The Astral soul system-Chapter 147: The monster

"Guys wait, let’s just -"

"You shut the fuck up! Little shit!"

Zaine was about to start a fight, and Zyro could see Zen’s fists tightening in preparation.

"Guys, just.... AAAAGHHH!"

Zyro’s roommates all suddenly got up as he suddenly started screaming like he was in pain while clutching his head.

Before they could get to him, he shakily got up, staggering to the center of the room as a bright light suddenly erupted from him.

They hurried to shield their eyes, wondering what was going on with Zyro.

"Dude, are you okay?" Xavier asked and grabbed his shoulder.

Expecting the usual playful demeanor, Xavier was suprised when he heard a furious snarl instead

"Grrrrr! Get your filthy shit covered paws off me"

Xavier was stunned for a second before suddenly recognizing that tone from his friends’ description

"W-what, you’re...."

The glimpse of his crimson eye was the only confirmation they needed.

"Where’s-"

Before the question could get finished, they all saw someone walk out from behind Zaine, their forms matching so perfectly that it seemed like some mirror trick or special effect. He took two steps away from Zaine, his soulless gaze directed at the ground as he seemed to be thinking.

"Interesting"

He muttered, looking at himself and then at Zaine.

The boys’ all immediately recognized that cold and calm demeanor before he even looked their way.

"Zen...is that you? You’re really here?"

Zen took another look at his body and answered

"It seems so,at least for the moment"

"Awww man"

They suddenly heard another voice as similar to Zen, Zyro stepped out of Zaine’s shadow, immediately falling on his butt as held his head

"That felt so weird"

He remarked before looking up at the two faces identical to his. His expression momentarily went blank.

"Oh. Is this a-"

"No mirror" Zen interrupted him calmly before asking

"What did you do?"

"Me?" Zyro said, gesturing to himself

"I didn’t do anything. You two started fighting i got a headache and then...."

Zen did ask any further and looked down

’This is interesting. Once could be an anomaly, but twice?’

Zen suddenly sighed and bent his neck slightly to the side as a soul gun just barely missed him.

He didn’t look up to acknowledge it until a few seconds later, looking at Zyro who was preparing another.

"What was that for?"

Zaine snarled

"You still haven’t answered me"

"Yes I did. I said it was none of your business" Zen replied sounding one hundred percent serious.

"Bullshit!"

Zaine slammed his fist against the wall.

"First you start ruining our life,then you decide you’re the only one who deserves one, and then somehow you just escape? To come to this shit pile?"

Zyro suddenly noticed something in what Zaine said and looked towards Zen before asking curiously.

"Yeah... Zen, you never explained that. You said we were no longer under Q. How DID you escape in the first place? And if we’re on the run...why aren’t we...on the run?"

Zen shrugged

"That’s not important"

Zaine had already long lost his patience and was preparing another attack, planning to force the words out of Zen’s dying body when Maximilian,Neo and Xavier quickly got in the middle of it all .

"Wait! What are you doing? You can’t fight in our room, you’ll destroy the place. Besides, why are you even fighting anyway ?"

Zaine snarled and pointed his open palm at Maximilian

"Stay out of this,fag,or I’ll kill you and your little friends too, just try me "

Maximilian groaned, annoyed mostly because of the insult

"Listen, there’s no reason to -"

"Shut up!"

Zaine was about to fire when he suddenly felt like his astra was being restricted, just like in his fight with....

Xavier stepped in, and uncharacteristically he seemed to want to talk it out.

"Okay, buddy. You need to calm down "

"You’re wasting your time " Zen said indifferently, his calm demeanor pissing Zaine off even more.

"Three fucking years! You put me in a hole for three years!!!"

"And I can see it had little to no effect on your attitude, but I can’t blame you,you were made that way after all "

"Then you disappeared for three years of OUR life"

"Oh please, don’t be so dramatic. We both know you’d have done the same at any point if it would benefit you. It’s just how you are "

Zen didn’t seem to be paying much attention to him as he kept examining his body, seemingly uninterested in the conversation with his double.

Zen opened the system screen, noticing it was much smaller than before and for some reason there was a 1/3 right next to his name and his exp requirement to level up had tripled. He checked the soul tab and realized that he had no souls currently bound to him, he couldn’t equip either Freya or Lilith. He closed his eyes, and suddenly heard a sarcastic voice

"Oy! where am I? What did you do this time?"

’Sylphie?’

It seems the voices in their consciousness had been split equally between them, but... Sylphie wasn’t even bound to him, he felt like the only reason she ended up with specifically him was because she was closest to him when they split.

"Everything’s dark and i don’t know where I am. At least that stupid mutation of yours isn’t trying to kill me now "

That was right. His current body wasn’t the same as when they were still together, maybe his mutation wasn’t active when they split, he’d have to find a crystal to test on but he was pretty certain for now.

