Guardians of Terraria II: The World of Calamity

Episode 35.5 - Reign of Lords

Robyn, Sid and William inched their way into the Tower's core chamber.

Situated at the very top of the tower, it was a round room built from metal plating. The lava core was the only source of light, situated at the back of the room, held in place by bubble blocks. And in front of the core, with his back to them, was Lord Yharim. Standing there in silence. A piece of Miracle Matter in his hands.

"If you've come to kill me, I'd strongly advise against trying," Yharim simply said.

Sid made a grumbling sound, holding up one of his summoning staves. "You killed Meg. You used her up, spat her out, only interested in the power she could hold for you."

Yharim turned around, the blue slit in his helmet glowing but betraying no expression.

"Calamitas turning against me was her choice. You saw what it has cost her."

He stashed the Miracle Matter into his inventory. "But I will not kill you now, if you let me go. Fighting for control of these worlds is petty. They're virtual, just code. An infinite number of them can be created at no cost. Because of this, they are meaningless. It is only our real existence that matters. That is what I'm trying to get back to."

He turned around, the blue slit in his helmet glowing but betraying no expression.

"I wanted the same for the rest of you because you're all in the same situation as me. Forcibly trapped in this virtual world with no way out. Other than..." he motioned behind him.

"You're wrong."

Robyn looked to see it had been William that had spoken.

"What we do in these worlds do matter," he said. "The towns we built. The adventures we had. The friendships we made." He cast a sideways glance at Robyn. "The relationships we formed."

There was that leap in her heart again. The way William had made her feel back when this world had still been new to them.

Back when... he'd been new to her.

Yharim just sighed. "Fine. But I'm leaving. You had your chance to join me." He turned back to the portal, taking a step towards it.

For a brief second, Robyn wondered whether they could just let him go. If he was gone, chances were he would never come back. They could rebuild Firstworld, which was what she wanted. Could they trust him to never bother them again?

Yharim held up the Miracle Matter, inserting it into the core. The lava within began to glow its bright greenish-purple.

He just stared forward as the portal began to form in front of him. Not bright red like the other inter-world portals that Robyn had seen before. This one was pure white, like the portals that everyone who had been brought back to life by the Terminus had come out from.

Neither William nor Sid made any moves to stop Yharim. It seemed like letting him go was the right thing to do.

Then he spun around and slashed out his sword.

Several multicoloured crescent-shaped projectiles were launched out, some red, some green, some yellow. They all impacted against the three of them, dealing some damage.

Sid immediately retaliated, summoning a Sepulcher to rush towards Yharim. But he just teleported straight past it and in front of Sid, but Sid had anticipated this and instead summoned a Draconid in Yharim's face. The beast tried to maul over him, so he teleported backward.

Robyn went on the attack, firing at Yharim with her bow, but he zapped all of the arrows out of the air with beams from his crystal. She gasped and tried to leap to the side to avoid getting hit as the beam converged, but William held out his Ark of the Cosmos, absorbing its energy and slashing back at Yharim. He was able to knock him backward, so he made another slash, this time throwing the sword out and having it twirl in circles at Yharim, leaving a constellation trail in its wake.