New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 790 Far Up North

Alex could have taken a plane, as a small airport in this village served mostly private plane owners with Cessnas and the like. But there was an issue with this.

Along with his smashed phone, his wallet had also disappeared from his pockets.

He had no cash or card, and his only other way to access his accounts was in pieces in the bottom of his torn-up clothes pockets.

Lady luck had not been smiling on him during his time unconscious, and this ticked him off a smidge. But there was nothing to do about it.

'I'll have to get myself new cards, a new phone, and a new wallet when I get home…' he mused, his face slightly grimacing.

The good news was that wherever it was, the chances of someone ever finding it were close to nil.

But it left him with very little options to get back home. And he hadn't wanted to bother the old forest guard more than he already had.

He would have to make do with his own means.

Not to say his options were zero, though.

Since he learned that his body was altered, he had been doing an introspection at every moment he could and discovered something odd about it.

His muscle mass had changed.

Alexander had already begun turning fit, but this was next level.

His muscles were cut and well-defined on every inch of his body, and he could feel every one of them working with each movement he performed.

He also felt much heavier than before, like his body density had changed.

He wasn't sure how to check this, as he didn't feel heavier, but that was also a result of his muscles being more robust.

He only wondered how strong this made him.

'Guess we'll find out soon enough.'

He had decided he would run since he had no way of getting a ride back to Montreal aside from begging and hoping a good samaritan picked him up.

To most, the thought alone of walking the distance between where he was and his home, which he had discovered was more than vast, would be madness. Reaching the village, he had found out just how far he had gone north, and his face had dropped.

Looking at the map in his hand, which the old ranger had given him out of pity, Alex sighed.

*Kuujjuaq and what to do there!*

The title on the map annoyed him, but he also slightly despaired.

'This is far. Much farther than I would have expected… I'm glad they thought of getting away from populated areas, but this gives me trouble as well…'

He wasn't a buff in geography, but he knew just about how far it was from his home.

'I estimate around fifteen hundred kilometres, maybe a bit less… That's quite the distance to cover, even in a straight line.'

He wondered just how fast his body had travelled when leaving Lac-des-Seizes-Iles for him to get this far.

There was no way he had run all this in a single day, right?

'Geminae. Tell me this. How long exactly did you run to get away from civilization?' he asked in his mind.

There was silence for a moment before the little angel replied.

'I estimate we ran for about eighteen hours. We didn't need to stop, as our energy and stamina vastly overshadow a human's, and sleep is unnecessary for us. Why?'

Alex stopped walking for a moment, his face becoming white.

'You forced my body to run for eighteen hours straight?! That is insane. Wait! Even worse! That means you were running at—' Alex paused, calculating the distance versus the time.

'You were running at eighty kilometres an hour! That is insane! Simple tripping, and my body would have shattered! Did you even stop to think about the consequences?!'

He couldn't hear Geminae and assumed the angel was thinking about his actions. But would he feel guilty?

That remained to be seen.

He could hear the little demon snickering in his mind again and was half tempted to crush him into the ground again. But he had bigger fish to fry.

Like how to get home.

Even if they managed to make his body move at that speed, he was unsure he could…

This was far beyond inhuman. It was a monstrous speed for an outlandish amount of time.

It did explain how his clothes had become that tattered, though. It was easy to imagine the two beings in his head cared little about dodging minor obstacles, like branches and the such.

And clothes, at that speed, hitting even the most brittle of branches, would tear, assuredly.

And he would have to replicate something of the sort if he wanted to get home in an acceptable time frame. He had already made everyone wait enough.

And that was without counting how some of them must have been worried.

He could already imagine Kary eating her fingernails in angst, waiting for news of him.

Too bad his phone was busted. He doubted anyone in this little piece of northern Quebec would allow him to use their phone.

He was a stranger here.

He resumed his walk toward the village exit, which also happened to be the way to the airport, and he kept track of everyone around him.

As soon as there was no one in a hundred-meter radius, he dipped into the woods, disappearing from the roads.

It was time for him to pick up his pace.

Reaching a kilometre from the roads, he finally stopped moving.

"Alright. Time to see how this new body moves," he said, mostly to himself.

"Geminae, which one of you has the sturdiest body? Which of you two would fare better over a long distance?" he asked, focusing on his cells.

It took a moment for his divine companion to reply, but he had already expected his answer.

'If you were flying, my wings would be much stronger and quicker. But since I assume you don't want to take to the skies, the demon part of you has better physical capabilities.'

He could already feel the imp reeling in fear, knowing Alex would strip it of its power for a bit.

"Very well! Time to test that stupid red skin's strength," Alex said, grinning.

As he tapped into the demonic essence of his new body, he felt the imp's presence grow weak, almost vanishing, as the whimpering disappeared.

'Finally, some peace and quiet,' he thought as his body started contorting and popping, eliciting grunts of pain from him.

When it finally stopped, Alex had utterly changed.