Chapter 39: Ghosts of the Real

Arcadius's jaw dropped, and he stiffened. He stared at the girl in front of him, his mouth agape. For a long moment, he didn't quite process her words. The real world. The phrase struck him like a thunderbolt. It threatened to unravel the careful composure he'd worked so hard to maintain.

He had expected that this girl's Attributes and Aspect were somehow similar to his, and he was about to test his theory, but... what? The real world? The hell does she mean 'the real world'? The Waking World? Yeah. The Waking World. Yeah, that's it. That has to be it...

But even as he was deluding himself into thinking otherwise, part of him understood exactly what she meant by 'the real world.' He shook his head slightly, trying to throw off the shock and gather his thoughts.

"What?" was all he managed to say after a while. His voice came out sharper than he had intended.

The girl raised an eyebrow, and crossed her arms defensively, seemingly annoyed by his response. Her pale frostbitten skin stood out starkly against the makeshift seaweed clothing.

"I said... I am from the real world too," she declared. "From Earth. Not the Earth overridden by Nightmare Creatures; our Earth. Where this world is a fictional one."

Cade's first instinct was to laugh— to scoff at the absurdity of what she'd just stated— but the expression on her face killed the urge. She wasn't joking. She wasn't mocking him. She was serious; dead serious.

Of course, Cade should have believed her as soon as she used the words 'the real world,' but strangely enough, he found himself in denial.

This was just not how things were supposed to work. You didn't get sent into a fictional world as a pair or a team. It was supposed to be one at a time. That was how these things always went.

Cade let out a quiet scoff. "Haha, I guess travelling alone, doing nothing but killing beasts and talking to no one but myself have finally gotten to me, huh? I can't believe I'm actually seeing things..." He shook his head slightly in disbelief.

He recalled the Sin of Solace's curse which had caused Sunny to hallucinate and see a completely different version of himself. He wondered if the Oblivion Reaver had a similar curse.

"I beg your pardon?" the girl asked, leaning forward and tilting her head a little.

"No, this can't be real," Cade muttered, more to himself than to her. "You're not real. You're a figment of my imagination, aren't you? Yeah, that's it. I'm sure that's it."

The icy girl's annoyance only grew at his inability and reluctance to fully register the situation unfolding before his eyes. "Oh? So, you're imagining me, are you?"

"Yeah," Cade said, shrugging and trying to sound unfazed. He wasn't doing too good a job. "What else could this be? This isn't how things are supposed to happen. How come I never noticed you before now, eh? If you're really who you say you are, how come you weren't at the Awakened Academy? No. No, you're a hallucination. That damned Memory is making me see things!"

He muttered the last words quietly to himself.

The cold, annoyed girl gritted her teeth, and took a step towards Cade. Cade watched her with doubt in his eyes. She seemed so real, yet he was convinced that she was, in fact, just an image created by the curse of the Oblivion Reaver.

The girl walked up to him and came to a stop right in front of his face. Then, she raised her hand and slapped him clean across the face. A sharp stinging pain exploded at the side of his head. There was that inhuman strength again. How was she so strong?

"There," she said, her voice cutting through the haze in his mind like a blade. "Now, do you believe that I'm real or do I need to beat some more sense into you?"

Cade stared at her in disbelief, wide-eyed, one hand slowly rising to touch his cheek. The shooting pain at the side of his face was, in fact, very real. And so was the pain in his stomach where she had kicked him a few minutes earlier.

The frosty glare, the sharpness of her tone— everything about this person screamed reality. But Cade's mind still reeled against the possibility.

Could this be the work of some ancient, horrible Nightmare Creature that had caused his mind to shatter? That had made it seem like the pain in his body had come from the girl standing in front of him? Had he succumbed to a powerful mind attack?

However, Cade abruptly paused his train of thought. He took a deep breath and summoned the Tidemark Whisper. The dark fang-locket wove itself out of Darkness and caused him to calm down and gather his thoughts somewhat.

