"How are those pants? Nice and dry?" Evan asked, a sly smirk rising on his lips.
Elcudia's head jerked away so fast, it was a wonder she didn't snap her neck. Heat rushed up her face, blooming into a deep, fiery blush that burned from her cheeks to the tips of her ears.
"It's not a big deal. It happened to all of us as kids at some point."
Ecludia exploded. "You idiot! I am not a child!"
She scooped up a handful of snow and hurled it. The fluffy projectile smacked Evan square in the face, bursting into a cloud of powder that lingered in the air before slowly drifting away.
Zerin turned back facing them, with a curious expression on his face. "Are we heading out soon?"
Evan wiped the melting snow from his face, laughing. "Uh, yeah... I just need to grab the clothes. After that, it's about a fifteen-minute walk to the river."
Zerin cast a brief glance at cave before turning to the forest. Evan had asked him to join him on a trip to the nearby river to wash clothes—a request that caught him off guard but made sense after Ecludia's accident.
Ecludia sat in silence, wrapped in fresh, warm clothes. Just an hour ago, she had nearly been scared to death by a Howler—one of the more common creatures in the region—and had embarrassed herself beyond belief. The mere thought of it made her wish she could disappear.
Yet, Zerin had shown no reaction to her embarrassment. Instead, he simply offered to help—unexpected, and for some reason, it piqued her curiosity. Even now, he stood in silence, unaffected, while she found it increasingly unsettling. The more she dwelled on it, the more uncomfortable she became.
Ecludia tilted her head up, eyeing the back of Zerin's head. "Does it have a name?"
Zerin blinked, caught off guard. He glanced over his shoulder. "What?"
She nodded slightly toward the Howler sitting across from her. "I mean, does it have a name?"
Zerin turned fully to face her, his gaze shifting between her and the creature. "Its name is Howler."
She swung her legs gently, her smile fading as she looked down at her lap. "That's just the species' name… I meant like a real name."
Zerin paused, he hadn't really thought to name the creature—it had never seemed important. He glanced at her, then sighed, his expression softening.
"If you want to name it, go ahead," Zerin said, his voice low as he closed his eyes.
Ecludia's eyes widened. "Wait—seriously? You're letting me name it?"
Zerin opened his eyes and shrugged. "Yeah, why not?"
Her lingering embarrassment vanished in an instant, replaced by happiness. "Okay..."
Evan returned with the basket of clothes and secured the lid on top. "That's everything... let's go."
Zerin nodded, then he summoned the [Curtained Carcass], securing the fleshy sheath to his waistband, where it adhered firmly. Then, he called forth the [Astral Blade] and slid it into the sheath. Within moments, the sheath writhed and shifted, reshaping itself to accommodate the weapon.
"Keep the place safe while we're gone," Zerin said to the Howler, then followed Evan.
The Howler's glowing sockets followed their movements. Ecludia's eyes followed them as well, her gaze fixed while she sat across from the creature.
Ecludia hesitated for a moment, her eyes drifting between the Howler and the path ahead. Then, with a soft sigh, she rose from her seat to sit beside the creature. She studied it for a moment, noting the intense glow in its eyes, before raising a finger to her lips in thought. "So, what should your name be?"
The creature's body stiffened, its ears flicking back. A tense silence stretched between them, before it scooted slightly away.
Ecludia blinked, tilting her head as she watched the creature's reaction. Undeterred, she inched a little closer, her curiosity and determination outweighing the hesitation in the air. "I won't bite," she murmured, with a light smile on her face.
Farther ahead, Zerin trailed behind Evan, his eyes constantly scanning for any threats. The land stretched out as it always had—frozen and desolate, untouched by life. The sun rose quickly, as if racing to reach its peak, only to dip beneath the horizon just as swiftly, fading back into night.
Evan's eyes widened. "No need to get all geared up."
Zerin glanced at him, unfazed. "You never know what's out there. This region may seem desolate, but you can't predict when something will happen."
They paused for a moment, watching the brief transition, the day slipping into darkness in mere minutes. Then, without a word, they resumed their journey toward the river.
As they crested a small hill, the river came into view—a wide, shallow stretch of water, glistening under the moonlight. It wound between jagged stones that rose from the earth like teeth.
And as they grew closer, the air grew sharper, the smell of ice and damp earth. The wind howled once again, a bitter cold following it that caused Zerin's bones to tremble, but surprisingly Evan held no reaction.
"How are you not freezing?" Zerin said as he shivered against the horrible cold.
"It's my Aspect— a physical enhancement that strengthens my body's fortitude." He turned to Zerin. "I'm curious about your Aspect as well—if you wouldn't mind sharing."
Zerin's gaze lingered on the moonlight reflecting off the river water. "Blood. My Aspect is related to blood."
He left it at that, offering no further explanation. It wasn't just secrecy that kept him from elaborating---it was strategy. If Evan learned that he possessed a Divine Aspect, or the lofty name it was given by the spell, let alone the existence of his True Name, he knew dependency would follow. And Zerin had no interest in becoming anyone's crutch.
He cared about only one thing—keeping his word and escaping the Dream Realm.
As they neared the river, its true shallowness became evident—barely ankle-deep, yet stretching as wide as a four-lane road. The current murmured as it weaved through jagged rocks, the water's song continued with the ceaseless flow.
Evan knelt by the river, pulling a set of clothes from the basket and submerging them into the frigid current. Zerin observed the ease with which he worked, noting yet another display of his Aspect in action—no ordinary human could endure such icy waters without consequence. It was intriguing, but not nearly as important as the question he had been waiting to ask.
"When did you meet them?" Zerin asked suddenly, his voice rising just above the rushing water.
