Vanquishing the Void

## Author

Tox

***Vanquishing the Void*** was a book written by Tox during Dragonhollow's Fourth Era.

It chronicled twin expeditions into The End to defeat the Ender Trinity, with a specific focus on the adventurers themselves. Because Tox deliberately chose not to participate in the event out of a sense of guilt for raiding nearly all of the Hyper Dungeons in Dungeon Quest, he decided instead to be the scribe for those that had. The book's companion piece was *They Were What They Ate*.

## Content

***Prologue***

Today I talk of titans. Of firecasters. Of the void.

I am referring, of course, to the recent expeditions to The End to defeat a trio of mighty dragons. Much discussion has been devoted to the dragons, some of it cogent, most of it wildly speculative. You can even read about these strange theories in my book *They Were What They Ate*, available at Tox's Tomes in the Snowcrest Library.

But this is not about dragons. This is about dragonslayers.

No, not *The Dragon Slayers*, that detested band of marauders whose immortal souls are said to still burn evermore in Grim's purgatory. *Dragonslayers—*those courageous champions who ventured into the void as dark horses and emerged as vanquishers.

They came from all corners, driven by their own motives. Some sought renown or vainglory, others were loot hounds looking for treasure. A few were just bored out of their gourd.

From my cabin behind the church I saw them marching on Summergate. Several stopped by—first Retro and Jinx, then Hyper himself—but I told them the same thing...there was nothing they could say to convince me to join their journey.

Not this time. I entered the Wither Chamber. Survived the wars of Northham. Raided the Hyper Dungeons. Even danced with dragons. I had my day. Now they have theirs.

Not one of them could call me a coward, so they shrugged and moved on. Killers all, off to kill or be killed.

"Godspeed, you magnificent bastards," I shouted after them with a wistful gleam in my eye. Would that I were with them. My penance is this book, documenting their deeds.

***Into The Void***

It began as little more than whispers on the wind. Vague rumors of a coming challenge. Then something more substantial, a direct announcement from HyperSilence, right hand of the goddess Eris: that the three deadliest dragons in history had taken up residence in The End and it would be well worth the time and effort for those who dared to face them.

In Summergate there is a courtyard between Town Hall and Lignum Vitae where lies the Fountain of Dreams, at the center of which is a white beam leading to the Cake Run. It was here that HyperSilence opened a portal upon its waters, a quantum breach that tunneled into the heart of The End itself.

The End.

*The Void.*

Once the dragon is defeated, there is little reason to ever go there again, not even for ender pearl farming now that one can purchase enderman spawners from the Snowcrest Underground.

For it sets even the sanest minds ill at ease. A place of perpetual purple, interminable, unfathomable. Even the *name* is a lie, for it is in truth endless, a nameless nothing that goes on forever. A *void.*

Save for that lone endstone island, now twisted by the same magic which produced the Hyper Dungeons, the work of HyperSilence himself. On the other side of that fountain portal is a bedrock maze with winding tunnels leading up above to towering spires of obsidian. Each bearing no ordinary end crystal but a so-called Mega Crystal, vibrating with untold arcane power.

Power that constantly regenerates the life of the island's three powerful ender dragons: **Ymir**, hardest to kill; **Bellona**, deadliest of the trio; and **Night Fury**, the "fastest dragon ever." Ever they roam the black skies.

Awaiting the day someone dares to vanquish the void...

***First Expedition***

Dolphin pierced the dark veil first, having beaten his companions by traveling to the nearest stronghold by minecart using the Summergate Railway. He emerged from the bedrock maze at the base of the tallest obsidian spire to see Bellona and Night Fury screaming overhead. Bellona immediately swooped down in displeasure at his intrusion and attacked, though his Thorns III armor dealt reciprocal damage. Dolphin smashed the first of the ten Mega Crystals with his diamond pickaxe. The fight was on.

Panda and Toby arrived together and immediately split up. Toby spotted a distant Mega Crystal on another isle and began lobbing arrows, blind to the black shadow approaching from behind. Bellona rocked him hard and nearly sent him careening into the void and was up and away before he could launch a counterattack.

