Maybe because his eyes were fixed on Gilbert. Maybe because of his distracted attention. Maybe because of his chatty and nostalgic state. Simon didn't react in time when Robyn ran toward him.
Holding the Wandering Eye Fish with her left hand's claws while her right ripped one of the creature's wings off, Robyn slammed the Wandering Eye Fish into Simon's face.
Moving her free hand quickly, Robyn let go of the fleshy wing she was holding and swung her arm at Simon's floating eyes, trying to cut them with her claws.
Reacting faster than its owner, Simon's left eye spun on its own axis. It stared at Robyn for a moment, then flew upward, narrowly escaping her claws.
Without the same luck or reflex, the right eye was directly seized by Robyn's claws.
She hesitated for a moment when she felt the disgusting texture of the eyeball in her hand. Her claws dug into the spongy flesh, then she squeezed. Her fingers sank deeper, until the white-gray flesh of the eye gave way.
Ripping away most of the right eye, what remained floated for a moment, its optic nerves twitching, before finally dropping inertly to the ground.
Beside her, Simon — who had pushed away the almost-dead Wandering Eye Fish with his hand — let out a grunt. His empty right eye socket began to bleed. The crimson liquid bubbled with what looked like red foam as it ran down his cheek and dripped onto his chin.
Grinding his teeth, the tense muscles in Simon's face shifted grotesquely, like blocks under a thin layer of pale skin. Unable to resist, a guttural scream echoed from his throat.
Like a whale's sonar, the sound spread through the air strangely slowly for a scream. It caused visible ripples, crossing everyone around.
The closest — and the first to be hit — was Robyn.
Her eyes widened as she took a deep breath. The air filled her lungs, but the sensation of breathing didn't exist. It was as if she were drowning, as if her lungs were full of water.
Sea water. She could taste it on her lips.
She could still breathe, but it didn't feel like she could. She wasn't really drowning, but the sensation was as if she were. Unpleasant. Desperate.
Simon's left eye moved to the front of his face and stared directly at Robyn's left eye. Instantly, she fell to her knees as everything around her was consumed by water.
The sensation of drowning intensified. The smell of salt overwhelmed the smell of blood. The taste of seawater dominated her mouth. The sound around her disappeared into a deafening and terrifying silence.
The eye in her tiara opened, glowing orange — a light that was quickly snuffed out by the surrounding darkness.
No light could exist in the depths of the sea…
Desperate, Robyn tried to swim upward. Her mind was in chaos. A moment seemed to last minutes, which stretched into hours. Her senses were fading, muffled by the pressure of the ocean.
As she tried to rise, several meters ahead, a beam of light appeared from above. Pale in a way that contrasted with the dark sea, her attention was drawn to it like that of a firefly.
The water around her rippled. The instant Robyn fixed her eyes on the thin, soft beam of pale light, it turned a dense crimson and grew in size, revealing what had been hidden in the marine darkness.
An immense creature. A fusion of what seemed to be several marine animals.
Tentacles of octopuses writhed, covered in pulsing suckers. Shark fins — irregular and sharp like external teeth — grew in random places.
Amidst the cracked remnants of what appeared to be a mollusk shell, scales from various species of fish overlapped, while a colossal whale's tail moved slowly, curving above the creature. It was cracked in the middle, where a small sphere of light, resembling the moon, could be seen.
Bathed in artificial crimson light, there was an immense eye. It was in this eye that all the animal parts had fused. From the ligaments, blood flowed slowly, staining the surrounding water red.
Robyn could recognize the eye. Even though it was enormous, she knew it was Simon's eye staring at her.
Between panic and fear, she instinctively covered her eyes with her palms.
I'm still above the kingdom's wall. I'm not in the sea!
I was fighting, I need to wake up or I'll die! This is an illusion! None of this is real!
Wake up, Robyn, damn it, there's no water, no giant monster!
Wake up!
Her thoughts were jumbled and scattered, but she still managed to subtly distinguish that this was some sort of illusion or hallucination.
Still, no matter how much she mentally screamed, no matter how much she reinforced the idea— the ocean around her didn't disappear.
The water still tasted like blood, and the smell of salt mixed with the stench of decay.
Tears slowly began to fall from her eyes, leaking through the small space between her palms, merging with the vastness of the water around her.
A sound echoed. It was subtle. Robyn could barely hear it, but it was there, like the omen of her death.
'Drip… Drop…'
The moment her ears caught the sound through the waters, her eyes began to move abnormally.
The left one twisted, moving laterally in painful spasms, as though trying to escape the skull at any cost. The pain was nearly unbearable.
The right one was calmer, colder. There was a frozen anger there. Something was just pressing against Robyn's palm, as if she were trying to block a hose with her hand.
Choosing quickly due to the pain, she placed her right hand over her left, pressing hard on the left eye, which was writhing like an enraged animal, and kept the right one tightly closed.
It wasn't enough.
The eyelid of the right eye stayed shut for a fraction of a second before it was forced open.
Robyn had time to stare into Simon's colossal left eye, now very close, for a brief instant.
And then, the sea of blood, the creature, and the illusion evaporated before the orange light emanating from her right eye.
