Oh my god I forgot to upload this. I've actually had this written since shortly after the upload of chapter 56, nearly a year ago apparently, but I never actually uploaded it. Whoops. Deeply sorry about that, anyone still following this :'L

I suppose I should use this opportunity to update y'all on what's been going on. Remember how I said I was going to touch up some earlier chapters? Well, I ended up getting a little OCD with it. I decided to make some major changes to the narrative. The general progression of plot events is the same, but they happen a bit out of order or different enough that uploading them individually would end up making no sense to anyone stumbling across this story in the middle of it. The "timelines" will definitely merge at the end of chapter 15, though. I have the new version completed through most of chapter 14, so I'm on the home stretch. I will admit that I haven't been firing on all cylinders working on it, but rest assured, progress is being made.

Anyway, among the most major of changes is the inclusion of a certain character. You'll probably be able to guess who if you've read up to this point, but it makes a lot more sense for them to be present during those first few chapters, and the conclusion of that character's arc will come as a bit more of a legitimate surprise to newer readers, rather than feeling shoehorned in at the last second to make the idea work. Since the beginning, I've been mostly making things up as I go, but now that I have a good chunk of the story written already, editing things like these into the earlier parts to make the whole thing flow a bit better is totally justified and probably a bit necessary, in my opinion!

Now, before I ramble on at length rivaling the text below, enjoy this super overdue chapter!

Chapter 57: Spiritual Arrest

Blah had to take a moment to reassess the situation. The Destroyer was a powerful Terraria boss from hardmode, meant to be taken on after the Wall of Flesh. Although his battle with Ipsus's previous incarnation was long ago, he hadn't spent much of his time preparing for this one, mostly because he didn't plan to fight it. Yet, here it was.

"Okay, Waluigi, keep your distance and weaken it with Bob-ombs," Blah instructed, "and I'll rush in and attack the weakened segments with my hammer."

Waluigi nodded nervously. He was even less sure about fighting the Destroyer than Blah was, but he knew just as well that there was nowhere to run. He pulled out a Bob-omb, but by the time he did so, the Destroyer was headed straight for him. Waluigi froze, the pressure getting to him.

Blah, playing the hero, dove at the head of the Destroyer in order to deflect it with his hammer. As he had failed to predict, the force was not nearly enough to counter the inertia of the mechanical worm, nor did it leave any visible dents. Waluigi was forced to jump away. The metal mandible nipped his leg before disappearing underground with the rest of the worm. The ground shook violently, reminding everyone that this was only the first of many attacks.

While the two of them regathered themselves, there was a gunshot, followed by a light spray of dirt inches from Waluigi's grounded head. Edwin was approaching with his new wings, shooting to kill. Blah realized the lethality of the gunfire and stood between the two of them just in time for a bullet to bounce off of his metallic torso.

The ogre, too stupid to realize the worm was coming back, found the courage to charge at the nearest non-underling, Rochelle. The bear was more than ready for this and drew a high-tech assault rifle, shooting a barrage of lasers at it. The lasers burned the ogre, slowing it down.

Blah had bought Waluigi enough time to get back on his feet, but the ground exploded near him, knocking him down again. The Destroyer launched itself out of the hole, narrowly missing both of them. Rather than attempt to smash it again, he hastily turned and helped Waluigi up. Another bullet ricocheted off of Blah's head.

Despite the Destroyer's presence, the ogre's anger prevented it from caring. It had its sights firmly set on Rochelle. She backpedaled, firing another burst of lasers, causing the ogre to nearly trip. A swarm of imps rushed back in, seeing their superior having trouble on its own. Some of the imps had taken on a distinct orange color.

Blah took to the air to pursue Edwin directly. The Destroyer, too close to hit Waluigi, started to burrow back into the ground near him. Waluigi tossed his Bob-omb at the fleeting machine before high-tailing it in a direction far from any of the battle's participants. The explosion was strong enough to knock out a red light from one of its body segments, which separated from the body as a red-eyed, hovering sphere.

