"The most beautiful people we have known

Are those who have known defeat,

Known suffering,

Known loss,

And have found their way out of those depths"

-Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Chapter One

Shattered Star, Splintered Moon

You know, he probably shouldn't be surprised anymore with the things he'd seen.

Being transported to another world, forced to fight against mythical creatures and unimaginable horrors that dare not be named, single-handedly building castles that scraped the skies, and amassing, as well as seeing an arsenal of weapons that put nuclear warheads to shame, one would naturally assume the worst. But the universe just loves to show him up in his expectations.

One of which being a Squid-God bent on the elimination of you, and the world you walk on.

The monstrosity towered like a skyscraper. It had tentacles on what would be considered a chin, and a vertical mouth with an elastic tongue to pull in prey. Five eyes adorned its face in a semi-circle; with two on the palms of its hands. The top of its brain showed through a hole in the crown of its head, and their upper body contained a hole in the center of its tan brown chest, covered by incredibly strong sickly-green muscle. When looked further down its torso, it starts to degenerate into a few ribs and the base of their spine, simply hovering in the air.

[The Moon Lord]

Health:

?/?

?/?

?/?

?/?

'Eh.' The man thought. 'They're in the top five weirdest, but short of the top three. Biggest pain in the ass though.'

Said individual was wearing clothes akin to a plated robe, cut open from the front of the legs and embroidered a glowing white. The torso was glowing brightly enough to see several feet around him, and had pale-blue plates covering the shoulders and pectorals, with smaller plates covering the abs and spine; with cornflower blue clothing under the armor dimly lit beneath them. The plates along the arms were placed between the strange fabric, and were made thin for ease of movement. Four radiant white spikes protruded from the shoulder blades, reaching a length of close to half a foot.

The leggings and greaves were of a similar style; both pale and cornflower blue, with white accents on the armor. There was a plate that hung from the belt buckle, and went down past the knees, also glowing white. Lastly, he was wearing a pale-blue helmet, with white outlines going between and over eyeholes shaped similarly like a cats. There were three white horns on the sides and the top of the helmet, moving from the sides and front to the back respectively.

He had barely a moment to return to his senses and jump from a barrage of death balls aimed at him from the monsters left hand, somersaulting away from the blasts with the aid of mana. He retaliated when a black and spring-green rifle manifested in his hands, and fired luminescent projectiles of the same color into its eye, exploding on impact.

The Moon Lord howled in agony and rage, its eye falling out of its socket and onto the ground of the blue field with a sound splat. The ground trembled in its ire, the eerie darkness surrounding them giving him questions as to what kind of damage their wails are doing to his surroundings. All that could be seen was the moon lord and the man's own armor, glowing faintly in the unending black.

"About bloody time" He muttered to himself, his gun vanishing from his hands like a ghost. The man gave his enemy another once over. "Now how to kill you…"

The lunar god wasn't managing as well as when they started, with scorch marks and glowing green blood centered on the creature's eyes –since they seemed to be the only real vulnerable areas on his body. Whenever they were harmed the monstrosity would come at him with unprecedented fervor. There were other marks ranging across his body, though it wasn't very much to be considered 'fatal', just enough that it looked like patches of its skin we're missing with all the craters it had on its body, showing green muscle mass beneath. Despite his best efforts, getting to the muscle was the best he could manage, since they didn't seem to take damage as easily past that point.

Of course, he wasn't exactly faring much better than them. There were burn marks littering his body; the largest of which were on his chest, upper arms and legs, and a single black mark that went past the side of his already dented helmet. His armor had rips, dents and smoking holes in it from barely dodged attacks, and he was fairly certain that parts of his skin were cauterized from the heat of the beams and spheres. What was once held in pale-blue clasps around the back of his midsection had long since been lost.

The strenuous exercise from the deity had already worn him out, if he took into account his cursing when he stumbled slightly repositioning himself; but it multiplied from fighting for well over ninety-six hours with little to no rest, against an army accumulated from four worlds. The man was breathing heavily and his vision kept blurring every now and then, amplifying his fatigue. It was an honest wonder he was still standing, thinking back on it.

'I'm going to lose if this goes on for much longer.' He thought grimly as he pulled out two staves. 'Need to end this as quickly as I can.'

The first was golden from end to end, and was close to six feet long. The head was in the shape of a bat wing with a large sapphire orb sitting on it, as well as two smaller orbs floating just above it.

The second staff; just a few inches shorter than the first, was also golden, but with a white plate wrapped around between the bottom and middle. There were yet more blue spheres; two of them perched on top of each-other with a white disc in between them both, with two smaller orbs placed between the others.

