The Astral soul system-Chapter 229: insurance
He stared for a few seconds at the message and quickly covered his hand again
"..."
"I’m guessing this isn’t good"
"..."
"Sigh, he’s gone nonverbal again"
Zen didn’t respond
This was sent from a familiar contact, though it was encrypted so he couldn’t see exactly who, he could tell where it had come from, and that was a problem
’Crowley again? Or Raven?’
He thought back to the trial, remembering her words
"You’ll have to tell me all about it when I come back and visit though"
He repeated the sentence a few times but couldn’t find a clue or hint. One of the ways they’d been trained to "Play" with each other’s was using riddles and such, it had become a bit of a sickness for them specifically and they loved hiding clues in plain sight
He checked the message again but there was nothing. Just two words.
"Hey,champ? You good?"
"... one of them is close. Really close"
"Oh...well-"
"I can’t fight them"
Zen suddenly interrupted
"What?"
"I can’t win,at least, not under most circumstances"
Theia froze. She’d never heard Zen outright say something like that before
"Okay,calm down. If someone was sent to retrieve you,who would it most likely be"
He thought for a second
"Cyrus,or Robyn"
"Okay -"
"But... Cyrus is too difficult to control, and Robyn wouldn’t give me a warning,at least not through a device"
He suddenly pulled out something from his ring. It was the guns, dawn and dusk. So far he hadn’t used them since the expedition, mostly since the bullets it fired were all custom made by a master blacksmith, meaning he had limited ammo, but also because the weapons were too easily recognizable.
Guns had practically become obsolete, and although he had already been seen using them before.
This was less important but he also didn’t want to become dependent on them, he’d definitely abuse it if he ever needed to in a fight, but if it wasn’t then he wouldn’t.
Dawn/Dusk]
[Rank: XXX]
Twin dual pistols representing the rising and falling of the golden sun. Made of the most precious materials that can be found in its home realm,forged by a mysterious grandmaster blacksmith of the Armstrong family, and assembled by §∆^#*-*???, this is the highest attainable peak. Due to its unique nature, it’s strength and rank is immeasurable
[Active skills: Dawn rise/Dusk fall]
He had around a hundred bullets left and although it seemed like a lot,it really wasn’t.
"I wonder..."
His eye suddenly darted to a corner and he immediately fired.
A blue light flashed followed by a faint whimper rang out as a shards of ice suddenly burst out of the beasts body before encasing it completely in frost
Dead in seconds
"Damn,I keep forgetting just how powerful that thing is. You could probably clear the whole dungeon with it right now"
Zen didn’t reply,she was right
"But then it’s probably the only thing that can protect you against your old mates,huh?"
That was also right
"Theia, can you scan this and find out what the bullets are made of?"
"Let me see"
She immediately opened the system interface but quickly sighed, closing it back
"Your skill level is too low"
"As expected"
He thought for a few seconds before deciding to head back. He could probably still go a bit further but it was definitely impossible for him to level up today.
After extracting the final crystal he made his way out of the dungeon, mind racing.
Something was definitely about to go down soon,it was just a matter of what , and who
"You?"
He looked up, hearing the voice directed at him
It was Ava, and strangely enough,she was in her uniform.
"So she can follow rules "
Theia chuckled, looking at her from Zen’s shoulder where she was sitting.
"..."
"Oh, you’re moody again"
She said, folding her hands
"I don’t have time for this "
He said, moving around her
She didn’t stop him, muttering
"What exactly are you doing sending encrypted messages. I could probably unencrypt it though"
He froze for a second
"What are you talking about?"
She shrugged and walked off, leaving him there
"Weird kid"
He tilted his head to the side before walking after her. He wasn’t exactly sure but he got the feeling he should follow her.
After about a minute, he took one last turn before seeing her,back to the wall, chewing what he guessed was gum
She gave a mock gasp,her hand on her chest
"You’re stalking me?!"
"..."
She rolled her eyes
"And people call me boring "
"What do-"
She raised her finger, hushing him"
"Watch "
She said, beckoning him to come closer
"So you can hack it? Or put a tracker on it?"
She rolled her eyes
"I knew about the message already, I’ve already hacked you"
"..."
She made a good point.
He looked around, curious as to why she called him here and if she was trying to help him or not. There didn’t seem to be any cameras here,at least school cameras
’How does a military school have security blindspots?’
