Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

He had heard those words somewhere before, though he couldn't remember where.

Cold wind blew dust into Layne's bare face, but he didn't care. Over the years, he had gotten used to the harsh sting of the wind, and it couldn’t harm him anyways. His eyes remained open, only focused on the strange, spiral tower in the distance. Once, it had been the greatest construction in the world, the height of hunter architecture. Now its crumbling ruins lay on the side, half-covered in ashes. Yet even at this point, the building’s walls protected the only living creature left on this world. All other life had long eroded, be they animal, hunter or plant. In the process, the air itself had become toxic, but Layne didn't mind. His lungs hadn't drawn breath in eons.

This was it, the end of the world. At last, he would have his revenge. His anger shaped his hands into vicious claws. He still remembered a time when he had used a sword, but now his hands were the best weapons in the world. Soon, they would commit their final sin. As he waded through the cold ashes, an old friend appeared before him.

“It's been a long time, Layne. How have you been?” Her form flickered. Now that the world had run out of life force, there was little left to support her projection.

“Alana.” His voice sounded clumsy and throaty, alien even to himself. Another thing he had barely used over the millenia, except for the rare moments when Alana had visited him.

“You look good. You've really slimmed down,” she said.

“The muscles just got in the way.” Before he had mastered the use of life force, he had used his size for many things, but at some point, all the weight had become nothing but a burden. Now, his body was made up of the world's force itself, so there was no reason for bulging muscles anymore.

“I'm glad you're well still. Soon it will all be over.” She smiled, but there was still that unspoken sadness stuck between her brows.

“Yeah.”

“I'll probably be punished for my failure, but I hope we can meet again. Go finish your work, you deserve your rest.” Her final words spoken, her form flickered out of existence, without so much as a goodbye.

When Layne stepped on the floor of the spiral tower, the stones crumbled into dust between his feet. At this point, there was nothing left to hold this world together. If it hadn't been for the pull of gravity, all of it would have been turned into a cloud of dust in space.

As he entered what remained of the main hall, he saw his old enemy, his eternal target: The king of hunters. The proud warrior had aged quite a bit since their last meeting. Once, he had been a great fighter, and his peers had considered him an immortal. Now, even Layne - member of a different species - could see his age. His once brilliant golden scales had turned a dull beige, desiccated and cracked. Even worse, there was no fight in his eyes, none of the defiance or anger Layne had always seen within. Yet there was also none of the despair he had hoped to see. Their milky blue was the color of a frozen lake, still and deep.

“I have been waiting for a long time, slayer.”

Without a word, Layne walked the last steps of his journey, as slowly as he could. He had waited a long time for this moment, more time than he could fathom. He would make sure to savor every second.

“On your way here you have taken countless lives, countless innocents. You didn't even spare the plants, or the bacteria. I wonder, was it worth it?” The hunter's voice didn't sound angry, or desperate, only curious.

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“Killing you will be the best thing I'll ever do,” Layne replied, provoked by the hunter's casual tone.

“Do you even remember why you kill things? What was the point of it all?”

A derisive snort answered the senile hunter. Even the names of his old friends had long disappeared from Layne’s memories. Now, he didn't even have that vague feeling of warmth left. But how could he admit it to his foe? Besides his rage, what else did he have?

“You could have been one of us, why would you not agree? Why insist on this pointless battle?” the hunter probed again.

“You know what you did, you deserve it.”

“To tell you the truth, I cannot remember, not for the life of me. After every lost battle I tried to understand your hatred, but it has been far too long. That young king who wronged you died a long time ago, swallowed by oblivion.”

“His body's right there. I'll bring it to its master.” With his guttural voice, Layne sounded more like the monster than the one before him.

“We both deserve this, you know? To suffer like this? I was too weak to let go until it was too late. You are too weak to forgive, even until the very end. Now all our efforts will be as worthless as the dust around us. What have we achieved?”

“I am the strongest man in the world,” Layne insisted.

“And once you kill me, you will be nobody. We are the last ones left. No one will remember your name, no one will know you ever existed. You will sit here, on a lonely rock in space, until you burn through all your power and join the rest of us among the dust.”

“So what, you expect me to forgive? After everything!? Then who pays for the end of my people!?” As Layne's voice boomed through the hall, the dust around him escaped and formed a crater in the process. Above, the roof collapsed into nothingness, freeing up the view on the endless stars above.

“Both our people have ended.” The hunter stared up at the sky. “Now we are not even a footnote of history. Just another untold tale. If you wish to fight me-” With a swish of his hand, the hunter formed the last bit of his energy and shaped the ashes before him. Between the enemies, a game board appeared. “-we can do so in a more civilized manner. How about a game?”

“...you want me to play games with you?” Layne frowned, as his claws clenched harder. “Have you lost your mind after all this time?”

“Or you could kill me right now, smash apart the board, and have this entire world all to yourself.”

For another eternity, the two stared at each other, until Layne sat down without another word. After a few seconds, he looked up from the game and to his enemy.

“I don't know how.” There was no shame when he admitted to his faults. Even with eons of time, what man could know everything?

“Really? I heard chess used to be a human game. How peculiar. Though it matters little. Let me teach you, old foe.”

Atop a cold ball of dust in the emptiness of space, mortal enemies sat around a chessboard and moved the pieces in silence. Layne never looked up from the game. Though he was absorbed by the promise of victory, defeat followed after defeat as time dragged on. When a pawn turned to dust in his hands, he knew that its energy had passed on, and its host along with it.

Layne was alone.

[Stage One complete.]

[Congratulations! Humanity is declared the winner!]

[ERROR: Insufficient energy to initiate Stage Two]

[Skipping Stage Two

Humanity is declared the winner by default]

[Transferring all surviving winners to Stage Three.]

[Please stand by...]

And then, all life on earth was gone.