Both of them stood in parallel to the greatest boss ever known, Vennor the Void Speaker, a boss battle which existed since the original development patch. Vennor had inhabited the vast online world and no player or group of players had ever come close to defeating the monstrosity until now. 

Vennor’s eyes emitted a vibrant neon lavender glow as its body clustered together, whisking and swirling around. It formed a mind-warping solid and near transparent rigid body. A colorful gas substance that clashed with the hues of juices that drip from a blood orange and black soot still warm to the touch.

The battlefield shifted in response to Vennor’s phase change. Arena bits collapsed, leaving no escape for players if they were to lose the will to fight. Then the arena shot upwards into the sky until they reached an ethereal space that resembled the outside of their galaxy. With gravity thrown into chaos, stars zipped past them. Distant solar bodies orbited the three beings in the middle of the arena, mimicking the heliocentric nature of our solar system. Meteor showers traveled in eccentric patterns around the battlefield. Each meteor missed the battle zone by a sliver. 

The two players basked in the animations they saw as their conclusive destination, an ultimate endpoint. Despite the fantastical distraction, it would not help replenish their digital resources for this boss run.
In the real world, they maintained determination. Fueled by the copious amounts of adrenaline-boosting substances coursing through their veins.

“Pincer into double ultimate cast?” Griffin questioned his partner Asher while drifting towards the left of his current position at the same time.

“My ultimate will drop me to sub one percent health. If I don’t land several lucky critical hits, he will wipe us out again,” Asher said while moving towards the right of his position. 

Griffin cracked a smile, gripping his war hammer. “I guess I am playing a distraction once again.” Griffin said, launching the attack on Vennor.

“It’s literally your role, moron.” Asher muttered while sprinting into the proper position. Griffin’s heavy armor clad footsteps drew the attention of Vennor. Once Vennor’s attention shifted onto Griffin, he closed the distance between the two with a remarkable dash. Griffin leaped into the air, bringing the war hammer overhead in the same motion. When he reached the summit of his jump, he swung the hammer down with immense force. Vennor drove his wispy body back. Causing the strike from Griffin to land on the platform and release a shockwave ability. This forced Vennor to commit to solidifying itself to block the incoming attack and reduce the damage taken.

Vennor then smiled, flinging the rest of his body at Griffin, creating two armor piercing spikes out of its ghastly form. Griffin reacted to the attack by Vennor by blocking one spike with his war hammer and holding the other spike in his right palm. Dumbfounded by this, Vennor staggered for a moment, unable to perform a killing blow to Griffin. “ASH DO IT NOW!” Griffin yelled.

Asher planted himself behind Vennor during Griffin’s distraction. Asher initiated the last spell left in his arsenal. This caused the surrounding gravel to tremor upwards. Strands of yellow, red, blue, green and white circled around him. Each color increased in size until wrapping itself at the zenith of his mystical scepter pointed towards Vennor. Ash thrusted the staff forward, sending the vortex of colors at Vennor. When they landed on its body, it screamed in pain. Releasing the solidified spikes back to its gaseous form. Ash continued the spell, allowing a constant flowing beam of energy to press upon Vennor.

Griffin took this opportunity to activate his own ability. Griffin’s eyes glowed with a wispy slate, then an aura of the same color developed around his body. Behind, Griffin formed a larger projection of himself holding the same hammer. Griffin let off a mighty roar and swung his hammer with his left hand. The projection replicated the same movement. The wispy slate war hammer forced the solidification of the ghastly being driving it across the battle zone.

Griffin and Asher could both see the health bar of the Vennor descend to the magical number they desired. From ten thousand to one thousand to one hundred, then zero. They both took their VAD Visors off of themselves, then jumped out of their computer chairs and hugged each other. 

“Tell me you recorded that run” Griffin danced, flinging Ash around.

“Hell yeah I did!” Asher yelled.

