The Astral soul system-Chapter 201: Threefold suppression

"Absolutely not"

Freya said ,Vehemently disagreeing

"Freya"

"Who cares about the stupid Aegis anyway? If you go there, you’re going to get killed "

"Yeah but we need to -"

"She has a point"

Zen suddenly pointed out.

"There is no reality where we return to that place and make it back. The others would rip us apart"

"..."

"..."

"Wait. Why?!"

Zaine suddenly asked.

"Why does it feel like everyone hates us now. What exactly did you do when we were gone?"

"It doesn’t matter. Regardless of my actions they’re all loyal to the organization "

"Bullshit! We’d at least be able to call one of them but you make it sound like they’d kill us on sight "

"I made no such claim"

"Just answer the question "

"I got into some trouble with Q. Broke a few rules "

Zaine scoffed.

"Q,our teammates,these academy pricks and even yourself. There’s no one you won’t backstab to get ahead,is there?"

"Exactly "

Zyro sighed.

"And that’s hypocrisy coming from you "

Zen pointed out before ignoring him.

Before Zaine could react, Zyro quickly spoke up

"Okay. Good talk. So what do we do now?"

"What we’ve always done. Wait, and hide"

Zaine scoffed

"Like cowards and rats. As expected of you"

"My function is to keep us alive."

"Or ruin our life"

"I’m not the one incapable of seeing only negative emotions,or irrational thought "

"Fuck you! Treacherous piece of shit"

Zyro sighed again

"He’s right Zaine. You’ve gotta look at the bright side "

Though that was the problem. He literally couldn’t.

Right now the argument had devolved from actual opinions to Zaine lashing out at Zen and Zen ignoring everyone.

"If you’re so confident then you can go ahead and try it yourself "

Zaine snarled and instead of replying barked at Zyro to split them.

"I don’t think we sh-"

"Do it!"

Zyro sighed and activated the skill.

Static suddenly buzzed in his ears and before he could react.

"Aaaaaah!!!!"

The three of them suddenly screamed, feeling a shock go down their body and soul.

Zyro fell to one knee from the intense pain.

"What the hell "

He grasped at his neck where the pain was most intense and felt something around it.

"What is this?"

Theia suddenly popped up in front of him

"What happened?"

"Something’s... keeping us stuck together"

She looked at his neck and was surprised

Was this the cause of the issue with their stats?

It seemed likely but...where had it even come from

She quickly opened their stats

[Name: Zyro Heart](LV 20)]

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

[Class: soul sage]

[Profession: Stygian stalwart (Arcane)]

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

[HP 150/150]]

[Astra: 166/166]

[Strength:8]

[Agility: 8]

[Endurance: 8]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Charm: 50](bloodline effect)

[ Wisdom: 8]

[Stat points: 0]

[Skill points:0]

[Codex:Moirai]

[Status: Threefold suppression]

She quickly hit the abnormal status and showed the description

1)Threefold suppression: All stats and skills at the time of status infliction will be reduced by three or to base level.

2) Requirement for stat and skill points multiplied by three

3) Cultivation speed and efficiency divided by three

4) Unique skill(split) sealed

Theia sighed. This was the bad news. She hadn’t expected it to be so bad at first but looking deeply, She realized that they were absolutely screwed .

5)Exp required for level ups multiplied by three

Zyro giggled slightly. She didn’t bother asking why. It was probably a reason only he would even comprehend. Plus she’d noticed he had a weird reaction to pain and she honestly wasn’t willing to find out if her hunch was right.

"There’s...no way to get rid of this"

Theia said, looking through system screens at a speed even Zyro couldn’t follow.

Right now their stats were lower than Jade’s, and they’d lost their number advantage, however it wouldn’t be as much of a problem if anyone could remember how they’d gotten this curse or how to get rid of it.

"Use inspect on that thing"

Zyro looked down and realized he could barely see it

"Um... What exactly is it?"

"You know what it is"

Zyro ran his hands over what could only be a choker, feeling the smooth leather and something that felt like chains around them with strange engravings

He tried and luckily it worked.

[???]

Sort of... his read skill was now too low level to even bring up its name .

"Well this sucks"

Theia groaned, flopping onto Zyro’s head with a defeated look.

Zyro chuckled, he wasn’t really bothered (he couldn’t be). So he just decided to focus on the positive.

"Well now we get to do it all again, right?"

"That’s not a good thing you fucking brick. We need to get stronger ten times faster not three times slower"

Now they really couldn’t go back to the playground. Not like this. They were barely stronger than when they just gotten the system right now, maybe even weaker.

