The Night that (13): The Moon Bled.
Sorry for the delay. I had to rewrite the last POV from the (P)(A)(T) chapter at least three times, but I think it turned out well.
I won’t take up too much space here. If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer. Also, sorry for not replying to the comments yesterday.
If you’d like to read 3 out of 7 chapters or just support me, that’s possible through my (P)(A)(T). If not, I still really appreciate you reading. Thank you so much!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori
As always, have a great Blood Moon and happy reading!
[...]---[...]
POV: Devas Asura.
One day and a few hours—that’s how long it took me to finally leave Shahrabad.
Or almost. I was still in the city, at one of the exit gates leading to the chains. Waiting for the four from Team Pebble…
Ignoring the chaos I had caused—both with the rain that purified everyone, even if it sparked panic, and the deaths caused by Tyrian, which were far more numerous than I had expected. I knew the government of this city was rotten, but two-thirds of it, including the governor-general?...
“Charlotte and Helena said I could act as I pleased, didn’t they?… Let them deal with this shit later, then…” I muttered to myself, recalling the words Jinn had relayed from the Duchess and the Princess.
I had performed a ‘general cleansing’ of the city. I collected every last drop of branded ink I could find and screened the residents to ensure no one was still infected with the ‘parasite.’
Curiously, and probably thanks to the way the Purification Powder worked, the population wasn’t in complete turmoil.
They were still unsettled—seeing rain appear out of nowhere in the middle of the desert was strange; watching everyone who touched that rain start vomiting blood was more than alarming. But all of that, combined with shadowy creatures emerging from nothing and dragging people into the rain itself? That should have been terrifying for everyone.
Yet, just a few hours later, after my Nightmares had vanished and I forced the rain clouds above Shahrabad to disperse, most of the people were already back to normal.
Of course, there was still a subtle tension lingering throughout the city. A residual fear here and there, but far less than I expected. Not that I was complaining—if it made my life easier, it was welcome.
I had also used that time to check the Emergency Mission. It had been completed at some point between me tossing the Antlion Queen’s soul into the spider egg I had kept and purifying the soul of the baby god she carried…
…Just remembering that thing stressed me out.
Honestly, the entire situation was exhausting. But the worst part was how familiar it all felt. Frankly, I was surprised at how smoothly everything had gone.
Nothing exploded, no one who didn’t deserve to die had died, Shahrabad hadn’t fallen from the sky. And I had really expected at least one of those things to happen. Overall, everything turned out fine…
The fact that I now had one egg containing a baby god and another holding the Antlion Queen’s soul was something I was kind of ignoring for now. Same for some of the (CHAT) questions.
-//-
[Emergency Mission (Worldwide) - (Chain Mission - Parallel)]
Mission Name: Shahrabad isn’t as prosperous as it seems...
Description: Heat has never been the deadliest thing in the desert; its creatures have always held that title. The sands have always been stained red, but never before have they reeked of decay as much as now...
Shahrabad has always been the haven amidst the sea of yellow grains, a floating fortress never shaken, a bastion amid the sands, whose fall was once unimaginable… But what happens when those seeking to bring down this paradise are far more cunning than the beasts lurking beneath the surface?
… But what if the threat comes from within?
Description (New!):The corruption within Shahrabad’s high ranks has gone unnoticed for too long. Almost long enough to cause something irreversible, leading to a situation that could only be described as apocalyptic.
The Ichor Ink on the skin of the city's inhabitants harbors something malevolent. The anthill beneath the city will give birth to something even worse.
Prevent the Flesh Seed from sprouting. Stop the birth of the "Rot World Tree (Crimson)."
Objective: Uncover what’s happening in the desert. Prevent the fall of Shahrabad. (Complete!)
Reward: Life Crystal (5), Mana Crystal (5), 50,000,000 SP, Extractinator, Healing Potion (10), Mana Potion (5).
[..]
Secondary Objective (1):Prevent the birth and creation of the Rot World Tree (Crimson). (Top priority!)Reward: Desert Spirit Lamp (Empty), Broken Hero Sword (Complete!)
Secondary Objective (2):Find a way to purge the “Nine-Pointed Crown Mark” from Shahrabad’s inhabitants.
[Destroying is much easier than healing…]Reward: Moon Mask. (Failed!)
[Healing is much harder than destroying…]Reward: Sun Mask. (Complete!)
Secondary Objective (3):Heal Ísis, Maribel, Ahinadab, and Beldin before the activation of the “Nine-Pointed Crown Mark.”
[Four bodies. Mission complete…]Reward: Sandstorm in a Bottle (Failed!)
[Four allies. Mission complete…]Reward: Dye Vat, Bubble Machine, Thief's Dime, Bomb Recipe (Random) (Complete!)
