The decision to leave Slimetown for good hadn't been an easy one.
After Calamitas and now the Plaguebringer Goliath, it was clear that Yharim knew where they had settled, and staying there would only lead to another attack.
Henceforth, on the morning after the Plaguebringer Goliath's invasion, they set off in a northerly direction, indicated by Robyn's Purple Seeking Mechanism.
They stored as many of the essential items and materials from their chests in their inventory as they could. Sid crafted Void Bags for all of them as well to expand their carrying capacity. William took down the Codebreaker, all its components, the Power Cell Factories and the Charging Stations, leaving the warehouse completely empty.
With them travelled the few citizens that had survived the Plaguebringer's assault. James the Clothier. Whitney the Steampunker. Bart the Angler. Faye the Princess. Cirrus the not-so-drunk Princess. Roxanne the Stylist. Permafrost the Archmage. Nissa the Dryad had also survived, but she hadn't regained any sort of consciousness since arriving, still in a strange grey stasis. She walked with James and Whitney, but if left alone she would just stand still and do nothing.
Their journey involved them following the purple trail of light emanated by Robyn's new Seeking Mechanism, first taking them through what was left of the Lavender biome. They were travelling in largely the same direction William and Sid had come from, and soon enough they came to the desert they had first appeared in when entering Secondworld.
The sun began to set, so they set up camp for the night in the middle of the desert. William placed some campfires to coat them in the warmth of light as the temperature of the usually warm biome dropped dramatically.
Sid rubbed his hands together, watching as Meg came to sit by him.
"Sid, can we talk?" she asked.
"Yeah?"
She reached out, putting her hands on her knees. "About that gun you used when we were fighting the Plaguebringer Goliath... do you remember what I said?"
"You said not to use guns, to just focus on my summons," Sid said. "I know. It was just..." he sighed. "That fight was hard, Meg. It's almost as though it was later in progression than when we were meant to take it on."
"Maybe, but look. Sid... I'm worried about you."
He stared at her. "Who are you, and what have you done with Meg?"
"I'm serious! You've always been good with your summons, getting them to deal loads of damage while you focus on avoiding taking damage. So whenever you feel like trying to blast bosses yourself... it opens up that risk that you'll get too consumed by rage, then make a mistake and... you know, die."
Sid raised a hand to his chin, thinking about her words.
She was right. She was always right.
"I won't die," Sid said softly.
He felt her patting his shoulder. "You don't have to constantly go at this alone. We're all in on this. We'll all be there to take on whatever challenges rise in our path."
He nodded, looking into Meg's eyes as she stood up and walked over to survey the desert.
He looked to William and asked, "What do you think we'll get once we find the last lab? Stronger weapons?"
He shrugged. "Remember what Draedon wrote in his first schematic? 'I will know by the end if you are worthy of using the full power of my laboratories to travel between worlds.' We'll be able to use them to take the fight to Yharim once we're strong enough."
"What about that sword that you found?" Robyn asked. "The one that deals over 3000 damage?"
William shrugged. "I still can't use it. But if I can figure out how, it might be how I'll be able to kill Yharim."
Kill Yharim... his thoughts repeated.
He'd never really thought of himself as a killer. Not like Yharim, who had ruthlessly massacred so many people and civilisations. William had slain many enemies in battle, yes, but most had been vile monsters or out of self-defence.
Yharim was different. He felt different. Sid had once told him that Meg thought he was a player, like the rest of them. Albeit one who was more twisted and ruthless.
But would that make killing Yharim moral? He wasn't sure.
He began to feel flakes of sand stinging at his skin, and next thing he knew a sandstorm was kicking up.
"Cactuses," Sid muttered, getting to his feet. "Of course this happens while we try to make camp in the desert."
There was a loud growl, and a shape slammed into William, biting into his Scoria armour. He slashed out with his Ark of the Ancients, the crystalline blade slashing the enemy to pieces in one shot.
"That was some sort of shark!" Meg exclaimed.
"Why are we getting sharks in the middle of the desert?" Sid shouted.
"There's more!" Robyn began firing her green Malevolence bow – a weapon that had dropped from the Plaguebringer Goliath – at another Sand Shark that had thrown itself out from beneath the sandy ocean.
William heard one of the citizens cry out, and realised with horror the Sand Sharks were now going for easier prey.
"Cover the citizens!" he shouted. "I'll build a platform in the air for them!"
He quickly erected a pillar of stone blocks, then began to lay out a long wooden platform. After making it about thirty blocks long he dropped a line of rope down to the ground.
"Get up here!" he shouted.
