New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

In another one of these black domes, Phoenix looked at their new opponents.

Flying in front of her, thirty meters off the ground, was a winged demon whose dark purple skin almost made it appear invisible on the black backdrop. On its head, two long and curved horns, with between them, a flicker of purple flames.

The curvaceous body pointed to a demoness, scantily dressed, with what one could barely call threads, covering her erect nipples. But the massive bulge in the demoness' pants contradicted this female appearance.

Under them, Violette and the others were standing before an array of twenty-four demons, who all looked more formidable than the next to them.

With a quick scan, Phoenix determined they were a platoon of shock troops. And she had the officer before her.

"The demon lord ordered me to take care of you in any way I see fit. Normally I would tear you to shreds, in his name. But looking at you, mmm. I might make you into a slave instead," the demoness said, licking her lips with salacious hunger.

Phoenix felt a shiver run up her spine, regardless of her burning body.

"I don't know if that's a compliment, or insult, given your hard-to-grasp gender…" Phoenix replied, her eyes showing disgust.

The demoness tilted her head, making a fake pout.

"Oh, darling. You hurt my feelings… Can't you tell I'm a woman, just like you? Pay no attention to my large engine. I will take all the womanly pleasures while I fuck your brains out."

Another shiver ran up Phoenix's spine.

She glanced down, noticing that both sides were still in a standoff. The demons were most likely waiting for orders, while her friends were trying to gauge out their foes.

"I'll have to politely decline, darling. I'm already taken," Phoenix said sarcastically.

As Phoenix said those words, a tingle ran down her spine, and she swung out behind her.

The demoness, which had been in front of her just now, was jumping backward, dodging the swing, as the image of her that had been talking to Phoenix phased away.

Phoenix immediately fell on high alert.

'Illusions? But it was so real…'

The demoness giggled.

"Oh, you are so hot. Literally. I wish I could extinguish those flames of yours and taste your flesh. Won't you accept my proposal? Your lover can join. I have plenty of stamina for two, you know?"

Phoenix's eyes turned to slits.

"Are you just going to try to flirt me to death? Or are we going to fight?"

"Aww. You're no fun…" the demoness pouted.

"Fine. I guess I can just make you mine once I beat you to an inch of your life. Men! Slaughter the pawns!" she shouted.

And with a guttural roar, the twenty-four demons on the ground lunged at Violette and the rest of the party.

***

Astaroth finished his fight in an instant after the captain had died in his hands, but the surrounding dome stayed strong.

"Hmm. Let's see how far this stretches," he mumbled to himself.

He flew directly up, until he felt a certain resistance in his advance, and knew he had reached the confines of the dome. But he wasn't able to push through.

"Do I have to cut through it? Can I even do that?"

Changing the Ad Astra's form once more, he shaped it into a greatsword, before swinging it in a wide arc upward, trying to slash the dome apart. But aside from the resistance on his blade, nothing else happened.

He coated his blade with mana next, hopeful it would change the result.

He felt more resistance than before and even saw the dome quiver. But nothing more.

"Alright, fine. I'll pour more power into it. Freaking whoever did this. Did you need to make them so tough?" he grumbled.

Reaching into himself, Astaroth converted mana into Aether and started coating it over his weapon. It took more than he had anticipated before he felt the shell of Aether solidify.

But he could feel his weapon radiate with power. He only wondered why he didn't receive a notification of a new spell created, or mastery level gained.

'Is the dungeon blocking the basic system notifications?' he wondered.

But he could muse on this later. For now, his priority was getting out of here.

Swinging his greatsword again, he felt the weapon collide with the darkness, like hitting a solid wall. But the wall quickly gave way to his blade, splitting up and giving him a crack to escape through.

Astaroth immediately unsummoned his companions, before diving through the crack. There was no telling how long it would stay open, so he preferred taking no chances.

As he escaped the dome, the magic cancelled out, as it felt nothing within itself anymore. This made Astaroth grunt in displeasure.

'Really? Now that I'm out, you vanish? Fuck you…' he mentally grumbled.

But now that he was out, he noticed a lot more of these domes had formed on the ground, as well as similar spheres in the sky.

'Whoever did this wants to separate our powerful fighters from our regular troops…' he assumed, seeing the foot soldiers on the ground.

He couldn't see officers bearing the colours of his side anywhere. Due to this, the army on his side was in disarray.

Astaroth looked at the situation and came up with two options. He could dive to the ground, giving the foot soldiers much-needed help in clearing the demons out. But would they follow his orders or even respect him for helping?

Or he could start infiltrating the other bubbles and domes, and get the mortal army's echelons back into play. But how many foot soldiers would die while he did this?

Both options came with downsides that couldn't be understated. And if he made the wrong decision, how many would die because of him?

Astaroth wanted to think about it, but time was not on his side.

"Fuck it. The powerhouses are more urgent to get into play. I'm sorry, random soldiers…"

Astaroth flew toward another dome, slamming into its side. He made rapid work of cutting himself an entrance and got ready to go in.

But before he did, he sent a message in the party chat. He knew Phoenix wouldn't see it until they cleared their foe and got out of their trap.

Astaroth trusted her, though. And the rest of them at different levels.

He knew they would figure something out. Phoenix always did.

After sending his message, he dove into this new closed dome.

'Let's see who we have here.'