Then, he realized that he was being completely stupid.

Just what did he know about being translocated into a fictional world? Just because the protagonists of the many Isekai novels he'd read were sent to a different world alone, didn't mean that he had been too. That was a foolish argument.

He breathed out some Darkness, which caused the girl to recoil a little and become slightly defensive.

"Relax," Cade said, waving a hand at her.

He commanded the Darkness to move into his armor, close to his stomach. As it obeyed, the wound that was caused by the girl's kick healed itself. Then, Cade covered his face with a palm, embarrassed. He realized just how idiotic he must have looked and sounded.

He also noticed that he had been right. He didn't feel the even the slightest tug of rage at the back of his mind when he breathed out the Darkness, even though he was in the presence of another human. He smiled lightly, coming to terms with what had just happened.

"I'm sorry about my strange behavior," he said politely, addressing the girl in front of him. However, he found that she was no longer there.

The girl had moved to sit down against the boulder that he'd tried to slice with the Oblivion Reaver. Now that he observed her more closely, he noticed that she looked... exhausted and disheveled. Like she hadn't slept for days and was about to pass out.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

She looked at him and nodded tiredly. Even that seemed to take too much out of her. "Yeah," she said, "Just a little worn out."

"May I ask what happened to you?" Cade asked, trying to sound as earnest as he could. "You look more than a little worn out."

She looked at him with tired eyes, that icy gleam gone from their blue. Then, she said, "Same thing that happened to you."

Cade frowned. Same thing that happened to me? he repeated inwardly. What does sh—

"Ohhh!" he exclaimed aloud as realization dawned on him.

He remembered that feeling of exhaustion all too well. It was the exhaustion that had hit him right after his 'transformation' at the base of the Knight's statue.

"So, your soul core was destroyed and reformed?" Cade investigated, already knowing the answer.

 "Yeah, something like that," the girl replied.

"And the Attributes?" he asked. "Did you receive the profane one too?"

"One evolved and I did acquire two new ones. Though, I haven't had a chance to see what they are," the girl said, her breaths growing a little heavy.

"Oh, I see..." Cade said after a short pause. "When did this happen? I'm guessing it wasn't too long ago?"

She nodded. "Happened last night," she said. "I was fighting a couple of Scavengers and then, it hit me. The pain was too much and I passed out."

Cade nodded, thoughtful. So, this girl had gone through the same strange process as himself.

But what does this even mean? he asked himself inwardly, trying to make sense of things. Sadly, he had no clue whatsoever as to what this could entail. He looked at her again.

The girl coughed lightly, adjusting her body against the boulder to sit more comfortably.

Uh, what exactly am I supposed to do with her now? he mused. Even though Cade appeared outwardly calm, he was trying his best to not succumb to the shock of what had just unfolded. He was holding on. For now.

First things first, I guess...

"You are in desperate need of some rest," he said, moving to grab some of the roasted meat he had been eating. He held out a few strips for the girl to take. "Are you hungry? It's not much but it's what I've got."

The girl smiled. Or at least, tried to. She didn't seem to be too good at it. "Thanks," she replied, taking the strip of monster meat and chewing on it. "Anyway, I—"

Cade held up a hand to silence her. "You should rest for now. We'll talk when you're back at full strength. I've gotta check up on those three, anyway."

"Alright," she said, nodding tiredly. She didn't seem to be too thrilled to talk herself.

Good, it'll give me some time to think as well.

Cade gave her a subtle nod and started to move towards the direction of the trio. However, on his way, he paused and looked back at the girl.

"By the way, what's your name?" he asked.

"I'm Maya," she replied.

"It was nice meeting you, Maya," Cade said, smiling lightly. "Even if you did manhandle me somewhat."

She let out a soft chuckle. "The pleasure is all mine, Arcadius."

With a wry smile, Cade descended into the Labyrinth to take a look at how the trio was faring.