New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The large wings unfurled from around Geminae, pushing away the mercs who had started moving toward him again.

Geminae looked around the room and mentally clicked his tongue.

'Mortals… Always so violent. If I weren't tied to this one, I would eradicate these fools for ruffling my feathers…' he thought.

He was about to jump up and fly out of there when a handfull of wet coughs caught his attention.

Slowly walking toward the sound, Geminae's feet were crunching on broken glass and pieces of furniture as he walked past a desk and found the source.

In a puddle of his own blood, one man was looking at him with fear as death was creeping up on him. His eyes already had trouble staying open.

Geminae clicked his tongue, this time audibly, before looking up at the speaker the voice had come out of again.

"This is the result of your violent action. You almost killed one of your own. Have you no remorse? Have you no conscience?"

Mr. Gu was just as disappointed with the result of the turret fire. But one person was a loss he was willing to take if it had stopped the thing controlling Alexander's body.

Sadly, it hadn't even scratched him.

Geminae knelt next to the man, whose life was rapidly leaving him, and put his hand over the wound.

The mercenaries jumped back toward him in an attempt to save the human, but a bright golden wall appeared between them and it.

And try as they might, they couldn't even leave a mark on it.

"I will save your life. But not as an act of mercy. Your kind doesn't deserve mercy. I do it because that is what he would ask of me. Thank him when he regains control," Geminae said to the dying man before a warmth spread through him.

He felt the blood siphon out of his lungs, and the hole in his left lung closed as his breathing returned to normal. Then, the surrounding blood crawled back into his body, and the wounds on his chest and back, closed, leaving him like new.

Once this was done, Geminae looked at the man, nodding in satisfaction, before exploding upward, crashing through the ceilings one after another, before erupting outside through a layer of dirt and asphalt.

Geminae didn't slow down as he changed his direction, twirling his wings beautifully and heading toward the east.

His mind was connected to Alex's so he could share his memories.

And, right now, his number one priority was to find someone who might be capable of holding back the demon if it ripped control away from him.

In Alexander's mind, only one person may stand a chance right now. And that was David Magnus.

He reached the area where the bunker had been built, with freshly replanted trees covering the disturbed earth, and stopped in midair.

"I have a feeling you know I'm here. Come out. I need your help, David Magnus, Champion of Hades."

Inside the bunker, almost directly under where Geminae had stopped, David was in his office, staring blankly at the screen before him.

On it, an image of a flying angel-like being hovering over his bunker.

He had received the alarm, which forcibly disconnected him from New Eden, as per his settings, and now he was looking at the being.

"This is Alexander's body… But something isn't right. Alex would never call me by my full name, let alone add that title to it. Whoever this is, it's powerful…" he mumbled, grabbing his chest.

With his high mana senses, he could feel the waves of mana coming from it.

No, that wasn't mana. Something more powerful.

More… primal.

"Aether…" David whispered, realizing the gravity of the situation.

It was terrible if a being with Aether was on this side of the veil.

The pure Aether it released into the atmosphere could, and most likely would, accelerate the deterioration of the veil, pushing forward the day of convergence.

He needed that thing gone.

He played back the part of its arrival, with sound, and his eyes became sharp.

"I can't let it wander, whatever it wants," David said, resolute.

He walked to the exit built into his new office and took the elevator up.

A hidden latch opened up on the ground above, and the small elevator stopped just above the ground.

Geminae saw this and dropped to the ground a few meters away from the square contraption, waiting for the person he could sense inside.

The doors opened and out walked David, his bident by his side, and his shadow squirming uncontrollably.

"I don't want to fight, David Magnus. I came here for your help."

David looked at it warily before responding.

"Who are you, and where is Alexander?" he asked, keeping his weapon at the ready.

"Who I am is irrelevant right now. Alex is sleeping inside his mind, and I can't wake him up. But that is not why I am here."

David's brow rose.

'Asleep inside his mind? What happened?' he wondered.

"Then tell me the reason," he said.

"I am not alone in this body. And the other being inside it wants control. If it gets it, the horrors it will inflict upon this world will be of untold proportions. I need you to make sure it doesn't leave this place until I can wake Alexander. He believes you have the strength to hold it back."

David's gaze hardened.

Another being inside one's soul… Only two things could do this.

Gods and demons.

"I care not how you came to share Alex's body, for now. But I do want to know your intentions and why I shouldn't purge the both of you out of him," David said, pointing his bident forward at the angel-like being.

Geminae looked at him and smiled.

'Just like he depicts him. Cautious to a fault and confident in his strength. Even though he can't win a fight against me or the demon, he's still confident in his chances. A good ally indeed,' he thought.

"My intentions are simply to keep the demon at bay so it doesn't sully the body I am stuck in. Nothing more, nothing less. Can you help me?"

David didn't like that answer. But there were too many unknown factors in play.

He had to play it safe.

"Legacy Skill; Shadow Army, Awaken," he whispered.

Immediately, the ground started rumbling.