New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live-Chapter 1106: China, Ablaze and Bleeding

For Amara Rossi, this had been a long day already, and she was ready to head to bed, when Alexander Leduc suddenly burst into her room in a torrent of black flames and grabbed her by the arm.

"Sorry, no time to explain. You’re coming with me," he claimed, pulling her toward him.

"Wha—Where—Eek!" she exclaimed, surprised by the event.

Her bodyguard and lover, Maria, didn’t even get time to react that she and Alexander had vanished again.

"Amara!" she shouted, dashing to where her boss had been moments ago, grasping at nothing but air.

Her face flashed with worry, before turning to a mask of rage. She exploded into action, rushing out of the room before the goons outside could even react.

"Sound the alarm! The boss has been taken!" she yelled, her sword already in her hand.

As for Amara, the teleportation made her queasy, as her heart hit the pit of her stomach, feeling as if she’d been flipped around in a centrifugal separator.

The feeling barely had time to fade, as solid ground reappeared under her feet, that her hand made contact with skin, and her powers activated against her will.

Her vision swam again, this time going into her own mind, pulling with it someone else’s mind, and the vision began.

Tian Kuo felt his vision swim, as he was sucked outside his own body, and before long, reappeared at the top of the heavenly ascent.

"What in the gods’ name..." he muttered, as his blood froze.

From the first step, all the way to the top, blood was running like a small waterfall on the stairs before him, painting the immaculate white stairs crimson.

Bodies lay upon the stairs, torn to shreds, mangled, and faces frozen in expressions of terror.

A maniacal cackle burst out behind him, his hair standing all over his body.

"Ah ah ah ah ah! Oh, Tian Kuo, my little fox. How long it’s been?!" the cackling voice asked, sending shivers down the fox’s spine.

But when Tian Kuo turned, he saw the voice’s owner holding him, or rather, another him, by the throat, arm extended, as his feet lazily dangled a few inches off the ground.

"You will never take over this world, èmó. The gods will never allow it," his double spat, blood spurting out his lips into the demon’s face.

But the demon was unfazed by the crimson liquid dribbling down his face.

"Oh, my little fox. How far you’ve fallen. After all these years, how could you be so blind to the truth? Your gods have abandoned you. No one is coming to your rescue, little fox. Just like no one came to mine when you locked me away a millennium ago," he replied, an evil grin raising his lips.

Tian Kuo wanted to attack this demon and free his double from this assailant, but his feet refused to move from their spot, suddenly stuck to the ground under them, before his vision swam again.

He saw a bird’s-eye view of his sect, painted in red across its entirety, screams of terror and pain still resounding, as he saw imps and lesser demons run his disciples down, his elder all either dead or nowhere to be seen.

His vision swam again, getting further from his sect, as he saw the village below the mountain, in flames, wailing echoing through a fire-lit night.

As he tried forcing his eyes away from this view, all he saw was more of the same. The forests burning to cinders; towns drowning in cries of fear and blood; the waters running with more blood than water, as the crimson liquid imbibed the ground below.

Death. Death as far as his eyes could see, and an emptiness forming inside his heart.

"How could this be..." he muttered to himself, before his vision swam one last time, and he was shoved back into his body.

He fell back into his chair, gasping for air as if he’d been holding his breath forever, and the woman who had brought him to those visions crashed to the ground, her eyes wide in fear.

"What in the holy hell was this?" Amara asked, her heart pounding inside her chest from the visions.

She had seen many visions of people dying already, but that one had been particularly vivid.

Hell, she didn’t even know why her powers activated at the touch of this man.

"Do you believe me now, fox?" Alex asked, staring at Tian Kuo in insistence.

"It can’t be," Tian Kuo rebuked, refusing to believe what he had been shown. "My sect would never fall so easily, and the demon in that illusion is already locked inside the pagoda.

"How would he even get out? You are trying to trick me with a mentalist, showing me nothing but lies and deception!"

Amara looked at him with an offended gaze.

"Hey! Watch your accusations, old man. I’m no trickster. I’m an oracle. Everything I see in my visions will happen unless altered. Don’t look down on my foresight ability," she spat, getting back up to her feet.

Then she glared at Alexander.

"As for you, what the fuck? You barge into my room in a ball of black flames, kidnap me in my nightgown, in the middle of the fucking night, and then carry me to what I can only assume is the other side of the world, given the light of day. And for what? To get me insulted after forcing me into a vision I didn’t want? How dare you?!"

Alex looked at her apologetically.

"I’m sorry, Miss Rossi. I needed your powers, and time was a luxury I didn’t have. I will bring you back home shortly," he said in a low tone.

But the fox was still refusing to admit to what he had seen.

"No. I refuse to believe that illusion. It has to be a lie. How would such lowly demons ever overcome the defences of my formations and get inside the sect? It is impossible," he refuted, glaring at Alexander.

*Tch*

Alex clicked his tongue.

"You said it yourself. The demon was already here. All he had to do was open the door. I can make sure that doesn’t happen, but you need to cooperate with us, Tian Kuo. What other choice do you have? This won’t be an isolated incident. The whole world will burn. Unless you help us."