The Astral soul system-Chapter 196: Guilty

Dropping in, Zen found himself in a pitch black world.... well... almost pitch black.

Surrounding him were faint cuts and fractures in the world that leaked out. He suddenly felt like something about it was familiar, and that was when it hit him. It was the outside world... only... inverted?

Those rifts he could see were shadows left in the outside world he could see through. It seemed every shadow in the real world had a link to the shadow realm. This created a confusing scene where light and dark had switched roles in this inverted world. It wasn’t that darkness was "bright" it just wasn’t dark.

"The shadow realm is... this?"

Before he could think more he suddenly felt his body beginning to stretch through the realm,or rather than world was getting stretched around him?

It reminded him of how light would get pulled into a black hole except it was happening to all his surroundings, making it look like the world was moving towards and past him

He also for some reason felt like he was moving while everything else stretched on, unaffected by the flow of time or space.

"Wait,this is dimensional travel? Quickly,spread your wings"

Theia suddenly said.

With no time to argue he did as she said, his resplendent wings popping out of his back, although he didn’t transform the rest of his body.

"You do realize that once we get there you’ll have a lot of explaining to do"

Zen hummed. It wasn’t an issue. He hadn’t been planning to show his face anyway.

His arcade mark immediately started glowing with a vibrant purple light.

’It’s been a while since I’ve done this ’

The light immediately spread out through his entire body, covering him

A faint trail suddenly appeared, tying Zen to what he assumed was Jade

"Alright,here we go"

His wings suddenly turned into closed around him,encasing him as he shot through the shadow realm at insane speeds, his body morphing into a ball of darkness that flew through the realm of shadows at inconceivable speeds, though whether speed or even time mattered here was unknown.

On the surface a living orb like shadow releasing wisps was dashing on the surface of the ground at seemingly impossible speeds despite nothing casting it. At faint moments it would overlap with another shadow and a faint human figure could be seen inside .

Looking all around him at the tears in space that bled into the real world ,Zen wondered if he could get out of the shadow realm if he jumped out now through one of them though that experiment would have to wait. Even if he wanted to he literally couldn’t stop right now.

His "body" crossed hundreds of meters in seconds, completely unnoticed. In no time at all, he looked out through a shadow and saw Sable standing outside the base while trying to force her way through a barrier encasing it.

"Security barrier"

He wondered if it would stop him from passing when Sable suddenly looked back and stared directly at him.

He was still about a mile away and closing fast but her eyes visibly tracked his moving form. Feeling another gaze, he looked through another rift and saw Zaria doing the same, looking like she was about to punch the barrier.

’They see me?’

He couldn’t stop to confirm. The shadow passed through the barrier no problem, heading straight for the battlefield. His eyes locked onto Jade on the ground. She’d been bruised up a bit more and Fallon was about to attack her again. He also saw the mark pulling him to her start to weaken since it’s job was complete. He was going to be spit out.

[Astra: 0/500]

["Transcend" state has ended]

***********

Fallon growled, catching his breath for a few seconds but Jade still made no moves to get up from the rubble. Maximilian could still hear her breathing weakly but she had no more fight left in her. That last attack had drained it all, and no one here was confident they could do better in the state they were in.

At this moment, Ben’s group had showed up and they also immediately froze. He was about to order an attack when Maximilian immediately told them to stop.

Through his mutated eyes, he could clearly see. Fallon himself was tired and weak, maybe , but the suit’s power had barely diminished. He could still do everything he’d done before .

One of them didn’t listen and threw a fireball at him. Before it even got close, Fallon raised his palm and blasted through it, the beam traveling forward to strike the one who’d attacked in the chest. He immediately fell to the ground, bleeding profusely.

Everyone froze immediately, stunned by how quick that had been. The boy was still bleeding on the floor but no one was in a hurry to help him lest they be next.

Luckily Fallon wasn’t interested in any of them and with a spiteful groan started heading towards where Jade was still on the ground.

"Little bitch. I’ll rip you to pieces!"

Everyone’s heart dropped as he raised his fist, the entire place becoming completely silent.

As his fist dropped to crush her something even Maximilian didn’t notice dashed through the ground so fast it was barely visible for a second, heading right towards Jade and Fallon.

The shadow beneath Jade suddenly expanded, stretching large enough for a fist to pass through, clashing with Fallon’s and stopping it.

A large shadowy mass suddenly rose out of the ground, releasing black miasma in every direction.

A deep violet light was visible from inside the miasma, shining like a flare before suddenly disappearing

A few seconds passed and the miasma slowly disappeared, revealing a figure standing with his arm up to block Fallon’s punch.

