There was a thrum, almost something comforting, swirling around the growing darkness. A pitch black with no real features or tangible depth, aside from the faint hint of purple at the edges.
“It’s quite beautiful in a way,” Sally said, gazing up at it.
Similar to space itself, but emptier. Devoid of any life or matter. In this way it was less of something consuming Thrimble, but instead the world slowly sinking down into an ocean.
“Hard to believe this is where it all ends.” Theo watched it with her, one hand holding her, the other in his pocket.
“Anticlimactic?”
“Not every end has to be a large scale battle against a Boss. Sometimes there’s just a choice.” He tilted his head to look at her.
“You’ve considered it too?” Her eyebrow raised.
The vampire removed his hand from his pocket to push his glasses up. “I’d never leave you behind, of course, but yeah.”
“We can’t though.”
“No.”
“Plus, I wouldn’t want to miss out on our honeymoon.”
Theo grinned, the darkness of the endless sea glimmering along his fangs. “We’re going to eat a lot of people who wished they had missed out on it though.”
“Fuck yeah.” Sally sighed and turned away from the void.
Behind her were hundreds of sunflower-zombies. Milling about in loose rows and waiting for a command. She wasn’t too sure what she was going to do with them. After testing out sending a few into the void, they had been split up as if sliced by invisible blades, their parts shrinking and vanishing in the darkness to exist no more.
Still, she knew they had a purpose. Bernice and Bernard wouldn’t have given them this power if it wasn’t so that they could help save the world.
But… it was unlikely at this point the whole of Thrimble could be recovered. She was no Architect, but half the island had now sunk into the abyss. If this was their final stand, it would be the quietest and least violent one to date… but there was still a lot riding on it.
“Alright, pup. Our job is to delay this apocalypse for as long as possible to allow Chuck time to… do whatever he can.”
“Understood.” Theo gave her a nod. “If it’s one thing I’m good at, it’s…”
They fell into enough silence for the slow exhale of the zombie to be heard. “Delaying the inevitable. Yeah, nice one.” Sally rolled her eyes.
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The Mummy put her hand on the arm of the Death Knight. “I’m sure it’s not that bad, dear. You’re putting dents in the table.”
Humphrey stopped drumming his metal fingers. “I’m just very annoyed that they are having this final showdown and I am not there to help.”
Across the round table from them, Edward leaned back in his chair, feet already up. “I don’t know why you are so eager to get into trouble. Isn’t it nice having a big battle where our necks aren’t on the line for a change?”
“I’d rather die beside them than sit idle.” Red flame flickered behind his helmet.
Sweat-drops appeared beside the seated Shade as he fidgeted uncomfortably. “But they’re not going to die, right? Even if they have to give up the rest of the world?”
The Death Knight was silent for a moment, before giving them a shrug. “Chuck won’t let anyone else in the room to speak with him. He and Dent are putting their all into this, so there must be complications.”
Lana rubbed at her eyes. “This whole… side of things is hard for me to take in. What exactly is the problem with bringing them back? Did we lose connection?”
“No.” Humphrey shook his head and sighed. “Think of it this way. When Sally goes to the other world, she is in the shape of a hotdog sausage. Certain shape and dimensions that the world can understand. When she returns here, she is slightly longer due to the gained powers, but as she is the same width, then Sanctuary has no issue accepting her back.”
“But now…”
“Now she has a bun and all the condiments,” he replied.
Norah gave his arm a squeeze. “Her and Theo both. Normally I’d be fraught with worry and would threaten their heads over losing our children, but I know Chuck would do everything possible to save them.”
The demon put his hand behind his head and closed his eyes. “Wouldn’t want to be without them for the coming war, would we?” A wide grin curled at the edges of his mouth.
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A beam of white energy wriggled through the sky like a worm, as thick as a tree-trunk and seemingly without end. It twisted and punctured through the very air itself, curling around the dark crack of the abyss before tightening it closed like a wound.
Sally concentrated, right hand extended outwards while her left gripped at her wrist to ensure control, and that the limb didn’t burst right off her from the amount of power.
She wavered, standing with legs braced atop a door currently held up by a group of her most sturdy sunflower-zombies. Every so often they’d shift her backward, so she didn’t run the risk of getting consumed by the void as it crept towards the pair.
