The Astral soul system-Chapter 166: Wait for me

"Said what,Fatass?!"

Zaine snarled, clearly having no intention of handing over the crystal to the greasy slimeball of a teacher.

"What did you just say?!"

"What? Does the inside of your head match how it looks on the outside,or is it just all the grease that has nowhere else to go that’s clogging up your brain "

Berny’s nose flared in annoyance as he pointed his finger at the unruly student who looked like he was actually annoyed the teacher hadn’t dropped dead yet.

"YOU-"

Zaine groaned, already bored. Holding the crystal in front of him,he spoke in a slow condescending tone.

"Listen. To. Me. You slow. Fat. Fuck. If you want this crystal, you’ll have to rip it out of my dead hands"

Meanwhile behind Zaine,Jade was panicking internally. She obviously knew what was going on. What worried her wasn’t the fact that he was yelling at a teacher... okay that did worry her as well but it wasn’t the main thing. The main thing was that unlike Zen or Zyro, Zaine didn’t seem to mind murder(public, but she doesn’t need to know that)

"Um...Z? Maybe we should just-"

She put her hand on his shoulder but flinched back when he snapped at her, snarling threateningly, his eye glowing

Ignoring her, Zaine focused back on the walking heart attack in front of him.

"So what’s it gonna be,Fatass?"

He mocked throwing and catching the crystal in his hand.

Right now he was just itching for a fight. No one would miss this pigsy anyway.

[New quest received]

[Class is in session]

[Objective: Humiliate this greedy mongrel and teach him the consequences of his greed and why he is beneath you]

[Time limit: 24 hours]

Zaine waited a second for what usually came next but surprisingly Theia didn’t show up.

’Well that’s odd’

He groaned. No matter. He could take care of this one himself. He already knew the teacher was a level two from his system screen so he wasn’t threatened.

Berny took a deep breath to calm himself. A strange smile suddenly playing on his lips.

"I’ve got no time to play games with children. You three come with me"

He said, turning around to leave.

Zyro snarled and picked up a pebble before throwing it straight at his head.

"A pig, AND a coward i see"

Jade quickly grabbed his hand to try and pull him back.

"Stop. You’re going to get in trouble"

Berny’s fist clenched up in anger and his face turned as red as a tomato. He turned one last time to glance at Zaine before storming off, not even considering the three beaten up students fighting to keep up with him.

Watching Berny leave, Zaine clicked his tongue, disappointed.

"Why did you do that? You just got a teacher really upset with us"

Jade complained, looking at where they were leaving from.

Zaine looked down at her with an unfriendly expression before snarling

"Make it quick "

"Huh?"

He closed his eyes and when they opened again, his left one was golden.

"So? How did he do?"

Jade was still a bit confused, but she understood the basics

"That was Zaine, right?"

Zyro nodded

"Don’t worry about him, he just gets a little grumpy sometimes. Oh, this is yours"

Zyro held out the beast crystal to her.

"Hmm?"

She suddenly backed away, shaking her head vigorously

"What? No! You went through all that trouble to get it. I can’t"

"Technically, that wasn’t even me"

"Still, you two have the same body,so it’s basically the same thi-"

"Jade! It’s yours. Those guys gave it to you anyway"

Jade seemed to be reminiscing what just happened a minute ago as she allowed Zyro to put the crystal in her hand without fussing.

"Why did they do that, anyway?"

"The crystal?"

Jade nodded.

"Why did they give it to me. I only watched to help"

Zyro shrugged.

"We accept what we think we deserve. Just like you not wanting to accept the crystal."

Jade tilted her head. His philosophical statement only seemed to confuse her more.

"They treated you the way they would have reacted how they would have if the roles were switched "

"..."

Zyro sighed. This girl really was naive. Smart? Sure,Strong? Definitely, Talented? Like you wouldn’t believe... but she was hopelessly naive.

"So... they treated me like I wanted to steal from them because they would’ve stolen from me if they were the ones with power and I was wounded"

Zyro nodded

"Not everyone deserves your help,Jade,even when it seems like they really need it"

"But...i want to help everyone i can?"

"Yep, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Just be careful"

"Well... at least i have you to help me"

Zyro suddenly cringed, looking away akwardly

".... about that..."

"Hmm? What?"

"Sorry, can’t stick around. Zaine’s going to take over any minute now "

"What?"

Jade’s eyes widened. Did he just say she’d be stuck with...him?

"Eh, let’s not talk about it "

He quickly changed the topic, looking at the dead bear.

"Damn, it’s a lot more gruesome up close. Lucky i wasn’t on the wrong end of thing"

He said, gesturing to her bow and leaning down to touch it. It’s mouth was still frozen open like it was about to roar. It had died so quickly it hadn’t even had time to close it.

With shocking glee, he dug into the beast’s corpse with his bare hands, ripping the core out of its body.

"Haa. Here you go"

Zyro said holding it out to her.