"YOU WON'T TEAR ME APART THAT EASILY THIS TIME," Ipsus taunted.

Edwin, seeing Blah approach with his hammer poised, aimed a bullet for one of his eyes. It was a direct hit, but even Metal Tails's eye was tough enough to withstand a bullet with little more than a crack. Blah persisted, slamming the Pwnhammer directly into his chest. Edwin began to spiral toward the ground.

Rochelle made short work of the imps with her laser rifle, leaving a trail of blue and orange grist. The ogre had used this distraction to close the gap and swing its mighty fist, hitting her in the shoulder and sending her flying. She crashed into the side of the Dorkemon Center. This hardly seemed to faze her, however, and she fired another round into the blue behemoth.

The Destroyer burst out of the ground once more, this time directly underneath Blah. Having caught his rival completely unawares, Ipsus seized the robot in his jaws and began to crunch down. Blah slipped out of the worm's grip and fell to the ground. Another Bob-omb soared over his head and hit two of the Destroyer's segments, releasing two more probes.

The three probes grouped together and fired short lasers in Waluigi's direction. He was distant enough that he was able to dodge them rather easily and launch another bomb at them. While the explosion destroyed one of the probes, the other two began to fly closer. Waluigi dashed ahead, spiking one of them into the ground with his racket and lofting the other into the merchant's house before either of them could fire again.

Rochelle finished the ogre off with one final burst, causing an eruption of blue, orange, and teal grist. The remaining imps fled for good, realizing they had no chance. Rochelle immediately set her sights on Blah, who had just crash-landed and was in the process of recovering.

Blah ran a quick diagnostic on the damage he had received so far, and was pleased to hear that only his eye and his shoulder were lightly damaged. As he picked himself up and reached for his hammer, he heard a brief high-pitched beeping noise next to him. A wave of blue sparks and electricity was the last thing he saw before everything went dark and numb. All of Blah's attempts to move any part of his body failed, or at least he had no way of knowing if they worked.

'That must've been some kind of EMP grenade...' surmised Blah, as he was only left with his thoughts. 'Crap. Now what?'

Although unable to see what was happening, Blah was certain that Waluigi would not last long without him, and his robotic body was completely at the mercy of his enemies. He had to figure something out, and fast.

But what could he do? The majority of his internal electronics had been disabled by the shockwave. It would wear off eventually, but until then, he couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything.

'Wait... what about Hajike?' Blah knew that Hajike was pure willpower, and was not linked to the physical body. 'Maybe if I concentrate hard enough...'

As he had done many times before, he reached deep within himself to channel his Fist. He felt the energy flow through him, overtaking the numbness. Instead of dark, there was only light.

'Fist of the Milky Way,' he announced to the receding void, 'Solar Power Surge!'

All of Blah's motor and sensor functions returned to him in an instant. His returned vision informed him that Rochelle had stolen his Sonic Screwdriver and was preparing to disassemble him with it. He leaped to his feet, knocking her away from him and causing her to drop the tool. He had been separated from his hammer, but that didn't stop him from assaulting the cyborg with all six of his limbs in an overcharged frenzy, ending with a roundhouse kick that sent her soaring over the city wall and into the ocean.

He pivoted to see Waluigi panicking in a corner, surrounded by a dozen of the Destroyer's probes. Much of his clothing had been singed by laser fire, and he looked to be in bad shape. The ground rumbled savagely near him.

Blah promptly retrieved his hammer just as the earth gave way for the Destroyer's massive form. It rose in an arc, aiming to plunge onto his cornered ally from high above. Blah kicked off of the ground, boosting up with his tails to meet the worm at the pinnacle of its jump. When he came within range, Blah slammed down on its head with all of his energized might, battering it downward into four of its own probes. Waluigi jumped over the fallen Destroyer and through the created gap to safety.

The remaining probes opened fire, but the lasers were barely effective against his hull. Blah spun around, whacking each probe with his Pwnhammer and shattering them. As the Destroyer recovered itself, Blah took off above it and summoned the last of his energy into a wide, continuous beam exuding from both of his eyes. The beam cut across the length of the worm, detonating most of the probes before they could even be deployed.