[…]
Having lived on the beach throughout his childhood and much of his adolescence, Gilbert was familiar with the sensation of drowning.
Unlike Simon, he had never been a natural swimmer. Gilbert had lost count of how many liters of seawater he had swallowed before learning how to stay afloat.
That's why, unlike everyone else around him, he was able to move. Even with the uncomfortable sensation of drowning, putting two arrows in his bow and shooting them toward Simon was easy.
One of the arrows was aimed at the left eye of the former angler, who stared at Robyn kneeling with a vacant look. The second went toward Simon's head.
Even before the first two arrows reached their target—or not—Gilbert shot two more toward Simon's chest. Then he started running toward Robyn, as fast as his old but muscular body allowed.
The first arrow missed its target when the eye floated upward just enough to dodge it.
The second grazed Simon's head, tearing part of his scalp as he, even dazed from losing his right eye, defended himself with the fishing rod. No blood.
The third arrow pierced Simon's right bicep, coming out the other side. No blood.
The fourth hit his right shoulder. He threw his body to the side, and a bone snap echoed. No blood.
Reaching Robyn, Gilbert barely had time to position himself in front of Simon's left eye before it began to weep bubbling blood. The white-grayish flesh was smoking, as though it were burning from the inside out.
Flying back toward its owner, the eye collided with Simon's chest with force. He groaned in pain again, now with the left eye socket bleeding a boiling, foamy blood.
Behind Gilbert, Robyn's eyes focused as she took a deep breath.
Still looking around with persistent fear, she brought her hands to her eyes, touching the skin around her eyelids randomly.
"An illusion... just an illusion..." she murmured softly, her voice trembling with relief.
Without turning, Gilbert nocked another arrow and asked:
"What's happen—"
Gilbert didn't have time to finish. The Hemogoblin Shark appeared as a red blur in his peripheral vision.
With its mouth dripping with the blood of terranean soldiers, the shark struck Gilbert with its claws in the chest and lowered its head to bite Robyn's head.
Robyn reacted slightly better, noticing the creature moving a moment before Gilbert did, but still having no time to react as she saw the grotesque jaws opening before her.
Below, Gilbert's shadow rippled. From it, two purple eyes opened.
Leaping from the shadow like an hallucination, Tyrian appeared between the father and daughter.
With his right hand, he stopped the claw coming toward Gilbert. With his left, he punched the Hemogoblin Shark's jaw, forcing it to pull back.
Reacting quickly, Tyrian contorted acrobatically and kicked the creature's chest, while his scorpion tail collided with the monster's spiked tail.
Having pushed the shark away from Gilbert and Robyn, Tyrian's body became a blur, just like the creature's.
A black blur against red. They collided at dizzying speeds until the black one pushed the red one outside the wall, toward the crimson tide below.
The only words Tyrian screamed, just before disappearing with the creature's roar, were:
"GRAAAAAH!"
They weren't an explanation, but a thanks:
"My lord, thank you for such a wonderful task! Your loyal servant will destroy your enemy's servant!"
From the air, several demon eyes took advantage of the gap to attack Gilbert and Robyn. Nearby, the Wandering Eye Fish floated unsteadily, missing one of its wings, flying slowly toward the fox-woman, as if wanting to use what little vitality it had left to take revenge.
Stumbling backward, as her own left eye collided with her ribcage with a wet sound, like a box full of liquid, Simon waved his right hand, throwing the crimson fishing hook toward Gilbert.
At the same time, his command made the Blood Squids stop attacking the distant soldiers and fly toward the father-daughter duo. Two were temporarily stopped by the soldiers, but the closest one, in the area devastated by the Hemogoblin Shark, managed to get through.
Gilbert was the first to recover from his near-death experience, shooting two arrows in quick succession. One collided with the hook coming toward him. The other went toward Simon, who raised his free hand to defend himself.
The arrow pierced his hand easily before he closed it, grabbing the projectile. No blood.
Gilbert kept shooting, ignoring the demon eyes around him. He trusted Robyn and focused only on Simon.
Taking a little longer to recover, Robyn stood up still shaken. She grabbed the nearest demon eye and threw it at another, before tearing a third apart with her left hand and punching the Wandering Eye Fish right in the center of its already damaged pupil.
With little resistance, her hand pierced the eye. Feeling the burn of the creature's blood on her skin, Robyn moved her arm to the side, throwing the dead body of the Wandering Eye Fish down the wall.
Turning toward the Blood Squid she had seen earlier, Robyn stared at the squid's attached eyes for a moment—until it was thrown away by the collision with the Humvee.
At the wheel, Selina slammed on the brakes and hit the control matrix on the dashboard. The mystical symbols on the Humvee's ceiling glowed, and bolts of lightning were fired upward, randomly striking the demon eyes.
Opening the window, she yelled:
"Sorry for the delay! Getting this baby out of my Travel Space is always a pain!"
Opening all the Humvee's doors and activating the purification matrix, the air around them began to fill with Purification Powder. Even the breeze from Simon's back was barely enough to disperse the powder.
When it was finished, Selina jumped out of the Humvee and ran toward Robyn and Gilbert, who were attacking Simon.
[...]
Having stepped out from Jinn's shadow, Ozma asked only for a brief explanation of where he could help and moved to the panel Jinn pointed to.
