The Astral soul system-Chapter 175: Always worth it

Jade stepped through the forest, careful not to make any obvious sounds . After about sn hour of trying to keep up Zaine she’d lost him.

If she didn’t know he wasn’t human and was instead an alien species, she’d have been very confused with his speed, considering he had no gear. She remembered Zyro saying that they were going to talk about that later and couldn’t help but imagine what that talk would be like.

She’d eventually given up and decided to hunt as many beasts as she could alone, unfortunately she hadn’t had much luck with hunting and only encountered a single third rank beast, eliminating it with a single arrow from range.

After an unknown amount of time, she’d decided it was time to head back, it was getting late and she had to meet up with the others, hopefully Zaine would be there,or whoever would be in control at that point .

She thought back to Zaine, and then "Z" in general, trying to understand what was going on with him as her body walking leisurely towards the base on autopilot, despite the fact that she wasn’t at all focused. It was a sort of mental tic. She found it helped her think clearly while moving, sometimes even better than when she was standing still, although it made people look at her like she was an airhead which...may or may not be true.

She was thinking of maybe getting Zaine a gift to get him less cranky, but she immediately got stumped when thinking of what to get for a person who shared a body with two other people. What would he even like?

These were her thoughts as a flash of silver suddenly caught her eye through the trees, snapping her out of her half lucid thoughts .

She quickly crouched,not sure exactly what she was seeing,it was getting dark and although the moon was out, visibility still wasn’t as good as during the day.

With slow calculated steps she carefully approached,her bow firmly held in one hand and her hand hovering over her side where a backup dagger was sheathed.

The closer she got, the more intense a feeling of familiarity gnawed at her, and the moment she saw the academy emblem on the person laying like they were in pain, she almost instinctively rushed to them, but remembering what Zyro had taught her earlier in the day, she held herself back, the possibility of it being a trap ringing in her ears.

She took a few more careful steps,her hand no longer over the dagger but still clenching the bow firmly.

The closer she got, the stronger that itching familiarity got, almost like something was urging her forward, but she shrugged it off , examining from a distance.

Extremely pale glossy skin,thin and bony, seemingly weak.

From where she was she couldn’t see more than that but what she did see was that silver hair. Her heart immediately skipped a beat,her hand instinctively touching her lips as a rather embarrassing memory flashed in her mind.

"Sable?"

She breathed out uncertainly,her voice airy and light.

That weight on her heart only intensified as the person reacted, turning to face her and replied with her name

"Jade"

Her eyes widening, she immediately forgot about caution or protecting herself, her bow falling to the ground as she ran to the foot of the tree where Sable was lying.

She dropped to her knees in front of her, immediately grabbing Sable’s arms.

"What happened to you? Are you okay? You-’

"Jaaaaaaade...Yo...you shouldn’t be here..."

"What? What are you talking about? You’re hurt. We need to leave, I’ll get you to the base, we’ll take care of you there"

Jade suddenly started unbuttoning Sable’s shirt with a focused look.

"Wha- what are you-"

"I need to see what’s wrong first. You look like you’re overheating and I need to check what exactly is wrong. Maybe i can help"

Sable sighed and didn’t resist, she couldn’t,at least not without ripping jade’s limbs off and pouncing on her like an animal. She closed her eyes, desperately trying to trick her mind into thinking she was alone but it wasn’t working, she could feel her mouth watering as the sound of Jade’s elevated heart rate entered her ears.

’She... she’s worried about me...i can’t -nghhh’

"Jade’s expression turned frustrated and confused.

"What the - there’s no injury, nothing, not even a scratch. Is it...poison?"

Sable suddenly grabbed her wrist, catching her attention.

"Jade... leave me "

Jade shook her head, breaking free from her grip before pulling her hand over her neck.

"Come on. The base is only a few minutes from here. I’ll help you there and we can get you to an infirmary"

Sable however didn’t let her, struggling to push her away.

"Jade, please leave, just listen to me"

"No!"

"Stop!"

"....."

Sable suddenly felt a pit in her stomach as Jade stopped moving completely. Her eyes that had been looking into her’s vacant an empty, clearly under some kind of influence.

"Oh no...I just-"

Jade suddenly shook her head, snapping out of the daze and unknowningly breaking Sable’s influence.

"What just... wait...were your eyes always that color?"

