I ran across the island floating in the void, dodging the power Dragon Breath that corrodes everything it comes in touch with.
GROOOOOOOOO!
My instincts warned of the incoming 'Fireball' attack, which was in fact magical constructs capable of harming my very soul, bypassing my enchanted Netherite armor.
Following my instinct, I ducked, barely escaping the stream of Fireball attacks. Taking advantage of her attack, I pulled out my bow and arrow and took a knee at the same time, aiming for the last End Crystal that was healing the Dragon.
Of course, the Dragon would not let me do as I please. Thankfully, I was not alone.
"ALEX! NOW!"
"ON IT!"
My beloved wife's shout rang out from a distance away as she used her crossbow to aim at the dragon's wings, making the beast roll away on instinct, barely avoiding one of the crossbow bolts but still getting injured by the other bolt, giving me the chance I had been waiting for.
The moment I saw the healing beam hit the Dragon, I let loose. My aim held true as the arrow easily passed through the small gaps in the iron cage around the crystal and ignited the magical object, causing a powerful explosion that shook the island.
The effect was instant as the healing beam rebounded, harming the dragon instead and making it scream in pain.
After nearly four days of continuous combat, we finally approached this exact moment I had planned for.
Before the Dragon could endure the pain and react, I shot it swiftly with an Arrow of Slowness. The magically enchanted arrow took effect immediately as its swift flying speed became sluggish.
'Step one complete.'
"Quick! Proceed with Step Two!"
"Ok!"
Running towards the Dragon, Alex took out her bow and arrow and shot again, dodging the Fireballs that the dragon shot out in desperation, which were much slower than before because of my previous strike.
This time, the Wither effect of the Arrow of Decay from my wife attacked the very soul of the dragon, once again making it scream in agony as it slowly started to fall from the sky.
But being the cautious bastard I was, I did not let it be. Instead, I took out three other arrows and directly shot them while Alex cautiously watched the beast while keeping both of us in her field of view in case it pulled a fast one on me.
The Arrow of Weakness that I let loose found its place within one of its eyes, making it thrash in the air madly as it continued falling from the air while the Arrow of Harming and Arrow of Poison found their mark within an open wound and a tear near its wing joint, respectively.
This time, the dragon went into shock as it was unable to bear the pain and damage being done to it, plummeting straight to the ground.
'Step two complete.'
Within a matter of a second or two, it will hit the ground. But those two seconds are enough for me to carry out the final step.
I took out a few potions and chugged them down directly, feeling a surge of power and change within my body.
Taking out my enchanted Netherite sword, I jumped into the air, the Potion of Leaping boosting my ability to jump, allowing me to clear the distance between us with a single leap.
On the other side, Alex was not idle as she let loose her Trident, enchanted with Impaling, Piercing, and Breach, the weapon sailing through the air at ridiculous speeds thanks to the superhuman abilities that we both share.
While the Triden and I were still in the air, a mere fraction of seconds away from the Dragon, I gripped the sword with both hands as the power from the Potion of Strength boosted my physical ability beyond what my species is naturally capable of.
However, just as I was closing in, the Dragon's head suddenly snapped towards me as she shot out a few Fireballs. Thankfully, I was paranoid enough to take a Potion of Swiftness, which allowed me to react in time and dodge the attack while using the Potion of Slow Falling to adjust my body mid-air.
With her last-ditch attack failing, I saw the resignation in its intact eye, as I closed in.
The first one to arrive was the Trident, as it directly pierced through the torso of the dragon, its Impaling and Piercing enchantments allowing it to easily bypass the dragon's defences, while the Breach enchantment directly weakened its supernatural defences.
With its defences reduced to abysmal levels, all it took was a swift strike of my sword, as I separated its head clean from its torso, sending shockwaves across the island as the Dragon that imprisoned this dimension for countless eons finally died.
Knowing what would happen next, I braced myself as Alex ran to my side, locking her shield with my own as the dragon's corpse slowly started to levitated into the air, the eldritch energies within its body tearing it apart from within as I felt its immense lifeforce enter my own soul, enhancing my power even further, just like Alex probably felt.
