((A/N: Funny axe story))
Frantic steps sound throughout the underground halls of Trier, torches flickering from the updraft of crank's massive cape as he passes, the echoing sounds of intense battle following in his wake, shouts and screams ringing clear in his ears. His men aren't important to him, his empire, his gang, they can have it all. What's important to him is deeper still, at the core of his stronghold.
A barely-trained conscript jumps in his way from a crude door to his right, only to be smeared across the granite brick thoughtlessly and mercilessly. crank's mind is frantic, running almost as fast as his legs. His lungs burn with every breath, beads of sweat freely rolling down his brow, legs only fueled by fleeting magic and pure desperation.
His mana is running dry, and he knows it. He only has enough for one spell, and not a single more. He pauses for the briefest of moments, eyes locking onto an emergency break cabinet. With a punch, he shatters the glass, ripping the axe from inside. In his frenzy, the handle snapped in the brackets. A hatchet will do.
Immediately after, he returns to his sprint, sucking in air greedily, lungs nearly giving out from such intense activity, mind focused on nothing more than getting to the core–to her room.
Round a corner, round another, straight down the hall, up the stairs…
The door to her room is broken. White-painted wood shattered and splintered, the reinforcements meant to protect her twisted and bent out of the way. "Fuck, fuck–Lucy!" crank calls out, pushing the broken door out of the way as he barges into the room.
The room is a mess, the carpet and walls stained with deep crimson blood, the curtain bed frame broken, one of its supports missing… yet it's clear to see where it ended. Pinned to the wall, long-dead, is the corpse of a rival gang's grunt, mask cracked and weeping blood. crank allows himself the slightest hope, the barest hints of a smile tugging at his lips. "Lucy? Lucy, it- it's me! It's dad!"
His voice quivers slightly, axe clattering to the floor loudly. A whimper from under the bed catches crank's attention. He crouches, looking under the stained bed skirt. "Lucy–... There you are." He sighs, reaching in. The glimmer of hope burns brighter as he holds his darling daughter, slowly helping her from under the bed.
Yet, as his hands wrap around her, he feels a horrible warmth, seeping from her belly. An awful realization washes over him… she's not conscious. Dread grips him in its icy clutches again as he examines her, finding a bleeding gash on her stomach. At once, crank's entire world turns a pale shade of gray.
"No… no, no, no, Lucy! Lucy–please, sweetheart, don't– don't do this to me!" He softly but swiftly sets her down on the carpet, uncertainty and fear once more rear their horrid heads as crank desperately rummages around his bag, finding all of his potions shattered or empty. His grip tightens around the edges of it as he clenches his teeth. "Gggragh! To hell with you!" He tosses the useless bag against the wall.
Breaths quick and shallow, his mind races at a mile a minute, trying to find any way to fix this. "There has–... there…" He mumbles incomprehensibly, running over every possibility at once. Then… it clicks. He lunges for the axe, grabbing it by the stubby handle. "I'm so sorry." He whispers, bringing the axe close. "I'm so, so sorry." He repeats, eyes welling with tears.
"I hope you'll forgive me, my darling."
Using the last vestiges of his mana, he hovers his hands over both the axe and his daughter, eyes glowing a pale pink, magical energies swelling in crank's palms, engravings slowly forming around the axe's eye–
–crank's eyes shoot open, a mute gasp forcing a harsh wheeze out of his throat. He sits straight up, hacking and coughing up a lung, a bead of cold sweat rolling down his brow. He's mute for a few moments, simply recomposing himself in the awfully silent room. "... what…" He mutters, bringing a shaking hand to his forehead. "Wha– what the… fuck…?" He swallows nervously, breathing slowly steadying itself.
"Tha–… wh…" Blinking harshly, his hands wipe the sweat away, slicking back his mess of hair. The initial jolt of terror is fading, his mind softly coming down from the sudden flurry of activity. "Lucy…? Who–...Wait."
