The Astral soul system-Chapter 176: You’ve done it once before

[Note from author: Quick reminder, this is all purely FICTIONAL,as in not realistic. Please don’t hang on to any serious medical or biological inaccuracies,i myself was cringing writing this Chapter. And have fun]

The forest was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, the tension so thick you could probably cut it with a knife.

Sable slowly looked away from Zaine, her gaze moving to the Jade’s lifeless body’s on the ground.

"No...nononono!!! NO NO NO!"

She dropped to her knees, shaking Jade’s body while barely keeping herself restrained enough to not snap her in two.

She suddenly looked towards Zaine who was still standing, curiously staring at her. He had no personal bonds with either of them, and even if he wanted to help,it seemed he’d come too late.

"Please...her heart’s fading. I can hear it,i can feel it. She’s getting colder every second"

"We need to help her"

Zyro suddenly said

"Her death is inconsequenti-"

"i promised,Zen. Please "

"..."

"..."

"Zaine, give me the body"

Zen’s voice rang out calmly in his mind. Shrugging, he accepted, this wasn’t his kind of thing anyway, besides, it’d be amusing to watch him try.

The body’s left eye transformed back to black, signalling the switch as Zen took the throne in the soul realm.

He approached, bending over Jade and looking at Sable.

"What happened?"

He asked, instantly getting a reaction from her.

"Zen...? I-i don’t know. She just hugged me and everything went blank, and my mind...it was..."

"Chaotic? Uncontrollable?"

Sable shook her head,a grim look on her face.

"I was fully conscious and aware,my mind was...calm. Everything was simple and just...made sense. I bit her,of course I did,why wouldn’t i? She was right there and I was starving."

Sable said, relaying what thoughts had gone through her head when she’d stuck her fangs into Jade’s neck.

Zen glanced at her before focusing back on Jade, taking her pulse.

"Not good, barely there. You didn’t just take, you bled her almost completely dry. She won’t last long "

Sable winced, hearing that but didn’t dare defend herself.

"Theia? Any ideas?"

Theia appeared in front of him, examining Jade with her eyes before activating Zen’s read skill to check her status

"Yeesh! This is bad. Damn! And if only -"

"If only what?"

She looked at him, sighing helplessly

"There is one method that although risky is almost completely guaranteed to save her life if you can successfully do it right, but you unlock that at level twenty. If only you had one more level,we could get right on it"

Zen looked at his exp bar and he was halfway to level twenty, but that was still too far.

"No use thinking about it,i need something else"

Theia thought hard for about five seconds before both literally and figuratively having a lightbulb appear over her head.

"I got it. Show me that crystal, the one you got from Jade, the bear one "

He quickly did as she said and Theia hastily inspected the core

[Rank three advanced tier core]

[Earth vigor bear]

"Jackpot!"

Theia exclaimed

The system suddenly appeared in front of Zen, scrolling for a second before immediately highlighting a specific item

[ Beast vigor tonic(extremely low quality)]

[An extremely potential tonic made with the essesnce of a beast. Gives a massive boost in vitality and strength in the short term, and a rather miniscule long term effect of permanent increase in life force and physique. Warning: side effects may differ based on species]

"You have all the ingredients you need in your ring. Should I make it?"

"What are the chances of saving her life?"

"About a hundred percent. She’s just a human, and it’s not like it’s some incurable disease or curse , it’s just blood loss,in fact, this is probably a bit overkill just to fix blood loss, but we don’t have any other options so..."

"Do it"

Theia looked at Sable who’d been staring at him hopefully, but seeing how Zen didn’t seem to even consider that she shrugged.

The crystal in Zen’s hand suddenly started glowing,it started as a faint glow before suddenly erupting in an almost blinding light.

Zen felt the core in his hand slowly disappear,replaced by something else.

The light slowly faded before completely disappearing.

Zen looked at his hand seeing a bottle about the size of a baseball, filled with a faintly glowing sparkling liquid,white with other colors randomly swirling in it , giving it a mysterious air .

So this is it, this little thing will save Jade. Well that was one problem solved,Now onto the next issue . How would she drink it?

"W-what is that?"

Zen looked at Sable, staying quiet as he thought before eventually speaking.

"Sable, I need your help to save Jade"

Hearing that, she leaned closet, determination flashing in her eyes.

"Anything"

"Great"

Zen said, placing the bottle in her hands.

"..."

"What?!"

Sable exclaimed, looking at the bottle in her hands.

"Y-you want me to -"

Zen nodded.

"But,to do that I’m going need to..."

"It isn’t the only way but it is the most guaranteed to succeed. I can help a little but i can’t force her body to accept it, and pouring it won’t work because-"

"I know,i know,i took basic medicine, it’s just....S-seriously?"

Zen shrugged.

"I don’t see the problem,you’ve done it once before "

"This is different, that was just a plain lip kiss, if I’m going to do this right,it has to be..."

She couldn’t finish that sentence

"That was an accident"

"And this is out of necessity "

Hearing that snapped Sable out of whatever funk she was in. She glanced at Jade’s current form. Everything about this was torture for her, especially with her enhanced senses. She could feel everything,her strained breathing, the fading of her pulse... everything.

’what the hell am I doing? Why am I hesitating"’

Zen had already proposed her head up against the tree, his index and middle finger pressing at a specific angle on her throat,a precaution in case Sable failed.

