The Astral soul system-Chapter 124: An old acquaintance

The mark on Zaine’s hand suddenly started glowing and almost immediately,a similar glowing symbol could be seen over Chelsea’s shoulder.

She tilted her head, looking at Zaine curiously and started to approach him slowly.

*Zen? No. Only one person has those eyes. You’re the angry one. You’re finally free. Is Zen in there,is he listening?"

Zaine just stared at her and snarled.

"Right. Almost forgot, it’s been so long. It would be strange if you knew what was going on. Three whole years in that dark pit. You’re probably had lots of time to think about what you’ve done, don’t you think so, Zen?"

Zaine rolled his eyes.

"I don’t care about you. Get out of my way,I want to kill this one" Zaine said, pointing behind her..

Chelsea looked behind her at the man who was looking at what wa happening, confusion painted on his face.

A strange smile made it’s way to her face and she asked.

"Why this one? I’m still having my fun with him and his gang."

"It’s not important, just step aside "

Sable was watching all this, completely confused. Who was this and how did Zaine know her. She looked directly at the girl called Chelsea, trying to find out if she was familiar, but the only thing she could think of were those glowing pink eyes.

.....pink eyes

Sable suddenly gasped and took another look at Chelsea, remembering another person who had the arcade mark and had pink eyes, and immediately she saw the resemblance. Other than the hair and the malicious expression, everything else was basically a copy of little Beatrix, down to the last detail on their faces. She immediately felt stupid for not noticing it earlier, the different hairstyle and expression had thrown her off. This was Beatrix’s sister.

She was briefly reminded of that innocent little ten year old girl and suddenly felt like things were a lot more complicated if they had to fight.

"I saw your sister, she’s alive,she has a name. She was with Crowley"

The second Zaine mentioned her sister, Chelsea’s playful expression disappeared and was replaced with a grim stare, but when she heard Crowley’s name and that she was alive she seemed to calm down.

The gang leader had finally had enough of this and stood up, slamming his fist on the table.

"What the hell is going on here?! Kill them already"

Chelsea looked back at him and smirked.

"Calm down, just catching up. No need to worry about a dead person"

This seemed to calm the gang leader a bit but he didn’t stop staring. Sable on the other hand was put on edge, wasn’t this just a threat.

She looked at Zaine and saw him completely calm, shocking her a bit. Zaine was basically the personification of impulsiveness, seeing him so quiet was strange. In any case, they were soon going to end up fighting, she would stand beside him no matter what.

"How have you been doing?"

Zaine shrugged.

"Things have changed. I still need to kill that guy"

Chelsea chuckled.

"Oh but wouldn’t that be you taking away one of my toys? I still have plans for him"

The gang leader seemed upset at being referred to as a toy but he didn’t act yet.

"So do i"

"Do you think you can get past me? I’m still faster than you"

"And I still have stat points"

Chelsea looked a bit confused but she was used to Zaine saying strange things and just smiled, tilting her head curiously.

"Still think you can take the world without an ability? We aren’t kids anymore, and I’m talking to all of you"

"Hmph. Like i said before,things have changed"

A black shadowy Aura gathered at Zaine’s hand as he demonstrated his new power.

Chelsea’s eyes widened as she showed genuine shock.

"You..."

She looked into his eyes and suddenly started walking towards him, the soles of her shoes being the only sound in the room.

With every step she took closer to Zaine, the tension in the room intensified. Sable gripped her katana and the gang leader had started to transform his fingers, preparing to fight.

Chelsea stopped when she was directly in front of Zaine and she looked up at him since he was taller.

"You really have an ability?" She asked, sounding the slightest bit genuine.

Right when the pressure in the room was at its peak, Chelsea did something unexpected and.... hugged... Zaine?"

She threw her arms around Zaine’s neck,smooshing her face against his as she laughed gleefully.

"This is so awesome,dude! Finally,i was starting to think it was never gonna happen. I’m so happy for you guys "

Sable and the gang leader immediately stopped, stunned by what just happened.

