Chapter 79: A Sightseeing Trip
I felt that today has been chaotic enough, and I needed some time to wind down from everything, so I decided to use my bee mount to fly into the air and look at the surroundings.
As soon as I reached an adequate height, I stopped ascending and looked at the land below me.
'What a beautiful land... And it's my home now.' I thought with a bit of melancholy.
I shook my head, discarding the sad thoughts.
'This is not the time for sad thoughts! I'm supposed to be relaxing.' I told myself.
I refocused on the landscape and noticed a familiar yet unfamiliar sight in one of the forests.
"Is that... A worn-out castle? And why is it pink."
I stared at the castle for a few moments, trying to piece together something.
'Why do I feel like I've seen this before?'
It was then that I remembered why it seemed familiar.
'The old man! I remember now... But was the castle always there? I could've sworn it was in a different area.'
I decided to investigate.
I flew towards the castle and reached it after around 5 minutes.
As soon as I landed, I noticed the old man standing at the entrance to the castle, just like the last time I saw him.
I decided to initiate a conversation.
"Hello!" I exclaimed.
The old man shifted his sight to me, seeming unaffected by my abrupt appearance, and he waved at me.
"Hello again." He responded calmly.
"How's life been in this pink castle?"
The old man looked offended by my statement somehow.
"It's not pink! It's light red!" He retorted.
"You keep telling yourself that." I said, quite amused by how much they dislike the castle being called pink.
He quickly came down after the sudden outburst.
"As for the question... Life has been as boring as usual, even if the occasional scenic change is enjoyable to see."
"I looked at him in amusement.
"That sounds really boring... How long has this been going on?" I questioned.
The old man looked at me with a stare that told me I wasn't going to like the answer.
"I believe I have been cursed ever since the fall of Cthulhu." He said.
My eyes widened in shock.
"That long?!" I almost shouted, but I quickly suppressed my shock.
"You've been like this for several centuries?!" I quietly exclaimed, the statement much quieter than my last.
I gave the old man a scrutinizing gaze as if trying to find something out.
"I don't get it." I abruptly said.
"Don't get what?" The old man asked clearly confused as to what I meant.
"How you haven't gone insane yet." I bluntly said.
The old man just looked at me and laughed.
"What are you laughing about? I don't think I said something funny." I asked, confused by the random outburst.
The laughs of the old man died down.
"No, I was just not expecting you to be so blunt in your words. And to answer your question... Madness comes in several shapes and forms. Maybe mine is simply more hidden than yours." The old man spoke mysteriously.
He looked me right in the eyes with a dead stare.
"Sometimes you have to look a little deeper to find just what a person hides. It's what's on the inside that counts, after all..." The old man finished with a sad smile, his words trailing off in a sad tone.
"This is going to be a problem I'm gonna be forced to deal with, Isn't it." I said with an annoyed tone.
{Definitely.}
I sighed to myself.
I looked at the old man.
"So what's your madness?" I asked bluntly.
The old man smiled and said a single sentence.
"Everyone has their fair share of problems, but I have a few more skeletons in my closet than I would like." He said cryptically.
I sighed again.
"I should've expected this. Nothing is ever straightforward, is it?"
{Some things you take at face value, while some things have a much deeper secret hidden beneath the idea.}
"Can you explain that in non-cryptic words? I'm too lazy to contemplate that right now."
{Take some things at face value, but try and look for a hidden meaning in others.}
"So you're telling me that this is going to be more complex than I think."
{Or much less. You never know.}
While this whole conversation was going on, the old man watched in both confusion and amusement.
"I'm still here you know." The old man abruptly said.
I may or may not have jumped at the sudden reappearance of the old man.
"where the hell did you come from?!" I nearly shouted in surprise.
"I've been here the whole time. You just forgot about me during your conversation with yourself." The old man said, amusement clear in his voice.
"damn Gods and their distracting attention-seeking." I muttered.
{Hey! Don't push the blame onto us!}
'At least the Universe leaves me alone for a bit...'
I was startled out of my thoughts by a sudden lightning bolt from the sky.
It struck the ground in front of me, clearly burning the words 'We don't' into the ground.
"Did you have to be so flashy?"
~Yes.~
Godsdamnit.
"Well now that I'm done dealing with these omnipresent entities... How can I help with your problem?"
The old man looked at me with amusement, obviously enjoying my annoyance.
"You'll have to wait until night, as my master does not enjoy the sun. The summoning cannot occur under the light of day."
'Of course he has a master. Why is nothing ever easy?'
{Because life is never easy?}
'Shut up. You made it like that, so this is your fault.'
{Life is what you make of it. We made it fun.}
'And I hate you for succeeding in doing so.'
{No need to get angry about our success.}
'I have all the right to as I am being directly affected by it.'
And that's when the universe decided to hop into my mind.
~You are both being idiots.~
'I'm human, It's an inevitability sadly. It's a good thing I can't say the same about the gods.'
{Being smart makes everything boring to us.}
~Those are two of the dumbest reasons I have ever heard. And that's saying something.~
'I am an idiot for a reason you know. Imperfections make a person perfect, but too many make a person even less.'
~And why is it that you are an idiot?~
'I have absolutely no clue.'
~I should've guessed.~
'Well, I guess I should probably start preparing now.'
{Indeed.}
And so the day continues on, a battle being foreshadowed.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Cold_Housefire
Cold_Housefire The ending was a little rushed.
Skeletron is now coming up, and then there will only be two pre-hardmode bosses left.
I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
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