Chapter 6: Tiny Differences...


The first thing Cyrus noticed was a strange, sticky feeling in his mouth, and a sweet, cloying taste he recognized as being the result of Abigail's healing potions, when she occasionally forced him to drink them after he got himself injured in fights. Opening his eyes, his vision was blurry, but he could see silhouettes crowding his bed, blocking the faint torchlight filling the room. "He's up, he's up!" Was that… Cthylla?

His vision was clearing and he could see everyone sitting around him. Cthylla, Medulla, Annelida, Visca, the skeleton girl, Bea and Nissa sleeping in chairs to the side, and Abigail rushing over. "What happened?" he croaked, his voice sounding dry and raspy.

"You nearly got yourself killed, you dumbass." Visca glared at him, pushing a strand of blue hair to the side.

The girls were angry at him, and as he felt a spike of pain in his side he felt angry at himself. He should have prepared more before facing the skeleton creature. The girl who came from the monster, the lass with the silver hair, seemed embarrassed and was staring at the ground in a way that suggested she received a serious tongue lashing from the other girls. Medulla stood in front of him, arms on her hips, and said "We've made an executive decision, you're not going out to fights like that alone, and you need much better equipment. We've talked to Garret about it some already, and we've some plans. Garret straight up refused to share any information about what powerful creature is next until you get better equipment, and we agree with him."

"I'm not going to disagree with taking steps towards not getting murdered, if that's what you're implying."

Then Annelida gave him a saccharine grin that chilled him to his core. "Lacrima here" she patted the silver-haired girl, apparently named Lacrima, on the shoulder "provided us with some towels, so we can give a sponge bath!"

Cyrus tried to run, but Annelida pushed him back into his seat. "Ah ah, doctor's orders! Now sit back and let us take care of you~"


For the next few days Cyrus stayed in bed, although the company certainly wasn't bad. Sure, he was always under watch, but he was also recovering from some truly funky magic that the nurse was struggling with healing, even with books Lacrima had plucked from the dungeon. She and Bea had gone on a trip to grab some, and used his magic mirror to come back, but it did probably save his life.

Cyrus couldn't help but enjoy the doting, though. Annelida had improved her apple cutting skills considerably since the last time he was in a hospital bed, Bea insisted on bringing him soup, and Lacrima would share her books with him. She wasn't very talkative, but reading ancient tomes from the dungeon certainly gave him something to do other than just sitting around and feeling pain. Visca would occasionally "grant him the pleasure of her company" but she cared in her own strange way.

Three days after he woke up, Medulla and Annelida came to visit him, relatively late one night. He could see them in the moonlight, and they sat on either side of him.

"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" Cyrus asked. He certainly wasn't surprised by visits at strange hours, in fact it was Cthylla's modus operandi, but those two weren't really night owls like she was.

Both girls seemed silent for a moment, Medulla toyed with a bit of loose thread on her sweater and all of Annelida's eyes seemed to look away. "That is… uhhh, well Medulla and I have been talking recently, about our feelings."

"Your feelings?"

Medulla looked towards him. "Our feelings for you, that is." Cyrus' eyes widened. They couldn't mean those kind of feelings, could they? And both of them?

Both of them took his hands. "That is… if you're willing, we'd both like to be in a relationship with you."

"Me? Why me?"

"Yes, you. Because you, in some way, made us who we are, you saved us from our old selves. You may be a bit on idiot, but you're brave enough to fight so many dangerous creatures all by yourself. You're a charming person Cyrus, and I'm sure a lot of the other girls agree with the sentiment." Annelida grinned. "We just worked up the courage first!"

Cyrus had admittedly tried not to think too hard about his relationship with the girls. Of course, he realized that they were very pretty women, but getting into a relationship with one of them wasn't really something he considered. Any one of them would have been great- but two? It seemed a little unrealistic, but so did brains the size of houses, and Cyrus wasn't quite dumb enough to miss out on a chance like this.

"Sure… just can we get into the details tomorrow? It's late."

The girls gave him two smiles so bright that for a moment he could have sworn it was day.


The nurse had given him tentative permission to leave the room, if he was escorted by someone, and considering the ache that still lingered all up and down his side, he really couldn't blame her. His escort consisted of Medulla and Annelida, who each grabbed one his arms and pressed it to their chests before walking him to the town's de facto dining area.