He pats himself down, feeling nothing. "Lucy?!" He frantically opens his inventory, scanning over every column, until his eyes settle on a… scarily familiar axe. With a soft hand, he pulls it out, its edge sheathed in a leather strap. "Oh… Y-You…" Discarding the strap is harder than usual, but his hands eventually do it, letting it drop to the ground. With a deep breath, he mostly calms himself down. "My… my lore… that's–ha, that's what's happening, huh?"
There's a second of silence… then a voice rings out, clear and unaffected by the echo of the room. "Dad? Are you okay?" It sounds like a teenager's, concern dripping from the axe's voice… from Lucy's voice.
crank chuckles, shaking his head. "I'm… I'm okay, darling. It was just a bad dream." He takes a deep breath, hugging Lucy to his chest. "It was just… a bad dream."
"Uh… okay." She sounds a little weirded out. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, yes, I'm sure." He sits at the edge of the bed, looking down at her. "How've you been? Cozy in there?"
The change in topic seems to work, as Lucy's tone changes real quick. "Oh, yeah! It's a lot more comfortable now!" crank smiles as Lucy's tone takes on the more chipper, squeakier tone he knows and loves. "Did you do something to it?"
"Heh… you could say that. We're not on Terralak anymore, that's for sure." He stands up, setting Lucy down on the bed as he picks his cloak and hat up. "It's… it's been kind of boring so far, I'll admit."
"Ooh! Do you think there's any new kinds of trees to chop?"
"Pfffft! Ah, of course, we're in a new world, and the first thing you think about is trees." He chuckles, full of mirth, the sheer terror from his nightmare finally gone. He puts on his cloak, straightening it out. "I'm sure there's something new. But we're in a bit of a barren spot right now."
"Aw! Can we go find some later?" She's still full of energy… One would think she would be a bit more dour at being in an axe for so long.
"Of course, of course…" He sets his hat on, adjusting it perfectly. "C'mon. I'm sure uncle Kuhlen's up by now."
"Okay!" He picks her up, putting her back in the strap, buckling her to his belt. He gives her a little pat on the side, heading out of the room he's claimed for himself. He makes his way down the hall, stretching out all the kinks in his body.
"Whooh, man, I slept weird."
"Well I slept like a log! Couldn't be you~!"
crank chuckles, shaking his head. "Nice one. Got any other ones?"
"Wha-huh? Nice one? Really?" She sounds baffled. Usually crank would just shake his head in disappointment at her jokes, but this one… landed?
"Yeah." crank grins, looking down at her. "Can't I like bad jokes?"
Lucy lets out an exaggerated gasp, sounding unreasonably offended. "Hey!"
Both share a hearty chuckle, Lucy's giggle brightening crank's day immensely. "Heh… No, really, that was a clever one. Can't imagine being so quick on the draw."
"Well… thanks, dad! I thought you'd be disappointed again!"
"Oh, you know you could never disappoint me, Lucy." He gives her a pat on the side, smiling brightly. "At least not in a way that matters."
"Aw! And here I was trying my hardest!"
Both of them keep talking and joking as crank makes his way down the hall, only his voice and responses echoing down the granite halls of the ancient castle. Eventually, he reaches a staircase. They planned to have separate bases, but for now, crank has to settle for living in the tunnels below. Kuhlen, of course, gets the surface.
As he comes out of the underground, he winces a bit at the harsh sunlight bouncing into his eyes. "Ugh. Hang on…" He reaches into his journey inventory, pulling out a pair of sunglasses. He sighs once they're on, nodding. "Better."
He takes Lucy off of his hip, holding her up to the courtyard they've fixed up. "Look, this is where we're staying. Pretty, isn't it?"
"Eeeeh, not really. Ooh, are those roots?"
"No, they're root-like. They're just vines"
"Aw!" She giggles, bubbly. "Hey, uncle Kuhlen!"
crank looks down, looking at Kuhlen. He's… "Motherf–mmh." He grunts, setting Lucy back on his belt. "Did he stay up all night?" crank hops off of the platform, landing with a thud. "Oi! Bro!"
The soft metallic tapping of a hammer against a chisel stops, Kuhlen turning his face up to look at crank. "What?!"
"Did you stay awake all night tinkering?"
"What? No." He returns to the little rings he's working on.