Holding the magical artifacts in front of him, he closed his eyes and focused, pouring some of his mana into the orbs of the weapons. The spheres glowed brightly in response, and the man felt as if he'd just opened a door and let someone walk through.

Two beings came into existence in a flurry of small stars. One was a strange gelatinous blue orb. It was a couple feet tall, with a strange yellow mass within that writhed. They seemingly congregated into a ball at its center, forming a pulsating mass.

The second formed in the shape similar to that of a fish, or a pseudo eastern dragon. It was about fifteen feet long and six feet wide, with its tail ending in the shape of a fish tail. It had gold plates covering its back and head from the snout to the middle with a curved solitary horn between its eyes going forward, with six smaller blue spike-like appendages moving to just before the back armor. The back plate was covered in one moderately sized, and four smaller spikes running along it, just ending before the start of its arrow shaped tail.

[Stardust Cell]

Health:

1000/1000

[Stardust Dragon]

Health:

2000/2000

Making the wands vanish into fragments of light, He pointed toward their target.

"Keep it busy." He simply instructed.

The light dragon roared and the ball of blue goo writhed and quivered madly, before launching off at high velocity toward the unfathomable enemy.

Seeming to understand where the vulnerable points were, the dragon-kin charged at the beings right hand, attempting to tear it apart with its maw before being swatted away with the back of its– now eyeless –left hand. The empty socket had small tendrils writhing and squirming inside, as if searching for its missing piece.

'Wow. Really working for fourth place aren't you?' He thought with a tired grin under his helmet.

Meanwhile, the bulbous cell was shooting some of its own gel into the eyes on its forehead; both in attempt to deter it from firing more beams at them, as well as slowly damaging it from its acidity. The titan growled in annoyance, and tried to grab it with its elastic tongue so it could throw it away from its face. It failed to take into account what it was made of however, and it simply passed through its body like a swimmer in water while it continued to fire its acid gel into their eyes.

While they we're fighting, the man quickly turned around and bolted, making some distance between himself and the enemy. Once he considered himself far enough, he hurriedly turned around and pulled out a sniper rifle in a flash of light.

Taking a moment to steady his breathing and quiet his shaking, he looked through the scope and focused on the beings face, intent on taking out the eye that fired the worst of the attacks. The first shot went wide, hitting one of its many tendrils due to the Goliath gliding out of the way. Despite having a large body, the deity was fast. The second however aimed true, and managed to pierce the iris of its center eye.

The divine beast screeched in its own language, shooting more spheres of light at him as it tried to defend itself from the man's guardians. Unfortunately he was still looking through the scope, and didn't see the incoming projectiles. One of them slammed into his right side, exploding just under the ribs, and creating a small crater where he stood.

"FUCK!" He squawked, attempting to jump away from more incoming projectiles, dropping his rifle in the process.

He managed to dodge the next shot, hitting the ground with a roll in the process before bolting upright and running for his life. The second shot just barely missed, grazing the back of his armor, but leaving him feeling like his back was burning. The last three went wide, flying off in all directions but making just as much devastation wherever they landed, causing explosions and leaving sizable craters. He managed to find temporary vestige behind an outcrop of large rocks, shouting profanity the whole way there.

Calming himself by breathing for a few moments, he took several seconds to assess at the damage the attack did to him.

'Luckily it didn't seem to harm me to an extreme, though I'll be in agony in the morning…' The man analyzed. The armor had a few black holes in it that showed charred and melting skin, but was in relatively good condition despite the strength the attack his aggressor hit him with.

Over the course of his fights with the Moon Lord, whenever he managed to get good blows on them the parts of his skin that came off seemed to be usable in certain forms of crafting. The skin- when read by his inventory –was listed as a metal called Luminite; a tan brown ore with a strange sickly green sheen that glowed dimly off of the material. Whenever he managed to shake the boss off his trail, he tried to see if he couldn't forge the material into certain weapons and armor, and learned of a relatively 'Unique' trait it had.

Apparently Luminite on its own could only be used in making arrows or bullets, but if he added any one kind of the few types of fragments he picked up during what he came to dub the 'Lunar Invasion', then you could change the characteristics of the metal. The type that he used on it was Stardust Fragments; and from what he could understand, it seemed to let him operate more summons than the previous limit, allowing for more maneuverability in battle for him.

*BOOM!*

All further thought was interrupted when the outcrop violently exploded. The man was blasted several dozen feet away from the epicentre of the sudden outburst, hitting the ground face first after the first couple dozen. A few seconds later he managed to stop around a hundred feet away from the blast, and left a rather noticeable impression of the direction he flew in the dirt. After a short time the man sluggishly made an attempt at standing, but only managed to get into a sitting position.

