New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

In Bastion City’s main plaza, which was situated just outside the inner walls, the flow of people coming in and out was constant. The teleporter, being located right in that plaza, was bringing people of every race in and out of Bastion City, like a river that never ended.

But the cubic structure with its purple stone columns suddenly turned to a bright red, sending the citizens into panic and the guards into a frenzy.

To the side, a squad captain was currently explaining the security measures in place on the teleporter to the new military councilman when the alarms started ringing in the plaza.

Declan looked at the captain, frowning from his underarm hold.

“What is happening, captain?”

The man swivelled his head, grabbing a passing guard.

“You! Tell me what’s going on! Why are the alarms ringing?!”

From where the men were, it was hard to see the teleporter structure, due to the many mercantile stalls in the way. But Declan was already bypassing all of them by raising his head at the top of his arm.

From there, he could see the portal structure flashing red, just as the soldier responded.

“Sir! There is an unregistered portal use! The mages estimate it will arrive in ten seconds!”

“Unregistered?! How is that even possible?! Wouldn’t our allies have told us if their portals were under attack?!”

The soldier broke from the captain’s grip, resuming his sprint toward the plaza center, where he joined his unit and prepared to intercept whoever, or whatever, left the portal in a few seconds.

When the portal finally flashed in repetition, and people walked out of it, they were immediately met with spears and swords, sending the refugees exiting the portal into a state of fear. From the small group, an old man pulled forward, standing in between the soldiers surrounding them and the refugees, his face a mask of anger.

“What is the meaning of this, boy?! Is this how you greet your visitors?”

“Identify yourselves!” The soldier at the front replied, keeping a straight face.

Aberon looked at him, half tempted to burn him to a crisp. But this was a soldier under Astaroth, and the fault should lie on him.

Turning around to scold the young man, Aberon noticed that Astaroth hadn’t come out of the portal yet. An eyebrow raised on Aberon’s face, as he wondered what had happened.

Hearing heavy footsteps come his way, Aberon turned to face the soldier again. That was when he saw the mountain-sized Undead, in full-plated armour.

Declan had just reached the portal, and he was looking at the newcomers. He instantly recognized their tattered clothes and scarred demeanour as that of refugees fleeing something.

So he stepped forward, waving at the soldiers to stand down.

Aberon, seeing this towering figure move forward with a more civilized approach, calmed down a bit.

Declan, with his head still under his arm, talked first.

“Sir. We mean no offence in our actions, but you used an unregistered portal to link to ours. If you can please identify yourselves, we can sort this out without any further roughness.”

Aberon looked at the towering Undead and could recognize a pressure not dissimilar to Kloud’s. But the words he spoke were words of peaceful resolution, not a threat, so Aberon had no reason to further provoke them.

He was also still weakened from going all out against Teraria, and couldn’t suddenly start fighting a city worth of soldiers.

“We came here from the Ash Elf kingdom. Your king was with us, but he has yet to pop out of the portal. I assume he was held back for a bit. We can wait here, under your supervision, for as long as you wish.”

Declan squinted from inside his helmet. The answer was not the one he had asked, and he disliked people beating around the bush.

“I will ask again. Please identify yourselves.”

This time, his tone was a lot firmer, taking Aberon back a bit.

Had he not made himself clear that he was with their king? But just as he was about to rebuke, and revert to his angry demeanour, the portal flashed another time, before going back to its normal purple colour.

Walking out from it, a confused Astaroth noticed all the soldiers around him and his friends. When he saw Declan at the forefront, he walked over to him.

“Declan! Glad you’re here. Listen, man, I know we are unannounced and all, but I didn’t think she would send us straight to the portal. I thought we would land somewhere inside the palace or in the room under it. Phoenix told me you were in charge of the military portion now, so can you have them stand down?”

Seeing the man step toward Councilman Declan, the soldiers stepped forward, spears raised, the edges of the spearheads gleaming in the sunlight under Astaroth’s chin. ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.

“Stop right there, sir! One step closer, and we will not hesitate to impale you!” the captain at Declan’s right barked out.

Astaroth’s face shifted to an ice-cold facade as he stared down at the man. But before he could open his mouth to speak, a resounding clap echoed on the plaza.

Declan’s hand had just struck the captain’s back of the head, and the captain was tumbling to the ground, unconscious.

“I’m sorry, Astaroth. You haven’t been here yet, so none of them know your face. Otherwise, how couldn’t they recognize their king?!”

Speaking that last phrase as loud as he could, Declan put his head back in place, before smacking his fist on his chest and doing a short curtsy, to push the point across even more.

“Greetings, Your Highness Astaroth!”

When the soldiers saw Declan act, they finally realized their wrongdoing. The ones at the forefront, whose spears were up against the Ash Elf, had their faces pale as they retracted their spears.

In a united motion, all the soldiers in the plaza suddenly kneeled, shouting out, “Greetings, Your Highness Astaroth!”

Astaroth’s face went back to normal, as he saw everyone kneeling. He felt butterflies in his stomach, as he had never been given this much respect at once.

Getting closer to Declan, he whispered from the side.

“Please, make them stand up again. This is making me uncomfortable.”

Declan snorted before standing straight.

“Alright, you maggots! Get everything back to normal! People are waiting to use the portal!”

A resounding, “Yes, Sir!” echoed in the plaza, before the soldiers scattered, getting the populace circulating again.

Meanwhile, Declan motioned for Astaroth to follow him.

Astaroth did the same to the refugees, and the delegation strolled out of there quickly, reaching the inner city in minutes, before making their way to the palace.

Soon enough, all of them were in a large room on the outskirts of the palace tree interior.