The Astral soul system-Chapter 106: Mordecai

[Arcane yeti armour]

[Feature: Aura hiding]

[Passive skills: Lesser healing (self explanatory] mind’s eye(passively increases concentration and balances mental state. All temperature resistance (+40%)]

[Active skills: war yeti spirit; summon the spirit of the mythical raging frost ape to help boost your attacks. Might have slight side effects depending on user’s species. Cooldown: 24 hours]

[Healing touch(minor): one of the signature moves of the yeti race is their healing properties and usually gentle disposition]

[Glacier’s edge]

[No additional feature]

[Passive skills: Reduce enemy speed by two percent every time the blade makes contact (stackable)]

[Active skill: Below Zero: Immediately drop the swords temperature degrees below Zero]

[Elemental Earth shoes]

[No additional feature]

[Passive skill: perfectly slide as you wish on any surface as long as it counts as "earth" , plus a twenty percent increase in speed]

No one knew what to say about this. Every single piece of gear Zen got was the best of the best.

At this point, Maximilian and Neo were considering getting him to make theirs... after they find out what happened to him of course.

"This is... good?"

Jade asked, still not knowing what she had.

"Yep. Most of the time, beast gear only has one ability, and even that’s pretty rare. Finding beast gear with more than one active skill is like finding a diamond....or at least it would be if diamonds were still difficult to come across"

Zaria tried to think of a different analogy but couldn’t find one and just forgot about it.

"We’re going to have to do something about this, though" Diane said, pointing to her coat.

"If anyone sees this, we’re all in deep shit,so it’s probably best you don’t use it just yet"

Jade seemed a bit disheartened but still listened, taking off the armour and folding it back inside the box along with Glacier’s edge and the shoes, before putting the box into Zaria’s ring.

"Don’t worry, this is just until you find a decently large space item for yourself"

"Well this is all nice and good, we’ll be more prepared when we find him and that other guy again next time, but we actually need to find him first. He didn’t come back last night and we still didn’t find any clues as to what might have happened to him"

"Well actually " Maximilian said.

"There was something weird about the bathroom this morning. We found some signs of struggling and the mirror was destroyed, but other than that, nothing "

Zaria stayed quiet. She could probably still find him if she wanted since unlike the others, she knew it was still Zen. As for how that was even possible, she had a few theories, none of them pleasant. If only she knew someone who knew more about Zen, but the only people who knew Zen were....

Wait! There was one number she could try. She remembered seeing it when she was going through Zen’s contacts. The name was... Mordecai! Yeah! Mordecai,that was it.

"Um... guys? What if we asked for help"

"From the school?" Maximilian asked

"That’s risky"

Zaria wanted to say something when Diane beat her to it.

"Yeah, but it’s still reasonable. Let’s be honest here,we don’t know what we’re doing. If it was anyone else,we could figure this out ourselves, but Zen is....you know what he is. Maybe we should let the professionals handle this"

"Guys!"

Zaria yelled, immediately grabbing everyone’s attention.

"I wasn’t talking about the academy. I... might have found a contact that has a connection to Zen. I don’t know if they can help, but it can’t hurt, right?"

Everyone exchanged glances and although they had different thoughts,in the end they said she could go for it.

With bated breath, she put in the number and hit call. It rang for a few seconds, seconds which felt like hours for everyone waiting. Eventually, the other side picked up but there was nothing but silence.

"Hello?" Zaria said but it was still quiet

"Is anyone there?"

"..."

"I know you’re from the arcade"

"..."

"Um....i got this number from Zen"

The person on the other side immediately reacted, and although they still couldn’t see him, he said

"Hecate gave you my number?"

"Hecate? Isn’t his name Zen?"

The voice on the other end went silent like they were thinking about something for a few seconds before continuing

"How do you know him?"

"He’s a friend"

"Did he tell you that?" The monotone voice asked.

"He’s one of my classmates"

"..."

"Something happened to him. He’s...gone, and there’s someone else here who looks like him but-"

"Let me guess. Red eye, extremely angry all the time, can’t say five sentences with cursing at least once"

"Yeah, that’s him!"

"You’re in deep shit "

"What? Why?"

The voice on the other end went quiet again before answering

"Because this is personal. You won’t be able to stop him easily. Those three years probably allowed his anger to build up"

Xavier suddenly spoke up.

"Is he likes Zen’s enemy or something?"

The person on the other end replied with a hint of amusement

"Yep! The one person he hates the most. Himself "

Everyone suddenly quiet. Did they just hear that right?

"Didn’t you think it was weird how quickly this new guy appeared and your.... friend disappeared. Like flipping a switch, wasn’t it?"

"Wait,so you’re saying -"

"Hecate isn’t as stable as he looks. He hasn’t been since.... The point is, you didn’t think he was one of us since childhood and was still all there,did you?"

"..."

"No one who is like us isn’t scrambled at least a little bit, it’s practically a job requirement,a little mark they keep on us, everyone went through it, reacted differently though. Hecate?....He got a little something extra. I can’t tell you how to stop him, but you can try showing him a mirror, it’ll freak him out . Either deal with it,or get use to the new guy. Your choice . Oh right, his name is Animus. Zaine Animus "

After saying that, Mordecai hung up , and it was very unlikely he’d pick up again.

For a few seconds everyone was quiet. It turned out that Zen’s mental state was less than optimal.

Zaria remembered when he had gone berserk before. He had been muttering and mumbling that he didn’t want to go back. She had always suspected that Zen’s attitude was a result of how he grew up,but she never thought it was so bad. Her mind wandered to the memory Black showed her of Zen getting tortured and she felt her rage spike.

"So that’s what happened to him. Those people messed him up,they poked and prodded with his mind until....Ugh!"

Zaria didn’t know why but she was having trouble containing her anger. She already suspected this, and Black had even told her the situation was strange, but hearing it now still hurt. Her hands were balled up into fists and she wanted nothing more than to punch out her feelings. No wonder even in his subconscious,he said he didn’t want to go back.

Neo on the other hand was quiet. He suddenly recalled an image he saw briefly at the end of his trial. It was a younger Zen strapped down and crying in pain while he was experimented on him. Originally he didn’t think much of it, but now....

Jade’s mind wandered to Beatrix. The cute little girl with an explosive and erratic temperament.

"I don’t understand. He always seemed so calm,so... composed. If anything, he was too stable" The only strange behavior Max could note was how he’d frequently stare at the air and talk to himself out loud.

"So he’s crazy. At least this explains the broken mirror"

"Beth" Xavier said softly at the somewhat insensitive comment.

Maximilian sighed.

"At least now we know this isn’t some big scheme to target the academy. We can deal with this personally now. Who knows? Maybe we just need to talk to him?"

"Hold on! How do we know that guy wasn’t lying"

"He wasn’t" Zaria snarled

"And I can find Zen" She slowly turned around to reveal her glowing golden eyes.