A New World, An Immersive Game Experience



Alas, these ghosts weren't defenseless. Not only had they dispelled his attack spell, they were unraveling his flight magic. He was fighting for control, but his agility in flight had sunk like a rock. There was no way he would be able to dodge spells and arrows like this. 

Luckily, he still wore his cloak. While they could dispel its ability just the same, it would free his mind from needing to control every facet of flight. And, if they managed to dispel Soar, he could simply use the ability again. It didn't have a cooldown, after all. 

'Seriously, how are they using mana?' Eldrian asked himself while dodging several dozen attacks. Luckily, being able to fly, even when his agility was shot, made dodging far easier.

Sure, he needed to be more conscious of things, but it wasn't like he was an easy target. His armor, while still experimental, was top-of-the-experimental-range. And, luckily, the ghosts couldn't do anything to it when he morphed it. Darkslime was certainly saving his behind. 

'They don't seem to be using lifeforce.' Eldrian thought, continuing to analyze while dodging, 'Though my sight can't compare to Vivian's when it comes to lifeforce detection.'

While Eldrian had managed to identify them as ghosts, that wasn't because he could actually see their lifeforce. Instead, he saw the mana coating their souls. Which was strange in and of itself. 

'Wait a second, is this even their souls?' Up until this point, Eldrian had been thinking of them as ghosts of the players he had killed, wandering after death. The same way he usually did. But that didn't seem right. 

'Where's the pull from the realm of souls? Why aren't they straining? Why are they staying so easily? Why can they use magic?'

These questions might seem to make no sense. Undead were a thing, as were tortured souls. But that was just the thing, if they were undead, there had to be some corruption. Yet there was no indication of that happening. 

And if they weren't undead, then the realm of souls had to be trying to pull their souls to it. It was like a vacuum that sucked all the departed souls from the planet and into the realm of spirits. From there, souls traveled to their respective god's realm. Players headed to the resurrection hals. 

So why weren't these souls being pulled there?

"Dang, got sloppy," Eldrain grumbled as he tumbled to the ground. Too caught up in his thoughts, he acted too late to a large-scale spell. Of the wind element, it was already hard to notice, and a distracted Eldrian simply didn't notice until it started tearing through his morphed armor. 

The players on the ground quickly swarmed where Eldrian would fall. Making the most of the successful attack, they closed off all avenues of escape. With the ghosts continuing to monitor him for any new spells.

But Eldrian wasn't out for the count just yet. Pulling out a mana crystal, he asked, "Can you stop this?" Throwing it in the direction of the charging players, and the barrage of spells above their heads. 

With so much mana in the air, and so many spells, he didn't even need to cast his own spell onto the mana crystal. Simply throwing it into an existing spell would detonate it. 

And indeed, it did. Setting off a chain reaction, causing all the nearby spells to go haywire. Mana filled the air and ignited, destroying anything too close and sending anything else flying. 

As he was sent sky-high from the blast, Eldrian activated Soar again and took flight. Riding his momentum to try and escape through elevation. However, as soon as he tried, the ghosts' assailed his cloak's ability. Sadly, they could fly with ease. What with their ghost bodies not weighing a thing. Heck, it wasn't even corporeal. 

'Ugh' Groaing in annoyance, Eldrian resummoned the ability each time they canceled it. Trying to keep himself safe while running his mind in circles. Trying to figure out what was going on.

This did eat at his mana, but he had plenty to spare. More than seven ghosts, that was for sure.

Most players were only nearing the 1k MP mark, even when mage specialized and multi-classed. His 10k reserve was more than enough to brute force his escape if this was all they had up their sleeves. 

Sadly, escape wasn't his goal. Surviving alone would do him no good. He either had to wipe out the players around him, or destroy the trebuchets. And doing the latter while being hounded by players seemed impossible. 

'If I can just figure out how they are—wait, there are seven of them, right?' Who Eldrian was talking to, naturally, was himself. As always. 'There is no way seven players in one guild learned how to fight against the pull of the realm of souls.'

'Which means, this isn't their souls... These are ghosts, summoned after their deaths.' It was likely a type of death magic, some branch of undeath. But not. At least not normal undeath. Since there was no corruption, it had to be from a hidden class. 

This was terrible news, It meant there could be more than just these seven who could become ghosts. But it also meant Eldrian now knew how they had done it. And what he was up against. 

It also meant his previous assumption that he had enough mana might be wrong. Hidden classes didn't simply give some extra abilities (hard as they were to learn), they also gave massive stat boosts. 

Now Eldrian didn't even think brute force would work. He had no counter to the ghosts. He couldn't risk using his auras. Still, he now had an idea of what was going on. It was a step in the right direction. 

'Though it is really, reallyyyy tempting to use Wrath. But... Ziraili had warned me not to.'

Sure, it wouldn't be a problem under normal circumstances. If he just sent some small quantities to destroy the ghosts' forms, that should be fine. 

But if he lost control, or sent too much power in his attacks, he might actually hurt the players.

Ziraili did her best to prevent such accidents, but Eldrian knew from experience that the system wasn't perfect. Some pain could get through, and damage to the soul wasn't something Ziraili could stop. Not when players themselves were putting their all into a fight.

And especially not when the difference in strength is too great. 

This was why, when legends were nearby and fighting, players were forcefully logged out. They could actually die if they encounter even the aftershocks of such a battle. 

Eldrian wasn't  that much stronger. But the difference between someone who could access their soul and manipulate lifeforce, versus someone who couldn't. It was a rather big ravine. 

'Okay, no Wrath. Tranquillity is also too dangerous. It won't do as much damage, but it might cause some mental issues.' Then again, any damage to the soul could cause mental issues. However, Eldrian was worried that Tranquility might affect the players' emotions, in particular. 

After a bit of back and forth, and a few casts of Soar, Eldrian had quite enough of this cat-and-mouse game. Deciding that a few hits were inevitable, he dived down. Ready to engage the chasing players in a melee without access to his magic. 

'I'll deal with the ghosts last,' He thought, and boy was that a mistake. As soon as Eldrian landed, still too distracted in his thoughts to carefully investigate his surroundings, a magic circle lit up. 

"Fudge..."