"You totally did! What've you been doing all night, anyways?"
"I didn't work all night. I just got up early." He replies cooly, holding up the ring to the sky, checking for imperfections. "Crafting system is super fun now…" He cracks a smile as he holds up the rings to crank. "Look."
crank walks up, taking them. "What are these?" Upon closer look, he sees that they're actually earrings. Really, really cool gold earrings. "Didn't know you liked wearing earrings."
"Eh, they look good on me anyway." He stands, stretching. Now that he's not hunched over, crank can see that his hands are covered by two unfamiliar gloves. "But I realized something. My hearing is seriously throwing me off, it's a pain to do anything noisy without getting overwhelmed." He brings up the earrings, clasping one on each ear. Once they're on, they let off a little glimmer. Kuhlen takes a deep breath, before sighing. "...So I made these."
"Oooh. So, what, they make your ears less sensitive?"
He frowns, smacking his lips. "No. It's like a filter. Softens up noises above a certain decibel level." He crosses his arms, glaring lightly at crank.
"Cool. What's with the gloves?" He points down at the gauntlets. They're far from Kuhlen's aesthetic. They don't match his titanium armor at all. They're kind of a mix of stuff, light blue flames burning softly on the undersides of his fingers, sharp little claws jutting out at his fingertips, soft-looking fur covering his wrist and a small part of his forearm… it all looks vaguely familiar.
"Told you, the crafting system is way more interesting." He holds up his hand for crank to admire his handiwork. "I took the fire gauntlet, beast claws, hand warmer, and an ice torch, and made this." He clenches his fist, little frostburn flames licking at the top of his gauntlet. "The furred frostburn beast gauntlet!"
His beaming smile deflates a little as he hears crank snicker. "Pft. Dude, you really couldn't come up with a better name?"
"Let's see you do better, as–"
"At-at, no cussing." He grins, patting Lucy's side. "We have company, uncle Kuhlen." He holds her up. "Say hi to your niece!"
"..." He takes a deep inhale, letting it go in a slow and steady sigh. "That… is that Lucy?"
Lucy pipes up. "Hi, uncle!"
"Yeah. You remember the, uh… the stuff we talked about?"
"The stuf- ooooh. Oh. Oh… I'm, uh… sorry for your loss." He shrugs, giving me an empathetic grimace.
"Ten years too late, but thank you."
"What? Why are you guys acting so weird today?" She asks, sounding both curious and worried.
crank chuckles, putting her back on his belt. "It's nothing, sweetheart, we're just… jet-lagged."
"What does that even mean…?"
"We're adjusting to a new world." Kuhlen helpfully explains, shrugging. "It's nothing bad, though."
"Huh…" She sighs, begrudgingly accepting the half-assed explanation. "Whatever, I guess."
"C'mon now, don't be like that." He pats her side again, smiling. He then looks back up at Kuhlen. "Hey, if you're done making stuff, do you want to go see what's down south?"
"Oh. Sure. Are you gonna make anything?" He gestures back at his little work area, littered with tables and materials.
"Nah, I can do that later. I don't have half the creativity you do."
"Meh, suit yourself… Oh, yeah, while we're at it, look." He shows off the rest of the changes he's made to his accessories. "These compass roses are actually emblems. I made some vanity for them." He opens his inventory, deactivating the vanity slot for one of them. The blue compass rose disappears, revealing an avenger emblem.
"Oh. Wow, that's cool. So all three of those are different emblems?"
"Mhm. A destroyer and a melee, too." He gestures at his belt buckle, and the other button on the other side of the chain keeping his cloak together. "Got a band of starpower and a mana regeneration band on this arm," He holds up his arm, taking the gauntlet off. There are two bracelets on his wrist. "And a charm of myths with a regular regen band on this one." He holds up his other hand. The mana bracelets look like his ponytail ring, colored a deep blue. The health ones are red, though both colors are rimmed with gold.
crank nods, impressed. "Daaamn, bro, you got that drip going!" He chuckles, grabbing his hands to check out the bracelets. "You've been busy busy, huh?"
