20demayo WinterHord (9) – Diary.
WinterHord (9) – Diary.
A quick note: Well, the story has reached the chapters that I released on other sites, so the release of chapters will slow down to the normal pace.
If anyone wants to read 3 chapters ahead in both of my stories, they are available on my (P)(A)(T). Obviously, this is not necessary, as I will continue to release the story for free, but if you want to support me or just really enjoy the story and want to read ahead, feel free to do so.
Well, if not, still, thank you for reading my stories!
Having said that, have a good day everyone and happy reading!
(P)(A)(T)/CalleumArtori
[...]---[...]
"How come, the Fae are a myth! :O!," Millia seemed almost indignant, well, as indignant as a little green ball of ten centimeters could seem.
Still, she seemed indignant.
But it was an excellent question, what the hell was this about the Fae being a myth? I hadn't found anything about them in Terraria outside the dungeon, but I also hadn't actively searched for them, so I thought it was a coincidence.
But if Dylan, the guy I knew who had the most knowledge, said they were a myth... Something was wrong here.
"A myth, you know, a bedtime story, an old tale, something that dates back many, many years," Dylan explained after reading what Millia had written.
Everyone else seemed to agree with the guide.
"How old?" I asked.
I knew I lacked some common knowledge, some history lessons here and there, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect...
"Since the first story," Dylan continued, seeing my confused look. "The great war, the war against the nameless that happened fifteen thousand years ago."
... But the number being fifteen, freaking, thousand years wasn't something I had in mind.
Even worse, "The Nameless." I didn't even need to think to know who held that title.
"FIFTEEN THOUSAND YEARS!?" If Millia could shout, I was sure she would have shouted.
Even the way she wrote the words had become more "shaky," as if her entire body was in shock.
Fifteen thousand years... Millia had said she knew the Empress of Light and the fairy realm, which for Dylan, and apparently for all of Terraria, was a myth, something from an old legend...
Millia said she had stayed in the garden for about a week after her mother and "Aunt Alice" left, until one day, after she went to sleep, she woke up and I was there, or at least that's what she thought had happened.
How long were you sleeping in that garden, Millia?...
A seal, a protection, that's what the garden was, I already knew that, but something that literally locked Millia out of the passage of time I didn't expect...
Worst of all, Millia was smart, it didn't take her a second to connect the dots and figure out that somehow she had "slept" for centuries.
Seeing that Millia was trembling in shock with the information, I picked up the little slime from my shoulder and held her in front of my face.
"Millia, calm down, it's okay, it's all right..." I tried to make my voice as calm as possible, conveying reassurance. "Let's look for information on what happened afterward, but first, try to calm down."
My attempts to calm her worked in parts, as she had stopped shaking, but still seemed anxious. When did I learn to read her mood, I didn't know.
"I won't lie and say I understand everything that's happening," Dylan said after seeing me calm Millia. "But anything, just ask me, I'll help as best as I can." Although he said he didn't understand everything, he had realized that his words affected Millia.
I nodded in gratitude without verbally responding. I'll ask him about this "First story" later, for now, we had other things to deal with.
"Do you want to rest or sleep, Millia?" I asked the little slime. The others looked at the interaction with various levels of confusion in their eyes.
As much as I preferred Millia to be the one reading the book, so I wouldn't have to explain why the hell I could read a language from fifteen thousand years ago of a species considered a myth, it wasn't something I wouldn't do.
If she wanted to go rest, I would read the book quietly.
"No..." Millia swayed her body from side to side. "... I'll read, just... it was a shock, but I'm fine..." It was clearly a lie, I knew it, Millia knew it, everyone knew it, yet she put on a strong front.
"I already expected that something had happened, just... To have confirmation... it was... Well, I need something to occupy my mind." Without waiting for a response, she jumped from my hand to the hood of the Humvee, where I had placed the book.
"Which page do you want me to read?" The little slime asked. "Or can I start from the beginning?" Taking a step forward, Gilbert was the one who responded with a gentle voice, realizing that Millia had been affected for some reason.
"Here, let me show you, little one." He opened the book to a page, one already at the end of the diary. The reason he chose that page was apparent, as it had a vivid image of the Deerclops.
Or at least what looked like him, from what I remembered he looked like. A giant humanoid deer, larger than I expected him to be if the comparison with the trees was correct.
"Annabel." I called the countess before Millia started reading. "Can I borrow this book later?" I asked. If what Dylan said was right, this thing was fifteen thousand years old, which was frankly, absurd.
How did this book survive all this time? Damn, how did no one from WinterHord find this book in the library before? No one cleaned the place?
