WinterHord (4) – Winter Legends.

POV: Devas Asura.

Of course it had to be that damn deer. Why not?

What the hell was that scream? Ignoring that it went through the Humvee's sound muffler and magical defense matrices, what the hell kind of effect was that?

One moment, everyone was fine, and the next, everyone in the Humvee was holding their heads and curled up like shrimp.

A mental attack of all things? Was that why I wasn't affected, since my title protected me? Or was it something related to the soul?

Wonderful!

It was lucky that Millia had gone to sleep inside the Slime Staff a few minutes ago. I don't even want to imagine how that scream would have affected the little slime...

Honestly, I didn't even know how the hell that guy was here. Wasn't he from some collab? Was Eternia a thing too? Were there any other collabs besides these two?

Damn, what a headache.

"Gilbert. Is that thing following us?" If it was, it would be a problem.

I was sure the Humvee could take a few hits, hell, quite a few hits actually, but fighting in a snowstorm in freezing cold was not one of the best scenarios I could think of.

Fortunately, Gilbert had good news.

"No, when we distanced ourselves, the earring stopped shaking." The merchant raised the earring, showing that it had returned to normal.

Well, normal was relative, as it still glowed in a purple color.

"Devas. I don't want to be insistent, but you said you knew what that thing was, didn't you?" Selina's voice was deceptively calm.

There was that too, wasn't there? How do I explain this now?...

"Frankly, that thing is something I thought didn't exist." I began my explanation. "It's something I heard about a few years ago. A legend, so to speak."

It wasn't a complete lie, as the collab at that time really had been just a rumor, so much so that nobody believed it back then.

"A legend? About what?" Robyn asked automatically, as if she wasn't fully present.

It seemed like she was still in shock because of the Hallucination. Damn. Another thing too. What were these Hallucinations? Were they really hallucinations, or something entirely different?

I hadn't touched Don't Starve in years. Were these things really hallucinations, or something else entirely?

"Basically, it's a monster that only appears when it's very cold, bringing an even lower temperature with it." I explained while keeping an eye on the Minimap.

Damn, how much longer until we reach that city?

"I know some legends like that." The guide's eyes shimmered in a light shade of blue as he spoke.

"What do they say?" Gilbert asked with a tense voice, covering Robyn with a blanket, more for emotional reasons than actual cold, since the temperature inside the Humvee was comfortable.

"Try crossing them with the legend Devas knows, maybe they're the same."

An excellent idea, too bad I felt it would be a futile effort.

"Most legends and tales are old." The guide organized his thoughts before speaking. "One of these legends tells of an ice golem created by an ancient and powerful mage who sought to create the perfect protector, something that would safeguard the kingdom he lived in, creating eternal peace."

The Ice Golem? Well, either way, I had an idea where this story was going. There were plenty of movies on Earth with a similar theme.

"Let me guess. The golem decided that if there were no people, there would be peace?" I guessed. Without humans, there would be no wars, or in this case, Terrarians.

Dylan nodded in agreement, making me sigh. Of course, it would be something like that.

"Do you know this legend? Is this golem what you think is the creature that screamed earlier?" Selina asked. Her voice seemed better than before, truly calm.

It seems that Purification Powder was effective, even if not completely.

I knew that Purification Powder wasn't foolproof, and it was only a matter of time until I discovered something it wouldn't work on completely or wouldn't work on at all. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon.

"No, I don't know. I've heard something similar before, but nothing about an ice golem, it was just a guess." I explained my thoughts.

Dylan nodded, accepting my words at face value, and continued.

"Another famous legend, but not so well-known, is also about a queen who sought immortality and in her desperation, tried to merge with the ice, using a ritual during the full moon."

Frost Moon and the Ice Queen. I knew about those two as well.

"It had worked, but it wasn't without consequences. The queen had achieved the immortality she desired so much, but in return, her emotions had become as cold as her body, now made of ice." The guide's voice narrated the story.

"The ending probably isn't a happy one either, I imagine?" I asked rhetorically. "Probably involving her going mad and freezing the kingdom or turning everyone in the kingdom into frozen puppets or ice creatures." Again, another quick nod from the guide, confirming that I was right.