Kuhlen chuckles, shrugging. "Sort of. I also mixed the terraspark boots with shoe spikes and a horseshoe, but you can't really see it."
"Ah, whatever, shoes are the last thing someone looks at with an outfit!" crank lets go of his wrists, dusting himself. "You done showing off?"
"Just a few small things. Ankh charm back here" he points to the back of his belt, "anklets down here, and finally, some antler rings." He points up at the rings adorning the thicker spaces between the points of his antlers. They are both about the same as the mana bracelets, though one has a gold star facing the front, while the other is sporting the celestial stone on it, the moon half silver and the sun half gold.
"Cool. What do the rings do?"
"Oh, one functions like the star veil, and one functions like the celestial stone. Might as well use the antlers too, right?" He stands proud, happy at having fully listed off his new equipment.
"Right, right. Anyway, we should really get going, we're just burning daylight here. First things first, find south." crank looks up at the sky, clearing his throat. "Okay, so the sun is rising… and if this world isn't loopy-land, then south should be that-a way." He points directly behind them.
There's a second "No it isn't."
"What? No, it totally is."
"That's north." He states bluntly, sighing.
"And how do you know, huh?" He turns around, ready to berate him… but then he sees that he has a compass in his hand. "...oh."
"Yeah."
There's a few seconds of deafening silence, crank and Kuhlen maintaining awkward eye contact the whole time… then crank's composure cracks, a little smile and a snicker sneaking through, infecting Kuhlen with a case of the giggles.
Soon enough, they're both laughing it up, while little Lucy is left confused and a little frightened. "Ugh, you two are acting so freaking weird!"
The soft, rhythmic crunch of snow breaks through the idle yet harsh noise of the rushing wind, Kuhlen sitting atop his horse as crank continuously tries and fails at flying, only managing to get a few seconds of air before his magic sputters and drops him harmlessly back on the snow.
That aside, he finds it all… very calming. It feels familiar, like he's been here before, like he's done this all before… A deep breath of the frigid air–
–calms his tired mind, horse hesitating momentarily, letting out an unsure whinny. Kuhlen's gloved hand reaches down, giving the horse a soft pat on the side of its neck. "It's alright, it's alright."
It's always a bad sign when an animal starts hesitating. He takes another deep breath, sleep once more pushed aside, exhaustion denied for the safety of those behind him. They need to keep going. The corruption is tireless, unlike him, and everyone behind him.
From the blizzard, a strangled gurgle rings out, staggered steps following suit. A zombie, half-frozen and frostbitten, slowly staggers forth, aggressively brandishing its own arm as a crude weapon. Perhaps that's why the horse was hesitating?
Kuhlen, far too tired to deal with a simple zombie with his own hands, brandishes his revolver. He cocks the action back, looking down the sights, aiming for the zombie's forehead…
The second he squeezes the trigger, a bullet pierces through its head perfectly, caving its head with a brutal crunch. He lets out a breath, rubbing his tired eyes. At the very least it wasn't anything serious…
Just then, the ground rumbles ominously, horse rearing in fear and panic, throwing Kuhlen off of its back right as a digger breaks through the snow. The few remaining soldiers and guards from whatever towns they could save take up formation. More and more diggers break from the frozen ground, whipping around and attacking whatever is in their range.
The screams of the people behind and around him ring in his ears, even as he stands and braces for a fi–
"-Kuhlen!"
The man jolts, hand instinctively reaching for his hip, only to come out empty. No sheath, no sword, no gun… no threat. He swallows the lump in his throat, sighing. "...What?"
"Christ, dude, are you alright? You were staring off into space." crank seems genuinely worried for Kuhlen, even putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I'm… I'm fine. It's just– just memories. Just memories…" He takes a deep breath, holding it… then releasing it.
"Huh… It's like what happened to me in the morning." crank mutters, bringing his hand to his chin in thought.
Kuhlen furrows his brow, looking down at crank. "What happened in the morning?"
"Oh, I had a bad dream. Though, really, it was a… a flashback, of sorts. Of our… of my history." He gives Lucy a soft pat, sighing. "Was it like that?"
