Milo awoke to a pale sun. He groaned as he stood up lazily. His body felt sore even though he had technically done nothing so far. Just what in the world had Weaver... was their name even actually Weaver?
What about his conversation with the potential future was true, what of it was false? Why did he get a Spell notification when Eva gave him the Hunter's Garbs, and why not when he killed those Nightmare Creatures within the lake?
Rubbing the back of his head, he pondered. Weaver seemed like an appropriate name. He had been weaving those golden strings of light after all, and those strings were Fate itself? Why were they tangible when they were trying to kill him, and not tangible when Weaver was messing with them?
Weaver is what he would call that demon for now. He could care about correctness later. Either way, Weaver had said it was a potential future, so everything in it must be true, no? At the same time though, could he even trust that thing? It had done something to him, even if it saved from being killed, it still did something to him that he had no idea of.
What if Weaver was trying to drive a wedge between the two, what if it was trying to make the information much more understandable? Weaver wanted his epigones to be benefitted by Milo, who were they? Were Sunless and Nephis really the protagonists of this story? Were those his epigones in this story. Speaking of stories...
Wouldn't that mean his life was fake? Or was it? The fact that he existed even without being mentioned in the story was very proof that the "story" was not all encompassing of his world, or universe. Will his involvement result in this universe crumbling as the story doesn't go how it wants? Fate had wanted to kill him for seemingly stepping out of line, so much so as to do it personally with its own strings.
Milo ignored the premise, he looked down the coral mound he was on. Rigid edges and steep drops awaited him if he wanted to get down. He looked over at Triscarion.
"Come here girl"
The dog trotted over, and Milo pointed to the labyrinth down below.
"Think you can get down?"
The dog tilted its head, observing, after a bit, it barked and offered its back. Milo hopped on the back of Triscarion and let her go on her path. Triscarion hopped from small opening to opening very swiftly. Landing at the bottom smoothly, Milo sent Triscarion back to his Soul Sea, the labyrinth was an unknown factor, and it wasn't large enough for Triscarion to be able to escape in case something happened.
Well, his first objective should be to get some clothes as a matter of fact. Stepping ahead, he scavenged as much seaweed as he could. It was actually a little perfect as his prosthetic was made for threading, its sharp fingers could be used for more than scratching the shit out of someone apparently.
After acquiring something to cover himself from the cold air, he walked around. Chances were that this area was likely cleared out of monsters after the sea disappeared. So he shouldn't have to worry about anything popping up.
He did note that some of the mud had been walked upon. It suddenly came to a stop, and Milo raised an eyebrow.
'That mud definitely looks out of place.'
Milo looked around, he stepped back and grabbed a rock.
He tossed it in his prosthetic hand for a moment, then threw it with all his might at the out of place mud. In the next moment, a pincer shot out from below. It crushed the rock without a struggle.
'Ah, and I have no armor.'
A giant centaur like crab emerged from the mud, an azure carapace and multiple legs. Milo groaned inwardly, where in the world was he? Was this the undocumented place Eva had mentioned in that weird vision of the future?
Milo summoned the Prototype, he would be better of using it in his left hand. His prosthetic would be better for cracking the armor, then the Prototype could finish the job. However, he needed to test something first.
The Prototype summoned into his right hand, he readied it. The crab swung at him with its pincer, Milo swiped at it.
'Just maybe!'
Milo watched as the Prototype failed to make even a scratch on the crabs body. Milo gritted his teeth and ducked, in the next moment, a swipe of the crabs claw whooshed over where his head was just a moment ago.
Milo stepped in, his prosthetic reeled back and delivered a powerful punch to the crabs midsection.
The crab staggered only a little. Milo quickly dodged out the way as a pincer pierced the mud of where he was standing.
'So the Prototype wasn't strong enough.'
The Prototype was only a dormant memory, which was strange considering it came from defeating an Awakened human, Carmen. Of course, this was because as the name suggested, it was incomplete. Milo would have to figure out how to finish it.
So that meant for now, Milo was stuck with some sword that can't even cut through a damn crab! Even his kitchen knife had been able to do so.
Milo raised his prosthetic. It was about time he did what he learned in combat class. Milo dashed forward, the pincer raced towards him. Milo jumped up, his feet landed on the pincer. He jumped up again, he stared the damn crab down.
'I'll walk shit down!'
Milo raised the Prototype, he poised himself as the Prototype pierced clean through the monster's eye. Milo then hammered it farther down the crabs eye socket with his prosthetic. The creature let out multiple pained screeches before falling to the ground.
Milo rather unceremoniously fell to the ground as well.
[You have slain an Awakened Beast, Carapace Scavenger]
Milo felt slightly dejected for not receiving a Memory, such is the life of a Chrome.
Milo than gained a slightly disgusted look on his face, here came the ugly part.
Heading up to the corpse of the scavenger, he raised his prosthetic and hit as hard as he could. The shell held, and so Milo hit it again, and again, and again.
Eventually the carapace broke apart just enough, and Milo ripped it open. Inside was both the soul shard and pieces of meat that Milo grabbed.
'Now I just need to thread myself a satchel, and grab some stuff to make a fire.'
Not to hard, if a little annoying. Milo went about the rest of the day. Evening was approaching, and a warm toasty fire was exactly what he needed.
Setting up the campfire, he summoned the Prototype, and raised it to his prosthetic. The annoying sound of metal screeching against metal echoed throughout the small coral hill as Milo used the sparks to light the fire. He impaled a sliver of meat on the Prototype and held it over the fire.
'So, which is which?'
He had a lot of time to think about it, what was true and what was false? What should he believe in? Could he handle that truth? Would he and Eva's friendship ever be the same again if that ended up being true?
'I guess we'll find out.'
Night had come, and Milo was staring into the crackling fire with contemplation. The night had no light, no stars to illuminate the sky, the ocean had come back, and Milo deduced it worked on a day night cycle.
Night belonged to the monsters, and Milo wanted no part in that frenzy.
However, unknown to him, the frenzy was already making its way. A terrible roar echoed throughout the sky, directed straight at him.