Theo shook his own hand out. A group of summoned zombies slumping over with blood erupting from their necks. “It will be only a few minutes before we run out of zombies. How you holding up?”
“Feels like I use up their soul energy as soon as you provide it.” Her tongue ran across her lips. “Say, how many Dungeons are left in the world?”
The vampire tilted his head and looked back at the island behind them. With a grin, he close his eyes and pushed his glasses up. “How many do you want to be left?”
“Crack them like you’re going for a 100% achievement.”
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“My queen.” He bowed to her before vanishing.
Sally bared her teeth at the encroaching gloom. Had she slowed it? Slightly. Her zombies were moving her back less frequently… but it was only a small delay. She felt a rush of power and her snaking thread sped up in the air for a few seconds, another part of the darkness slowly shutting.
How long could this hold up? It was like trying to sew up someone who had a cannon blast straight through their body. She could stem some of the blood flow, maybe save an organ or two… but the damage was too great. No chance that the world could survive.
A swirl of energy pooled around her feet as the familiar orange shape of Archie appeared atop the door. His green eyes turned to the abyss straight away.
“Oh. Things have certainly developed since I was last here.”
“Yeah,” she murmured. “Kristov doesn’t speak in rhymes anymore. To what do I owe the pleasure, Arch?”
The cat sat and curled his tail around himself. “Through the vast infinite space between worlds, I could feel your need to have someone act as a sounding board.”
“Pippy broke the System, then created Bernice and Bernard to watch over it, putting himself in stasis as a way to stop the world from dying. Players that were killed off had their souls stored in Dungeons to power the force keeping the void away, and me coming through like a wrecking ball set that off again…”
Sally furrowed her brow as she continued. “To prop up the System, the siblings gave us their power because we wouldn’t die alongside them as we were part Player. Accidentally blowing up Pippy allowed us full reach of our powers here and Sanctuary at the cost of the abyss being allowed access to consume Thrimble completely.”
Archie tilted his head. “Quite the gamble, all things told.”
Her fingers twitched as another boost of energy came through from the Dungeons that Theo was destroying. “How fucked are we?”
“It’s quite… comforting, isn’t it?” The cat stared out at the darkness. “I seem to remember it, for some reason. Part of me may have died or was borne from it when first came to Sanctuary. No real memory… aside from the safety of oblivion. Like pages of an empty book.”
“That’s not a reassuring answer, Arch.” She grimaced, unable to take her eyes away to look at the cat, just in case she lost her thread for good.
“Unfortunately, my words won’t change your fate. I can only say that no matter what happens, I will stay here by your side, Sally Danger.”
The zombie bit her lip, heart rising and getting stuck in her throat. “If I don’t make it… I want you to tell everyone… I want you to let them know that I said pancakes.”
“As is tradition, I’m sure nobody will laugh.” Archie smiled and ignored the pained expression on her face.
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Dent dug his fingers around in his eyes, trying to find some relief from the pain that staring at the monitors had hammered into his orbs. His metal hand cooled them, but the ache persisted.
He relented to looking back over at the Architect. The man had eschewed his traditional robes and sat in a tank top and shorts, running with sweat. Eyes bloodshot, yet still darting over all the screens energetically.
It was a shame they didn’t have anyone else trained up enough on the System to take some of the workload off their hands… but Chuck had been tyrannical about making sure everything was perfect. It had to be, otherwise it wasn’t just the gathered Players that wouldn’t be coming over.
Outsiders were sitting in the meeting room next door, if only because they could sense things were dire. Nothing they could do, but keeping them contained at least kept them together.
“Isn’t any more power I can divert without consequences, Chuck.”
He shook his head in response. “Fine. It’s not power that is the problem now. Bandwidth is fine… it’s just the finesse. Those Aspects have really fucked us, and I can’t seem to set a rolling induction. Why does it default to all or nothing?”
Probably for suspenseful situations like this, the swordsman thought. Although the System hadn’t really been designed for any of this. They’d gotten greedy and bitten off something nigh impossible to chew.
He swiped through a few more screens, trying to find a way he could tap into something to assist the Architect. Didn’t matter that he had done that four times already. There had to be…
Dent turned back to look at Chuck, who was now staring at him.
