"Just one more step," that was the mantra that kept him moving as his body screamed out in anguish. Every step felt like jabbing a red hot iron in his back, but he knew that should he stop he would hardly ever move again.

  The gentle sounds of the woodland echoed around him lead by the chirping of birds, a chorus heralding the approach of dawn. Not even the pain of countless deep wounds spilling his lifeblood could drain the joy from him when he heard the whimsical song of the birds.

  Moving was becoming more of a struggle with every passing moment, yet he remained undeterred. He brandished the knife in his boot, and cut the straps of his armor. The sounds of the metal clattering against the forest floor rang in his ears as his armor fell from his body one piece at a time.

  Searing pain tore through him as he increased his pace. Blood poured freely from wounds only staunched by his hand. He applied more pressure to stem the flow in the hopes it would buy him a few more moments of strength.

  Eventually the sounds of the woodland faded away, replaced by the sounds of crashing waves as he reached the coast. Joy overtook him as he spotted a lone tree overlooking the ocean before him.

  His pace came to a stop before the tree. He leaned his back against the trunk and slowly seated himself. Before him was the miraculous sights of the ocean that entranced him now even as all color slowly faded from his vision. The surface of the water shining like a million glittering stars brought a peace to him like no other.

  He had made many mistakes in his life, but he hoped that time would wash away the stains of his countless sins. Perhaps the world would come to forgive him even if he could never truly forgive himself. Was it so much to ask that the world forgive him once he was dust in the wind?

  As a young man he had sought to make something that would last forever. To unite all peoples under his banner and build a great empire that would not repeat the mistakes of the past. Yet he had repeated all those mistakes and during the last years he had seen himself become like the tyrants he had sought to eradicate.

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  The thought of his empire crumbling after his soon to be death brought some peace to his mind at the very least. He would dearly miss his friends and loved ones, but would they miss him? After all he had done would those closest to him ever truly forgive him?

  A sudden clap of thunder behind him washed away all the calming sounds of the ocean and shook him from his thoughts. He heard the loud and determined footsteps of a man approaching the tree. He slowly turned his head to the side and saw a wizened old man looking down at him with cold disapproving eyes.

  "You had a chance to rule the world and this is how you squander it!" the old man hissed.

  "It wasn't mine to take by force," he said just before another coughing fit came over him.

  The old man studied him intensely for a few moments only for their eyes to go wide as they spotted something or the absence of something.

  "The sword! What have you done with the sword you fool!" they screamed at the top of their lungs.

  "Threw it in the rapids so you nor anyone else will ever find it."

  "Oh, so you grow a heart just so you can throw all my gifts to the wind!"

  He couldn't help but smile as he raised his head to meet the old man's gaze. "Your gifts were a poisoned apple anyways."

  The old man clenched their fists and the ocean waves grew unruly in an instant, the clouds darkened like the blackest night, and another clap of thunder echoed out in the distance.

  "You deny my gifts freely given, you leave your empire to crumble in your absence, and you have the gall to die a pointless death," the old man said with all the venom they could muster.

  Far beyond the darkened clouds a small light shone on the horizon, which soon blossomed into a piercing white light that washed away all darkness as the sun well and truly rose in the distance. A beautiful light that called to something deep within him.

  "I'd much rather die watching the sunrise as an ordinary man than drown in my sins as a tyrant king," he said as he stared into the warm light of the sun.

  The old man slammed their hand into the trunk of the tree with a furious roar. "I don't care if it takes me hundreds of years or even a millennia," they paused for a moment and lowered their voice, "Because if you won't give me the world, then I guess I just have to find someone who will."

  The man looked down at him and went silent in an instant as they saw his lifeless eyes gazing towards the horizon. His body had grown cold and still beneath that tree, but the greatest insult to the old man was that he hadn't even heard the last things they said. He had gotten the last word in with his dying breath after all and a dead man hears no response.

  Something snapped in the old man that very moment. A cacophony of laughter erupted from them, which soon turned into maddened screams.

  "Arthur!"