Flying above a more distant section of the zombie army while firing missiles, beams, flames, and bombs at the demon eyes, the Proto-A tore through the sky at a speed no vessel of that size should have been able to reach.
All four aboard the ship had their left eye covered in shadow.
"Damage to our shields dropped once we moved away from those two. What happened?" Jinn asked Ozma, her eyes darting between the controls and the livestream screen on her phone.
At her words, Charlotte stopped meditating and opened her eyes to listen.
Dylan, who also had his eyes shut — a blue glow escaping from the cracks in his eyelids — simply tilted his head toward the conversation. In his hands rested a large silver-and-gold metallic arrow.
"I'm not entirely sure. Devas — Shadow Puppet," he corrected the term to avoid confusion, "didn't explain much before vanishing." Ozma blinked, a thought surfacing. "Was the spirit camera on?"
"It wasn't. Still isn't," Jinn replied flatly. "There are two cameras — one follows Devas, the other the Shadow Puppet. But when the shadow entered the Spirit Realm, the camera stopped working. We have no idea what's going on in there."
Jinn didn't ask Ozma if he knew what was happening. She had full faith that if the human hadn't turned the spirit camera on, he had a reason.
If she were going to ask, it would be after the moon lost its crimson hue.
Humming to himself as his hands moved over the panel in front of him, Ozma continued:
"As for 'The Eye'... from the little I saw — unfortunately saw — it merged with the crimson moonlight."
"I don't know the full extent of the transformation, but now there are screams with every attack. It's disturbing. The maddened whispers of the Nightmares are more pleasant."
"His presence also seems to have grown… That's all I know."
"That's not much… and what it is, is bad," Charlotte muttered to herself before turning to ask Jinn and Ozma a question.
She might not have known the latter, only having been informed of his existence. But Jinn was someone she had spoken to many times. Charlotte knew the Spirit of Knowledge had what the name implied: knowledge.
"How do we kill moonlight? Or is it even moonlight anymore? What's stopping that thing from having turned into the moon itself?"
Between the two, Ozma chose silence. Jinn answered:
"As far as we know? Nothing. This is new even to us." He motioned with his chin toward Ozma. "But Devas probably has an idea on how to kill 'The Eye'. Several, actually. He said this was only his 'Plan D' after all."
"Throwing the Sun at the continent where my kingdom is located is not a plan!" Charlotte raised her voice slightly, still in disbelief over what the Shadow Puppet had said.
"Throwing the Sun at the continent?" Ozma asked, then shook his head. "Forget it. Devas told me he had a plan. Did he mention anything to you?"
"That he's going to stop 'The Eye' for a moment, and that we need to help keep it pinned down," Dylan replied from afar, eyes still shut, his fingers gently brushing over the silver shaft of the arrow. "Any idea what kind of attack he's planning?"
Ozma didn't need to answer. Silence was answer enough…
[…]
Standing atop the ocean, the Shadow Puppet looked upward. His single eye locked onto the colossal corpse above without blinking. The crazed smile on his face remained, frozen in an inhuman expression.
Slowly, as if feeling the shadow's gaze, the massive corpse turned its eye away from the blurred image of the full moon overhead. Lowering its head, the immense eye on its forehead met the lone eye of the Shadow Puppet.
Everything around them was still. The storm clouds didn't rumble. The sea held no waves. The wind didn't howl. All was silent.
It was as if the entire Nameless Foreign World was a painting made by a psychiatric ward patient.
All was silent.
The world felt dead.
"…You." The delirious voice of the human's shadow broke the silence. "…You are my fear. All of my fears — the ones that still exist, the ones that once existed, and the ones that will exist..."
"From the oldest and most persistent to those I've left behind. From the strongest to the weakest. From the smallest to the greatest. From the most rational to the most irrational..."
"My fear of the dark."
"The fear I had, as a child, of the dentist..."
"My fear of failing everyone."
"The fear I had of crowds and their stares..."
"My fear of death."
"My fear of madness."
"My fear of no longer being myself."
"My fear..."
The words came out softly, only to vanish abruptly.
The sea remained calm. The wind didn't stir. The clouds were frozen. The world remained silent — but now the silence felt artificial... forced.
A thin, tense control — like madness on the verge of taking form.
A tight grip on irrational fear.
"In spite of everything… you're still part of me..."
The human's shadow stared at the human's fear. Neither of them blinked. Neither, as inhuman as they were, felt out of place in that world.
The Shadow Puppet spoke again:
"The best part. The worst part. Part of me..." The human's shadow opened its arms. "It's all me... And I know myself well. If there's one thing I hate — one thing you hate more than I do — it's that damned thing out there."
"... Hope isn't enough... Not just mine. My world is small. I am... But fear is fuel."
"A cornered animal hopes to live — but it's fear of death that moves it..."
"I don't have much hope in me. I never did. It was always weak... But fear?..."
A manic laugh began to rise from within the Shadow Puppet. Spilling from his twisted grin, the laughter echoed across the world.
It rippled through the seas, raising small waves that quickly grew into tsunamis. It stirred the wind into hurricanes. It charged the clouds, unleashing lightning-laced storms.
