A New World, an immersive game experience

Stumbling through the pain, Eldrian rounded the corner and attempted to teleport away. Only to fall flat on his face. His mana turning rampant and stealing all the strength he had.

At the same time, Eldrian tried to contact Two. No reply came. The connection he usually felt with Two and his soul was gone.

From the pain, Eldrian understood the danger he was in. But, for some reason, it was impossible for him to casually glance at the situation.

It was like he was sent back to when gaining access to his own soul was a massive task. Like a barrier was preventing him from casually looking. He would need to meditate to figure things out. But, of course, Eldrian was in no position to meditate.

Gritting his teeth, Eldrian stumbled to his feet again. He was still unwilling to give up. While he had an escape plan in place, he wasn't even sure if he could use it with his mana acting so strange.

The first thing Eldrian had to do was get control of his mana. Currently, it was leaking into the surroundings, and the surrounding death mana was invading his body in turn. Turning his flesh necrotic and eating at his life.

Turning to runic magic, Eldrian hoped he could use it to give himself some time. Alas, when he attempted to draw the runes in the air like normal, the faint lines constructed of mageia disappeared into the air.

His focus was too weak and the surrounding disturbance too great for them to remain in place.

Turning towards the ground, Eldrian took out a normal dagger and dug into the floor. Etching the runic pattern while the pain grew worse yet. When he was done, he added a couple of smaller mana crystals to fuel the barrier.

He could only pray that it would be enough as he closes his eyes and focused inward. While it was more difficult than normal to calm down and enter his soul, it only took Eldrian a few tries.

What welcomed him when he arrived in his soul was a devastated world. Somehow, the attack had penetrated his natural defenses and caused havoc. The sight shocked Eldrian to his core.

He couldn't believe this was reality. Not when he had defended against a lich's attack and even countered to consume said lich's soul in turn.

'I was a fool.' Eldrian thought.

He had believed that a lich would be the greatest threat, yet here he stood now. Amidst mountains ripped asunder, trees throw about as if a hurricane had gone through, and the normal tranquil lake at the center of his soul devoid of water.

"Two! What's the situation!" Eldrian shouted, but no answer came. As the silence settled, Eldrian feared the worse. However, noticing an invading presence, he focused on it. Instead of letting his fear grow.

He immediately moved to the presence, finding that it was attempting to free to trapped cleansed energy that used to be the lich's soul.

Eldrian instantly attacked the foreign entity. A battle between immaterial things followed as Eldrian used the very fabric of 'space' to annihilate all the foreign entities he could find.

This wasn't too difficult. He simply overwhelmed them each time with his fast quantities of lifeforce. Alas, each attack group that he destroyed caused the loss of an equivalent amount of his lifeforce or 'space'.

By the time Eldrian had eliminated all invading entities, his soul had shrunk. Eldrian wasn't sure of the exact amount, but he had lost hundreds, perhaps thousands, of meters.

Knowing that the size reflected his XP and thus affected his level, Eldrian could only pray that the loss would not be unrecoverable. But since it was still larger than his earthen soul, Eldrian was sure he wasn't in danger.

Thus, his focus turned to finding Two. Alas, Eldrian could not find him. His fears confirmed, he nearly lost control of his emotions.

Knowing that losing control would mean death. Eldrian called upon the ice mist in the unaffected solar system above the now ruined world.

Forcefully cooling his emotions, Eldrian calmly analyzed the situation. The answer he came to was that he could do no more here and had to return to his body. Where he found his situation exponentially worse than when he had started to meditate.

Only a few minutes had passed, but it was too much. Eldrian's mana had all leaked out. Not only that, but his stamina was nearly zero and his health had plummeted to only a few hundred. Something, something outside of the death mana turning his flesh necrotic, was still ravaging through his body.

Fighting through the fatigue, Eldrian summoned another mana crystal. Attempting to use its mana to recover his own. However, as soon as he tried this, the thing inside his body attacked the crystal.

Eldrian only barely noticed in time. Throwing the crystal outside of the barrier, only managing to throw it four meters. It exploded and caused the barrier to crack. Luckily, it held up. But one of the three crystals he had used to power it was now also depleted.

Eldrian moved to replace the depleted crystal, only to fall. The arm he had thrown the crystal with had broken in the action. And when he tried to put weight on his legs, they too had caved in.

Luckily, all his nerves were more or less dead. So the pain was manageable. Though Eldrian was still in pain because of the damage to his soul—it was something he could bear.

Eldrian's sight was also extremely blurry. His eyes were probably near their end, too.

Unable to replace the crystal, Eldrian realized how truly defenseless he was now. He tried his best to get a grasp of what was happening to his body, but all the death mana invading it made it impossible for him to even inspect himself. Each time he tried, it ate at the little energy he had left.

It was as Eldrian was hanging by a thread against slipping unconscious that several blurry figures approached.

His sight unable to even identify what was approaching, Eldrian turned to his map... It wasn't working. How? Eldrian didn't know. Clearly, the damage he had taken was enough to even disrupt the system functions from GAIA.

Luckily, it still showed the area. However, the functions to show him the location of enemies were currently on the frits.

Not able to determine the approaching figures' strength. Eldrian realized the truly devastating position he was in.

Mana less, dead tired, and most of his body necrotic and decayed. Simply attempting to move caused his bones to break.

There was no way he could win a fight. Not even against someone at Tier 1. Heck, a child with a dagger could probably end him if they got through the barrier he was in.

"We've got him!" An excited voice shouted as a spell landed on said barrier. It rebounded, and a shockwave sent the approaching figures to the ground. However, they quickly recovered.

"Hah, that hurt! Curse you!" In anger, the same voice attacked the barrier again. Only to be again sent onto his backside.

AN: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Remember to leave a comment if you did.

:)