-Note that the following is a product of Terraria and the Author, and is © Copyright protected 2013-2014. All rights belonging to the respected owners. All concepts depicted in regards to Terraria are the property of Terraria. All other properties, characters, or concepts depicted not belonging in direct to Terraria are the Intellectual property of the Author and not to be used or replicated in any manor without the direct permissions and consent of the Author.

-Wow that sure does sound official doesn't it. I do not own Terraria.

-Expect spelling and grammatical errors. Enjoy

Chapter 1- The Edge of Darkness

Corruption Outskirts

Prospective: The Kid

"This isn't the first time that I've seen this place… I'm certain that it won't be the last time either." I thought to myself, approaching the edge of the hillside that overlooked a low valley leading down into a large pocket of the Corruption.

The Dryad, Faye, she was already here, waiting for me to arrive. Her sword, The Blade of Grass, was hung over her back. She was wearing the most clothing I'd ever noticed her wear in the two years I'd known her.

"It took you long enough to get here!" she said harshly, without so much as turning around to look at me.

"I'm not going to apologize for being late, if that's what you're after. Do recall, you are the one who arrived early. I'm right on time," I said looking down at the watch tethered to the wrist of my armor.

"Shadow armor, really?" Faye said, still not bothering to turn around to look at me.

"How can you tell?" I asked with a faint chuckle, walking up beside her, overlooking the corrupt lands far below.

"It absolutely reeks of dark energy! I could sense you coming from a mile away wearing that armor."

"That's the point though, isn't it? If you can sense me so prevalently, then that means that the eater of souls will likely be unable to differentiate me from any other dark mob. They're drawn to anything that is different than they are. Wearing this armor, they shouldn't be able to sense me. At least not indirectly."

"Finally figured that one out did you?"

"And what about you?" I asked looking her up and down. She was wearing little more than her green biological mesh underwear. At least there were a few more wrappings covering her legs and arms than the usual. "I mean really, of all the entities of the unnatural world of purity, you're the most powerful and the most important. Without you I can't grow the purity or erase the taint. They're going to sense you as easily as you sensed me. You are aware of that right?" I asked raising an eyebrow towards her.

She didn't look at me, she was to busy staring off into the sunrise. "Why must you be so difficult? Obviously I'm aware. As you said, no one but me can revert the taint and corruption, so in truth, I have to be here don't I?"

"Can't you just give me some of the purification powder and let me do it?"

"Don't be stupid! Under that armor, and behind that sword and shield, you're still just a mortal, still just a man. I'm neither mortal, nor of man. If I get killed I'll regenerate… eventually…"

"With no recollection of who you were before…"

"At least I will come back. But you… if you die, you will never be able to return, you're mortal."

"I'm aware, thanks for reminding me... I prefer to think I'm more than just a man," I said raising my Night's Edge and looking down the blade.

She snickered. "You're a moron aren't you? See this is exactly the reason you need me around. Otherwise you'd try to use the purification powder yourself and end up dead."

"Dead? You use it all the time. What is the difference, other than the obvious?"

"I make it for one! It's a highly potent concentration of light and good and purity. If you even so much as touched, or breathed it in, then all the evil in your soul an body would be vanquished immediately, you would die from having lost such a large piece of your soul! I can touch it because I'm already pure good, possibly a bit of a prude at times, but never the less, eternally pure."

I frowned at her through my mask. "Are you saying that I'm to evil to touch purity powder?"

"I saw you kill a bunny with your axe the other day… does that say enough?"

"What! I was just trying to bring that tree down and the thing walked right where I swung. I didn't mean to hit it!"

"I'm joking moron…" she snickered. "Believe me. I'm over five hundred years old. I think I can tell what's inside your heart well enough to know that you touching this stuff is not a good idea. You may be a good person, at least on the surface," she said frowning, "Under that armor, you're still only human, and still imperfect and impure. You're lust, anger, dark emotions, and collective of negativity would be enough to destroy you if you tried to directly contact the powder. Truth of it is, very few humans could touch it and survive. The great majority of your race is just too impure, so nothing personal really."

"Right… Do you even have it with you?" I asked looking over her body. She seemed to not be carrying it on her. It wasn't in her hands or on her back.

"I keep it somewhere you can't accidently find it… with magic I mean… you know, a pocket of temporal alternate reality… seriously were you educated as a child at all?"

