New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Astaroth could feel the intensity of the battle behind him, as well as in the cave and above ground, and realized he wasn't as defenceless as he thought. But this was far from a won fight.

After all, even if they kept monsters from coming in or reaching the fruit, there was still no way to feed the darned thing enough Aether to make it ripen.

His mind raced in all directions, thinking about every solution his brain could crap out, but nothing came close to the amount he needed.

Even with the crazy theory he came up with, he still didn't think it would be enough.

'Geminae. I have a question.'

It took a moment for the little angel to respond.

'Yes?'

'Do you think I could meld with Luna, even if I'm changed into your or the imp's form? I need to maximize my Aether intake, but I don't have many options.'

Geminae frowned inside his soul space.

'You shouldn't be messing with Aether that much. It's the energy of the gods, and it's not something mortals at your level should fool around with. It's a miracle that you can use it at all,' he replied.

'Just answer my question. Could I, or could I not?'

With a sigh, Geminae responded.

'In theory, you could. But I wouldn't try it in a dangerous environment. If there is whiplash, you want to be in a safe place. This is hardly what I would call safe.'

Astaroth agreed with his reasoning. But this didn't fix his current problem.

'I cannot fail this quest. I would have planned better if I knew it came with penalties. But, as it stands, I can't complete it, regardless. Should I just cut my losses?' he wondered.

But Geminae cut his train of thought.

'Why don't you fix the Ley lines, then?'

'Fix them? What do you mean?'

'I mean, this fruit shouldn't have grown anywhere else than over a Ley line junction. This means that something or someone altered them from their original path, and that's why the fruit dried.'

'You might be able to pull on them to fix them if you change into my form and meld with the deer.'

'The deer's name is Luna, and this is insane. I don't have the kind of power to pull both Ley lines back together. That's a monstrous level of power it would need.'

But what Geminae told him did give him an idea. One that would require less power but more control.

And he was much more proficient in that department when he changed into Geminae's body or melded with Luna.

'Luna. Do you feel strong enough to meld with me for at most 3 minutes?' he asked her.

Luna's unease washed over him.

'It's okay. I'll use Geminae. You keep resting. I know Gaius did a number on you.'

Astaroth had completely assimilated Geminae's body with a thought, and his power surged.

But he didn't need the power right now. He needed the body's natural attunement and control of Aether.

Reaching into the ground with his mind, he made contact with the Ley line, the Aetheric powers flowing in it immediately flowing into his mind, making him grunt in pain.

"Ungh! It's like lava just flowed into my brain!" he yelled out.

Shegror felt the surge, her strength suddenly jumping up. Since she had made a deal with Astaroth to take a part of his mana at all times, suddenly juicing up on Aether also affected her.

But she couldn't take her mind off the combat. She was already having a hard time as it was.

Shegror was a dragon. They didn't deal in finesse.

When a horde of enemies appeared on their doorstep, they were one dragon's breath away from death.

But if she did that in here, she would assuredly melt the Evolution Fruit.

She was already tempted to take the fruit and run when it was ripe, but she knew her new master would tear her a new one. So, destroying it was also out of the question.

But the power boost made her quicker, stronger, and more resistant. She could now anticipate and strike preemptively where she had previously only handled the enemies pouring out.

It made her job so much easier.

As for Astaroth, he had to pull on the Aether as best he could without burning his body out and send it directly into the fruit. He was basically acting like a booster cable for the Ley line.

But this came at a price.

Astaroth watched as his health ticked away with every passing second. Novel Fire - novelfire.net

*-10,000*

*-10,000*

…

If he hadn't raised his health by using Geminae's body, he would already be dead. And as it was, he could barely split his focus to cast some healing on himself occasionally.

He was keeping himself alive, if only barely, to feed this darned fruit.

And the more Aether poured into the fruit, the more the smell of it became intense.

This, in turn, affected the monsters all around the cave and within it, as they started showing signs of healing as the combat went on.

It was like they were strengthening from the residual scent alone.

This was because they were all lower-tier beasts, which would have significantly benefitted from such a blessing as the Evolution Fruit. And now, just being in its presence was already helping them.

But this only made Selena, Shegror, and Leon's jobs all that more difficult.

Leon wasn't having trouble beating the enemies into pulps, but there were so many. He could not stop the flow going toward the cave.

Not unless he let loose. And that was a risk in itself.

He could cause a cave collapse or send too much fire toward it and risk the flames licking into some burrows and burning the fruit.

And now, with the scent getting stronger, it was also bound to attract stronger monsters.

'This is just a gift that keeps on giving, isn't it? No wonder it attracted me all those years back…' Leon mused as he slashed a bear into pieces with his claws.

"I hope it's not all for nothing…" he muttered.

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