The Astral soul system-Chapter 104: A chance

The door opened with a bang, alerting everyone to the arrival of their friends. The moment, Diane, Neo and Jade saw them, they immediately went to help them to sit down.

"What happened?" Diane asked.

"We found Zen" Xavier answered painfully.

"Or at least someone that looks like him, and has all his skills too" Maximilian added while clutching his side.

"He did this to you?" Neo asked confused

"Yep" Zaria answered.

"It’s so weird. I keep getting a weird feeling from them. Familiar like it’s Zen, but at the same time, not familiar at all. He even fights slightly differently. And they look so alike too"

Jade asked curiously.

"Maybe it’s like his twin brother?"

Zaria shook her head. "No, that’s impossible. Zen doesn’t have a twin, he doesn’t even know his real family"

Zaria sighed and decided to stop thinking about it.

"Jade, did you at least find a way to open the boxes "

Jade’s eyes lit up and she nodded excitedly.

"Yeah. Check it out"

She walked up to one of the boxes and started moving the compartments notably much easier than before, shifting the rows and columns of the cube for a few seconds before a clacking sound suddenly rang out.

Before their eyes,the cube suddenly disassembled itself into precisely fifty four plates of metal.

The others looked at her suprised and how she did it. She chuckled replying.

"It’s sort of like a riddle and a combination lock in one.You have to rearrange the pieces to form a specific combination on all faces of the cube. As for how to find the exact combination, the answer is on the box itself. There are a bunch of clues and stuff to find what combination will unlock it, and although it doesn’t look like it, every single square is unique and belongs in a specific place "

"That’s... impressive. Well done,Jade"

"It’s nothing "

Maximilian tried to get up to get a closer look, but after a while, he gave up and just watched from his seat.

As the box gave way it revealed a large egg shaped silver container about the size of a human. It was a sleek futuristic pod with a glass window on the front and looked moderately large.

"Hmmm? A custom VR capsule?... Well that explains the size" Maximilian mused looking at the capsule.

"Don’t those things cause like...a million credits or something."

"To have one made and customized,Yes, and maybe even more" Maximilian answered Neo’s question.

"Looks like he was a gamer"

Jade looked at the other, smaller boxes.

"Should I open the rest?"

"Yeah, you..... wait a minute? How did you figure it out anyway?"

"Oh. One of our classmates came in while you were gone. She was really nice and helped when I asked her. She also knew a lot about puzzles.

"Oh that’s ni-"

Zaria’s words caught in her throat as she took another look at the pile. Including the one they just opened,there was meant to be four boxes in total, but right now....there were only two left

"Jade? Where are the other boxes?"

Jade originally looked like she didn’t understand but she took a quick glance at the corner where the pile was and immediately realized what was wrong.

"Th... they were right there"

Everyone in the room was now starting to panic. It seemed whatever was going on wasn’t as simple as they thought.

Zaria noticed Jade starting to panic and put her hands on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Jade, calm down. Listen, i need you to answer me as honestly as possible. Did you see the person doing anything suspicious or going near the boxes?"

Jade shook her head resolutely.

"No. When she came in, she said she had a package she wanted to pick up. She saw the box and decided to help when she saw me. After that, she chatted with me a bit and just left. She didn’t take anything, believe me."

Maximilian suddenly picked something from her statement and noticed something that would be debatably more terrifying than if the person had taken it.

"Jade. You’re saying that this person came in, saying that they had a package, helped you out, and left WITHOUT picking up any packages?"

Jade instinctively tried to answer, but the words stuck in her throat as she realized the implications of what he was asking.

Maximilian sighed.

"That person coming here when you were conveniently alone and in need of help wasn’t a coincidence. It was premeditated. Someone knew what would happen, and knew about Zen too. Someone’s been watching us... and most likely is still watching us"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

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

Zen got up again and looked through the bars. He had been trying to find whatever it was that made that sound before. He had tried everything he could, but he had no power outside of these bars. Unlike Zaine however, he had something that might be of use to him.

Zen closed his eyes and the layout of the castle flashed in his mind, especially the throne room.

Zen stretched his hand in the direction he felt the throne room was and focused his mind on the image of a ring with a green gem. A little girls face briefly resurfaced in his mind but he quickly did away with that memory.