WinterHord wasn't even fifteen thousand years old, it was about four hundred and something, damn, how did this thing end up here?
These two things, without considering the situation we were in, made me want to read the entire book, not just the pages with the Deerclops.
I'll take the hit to my wallet and use Analyze: Item on this book too, in case there's something I might miss unintentionally.
"Sure, but if you discover anything, I just ask that you tell me what you found later." I nodded in agreement.
With the countess's confirmation and no one having anything else to say, Millia began to read.
Since she couldn't speak, only shape her body into words, I took it upon myself to read the words she wrote.
- [May 22, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"After these strange spatial anomalies appeared, every day seemed endless, missions upon missions without rest; today had been no different. My battalion was tasked with investigating one of the spatial anomalies that had arisen, this one in particular, had emerged in the snowy mountains."
Millia stopped translating at this point, not because the text, let alone the page, had ended, but because her body couldn't stretch any further.
Somehow, I could sense that she was embarrassed about it, and if she had blood in her body, she might even be blushing.
Forming back into a little ball, Millia resumed translating the book.
"... I didn't know a single soul who lived in that region or would want to live there; the cold was unpleasant, the location even worse, the place being at the tip of the continent. The journey there would be long, months... I could already hear my wife's screams when I told her about it..."
Again, Millia had to stop to reshape herself before continuing the translation of the text.
- [June 3, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... The journey here had been smooth, almost two weeks of pure nothingness. Of course, this was ignoring the occasional attacks from beasts, but that wasn't even a concern, especially now that our leader had changed for this specific mission. The guy was insanely strong, which made me wonder why this change in this mission and why he wore a complete suit of armor, showing no skin."
"Did he just jinx himself?" Robyn murmured from inside the Humvee that had its doors open.
"Shh!" Selina put her finger to her lips. "Don't interrupt; it's rude to disrupt a reading." I don't think that applies here, but okay.
No one else seemed to hear this small conversation, not even Millia, who was in my left hand while I held the book with my right hand.
Light Calendar? The current calendar was the Terrarian calendar; I didn't know this Light Calendar, and from everyone's confused looks, they didn't either.
- [June 10, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... It's been a week since I wrote here, well, nothing happened again, which seemed to be making our leader, whom I found out holds the rank of general, uneasy. One of the soldiers had gone to ask him why he was like this, and the answer was: 'It's too easy, too calm; I feel like something is going to happen.'"
Everyone was completely focused on the translation, paying attention to the words I was saying.
Dylan was the most focused; the guide at this moment didn't even seem to blink, putting his full attention on the words Millia was writing and my voice.
Well, I guess a report from fifteen thousand years ago, from a soldier of a race that supposedly was a myth, was enough to make Dylan look like a statue.
"... I can't say I felt the same as the general, but from what I had seen of the man in these weeks, he had good instincts, so I won't doubt him; I'll stay alert and warn the rest of the team to do the same..."
Millia created a little hand and turned the book's page, just before continuing the translation.
- [June 28, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... The general's prediction was right; something was wrong. I didn't know when it had started; at first, we thought it was the wind, but the closer we got to the mountains, the colder the environment became, the more certain we were that it wasn't the wind but something else. Whispers that wouldn't let anyone sleep properly..."
Everyone, or almost everyone, around frowned, wearing different degrees of serious looks after hearing that phrase; it was to be expected.
Melissa, Darnell, and Annabel in particular were the ones with furrowed foreheads; the three of them having heard those whispers already.
Hallucinations.
"... These last few nights have been hell to sleep; no matter what we did, the whispers wouldn't stop, even covering our ears didn't work, even magical protections seemed to be ineffective..."
- [July 3, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... The whispers stopped, finally! The general had performed some kind of ritual, asking for a blessing from the great queen, which, to everyone's joy, worked, making the whispers stop. I swear, if that infernal noise had continued for one more day, I would have lost my mind. FINALLY, I CAN SLEEP!..."
"I know that feeling..." Melissa muttered while Darnell, who had arrived moments ago accompanied by the guard I presume Annabel sent to fetch him, and Annabel herself nodded in agreement.
I didn't doubt for a moment that she knew; her look when we arrived in WinterHord was that of someone about to commit a crime.
- [July 4, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... I woke up in the early hours today with the screams of one of my comrades. He seemed scared, desperate, while trying to escape from something that no one could see. The general or the only one who had time to react, realizing that it wasn't just stress affecting the man and that he was genuinely under attack..."
I think I know where this is going... Judging by everyone's looks and the heavy atmosphere that seemed to settle, they did too.
