The Astral soul system-Chapter 126: Paranoid bloodsucker

The huge man spoke, his voice causing vibrations in the walls as an aura of invincibility surrounded him simply from his words.

Looking around,all the others looked immensely powerful too. Rock knew that even if he was in top condition, anyone here could easily kill him so he composed himself, his legs trembling beneath him.

"Th... the city is doomed. They’ve marked it"

"Who!? Explain " One of the five asked

Rock felt like he’d just been stabbed with a knife, the mere energy from her voice sending him to his knees.

He quickly hurried, not sure he could last longer.

"A....a boy. He came to me today and demolished most of my gang. I fought him but he easily overpowered me"

"So?"

Rock felt like he was getting choked and held his throat, trying to alleviate the pain.

"H...he had the mark. On his hand "

The terrible aura in the room immediately dissipated.

"What mark?"

Breathing out in relief, he answered.

"The horns of doom, the halo of salvation The wings that carry the chaos of hell, the feathers that shine the light of heaven , and the sword that pierces through both realms... and finally-"

The three voices suddenly interrupted him.

"The one who controls all"

Rock nodded hurriedly, thinking he was getting through to them.

"Yes. Yes"

"Describe this boy " The one on the left spoke for the first time.

"He was... around sixteen, probably a student of the academy, dressed mostly in red and....yes! He had different colored eyes "

The atmosphere in the room suddenly shifted as he said that and the three looked at him more intently.

"What colors "

"The left one was red, and the right had....three colors: Purple...red... and gold" he struggled to remember but eventually got it.

The three seemed a bit shaken and exchanged glances, their eyes still glowing menacingly as they did.

"There was... someone else with him. A girl " He struggled to say, clutching his heart.

The three immediately diverted their attention back to him

"I didn’t see whether she had a mark but she fought alongside him"

"..."

"They tore through my people like a pack of children"

The three exchanged glances again and the one on the left suddenly snapped his fingers.

Two guards suddenly came in and grabbed Rock off the ground.

"Patch him up, and throw him in a cell. Boss might want to hear this himself when he comes back"

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

Zaria’s eyes opened, completely red. She stretched on her bed, Changing positions but she just couldn’t seem to get comfortable.

Groggily, she checked her watch

[10:36AM]

She had gotten ZERO sleep last night. Maybe it was because both Zen and Sable had disappeared and weren’t answering their calls or maybe she was just stressed about what was happening at home but nothing had worked.

Lazily looking at the ceiling she called out

"Jade? Diane?...you guys awake?"

A few seconds passed and the room was completely silent, besides the sound of Diane snoring.

’looks like I’m the only one who had trouble. Welp, only one thing to do’

"Guuuuys!"

Jade rolled over and instinctively stretched,her emerald eyes fluttering open.

"Huh?"

"Jade, wake up Diane"

Zaria was honestly feeling too horrible to do it herself and she already knew that Diane was a heavy sleeper,so she could scream all day and it would have no effect.

Jade yawned and opened a portal to Diane’s bed, poking her arm through and lightly poking their final roommate.

"Diane. Wake up, it’s morning"

Instead of waking up, Diane’s arm unconsciously moved, swatting Jade’s hand away like a fly and rolling away.

Zaria groaned and complained

"This happens every single day. Just what is she dreaming about?"

Diane’s snoring only got louder and Zaria was eventually forced to get up and wake her up herself.

"Diane, come on. No one snores this loud" Zaria said, slightly pushing her.

Seemingly waking up, Diane’s mouth opened and Zaria expected it to be a yawn but was suprised when.

"Ggrraaaau"

Diane suddenly let out an animalistic roar, startling her roommates.

She finally woke up and rubbed her eyes,her beast like white teeth showing prominently.

"What the...are you trying to mug me in my sleep?!"

Zaria rolled her eyes, feeling this would like go a lot faster if she just threw Diane onto the floor but she resisted with great difficulty and just told her to get up.

"Come on,we said we’d go look for Zen today. He didn’t go back to his room yesterday. We were supposed to meet the guys and we’re already late"

Diane yawned, looking uninterested.

"The crazy guy? Really? Can’t his roomies look for him on their own?"

"Don’t call him that. We need to help too"

"Why? I’ve got nothing to do with the guy"

Zaria scoffed.

"Would you do it if Xavier was missing?"

"That’s totally different,we grew up together, he’s practically my right hand bitch"

Zaria ignored Diane’s unsavory use of words and continued. Over time, the three of them had come out of their shells around each other and started to know each other’s true personalities. This lazy loudmouth straightforward, gangster of a girl was Diane’s real personality, in actuality she only looked ladylike, elegant and proper, once you spoke to her, you’d immediately know she wasn’t. She acted more boyish than actual boys and could swear enough to make a sailor blush "

"Besides, didn’t he try to kill you guys the last time?"

"That was a misunderstanding. We’re just going to talk to him this time. Besides,we have to check up on Sable too. We couldn’t reach her at all yesterday"

"Vladimir? I never liked her anyway. There,case closed. Now let me sleep "

Zaria raised a brow at Diane who had closed her eyes and was rapidly snoring,as If that would fool her.

With no other choice, she went for her first suggestion and grabbed Diane by her shirt before throwing her out of bed and sending her flying halfway across the room.

"Ready to cooperate?"

"Ugh! Fine. Bossy... But i get to use the bathroom first. By the way,you look like crap"

Watching all this,Jade, chuckled. At this point, she’d be surprised if these two didn’t have a scuffle every morning,it was basically part of the routine. Their personalities just didn’t seem to match but they somehow still made their friendship work.