He used as much mental strength as he could muster and pulled with his mind. All his mental strength erupted to pull the object of his wish towards him.

*Shift*

Zen trembled a bit and sat down, exhausted.

He rested for a few minutes before looking to see how far he got.

It had moved about two inches. It didn’t even get off the pedestal.

"This is going to take a while"

Zen muttered as he tried to pull again but this time moved it even less than the first time.

This is really going to take a while.

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

Earlier today.

Sable yawned drearily and walked into the baty,combing back her hair. She turned on the sink and splashed water on her face. Everything that had happened so far had been very stressful for her,first her nightmare and then the whole thing with Zen.

Sable looked up at the mirror and in it, she saw a girl that looked almost completely identical to her, except she had glowing red murderous eyes,her hands and face drenched in blood. On her lips were a murderous grin that accentuated her vampiric fangs that gleamed like silver in moonlight.

Sable’s felt her heart almost jump out of her heart. An odd sense of fear filled her heart and she flinched, hurriedly splashing water on her face.

When she looked back at the reflection,it was normal. She took a deep breath and decided to ignore it, thinking it must be the stress.

She opened the tap into her tub and sat in. Her thoughts wondered for a few minutes before she realized something.

"I’m cold"

She increased the temperature slowly until it was around 100°c. Sable suddenly realized what she was doing, and ignoring how insane it was that the water in the tap could get that hot, she was suprised by her body. Yes she always had a high tolerance for temperatures high and low, but this was the first time she felt like actively seeking out heat. Her body felt unnaturally cold,it was only dealt with after she increased the temperature of the water.

She suddenly remembered that during their talk,he had been told that if she experienced any unnatural changes, anytime, she could come to meet... Zen.

Her expression fell as she remembered the less than pleasant fate that had befallen her friend.

She got out of the bath, fixing her silver hair in a ponytail and putting on her usual school uniform.

She briefly recalled Zen’s plan and headed for her first objective. She needed information, hopefully everything worked the way Zen planned.

She made her way to Zen’s dorm just in time to find his roommates discussing something. She hung around for a few minutes before leaving after confirming that things were going according to plan .

She then left for the the storage room, hiding near the entrance as they passed through.

She listened in on their conversation, having to stay back quite far due to Maximilian’s superior senses.

As they all left, Sable looked at the entrance and her heart ached as she saw Jade and recalled what she had to do.

As soon as Jade turned her back, Sable sprinted behind her, and with a quick deliberate strike to her nape, Knocked out the already barely conscious Jade.

Sable quickly caught her in her arms, lifting up her body.

Sable gently placed her down on the table and was about to leave when she suddenly noticed Jade slightly trembling.

Sable stares for about a second before pulling off her jacket and using it to tuck her in.

Looking at her sleeping figure, Sable was suddenly reminded of what happened between them in the dungeon and she couldn’t help but laugh. She gently tucked some stray hair on Jade’s face behind her ears and gave her a pat before leaving.

She looked at the boxes she came for and immediately found the ones she wanted. She picked up two boxes after confirming Zen gave her the right method to unlock them and kept them in her ring before leaving.

As soon as she was out, she went in the direction Zaria did, trailing her while unconsciously sticking to the shadows.

She looked at her watch at the the coordinates she got from the tracking device Zen had her put in his watch and reconfirmed that this was the way.

She followed behind, watching everything unravel, the argument and the fight .

Sable wished she could say it upset her to see her friends fighting, but touching her chest,all she could feel was cold.

While the others left after the fight, Sable looked at her tracker and followed behind Zaine, tailing him.

After a few minutes of intense running, Sable found Zaine on the ground, breathing heavily after his loss. He suddenly screamed and punched the ground, destroying it.

Sable quickly pulled out one of the two boxes. She quickly opened it and the pieces fell apart to reveal a two handed greatsword with a red hilt.

Sable stepped out of the shadows, wincing uncomfortably due to the sunlight as she snuck up behind him,gripping the hilt of the sword.

Once she was close enough, Sable extended the sword and lightly hit him with it, alerting him to her presence.

Zaine immediately dashed away, trying to get some distance between them. He immediately prepares to attack but is suprised when Sable puts up her arms in surrender.

"I don’t want to fight you" she declares before holding the sword in both hands and extending it towards it’s owner.

"I want to help you"