Penultimate.
Once again they are moving. A man who looks as if he had just hit his twenties, and a woman who looks as if she is about to drop dead any second. Her eyes carry a weight that she will forever hold, her body portrays an image of someone whom she isn't, and her self is focused on nothing but one person... yet, she still pities the man in front of her. As she follows him gazing at his back, she pities and cherishes him.
Walking through the empty paths, accompanied by nothing but passing carts, they walk in silence. The man walks with his hand filling his pockets, while Lena carries a small bag on her back. Lena likes this, this sense of ease, it's exactly what she had always wanted, exactly what she had been working towards.
She doesn't know what will happen once they finish this last adventure, but... She wishes that this will continue.
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They get closer and closer as they follow a single empty path, passing through a jungle, piles of leaves scattered across the trail in heaps, the entire pathway was dimly lit, a few rays of sunlight pierce through the cracks within the bunched leaves of the trees. A smile was occupying her face as she continued to follow him.
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A slightly elevated path that outlooks a golden wheat crop. As Lena slightly diverts her attention away, she squints hard enough to see the couple dozen men harvesting it. She likes this view.
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A wooden bridge that is just barely stands above a body of water that stretches as far as the eye can see, Lena and Octan cross over it as they continue heading towards the middle lands. The water is not only crystal clear, but extremely shallow. If Lena were to step in it, it would reach just barely above her ankles. despite that she can still see miniature lifeforms swimming around and all kinds of different plants.
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It's their final camp out, tomorrow they would definitely reach the middle lands, where everything that has been building up for the last 10... no, this thing has been going for far longer than Lena has been around. Where everything that has been building up for the last almost 500 years will come to conclusion.
Lena is preparing a nice meal for them, Octan looks pretty tame about it.
Lena wasn't expecting any kind of conversation, but to her surprise the silent Octan finally talks.
"You know, There's something that you're definitely not questioning, but I will tell you about it anyway. Even though I was given memories of how the core was made, doesn't mean I would have known what 'They' were doing to me at that point, or how, so how did I know?" he asked as Lena handed him meat she had cooked.
"It's simple, I was told by someone who knows. The Demon Lord had told me. Back when I met him in the Zoomorn village, he told me everything I didn't know. About them, about the past, and himself... Even about you..." His words slowly fall apart as he mentions Lena, she wonders why but decides not to trouble him.
"...So yeah, just another piece of detail... thank you for the meal." he said as he simply digested his nutrients.
Lena followed his example.
She wonders, what will happen tomorrow. Just how will all of this come to an end? Is this even the right thing to do? To fulfill the 15th's wish?
...If that's what Octan thought... then who is she to argue.