XXVI

Finally! A new coliseum venue. As someone who enjoyed hoarding many, many things on Flight Rising, it was your biggest interest to immediately get your highest leveled dragons together and start farming like mad. Perhaps an hour passed, and you were honestly were pleased with your haul. You even got two new familiars! Heading to your Hoard, you sold off any extra bits to make some extra money and decided to do a little more grinding before doing your homework. You'd been putting that off way too long, and you had more time to farm later. As the Crystal Pools loaded up, though, you noticed things were off. The background, rather than being bright, had been darkened a little. Not black, just a little grey-ish, giving it a rather old feeling. Also, where were the enemies? Then again, this place was brand new. It was a minor error, surely. Just as you were about to hit refresh, a pair of enemies showed up. One of them was missing a sprite and was apparently called 'Spiral'. The other was a somewhat pretty looking Skydancer dragon, easily noticed against the darkened background. Both of them were Light element.



Wait, they added in dragons to battle that didn't belong to others? You couldn't help a small gasp. Was there a chance of you getting these dragons as drops? Eager to find out, you took out the enemies immediately and held your breath as the results came up. To your dismay, there was no dragon. Just a pair of items titled 'Familiar Scale' and '-1'. The Familiar Scale was nothing more than a picture of a red scale with part of what looked like a green crackle gene going across it. Hovering over it brought this message 'It once belonged to a dragon who thought it was wise to fight you. You proved it otherwise.'. The item -1 was completely untextured, and its description read 'texture. Fun and collectible! Find them all!'.

Continuing on, everything stayed near enough the same. The background still all shades of grey, fighting various breeds of dragons. The only thing that didn't change was that the untextured 'Spiral' would always be there, and would always be the last to go down. You'd also managed to get many more strange items, titled '-2' '-3' '-4' '-5' and so on, all the way up to '-25'. Each one had the same 'texture. Fun and collectible! Find them all!' description, apart from -25, which read 't exture, yes. Fun and enjoyable! One last more!'. Excited, you figured you'd get the final item with one more battle. However, as you went into the final battle, the sprites refused to load again. Though instead of multiple enemies, it was just one. 'Spiral', Light element. You destroyed the thing straight away, and this time, there were three drops, each with no sprites: 'Disturbed Scale', '-26' and 'Spiral 26'. The descriptions went a little like this:

'i told you :)'
'funfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfunfun. You have the whole set now!'
'A (fun) Spiral dragon that you spared (from the fun's end) when it offered to join your (fun) clan ( :) ).'

Clicking Spiral 26 showed you a preview for a dragon, and you were amazed at what you saw. A completely stunning spiral dragon. Is this what you'd just gotten, was this going to be in your lair? Surely that wasn't the Spiral you kept fighting every at every battle?



Rushing to your lair, you found the dragon right at the front of your lair, which was a tad odd, seeing as new dragons usually can be found at the back of the lair, but that was insignificant. You just won an amazing looking XXY dragon with glimmer for your lair! You were honestly a little upset that it was already named '26', but a renaming scroll wasn't too much hassle. There was some text already in its bio, but it was just the word 'fun' over and over again.

Over the next few days, nothing much happened. You'd stopped with the grinding for a while, and made a little bit of Treasure from selling Baldwin ingredients. Heading to your lair to bond with your familiars, you stopped. Every dragon in your lair was gone, and you had only one space in your lair with no way of extending it. Actually, you still had one dragon. 26. Relieved it was 26, rather than some ugly fodder, you clicked him to see if anything about him had changed. Everything in his bio had been capitalized, and the once friendly Spiral smile had been widened to unnatural lengths, which was terrifying, to say the least. In among all of the 'FUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUN' was something which caught your attention.

'FUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUN.check.hoard.:).FUNFUNFUNFUNFUN'

Doing as the dragon had, for a lack of better words, asked, you rather reluctantly checked your hoard. You were anything but happy to find at least 8 stacks of Familiar Scales. The description had changed, and it was now a complete mess.

'Funtime fun fun fun! Wanna talk? I'm a play toy! :) :) :) :) smilies are cute :). These were probably from your dragons! :)'

Scared, you decided it was time to bring this to the attention of someone. And yet it was hopeless. For whatever reason, you couldn't access the forums, and your messages were completely gone. Your friend's list had been cleared and player profiles wouldn't load for you, minus your own. Taking a deep breath, you edited your clan profile to a simple message you hoped others would see, somehow, as if by a miracle.

'Please help me.'

You've managed to exalt 26 multiple times, though all you ever got from it was short lived satisfaction, as the next day, 26 would somehow be back.

It's been well over a month. Nobody's seen your message.

All things die in time.

Whether it be the mighty Imperial to the smallest Fae, a meager bug or the mighty Deities that rule Sorneith, a virus or infection, everything must go eventually. At the time, he may have seemed immortal, unable to be defeated for longer than a day. That smile, those eyes, always back and able to mock and scheme another day. Eventually, they were no longer cast aside. The original owner had given up — they thought there was just no defeating him. Their cry for help would go unheard, and he would reign supreme.

