Seeing as I never was a reporter, I truly appreciate the compliment. Thank you!

Pythor, it's been great fun to see you around on the AWS/Newspaper and on the Discord -- it was always fun to chat with you! I always have and will look up to you in terms of rhymes - it's truly astonishing how talented you are at that (seriously, how??). I wish you luck in the future, mate.

Since I finished up Darkness, the only ideas I currently want to do are VERY ambitious. I do not have a PC to write on, which I need due to the lack of text customization on mobile. EDIT: also unable to write seeing as the AWS/Newspaper is closed. Kinda sad this is the last post of mine here, but oh well. I'll be writing elsewhere! (@thepoetryweb on Instagram ;))

Both are equally good, I cannot pick a favorite child

Interesting idea for a continuation! I can see what you're talking about, and if might work, but the problem is, I currently don't have any way to write. I'll hopefully post again in the future, though!

I played a lot of Bloons TD 5.

Thanks for approving this! And yes, I'm not planning to stop writing; I will figure out a way to write and maybe post in the future. I also hope to take this unwanted hiatus to improve on my writing, and especially my tenses (seeing this is not the first time I've shown inconsistencies in those).

Why choose between smiling or crying when you can do both

I like where this story is going, excited for the next part!

I wish I had chosen the easier way. Sure, it might be the morally incorrect way, and maybe the worse of the two, but easiest nonetheless. Instead of that, however, I decided that I would go down fighting. But for some reason I had a feeling he was correct in saying that no matter what, everybody dies. Despite this, I made my choice quickly. "I'm not going out without a fight," I said. "A fight in which I'm going to bring you down with me, if I have to." The god simply laughed again - a sound that was starting to get pretty damn annoying. A person materialized in front of me: tall, lanky, pale, but with jet black hair. He simply looked at me with a slight smirk, as if I amused him, and then the voice called out from within the forest, his mouth unmoving. "You don't learn, do you? Continuing to pick the options that I wanted you to pick won't make you win this battle. But out of respect for you getting this far, I will battle you as one of you -- human. Granted, I'm not completely normal, but neither are you. This battle, at least to start, will begin as even as I am willing to make it. Sadly for you, there's no backing out of this anymore. You chose this, and now you'll see it through, even if I force your eyes open." And with that, a sword materialized in his hands. But then I realized my horrific mistake -- my ankle. How was I supposed to fight with me effectively immobilized? Nonetheless, I put a sword in my hands, and hoped the newfound adrenaline would last me the whole fight. Staring down the God, I waited for him to make the first move. Thankfully, he was impatient. Charging at me, he swung downwards, which I only barely blocked; I don't exactly have experience in sword fighting. The force he hit with was unnatural, and that made me uneasy. He was clearly using the Shadows to make himself stronger. He swung again, yielding the same wobbly block by me. I had to think quickly, or else this battle would be shorter than even I would like. And then I had a really bad idea. And then had a worse idea of following through with that bad idea. I quickly summoned some Shadow of my own, formed it into a shape of a leg, and made it attach right next to my immobile leg. My thought process was if I couldn't use one leg, I'd make my own. And funnily enough, it actually worked at first. Until I tried moving. I took one step forwards, my sword raised, and promptly fell and nearly impaled myself. I quickly rolled onto my back to not, y'know, die, and was met with the sound of my sword getting knocked out of my hands. Now I was weaponless, immobile, and supposed to still save the world. So I decided to try what sort of worked earlier, and control his Shadow with my own powers. I wasn't sure what my intentions were. Maybe I wanted to just drive the sword away from me. Maybe I wanted the sword. I didn't have time to figure out my intentions. Anyways, I now had to figure out how to concentrate without dying. It wasn't easy, but if I could just slightly mess up his aim, it could give me enough time. So, when he swung downwards to deliver a final blow, I willed it to move just a few inches to the left. It grazed me, ripping my shirt, but effectively stuck itself into the ground. Now I could concentrate. The sword, not knowing who to listen to, promptly exploded, dissipating into the shadowed forest. Then, I made another sword and sent it at him. And this time, I didn't miss. A low thud confirmed what I saw -- a sword hilt sticking out of his sternum. He fell to his knees, and looked at me. He spoke, this time normally. "You did well-" He went into a coughing fit, blood spraying the ground, "Better than I expected. But I'm a man of my words." And with that, he turned into Shadow, and plunged into the ground. But he didn't just melt through the cracks, as most Shadow does. Hitting the ground, a huge crack appeared in the rock, expanding horizontally towards me. I quickly moved out of the way and saw that he was gone. A deep rumble shook the Earth, and the crack widened. About 10 miles away, my mother was jolted awake from the loud roar of her house collapsing down the middle. She looked down, and saw a widening crack. At James' house, searching the yard around his house, a scream cuts through the night. One of the friends disappeared, and in their wake, was another growing hole. Back with me, the crack grew, and I had to keep backing up. Until I heard behind me a cacophony of rustling and cracks -- the trees were falling, into another crack. I was trapped. Playing a game of twister but with death and one leg, I shuffled into a smaller and smaller space, until I fell. I caught myself with one hand on a crack, and knowing me, knew I didn't have much time. I though about what I'd done. My friends are dead or dying, my family is dying, I am dying, and the world is ending. And this could have been accomplished with so much less pain, had I been selfish. I looked back at the good memories, of the party before the game of hide and seek. Of the game of Tanki Online I had played just before coming, which was a whole saga of it's own. All of the little things that don't matter in the big picture, but meant a lot in that moment. Maybe I was about to die, but my life had been great up to this moment. With an odd sense of completeness, I let go, and let myself fall into the void of Shadows slowly swallowing the world. ~Lose What a rollercoaster of emotions it was, writing this. I'm not proud of this series, in the sense that there are so many plot holes and loose ends I could have prevented with some simple planning. Yet I also feel insanely proud. Because looking back at my first part of this series, I'd like to think I've improved at writing since then. And I think that's kind of cool. So as bad as the story may be plot wise, the actual WRITING of it improved, or people sugarcoated how bad it was more and more each installment. This finale isn't the best either -- I was actually planning to have a sequel to this series to tie up the loose ends. But due to real life circumstances, starting in August, I'm probably going to be not only unable to write a sequel series anytime soon, but it is highly likely I won't be able to write at all, or at any sort of scheduled basis. So sorry for the dark ending, it wasn't meant to be this bad. I could go on and on about why this series was bad, and how this finale sucks, but that's just me beating myself up to cope with darker emotions. Either way, I hope you all enjoyed this finale and the series as a whole, and thank you for even reading this in the first place <3 I hope to post again sometime! ;D

