons were normally enough to stun enemies, Meg’s bees stinging them into submission, leaving them open to William slashing them to bits with his Night’s Edge.

Once they got past the desert and into the Crimson forest however, the enemies didn’t let up for a moment. Some Herplings, which were large, slug-like creatures with eyestalks, spikes on their back, and a jutting maw, began hopping towards them at insane speeds. Two leapt at Meg and began mauling her with blow after blow, causing her to cry out and quickly use her Magic Mirror before her life got ripped out completely.

“These buggers are too quick!” Sid exclaimed as he tried snapping his Firecracker whip at the Herplings. He tried using the rockets on his Frostspark Boots to stay in the air above them, but he quickly ran out of juice and fell back down into their eager jaws. Another spray of blue particles indicated he had also used his Magic Mirror.

William groaned and used it himself. He was teleported back to the Forest Village, where he found Sid and Meg, both of which had low life counts and haggard looks on their faces.

“These enemies are too strong for us,” Sid said. Coming from him, that was saying something.

“We could try again, but with potions this time,” Meg said. “Remember when I found a Lifeforce Potion in the Underworld? If we could figure out how to brew it -”

“The Guide’s dead, Meg,” William said.

Her face fell. “You’re right.” She reached to touch her chin. “There’s a few potions I can think of trying. There’s one type of herb you guys haven’t got in any of your chests, from the Snow biome.”

“What is it?”

“Shiverthorn.”

Sid looked to William. “Let’s try heading over there first. We can use the Pylons.”

Meg nodded. “I’ll get some other potions brewed.”

William and Sid teleported over, but when they did, his gaze landed on the Dungeon in the distant fog.

The place where Robyn had first seen a Cultist.

And now she was possessed by them.

Focus, William.

The two of them headed into the snowy valley. Thankfully, the only enemies on the surface seemed to be the usual Ice Slimes. They quickly found some blooming Shiverthorn, which were flowery blue plants that grew out of the snow, but at that same moment Sid seemed to notice something.

“Why is the grass over there… blue?”

They ran over to the edge of the Snow biome, which bordered a forest. But now that forest had transformed.

The trees’ leaves had grown more puffy, and now showing themselves in a smorgasbord of colours. Pinks, blues, yellows and more. A rainbow seemed to hang in the sky

“Is this the Hallow?” Sid murmured.

“It must be,” William said. “The Dryad described it as ‘an overcompensation of purity.’ This type of purity is almost… it looks like a kid’s picture book.”

“Awesome!” Sid exclaimed, running forwards onto the bright blue grass.

“Wait!” William held out his hand. “Careful, Sid! The enemies here could be as strong as the ones in the Crimson!”

Of course Sid didn’t listen. He ran straight at a glowing yellow energy ball with wings – a Pixie according to its label – and snapped at it a few times with his whip until it died.

“Hey, it dropped some Pixie dust! Now we’re getting somewhere!”

“Sid, watch out!”

That was when a charging unicorn slammed into him. It had white skin, a pink mane and tail, and a purple horn that had embedded itself into Sid’s side, knocking him away for 116 damage.

“Hey, get out of here!” Sid whipped at the mythical horse with his Firecracker. His Imps pelted it with fireballs until it eventually died, dropping its horn.

“We’ve got what we came for,” William said. “If you get hit by too many more unicorns, you will die.”

“Yeah,” Sid agreed. “It’s crazy how much damage these enemies are dealing now. It’s like getting hit by a truck.”

Except we haven’t seen any trucks in this world , William thought sombrely. “Let’s just get back to Meg with the Shiverthorn.”

***

Meg planted the Shiverthorn seeds in some planter boxes she’d purchased from the Dryad, then used the plant itself in her brewing.

After a moment of crafting, she began distributing the potions among the three of them. Ironskin, Swiftness and Regeneration for all of them, Summoning for Sid, Magic Power and Magic Regeneration for Meg, and Titan for William.

“The Titan potion increases your knockback against enemies, so you can more easily keep them away,” Meg said. “Sid, the Summoning Potion will let you summon one more minion than normal.”

“Oh yeah!” Sid exclaimed, casting his Imp Staff once more. He now had five little fire imps flying around him.

“Lastly, I made some Calming Potions. These don’t help us directly in fighting, but instead they decrease how likely enemies will attack us.”

“Really?” Sid said. “How did you brew it?”

“With some Daybloom and some Damselfish that Robyn caught at some point,” Meg said. William felt his heart crack at the sound of her name. “If we all drink one, hopefully it’ll mean when we go back to the Crimson there won’t be as many enemies attacking us.”

“That’ll make it easier to get to the Crimson Altars, so I can swing this bad boy!” Sid slung out his Pwnhammer, twirling it around like some superhero William felt he vaguely remembered from real life.

***

Meg’s plan worked. A few enemies were in the Crimson when they returned, but they were able to easily run past them with their Lightning Boots and reach one of the tunnel entrances. The boulder it was situated in seemed even more menacing than before, like a mouth that would chomp down and munch them for breakfast. Would Sid’s plan lead to this fate for them?

Once inside William sealed off the entrance, to prevent any enemies outside from getting in and attacking them, while Sid ran forward, Pwnhammer in hand. Without hesitating even for a moment he brought it down on the first Crimson Altar in the tunnel, which still had the blast radius around it from when Sid had tried to blow it up with a bomb. It cracked and burst apart.

“Your world has been blessed with Cobalt!” William heard a voice whispering in his ear.

“Cobalt? Is that a new ore to mine? Awesome!” Sid sounded the most excited he’d been for awhile.

He wasted no time smashing the rest of the Crimson Altars in the tunnel. The next brought the same ethereal message in their ears, except instead the world had been blessed with Mythril. The third brought Titanium, but the fourth went back to Cobalt, and from what William could tell those were the only three things that smashing the altars were going to bless their world with.

“Man, those Cultists aren’t going to stand a chance against us now!”

“Sid! Watch out!” Meg cried.

He turned just as a dark, shadowy form floated out from one of the tunnel walls and slammed into him, knocking him backward and dealing over 120 damage.

William gasped as more shadow entities materialised around them, some dropping from the ceiling, some emerging up from the floor. The only distinguishing feature on each was a pair of glowing red eyes, reminding him horribly of what Robyn’s had looked like when she’d turned. Their labels named them as Wraiths, with 320 health.

“It’s an ambush!” he cried.

He swung his Night’s Edge forward, his attack knocking them backward and causing them to float through the wall he was facing, but they just came back out again. Thankfully they weren’t very fast, and William was able to take them out, the enemies disappearing into clouds upon defeat.

Meg seemed to be holding her own as well, though Sid was having trouble dealing too much damage to them. He had managed to knock them into one big group and the constant fire from his Minishark and Imps kept them at bay. William ran forward to help, and within moments the Wraiths had all been defeated.

“I think that was all of them,” he muttered.

He broke through the stone barrier at the tunnel entrance and together the three of them ran out of the Crimson as fast as their boots could carry them. They headed for the Desert Village, which was just outside the borders of the Crimson-infected desert, and used the Pylon there to warp back over to the Forest Village.

“Suppose we should head underground to do some mining, fellas?” Sid asked.

“In a moment,” Meg said. “We should prepare – wait.” She pointed.

“Is that… the Guide?” Sid exclaimed.

William spun to where they were looking and gasped. There he was, wearing the same old shirt, the same blue pants, with the same hairstyle as before.

He cautiously approached him, and the man turned.

“Oh. Hello, William. My name is Jeff.”

Chapter Text

“We are gathered here today to mourn and honour the passing of Andrew the Guide and Harry the Golfer,” James the Clothier spoke, dressed in a black coat and hat. “Harry was a skilled golfer, but also fought gallantly during the Goblin Invasion and against the Wall of Flesh. And as for Andrew, he was here since the beginning. He guided William, Sid, and… Robyn, to the fine heroes they… are today.”

William couldn’t help but notice the way his voice cracked upon mentioning… her . He knew they had been close friends. Somehow, he suspected James was far more devastated at what had happened to Robyn than those for which this funeral today was for. She had been cursed by the same people who had once cursed him.

The graveyard was situated some distance from the Forest Village, on a plain with sparse trees about. A few gravestones already existed, mostly for animal critters that had been killed by rampaging but indifferent zombies in the night, all of which had been set up by Hayley. There was also one that had been set up by the Arms Dealer, labelled ‘Vera’. William wasn’t exactly sure who that was, but Sid reckoned a gun that had been broken in some incident was what was buried there.

He looked around the grey mist that seemed to always hang around the graveyard, which kept the sky overcast and cast a grayscale hue to the area. Sid and Meg stood near the back, somber looks on their faces. Zop’a the Witch Doctor stood with Paddy the Tavernkeep, Durim the Demolitionist, and Akbar the Dye Trader. Mrunok and Kayla were holding hands in the middle, though Kayla was blowing into a handkerchief and Mrunok was staring at the grass. Conversely, Emily and Tony were standing as far apart as they could – they seemed to have split up again.

“Now, a few people are going to say some words,” James said.

The first person to step up to the podium was the new Guide, Jeff. His presence still unnerved William – clearly the Order of the Guide had sent Jeff to basically replace Andrew. He had begun telling them about some new things they could craft, such as pointing out that William’s Night’s Edge could be upgraded using Souls of Might, Souls of Sight, and Souls of Fright into the ‘True Night’s Edge’. William had never heard of any of those items before and had no clue how any were obtained.

New items, new weapons, and new enemies far stronger than anything they’d encountered before… he felt about as weak and helpless as they had at the beginning. As though the world had started over.

“Now, I can’t speak for why my predecessor spontaneously burst into flames,” Jeff said, “But hopefully it doesn’t happen to me. What I can tell is how much he meant to you all, some of you more than others. As Guides, it is our role to guide communities like this one and the individuals within, using the knowledge we have. I never knew Andrew, but I bid him farewell. He served his purpose well.”

William sighed to himself. Jeff seemed completely oblivious to the weight that was held on everyone’s shoulders, especially himself. Andrew’s death had made the world change forever. 

And… his world change forever, too.

Hayley the Zoologist stepped up next, but couldn’t get out any sentences before collapsing and whimpering like a scared puppy. Sid and Meg spoke too, but William couldn’t concentrate. His thoughts were in another place. A very dark place.

After the funeral was over, two new gravestones made from black stone and gilded with gold now set out on the plain, William watched the Mechanic and Goblin Tinkerer walking along, both looking uneasy, Kayla especially.

It was at that moment that a new sense of determination snapped inside of him. He’d built this community of citizens. He’d had doubts as to whether any of this was real before, whether any of it mattered, but he could sense how badly it affected everyone. It felt very real to him.

Robyn’s friendship with James had been real. Hayley’s sibling bond with Harry and feelings for Andrew had been. All of the relationships that flowed between each and every one of the citizens and with William, Sid, Meg and Robyn were as real as ones that had been forged in real life. So what if the setting was different?

He was not going to let any of the other citizens come to harm. The Cultists had already slain two of them, one to further their own goal, and the other basically as collateral. And he had a good idea of which citizen they’d come after next.

“Kayla,” William said, approaching her.

“Yes?”

“Listen,” he paused, thinking how best to put his thoughts. “As you know, after we defeated the Wall of Flesh and… and Robyn got possessed, we’re concerned that the Cultists are pushing forward in plans to bring back Cthulhu.”

At his saying this he could see Kayla’s already grim look get even more tense.

“I’ve been worried about the same thing,” she said.

“They killed Andrew,” Mrunok added. “If there’s anyone they’re going to come after next, it’s… well, it’s her.”

“Yeah,” William said. “And I’m not going to let that happen. Not on my watch. Kayla, Mrunok, you’ve been living together in the Snow Village. That’s geographically the closest to the Dungeon. I could move you two to another village, but that’s not going to stop them. The only thing I can think of is… to hide you.”

***

And hide the Mechanic, they did. William took them to a rarely-traversed part of the forest and dug a deep hole downwards. From there, he constructed a bunker, built from several layers of brick. He made sure to make it big enough to have room for the two of them and the engineering work they tended to find themselves doing. Using wiring that the Mechanic lent to him, he rigged the entrance with traps, and filled in the hole completely with dirt, but including actuators so that it could be opened and closed. He thought about placing down a secret lever, but decided against it, instead opting to keep a lever in his inventory and to place it down in the spot where it would connect to the actuators, and toggle it only whenever he needed to enter the bunker. He hoped the Cultists would never be able to find Kayla there, and she and Mrunok felt the same.

Upon returning to the Forest Village he found Sid and Meg had just returned from a mining expedition. William himself had only been underground with them once since Sid had destroyed the Crimson Altars, and they’d spent most of that time traversing old mining caves looking for the new ores. The caves they knew felt like they’d been given a fresh coat of paint, especially since some of them had been infected by the Crimson and even the Hallow spreading underground, the Crimson turning the stone blood-red while the Hallow gave the rock a pearly sheen.

“Did you find much?” William asked.

“Still no Titanium,” Sid said. “According to Jeff it’s the best of the three new ores. I think we need to go deeper, but it’s mad difficult to do so with the new enemies down there. My summons still can’t do anything much against them.”

“We got a few Souls of Night and some Ichor from the underground Crimson,” Meg added. “Not enough to do anything with, but Jeff can at least tell us what we can use it for.”

“Also the spiders in the spider cave dropped some Spider Fang items,” Sid said. “And speaking of the spider cave, we found a new citizen!”

It was then that William noticed the wizard in the bright purple robes and long grey beard standing some distance away, talking to Jeff.

“Didn’t you find the Stylist in the spider cave too?” William asked.

“Yeah. Seems like the spiders just love snatching up unsuspecting prey. It’s practically a farm for citizens at this point. Come, introduce yourself while we show Jeff these new items.”

The three of them approached the Wizard, who was talking with Jeff the Guide.

“Ah, welcome back!” Jeff said. “What did you find this time?”

As Sid began handing Jeff items, William turned to the Wizard.

“How do you do? Are you here for a peek at my crystal ball?” he asked.

“Um…” William murmured, extending a hand to open the Wizard’s shop. Nothing particularly of interest really stuck out to him, though he suspected Meg would find his stock of Greater Mana Potions useful.

“Oh, excuse me, I must apologise. I haven’t introduced myself. I am Merlyn.”

“Merlyn? Spelt with a ‘y’,” William muttered upon reading his label.

“Someone once told me friendship is magic,” Merlyn said. “That’s ridiculous. You can’t turn people into frogs with friendship.”

William was about to say something right as Sid went, “Woo-hoo!”

He turned, glee and excitement in his eyes. “Will! The Spider Fangs can be crafted into new summon weapons and armour!”

“Oh! That’s great news,” William said.

“I don’t have nearly enough to do anything with them yet,” Sid said. “But I figure, if I spend some time near the spider cave, I can get kitted out without needing to find any Titanium at all!”

That was when they heard the explosion, followed by a chorus of screaming and shouting.

And people yelling, “Arrr!”

Chapter Text

“Pirates,” Sid said after flying up for a better look and landing back down again. “We’re being invaded by pirates.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Meg said. “We’re nowhere near the ocean.”

Sid shrugged. “That doesn’t mean they didn’t come from there.”

William grit his teeth and flew up onto the wall. In rebuilding and expanding the Forest Village, the original wall had been completely torn down and rebuilt to be taller and contain more space for the whole village inside. Down below were a motley mob of tanned pirates dressed in red-and-white striped tops, blue pantaloons, and holding giant cutlasses.

“I’ll keep them at bay. Get the citizens who are able to fight over here!” William shouted.

He leapt down and into the fray, Night’s Edge swinging. The first few pirates in his path quickly fell, but several of the Pirate Corsairs with cutlasses all leapt at him at once. He was forced to swing out his Sunfury at them to knock them all back, which set them all ablaze. Yet even his powerful, Underworld-born weapon didn’t deal too much damage to them – the pirates had between 600 and 900 life each . Way more than William’s 400.

Fortunately a spray of bullets, explosives and fireballs started peppering them. He glanced up to see Meg and Sid on the wall, the Arms Dealer and Demolitionist by their sides. Zop’a the Witch Doctor and Merlyn the Wizard were also up there, the latter casting bouncing fireballs from his hands similar to the ones from Meg’s Flower of Fire.

The pirates had plenty of firepower of their own, however. Flaming arrows and bullets flew up from the back of the crowd. William heard Durim cry out as a bullet struck him in the shoulder, while a few of the flaming arrows narrowly missed Meg. Some parrots began flying forward, their feathers an ocean blue and crests red. One tried to grab at Tony’s hair with its talons while another tried to pull at Nissa the Dryad’s vine-coverings with its beak.

“Hey, that’s rude!” Sid shouted as he turned his Minishark against the bird, soon blasting it to feathers.

William sliced and parried, cutting a couple of cutlass-wielding corsairs to pieces, then felt the familiar rush of picking up an item. One of the pirates had dropped their Cutlass.

“58 melee damage,” he muttered. He wondered how a random blade from a pirate could deal more damage than his Night’s Edge, a mythical sword of darkness that had been forged from four other very powerful blades.