"... Yes. It was the expedition."
"Expedition…? Oh. Well, I… assume it didn't end pretty."
Kuhlen shakes his head solemnly, getting off his horse. "No. No, it didn't." He pats the horse's shoulder, and it disappears, mount now deactivated. Kuhlen rubs the bridge of his nose, taking another deep breath. "Shit… I'm guessing we're somewhere important?"
"Not sure if 'important' is the right word, but…" He shrugs, gesturing at the broken, half-burnt remains of a log gate in front of them. "We're definitely somewhere. I had a quick birds-eye view, and it looked like a village. There's some monsters in there for sure."
"What did they look like?" He readies himself, brandishing a muramasa in one hand, and his shield in another. "Anything familiar?"
"No, siree. I couldn't properly see them, they were all in the buildings. But there was blood on the streets…" crank cracks his neck, pulling out a vile shard. "We might need to do a bit of hunting to clear the place out."
"Clear it out, huh?"
"Mmm-hm. I don't know about you, but I'm excited about fighting something here." He stretches his arms, almost like he was getting for a race. He looks over at Kuhlen "How come you're using a muramasa?"
"It's not a muramasa."
crank puts a hand on his hip, looking at it closely. "It isn't? Sure looks like one to me, bro."
"It isn't." He flicks the muramasa, multiple swords splitting out from it. The zenith, a copper short sword, the horseman's blade, so on and so forth. "It's the zenith. I'm just using the muramasa part of it."
"Yooo! Dude, that's sick!" crank chuckles. "When did you learn how to do that?"
"Last night. I was experimenting with it." He looks down at the sword, running his thumb over the blue blade.
"Right. Though, why the muramasa? I feel like the terra blade would be cooler."
"It's just… you know, it's familiar." He shrugs, resting the katana's spine on his shoulder. "Kuhlen used to use a katana, and his lore applies to me now, so… yeah. Just familiar."
"Huh. Well, hey, at least you're comfortable with it." crank looks down at the vile shard in his hand, turning it over in his hands. "Honestly, crank didn't really have a set weapon, so I'm not really familiar with anything."
"Just means you're versatile."
"Awe, thanks. I guess you're right." He sighs, looking into the village gate. "Come on, betcha I can kill more beasties than you!"
"Oh, absolutely not." He grins, getting ready to bolt into the village.
"Alright, on three! Onetwothree– go!" crank rushes forward first, instinctually charging up the vile shard, looking to kill whatever it is that's living in this village first.
"Ah! Cheater!" Kuhlen rushes in second, heavy armor rattling, steps loud and forceful, yet his speed is unimpeded. Two anklets and terraspark boots do wonders for agility. "Asshole!"
He can hear crank's laughing down a street to his right. So of course, he takes the street to his left. Most of the buildings are destroyed, some burnt to the ground. As he comes upon a plaza, he freezes in place, ears perked up and on high alert. Growling… right behind him. He turns around, sword brandished. "There you are!"
He's met face to face with a pack of… werewolf-like beings, fur as black as the night, skulls exposed, spikes of bone protruding from their shoulders and arms, and red markings upon their faces. Kuhlen feels a familiar animosity towards these things… "Oh… there you are…" He growls, getting into a low, defensive position. He has very bad memories with the werewolves in terraria. Way too much damage…
Without giving the wolves a damn chance to lunge at him, he charges first, bashing one with his new Svalinn shield, a heater shield, it's base being silver, the outline a dark blue rimmed in gold both inside and outside, a gold and silver compass rose proudly emblazoned in the center, vertices highlighted with smaller spikes with blue inside them and the diagonal spikes on the rose. In the center of the star is also a blue sapphire gem.
He cleaves clean through two more with ease. It's remarkable how soft these things are. "Hm…" He holds out his arm, catching one of them with his forearm. It clamps down on his arm, trying to claw and chew through the armor… but it's doing nothing. It's not even taking the polish off. "Hah! I thought you'd be a good fight!" With a mighty laugh, he launches the wolf off of his arm, drawing his revolver. With just the smallest instant to aim, he fires a luminite bullet, piercing through it and two others.