With one last burst of blinding light, the energy within her body erupted, directly vaporizing it, and then entered the structure at the center of the Insland, opening the portal for which we had been searching our whole lives, while the Egg of the Dragon appeared from thin air, showing that we really killed its parent.
Watching the portal that would take me home, just like we were promised so many lifetimes ago, I could not help but laugh madly.
"Hahahaha! Finally! After so many centuries, I did it!"
Alex hit me on the back of my head as she gave me an exasperated smile.
"We did it, you idiot."
"Well, yeah. But I got the last strike, so this is my kill!"
"Can you not be childish for one moment?"
I smiled at her words before hugging her close.
"But, isn't that one of the traits that you love about me?"
"Shush, you!"
The way she blushed but smiled warmly at me made my heart beat in happiness, just like all those centuries ago when we first got together.
I do not know how long we stood there staring at the severed head of the Dragon, the only part of its body still left in this world, and the portal that we had been looking for our entire lives, trapped in this hellish world.
After some time of just staying like that in each other's arms, comforting ourselves with the knowledge that we were still together and in one piece, I stored the head into my storage and while Alex took the egg after using a piston to make the egg fall off its pedestal, making sure to put the damned thing as far away from her other stuff as possible.
Given how many times we died to this damned thing, only to revive again and again to fight the damned thing in this broken world, we had to be cautious with the egg. We cannot afford to fight another End Dragon should it accidentally hatch from that egg because it came in contact with her stuff and somehow came out of her storage.
"So, are you ready to finally leave this place?"
I held Alex's hand in my own as she asked that question.
"...I don't know, Alex. Who knows where we will end up? And, I don't want to lose you again. God knows how hard it was for me to spend an entire century alone the last time we were killed and revived on the opposite sides of the Overworld."
She smiled at my worry before giving me a soft kiss.
"Isn't that why you gathered so many Totems of Undying? Nearly driving the Evoker population extinct in the Overworld?"
I just grumbled at those words before relenting.
That century where we were forced apart because a damned Creeper somehow sneaked into our base and blew up our base, thanks to a curious villager infiltrating our home was hell on earth for my sanity.
It was no exaggeration that Alex was the only reason why I was still sane in this world after so many centuries of being torn from our world. And I think the same goes for her as well.
By the time we managed to reunite after that debacle, when I finally found her after travelling for decades, she was borderline unhinged with how she was mindlessly slaughtering everything that she came across, only stopping when she finally saw me and threw herself into my arms, reducing the both of us into a sobbing mess, vowing to never leave each other ever again.
Not like I was any better, given how, like she said, I nearly drove the Evokers and the Illager population as a whole to near extinction in my insanity.
It took us decades to recover from that incident. But there was one silver lining to all that.
We came to realize just how much we loved and depended on each other, which was a funny thing to say since we had already been together for centuries by that point.
Long ago, we were once humans from a world called Earth. That much we were certain of. There are always flashes of images, faces, and names that I recall in my dreams and every waking moment I spend in this absurd world, just like she does, albeit to a greater extent since she had been lucky enough to have awakened within a villaige when we first came to this world, unlike me who woke up in the middle of a forest somewhere and had lost my sanity in the few years that I spent alone.
Much of our previous lives has been lost in the centuries we've spent here, even our original names have been long since forgotten, forcing us to adopt these names that just appeared in our heads one day.
To this day, we do not know what exactly happened or why.
All we remember is answering some kind of questionnaire online about a role-play session.
I remember the ominous message at the end, which said 'Win, and you shall gain the greatest of rewards. Lose, and you shall be eradicated.'
And then, there was darkness, before we woke up here.
Fortunately, despite being strangers at first, we worked really well as a team from day one of our meeting. A companionship that gradually shifted as the years went by. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Shaking my head to get rid of those thoughts, I looked towards the portal.
'Alex is right. We can't stay here in the Overworld anymore, repeating this cycle again and again. It is time that we take this leap of faith.'
Since we have already gathered everything we can from this world, including the resources from the End Cities out there, we really don't have anything left for us in this world.
Holding onto my wife's hand tightly, I simply nodded at her look, making her smile again as we walked towards the portal.
"Here goes nothing."
"Hm. Don't let go, no matter what."
"Don't worry, Steve. I am with you all the way."
As one, we jumped into the portal.
And all I knew was darkness.