The Astral soul system-Chapter 194: Unleashed

All eyes turned to Xavier who was still completely motionless face down on the ground.His fingers suddenly twitched slowly as he let out a strained breath. It seemed he was still conscious after all.

Fallon didn’t react. It didn’t matter. Without their powers they stood even less of a chance against him.

Jade’s hand suddenly moved, grabbing his wrist weakly.

He looked at her with a snarl. She was barely even conscious at this point,her eyes completely glazed over and her body limp.

Deciding to just finish her, he raised her up before slamming her down into the ground.

He did it again one more time and blood splattered onto the ground, painting it red. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

No one could do a thing at this point. Just watch as he bashed her into the ground,if they were even capable of that.

He raised her up again after the third time to look in her eyes and was surprised to still see them open. Barely, but still, she was awake, her eyes now fixated on both the armor and her sword on the ground.

Her small hands once again came up to grab his wrist and a barely noticeable glow appeared in her eyes.

Fallon scowled. Something about this didn’t feel right. Everyone had noticed a strange smell that had appeared a few seconds ago, and it was coming from Jade.

He lifted her up again before slamming her back into the ground but to his absolute horror, she landed on her feet,her knees bending only a little.

The smell had gotten even stronger and a visible multicolored smoke was rising out of her body into the air. The next second something even weirder happened and she started glowing with iridescent light .

If Sable could see this sight now she’d be screaming in fear, and if Thea could see it she’d be screaming in disbelief.

Her weak little grip around his wrist suddenly felt like a hydraulic press on his bones.

She took one soulless empty glance into his eyes before suddenly dropkicking him,both feet planting into his chest and knocking him a few feet back.

She landed on her feet,her eyes once again empty. She looked down at the weapon and armor, picking up the sword before looking at Fallon.

[Storm. You need to run. Now]

"But-"

[You’re useless here]

"I’m not going to abandon you"

[You’re not abandoning anyone? You need to go help the other students. It’s hard to believe, but their doing even worse than us right now . They aren’t going to make it, and right now you can’t use your ability if you stay here]

"..."

[Just go. You’ll only be a burden.Callisto seems to still have a few tricks up her sleeve. She can buy time]

Gary grit his teeth. He didn’t appreciate how Ava was talking like Jade was a sacrifice but he couldn’t find an argument.

Fallon looked at Jade, his expression unreadable.

"You should have just died"

Jade didn’t react,or rather reacted like she hadn’t heard. Her gaze was still locked on the ripped armor.

The sword started to glow just like her, releasing it’s icy blue aura.

Fallon scowled. This child was ignoring him?

He dashed forward to grab her again but as soon as he was about two feet away from her, her eyes suddenly shifted, locking onto him.

She quickly sidestepped at the last second, dodging completely and by the looks of it, effortlessly.

Her eyes were now on him but they strangely looked empty,vacant. Like the body was just moving on its own.

The sword sliced through the air onto his neck, coming down with the force of a hurricane, staggering Fallon.

The cold aura had seeped in through the metal and into his body, accompanied by something else. Something that awakened a feeling he hadn’t felt since getting here:FEAR

He swung again at the glowing girl, confident that one hit would be all it took to cripple her but she didn’t give him the satisfaction.

Her sword moved like it could predict her movements and every attack she didn’t outright dodge landed on the weapon’s spine.

Maximilian stared wide eyed, almost unable to believe what he saw.

"She’s holding her own"

It wasn’t that she was faster or stronger than him, even though she was clearly much stronger than before. Every move she made simply invalidated his superior strength. Now that he was watching from afar, Maximilian suddenly realized. Fallon had absolutely no skill whatsoever. He was simply flailing about with pure strength. It was like he’d never been in a fight in his life,and Jade on the other hand? Who’d she been trained by?

Maximilian’s eyes widened a bit as he muttered the answer.

"Zen"

One,or rather three members of the most dangerous organization in galactic history.

’Could this actually work?’

The battle had been seemingly balanced in almost an instant by a shocking transformation .

Unfortunately it wasn’t as balanced as it seemed.

Jade was running off the residual energy of the beast vigor tonic Zen had made for her. It had increased her base stats but what she was experiencing now was borrowed strength. She had to finish this fast, though it was uncertain if she was even conscious or aware of that.

Maximilian suddenly ran up to grab the bodies of Xavier and Diane, picking them both up before breaking into a sprint.

Right now none of them could help

Feeling the restrictions fade, Fallon fired a blade of energy but as soon as it got close it suddenly dimmed,weakened, and Jade casually slashed the residual energy, dispelling it.

The sword’s elemental barrier had begun to activate as well, meaning her active skills were no longer restrained either.

The sword’s glow intensified,a thin layer of frost trailing up to her hand.

She dashed forward, this time taking initiative and slashing . He blocked with his wrist,frost coating it.

He pulled back and threw a punch which she blocked with the face of her sword.

She took a few steps back and was about to charge forward again when her glow suddenly started waning.

Fallon froze

"Ah,so this is only temporary. Looks like you’re almost out of time"

Jade didn’t respond, holding her hand across her face, she slid her sword back on her wrist letting it rest on her wrist.

Fallon scowled, dashing forward and halfway through,Jade did the same, charging at him with her sword in front of her.

The two clashed and Jade swerved out of the way, passing him by a few feet.

Breathing heavily,Jade suddenly dropped her sword as her glow disappeared and she slowly fell on one knee.

Fallon snarled, looking back to glance at her

"You dropped somethi-"

His entire body was suddenly covered in frost and seven strange symbols appeared all over his body.

"Wha-"

All seven symbols suddenly erupted with ice aura, shooting ice shards both inward and out while covering him completely, freezing him in place.