Damn, was everything in Terraria like something out of a Brothers Grimm tale? Nothing had even a remotely good or happy ending?

The guide stopped talking for a few seconds, organizing his thoughts before continuing.

I kept driving the Humvee while waiting for him to speak. I would need to replenish the Artificial Sapphires compartment soon.

"Other legends from cold places are either variations of these two or mention mysterious faceless creatures that are usually stories used to scare children." Dylan's eyes continued to glow with his innate magic even after he finished speaking and fell silent.

"By your silence, I'll guess that this queen wasn't the being you think is following us?" Gilbert asked from the back seat.

Looking in the rearview mirror, I could see that Robyn seemed better, less frightened and in shock. She had been the most affected in a way, and if I were to guess, it was because her instincts were sharper than the average Terrarian.

As far as I knew, most beastkins and half-Terrarians had better instincts, just like their animal part did.

"No, what I think is the owner of that scream is something completely different." I explained. If it were the Ice Queen, we would probably be besieged by an army at this point.

I wonder if the Humvee's flamethrowers would be useful in this case...

"The legend I heard was of a being that had a half-deer, half-Terrarian appearance, coming from a distant land, an unknown island with unknown terrors." The island where Wilson had been stranded wasn't a very nice place, I'll admit.

I'll also admit that for a moment I almost said half-human when describing the deer.

"This being appears in places where the environment is icy, usually with the arrival of winter when the weather gets even colder." I had to improvise here since I didn't remember if that damn deer had lore or not.

"A deer beastkin?" Robyn said aloud. "Someone who went mad? A mage perhaps? Or is it something else?" She asked.

"No. This thing wasn't a beastkin." I denied the zoologist's guess.

As much as deer beastkins could exist in Terraria, even though I've never seen one, that deer wasn't a beastkin.

That thing was something worse.

"I don't know the origin of this thing, but in the legends where it's mentioned, it's said to have a huge height, thick fur on its chest, and long, thin legs and arms of a black color." I described what I remembered of the boss.

The rest of the Humvee was silent as I continued to speak, the same was true for the (CHAT), which seemed to be paying attention to my words.

I had to ask later if that scream had affected them in any way. I'm almost sure the stream had some kind of protection in case something like that happened, but still, asking wouldn't hurt.

"The most striking features of this being were its two enormous horns on top of its head and its single, immense eye in the center of its face." An eye that, if this thing decided to show up, would be my main target.

The atmosphere in the Humvee grew more tense as I described the boss's appearance, as if I were telling a horror story, making everyone uneasy.

Frankly, given our current situation and the weather outside the Humvee, it wasn't far from reality.

Knowing that there was something like that out there, with that appearance and clearly unfriendly, could very well be worse than a horror story.

"The legends say that this being has ice powers, being able to use it to attack and trap its victims, freezing them almost instantly." I continued the explanation, detailing what I remembered about the deer's powers.

"But the worst, what I would consider the worst ability, the most evil power of such a being, would be the ability to drive anyone insane just with its presence, making them see hallucinations that could physically attack and harm the person in question." I had no idea how Hallucinations worked here in Terraria.

Could they attack and harm those who saw them? Or were they just regular hallucinations?

If it were the second option, okay, it was something dangerous like any madness, but still, it wasn't the end of the world.

If it were the first option, well, we had a big problem on our hands.

When Robyn said she had a hallucination in front of the Humvee, I couldn't see it, which was expected since it was a Robyn hallucination, the problem was that it also didn't appear on the Minimap!

If these things really could attack and happened to attack me, I would be blind.

Finishing the description of the deer, the atmosphere in the Humvee had become even more tense, especially after finding out about its ability to drive people insane.

The first to speak was Gilbert, who was beside his daughter, who was looking out the windows trying to see if she could spot anything in the storm.

Everyone was.

"Is there any way to protect against this madness?" The merchant asked, glancing quickly at his daughter and then at the others in the Humvee.

Robyn was the only one who saw the hallucination, but that didn't exclude the possibility of everyone starting to see them as well. The only one who seemed to be safe in this situation was me.

And still, being safe was a strong word since I didn't know if others' hallucinations could somehow attack me.

