The Astral soul system

Chapter 263: He’s not dead!

[Level up(×2)]

Finally

Theia finally showed all the notifications she’d muted and it turned out he’d leveled up after beating the orc cheif. The dozens of kills he’d gotten from that wing attack was also a huge factor.

Oddly enough the system didn’t consider that or anything else he could do with his wings a skill.

He allocated the skill and stat point accordingly.

[Name: Zaine Animus](LV 27)]

[Species: (Rank2 Astral) (bloodline - ????)]

[Class: soul sage]

[Profession: Abyssal warlord (Arcane)]

[True name/soul name: Azrael??? Moirai]

[HP 150/150]]

[Astra: 170/170]

[Strength:10]

[Agility: 8]

[Endurance: 8]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Charm: 50](bloodline effect)

[ Wisdom: 10]

[Stat points: 0]

[Skill points:0]

[Codex:Moirai]

[Status:Threefold suppression]

He looked around, noticing the corpses vanishing into fragments of light.

Noticing Zaine’s furrowed brow, Theia shrugged.

"They’ve got to clean up somehow,plus it’s pretty effective.

He looked down at his feet and noticed the jacket they were wearing before, the back had been completely ripped open.

He looked back to see his shirt’s condition and it was similar.

"Bummer "

Theia sighed

"Well you’re either going to need to get used to the idea of fighting shirtless, we get looser clothes with slots for your wings to pass through,or just start going backless.... something about that last one might be problematic though "

He threw down the jacket and then his shirt before picking a replace out of his ring

"Where is that stupid thing?"

"You can’t sense it?"

He tried, closing his eyes so he could focus better,blocking out all distractions

Nothing. Nothing at all. He couldn’t even tell it to come back

"The dungeon might be making it harder for you to feel its presence. Maybe explore for a bit?"

Zaine groaned. Not only did they have no idea where they were or if they could return, but they had no plan on accomplishing what they came here to do in the first place.

"How do I get out of here?"

"Aww,you don’t wanna check for loot?"

"Theia?!"

"Fine, fine. Geez,chill. See that tower thingy over there?"

He looked towards the center of the dungeon at the large obelisk that looked like it was made of marble. He couldn’t be sure but he felt like it was faintly glowing.

He hadn’t been able to focus on it during the fight, but it had caught his eye.

"Just put your hand on it, I’ll take care of the rest"

Dragging his feet towards it, he took another look around, considering looking for some sort of loot. In the end though, he just placed his hand on it.

"Going down "

Theia remarked as a bright light filled the surrounding area.

[Detected beacon]

[Quest issued: Destroy the beacon]

[Rewar-$#¥€¢€]

[Override]

[Quest rejected]

[Connecting to beacon]

[Error]

"Uh-oh"

Theia suddenly said

The light suddenly grew even more intense, blinking and flashing.

[Access denied]

"Hold on!"

Theia suddenly said

[Breach has been made]

[Breach located]

[Accessing...]

[Connected]

The obelisk suddenly lit up again,a faint glow outlining it. He unconsciously tried to pull his hand from it but suddenly realized he couldn’t.

He suddenly felt an itch on his back that quickly spread to the rest of his body.

Slowly he was being drawn into the obelisk like metal to a magnet.

"This might be bumpy!!!"

Theia warned as his body was pulled into the obelisk which shot a beam of light upward.

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

"We’re here!!!"

Raven announced triumphantly, opening the door for Jade to go in first.

Jade walked in, looking around cautiously.

"A friend of mine told me about this place while on a job "

Job

Jade still wasn’t sure what that meant for them.

The place was almost completely empty so they didn’t have to look hard for a seat that was far enough from people so they could talk.

Bea immediately jumped out of her seat, asking what they wanted before skipping off to order.

"She’s cute isn’t she?"

"Uh... yeah"

Jade replied. She still couldn’t stop thinking about the last time she saw her.

"What’s her ability?"

"Oh, now that would be telling "

Raven said, winking

"I don’t think even they know what it is "

Speaking of them

"You still haven’t told me why you’re here?"

"Ah-ah-ah,you first. What were you doing in Zen’s place"

Jade sighed

"I was checking in on him. We were supposed to meet to talk before, and it’s actually been Zyro for a while"

Hearing that, Raven raised a brow.

"Oh? That was fast"

"Huh? What?"

"Nothing, don’t worry about it"

Jade stared at her but didn’t press

"Alright your turn"

Beatrix finally got back, holding three small tubs of ice cream.

Jade helped her bring them up so she could sit, still keeping an eye on Raven.

"What? I can’t come visit an old friend?"

"..."

"We wanted to catch up. It’s been too long since I’ve seen my Azzy"

Raven said, shoveling a large spoon of rocky road into her mouth

"Azzy?"

Raven nodded

"Also,big Caesar’s been up to no good"

"Caesar?"

