The Astral soul system-Chapter 146: Where have you been?

"That’s... okay that might be a problem"

"I know I’m so jealous"

"Wait what?"

Zyro was stunned for a second

"Ugh! How did we not do that first? Okay,we need to find whoever is behind this and take over the whole operation"

Zyro facepalmed mentally. He had almost forgotten that the first person Theia had interacted with was Zen who lacked all emotion and empathy, and the second was Zyro who was most likely just actually evil.

’Those two have corrupted her innocent forgetful little soul’

Appearantly the system took interest in this information because the next second

"Bingo!"

Theia said before snapping her fingers

[Nee quest recieved: Storyline advancement]

[You have uncovered a deeply disturbing piece of information due to your irresistibly charming and ever so dependable assistant-]

Zyro glanced at Theia who was "innocently" avoiding his gaze. He remembered Zen once mentioning that Theia most likely wrote the quest descriptions herself. Seeing this now it was almost certain that was the case.

He just sighed and kept reading

[The ever radiant Theia. Now you must get to the bottom, because NO ONE uses you as a pawn.]

[Notice: your reward will depend on how exactly you solve this, and what you do once you do. Good luck!]

"Another long term quest?"

From the books they read in Freya’s library and the games they played Zyro expected the journey with the system to be more of it driving him towards quick paced battles with simple quests like fight this or kill that, instead the system was making him act like some sort of detective,giving him mostly tasks and cases that could possibly take months to unravel. He still had Black working overtime to keep an eye on Maximilian during the day In case whoever wanted him dead returned, and Sable during the night in case something unexpected happened, and on top of that he had to watch them both personally without them suspecting he was up to something. Gary still hadn’t returned to school and Zyro had no idea where he was sent for treatment after Zen mentally and physically wrecked him, and for some reason he’d searched the entire school but all traces of that Celia girl had disappeared. Not to mention he had to find a way to... take care of Kyle without the academy finding out , and he wasn’t even sure if he wanted to do that at all.

It seemed like the system consciously wanted him to use his brain to solve problems instead of his fists.

Theia looked at him with a smug but also gentle smile on her face

"This is what you signed up for. The whole point of a sage is to acquire knowledge to solve problems. The system is simply following the path you chos,things would probably be slightly different if you... Zen chose a different class, but probably only slightly different. Things are only going to get much more complicated from here, you’ve only just begun Goldie "

Zyro sighed and got out of the pod

"I know it’s just... I’m not used to this. It’s always been..."

"Zen who deals with the strategic stuff?"

Zyro looked like he was about to nod when he stopped and replied

"All of us. It just doesn’t feel... complete when I’m alone. We were built to do this together"

Zyro felt a bit nostalgic as he scrolled through old memories in his mind. Every major problem,operation or mission the organization had sent them on, he’d never been alone, he’d always had his old team, and even if he didn’t, he knew he was never alone...in more ways than one.

Zyro dropped onto his bed, looking up with his starry eyes

"If that’s true,why not just let them help?"

"I... don’t know. I thought we were a team, but everything’s changed... and Zen,i thought we were all a team but I guess he didn’t feel the same? I don’t even know anymore, I’m trying to be logical but..."

"Zen’s the logical one, and Zaine’s the violent one. Which one are you then?" Theia said gently, trying to look at things from his point of view

Zyro chuckled

"The hyperactive yet toxic murderous psychopath"

Theia let out a sarcastic laugh, rolling her eyes at the human embodiment of a golden retriever puppy that was her current host.

"I’m being serious"

"I know. It’s not that simple to describe though"

Zyro thought in silence for a few seconds before shaking his head

"No use mulling over it. Might as well go figure it out"

Zyro said, closing his eyes as he entered his soul realm.

The second he was gone, the others paused what they were doing and looked at his lifeless form

" *Sigh* He was talking to himself again"

Neo said in a hushed tone.

