The Astral soul system-Chapter 141: Start over

"That was a pretty good run if i do say so myself"

"Tch,it wouldn’t make sense if it wasn’t. You’ve been putting the poor girl through hell for the last few weeks "

Zyro grinned to himself

"Oh come on, it’s not even as bad as standard training. Zen would have done a lot worse,at least I let her get up at seven"

Sylphie’s voice suddenly echoed

"You know....i could probably teach her more"

Everyone in Zyro’s mind collectively sighed and groaned,already knowing what was coming next.

"What?! I’m just saying that if I still had my body,i could probably teach you how to use mana, and even her too"

Theia groaned and replied

"For the last time, Sylphie,mana doesn’t exist in this world. Stop trying to use that lame excuse to remind Zyro to get your body back"

Zyro chuckled

"Syl, I’m doing the best i can but right now I’ve got no clue on how to reform your body. I don’t even know how Zen did it last time. Did he tell you anything yet?"

Zyro waited for a few seconds but didn’t get a reply. He immediately forgot about it, realizing she was ignoring him. He also took it that Zen still didn’t have any guesses.

Sylphie’s case was very special because unlike Lilith and Freya, and maybe Zephyr, she wasn’t bound to him by the system. Her soul was just stuck in his body and hadn’t been assimilated by it.

In order to stop her from getting taken by the black hole, she had to stay with Zen and Zaine in the dungeon. Theia had repeatedly tried to coerce Sylphie, saying that if she just bound with Zyro, she’d be protected from the black hole like Lilith and Freya but she stubbornly refused. Theia informed him that he could attempt to force it if he could but he wasn’t interested in all that, besides,it wasn’t like it would change much. Lilith and Freya were already almost the highest class of soul and according to Theia’s guess, Sylphie was of a similar level, meaning he’d face the same problem with the other two if he successfully managed to bind with her.

Theia appeared and sat on Zyro’s head,her chin on her fist as she sighed.

"Man. I never thought that when we started gathering souls, the main problem we’d have was that they were TOO powerful. I mean we’re actively looking for weak souls right now"

"I’m not" Zyro corrected

"Yeah, but you’re weak-willed and stupid. Taking care of our schedule is my job buddy" Theia said flatly while patting his head.

Zyro looked up at her, ignoring her obvious attempt to make a joke and maybe get a rise out of him.

Zyro’s status screen suddenly appeared on Theia’s command.

"We’ve been at the same level for almost three weeks. This is unacceptable." She said, scrolling through his stats.

"Yeah but there’s nothing to do about it. No one is enough of a threat in hand to hand combat class to give me exp, and I can’t exactly go beast hunting on school grounds"

Theia looked like she was thinking for a while before suggesting

"What if we start picking off stronger students and gang members at night. We could wear a mask,dress you up like a demon and hunt these humans down for their souls like the inferior lifeforms they are"

Theia said and started laughing evilly,or at least attempting to,her five inch figure wasn’t exactly intimidating as it stood on Zyro’s head.

"That sounds like something Zen would come up with"

Zyro said, shooting down her fantasy immediately with an unamused tone.

Theia’s laughing was halted as she realized he was saying no. She sat down on his head, folding her arms while pouting

"And that’s why HE’s my favorite. Hmph!"

"Seriously? You’re going there?"

Theia just huffed and disappeared into the system, leaving his head once again empty, well that was if you ignored the constant bickering between Lilith, Zephyr and Freya but he was used to it at this point.

He finally reached his dorm and pushed open the door, finding all his roommates already there.

Maximilian was on his bed reading a book while Neo and Xavier were playing some video game on their holo-pad

"Hey guys" Zyro said, tossing a bottled drink next to Neo

"Got your text"

"Thanks man"

They all greeted him but it was clear they were all busy. They’d gotten somewhat used to Zyro being their roommate, especially since he said the other two just needed to work out some stuff before they returned, although they still weren’t completely okay with the smiling,it just felt wrong. The best they could do was consider Zyro a completely different person because whenever they closed their eyes to imagine Zen smiling,it just sent shivers down their spine and made them retch at how... unnatural it was.

Zyro dropped down to his bed and opened the drink he got for himself and was about to take a sip when Lilith suddenly spoke.

"Have’nt you forgotten something ~"

Zyro chuckled

"I was going to get right to it, besides, she’s all grown up. She can take care of herself "

Lilith sighed

"She may be grown up in human years, but she became an entirely new lifeform upon her change. As a human, she’s around your age, but as a vampire she’s only a few weeks old, a child. So get to work"

It was obvious who they were talking about. Lilith had become extremely protective,or at least concerned about Sable when she learned she might be an original vampire. She wouldn’t let Zyro rest unless he checked in multiple times a day.

Zyro tapped his watch, opening the holo-pad and immediately called Sable.

It only had to ring a few times before Sable’s pale face and blue eyes appeared on his screen.

