William eyed Nissa the Dryad carefully. She appeared to be a young woman, but her eyes and the way she poised herself made her seem so much older. Her long green hair was tied in a bushy braid that ran down to her waist. She didn't appear to be completely human - her body was a strange mix of human skin and lush green vines and leaves that wrapped around her torso, arms and legs.

"So why are you here?" William asked. "Why have you been... observing us, as you said?"

The Dryad leant forward, putting her arms on the table.

"It's because of the Eye."

The Eye.

"You know where it came from, then?" William asked.

"Didn't we already figure that out?" Sid said. "It came from that crimson forest. The same place where Robyn said she saw you."

"It might have come from there, yes," the Dryad said. "But that is hardly its full backstory. You know its full title is the Eye of Cthulhu."

"I thought it was pronounced Ka-choo-choo?" Sid said.

"No, it's Cthulhu," the Dryad corrected, saying it like 'K-thoo-loo.'

"Oh."

"Why is it called the Eye of Cthulhu, then?" William asked. "Do you know what this... Cthulhu is?"

"Cthulhu was a creature of immeasurable power and unknown origin," the Dryad said. "Its seemingly sole purpose was to rain destruction on, and to have dominion over, all sentient life that flourishes on the world.

"None could stand against the advances of Cthulhu. The very fabric of the world seemed on the precipice of doom. Until..." she hesitated. "My people arose to wage battle against Cthulhu. We... had an unparalleled connection to the world, so we were truly the last hope against annihilation.

"We were... alas unable to kill Cthulhu. But with our combined power, we were able to cripple Cthulhu's ability to wreak further damage upon the world, by ripping out Cthulhu's eyes, part of its skeleton, and chunks of its brain."

"Ew," Robyn muttered.

"Ultimately, this substantial damage forced Cthulhu to retreat to the dark side of the moon, where it dwells to this day."

William glanced out the window, where the moon was visible in the night sky, feeling shivers come over him.

"As for... my people, sadly, they all perished. I am the sole survivor."

"Oh," Sid muttered.

"That sounds... terrible," Robyn said.

"So..." William said. "You're saying that the Eye that we fought is... it's Cthulhu's gouged-out eyeball?"

"Yes," the Dryad said.

"We haven't seen Cthulhu, but Cthulhu has seen us," Sid said.

The Demolitionist, who was passing through, laughed ribaldly at his joke.

"It's hard to say if the Eye is still acting under influence from Cthulhu or not," the Dryad said. "But what I can say is that the Crimson is a single emergent being connected to the world, sharing a hive mind."

"A hive mind?" Sid exclaimed.

"The Eye might have been infused into this hive mind somehow," the Dryad said. "But at the end of the day, it was still just an eye. Within the Crimson, there are far greater beings. Ones that are behind controlling the will of the Crimson. It wishes to consume all there is, believing doing so will restore balance to the world."

William clicked his tongue. "Could the rest of Cthulhu's body parts be in the Crimson too? Like you mentioned his brain and skeleton..."

"Perhaps, but I have been unable to delve deep enough to find out for sure," the Dryad said. "The Crimson threatens to consume me into its hive mind. I cannot let this happen, for if it were to gain my power..."

She trailed off, but William understood.

"So you need us to enter it ourselves then?"

"More or less. You must do what you can to cleanse this world of the Crimson, before it takes over."

***

Next morning the three of them were heading off to the Crimson. They crossed the Desert, and soon found themselves in the crimson forest once again.

"I wish we didn't have to come back here," Robyn said. "It's scary."

William had to agree with her. The last time they'd come to the Crimson, he too had developed a rather uneasy feeling about this place. There was an eeriness about the biome that felt like there were... much more powerful things that could be unleashed.

"Lighten up, Robyn," Sid said. "It shouldn't be that bad."

"Aren't you scared of what the Dryad told us?"

"Not really. The world's a videogame, and many videogames have lore written into them. Pretty standard stuff. The Dryad gave us all that exposition, and has basically now sent us on this quest. And I doubt she would have arrived if she didn't think we were ready. That's just how game design works."

William eyed him. He still found all that he was saying hard to believe, but on the other hand he wished he could be as confident as him."

"Where do you think we should look?" he asked.

"Nissa said she can't get deep enough into the Crimson," Sid said. "I guess this'll be like the sinkhole. We'll keep exploring until we find what we're looking for."