Blah landed shakily. A red icon flashed in his head. It seemed that the previous series of maneuvers had drained most of his electrical energy, automatically enabling a power conservation mode. The Destroyer had taken heavy structural damage, but it still managed to shamble into an upright position and dive into the ground.

"WE'LL SEE WHO RUNS OUT OF STEAM FIRST," bellowed Ipsus from below.

Before he could prepare for the boss's resurfacing, Blah felt his arms lock into place. An arm wrenched around his neck. "Guess who," came Edwin's unmistakable, smug voice. Blah struggled against the cowboy's grasp, but he lacked the power to break free. "I must say, that was an amusing display," Edwin complimented sarcastically. "Too bad it wasn't good enough!"

Waluigi took a step towards him, his racket in one hand and a Bob-omb in the other. Edwin laughed. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Unless you want to kill us both, that is."

"Don't worry about me, focus on the Destroyer!" Blah shouted. "We have him on the ropes!"

Waluigi nodded, but when he lifted his head again, it bumped against the business end of a rifle, inciting him to freeze. "Don't move a single muscle," demanded Rochelle. "You're going to watch that bot get chomped to bits." A bead of sweat dripped off of his forehead, and his eyes were locked open wide. He dared not even blink.

Blah glanced at Rochelle, who had been severely bruised and dented from Blah's onslaught, yet still capable of operating a laser rifle and sneaking behind Waluigi, apparently. He had no idea how she recovered that quickly. Becoming more desperate by the second, he weighed his options. Neither he nor Waluigi could go anywhere, and already the ground was rumbling, signifying Ipsus's return. Blah wasn't sure he could pull off another Hajike-infused power surge this soon, and if he manually switched back into full power consumption, he would likely only have enough time to take out one of his foes before blacking out.

The rickety Destroyer emerged once more, its jaw open wide and functional enough to fully devour something Blah's size. Edwin stood firm, waiting until the perfect moment to release Blah and move out of the way. Perhaps that would give him a brief window to act, or at least dodge, but he guessed that would set Rochelle off...

Blah's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden thunderclap coupled with a flash of lightning that pierced the weakest portion of the Destroyer's body and sent jolts of electricity through it. Blah's eyes drifted upward. The skies were clear as could be. His confusion intensified when another lightning bolt struck the same spot, severing that segment in twain. The two halves tumbled down uselessly, revealing a certain brightly-colored pony flying above them. The pegasus wielded a dark gray crossbow composed of what appeared to be storm clouds.

"Hailstorm?!" gasped Blah. Both Edwin and Rochelle were rendered speechless by Hail's surprise appearance.

"You may have bested me again..." emanated Ipsus wearily as his vessel short-circuited and powered down. "...but you can never keep down Ipsus!"

Waluigi took the opportunity to reach behind him and smack his stunned captor on the head with the side of his Aceploder. With a swift, high kick, Waluigi forced the laser rifle out of Rochelle's hands.

The corrupted spirit of Ipsus became exposed. "No matter how many times you defeat me, I will always find a new, stronger form to assume!"

Edwin, losing his composure, had no idea what to do beyond keeping Blah pinned, but a well-placed lightning bolt from Hail changed that, shocking him and tossing him away. Blah dropped to one knee. It was then that he noticed Rochelle's briefcase propped against the side of the wooden shack.

Waluigi kept Rochelle at bay, whacking her constantly with the racket. Hail landed to make sure that Edwin didn't get up. Blah was free to open the briefcase. It had been mostly emptied of its contents, but inside were two perfectly intact Soulite crystals.

"Even if it takes an eternity, I will have my revenge!"

Blah snatched up one of the crystals and ran to the broken Destroyer, just as Ipsus's spirit began to fade. "Your vengeful days are over," Blah consigned as he held up the crystal. The soul-trapping mineral drew Ipsus back into the physical realm, sucking him inside.