For a few seconds everywhere was silent. The air still tense as everyone waited but about a minute passed and nothing happene. Even Maximilian didn’t say anything for a few seconds.

Did she do it?

Jade slowly came to,her vision becoming less blurry as she snapped out of her semi lucid state.

She looked up and noticed max helping Xavier and Diane stand and everyone was looking at her with odd looks.

She looked back for a second before looking back at her friends and smiling.

She wasn’t entirely sure what she just did but it seemed like she’d done...good?

She shakily got up and took a few steps forward, ignoring her sword as she stepped forward

’Oh no ’

"Behind you!"

*Shatter*

*Gasp*

************

[Transformation has begun]

[Detected that host is not in the Astral plane]

[Current realm: Gaia’s grave: unawakened, infantile,basic]

[Transformation limited]

[Detected royal class ranking]

[Forced full transformation (time limited)]

Zyro instantly felt his heart palpitate as the body began to change.

He instantly grew a few feet taller, his clothes stretching to fit his size. His body started to glow, letting out a vibrant burst before the pigmentation started to darken and darken until it resembled something like the night sky with multiple glowing star-like spots and strange runes and marks.

His bones started to stretch like they did during the evolution except much less painful,same with the rest of his body.

The burning sensation in his body came back but this time it was more pleasurable than painful.

He let out a relaxed moan as he stretched his wings, revealing them.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them again,there were multiple

Keith watched in complete shock as they transformed.

"what do you think?"

Asked the barely human aberration in a smooth voice.

He was almost nine feet tall, with skin the same colour as a dark starry night sky. Black hair that slowly bled grey at the tips,a single horn. His nose had shrunk a bit, which combined with his skin made his face look almost completely featureless aside from the four eyes that adorned his face like jewels.

His mutated right eye stood alone unchanged but on the left were three horizontal slits stacked over each other . When opened they were all pitch black with the white irises except the one in the center which had a golden pupil, signifying that Zyro was in control.

He gently flexed his wings, waving them in the air a bit.

"You are..."

"An alien? Yes but also no"

"H-how did you...it doesn’t matter"

He took a stance and threw another punch , making another loud boom.

Smirking , Zyro dashed to the side using shadow step. He’d already seen everything he wanted to see,so he had no intention of taking unnecessary hits. He barely escaped without taking damage.

Keith’s ability was dangerous, specifically to him. Firstly because sonic attacks were difficult to block against, and caused internal damage, and secondly because the sound of it slightly resembled thunder.

It wasn’t close enough to make him completely freeze but it still caused him to flinch and stutter every now and then, which was dangerous in a fight.

"You’re going to bring this whole cave down"

"SHUT UP AND DIE!" Keith yelled, his voice amplified by his ability.

He fired a blast at him but it crashed into an invisible barrier before disappearing.

’Sonic barrier. Plus my aim was off. Right,depth perception. I still need to get used to these things ’

He said, touching his face .

He had no time for introspection however as Keith threw another punch, forcing him to dodge again by anticipating his movements

There was a reason he’d been the one to start the battle. He had a theory he wanted to test.

Every sound had a frequency and that frequency or resonance is what determined what he could block or attack . But could shadows be affected by sounds?

He doubted it but it wouldn’t hurt to test

[Shadow tendril]

Thin snake like tendrils popped out of the ground towards him, directly bypassing his sound barrier before wrapping around his limbs.

Keith looked a bit shocked but just growled before suddenly creating another explosion around him, dispelling the tendrils

’Hmmm,so it bypasses his barriers but is still vulnerable to his attacks ’

Keith picked up his sword, dashing towards Zyro swinging and in response Zyro activated soul blade, the dark energy blade encasing his hand.

Their blades clashed for barely a second before they pulled back to swing again. Halfway through, Keith suddenly activated his ability and with no time to escape, Zyro improvised, wrapping his wings around himself in a defensive layer almost on reflex

The violent symphony slammed into the first layer and other than stagger him a bit, did nothing but annoy his ears.

"My turn"

Unfurling his wings he took another step back , he spread out his hands and started rapid firing soul guns,fury reflected in his red eye.

"Time to die"

He muttered, pulling his sword out of his inventory.

[Flames of rage]

[Charge(maximum power)]

[Soul blade]

[Soul slash]

[Shadow step]

Their astra started disappearing in boat loads as the familiar red flames and dark energy coated his sword, his stats immediately doubling

The meter long blade of energy shot towards Keith and slashed into his armor and the second it did, something familiar flared up

{Beep!}

{Fate: Victor: Hecate}

The attack slid through his armor like butter, cutting into his flesh but Zaine wasn’t done

He dashed directly towards Keith, slamming into another sound barrier but simply forcing his way through it.

His sword came down with both hands and blood splattered everyway. Keith’s sword fell to the ground, his hand still clutching the handle.

Keith didn’t even have time to react to the loss of his hand as Zaine cut the other one off at the wrist before stabbing it through his chest

{Hecate’s fate is much grander the N/A]

{Do you wish to claim player:N/A’s fate}

Forcing his body not to react in panic mode, Zaine responded

"No"

Keith looked down at the sword in his chest, and then at Zaine.

He suddenly grinned.

"At least I was free. You’re still caged"

Internally, Zaine was confused. Keith clearly still had fight left in him but he wasn’t doing anything

Zaine snorted and pulled the sword out to cut off his head.

Seeing the end was near, Keith smirked and muttered

"You’ll never find that red haired bitch"

Just as his head rolled

As those words registered, Zaine froze, his mind immediately going to the one person Keith could have been speaking of.

"Rio...?"