Zaine pushed Chelsea away, but it seemed more out of irritation than disgust.

"Get away from me"

"Still a sourpuss , aren’t you?"

"I still want to kill-"

"Yeah yeah,go ahead. I already got most of what I need anyway,i can just get the rest from his corpse when you’re done"

"WHAT?!"

The gang leader shouted angrily. He didn’t understand what relationship was between the two, but he did know he just got betrayed, and not just that, but apparently the person who had said they were helping him was always planning on turning on him after getting what she wanted.

"Well you look upset, that’s not good. How about i just kill you now"

Chelsea proposed,her pink eyes glowing.

"I’ll rip you to shreds!"

Chelsea smiled, looking at the gangster like he was nothing but an inconvenience and was about to take a step when Zaine stopped her and pointed to her watch that was flashing.

"Oh, well that’s poor timing"

"What is it?" Sable asked, keeping an eye on the leader. She didn’t understand what was going on but this person seemed to be on their side.

"All the other gangs that surrendered to this moron are sending their troops to this location. The idiots think some magic army from the arcade is going to appear and help them take out the military"

Chelsea burst out laughing at the last bit, revealing she’d deceived the leader.

"You! You lied to me!" The leader yelled, pointing at her, veins bulging all over his body.

"Yep, and the original plan was to send you against the military,let them destroy you hurt each other, even though all of you together would barely scratch them"

"Whhhyyyy!!!!"

"Isn’t it obvious? Entertainment obviously. It would have been awesome watching that from the distance, seeing you all crash and burn and be crushed. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! "

The leader and Sable were shocked by this lunatic confession but Zaine acted like it was just some other tuesday .

"I should have known. All of you monsters really are just insane demons"

Chelsea smirked

"Master of the OBVIOUS. I mean come on, how stupid do you have to be to believe a player could ever decide to be loyal to someone else ? Are you hearing this, Zaine?. Besides,no need to worry about a dead person "

The boss shuddered as he realized that previous threat had been directed at him.

Zaine didn’t say anything but it was clear he stood with her.

Sable looked at Zaine strangely. Those words had triggered something in her:a question, could she really trust Zaine? He was one of the people who have been a scourge to the world for generations, and so was this girl.

Chelsea seemed to be done with talking and took a step towards the boss when Zaine held her back.

"What?"

"You and Sable go take out the gangsters on their way here. I’ll deal with this?"

Chelsea scoffed

"What? You don’t think i can do all by myself?"

"No, it’s just, this is personal "

The two stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds before Chelsea finally agreed and turned back.

"Come on moonshine."

She remarked before running out of the room.

Sable took one last look at Zaine who nodded at her.

"You can trust her... for now. Doesn’t mean you should"

Sable was a bit confused but she didn’t wait around and went after Chelsea.

She quickly caught up to the surprisingly fast girl who immediately noticed her and faced her.

"You’re my bro’s new friend,huh? Nice to meet ya , name’s Chelsea,you can call me Chel if you want though"

Chelsea introduced herself,all the previous malice and bloodlust being nowhere to be found like she just imagined it.

"Ye- yeah... I’m Sable " Sable answered, now knowing how to react.

Chelsea nodded, looking impressed.

"Stick with me, I’ll show you a few tricks. I can already tell we’re gonna kick ass together "

Sable looked at the bright innocent smile on Chelsea’s face that made her even more identical to her younger sister,and felt herself getting dizzy. How was her personality so different? It strangely reminded her of Zaine and Zen’s relationship, but for some reason, she knew Chelsea wasn’t like them,at least that’s what she thought

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

Zaine looked at the boss who was staring at him in rage and snarled.

"Looks like it’s pretty obvious you’re dead. Your entire gang is a pile of dead bodies and soon the ones coming will join them. Your whole entire plan to use a player as a "weapon " was a total bust. Now you’ve got nothing but your life, and I’m going to take that too.

The boss seemed to realize that Zaine was right, recalling how he couldn’t reach his workers at his previous base and how no one had come In despite the commotion.

