The Astral soul system-Chapter 192: Terra

Maximilian’s eyes widened but he didn’t react, not in front of the prisoner , deciding to just go with it for now.

"You-"

"Wouldn’t? Trust me,you don’t want to finish that sentence"

"Just kill me"

Ava rolled her eyes.

"It’s always ’Just kill me, just kill me’ say something original will you?"

Looking at Max, she ordered

"Pull her out"

"She’s bleeding"

"And we’re here to torture her"

Hearing that, Maximilian felt it made sense, and it wasn’t like blood bothered him.

Reaching into the destroyed robot, he pulled out out the alien, roughly throwing her into the ground.

"Talk. Are there more of you coming?"

The alien growled and spat

"Go die! I’m not telling you anything"

Sighing,Ava looked to be loosing patience, bending down to the alien’s level, she spoke.

"Okay then. Don’t tell us anything, show us how to get into that ship of yours"

She said, pointing up at the ship on the ceiling

"And don’t even think of saying no because you’ll regret it. Remember what I said before"

Looking the girl in the eye, the alien snarled and spat in her face

"..."

"..."

Ava sighed, wiping off the spit with her sleeve before grabbing the alien’s hair, and with strength unexpected from someone who looked so frail, slammed her haid into the concrete

Once, twice, thrice...after a while it became obvious that Ava was really pissed off as even after the woman was knocked out cold with blood dripping from her head and most likely having a cracked skull, she didn’t stop until Maximilian held her back

"Enough "

Ava rolled her eyes, pulling out a napkin and wiping the blood off her delicate fingers before throwing the napkins on the woman’s unconscious body.

"Whatever, we’ll just go ahead with my other plan when she wakes up"

Hearing that, Maximilian visibly reeled, looking at Ava strangely

"What?"

"Are you serious?"

"I haven’t made a single joke since you’ve met me,Hunter"

"Then what are you talking about?"

"Hmm?"

Ava looked back at Maximilian seeming confused.

"I don’t understand"

"What do you mean you don’t understand?"

Ava thought for a few seconds before looking like she realized something.

"Oh... that’s the problem"

"Yes"

"Don’t worry the important parts are similar enough to human that you can barely tell"

Maximilian honestly didn’t want to know how she had gotten that information but she still wasn’t getting his point . Did she really expect him to do that?

"No,I mean look at what state she’s in"

Ava took a cursory glance at the unconscious body before shrugging, focusing back on her screen.

"Well obviously we’re going to wait till she’s conscious, and if you don’t like the blood we’ll just make her a bit more presentable"

Maximilian went quiet,not knowing how else to explain it to this ruthless girl.

Ava looked up at him, seeing g him slightly dejected,her lips curled uncontrollably for a split second before returning to normal

"Relax,if you’re worried about performance issues or just don’t want to do it there are dozens of hormonal teenagers in this building. I’d be shocked if we couldn’t find at least a few volunteers"

"How about you let me try my method of interrogating her first?"

Ava shrugged

"Sounds less fun but whatever. Go ahead"

Maximilian sighed in relief,glad she hadn’t insisted on doing it her way

"Don’t celebrate just yet. We’ve still got one more general to destroy"

Maximilian nodded but in truth he wasn’t really bothered. Literally every single other general had been taken care of,most of them had been taken out one on one, and with how exhausted he was, he honestly just wanted to collapse and wait for Ava to inevitably say someone else had taken care of it.

"I know what you’re thinking, and unfortunately i have to disappoint you"

Before Maximilian could ask, she had opened the channel and spoke.

"This is Ava Ryder. All students should converge at the locations I’ve sent "

Before anything else could be said she closed the channel again.

Looking at the locations she sent, Maximilian looked a bit confused.

"Um.. Ava? The locations you sent are ours"

Ava didn’t reply

Realizing that he hadn’t asked a question yet, he quickly rephrased

"Why did you send our loca-"

He suddenly looked up, his eyes sharpening as he gripped his weapon

"I did it because the final general...is targeting us"

Ava explained calmly as they both looked at the space ship still perched on the dome suddenly opened up.

"Do you have a knife?"

"Yes but -"

"Give it "

Maximilian complied, eyes still locked on the ship.

Grabbing the knife she lifted the unconscious woman to her feet, pressing the knife to her throat.