“We don’t have much time,” the exhausted man said. “You know that I love you, though, right?”
“Of course, you say it all the time. What are you…” The swordsman’s mouth hung open, not completing that sentence.
Chuck paled, and his eyes rolled back in his head. With one last breath of air, his body dropped from his chair and slumped to the floor.
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With a flash of dark energy, Theo appeared back near the void. He turned his head and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, Archie.”
“Theo. How is your day going?”
The vampire rubbed his chin before furrowing his brow. “Have you been making Sally cry?”
“This is just eye-sweat. I’m allergic to staring at oblivion.” She grinned. “That was all the Dungeons, though?”
“I’m afraid so. That’s all the power I can give you.”
“It’s… not enough.” She pulled a face as she struggled to move the thread in and out of the sky.
With a deft hop, Theo jumped up onto the door held by the remaining handful of zombies. He turned and looked up at the patchwork of threading holding several probing cracks of the sea together, slowing it.
“I wish I could help you more,” he said. “Death doesn’t really do much against infinite oblivion.”
“But I can only hold this for a few more minutes,” she wailed. “Then what? We just retreat to the fort and sit on our thumbs?”
The vampire looked down at the cat, before over the zombie’s shoulder. “Where do you think we are, my queen?”
Risking losing track of her thread, she turned her head briefly and gasped. The valley was close by, with the fortress in clear view. Even with her best efforts, they had almost been pushed back across the whole island - and she’d been too focused to notice.
“Oh, pup,” she said glumly, returning to weave the lagging thread.
“Life and Death,” he said, putting his arm around her shoulders. “The two most dangerous Dangers, saviors of Sanctuary and first sailors of the infinite sea.”
Her eyes narrowed. “We’re also mass-murderers, technically. Villains. Perhaps a dip into the void is too good for us.”
Archie wagged his tag back and forth. “It’s not nice to wish suffering on anyone, even yourselves.”
Sally sighed. “No more energy in the pot, my thread will decay and fade very soon - and then we’ll just have to take our just deserts.”
“Any regrets or final secrets you want to get out?” Theo grinned.
“Some days you drive me absolutely wild because I was so close to eating your human brain and now I’ll never get the chance to.” She ran her tongue around her mouth. “Bet you would have tasted fucking delightful.”
“Probably the best. My regret is sleeping so much. Imagine all those hours I could have been grinding out more experience instead.”
“You ass.” She glanced his way and smiled. “I’m glad we met and things turned out the way they did. You keep me sane and normal.” Her hand twitched and lowered, the white thread in the sky starting to dim and unravel from the sutured wounds.
Archie stretched out and yawned. “Do you have any final words for those at home, Theo?”
“Nah. Oh, actually, could you tell Edward that I’ll see him in hell?”
Sally grinned. “You know that demon is going to ugly cry for days once he finds out you no longer exist.”
Theo shrugged. “From my perspective, once I’m gone, then Sanctuary doesn’t exist, anyway.”
“Makes sense that you’d be self absorbed after your resets condensed your past gear and abilities into you.” She looked back at the fortress.
If anything, she felt bad for all the Players there. Her and Theo had lived decent enough lives and tasted happiness and freedom. Thrimble and the remainder living here only had false hope.
They turned to look at the dissolving thread, as the darkness gained speed, eager to absorb the final remnants of the System. She held the vampire’s hand as her last zombies sunk away, lowering the pair to the ground.
“I know it’s gross and cliche, Sally Danger, but do you want to share a final kiss as we fall into the beyond?”
She tilted her head and smile. “No. But I’ll do it anyway, because I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Arms wrapped around each other, they pressed their lips together, trying to ignore how unpleasant it…
“Oh!” Sally pulled away. “That was actually… normal.”
“In that case,” Theo pushed his glasses up, “you want to eat each other’s faces up while the void consumes us?”
“Say less!”
Archie watched as the darkness swept over the land toward them, mostly trying to ignore the pair beside him making out. Something so familiar, yet alien about the abyss. While he was sure he wasn’t going to die, given that he was still something akin to a hologram, there was an innate fear that held him rooted to the spot.
With a final rush like a boat capsizing, the infinite sea washed over the rest of the world, consuming all life and matter. Rendered to nothingness.
Thrimble and the System controlling it were no more.