It was nice seeing you here. Good luck later on in life!

A promising start to a series! Excited to read more in the future.

A great end to a great series!

Welcome back to this... place. I would say enjoy your stay, but this is Tanki.

I'd also like to go to Iceland, but because I like the cold and volcanoes lol

Just realized I haven't commented on this - amazing story!

Great article!

Not sure where'd I'd put this but I'll say it in case someone enjoys my writing: My life's just taken a huge turn, so don't be alarmed if any of these happen: 1. My activity significantly decreases 2. Activity stays the same, or even increases, but the style of writing will become a lot darker (I write my emotions) Both of these could happen, or neither. But those two are likely. Just wanted to say this cause if someone cares, I care back and I don't want people to be concerned. I don't plan on stopping writing, even if I do stop posting it publicly for a while. See y'alls at some point <3

Indeed, I have to tread these waters carefully. I do not have the power Flex holds as a robot of doom

It's a weird cycle where it goes P2W, then more F2P, but never to what it was, then back to P2W, stronger than ever. It's a wobbly ascent into P2W territory, and it's on the P2W ascent currently.

I listen to the Machinarium OST whenever possible. I'm not sure it even makes me better or anything - I just like the music.

Application for The Gold Dropper: What is your name? Arnold Archduke Henry Harold Thomas James Jackson Gerald the Fifth, of Berlin, Sr. (AAHHTJJGtFoBS for short) How proficient at reading are you? Will I get gold boxes for a better sounding answer? How often do you beg for a "gold box pls"? ----- Does your keyboard go up to the number 6? Well it DID, but then I got permabanned from chat for spamming "gold pls" so I smashed my keyboard and now it only goes up to three What is your IQ? I'm going to assume that IQ score is like golf, and lower is better. I'm a friggin' GENIUS man, I can count my IQ on ONE HAND. Yeah. Do you have any gold dropping experience? No, the dang admins won't give me the golds I kindly ask for. They're scared of my genius. What is your rank in Tanki? Gefreiter x523 (I've been chat banned 522 times (yet again, they're absolutely terrified)) How can we contact you? Talking works just fine most of the time, but I do accept mail by owl or horse carriage. Have you had any past bans? I'm going to assume this one ISN'T like golf; the higher, the better. I believe I hold some sort of record, but I'm too busy making accounts to go check. Why should we hire you? Because then I'd stop spamming! Also, I want to become the admin that is evil and doesn't drop golds, just to see what it's like being vile. Who do you look up to in life? That one admin that sometimes drops golds in battles (I dunno which, shoutout to whoever that is) What would you do if someone asked for a gold box? I'd drop two gold boxes, but then catch them both to spite whoever asked (because I asked for longer and never got them (I clearly deserve them)) Any questions for the application readers? Can I get a gold for completing thi Player AAHHTJJGtFoBS has been banned FOREVER. Reason: перестань просить золото уже

Might be a fun challenge ?

Congrats @Ironmantonystark!

Humor purposes