Chapter 36: Dream. Is that your wish?
"How dare you?! I will kill you!" Luke shouted in a crazed manner as red energy started rising from his body.
Boom!!!
The Nexus energy coming from Luke\'s body exploded like a bomb and sent Ivan flying away like a broken kite.
Ivan slammed onto the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop, his body was in pain but he didn\'t make a sound and kept staring at Luke while forcing his legs to keep him standing.
Luke currently had his nose bent and half was his face was covered in blood that kept rushing out from his bent nose, his eyes were bloodshot as he stared at Ivan with deep resentment.
"You\'re just a nobody, how dare you hit me in the face!" Luke bellowed as the Nexus energy around him quickly began to gather and soon formed a nano suit on Luke\'s body as well as a helmet with glowing red eyes.
Turned out that Luke had the battle mechanic talent!
His current appearance was very similar to Gareth\'s! A big laser gun formed in Luke\'s hand which he aimed at Ivan and was preparing to fire!
Ivan, despite his aching body, forced himself to rise to his feet after being sent flying by Luke\'s Nexus outburst. No matter how much he had improved, Ivan realized that he still was not able to handle the amount of energy the repeaters possessed. But that did not mean that he was going to back away.
With blood flowing from the side of his head and covering a part of his face, Ivan stood firm while gazing at Luke with a calm look in his eyes. His calmness further infuriated Luke.
"You bastard! I\'ll kill you!" He roared but before he could fire a shot at Ivan, a beauty with long green hair appeared in front of him.
"That\'s enough, the training session for today is over" Miss Elora casually said while staring at the two glowing eyes on Luke\'s helmet.
One could hear Luke click his tongue in dissatisfaction from under his helmet before retracting his Nexus energy, his nano suit vanished and with his bloodied face stormed out of the class.
Bang!
Luke slammed the door shut behind him, Miss Elora stared at the closed door with a frown; she had the impulse to go hit Luke a few times but decided to let him be in the end.
Just before she could turn around.
Thud!
"Ivan!"
The sound of something hitting the ground followed by the screams of Ralph and Glen rang from behind her, she hurriedly turned around to see what had happened. What she found was an unconscious Ivan on the floor, Ralph and Glen were rushing to his side.
"Tks, senseless idiots" Elora cursed under her breath while staring at Ivan.
His condition didn\'t look that bad from the outside but she knew that Luke\'s Nexus burst must have done something to his organs but the boy had pretended like he was alright until Luke left the room.
Elora took the unconscious Ivan from Ralph and dismissed training, she then carried him to the infirmary like a bag of potatoes. A lot of people were surprised to see Elora carrying a body but quickly went back to minding their business when they saw it was a bloodied trainee.
...…..
Ivan found himself standing in the middle of a ruined city, collapsed streets, destroyed buildings, wrecked vehicles, and bloody corpses scattered all over the place. The entire place was in such a mess that Ivan found it difficult to recognize this place as San Pluto but the truth was right before his very eyes.
The destroyed building he was standing on was the home of the old driver who had sheltered them during their one week stay and in front of him were the corpse of the old man, his wife, and introverted daughter; their son was nowhere to be seen.
What freaked Ivan out the most was how gruesome their corpses were, they looked like the remains of a beast\'s meal!
Ivan stood rooted to the ground, countless emotions running through him at a fast speed that made his body unable to react for a long time as he could only stare at the sight in front of him with wide eyes.
Boom!!!
Roar!!
Suddenly, a huge explosion rang out behind Ivan followed by howling of beasts.
Ivan stiffly turned around and what he saw sent terror drilling into his bones, his hands trembled and he forced himself from falling.
Up in the sky was an enormous mirror gate! Yes, a link to the dreamscape!
This mirror gate was much larger than the one Ivan had seen in the playground back in the outskirt with countless monsters flooding out from it. Different kinds of monsters filled the sky while large and enormous hideous looking ones roamed the ground.
It was a mess as hundreds of humans that Ivan realized were Nexulytes charged at these monsters in an all out battle.
Explosions rang out constantly and monsters and humans were killed every second! Screams of pain, anger, and fear filled the air as battle between humans and monsters raged on.