"Anyone catch the number of that train?" He groaned, head in his hands as he was still disoriented from the crash, attempting with all of his willpower to remain conscious.

A distinctive splatting sound and a hollow feeling from his heart snapped him fully to reality. Looking through the debris that littered the field around him, he first saw his gelatinous summon decorating the ground in the form of a child's painting, before it vanished into a flurry of stars. His dragon wasn't doing much better, being thrown from one of its hands into the forest behind the abomination, and leaving destruction in its wake.

"Aaand there go my summons" The man said with growing irritation, both at how long this fights been drawn out, as well as how strong the being was that it eliminated the two rather quickly. "Well that was a little disappointing…"

Taking a moment, he lifted the helmet only slightly, while materializing a vial filled with yellow-green liquid, as well as a glass bottle with red liquid that had four spikes on the corners. The man popped the lids off, and hastily drank the contents before chucking them away from him, all while he was focusing on his enemy.

Successfully standing this time, the man materialized an overly-large sword in a bronze colored sheathe, taking hold in the middle. Upon closer inspection the blade seemed to curl at the end and widen in the middle, and had a vertical H guard on its hilt that attached to the scabbard, looking like a fancy metal ornamental Japanese practice sword that was taller than its wielder.

"Right, so you want to dance big boy?" He said, taking hold of the weapon solely by the hilt.

The top of the guard lurched away from the scabbard; showing indents where it locked into place. No longer secured, it slid from the blade quickly and hit the ground with a resounding *Bam*. The blade, now seen to be a gigantic green Dao, did indeed have a curve to the end of it. The middle section expanded slightly, thinning out where the base of the blade met the guard, with three oval holes lining the center.

"Alright." He started, taking a stance where one foot was arched forward while the other was placed behind him; as if he were about to launch forward. The sword was held at shoulder level, the blade of the weapon facing the sky, and pointed at the enemy. "Let's go."

There was a burst of movement, and the man vanished from where he was standing. Reacting on some form of instinct or whether or not it could simply see him move, The Moon Lord attacked with everything in its arsenal, sending spheres careening at the individual running at blinding speeds due to potions and magic.

A squelching noise could be heard as tendril wings that shimmered white sprouted from his back, growing until both were double the length of his body. Flapping the new limbs, the man flew into the air and completely avoided the balls of death. The god responded by firing its beam from the center eye, but missed when he flew back down to the ground and kept running.

The sound of humming was his only warning that the beam was chasing him, and gaining. He pushed more of his magic into his legs in the hopes that he could outrun it, or at the very least match its speed long enough to form a counter-measure to deal with the problem. Unfortunately, it was still gaining on the man, though at less of a pace than it was.

'Right… Terra Beam to the face then?' He thought sheepishly, garnering a semblance of an idea together.

Slowing down to let the beam come closer, he waited several moments until it was within a decent range. Looking back, he noticed it was over thirty feet away from him. Turning their sights forward, he mentally started counting down. At four feet away, he pushed a large amount of his mana into his legs while beating his wings, and jumped as hard as he could to the left, flying over twenty feet and ending in a roll. To his surprise, the beam continued in its direction; passing by the man completely and moving forward for several dozen feet before the beam started to shrink and fade out moments later.

More spheres of light started hurtling at him however, so he had no time to develop theories on it as he flew clear over several of them. As he took a stance in the air a lime-green aura surrounded the blade. Swinging the weapon, a green beam in the shape of a great-sword appeared from the apex of the swing, bolting at high velocity into the center eye and exploding violently. Another guttural roar accompanied the blast, swinging their head wildly as its eye went flying from its socket, leaving a streak of glowing green blood in the process and landing somewhere in the distance behind him. The man gave a slightly demented laugh, before realizing how he sounded.

"Wow… I'm really tired right now." He muttered, before becoming aware of his enemies movements.

Or… lack of movement at any rate. The beast of burdens stayed floating in place, its limbs and remaining eyes staying stock still. It simply stayed floating there, almost like it entered a trance. Taking a moment to look around, the man didn't see anything within his sight changing or moving. He was left staring at the entity like it had grown a second head , all while taking this reprieve to recover as much energy and mana as he could.

"…Did time stop while I wasn't paying attention?" He said between breaths, befuddled at what he was seeing, all while keeping his guard up to his surroundings.

The sound of something wet sliding on top of another grabbed his attention, as he snapped his head back towards the behemoth, entering a sword stance. The muscles that covered the hole in the center of its chest started sliding apart, revealing a green beating heart behind them. A loud thumping noise could be heard throughout the area.