Needing altitude to hit the highest Mega Crystals, Dolphin began to climb up the bedrock stair encircling the tallest obsidian spire. Before he could react, nimble Night Fury knocked him off and he crashed into the endstone plains below. However, in her zeal to kill him she became stuck against the stair. Seeing a golden opportunity to attack the swift wyvern, Panda let fly a hail of arrows and Dolphin swung savagely with his sword before Night Fury tore herself loose.

Not far away, Dolphin was smothered by swarming endermen. Night Fury circled back and fell upon them both but they managed to split wide just in the nick of time to avoid her retaliatory strike.

But there was no time to catch their breath. As Panda destroyed another distant Mega Crystal, Bellona crashed into him from behind, leaving him teetering above the brink, staring down into the limitless void. Bellona glided just above the surface of the isle and crushed Toby. On the verge of death, he used a teleport scroll to escape back to Summergate.

Just then, Retro arrived on the battlefield and was joined by Panda in targeting the remaining crystals. Bellona swiveled and rushed them but instead slammed into the ground, plowing through hordes of endermen and showering the two men in Soul Fragments and Mind Spheres. Seconds later, Retro destroyed the last Mega Crystal.

Exhilarated by the knowledge that their foes could no longer replenish their life forces, the trio began releasing volley after volley of arrows at Bellona and Night Fury. Meanwhile, an unannounced mystery knight appeared under the effects of an invisibility potion, a ghostly apparition seen only by their hovering suit of armor.

Retro began slowly climbing a spiral staircase on the mightiest obsidian pillar, advancing ever upward and hugging the pillar itself as a shield against blindside attacks.

Though deadly Bellona remained active, the battle was finally taking its toll on Night Fury. Lethargic and wounded, she left herself open to her enemies. Retro nocked an arrow. It sailed straight and true. Shrieking in agony, Night Fury broke apart, turned to dust, and was gone.

On the plains below, Dolphin recovered her black-and-purple egg.

As they cheered and prepared to turn their attention to Bellona, a deafening roar cascaded across The End, shaking the obsidian pillars and rattling the adventurers. They looked up to see mighty Ymir enter the fold, drawn by the death throes of Night Fury.

Excited to join the fray, Jinx arrived from the bedrock maze at that exact moment. Ymir plunged from the heights above to zero in on his unsuspecting prey. The collision hurled Jinx across the island and into the abyss where she was swallowed by the void.

The monstrous blackwing beast then turned his attention to Dolphin, shattering his iron helmet in a single blow and sending him fleeing into the twisted warrens of the bedrock maze below.

Toby and the mystery knight joined Retro at the apex of the pillar. They focused their fire on Bellona, knowing she was the weakest. As they withstood repeated attacks from Ymir, Retro ran out of health potions and was crippled. The mystery knight came to his aid, breaking several splash potions that healed the entire trio.

Minutes later, Retro landed the killshot that brought down deadly Bellona. But this victory only intensified Ymir's ire and resolve. Their projectiles seemed powerless against him.

Ruthless. Relentless. Unstoppable. Over and over Ymir crashed against the pillar as it was rocked to its very foundations. Eventually, during a strafing run Toby didn't take cover in time and was clipped by the dragon's outermost wing, lost his footing, and plummeted to his death.

Low on health and out of gapples, the remaining warriors accepted the inevitable and fell back in strategic retreat, carefully climbing down the bedrock spiral staircase and then jumping into the exit portal back to Summergate.

They vowed to return.

***Second Expedition***

Some time later the waters of the Fountain of Dreams opened themselves to the void once more, drawing raiders old and new to the task of defeating tenacious Ymir once and for all.

This time they came as one, in force, clad in their greatest armor, armed with their most lethal weapons. Sharkberries, Boo, Gabault, Greyknightpaul, Rolo. And led by Retro and Panda, veterans of the first expedition, who braced them for what to expect.