Cyrus was already cringing before they walked through the door, and the reactions were just about as poor as he expected. Cthylla choked on what she was eating and Bea and Visca shared a similar expression, mouths open in a sort of O. Medulla and Annelida seemed unbearably smug, and Cyrus couldn't lie and say his ego wasn't inflated a little by having two beautiful girls interested in him.

"You look awfully chipper, Cyrus. Feeling better?" Abigail seemed more amused than anything.

"The pain's faded quite a bit. Do you think I'll be able to go out and about soon?"

"Three or four more days, I'd figure, Cyrus. You've got good company, huh. Don't jump him too hard, girls. You'll impede his recovery." Abigail smirked, and Cyrus could see Medulla and Annelida flushing the same shade of deep red he was sure his face was turning.

Cyrus tried to hide his blush by eating some food, but Medulla had snatched his fork already. "Open wide~" and he really couldn't refuse his girlfriend, could he? Or one of them, at least.


A few hours later the three of them were relaxing outside, Medulla and Cyrus' heads resting on the coils of Annelida's tail, sunning and simply enjoying idleness.

"I could spend forever like this," Cyrus mused, "I mean, can things really get better than a day like this?"

Annelida gave him a coy look. "Well, we can certainly try, can't we?" and suddenly her lips were pressing up against his, and his day had gotten a lot better.

Stopping to take a breath of air, felt a tapping on his shoulder and looked to see Medulla with an expectant expression on her face.

Cyrus realized he was a very lucky man.


The awkwardness at dinner was incredible, especially considering how comfortable Annelida had grown in publicly displaying her affection, frequently with tongue.

"So… Garrett, the girls mentioned a few plans to make better equipment? What are our plans once my health is restored?"

"Lots of stuff. I don't know much about what comes after this next challenge, it's almost like a wall. I can't see past it, but I do know, vaguely, that it will make it a lot harder to get some jobs done now, so we should finish them while we can."

"What sorts of jobs?"

"There's a lot of equipment you'll need, plus it will be good just to gain a better understanding of the world around us. Cthylla is going to help you explore the caves, because her night vision is so good. Bea's wings should also make a lot of exploration a lot faster. You also need to grab a few things from the dungeon and the jungle. You have a concerning habit of picking fights with the biggest thing you can find whenever you find somewhere new, before you can actually get stuff done. After that, you'll need to go mining in hell, to get the best possible armor you can get."

"That's an awful lot, Garrett."

"But you have help."


The first errand on the list was underground exploration with Cthylla, but she could barely look him in the eye. Of course, Cyrus understood why, but he knew that attempting to defuse the situation without backing from Annelida and Medulla would result in him managing to bungle things in a spectacular fashion.

The caves were miserable, cold and clammy and so dark that they seemed to swallow up the light of his tunnels. Cthylla seemed fine though, leaping with agility from rock to rock and outcrop to outcrop, clad in plain, functional clothes Lacrima had made for her, although Cthylla made them look as good as the fine dress he had first found her in.

They found many abandoned cabins underground, thick with spiderwebs and unusual loot, like strange magical charms and a collection of vile, suspicious looking eyes that Cthylla felt a strange connection to. Cyrus accidentally gave one a squeeze… only for it to evaporate into air, before Cthylla suddenly popped into his arms from the other side of the cavern, and both flushed. "So that's what those do."


Another curious discovery was a massive cavern that was absolutely filled with spiderwebs, crawling with dozens of man-sized spiders. The room was interesting, certainly, but Cyrus was just about to leave before he saw something vaguely human shaped covered in webs on the floor of the cavern. Or was it a someone?

"Say, Cthylla. Can you tell me what that lump on the floor there is? I can't get a good look."

"It's…. a person!"

"Alright then, let's save them."

The spiders were fierce, but Cyrus had fought an arthropod the size of a small house before, compared to the Queen Bea these things were practically tame.

Carefully cutting the webs off the victim revealed a woman with very vibrant red hair tied back in a bow, who stumbled to her feet, dusting webs off of her apron. "My name is Roxanne. It's a pleasure to meet you, although I'm sure we could share more pleasantries when we're not trapped in a spider cave?"

"Okay then. Grab on." Cyrus pulled the mirror from his pocket, and as Cthylla gripped his should shoulder he grabbed Roxanne's wrist and teleported the three of them home as the spiders skittered around the cavern.


