The Astral soul system-Chapter 197: Azrael’s choice

"Jade..."

Zen muttered as she fell onto the ground. Zaria and Sable quickly went to her, calling her name.

"She’s dead"

"Her heart has stopped beating"

"We should save her"

"No"

Zen said calmly

"There’s nothing we can do"

He looked around.

’Besides, even if we could. She isn’t worth us losing our image’

Zyro turned to look at him

’Zen. I promised ’

’Even if we wanted to.’

’Let’s try at least ’

Zen looked around.

’We can’t with all these people here. Even if we saved her, she’d be under suspicion. Why would a player save a random girl’ 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Zaine groaned

’I was tired of her anyway. Good riddance. Let’s kill the rest of them while we’re at it. They’ll make a decent patch of exp, especially our so called friends ’

Zen seemed thoughtful.

’Slaughtering the rest would be the clearest next action, and would increase our strength exponentially. There would be no one but the arcade to blame and we could return to the academy as per usual ’

...

...

...

’But...it would be too risky. Zen has already been missing from this whole thing since the beginning. If he was the only survivor,it wouldn’t be difficult to make us a suspect, even if we let a few escape, they’d find us in a matter of time ’

Zaine snarled

’Then we leave the academy. We don’t need them. We don’t need any of them. With the system we’ll grow strong enough to eventually come back and destroy them all’

Zyro shook his head

’No. I don’t agree . Let’s take Jade with us and leave. The system must have a way to save her."

Zyro said,a grotesque grin on his face.

Zen looked at Zaria and Sable before shaking his head.

’No. Those two. I still can’t see Zaria’s stats, and Sable is far too dangerous. We should leave. Any action we make will empower either the Arcade or the academy. We can’t risk that when their both against us, even if we succeed. We should go, now. The girl’s death is of no consequence to us’

[Detected that host is at a crossroad]

[Class quests issued]

[Stalwart: Save an ally and keep a promise]

[Warlord: Slaughter these insects]

[Reaper: Escape and return to the shadows]

Zen looked at the quest list.

"Theia. If a quest is issued. It must be possible, right?"

"Of course"

That meant saving the already dead Jade’s life, killing everyone here for exp and abandoning everyone and everything to once again become a wandering ghost ,are all equally possible.

[Warning: All paths chosen will have unforseen rewards and consequences. Choose wisely,sage]

This was the second class quest he’d gotten, and it was very clearly different from his usual quests. It didn’t require him to fight, but think about whether he wanted to fight.

"Zen, Zaine,Zyro"

They all suddenly froze. That was Freya’s voice.

"I know I don’t have any right to ask this of you... but please, save Jynx’s daughter "

They all froze

Was Freya really asking this? They knew she often acted as their bored middle-aged soccer mom, she was one of the most ruthless and destructive agents the arcade had ever produced.

Her moniker was still whispered around the galaxy in fear even after her death. She had been their first mentor and taught them that no one was more important than themselves, so to hear this now was jarring, even to Zen.

To say she asked little of them would be an understatement. In fact they’d practically grown up with the only rules being do your own bidding and no one elses. The fact that she’d actually voiced the request was almost as shocking as the request itself.

But after a second of thought it made sense. Jynx had been raised alongside Freya and Riley. Whether or not they were friends wasn’t certain,in fact the term friend wasn’t used loosely at all among their kind, but some kind of bond still existed among them,no matter how fragile or toxic.

Zyro remembered the night he’d gone to Jade’s house and seen the pictures. She actually seemed... happy with her family, playing with little Jade and living with her husband. He’d thought it was part of her cover or some elaborate mission but....

Could she actually have cared for them? Two pathetic weaklings with no use whatsoever to their cause. What had happened to her? How had she died? He very much doubted the dungeon story john had told was true, but it seemed John himself believed it

They seemed to have an unlikely connection to this girl, through her mother. They wanted to know more, but was saving her actually worth the trouble.

The three exchanged glances before suddenly joining back into one.

Zen looked around cautiously before walking closer to where Zaria and Sable were crying over Jade’s dead body.

He attracted their attention and looking Sable right in the eye, he pulled out the dawn pistol and pointed it at her.

The two locked eyes, staring at each other for a few seconds before Zen suddenly pulled the trigger.

*Bang!*

The bullet slammed into her abdomen, tearing through flesh and knocking her to the ground,blood pouring onto the ground in amounts that would make even the most miraculous doctors fall over and faint.

