The warrior had endured a long and perilous journey. Raging beasts were slayed, torturous demons were overcome, tumultuous lands were traversed, and impossible sacrifices were made. Now, he had reached his final stop.

His light green eyes bore the pain of a thousand grieving souls, yet his expression held firm as a seasoned king on his throne. A large scar danced from his forehead to the side of his face, as fresher cuts and bruises fought for their own attention. His thick, dark hair—a sea of untamed spikes—veiled a plum-sized bump on the left side of his head. His ragged underclothes were covered by a long black trench coat not without its own litany of abuse. His blade, the sacred tool that would soon extract a final debt of blood, told many tales of victory and loss. Resting in the holster slung over his back, it anxiously awaited its final act. The time had finally come.

The sprawling castle stood before him, and somewhere inside, the mastermind’s lair. As the warrior stepped forward to enter, he recalled their first meeting many moons ago…

[FLASHBACK]

The mastermind swung his weapon to deliver a lethal blow, but the warrior stealthily evaded and dealt his own. The mastermind’s head fell to the ground—his lifeless body still standing in the middle of the burning village.

But revelation was birthed: the mastermind was only a bot. Confused and distraught, the warrior remained silent. This was not the true mastermind he was after. Just as he began to convulse with an unceasing rage, his mind was forced to shift gears—hundreds of identical mastermind bots emerged from the shadows to surround him. He was trapped, but his resolve knew no bounds.

Staring at the inferno that had melted everyone and everything he knew and loved, he summoned a strength he’d never had before. In defiance of all previous limitations, the warrior somehow slashed his way to victory and vanquished every last one of the androids in sight.

But his journey had just begun.

The castle seemed abandoned inside. Cobwebbed corners and a pair of bats perched on a small ledge at the top of the towering ceiling whispered rumors that no one was here. But the warrior remained vigilant. He’d seen too much to ever be fooled or caught off guard again. This was the place. He was certain.

As he crept through a maze of hauntingly desolate corridors, waves of memories pulsed through his mind. The seven-headed dragon he’d narrowly defeated by hacking his way out from the inside after willingly being consumed, the dastardly pirates who betrayed his trust and left him for dead amongst the savage rebels, the arm he’d sacrificed to escape imminent death at the hands of an alien militia—he’d overcome too many odds to fail now.

The slaves he’d freed upon crumbling an empire’s holy arena to the ground and setting revolution aflame, the lives he’d saved by surrendering his soul to the great war gods and preventing catastrophic destruction, the benevolent beings he’d befriended along the way, the woman who carried his unborn child—he was fighting for more than just his former village and lost loved ones now. He was the last remaining beacon in a world of darkness. He was the antithesis to the conniving evils that plagued so many and spared so few.

Reaching the end of a dusty hallway, a long set of decrepit stairs jetted upwards before him. The warrior sensed it: the man he sought was near. The fateful encounter would ensue at long last.

Gently, yet confidently, he began the ascent. His bionic arm slowly reached to unsheathe his trusted weapon in preparation for the confrontation that, one way or another, would bring his epic journey to a conclusion. With each step he crossed, the weight of the world pressed his feet to the floor. Each breath taken pulled him closer to the unspoken force emanating from the doorway up ahead.

Upon reaching the top of the staircase, the warrior entered a large room and found what he’d been searching for: the mastermind.

“Well done”, the old man jested as he began slowly clapping his hands together. “I never thought you’d reach me.”

The mastermind sat in a rickety chair behind a tiny wooden desk adorned with nothing but a single unlit candle and a large bronze skeleton key, the only objects in the entire room besides a strange painting on the wall behind him. Daylight pierced through a clouded window above to illuminate the large empty space. It was ominous to see such a threatening man in such a worn, desolate setting.

“Come”, he said. “Let us reveal what destiny has in store”.

The nefarious villain had proved himself time and time again to be the master of manipulation, the lord of exploitation, the undisputed king of predictive power. He turned cracks into canyons and dreams into nightmares. His orchestrations made him untouchable, a truth shown by the condition of his unscathed body. Though years of life may have preceded him, not a single scratch or blemish was to be found. He was a man above the chess board, waging war from beyond the battlefield. His mind was his power.

From the outside, the warrior stood the opposite: a lone wolf covered in the trauma of his history. He relied on no one but himself and nothing but his own will, a thing which had served him well. He’d foiled the mastermind’s countless operations and eliminated his countless henchmen. And now, his raw physicality salivated at the opportunity to claim victory over his nemesis once and for all.

“It’s over”, the warrior declared as he lifted his sword. “The games end here”.

The mastermind responded in kind, declaring the void between them no longer so. After a brief back and forth of words exchanged, the dastardly fiend rose from his seat and began doing what he does best…

By revealing some dark hidden truth unknown to any others, he caused the warrior to begin questioning himself and all of the difficult choices he’d made along his voyage. Compounding upon the warrior’s preexisting distress and hopelessness, the wicked architect of anguish fluttered his silver tongue in hopes of using these unsettling revelations as a springboard to sway the noble hero who’d always stood in his way.

