The Astral soul system-Chapter 109: Flames of rage

"where did you hear that?" Stone asked threateningly.

"Same place you’re going in a second. With all of them" Zaine answered nonchalantly, gesturing to the corpses on the ground.

"Now talk so I can make it quick!" Zaine demanded, his patience wearing thin.

"You don’t know what you’re getting into,kid . I bet the idiots that sent you didn’t even know why"

Zaine rolled his eyes. If only this guy knew his actual identity,it would be him saying that.

"Kids like you will never understand the magnitude of what is going on in this city. Somethings are better off not seen. Regardless. You came into our place and attacked us. You die here, but don’t worry, I’ll be merciful... and make it quick. There’s no escape"

Zaine sneered at stones attempt to be cold and suddenly yawned mockingly while pointing to the exit.

"Are you sure? I feel like I could have escaped fifteen times already while you were busy jerking off in my face. Let me guess,you practiced that in the mirror this morning while getting sucked off by one of these losers"

Zaine kicked one of the dead bodies to emphasize his point

Rock finally seemed tired with Zaine’s mocking tone.

He picked up a large pair of gauntlets, wearing them before preparing to attack.

’ability level five, and fourth tier beast gear. This little bitch has a sponsor’

"Interfere, and I’ll kill you too"

Zaine said without looking back, but he was sure Sable heard him.

He kicked off towards stone, the stoic leader of these gangsters, his eagerness showing in his burning eyes that were glowing.

Halfway through, stone suddenly stopped, and with an arrogant smile said

"Take your best shot"

Zaine wondered if this guy was sure about what he was doing, but it wasn’t his problem as long as he got his answers.

With as much strength as he could muster, Zaine swung his sword straight into Stone’s body,or at least he would have if it hadn’t bounced off like he just struck a metal surface

"Hmm?"

"My turn"

Stone swung his fist straight into Zaine’s abdomen, knocking him back a few feet.

"Looks like you’re not as tough as you look"

Zaine touched where he had been hit,a blank expression on his face as he examined it.

His left eye suddenly transformed, turning pitch black with a white iris before he looked up at Stone, his voice cracking and distorting.

"I’LL FUCKING RIp you To SHreDs!!!!"

Stone studied Zaine with a strange look. Something wasn’t right with this kid, he looked to be missing a few screws.

Zaine started swinging his sword wildly,all his strikes being blocked by this guys armour.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!!!"

The previous burning bright red flame appeared in his hands, running up his sword and coating his attacks, striking Stone.

Surprisingly they didn’t seem to be doing any damage as they continuously touched him, even latching on to him sometimes, but it didn’t burn him.

"Wait Wait!!! Those are heart flames, they don’t attack the body but the soul, and that’s when they’re weaponized. If you keep fighting like this, you’ll tire yourself out" Theia, compelled by her duty tried to warn Zaine.

"Hahaha. These flames are your ability? They’re weak..."

Stones gauntlets suddenly shone as he activated their active skill.

He threw a devastating punch at Zaine’s torso, sending him flying back.

[Hp: -93!!!]

"Just like you" Stone finished.

Zaine screamed out and swung his sword wildly.

Stone at this point didn’t even bother dodging and just grabbed the flaming sword.

"Quit, kid. You’re pretty strong . Surrender and I’ll let you live. You can work under me"

"...."

"You’re at your limit, just lay down and -"

"Limit? Limit!?"

Zaine smirked

"No. Not even close"

[Charge (maximum power)]

Zaine pried his sword from Stone’s hand, attacking with a punch this time and managing to knock him off his balance

"I’m nowhere near my limit."

[Soul blade]

A dark energy suddenly escaped Zen’s hand and entered his greatsword, coating it in a completely dark aura, that added with the red heart flames of rage made it look like a weapon from hell itself.

Stone raised his armoured arms to try stopping the sword like he did before, but this time he was assaulted with an inhumane amount of force, locking him down.

Stone originally thought he’d survived, but all that hope disappeared when he heard a crack.

With wide eyes he looked at his gauntlets and noticed cracks spreading out all around them. Panic struck into his heart as he watched his gear slowly get destroyed.

Zaine smirked, and with one last push,drove the sword straight down, completely destroying the gauntlets and slicing through his defensive ability, cutting off his right arm.

Stone screamed in pain and fell to the ground, clutching where his arm used to be while trying to stop the bleeding.

"I surrender,i surrender! I’ll tell you everything you need to know"

Stone suddenly felt someone grab his collar and pull him up.

Zaine looked directly into Stone’s eyes.

"Surrender? Surrender? Your surrender means nothing. You’re going to tell me what i need to know, but not before I’m done with you"

Putting down his sword, Zaine stared punching Stone as much as he could, releasing all his rage on the now powerless gang leader.

