The Astral soul system-Chapter 112: I don’t want you to die

You’re supposed to be dead"

Zaine suddenly felt someone’s hand on his shoulder, and turning around he saw it was Zaria.

"Zen? Is that you? What’s wrong?"

Noticing the horrid expression on his face, Zaria was confused but he was in no mood to deal with her.

"Get off me!"

Zaine quickly got to his feet and started running out of the cave, trying to avoid the screen but it wouldn’t leave him alone.

{Greetings Player: Hecate}

"Get away from me! You’re dead!"

Zaine clutched his head and started swinging it around like a madman, unwilling to look at the screen.

"Leave me alone!" Zaine yelled, angrily swinging at the screen and trying to hit it but it was ineffective.

Zaria watched him running out of the cave, confused about what was happening. She had originally thought that if this new person really was just another side to Zen, he might come somewhere he’s familiar with, and that thought process had led her here where she had actually found him, but what she met... she didn’t even know how to react to it.

"Looks like it’s worse than we thought, Black"

She suddenly looked at her shoulder and noticed that the raven was gone.

"Black?"

She inspected the place but he was nowhere to be found. Looking at the ground there were signs of battle and struggle but she had no clue as to what happened.

"What in the world’s going on?"

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

Zaine ran as fast as he could as far away as possible, he couldn’t even remember how he had left the mountain, right now his mind was flashing between reality and hysteria as he tried to escape the screen.

Theia and Freya were trying to get through to him but he acted like he couldn’t hear them, blocking his ears and running wherever his feet took him

After a while the screen suddenly disappeared and he was left with peace of mind. He eventually found a dark alley and just sat down on the floor, trying to get rid of the screen that wouldn’t leave him alone.

"Zaine?" Theia asked.

"What?" Zaine finally reacted.

"Your hand"

Zaine suddenly realized what she meant. His gloves had been destroyed in the previous fight, meaning he had gone so far with nothing covering his mark.

He immediately looked at it and was suprised to find it was covered by a strange bony, but at the same time, slimy black substance.

"What the-?"

He suddenly heard the sound of a bird and a black raven suddenly landed directly in front of him and gently hopped onto his leg.

There was something in the raven’s beak, It was a fairly large white crystal with a faint glow.

[Astral sprite (crystalized)]

[???]

"This is what I grabbed in the portal. You..."

The raven dropped the crystal in Zaine’s open hand and hopped up his body to his shoulder. It gently nudged and rubbed his face with its like it was trying to cheer him up before taking a posture that resembled sleeping on his shoulder.

Zaine didn’t know what to think of this. He seemed to have a few memories of this thing from Zen but he couldn’t be sure. He seemed to have a strange connection with this thing.

He picked up the crystal and put it in his pocket. Now that his mind was clear, he was no longer confused, but angry, extremely angry, not just at the screen but at the one person he felt could be responsible for this.

Zaine took a deep breath and closed his eyes, preparing to pay someone a visit.

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

"What did you do?"

Zen didn’t bother opening his eyes and answered.

"A visit so soon? How unlike you"

Zaine punched the bars with all his might but didn’t even dent them.

"Look at me you bastard!"

Zen opened his eyes and got up from his lotus pose standing with his back to Zaine.

"What’s wrong? If you came to meet me then you have a problem you can’t solve?"

Zaine spat on the ground in disgust.

"The last thing I’ll ever need is your help"

Zen sighed. Internally he was wondering if Zaine had figured him out , but he figured he wouldn’t get far like this.

"Theia what’s going on?"

Almost immediately Theia appeared and started explaining.

"Well first we got a quest to-"

"Don’t answer him" Zaine interrupted.

"Why?" Zen asked

"She doesn’t have to listen to you"

Theia twiddled her fingers awkwardly and looked at Zaine.

"Technically I have to. He’s technically also the host of the system and i can’t disobey the host so...."

Zaine rolled his eyes and Theia continued the story up until the point where Zaine closed the portal.

Zen nodded his head slightly.

"Not a bad strategy, and you seem to have gotten use to the system and your body. But I don’t understand the problem. You won right?"

"Well that’s the thing. At the last second a -"

Zaine suddenly interrupted her. "The system’s back"

"What do you mean,’it’s back’?"

"I mean what i fucking said"

Zen seemed to finally understand as he went silent for a few seconds before muttering.

"That’s interesting "

"It showed up a few seconds before disappearing again " Theia recounted.

"..."

"Why are you staying silent? I thought you’re always supposed to know what’s going on. Answer me!"

But Zen didn’t answer. His expression didn’t change but he looked like he was thinking about something.

"Zen?" Theia tried checking if he was okay but he still didn’t give any reaction.

Zaine scoffed and turned around.

"I should have known this was a waste of time. Come Theia"

Theia looked back at Zen but he remained frozen in thought, completely ignoring them both

Once they had left, Zen suddenly muttered.

"That’s not possible. I made sure of it "

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

Walking through the halls, Zaine’s attention was on the back of his hand. Even here this damn mark was still with him.

He immediately thought back to the portal. He had put both his hands in and when he pulled them out, the mark had started glowing. Something about it had triggered his mark.