Still, he wasn’t complaining. He found the Cutlass not only dealt more damage but also felt lighter and swung more easily and swiftly. But despite the weapon upgrade, the pirates were relentless. He instinctively reached for his Night’s Edge and put it into his other hand, and before too long realised he was now wielding both swords at once – something he’d somehow never thought of trying before, but the heat of battle and all the adrenaline had pushed him into doing it.

He tore through pirate after pirate, making it to the back-line of gunners and crossbowers. He took a bullet to the stomach from a pirate with an eyepatch, which dealt 85 damage, but charged forward, swords swinging like a whirlwind, and vanquished the buccaneer.

That was when he laid eyes on the captain.

It was a pirate with a red beard (which William almost rolled his eyes at), a tricorner hat, and a fancy black outfit with gold trimming.

And holding a massive gun.

It didn’t fire just one shot at a time like most other ranged enemies, it was shot after shot after shot! William could only sandstorm-jump upwards and fly backwards towards the wall to avoid the deluge, but ran out of juice in his Lightning Boots, causing him to fall short of the wall. The Pirate Captain raised his gun, revealing a literal cannon mounted underneath the barrel, and fired. William sandstorm-jumped again, and the cannonball exploded on the grass beneath his feet.

He landed on the wall next to Sid. “That Captain’s dangerous. Focus all fire on it!”

Sid nodded and directed his Imps forward. Meg and Merlyn cast bouncing fireballs forward, Luigi covered the Captain in paint, and the Demolitionist threw a lit stick of dynamite that blasted a crater beneath the Captain. Yet he was unfazed, not being knocked back by any of the attacks. When he climbed out of the crater William could see why – he had a whopping 6000 health. Not nearly as much as the Wall of Flesh, but it was pretty clear to him that this Captain was the boss. If they defeated him, the pirates would be left leaderless and would hopefully retreat.

Despite the Captain’s high health, he couldn’t jump high enough to get over the wall, and his cannonball’s explosions weren’t powerful enough to leave even a dent in the wall. He was basically a sitting duck against the onslaught of attacks from William, Sid, Meg, and the citizens. It was not long before he fell backwards, and a final grenade from the Demolitionist blasted him apart.

“We got him!” Durim cheered.

Right as a cutlass-wielding ghost levitated up from the smoke and slashed at him.

“Aaigh!”

William leapt forward and locked his own Cutlass against the ghost’s. The Pirate’s Curse fought hard, but once its 1000 life was brought down it vanished in a similar way to a Wraith.

“That all of them?” he called.

He watched Sid gazing out over the battlefield. The few pirates that remained seemed to be turning tail and running.

“Looks like it. That was easier than I thought it would be,” he said.

“Over there!” Meg cried.

William spun to the left, and gasped as a massive shape rose up from the valley below.

It was an honest-to-God pirate ship .

One that was flying.

The ship boasted three sets of sails, four cannons on both port and starboard, five sets of rowing oars from its hull, and a figurehead on its bow that resembled a giant skull with glowing red eyes. William could not see any pirates on board steering the ship, though when the Dutchman got close enough pirates began dropping out from beneath. Before too long it had sailed right over the wall, and before William had fully processed its arrival, there were pirates inside the village.

“The Flying Dutchman?” Sid gasped. “Aw, cactuses!”

“We’ve gotta sink that ship before they overrun us!” Meg shouted.

Sid turned his Minishark and Imps up to it, but the Flying Dutchman was sailing too high for most of the others to reliably hit it. It flew down low over the village, and unleashed a broadside of cannonballs from its starboard, sequentially blasting everyone off the wall.

William landed outside the wall in a daze, his ears ringing from the explosion and his head spinning from the fall, though in truth he hadn’t taken any real damage. He could hear pirates hollering, citizens screaming, Sid trying and failing to control the situation. He haggardly got to his feet right as Meg grabbed his arm from behind.

“They’re overwhelming us! They’re taking the citizens hostage!”

William groaned right as Sid fell down, only with 27 life remaining.

“Sid, we need to get out of here!” Meg shouted.

“I can do this. The ship’s only got 4000 health…”

“ Each of its cannons have 4000 health! We cannot prevail against something that strong!”

“Are you saying we should surrender?” William asked.

“No, we need to run.”

***

It was all William could do to not faint as he followed Meg’s jungle-armoured form deep into the forest. Night began falling, which used to just mean zombies coming out to eat their brains. Although their weapons had long surpassed the strength of zombies, new enemies – like Possessed Armour, larger Demon Eyes named Wandering Eyes, and Wraiths, had started spawning in the night ever since the Guardian’s defeat. Clearly it wasn’t just the Crimson amplifying and the Hallow spawning that had changed in the world.

Meg led them into a hidden cave in the side of a hill, and set up a campfire. Sid sat close by it, his life slowly regenerating. He seemed to be visibly shaking, which William was unnerved by. Few things shook Sid, and the things that normally did were whenever they lost. They had lost against the Brain of Cthulhu once before, having escaped using Magic Mirrors.

But now pirates had taken over the Forest Village, their home base, leaving the three of them stranded in the wilderness with nothing but the armour on their backs and the weapons in their possession. Even then, that armour and weapons had all been made pre-Guardian’s defeat. If the Cutlass that William had picked up told him anything, it was that crafting stronger weapons and armour was now more important than ever before. They’d started out with nothing but some basic swords. The world changing had basically put them back at that stage once again.

“Alright,” Meg said. “Let’s assess the situation. We’re not strong enough to take on the pirates when they have their Flying Dutchman. We have our weapons, armour and potions, but most of our other resources are stored back home.”

“You and Sid were working on mining the new ores, right?” William asked.

“Yes, but we were focussing on getting to Titanium,” Meg said. “So we’ve just been crafting Mythril Pickaxes since only they are strong enough to mine it according to Jeff. I’ve got one, and Sid’s got the Cobalt Pickaxe he made to mine the Mythril. We have some leftover Cobalt, but not enough to make a complete set of armour. All of the other Mythril we got was crafted into an anvil, since one was needed to make a pickaxe, but we left that back at base.”

“Dang,” Sid groaned.

“Then… well, I guess we should just start over then,” William said.

“Say what?”

“Mine more Mythril, craft a new anvil. Then find some Titanium and craft armour for each of us.”

Sid’s eyes suddenly lit up.

“Oh yeah! That’s right! I was going to get more Spider Fangs for some new summon weapons and armour!”

“We’re basically on the run now,” William said. “With no place to call home. The world’s changed, taken our home from us. It’s time to change with it.”

Chapter Text

The tunnel they were sheltering in led downwards. It wasn’t one William or anyone had explored before – untapped veins of the original ores, like copper and iron, still embedded the walls, along with some new ones. They found a small amount of Cobalt and even a vein of Mythril on the way down into the stone layer.

The caves were thankfully mostly empty of enemies, only a few Giant Bats and a skeleton wearing dark blue armour raising their heads. The armoured skeleton ended up dropping a new sword after William had cleaved away all its life with his Cutlass.

“Geez, how many swords are you getting, William?” Sid said, smiling.

William inspected it. It was a Beam Sword – it dealt even more damage than the Cutlass and, as its name implied, shot a beam shaped like a sword when he swung it.

It was at that moment that a stringy projectile wrapped itself around Meg and pinned her to the wall.

William spun around just as a giant spider – a Black Recluse – landed on him. He cried out as it bit into him, dealing a massive 162 damage. He swung his Beam Sword, hitting it twice – once with the sword itself and once with the beam – but the spider was barely knocked back.

“Don’t let them touch you! They hurt!” Sid shouted as his Imps flew forward and began cooking the spider with fireballs.

“I noticed!” William muttered as he threw up his Ruby Hook to grapple up to the ceiling, out of the spider’s reach. He threw his Flamarang down, hitting the spider in the cephalothorax, then realised his Beam Sword would probably do more damage and started swinging wildly downwards, sending forth several magical sword-beams that impaled themselves into the spider.

After they’d slain the spider Sid and William freed Meg from the webbing.

“Ugh, that takes me back to being imprisoned in the Queen Bee’s larva,” she groaned.

“There must be a spider cave close by,” Sid said. “I can farm out their Spider Fangs here. How about while I do that, you two head deeper down to search for Titanium?”

“Are you sure splitting up is the best idea?” Meg asked.

“I’ll keep out of sight and get my minions to do the attacking,” Sid said, then he pulled a bed out of his inventory and placed it on the cavern floor. “And if one of them spots me, I can just Magic-Mirror out of there.”

“Splitting up probably isn’t such a bad idea,” William agreed. “We need to get geared up as fast as possible. The citizens are being held hostage.”

“Okay,” Meg said, “But if you get caught up in a spider’s web, Sid, I’ll just say ‘I told you so’.”

***

Deeper down, William and Meg came across a large vein of Mythril that contained enough ore for them to craft another anvil. Beyond that, William spotted a golden chest.

“Do you think the chest loot changes at all?” he wondered out loud.

“Maybe,” Meg murmured. “But I’d be careful. The first gold chest I found in the jungle turned out to be rigged with traps all around it. The five dart traps pointing directly into it from either side were a dead giveaway, but then I found boulder traps above and some explosives buried beneath it. Even after disarming them I was too scared to open it.”

“This one’s probably safe,” William said as he placed some torches around it. “I don’t see any dart traps.”

He took a step towards it, but that was when the chest leapt at him.

“Aigh!” he cried.

It was a Mimic. Several sharp teeth sprouted from its lid as it heaved open and bit him on his arm, dealing 144 damage. He swung his Beam Sword at it, which only stunned it for a split second before it leapt at him again. He weaved to the side, causing it to miss and come into contact with the fireballs Meg had cast. The two of them kept on attacking with ranged attacks, the Mimic constantly trying to leap at both of them but not making any progress towards either, before breaking apart into gold-plated wood. Over two dozen gold coins dropped amongst its remains along with a gold-tipped dagger.

Meg picked it up. “Hey, this is a Magic Dagger!”

“Oh, nice!” William said.

She tried throwing the dagger at a wall, then looked down to see the dagger was still in her hand.

“About time I got something new,” she smiled.

The next cavern they went into contained a bat that glowed a bright magenta, which was easily spotted and defeated in the darkness. At that same moment a humanoid figure, similarly glowing purple, materialised out of thin air and leapt at William, making to pummel him with fists.

William slashed at the figure, noting that it was named a ‘Chaos Elemental.’ He landed three hits before it disappeared.

“Huh,” he said. “It didn’t look like all its life had gone yet –“

He was hit from behind. He spun around, bringing his Beam Sword into Chaos Elemental.

“This thing can teleport!” he shouted.

A few more slashes and it disappeared again, though this time William was sure it had been defeated since it dropped some silver coins and a glowing pink orb that, unlike other items, hovered in mid-air before William picked it up.

“A Soul of Light,” he read. “The essence of light creatures.”

“Sid and I found a few like those before,” Meg said. “Except they were named Soul of Night , and they came from the Crimson. I guess we must be underneath the Hallow biome.”

The Hallow on the surface had appeared like a child’s fairytale, with pixies and unicorns and rainbows. It seemed like the enemies of the Underground Hallow leaned more into a pink-energy theme.

He took some steps forward and gasped as he emerged into a large cavern studded with pink and blue lights, which appeared to be glowing crystals. He could see more of the glowing pink bats and some slimes of the same colour.

“It’s… beautiful,” he gasped.

“That’s the Hallow in a nutshell,” Meg said. “Beautiful, but trying to kill us as much as the Crimson.”

They investigated the area. William tried picking up a few of the glowing crystals from the wall with his pickaxe, finding they dropped an item named ‘Crystal Shard.’

“This tunnel leads to an icy section,” Meg called. “We must be under the snow biome as well.”

The pearly-white stone gave way to ice imbued with streaks of pink. The first enemy they came across there was an Icy Merman that tried shooting glowing icy fragments at them, though Meg’s fireballs quickly melted it. It dropped an icicle-like item that rushed into William’s inventory.

“Frozen Key,” he said, but was interrupted by the pink dragon that appeared in front of him.

It wasn’t a huge dragon, only the size of a Mother Slime. Named ‘Pigron’ – pink dragon, or perhaps pig dragon based on the rather distinctive snout it had. He didn’t have much more time to discern details as it flew at him, making a high growl that sure sounded like a pig. He cut it to bits with his Cutlass.

He turned to find Meg facing down another Chaos Elemental, but she had it under control, throwing Magic Daggers at it as fast as she could. Even when it tried to teleport around her she’d always spin around and keep up the attack. It soon vanished into the ether, leaving behind a magenta staff.

“It dropped a Rod of Discord,” Meg announced.

“That sounds like another magic weapon,” William said. “What does it do?”

“Um… it doesn’t say. No magic damage listed or anything…”

“Huh.” It suddenly occurred to William to check the Frozen Key that had popped into his inventory. It just said it was ‘cursed by a powerful Jungle creature,’ not giving any hints as to what it unlocked.

Going even deeper soon melted down the ice caves into lava-filled tunnels. The enemies were often prone to accidentally walking straight into lava and dying, sometimes leaving behind coins or other drops. One green-armoured Skeleton Archer left behind a Marrow, which was apparently a bow fashioned out of a leg bone. If Robyn had been there, she would have appreciated this weapon.

Robyn…

“That looks like it might be some Titanium over there,” Meg said after some time. William stared hard at the seam of shiny, silvery ore as she pointed it out. It look was similar to that of silver ore, but with a darker tone that made it appear much stronger.

Meg cautiously approached the ore, stopping as an Illuminant Slime dropped down from above in her path, which she silenced with some Magic Daggers.

That was when William noticed something hidden in the shadows to the left. “Meg! Watch out-”

The thing leapt forward, just like the Mimic that had attacked them earlier. In fact, this thing was a mimic as well, but one much bigger, coloured aquamarine and magenta, and ornately decorated. A tongue stuck out as it leapt, and Meg screamed.

The Mimic slammed into her with the force of a freight train, sending her careening off a ledge.

And into a lake of lava.

“No!” William cried, running forwards and peering down into the pond.

There was no sign of Meg.

The Mimic’s attack didn’t stop for a moment. William snapped out of his shock just in time to use his Shield of Cthulhu to dash to the side, dodging the Mimic’s next lunge. He swung his Beam Sword, landing a glancing blow with the sword’s beam. He got a glimpse of the Mimic’s label – it was a Hallowed Mimic, with 7000 life. Way more than the other Mimic – it was practically a boss in its own right.

The Hallowed Mimic’s next move was to jump up and try to slam down on top of William, but he dodged once again.

That was when Meg dropped down on it, Magic Daggers flying. She was on fire and had lost a lot of life, but was alive.

“I figured out how that Rod of Discord worked!” she cried. “It let me teleport out of the lava!”

Relief flooded William’s soul. “Great!”

He kept up his attack, but Meg’s Magic Daggers dealt way more damage, and she teleported around enough times that the Hallowed Mimic could barely keep track of her. A few times it tried to close up to protect itself, at which time it deflected projectiles – the first time this happened William nearly got skewered by his own sword-beam, and Meg likewise with her Magic Daggers. But before too long they brought it down, and it dropped a bunch of healing and mana potions, some gold coins, and a knife with a crystal hilt.

“It’s a Flying Knife,” Meg said. “Melee weapon. Here, William.” She tossed it at him. It arced through the air and landed in his hands.

“Thanks.”

***

Titanium began getting a bit more common from there on, but when they reached the Underworld they realised the new ores often spawned embedded in the ash ceiling, and it was easy to spot them this way considering the Underworld’s size. The enemies of the Underworld had surprisingly barely changed – in many ways they were actually easier to kill than the new ones that appeared post-Guardian’s defeat. There were a couple of Shadow Chest mimics, one of which dropped an upgraded Grappling Hook that William equipped, but other than that it was smooth sailing.

Until they encountered a strange human wearing a black top hat and mauve cloak, labelled as a ‘Tortured Soul’. It wasn’t an enemy William had encountered before, and Meg was so surprised at its appearance that she accidentally threw some Purification Powder that she’d bought from the Dryad at it instead of her Magic Dagger.

Yet somehow that actually affected it. Its skin lightened, pupils returned to its eyes, and it gained a different label. ‘Theodore – 250/250’.

The man looked around, his eyebrows furrowing on his wrinkled face. “Where the hell am I?”

“In… hell, basically,” Meg said, looking surprised at his sudden transformation.

“Who are you?” William asked.

“I am Theodore, the Tax Collector,” the man said. “Here to make sure the townsfolk are always payin’ up. Livin’ ain’t free, I tell you!”

“Well… right now all the citizens are being held hostage by pirates,” William said, “Not sure how –“

“Pirates? Those scum think they can live outside the law, sailing around on their ships and never giving their taxes to anyone? Cheaters, I tell you.”

“Well… I guess,” William said.

“Point me in the direction of them, and I’ll give their skulls a good crackening!” Theodore raised his cane threateningly.

“Okay, okay, good to hear,” William muttered, then turned to Meg. “Do you think we have enough Titanium?”

