A/N: I started writing Pioneer in 2014, when 1.3 had not yet been released and the official lore did not yet exist. As such, this story (and especially this chapter) will diverge from the canon in numerous places. Additionally, my town's layout has changed numerous times since I wrote Volume I, and I only have a handful of sparse notes indicating some of the changes. I'll do my best, but there might be some inconsistencies with Volume I.

"Scheil, wake up. You're home."

I opened my eyes to find Bradley, my faithful guide, standing over me. I was back in the old grass-cave in Corundia, just outside the tower. Not just any tower. My tower. Home sweet home.

"Hey, man, good to have you back," said Bradley with a grin. Reaching a hand, he pulled me to my feet. "Come on, let's get inside. Everyone's waiting."

"Huh? Everyone?" Still hazy, I followed Bradley inside.

The entire village was waiting for me. Jenna and Frederick were playing cards while Fahd worked on a crossword puzzle. Marco, Ovbere, and Philosir were sharing drinks while Reginald was cleaning his gun. "Welcome home, Scheil!" said Tatiana, who was leaning on the wall by the grandfather clock.

"Scheil, darling!" said Fantasy, pressing a mug of cider into my hands.

"Glad to have you back in town, kid," said Frederick. "I'm sure you've brought back tons of loot, so come by the shop sometime and I'll help you sell it off."

To my surprise, Luke and Seth, the guides of Alabaster and Minaria, had also come. "Now, technically, we're not supposed to be in another guide's territory," admitted Seth. "But since neither of us have adventurers to look after for the moment, it can't hurt for us to drop by for a bit."

"Honestly, Seth, I don't mind," said Bradley, shrugging. "It's gotta be lonely, living in that house by yourself."

Luke chuckled. "Oh, yeah, Zach wanted to come too, but he's kinda busy at the moment." He nodded at Tatiana. "It won't be much longer."

"Ah, is that so?" murmured Tatiana. "Good, good." Clearing her throat, she turned to me. "So, Scheil. What'd you think of Avalon?"

They all looked at me.

"It w—" My voice faltered midway.

"I met some of the survivors," I finally managed to say. "We've started building a new town."

I told them of the allies I'd made. Of the houses we built. Of the thrill of double-pickaxe digging. Fending off the Eye of Cthulhu together, and the rush of excitement in that small bit of teamwork.

Even so, my body was shaking. The Dungeon, the Dungeon! The awful truth I'd discovered in Avalon's Dungeon still filled me with dread. "Tatiana," I said finally. "Please, tell me about the Wall of Flesh."

Almost immediately, the cheery atmosphere in the room vanished. Fantasy let out a shrill scream. Philosir fell back in his seat, shuddering. Reginald's pistol slipped from his hands and clattered to the floor, and he started cursing. Even Frederick, seemingly composed as always, couldn't stop his fingers from trembling.

"You know about the Wall?" said Jenna sharply, setting down her cards. Getting to her feet, she pointed at me. "Sit down, please. Mere knowledge of it can cause severe trauma."

Nodding numbly, I sat on my bed as Jenna took my pulse. Bradley clutched his head. "Ah, this is dreadful. Scheil has learned of the Wall."

"Scheil, are you sure you want to know?" said Luke quietly. "It's not too late. We can still change the subject."

"That's enough, you two," said Seth sternly. The two younger guides fell silent. Seth looked at me solemnly. "The Wall of Flesh is the ultimate secret of the Guides. The enforcer and the deterrent of Terraria's curses. Everything ends, and everything begins, with the Wall of Flesh." He sighed. "It would be no great exaggeration to call it the very core and master of the world."

"The Wall appeared in Avalon," I told them as Jenna checked me with her stethoscope. "It took Rose."

That name only caused blank stares. It was then that I realized that not a single villager who'd been present when Rose visited Corundia was still here. That was a sad, lonely thought.

"Rose?" muttered Frederick. "Ah, that's the girl who accidentally attracted the first goblin raiders here, right? Ah, Alfred. You'll be missed, you old bastard." He shook his head. "No, no, even she didn't deserve this. But I'm afraid it's beyond our ability to help her."

I looked at the old field guide on my shelf. "Jenna, it all right if I get up?" I asked.

"Go ahaead, I've finished," said Jenna. "Looks like you're fine, but do take better care of yourself."

