A New World, an immersive game experience

Chapter 492 - Near Death For Everyone

It was a strange feeling, all his questions and wondering made the connection between him and the aura slip. Yet, it was not because of them themselves, but rather, him looking for the answers of these questions.

"Correct, searching means questioning and thus non-tranquility."

"Unkown, unknown, unknown. Correct, control has been lost."

Grumbling, Eldrian flipped the finger at himself. "Anger detected, unknown, unknown..."

Suddenly, Eldrian found himself with a massive headache as the ice-covered the half-elf as a shield and sent out attacks, knocking his ethereal self senseless.

He woke in his study, the place destroyed and covered in ice. The temperature was so cold that the wood had all cracked and even the floor was starting to crack from the extreme temperatures.

Moving his mana through him to fight off the invading cold, Eldrian cast Therapeia to recover his quickly draining HP and also cast Volida to combat the cold.

Shockingly, the fire spell simply died out. It took Eldrian eight more tries before he managed to keep it alive in this frozen hell, by which time his fingers had severe frostbite and this was actually quickly spreading to his arms.

"Sir, are you alright?" Darren's voice asked along with a knock on the door, which caused it to crumble in pieces.

"Run!" Eldrian shouted, rushing to the door to try and stop the ice from escaping.

Understanding the danger, Darren ran at the top speed that his horse lower half could carry him, it was only slightly faster than the expanding ice.

Eldrian's heart nearly froze as he saw them approaching the second floor's living room where Ceph and Vivian were. "Run!" Eldrian shouted at the top of his lungs, however, instead of doing so the two sprang to action to help him.

Eldrian didn't know it, but by the time Ceph's heal had reached him, he was just a few seconds from death. Just a few numbers from his HP reaching 0, from succumbing to the ice.

Vivian, instead, pulled out Nelida's flame, using its ability 'Burst of Passion' to combat the ice. Her shocked expression made it clear that she couldn't believe how little effect it had on the ice. Just putting a stop to it for a second.

She then activated 'Follow your Heart', covering herself and the surrounding two meters in flames, but massively draining her already halved mana pool.

Seeing their struggle, Ceph also cast a spell of heat.

He didn't know any spells related to fire, heck, he knew very few destruction-focused spells. During his training, his focus had been completely on how to gain control of his spells. Not on learning more spells.

As such, Ceph cast his spell with a singular thought. Heat. To heat up the entire corridor and save his friend.

The walls closest to him quickly turned red hot and caught flame, and as the heat passed by Eldrian, the thermal shock sent his body falling to the ground. Luckily, he managed to stay awake and take care of himself while the two finally managed to stop the spread of the ice.

However, on the other side of the corridor, there was no one to stop the spread. Luckily, everyone in the house was safe, luckily Eldrian hadn't yet hired anyone.

The ice spread without hindrance in that direction, freezing even the very air. When things calmed down, icicles filled vision and snow was slowly drifting to the ground. The house's arrays were broken, and its foundation was just a hit away from falling.

When Eldrian could finally stand up, he looked at the havoc and simply cursed. "I don't think I should stay in a mansion," Eldrian mumbled after calming himself through curses. The damages were certain to be beyond what he could afford.

"You certainly need an experimentation room, but..." Looking at the ice-filled corridor and cracking walls, Vivian didn't think that would be enough. It wasn't like this mansion was fragile, to begin with.

The arrays covering its external walls were meant to stop up to Tier 5 attacks with ease.

"Wha-what type of experiment was that?" Darren asked, in disbelief that something this devastating could have been caused by a Tier 4 elf. True, High Elves were different, but this, this seemed more like a Tier 7 or Tier 8 spell. Possibly even stronger than that.

Especially when Darren thought about the fact that it wasn't meant to cover an area. Instead, it had simply done so due to the difference in temperatures. Spreading from the origin.

A few of the hopeful-to-be-retainers who had come to give their answers also looked at the now half-frozen mansion in shock and awe. However, they quickly wondered what could have caused it and then sounded the alarms.

Just a few minutes later, as Eldrian was trying to make sure the others were alright. While they were trying to make sure he was alright. Pelaros arrived.

"Eldrian?" Pelaros looked at the still ice-filled room and shuddered as it reminded him of the power of a magic tower. "How?"

Eldrian looked at the centaur before him, in his haste, for once Pelaros hadn't thought of transforming to human form for ease of conversation and convenience. Instead, he was battle-ready, even in his armor.

However, upon arrival, he had confirmed that this wasn't an attack. Leaving him with many questions.

"I honestly have no idea." Looking at the other three who had nearly died, Eldrian expressed his apologies, "I am truly sorry, I had no idea things could even turn out this bad."

Smiling in disbelief, Darren nodded and chose to leave as he knew Eldrian wanted to talk with Pelaros in private.

"You two stay," Eldrian said as Ceph and Vivian also prepared to leave.

"First, I would like to say that I was aware what I was doing might be slightly dangerous to me. However, I had no idea it could be this dangerous to everyone."

"What were you doing?" Pelaros asked, truly wishing to understand and make sense of the feeling of danger he felt from the ice. He, even as a Tier 8 warrior, Tier 7 mage, and Tier 6 archer, felt an instinctual fear towards the ice.

"I know you said I shouldn't recklessly search my soul, and I wasn't. I can't really go into details," Eldrian said, partly because it was near impossible to explain. And largely that if Miracle knew of the new developments of his soul, he had no idea what they would do.

He was extremely happy that the events inside his soul were secret, and part of him was happy that even Ziraili seemed to be unaware of it. He felt a slight hint of fear about if the gods were to discover what he had just managed.

Especially after the events when his soul crystallized and his affinity had surpassed a hundred percent.

"I was trying to figure out how to gain control over one of my auras, and lost control." Eldrian explained, "Next thing I knew I was freezing to death."

Everyone, but Cephaphyr, looked at Eldrian in utter disbelief and shock. Ceph, instead, had no idea why what Eldrian said was so shocking. To him, it just sounded like Eldrian was struggling with the same thing that his dad had thought him during their training.

Eldrian had simply lost control and let too much mana escape.

The difference was, auras didn't work with mana. At least not the mana that a person has inside of them. How exactly they worked, nearly no one knew. Those who did, they weren't exactly going to spread that information to the general public who didn't even understand what auras are.

AN: A big thanks to everyone who continually supports this on WN.