(A/N: Sorry if this seems rushed. I've been racking my brain trying to pace this properly. But I do hope you enjoy)
Suppose this is it then.
“I guess they gave up on the quarry idea”
Joshua is high in the air, upon Jophiel's back as they fly over the skyline. The air feels brisk, and her wings fp to keep her flying in pce.
The first thing he noticed was the destruction.
Large, segmented holes of shattered concrete and charred stone. Scorched earth opens up in circur wounds of calcuted destruction.
Each one a few dozen feet in diameter, spaced out by another few dozen feet.
“Maybe they got impatient”
(“It was mentioned that explosives work at negative y values”)
“Do you know which one has the Stronghold?”
He hears Jophiel hum in her mind before sending out a rather intense psychic pulse. Joshua feels the information enter Jophiel’s mind, and her attempt to filter out the useless information.
There's a few pings, mostly of the same ‘hollowness’ that indicates mobs. Aside from that, nothing.
“Suppose we're still too high up”
Jophiel swoops down where Gabriel was left, Joshua checks the coordinates again, and he's not far at all.
The city is quiet as they slowly yet steadily make their way to the coordinates. Only adjusting their path once the numbers veer off a bit.
Eventually, they find themselves in front of a building.
Tinted windows and light pink highlights upon a purplish base-
Okay he's going to sugarcoat it.
It's a strip club.
“Of course they would make their base here”
[Ooohhh so pretty!]
[Is this it?]
[Nice colors!]
Joshua shares a look with Jophiel.
Do they know?
(“I do not believe so”)
Pokeworld innocence is not to be underestimated.
To be honest, he's not really comfortable poking around in Ace's home, by now he would have inventoried the door and started looking around, but…
“Can you sense anything?”
(“...no”)
Still nothing. Recalling the note, he wonders if they truly kept to their word and went through the portal.
Gabriel seems… a bit out of it. Standing off to the side, the hazmat horse hasn't spoken in a long while.
She's still smiling, but her eyes are unfocused, as if deep in thought.
“Are you okay, Gabe?”
She perks up.
“Uh. Yeah! I'm okie dokie! Just uh… it's kinda familiar?”
“Yeah? Can you remember anything?”
“Nope~”
Shame.
There's a note on the door. Jophiel redirects her light and something is written in bold bold letters.
“Hole 14”
Well.
Let's get this over with.
…
9PM.
The portal was… almost too easy to find.
He knows that it's easy to say that when there's a massive hole that just leads to it, courtesy of Ace, but it seems… anticlimactic.
But at this point, he'll take what he can get.
He can't say he's EXCITED at the idea ending the world… but he doesn't hate the idea either.
Ironic, it's the same feeling he had when he had to put animals down.
He takes no pleasure in it, it's just… work.
So when he stands here, before the rge swirling, unnatural bckness resembling that of a starry night. The portal is mere inches away from him, and he feels…
Fear?
Uncertainty?
Doubt?
Strangely, he doesn't feel any of those.
His goal is clear now, and with that comes direction. The divine mission set for him, the path he walked was put together by the Heavenly Father before he was in his mothers womb.
With that, comes resolution.
Confidence.
He checks his inventory one st time, his eyes passing over his companions.
Jophiel is silently checking the state of her revolver, gently sorting through the ammo in her saddlebag.
Uriel has her eyes locked to the portal, a firmness in her eyes, with a hint of understandable fear. She crunches down on an Oran berry.
Gabriel is quiet again.
He doesn't know what's on the other side, but something tells him it won't like his intrusion.
But he's ready.
With his gloved hand, he slowly, respectfully, draws a cross over his chest.
Forehead. Chest. Left shoulder. Right shoulder. Slowly, like he's painting it into his being.
He takes a deep breath and whispers.
“Lord… I know I have not been the most faithful son. I have doubted you, cursed you, and sinned many, many times despite my teachings…”
That feeling in his chest is back.
