:So here we are, the finale of Terry's Terraria Adventure. When I can get around to it, it's been a blast to write this story for you guys. Your support and feedback has been incredible, knowing that out there somewhere, a small group of people actually like what I write. I don't know where my writings will take me after this story, but we'll just have to find out won't we? With all of that said, I present to you...:
Terry's Terraria Adventure
Chapter 25 - Finale
I awoke the next morning. It was a day like any other, but within an hour it would be a day I'll never forget. I made my way downstairs to find Luke, ready for what lay ahead of us that day.
"Are you ready? The will be the most difficult challenge you've ever faced, but it's all or nothing from here." He said to me, shoving something into his pocket. He seemed nervous, like he had a bad feeling about the adventure.
"I am. How about you? You look anxious, almost scared..." I said, my voice full of concern. He turned away from me, let out a sigh.
"I researched the doll you brought back from your adventure a few days ago... I know of its purpose, and it's not fun..."
"What does it do?"
"It's a voodoo doll... Of me..."
"Why would we need that?"
"...You use it to summon the final challenge... By throwing it in lava."
I stared at him in horror, if it truly was a voodoo doll of Luke, he would die from me summoning the boss. Then I realized; the reason he's so scared is because the book said all of this, it had never been wrong before. He was facing his own mortality and his imminent death.
"No, I can't do that! You'll die!" I exclaimed.
"I know, but it's okay... I've... I've accepted that... I'm at peace with it..." He responded in a voice that said anything other than acceptance.
"No you aren't. And even if YOU are, I'm not. I'm not going to kill my oldest friend just to fill some quest because a damn book told me to!"
"Yes, you are. I don't like it anymore than you do, but as a guide, my purpose is to guide you to the transition. If you don't do this, I've failed as a guide."
He dug in his pocket and tossed the doll to me. I caught it and immediately Luke slammed into the floor.
"N-nice catch, dude..." He said, picking himself off of the floor.
"Sorry... But Luke-"
"No. No 'buts', this is what we've been leading up to. Go, do this, return victorious, and know that I'm proud of you. As a guide, and a friend."
I walked over to him and gave him a hug. I don't normally do that, but this felt bro-hug-worthy. I placed the doll in my bag and turned to the door. I walked outside and towards the cave that had been my entrance to the underworld a few days earlier. I walked inside and made my way into the depths of the world.
I continued into the depths of the world until I found the hole that led into the underworld. I jumped down and fell for a very long time. I saw the ground beneath me, and activated the thrusters of my boots, flying towards the ash and landing safely on it. I looked across the hellscape ahead of me, surveying my future battleground. The ash would give me some difficulty to move through, but I should be good. I'll need to be ready to jump the lava pools that dot this place. A demon flew up through my vision and above me. I looked up at at, annoyed, I let out a sigh.
"Can you wait like, five minutes?" I asked the demon. It fired purple blades of magic at me in response. I backflipped about a metre away, and the blades slammed into the ground, throwing up ash. I groaned, I wanted to save my energy, but this thing really wanted a battle.
I didn't.
I threw my sword and it impaled the demon, which began to fall. I jumped at it and grabbed my sword in mid-air. I landed on another mountain of ash and watched the demon fall into the lava. I retrieved the voodoo doll from my pocket and held it above the lava. I hesitated for only a moment, could I do this? If Luke was right, and he usually is, I will be committing murder, just to summon this monster. But then I remembered; this is what Luke wanted. Maybe not death, but he wants me to fight this thing. I let go of the doll and watched it fall. It burned up immediately upon contact with the lava, and then... Nothing. Nothing at all.
"Did I do it wrong? I thought the instructions were pretty clear...?" I asked. I realized that I had done it right when the ground began to shake under me. I fell to the ground and when I picked myself up, I saw a giant wall of flesh in front of me.
"I... Where the hell did you even...?" I began, but then I thought about that question for a second.
"Ohhh... Clever. Well guess what you oversized porkchop? You're about to... get... cooked...? Sorry, that was weak... Uh... These jokes may drive you up the wall...?"
The monster just looked confused and completely unfazed at my insults.