"Yeah, and it was just like the other times too, but this time he was talking about Zen and Zaine,he sounded pretty upbeat too" Maximilian added

"Is he asleep yet?"

"I’ve been watching him for the past few weeks,he doesn’t sleep, weirdly enough. Sometimes he just closes his eyes for a few hours at a time" Maximilian answered Xavier

"Probably meditating" Neo added.

"Do you really think we can trust him? " Neo asked

*About as much as we can trust Zen, which admittedly isn’t very much in my case."

"I guess that’s... reasonable"

Xavier seemed a little bit upset at the tone they were using and tried defending Zyro

"Come on guys, what’s with this? Keeping secrets, talking behind his back. He saved our lives remember?"

"Yeah and he’s probably taken dozens more " Maxi replied, his voice getting a bit louder as he focused on Zyro’s right hand which was still covered by a glove

"There’s no proof of that"

"Yeah except the mark on his hand, and even if he hasn’t..."

"So what? The arcade is dead,remember? So what if a few strays survived? The main threat is gone already, Zen has no reason to still fight for them" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"You don’t know that. There have been multiple cases of players infiltrating and destroying the most impossible places in the world with ease, how do we know this isn’t how it all started? What if they’re just here to... They’re dangerous and..."

Maximilian suddenly paused and sighed.

Unlike the rest of them, Zen had actually saved his life twice so he truly was grateful but he still knew when to be rational. Zen, Zaine and Zyro were quite possibly a huge threat to the academy IF he was a spy,so although he wanted to believe otherwise, he’d still prepare for the worst.

"Look, I’m not saying they’re like the rest of them but we should just be careful. I’ve caught him and that bird of his watching us discreetly a few times, especially me and Sable, and I’m not implying anything, just be careful... and don’t trust them with any deep secrets or information, personal or otherwise"

Xavier grumbled and slammed his fist on the ground to show he was unhappy but didn’t make a fuss

"You’re just judging him based off his mark"

Neo seemed to take it calmer than Xavier did but still felt the tiniest bit guilty, especially after Zen had taught him meditation to help with his ability.

Maximilian sighed when he noticed that they agreed.

He’d saved Zen’s life once and Zen had saved him twice, that obviously counted for something in the young teenagers mind, plus Xavier was right. It was widely known and celebrated that the military alongside the main families after tremendous losses had destroyed the organization for good,or at least it’s main base leaving only a few survivors of which Zen Zaine and Zyro were part of. With how logical and calculative Maximilian knew Zen was,he also hoped that he’d see that he had no reason to work for the arcade,a dead organization any longer.

"Also, make sure to keep an eye on -"

Maximilian’s ears suddenly twitched and he muttered

"Incoming"

Before quickly adjusting his posture and resuming reading his book. Hurriedly, Xavier and Neo resumed their videogame, acting like everything was as it should be

A few seconds later, Black in the raven he was possessing flew in through a window, circling around the room a few times and being ignored by the boys who were used to this already.

After circling a few more times, Black touched down next to Zyro’s body, examining it for a few seconds before flying over to Maximilian’s bed, finding a spot by his feet before snuggling into the mattress sheets. This had already happened a few times so nobody paid it any mind,in fact, Black could randomly choose to sleep in any of their beds at night or just stay outside if it wanted,to them it was Zen’s surprisingly well trained pet raven so they just let it do whatever it wanted.

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

Zyro opened his eyes, finding himself in his soul realm.

"Still feels weird" he noted, feeling a bit dazed as he got off the throne.

He started heading for the dungeon and on his way there suddenly remembered Jesse. The walls suddenly started shifting and in a few seconds the whole passageway had changed, and a door with the words "Jesse" inscribed onto it in italics appeared.

Bracing himself,he opened it and was immediately greeted with obscene sounds as he looked into the room Zaine had created for Jesse.

He looked around and unlike a few weeks ago there were bright pink little dots of light everywhere.