"Okay. It revealed its heart then..." The swordsman stated, before getting noticeably nervous; like an ingrained memory haunting him, his helm was twitching from side to side, looking for an unseen enemy. "Somethings going to pop out, I know it."

Several seconds passed, the sound of the crackling of flames from the devastated field only serving to increase his paranoia, until the deity fired projectiles from its only remaining weaponized eye. Jumping to the right and out of the way of fire, he tucked his wings in and hit the ground with a roll, intent on pulling his green rifle-.

Only to have green veins wrap around his torso.

"What the hell!?" Was all he could say before he was blasted in the back at point blank with several projectiles.

His screams rang out as he exploded out at high speeds into a tree line, demolishing trees and foliage in his flight. His armor was penetrated by the attack, as he could feel the wind during his flight. All he could see was white and most feeling in his body was shot, yet he still faintly discern as he hit a great many obstacles in his forced trajectory, shattering all in his way like a torpedo before finally rolling on the ground to a stop a couple thousand feet away from where he started from. A fight to stay conscious was all he could manage at this point; the pain and loss of blood and flesh making the man close to going into shock. He felt a gentle wind passing by his face, but it felt like agony on his back due to the apparent degree of damage he suffered. He could only imagine the extent done to his body, as he silently wondered in his foggy mind if he could even stand again, let alone survive the next few minutes.

His vision returned to normal some time afterwards, and he finally noticed his helmet had flown off during his unplanned flight when he saw it laying a few dozen feet in front of him. Regrettably the pain he felt on his person returned with a bloody vengeance. He stifled a wail when he tried to lift himself off the ground, and fell flat on his face while holding back tears.

"I've been meeting the dirt too much lately." He griped in a pained voice, disoriented; barely able to form a sentence in his anguish.

With his helm off, one could see dishevelled chestnut hair which would normally run down to just before his neck that curled faintly at the end. He had storm-blue eyes framed in a square face with a slightly small nose and chapped lips, all of which were contorted in pain and torment.

The man turned himself slowly onto his side, so he wouldn't irritate his injuries. He extended his hand in front of himself, as if he was reaching for his helmet that lay several feet in front of him. A Large bottle with red crystalline liquid and two brass rings wrapped around its middle appeared in the air before dropping to the ground with a muffled clunk. Reaching out, he grabbed the concoction by the neck and dragged it towards him at a snail's pace; each second feeling like an eternity. Popping the cork off he went to start drinking, only to violently cough up blood in the attempt, becoming fully aware of the extent of damage done to his body as he looked down. The armor looked black, burned off from the left lower waist to the upper abs, and the flesh underneath had melted off, with skin, muscle, and organs looking akin to putty. His back, from the bottom to the middle had severe burns; smoke still billowing from the injury as his skin bubbled.

Had the blue warrior not been in agonizing pain, he would have vomited the contents of his stomach at the sight. He was glad he couldn't smell any of it; the constant laser fire and smell of death long eroding his sense of smell. He took the time to look towards the upper right corner of his eye to see the full extent of the damage.

Health:

45/500

Current ailments:

[Bleeding]: Cannot regenerate health!

Current Buffs:

[Swiftness]: Increases movement speed by 25%

[Wrath]: Increases damage by 10%

A grunt was all he could make in reply to his question. He should've realized how bad it was from how it looked, but it became force of habit throughout the years to see how he handled certain attacks to his body, in order to better gauge how much he can take before he dies. He was already about a quarter down from all the constant attacks. The only reason why he wasn't in a worse state was due to the amassment of health potions he had on him; to the point that he's just about run out, with only a few middle tier potions for various uses left from the constant conflicts. He attempted to pull the bottled liquid to his mouth again, before he saw a glowing green light in the corner of his eye. Slowly turning his head, he spotted one of the eyeballs he removed from the horror floating in the air in front of him, simply staring him in the eyes as its veins just hung loosely towards the ground. He weakly pulled the dragon staff from flickering lights, in a last ditch effort of saving himself from oncoming demise, only to find the dragon-kin to be nowhere after the staff dimmed.

'Well… Shit.' The man thought blankly, a feeling of resignation shooting through him as the eye started glowing brighter; his oncoming death by atomization. Moments before the blast fired, the man closed his eyes, knowing he wouldn't be quick enough to move with how wounded his body was.

And then he felt a pulse.

A loud clap rang out as the man's eyes jarred open immediately. Moments of surprised wide-eyed silence passed, until a small grin built up on his face when his mind began registering what he was seeing.

