by Dante Doom
"And I thought I was actually dying," Sang said as she looked around. The crashing waves, the birds squawking, and the sun shining gave the illusion that everything was okay.
"At least I'm safe for the time being," Van said as he checked his log-out status. He wasn't able to leave the game. "Can you figure out some way to get me out?'
Sang shook her head. "I'm afraid not. I learned a lot about those pods, but there's some kind of safeguard on their release system. You aren't getting out of this game until we get to your physical location and bust you out."
"Oh, right, so maybe you should tell Neil where I am," Van said. "I was in some kind of desert – "
"Yeah, your coordinates were hard coded into those pods; I'm sure Neil and O'Hara are in the process of shooting up the place right now."
"Well, hopefully Neil doesn't think that I'm responsible for anything going wrong," Van replied as he looked up to the sky.
"Oh, he thinks you betrayed humanity and got me in trouble, so he'll be extra mad when he sees you next," Sang said. She pointed upwards. "Heads up."
"Here he comes," Van said as he looked at the small silver pod in his hand. He wasn't sure if he had enough power to kill the Emperor, but he was going to try. The game clock was in Sleep Time, at least, so that meant there would be no innocent players around to endanger with the biofeedback system. It was time for the end.
"You fools!" the Emperor screamed as he landed on the ground, causing the entire beach to shake. Waves crashed up high as the shockwave pushed through the water. "Have you any idea what you two have done? The entire game was being run through that ship, and they're all dead!"
"Ha!" Van laughed. "Not so tough now, are you? Try blowing up the world without your precious army of brain slaves!"
"You don't understand," the Emperor growled, his voice quivering with fear. "You didn't just kill the workers… you killed the game itself!"
"How?" Sang asked.
"Do you want to know why our technology is so powerful?" the Emperor asked. "It's because we all work together in perfect sync. Every single programmer aboard that ship was responsible for running the game in real time. Every aspect of this universe was operated by them – 10,000 minds trained only to make a simulation as realistic as possible. And now they are all dead."
"Good!" Van shouted back. "They had no problem watching the world burn for their sick cause. I'm glad every last one of your programmers is dead."
"When the game has no more programmers," the Emperor growled, "the Ragnarok Sequence begins. The game self-destructs."
"And how is that our problem?" Sang asked as she took a few steps back and began to wave her hands a little.
"We're all stuck here," the Emperor said. "I cannot leave this game because there is no one left to initiate the exit procedure for me, and I certainly will not allow you all to leave. This game will purge all data and then self destruct. We will be killed in the process."
"Aren't there thousands more Draco in this game?" Sang asked.
"They have all left, as per the final protocol," the Emperor hissed. "And so… I find that we are all in a precarious position."
"You want to make a deal, don't you?" Van asked.
"I am forced to make an offer that we will all find acceptable," the Emperor replied. "Sang's mastery of infiltrating the system would allow for her to eject me from the world. With my logging out, you two will be free to return to your real world before the game obliterates you. With the game gone, we will not be able to affect your planet any longer. You have won, humans. Now reap the rewards and get us the hell out of here."
Sang glanced over at Van, who shot her a concerned look. He leaned over to whisper to her.
"If we let him go, he'll just do this to more planets. Who knows… he might even try to take us out again. He's the Leader; he's the one responsible for bringing this invasion to dozens of planets. We can't just let him walk away."
"Yeah, but if the world is ending, we don't have much of a choice," Sang said. "I'm not sure it's worth trying to fight him."
"We can kill him," Van said. "I know we can, and even if we fail and he manages to kill us, he'll remain trapped here until the game self-destructs. We'll save not only humanity, but the rest of the universe from these guys."
"But we could die," Sang replied.
"How is that any different from any other choice we've made in the last three weeks?" Van asked. "Don't wuss out on me now."
"I'm not wussing out," Sang replied. "I… I just don't want to see you killed, Van. There's no way we can take him alone."
