Chapter 3: The Purple People Eater

Life was calm for a few days after Medulla's arrival. Cyrus' original plan to storm on down to the corruption was stopped when he realized that the town was running dangerously low on room; once again, he set upon expanding the village to make room for their new guests, and Cyrus had a feeling that Medulla and Cthylla would be the first of many visitors. What started as a low-lying hut hidden in a forest was now a series of tall structures, composed of stone brick and lumber. In addition, he had finally gotten glass for windows, meaning the citizens of the town could look outside during night without being bowled over by an sentient eyeball.

The world Cyrus found himself in proved diverse beyond imagining, with snowy hills and rolling desert within a day's travel of his home base. Of course, that awful Crimson was nearby as well, close enough to send shivers down his spine whenever he imagined it, and he knew for certain that there was another place of similar evil out there somewhere, waiting for him.

The moon was full and bright, but all Cyrus could feel was a churning deep in his stomach about what his expedition to the Corruption might hold.

Several days of searching had gone on with nothing to show for it except some truly monstrous bug bites from the sweltering jungle. Today seemed like just as much of a bust as the rest of his trips when he saw something in the distance, a thoroughly unnatural shade of deep purple. When he got closer, he couldn't shake off the strangest feeling of… wrongness. It disturbed him just as much as the visceral hills of the Crimson did, but the Corruption felt different, like a sullying of the world, of its natural order. Even from a distance, he could see how the plants grew strange and twisted, how the thorns choked the ground, the strange creatures that floated above the purple plains, their thick mandibles looking too large for their bodies. Some voice deep in this mind begged for him to turn back from this aberration in the land, this warping of the natural order.

However, Cyrus carried on, using his spear to cut away at the thick brambles which covered the land like a carpet and to fend off the flying creatures which haunted this blasted heath. And then he came to a great chasm which tore through the land as if the earth itself had been torn asunder. He looked down into the gap, and felt a horrible calling, as if some deep part of him just wished to leap in and fall…

He did leap in, once securing a rope to the chasm's edge, and as he descended into the fetid chasm he nearly choked on the stench, his grip loosening on the rough purple rock which seemed to be swallowing him whole. He reached the bottom of the chasm, landing boot deep in shallow, purple water.

Lifting a torch to peer into the inky black of the chasm, Cyrus couldn't help but wonder if there was anything like the throbbing hearts of the Crimson buried here in this strange, eldritch rock, and what sort of strange monster mad this cursed land its home?

The glowing purple orbs buried in the corruption were no less horrifying than the throbbing hearts of the crimson, but they also shared the same weakness to being crushed by hammers. Now that he expected it, he could feel the faint rumbling under his feet every time he crushed one, and before crushing the third orb he drank his potions, pulled back his hammer, and swung.

He heard a ear-splitting roar that echoed in the cramped chasm, and turned to see a tremendous worm barreling towards him, its mouth gleaming with row upon row of fangs behind four thick mandibles. Panicked, Cyrus ran towards his rope and began to climb, pulling himself up the rope with all his strength as the raced towards him before it turned skywards to catch him from below.

Cyrus swung with all his weight to the side, as the great Worm missed him by mere inches, and then Cyrus had a revelation, jamming his pickaxe into the tough, reeking flesh of the worm as it soared skywards, and he leapt from the beast's side as it emerged from the canyon.

Rolling on the rough ground, Cyrus got to his feet and gaped as the worm continued to rise, easily sixty meters long, the putrid flesh dotted with rolling eyes that cried a vile acid. The Worm reached its apex before turning towards him and diving. Dodging to the side, Cyrus pulled his spear and sunk it into the beast's flank, and the beast's incredible speed tore a massive gash into its side, splattering the ground with a strange green acid that bubbled and popped on the ground.

The beast shrieked, the sound shaking the ground and Cyrus turned just in time to see the beast rising from the ground like a shark from the water, teeth gnashing and mandibles chattering. Waiting until the last moment, Cyrus sprung to the side, planting his spear in the ground and letting the Worm tear itself to ribbons on his spear. The beast looped and spiraled in the air, dripping its corrosive blood as Cyrus dodged while trying to keep on eye on the Worm's head.

It dove towards him, and once more the spear struck true, but this time one of the segments shook itself loose and began to fly independently, so now two half length worms soared through the air, criss crossing in air like they were threads forming knots. Cyrus realized immediately that he wouldn't be able to handle any more independent worms and began to aim his attacks at the head.

Segment by segment, Cyrus chipped away at the worm's tremendous length, until only one section remained and charged him, and he planted his spear in the ground and let the beast charge itself to death. Once again, the air was filled with a foul smoke, this time a deep shade of purple, and when it cleared he could see a very unusual girl.

