New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Back in the Bastion, Phoenix was completing preparations for the time skip. When Astaroth had left, she thought about an issue that would arise when they were gone, but didn’t want to bother him about it.

Who would rule their new kingdom while they were gone?

She thought about it for a while, doing other things in the meantime, until she thought of a solution. What if they put the guardian in charge?

Leon had just as much right as them to rule, seeing as he was the kingdom’s new guardian, and who would try to fight a surrogate king in the Mythic grade?

But she knew he was lazy and prone to violence, since he was a beast man. As she wondered how she could keep him in check, another idea came to her.

She wasn’t sure it would work, but trying wouldn’t hurt anyone. But she would need to wait until nightfall.

***

Every player around the world of New Eden was hurrying to complete unfinished quests, or amassing reputation points as fast as they could. Some were simply farming levels as quickly as they could, through dungeons or monster bashing.

Players were even willing to pay their hard-earned gold to guilds, to gain temporary access to their dungeons. .

This made many guilds focus on boosting their earnings, as they publicized the availability of their dungeons, and even offered mentorships or dungeon guides.

This extra income would most likely go a long way after the update. They did not know what the update would change, or if it would only unlock new zones, but they would rather be flush with cash than stuck penniless in a new version of the game.

A lot of speculations were circulating on the web about how big an update it needed to be for Evo-Gaming to lock the game for a week. People were speculating on the changes.

Some theories went as farfetched as a post-apocalyptic New Eden after the update, and some others, tamer, thought there could be a new continent or world to explore.

A few rumours of a time skip were airing here and there among those, but it was impossible to know what was coming, since the company was extremely tight-lipped about it.

Everyone went about their plans, expecting the worst, for that was the best way to be prepared. But somewhere in New Eden, a single Fey man wasn’t aware of all this happening.

Up on a flying mountain, inside a small cave where time acted on its whims, this man was sitting on a rock pillar, cross-legged, watching the small waterfall flow in reverse.

He watched as the winds blew into the cave, only to be sucked out again, leaving trace mana of it, as well as oxygen to breathe.

He listened to the sound of water drops of crystalline, falling on the stoney ground, with their sound echoing in the cave, playing the weirdest, but most soothing melody.

His eyes were taking in all this information, his mana sense refining to detect all these unnatural phenomena, his eyes seeing more and more of a hidden network with every passing hour.

He didn’t know how long he had been sitting on this rock. His body had long since stopped aching, and his sense of time was as skewed as it could ever be, with all the elements acting on a loop around him.

His mentor, Tyr, was standing at the edge of the cavern, seemingly unaffected by the gusts of wind rushing in and out around him. He was looking down, towards the land far below, unseeable to human eyes.

But his eyes were far from human. The golden iris in their center belied his true nature, even if the abnormal Chronos had yet to understand his nature.

In his eyes, he could see every thread of time and every sway of the web it created. And as he watched, he could see the web become thicker and thicker every hour.

‘He’s about to step into my domain again. I wonder what he wants this time?’

Turning around, Tyr smiled at Chronos.

“Keep practicing your senses, young Fey. I have someone to meet. I will be right back.”

Chronos nodded absent-mindedly.

Tyr suddenly vanished from the edge of the cavern, leaving Chronos alone. As he disappeared, a thin veil of gold and blue threads enveloped the cavern, sealing it shut from prying eyes.

Tyr reappeared at the top of the mountain he was living in. On this mountain, a plateau was built, with a Viking-style hut in the center, as well as a massive throne in front of it.

Tyr suddenly enlarged manifolds, becoming ten meters high, his arms suddenly thick with muscle, all traces of his advanced age, gone.

He sat on the throne, leaning on his hand, and waited.

An hour went by, with nothing happening, until a surge of Aether blasted at the edge of the plateau. A golden vortex opened up where the energy was blasting from, and out of it walked a tall and slim being.

This being had skin of golden light, and no facial features aside from two black, bottomless eyes. He floated forward, reaching a few meters from Tyr, before stopping his advance.

“Tyr. I require your services once more.”

His voice was like a buzz, like a high voltage current was modulating to create noise that mimicked words. Tyr disliked the sound of this being’s voice very much, but sucked it up.

“Gaius. I expect nothing less when you visit me. What is it this time? Should I rewind the clock for you to fix your mistakes once more?”

Energy buzzed around the golden being, as to reflect the anger it was feeling.

“Do not speak my name so casually. You know very well the difference in our statuses, and how you should address me, Tyr, God of Time.”

“I do not owe you that respect, Gaius. Even if your status to mortals is higher than mine, remember that I could always reverse time to where that was not the case. I have no obligation to call you anything other than your name.”

“You will call me God, as everyone else does!”

Pure golden Aether lashed out at Tyr, cutting superficial wounds on his body, which reverted to normal not a moment after. The buzzing Aether around Gaius intensified.

“Don’t lash out at me, Gaius. I am the oldest being in the universe. You cannot harm time. Anyway, let’s get past your little tantrum and go straight to your reason for visiting me.”

The self-proclaimed God simmered down just enough to talk in a more reasonable tone.

“I need you to advance time. Ten years, to be exact, and that in a few hours.”