The earth shook with earthquakes, splitting the ocean floor open: a chasm that had always been there, now becoming a massive and gaping trench. An abyss. Pure darkness — seemingly able to swallow all.
Without a word, the human's shadow began to sink into the raging waters. Following it, the human's fear did the same.
As the water swallowed them and light vanished into the ocean's depths, the Shadow Puppet reached out to the connection it had with Jinn — and aboard the Proto-A, her shadow moved.
It rippled like a pool of black sludge, until a face emerged — with a single red eye, the right one, insane — and a matching deranged smile.
Jinn was the first to turn and face her own shadow, followed by Ozma and Charlotte. Dylan, if he noticed, neither opened his eyes nor turned.
"It's time. Jinn, change Proto-A's course. Take it closer to the main body."
"Ozma, your memories from when you were king — think about them. You don't need to return your consciousness to the Spirit Realm, just help them bind 'The Eye'."
As the words were spoken, the one-eyed, mad-grinning face vanished, and Jinn's shadow returned to normal.
The moment the Shadow Puppet's face disappeared, Ozma left the control panel in front of him and sat down, closing his eyes. With centuries of experience in meditation, it was simple for him to fully focus on his memories of the time when he was King Oz.
Beside him, Jinn swiftly turned the direction of the Proto-A, which sped through the air, tearing through everything in its path.
Not knowing what to do, Charlotte simply waited.
Dylan remained silent, unmoving, eyes closed, waiting.
Within the sea of the Spirit Realm, the Shadow Puppet and the colossal corpse sank side by side.
Darkness quickly overtook the cold, desolate surroundings.
The only visible lights were: the right eye of the Shadow Puppet, red, bloodthirsty, and insane; the subtle, predatory glint of its deranged smile; and the neon green eye on the forehead of the colossal corpse, flickering with unnatural hues.
The descent continued. Slowly, even those three lights began to fade, swallowed by the surrounding water.
As the two entered the trench, plunging deeper than the seabed itself, all light vanished. Darkness consumed everything.
No light could exist in the depths of the ocean…
"Truly… even the word 'beautiful' stains this fragile image…"
… Except for the glow of the Strongest Illusion.
A radiant golden light, glorious and sacred in its essence, lay at the center of the abyss, illuminating nearly ten meters around it.
Floating a few centimeters off the ground and vaguely shaped like a sword, the golden light did more than shine — it repelled the very concept of darkness.
As the Shadow Puppet's feet touched the seafloor, it slowly approached the golden light.
Its steps were slow, almost hesitant. Its body was made of shadow and madness, shaped by the filthiest sins humanity could offer. By all logic, the moment the light touched it, it should have been incinerated.
… But when its body entered the light, the opposite happened.
The light seemed to embrace it. A gentle warmth welcomed it, encouraged it. Gave it hope… The shadow of the human could see the end of that blood-soaked night.
Lowering itself and gently lifting the golden light with both hands to chest height, the Shadow Puppet's shadowy hands contrasted with the brilliance they held.
The insane, predatory grin slowly vanished from its face, replaced by a solemn, thin line. Its lone eye took on a sorrowful glow as its voice whispered in a mournful tone:
"Forgive me, for in this moment, I shall sin…"
The golden light didn't respond, but the human's shadow could feel — perhaps just a hallucination from someone desperate for justification — that the glow in his hands pulsed, as if it accepted what he was about to do.
Releasing the light, which hovered motionless in the air, the Shadow Puppet extended its arms to its sides.
The first hand to move was the left.
Using the soul of Ozma, which rested on the beach house sofa, as a bridge, it grasped the memories the man was reliving and pulled them close, leaving only one thing behind…
It didn't tear them away, just brought them near and "cast" them into the air.
Images began to appear in the glowing perimeter created by the golden light. Images of a man. A king.
Wearing silver armor adorned with green and gold, the man wielded a god-forged sword, bore a crown on his head, and a sheath at his waist.
The name of this king was: [̴̣̇͝E̷͖͋̏R̷̬̟̀̃R̷͖͠O̷͕̊R̶̡͐̿!̷̩͂ͅ]̵̧̥͋̽
Faceless, the images of the king flashed rapidly.
Sometimes he led an army. Sometimes he hunted alone. Sometimes he attended feasts. Sometimes he had company… but more often than not, he was alone.
Gripping the hilt of the light with his left hand, the shadow of the human moved once more.
Then, with his right hand, the Shadow Puppet grasped the air, closing his fingers around an invisible handle. Within his grip, the image of a blacksmith's hammer began to form.
Entirely black like shadow, etched with countless symbols, markings, and red veins across its surface — all interlaced with straight golden lines — the hammer was wrapped in the purple flames of Shadowflame.
Without hesitation, he struck the light with the hammer.
The sound that followed was deafening. Even beneath kilometers of water, deep in the ocean's most profound trench, the sound echoed like a great drum or a massive church bell.
The water rippled with force, making the abyssal walls tremble and chunks of stone break away.
Behind the Shadow Puppet, the colossal corpse watched. Expressionless, the creature extended its abnormally long arms toward the edges of the golden sphere's glow.
Without daring to touch it, the eyes in its palms opened. The same neon green as the eye on its forehead, they gleamed with an utterly alien presence.
