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He was the last person standing. He had succeeded his task.
It was strange, standing in front of the Secret Keeper now. The words that had been whispered in his ear were still echoing in his mind: "She's dead, Scar. You won."
She's dead. You won. She's dead. You won. She's dead. You won. She's dead you won she's dead you won she's dead she's dead she's dead she's dead she's-
That voice sounded strangely like Grian, but Scar knew it wasn't, it couldn't be. It wasn't Grian he knew, at least.
"Who would have thought it would end up like this?" Scar said aloud, trying for a joking tone. It didn't work - he sounded too bitter, too sharp. Who was he even speaking to... his dead friends? Himself? The Secret Keeper? It didn't even matter. Either way, he was alone out here.
He pulled the task scroll out of his inventory and held it upwards. "The server villain, winning it all. No friends or allies to help me and I still won. Funny, it's it?" He sounded anything but amused. Any humor in his voice had gone a long time ago.
When he stepped up to the Secret Keeper, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of dread. Nothing could hurt him anymore, he knew that well enough. Even though he was near death, he was still somehow alive and kicking, and everyone else who might want to finish him off was dead. The sun was still shining bright in the sky, preventing any monsters from spawning. The ground was littered in explosions, indicating that most of the traps had been set off. This was the safest he'd felt in ages. The world was so quiet now.
He was alone.
A flashing anger struck him and suddenly Scar was throwing his scroll in front of the Secret Keeper. "Take it!" He screamed, slammed both hand on the button. "I won, give me my prize. We're done here, end this."
He felt the warm rush of health rush back through him, his wounds healing over. So this is what it feels like to win, he thought. He felt stronger now, more capable, more all-knowing... or maybe that was just the adrenaline rush.
"Strike me down!" Scar yelled, turning to face the sky. "We're done now! No need to keep me waiting. There's nothing left here to see!"
He heard a quiet hiss and spun around, lifting his weapon in panic, but there was no explosion, no firework rocket. No, there was just a burst of green and yellow confetti around him, the thing that indicated that a task had been succeeded. From the point where the confetti had gone off, there was also a single red scroll.
Scar's heart was pounding.
Slowly, carefully, he leaned down and picked up the scroll. "Is this some kind of message?" He whispered to himself, keeping one hand on his sword. "Some kind of final warning?"
It wasn't either of those things. It was a task.
A familiar task.
'Win Secret Life.'
"Hold on, now," Scar said carefully, reading it over a few more times. "You can't do this to me. I already did it. The task is done, I was successful."
Tossing the scroll aside, he hit the succeed button yet again. "You made a mistake, Secret Keeper. I'm already the winner. There's no more tasks for me now, we just have to end this."
More warm healing rushed through his body. The confetti went off again after a moment, still slightly delayed. And there on the ground was another scroll.
"Come on, now, you're doing this wrong." Scar scrambled to pick the scroll up again, hoping desperately that there was something different written down. There wasn't. "This isn't how this is supposed to go. You're supposed to strike me down. You did it to Scott and to Martyn... Grian ended it himself, Pearl was killed by her soulmate connection... Maybe you need me to do it, then? Maybe my death will trigger the true victory."
He tossed the scroll aside and began climbing the rock of the Secret Keeper. He had been healed significantly, but if he took off all his armor, maybe this fall would finish him off.
Jumping felt easy, like second nature. Scar wasn't scared to die. He was glad that it was done, excited to move on to the whatever was next.
But when his legs hit the ground, there was a distinct lack of pain.
"What do you want from me?" He yelled up to the Secret Keeper. The statue was still silent and faceless. "How do I end this? You know the games are finished, right? This is over, I won, you have to let me be done now."
He pressed succeed again, but that only revealed another scroll. It wasn't even worth it to check this time - when that didn't work, he pressed the reroll button. When that new scroll was summoned, he checked it, but it was the same message.
"I already won!" Scar tossed the scroll aside (at this point, a small pile was forming). "I already did this! Stop tormenting me! Let me see my friends again, please, I just want to tell them I'm sorry. I need to talk to Pearl and Gem. I have to apologize to Impulse and Etho and Cleo and Tango and everyone else that I killed. I want to set things right with Lizzie and Skizz and I need to make sure they all know that I didn't mean any of it... It was the tasks, it was all just the tasks, I'm so done with these stupid tasks..."
Desperate, he pressed the fail button. Another scroll. He tried the succeed button a few more times. Just more scrolls. He tried burning the scrolls. They wouldn't catch fire, wouldn't vanish. He tried stepping into the fire himself, but it didn't hurt him, just flicked warmly around his feet.
"Secret Keeper, please, I'm done." Scar was so, so tired. He didn't want to stand anymore, falling into a sitting position with his head against the succeed button's pedestal. "Stop tormenting me, please, stop this. I won, I did it, so let me be finished... I don't want to be alone anymore."
Nobody responded. It was so very quiet here.