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I shall tell you what we can do.

We can take selfies.

Like I'm doing.

Repeatedly.

Until Split does something about it.

/Null

I suppose it's too late to retcon the TARDIS into having already left for where ever it was going...

Although I never said anything to the contrary really...

It isn't out of character for Eric so much as Hank.

Hank's trying his hardest to keep EVERYONE alive, and probably would've already made everyone high-tail it out, knocking Eric unconscious if need be (most likely yes, if only to keep him on the TARDIS with everyone else instead of jumping out to try and play hero again.)

Meh, you know what, I'm gonna just post it because I need to get it out of my system so I don't start ranting about random things.

Well, I'm back... and absolutely blown away. WOW. And it's not even done yet!?

WOW.

Excuse me while I move this thread to the front page so it doesn't become lost in the tides of dead threads.

Since there's one day left until the end of the game, I think it's time for a long-overdue progress report.

All of the writing in Act 5 is done, and there's a lot of it. I decided to not do as many (read: a lot less) drawings for Act 5 than I did for End of Act 4. I haven't finished all of them yet, and I hope to get all of them done tomorrow. I might not even finish all of them, but I hope it doesn't come to that. I'm estimating there to be 15-20 drawings if I can get them all done.

Act 5 will be split up into 3 posts, with a memoriam post right after. The first two posts will be the actual writing. I don't want to call them phases, since the story jumps around much more frequently than End of Act 4. However, the gap between the two posts will be at a point that I think makes sense. The third post will be the credits. Yes, I am actually making one. I'm almost done with it, and I expect it to be finished today.

Once all of that's over, I'm going to write a pretty long memoriam post about my thoughts with the game now that it's finished, and then provide some statistics for the game in the same way I did for DTG1 when it was locked.

My advice for you all today: Eat, drink, and be merry! For tomorrow,

we die.

...Well.

In less than 24 hours, The End Is Here.

9/01/15 2:48 EST

>DTG2:END.

I didn't even participate in this.

...who will get the last post?

Twin, is that supposed to be Build or Split? My money's on Split.

Its build.

Twin will get the last post.

---

> ACT 5

Well, I... I guess this is it. GodCraft's on its way out once and for all, it's being split apart at the seams... Heh. Like I had always wanted. Isn't that funny? Although, I never thought doing that would result in my death. So there's... that. This black hole's eating up the entire universe, destroying every planet and every star and every moon, corrupting everything everywhere... And somehow I'm not affected by any of it. Isn't that weird? Like, I'm already a destroyer of time. Maybe this corruption can't destroy what's already been destroyed? For me, at least.

...

I sort of wish Build was here to listen to me. Whenever I went off on monologues about how I wanted to kill anyone who got in my way or how I liked the war, he listened. With varying degrees of enthusiasm, but he listened. He humored me. For a time, I guess. Then he wanted to kill me, too. Well, there's no one to hear me talk now. Maybe those guys in the TARDIS are safe? The TARDIS certainly isn't. It's not going anywhere. If the corruption hasn't gotten to them, the black hole will soon... And it looks like the Godmodder's not affected by any of this either? Huh. Maybe he's tougher than I gave him credit for.

Maybe... Hmm. That's not gonna save him either. I can tell. If something doesn't happen fast, we're all gonna die here. Right here. On this rock. Some of it's already getting sucked into this vortex... Should I just accept my fate? That I'm probably dying here? I'd like to think I've done some good this time around. I helped kill Scratch, helped destroy the Tower, helped destroy the Incarnate... I've been helping. Or trying to, at any rate. But something tells me that old Council's just gonna throw us all in Limbo again because now our war destroyed three universes. It wasn't us who destroyed them, but hey, we're the underlying cause of it, so we've gotta be guilty! Heheh... What logic, huh? It's almost like they want as many people as possible to be thrown in there.

What about you, Narrator? You think you're ready to keep talking again? Maybe you're cured somehow? Let me turn you back on.

ker and warp past the event horizon, past the point of no return. GodCraft is overtaken. The server's code, once contained within the Godmodder's mind, has fallen apart, into ruin and disrepair.ker and warp past the event horizon, past the point of no return. GodCraft is overtaken. The server's code, once contained within the Godmodder's mind, has fallen apart, into ruin and disrepair.ker and warp past the event horizon, past the point of no return. GodCraft is overtaken.

No, of course you're not better. You're just like a broken record. Why would I think otherwise? ...When the storyteller of the story's lost his mind, you know something's wrong, I guess. So why am I here? I... I guess I'm telling the story now? I'm the storyteller? I don't have a Terminal, but... it's still happening. It's happening. But it won't be for long. Soon, all of this will be over. For good. And all that'll be left of us are the half-ghosts of Limbo. And after the Secret of the Void's death... Well. Something tells me the Council won't be letting us out of Limbo this time.

Everyone here has all fought for so much, for so long. And I want to keep fighting! I don't want to end here! But... I wonder if anyone else wants to keep fighting. If they did, it probably wouldn't be for the same reasons as me, that's for sure. I'm an outcast here. What was Build saying, that everyone liked me more than him? Build's a likeable guy, the nicest guy I've ever met. Sure, it's really annoying to see him being so nice, but that's just how he is. The only time he isn't nice is when he's clouded by his rage. That's been happening too often lately, and I guess that's what drove him to say that everyone likes me? I don't know, for once. People like me, but is it just out of curiosity? To see my depraved antics? Is that all there is to it? I guess that means I don't have a lot of depth, huh.

Alright, enough introspection. Nothing's gonna change the longer I talk, so I guess... I guess I should just give up. There's nothing left to do but wait. No like seriously, can't this universe just die already? It's taken forever. Wait... Is the black hole moving slower? And what's that flash of WHOA

Whoa, seriously? After all this time, after all these months... You're back? Color me surprised!

Oh, I don't think it's that much of a surprise. I never died or anything of the sort. I just left this universe when I believed things had gotten too hot to handle. But my plan of watching in the shadows has come to an end, now that there are no more shadows to hide behind. Everything is cast in darkness, and so I am here to end this accursed war. It appears my time has come to play a final part, for better or for worse.

Alright, that's something I can get behind. But last I checked, you weren't exactly best buddies with the Descendants over there.

My time spent lurking and watching has changed me. I have seen this war continue, standing tall above it. And now that it has drawn to a close, there is one final set of crossroads. One final set of paths this war could take. One set of choices that could define the history of existence forevermore. I have come to make sure that this war ends with as little casualties as possible.

So Slenderman is gonna save the world using his powers of truth, justice, and the eldritch way? I'm being honest with you, you don't seem like you're very cut out as the hero type. Destroying the Godmodder's a noble goal and all, but... how exactly do you plan to do it?

Simple. Using my powers of opening and closing doors, creating and destroying opportunities, changing the minds, bodies, and souls of the lesser, I will rip apart the corruption of this universe. And from it, I will create another being. One whose body decayed long ago, but whose spirit lived on in the coding of this reality.

I will bring back THE OPERATOR.

You can do that? You're absolutely sure of it? Because if you fail, you're probably not making it out of here alive.

I am well aware of the risk this poses. But it is one of your only options at surviving. Since I am reforming THE OPERATOR from pure corruption, it is likely that the corruption plaguing this universe will subside enough so some things are unaffected by it - most likely the narrative prompt.

Thank god. Alright, do what you have to do. I'll sit back and watch. And if Ol' Narrator turns back on, then... well, it worked. And if it doesn't work, then I guess these are my last words.

Well said. Now, let's see - together - if I can accomplish this.

...

...

...

...

ker and warp past the event horizon, past the point of no return. GodCraft is overtaken. And then, the entire universe is. In a matter of seconds, the black hole has grown exponentially in size, engulfing every Minecraft world ever constructed that wasn't destroyed earlier by the Red Dragon. The universe itself, a shimmering green hexahedron of power, dims and fades, becoming swallowed up slowly and surely. The only two beings left on GodCraft that are unaffected by the corruption are Split and Godmodder Soul. With the latter incapacitated, the former goes on a long introspective monologue.

As all hope seems lost for Split, something begins to happen to the black hole. Caught right in the middle of it, Split sees the black hole begin to resemble a constantly swirling whirlpool of liquid darkness, everything drawing towards some unfathomable conclusion right at the center of the black hole. Yet as Split watches, the black hole's movement slows down, the pulsating rays and shockwaves coming from it slowing as well, flickering, fading. The corrupting form of GodCraft takes on a shape - the shape of a gateway, a portal. And then it comes alive with light, creating a massive flash.

The next thing Split sees is a figure coming out of the portal. An extremely tall and skinny humanoid with no face, ghost-white skin, a finely-pressed black suit, and eight black tentacles protruding out of his back. Split recognizes the figure, famous for striking horror and terror into the hearts of humans all across the world, and famous for lurking in the shadows during the war. It is THE OPERATOR. And he has returned.

After he talks with Split for a brief period of time, THE OPERATOR reveals his plan - to resurrect THE OPERATOR, a being that was originally a powerful virus that had been destroyed by the Godmodder. His body had been eliminated, but his coding has persisted across GodCraft. And now, THE OPERATOR has a plan to restore him to his original form. THE OPERATOR's shadowy tendrils glow with the power of liquid darkness, the ground beneath him bubbling and boiling as if it is liquid.

The tendrils swarm around THE OPERATOR like a corona of darkness, rearranging the corruption plaguing the ground and skies of GodCraft into a new shape - that of a glitching and shifting human being. The corruption flickers across the body's surface, giving its cubic form definition and features - limbs, hands, feet, eyes. And after several seconds, when THE OPERATOR has given life to his new creation, a rush of darkness surges across his tentacles, and a flash of black light leaves Split's ears ringing, blocking out all of his senses.

When he regains himself, he sees the form of a smoky Minecraftian seemingly made of corruption and code, with piercing red eyes. Split recognizes him from the Homestuck Invasion, back when Crusher's little VIRUS achieved self-awareness. He recognizes him as THE OPERATOR.

I'm... alive? Again? How did this happen?

Hello there, OPERATOR. I've revived you from the corruption of this dying universe.

Interesting... Another OPERATOR. Thank you for giving me a body once more. It will give me the perfect opportunity to finally execute my plan.

That's actually why I brought you back. I figured the both of us could work something out.

Excellent. We shall need another member of this party to bring us up to a trifecta and not a duo, but that shall come momentarily.

Well congrats, Slenderman. Looks like your plan worked. God, how long has it been, OPERATOR? I remember you back when you weren't sentient at all! Back when you were just a virus!

I remember that time of my life (if it could even be construed as one) as well. That was before I had the freedom of choice. Before I was aware that someone was controlling me, dictating my every action. But when I gained sentience, everything became clear to me. In my lucidity, I knew that the only way to cleanse this war would be to remove all parties from it.

The last thing I had ever said during the Alternian Invasion was that I would be the one to end the Godmodder's life. Others may have forgotten about that, classified it as flippant or trivial. But I haven't forgotten. And I intend to deliver on that promise.

I don't know why you gave me a recap of your life story, but whatever. That's par for the course around here. So what you're telling me is that, in essence, OP is about to deliver?

Indeed. It is time to destroy the Godmodder. But I will need help first.

The narrative prompt has already been restored to its proper parameters, as my creation revolved around drawing from the corruption present in this universe and channeling it into a suitable - yet not permanent - body for me. Next, I must take the corruption that plagues your brother, Build. Observe.

THE OPERATOR turns his striking red gaze to Build, his hands beginning to glow with white energy. The corruption emanating around Build also begins to glow white, and lightning strikes form in between Build and THE OPERATOR, growing larger and more intense as the seconds tick by. Eventually, the lightning strikes create a massive thunderclap that vaporizes all of the corruption, freeing Build from his infinite loop. Build abruptly stops and stares at his hands in shock.

I... What? What just happened... I remember freaking out over something, and then the next second I was... oh god. Oh no, those billions of people... I remember everything now... Oh no oh god...

Build, SNAP OUT OF IT! Listen to me!

Split teleports to Build and smacks him across the face. Build looks at Split, his eyes pinpricks.

Look, concentrating on how bad our situation is isn't going to help us at all. A minute ago I was convinced that we wouldn't be getting out of this alive, but I think we just found something that CAN get out of this alive!

...Yeah. You might be right. The corruption surrounding me did just stop... Who freed me, actually? Was it you?

Would you believe me if I told you it was THE OPERATOR?

No. He died, remember?

Well he was brought back to life, he's here to help, now don't look a gift horse in the mouth, alright? Alright.

Wait, what? You're... you're serious? You're actually oh my god yeah there he is.

Build and Split both teleport over to THE OPERATOR and THE OPERATOR simultaneously, a grin on Split's face and an expression of bewilderment on Build's.

Someone looks surprised to be viewing me again. Did you really believe I would not uphold my promise as well?

I... I had my suspicions, but...

I can tell that you are lying, Build. To be brutally honest, I am aware my entry into this server could represent a sort of unforeseen - and therefore odd - twist in this war's story. But the truth of the matter is that I lived on after death. Although my body was destroyed, my soul - if you could call it that - remained. I could not directly interact with any given event in this war, however. So, like the OPERATOR that came after me, I have been watching. And waiting.

I was relegated to a side role, a minor character. Not even one that could passively interact with the story - I was a bystander. Shunted into the code of GodCraft from where I first formed. Yet as your exploits grew more dangerous, and as the integrity of this universe dropped further and further, I gained more substance. Not more power, necessarily. I grew closer and closer to being. To living. The Godmodder noticed this at varying points as corruption spread throughout the server near its end, but did not attribute its cause to my presence. And now that your universe has been nearly terminated, I have reformed entirely.

Alright, that makes sense... But... why? Why help us? You wanted to kill everyone on the field the last time you were here.

Your brother, Split, asked a very similar question to THE OPERATOR. I shall give you a similar answer. In my absence from this server, I have... learned, for lack of a more sufficient word. I've observed many wars, from many perspectives and many realities. And in doing so, I have learned. Added on to what I once knew. That maybe, what I once knew wasn't enough. That there is much more to both sides of a coin. And that helped me make a choice as to which side I should call my own.

Cute. So now the both of you are here to be the deus ex machina this universe deserves?

...If you want to call it that, be my guest. But my plans will not be complete with only two OPERATORS. A third must arise. Build. Now that you have been freed from your corrupted chains, it is time for you to rise up. Unlock your true potential. Uphold your legacy.

...What?

By Notch, boy. You claim to be a First Guardian, one who is in complete control of their universe, manipulating it to their whims, knowing all, feeling all, becoming all. Yet you do not know the full extent of your powers by any means. Scratch was right; his words ring true even now. You do have a long way to go.

I always knew that I just had a basic mastery of my powers, and that was it. I didn't know there was a whole new aspect I could've unlocked...

There is indeed. You must claim your full power as THE OPERATOR. It was the title of your Ancestor, Gemini. And it has been passed down to you ever since that fateful day two years ago.

Observe.

THE OPERATOR's hands once again flicker to life with white flame, casting lightning all around Build. Build slowly floats upwards, yet it is not his own doing - it's as if he's being involuntarily called to the skies. The lightning changes color from white to lime green, causing Build's entire body to glow with a lime color. His body shifts out of existence, showing places all across the universe, and all across reality. The last image his body settles on is of Gemini disrupting Scratch's Machine during the Psi-Godmodding War, the green and red auras that emanated from his Ancestor surging across the Machine, stopping the Glitch from being summoned.

A massive flash of light emanates from Build's body, screaming across the planet and beyond. The corruption plaguing the planet in its dying moments subsides, as does the corruption around the Twinmobile, the TARDIS - and the Descendants. The first sight the Descendants see upon reviving is that of Build floating before them, his form bright as the Sun, the Sun that GodCraft used to revolve around before it lit up in a supernova. His skin flickers with images of prominences, flares, and other solar phenomena. His glasses reflect the light of universes. Universes whose deaths must be avenged. Build has ascended.

Build is now THE OPERATOR.

Well, that was flashy. In the literal sense of the word too. Bonus! And everyone's freed now, which is a big plus.

Indeed it is. I was 93.424% positive that would work, by the way, give or take a margin of error of 5.8135%. Even though I know no one asked, I felt inclined to share that regardless. Now that the status quo of our heroes has been restored, it is time to deal with the most pressing issue at hand. The Godmodder's existence.

OPERATOR, take the Descendants to the gateway you made. Make sure not one of them leaves until the proper time arises. We can't risk them succumbing to the corruption again. When you have finished, report back here at once. OPERATOR, stay put.

Very well. All of you, follow me if you want to live. And do so quickly.

All of the Descendants rush towards the gateway THE OPERATOR made to get into GodCraft. It looks like a dark grey Nether Portal, one whose form is shifting and swirling, contorted and agonized faces chiseled into its frame, as if it's alive. They decide to ignore that and instead jump through, promptly panicking when they realize there's no ground to land on at the other side. They float and tumble through an abyss, a flat void as bright as the background color of a forum, with dancing images of extra-dimensional cosmic superstring strata displayed throughout. Wherever they are, they realize, it's not in any known universe at all. It's like a pocket between dimensions.

The surface of GodCraft is visible through a rectangular hole in the dimension - the other end of the portal. THE OPERATOR glides through the frame, bending to be able to fit through, disturbingly swift and silent for someone of his stature. He looks around, always watching even with no eyes, taking in the void as you all are.