Everyone including Fallon himself gasped. If the reaction they had to Fallon was holding their breath, right now they’d all just collectively forgotten to breathe

"Y-you"

The figure looked up at Fallon before suddenly punching him in the chest, the force mixed with his shock sending him flying back.

No one dared cheer. They’d just gotten out of the frying pan and into a volcano.

"We’re all going to die"

No one knew who’d muttered that but no one here openly disagreed with him.

Zen was dressed in a complete pitch black outfit , every single piece of skin covered from head to toe. He was in a set of robes, looking like a mix of a cloak and a coat, with the edges stoping sharply below his knees. His sleeves, collar and the inside of his cloak were adorned with golden embroidery of multiple strange runes and symbols. He had a pair of silver bracers around his wrists,also adorned with runes . The cloak over his face was nothing special but it strangely didn’t allow his face to be seen, like it was actively hiding his appearance despite not covering it,all that could be seen was a shadow where his face should’ve been. a plain pair of trousers and shoes finished the outfit.

The two things people couldn’t look away from were the large glimmering wings resting on his back and the Arcade symbol proudly didplayed on his back.

One inspired an instinctual feeling of entrancement and the other stirred memories of terror .

"I-i thought they were all dead"

Another whispered

"Wow. These guys are really afraid of you"

’It isn’t me they’re afraid of ’

Zen looked up at the barrier surrounding the place and his hand suddenly glowed,the arcade symbol visible through his gloves.

He gently raised his right hand to the sky and it immediately started shining brighter.

An invisible pressure suddenly appeared out of nowhere, like some otherworldly cosmic entity was pressing it’s hand down on this place.

The sword on it suddenly started moving like the hand on a clock slowly.

Theia’s eyes widened as she saw what was happening.

"it’s an Aegis"

She muttered, not believing it.

She was just now starting to realize why every single creature in this realm feared that symbol and all who bore it. An entire organization with people bearing this? Zen himself probably didn’t even know what he had but it was still enough to achieve something like this.

The sword finally hit where it was originally and a crack suddenly sounded and before everybody’s eyes the barrier surrounding the base suddenly shattered like glass, disappearing into bits of energy

"Who in the world is giving Aegis to kids?!"

Theia asked, dumbfounded.

Up until now she hadn’t gotten the "strongest force in the universe " hype but she definitely understood now. Whoever was at the top of that organization was probably the strongest in the entire realm, but then why hadn’t he done something about the incursions?

A million questions flowed through her mind about a million things she wouldn’t be allowed to tell Zen due to the rules.

"Just what sort of place where you raised in?"

Everyone watched in a mixture of fascination and abject horror as the barrier simply.... broke.

Maximilian was still staring, specifically at the hand of the figure that showed up,the glowing symbol. Could it be who he was thinking of under that hood?

"Scared,hunter?"

Ava suddenly spoke from behind him.

"You..."

"It’s rather poetic. An angel descended into battle"

Maximilian glanced back at her. Angel? He supposed the wings gave that look, though it would help if they weren’t such a dark color.

Zen slowly dropped his hand.

"That worked? Hmmm. I thought you no longer cared for me "

Looking at Jade out of the corner of his eye he noticed her look up to give him a smile.

"Did she-"

He suddenlyraised his wings in front of him, shielding himself just in time for another blast to strike it, doing no visible damage.

[Detected energy attack]

[Absorbed 10 Aether (pure)]

[Absorbed energy 10/100]

’Well that’s nice ’

"This guy’s really screwed"

"YOU!!!"

Fallon screamed at Zen, his suit suddenly glowing brighter before charging at him

He threw a massive punch right at him which Zen replied to with one of his own.

"Who,me?"

He asked

"Or me?"

Zyro said, chuckling as he stepped out of Zen’s shadow in an outfit similar to Zen’s, but with golden accents while Zaine skipped the theatrics, jumping out swinging.

Seeing this, Maximilian was all but sure it was Zen and he unconsciously calmed down despite a lingering bad taste in his mouth.

Zaine swung his sword right at his side while Zyro threw a kick coming from the opposite direction.

Before he could even dodge,Zen grabbed him, keeping him in place as both their attacks landed before punching him in the face.

Fallon staggered but his armor was still unscathed

Zaine groaned,red flames engulfing his sword as he swung again, the armor cracking under it’s power and sending Fallon back again.

They waited for a few seconds and watched as his armor repaired itself completely and his aura came back in full force

"We’re not getting through his armor"

"It seems to be generating it’s own power somehow"

Theia informed.

"Then we’ll just cut him down over and over "

Zyro and Zaine glanced at Zen, signalling for him to get them started

Zen sighed and looked at Fallon.

