New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The rest of the day flew by as people across the globe wondered what they would do with their nights. The game was still offline for mysterious reasons.

Even though most of them ended up getting to sleep early, it was weird for them to be in bed after spending most of their nights in their pods, fighting monsters in another world.

It was as if the game had transformed their nights, replacing sleep with a restless state. They tossed and turned in their beds, their eyes refusing to close, their minds still imagining the game's world.

The gaming pod had been forcefully sending them into a sleep-like state for months, and now that they had to sleep on their own, without being completely exhausted, they were having trouble finding peace.

But many people decided to forego sleep that night, and a couple in particular was ten thousand feet in the air, flying above the southern shore of Montreal's metropolitan area.

"I'm surprised you managed to plan this out. Even if your plan is extremely rudimentary, it's acceptable," Kary said to Alex as he carried her in his arms.

Alex snort-laughed.

"Hey, you know me by now. I don't plan. I act. I'm decisive."

Kary turned her head to look at him with a noticeable glare.

"Yes. You do. Remind me where that has gotten us, time and time again?" she mocked.

Alex's face went dark at the reminder of his multiple mishaps.

"Fine. But I swear this one will go well. We are only here to talk with them. No fighting if possible."

Kary shook her head with a smirk.

"You keep saying that. Maybe it'll come true. In the meantime, how about we land? We've been hovering over this part of town for a while now. Haven't you found them already?"

Alex nodded once.

"I have, but something is off. The car I marked is not parked with the other vehicles. It's lying on the front lawn, like a display…"

Kary looked down, injecting some mana into her eyes to improve her vision. It took her a while of searching, but she eventually found a manor-like house with a car parked on the front lawn.

Alex felt her mana senses explode out, as they reached the ground in seconds, and he smiled.

He had known for a while that she had developed a great range for her mana detection, but seeing it even on this side was impressive. He doubted many could emulate this feat.

Well, aside from him, of course.

"I can only sense three people in that manor with mana," she declared, returning her mana senses.

"Yes. There are also about twenty other people, some with bigger builds than others. I can only assume that the big dudes are the goons, and the others are servants or something," Alex added to her statement.

She looked at him with wide eyes.

"You can sense people that don't have mana? Since when?"

Alex chuckled.

"Since I started using Geminae's powers. He can sense souls. And with a bit of fine-tuning of my mana senses, I can make it detect the natural aura of people, even if they don't have mana."

Kary was impressed. This was a useful power to have.

"So I guess it wasn't just me who found it weird that the three with mana are in the backyard, while the others are either inside the manor, or guarding the front yard?" Kary asked, a grin on her face.

Alex replied with a smirk of his own.

"I think she knew I was coming, and the car was only a distraction for her men. I guess there is no point in trying to be stealthy if she knows we are coming. Let's go say hi," Alex said, folding his wings on his back as gravity reasserted itself over them.

Kary felt her heart hit her throat as the feeling of weightlessness took hold of her. She almost screamed in fright instinctively, the move taking her by surprise, but she managed to hold it in, with only a tiny, "Eep!" escaping her lips.

Alex chuckled at her yelp, his eyes focused on their destination.

He wouldn't bother walking up the front door since they were waiting for them in the backyard.

The ten thousand feet free fall took longer than Alex had expected, and he asked Kary, "Do you want to land on your own? Make an entrance?"

Kary nodded her head, pushing off Alex's chest as she looked at the ground, smirking.

The backyard was getting closer at a breakneck pace, and Alex reopened his wings at the last second, breaking his fall as they caught air. He landed with a resounding crash as the pavement under his feet cracked.

As for Kary, when she reached about fifty feet from the ground, she blasted fire out of her hands, slowing down her descent, and landed in a three-point landing, before igniting her body and standing to her feet.

Alex started glowing a golden hue, his eyes lit up like two gold torches, and Kary blazed in hot orange-yellow flames beside him.

"Knock knock," Alex said, looking at the three women sitting under a pergola with flowers dangling from it.

The flowers were rustling in the wind that Kary's heat waves were causing, and the three women looked unfazed.

The one in the middle interrupted the seconds of silence after Alex's words with a slow clap, as the other two stayed stone cold beside her.

*Clap*

*Clap*

*Clap*

"What an imposing entrance, Astaroth. I must say, I am surprised to see you brought Phoenix along with you. Well, surprise might be the wrong word. Delighted, maybe? Anywho. How about you both cut the theatrics and come sit with us?" she asked calmly.

Alex was a bit disappointed that he did not get a reaction from their resounding entrance. But he should have expected as much from people who had awakened their own powers.

Alex folded the wings into his back, keeping the glow on him and his golden eyes, to make them understand he was still powered up, and Kary lowered the intensity of her flames before they walked under the pergola.

Alex watched as the mana particles around the three women reacted to the one on the left. She split apart the flower curtain for them and covered the pergola with magic, seemingly protecting it from the aggressive nature of Kary's flames.

Under the pergola, there was a small rectangular table on which lay a kettle and some teacups, three on one side and two on the other.

'She knew exactly how many we'd be…' Alex understood.

The woman in the middle, who was already seated at the table, motioned them to sit across from her, while the other two remained standing.

Once Alex and Kary sat down, the other women sat down as well.

'Her bodyguards, I take it,' Alex surmised, taking in every detail.

And he wasn't the only one. Kary was already analyzing everything she saw, making plan after plan in her mind, if anything were to happen.

"Please, lady Phoenix. No need for such caution," the woman in the middle said, looking at Kary.

"You'll have to excuse my caution. I don't know you, and you have already left a poor impression on me with how you handled Mr. West's family," Kary spat, looking her in the eyes with the pitch-black eyes on her flaming face.

The woman sighed, taking the cup on the table before her, and taking a sip.

She grimaced, pulling the cup away from her mouth.

"It's gone cold while we waited for you to arrive. Could you heat it up for me, since you don't want to get rid of these aggressive flames of yours?" the woman asked Kary, smiling warmly.

"Why certainly," Kary said, her featureless face unmoving.

She reached a finger on the teacup, instantly boiling the content, as the cup became incredibly hot.

The woman groaned as she put the cup on the table, waving her hand to disperse the heat. The woman on her left jumped up, her face showing evident rage.

Alex instantly felt her killing intent.

A wing popped from his back, stopping a millimetre from her throat, as she halted her movement forward.

"Sit the fuck down, woman. Unless you want to paint your mistress' dress red with your blood," Alex threatened.

The woman glared at him before disappearing and reappeared next to Kary, a dagger in her hand. But she stopped her movement again, realizing another white wing was waiting for her there, too.

And this one was already digging into her throat, blood trickling on the feathers.

"Don't make me repeat myself," Alex growled without looking at her.

'He followed my instant-movement skill? That's impossible!' she thought, the dagger in her hands an inch away from Kary's back as the tip reddened with heat.

A crisp clap brought attention to the woman on the other side of the table again as she clapped her hands.

"Now, now. Let's not be savages. I'm sure Lady Phoenix didn't intend to burn me, Maria. Let's not pursue this matter any further. Sit. Let us talk," she ordered, as the woman's face became neutral again.

"Yes, Ma'am."

She disappeared from behind Kary, reappearing in front of her seat, the wing still threatening her, and she glared at Alex.

Alex glared back, but retracted his wing, letting her sit down.

"Good! Now that this is out of the way, how about we discuss why you came, shall we?" the woman said, smiling at her guests.