Eva sat back on the Dark Cathedral's roof, Sunny squatted down right next to her. Soon enough, Nephis and her cohort would arrive.
Kai was here too, a very needed ally. This was because Eva had a suspicion... that suspicion was Cassie.
When Eva had originally met up with the guilty three right before they had reached the Soul Devouring Tree, they seemed unchanged from the story. Yet after arriving at the Dark City, the change in their demeanor became apparent.
Cassie seemed plagued, and this was the past, so she was not the scheming seer in Volume Seven that could perfectly play her part. Instead, she was still that blind girl in a dangerous world that wanted nothing less to destroy her. Nephis had become... more readable. Despite not being the best face reader, even Eva could find herself being able to guess Nephis' mood. That was something Eva never could've expected.
The most apparent change was Sunny, that was mostly Eva's fault. Not only had he become much more paranoid now due to the fact that Eva enslaved him, he was also volatile. It seemed at every twist and turn he tried to cut her down only to be stopped by an order she had given him since he first enslaved her.
'You cannot injure or kill me directly or indirectly.'
It felt pretty secure all things considered. It also stopped Sunny from doing a lot of things, such as simply throwing himself into impossible battles to get Eva to follow. He knew that she wanted him alive, and he also knew he was a story.
That had led to him questioning a lot, one example being...
***
"If I'm a story, does that mean none of this is real?" Sunny questioned Eva. The priestess' chambers held quite an atmosphere for pondering philosophy and other such enquiries. The small light Memory on the dressed casting a muted glow throughout the room. It was soft and somber
"No." Eva replied simply, unbothered by the idea.
"You're not just saying that so I stay in my role, right?"
"No. I mean, I exist, and now hear I am, a part of this story. I just simply belong to a higher dimension of being I guess? If we're being technical here, I was pulled into this universe or dimension of being or whatever you want to considerate it by Nether, the daemon. Therefore, Nether had barely managed to harness the power to physically interact and even manipulate the laws of my world which views yours as fiction. So, the most likely scenario is that reaching the Divine rank allows you to interact with higher dimensions, one of those higher dimensions is likely my world. That's the best explanation I can come up with though. For all I know, I could also be a fake story now."
Sunny didn't respond, he just simply absorbed the information and stopped talking after that.
***
Eva was quite caught off guard by his question, even if at the time she dismissed it. She was real, and she knew that for a fact. To be here simply meant that Shadow Slave was also real, just in a different dimension that could be considered fiction in her eyes.
'This is the stuff they rarely talk about in fanfic... no wonder, this shit is complicated.'
Trying to find a reason for being transmigrated was a waste of brainpower. With that conclusion, Eva simply kept her peace of mind as Nephis' cohort came into view. It was time to go on an expedition baby!
***
A month had passed since Nephis' cohort had set off on their expedition, and Milo had no shortage of things to do... one such thing was in front of him right now.
A copper shaded shell of metal that resembled the vague outline of a human body. Him and Olivia were still ironing out the details of the upper body. The legs, which currently took the form of two rectangular blocks, would be worked on later.
Olivia had come back with the bundle of materials necessary to finish the Shell. No shortage of hammers, screwdrivers, ores, and other things were to be found. There was no soul shard however, and that was because...
"Milo, what exactly would happen if this shell of yours gets destroyed while part of your conscious is still in it? Will you permanently lose a part of your conscious?" Olivia asked as she settled the boxes of materials on the floor.
Milo grabbed a set of ores and got them ready for the furnace. "I never really considered that idea... it should be fine, I could tell when the shell would be destroyed. Before it can fully be destroyed, I can just bring my conscious back. Its practically instantaneous so there should be no problem there."
Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Don't get cocky, this is a person who knows past present and future after all. I mean she literally had a partner in the past that was powerful enough to create multiple care packages that withstood the Dark Sea."
"... You're right." Milo should've known this fact better then anyone. Eva was dangerous, incredibly so. Her Aspect was tricky unless you could simply be faster then her, she had multiple tricks up her sleeve thanks to the care packages she opened. She also had a body of stone that rarely seemed to budge.
All of this combined with Sunny, who while he hadn't shown his abilities yet, seemed to be a powerful a Divine Aspect user, was a big problem.
However, that was a problem a plasma pistol that burned through stone walls couldn't solve. Milo had finally solved the issue with them. Simply put, the reason it didn't work was because he had tried to connect the two memories into one without actually properly merging them.
What Milo had originally done was to merge both the battery keepsake and the plasma pistol, then he would create an enchantment to let the soul essence from the keepsake flow in the pistol. This was a process that was naturally done while he was wielding the weapon, but made into a mandatory process when anyone else would.
This enchantment was terribly inefficient, and after taking another look at his [Mobile Suit] and the enchantment that allowed him to store kinetic energy and the enchantment that could shoot plasma there, the Spell had created a much more efficient weave for soul essence flow, and thus Milo just had to copy it. However, trying to replicate the Spell one to one was like trying to learn a new skill by simply copying a master of it. Sure, you might get down the basic idea, but you'll never be able to fully replicate it.
So, Milo didn't try to replicate it. He just took the barebones foundation of the enchantment and experimented on it from there, which led to his version of the enchantment.
At last... he had accomplished a plasma pistol a week ago, and now Olivia had a gun that could shoot through walls.
Safe to say he had created a beast of an ally with this. The next project was a plasma rifle, then he would work on a plasma sniper rifle! Plasma cannons! Plasma railguns!
"Milo! The ores!"
Milo snapped out of his train of though and quickly removed the now melted ores from the furnace. Quickly pouring them into the molds of the legs that Olivia had created.
'I'll work on it later.'