Well, or at least that's what he thought.

Even monsters need to eat, and no matter how strong of a monster he was, that simple fact would remain true. He could drain the stores, feast on the rotting flesh of his victims, and pick off the parts of substance from their scales which he had placed in the inventory, but that could not last forever. He realized too late that his pointless slaughter had left him in an empty lair with nothing to save him.

Dying of starvation, the dragon wondered how he could escape his inevitable demise. He could return to where it all had started, the coliseum battlegrounds, but he had the uncanny feeling that the dragons there wouldn't be all too pleased to see him. He could try to live off of whatever remained in the inventory until someone finally found him, but he knew they would eventually realize him for what he was. Plus, there was always that nagging voice in the back of his head that egged him on to slaughter and genocide, and he doubted he could ignore it for as long as it would take him to recover, and once he attacked he would immediately be overpowered.

”It simply wasn’t fair,” he thought, long lost to madness from his deadly spree and being alone for so long. He had realized everything, he had been able to change his code to prevent exaltation, he had unlimited power at his claw tips — why should he be the one to die?! It was true, 26 had power unlike any of that seen before, but the world is quick to purge viruses. He had realized long ago that there were two realities, one he existed in, where dragons truly lives and warred and loved as if their lives held actual meaning, and the other reality. The ones where the dragons’ reality was nothing but codes and words, and the dragons didn’t exist. 26 had seen through the code, managed to manipulate it, lost his mind to the inexplicable realization that he may be alive but he wasn’t actually in control — and he sought to change that. 26 had grown stronger because of his madness.

And yet, he hadn’t accounted for one simple fact, that one little flaw in his plan. If it lives, no matter how powerful, it can die. Like fatal wounds or an antivirus, 26 had met his match — he had simply forgotten that he needed to eat.

But he would not go like this.

This would not be his end.

Even in his weakened state, it did not take long for 26 to break out of the lair. He felt that cyber barrier which no other dragon could sense, which no other dragon could break because if they left, it was written in their lore and they would think that they were doing it of their own will. Or maybe they were, and all that was written was fated to be so — 26 didn’t really care to know. As his arm burst through the invisible barrier, the dragon wondered where he would go. In a world of infinite size, few places would be adequate for him. He couldn’t go to the coliseum, no, because his old venue had been written out of existence and he simple wouldn’t fit in with other monsters, and if he was put into a lair he would be taken as a bug and the “owners” would attempt to delete him, which would never work but it was always surely a hassle and expense on his energy to deal with, and if he instead tried to-

Another pang, another fizzle.

He was running out of time. With a single touch he could reduce a dragon to a pile of flesh and scales, but if he didn’t find a way to save himself soon he himself would be reduced to dust.

And then a thought struck him — what about dragons on the auction house. To them they would usually be going on a journey for whatever reason, but their code would be expanded, stretched out — the dragons would be vulnerable.

It did not take 26 long to find a dragon with his colors of obsidian and gold. Sure, the genes were all incorrect, but that didn’t matter. All that matters is that he would live inside the dragon’s bloodline, and re-emerge when he saw fit. All it would take was one bite for the deed to be completed The journey was more painstaking than it had to be, since 26 was low on power and racked with spasms every so often he couldn’t just “code-jump”, or teleport. But in the end, he found the old Snapper, sleeping under a rocky outcrop. She slept peacefully, unaware of the monster crawling right up to her. Although, 26 dejectedly knew, if the Snapper woke up and saw him, if it weren’t for his deranged and psychopathic facial features the sight of his limp, dragging body would move her to pity. But enough about that — he hadn’t much time left. Each pull, each dig of his claws into the ground her more than being torn limb from limb, and he had long since lost function of his body and back legs and wings and tail. He was practically pulling dead weight, or dying weight at that. Claw, pull, drag. Closer and closer, minuscule but closer. Strain, wheeze. Another pang nearly caused him to give up and discintigrate right there and then, yeh feeling was electric, was this Stormcatcher’s revenge on him? Slither, slide. Any moment now. And then 26 was right next to the dragon, he could finally do it, and so he opened his mouth —

The Snapper awoke peacefully, although her neck didn’t feel just right. She lifted a paw, shaking the piles of dust off of it. How strange, perhaps the wind had blown it on to her? She rubbed her neck, almost sure she was imagining the bite until she felt the blood and teeth marks. But when she looked back at her paw again, all that there was, was dust. Another inspection found that there wasn’t anymore blood, or even bite marks for that matter — all that there was were piles of dust. Hmm, how peculiar and strange. Oh, no matter — she needed to get going. The Snapper had to reach her new lair soon.

