by Dante Doom
"Hahaha, you made quite the gamble with that power," the Emperor said as it ceased fighting and thrashing. "I am pleased with you, Van."
"Go to hell!" Van replied.
"Ahahaha, truly, you are a poet," the Emperor replied. "Are you ready to discuss terms now?"
Maybe Van could run the clock on his inability to move by talking to the dragon for a while. He made a point of letting out an obnoxious sigh. "Alright, what do you want from me?"
"The better question is, my friend, what is it that you want from me? What would it take to get you to join me in my cosmic quest to conquer the universe?"
"A million dollars," Van replied.
This response elicited more laughter from the Emperor. "I love your sarcasm so much. You know the word 'sarcasm' comes from the word 'Sarcos', which means 'to cut'. I learned that in my millennia of studying your culture."
"I didn't realize you were an English teacher," Van answered. "Now I understand why you're evil."
"Another joke," the Emperor said, but without a chuckle this time. Van could hear a twinge of frustration in his voice. "When will you tire of jocularity? Look out at your forces – they are entangled in an endless mess. You have no back-up here. Your best efforts have failed. Why cling to death in spite of what I can offer you? Tell me what you want, Van."
"I really just want to keep my people alive," Van replied. "Maybe you don't get it because you've spent your whole life fearing your own kind and then choosing to subdue them, but most races would prefer to keep the members of their species alive. Even someone in a remote village, someone who I will never see… I would rather he stay alive than die right now."
"Feh," the Emperor grunted, "but you must enlighten me, Van, because I don't understand why you care. Why care about someone who isn't you? Especially when there is nothing you can do to save them."
"We call it morality," Van replied. He felt a glimmer of hope here, coming with the dragon's seeming willingness to listen. Perhaps the Draco simply didn't understand human morality due to their collectivist viewpoints. Maybe he could make a good point that would change the Emperor's mind.
"Morality – ah yes, of course. Good and evil and all of that," the Emperor replied. "An outdated system if I have ever heard of one. The base assumption of morality is that everyone plays by the same rules. We all agree that murder is bad, but does that stop a murderer? Morality is nothing more than an invention meant to make you feel safe in a cruel and callous world."
"That's not true," Van replied. "Morality is a base human instinct. We all follow some kind of moral law."
"And so that governs you? You let morality control you? You are as much a slave as these Draco are to their own foolish ideals. I made a choice a long time ago, Van, to never let anything control me. Nothing owns me. I am free and it is a glorious thing. I'm asking you to wake up here. You will gain nothing by following this system. In fact, you will lose everything if you do follow your conventional morality. The moment you defeat me is the moment that this game ceases to exist for all eternity. Your home, Van. It will be gone, all because you chose conventional morality because it was the right thing to do," the Emperor mocked. He was a little too gleeful with his own words for Van's taste.
"I'm not doing something because its arbitrary," Van said. "There are people on this planet who I care about. Sang, for one."
"So what? Bring her, too," the Emperor said. "I quite like Sang. I've gone back and forth on recruiting her directly, but decided against it when she kept pressing on after I sent that suicide agent after her. I figured that would dissuade her, but no, it didn't."
"I doubt Sang would come with me," Van replied. Then, he stiffened at hearing his own words. He hadn't meant to say that… he'd meant to say that he would never join the Draco. Why had he said that instead?
"So? Leave her, then. Leave this whole world behind and come join a new one. You can even recreate your own planet if you like, in a simulation. You could be the star of your own sitcom, a world where no one ever gets terminally ill… a world where you always have a good time. You could create your own heaven, Van."
Van glanced at his timer. Holy crap, his plan was working. He had about thirty seconds left on his exhaustion. He couldn't believe this had worked so well. Apparently, the Emperor liked to hear himself talk more than anything.
