The Astral soul system-Chapter 178: I despise traitors

"So?"

"???"

"Are you gonna show me the picture?"

Zen ignored Theia’s nonsense, looking up to see a familiar black shadow in the sky. He’d tasked black with following the guy he’d chased away just in case soul brand had a limit or something like that,or if he had suspected he’d be followed and dropped some traps.

Luckily it hadn’t been necessary as the bright mark was still visible in his vision, like a beacon signalling where his target was.

With any luck he’d reach their den and wipe them all out, and if they were really fortunate that might be enough to level up and reach the second evolution.

Now that they were so close, Zen, Zaine and Zyro were actually curious what evolution was like, seeing as Zen was unconscious and the other two were sealed last time,so none of them were able to experience it.

According to Theia it would be a painful process but they didn’t exactly know how to treat that information considering they were already quite accustomed to pain. They’d just have to see for themselves.

Speaking of seeing things...

Zen immediately halted, skidding for a bit before coming to a complete halt.

He held his hand up, signalling stop and creeped forward slowly.

Theia suddenly appeared in front of his face, poking his forehead.

"Hey! Are you listening to me? I said I want the picture"

From right next to him, Zyro spoke up.

"This looks fun"

Hearing that, Theia turned around to look and saw large dome made of rock, similar to the cave Zaine had found the spider, but this one didn’t seem to be natural, it was smooth and pristine,clearly created by an earth ability user.

"Judging from the size, there’s a lot of them. More playmates"

Zyro observed with a sickeningly sweet voice considering what they were about to do.

"Quiet,beast! You disgust me"

Zaine reprimanded, glaring at Zyro from the corner of his eyes.

Zen ignored them, stretching his arm for Black to land on.

The parasite quickly relayed the information it had gathered from scouting the perimeter to them.

"A second entrance"

"And the roughly twenty second years that came are all there"

Zen shook his head and raised one finger

"All except one"

Zyro elaborated

"Him"

Zaine spat out like it was a slur.

The bird nodded, taking it’s place at Zen’s shoulder, it’s job was done... for now.

"Now wait a second boys. You need a plan"

Freya’s voice rang out in Zyro’s head

"I don’t mean to offend,master, but this seems well out of your capabilities whether you admit it or not"

Zaine snarled hearing that

"Do we have a plan?"

Theia asked Zen

"..."

Thinking for a bit, Zen suddenly looked at Zyro and thought

"The skill chain lightning cost 100 Astra to cast and it damaged five opponents.

If they hit a surprise attack that would still be about sixteen opponents divided among them, and there was no idea how many abilities they had.

Zaine groaned impatiently and suddenly dashed towards the entrance, stopping at the wall next to it, his back facing it.

"Fuck this. What’s so difficult? Start with our strongest attacks and hit them hard while they’re shocked. Just follow my lead"

Unable to bring up a valid argument, Zen agreed for Zyro to lead, and Zyro just wanted to "play" so there was no argument.

"Good. Freak! You go around to the other entrance and hammer whoever tries to come out,push them in. We’ll suffocate and bury them all here"

Zyro nodded, immediately circling round to get to the other side and wait for the signal.

Zen looked at Zaine, awaiting orders.

"You phase in from the top. In case these fuckers try to get smart, and don’t hesitate to collapse the entire cave. I know you don’t care enough about the rest of us to be conflicted"

"You are mistaken. Any damage to you or Zyro could adversely affect myself and Azrael as a whole,thus your wellbeing is of utmost importance. Also, I added a variable to your plan"

That being said, Zen took his place on top of the man made dome, and closed his eyes, sitting in a lotus position.

He took a deep breath, letting it out gently before suddenly falling onto his back, phasing through the rock.

His head peeked in calmly as his energy plummeted from the massive requirements of phasing.

"Look at you,moron! You couldn’t even keep yourself from getting spotted by a first year. Pathetic, and you even got yourself into such a sorry state,i can’t wait to hear what the boss has to say about this"

Victor on the bed was unresponsive, his body had been damaged,sure, but even worse was the condition of his psyche. His body was still shaking uncontrollably even now, every now and again those eyes would flash in his mind, especially the right one, something about it felt wrong, unnatural.

"Y-you don’t get it. N-n...none...none of you get it. Th-there were three of them"

Victor’s friend paused and asked

"He was with his friends? Well duh,I knew that, how else would he get you in this condition.

"N-no...you don’t get it "

Victor’s eyes suddenly closed and when he opened them again he was no longer on the bed.

Victor found himself in a dark boundless space, he tried to open his mouth but he couldn’t speak. Suddenly he looked up and saw a large eye about the size of a city,it looked exactly like the one he’d seen before.

"Victor! Victor! Hey victor!"

Victor’s suddenly found himself back on the bed, his friend shaking him slightly.

"He’s.... coming "

"Who? That Zen? "

His friend scoffed

"I hope so. I and everyone here can show you how to treat a frickin first year. Hehe! Now that I think about it, he’s kind of a looker isn’t he, I’m sure some of us here will be able to have some...extra fun with that brat. Just like we did with those stupid girls this morning. Just remembering their looks when the ’strong second years ’ that saved them ordered them to strip is enough to get me hard"

Victor’s friend laughed lecherously,a faint smile on his face as he looked at the large pile of bags in the corner.

