THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

The land carrier climbed out and moved for five hundred meters away from where the red tree demon was before finally coming to a stop.

"Told you it wasn't a good idea to attack it first, are you guys okay?" Elliot turned around and asked, He had not gotten a chance to talk to them after they returned because he was focused on running, and the thought of the red tree demon suddenly appearing behind them made him flustered; creatures of the dreamscape were unpredictable.

Turning back, he saw that Glen was helping Karin with treatment. The girl had been hurt by the rock snake in their previous fight, the rebound force from attacking the red tree demon's windshield had worsened her wound a bit.

While it wasn't serious yet, it could affect her battle efficiency seriously when needed.

After helping her, Glen returned to his seat and sat quietly as he absorbed Nexus energy. His snake had been hurt, and thus, hurting him, he would need a lot of energy for the both of them to recover.

Ralph and the red-haired Clint were perfectly fine as they had not made contact with the monster; they didn't get the chance to. Ralph's undead were thrown back by the monster's explosion and the flames had driven away all the shadows around it, rendering his shadow element useless.

It had to be said that Clint's ability had a very fatal flaw.

As for Ivan, who had faced the monster head-on on multiple occasions, Elliot could not help but feel astonishment. Ivan's strength shocked him every time, the young man was just too overpowered!

"We'll rest here tonight and continue with anything else in the morning," Ivan announced to them. There should not be any dangers since they had cleared from the entrance of the tunnel to this very spot but there was still a chance of something coming in from outside the tunnel, so Ivan volunteered to keep watch the whole night.

He came out from the land carrier after they shared their evening rations from the supplies. It was a standard outdoor canned ration used by the towers for Nexulytes on missions to the dreamscape; these kinds of foods could last months without getting spoiled.

Ivan ate his share expressionlessly while sitting on a large boulder and gazing into the darkness; the food wasn't too tasty, but it wasn't bad either.

At night, the tunnel had become so dark that it felt like a fog; one could barely see two meters around him, and the light from the land carrier only helped to see twenty meters around their current location.

...

As the night grew deeper into darkness, Ivan could be seen lying on his back on the huge boulder just a few meters away from the land carrier.

Everywhere was silent, the others were either sleeping or gathering Nexus energy.

It was just the first day and they had already started getting busy.

Remembering the scale of the mountain range they had seen outside, Ivan could not help but think just how much work they had to do to clear Region 17.

"But this is what we have been training for for months, isn't it?" Ivan mumbled to himself before looking to the side and smiling into the darkness.

A few seconds of silence followed before a person walked out from it, it was Ralph.

"Yeah, this was what we have been training for. I wonder how the others are doing now," Ralph said softly; he walked over and sat beside Ivan.

The both of them stared at the land carrier in silence for a while before Ralph spoke up.

"You…are still hiding things, aren't you?" He squeezed out in a low tone without looking at Ivan.

Ivan turned to look at him, he blinked once before looking away.

" Sorry,"

Ralph smiled lightly, seeing that Ivan didn't deny it; at least the boy was planning to deceive him as well.

" It wasn't hard to notice, I know just how strong you are. Well, not exactly sure but I know you're stronger than this. So why?" Ralph stated, his voice carrying curiosity.

Ivan lifted his body and sat up straight, he looked at the design of the land carrier meticulously. His thoughts flashed back to when he would curse at every living Nexulytes each night; he was cold, broken, hungry, and stranded; all of this suffering stacked together on him made him disgust the existence of Nexulytes.

But now, he had become the very thing he prayed death for every day. Not just him, his friends who had been with him for so long were in similar situations as well; does this title now mean they deserve to die as he had wanted previously?

Suddenly taking out a card, Ralph stared at Ivan with deeper confusion when the boy suddenly summoned a card and began looking at it instead of answering his question.

To Ralph, the card was just a blank blue card with golden edges but to Ivan…it was a present. A birthday gift from the family he never had and on the back of this card were words which no one else other than him could see.

'Be careful what you wish for'

Rubbing his fingers on the words that only he was capable of reading, Ivan turned to Ralph before answering his question.

"It's not time yet; I have too many things that need answers and things I have to look for…also, I feel they're pretending, and we're being monitored," Ivan said, his tone soft but serious.

Ralph raised an eyebrow.

"Who are they? The…" he trailed off as a word appeared in his mind, causing him to turn and look at the A-22G3.

He sighed after and looked back at Ivan.

" I understand, but remember this…we're your friends, no, brothers, and we'll stay on your side no matter what," Ralph declared.

Ivan's blue eyes shook slightly as he stared at his friend, a sad smile forming on his lips as a bizarre idea that he hoped wasn't true formed in his mind.

" Hmm, I hope you keep your promise," Ivan said before standing up and started walking, his direction was where the red tree demon was located.

Ralph stared at his back until the latter disappeared into the thick fog of darkness.

"I will, no matter what," Ralph uttered before resting his back where Ivan was resting previously.

Inside the land carrier, a red-haired figure with closed eyes turned his face and gazed outside through the window before looking away.

…..

Ivan walked for several minutes, one quiet step after another as he moved through the fog of darkness. He finally stopped in front of a large slope path that cut through a side of the wall, at the end of the slope was a wide opening through which light reflected.

Without wasting time, Ivan stepped on the slope.

Driiiiii!

His foot made a scraping sound as he slid down; he jumped when he was about to reach the opening and scaled across before landing on the ground gracefully.

He was back in the enormous hall where the red tree demon lived.

Signs of their fight could be seen everywhere, craters, broken pillars, and destroyed boulders.

Ivan's eyes scanned the place before finally landing on the figure of the red tree demon that was devouring the body of the dead monster that they had seen earlier.

Its face, which was made of leaves, opened, revealing a ghastly mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth that bit down on the body of the death-tree demon.

The monster made slurping sounds as it chewed.

It turned its head suddenly as if noticing something. The glow in its eyes flickered violently when they fell on Ivan's figure and the monster immediately tossed its meal to the side and stood up.

"Human, why did you come alone? Where are your friends? Did you come here to feed yourself to me?" The tree demon said in its chaotic voice that it was as if a crowd was shouting in unison.

Ivan calmly shook his head before staring back at the glow in the face of the tree demon, his expression was as calm as if he wasn't facing a monster that could go against a Partial Lord rank Nexulyte.

"No, I came here," Ivan calmly muttered as a card appeared in his grasp.

" To kill you."