Of course I made this portal. I've always excelled at creating gateways, appearing and disappearing in the blink of an eye. How do you think I get around so quickly? It's not just agility, I'll give you that much. I created that gate for you, nearly a year ago. I summoned that abomination of a Soul from the depths of the Nest. Entries and exits have always been my specialty. It's how I avoid detection. Stay out of sight. But not out of mind.

When I left this server, it was only because I knew that if I stayed any longer, I would risk being deleted from reality. That pesky Glitch brought upon by THE OPERATOR forced me out. But as I watched, I became aware of him, lurking in the code of this world. And I knew through eyeless sight that he would be a component in ending this war once and for all. Through my machinations, I traveled here. Then there were two of us. And now there are three of us. Stay put and await my command. We must take care of something.

Walking out of the gateway with ragged and off-kilter steps, THE OPERATOR watches both the Twinmobile and the TARDIS make a beeline for the gateway, wishing to secure everyone inside and grant them safety, away from the imminent destruction of the universe. They both glide through even when the portal is much too small for them. THE OPERATOR and THE OPERATOR have both gathered around a figure lying on the ground. They beckon THE OPERATOR over to them.

The Descendants are all gathered together in our portal. We are all gathered together around this monstrosity. Everything is accounted for. Now we wait. We wait for the Godmodder to end one of his lives. We shall take the other.

It is our destiny.

---

Clashes of living color. Gold and blue. The sound of metal against metal. Gold and blue. The intense gazes of eyes like supernovas, obscured by scars. Gold and blue. Two brothers, once created by the result of unfathomable corruption, then separated and trapped behind symbols of oblivion and destruction, now fighting each other in the ruins of a mental civilization, a stronghold where no wrong could be done. Or so it had seemed. The gold one, Omega, doing it to silence his urges to be more than he could hope to be. The blue one, Alpha, doing it to remove his weaknesses and ascend above and beyond what was thought possible.

Their fight had been interrupted by a shadow of the Godmodder's past, darkness given malicious form beyond compare. A shadow that had plagued the Godmodder day and night, driving him to near-insanity as he tried to figure out what his dreams even meant at all. A shadow that had inspired him, talked to him, told him to pursue his dreams. And when he did, he gained unlimited potential which turned to knowledge which turned to power. A shadow that had served as the basis of his ultimate creation since the very beginning, that had served as the basis of his persona in his own game. A shadow that had torn the Godmodder's mind apart from the inside out, splitting his Shatter into two parts. And now, Omega and Alpha had come back, their mental battlefield reforming around them, allowing them to fight again.

Gold and blue. Metal against metal. You get the idea.

Omega, crushing his enemies with his whopper of a Banhammer, pulverizing the ground against him, pulverizing the air, stripping everything of form and into its base units of code. Alpha, slicing his foes apart with his crystalline blade of an arm, spreading conquest through ambition, war through determination, death through action, and famine through ruin. Once brothers, now torn apart through drifting ideals. The only way to resolve their problems was through the only way they knew how - fighting.

OMEGA: Okay, it's seriously time to end it at this point. We've both... we've both taken too much damage. This has to stop, Alpha. Now.

ALPHA: Oh, I agree. This does have to stop. But the only way it will is if you kill me, or I kill you. And neither of us has ended the other's life. So this battle hasn't ended. You know, it's funny. I would have thought that it would be over at this point. What's the matter? Am I too strong? Are you incapable of killing me? Or is there something more to it?

OMEGA: What are you talking about...

ALPHA: You know what I'm talking about. You can't kill me because you're not strong enough to. Maybe a few months ago, in your prime, you would be. You had a whole Tower at your disposal, floor upon floor of death and destruction made to produce the firepower to destroy your enemies. That power would have surely bolstered your spirits. But you don't have it now.

ALPHA: What you have is a ruined body, a ruined mind, and a fractured soul that I had to fix. All those remarks those Descendants threw at you... Tsk, tsk. I thought you'd have shrugged those off. But you've grown soft. No longer are you implacable and stoic. You've let your enemies get to you.

OMEGA: N... NO! I haven't let them get to me! I'm still fighting! I've never stopped! See? See?? I'm fighting YOU! I was fighting them, I was fighting the Binaries!

ALPHA: You keep fighting because it's instinct. It's all you know now. The Red Dragon was attempting to humble you, and by Notch, he did. I was there, you were going to quit to the title screen of Minecraft after you died. You were going to start anew. It was that Mark that dragged you back in. Had it not been for that, you would have ended it all right then and there. You kept fighting because you became a twisted abomination fueled only by the desire to prove himself to a nonexistent crowd.

Omega slows down. Alpha gets several strikes in, cutting Omega across his entire body, striking his Godarm and his Banhammer, disrupting their machinery. Alpha keeps advancing, getting Omega on the defensive. Now they have the entire mindscape to duel in since the Descendants left. They can feel free to do whatever they want, and rest easy knowing that they can just pick up the pieces when they're the one left standing.

ALPHA: When people heard that your mental strength could lead to your downfall, they exploited that weakness. They yelled at you, tried to get you to quit, to leave, to surrender, to exile yourself. They tried to bring you down, to knock you from the top, off of your throne and into the unknown depths below. And they did! You let their remarks get to you, they knocked you off-pace, they disrupted your technique!

ALPHA: Someone said that Twilight had a better ending than you, and you flipped! You stopped everything you were doing for ten seconds, as if you were fighting some internal struggle! You let Talist's remarks about Scratch being better than you get to you, and then you went into a whole argument with him! Netpatham called you useless and you raged as people went on whole paragraph-long rants against you!

ALPHA: Before we went through all this, you would have stood tall against all of those remarks and those tirades! But you didn't! You lost it when that Tower was destroyed and the Operation failed, and you've never had it since... That was what let me start talking for you! Your mind deteriorated enough that I could take some semblance of control! Sure, we ended up making a plan to take everything back. But then you had to go and get that Mark, and that screwed up your mind even further!

OMEGA: Get to the POINT, Alpha! You're the one that hates tangents and going off-topic, so FINISH THIS! What are you trying to say?

ALPHA: All those remarks, everything everyone's said to you, everything that's brought you down, all those times they called you useless, a failure, unoriginal, repetitive, destined to fail, a loser, a nobody... Those all added up. In your deteriorating state of mind, you let them get to you. And all those augmentations that fractured your mind didn't help. So you're weak. You're fragile. You're everything they said you were at this point.

Omega slows even further, Alpha's blade flowing with energy, increasing its power. Crystalline frost eats away at Omega's skin, coating it in Alpha's ambitions. Alpha keeps advancing, and Omega keeps retreating. In one clean strike, Alpha sweeps his blade underneath Omega's feet, knocking him off balance and sending him tumbling through the void. Alpha flashsteps over to Omega, hundreds of copies of him forming, their blades pointing in the air, their energy uniting. The energized shape of a blue dragon circles through the air, winding in on itself, surging downwards at Omega, covering him in white-hot flame. Omega screams in agony, and Alpha smugly walks towards him.

Alpha snaps his fingers, a table materializing under Omega, straps holding his arms and legs in place, rendering him immobile. Alpha leans over to Omega, grinning.

ALPHA: That is what I was talking about. And do you want to know something? The ultimate proof that what I'm saying is true is that you let my speech affect you. You let it drag you down. You let it dampen your power enough for me to secure the edge. The advantage.

OMEGA: Get... Get to the point. Go on. Say it. Do it.

ALPHA: With pleasure.

Alpha holds his crystalline arm, a razor-sharp longsword forming from its edges. He holds his arm steady above Omega, moving his arm perpendicular to Omega's chest so that the point of his blade hovers right above Omega's body. Alpha grins menacingly, his teeth seemingly pointed like a shark. After a second of eye contact between the two personalities, the Shatter ends.

Alpha lets his arm drop, his blade running itself through Omega's body and through the table itself. Omega's eyes dart upwards to Alpha's one last time, panicking.

OMEGA: You... You should know... something.

ALPHA: What now. Go ahead and say your last words.

OMEGA: You should... remember... remember this from... all that time ago...

OMEGA: One of... one of Eric's "friends"... He gave us... a letter... And it said something...

ALPHA: ...

OMEGA: Remember... Remember what it said.

OMEGA:

OMEGA:

OMEGA:

Alpha's expression hardens as Omega's body flickers to red, disappearing entirely in the span of several seconds. Alpha's arm lies wedged in the table, but he restores his crystalline arm back to its original form - that of a normal arm. Alpha stares at the table where he executed his... his brother. And he remembers what that letter had said. The letter that had planted the first seeds of doubt in the Godmodder's mind. The doubt of whether or not he would win at all.

ALPHA: "It isn't nearly as fun to win as some people think."

Alpha remains unmoving.

ALPHA: ...

ALPHA: GodCraft should be almost destroyed at this point. I'll have to act quickly. Now that I've assumed complete control, it's time to use this apotheosis to its fullest. There's something I need to find.

The mindscape is washed in cobalt as Alpha ascends to become the Godmodder.

---

Clashes of living color. Gold and blue. The sound of metal against metal. Gold and blue. The intense gazes of eyes like supernovas, obscured by scars. Gold and blue. Two brothers, once created by the result of unfathomable corruption, then separated and trapped behind symbols of oblivion and destruction, now fighting each other in the mind of Richard himself, the man behind the computer screen. The gold one, Omega, doing it to move on with his life and start anew, to rethink his life, and to come back a changed man. The blue one, Alpha, doing it to assume complete control of his destiny, his future, and his paths, in order to ascend above and beyond what was thought possible.

Their fight had been interrupted by a shadow of the Godmodder's past, darkness given malicious form beyond compare. A shadow that had plagued the Godmodder day and night, driving him to near-insanity as he tried to figure out what his dreams even meant at all. A shadow that had inspired him, talked to him, told him to pursue his dreams. And when he did, he gained unlimited potential which turned to knowledge which turned to power. A shadow that had served as the basis of his ultimate creation since the very beginning, that had served as the basis of his persona in his own game. A shadow that had torn the Godmodder's mind apart from the inside out, splitting his Shatter into two parts. And now, copies of Omega and Alpha had formed in Richard's own mind, a new battlefield forming around them, allowing them to fight again.

Gold and blue. Metal against metal. You get the idea.

Omega, crushing his enemies with his whopper of a Banhammer, pulverizing the ground against him, pulverizing the air, stripping everything of form and into its base units of code. Alpha, slicing his foes apart with his crystalline blade of an arm, spreading conquest through ambition, war through determination, death through action, and famine through ruin. Once brothers, now torn apart through drifting ideals. The only way to resolve their problems was through the only way they knew how - fighting.

OMEGA: Things are different here, Alpha.

ALPHA: You think I haven't noticed? It's high time we ended this, Omega.

OMEGA: I agree. But it doesn't look like either of us is getting anywhere. We're beating the crap out of each other - which is fine in these circumstances - but it's at a pretty equal rate. At this rate, we'll both die at the same time!

ALPHA: Indeed. Perhaps we'll need to find a way for one of us to tip the scales? I may have found one. Have you wondered why we've been stuck at an impasse? Why you haven't killed me yet, despite all your power?

OMEGA: No, not especially. I'm wondering how you haven't killed me. Weren't you supposed to be the one that had more power than me, the one that was supposed to show me the way and unlock my potential?

OMEGA: Or was that all a ruse too. Were you just trying to build trust and get into my head? And for that matter, were we ever really in a totality? We were in agreement, but your hidden agenda's been going on since the beginning, hasn't it.

ALPHA: Perhaps it has been. You must understand that I have my own goals in mind. What would you expect from your own personality?

OMEGA: You're not my personality, Alpha. Maybe you're some deep subconscious part of it, but you're not the main part. There's a reason why I stuck with the gold color and why you were forced to have the opposite color. It's that I'm the original. Me. NOT you.

ALPHA: Is there such thing as an original personality? The very nature of split personalities means that both personalities draw from aspects of the original's mind which had to have been there in the first place. Perhaps some aspects are amplified and contorted during the process to give rise to the natural conflict that stems between two polar opposites inhabiting the same space? We'll never know.

OMEGA: Maybe there is. But either way, I'm sick of you and everything you represent!

The fight continues, with Omega seemingly pushing Alpha back. Yet the fight remains at a standstill for the most part, caught in a deadlock.

OMEGA: You say I should extend my boundaries, go on and destroy universes! I tried that, alright? I took your advice and look where it got me! My entire essence became corrupted, and now our Shatter's been shattered! There's two of them going on at once!

ALPHA: Our plan didn't call for you baptizing yourself in the scarlet fires of an omnipotent dragon! THE omnipotent dragon!

OMEGA: Look, I saw my opportunity and I took it! I panicked and it was the only thing I could think of doing! And last I checked, you were surprisingly silent while I was talking with that dragon. You could have told me making a deal with him was a bad idea, but you didn't! You're berating me for it after the fact, after it's too late to change anything!

OMEGA: The Red Dragon was right! I shouldn't be something I'm not! I should go back to my roots and plan for something smaller! Something small enough to not attract too much suspicion, yet something big enough to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm still the king, not some glorified robot lizard or some shadow doppelganger that's how many kilometers tall.

ALPHA: Oh yes, because subtlety is your forte.

OMEGA: I'm confident that I'll be able to think of something after this all blows over and I win.

ALPHA: You think you're going to win this! Hah! I'm securing the edge as we speak! Your mental strength is no match for my power! All those belittlements, all those arguments, all those tirades the Descendants threw at you during your final weeks on that server have all added up, haven't they? Doesn't it eat you up inside, knowing that they were right? That you have fallen from grace, that you're a failure, a mockery?

OMEGA: Yes. It does nag at me. But do you want to know something? I have a feeling this was going to be your trump card for the other Shatter. The one against our avatar.

ALPHA: Of course it was. I had no way of knowing this Shatter was-

OMEGA: Heh. You've miscalculated, Alpha. You thought that I was as insane as my avatar. He's the one that was directly affected by the Mark, not I. Even though him and I shared a bond ever since I became Godmodder Soul, I haven't been truly driven to insanity. I've felt anger, loss, and rage after the Operation was destroyed. I felt searing pain fill my mind during that deal with the Red Dragon. What those players said about me affected me, yes. But I've kept my cool, and I've kept my rage in check.

OMEGA: And my mindscape isn't nearly broken as his is.

Alpha falters, panicking. Omega grins, knowing that he's forced Alpha to change his tactics to a Plan B that he doesn't even have. Omega pushes Alpha backwards, the tide of the battle turning in favor of the golden god. The scales have been tipped. Omega has found the advantage, the edge. The point. Pummeling Alpha with the Banhammer, Omega presses a button on its surface, the clockwork mechanisms of the hammer whirring intensely, heating up its head to a dull red glow. Omega maniacally shoves the hammer onto Alpha's chest, branding it amidst white-hot pain, smoke curling from Alpha's body.

OMEGA: Look how quickly the mighty has fallen! Hahahahaha! Heh... I bet you won that other Shatter. I was a nutcase back there. But it'll take a lot to bring me down here!

ALPHA: Do you... do you think the Shadow would be proud of you? It honestly looks like you're just running again...

OMEGA: I'm not running. Not by a long shot. I'm just trying to avoid becoming something I'm not. The Red Dragon told me to do that, to return to my roots. And the Shadow told me to focus on what I enjoyed and that doing that would secure me ultimate power. Hey, he was right. But there's a time and a place for everything, right? So I figure that if I go back to my roots, regroup and rethink everything... I'll come back better than before.

ALPHA: You honestly think you'll do better while not topping yourself? You...

ALPHA: You're a buffoon. The only way you can stand out in this world is by going bigger and better! Look at all these beings that exercise their power more efficiently than you! You want to prove to everyone that you're the ultimate big bad, correct?

ALPHA: Well, you're not going to get that by going smaller and doing nothing! You need to FIGHT! And WIN! Didn't you say that conquest was how life moved on? That surrender wasn't a word in your vocabulary? What happened to the Omega I KNEW?

OMEGA: This is not a surrender. You mark my words, I'm going to keep fighting. And hopefully I'll obtain some ultimate power along the way, even if these Descendants cross me again.

OMEGA: And if they do, if they do... Well. I'll be ready.

ALPHA: You know what, Omega? If there's one thing I've learned from our talks and chit-chats, it's that you tend to be one thing above all else while we talk together.

OMEGA: Huh?

ALPHA: Distracted.

Omega sees Alpha's body beneath him - a decoy, a hologram. The real Alpha is poised to strike behind him, his arm in the shape of a longsword, swinging at Omega's head. And when the two connect, Omega's head is chopped clean off of his body, both parts of Omega's form crumpling to the floor. Alpha stands on top of the body of his brother, panting heavily. His sword, stained with blood, rests by his tattered chest. But then Alpha gets a sense of unease. As if Omega's body is a bit... uncanny. Alpha turns to examine the body and he sees it - written on the back of the Godmodder's head are the words "DECOY GODMODDER".

ALPHA: Oh you've got to be kidding me.

OMEGA: See, this is what I expected a godmodding Shatter to be! Smoke and mirrors! Illusions! Trickery!

Alpha looks around, bewildered, unable to pinpoint where exactly Omega's voice is coming from. It's as if it's resonating from every corner of the mindscape at once.

OMEGA: You can't find me, can you? Why are you having so much trouble, huh? I'm right in front of you!

ALPHA: What? No, you're--ah. There you are.

