Odyssey Of Survival

Ryder turned his head slightly, his brows furrowing as he stared at Ray. "What do you mean by that?" His voice carried a hint of skepticism, but there was also curiosity beneath it.

Ray exhaled through his nose, his expression unreadable as he gazed at the remnants of the destroyed cell, the lingering traces of scorched stone still faintly warm from Nate's escape. After a moment of silence, he shook his head.

"I've looked into that kid's eyes," he finally said, his tone steady but laced with something Ryder couldn't quite place. "And the look in his eyes is something even he doesn't realize he has."

Ryder frowned. "What look?"

Ray's lips barely moved as he uttered his next words.

"Evil. Bloodthirsty. Craziness."

For a moment, the cave was utterly silent.

Then—Ryder laughed.

Not a small chuckle, but a deep, belly-holding laugh as he tilted his head back slightly, his broad shoulders shaking with amusement.

"You're sprouting nonsense, Ray." Ryder wiped a stray tear from his eye as he caught his breath, still grinning. "Nate might be aggressive, and yeah, he's definitely got a short fuse, but evil? Bloodthirsty? You make him sound like some kind of monster."

But Ray didn't smile. He didn't react at all.

Instead, he simply continued speaking, his voice calm, almost indifferent.

"Everyone has always wondered what my real ability is… apart from blacksmithing."

At those words, Ryder's laughter slowly faded. His posture straightened slightly as his amusement was replaced with something else—curiosity.

Because he had wondered about that too.

Ray was unlike anyone else on this island. He had the unique ability to craft weapons infused with elemental energy, merging them with the perfect crystals. His creations weren't just effective; they were precise, as if the weapons themselves were destined for their users. And yet, despite the number of times Ryder had thought about it, there was always one question that remained unanswered—

How did Ray do it?

How did he know exactly which crystal to use? How did he know where to place them, how to merge them?

It wasn't just skill. It wasn't just experience.

It was something else.

As Ryder remained silent, Ray continued, his voice steady, almost calculating.

He asked, his dark eyes watching Ryder carefully. "How do you think I merge them with the perfect weapon so they work effortlessly, even though I have no idea where the crystals originally come from?"

Ryder said nothing.

Because the truth was—he didn't have an answer.

Even he had thought about it before, but he had never been able to figure it out. Ray's ability had always been a mystery.

Ray exhaled slightly, his fingers absentmindedly tracing over a faint crack on the cave wall. "I can see things others can't," he said finally. "I see things that even the person themselves doesn't know they're thinking. It's like… staring into the reflections of their mind, into the corners they don't even realize exist."

His voice dropped slightly, his gaze darkening.

"And trust me when I say this, Ryder…" He paused, letting the weight of his words settle in the air.

"That kid carries more evil in his heart than everyone on this island combined."

Ryder's fingers twitched slightly, but his expression remained neutral. He had known Nate for a long time now. He had seen him fight, seen him struggle, seen him protect those who couldn't protect themselves. Was Ray really trying to tell him that everything he knew about Nate was a lie?

Ray, watching the conflicted expression on Ryder's face, continued.

"Everyone on this island has their moments of cruelty," he said, his tone softer now. "It's the island's effect on them—the way it warps their emotions, the way it pushes them toward violence. We've all felt it. We've all acted on it."

He glanced toward the exit of the cave, where the remnants of Nate's lightning still flickered faintly against the darkened walls.

"But for Nate… it's different."

Ryder clenched his jaw, his arms crossing over his chest.

"What do you mean, different?"

Ray tilted his head slightly. "For him, evil isn't something that was forced onto him by this island," he said quietly. "It's in his nature. He was molded by it."

The words sent a strange chill through Ryder's body, but he pushed the feeling away.

"So what?" Ryder finally asked, his voice low. "Are you saying that means Nate actually did it? That he killed that guy? That he—"

"—tried to rape Claire?" Ray finished, raising an eyebrow.

Ryder didn't respond, but the question lingered between them, thick in the air.

Ray exhaled slowly, shaking his head.

"No," he said simply. "That's not what I'm saying."

Ryder narrowed his eyes slightly. "Then what the hell are you saying?"

Ray turned his gaze back to him. Enjoy new adventures from My Virtual Library Empire

"What I'm saying," Ray said carefully, "is that even Nate himself doesn't know what's buried inside him."

He stepped closer, his expression unreadable.

"But as for the person responsible for framing him we need to find that out on our own."

---

The world blurred around Nate as he raced forward, his body pushed to its very limit. The frozen horizon—the sign he had been waiting for—was disappearing fast, fading into the distance like an illusion just beyond his reach. But he refused to let it slip away.

His feet barely touched the ground as he sprinted, his body feeling lighter with each step. The force of his movement was so immense that the very landscape behind him was being torn apart. Trees snapped, their trunks ripped from the earth as shockwaves pulsed outward. The dirt and debris scattered in his wake, carried away by the sheer pressure of his speed.

Then—lightning began to flicker around him.

At first, it was the same golden-white sparks he had always known, crackling and dancing along his skin as he surged forward. But then, something changed.

Darker sparks appeared.

They slithered through the air, intertwining with the golden currents. Unlike the lightning he had always wielded, these sparks felt denser, heavier… colder. And the more he ran, the more they grew, the black tendrils of electricity latching onto him, fusing with his own power.

Nate felt a rush of something—exhilaration.

The darker lightning felt different, but it also felt right. It made his body feel stronger, sharper, like his very cells were vibrating at a frequency beyond human comprehension. His heart pounded in his chest, his breath ragged, but instead of feeling exhausted, he felt like he was on the verge of breaking through some kind of invisible barrier.

A wild grin stretched across his face.

He let out a loud shout as he burned every ounce of energy in his body, pushing himself harder, faster—beyond anything he had ever done before.

And then—

His vision blurred.

For a split second, the world around him flickered, like reality itself had glitched.

And in the very next moment—

Everything changed.

The roar of the wind vanished. The forest disappeared. The fading horizon he had been chasing was nowhere in sight.

Instead, Nate found himself standing still.

His breath hitched as he looked around, his senses thrown into disarray. He was no longer running. He was no longer in the jungle.

He was in a place he had never seen before.

A dark passage stretched before him.

Lightning crackled in every direction, but it wasn't normal lightning. The jagged bolts that flashed around him weren't golden or white—they were black.

Pure darkness, infused with energy.

The walls of the tunnel seemed to be made of shifting black gas, moving like a living entity. The darkness twisted and curled, the electric surges dancing within it like veins of power running through some kind of colossal beast. The air was thick, suffocating yet charged with an overwhelming presence.

Nate's eyes narrowed.

Where the hell was he?

Had he crossed into another dimension?

His breathing slowed as he took a cautious step forward. The ground beneath his feet wasn't solid—it felt more like he was walking on compressed energy, something that existed between reality and illusion.

He turned his head slightly, watching as the black lightning pulsed in the distance, illuminating the corridor with brief flashes. The tunnel stretched forward, endless and unknown.

A strange sensation crawled up his spine.