Follow a fiendish monologue, he placed his hand on the warrior’s shoulder from behind, confidently proclaiming “There is but one path, my boy. Our fates are linked. Relinquish your pain and surrender to the world that binds us all.”

A long stretch of silence followed, and the mastermind calmly waited. His dark green cloak, inches away from the cold tile floor, reeked with the stench of satisfaction. A menacing grey beard squirmed out from his smug face—his eyes discharging an abysmal haze of unchallenged malevolence from beneath the ghostly hood covering his jagged eyebrows. Though absent any notable size, his presence was a looming shadow—his certainty immeasurably more terrifying than any weapon forged from earth.

Leaning in to deliver the final blow, the mastermind whispered something grave in the warrior’s ear, something twisted and true enough to spur the trembling of his soul. The smell of despair permeated the tiny bubble they now shared, as the warrior’s heart pounded like a fuming behemoth desperately thrusting to escape its cage.

And then, the silence ended as the warrior responded, “You’re right.”

Turning to face the devilish ringleader, the warrior lifted his head and uttered his own declaration. “My path is to destroy you”.

Stunned at the warrior’s ability to overcome the elaborate scheme and resist the temptation of self-destruction, the mastermind grit his teeth and prepared for his unavoidable demise.

With a single swing of his blade, the warrior completed his mission: the mastermind was slain, his body dropped like a sack of bricks next to the decapitated trophy. A sea of blood gushed from the headless corpse as the warrior sighed in relief. He had succeeded where all others failed. He had accomplished his goal. The man he sought to kill was truly dead.

But peace had yet to be restored…

Moments later, the castle began to shake with a monstrous roar. A faint beeping rang from the chest of the fallen mastermind as clumps of ceiling crashed to the ground. Lifting the cloak of his conquered foe, the warrior discovered some sort of device strapped to the old man’s chest, and on it, a note reading “OUR FATES ARE LINKED”.

As the hollow fortress initiated its collapse, the warrior surmised the mastermind’s final act and digested the unsavory reality: if the warrior would not willingly embrace his own self-destruction, then the mastermind’s insurance policy would accomplish that goal for him. More simply put, if the mastermind died, so would the warrior.

A few more seconds past as the castle continued to crumble. There was no way to reach the overhead window, nor would it make for a safe escape, and the castle entrance was much too far. The warrior stood up and closed his eyes as falling debris landed around him, accepting his fate. Though robbed of revenge in its absolute sweetest form, he had nevertheless extracted his pound of flesh, and thus, felt at ease with his impending doom. The successful conclusion of his great odyssey would now ensure the prosperity of many lives, and it was now time to alleviate his own suffering—in death.

Yet light still flickered within, and epiphany presented itself. The key on the table, the button on the device strapped to the mastermind’s chest—both pointing towards the mastermind’s alternate plan to seize victory: initiate the castle’s collapse manually and escape through a secret passage.

Swiftly darting to the mastermind’s desk and grabbing the key, the warrior set his sights on the painting seemingly bolted to the wall, for despite the chaos, it remained firmly in place. Narrowly dodging a falling beam, the valiant swordsman charged forth and hurled his blade into the painting to expose what lied behind it, his blade bouncing back several feet. A quick tear of the painting revealed the keyhole to a small metallic safe room built within the wall, a place which would withstand the explosive onslaught.

After inserting the key and opening the door, the warrior moved to retrieve his trusted blade behind him, somehow avoiding the hell raining down. Turning back with sword in hand, a massive chunk of rock plummeted from above as he leaped towards salvation into the metal room and fell unconscious.

…

Sometime later, the warrior awakened. He rose from the rubber slab he lied on, his eyes gently fluttering like the wings of butterfly reborn. A bleating moan leaked from his mouth as he reached to press the lingering pain in his head. He seemed to be in some sort of recovery facility.

Before mustering enough strength to question his whereabouts, a sheepish voice called out from the corner of the room.

“Did it work…master?”

Confusion propagated in the brief pause that followed while the warrior gazed at the clean, blank floor. A pair of middle-aged men stood idly in anticipation of a response, their musty white lab coats frozen in time amongst a room of technology.

And then, a moment of clarity was triggered. The warrior slowly looked up to the bumbling duo with a devilish smirk and responded.

“Yes”.

[FLASHBACK]

The warrior awoke in a blank void. There was nothing but gray space around him. His hair, his skin, his clothes—all in pristine condition. Even his bionic arm had been replaced with the flesh and bones that preceded it. A tsunami of questions crashed against the warrior’s skull, among them skeptical thoughts of how he awoke already standing. Was this the afterlife?

Suddenly, there was a portal. Emerging from the wisping aura of light, the mastermind appeared.

“How?”, the warrior exclaimed.