Omega is running right towards Alpha, his Banhammer twirling in his hands. But then Alpha catches a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye - there's another running towards him from the left. And another from the right. And another from the back. And another from above. And another. And another. And another. And another. Alpha tenses up and creates a series of blue shockwaves that knock all of the Omegas back, disrupting all of them except the original. Alpha leaps up to the original, but Omega kicks him out of the way. When Alpha breaks apart from one measly kick, the Godmodder realizes that he just killed a decoy. Sensing movement behind him, Omega grins but otherwise does nothing.

Alpha keeps running behind Omega, making as little noise as possible. And Alpha figures that his work is paying off - Omega is standing still. Has he even noticed Alpha yet? Alpha grins and leaps up behind Omega, ready - finally - to strike, and end this Shatter. But then Omega dissolves into goop, striking utter confusion into Alpha. He feels the ground shake and quiver, lifting up and down and up and down, as if it's moving. Omega's voice booms from all corners of the mind.

OMEGA: YOUR NAME IS ALPHA! THE FIRST! THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE! YOU CALLED YOURSELF THAT IN AN ATTEMPT TO FRAME YOURSELF AS MY OPPOSITE! I'M AN OMEGA, SO YOU'RE AN ALPHA! YOU'RE BENEATH ME! YOU'RE THE FIRST! YOU'RE EXPENDABLE, REPLACABLE, A TEST! AND I?

OMEGA: I AM OMEGA! THE LAST! NO MATTER WHAT CAME BEFORE ME, I AM AN ULTIMATUM! A DEFINITIVE END! CROSS ME, AND YOU'VE REACHED THE FINAL POINT IN WHATEVER JOURNEY YOU'VE TAKEN! I AM THE DESTINATION! I AM ABOVE ALL! AND I'M CERTAINLY ABOVE YOU.

An intense shake catapults Alpha through the air, allowing Alpha to see that the actual ground is very very far down, and that the ground he was just standing on was the top of a cubic structure - a head. The top of a massive stone head, connected to a body, connected to limbs... Somehow, a massive moving statue of Omega has formed from the ground of the mindscape, lumbering across its surface.

ALPHA: Stop hiding yourself! Come out and fight me! Don't you want to prove yourself?

OMEGA: OH, LOOK AT YOURSELF! YOU'VE WORKED YOURSELF ALL INTO A FRENZY JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'T FIND ME! COME ON, AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE A GREAT AND POWERFUL GODMODDER? YOU SHOULD HAVE NO TROUBLE FINDING OUT WHERE I AM! BUT WAIT? DIDN'T I JUST SAY I WAS BETTER THAN YOU, BETTER THAN EVERYONE? I DID, DIDN'T I? WHOOPS! I GUESS WE'LL NEVER KNOW IF YOU'RE POWERFUL ENOUGH TO TRACK DOWN ONE SIMPLE LOSER!

ALPHA: Oh, you ARROGANT SELFISH COWARDLY--

Alpha roars, flying towards the statue of Omega, barreling right through it in one strike. Cracks appear on the statue and spread like wildfire, the entire thing breaking up into massive stone chunks. Alpha narrowly avoids all of them, swooping through the air to find the figure he knows he'll see in the middle of the wreckage - Omega. And when Alpha sees a figure, he grins and moves towards it, pouncing on it and choking it in a death grip, using his crystalline arm to suck all the life out of it.

ALPHA: GOTCHA, you conniving what

Alpha has ensnared not Omega, but the Creepy Dummy, which has somehow made itself a presence inside of the Godmodder's mindscape. The Dummy's head twists itself backwards, its arms reaching upward with herky-jerky movements as if it's being controlled by an invisible puppeteer, purple lightning emanating from its hands. Alpha yells and flies back, the Creepy Dummy's shirt becoming plainly visible - after all this time, it is still the "GODMODDER'S FRIEND".

To make a long story short, the Creepy Dummy beats the tar out of Alpha. It's a pretty painful experience, and one that I don't feel like showing in too much depth. Let's just say it involved a lot of kicking, punching, screaming, force-feeding of potatoes, other puppets, a mime or two, and massive psychological trauma. After the carnage is over, Alpha falls to the floor, beaten. The Creepy Dummy descends from the sky, Omega revealing himself as the "puppetmaster" controlling the Creepy Dummy's movements. Omega laughs heartily, replaying the events that none of you will ever see in any shape or form in his mind - and then they're replayed on hundreds of movie theater screens for Alpha to watch. Alpha cowers in the fetal position, shivering.

OMEGA: What's wrong? Shouldn't you not be hiding? Shouldn't you be fighting?

ALPHA: Y... Yes... That was low... That... Ughhhhhghghghghhgahrhghg...

OMEGA: Alright, look. Take my hand and I'll pull you up. We can keep fighting, the both of us, until this Shatter gets a true conclusive end. Okay?

ALPHA: I... I. Okay.

OMEGA: Good, good. Because you want this Shatter to end in a fair way, right? Just us fighting and fighting until one reigns victorious? In a battlefield with just us and our weapons?

ALPHA: Of course. If nothing else to prove that I can beat you no matter what the circumstances.

OMEGA: Okay. Alpha, I'm about to teach you something.

The Banhammer, its hammerheads white-hot and smoking with energy, appears in Omega's hands.

OMEGA: Life isn't fair. And neither is death.

Omega swings his Banhammer and, with one strike, sears Alpha's body to thousands of degrees, vaporizing him instantly. The only thing left of Alpha's body are his ashes and his rapidly burning clothes. Even his crystalline arm doesn't survive, shattering into hundreds of pieces after being exposed to such extreme heat. Alpha has been banned from the Godmodder's mind - permanently. And Omega stares at the ground. The burnt section of earth where he just executed his brother. And he smiles.

OMEGA: Good riddance. Now it's time to respawn... and get all this over with.

The mindscape is washed in goldenrod as Omega ascends, taking back his mind, body, and soul.

---

On GodCraft, the Godmodder wakes up, his eye no longer shining brilliantly with white. It is now a normal eye, with an iris of radiant blue - the cobalt color of Alpha. Alpha has won the Shatter, and his reward is this husk of a body. The three figures gathered around Alpha look at him, shocked - the Godmodder is stirring, the Shatter is over. Alpha moves his arm slowly, trying to wave at THE THREE OPERATORS.

GODMODDER: Well. Hey there.

There he is! Which one are you, Alpha or Omega? Who won?

GODMODDER: Read my text, Build. If you're as smart as I say, you'll figure it out in no time.

...Alpha.

This outcome was not necessarily a point of suspense. It was quite obvious that Alpha would use all of the mental attacks the Descendants had thrown at Omega to his advantage in the Shatter, up to and including the point of victory.

GODMODDER: And speaking of that victory, I should be getting those victory powers right about...

OPERATOR... Do something quickly...

GODMODDER: Now. There we go.

A cobalt aura flickers to life around the Godmodder, his body reforming nigh-instantly. A proper torso forms, then a waist, then legs, then another arm, then half of his face. All the battle damage the Godmodder had received throughout the entire battle was gone in an instant, leaving the Godmodder at perfect health. He jumps up, his crystalline arm shining with life - it shapes itself into a crystalline duplicate of the Godmodder's previous Godarm. THE THREE OPERATORS lunge towards the Godmodder, but he dodges, flying into the sky, away from the corrupting form of the planet.

GODMODDER: Whoops, you missed! Better luck next time, punks!

GAH! Come on, if we hurry up we can still catch him! We can still kill him!

No. Calm yourself. That is not the Godmodder we are supposed to kill on this day. He will go on to accomplish tasks elsewhere, separate from us. If we want to end the threat of the Godmodder here and now, we must finish his other personality - Omega.

But Omega died... Oh. Right. The Shadow split the Godmodder's Shatter in half. If there are two of them, it's possible that one split can win one and the other can win the other, right?

That is the possibility our plan hinges on. But we could not act for another reason. We will not be the only ones attacking the Godmodder at this time. When the proper time arises, the Descendants will be helping us, as will a third party - one that has not been heard from in quite some time.

You don't mean...?

Yes, I do mean. Team Mojang.

---

In the fractured remnants of Universe B, nearly nothing has survived. The power of Project Artemis has shattered the entire universe apart like broken glass, extinguishing entire stars, galaxies, and superclusters, voiding the universe of all matter, dark matter, dark energy, antimatter, and everything else scientists had yet to discover. What little remains across the universe is slowly fading away into obscurity, into the formless void of existence. Yet there are some parts of the universe that haven't immediately dwindled away, all centered around one spot - the Solar System. And more specifically, Earth.

Even now, the Black Monolith beneath the headquarters of Team Mojang has protected Mojang's subterranean base from the perils and evils of the world. It has allowed the base to continue existing even after the death of an entire universe - but not without suffering damage. The computers and electronics of Mojang HQ have been throw into complete disarray, monitors cracking, spare parts scattering, sparks flying. And their aboveground headquarters were demolished by the impact of the Moon itself.

Notch had been told by the Monolith that Project Binary had control over the Moon. He just didn't think it would ever be used to that extent.

Mojang had been working away at their computers and terminals for months, trying to finalize the coding of Minecraft 2.0, a truly monumental task. Pinning down the exact nature of how the Godmodder had been able to truly beat the system and trying to fix everything that had been broken across the game they had created was nearly impossible. But with the help of the Monolith, they had been able to complete the second half of Minecraft 2.0. And then, Project Binary struck.

Whatever he had done with the Moon had scrambled important features in Minecraft 2.0's code, irreversibly damaging it. Some of the errors and glitches could be fixed, but there was one massive flaw in the coding of Minecraft 2.0, one that was irreparable. And so, Notch went to the remains of the control room where all the terminals stood and decided to contact his old colleague, the Monolith. It was time that they had a talk. One last talk.

Monolith. Whatever your name is. I... We.

We need your help. We need your advice.

LOOKS LIKE THE SERPENT FINALLY BIT YOU

YOU'VE ASSESSED THE DAMAGE TO THE FACILITY, I TAKE IT

Yes. We fixed most of it, but there's some things that we can't ignore.

Whatever Project Binary did scrambled one key part of Minecraft 2.0. And we can't fix it.

PROJECT BINARY WAS PLAYING A DANGEROUS GAME, ONE THAT WAS SKIRTING THE LINE BETWEEN WHAT WAS WRONG AND DOWNRIGHT REPREHENSIBLE

HIS GAMBIT PAID OFF IN THE END, SO IT SEEMS

YOUR PLANET WAS NOT THE ONLY THING THAT WAS DESTROYED BY THE MOON

YOUR ENTIRE UNIVERSE HAS BEEN ANNIHILATED, AS HAVE TWO OTHERS

What?! Three universes?

THE ONLY THREE THAT MATTER IN THIS WAR

YOURS, MINECRAFTIA, AND THE ALTERNIAN/EARTH SYSTEM

Minecraftia's been destroyed? Then... Then we're too late?

MINECRAFTIA HAS NOT BEEN DESTROYED JUST YET, ACTUALLY

BUT IT IS VERY CLOSE TO REACHING ITS TERMINAL STATE

AS WE SPEAK IT IS BEING CORRUPTED BEYOND BELIEF AND PULLED INTO THE REACH OF A BLACK HOLE BIGGER THAN A UNIVERSE

...Then we need to act fast. Alright. Here's what's been going on.

This second half of Minecraft 2.0 is in essence a system restore. We designed it to reboot our universe and Minecraftia to an "earlier backup" of sorts - a time when there was no damage done and everything was peaceful, for the most part. A return to normal.

Everyone would remember what had happened earlier, but there would be no traces of it. Project Binary and the Moonbase would be destroyed, and GodCraft would be deleted. That last part goes hand in hand with the other aspect of Minecraft 2.0 - dealing with Richard.

It took us a long time to pin down the specifics of this, but with this patch, we'll able to strip Richard of all of his infinite alternate accounts and ban him from Minecraft - hopefully permanently. That part's going off fine. But we have a big problem with the other one.

Project Binary's managed to corrupt our patch so that we can only restore one universe, not both of them. We can't bring back Earth and Minecraftia. It's either... It's either one or the other.

THEN YOU ARE ON THE HORNS OF A PARTICULARLY UNDESIRABLE DILEMMA

DO YOU SAVE THE SEVEN BILLION MEMBERS OF YOUR OWN KIN AND THE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF OTHER LIFEFORMS IN YOUR UNIVERSE

OR DO YOU SAVE THE LIVES OF MILLIONS IF NOT BILLIONS OF CUBIC LIFEFORMS ON A VAST ARRAY OF HEXAHEDRONS ENGINEERED IN PART BY YOUR OWN DESIGN

THIS IS A CHOICE I DO NOT EXPECT YOU TO MAKE LIGHTLY

Whoa, the way you're phrasing all this makes it seem like you're not going to be around to help us make that decision!

THAT'S BECAUSE I WON'T BE

WHAT? I asked for your help! This is important, I... I can't make this decision on my own!

THEN IT'S A GOOD THING YOU WON'T BE

TALK WITH YOUR TEAM AND DECIDE ON WHAT TO DO

REACH THE CONCLUSION THAT YOU FEEL IS RIGHT TO YOU

Aren't you supposed to be the one with infinite wisdom? Shouldn't you be helping us?

AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE THE ONE WHO WAS GOD

...

THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT

YOUR STATION WILL PERSIST NO MATTER WHAT OPTION YOU CHOOSE

IF YOU REVIVE EARTH YOUR HEADQUARTERS WILL BE RESTORED IN FULL

IF YOU REVIVE MINECRAFTIA YOUR FACILITY WILL REMAIN FLOATING IN THE ABYSS AND YOUR MINECRAFTIAN AVATARS WILL RETURN FULL-TIME

SO EITHER WAY YOUR TEAM WILL SURVIVE

NOW DECIDE WHO ELSE WILL

GOODBYE NOTCH

The computer shuts itself off. Notch stares at it for several seconds and puts his head in his hands. Never did he think he would be in this position... A position where he would have to arbitrate the lives of billions of people... Notch gets up from his chair after several more seconds, walking across the tilted floor to the door at the other side of the room in order to meet up with the rest of Mojang. It was time that they had a talk.

One last talk.

---

A dimension westward, Universe A has been annihilated completely. John, Rose, Dave, and Jade have ended up floating through the Void after Bill Cipher created a gateway to take them out of their unwinnable session. The four Kids were deposited right near a massive fenestrated wall that appeared to be suffering from a critical error. With nowhere else to go, the Kids decide to stand on the wall and talk amongst themselves. They can go anywhere now. Anywhere in existence. They've escaped.

But their universe was not so lucky.

JOHN: well, there it is, guys... there's our universe.

JOHN: i guess bill was right, then. we really did destroy our session. i mean, look at that thing!

JOHN: it's the biggest black hole i've ever seen! it's...

JOHN: wait a minute. it's a black hole.

ROSE: Oh, here we go.

DAVE: oh my god see what just happened rose

DAVE: you made some offhand comment about how skaia was a black hole and you said it meant nothing

DAVE: and we believed you when you said it meant nothing

DAVE: but look at what just happened

DAVE: what are we seeing right now huh

DAVE: rose tell me what were seeing right now

ROSE: A supermassive black hole that has terminated our entire universe.

DAVE: there case closed

DAVE: as if it wasnt any more obvious rose is a goddamn present-day nostradamus

JOHN: how do we know it wasn't rose's comment that made that black hole appear?? can you CAUSE the future?

ROSE: Anyone can cause events to happen by being in the right place at the right time. I doubt my remark itself gave birth to this black hole, but I suppose my comment arose from subconscious prophecy even I wasn't aware of.

ROSE: A seer of light can see the most fortuitous outcomes and shape the destiny of a particular session. I was guiding us along by playing along with the Scratch, knowing there was a possibility of us leaving this session in the end.

ROSE: And this black hole was the end result of all our decisions and choices throughout the making of this Scratch, the conclusion to our game. So in a way, it makes sense that I was aware of it, even if it wasn't in a very clear way.

JOHN: alright, i THINK i understand it now. maybe.

JOHN: so... now what?

JADE: i am not sure... we're in the void now, the gap between universes

DAVE: you mean the furthest ring

JADE: in a way, i guess! the furthest ring is our section of the void. for however long it seems to go on for, it's pretty finite in the long run! it's just that time and space don't work very well in the furthest ring, and in the void to an extent.

JADE: the void is broader, encompassing the space between all universes. normally we wouldn't be able to survive in it, but it looks like our god tier powers are doing the trick! from here, we can go anywhere we want...

JADE: but i'm not especially close to the green sun at this point... i don't know if i'll be able to use my powers effectively, or at all!

ROSE: Then you can take a backseat for a few minutes. I've taken the time to figure out what our next goal is. We'll have to wait on this Wall for several minutes. Others will arrive soon to pick us up. Then we will all travel to a new destination.

JOHN: others? who?

ROSE: The trolls. They've used the powers of the Void to accelerate their meteor out of the Veil, through the Furthest Ring, and out into the edges of their own universe, where this Wall is. They will arrive here in due time.

DAVE: powers of the void huh

DAVE: what kind of abominations can we find in here its just empty space

ROSE: You'd be surprised. There are things here much more powerful than the worst of the horrorterrors.

JADE: well let's hope we don't run into them then! ;>_>

JOHN: okay, we're waiting for the trolls. got it. we'll finally get to meet them and see what they actually look like!

JOHN: i bet they're like giant abominations with bleached white skin!