“It’ll have to do. We should go back anyway and check on Sid.”

Chapter Text

The two of them, now accompanied by the Tax Collector, returned to the cavern where Sid had left a bed, but Sid was not around.

“He must still be collecting Spider Fangs,” Meg said.

That was when a swarm of spiders began scuttling out of the darkness.

“Eeek!” William screamed.

The spiders were thankfully smaller than the Black Recluses, but numerous. He swung at them with his Cutlass, but was shocked to find that none took damage.

He spun around right as another spider, encased in brown, scaly armour, leapt out of the darkness.

“Boo!” Sid’s voice shouted from the spider’s head.

“Aaagh!”

The figure chuckled, and lifted up his spider mask, revealing a head of green hair. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist after – OW!”

The Tax Collector had slapped Sid on the back with his cane. “Bad spider! Shoo! Go back to whatever hole you crawled out from!”

“Hey, wait, Theodore. He’s a friend,” William said.

“Yeah, this is just like a costume- OOF!” Another cane swipe in the stomach.

“You don’t go around wearing silly costumes when we have business to conduct!”

William groaned. He could tolerate most of the citizens that had arrived so far, but Theodore was just a little bit irritating. He’d spent the whole trip back talking about the real estate market.

“Well, at least it looks like you got what you needed,” Meg muttered.

“More than I bargained!” Sid grinned. “Once I crafted the Spider Staff, they could chew a Black Recluse to pieces in seconds! Made getting enough Spider Fangs for the armour a piece of cake! Also, this!” He held out a brown staff with a pair of spider’s fangs on the end of them and a larger spider than his summons appeared in front of him.

“The Queen Spider Staff! It basically lets me summon this as a sentry to stand guard over a place. She spits out eggs that hatch into baby spiders that eat –”

“Disgusting,” Meg interrupted, sticking her tongue out. “Just disgusting.”

“Disgusting? This is the best thing ever! All the bad guys out there will be too scared to touch us!”

She just groaned. “Whatever. As long as it can get rid of the pirates, I don’t care how it does it.”

Sid scoffed. “Fine.” He called the rest of his spider summons back to him and they lined up in single file behind him. “How about you folks? What did you find?”

Meg and William updated Sid on Meg’s Rod of Discord and Magic Dagger, and also William held out his Frozen Key to show Sid.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I got a key like that too earlier,” Sid said. “Before the pirates invaded. A Crimson Key. Also said it was ‘cursed by a powerful Jungle creature.’”

On looking at the red and black item as Sid held it, a memory surfaced inside of William. “There was a chest like that in the Dungeon. Red and black, looking Crimson-themed. I wonder if it unlocks that?”

“That’s what I think too,” Sid said. “Except I guess it doesn’t work now because of whatever this powerful Jungle creature is.”

William had no clue what sort of creature this could be, but that was a mystery for another day. 

***

The mood in the Forest Village was grim. Jeff the Guide, Hayley the Zoologist, Tony the Arms Dealer, Nissa the Dryad, Durim the Demolitionist, Zop’a the Witch Doctor, Merlyn the Wizard, and the rest of the citizens were all bound and held in the storage building. The pirates did not do what pirates normally did, which was to pillage the chests and bury it to turn it into buried treasure. They did not do that in this world.

A Pirate Captain stood over the citizens, watching over them alongside a large number of Pirate Corsairs and Deadeyes. If anyone so much as blinked, they’d get a bullet through their skull or a sword through their throat.

They would have stood like that forever, had a mauve-cloaked man with grey hair and a top hat not entered the room through the open doors.

The Captain turned to face him. “State your business.”

“You punks forgot to pay your taxes on your swords and blunderbusses.”

The Captain cocked his head. “Say what?”

“I’ve got the forms right here. All your weapons have been requisitioned unless you pay up.” Theodore held out a scroll and dropped it so it fully unfurled, the page reaching the floor and rolling out all the way to the Pirate Captain’s feet.

The Captain raised his gun. “We don’t answer to boo-rock-crazy.”

“That’s bureaucracy, dimwit.”

Meg materialised right next to him, Rod of Discord in her hand.

“If you don’t want to talk to him, talk to me.”

She began hurling Magic Dagger after Magic Dagger into the Captain’s face. While he had too much life to instantly die like in real life, it had the intended effect – the rest of the Pirates in the room rushed forward, but they found themselves tripped up when a Queen Spider appeared in front of them and began covering them in venomous spider eggs.

A hole appeared in the floor next to the citizens, and smaller spiders began streaming out of it to attack. Another hole appeared on the other side, and William poked his face out.

“Quickly, in here,” he called softly.

Hayley the Zoologist was the first to jump in, followed by Emily the Nurse and Jeff the Guide. A few of the citizens decided to help fight off the pirates, Durim blasting them apart with grenades while Zop’a shot them with poisonous darts.

Meg teleported to the side to dodge the spray of bullets from the Pirate Captain’s gun. She was so glad to have found the Rod of Discord. The Mythril Armour she’d made for herself and the Titanium Armour for William would help protect them better, but that didn’t stand up against the raw power of better damaging weapons.

She saw William jump out. His new Titanium Armour had a special ability that caused magic floating shuriken-like blades made from titanium to be constantly rotating around his waist. He charged into the fray of Pirates, the blades shredding them to pieces in seconds. The Pirate Captain saw him and fired a cannonball at him, but he sandstorm-jumped over it and swung a shot from his Beam Sword at the Captain. Meg brought more Magic Daggers into the Pirate Captain, and between all the damage sources he too was quickly defeated. Like the previous one another ghostly Pirate’s Curse appeared, but that was easily dispatched as well.

“How did that go?” Sid asked as his spidery form popped up from below.

“Better than expected,” William said. “But we’ve still got the Flying Dutchman to deal with.”

The three of them charged outside. The Flying Dutchman was still looming overhead. It must’ve spotted them as cannonballs began firing out from both sides, but the three of them jumped upwards to avoid the explosions.

Sid’s spiders could not reach the Flying Dutchman and even Meg’s Magic Daggers fell short of the ship. But William’s new Flying Knife had a seemingly unlimited range. He threw it upwards, and began making motions with his hands to control it, raking it back and forth along the cannons on starboard and port, dealing massive damage. If the Flying Dutchman was a living creature it would have screamed. William flew over the wall and out of the village, and the Dutchman had no choice but to pursue him, in order to destroy the one with the knife that was slowly chipping away at its cannons. Before too long the airborne galleon had disappeared from Meg’s sight.

***

William ran as fast as his Frostspark Boots would let him.

Cannonball after cannonball exploded on the grass and against trees behind him. His Flying Knife continued to slice across the cannons on each side of the ship, dealing constant damage, but it wasn’t going down fast enough.

He glanced forward just in time to see he was almost about to run into a giant Living Tree. Made from solid wood and leaf blocks, it towered at least four times taller than the trees that surrounded it, being a landmark of the forest.

He leapt upwards, his boots propelling him skyward, and slung out his grappling hook at one of the tree’s branches to pull himself up. The Flying Dutchman did what he expected and began to ascend in order to pursue him.

He threw out his hook at a higher branch, finding himself next to an ugly wooden box with the letter S carved out in the front. A personal shelter that Sid had built at some point.

He ignored it as he continued to climb up the tree with his grappling hook, soon reaching the big plume of leaves at the very top of the tree. He cast a glance down, and realised something he had not been expecting.

The Flying Dutchman had gotten stuck between the branches. Its bow was caught between two branches and its stern had somehow lodged itself against Sid’s shelter.

Built for sea and air, but clearly not for trees, William thought to himself. His Flying Knife returned to his hand, and he threw it down, not intending to move until it had finished the job.

***

There were still many pirates left in the village. The citizens were running onto the streets, going toe-to-toe with the buccaneers. Meg threw Magic Dagger after Magic Dagger into the good eye of an eye-patched pirate before he died. Then she turned to Sid.

“Can you keep them occupied for a sec? I’ve got to speak to the Wizard.”

His spider mask nodded. She ran to Merlyn and brought up his shop interface.

“I need a Spell Tome to go, wise Merlyn,” she said.

“Thank you, Emily! The future I saw for you where you will buy a lot of items from me seems to be coming true, don’t you think?”

Meg just smiled and ran for one of the houses that contained a bookcase. There, she crafted the Spell Tome together with the Crystal Shards and Souls of Light they’d gathered from the Underground Hallow to make a Crystal Storm. This had been a weapon she’d learnt about from the Guide before the Pirates had invaded, but hadn’t had the crafting materials to make it until now.

She dashed outside right into the path of a horde of Pirate Corsairs, but that just led to them dashing into the path of the crystal shards that Meg unleashed. They were quickly eviscerated.

Before too long there was just a small group of pirates left, led by one Pirate Captain. Sid’s spiders swarmed over the Deadeyes and Crossbowers from behind, while Meg’s Crystal Storm dealt with the others, leaving just the Pirate Captain.

He glanced between the two of them with his gun in his hands, appearing to decide which was the greater threat. But instead, he dropped his gun, got down on his knees, and put his hands together. “Me surrender!”

Meg raised an eyebrow. “You surrender?”

“Aye. The invasion be all of tha’ other captains’ ideas, eh? Me wanted no part of it, but they made me do it.” He threw off his gold-lined gloves and stomped on them. “Arr, see? I be no longer affiliated wit’ them!”

It was then that Meg noticed his label no longer read ‘Pirate Captain’ or with 6000 health. It now read ‘Red Beard: 250/250’. Had he become a citizen as well?

“What’s going on here?” Meg heard Star the Party Girl’s voice behind her. She glanced back to see the other citizens behind her.

“This captain has surrendered,” she said.

“I wish to join ye cosy collection o’ villages,” Red Beard went on. “The open sea’s me true home, but if I be landlocked for awhile… well,” he looked directly at Meg, “I need me shelter, matey.”

“I don’t trust him,” Tony said. “His people just took all of us hostage and tried to blow us up.” A lot of the other citizens shouted their agreement.

“I have to agree,” Sid said. “This seems a bit suspicious to me.”

“What are we going to do with him?” Meg asked.

Sid pointed his Spider Staff forward.

“Ayy, no! Not the spiders!” Red Beard cried, putting a hand to his beard and getting up on one tippy-toed leg.

“No, don’t kill him,” Meg held up her hands. “Let’s just put him in… I don’t know, let’s build a prison or something.”

“Aye, that I can live with,” the Pirate said, solemnly taking off his hat.

Chapter Text

“I spy, with my little eye… I guess it’s the King Slime’s estranged wife?”

“The sovereign of all that jiggles,” Sid said.

William chuckled. “I’m going in.”

He leapt up and began throwing glowing purple knives at the Queen Slime. The Shadowflame Knives, which he’d obtained from a Goblin Summoner in a recent Goblin Invasion, had quickly become one of his new favourite weapons. Like Meg’s Magic Dagger he could throw as many as he needed without ever running out. He could see the appeal of specialising in long-range weapons like Meg’s magic weapons or Sid’s summons.

Speaking of which, Sid’s army of spiders quickly scampered forward and leapt onto the Queen Slime’s bulbous pink body. She contracted inwards, then quickly expanded outwards, both launching the spiders away and also throwing out several gelatinous purple spheres in all directions, which began bouncing all about the Hallowed plain. Sid landed nearby and began opening fire with his Onyx Blaster – a new weapon he’d crafted using a Shotgun that he’d bought from the Arms Dealer, some Souls of Night, and Dark Shards from Blood Mummies in the Crimson Desert. It fired a spread of bullets accompanied by a projectile of dark energy.

Meg had figured out how to brew Lifeforce Potions, which the three of them were now using. She’d used a Sitting Duck’s Fishing Pole, purchased from a Travelling Merchant, to catch some Prismites from the Hallow. Her recent weapon upgrade was another spell tome, an orange one with yellow markings on it, named the Golden Shower. She held it out and brought forth a stream of yellow liquid to splash the defence-reducing ichor on Queen Slime, though her majesty leapt upward, and would have slammed down on top of Meg if she hadn’t Rod-of-Discorded out of the way.

“I still can’t get over how much that spell makes it look like you’re peeing,” Sid said.

“Focus, dumb nuts,” Meg said. “How would you like it if I made fun of your weapons? Like, say… how’s your girlfriend the Queen Spider going?”

“Yo, she’s not my girlfriend, we’re in a professional business relationship. I summon her, she makes babies, the babies kill my enemies, and that means I don’t die so I can summon her again. Circle of life, Meg.”

“Focus, guys,” William said. “This member of royalty started with 28,000 life – over double the Wall of Flesh’s. Our first big test of life after the Guardian’s defeat.”

Fighting a boss of this calibre hadn’t been something he had been expecting on this rainy morning. They’d first realised something dangerous was around when Star the Party Girl reported her house in the recently-established Hallowed Village had gotten crashed in. There’d been a fair amount of demand among the citizens to live in the Hallow despite the dangers the Dryad had pointed out, but it had turned out most of the surface Hallow creatures were relatively peaceful and only attacked if attacked first. So William had built a new village there, the Wizard, Party Girl and Tavernkeep moving in.

When William and the others had arrived to investigate the Wizard said he sensed the presence heading towards the snow biome, so they’d followed. And here they were.

“Whoops!” William dodged and weaved around the projectiles that the Crystal Slimes were shooting. The Queen Slime was practically summoning an army of slimes to add to her firepower, and they were quickly becoming overwhelming. He dropped down and brought his Cutlass into a group of her subjects. Who was he to talk about focus?

“Down to 20,000 life!” William announced after taking a glance at the queen’s label. He pelted her with some more Shadowflame Knives. They damaged her, then rebounded off and landed on some of her other minions.

“Hahahahahaha!” Sid cackled as he ran around firing his Onyx Blaster – he’d been having way too much fun with it lately especially since his Minishark had become too weak against most of the enemies they faced these days. He jumped up and over the Queen’s silver crown, doing a corkscrew-twirl in mid-air, all as he fired at her. Unfortunately, he misjudged how far his Frostspark Boots could carry him and fell right onto her slimy body, taking 110 damage, then 110 more damage as he bounced off of her a second time.

“Ow!”

Seeing his moment of weakness, the Queen Slime shifted and leapt upwards and slammed down.

“Get out of there!” William shouted, but Sid was way ahead of him. In a flash of particles he was gone, his Magic Mirror having teleported him away safely.

Until Sid healed up and returned that just left the two of them, and things didn’t seem to be getting any easier. The Queen Slime accelerated her attacks, more and more purple gel bouncing all over the place. Fortunately, he didn’t take long – William soon spotted him racing across the blue Hallowed grass in the distance towards them.

“I’m back! Let’s finish this queen!”

That was when she sprouted wings and lifted off.

“Oh, come on! Why don’t we have wings?”

The Queen Slime flew over their heads and expended bouncy gel from both above and below her body.

“Stop complaining and start attacking!” Meg shouted.

“My spiders can’t get at her up there!”

“Then get them to concentrate on her minions!”

The fight eventually took them into the nearby snow biome, the rainy downpour transforming into an intense blizzard. The air around them became dark and hard to see through, and William began finding it hard to tell the bouncy gel apart from the snowflakes.

Fortunately, at this point nearly all of the Queen Slime’s life had been expended, and she soon was defeated, dissolving in a strangely humorous farting noise, like the sound of an inflated balloon being let off.

The three of them landed amongst her remains.

“What did she drop… A Hook of Dissonance…” Meg murmured.

“Gelatinous Pillion…” William said.

“Ooh, a Blade Staff,” Sid said. “New summon weapons are always nice. And Sparkle Slime Balloons.” He held them up and peered closely. “‘Filled with Party Girl bathwater’.”

“What? That is even more disgusting than your spiders!” Meg exclaimed.

“What are you talking about? This is the best stuff!”

Meg just groaned. “Can you stop being such a careless maniac? You’re always too caught up in battle that you never think. You almost got killed by her!”

“Key word – almost . I didn’t now, did I?”

William sighed. He’d been noticing especially more recently that Sid and Meg didn’t seem to get along, and he worried that it would lead to one of them getting killed.

Or worse.

That was when he heard the sound of a laser being fired. At first he thought it was in his head, nightmares of the Wall of Flesh and what came after often coming into his thoughts. But it turned out to be coming from something in the blizzard, a piercing ice-cold beam shooting out of the snowy fog.

Meg saw it coming and casually stepped aside. Sid didn’t and got pierced by it, leading to him getting frozen solid in a block of ice.

She peered close at him and said, “Told you so. If you’d been paying attention to your surroundings, you could have avoided that! ”

Again William sighed. “Can you two stop arguing long enough so we can take down this thing?”

He turned as a tall, icy monster lumbered out from the fog. An Ice Golem, with cold, unblinking eyes and constructed from so much hardened ice that global warming would probably have a hard time melting it.

William ran forward and brought his Cutlass through the golem’s kneecaps. It tried to fire a laser down at him but he was too quick. He ran around it, slashing it with blow after blow, both from his sword and his Titanium Armour’s shards. Meg attacked from afar using her Crystal Storm and a bit of ichor from her Golden Shower to lower its defence. Its defeat was quick, leaving two items in its wake – a Frost Core and Ice Feather.

