WAIT WUT TWO CHAPTERS IN ONE DAY WOW SUCH SPEED MUCH READERS WOW
"...Am I misunderstanding what you just said,or do you seriously want me to kill Marcus?"-"I didn't lie about the armor being removable by purificating it,but I didn't lie about it corrupting his body either. I underestimated Marcus severely,the armor fuses with the body in a peculiar way. The stronger his emotions are,the faster the armor will be able to corrupt him. I always looked at him as if he was a spoiled brat or something,but the man is severely emotional. When one's emotions are as strong as that,it is much easier for them to be manipulated,and thus,the armor will be much hungrier for his life,and in return will fuse with the body in a much,much faster pace."-"So we just have to hurry and get the seeds quickly,right?"-"I'm afraid not. It is not humanly possible to get the seeds before the armor reaches Marcus' heart. At that point,it will be permanently fused with his body and will slowly become part of his skin,and eventually part of himself. I want him to be dead before that point,because when that happens,he'll be a living shell,filled with hatred,envy,greed,and literally every sin known to man,which will be as strong as his emotions are. If he knew what is to happen to him,I'm sure he'd choose death aswell."-"...No,I can't do it..."-"You can,but you don't want to."-"I can't,I simply can't betray him and just stab him in the back when he's not looking..."-"Then do a favor for him and have an honorable fight. Explain to him why you're fighting,and do it."-"He has someone to take care of in the real world,I can't kill him here,doing this would be the same as killing that person,and he knows it."-"He'll never leave this place after the armor completely corrupts him. In one way or another,that person will never see Marcus again."-"...You LIED to us,you said there was a way out of here!"-"There is,but you can forget about it if you do what you shouldn't. I kept telling you again and again never to do something before asking me first,but no,you just had to go out here and wear rust with rotten meat because you wouldn't be happy if you didn't."-"I tried grabbing his arm and using the mirror,he just didn't want to..."-"You could've forced it."-"So this is all my fault?"-He finally stopped gazing at the sky and turned around to face me. "I'm not the one to deny something obvious so you won't feel bad. Yes,this is your fault. It's all your fault. You had multiple chances of stopping him:before you went into the chasm,before you destroyed each orb,before you fought the worm,and before he wore the armor. This is all because of you,be a grown-up and accept it."-It seemed so clear now,each chance I had to stop him was like a needle piercing my skin. I was about to answer him,but he was right. He was absolutely right. We both knew Marcus would do something reckless,so I should've been ready for it and have a way to stop him. "I hope you understand. This is the best for him and for you."-"...Can't I remove the armor by myself right now and shove potions down his throat?"-"Right now the armor should have already found his lungs,liver and stomach. Removing it now would mean death since our potions aren't strong enough to heal him before he dies while he has potion sickness."-"...Is death truly the only way?"-"I'm afraid yes."-I was quiet,for very obvious reasons. After maybe three long minutes,Andre spoke again. "Will it be done before tomorrow's night?"-"So quickly?"-"The longer you wait,the harder it will be for you to do it. Also,the closer he will be to being corrupted."-"...I'll do it."-"Good. Please know that I'm truly sorry about this."-"Doesn't sound like it."-"I'm supposed to be ready for this. That's the way I was created."-"Then I feel sad for you."-"Don't,I don't deserve it."-He then went inside the house. I looked at the Moon,remembering our first night in this place,when we were running across the plains and the fields,and I looked at the very same Moon and thought about how beautiful it was back then. It was still beautiful,but it wasn't so pleasant to look at anymore. I went inside the house to sleep,trying to be ready for the day of tomorrow,but I simply couldn't. Marcus was looking at the furnace,smelting the ultimate reason of his yet-to-come death. His expression was serious,looking cold and silent. He would clean the ground with me if we fought,I was still a newbie,after all. "Still awake?"-He was asking,probably noticed that I was looking at him. To avoid making this harder,I pretended I was asleep,didn't talk back and closed my eyes. He looked at me one more time,thought I was asleep and went back to looking at the furnace. After somewhere about twenty to thirty minutes,I got out of bed,with the excuse of going to the bathroom. "Ok,close the door when you leave the room."-He was so clueless. Why was he so clueless?... I went outside the house to have a walk. The night was surprisingly peaceful,I only ran across two or three zombies,and no floating eyes. When I came back,Marcus was asleep,and was wearing the helmet. Probably forged outside the house,so he wouldn't wake Andre up. He looked so calm sleeping like that... I took the Vilethorn out of my backpack,went outside and shot at it with some missiles. It wasn't breaking. I tried using my axe to chop it into two. No results. I then dug a little cave,placed it in there and filled the hole with dirt. After that,I finally managed to sleep.
