"What is this place?" William murmured as he took one small step from the water onto infected sand.
Sid grabbed out his pickaxe and dug into a block of grass.
"Astral Dirt. Let's call it the Astral biome."
"Amazing name. You should get a prize," the Brimstone Elemental said, sounding sarcastic.
William didn't feel inclined to argue.
"We've got enemies inbound," Meg said.
He looked ahead. There were a series of enemies approaching them, each silver in colour but studded with crystals of blue and bursts of orange energy propelling the flying ones through the air.
The Sightseers were the first to swoop towards them, but they were slow, and their weapons defeated them quickly. Some creatures named Aries and Mantis were next, the Aries leaping towards them in bounds while the Mantises accelerated forward on several spindly legs. William slashed through one Mantis with his Ark of the Ancients and then leapt upwards to hit a Sightseer out of the sky.
Sid had taken off the Rose Stone to stop the Brimstone Elemental from commenting on everything he did, just using his butterflies to attack enemies. He watched as they took apart an Astral Slime, which was coloured a bulbous orange on one side which faded to that aqua in the other. The colour scheme reminded him of the faceplate of the rogue's helmet when she'd attacked them back at the Sulphurous Sea.
I wonder if she got the materials to make that armour from here?
His next opponent was a large, hulking being named an Atlas. It had four eyes on its face – two orange, two blue – but its most distinctive feature was that one of its arms was massively oversized and was constantly pressing into the ground, basically being used as a third leg.
While his butterflies went on the attack William rushed up to it with his sword. The Atlas reared up its arm and tried to swing at him with it. He blocked the attack with his Ark of the Ancients, then proceeded to swing himself, the creature too big and slow to block. It had enough health that it didn't die in just a few blows like the other enemies, but it still fell quickly.
After the initial wave of enemies they pressed forward. Robyn used her Seeking Mechanism again, and it arced towards the sky at about a forty-degree angle.
The lab was close. Above this very biome.
They passed more of those dark monoliths, but aside from that the terrain was almost completely flat. No major hills or anything.
They soon came to a clearing, nothing but a completely flat plain ahead. Sid looked up at the sky again, seeing that the purple cloud cover was still omnipresent overhead.
If the lab was somewhere up there, how were they going to be able to see it? Only the Seeking Mechanism could even tell them where it was. And who knew what enemies could be lurking in wait up there?
It'll be worth it once we get to that lab.
"Sid." Meg's voice. "There's something ahead."
He looked down, seeing William and Robyn running ahead. He saw what they must've spotted. Actually, two things.
The first was some sort of floating structure. It was constructed entirely from monolith blocks, shaped with a large bottom, a pillar extending up to some sort of altar, dual spikes of monolith blocks spoking up on either side.
The second was easier to miss but much more colourful. It looked like some sort of crater in the ground, and was formed completely from colourful orange-and-aqua material. It was located a short distance to the left of the floating structure.
Sid approached the crater first, looking to William who was standing near it.
"I tried mining it, but my pickaxe isn't strong enough," he said.
"Right," Sid muttered. "What about the altar thingy?"
He and William spread their wings, flying up to the top of the structure where Robyn was waiting. Up close Sid could see there was a large object resting in the centre, which was shaped with a wide but curved bottom. On two sides were slabs of reflective teal material, and in the centre an orange orb hovered in the air with some sort of magnetic force.
"What is that thing?" Sid asked.
"I'm not sure," Robyn said. "But what I do know is that we are directly underneath the lab. Watch." She held out the Seeking Mechanism. This time it pointed directly upwards.
Sid glanced up at the sky. There was no indication in the cloud cover that the lab was even above them. But they would have to try.
"How much rope do we have?" he asked.
***
Minutes later Sid was ascending.
He placed rope after rope after rope, rising higher and higher, closer and closer to the cloud layer.
At one point he made what was often considered a mistake – looking down. Though he didn't feel scared – his wings could save him from fall damage. He wasn't even afraid of the sheer height. From up here he could basically see the whole Astral-infected island. Basically all of it was covered with those monoliths. There were a few hills, mostly located near the ocean in the direction opposite of where they'd come from, but there was nothing else special about its geography.
He looked back up and kept placing rope. Soon he began to approach the cloud layer.
This is it, Sid.
That was when he was struck by a wicked bolt of orange-and-blue lightning.
He was blasted from the pillar of rope, falling straight off to the side.