Secondary Objective (4):Stop the Antlion Queen. Her ants have already caused too much destruction…
[One less monster… It makes no difference…]Reward: Bast Statue (Failed!)
[One less Queen… It makes no difference…] (Increased difficulty!)Reward: Ancient Chisel (Complete!)
Secondary Objective (5):Does something that hasn't even been born yet deserve to pay for sins that aren’t its own, for something it hasn't done?…
[Hypocrite, human. The difference between these two words is sometimes lost…]Reward: Trifold Map, Life Crystal (3), Mana Crystal (3) (Failed!)
[No] (Extreme Difficulty!)Reward: Nameless Crown. (Complete!)
Secondary Objective (6):Destroy the Pseudo Crimson Biome (Fake!)!Reward: Crimson Flask (Complete!)
Secondary Objective (7):Kill the Antlions that plague the desert!
[Calculating reward based on kills!]Number of kills: 1,714,784!
Reward: Desert Key, Flying Carpet, Dunerider Boots (Max reward!)(Complete!)
Secondary Objective (8):Ensure the traitors do not go unpunished!Reward: 1,000,000 SP!, 1,000 Royal Gold Coins
Secondary Objective (9):??? (Failed!)Reward: ??? (Failed!)
Note: The Antlion Queen sleeps beside her child.
-//-
My eyes quickly scanned the screen displaying the mission details. I completely ignored the rewards I hadn’t received. Every reward was tied to paths I had chosen—the failures didn’t matter.
Instinctively, I first searched for the reward related to the thing inside the Antlion Queen: the baby god.
“Nameless Crown…” I muttered.
I had really expected something with nine points. This city had some kind of obsession with the number nine. Nine-pointed crown. Nine chains. Even the Antlion Queen had them—both the crown and the chains.
The crown didn’t even look like a crown. It was just a rusted bronze-colored metal band with a vague description: “Its name comes from its purpose. When named, it will change to suit its bearer.”
The bearer, in this case, was me. The crown had bound itself to me before I even touched it. Its rarity was also the same as the Mini-Pylon: Orange-Devas. I stored the item in the VoidBag and resumed reading.
Crystals—both life and mana—were always welcome. Just like the SP. Fifty-one million was a massive amount that I would never turn down.
I had also received an abnormal amount of ‘machines’: Extractinator, Dye Vat, and Bubble Machine. All relatively useful, but the one I liked the most was the Dye Vat. The machine helped with dye production. It wouldn’t work for more specialized dyes, which I would still need to make manually, but it was useful for industrializing some things.
I had wanted to create something like this for a while but never had the chance. I’ll study how this machine works and then make copies of it.
As for the Extractinator and Bubble Machine, they weren’t bad either. The first lived up to its name: extraction. More specifically, it extracted parts of stones, ores, minerals, and other materials, separating them.
The Bubble Machine, on the other hand, transformed liquids and semi-liquids into bubbles. It sounded useless, but depending on the material, it could be quite handy.
The reward for curing Maribel and Beldin, since two of the three machines were from Anihadab and Isis, wasn’t bad either.
Beldin’s reward: Bomb Recipe (Random), ended up giving me the recipe for a Dry Bomb. A bomb that exploded and absorbed a specific type of liquid. Not all that useful, since the VoidBag did something similar, but I saw potential in it—especially if I could specify which liquid the bomb should absorb.
Curing Maribel, however, gave me the strangest reward, at least among the four: Thief’s Dime.
It was… well, a thief coin.
-//-
[Thief's Dime]
Type: Accessory/PetRarity: PinkPrefix: Goldie
Damage: 1Knockback: 1Durability: 30,000
Ability (1): Can float around its bearer, emitting a faint light that slightly illuminates the surroundings.
Ability (2): Has a subspace with a capacity of 100 cubic meters.
Ability - Goldie: Randomly steals money and valuable objects within a radius of up to 100 meters from its bearer. Goldie stores and accumulates all the stolen money inside its subspace.
Description: A semi-sentient coin that seeks money and valuable objects for itself. Goldie must be bound to a bearer to move, but it will never bring any money to them, keeping everything for itself out of sheer greed.
Goldie will also steal from its own bearer if they’re not paying attention.
[...]
~ Heads or tails?… You blinked, your money’s gone! ~
-//-
The moment I picked up the coin between my fingers, it trembled for a brief second before beginning to float around me, as a ‘link’ formed between us. The mana consumption was so insignificant that it was barely even noticeable.
It didn’t emit any glow, but it was daytime—maybe that was why.
The coin, Goldie—since that was probably its name—floated lazily around me. It didn’t speak, but I could sense faint emotions emanating from it: greed, hunger, curiosity, and laziness.