One second

Two seconds

Three

She didn’t get up. No one could hear her heartbeat either, or her breathing.

Someone finally screamed and started running towards a possible exit.

That immediately caused a chain reaction as more and more of them began to run and scream.

They were all tired, injured and horrified. Staring at a weapon that had been obsolete for thousands of years kill instantly in the hands of a demon,no one stayed to try to attack.

Zaria for some reason still hadn’t moved, staring at him.

"Trust me"

He raised the pistol and was about to fire againwhen he suddenly felt a dangerous aura close in. He turned around and before he could react,a punch landed on his chest before he could cast the skill.

[-275 HP]

Zen immediately tumbled back. More than half of his health had just disappeared .

He immediately looked up and saw Aurora glaring down at him with her fist outstretched.

"You’re weak"

She muttered, sizing him up

"How did you get here?"

He asked. Luckily the suit masked his voice so she wouldn’t recognize him.

"Hmm? You speak? The Ryder girl fixed the portal"

Zen sighed. That was his fault. He’d actually wanted her to fix it before,that was why he helped her but that was before he realized Jade was on the brink of death.

"One minute"

"What?"

Zen didn’t reply. What he’d just muttered was how long it’d been since Jade’s heart had stopped beating. He needed to move fast, but defeating Aurora was clearly impossible. He was half dead from just one of her punches.

He had to escape. Jade’s life wasn’t worth hi-

"She deserved what she got"

The body suddenly froze as Keith’s words rang in its ears again. This wasn’t Zen reacting out of emotion,it was something else.

A face suddenly appeared in Zen’s mind. A girl screaming as she fell into a dark pit to her death,her hands desperately trying to reach him.

"Jenny..."

"You’ll never find that red haired bitch"

"Rio..."

He suddenly looked out of the corner of his eye

It was the pale ghost he saw in the mirror,in the bathroom. He saw her everywhere,in the corner of his eyes, even when he closed them. She was always there, but now she seemed to be actively looking at him, like she wanted his attention.

She pointed at him and shook her head before pointing at him again.

’That is... right. What would he do.’

The question was strange considering he was talking about himself.

’Azrael. This is his... our life. What would he have chosen. What would I,we have chosen’

"Little old Z, always wanting to save everyone"

"Saved us? Ha! Because you just want to save everyone. Everyone should just do nothing and let big strong Zen save them "

"I never saved anyone. But you did, Azrael. That’s why you’re here. This is what he would choose"

He said, looking at the pale girl.

"Who are you talking to?"

Zen looked back at Aurora and slowly got up.

’Theia. Use Shadow field’

Shadow field was one of the new skills he’d gotten. It pulled out a bit of the shadow dimension into the real world and covered his surroundings with it. It’s only problem was the cost, but right now he care about numbers and just dumped as much as he could hoping he’d get the desired effect.

A shadow suddenly appeared beneath his feet and started expanding all around him.

Aurora raised her fist in preparation for an attack but was surprised when it did nothing.

The shadow kept expanding until it was about a hundred feat in diameter before it suddenly started rising up, forming a large dome surrounding Zen, Aurora, Sable, Zaria and Max. Diane and Xavier were here too but they were unconscious.

"What is this?"

Zen sighed and suddenly pulled off the hood.

Aurora’s froze. She didn’t show any visible reaction and just stared at Zen blankly,her arms dropping to her side.

"I know you have questions,I can’t answer them"

"..."

"Just let me save her"

Zen said, pointing at Jade.

"She’s dead"

"Let me try"

Aurora didn’t say anything and with no other choice, Zen started walking towards Jade.

He passed right next to Aurora but she didn’t move, he didn’t even hear her breath as he passed.

Sable finally got up, figuring out the charade was over.

Zaria looked at her but didn’t seem too suprised.

"You knew?"

Zaria nodded and pointed to his chest. She’d already seen his mark and although it wasn’t visible,a tiny bit of his necklace could be seen in his robes.

Zen sighed.

Looking down at Jade before getting on his knees in front of her.

"The rest of you leave. Now!"

Aurora’s voice suddenly rang out, leaving no room for disobedience. She clenched her fist hard. She was clearly going through some emotional turmoil.

She turned around and Zen could see pure hatred reflected in her eyes. The kind you’d only see when someone was deeply personally affected.

’It seems something about this is personal to her’

Zen thought, noting that if he felt emotions like normal people, he’d probably feel disappointment at this point

With no other choice,they all quickly left the shadow field, leaving him with Aurora and Jade.

"Make it quick, before you join her"