New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

But instead of reaching Luna\'s soul fragment, he reached something else. Something much darker, but also much closer.

Since his last meld had been with Asmodeus, the power of the demon and the ring holding it back was closest to his soul the moment he logged out. And when he tried transcending the separation between the worlds, to reach Luna, he encountered the ring and its inhabitants instead.

Asmodeus was the first to answer the call, since they already shared a connection stronger than with the other demons, and melded with his master in an instant.

Alex could feel the power tugging at his mind, clearly too much for his current self, but the situation\'s direness overruled his own safety.

Letting Asmodeus inside his soul and mind, the surge in power was incomparable to melding with White. He felt the horns tear through his forehead, bleeding into his eyes.

He felt the canines in his mouth become slightly longer and sharper. When he opened his eyes, his sight was unlike his usual one, with everything monochromatic.

Only a few things currently had mana. He, the demon, Kary, Jonathan, Guo, and the sword in the latter\'s hand.

What he was seeing was something similar to his mana senses, where he could see every mana particle around him, and the colour associated with their element. Only, right now, he could see no other colour.

It was like the world was completely devoid of mana around him, and all he could see was the mana in the people near him. Then he realized, in New Eden, the colour was normal around him when he melded with Asmodeus.

\'Is it because New Eden is composed of mana, and our world isn\'t?\'

He flushed out the useless thoughts in his head and brought his full attention to the black demon.

But his mouth spoke before he could choose what to say.

"A minor demon like you dares cause a scene? In front of me? Your life will not be enough to compensate for the shame you are putting me through."

The voice doubling over his, much more profound and suave, he instantly recognized as Asmodeus.

\'Asmodeus, don\'t you dare control me or my words without my consent,\' Alex said in his mind.

\'I\'m sorry, Master. You are weaker here, and my thoughts transpired into words. I will be more careful.\'

Silently acknowledging that Asmodeus still respected their status, Alex locked his gaze on the demon.

"You have walked our world long enough. Now you die."

Alexander stepped forth, and the gap between him and the demon closed instantaneously. He grabbed the pudgy demon\'s throat and lifted him off the ground.

The demon swung his sword at Alex, but the blade stopped before it could contact his skin.

Alex\'s voice came out in double again.

"Don\'t you dare sully me with your disgusting hatred, your inferior slug!"

Alex cursed in his mind, as Asmodeus had spoken through his mouth again.

\'I really need to strengthen my soul here, so that doesn\'t happen again.\'

Looking the black demon in the eye, Alex crushed his throat in a swift squeeze, like squishing a bug. A spurt of purple blood exploded out of the beheaded demon, bathing Alex with it, making him look like a war god.

The blood was corrosive, and he could already feel it burning through his skin. But Asmodeus\' power allowed him to teleport and leave behind the ichor.

Reappearing next to Kary and the others, Alex grabbed the arm on the ground, which was already drained of all its blood. He focused on the ring that now adorned his finger.

Feeling inside, he reached out for another demon.

"Zepar, answer my call."

Feeling the power welling from the ring, Alexander knew he had heard his call. The short demon, with a thin frame, appeared next to him, his head already bowed low.

Zepar had grey skin, and a single horn on the left side of his head, making him look like a lesser demon. But his power was a giveaway to his actual standing in hell.

Physically weak, but incredibly shrewd, Zepar had an ability that made fighting him incredibly annoying.

"Master," Zepar said, his voice sounding like it was oscillating.

Undoing the meld with Asmodeus, a wave of fatigue hit Alexander. But his work wasn\'t done.

He had called Zepar, because their fight had taught him what powers Zepar held. The demon\'s ability to affect objects around him, and make the time go back for them, had been a tricky one during a fight.

He remembered trying to block the weak attacks of the demon, only to have his sword wove out of the way, going back to the position before he moved it. And the movement wasn\'t stoppable.

Alex had only beaten him when he figured that if the object being affected changed form before the movement was finished, he could break free from the effect.

But right now, he was more worried about if the effect could work on a severed limb.

"Zepar, could your ability reattach this arm to the boy?"

The demon opened his eyes, which were a deep blue with no iris, and looked at the arm.

"In theory, the arm would fall in the object category, since it is severed. But I don\'t know if I have enough power in this realm to perform such a spell."

Alex nodded.

"Don\'t worry about the power. I\'ll make sure you have enough juice. But for that, you\'ll have to surrender completely to me."

The demon lowered his head again, completely submissive.

"As you wish, Master."

Alex nodded, pressing his hand on the demon\'s chest, reaching in with his mind, and he yanked the soul out of the vessel. Zepar winced, but did not complain.

Alexander brought the vivid blue-ish white soul fragment to his chest, pushing it inside him. As the soul fragment merged with his soul, he felt the horn sprout from his head, this one smaller than Asmodeus\', and a small tail sprouted on his lower back.

When Alex opened his eyes, the same monochromatic vision appeared. In his hands, the severed arm still gave off a faint trace of mana.

Locking onto that, he summoned Zepar\'s powers, feeling the original state of the arm, and activating the power.

Jonathan\'s arm floated up, as the flesh around the cut grew back from its corroded state. It then flew to Jonathan\'s side, before the flesh there also went back to normal, as the arm reattached itself in place.

But the action did not soothe Jonathan. Feeling his already painful, burnt shoulder, reconnecting with its missing part, going through the pain process in reverse, the poor boy finally gave up and fainted.

But once the process was done, his arm was back to where it belonged, as good as new.

Alex nodded in satisfaction, releasing his meld as another wave of fatigue hit him like a truck. It was his turn to faint.

As he crashed to the ground, he wondered if he could go with David on their errand.

\'Whatever. It\'ll be his problem, not mine.\'