Zaine was about to drop another punch when a hand suddenly grabbed his.

Zaine growled and looked at who had stopped him and was met with a worried Sable.

"Stop. You won"

"Back off or you’re next!"

Zaine’s mutated eye glowed with malice as he spat with venom, making it clear he was serious.

Sable gasped at his blatant hostility but didn’t let go.

"Please. He’s no use to us dead"

Zaine looked down at Stone who was already half dead at this point and dropped him.

"Talk,or I’ll finish the job "

Zaine pointed the sword to his neck to make his point clear.

Stone wheezed, spitting out blood.

Zaine had noticed something weird. He wasn’t getting exp.

Sure he was getting exp for the kills, but the bonus reward exp was nowhere to be found. At that point he’d realized that this wasn’t where he was supposed to be, this was a setup.

"The... the tiger gang. They..... they found one of those weapons. They want....to bring more.... and use it to take over the city"

"What weapon?!"

"You’re really not one of them?" Stone asked, confused.

Zaine pushed the blade closer to his neck, unwilling to deal with any unnecessary questions.

Stone wheezed and coughed before using whatever remnants of strength he had to answer.

".... wouldn’t you like to know. Too bad, you’re going to have to kill me"

"Oh I’m prepared to" 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Before Zaine could do anything,Sable stepped in.

"What do they plan to do with it. What do they want?"

"Those bastards have gotten they’re hands on something they can’t control and think it’ll give them control over this city. They’re all crazy,i just wanted to leave before it went to shit"

They asked a few more questions, firmly getting as much information as they could which honestly wasn’t a lot.

Zaine nodded, now understanding what was going on.

He threw a final punch at Stone’s head, either knocking him out or killing him,at this point he didn’t care.

Zaine picked up his sword and turned around to leave.

"That wasn’t right?" Sable said from behind him.

"He was just trying to protect his people "

"Not my problem "

Sable groaned and suddenly ran in front of him blocking his path.

"Move"

"What are you so angry about? What’s so infuriating that it’s on your mind all day everyday "

Zaine shrugged and walked past her.

"It’s just the way i was made. Now get out of my way before....Do you hear that?"

Zaine suddenly turned around and looked at Stone, suddenly noticing a device with a red button in his hand.

His eyes widened as he realized what was happening and he suddenly yelled

"Get down"

*BOOM!!!*

The entire building suddenly exploded , getting instantly levelled.

For a few seconds it was completely silent with nothing but rubble and dust until a small area suddenly moved.

Zaine pushed his way out of the rubble, beneath him was Sable who he had shielded from the blast. Luckily they hadn’t been too close to the actual explosion and only had to deal with the rubble falling on top of them.

"Motherfucker actually blew the place up. Well at least he’s definitely dead now,serves him right"

"Those people at the bar were probably tiger gang members. They used us to get their revenge on stone, hoping we’d destroy each other. As for these guys,the only reason we met all their high rankers in one place was because they were probably holding a meeting to decide whether to leave or stay "

Zaine inspected the rubble and quickly decided they couldn’t stay there.

"This place is going to attract too much attention because of the explosion. We need to leave "

He suddenly heard a scoff. He looked back and saw Sable walking in the opposite direction.

"Where are you going "

"I’m leaving. So I don’t become ’next’. I’ll look for you later if i feel like it, but for now blood brother, you’re alone"

Zaine saw her leaving and shrugged. He preferred working alone anyway,at least then he’d be able to use his full strength.

Almost immediately he forgot her and focused on his system screen.

"Theia. What was that fire"

"I kept trying to tell you, that’s sin heart flame, specifically rage. It’s not directly useful in combat, but once you learn to use it,it becomes very essential "

"What do I do with it"

"You use it to refine your astra , and then you use the refined astra to boost your abilities"

"So I just mix the fire with astra and throw it at my opponent?"

"Not really. Each specific flame has a boon it gives you according to the intensity of your emotions, and what emotions are triggered by your presence. The refined astra itself is what you throw at your enemies. Be advised that every flame will merge with your essense to give you it’s special ability, and since your new body is more energy based, you’ll -"

"Wait. You never mentioned anything about my body being energy based "

"I.... didn’t? Well you are. It’s why you’re able to fly without any complicated techniques, and move through walls. Anyways, that’s off topic. These flames aren’t like elemental flames, they can’t burn people but they can subtly affect people’s souls, similar to how using them affects yours, however the effects will be very different "

"And what exactly does rage do?"

Theia snapped her fingers in response and a screen appeared in front of him.

[New skill: Flames of war]