New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

Chapter 1068: Soul Marked



From outside the ship, Alexander felt a presence grow inside the van-like vehicle, and his face turned to a frown.

He didn't relent in his attacks, trying to take the darned thing down, but it had already proven much more resilient than he had expected. Even with Kary super-heating the exterior to the point some spots were turning red, it was still moving around fine.

He tried many times to angle his attacks to hit the reactors on the underside, but whoever was piloting this thing knew what they were doing and knew of his intentions.

'He probably assumed that since the arrow earlier was missing them, it was harmless. But he knows my attacks are not... What else can we do?' Alex mused.

The presence inside kept growing, and from the aura it was already projecting, he knew it wasn't ideal if they fought it.

"If only I could control mana outside New Eden as well as inside," he mumbled.

A few times since the beginning of their onslaught, Alex had tried changing the rocks he conjured to magnetic stone, but he kept failing. The stones he tried changing either crumbled to dust or compacted on themselves to the point of being no bigger than beads.

And with the ship constantly firing small balls of that blue energy at them, Alex didn't have the time to stop and focus on his actions.

On her side, Kary was getting annoyed that her flames seemed never to reach their target entirely, and she was already thinking of using her green fire. She was only hesitating because the highway was still under them, and people had started accumulating there to watch the aerial battle.

She could tell many of them were recording the fight, with their focus on the fight. Those were the lucky ones who happened to be outside the EMP which Kujaku had detonated.

She cursed inwardly, thinking about how this alone would have made their life so much trouble now that they could not find their way to wherever the rest of the group would be.

They had no idea where point Delta was, and with Kujaku gone, they would need to figure it out on their own. With their neuro-phones fried, she couldn't text her or easily navigate the

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Alex, too, was getting worried about the people amassing under them. He wasn't exactly hiding his face, and even if he could change its appearance slightly, anyone with a decent video editing ability would be able to change it back to what he usually looked like. They needed to end this quickly before someone recognized him, either here or online. Meanwhile, inside the ship, the pilot was refusing to open the hatch for the woman.

"I can't do that, Ma'am! There are too many bystanders! If we are recognized, we are putting our task in jeopardy!" he argued.

It was dangerous for him to go against the woman's orders, and he knew it. But he was inherently more terrified by her father than her, even though he was still human.

He felt her nails dig into the back of his skull, and a shiver ran down his spine as blood trickled down to his nape.

"Our task is right there in front of us, you imbecile! Open the hatch!" she growled, digging her nails a bit deeper.

The man could feel the nails starting to dig into the bone, and he groaned in pain. But he didn't relent.

"I... Can't... Ma'am!" he muttered, panting through the pain.

The woman wanted to snap the top of his head off and scramble his brain for disobeying her orders, but her father would tear into her if she lost control of her second nature. And the other option wasn't any better.

She pulled her hand away from the man's skull, reaching her face next to his ear, lips parted so he could see her fully extended canines.

"I want you to remember these teeth. For disobeying me, even if it was to keep your loyalty to my father, one day, these teeth will sink into you and drain you of your blood. You will become a mindless ghoul and obey my every order against your will. Remember this," she hissed in his face.

The man's face drained of its blood as he imagined getting the life sucked out of him. But he couldn't afford to piss off the master.

His fate would be much worse if the master found out he had broken their original orders to fulfill the woman's desire for savagery.

A light started flashing from the corner of his eye, and his head snapped toward it, his eyes going wide.

"Ma'am! We have to leave! The power reserves just dipped under twenty-five percent, and continuing this skirmish is futile!" he shouted, focusing his mind away from the angry woman's glowing red eyes.

The woman's fury grew another order of magnitude inside her, realizing they would have to flee like cowards. She gritted her teeth in rage.

"Fine! Divert power from the Energon barrier and perform evasive manoeuvres. We are leaving!" she ordered, strapping back in her command chair.

"Yes, Ma'am!" the pilot barked, glad they could leave this horrible situation.

He did as ordered, flipping the ship around on a dime and pushing the thrust to maximum. He could only hope the monsters outside wouldn't chase them or wouldn't be fast enough. Outside, Kary was about to blast after them, but Alex's voice stopped her in her tracks. "Wait! Don't bother. I'll know if they're coming next time," he said with a malicious grin. Kary wondered what he meant when she felt his mana surge and his appearance change to something she had seen once before. Her body trembled as the memory of Alex dying resurfaced momentarily, but she shook the thought away with a shake of her head.

Alex melded with Sanguinis, even though he hated the feeling he got when he was melded with the Nephilim abomination and screeched as power surged inside him.

His detection radius expanded tenfold, re-englobing the fleeing ship, and he locked his sight on the three souls inside it.

Marking their souls like cows on a ranch, Alex relished in the pain he knew they were in. But he wasn't done.

He zeroed in on the soul with the strangest colour and forced his way into its mind.

Instantly, he entered a dark room with blood everywhere on the floor, and in the center, he saw the reason for the darkness of her soul.

Tied to a chair, flailing its head toward the newest addition to its prison, a wild beast with red eyes and the traits of a horrid bat.

It screeched at him, thirst evident in its gaze, and Alex smirked in response.

"I never thought the legends were true. A vampire? On Earth? I'll be damned. But now I know your secret. And if you get near me again, I'll make sure to purge you from this world, abomination," he said with a grin.

Then, he plunged his hand into the thing's shoulder to make sure the pain and his threat were seared into this thing's mind.

On the ship, all three people started screaming in pain, their ears and noses suddenly bleeding. But one person was worse for wear, collapsing in her chair and convulsing.

Alex retracted from her mind before undoing the meld and looking at Kary.

"Let's go. We need to find the others fast before we get stuck here on our own."