New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Geminae felt the powerful pulse of mana leaving David, but didn't react.

He came for help to contain a dangerous being. If the mortal thought he needed an army to do so, then he would let him summon said army.

The ground rumbled violently as David's shadow suddenly expanded in all directions, hands piercing out of the ground. The hands quickly turned to arms and then to upper bodies.

A mix of skeletons, zombies, ghouls, as well as spiritual creatures, like ghosts and wraiths, popped out of the earth like in old zombie movies.

David's skin paled by the second, both because his mana was drastically drained and because his undead appearance transpired a bit more as he used a skill from his legacy.

Geminae didn't budge a single muscle as the army grew monstrously. He just stood and waited.

The ground stopped rumbling after thirty seconds, and over two hundred undead of all kinds already surrounded David. But Geminae was still unfazed.

He also quickly understood why the ground seemed so disturbed and loose. The mortal had most likely been practising this skill here.

"Are you done preparing?" he asked.

David nodded.

"Good. In that case, I will relinquish my control of Alexander's body and go wake him up. If the body changes to the other one, hold him here. I don't need to tell you why."

Geminae lowered his head and closed his eyes as he said that, pulling his presence back from Alex's mind.

He hurriedly returned to the soul space, where the demon thrashed about, crying that he wanted control, and attacked it.

His goal wasn't to defeat him but to busy him. If he could keep the demon's mind from taking control, then that would give him time to wake up Alex.

Of course, this meant splitting his attention and power. But it would work as long as the demon stayed focused on him.

The two immediately devolved into combat, as the demon took it as a personal offence to get attacked by Geminae. Even though they couldn't kill each other, it didn't mean they couldn't hurt each other a lot.

It was high time Angel Boy was taught a lesson; the demon thought with a grin.

It was immediately apparent that the demon was winning this fight, as his speed, power, and magic were suddenly stronger than Geminae's.

"Rhakhakha! How much of your power did you need to take control of his body? You are so weak! If killing you wouldn't kill me, I would wipe you out right here and right now!" the imp hollered as hits rained on Geminae.

But he didn't respond.

His focus needed to stay razor sharp if he wanted to fool the demon.

He couldn't fall prey to taunting and pull away his other half, which was inside Alex's mind, trying to reach into his dreams.

'Come on. Why is his mind so hard to penetrate? This is way too difficult!' Geminae complained inwardly.

Alex's mind was like a steel shell, and he couldn't enter his dreams. It was annoyingly resistant.

Geminae was sure that this wouldn't be an issue if he could use his full power. But he couldn't pull away from the soul space completely, either.

As his body kept receiving a thrashing, Geminae forced himself to focus more on entering Alex's mind, which made him even weaker against the demon.

In a matter of seconds, the demon grasped at this weakness and decided he had played enough.

With a burst of mana, the demon poured everything he had into attacking Geminae, at the risk of killing him, all to teach him a lesson.

Geminae had to pull back his power abruptly and focus on defending. But it was too little too late.

His body was in terrible shape, and his power was mostly expended. When the demon's punch hit his crossed arms, both of them broke, and the punch continued to his face.

The impact sent him flying into the soul space's wall, and he crumpled to the ground.

And he couldn't get up anymore.

The demon laughed and basked in this victory momentarily, panting in fatigue.

He had used almost all his power to break this arrogant divine being, and now he was free to do what he wanted.

Concentrating on the body, he tried taking over. But his power was so meek that it would take him a while just to take control and shift bodies.

In this time, Geminae decided to use what remained of his power to break into Alex's mind. He had to.

The demon saw Geminae slump over and thought he had passed out, making him happy with himself. But he needed to concentrate.

'With you out and the other asleep, I can do whatever I want!' he thought, focusing on expanding his influence over Alexander's body.

Outside the soul space, David was waiting for something to happen.

He had watched Alexander's body quickly go from angel- looking to normal; the wings disappearing and the glow of his skin rescinding. Then, he had slumped to the ground, unconscious.

He could see his chest rise, so he knew he was alive. But he still stayed on his guard.

When Alex's skin suddenly turned red and the first of his bones popped, David knew the demon was taking over.

David quickly ordered his wraiths to fly through Alex's body to sap away the mana from his cells in an attempt to slow the process down. He could fight the demon, but it would be better if there were no fight at all.

Fights against demons were risky. He couldn't afford to hold back.

And that meant it would be a life-and-death battle. And David refused to kill Alex if he could stop it.

The convulsions of his body slowed down, their frequency lowering, but he could still see horns growing out of his head.

At this pace, the body would have changed entirely in less than a minute.

"Come on, Alex. Fight this. Wake up, dude…" David mumbled.

And inside Alex's mind, Geminae was thinking the same thing.

He had managed to pierce into Alex's mind, but his presence was so weak that he wasn't sure Alex could hear his voice at all.

He was shouting at him with all his might.

"WAKE UP! THE DEMON IS TRYING TO POSSESS YOUR BODY! WAKE UP!!!"

But it fell over deaf ears.

'Did I fail? How many more will die to this wretched thing before he wakes up… How much blood has to get on my hands…' he wondered.