A black-hearted grin stretched across the mastermind’s face as he proudly declared, “We stand in the grounds of your mind, my boy, and it’s time for the reckoning”.

He then proceeded to explain how the warrior’s comatose body had been recovered by the unbeatable old man’s remaining henchmen and placed into a chamber designed for transferring consciousness. Long before the mastermind’s head was cleft from his body, a copy of his mind had been digitized. “And now”, he said, “it is time for an indomitable mind to assume its rightful place in an unrivaled body”.

Hearing the mastermind’s shocking declaration quickly spiked the warrior’s adrenaline and summoned his trusted blade to hand. It became clear that the warrior’s mind had not yet fallen to the pits of oblivion, nor would he let the mastermind’s consciousness overwrite it. This was the true final battle.

But in this metaphysical domain, the scales of power were tipped. A war waged in mental fortitude was a war in which the warrior’s raw physical prowess no longer held any weight. It was a battle of the mind, and there could only be one master…

The clash began as the two reached for a grand conclusion to their perennial conflict, each fighting for control to exist. Their colorful movements splattered across the empty canvas in a realm free of base forces like gravity, every blow struck percolating the field that was their consciousness. Like a pendulum of pure energy, they swayed back and forth exchanging innumerable discharges that burned with desperation.

Eventually the turbulence subsided in recognition of the perceived stalemate at hand. The mastermind shook his head in amusement, betrayed by former thoughts of an easier confrontation. Stretching out both his arms, he conjured hundreds of himself—but this army of copies was far more capable than those robotic counterparts of long days past. This army was a manifestation of his overwhelming mental capacity.

The swarm of masterminds blitzed in calculated droves. The warrior was able to eliminate some, but the barrage was too much to handle and eventually brought him to his knees.

“Behold”, the horde of masterminds boasted in harmonic unison, “your journey is complete”. The mastermind grabbed the very weapon that once robbed him of his mortal life and swung to deliver the final blow with the warrior’s own sword.

And so he did. The warrior before him was erased.

The henchmen responsible for successfully initiating the process sighed in relief. “We must celebrate”, the taller one gleefully cheered.

“No”, their newfound leader boldly responded, “Now that I’ve seized control of this body, there is much work to be done. No thread shall be left unsevered. It’s time for reckoning”.

…

Months later, a gathering was held. The scattered remains of the mastermind’s henchmen assembled in a makeshift headquarters to gain knowledge of what’s to come.

Stepping up to a deteriorating podium, the undisputed genius looked out to the small crowd of variable figures at his disposal. “Much has been accomplished”, he calmly gloated, “and now it’s finally over”.

The henchmen looked around at each other with puzzled expressions before the speech came to a close and clarification was granted.

“It’s over”, the warrior repeated.

Revisiting the fight for his consciousness, the warrior recalled his presumed demise…

[FLASHBACK]

The mastermind swung the blade and delivered what appeared to be the final blow. A gratifying chuckle slipped from the normally stoic old man as the warrior before him was indeed erased. But another warrior stood in the distance. And another. And another. And another. An army of warriors marched forward.

“How?”, the mastermind exclaimed as a fearful rage engulfed his being. Clearly the warrior had conjured his own extensions, his mind proving equally strong.

The battle continued as the two enemies launched an endless stream of attacks until only a handful of each remained, the last few of the warriors versus the last few of the masterminds—will and heart versus deception and malevolence, elementary drive versus elaborate schemes, a humble man versus a once unshakable god.

But the god was now shook. The mastermind failed to foresee the superior nature of the warrior’s relentless fight for survival, and so, in that moment, fate was sealed.

As the tides shifted and everlasting struggle veered towards new course, the mastermind cracked at long last, “Your quest will never end, boy, I cannot be exterminated! The vines of my work stretch beyond your wildest dreams. No man dares to extinguish the web I have woven!”

Only three semblances of the mastermind remained. Then it was two. Then one. “The vastness of my reach eclipses the sun itself! I am always one step ahead, young boy!”, the mastermind cried.

“Then I guess it’s time for me to be two steps ahead, old man.”

With his epic journey flashing before him, the warrior obliterated the last of his great foe. He had successfully rejected the mastermind’s consciousness and regained his own. The atmosphere around him quickly dissolved as he awoke to the sounds of “Did it work master?”

The warrior then recalled his laborious endeavors to secretly track down and erase all copies of the mastermind’s consciousness while posing as the resurrected kingpin himself for the last few months. He had halted what few contingency plans remained, and had sterilized what few demons posed a threat.

Standing before the flock of befuddled goons, he pulled out his sword after pressing a button in his pocket to lock the only door in the room. As the oblivious henchmen began to panic, he smiled and muttered “Meeting adjourned”.

Dashing through the herd of bodies, he quickly eradicated the last of the mastermind’s legacy. A sea of blood covered the cabin as he wiped a drop of it from his forehead and realized his journey had finally ended.

The warrior could finally rest.