About that same moment Sid thawed out.

“What did I miss?” he asked.

Meg turned and gave him a sincere smile.

“Nothing much, you were frozen in fear .”

Chapter Text

“The Frost Core can be made into Frost Armour and a Cool Whip,” Jeff the Guide said.

“Frost Armour? What is that?” William asked.

“It is a hybrid melee/ranged armour that requires Frost Cores and Titanium to craft. The Cool Whip can be crafted using one Frost Core with some Souls of Night and Light.”

“I’d been wondering if there were any other new whips,” Sid said. “Can I take the Frost Core so I can make it?”

“Sure,” William said, who didn’t feel that interested in the Frost Armour. He didn’t notice the disapproving look on Meg’s face as he handed Sid the Frost Core – an item that he had had no part in obtaining.

“What about the Ice Feather?” William asked.

“It is one of the many items that can be combined with Souls of Flight to make a pair of wings.”

On hearing the word ‘wings’, Sid jumped up and shouted, “Yahoo! We can make wings! We’ll be able to take to the skies!” He spun to Meg and boasted, “Then I won’t run out of flight and fall into the Queen Slime’s jelly!”

Meg just rolled her eyes and kept her disapproving look on her face.

***

William hadn’t been up into the sky since long before the Guardian’s defeat, when he’d used a gravitation potion to reverse his gravity so he could float up to the floating islands. That was how he’d gotten his Starfury, a sword that had once served him well.

They now built up a large rope that could extend into the sky thanks to this world’s physics, in the opposite direction that the rain around them was falling. It led to the floating island where William had gotten the Starfury from. It was a small grassy island on top of some cloud blocks. Along with the trees that dotted the island, the only structure on the island was a house made from blue-and-gold sunplate blocks, inside of which had been the chest that had contained the Starfury.

The only enemy that William remembered encountering were the Harpies, which were flying bird-like creatures with the face of women, and that seemed to still be the case. They were fairly easy to take out with the weapons they had at that moment, but they were prone to shooting a lot of razor-sharp feathers. He suspected Souls of Flight were obtained similarly to Souls of Night and Light – all enemies in their location would have a chance of dropping one. However, after killing about a dozen Harpies between the three of them, they had yet to yield a single soul.

Shivering in the cold rain, Sid turned to William and Meg and said, “These Harpies aren’t dropping anything. Will, this isn’t the way to get Souls of Flight.”

“Wait. There’s something,” William said.

It looked to be a floating, grey cloud. A swirly pair of arms stretched out and an electric-blue face crackled upon it. An angry electric-blue face.

“Angry Nimbus,” Meg said, reading its label. The creature swept towards them and stopped directly above William. He looked up just as some raindrops from the Nimbus landed on him, dealing some damage. With a grunt he leapt up, Cutlass swinging, but the Nimbus just floated upwards at the same pace, continuing to pelt him with lethal rain.

Fortunately, Sid’s Blades and Meg’s Crystal Storm were quick to dissolve the cloud, and upon it bursting it dropped a blue staff tipped with a thundercloud that had a lightning bolt sticking out from the top.

“Nimbus Rod,” William said. “Magic weapon for you, Meg.”

“No Souls of Flight?” Sid asked.

William was going to reply when a long, white creature swooped down from above and rammed Sid right off the island.

“Whoops!” Sid cried out, though his voice just faded into the rainstorm.

“Sid!” William called, then looked up at this new arrival. A Wyvern – a long dragon-like creature with four tiny legs, a long tail, and a strangely kindly face.

He began hurling Shadowflame Knives at it, accompanied by streams from Meg’s Golden Shower, but it was too fast, navigating the air with ease. It curled around for another charge, straight towards William. He jumped, the Wyvern passing underneath, though in the lower gravity of the sky his jump took him higher than he’d intended and he found himself falling slowly back to the ground, meaning he wasn’t able to avoid the Wyvern’s next charge. It took some damage from the titanium shards that spun around his armour, but it was only a little.

Meg swung her new Nimbus Rod, casting forth a couple of rain-clouds that dropped damaging rain beneath them in a similar way to the Angry Nimbus that weapon had come from. The weapon also reminded William of an old one that Sid had once tried, the Crimson Rod, except much more damaging as the Wyvern found itself passing through the rain.

She jumped upwards, her double-jump and Frostspark Boots propelling her upwards like a rocket, while the Wyvern arced upwards and flew at her from directly underneath. She kept swinging her Nimbus Rod, casting rain-clouds that dripped directly onto the Wyvern’s face, but William was shocked to notice the creature’s life dropping fast from the rain-clouds. Some sort of weakness to rain? No – the rain seemed to be piercing straight through its entire body, dealing constant but massive damage.

Right as it looked like the Wyvern was about to catch up to Meg, the rain washed away the last of its life and its entire body dissolved, leaving some gold coins and glowing cyan items that rushed into Meg’s inventory. Souls of Flight.

William heaved a sigh in relief, then saw a familiar shadow ascending to the top of the rope.

“How’d you guys go?” Sid asked.

Meg gave him a look.

***

After collecting enough souls to make three sets of wings, they returned to the Guide. He told them that Souls of Flight could be combined with a variety of different items to create different types of wings. As he had previously stated, combining with the Ice Feather they got from the Ice Golem created Frozen Wings, which William equipped. Meg had collected a Giant Harpy Feather from a defeated Harpy, and used that to craft Harpy Wings.

They didn’t have any of the other items besides the Pixie Dust required to make Pixie Wings, so Sid crafted those. While William’s and Meg’s looked more like traditional feathered bird wings, Sid’s Pixie Wings more resembled that of a fly’s.

“You look so silly, Sid,” Meg said.

“Hey!” Sid exclaimed.

“Pixie Sid,” she teased.

He groaned.

William just sighed. He was going to have to talk to them about their conflict at some point.

The three of them then headed outside to try out their newly crafted wings. The rain had stopped, and the sun was shining brightly. Perfect flying weather.

“Up we go!” Meg shouted as she lifted off. She soared high – much higher than Rocket Boots could have ever taken them.

“Geronimo!” Pixie Sid flew up.

William smiled and jumped. He felt the beating of his icy wings on his back as the wind rushed past him. The wings turned out to not last forever – eventually all they could do was spread out, which allowed him to glide softly to the ground. But regardless, they were a massive upgrade over the flight provided by Lightning Boots.

Upon landing he ran to the cliff overlooking the valley and took off again. He soared and spun in the sky. He paused to admire the view up here – he could see much of the forest all around. The Hallow not far away, the snow biome just on the horizon, mountains rising up behind it. The sun was setting, the sky turning a vibrant red.

He saw Sid and Meg soaring up not far away, and flew in their rough direction.

“We should head back to the village before the sun sets,” Sid said.

“Wow, what a great idea!” Meg said in an obvious sarcastic voice.

“Thank you,” Sid replied, missing her sarcasm completely.

William was about to follow them down when his gaze landed on the lake at the bottom of the valley.

He slowly glided down to get a closer look.

There was a figure down there, sitting on the dock.

It was Robyn.

***

He landed softly behind her, at the point where the dock met the land.

She was dressed in Titanium armour now, just like him, though unlike him there were no wings adorned on her back. She had a fishing rod in the water that bobbed slowly up and down.

“Robyn?” William called tentatively.

She made no response, barely even moving. A full moon began rising on the horizon, its presence seemingly darkening the world around them.

That was when William spotted the water of the lake changing colour. Swathes of red overcame the blue in swirls, soon turning the pond into a lake of blood.

Robyn stood up and reeled in her fishing rod.

A massive creature was pulled forth, leaping upwards. For a brief moment it hung in mid-air, like a predator about to strike, silhouetted in front of the moon.

The moon, which had turned the same blood-red as the water.

Chapter Text

From the Forest Village Sid and Meg could see the same moon rising into the sky.

“Wonder what’s up with that,” Sid murmured.

“Nothing good.”

He heard the growls of zombies, sounding more strained and ragged than usual, and turned to spot a group of them coming towards them. Some Possessed Armours were mixed in among them, along with a new enemy that looked like a rampaging blob of blood with arms and legs. A Blood Zombie, according to its label.

Sid briefly wondered how they’d gotten inside the walls, but he didn’t care, running forward and casting forth his summons. He lashed out his Cool Whip, leaving freezing fire on the mobs, and his spiders rushed forward. He’d also added some enchanted daggers which were summoned by his new Blade Staff, which he’d found useful for taking on airborne enemies like the Wyverns they’d fought earlier.

Within minutes the wave of monsters were defeated. He glanced up at the wall, just as more enemies came pouring in. Floating balls of blood covered with eyeballs named Dripplers. A male and female zombie dressed in wedding attire, named The Groom and The Bride respectively. Then, after them, a horde of werewolves with steel-blue fur dropped down and charged forward on their hind legs.

Sid did his best to deal with them quickly, but the massive group split off in prongs and began swarming down every path in the village. He chased down the wedding zombies first and cast his spiders towards them, also summoning the Queen Spider to block their path. While they were dealing with them he flew towards the werewolves and began blasting at them with his Onyx Blaster.

“Come on! Attack me, doggies!”

One of the werewolves howled and leapt forward, fangs gnashing, but a single blast at point-blank range completely obliterated its life. Two more werewolves were able to land slashes on Sid, dealing over 120 damage each, so he flew up with his wings, attacking them from above. They stood no chance with no way of getting at him in the sky, and were quickly defeated.

Upon landing in the street he began hearing loud screams and shouts coming from one of the houses. Female screams and shouts – it sounded like Emily the Nurse.

He charged into one of the nearby houses, fully prepared to blast any invading zombies or whatever, but only found Gilbert the Merchant sitting on a wooden chair with his fingers in his ears.

“Can you tell Emily and Roxanne to keep it down to a dull roar, please? I can hear them arguing from here.”

He checked the next house and found them safe from werewolves, but clearly pissed off with each other.

“May I ask what’s the matter, ladies?” Sid asked.

“Roxanne cut my hair too short!” Emily exclaimed, pointing at the frayed blonde ends of her hair.

“Oh. That’s all?”

“Why are you even here? If you’re going to die, do it outside. I just got new carpeting in here!”

“You’d better stay outta my hair too, hun,” Roxanne added. “I just sharpened my scissors, and I'm looking for an excuse to use them!”

That was when Sid heard another scream, and this time it actually sounded like it was coming from someone being mauled by a werewolf.

“Okay, bye,” he said quickly before running outside.

He sprinted in the direction of the noise, and found to his horror Jeff the Guide had been pounced, not by a werewolf, but by a… werefox?

Hayley had sprouted reddish-brown fur all along her skin, her nose had elongnated, and her teeth had grown and sharpened. She gave an almighty “GRAAHH!” and made to rake her claws into Jeff, however Sid ran forward and snapped at her with his Cool Whip.

“Get away from him!”

Thankfully Hayley in her werefox form must not have appreciated the cold very much, for she pounced forward and off Jeff, however she moved much faster than Sid was expecting and managed to slam right into him. He took massive damage and frantically drank a Healing Potion to restore it, but she just kept slashing at him.

He tried batting her away and summoning some spiders to distract her, but she just tore her claws into their bodies and bit them in half.

“RAWGH! Roo! Danger! Me! Wraaaath!” she roared.

Suddenly her fox eyes rolled upwards into her head and she fell forward, revealing the Witch Doctor standing behind her, the end of his staff glowing with green energy.

“Emily the Nurse may help heal your body, but I can make you embody healing.”

“Whew. Thank you,” Sid said. “She was getting a bit out of hand.”

He turned just in time to see a horde of Blood Zombies moving in, some Wandering Eyes swooping down.

Being on the receiving end of Hayley as a werefox had left Sid with little life left, and he physically felt like he was bleeding. He was going to have to run, but there were too many of them.

That was when a spray of bullets cut the incoming horde to shreds.

Sid turned, expecting to see Tony the Arms Dealer, but was surprised to instead find Red Beard the Pirate.

“Yarr, blarr, harrdarr!”

“How’d you get out of your cell?” Sid asked.

“Funny ye asked, arr! Somebody threw a yellow bomb wit’ a smiley face on it in me cell, and it blew up the wall! I would’ve stayed put, yer see, cause I knew none o’ me hearty crew would ever use such cartoonish explosives, but thar be zombies an’ tha like swarmin’ everywhere, so me thought I’d do my bit to drive them off. Ye can put me back in there once this be over, me laddie.”

Sid was suddenly less worried about the Pirate’s escape and more about whoever owned the yellow smiley-face bombs. Whoever they were had probably let the monsters in by blowing up the exterior wall somewhere, but even worse – they could destroy the village! William would be so mad!

Unless he’s planning on rebuilding everything ag-

BOOM!

An explosion suddenly went off behind him, knocking Sid forward. He saw the Pirate flying through the air – he must’ve taken the brunt of the explosion – then landed on his side and laid still.

Sid spun around to find a literal Clown, dressed in an orange-and-purple outfit with green-dyed hair and face paint smeared all over his face. He stood on top of a large orange ball, rolling it forward.

“Hahahaha!” he cackled, as he held a set of chattering false teeth and threw it forward.

A fuse lit above it as it sailed through the air, and Sid instinctively jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding its explosion. He summoned forth spiders and blades to attack the Clown, but more of those Chattering Teeth Bombs were thrown forward. While they could be damaged and destroyed before exploding, most blew up before they got that far, taking out his minions in the explosion.

He decided to fly upwards, directly above the clown. From there, he summoned an array of blades around him and pointed them all at the Clown.

“Time to taste my knives, Ronald!” he called.

The blades all simultaneously shot downwards, swiftly slicing into the evil Clown and rending it of all its life. Upon its death all that remained were some coins and its large orange ball.

He landed next to the Pirate, who was just getting to his feet.

“Arr, we have a war to win, else our ship be sunk!”

Chapter Text

An enormous blood-red beast landed on the pier in front of Robyn. It stood taller than William, had a head like a hammerhead shark, and muscular arms and legs that looked to be built for running. Its name was the Hemogoblin Shark, and it had 10,000 life.

And Robyn had just fished it up.

Before William could react, it charged forward, and with a thrust of its hammer head, he was sent flying through the air and landed hard on the ground. Pain shot up his body, both physically from the blow itself, and emotionally.

The Hemogoblin Shark turned around on its legs and made for another charge, but William was ready. He leapt up, his wings giving him a boost, and the shark’s next charge passed beneath him. He began peppering it with Shadowflame Knives, setting it aflame with purple fire, but the monster was not going to go down easily. It roared and fired glowing streams of blood into the air, which William dropped to avoid, however the shark followed it up with another charge.

He continued this dance of death with the Hemogoblin Shark for some of the most intense minutes of his life. This was an enemy with enough raw strength to leave him battered and on the edge of his life with just a few blows. But he soon got the upper hand and it finally fell.

He turned to Robyn, who was back to fishing. Almost as if the Hemogoblin Shark’s death had been its cue, another blood-red beast rose from the waters. A Blood Eel, which flew through the air as effortlessly as though it was swimming, and swooped down in a similar way to a Wyvern. William grit hit teeth and kept on throwing more Shadowflame Knives. A few times when the Blood Eel got close enough he would rake his Cutlass all along its body, dealing massive damage. It fell quicker than the Hemogoblin Shark, dropping a flail weapon named the Drippler Crippler.

William smiled upon picking it up. He’d stopped using the Sunfury awhile ago in favour of his newer weapons, and had been looking for an upgrade to it for awhile now. This would suffice.

He stepped back towards Robyn, swinging his Drippler Crippler’s blood-red ball-on-chain passively.

“You need to stop this, Robyn!” he shouted. “This isn’t you!”

“I will never stop until you are dead.” She gave him a smirk, which unnerved William. It was such a foreign look on her face – someone else’s facial expressions invading hers.

“I won’t let you do that!” he pressed on. “Do you not remember me? William?” He breathed. “We were good friends, close allies! Do you remember none of that?”

Her only response was to unleash one more creature from the deep.

A Dreadnautilus, a creature that resembled a mollusc, with one blinking eye on its side and a tentacled mouth. It swooped at him in a spinning motion, knocking William over.

When he got to his feet, he saw Robyn was gone.

***

An endless stream of crystals fired from Meg’s tome, slicing through zombies and werewolves and Dripplers and Demon Eyes. She ran around the village perimeter, keeping the enemies at bay and stopping them from getting too close to the citizens.

She glanced up right as some blood-red missiles shot over her head from the left. She turned in that direction and spotted William, running as fast as he could, being chased by a giant floating… thing.

“Meg! I saw Robyn! She summoned this Dreadnautilus from the depths of the lake!”

Meg grit her teeth. “Not good. Sid!”

She cast forth a Golden Shower, spraying the Dreadnautilus with ichor to lower its defence, then cast two Nimbus Clouds above it as it went into a spin move around William. He was tossed around like a ball in a pinball machine by the successive blows, before grappling up to the wall, escaping the monster’s clutches.