(“It’s basically a cat?”) Ozma’s voice echoed.
“I got that impression too,” I agreed. Blake and Kali seemed pleased in the (CHAT).
I pulled a gold coin out of the VoidBag. I could immediately feel Goldie go on alert, but it didn’t do anything. When I offered the gold coin to the little thing, the brass coin collided with my hand, "swallowing" the gold coin into its subspace.
“You and Lucy are going to get along just fine, aren’t you?…” I poked the thing in the air with my finger, and it seemed quite satisfied with my ‘tribute.’
The next reward I received was the Crimson Flask. I was expecting something rotten and disgusting, but I was actually surprised. The Crimson Flask was a liquid, basically the same color as potions, a bright red.
It came in an ornate flask, large at the base with a narrow mouth. The cap was made of ruby, and the glass had two handles shaped like angel wings. It was warm to the touch.
It was basically the same as the Bezoar, except instead of increasing my resistance to poison, it boosted my resistance to Crimson infection and mutation. It also slightly enhanced my natural regeneration and resilience, fortifying my skin, bones, muscles, and everything else.
Surprisingly, not all the materials came from the Crimson. Only three: Blood Orange, Rambutan, and Vicious Mushroom—three plants found on the outskirts of the Crimson, where the "cancer" wasn’t as strong. The rest of the ingredients were more common, things I could find relatively easily.
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]Are you seriously gonna drink that crap? Dude, we just got out of a grotesque, fleshy cave a few days ago. Anything related to Crimson is nasty as hell. Why not just toss it?(Iron Man emoji with a green face)
The message came out of a sandstorm, which disappeared moments later.
Stark wasn’t the only one who thought that. Pretty much everyone in (CHAT) did—myself included, honestly.
“I kinda don’t want to either…”
(“But you’re going to.”)
“…It’s better to drink this now than turn into a meatball later.” I sighed, staring at the red liquid for another moment.
After hesitating for about ten seconds, I popped the cap off the Crimson Flask. The liquid didn’t smell like blood, rot, or flesh—nothing that reminded me of the Crimson. In fact, it smelled like wild berries.
Before I could decide this was a terrible idea, I brought the flask to my lips and drank the red liquid in one go.
It felt like thick strawberry syrup. The taste wasn’t bad, but knowing I was drinking something made with ingredients from that miserable place didn’t help at all.
Once I finished, I tossed the empty flask into the VoidBag.
“Well, at least I got another recipe.” I licked my teeth unconsciously.
If I had the chance, I’d recreate the Crimson Flask and distribute it to everyone I knew in Terraria.
I also hesitated to drink it because I thought maybe it would be better to save it for someone else. Maybe split the liquid among multiple people instead of just me. But that thought didn’t last long.
I was the one constantly exposed to all the crap this world had to offer. If I ended up getting thrown into the Crimson out of nowhere, it wouldn’t be surprising. Better to have some extra resistance. I’d probably run into that damned brain at some point too—any help would be welcome.
After drinking a few sips of water, just to ease my own mind, I went back to reading.
The Ancient Chisel and the Sun Mask were two items I wasn’t sure what to expect from. In the end, one was good, and the other was useless.
The Ancient Chisel was designed for carving Runes, used by an ancient civilization that lived in the desert, probably during Alalia’s time. I had my own chisel, but this one seemed much better, made with materials specifically attuned to mana resonance with Runes.
Like everything else, I’d copy it and make more later.
The Sun Mask, on the other hand, was an orange-gold mask shaped like the sun, complete with rays and all. It had two eye holes but none for the mouth or nose. It once belonged to a priest of Millia’s aunt—the Empress of Light. It had also been blessed by the Fae herself, though to a lesser degree.
The mask basically enhanced multiple attributes of whoever wore it—but only during the day: strength, agility, endurance, regeneration, mana regeneration, and more. It also granted resistance against mental corruption, helped against evil beings and spirits, and provided goodwill with spirits and light-aligned beings. With the Fae as well, by the way.
Useful. Very, actually. The only problem was that, for all of this to work, the user needed to have a blessing from the Empress of Light herself—something I didn’t have.
“I’ll give it to Millia later. Maybe she inherited something from Pink when she assimilated it.” I tossed the mask into the VoidBag as I spoke.
The little slime still hadn’t woken up. Jinn kept me updated. I was worried, I won’t lie, even though I knew it was probably nothing. The only reason I hadn’t done anything drastic was because I doubted the Slime Staff would hurt her, and if she hadn’t come out yet, she must have had a good reason…
Pushing those thoughts aside, I went back to my rewards. The Desert Key, Flying Carpet, and Dunerider Boots were next.