"You should probably deal with this,or it could become a minor nuisance in the future"

Zyro nodded

"Right after i talk with the others"

Theia shrugged

"Problems can grow,but whatever"

Zyro smiled reassuringly and kept walking to the dungeon.

"I still don’t know why you walk around when you can just do the same thing with Jesse’s door "

Zyro shrugged . He honestly didn’t have a reason ,it just... felt right?

"Where’s Lilith and Freya anyway?"

Theia shrugged

"This place is fucking huge, how should I know? And shouldn’t you be like omnipotent in here or something ?"

"That only applies when one of us is awake. Now that all three of us are here,we have to split control evenly"

They got to the dungeon and were just in time to see another altercation between Zen and Zaine.

Zaine looked like he was about to start another fight , Zen was trying his best to just ignore him and Sylphie who was trapped there was sitting cross legged on Zen’s lap,her petite frame fitting perfectly.

"Hey guys"

They all suddenly shifted their attention to him

"Oh, it’s the little one" Sylphie said, looking relieved to finally have something to do other than listen to a deeply disturbed teenager arguing with himself,or at least that’s how she saw it.

"What do you want, dick head!"

"I came to talk" Zyro answered, ignoring the insult

He took a seat on the floor in front of the prison bars,far away enough to escape if someone (Zaine) tried to grab him.

"So...i wanted to ask, Zen.... what do you think of our friends?"

"Friends?" Zen asked like he didn’t understand the question.

"Oh. Our roommates and the girls"

Zen thought for a few seconds before replying

"Among the males, Maximilian is probably the most difficult. He’s deeply analytical and isn’t as emotional as the others. He has okay leadership skills and is an excellent scout for his level. He’d probably be easy to kill if you could catch him off guard, the problem is his guard is almost always up. He’s very prudent and suspicious. Neo... isn’t as stupid as he looks. Growing up on the streets, he’s very resourceful and street smart, not to mention his ability makes him deadly and you’d need to finish him in one hit or disable his arms before killing him. His will has been hardened by his relatively tough upbringing so his spirit would be slightly harder to destroy, but not impossible. Xavier is a loose canon,he seems easily trusting and care free but has an unshakable sense of justice,or at least his definition of it, you can use that to get closer to him. His hand to hand combat skills are probably only slightly below ours so he should be easy to take out. As for the girls, Jade is smart and strong, very much so, she has potential but is very inexperienced, she shouldn’t be a problem,as long as you don’t make her a problem. Zaria is... naive, and stupid. She was the first to trust me and probably trusts us the most. She has immense strength but is too indecisive to use it. You could probably lure her into a trap and finish her, gain lots of exp too. "

"Woah woah, wait i didn’t mean that. I’m not asking to eliminate them"

Zen shrugged and finished

"Diane... ironically might be your safest option "

"I said I’m not killing them"

"I know. Diane isn’t sweet or kind to us, she’s very rash and straightforward with her emotions just like Xavier. Among all of them though, she’s least likely to turn against you"

Zyro was shocked, did Zen just say he could trust Diane?

"Nothing of the sort, she’s simply the most honest and easiest to read"

"O...oh"

After that conversation that was just a buildup to his real question, Zyro suddenly brought up his

"So... guys,i went into the game today and i met Mao "

This time it was Zaine who reacted

"She’s grown a lot... and apparently she hasn’t seen us logged in for the past three years,it was kinda akward"

Zaine’s lips twitched as he quickly realized what that meant and turned to the expressionless Zen.

"What does that mean?"

"..."

What is he talking about Zen!"

"It’s none of your business"

"Guys,calm down"

"No! Fuck that! For some reason I can’t see the memories of the past three years up until you got to this stupid academy, like they just... disappeared"

Zyro nodded

"Zen... what exactly have you been doing for the past three years?"

When Zen didn’t reply, Zaine’s rage kicked in again and he punched the wall

"Answer!"

"Pointless" Zen mused

Realizing things would explode soon, Zyro tried to calm things down