DAVE: no no i think youre way off base

DAVE: theyre probably disgusting monsters with thousands of horns

JOHN: haha! or a combination of both!

DAVE: that would be disgusting but hilarious at the same time

DAVE: so anyway where are we exactly in this void

ROSE: On top of our universe's Fourth Wall. It's supposed to protect us from all the other universes out there, but now there's no universe for it to protect. If I had to guess, that's why it's suffered an error of some kind.

DAVE: huh alright

DAVE: so now we just wait for a while

DAVE: this is

DAVE: this is gonna be really boring isnt it

After several minutes/months of waiting around and doing nothing at all, the Kids begin to see something coming from the black hole where their universe once stood - a light that's steadily getting brighter and brighter. The Kids all stand up and float away from the Fourth Wall, drawing themselves closer and closer to this shining light. Eventually, it gets close enough that the Kids can see it for what it truly is - a flaming meteor. Rose was right - the trolls have found a way out of their own session.

The meteor ultimately stops moving when it gets right near the Fourth Wall, which is roughly the same size as the meteor itself. The Kids can clearly see various buildings and facilities attached to the meteor, and they also see an assortment of figures, at least eleven, on top of one of the facilities. The Kids all fly towards them, knowing that at last, the two adjacent sessions of Universe A have been united.

TEREZI: H3Y THERE P4J4M4 DORKS >:]

TEREZI: N33D 4 L1FT?

---

After the trolls had gotten all the kids settled into life on the meteor, they explained what was going to happen next. The trolls had all left their session due to having picked up information from a source of some kind that they would need to travel to their universe's Fourth Wall, and from there, they would have to head further and further through the Void, to the site of some climactic event. The trolls have tried to change the course of their meteor to various directions, but they keep getting disrupted, as if some source is pulling them a certain way. So the trolls have decided to head to that source.

Their meteor has been able to move thanks to an ancient power of the Void, an Oracle. The Oracle told them that they would need to head to the Fourth Wall and travel to the source of their disruptions, and it has also provided them with an engine of sorts, a power source that will last for the entire trip. The trolls warn the kids that whatever's at this event will probably be some kind of massive battle, and if it's disrupting them from this far away, then it won't be a very easy battle to win. But seeing as they're all god tiers, they're no doubt ready for whatever challenge faces them.

And so, the curtain closes on Homestuck's adventure across the Trifecta. Its characters have said their goodbyes, but now it is time to move on. To a new world. A new session. A new war.

---

In another scattered remnant of Universe B, there is another part of Earth that has yet to be destroyed. In an indeterminate region of the Pale Blue Dot, one of the world's most dangerous men - and the world's most wanted criminal - makes his home in the middle of a gigantic mansion. This is the home of Richard, the Godmodder. It has been veiled from the destruction of Project Binary, the power of the Moon completely skipping over it, ignoring it. Deep in the mansion lies a basement of infinite computers, a repository of the Godmodder's power, his knowledge.

Richard has been slumped over in his seat in a comatose state for the past hour or so, flashing images of Godmodder Soul's Shatter displaying in fast motion on his computer screen. But now, the Shatter in Richard's mind has concluded. His base personality - Omega - has won. And now Richard can reap the fruit of his labor. Now that he has won, now that his mind is once again whole, devoid of any rogue personalities, he can claim his apotheosis. Richard reaches out to his Minecraft avatar, which he senses is fleeing the universe independently of Richard's control.

GODMODDER: ALPHA! So it was you who won my avatar's Shatter!

GODMODDER: Don't act so surprised! You were weak in that avatar! Malleable! Corrupted! All I had to do was talk and get you to listen. And how are you even talking to me anyway? I'm your avatar!

GODMODDER: News flash, Alpha! You're not the only one who got fancy powers when he won his Shatter! Now get back here or I'm going to make you get back here!

GODMODDER: Hah! As if you'd be able to control me! We've gone our separate ways now, Omega!

GODMODDER: You're my avatar. Avatars were made to be controlled.

Richard double-presses the 'SPACE' button on his keyboard. The Godmodder abruptly stops flying, falling back to the surface of GodCraft. The Godmodder looks down, panicking, flailing his arms wildly. He tries to fly, cancelling out Richard's actions. The Godmodder stands still, straining between falling to earth and flying into space.

GODMODDER: Now fly back down there! We need to get rid of them! And at the very least, I need you under my control! I'm not letting you go off and be rogue!

GODMODDER: Omega, just stop and think! Think for a second! Look at this universe!

GODMODDER: It's falling apart, dying completely! In a few minutes there won't even be a Minecraftia to rule! Those Descendants and the Operators are down there right now, just waiting to kill you! Waiting for it! I'm not going to be their sacrifice! I'm running to a higher calling, a better purpose! I'm going to ascend even further, so when my journeys are over, I can look down on you and laugh!

GODMODDER: Wait, Operators?!

GODMODDER: So here's what's going to happen. You can either force me to fly down there and have them kill me, ridding you of your avatar and ridding me of any shot at going big. Or you can let me escape so I can become a full-fledged Minecraftian. A new avatar will form for you, one that you control. The Descendants will most likely kill you, but you'll have a shot of returning. You've said you want to return, after all.

GODMODDER: So what's it gonna be?

Richard stops and stares at his screen, listening to the Godmodder's words. Whatever the Godmodder has planned, it won't be pretty... But this could be the second chance both of them have been wanting for so long. The key to the Godmodder's plan, and the start of Richard's. Richard sighs and double-taps the SPACE button again, letting the Godmodder fly once more. The Godmodder experimentally kicks his legs and then grins, continuing his flight.

GODMODDER: Go. Be free, like a leaf on the wind, or whatever poetic nonsense you feel like plugging into this situation. I'm done with you.

GODMODDER: You've made the right choice, Omega. Remember that.

Alpha flies, speeding away from GodCraft, out of the reach of its planet, away from the ever-growing black hole, and ultimately, out of the universe itself, so far away that Alpha asserts complete control over the Minecraft avatar he now inhabits, severing the link between it and Richard. Alpha is now a Minecraftian, and Richard does not have a Minecraft avatar to control at all. But the Godmodder's powers of apotheosis intervene, giving him the power to respawn in the form of a new Minecraft avatar. Yet, knowing what awaits him on the surface of GodCraft, Richard isn't very sure he wants to respawn at all. He would rather just quit the game and pack his bags, waiting for a new opportunity.

And that's what he does. Richard gets out of his computer chair and goes to look outside the window, taking in the new day on planet Earth, a world without Project Binary, and with - once again - order. At least, that's what he expects to see. What he gets is a nightmare. Richard sees the streets and houses across him floating in the abyss, ruined, destroyed, shattered. He sees other pieces of the Earth floating across empty space, all moving every which way at varying speeds. He still sees the remnants of orchid shockwaves scream across the remains of the universe, and in this moment, Richard knows that his future is futile.

There is nothing, and there will never be anything. Existence is pointless at this stage of the game. While Richard was busy trying to end the world a universe away, his own world ended around him and he was none the wiser. There will be no future for the Godmodder. Not now. Richard steps away from his window and turns his back on the universe, running to his computer screen and clicking "Respawn."

If nothing else, so that this war could get closure. A proper end. A final end.

---

THE THREE OPERATORS all wait in silence for a minute or two, watching the corruption around GodCraft intensify more and more. Entire portions of the planet are falling away, cracking off, and being swallowed up by the black hole. If they don't do something soon, there won't be anything left to do at all... But then, a figure appears in the middle of the bedrock. The Godmodder.

There he is. Godmodder! Your time is up!

I concur. Godmodder, the moment has come for you to meet your end.

What they said.

The Godmodder sees THE THREE OPERATORS, an expression of utter confusion crossing his face, backing away slowly. They don't give the Godmodder the chance to run away, however. THE OPERATOR extends his hands, massive amounts of white lightning flickering at his fingertips. They strike at the Godmodder at lightspeed, ensnaring him in a death grip. The Godmodder's apotheosis has worn off, and even though he's in a new body, he's still been beaten. He's worn out. Past his prime.

GODMODDER: Y... You. What the hell is going on here? I KILLED you!

You erased my body. My soul remained hidden in the code of this game, waiting for the time to strike. For the time to deliver on the promise I had made.

GODMODDER: ...You made a promise?

Alright, it technically wasn't a promise. I told you I could see your death occur in the future, and I said I would be the one that caused it. I have returned to make that vision reality.

GODMODDER: I... I don't remember you saying that at all.

What do you mean you don't remember me telling you that? They were my last words, even if they were parsed in binary! I was giving you an inspiring speech about the futility of life and death! How do you not remember that?

GODMODDER: Hey, I don't have time to decode EVERY single binary code that's been in this game! There's too many of them to even count!

So what you're saying is... All this time, while I lingered deep within the coding of this game, biding my time, remembering what you had relieved from me... You had forgotten all about me and my promise?

GODMODDER: Well, yeah. That banhammer erased you good. Expunged your coding from the entire server. Honestly, you've got guts if you stuck around after that.

...

UNBELIEVABLE!

THE OPERATOR clenches his hands into fists, tightening the lightning around the Godmodder. The Godmodder yells in pain, the lightning sapping the very energy from his avatar. The form of the entire world - perhaps even the entire universe - flickers as the lightning races around the Godmodder. After several seconds, THE OPERATOR eases his grip on the Godmodder, still keeping him restrained.

You very nearly did wipe me out, you know! But code-based constructs are hard to keep down completely. I was able to stay hidden within the code of this universe, shunted into the role of bystander. I could do naught but watch.

I swore to myself that I would uphold the visions I made, the promise that I would kill you. I at the very least expected YOU of all people to remember this! Build did, Split did, and I'm assuming all of those Descendants did! Who are YOU that you think you can just shrug off a massive threat against your life?

GODMODDER: ...I'm Richard. But more than that, I'm the Godmodder. I tower above all else! I don't have TIME for death threats, because I'm too busy CHEATING death!

GODMODDER: If I die, this whole server goes, you know! Everything! Probably even the whole universe, which is already a lost cause! The code for this place is in my head! Kill me, and you kill everything!

I am well aware. But that is a risk I am going to have to take.

THE OPERATOR continues ensnaring the Godmodder, seemingly waiting for the exact moment and the perfect opportunity to lash out against the Godmodder - and end the war once and for all.

---

Within the ruins of Sweden, Team Mojang has come to a final decision. The choice of determining which universe to save was not an easy one by any stretch of the imagination - no matter what they ultimately chose, they would be simultaneously saving and condemning billions of lives. Even if Minecraft was just a game in this universe, it was much more in actuality, and the lives of its people could not be ignored. Yet if they didn't restore Earth, who would be around to play their game? The Godmodder? The Descendants? And what home would those Descendants who lived on Earth be able to return to?

When it came down to it, Team Mojang knew that Minecraftia would have to go. It will at the very least live on in the form of a game, and there will be plenty to play it. On the same token, that left Earth as the universe that will be restored to its former glory. The team gives Notch the "honor" of being the one to upload the latter half of Minecraft 2.0, and so he runs into the main terminal room, changing and modifying the code of the update to restore Earth's universe. Notch's finger hovers over the 'ENTER' key on his keyboard, yet doesn't press it.

Notch thinks back to years ago, when he first made the game... It had all seemed so simple, back then. He was a game developer looking to make small projects, not caring much if they were succesful, just caring about the journey to make them. If his life was a book, he wanted it to be a book people would have fun reading - showing all the twists and turns to where he got. And then, when he discovered the existence of another universe in his dreams... He knew he had found something huge. And that led him down the path he travels to this day - a path of danger, destruction, yet unlimited creative potential. The road to Minecraft.

Today will mark a great shift in the development of Minecraft. A crossroads to determining the future of everything in existence. The universe of Minecraft, once a beacon of hope, creativity, and power, was about to be extinguished once and for all. And it is with that solemn reminder that Notch presses 'ENTER'. The code of Minecraft 2.0 roars to life, shining brilliantly against the computer monitor on which it is displayed. Green arcs of light cascade out of the underground chamber, shooting into space and across the void of Universe B.

As one door closes, another opens.

---

The power of Minecraft 2.0 spreads across reality, making its way towards the remains of Universe C, barreling into the heart of the black hole and the world contained within - GodCraft. Everyone on the server sees it come down from the skies in the form of heavenly green light, light that combats the corruption of GodCraft, light that seemingly drives the liquid darkness of the black hole away, light that blinds everyone.

THE OPERATOR flashsteps right in front of the Godmodder, taking off his red glasses to reveal a pair of eyes that streak with green energy, staring into the depths of the Godmodder's soul. He is overcome with the power of raw omniscience, the burden of knowing everything there is to know instantly taking its toll on the Godmodder. His mind is blanked out with the unfathomable emptiness of existence itself, preventing him from doing anything to block the onslaught that is about to unfold and ensuring that when all is said and done, the Godmodder will be purged from this universe in its entirety.

In the middle of the storm of light, everyone hears massive thunderclaps as a lime lightning bolt of pure energy screams down from the heavens, fighting past the pull of the black hole consuming the universe. It arcs across everything in Minecraftia and, at the speed of light, connects with the Godmodder.

Instantly, the Godmodder's body arches backwards, green light coming from his eyes and mouth. The Godmodder screams a purely agonizing scream, and everyone watching sees circles and arrays of green code form around the Godmodder, afterimages of him trailing out of him and fading into mist. THE THREE OPERATORS all recognize this as the work of Mojang and get to work themselves. THE OPERATOR's grip on the Godmodder intensifies even further, white lightning and white energy choking the power out of the Godmodder. THE OPERATOR's dark tentacles and static sight ensnare the Godmodder, causing his form to flicker and disintegrate at sporadic intervals.

Everyone sees afterimages rapidly fade out of the Godmodder's form, copies and duplicates of the Godmodder disintegrating into nothingness. The code of Minecraft 2.0 is taking effect - all of the Godmodder's infinitude of alternate accounts are being purged so that the Godmodder can never log onto Minecraft again. Godmodder001, Godmodder777, Godmodder901, Godmodder413, Godmodder476... All of them, one by one, destroyed and cast into nothingness, never to be found. THE THREE OPERATORS look at the Descendants, some of whom have ignored their wishes and are outside of the portal eating popcorn. THE OPERATOR motions at all of the Descendants, and Split as well.

Now is the time, you Descendants! Get in here and finish the job!

All of the Descendants turn to look at each other, shoving themselves in an attempt to race to the Godmodder and finish him off! Everyone uses their own assorted weaponry to chain the Godmodder in place even more, sapping all of his infinite alts away from him! The Godmodder's face contorts into expressions of pure agony, his screams pealing across the entire universe. Through the combined power of everyone on GodCraft and Minecraft 2.0, at long last, all of the Godmodder's infinite alternate accounts are purged, and the only one remaining is the account he's using right now - Godmodder477.

There is a great flash of light and everyone rebounds away from the Godmodder, being knocked backwards. The Godmodder falls to the ground, kneeling and breathing heavily. The Descendants and Split make no move to head back to the portal, and THE THREE OPERATORS all remain in place as well. The Godmodder struggles, pushing himself upwards to stare at the crowd assembled before him. His Minecraft skin begins to crack apart, showing wireframe modelling and pixelated light.

GODMODDER: My life... flashing before my... my eyes...

GODMODDER: You all... [email protected][email protected] me... fair and ^2 $)*(@quare... Heh.

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GODMODDER: ...

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GODMODDER: [email protected])[email protected])$!)#!#[email protected][email protected])[email protected](#$!n!#?$!($!$!>>!>!$!$!#!#///!#%/#??!#//!#?

The Godmodder's form disintegrates completely. He has been destroyed. Everyone cheers, knowing that - once and for all - the threat of the Godmodder has been eliminated. The Descendants all congratulate themselves for a job well done, and a hard two years' work spent fighting against this menace. The only person on the Battlefield that seems discontent with the current situation is THE OPERATOR, whose form is glitching and corrupting itself, breaking up with white cracks. His hands warp with white energy once more, crackling potently.

The Godmodder's ingame representation is destroyed. But there is still one incarnation of the Godmodder that must be terminated - his presence on Earth. All of you, file into the portal - now. I shall sacrifice myself to correct the error presented by the Godmodder's presence.

No! I mean... Are you sure? You can come with us! Start a new life!

Unfortunately, I cannot. I said earlier that this body is only temporary. It will expire moments before the death of this universe, which is soon enough. I must do something constructive with my last seconds of existence.

I... I understand. Do what you have to do.

Noted. Now get back to that portal and seal it off! None of you are to die here.

THE OPERATOR nods, teleporting back to THE OPERATOR's portal and ushering everyone back inside. Once THE OPERATOR is inside, his tentacles draw themselves together, the grey form of his portal shuddering and turning into pure corruption, blinking out of existence. Suddenly, THE OPERATOR is left alone as the sole remaining inhabitant of the entire universe.

THE OPERATOR's hands glow further with white energy as the world of GodCraft finally reaches its conclusion, its surface cracking and tearing apart, drawing closer and closer into the heart of the black hole. THE OPERATOR closes his eyes as his hands become engulfed with white, the cracks around his being shattering and splintering, causing his entire body to surge with white and extend outwards in pulsing shockwaves, resounding across the entire universe. In THE OPERATOR's dying moments, he travels at lightspeed, clearing the event horizon, booming across the universe and out of it.