The key was the same as the Frozen Key—the only difference was that, for the latter, I only had the mold. I tossed it into the VoidBag until I found the chest it belonged to.
The Flying Carpet was the best of the three rewards. The Dunerider Boots were good—a slightly downgraded version of my Angels Greaves, though they matched or even outperformed my creation when in the desert—but the carpet? Now that was cool.
Who cares if the thing flew infinitely slower than I could run through the air? It was a flying carpet, and I had a Djinn—Jinn… Only one thing was missing…
“I need to find a monkey…” I absolutely needed one!
[(MOD)JinnOfTheLamp]And the princess? Should I let Charlotte know you’re planning a kidnapping?(Chibi Jinn emoji popping out of a magic lamp)
Just like the emote, the message appeared from a magic lamp.
“I’ll stick with just the monkey, thank you very much,” I replied.
Of all the pink-haired women I had met, the least problematic was Annabell. And she was terrified of my presence.
Isis did cocaine—nothing she said could convince me otherwise. Saya was a tsundere. Charlotte, a princess who would probably bring me a lot of trouble with the nobility. I was already expecting some bastard to bring up the topic of an arranged marriage sooner or later.
And Neo was just Neo.
Two more messages appeared from within a magic lamp.
[(MOD)JinnOfTheLamp]Swapped for a monkey. I don't think the princess would be happy about that.
[(MOD)JinnOfTheLamp]But, changing the subject—when are you coming back to the kingdom? Things are getting weird here. The cure we found has improved, but the storm is becoming more chaotic, and many residents are starting to panic. If it weren’t for Alalia, people would have already started killing each other.
“I’ll be back in a little over two, maybe three hours. I’m just waiting for Team Pebble to show up, then I’ll head over.” I replied, looking into the distance, where I knew the storm was raging. “How’s the Proto-A?”
[(MOD)JinnOfTheLamp]Functional. Not ready, but the main defenses and artillery are operational.(Emote of a chibi Jinn in a spaceship)
“Focus on the ship’s defenses. The barriers.” Protection was always better, especially in this case.
After that last message, Jinn said her goodbyes to finish things on her end. I went back to checking my latest rewards. My gaze lingered for a moment on the last secondary objective.
The stream hadn't given any information. Just that I had failed… something felt off, but at this point, this entire planet was drowning in shit, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.
The last two rewards were the Desert Spirit Lamp (Empty) and the Broken Hero Sword.
The first was basically a lamp meant to trap a spirit. It was empty but had enough runes for me to know it was designed to contain a strong one.
After studying the runes for a moment, I tossed the lamp into the VoidBag and picked up the broken sword. It was brown, rust-colored, chipped all over, and snapped in half.
Useless for now—just a material, something ancient from a time long, long past. Not even an echo of its power remained. But I knew what this thing was capable of, what I could create with it…
“I’ll have to come up with something…” I muttered, staring at the broken sword for a moment before tossing it into the VoidBag.
I couldn’t create the TerraBlade, after all…
[…]
I waited about twenty more minutes before Team Pebble arrived. Goldie managed to rob around fifteen people in the meantime—just money, which I made sure to return using the VoidBag. Out of my own pocket, I let the coin keep what it stole.
Goldie was fast when it wanted to be—no one even noticed the missing money.
“Sorry for the delay. We had to organize a few things.” Anihadab was the first to speak.
I could sense hesitation and slight fear from him and Maribel—something Beldin and Isis didn’t share.
All four of them wore armor. Maribel, Isis, and Anihadab had leather and cloth armor, with Isis having some metal parts. Beldin was the only one in full plate armor.
“You decided to accept the contract?” I asked rhetorically. “I did say it was dangerous, didn’t I?”
“And that almost made us back out. If a monster like you says it’s dangerous, then shit, we’re fucked. But the pay is good.” Beldin spat on the ground beside him. “Not gonna say no to a good fight either.”
“You did. But it’s a personal request from the princess—we couldn’t refuse!” Isis grinned excitedly. She wasn’t wearing a helmet, her pink hair contrasting well with the armor.
Charlotte was beloved by the people, wasn’t she?
The princess had asked me to hire Team Pebble in the name of the Crown after I assured her they were strong and could be considered reliable.
I asked if she wanted me to recruit more people from Shahrabad, but she refused, saying she preferred quality over quantity and that organizing too many contractors from Shahrabad would be too much trouble and take too much time—something they didn’t have.
I disagreed slightly, but since she was the one paying, I didn’t push it. Either way, I had my army.
