New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 780 Is This Death?

*The moment the lightning struck*

Alex could feel the lightning's power pushing against his barrier. He could already tell the barrier wouldn't be powerful enough to contain it entirely.

He had already used all his mana and was fighting to stay conscious. If he fainted now, nothing would protect Violette.

And he had sworn to her mother he would bring her back intact. He couldn't fail to uphold his promise.

When the barrier broke, the lighting crashed into his back, pushing him and Violette into the rock wall before the sheer power of it pushed them through, sending them barreling through the air.

After a few seconds of flight, holding onto Violette and covering her as best he could with his arms, he felt the cold, hard surface of the mountain slam against him as he crash-landed on the plateau, bouncing a few times.

He felt something break in his lower back, and suddenly, his legs went numb.

Then he cracked his head on a passing stone, and his sight blurred.

As his eyes were closing, his body started feeling light. All his worries vanished as he remembered all the good times in his life.

The trips to the amusement park with his parents as a kid.

The times he fooled around with his dad, as his mother scolded them both for being clowns.

The wonderful breakfasts his mother would make every weekend.

And more recently, when he realized he had fallen in love.

The week of taking care of Violette, making her discover pizza and poutine.

The smiles, the laughs.

'Is this what it feels like to die?' he wondered as he slipped out of consciousness.

'It wasn't an awful life. I wish I could have done more. As long as Violette is safe…'

He could hear her panicked cries next to him, as she shook loose from his grip. Then he heard her terrified cries as a low growl reached his ears.

But it was ever so faintly.

'They decided to finish us off… So, I failed in the end… I'm sorry, Violette. I'm sorry, Katherine and Richard… Sorry I fell short at the moment it mattered most… I hope to repent in my next life if reincarnation is real…'

His eyes closed, and he felt himself turn weightless.

A second later, his eyes opened again in a familiar white room. The room still had the strange blue markings all over the walls and the bright orb in its center, caged in the red glyphs.

"Inside my soul? Is this where I'll be judged? How strange…" Alex commented.

"No, you idiot! You aren't dead yet! And you can't die! If you die, we die!" a small, angry voice shouted at him.

At his feet, the imp representing his corruption was fuming angrily.

And not far from him, a childish version of Geminae was pacing.

"This is a terrible idea, I'm telling you! If we do this, and we can't control the body properly, we could kill ourselves!" he scolded, his hands swishing over his head.

The imp turned to him and growled.

"Then would you prefer we just die? Simple like that? Are you stupid?! If we try, at least we have a chance of surviving. It's also not my fault this colossal idiot put himself in front of a sure kill attack," the imp replied, kicking Alex's foot.

"It's madness!" Geminae shot back, stopping his pacing.

"Uh… What is?" Alex asked.

He thought fate was cruel for forcing him to endure a fight between these two as his last moments before judgment.

"It doesn't matter what. We shouldn't even be thinking this!"

Alex shrugged, uncaring. He was dead anyway.

What did it matter if they were panicking?

The imp at his feet gasped.

"His feet! They're disappearing! We have to act now, angel boy! If we don't, we'll die too!"

Geminae's head snapped toward Alex, and he saw that he was slowly disappearing.

"By the gods… We can't… It's not natural…" Geminae said, his eyes going wide.

"Fuck you! I'm not dying!" the imp screamed.

He jumped up Alex's body and grabbed his head between his hands.

"Sorry, big guy, but this isn't going to be fun. You'll thank me later if we survive."

Alex's eyes went wide as the imp shoved himself into his mouth, turning to smoke. Alex could feel the smoke claw inside his throat, trying to reach his stomach.

"No! Stop!" Geminae shouted.

He ran to Alex, who was now kneeling on the ground, holding his throat, feeling like he was choking.

"Sorry, but I can't let him control the body alone. You'll have to trust that I'll force him back if we succeed."

After saying this, Geminae pierced his hand inside Alex's chest, similar to what he did to the demons when he wanted to touch their souls the first time, and turned to a bright golden light.

Alex writhed in pain as his body suddenly contained two more souls fighting to control it.

"AARRGGHH!!!" he screamed as his throat finally cleared.

"Get out of me! You're hurting me!"

He got no reply from either of the entities, and shortly after, he fainted from the pain.

Outside his soul, time had barely moved as he was having this conversation, and he had just released his last breath.

Violette was in fear that she would die now that Alex was dead, and both Raijū were before her, snarling. Their pelts were faded white, with the blue patterns barely visible, but they still had the energy to move.

They sauntered their way forward, hunger in their eyes, as they stared at Violette. Tears rolled off her cheeks as fear overcame her.

But just as they reached a few feet before her, a powerful wave of wind and energy blasted them away, originating from Alex's corpse.

Violette was also pushed away, the sudden burst knocking the air out of her lungs and knocking her unconscious. She hit the ground a hundred feet away, down a small hill, her eyes already rolled back in her head.

Alex's body stood up as his bones cracked back into place. His face changed as the left half turned red, his mouth going into a maniacal grin, and the right half turned delicate, with tears flowing down the eye.

A white wing tore out of his back on the right side, followed by a darkened bat-ish-looking wing on the left, splashing blood on the ground as they ripped his skin open.

The Raijū felt immense pressure from this thing, and lightning cracked above them, hitting their horns.

Some of that energy went into their bodies, making the blue patterns glow again.

Alex's deformed body screeched loudly in response, accepting their challenge, and lunged at them.

It had devolved into a monster-against-monster battle.