The Astral soul system-Chapter 107: Guess the reference

I want to help you"

Zaine stared silently, confused by what she meant. His gaze fell on the sword in her hand and his eyes widened.

"That’s..."

"Your sword, I found it for you. Take it " She urged

Zaine looked at her cautiously and reached out to take it, monitoring her expression in case she decided to try something, but fortunately she didn’t.

Zaine slowly caressed the blade in his hand. It no longer felt as familiar to him after so long but he could still recognize it.

"What do you want?" Zaine Asked cautiously

"I want to help"

"You know I’m not Zen, right?"

Sable nodded but also shook her head

"You act nothing like him, but you’re still the same person. I don’t know exactly what’s going on here but... you’re still Zen,at least somewhat "

Zaine snorted and turned around to leave. It didn’t seem like she wanted to fight him so he had nothing to do with her.

"You want revenge, right?"

Zaine stopped and looked back at her with a confused expression.

"I can help"

Now Zaine was really confused.

"You’re Sable... right? I’ve seen you in Zen’s memories"

Sable nodded although she wasn’t completely sure what he meant by that .

"And you’re Zen’s alter ego?"

"Grrr!"

Zaine immediately became hostile at the way she described him.

"Sorry! I-i didn’t mean it that way. I meant you’re both using the same body "

"How can you tell?"

Sable answered immediately.

"Your smell. It’s a bit different but it’s still so similar "

Zaine didn’t respond for a while , seeing this, Sable was starting to get nervous.

"Let’s just talk, okay? You must be hungry,i know a good place nearby"

Zen looked at the sword in his hand, clenching the hilt tightly before pointing it to Sable.

"Wait! I-"

"Hold on to this for now. I have my reasons. I don’t know where, but Zen hid my ring"

Sable took a deep breath, relieved. It wasn’t that she couldn’t fight him, she just didn’t want to. Knowing that it was still Zen’s body that she’d be fighting just felt wrong to her. He’d protected her as well as he could when they were on the alien planet and she had taken him as her blood brother.

She took the sword from Zaine and put it into her spacial ring. She honestly didn’t know why he still wanted it. She had examined it over and over again but it wasn’t even a beast weapon, just a regular alloy sword. It was made of the special minerals that were added to the periodic table after aether, but other than that,it was just a regular sword.

Her finger brushed lightly against the ring with a green gemstone in her pocket as she reconsidered what exactly she was doing.

"Come on"

Zen followed her lead.

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

"What do you think?" Sable asked as she led him to a seat, but he didn’t reply

"So.... what are you doing?" Sable asked as Zaine stared looking around suspiciously.

"There isn’t any ambush or attack coming. I just want to talk"

Zaine seemed to calm down a bit, but Sable doubted it was genuine.

"What’s your name?"

"Zaine"

’Sounds awfully similar to Zen ’ Sable thought but didn’t say out loud.

"What are you doing here?"

Zaine looked at her like he didn’t understand the question .

Sable considered her next choice of words wisely, considering Zaine’s unstable state.

"You and Zen.... what exactly are you two,to each other i mean."

Zaine growled, visibly upset that she was bringing him up again.

"You want to know who Zen is? He’s a filthy selfish coward who doesn’t care for anyone but himself"

Sable wanted to ask what he had done but she held back her questions for now.

A young girl in a waitress uniform walked to their table with two trays

"Here’s your food"

Zaine was suprised since he didn’t order anything but Sable simply took the food before thanking the little girl.

"I hope you like chicken" Sable said before passing him his tray.

Zaine immediately picked up a fork and was about to dig in.

"I’m surprised you’re not being suspicious"

"Poison doesn’t work on me. It never has"

Zaine took a bite for the food and immediately dropped it.

"Fuck" he muttered.

"What’s wrong?"

"It’s bland"

Sable looked down at her own plate and honestly felt the same. She had been pushing it around with her fork for a while but it just didn’t seem appetizing.

"What’s wrong with me?"

Theia appeared in front of him.

"Nothing’s wrong, your senses just changed when you evolved"

"So every other sense is supercharged but my taste is trash?"

"No. Your brain just processes food like this differently now. There’s nothing wrong with your taste buds. It’s similar to how although vampires can eat normal food,it would taste bland and tasteless in comparison to blood, when in actuality it still tastes good. You’re just craving something else right now is all"

"So what do I eat?"

"Beast cores, Souls-"

"Souls?!"

"You don’t have to " Theia quickly added.

"You can still live off normal food. It just won’t have any benefits for you"

Zaine and Sable suddenly heard a loud crash

They both looked at the only other table that had people and saw one of the large burly men grabbing the little girl like he was about to hit her.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!!! How can anyone be so useless "

Sable noticed that there was food spilt all over the floor and the man’s trousers too. It was obvious what had happened.

"Why don’t i break those little legs to make up for you ruining mine"

Sable was about to try and stop this when she suddenly noticed Zaine’s seat was empty.

She suddenly looked back at the scene and saw Zaine holding the man’s arm.

"Let go" Zaine ordered menacingly.