Funny. I guess creating a storm that covered the entire city and showing off my Nightmares was enough for them to not even consider the possibility that I might be deceiving them. That, or maybe it was the fire hurricane…
“And the money is good. Very good.” Beldin repeated. The dwarf had a slightly crooked grin. “Fuck, it’s enough for us to almost retire. Not that I’d do that shit. But I do need to upgrade some gear.”
“You were excited to go to the kingdom too,” Maribel pointed out. Her muscles tensed when my gaze landed on her. “Something to say?”
“I want to find a dwarf woman. Fuck, you know? Sex?” The dwarf didn’t hold back his words. No one present blushed or looked embarrassed. “The number of dwarf women in Shahrabad is tiny. And almost all of them are already married or taken.”
“I know some people who’d say that doesn’t matter,” Isis sang, her gaze wandering.
“Look at me and I’ll rip those eyes out.” Maribel drew her dagger and pointed it at the pink-haired woman.
“No fighting in front of our employer. I already said that.” Anihadab stepped in before anything could start.
“I’m not your employer. Charlotte is.” I pointed out.
“He calls the princess by her name…” I heard Isis murmur to Maribel.
“But in her absence, you were the one who made the request.” The leader of Team Pebble said, his gaze lingering for a moment on my back.
“You know, I was kind of ignoring it, but what are those things?” Isis stopped gossiping with Maribel and stepped in front of me.
She pointed three times—twice at my back and once beside my ear. At the baby god’s egg, the Antlion Queen’s egg, and Goldie, respectively.
The baby god’s egg and the Antlion Queen’s egg were being held by the black hands of the Bone Helm, strapped to my waist. Goldie, the coin, was floating on its own.
“The eggs are too much of a hassle to explain. Ignore them—I’ll leave them with someone else once we reach the kingdom.” By someone else, I meant Alalia.
Fuck it, the baby god had an aura too similar to the dryad’s. Not to mention, it was literally a baby god. Too much trouble for me to deal with. As for the Antlion Queen—it’d be cruel to separate the mother from her child after all the effort I went through, so I’d dump her on Alalia too.
“And the coin is Goldie. He, she—I don’t actually know—is a thief. Watch your pockets.” I warned.
“A thief?” Isis blinked before tapping twice on her right bracelet, making a silver coin appear in her hand.
She held it up in front of Goldie, who simply spun at ear level, unmoving.
“The coin is really a thief?” Isis asked.
“The little thing won’t steal if you’re watching.”
Before I even finished speaking, she had already closed her eyes. In a second, Goldie vanished from my right shoulder, flew to Isis’s hand, stole the coin, and returned before she could open her eyes.
Isis opened her eyes and stared at Goldie, glancing between the coin and her empty hand before turning to Maribel, who watched everything with interest—and, I’d say, envy.
The pink-haired woman blinked, staring at Goldie, then turned to Maribel.
“Found your kid, Mari!”
After about five more minutes of conversation, we left the city. We didn’t climb down the chains—we just went to the city’s edge and jumped over the wall separating safety from the drop.
“You didn’t forget anything? What about your animals?” I asked.
“We left our ostriches with an acquaintance,” Anihadab explained briefly. “We don’t have any others. We’re ready.”
With that said, I pulled the flying carpet out of the VoidBag. It was red, with golden details and tassels at the ends. It was covered in runes, both stitched and painted onto the fabric.
I didn’t need much to figure out how it worked and tossed it into the air, where it floated lazily.
“How much for the carpet?” Surprisingly, it was Isis who asked.
“It’s not for sale.”
“I can offer you Mari—” Maribel slapped a hand over her friend’s mouth.
“It’s not for sale.” I repeated.
Isis deflated at my second refusal. Maribel looked offended, since Isis had clearly offered her, and I didn’t even hesitate.
Once everyone was on the carpet—with Beldin clutching the fabric uncomfortably—I channeled my mana. A second later, we shot into the air, with the screams of three people echoing in the wind: Isis, Maribel, and Beldin.
Neither I nor Anihadab had screamed. But our reactions were different—I had a big smile on my face, while the leader of Team Pebble had a serene expression, simply looking around.
"Uhuuuuuu!" Isis’s scream was one of excitement.
"Aaaaaaaah!" Maribel’s scream was of fright.
"FUCKING HELL!" Beldin’s was pure fear.
"Afraid of heights?" I asked.
"I don’t have wings, fuck it! I’m not made to fly!"
A solid argument.
Isis poked him in the side. "Scaredy-cat~" Then she stood up. Maribel tried to pull her back down but stopped when she realized that even Isis’s pink hair wasn’t moving.
"What…?"
"The carpet has protection." I pointed around and made the barrier visible. "You’ll only fall if you jump out. Other than that, it’s safer than anything you’ve ever ridden before."