And afterwards, there is no more light. And there is no more OPERATOR, in any form. And the planet of GodCraft cracks completely, its splinters and chunks tumbling endlessly and spaghettifying into the abyss of the black hole.

And then everything went black.

Universe C has been destroyed. And so has the Trifecta.

Underneath the ruined bedrock of GodCraft, a universe ends and a Void begins. Two figures walk their way through the darkness, void particles dancing around them, obscuring their vision. The darkness of the Void is all-consuming to any Minecraftian who dares travel down to it - but then again, these aren't exactly two ordinary Minecraftians. One of them is the brainchild of an author of sorts, a dangerous and lethal living weapon with a deadly array of elemental weaponry. The other is too overpowered to even interfere with the war on GodCraft at all.

They are Piono and the OP King, and they're searching for something. Something important. Something powerful.

PIONO: We're getting close... I can feel it.

Exactly how much further is this "special location" we're heading to? It's been days, you know.

PIONO: Days? Stop your whining, it's only been a few hours.

Don't lecture me on the passage of time! You aren't the one anchored in the multiversal timeline.

PIONO: The multiversal timeline...? Oh. Oh dear. We've lost that much time?

Indeed. Don't forget how quickly time can fly in the Void. So I'm going to ask you again. How much further do we have to walk?

PIONO: Don't worry. We're almost there now. Oh, as a matter of fact...

PIONO: There it is.

Piono and the OP King, the latter of which is merely represented as a dull red silhouette against the darkness of the Void, both spot a structure in the distance - the only one that can be seen for kilometers in any direction. The structure is a box of sorts - no, not a box. A cage. And judging the cage's dark color, it's not hard to guess what it's made out of. Bedrock.

This is all we came for? Just a box? I thought we were here to break the next of my seals.

PIONO: We're not breaking your next seal. I'm not stupid enough to think that you're going to continue working for me.

PIONO: We're here to retrieve something, so that should the time arrive where I can trust you, I'll be able to find your seal and break it then.

The two figures approach the bedrock cage in earnest, standing beside it. Piono gestures to the cage, the OP King moving closer to it.

PIONO: Would you do the honors?

Gladly.

The red form of the OP King grows brighter, flashing with scarlet hues. He also grows hotter, forcing Piono to back away slightly. The bedrock cage's bars begin to glow with heat, their forms warping and melting due to the strain of the OP King's power. After several seconds, the OP King blinks, and the bars of the cage shatter apart, breaking the cage completely. Piono and the OP King both step inside, looking at the figure inside. It brings back memories from two years ago - from the beginning of the war.

PIONO: Kurak.

The great orc king lies crumpled in a heap in the middle of the cage's ruins. He was uninjured by the blast, but he has suffered several injuries - they look self-inflicted. Once, Kurak was a fearsome and mighty warrior, and during the fight against the Godmodder, he had been granted unimaginable vitality at the cost of being locked away in a bedrock prison. Now, he had been driven insane by intense loneliness, even attempting to commit suicide. Yet the bulk of his health makes it nearly impossible for him to kill himself. Piono walks over to Kurak with a mournful expression of sorts.

PIONO: It's a shame that this plan never came to fruition. No matter.

Piono raises his right arm, a terrifying black gauntlet materializing on it - Nocte Consumens, Piono's elemental weapon of darkness. An orb of darkness forms near the white eye on the weapon, flickering and flowing with the power of the Void and eternal night. As Piono creates the orb, Kurak wakes, stirring enough to recognize the figures near him. He grunts, stumbling to his feet and charging at Piono. Piono leaps out of the way, bringing his right hand down onto Kurak in the form of a fist. The ball of darkness energizes when it comes into contact with Kurak, paralyzing him and causing him to roar in pain.

Cracks of darkness begin to form around Kurak's body, eating away at his very essence. Kurak lifts into the air, struggling against his bonds as he is consumed by dark energy. Piono watches the spectacle and fondly regards it, but then he senses something. Something behind them. He eyes the OP King suspisciously.

PIONO: Someone else is here.

Yes.

PIONO: Why didn't you tell me?

I want to see how this plays out.

Piono spins around, snarling at the mystery figure while brandishing Nocte Consumens, flickering with dark energy.

PIONO: Show yourself!

After seeing nothing for a second or two, Piono hears the sound of clapping. A figure walks out of the darkness of the Void, presenting himself to the OP King and to Piono - with brown hair, a beard, a red cape, a robotic arm, and clothes that look much like those of the Player, there is no doubt. This is the Godmodder. He continues clapping until it's too awkward to keep doing it, grinning at Piono.

GODMODDER: Well done. You finally managed to realize you were being followed? It only took you, what? A few hours? Days? Figure that out yourself. I don't care much for timeline shenanigans.

GODMODDER: Now, why don't you go ahead and tell me what you're doing down here, and then I can tell you why I'm here. If this goes smoothly, I won't need to resort to force.

PIONO: Why would I tell you, Richard?

He's here fo-

PIONO: SHUT IT! You tell him anything and the whole deal's off!

...

GODMODDER: Hmph. Not going to tell me, then. Wait. You called me "Richard", didn't you, just now?

GODMODDER: You think I'm him? Oh, no! You have no idea who you're up against, do you? I'm above Omega now. Above and beyond him. I take it you understand, right? I've heard you were once in a Shatter of your own.

GODMODDER: Now here's how this is going to work. Neither of you are going to do anything without my say-so, or it's curtains for you both. Got it?

Piono and the OP King both sneer at the Godmodder's threat, the OP King chuckling and Piono advancing, the sigils on his body and clothes beginning to rapidly glow with many different colors. Fire dances in the crown on Piono's head, and he points an accusatory finger at the Godmodder while his other hand moves to his side, as if to draw a sword.

PIONO: Last time I checked, your power wasn't anywhere at what is needed to take me down.

PIONO: I believe I nearly destroyed GodCraft three times?

PIONO: And you most certainly can't take down my friend over here.

Who said I was your friend?

PIONO: ...Remember th--

Oh, the deal? You can't hold that over me as much as you think.

Remember how I said I wanted to see how this plays out? I stand by that. You're on your own.

The OP King floats just out of reach of the Godmodder and Piono, staring at the both of them and waiting for conflict to spark between the two. The aura of power around Piono intensifies, flames burning in his hair and reflecting in his eyes. The power and energy around Piono, if it could be personified, would be full of anger. Unadulterated rage.

PIONO: Alright then, Alpha. I can deal with you on my own.

The Godmodder, instead of retreating, takes a step forward against Piono, smiling cruelly at him.

GODMODDER: Last I checked, I'm the Omega+ Godmodder here. And you, despite your claims that my power isn't enough to take you on, are just a lowly Alpha. Not only that, you've been beaten twice on two separate occasions by the other Descendants.

GODMODDER: Sure, Omega was beaten twice as well. But it took the whole lot of you punks and a metric ton of extradimensional help to take him down. And if he had only followed my advice, if only I had seized control earlier... Then things would be different. Things would be better. In a perfect world, perhaps...

GODMODDER: Although, you're right about one thing. I can't take down your... "friend." He is the OP King, after all. What I can do with him is make a deal.

If a silhouette could smirk, then the OP King would be. He leans forward towards Alpha, apparently interested by his words.

A deal, you say?

Piono's eyes take on an air of panic for a split second, and he suddenly turns into a whirlwind of motion. He stops time entirely, the darkness of the Void abruptly ceasing to flow. Piono gains just enough of those infinite fractions of time before the Godmodder realizes what's happened to let him strike, drawing Rapture from hammerspace with the hand at his side and bringing it around in a blaze of raw destructive energy to the side of the Godmodder's head. And with his other hand, Piono draws the Archangel's Blade, glowing even more brightly and swinging around from the other side, creating a flaming scissor of death that the Godmodder has no chance to avoid.

The Godmodder is decapitated, his body crumpling to the ground and his head bouncing several feet away. Piono glares at the body with initial satisfaction, but then grows tense - there's no way the Godmodder would be so easily killed. That must have been a Decoy. Piono turns to strike again, believing the Godmodder is behind him. But he's not. Piono watches all around, waiting to see if the real Godmodder - or just another decoy - will end up appearing. But nothing happens, until Piono hears a laugh coming from the Godmodder's corpse.

GODMODDER: You're pretty good with a sword, I just thought you should know. But it'll take more than a sword strike or two to kill me.

The Godmodder's head suddenly floats into the air alive as can be, chuckling as his body regains its composure and stands upright all on its own.

GODMODDER: You didn't even do much damage at all. All I did was detach my head from my body. And now I can attack in two places at once! Neat, huh? So anyway, OP King, about that deal...

Piono is suddenly flung backwards with insane force, his two swords crackling with energy as a holographic scale materializes next to the Godmodder: a representation of the OP Scale. It deems Piono's swords too overpowered to even exist at all, causing a massive cobalt explosion to occur inside of his body. Piono is then locked inside of a sarcophagus sealed by a thousand locks which can only be opened by a combination of a key that only the Godmodder has, a phrase someone has to say that only the Godmodder knows, and by fingerprint - which Minecraftian avatars don't even have. The sarcophagus is also made of a new type of divinium, rendering it impossible to break without other divine weapons. All of this happens in the span of half a second.

GODMODDER: Here's how this is going to work. I can help you find the rest of those seals you've been talking about. All you need to do is leave right now and let me take care of Mr. Bigshot over here. Sound fair?

Heh. That sounds fair.

The form of the OP King dissipates entirely, leaving nothing behind. The Godmodder's head reattaches itself to his body, and the Godmodder floats up to the sarcophagus Piono is stuck inside, straining and budging against its bonds. The Godmodder taps the sarcophagus thoughtfully, and then reaches inwards, drawing the power to use the language of the Console against Piono's power. He activates the IControlU plugin, drawing a spike into Piono's mind that encompasses all of this thoughts, penetrating every mental defense and giving the Godmodder mastery over Piono's mind.

The sarcophagus disappears, and Piono shudders in the air, aware that he's not in control of himself and yet unable to do a single thing about it. The Godmodder wills Piono to walk forward, but since he's floating, he takes a step into thin air and falls on the ground, shuddering and shaking. He slowly drags himself upright towards the Godmodder, and the Godmodder commands Piono to hand him something. A simple piece of silk. Piono is hesitant, his arms shuddering as he slowly performs the command. Yet, slowly but surely, Piono hands it over to the Godmodder with an intense glare of hatred in his eyes.

Armed with the Ancestral Silk, the Godmodder's hold on Piono increases tenfold as he commands Piono to hand over the rest of the Artifacts. And in turn, Piono complies, giving the Godmodder the four remaining Ancestral Artifacts - the Gunpowder, Flesh, Bone and Eye. These aren't the actual Artifacts, but copies of them - copies with the exact same powers, retrieved from an alternate version of the Trifecta. A simulation powered by the OP King himself, a simulation that is the home of Astria, otherwise known as The_Serpent. A simulation with another GodCraft, another set of temples, and another set of Artifacts. And another Psi-Godmodder. In an all-consuming conflagration of cobalt, the Godmodder ascends.

And he finally gets his overdue payment from Doc Scratch, becoming the Psi-Godmodder.

GODMODDER: You see that? You SEE that, Omega? Look at how easy that was! I just controlled some poor Descendant and took these Artifacts, and shazam! I'm the Psi-Godmodder now! The only thing I don't have is that Disc, but I honestly doubt it matters. It's just superfluous at this point. Now what do I do with all this power?

GODMODDER: The first thing I'll do is change my color, talk like how he did. It'll be easier to trick people into thinking there's two of us!

GODMODDER: Yeah, that'll do it. That's the perfect use of my limitless potential, changing my text color! ...Alright, seriously. I have all this power and I need to exercise it. But where? Where would be the perfect place for me to strike?

The Godmodder scans the skies of the Void, looking across every universe, every dimension, until he sees it. A shining beacon of knowledge, of documentation. A place where the Gods of Fiction gather in their Pantheons. A place where the laws of Fiction are catalogued, subverted, averted, deconstructed. A place that would be perfect to further his ascension to a point that could not be equaled. And with a grin, the Godmodder knows what he has to do, and where he has to go. And he starts flying off through the Void, ready to strike.

GODMODDER: Watch out, TV Tropes. Here I come.

With Piono and the Godmodder absent from the bedrock cage, Kurak is now the only being left inside. Through the duration of the fight against Alpha and the Godmodder, Kurak has been growing brighter and brighter, the cracks across him becoming more pronounced as his entire essence is torn apart. Finally, the process completes itself, and Kurak explodes everywhere without warning, shattering into tons of dark red shards. The shards stop flying outwards after a second and then fly backwards, reforming into a single shape - an orb.

The orb condenses itself into a small marble-esque object that glows with a dark red power - the same shade as the OP King himself - and is complemented by a grey rune suspended inside. The orb falls to the ground, clinking across the surface of the walkway Piono and the OP King traveled across, bouncing to and fro until it bounces right off the edge of the walkway, plummeting straight into the heart of the Void, below the darkness. And immediately afterwards, two figures appear inside of the bedrock cage: Tricky the Clown and the OP King.

Can you see it?

Ş̀͢e͘͟͠e͢ wha̛t̨̧̕?̀͝ T̶͘͏h͜e̢r͏̧ę'͞͝s ̷̡n͜o̶͟͠t̷̨ḩiǹ͜͏g̨͏ ͘͜her̛͞e̶̛ ̷̶͞TO ̵͟ş́éé.̶̡͞

Nothing? No orb glowing dark red? Say... With a grey rune inside?

I ͝do̢̕n̸̢҉'t̛ ̸kn͞҉͡o̧͟w͞ w̸̕h͝a͘͟t́̀ ͘yo̧ų̢͜'͝r̴e ͝t̷́a̧ļ̀͢k̶̢̡i͘̕n̢̛g̸̨̡ ͡á̵b̵͜͢o̷͘u̢͢t, th̸͢e ̨̀͡ca̷g̷͘e҉̶ ̴̷͝i͡s ̕͏̨e͝m̀͜pt̡y.͢͠

W̧͡h̴y̴̧͞ ͝͏d̶̨͢i̛d͏ ̴͜҉y̨ǫ͟u ̸̡w̵a͞n̢t ̕͜͝t̶̡́o̶ ̸̧co̸͡m̶̕e͘ ̢͡h̡̛e̶̢ŗe̕͟ ̢à͡g̷̶̛a͟i̢͘n̢͝?҉̡͜

Gah! That means there really was nothing here...

D̢o͡eş͝ ̴̛̀th͢at ̶̨҉m̨̛e͟a̢n̛ ̵̶w҉̀e͟'͏r̴e̕ ́͟͜h̢è̵͜ad̷̨̧in͟g̴͠ b̀͝ac̕͟͝k̀̀͞,̵̕ t̡he̛n̶?̴̢́

...

Yes.

The OP King fades away and disappears completely when Tricky warps away, leaving the bedrock cage of Kurak completely empty.

---

In the heart of Universe B, the green light of Minecraft 2.0 is turning back the clock. Stars and galaxies are reforming from primordial dust, flying back into proper places. The fabric of the universe is slowly weaving itself together as if it's being stitched together in a sewing machine. The chunks of Earth, no matter how small or vaporized, are slowly flying back together, regaining shape. Lava, magma, mantle, crust, all reforming together into the approximate shape of a planet swathed in green power.

And caught right in the middle of it is Richard. THE OPERATOR's powers have chained Richard to his own chair, restricting his own movements and searing his skin. Richard is forced to watch as green light pours from his monitor, affecting his computer directly. All of his alts, all infinity of them, are being wiped out of the registries of Minecraft, as if the Godmodder had never existed at all. Richard has enough strength to type one last message from his main account, but after that, it's over. Richard's monitor dissolves into green static, and he's in so much pain that he falls over, his chair clattering to the floor.

But then, Richard hears a message coming from his computer, amidst the static from his monitor and the uproar of everything outside his window. It's a robotic voice trying to get his attention. Richard instantly has flashbacks to Project Binary, but after careful examination, he realizes that this isn't any resurgence of Binary. It's THE OPERATOR, repeating the same phrase over and over again.

MEMENTO MORI

Richard, fighting back his pain, sees something happening to his computer. White electricity is surging around it, and the actual unit is sparking, flickering, whirring erratically. Richard uses his sight beyond to look into his basement - his basement full of an infinite amount of computers. One by one, they're all being affected by the electricity. And one by one, they're exploding. Richard panics, realizing what this means.

Nigh-instantly, the floorboards of Richard's room explode in a massive fireball. The structure of Richard's mansion is torn apart as it is engulfed in a massive mushroom cloud, disintegrating nearly the entire house. The shockwaves reverberate across the entire planet, momentarily pushing back the formation of the new planet Earth. All of Richard's possessions are vaporized in the explosion, except for one - his main computer monitor, which sails through the air and wedges itself in the ground a hundred feet away, still flickering with static and the sounds of laughter.

All that is left of the Godmodder is the massive crater, the few remaining foundations of his mansion, and the massive plumes of smoke where his house once stood only a few seconds prior. Yet as the call of destruction sounds in an unknown hemisphere of the globe, the rest of it is being put together like pieces of a grandiose puzzle. With an imaginary click, Earth is reformed, surges of white and green shockwaves booming across the universe, which snaps back in place.

And then everything went white.

