Chapter 10: Stars in the Ground

Sorry I haven't posted in so long, you guys. Life happened and I ran into a writer's block. This is unforgivable, but after a LONG hiatus, I'll try to get LoT back under way at the same pace it was at before!

Bryn revved her boots and shot up into the air, trying to intercept the cultist leader's rapid descent. Ixia, her face solemn but triumphant, called her raven to her and leaped off the side of the building, the giant bird slowing her descent with its great wings.

With the purr of quiet engines, Bryn slowly descended to the rooftop, carrying the blue-robed cultist. It seemed unscathed, save for some puncture wounds where the raven's talons had pierced its shoulders.

"Fools," it squeaked, shuffling upright. "FOOLS!"

"What are you bellyaching about?" Eytan snapped.

"You should not have saved me," the cultist shrilled. "To awaken the Great Moon Lord, a cultist leader must die! I was about to fulfill the ancient texts, I would have been a martyr for the cleansing of the world!"

"Your god is no god," said Calythé. "This Moon Lord can wipe out the entirety of living beings in Terraria with one blink!"

The cultist regarded Calythé coolly. "So be it," it shrilled, removing an ornate sacrificial knife from its sleeve. Before anyone could stop it, the cultist plunged the jeweled blade into its heart and crumpled into dust. The instant the knife entered the cultist's chest, there was an earsplitting roar, followed by a loud, pained groan from the earth, and the ground began to shake.

Meanwhile...

Cassandra was reading a book in the Magicians' Guild's sunlit main hall when she took an offhanded glance at the window. Looking again, she dropped the book and raced to the window, her mouth hanging open in disbelief.

There were two suns in the Terrarian sky.

The normal yellow sun was being drowned out by a new one, slightly higher in the sky. It was purple and emitted a sickly violet light. Cassandra tried to scream, but no sound came out of her mouth as she bolted out the door and into the courtyard, mesmerized and horrified by the terrible light. A moaning noise from the earth distracted her and she flicked her eyes downwards and dropped to her knees.

A circle of tiny, wormlike pink nodules were slowly growing out of the stone tiles of the courtyard. Cassandra reached forward to touch one, but yelped with pain - the little tentacles were burning with both heat and disease. Simply touching it had caused her finger to bleed uncontrollably. Cassandra stuck the digit in her mouth and stared at the pink objects, when she noticed that they were growing larger, sprouting rapidly from the cobblestones. Finally, they thrust upward, sending Cassandra flying and hauling up a massive pillar from the ground. Shards of rock and dirt flew everywhere as she looked up at the pillar. Veined with throbbing pink vessels, it looked to be made of a mixture of ebonstone and flesh. It was at once a horror and hypnotic, drawing Cassandra in. She heard strange, otherworldly screams and felt her vision fading, her mind screaming in agony as she stared at the light and the pillar. Hypnotized, her eyes completely blank and her hands and feet numb, she began walking towards the pillar like a zombie.