"And so what? We condemn the rest of the galaxy to enslavement and destruction because he's tougher than us?" Van asked. "Screw that. I'm not here to save the world, Sang, I'm here to save the freaking universe."
Sang nodded slowly at the comment. "I'll do whatever you're doing, Van. I'll tell Neil to pull you out ASAP. As soon as they get you out, they'll kick me out."
"Good," Van replied as he grinned fiendishly. "Now gear up!" He waved his hand and a rush of light came over Sang, equipping her with a high level bow and dragon-scale armor.
"Whoa!" Sang said.
"You forgot you gave me developer tools and left me in a pod with eons to learn how to use them!" Van said as he spun around to face the Emperor.
"So you would condemn yourselves to death?" the Emperor replied as he stretched his wings out. "You think that a few wall-hacks and an item creation kit makes you a god? You haven't even begun to see my power!"
"It's your funeral!" Van said. "Even if you manage to kill me, at least I get to die knowing that you'll be killed by your own creation."
"The universe will quake before my might!" the Emperor replied. "I tried to be civil! I tried to be kind, but I will kill you and torture her until she sets me free! You cannot kill a god!"
"I agree that you can't kill a god," Van replied as he flexed his muscles, activating a power-up that he had developed inside of the creation pod. Energy swirled around him as his skin gained a Damage Reduction of 100 points. "But the good news is that I’m not looking at some god – just a weak little lizard hiding inside the skin of a dragon."
The Emperor roared in rage and came flying at Van hard, slashing its claws at him with all of his might. Van tried to dodge out of the way, but was unable to avoid the fierce attack. The slashing pain overwhelmed him for a moment as he watched his health go from 3,000 to 1,800 in a matter of seconds. The damage reduction wasn't working.
"Do you see?" the Emperor screamed as it dug its claws into Van's flesh, causing blood to spray everywhere. "Your power-ups are nothing compared to me!"
"Ahhh!" Van shouted as he tried to get away from the Emperor. Sang snapped a few arrows off, but they merely bounced off of the monster's flesh.
"Now then!" the Emperor shouted as it towered above Van, its right claw raised high in the sky. The blood-soaked claws were glistening in the sunlight, but the dragon refused to bring them down into Van. "Free me of this place! Sang! You can choose now to watch him die or you can set me free and we all get to walk away from this!"
Van checked his character sheet to see if there was anything that he'd be able to do, but much to his dismay, he didn't really have anything useful. Any of the skills he had would help him only in a fair fight. The Emperor was planning on using power that was far beyond anything that Van could reasonably fight against.
There wasn't much that Van had at his disposal in the programming department, either. Even though he could screw with the game code a little, he wouldn't be faster than this gigantic red dragon. It could kill him in an instant if he wasn't careful. But all he had to do was stall for time until Neil and O'Hara pulled him out of the facility.
"Wait!" Van shouted. "Okay, okay, you made your point. Sang, figure out how to log him out."
"Really?" the Emperor and Sang asked at the same time.
"Well, it's not like I'm stronger than you," Van replied. His health bar was slowly beginning to regenerate thanks to his Spirit of the Warrior abi
lity, but it would be a few minutes until he was back to full health. Not that it would help much anyway.
"Very well," the Emperor said as it pressed its claw against Van's throat. "Figure it out or I kill him."
Sang shot a look over at Van with a "what do I do?" expression on her face, and he shrugged. If there was someone who could get them out of this mess with electronic trickery, it was probably her.
"My patience is growing thin," the Emperor said. In the distance, there was a loud rumbling sound, as if thunder were rolling. Van glanced to the right to see that there was a large mass of red clouds which were beginning to form around them. Lightning was streaking across the sky and Van felt a sense of dread well up within him. He wondered how long it would be before the game destroyed itself.
"I'm trying to figure this all out," Sang replied as she waved her hands around some more. "Huh," she said.
"What? What did you find?" the Emperor asked. Despite his fierce demeanor, Van could hear the fear in the monster's voice. It would make sense that this guy would be a tremendous coward, after all, he had been so content to manipulate everyone from behind the scenes… when would he ever have been at risk?