Slowly, the neon glow intensified. The green light tried — and failed — to pierce the edge of the golden sphere… until the second strike echoed.
The golden light around them rippled. Between the waves, the neon green light slowly seeped in. When the light returned to normal and the ripples ceased, the green glow was trapped within.
It resisted for only a moment before being quickly dissipated, leaving behind only a faint thread of green — and a raw sensation of fear and dread.
The green thread quickly stitched itself through the air, weaving space into an image like those of the king. But unlike them, this image was faded and aged, like a photo taken by an old camera.
It showed a boy of no more than six or seven, dark-haired and with a blurred face. The child stood amid a crowd, where every passerby stared at him with red eyes and hostile emotions: fear, anger, disdain, disgust…
When the third strike echoed, another image formed.
The boy was now lying in bed, blankets pulled over his head, while long-fingered hands crept out from beneath it.
The fourth strike brought the image of the boy tied to a table, as a monster dressed like a dentist approached.
The fifth showed the boy being rejected and humiliated by a girl he had confessed to.
The sixth showed a cross…
Strike after strike, more fears surfaced. Blurred, aged images — memories twisted by the mind of a confused and frightened child.
As the images multiplied, the sense of fear thickened in the space around them. And the warmth the light once provided dimmed, growing colder, more tense, on edge.
One more, then two, then three more strikes.
With each blow, part of the hammer cracked and was left behind in the golden light.
Sometimes it was fragments of the red symbols, marks, and veins. Other times, the straight lines — also golden, but more metallic and dense. Occasionally, even the shadow that composed the hammer crumbled into dust and embedded itself in the light like a parasite.
The only part that seemed unable to remain in the light was the Shadowflame.
After an indeterminate time, the Shadow Puppet began to murmur in a low, echoing tone:
"Forged from an extension of the world itself…"
An image appeared beside the current scene: the Shadow Puppet hammering the golden sword-shaped light.
"Stored at the planet's core…"
Another image: the golden light resting at the bottom of the abyss.
"Created to defend against the invading titan…"
An image of a moon appeared — not blood-red, but pale. Upon it stood a being strikingly similar to the colossal corpse. Even larger and whole, with the overwhelming presence of a king… a lord.
Just the false image of the Moon Lord was enough to distort the surrounding space. Neon green eyes began appearing on the walls, in the air, and on the ground.
The colossal corpse behind the Shadow Puppet gained an even more alien aura, clashing with the world around it.
"Wielded by a human to slay the titan…"
An image of the little boy walking on the beach, sword in hand, under the rain, appeared beside the others. In the ocean, the invading titan watched him — not slain, given how faint the light's image was then — but pushed far away.
With the creation of that image, the golden light grew in size and brilliance.
The golden glow burned the corpse's hands as they began to close around the Shadow Puppet. It incinerated the eyes and drove the body away, which vanished to another place in the ocean.
A recreation of what had already come to pass.
The shadow of the human continued:
"Given to a king by another extension of the world…"
This time, the image that appeared was different. Something dull and false.
One of the king's images twisted, merging with that of the boy.
With black hair, still faceless, but orange eyes, a blurred crown, and now wearing armor made from the hides of a stag, the 'king' stared at a massive eye belonging to the invading titan.
Artificially, the image of the Shadow Puppet's birth—emerging from the frame—was overlaid onto the scene that had been created.
Etching her silhouette into the scene by force, the Shadow Puppet rose from the ground, holding a sword made of light that seemed to absorb the surrounding darkness. She handed it to the 'king' to wield.
The hammering continued. Blow by blow, the Shadow Puppet shaped a recreation of a legend she knew existed—but not here, not in this world.
She inflicted an idea—not to empower the light, which had taken on shades of red and orange alongside gold—but to reinforce its image. To take the weight of legend and use it as fuel.
The birth of the Shadow Puppet had strengthened the connection between the Spiritual Realm and reality. But to bring something from within to the outside, more was required than the human currently possessed.
So, the human's shadow recreated the tale of the "Once and Future King," using the memory of "The Infinite Man" as its foundation.
Two eternal kings.
Then, the human's shadow recreated the presence of "Gaia," from the "Nameless Foreign World."
Two worlds attacked by invaders from beyond.
Then, the shadow recreated the moment when the "White Titan" was brought down by a mere human wielding the "Sword that Protects the Planet."
The titan's color was changed from white to neon green. The glory that defined the sword was replaced with despair.
The light was altered—hope fused with fear, something that should never be stained was tainted with the sins of humanity…
All for a single purpose: to recreate the Strongest Illusion in reality.
And so, the human's shadow recreated everything. An ancient story, forever etched into the "Throne of Heroes."
And in that moment, something in that world—something inside the human—changed…
[…]
Ignoring the pain coursing through his body, especially in his left eye, the human's form was nothing more than a hallucination.
Moving at high speed in erratic patterns, the surroundings were chaotic. Chunks of earth and trees floated mid-air. Some plants aged rapidly, others froze still or melted into something rotten and fleshy.
Countless eyes blinked at random from every shadow and corner—some ravenous and mad, others cruel and malevolent.
The environment bled under a crimson moonlight that clashed with the thick orange mist rewriting the world around it.