Several Face Monsters and Crimeras attacked them while they explored the eerie red wastelands. It wasn't too long until they found a large red boulder that towered over them, appearing to be around the same size as the base back home. Hollowed into one side was a tunnel entrance, which appeared to lead downwards into the earth.

"Whatever we're looking for, it's got to be down there," Sid said. stepping boldly forward.

"Be careful," William warned.

The tunnel was made completely from some sort of bright red stone. Several stalagmites and stalactites that looked like great big sharp teeth dotted the tunnel, which William stepped around. He noticed Robyn, who was keeping watch behind them, appeared to look as anxious as he felt about this place. Sid, as always, confidently strode forward, placing torches on the walls every so often to light their way. One of his torches lit up a spindly eight-legged creature, causing Robyn to scream.

"Die, spider!" he cried, snapping his leather whip at the arachnid and sending forth his two Flinxes. The summons fell upon the spider – named a Blood Crawler – and pulled it to pieces in seconds.

"Come on!" Sid said.

William cast a glance back at Robyn. She was standing completely still, her feet planted to the ground like a tree.

"You okay?" he asked.

He'd been worried about her ever since the Eye had attacked and she'd grown more closed-off from him and Sid. Sid had barely seemed to have noticed this about her, but William had. He kind of had a combination of mindsets from both Sid and Robyn, both an eagerness to explore and grow stronger, but also a general cautiousness of everything. He felt it was down to him to keep an eye on both of them (no pun intended).

"I'll be fine," she said, though from the way her voice shook, she didn't sound like she would be.

"Hey, I found a pile of eyeballs!" Sid shouted from below.

William and Robyn headed down the tunnel to where Sid was standing next to a glowing pile of flesh with eyeballs sprinkled across the top.

"It's not breaking with my pickaxe," he said.

"Maybe try a hammer?" William suggested.

Sid got out his wooden hammer and slammed it against the object. Suddenly he cried out as a red number 100 rose from him.

He'd lost half his life.

"Stop!" William shouted. "That thing could kill you!"

A green number 50 popped up from Sid as he drunk a Lesser Healing Potion.

"I've got one more idea," he said, dropping a lit bomb at the base of the object.

After he stepped back, the bomb exploded. Some of the surrounding red stone blocks got destroyed in the blast, however the object, and the blocks that it was resting on, remained unaffected.

"Oh, come on," Sid muttered.

"Let's leave it," William said.

They continued down through the tunnel. It consistently sloped downwards, sometimes making sharp twists and turns, but never splitting off into multiple paths. They passed some more of the strange indestructible eyeball objects, and eventually emerged into a vast crimstone cavern.

"Wow," Sid said. "This place is biig," he said.

"Watch out, there's Crimeras," William said, pointing.

"I'll place down some rope so we can get down. You two fend them off."

William glanced at Robyn as she began opening fire at the Crimeras. He turned back and hurled his Ice Boomerang at one of them, knocking it backwards. Before too long Sid had placed enough rope to reach the bottom of the cavern, and he jumped onto it and slid downwards.

William came down after him, followed by Robyn. At the bottom he spotted two Life Crystals resting next to each other. Several more tunnels branched off, heading off to unknown destinations. A couple of Blood Crawlers and a Face Monster was heading towards them, but Sid already had his Flinxes after them, and was snapping at the monsters with his Leather Whip.

"Should we split up and cover more of those tunnels?" Sid asked.

"I say we stick together," William said. He saw Robyn nodding too.

"I'd vote for splitting up, but it seems I've already been outvoted," Sid chuckled.

They picked one of the tunnels and headed down it. A few more Blood Crawlers were in it, though they were again torn to pieces by Sid's Flinxes, dropping coins and vertebrae. At the end was a glowing red object that resembled –

"It's a heart," William said. "An actual, beating heart."

"Not like those cartoony love hearts that Life Crystals are shaped like," Sid muttered. "Do you think it might be Cthulhu's heart?"

William somehow suspected if Cthulhu's heart really was down here, like what the Dryad suspected, it would be way bigger, but he said nothing.

"I'm going to blow it up," Sid said, stepping forward. "And I'll use dynamite since that makes the biggest boom."