They somehow all got freshened up despite the bickering and left for Sable’s place. Jade was already thinking about how she’d explain their lateness being due to her roommates fighting, but it seemed they wouldn’t have to.

They got to the spot they’d agreed on, almost an hour late but the boys still hadn’t shown up. They waited for a few minutes and were about to go check the dorms when they suddenly heard footsteps

The moment they saw the three boys they were suprised by the state they were in.

Xavier had a black eye and looked like he was still fuming,Neo looked like he’d gotten his hair stuck in a toilet and Maximilian looked to be in the worse shape of all, looking like the life had been drained out of him. Every single one of them had band aids from head to toe with Elaine’s signature feel good heart symbol on it, and Xavier was currently sucking on a lollipop.

"What happened to you guys?"

Xavier looked like he wanted to answer when Maximilian glared at him

"Shut up you moron"

Xavier groaned but kept quiet.

"So...?"

Maximilian sighed.

"These two idiots happened. Xavier thought that if he could control the oscillating attack of his gauntlets he could use it as massage gloves"

Zaria’s eyes widened and she looked at Xavier like he was a lunatic.

"I-"

"Shut up" Maximilian cut him off when he was about to explain.

"He tried using it on Neo but he wouldn’t let him and the two got into a fight, WITH THEIR BEAST GEAR ON, AND IN OUR ROOM"

The two flinched from Maximilian’s heavy tone but didn’t retort.

Neo suddenly tried to speak up.

"Hey, that’s not -"

"Shut up"

Diane sighed.

"What did he do?" She asked.

"This guy was the one who originally gave him the idea for the stupid thing. Once Xavier got his gear , they both thought the best thing to do would be playing with it. They ended up "Treasure hunting" and ended up destroying most of the forest!"

Zaria sighed. Max seemed really upset this time.

"What about his hair?"

Maximilian sighed.

"Neo wanted to see if he could destroy a large moving headed for him in mid-air so he got Xavier to throw a boulder at him. Turns out he couldn’t and ended up almost killing himself "

"That doesn’t explain -"

"There was a racoon napping on the boulder"

"Oh"

"Pftt"

Diane tried her best to stifle a laugh but a little bit still escaped. This really did sound like something Xavier would do, he’d barely survived without her back in school, mostly because he made dumb decisions.

"Alright, now’s not the time to be hard on them. Let’s just go check on Sable, and this time it’s all of us incase Zen...or whoever he is, shows up"

The six of them immediately headed towards Sable’s dorm . She had gotten a single dorm for a high price so they didn’t need to worry about her roommates.

Zaria knocked on the door a few times and called out Sable’s name but she didn’t open the door.

"Sable? Are you okay in there?

"Maybe she’s not home "

"No, she’s there"

Diane said.

"I can smell... something on the other side"

"Same..." Maximilian said

Zaria took a deep breath and was about to knock when the door suddenly opened slightly just enough for a face.

"Hi guys" Sable said,her exhaustion peeking through.

"Sable...where were you yesterday? And why are you dressed like that?"

Sable had covered herself from head to toe in a long trench coat. Her face was covered with a sunhat,a very thick uncomfortable looking scarf, and awkwardly large sunglasses.

"A...are you okay? That looks hot and can you even see?"

"I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m perfectly fine. Don’t touch me!"

"O...Kay? Do you need help Sable you seem a bit... tired "

Zaria put her hand on the door and tried to pull it open to get in but Sable stopped her

"Don’t, you’ll let the light in"

"Light?"

Zaria looked in through the small crack and realized that all the windows in the room had been covered and anything that even vaguely gave off light was turned off, leaving the room completely dark.

"Sable what’s going on"

Sable sighed.

"I don’t know. But I’d rather not find out. I’m so tired,Zee. I need a nap, and a bath.

"Well maybe I can come in and help?"

"Help me take a bath?"

"That’s... not what I meant"

"It’s pointless. I’d just hurt you...man i wish Zen was here"

Zaria’s eyes lit up.

"We’re actually looking for him. Do you know where he is?"

Sable looked a bit confused but still answered.

"Last i saw him was early this morning. I don’t know where he is now, but I know someone who might"

She suddenly closed the door and the sound of rattling could be heard on the other side.

"Was she always so weird?" Diane asked and got herself a stare from Zaria.

After a few seconds, the door opened again and something suddenly dashed out, crashing into Zaria. It was Black, and the body he was using was still a bit torn up.

"He should be able to get you to Zaine really quick?"

Zaria suddenly realized something

"Who’s Zaine? And why is Black with you"

"It’s...sort of hard to explain. It’ll be best if you see it yourself. Now excuse me, I’m about to go hang my bed on the ceiling upside down...oh, and be gentle with him, he’s still too weak to fly, and don’t look at the news today"

The door slammed shut, leaving everyone confused and a bit worried for the girl.

"So... what do we do now?"

"Did she just say she wanted to hang upside down?"

Zaria pet the black bird in her hand gently and whispered.

*Do you know where Zen is?"

Immediately the raven croaked and moved its head like it was trying to nod.

"I guess that means we go? Hopefully Sable just needs a nap....a really long nap"

Zaria suddenly noticed a pondering expression on Maximilian’s face and asked.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Sable... she had THAT smell around her"

"What smell?"

Diane suddenly cut in

"Blood,lots of it. She smelled AND looked like the living dead"

"You think something’s going on?"

Maximilian nodded.

"She might be in trouble "

"... okay. Xavier and Jade. You two stay here in case Sable needs anything. If literally ANYTHING out of the ordinary happens,call us and go inside "