Lera: Then, what am I? What are you?

Shen: Just a small part of the immune system of a fruit.

Lera: This does not make sense. How could you be here if you are the immune system of a different world!

Shen: There are branches to trees, Lera. And sometimes, to grow, it is easier to steal what you need from others than to make it yourself. Turned out that the seed in my world was the parasitic kind.

Lera: ...Then, no Gods, according to you.

Shen: Yes. You don't have to believe me.

Lera: I won't. But I am curious. What is your real goal if not to become a God?

Shen: The underworld was.

Lera: For the dead love of your life? Stop the cringey lies.

Shen: She was my first love, not the love of my life. And no, indeed, not for her. Though I tend to use that as an excuse sometimes.

Lera: To dodge the question.

Shen: Precisely.

Lera: Don't do it for once.

Shen: I have no reasons to. Not with you. You remember how I create puppets, right?

Lera: Yes. You need a body and a soul...Yours.

Shen: I have cut my own soul many times. I want those parts back.

Lera: That's a lie.

Shen: It is.

Lera: The truth, Shen. What is it? What do you really want?

Shen: I want to live.

Lera: That's it? Are you taking me for a fool? After all this melodrama?

Shen: What is the purest wish of all if not to survive? I am someone who has lived for a very long time. I have seen many things. But there is only one thing I have yet to uncover. And that is death.

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Lera: ...All this time...You were not driven by a goal but by fear? Of death?

As he kept looking at the intricacy of the seed in his hand, Shen smiled yet his face showed no happiness but solely sadness.

Shen: Yes.

Lera: Why? With all the power you have?

Shen: Because I am not invincible, Lera. One day, I will die. Probably very far in the future but I will. And the longer you live, the more you fear death. Death is the only thing that you will never fathom regardless of how long you live. And when you have lived as long as I have, it is beyond endurable. Many of my selves have taken their own lives.

Lera: They did?

Shen: Which Shen do you think I am, Lera?

Lera: ...What?

Shen took the seed back inside himself and turned towards her.

Shen: Which Shen do you think I am?

She pondered for an instant before she gave him the answer:

Lera: The one I love.

She kissed hm passionately and he gave back. It went on for a time before she asked again:

Lera: Stay here with me.

Shen: I am unable to. I need to keep searching for the answers to my questions.

Lera: Is it only that? Death? What about all the things about reaching godhood? Revenge on those who betrayed you?

Shen: I don't care about those guys. They will die whether I go after them or not. They can't avoid death like I can. And if they ever get there, they will, like me, wish they did not. Godhood is a pipe dream. I can strengthen myself even further with more seeds if I want to but where is the point? I must know where souls go after the strings are cut. I have to find that truth.

Lera: And what if you can't find it? What if there was no answer? What if they had gone nowhere and just disappeared?

Shen: That brings us back to an earlier question, Lera. Which Shen am I? You see, when a Shen can no longer go on, too tired for it, he makes a new him with milleniums of years altered in memory. I reset myself and move on. It is an eternal quest. And if there are really no answers...Well, another Shen will deal with it when the time comes.

Lera: A reset? Do you think this is the solution? Are you truly unable to enjoy what you have?

Shen: I have nothing but fear inside of me, Lera.

Lera: You have me.

Shen: I had other you before too. It always end. And I am tired. Tired and afraid.

Lera: Then, what do you plan to do?

Shen: I will find the door that's a window, track and kill the fuckers that betrayed me, then I will resume my search.

Lera: I thought you did not care about them.

Shen: I do not. But side quests keep me on the brink of sanity.

Lera: Then add me as a side-quest. Your two friends seemed happy here too.

Shen: Atem and Tempest are still young. I will help with your world-seed after we locate the door. This world, like any other, does not deserve to die.

Lera: I knew you would. ... Shen, I love you. Don't disappear on me.

Shen began to carress her and gently kiss her. He murmurred with warmth:

Shen: I don't know about my past selves but to this self, you are the love of its life.

They began to acceralate and escalate the caressing until it turned into a mad frenzy of love and pleasure. Under the night sky of a distant world from his own, a man with a worn-out soul was finding relief in the arms of a woman. Under that same sky, a woman with a lonely soul was finding her comfort in the arms of a broken man.

Meanwhile, Tempest was having an orgy.