He placed a lit stick of dynamite on the floor below the heart and hurried backwards. It obliterated the heart in a massive blast, also destroying a lot of the crimstone blocks surrounding it, causing them to fall downwards like rubble.

William felt a horrible chill go down his spine.

Sid stepped forward and sifted through the debris.

"Oh, hey!" He held up what looked like a red and grey pistol. "The heart dropped a gun! It's named the Undertaker!"

"Why was there a gun in Cthulhu's heart?" Robyn asked.

"Who cares?" Sid said, twirling the gun in his fingers like a cowboy. "This baby's going to provide me with some much-needed ranged fire."

The three of them returned to the central cavern and picked a different tunnel. A Face Monster stood guard, but it was easily dispatched by Sid's Undertaker.

This feels too easy, William thought to himself. Hadn't the Dryad said something about every creature in the Crimson being part of a hive mind? Surely that meant every enemy in the entire place should be upon them by now?

At the end of that tunnel was another heart, identical to the first one.

"If the first heart was Cthulhu's, then whose is this?" William muttered.

"Maybe these aren't Cthulhu's hearts?" Robyn said.

William was wondering what it could mean as Sid blew up the second heart. He heard intense screams echoing all around them. Robyn covered her ears at the sudden sound.

Who was that? he wondered as he stepped forward. He picked up a weapon that looked like a pike, made from the same material as Sid's pistol. It was named The Rotted Fork.

"Another spear," Sid said. "Is it better than your other one that shoots electricity?"

William tried stabbing forward the Rotted Fork.

"It does slightly more damage," he said. "But it doesn't seem to shoot anything." He looked to Robyn and stepped towards her, holding out the Rotted Fork in two hands.

"You can have it," he said. "Use it if too many bad guys get too close for comfort. Use it to push them away."

She took it without looking too closely at it, just staring at him.

"Okay. Thanks."

William was still wondering where the screams from earlier had come from as Sid blew up a third heart.

He picked up the item it dropped – a staff with what looked like a red orb on the end – just as a roar emanated throughout the tunnel.

At that same moment a massive pale red mass appeared in front of him.

"Holy cactus!" Sid shouted, jumping backwards with assistance from his Blizzard in a Bottle. "That must be Cthulhu's heart! It's so huge!"

William stared at it warily, reading its label.

"No, that's a Brain!" he cried. "The Brain of Cthulhu!"

Right as he said that several flying eyeballs started flying down the cave, peppering the three of them like the sandstorm from earlier.

"Agh!" Robyn cried, flailing her Rotted Fork around in an effort to try to hit the eyeballs, but they all flew past them and began orbiting around the Brain.

"Fire!" Sid shouted, holding out his pistol and firing some rounds into it. Most of them hit the eyeballs – William noticed they were named 'Creepers' – but they seemed to hold up very well even to bullets.

"Fall back! Into the cavern!" William yelled.

Right as he began running in the other direction the Brain appeared right in front of him, appearing to fade out of nothing.

He glanced behind him. It was gone, and the Creepers were all flying towards him once again, towards the Brain.

This thing can teleport!

He tried stabbing at the Brain with his Storm Spear, but it did nothing – no knockback, and he wasn't even sure if it did damage. Then the storm of Creepers rushed through him and the others again, bringing him below half his life. He began feeling like his arms had grown weak, and the world around him began to darken.

No! What's happening? Agh!

He saw Sid was pointing his gun at the Brain, but no bullets were coming out.

"It's not shooting! Come on, I still have bullets left!" he cried.

He saw Robyn seemed to be spinning uncontrollably around, arrows flying in almost every direction except the Brain, before flopping down to the ground.

The Brain must be... cursing us somehow! It seemed to be affecting them all in different ways, too.

There was a blaze of blue particles as Robyn disappeared, having drunk a Recall Potion to escape.

"No! Do something! Flinxes!" Sid cried.

The Flinxes rushed forward, but the orbiting Creepers overpowered them, knocking them aside.

"I'll try this new weapon!" He held out the rod with the red orb on the end, and began shooting out what looked like a bunch of pale red clouds.

"Why aren't they doing anything?" he yelled.

"Sid!" William shouted. "We need to get out of here!"

"But the Brain!"

"We'll come back for the Brain! It's overwhelming us!"

Sid grit his teeth but nodded, before drinking a Recall Potion.

William pulled one out himself and put it to his lips.