"Honestly… I can't recall my childhood," I said trying to think back before the first moments that I can recall existing. I never can see far enough back to understand what came before all this. Two years ago I remember being here, and having a purpose, and finding that strange little kid who called himself my guide. Since then so much has changed… "But my parents, I must have had parents. I am human after all, so where are my parents? Where are all the other humans? The only other humans I know are all either friends of mine from across the planet, or the ones that live in my town," I thought to myself.

"What are you thinking about?" Faye asked interrupting my thoughts.

"Why, could you hear that?"

"No, I wasn't listening… I could feel the uncertainties coursing through your mind. Is all well?"

"It's nothing Faye, don't worry about me alright."

She sigh. "All I ever do is worry about you, moron. If not for me you'd be dead many times over."

"Actually the nurse seems to be the one who heals me most of the time…"

She sigh once more. "I trust that you brought what I asked you to, yes?"

"Ah, yeah right," I said pulling out the Clentaminator. "You have no idea what trouble I had to go through in order to convince the Steam Punker to hand one of these over. Where I wonder does she even get these things? The technological level of this device is well… above most weaponry available to us."

"It's not a weapon at all moron. Don't you know what this does?"

"Um…"

"It possesses the ability for long ranged distribution of solutions, such as purity and my powder."

"You're going to feed it your powder as ammunition? Does that even work?"

"As long as you had the Goblin modify it properly it should. Did he say that it was prepared according to the specifications that I provided him?"

"Um, yeah. He seemed to have a hard time modifying it though… hey wait, it just now occurred to me, why can he touch the powder!? He can't possibly be pure…"

"He is not a human, or of the corruption, thus it doesn't affect him directly."

"So basically I'm the only one who can't touch it?"

"No, the guns dealer, as well as most of the humans you know, are incapable of touching it. Can you even imagine Andre attempting to contact something so pure? I can't even keep this stuff in the same building as him, else the purity might rub off on his tiny little evil mind."

"That's a bad thing?"

"It would kill him…"

"Right then. Could we please get this under way?"

"Not yet. The sun has not risen fully enough for us to begin."

"Why daylight? It's going to take another three hours for the sun to fully rise. Why did you have me come out here this early!?"

"What better do you really have to be doing right now?" she replied sharply poking me in the chest plate with her middle figure.

"Ah! Don't touch me like that while I'm wearing this armor, you're purity hurts!"

Faye smiled. "Yes I'm aware. How do you think I keep Andre away from me? Rest assured though, contacting your dark armor while you're wearing it harms me as much as it does you."

"Excellent point. So how do we go about this then?"

"I spray and you guard me whilst I work."

"Why the need to wait for the sun to have risen?"

"Do you know nothing of the Corruption?"

"…Uh, is that a question or an insult?"

"The Eaters are more capable of seeing in low light. They will retreat to the underground once the sun has risen, making our job significantly less complicated."

"What! If they all retreat, what do you need me here for!? I thought we were going to have to fight our way in else I wouldn't have worn this stupid heavy armor! Besides I can move much faster without it. Carrying armor around is another fifty pounds of weight I don't want, or apparently need for this mission!"

"You're going to need it. Not all of the Eaters will leave once the sun rises. And the worms certainly don't care whether or not its day. They are nearly blind anyway and see predominantly using vibrations." Faye glared at me through my mask. "Have you ever actually been within the corruption before?"

"I had to get this sword," I said holding up the Night's Edge."

"How in God's name did you not die? You literally know nothing of the corruption, or of the mechanics of the creatures living within."

"I did almost die, if not for my friend and his magic mirror to teleport us out in time, that giant worm thing would have ripped us both apart."

"Oh yes, come to think, I do recall that happening. I also recall that you failed to kill the Eater of Worlds due to that 'heroic' escape. Now we will also have to watch out for him as well… That was several months ago. Perhaps the Eater has gone to sleep once again and will not sense us entering his land. And you should be more careful, your friend is not here to save you this time."

I chuckled.

"Truly it is amazing to me that you've not been killed yet," she said sorrowfully.

"You must really hate me huh?"

"You are, necessary, for my plans for remedying this world. My feelings towards you are irrelevant."

"Are they?" I asked somewhat softly.

She squinted at me. "What is that supposed to mean."

"Oh… nothing," I said looking away into the sunrise.

It was so far away, and there was so much corruption between us and it. Miles and miles, as far as the eye could see in all direction, nothing but infected land, covered in purple taint and rotted trees.

"At least I can't see any Eaters hanging around the area. They must not yet be aware of our presence."

"Which is strange, considering we're nearly on the edge of darkness now, yet they are not attacking, or even seemingly aware of us."