I retrieved the field guide and opened it to the missing page to show the others. "This chapter talks about the Underworld," I said. "And it makes lots of references to... to something dreadful. But it just stops short of naming it. Is the Wall of Flesh really that terrifying?"

"Oho! Allow me," said a voice. All heads turned as an old man in red entered the room, whistling a cheery tune. "Tut, tut, it seems I've arrived just on time."

The atmosphere softened once more. Bradley's eyes lit up, and Ovbere hopped down from his seat to clap the old man on the shoulder. But just who was he?

Wait a minute. That beard, that jacket, those jeans! They were cleaner, they were patched up, but I recognized them. "Old man of the Dungeon! Is that you?"

"Call me Pip, son," said the old man cheerily. "Thanks for freeing me from that curse, by the way. You've got my utmost gratitude."

I handed him some cider, still speechless. Could this really be that same old man? The one cursed by Skeletron? He looked completely different! Far from the haggard, worn face I'd seen outside the Dungeon, Pip's eyes were sharp and bright as a youth's.

"Ahh, this hits the spot," said Pip. "Anyway, listen up, Scheil. The Wall of Flesh traces its origins far, far back. To a time before the Crimson, before the Corruption, to the planting of Terraria's first seeds."

"As Faye once told you, Terraria's biomass is decentralized and self-propogating," said Tatiana. "The primordial gods planted the first seeds, but after that, it continued to expand on its own. But the pure energy of Terraria quickly drew the attention of Cthulhu, the Great Old One."

"Cthulhu came to Terraria to seize its energy for himself," said Pip. "His power was far beyond anything Terraria had seen. In desperation, the gods called upon the strongest Terrarians, anointing them as templar knights. Blessed by the spirits of light, the templar knights fought back against Cthulhu."

He took a long drink. "In the final battle, the templar knights confronted Cthulhu atop a blazing meteor, and ripped his body to pieces," said Pip. "Even now, his disembodied eyeball continues to wander the night, searching for the templars' descendants. But with that, Terraria finally was at peace!"

There was a long silence.

Luke chuckled. "I think he forgot why he was telling the story."

"Right," I said. "What's this got to do with the Wall of Flesh?"

Pip scratched his head. "Sorry. What were we talking about again?"

Bradley cleared his throat. "So, as Pip said, the templar knights ripped Cthulhu's body to pieces in that ancient body," said Bradley. "Eyeball aside, most of his remains landed harmlessly on the surface... well, until now, but I digress. But his tongue fell into a seething pool of lava, and was reborn as a terrifying demon with a hundred mouths."

"The Wall of Flesh." I understood now. "Then the Wall of Flesh is...?"

Bradley nodded. "Cthulhu's tongue, and the first of all demons."

"From its birth, the First Demon was a medium for the ancient spirits of darkness," said Seth. "They say its eyes could cast a vicious curse on you with a single glance. With a single bite, just one of its mouths could drain every drop of blood from your body."

"We dryads were still newly born when the First Demon emerged from the depths," said Tatiana. "We took pity on it, and allowed it to feed on the corpses of fallen Terrarians. But scavenging on corpses wasn't enough for the First Demon, and it soon began preying on live humans.

"And so, Terraria entered a new era of terror," said Bradley. "Entire towns and villages would be emptied overnight."

"Worse yet, as the First Demon grew, it gave birth to new demons, who further spread the spirits of darkness," said Tatiana. "Because we failed to act, demons spread throughout the land, and Terraria's energy was stained by Corruption."

When my first dryad, Faye, arrived on Corundia, she told me of the conflict between light and darkness. Of the Corruption born from demon magic, of the Hallow called by the dryads to defeat the demons. Of the long, bloody war fought to banish the demons to the underworld. Yet even she could not bring herself to reveal the origin of the demons.

"No one knows if the demons created the Corruption on purpose or by accident," said Tatiana. "But having formed from Cthulhu's tongue, the First Demon was driven by a strong compulsion to consume Terraria. And the Corruption, which spreads via the Eater of Worlds' reproductive cycle, can be regarded as the embodiment of that compulsion."

"The dryads and the templar knights ultimately drove the demon hordes into the Underworld," said Bradley. " But though demons no longer terrorized Terraria, the corruption could not be contained, and darkness continued to swallow the land. Thus, the ancient spirits cast a great seal on every world in Terraria, turning the First Demon into a pillar of immortal, molten flesh. And at last, Terraria knew peace."

