Another One Bites the Dust

Cyrus and Annelia eventually set out for the corruption and the unearthly blue light emanating from it- both to destroy the pillar and to look around. Admittedly, Cyrus had seen very little of that strange, blighted land (not that he particularly wanted to) and hadn't even visited since he killed the Wall of Flesh and things got really weird.

The first thing he noticed was that the corruption was much bigger than before, which was concerning. Of course, he understood that the crimson and corruption were spreading, but seeing the grass and trees slowly turning from verdant green to dark purple was proof. Was this something he could stop? He hoped so, considering just how foul these places were.

Once again he was struck by that powerful sense of wrongness, that whatever this corruption was, it was thoroughly unnatural. He stopped walking as he tried to calm his stomach- he swore it wasn't this bad before, but now he wanted to wretch. "Cyrus! Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I think. There's just something off about the corruption- do you feel it?"

Her head tilted. "Something… off? It feels alright to me. Just like home."

"I don't doubt it… but this place takes a bit of getting used to. Let's take it nice and slow- I can't imagine throwing up all over the pillar would be that effective."

Eventually, they got close enough that the sky seemed dyed the same blue color as the light- of course, the sky was normally blue, but there was something unusually vivid about it, a deep royal blue broken up by dozens of bright blue floating stars that gleamed in the air.

Cyrus nearly jumped when he saw another flying centipede-like creature, but fortunately it was a of a different breed compared to the flying train that the solar pillar created. It did eventually catch on to Cyrus and Annelida, and while it did approach them, it wove through the skies at a relatively slower pace.

He managed to defeat it with his yoyo, and while it was an effective weapon, it made him feel like a bit of a tool. Annelida's laughter didn't help. "Is that a… combat yoyo?"

"Yes, it is." Cyrus really couldn't blame her for snickering.

Of course, there were more than just one type of enemies- Cyrus knocked strange, tentacled creatures out of the sky as they summoned creatures which flew at them like bullets. Strange human figures with brilliantly glowing lights on their heads and chests fired off lasers which cut through the hard purple crags of the corruption. Creatures with gaping mouths clambered across the ground, disgusting little monsters springing from the malformed mouth; at the same time strange creatures, like gigantic amoebas, drifted through the sky.

Their pace was a bit more relaxed, as Cyrus knew full well that it took a lot of time to kill enough enemies for the barrier to collapse in on itself. All the while there were the more mundane dangers of the corruption- great chasms and massive bushes of spiraling thorns.

Despite this, Cyrus and Annelida talked idly as they navigated the strange purple landscapes under the dark blue skies- there was enough light to see by, but he couldn't see the sun- only the moon, which suddenly seemed a lot bigger than before. When did it get that close?

"So… do you think you're ready for whatever's coming, Cyrus?"

"Who knows? I've survived before, haven't I?"

She glared at him, the eyes along her wavy tail narrowing. "You're alive, sure, but you've had a lot of close calls."

"Yeah, but it's gotta stop at some point, right?"

"I'm worried it will stop when you get killed!" As if to prove her point, one of the strange blue creatures, the bipedal type, fired off a laser that cut into a chink in his armor, causing Cyrus to hiss in pain. With one fluid move Cyrus avenged his injury, striking the offending creature with a yoyo directly to the face, while two counterweights crushed into its ribcage (or whatever passed for a ribcage in these things).

"Are you alright?" Annelida rushed to his side, holding onto his arm although the impact was decreased a little since her comforting embrace meant she was pressing up against stiff, chitinous armor. Still, he appreciated the sentiment, especially considering the general creepiness of the Corruption and the deep sense of unease it seemed to instill in him. He supposed Annelida would make living in the Corruption a little better.

"I think so… little attacks get through the chinks all the time." Cyrus shrugged.

"That's not the sort of thing you should be nonchalant about!"

