"Countless timelines before? Oh... the Epilogue Poem?"
Fu Zhu remembered now. Every time he killed the Ender Dragon for the first time in a new save file and returned to the Overworld through the portal, an "Easter egg" would appear. He had always been too lazy to read through that long, tedious text.
However, he had a rough idea of what was written in the text known as the Epilogue Poem. It seemed that in the poem, the Ender Dragon had spoken to someone.
From that perspective, it seemed the Ender Dragon had always possessed intelligence and the ability to communicate with people.
Seeing that Fu Zhu had guessed correctly, the Ender Dragon gave a slight nod.
'This is a trial, player Fu Zhu. In this new world, are you capable of a more outstanding performance?'
"The way you say that, it's like you're absolutely certain you can defeat me."
Fu Zhu silently drew his Demon Blade "Hiruko", its tip pointed toward the Ender Dragon.
"You said it yourself just now: while you were playing with time, time was also playing with you. You're not the only one in this world who can control time."
"I wasn't originally planning to use commands, since playing the game that way is no fun. But you started it first."
The Ender Dragon's expression froze. It seemed to have sensed something. Looking up, it saw the arrow that should have vanished due to the time reversal suddenly reappear, hovering above it. Then, the arrow began to multiply infinitely, until it formed an impenetrable net of arrows that completely enveloped the dragon.
The next moment, all the arrows fell at once. The Ender Dragon immediately folded its wings, wrapping them around itself and letting the arrows rain down upon its body.
The Ender Dragon's health bar once again began to plummet. But when only a single drop of health remained, the bar stopped decreasing.
The Ender Dragon slowly unfurled its wings and looked at Fu Zhu again.
'It's useless. You cannot truly kill me.'
Fu Zhu had already anticipated this, so he was completely unfazed. Instead, he spoke to the Ender Dragon in a leisurely tone. "Ender Dragon, since it's you, I won't pretend anymore. You should know very well that since I can make time reverse just like you did, I can naturally do other things as well. For example..."
"/kill @e[type=ender_dragon]"
(Eliminate all Ender Dragons in the current dimension)
The Ender Dragon's expression froze, and then it seemed to roar at Fu Zhu in anger, "You're cheating!!
"Don't say that. I never said from the beginning that I wouldn't use cheats in this save file. It's like the old saying goes: if you've got an aimbot, why not use it? If you've got cheats, why not turn them on?"
The Ender Dragon roared as its body began to disintegrate. It seemed to be fighting against Fu Zhu's command, but no matter how it resisted, the speed of its disintegration only increased.
Fu Zhu suddenly spoke to the Ender Dragon again. "Let me guess. To avoid death right now, you're planning to reverse your own time, right? But you can't control my time, so what point in time do you plan to rewind to? What has already happened cannot be changed, so you can only keep returning to the past."
Hearing this, the Ender Dragon suddenly stopped struggling. It allowed its body to crumble, and a large number of experience orbs mixed with a hint of purple began to seep out.
'Though your methods were somewhat despicable, you have won this time. But as I said, you cannot truly kill me now. My true self is far in the future. The Path of Finality... it's quite amazing, isn't it? Player Fu Zhu.'
The Ender Dragon silently closed its eyes. Its draconic form gradually faded away until even its head vanished, leaving behind only a pile of experience orbs.
Although the Ender Dragon had disappeared, Fu Zhu's brow remained tightly furrowed. He walked forward and absorbed all the experience left behind by the dragon.
[Acquired Power of the Path of Finality]
[Path of Finality → III]
[Path of Finality III: Permanently unlock Observer Mode, Envoy of Finality]
[Envoy: Base HP and Attack gain a 1:1 bonus based on experience level. Effect disappears if experience level is below 150. Observer Mode is not affected.]
Although a series of system prompts surprised him, the most crucial achievement, "Free the End," did not appear.
Moreover, Fu Zhu glanced at his experience level, which was exactly 150. He had already been over level 100 before absorbing the Ender Dragon's experience.
This amount of experience didn't add up at all. The dragon he had just killed was more like a respawned Ender Dragon from the vanilla game, or perhaps, a remnant from this timeline.
Even the one-and-only dragon egg was nowhere to be seen on top of the central pillar.
The only thing that made Fu Zhu feel fortunate was that the Yama Blade, a guaranteed drop from the Slash Blade mod, had appeared on the ground. Aside from that, none of the expected drops from the Apotheosis mod were present.
"Tsk, does this mean I have to install the mods from the future era before I can truly kill the Ender Dragon once?"
Though it was annoying, Fu Zhu felt this was for the best. At least he wouldn't have to resort to cheating like this again and could defeat the Ender Dragon with his own true strength!
Fu Zhu shook his head, pushing these thoughts aside for the moment and using a command to switch himself into Observer Mode.
Now that it was done, it was time to test out his spoils of war.
---o---
Fu Zhu's form became illusory until it completely vanished. Although he couldn't see his own body, he could feel that he was still in the same spot, but now he had a strange sensation.
With a thought, the time around him began to reverse. He returned to a few dozen seconds ago, watching "himself" converse with the Ender Dragon.
"Returning to the past? An interesting ability."
Fu Zhu looked at the "himself" before him, hesitated for a moment, and then deactivated Observer Mode. The next instant, his past "self" suddenly vanished.
The Ender Dragon was also taken aback, then it turned its head to look at Fu Zhu, who had suddenly appeared on the other side.
"You... you still chose to use your cheating abilities to defeat me after all?"
Fu Zhu looked at the Ender Dragon with some surprise. He's really returned to the past? And the Ender Dragon is even aware of it?
But why did my past self just disappear?
The Ender Dragon seemed to sense Fu Zhu's confusion and offered an explanation. 'You are unique. Only one of you can exist in any given time period. If you return to the past, the you of the past will be replaced by the you of the present.'
After saying this, the Ender Dragon suddenly beat its wings and soared into the sky.
'Since the you from the future has returned to this time, it means the me from the future has been defeated by you. Farewell, player Fu Zhu. When you are truly ready, the trial will begin anew. I hope that by then, you will have unified your Path and achieved your complete self.'
Without giving Fu Zhu a chance to speak, the Ender Dragon's form gradually faded until it completely disappeared.
Fu Zhu was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected this outcome. The Ender Dragon had actually just fled.
Although he could continue to return to the past, there was no longer any need. The moment he returned, the Ender Dragon would know what happened in the future and would choose to flee all the same. It was better to do as it said, prepare himself fully...
And restart this trial!
---o---
PS: This chapter has been rewritten.