The Astral soul system-Chapter 202: Take em off

"Bummer"

Theia groaned.

Zen didn’t react. He’d have had to meet her regardless,best to get it done quickly. If she tried to attack him he could just retreat back to the shadow realm and wait, though with the time dilation he’d have to wait for months before she left.

She took a look at Zen, sizing him up. She took a few steps closer, examining him. Zen kept quiet and let it happen. He wasn’t exactly sure what was going on but he wasn’t in the position to speak right now.

She might have had a soft spot for him before but he was all but sure that there was no such emotion left. One wrong move and she could kill him instantly.

Feeling like he should at least give an excuse for his lateness so she wouldn’t think he was avoiding her, he muttered.

"I blacked out, and needed to rest for a while"

Her gaze shifted to his face and Zen mentally braced himself to open the shadow realm but was surprised when she turned around and started walking.

"Save the excuses for the general. He’ll want to hear where you were during all this"

Zen paused for a second. That was it? No screaming or cursing? Nothing?"

"It could be a trap. She might have already told the others and just want to get you surrounded "

"Yes, but that’s way too much effort seeing as she can just finish me herself "

He sighed and followed closely behind behind Aurora.

He only took a few steps before noticing something and stopping

"Interesting..."

********

No one else was here at the time. The remaining students had likely already been returned to the academy. According to Zephyr he’d been gone for about two hours, so it made sense since Ava had fixed the portal

He opened the stat screen and saw something new, just like Theia said

[Astra: 100/166](-10/hour)

He had a mere ten hours before he was completely drained, and according to Theia,once his Astra was gone it would start draining his HP

Reaching the portal room where he’d dropped Ava before, he saw a bridge had been made, probably by an earth ability user.

Moving closer, he saw Ava sitting at a corner in the room, fiddling with something in her hand.

She looked up seeing Zen and Aurora show up and sighed.

"Finally got what you were looking for, teacher?"

She looked behind Aurora at Zen, giving him a cursory glance before looking away.

Zen looked closer and realized the thing in her hand was her blue bird,it was a little busted up, but still looked functional. Next to her, Black was perched on a pile of rubble and cawed at him before flying onto his shoulder.

Ava hummed

"That thing saved my blue. Despite being a little weird looking, it’s quite useful."

Zen didn’t know if that was a thank you and he didn’t really care. Whatever Black had done on its own was none of his business ,he had his own problems to deal with right now.

"I told you to leave"

Aurora said

"I did, and I came back. You never said I couldn’t do that"

Aurora didn’t have time to deal with Ava’s shenanigans and just pointed them both to the portal.

"Is it just me or are you extra grumpy today?"

Ava sighed and holding her chubby bird in her hands walked towards the portal, jumping in and vanishing.

Zen didn’t waste any time and followed behind, Black perched ominously on his shoulder.

When his feet touched the ground, Zen found himself in the academy’s portal room.

There were still a lot students but he couldn’t see anyone he knew personally.

"She’s not here?"

He muttered

"Who’s not here?"

Ava suddenly asked

"None of your business"

Before anything more could happen, Aurora stepped out of the portal.

"Move"

She said dryly and the students moved towards the center of the room where Tim and some teachers were.

Seeing them both coming, he sighed.

"First of all, students are forbidden from bringing pets into the expeditions

The two pointed to their respective birds.

"This is a robot"

"And this isn’t a pet"

They both said, shrugging.

Tim sighed.

"Alright. We’ll speak on that later. First I’d like to hear your reports on what happened to you, same as everyone else."

Ava suddenly pulled out a flashdrive

"I’ve completely recorded everything I could about the event and prepared a thousand word essay"

"Very well done miss Ryder,but I just need to hear it from you "

Ava shrugged and for the next few minutes, reported about what happened. How she’d prepared the broadcast while Maximilian protected her, how they’d destroyed the generals and captured one. She also didn’t spare any details on her attempted "Interrogation " of her captive, drawing a few odd looks, before ending saying that they’d been unable to beat the final one themselves before being saved by three players. Once again she didn’t spare any details, mentioning how she’d asked one for a ride and he’d given it to her before once again badmouthing his flying skills.

Theia burst out laughing at that part, wondering how Ava would react if she realized she was talking about Zen who was right next to her .

Contrary to his expectations, the wings had in fact made his flying worse.

"You really need to find like a flying school or something"

Zen didn’t react, but he didn’t need to look back to know Aurora was still staring at him.

"Thank you for that... interesting report,Ava"

He sighed, massaging his temples

"What about you, Zen. What’s your report?"

"Nothing"

Everyone suddenly frozen at that.

"What?"

Zen shrugged

"I was lucky and got caught outside the barrier when it went up, and I didn’t encounter any robots so I hid and waited . When the barrier went down i went in to see what was happening but got hit by sneak attack and falling unconscious. I’m guessing everything worked out before i was killed, maybe someone saved me. I don’t know. Eventually miss Aurora found me"

Everywhere went silent for a second ,a bit stunned by the report. Literally every other student had at least done something during the attack , but it seemed Zen had been practically useless .

