The Soul Keeper

It was somewhat painful as my mind detached from my body. For a short moment, I had no body. My whole existence was just my consciousness I was barely holding on to. If I had a throat, I would probably be feeling a lump in it. If I had a heart, it'd be beating as if it were trying to escape from my chest. But I had none of those. I wondered to myself – should I panic?

Suddenly a light flashed in the darkness and I noticed – I can see! Pale blue letters formed from the light.

'Welcome to PORTAL – please wait as an AVATAR is assigned according to your specifications'

Unable to do anything else, I watched as the letters faded and new ones appeared.

'AVATAR designation complete. In a moment you will be transported into Erdrin – home of the Ereth.'

I stared at the unfamiliar words. For a moment, I felt a tingling sensation on my fingertips. I tried to move them, but I couldn't. I was still stuck in this darkness.

'Erdrin has been invaded by Demons. As a player, your goal is to take back the lost lands of the Ereth and help them rebuild.'

I felt my head spin again. My vision faded, then bright light burned my eyes. I started feeling again. Something soft was pressing against my cheek. I opened my eyes. I was laying on a soft bed, in a simple, empty room. I motioned to get up, but immediately felt a dizziness.

'Welcome to Erdrin.' The pale blue text appeared once more. 'AVATAR synchronisation nearly complete. Please try to move your limbs one by one.'

I slowly moved my left hand. Then, my right. My body felt weird, like it was not my own. Staring at the blue text still, I slowly moved my legs one by one. Only then, the text changed.

'AVATAR synchronisation complete. No issues found. Welcome to Erdrin, Kai Friseal. You may now move freely. Once you leave this room, you will be given the option to choose a class. Please make sure you are comfortable with your AVATAR before you leave this room.'

I blankly stared at the text until it faded. How did it know my name?

I heard a loud thud, followed by some swearing. I assumed it was one of the other players. Was there something wrong with their avatar?

I slowly pushed myself up to a sitting position. I immediately noticed I was taller than before. The ground seemed so much farther away. I also noticed my skin tone as soon as my hands entered my vision. It was very pale, almost looked like I was sick or something. I could even see the purple veins in under my skin.

I carefully traced one of the veins from my wrist, all the way to my elbow. My hand – eye coordination seemed ok since I could at least do that much.

"Well…" I mumbled. My voice sounded similar to before. It was slightly softer and quieter, but it was somewhat recognisable. I think.

I slowly stood up, making sure to hold on to the bed for support. I didn't want to end up like the person that thud originated from. At first, my legs were shaky. The clunky black robe I was wearing wasn't helping either. I slowly took a step forward, then another and another until I reached the door. I reached for the handle, then stopped as I noticed a mirror next to the door. After a moment's hesitation, I stepped in front of the mirror.

A tall, slim, pale man looked at me. He wore a simple black robe. I flinched – did I really look like that? I stepped closer to the mirror. I had ridiculously long, white hair and purple eyes. Even my eyelashes were white.

"Did you seriously not find a more normal looking avatar?" I asked, half expecting those blue letters to answer me. Of course, nothing happened. I sighed, what the hell was I supposed to do, looking like this?

At least my facial features were similar to those of the real me, aside from the pointy ears of course. I was – barely – recognisable. With uncertain steps, I approached the door and pulled it open.

I was facing a rather large hall, filled with people. There were large windows on the walls and something like a podium at the far end of the room. Aside from that there were no decorations whatsoever.

"Oh my god! You're look like a monster!" A girl with bright green hair who otherwise looked human, shouted at a guy who really did look like a monster. He had horns sprouting from his head and I could see his long, claw-like hands from all the way over here.

I looked around, hoping to spot Erik, but almost immediately gave up. There were so many people, and everyone looked so… inhuman. I wasn't even sure if I could recognise Erik if I saw him.

Someone lost their balance and fell. Someone else bumped into a wall. It was chaos. I stood at my door, just watching all that until I heard a familiar voice.

"Kai!" It was Samantha. She looked identical to her real self. The only difference was her hair was longer and neatly tied up. She also wore the same type of black robe as me.

"Oh my god!" She shouted as our eyes met. "What the hell!" She sprinted towards me, only losing her balance once and quickly recovering. "Erik told me the AVATAR's would be created to fit our talents and all but…" She mumbled as she stared at me.

"Can you please not stare?" I asked as I felt blood rushing to my face. I was already self conscious enough as it is. "Anyways, why do you look exactly the same?"

She shrugged. "I have no idea. Why do you look like…" She paused.

"Samantha please," I said while glancing around. "Besides, other people look a lot weirder than I do!" I tilted my head towards the guy with the horns and claws. "Look."

She shrugged. "Well, true. But you're definitely more eye-catching than him."

I sighed. "Can we just find the others please?"

"Sure," She said with a grin. "People are staring though; you should know that."

"Please, just stop." I looked around in a panic, only to see a few people look away as soon as our gazes met. She was right. My shoulders dropped as I followed her. "How did you know who I was?"

She grinned. "Let that be my secret."

"Oh, come on." I cried out. "How will we find the others?"

"I'll take care of it." She said with that same grin and a confident tone. "Don't you worry. You haven't picked a class yet, right?"

I shook my head. I didn't even know how to.

"Good! We'll all pick them together, so we won't need any outside help. We're six people, perfect for a game like this." She said cheerfully as she led me closer to the podium, away from most people.

A game… It didn't quite feel like one. If not for the pale blue letters that originally appeared, I wouldn't be able to tell if this was a game. Even this foreign body had started to feel natural as my mind adapted to it. If my surroundings were somewhere in London and my avatar was like my actual body, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

"There they are!" Samantha said with a smile as we approached a group of four. As soon as I saw their faces, I recognised them.

"Samantha!" Alina loudly shouted.