Even from a distance they could hear a tremendous shattering noise as the barrier separating the pillar from the mundane world caved in on itself, leaving its occupant open for attack, although certainly not defenseless

This pillar was similar anatomically to orange counterpart, although it glowed with a strange blue light instead of a vivid, solar orange. The blue stars that filled the area poured from the pillar's top in an uncontrolled torrent, and they would occasionally be drawn together into the shapes of monsters.

It was getting hard to breath now, the air so thick with gleaming blue stars it was almost impossible to inhale without a few sneaking down your windpipe. Despite their beautiful appearance, they felt more like grit in his mouth than stars- and he definitely didn't want to find out what would happen if enough of the stuff collected in his lungs to spawn one of the creatures.

Annelida had a sort of aetheral look around her, covered in gently glowing stardust, but despite how appealing she looked in the royal blue light, he knew that something was up here. The pillar was just as unnatural as the corruption it stood in, and if Cyrus had learned anything it was that appearances were deceiving more often than not.

It was strange and alien- as if it had simply fallen from the sky and struck earth, bringing things that mankind wasn't meant to know from far beyond the stars. Actually, that may have been what happened- who knows how weird magical pillars moved around? They probably didn't get up and walk.

His yoyo proved just as effective as it always did, cutting great gouges into the strange, alien flesh of the pillar, which let out a strange, warbling cry that was painful to listen to. He took care to strike down the swarms of enemies which it spawned- it did lengthen the fight, but since he was with Annelida he couldn't just hop around through the air and leave her on the ground.

When he struck the blue pillar down, he caught a glimpse of the strange blue lights hanging in the air and another girl, whose hair was a brightly glowing blue. He just managed to catch her before his knees buckled under him, his body wracked with shooting pain that felt as hot as the stars. Through the pain he could feel acrid bile climbing up his throat, but before he could throw up in his helmet he managed to grab Annelida and the mirror before teleporting away.

Cyrus managed to wrestle his helmet off of his head before he started throwing up in an extremely messy fashion- he was in too much pain to find somewhere more appropriate to lose his lunch. Fortunately, Annelida managed to disentangle herself and their newest guest from Cyrus before he made a mess of them too.

Slowly, he stopped vomiting and Annelida gently took his head onto her lap as the pain slowly ebbed, until it was just a dull ache. Vaguely, he realized that she was tidying up his hair, and after some amount of time (he wasn't really in a state to tell) he looked up at her. "Thanks, but what about the blue haired girl?"

Annelida scoffed. "You collapse to the ground and start vomiting and your first concern is someone else. Of course. Terra picked her up and brought her to the sick room- which you might need to expand if we're getting two more of 'em."

Cyrus sat up and stretched. He felt drained, and not just in a physical way; it almost reminded him of the mind numbing effects of the previous pillar's destruction. As silly as it sounded, his brain ached- if this was what destroying the pillars did to him, he should probably start spacing it out more.

"Let me guess- in spite of the obvious dangers, you're going to go out and kill the others?"

He grinned even if he really didn't feel like it deep down. "Might take a longer break this time and get a check-up with Abigail… but I've got to get the job done."

"You're insufferable."

"You know you love me."

Annelida flushed before murmuring something he couldn't quite catch, although he got the general gist of it from her burning cheeks. She huffed, "Well, let's get you to Abigail then- you've been sitting out here for ages!"

He received a clean bill of health, although he certainly didn't feel like it. Surprisingly, Abigail held back from any jokes at his expense, but it was possible she pitied him- even if he was supposed to be perfectly healthy, he was pale and shaking like a leaf.

Afterwards, they headed down in the direction of the kitchen in order to make up for whatever he vomited out on the grass. There was a delightful, savory smell in the halls which came from the kitchen, and Cyrus followed as quickly as he dared. Maybe there was nothing wrong with him, but it certainly didn't feel like it after collapsing the pillar. The gleaming stardust felt strange in his pockets- completely weightless, but oddly resistant to movement. He would have to drop it off with Asteria later- she would make something useful out of it, he was sure.

