The Astral soul system

Chapter 248: Magnetic hearts

"Exterminating? I don’t like the sound of that"

"Neither do I"

They both had dozens of questions going through their minds at this point but now was no time to voice them.

One of the creatures on the walls suddenly jumped towards them but Zaria quickly reacted, snatching it out of the air by it’s neck.

It was a strange looking thing,thin and bony limbs that were similar to human ones and skin that resembled stone. It was rather small but fearless, trying it’s best to tear her eyes out with the jagged daggers it had for claws and baring it’s fangs

Looking disgusted, she quickly squeezed around it’s neck, crushing it instantly and killing it and watching as it disappeared instantly, turning into glowing bits of light.

That was one down but there were dozens more coming down from the walls all equally vicious and fearless.

"Damnit, the one time I forget my weapons at home"

Sable cursed under her breath, standing back to back with Zaria

Zaria sighed, checking her pockets. She was also undergeared

"Can’t you just break through this wall? I should be fast enough to grab Jade without getting hit"

"I’m... not sure"

"Why not! You punched Zaine up a building once"

Zaria’s face scrunched up at the unfortunate memory

"That was a... side effect of something else"

She said,her voice shrinking progressively throughout the sentence

"What?"

The beasts from the wall finally reached the ground and like a wave started advancing

"Grrr, just try it! I’ll hold them off"

Sable barked, cutting her loose and running deeper into the cave

Originally hesitant, Zaria quickly reacted, Leaping high into the air above the horde on the ground, she cocked her fist,her veins begining to glow beneath the skin like lava, getting brighter and brighter.

Once she was close enough to what was once the entrance, she swung as hard as she could,her fist coming down on the wall like a hammer

...

...

...

Nothing

Not even a tremor. Like the hit just... disappeared

As she slowly descended, Zaria was disappointed but not surprised for some reason,she locked eyes with Sable on her way down and knew they were both thinking the same thing.

’Dungeon stone ’

Looking at the hand she swung, she noticed the veins that were previously glowing were now visibly black like they’d been burnt with frost forming over them

"It’s getting faster"

She muttered and as she looked down she could see the horde of beasts waiting for her to fall to her death.

Looking down at her neck, she suddenly noticed something glowing. It was the golden hair she had been using as a necklace

"Odd. But I wonder if..."

She quickly grabbed it, pulling it off and the glow suddenly exploded as she hit the ground, creating a massive dust cloud.

A few seconds passed before it fully cleared up to reveal her standing there in a crater with a staff slightly taller than her own frame, with a complete black body and gold encircling the ends, forming intricate designs of eastern dragons on both ends.

Grabbing one end she swung it around in a wide circle, sweeping the ones closest to her away and clearing some space.

"This was easier than the last time for some reason"

She muttered uncertainly

For some reason as she held it in her hand she could feel like a swirling sensation from it’s center, like it was rapidly absorbing something from her surroundings.

Not spending too much time on it, she shifted her grip to the core, and started literally grinding the beasts to dust, one strike from the mighty gold bands under her own natural strength was enough to completely destroy the lesser beasts.

It was a tsunami and she was at the center of it. Sweeping and culling as they came from all sides

On the other far end of the battlefield Sable was closer to the portals. She took a cursory look back but didn’t stop, hearing Zaria

"I’ve got this. Hurry"

It was too low for anyone to possibly have heard in this chaos, but over the course of the day, Zaria had over and over again learned just how ridiculous Sable’s senses were, and just as she’d hoped, the message got across

With Zaria keeping the beasts busy she headed closer, pausing as she saw the claw coming out of the massive portal. The beast itself wasn’t yet out but the claw alone was the size of her body.

The portal had opened right above the pond and thus Jade,so safe to say she couldn’t just go around it

"Alright... Vampire strength don’t fail me now"

She said, about to take a step forward when she noticed she hit something

"What?"

She mused, hitting the invisible barrier again

"Fucking seriously?!"

She immediately started throwing punches, trying to break through it but nothing she tried worked.

"Damnit"

She said, pulling out two vials of blood from her pocket.

She groaned, looking at them hesitantly. Ever since she’d accidentally sort of contributed to Jade’s death, she’d been rethinking the whole feasting on blood thing. No one ever said she strictly HAD to so she was wondering how long she could go without it, and in a way, punishing herself as well.

She’d only ever fed from two people directly and both of them died shortly after. One could argue it wasn’t her fault but her mind had already made the connection.

She looked at Jade’s laying form in the water. She couldn’t hear a clear heartbeat but something told her she was still alive.

But that wouldn’t matter if she didn’t have the strength to save her, and right now she was far too weak from starving herself.

With a sudden burst of determination, she emptied the vials down her mouth.

She only had a few left she brought in case of emergencies, so she knew she had to make them count.

Her eyes glowed an unsettling crimson as her hands began to morph and contort, becoming a pale ashen grey ,riddled with veins, bulging up yet still managing to look sickly and skinny.

She looked more like what this world’s vampires naturally looked like

The long obsidian claws that replaced her nails stabbed into the barrier, like it was a thin layer of film before trying to rip it open .

