Milo looked at the slight burn scars on his arm. It wasn't as bad as Milo had expected it to be. At least the aftermath wasn't, the actual injury was terrible. It was weird seeing his own skin so charred after the fact. It seemed being at the forge had a toll on his priorities, not that it was a bad thing. After all, his Innate Ability allowed it, and speaking of Abilities.
Milo summoned his prosthetic. It was beautiful, a work of art really. First off, no more overheating, that was the main goal. Milo simply preferred not to have it summoned at times because it was still incomplete. The second thing was...
Milo looked up at Eva. "Eva, do you have a weapon memory?"
Eva turned to Milo, she was in the middle of training without Milo, as important as sparring was, she still needed to strengthen her fundamentals.
"Why?" She asked with suspicion.
Milo raised his prosthetic. "Hit this with it."
Eva grinned, she likely thought this was her chance for revenge.
Milo stuck his prosthetic out, at the same time, countless sparks formed into a heavy stone longsword within Eva's hand.
She raised the sword up, and sliced downward.
With a cling, her sword recoiled back. Just like Allison's had. She gained a look of shock, and she let go of her blade.
"Ahh, what the hell." Eva grasped her elbow.
"Feels funny, huh?" Milo teased, looking down at his prosthetic, there wasn't even a scratch, just a small mark to signify the area had been hit. However it covered up his special engravings! Milo quickly wiped the mark away with his sleeve.
With the mark gone, Milo turned to Eva. "I made this thing myself, your sword didn't even leave a scratch on it." His voice was boastful, and Eva just scowled at him.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Eva murmured out. "Lets get to sparring again, I really want to kick your ass now." Eva dismissed her memory and grabbed the basic training sword.
"Alright, I'm not sure you'll succeed but I'm glad to see you're being so proactive." Milo did the same. The two readied themselves and began sparring.
Eva had improved once again, it was kind of crazy on how fast she was improving. She was treating it like life or death every time, and in a way, it was.
She was keeping up with him even though he had two arms once again, giving him a lot more options. Milo had to be careful not to be rough with the prosthetic lest he break a bone in her body. But at times it felt like her physical capabilities were much more solid then she let on.
She was already tall, and at times it felt like Milo was fighting a stagnant boulder that refused to move. If she had grown up learning how to fight. The more Milo observed her, the more she seem distracted.
Milo dismissed it, after all, the winter solstice was coming up soon. There was only about a month left until everyone here would be sent to the Dream Realm. Milo stopped and backed up, Eva didn't notice and retaliated at air.
"Why'd you stop?"
"You seem distracted, something on your mind? I can't exactly help you if you aren't paying attention." Milo should extend his goodwill. In the future this girl could be a very good source of materials, she's a legacy after all! Who knows what kind of goodies they have just waiting to be used.
Eva contemplated, she brought a hand to her forehead. "It's... nothing, I can't exactly tell you because you wouldn't understand."
Milo raised an eyebrow, then he sighed. "Did you know I can't feel any negative emotions?"
Eva looked at him dumbfounded, then she snickered. "Alright Mr. Edge last name Lord."
Milo smiled then shook his head. "I'm not joking." He raised his prosthetic, the finger's connecting and clicking together to form what might as well have been a wide spear. He raised his right hand and pierced right through his palm. The pain was there for a split second before being stomped out.
"See? I didn't even flinch, I can't even feel this because pain counts as a negative emotion, or my best guess is the worry and concern that follows it. Since there is no worry or concern about the injury, their is no point in feeling pain."
Milo knew he should probably head to the infirmary soon before he bled out. The healer there was probably sick of seeing him come in for the third time now.
"Did you know that when I get out of my First Nightmare, I learned my parents and sister died. Thanks to my Innate Ability, which gets rid of negative emotions, I couldn't even cry. I barely shed a tear. When I was at their funeral, I could see the stares from my family. They probably were weirded out because I didn't cry. I even smiled a few times." Milo looked Eva dead in the eyes.
"I could feel it though, the tears begging to be let out, I wanted to scream. I felt the feeling come back over and over, it was like having to kick out a homeless bum entering your shop every other minute. It's tiring. I know I can't do anything about it, so I just have to sit here and smile and laugh because even my very soul has been tainted with this... freakish inability to feel. Even now, all these thoughts of how crazy I must come off are disappearing. It's a miracle I was able to get out this much."
Milo leaned back. "Sorry, that was a lot, I'm going to get this healed now. But if you need anything, just let me know. I understand a lot more then you think."
Milo walked away, he was sure Eva would be fine. Even if she was a nepo baby, she was still a legacy, she likely saw worse in her childhood.
***
Eva watched Milo walk off, seeing the trail of blood left from the gaping hole on his hand had made her nearly pass out. She staggered back, sitting down on the ground with shallow breath.
She quickly summoned a memory, in the next moment, a small lapel pin made out of metal appeared in her hand. Etched in the metal itself was the barebones outline of a face.