Zyro scratched his head awkwardly and didn’t retort.

"Is there anything else we should be aware of?"

Zen asked.

"Oh yeah. You guys are out of crystals"

"So?"

"What do you mean so.... did i forget to mention that...."

Zyro sighed, he could already hear the facepalms.

She chuckled nervously

"Well, remember when I said you weren’t from this realm? Or at least the body you have now"

Zyro nodded.

"Well during the ritual you were briefly exposed to your actual realm and your link to it was strengthened immensely. Not to mention Moirai was created from the ritual as well, linking you to it"

Zyro looked at the floating pile of cards

"So?"

"So... your body requires constant energy to maintain that link and keep Moirai active indefinitely "

Zen sighed

"So as long as we’re not in that place our energy is going to passively be consumed "

Theia nodded

"Also, The amount will increase as time passes so.."

"Will Jade be affected by this?"

Theia nodded.

"It seems it doesn’t affect us in the shadow realm, but we should really leave soon."

Zephyr sighed.

"Enough. Get to the good news"

They were all slightly suprised. There was good news?

[Quest failed: Echoes of fate]

[Quest completed]

[Player (Keith) has been killed]

[Obtained skill: Battle rhythm]

[The system has detected that the host has achieved a major milestone at a low level]

[Generating rewards]

1) Soul shard(???)

2) learned Astral tongue

3) unlocked royal privilege (incomplete)

He suddenly felt a stream of information flow into his mind and at the same time the codex glowed brightly.

Once the transfer was completely, he suddenly transformed fully.

The large golden wings suddenly appeared, ruining his uniform even more but right now he didn’t care.

Feeling something strange, he suddenly willed them to move and slowly he saw some of the feathers/scales around the edges start to separate slowly, hovering in the air.

His astra immediately started draining fast

They suddenly shot forward like bullets, arcing in the air and twisting and turning for a few seconds before flying back and returning into place.

"Whoa! Awesome... But... how. The wings are actually there, unlike soul blade and soul gun. They even have nerves and bones" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Yep, but they’re energy based, like you. Astrals are energy based lifeforms, unlike humans which are carbon based. Different rules apply"

He tried something else and watched as the feathers all seemed to flatten over his back, spreading about until completely indistinguishable and wrapping around his body,the edges bending towards his front.

Zyro looked at it curiously. He’d been attempting but it actually worked. Right now his wings looked like some glowing thin outer armor,or maybe clothes.

The nature of it only made him look more menacing, though right now he was extremely weak.

Deciding to stop wasting energy, especially now that he passively consumed it, he transformed back.

"I wonder if there’s something I can do about the glow. It’s a bit too eye-catching"

"Well it seems like we’ve covered everything."

" Not everything. There are some other cool things we can do, but not in here. We need to go out"

Hearing that, Zyro suddenly stepped down from the throne

"Welp. Someone else takeover. I’m done for now"

Zen took over the body and looked around

"We can’t go back to the academy. Not when Aurora knows the truth. She’ll kill us. And while I’m like this i can’t fight her"

Theia sighed

"Yeah, but with the astra you have now you also can’t escape far enough to not get caught, and we can’t absorb any in here to refuel. We’d get stuck with no way out if we tried"

"..."

Looking at the ground, he suddenly saw something.

"Hmm?"

He bent down to pick it up. It was Jade’s sword, still in pristine condition, except for the blood.

"I wonder if Jade’s awake"

Theia muttered

"Right,Jade. If i leave now, how will she cope"

Zen hadn’t meant anything by the question but the system immediately picked up on it and issued a quest.

[New quest recieved: My kin]

[Closely observe Jynx Moirai, and help her awaken her true power. You can not abandon her,it is against the oath of lifeblood you swore. Rewards depend on performance]

[Duration: 1 month]

"Oath of lifeblood?"

Zen briefly remembered the glowing blood swirling with stardust and feathers and sighed .

"Right... Can I reject the quest?"

"Sorry big guy"

[Punishment for failure or abandonment of quest : The codex will be destroyed,you will lose royal status and privilege, levels reset to zero. Deviant evolution to Abyssal]

It seemed the system really wanted him to stick with her. Something about her being his kin now.

Zen looked at the consequences again and just closed the system. He couldn’t afford to pay that right now . Going back to level zero was basically killing him. And what was the deviant evolution? Abyssal? He didn’t have time to mull it over.

"Zephyr. Let us out"

He said, putting the sword back into his ring.

In the outside world,a shadow suddenly appeared where they had been standing before and out of it came Zen.

He quickly looked up,unsuprised when he saw Aurora staring back at him in the same position she was in when he left