New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The testing continued for the entire day, Alex constantly switching between his normal body with sealed mana, to regular, to Geminae's and the demon's bodies. With all this changing, he had expected to feel tired, but it never happened.

He really had acclimatized to these two bodies.

When the scientists declared the testing over, Alex requested one last test. This one was specially tailored to finding out how much control he had over his alter egos.

"I'll stay in this room, which I presume is the safest for everyone, and sleep here tonight. I don't think Kary can blame me for wanting this. I'm sure you all have a basic understanding of how these changes affect me."

The scientists didn't react, but Alex knew Jack was, from his office.

"I don't think Kary will mind me staying away for one more night if it means I can keep her safe. And New Eden can wait as well. I want to discover how much free rein sleeping leaves to my other selves…"

Jack sat back in his chair, grasping the significance of Alex's words. He finally understood how significant the changes were in Alexander.

He pressed a button on his keyboard, patching him into the room's speakers.

"If this allows us to judge how much restraint you can show, then I am all for it. But I will have guards at the ready outside the room. I hope you understand."

Alex waved his hand dismissively.

"Sure. Whatever makes you feel better. But I will need a bed."

"I'll have one brought to you," Jack's voice replied.

Alex went to the farthest spot in the room, relative to the door, and sat on the ground. He closed his eyes and waited.

He ultimately realized how bad things had seemed every time he was demonized. Even if he wanted to act normal when he was demonized, he could feel the difference in power between him and everyone else, and it made him want to smack them around.

The imp in his mind butted into his thoughts.

'It's our natural propensity to prove our strength. We see lessers, and we want to dominate them. Bend them to us. I haven't met other demons yet, But I can tell you that when we do, it won't be pretty…'

Alex raised an eyebrow.

'You can have normal conversations? How unexpected. I don't know if I should be proud of you or ask you to shut up?'

He heard the imp spit and cuss, but no words came out of him.

'In any case, we are going to have to work on that. If we have to share this body, you better learn to behave. I have some people I care about, and I don't want to look at them like peasants whenever I need to use your power.'

Alex knew he was asking the impossible of the little hellion, but he kept a sliver of hope.

He had this power now and didn't want to limit himself on how he used it. But if he couldn't even trust himself to use it, did he even have a choice?

The imp clicked its tongue in his head but didn't deign reply with words.

Alex's attention snapped to the door that was opening, and he saw three mercs bringing in a bed.

Well, calling it a bed was a stretch. They brought in a gurney.

One of them was pushing it while the other two stared at Alex.

Alex waved at them, making them jumpy as he waved his hand. This caused him to shake his head in disappointment.

"Chicken shits…" he murmured.

And one of them must have had a sharp sense of hearing because he suddenly shot at the ground before him.

"Whatcha say? Go ahead, repeat it."

Alex looked at him and grinned.

"You sure you wanna do this, man?" Alex asked, his canines stretching and his teeth sharpening before the merc's eyes.

But the other one standing guard put his hand on the guy's shoulder and shook his head.

"Don't. The boss said that we are not to provoke him. Too dangerous. Let's just get out."

The man looked at Alex with anger but obeyed the order.

Alex was almost disappointed at the result. He yearned to fight something.

But that would have to wait until he went back into New Eden. Until then, it was better just to calm down.

'I guess I inherited more traits from this damned demon than I wished for… I'll have to relearn a few techniques Aberon taught me to disconnect from all those emotions.'

Alex wasn't tired and was also sure it was still early in the evening, but he figured it was better to head to sleep straight away.

He hadn't eaten all day but didn't feel hungry, which was a bit strange to him, but he didn't consider this a downside.

It wouldn't be a loss if he could sustain himself on mana.

As he lay there on the gurney, waiting for sleep to take over him, he thought about the events since he woke up in the cave.

Finding bodies in that pile of rotting animal corpses, having to travel all the way back by his own means, almost killing a man in the middle of the James Bay.

A lot of things had happened in so little time. He wasn't sure how to process all this and wasn't even sure he wanted to.

For now, his mind seemed at peace with all that had happened, even though he was sure some of those missing human parts had ended up in his diet at some point or another.

It should have bothered him. It should have sent him reeling.

But he felt nothing about it.

His emotions were intact, making him wonder why he didn't even feel sad about the matter.

'Am I becoming a monster? Is my mind slowly slipping away from humanity?'

He fell asleep thinking of theories, each more absurd than the last.

He had ordered Geminae to force him awake if the demon ever tried to control his body while he slept, but only time would tell if he could trust the fragment of divinity.