Now, I had to think of an answer to Gilbert's question. Making everyone paranoid was the last thing recommended in our current situation.

"There are a few means I can think of..." I said slowly, quickly organizing my thoughts before continuing.

"The first and most obvious way is not to listen to the scream, but, well, it's too late in this case." This option had already been thrown out the window. "The second way would be the Purification Powder." I pointed to the car's air conditioner.

Even though the Purification Powder didn't nullify the effects of the scream, seeing that Robyn saw the Hallucinations even after I turned on the purifying matrix, still, the powder had a significant effect from what I observed.

Remembering that the Purification Powder had been effective seemed to calm the father-daughter duo and the cousin duo to a significant degree.

"The third way would be to stay calm. As silly as it sounds, having happy thoughts, trying to stay grounded in reality, keeping the mind sane is something that should help." Many mental magics I could think of in various universes were possible to combat with a strong and well-organized mind.

Of course, if this scream was something that attacked the soul, then things could be different, but staying calm and having good thoughts usually helped in most things, magical or not.

Thinking about it, an Expecto Patronum here would be damn useful.

Damn, I really had to find a way to go to Hogwarts, as weird as the magical system of that world was, they had some really strong and useful spells.

Speaking of which...

"Here, take this. It should help." I offered chocolate bars to everyone.

As silly as it might be, chocolate could really help, as it had the "magical power" to trigger the release of endorphins in the brain, which is a neurotransmitter associated with the feeling of happiness.

There were some other factors like chocolate containing phenylethylamine that helped in mood, but I wasn't so good at chemistry to remember such things.

To my happiness, fun, and relief, chocolate really seemed to be effective, or maybe it was the Purification Powder in the air finishing the job. Was the placebo effect in play here too? Perhaps?

Seeing that everyone was better, I continued speaking.

"Finally, the fourth and last way would be literally confronting the hallucinations head-on." I said, making the others in the Humvee look at me with strange looks, as if asking: "What the hell are you talking about?"

I could also see that several "?" had appeared in the (CHAT). Creatures of little faith. Few things couldn't be solved with enough violence.

A mosquito on the sack, for example, that was something that couldn't be solved with violence.

"What?" I said in a slightly amused tone. "If hallucinations can touch you, there's nothing stopping you from touching them back. If they try to kill you, kill them first, it's simple." I said in a serious but playful way, trying to lighten the mood even more inside the Humvee.

It seemed to have worked, as I could see some slight smiles appearing on everyone's faces.

I wonder if the Shichishitō, the sword that Tanjuro gave me as a farewell gift, would be useful here in this case. Well, if necessary, I would lend it to anyone in the Humvee if they needed to defend themselves.

"It's good, I'll admit." I heard Selina murmur quietly. Good at what, woman?

"That being. Does it die? Is it something killable?" Dylan asked after a few seconds of silence in the Humvee, the silence this time being more comfortable.

"Yes. It can be killed." I answered. At least as far as I knew, the deer could be killed.

"Well..." My answer seemed to lighten the atmosphere inside the Humvee even more.

"This thing. Does it have a name?" Robyn asked in a calmer voice than before. She was petting her animals, probably following my advice and trying to stay calm and have happy thoughts.

"If it has a name?" I murmured before answering in a louder tone. "It does." I affirmed. "This thing has a name."

Thinking about it, this damn deer was theoretically the closest thing to me in Terraria, since both I and it were something from outside.

Before anyone could ask, I answered, speaking the boss's name out loud.

"The name of this monster is Deerclops." I said, remembering the "title" it had.

"Deerclops - The chilly one-eyed monstrosity from a foreign land."

[...]

POV: Melissa Oakwood.

"How many dead today?" Annabel's voice echoed through the hall where we were, the meeting room in the mansion of the previous count, her father.

Her voice had a sad echo. If it were a few days ago, she would have asked, "Did anyone die today?" - But at this point, it was already a certainty.

"Thirty-three people." One of the guards in charge answered the question of the new countess. "Twenty-one men, nine women, and three children." He gave the death count.

I felt my fists clench. Damn...

I was the doctor here, and still, I couldn't save anyone! Damn it!

