Guardians of Terraria II: The World of Calamity

Episode 21.3 - Antarctic Reinforcement

It was Robyn, holding a gold-trimmed bow aloft. Two more figures came out from the blizzard's haze beside her.

"Sid!" Meg shouted. "We're back!"

"Thank the cactus gods you guys are here!" Sid yelled. "It's Cryogen! He's derping out!"

The giant cube of ice torpedoed itself out of the haze, swooping towards him. He jumped to avoid its swoop.

"Sid!" William shouted. "I crafted a new summon weapon for you!" He held up a staff that had a miniature dragon on its end and threw it at him.

Sid caught it and took a moment to glance at its tooltip. Caustic Staff. Summons a mini dragon that inflicts debilitating debuffs... Only 20 damage though... but might be worth having just one...

"Cryogen's coming back!" Meg shouted.

This time it was shooting straight towards William, but he swung out with his Fractured Ark. When Cryogen got close enough he dashed to the side, bringing the blade straight through its side, causing it to glow brighter, and his next few swings started launching those powerful beams of light.

Robyn began firing her Lunarian Bow, but the boss was moving too fast, fading into the foggy wind before shooting straight out again, this time at Sid. His new mini dragon shot a thorn from its mouth that lodged itself into the side of Cryogen, causing it to get set on fire, while Sid himself jumped to the side to dodge the flying ice cube of death. It was heading towards Meg and her new Frigidflash Bolt, which fired energy balls that seemed to be both fiery and icy at the same time, but instead sailed past her and into the wind again.

It soon came back to swoop a few times. The good news was, it lost a fair amount of health with each swoop while doing little damage on each turn. But then it suddenly shot down from directly above Sid and slammed right through him.

"Ow!" he cried. He looked down at himself. "Where did it go?"

That was when Robyn was slammed from below.

Her body was pinned against its jagged icy face, thrusting her high into the sky like the nose cone on the front of a rocket. She screamed, not knowing what else to do, and was soon thrown off. She fell, nothing but white, cold air around her, before she faceplanted back in the snow.

She groggily got to her feet. She hadn't lost a massive amount of health, but that hit alone had frightened the life out of her.

You need to focus, she told herself. You need to stop being so afraid all the time. You need to believe you can do this in order to actually do it.

She ran, then instinctively leapt forward as Cryogen shot up from the snow behind her. She wasn't sure how it was phasing through the ground like that, but she'd seen more ridiculous things. She saw the welcome sight of some of Meg's frosty fireballs flying towards her, over her head at where Cryogen was heading.

"It's pretty low!" Meg shouted. "Have you noticed how cracked it's getting?"

Robyn noticed the next time it shot down from the sky – this time above Meg. It could hardly even be called an ice cube anymore, now looking like ten fragmented snowflakes layered over each other, only a vague lattice shape remaining. Meg jumped back, and seconds later it shot up again, hitting her but not leaving her fazed.

It came down again, from above Meg again, but then William was charging out of the fog, sword swinging.

He cleaved it straight through Cryogen, slicing it in two. He landed on the snow with his sword held behind him, icy shards exploding everywhere as Cryogen broke apart. Its two halves strangely didn't fall to the ground immediately, the halves instead spinning and orbiting each other faster and faster, chips and shards of ice flinging themselves off at rapid speeds. An icy blue bow shot out and landed in the snow in front of Robyn, its shine seemingly beckoning to her. She cautiously stepped forward and picked it up, still staring up at Cryogen's disintegrating form.

Soon the two halves clashed together and seemed to wipe each other out of existence, emanating a flash of frozen light. Then a large form dropped out and landed on the snow.

It was an old man, dressed in an ice-blue cloak over a grey tunic, with gold rings encircling his wrists, ankles and waist. His hair looked like a frozen glacier, icy spikes pointing out at acute angles. His beard was just as thick, like an avalanche spilling down his face. His eyes were narrow and barely visible beneath his large, frosted eyebrows, but from his first words, it seemed that he could see quite well.

"I have not seen such a sky in decades." The man looked down, staring directly at Robyn. His gaze suddenly made her feel colder than she already was, unease chipping at her armour. Who was this man?

"Who are you," the man said, stepping towards her, "To march so brazenly against that Tyrant?"

"What Tyrant?" William asked, stepping up besides Robyn. His presence comforted her. A source of warmth in this cold, bitter landscape.

And in this dark, unknown world.

"You know not of Jungle Tyrant, Yharim?" the man asked.

"You mean Lord Yharim?" Meg exclaimed, walking into the man's line of sight. Robyn saw Sid touching down from above next to her, accompanied by his fighter-jet summons.

"The man goes by many monikers," the man said. "As for mine, you may know me as Permaforst, the Archmage. I deeply appreciate you all for rescuing me from being trapped within my frozen castle... it's been many, many years..."

"How do you know about Yharim?" Sid asked.

"Because he was the one to trap me inside." The Archmage's head snapped in Sid's direction and gazed at him intensely. "He came to me, asking for guidance to, in his words, 'peacefully calm the denizens of the Underworld.' But I knew his reputation all too well. Even if I hadn't, his manner betrayed him. I only saw bitter contempt within his heart, an urge to annihilate the towers of the Underworld and their inhabitants. Many have come to learn from me before, and in a world filled with wicked men, many seeked to use my magic and knowledge in horrifying ways. You become capable of reading them at the slightest glance."

He thrust his gaze back at Robyn. "You, for example..." She felt herself shrinking backward as Permafrost strode towards her, "You don't want to be here. You want to run, to hide, to hold out until your natural lifespan expires."

Robyn just looked down and covered her face, suddenly feeling like she was going to cry into her hands.

William stared right back at the Archmage. "You might be good at reading people, but you're not good at talking to them."

"I don't care about hurting feelings," Permafrost rumbled. "It is only the truth. Men who don't hold the truth at a high priority should not be allowed to walk on this world. But alas, men like Lord Yharim rise through their lies, their deception, their unwavering lust for power and their belief in the ruthless slaughter of others to get their way."

"You're not wrong," Meg said. "We've met the Sea King, Amidias. Yharim came to him too with an offer, and Amidias's refusal similarly led to the end for him. And when he came to our world, he simply waltzed right in and overpowered us without a thought. He's a menace."

The Archmage turned to stare at her, seemingly reading her like he had the others, but said nothing.

"Are you going to help us?" William asked. "All we want is to return to our world and take back what is ours from Yharim. End him, and bring back peace."

It was then William's turn to get stared at, and again the Archmage said nothing for the longest time.

"I will help you," he finally said.

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