Kelkijak: The Last Man in the World

              Kelkijak stirred from his chair and poked at the embers of his fire.

            It had been almost 1000 years since the League invaded Nezebgrad. 1000 years since the Imperial Army fought them off and drove them back to Novogrod. 1000 years since the demons launched their attacks in forces and numbers greater than ever before. 1000 years since Yasker and Eniel united and fought to drive off the demon forces, only to be overwhelmed and killed. 1000 years since the demons summoned Tarnalq, a demon whose powers dwarfed even Sarn and Nihaz.

       1000 years since everything, living, dead, demon and god, had been annihilated in an instant.

       All except Kelkijak.

       He didn't know why he had been spared. All of his friends, his family, his coworkers and even his enemies had vanished without time even to scream. He had checked the tombs at Z.I.T. Headquarters, hoping that some of his kind had survived there, but to no avail. All were gone. All were dead.

       For 50 years, Kelkijak had used all of his scientific and magical knowledge, which was quite considerable, to scour all of Sarnaut for life, and when that failed, he searched throughout the Astral for some indication that the demons, at least, still existed, for even if the only other things in existence are beings who want only to devour you, at least you're not truly alone. Here, too, though, he found that whatever Tarnalq had done, it had wiped he and his ilk from the Astral as well as all other life. Not even the Ghosts of Gipat had survived the event.

       Kelkijak was well and truly alone.

       For a while, Kelkijak tried to make the best of what he could of his newfound freedom. He cobbled together every ship left in Nezebgrad into one supercarrier ship, and set sail across the Astral until he reached Novogrod, which, like Nezebgrad, had been stripped of all that lived. He then took every ship in Novogrod, combined them with his supercarrier, and formed an artificial allod that could float freely through the Astral for all eternity if Kelkijak so desired. And for some time, Kelkijak could almost forget the Cataclysm that had shattered the world as he sailed through the deathless and deadly beauty that is the Astral. However, despair can never be kept at bay for long, and in time, Kelkijak felt its cold embrace around his mechanical heart, and decided he could no longer live this way.

       And so it was that 80 years after the Cataclysm, Kelkijak decided to kill himself in the hope that he could rejoin all who had vanished. Fate, however, was not so kind, for after Kelkijak had been crushed into oblivion by the weight the Overlord's Stronghold, he found, to his horror, that his mind remained in the mortal coil and his body reassembled itself. Kelkijak could suffer all the pain and hurt in the world, but no matter what he did, he could never die. It was his doom to remain alone, immortal, for all eternity.

       Upon learning this revelation about himself, Kelkijak could not bring himself to move from where he lay for sometime. Decades passed. Eventually, Kelkijak came to terms with his fate, and returned to his home, the supercarrier allod, and set sail to drift across the Astral. In time, he came to enjoy the solitude that come with his position, and began to create mechanical companions to ease his loneliness  None of the creations lasted for more than a few hours, though, due to some lingering effect of Tarnalq, and over time Kelkijak could not bring himself to continue creating this semblance of life only to have it die in his arms, and so stopped.

       Kelkijak jerked out of his reverie as the logs in the fireplace shifted, collapsing on themselves. He took this opportunity to stretch his legs and walk about on the deck of his ship, marveling at the ever-changing beauty of the Astral. After a few hours of this, he retired to his room, locking the door, as had been his habit when the world was alive, all those centuries ago. He boiled himself some tea, and read from the latest tome he brought up from his library. Once he'd read a few dozen chapters, he was getting ready to slumber, when something happened that evoked the purest form of terror he had ever felt.

        Kelkijak, the last being in the world, answered the knocking at his door.