"My oh my! A living being... affiliated with Weaver no less. What exactly are you tunneling for?" A voice called out from behind Reina. Reina didn't bother with entertaining either Eurys or Azarax . She wasn't here for either of them anyway. Survival here was impossible, G3 had stated as much that even Sunny wouldn't have lived in Nephis' place. How was Reina supposed to?
So, here she was at the only place she knew a Care Package would be. Of course, they were supposed to be more of them in the Nightmare Desert, but Reina no longer had access to the [Proof of Cooperation]. Meaning, that this was her last hope.
Whatever was in the box was all she had until she managed to find a Seed, and if she got jack... well she was just screwed, plain and simple.
Reaching her hand into where her obsidian blade was shoveling just seconds ago, she felt the best thing in her life. Cold hard metal in the shape of box.
Pulling out the box, Reina let out a sigh of relief. She quickly brought her eye to a small scanner on the front. The box smoothly opened. Inside was a purple fruit and an aesthetic curved dagger. The blade itself was made of some crimson red material with black seeping out from the base of the blade creating an oval shape, the middle of the black section was lined with gold engravings.
[You have received a Memory, Osiris' Dagger]
Reina quickly dismissed the dagger and looked at the item that made her much more curious. The fruit within was a light purple, it had a thick, white stem that almost looked painted over.
[You have received a Memory, Chorus Fruit]
'Seriously? That's what you came up with?'
Reina already knew what it did, her excitement muted by the disappointment of Carmen's unoriginality. She looked at the [Chorus Fruit] and took a huge bite out of it.
One moment, she was in the Nightmare Desert, and in the next... she was surrounded by rock and snow, and day had turned into night.
Reina immediately looked up and noticed three pale moons shining down upon her.
'This was... the Moonriver Plains? Shit, I don't know anything about this.'
Reina had only reached the beginning of Volume Eight. She knew Rain had been in here before... about ten years into the future. This place was completely undeveloped. Rain had faced an Awakened Demon here if Reina remembered correctly.
"Arghh! I hate this blasted luck... Still better then nothing."
Resummoning [Weaver's Mask] and [Osiris' Dagger] Reina began descending the rocky hill she was on.
***
Two months had passed since Milo's Awakening, and it had been nothing but... busy work, so much busy work... For the first time in his life, Milo wanted to do nothing but sleep. How long had he been awake for?
"...Three days?"
"What?" Helen asked right beside him, and Milo blinked for a second.
"It's nothing." He replied quietly, his attention returned to the task at hand.
Frankly, he had been turned into a living forgery for the government. If they wanted rifles, he'd make rifles, if they wanted pistols, he'd make pistols. If they wanted his soul, he'd give his soul. That wasn't a joke or an exaggeration. His soul batteries had possibly been the most coveted item in the government yet, and why wouldn't they be?
In turn, at least he had a supply of soul shards always waiting for him. Even if those soul shards would just leave his system just as quickly to make more soul batteries.
"Are we about to meet the quota for the week?" Milo asked Helen, as he yet again infused some of his soul essence into one of the many keepsake Memories he had created. Helen herself was a middle aged woman with dark skin and black hair fashioned into a pony tail. Right now, she was really only here because Milo's flaw required it.
"We have about seven more to go." Helen replied, sounding just about as exhausted as Milo. Milo forced a wry smile as he weaved another Memory. Helen meanwhile, prepared
"We got this... yeah we got this." He lazily cheered.
***
After his quota for the day had finally been completed, Milo returned home to relax. By relax, he actually meant just sick into the new couch he had gotten. The rest of the house had been renovated outside of his family's rooms. Milo even had a basement area added for training, forging, and for the Dreamscape pod he had gotten.
Milo heard the door open. Wry footsteps walked in, closed the door with about much grace as a clumsy dancer, and walk upstairs.
There was no need for a exchange of words, Milo already knew who it was, and why she wasn't talking. The government seemed to have a method for draining the life out of people and turn them into walking husks. Milo wouldn't be surprised if there was a literal corpse still working in the government.
At the very least, when he slept, he could relatively relax in Ravenheart. He still had some tasks to do, but for the most part he was free to do what he liked. What Milo liked doing, however, wasn't easy.
Milo pulled up his runes, looking at the vast number in front of him.