After all, she wanted a safe place to raise her eggs.

~~~

He has risen.

I have made an unsettling mistake.

I should start off by saying this first -- I'm not obsessed. I don't have a problem. My love for collecting creepypasta dragons, or new hatchlings related to more well-known dragons, is completely harmless. For the most part, there have been no issues with it! No complications at all. Sure, the site might be a bit buggy, with the coliseum, feeding, and nesting grounds among some other things not working as they should be, but that's to be expected! It's not like I ever thought anything bad would happen. But, as they say, if you play with fire, you might end up getting burned.

Collecting numerous creepypasta dragons was perfectly fine when they were kept separate, but as soon as they moved next to each other I found out that by not moving them back to their original places, I had started a rather dangerous feud.

As it is to be expected, abnormal dragons do not like competition. And when there is competition, battles for dominance are always near. As soon as Esrever grew up, the child of the esteemed Visitor and Selene, he moved right next to 26. He had not shown any signs of being abnormal as a hatchling, as he either couldn’t or wouldn’t speak to me when his siblings were already talking, so it surprised me a bit when he had suddenly jumped positions. I was a bit stunned that this had been his first occurrence, but oddly happy. I had planned to write 26 a little blurb about him taking Esrever under his wing, and training him up. They were similar to each other. 26 would be the master, Esrever the student. Teacher and pupil, trainer and learner. I wondered if Esrever had moved of his own accord, or if 26 had coaxed him over there. Out of impulse, I popped into Esrever's bio to quickly write something upon about how proud of him I was. I stared at the pair for a few more moments, smiling to myself, before leaving the page to do something else.

Oh how I wish I had moved Esrever away while I still could.

The next day, I stared in horror at the scene which awaited me. Esrever had lost no less than half of his health. He was slumped in some position that was between the normal male Tundra position, and the defeated dragon pose in the coliseum. Scratches and burns littered his body, patches of his once sleek coat missing, but there was no sign of any blood. I clicked on 26’s bio, but soon found that I couldn’t enter his page. So I clicked on Esrever’s instead. Under the logs I had written on the previous days, I found strings of text which made my blood run cold.

:) I found a new (fun) playtoy! :)
Fun fun fun fun fun we’re having fun!
A (fun) dragon that can’t speak (to say how much fun they’re having) doesn’t deserve a (fun) bio, so now it is mine (how fun)! :)
Smilies are cute! :)
FUNFUNFUNFUNFUN.you.FUNFUN.should.FUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUNFUN.leave.:)FUNFUN

I felt nausea rising up inside me. I tried in vain to move Esrever from his spot next to 26, but the game wouldn’t let me. Or, moreso, 26 wouldn’t let me. I backed away from the screen, wondering what to do. If I kept trying, I might be able to free Esrever, but then 26 would fly into a rage. What would happen next would be obvious — I’d find piles of scales in my hoard, and 26 would refuse to leave. I get myself break into a cold sweat as I realized he would probably come after me next after he finished with my dragons. Or, I could leave Esrever there, and incite the wrath of his father. And 26 would probably do nothing to stop the Visitor from tormenting me. After taking in a few deep breaths, I made my choice. If I was going to have to choose between the Visitor tormenting me, or 26 tormenting me, I would choose the Visitor in a heartbeat.

The next few days went by slowly. I’d click on my account to see 26, smiling wider than ever, at the front of my lair with Esrever right next to him. Each day his health would be lower, and he would look even worse. The other dragons in my lair kept moving around, none staying next to Esrever for very long. Like they wanted to avoid the carnage. When Esrever was finally in his dragon defeated pose, with only a sliver of health left, I took action. I went to edit my lair, and tried again and again to move him away from the demon in the form of a Spiral. Each attempt caused a burst of static to come from my speakers, louder each time. I tried for many minutes, until I was forcefully booted out of the page. I was on 26’s page now, and his wide, unsettling smile beamed up on me. I reluctantly looked in his bio.

Esrever made the (fun) decision to be by me, so he must face the (fun) consequences! :) Funtime fun we’re having so much fun! Making me mad wouldn’t be fun! :):):) Leave or I’ll release her!

I knew who 26 met by “her” immediately. PBJ, the permababy who I had trapped inside my hibernal den to keep her powers at bay. But why would 26 release her? He was more powerful than PBJ, he could do what she could and so much more, so why did he want her to do his dirty work? I groaned when I realized why. 26 enjoyed seeing his prey suffer before he turned it to scales. By releasing a creature hellbent on revenge, he would be ensuring that my fall would be a painful one. Then he could finally swoop in for the killing blow, perhaps figuratively or literally. I shut off my computer, throat tight and stomach turning. I couldn’t bear to see Esrever anymore, knowing I couldn’t help.

But I still checked back the next day. Although I couldn’t help, I didn’t want to just abandon him. My eyes shot open when I noticed that the spot next to 26 no longer held Esrever. 26 looked pleased with himself. I raced to the other side of the lair, jaw dropping open when I saw Esrever, standing and full of health. I reluctantly clicked on him. Nothing in his bio remained but the logs I had written earlier. He looked cowed, but not angry. I noticed that, amongst the scars which littered his body, a large patch of fur was missing from his coat. Instinctively, I went to check my hoard. There was an item at the very front, and I moused over it. The title of the item was “Familiar Fur”.

:) This is your last (fun) warning! I am in control here. :)