New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Recounting the entire fight, leaving no detail out, Guo took his time. He even included his personal thoughts about their opponent, painting a vivid picture of how the demon's second form was dreadfully powerful.

David listened with as much attention as Jack, especially hearing the details of the demon's second form. He knew from those details that the demon had fully released.

But when they reached the part where the demon cut off Jonathan's arm, Jack's anger could be felt in the limousine. His silence was heavy and filled with coldness.

But as Guo kept talking, the transformation of Alex also became somewhat of a mystery.

"Wait," David interrupted. "You are telling me Alex defeated a fully released demon? With no holy power? That's impossible."

Guo nodded once.

"Even with what I was taught growing up, only two things can harm a demon. Specialized weapons, or holy energy. I have never heard of a third one before."

David raised a hand.

"There is a third one. But I doubt Alex could have pulled it off."

Jack asked the question on everyone's mind.

"What is the third way?"

"He would have to demonize. Demons do a lot of infighting, and throughout their invasion, we saw many cases of demons killing other demons for their share of the humans they killed."

Guo frowned.

"I have never heard of a human being possessed and going back to normal. I assumed he was using part of his power from before."

"Unless he found a soul with holy essence, it wouldn't have done much. You say he beheaded him by choking him with his hand. Only another demon could do that and make it permanent."

Thinking back, Guo remembered something the demon said that made no sense then.

"The demon did call him a king of hell. But I thought it was only a transformation of his."

David paused for a second. In his previous run of New Eden, a few players had contracted demons to fight for them against the invaders. But the cases where that didn't backfire were rare.

"You said he summoned another creature, right?" David asked.

Guo nodded.

"Yes. He called it Zepar. It was a small demonic-looking creature, but it didn't give off the same energy as demons. So I discarded it as a monster from New Eden."

David rapidly brought out his phone. He went onto the net, trying to find references to a creature named Zepar.

It didn't take him much time to find a page that described Zepar as a demon of old. The legends he found tied the demon to another seventy-one demons, all under the control of a single man.

King Solomon.

But David couldn't believe it was the same Zepar.

"Everything I find about Zepar points to him being a demon. But something doesn't add up. They say here that Zepar has long since been under the control of King Solomon, the Great Sage."

"And what doesn't add up?" Jack asked, becoming impatient.

The old man was still waiting to hear about the condition of his grandson.

"Well, Solomon's legacy is cursed. Last time, the player who found it, died mysteriously. And any other player that took the legacy item followed in his footsteps not long after equipping it."

"Guo," Jack interrupted. "Finish your report before this goes any further. You can resume this discussion after."

Guo bowed his head.

"I'm sorry, sir. After Mr. Leduc had changed form, he killed the demon in seconds, severing its head from its body with his hand. But Jonathan was still bleeding out and would have lasted only a few seconds. But the other creature he summoned, Zepar, said he could maybe fix him."

"Just maybe? You gambled with my grandson's safety?"

"Sir. Mr. Leduc saved your grandson's life. No one was gambling. If not for his intervention, we would have all died. And we did not force Jonathan to fight the demon. He did so by choice."

The other occupants of the limousine could hear Jack's teeth grinding on each other.

"We shall come back to this another time, when we are alone. For now, finish your report."

Nodding, Guo kept talking.

"Mr. Leduc did something, and he merged with the creature Zepar, before using some kind of magic to reattach Jonathan's arm to his body, seemingly reversing time on it, making it as if the demon had never severed it in the first place."

"Alexander never showed such a power before this. We tested his powers before, in the facility. Did he gain new abilities?"

David was the one to answer.

"As time goes by, the abilities we have inside New Eden will start showing more and more here. But I've never seen him use those abilities either in New Eden. Have you, Kary?"

Kary shook her head.

"It was new to me, too," she answered.

"Then it's something he recently acquired. But that hardly makes sense. The newer the power, the longer it should take to show on this side."

Jack looked pensively at Alexander.

"I guess we will have to ask him when he wakes up. And new tests will need to be performed. Speaking of which, Mr. Magnus. I would like for you to go through these same tests, if possible. We are trying to determine how your bodies are adapting to this new energy form"

David waved his hand dismissively.

"Only if you can make the tests before the update is done. Because I will be almost always inside New Eden after that."

"I shall arrange it so."

Through all their talking, the limousine had finally reached the airport from which the private plane would be taking off. Stopping the car directly at the hangar bay of the jet, the driver spoke through the limo's intercom.

"We have arrived at the airport, sir."

Jack looked at the other occupants.

"Seems like we will finish this discussion on the plane."

As everyone got off, two men were loading the luggage inside the plane already, and they were the ones to carry Alexander inside the plane, strapping him in a seat, so he wouldn't fall when the plane took off.

Kary and David gawked at the plane they were about to board.

It was a nice, streamlined Learjet, with the dark blue company logo painted on the side. This was a rich man's transportation method.

Jack chuckled at their reaction.

"Wait till you see inside."

Kary and David swallowed audibly, walking up to the small staircase that led inside the airplane.

'Wow,' was their only thought as they boarded it.