Ashes fall like rain around me, the crackling of kindling flames occasionally interrupted by the sounds of the pillars collapsing one by one, stone crashing into the ground and kicking up clouds of dust. Through it all, I never take my eyes off him. The man before me, clad in battle-scarred plate armor, his helmet sitting on the ground against the remains of a ruined pillar and a madman’s grin on his face while he paces, each step he makes deliberate and concise. He drags his sword behind him, a monument of steel and blood devoted to battle, the horrid grating noise of metal on rock ringing through the air. 

My heart pumps slowly but powerfully, each beat fuelling me with adrenaline and resolve. I remain still, holding my halberd in both hands, feet planted firmly on the uneven ground. 

“Look at us,” he jeers, reaching a yet unbroken pillar and slamming his free fist into it, making the very ground tremble as the pillar shatters from the force, sending it tumbling down to join the rest of the rubble. “Two nobodies, fighting over nothing, at the end of the world.” 

I stay silent, my eyes wandering to the piles of bodies stacked up all around us. The corpses who were once friends and brothers, and those of my opponents, who were still men of worth. A vast and horrifying waste of life, especially for those who never even believed in what they were fighting for. 

“There’s only two ways this can end,” he continues, after realising I’m not going to respond. “I’d rather like the ending where I remain standing.” 

“Why?” I finally say, and I see his grin widen. “So you can end it all? So you can live in a world devoid of life until your time comes?” 

“You misunderstand my intentions!” He starts walking towards me and I tense up, my hands gripping the halberd tighter than before. “I don’t want to win.” 

“Then?” 

He scoffs. “I want you to lose.” 

“Playing word games at a time like this seems beneath you.” 

“On the contrary, old friend, I play no such games.” Twenty paces from me, he stops, gripping his sword tightly before plunging it into the ground, leaving it embedded there and leaning on it like it was no more than mere furniture. “Me winning is simply a side effect of what I desire, which is for your Sacrifice to end in failure.” 

“Why?” I grimace at him, my heart beginning to beat much faster. “My Sacrifice must go through! You understood before, why betray us now?” 

“I understood nothing before,” he said, speaking over the top of me, “just like you understand nothing now. You never ventured outside of the city grounds. You never saw the things I saw, never heard the curses they spit out there. They wanted to die. They wished they never existed! You and your brothers, all living in luxury, ignoring the people you deemed to be beneath you while they suffered day after day in the shadow of our empire!” 

I grit my teeth, breathing heavily and twisting my grip on the halberd. “I will make it better.” 

“I’m sure that’s what the others all said too, each time the world was remade!” He lifted his sword again, resting it over his shoulder. “Of the twenty-nine times this world has been reborn, do you think the past Sacrifices intended for things to turn out like this? Do you really think that the thirtieth time the Sacrifice remakes the world, the issues magically go away?” 

“And what’s the alternative?” I shout, taking a step towards him. “We leave the world to rot? We forgo the possibility that I can end that suffering?” 

“There have been plenty of chances for that.” He takes a step, matching my own, and we begin inching towards each other. “The Sacrifice, no matter how noble and just, has never prevented that suffering. But there is a way. A different sacrifice to make, but one that is certain to end it.” 

“And everything else, along with it.” 

“A small price to pay.” 

Five paces from each other, we stop, meeting each other’s gaze. His eyes burn with utmost resolve, unwavering and immovable, and that grin has been wiped from his face, replaced with a cold, unfeeling visage of determination. 

“Two nobodies, fighting over nothing, at the end of the world, huh?” 

“That’s right.” 

“You might fight for nothing,” I say, raising my halberd. “But I fight for everything.”