"No... you can't... you wouldn't... NOOOOO!" The spirit's final words echoed quieter and quieter as the darkened purple light glowed violently inside the crystal. It pulsed gradually slower until it stopped entirely.

"Not so strong now, are you?" jeered Blah, holding up the purple-cored Soulite. "And as for you two..." He turned towards the heavily injured Rochelle and Edwin, both of whom had scrambled backwards and were now cornered by Waluigi and Hailstorm.

"Okay, time for plan C," said Rochelle, removing a metal panel from one of her arms. Underneath was a reflective surface. "Edwin, squeeze in, will you?" Somewhat confused, but just as desperate, the cowboy did so, glancing down at his own reflection.

"...is that a mirror?" asked Hail, lowering his weapon for a moment.

Blah was also unsure what the two could possibly be planning, but when colorful sparks began to wash over them, Blah gasped in realization. "Hail, they're teleporting!" Blah shouted. "Shoot them!"

Hail hastily raised his crossbow and fired a shot at the mass of glowy magic. The bolt cut through the sparks and struck the wall, but when all of the light faded, the bear and the human were nowhere to be seen.

"A Magic Mirror..." Blah facepalmed. "What puzzles me is, if she had that the whole time, why didn't she just use that in the first place...?"

Hail sighed. "Well, we got one of them at least, this time for good. Probably."

"I gotta say, Hail," Blah gratefully approached his client player, "you sure couldn't have picked a better time to show up. If it wasn't for you, both of us would be worm food. So, thanks for saving my bacon... again."

"Yeah, it's really just a formality at this point," answered Hail modestly, scratching his mane. "Good thing Bob was paying attention to his computer screen. He told me you were in trouble, so I came as soon as I could. I had just finished alchemizing this thing, too."

He set his cloudy crossbow onto the ground in front of him. On closer inspection, it had a slight tint of indigo to it and pulsated subtly, yet menacingly. "Shadowbolt, it's called," Hail proudly introduced. "Turns out, a Demonite Crossbow goes really well with a puff of storm cloud. It was Bellia's idea." Blah looked upon the pegasus's new weapon in awe. "Of course, I had to kill an ogre and a whole army of imps just to get the grist for it..."

Blah couldn't help but feel a bit jealous, even though his weapon was probably the strongest among all of the weapons owned by his co-players. Or so he believed. "It's really awesome, for sure," Blah acknowledged. "But anyway, how'd you like to come with me to Moros and help with retaking that genetic facility?"

Hailstorm raised an eyebrow. "Say what?"

Blah looked back at him blankly. "You didn't hear what we were talking about over Pesterchum earlier?"

"I was busy," Hail reminded him.

"And my dad didn't tell you later?"

The pegasus's mouth flattened with minor impatience. "I was busy."

Taking the hint, Blah recapped what he had decided would be his next course of action, as well as what he discovered about Pinkie Pie.

Hail's eyes grew wide. "So she is still alive... I really shouldn't be surprised," said Hail.

"Tell me about it. But if Charge can pull tricks like that, there's no telling what he might get away with if we don't take that power away from him."

Hail nodded. "Right. I'll go with you, then." He glanced quizically up at the gates above Blahtown. "So, uh, which one do we take?"

Blah stared at the gates for a few moments in thought. "I believe Dad said that the sixth gate will take us straight to Moros. It should be the one second from the top."

The pony squinted. Neither of them could see anything past the third gate, and even that looked like a long flight. "How high do you even have to be?"

It took all of Blah's willpower not to burst out into laughter at Hail's accidental reference. "Pretty... pretty high," he said. "I hope you have an in-flight movie ready." Blah bent over to start his engines, looking to waste no further time. However, nothing happened. The battery icon blinked aggressively in the corner of his visual input. "...but first, I need to recharge."

Hail cocked his head to one side. "And how do you do that, exactly?"

"Well, I-" he cut off, remembering that the only charger of electronics he had was that cheap hand-crank he made himself. If a laptop took hours to charge with that thing, then a robot would probably take years. He wished that was an exaggeration, but he figured he was actually pretty close. He needed a much more efficient source of free energy before his internal batteries ran out completely.