"Hey Hector,wake up."-Andre shoke me a bit before I opened my eyes. I immediately looked to Marcus' bed to see if he was sleeping there,but to my surprise,he wasn't. "Where's Marcus,Andrew?"-"He left earlier,said he had some things to do."-"Good,I'll eat something before he arrives."-It didn't take long for him to come back. "Where were you?"-"I went to wash my arm since it was still painful from yesterday."-"Andre,we're going. Let's go,Marcus."-"Where are we going,Hector?"-"The Corruption again,I saw a chest when we were running from the Eater of Worlds and wasn't able to open it because of the fight."-"Sure."
The chasm never looked so dark and empty,and we're talking about a place filled with rotten meat floating around,people. "It was there,can you check for me while I place some torches?"-"...sure..."-Marcus went to the direction I pointed at,and,to my surprise,started putting up some ebonstone in the form of a wall,with a hole in the middle so I could still see and talk to him. "What are you doing?"-"I heard your conversation with Andre. I understand everything."-"...you should know I have no choice..."-"Yeah,I do,and we both know I'd defeat you if we ever fought. That's why I have to do it myself."-"So what are you doing? Isolating yourself so you die of hunger?"-"When I left earlier,I came here and placed some bombs without lighting the fuses. The stone wall is here so you won't get hurt by the explosion,and none of us have pickaxes strong enough to break the ebonstone."-"...I didn't know you were still able to kill yourself,I thought the armor had already corrupted you enough."-"It has,so I placed some torches way too high for me to remove and glued them to the ceiling with a bit of gel,and covered the whole ground and bombs with gel. Since the torches aren't glued properly,they'll soon fall and burn the whole place. I'd say I have somewhere around fifty seconds."-"If I ever get out of here,I'll try my best to find her and take care of her."-"Don't,she has grown up already and can take care of herself. It was just me being overprotective."-I started to cry. I could see his eyes were watery aswell. "Get away Hector,the explosion will still hurt you,even with the wall."-"It will hurt you even more when the ground starts burning."-"It won't,the armor has become something like a shell for me. The bombs will explode somewhere around the same time,so I won't feel anything. Now leave,before I grab your neck through the hole and force you to throw waterbolts to stop the flames,because that is exactly what I'm wanting to do."-I took the mirror out of my backpack,and looked at him one last time. Why was saying goodbye so hard? "...farewell,Marcus. You were like a brother to me."-"You were like a mother,always so careful,sometimes it was boring."-"I can't believe you can make a joke at a time like now."-"The torches are almost falling. Get out of here,now."-I gazed into the magic mirror,and before I warped back to the base,I looked at him one more time,to see his eye pupils were now yellow and his skin was pale,but at the same time,he had purple veins popping all around his face. He tried to extend his arm to grab my neck like he said earlier,but before he did,I warped back home. Even surrounded by wooden walls,I was able to hear the sound of the explosion kilometers away.
"...I suppose that was why he left earlier."-Andre said to Gus while eating some mushrooms. "Hey,guys,I'm back."-I told them after getting out of our~sorry,my room.
It was a lone day. I suppose I should get used to this,since my days would now all be like this. I was in my bed all day,since I barely slept last night. "Hey,Andre,can you get some mushrooms for me to eat?"-"They would be even tastier if you went out there and picked them up yourself,princess."-"Just do it,please."-"Fine..."-I was looking at the furnace,that damn furnace,the same one that smelt the cursed iron,when I heard Andre laughing insanely. I went out to check what it was,and oh boy,what a reason.
"Do you think this one will blow herself up too?"-He said while pointing at a girl sleeping in the grass.