"They had so much fun they even kindly decided to leave all their stuff,as well as the second one we "helped", and the third... and the fourth..."

Unable to keep it in any longer he eventually burst out laughing.

"N...no"

Victor’s voice suddenly cut through his friends laughing.

"Hm?"

"The destroyer... he’s coming, he’s coming and we’re all doomed"

"What the hell is wrong with you man? Upset i didn’t leave any first years for you? Relax, our little friends should’ve followed you, according to Keith, he’s the kind of person to do that, you’ll get your turn"

Victor’s eyes that were glued to the ceiling suddenly caught a glimpse of Zen in the ceiling and he immediately lost it.

"Oh no"

"We’re doomed! We’re all doomed!"

Victor suddenly started yelling maniacally, immediately spiralling and having a full blown panic attack, forcing his friend and a few others that were relaxing to restrain him.

Zen quickly removed his head, his body becoming solid again.

He looked at the system screen and couldn’t help but wonder if the others could see what he was seeing.

[Recieved quest : Righteous fury]

[Soul: Lilith is consumed with rage and the urge to destroy. If you don’t do something about this,her unsettled emotions might lead to complications in your future]

[Quest: Resolve Lilith’s rage]

[Reward: instant level up, increased affinity with Lilith, 100palpoints]

"How quaint"

He whispered into the wind.

Near the entrances, Zaine and Zyro immediately bolted into action, following the breif but simple plan; use the inspect skill to determine the powers of the second years, attack from both sides,take out the dangerous ones first,force them together and KILL KILL KILL

Zaine dashed into the cave with the bravado of a hurricane, slicing at the first thing he saw.

The entire cave was thrust into chaos as they all prepared to attack, but Zyro suddenly appeared at the other entrance, his shield held up in front of his face.

Zaine’s blade burst into crimson flames

[Flames of rage]

[Soul blade]

[Soul gun]

Zaine suddenly swung his sword,using all three skills at once, releasing a meter long blade of energy towards a second year.

[New skill created: Soul slash]

On the roof of the dome, Zen stared calmly at the notification. As expected.

Displaying his exceptional talent and adaptability with a sword and combat in general, Zaine began to use it again immediately, releasing slash after slash with no end in sight, mowing down the second years with the unexpected assault, and before they could even consider, backing up, they heard an eager voice from behind.

"Hehehe! Don’t even think about it,come on guys, play with us!"

Avoiding Zaine’s attacks ,he attacked them from behind, slamming his shield into anyone unfortunate enough to get too close. Luckily none of them had a speed ability and the chaos they’d found them in gave Zaine a good uninterrupted ten seconds to barrage them with attacks

After that ten seconds, Zaine stopped for one reason, his Astra had been depleted

"My variable is here"

Zaine suddenly stepped back and as he did a rabid beast jumped in, roaring wildly.

Its face was covered in a black sludge and it’s entire body was grotesquely thin. It howled painfully like it was dying before it suddenly started attacking everything around it and although it wasn’t very powerful,it wasn’t supposed to be, it was only supposed to make everything more chaotic.

The first joined attack had taken out over half of them and as time passed,it was clear that it was already over.

All the variables said that Zen Zyro and Zaine should have lost this fight, they were outnumbered, the second years were clearly already expecting their one target, they had been warned by Keith, but they were careless, and even worse uninformed.

Their carelessness could be explained by the fact that they were expecting one human first year with a non offensive ability, not three Astrals with multiple ways to use attacks.

As the last fell and was about to die,Zen got down and from the roof, walking in with a dead bird in his hands. He walked towards the beast that was riddled with holes and held it to it, drawing a small black mass from the beast into the bird.

Immediately the parasite sprung up, quickly gaining control of its previous body.

"W-why?"

Zen looked at the last remaining second year on the ground, his legs had been turned into mince meat by a sadistic Zyro.

Seeing that he’d lost all will to fight, Zen ignored him and looked at Victor who was still on the bed, frozen and unable to move.

"Hm? Why?"

He looked at Zaine who snarled.

"Why? Why would I do this?! You humans are unbelievable. Why would you in all your hubris, greed and lust do all this!"

Zaine said, acting as Lilith’s proxy. These were all her words.

" I did this because I hate people like you. People who claim to protect and help while instead using that title to do harm to others. Those people trusted you! If you want to kill,kill,if you want to protect,then protect, but I despise traitors!"

As he said that last part, Zaine glaref at Zen out of the corner of his eye, but Zen simply ignored him. Those weren’t Lilith’s words alone.

With that, Zen shot a beam out of his finger, claiming the final kill.

[Quest complete]

[Level up!!!]

[Congratulations on reaching level twenty]

[Evolution will begin in thirty seconds]

Before they could do anything, they were all suddenly pulled back together forcefully, knocking them off balance.

It seemed they couldn’t evolve while they were separate.

Zen quickly took control, looking at the timer that didn’t seem like it could be stopped.

He looked around him at the cave that was filled with bags all the crystals and other stuff the second years had stolen from their juniors and was satisfied.

It seemed their food crisis was over.

Most people that saw this would already be thinking of all the things they could do with these, but for Zen, this was just next months breakfast lunch and dinner.