Whitney the Steampunker was the first to leap for the rope, firing at a leaping Sand Shark using her Clockwork Assault Rifle as she grabbed hold and climbed. He saw Faye and Bart running for it. Permafrost the Archmage was fighting back with ice magic, encasing one Sand Shark in an ice block as it leapt for him, which promptly fell and shattered both it and the shark within upon the ground. James the Clothier had transformed into Skeletron, and was keeping to the air and batting Sand Sharks away with his hands.
A large worm erupted from beneath the sand and into the air – a Dune Splicer, not quite as large as the Desert Scourge William and Sid had once fought here, but still quite fast and aggressive. William leapt off the platform, cleaving his sword straight down the worm. Upon landing on the ground another Sand Shark leapt at him, but he slashed through that too.
He could see his friends having little trouble with the sandstorm enemies as well, most of them falling almost immediately to their weapons. Meg was casting her Forbidden Sun to obliterate the Sand Sharks with large explosions, even killing some that were still beneath the sand. Sid had his swarm of fast-flying butterflies, his Plantera minion, and those black flowers that floated around him also attacking.
That was when a series of three glowing tornadoes swept up in mid-air.
William instinctively flew away from them, spotting just in time the enemy that must have summoned them. A Sand Elemental, a being made completely from hardened sand that formed its torso, arms, face, hair, and glowing yellow eyes. It had no legs – instead it floated above the ground, using the very wind of the sandstorm in its flight.
He would have gone to attack it, but Sid was already on it, his butterflies tearing into its health. The Sand Elemental cast a sand-tornado that sucked all his butterflies in, so he summoned something else – a single insectoid creature that was covered with green and grey armoured plating and flew with a set of whirring green wings. Summoning it used up all of his minion slots, meaning it was quite powerful. It flew forward and shredded away the rest of the Sand Elemental's health.
Sid landed amongst its remains. Elemental in a Bottle. Summons a Sand Elemental to fight for you... Nice!
He equipped it, adding a Sand Elemental to his party. This one looked noticeably different to the one he had just brought down, being formed from lighter-coloured sand, a sandy tornado forming beneath her waist, and light-blue energy crackling across her torso and up to her blue eyes.
Robyn stood atop the platform, keeping an eye on the citizens while watching everyone fight below and picking off anything that moved with arrows. This was where she fought best – out of harm's way, dealing damage from a distance while everyone else attracted the attention of the enemies they were fighting.
Everything went well until there was a massive explosion of sand.
Followed by a gargantuan shark leaping towards her.
She cried out and jumped to avoid the Great Sand Shark that slammed through the platform. Fortunately none of the citizens were hit, so she focussed on pouring arrows into the sandy megalodon. But it didn't take long for it to sink back beneath the sand.
"How much health does that thing have?" Meg asked.
"The first two numbers were 17," Sid said. "Let's hope that's seventeen thousand and not a hundred and seventy thousand."
It better not, William thought as the Great Sand Shark leapt up again, bearing towards him.
An ice shield formed in front of him – Permafrost was standing nearby – but the shark just smashed straight through. Luckily, William had his Ark of the Ancients out in a parry. The sword charged up, he started to swing at it furiously, the empowered sword tearing through half its 17,000 health before the beast sunk below the sands.
It next attacked Sid, but he just flew up into the air while his summons attacked the shark. Meg blasted at it with her Gatling Laser. The shark swum under the sand to avoid it, then erupted forth in front of her, a cascade of sand covering her and the shark itself opening its mouth and swallowing her whole.
"Meg!" Robyn cried.
Fortunately she noticed it had very little health left, and when it next came up from beneath the sand it suddenly exploded, Meg thrusting her arms out from inside.
"That was exciting," she said.
Not quite Robyn's choice of words.
***
The sandstorm endured for the rest of the night before finally letting up, revealing the sun beginning to peak its face on the eastern horizon.
No more Great Sand Sharks came to eat them. A few Sand Elementals attacked, one dropping another bottle – this one named the Rare Elemental in a Bottle. Sid equipped that instead of his regular elemental, summoning a different Sand Elemental that had a teal and orange flower in its sandy hair and which would throw healing orbs that could heal Sid for a bit of health.
The trek through the desert continued, and they soon came to the massive sandstone wall that Sid and William had been faced with back at the beginning. This time, with wings and preparation, it was much easier to climb. James transformed into his Skeletron form and lifted up the citizens in groups of two, first the Archmage and Steampunker and then Cirrus and Roxanne.
Atop the indomitable cliff was a biome that William was not expecting.
Sharks underwater are bad enough, but sharks under... sand? I wonder if they vote?