"You are a fiend!" Jet shouted. "You took my people and destroyed them utterly! We did not even know what war was, but you killed millions upon millions of us! You enslaved my people, and for what? So you could play God? And at the end of your miserable, wretched existence, you sulk and sob as if you were the victim! We are not your collective of monsters, Emperor – we will not be manipulated so easily!"
Van readied for his attack. While the two were still slashing and rolling in the air, Van could see an opening starting to appear. Lightning was beginning to strike the tops of the mountains, shattering them to pieces. The shrapnel of the mountains had begun to float into the air and fall apart, turning into pixels as it vanished.
"Van!" Sang shouted from the side of the mountain as she dodged left and right. "Catch!" She fired an arrow right at Van and, before he could blink, he caught it out of thin air. Arrow Catch floated above his head. Van realized there was a rope attached to the arrow. He held onto the rope tightly as it went taught. Sang began to scramble up the rope, away from the rapidly collapsing ground.
The dragons, spinning around in mortal combat, did not make it easy for her to get to him, but eventually she landed on the back of Jet.
"You think that this is my fault?" the Emperor shouted back as he wrapped his arms and legs around Jet's smaller body. He began crushing the black dragon as hard as he could. Van seized the pause in rolling movement to run up Jet's back and leap onto the head of the Emperor. "Every single race has been betrayed by their own people! I did nothing more than make them an offer, but it was so enticing that they were willing to sell out their own people. You should point the finger at them!"
Van brought the hammer down hard on the Emperor's skull, but the words Reinforced Bone -50% damage floated above the attack. The Emperor's health dropped down to 3,200, which wasn't enough for Van's attack yet.
"Yes, of course, blame us for your crimes!" Jet shouted back as he expanded his wings, breaking free of the Emperor's hold. The black dragon flew a few feet back and let out a torrent of fire that crashed against the Emperor. It did no damage to Van or the red dragon, though. "You point at the sins of the few for why we were destroyed, but you were the one to give them the opportunity. You gave them the gun and told them where to shoot it!"
"They were just as weak as you are!" the Emperor replied as he simultaneously swung his right claw at Jet while bucking his head back to knock Van off. Van stumbled and wobbled, but managed to keep his footing. He was precariously perched atop the head of the monster now, and below them was nothing more than an eternal blackness. "And they were consumed by their own greed! What will you do, Xevov? Slay me and then return to save your people? Even if I die, the Draco are still going to be operating in perpetuity. Each planet I left behind is designed to maintain the system forever. You won't return home as a hero; you will have done nothing."
"If you die, it will be of the utmost satisfaction to me!" Jet shouted back as they continued to fight. Sang was still shooting arrows at the Emperor and, little by little, his health was dwindling. Van knew that the big moment was coming soon. He glanced at the weapon in his hand and took a deep breath. The Emperor was far too distracted by Jet to respond to him, and Van leapt back and forth, grabbing at anything that he could to get a stable handhold as the would-be rodeo continued.
"You all think that you can kill me?" the Emperor blustered as he sank his claws deep into the side of Jet's head. The blow was a solid one, and Van could see that Jet's hit points had dropped down to a paltry amount. Despite his ferocity, Jet wasn't nearly as strong as the Emperor.
Van knew it was time to act – even if it wouldn't be a clean kill, it would be enough of a shock to scare the Emperor and hopefully save Jet from getting killed again. He gripped his hammer hard and activated the Breaking Doom power. The hammer burst into green flames and Van felt the powerful energy surge through him as he dropped down from the side of the red dragon's head, and swung the hammer as hard as he could into the creature's eye. The blow connected as Van fell downward into the infinite blackness beneath him. The words Doom Has Been Wrought floated above the Emperor's head as his health dropped down from 3,200 to 250.
"If I'm to die, then you are of more importance to me than a Xevov!" the Emperor screamed as he flew down to swallow Van. His fangs were snapping as Van tumbled toward the darkness. It was as if he were falling into a gigantic hole and, the further he fell, the less light he could see. The Emperor was barely visible, but Van was readying for the counter-attack. The jaws were getting close to him and each bite was only inches away from Van's legs. He felt a sharp stabbing pain in his gut… someone had shot him with an arrow. His descent suddenly changed into an ascent as the rope sticking out of his stomach began to pull him upwards.
"Hahahaa!" Van shouted as he held onto the rope with one hand and readied his hammer for an attack with the other. His level was starting to drop down from 65, but it was a slow process. He was at 63 right now, and in a few minutes he would be Level 1. He grabbed the inert hammer and looked down to see the defiant dragon flying up at him.
"You will not escape me! I might die here, but I will die as a god dies! I will destroy you along with my creation!" the Emperor shouted.
"Shut up already!" Van yelled as he threw his hammer down as hard as he could. The weapon struck true as it nailed the Emperor right in the eye, dropping his health down to only 50 points.
"I will not be beaten!" the dragon hissed as Van sailed back into the daylight. As the red dragon emerged from the hole, Sang aimed her bow at the creature and shook her head.
"Humanity begs to differ!" she shouted as she fired the arrow into the dragon's emerging head. The words 65 Damage, Lethal Blow hovered above the Emperor's head. He jerked and gasped and began to fall back into the darkness.
"Curse you allllll!" the Emperor shouted as he fell into the darkness forever.
"How fitting," Jet said as it grabbed Van and scooped him up onto his back, "the very game he created became his tomb."
"Good riddance," Van replied. "Now come on – we gotta get out of here before the world falls apart."
"Yeah, well, Neil's crew is in position," Sang said. "They sent me a message a few minutes ago; anytime you're ready."
"Wait, you mean we could have escaped at any moment?" Van asked.
"You said we had to be sure the universe was safe," Sang replied. "And there was only one way to make sure."
"We don't have much time," Jet said. "Van, Sang, there is something I must ask of you. The Emperor was right. You have discovered how to supplant and destroy Draco, but my people are still very much in trouble. When the game is destroyed, it will cut off my signal and return my consciousness back into my world, where I am nothing more than a rebel looking for a way to save his people. But there is another way. I can upload my consciousness to your pod, Van. Then… then I could transfer you to my world's game system."
The thunder began to worsen and there were hundreds of whirlwinds spawning all around Jet. The world itself was falling apart, and Van felt an ache as he looked out to see his universe completely disintegrating. Everything he had ever truly loved was vanishing before his eyes and, despite how hard he had worked to save the world, there was a part of him that was regretting the choices he had made in his efforts. Perhaps the regret would pass, but for now he could only feel sorrow as he watched the world erupt.
"Wait, you're meaning to tell me that you can get Van into another world's system?" Sang asked.