The Dreadnautilus hovered in front of them and fired a spray of red projectiles back, which Meg jumped up using her wings to avoid. She fired some crystals at it, but quickly weaved to the side when some of them got reflected back at her. It charged forward, straight towards her, and tried to do its spinning dash once again around her. She teleported out of its grasp using her Rod of Discord, materialising in front of Sid and a few citizens.

“There it is! Open fire!” he called.

The Dreadnautilus retaliated by glowing bright crimson, and three Blood Squids popped out of its body. The cephalopods hovered in mid-air and began raining more crimson shots down, mostly at Sid and the citizens.

William leapt up, Drippler Crippler swinging, and brought it through all three Blood Squids. A spiky projectile flew out from the flail as it was flung out to its maximum reach, which bounced back and hit one of the Blood Squids again. He was lining up for another strike when he spotted the Dreadnautilus charging at him again. He dashed to the side with his Shield of Cthulhu, striking the Dreadnautilus with his Drippler Crippler as he did so.

He wasn’t so lucky the next time it charged, doing the circular dash he had come to recognise from its attack patterns. He was still having trouble avoiding this attack, and on this one he got knocked to the side and slammed against the wall of a nearby house.

He groaned – he had not much life left. He was about to try to make a break for it when a cannonball embedded itself in the Dreadnautilus’s side and exploded, ripping the last of its life from it.

“Thar she blows, me laddies!” a nautical voice shouted from the side.

Then William fainted.

***

He came to in a dark room, moonlight streaming through the glass window. White moonlight – the Blood Moon was no more. Had he been passed out for an entire day between nights?

He put his arms behind him and hoisted himself into a sitting position.

And gasped as he noticed the brown-furred werewolf in the room with him.

“Aaaugh!” he cried as he scrambled for a weapon.

The werewolf threw its head back and laughed.

“Ahahahaaha! Got you there, Will!”

William recognised his voice.

“Stop doing that, Sid!” he groaned.

“Not my fault that one of the werewolves dropped me this Moon Charm. It turns the holder into a werewolf at night.”

“And you couldn’t resist,” William muttered.

“Yeah. That Dreadnautilus thingo that you brought back to the village dropped a new summon weapon, too,” Sid said as he held up a crimson staff and some glowing bats appeared around him. They were similar to the ones from the Underground Hallow, but coloured bright red instead.

“Have you seen Robyn anywhere?” William asked.

Sid clicked his tongue and shook his head. “We’ll figure out a way to get her back eventually.”

“I hope so. I’m…” he hesitated. “I’m worried about her.”

Sid looked at him but said nothing.

“The four of us…” William went on, “You, me, Meg, and Robyn… we’ve been trapped in this world for awhile now. You think it’s just a game, and in some ways I agree with you. It’s structured like a game, but it’s not just that. The citizens feel like people just like you and me. But… it’s not just the citizens that feel like people. Whoever’s behind the cursing… they’re as smart as us. But instead, they’re evil. And now they have Robyn.” He sighed. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like… for her…”

He felt Sid lightly clapping him on the shoulder.

“We’ll get her back, Will. Then you can tell her how you feel.”

William gave him a look. He’d still never openly admitted how he felt about Robyn to anyone, though he was well aware Sid had been putting them together in his head for awhile. 

Before Robyn had been possessed… before the party… he’d found that a bit weird about him. 

But he now knew it was a gesture of support, from his best friend.

“Thank you.”

Chapter Text

James the Clothier had largely kept to himself ever since the funeral. He was old, and the curse had worn him down greatly over the years. He had been pleased to see the spark of youth still alive around him, especially in Robyn.

But then she had been taken.

By the same people who had once cursed him.

Suddenly James felt there was little hope left in the world. What kind of mad being would do this? They had already taken half of his life, and if nobody could figure out how to lift Robyn from her own curse, how many years would they steal from her?

He watched Red Beard the Pirate teaching Bart the Angler in the art of how to use a cutlass. Due to the Pirate’s massive contributions in defending the Forest Village during the Blood Moon, the citizens along with William, Sid and Meg had agreed to release him from imprisonment, and he had settled at the Ocean Village. Not long after moving in he’d noticed Bart, the poor orphaned kid with only fish for company, and had taken him under his wing. So far he’d tried to teach him how to talk like a pirate. James wondered if sword training was going a bit too far at the moment – he was only a kid, after all, but he seemed to be enjoying it.

“Do you know of Captain Tunabeard?” Bart asked.

“Aye, all pirate cap’ns know of that legend,” Red Beard said. “The pet fish of a legendary sailor o’ the seven seas.”

“With a hook for a tail and an eyepatch and everything! And a beard, of course.”

“Well, if ye ever happen to catch up that fish, ye can definitely call yerself a true pirate, eh?”

“Really?”

“Aye. Now, back to yer swashbucklin’ training! On the high seas, yer gonna need to know how to fight to stop other pirates from stealin’ yer treasure! Or yer lady.”

“Why would I have a lady? Girls are gross!”

James suddenly felt as though his vision was turning inside out, then as though he was rising. He stretched out his hands, feeling wind pass straight through the bones of his arms.

He looked down as Red Beard and Bart suddenly turned and stared straight up at him, horrified looks on their faces.

“We have a malady on our hands!” the Pirate shouted. “It- it be enormous!”

“A lady? Ewwwww!”

“Not a lady, a malady !”

“Aagh! What do we do? What do we do?”

“Bart, sail yerself through that pylon and get Meg or William! Or someone!”

James felt himself give an earth-shattering roar. He hadn’t felt like this since… since…

The curse.

***

“Eek, I felt so guilty at almost killing Jeff,” Hayley said. “My werefox brain, like, wanted Andrew, but Jeff was just close enough to… you know, attract it, but also different enough to make me get really angry upon realising he was not Andrew !”

Sid nodded slowly, understanding. “How have you felt since then?”

“I’ve still got the taste of spiders in my mouth, ugghhh.”

“Sorry about that,” he chuckled.

“I thought the jungle would have too many creepy-crawlies for my liking but, like, the Witch Doctor’s been extremely kind for me. He’s been helping me process everything and, like, I can’t explain it, but I have like, a thing for him. Is it because of the tail?”

Sid tried his best not to laugh. He’d truthfully been enjoying getting to know the citizens and keeping up with their internal affairs. That had previously been one thing that William had done, but lately… ever since the Guardian’s defeat, and especially since the Blood Moon, he’d become more… reclusive. 

Sid felt like he’d become even more dead-set on becoming stronger than even Sid himself. Lately he’d been working on upgrading his Obsidian Shield to an Ankh Shield, which was a complicated recipe that required nine additional accessories to combine with. So Sid had stepped in to fill the role William once had.

His thoughts were interrupted by Bart falling out from the Jungle Pylon.

“Uh, Sid, I don’t know whether a fish bone or a fish bone with hands would be worse, but James turned into a giant skeleton head and he’s smashing up the Ocean Village!”

“A skeleton head?” Sid exclaimed. “Cactuses!”

He jumped to his feet and flew straight towards the Pylon.

***

Red Beard fired and fired and fired, but no matter how many times he landed hits those massive skeleton hands would always find a way to slap him clear across the beach. Once he ended up in the water, and only just narrowly avoided getting crushed by a karate chop.

“Take this, landlubber!” He raised his gun and fired a cannonball, but the projectile passed clear through the centre of the skull without exploding.

He heard the Pylon whirring, and saw Sid and Bart had appeared.

Sid stared closely at Skeletron. The first thing he noticed was that the hands did not seem to have a label, and the head was still labelled ‘James – 250/250’. As though Skeletron was a completely normal citizen.

He didn’t know James that well, despite his recent efforts in getting to know every citizen across the villages. He was going to have to take his best shot.

“James! Are you in there?”

Skeletron roared and flung itself forward, the skull spinning through the air. He flew upwards to avoid it and snapped at the skull once with his whip. It passed right through the head, dealing no damage.

His wings ran out of flight time, and he found himself falling back down to Skeletron’s spinning head. By spreading his wings to fall slower, he just narrowly missed getting grinded to his bones, then fell all the way down to the beach, landing squarely on two feet.

It was then that he noticed Merlyn the Wizard had arrived on the scene.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the Pirate ever since he was released, in case he tried anything,” he said. “Wasn’t expecting this to happen.”

“What do we do?” Sid asked, looking back up at Skeletron, who had stopped spinning.

“I have an idea, Tony,” Merlyn said, calling him by the wrong name – he tended to do this with most of the citizens – “I will try an incantation that the Witch Doctor asked me to try on Hayley when she was a werefox. It is designed for trying to revert form-shifters back to their original form.”

The Wizard raised his arms.

“Pu Uoy Evig Annog Reven,” he began chanting.

Skeletron roared and tried to slap him with his hands, but Sid snapped out his Cool Whip to try to knock them away.

“Nwod Uoy Tel Annog Reven.”

Skeletron began spinning and firing several smaller homing skulls. A few hit Sid and brushed across the Wizard, but he seemed unfazed.

“UOY TRESED DNA DNUORA NUR ANNOG REVEN!”

A plume of multicoloured energy began emanating from the Wizard’s hands. It expanded upwards and wrapped itself around Skeletron’s head and arms. It roared again and tried to struggle from its grasp, but the spell was too powerful, soon encasing it entirely in energy. Before too long the shape of Skeletron began shrinking, to the size of a man.

It looked like it was working.

The energy soon dissipated, leaving James the Clothier in mid-air, who floated downwards and collapsed onto the sand.

***

William was continually disappointed that the Dungeon, despite its connection to the Cultists, was still largely unchanged compared to pre-Guardian’s defeat. No new enemies, and no sign of the Cultists.

He and Meg were here to get a Nazar – the last component William needed to upgrade to an Ankh Shield. It was rarely dropped by Cursed Skulls according to Jeff. 

The new shield would provide him immunity to a bunch of different status effects. Not only would these stop hindering him in battle, but their physical characteristics would also no longer distract or mentally paralyse him in battle. And if he was going to save Robyn from the Cultists, he was going to need any advantage he could get. Or at least get rid of any disadvantage he could get afflicted by.

“These skeletons are so mindless,” Meg said. “All they do is throw themselves at us, only to get instantly obliterated by our weapons.”

“Basically everything in this world does that,” William muttered. He thought again about Sid’s theory of the world being a video game. Most of the enemies that they encountered in this world seemed to exist purely as being an enemy, without any sort of logical ecosystem behind it. And they kept reappearing in locations they frequented. No matter how many Angry Bones they killed in the Dungeon, the Dungeon never emptied. The same could be said about the Hallow, or the Crimson.

Not to mention the fact that the task of crafting the Ankh Shield very much felt like a quest, all of the items in its recipe being components of that quest.

They kept on sifting through the dungeon, killing every enemy they encountered. Farming them, as Sid would say. 

Before too long William killed what felt like the hundredth one with a swipe of his Beam Sword. The Tally Counter he had picked up at some point told him it was his eighty-fourth Cursed Skull kill.

“We need to save Robyn,” he muttered. “And these boneheads won’t give me the one item I need!” He cleaved his Cutlass through an Angry Bones’s skull.

“I understand your frustration,” Meg said. “Sometimes… people you love just get taken away, and it’s out of your control.”

She was right, of course.

“Then we’ll fight,” William said. “And take back control.”

At that moment a Cursed Skull popped out of the wall and a Dark Caster materialised right next to it. William killed them both in one hit without even thinking, and was surprised when a Nazar finally made its way into his inventory.

But that wasn’t the only item.

A Clothier Voodoo Doll appeared next to it.

***

The last time they’d gotten a voodoo doll, it had led to the death of Andrew the Guide and the world irreversibly changing for the worse.

Now, the appearance of this brand new doll only screamed one thing to William.

Things were going to get even worse.

And that made his stomach cramp in anxiety.

Upon returning to the villages he heard all about James’s transformation from Sid and how Merlyn the Wizard had managed to change him back.

“After my master was defeated,” James said. “I thought the curse was gone forever. But it seems… Skeletron is still very much a part of me.” He sighed. “All I wanted was to live the rest of my days in peace, and to never have to worry about… him… again.”

William reached into his inventory, pulled out the Clothier Voodoo Doll, and placed it on the table in front of him. A grim look passed over James’s face.

The Wizard looked just as apprehensive. “It seems fate has other plans for you.”

William, Sid and Meg returned to the Forest Village close to sundown. William headed to the chest building to finish upgrading his shield, and held it out for his friends to see. It was obsidian-coloured, but with a golden symbol embossed on its front.

“Pretty slick,” Sid said.

William tried to smile but he couldn’t stop thinking about the new voodoo doll.

It was at that moment that he heard rumblings deep below, as though a tremor was shaking the village. At that same moment the air began to feel colder around them.

“Why do I feel like this is going to be a terrible night?” Sid suddenly spoke.

“I’m not the one with powers of divination,” Meg said. “Ask the Wizard.”

William felt apprehensive. He took some steps forward, Ankh Shield in one hand, Drippler Crippler in the other, walking outside the building. It felt like a blizzard was going to erupt outside, except the climate here was nowhere near the conditions for one. The ground was rumbling ever so louder. Something was underground, and it was getting closer.

Until it burst forth.

Chapter Text

A colossal worm-like being, made from silver steel began rising high into the sky. Its entire length was embedded with glowing red circular pods. Its head looked down, showing its red eye and pincers.

That would have been bad enough, but then William spotted an eye – no, two eyes – peering over the wall. One green, one red, connected by a filament of blood-red tissue, and both as large as the Eye of Cthulhu had been.

“James!” Sid suddenly shouted. “What are you doing here?”

William spun to his direction just in time to see Skeletron bearing down on them. Except this wasn’t Skeletron as he knew it.

“Actually, I don’t think that’s James,” Sid said, voicing William’s thoughts. “It’s made of metal and has four arms… and one has a laser !”

The metal Skeletron roared and began spinning towards them in a manner like the original Skeletron, with the addition of a ring of spikes sprouting out along its circumference.

The twin eyeballs also charged towards them. Pink lasers began firing from the red one, while glowing green fireballs began launching from the other. The metal worm swooped down at them from above, Sid narrowly avoiding it as it burrowed back down into the ground, only to come back up again, this time tearing its way through the house of Theodore the Tax Collector in the process.

“You young whippersnappers keep your toys off my property!” he cried as he began beating his cane against the worm’s metal carapace.

William finally snapped out of his shock and went on the attack. Thinking the worm would be the most destructive threat, he went for it first, but the metal Skeletron got in his way, swinging at him with two arms that had a saw-blade and vice respectively attached to their ends, and he was forced to weave around and throw some Shadowflame Daggers at it instead.

Sid didn’t seem to be faring too much better. He summoned an entire cauldron of Sanguine Bats and tried to leap to William’s defence, but the twin eyeballs similarly got in his way. Meg turned her new weapon – the Sky Fracture – on the worm, shooting volleys of glowing blue energy swords at its body, but that seemed to do little damage. Worse, some of the red pods on its back began opening, revealing small metal probes that flew out and started firing lasers.

With so much going on they were quickly being overwhelmed. William got hit by a green fireball from one of the eyes, a laser from Skeletron, and accidentally flew into the side of the worm in the span of three seconds. This wasn’t working.

“We should try to focus one of them down!” Meg shouted.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Sid said. “We try to split them up and fight them one-on-one. There’s three of us, and three of them.”

“ Four of them. There’s two eyeballs!” Meg said.

“They’re connected. I was counting them as one! I’ll deal with them!” He snapped his Cool Whip at both eyeballs, sending forth his bats, and the two eyes began turning their gaze upon him. He expertly managed to lure them away from the village, and soon disappeared into the night. William then saw Meg managing to attract metal Skeletron’s attention and similarly lead it away.

That left the worm for William.

Looking at its label for the first time – ‘The Destroyer: 108,589/120,000’ – he was struck with just how much life it had. Still, it had already lost over 10,000 just in the short time that they’d been fighting it, and he suspected the reason why was because of its massive size, making it easy to hit.

The Destroyer charged straight at him, and he flew up, but was assaulted by a barrage of large red lasers from the worm as well as a flotilla of smaller ones from the probes. Big or small, they hurt, and he knew he wouldn’t last long if they kept on whittling him down.

His wings ran out of flight and he was forced to fall and land on one of the houses, which led to the Destroyer burrowing straight into its roof, sending a screaming Emily the Nurse fleeing. William took to the skies again and began pelting the Destroyer with Shadowflame Knives. He’d noticed before they were prone to bouncing between groups of enemies, and realised that now they were bouncing along the segments of the Destroyer for massive damage. Already it had fallen below 95,000 life.

But then he had to land again. On taking off the probes kept pursuing him, so he twirled his Drippler Crippler and flung it through them all, blasting many of them to pieces.

That was when he found himself falling into the Destroyer’s segmented body. He cried out on impact and rebounded off of it, falling to the ground.

It was then that he had an idea.