If Asteria's weird stellar magic thing was her talent, than Bea and to a lesser extent Terra had cooking in addition to the latter's blacksmithing abilities. He wasn't really the domestic type, but maybe he could give it another shot once they were just a little safer. Cooking was a more… constructive pursuit? Fighting was all well and good, but there was something a little more satisfying about building things up- bricklaying certainly didn't get the adrenaline pumping, but it didn't get you killed.

"What's cooking?" Cyrus couldn't tell, but he was sure it would be good; after Bea arrived, he had never eaten a lackluster meal- at least one that she had prepared. Occasionally Cyrus would bring a bit of food just to fill him up when exploring, but it never tasted as good as home cooking, which was not a big surprise.

"Oh, just a bit of game from the forests- I wanted to do something with seafood, but Andi told me that it wasn't a good time to stop by the beach."

"Why?"

"Some cryptic warning about what sort of things the pillar might attract- you could probably see them for miles out offshore."

Cyrus felt his eye twitching- that had to be an event flag, and of course that meant the next time he headed down to the beach there would be trouble. He sighed. "Guess I'll check it out in a few days- don't want some big sea monster rolling up."

Terra got a funny look in her eyes. "Say… if you do find a big sea monster, could you haul it back here? Like a big kraken or something- imagine all the calimari!"

"I'm not sure if we have the facilities to cook an entire sea monster."

"Then we can just ask Cyrus to build a bigger kitchen!"

"I think he has better things to do." Short term, that was probably true, but Cyrus hoped that he could build more impressive structures once everything was a bit more peaceful- he was thinking of a big castle or something. The village was nice, but some part of him wanted a big palatial structure to overlook the land- if everybody got of this alright, the world was their oyster, so to speak.

Dinner was a stew of some kind, and Cyrus inhaled it nearly as quickly as Terra did; thankfully there was enough for everyone to have second portions. After nearly burning his throat, Cyrus looked over to Asteria- she was a ways down the table. "Hey Asteria, I've got some more of those fragment things for you."

He pulled them out of his pocket, letting them go so they drifted above his hands like miniature constellations. Their glow was also noticeable, vivid blue light reflecting off of everyone's faces in a way that didn't feel natural- something about it made familiar faces look alien.

Asteria caught them in her hands, clumping them together until only hints of blue light could be seen between her fingers. "Interesting. I'll see what I can do with it." She left the table without further ado, clearly uninterested in any more food- her hunger was for knowledge, apparently.

After a couple of moments of silence, Terra spoke up. "If I may ask… what happened when you defeated the pillar, Cyrus? You certainly didn't look alright."

Cyrus flushed a little under the worried looks the girls were sending his way, but after a bit of delay he answered. "Defeating the pillar did… something. The first one had this strange mind-numbing effect, and this one was horribly painful."

"Are you alright?" Cthylla was looking at him with renewed interest- well more interest than usual- scanning his body for wounds that weren't there.

"I certainly don't want to be experiencing it again anytime soon, but Abigail says I'm healthy even if I didn't feel like it."

Terra grinned. "I'm certain the lap pillow made you feel better."

Cyrus and Annelida flushed as quite a few pairs of eyes turned towards them.

That night, Cyrus dreamt of choppy seas and towering waves, a panicked crew navigating by the light of a pair of beacons burning brilliantly in the distance, pale green and vivid pink…

He woke up a little late the morning afterwards, but he felt justified in lazing around a little- he definitely wanted to be well rested for the next pillar. He certainly hoped it wasn't as painful as the second pillar- he never thought he would have preferred the mind numbing effects of the first, but it was better than the screaming pains he had suffered yesterday.

After a relatively quiet breakfast, Cyrus was left with the question of what to do with his day- he certainly didn't feel like charging out to the next pillar. Some rest and relaxation would be nice, the question was where; he had the luxury of several options now.

Some part of him was curious about the ocean- maybe it was the naval dream he had, but some part of him desperately wanted to go for a beach trip, even knowing full well that a possible threat was sailing close. Some part of him wondered if this was just his fighting urge. Did he really want to go to the beach because it was relaxing, or did he want to because it meant he could pick a fight? Was that all he was good for?

