The Astral soul system

Chapter 260: My turn

"Zaine’s been busy"

He mused, looking around, wondering where his counterpart was at this moment.

This method was definitely more effective than anything they’d come up with before, creating more sparks by having him indulge in even more sins. In fact he felt pretty close to forming greed and lust as well.

"What a malicious stagecraft"

He heard Zephyr’s voice but couldn’t see him.

Perhaps he was right, but they couldn’t use their own emotions to fuel the furnace of their technique, besides, Jesse was an artificial soul made from Neo’s mind. It was like running an AI through a specific program or function.

Or at least they should hope so,or else so many issues would need to be addressed about what they were doing. Though, it’s not like they’d be capable of understanding the problems with these actions anyway.

Like GK had said when they chose this class, wisdom is more important than power, and they needed to keep studying Jesse, otherwise they’d have no hope of ever using the technique they’d been given to its full potential.

Maybe one day they wouldn’t need him anymore.

What would they do with him then?

"Hm..."

He looked down, locking eyes with one of the islands inhabitants. Curiosly he looked to the side and realized another was looking up at him.

It was like every single one of them had noticed him at the same time before ignoring it and going back to what they were doing.

"Is he...all of them?"

His vision zoomed out as he appeared in the dark void again with Zaine in front of him, retracting his hand from the fire.

In many ways what he just saw was a more visual representation of what was actually happening out here.

Zaine had to agitate the core (Jesse) with sinful impulse to cause it to release that energy,gather it all and run it through his body according to the technique. Then came controlling it and actually using it to create the heart flame.

Unfortunately the flame Zaine had now was incomplete. There were seven aspects and they’d still only cracked wrath which augmented their power.

The were now closest to the amber blaze of greed or rose light of lust. Either would do.

"What an amoral power"

Theia mumbled

It was actually closer to immoral than amoral but the point still stands.

The system had given him this because it detected Zen,who was the only one awake at the time would have no issue with the moral dilemmas that came with its rapid increase in power,it simply forgot to account for the lack of emotion in the conventional sense which was required for it.

"Seems like things are finally becoming normal"

It was like Zen said, They just had to accept their circumstances.

He was about to go back to training when he got a notification .

[Incursion detected]

[Zero sentries active]

Again?

Two quests in one day. He was happy for the chance to get some exp, but it was odd.

He quickly returned to the throne room, taking a seat and waking up in the real world.

Getting up, he opened the system screen.

Same as before, but different location, though this one was also close to a dungeon.

Luckily it was still pretty close, still he needed to get there fast.

Leaving through the window again, he headed into the woods, jumping through the trees in an added effort to stay hidden. Though it was dark, the chance of someone passing here now was actually higher than this morning.

A few minutes later he arrived and saw the rift in space.

Luckily it was far enough from the dungeon for him to avoid being seen. Strangely though, this one wasn’t spewing beasts out.

He got a bit closer, stopping a few feet away out of caution .

"Uh... Theia?"

"I don’t know, maybe send in Moirai"

That wasn’t a horrible suggestion.

He slowly released Moirai and let it fly towards the rift, making contact

[Mapping]

Okay, that was normal. Now what -

Before he could finish that’s thought something went wrong.

[Error]

Before he could react, Moirai was pulled into the rift, disappearing into it. His connection with it also dimmed, clouding his mind

"Whoa. That’s... not good, right?"

"Super not good. Can you pull it out?"

He tried using their mental link but something seemed to be blocking them.

"No luck"

"Then we need to go after it"

She didn’t need to tell him twice. He took a quick glance back towards the academy

"Be back as soon as I can"

He took a few steps back to ready himself, grinning from ear to ear as he ran forward, jumping into the rift in a flash of light.

"Allons-y!!!"

A few moments of blindness and weightlessness passed. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he could see was an empty void,then like the world around him wasn’t fully downloaded and was just loading in, everything else slowly faded into view.

He was in a dungeon

[Ding!]

[Quest rescinded]

What? Why?

[New quest issued]

[Invade]

[Objective : Destroy this sentinel station]

[For every creature eliminated, bonus five hundred exp]

What?

He suddenly jumped out of the way,a massive spiked club slamming onto the ground where he was standing.

