”All right, mortals,” The Wanax said after several more hours of voting. His dark void somehow stared over the crowd. Amongst the smoky purple figures were three normal, alive, unspoiled human beings. Huddled together, scared, exhausted in every possible way over the events of the past week, they were ready for this to end, one way or another.

And end it would.

“BEEFY187!” The Wanax boomed, and even the ghostly purple beings jumped back in fear. “YOU HAVE RECEIVED THE MOST VOTES! STEP UP TO THE PLATFORM AND FACE YOUR FINAL JUDGMENT! “ Even with the infinitely dark, endless void where The Wanax’s face should have been, all of the villagers somehow got the impression that he was staring at Beefy with an impatient look, as if ready to get this over with.

For Beefy, the world went silent. The mutterings of the villagers, living and dead, ceased to exist. The relatively few ambient sounds of the Gameroom were also muted. Instead of there being a discernable sound, everything around him blended together, swirling around him in a great cacophony of nothing. It was over, for him, for everyone else. After twelve days, twelve agonizingly long days and nights that somehow felt more than over a month, it was finished. With no outside influence to distract him, with him suddenly, seemingly becoming immune to the very passage of time itself, Beefy had forever to reflect upon what happened, to ponder, to regret. He felt himself walking up the steps to the execution platform, but at the same time, his mind was elsewhere. Perhaps it had already departed for the place where his soul would soon join it.

“Time to die, Beefy,” The Wanax said, pulling out the phasgana, finally snapping Beefy back to reality.

…

“TIME FOR ALL OF YOU TO DIE!!!” The Wanax boomed suddenly, and for a second, the villagers saw a flash of Godfather Reenk Roink in that horrible void. In an instant The Wanax’s arms were spread wide, the phasgana in his hand glowing a pure white. Beefy, terrified beyond all reason, somehow noted that The Wanax’s feet were a few inches off the ground.

“You little puppets,” The Wanax roared, and nobody was unable to notice now the expression of pure triumph that somehow was made clear on the void. “You pathetic little puppets never could take the next step in human evolutionary thought throughout this entire little mess.”

Rising even higher off the ground, The Wanax somehow slipped into the tone of voice on someone giving a discourse, despite the glowing phasgana in his hand and the dark clouds quickly forming over the village. “All of you, sticking to your horribly outdated means of thought. Surely you did not seriously believe that your collective, conservative decisions could match the awesome wisdom of The Wanax?” The Wanax paused, allowing appropriate time for the villagers to contemplate what he just said, before continuing.

“You pathetic life forms are as predictable as the ants marching out to gather food and then marching back into the anthill,” The Wanax said. “It’s the problem of induction all over again! Did you learn nothing from the lesson I taught you merely hours ago? DID YOU REFUSE KNOWLEDGE FROM THE WANAX?!??!”

The villagers, realizing that they were all doomed, could still do nothing but listen in pure fear.

“JUST BECAUSE SOMETHING HAS ALWAYS HAPPENED A CERTAIN WAY IN THE PAST DOES NOT MEAN IT WILL HAPPEN THAT WAY IN THE FUTURE!” The Wanax thundered, and then, upon reflection, calmed down a bit. “Of course, with a superior intellect, I knew that you would be lynching based off past behavior. Because it’s served you well before and you’re all comfortable in your familiar little shells and routines, all of you afraid to take the leap that would propel town thought forward. Of course I knew that none of you would accuse me as a mafioso, saying that my actions were too ‘ballsy’ for someone who had so much at stake. It was simple logic, and thus I stayed one step ahead of you the entire time by doing the thing I knew you would least expect from a villain. I wouldn’t even call what I did a calculated risk so much as someone simply understanding what direction the town would take and making the necessary adjustments.”

The Wanax lowered to the ground, but only slightly. “However. I did admire your bravery and your willingness to press on, no matter the consequences. I was seriously considering sparing you for a while, even though you killed both of my grunts. BUT THEN YOU STRAIGHT UP IGNORED BY BIGGEST HINT!!! I MEAN, I GAVE IT TO YOU AND YOU BLATANTLY IGNORED IT!!! THE WANAX WILL NOT STAND FOR SUCH AN EGREGIOUS WASTE OF KNOWLEDGE! YOU MUST ALL DIE!!!” The phasgana, now being lifted into the air, continued to glow. At its point, the glow intensified and expanded, all at once engulfing everything into a blinding white light…