“I stand before you once more, bearing my soul to you, my essence, the very atoms that make up my body, and beg for your forgiveness…”
“I cannot promise perfection, but I can promise my best. So please… PLEASE, give me and those I care about the strength to see tomorrow, to feel the morning sun on my face once more…”
“Amen"
Joshua concludes.
Taking one more look at his companions, he steels his heart…
And steps into the portal.
…
Bckness.
Void.
Infinity stretched to infinity.
Falling.
No wind, the air remains still like it's frozen in pce.
Sound bouncing into the never-ending expanse, never to see another.
A stillness.
There is nothing of worth here.
No sun.
No moon.
No grass.
No trees.
Just… nothing. But something.
The st crumb of a meal.
The st period of a book.
The st cold night of the passing season.
The st day of the year.
The st leaf falling off a tree.
The st kiss of a loved one.
The st breath that escapes your lungs.
The st time you open your eyes.
The st time your heart beats.
This is The End.
Joshua gasps.
An obsidian ptform sits floating in the void under his feet.
A sprawling isnd of light yellow stone, almost white. Indents litter across it like the texture of moonrock.
It's rge, FAR rger than what it was like in the game.
There's a bridge made out of cobblestone going to the isnd, and there's a-
*SSCCCRRREEEEEECCHHHH*
A scream stabs into his eardrums, high pitched and gargled, bordering on the line of hysterical and absolute misery.
He sees purple.
Joshua immediately sms a cross down. Multiple figures hiss in pain and disappear into purple clouds of smoke.
He has to stand there for a moment.
“What… the hell was that?”
(“They noticed us and… teleported over”)
Jophiel's horn was ignited but hasn't done any move, it looks like it caught her off guard too.
He looks through Jophiel's fresh memory, and gets a good look at the beings.
“...Endermen?”
Tall, nky and bck as oil. But the tentacles they have immediately throw up a familiar red fg.
Parasites.
How in the fuck did Parasites get into The End?
Their arms are serrated like knives, with their bodies being too thin to keep the tentacles inside, bursting out in writhing holes at their chest. A bright purple coloration tinges the writhing mass of gore that seemed to burst from their throat and out of their mouths.
The eyes are gone, no color at all.
He doesn't like that.
Joshua grits his teeth.
“Let's keep moving”
They move.
Walking over a stone bridge over the void is absolutely terrifying, but luckily it doesn't take long to reach the isnd.
Tall, obsidian obelisks sit in a rge circur radius, all around the isnd they shoot up like pilrs that hold up the sky.
In the center, sits what he's looking for, a bedrock ‘well’.
It is, hopefully, his way out of here.
Surrounding it are hundreds, thousands of endermen, all bunched together like one collective mass of tentacle and viscera.
Now where is the dr-
The air shakes.
From the darkness of the void, a massive figure appears. Each fp of its wings sends gales across the isnd.
Pitch bck scales, with breathtakingly wide wingspan, its roar seems to block all sound on the isnd.
Joshua can feel the hair stand on his neck, a cold sweat goes down his back. A primal sensation of a predator nearby is making his old instincts fre up.
The Ender Dragon.
And…
It's jaw is split in two, eyes dead as it seems to fly like it's being held up by strings. Its body is decayed and torn apart, but it's kept together by the writhing mass of tentacles that erupts from its colrbone.
The realization hits him quick.
“Fuck”
The assimited dragon turns its rotting head towards him.
Joshua tenses.
It charges.
FUCK!
Joshua's mind goes into overdrive, running through options but the most important is to fucking MOVE!
*CCRRRAAAASSSHHH*
With a wave of his hand, a wall of obsidian materializes which it crashes into with an ear splitting CRASH.
Shit hit the fan, fast.
A shotgun appears in his hands, he peaks around the corner and- *BLAM!*
The gun barks, recoil absorbed by the suit.
Barely scratched, the dragon once again turns its gaze towards Joshua. Its head is rger than his entire body, he realizes.
*BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!*
*SSCCCRRREEEEEECCCHHHH*
The horde of Endermen all screech at once, a choir of hysterical screaming. Joshua can see them teleporting to them from across the isnd like a bck wave of death.
