Guardians of Terraria II: The World of Calamity

Episode 32.2 - Murderswarm

He held up the pumpkin medallion, 'using' it. Instantly, the rising moon seemed to morph, transforming into the orange face of a carved pumpkin.

Robyn eerily remembered using both those items at once while cursed, which had brought forth two armies of creatures, themed around Halloween and Christmas respectively, to attack the citizens and Sid, Meg and William.

"What are you doing, Sid?" she screamed.

"Wait for it."

Sid pointed to various groups of scarecrows that were shambling and hopping towards them, and his summons began to attack. The Mechworm began to shred into the front lines, sometimes teleporting between small star-portals to attack lots of different groups within the span of seconds. The Elementals hung in the air and fired their respective attacks from afar. As the enemies fell, dropping the usual coins, Robyn also noticed them dropping a new orange that was black in colour and flaming with orange. An item that looked strangely familiar...

She ran forward and collected one up. Nightmare Fuel. One of the missing ingredients for Ascendant Spirit Essence! She spun to Sid. "How did you figure this out?"

"Remember after we defeated the Devourer of Gods, we heard that voice whispering in our ear?" Sid asked. "A similar thing happened way back when we first defeated the Wall of Flesh, and also after we defeated Providence. Which was how I found out about Uelibloom finally spawning into the world. It took me a lot longer to realise what it meant this time, though."

Robyn faintly remembered. "What did it say exactly again?"

"The harvest moon glows eerily. The frigid moon shimmers brightly. The dark sun awaits for those who can see clearly," Sid recited. "I wasn't sure of its meaning since there was still only one moon up there. Until yesterday, when in the Tablet I came across the two items that summon the Pumpkin Moon and Frost Moon. It also occurred to me that, of the three Ascendant Spirit Essence items we were missing, two of them seemed like they'd fit right in with both events." He splayed his arms out at the armies of the Pumpkin and Frost Moons converging on them. "It all just clicked to me."

Robyn started firing her arrows into an approaching Mourning Wood. It fell quickly, dropping a considerable amount of Nightmare Fuel. "What about the dark sun?" she asked.

"I'm not 100% sure, but it might be a solar eclipse," Sid said. "I don't know if there's a way of summoning one of those ourselves, so we'll have to wait for one to happen naturally."

Robyn didn't particularly like the idea of waiting for a natural occurrence when she knew that the longer things took, the more likely that Yharim would complete his plans in the Nexus.

If his true aim was to simply take control of every Terraria world in existence, like what the Eidolists thought, that would include Secondworld. He could come right back, with the power of untold other worlds at his disposal. She and Sid would stand no chance.

Still, if Sid's thinking worked out, they could get Endothermic Energy from the Frost Moon and Darksun Fragments from a Solar Eclipse in a similar way to how they were getting Nightmare Fuel right now. They could upgrade their weapons and armour, and face off against the next obstacle that stood in their path to the Nexus.

***

Another week passed. Robyn and Sid had collected as much Nightmare Fuel from the Pumpkin Moon as they could, and then Endothermic Energy from the Frost Moon. The world blessed them with a Solar Eclipse a couple days later, giving them a supply of Darksun Fragments.

From there, there were upgrades to be had. Robyn's Bloodflare Armour became God Slayer Armour, and Sid's Tarragon Armour turned into Silva Armour. Robyn upgraded two of her bows – the Monsoon to the Alluvion, and the Phantasm to the Phangasm. Sid crafted the Pole Warper, which summoned these sets of floating magnets that swarmed and tore at enemies with their magnetic forces, and the Saros Possession, which was an upgrade to his Sirius, changing the bright star to a golden radiant aura. He also upgraded one of the weapons that dropped from the Pumpkin Moon, the Raven Staff, to the Corvid Harbinger Staff. It summoned a group of dark, red-eyed ravens that teleported and lashed at enemies for high damage.

They also upgraded some of their accessories. Robyn crafted an Elemental Quiver to boost her damage and upgraded her Seraph Tracers to the Elysian Tracers. Sid crafted some of his existing summoning accessories into the Nucleogenesis, along with the Dark Sun Ring, and a pair of Silva Wings. The wings were special because they synergised with his armour. His armour had a special ability where if he took fatal damage, it protected him from death, leaving him with 1 health, though this could only happen once every five minutes. The wings boosted the effect so he would be brought all the way up to half his health, meaning he was sure he'd be able to last much longer.

With all those upgrades done, Robyn and Sid felt like they were as ready as they could be, but there was still more work to be done. They headed back to the jungle and spent a few days setting up some lines of platforms in the air. These had proven quite useful while fighting the Devourer of Gods, being a straight, easy path that could both be flown up from or dropped down from. The reason they were building a new arena in the jungle instead of reusing the one from the Devourer of Gods fight was largely because the Dragon Egg didn't seem to do anything when Robyn tried using it above the Astral Infection, so they guessed the jungle was the only place it would work.

If it worked at all, that was.

Soon, it was the moment of truth. Campfires and heart lanterns were all set up, and Sid had even bought some of the Drunk Princess's candles. These boosted various stats by a small amount. Not by a huge amount, but they needed any advantage they could get.

Robyn stood on one of the platforms bordering the arena, looking out at the structure. She glanced at Sid by her side, wishing not for the first time that Renee could still be here to fight for another day. Or that Meg hadn't turned out to be Calamitas. Or that William...

She shook the thoughts from her head. They were of no help.

"All set?" she asked.

From the huge number of dark ravens, Elementals, Profaned Guardians and the radiant sigil above his head, she wasn't sure if she'd needed to ask.

At least I'm not alone, she thought. Sid had always been there, always fighting, always with the drive to become stronger, never once allowing himself to stop or falter. There was that one time near the beginning when he'd been so convinced the world was a video game that he'd almost killed William. And that same drive had in some ways resulted in Yharim arriving in the Nexus.

But Robyn felt sure that Yharim would have entered the Nexus no matter what Sid had done. They had defeated the Moon Lord, the only entity that had ever come close to defeating Yharim, leaving the Nexus wide open for Yharim to waltz right in.

She held up the Jungle Dragon Egg. Soon, we're going to be the ones waltzing in, Yharim.

There was a high-pitched roar, sounding like a cross-between a lion's and an eagle's.

Then flames started swirling up in the air. Moving in a circle, with a radius of maybe 200 blocks, with Robyn and Sid in the eye of the storm, a fiery cyclone began towering around them. The sky turned a dark orange, the jungle around them becoming cast in its glow.

A massive creature emerged into the cyclone. Coloured red, covered with feathers, purple bands around each of its four legs, patches of green along its wings, elytra coloured dark yellow. Its head was shaped like an eagle's, with a dark brown beak. It had four beady orange eyes, two on each side of its head, and a glowing golden crest burst prominently above its beak.

"Well," Sid said, "Looks like we lured in Yharon the Jungle Dragon after all."

I wonder what a Vote Dragon would be like?