At The End

You blink, and everything changes.

Gone is the din of battle, the shouts of your friends, the howling of your enemies. Now there is silence. You stand bare, clad in naught but skin, and raise your head. Before you are gently rolling hills of dull-gray ash, stretching until they meet the horizon of an inky-black sky.

There is something behind you.

You turn, feet shifting through the cool ash. But a few paces from you is a towering structure - A palace? A cathedral, perhaps? - wrought of glossy black stone, faintly transparent, with sparkling motes of light deep within. The lights appear, brighten, fade, and blink out a million times over as you watch. Two large doors are before you. Without a sound they swing inwards, beckoning.

You know you must enter.

Your feet pad softly upon the stone as you start down a dark hallway. Vaulted ceilings with intricate arches and finely-crafted columns emerge from the shadows, but no finery adorns them. As you walk, you pass many doors. All are closed.

The hallway comes to a sudden end.

A pitch-black throne, over thrice your height, is built into the back wall. It is empty. At the foot of the throne is a shrouded form, wrapped in a tattered cloak coated with ash. Face obscured, it looks to you, and speaks:

You stand within the Eternal Terminus. I am the End of Ends, Maranam.
Are you prepared for judgement?