Far ahead, the mountains loomed.
Pinky and Lyriel stood at the base of a winding path that led up into the peaks. At the top, barely visible through the clouds, a dark castle jutted against the sky.
The Demon Queen's domain.
So," Lyriel said, her voice small. "This is it."
Pinky nodded.
"You know no one comes back from there, right?"
He nodded again.
"And you're going anyway."
He looked at her. For a long moment, their eyes met. Then he turned and began walking up the path.
Lyriel hesitated.
She could leave. Right now. Turn around, go back to her carrot farm, pretend none of this ever happened. She was just an F-rank healer. She had no business facing a Demon Queen.
But then she thought of seventy years of loneliness. Seventy years of being kicked and insulted and thrown away. And she thought of the past few months, traveling with someone who never called her useless. Never hit her. Never treated her like garbage.
She followed him.
Whatever waited at the top of that mountain, she would face it with him.
Together.