(imho) The stories in the Bible are meant to be ‘applied’ on many levels.
The story of the Antichrist is something that ‘we’ have to deal with daily, and during our lifetime, and for the final fate of mankind.
To clarify, we have a personal ‘antichrist’. We may have one in current national leadership (our lifetime). And there yet may be another slew of them and a final hoedown with the Beast at a time when we have too many who are ‘antichrist’. It could mean the end of man (I doubt it), but it might mean the end of Christianity.
It ends with Christ ruling with his saints bodily out of Jerusalem bodily for a period of 1000 years plus (”a little season” when Satan is unchained and allowed to deceive the nations again...).