Impatient, Zyro suddenly opened the system and checked the one soul that was still bound to him..

’Freya?’

"Wait, Please. Just listen "

’What happened? Where did he do for three years of MY life?’

"I..."

’Answer!"

"I don’t know "

’What?’

Zaine’s eyes widened in shock.

"Wait,let me explain "

[Equipped soul: Freya]

His left eye immediately transformed, becoming pitch black with a blue hue as lightning streaked across his eye.

Zen and Zyro paused and suddenly looked at him,a chill going through their spine.

"You wouldn’t"

Zaine scowled and pointed his palm towards Zen

"I’ve wanted to watch you die for so long now, but this time I’ll just beat the answers out of you .

Before anyone could react a ball of electricity formed at Zaine’s finger tips and was shot towards Zen, this time, landing directly as Zen froze halfway through his dodge.

Zaine suddenly heard a gentle "no" in the recesses of his mind and when he tried to do it again, he suddenly felt like an invisible person was holding his arm and he suddenly got a notification

[Soul (Freya) is fighting against the host’s control] 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

[Soul forcefully unequipped]

Before he could do anything, Maximilian,Neo and Xavier jumped in to grab him

"Get away from me!" Zaine said as the four started fighting again.

"Are you okay?" Zyro said, checking up on Zen

Ignoring him, Zen let out a labored breath before speaking

"This isn’t working . Let’s try this"

"Wha-"

Zen suddenly grabbed Zyro by the shoulder and before he could react, dashed towards Zaine, tackling him three crashed into a table, destroying it.

Their roommates quickly went to check up on them and were prepared for things to get violent but were suprised when they saw only one person instead of three.

"Ouch, that hurt"

"Zyro?"

Maximilian asked helping him up

Zyro nodded, chuckling and taking his hand.

"That was something, huh?"

"How did... how did you know..."

"We didn’t. Zen just tried slamming us into each other and hoped for the best"

Zyro answered

"Why was he so angry? I thought you said you fixed things between you"

"Weeeeellll....we still have some patching up to do. Three years is a.... pretty long time "

"Not really " Theia muttered, floating beside him

’now is not the time’

Rolling her eyes, she disappeared into the system, leaving them some privacy.

"So, what was he talking about? It sounded like he was accusing Zen of something"

"...."

They stared at Zyro waiting for an answer but he just smiled brightly, quietly staring back.

"You’re.... not going to tell us?"

"Hehe. Like i said before,i want us all to be here when we do. And as you can see, that isn’t a very good option for right now "

"Why can’t you just...you know, switch. With Zen and Zaine"

"Oh, well as for that. Zyro’s way too unstable. He’d probably just start a fight the moment he got in control of the body"

"And Zen?"

"Hehe, well. If i gave Zen control of the body,chances are I wouldn’t be coming out."

"Wait,you mean he would... "

Zyro shrugged

"Take it as you will"

He said with an almost unnatural smile, considering he was talking about his own fate.

Neo sighed, sitting down.

"Why are they both so troublesome?"

Zyro laughed lightly, drawing Maximilian’s attention as he noticed a pattern with his speech

"We all have our dark sides. It’s... part of our charm"

Maximilian looked around the room that had been thrashed and groaned before heading for his bed

"I’m exhausted, we’ll clean this up in the morning "

Neo and Xavier sighed. They were worried Maximilian would have told them to clean it up immediately and were relieved. Truthfully, life with their three in one roommate was stressful and it was already deep into the night. Hopefully nothing major happened.

***********

"No! No! NO!"

Zyro pulled at the gates, unwilling to be trapped again.

"You’re wasting your time "

Zaine turned to face him, his anger boiling as he watched the bane of his existence calmly sitting with that hateful expression. And the worst part of it all, they had his face.

"How come our own MOTHER has no idea what happened?"

Zen didn’t look up to Zaine and answered

"Because she doesn’t need to know "

"You-"

"Oh, stop"

Zen said

"We’re alone. You can stop with that generic temper tantrum we fabricated to manipulate people. You want me dead more than anything, but you still understand why I’m here"

Zen finally looked up at Zaine, locking eyes with him

"If there was benefit for you you two would have done everything I did. The only difference is i use logic, you’re driven by your sinful nature, and the one outside... Hmph"

Zen didn’t finish his statement,as if what he was going to say was obvious.

Zaine suddenly stopped yelling, but the anger in his eyes hadn’t dissipated at all.

"Right, the monster outside. They really buy his act"

"It’s not an act, just his base emotions. Unlike you he doesn’t lie. However it tends to attract more people"

Zaine scoffed

"If only they knew how he’d take pleasure in ripping their hearts out and watching them bleed out "