New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Phoenix's flames slowly went from orange to blue as she poured some purified mana into it, which she had been condensing for a while. She still couldn't use Aether, but her refinement technique was on point.

Astaroth had already pulled out Luna, White, and Morpheus. Unfortunately, he couldn't pull out Geminae for some reason.

But it didn't matter for now. He had other things he could use.

"Hell's Descent, First Layer; Avernus Rising!" he shouted, extending his hand.

Soon after, Astaroth erupted in black flames again, like the last time he used it. However, he knew what was happening this time and saw the portal ripping open.

He watched as each of the eight demons casually walked out of the hell portal, starting to look at their surroundings. When Paimon walked out, the portal closed behind her, and she immediately spun toward Astaroth and Phoenix in mid-air.

The demons had no trouble staying afloat in the sky, by some unknown means, and looked like they were walking on solid ground.

"Master Astaroth! How happy I am that you summoned me!" Paimon exclaimed, taking a few steps toward Astaroth.

She paused after three steps, turning her head to Phoenix.

"You too, hottie. I couldn't wait to see you again. Let's have some fun this time, okay?"

Phoenix low growled at her, the flames around her hands burning brighter.

"Focus on the fight, whore of a demon. We don't have time to play around."

To drive her point home, the Ent below them, whose body almost reached them in the sky, released the mother of all growls, the air itself shaking in the bassy vibrations of its voice.

Paimon's face turned sour.

She spun to look at the oversized walking tree and hissed.

"You're interrupting my flirting, you dumb guardian! I'll burn you alive for this!" she spat between her closed teeth.

Astaroth had already begun ignoring her and charged in with his soul companions.

Pulling out the Ad Astra, he felt like a fitting weapon to fight this abomination had to be an axe, so he transformed the weapon into a greataxe, taking a mighty swing at one of its roots.

The axe lodged in deep, making wood shrapnel fly off in every direction as he pulled it out. A large gash was left in the root, but it wasn't severed.

The giant tree entity didn't even register his attack as Astaroth stared at the damage number.

*2,248*

'That was crappy…' he thought.

He was forced to jump back as a root suddenly veered in his direction, trying to pierce through him. He used the broadside of his greataxe to push a part of the force away, giving himself a push backward, as well.

This quickly got him out of the root's attack range, and he had to re-evaluate his options.

"It doesn't seem like physical attacks are as effective against this one. I'm pretty sure my damage should have been higher. I'll have to infuse magic into every strike…" he mumbled as he circled the base of the Ent.

He had noticed recently that against most of the higher-level monsters, simply using Enhance no longer registered as magic damage to them. Almost like the amount of mana he used was too small to affect them.

So when he went against monsters with natural physical resistance, he needed to use magic or find an alternate means to hit with magical damage.

But his answer came from watching Phoenix fight when she entered melee combat style.

She only suffered such an issue when she went against magic or fire-resistant monsters. So he assumed her weapon made of fire counted as a spell in the eyes of the system.

This had caused him to think about what he could do.

In all the time he had used magic in New Eden, he had never infused elemental magic into his attacks. His affinity for each element was too weak for the elemental mana to stay where he asked it to.

This led to many rebukes and name-calling from Aberon when he was still training under him. Aberon always said he had potential as a mage, but his low affinities with every element were a handicap.

And Aberon firmly believed that Astaroth's propension to use magic while melded to maximize its effect was a crutch at best and a lack of actual talent at worst.

Aberon had instructed many times to find a solution to this problem. The melding stats should only boost his power, not his full power.

And Astaroth still had difficulty figuring something out. But yesterday, something had changed.

When he had to save Rodney and forcefully used Geminae's powers, he felt something inside him move. A restraint of some sort shifted out of place.

And he could glimpse inside him a power that hadn't been previously there.

And all day today, he had tried to figure out what that power could be since he was scared to reach out and touch it inside his soul space.

What if the power was harmful to him? What if that was the reason it was locked away?

Should he take that risk? Especially in the middle of a fight?

Looking around the battlefield, he could see his demons barely scratching the thing. Phoenix was throwing spears of blue fire at it, and she was the one that seemed to be affecting it the most.

This caused the Ent to focus on her, significantly reducing the pressure she was applying. But scanning the Ent again, Astaroth gulped.

*Forest Father Gordonan (Corrupted)*

Race: Ent

Grade: Legendary (Zone Boss)

Level: 75

Hp: 99%

Mp: ???

**

They had been fighting for over a minute while he was thinking, and they had shaved away only a single percent of his health.

And he could already imagine that Phoenix had done the most of that percentage. Without her constantly attacking, they would never win.

To make matters worse, Phoenix's mana bar was already down to half, from what Astaroth could see in the party window. This debuff was seriously screwing her over.

"I need to do something. We can't win this at this rate…"

Astaroth could see red dots appearing on his radar, meaning the treants from the forest had finally reached them. This already hopeless battle was about to turn into a bloody nightmare.

"I can't hesitate," Astaroth mumbled, his eyes going cold.

Astaroth called Morpheus back and melded with him before launching into the sky.

Phoenix almost panicked as she saw him launching straight up, wondering where he was going. But she trusted him not to run away.

As he flew up, Astaroth closed his eyes. He muttered inside his mind.

'Keep us safe and in the sky, Morpheus. I trust you.'

And his senses went blank.

He was back in the white room.

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