"Sable."

"What’s up?"

"Just checking in"

Sable sighed dramatically like she was expecting that response but still had a smile on her face.

"Dude, I’m fine. I won’t rip someone’s heart out and drain some random guy on the street. And I got your present"

She said, moving over so Zyro could see Black perched on her shoulder and a blood packet in her hand.

"Thanks" She said,her fangs, growing out in front of his eyes.

"You don’t have to check up on me all the time, I’m not a baby"

"Except you literally are though" Lilith muttered

Although Zyro didn’t understand how it worked, appearantly a human’s body was literally reborn when they were turned and they started over as a new lifeform. Emphasis on starting over.

So according to vampire culture,as Lilith remembered it anyway, Sable was literally only three weeks old, and needed constant care and attention , including making sure she only received carefully handpicked blood packs at specific times and specific temperatures.

Zyro had been forced to break into blood banks and spend hours sifting through blood packs to find the ones that met her standard, and according to Lilith,it had to be fresh NOT refrigerated,so he had to spend even more time filtering. Thiea and the others had tried to change this, but in Lilith’s eyes, she was incapable of seeing Sable as anything other than a child with immense power and little control. She even often got upset forgetting that Lilith’s parents weren’t vampires and demanding to know where they were.

Zyro honestly didn’t mind, this gave him a chance to practice with his astral powers and if it would make sure his blood sister stayed healthy,he was happy to do it.

"Drink it all up, quickly"

"Yes,dad" Sable said, rolling her eyes as her fangs punctured the bag and it’s contents slowly emptied.

Lilith immediately started talking and Zyro relayed the message

"Good, don’t take anymore tonight, it’ll upset your tummy"

Sable chuckled.

"You worry too much about this stuff "

"Hey,a brother’s gotta check in, right?"

The two chatted for a few minutes before ending the call.

"Happy?"

"I still think you should be doing this in person " Lilith muttered.

"Lilith, she’s fine. This isn’t back wherever you came from. No one can tell who she is because of her whole cloaking thing, and nothing bad will happen to her on my watch"

"You better be right about that "

Sylphie suddenly spoke up, curiosity in her tone

"Honestly,i still can’t tell if you care for the child,or just think she’ll become a threat. Maybe you want to find a way to trade her life for yours, or even hand her over as prisoner to the other vampires. Maybe you’re just fattening her up like a pig"

Hearing that, Lilith snarled but Zyro quickly spoke up

"She’s just worried because Sable has no one to guide her, that’s all"

Sylphie scoffed

"Oh really? You can never tell what a vampire is thinking. Shape shifting,Mind control and who knows what else. Deception and mind games is their whole thing"

Lilith snarled again but suddenly took a deep breath

"I’ll have you know, not all vampires even shape shift, elf"

Lilith spat out, saying the word elf like it was a slur.

"I’m not sure i like your tone, bloodsucker"

Zyro sighed and chuckled while Theia openly rolled her eyes. It was always one of these four. For some reason their personalities just didn’t mix.if it wasn’t Lilith and Zephyr it would be Freya and Sylphie, and vice versa, sometimes even Theia would get involved in their arguments, because of this, Zyro’s mind was constantly noisy and chaotic, but he was used to having voices in his head.

"Guys, guys -"

Theia suddenly interrupted him as he was about to start mediating

"Uh, you should probably stop "Talking to yourself ". Your friends are starting to look at you with concern again"

Zyro suddenly realized everything he’d just said was out loud and although he wasn’t at all worried about them figuring out what he was talking about,or viewing him as crazy, he still smiled awkwardly and stopped, taking a large gulp of his drink.

He suddenly got up after finishing his drink, his eyes going to the sleek metallic pod in the corner of the room and lighting up.

"I can finally get back to playing"

He shuffled out of bed and touched the pod, his hand sliding over its sleek metallic surface.

"Hello there old friend"

Back on the arcade, the trio’s life consisted of mainly three things: Training in the morning, studying in the afternoon, and playing any games they could get their hands on at night. They played everything,card games,board games, video games and all others.

Seeing how enthusiastic they were about it, Riley had gotten them a very special game pod for an interesting game:Star gate.

It was like most Vrmmorpg’s but this one was actually funded by the military and an unknown organization, and was even used by the military to train sometimes.

At the time, unlike most, they hadn’t been drawn to the glory of battle or fun of adventuring in the game, but the sense of peace they could find there and nowhere else.

It got so bad that Freya had taken it away a few times because they weren’t getting sleep.

"I can’t wait to see how Zen managed our account for the past three years, I’m kind of excited"

The three of them had been forced to share an account and an in-game avatar due to having the same body, but they made it work.

"Hey, guys. I’m gonna play for a while, don’t wait on me "

Zyro said, opening the pod and jumping in, happy that it still fit him.

His eyes closed as the neural scan began and he was thrown into the world of the game.