Sadly, just as soon as the battle had started, it had ended, all of the beasts dead or crippled. Kuhlen sighs, resting the sword on his shoulder again. "Tsk. These things are soft." He nudges one of the corpses, noting how it's starting to disintegrate, black smoke billowing off of it. "Huh. That's interesting… I guess they don't drop anything."
He looks back up at the ruined buildings of the plaza. Sitting surprisingly unscathed between the rubble and burnt remains of once-standing buildings is a… 'librarby', surely full of useful information about the world they've been thrust into.
"Hmph. Someone screwed up." Kuhlen chuckles. "It does sound familiar somehow," he muses, walking into the library.
A few hours later, crank and Kuhlen meet back up, bumping into one another in front of a small bar, most of it burnt down. Only part of the original sign remains, barely legible as "-lby's".
"Oh, shit, there you are!" crank calls out, walking up to him. "Found anything?"
"Books. Found a library."
"Ha! I found a magic crystal shop! I win our treasure hunt!"
Kuhlen frowns, crossing his arms. "What treasure hunt?"
"Heh. Nothing." He chuckles. "Surprised you care more about that than the fact I found magic crystals."
"We already have crystals." He shrugs. "Besides, knowledge is more important."
"No, no, you don't get it, these are generic magic crystals. Like… here, check it out." He rummages in his inventory for a second, producing a small vial full of red sand.
Kuhlen stares at it, wondering if crank hit his head. "That's not a crystal. That's powder."
crank rolls his eyes. "No, moron, it's ground up crystal. Here, feel it for yourself." He offers up the vial.
With a shrug, Kuhlen accepts it. It's surprisingly heavy, but more importantly, it feels like there's a latent energy in the powder. It feels… familiar, almost like… "Hm. It feels kind of like the gem on a band of starpower… just less pure"
"Told you. That's not the wild part, though, check this out." He produces his vile shard, taking out another vial. "Heh, feel lucky you got those earrings on, doe-boy."
He violently tosses the vial up in the air, taking aim with the crystal wand… as it starts falling, a crystal spike shoots out from the front of the wand. It hits the vial, an explosion following the collision, booming across the small, destroyed town.
"Huh. It's that kind of crystal." Kuhlen nods, somewhat impressed. "Didn't expect that big of an explosion."
"I know, right? It's kinda like gunpowder. A little goes a long way." crank grins, handing Kuhlen five vials of the stuff. "Here, research it. I'm sure we'll make damn good use of this stuff."
"Maybe, maybe…" He puts them in his inventory. Before he can say another word, however, a distant howl interrupts their conversation… then another, and another, until there's an entire chorus howl, sounding from every direction of the town.
"Agh, crap." crank frowns, looking around. "Whoops."
"Oh, you idiot." He sighs. "But it's fine… I need to test some things out." He grins, cracking his knuckles.
"Well, look at you, getting ready to fight. I thought we'd run away."
"Huh? Why would we?" Kuhlen looks at crank, confusion apparent on his face.
"Well, you know, it's a whole town of… whatever these things are." He lifts his arm, showing a surprisingly deep bite. "Damn things have a nasty bite."
"Pft– ha! Squishy!"
"Shut your mouth! It's not my fault you're a walking fortress– Oh, shit, look out!" crank takes to the air.
Kuhlen whips around, just in time to catch one of the wolves by the snout. Without a word, he punches it in the stomach, sending it flying into the rapidly-approaching horde of beasts. He smiles, taking out his shield and the zenith. "Ha-ha! Quick little bastards!" He braces, holding his shield at the ready. The star on it lets off a little glimmer, all of the aggro drawn onto him.
crank lands on the rooftop of the bar, two books in his hands. "Damn! Startled the hell out of me!" He chuckles, opening both of them. "Well, might as well have fun while we're here!"
"Hell yeah!" Kuhlen laughs, charging headfirst into the horde, sword and shield held firmly.
((A/N: I made this chapter after staying up for like 28 hours straight, I have no idea how it came out so well.))
{{Special thanks to Singular Ash}}