'This place never runs out of surprises, does it?'

A ten foot tall blue giant came into sight, floating before his eyes, and quite literally slapped the shit out of the floating eye. A gold-esque mask with a single spike on top covered his face, which was framed with three sky-blue horn-like additions lining the sides of their head. They wore pointed pauldrons on its hulky body, with golden bracelets on their wrists. A large metal semicircle with several points sticking out and bent from several angles was floating behind the spaulders, meeting just above the head of the guardian, with a small gold cover placed over the bottom of the hovering torso. Muscular blue skin stood out from its chest, stomach, arms and three-fingered hands. Said hands were the offender that slammed the eye like a volleyball through several trees that now lay toppled over; a few still barely connecting the trunk with the rest of the tree.

[Stardust Guardian]

Health:

N/A

The hulking figure stayed afloat there for an instant, as if judging if they sent its target on a permanent flight, before turning suddenly and rushing over to the fallen human. The man flinched before hissing in pain for aggravating his wounds. Large digits gently grabbed him by the armpits, carefully lifting him into a sitting position. He looked over, a surprised expression adorning his face, to spot the being hovering over him, a hand on his left shoulder to keep him propped up. Their other hand hovered over him hesitantly, trying to find a way to aid the man without hurting him further. When it finally registered in his brain, he let out a gentle smile to them, in hopes of at least calming the worry in their actions. He pointed over to the fallen potion that lay behind him, grabbing its attention.

"Trying to heal myself up from the sorry state I'm in." The Warrior started. "Kinda need that though."

They remained unspoken, but seemed to understand what he was saying to them as it turned its head toward the item. Carefully, they grabbed the liquid from the ground with its claw-like digits, watching to make sure they didn't spill any from the bottle or shake its precious cargo. The man took hold of the bottle from the neck as they held it in front of them. He took deep breaths, seeming to mentally prepare for something imminent, before chugging the contents down all at once. Grabbing a small piece of wood from nowhere, he quickly shoved it between his teeth.

From old stories, they say that these potions would make one feel as if they've never been harmed to begin with. That it would regenerate the lost parts of you without any consequence.

They are Fucking Liars.

The man grit the wood hard as the wounds on his person felt like they were burning at an unreal degree. His body regrew tissue at an abnormal rate. Bones creaked, new flesh squelched, and organs mended themselves to their original state. Nerves were alight as they reconstituted in the newly grown area, causing muffled screams from the blue warrior as he was held still by the apparition, with tears streaking from tightly closed eyes as intense pain ripped through his system. Several agonizing seconds passed by before the extreme sensations finally abated when the open wound was halfway filled in. The wood fell from his mouth as he took deep, gasping breaths of cold air into his system, his hands now in the dirt as he quietly sobbed. A greater portion of the pain had abated from his system, but still felt sharp stabs if he bent incorrectly. All that seemed to remain was the burns on his back and his half regenerated stomach.

Health:

245/500

Current ailments:

[Bleeding]: Cannot regenerate health!

[Potion Sickness]: Unable to use health recovery items!

Current buffs:

[Swiftness]: Increases movement speed by 25%

[Wrath]: Increases damage by 10%

"Damn sight better than it was" He commented with a coarse voice, suitably exhausted from recent events.

Turning around, he took note to the absence of the mad god, and couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't chased him down from his apparent crash landing. Leaning over, the man grabbed his helm and placed it back on his head, before taking his dragon staff in his hands again. The guardian positioned behind him as he tried to summon the dragon to no avail. He stood there for several seconds, before going wide eyed and smacking himself in the head. He was an idiot for not realizing sooner, but to be fair he is pretty sleep-deprived at this point.

Adrenaline is a Wonderful drug.

He half ran through the debris he made so he wouldn't cause more pain than he dealt with, with his glowing shadow looming behind him. In his stride, he found his blade embedded in the dirt; he must have lost it during his preemptive flight. Taking it into his hand, he turned it into starlight with the intent on using it if such time that it became needed, which he knew it probably would. They ran for several minutes, keying in just how far he went when he was launched, before finally meeting the clearing again, and catching a glimpse of something peculiar.

The dragon he summoned hadn't dissipated as he originally thought; he figured that out in the forest when the third summon he tried didn't pull him back into this plane of existence closest to him, since it was currently biting the moon lord in its hand. Luminescent blood gushed from one of the remaining eyes on its person as it shrieked. However, the thing that perplexed him was the fact that it looked as if it had two extra segments put into their body. Looking at the staff, he pulled it in front of him and attempted another summon. To his amazement, another grew into place as it extended in length, growing slightly bigger in height in the process.