Her hair was dark brown, very wavy, and fell all the way to her hips, and her hips were really the place where things got interesting. From her hips down she didn't have legs, but instead a long, worm-like body that reminded him of the boss he just defeated. Half woman and half…. Worm thing? At this point, the world really didn't surprise him anymore. He managed to scoop up her upper body (he was strong, but not strong enough to lift several meters of worm) and pulled the mirror from his pocket.

At least Garret was willing to help carry her inside.

"Why am I even surprised anymore?" Abigail sighed, "If you keep on pulling stuff like this Cyrus, I'll need you to build me a hospital. Put her in that bed over there, and behave yourself for the rest of the day."

Cyrus' teeth rattled with the force of the explosion, and the rope he was hanging on swung wildly in the massive shaft he had "excavated" with help from Gimli. Carefully lighting another stick of dynamite, he dropped it waited, expecting more boring stone, or if he was really lucky, a cave. Instead, the floor gave way under the explosive, crumbling into a truly massive space, lit with deep reds and oranges. Cautiously, lowered himself down, to find himself hanging above Hell, with only his rope keeping him from falling.

The infernal landscape had a sort of terrible beauty, great mountains and cliffs composed of a dark sort of ash, broken up by smooth pools of lava or great rushing falls of lava which flowed around towering structures of black and red bricks. Demons and fiery bats flew through the choking, sulfurous air. Cyrus turned to see a demon flying towards him, long fangs bared, carrying something small in its back claw, and it tackled into him, all sharp claws and fangs, knocking him from his rope and the two grappled in air.

The beast's claws tore through his army like it was paper, but Cyrus held on for dear life while pulling his pistol from his belt as the two plummeted in the air. His eyes were watering in the stinging air, but the demon was so close it was impossible to miss, and after emptying his revolver's entire cylinder into the beast before it disintegrated into a smoke. Cyrus snatched whatever the creature was carrying, something small and soft, but he was too focused on tearing his mirror from his pocket as plummeted n towards the lava, which wasn't looking quite as pretty when it was racing towards your face.

"Ugh!" Cyrus crashed into the ground with force before he stumbled to his feet, dusting hellish ash and mundane dirt off of his dulled and bloodstained armor. Then he got tackled by a supernatural entity for the second time in five minutes.

"Are you alright?" Cthylla had a vice-like grip on his arm, and she scanned his body for injuries before dragging him in the direction of Abigail.

"It's fine. I need to talk with Garrett, I found something down there." he said, lifting his hand to show a small, slightly charred doll, and now that he was seeing it in daylight, the similarities to Garrett were obvious, from the matching clothes to the brown hair.

"You were torn to ribbons… for a doll?" Cthylla glared at him and pulled with more force, and Cyrus conceded.

"You're an idiot, you know that?" Abigail had disinfected his wounds and sutured them, but when Cyrus tried to sit up she pushed him down. "Don't you dare. I sewed your wounds shut, you are not going to go out there and tear them open."

"Well, could you get Garret, then?"

"I suppose. Cthylla, if he tries to stand up, stop him."

"Really? Come on!"

"Doctor's orders."

Garrett walked into the town's defacto nursery to see Cyrus in bed while Cthylla and Medulla orbited around his bed. "What did you need me for, Cyrus?"

"While I was exploring, I found something, and I figure you'd be the expert about it." he said, lifting a small doll that bore a remarkable similarity to Garrett, plain clothes and all.

Garret's eyes widened, and he took the doll in his hands. "This… this is something that will help us later, I think. We'll need it in the future, and it's good we got one now. I'll…. I'll tuck it away until we need it." Garrett had a strange, melancholic expression on his face as he looked down at the doll before he left the room.

"What was that? He didn't even really tell us what it did!" Cyrus' brows furrowed. "It feels like there's so much I don't understand here!"

"You should calm down, you know. We're always learning new things" Medulla murmured, pushing her glasses up her nose and giving a reassuring smile. "You're doing so much exploration, of course you'll run into things you haven't seen before." She took his hand. "And we'll be here to help you, after all."

Cthylla sat on his other side and took hold of his other arm. "Yeah! I'm sure we'll figure it out!" she shouted, her infectious smile spreading to Cyrus.

"Ugggh…. Who's that? Where am I?" The ex-Eater of Worlds sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes (both the ones in her head and the ones dotting the worm section of body, which was definitely a little strange) and yawning.

Cyrus tried to get up, but Cthylla pushed him back into the bed. "You're staying there, Cyrus. Anyways, you're in our little village. Cyrus' little village?" Her head tilted to the side. "I'm Cthylla, the lady with the pink hair is Medulla, and Cyrus is the fool in the hospital bed."