Without taking his eyes off the 'nothingness'—but aware of Proto-A's approach through his connection to Jinn—the human braced himself.
He took a deep breath and held it for a moment, as if trying to contain everything. Then, he exhaled slowly, letting go not just of his breath, but of his control over energy, vitality, and essence.
Like a dam holding back far more than it should, the human's body began to collapse.
The immense surge of vitality and abnormal mana—caused by absorbing the Life and Mana Crystals—was now demanding its price.
First came the skin, which cracked instantly. From arms to legs, torso to head, every inch split open. From the fissures, blood evaporated into a thin, hot red mist.
A dense orange glow radiated from within—an amalgam of spiritual energy, vitality, and mana.
On the human's forehead, the Demon Slayer Mark glowed even brighter, as the vitality sustaining it spread through his body and leaked outward.
Maintaining [Fission Mode] strained the body. Combined with the Demon Slayer Mark, which drained vitality to remain active? The accelerated regeneration and loss intensified the cracking of his skin.
The orange mist around him thickened, expanded, and grew warmer. It rewrote the terrain, infected the world's mana, and devoured the crimson moonlight.
And still, it paled in comparison to the radiant orange spheres that were the human's eyes.
Stowing the Ice Blade and the Relic of Destruction inside the VoidBag, the human planted his feet into the ground.
The earth cracked and melted into magma, only to solidify into black stone from the cold emanating from the shadow behind him.
Tracking the faint movement of 'nothingness' slightly to his left, the human struck with his left arm—his hand clawed, fingers like fangs, wrapped in Shadowflame.
His fingers shone with straight golden lines, symbols, marks, and crimson veins as he pushed his Semblance to its limit, ignoring the Aura drain, replenished by Shadowflame.
"Plop!"
"Craack!"
D̸̡̢̧̛̛̛̬͕͕̞̟̈́͑͝ͅȨ̷̡̢̛̛̛͉͍͍͍̓̓̉̕͝V̶̨̘̠̪̪̪̰̓̓͐̓̚͠A̴̢̧̺̙̟͈͇̓̓̽̽͠A̸̛̛͇͉̼̼͇̓̓̓A̷̧̡̬̻̼̼̓̓̓͠͝S̸̛̛̘̼̼̼̼̼̓̓̓̚͠!!!҉̡̡̢̛̛̛͇͇͇̼̼̼̓̓̓͠͠͠"
At that moment, the human's left eye exploded within its socket—from the inside out. His Aura shattered like fragile glass, and a horrifying, utterly alien scream filled the air, making his ears bleed.
Reappearing for the first time since it had been forced into transformation by the human's outburst, 'The Eye' returned.
Slightly smaller than before, its massive pupil was split down the middle, revealing a grotesque mouth—hundreds, maybe thousands, of yellowed, bone-like teeth dripping blood that fell unnaturally, like tears.
The white-gray skin of its sclera was stained by bulging veins that had burst under pressure, while its optic nerves trembled violently in spasms.
Growling as the alien shriek reverberated, 'The Eye' clamped its jaw even tighter. Its teeth sank into the human's left arm and shoulder, which he used to hold the creature, gripping the edge of its 'jaw'.
The human's armor held for a moment before being pierced, but it continued to emit frost that froze some of the invading teeth.
Still resisting, his skin released heat and vitality, clashing against the creature's fangs. The mist of blood rising from his skin merged with the blood dripping from The Eye's mouth, bubbling upward until it met the creature's raw flesh.
Inside the mouth, the human's clawed hand trembled with spasms. The skin on his fingers melted and regenerated in a cycle; the bones cracked, while the energy within was devoured by the mouth around them.
That mouth was not just a mouth—it was a void, a nothingness, the darkness of a Starless Sky that consumed all.
…And yet, the human's hand and arm endured.
Shadowflame tentacles collided with the flesh around them, burning the inside of the mouth at an absurd temperature. Everything in that creature was sinful to the flame—an invader, an enemy, something meant to burn.
Shadows surged from the Remnant of The Deerclops like a swarm. Eyes blinked all around. The frost remembered—it would not be forgotten. Vengeance was deserved.
In grayscale, the [Mystery Devourer] clashed with the very concept of consumption, resisting it from within the mouth.
In unnaturally straight golden lines, the [Divine Anathema] withstood the strange energy and divine aura of the creature.
In shades of orange and red, the [Echo Humanitatis] refused to yield—to be dragged into a stagnant void where its humanity could no longer grow.
Gazing directly into 'The Eye's' split pupil with his right eye glowing orange, the human's pupil cracked too, the orange spilling into the sclera.
Without blinking, without yielding, his right eye was not taken by force.
Slowly, the soft smile at the corner of his lips twisted into something more mocking, more insane, as the Shadow Puppet's markings formed across his body.
His voice echoed like a decree for all to hear:
[…]
"I shall bring an end to this bloodstained night..."
"I shall bring an end to this nightmare..."
As soon as the human's voice rang out, Jinn was the first to move. Floating in midair, the mana around her glowed in deep, dark shades of blue.
The chains around her wrists grew longer; others formed around her ankles, and one, connected to her nape through the metal around her neck, dropped—its golden shine contrasting against the cascade of black hair.
