The bullets carved fiery trails in the pitch-black End sky, weaving a blazing net.
The Ender Dragon, like a giant sea beast caught in a fishing net, struggled fiercely to break free.
Although everyone wasn't as pinpoint accurate as Ganyu, their aim was still remarkably good.
A large portion of the dense barrage found its mark on the Ender Dragon.
Unfortunately, just as the Ender Dragon's health dropped by a fifth, it swooped past an End Crystal and fully regenerated.
Ryen quickly pulled out an RPG and shouted over his shoulder:
"Ganyu! Take out the eight End Crystals that aren't caged in iron bars first!"
Ganyu's eyes sharpened. Kneeling on one knee, she raised her rifle and aimed.
She didn't even need to think—once an End Crystal entered her field of view, a single shot was enough to blow it up.
Ganyu worked swiftly, destroying four crystals in the blink of an eye.
Just as she was reloading to continue, the Ender Dragon changed direction and dove straight at them.
Its jaws opened slightly, gathering radiant violet particles—beautiful, yet laced with a chilling aura of death.
"Dodge!"
Ryen tossed an Ender Pearl and teleported to another location.
Glancing back, he saw that everyone had safely dodged the dragon's breath.
The ground was now littered with the residue from the Ender Dragon's breath.
Lisa and Ningguang put down their guns and rushed forward with glass bottles to collect it.
"Draw its aggro! Ganyu, keep targeting the End Crystals!"
Ryen shouldered the RPG and kept pulling the trigger.
Four or five rockets streaked toward the Ender Dragon.
Only two found their target, but even that was enough to make the dragon flinch in pain.
In that brief moment, Ganyu fired another four shots.
She precisely destroyed four more End Crystals.
With only two crystals left, the dragon's healing rate dropped drastically.
But now it turned and flew toward Zhongli and Xiao.
"Don't let it get near them!"
At this moment, the Ender Dragon was already close to Xiao—almost perfectly aligned for a direct hit.
Ryen didn't dare fire more rockets, switching instead to a light machine gun for suppressive fire.
This kind of life-or-death crisis was nothing new to Xiao and Zhongli, who had experienced countless such battles over the millennia. Calm and composed, they focused on breaking through the iron cages.
Bullets whizzed past their ears, but neither turned to look.
Veterans of many wars, they knew that at moments like this, trusting your teammates was the best course of action.
And Ryen's group didn't let them down.
The intensified firepower redirected the dragon's attention, and it once again dove toward them.
But by now, everyone was used to this trick. With a toss of Ender Pearls, they scattered instantly.
Another wave of dragon's breath rained down, and Ningguang and Lisa rushed back to collect it again.
"It's open!"
Zhongli and Xiao's voices rang out in unison. After using Ender Pearls to teleport several times, they rejoined Ryen and the others.
"Eat golden apples to recover health," Ryen instructed. Then he called out:
"Ganyu!"
No sooner had he spoken than two gunshots rang out.
The last two End Crystals exploded in a flash.
Venti cheerfully stowed away the VSS sniper rifle he had used earlier.
"Kidding me? I'm a long-range expert too, alright?"
He proudly wiped his nose, then turned around—only to see the Ender Dragon bearing down on him, jaws wide open.
Venti bolted.
"Damn it! Ganyu took down nine crystals, I only took one! Why target me?!"
"Can luck even affect battles like this?!"
A rocket exploded on the Ender Dragon's body, finally pushing its HP down to half.
The dragon stopped chasing Venti, instead soaring high and diving toward the End Fountain.
"Cease fire! Switch to swords!"
Ryen put away his machine gun and drew an enchanted diamond sword. As the dragon dove into the End Fountain, he threw an Ender Eye and closed in.
The others weren't far behind, rushing in to surround and hack away at the dragon's tail.
It seemed this Ender Dragon would get along well with Azhdaha—one had its butt slashed by swords, the other was blown up by TNT…
But clearly, Ryen wasn't thinking about that now.
With everyone playing their part and drawing from their rich battle experience, the dragon's HP plummeted rapidly.
Then the Ender Dragon breathed out a final burst of dragon's breath and soared into the air once more.
Without needing Ryen to give the order, everyone raised their weapons and took aim.
But before they could fire, the Ender Dragon suddenly changed course and dove straight for Ryen with its jaws wide open.
"Ryen, get out of there!"
Ganyu shouted. But Ryen calmly reached for a grenade at his waist.
Just a sliver of health left!
Staring down the incoming Ender Dragon, he hurled the grenade with all his might.
"Take this!"
The grenade flew straight into the dragon's mouth—detonating just before it could unleash its breath.
A violent explosion went off inside its body.
The Ender Dragon froze.
The light in its eyes slowly faded.
Its massive body floated upward into the sky.
From within, an explosion of dazzling white light erupted like fireworks.
Ryen raised a hand, signaling everyone to hold fire.
Casually, he wrapped an arm around Ganyu's shoulder and said softly:
"Ganyu, let me show you some fireworks…"
The next moment, the Ender Dragon exploded in a thunderous blast, scattering brilliant violet lights like falling stars.
It looked like it was raining stardust.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
Ryen gently pinched one of Ganyu's horns. Ganyu closed her eyes, smiling with joy.
She nodded vigorously.
"Very beautiful!"
