Everyone whaled on the Great Tree, sparing no expense in their showmanship as they did so. Countless magical projectiles rained down as blades and other weapons did their own damage, and while they were making an impact, the Great Tree seemed to be taking it like a champ.

Maybe the damned overgrown shrub was really that durable. Maybe his insanity had gotten to the point that he could not even understand that he was in pain. Maybe it was Maybelline. Regardless of the reasons behind the Great Tree’s seeming lack of care or knowledge of his own mortality, in the end, it didn’t really matter. All that mattered right now was beating the ever-living shit out of this batshit insane tree in a rather cinematic and film-worthy way.

And so, for a roughly three-hour period of time, the assembled group of Darksolian VIPs did exactly that, unloading a near endless stream of attacks on the utterly insane piece of wood until they had essentially reached a point where they all collectively felt that they had done enough.

“Zero, can we just end it now?” Kain whispered to the giant, metal, grim-reaper look-alike golem that was hovering nearby.

“Uuuuuuhhhh….”

“I don’t like that noise. What is going on?”

“It should be dead by now….”

“Yeah, it really should- wait, what?” Kain did a double-take as the large mechanical Dungeon Master stared at the Great Tree with eyes that contained a mix of concern and admiration.

“Yeah, it should be dead by now. Like, dead dead. As in, ‘it should have been reduced to a shattered, burning husk over an hour and a half ago’ dead.”

“Oh,” Kain said with a tinge of concern in his own voice. “Then we need to stop holding back, then.”

“Yes, that’s ri- wait, you were all holding back?”

Now it was Kain’s turn to look confused.

“You thought that we weren’t?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, this was a time for us to show all that we could do, right? I am literally giving my all in this fight! Were you all actually holding back?”

Kain groaned as he shook his head in a display of disappointment.

“Fucking hell, man. You told us that you wanted a good show for the viewers of this damned live stream, so of course we’d hold back. Hell, I’m fairly certain one of my kids could crush that mad bastard on their own if I let them.”

“Oh. Oooooooohhhh. Am… Am I really that weak?”

Kain sighed and laid the truth bare to the hermit.

“Yes. Yes, you are. This is what happens when you don’t routinely push yourself, Zero. What, did you think we used your Dungeon so heavily and so roughly for no real reason? Gotta keep pushing your limits or you’ll wind up in that kind of situation.”

“Well, fuck.” Zero Noir replied as his gaze went downward. “Then, just get it over with, I guess. But! But make it as flashy as you can!”

Kain snorted a bit as the humor of that little request hit him. Oh, they would make it flashy, all right.

“HEY!” He yelled, “No more holding back! Hit that fucker with as much as you feel you need to, and all at once!”

A unanimous cry of “FUCKING FINALLY!” erupted from the Darksolian VIPs, and they all started to charge their biggest, flashiest, most violent attacks. The mass of magical power gathering in the area reached a normally impossible level as the very energies of reality began to churn like the waters of a raging tempest being forced into a series of whirlpools. The violent buildup of power finally reached its crescendo and all those who had come to this fight unleashed everything at the Great Tree.

The individual shouts from each participant were drowned out by the roar of magic being let loose, and even the final cry of the crazy tree was consumed by the eruption. However, if you listened close enough you could hear what sounded like a mocking laugh from someone not native to the world of Mortis along with the sound of something being sucked into a portal along with the noise of the magical discharge.

Light swept over the entire area, washing away all color for over a few hundred miles in all directions. Thankfully for those nearby, the assembled beings were careful and discriminating enough to make sure that all eyes were not rendered blind and all ears were not rendered deaf by the absurd blast that had been created here. The light faded slowly enough, and the VIPs and the viewers alike held their breath as they waited to see the aftermath.

When vision finally returned and the ringing left everyone’s ears, the sight before all who laid eyes on the battlefield was laid bare. There was a massive, and I mean massive crater where the Great Tree once stood, with the ground that once lay over the fucker’s massive root system having collapsed downwards as the roots were no longer there. Not even a single leaf was left where the Great Tree once existed, and not even a single piece of fallen bark remained anywhere in sight.

…

To the eyes of all there, the Great Tree had been so entirely destroyed that nothing remained of its presence. It was as if the mad bastard had not merely been wiped out, but instead just poofed out of existence like it had been spirited away. Well, whether or not such a thing had happened did not occur to the minds of all those present or to those that had watched the fight go down.

Although to be fair, they likely should have considered such a possibility. However, their sense of comfort and catharsis from the fact that they had seemingly wiped out a major thorn in everyone’s side was quite possibly blinding them to what actually happened. But while many celebrated the end of a nasty war, there were those who celebrated an entirely different event, though they were nowhere near either Darksol or the planet Mortis right now.

They would be, given enough time, but that time was still quite far off. That final war would need to wait, for now, while both sides gathered their power and grew their strength. Although to be completely honest, one side had already gained complete dominance over his world, and now had nothing better to do than dick around in affairs that should not have concerned him.