Looking up, he saw what had to be a giant mass of green fat and muscle, with tribal markings all over its body and a ferocious expression on its face

"Orc cheif?"

He questioned , moving out of the way of the club again.

"This is a fantasy dungeon? And..."

[Read]

[Orc cheif(Boss)]

"Why did I spawn straight into the boss room?"

He suddenly felt his feet get stuck to the ground which had suddenly turned to mud for some reason.

"Trap"

The huge orc swung the club again, and with no time to dodge, he held his hands over his chest.

[Fortify]

A thin golden outline suddenly appeared around his body right before impact.

He was flung high up into a wall, cracking it.

[-20 HP]

"This isn’t working. You’re going to get us killed"

A familiar voice rang in his ears

"You lack initiative"

The voice continued as he started falling back down

"Give me the body and let me take care of this"

Zyro sighed, tagging in Zaine.

"My turn"

***************

A shadow suddenly appeared in the once empty room,a figure walking around the place.

"Who are you?"

A voice suddenly came from behind as the lights came on.

Turning around,Jade could be seen in a rough pair of shorts, loose shirt and a hoodie that was too big for her, even her hair was messy and she had a pillow in her arms.

"How did you get in here?"

Jade tilted her head and pointed to the door she’d just come through.

"But what about the code?"

"I... know...the code."

Jade answered, getting more and more confused

"Oh"

"Wait,how did YOU get in here?"

"Not important"

The figure stepped closer to her, pulling off their hood to reveal A pair of different colored eyes as sharp as the edge of a knife, with a faint yet intense glow about them.

"I’m Raven"

She introduced herself and offered her hand to the still confused, still half asleep girl.

"Jade. I haven’t seen you before,in classes or anywhere else"

She replied accepting the handshake.

"Nice to meet you,Jade. You think you can help me out here? I’m looking for, someone. Mutated eye,touchy, perpetually cold hands,three in one special. Any of this ringing a bell?"

She asked, ignoring Jade’s statement

"Z?"

"Is that what you call them?"

Them? Now she was sure

"Why are you looking for them?"

"Oh,you know. Personal stuff. If you could just tell me, I’ll be on my way and get out of your hair "

"..."

"..."

Raven suddenly tilted her head, looking intently at the hoodie Jade was wearing

"That’s his, isn’t it?"

"... what do you want?"

"..."

She squinted her eyes, scrutinizing Jade’s face before looking down to her feet.

"What are you?"

The faint glow in Raven’s eyes started to intensify as the the tension in the room did as well, erasing any trace of the previous calm atmosphere.

The air faintly tremored as Jade stepped back, a faint glow appearing in her eyes as well.

A few more seconds passed in silence and as the tension nearly reached its boiling point, when suddenly...

"Jade!"

They both suddenly stopped and turned to see a little blonde cannonball heading straight for them. Jade unconsciously held her arms out, and although she felt the wind knocked out of her at the impact, she didn’t flinch and held tight. Looking down at what was in her arms, she saw a familiar pair of pink eyes staring back up at her

"Bea?"

She immediately recognized the girl. After all this powerhouse of a ten year old was the one who’d killed the beast that later became her sword.

To say she’d made an impression on her was an understatement.

"That was you on TV right? I thought something bad happened to you"

"Heh, well here I am"

Jade’s hand gently brushed her hair, cupping her face as she examined her closely

"Are you okay?"

"Pfft,why wouldn’t I be, silly?"

Jade didn’t answer that, last time they’d seen each other, she wasn’t exactly in the best state

Raven seemed to have calmed down seeing the exchange, silently watching them.

Beatrix suddenly froze for a second, looking intently at Jade’s face, even leaning closer and staring into her eyes.

"Um..."

"You’ve changed"

"I have?"

Bea nodded with certainty.

"You’re stronger too"

She wasn’t sure how to feel about that comment. She didn’t feel strong,especially since the kid that was saying it was probably still stronger than she was.

Bea finally turned her attention to Raven.

"You found Hec- I mean, their place?"

"Yeah, and I had to do it all alone since my guide ditched me"

Bea stuck her tongue out at Raven from the safety of Jade’s arms, giggling mischievously.

Well,looks like they weren’t fighting anymore. The whole situation was definitely still strange. Luckily Beatrix had come when she did