The Astral soul system-Chapter 236: Sync

"Stop!

Zaria yelled and immediately ran to the figure, throwing a punch as hard as she could.

Her eyes widened as she saw her fist pass through it’s body like it was some kind of ghost.

She immediately backed off and held out her hand, trying to use her ability but her condition immediately flared up and the golden light simply sputtered and flickered for a few seconds before dying out.

She tried to move to do.... anything, but a sudden sharp pain followed by ringing suddenly assaulted her mind

’Dang it, stupid...body. Work!’

She yelled at herself but her ability didn’t react.

’Ever since I got to this stupid academy my condition’s been getting worse and worse’

She thought, watching helplessly as the scythe came down towards...

"Zen"

She muttered. The sight of him down on the ground, clutching his head in pain suddenly seemed to register in her mind, and it triggered something.

She suddenly ran in front of him, shielding him with her body.

"No!"

Behind her, something else was happening. The gem on his choker suddenly lit up again.

"This..."

A sudden instinct overtook him and without thinking, he suddenly grabbed her hand directly.

A system message suddenly popped up but he couldn’t see it because of what happened next.

He suddenly felt like his hand got stuck to hers almost like they’d been magnetized. He felt a strange current of energy leave him and collided where their hands met.

A few more notifications popped up but the only one he could see

[Transfer successful]

A sound resembling a small sonic boom blew outwards as a faint white outline surrounded Zaria, winding and swirling like it was alive and fighting against itself. Her silver eyes suddenly started glowing intensely.

"Back off!"

She roared, immediately throwing a fist shadowed by the strange power

This time her strike landed true, sending the figure flying out of the room and into the wall on the other side of the hallway.

She immediately went out to finish it but the moment she stepped out of the room,they were gone. All that was left was the hole in the wall, like they’d disappeared

"Damnit"

She spat,her leg suddenly twitching, forcing her to hold the wall for support.

"What the-"

She shook it off, turning around with a smile

"Zen,i-"

Her eyes widened, staring at him facedown on the ground.

She immediately ran towards him,or at least tried. She took only a few steps when her body simply shut down and she fell a few feet away from him

"What’s going on?"

[I- Im - ance]

"What?"

She groaned, confused .

Forcefully she she turned her head to look at Zen who was right in front of her. He was so close,she could just barely

"Ugh!"

She groaned. Whatever was happening to her body was catching up with her mind as well. Her eye lids were becoming heavy.

"No, Zen. Wake up. We can’t...."

Her eyes closed for a few seconds before bursting open again. She was fighting with everything she had but it wasn’t enough

The strange words started up again in her mind,clouded with the sound of static

[Im...a ...la...]

[Im...]

[Ba...la]

[Nce]

"We can’t stay here. It’s not safe" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

In her blurred vision, the last thing she saw was her fingers barely reaching him before closing finally.

A few seconds later, the static finally gave up as well. All that was left was darkness .

*********

"I’ll destroy you!"

....

....

....

"You’ll pay for this!"

....

....

....

"Zephyr,we need to run!"

...

...

"Do you trust me,my friend?"

....

"This will never work "

"It has to. Or else -"

*Boom!*

"You know what you have to do. Find -"

Zen suddenly took in a deep breath as his eyes burst open

"Wha- what?"

He suddenly looked around,up then down, immediately realizing he was in the infirmary and also floating off his bed slowly inching towards the ceiling

"What the-"

"Zen!"

He looked to the side and saw Zaria in a similar position, uncontrollably floating upwards.

"What’s going on!"

She asked, but he had no idea. He’d just woke not up now as well

"A little help over here!"

Elaine yelled from across the room, holding onto whatever she could for dear life and pointing to Jade in the corner. She was the only thing unaffected and was releasing a strange aura.

