New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth nodded his head before stepping toward the woman. As he did, so did all the players behind him, as well as Phoenix and Rodney.

The guards surrounding them suddenly drew their weapons, pointing them at the players.

Instantly, spells were primed, and weapons were drawn on both sides.

"Woah woah woah woah!" Astaroth shouted, raising his hands toward both sides.

The woman before Astaroth looked at him with a serious face.

"I'm afraid your troops will have to stay here. We will allow the queen and your commander to accompany you, but no more."

Astaroth frowned at her.

"Couldn't you have just told us so? It would have been better than just raising your weapons on them, no?"

The woman nodded her head with an apologetic look.

"I am sorry, King Astaroth. I had expected you above most would understand the need to keep combat-ready troops away from the inside of a royal establishment. Your men can be brought to a separate building to wait under our supervision. But they cannot accompany you."

Astaroth nodded, already feeling the exasperation climbing inside him.

'It's almost like they want to pull power plays on us. This is already becoming troublesome.'

The players lowered their weapons first, also killing the spells that were primed in the casters' hands, staves or wands, followed by the guards. The tension stayed elevated, but at least there was no risk of immediate confrontation.

'This is going to be a long day…' Astaroth thought.

***

Away from Themiscus, on a boat headed to the dark continent, another player was taking in the sights, his face displaying a small smile. It had been a while since emotions could be seen on his face.

Chronos was just starting to reconnect with his more humane nature. His psyche still worked in a very monotonous and logical way, but his emotions were slowly returning to him.

To his side, on the wooden railing of the sailing ship, a cat was seated. To most, this cat looked black, but to Chronos, the proper colours of its pelt could be observed.

The purplish, green, and pink hues of its fur were dancing around as usual, around its body, looking like an aurora. This was a sight that would have made a lot of people curious, and not in a safe way.

This was why Nebulae, after a long discussion with Chronos, had elected to form an illusion around itself to appear like a regular cat. Of course, the illusion could fool most people, but divinely attuned folks or powerful magic users would right through it.

But people of such reaches would usually know better than to poke around a being that looked out of this world. Especially one that exuded such a level of divine energy.

Chronos had expected the trip to be much quicker, with their access to a teleporter, but apparently, theirs was not connected to any city on the dark continent. So they had to go the traditional way.

This was why they were now in their current situation.

"How beneath a majestic creature like myself to be taking such a barbaric and primitive way of transportation! Why is it that no one from this 'dark continent' has connected portals to this continent? Are they this backward that they can't offer such a basic service?!" hissed Nebulae.

This was the third day of their travels across the vast seas that separated the two continents, and Nebulae, being the cat that he was, was not enjoying this mode of transportation. He had been complaining since day one, but today was especially bad.

Chronos might have been disconnected from most of his emotions, but he was not above being annoyed at the constant tirades.

"Nebulae. Please stop this complaining. It is getting heavy on my mind, and I can't stand it much more. I agreed to follow you because you seemed reasonable and sophisticated. But you have not shown those traits since we have embarked."

The cat looked at the Fey player with a venomous gaze before shutting its mouth. But not before some low-voiced grumbling.

They were still on Khalor's trail, even though Chronos was almost certain the undead player was no longer there. He had read online reports that the undead drake that was so often seen with him had landed back in Bastion City on the second day of their trip on the ocean.

But he wasn't going to say this to Nebulae.

Since he had been travelling with the cat, the constant tapping into the web of time from the little bugger had allowed Chronos to grasp how the web could work for him a lot better. He wasn't at a point where he could read the threads that well, but he had started to glimpse into them willingly, instead of coincidentally.

Unfortunately, even if he could tap into them to see in time, he hadn't been able to tell what part of it he read, and he could glimpse a few seconds of his own accord. The only time he saw more was when the web deemed he should see more.

But in time, Chronos was certain the web would obey him much more. For now, however, he was still only its guest.

And since he wasn't in a hurry to find Khalor, given his progress while following the divine pain in his ass, he wouldn't tell him the player was no longer where they were going.

He only hoped they would reach land soon. At least on land, Nebulae seemed to act normal.

***

In the meantime, back on the light continent, the player in question, Khalor, was travelling across the skies, heading toward a secluded area in the northern mountain ranges. This was his next destination.

When Khalor had landed back in Bastion City, it had been to give codes and coordinates to a Demonoid capital portal, which he had gained as a reward from the Demonoid king, in the territory he had defended.

With these, it opened up a new player base for the less popular races of New Eden, and meant they could get a more diversified player base in Paragon. But he hadn't done this for no reason.

Khalor knew a few of the players on the dark continent were actually key to pushing back the invasion when it would begin full-on. And every player that could be useful, he would make sure, led back to Paragon.

It had become his goal. His mission.