"So long as the Wall of Flesh stands in the world, the war between light and darkness is stopped in time," said Tatiana. "The spirits of light themselves lie dormant within the Wall, keeping the spirits of darkness contained. But so long as that seal remains, the world will never achieve maturity, and its Living Trees will never bear fruit."

"That's where the Order of the Guide comes in," said Bradley. "Our duty as guides is to help adventurers grow strong enough to restart the war and banish darkness from Terraria, one world at a time."

Banish darkness from Terraria? I didn't know if I was capable of that. Perhaps the spectre, perhaps Avilin or Metatyph, but not me.

"Ah, not 'all' of Terraria," said Bradley quickly. "Terraria has thousands of worlds, so technically, we'd need thousands of adventurers. You're just responsible for Corundia, and possibly one or two neighboring worlds as well." He smiled. "And don't worry. When the time comes, you'll be ready. I'm sure of it."

That was a bit of a relief. To banish darkness from Corundia was still a very daunting prospect. But it was reassuring that Bradley believed in me. "Ah, but there's no corruption here on Corundia."

Tatiana nodded. "That's right. The Corruption isn't the only darkness that Terraria faces. It began fairly recently, but Terraria is now cursed by the Crimson as well."

"The spectre once told me that the Crimson is Cthulhu's flesh and blood," I said. "Is that the same Cthulhu that the templar knights fought against, long ago?"

"That's correct," said Tatiana. "When the templars ripped apart Cthulhu's body, his blood dripped down from the meteor and landed all across Terraria. My theory is Cthulhu's blood is trying to regenerate Cthulhu's body by assimilating the surrounding biomass, resulting in the Crimson." She smiled. "My research on the Crimson has been most fruitful, thanks to you."

"How come the Crimson only appeared recently, then? Why didn't it appear directly after the war with Cthulhu?"

"My theory is that Cthulhu's flesh and blood took centuries to adapt to its surroundings, before it learned to metabolize the biomass directly. Interestingly, the great seal on the Wall of Flesh suppresses Crimson in the same way it suppresses Corruption. And one day, when you've triumphed over the Wall of Flesh, you'll need to fight the Crimson just as others fight the Corruption."

"Okay, okay, enough of that," said Fantasy, clapping her hands. "Scheil's back, and that's more than enough reason to celebrate." She gave me a sultry wink that would bring any man to his knees. "Don't you agree, darling?"

Tatiana made a disapproving sound with her tongue, but the others laughed and cheered. "Sure," I said, laughing. "Thank you, everyone. I'm glad to be home."

I didn't sleep well that night, unfortunately. My dreams were filled with the Wall of Flesh, whose hundred mouths chased me through an ash-covered city in a burning wasteland. I ran through the charred streets as the buildings around me sank into pools of lava.

I woke the next morning at the crack of dawn. Climbing up to my workshop, I stared out across the lush, rolling hills. To think that in a world with such a lovely landscape, the Wall of Flesh was waiting for me in the underworld.

"It's a beautiful morning, isn't it?" said Bradley.

"It is," I agreed.

We fell into an uncomfortable silence.

"Hey," I said finally. "Do I really have to fight the Wall of Flesh someday?"

"When the time comes, yes," said Bradley. He sighed. "Tthat's right. You've never been to the underworld before, have you?"

"No," I said. "What's it like down there?"

"It really is like another world," he said. "Hills of ash and molten lakes as far as the eyes can see, dotted by charred-out buildings. Demons and lava bats swarm the air. That obsidian dresser you have? It came from the underworld. Rose must've carted it up here."

Those words cause me to briefly recall my dream. That dreary, burning landscape, far beneath the world, where cities went to die. Truly, what an eerie place the underworld must be.

"It'll be fine," said Bradley. "You'll be fine."

He hesitated. "Scheil, when you are ready to challenge the keeper of the underworld, you'll have to make a living sacrifice."

"A... a sacrifice?"

He nodded. "Don't worry. Everything you need for the sacrifice can be found in the underworld."

He still looked anxious, but there was a certainty in his voice, as if he'd made up his mind on something. Though his words were eerie, I decided not to press him further for now.