"Let’s see if we can stop this one an easier way "

Maximilian didn’t say anything but he hoped it worked, despite doubting it would, but if it didn’t, they’d just defeat it the normal way

Ava’s device suddenly started beeping and for the second time, Ava showed a flicker of emotion

"No..."

Maximilian was a bit confused but his answers were answered when he heard a rattling sound. Looking to his side, he noticed that one of the robots that had shut down was starting to twitch again.

"What?!"

Maximilian groaned. These things weren’t dangerous on their own, but their large numbers made them an even bigger problem than the generals

"I thought without the generals they had to shut down"

"So did I?"

Ava said,her eyes suddenly laser focused on the ship.

"Hey Hunter?"

"What?"

"Call me crazy but, to me it looks like that ship is nowhere near big enough to carry this many bots"

"..."

She was right. He’d always just thought the bots came from the ship. Where else would they come from? But with the number of bots, and the size of the ship he was looking at, there were two possibilities. Either there was a portal on board which was highly unlikely considering how much power would be required to run it would need a generator larger than the ship itself...or the more distressing possibility.

"That’s why the final general has been completely stationary so far. "

Ava muttered.

Finally, the ship’s large door opened and a single small figure dropped out of it towards the ground.

It seemed a bit smaller than the generals but still very bulky .

They watched it warily, wondering if it would slow down somehow as it dropped to the ground but it simply crashed, it’s descent crushing the ground beneath it

Now that it was closer, Ava could clearly examine it. It looked completely different from the others, much smaller and sleek by comparison,despite still being very large.

"Now it’s time for a taste of your own medicine. Surrender,or your girlfriend here dies"

It turned to look at Ava, seeing her holding the alien woman captive. It stood in place for a few seconds before suddenly raising it’s hand towards her and firing a thin horizontal blade of energy right into the woman’s chest, killing her instantly.

Dropping the body, Ava looked at first suprised,then disappointed

"Worth a shot"

Maximilian gripped his weapon, preparing for it to attack. He was still staying back for one reason.

That blast. It was horizontal, about a foot wide and blue, but the really scary thing. It was fast. There had been literally no charge up time unlike the generals and they had had no time to dodge.

"Can’t you just take control of it like the other one? Since this is the last one"

Ava glanced at the enemy and decided to try,her eyes flashed briefly before suddenly flickering off

"Huh?"

Ava flinched a little before quickly trying again.

The same thing happened and for the first time in a while, Ava actually showed visible emotion.

"That’s not..."

"What’s wrong?"

"It’s not a mechanical"

At this point Ava looked very concerned,a single thought playing in her mind : What exactly were they looking at?

it wasn’t mechanical, it couldn’t be organic or bio-organic ,so that left only one option left

"An ability"

"..."

"Or something of that nature at least"

Humans weren’t the only species capable of using abilities, though they had a rather high affinity for them when compared to other races. Though for obvious reasons they weren’t heard about as commonly. The same was true for aether and soul gear.

For whatever reason, the enemy was still just staring at them, standing there after killing it’s ally. Maximilian was starting to loose patience when it suddenly spoke.

"You’re the one who opened that channel to Terra"

Ava blinked. Terra, the official name of humanity’s imperial army stronghold,or as humans knew it,earth. No human had called it Terra for the past five hundred years, except in history classes of course.

"I am"

"...You will live...for now "

It immediately turned to look at Maximilian who was next to her and without another word charged at him, slamming into him and sending them both flying right past Ava.

Maximilian crashed into the ground a distance away. He’d somehow managed to hold onto his halberd during it all.

Getting up, he stared at the figure that was still just standing in front of him.

"At least i don’t have to protect Ava now, but this guy looks like trouble"

"You should worry more about yourself "

It raised it’s hand again, firing another energy blade which Maximilian quickly dodged

’Way too slow to be light based, but that doesn’t exactly mean this is easy"

His armor faintly lit up, increasing his speed as he backed up, putting distance between them.

’If it is an ability or something like that,i should just hold on until they run out of aether’

Before he could finish that thought,it immediately started pursuing him, immediately matching his speed and landing a kick at his side.

He was immediately sent flying into a nearby wall before crashing into the ground. He immediately braced for an attack to land while he was down but nothing came. Looking up, he saw his opponent just standing there, waiting for him to get up

’So that’s what’s going on ’

He thought, getting up and picking up his halberd

’In that case there’s no point in running ’

Activating the armor’s skill again, this time he charged straight forward, swinging his weapon as hard as he could