How should I treat something that doesn't exist? How should I heal them from the insanity that the screams of that thing caused when there was nothing wrong with the people?!

No one, no person showed any symptoms, one moment they were fine, and the next they were being attacked by imaginary nightmares and screaming for help while fleeing from monsters resembling giant black insects.

I knew their appearance because I was starting to see them. They appeared as a shadow, a distant illusion, disappearing before I could try to attack them...

...A hallucination.

Damn! I had diagnosed myself and couldn't find anything abnormal with me.

My mind was in its normal state, my mind was in its normal state, damn it, my mana was normal, nothing had any changes, but still, I could see those things!

This didn't make sense! It was as if these damn hallucinations appeared out of the pure and absolute nothingness!

They appeared, if the person who saw them was fine, they just seemed to observe, if the person was starting to go insane or already insane, they attacked with all their might, tearing the person apart before they could react or defend themselves.

The worst part, it wasn't just one, there were several, dozens of them.

The only good news was that they could be repelled quite easily. A single solid blow, and they disappeared, even if momentarily.

The problem was that the only person who seemed to be able to attack the hallucination was the person who was hallucinating, and if the person was already hallucinating, their chance of defending themselves was slim.

The only one who had achieved this feat so far was one of Annabel's guards, one of the veterans who, in his words: "I'm used to the madness of war, this is not much different."

Ignoring the fact that a war hadn't happened in over a hundred years and that this guard was probably getting senile, it was good news to know that we could defend ourselves.

Damn, forget good news, it had been fucking wonderful news!

"How long until we run out of fuel for the barrier?" I asked.

Annabel had ordered two large matrices of Artificial Sapphires from my mother, this combined with the Mana Stone mine ensured that WhinterHord had quite a stock for emergencies.

This was literally the only reason why the barrier around the city was still standing. I didn't even want to imagine the amount of mana that thing was spending to keep us alive.

"About a week and a half." Annabel answered my question after thinking for a few seconds.

"And if we use my mother's matrices?" I asked. I'm sure people would understand if we started throwing some houses into the matrix to turn them into Artificial Sapphires.

"We're already doing that on a small scale." Damn, that's what I thought.

"If we use the matrices at their maximum potential, burning as much as possible, maybe we could extend that time to two weeks, being very optimistic, three." Annabel seemed bitter about this fact.

Optimism was never my strong suit, but in this case, I would be grateful if something like that happened.

"Give us privacy." Annabel ordered the few guards on standby, dispersing them.

When Annabel was sure we were alone, she slumped into the armchair and closed her eyes.

"Just to be sure. You're your mother's heir, aren't you?" Annabel asked.

"Yes, why? Expecting a ransom?" I asked as I lay on the couch in the corner of the room.

At this point, I was sure a ransom wouldn't come, and I feared that, both for the reason of not knowing if we could survive in this cold and with that thing without outside help. And because I feared that something was happening in the kingdom. I knew my mother, I knew how much she loved me and Dylan, so I knew that the only reason we hadn't received help yet was that something serious had happened in the kingdom.

"No, actually, yes, I'm expecting a ransom, but that wasn't the reason for my question," Annabel sighed, putting a pillow over her face.

Funny how we knew each other for less than two weeks, but we already had a certain intimacy to act without etiquette in each other's presence.

Shitty situations really brought people together, didn't they?

"What's the reason, then?" I asked.

"A warning." She replied. "When your mother passes the title of Duchess to you, refuse, it's a trap." She had a dry and serious tone saying that, which made me laugh.

"Laugh all you want, but I speak the truth. Take advantage that you have a brother and throw it at him." She sighed tiredly. "The amount of stress isn't worth it, trust me, even before this damn storm appeared, I had no time for myself."

"I believe you. I just found it funny." The way she had said the words with an empty face and a dry voice made everything even better.

As I said, I believed her, I saw how much work my mother had to keep everything in order, especially since she had to assist Charlotte in keeping everything in order in the kingdom.

Frankly, if it weren't for Alalia's fruits, I feel like mom would have had a breakdown already.

How she didn't have a single wrinkle or white hair was the damn mystery that I was unaware of. The woman was almost sixty years old and still looked like she was in her late twenties!

