New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1112: Planting The Seeds Of Reason

Outside, in the present, Alex sighed at the slowly vanishing black ball in his hand.

"Why do they always choose the irrational action? Couldn’t I, for once, meet a demon who acts with logic and reason?" he muttered, brushing over the fact that he knew of few who had, inside his very soul.

But he never attributed their actions to reason or logic, but more to fear.

Even though a few of them hadn’t reacted in fear when he threatened to erase them from existence and merge them into one ungodly being.

"I guess they are too warped to choose that path anymore," he added in a whisper as he got back up to his feet.

Kary looked at him with a knowing look. He had told her what he could do before, but seeing it happen before her eyes was another thing entirely.

The demon’s body slowly turned black before fading to ashes and disappearing into nothingness.

In the corner, Tian Kuo looked at this with horror and amazement simultaneously.

He was amazed; that the mortal could genuinely kill a demon, just as he had said; but horrified at the manner in which he had done so.

Pulling the soul out of a living being, almost instantaneously at that, was not something that should be possible by beings in the living’s plane. This was something of the god’s domain.

He knew a few beings who could eat souls, but it was never from something that could fight back. Certain conditions had to be met first. But the boy, Alexander, had done so with a flick of his wrist, on a demon ferociously dashing at his friends.

’This mortal is dangerous... If he chose to fight for the wrong reasons, humanity would fall,’ he thought, with a chill running down his spine.

"Alright! I’ve done what I said I would and could. Now, we get down to business again, right?" Alexander’s voice snapped Tian Kuo back to reality.

The fox looked at him and nodded slowly, still in a slight stupor.

"Let’s go back up... We can pick our conversation back from where we left it..."

Alex smiled and nodded in agreement, glad the fox was ready to talk business. His face also displayed none of the arrogance he held earlier, meaning he might actually take them seriously this time.

Reopening a door to the top floor of his pagoda, Tian Kuo made sure to keep an eye on Alexander, trying to size up his intentions.

He could tell the boy was looking at the other demons with a mix of emotions, but it was hard to discern what exactly it was.

’Could he have sacrificed one of his kin just to fool me?’ he wondered, his paranoia spiking for the first time in centuries.

As the group slowly traversed the doorway to the pagoda’s top floor, Alex stopped next to one of the statues, Kary pausing as she looked at his grin.

She knew that grin, and it gave her a slight chill of disgust.

"Don’t do anything stupid," she said, before walking into the magical doorway.

Alex chuckled, Tian Kuo staring at him with apprehension.

The reason he had stopped here was because he could feel the demon inside quivering with anticipation, as if it wanted nothing more than to fight the being before him.

The quiver had caught his attention as he walked by, leaving little doubt as to what was making the demon mentally active.

Alex leaned into the statue’s ear, making sure the fox couldn’t see his mouth, and whispered in the lowest voice he could.

"I can tell which prince you served, from the lust for battle you emanate alone. For this, I will ensure that you aren’t touched until you are truly on the verge of breaking out.

"And when I do, if you show even the slightest form of reason, and answer the questions I will assuredly have by then, I will grant you the battle you wish to have.

"Until then, think about your position and what you saw today. Wouldn’t it be a waste for you to vanish before you can taste the thrill of battle one last time?"

He then backed away, his grin almost devilish, as he swore he saw a shiver of excitement appear on the stony surface of the demon statue’s arms.

’That should give him something to think about for a while, maybe even convince him to cooperate once I break his seal. Let’s hope this seed germinates into something useful.’

Walking over toward the door, Tian Kuo’s arm barred his way, the fox’s face now revealing distrust.

"What did you whisper to the demon, boy?" he asked, his tone grave.

Alex smiled at him slightly mockingly.

"Wouldn’t you like to know, hehe."

Tian Kuo was not in the mood to laugh. His previous paranoia spike, which had barely had time to pass, was now screaming in his head ’Threat’.

He couldn’t stand to let his suspicions come to pass. If the demon spawn had truly sacrificed one of their own to release the others, this could spell catastrophe.

Alex could tell he wasn’t going to budge from before him until he told him, so, with a sigh of exasperation, he shook his head and talked.

"Don’t worry, Tian Kuo. I did nothing that warrants your suspicion in this way. All I did was plant a seed of possible cooperation.

"I have questions to ask the demon, and as you know, they aren’t the sit-and-talk kind of beings. So I promised it the thing it wants more than anything right now, in exchange for some reason."

Tian Kuo frowned at his words.

"You promised to feed it?" he asked, his tone barely containing the rage within.

"Gods no," Alex chuckled in response. "This demon’s old allegiances are to a prince who values martial prowess over everything else.

"What that demon wants, more than his own life or to feed, is the chance to experience battle one more time, more so with a being he knows can erase his existence in the snap of his fingers. He wants a shot at the king."

Tian Kuo’s frown deepened, the words coming out of the boy’s mouth making no sense to him at all.

Alex snorted at his confusion.

"Don’t worry about it. He doesn’t stand a chance. He wants to die a warrior’s death; One I am willing to grant him, if he answers my questions and sheds some light on a few things that have me perplexed. Can we go now?"

The fox looked at him, still confused about the whole situation. But he nodded nonetheless, ready to leave this prison, which prickled his skin with demonic taint.

Alex smiled and walked through the doorway, satisfied with this turnout.

’A few demons less on Earth, before the invasion, and maybe some answers to questions I’ve had for a while. A win-win, if I dare say so myself.’