"... It happened out of nowhere, before the general could reach the man, try to help him, the man had been split in half, cut and torn apart by invisible claws and teeth that shredded his body in seconds, if not less. I'm used to battle, injuries, but that... That was one of the worst ways to die that I can imagine...."
"Did any of you see an hallucination attack someone?" I asked, looking at the three, Annabel, Melissa, and Darnell.
From the description, the hallucination had torn the soldier along with his armor, armor that I was almost sure had runes and Mystical Symbols combined.
Either hallucinations fifteen thousand years ago were stronger, much stronger, or they could ignore the protection of armor, both options were horrifying.
"I did." Darnell was the one who answered. "It was similar to the description in the book, but the armor the soldier was wearing protected him, allowing him to react before being killed." His voice was heavy, probably recalling the scene.
Okay, the option of hallucinations being stronger back then seems the most likely, but I won't rule out the possibility of them being able to ignore armor defenses, or at least part of it.
Now, why hallucinations were stronger in the past I wasn't sure, but I had some theories, the most likely involving a certain wall that sealed the world...
- [July 5, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... After Jui'u's death. A name I discovered after we performed the rites for him, the entire battalion had been on high alert. We hadn't seen what attacked the man, not even the general had seen it, whatever it was, could become invisible and had absurd lethality..."
- [July 6, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... Again, I was awakened in the early hours by someone's screams, this time, everyone reacted quickly, especially the general, who before I even opened my eyes fully, had appeared next to the man screaming and literally threw him away before attacking everything around, trying to hit the invisible enemy..."
"... The general realized that he hadn't hit anything even before the man pointing in a direction and screaming even more with a crazed look: 'There, she's there!' - The general had attacked the place the man was pointing at before he even finished the sentence..."
"Ten silver coins that he didn't kill the hallucination." Selina commented quietly to Robyn.
"Shh!" Even without looking directly at Robyn, I could see her vengeful smile. "Don't disrupt; it's rude to interrupt a reading." She even repeated the same words Selina had said to her before, but still responded.
"Foolish bet, of course he didn't kill the hallucination." She seemed sure of that.
"... The general seemed to have hit nothing; only after he imbued the sword with the light of the great queen did his attack seem to have an effect, and a horrifying scream echoed throughout the camp. It was the most horrible noise I've heard in my life; I don't even want to try to describe it, the sooner I can forget it, the happier I'll be..."
From the low "damn" I heard from inside the Humvee, it seems that Robyn regretted not betting that this "general" would have killed the hallucination.
Still... "The light of the great queen?" Was the Empress of Light this great queen? She had already been mentioned twice.
Once when the general asked for her blessing to stop the whispers, and now, with this light...
I knew she was strong, but was she some kind of goddess or something? Blessings weren't exclusive to gods, but they usually were the ones who gave them...
- [July 10, 839 - Light Calendar.] -
"... After the second attack, the atmosphere throughout the battalion was heavy. The only one who seemed able to attack the invisible monsters was the general, the only one who could see them as well, thanks to the light of the great queen blessing him. I didn't envy him, not after hearing the description of the monsters..."
"... 'Living shadows without souls, created from malice seeking malice, sins. Insects crawling in another plane, affected by madness and insanity, coming from outside, from another world...' The number of shivers I felt hearing that single sentence made the cold atmosphere around us seem warm..."
I had already adapted to the cold in a way in Kimetsu, Sun Breathing helping even more in this regard, but there was a big difference between the thirty degrees below zero inside the barrier and I don't know how many degrees below zero it was outside.
The less the cold affected me, the better it would be in case something unexpected happened... Would using Aqua's hair make some kind of cold protection accessory?
I hadn't tried, but she was a water goddess, ice was water, just, well, frozen. I'll see if I can improvise something, a necklace, since it would help the accessory be close to my chest, where I would need to keep warmer.
While everyone worked in silence, with a few conversations between Dylan, Melissa, and Selina happening here and there, I took the opportunity to read the (CHAT).
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: A time traveler. Well, almost, since he kind of got thrown forcefully. At this point, I should be used to it, but even so, some things still surprise me. (Iron Man working on a computer emote).
[TohsakaHeiress]: The second magic and now the fifth. What's next, the third? Or the first? (Chibi Rin pulling hair emote).
[AdvocateOfGenderEquality]: Let's just ignore how weird Selina acted back there. Is that it?-
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy] Deleted the message from [AdvocateOfGenderEquality].
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy] Muted [AdvocateOfGenderEquality] for 30 seconds: "No breaking the code, bro."
