THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

The sky above them…was blood red instead of the usual blue sky.

The five of them didn't need anyone to tell them before a world came to their minds.

The fusion!

The fusion was something that they had learned about back during their training; it was an event where the real world fused with the dreamscape, and both became one, but only for Nexulytes. Every single Nexulyte would be unexpectedly thrown into the dangerous dreamscape during this period and left to defend themselves against the horrors of the dreamscape.

Humans had managed to study the nature of this event and had long prepared defense measures awaiting it, and that was informing every Nexulyte to gather at the closest tower which would correspond to their territories in the dreamscape; giving them a safe haven to stay in during the duration of which the dreamscape would last instead of them wandering aimlessly in the dreamscape and potentially stumbling into something that would kill them.

The group had expected to experience the same thing after becoming Nexulytes and had long made preparations, but…wasn't the next fusion supposed to be two or three months from now? Why was it happening now that they just returned from a mission?

"How is this possible? Why is it happening now?" Ralph mumbled with wide eyes while looking at the blood-red sky.

Ivan's eyes were narrowed as he looked around. He could feel the presence of many creatures, but they seemed to fade in and out of existence around him.

"Everyone calm down, we shouldn't panic in this situation," Ivan muttered to the group in a low voice, barely managing to calm the group that was on the verge of trepidation.

All of them immediately calmed down and focused on Ivan, waiting for what he was going to say.

Ivan paused for a while before looking toward Ralph and asking him what he thought of the situation.

Ralph fell into thought for a while before saying.

"I think…the fusion this time is different,"

Everyone except Ivan looked at him in surprise and confusion as to why he would make such a statement, Ralph naturally gave his reason for saying such words when he was asked.

According to the previous records and other information that he had read about the fusion, space inside the dreamscape was supposed to be the same in the real world at the time that the fusion occurred; they were not supposed to move from their former location to a new one just because the fusion arrived unexpectedly.

He then went on to give an example of the blood labyrinth.

" I suspect that this fusion did the same thing as the blood labyrinth, locations have been shifted; that's the only explanation for why we are here instead of being in front of the teleportation vault."

Everyone nodded, feeling that Ralph's words were very logical. But knowing this didn't help them feel any better at all, didn't that mean it would be difficult now to locate the nearest tower base?

" What do we do now?" Karin asked while rubbing her arms together in nervousness.

" What's there to do? Let's turn around and head toward the tower!" Glen spat out and pointed in where should be the direction of the Owen Tower HQ, where they had undergone training.

Ivan shook his head at the boy.

" Did you not hear what Ralph said? If space really shifted, then the tower base is most likely not in that direction anymore," Ivan said.

" But we should at least check, we have no other choice unless we want to roam the dreamscape until the fusion ends; that would be too dangerous." Glen retorted.

Ivan fell into silence for a few seconds before saying.

" Even at that, we can't go in that direction; at least not now,"

" Why?" Glen, Karin, and Clint looked at him with confused faces.

Ivan didn't respond and turned to look at Ralph instead. The three followed his gaze and stared at Ralph; they still did not understand what Ivan said. They couldn't go in that direction yet. Only when Ralph raised his head to look at them did Glen understand what Ivan meant?

" Your…your Mom!" He exclaimed. Ralph and Ivan let out a sigh at the same time. It took Glen long enough to catch up.

"What about his Mom?" Karin asked and looked at Glen for an explanation.

Glen told them about Ralph's mother's situation, he only needed to say it once for the two to realize the seriousness of the matter.

Ralph's mother might be injured and unable to move but she was still a Nexulyte nevertheless. Now that they were inside the dreamscape because of the fusion, she would obviously get pulled in as well!

"Damn, Aunty is in the dreamscape as well! We have to hurry over there." Glen almost screamed. Ivan immediately reacted, he moved toward him with blinding speed and covered his mouth with one of his hands.

" Don't raise your voice, you might attract monsters," Ivan said.

If they wanted to go save Ralph's mother, getting chased around by monsters inside the dreamscape was the last thing that they wanted.

He might be stronger, but that didn't mean he was allowed to be overconfident; there were many horrors that were dreamscape that were stronger than him; the priestess of the fallen Angel was a good example.

"Mmf, mmmf." Glen made muffled sounds while nodding.

Ivan finally released him.

"Huff, what should we do now?" Glen breathed and asked in a low voice.

"We hurry to the villas as quickly as possible," Ivan said.

Ralph was silent all through; his face was calm, but despair could be seen in his eyes. The Villas were many kilometers away from where they were currently, and it would take them days to get there if they tried to avoid fighting; he could only imagine how his disabled mother would be able to survive long enough for them to come to save her.

'Being a Nexulyte can indeed be a curse,' Ralph lamented inwardly while hoping for some sort of miracle to happen since there were other Nexulytes living in that part of San Pluto, he hoped that they wouldn't mind looking after her.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

After making out their next cause of action, the group faced the direction that should lead them to the villa and began moving.

Firstly, they needed to leave this strange neighborhood that kept making Ivan's senses tingle in alarm.

They walked along the corner of the streets, taking covers and not daring to be too open.

"Wait, I see something!" Ralph suddenly called out in a low voice, making everyone stop.

Ivan looked back at the boy behind him and saw Ralph looking ahead with his glasses glowing, he was using the ex-ray ability of the glasses.

Ivan looked ahead of him; in front of him was the corner of a broken building that led to a sharp turn; he wasn't able to see what was behind it.

"What do you see?" Ivan asked, but Ralph didn't reply. Instead, he stood in place with his lips trembling and his eyes opened wide.

"Hey, get a grip man!" Glen grabbed Ralph's arm and shook him, forcefully waking him up from his terrified state.

"We should hide, hurry!" Ralph urged, his expression was as if a dog was trying to bite his balls.

Ivan was puzzled but trusted Ralph's judgment, he immediately led the group to hide. They found a spot and Ivan pushed a large piece of a broken structure to act as a coverage for them.

Seconds slowly ticked by as the group waited with tensed air surrounding them, each of them ready to swing into combat.

After many minutes, nothing seemed to pass by this place. Glen was about to ask what Ralph had seen or if he had even seen anything. But the boy had just opened his mouth when Ralph moved like lightning and covered it, he gave Glen a piercing cold glare that sent shivers down his soul.

At the same time.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

The sound of something hitting the ground could be heard from a distance away from them, and all of them froze.

"I.SEE.YOU….I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU…I.SEE.YOU…I.CAN.NOT.HEAR.YOU…"

A voice that sounded like countless terrified people talking at the same time drifted into their ears, and the group immediately felt fear spurt in the depths of their souls.

What a terrifying voice!

Unable to hide their curiosity, they peaked from behind their coverage. What they saw filled them with dread.

A few meters away from where they had been standing just before Ralph suggested for them to hide was a lonely figure.

This figure had long, dirty hair that had almost turned black, but it was still possible to tell the original color; the hair was so long that it touched the ground and dragged along with the figure.

Its back was hunched and it wore a shit white robe that was covered in blood stains and what seemed like burnt marks.

Below the robe was a single bloody lump of flesh that acted as a foot, the thudding sounds were made by the figure hopping on that single lump. A large smoking chain was attached to the stump and dragged another stump along with it; one could interpret that the figure once had two feet that were chained but had ripped one off to hop on the remaining one.

It was a mind-troubling scene.

The head of the figure suddenly moved and looked in their direction, their eyes locked.