"Well, more good news is that since we're waiting around here for another few hours for the sun to peek, my friend will have time to get here. He is inbound, from the cloud city to the far North."

"Which friend is this again, the one I hate, or the one that is sort of acceptable?"

"He's the one who loves all the guns and explosives. You know, the one that gets along really well with the demolitionist and the guns dealer."

Faye squinted her eyes trying to recall who I was referring to.

"You know, you met him before, about my height, my age, dark skin..."

"Oh yes, Drey, that black kid."

"Actually he prefers the term, African American…"

"I don't care what he prefers! Yes, I know of whom you speak."

"So is he the one you hate, or is he acceptable?"

"Neither, I had forgotten about him."

"Then who is the friend of mine whom you hate?"

Faye didn't reply, she just looked away. "As soon as the sun rises we can begin. We need to make sure that we secure at least a small portion of the area before the sun sets again. The entire process will likely take many months to complete, so getting off to a good start is vitally important. Not to mention we need to secure at least some ground for the coming invasion forces."

"You really think that it'll take that long to subvert this land back to purity?"

"If not longer… We've allowed the corruption to grow out of control. After you and the others defeated that Hell monster of flesh, powerful essences of light and darkness were released unto our world, feeding the corruption and allowing it to spread at an incredible rate. Assuming the data my fairies have collected for me is accurate, this corruption is the largest in all of Terraria and spreads for approximately seventy miles in all direction from this area.

"So this is just the front of an even greater disaster?"

"Indeed. It also spreads deep down into the rock layers, all the way to the underworld, several thousands of miles down."

"How are we supposed to purify all that!?"

"As I said… it may take some time. Good thing you've got a lot of that on your hands huh? Although, the sands of time are flowing, and well, you're not ageing well."

"I'm not that old! I'm only twenty-four!"

"For a human life, is that not considered old?"

"Well, not typically."

"Oh, I see. Either way… You are most unpleasing to look at."

"I'm wearing armor…"

"I mean the other times, like when you walk around the city naked for no apparent reason whatsoever… You do realized that no one else wants to see that, yes? Other then perhaps the painter… Perhaps you are attempting to amuse him?"

"I sleep walk alright!"

"Hum… if you say so."

I groaned. "How much longer do we have to wait? I'm getting uppity… and tired of you," I muttered under my breath.

"Feel free to go down there right now, however without the light of day illuminating the lower portions of this region, and no torches in place, I doubt you'll get far before something else finds you. Have fun fighting in the darkness.

"Fine," I said sitting down on the ground beside her, hanging my legs over the cliff face overlooking the corruption. "We wait… My friend should be here soon, I already let him know where to find us."

"All the help we could get would be appreciated."

"Well actually, I'm sort of glad to hear you say that because one other person is on their way as well."

"Another friend?"

"Yeah, but this one I know you enjoy the company of."

"Who?"

"Remember the Old Man you met last year during the goblin invasion we had to deal with?"

"The wizard? How did you convince him to leave his home in the North Pole? I thought he was quite incapable of leaving that abode?"

"Well, I did him a few favors back a year ago, so he owes me. I figured we could use his help for something like this. Like us, he does have a duty to help protect the world. That was enough to convince him."

"I see. How long will it take for him to arrive?"

"A good few days I'm sure. But after we get started, and secure a foothold near this position, and you start spreading your purity or whatever, then his magic will provide powerful aid to our cause."

"Good… Speaking of which, I have my forces in the Hallow prepared for combat. When the time arises they will be prepared."

"How many soldiers?"

"Fifty thousand strong."

"Hum… that may not prove enough…"

"I'm aware. However, their support will soon be required once we make our push into the central regions of this land."

"I agree. The more help we can get the better."

"Our first objective of course is securing this foothold. We must create a staging point in the valley before any kind of invasion force can be deployed."

"Yeah I got it sunshine… we've been over it like five times now."

"Yes, I figured the more times I repeated myself, the longer the notion would remain in that tiny little head of yours."

I sigh. "This is going to be a long campaign isn't it?"

"Better get used to me buddy, because until this is over, you and I are partners."

"Just what I've always wanted."

"Hey, look sharp!" Faye suddenly exclaimed.

"What?"

"I can sense something nearing our position, moving quickly and rapidly closing distance with us!"

"I don't see anything!" I said looking around the wasteland.

"No it's not a flier. It's moving through the ground towards us."

"A worm?"

"No, something else. It's much smaller but extremely fast."

"Hostile?"

"I don't know, but best be ready, it's nearly here…"