New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

David had never heard the name Psyche before. He had no idea who that was or why Gaius would hate her enough to chase her down into the mortal plane.

What he did know, though, was that Gaius had only ever stepped into the mortal realm twice in his last timeline.

The first time was when he opened the first demon rift into their world, Earth. That was when all hell broke loose, literally, and humanity started dying like flies in an inferno.

David Knew Gaius was the root of this problem, which was why he was trying to become powerful enough to force him to stop. His plan had been this all along.

Get strong and either force Hades to act or take over his domain and act against Gaius himself.

But it was a plan that required a lot of time—and every second lost outside New Eden reduced his chances of success.

The second time Gaius stepped foot into the mortal realm was when one of the strongest players in New Eden reached the Legendary grade, and he challenged Gaius to a duel with humanity's safety in the betting pool.

The man had wagered humanity's safety, hoping to battle Gaius at least to a standstill and make him acknowledge that humans were strong enough and didn't warrant extermination.

Gaius wouldn't have accepted the duel at all hadn't the man already crushed his champion. The challenge was like adding insult to injury, and Gaius replied with all his might.

This led to humanity's greatest player dying before he even had a chance to try to save them. Gaius showed up, and the next second, the man exploded in a rain of crimson, leaving nothing behind aside from his blood.

Now, Alexander was telling him that Gaius had stepped foot into the mortal realm twice in the same day, once for him and another time for a being called Psyche? A being he had never heard of before?

It made no sense.

"Who is this Psyche, Alex? And why would Gaius, the ficklest of gods, the one who only cares about seeing the things he created implode, so he can start over, care about her?" he asked.

Alexander took a moment to think about this. Did he really know why Gaius hated Psyche's guts that much?

Not particularly. But he did know where the issue stemmed from. Novel Fire - novelfire.net

Nemus had told him when he had helped her free herself, although inadvertently.

"Psyche is the goddess of souls. She's the one who created life—the one who made Gaius' creations not feel empty. As for why he hates her, I'm not entirely sure.

"All I know is that they had a disagreement at one point when she told him he shouldn't try to imitate her work. And that led to Gaius imprisoning her. Aside from that, I know nothing."

David took a moment to take in the info while Kary looked at Alex strangely.

'But why does he look devastated about this? Did he know her personally?' she wondered.

"Umm. Excuse my rudeness, here, but… What the hell are you two going on about?" Killi asked, reminding the other three he was still there.

Killi had been told about the game being more than a game. But that was it. He was never told any more details because they weren't sure he would keep it to himself if they did.

Of course, the man wasn't totally ignorant, either. After all, the news of people awakening the powers they had in the game was all over the world.

Even he had recently found out that his strength had grown by leaps and bounds. Enough to assume it wasn't his gym time paying out.

But now, the cat was out of the bag.

"Killi, can I call you back?" Alex asked, trying to brush away the matter.

"Like hell, you can. You better not hang up, Astaroth. I will call again until your brain hurts if you do. Tell me what's going on."

But David interrupted them.

"It's irrelevant for now. Killi. Get all your players, at least the ones who have awakened, and get them ready. Find anomalies, get stronger, make yourselves gear. If you can't make it, I know someone who can. I'm sure he'll help you for the right amount," David said.

"Hold up," Killi said, his voice sounding confused.

"What anomalies. What gear? Khalor, what are you talking about?"

They all heard David sigh loudly.

"Killi, I'm sure there have already been anomalies in the UK as well. Your government must have hidden them better. We were hunting them here since I knew where they would pop. So we have an advantage.

"But people everywhere need to start doing the same. There is no more time to take it easy."

Alex became confused. David had been rambling about how they should keep this as low-key as possible only a few months ago.

And now he wanted the world to fall into hunting mode?

"Why the sudden rush?" Alex asked David.

"Because if I know that bastard Gaius as well as I think I do, this will tip him off. He may do something much sooner that makes all our lives harder. And if we aren't ready for what comes next, then a lot of people will die."

Alex frowned, and the two others did the same.

"What comes next, David?" Kary asked.

David took in a big breath, exhaling it slowly.

"If what I think happens, it'll be months early. Hell, the next step wasn't supposed to happen before the next tournament ended in January. But I doubt he'll wait that long. Not now that he's pissed."

"What will happen, David?" Kary asked again.

"I think Gaius might break the veil early. And if he does, the world will have no more time to grow. Dungeons will start appearing, and with no one to clear them, they'll break open and disgorge monsters into the world that standard weapons won't be able to deal with.

"Last time, the world's government had already established a force to deal with monsters, as the anomalies had ramped up to a noticeable point where they couldn't hide them anymore.

"But I don't think Gaius will wait for that to happen. If he shatters the veil and we aren't prepared, we'll lose so many players early that the future will be doomed. It won't matter how much stronger I am or Alex is. We'll be out-manned, over-powered, and under-prepared.

"I think Gaius will push his plan forward, and we will all die way before we can reach the power to fight back…"

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