Cyrus shook his head and decided to start packing. He grabbed his fishing rod, hoping to catch something that wouldn't try to maul him, but he made sure to pack his yoyo as well. While he was considering potential company for his trip, he bumped into one his potential candidates.

"Hiya, Cyrus." Aqua gave him a saccharine smile, showing off her notable canines, along with her fin-like wings, that she wasn't fully human. "What are you up to?"

"I was preparing for a trip to the beach, if you'd like to come along-" she bolted off before he could finish his sentence, and he couldn't help but grin. It was nice to see someone so excited when he was worried about the pillars- surely they could hold up along enough for him to take a few beach trips, right? And if worse to came to worst… A long idle day on the beach would be a good way to cap everything off, so to speak.

He decided to spend a bit longer searching for potential guests, even if he didn't plan on dragging everyone out for a beach day. The first person he bumped into while wandering around was Titania, who seemed laser focused on cleaning her wings- she was craning with a mirror, trying to find any blemishes, imperfections, or stains on those pristine wings.

"You know, a friend really helps with this sort of thing." Cyrus knew from experience- it was so much easier to get someone else to tidy up your wings- by their very nature they were incredibly inconvenient.

"Not everyone has harem girls like you do, Cyrus."

Normally, bringing up the h-word would have sent Cyrus into a defensive rant, but he decided to continue the argument. "Most people have these things called friends- and they'll do favors for you, no romantic connections required."

"I can do it alone."

"Yeah, but not as well as somebody else could do it for you. How do you think Roxanne makes a living? We could all try styling our own hair, but…"

Titania snorted in a rather indelicate fashion. "I can't imagine what things were like before she arrived- did you cut your hair with a shortsword?"

Cyrus flushed for a moment and Titania burst out laughing. "You're kidding! You're telling me you got girls to fall for you while hacking off your hair with a sword?"

"And you think I can't attract women with my roguish charms?" Titania let out another peal of laughter- why did such an irritating woman have such a nice laugh?- and Cyrus decided to change the subject and salvage his ego. "Anyways, do you want to come to the beach?"

"Why? If you just want to perv on me-"

"Do you even have a swimsuit? You showed up after our big beach trip. It's a nice change of pace, that's all."

She stared at him for a moment before letting out a long sigh. "… why not? I must admit that that I've never seen the ocean before- the Hallow doesn't touch it, you see."

Cyrus grinned. "See? You'll love it."

"Any more comments like that and I won't go at all."

The beach was warm and balmy, and even through his armor Cyrus could smell the brisk salt air. He wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to do just yet- he would like to take a swim without being pursued by a deadly fish monster.

Speaking of Aqua, had practically sprinted down to the water and dove in before the sea froth could even touch his boots. Titania seemed happy to sit back on a towel- maybe she was sunbathing? Cyrus wasn't sure what good that would do her- she literally glowed in darker rooms. She had somehow acquired a shorter cut skirt, although Cyrus knew that staring would provoke a potential laser assault.

Cyrus looked out to the ocean, trying to see if conditions would be good for fishing- of course, he wasn't an expert with this sort of thing, but things seemed pretty good- until his staining eyes caught something above the horizon- sails.

"Aqua! Hey Aqua!" he shouted over the waves, and after a few moments she swam over, gracefully rising from the water directly in front of him. She swam strangely, using her fin-like wings to boost her speed (with velocity that put Cyrus' fastest swimming to shame) and adjust her course.

"Could you… check out that thing over there?" he pointed in the direction of the sails on the horizon. "Just… be careful please."

"Alrighty then." She smiled and dove back into the sea, diving deep beneath the surface. Suddenly, Cyrus wondered if she was capable of breathing underwater somehow- did she have hidden gills, maybe? She knew her own health better than he did, so he decided to trust her- he couldn't do breathing down her neck.