Beside them, Zhongli twitched at the corner of his mouth, clearly disapproving of Ryen's PDA in the middle of battle.
With the Ender Dragon's death, the entire End seemed to be renewed.
The End Fountain now shimmered with starlight, just like the End Portal once had.
It looked like a lake mirroring the night sky.
At the center of the End Fountain, atop a block of bedrock, a pitch-black dragon egg rested silently.
Everyone regrouped at the fountain. Diluc, uncharacteristically, cracked a joke:
"This version of the End Fountain… suits the name 'Lake of Falling Stars' much better."
Everyone chuckled, then turned their fiery gazes to the dragon egg.
The oval-shaped, pitch-black egg exuded no unusual aura—but it held the promise of a ridable dragon.
That was the true goal of their journey to the End.
To soar through the skies on dragonback—that dream was now within reach.
Ryen glanced at Ningguang and Lisa. Like the others, their eyes were fixed on the dragon egg.
Ryen waved a hand in front of Lisa.
"How much dragon's breath did we collect?"
Lisa snapped out of it and checked her inventory. She replied softly:
"I have thirteen bottles."
"I have sixteen," Ningguang added.
Ryen nodded.
"Still a bit few, but that's okay. We'll keep collecting more later."
Just as he finished speaking, Venti couldn't hold back any longer and eagerly pulled out a diamond pickaxe.
"Dragon's Breath or whatever—doesn't matter! What's important now is the dragon egg! Should I mine it with the diamond pickaxe? Or should I just climb up and take it?"
Hearing that, everyone turned to look at Ryen in unison.
He shook his head.
"You can't mine the dragon egg. The moment you touch it, it'll teleport away. If you want to get it, you have to dig the block underneath and make it fall using a torch."
"Got it! Dig out the block, right? I'll do it!"
Excited, Venti got on his toes and leapt up, aiming straight for the bedrock.
Seeing this, Ningguang and the others had odd expressions.
They'd seen people with hard heads before, but never anyone this stubborn.
This guy seriously wanted to mine bedrock?
Ryen rolled his eyes and stopped Venti.
"Alright, enough. You can't mine bedrock."
By now, Venti had swung his pickaxe a dozen times, but not even the slightest crack had appeared on the bedrock.
Venti was baffled.
Even obsidian would've shown some cracks after that many hits.
And he was using a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency!
Scratching his cheek, Venti muttered:
"Is the diamond pickaxe not enough? What kind of pickaxe do I need?"
Ningguang chuckled and shook her head softly.
"No pickaxe will work. Bedrock simply can't be mined or destroyed."
"Can't be mined or destroyed? What do you mean?" Jean frowned slightly, puzzled, and looked at Ningguang.
"Exactly what it sounds like," Ningguang replied, shaking her head.
"Ryen once said that every block in this world can be destroyed—except bedrock…"
"It can't be mined, can't be destroyed, not even with a Peace Bomb. It won't budge."
"It's an absolute rule: indestructible. Even if you had divine power and dug for a whole year without rest, you still couldn't break it."
"We originally thought bedrock would make the perfect sealing material, but… we can't get any of it."
Jean and the others fell silent.
They gazed at the dragon egg resting atop the unmoving bedrock, feeling a bit dejected.
"So…"
Lisa looked at Ryen with a bit of a headache.
"We worked so hard to kill the dragon, and now we can only stare at the egg?"
Ryen chuckled and stepped forward.
"I got it. Just watch how I do it."
With that, he tiptoed into the air and gently touched the dragon egg.
Like an Enderman teleporting, the egg instantly appeared on the bedrock platform of the End Fountain below.
Ryen jumped down and tapped the egg again.
This time, the egg landed on a diggable part of the End island.
Leading the others over, Ryen dug beneath the egg and placed a torch two blocks below it.
Then he broke the block supporting the dragon egg.
The egg fell, landed on the torch, and transformed into an item that could be picked up.
At last, the dragon egg was in hand.
Pocketing the egg, Ryen turned to the others with a smile.
"Learned how it's done?"
Lisa said thoughtfully:
"You take advantage of the egg's teleporting behavior and dig it out to make it drop? Doesn't seem too hard."
Ryen nodded.
"Exactly. If you understand it, even better. But you don't need to overthink it—just make sure you're able to pick up the egg."
Seeing how easily Ryen obtained the dragon egg, Venti's eyes sparkled, and he sidled up with a cheeky grin.
"Ehehe, Ryen, I learned it too. How about you put the egg on the ground and let me try?"
His expression was sincerely innocent, but his thoughts were clearly devious.
The more Venti acted like this, the more Ryen knew exactly what he was planning.
Obviously, he was just waiting for Ryen to set down the egg so he could snatch it.
Ryen rolled his eyes and said sarcastically:
"Cut it out. Don't play those little tricks with me. It's not like we're done killing dragons yet. Besides, even if I gave you the egg now, you can't hatch it anyway."
"We'll get it later. It's not like the egg is going to run off."
Exposed for his sneaky plan, Venti wasn't embarrassed in the least. With a playful "ehehe," he backed off to the side.
"Do we need to use End Crystals to revive the Ender Dragon?" Ningguang asked, taking out a set of End Crystals and looking at Ryen.
He raised his hand and pointed toward the nearby End Fountain.
"Place four over there. Let's summon the Ender Dragon!"