Resting by the fire

Adrien slipped into the small room, locking the door behind her with a heavy sigh and heaving shoulders. She could barely steady her breath. She had been running at full sprint for a long time, layered in heavy armor that had helped save her life on more than one occasion, and a halberd with a metal blade at the end as heavy as she was. She had been swinging it with every fiber of her being in order to tear apart waves of undead monsters endlessly falling upon her, desperate to steal her precious human soul.

She waited a long time, resting her back against the locked door, breathing hard but waiting and listening for any footsteps on the other side. It was ten minutes before she decided she was safe. Her halberd fell hard to the ground, though she wasn't afraid of it being damaged - she had reinforced it countless times with magic and steel, and the only thing that could break it by now was dragon scale. Which, unfortunately, was a very real concern for her outside of this room. But the stone floor? That would do nothing.

She stripped herself out of her armor, each piece clanging heavily on the ground, but she was unafraid of the sound attracting any foes. She had long since learned that it was not sight or sound or smell that her foes could detect her by - it was the very human soul that she still possessed that they searched for. She was still unsure of how, but they could sense it in some way, and were irresistibly attracted to it. They needed that soul. Somewhere deep down, they knew that it was the only thing that could return them to their sanity. But Adrien was determined not to give it to them.

In the center of the spartan room, Adrien tossed down a small collection of wood, and pierced them with a withered and ashen knife, all of which she carried under her heavy armor. With a snap of her fingers, the magic in her knife scoured through the wood, igniting it in a burst of rejuvenating flame. She sat down, bare as the day she was born, and rested before the fire. It gave her peace to know that it was here, to feel its warmth, so unlike the frigidity of the undead hands that clamored for her skin, to tear her apart and rip her soul from her body.

Her mind wandered to far off memories of where she had been. To the peace of other bonfires, and to the rage in her eardrums as she had fought massive enemies that could crush her in a single movement. Their souls were no longer human, but they held more than many of the worthless creatures she had slaughtered. And she needed those partial souls. She needed them to build the passage to her final destination, where she could finally end the curse of the undead. And so she slaughtered everything in her way, taking their souls as they wished to do of her, so that she might bring peace to this land.