New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

A searing pain assaulted Astaroth at two places simultaneously. His head and his chest.

A feeling of pressure suddenly assaulted his mind, like someone suddenly jammed it into a vise, with someone slowly turning the handle. The pressure on his head constantly mounting was almost making him froth at the mouth already.

As for the pain in his chest, he took it as karmic payback, for every time he melded with a new demon. Solomon’s hand was jabbed deep inside his chest, and he could feel the old man taking hold of his soul in his hand like it had actual physical properties.

But no blood was coming from the edges of the wound, and it almost made Astaroth panic, until he remembered they were technically inside a mind-space.

Astaroth had no idea why Solomon was man-handling his soul, but the pain it caused was excruciating.

He kept screaming and wailing in pain, his voice slowly turning hoarse from all the yelling. But Solomon seemed unperturbed by this and had his gaze locked on his own actions.

He could see inside Astaroth and was looking at the soul through preternatural means. Solomon was currently looking at the golden cage he had seen once when invading Astaroth’s mind.

This cage, made of pure golden energy, was laced with runic inscriptions, in a tongue no one could read in the mortal realm. This was the written language of the gods.

Of course, Solomon had long since learned this language, as it was the same one he used to inscribe on his signet, to trap and bend demons to his will. He was currently trying to break the inscriptions, to free all the locked soul power away inside Astaroth’s soul, but it was proving to be very complicated. .

‘This Aether signature… There’s no mistaking it. This was Gaius’ doing. But why did he lock away this child’s soul? What does he gain by doing so?’

These were all questions for later, though. He needed to focus on his task.

Focusing his mind on the cage, Solomon found himself diving into Astaroth’s soul-space, where he stood before the massive golden cage and its imprisoned soul power.

The strength of Astaroth’s soul, which was far from being in mortal proportions, once again astounded him, but he focused on the cage.

Grabbing at the bars, he injected his Aether inside, lighting the runes, one by one, in a specific order. As the runes lit up, until the bar looked like a metal rod with Christmas lights on it, Solomon started sweating.

‘This seal is abnormally strong for a mortal’s soul. What was Gaius thinking? This could have crippled the boy…’

Once all the runes on this one bar were lit up, it suddenly shattered, creating a small gap in the seal. Solomon smiled, as he felt proud of foiling the obnoxious god’s plans.

But something happened that Solomon hadn’t expected. The soul behind the bars suddenly pushed against the cage, violently rocking it.

A sliver of its power escaped through the crack, pushing Solomon outside the soul-space on its way out. Solomon’s body was sent flying away from Astaroth, alerting Amon, who was on standby next to them.

But as Amon tried reacting, pulling out his sword, the snap of fingers resounded in the area, as he vanished from his place. Solomon raised his head, glancing at Astaroth, who was glowing like a miniature sun.

His silhouette showed two wings of light behind his back, closely resembling the wings of a fairy, as the young man’s traits also suddenly looked more delicate.

The aura he was projecting right now was far beyond anything that Astaroth could, and Solomon was bewildered.

Astaroth, or rather the entity that stood in his place, looked at Solomon, smiling warmly, before evanescing out of the mental-space.

‘What in the nine hells was that?!’

In the outside world, Astaroth, who had been zoned out, eyes closed, standing near Arborea, suddenly opened his eyes. Arborea, who had been worried about his sudden lack of responsiveness, felt relieved to see him move again.

But the feeling of relief was fleeting, as she sensed the soul inside the boy was not that of Astaroth. The stag looked sternly at Astaroth’s body.

“Who are you?”

Astaroth’s voice, which was normally more in the Tenor range, suddenly sounded like a Soprano woman’s voice.

“Worry not, child of the trees. The boy is safe and sound. I will only be using his body temporarily. In exchange, I will then solve your predicament.”

Arborea’s face seemed to frown, as far as a stag could frown, as Astaroth disappeared from before her.

Astaroth’s body reappeared in a starless void, surrounded by the cold vacuum of space. A pearly white energy radiated out of his skin, protecting him from the cold and pressure before he turned around.

Behind him, there was a massive door, on which runes, not so unsimilar as the ones Solomon had just seen, scrawled on every inch of the material the door was made of.

Astaroth, or whoever was controlling his body, laid hands on the door, releasing a pulse of Aether into it, as the symbols lit up instantly, before vanishing. The door slammed open, and behind it, a gigantic woman, with fairy wings, dressed in a white robe, floated, rolled on herself, seemingly asleep.

The woman’s enormous body suddenly shrank to the size of a bead, before zooming into Astaroth’s body, where it melted into his soul.

With a snide smile, Astaroth reformed the door and the seal that had been on it, before vanishing from there. But the repercussions to this action would soon be found out by the one that had sealed the woman there in the first place.

Gaius, who was lazing about, while watching a pool of water, where both the world of New Eden and Earth were displayed, was yawning in boredom.

That was, until a pulse of Aether, followed by a sense of dread, overcame him.

He snapped up to his feet, his eyes going wide on his otherwise featureless face.

“No. It can’t be.”

He opened up a glowing gold portal before him, stepped through it, and reappeared before the same large door. Aposing his hand on it, he could peer behind the sealed door.

“No… No! Noooooo!!!!!!!!”

The universe shook in response to his shout, as natural disasters hit both worlds, in every corner of them, on various scales.

“She can’t be free. She mustn’t!”

Back in New Eden, Astaroth reappeared before Arborea. But this time, Arborea could feel Astaroth inside his body.

As he opened his eyes in a daze, feeling like he was missing something, or like some time had passed without him noticing. He looked at the worried Arborea before him, before realizing he was glowing in a pearly white glow.

“What the heck?”

Opening his status window, Astaroth’s jaw dropped.

“What the fuck?!” he exclaimed.