The Dream Realm was not a place where you could relax very often, even in the relative safety of a Citadel. So, being stuck in the middle of seemingly nowhere wasn't exactly a very fun experience. For anyone else of course, Milo and Eva had Triscarion to ride on. This didn't mean they couldn't be careful.
Milo had to carefully command Triscarion to avoid any signs of Nightmare Creatures. It was better to avoid a fight at the end of the day, no matter the lure of rewards.
Eventually, the duo found their way to a small river. It was the perfect place to set up a camp. Milo hopped of Triscarion, and gave the hound a good amount of pets before sending it back to his Soul Sea.
"I'll go scavenge for some kindling and firewood."
Eva shook her head. "Let's go together, I don't know why but this place gives me the creeps."
Milo tilted his head, but just shrugged it off and turned to the forest. The Prototype rested in his hand. It was a steady reminder that he had trained his entire life to do this, he had nothing to fear.
The two stepped along, gathering the wood and kindling and leaves they could. Milo scratched the back of his head, wasn't the entire point of the Dream Realm to be dangerous...
Wasn't he letting his guard down too much?
Ultimately, he shook his head. That was just his mind getting to him. Keeping calm and not letting himself be filled with doubt and paranoia would be the best option for his psyche. The body can last a while without satisfaction, the mind could not.
Milo stared at the firewood he was carrying. He swore he saw red on it. Milo blinked and the red was gone.
He turned around, and Eva was standing there, curiously inspecting a tree...
"Eva, do you mind walking towards me."
Eva raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
Milo scowled
"Just do it. I'll close my eyes, I want you to count the amount of steps you took."
Milo closed his eyes. At first there was silence, then he heard a step, then another, then another.
"Stop!"
There were no more footsteps. Milo had counted four footsteps, he opened his eyes.
Eva was holding up three fingers. Milo clutched the Prototype further, and he summoned the skull mask of Hunter's Garbs.
He looked around, now every tree seemed to be hiding something. He focused on his hearing, his smell, anything to give him a hint of something lurking.
Yet there was nothing, and Milo just growled. He dismissed the Prototype, and picked up the firewood.
"Let's go, you were right, this place is giving me the creeps."
"See, I know I wasn't the only one!"
Milo shushed her. "You're going to get us killed, you crazy woman."
Eva shrugged. "What's wrong with a bit of living?"
Milo gave her a bewildered look. "I would prefer to live another time, when my life is not at risk."
Eva, dejected, just went silent. Milo didn't know if this hurt his heart, or if it made him laugh. The pout on her face reminded him of Lucy. Except if Lucy was extremely tall and in rigid plate armor.
Soon, Milo let his guard down once again. There was no point in looking into it, his brain had a little freakout was all. He looked down to the ground, a decapitated human head rolled to his foot. It looked only about a year older than him, the face was static with fear.
Milo stopped in his tracks, squinting at the weird looking rock. Eva did as well.
"Hey, doesn't this rock look like a human head?"
Eva gained a look of disgust. Though it quickly became much more muted.
"Yeah it does, get it out of here."
Eva kicked the rock away, blood flying from the rock. Milo looked at the blood, he dipped his finger in it.
A sticky green substance appeared on his hand, and Milo shook it off. There was a lot of weird things going on today.
"How strange..."
Milo walked along. There was no point on dwelling on it any longer. Despite the gaze landing on his back, despite the chill of the air behind him. Despite the whoosh of whatever was behind him closing in.
'Damnit!'
It was too late to react, but he wasn't the one who reacted. Eva did, she pushed Milo out of the way.
The Nightmare Creature's long claws scraped against Eva's armor, leaving scratch marks along the length of her vambrace. In the next moment, a three headed hound swiped at the Nightmare Creature. The Nightmare Creature dodged out the way.
Milo regained his bearings. He picked himself back up and summoned the Prototype. He looked over to Eva, who wasn't bleeding from the scratch. It had only carved open the armor, and that was good.
The Nightmare Creature itself looked like some lanky creature taken from a horror movie set. Blood surrounded its mouth, it was fresh. It had chalk white skin, black orbs for eyes, and long terrible claws that resembled spears if anything.
Milo commanded Triscarion to keep itself safe over killing that thing. Milo would rather not lose his first Echo to a Nightmare Creature like this. Milo raised the Prototype, he waited for the monster to make a move, and it did.
Milo froze, what was he doing again? He raised the Prototype, barely managing to block. He shoved the Nightmare Creature black and slashed at it. The Nightmare Creature caught the Prototype between its claws and spoke.
"H-help me! Oh gods! Help me!" Then it began to croak and gurgle. The gurgling sounded awfully familiar, the very same gurgling Milo had made when choking on his own blood.
Milo continued to slash at the monster, he saw Eva had frozen up, why had she frozen up? Wasn't this woman fearless before hand?
Milo was slashed on his left his shoulder, pierced through his side, and then his leg was nearly chopped off. All of this in three seconds. Milo realized this was a fight they weren't going to win. He commanded Triscarion to scoop him and Eva up. The hound followed his command to a tee. She then ran off from the forest, all the meanwhile howling throughout the night.
Soon, he heard the rustle of bushes all around them. Multiple Nightmare Creatures popped out, fighting one another. He heard the same terrible screech from that mimicry Nightmare Creature, however it didn't sound so much like imitation anymore.
"Help me!"