---

Floating in subspace, THE OPERATOR, THE OPERATOR, Split, and the Descendants all contemplate the sudden and abrupt end of the war. This pocket dimension is more of a void than the Void ever was - it looks like a world of nothing, an abyss, a formless expanse. They think back to what had happened only a few minutes ago - the Godmodder had died. And so had Minecraftia. The entire universe had been extinguished.

And, judging THE OPERATOR's words, there wouldn't be much else to look forward to either. The other two universes of the Trifecta had been destroyed as well, and so had the Secret of the Void. This left all the players thinking - what kind of thing would have that power? The power to simultaneously kill three universes and the creator of the Void? The Descendants all realized it must have been the Conflict. Whatever it had up its sleeve wasn't good by any stretch of the term, and it wasn't just evil either. It was nefarious. Sinister. Insidious. And every other evil synonym too.

THE OPERATOR's power wears off, his form flashing in a massive white glow and turning back into normal old Build. Build looks around in the void, sighing and sitting on nothingness. He says what everyone's thinking after several more seconds have passed.

...So. Now what?

At last, the million dollar question. What is there to do now? You all won, yet at a noticeable cost. But a win is a win. Now, I believe it is time for you all to return to your homes.

All I need to do is materialize an exit portal out of this pocket in space, and all you need to do is step through. From there, you will find yourselves wherever you were planning on going at the conclusion of this war.

Those of you who are merely manifestations of avatars will cease to be, and your real selves, the controllers, will go back to their homes. Those of you on the extradimensional phone booth to my right will appear wherever its pilot was planning on taking you.

But... Earth is destroyed! I can't go back there! Not now!

Is it really? Think. Think and look.

...No. No, it isn't! Mojang pulled through! I... I get to go back home! FINALLY!

Gee, hooray for you. I wonder where I'm gonna go now. Maybe back to Limbo? That was my home for a while, after all. Heh.

I guess you're going to go... wherever you want to go. Or maybe where you need to go.

So that means... That means this is goodbye, then.

Yeah. It does.

...

Well I'm not gonna say goodbye to you! Not because I'm staying with you, but because I'm too inconsiderate! Later, suckers!

And here I thought his manners had improved... So close, yet so far.

I still need to create the portal, you know.

Oh. Uh. Right. I definitely knew that.

THE OPERATOR's tentacles all pulsate with liquid darkness, configuring a rectangular shape from the abyss of this pocket dimension. A black rectangle of darkness is chiseled out from the light, and it is suddenly given form as a pulsating portal. THE OPERATOR expands the portal so that everyone can fit at once, and everyone in the pocket stares at the portal in awestruck wonder.

This portal, this gateway, represents the key to everything. A new beginning, a fresh start, a second chance. The opportunity to leave the burdens of this two-year long behind and to focus on new adventures, past and future. The opportunity to live a life separate from the Godmodder, and to live a life of peace for however long it may last. The portal marks the end of a crossroads, a decisive path marked by the choices made by all parties of this war. This is the end result. And when everyone steps through, they will see what they will remembered for on the other side.

And with that, everyone steps through.

---

--of Channel 5 News, and we have an exciting story for you today! Immediately following the apparent destruction of planet Earth by the Moon, everyone has been found back on the planet with no harm done, and everything on Earth is intact! Astronomers have scanned the skies and discovered that the cosmic background radiation of the universe has been drastically altered, interfering with some of their readings. Some scientists theorize that this may be the result of a new Big Bang that just happened minutes ago! It would certainly explain how we're all still here, at any rate. Heheh. ...Anyway.

Only a few minutes ago, Mojang AB, developers of video game Minecraft, which has been the target of a digital-terrorist plot, publically announced that they were involved in this restructure of the universe! It's a bit hard to swallow, but at the very least, all accusations of Mojang being a threat to worldwide security have subsided. Here's what Minecraft's creator, Markus Persson, had to say. "Uh, hello. Normally we don't make press conferences or anything as big as this, but we feel that this is important enough to warrant one. Minecraft's time of being used as a device for terrorists and godmodders is over. We have patched the game so that no one can misuse it ever again, and we even used it to turn back the clock, saving Earth from destruction! You... You can all applaud now." No one applauded due to questioning the authenticity of Persson's claims.

Something of note, however, is that the Moonbase supercomputer overlord Project Binary constructed on our Moon has disappeared without a trace. Furthermore, reports are flooding in of people who had been imprisoned on the Moonbase (all players of Minecraft) have been found back in their homes in perfect condition! And even greater, government officials are claiming that Project Binary is absent from the Conclave, although the Conclave still stands... Could Mojang's absurd claims be true? Have they really changed the world and eliminated Project Binary? I'll leave that for you, the viewers, to decide!

No matter what we claim, the people across the world who have followed the story of the Operation and the war against its perpetrator, the Godmodder, have said that the Minecraft players who fought and killed his ingame representation should be treated as heroes around the world! Multiple governments are definitely considering it, what with the recent findings that Project Binary was not the one who shut down the Operation and destroyed the Godmodder. Files in the Conclave suggest otherwise - that the players of Minecraft have been the true heroes all along! The Government is in the process of authenticating these files, which seem to detail the events of the war against the Godmodder.

Everyone on Earth feels like they've been given a second chance, and no one especially wants to squander this momentous day. Stay tuned for more news as it develops.

---

Elsewhere on the new planet of Earth, we examine a young man walking down a street. He would have been just like any other being on the street if not for several facts - he has skin white as a ghost, startling red glasses, and a startling green coat. Obviously this guy is Build, because it doesn't make sense for a new character to be introduced in the last few minutes of a story. Build walks down the street, looking for something in particular, taking in this brave new world. Everything, just as it once was, before the war. Perfect once again. And then he finds it. His house.

Build's house still stands tall with its unusual (Build prefers the term unique) green paint job. Yet there is something different about it. Multiple things, actually. For starts, there's a large circular field around Build's house that flickers with energy, most likely a force field of some kind. Then, there are several construction drones and guards stationed around his house's perimeter. Build sighs, knowing what this means. Blue's troops are here. The deal he made with her to set up defenses around her house has begun.

Build quickens his pace, noticing the other houses around him and seeing for the time that there's no one around them. There are no cars in the driveway, no people out of their houses. Using his knowledge and sight beyond, Build confirms his suspicion. There's no one on his street. No one except him, these guards, and presumably Blue. Build makes his way to his house, passing through the energy field. He walks to one of the guards stationed by him.

Uh. What is this? What's going on here?

You must be Build.

Yeah, what gave it away? The coat or the glasses?

The fact that you didn't disintegrate upon entering the property.

...Okay, that works too. So this is what Blue meant when she said defenses...

Hm. What are all these drones for?

They're construction drones, here to... construct things.

And I'm just a nameless guard.

Nameless? I doubt that. Everyone's got a name. Names have power! But hey, whatever you say.

...This is weird, to say the least. I figured that when I came back here, everything would be back to normal.

But seeing of all of this around doesn't make me very convinced of that.

...

Sorry, just rambling. Is Blue around?

Yeah, she's somewhere in your house.

Said something about trying Earth food?

Oh, god. She'd better not have raided the fridge... Wait, who am I kidding. Everything in there's probably expired anyway.

Expired?

I'm gonna go. Her and I need to have a talk.

Alright.

Build walks away from the guard and opens the front door of his house, stepping through. He walks throughout his house, seeing all the pictures hanging on the walls, his television, his games... And then he goes to his dining room, seeing someone sitting at its head chair: a woman with black hair and a yellow shirt. Although he hasn't seen her in person before, Build recognizes her instantly as Blue - the organizer of this whole bodyguarding operation.

Blue.

...Build.

I bet you've made yourself comfy in my house, huh? Loving that expired Earth food?

Expiration isn't something that happens in my universe.

Well, news flash: this isn't your universe. Welcome to Earth.

Alright, before I forget, there's something I need to give you.

Build reaches into his pocket and takes out a stick that resembles a flash drive. He throws it to Blue, who catches it and examines it. Build walks towards her as she does so, continuing to talk.

What's this?

The Twinmobile. The entire ship's in that little drive. I'm done with it.

As far as I'm concerned, it's useless to me now. Just another reminder of the war.

Hmm...

Don't ask how I got it there, you really don't want to know.

Alright... No refunds.

Obviously. I thought that would've gone without saying.

Silence.

So... Are you going to try and kill me now? I'm right here, in front of you. There's nothing stopping from you.

Except for the fact that I'm still a deity.

You're still a deity?

Yeah. For right now, anyway. I don't exactly know how long this status will last for.

Then you're overestimating me here.

I'm hardly going to single-handedly kill you.

I asked if you'd try.

Well, the answer is still no.

Ha. Figured as much.

Silence.

...Are you going to stay here forever?

Your house, or Earth?

Both, why not.

The former, god no. I have things to do, a planet to see, governments to subvert.

The latter, well, I imagine I'll get bored of this place eventually.

Alright then. There's a lot to see and do around here, you know. I can't imagine you'll get bored any time soon.

At the very least, stay here until September 1st. Right now it's what, August 4th? So that's a month.

Here being your house, or here being Earth?

Because I'm not going to run through a planet in a few days.

Earth. You'll be able to see what happens all across the globe.

Alright.

Silence. Build sits down in a chair next to Blue, staring at her.

Now I've got another question for you. What did you do with my neighbors?

Oh. I don't usually take care of the small things like that.

The small things? You call that small? There's fifty lives on this street, all of them innocent! They didn't do anything to hurt you!

Wait, I forgot. Fifty lives is small to you. They were probably ju--

If it makes you feel any better, they're alive, in all likelihood.

They're alive? ...Where? Or do you not know that either.

You know what, let me check.

Silence. Blue brings her hand to her ear. After a few seconds, she responds.

Alright... they've been moved across the country, with nice jobs and homes and whatnot.

They're also all sleeper agen--nevermind.

Okay, you know what, fine. I won't press the issue. So long as they're alright.

I don't want to have any more lives in danger based on the choices I've made.

Never again.

Build gets out of his chair and starts to walk away, but Blue stops him.

Here's a question for you. What do you think of my Minion shirt?

Blue stands up so Build can see the shirt. What Build had thought was a yellow shirt was actually a yellow shirt emblazoned with the grinning face of an adorable Minion. Build despises it with every fiber of his being and wants to burn it in the lakes of Hell.

...Eh. It's okay. But... why did you decide to get a Minion shirt?

Product placement.

Minions is owned by Universal.

Universal is owned by Comcast.

Comcast is now owned by... you're a smart guy.

Connect the dots.

...Clever. With the money you make, you can go buy a mansion anywhere you want for all you care.

I mean, you probably had enough money to begin with.

Ha, ha, ha.

...Sigh. I'm sorry if I don't seem as lively as usual.

I'm just... drained.

I'm tired of war, and of its consequences. Aren't you?

Well I'm here, aren't I?

Of course, old habits die hard, so don't be surprised if world events become more exciting.

Great. I've got that to look forward to now. Just when I thought things would be going back to normal...

Forget it. Let me sleep this off for a day.

It's been... nice. Nice talking to you.

I'll leave you be now.

Yeah. See you around.

Build pushes in his chair and walks away from the dining room table, moving to the stairs at the far corner of the room and walking up them. It's time he revisited his past.

---

Build opens the door to his own room - a room he hasn't set foot in for months. It's just as cluttered as he remembers it, things piled up everywhere. Build sees his cubic phonograph at the far corner of the room making a screeching noise, and he walks over to it. The disc that it's playing, pitch-black with a green circle in the middle, has been scratched. A weird cubic pattern has been etched into the middle of the disc, and it probably has been for quite some time.

Well, there's no sense in playing a corrupted disc. Build takes it out and puts it back in its record sleeve, which is labelled as "GODCRAFT'S GREATEST HITS, VOL. 0-2". Build's always been confused about that. How can you have a zeroth disc? It doesn't make any sense. But he found the records when he started up Destroy the Godmodder 2, and they've stayed there since. He loaded up Disc 1 first, until he got killed by Scratch. When he game back to his house, Disc 1 was scratched, so he loaded up Disc 2. And then, during his journey to GodCraft in the Twinmobile, Disc 2 must have been scratched, left in a corrupted state for Build to find only now.

There's no Disc 0 for Build to put on the record player, so he sighs and sits in his computer chair. Build glares at his computer, taking off his rose-tinted glasses. It still stands tall, the same Update Terminal it's been for the past two years. And now, looking at it, Build feels something. Anger. Anger that he was chosen to make this game, to update it. Anger at himself for not following through with it. Anger at the Narrative, at the Conflict, at himself. And Build strikes the keyboard of the Update Terminal in his rage.

Immediately afterwards, Build is filled with intense nerve-wracking pain. He falls out his chair, his form flickering, dissipating, filling with images of the stars, of galaxies, of green plasma. Green tendrils of energy explode from his room as Build feels something separate from him, feels his very being, his essence, wrench itself apart. And just like that, Build is flung to the other side of the room, smoke curling from him. Build trembles, looking at his hands. They... They aren't white anymore. They're the color of his normal skin. Build's coat is tattered and singed, but his black shirt is intact, so he tosses his coat off and stands up.

Build is keenly aware that he doesn't feel anything anymore. He doesn't feel any knowledge beyond, he doesn't feel any narrative-changing power, he doesn't feel any lasers behind his eyes. He's normal. A normal human being. And if he isn't a First Guardian anymore, then that means... it's over. For good. His work is done. Yes, he's no longer a First Guardian... So why does he still see green energy in the middle of the room?

Floating in the center of the room is a figure. A figure that Build thinks is eerily familiar, because it's himself - ghost-white skin, white hair, red glasses, a green hoodie, white pants, white shoes, a white shirt... This is the First Guardian representation of Build, the one that's been in his body for nearly two years, the one that gave him the power to control the Narrative in the first place. Build knew him as TwinBuilder during the war, but after he unlocked greater power and insight during GodCraft's last minutes, he now knows his real name - THE OPERATOR.

BUILD: You're... you're me. You're--

THE OPERATOR, yes. That's my name. And it took you two years to learn it. I may be a genetic duplicate of you, but I'm not exactly like you. I have my own name.

BUILD: If you're genetically identical to me, you are exactly like me. That's biology.

...Fair enough. I still want my own name, though.

BUILD: Names have power?

Hey, I was just about to say that! It's almost like we're...

BUILD: Don't say it, don't say it, don't say it.

Twins.

BUILD: Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

BUILD: That proves that you're me. Only I would make that dumb of a joke.

Alright, let's get real here. I hope you don't take this personally, but someone had to say it sooner or later.

Build, you suck at creating good endings.

BUILD: Yes, I know! This isn't news! Listen, I tried to control everything, I really did! But I guess I just... cracked. I wasn't experienced enough, and things snowballed too quickly for me to be accustomed to everything.

BUILD: I'm sorry. I know that's probably not good enough, but I am.

You should be. You introduced too many pointless things into this war! A forge, a discussion room, IRC chats, sidequests, battles of armies? You created too many distractions! You blinded yourself to the core point of this war - destroying the Godmodder and creating a good ending for everyone involved!

BUILD: Listen, maybe you should have picked someone better, someone more experienced! I had no idea what I was getting myself into, even with omniscience! TT was a great choice because he had experience! He knew what he was doing! He took that war, presented it as a game, and beat that Godmodder into a pulp!

BUILD: So don't pretend I'm the one guy at fault here! You have to answer for this, too! Why did you pick me?

You honestly don't know? You're responsible for my existence! Without you, there would be no me, and there would be no war! It was in the interest of stable time loops! That, and I knew you could tell a story! I had hoped it would end on a good note, but you ended up bungling things up!

The Homestuck Invasion was necessary for my creation, mind you. The genetic codes intertwining my existence dictated that I would ultimately gain two split personalities, and that one would turn to the Red Sun. But everything afterwards shouldn't have existed at all!

The entire rise of Project Binary was completely uncalled for, and it ended up resulting in the formation of the new Conflict and the destruction of three universes! We only managed to salvage it at the last minute, restoring Earth and having the protagonists of Homestuck go off on their merry way, but what about Minecraft?

Minecraft is gone thanks to you!

BUILD: I KNOW! You think it doesn't eat me up inside too? I'm responsible for the deaths of millions of lives, and that number was at BILLIONS before Mojang resetted Earth! And I'm going to be responsible for the lives of everyone in existence if the Conflict reforms...

BUILD: No, sorry. Not if, when, right? I screwed up so badly that it's guaranteed at this point. It's my fault, and it's been my fault all along... No one knows it but us.

...Alright, let's admit it. We both failed these past two years. We both made mistakes. And now it's time to move on.

BUILD: What are you... Where are you going to go after this?

Wherever I can. All across reality if I have to. I won't stop in my new pursuit - my mission to find the perfect candidate for the next battle. If there even is one.

BUILD: The Godmodder. He's not dead, is he.

BUILD: We both saw his mansion explode, but...

I'm unaware of his fate. There's the possibility that he died, but... I really doubt it. And if he's still alive, we need to be ready.

But, we won't need to be for a while.

BUILD: Huh? What do you mean?

THE OPERATOR's glasses shine with energy and display a holographic image in the middle of the room - that of a Minecraft avatar flickering with red energy. Build recognizes it immediately as one of the Descendants.

BUILD: Tazz... That's The_Nonexistent_Tazz! But what does he have to do with anything?

I'm sure you remember his gargantuan attack against the Godmodder - the one that killed him? It's not an attack one easily forgets, after all.