"Preferably before she sends us all into orbit"

Zen quickly tried his best to steady himself, looking inquiringly at Jade

"Seems my conjecture was correct "

"Let’s just wake her up before she hurts herself"

Zaria yelled, kicking off the wall and launching herself closer to Jade

"Hmm"

Zen suddenly opened his stat page and saw something curious. His screen was still bugging out, specifically his astra and physical stats,they kept glitching in and out, showing inaccurate numbers and weird symbols

"Interesting "

He couldn’t focus on that for now and closed it before following Zaria’s lead. Luckily zero gravity training was something most students were required to have a passing grade in, depending on the course. There was even an entire room dedicated to that.

Zaria had taken it for fun and Zen had gotten training... elsewhere.

They were about to reach her when the gravity suddenly switched and everything in the room slammed hard onto the ground, including the people

"Damnit "

Zaria clenched her teeth, shakily getting up to her feet.

"I don’t know how close we can get without being crushed"

Zen looked down at the ground. It still seemed stable so it seemed the effect was weaker than the first time.

The power surges seemed to be slowly fading. He remembered Theia mentioning this. A synchronization period. She wasn’t in control yet.

"We just need to calm her down"

"She’s asleep, what are you talking about!"

"Waking her won’t fix the problem"

He suddenly brought up his stat page, checking how much astra he had left. It wasn’t a lot, but...

He suddenly moved ahead as quickly as he could. Which under the extra gravity wasn’t easy. Once he was close enough, he wrapped his arms around her and opened a shadow portal beneath them, dropping both of them in

The gravity immediately returned to normal in the room, allowing them to walk properly

"They’re gone"

Zaria gasped, looking around

A few seconds passed and neither of them came back, she started to panic

"Where are they?"

Right on cue another shadow portal appeared in the group and out popped Zyro, looking a bit roughed up

"Where is she? Is she okay? Where did you take her? Why did you switch?!"

"She’s fine. I can get to her anytime. I just put her somewhere she can’t hurt herself or anyone else. Once the power surges stop completely, I’ll get her"

Zaria sighed, plopping on the ground

"Nicely done darlin’"

Elaine finally spoke up

"Though it’d have been nice for you to do that sooner"

Zaria and Zyro exchanged looks, immediately understanding what each other meant

"Elaine,we need you to keep this a -"

"I know, I know. Lips sealed. I just hope you two aren’t getting into anything you can’t deal with. You’re all good kids, and so is she"

Elaine said waving them off

"Now if that’s all,I need to clean up. Unless you still need something?"

Elaine quickly chased them out to get to fixing the infirmary Jade had ruined.

"Do you think we can trust her?"

Zyro shrugged

"She seems nice"

They were both about to walk away when Zaria suddenly asked

"Hey... were you or Zen the one who brought us here?"

Zyro paused for a second, slowly shaking his head

"Then... how did we get here?"

They both looked towards the door in silence

"...best not to think about it "

Zyro shook his head and said

"I guess you’re right. We’ve got other things to deal with"

"..."

"First of all, where’s Jade "

"The cave in the mountain in the back of the school "

"Oh..."

Luckily he’d placed a soul brand there before and had been able to use shadow tracer to get there quickly. Ever since Zen’s class evolved from assassin to shadow reaper he’d gotten a whole new slew of abilities and ways to use his power that he hadn’t tried yet.

He’d also sent her there since Jade needed the extra energy. Although she was still unaware of her current true nature, she’d still used a considerable amount of energy today. Staying in the dungeon corpse for a while would do her some good

"Alright. Onto the next topic-"

"Maybe we shouldn’t talk out here"

Zaria tilted her head, confused by the look he was giving her for a few seconds before it clicked

"The garden?"

The two immediately started walking towards the school exit and on the way, Zyro looked up and noticed

"It’s dark"

He quickly checked his watch and was surprised

"8.30"

He shook his arm around experimentally before looking at her

"How do you feel?"

She tried stretching a bit

"A bit stiff, and number, but that could just be from being asleep a whole day"

"Same"