The Astral soul system-Chapter 222: Where are the gods?

"so..."

"This doesn’t change anything. Dungeon,here i come"

"Are you sure you don’t want to prepare more before you jump headfirst"

"I’ll figure it out on the way"

"I admire your courage boy, but you’re no use to me dead. You’re currently far too weak to be so flippant "

Zyro looked at his hand, balling it up into a fist.

He had a point with that.

Maybe it was time for a change, though exactly what needed to change? He wasn’t sure.

Which brought them back to the original problem. They had absolutely no idea what they were doing. It wasn’t like there was anyone to teach him...any of this. He doubted GK would just drop a manual with diagrams in his lap if he asked.

The situations they were getting into were increasing in danger far more rapidly than he could gain power,all thanks to his new accessory. It was why he was so bent on going to that dungeon. He still had the skill set, even if most of his strength was gone

Listening to her three host’s disembodied thoughts, Theia facepalmed.

"Guys,you literally have a huge advantage you aren’t making full use of"

"And what’s that?"

"Your souls. They aren’t just power, they’re people. Every word has a different system of power, Astrals use astra, humans use aether. Both have different functions and rankings. Just ask Syl or the pervert god how they got stronger "

Well that was one thing. Zyro had honestly forgotten all about the cultivation aspect. He’d just been farming heart flames from Jesse for the past month. He hadn’t actually used it.

Leveling up though being the most direct form of gaining strength,was not the only one.

"Sylphie?"

"Sure, whatever"

Zyro eventually changed his location, heading for the dungeon corpse in the mountain instead

"So tell us about your power system"

The elf spirit flew out of the codex, landing on her little bare feet. She immediately put on the hoodie Zen gave her, covering up. Zyro had offered to get her more but she said she was satisfied with just this.

"It might be different from humans , but I use something called mana,or i used to. Ever since you brought me back with this body,i can no longer sense it, perhaps my new body is incompatible with it or It just doesn’t exist in this world"

Theia interrupted

"Actually, Gaia’s grave has all forms of energy, just in average quantities. Think of it as a jack of all trades, master of none. Even aether itself is not exclusive to this world"

"Huh,then where does aether come from?"

"Where do abilities come from?"

Zyro thought for a second

"Gods?"

Syl snapped her fingers

"We’re getting off track. Point is i still have some experience with mana. Whether it should be useful or not is up to you. First of all I want to test something. Transform"

Zyro was a bit confused but didn’t ask questions and just did it

In a few seconds he’d completely changed, assuming his Astral form. A bit over eight feet tall,skin the color of the night sky, four glowing eyes,three on the left, one on the right , and a single horn, barely higher than his hair could cover

"Interesting"

Zyro looked at the back of his clothes. They’d stretched to fit him but the wings were still problematic.

"Take off your shirt"

"Huh?"

"Those runes. The marks on your body. I want to see them"

He didn’t ask questions and took off the top of his uniform

Syl looked closely, scrutinizing his form

"Strange "

She said,her fingers running over the markings

"Turn around "

He acquiesced, letting her see his back and the moment she did,her eyes widened.

"What is this?"

Zyro looked back and saw the familiar mark.

"Oh, that’s something the arcade put on me as a kid. Part of my destiny. It’s called the mark of hecate... though it’s not supposed to be visible "

"Fascinating "

She stepped back watching as all the previous masks converged around it like tree branches spreading out from the central mark.

"Hecate is one of your world’s gods, right?"

Zyro nodded.

"This could work. Where is her nearest temple. Or do you have a way to speak to her personally"

"Um... well. Things don’t really work that way in this world. Gods as a concept are something that have been destroyed by time. People barely even know of the stories anymore "

Zephyr suddenly spoke up

"So they’re all dead"

"Some might even say they never existed "

Syl stood back

"Well that’s sad... Anyway, relying on these marks will be pointless then. They are closely tied to your essence, I’m sure of that, but if your world’s gods no longer exist, there’s no point "

"Well... what about wukong. I’m pretty sure he’s still around, the others might be too. Just... hidden "

"The way the girl described it, your magic monkey is currently on the cusp of death "

"If we can find him, save him, he can tell us what happened to the others "

Zyro suggested

"Possibly. Then we can find out what happened to Zephyr "

Syl suddenly snapped

"None of that matters! It’s all useless if we can’t do anything now. In my world, unique individuals could gain strength directly from gods,or entities of similar power. You clearly have a god’s blessing,or something similar"

"Something similar used to exist here"

Theia added

"Then what changed. What happened to earth’s gods?"

