New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1100: The Pagoda’s Secret

Stepping up the hundred-odd steps to the next floor, the group held hushed conversations, feeling like even their whispers were out-of-place inside this place. It felt like the walls were shunning their loud presence in here, where everything else was quiet.

Reaching the second floor, a man sat in the center of the floor, with things looking similar to spell sigils floating around him, ever-changing.

The man had his eyes closed, arms on his knees, and palms raised upward as he touched his thumb and middle finger together. It looked like old meditation postures that monks used when praying to Buddha.

Alexander looked at him, reflexively spreading his senses over the room, and frowned.

The man in the center of the room, although visible to everyone present, as proven by their strange gazes toward him, barely registered on his mana senses. It was like he was a spectre, and his senses couldn’t grasp his presence completely.

It was Sanguis’ voice, in the back of his head, which helped him understand the weird phenomenon.

’A soul echo... It looks complete, though. This is not something that occurs naturally. This soul was taken out of its body and kept whole in this place. Like a prison,’ his voice grating the inside of Alexander’s mind.

Switching to the other form of detection Alex had, granted to him by the previous seraphim powers of one of Sanguis’ halves, Anima Geminae, his vision immediately lit up with a blue flame when looking at the man.

And this wasn’t the only one.

Looking up, he could see another twenty-seven flames, each one floor higher than the previous, all located in the center of the pagoda. It was like looking at an alignment of planets, all lined up perfectly, and seemingly at rest.

But Alexander was detecting something else. Something much less peaceful.

And it was coming from under the pagoda.

Looking below his feet, and peering deep down, Alexander felt thousands of flames, some of them a bluish-white, and others a dark red and black.

’Demons... Why is he keeping them under the pagoda? Can’t he just destroy them?’ he wondered.

But his attention was brought to the bluish-white flames by Sanguis.

’Those souls... They feel restless. This confirms my previous thought. This building is a soul prison. And the ones fuelling it are locked below the surface. Psyche would seethe at the sight of all these souls, locked out of the perpetual cycle,’ he growled.

And she wasn’t the only one.

Alexander could feel his blood boil as he realized the souls up here may have consented to their lock-up, but the ones below were not as lucky. They may have never had the chance of a choice.

Walking up to the celestial fox, who was cruising slowly toward the next staircase, ignoring the man in the middle, who had opened one eye to see the people on his floor, or rather, his cage.

"Fox," Alex growled. "What is the meaning of this? This place isn’t your home; it’s a prison!"

Alex had no idea why he suddenly felt so angry, but his mind was telling him he should be infuriated by all these souls being held captive.

"Please. At least call me by my name. Calling me Fox feels so diminutive," the celestial fox said, sneering at him.

"Answer my question, you damned fox," Alex seethed, grabbing his robe collar again.

The celestial fox’s eyes narrowed instantly, looking at Alex like he was an insect.

"Unhand me, mortal."

The man in the center of the room got to his feet, his eyes locked on Alexander, as a guandao appeared in his hands. novelbuddy-cσ๓

And he wasn’t the only one to move. Alex could feel the souls above also move toward the stairs on their floors, and the ones under his feet writhe, almost like they were suddenly in pain.

But he didn’t care. His vision was already coating in red, as Sanguis slipped into his soul, melding seamlessly.

With one of his eyes turning black with a red iris, and the other going from his natural blue to a golden iris, the celestial fox looked at him with his eyebrows raising.

"A Nephilim... I thought they were a myth. How is one of your kind even living inside a mortal?" he asked, sounding fascinated.

Alex’s voice vibrated as he talked, sounding like a giant was talking through a fan.

"Last chance. Answer me, or join the great cycle along with all the souls locked inside this place."

And with this threat, the man suddenly burst toward Alexander, who already had three people jumping to his defence.

David, Winston, and Liu Yan, who had been eyeing the man with aggressiveness ever since he started moving, all took a defensive stance, David’s bident colliding with the guandao, and stopping it cold in its swing.

"Not on my watch, Spectre. If you don’t want to change prisons to a much less comfortable one, you better sit the fuck back down and keep praying," David threatened, slowly pushing the man back.

"I cannot let you attack the master. Move aside, mortal. I have no qualms with you. It is he who I must stop," the man replied, looking over David’s shoulder at Alexander.

"Well, tough luck. We’re not letting you through," Winston replied, stepping next to David and swinging his mace at the man’s knees.

If the man wanted to hurt his friend, he had no issues with breaking a few bones.

Liu Yan had already primed lightning in his hands, ready to electrify the poor bastard if he pushed through David.

But in a defensive action, the man swiftly retracted his guandao from David’s bident, twirling it to block the mace going for his kneecap, and back-flipped away, using the force of the child’s strike to push him away.

The celestial fox sighed, seeing his last vessel get knocked away so easily.

"This is why I was so excited to get my hands on this new vessel. His father may have been the strongest one in the sect at the time, but he was still weak by all standards. There is a reason there are so many new souls in the prison below, Mr. Leduc.

"Without them, I wouldn’t be able to keep the demons locked away. They are not just prisoners. They are this prison’s battery. The jailers, if you will. Without them, the hundreds of demons in here return to ravaging the outside. Is that what you want?"

Alex paused, his anger flickering for a moment.

"Explain yourself."