After that came the underground jungle, which was just as warm and humid as Cyrus remembered it being, and while very few things could make flying with Bea not enjoyable, needing to stop and drink water every five minutes was one of them. They had found an entrance to that mysterious jungle temple, but the door was locked and far too durable for even explosives to shatter, although he wasn't really inclined to go in the first place- it gave him chills and the distinct impression that something horrible lurked inside.

The hornets were miserable, but one of them dropped a strange sort of green stone that seemed a little too big to have been hiding inside the creature. Bea helpfully explained that it was a bezoar (the hornet certainly didn't look like a goat, Cyrus thought) that could help fight many common poisons. He was sure Garrett would be impressed with that. Other interesting finds included an unusual green anklet and a strange pair of clawed gloves, although Cyrus thought they were pittance compared to all the trouble he went through to get them.


Lacrima accompanied him to the dungeon because she seemed to have the best understanding of the place out of everyone in their little group. The door of the dungeon opened up into a dark chamber faintly lit by bluish candles, with a great gap opening up in the floor, like the gullet of some foul beast.

The tunnels didn't really feel like they were built for people, zigging and zagging unpredictable, doubling back over itself and rife with false entrances and traps. They often needed rope just to travel down the great empty shafts of the dungeon. They were also full of roaming skeletons and cursed apparitions that seemed to appear at the worst possible time, sliding through walls and furniture alike as if they weren't there, although they certainly hit hard enough to disprove the idea of impermenance. At least one of the blasted things dropped some strange, eye-shaped charm that seemed to make the cursed skulls bother them a little less. Many of the enemies also seemed to have intricately made gilded keys on them when they died, including massive slimes with only a key in the center.

The shelves were filled with tomes that he couldn't decipher the names of, although one strange red tome with a drop of water emblazoned on the front seemed to call to him. Taking a break and leafing through it, he found nothing he could truly understand until he reached the last page, when he saw a blurb of text that he couldn't read but somehow understood. Rising to his feet, he started to read the book, unconsciously almost, and a bolt of water appeared in his hand before darting in the direction he was pointing his arm, ricocheting off a wall and then dissolving into a misty spray when striking another wall.

Lacrima leaned over "Well that's certainly unusual. I can't make hide nor hair of it."

Cyrus laughed. "Neither can I. It felt like my mouth was moving on its own once I saw those last few words."

"Interesting. Some sort of magic tome?"

"I suppose. I wonder if there's anything else like this in here.

Eventually they found a few golden chests that seemed to match the golden keys they collected, and they were opened to find to find a blue-ish shield marked with a golden cross, a long blue sword that only had one edge, a handgun that seemed much stronger than his revolver, and a another key, although it was dark purple and seemed to have strange patterns carved on it, like it was covered in minuscule fires.

Then, in what had become a trend for the day, he found a woman in the dungeon, squirming as she tried to get out of the ropes that bound her, and Cyrus carefully cut her free then pulled her to her feet. "What's your name, miss?"

"My name's Meredith. Could you get me out of here, stranger?"

"My name's Cyrus, and yes, I can." With a flash of light, the mirror took the three of them home.


Afterwards, with Garrett's guidance Cyrus made an obsidian skull, which would supposedly protect him from fires before he and Bea went to hell, largely because she could fly him around above the simmering lava, letting the two of them hop from ruined house to ruined house, although Cyrus had to clear the sky with his new handgun so they didn't get attacked by raging demons. Some of the houses were so hot that they would have almost certainly injured him if not for the skull, and Bea had to hover just above the building's surface.

The insides of the houses were like miniature ovens, but he found dark purple chests, covered in patterns of flames, just like the key he found in the dungeon. Trying it, the key worked, and Cyrus found some random potions along with a truly massive orange bow that was worked into the shape of a massive bat, its wings forming the arms of the bow, and a massive trident of a dark metal that seemed to soak light from its surroundings.

Next, he and Bea carefully scoured the land, digging through deposits of ash and mining what few exposed deposits of the strange dark red ore that dotted the landscapes of hell. They seemed to seep lava, and as such needed to be mined with care, but he collected a massive quantity of the material before he and Bea ducked into one of the houses formed from obsidian and found a strange sort of furnace, glowing as hot as lava. Chipping great chunks of obsidian off of the walls, he smelted them together with the hellish ore to create strange bars of red ore mottled with dark black.