"You know what?" Van asked the Emperor. "There's more to life than leisure. More to life than pleasure. I've spent a great deal of my life avoiding anything close to work. Ironically, I've spent the last three months of my life working harder than I ever have. It's shocking, honestly. But it's also been the most fulfilling experience I've ever had. I'm not going to join you, no matter what you offer me."
"You say that," the Emperor replied, "but let's see how you feel once there is no hope of winning."
"If I can't win, then I'll go down with the ship!" Van said, his voice lifting into a shout at the end of the statement as he felt energy surge back into his body. The effects of the Fierce Rage were finally over, and now he would be able to move and fight again. Mobility never felt so good.
"Oh, you were just distracting me, weren't you?" the Emperor realized. "My goodness, do I feel embarrassed. It's just rare to talk to another being that has independence and the ability to think for itself. Well, good on you for pulling one over on me. Not like it's going to help."
Van grabbed his warhammer and readied for another round of fighting. He only hoped that Sang would be able to find Fredlin soon.
"I suppose you're going to want to keep crawling around and poking at me in the hopes that you'll find my weak spot, one which will kill me instantly?" the Emperor commented. "Very well, let us resume our – " his words were interrupted as a bright flash came across the entire room.
Lethal Feedback has been authorized in this area floated in the center of the room in large, red lettering.
"The hell is that?" Van muttered as he looked at the alert. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand up as he realized what had happened. Someone had activated their orb early. This wasn't good at all. Everyone had an extra orb in case Van and Sang were somehow incapacitated, but no one was supposed to activate theirs.
"I don't particularly understand," the Emperor said. "That shouldn't be up there." Van could hear a softness in the dragon's voice.
An ear-shattering, blood-curdling scream came from one of the yellow dragons as its throat was cut wide open, causing it to thrash about before it died. The creature's body faded away as soon as it was dead.
"You… bastards," the Emperor gasped. "You figured out some way to turn on our haptic kill switches. How?"
"It's a secret!" Van replied as he swung into action. He rushed around the back of the dragon, using the rope he'd still held tight to hoist himself back up to the wings of the beast. He swung his hammer hard against the creature, feeling the weight of the weapon crash into the connecting joint between the wing and the dragon's back.
20 damage! hovered above the dragon. Van grimaced – that was a tiny amount of damage to be dealing to a powerful dragon like this.
"Ahhhhh!" the Emperor screamed. Van chuckled for a moment, thinking the Emperor was making a joke, but quickly realized that the beast was thrashing about in real agony.
"Wait a second…" Van whispered as he noticed that the Emperor's health was only at 200 now. He quickly checked his own character sheet to see if his health had been changed, too.
Everything had changed due to the area's lethality. By turning the section into a Designated Reality Zone, they'd ensured that stats were a lot more realistic. With only 200 hit points, the Emperor didn't stand a chance. Of course, this also meant that, if Van wasn't careful, he'd be killed rather easily, too.
Arrows flew from the ground towards the Emperor now, crashing into his body. "Arrrgh!" the Emperor shouted again as his health dropped down to 150.
The dragon shifted around as it began to cast a powerful spell, creating a shimmering bubble to surround itself. V
an was inside of the purplish bubble, and he could see that arrows were coming from all directions… but were unable to penetrate the bubble.
"I suppose this is what I get for being cocky. I knew you humans were different," the Emperor said, "but I didn't realize you were this capable."
"At least you're humble about it," Van commented as he activated his Fierce Rage power again. The surge of energy jacked his health up to 200 and his strength score increased drastically. He could feel the power pulsing inside of him and he unleashed his rage by crashing his hammer against the Emperor's wings again.
"Ah! Enough!" the Emperor shouted as he reached his long-clawed hand behind his back and grabbed Van.
"Crap!" Van shouted as he tried to resist the strength of the dragon, but it held him tightly. Apparently, it could have grabbed him at any time.
