Meet Eric

Walking through the carnivorous plants nearby Eric could not help but wonder why they were not attacking them.

"Why aren't they attacking?", Eric asked.

"What? Oh the plants. It's because of me. We are under some kind of symbiotic relationship. Cool right?"

On hearing what he had said, Eric could not help but ask himself if this guy was really human. Through out his time on new Earth he had never come across anyone like this, heck Ren who wanted Eric to worship him was not capable of doing something like this.

"Where are we going to exactly?", Eric observed the environment carefully.

"We are going to my hideout. There we are going to meet my partner", Dante explained. "Though we have to talk about a few things though."

"Okay go ahead."

"Okay first of all I have to mention that we haven't actually being gathering survivors. Technically I am starting that out with you", Dante giggled afterwards causing Eric to shiver a bit.

"Okay. Anything else?", Eric asked hoping that the next would not be as bad as the one he had just heard.

"Lastly uhhh, my partner really hates Ren a lot so whatever she does please don't take it personally."

"Okay, I think I kinda understand", Eric said as they finally reached the destination point.

As Dante entered the area, he was greeted by the sight of Serena sitting on a rock thinking intensely about something. On approaching her, her attention was quickly drawn to him.

"What the heck Dante! You got me worried. Where were you the whole time? I hope you aren't hurt", Serena stood up asking a barrage of questions which he couldn't answer because of the lack of space to do so.

Dante chuckled from this and smiled widely. This caused Serena to open her eyes wide in astonishment. Not too long ago he was moody and didn't seem to have any hope of moving on, however now he seemed like he was totally different. He had more life in him and he seemed to be over the terrible news he had heard before.

"What happened? Why are you so happy all of a sudden?", Serena asked him filled curiosity.

"It's a long story."

At that moment Serena had realized that there was someone else in their presence. She was so focused on Dante that she did not know he was there. Looking at the blonde haired man, Serena's rage had built up within her before she dashed towards him quickly. She grabbed the collar of his shirt before slamming him hard on the floor. Eric shouted in pain as he felt the current rush through his whole body.

"Who are you!? Why are you here!?"

"Serena stop! I bought him here", Dante said causing her to turn her attention to him.

Serena could not believe what she was hearing. He had brought someone back with him from the woods? So much for no surprises. She quickly turned her attention back to Eric before checking his hand area. Just then she had found what she was looking for.

"Why did you bring him along with you, he is clearly one of Ren's underlings", Serena showed him the mark on his wrist.

Serena had explained to him in the past that Ren usually marked people he had saved with Nano Lites. This mark came out in the form of a crown shaped tattoo.

"I am aware of that. When I saw him, he was in the process of being fed to carnivorous plants. Apparently he had rejected Ren's offer to serve under him."

"What!? Don't tell me you believe that!? For all we know he could have been put up to this to spy on us", Serena said as she removed her gun and pointed it at his face.

"Serena stop! He won't betray us, trust me. I finally know what I have to do. I have to gather survivors, I have to protect them from Ren. I can't do that if you keep on pointing a gun at their faces", Dante explained.

Upon hearing this, Serena let Eric go before getting up to her feet and staring at him.

"I hope you know what you are doing."

"Trust me. Besides if he was sent here to spy on us I will handle him myself", Dante spoke in an intimidating tone as he walked up to Eric.

Just at that moment, Serena could have sworn that she felt something off about him. It was as if some kind of ominous aura had began to emit from him. While from Eric's perspective everything was clear. For a short moment he had seen Dante's eyes turn red accompanied by the same ominous feeling Serena had felt. At that moment he couldn't really tell if Dante was trying to help him or not.

"Here, you will need this. It will make sure that the carnivorous plants don't attack you", Dante said as he handed him a Nano brace. "Never take it off when you are around them."

Eric collected it before quickly putting it on. After that Dante walked over to an open space before creating three different houses there. Eric who saw this was dumbfounded as he could not understand what was going on. Serena in an attempt to cover it up told him those houses were already there but were just cloaked with some kind device. Lucky for her, he bought ever bit of it.

Dante shared each of the houses equally before proceeding to go to his own place. He was kinda tried of sleeping on the floor all the time and he was pretty sure Serena felt the same way. Luckily the toll of creating things that already existed in the world before it changed had reduced drastically enabling him to create more of them.

Serena who was outside with Eric, stared at him with an expression he knew all too well, an expression that meant that she did not trust him a bit. Even though he didn't like how he was treated right now, he believed it was way better than serving Ren as his king. Though Eric had to admit, he was surprised that his partner was Serena, one of the strongest people on new Earth at the moment.