A few students sneered. Seeing Zen’s torn clothes they’d assumed he’d been in some huge fight but it seemed that wasn’t the case. In fact he was probably the only one who’d done nothing at all and still got injured

Some even recognized him as one of the two with new abilities and the murmurs got even worse.

Zen could hear every single one of them but he was only focused on one. He looked back at Aurora slowly, waiting to see if she would expose him but she was already looking elsewhere, ignoring him and his story entirely.

’odd’

He noted, but wasn’t about to complain

"I don’t know anything else about what happened. Is that adequate?"

He asked Tim

"I could go into proper detail"

Tim shook his head

"Not necessary. Though the renumeration given to students won’t be granted to you, and you’ll have to face some punishment for leaving the base before the scheduled time without informing a superior "

"Yes sir"

"And you both have to be punished for bringing your pets along on an expedition.

Before they could give their excuses again he added.

"And that’s final"

The two sighed,both ignoring the disgusted looks thrown to them for different reasons.

"Is that all"

"I have to get back to work "

Tim sighed

"Yes you can go. You will be called later to be informed of your punishment "

Zen and Ava started leaving, and as he did, Zen suddenly noticed someone out of the corner of his eye.

"Berny"

He muttered.

The quest was already failed. He’d taken too long, but he doubted the teacher would let him go without trying to get some revenge.

As soon as they left the room, Ava turned to face him.

"So why did you lie?"

Zen raised a brow

"I didn’t"

"Something about your story doesn’t add up"

"..."

"Almost all the robots were already down by then and although they did come back on temporarily, you’re way too capable to be knocked out by a half functional machine "

Zen shrugged

"I didn’t see what attacked me,i was hit from behind. Maybe it was a robot, maybe it wasn’t

Ava thought for a second before suddenly moving closer. Slowly stepping closer to Zen until she was right in front of him.

She was a bit shorter than him so she had to look up to see his face.

"Hmmm"

She slowly raised her hand, nearly touching him as it went higher to rest on Black who was on his shoulder, gently petting him.

"This creepy thing is kinda cute...kinda"

She finally dropped her hand before looking down at at Zen’s.

"Gloves"

She muttered, tilting her head.

"Why do you wear gloves?"

"I get cold hands. Plus it hides my mutation’s effect"

"Mutation? Can I see it?"

Zen shook his head.

"I’m afraid it’s not. It’s really unsettling "

She suddenly smirked, leaning closer still. Now they were extremely close.

"That’s perfect. A lot of people find me disturbing too. Go ahead"

"..."

"..." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"..."

"Zen!"

They both suddenly turned around and saw Aurora staring at them

"To my office. Now "

Ava sighed and stepped back,chuckling before her expression became deadpan again.

"Guess you’ll have to show me later"

She said in a tone that made it clear they would definitely be meeting again before turning around and walking off.

"Whoa...was that threatening or flirting?"

Theia said. She’d been watching every moment like it was a soap opera . She’d have grabbed popcorn if she could .

Zen turned around to face Aurora and just walked after her. It looked like his troubles weren’t over just yet.

The two walked for a few minutes until they reached her office.

"Lock it". She said as he walked in after her.

He did as she said. At this point he was almost certain she wouldn’t kill him. If she wanted to do that she’d have done it back on the other planet where there’d be no evidence or she’d have just exposed him.

By bringing him to her office she’d created a link to her. If he suddenly went missing it’d be suspicious .

She sat down behind her desk and he stood in front of it.

"Where were you really during the battle"

Zen froze for a second. Was this another trick? Security cameras? Hidden microphone?

"Just answer the question Zen"

Freya suddenly said with a sigh

"This is a mess. At this point if things don’t work out we’ll just give up and start on some other planet. Take Jade with us, it’s probably possible "

Zen paused.

Would he really do that? Ruin Jade’s life and get her involved with a player? He had no attachment or care for her but that wasn’t the case with Zyro, his counterpart seemed to on some level value her life and well-being, meaning some part of him would as well if it was capable .

Though, hadn’t she already involved herself with him?

Aurora didn’t have much patience so she spoke.

"Answer"

"I went to kill a second year student"

Aurora went silent for a second

"And the others?"

"I killed them as well

"..."

"..."

"Are you human?"

"..."

"Answer"

"I’m not sure what i am"

She went silent again before pointing to his glove

"Take it off"

Sighing, he did as she asked, showing his mark.

She stared intently at it for a second before looking away.

"Alright, I don’t have all day. Leave, I’ve got work to do"

"..."

That was it? No questions? No demands? No revelation that she’d been recording the conversation?

"Is there anything you need? I said I’m busy"

"Right "

He said, unlocking the door and walking out.

As soon as Zen left, Aurora sighed, gently taking her hand off the desk, revealing deep marks that looked like they’d been put in by nails at least five inches deep in the wood.

She brought her shaky hands to open the desk and pull out a framed picture, staring at it with red eyes.

On it was a picture of a little girl,wide eyed and smiling