"That's totally awesome!" The blue warrior shouted with a childlike gleam in his eyes. The horror turned in his direction, clearly hearing his shout, causing the man to pale under his helmet. "Oh shit."

An eye came hurtling at them, a beam blasting from its iris in its flight. The giant flew in front of his charge as he ran left while materializing his black rifle. The stabbing pain returned full force, but was ignored due in part to the focus for combat he built up over time, and his adrenaline raging in his systems again. He took aim at the beast's heart, hoping that he could hit them despite the distance between and that his summons would watch out for him. Only a few of the many plasma bursts managed to hit its core, and all of the bullets fired went wide, despite his best efforts.

He would need to get closer in order to be more effective, but recent events held him back from doing so. His recent pain and suffering, coupled with intense sleep deprivation was causing him to second guess his actions. Sweat could be felt from the corner of his brow as he fidgeted in place, trying to find the choice that would end with the least amount of pain on his part. A loud thump compelled him to turn to his guardian, spotting him holding down one of the offending eyes as beams of light repeatedly ground themselves into the earth, creating a large molten mass beneath them.

The existence looked at him and nodded, as if telling him not to hesitate. It was as if…

'Can they read my thoughts?' he realized, stunned. Several surprised moments passed in silence, before the star knight suddenly bolted full speed in the direction of the abomination. His body and soul understood seconds before his mind did as he ran; everything he faced, all the pain he endured, was so that he might be able to return home and live the rest of his life in relative peace. True, after everything he did that led towards this would never be erased… But at the very least he'd have those to help him cope, and adapt to his homeland again.

'If they don't consider me a monster for what I've done…'

Shaking his head to free his mind, he noticed his dragon attacking the beast with increased fervor; seemingly resonating with his renewed ideals and determination by keeping the spotlight on them, biting ever deeper into its other eye and increasing the volume of their screams. Sounds from the forest signalled the other optics return to the fray; he had to act fast. Pulling his green blade into existence, he poured mana into his legs and turned into a speeding bullet, intent on finishing the fight without any more delays. The being attempted to make distance between them, but the intense pain from the warriors dragon biting into his eye slowed them down. Closer and closer the behemoth became, until at last the man jumped high into the air and expanded his wings as far as they could go, looking like a white and blue blur. The audible sound of metal penetrating flesh seemed to resound loudly in his ears, as all other sounds blurred from his hearing.

The ground was ripped to shreds from the unholy screams the eldritch horror let loose.

A blade through the heart passed through its sight; the man's hand still grasping the hilt as his feet were planted on the sides of the hole. The beast made an attempt to grab at him, only to have the tail of the dragon wrap around its wrist to obstruct it from doing so. Trying and failing multiple times to free itself, it tossed and turned in vain to remove its attacker. The man held his free hand out and materialized his rifle again, placing the barrel in the center of its core as he shouted at the beast.

"Game over, asshole!"

Explosions and screams echoed through the air as salvo after salvo of bullets and plasma pierced its heart. The man's hand and body roasting through the intense heat of his gun connecting with its target at point blank range. Attacking like this would cost him some HP, but was necessary to exterminate the so-called 'End-bringer'. The Dragon tightened its hold around its hands, pulling them close enough that it was acting like handcuffs; acting as a barrier for The Man by absorbing the blows from the frenzied eyes trying to obliterate him, and further hindering their quarry. The attacks from both the eye he was biting into and the one that chased his charge was wearing away at his health.

The shrieks very slowly started to die down in his assault. Minutes passed repeating the process, before a roar of green fire launched The Dragon and him from the being, crashing hard onto the dirt below; The Dragon fading out from taking massive amounts of attacks on his own body. The blue warrior bounced several times before rolling to a stop several dozens of feet away from his quarry. The front of the armor hissed from the heat it was emitting; the forearms worst of all. They simply lay there, groaning in pain from his suicidal charge with his hands clenched tightly, until he slowly lifted himself into a slight sitting position.

Four days of consciousness, intense fighting, pain, and blood loss were starting to take its toll; his eyes refusing to focus. Ragged breathing signalled his extreme state of exhaustion. The body was starting to shut down to recover. The man's vision fixated on the sight to his left, holding steady just enough to make out what was occurring.

The beast he was fighting against, the one that had destroyed so much already, was quite literally exploding where it was. Glowing green cracks spread across its form, heralding apparent self-detonation. The warrior let out a deep sigh, his body relaxing almost instantly as he fell onto his side again. Somehow, he managed to pull a win out the shit-show he just dealt with. They found it hard to believe, honestly. The land around him was quite literally devastated. Smoking craters surrounded the open field, and a couple dozen trees were knocked over or burnt to ash down to the flaming stumps; Stones that were used as shields were nothing more than molten slag.