His hands suddenly started to bulk up as his transformation began,then his skin turned to a light brown, growing fur all over.

"You, you’re from the same place as that lying girl. I’ll kill you all!"

A loud roar was suddenly released from his throat and an invisible force stirred up the wind and plunging the whole room into chaos as everything that wasn’t bolted down was flung away, except Zaine.

Zaine looked up at the now fully transformed boss and suddenly noticed something.

"Wait a minute... that’s a leopard"

Zaine immediately burst out laughing.

"Fucking moron. You can’t even stay on brand. What? Did you forget the difference between a leopard and a tiger when you named your gang or did you just not know how to spell leopard"

The boss clenched his fist at the arrogant display and dashed towards Zaine, his movement sending shockwaves throughout the room as he swung out. Zaine was forced back a few steps and he felt his muscles ache under the pressure of that punch

[- 20HP]

[Your arms are slightly fractured]

[Natural healing process has begun]

Zaine quickly checked and added all four remaining stat points into endurance.

[Endurance: 10»»»14]

Zaine decided to completely ignore dodging and just went in with his fists.

[Barrage]

Astra: 200/230]

The faint light covered his fists and he jumped in swinging, this time adjusting his feet properly.

Both of their fists clashed and Zaine could feel his muscles straining but it was much more bearable than before.

The first punch was over but he still had two more. Driven by his Astra, his fist swung out,once again clashing with the huge leopard, the sheer force from their hits being transferred to the ground beneath them and causing it to crack.

A claw came from the side, heading straight for him and slamming into Zaine, sending him flying into the wall.

[-36HP]

Zaine got back onto his feet and the first thing he saw was a huge furry hand about to slam into him again.

[Dash]

He quickly got out of the way, avoiding the pieces of concrete that went flying and immediately going back for round two, exchanging blow after blow with the huge tiger. It wasn’t that he couldn’t used ranged attacks, but in a confined space like this there was no point.

At this point he hadn’t even seemed to heavily damage the thing in any critical areas. It looked like it was time to get creative.

Zaine dodged a few more hits, stepping back slowly until his back was to the wall.

The boss, smirking,threw his strongest hit yet, but Zaine quickly used dash, mixing it with shadow steps to rapidly circle around him with the pinball strategy.

The fist went straight through the concrete until half of his entire arm was stuck. Using this opportunity, Zaine leaped onto his back directly behind his head before he started charging his skill.

[Barrage]

Unfortunately this skill took time to charge with him standing in one place but luckily he had prepared beforehand. The second, the boss freed his hand, the countdown finished and Zaine swung down at his head,once, twice and thrice.

Hearing the boss’s angry screams followed by the painful flailing about, Zaine felt like it worked. Unwilling to let go he wrapped his legs around the boss’s neck and started to charge his skill again, this time activating charge to double his stats.

The boss quickly recognized what he wanted to do and started flailing about but it was pointless. Zaine couldn’t be shaken off.

Panicking, the boss started punching the ground ground wildly, sending shockwaves throughout the entire bunker and then the walls, painfully bearing Zaine’s punches as blood dripped out of his orfices.

He was trying to break the room and bury them both with the building abov.

"Hell no!"

Zaine forgot about the skills and just stared spamming random attacks at the head of the boss, hoping one would eventually blow the boss’s head up.

Slowly, the transformation began to revert and he began to shrink, but this just made his attacks speed up as he hurried to try to kill Zaine with him.

"Grr! One more! Theia,put all my skill points in garage"

[Barrage Lv1»»»Lv2]

[Charge (maximum power)]

[Barrage]

This time the wind up was longer but the light was more intense, and instead of a sheet it looked more like armor. His fist swung down, guided by astra and made contact with the boss’s head.

A loud popping sound was heard and blood soaked Zaine’s hands and clothes

He looked down and saw a mess of blood and brain matter everywhere as blood spurted out of the neck.

[Quest completed: My own brand of hell]

[Reward: instant level up]