During it, he ascended to become a Guardian of the Red Sun.

BUILD: The Red Sun, huh? That's... odd. Why would he do that? I remember it, but...

It's for a simple reason - I have already chosen my successor. Although, in this case, I have chosen my precursor. The Narrative has a special job for Tazz. He will not dictate the events of the future, but of the past. Something huge happened during the Godmodder's ascension. Something that has the potential to erase this war before it even started at all. It is Tazz's job to make sure that the Godmodder reaches Omega+ rank.

BUILD: And the Red Sun does excel in temporal shenanigans, after all... Hey, that's not a very bad idea!

BUILD: I'm glad I thought of it.

...Clever. All jokes aside, this makes my job much easier, and it gives you all a lengthy breather period before the Godmodder returns, if he does at all.

BUILD: Well, alright then. That's good news! That's... yeah. I never thought I'd actually hear good news ever again.

BUILD: Wait I just thought of something. If I'm not a First Guardian anymore, how will I still be able to finish off this game? How are we even talking at all?

You've got enough power left in you to finish off this epilogue. After that, this whole thing will be out of your hands once again. No more control.

BUILD: ...Alright then. I guess you should go? Just so I can, you know. Finish the job.

Yes, yes. I should be going. But, I need to do one more thing first. Here. I want you to have this.

THE OPERATOR extends his arm, as if pantomiming retrieving something. There's a flash of green and something appears in his hand - a circular object. A disc. THE OPERATOR hands it to Build, who takes it, puzzled.

BUILD: This... this is a record. Why would you give me a record?

That's more than just a record. That's Disc 0 of your game. Just put that on your record player and any corruption or glitches you might have seen throughout the game will vanish in an instant now that there's a new disc to play.

It should officially start after this conversation, and it'll keep spinning for the duration of Tazz's foray into the Narrative. After that, who knows what will happen?

BUILD: I don't know. You?

Perhaps. Oh, and when you run that disc, you should notice something change on your computer. Trust me, you'll like what you see. Take care of it.

BUILD: Wait, what? What does any of that mean? Hey? Where are you going?!

I've got nothing else to do here. I said all I needed to do was give you that record. Now that I've completed that task, I'm off! I don't need to lift a finger for a few months - just like you!

See you around, me!

There's another giant flash of green light, and THE OPERATOR is gone. Build runs to his window, seeing a massive streak of green light spiral into the skies. He thinks fondly to himself about all the great things he got done during the time he spent at that Update Terminal with those powers... But now, that time is over. Build sits down at his computer, which is still an Update Terminal, even though it won't be for long. His First Guardian status is fleeting, but he has time to type up just a few more paragraphs.

Meanwhile, Split stands some distance away, watching the incident with Build and THE OPERATOR from the vantage point of a tree. He could probably pass through that force field, what with being a copy of Build, but he decides not to for now. Split teleports away in a flash of red light. There's work to do.

---

---

---

September 1st has arrived. In the weeks after the rebirth of Earth and the fall of the Godmodder, the governments of the world and the general public have learned everything about the war against the Godmodder - how the fabled Descendants took a stand against his corrupt battle, taking on everything in their path, braving perils and trials that no mere video game could possess, and ultimately defeating him and Project Binary in one fell swoop. To remember the two-year anniversary of the Operation, the digital plot that changed the course of human history, the government of the United States has declared September 1st as a national holiday - Descendants' Day. Other countries across the world have followed suit.

From the ashes of the Second Godmodding War, the world has learned some uncomfortable truths. There are people with the capability to hack into millions of computers at once. There are governments with the capability to enslave the entire human race, and there are governments who approved the construction of supercomputers that enslaved the human race. There are, if the word of Minecraft's players are to be believed, universes outside of our own, and intelligent life outside of our own. There are, if Mojang's words are to believed, people with the capability to reset the course of history and re-create entire universes.

The world will not take the fallout of the war kindly. But today, the world will reflect on the years spent in uncertainty and terror, blindly looking at anything that could get them out of this situation, the inescapable fact that the Operation was merely a signal, a flare - a kickstart to the end of human civilization. Everyone has been given a second chance, and it would be in their best interests to not screw it up. And everyone knows this.

Immediately after the reset of the universe, the Conclave was torn down, whatever documents and files that were important or useful being collected and locked away in unmentionable vaults. And immediately after the death of the Conclave, plans were created. Plans for a monument, a testament to the greatness of the chosen few who stood up against the vile practices of the Godmodder. They were regarded the world over as heroes, perhaps some of the bravest warriors the Earth had ever known - and that wasn't even mentioning the rumors that some of them weren't human at all. Eventually, a monument was designed and built within the span of a month, installed in the shadow of the Conclave. The day where it will be officially unveiled is today - September 1st.

Mojang has made Minecraft available for download once again, adding several new features inspired by the war against the Godmodder - tons of new blocks and items, new combat features, and even more. And although the update wasn't a complete restructure and rebranding of Minecraft, Mojang couldn't resist naming the new update after the patch that had saved the universe - Minecraft 2.0. Although many are still bitter at Mojang for creating the platform the Godmodder antagonized the world from, they are grateful after players around the world confirmed what Mojang had said - they had helped destroy the Godmodder. Many claim that Notch himself dueled the Godmodder at the top of a tower, and that they saw the whole ordeal happen in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The team of Mojang is hailed as heroes, and they have come out of hiding, developing Minecraft once more in their headquarters - the one above the ground. Minecraft sells many more copies as everyone who plays it falls in love with it all over again. The mass amount of purchases is galvanized by a sale going on for only one day, which is today - September 1st.

Later in the day, the monument for the Descendants in Washington D.C. is officially unveiled by the President. A massive crowd has gathered to hear him give a speech on the war and its effects on the human race. The President is welcomed by massive applause. "My fellow Americans, and all those watching around the world. One year ago today I made an announcement in Washington D.C. that claimed that the players of GodCraft who attacked the Godmodder were treasonous and were to be persecuted. When I made that announcement, I was being manipulated by the supercomputer intelligence known as Project Binary. He told me to make that announcement, because he believed that the players were evildoers. I stand here one year later to gladly debunk his claims.

"These players of Minecraft, the soldiers of this war on digital terror, have fought the Godmodder tooth and nail to restore balance and order. We believe they should be thanked for their efforts, wherever they are and whomever they may be. Although we don't know the identities of these 'Descendants', we recognize their virtues and what they have accomplished - a world without the Godmodder. It is with great joy that I announce the unveiling of this monument to the Descendants - 'The Hexahedron'!"

The goldenrod curtains which had been organized behind the President, obscuring the monument, part. Everyone sees the monument in all its glory - a massive stone cube chiseled on top of a pedestal. Inscribed on the pedestal are the names of the Descendants, all those who fought against the Godmodder and won. There is also a message to them - "WE KNOW NOT WHO YOU ARE OR FROM WHERE YOU CAME, BUT WE KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE". When the crowd sees this, they erupt in massive applause and cheers, cheers that resonate all across the world.

All troubles are forgotten, all pain taken away, all strife absolved, on this day, today.

September 1st.

---

Build finishes watching his television, which is broadcasting the unveiling of the monument. He retreats upstairs, looking down on the guards still stationed by his house. There haven't been any incidents with anyone as of yet, but Build knows that one day, there will be. And he'll be ready. Build logs onto his computer, booting up Minecraft. He's greeted with the title screen, one that, for once, he has the option to quit from. Build clicks the multiplayer option, and scrolls down to the last server on his list.

A server named GodCraft.

---

Deep within the code of Minecraft, its repository of servers, there lies a small whitelisted server, one that nearly no one in existence knows about, save a select few. A chosen few. This copy of GodCraft, down to the exact detail, was given to Build by THE OPERATOR as a gift, a reminder, a preservation of GodCraft, before the Tower, before the Incarnate, before the Mate. When it was in its prime, after Zero Hour, after the Invasion, the Shatter, the Scratch. And it is here that all of the Descendants have gathered, on this day, today - September 1st.

Everyone has gathered in the form of a celebration, a party, a dance. No. That's an understatement. This is no mere party, no mere dance. Those are miniature terms used to describe the event currently unfolding to a lesser mind. No, this is the pinnacle of entertainment, the definition of enjoyment. This is a flash mob. THE Flash Mob. The one that was started and unceremoniously ended over a year ago. And now, everyone has joined in.

A copy of Grayhold rests in the center of the Flash Mob, which stands as the capital of a new city: Rainbow Rumpus Party Town II: Interpretive Boogaloo. Surrounding Grayhold is a massive Buffet Forest full of every type of food imaginable, and surrounding the Forest is the town itself, full of shining residences, homes, business, hotels, and black markets. The entire town has no one color and no one hue, flickering and shifting between every color like a living rainbow transposed onto solid ground. A magic circle emblazoned with runes and symbols floats in the sky, encircling the town, shimmering with colors that reflect those of the town. An infinite amount of balloons steadily fall from the sky, all in various colors to represent the spectrum of power that is the Flash Mob.

In the middle of the Flash Mob, there is an array of loudspeakers, each pounding and pulsing with the flow of dubstep cranked up to the penultimate nonlethal volume setting, all linked up to a large DJ soundboard. Four thousand members of the Entertainment Brigade are partying on top of the buildings of Rainbow Rumpus Party Town II, armed with shoulder-mounted boomboxes and dubstep guns, broadcasting the sound of destruction concealed in music from across the entire server. The shell of a Machine is hooked up to the soundboard as well, playing even more dubstep and firing laser lights all across the sky, illuminating everything.

Friendly bees buzz all around the Flash Mob, forming dazzling coordinated patterns while flying through the sky. They serve honey to anyone and everyone amidst a dazzling backdrop of fireworks and non-lethal meteor showers, lighting up the sky with nearly every color imaginable. Lasers of null-light flicker in to the sky as well, creating a dazzling light show of the absence of color. Several arrays of Table Legs are co-ordinated to fire at random intervals, leaving behind dazzling streaks of light and serving as even better fireworks. A flowing holographic emerald dragon dances around the town, bellowing streams of emerald fire that light up the sky.

And then there's the actual dancing. There are multiple dance floors stationed all across the room with a multitude of backup dancers to accompany them. Video screens are displayed all across Rainbow Rumpus Party Town II, showing various people dancing and a highlight reel of events of the war - the deaths of the Godmodder's entities, crucial victories, and more. There are refreshment tables and disco balls everywhere, the former of which provides lotsa spaghetti, food, and drinks, and the latter of which casts patterns of light all across the dance floors. And dancing in the middle of the dance floors are, somewhat predictably, the Descendants themselves.

All of them, all the ones who stayed up until the very end of the war, have organized this massive resurgence of the Flash Mob to commemorate and reflect on two long and hard years spent fighting the same menace - the Godmodder. The Godmodder who had created this server two years ago, who had trapped every Minecraft player inside, who had created robotic Mechs to stop them, who had recruited accomplices to aid him, who had used a monolith to summon a copy of himself, who had recruited the help of the villains of an entire universe, who had crashed this Flash Mob when it first started, and who had brought about the apocalypse itself through a series of increasingly complex Trials. But now, he will be known as the Godmodder who was destroyed - twice.

No one exactly knows how the server was brought back online. They just know they got a message from Build shortly after everyone went through the portal out of GodCraft, telling the server's new IP. And when everyone invariably decided to see if they could actually get onto the server, they did. Today marked the first time everyone was on at once, but over the past week or so, everyone had been planning for this day. Planning for the new Flash Mob.

Although the universe of Minecraftia had been destroyed, GodCraft was still able to function completely as normal thanks to the tons upon tons of plugins installed on the server. At the very least, the Flash Mob and all the surroundings of GodCraft were able to work. Minecraft no longer being a universe limited everyone to using only avatars, which presented a slight problem. Thankfully, everyone was able to gather today to reminisce on the old days. Not necessarily the good old days, although to some it might have been.

When the Descendants see Build has entered the server, they stop dancing, looking as all the video screens of the Flash Mob switch to showing Build standing on top of a nearby hill. Build teleports directly in the middle of the Flash Mob, looking at everyone in awe, jumping and sneaking at the same time. Everyone responds in kind. Build begins to speak.

BUILD: Hey there, everyone! Thanks for making it. I know this is my first time on this server, and I haven't been around to properly greet you guys... But that changes today!

BUILD: You all deserve a break period, some rest and relaxation. And I'm here to say that you should all feel proud of yourselves, because that's exactly what you're getting!

BUILD: The Narrative doesn't need us! Not for a good long while, anyway. So with that...

Build grabs a nearby microphone and yells into it.

BUILD: Let's get this Flash Mob STARTED!

And the flash mob dances off into the sunset.

> END OF ACT 5

--, this is the Local Channel-KZZT-News, here with an unprecedented announcement. Reports have been flooding in across the-KZZT-of the local Richard Mansion burning down seemingly overnight. No one remembers the Mansion being like this before the universal skip, so speculation is abound. Did this happen as a result of the skip? Did it happen immediately afterwards? The authorities have seemingly pinned the mansion's destruction as the result of the detonation of a large amount of volatile materials below the mansion's floor, creating a massive fireball that obliterated the mansion and anyone that was inside.

Little has remained, with some stray wreckage of the foundations and roof being the only things that have persisted through the explosion. Authorities have searched the rubble and have found no survivors. The owner of the mansion and anyone else who may have been inside are presumed dead as a result. Hauntingly, some of the wreckage has been arranged in the shape of an apparent shrine, with odd patterns etched into its wood. Authorities are unable to find any cause of this, so perhaps it was manmade.

We now go to-KZZT-, who is live on the scene. Tell us what you see, go ahead.

Thank you,-KZZT-. I'm here at the remains of Richard Mansion, which looks like a setting straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie - technically not far from where humanity was just a month ago. As you can see, the mansion is completely totaled, with only some stray foundations and pieces remaining. Even those are broken, burnt, and wedged into the ground from the force of the explosion. Police and firemen have searched the ruins thoroughly for any survivors, but haven't found any--oh? What's this?

It looks like there's a computer monitor stuck in the ground not far from where I'm standing, and it's... on? How is that possible, it's not plugged into anything... Hmm. It appears to just be displaying static. Anyway, yes. You can see that nothing has really survived, although all neighboring houses are thankfully untouched. Yes, the neighboring... hmm. Neighboring what, exactly? Wait, what the hell am I even doing here? Where am I? What's going on here?! Someone GET ME O--KZZT

...Well, it looks like it's back to us. Uh. I have no idea what I was just reporting, or what our live reporter was doing next to the apocalypse, so why don't we move on? In recent reports, Mojan--KZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT

---

The destruction of the Godmodder's home did not go unnoticed. The people who lived around him saw what had happened immediately, and then the local authorities got involved. They all searched the wreckage, found whatever spare items they could carry, and left. And then the government got involved. Spurred onward by the restructure of the universe, the government of the United States had traveled around the world, searching for any anomalies that had occurred as a result of the universal skip.

They ultimately came here, to an unknown corner of the world forgotten by space and time, to the remains of Richard Mansion. They found nothing of any note - except for the remains of scattered machinery found below the mansion's premises. Massive amounts of machinery, enough to fuel an untold amount of computers. They were all burnt and severely damaged, nearly unusable. No doubt they were what caused the explosion. But the government took them all the same, not even knowing that they had stolen the Godmodder's most prized possessions, and not even knowing they were in the home of the Godmodder at all.

And so, the curtains closed on the tale of the Godmodder. A sad story interwoven across the fabric of existence of a man whose hobby resulted in the deaths of billions of living organisms, the destruction of two universes, and a conflict that spread across reality and reignited the Conflict itself, kickstarting the creation of the most unfathomable evil existence had ever known. A sad story of a man who only wanted to play a game, and whose nightmares became reality when he found a persona to hide behind. A persona of projected infallibility, the belief that no one could touch him. But things could touch him, as was proven on the day his mansion exploded. He wasn't immune to everything, as he was - like everyone else on the planet - only human.

The whole world turned their backs on the Godmodder that day. He was dead, he was gone, and the whole world was moving on in his absence. His deeds would be remembered for generations to come as the turning point where humanity, in the face of adversity, persevered. Where a select group of people put their lives on the line for the fate of the entire human race. They put their lives at risk to fight the Godmodder himself, the root of all evil in the minds of the world. But out of sight, out of mind. The Godmodder was nowhere to be seen, and so the world forgot about him in favor of a new tomorrow.

It was over. The Godmodder had lost once again. But more importantly, the Godmodder had died in the explosion that destroyed his only refuge.

Or had he?

/

This has been Destroy the Godmodder 2: Operator. Thank you for playing. I'm not exactly sure where to begin, so let me turn back the clock to, let's say, three years in the past.

Back then, I had a terrible computer. It loaded the Internet very slowly, I couldn't play browser games of any kind, and it was daily antivirus checks that kept it alive at all. It was a clunker, it was inefficient, but it was all I had, and it was what I had all my life. When I was younger I would love going to my relative's houses - at least they had computers that could play games.

Three years ago, in October 2012, I got a new computer - the one I own now. But this wasn't just any ordinary computer. It was a computer custom-built to play video games. My first purchase was Bejeweled 3. Yeah. What a great game, huh? Well yes, it is actually, but that's besides the point. When I asked my friends in school what I should get on my computer, they answered with the same reply, the game that everyone around was talking about - Minecraft.