With Garrett's help the bars of hellish ore were reshaped into a set of armor, a massive greatsword, and a set of tools. When cladding the armor, Cyrus felt the strangest sense of lightness, as if he could swing his weapons faster and with more strength then he could before, but he couldn't fathom why. Plating the handgun in the metal also seemed to increase its power (he stopped questioning things like that at this point, honestly).

Nissa and Abigail had also cooperated to help the effort, with Nissa growing all sorts of herbs that greatly helped Abigail in creating potions to increase Cyrus' fighting abilities. "So what are we even preparing to fight, Garrett? You haven't told me how to fight it."

"Well, you'll have to fight it in Hell, so I think you would need to prepare some sort of path to fight the creature, so you're not running directly into a pool of lava."

"Okay, sure. Is there anything else we need to do?"

Before Cyrus could answer him, they were interrupted by the blast of a horn, and the Guide's face transformed into a grimace.

"Well for now, you have more pressing concerns. That horn sounds like a Goblin Invasion."


Cyrus could see figures in the distance, a great mass of loose Goblin infantry who charged from the east, weapons and armor gleaming in the sun. Pulling out his brand new bow, he pulled back an arrow, noticing how it was almost like a bat flapping its wings as he pulled against the great tension of the bow. Finally loosing the arrow, it seemed to morph in air, the arrowhead transforming in the literal head of a screeching bat which soared towards the mass of goblins, tearing through them, leaving a mass of dead goblins behind it as it soared out of the crowd.

Cyrus grinned, and nocked another arrow before shooting. Column by column the bats tore through the goblins, but by the time they had reached the village they seemed focused on reaching him. Pulling out the dark lance, Cyrus charged, cutting, stabbing, and even striking the Goblins with the pole part of the spear.

However, the issue with spears was that it lost a lot of effectiveness at close range, and one goblin, clad in black, had slipped inside his guard, pulling a knife, but before the blow could land it was struck in the head with a flaming skull. Glancing to the side, Cyrus could see Lacrima on one of the house's roofs, another flaming skull forming in her hand. Cyrus smiled and leapt back into the offensive, his spear punching through the armor of the goblin infantry.


When the invasion halted, Cyrus was panting, although he walked carefully, avoiding the spike covered balls the Goblins seemed so fond of carrying around and throwing as weapons. He was almost going to start cleaning up the balls when Cyrus stopped him. "Hey, if you're going to do something productive, why not try working on making a path in the Underworld? We can clean this up for you."

As Cyrus slid down the rope which traveled down the shaft of his hellevator, before freezing when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a goblin, although he seemed to be tied up like Meredith, and had a much more bookish appearance than the other goblins.

Carefully cutting the ropes, Cyrus freed the goblin, "And who might you be? I'm Cyrus."

"I'm Knogs. Thank you very much, Cyrus. In fact, I'd like to give you something as a show of gratitude." He pulled out a strange pair of boots, that seemed to have a very thick sole. "These are my rocket boots. I'm sure an adventurer like you could make good use of them."

Cyrus supposed that he should take the poor goblin back to the village and not drag him to hell.


Knogs had joined the town with the same ease that almost everyone seemed to do, and with his help Cyrus consolidated several of his accessories, combining his Hermes Boots with the Rocket Boots Knogs provided to create a pair of Spectre Boots, which were then combined with other accessories to create Lightning Boots.

After that, Cyrus began work on the bridge, creating a long pathway that wove through the hills and crests of the underworld, sometimes hugging the ruined houses he found, but otherwise going straight over pools of lava that stretched for hundreds of feet in every direction.

When he returned to Garrett and informed him that the bridge was finished, he seemed to sag little. He pulled the small doll that Cyrus had wrestled from that demon all those days ago. When Garrett held it in his hands, Cyrus couldn't help but notice how similar the two looked.

"Take the doll to one of the ends of your bridge, and throw it into a pool of lava. Be ready to run, and take Bea with you. You'll need maneuverability. Goodbye and good luck, Cyrus."


There we go! Another chapter done. Skeletron/clothier girl is named after a part of the skull associated with the eye, and the word lachrymal has an association with crying. I'm imagining the old man was cursed to guard the dungeon and defeating Skeletron let him stop guarding and also killed him. Y'all know what's coming next time. I was seriously considering slipping in a beach tangent at some point, but I think I'll save the beach episode for Fishron.