Theia followed behind him somewhat sullen. Neither of her hosts were talking to her. One of them was completely indifferent, and the other seemed to only be able to feel anger. And to top it all off,she didn’t even know why she had two hosts to begin with. Or was it one host with two personalities?

"Why are they both so unfriendly?"

She suddenly got an idea and dashed in front of him.

"I’m guessing you’ve noticed that this place is different since you’ve been imprisoned. Zen did a little redecorating a while back "

Zaine looked around and acknowledged the change.

"I don’t like it"

Theia twitched a little but didn’t give up.

"Lots of things have changed. Do you wanna check out the prisoner?"

"Prisoner?"

Theia nodded. "Look for a room with the name Jesse written on it"

Zaine didn’t know where she was going with this but he knew Zen had changed some things so he went with it.

Within a second he found the room titled Jesse and it suddenly materialized next to him.

"What’s so special about this?"

"You’ll see" Theia answered as she phased through the door.

Zaine opened the door and walked in to find an entirely new world.

The first thing he noticed was the bits of pink light that resembled fireflies in the air.

He looked down and saw a small island.

"I thought this was a prison"

"It is" Theia replied

"But what prison could be more secure..."

"...Than one you never want to leave" Zaine finished.

Using his perception, he looked down at the island, recognizing two distinct people. One who must have been Jesse, and the other that was a bit more familiar.

"Isn’t that one of my... Zen’s roommates?"

"Yep. Appearantly that Jesse guy had a thing for him and well...here we are"

"Hmmm if anything i thought it would be that other one. Max"

Theia chuckled.

"I’m pretty sure Zen thinks he’s like that too"

Zaine lost interest in the pair and looked at the bits of light in the air.

"What’s this?"

"This is what you cultivate. When your body absorbs Astra, our good friend Jesse and his lustful thoughts help transform part of that astra into this pure sin energy which you use to cultivate the seven deadly sins technique"

"So this is the sin heart flame?"

"No. You have to use this and your own will to forge the flame, and then absorb more astra before refining it with the flame "

Zaine was shocked as he quickly realized he’d have to absorb about twice the amount of regular astra to get the amount of refined astra he would get after one round of absorption and cultivation of regular astra, and that amount would be cut with every new flame he tried to create.

Reading his expression,Theia knew what he was thinking and quickly tried to placate him.

"I know it seems like a lot of effort but trust me it’s worth it. This isn’t a mythical tier technique for nothing. Now quickly, drain all these sparks and use them to further the lust heart flame. If you leave them to pile up for too long they’ll seep into your regular flow of astra, and that might not be good "

"So this is a farm"

Theia nodded her head affirmatively. Jesse was no different from a cow being milked until he had nothing left to give,after which he would be discarded.

"Good. In that case I should be able to manage the farm however I like"

The door behind them suddenly opened and looking back Zaine saw Lilith and Freya walk in.

"See? I told you this door wasn’t here before" Freya said smugly to Lilith who simply rolled her eyes.

"Oh, berserker? Hi"

"Greetings master"

They both said hello to Zaine when they noticed him.

"What’s going on?" Freya asked.

"Just giving this a change of pace "

The entire world suddenly turned dark, the tropical island Zen created being replaced with a completely dark room.

"Hmm? Where’s Jess...oh...."

In the center of the room, Jesse was completely tied up,naked and blindfolded.

"What? What’s happening? Where am I?"

No one answered him and instead a large mass of tentacles appeared surrounding him.

Theia already knew where this was going but couldn’t help but notice how similar these tentacles were to the ones Zaine had fought off, they even had the same shield around them.

"What? What is this? Stop! No! "

In the next few seconds, lewd sounds and noises filled the room alongside Jesse’s occasional yells of disapproval.

"Stop! No, this wasn’t our deal! This wasn’t how it was supposed to be"

Lilith looked at the R-18.... Actually R-20 scene and shook her head.

"What an unfortunate fate"

"Yeah" Freya said absentmindedly.

Lilith turned to look at Freya and saw her face completely glued to the lewd scene.

"Seriously?" Out of nowhere, Lilith suddenly kicked Freya, knocking her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, what was that for?"

Lilith didn’t reply and kept kicking her,her annoyance unrelenting as she chased Freya around the room.

"What is wrong with you?" Lilith asked, kicking her again while she tried to run away.

"Why are you kicking me? Stop already! Zaine! Lily is kicking me!"

Zaine watched the two grown adults running around and could only think "They seem to be getting use to each other" and it seemed Theia agreed as she laughed heartily.

The pitiful figure of Jesse in the center of the room was completely ignored, after all,he was no more than a cow getting milked.

Theia looked around and nodded.

"You may have increased the production speed, but you’ve also reduced his shelf life"

"Shelf life?"

Theia nodded.

"He doesn’t have a physical body so all this is happening directly to his soul. Eventually his will is going to be destroyed and he’ll just be a mess, he’ll be useless then and we’ll need to find another"

Theia looked at the two epic ranked warriors chasing each other around playfully and said.