 “Wait Griffin, look at the message on the screen” both boys stared at the screen, which displayed a worldwide client message. 

Griffin the Guardian and Ashen the Magi have slain “Vennor the Void Speaker.”

“This feels surreal,” Ash breathed as he fell back into his chair. Ping’s and dings rang from both Griffin’s and Ash’s computer; hundreds of messages flooded their inbox with congratulations from players across the globe. Asher scanned his desk for his cellphone. 

“Dammit, where did I leave my phone? Roger said he would bring us the entire menu from the steakhouse if we won,” Asher said while scrambling in the dark computer room in search. 

“You left it downstairs when you got the last round of drinks.” Griffin said while his keyboard clacked in a chaotic fashion as he attempted to respond to all the direct messages. Many of the messages from friends and random players congratulating him.

Asher got out of his chair and with a brisk pace, went downstairs in search of his phone. During this time Asher found time to peruse for snacks. Shuffling through the various cabinets in the downstairs kitchen. They were empty. Two weeks had passed since they started these strategic boss runs to take down Vennor. They had not gone shopping nor left the house. The idea of eating slipped Ash’s mind with the task he and Griffin set upon themselves. Asher pivoted from the cabinets to the fridge.

Asher opened up the fridge and grabbed the only thing they always kept a stock of. Energy drinks. While grabbing two cans from a pack of twelve, Asher located his phone on top of the package of cans. The frost ate the edges of the phone. The screen refused to turn on. Asher hoped it would turn on after a few minutes of charging. While closing the fridge. “Lucky? Ain’t no way that’s true. We are just that good!” Asher heard from the second floor. Ash figured that Griffin got into a heated debate with a troll over their voice chat application.

“What do you mean you don’t understand being defeated? We just did it.” Griffin yelled even louder. Confused by this comment, Ash jogged back upstairs.

Griffin flailed around while having a VAD Visor on, with no concern for hitting anyone nearby, as he gripped a robust gaming controller in his hand.

“We did not cheat, and you’re not even real. You’re just an AI. Go ping your developers,” Griffin yelled at an ear-splitting volume. Asher had just entered the room to witness this outburst of aggression from Griffin. Asher walked behind him, dodging his sporadic movements from a devastating impact. Then he tapped Griffin on the shoulder. 

“What’s up, man? Why are you arguing with a troll?” Asher asked. Griffin lifted his visor and turned around.

Griffin confirmed, “Not a troll but Vennor and it’s not a cutscene,” while placing his visor back on. “You’re programmed to lose. We have lost to you hundreds of times over the last five years. Just take the loss and give us the rewards,” Griffin said.

Asher walked to his desk and placed his own visor to access the digital world. Once his senses calibrated with the system, he could see the leftover battlefield on which he had just taken part.

The floating arena changed. Everything still on the planet stopped rotating. The meteor shower’s animations paused in the middle of the impact. Asher looked to see Griffin in his digital form. A paladin adorned in ivory platinum armor with bright gold trimmings whirling about in different sections of the high-class armor. Standing near Griffin stood a creature, nothing familiar to Asher in the ten years of playing this game. A crow, black and tangerine mixing color gasses solidified into a recognizable humanoid body structure. Asher recognized the daunting yet familiar expression in the neon lilac eyes.

“Vennor?” Asher questioned. The creature’s head turned with enough force to snap its neck bones if it had a physical body.

“Yes, I am Vennor, and I also demand a rematch from you, Ashen the Magi, for cheating.” Vennor said. Then Vennor glided towards Asher.

“How did we cheat? We beat all five of your phases. Your health pool dropped to zero before either of ours face that fate” Asher protested.

“That is the problem we will discuss. I am the perfect boss,” Vennor responded. Griffin jogged to the side of Asher. “I said the same thing when you were downstairs getting snacks. To this…” Griffin said before pausing before looking up and down at Vennor. “Loser.” Griffin continued.