I really wished I had inherited that trait from her, or I'll be very pissed!... Of course, if I can make it to sixty.

By the way things were going, I wasn't sure if I could make it to the end of the month, let alone sixty years...

"What's with that sad face?" Annabel's voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Nothing, just... I just realized I didn't say goodbye to my little brother when I left home..." Not only that, but before leaving, Dylan and I had a fight...

I had to hold back the tears that threatened to come out of my eyes. Damn it! I don't want to die and make the last memory Dylan has of me be us fighting.

I'm going to get out of this frozen hell alive, even if I have to almost die. Forget bleeding, even if I were to lose a limb, I'm still going back home.

Annabel frowned when she heard my sentence and hesitated, as if unsure of what to say.

Before she could think of a response, a loud noise of footsteps echoed in the corridor next to the room we were in.

A guard entered quickly without knocking on the door. He was panting as if he had run a lot before reaching the meeting room.

"What happened?" Annabel got up and ordered the guard.

He took a few seconds to take a deep breath before straightening up and answering.

"Lady Annabel, Miss Melissa, I apologize for interrupting your rest, but Mr. Darnell sent me here with news." The guard's voice was still panting, but he managed to speak without pauses.

Upon hearing Darnell's name, I quickly got up and stood next to Annabel.

Had something happened? Damn, if the storm didn't interfere with the EcoMirrors, it would be easy to find out; a simple call and we would know.

After the last incident, where a group of men organized to try to attack the barrier, claiming, in their words, to "get out of this madhouse and escape the demons before they were killed."

Annabel ordered a patrol of guards to stand guard at the gates, both at the main gate and the other entrances to the city, in case something like that happened again.

Darnell had offered to go on patrol with the guards to stay busy and keep an eye on the outside of the barrier.

Even though those men hadn't even scratched the barrier, we couldn't let something like that happen again.

Any stress on the barrier, even if it was as minimal as a group of crazed villagers, was still something we couldn't afford to happen.

The only thing separating us from death by freezing was the barrier.

Still, I didn't blame the men; they clearly weren't in their right minds when they tried that, so much so that about half of them died a few hours later in prison, attacked by hallucinations.

"Mr. Darnell said he saw a vehicle outside the barrier, that this vehicle is parked in front of the gates as if it wants to enter." A vehicle?...

"Reinforcements?..." It can't be... Can it?...

Damn it, Darnell, if you gave me hope just for me to come there and find out that what you saw was a hallucination, I'm going to beat you!

Even before the guard finished speaking, Annabel and I were running to the main entrance of the city.

I wanted to reinforce my body to get there as fast as I could, but I discarded that idea the moment it came up.

I was the only genuinely competent doctor in the city; I couldn't afford any unnecessary mana exhaustion.

What surprised me was that Annabel had managed to keep up with me as we ran.

Even though I wasn't running at my maximum speed, still, for someone who claimed to have no time for anything, she had certainly found time to stay in shape.

It took about five minutes of running at full speed to reach the main gate.

"Where is this vehicle?" I asked, as Annabel caught her breath. Even though it might seem like a question, it was an order.

"In front of the barrier, outside the gates." I heard Darnell's voice from above.

Looking up, I saw he was on top of the city wall, waving for me to climb up.

It didn't take me more than thirty seconds to do that. Up there, I looked at the barrier, towards the gates, where I couldn't see anything, just the snow from the storm.

"Darnell... I swear, if you made me run here for nothing, I'll beat you." My voice was calm and composed, making Darnell shudder even more and wave his arms quickly.

"No, no. I didn't hallucinate; it was indeed a car, but it sped up and started circling the barrier seconds after I sent the guard to call you and Annabel. I swear!" Darnell quickly replied, taking a step back.

Circle the barrier?... Why?...

As a signal, I saw something move out of the storm. I couldn't see exactly what it was because the storm made it difficult to see, but whatever it was, it was fast.

When this object got close to the gates, I had a better view of it; it was indeed a mechanical carriage, or as Darnell liked to call it, a car.

It had a silver color that camouflaged it in the storm, but even from this distance, I could see the Mystical Symbols that adorned the entire vehicle.