He wondered, but looking up at her, he felt it wasn’t impossible for her to find one
He finally took the step, holding his hand out to her.
She looked down at his hand and back at him, suddenly rolling her eyes before taking it and suddenly pulling him closer, much,much closer
"Do you want everyone passing by to know what you’re doing, dumbass "
He.... actually hadn’t thought about that
"Just stay close and give me a few seconds "
He nodded and watched as she opened his watch’s interface as well as her’s.
He suddenly remembered something and decided to ask
"How much do you know about these watches?"
She froze, probably suprised he’d asked before continuing without looking up
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the inner workings. You’re good at tech, right?"
She seemed to be thinking for a few seconds before answering
"I know the damn things make absolutely no sense. I’ve poked and prodded at it so many times but it’s data center is practically nonexistent, the material it’s made of itself is somehow capable of retaining information, similar to DNA, and it’s basically glued on,so showers are a nightmare"
"..."
"Plus it’s government mandated so that’s creepy "
"..."
"No matter how many times I try to look into it,I get shut down by some government virgin nerds who’ve spent their whole lives in front of a screen
’interesting. Even someone with her backing can’t find out ’
"By all basic common logic it shouldn’t work, but it does, and that pisses me off. I’ve considered chopping my hand off just to get it off me but the stupid security on the thing makes it impossible"
She suddenly took her hand off his watch and when Zen looked at it he saw a progress bar
"Done. It’s trying to find out where the message was sent from. It’s somewhere in this city, but you’ll have to wait to get something more specific"
He looked at it,a bit surprised. He stayed silent for a few seconds before muttering uncertainly
"Thank you"
"Uh-huh, now can you move, it looks like we’re fucking over here"
He stepped back, putting some much needed distance between them
"Looks like you owe me"
"How much do you want?"
"I’m one of the richest people in this school"
He hadn’t expected that to work anyway
"What do you want?"
"Your gloves"
Without hesitation, he reached into his ring, pulling out one of his spare pairs
"Here you go"
She didn’t look amused , ignoring him
"You know what I meant "
"No I don’t "
"Why do you wear gloves anyway?"
"My hands get cold really easily "
It was the truth, his natural body temperature was way below the average
She rolled her eyes, clearly not believing him
"You should just give up"
She said, walking closer to him. Her hand slowly reached up towards his face,a sinister smile on hers
"I know everything about you"
Her finger suddenly grazed the choker on his neck, letting a low hum through it.
Eyes suddenly blowing wide,he grabbed her hand, almost twisting it
"Then you should also know I can destroy you"
He growled, his crimson eye burning brightly.
"You bi-"
He suddenly froze, and taking the chance, she pulled her arm away from his grip and quickly left
"What the..."
Theia sighed watching her leave and for the first time in a while Zephyr spoke up
"What an interesting girl. You can’t easily tell if she is malicious or not. She’s trying to break your will and force you to go to her to confess... how sadistic"
Theia seemed a bit unsure, asking
"But why help though?"
"That....is the question"
She looked towards Zaine, about to scold him. Chances were that she had cameras recording in case he tried something, though she was stopped by the expression on his face. It lacked a certain... murderous component.
"Zaine? What’s wrong?"
She remembered that he’d hesitated when he grabbed her for some reason. Zaine wasn’t the kind to hesitate,ever!
"She had a string "
String?
Her eyes lit up as she realized what it meant. The strings were a special talent the boys had only used a few other times,it wasn’t recorded in the system and was completely mysterious, even to Zephyr
"So what did you see? Past, present, future?"
He shrugged
"Nothing, didn’t get to touch it"
She immediately deflated, disappointed
"Damnit! That could have given us the edge against her. She’s definitely going to up the pressure on us after today"
"It doesn’t matter. I already did what I needed to do, and she didn’t even notice"
"The location?"
"Yes, but i also got something else, and a little insurance"
**************
"Jeez, what a freak"
"I told you he was crazy"
The AI said, gloating while Ava looked at where he grabbed her
"This is way too dangerous,you should stop"
"Haha! Are you crazy?! Not when I’m this close"
"He almost grabbed you"
"It doesn’t matter"
The AI sighed
"How are you even sure he didn’t notice what you did?"
"Oh I’m sure. I got what I wanted plus a little insurance, and he’s none the wiser"