While the four of them did their own things, I shaped my mana around the carpet and created a wind barrier. Then I spun it behind us, forming a propulsion system with Shadowflame while creating a cone in front.
Our speed doubled—if not tripled. The only reason the sonic boom didn’t happen was that it got consumed by the Shadowflame.
Within minutes, we were at the outer edge of the storm. I covered the entire exterior with Shadowflame and the interior with my mana, nightmare energy, and spiritual energy. I made sure to reinforce the protection around the two eggs, completely enclosing them with the hands of the Bone Helm, which were now filled with eyes.
Before anyone could ask why I had done that, we entered the storm. All of them froze as the sensation of being watched fell upon us.
"...What is this…?" Isis whispered in an extremely low voice.
"Nothing. Something miserable that I’ll kill as soon as it appears. Ignore it." I waved my hand and scattered Purification Powder inside all three barriers I had created. "Let me know if you feel anything uncomfortable."
"Besides the creepy staring?" Anihadab was the one to speak this time.
His voice was tense, but he seemed to be trying to stay calm.
"Besides that. The rain shouldn’t affect you—I made sure of it—but just in case, don’t try anything stupid like sticking your hand outside the barriers."
("The gaze is getting sharper.") Ozma’s voice echoed in my mind, the mental microphone icon active.
("I noticed that too. And that’s with the barriers in place. This thing is either more active or stronger. Maybe both.") My gaze shifted to the two eggs.
They were normal. The soul of the Antlion Queen was still inert, basically asleep, while the godly infant was in a similar state. The thing was semi-conscious but didn’t seem affected by the storm.
The rest of the trip passed in silence. The four of them were tense, with only a few rare murmured conversations here and there. It took us a little over two hours to reach the kingdom.
[...]
"Ground… sweet, sweet ground…" Beldin collapsed onto the grass the moment we landed in my clearing.
The other three stepped off the carpet more cautiously, their eyes wide as they stared at the Proto-A.
"It’s my ship. I’ll explain later," I said briefly, starting to walk.
Before I could even take a step, Alalia appeared beside me. I hadn’t sensed her move.
It wasn’t speed—I’d call it teleportation, but it felt different. As if the world itself allowed her passage through space. One moment she was far away, in the underground cabin, and the next, she was right beside me.
Instinctively, I used Shadowflame to obscure us from Team Pebble’s view. Alalia seemed disturbed by something, and I didn’t want her authority to take effect just because the dryad had lost her composure and forgotten how she affected people.
She was wearing "winter" as her clothing, but it quickly shifted to "summer," then "spring," and what I assumed was "autumn." The transformations flickered rapidly, repeatedly, for about ten seconds.
Then she stopped. She returned to wearing "winter" and turned to face me. Even with what she herself had called a transformation that helped her think clearly, her expression remained mostly neutral—but she looked on the verge of tears.
Her lips trembled, her eyes were wet, and she barely seemed able to hold herself together. Her gaze flickered rapidly, shifting between the godly infant’s egg and me.
Then, she jumped forward and hugged me.
It was slow—I could have reacted and moved away this time, but I didn’t. She looked distressed, so I let her hold onto me as she murmured, "Thank you, thank you, thank you…" over and over.
After about a minute, she calmed down enough to explain. Alalia took a step back, pointed at the crystalline blue egg, and said:
"It’s a dryad. I don’t know why it has divinity, but it’s definitely a dryad… I’m not… I’m not…" She sniffled again, her words coming out shaky, and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
Then, she smiled. And with absolute certainty, I can say it was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen in my life—overflowing with joy, happiness, relief, and countless other emotions I couldn’t even begin to decipher.
"I’m not the last anymore… I’m not alone anymore…"
Then she hugged me again and broke into tears, her happiness completely undeniable this time.
[...]
After calming Alalia down, she realized I had company and apologized for the outburst. She shifted into her wooden doll form but didn’t stop clinging to me.
She jumped onto my head and grabbed the godly infant’s egg, creating a basket of branches, vines, and leaves to carry it above her—meaning it was now well above my head.
"This is heavy. The weight is on my neck."
"You’re strong. You’ll manage." She giggled playfully and lightly tugged a few strands of my hair.
I didn’t explain what had happened to Team Pebble. I simply handed them over to Charlotte, who had shown up after a while. Alalia had run ahead. Then, I made my way to the Proto-A to find Jinn, who was working on the ship.
"Welcome back," she said without turning around, floating beside the Proto-A’s wing. She was wearing her white dress. "Was it a good trip?"
"You literally watched the whole thing."
"But was it good?"
"It was… okay. The godly infant part gave me a headache. That damn ink too." I sighed, a faint smile on my face. "Where are Dylan and the others?"
