New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Solomon's face contorted in confusion. There hadn't been a new god ascending on his own in… Well, in forever.

"What do you mean, you don't need one? Did you make a deal with them to leave you alone in exchange for your help later?" Solomon asked, trying to find rhyme and reason.

Alex sighed at his fumbling.

"No, Solomon. I don't need one because I've consumed part of one… I skipped steps, according to Aravelle. And if I can fill in all the other requirements for ascension, I'll ascend with no need for their help."

Solomon frowned at him.

"Boy. What you are telling me makes no sense… Consumed part of a god? How would you even do that? No god would ever willingly give up a part of their essence to a mortal, much less one so far from the realm of legends."

Alex didn't want to waste time explaining this to him, but he wasn't sure he had a choice with the demons around oozing hostility.

"Let's sit down and talk, shall we?" he asked the old man.

"Dispel that thing, and we can talk," Solomon said, pointing at Sangis.

Alex looked at Sangis before passing his gaze over the seventy-one demons surrounding him and the Nephilim.

"What about them? Are you going to dispel them?" Alex asked, his gaze hardening as it landed back on Solomon.

"I didn't summon them. They came to my aid when I was threatened," Solomon replied.

Not only was that a lie, but Alex had yet to threaten Solomon at all. Which meant he felt threatened by his presence alone.

Alex knew Solomon was powerful since he was holding seventy-two demons bound under his thumb, even after who knew how long he had been dead. But he wondered something.

"I have a question for you, Solomon."

The old man looked at him with a narrowing guess.

"Do you remember who is wearing the signet?" Alex asked, smirking at him.

With a snap of his fingers, sixty-three of the demons disappeared, all getting sucked back into the signet ring, before Alex walked to Sangis.

"Beat them into submission, but don't kill or consume any of them. They still have their uses."

Sangis grinned devilishly, before touching the ring with the tip of his finger, and disappearing into it as well.

Solomon was astounded at the ease with which Alexander had regained control of these demons. But he wondered why the boy had left out the nine kings. He knew they were the strongest.

Wouldn't it have been safer for him to lock them away as well?

"I can hear the questions knocking around in your head, Solomon. Look, I don't want to fight you. I never have, and I never will. You are one of the few people I can trust in this fucked up world.

"But if you can't trust me, the words coming out of my mouth, and the actions I take to prove I'm telling the truth, then I have no choice but to prove it to you."

Solomon looked at him with a wary gaze.

"And how, pray tell, do you intend to prove to me you aren't some god's lackey?" Solomon asked, as his stance lowered a bit.

Alex smiled at him.

"Because the other gods would have killed these nine demon kings on sight. I won't. Instead, I'll make them willingly choose to serve me and leave you alone. If you still want to fight after that, then I guess I will have no choice…"

Asmodeus, who was still on the ground next to him, catching his breath, snickered.

"And what makes you think we would willingly follow a boy who's barely out of diapers instead of Solomon?" he mocked.

Alex turned his head toward him and grinned.

"When I created Sangis, I found out something interesting that I could do. And you are left with a choice: Follow me as nine, or become one, and submit by force," Alex said, leaning to tap his head.

Asmodeus looked at the motion, and his eyes widened after the hand touched him. But before he could utter a single word, his body vanished, replaced by a single ball of black flickering flames.

Solomon recognized this, and his eyes went wide as well.

"Have you lost your mind?! Manipulating souls?! That is not something any mortal should do! It's a grave sin against nature and Psyche!" Solomon howled, his face turning to a mask of anger.

"Psyche is dead, Solomon. I felt her die when her fragment inside, which I consumed, finally lost its tether to her soul," Alex replied, his gaze going back to a severe one.

"You consumed a fragment of Psyche's soul? This makes no sense. Why would you even have that inside you still? I saw her leave your body!" Solomon rebuked.

Alex had no time to explain the entire situation to Solomon.

The demons left around him had no intention of listening, either. The first one to move toward Alex was Paimon.

But instead of attacking him, she dashed at him and embraced him in a hug, screeching in his ear.

"Eeeee! I can finally bed a god! I've been wanting to try that for so long! Yes! I'll bend to your will! Hell, I'll bend whatever way you like!" she exclaimed, trying to drop a kiss on his lips.

Alex pushed her face away, grunting in displeasure.

"Why am I not surprised you are the first one to accept…" he mumbled, holding her at arm's length as she tried grabbing his junk.

"Alright, enough, Paimon. Settle down," he ordered, as he felt the seal on her soul vanish and the former bind back to his.

With her under him, he already had one of the nine kings of hell settled. Only eight to go.

'Well, seven, if I consider that one already cannot choose for himself,' Alex thought, as he looked at the black flames flickering next to him.

The others looked at Paimon with disgust, and she simply pulled her tongue out at them.

Solomon looked at the other demon kings and swallowed nervously. He knew them very well.

He had known them for centuries. Although they were loyal to him, they always kept their demonic sides to themselves.

Which meant they were loyal to one thing, first and foremost.

Power.

And Alex was displaying power like never before.

Controlling souls directly? Turning a demon king into his soul form with a single touch?

Even he couldn't boast of being capable of such a thing. This was indeed in the domain of the goddess of souls.

He panicked as he saw a second king walk toward Alex with a slow, measured gait.

"I heard much from you from Gäap. He says you have a lot of potential as a warrior, without counting your potential as a mage. What are your intentions, human? What do you intend to do with our power and yours once you become all-powerful?" Bael asked.

Alex smiled at him.

"It's the only logical thing. If Gaius wants to mess with the lives of millions, nay, billions of people across two worlds, then there is only one thing to do. Once I can, I'm bringing the fight to him," Alex replied, his grin widening.

Solomon instantly knew he had lost a second demon king when the seal on his soul snapped. Ever since he was dead, the old man had always known that the kings only stayed with him because they wanted to.

The seals on them were much too weak after his death. They could break out whenever they wanted.

They only stayed because new kings had risen after they were taken from hell. And the thought of returning there and reestablishing their dominion sounded like a hassle.

This was especially true since there was apparently a new power, stronger than the kings, calling himself the Demon Lord, and they refused to go from under one being to under another.

At least, Solomon treated them right.

But Alex had offered Bael something he had always wanted: a chance to duke it out with the supposed strongest beings in the universe.

Gods.

Alex felt the tether forming between him and Bael, and he smiled at him.

Bael quietly walked over to his side, looking at the other kings with expectations. He hadn't fought against them in a while, and he was itching to throw down.

Another demon king walked forward, silently, walking directly next to Alex, as the tether to his soul switched from Solomon's signet to Alex's.

Solomon looked at him in disbelief.

"Belial… I would have never thought you to betray me… You were the only king to join me willingly. What changed?"

Belial looked at Solomon with a sad smile.

"Old man, the time when you were what made my immortality interesting is long past. I've seen what is to come. I knew this moment would come to pass, way before you met the boy.

"The seals didn't weaken because you died. I weakened them in preparation for this day. I have seen his future the moment I saw yours. And his is a bright one. Much more than yours ever was. No hard feelings, okay?"