New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth frowned as the combat stretched from seconds to minutes. He realized he was only on the defensive and couldn't do much more.

The more time passed, the closer Mel'gaz got to him. His incessant taunting was also annoying.

"Come on, mortal! Give me something more than just a barrier to play with! All this power at your disposal, and you hide behind walls! Don't be a coward!"

Astaroth figured he could fight him mano-a-mano if he wanted to. But then, would he be able to win?

Right now, his best bet was buying time.

***

Back over the hill, almost a mile away, Phoenix had finally reached an area where the pulses of demonic Aether no longer reached. But she was devastated.

"Can I really do nothing? This can't be right…"

It repugned her to be pushed out of the equation like this. Even if she knew she would get stronger, in time, it annoyed her that two players who were weaker than her were unaffected by the pulses.

It felt like a slap to her face. Something of a, 'You haven't reached this level yet.'

She worked her brain and thought hard on possibilities infinite. But she couldn't think of a way to push back the Aether that would assault her as soon as she walked into range again.

She was so far; she could not see or sense what was happening. She only found out about Astaroth's power-up through the party screen, which showed him suddenly in the millions of HP.

Phoenix loathed her situation. She needed to find a solution to her inability to help.

***

Waves of demonic foot soldiers constantly surrounded Jaxx and Chronos, back on the battlefield, and the situation wasn't ideal. Astaroth had commanded Shegror, Genie, and White to help them, but it was barely enough.

What few officers of the allied army remained were all preoccupied with their own foe. This had all the makings of a losing battle.

But no order of a retreat ever came.

Jaxx stopped near Chronos, who had a few demons hounding him, and cleared him of pursuers before asking, "Why are we still here?"

Chronos looked at him, his head tilted.

"This fight isn't lost yet. Reinforcements are coming."

Jaxx looked at him, question marks all over his face.

"What are you talking about? What reinforcements? Who could come at this point that would change anything to this losing battle?"

But Chronos only smiled mysteriously in response.

In his vision, seven threads in the time web were shining like lighthouses, as they threaded into the flow of time that led here. That was how he knew.

But they wouldn't get here for another half hour.

Of course, these were estimations. The ebb and flow of time was unpredictable and changed faster than anything else in the universe.

A single decision could alter it forever, in unimaginable ways.

It had already changed so many times in the last hour that he could barely keep up.

And right in front of his eyes, it changed again.

A pulse of mana washed over the battlefield, coming from the opposite direction from the portal. It made Astaroth frown.

Not because it was strange. But because he recognized its signature.

'How did Phoenix get a pulse of mana sense so far from herself? Did she unlock a new skill?'

Another washed over them again, and he received a notification.

It was a message.

'Astaroth, I found a way to help. Can you restrain the demon you are fighting for a few seconds?'

Astaroth grinned to himself.

'I'm not sure. But I will try. I'll tell you when I can pin him down.'

'No need. I'll see it,' she replied.

Astaroth suddenly had a reason to stop being on the defensive. If Phoenix insisted she could help, then he trusted her judgement.

As the demon colonel dived at him once again, Astaroth raised a barrier, but instead of away from him, he hugged it to his body. The demon saw this as an opportunity and dived right at him.

"Have you finally decided to fight me like a man?!" he howled, as his giant scimitar slashed at Astaroth.

Astaroth let the blade crash against his barrier, feeling it pass through it, before cutting into his armour.

Mel'gaz, seeing he was finally getting in striking range, had pumped more power into his strike, and the attack carved right through the barrier. But Astaroth's smile at being hit pulled up so many red flags in the demon's mind.

But before he could back away, barriers were already pushing into him, wrapping around him like a bubble.

"What are you doing?! Let me go and fight me like a true warrior!" the demon growled in rage.

But Astaroth snickered in response.

"I don't have to fight you on fair grounds, fiend. I was just gift-wrapping you for a friend."

"Huh? What are you even saying?! Rele—"

But as he shouted, he felt a burst of magic erupting far away, and coming toward him. Mel'gaz's face grew pale.

He immediately put all his power into breaking free from the barriers restraining him. It took him less than two seconds.

But as the barriers shattered, he felt his body lurch to a stop. Time seemed to have stopped around him.

'What is going on?!' he shouted inside his mind.

Chronos was looking straight at him, sweating bullets as holding on to the time thread of an entity so much more powerful than he was straining. But he wasn't done.

He reached out toward the direction of the magic, burst and pulled on the air.

A wave of power left his body, expanding like a bubble around him, and everyone caught inside suddenly stopped moving. Swords halted, spells stood still, and people became statues.

Astaroth was affected by this too, but he could see it wasn't a full stop. His heightened perception allowed him to see objects still moving.

Like the massive flaming spear coming at the demon, moving ever so slightly.

That was also why he knew the spear wouldn't be strong enough to even threaten its target. But he could fix that.

Astaroth willed his mana to change to Aether, and commanded it to fill up the flaming spear. He watched, his body still barely moving, as the spear grew in size a thousandfold.

But another issue cropped up.

The demon could move out of the strike zone before it hit as soon as the time slow ended.

He needed to remedy that.

'Guess I'll take one for the team…'