"Carmen." Eva stated, and the face lit up with a gentle blue glow.
"What happened?" Carmen asked, it was strange. A part of his soul had been uploaded into this memory. A marvel of engineering on his part. His voice was a bit static and robotic.
"Milo... that guys a fucking weirdo." Eva stated with a far off look. Carmen stayed silent.
"Well, our master must've mentioned him for a reason. I don't think he exactly belongs here."
"You still insisting on calling him that? He's as much our master as I am an empress. Just because we were chosen doesn't mean shit." Eva sighed. "I miss home."
"I do too, and hopefully if everything goes right, we'll return. Just make sure he doesn't die alright? I have no doubt Fate has noticed him already."
Eva raised an eyebrow. "Fate notices everything, I don't think its a conscious being. Are you sure you even read properly? As little as we know about Fate, at the very least we know who it tends to like and dislike. Speaking of which, only a couple more days until they appear."
Carmen laughed, it was mechanical in nature. "I hope you show me what they look like, it'll be interesting to see them outside of photos."
Eva chuckled. "We have something to agree on."
Eva then dismissed the Proof of Cooperation. There was a lot to work on... she hadn't even finished reading the entire thing yet. So there was a still a ton of unknowns.
"Guess I better start praying... right, the gods here are dead" Eva got back up and continued practicing, she needed to be able to fight is she was correct on where she would be going after getting dropped in the Dream Realm.
***
Milo had been temporarily halted from the forging area, after showing adequate... well, adequate was a strong word, more like he wasn't actively trying to hurt himself. After proving he wasn't crazy, Milo was back in the forging area. He needed one thing and one thing only.
'Armor. No way I'm going into the Dream Realm without some.'
Thus began his journey to create a suitable armor. Milo didn't quite know what he wanted. It felt redundant to make it too lightweight and mobile, but it also shouldn't make him slow. A perfect in between would be necessary. Milo didn't know a lot about sewing and such outside of what the schools taught, such as how to make the most basic of clothes with fibers.
So, Milo just winged it. Might as well try right? He began making the under armor. It was dark grey and really only there so Milo would have some clothes. He didn't exactly want to be walking around naked either, that would be uncomfortable.
After the under armor had finished, Milo got to work forging the actual armor itself. He created the necessary molds. Heated up the metal that was available, poured the molten metal into the molds and let them take shape.
Milo smoothed out the bumps, this time he didn't really care for the engravings, he could add them after he returned from the Dream Realm, he was bound to get a lot of choices as a smith.
"If things go well, which they probably will."
Milo then had to get through the hardest part, turning this thing into a memory... of course he could do what the prosthetic had showed him, take a piece of his Soul Core and infuse it into the armor, but that would ruin the purpose. Any major damage the armor took would also damage his soul.
He didn't exactly have a soul shard either...
'Wait, I do!'
Milo quickly pulled out his communicator, and called his uncle.
***
The soul shard was now in hands. The same he won from that Dreamscape tournament. Now it was time to get to work... but Milo felt like something was missing. He still had no idea how to infuse this soul shard into the armor.
'Looks like I'm winging it again.'
Milo ended up trying hundreds of different processes, each one was a failure. He tried his best to infuse the soul shard physically which ended in failure. There was something missing, and Milo didn't have access to it. He couldn't mald over his defeat either, Innate Ability and all.
"I'll come back to it later." Milo murmured while looking over the nearly destroyed soul shard. With a sigh, he just crushed it in his prosthetic, the Spell whispered
[Your soul tempers.]
It had been a month, since Milo began experimenting. Eva had stopped training with Milo, seemingly seeking out to finish up some business elsewhere. Milo had tested the capabilities of his arm out. It's transformation variety was ridiculous to be frank. Much better then Milo had suspected.
The old prosthetic could only lock certain parts up or bring certain parts together like his fingers. This one however was a walking Swiss army knife. It could transform into a blade, hammer, axe, pickaxe. So long as Milo had the metal it could turn into whatever he wanted.
With that, came the final day. Milo watched as Instructor Rock showed all the Sleepers what happened to those who lost themselves to the Dream Realm, the hollow shells of life each spread out among the room.
Milo recalled his words. "So don't die out there. Of course I won't die out there. I need to create more things after all."
Milo stared into the pod that would be his home for however long he was out there. If he was lucky it would only be a few days, if he was unlucky, it could be a few years. Regardless of, Milo etched a small M onto the top of the tube. He hoped it would still be fresh by the time he got back.
***
Eva stared at the sleeping pod. None of this felt real, it never really did... how unbelievable this entire situation was. If you had asked her five months what she expected to be doing, this would be the last thing on her list.
In another room, Milo was also preparing to enter his pod, if her sponsor was right about him, then he was the only chance she had at living.
Both Milo and Eva stepped into their pods at the same time. The Spell welcoming them.
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Milo!]
[Welcome to the Dream Realm, Eva!]