She pulled and pulled, putting more of herself into it until not just her pupils but her eyes were entirely crimson.

Her heart which she hadn’t felt beat strongly in so long she’d forgotten it was unnatural,or whatever had taken it’s place in her chest stirred and she felt something flow from it towards her hands

She leaned into it, embracing the nature of her abilities under the current circumstances, she felt it gather in her fingertips and a red tint coated her claws as they slowly began to cut through the invisible barrier .

With one final movement she completed the cross strike, leaving a red x shaped hole in the barrier.

Head first, she dashed through the hole she cut open, not noticing something else followed behind her.

Looking down at her claws as they and her arms shifted back to normal she sighed

That was insane. Before and after that weird feeling was like trying to cut something tough with a cold and hot knife. Another skill she had to master

She took a step forward but nearly stumbled

She looked at her hand in confusion

She remembered the feeling of energy leaving her chest,it had just been more than she’d estimated.

Bringing out another vial, she downed it in one gulp. It wasn’t much but she had no choice.

"Only three vials left"

Looking back at the barrier behind her, she noticed something odd. None of the portals were behind it. They’d all stayed on the outside, except the big one over Jade of course.

"Weird"

She got closer to the portal which looked like a giant curtain made of stars with the beast claw peeking through

"I don’t suppose you’ll just let me take my friend will you?"

Almost like it heard her, the claw suddenly swiped towards her, stomping down

"I suppose not"

She mused, suddenly about twenty feet away from it.

Looking down at the grass, she sighed

"I’m going to have to apologize to my blood brother about wrecking his place after this. And it’s pretty nice too... when it’s not trying to kill me or my friend"

The claw suddenly lifted high into the air again. She prepared for it to try and stomp her but what happened next left her stumped.

Like some maniacal jigsaw puzzle it started to rearrange and reconfigure itself until it was a giant human looking hand casting it’s shadow over her.

"What the fu-"

Crashing down like it was trying to swat a bug ,it released a loud boom as it struck the ground.

...

...

"So... are like your elbows and the rest of you still stuck on the other side? Or are you like just a hand and forearm attached to a portal."

She asked,her voice coming from another corner of the barrier.

The hand slowly lifted off the ground slowly turning the palm to face her as a large glowing eye suddenly appeared on the center with a blue jewel in the center of that.

"That’s... creepy"

The jewel suddenly started getting brighter and knowing what that meant , Sable quickly prepared to dodge.

A bright flash of light shot out of it the next second towards where she’d just left as a huge spike made of blue light struck into the ground

’That’s bad’

She thought, having barely dodged.

Before she could move, the portal which had grown considerably suddenly bulged as horrifically, another hand ripped out of it, matching the first except when it opened it’s eye, the gem was red, and as soon as it did it started charging up another attack as well

’And this is much worse ’

She thought,ghost stepping away at the last second.

Looking at the ground where it had fired, she suddenly noticed the attack was different, unlike the previous one which was pure energy bundled together and fired, this was something... physical.

It was the same shape spike but this one was...

She reached to gently touch it

"Metal?"

She mused, tilting her head in confusion

"This thing is a steel attribute?"

There was no time for thinking however as the blue jewel’s hand suddenly started reconfiguring again, turning into five seperate tendrils,each as thick as her body

She immediately got to dodging, jumping and weaving the snake like tendrils’ attempts to grab and crush her

"No..."

Her mind wandered back to how it reconfigured itself.

"Red and blue"

She muttered, suddenly pausing as another metal spike shot into the ground in front of her.

Looking back she saw the blue jewel staring back at her in the eye of it’s reformed hand

It stared right at her for a few seconds and she stared back at them

"Red and blue... just like..."

Her hand slowly reached into her pockets to grab her remaining three vials.

Her ears suddenly twitched

"Magnets"

Looking behind her, the only thing she saw was the previous metal spike flying right towards her.

Lodging itself deep in her chest it pulled her closer and closer to the blue gem which was attracting it .

Unconsciously gasping,her knees buckled for a few second before straightening. Her feet dug into the ground and her arms rapidly transformed so quickly and roughly that multiple of her veins directly exploded, dripping blood onto the floor.

The retroactive pain she should have felt from the impalement and transformation didn’t even register. Her hands grabbed the spike as she fought against the magnet pull, slowing it to a near halt

The hand, noticing the resistance started to glow, preparing to blast her while she was pinned.

Looking back, Sable grunted , pushing even harder as she slowly dislodged the metal spike, pulling it out of her abdomen she dropped and rolled out of the way,, leaving the spike to fly right towards the gem.

Looking up from the ground, Sable watched as it suddenly closed up into a fist, letting the spike strike it and leave barely a dent.

Sighing, she got up, looking at the wound that was slowly but visibly closing up

"So it’s magnetism,huh?"

’That blast must also have something to do with their magnetism’

"guess I was lucky not bringing any weapons then... could have been much worse"

Looking down she saw the fragments of her vials with a puddle of blood on the ground

She sighed but looked up

"Well at least I know your weakness now, Even if it should have been obvious...why else would you protect your eye... unless it’s really your heart"