Chapter 29: Bound by Blood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Huhuhuhuhuhahahahaha...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When time is a fancy...

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

And life becomes a exercise in patience...

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

Even simple questions can seem impossible to answer.

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

What is a "Hero"?

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

Why do you ask?

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

Perhaps we should find one...

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

And ask them...

What makes them tick.

What makes a Hero? Maybe this stranger knows?

"You look lost..."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"What do you-"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Furiously the thing redoubled its attempted to escape Hell, driving its kin to throw themselves at the tunnels above. The bracers held, as they had since their inception, and it was held with them. The demon knew what would come next. Had known since the reproduction's spell took hold. The final wave of change passed, and all of hell was silent in its wake. The eyes of its kin were turned to it, and it closed its eyes as they tore it apart. None of the others could touch the reproduction however, and it fell directly into the fabric of the world as it slipped from its claws.

It had wondered idly in the past what it would be like to return to the magick of the world. To be wholly consumed by the force that formed slimes and shaped the land. The force that bloomed flowers and consumed the remains of the fallen. It was like-