He equipped an item he had barely used up to this point – the Gelatinous Pillion, which he had gotten from the Queen Slime. It summoned a pink slime with wings and a saddle, which similar to Sid’s bee mount he could ride on and fly with. But what made it special was that if it landed on top of an enemy it would bounce straight off the top of it without William taking damage.

He planned to use this property to great effect here.

Sitting on the mount, he flew upwards, just over the Destroyer’s head as it charged at him. Just as he’d hoped, the slime landed on the Destroyer’s body and bounced off the top of it. And again, and again.

He smiled. Now we’re getting somewhere!

He kept this up, pelting the Destroyer and its probes with Shadowflame Knives all from the comfort of his winged slime mount. He still had to dodge lasers of numerous colours from the probes and the Destroyer itself, but the fight was now largely in his favour. The damage stacked up, and after some time the Destroyer exploded along its entire length, collapsing into a pile of metal and circuitry.

Some items rushed into William’s inventory – Souls of Might, Hallowed Bars, and some gold coins.

He landed on one of the houses and took in the village around him. It had suffered great damage, but villages could be rebuilt. Lives couldn’t.

He could only hope Meg and Sid were having as much success with their fights.

***

Sid was not having much success with his fight. He’d hit both of the eyes – Retinazer and Spazmatism – a roughly equal amount of times with his Cool Whip, to ensure the snowflake it summoned kept bouncing between them for even more damage. His Sanguine Bat summons, fast as they were, also kept rapidly flying between them dealing equal damage. Things had been going well, until they’d both reached around half health and started spinning around, shedding their outer eye parts in a similar way that the Eye of Cthulhu had. Spazmatism, the green eye, unveiled an open mouth similar to the Eye of Cthulhu, but which could breathe green fire like a dragon, while Retinazer revealed a protruding laser cannon that started firing red lasers so rapidly Sid found it hard to keep ahead of them.

He should have anticipated this based on how the Eye of Cthulhu had worked – heck, the logic of focussing one down and then dealing with the other was what Meg had initially suggested earlier just before they’d all split up! In this situation, where he was facing off against a unit of two opponents, it certainly would have helped.

He found Spazmatism’s fire-breath almost impossible to avoid if it got too close, and whenever he tried to fly away it would just roar and make massive charges towards him. Even when he managed to dodge it, Retinazer’s sharpshooting would almost always find him.

He decided to focus down Spazmatism, figuring it was more threatening. Retinazer’s straight-line lasers would be easier to dodge if they were the only thing coming after him. It took some mad dodging and a couple of close calls, but eventually his Sanguine Bats managed to dismantle the green eye, leaving just its brother. Or sister. Did these eyes have genders?

Just as he’d hoped, Retinazer was easier to deal with on its own, and his summons wasted no time in taking it down as well. While Spazmatism had dropped nothing upon death, Retinazer dropped some green-coloured Souls of Sight and some Hallowed Bars.

As he touched down on the grassy ground, he began to wonder if he should start listening to Meg more.

***

Meg hadn’t been around when William and Sid had fought the original Skeletron, but from what she knew, the metal Skeletron – named Skeletron Prime – was definitely far stronger. It launched quite a barrage of attacks at her, but many of her weapons were well-suited for dealing damage to multiple targets at once – namely, Skeletron Prime and all of his arms. Her Golden Shower especially was often able to do this, lowering the defence on all of them. The laser and cannon arm were the first to be destroyed, leaving just the saw and vice arms, but they were easy to dodge, so she decided to just focus down on the head with the magic swords from her Sky Fracture. It was quickly destroyed.

She collected the orange-coloured Souls of Fright and Hallowed Bars it dropped, then used her Magic Mirror to return to the village.

There she found William, panting heavily and looking around at the destruction that the Destroyer had wrought, but still alive. Sid materialised in a spray of blue particles a moment later.

“What the heck were those things?” he asked.

Meg had one theory on her mind, which was based on something that William and Sid had told her about before. Based on the grim look on William’s face, she suspected he was thinking the same.

“The mechanical Cthulhu parts that the Cultists forced the Mechanic into building,” William said. “That’s what we just fought.”

“Hold up,” Sid said. “You serious?”

“Remember we fought Cthulhu’s eye way back when. Now you just took down two mechanical eyes. The metal Skeletron was probably its skull and arms. And the Destroyer… I guess its spine or ribs or something?”

“How does that even work?” Sid exclaimed. “The eyes were way bigger than Skeletron’s head. They wouldn’t fit in its sockets!”

William shrugged.

“Well, there’s only one person that can confirm or deny what we just fought.”

***

“Based on your descriptions,” Kayla the Mechanic said, “I’m pretty sure you fought – and defeated – my mechanical body parts.”

The bunker, which had been relatively clean and empty when William had left it, was now chock-full of gadgets and devices. Some finished, like some timers with numbers on them, and some unfinished, like a humanoid form lying on a bed that vaguely resembled some sort of robot in development.

“They were planning on using the parts to revive Cthulhu,” William muttered. “But now they just sent them all after us, basically on a suicide attack, since we blew them all up and none of them killed us, or even any of the citizens.”

“Do you think you know why they were sent after us?” Meg asked.

“I… I’m not sure,” she said, then her blue eyes lit up. “Perhaps –”

She was interrupted by the bunker ceiling exploding.

A figure with glowing eyes dropped inside and grabbed the Mechanic around the neck.

Robyn!

Chapter Text

She shot upwards, propelled by a set of leathery demon wings, taking the Mechanic with her.

“After her!” William cried.

He leapt up the hole, his Frozen Wings carrying him upwards. He hurled out his grappling hook to the walls to help propel him up faster, to catch up to Robyn.

He blasted out of the surface and landed on the ground next to the hole.

Right as Robyn stabbed the Mechanic through the heart with a sword made from Titanium. She slumped forward.

With 0/250 life.

Robyn looked up, and their eyes made contact for the first time since the day of the Guardian’s defeat.

He couldn’t believe this. The mechanical bosses… they’d been nothing but a distraction! She must’ve sent them and watched them fight.

We led her straight to the bunker!

“Why did you kill the Mechanic?” William seethed.

“She is no longer needed for our plans,” Robyn said, her eyes glowing with their evil red radiance. “But… she still needed to be silenced.”

William lunged at her, prepared to try to take her down, to try to find some way to lift her curse. She pulled out a white bow studded with crystal shards and pointed it at the sky.

He suddenly found his path being bombarded by volleys of glowing arrows being fired down from the heavens, followed by an onslaught of magical stars, so he turned around, dashing away with his Shield of Cthulhu to avoid the attack.

Turning back to Robyn, he saw she had taken to the skies.

I’m not letting you get away this time!

He flew right after her. If he followed her, she was going to lead him straight to wherever the Cultists were hiding.

More arrows and stars began storming from the sky. Robyn was flying backwards, facing him with her bow held to the sky. It seemed like the bow itself wasn’t actually shooting arrows, instead using it seemed to be causing the arrows and stars to fall from the sky, which reminded William of the Starfury sword he’d once used.

He threw Shadowflame Daggers in her direction as he dodged and weaved around the glowing projectiles. He made sure a few hit her, but not too many. He would never kill her.

Her wings ran out of flight and she landed on a rocky basin close to the jungle, then began to sprint away with her Frostspark Boots. William followed her path and continued his attack. His advantage was that the arrows from her storm-bow took some time to fall from the sky, so by moving unpredictably enough he ensured he would never get hit. Unfortunately, Robyn had the luxury of running in a straight line, now far enough that his Shadowflame Knives were falling too short. He was no longer a threat to her, and she was going to get away if William didn’t catch up.

What I wouldn’t give for Meg’s Rod of Discord right now!

They entered the jungle. Giant Flying Foxes flew through the skies and Angry Trappers reached upwards, more menacing versions of Man Eater plants. Robyn was forced to stop her horizontal movement and fly upwards at the foot of a hill, and William increased his altitude likewise, his more direct route bringing him closer.

But that was when the flying tortoise hit him out of the sky.

It struck him like a reverse meteor, hurling itself from the ground.

235 damage.

23 life left.

The wind knocked out of him.

He felt himself falling. Muddy, grassy walls rushed around him. Down, down, down.

Onto a grassy surface laced with vines.

Dazed from the long fall, he had the sense to drink one of the Greater Healing Potions that the Destroyer had dropped.

But even that wouldn’t protect him from what he’d landed on.

The vines began to untangle and stretch out, wrapping around his ankles and wrists. 

Folds of grass and plant matter began closing in, all around him. He was enveloped by thorny jaws and pink petals.

Before too long the pink and green got replaced by black.

Darkness.

Gone.

***

Meg and Sid still hadn’t found William or Robyn after a day of searching.

“I think it’s about time that we consider the harsh reality,” Meg said. “That Robyn killed William, and crawled back into whatever cave the Cultists are hiding out in.”

“But he can’t be dead!” Sid exclaimed. “He’s been here since the beginning. First Robyn got taken by the Cultists, and now…”

“This isn’t a game, Sid. It never has been. You’re not invincible, I’m not invincible, William and Robyn never were.”

“Or maybe William’s cursed too.”

Meg groaned. “Whatever happened, we’re down to just the two of us. And all we can do is your favourite thing.”

“Get stronger?”

“Yup. The mechanical bosses dropped quite a lot of new items.”

She considered it to be lucky that they’d decided to deposit everything into the chest-house before heading off to the bunker, otherwise the items that William had gotten from the Destroyer would have been lost. Especially since the three mechanical bosses each dropped a different type of soul, and there were many items that required all three.

“Hey, I remember William once telling me about these items!” Sid exclaimed. “Souls of Sight, Might and Fright. They would have upgraded his Night’s Edge.” He sighed. “Man, he would have been so stoked.”

“The Night’s Edge is even still in storage,” Meg said, pulling it out of the chest that contained William’s old weapons.

Sid took it from her hands. “Might as well upgrade it. In his honour. He would have wanted it.”

One craft later, the Night’s Edge was now a True Night’s Edge, still a dark purple blade, but the edges were now lined with green radiance, and swinging it launched forth a spinning green energy sword.

The two of them then consulted the Guide for other things that the souls and Hallowed Bars could be crafted with. The latter item had been dropped in an ample amount by all three mechanical bosses, and Sid crafted it into a Durendal whip, a Pickaxe Axe, and two sets of Hallowed Armour.

“It is grimly fitting that we only have enough Hallowed Bars for two sets of armour,” Meg said.

“Oi. Don’t make a bad situation sound even worse!”

She just shrugged.

The last two items they crafted primarily came from Souls of Sight. The first was the Optic Staff, a summon weapon that summoned an army of miniature Retinazers and Spazmatisms that would attack enemies in the same way the big eyes themselves had done. There had then been two different magic weapons that Meg could have chosen from, the Magical Harp and Rainbow Rod, but there were only enough Souls of Sight left over to craft one, so she picked the Rainbow Rod.

“I guess now we should try and figure out how to start exacting revenge,” Sid said.

That was when the Witch Doctor burst into the room.

“I feel the jungle is growing restless.”

Chapter Text

Just like the rest of the world, the Jungle had gained plenty of new enemies in the wake of the Guardian’s defeat, and especially the underground section of it. There were Moss Hornets that packed a more powerful sting, Jungle Creepers that climbed along the walls and were prone to leaping down to try to snack on them, and it was best not to forget the Giant Tortoises. 

“Watch out!” Meg shouted as one came rolling towards Sid at the speed of a train. He was not able to dodge in time, but to his surprise he didn’t feel a thing, the massive creature just rolling right through him.

“That was weird,” he said as his miniature Twins summons swooped in to attack, the Retinazers blasting at its shell with lasers while the Spazmatisms shot back and forth, raking across it with its sharp teeth.

“I think it’s our new armour,” Meg said. “I noticed it said its set bonus granted Holy Protection that could protect us completely from one blow every thirty seconds.”

“Really? That’s sweet!” Sid turned to the tortoise just as his summons had finished blasting it to pieces, the giant shell dropping lifeless to the ground. “The less said about their destructive capacity, the better.”

On heading deeper underground, he began to notice glowing green veins of some type of ore infusing the mud of the Underground Jungle like roots of a tree. He’d never seen this type of ore before.

“Do you think that’s what’s growing restless?”

“That ore has been growing since the Guardian’s defeat,” Meg said. “I came down here once to check it out. Nearly got my head taken off by a tortoise, though. And my pickaxe couldn’t mine it then.”

Sid pulled out his new Pickaxe Axe and brought it into the green ore. It gave way after several swings.

“Chlorophyte,” he muttered. “Must be even more useful if only this pickaxe can break it.”

They delved deeper into the jungle, Sid mining as much as he could find along the way. They passed through the beehive where Meg had been trapped, and came across the Lihzahrd Temple.

“Don’t suppose my pickaxe can break in here yet, can it?” Sid asked. Ten seconds of not being able to break a single block later, he turned away. “Not strong enough yet.”

He slammed his pickaxe down into the ground, accidentally breaking the yellow heart-shaped plant in front of him. An item popped out from it and rushed into his inventory.

“Wuh-huh?” Sid held up the item. “Hey, it’s Life Fruit! Increases maximum life by 5!”

“Does it work?” Meg asked.

They had long ago reached the maximum possible life – 400, with 20 hearts total. Trying to use more Life Crystals had resulted in the item refusing to be consumed. But the green 5 rising up from Sid’s head a second later confirmed her question.

“Now I have a whopping 405 health! Kneel before me, my subjects!”

“Not today, Pixie Sid,” Meg said.

“Hey, you’re still going on about that name?”

That was when he noticed something glowing bright pink across the cavern next to where it was rooted.

“I don’t think I’ve seen that plant over there before.”

The two of them flew over. It looked to be shaped like a flower’s bulb, and was slowly expanding in and out.

“There’s a strange but sweet smell coming from this plant,” Meg said. “Like waves of pheromones from a flower.”

“So are you saying this is what’s growing restless? It’s so tiny!” Sid brought his pickaxe down on it.

“Wait, don’t –”

She was too late. The bulb dissolved in a wave of pink dust. At that same moment, the jungle caves around them began rumbling. Muddy dust and plant fibres began trickling down from above, dislodged by the tremor.

Sid heard a cracking sound. Turning to it, he saw some claws were digging their way through from the other side. They burst through, and a larger and more monstrous pink bulb emerged.

“Well, today you just angered a plant ,” Meg said. “Just when I thought your people skills couldn’t get any worse.”

“Shut up.”

The plant – named Plantera – moved into the cavern, its claws stretching out on long vines to grab hold of points around the cavern so it could move itself around. It aimed the top part of its bulb, and began shooting pink seeds out at them.

They both went on the offensive. Sid sent forth his armada of attack eyeballs and swung his Durendal, while Meg cast prismatic bolts of rainbow.

Plantera fired a few homing green seeds and some pink spiky balls that bounced around the cavern, but didn’t seem to be too much of a threat. At least not until its life dropped below half and its pink bulb burst.

“Oh, cactuses!” Sid screamed as a large, thorn-filled mouth opened up beneath. Several more vines shot out, each with more grasping mouths and claws. It began moving faster and more aggressively around the cavern, with a particular appetite for a salubrious Sid snack.

“Help me!!!” he cried as the angry plant chased him around the cavern.

Meg just laughed as she pelted the vines and mouths with streams of yellow from her Golden Shower. Sid soon found himself cornered against a muddy wall and the wall of the Lihzahrd Temple. He desperately reached for the True Night’s Edge that he had kept in his inventory and began hacking away at the plant’s extending tentacles and its jaws. One of the glowing green swords it shot flew straight into Plantera’s mouth, which it swallowed with a gulp.

That was when it suddenly stopped trying to bite into Sid. The vines that it used to move itself around stiffened. For a second it looked frozen in place, its mouth pitched tight, before blasting wide open with a strange choking noise. Another cough, and something shiny and metallic was spat out.

No. Some one .

“William!” Sid cried. He knew he couldn’t have died! He watched as Plantera turned away from them and began moving towards Meg, who was shooting rainbow bolts at it from a distance.

William shakily got to his feet.

“Did Robyn trap you in that thing?” Sid asked.

“No, I fell in,” he grumbled. “Just due to dumb luck. She got away again .”

“Right. Well… um…” Sid held out the blade he was holding. “I thought you might want this.”

William took it from his hands and took a second to admire its iridescent quality. “True Night’s Edge. You guys were busy while I was gone!”

“We definitely were. But first,” he pointed his Optic Staff up at Plantera, “We’ve got weeds to pull.”

The two of them spread their wings and flew up. Sid’s Twins summons aimed for Plantera itself, while William chopped at the mouth-tentacles that were sprouting out all around Plantera, the tentacles negatively reminding him of the Hungry from the Wall of Flesh. He soon dismembered all of the extending tentacles and went in for Plantera itself. With Meg as the bait, Sid, William, and the mini-Twins all pummeling Plantera to a pulp, it wasn’t long until it was defeated.

At that same moment of Plantera’s death, piercing screams echoed through the air. A strange noise for a plant to make, William thought.