The man let out a quiet, coarse laugh as he laid there, feeling on top of the world despite the hell he went through.

"Star… dust…"

He just barely picked it up; a small, rough voice among the cacophony raging around him. His addled mind couldn't quite register what was happening. Was there someone else here, or was his guardian speaking to him?

"Star… dust..."

The voice grew louder; he felt the vibration through his bones as his blood froze in his veins. They turned instantly looking at the horror as it pointed its finger at him. This thing was speaking English?

"STARDUST!"

The earth trembled from its voice as it roared; radiating with light to the point of blindness.

"…Oh son of a bitch."

A tremendous explosion tore the earth asunder as the world was engulfed by light.

When he regained consciousness, the first thing to come back to him was the pain.

It meant to him that he was still alive; to which he was very grateful, don't get him wrong. The man just wished he could do without the feeling of agony coming from his half healed side pressing into the dirt. And after a four day long fight no less!

Letting out a hiss through clenched teeth, the man slowly flipped himself over so he was lying with his back on the ground. The fact that his arms felt like lead during their movement told him he hadn't passed out for very long. He honestly wasn't quite sure whether he should consider that a good or bad thing, though he lent more towards bad due to lack of sleep. One couldn't really blame him for that; especially after the past four days of fighting to the death against aliens. At this point, he honestly wished there we're someone else to deal with saving Terraria while he had a day off.

'God, that sounds so pleasant.' He thought glumly, opening his eyes a crack.

The sky looked to have returned to its normal hue, so either he flew like a rocket due to another attack from the beastie, or he finally killed him. Oddly enough, he didn't feel any different from that last attack of theirs. After half a minute of consideration, the man looked to the upper right of his vision.

Health:

72/500

[Potion sickness] has worn off!

[Swiftness] has worn off!

[Wrath] has worn off!

Current ailments:

[Bleeding]: Cannot regenerate health!

[Weak]: Defense, melee damage, melee attack speed, and movement speed have decreased! Rest to remove this ailment!

'Traded one problem for another…' The blue warrior whined in his head. 'And I used up my last health potion too!'

Lying there grumbling, he sat in silence, content with simply resting his body now that he finally had some peace and quiet for himself.

'Well… at least it's a nice night…'

Looking into the black sky, he belatedly realized the time. Thoughts like 'How long was I passed out?' and 'Where are the creatures of the night?' passed through his head. He bent forward in attempts to stand, but immediately winced in pain from his wounds, and fell onto his back again.

When his eyes unclenched he noticed he was lying on a curve; and after several moments of delayed thought and roaming eyes, that he was laying in the center of a thirty-foot, smoking crater. Chunks of charred wood, leaves and other growth layered the hole. Looking over the lip, the warrior spotted several trees, and winced at the damage his crash landing had caused to the surroundings. His eyes stopped upon a glow over the lip of the depression, and, moment after moment it seemed to increase in radiance.

Something was coming this way.

His body tensed, and whatever remained of his adrenaline kicked into gear. The warrior forced his body to move as he hissed in discomfort, standing awkwardly in a pitiful attempt to defend himself. The light finally past the crest of the crater, making the man shield his eyes from its brilliance. When they finally adjusted; what he assumed – and dreaded – to be the Horror returning for another round, he instead found himself looking upon the golden mask of his Guardian.

His body collapsed from relief and fatigue, falling face first into the dirt. He would have blacked out, were it not for his guardian gently turning him over; taking care not to disturb his wounds, and picking him up bridal style. The man couldn't help but snicker at the situation.

"My hero." He chuckled, wrapping his arms around his neck while making his eyes flutter. The giant stared at him, before letting his arms drop, making the man yelp in pain as he hung there. "Okay! I'm done! Please help!"

The being shook his head before hefting him in his arms again, slowly floating out of the crater. He saw an endless forest when they finally past the lip of the crater; and the strangest thing?

There we're all sorts of them.

Countless trees of many varieties made up the forest they found themselves in; ranging from jungle trees, forest trees, pine trees, boreal trees, and palm trees, and others he couldn't recognize. Vines and foliage were everywhere; and while they bore some similarity to the forests and jungles he came across, it seemed to be mish-mashed together. They we're in a forest that, by all accounts, shouldn't be able to exist.

…Then again, what else is new?