"Ready when you are"

Sable took a deep breath, opening the bottle and releasing a strong medicinal scent into the air.

With no hesitation she poured the whole thing into her mouth, dropping the bottle and immediately pressing her lips against Jade’s.

At the same time, Zen’s fingers again her throat and chin tensed, slightly, giving him some degree of control"

Sable forced her eyes closed, trying to get this done with as soon as possible. She had to trigger Jade’s swallow reflex, meaning...

Her lips slowly parted as her tongue snaked out. She was nervous but didn’t dare hesitate,her tongue diving into Jade’s mouth.

’Why is this harder than murder and torture?’

Sable suddenly felt a twitch beneath her and instinctively opened her eyes watching as Jade’s eyes slowly fluttered open, staring into her’s for a second before closing back as she fell back into unconsciousness.

As the last drop of the tonic passed , Sable broke away as quickly as she could,her breathing rough and heavy. She quickly wiped her lips with her sleeve, immediately looking to Zen who was now standing a distance away, his wrist with the watch pointed to her.

"What are you doing?"

"..."

"D-did you take a picture?"

*Blinks*

"No"

Sable’s eyes flared up at the obvious lie,her entire body shivering, whether from exhaustion, embarrassment or indignation was unknown.

"Give me that!"

Before she could pounce on Zen,a faint iridescent light suddenly erupted from Jade’s body,, bathing her entire body in its radiance and coating her entire body with an otherworldly ethereal glow, stunning the two for a second.

The glow lasted for about a minute before slowly fading completely, leaving Jade there unchanged.

"Was that good? What did that mean?"

Sable didn’t wait for an answer, impatiently kneeling in front of her again and gently shaking her.

"She’s going to be fine "

Zen said.

"But she needs time, and rest"

Sable sighed, getting up.

"Thank you,i don’t know what i would’ve done without you"

Zen shrugged.

"The crystal I used was from a beast she hunted herself, I’m not exactly loosing anything here"

Sable smiled and suddenly ran towards him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace.

"I’m glad you came. I missed you"

"..."

"Heh,as optimistic and talkative as always"

While she embraced him,her eye suddenly caught on his watch.

"I’m going to need that picture "

She said,her voice turning grim

"Too bad"

Her grip on him became solid , digging into his skin

"I can just cut off your hand and take it,i know it’ll grow back"

In response to that threat, Zen’s body turned incorporeal, his body phasing through hers

"Wha- come on!"

Sable complained.

"That’s just cheating"

"..."

"Alright fine,at least promise you won’t show anyone.

"You’re not exactly in a position to bargain"

Sable groaned, but a hint of a smile was on her face

"You are so much more annoying than i remember"

"It’s a brother’s duty"

She suddenly went quiet, a touched smile on her lips as she mutters

"Thank you"

Confused, Zen tilted his head.

"For what?"

"For trying to cheer me up. I know you’re not the kind to act... Familiar even with people you know. You’re just being considerate"

Zen cancelled the skill, dropping to the ground.

"You know, when you constantly calculate and compute other people’s feelings and appropriate reactions like that,it makes it hard to tell how genuine you’re really being".

Zen thought for a second before replying.

"I was being completely honest with my responses"

Sable chuckled.

"I know, and I appreciate it,you really did cheer me up"

She stepped closer to him,her hand resting on his chest

"And just like you said, it’s a brother’s duty. So thanks...for being my brother"

*Whoosh!*

Zen whipped his hand back, narrowly avoiding getting caught.

"Damnit "

Sable cursed, giving up for now.

She turned around, walking towards where Jade was resting.

"Well, I’m done hunting for the trip. We only have one more day left, so If i stop fighting completely and save energy I’ll be able to hold on until we go back to the acade-"

She suddenly stopped, staring at Zyro who was crouched over Jade, examining her.

"Wha-"

"Oh,hey!"

He said, waving.

She looked behind her and naturally, Zen was still standing there.

"Over here,bitch"

Zaine called for her attention and she looked to the side, seeing him sat at the foot of a tree.

She looked between the three of them a few times before the shocked expression on her face drained, replaced by exhaustion as she just shrugged. They could fly,walk through walls and a whole lot of other things. Honestly,them being able to split wasn’t too surprising, additionally she also knew they weren’t human so she just didn’t feel all that impressed.

"You three are..."

"Still the same body, just in three places. We’re still not sure how it works. It’s just something we figured out how to do one day. We can also join back if we please "

Sable sighed

"So I’m guessing the thing you did with the crystal is just something else you learned you could do one day?"

"Eh... that’s a bit harder to explain "

"Save it,i don’t wanna know. That thing tasted weird. It wasn’t good but it wasn’t bad either "

Zyro chuckled

"Well,we have to go "

"What?"

Zen nodded.

"Where?"

"Oh, just to catch up to an old friend,he should be reaching their base by now. Luckily soul brand doesn’t have an area of effect "

"What?"

Zen suddenly brought out something from his ring, handing it to Sable,it was a blood bag.

"Here,i know it isn’t a lot, but I kept it just in case"

Sable looked at the three and shook her head, taking the blood bag. She was pretty sure she knew what they were going to do so she just gave a smile of encouragement.

"Good luck,all of you. And make sure you come back before morning"

*Swoosh*

She didn’t look back as she heard the sounds of wind rustling, signaling their departure.

She plopped down right next to Jade with her back resting on the tree. Maybe she’d just chill here for a while before carrying Jade back to the base.