After a few more days of travel, Liam and Moose cleared the fudge volcano range. They ran out of chocolate milk and water, which left them dangerously close to dehydration.

As they reached an overhang in the fudge mountain range, Liam saw the ‘stay away’ zone for the first time.

It was a massive dessert. The sugar sand formed a bowl around the middle where a pulsating crimson hole dove into unthinkable depth. Glowing red veins laced across the sugar sand from this central location. Liam’s promised land turned out to be a literal hell, complete with the occasional flare of fire from the eldritch veins that reached miles into the sky.

The almost cancerous growth of red lines spanned across the surface of the desert in a strange web-like pattern, creating a visual effect of a cracked and broken landscape. It was as if a hellish power shattered it. In the distance, Liam saw the remains of a castle, its stone-like walls broken to rubble, with an off-colored smoke rising from it in a steady flow.

“W-what happened?” Liam asked. He’d hoped to find a kingdom of humans—or maybe a tribe. Not this.

Magic radiated through the air, giving off an eerie heat from this distance that promised no living creature could stay in this zone for long. If Liam compared it to anything from his world, this place seemed like some off-kilter nuclear disaster. His hands shook. Did the Candyland people do this? Had there been humans in that castle? Or was it worse than that? Did some unholy god take it into their evil hands to flatten whatever trace of humanity had been here

Unthinkable.

Moose let out a soft whine. Liam leaned down to reassure the Chocolate wolf that everything was fine with a pat. Moose shied away from the edge, tail trailing across the ground. He wanted to go no closer to that barren waste. He didn’t have to worry. From a glance, Liam knew it’d be a terrible idea to head into that dessert. They'd die if they did.

Even if the despair climbed in him and made him question why he should continue onward, part of him nagged inside that it'd be better to end this journey now. To go into that waste and give up. Liam couldn’t inflict that fate on the wolf pup. For Moose’s sake, they’d turn around and make a life out of whatever they could. “Come on, boy… There’s no point in staring at this.”

Moose let out another soft whine as he followed Liam away from the edge of the steep mountainside slope. They returned to the mountain range.

⬽ — ~ ☼ ~ — ⤘

After a day of searching and having the genuine threat of dehydration hanging over their heads, Liam made a breakthrough.

Every so often, they saw marshmallow birds flying around the mountain range. With some food bribery, Liam managed to convince the Wolf Pup to track the colorful creatures. Moose had a keen sense of smell and eyesight. Thanks to the pup, they managed to follow the birds to a small stream of chocolate milk that spilled down the mountain range.

They both drank their fill of the sweet and refreshing chocolate milk before settling down for the night. Liam let them rest near the stream, counting on the thick vegetation to give off any noise. The journey exhausted him mentally and physically. Tonight would give him time to collect his thoughts and put a plan together.

Liam poked at a small fire, burning with an off-note caramel scent. Moose was already asleep in his bag, having done his job in finding a way for them to survive another day and rewarded with enough treats to bloat his stomach.

Killing the Rulers had seemed possible when that demon told him to. It set a goal when he desperately needed one. But after seeing the monstrosity, there’d been nothing but a sinking feeling in his gut. He hadn’t been able to think. Every time he tried to devise a solution, an image of that massive thing leaning on a mountain consumed his headspace. How in the name of the Lord did he stand any chance of slaying that? If he could study its biology, maybe he could find a cascading reaction to bring it down. No. That was silly. Even the concept of a runaway explosion was unrealistic, both in his lack of materials or the prospect of managing the risk of transporting something volatile enough to damage the creature.

There wasn’t such a thing as safe chemical practices in this world. Even if he synthesized enough of a dangerous chemical by some miracle, he’d die moving it.

But, maybe that’s where magic could come into play. If he understood how it worked better, then he could adapt the plan. Why was he defaulting to explosives?

