A New World, An Immersive Game Experience

The now over a meter thick dome of ice did not give way to Wrath as easily as Eldrian had thought it would. Even without supplying it with energy, its temperature was extremely low. And, naturally, the ice was not of the natural kind.

Eldrian only realized now, but going from what Ziraili had told him before about lifeforce being the energy of the universe. Then Wrath would be a type of energy which consumed all, while Tranquility froze all. Each was the very essence of that idea.

Naturally, the two were dynamically apposed. However, with one being fed energy and the other not, Wrath won out in the end. Sadly, Eldrian's arms were in a sorry state when he made it outside.

His prosthetic was little more than molten metal at this point, Mithril it was, but Mithril could not withstand those heats. His left arm fared better. Wrath did not immediately start consuming his body, only when he truly lost control or pushed himself too far.

Still, Eldrian was in no condition to fight. With magic blocked, his right prosthetic lost, and his left arm weakened. Well, the best he could do was dodge the attacks that flew his way.

Luckily, Eldrian was used to their attack patterns. While the pegasus caught him off guard from time to time, the Alacrad not so much. Eldrian even spared Ziraili a glance, having found her floating near the top of the dome shaped barrier surrounding their arena.

From the looks of things, she didn't consider Eldrian to be losing control. So she wanted him to continue fighting.

'But what to do? I should probably kill the Alacrad first.' Eldrian thought. Sadly, the beasts fought well together.

Their cooperation was not that of a trained unit, but they covered one another's weaknesses. Worse, they attacked from Eldrian's blind spot. Giving him little time to think and try something sneaky himself.

'Got you now!' Eldrian smirked. Having grown frustrated by the stalemate, even though they were scoring minor hits from time to time, the Alacrad charged. Right into Wrath.

However, as it burned, the pegasus attacked. Sending a hailstorm of ice and wind into Eldrian's back. Coughing up blood, Eldrian turned to it in rage. Its constant harassment from the side had truly pissed him off. And this was the last straw.

Eldrian lost control, and the world turned red.

—

"What happened?" Eldrian asked, waking with a massive headache. His body also ached a ton, too. It wasn't as bad as some past incidents, but it was still no walk in the park.

"You lost control. So I knocked you out." Ziraili replied calmly. "While you're recovering, let us talk about the battle."

Listening to her analysis, Eldrian could only nod. He wasn't thinking of his auras as a unique type of magic. When he used them, he considered Wrath but a powerful flame spell, and Tranquility but a powerful ice spell.

They were not, however, simple spells.

They were the very essence of the concept that their names belied.

"I get Wrath, but Tranquility. What does it mean for it?" Eldrian asked.

"It manifests as ice for you, because that is what you linked it to. In truth, Tranquility is the absence of motion. A state of absolute calm, where nothing can happen."

'That is a big revelation, but I'm not getting it.'

"You know how heat works, right?" Ziraili asked, and Eldrian explained his high school level understanding of it. How it was simply the vibrations, and motion, of atoms.

"Right, and ice, for example, is water in a state of very little vibration. Tranquility is the state of no vibration. You can say it is absolute zero, but it isn't, really."

"Why not?"

"Because it depends on the user's vision. It can be absolute zero, but it can also be simple ice."

"Ah!" Dots connecting, Eldrian blushed. From that, Tranquility was certainly powerful. As, if not more, than Wrath.

Yet, Eldrian never really used it. In large part because Wrath was easier to call, and Tranquility required a calm mind to summon.

"Wrath is the same. However, since you awoke it with the desire for destruction and annihilation, your use is close to its truth."

'Wow, I sound barbaric,' Eldrian thought. "And what is the truth for Wrath?"

"Annihilation."

"Didn't you just say I awoke it with that intent?"

"Through fire, yes." Tilting his head in question, Ziraili sighed and continued. "Your level of conception is lacking. Put another way, you lack creativity."

She pressed with a question. "When I say annihilate, what comes to mind?"

"Something disappearing from existence?" Eldrian proposed, uncertain.

"How?"

"It just disappears."

"Then why do you need flames?"

"Oh." Now feeling like an idiot, Eldrian still had to ask how though. He got the idea and had this mental image, but he couldn't really think of something simply disappearing. Flames were his medium to accomplish it.

Ziraili, however, did not give Eldrian the answer he hoped for. "I could explain how. But the destruction it brings is far too great. It would rival, if not surpass, the power of atomic weapons."

"Wait! What!?"

"Yes. Which is why I do not think it would be wise to tell you when you haven't mastered control. Not to mention manipulation."

"Yeah, I get it. Don't want to accidentally destroy a city or worse." Eldrian couldn't fathom how something could be as powerful as weapons of mass destruction, and it made him more than a little apprehensive.

"Is Tranquility a weaker aura then?" Eldrian asked.

At the question, Ziraili scoffed. "Nonsense. No one aura is more powerful than another. Mastery is what makes one win over the other."

'Well, I guess that makes sense.' Eldrian had no counter to her statement, but it also felt like a lie. 'Perhaps this is true for auras, maybe... Can't think it holds for bloodlines, though. Space and time have to be the  most powerful ones.'

—

"Hey, check this site." Ilmadia whispered, sharing with the others a link to it. "Do you think this is real, fake, or as Miracle claims, and from ANW?"

"What is it?" Nikki asked.

"Apparently, leaked footage from a lab. I find it strange that the area looks modern. If it was from ANW, wouldn't it look more medieval?" Therdul asked.

"Of course you would." Ilmadia said. "You haven't seen the high grade labs of mages. But, you're right. The ascetics of the background seem more like something we would find on Earth."

"I repeat, what the heck is it? The thing in the picture, I mean." Nikki asked, again.

"Apparently, some mutated animal. If the poster is to be believed, Miracle is attempting to make monsters."

Hearing this, the group chuckled awkwardly. The post was likely wrong. Miracle couldn't give a damn for monsters. However, they might make a monster or a few dozen, or hundreds, in the process of their actual goal. Which, sadly, the group still couldn't fathom.

Sure, they had heard the standards. The news has slowly been getting to the other players too. Miracle hadn't really hidden their original intent for the game.

That it wasn't originally intended to be a game.

Heck, they had thrown that into the player's faces. Going, "If you don't like it, then we'll simply move on! We don't care if we need to scrap the game!"

Which, considering how most players considered the NPCs as living people at this point, was a hot topic. Even to this day, years after Miracle's statement.

It was also what had pressured the company to update things to aid the players in their attempt to help the NPCs. Which came with a nice triple combo of dungeons, city-building, and a market for the whales.