New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Inside New Eden, Genie was tracking through the forests around Bastion City, acclimating to her new domain. Astaroth had left her to herself after arriving in town, and she understood his responsibilities.

She was slowly finding where the breeding grounds of monsters were, and where the zone bosses roamed. She was mapping out the zone in her mind when she heard a whisper echo in her head.

The whisper was so faint, almost imperceptible, as it slipped through her mind. But she recognized the voice of her master.

"Genie, answer my call. I need you…"

Focusing on his mana signature, she tried finding where he was, to bound out through their blood pact, but couldn't lock in on him. It was like he wasn't on the same plane of existence.

Genie focused harder, infusing mana into their bond, trying to compensate for the intangible resistance between them. She poured almost half her mana inside this Aetheric tether before she felt the familiar sensation of being pulled through the void between them.

***

On the other side of this, Alexander was focusing intently on the connection on his side and poured as much mana as he could muster, without collapsing, into the little blood puddle.

When it suddenly started boiling and expanding, he took a step back, wondering what was happening. But as he did, he felt the link between him and Genie strengthen rapidly.

White's voice resounded in his head.

'You have succeeded, Master. I can feel Genie crossing through the planes. She is coming!'

As he finished saying that, the blood puddle exploded upward, scattering droplets many feet off the ground before they went still. The droplets floated there, above the floor, at eye level, before suddenly shaking again.

As they shuddered, Alex felt them supercharge with mana, before agglomerating together, to form an orb of blood the size of a volleyball.

After balling up, the blood suddenly flattened out in the air, forming a large oval sheet, resembling very much the portals of demonic energy in New Eden. And from this flat surface, a large white wolf emerged, the blood not clinging to its fur as crossed through, before landing on the concrete floor.

Genie looked around at these unfamiliar sights, taking in the stone-like walls and floors before her eyes landed on a familiar man before her. This man smelled like her master, and his mana was the same, but his face was different.

He was human.

Kary, from the side, was stunned. Inside New Eden, a wolf the size of Genie was already something of a rare occurrence.

But on Earth, it was just not something that happened.

Genie reached into her bond with her master, asking where he was.

"I'm right in front of you, goofball! Is a different skin colour and shorter ears all it takes to confuse you?" he answered out loud.

Genie tilted her head a bit, recognizing even her master's voice coming from the man, although he looked different. But she brushed the confusion aside.

She already knew her master came from a different world. It wasn't so strange that his appearance differed in this other world.

Leaning her head before this human, Genie closed her eyes and reached out to her master's soul, pinging it with mana. She felt the mana echo in the human in front of her, and it confirmed her thoughts.

'Master Astaroth,' she called out in her mind.

"We can better acquaint ourselves later, Genie. I need your help first."

The wolf straightened up, already scanning the surrounding room, quickly finding the reason he needed help.

Behind a blazing wall of flames that Kary was holding up, at the cost of feeling herself rapidly weaken, a small army of dog-sized rats, and one humongous, angry queen rat were staring, ready to pounce back into the fray.

Genie already lowered her posture, growling menacingly at the rat queen.

From the other side of the flame wall, the queen could already sense the enormous threat that had just appeared. A flash of uncertainty passed through her eyes, but reminding herself of the bodies of her children, strewn around the room, burnt and shredded to pieces, her rage brushed the feeling away.

She screeched loudly, threateningly, at the gigantic wolf on the other side.

Genie answered the threat with a threatening howl of her own, which reverberated across the underground tunnels, even making its way faintly to the surface. Some people walking near manholes and metro airways heard the faint howl, wondering if they had hallucinated, before going back about their day.

Kary exhausted the last of her mana, causing the flame wall to sputter out of existence, as the ground where it was coming up from was still white hot, with flames flickering from it. As she collapsed to her ass, Alex caught her, before gently seating her next to a ramshackle cabin's wall.

"You did great. Thank you. When this is all over, how about we go get ourselves treated to a relaxing day at the spa? You deserved it," Alex said, smiling.

Kary smiled back, her eyes already shutting from exhaustion.

"That sounds great. I'll hold you up on that…" she muttered, as she fell unconscious.

Seeing her fall sound asleep, Alex made sure she wouldn't fall to the side and got back up. Already, a skeleton was walking over to stand guard next to the vulnerable woman.

Alexander walked over to Genie and David. To his surprise, the rat queen had not charged back in, yet, probably still gauging her new opponent, Genie.

Alex nodded in thanks to David, who returned the nod.

Walking slightly in front of them, Alex stretched his tired body. He could still go for a few more minutes of intense fighting, but he knew that tomorrow would be a bitch.

"Alright, you fucking hamster. How about we end this, here and now?"

The rat queen heard his words and seemed to understand them, as she screeched in rage once more.

*SCREEEEE!*

And once again, all hell broke loose.