“Wait until we get home and tell everyone Sid almost got killed by a plant,” Meg said. “And that it threw up William. It’s good that Robyn didn’t kill you or curse you or anything.”

“Hardy har har,” Sid muttered sarcastically. “What did it drop?”

William landed amongst the drops.

“There’s the usual Greater Healing Potions… a Spore Sac, a Grenade Launcher, some rockets, and… a Temple Key.”

“A Temple Key?” Sid asked.

“It says it opens the jungle temple door.”

“Oooh!”

“Wonder how Plantera had it.”

“Maybe it ate some Lihzahrds and the key ended up in its stomach,” Sid said.

“Did you hear those screams?” Meg asked.

William nodded. “Yeah, but I thought they came from the plant thing for whatever reason.”

She shook her head. “I feel like they came from somewhere else. Someplace… far.”

“The temple, perhaps?” Sid asked.

“No, someplace further. Outside the jungle.” She stood straight and glanced upward, in the direction of the surface. “We should go check with the Dryad and the Witch Doctor. They might know.”

Sid shrugged. “You can do that. But I’d like to open up the temple.”

“Not right now, Sid. We don’t know what’s in there.”

“I’m with Meg here,” William said, holding up his hands. “Honestly, I just want to get out of this jungle after spending three days inside that plant’s stomach.”

“You were only in there for one day, William,” Sid said.

He shrugged. “Felt like three days.”

“Take it from me, time becomes just a concept when you’re trapped like that,” Meg said.

“She knows what she’s talking about,” Sid muttered. “Alright, we’ll go check on the screams first. We’ve got all the time in the world to go open up the temple anyway.”

Chapter Text

“I believe the screams came from the Dungeon,” the Wizard said.

“You’re certain?” Meg asked, to which the Wizard nodded.

William looked to the Dryad and Witch Doctor, who also seemed to be slowly nodding. They had all gathered in one of the huts in the Jungle Village to discuss the screams.

“This might mean the Cultists are back there,” he said. “Or even… Robyn.”

“We did destroy the mechanical Cthulhu parts before,” Meg pointed out.

“Robyn said to me that they didn’t need the Mechanic anymore,” William added. “Which tells me they have something else planned. And we don’t know what. So, we should go investigate.” He wanted to feel confident, but his heart was pounding from trepidation. Last time he’d tried to chase down Robyn, he’d almost gotten digested by a plant.

Sid nodded in agreement. “It’s about time we take the fight to them.”

“I sense that you are going to face a big battle if you go there,” the Wizard said. “I shall accompany you.”

“As will I,” the Witch Doctor said. “That cold, dark dungeon can always use a bit more life.”

“And me,” a new voice said.

William turned to the hut entrance to see James the Clothier walking in, red hat firmly on his head, and a determination in his eyes.

“Are you sure?” Sid asked. “What if you… lose control and turn into Skeletron again?”

“All I want is to see those who cursed me dead,” James said. “I’ll never lose control.”

“And if he does, I’ll be there! Yarr!”

That was Red Beard the Pirate, who walked in and stood alongside the Clothier.

“The more the merrier,” Sid said.

“So be it,” the Wizard said. “We leave at dawn tomorrow.”

***

Sid emerged from the pylon in a spray of sparks, entering the Desert Village. He walked up to a house that was covered with contraptions and machines, and knocked on the door.

Opening the door was a woman in green overalls and a black hat. She was Whitney the Steampunker, a new citizen that had moved in the day after the Mechanical Bosses had been destroyed.

“Evening.”

“You said you had something to show us?” Sid asked.

“Yes,” Whitney replied as she led Sid inside. “When I got here I heard about how Kayla had died. She was… my cousin.” She paused, sounding solemn, then turned towards a black-suited form sitting against the wall.

 “Mrunok left me the Cyborg she’d been working on, and I felt like she would have wanted to see it finished. In some ways, it’s all that’s left of her.”

Sid nodded slowly.

“Let me just flick this switch…” she reached somewhere on the Cyborg’s torso, and a second later blue lights began switching on across its arms and on its chest.

“Oh,” a sudden voice emanated from the Cyborg. Standing up, Sid could see it appeared to be a mix of man and machine, with only his hands, mouth, and forehead exposed. He began looking all around, including at the wall behind him. “Where is everyone?”

“Oops. Forgot to plug in his visual sensors.” The Steampunker reached down, picked up a disc-like object, and inserted it into the centre of the Cyborg’s face. It glowed bright blue.

“Oh, hello. I am Omicron, the Cyborg. I am designed as a provider of explosive munitions. How may I serve you?”

“Show me what you’ve got,” Sid said.

Omicron suddenly ran forward, almost knocking Sid over, and straight out through the door, knocking it from its hinges. Once outside Sid watched as he fired a rocket at a nearby Possessed Armour, blowing it up in one shot. He then fired at a Demon Eye in the sky, also exploding it to bits. He then shot at a colourfully-dressed zombie standing in front of one of the other houses.

KABOOM!

The Dye Trader stumbled outside, an alarmed look on his face. “You blew up my dyed mannequin!”

“Error 62: Not a zombie,” the Cyborg said robotically.

“Well, I approve of your destructive power,” Sid said. “What do you sell?”

He opened up the Cyborg’s interface, and was pleased to find he sold rockets – Rocket III’s to be exact, which seemed to be a far more powerful variety than the Rocket I’s that had dropped from Plantera. He bought nearly a thousand.

He also checked the Steampunker’s shop inventory, and discovered she was selling a Jetpack.

Strapping it on, he said, “This’ll be way cooler than those stupid Pixie Wings.”

“I heard y’all are going on a big trip to the Dungeon tomorrow,” Whitney said. “The Cyborg will need world experience in order to fit in and develop. How about you take him with you?”

“That, ma’am, sounds like a great idea,” Sid said.

***

The next morning they all set off from the Hallowed Village. The Snow Village was much closer to the Dungeon, but it had largely been abandoned ever since the Mechanic and Goblin Tinkerer had moved out. The Demolitionist, who had then been the only other inhabitant, had opted to move back to the Forest Village.

And, of course, there was the house William had built for Robyn. He could still see it high up in the distance through the fog. He remembered all the memories of Robyn associated with the Snow Village – she had picked out its spot, and he had built the house for her as a way of saying thank you.

Though, he knew now that perhaps hadn’t been the only reason.

He had crafted Turtle Armour from Chlorophyte mined in the jungle and some Turtle Shells that had dropped from the Giant Tortoises, which gave him the endurance of such an animal, but he still felt horribly vulnerable to thoughts of her.

He looked to the citizens that were accompanying them. The Pirate and Cyborg were bringing up the rear, a parrot sitting on Red Beard’s shoulder. The two of them appeared to be engaged in conversation.

“I heard how ye have cannons for arms, laddie,” Red Beard said, “Ye’d make a fine addition to any crew on the high seas.”

“Liquid water may be hazardous to my internal wiring,” the Cyborg said.

“Aye, but ye can still stay pretty dry onboard.”

“Awk! Pretty dry!” the parrot squawked, hopping from the Pirate’s shoulder onto Omicron’s.

“Arr, it appears he likes you!” Red Beard pulled out a bottle of rum. “Have ye tried drinking yet?”

“I will need to build myself a taste mechanism,” Omicron replied. His eye scanned over the party and landed on Merlyn the Wizard.

“Error. Merlyn the Wizard’s functions cannot be scientifically analysed. Neural functions overloaded. Translation: I hate this.”

“Yer a funny one, laddie. What was that fine Steampunkin’ lassie worried about, anyways? Yer already a fine human to me!”

“It appears I appreciate you saying that,” Omicron said.

“Awk! Appreciate!” the parrot squawked.

Omicron stopped suddenly mid-stride.

“He pooped.”

“I just realised something,” Sid said as he walked up beside William.

“Yes?”

“Remember those keys we found? The ones that said they were cursed by a powerful jungle creature?”

William remembered. And based on the fact that they had just slain a powerful jungle creature, he knew where this was going.

“They’re no longer cursed!” Sid exclaimed. “They both say they unlock a chest in the Dungeon.”

“Nice,” William said. “Good to know we’ve got that to look forward to, I guess.”

“Wait,” he heard Meg say at the front of the group. “There’s something near the Dungeon.”

The Dungeon rested at the top of a hill, appearing as harrowing as ever, but next to it, looking like it was a short distance behind, was…

“A giant mushroom?” William said. “What is that doing on the surface?”

“Looks like one of those glowing blue mushrooms,” the Clothier said, looking strangely spry.

“I wonder if that’s what the screaming was all about,” Sid said.

“It’s an abomination to nature,” the Witch Doctor said. “It can’t be anything else.”

He continued to be on edge as they scaled the hill. The Dungeon looked to be as empty as ever, though that said nothing for what went on inside.

The glowing mushroom, on the other hand, appeared to be growing tall out of a patch of glowing blue grass in front of a forested area. Several others, not quite as tall but still sizeable, also dotted the area. William had seen a few caverns filled with blue grass and glowing mushrooms like these, but never any on the surface, and this biome certainly hadn’t been here last time they’d come to the Dungeon. 

There was also what appeared to be a small hut, built out of blocks of white fungi.

“This is the most delicious biome I have ever seen,” James said, licking his lips.

“You guys stay back,” William said. “Sid and I will investigate that hut.”

He stepped into the glowing mushroom biome, his feet crunching on the fungi-encrusted mycelium. He walked up to a mushroomy door and tentatively knocked.

It swung open, revealing a lanky, white humanoid. Its skin was creamy like a mushroom’s, and the only facial features it had were two blue eyes and that its head expanded out into a blue mushroom cap.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” it said. “I must warn you that there is not much room.”

William and Sid just stared at him, not sure what to say. The mushroom man had the label ‘Porcini: 250/250’.

“Um… hi, I guess,” William said. “How did you get here?”

“Oh, I’ve lived here my whole life. Two days! Just chilling in the nice, damp rain and snow next to that big blue building over there.” Porcini pointed a spindly finger at the Dungeon. “I don’t get visitors often – in fact, you two are the second lot of visitors to ever come here.”

“Second?” William blurted. “Who was the first?”

“A wonderful young lady with fascinating red eyes,” Porcini said. “I could stare at them all day. She even bought an Autohammer from me.”

“A what?” William reached forward, opening up the mushroom’s shop inventory. Sure enough, there was an item named  the Autohammer. He didn’t have nearly enough money to buy one, as they came in at almost a whole platinum, but its label read that it converted Chlorophyte Bars into Shroomite Bars.

Sid must’ve read the same thing, as he said, “Robyn must’ve used that to make a lot of Shroomite Bars. I’ll have to ask the Guide what they’re used for, but if I had to guess, she probably made some sort of armour out of them.”

“Yeah,” William said. He took a step backwards. “Nice talking to you.”

“Good day, my friends!” the mushroom man said, waving at them with both hands.

Upon returning to the others Meg said, “The sun is going down. I’d say we head into the Dungeon, but the citizens are tired after walking all day for so long. We’re going to set up camp for the night.”

William nodded. “Alright. Probably won’t hurt to keep an eye on the Dungeon during that time too.”

***

Sid awoke from a sudden scream.

One that was then equally suddenly silenced.

He sat up, noticing the door at the mushroom man’s house was ajar. The scream sounded like it had come from there!

He jumped up and ran forward, then slowed to a sneaky, quiet pace as he approached the door. He began to hear voices.

“Fury fills my being as abominations sprout from tainted Earth. The Truffle must be removed from this world!” The Witch Doctor.

“Hey, remember our agreement. I get half, you get half.” That was the Clothier’s British accent. “I’ve never seen anything so delicious in my life, can’t believe I’m losing half of it to you. I mean, way I see it, if I eat it, it will be ‘removed from this world’, as you put it. What did you want it for again?”

“I wish to throw it in a pot and stew it until there is nothing left!”

Sid had heard enough. He burst inside and found the mushroom man tied to a chair, a gag across where a human’s mouth would be (except it had no distinctive mouth).

“What are you doing?” he asked.

James and Zop’a stared at him.

“Busted,” the Clothier said.

“Don’t eat him, dudes!” Sid said. “He’s just trying to live.”

James suddenly roared. Before Sid could react, he had expanded outwards, smashing through the walls and ceiling of the mushroom man’s hut, and morphed back into Skeletron.

He took some steps backwards, prepared to run back and get the Wizard for another incantation. But at that moment, Skeletron seemed to turn stiff, and just as quickly morphed back downwards into James.

“Whew. Sorry about that,” he said. “I won’t eat him.”

Sid sighed in relief, glad to see he seemed to be mastering his control over Skeletron.

He could only hope that James would keep control when they entered the Dungeon tomorrow.

Chapter Text

The Dungeon had finally changed.

That was William’s first thought as an enemy that looked like a Dark Caster materialised in front of him. But it wasn’t a Dark Caster – it was a new enemy, named a Necromancer. While it wore similar dark blue robes, its attack was wildly different. It cast forth a bright purple beam that bounced off the walls and floor at the speed of light, dealing instantaneous damage to William and a few of the citizens behind.

He sprinted forward and slashed at the Necromancer, only for it to disappear after it took damage.

“It’s over here!” Sid shouted. It had teleported! 

William watched as the Cyborg blasted it with a rocket. It teleported again, this time into the path of a rainbow blast from Meg, then into some bullets fired from the Pirate before it finally was defeated. It left behind a staff that looked like it had a hollow purple triangle stuck to its tip.

Meg picked it up, and fired it forward. It emitted the same bouncing purple beam as the Necromancer had just been firing.

“Woah, that is so sick!” Sid exclaimed, smiling.

“I’m surprised that dropped so quickly,” William said. Enemies that could drop a special weapon upon their defeat only did so rarely.

“Same,” Meg said. “But I’m not complaining.”

Delving deeper into the Dungeon, they encountered more new and powerful enemies. The Angry Bones were now better armoured, some kitted out in full navy-blue armour. Some were glowing bright orange, as though they were entirely made from Hellstone. Some wore rusted chainmail. All wielded a variety of deathly-looking weapons. And often, upon their death, they would morph into some sort of eerie blue Dungeon Spirit that would fly straight after the nearest target, phasing through any wall in its path, and wouldn’t stop its attack until it was destroyed, often leaving ectoplasm items as its remains.

There were even skeletons wielding guns – like the Tactical Skeletons with powerful shotguns or the Skeleton Snipers with sniper rifles. The first one they encountered nearly took the Wizard’s head off.

And, of course, there were the Skeleton Commandos that wielded explosive Rocket Launchers. When Sid first saw one he killed it savagely with his summons and his new Morning Star whip that an enemy somewhere had dropped. Unfortunately it did not drop its Rocket Launcher. So he kept a sharp eye out, killing every Commando he saw.

William was the one to lead the way – he felt like he remembered the layout of the Dungeon the best. He first led them to the locked Frozen Chest. He pulled his Frozen Key out of his inventory and stuck it into the lock.

Inside was a Staff of the Frost Hydra. A summon weapon.

“It’s not a Rocket Launcher, but I’m sure you’ll find this cool,” William said, handing the frozen weapon to Sid. He swung it, and in front of him a creature, completely made out of ice, was summoned.

It had a long neck with spikes along its back that led to a massive, dragon-like head. It opened its mouth and fired out an ice bolt that sailed across the room and impacted against a Blue Armoured Bones that had just entered the room.

“It is very cool, Will,” Sid said, smiling. “Now it’s time for the Crimson Chest.”

William remembered the way there much better – it had been the room where Robyn had said she had seen the Lunatic Cultist. He hadn’t been back in there since she’d first shown him. A part of him was afraid of what they might find there, aside from the Crimson Chest. What if the Cultists were waiting for them there?

Upon entering the large room, Brain of Cthulhu painting on the wall, Crimson Chest at the back of the room, but nothing else being contained within, William allowed himself to breathe. But he was still on edge.

And he was right to be worried – another caster enemy appeared. Not a Necromancer – it was a Diabolist. It wore white robes with red trimming. A fireball appeared in its hands, which it threw forwards.

William jumped to the side, however the fireball impacted against the Clothier and erupted in a fiery explosion.

A fiery explosion, he suddenly realised, that was the same type that had killed the Guide.

He was stunned. Shocked. He couldn’t move, only stare as the flames dissipated, leaving James sprawled out on the floor. He heard bones rattling as Sid, Meg and the other citizens quickly took care of the Diabolist, then rushed back to join him.

“James?” Meg asked.

William allowed himself to look at James’s label, but was afraid at what it might say. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw he had 189/250 life remaining.

At that same moment, the Clothier gave a cough, and sat up.

“Whew. That was a blast.”

“No kidding,” Sid said, then stretched out a hand to help him up.

“That fireball,” William breathed. “It was the same type as what killed Andrew.”

Meg nodded in agreement. “It was. Guess that proves who killed him back then.”

William sighed, the memory in his head still rolling around in his head. He wondered what it all meant – the Cultists being behind Andrew’s death and summoning the Wall of Flesh, followed by Robyn turning and trying to kill them all right after.