[(MOD)RedHuntressLive]: What was the message?! I couldn't read it!... Okay, fine. Devas, I'm going out with the girls for the mission, we won't be able to write much in the (CHAT), but we'll watch if something happens! Don't do anything reckless! and try not to get hurt! (Little Red Riding Hood with a suitcase emote).
There weren't many people in the (CHAT - FATES), which was expected, since it was in the middle of the afternoon.
Dumbledore and the folks at Hogwarts should be teaching or dealing with some school issues, in Dumbledore's case.
Harry and Percy must be in class, the same goes for Rin, who probably managed to type because she was on a break or something.
Sally was probably working.
The least busy, so to speak, were Stark and Kazuma, since Stark could work and watch the stream at the same time, and Kazuma, when not on a mission, didn't have much else to do besides watching me.
With the HOTD crew busy fixing the island and Ruby and her friends going on a mission, things were calmer, well, at least for them, because minutes later, a scream echoed through WinterHord.
▄█▆▂▄▆▅▃▂▆▅▄▇█▄▃▄█▇
It was instinctive, the nightmare energy within my body surged, fighting against the energy of the scream and quickly defeating it, taking it for itself like a hungry animal.
The others weren't so lucky, as they knelt while covering their ears.
The least affected, curiously, had been the most affected before, Robyn.
She was inside the Humvee, and I had left the Humvee barriers on, in case the Deerclops screamed, to test their effectiveness.
Robyn was barely affected, just covering her ears, but without any other reaction. The barriers worked better. Good.
When the noise of the scream ceased, I asked everyone at the same time as I directed my nightmare energy to my eyes.
"How are you guys?" I shouted, not seeing any hallucinations, the same on the minimap, few hallucinations appearing in the distance, in the middle of the city.
No sign of the deer. The scream seemed to come from afar, further than the five kilometers on the minimap.
The first to recover was Dylan, followed by Melissa who got up behind her brother.
"I'm fine, it didn't affect me that much," the guide replied.
"At this point, I'm almost used to the screams of that thing." Melissa grunted as she sighed.
"I feel like shit!" Selina shouted back, still crouched, being the most affected by the scream.
I threw a Purification Powder pill for the Steampunker to eat while looking at Robyn, who had the fish earring in her ear.
Gilbert had given her the earring, since if something happened and he was far away, it would take too long for us to receive the information.
"Any changes?" I asked.
"None, still the same." Robyn replied, opening the Humvee window.
Good news, great. Still...
"This scream was closer than the last one." I heard Melissa say with a tense tone.
... The deer was getting closer; we didn't have much time...
[...]
POV: Devas Asura (NON-CANONICAL OMAKE).
(Before the journey to WinterHord).
(I decided to make this Omake non-canonical. I'll see if I include something about MLP in the story later or create a separate MLP story. For now, I'll let it be something on its own.)
"Stark, tell me why the hell the craters on the moon are shaped like a unicorn." My voice didn't hide the threat behind it. Where the hell did I end up?!
Was that a damn unicorn on the moon?
I pulled Stark into an isolated (CHAT) to read his messages more easily.
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: It's not a dangerous world... partially. I'm researching about it right now; I'll let it be a surprise, just... don't kill anyone, especially not the princess; she's innocent. (Amused Iron Man emote).
"What do you mean don't kill anyone? Princess? What the hell princess?"
Stark decided to stay silent, the same with the rest of the (CHAT), as those who knew about this world were unable to talk about it.
What kind of place was this to have such a mystery? Did they want to see my reaction to the people of this place? Was there something here that was so impressive?
Without more answers, I resumed walking.
No matter how many of these weird wooden wolves I found, they all ran away from me like the devil ran from the cross.
The same thing happened when I found what I could only guess was a damn manticore.
The creature seemed apprehensive, as if running away from something. When it saw me, the manticore literally lost color, becoming pale, before running away.
Was everything here damn cowardly?
I didn't even bother chasing the manticore since, as much as I wanted to see how Sun Breathing would fare in a real battle, I wasn't going to hunt something that literally almost crapped itself just by seeing me.
If the manticore had tried to attack me, that would have been fine, but it didn't even attempt that.
I walked randomly for about four hours, picking some plants and seeing some animals before they ran away. This continued until the damn sun and moon decided to literally work WRONG!
The moon was in the sky without moving, something I had noticed some time ago. When it was six in the morning, it was as if it had decided to go home to sleep, running all the way to the horizon, giving way to the damn sun!
"Isn't this dangerous?" I almost shouted.