Evan glanced up, briefly caught off guard. "The girls?" He paused before nodding to himself. "Well, I ran into Ecludia about an hour after I first arrived here—two cycles ago. And Seren... we found her a few months in. She was barely getting by."
He returned to his task, scrubbing a river rock against the fabric while holding it beneath the rushing water.
"By cycles, you mean—?"
"Solstices," Evan clarified, cutting him off. "You arrived last solstice. The girls and I have been here since the one before."
Zerin's brows rose slightly. "You've been here that long?"
But deep down, he wasn't entirely surprised. The vastness of the Dream Realm made survival an unpredictable game of chance. Unlike the First Nightmare, this place didn't operate on a twisted sense of fairness. It was relentless. Unforgiving.
Evan let out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head. "Y'know, I thought it'd be easy. I was way too cocky… I just hope the people back home haven't given up on me. That's what keeps me going. That, and the girls." His gaze flickered to Zerin's through the river's reflection.
Zerin's jaw tightened. The drive to return to reality--it mirrored his own. But there was a difference.
Evan had something waiting for him. Zerin did not. All memories of his life before the First Nightmare had either been stripped away or felt alien, leaving him with nothing except with the events of The First Nightmare.
Then there was the other difference. Evan still believed sacrifice had meaning---that protecting others at the expense of yourself was worth the risk.
Zerin, however, had come to see things differently after the First Nightmare. His Flaw only deepened that conviction---the belief that he'd never truly had control over his life. And yet, this conviction left him trapped.
Moments later, Evan finished washing the clothes in the icy river, and they turned to head back to the shelter. The return trip was quick, but as they neared the cave, something felt off.
The Howler was gone.
Its post stood eerily vacant. The cold wind howled through the trees.
Then, they saw it.
A hunched, lifeless body sprawled face-down in the snow, clothed in ragged layers, surrounded by a dark pool of blue blood. A speckled trail of red blood and disturbed snow led away from the corpse, vanishing into the trees.
Evan dropped the basket, sprinting forward before falling to his knees beside the body. "Shit! What do we do?"
"Nothing…" Zerin muttered, his voice low as he approached. The blue blood was unmistakable.
With a swift motion, he nudged the corpse with his foot. It rolled onto its back, revealing features that sent a ripple of revulsion through Evan.
The figure, though human-like, wasn't human.
The corpse was an old woman—or what took the appearance of one. Her grotesque features were twisted into something unnatural. A crooked nose, unnervingly sharp and curved like a crescent moon, jutted out from her face. Her skin, a sickly shade of dark gray, was stretched taut over a frame. Much like a witch from old folklore.
"What the hell is that?" Evan muttered.
Zerin stepped forward, pressing a firm hand against Evan's shoulder, shifting him aside. He crouched down, his eyes locked onto the tattered robes draped over the corpse. Reaching forward, he pulled them open just enough to reveal a runic necklace nestled around the creature's neck.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Evan asked, voice uneasy.
Zerin ignored him. He reached into his pocket and retrieved a pointed artifact. When he aligned it with the runes carved into the necklace, they matched.
Satisfaction crossed Zerin's face. "Found you."
Without hesitation, he gripped the artifact tighter—then drove it into the old woman's chest.
The jagged edges tore through flesh with a sickening squelch, splitting open her abdomen.
Evan staggered back, gagging. "Ah, man! Come on!"
Zerin didn't flinch. His hands moved with grim precision, sifting through the tangled mass of entrails with the artifact. His fingers worked methodically, unfazed by the gore, until finally—he freed three Dormant Cores from the nightmare creature's remains.
"Here, hold this."
Zerin dropped the muck-covered Soul Cores into Evan's trembling hands before turning back to the corpse.
Evan retched, his stomach twisting as he fought to keep himself together. The stench of the creature's insides clung to the cores, a mix of rot and something sulfuric, like rotten eggs. His hands shook as he hastily wiped away the filth, grimacing all the while.
Zerin, meanwhile, reached down and yanked the necklace from the old woman. He glanced over his shoulder, brow furrowed as he caught Evan's reaction.
Evan let out a rough breath, rubbing the last of the grime onto his pants before dumping the Soul Cores into the basket. "Sorry—I don't do well with guts."
Zerin exhaled sharply, wiping his own hands against his pants before shifting his focus to the blood-speckled trail in the snow. It led straight into the forest.
"I'm going to track the Howler. Stay here, in case more nightmare creatures show up," Zerin said, resting his hand on the hilt of his sword.
Evan hesitated for a moment before something clicked in his mind. His eyes widened. Without another word, he spun toward the cave, pushing the barricade aside and disappearing into the darkness.
Zerin stayed where he was, a faint sense of dread already settling in.
Seconds later, Evan returned, his face pale. "Ecludia is gone! Where the hell is that creature of yours?!"
Zerin followed the trail with his gaze, his expression hardening. "She must have run into the forest to lead the Nightmare creatures away. The Howler should be more than capable of handling a Dormant beast like this one." His voice was steady, but his eyes darkened. "Which means there was something else here. Something stronger. Something they couldn't fight safely."
Evan's voice rose. "Then we need to go now!"
Zerin locked eyes with him. "You stay here. Protect the one still here. The Howler's not dead, which means they're still alive. I'll find them, don't worry."
Evan hesitated, his fists clenching at his sides. His mind visibly warring between his own duty and the gnawing fear of losing someone. Finally, he exhaled, shoulders dropping in reluctant surrender. "You're right... I need to keep a level head." His jaw tightened. "Just—just don't get yourself killed."
A small, smirk flickered across Zerin's face, vanishing as quickly as it appeared. "If I'm not back in a couple of hours, consider me a lost cause." He turned toward the trail, his voice steady despite the weight of the moment. "But don't worry—I'll bring her back."