Aqua cut through the water, staying deep beneath the surface until she occasionally had to come up for breath. When she got closer, she recognize that it was a ship of some kind, and its great square sails were visible from quite a way away. She grinned before deciding to ham things up a little; afterwards she started circling the old fashioned boat in a rather shark-like fashion, even raising up her fin to spook them a little.

The pirates were practically sagging with relief, with land in sight. Sure, they had been guided ashore by those strange beacons, which were probably a very bad sign, but the land looked rich and fertile- even if they had to push people off of it.

Through a spyglass, they caught the hints of structures on land: just a few small shacks set up the shore, but it meant that they couldn't just sit down and settle here. That was their plan, actually- as profitable as piracy might be, the high seas were dangerous and full of vicious creatures. They had heard rumors of that terrible ruler of the seas, the Fishron, but they hadn't seen hide or hair of it recently (fin or scale?) despite this general region being its home range.

A few of them were hopeful that it had wandered off or maybe even been defeated, but they all froze when they heard shouting from their lookout. "Fishron, Fishron!" They all snapped to attention, and they could see hints of a strange aquamarine fin looping around their ship.

Admittedly, it could have been just about anything, but they had heard rumors of the monster, of aquamarine skin and ivory fangs. Sure, the fin was pretty small, but they panicked anyways- you didn't sail the seas without knowing about the Fishron.

They scrambled to pull out muskets, crossbows, and even blunderbusses which they desperately pointed off the sides of the ship- the fin stuck so close to the ship that they couldn't point the cannons down enough to shoot at it.

The fin's owner almost seemed playful, flitting around the ship and happily diving under and around the boat, and after one last dive the fin just… disappeared, even if the fear it instilled remained. What the hell was that?

Back on shore, Cyrus saw that the ship was still slowly approaching, and after a few moments Aqua smoothly rose from the water. "It's a pirate ship."

"Like an honest to goodness pirate ship with cannons and stuff?"

"Yep! They've even got a big ol' skull and crossbones." She gave him a worrying grin. "I think I spooked them a little with my fins."

"Did you try to scare them on purpose?" Aqua was suddenly fascinated by the intricate workings of his breastplate- it was better than looking him the eyes, after all.

"Uhh… maybe. They were shooting at me!" Cyrus started a little at that, but she seemed completely healthy- not a scratch on her or her wings, which were massive targets.

"Did they started shooting after you scared them?"

Aqua answered with a very quiet voice. "No."

"Well, maybe they're not so bad- but I'm glad you checked anyways." Cyrus felt a little bold, so he decided to go for the head-pat and judging by Aqua's wide grin, she appreciated it.

Cyrus was curious- sure, they were definitely pirates, but would they be interested in talking, maybe? Who was he to judge a person for coming from a potentially messy background? Hadn't he invited people that had done him a lot of harm (admittedly while they were in a monstrous form) only for them to prove helpful additions to his team?

Before he could start considering how much housing was needed to host the entire crew of a pirate ship, something smacked into the sand next to him with tremendous force, sending up a plume of sand. Immediately, Cyrus knew- that was a cannon ball. He probably could have tanked it, given his armor, but still. He sighed, "I suppose it's going to be like that then."

His icy wings unfurled from his back and he lept into the air, ready for another fight- he was certain he could move a bit faster than a slow moving ship and its cannon. Despite that, his stomach was churning itself into knots. He had killed all sorts of monsters, even ones with remarkable amounts of intelligence, but could he really go and kill a bunch of humans, even if they meant him ill will?

The pirates noticed something was off when a little speck on the beach leapt into the air- was it a person? It got closer, growing until they could see that it was a figure in bulky purple armor with a pair of beautiful, icy wings on their back. Bit of strange pairing, they supposed, but pirate's clothes weren't exactly high fashion either.

Whoever the figure was, they clearly didn't take a near miss with a cannonball well- the crew fired at the person in the beetle suit armor who swerved and spun out of the way with incredible agility for their armor's bulk. Their bullets and arrows bounced off the thick outer shell, although occasionally a lucky shot would send gleaming fragments of ice into the air.