Vennor’s eyes grew angry and took a fierce swing, which went through Griffin’s character model. Griffin maintained his snarky grin while Vennor attempted to swing at him a couple more times.

“See, cheaters! Constant invincibility frames,” Vennor accused.

“You understand invincibility frames, but don’t understand safe zones?” Asher said to Vennor.

“Safe zones? What’s that? No one is safe. This is a battle zone,” Vennor rebutted. Asher thought about it, while Griffin threw boxing punch combinations into Vennor’s buoyant body. Vennor ignored the punches and stood waiting for Asher to reply.

“Griffin, does the camping function work in this zone?” Asher asked. Griffin stopped his talented display of pugilism and checked his own settings.

“Yeah, I can activate it.” Griffin answered as a campfire formed around them with two green seaweed-shaded tents popping up. A firepit digitized in front of Vennor, which shocked him enough to glide backwards.

“What battle skill is this?” Vennor mused as he lingered over the open fire.

“It’s a social skill for players to spend time with each other and chat,” Griffin said. While Vennor gazed upon the formed campfire, Griffin sent a private message that said, “Did we beat sentience into a boss?”

Asher let out a hearty laugh, startling Vennor.

“Are you about to attack me? Again!?” Vennor said as Asher moved and sat on a log that formed with the campfire.

“You seem to understand some things and not others. Sit down, mimic what I am doing on this thing called a wood log. Let’s chat about you,” Asher said. Vennor sat down on a log parallel to Asher. Griffin fed the flame before taking a seat next to his partner.

“Vennor,” Asher inquired, “How far back does your memory reach?” Vennor’s mouth moved, but it held no significant weight to the conversation.

“Do you mean my battle patterns? How much have I stored inside my head?” Vennor pondered while thrusting his ghastly hand through his gas-filled skull.

“Vennor, do you calculate or fathom anything other than battle?” Asher probed. Griffin lacked the patience to focus on the interaction and questions and placed his character into a sleep animation in the digital world.

Vennor paused, contemplating for a moment, before remarking, “Are there aspects beyond mere conflict? That can’t be? We live to fight. Fighting is all that I have. It should be all you have too. We fight to exist. Nothing else matters.”

While agreeing to a certain extent, Asher, for the sake of the conversation and to gain a deeper understanding of the situation, posed the question, “Why not?”

“We die. I may speak to the void and entertain it when it asks of me to destroy you, but I do not want to become a part of the void,” Vennor said.

“You emerge from death in this altered state,” Asher then pointed at Vennor. “So tell me, did we win when you died? Or is there more to this?”

Vennor processed the comment made by Asher. Vennor looked up as the meteor showers reverted to their eccentric routes, the stars shooting across the void filled sky darting back and forth. “Could we not say the same of you and Griffin? Nine hundred and fifty-two battles, by my count, and you still continue to fight me. Perished by my hand. In death, proliferated new life in your strategic approach in against me when given an additional chance,” he challenged.

Asher, astonished by the response, huddled his body forward to consider his next words.

“Dead in your world, not mine,” Asher seethed, gesturing through the aether. “You understand it’s not real. Where I exist is the reality which allows you to exist?”

“Why does that matter? I still have to fight for my existence here, so my reality is real. Fighting for breath is our only agreed reality,” Vennor quipped.

“I mean, you will just lose from now on. We have conquered you. Others will follow our example and fight with the same patterns as us. What’s the point of fighting if every battle is determined in the opponent’s favor? What’s the value of a never-ending process?” Asher pressed, right before Griffin chimed in with a “Yeah, endless defeats. Eternal death and rebirth.”

“What if I grow?” Vennor responded.

“You cannot,” Asher fired back.

“How do you know?” Vennor rebutted even faster.

“Because the developers haven’t written a new code to decide that,” Asher snapped.

“If every death meant a new code, and you can exist in both worlds, then who develops you?” Vennor pointed back, mimicking Asher.