"I found there's some kind of exploitation you've been using to overpower yourself, but since there's not a security team working to keep your code safe… I can turn it off now."
The Emperor lunged at Sang, forgetting about Van. Sang leapt out of the way and dodged his attacks with grace and ease.
"It's too late!" Sang said as the word Dodge repeatedly appeared over her head. Each slash of the Emperor's claws met with nothing but empty air. "I disabled your godlike powers, haha!"
Van was on his feet and was charging with his brand new warhammer. During the surprise attack on Sang, he had hastily summoned one of the better weapons in the game – a hammer known as Dreadbreaker – though it had a terrible price for wielding it. Any player who wielded Dreadbreaker would go back to level 1 for 3 weeks once combat ended… but since the world around him was falling to pieces, Van figured he wouldn't have to worry about the consequences.
"What should I have expected?" the Emperor asked as his tail flicked towards Van, catching him completely off guard. The force from the tail knocked Van onto his back and the words Injury Sustained Cracked Ribs Regen Disabled appeared above him.
Sang fired a few more arrows at the red dragon, but despite her forceful attack, the arrows just bounced off of the Emperor's skin. And because she was unable to dodge at the same time that she attacked, the Emperor took the opportunity to seize hold of her.
"Ahhh!" Sang shouted as Van watched her health begin to go down rapidly.
"You are a fool, do you know that? To condemn yourself to die when you have already won?" the Emperor taunted her as it turned to face Van. Smoke was pouring from the dragon's nostrils and Van readied himself for the flames that were sure to come toward him. Fortunately, the Dreadbreaker offered a high level of elemental resistance, which would be useful since there was no dodging the flames – given that Van was charging straight at the dragon.
"That's the difference between you and me!" Van yelled as he ignored the torrent of flames washing over him. The burning sensation was intense, but the warhammer in his hands was glowing bright orange and it seemed to be soaking up the majority of the fire. The words 5 damage appeared over Van. A paltry sum, indeed. "You seem to think that the rest of the universe was made to serve you, and I'm just trying to help everyone out as best I can!"
"You will die for nothing!" the Emperor roared as it continued to squeeze away at Sang. The ranger had little chance of breaking free from the monster's grip, and her health was almost down to half at this point.
"I will die for the good of all races!" Van shouted as he leapt up and swung his warhammer hard at the dragon's jaw. The blow connected to its face and the words Dreadbreaker has been awoken appeared over Van's weapon. The hammer ignited with purple fire and Van watched the dragon Emperor's health bar appear as he took some damage. The bar had been at 6,000 points, but Dreadbreaker had dropped him down to 5,200.
The force of the blow had been enough to knock the Emperor back, and Sang was swift enough to take advantage of the distraction and break free of the grasp. She fell to the ground and began firing arrows at the monster quickly. Arrow after arrow flew into the Emperor's belly, but only one sank into his stomach. 100 damage floated above the dragon's head.
"Yes!" Sang shouted. "His damage reduction is wearing off!"
Van landed on the ground and rushed forward, feeling the mystic surge of power from the weapon in his hand. The Emperor flapped his massive wings and lifted off, narrowly avoiding another leaping blow from Van.
"Come back here, you coward!" Van shouted as another torrent of flames washed over him. The fire was completely ineffective, though, and Van felt like a total badass as he stood defiantly in its midst.
"You do not understand!" the Emperor replied as he began to fly high in the air, preparing himself for a divebombing attack. "You will not escape this place without me! Even if you were able to kill me, I would just respawn miles away from you! You, on the other hand, will not respawn."
"Oh, we got something for that!" Van shouted as he held up the sphere in his hand. He crushed the sphere then, causing a bright flash of light to be emitted across the entire zone. The familiar words Lethal Feedback has been authorized in this area floated above them all. Maybe this would scare the Emperor off, giving them more time to prepare for another fight, he hoped. The results would be permanent until the programmers changed the code, and since there were no programmers left, this meant the Emperor would be too afraid to come after them.