Milo didn't look back as they broke through the forest line. Milo commanded the dog to continue running, it ran through the river, delivering the pair to an isolated small hole in the mountain. Triscarion dropped Eva without worry for the most part, and then it dropped Milo with great care.
Milo panted heavily, his wounds flared with pain every second. He couldn't do much about them for now. It was then that Eva walked over to him, she reached out and...
Snuggled him?
"What are you doing?"
"Shut up, its part of my Attributes. It'll heal you."
"Just how many Attributes do you have woman?"
"Seven"
Milo froze, he only had three! How in the world did Eva have seven?
"Jesus, is there some secret rank beyond Divine or something that you got?"
Eva stayed silent for a moment. "I... maybe?"
"What do you mean maybe?"
"I don't think its above Divine exactly, but it's certainly as powerful as it."
Milo closed his eyes, his brain hurt too much to process this.
"Okay..."
There was uncomfortable silence between the two, and yet Milo felt contempt to let it stay. Should he ask all the questions he had on his mind? Was this really the appropriate time and place?
"Eva, when you said you weren't from this world... you weren't lying were you?"
Eva grip seemed to grow a little more rigid.
"No, I wasn't."
"That's why you let me believe that what you said was simply an excuse to cover up your Flaw?"
"Yeah, I figured that was easier and more believable than being transported here."
Milo swallowed.
"So, what world do you come from? Am I in a book? Movie? Tv show?"
"Web novel, and a particularly popular one at that as all things go. However, you weren't in the original story."
Milo recounted what had happened to him. How whatever visited him in that void had called him an intruder.
"Look, I need to tell you something, Eva. When I first got into my sleeping pod, I didn't appear here, but rather in some endless void. There, some golden strings made their way to me, and they attempted to kill me. I think at least, either way, someone appeared to me. They called me an intruder, and said that me and some woman had done what he had been planning for thousands of years."
Eva's clutch grew tighter, Milo winced, but made no attempt to stop it. It was comforting, it hurt, but it was nowhere near as painful as the strings had been.
"I know what you are talking about. You shouldn't exist, and so Fate likely attempted to kill you, but Weaver saved you."
"Who is Weaver?"
"That, I cannot tell you. If I do, you will become corrupted from the knowledge."
"How come you can know and not get corrupted?"
"Attribute."
Milo sighed "Of course."
Milo settled and once again there was an awkward silence.
Eva spoke up. "That's it?"
"What do you mean?"
"That's all you're going to ask?"
Milo chuckled. "Yeah, I have no plans on involving myself in whatever mess happens in that story. I mean, that would be the best decision right? The moment you start messing with the timeline, you'll lose all the knowledge of the future because it'll change."
"Well... that is true, but still. What if I can prevent the tragedies in the story?"
"Then what? How will you prevent the consequences of that action. What if an even worse tragedy happens? Unless you plan on somehow both preventing the tragedies while making sure the story stays on track. Then you have too much on your plate."
Eva snuggled closer. "But then, isn't that how most of the stories go to shit? The person doesn't want to get involved, only to still get involved either way?"
"Well, that's because the protagonists of those series are fucking idiots. I mean, they say they don't want to involve yourself in the story, while simultaneously interacting with literally every character within that story, and grabbing all the overpowered items that originally belonged to the main character. Then they get surprised when all of a sudden they have to step in because the main character cannot defeat the big bad villain of that part of the story. Then they get the main characters harem."
Eva was silent for a long time. "Well, to be honest, I was planning to snatch at least one thing from the main characters arsenal, it was nothing serious... relatively."
Milo sighed. "Well, why haven't you made that progress yet?"
Eva shook her head. "Because, they are currently stuck in an undocumented region of the Dream Realm, and they won't get out for another year. Do you mind if I tell you who the main characters are? It feels weird calling them main characters."
Milo tilted his head, he felt the hole in his side begin to patch itself up.
"Go ahead."
"You know that pervert kid at the academy and the other one who received a True Name like you?"
"Oh yeah, I know about Changing Star... the pervert, what was his name. It was Sunless!"
"Yeah, those are the two at the center of this story."
Milo whistled. "What a cast, seems appropriate though."
"It was quite shocking to see them in person."
Milo nodded, and he was content with how the conversation ended. Except for one thing.
"Did you freeze up because you were scared?"
Eva trembled at the question.
"I did, it's just... I saw the monster and I pushed you, but after that I couldn't step in. My body refused to listen to me. I'm sorry ab-"
"It's fine. I could only imagine being in your situation."
"Why aren't you more suspicious, I know a lot about this world. What if I lied to you about not being in the novel and my actual goal is to kill you."
"Then you would've done it by now. You had multiple opportunities. It also would make Weaver's words not make sense. What a strange name by the way. He said me and that woman, that woman must refer to you. Also, someone trying to keep me from being less suspicious wouldn't be confessing all of this."
Eva pulled back from her embrace slightly. "W-well, that is true... but, I can still be cunning."
Milo chuckled "Never said you couldn't. Now let me sleep already, I can ask all the questions I want in the morning when I don't feel like death."
Milo commanded Triscarion to lay down and keep watch for any enemies. Milo then crawled over the hound, laying down on its soft and fluffy red hair. Eva followed, still embracing him so his wounds could fully heal.
Milo would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy this. Despite all the circumstances, he still was sixteen year old boy, and having a beautiful woman like Eva snuggling him was heaven.
'Maybe I should fake injuries more often...'