Amidst this chaos, Ivan sighted a few familiar figures.
First one was Glen who was facing off against a swarm of bee-like monstera while standing on the head of an enormous white snake that was the size of a skyscraper with over a hundred floors.
These bee monsters only had the bodies of bees but no more similar features, their sizes were similar to that of an elephant and they had humanoid skeleton heads! Their wings were pitch black and bone-like with blood flowing from them constantly.
Glen was soon completely surrounded by these monsters that Ivan wasn\'t able to see him or his white snake despite its enormous size, the only thing that made Ivan know that he was still alive were the frequent flash of red light which were signs that Glen was using Nexus energy!
The second person was Ralph, Ralph was currently wearing a black battle suit with two small guns in both hands. His face was dirty, hair covered in blood and blood dripping from the side of his mouth. His battle suit was a mess with many tears on it through which one could see the wounds he had sustained.
Around Ralph was a small army of undead beings in black robes, they all had red aura rising from their bodies while they stared at the rocky monsters approaching with blood red eyes.
Surrounding the small army of undead that were protecting Ralph were over a thousand rock monsters, each carrying an axe made of rock.
Another person Ivan was able to spot was Miss Elora.
Clad in a dark blue combat suit, she wielded two blood red gauntlets that were clearly too big for her fists as she went up against a demon-like monster in hand to hand combat.
Every strike they exchanged was deadly and fast and each collision of their fists generated explosive sounds along with strong gusts of wind that threatened to destroy the ground.
While still watching, Ivan saw the monster suddenly find a chance and sent a powerful punch toward Miss Elora\'s chest.
BAM!!
The sound of the collision was deafening as Miss Elora was sent flying like a broken kite while smashing into everything in her way.
Aside from that, a lot of other fights were going on around him but Ivan wasn\'t able to move from where he was and everything seemed to be ignoring him.
His friends were in the face of death, his instructor was facing danger, a lot of humans were being killed every second but Ivan wasn\'t doing anything.
A thought suddenly came to him.
\'What can you do? You\'re just one person, what can you change? Isn\'t this what you always wanted? For Nexulytes to die obediently? They are Nexulytes and they are just fulfilling your wish, why should you bother?!\'
The thought was like a brainwashing whisper in Ivan\'s mind that made his whole body tremble, he felt a strong sense of pleasure from watching people die trying to take over his mind. Just in time, another thought countered the first one.
"They may be Nexulytes but they were your friends before gaining that identity, they stayed by you for years and looked out for you. Remember your promise of brotherhood, shouldn\'t you at least consider their kindness? Is it really alright to let them die?"
" Shut up! Nexulytes are bad people, they deserve death no matter who they are. The world will be a better place without them!"
" Aren\'t you a Nexulyte too? Do you wish to die then?"
Ivan\'s mind seemed to have become two different people as they argued nonstop while giving Ivan a reason to help or just keep watching.
But could he really do anything? He was just one person and even if he wanted to help, how could he change things by himself?
Ivan was on the verge of breakdown, his mind was about to explode. Unable to decide, he opened his mouth and screamed.
"Shut up!"
Like a powerful sound wave, his shout spread out across the whole place, freezing time and silencing everything; not even the wind was moving.
In this frozen world, only Ivan could move and speak.
Ivan fell to his knees, unaware of what his shout had caused. He was only glad that he finally got a moment of quietness.
Looking at his hands that were now holding two cards each, Ivan wondered when he had used his talent but couldn\'t remember summoning them. But it didn\'t matter, what mattered was that Ivan had suddenly come to a decision.
He had given up on dying after becoming a Nexulyte but that didn\'t mean he didn\'t hate Nexulytes. His new principle was…
"Whoever hurt my friends…must die! Human or monster "
" Is that what you wished for, Wisher?"
A voice suddenly spoke up from above Ivan, a voice that made Ivan\'s body jolt for some reason.
Ivan hurriedly looked up and above him was a man floating in the air, clad in golden armor with a cape hanging over his shoulders. The man gave Ivan a familiar feeling yet he could not remember knowing him.
"Is that your deepest desire, wisher?" The man once again asked, seeing that Ivan wasn\'t responding.
"I…"