"My name is Annelida." She gave a warm smile that reached her green eyes. All two dozen of them. It was a little unnerving, having all those eyes staring at him, but Cyrus couldn't help but think that she had a unique beauty all her own. She toyed with a purple-gray scarf wrapped around her neck, twirling it gently.

With a bit of effort, she lowered her tail off the bed and slid off the bed with all the fluid grace of a snake. For some reason, the word lamia came to Cyrus' mind, although he had never heard of or even seen such a creature before.

Cyrus wasn't sure if slither was the right word for a worm, but that's what she seemed to do, until she was standing right next to him and his bed. "Well, I'm glad to have met you and your friends, Cyrus."

"You need a new suit of armor. The old one's too far gone." Cthylla said, idly swinging her legs as she leaned over to look at Cyrus.

"I could just forge a new set with the same old materials…"

All three girls in the room glared at Cyrus, and he decided to shut up. "Well… maybe we could scrape something new together? Say, do you have any crimtane or demonite?"

"Yeah, we have some… But I've never had any luck shaping them into armor or picks. Like something's missing…"

Annelida looked up. "I might have something that could help with that." She reached down to her tail, grabbed on, and gave a tug. She lifted up a small, grey-purple scale that almost seemed to suck in the warm torchlight and whatever daylight snuck into the room. "I've just got a feeling!"

After a few hours, as the sun began to set, Annelida and Medulla returned, with food, and with pieces of dark purple armor. "Ta-da! One brand new set of Shadow Armor!" exclaimed, puffing her chest out in pride.

"Really, you're calling it Shadow Armor?" Cthylla rolled her eyes and giggled.

"I think it's a great name." Cyrus said, smiling at the pair.

Medulla flushed. "… Thank you. But you still need bed rest, and I won't fall for your flattery!"

Annelida sidled up to him. "Now just sit back and rest. The merchant has told me about this thing that you humans do for their sick companions!" She pulled out a small knife and an apple, but seemed to struggle with cutting it, and she huffed in disappointment as she cut off thick chunks of apple which fell to the floor.

Cyrus woke up late at night, squinting to see in the gentle and moonlight, and startled a little until he realized the person standing at his bedside was just Annelida, who gave him a smile. "I wanted to thank you. For knocking me out of that crazed state I was in."

"It was nothing. I was just trying to help."

She leaned towards him "Oh, so modest! But I would like to give you two things, as tokens of my gratitude." She carefully unwound the scarf around her neck and then held it out to Cyrus. "It's made of incredibly tough stuff. Attacks will just bounce off of it, and all things considered, I think you'll need it, considering how you got into such a nasty fight earlier today."

"And that's… one?" Cyrus said, quirking his brow.

She wrapped him in a crushing hug, and he could feel the surprisingly smooth coils of her tail wrapping around his body. "And this is the other" she whispered, and all of a sudden Cyrus felt so very sleepy….

He woke up to a surprisingly shrill voice. "What are you doing here, Annelida?!"

It took Cyrus a few days of bed rest to get back to full health, but soon enough the girls were accompanying him on walks outdoors to bring him back to his full strength. Soon enough the four of them, plus the dryad Nissa, were relaxing outside for something of a picnic.

"So…. What other strong monsters are out there? Like us?" Cthylla's eyes sparkled with curiosity as she turned to look at Nissa.

"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I have some sort of sense about powerful creatures like you three. It's how I realized that Cyrus had defeated you in the first place. I've got a strange gut feeling about the jungle… I can sense that something powerful waits there, deep underground."

Medulla leaned forward, "Have you ever sensed anything else?"

Nissa paused to think. "Sometimes during night I feel a strange presence to the east, and I had the oddest feeling when Cyrus was taking his trip underground. Like something terrible was about to happen."

"Any more sage advice for us, Mrs. Guru?" Annelida seemed to be sunning herself, stretching out the length of her tail in the grass.

"I've got a feeling…" Nissa leaned forward, gesturing with her hands "that it's going to rain."

"Really? That's it?" Annelida's rolled her eyes, creating a confusing whirling pattern down the length of her tail. And then she froze for a moment before sighing in disappointment "and the rain's already started. Wonderful."

Cyrus held out his hand, and caught a drop of the rain in his palm. The sticky, purple colored rain. "I don't think this is a normal rainstorm…."

Aaand cut. King Slime is up next folks (and she will be a chick, don't worry). So for today's name trivia, Annelida is the name of a taxonomic phylum, the one that worms, leeches, and the like fall into. Hopefully I've written her to be a bit more charming than the average member of her phylum. I tried to imply a sort of vaguely Lovecraftian horror for the Corruption, did it work? This is the longest chapter yet, and I'd love to get more criticism about my writing. I did originally start writing Fanfiction to improve my writing skills, after all.