"...Okay, I'll uh... I let you know when I got a good one. BATTLE ON!" I yelled. The wall began to move towards me slowly, seeming to absorb any land it covered. I started to run away from it, trying to figure out a game plan. I turned on one foot and flew at the monster, planting both feet in the flesh beside its eye, slashing it upwards with my sword and back-flipping off. The monster let out a yell as I landed, rolling backwards and continuing to run. I felt something grab my leg and I tripped, slamming into the ash. Whatever had me began to pull me back towards the creature. I looked back to see an appendage retracting me into the wall. I spun around and sliced myself free of its grasp. Using my momentum, I slammed my feet into the creature's eye and planted my sword into it for good measure. It yelled and an appendage grabbed me and threw me off. I realized that I was going to need some bigger hits to do anything to it. An appendage shot out of the creature's mouth, I reached into my backpack and grabbed a grenade. It latched onto my leg and pulled me towards the creature. I cut myself free once more, and tossed the grenade into the creature's mouth. It exploded and the creature roared. that one had really hurt.
"I don't know about you, but I'm having a blast!" I said, landing on my feet.
"Nah, that was pretty bad... Gimme a minute." I activated my jet boots and flew to one side of the cave, landing on the wall, I flew forward and sliced the creature as I passed, I swung vertically downwards, relieving the wall of one of its eyes.
"That comes off?" I asked the creature. It glared at me and a noticed something about the lower eye; it was glowing near the pupil. I was puzzled until it fired a laser at me which I barely dodged.
"That's new. Thank you for enlighten-" The creature fired another laser at me, cutting me off.
"Alright, alright! The other one's next, by the way."
I threw some grenades at the floor, which were about eye-level, and jumped at the eye, causing a gash in it.
"But wait, there's more!" I jumped off and used my jet boots to hover just ahead of the creature, swinging my sword quickly, causing massive damage. I flew to the back wall of the cave and jumped off, blasting towards the monster. Remembering this from earlier, the monster shot lasers and small chunks of flesh, equipped with mouths, at me. I dodged the lasers and sliced any of the flying-mouth-creatures that got in my way. I did an upward vertical slice and removed the second eye. The monster cried out in pain, and then shot an appendage from its mouth, latching on to my sword arm. It retracted my towards the mouth, intent on eating me whole. I planted one foot on the upper jaw, and the other foot on the lower jaw.
"I've already been eaten once! It's not something i want to try again, thank you very much!" I yelled. The appendage was still trying to pull me in, but I transferred my sword to my left hand and chopped myself free. I jumped off, but not before leaving a parting gift of a handful of grenades, thrown into the mouth. The grenades exploded, causing the monster to shriek and giving me a window to attack. I jumped onto the creature and sliced at it, finishing my assault with a stab, and ripping my blade through its flesh. I fell off and landed on the ash, staring at the creature, which proceeded to come towards me.
"What does it take to kill you?! I swear, I'll literally cut your lips off. I already chopped your eyes, you think I won't do that?" I said, getting annoyed. I got up, and an appendage shot from the wall, grabbing my sword arm again, it pulled me off of my feet and threw me some distance ahead of its path. I looked beneath me, to mind my landing and saw that my trajectory would land me in a pool of lava, so I activated my jet boots to go up and slammed into a cliff of ash. On the upside; this was the most painful thing the wall had done to me at this point because I had dodged everything else. On the downside; it felt like someone had just shattered every bone in my body. I managed to drink a health potion from my bag, which returned me to a battle-ready state. Down to my limit, I had one last idea of how to finish off the boss. I could see it approaching in the distance, and when I saw it begin to push through the lava in front of me, I jumped at it getting as close to the bottom of it as I could. I dug my sword in, deep, and activated the jet boots. I flew up, nearly tearing this thing in half length-wise as I rose. When I got to the top, I took my sword out, and jabbed a brand new wound in the creature about a meter to the right of the first. I deactivated my jet boots, and fell, cutting a gash through the creature, letting gravity do the work. Just before I landed in the lava, I jumped off and threw some grenades at it for good measure. The creature let out a deafening yell, before falling silent and completely stopping. I watched as the creature faded out of existence, leaving a large treasure chest in its place.