I could only sense Gilbert, Robyn, and Selina. Aside from Charlotte and Team Pebble, of course.
"In the kingdom. Helena had some things to take care of, and Dylan and Melissa followed her. Darnell followed Melissa. Gilbert and Robyn are training near Alalia’s cabin, and Selina is probably licking the ship’s floor."
"I am NOT!" A shout came from the window beside Jinn.
"But she wanted to," the blue-skinned woman turned with a playful grin and floated down until her feet touched the ground.
With a tap on the Relic of Knowledge at her waist, the Slime Staff appeared. She handed it to me.
"You could have told me you knew the Slime Princess, you know?" Alalia gave my head two light pats. "I only found out yesterday—and by accident! Mil’li’a-io Kr’yo ‘Li’ja Jou-sk was really famous, you know? The only daughter of the Slime King and Queen."
"You actually managed to say that name perfectly. I’m impressed," I praised.
Millia’s real name was an absolute nightmare to pronounce, but Alalia had done it pretty smoothly.
"It never came up. Millia was asleep when I spoke to you—she still is," I commented.
"She’s not asleep. She’s sealed," Alalia said.
I blinked. “Explain, before I blow up the Staff.” I looked at Jinn, but she seemed just as confused as I was. Hadn’t Alalia said anything to her?
“The runes. It’s a bit complicated to explain, whoever made this Staff was ridiculously skilled with them. But, in short: the Staff is sealing Millia inside because it detected something dangerous. She’ll only come out when the danger has passed. There are even teleportation rune matrices in case the Staff is attacked.”
Alalia pointed, and her wooden doll finger extended until it reached the Slime Staff, poking the runes as she explained.
“It detected something dangerous, huh?…” I growled under my breath. “I think I know what it is.”
That miserable damn eye. The Slime Staff must be able to detect when that ‘thing’ or parts of it are nearby.
I was good with Runes. At least, I thought I was. But apparently, not as good as Alalia. At least, not when it came to reading matrices. I hadn’t even known the Slime Staff could teleport.
Turns out, being broke and not having enough SP to analyze the Staff since I got it had come at a cost. Even now, it was still expensive—almost a billion SP. It was the highest SP number I’d seen besides the Reality 4D and the time I tried to analyze Alalia.
I’ll save up SP to use Analyze: Item on this later.
I placed the Slime Staff inside the VoidBag and spoke again:
“Alalia, can you take care of the baby god’s egg and the Antlion Queen? If you can help with the Proto-A as well, I’d appreciate it.”
Jinn had done an excellent job with the Mystic Symbols. I’d have to paint over the ones she made later since they had her mana and not mine. But the Runes were something she still hadn’t mastered.
Either way, I was already going to paint over the Mystic Symbols, so re-engraving the Runes afterward wouldn’t change much.
“Are you sure? My Runes are a little different. They don’t work well offensively,” Alalia warned as a branch grew, wrapping around the egg containing the Queen Antlion’s soul.
“And defensively?”
“There are none better.”
… Maybe I wouldn’t need to re-engrave the Runes after all. Let’s see how this turns out.
“Jinn, Alalia. I’m leaving the barriers to you two. Make sure the ship can sail on the Sun’s surface. I’ll handle the attack matrices.”
Without wasting time, we got to work.
“Should I do the Anti-Foreigner ones too?” the dryad asked.
“Not those. Leave them to me.”
I’ll make sure that fuck eye dies.
[...]
The next week passed both quickly and slowly. A week wasn’t much time to prepare beyond what we’d already done, but at the same time, the tension made time drag on.
I didn’t know how things would play out. What would actually emerge. What the cultists had prepared to make them confident they could deal with Alalia. Entering what was essentially the dryad’s home was insanity, even for those bastards.
Alalia might not be a fighter. She had stated that herself when I asked, but she had enough power that it didn’t matter much. Of course, if she used too much suppression, the Crimson and the Corruption would stop, but that was a problem for later.
The rush meant that many things were pushed to the background. The map of the old world, the discussion I wanted to have about what happened in Shahrabad, where the hell exactly the two corrupted biomes were… everything took a back seat.
One day before the full moon night, we had everything ready.
The Proto-A was partially finished. There were still many things missing, but the ship had become a flying fortress. Barriers were not in short supply.
I had enchanted everyone’s armor with Anti-Foreigner Runes to help them, especially their helmets. Everyone also had protective goggles and wore a layer of hydrophobic clothing under their armor, in addition to having a supply of Purification Powder.
We had made several bombs as well. Beldin, Ísis, and Darnell performed better than I expected. With some tutorials and tips from me and a few people from (CHAT) — which basically meant Stark and Ruby — they created some useful things.
