New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Alex reached the penthouse again in a few minutes, carrying Kary in his arms like it was nothing, and landed on the balcony, this time not falling prey to an opportunist demon.

As he put Kary down, she slid her hands on her shirt, brushing the wrinkles of flying at high speed away, before turning around and giving Alex a light punch in the stomach.

"You could have warned me, you know?" she complained, pouting.

Alex chuckled at her childish reaction before embracing her tightly.

"The journalist was running toward us, and I didn't want to deal with them. I'll leave that to Mr. Gu and Jack. So, I reacted with little thought. I'm sorry," he pleaded, kissing her on the neck.

Kary shivered a bit, in pleasure, before grabbing his ass with both hands.

"For that ass? I'd forgive murder," she joked.

Alex nervously laughed, as, technically, he had already committed murder… But that wasn't a subject he wanted to discuss.

Walking into their home, Alex walked over to the fridge, his stomach growling in hunger.

"Are you still hungry? You just ate that massive sandwich I made you…" Kary asked, frowning.

"I don't know what to tell you… I'm guessing using all that mana has made me hungry again. Probably since barely any mana is left in the air, and my body has to generate its own. It's siphoning the energy from somewhere."

Kary looked thoughtful for a moment before she figured he was probably right. And then, her mind snapped back to a memory, and she smiled at him.

"Come to think of it, I still can't do that as fast as you. Don't you have a solution for me?" she asked, eyeing him with a blatant stare.

He looked at her with a moment of confusion before realizing what she meant.

"Uh… Can we do that tomorrow? I feel exhausted, and I still have one last stop to do for the day. We can rest a little before it, as it has to be night, anyway."

Kary frowned at his words.

"What do you mean, one more stop? And why are you saying we? Do you need me there?"

Alex smirked at her.

"First, you say I shouldn't leave you alone anymore, and now you want me to go alone to a dangerous place? Make up your mind, love, he he."

Kary pouted again, not happy about his mocking. But she returned to smiling quickly, as she was glad he at least hadn't thought about ditching her in the middle of the night.

"Then, could you tell me where we are going and what we have to do there?" she asked, smiling warmly at him as she sat at the kitchen island.

Alex nodded, grabbing a bag of baby carrots to snack on, while he explained to her what he intended to do, and where they were headed.

But Kary's expression rapidly changed from a smile to a worried one.

"Are you sure it's a good idea to kick the hornet's nest like that? What if they start shooting at us? Do you intend to kill them all before they realize we are there? Or are we going just to talk to their boss?"

"Woah, calm down. One question at a time," Alex chuckled.

Kary glared at him lightly.

"How can you ask me to stay calm when you are saying we are walking into the den of someone who ordered a man's family to be killed and that man to be captured? Even if we are awakened, that doesn't mean we can't die, Alex," Kary said, reality-checking him.

But Alex shrugged.

"We are flying in, but that's irrelevant," he said, chomping down on his carrot.

Kary's glare intensified.

"Listen. Of course, I would love for this to be resolved peacefully. And, yes, I expect them to be prepared. They tried kidnapping an awakened and sent one of their own to kill his family if he refused to cooperate.

"But we aren't just any awakened players, Kary. Even if they have one or two of them, I can probably handle them alone, let alone with you by my side. There is nothing to worry about."

Kary had no idea where he got his confidence from, and she knew he was strong enough to take on many of them at once. But this wasn't a game.

He may be able to block bullets with his wings, or toughen up his skin enough to limit the damage they did to him, but she wasn't that resistant.

Even if she focused most of her mana on forming a mana shell around herself, she wasn't sure it would deflect bullets. This was extremely risky for her.

And she was too stubborn to let him go alone after making him swear to take her along.

"I can hear the gears grinding in your mind," Alex said, walking up to her side as he hugged her.

"Don't worry too much. Stick close to me, and I'll make sure not even a hair on your head gets touched. Like I said, I don't want to go there to fight. I want to know what these people want. That's it. If shit starts hitting the fan, I'll get us out. I promise."

This promise reassured her enough to stop worrying, but she wasn't satisfied with Alex's lack of a plan.

"If we are going to do this, I want a plan of entry, as well as a plan of action, and a plan of escape if anything goes awry. If you can't figure out a plan for this without my input, then we aren't going, either of us. Understood?" she asked him, looking at him sternly.

Alex nodded at her, his smile still stretched wide.

"I do hope you don't expect a you-level plan, though. A rudimentary plan is still a plan," he joked.

Kary rolled her eyes at him before grabbing a baby carrot from the bag in his hands and shoving it into her mouth.

"Get to it, darling. We aren't leaving if you don't have a plan for me," she said, walking away from the kitchen into the living room.

Plopping onto the sofa, Kary took the remote and started one of her shows on the TV, leaving him alone with his thoughts. Alex wasn't like her.

He would need to concentrate if he wanted to devise a plan that would withstand more than one complication. She could do that in the middle of battle, but he couldn't.

Alex may have all the battle instincts in the world and be the most reactive person she ever met; he was not much of a thinker.

'To each their strength,' she thought, delving into her TV show.

***

On the northern shore of Montreal, David had just returned home and was getting ready to rest.

He had used up most of his mana earlier just to summon his small army of undead, and his little subterfuge, disappearing into the shadows, had only brought him about one block further before he needed to walk home.

"If I had a mana lobe, this would be a drop of water in the sea… I wonder when that idiot will start taking his job seriously and get the right people into their needed strength. With New Eden offline, we need another way to get stronger, and that requires mana lobes…" he mumbled to himself.

As he laid down on his bed, staring at the ceiling, he felt his shadow move, and looked to his right.

"How rare of you to come out on your own. What do you need, Kenelm?" David asked the death knight, who was now standing beside him.

"I came with news, master."

The death knight's voice sounded windy and ethereal, like a ghost, even though he had a body and vocal cords. But it didn't bother David.

David sat up on his bed, wondering what news was important enough for the death knight to come out of his shadow on his own to deliver them. Usually, he would either wait to be summoned or send a message into his mind directly.

Seeing he had his master's attention, the death knight lowered his head before speaking.

"Remember when I said I couldn't feel our connection to Hades anymore?"

David nodded.

"Yes, I recall. I also recall telling you that you wouldn't feel it until the connection between our worlds was re-established, which would require the worlds to reconcile, or a dungeon to open in this world. What about it?"

The death knight raised his head, locking eyes with his master.

"Then I think this might happen sooner than we anticipated. I felt the connection with the god of death, earlier. It was flitting, like a mirage in a desert, but it was still there, for a fraction of a second."

David's eyes became serious.

This could only mean one thing. And it wasn't that the worlds had reconciled.

"Can you tell me from where you felt it?" he asked, standing up and walking to his desk, where he picked up his neuro-phone.

"It came from the southwest, master. It felt very distant, most likely on another continent, but I felt it nonetheless."

David nodded, putting the earpiece in his ear. He had a call to make.