"Traveling to the west, traveling to the setting sun. With visions of love, of family, of friends, of acceptance and of life."

I kept wandering and around me the desert began to fade, I could see cities and people with clothes I've not seen in months. I could see the sun ahead of me, and behind me. I could see the thief, her clothes the same as when she married, staring at me with joy and her face flushed. Waiting for a kiss, a seal of true devotion.

I heard a grandfather clock tick, and the city was destroyed.

I heard it tick once again, and she was gone.

It ticked a third time and the celestial conqueror was in the middle of a dark cloud vortex above us all.

And on the fourth tick, I was holding the ankh prepared for combat, as I saw the four adventurers barely holding onto their lives.

Behind me, the sun was rising. The shade of the ankh covering mine.

I dashed towards the celestial conqueror, and with each step closer I could feel old emotions rising back. I could feel the envy, the sorrow, the heartbreak and the celestial conqueror's loneliness.

The Conqueror struck me, their blows strong and painful, but I was nothing, and pain had long lost its meaning.

The Conqueror cut my skin, and with each cut the ankh grew brighter, around me I could see the adventurers healing with the golden glow.

I refused to strike the conqueror without them striking me. I once knew that sorrow, and I remember how weak I felt. How I just wanted the ones targeted by my anger to feel it too. To give me a reason for my actions, to prove me right.

And that is why I refused to feel sorrow now.

I refused to feel envy, I refused to feel alone.

Blow after blow I refused to give in. And I could feel The Conqueror becoming desperate, it called to the skies, to the dark vortex that engulfed the sun.

The Conqueror would sacrifice themselves and the world with one blow.

The adventurers gave in to their sorrow, the scholar thinking about family, the brute thinking about the loss of remaining life, and the thief and noble thought of each other.

I thought about my life, about living so long with hate, about my journey and about everything I've learned.

And as the world would be struck to its darkest, eternal hour, I taught The Conqueror kindness.

I held them, and we cried. And after eternity feeling hate and sorrow, the Conqueror felt love.

I heard a thousand ethereal voices as the Conqueror begged for forgiveness, for they could not stop what was about to come. I soothed their cries as the Conqueror saw they were about to lose what they never knew they had.

And as we stood at the middle of the vortex, as the light grew dimmer and dimmer, as the world-ending blow would be dealt, I felt it striking me and I felt the ankh move.

And, just as my cuts healed the adventurers, the vortex struck with all its force, and a sacrifice healed the world. The golden glow from the ankh was so strong it erased and cleansed the dark skies. Around the world, a soothing, orange and red glow took its place.

The adventurers woke up to a new day, to a new sun. The Conqueror was dead. Any other evil that should rise, they would be strong and push on. Their symbol of strength, was now marked around an ankh, a symbol of hope, acceptance, sacrifice and kindness.

They would never find the ankh, however. For it is kept with me.

And as I saw them returning to their lives, as I saw the thief storing away her dagger because she had to help her husband with dinner, as I walked away when the scholar almost caught me sneaking my favorite book on her collection while she was too busy talking with the barbaric brute, I stared at the sunset.

The orange and red glow was gorgeous, and for me, it was a sight worth seeing another day.

I always thought that after The Conqueror pushed me away.

I looked at the ankh behind me and wondered why, for one short moment, the ankh became theirs.

And as the sun was about to set, I thought that maybe it was because the Conqueror wanted to give me another chance.

To teach me mercy.

To show me they learned acceptance too.

I was ready for a new life, so I grabbed the ankh.

And it was lighter.