“My plan is to somehow obtain explosives big enough to detonate a mountain range…” Liam let out a sad laugh, burying his head into his knees. “I’m so fucked.” The firepower required to detonate that colossus was more force than a nuclear bomb.

Explosives weren’t the answer. Poison? Could he even poison something that massive? Hydrofluoric acid could penetrate a person's skin and sink into bone, then react with the calcium in the body. Such a reaction led to untold and lethal amounts of damage in a human. Plenty of other chemical agents had other severe biological effects, at times even worse.

But what the hell sort of biology did a creature that massive have? He doubted it had a conventional circulatory system.

“I’m swimming in circles,” Liam said helplessly.

“Thou art,” a strange and deep voice agreed from the darkness.

In an instant, Liam rolled away from the fire—hand digging into the pouch strapped to his side. His fingers gripped one of the sugar rocks. Instincts were the difference between life and death in this world.

“Cease before thou draw forth my ire.” What the hell is with this vocabulary?

“Sorry, I’m not in the habit of welcoming strangers in the dark with open arms. Not after that gingerbread man tried to rip my throat out.” Liam still clutched the rock candy, eyes scanning the shadows for any movement.

A deep, bellowing laughter came from the dark in response. Liam saw Moose waking up from his nap and groggily getting to his feet in his peripheral vision. This was bad; he didn’t want the pup to get involved and hurt if something attacked. The fire had an unfortunate duality, making it harder to let his eyes penetrate the shadows, even if it lit the immediate area. Liam didn’t think anything would be able to sneak up on him like this. From now on, he’d know better if he survived.

“Tis fair.” The voice stepped into the light—armor was dull and metallic. Not the same kind of treated sugar he’d seen the gingerbread men wear. Large portions were starting to rust away—the hauberk missing rings. The man's face hid beneath the great iron helmet’s visor, bits of fur decorated the joints in the plate.

Equally striking was the frame of the strange man—above six feet six and a robust and powerful body. On his back rested a massive two-handed greatsword made of steel. Some long-forgotten knight that stumbled out of a fantasy world into this one.

“Human?” Liam asked, trying not to let hope creep into his voice. The way that voice sounded, even how his body moved, was unlike the gingerbread men.

Once more, the man let out another laugh, his armor creaking as he nodded his head. “Aye, I doth believe myself so. I am known as Torsten,” He invited himself closer to the fire. “Shall we sit?” he gestured to the ground.

Moose let out a curious whine and darted to Liam’s side. The wolf was on edge. Liam patted its flank and tried to calm it down, settling onto the ground as he looked at the figure. Trying to suppress the edge of fear and hope that fought within. He’d found another human. There was someone else suffering through this nightmare. “Please—please. I’m Liam.”

The man removed the great sword from his back and stabbed it deep into the ground with a grunt. Sinking half of the blade in a smooth gesture. Liam gasped. Slowly the figure eased himself onto the ground—the visor of his helm still hiding his face, but the man seemed in no hurry to remove it. Torsten leaned closer to the flames, letting out one great sigh.

“Tis a pleasure, Liam. It’s hath been too long since these eyes of mine witnessed another of our kind, not for years since the fall of the Calamity.”

“I—Calamity?”

“Oh?” the man tilted his face, considering Liam more closely. “Could it be thou doth hail from foreign kingdom?”

“No—no, I’m from Wisconsin—er, Superior.”

“Wisconsin? Tis not a Kingdom familiar to these ears. Where doth your lands lie?”

“Uh, America. The United States of America, it’s not exactly a kingdom.” Liam felt a horrible sinking feeling. Something was very clearly off from the strange words this stranger spoke.

“Aye, tis unfamiliar. Welcome then, Liam of Wisconsin. Would it be our lands hath more to offer than the rotten remnants of once was.” The stranger let out a heavy sigh. “But tis the way of it. Whence the call of destruction doth rain, we doth what we must. As hath always been.”

“You’re not from earth.”

“Earth?”

You have gained +1 Ego

Don’t trust, Liam. You need us. Only us.