Panic begins to swell in his heart, but he must keep moving.
Psychic fire rolls across the ground as Jophiel whips her head, the crackle of electricity arches and leaps in short bursts as Uriel sends bolts down upon the horde.
Burned skin and angry cries fill the open air.
Jophiel is scared but holding strong, Uriel is downright panicking but her attacks don't stop.
Shotgun is empty, no time to reload, fuck.
He swapped to his fmethrower, now with new fuel.
*SLASH*
A sharp pain hits his side, absorbed by the suit, but the pain is searing. He whips the fmethrower around and holds the trigger.
*FWOOOOSH*
Fme pours out, dousing the Endermen in a roaring fire. His finger never leaves the trigger, twisting and turning as the ocean of writhing tentacles reaches out and cuts at him bit by bit.
Gritting his teeth, he whips the fme around even faster.
A sting goes through the link, Jophiel has been hit, a sharp pain on her barrel. She snarls and a crack of a gunshot is all that was given as a response.
His focus pses for just a second, enough for the dragon to strike at him with its cws, the force sending him backwards as a pain erupts in his chest.
(“Joshua?!”)
He bounces off of the hard ground, already feeling his regeneration kick in.
“Take us to the other side!”
Jophiel grimaces, but nods as her horn ignites.
All of them are enveloped in a pink light before vanishing into nothing, appearing on the other side of the isnd.
His heart is pounding, and his chest hurts, but he has more tricks up his sleeve.
The endless wave of enderman notice their departure first, and the dragon rears its head to roar, only for a bright red light to bst into its head from the side.
*BOOOOOM*
The dragon is pushed, scorch marks scarring its face, but it quickly snaps its head towards the unknown assaint in anger.
Joshua doesn't waste this opportunity.
Eyes flying over his UI, Joshua quickly constructs a cobblestone box around them and disappears behind the walls.
The endermen screech, teleporting instantly nearby and bashing into the walls with manic strength, cracking the stone under their mutated arms.
*CRACK!*
*CRACK!*
*CRACK!*
The wall crumbles beneath the assault, chipping away in mere minutes as endermen dig through with reckless abandon.
*CCRRAASSHHH*
The wall suddenly bsts outwards, as a massive shiny white arm crashes through it from the inside.
It crabs the nearest enderman and sms it into the floor in an explosion of gore.
A massive, broad figure emerges from the wall.
Then another.
Then another!
An army, countless numbers of Iron Golems emerge from the wall, eyes shining red as they charge into the sughter. Hulking iron frames tearing into the horde like it wasn't there.
They pour out without end, more and more golems charge out and join the fray.
Joshua watches his iron and pumpkin supply quickly deplete.
He was pnning on saving these for the dragon, but the pn was updated.
How is he supposed to kill that…?
Running ideas through his head, he quickly realizes that it's a lot more complicated than simply ‘killing the thing’.
“HEY!”
A voice calls out to him, one he doesn't remember.
Looking over, he sees a small drone floating just a few feet away. Sleek circur body with a single camera in front.
“Listen, I know you don't know me, but follow my lead and I have a pn to kill that fucking thing”
She speaks quickly, almost frantic, desperate.
“You see those pilrs? Put these fuckers on top of them, and I'll have enough power to blow the fucker a new asshole, got it?”
Joshua nods, freezing slightly as he sees multiple cone shaped objects appear on the ground near the drone.
He quickly shoves them into his inventory and hops on Jophiel, bursting into the air as she kicks off the ground.
Will this work? No idea.
Does he have a better idea? NOT AT ALL.
He soars. A chunk of Endermen break away from the army of Golems to chase after them.
Endermen, as you can expect, cannot fly.
That does not matter.
Joshua almost wants to scream as he sees a mound of bck flesh and purple tentacles all teleporting and climbing over each other in a dreadful wave of purple haze and death. All the while it's steadily making its way towards the pair.
(“Josh-”)
He whips his hand around, the first rey pced down on top of the massive pilr.