Ignoring that the car was something completely different from what I had seen before. The only people I knew who could make matrices in that way were my little brother and my mother...

I felt my eyes become moist, and some tears gathered in the corners.

Is this real? I'm not hallucinating, am I?

"I'm as happy as you, Melissa, but we can't open the gates yet. We need to make sure it's not some kind of trap first." Annabel's voice was like a bucket of cold water thrown on my head.

It's true; we had theorized that this storm had been artificially created. If that were true, we couldn't risk letting this car in...

"How will we know?" Darnell asked. "We can't go outside and just ask; it's freaking cold!" Ignoring Captain Obvious, he was right.

I could see that the car had a barrier around it as well, a shield protecting it from the cold, which meant they also couldn't come out...

"Shall we take the risk?" I asked. "What if we let this vehicle enter only into the secondary barrier?"

The secondary barrier was a small barrier at the main gate, connected to the main barrier.

It was simple; anything wanting to enter would need to go to the front of the main gate. Then the secondary barrier would rise and surround the area around the gate, finally, the barrier in front of the gate, the main barrier surrounding the city, would open a hole for whatever was outside to come in without letting the cold affect the city.

Before Annabel could answer my question, a paper appeared in front of me. Literally appeared, out of nowhere.

It was more instinctive than anything, as I caught the paper in the air before I could think if it was a trap or not.

Fortunately, it wasn't a trap but a letter.

[Dear Miss Melissa...] I began to read the letter out loud.

Whoever was inside that car knew me; that was a good sign... At least I hoped so.

[Could you please OPEN THE DAMN GATE? It's freezing out here, and the barrier around the car costs Artificial Sapphires like hell! (I think? Devas didn't say anything about it, but I think it costs a lot), to keep it active, so I would appreciate it if you inside there didn't take too long to decide if you're going to keep staring or not, thank you very much - Signed with love: Your dear cousin, Selina Steamhord]

It took me a few seconds to absorb the words I had just spoken; I only returned to myself when I heard Darnell's laughter echoing from the city wall.

I sighed as I shook my head.

"You can open it; apparently, one of the people inside is, as the letter says, 'my dear cousin.'" I told Annabel.

Could it be a trap from someone who knew me and knew I was close to Selina? It could be; it wasn't a secret that the Oakwood family and the Steamhord family were close.

But I knew it wasn't that, for one simple reason.

[PS: If you don't open this thing in the next three minutes when we get home, I'll tell Aunt Helena and Dylan that you asked me to build a mechanical dildo for you.

PPS: If it takes more than five minutes, I'll even lie and say you asked for the dildo to be like a horse's dick. :D]

It was definitely that bitch... She said she would keep it a secret!

It was lucky that I realized where this letter was going and didn't read that part out loud; I was already having trouble keeping my face calm, without blushing like things were now.

If I had read that part out loud, I would have just taken advantage of being on top of the city wall and jumped.

Dying would be more acceptable and much less embarrassing than seeing everyone's reaction to that...

Now, couldn't these guards hurry up? It had already been a minute!

And by the way, who the hell was Devas?

[…]

POV: Devas Asura.

I looked at the barrier that appeared around the Humvee. That was quick.

Dylan was the one who recognized his sister up on the city walls.

Interestingly, the snow also didn't stick to the barrier surrounding the city. This damn snow seeming to be alive still bothered me.

After a few seconds of discussing how we would get in, I suggested writing something for Dylan's sister, Melissa, to know that we weren't enemies or anything, a letter or something that would reassure her.

Frankly, if no one inside thought the storm could be artificial, I would start to worry.

Selina took the lead this time and said she would write the letter to Melissa, which was strange because she had a mischievous smile on her face from the amount of time it took to write the letter.

"What the hell did you write in that letter that made them open the gates so quickly?" I asked the Steampunker.

What the hell did she write in there for them not even to try to ask for another confirmation or something?

"Girls' secret." Was the answer she gave me while covering the smile on her face like a stereotypical villain.

I'm sure she did it on purpose, as right after, she started laughing.

Damn, now I regret not reading that letter. What the hell was in there?