I opened the box, and inside was a plaque with some flesh on it. That is actually gross, and I've been eaten, so I know what "gross" is. The box also contained a rather large hammer that was silver with gold accents, and what looked to be a rifle made of gears and metal. The box also contained several gold coins, of which I pocketed. I closed the box and suddenly the ground beneath my feet began to shake.
"Don't tell me I've got to fight another one?!" I said, getting my sword out and getting myself into my battle stance. But then the shaking stopped, and there was nothing different. I decided that I'd get out while I still could, and used my Magic Mirror to teleport back to the surface.
When I finished warping, I looked around to find any landmarks at all to find my way home. I saw the dungeon, and began to walk away from it. I was only a little while out, so I reached ShadowDragon Cove in minutes. I opened the door and saw Xylia, waiting in the hall.
"Welcome home, Terry." She said to me.
"Hello, Xylia... I assume Luke is..." My voice trailed off and I waved my hand dismissively. She looked at the floor, silent, and I knew he was gone.
"I wasn't expecting much, honestly, Luke has always been pretty spot on with this sort of thing..." I said, sighing.
"Don't feel too bad, Terry. Luke knew what he was doing all this time, he knew what your progress was leading up to."
"I know, he told me as much before I left. I'm still not going to feel good about it, though."
"That's understandable." We fell silent, just staring at our feet.
"So what now? We transitioned, or at least I think we did. If that quake wasn't the transition, I don't think I want to know what it was." I asked, breaking the silence.
"Yes, we did. The world's going to change. Like, a lot. You know the Corruption?" She asked.
"You realize we met in the Corruption, yes?"
"Well, there's a new kind of area. It's basically the opposite of the Corruption. Instead of everything looking like an interpretation of a horror story creature, it's all bright colors and happy looking. Just happy LOOKING, however, it's easily as dangerous as the Corruption, if not more."
"What's this new place called?"
"The Hallow."
"Cool. Anything else I should know about the changes?"
"Everything's going to get a lot more... 'Hardcore', if you will. The enemies are gonna get tougher, so you'll need to as well. Even the bosses you've fought in the past; The Eye of Cthulhu, The Eater of Worlds, all of them. They're all back, pissed off, and stronger than before. But here's the fun part; all that stuff being more difficult just means there's better loot to steal, and better loot in general. There's even more people that'll join our village, if you know where to look."
"Do you?"
"...no, but there's another Guide on their way. They should be here in-"
"Wait wait wait, another Guide? Like, to replace Luke?"
"As much as I hate the idea, yes. Luke was a great person, it just feels weird to gloss over his death like this."
"Although..."
"'Although' what?"
"Luke knew what he was doing... He knew what our progress was leading up to..."
"Are you saying...?"
"I'm saying that if Luke knew, then he'd know we'd be getting a replacement. He'd want us to move on, I'm certain."
"I suppose that makes sense... Kind of."
"We don't have to forget about Luke, I know I won't, but he sacrificed himself to get here, so let's go as far as we can with it."
Xylia looked down again, as if thinking about everything. Then she looked up, and nodded.
"Okay, I suppose all we can do right now is wait..." She said.
"You said you knew when he should be getting here...?"
"Let's put it this way: go get some sleep, they won't be here for a long while yet..." I nodded and walked to the stairs, pausing on the bottom stair. I turned back, looking at Xylia.
"Was it worth it? Everything we've done, everything we've been through, the things we've gained, the things we've lost... Was it worth it? Because let me tell you, right now, it doesn't feel that way..." I asked. The dryad was silent, motionless in deep thought. She looked up at me, as if ready to give her answer.
"Good night, Terry." She said, and walked down the hall. I heard the sound of a door closing and I knew she had no intentions of telling me. I walked up the stairs, passing by Luke's room. I closed the door, and entered my room. I lay down on my stretcher.
"Oh, Luke, we never did get those beds... Oh well, another chore for tomorrow." I said, closing my eyes.
I drifted off to sleep.