"Does it never end?" the Emperor screamed, ceasing from his attempts to charge at them. "I have created a world for you to enjoy, I have been the sole source of your happiness for most of your life, Van, and this is how you repay me? I gave you a chance to stand alongside me in my conquests, to have whatever you desired, and you refused! I even chose to spare your planet to earn your respect, and yet you refuse! What is so wrong with you that you would bite the hand that feeds you so brutally, refusing to let go no matter the danger?"
"I'll tell you!" Van shouted back, raising his weapon defiantly. The Dreadbreaker's magical energy was surging through the weapon now, and he pulled up the list of abilities that he could activate at any moment.
Invulnerability
Flight
Invisibility
Health Drain
He selected Flight and glanced at Sang. "Shoot at him from the ground and don't let him get the drop on you!"
Sang nodded and began to fire arrows, easily hitting him since she had the Sniper skill, which allowed her to shoot arrows at any target that she could see, regardless of the range.
Van felt the surge of Flight carry him upwards as he flew to meet the monster in the air. "Good always triumphs over evil! You might think our morality is primitive or meaningless, but to me, it means something!" Van shouted as he readied his hammer for another swing. The Emperor was flying downwards sharply, his claws ready to rent Van to pieces.
They flew at one another at a blinding speed. Arrows were sailing past Van and were expertly striking the Emperor's body in different weak spots, dropping his health steadily with each passing second. Van watched the claws of his foe carefully, waiting for the right moment to strike. He jerked to the left hard and swung upwards, crashing his hammer into the head of the dragon. The claws still raked across his chest and he watched his health drop down drastically. 1,000 damage hovered above Van's head.
Fortunately, Van's punishing blow connected with the Emperor, as well, and Van could see that he had dealt nearly 2,000 points to the dragon. The Emperor's health was now at 3,900 – a far cry from where it had been earlier.
"You know why I loved this game so much? I love this game because I always got to play the good guy!" Van shouted. "No matter who I was raiding, or who I would be fighting, I wanted to fight the bad guys. I loved this game because
I got to save the world!"
"But now your world is crumbling!" the Emperor gasped as it spun around in mid-air and let loose another torrent of flames. The fire washed against Van's body but did little damage to him. "You say you wanted to save the world and be the hero, but now because of you, everything that you have ever loved is dying! It doesn't have to be this way! You can still stop all of this!"
"You know what?" Van asked as he spun around to face the dragon. The warhammer was still burning with a rage and Van hadn't even activated his strongest power yet. It was his all or nothing attack and would only work once. "This game taught me how to play the hero, but the real world taught me how to actually be one. I'm done pretending to save the world. Now I'm going to actually save it by killing you once and for all!"
"Noble words, but nobility means nothing when you're dead!" the Emperor bellowed back. More arrows were sticking out of his back, but his health wasn't dropping so quickly anymore.
"Van! We've got a problem here!" Sang shouted. Van glanced down to see that the ocean was beginning to vanish. The ground was shaking, and the very sand itself was beginning to collapse into nothingness. Sang was running alongside of the beach as chunks began to break off and fall into nothingness. The world was really ending.
"Don't you see? How much time do you think we have left before the sky itself collapses and we are smothered into nothingness?" the Emperor said.
Sang was trying her hardest to escape the collapsing landscape, but the ground was relentlessly crumbling. She yelped as she stumbled and fell backwards into the darkness. Van flew down to get to her, but he wasn't as fast as the Emperor was, rushing down and snatching her up before she fell into oblivion.
"Not so quickly!" the Emperor bellowed. "You see what's going on? Free me and you can both leave!"
"Never!" Sang said. "I might be a little more rough around the edges than Van, but he's right. We aren't going to let you escape this place!"
Van could feel an icy coldness wrapping around his body as he hovered above nothingness. This darkness was different from the manufactured darkness of nighttime. It was entirely unnatural, and he felt himself growing weak.
