"What do you mean I'm not Epsilon?? Look at me! Did you lose braincells while I was asleep?"
Did these people forget what he looked like or something?
"Lies, you look nothing like him. You're a few years off."
'What the hell is that supposed to mean?'
His head turned to Cassius who seemed particularly distressed, but instead of saying anything in his case, he just silently nodded, agreeing with Ki Song.
'Him too?!?'
Backing away slightly, Epsilon summoned the Best Friend. Cassius caught onto this, and whispered to Ki Song.
"Can nightmare creatures do that?"
"It might be a trick. You never know what they might do next."
Even though she said that, she was beginning to hesitate herself. She had used that weapon once before, so she recognised it clearly. Even if the Epsilon before her was a fake, it shouldn't've known what the Best friend was.
She then said,
"If you're really Epsilon, then tell me something only he would know."
Something only he would know? How was she supposed to know anything personal about him? They didn't really.. well did it have to be about him? He could tell her something he knew about her instead.
So what exactly did he know about Ki Song? He knew that her mothers name was Ravensong, and that her goal was to get revenge on all the people that left her behind to die.
Except she never told him that, so if he were to explain that he got this info through his flaw, it would be easy to reason that it was a lie.
'What can I say instead? Should I talk about our argument?'
And then, he recalled something that would be much more believable. Snapping him out of his train of thoughts, Ki Song shouted,
"Well!? If you won't say anything, I'll just kill you now."
"Wait! Do you remember that time when we first talked?"
Her blade froze in the air.
"I wanted to see what you were doing, but you got embarrassed that I was-"
And almost immediately, it was sent flying right towards Epsilon as it just barely grazed past his face. He could feel the cold wind whisper right in his ear, as a small, unnoticeable trickle of blood seeped a little from his skin.
The sword continued to fly into the darkness, eventually falling and clattering to the ground.
"OKAY! STOP TALKING, YOU'RE THE REAL ONE!"
While Epsilon breathed a sigh of relief though, Ki Song's face was on the verge of exploding. Cassius had never seen her like this before despite living with her for almost a week. It was interesting to see.
"Anyway, even if you are the real Epsilon, can you explain why you look like.. that?"
He never did tell her about that ability, did he?
"I have an innate ability that lets me burn my lifespan for power. Although, I wasn't aware that it would physically age me too."
Being too drunk on rage by the maddened frenzy, must've made it hard to notice at first. Or maybe it was because he was burning through his life slowly, and he only fully aged once he passed out.
"As for why I went back to normal.. on second thought, I'm not sure."
He was 100% certain that it was because of his new attribute. However, his [Judgement] attribute urged him to keep his mouth shut about it.
'It's the blood of Seras, so it's more like a.. lineage?'
"Well, I suppose you're hungry then? I've made fresh soup. Have a try."
Cassius extended out a hand holding a bowl towards Epsilon. Inside it, was the same strange brown liquid with pulps of Nightmare Creature flesh inside it. For a moment, Epsilon swore he saw something move within it.
Glancing over to Ki Song, he made a grim face,
'You've been eating this for a week?????'
She just shrugged her shoulders. Looking back at the bowl, Epsilon pushed it away lightly.
"Erm, no thanks. I'm really not that hungry."
"Oh really? That's too bad. You seemed to be enjoying it while Ki Song was-"
Before he could finish his words, a malicious, threatening aura which only he could feel began to permeate the room. Sweat began to trickle from his forehead, as he glanced the corner of his eye just to see Ki Song with a murderous look aimed right at him.
"N-Nevermind..."
He threw him a confused look, before shaking it off. It wasn't important enough to pester him any further.
"Anyhow, what happened while I was unconscious?"
**
Over the next 30 minutes or so, Ki Song explained what she had went through and how she met up with Cassius. Strangely though, she neglected to say anything about Smile Of Heaven.
After escaping from the underground forest and travelling through the passage way, Ki Song entered into what she could only describe as a huge underground city. As it turns out, the Nightmare Spell had summoned them all into some kind of underground civilization. Of course, it was all dead, just like every other civilization that used to exist in the dream realm.
Currently they were resting within an inn until Epsilon recovered. While exploring the place, Ki Song eventually stumbled upon Cassius who had also been hiding here.
Like other places in the dream realm, even this seemingly safe city was fashioned with its own dangerous Nightmare creatures. That which, they all learnt the hard way.
However, these creatures were strange. They were inactive in the dark, even in the presence of humans, and only seemed to move or react when they spotted light. Once they did, they would stop at nothing to eradicate its source.
Once she figured this out though, avoiding them became rather simple. But this didn't mean they could be carefree. They could only start a fire when in spaces completely isolated from the outside world, and not a single source of light could be allowed to escape its confines.
'This kind of makes my attribute useless now, doesn't it?'
If only Nero were here, why did he have to be trapped in another cave?
"So, anymore questions?"
Finally, it was time to address the root of all this trouble.
"Where's Smile Of Heaven?"
Ki Song's expression seemed to turn sombre, and quickly Epsilons blood ran cold.
"You.. that couldn't be, right? She isn't that weak, there's no way that she could die this early!"
But the dream realm was unpredictable. Although it was a rule that only the strongest could survive, it all didn't matter if there was a Fallen creature or a demon blocking your path as a sleeper. Or maybe even, a horde of awakened creatures.
'Did she die, because of me?'
Being overcome by anger made him reckless, in situations where he easily could've escaped as the fire spread, he chose to keep fighting back against the creatures instead. In that horde of creatures, did Smile Of Heaven..?
"So you think I'm dead after practically being a corpse for a whole week..."
Jumping up in surprise, Epsilon turned his back to the once dark corridor, and widened at the.. interesting sight. His heart lightened from worry, but another emotion soon took its place.
She was alive, but, she looked different. Shining before him was a small sphere of white light that Epsilon clearly recognized as her spirit form.
"Uh, you look, brighter than usual?"
"What? Is that meant to be a compliment? 0/10, I don't know how you got a partner with that tongue. Should you be talking like that to another woman anyway?"
Epsilon sighed, but he let out a small chuckle.
'She's still the same at least.'
"I said I would find you, didn't I? I never fail to keep my promises."
But even if she was seemingly alive, there was a new issue he had to address.
"Soooooooo, where's your body?"
The light that emanated from her astral form, seemed to flicker incoherently. Although she had no face, it was clear that she was embarrassed about something.
"It's... somewhere."
Even if she didn't drain essence while maintaining her spirit like state, her physical body would remain in a coma. If she stayed away from it for prolonged periods of time, re-joining it would be very disorientating. In an emergency, it would be a critical weakness to have.
But Smile Of Heaven wasn't a careless person despite what her attitude would convey. She still took the time to consider awkward situations like these. And so Epsilon came to one, reasonable but absurd conclusion.
He struggled to hold back a smirk,
"...you lost it didn't you."
The flickering of her spirit quickly ceased, as it slowly grew many times brighter than before, causing Epsilon to reflexively cover his eyes.
"How careless do you think I am?? It's my body! Of course I know where it is!"
Ki Song then shouted at her,
"Turn the brightness down! You're going to alert those things outside!"
Ah, well even he makes mistakes. [Judgement] didn't really help much at times like these. But Smile Of Heaven wasn't done talking.
"I.. uh.. I... ummmmm..."
"Well? It can't be that bad, can it?"
She went quiet, but shortly after she then asked,
"Promise me you won't laugh."
Epsilon nodded, and so, she took a deep, subtle and quiet breathe of air before resuming.
"It's stuck down there."
"Down there?"
"Yeah, down there."
"..."
Things just got a 100 times more tricky.