New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The pages in Twinxie’s book suddenly shuffled, stopping about midway through the book. A powerful yellow glow erupted from the book, the ground shaking more and more, until the sand surface rose.

Next to Jaxx, the earth tore and grew, until a humanoid-looking pile of sand, rock, and dirt stood ten meters up from the ground, with the size of a mining excavator. A low rumble came out from what Jaxx could only assume was its mouth, shaking his clothes with its bassy echoes.

The Imps, unbothered by the appearance of an additional threat, continued charging at them, their snickering getting louder.

Jaxx lowered his stance, ready to meet them in combat, until he saw something from the corner of his eye that struck him as odd.

The earthen construct, which he assumed was an elemental, rolled on itself, compacting into a ball shape, about six meters high.

Jaxx wondered why it was doing this until it started rolling forward. And with every foot it travelled, it gained speed, almost like it was rolling downhill.

It soon enough became an unstoppable force, colliding with the incoming enemies, crushing them like they were ants, as it kept moving.

Turning his head to look at Twinxie, he saw the maniacal grin on her face as her extended hand followed the ball of earth and stone, seemingly guiding it.

‘Is everyone in this guild mad? Where are they getting all these powerful skills?!’ Jaxx wondered.

Then again, who was he to spit on power? He turned around, hell-bent on not losing out in this show of force.

Roaring to the red skies of the demon plane, Jaxx charged into the fray, his axe swinging around him like the blades of a blender. The battlefield devolved into screams of pain, and pieces of imps flying, landing on the trail of meat paste left behind by ‘Pulvi’, the ball of death.

Soon enough, Peaceful Grove followed through the portal, with Chronos, Food Goblin and Violette tagging behind. Violette stayed at the portal’s mouth, making sure nothing could come through while they were distracted.

The Imps didn’t seem flight-capable, which was a good thing, since none of them were inclined to aerial combat.

Peaceful Grove started covering the ground around the portal into sharp thorny vines, making the deep red sand-like ground turn into a dark shade of green. This ensured them a modicum of safety, in case some Imp slipped past them.

She then went into combat, making all kinds of plants grow across the immense battlefield, which started attacking everything close to them with nature’s fury.

From giant flytraps to mushrooms with mycelium dragging the Imps into its gills, where the poor demons disappeared without a trace, the battlefield turned into the most dangerous forest-scape ever known to them.

Chronos wasn’t much of a battle mage and didn’t kill monsters. But they felt his aid all across the battle, be it by monsters suddenly jerking to a stop out of nowhere, before striking at the back of Jaxx, or by the giant ball of stone suddenly accelerating.

His support provided much-needed help to Jaxx, who was constantly assaulted by dozens of Imps at a time. He may have a decent sense for battle, but there was a limit to what one’s eyes and ears could do to help sense around them.

Luckily for Jaxx, his legacy skill had a long duration. Without the damage resistance he gained from it, he would have already fallen, of that he was certain.

With the occasional healing winds washing over him, he was hanging on.

Jaxx gained a renewed sense of respect for Astaroth, who had dived into this hellscape alone and came back looking pristine. Jaxx knew he wasn’t looking pristine right now.

Although the pain from the attacks was barely equivalent to a scratch, he felt them many times over, across his entire body, sometimes even accompanied by a burning sensation, as poison started coursing through him.

But the power of his legacy cancelled out the effects faster than their intended durations, and he stayed healthy enough to keep fighting. And fight he did, with the rage of a hundred Vikings. ．

***

When the Elven mage completed his spell, all six of the players touching him suddenly felt their minds lurch out of their bodies, as everything turned white before the scene changed again.

From a white flash, the scene went to a dark place, with a large white ball floating in the distance. They could feel themselves growing closer to the white ball, which was rapidly turning out to be larger than they had expected.

Around this white sun-like orb of light, six more smaller ones orbited.

It was like looking at a small solar system, with six planets orbiting along the same path. But to Astaroth, the vision was unique.

He recognized the souls for what they were, as he often introspected on his own. And he could see different colours to them than just a blinding white.

The auras of colour, wrapped around the white orbs, indicated which one belonged to which dragon. He could also see the creeping corruption in their core, trying to expand.

He already knew once the dragons became fully corrupted, the mage would suffer the same fate. The tether between him and his familiars was too thick to prevent it.

And by the looks of it, he hadn’t lied when he said tearing them away would hurt him as well.

These were soul-binding tethers. Damage to one meant damage to both.

The party was suddenly separated, each of them being absorbed into a different orb, disappearing within.

‘This will be a monumental challenge for all of them. I hope they are ok.’

As he merged into the soul space of the orb with a black aura, Astaroth closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, he was in a bog, thigh-deep in murky waters. Lifting his feet, he could feel the soggy ground tug at his foot, trying to keep it from rising.

But Astaroth didn’t have to endure this impediment.

With a burst of mana, the water around his feet exploded outward, before he Sky Step’d out of slimy sand, reaching three meters up instantly. From the air, he melded with Morpheus, and flapped his wings hard, to stay above the tree line.

And from up there, he could asses the situation instantly.

‘This is bad. I need to move fast before this dragon is completely gone.’