“Keep going!”
She doesn't hesitate.
Swirling through the air, her wings twists and turns her around the pilrs, narrowly dodging the mass of serrated cws.
A stray cw swipes at her eye, Jophiel ducks down and it nicks her ear. Blood starts to fall down her face, but she ignores it.
Crystallized light rips through the air, sending the horde back as the fairy energy tears into them.
Another cone is pced, then two more.
One by one they fly around the isnd, dodging and teleporting away from the mass, pcing these cone shaped devices on each of the pilrs.
He can feel Jophiel get littered in cuts and bruises, her attempts spared her of any severe damage, but he can tell that the accumuted wounds are starting to wear on her.
(“I… I will be fine”)
Joshua grabs her muzzle and shoves a berry into her mouth. She stares at him wide-eyed for a moment, embarrassment rolling off of her.
“Don't be stubborn”
She bites down, and her wounds start to close, trying to push down the odd feelings inside her. Joshua doesn't comment on it.
(“I am not…”)
The air shakes, Jophiel DROPS.
A massive jaw snaps shut above them.
“Shit!”
Joshua whips his hand upward, TNT soars through the air and with a flick of a flint and steel it ignites.
*BOOOOM*
*RRROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRR*
He can feel his hands shaking, but he forces them to keep working.
TNT flies, ripping through the void and throwing the dragon backwards but it's still not enough.
“Jesus fucking christ” He grits through his teeth.
The dragon gargles, a strangely familiar pink-purple gas leaks through its orifices as it reels its head back and-
*BBZZZZZZZZZZZZ*
A red ser sms into it, unching the dragon to the side.
The drone flies past again, where the hell did it even run off to?
“You see that sparkly shit it breathes out? Don't touch it, that shit WILL fuck your entire day up. So unless you WANT to be turned to soup, you run the fuck away from it, got it?”
“Got it”
“Cool. Just hurry up, there's only so many times I can use the BFG before it realizes where I left it”
“...BFG?”
He hears a cackle from the drone.
“Big Fucking Gun”
Well then.
They take off. Explosions ringing out into the sky as flesh and iron tear into each other below.
Electricity and fire spread like waves across the ground, Uriel is holding her ground, a storm of sparks roasting everything around her.
Cone after cone is pced. Seven, eight, nine…
Ten, the st one is pl-
*CCRRRAAASSSHHH*
Jophiel swoops down, looking in horror as the dragon rushes above them and shatters the device into tiny pieces.
Joshua is frozen, for a moment he just stares in shock.
Could he build a new one? No, he doesn't even know what it's made out of! FUCK!
He's panicking, what does he do now? What the fuck does he do-
Something on his belt shatters, a low hum of electricity.
“Wha-”
*ZAAAP* A bright yellow bolt of electricity shoots out, arching through the air like an arrow before smming into the top of the pilr with the destroyed device.
And it's… a duck?
“A Porygon?”
“P-P-P-PORYGON!!!!” It cries out, raising its ‘limbs’ into the air as a fsh of electricity surges through it, the air feels fuzzy as a web of yellow lines connect to all the cone devices.
“What the fuck is that?!”
The drone shouts out.
“Porygon-Z, it's trying to help”
“Whatever it is, tell it to keep going and- FUCK!”
He looks around, spotting the dragon amidst the chaos, its tail whipped around and smmed into another device, knocking it off the pilr.
What can he do?
Shit! What can he do?!
He can't hope that another Porygon will appear, so what options does he h-
(“Joshua”)
Joshua looks, following Jophiel's gaze.
On top of the pilr, two hooves pull themselves up, sparkling in electricity.
Uriel pants, exhausted, but she stands in the middle of the pilr and takes a deep breath.
“What is she doing…?”
She closes her eyes… and starts to GLOW.
Bright, extremely bright. Her form is enveloped by a blinding storm of yellow and white. It's as if the sun appeared on this decrepit isnd.
The air VIBRATES, making his hair stand on end. Electricity begins to FLOW.
