A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

Eldrian wasn't certain what these miasma concentrations were, but he could guess, and he felt confident in it—souls. It was the only thing that made sense, considering the circumstances.

Only, according to all the things Eldrian knew of the afterlife, it shouldn't be possible to chain souls to the physical realm after death. Each passing second would be torture, with the soul being torn apart as its energy dissipates into the rest of the world. For them to still be here made no sense, and to top it off, his map had showed no information on them. Which confirmed that these were not some new entities.

Jumping back, Eldrian avoided the charging souls while his mind raced.

'Stop thinking!' Two shouted.

'How can I?!' Eldrian countered and of course Two understood what was going through Eldrian's mind. But now was not the time to think of the morals of killing the souls. Whether it was a release or eternal damnation, that discussion should be postponed until everything was sorted.

'Just do it!' Two barked, gathering a ball of flames, which he sent through a collection of souls. 'Well, shit. Get out of the miasma!'

The flames had passed through the souls without damaging them. It wasn't hard to understand that they couldn't offer much help to Vivian as things stood.

"Theas, please block the souls!" Eldrian shouted. Rushing forward, weaving between the miasma concentrations and quickly catching up to Vivian while Theas did his best to keep the souls from Eldrian.

Flames of a pure blue surrounded Vivian and devoured the miasma and souls alike. Eldrian stopped before the flames, the heat unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

'It's warm, but not physically—how strange.' Diving into the flames, Eldrian grabbed Vivian's arm and pulled her back just as she was about to attack the rotten gate of the fort.

"What?!" She turned to see Eldrian and froze, sense finally returning. And as it did, a terrible screech filled the air as the undead beyond the walls stirred. She did not note the screeching of the waking undead. Her focus was on Eldrian who was surrounded by the same flames surrounding her. While she knew she would be alright, she worried for Eldrian. Luckily, her flames were not the flames of wrath.

Sensing her worry and imaging what his flames would do to anyone to come into contact with it, Eldrian smiled, trying to ease her worries. "It doesn't hurt."

His words calmed her heart and finally she could focus on the danger they were in. Theas was desperately struggling against the souls who had lost interest in Eldrian as soon as he entered the flames surrounding Vivian. While the souls were incredibly weak, there were too many swarming him from all directions.

"You focus on the souls. I'll handle the undead." Eldrian said, rushing towards the rotten gate which burst apart as the first swarm of lower undead charged to find the intruders. Their confusion was evident at finding only four people before the fort, and before they could collect their thoughts, Crystoi severed their bodies and undeath with it.

The spear was shrouded in fire and tore through the undead with ease, the damage such that Eldrian only had to attack a weak point once to kill even the strongest skeleton. Eldrian mowed through the lower undead with ease, focusing more on channeling his mana from his soul than the actual fight.

Vivian, on the other hand, had rushed over to help Theas just as he was about to be overwhelmed. Defending from all directions -up, down, right, left, behind, in front- it was no easy task and even just a few seconds had the dwarf tasting death. He was grateful as Vivian's blue flames cleansed the souls upon contact, leaving behind a vacuum of emptiness he quickly escaped through.

After confirming that Vivian was in no danger, he rushed to help Eldrian, and the two mowed down the lower undead with ease. Killing hundred in seconds. Vivian, on the other hand, fought to control her flames to stop the souls from interrupting the two.

"What's with her flames?" Theas asked as they moved, weaving between the undead and jumping into the flame's Vivian was controlling from time to time to escape should the souls focus them.

"No idea. I think it has a divine element." Eldrian replied, keeping note of the stronger undead who had stirred and talking with Two who was laying runic traps around the gate area as they pushed towards the bailey of the fort. Where the souls seemed incapable of following.

"I've never heard of a flame that doesn't burn." Theas said, turning serious as the first Flaming Reanimate entered the fray. Eldrian would have struggled to face it, likely needing to alter the element covering Crystoi or relying on spells. But Theas simply attacked with his golden halbert.

Theas and the reanimate fought for only a few seconds before its flames died and its bones fell to the ground. Seeing this, Eldrian finally breathed in relief. Theas' strength seemed to be enough. Eldrian had been slightly worried seeing his struggle with the souls, but their existence itself was a big question. So it wasn't that strange that Theas would struggle against their onslaught.

This continued for a minute or two until one of the higher undead finally arrived. It was the lich, and it watched from the sidelines with interest as Eldrian and Theas continued to mow down the lower undead. Half of which had already been killed.

'Why is it just standing there?' Eldrian pondered and asked Two.

'I have no idea. Perhaps it is assessing the situation?' Two replied.

'I don't like this. Too few of the strong undead have reacted. The map view is too limited, but I bet they're surrounding us for a trap.' Deciding that this was enough for today, Eldrian shouted for Theas to fall back. As they retreated, multiple flaming reanimates appeared behind them. Jumping from the walls to block their path.

"It's too late—" The lich started to gloat, but its gloating was immediately stopped when bursts of ice erupted right where the reanimates had landed. The ice extinguished their flames and, while it did not kill them, it made them little more than normal skeletons.

Eldrian struck one with his spear but sadly, it did minor damage as it was still wreathed in flames and the flaming reanimates were immune to fire damage. The one Theas struck with his halbert, however, shattered apart.

Outside the fort, Vivian was still fighting off the souls, who now numbered only a few dozen. Eldrian rushed to her and pulled her out of the miasma. Of course, the lich would not let them go so easily. It sent the lower undead after them along with the rest of the flaming reanimates and a few of the Tier 5 higher undead.

This massive horde of a few hundred skeletons and other undead rushed out of the fort toward the four living people. It looked like a wave of death was about to drown them.

"Shit, we should have retreated sooner!" Vivian cursed, blaming herself for losing her composure.

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