Soul Fragments [1257/2000]
"Eight hundred more to go... isn't that just fantastic?"
To be truthful, Milo felt like he was spending more then he was receiving back, at the very least, this weeks quota had been met with a net positive of Soul Fragments. So all is well that ends well, right?
'Just keep telling yourself that.'
Up above in the second floor, he heard the water being turned on from within the shower.
"Right, I should clean up too."
With heavy steps, Milo walked up the stairs and towards his own restroom. Getting ready to shower, he observed himself in the mirror.
His skin had gotten cleaner, his muscles more defined. By all means, he was handsome, and yet...
'My eyes.'
Milo lightly dragged his finger across the dark circles under his eyes. He turned the sink on, the water was cool.
"She's hogging all the warm water." Milo mused to himself as he splashed his face. Then he turned on the shower and got into the soothing cool water.
After he was done washing himself, he stepped out. He dried himself with a towel, and put on a t-shirt and sweats.
Heading back downstairs, he saw Olivia in athletic shorts and a loose t-shirt.
"Milo."
"Yeah?"
"Should we quit?"
"... It sounds so tempting."
"Maybe we can join the Firekeepers?"
"I don't know... I'm kind of scared to face Sunny again, I don't think he likes me a lot."
"You two can make up, I think you could do it."
"I'll just stay in the government, regardless of how much it kills me."
Olivia let out a sigh. "Oh, did you hear, they're making a movie about the Forgotten Shore."
Milo raised an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Mhm... wonder what that'll look like. Does anyone remember Eva?"
'Right, she was unconscious then.'
"Maybe? Honestly, Sunny might just keep any details about her under wraps. With Nephis' influence currently I'm sure it can happen."
"It'd be for the best."
"That we can agree on." Milo finished by looking at the kitchen.
"I'll make some food."
***
Reina rarely pondered on the current political and economic state in the world. But after the chaos she had caused... that was probably the one thing she needed to focus on.
'Of course, that's after I get to Ravenheart. I'm pretty sure Nephis is going to get herself killed.'
With no Second Nightmare to keep her ambitions humbled, and to teach her defeat, she was going to do something crazy. When she did, she'd probably die. Her only hope, and only guiding light would be Cassie. Yet, Cassie didn't have that crazy vendetta against Fate, she had both her friends and she defeated the bad guy, that being Reina. Then there was Milo, a Divine Aspect wildcard who was... well how the hell would she know? Worst case scenario the Sovereigns got to him. Best case is he was with the government or independent.
All this left Reina with essentially no guide on what would happen in the future. Sunny wasn't likely to chase strength because he had no need to keep up with Nephis. With no Master, he doesn't go to Antarctica, with no Antarctica, no Third Nightmare, no Third Nightmare means no [Fateless] and with no [Fateless]...
'I have a headache.'
Point is, Reina ruined her one advantage she had in this place. Not only that, she had also put the livelihood of all the characters at risk, and taken away multiple vital points for Sunny and Nephis to get stronger.
'... I'm sure Fate will find a way to fix it.'
For now, she just had to survive. Which meant shaking off this damn Nightmare Creature on her back. It was some white patterned large cat with sparks of lightning surrounding it. Reina had been running from it, mainly because her future vision had yet to shown her a proper chance to kill it.
All it's actions were just much too fast for Reina to kill it. She could dodge, but she couldn't retaliate. She needed to set up a trap, and preferably one that wouldn't cause her serious injury.
She was already walking a tight rope on this narrow cliff edge, though the drop wasn't particularly large it was certainly steep...
'Better then getting torn in half.'
Reina quickly dropped herself from the cliff edge, trying her best to control her hasty descent down the. The gauntlets of her [Mantle] dug into the hard stone. Reina's future vision warned her.
A crack of thunder sounded to her left, and the white tiger swiped at her neck. Reina was quicker, her free hand shot out, [Osiris' Dagger] gleamed under the bleak sun as it stabbed directly into the tigers snout, reaching up to its eyes.
For good measure, Reina stabbed the tiger in the head just once.
[You have slain an Awakened Demon, Idemus' Tiger]
Reina hugged the corpse to her body as they continued they were down the steep slope. Coming to rough, rolling stop at the bottom, Reina crawled over to the tiger. Now she had both food and some Soul Shards for a few days.