The latter froze slightly, as though something had been exposed. A flicker of tension passed through her ice-blue eyes, but she quickly suppressed it.
She lowered her gaze slightly, avoiding Yan Huan's direct stare.
A long silence spread across the summit of Cloud Cliff, broken only by the mournful wail of the wind.
After a long while, Hysilens's cool voice slowly rang out. It carried an unfamiliar, almost lost quality, like an undercurrent beneath the deep sea, churning with unanswered confusion:
"Lord Yan Huan, does everything we've done... truly have meaning?"
Yan Huan raised a brow at her words.
"Of course. So everyone can survive, and for peace in the universe."
His answer was crisp, even carrying a hint of matter-of-fact certainty.
Hysilens gently shook her head. A trace of imperceptible weariness entered her voice, born from a question buried deep within her heart about the meaning of existence:
"But what comes after all this?"
"When Amphoreus finally attains true peace, when survival is no longer an immediate threat, where are we supposed to go?"
She raised her head, her gaze piercing through the clouds as though she were looking into an impossibly distant future.
Looking at Hysilens... it was obvious Kryudera's death had not been so simple. Otherwise, it would not have left Hysilens so lost and depressed.
"Lord Yan Huan." Her gaze refocused on him, carrying an unprecedented seriousness.
"How far into the future can you see?"
"In the future you can glimpse... what are we, Okhema, and all those who follow you?"
"Are we merely passersby destined to be forgotten, or...?"
Yan Huan quietly watched her, watching the mist surging within those deep eyes that belonged to the Ocean alone.
As a Trailblazer from the Outer Realm, his perspective naturally stood higher than that of these native