Jade asked, even more confused

"Uh-huh "

Bea nodded

"It’s Q"

She said before going back to stuffing her little face

"What’s Q?"

"Are you even listening?"

At this point,Jade was absolutely lost. What was either of them talking about?

"Hey"

Raven suddenly said, looking at her intensely

"W-what?"

"Your ice cream’s melting. Hurry up, silly"

Jade looked down and sighed.

At least this didn’t seem like a trap, though she was still very confused.

She brought a spoon to her mouth, taking a bite

"There you go? Stop being so tense"

"Can you blame me?"

Raven scoffed

"What, because of this?"

She asked, pulling her sleeve up her shoulder and showing her mark.

Jade’s eyes widened and she quickly pulled her hand back down.

"Are you crazy?!"

She said, doing something between a whisper and a yell.

"What if someone sees?"

Raven had to hold back her laughter

"Oh,relax greenie. There’s no one else here. Thanks for being so concerned about my well-being though"

She said with a bit of sarcasm

"Point is, you don’t have to worry about me,I’m chill...most of the time"

So was Z, but he could still be scary at times.

"Oh,I just remembered one more thing I had to tell them"

Right as she said that,a brick was suddenly launched through the glass charging into the place, shattering it.

"What the-"

Jade dropped her spoon, looking at where it had come from while the other two barely reacted.

The door was suddenly kicked down from the outside and in came a burly dark skinned man in a tank top and bald cut.

’

"Why break the window if you were going to come in through the door? And honestly, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t locked either so that was just a lot of unnecessary "

Raven said, looking genuinely curious

"I’m gonna kill you,bitch!"

"Here we go again"

She said, rolling her eyes.

"Wanna give me a hand?"

She asked Jade who was watching in confusion and shock.

"Oh, don’t worry. We’re gonna deal with your girlfriend too"

"Oh my gosh, we actually just met but are you seriously getting that vibe right now. I mean I guess this does look like a date and..."

She just kept going under everyone’s shocked stares. Jade didn’t even have time or braincells left to defend herself or say she wasn’t a part of this.

She clearly didn’t take the whole situation seriously at all, meanwhile Beatrix’s face was still buried in her ice cream tub, literally.

The leader of the thugs scowled, grabbing a chain with a spiked metal ball attached to the end from one of his henchmen

’Stereotypical ass two dimensional bad guy weapon’

Grunting, he flung it right at Raven who just sat there, staring at it.

At the last second a portal appeared in front of her followed by the sound of damage from behind her as the chain hit something else.

She looked to her side at Jade with a smile.

"Thanks,guess that’s a yes"

"Uh, yeah"

On the inside though she was panicking.

’What the heck am I doing?! These guys are thugs, but she’s a player, that’s like a thousand times worse. But wait, they’re Z’s friends right,so they can’t be that horrible, right?"

"Get all of them. The kid too"

That made Jade’s decision for her.

Seeing one of them going after Bea, Raven grabbed what remained of her ice cream, shoving it into the thug’s face before slamming his head down into a table

"Sorry ice cream "

She said, kicking him back towards the door.

"You can join anytime you’re ready "

She said but didn’t seem to be in a hurry

Jade stepped back as the boss had targeted her while the rest went for Raven. Beasts and monsters she could deal with, but fighting people brought a whole other fear out of her.

Seeing her back away, the thug laughed, creeping closer and pouncing towards her

Still. She had to at least try

She randomly grabbed something from her side without looking at it, swinging it as hard as she could in front of her, closing her eyes and hoping it’d hit something.

*Thud*

"Whoa!"

She heard Raven say, follow by gasps.

Opening her eyes she looked down to see the thug laid out on the floor, clearly not about to come up anytime soon,if ever. Then she looked at her hand and saw a metal pole that had been bent unnaturally.

"She killed him!"

"What?! No I didn’t!"

"And I thought I was brutal"

Raven commented

"He’s not dead!"

Jade desperately tried to defend herself.

"He didn’t even get a chance to use his ability"

Jade didn’t even know what to say at this point except WHY WAS A METAL POLE INSIDE AN ICE CREAM BAR ?!

She looked towards Beatrix and saw her big eyes wider than ever in admiration staring up at her. She didn’t know whether or not to cry.

The shock had finally worn off and the rest of them quickly changed target to Jade. Seeing this, Raven suddenly stepped over a table and jumped over the lot of them, landing between Jade and them.

"We don’t have time for you to kill them all the one by one. Stay behind me"

Jade was still uncertain but nodded.

Raven suddenly stretched out her hand and a deep purple flame suddenly burst out of thin air, burning intensely.

Grinning mischievously, she released the fire, shooting it in the thugs general direction.

All Jade saw was a bright flash and boom sound, but immediately after, Raven’s voice came through.

"Alright, it’s done"

Taking her word for it,Jade looked up to see what the scene looked like, her face twisting in confusion

"What..."