Sable was stunned,that had never happened before, literally every other time she’d used that it had been completely effective, but now...

"Nghh, that’s not important right now. We need to go, now"

She once again tried to help Sable up but she resisted again.

Sable at this point was almost operating completely on instinct, the last shred of her willpower being the only thing separating her from what she’d imagined about a dozen times in the past minute

"Grrrr-Jade,you don’t get it - You can’t...help me. Just... leave me alone, I’m not worth thi-"

"No!"

Jade suddenly snapped, punching the tree as hard as she could, bruising her fist and making it bleed a little.

"I’m going to help you. I don’t know what’s going on with you, and I don’t care, you’re my friend, you’re always worth it. "

"..."

"I’m not leaving without you "

She said pulling Sable’s head into her chest, suddenly hugging her out of nowhere.

For a second, the two were just quietly there, Sable sitting with her back to the tree and Jade kneeling in front of her, the latter embracing the former.

A few seconds passed and Sable’s hands slowly moved around Jade, holding her tightly

"Always?"

Her voice like an evening breeze rang out.

"What?"

Jade asked, confused.

"What you said. I’m ALWAYS worth it...right? You mean it? Always?"

Jade nodded still holding sable tightly to her chest

"Of course. You saved my life"

"And you saved mine "

Sable replied, acknowledgement in her tone, her voice strangely calm, without the usual growl or painful strain,all that seemed to have disappeared,her voice becoming calm, even calmer than normally.

"Hey,Jade. We’re friends, right?"

Jade looked down at Sable’s head, although she couldn’t see her face, something about Sable’s voice was strange, but she was too emotional to care.

"Yeah,of course"

"That’s good. And... friends would do anything for each other. Friends...help each other, right?"

Jade nodded.

"That’s what I’m trying to do. I want to help, but i can’t if you won’t let me"

"... Thank you, Jade. You’re right,i need your help, you’ll help me right?"

Feeling like something was wrong,Jade broke the hug, noticing that sable refused to let go, and looking at her face. It was strange,tears were streaming down her face but there was a playful smile on her face. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

"Sable, you’re cry-"

"Oh, that’s not important~"

She interrupted her voice sugary sweet.

"What’s important is,you want to help me, right?"

Jade was a bit confused but she nodded resolutely

"Hmm,you really are a good friend... I’m sorry about this, friend "

"What are you talking ab-"

*Whoosh*

Before she could react,Jade suddenly found herself on her feet and in Sable’s arms.

"Thank you"

Jade blinked , unsure how to reply so she just gave a smile.

"..."

"..."

"Hhhhhhk!!!"

*******

Zaine suddenly came to a halt, stopping almost immediately.

"What?!"

He asked no one

"The bitch lost her ring?"

He asked the air again before facepalming.

"It’s always something. Well she’s pretty close already,i can feel her, but what the hell am i gonna do once I get there?"

At this point, the person watching him from the shadows was quite certain he’d either lost his mind or never had it to begin with.

"Fuck! Well whatever,at most I’ll let her drinking mine and let my healing deal with the consequences. But there’s just one problem"

He said, finally looking at that specific spot in the darkness behind him,no longer masking his blatant disgust and killing intent towards them.

"I’ve had to put up with your shitty stalking the whole day, the only break I got was in the cave, but I can’t exactly lead you to her, I’d be exposing her, and that’s the perfect excuse to get rid of you."

A pair of eyes in the dark widened but as they turned around to escape, they bumped into someone.

"Hmm? Where are you going? We’ve barely even started playing yet "

Before they could react,a punch suddenly connected with their face, knocking them back into someone else.

"You were sent by Keith to track us?"

Quickly looking up, the tail saw a cold eye looking down at him, empty and completely dark.

A hint of terror appeared in the stalker’s heart, not because he’d been caught by who he was meant to be tailing, but because the voice that had asked... hadn’t come from the person he’d bumped into, despite sounding like his voice.

He suddenly turned back, looking for who it was that had struck him but nothing was there.

"Looking for something?"

He immediately turned back on the one that he’d bumped into, but no one was there.

A disgusting unexplainable emotion clawed its way into his heart as he looked around the forest, panicked.

"What the hell is going on?! H-he was just here,or was he... there?"

Voices suddenly started coming from the forest all around him,all the same, but all different.

