Horseman’s structure amazed Ray; even the eye, as the only alive thing, was made out of sand, and with any damage, it restored itself easily, but somewhere inside of it, something had to control it. The question was, what?

Existing as a liquid was weird as always to Ray, but he continued to roam throughout its body; to his surprise, it didn’t use any of its magic to attack him.

"It’s in here! Or else it would have attacked." His senses searched for any life form or any magic, but all that he found was sand. Not even anything that resembled a living organ or a limb!

On the outside, it seemed that the nova flames were surrounding its body, yet inside there was no effect of it visible.

"What is this thing?" He asked the parasite, and as he expected, he received no answer.

Deciding to do everything himself, his power expanded throughout its structure. Having four legs was hard at first, but Ray soon learned how to move with them.

After a few meters something finally attacked his mind; it was weak, but it only wanted to oppose Ray from controlling the dull. "This is so familiar..." Ray thought to himself while the horse started to run.

As time passed, the attacker seemed to hide more and let Ray do whatever he wanted; its own life was more important. And with nothing to slow him down, Ray charged toward Aria.

Yet his mind was focused on how to kill the horseman. "It’s only not alive; I can say that for sure, but what is it? Some sort of will or a super advanced type of AI?" The other thing on his mind irritated him too: "What does its presence feel so familiar?"

Creatures of a planet usually grew abilities to be the fittest on that planet. Ray already knew from the parasite’s persistent grip on life, however those creatures were, they were not in abundance like earth.

"The same planet from parasite..." Suddenly many things made sense about how it worked.

With a confident tone, he asked the other person, "It’s a parasite, like, isn’t it?"

Receiving no answer once more gave more confidence to Ray that his theory was true. "Now, how should I kill it and get the hell out of Aria’s flames?"

Being in close touch with Katarina, Ray knew more than usual about mind domains; his focus was on his defense against his friend, yet he had learned a few tricks on how to attack too.

His mind scanned every grain of sand, looking for the simplest thoughts. Here and there there were thin lines of thoughts; following their trail, Ray finally caught a glimpse of the horseman’s true form, but before he could do anything, it ran.

"A flower... It’s just like you." The game of chase and run continued for some time; a few times Ray was close as a second to take control of it, but the alien was too slippery.

After a few more times, his strategy changed: "It can’t process more complicated thoughts, so this one should work." Again Ray searched for it, yet the thoughts visible in his mind were that he wanted the parasite inside of him to come to life once more.

This time around, it came for Ray. With a single string Ray connected his mind to it. "That immortal is after your kin inside of my body; as its thrall, I must protect it at all costs." Adding more care to his persuasion, he continued, "Let’s take care of those two first, and I will let you kill me afterwards."

His words didn’t have a single lie in them. Seeing his honesty, the flower moved closer. "Use all your magic to find an opening on her for me..." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Pushing out all the magic it had stored, waves of magic surged from the horseman’s body. Upon their impact with their contact with the nova magic, both magics started to nullify each other, causing explosive reactions anywhere they collided.

Aria observed the sudden change; a hunch told her that she should just stop and do nothing. Ray’s words still were in her mind: "An alliance wouldn’t be that bad if I get the upper hand."

To reach Aria, a long road awaited them, and the horse seemed to push itself to the limits to help Ray. Its magic drained faster and faster as its blast grew more fierce, destroying more of the nova clouds.

"Something is off; from the beginning their target was me even though others are stronger than me on paper, and now it’s going crazy just to protect the parasite. Is it some sort of king or god in their religion?" Ray’s curiosity was piqued, but he decided not to dive too deep; the answers were going to reveal themselves soon.

The flower told Ray that the area in front of them is clear, but before it could complete the massage, Ray’s thoughts attacked it from all sides; in just seconds its whole system was torn apart.

"You could have killed me if you had stayed alive!" Twisting his words didn’t mean he had lied, just simply not telling the whole truth, and with luck on his side, the flower was not as intelligent as its level.

The first round is over.

The next round starts in 24 hours.

Number of participants from Earth: 4

Number of participants from Pohn: 467598

As the sands scattered, Ray’s figure came out of it. Even with his system not working, he received the massage. The first round had taken over 5 hours, and one thing led to another for Ray to reach the point that seemed impossible at first sight.

With no weapon at hand, he started to fly over to Aria; she still seemed ready to attack. "Wanna talk?"

Immortal’s eyes shone with purple light. "What will you give me as insurance?"

With no hesitation, Ray said, "You can control my body, killing me anytime you want."