He cried out and spread his wings, then reached out as he guided himself back towards the rope. He grabbed hold, clasping his legs around it. He looked down to gauge how far he had fallen, then back up.
I'll try again.
***
"So we can't get up there?" Meg exclaimed.
"Every time I try, I get struck by lightning," Sid said. "The clouds won't let us past."
"What happens if someone else tries?"
"Well, you're welcome to see for yourself."
As Meg did, he turned to William and Robyn.
"This sucks," Sid muttered. "Coming all this way, only to get kicked out by the gatekeeper. Those clouds."
"I feel like the cloud cover is only there because of the Astral biome," William said. "Maybe if we use Whitney's Clentaminator to convert this biome to purity, like how we got rid of the Crimson that was overcoming the Desert village back in Firstworld."
"Nah, that won't work!" Whitney shouted, who was standing some distance away. She had her Clentaminator out, and tried spraying the Astral grass with streams of pure green particles. It did cleanse the dirt briefly, turning the grass green, but the Astral would just instantly re-infect it. It seemed like cleansing this island would be like trying to clear water out of a tub using nothing but a stick.
"What about that Titan Heart you said you found, William?" Robyn asked.
"Oh yeah." William pulled it out of his inventory. It was a dark red item, purplish near the top and dark aqua down the bottom.
"Where did you get that?" Sid asked.
"Some enemy dropped it," William said. "It says it's a material, craftable into Titan Heart Armour. But it's also usable at the Astral Beacon. I think that's that thing up there."
Sid looked up at the altar.
"That would probably summon a boss," he said.
"I know," William muttered. "Which is why I haven't tried it yet. Whatever boss it summons, it's probably going to be hard to beat. We'll need to prepare as best as we can."
"Then let's prepare."
***
It was a day later.
A network of platforms had been set up encircling the altar which the Astral Beacon lay upon in the time since. Campfires had been placed to increase life regeneration, and a small cabin was set up some distance away for in case anyone got to low health and suddenly needed to magic-mirror away. They could then quickly heal up and then rejoin the fight.
If they defeated this boss, he hoped that it would cleanse away the biome, just like how defeating the Slime God had caused the Crimson and Lavender nearby to retreat. And that the Astral biome going away would lead to the cloud cover clearing, allowing them to go up into the laboratory above.
He stood at the top of the altar, next to the Astral Beacon. He could see Sid, Meg, Permafrost the Archmage, James the Clothier, Whitney the Steampunker, Roxanne the Stylist and Princess Cirrus standing separately among the platforms. The citizens had all volunteered to help them fight in any way they could.
William desperately hoped this battle wouldn't lead to any more deaths. Not after the Plaguebringer Goliath's mercilessness. He didn't know how much longer he could take all this needless death.
Robyn, who stood next to him, watched him with careful unease.
"Are you worried?" she asked.
He looked to her. "I am. I just... I don't know. We don't know anything about this boss. How powerful it is. We don't know if it's going to be insanely powerful and overwhelming like the Plaguebringer."
"That was the case with every boss we've fought before," Robyn said. "And you know I've been scared all the time too. But we can do this." She reached for his hand, taking it in hers.
He looked around the area again. This was the most prepared they'd ever gone for a boss fight in some time, as most times bosses tended to catch them unexpectedly and off-guard. It was a wonder they'd survived for so long, William thought.
So she was right. They could do this. He felt a bit more confident in facing off against whatever monstrosity would get summoned.
"Thank you," he said.
"I love you."
He looked at her face. Her green eyes. Her light brown skin. Her long brown hair. The face of the girl who had said those words.
He should have felt warm at this moment. He should have felt his heart flutter. He should have wanted nothing more than to take hold of her, kiss her, and repeat those words right back.
So why didn't he feel that way?
"I love you too," he said.
But the words didn't feel right in his mouth. It was like eating his favourite flavour of ice cream, but it had melted just a bit too much.
He let go of her hand, turned, and placed the Titan Heart on the Astral Beacon.
The heart started to rise up, slowly transforming into a ball of orange and aqua.
Then it burst into sparkles, one orange and one aqua, rising up away from each other, before flying together and colliding, bouncing off each other, away then coming back and colliding again. The two spheres kept bouncing together, bouncing further apart, then closer together before colliding permanently together.
That was when the wormhole opened. A disc in the sky, bright red sparks swirling around it.
And out of the wormhole, poetically, came a worm.
A pest named Astrum Deus.
I hope these messages asking you to vote aren't too much of a pest.