Damn, how hadn't this planet been torn apart by gravity? How was this damn thing still in orbit?!
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: Well... frankly, I thought this was something from the cartoon; seeing it in real life is damn strange. I won't claim it's not dangerous; it shouldn't be, but be careful.
Even Stark, who was laughing his ass off every time an animal ran away from me, seemed apprehensive.
MAGNIFICENT!
Still, I trusted that as misled as Stark might be, he wouldn't throw me to death, nor would the stream, by the way. If it said this world was safe, I believed it.
Not that I wouldn't stay alert, especially since the damn sun was a marathon runner!
Forget physics, apparently: "Is it six in the morning? It's my time to go to work."
It wasn't supposed to work like this, damn it!
Interestingly, after a few minutes, I found a dirt road. I was tempted to take the Humvee and drive to it, but I thought it would be better not to.
I didn't know the technological level of this planet; showing up with a huge war machine didn't seem like a good idea.
Still, I followed the road for some time before stopping, or rather, being stopped.
The first thing I noticed was the four yellow dots coming towards me on the minimap at a high speed.
When I looked in their direction, I didn't see anything. I only found those points when I looked up and saw a golden carriage pulled by two pegasus in medieval guard armor.
I had to restrain myself from pulling out my armor and Houtengeki.
I didn't know who was in that carriage, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. Still, I remained prepared in case something happened.
Golden carriages pulled by magical horses were usually related to unpleasant beings, like gods, demigods, and such.
I didn't sense any divinity coming from that carriage, which was good, but I didn't let my guard down.
It was only when the carriage got closer that I realized the pegasi pulling it were TINY AS HELL.
Seriously, when they landed on the ground, it was even more apparent. They were mini horses; they shouldn't have been more than a meter and a half tall.
Ponies! Damn pegasus ponies!
Had I ended up in some cartoon or something? A damn children's show?
To my joy, or rather, disbelief, the one who descended from the carriage was another mini horse, a purple one with a horn.
A freaking unicorn that had a ton of magic in it. I would have been almost apprehensive if this unicorn hadn't been literally the cutest thing I had ever seen in my life, maybe losing the spot to Millia.
The purple unicorn was even smaller than the guards, probably about one meter twenty tall, with large lilac eyes that looked at me with absurd curiosity.
The unicorn, by the way, seemed ecstatic with my response.
"You talk!" the unicorn exclaimed before blushing, realizing she had shouted, lifting her front right leg and coughing into her hoof...
Horse legs shouldn't move like that; what the hell kind of joints were these?!
"Sorry, I... I was surprised. I've never seen anything like you before. I asked the guards to stop when I noticed you walking on the road."
The unicorn spoke, still slightly embarrassed. "Nice to meet you; I'm Twilight Sparkle, apprentice to Princess Celestia." She, as she had a feminine name, inclined herself in a slight bow.
Strange name... Not ugly, but odd. Did this world have the same thing as Ruby's world? "Hey! How about it. Let's name our children with names of colors, random objects, and names of sky phenomena?"
At the same time, Stark sent a message in the (CHAT), many people sent messages, actually, almost all with the same information.
[(MOD)GeniusBillionairePlayboy]: She's a Pony, not a horse, it might be offensive to call her a horse, I'm looking here on Google. And... avoid smiling; showing your canines might not be a good idea. (Iron Man emote researching on Google).
Ponies... Okay. They were herbivorous animals, right? Showing that I had canines, that I ate meat, didn't seem like a good idea.
"If it's not rude, may I ask what you are?" She asked, practically leaking liquid curiosity while looking at me as if I were something mythical.
Woman, horse, pony, damn it! You're the mythical being here!
Now... how do I answer? Was she some kind of royalty? She said she was an apprentice to a princess, Celestia, and was accompanied by guards and a damn golden carriage.
While I thought, the other two ponies fell silent, observing the interaction, the same with the mini-dragon, who seemed scared of me but not as much as the other animals.
Thinking about it, why were these ponies calm when the other animals weren't?
I coughed slightly into my hand, dispersing these thoughts before deciding to respond normally.
If she got offended just by that, things wouldn't go far anyway.
"Devas, my name is Devas, nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle." I tried to be friendly and smiled without showing my teeth, following Stark's warning. "To answer your question, I am human." I made a slight bow as she did.
Seeing my polite introduction, the guards seemed to visibly relax, the same with the mini-dragon, when Twilight...
"Eep!" She seemed to be physically restraining herself from jumping on me and bombarding me with thousands of questions.
Again. Where the hell did I end up?!