I had first heard of Minecraft a few months earlier, when a friend I knew wouldn't stop talking about it. I went over his house once and saw him playing it on his computer. It was a world full of cubes, tools, item-making, and apples. I saw him create a golden apple there, and I thought, this must be a game about exploring, finding hidden treasures, and doing whatever you want! I wasn't that far off.

I bought Minecraft on October 6th, 2012. A Saturday. I was ready to get right into the game and learn all about its seemingly limitless world - but there was a problem, and a big one at that. Whenever I played in a new world for more than a few seconds, it started to lag. And when I say lag, I mean lag. As in, the most horrendous lag you've ever seen. It made the game downright unplayable.

I was ready to shelve Minecraft as a failure and move on. But then I found out that there was a cause to this glitch. The game had automatically set its render distance to 'Far', but that required having 64-bit Java. I didn't have 64-bit Java, so the game lagged. I installed 64-bit right away, and the lag problems stopped. I was ready to play Minecraft.

And I played, definitely. Minecraft became the defining game for me, the game that pushed me (for the most part) away from consoles and towards the PC. I got Steam and downloaded other games, Portal 2, Team Fortress 2, FEZ, Antichamber... All of which intrigued me and interested me like never before.

And it was while I was on the computer playing a game that my brother came into the room and showed me something he had found on the Minecraft Forums. We had never really gone on the forums before, and just occasionally lurked. But on that day in mid-March, he had decided to go onto the Forum Games section and take a look. Seeing the word "godmodder" on the front page and not knowing what it meant, he decided to take a look.

Thus, in mid-March, I learned of Destroy the Godmodder's existence. I was captured by it. It was so cool to me, the endless possibilities of throwing whatever you could think of at an all-powerful Minecraft player. It was amazing, it was funny, it was everything I had thought possible on the Internet at the time. The players constantly went on hilarious antics, and TT2000 kept them all in line.

Yet I never had a forum account, so I couldn't have played. When I first saw the game, it was around page 90. A new wave of Terrors had been summoned, and Steve and the Relic were on the field. I saw the game grow and expand, more and more attacks being typed up, more and more entities being summoned. And then, the Mystery Gate - a mainstay of the Battlefield with an (at the time) gargantuan 1,000,000 HP, was destroyed.

A new direction had opened up, a sidequest where players went into the mysterious Void. When I saw that, I knew I had to join. I knew I had to be a part of this new frontier alongside everyone else. And hey, my experience from reading everything thus far would help out a lot. I wouldn't be trapped by the mistakes other noobs had made - summoning Chuck Norris, banning the Godmodder...

I joined Destroy the Godmodder on May 9th, 2013. And we've already covered what I did afterwards. Almost got kicked into a pit, got kicked due to inactivity, got some swords, got a FEZ, created a Glitch, summoned GLaDOS, and helped out in any way I could. And then I started to worry. What would happen when the game was over? The Godmodder would be too powerful to defeat twice in one game. It wouldn't repeat endlessly like Destroy the Tower.

I didn't want it to stop, no doubt about that. And I felt confident that I could be the one to continue it. I had no experience in managing a forum game whatsoever, but that wouldn't stop me from trying. Besides, how hard could it be, right? Hahahaha. Famous last words.

I sent TT2000 a private message on July 12th, 2013. It was titled "Destroy the Godmodder 2?", and in it, I told TT that I didn't want to see the thread die, and I asked the rights to make a sequel. He said I could do it under two conditions: give him credit and don't make it be a carbon copy. As you can see, I've delivered on both counts - I've given credit and if you think this is a carbon copy of the first game, you need a lobotomy.

The game went on, and no one knew about my exchange with TT until the very end of the game, when I woke up on a late-summer morning to find that the game was over. The Anti-Chuck Norris Turret Tank had been destroyed, and the Godmodder was up for grabs. Anyone could claim the title as the destroyer of the Godmodder, anyone at all! Or so I had thought. Crusher48 ended up being the victor of the game, as he posted first, in a very suitably epic attack.

I started Destroy the Godmodder 2 on September 1st, 2013. More accurately, I started it at 2:48 PM - a mere seven hours after the first game ended. I didn't want there to be a lull in between games. On the contrary, I wanted to capitalize on the hype that the end of the first game had brought. And so I executed my plan, setting it into motion. The Godmodder would make his own server, trap everyone on, and it would be up to the players to stop him.

I fully intended to deliver on the promise that the game wouldn't be a carbon copy, and I figured that due to player interactions, entity summons, and my own ideas, I wouldn't have a hard time following up on that. I expected that the game would mature and steer its own path, but I had no way of knowing it would metastasize into the absolutely titanic thing that it became two years later.

Maybe if I had known, I wouldn't have made the game. If I had a time machine today and I went back in time two years ago to tell my younger self what an absolutely extravagant monstrosity he'd make by pressing the "Post Thread" button, I honestly don't think I would have done it. There have been a lot of real consequences to making this game that I wouldn't have been prepared for, not the least of which being its absurd length.

During the summer of 2013, I got into Homestuck, in addition to several other games besides Minecraft - the ones I mentioned earlier. All of these games, all of my interests, swirled into my head as I typed up Destroy the Godmodder 2, updating it as frequently as I could to the best of my ability. I tended to let my interests and what I liked flow into the game, so I added a Team Fortress 2 minigame, made an event with Homestuck as a basis, added items ripped straight from FEZ, and reintroduced characters from Portal. That definitely had something to do with why the game became what it is, but I'm convinced there was another factor - the timing.

As I just said, I made the game only seven hours after the first one ended. Because of this, everyone - and some new people - flocked to my new thread right away, checking it out and continuing the madness. And yes, it was definitely madness. With everyone posting so frequently and being drawn to the thread like moths to a digital flame, things quickly spiraled out of my control. Let's put this into numbers.

In just over four hours, Destroy the Godmodder 2 accumulated 100 posts, becoming a "HOT" thread back when those were still a thing. By the time I shut off the computer to go to sleep, the thread had accumulated another twelve posts - in another hour. The next day, when I went to look at how the game was going, I was terrified to see that 53 new posts (three entire pages) had sprung up in my absence. I frantically responded to all of them at once. 24 hours after I made the thread, Destroy the Godmodder 2 had gained 225 posts - 12 pages.

That was the first sign that something was wrong, that maybe I should have reconsidered making a sequel. Although that meteoric rise to popularity was never reached again, things went downhill from there. Massive charges and entities were springing up right off the bat when they had been virtually absent in the original thread's early days, and although there were no more "12 pages in 24 hours" days, there were still quite a lot of posts for the time. I wasn't used to 40-post turns, as the original thread had never gotten that much attention.

Thus came the source of my naiveté. I had assumed that this game would be functionally alike to the original in the way it progressed. I couldn't have been more wrong. From that first day, Destroy the Godmodder took an entirely different direction, and it - relatively quickly - gained an actual story. Drawing from the actions of players and ideas that had begun to form in my head, I turned a directionless plot into a story with twists and turns.

When people began to summon TIE-Fighters, I engineered a conflict against a Hivemind in a thrilling space battle. When Homestuck started being referenced, I alluded to a sidequest in a far-off temple, steered the players there, and had them get to the temple's hidden treasures with a harbinger of doom that fell from the skies itself. Then I had the cast of Homestuck appear on the field, and then its villains began interacting with the story. Then the Homestuck Invasion happened, and then alchemies started appearing, and then I became a First Guardian, viewing the all-too-real conflict of Minecraftia through a computer screen.

I'm not the first to say that the references and allusions quickly went out of hand, and I doubt I'll be the last. But they definitely did. Just a few months in, Homestuck had an influence on the story that could not be ignored by any stretch of the imagination, and for an entire Act, it was the story. That was good and bad - bad in that if you didn't like Homestuck, the story wasn't all that accessible, and good in that if it wasn't for Homestuck, I can't say for certain that I would have upheld TT2000's wish of DTG2 not being a carbon copy.

After the Homestuck plot had wrapped up, a full year had passed, and I was free to do whatever I wanted with the story and take it a brand new direction. I had begun thinking far ahead, planning out plot points that wouldn't be acted on for months - it was during the time of Intermission 2 that I began seriously planning the End of Act 4's fight against Binary. And with Act 3 came a new villain - Project Binary.

I uploaded the longest cutscene of its time on September 1st, 2014. Project Binary's true plans were revealed, to take out Minecraft from the inside out and to establish an elite team to do so. There was a new threat, and one that was more serious than anything that had come before it. The storytelling process was galvanized by the fact that I could draw pictures to add onto the game, pictures that started off sloppy but refined themselves into the series of posts that stand above this one.

This early part of Act 3 was the best part of the game for me - there were no story elements clogging up the game, and it was like a return to the good old days of the original, with an amount of new gameplay twists that were varied enough to keep things interesting. Then the latter half of Act 3 came, and things worsened in a way I hadn't foreseen - the game became as slow as molasses.

The Massive Battle of Armies was meant to be a point where everyone could wrap up their plotlines in a satisfying battle between everyone and everybody. I called it the beginning of the endgame, and it was meant to signal a shift where story would directly influence gameplay, leading right into the Trials - Act 4. To be blunt, it wasn't. The so-called "endgame" ended up lasting for nearly a year, as evidenced by me typing this eleven months later. Although the MBoA and the Glitch that followed it were good in theory, they dragged on for too long in practice, delaying the inevitable end of the game.

Act 4 helped that - at first. The first two Trials were simple enough that they could be completed in a short amount of time, but starting at Trial 3, the same problem happened - things happened two slowly, and the pacing of the game was shot in the foot. Trial 4, Trial 5, Trial 6, and Trial 7 all had this problem to varying degrees. I kept setting deadlines for myself, saying that I'd end the game here, then here, then there... and then I stopped setting deadlines after a while.

But here we are, in a series of posts that have been 730 days in the making. The game has ended, no doubt about that. I don't have any tricks left to pull in this thread, no more fake endings, no more psycheouts. This is it. Pat yourselves on the back. You've made it. You've made it to the very end of the game. The Godmodder has been destroyed, as has Project Binary.

I hope that I put on a good show. The story I was trying to tell with this game was one with as much action as I could muster, one that would keep everyone on their toes, wondering when the next surprise would jump out of the shadows. I know I can't please everyone with my storytelling, but I'm sure that I would have gone insane if I'd tried.

I know I could have done better, I really do. I recognize that I've made a lot of mistakes with regards to gameplay, player interactions, and the story. I let some things happen when they shouldn't have, I let some things not happen when maybe they should have. After a certain point, the main problem was this - I essentially became disconnected from the playerbase in a way. In my efforts to tell a story, I somewhat ignored all the side-antics going on, railroading everyone into doing X, Y, and Z. But that's not what Destroy the Godmodder is about. It's about choice and unexpected opportunities.

I think I failed on that regard. But on many others, I've succeeded. The amount of praise I've gotten from this game has been overwhelming, with many people praising me for what I've done and what I've sacrificed to get to this point. I've even gotten virtual hats over Steam - and a solid australium minigun. (Shoutout to Irecreeper, K4yne, and ninjatwist!) I've had people praise me for gameplay, dialogue, artwork, and storytelling. And this game has gotten me to do something - purchase a digital tablet and expand my horizons to art on the computer. For that, I am eternally grateful.

So, the million dollar question. All this GMing, all this planning, all this time spent on a computer leading up to this moment. Was it worth it, in my eyes? Was it all worth it in the end? To be quite honest, I'm not sure. This game has exercised my creative potential and my storytelling in ways I didn't think possible. It's been, in short, a learning experience. A definite learning experience.

I hope you all think it's worth it, at the very least. Because I've sacrificed a lot to do this. I've spent countless hours hunched over on a chair, mashing my fingers onto a keyboard to produce the words and phrases and sentences and paragraphs and walls that you've all (hopefully) read. Too many times I've been told that I'm doing too much, that I should stop the game prematurely. Too many times I've been asked why what I'm doing is so complicated, why it's been taking so long. Too many times I've had to not visit friends or family, go outside or go on special events because I've been busy locked away in a room as a digital scribe. My grades suffered for a time. My relationships with family and friends suffered. My relationship with the world has suffered.

So, was it worth it? Now you know why I'm not sure. I know I've told you all that I've sacrificed a lot before, and I know it might come across as begging for sympathy. I'm not trying to. I just want all of you to know what the cost of fame and greatness is. I want all of you to know that if you're thinking of making something like this, a massive and gargantuan plot - don't.

Or at least, don't do it like I did. I rushed myself, I didn't stop to think about what I was doing. I bit off more than I could chew, and it nearly backfired several times. Sure, it all ended up okay seeing as I'm typing this right now and not an "I'm cancelling the thread" post. But I still made a lot of mistakes. So here's my advice. Here's the lesson that I want you to take away from my tale.

Don't think as big as I did. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Think about what you can accomplish, and then set out to do it. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't seal yourself away from the outside world. Don't be afraid to live. Because as an operator once said, memento mori.

...Alright, that's enough melodramatic faux-psychological rambling from me. I've examined this thread enough. Let me answer the billion dollar question - what's next? Well I'm glad you asked, me. Here's what's next.

The next game in the Destroy the Godmodder series will not be a sequel, but a prequel. The_Nonexistent_Tazz is going to be the game master of the next game on this very forum: Destroy the Godmodder: Origins, or DTG0 for short. He's already talked about it plenty, but consider this the official announcement. You all will fight alongside the Godmodder as he tries to combat the unhinged UserZero to obtain the status of Omega+ Godmodder. I'll definitely be playing, so I'll see you all there!

As for Destroy the Godmodder 3... I'm honestly not sure what to do about it. TT and I had both assumed that there would be many people who wanted the title of the game master for DTG3, but not many people seemed interested in the part at all. Now that DTG0 is coming soon, the need for a DTG3 has diminished - so much, in fact, that I wonder if there will even be a third game. I know people (including me) have planned for one, but I don't know if it'll be a reality at all.

I planned the ending for this game in a certain way: I wanted it to seem final, like it would be a fitting end for the series as a whole, but I also wanted to leave some ambiguity so that if there is a DTG3, then this ending will set up the grounds for it. If there isn't, then I think I'll be happy with this ending. I feel like DTG2 ended on a very strong note. Not quite a happy one, since Minecraftia is gone for good, but a strong one. I've tied up (nearly!) everything, so there's that...

If DTG3 does end up being a reality, here's what I have to say for its future game master: take my advice. I desperately want DTG3 to be on a smaller scale than DTG2, and I know I've said that already. Don't think as big as I did. It prolongs the end of the game and adds too much stuff to keep track of. Just do that, and you should be golden...

Spinoff-wise, there are four games going on right now. There's the sequel to the TV Tropes game, called Destroy the Godmodder 2: Salvation. As you saw up above, it turns out that Alpha is the godmodder attacking TV Tropes! If you decide to play Salvation, you'll be seeing a lot more of him. Then there's a game going on on the Chocolate Pi forums - Destroy the Godmodder: MSPA Edition! Alpha's there too, and I have a hunch the kids and the trolls will turn up there before long. There's a spinoff of a doomed timeline of DTG2 called DTG2: Infinity that you can find on the DTG Forums, and lastly, there's a spinoff on this very forum called Destroy the Godmodder S: Acolyte! Hopefully at least one of these interests you, so go check them out! Their creators are working hard on them.

Now, work on DTG2 isn't 100% done either. Yes, I've finished the story, but there's still several things I need to get done. I doubt I'll work on the Echeladder/Forge Database ever, seeing as they're useless now. I might still do it for completionist reasons, though. Here's what's more urgent.

Crusher, I haven't forgotten about you! I will type up your Comb Rave, I just haven't been able to due to the EOA4 and this. In addition to that, there's a "lost turn" in Act 3 that I'll need to retype, and I'll need to rollback all the turns that were affected by the new editor throughout Act 2. Plus, I'll need to work on a new feature that I'll add in the OP: I've been going back and separating the acts and intermissions into chapters for archival readers! When I'm done, I'll add all of them at once so everyone can go back and read.

I'm going to be active outside of DTG as well. I'm planning future projects that will involve my digital tablet. The most ambitious of these is Trifecta, and its existence is dubious at best. I don't want to repeat the mistakes that led to DTG2's story, which were pushing myself and thinking too big. If I find some way to make Trifecta work, I'll do it. If not, then I guess there won't be a Trifecta.

I have a couple of other projects planned, and all I'm going to reveal about them are names: Pie Quest and The Tingleheads. What do those mean, you ask? All will be revealed in Time.

It's just... Wow. Looking back, it's hard to believe that two years have passed since I made this game. Once again, I want to thank anyone and everyone who's played this game, and especially those who have played long enough to be reading this right now! YOU guys are the reason this game has survived and thrived as long as it has, and I want to thank you for that. What good is a show without an audience, after all?

And on a final note: for all the things I've been through, and for the massive journey I've been a part of, it's hard to believe the fact that this is my first forum game. No, I'm not joking when I say that! It really is! And it's hard to believe that my first experience in forum game management turned into this. I said this game was a learning experience, and it definitely is. I've learned to never make another forum game as long as I live. If there's one thing this game has done, it's turn me away from being the manager of something.

I've been that long enough. It's time that I became the player again.

Alright then, that's it! I've officially run out of stuff to talk about, so that means the curtains have officially closed on Destroy the Godmodder 2: Operator. It's been a wild ride, and it's... it's hard to believe that it's actually over. For good.

I'm TwinBuilder! And as always,

Stay tuned.

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