Placing a hand on Jinn's shoulder, Ozma used the bond the woman shared with the human to draw out as much mana as she could from the soul resting inside the Spiritual Realm.
The palm-shaped mark with an orange eye on Jinn's thigh released tendrils that spread across her skin. Dark circles deepened under her eyes, and red veins crept into the whites.
Her voice emerged as a whisper:
"Bind him... just as I've been bound all this time..."
Letting her arms fall back and head tilt upward, the golden chains around Jinn's wrists, ankles, and neck sank into her shadow.
Using the Spiritual Realm as a passageway, the chains reemerged from within the human's shadow.
Sensing something off, 'The Eye' tried to dodge—vanish and return to its place. It loosened its grip on the human's arm, but it was too late.
The orange mist around it clung like glue, drastically slowing its movements. The human's clawed hand clamped down inside its mouth, locking it in place.
With 'The Eye' pinned, the golden chains shot forward and, curving midair, pierced its body from every direction.
At the same time, Dylan, inside the armor, began to move.
Slowly, he placed a silver-gold arrow onto the metallic string of his bow. The arrow, crafted from the feather of a ten-winged angel, was over two meters long and thick as a grown man's wrist.
Taking a deep breath and mimicking the way the human breathed, Dylan energized the entire suit. His own mana would've run out before powering even half of it, but the hundreds of Mana Stones in the armor's reservoirs acted like batteries.
His eyes glowing blue, the second person he emulated was his sister, Melissa. His innate magic reached for her "book" in his mental "library."
His mana control became razor-sharp, refined like never before—almost, if not absolutely, perfect.
The third person he mimicked was his mother, Helena. With her "book" retrieved, Dylan pulled down the armor's mask.
Attached to it, a tube poured a glowing blue liquid into his mouth: crushed Mana Stones mixed with Mana Potions, given to the guide by the human.
Swallowing the concoction, Dylan felt his body crack under the immense flood of mana. Controlling the flow using the human's breathing and Melissa's precise handling, hundreds of Mystic Symbols bloomed around him.
Manually arranging them, Dylan combined the symbols into intricate arrays circling his armor. Two of them stabilized directly in front of him.
Drawing the bowstring—groaning under the force, a strength he wouldn't possess without the armor—Dylan took a second breath and waited for the princess's word.
Behind him, Charlotte watched. She didn't fully understand how Dylan's Semblance worked, but she knew it involved commands.
She opened her mouth to say, "Kill him," but the words wouldn't come. Not enough Aura, not enough strength—she just knew.
So she used the next best word:
"Restrain him!"
The moment the sound left her lips, her pink Aura shattered. Blood streamed from her nose, eyes, and ears as she collapsed unconscious.
Dylan paid her no mind—he knew Ozma would catch her. He felt the princess's order take hold. A pink light wrapped around him, then transferred to the readied arrow.
Tilting the aim slightly to the left, toward where he sensed the human—where 'The Eye' had been before it was consumed—he released the string.
There was no sonic boom. The air rippled as the arrow was launched, like a stone dropped into a still lake—and vanished.
It reappeared just centimeters from 'The Eye's' body, pierced through with ease, exited the other side, and embedded itself deep into the black stone floor, nailing the creature to the ground.
Sealing the feeding tube, Dylan coughed blood. His vision dimmed, his entire body screaming in pain, yet he nocked another arrow—ready to shoot again, if needed.
[…]
"You, invader from beyond..."
"Eye of the Moon that threatens this planet..."
The words left the human's lips instinctively. Shaped by what he knew needed to be said in that moment, guided by the light beginning to rise from the Spiritual Realm.
It took form slowly, its hilt gripped tightly. Two hands were needed to wield the sword at its peak—one was human, the other, his shadow.
"Look closely—
and witness the weight of fear that saved the final flame!"
Struggling against all its restraints to no avail, 'The Eye' could only watch as the golden light slowly molded in the human's hand.
From the light emerged a long blade, elegant in shape but veined with glowing cracks running through its core like exposed arteries. Its edge pulsed in red and black, like magma trapped beneath a fragile golden crust.
The crossguard was adorned in tarnished gold, and at its center burned a core of deep red, pulsing orange—like an eye engulfed in fire.
The grip, wrapped in dark leather, seemed to consume the shadows around it—an anchor for a weapon that should not exist.
Its oppressive presence lit up the world…
[…]
"This is not the light of salvation..."
Exhausted, Gilbert moved toward Simon, whose chest was torn open, his single eye lodged there as blood poured from his ribs.
Robyn ignored the wounds across her body, her fur soaked in blood, and leapt at the Blood Squid charging her.
Selina, with a broken right arm, pulled it up, bit down on the exosuit's metal, and activated the flamethrower arrays, incinerating the second Blood Squid and the demon eyes above.
Cold, determined, desperate...
Just a little longer... Just a little more...
[…]
"It is the flare of a world that refuses to die!"
In the throne room, Alalia, seated within the lotus flower, slowly opened her eyes. Her trembling hands had gone still.
I've survived before... and this is the one part of the story that will repeat!
The rain of green leaves expanded, covering more ground, burning and purifying zombies, monsters—healing all allies it touched.
The plants bathed in the light, drank it in...
