Complete.
It began slowly at first, following a months worth of silence as I ordered my remaining subjects to take shelter and my forces to build, swelling for the undertaking that lay ahead. While the dust still choked the sky, I began to lead my unstoppable fist on the road to power once again.
Guatemala put up little fight as I stormed in, laying waste to everything in my sight, leaving the country a barren ruin in just days, its people now living in fear of their new ruler. Gradually my legions advanced further south through El Salvador, the Honduras and Panama, crossing into the south in an ever expanding dome of power. People fled in their millions as the resisting armies were either overwhelmed or fled in terror and hopelessness. No city was spared from my wrath, as one by one the Night Empire claimed one land after another, leaving little more than smoking ruins, a testament to my power.
Letting my southern army do its job I turned my attention towards the ruined cities of Europe. Leading the invasion personally the wall of unstoppable metal rolled over Greenland, beginning the attack on the devastated United Kingdom. I cut a swathe of endless destruction through the once green hills now dying from lack of sunlight and the cold. Each and every city is reduced to a ruin as I stride through, passing through the contaminated remains of London to cross into France and Germany.
Here I relished at the chance of some stronger resistance. Their tanks and soldiers fought back, pushing with all their might against the endless waves of armour. Yet slowly but surely they were overwhelmed and defeated. The sound of a Leopard 2 tank exploding from a blast of my scythe fills my ears, and it is satisfying.
They fight me through the blasted streets of Paris and Berlin, the two world powers surrendering to my will as I walk past the cowering citizens. Pressing on I spread across Spain, Italy and into the east.
While the machines cross southwards over the Mediterranean into North Africa, I cast my dark eyes, my merciless gaze towards Moscow. Where the depraved despots Napoleon and Hitler failed I will succeed.
The Russians fight me all the way through Poland and the ex-Soviet states. Their troops held ranks in the face of the steadily advancing machines. It is here, pushing forwards in an unstoppable wave that I meet the most destruction to both my own armoured forces and the enemy. They bomb my lines with every remaining missile and nuke they possess, reducing the cities and towns to ruin for me, turning the already dead ground into an irradiated waste. And still they emerge from under the plumes of ash and dust, my machines advancing endlessly with me in the lead.
Inevitably the Russian lines are pushed back further and further, reduced to ruin by the lancing bolts of plasma and the tides of demonic destruction I let loose from the staff at my side. Moscow lies in ruin as I stand over the rubble of the Kremlin, having crushed my ultimate threat to world power. Looking further to the east the cities are already descending into anarchy. It is sweet and wonderful, making the people turn on each other in all their weakness as the rolling front of armour closes in. The rest of Russia will soon fall, with South America already in ruins, locked under my rule, with Southern Africa tearing itself apart under the advancing front.
Now I turn my gaze back towards the ruins of Endsville.
Returning to the mountain peaks above my old homeland I look out at the vast expanse of desert to the east, on the other side of the range to my old town.
'This,' I think, 'is where the capital of the Night Empire will be.' Looking down on the patch of ground I stand on, the very peak of the range looking down on my world. 'This will be where my fortress will be built. From here I will rule over and control everything and everyone in the world.'
For another month I remain in one place, watching as the vast Ziggurat to my power began to rise up into the sky. Below my millions of slaves come from the remains of the cities across the country to toil hour after hour to construct the beginning of my capital, the towering buildings for housing and industry and the great organs of control coming together under the dark sky. In the underworld my army continues to grow, as overseas the control over my territory is solidified. Beside my army another machine is being created, a flying fist of terror, an airship from which I will survey the battlefield below, viewing my enemies with contempt as my armies outflank them before I eradicate them with scythe and cannon. As I build up my empire for the final push the rest of the devastated world cowers in fear. Countries try desperately to offer their support, trying to appease me, to suck up to me like the lying sycophants they are. It only serves to deepen my darkness and resolve.
Standing back I watch as my civilisation grows, Grim and Billy by my side, Mandark having tragically fallen out of my favour. Billy smiles in approval, as if to hide the fact that he wants to cling to me like the sentimental little fool he is. Soon I will dispose of him; my plan is for it to be my way of permanently securing my power inside and out once my life's ambition is complete. Now I look out towards the last vestiges of the old world, Oceania, Antarctica, and Asia.
Leading my army in its last drive from both my ship and the front I cross into Japan, crushing and taking the remaining cities, continuing onto the Korean Peninsula. To the south Australia barely puts up a fight before Sydney and Canberra are destroyed by my armour, moving on to secure Antarctica later. The wave of destructive power is unstoppable, rolling through devastated China, crushing any and all resistance with ease as I tower over the little people below. Their tanks and trucks are blown away by my scythe as I advance deeper throughout East Asia into India, and towards the Middle East. What a wonderful place for my conquest to become complete, in the very origin of the civilisation I have now destroyed.
As the noose closes on the last vestige of freedom in the world, I look on coldly as the people finally surrender to my will. It is over, the world is mine. Now I turn, leaving the smoking ruins of the world to return to my capital. I arrive to my completed fortress, stretching kilometres into the permanently scarred atmosphere, looming ominously over the dull concrete megacity and its fearful lowly inhabitants.
Billy runs up to me and grasps me in a hug, grinning happily about my conquest. I gaze coldly on him, his friendship nothing more than a weakness to be broken. And now I will break it, permanently. Summoning my scythe I take aim at him, charging to attack. He stands still, looking at me in surprise, realisation finally dawning on him that I have no place for him in my new world. He smiles softly, as if to forgive me. I fire my scythe.
He falls to the floor, dead.
I gape in shock and dismay at what I have done. His body lies motionless on the concrete surface as I finally come to understand that now, the last weakness in my life gone, I have become god.
Turning towards the great window I look amazed out over my empire, the dystopian city of millions spread out under the black sky. A creeping sense of pleasure and joy comes over my shock, completely overwhelming me in darkness and evil. My lips curve upwards in a smile as I continue to gape at my own greatness, a twisted smile taking over my face.
As a flash of lightning streaks through the dead skies overhead, I arch my head back and laugh. I laugh for hours in a sick, insane manner as the darkness takes me and completes me.
I have done it.
I am god.
I laugh.