"Hey, what about that solar thing you did before?" Waluigi suggested casually.

"Solar Power Surge?" recalled Blah. "No, that was a power surge that happened to be related to the sun. Not a surge of solar power. Fist technique names can be confusing like that. This robot doesn't actually have any solar panels..."

"Can't you just get some solar panels and combine them with your generator?" Hail tried, squinting at the orb of light in the sky that resembled the sun, but clearly wasn't. "If whatever that thing is could still power it."

Blah slapped his forehead. "Of course... Astra probably has some sort of solar panel among all that junk... also, I'm pretty sure that's Skaia. I think it counts as solar energy, anyway." He looked down at all of the grist that the defeated ogre and imps dropped. Lots of cobalt, as well as a few cube-shaped orange grists and a single pile of a hexagonal teal variety, not to mention several units of build grist. This was exactly the sort of treasure trove that would have excited Blah, if he wasn't threatened with blacking out. "Hopefully this generator only uses grists found on my land or I might be screwed."

Retrieving all of the grist, Blah darted back inside his house and woke his computer up from sleep mode. He immediately pestered Astra.

DM: hey astra can I ask a favor real quick, it's kind of urgent
SP: Yes?...
DM: do you have a solar panel of any kind?
DM: if so, I need the code
SP: I probably do, one moment...
SP: !FaXvhiG...
DM: are the dots part of the code?
SP: You of all people should know that they aren't...

Blah had himself a quick giggle at his own meager attempt at humor. Hailstorm rolled his eyes.

DM: heh, I'm just kidding around
DM: the thing about your posts is that it looks like you're down in the dumps all the time
DM: I'm just trying to lighten the mood a bit, you know?
DM: but anyway, thanks a bundle!
SP: Mhm...

He stared at the screen for a moment before turning to Hail. "Do you think she's all right? I honestly can't tell with that girl. She's like a brick wall of stoicism."

Hail sighed. "I think she's been doing much better ever since she learned who her real parents are. But that was literally half a day ago. Hiding her emotions is just what she does, but even people like her can change - it just takes time."

Blah placed his head in his hands exhaustively. "Sure feels like a lot more than half a day..."

"Anyway, are you going to make that solar generator or not?" Hail asked impatiently. "It's good that you're showing some concern for others, but you can't forget about yourself, either."

Blah snapped to attention. "Right, right..." He captchalogued his generator and grabbed a blank card, punching both codes onto it and proceeding through the routine. The appropriately-named "Solar Generator" had a cost of 75 build, 100 cobalt, and 25 of the new, orange grist, which the computer identified as palladium. The loot from the ogre alone put him well over that mark. Blah also learned that the teal grist was apparently mythril.

"Hah," Blah laughed. "Cobalt, palladium, mythril... these are hardmode Terraria ores. I bet I'll be able to find orichalcum, adamantite, and titanium on my land as well... SBURB, you clever game, you." In the interest of satisfying the unamused Hail, he picked up his new generator and walked outside with it. Finding the slot on his back, he plugged the wire into himself and held up the solar panel. The battery icon changed into one with a plug.

"Ok, I think it's working!" he exclaimed. "Still a bit slow, but at least it's automatic. I might need to catch a ride while that's happening."

"As long as you're lighter now than you were as a human," Hail begrudgingly accepted, suddenly having flashbacks to the corruption.

"Only one way to find out!" concluded Blah as he hopped onto the pegasus's back. Hail grunted under the sudden strain, but to his relief, the robot was actually significantly lighter. Perhaps it helped that Metal Tails had been built for maximum flight efficiency in the first place. "Oh, and I'll be going into sleep mode so I can charge faster. I'll automatically wake up if I hear my full name. Or you could just shake me violently, that works too."

Hail chuckled slightly to himself, fantasizing the second option. "I'll keep that in mind," he noted, spreading his wings and beginning his long trip skyward.