They flying figure seemed hesitant to attack despite the fusillade of attacks coming their way; at least until they sent another cannonball down to the beach, which threw yet more grit and sand into the air. This finally inflamed the flying figure's temper and they suddenly spun in air, diving towards the deck and beginning his attack with a vicious kick to the captain's side, which sent both of them stumbling as the entirety of the crew turned their weapons towards the stern.

Before they could fire, the figured pulled out a long, glowing sword that burned bright like the sun, and with one vicious slash, a majority of the crew was rent in two along with the ship's mast, which fell to the deck with a crash. The weapon was so hot it started fires, and the figure followed it up with a yoyo, which was funny until it started tearing through the boards of the deck like a saw.

Perhaps… this wasn't the greatest of ideas.

Cyrus had fought humanoid enemies before- goblins, skeletons, even those strange creatures borne from the pillars- but there was something different about actual humans, even if they were bloodthirsty pirates. He was pretty sure that the second cannon shot had missed anything important on shore… but he wouldn't have them touching any of the villagers.

Even if he was feeling a little nauseous, he was going to take a look around the ship- it wasn't very often that you got strange visitors from overseas, right? Idly, Cyrus wondered if he could build a ship like this one- before he nearly lost his footing on the slick, sea-sprayed deck as the ship shifted in the water.

Did he accidentally punch a hole in the hull or something? He decided to jump ship before it capsized, and got back into the air to take one last look at that strange, towering ship. The most notable thing about it was probably the figurehead on the ship's front- he supposed that it made sense for pirates to play into the whole skull and crossbones thing.

Cyrus idly wondered how everyone would react if he just… borrowed the skull and crossbones when the empty eye sockets were suddenly filled with a strange red light. Goddamnit, what was with this place and creepy skulls?

Did he like, accidentally curse the ship by killing its crew? That seemed possible… like there were all sorts of weird monsters and spirits wandering around in the dungeon, which was probably so haunted it wasn't funny. The ship definitely seemed to be haunted, with the ropes and rigging moving on their own, as if moved around by ghostly hands.

Then it started to float like a ghost, threshing oars cutting through the air as the ship oriented itself so its great wooden side pointed at Cyrus, meaning that an entire side of cannons was pointing directly at him. Uh oh.

He went into a dive as the ship's side lit up with billowing smoke, and Cyrus could feel the wind rushing by from the incredible speed of the cannon balls. Pulling out his yoyo, he began to tear away at the ship's bottom, careful to avoid the oars which tried to smack him out of the air.

Splinters were flying through the air now, and Cyrus was glad that the armor covered him completely from head to toe- he did not want to imagine picking out all gross splinters. He did not want to imagine where that ship had been, or what sort of funkiness would happen with haunted splinters.

Once he had gotten to the ship's other side, he swung out with his yoyo again, knocking the cannons out of position. Before whatever ghostly forces that managed the ship could aim them properly, he managed to wrap his yoyo's string around one of the cannons- and then he just folded up his wings and dropped, pulling on the chord with all of his significant strength.

For a moment the ship listed, leaning over as Cyrus pulled, until part of the hull shattered with the splintering wood, letting most of the cannons on one side fall out as Cyrus dodged out of the way. Woops.

Cyrus continued to circle the ship, using his yoyo to tear away at its planks while avoiding its cannon- fortunately, it seemed completely focused on him and not on the shoreline. It wasn't too hard to dodge the cannons, but it seemed like they fired at incredible speed for muzzeloading cannons. He imagined that if he touched the cannons with his bare hand, they'd be burning hot.

The air around the ship was filled with smoke and the smell of spent powder… along with less pleasant smells, but Cyrus stayed close, to evade the cannon, until eventually his intense yo-ing finally did the ship in, and it lost whatever structural integrity it had left. Unfortunately, Cyrus was directly under the ship at the time, meaning he had to avoid a rain of loose wood and- was that a girl?