"Fallon. Here you stand accused of insurgence, anarchy and terrorism. How do you plead?"

"What?!"

Fallon exclaimed furiously.

This wasn’t a fight to these three,it was an excecution. and should be treated as such.

"You human scum! You think you’re better than us? You destroyed us all for what?! Your foolish pride?! Do you really think you’re better than every single race in the galaxy?"

"Yes"

The sudden and cold nature of the answer left even Fallon stunned for a second. It was said like it was a simple fact, not an opinion.

"Verdict: Guilty"

Those words sent a shiver down the spines of all who heard them. The arcade functioned as if all of humanity was rightfully theirs to control, and made it quite clear that THEY were meant to be in charge, of everything. Including the lives of others.

Zaine and Zyro didn’t waste a single second, immediately dashing towards the convict

Both of their attacks landing directly on his armor and shattering it to pieces.

Zen was about to join in when he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

"Excuse me"

Ava suddenly said.

Everyone immediately looked at her like she’d gone mad. Why would she intentionally attract that THING’S attention.

"I noticed you have wings. I need a lift. The terminal I need to access to permanently shutdown the robots again and maybe fix teleportation is still functional, but anyway to access it has been destroyed"

"..."

"It seems like your friends over there have got him covered "

Even Maximilian felt like this was stupid, and he actually knew who was under it. Did she actually think he would -

Literally everyone’s jaw dropped to the floor as they saw the very clearly genocidal player pick up Ava in a princess carry and start flying towards the direction she pointed him.

And she actually seemed calm and relaxed about it?

Zen’s flying was sucky even with his wings but no one dared make fun of him right now.

As Zen left everyone else focused on Zyro and Zaine who were completely demolishing Fallon. His armor couldn’t stay on for five seconds before being shattered again.

After a few rounds of back and forth, Zyro suddenly adjusted his wings,every single individual feather/ scale shifting and tightening up like armor before stabbing them into Fallon’s armor

[Absorbed 20 Aether(pure)]

[Absorbed 20 Aether(pure)]

[Absorbed 20 Aether(pure)]

[Absorbed 20 Aether(pure)]

[Absorbed 10 Aether(pure)]

[Energy absorbtion limit reached]

Zaine made another slash at the armor and this time it didn’t grow back, simply falling off.

They immediately switched places, Zaine absorbing energy while Zyro attacked and they’d almost completely stripped him of his armor. The rest was just barely clinging to his frail form.

A blue energy shield suddenly appeared around him, protecting him from their joint attacks

Screaming, he tried to launch one final attack when something hard and fast slammed into his shield , destroying it then his chest plate chest plate,and passing right through his body.

The final scraps of armor he had crumbled as he fell to the ground on one knee .

Everyone looked at where the attack had come from and saw Zen holding up his dusk pistol as he slowly approached. Ava was nowhere to be found and most of them assumed the worst.

Fallon tried to get up again but Zaine and Zyro held him down on his knees,both hands held behind his back like a criminal.

"You are now before judge..."

Zaine snarled

"Jury"

Zyro chuckled.

"And executioner "

Zen finished, pointing the gun to his head.

"Any last words?"

Fallon looked up at them and immediately started screaming in his native tongue, something most students didn’t understand but Zen did

"Go ahead. Kill me, it’s what your kind does. But just know i won’t be the last. Against humanity’s oppression,More will come "

"And more will die "

The three of them answered in his language, completely in sync.

Fallon looked shocked that they actually spoke his tongue, his body instinctively shaking.

Zen was about to pull the trigger when he suddenly heard a faint whirring, almost too silent for anyone to notice. He looked up and noticed it was Fallon’s ship.

That sound was the portal generator activating. He was trying to send the ship away.

Looking at Fallon, Zen noticed the faintest bit of anticipation in his eyes, almost like hope

Without thinking much he moved the gun from Fallon to the ship and seeing this Fallon immediately started struggling and fighting, but it was pointless.

Putting in a high power bullet, Zen aimed for the thrusters and fired.

Once

Twice

Then the hull with an incendiary bullet.

The light quickly drained from Fallon’s eyes as he slumped.

Without a word, Zen aimed it back at his head, and with a bang, his body slumped lifelessly.

"Looks like you did it,big guy. You-"

"Jade!"

A panicked voice suddenly called

They all suddenly turned around. That was Sable’s voice.

"Nononono"

And that was Zaria.

The three immediately looked at where they where both looking and saw Jade standing shakily,her own sword stabbed through her heart from behind.

She gave them a shaky smile as she inevitably fell back down lifelessly

Her heartbeat was gone