Selina had reinforced her exoskeleton to the extreme, updating her technology. It was nothing close to Stark’s, but the Mystic Symbols and the Runes I added helped bridge that gap.
Of course, I couldn’t place as many Runes and Mystic Symbols as I wanted on everyone’s armor and weapons. They didn’t have enough mana to support that many matrices and Runes. Mana Stones would help, but only up to a point.
Dylan was the real surprise. He had made an armor suit for himself: a massive, full-body suit that looked like something straight out of a steampunk universe—more steampunk than the one Selina had made.
It was a huge contraption, easily around two meters and twenty centimeters tall. It had some valves powered by steam and mana, but overall, that thing was ridiculously slow. To the point that a ninety-year-old lady missing a leg could probably outrun it.
That was why Selina, who also knew about the project, hadn’t made one for herself. Dylan had done it for one reason alone:
“I’m an archer. I won’t be moving. I’ll be a living cannon. Give me a target…” He grinned in a completely maniacal and proud way.
Then, he pulled a two-and-a-half-meter-long bow from his Travel Space, as thick as my forearm. The bow that his armor would use. It weighed at least two hundred kilos. The string was made of braided metal, and the arrows for that thing were nearly three meters long.
“… And watch me put new holes in it.”
Maybe I mirrored his manic grin. Maybe I was proud of my friend too, but that wasn’t the point.
Darnell, Melissa, Charlotte, Helena, the Pebble team. They were all prepared in some way. Alalia too. She said she was mentally prepared, muttering the same phrase to herself repeatedly.
Gilbert and Robyn as well, but in a different sense: it would be a full moon. Robyn’s curse, if it could still be called that, would activate at full strength.
We’d set up a room in the Proto-A for her to stay. There was also one in the palace and the Oakwood mansion. If Robyn was okay, she and Gilbert would join whatever happened, mostly as “support.”
Everyone would be, really. The only one fighting on the front lines would be me. I even gave the VoidBag and the Minimap an upgrade, just for peace of mind.
We were ready. The night began to fall in silence, and even then…
… We were caught off guard.
[The Wandering Eye Fish has been fished!]
[The Zombie Merman has been fished!]
[The Hemogoblin Shark has been fished!]
[The Dreadnautilus has been fished!]
I was alone when the messages appeared. Everyone else was in the realm. The strategy was: they would stay in the realm, along with the Proto-A, ready to be attacked, while I stayed in the forest, flanking the enemies that would come.
When the realm was attacked, I would strike from behind. It would be hard to notice me. A hallucination in the dark wasn’t seen. I was also suppressing my mana.
A series of pings came through the stream. I ignored them all.
Those weren’t the only messages…
[A goblin army is approaching from the west!]
[A goblin army is approaching from the east!]
Red dots appeared on the Minimap. Its range had doubled to a twenty-kilometer radius. I could feel the presences emerging in places where I was certain no one had been.
There was nothing but forest. No matrix. No goblin teleportation matrix.
It was dark, but still not night…
[The Blood Moon is rising…]
… Then, it was.
The twilight darkness was overtaken by a mist of blood-red moonlight. The clouds turned red. The rain turned to blood. The rivers flowed with blood.
Everything turned red…
Then, a presence descended upon the world. Staring at everything and everyone.
[You feel an evil presence watching you…]
For the first time, my mind was bombarded by whispers I couldn’t control. Erratic thoughts came and went randomly.
I dropped to my knees, gasping, before I even realized it. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the realm’s barrier rise desperately.
Madness. A madness that wasn’t mine. It came from outside. Outer.
My head throbbed. The center of my forehead felt like it was splitting in two. My eyes burned, they ached, they pulsed with the presence of something in the clouds.
I pressed my hands to my head tightly.
I refused to scream.
My reflection appeared in the pool of blood on the ground.
My forehead was bleeding.
My right pupil was completely orange.
My left pupil wasn’t.
The outer part was orange.
The inner part, neon green.
Among the whispers that ravaged my brain, one stood out: a calm, regal, proud, and lofty voice.
'No matter how much you evolve, how much you grow, you will never touch the stars. Give up in your insignificance and simply look at the Moon... human.'
[Eye of Ċ͂ͧ҉̭̦̱̠̲ţ̠̖̪̻̮̟̅̋h̟̺͕̼͙̟͚͙ͧ̓͞u̢̹̼̫͇͌͆ͅļ͇͖͋͊ͩh̜̠̲̒̑̆͠u̙̫̣̭̠̦̞ͥ̋͊̕ͅ ̢̝͖̤̳͍̈́̒͐has awoken!]
[...]---[...]
As always, have a great Blood Moon and happy reading!