Cyrus groaned and dove through the hail of splinters and nails, eventually coming out of the other side with yet another girl in his arms. If Cyrus had to use a single word to describe her, he'd say pirate: while she didn't have a peg leg, she had a very distinctive eyepatch, along with one of those shirts pirates wore… Lacrima would probably know the specific term, but it had a bunch of ruffles. She had a long mane of red hair that was in a messy ponytail over her shoulder.

Like most of the girls, she was unusually pretty, but Cyrus had gotten kind of used to that by now, so he got her back to shore with no issues. At least, that was Cyrus thought until he saw Titania, who was holding her head in frustration. "I swear, is it something about this particular beach?"

Cyrus shrugged. "Who knows. I mean, I'm finding random girls everywhere."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get back home." She stopped talking to dust a bit of sand off herself. "One of those cannonballs covered me in sand."

Cyrus' eyes widened. "Are you alright? They didn't hit you, right?"

"What do you think, Cyrus?" She rolled her eyes. "I can take care of myself."

"Well, I'm glad you're alright, Titania."

"Let's get back to the teleporter before we get too sappy, yeah?"

After dropping off the pirate girl in the sickroom, Cyrus sat down for dinner with everyone, and Cyrus was reminded that as much as he liked everyone at this table, dinner could still be a little… wild.

"Come on Cyrus, say ahh~" Annelida had gotten even more clingy than before now, and he couldn't fully blame her considering how he nearly passed out from pain yesterday. Cyrus didn't mind getting doted on in theory, but it felt a little… suffocating at times.

Especially considering the fact that Visca was pressing close to him on the other side- it was a little weird, considering the fact that Visca was composed of slime instead of normal flesh and bone. Thankfully, she didn't ruin clothes or anything, but it certainly made hugs… different.

Aqua was regaling everyone with a play-by-play retelling of the strange pirate ship; he didn't remember being quite that heroic, but he didn't particularly feel like stepping in to stop her. Everyone knew that she was fond of exaggeration- you just had to filter out the hyperbole.

As appetizing as dinner seemed (and as enthusiastic as Annelida was in trying to feed him) Cyrus didn't really feel very hungry. Something about fighting off those pirates felt different- they were human, even if they wanted him dead.

He could feel Cthylla staring intensely at him- if anyone could tell that he was a little shaken up, she could, and once he had excused himself from the table (and disentangled himself from Annelida's vicelike grip and tail) Cthylla followed him.

Cyrus found himself sitting with Cthylla under the stars, and they started to talk as the two great pillars continued to burn brightly in the sky, two great lines splitting the sky into halves.

"What's the matter, Cyrus? You seemed a little… upset." Cthylla reached out and took his hand.

"It's just… those pirates. They were human, you know. Just like you or me."

"Well, I'm not quite sure if I'm fully human," Cthylla scratched her cheek nervously, "but I think I get what you mean. Surely, if they meant you harm you were justified, right?"

"They did shoot at us, sure, but… what if they were running from something? Who knows what sort of other things are going on?"

"Would you have fought with them if they didn't try to kill you?"

"Well, I'm just wondering if they would have talked in other circumstances. It's just… the moment I thought about them attacking the village, attacking everyone… I lost it."

"I don't think anyone is going to complain about you saving their lives, Cyrus."

"You say that, but it doesn't make me feel much better."

"That's okay- but maybe we can spend a bit of time together tomorrow? Get your mind off things?"

"Sure, why not?"

Cyrus had horrible nightmares that night, imagining what it must have been like on that ship, being attacked by someone completely above their level. A winged figure in thick beetle armor, less a man and more a force of nature, dealing in fire and blood.

Eventually, those dreams shifted, until his mind was filled with visions of what might have happened if he hadn't been there- rapine and slaughter, all of it against people he cared about. Needless to say, he woke up covered in sweat.

After a bit of wandering around early in the morning, he found Cthylla, who gave him a brilliant grin. "Oh Cyrus, you're up! Come on, let's get going!"