It was not enough. For to their shock and dismay, they faced not only Ymir, but also Bellona and Night Fury, resurrected through some twisted form of necromancy. The Ender Trinity was again whole...and really pissed off.

Boo was first to die, her bunny ears flapping in terror as Ymir pulverized her armor and killed her in a single savage strike. Gabault soon followed, blasted from the isle by Bellona. The rest stuck together, taking shelter among the bedrock and obsidian wherever possible.

It was Paul who sprinted out ahead of the crowd, dashing up to the top a pillar. He whacked at its Mega Crystal crown until it exploded, propelling him backwards into a broken heap at the foot of the spire. Fortune may favor the bold, but a lack of blast protection does not.

The rest advanced slowly, destroying crystals methodically while evading the diving dragons as best as they could. Some cheated death through the judicious use of teleport scrolls and hearthstones. Others wisely ran like hell when they saw Ymir bearing down upon them.

Battle casualties continued to mount. Sharkberries was killed by Ymir as he dodged angry endermen, while Gabault was once more devoured by the void after being launched into the air.

Rolo found and smashed the twin Mega Crystals hidden within the bedrock maze, leaving only a few remaining. Wojcik climbed a pillar with the aim of destroying another, but a sideswipe from Bellona dropped him to the endstone below. Retro selflessly recovered his lost gear and teleported away, returning the belongings to Wojcik's mailbox at the Summergate Post Office.

Here Rolo and Panda mounted a furious assault on Bellona as she zeroed in on Boo & Sharkberries, doing devastating damage and narrowly saving them in the process.

But the respite was short-lived with the fellowship broken and scattered. Ymir obliterated Sharkberries again. Seconds later, Paul was blown out of his boots and off the isle as he was hit by Night Fury at breakneck speeds. Rolo barely survived the vengeance of Bellona through the use of an enchanted golden apple.

Retro, back from Summergate wearing the godliest armor he owned, dismantled the last Mega Crystal seconds before Bellona fell upon him. His howl of frustration echoed across The End as the void claimed his armor forever.

The situation appeared grim, their odds bleak.

But their morale would not break. Their will would not shatter. And they would not be denied their ultimate triumph. They burned in the Lantern's glow and made their wagers with Grim and escaped death's cold embrace, for in Dragonhollow what is dead may never die, but rises again, *harder* and *stronger*.

These companions came to a covenant no matter the cost—there was to be no retreat. It was time to finish the fight.

And so they raged against the void's dying of the light, refusing to go quietly into Grim's goodnight. These berserkers became champions without peer, and in that hour they shone so blindingly bright the heavens mistook them for stars anew.

Night Fury was the first to fall, the fastest dragon ever, but not fast enough. Boo was behind the arrow that brought her down, Sharkberries getting her egg. Bellona died next, the deadliest of the three, nevertheless cleaved into pieces by Panda's blade.

Then, as one, they unleashed the storm of their righteous fury at Ymir. Previously thought invincible, he began to wilt under the torrent of flame arrows that rained upon him. Even *he* felt fear for the first time, now understanding that he had pushed them beyond all reason.

Gabault released the string on his Power V bow. The blazing missile arced through the void and speared his breast, penetrating deep within the black dragon scales above his heart. Amethyst draconian energies erupted from the wound and he let loose a thunderous wail of anguish. His body was torn asunder and driven aloft by amaranthine beams of light that knifed through the void in every direction until he vanished in a wellspring of experience orbs.

Ymir was no more.

***Epilogue***

The dragonslayers returned to Summergate victorious, overflowing with loot and stories to tell. Back to being farmers and thieves, friends and fools. But history cannot deny them their due, so let these names echo across eternity:

*Retrontology, Panderps\_, roloski2, JinxStark, Greyknightpaul, Sprankles151, Gabault, BooXBunny, MrSharkberries, wojcik13, Tohbeh, NeonicDolphin.*

For they gazed into the void,

and the void gazed back,

flinched, and fled,

vanquished.