The Astral soul system-Chapter 154: A solution

"Uh,Sab-"

The two suddenly felt a familiar presence and looked to the side to see Aurora standing next to them.

Lazily she pointed at Zyro. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"You. Come with me, now"

With that, Aurora turned around to leave the now empty class.

They watched as Aurora left, staring at her until she turned out the door.

"So...Did you wanna say something?"

Zyro looked into her eyes and the image once again overlapped with the one in the vision.

"I... I’ll make sure Black gets you your blood bag on time. I know fighting drains your energy so I’ll make sure to give you extra today "

Sable chuckled and jabbed him in the stomach.

"Thanks dude,i appreciate it. Hehe It’s kinda weird how normal drinking human blood is for me now "

She suddenly looked a bit nervous and asked as her fangs grew out almost completely naturally now.

"You’re sure this doesn’t freak you out? I mean,i get it, it’s not exactly... normal since unlike me who doesn’t have a choice,you-"

Zyro shrugged

"I don’t judge. Besides, I already told you I’m not exactly ’normal’ either. It’s what Zen would have wanted at the very least "

Looking around, Sable confimed they were alone and spoke.

"It’s weird that you’d say that... considering what your relationship probably is. You still haven’t told me exactly what he...did to you "

Zyro chuckled

"You spend your whole childhood sharing a body, you learn to look past some stuff "

"Stuff like wrongful imprisonment and identity theft"

"Also unprovoked murder, instability,assault and extreme acts of violence"

The light tone in his voice seemed to nullify any negative thoughts one might have after hearing what he just said. Laughing, Sable replied.

"Zen doesn’t do that "

"... Yeah... you’re right "

Zyro replied with a strange smile.

"Things will make sense soon. Until then...stay away from wolves"

"What?"

Zyro waved it off casually like it was a joke, chuckling

"Anyway,i should probably go before the teach gets mad. Call you later tonight?"

Sable nodded, walking towards the door and to her room.

"That’s worrisome " Zyro muttered as Sable left.

"What’s wrong?" Theia asked.

"Just like she said, you were really out of it for a while. What did you see"

Zyro briefly recalled the image of Celia stepping on him, threatening to make him her pet by all means while exposing his dark secret while having everyone on strings like puppets. If that truly was the future according to it then Celia had some dark plans.

A strange expression suddenly appeared on his face, but instead of it being fear or anger,it was a slight smile, seemingly completely normal but if one could look into the boy’s mind, they’d retch, sickened and horrified by the what they saw, but also how simply and basicly his mind interpreted it. Something was VERY wrong.

The thought of what he saw being an inevitable future only brightened that smile more

"Mnnn, This is going to be really fun"

*********

Zyro opened the door, making sure to close it behind him as he walked into her office. He immediately noticed Aurora with her head on the table, dozing off.

Zyro shook his head with a smile. While his teacher might be strict, indifferent and all that, but he was the only one who knew that she was also lazy, constantly tired, and a little bit burnt out . She was always either working or napping, mostly the latter. Zyro honestly wondered if she did anything for fun

Taking a seat in front of her he made himself comfortable and waited for her to wake up. Looking at her sleeping form he remembered what he’d seen of her in the vision.

Glowing chain like plants wrapped around her, leading up to a strange glowing flower that hovered in her arms that she held to her heart, binding her movements,a strange glowing symbol was under her feet, illuminating her figure. At her feet was a badge with the image of a large golden shield with an eagle perched atop it with its wings spread in a defensive manner as if protecting something and two two golden swords crossed like an X in front of the shield

It was the sentinel academy token , and the same one used by the military. It was cracked and chipped, looking like someone had stepped on it, at her feet were two shadows,one much larger than the other. On her neck was a collar with a chain tied to it and strangely the chain was in her hand, outstretched like she was giving it to someone. looking at her face, Zyro was shocked to see the usually detached Aurora crying while clutching the flower to her chest despite the spikes and thorns piercing into her hands. Looking behind her,he had seen what looked like a mirror effect,a second Aurora standing right behind the first, their backs to each other. In the second one’s hand was the greatsword he’d seen her with,her eyes were completely devoid of any light as she was dressed in a military uniform he’d never seen her in before, the academy symbol on it was crossed with a red mark that was constantly dripping blood. The vines held the two together, holding them down with an unbreakable grip.

Zyro opened his eyes, ending his reminiscing.

’That.. can’t be her future... and even if it is,it seems more symbolic than literal. So...’

Zyro looked at his sleeping teacher, the image of her breaking down in tears overlapping with the actual image, creating a confusing scene in his mind. Aurora was basically the definition of strong in this school, at least in his eyes, she seemed to always have things under control. What he’d seen in the vision just seemed... unrealistic.

"I need help with this"

"I know two handsome young devils who’d gladly help you "

Freya mused

Knowing she was talking about Zaine and Zen, Zyro seemed thoughtful. He couldn’t tell anyone else about this, what would he even say? Hey guys, sorry if this sounds weird but I had a vision of your futures and literally all of you seem to have miserable and agonizing lives so do you think you can help me figure it out?