"Hehehe, what’s wrong buddy? This has been fun. You scared me"

A voice that was so positive it was sinister reverberated first

"See how you like getting stalked. This one is broken HAHAHAHA!"

Backing away, he suddenly stumbled over a rock, almost falling before someone caught him with their body

"You’re okay,pal. But be more careful in the future"

*Crunch*

The sickeningly sweet voice was followed by the sound of his left arm being broken into fine dust .

"Aaaahhh!!"

He immediately breaks away, turning around to take his spear from his ring, swinging it wildly.

"W-what?"

He asked himself as he looked at the empty space in front of him, he’d been swinging at nothing.

Immediately looking at his arm, mangled and broken beyond repair, he shook his head

"No...no, I’m not imagining it...he was here, they were...they?"

Doubt was starting to set in and so was confusions. Without thinking, he immediately turned in the opposite direction, running away, unfortunately it wouldn’t be that easy.

"Whoops"

Tripping over someone’s foot, he fell to the ground, immediately looking behind him to see who it was but no one was there.

"You were warned"

The voice rang, directly in front of him this time. Slowly, he turned his neck, seeing the figure of his target

"Expecting someone else? Nice spear by the way"

He quickly got up, holding his spear with his good hand. It didn’t matter what tricks he had if he could still be seen .

Immediately charging at the motionless figure, he was about to pierce him when he suddenly felt his feet rooted to the ground.

"What’s wrong?You stopped moving"

Looking down, he saw his legs trembling, he could clearly feel something holding him back but nothing was there.

He looked up and the person he was looking at was gone again.

"FUUUUCK! ENOUGH! COME AND FIGHT ME!"

He yelled, unable to take it anymore.

"If you insist"

A voice far too close for comfort rang out. Directly in front of him was his target, his pitch black eye staring at him as his hand held his chest, suddenly lightning up before.

*Bang!*

He was sent flying into a tree.

"Ugh!"

He shakily opened his eyes, almost about to pass out when he suddenly saw three different people standing in front of him,each with a different facial expression.

"He’s okay"

"Should’ve died. Why did you hold back?"

His mouth opened wide in shock, unable to believe what he was seeing. He closed his eyes and opened them again, he saw only one person.

"Hmm. I wonder. You’re not feeling well,are you? You keep looking like you’re seeing ghosts. You should get some rest"

His hands slowly pointed towards the target, lightning up green before a beam of light shot at the target, disappearing into his body without a visible effect.

"No dice,huh? Bad luck for you buddy"

Shocked, he looked at his hand, unable to find out what had gone wrong.

"Having issues? Well the thing is that although abilities are associated with the body, the trigger,is still up here,so if you’re having issues, it’s probably because something’s wrong with your head"

"Uh..."

"Pfft,still doesn’t explain the kind of performance issues you suffer from?"

A second one suddenly appeared next to the first, drawing his attention

"Hmm? What are you looking at?"

The first suddenly asked, and almost as if on cue, the second disappeared into thin air right in front of him.

That was the last straw as he suddenly forced himself up from the ground, pushing away his target and running into the woods wildly,or at least he would’ve if he didn’t bump into someone else.

"RUN"

A deep voice commanded as he saw the right eye of his target for the first time,a deep instinctual fear coursing through his veins as he broke into tears, running into the woods while screaming wildly, not slowing down in the slightest despite his mangled arm and probably broken ribs.

"Wow! You guys really fucked him up. Damn, killing him would’ve been easier. Bravo!"

Theia praised them, clapping wildly .

"Zaine, the ghost act was perfect, Zyro, brilliant telling him that thing about abilities and mental state. That’ll really fuck him up"

"Yeah, truth is we’re just the perfect counter to the poison ability "

"Exactly, and using soul bridge to constantly send him feelings of dread and fear? Genius"

Without saying anything,Zen started heading deeper into the forest towards where Sable was and seeing this, the others followed. That whole show was around a minute long but it was still a minute from their time. If Black was right, something wasn’t with Sable.

Zen quickly made it to where the smell of Sable was the strongest but he immediately noticed another smell: Blood.

Increasing his speed, he appeared in front of them and saw what looked like Jade and sable hugging each other tightly,at least until...

*Thud*

Jade’s body hit the ground,her eyes shut and her body lifeless while Sable stood above her, licking her lips before letting out a euphoric breath, her eyes shining like rubies