New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live



Astaroth rose to his feet, moving away from the blade, as the demon still moved in his intended direction.

With his fast perception speed, the ten seconds of the skill gave him a thousand seconds' worth of time to act. He rarely ever used all of this time, since it equated to almost seventeen minutes to pass in ten seconds.

But this time, he was going to use all of it.

The demon was already reacting to his movement, but in such a slow manner that it wouldn't matter. To the demon, right now, it looked like Astaroth had suddenly changed into a blur, and was moving so fast he could barely perceive him.

And, Astaroth fully intended to use this perception discrepancy.

Scrolling through his skill list, Astaroth wondered what he would use to make this demon suffer. He wanted it to suffer after it had ordered its underlings to eat the fallen soldiers, instead of ending the fight immediately.

"Hmm. If it likes ordering its underlings to feast on dead enemies, I don't think it can complain if I do the same to it. Right?" Astaroth mused to himself.

But he needed to find a way to pin it down.

Which was easy enough, given his long spell list. He had just the thing.

Astaroth changed his Ad Astra to spell slinger form again and started firing magnetic bullets into the demon. He had scanned it and knew this demon was a constitution-oriented one.

In other words, he was a tank.

So he wouldn't kill it with a few attacks.

Looking at the timer left to his Thousand Thoughts, he saw he had around nine hundred seconds left. This meant only a second had passed for the demon, but almost two minutes had passed for him.

Calculating to himself, he smiled.

"Fifteen minutes. Twelve bullets per minute. I can stop a few seconds before the end and create Synthetic Gravity under it. That should pin it in place. So, let's say a hundred and fifty magnetic bullets in its body and a plate of around five feet by five feet. That should pin it down in place for a while, I imagine," Astaroth mumbled to himself, all the while still firing magnetic bullets into the demon's body, point blank.

From the demon's perspective, everything happened so fast that he didn't know what was happening. Over the next ten seconds, his body was riddled with small puncture wounds, leaving pebble-sized objects in his body.

The damage each did was non-negligible on its own, but not enough to threaten his life.

But it could barely see its assailant, who was moving along with it, constantly out of reach. And after ten seconds, the demon lieutenant felt his body suddenly become infinitely heavier.

It crashed into the ground, feeling like a mountain had been dropped on it.

"What the fuck is happening?!" it shouted, muffled by its own lips having a hard time moving.

Astaroth looked at it, his skill now over, and smiled deviously.

"By my estimates, your body is currently subjected to a hundred times gravity. It's a miracle you haven't turned to paste, let alone retained the ability to complain."

The demon's eyes turned to Astaroth, who had become tangible in his senses again. But it couldn't move.

"What the fuck did you do to me?! How are you controlling gravity?! This is high-level magic!" the demon shouted through semi-closed lips.

"Oh, but not at all. I am not controlling gravity, rather, I merely changed how it is applied to you and this very small area you are in. I am not capable enough to alter gravity itself," Astaroth explained, walking around the demon, seemingly unaffected by the augmented gravity.

He had nothing on him that could react to the magnetic pull. He had stowed anything metallic on him into his inventory, which was already not much.

So he strutted around the pinned demon, unfazed.

"Now. What am I to do to you? I can keep you there for a while, but I wonder what I should do to take revenge on behalf of the fallen soldiers. Any ideas you wish to share?"

The demon seethed with rage, as its body felt like it was about to collapse under its own weight.

"Go to hell!" it spat.

"Soon enough. I'll have to go to kick the ass of your pestilent kind. But for now, I need something more concrete."

Astaroth walked around the demon a few other times, seemingly thinking.

Of course, this was just an act. He had long decided what to do.

But the demon needed to be punished. So he stretched its suffering.

"Oh! I know! You seem to like ordering your underlings to devour your dead foes. How about I do the same for you? Aww, but you aren't dead yet… Hmm," Astaroth hummed, scratching his chin.

"Bah! I don't have enough time to waste by killing you. I think you can handle getting torn to shreds while you live. Don't you?" he asked, his grin stretching.

The demon's eyes went wide, well, as wide as they could, with his eyelids trying to snap shut from the weight.

"What kind of monster are you?!" the demon screamed, panic overcoming it.

No creature, in any world or dimension, wished to go while being eaten alive. This was a horrible way to die.

"Me? A monster? That is rich, coming from an invading demon, who is trying to conquer a world for a master who only wants to feed on it, most likely. And I'm the monster?"

The demon tried swallowing its saliva, but there was nothing to swallow. Its fear had already dried its mouth and throat out.

Astaroth saw the demon was on the verge of a mental breakdown, and he decided now was the time to act.

He summoned Genie and White, setting them loose on the demon's body.

"Tear him to bits. But be careful, he's filled with metallic bullets. Don't break your teeth on those."

Both the wolves howled in delight. Demon meat wasn't tasty, by any means.

But getting to tear one apart, while it couldn't defend itself? That was a treat in itself.

Astaroth sat down on the ground, letting his rage simmer as he watched his companions feast on the screaming demon.

Another part of his soul darkened.

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