"And if I don’t? Don’t mess in other people’s business,kid"

Zaine’s eyes went to the bowl of hot soup still on the table. His other hand swiftly grabbed it before slamming it right into the man’s face.

The man immediately let go, tumbling back as his face was scalded.

Zaine looked at the little girl that was on the verge of crying. He suddenly picked up a menu from the table and started looking for whatever looked like it would take a decently long time to prepare. Picking something, he told the girl to get it for him, watching as she scurried to the kitchen.

"You’re going to regret that "

Zaine looked back at the man that was talking. His face had been scalded in multiple areas and his eyes were red but he still looked okay.

All the other people at the table had gotten up to back him up, but Zaine didn’t look intimidated. If anything he looked angry, his eyes were glowing in response to his rage as a low growl escaped his throat.

"Don’t get involved"

The man and his attackers started laughing thinking Zaine wanted to try to smooth things over after getting himself in trouble, but Sable who was behind him knew that message was for her. She silently sheathed her katana and took a seat, ready to jump in if he needed it.

The man Zaine had attacked puffed up his chest and pointed to Zen

"Nowhere to run now punk. Listen here. Lay down and don’t move, we’ll beat you only half to death "

Zaine slowly muttered

"Mostly level twos"

"Huh?! Speak up kid. You’re ready to beg?"

Zaine suddenly looked up directly at the man with a grin on his face, and started scanning all over him.

"I like your jacket"

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

The girl looked at the door with horror on her face. She had heard some scary noises on the other side but after a while it just stopped.

The door suddenly opened as the girl came out with a large tray, preparing to run back in at a moment’s notice, but she was suprised to see almost a dozen unconscious bodies scattered all over the floor.

"Alright , let’s do this on three"

She looked at where the voice was coming from and saw Sable standing behind Zaine and holding some kind of handle with both her hands. Zaine looked unbothered, but Sable seemed a little bit disturbed.

"One...two...three!"

She pulled out the handle all at once revealing a sharp knife, completely soaked in blood.

Sable looked at Zaine’s face, expecting a groan or maybe even a wince of pain, but he just stared back silently.

"..."

"..."

"...Most people usually scream at that part"

Zaine shrugged.

"I’m not people"

"... Right...."

Zaine looked around like he was looking for something among the bodies. After a few seconds, he suddenly picked up one of the bodies effortlessly before taking off the red jacket on it and putting it on.

It was a bit big for him, but only a little.

They both only now noticed the little girl standing amidst the rubble with a blank look on her face.

"Oh, sweet. You got my order"

Zaine wanted to go take it when Sable stopped him.

"What?"

"Look at what you did"

"What I..."

He looked around at the restaurant that was completely destroyed and suddenly realized.

"Oh..."

He whispered in Sable’s ear.

"How much do you think all this costs?"

Sable rolled her eyes and went to talk to the girl, asking to meet her parents.

Zaine watched them both leave and shrugged, deciding he’d let her do her thing

"You have no idea what kind of shit you’re in"

Zaine looked at the ground at one of the people he beat.

"You regained consciousness?"

"You’ve messed with the wrong people this time brat. They’re going to rule this good for nothing city soon. Get ready to die"

Zaine looked at the barely conscious thug on the ground, unamused, but interested .

He put his feet on the man’s head and forced him back on the ground,a dark pleasure escaping the depths of his soul and intertwining with his pure unbridled rage.

"You can still threaten people even when you’re like this? You must think you’re really hot shit "

The man groaned in pain and humiliation, looking up at him vengefully.

"They’re gonna get you for this, and when they do, you’ll know what hell is .

Zaine chuckled a bit, increasing the pressure on his foot.

"Ha! Sorry to burst your bubble... but I already know. In a way, I’ve been there and back, multiple times"

Zaine smirked and slowly peeled his right glove off his fingers, revealing his mark.

A perverse pleasure surged through him as he saw the horrified expression on the man’s face.

"You really think you’re so big when you and your merry band of losers couldn’t even give me enough exp to level up once"

"Th-they’ll do unimaginable things to you!"

"I’m afraid everything that’s could have been done to me, already has,so what you know as hell...is nothing, compared to me. Those people you were talking about, they won’t have to worry about finding me, because I’m going to find them, and show them my own brand of hell"

Zaine increased the pressure on his foot, crushing the man’s head instantly into a pile of blood and mush

"Hmm"

New quest received:

[My own brand of hell]

[A group of weaklings dare threaten you with hell when they know nothing of it. Show them the error of their ways and make sure they never threaten you again. Let them see your own meaning to the word pain]

[Objective: destroy the ????? gang and stop what they’re planning] 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

[Bonus: Fifty exp for every member tortured and killed]

[Time to complete: 24 hours]

Zaine read through the quest and only had one complaint.

"You couldn’t even give me the name of the people you want me to destroy?"

Theia shrugged.

"I’m not the one who killed your only clue"

Zaine looked at the rest of the unconscious bodies littering the place and smiled.

"Not my only clue"

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

Sable walked out, looking exhausted.

"Alright,i took care of...."

She looked around, confused and asked.

"Where did all the people go?"