After he was done with this shell, he would work on creating his plasma weapons to his hearts content for Olivia.
***
Eva looked at the cast of characters in front of her, the beach episode was here! How utterly... anxiety filling.
Of course, Eva got her fill with seeing Sunny and Kai in their makeshift loincloths. Outside of that, there was the slight burning glare that hit the back of her head every time she wasn't looking at Nephis.
'They know, the only question is if they know that I know.'
Eva had no doubt that Cassie had gotten a vision on her meddling with Fate, and that Sunny was now hers. Despite Nephis and her nonchalant descriptions, it seemed even she couldn't hide her contempt for Eva.
'Jeez, so much for making friends with these guys. I think I just dug myself into my grave.'
Eva shook her head silently, regardless of her circumstances, it was unlikely that she was going to be killed. At the end of the day, Cassie had one objective, stop the future she saw from coming true. If Eva was right, that future was still the same, Nephis being left behind.
So, all things considered, Eva was not on the chopping block. If she simply managed to get both Nephis and Sunny home she wouldn't have to deal with Cassie and her manipulative antics, and that was if she didn't go home after reaching a gateway! Which considering her objective of changing Fate, seemed pretty unlikely.
Nether said her time here wouldn't be permanent. That was all Eva needed to know!
All she had to do now was keep her head high, get through this expedition and the war, and go home. That was it, nothing more, nothing less.
With that refresher in mind, she enjoyed the rest of the break after the catacombs had beaten everyone to high hell. Even if all she did was stare into the red labyrinth filled with deadly creatures.
'Lets do something productive.'
She went and found Sunny who was subtly staring at Effie and Nephis who were now tending to the fire in the middle of the marble arch they were resting on.
"What're you looking at?"
Sunny flinched like a startled cat. He quickly took his eyes off the two girls and muttered.
"The fire."
Eva smirked slightly. "I'm sure you were, now follow me, I need to teach you something."
Sunny sighed and complied, as the two made their way to a more spacious area of the arch.
Since Eva had taken away his chance to learn about the unique property of his shadow that led him to discovering the Shadow Dance, she decided to become his personal trainer. Not like she could actually out skill him, but he could help buff his Shadow Dance to possibly unlock the Soul Serpent before he even Awakened.
This meant he could get access to Soul Essence control before he even became an Awakened! A buff to him was a buff to her own arsenal.
"Attach your shadow to me. Look at what it does, and compare it to my actual shadow."
Sunny had a strange look on his face, but since the sentence was a command, his shadow immediately left him and glued itself to Eva with a clear disdain.
So, Eva began her demonstration. This in itself was also training for her. Her healing Memory needed Soul Shards to charge it, due to the only loss Eva had being a hand, she didn't see the need to rush healing it.
Besides, it also gave her the ability to review her own swordsmanship. The basis was built on what Milo had taught her, and while it was sharp, it seemed so normal compared to what Eva saw Nephis or Sunny do.
There was no reason not to rebuild it from the ground up. Combining Milo's one handed swordsmanship that focused on keeping the enemy from attacking his vulnerable side, and Sunny's own swordsmanship created a very elusive result.
Eva found herself immersed in performing her new style. It felt relieving in a way... this liberation from the requirement of a second hand. The great sword flowed, the imaginary enemy she was fighting wasn't able to attack her left side.
Eva occasionally broke her immersion to make sure Sunny hadn't walked off, and he seemed absorbed in observing his shadow. She also didn't miss the glances not at his shadow but at herself... by all means Eva's body was not unattractive.
Most of it had to do with being granted a [Shell] in the First Nightmare. The body she had possessed was a kid who died in the Outskirts, if she didn't have the [Shell] she would likely be like Sunny, above average at best by Awakened standards.
However, much like Sunny as well, the [Shell] had made her look exquisite. It also likely didn't help that her body was so familiar to Nephis of all people... slender and athletic.
However, they were really only similar in general shape alone. Eva had jet black hair and crimson eyes. She was more similar to Morgan in features then anything else.
'Now that I think about it...'
Milo wasn't too different from Sunny in terms of vague outline. Both were on the smaller side of the Sleeper spectrum, however, unlike Sunny who had shaggy straight hair, Milo's hair was curly. While Sunny had pale white skin, Milo had olive skin that made him look like the younger brother of Effie.
All of this made Eva ponder... was Nether so keen onto what Fate had in store for Sunny and Nephis, that he made similar although ultimately different versions of them? Were Eva and Milo supposed to be a foil to Nephis and Sunny?
'Why does Nether want to break Fate?'
Was it just a matter of spite towards Weaver and Fate in general? That's what Destiny was after all. Destiny was just the road you took to your Fate. Destiny couldn't defeat Fate. Maybe Nether wanted to prove that wrong, maybe he wanted to show that a person's decisions can change Fate. But wouldn't have this been accomplished with Cassie in the Third Nightmare?
Why pull someone from a higher dimension if his point would be proven? Why bother? Did he not know of Cassie's success in breaking Fate? That seemed unlikely... so why? Maybe he wanted a direct "descendant" of Nether to break Fate, one that had an Aspect connected to him.
'This is all so confusing.'
"Are you gonna keep going?" Sunny asked, Eva hadn't even noticed she stopped her demonstration.
"Right, sorry." Eva replied, as she continued her demonstration, though it seemed muted, and less liberating then before. Much to Sunny's disappointment.
"Ah, I'll just go observe Nephis and Caster, your style just isn't cutting it anymore."
Sunny likely expected Eva to command him to stay, but she didn't. After noticing Eva didn't say anything, Sunny practically ran off, his shadow quickly following.
Eva watched with a strange expression, then stared down at her own sword.
What am I doing?