New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Looking at her unconscious body, Alex sighed in annoyance.

"All that smack talk about being the one with power, being the champion of Gaius, and you still posed little of a challenge. Did you even take the time to learn how to play New Eden? Or did you rest on your laurels after he declared you the strongest?" he mumbled.

But it didn't matter.

Alex refused to stay a moment more in her presence. Looking at her irked him, and he feared what he might do if he stayed with her.

So, he dove into her pockets, pulled out her neuro-phone, and slapped it into her ear.

He pressed the button on the outside of it until it started dialling emergency services and then backed away.

"If you're lucky, someone will find you before something does. If not, well, I guess that's what fate had in store for you."

He then pulled out a piece of paper from his vest, along with a pen, and left a small note in her pocket.

"If you don't understand that message, I guess we'll meet again sooner than later…" he mumbled.

Looking at her with a sneer one last time, he melded with Asmodeus again, who was once more pulled out of the ring like it was nothing, and melded with without his consent.

'What the—Stop this!' Asmodeus growled in his mind.

But Alex couldn't care less about the demon and used his powers to teleport back to Montreal, leaving Constantine lying there, unconscious, in the middle of the plains of James Bay.

As he reappeared on his balcony, like nothing had happened, Alex was assaulted by a sense of vertigo.

"Woah…" he murmured, grabbing the balcony railing, before he could fall to his knees.

He felt incredibly weak right now, as if his mana had suddenly all drained away.

'I felt fine teleporting there earlier… Why the sudden exhaustion?' he wondered.

But in his head, all he heard was Asmodeus' suave laughter.

'Ha ha ha ha ha. What an imbecile you are. Did you think using my powers for jumps this big was free of cost? Look at you now. You can barely stand on your two feet.

'I guess I should thank you, though. With how strong this body is, and how weak your mind is right now, I can finally get a vessel and break this stupid seal on my soul. Ahh, to feel the wind on my horns. To hear the screams of my future victims.

'To finally taste the flesh of a mortal again. How I missed those feelings. Thanks to your stupidity, I will now get to feel them again.'

Alex's heart skipped a beat. He could feel Asmodeus reach into his mind, pushing him out of his own body and into his soul space.

And with how little mana he had, he could barely put up resistance at all. In mere moments, the takeover was accomplished.

Alex landed in his soul space, still hearing Asmodeus' voice around him.

"Thank you for the vessel, you dumb mortal. I will take good care of it and bathe in blood every day to keep its skin young and healthy, I swear. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

Alex gulped at the thought of who was closest to him right now.

But before the body took a single step, something else surged within Alex. Something much stronger than Asmodeus.

A being that was still inside the soul space, since all this time, and had kept quiet and still.

Sangis Oxym.

"Master," Sangis called out, with his two-toned voice.

Alex turned to look at the strange being next to him.

"For a moment, I forgot you were a thing…" Alex muttered.

"Shall I kick out the intruder, master?"

Alex looked at him with a grimace, the voice grating against his eardrums.

"Can you do that?" he asked, uncertain.

Sangis nodded, like there was nothing to it.

Outside the soul space, Asmodeus had just tried moving, only to realize that the body was not reacting to his will. He had felt the surge inside him, but given the nature of the surge, he had thought it was his powers de-sealing.

But, now that he couldn't move, he was wondering what was happening.

He reached inside and quickly noticed the two mana signatures across the body, as if two beings were occupying it, and he frowned.

"What the hell? Get out of my way, you nameless demon."

But the mana didn't budge, and the body still refused to move.

Inside the soul space, Alex was looking at the Nephilim, who was just staring at him.

"And you can do it without pushing me out or forcing control?" he asked, unsure he wanted to find out what the Nephilim would do if he controlled his body.

But Sangis only nodded in response.

Alex was weirded out about the unresponsiveness of the Nephilim. It was like trying to talk to an autistic person.

There was no way to know what they were thinking, and their lack of verbal activity only made their stares more uncomfortable.

"Then do it. What are you waiting for?" Alex said, looking at him insistently.

After another silent nod, the Nephilim closed his eyes for a second, extended his arm forward, hand open, and the next moment, Asmodeus reappeared in the soul space, throat in that hand, eyes wide.

"What the?" Asmodeus barely had time to say before Sangis' hand clenched his airways closed, and the words couldn't come out anymore.

Alex could tell that Sangis had no intention of letting go, and almost enjoyed seeing him choke out the demon like this. But he needed him alive.

His powers were too valuable.

"Don't kill him. I still need his powers. Come with me," Alex said, focusing his mind on Solomon's signet, and diving into it.

As he reopened his eyes, the cloudy textured ground replaced his empty white space, and the steps up a dais led to Solomon, who was sipping tea.

But the sudden feeling that something had entered his sacred space that didn't belong there interrupted his peace.

As his head snapped toward the intruder, he saw Alexander walking toward him, with in tow, Asmodeus swinging limply from another being's hand, practically passed out.

The demons inside the ring all appeared around Solomon, and he felt in danger for the first time in a long time. His hands lit up with white power.

Alex looked around, seeing all the demons appear at the drop of a hat for Solomon, and wondered why they were still so loyal to him, even though he was technically their new master.

Solomon was but an echo, in here, and in theory, the only reason he was still here at all was because he wanted to see Alex grow. But the seventy-two demons were still intensely loyal to him.

'Well, seventy-one,' Alex thought, looking at Asmodeus.

This was surprising, given that Asmodeus always looked like the most docile of them, serving Solomon like a butler. But he had broken his seal only moments ago, and Solomon could tell.

"What in the world happened here, and what is this abomination you brought with you?" Solomon asked, his hands shining like two miniature suns.

Alex looked at Solomon with a frown.

"You know what happened. I know you can sense the seal on Asmodeus is gone. I felt it break, and I didn't make it. Why don't we sit and talk?" Alex said, walking toward him still.

But Solomon raised a hand toward him.

"Stay right there, boy. Something is off with you, and I want to know what, before you get closer. Otherwise, I will consider you hostile."

Alex frowned at him.

When had Solomon become so aggressive?

What Alex didn't realize was that Solomon could feel the difference in Alex's soul. The path it had embarked on.

And with his aversion to gods, his reaction was only natural.

Very few people in their lifetime could reach a place where they could start ascension to godhood. Unless another god helped them.

What he feared from Alex wasn't his new nature. It was the possibility of his new backer, what his intentions were with him, and his knowledge.

Solomon wasn't only well versed in demons, after all.

"Solomon. It's just me. Alexander," Alex said, raising his hands in a show of peace.

"I know it's you. That's not what I asked. When did you start on that path, and who is backing you?" Solomon asked again, his hands now both pointed at Alex.

The Nephilim by Alex's side was starting to feel the pressure of the old man's power, and he was getting ready mentally to fight him, only waiting for his master's command.

And the demons all around them could tell, as they felt his power well up.

Even Solomon felt the building up mana and became wary of the abomination as well. If he had to fight a fledgling god and whatever that was, he wasn't sure his demons would be enough.

And what little remained of his powers here was far from enough, either.

"Come on, boy. Give me an answer I can work with," Solomon pleaded.

"I have no backer, Solomon… I don't need one."