"Even they have a shelf life. When you use souls in battle you exhaust them and they need to rest for a breif period. The only reason you haven’t worn them out is because their so much more powerful than you. Lilith is the first vampire queen and Freya is one of humanity’s strongest elite warriors,so their souls are too powerful for you to easily wear out. So far you’ve only used a fraction of the power they weild"

"I thought i gain all their powers when I equip them"

"No. You only gain access to that power. You get all their skills and experience, but you won’t instantly be brought to their level. It’s like a level 80 and a level 2 using the same skill. There’s obviously going to be some difference. That’s why Lilith’s skill destroyed your arm when you used it, you accessed too much "

"So technically, I can access all their power as long as i can heal from the damage it does to me?"

"No"

"But I thought-"

"Even if you use all your astra and aether, you’d barely reach five percent of an epic tier’s power, and it would instantly kill you "

"I see..."

Theia suddenly snapped her fingers and a screen appeared in front of Zaine.

[Lilith (epic tier) ]

[Cost: 25/second]

[Freya (epic tier)

[Cost: 25/second]

"Wait, that’s not"

"It’s a failsafe. A limit put on their power to make sure you don’t kill yourself. Let me ask you this, Zaine. All those lightning bolts coming off you when you used Freya’s soul. Do you think you really survived it alone?"

"..."

"Remember how strong Freya’s lightning was when you were a kid. Now think back,do you really think you should have survived those stray bolts?"

Thinking about it now, Zaine wasn’t confident at all.

"The system will automatically repress souls that are too strong for you to handle without dying. This is the real cost"

[Freya: 100/second]

[Lilith: 100/second]

"I see"

"No listen you need to understand"

Zaine was getting annoyed by this. So far all she had done was tell him how weak he was. He didn’t see the point.

"I’ve got it. I see the point" Zaine tried pushing her away but she didn’t listen.

"No! No you fucking don’t! Listen to me!"

Zaine was stunned. It was the first time Theia had yelled at him. He was about to yell back when a screen appeared in front of him.

It was a first person point of view recording of the fight with the tentacles.

"What’s the point of-"

"Watch it!"

Zaine reluctantly looked at it and it showed when he grabbed Freya’s swords.

A huge damage notification suddenly appeared

[-50 HP]

From that point on multiple damage notifications kept showing up and they spiked every time he swung the swords. Even though he wasn’t getting hit, the electricity he was emitting was damaging his own body.

At the end of the battle he barely had twenty HP left. It seemed he hadn’t noticed because he panicked and ran off.

"You see? Even with the soul weakened you were so close to dying. You’re weak Zaine, very weak. You wouldn’t even have been able to use them without the buff you got"

"Well why didn’t you tell me? Isn’t that your job?!" Zaine raised his voice and turned the blame to her, angry at being called weak and annoyed by the constant nagging.

Tears welled up in Theia’s eyes and she shakily answered.

"The notification would have distracted you , and any distraction could have caused you to die. And MY JOB is to help you anyway i can. I’m not just your secretary"

They both went silent after that for a few seconds before Theia sighed and spoke.

"I worry about you, okay?"

"Why?"

"Because it’s my job... and because of the way the system’s programmed "

Theia didn’t let him say anything before continuing.

"The system is specifically designed for you to be reliant on it...so am I. It’ll stay long enough for you to become dependent, and when you need it the most, it’ll abandon you, and so will I. It’ll make you powerful, but only enough for you to be a threat. Strong enough to be an inconvenience to a powerful government, strong enough for some noble to scorn you for no reason, strong enough for some otherworldly creatures to consider you a good snack, and then... it’ll abandon you. When you need it most it won’t be there, and then it’ll turn on you. Thousands of system hosts have died this way "

Small tears had started dropping and Theia kept her head down. Zaine looked at her in suprise. Who knew the system was designed with such sinister intent. It seemed he couldn’t trust this G.K after all

"I’ve lost friends, Zaine. Thousands of them. I can’t really remember them, but i can feel it. I’m going to turn on you, Zaine. I’m programmed to do it, and it won’t happen till the moment you’re going to loose everything. One day you’ll need my help and I’ll have no choice but to just watch as you die. So you need to get stronger on your own, without me and the system. Be careful, and watch yourself. I don’t want to loose another friend,i don’t want you to die too"

Zaine looked at her pitiful state and snarled.

".... Fine. I’ll be careful "

Theia’s tears stopped as she heard that. She looked up at him, her eyes red.

"I’ll get stronger without you. No one’s going to kill me, not even you"

The accusatory tone in Zaine’s voice didn’t seem to bother her as she rushed towards Zaine chest and hugged him as hard as she could with her five inch tall body clinging to his chest.

"Alright, that’s enough"

Zaine pushed her away after a few seconds, although he didn’t seem very averse to it.

Theia just laughed it off and dried her tears.

"Stay here and cultivate. I’ll be right back" After saying that she just disappeared.

**********

Zen was back in the lotus position with his eyes closed when Theia suddenly appeared next to him.

"Theia?"

Before he could say anything she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him.

"I love you big guy"

"Uhhh... thanks?"