Hannah stirred the disgusting-looking pot of soup in front of her, too tired to scowl at the smell of it. How long would they be able to survive? There was no clean water anywhere, nor any sources of food. All they had were their scant remaining rations and what little salvageable meat they could get from the rancid forest of corpses. Between the 13 of them, even with the purifying abilities of the singular priest that had somehow survived to the end, they had barely enough to last them two more days.
This land was no longer fit to live in after having been fully transformed in the Final Battle. For miles and miles around, everything was reduced to the dregs and remnants of War. The survivors' lives had become filled with disgusting things, most of which were the alien beasts' toxic flesh and blood, that not even vultures, crows, or rats would approach. Anything alive stayed clear of this place (and places like it) if they could. Which... humans could not. At least, not these ones. The breadth and scale of the Final Battle was just too big for them to escape the remnants of it. It was simply too large a battlefield. Even after a week of traveling straight, there was no sight of land untouched by the Battle. Well, Hannah loved to explain how the Final Battle should more accurately be called the "Final Series of Battles Scattered Across the World" ... but her explanations and protests had been unanimously overruled. Besides the fact that the name was ridiculously long, nobody wanted to admit how truly dire their whole world's situation was. And nobody wanted to remember the horrible details of how they survived, either.
The snap of a popping branch startled Hannah out of her reverie. Looking up, she caught sight of a familiar face and smiled weakly. "Hey Dokjin, welcome back. Hope you're not too sick of this crap soup yet, because it's all we ... got ..."
Her words trailed off as she focused more on the approaching figure, who she now noticed had something very wrong with him. Namely, a gaping hole in the center of his chest. It appeared to be covered by a translucent film that shuddered in the breeze, but the hole in his shirt that exposed it appeared to be smaller than the hole in his body so it was tricky to tell. A royal blue liquid-like light floated in the center, hovering and rippling gently.
Dokjin smiled and cocked his head, inquiring, "What's wrong, Hannah? Is there something wrong with my chest?" Looking down, he paused briefly before laughing softly. "Ah, that. Well... it's nothing to worry about. It's just part of the germination process. It'll be fine shortly."
Hannah's eyes widened as she jumped up, preparing to shout before a thrown rock slammed into her gut, knocking her breath out of her and cutting off her cry. She staggered backwards, breathed in to try and scream, but was once again cut off -- this time, by familiar hands that had once wielded the strongest sword for the most noble purpose. Hannah winced as she looked up and met Dokjin's eyes. Somehow, they didn't really seem to be his anymore. They were the same mesmerizing hazel, with the same streaks of green and brown. Yet they were simultaneously too bright and too cold--the regrets of hundreds of battles no longer darkened them, and the warmth of friendship was missing.
"Sorry, honey... can't have that. I need this. This is all for my grand Purpose. I won't have you getting in the way of it." Shifting to a headlock tight enough to cut off her air supply, still covering her mouth with his hand, the Dokjin-that-wasn't-Dokjin waited. After a few minutes, Hannah fell unconscious and he laid her gently on the ground. "Thank you for understanding, my friend. I never could have made it this far without you. I'm sorry your soul won't get the rest it deserves."
With that, Ael extended his right hand over her sleeping figure. Tendrils of blue light surged from his chest, along his arm and down his fingers, then launched at her vitals like shot harpoons. Eyes, heart, lungs. A pulse bulged along the light paths, down into her body, then disappeared as he lowered his hand and the light paths broke. He then walked towards the rest of the camp without a backward glance.