Zephyr said with a grim tone.

Realizing something, Zyro suddenly asked.

"Theia? Why exactly is this realm called Gaia’s grave?"

"..."

Another mystery. Appearantly gods used to exist on earth,at least at some point in history. Though, Zyro was always told that those stories were nothing but that. Even the most famous and popular religions could never have any objective legitimacy, but appearantly they did, and the arcade not only bestowed upon him a god’s blessing, but a god’s fate, whatever that meant, and it was something done to all members.

Every bit of this mystery was inexplicably linked to him. The eye of the destroyer seemed to agitate anything even concerning gods, and he was starting to believe abilities were actually related to the gods,if not coming directly from them, which would explain why his heritage rejected any and all abilities, except Zephyr for some reason. Which might also confirm what Zephyr said about them meeting not by coincidence, but fate,or at least some form of premeditation.

It was enough to give someone a mental crisis, though Zyro didn’t lose his calm. What else could he do but smile in a situation like this

What else could he do but smile

"Let’s forget about all that for now. Back to your markings"

Zyro nodded, putting his shirt back on

"In my world, various kinds of magic exist. Runes are one of them,a very high class in fact"

"Powered by mana,i guess"

"Quiet down and listen. I want you to show me your energy. Not a blast,or a blade, the raw,bare elements that make up your existence. If we’re going to do this right, it’ll need to be from scratch"

Zyro raised his hand and took a deep breath, closing his eyes

"Remember, focus. It doesn’t need to be flashy or powerful. Energy is the base form of all life. Show me all that you are"

He tried for a full hour but ended up with nothing.

"The energy here is too thick. It’s getting in the way of my own"

It felt like his nose was blocked and he couldn’t breathe in or out properly. He stepped out of the cave, standing on the side of the mountain.

He took a deep breath and tried again,both of his hands in front of him as he closed his eyes.

"My essence. All that I am, what exactly does that mean?"

Well he already knew how to manipulate his astra well enough so he’d just try that, but different.

"How do I emit energy though? Through the pores in my skin? My blood? Soul? Wait... didn’t Theia say Astrals are energy based already? So then..."

A few minutes later, he heard a gasp.

"Zyro, open your eyes"

Zyro opened his eyes and saw little fragments of what looked like black stardust surrounding him, rising out of his body in a small circle.

He looked at his hands and saw the energy flying out of his body like dust from the ground rising in the wind, and it wasn’t just his hands, it was from everywhere,even his face and hair was releasing tiny bits of stardust into the air.

He noticed after a while a bit of dust would disappear into the air but it would quickly be replaced.

The sight was both mystifying and horrific. It seemed as if a strong enough wind could blow his entire body into nothing but dust in the wind forever.

And perhaps it would, Zyro himself was nothing more than these almost invisible specks of light.

"This,is all that i am"

He said, looking at Syl.

"I see. Darkness is at your core, but something else is there"

Zyro himself almost didn’t notice but among the black pieces of stardust were a small almost unnoticeable amount of white and blue.

[Notice]

[Domain is active]

[Royal exclusive skills can be used within the domain]

Now if only he had any royal skills.

"Domain? Like dungeon domain?"

"It follows the same principle. The distance you see the energy reach before it disappears is your area of influence.

[Notice!]

[The host had achieved a major milestone without help from system]

[The system administrator has determined that this is worthy of a reward]

[Administrator had chosen reward]

[Royal exclusive skills :Soul avatar& Realm manifestation]

[Note: Royal skills are only usable within your domain]

Zyro looked around at the domain that extended about three feet in every direction

"Seems like these won’t be much use for a while "

Seems like he really should consider his souls as more than just batteries. Just a few minutes of Syl’s advice had done so much.

He quickly checked the skill description.

[Soul avatar: The essence of your soul as armament]

"That’s...brief. But isn’t this just Aether gear?"

"Basically, but there are qualitative differences"

He decided to check the other one

[Realm manifestation: within the confines of your domain, the lines of reality blur, allowing your soul realm to manifest itself in the physical plane]

Zyro’s mind went blank at this one for a second.

"I can... bring my soul realm out here? To the real world?"

Theia nodded

"Though you can only bring as much as the size of your domain"

His soul realm was possibly the size of a city,or even a country,so he honestly doubted he’d ever be able to bring it all out, but what abou just t the castle?

That was doable, right?