Just one more moment...
[…]
All across the kingdom, on every battlefield, nearly everyone could see the overwhelming glow—tainted gold, red, and orange.
It didn't inspire hope. It stirred something colder, crueler—something that made their bodies move.
The wounded rose. Soldiers buried in corpses forced themselves to fight. The fatally injured pushed through, drawing strength from nowhere.
They fought with desperate fury to survive. Fear drove them toward the end of that blood-soaked night.
None of them noticed the False Sun had vanished—because something brighter had taken its place...
Just one more second...
[…]
Two hands tightened around the hilt of the sword.
The human's—skin cracked and glowing like magma coursed through his veins—gripped near the guard.
The human's shadow—its skin black and leaking frost—clutched near the pommel.
Lifting the sword high overhead, the blade's glow intensified. All surrounding shadows vanished—devoured, consumed.
The crimson moonlight was extinguished. The eyes created by 'The Eye' crumbled to dust.
With his throat ablaze, life leaking from his body, his very heat searing the battlefield, the human's voice tore out—hoarse, burning, a declaration.
The sword had chosen its name… and the human brought it down.
"Then burn—burn with the sins of humanity!"
"Excalibur Asura!!"
The blade struck 'The Eye'.
The air bubbled around it; the fabric of space itself split and melted. It sliced cleanly through the creature, from end to end. From the tip, a beam of light fired upward, forming a pillar that pierced the sky.
All the demon eyes were blinded before being incinerated. Heat swept across the battlefield, and every cloud vanished in an instant. The bloodied water turned clear once more.
The light engulfed the soldiers, burned the monsters, consumed their sins, and set their souls free.
There was no final scream, no last stand, no final struggle.
Just a name called and a single blow—and the battle ended.
'The Eye'. still looked alive: unmoving, chained in place, impaled by the arrow, held still by the hand inside its mouth.
But the message before the human's eyes didn't lie:
[Eye of Ċ͂ͧ҉̭̦̱̠̲ţ̠̖̪̻̮̟̅̋h̟̺͕̼͙̟͚͙ͧ̓͞u̢̹̼̫͇͌͆ͅļ͇͖͋͊ͩh̜̠̲̒̑̆͠u̙̫̣̭̠̦̞ͥ̋͊̕ͅ ̢̝͖̤̳͍̈́̒͐ has been defeated!]
Reading it, a low chuckle escaped the human's lips. It wasn't mad, nor unhinged—something almost childlike. A faint smile returned to the corner of his mouth. His expression was oddly peaceful.
For the first time since arriving in Terraria, the human looked up at the moon of this world.
It glowed in soft shades of crimson—dull hues.
Its random craters seemed to watch him. The crimson began to fade, from top to bottom and bottom to top, giving way to pale white.
Bleeding, with a calm gaze and faint smile, the human looked at the moon and said:
"Let it be remembered, then..." — his voice soft, serene, for himself and those who witnessed. "Let this night be remembered as..."
"The Night that... God Blinked."
[...]---[...]
First of all, the Excalibur Asura already has an illustration ready. I just didn't include it with the chapter because I don't know how to add a spoiler tag—if that's even a thing. I'll post it tomorrow so people have time to read before seeing it.
Now, as for what happened: a lot, honestly.
I had to stay at my mom's house to take care of her. The dog's death really hit her hard. She was in terrible shape and had to stay in the hospital for a few days. I didn't even have time to stop by my place. On top of that, I ran into problems at work with a crappy department manager.
We ended up arguing, and I just decided to quit. I've already found another job—I'd been thinking about leaving for a while anyway. A friend referred me to a better position. Same role, but better pay and a work environment that's a thousand times less toxic.
Meanwhile, my work laptop broke down. That was part of why I got into trouble at my job—I ended up delaying a project by about a day. It was a relatively simple issue: the charging port was loose and the laptop wouldn't charge at all.
I lost some money getting it fixed, but it's all sorted now.
Other than that, I think that's pretty much it. My mom's doing better, and the new puppy I got her is absolutely adorable—they've bonded really well.
I'd like to say when I'll post the next chapter or promise I'll speed up the releases, but I'm going to hold off on that. Every time I say something like that, something goes wrong. It's like misfortune reads what I write.
So, I'll just post things without warning. That's worked better, and I've managed to keep a more consistent schedule than when I used to make announcements.
Now, about the chapter itself: I really enjoyed writing it, and I'm glad to be back at it.
I've been wanting to play this "trump card" from the Devas for a while now, and this felt like the perfect moment. Don't worry—I haven't forgotten about Team Pebble, or Melissa and Darnell. They should show up in the next chapter or the one after that, since I'm planning an interlude from the cultists' side to explain a few things.
The conclusion to the battles will also come in the next few chapters.
Here's a rough outline of what's ahead:
Next chapter (1): Interlude
Next chapter (2): Regular chapter / stream reaction
Next chapter (3): Regular chapter / post-battle
Next chapter (4): Journey to another world! (Amalgama World)
Next chapter (5): Amalgama World
There are some great characters I want to explore there. Some will be just for comedy/slice of life, others for action. I'll speed through a few of the worlds—no need to worry.
Finally, wishing everyone a great Day and a good read!