"Well, it's a little early, isn't it-"

"I've got everything handled, don't you worry. Just relax."

"Are you just trying to rush out before our date gets interrupted?"

"No, not at all…"

Cthylla guided (read: dragged) him to one of their teleporters, and with a flash of brilliant yellow light they were… somewhere else. Cyrus was still a little disoriented, but he soon recognized as the teleporter room for the hot springs.

"Uh, is this…"

"The hot springs, yep. We should get more use out of them, especially if…" her voice eventually petered out, but she still took him by the hand and led him to the hotspring. Who was he to refuse?

Good grief, the hot spring felt like magic (and Cyrus had seen actual magic)- all of his stress and aches seemed to dissolve into the warmth of the spring, even if it did lead to a new issue- or rather a couple of new issues.

"Cyrus, are you actually going to look at me?

"Well, I can't…" He was treading in dangerous territory now, and had barely managed to get inside the hot spring without things getting… awkward.

"Yes you can. Just turn your head to the left."

"Well, it's the principle of the thing."

"I'd like to remind you that I am your girlfriend- one of your girlfriends, actually."

"Well…."

"Well, well, well! Any more wells and I'd be fetching pails of water. I mean, if you're genuinely not interested…"

"It's not that… it's just… I've never…"

"You're kidding- you've got several girlfriends at the same time and you haven't seen a pair of-"

Before Cthylla could finish that sentence, both of them froze when they heard the characteristic sound of a teleporter activating, meaning they now had company.

"CYRUS!"

Shit.

Dramatis Personae:

Cyrus: the player character, harem protagonist

Cthylla: ex-Eye of Cthulhu, in relationship with Cyrus

Annelida: ex-Eater of Worlds, in relationship with Cyrus

Medulla: ex-Brain of Cthulhu, in relationship with Cyrus

Visca: still insists on being called King of the Slimes, in relationship with Cyrus

Bea: ex-Queen Bee

Lacrima: ex-Skeletron, clothier replacement, in relationship with Cyrus

Andrea/Andi: ex-Wall of Flesh

Asta: ex-Spazmatism

Tina: ex-Retinazer

Francisca: ex-Skeleton Prime

Regina: ex-Queen Slime

Ditra- ex-Destroyer

Aria: ex-Plantera

Picea: ex-Everscream

Nicola: ex-Santa-NK1

Crista: ex-Ice Queen

Aqua: ex-Duke Fishron

Titania: ex-Empress

Terra: ex-Golem

Asteria: ex-Lunatic Cultist

Cera: ex-Mothon

?: ex-Flying Dutchman

?: ex-Pillars

Nissa: the Dryad

Veronica: the Zoologist

Meredith: the Mechanic

Abigail: the Nurse

Judith: the Steampunker

Roxanne: the Stylist

I'm very grateful to everyone reading this, as usual. If you want a fun fact about my writing process, all of my docs for this fic are named "haremtrash#", and this one is haremtrash18. I'd like to think I'm self aware. Playing very heavily into harem tropes (at least ones I like- all my homies hate overly violent tsunderes) was something I wanted to do from the very beginning here. The bit at the end… I'm not sure if I could single out a single source, but it had a very harem anime feel as I wrote it.

One of the working titles for this was Stardust of Yesterday, until I realized the more obvious music reference.

The pirate invasion is kind of high-key horrifying isn't it? I mean you're killing actual people even if they're trying to kill you.

As for how I plan on ending this- there will probably be several chapters post-Moon Lord, both to hook more girls up with Cyrus (genuinely not sure how long doing them all would take, and it would probably feel very... checklisty?) and to add a few others. The nymph is a classic ofc, but maybe some of the other events I haven't covered. Plus maybe a hot vampire. Plus, I still need to jam maid uniforms in there somewhere.

As for mods- probably not. Something like calamity would require tons of retconning plus me just not knowing much about the lore. I might come back to it, eons from now, but if anyone wants to give it a shot by themselves- I'll be rooting for you.