Uriel, Zebstrika, stands amidst a rolling storm. Lightning rolling off of her as her mane glows like hot iron.
With all the points connected, the drone pipes up.
“HAHA! FUCK YEAH! LET'S DO THIS!”
Suddenly, the electricity begins to MOVE. Flowing and flowing, from cone to cone, rolling off Porygon and Uriel, all coming together to a point he cannot see on the other side of the isnd.
A robotic, monotone voice cuts through the air.
>>”BFG ONLINE”<<
The air SPLITS.
An absolutely gargantuan red beam cuts through the sky, ripping through the ground and TEARING into the dragon. The ground shakes, and the air feels like it's boiling, but it only gets worse as it starts tearing the dragon apart.
It roars a desperate cry, in rage and in pain. The weapon tears through its wings. Raising its head into the air, it SCREAMS.
But it's not a cry.
It's a CALL.
The air shifts.
Something comes through the portal.
Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of parasites, millions of demons pour out into the isnd.
The cross is practically burning into his chest with how fast it's vibrating.
[ SOMETHING IS APPROACHING ]
[ SOMETHING IS APPROACHING ]
[ SOMETHING IS APPROACHING ]
Dread fills his heart. Tentacles and demonic beasts of all shapes fill the sky, looming over like an approaching wave.
It's like every single demonic presence in this world was called… that was it, wasn't it?
This is it.
He clutches his pistol, no time to despair.
Then, something happens.
The ser stops, and the dragon's head thumps into the ground, dead.
Something clicks.
The well in the center of the isnd opens.
Beside him, a familiar white box appears.
The frame is burning.
[ DIVINE INTERVENTION ]
The SKY OPENS.
Fme envelopes the void, burning bright and true against the infinite darkness.
There's a point in the sky, several miles of mosaic gss that shifts and shines in constantly changing colors.
Wait… this is familiar…
The gss slips apart, no… it opens.
Something.
No.
SomeONE steps out.
Wings made of light spread, adoring pristine white armor beyond the capacity of man.
A sword made of fme is clutched in his hands. Above his head sits a halo, and his face is covered by the immense light.
His eyes burn with righteousness.
Joshua gets goosebumps, frozen in pce as he recognizes the man, his image recognizable from the dozen of stories and illustrations.
The figure raises his sword with deftness, with barely restrained fury, and with PURPOSE.
Archangel Michael swings his sword.
And the world is set abze.
Fire. So much fire. It's like the very air is blooming in combustion like a beautiful, destructive flower.
There's screaming, so much screaming.
But it doesn't burn.
The box appears again.
[ DIVINE INTERVENTION ]
…what?
The world shifts again.
A portal appears, cutting through the fme.
Thousands of hands come through like a swarm of lotus.
Then something else steps out.
And Joshua comes to a horrifying realization.
Arceus is pretty Horse-Like.
And…
She is very, very white.
The world explodes.
…
Falling.
Wind rushes around him.
Pokeballs falling alongside him.
He hits the ground, nding in the grass.
Joshua opens his eyes.
The sun.
So full of life, bright, powerful.
How long has it been?
He hears birds in the distance.
The buzzing of bugs.
It feels… alive.
Joshua reaches up and throws off his helmet.
Oh God… the sun…
It rises, slowly above the horizon.
The rays kiss his face, the breeze rustling his hair.
He's…
Tears flow.
He's… out.
Triumph screams in his heart.
The Nightmare has ended.
…
Gabriel turns her head to the being in front of her. A garden of white flowers spreads all around her.
Her suit is gone, but it doesn't matter.
“It's time to go, young one” The being says.
Kind. Benevolent.
She sniffs, tears running down her cheeks. She looks down.
She couldn't help her best friend, she couldn't help herself.
But maybe this time… she'll find peace.
“Your family is excited to see you again… Short Cake”
“...okie dokie…”
…
Around the world, all at once, for the first time, the stream goes bck. No sound, nothing.
And the title changes, as the sun crests over the horizon.
Day 7.
And so... God rested.