A great deal of the trees surrounding the crater had either been blown to pieces by the impact, or had fallen over from the force of his crash landing, leaving the man wincing at the mile-wide devastation. Instead they content themselves with simply roaming the wide forest they resided in for the moment, enjoying the peace and quiet that finally came to them, from what he assumed was his abrupt landing scaring away any local wildlife. The Warrior's eyes drooped from the sound of crickets, sleep calling to him like a siren before being jostled to cognizance by the Guardian. They motioned with their head to the wound on his side in what seemed to be worry.

"Ahh, don't worry about that, I have something for it." He soothed. Looking around, he pointed towards a large Boreal-like tree. "Lay me over there please?"

The being nodded in confirmation; closing the distance in a single moment, and getting a surprised gasp from the man. They were about thirty meters away from the tree he pointed at, and they crossed the distance in less than a second, all without him suffering from whiplash. Either he used magic to shield him – which he finds the more likely option in his opinion – or they just broke the laws of physics. A grunt of pain worked its way past his lips as his Guardian leaned him on the tree in a sitting position.

"Thank you kindly my friend." The man said with a pained voice. "Okay, I know I should have it here somewhere…"

Lifting one of his hands, he closed his eyes. A kaleidoscope of lights appeared, seeming to dance in a circle in front of his hand. Reaching forward his hand entered the light, but didn't appear from the other side. Minutes passed, and several swears were uttered under his breath as his arm shifted within the light, before an exclamation passed his lips as he pulled his hand back, reappearing from whatever plane of existence it came from as the light faded. From his palm was a red and magenta bracelet with a hexagon-cut, burnish set ruby.

[Charm of Myths]

+0.5 Health regeneration/m (Ignores [Bleeding])

+Reduces [Potion Sickness]

He really did love the fact that one of his abilities was to discern the traits, and names of an item or creature, its god damn helpful! True, it didn't always work, but most of the time, it made hunting for food or treasure a great deal easier.

'Kinda wish I had my celestial stone, though…' He grumbled. 'It'd go even faster with that!'

He fumbled with the charm a few times until he was about to slide it onto his wrist, when he stopped and looked at his attire, noticing for the first time how much of a train wreck he looked like.

He could feel a rather sizeable hole from the bark on his partially bare back. His arms, legs, coattails, and torso looked akin to burnt Swiss cheese with the amount of holes and scorch marks that littered his clothing, the armor plating either looking melted, or blown off. Pulling off his helmet, he winced at the dents that cluttered it. The horn that went over his helm was now crookedly pointing upwards from the front; the light that once shined brilliantly had dimmed significantly to the point of being considered a nightlight.

"Jesus..." He groaned. "I know I gotta thank the armor for saving my life, but the repairs are going to take a while."

Pulling the sleeve of his arm revealed that the skin of his wrist had fused with the sleeve due to the heat as some of his skin abruptly ripped off by yanking it, making him hiss in pain.

"That's just lovely." He growled, slowly peeling back the fabric on his arm to minimize the discomfort. Carefully he slipped the bracelet passed his hand. Once it touched the skin on his wrist, he immediately felt a stab of pain from his body. He must've been more hurt than he thought. Looking over into the corner, he looked at his health and buffs.

Health:

72/500

[Bleeding] has worn off!

Health Regeneration has increased by 0.5

Current ailments:

[Weak]: Defense, melee damage, melee attack speed, and movement speed have decreased! Rest to remove this ailment!

The warrior let out a sigh as he slumped, leaning against the tree heavily. His eyelids felt like lead as they started to droop. All the excitement from the past four days had worn him out completely, and now that he made sure he wouldn't kick the bucket overnight, his body started to shut down again. And this time, he fully agreed with it, welcoming the escape from the pain he felt, the void of dreams that came with it.

His head dipped forward as his guardian looked on at the sight, recognizing its master's slumber. Turning around, he stood tall in the moonlight; promising pain to whatever dared attack his charge. Staring onward, they couldn't help but notice the silhouette of back humanoid creatures with glowing red eyes growling beyond the trees in front of The Guardian and his master…

…And a broken moon hovering above them.

Hey there yall, LittleBrewBoy here!
Just a bit of a heads up to a few tweaks I made between the actual game and the story itself that you've no doubt noticed.

First and foremost, you'll note how I've given certain summons a health bar. The reasoning for this is due to being quite a bit overpowered otherwise. The main OC alone is incredibly strong as is, and a minion that can never die would be a bit much.

Secondly, the use of his magic. This i can no doubt understand goes against the game in the fact that he uses magic in ways other than with an item located within the game itself. Don't worry, all will be explained later on in the story.

In the meantime...
Stay Sober!