The Emperor held Van right in front of him, snarling a little. "Van, I am impressed endlessly with you, but you made a choice by activating this lethal system. Now, I am fair…" he began as a small puff of flames emanated from his nostrils. Van could feel the intense heat of the fire and knew that he was about to be cooked. His No Bonds Can Hold Me power was done for the day, as well. "So, here's the deal. Surrender and join me, or die this instant. Make your choice now."
"I'll join you!" Van shouted, trying his hardest not to chuckle as he said it.
The Emperor sighed. "Now that sarcasm is starting to get annoying. Well, I tried." He narrowed his eyes and took in a sharp breath. Before he could unleash the flames that would end Van's life, though, Jet came charging up and crashed through the purple shield, shattering it.
Van felt himself freefall as the Emperor released him in the process of trying to fight back against Jet's assault. The black dragon was fiercely clawing and slashing at the Emperor, though, and the two were immediately engaged in fierce combat.
"I gotcha!" Sang shouted as she came out of nowhere and grabbed Van. She activated her ring of slow falling then and the two descended to the ground.
"Where did you come from?" Van asked.
"Jumped off of Jet to grab you," Sang replied. "We're gonna win this one!"
They touched the ground gently just in time to see Jet throw the Emperor onto the floor. The force of the large red dragon hitting the earth left a huge crater and shook the ground itself.
"Come on!" Van shouted to his team as about fifty members of the Iron Dragons rallied around him. There were more dragons pouring in through the hole, but most were unaware of the lethal biofeedback effect until it was too late. Between the mercenaries guarding the entrance to keep other dragons out and Van's forces, now there was no way for the Emperor to have a chance.
"Charrrrge!" everyone shouted as they rushed to the site where the Emperor and Jet were locked in mortal combat.
"Enough!" the Emperor boomed as he grabbed Jet's right wing and tore it clean off, eliciting a shriek of agony from the black dragon. Jet tried to bite down on the Emperor, but wasn't fast enough. The Emperor, lying on his back, spun around hard, throwing Jet off of him.
"You think you can all come at me?" the Emperor shouted as he stood tall, Van and his team surrounding him. The shimmering bubble had returned and was still blocking arrows from striking him, and they could see that he was trying to calculate what his next move would be. "You all think that I can die here?"
Jet tried to regain his footing but, due to his injury, only collapsed as he tried to get up.
"Bidane!" Van shouted. "Heal Jet before he dies!"
"Aye!" Bidane yelled back as she ran past him to render aid to the dragon.
"Deactivate the system and you'll live!" Van yelled at the Emperor. They had surrounded him at this point. Everyone was wielding a long halberd designed specifically for thrusts into a dragon's flesh. "All you need to do to get out of this is to just turn off whatever thing will destroy this planet and you can walk out of here alive."
Van was lying, of course. The moment the Emperor turned off the system, he would be killed.
"You think you can scare me? I told you, Van! I AM A GOD!" the Emperor shrieked as he unloosed a torrent of fire upon Van and his allies. A magical wall of stone appeared in front of Van's team, though, shielding them from the flames. Van glanced over at Fredlin, whose hands were high as he muttered spells to keep the wall going.
"Charge!" Van yelled. "Kill the Emperor!" The soldiers rushed forward in a blitz to do as they'd been ordered. And the Emperor was fast, but there were just too many for him to ward off. His claws raked, his tail whipped, and his jaws snapped, but no matter how many he wounded or killed, more would arrive. Spears and halberds were stabbing at him and his health was quickly dropping. Van was in the back, directing the forces to move in waves and controlling their formations. They had to be careful not to kill the Emperor before they could convince him to deactivate the world-destroying protocol. Van had no idea what the obliteration of the world would look like, but their fight would mean nothing if they just killed the Emperor and the world was destroyed anyway.
"Enough!" Van yelled to his forces once the Emperor's health was down to 15. The dragon was gasping and grunting. Blood was pouring from every part of his body. Among him were hundreds of dead players. He glared at Van.
