New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

*Welcome back player Astaroth*

As the message appeared in his vision, the landscapes changed, and he appeared in the dark tunnel under Aberon's house. In front of him, where there used to be a conjured wall of stone, shattered stone and scratch marks replaced it.

A thick red mist emanated from the cavern where the artifact should be. In the center, where the artifact once rested on the pedestal, glass-like fragments were strewn about.

Behind the pedestal, a large red circle floated a foot above the ground. The mist flowing through the tunnel all came from the open circle.

It was seeping out of it like fog over a mountain ridge, falling to the ground and washing in every direction.

The thickness of it was much higher than what Astaroth and his friends had seen in the underground of their base. The mana was so saturated with red and black particles that the act of breathing felt like heresy.

Astaroth was on high alert, expecting to be attacked at any moment. But no attack ever came, as he surveyed the room, trying to see what caused the scratch marks and exploded wall.

He could already feel the miasma trying to enter his body, from every pore of his skin, slowly creeping its way toward his face. Astaroth didn't want to risk being corrupted, so he bolted out of the room.

When he climbed the slope leading to Aberon's house, instead of finding a staircase up and the inside of the house, a hole was blown up into the village. The hole was as large as the house used to be, and it was easy to guess which direction it had exploded from.

Jumping out of the underground, Astaroth landed inside the cave. The village he had once started his adventure in was nothing more than ruins now.

The forge was destroyed, the barracks lay in ruins, Aberon's house was no more, and even the small alcoves that the villagers had lived in were mostly crumbled closed.

'What in the heavens happened here? It's like a hurricane hit the interior of the mountain.'

The devastation was reminiscent of the vision he had of Tel'narel and the memories Khalor had shown him through his legacy.

Astaroth scanned the cave for any signs of enemies remaining, but found none. As he left the confines of the mountain, his gaze landed on the forest outside.

His heart dropped.

Around him, nothing but scorched trees and dead animals or monsters. It was like a volcano had erupted from inside the mountain, swallowing everything from there to wherever it ended.

Amongst the remains of animals, many species could be seen.

Astaroth could spot the familiar dire wolves he had hunted time and time again with his fellow warriors in his early stages. He could also see a lot of burnt bat remains, which, by their size and shape, he could tell they were blood bats.

Astaroth also found a few Giant Bears as he walked further away from the village. But something felt odd.

The more he walked away, the more animal bodies he found, that instead of being faced toward the village, were faced in the opposite direction.

He couldn't tell if the monsters had been running away from something, or if they fought against each other, given some bodies were isolated, and others were tangled in heaps.

Once Astaroth had walked far away from the village, where he couldn't feel the taint of demonic mana any longer, he called out to Morpheus and melded with him.

With the wings sprouting out of his back, Astaroth launched into the skies. Once he was hundreds of feet in the air, he stopped.

From there, he closed his eyes and focused.

Feeling a tether attached to his soul, which he had felt many times before, Astaroth opened his eyes and blasted in the direction it went.

'Good. Genie is still alive. Let's hope she hasn't succumbed to the corruption.'

Following the link between him and the wolf, Astaroth flew for as long as the meld allowed him, before landing and switching to White, sprinting in the same direction.

After another five minutes, he swapped over to Luna, feeling he was almost to where the tether connected. Astaroth did not recognize where he was anymore, and the forest in these parts was still burnt to the ground, although it seemed some patches of it were still fuming.

Reaching the edge of a valley, Astaroth came to an abrupt stop. Below him, a few kilometres away, a large tree towered the center of the valley.

Around the base of the tree, a massive row of stones stood tall, forming a perfect circle, acting like a natural barrier.

'This place! It looks exactly like Paragon's base!'

But he had no time to ponder much, since the sounds of battle echoed across the valley, reaching his ears. In the middle of what sounded like thunderclaps and explosions, Astaroth heard a familiar howl.

*AAAWWWOOOOOOO!*

Astaroth's heart was almost soothed to hear the familiar howl of his companion, Genie. But the low roar of a giant bear followed it, trying to suppress it.

'She's in battle!'

Realizing it wasn't time to dawdle, Astaroth launched forward, making his way to where the noise of a fight was resounding from.

Reaching the place, he came up behind a group of monsters with the same composition as what he had seen around the village.

Hordes of Blood Bats, wings seething in red miasma, making them look even more dangerous than before.

Entire packs of Dire Wolves, with manes flaring up in demonic energy, eyes bright red.

Giant Bears, twice their normal sizes, their fur blood-red instead of its natural black.

These beasts also seemed crazed, acting recklessly, as they fought their counterparts who were losing badly.

At the front of the battle, locked in battle against a massive white wolf, was a Giant red bear. The white wolf was sporting many claw marks across its flanks, bleeding profusely.

The bear wasn't in pristine condition, either, one of its eyes missing, a gaping hole replacing it, as well as many bite marks around its neck, bleeding so much it was a miracle the bear was still standing.

Seeing his companion in such awful shape aroused a sense of fury inside Astaroth, that he hadn't sensed in a while.

"Genie!!"