“Will,” Sid called. He saw he’d just unlocked and heaved open the Crimson Chest. “There’s some Vampire Knives in here. Looks like they might be an upgrade to your Shadowflame ones.”

He tossed them to him. Upon comparing the damage of the two weapons, William noticed his Shadowflame Knives actually still dealt more damage than the Vampire Knives. But what made the Vampire Knives special was that they would steal life. If that meant what William thought it meant, they would be far more invaluable than the Shadowflame ones.

“I think we can confirm that the Cultists aren’t going to be making any grand appearances today,” Meg said. “New enemies are here, but they aren’t.”

“Let’s just keep looking,” Sid said. “They may yet show their faces.”

They continued to climb up and down through several Dungeon tunnels and chambers, the citizens in tow. William slashed at a group of Blue Armoured Bones with his True Night’s Edge, quickly rending the life from them. A few turned into Dungeon Spirits, but his sword made short work of them too. But then a Necromancer and another Diabolist both appeared.

“Watch out!” Meg shouted.

The Cyborg and Pirate both turned their weapons against them. The Cyborg, with his motion-tracking sensors, was able to quickly fire at the casters no matter where they teleported, while the Pirate’s eye was so good he didn’t need motion-tracking sensors.

Some more Blue Armoured Bones ran into the room, along with a skeleton wearing a white headband and mask, named ‘Bone Lee’. It sailed forward in a large jump, its leg outstretched, which planted itself into William’s face. He swung his sword, but Bone Lee was too quick. A fireball from the Wizard hit it, but it did little damage.

William began hurling his Vampire Knives at Bone Lee. While the Shadowflame Knives were thrown one at a time, the Vampire Knives were thrown in a spread, and many impacted Bone Lee at once. While they also didn’t do much damage, some red beams shot backwards and into William. Looking to his life counter, he could see he was indeed being healed, and before too long all of the damage he had taken from Bone Lee’s kick had come back.

Bone Lee made another lunge, but William jumped upwards, spreading his wings.

“William! Lure it towards me!” Meg called.

He landed and sprinted towards Meg. She held out a spell tome and cast a large, cyan sphere. It slowly floated forward, harmlessly past William, but when Bone Lee got too close to it he was immediately zapped by rapid beams of energy from the sphere. It completely stunned Bone Lee’s movement and soon brought his life to 0.

The Magnet Sphere. Another magic weapon that Meg had picked up from one of the enemies.

“Thanks for the save,” William said.

“Don’t mention it.”

That was when a flying hammer embedded itself into Meg’s face.

If this had been real life she would have died in that instant, but instead she only lost 160 of her life.

William spun around.

An enormous form had stomped into the room. A Paladin, completely covered in gold-trimmed armour. In one hand it held a silver shield with more gold trimming, and in the other it held a hammer like what had just hit Meg. It raised its arm and began throwing more hammers, rapid-fire, that sailed through the air with deadly accuracy.

William tried to fly over them, but he was still hit. He threw his Vampire Knives forward to try to heal up his life. Meg cast a Magnet Sphere in its direction, then ducked behind a pillar and started firing shadowbeams, ricocheting them off a wall to hit the Paladin. The citizens all attacked with everything they had, but some hammers slammed into both the Cyborg and Pirate, knocking them to low life. The Wizard and Witch Doctor grabbed hold of them and pulled them out of sight to safety.

Sid kept his distance from the Paladin, mostly letting his Twins summons and Frost Hydra deal damage at close range, while attacking it from afar with his Megashark. But that was when something more important (to him) caught his eye.

“There’s a Skeleton Commando!” he shouted.

He flew towards it, clearly hoping it would drop a Rocket Launcher. Unfortunately, him flying away into the hallway it was in caused his summons to disengage and follow him.

“No! Stay on the Paladin!” William shouted.

He saw James transform into Skeletron and try to block the Paladin’s hammers, but the hammers were surprisingly able to knock him backwards, eventually pinning his arms against a wall like a pin holding up a piece of paper.

William kept up his attacks, but two hammers hit him in a row, bringing him to dangerously low life. Even the Vampire Knives wouldn’t save him at this level – they only healed so much. But that was when a rocket shot out from a tunnel and slammed into the Paladin, blowing it to pieces.

All that remained was one of its hammers.

William spun around. It was Sid.

“About time I got one of these babies,” he said, blowing on the end of it.

***

After some time they decided to return to the surface. A Diabolist on the way up dropped an Inferno Fork for Meg, allowing her to shoot the same exploding fireballs that they did. Though Sid was way more proud of his exploding capabilities, gleefully firing his Rocket Launcher at anything that moved on the way home. Zombies, Possessed Armour, Ice Slimes, then when they passed through the Hallow his attention turned to Pixies, Gastropods, and a luminescent butterfly.

The butterfly would be his undoing when its death caused an aurora of rainbows to appear in front of him.

A yellow-skinned fairy with glowing rainbow wings appeared with a high-pitched shriek.

Upon laying eyes on her, he fainted.

Chapter Text

The Empress of Light, as the boss was called, appeared surrounded by a colourful aurora, her very presence lighting up the sky.

William watched as the fairy flew upwards, launching a flurry of rainbow particles beneath her that shot towards them. He jumped upwards, his wings propelling him, while Meg teleported to the side with her Rod of Discord. Somehow all the bolts missed Sid’s now unconscious body.

How had Sid just fainted like that? Was it some sort of curse that this Empress had cast upon him? Where had she even come from?

He gazed at her as she suddenly teleported to the side, cloudy afterimages rotating around her as she did. He almost dropped his sword when he saw how much life she had – almost a hundred thousand . Plantera hadn’t even had half that amount.

How were they going to take down this being with one of their own down for the count?

“You DARE bring your impure selves into my domain?” the Empress screamed. That shocked William even more – none of the other bosses they’d fought had talked back to them. “Carelessly decimating a peaceful creature of purity? Condemning it to a death of fire and thunder?”

“We’re only just passing through!” William hastily shouted. He looked down to Sid again, wondering if ‘fire and thunder’ was just how she interpreted the explosive force Sid had been throwing around with his Rocket Launcher. “Please forgive my friend. We shall leave immediately and not cause any more… damage. He just got a bit excited.”

“Excitement is what leads to mistakes!” the Empress just shrieked. “For that, you shall die!”

Blinding flares of multicoloured light began to emanate from behind her, rotating around her body as though a sun was glowing behind her. She then dashed again, straight towards William. He tried to dodge to the side but he had moved too late, the Empress plowing straight through him and knocking him down to the Hallowed grass. He saw Meg now shooting at the Empress with glowing purple beams and exploding fireballs, trying out the new magic weapons from the Dungeon she’d picked up. William rolled over to his feet and saw the Wizard and the rest of the citizens staring

“Get away from here!” he shouted. “We’ll handle this!”

The Wizard, Witch Doctor and Clothier all turned to run, but the Pirate and Cyborg stood their ground.

“I’m not running away from a good fight!” Red Beard shouted. “Yarrr!”

He ran forward, bullets and cannonballs rapidly firing from his minigun. The Cyborg too attacked, launching rockets from his arm, which exploded against the Empress’s shining crystal armour. She shrieked and cast an swarm of coloured lines towards them, which then had glowing swords shooting across them.

Towards the Pirate and Cyborg.

William ran, but knew there was no way he could get them out of the way in time. The swords would skewer them to pieces, a loss of life that never needed to happen.

Until two giant skeletal hands grabbed them both around the waists and pulled them into the sky, the ethereal swords stabbing into the ground where they’d been standing.

“Skeletron!” William shouted. “James!”

The Empress screamed in frustration and shot herself towards Skeletron, who held his hands out to the side so that it was only his skull who took the brunt of her charge. He was sent spinning backwards as the Empress cast a stream of shots in a circle around her, which began to spiral towards him, but thankfully the shots were slow enough for Skeleton to fly out of their reach. William could see the Pirate whooping as he was held through the air by Skeletron.

“Bring me close so I can blast her!” he shouted.

“You saved our lives. We are eternally grateful,” the Cyborg said to Skeletron. “Please orient yourself close enough for our shots to be in range, but keeping a safe distance from her attacks.”

William realised that with the citizens helping them they may yet stand a chance against the Empress. Most of her attacks seemed to be purely trajectory-based, and they could be dodged. He ran forward, True Night’s Edge swinging and launching spinning green energy swords at the Empress. Meg launched a Magnet Sphere in her direction and kept on blasting her with shadowbeams.

When William got close enough he switched to the hammer the Paladin had dropped back in the Dungeon, throwing it like a super-fast boomerang that slammed against the Empress over and over again. For the next few minutes they were able to continue dealing steady damage to her, but when her life fell below half she disappeared.

Only to reappear some distance away. William noticed at a glance she seemed to be glowing brighter, bright purple tentacles now streaming out from behind her along with her flapping prismatic wings.

And a massive array of coloured lines appeared, all pointing towards William.

“Oh, dang,” he muttered as he flew up, but another array spawned. He dodged and weaved as more and more arrays of coloured lines appeared in the sky aiming at him, waves and waves of swords shooting along them.

But he was focussing so much on dodging the rainbow swords that he didn’t notice the Empress firing out a plume of coloured shots that all streamed straight towards him. They blasted through his body, dealing massive damage.

He fell to the ground, the shell of his turtle armor hitting the grassy floor. Low on life, he tried to get to his feet and raise his True Night’s Edge high, but it felt heavy in his hands. His heart sank as he watched another wave of glowing swords skewing into Skeletron from all directions, causing visible cracks to form along his skull and for him to drop the Pirate and Cyborg.

We have to do this, he thought to himself. However powerful the Cultists would turn out to be, or facing Robyn, it was undoubtedly going to be even more overwhelming than this glowing spirit of the Hallow. And defeating her, like every other boss that had come before, would grant them with more powerful weapons.

But at what cost?

He took a drink of a Greater Healing Potion and flew back up to the fight, throwing his Vampire Knives to try to further restore his health. But the Empress was moving too fast, staying out of range of his knives such that even if they impacted, they’d just be spinning through the air and only glance across her form. And the spinning swords from his True Night’s Edge moved too slowly to hit her, especially with her erratic movement.

He soon got desperate and tried to fly for a close attack with his Paladin’s Hammer, but got caught in the rays of her Sun Dance. He was forced to retreat to the ground again, running towards the Pirate and Cyborg. They were hefting up an unconscious James the Clothier in their arms, who must’ve transformed away from Skeletron.

He saw Meg landing next to him. “Get the citizens out of here!” she shouted. “I’ve got the best chance of taking her down with my magic and my Rod of Discord!”

William didn’t want to leave her to face the Empress alone but knew her reasoning was solid. It had been too difficult for him to hit her at close range while she just kept on barraging him with attacks from afar. If there was anyone who was best suited for fighting the Empress, it would be Meg. “Okay!”

As Meg watched William leave with the citizens she turned back to the Empress, flying upwards and shooting out with her Shadowbeam Staff. The Empress shrieked and did one of her teleporting-dashes, but Meg dodged by dropping downwards to the grass. The Empress launched in all directions a bunch of rainbow star-shots that spiralled towards Meg, but she again dodged, flying close to her underside and blasting her with her Inferno Fork. The Empress launched another flotilla of glowing shots that Meg again dodged before emanating her Sun Dance. Meg teleported away just in time before one of the sun rays touched her and launched a Magnet Sphere and more Shadowbeams at the Empress.

In-between her mastering the Empress’s attack patterns and being able to nullify any mistakes with her Rod of Discord or the Holy Protection on her Hallowed Armor, Meg was soon able to bring the Empress’s health down fully. She gave a deathly screech, a crystal-blue blade falling from her body as she faded away.

Meg landed on the ground to catch her breath just as the Empress faded back into existence in front of her.

“This isn’t over!” the Empress shouted. “I hereby declare war upon your lands! I will not stop until all of it is completely pure and rid of wretches like him!” She pointed a gloved finger down at Sid’s still unconscious form.

“There’s no need for that. Would you like to discuss this over a cup of tea?”

This was a new voice. High and young, but posh and an edge of antiquity. Meg turned and spotted a teenage girl with pink hair and wearing a dress.

“And who are you?” Meg asked.

Chapter Text

When Sid awoke he saw he was laying on a bed in an empty room.

With a ghostly figure staring down at him.

“Aaagh!” he cried. “Grim Reaper! Please don’t take my soul!”

The figure laughed, and threw back their hood. It was Meg.

“About time I got one back at you,” she chuckled. “It’s Spectre Armour. I crafted it using Chlorophyte and Ectoplasm from the Dungeon.”

“Oh. Nice. So… um… where’d the fairy go?”

Meg said nothing, just held out an item in her hands.

“This is a Prismatic Lacewing,” she said. “You blew one up in the Hallow, and that caused the fairy , the Empress of Light, to appear. Fighting her was not fun. Quite a light show, but not fun when those lights are trying to kill you. Meanwhile you fainted, like an idiot.”

Sid couldn’t help himself. He started giggling. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. She was just… she was so beautiful . I just…”

Meg just groaned. She put the Lacewing back into her inventory and took out another item. The Temple Key from Plantera.

“Well, later today we’re heading over to the Lihzahrd Temple to check it out. Just like you wanted .”

***

When Sid stepped outside with Meg, he saw there was quite a large gathering of citizens in the central area of the Forest Village.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“We’ve got another new citizen,” Meg replied. “And she’s quite the attention-seeker.”

She led him to the centre of the group, where a young girl, who looked to be in her teens, was moving around shaking hands with basically everybody and greeting them in the friendliest voice Sid had ever heard. She wore a long, fancy-looking dress, and had a silvery tiara placed upon her lustrous, bubblegum-pink hair. She looked just like a princess.

“You must really be ‘da bomb’, Durim!” She giggled as she shook the Demolitionist’s hand.

“I’m Roxanne, the local hairstylist,” she said as the Princess turned to her.

“So nice to meet you! I’ll definitely be asking you about hair advice if you don’t mind!”

“Pop into my salon any time. It’s in the Ocean Village. Though, your hair is so perfect already, I’m afraid of touching it!”

They both giggled, and the Princess turned to the next citizen.

“I’m Theodore, the Tax Collector,” he said. “Obviously, I collect taxes from these fine folk. Now, you won’t need to pay taxes, since you’re the Princess, but –“

“Oh? Well, that’s very kind of you, but I’d like to be on the same footing as my subjects, thank you very much?”

“Are you sure? I know you royalty types can get –“

“Shut up and take my money!” the Princess suddenly shouted, then equally suddenly composed herself and said, “I profusely apologise, that was very unladylike of me.”

Sid chuckled. He liked her already.

“Oh, Meg!” the Princess called. “You’ll be pleased to know that the Empress will not be declaring all-out war upon our villages on the condition that we do not do anything that would make us impure again.”

“We are grateful for your diplomacy,” Meg said, then gestured to Sid. “This is Sid.”

The Princess did a small curtsey then took hold of both of Sid’s hands and shook them.

“Pleasure to meet you while you are awake, Sid. I really appreciate all the good you, William and Meg have done for this land. So thank you! I am Princess Faye, of the Land of Terraria.”

“Nice to meet you too, your royal highness,” Sid replied.

She moved on and greeted the Tavernkeep, then the Pirate, then the Angler. Sid couldn’t help but notice the young boy blush a bit when the Princess introduced herself to him, then once she had moved on the Pirate laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.

“What was that you said about girls being gross?” Red Beard asked.

“She’s not a girl, she’s a princess!”

Sid chuckled and turned back to Meg. “We heading off to the temple yet?”

“Just got to find William,” she said.

“I haven’t met William yet,” the Princess said, suddenly standing next to her. “Where does he live?”

“He doesn’t really live anywhere I think,” Sid said.

***

They found William in the dojo.

Over the course of their time in the world, a few Travelling Merchants had stopped by, staying for one day before subsequently disappearing just before sunset. They prided themselves on selling items from “lands that may not even exist”, which had made Sid chuckle at the knowledge of them basically being another video game mechanic in this world.

One of the merchants had been selling oriental-inspired items such as Dynasty Wood and Shingles and some food that Sid had never heard of even from his vague recollection of the real world. William had bought up a lot of building materials from that merchant, and had subsequently used them to construct the dojo, modelling it with architecture and a fancy roof that Sid could recognise from designs in the real world. Inside, he set up lots of target dummies, which when paired with a DPS Meter (another item sold by Travelling Merchants), could be used to test how much DPS (damage per second) their weapons did, so they could figure out which ones were the best to use.

At that moment he was stabbing a dummy with a flurry of rainbow slashes, so fast that Sid had trouble keeping track of his movements. He was wowed not just by the speed of this weapon, but by the visual aesthetic as well. Plus, he had never seen William use this weapon before.

“Where did you get that from?” Sid asked.

“It’s the Starlight,” William said.

“The Empress of Light dropped it after you invoked her wrath,” Meg said.

Sid groaned.

The Princess stepped forward. “Oh William, Warrior of the World, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Princess Faye of…”

She trailed off as William kept on stabbing at the Target Dummy. Far longer than Sid felt would be needed to get an accurate reading on the DPS meter.