"You really think you can kill me?" the Emperor said weakly.
"You think we can't?" Van replied as he approached the dragon. "You were kind to me, in your way," he continued as he stood defiantly in front of the beast. "You tried to make me a deal and, as such, I want to repay the favor. Stop the destruction of our planet and you'll walk out of here."
The Emperor leaned his head down to meet Van's. Van felt a little nervous, but he watched as his entire team tensed up and prepared their weapons. The moment it lunged, the dragon would be dead.
"I can appreciate your sentiment," the dragon hissed. "I can appreciate that you want to keep everyone alive. But you have no idea what you'd be doing if you killed me. The Draco won't just go away. They will see this mission through, no matter what."
"Then tell them to back down," Van replied. "You have the power."
"I have the power?" the dragon laughed. "I have the power? Van! Van! I AM THE POWER!" the creature roared at the top of its lungs as a pulse of blue energy lashed out of the dragon's body. Every player in the entire area immediately turned blue, and the word Frozen hovered above them.
The only person who could still move was Van. He grimaced once he realized that the Emperor was only toying with him, even after everything they'd gone through at this point. This dragon had been in control the whole time.
"I see understanding on your face," the Emperor laughed. "The realization that you're utterly screwed now. I could take my time, you know," he said as he reached his claw over to Sahara, who had been in the middle of jabbing a spear. He placed two of his claws atop her head. "I could just squeeze until each one of them is dead."
"Wait!" Van shouted as he held his hands up to stop the beast from killing his friend. "Don't!"
"Don't!" the Emperor shouted back in a whiny voice. "Don't! Save my friends! And my puppy, wahhhhh."
"Please, just stop!" Van yelled as he grabbed his warhammer again. The dragon's claws had almost completely covered Sahara's head.
"Or what?" the Emperor asked. "Or you'll kill me? You'll try to kill the very being that breathed life into this universe? You managed to pull one over on me, Van, I'll admit it. I am mortal for a brief moment, but you still have no clue what I am capable of."
Van groaned. He wasn't sure what to do, and he really didn't want to get into another long-winded conversation with the dragon. He glanced over at Jet to see that he was lying on the ground, still wounded. He was moving slightly, however. Maybe the Emperor's spell didn't affect him.
"I see the wheels turning in your head," the Emperor continued as he released Sahara and moved his claws over to Sang, who had been in the middle of firing her bow. He placed his thumb and his index finger around her temples. "I see how desperate you are to save the worl
d. I see the fire, and I love it. So, tell me what we are to do. I'm not nearly as crazy as you think I am. Make me a deal, Van."
"How about… you just leave this earth and spare everyone? Then I'll serve you," Van replied, gritting his teeth as he watched the dragon pick Sang up by her head. She was motionless and stiff, but he could see her eyes moving. She was aware of the whole thing.
"Hmmm?" the Emperor returned as it angled to look at him. Sang was dangling between his claws. "Go on…"
"You said you needed to expand, right? You said you want to control the universe and that you need people like me to do it. Well, I'm your guy then. I'll build your worlds and run your systems on other planets – just don't destroy ours. Please."
"I don't like the nature of this," the Emperor replied. "I don't get what I want."
"You get part of it!" Van reasoned. "We call this a compromise. You see, we're both individual creatures. We are independent thinkers, and that means that if we disagree, we will never come to see one another's viewpoints. So we compromise instead. We both agree to change some of our terms, but not all of them. We're both happy that way."
"How am I happy in not enslaving this planet?"
"You're happy because you get what you really want. You could have torn me to pieces at any moment, but you've been willing to run such a long game against me," Van said.
His heart was in his throat at this point. He realized, as he spun his wheels, that maybe he wasn't stalling for time. He looked over to see that Jet was still unable to stand. This idea… it was a terrible one, but it would spare earth, his home. It would save Sang and the rest of his people right now. And besides… he could always figure out some way to escape later.