Yeah, that’d be the day. Plus, it was no secret his mind wasn’t exactly in pristine condition so they’d probably just think it had to do with that.

Sighing, Zyro considered it, deciding to walk around while waiting for Aurora to wake up. Freeing the others wasn’t something he could just do like that, especially after what Zen pulled. He didn’t know if they could keep it together.

"Theia?"

"Yep"

Theia appeared in front of him in a casual white outfit before flying to her favourite spot to sit: his head

"That split skill, how much astra does it consume?"

"Oh, That old thing? None"

"Oh, none.... wait, none?"

Zyro asked, shocked.

"Yep,i won’t say it doesn’t use stamina but in regards to regular energy, you don’t need to worry"

"Wait, doesn’t that mean we can literally just outnumber any single opponent?"

"Yeah, basically. You should probably test it a few more times before getting excited though. There’s a difference between everyday use and combat."

Zyro nodded

"Alright, but that means we’ll all have to be here" Zyro muttered, thinking back to the first time they all split .

He suddenly closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. When he reopened them he was in the castle. Noting that only Freya was here, he wondered if Lilith was in one of the other rooms but he didn’t have time to think about that, he quickly flew to the dungeon, meeting the two in there.

"Guys" he called out, his somewhat childish voice ringing throughout the halls.

Zaine turned to look at him, snarling out

"You"

Zen acted like he didn’t hear anything, still closing his eyes in the same pose he was in when Zyro last saw him.

"You need something?"

He asked calmly.

Awkwardly looking around, Zyro answered.

"Actually...i was hoping we could work together again,i kind of need your help with something "

"Forget it. I’m done with all this shit, and I’m done with you"

Zyro sighed at the expected answer from Zaine while Zen didn’t reply just yet.

"Really, it’s important i swear. Just...let me show you "

"Hmph "

This time Zen replied

"What’s happened?"

"Remember that string thing you used, to see what was going on with Gary and Celia? I did the same thing, except,i don’t think it’s the past i saw"

"???"

"It was more like a premonition"

Theia suddenly appeared,her hands over her head like she was trying to spook them.

"It was the future "

Zen raised a brow and looked at Zyro questioningly.

"Just let me show you"

Zyro spread out his palm and a darkness suddenly filled the hallway including the dungeon. A memory of his vision suddenly started playing, showing everything the way Zyro remembered it. The memory itself was only a few seconds long but there were so many details that you’d have to replay it over and over again to get every single one.

"That’s interesting"

Zen muttered, not at all bothered by the implications of the vision towards him. Zaine on the other hand wasn’t so calm about being claimed as a crazy girl’s pet.

"So it turns out she really isn’t human. I suspected that"

"That crazy bitch. She thinks she can make US her pet?! Grrr, once I get my hands on her"

Zen nodded.

"Agreed. She needs to be taken care of,as quickly as possible. She could do the same thing she did to Gary to us if we extend this for much longer."

Zyro beamed excitedly.

"See? You two are already agreeing and getting along again."

They both gave Zyro a look.

"How is Gary? I wasn’t sure what effect cutting that string would have when I did it and I haven’t been able to monitor him so far"

"Oh, yeah, he’s great. He even came to apologize about being a jerk, appearantly he doesn’t remember much. He said it was like he was sleepwalking the whole time, it’s just one big blur"

"Hmm... Soul bridge?"

Zyro shook his head

"Theia said it’s not possible "

"I see"

Zaine suddenly interrupted

"What about the girl? What does he know about her,huh?"

Despite the untamed violence and hostility in his voice, Zyro answered, aware that it wasn’t targeted at him but at Celia.

"She’s still missing, and not even her roommates know where she is. And Gary,her "boyfriend" doesn’t know either. Appearantly she’s been abusing and we’ll..... doing him for a while. They used to be friends but he’s not even sure anymore. I told him she tried the same with us and he seemed disappointed "

"So, nothing? "

"Pretty much"

"But that’s not the reason you came here,is it?"

Zen asked

"No, actually i was hoping for some advice about Aurora’s image. If that really was the future then I’m not sure what to make of it"

Zen briefly thought about how she had been portrayed in the vision and even he seemed a bit unsure.

"What’s this even about anyway? Suddenly you two can see the future? And now I’m supposed to give a shit about some nobodies? "

"That’s not all" Zen replied, his eyes still closed. He thought about the thin thread in the vision and the crack in the sky.

"If all this is connected then it’s possible that the other futures are linked to ours."

Zyro suddenly realized what he meant and continued his sentence.

"Meaning if we change the others’ fates..."

"...We change ours,and kill that bitch"

Zaine finished.

"The main problem is that these visions seem more symbolic than literal,so we might not even know the signs when we see them "

Zyro nodded. "Yeah,i thought that too"

Zen didn’t think for long before speaking.

"Alright, you’re already in Aurora’s office,so look around and try to find any clues that might tell us what the vision about her means. We’ll start the search with her. Meanwhile,both of us will try to solve the puzzle from in here."

Zyro nodded and although Zaine didn’t agree he didn’t disagree either.

"Oh, and don’t cause any trouble on the outside. We need to lay low for now"

Zyro chuckled as he prepared to leave.

"No promises"