THE STRONGEST NEXULYTE

The black flame dropped to the ground slowly and landed on the head of one of the monsters rushing at him, next thing that followed was a thunderous explosion that shook the place.

The small hill that Ivan was standing on shook as if under the effect of an earthquake, the explosion covered the whole space and swallowed everything below the small hill.

The monsters did not have the time to react before they were swallowed by the wave of the explosion, their brief shrieks of agony sounded before quickly disappearing within the roar of the explosion.

Ivan's hair fluttered violently from the shockwave caused by the explosion as he gazed below calmly, the flames of the explosion reflecting on his face and eyes.

The flame burned for half a minute before gradually disappearing, leaving the space pitch black.

Not a single monster could be seen after the flames disappeared, not even their ashes were left behind; the explosion had burned up everything.

Ivan glanced at the space after the fire disappeared completely colored smoke rose from the ground; the explosion of the hellfire wasn't even able to damage the blood wall. Ivan wondered just how strong the blood wall was and what sort of attack would be able to break through it.

But more importantly…his eyes flashed with disappointment after taking a look at the burnt space.

"Not a single Nexus crystal," he muttered before letting out a breath.

Now that he was alone, Ivan didn't continue to move immediately. The first shift had just taken place, and there were still two more hours of unpredictable shifting; moving now would be meaningless.

So Ivan sat cross-legged and started absorbing Nexus energy in the air. The hellfire just now had consumed a third of his energy storage, and he would only be able to use it two more times before he expanded his storage.

The space fell into silence and only the sounds of wind howled around Ivan as he drew the Nexus energy in the air toward himself while paying extreme attention to his surroundings.

...

After the first shift, where they were separated in the hall with the scorpions, Ralph found himself in a corridor with only one way out; behind him was a dead end.

Just like Ivan, Ralph's head was spinning as well and he needed a minute to relax his mind. It was a good thing that his undead were shifted along with him; they kept watch while Ralph dealt with the after-effects of the shift.

After a minute, Ralph was back to normal and took a look at his current location. The corridor wasn't wide and had just enough space for three people to move side by side, about ten meters ahead of him was a curve that bent the corridor to the left side.

"No use thinking when there's just a single option" Ralph sighed and sent the undead General to scout ahead.

Without a word, the undead General turned into a rad flicker of light and vanished into the distance, quickly reaching the end of the corridor and taking the turn to the left.

Ralph recalled the undead knight so as to save energy before following behind the undead General, he maintained a safe distance and only moved after getting feedback from the undead General.

After a few minutes of waking, he got a message through the emotional connection that he shared with the undead General.

'Room. Statues. Safe'

Those were the words transferred from the undead General to Ralph's mind, Ralph immediately increased his walking pace to meet the undead General that was a few tens of meters ahead.

After making five turns through the corridor, Ralph finally left the twisty corridor and entered a hall-like space.

This space was at least fifty meters wide and five red statues were placed side by side in the middle of the space.

These statues seemed to be structured in human shape, but they had vertical eyes and large bat wings that unfolded behind them; each of their wings was three meters wide and had pointed tips.

The statues were all in half kneeling postures with one of their hands on the ground and the other hands placed on their chests.

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Ralph stared at the five statues with an awed expression, they were crafted so skillfully that they looked so lifelike.

Moving his gaze away from the statues, Ralph looked around and soon spotted an exit at the end of the room: a door-shaped opening on the blood wall that was four meters high and two meters wide.

"I should rest here for a bit and think of what to do next" Ralph mumbled and dropped to his butt, resting his back against one of the statues as he fell into thought.

He already knew that trying to look for Ivan and the others might be a waste of time in a situation like this where space was constantly shifting, the best option would be to look for the guardian of the labyrinth and kill it; the labyrinth would stop functioning by then and it would be easier locate the others.

"Sigh, would I even be able to kill it if I found it? Just how strong would a guardian be?... I wished Ivan was here; I'm sure he would be able to handle a guardian." Ralph sighed to himself as his head fell down and stared at the ground; he was mentally exhausted.

Ckreeee!

Ralph suddenly heard the sound of rock moving, the sound was dull and could easily be missed if one wasn't paying attention.

At the same time, he got a feeling from the undead General beside him.

'Danger. Run'

Swoosh!!

Immediately after the undead General passed these feelings to Ralph and before the latter could raise his head, the undead General turned into a red shadow before moving toward Ivan and pushing him to the side; the undead General proceeded to shield Ralph with its body after pushing him.

"What the…?"

Bang!!

A Stony Wing suddenly swiped through the air like a bullet and smashed the red robe of the undead General.

The force of the hit sent the undead General and Ralph, whom it was protecting, flying away into the distance.

They flew for twenty meters before crashing into the ground and tumbling multiple times, they only came to a stop when the undead General finally managed to throw itself off the ground.

Ralph, still late to react to what was happening, found himself in the embrace of the undead General; they were currently meters away from where he was resting before.

Ralph's eyes widened when he saw what had caused the undead General to relay those feelings and send them flying.

One of the statues was currently staring at him, one of its wings lowered and the pointed tip hovered where Ralph was sitting just a while ago; it had slapped them away with that wing.

The other four statues had also risen from their half-kneeling postures as well and were all currently standing tall like demons with back wings; horns had unknowingly grown out of their foreheads.

"Thought as much, how could statues be lying around in the dreamscape" Ralph mumbled with a smile that showed he had expected this to happen.

These statues were no ordinary statues, they were Gargoyles!