Already expecting this,Jade backed away instantly. He’d already given her one, she couldn’t take another from him. That’d be just wrong.

"No way. You keep it. I’ve already got one"

"It’s not that big a deal. It’s your kill,so just -"

Jade didn’t give him time to finish, shaking her head vigorously as she held her hand over the crystal, holding it down.

"We’re a team. It’s OUR kill, besides the only reason I’m strong enough to do this is because of everything you...two have done for me"

"..."

’Interesting ’

"Besides, you can just eat it if you don’t need gear, right?"

Zyro was stunned to hear that. How did she know about that? He’d made sure to keep it a secret from everyone, and he even ate normal food to make sure no one got suspicious

Realizing what she’d said,Jade nearly bit her tongue and quickly started explaining

"Um... well I noticed a while back. I didn’t want to say anything since I figured you’d have said something if you wanted. I swear I didn’t tell anyone, not even Zaria and Diane "

Zyro sighed.

"Fine. I’ll keep it. And don’t worry about the eating core thing"

Jade sighed as he put the core into his ring.

"Umm...Z? Humans can’t consume crystals so...are you a part of...an alien race?"

She whispered the last part like she was afraid someone would hear.

Hearing that Zyro stared for a while, not sure what to say. He was wasn’t he? He was something called an Astral,or the body he shared was, and even before his evolution, the system itself had suspected that the body wasn’t exactly human to begin with.

Seeing how he just silently stared at her,Jade panicked, feeling like it might have been a touchy subject.

"I-i didn’t mean that-"

"Yes. You’re right"

Jade was stumped by that answer, she hadn’t expected him to be so open about it. In fact, even though she suspected it she was still shocked because of one simple thing. Sentient alien species... were RARE, and for a reason

A few hundred years ago while humanity had just figured stuff out like space travel and such, they were approached by an alien race from beyond the stars.

This race seemingly came in peace, and actually seemed to have good intentions, but although no one knows why,an all out war had broken out between humanity and this race.

All of humanity’s forces combined to push them back with the help of their abilities which strangely enough,most aliens couldn’t use. However this was the only benefit humanity had as they were dominated in literally every other regard. Advancement, physique, intelligence and so much more.

Eventually, humanity managed to reverse engineer some of their tech, using it to further their own technology.

This was when the arcade, the most dominant force on earth,stepped in. Somehow,they had declared war on not only that specific species, but on every other sentient alien race in the galaxy.

Clearly the Arcade didn’t speak for the planet but war had already been started and the Arcade personally took the fight to the aliens’ home planet. Declaring that they were going to burn it all to the ground.

Now most would be curious how long the war would last, months? years? Maybe decades? All wrong. The Arcade,a single organization had eliminated all life on the alien planet...in a week.

The war hadn’t even gotten to earth before it was over. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

The world was already shocked by this but the Arcade didn’t stop there,no,that would be too easy. They had declared war on ALL alien races, and they made sure they made well on that promise. Going from planet to planet, and destroying all signs of sentient life they could find with horrifying momentum.

Word soon spread that humans were a belligerent and sadistic race of conquerors.

Some hid, others tried to fight,in the end all fell. The rest of humanity was forced into the fight since they’d already gotten themselves a reputation. They fought when they had to and helped when they could, though it didn’t help their reputation.

Now in this day and age,most alien races were either extinct,or nearing extinction and in hiding. Humans had somehow conquered most of the known world and although humans knew the full story, most of the remaining alien races, grouped them all together with the Arcade, and seeing an alien was a once in a lifetime thing, but here Jade was, hearing her friend and sort of mentor admitting to not being human like it was nothing .

After a long akward silence,Jade hesitantly asked.

"You don’t like... hate all of humanity,do you?"

"What?"

Zyro nearly burst out laughing at the question.

"No,of course not. You’re human too aren’t you"

Jade nodded, still seeming unsure.

"But then... how are you... one of them?"

She whispered.

"I thought the Arcade hated all aliens"

"It’s...a long, complicated story, and we’ll definitely talk about it later, but right now you need to promise me you won’t tell anyone about this "

Jade nodded without hesitation

"I promise"

Zyro sighed in relief.

"Alright, well I’m about to go. Make sure to be nice to Zaine, he’s still confused about some stuff"

Before she could get a word in, Zyro closed his eyes and when they opened again,it was Zaine.

"Geez,why don’t you tell her everything else about us, Zyro? Are you sure you don’t want to tell her anything else? Like our fucking dick size?!"

Jade was a bit startled by the sudden change in tone. Although it was the same voice,it was a little bit huskier and more gruff, not to mention his vocabulary was very different.

Stumbling over her words,Jade nervously greeted him.

"H-hi. I’m Jade"

Zaine stared at her for a few seconds,a perpetual scowl on his face.

"You’re lucky the other two won’t let me kill you"

He snarled before turning around and walking off .

Jade took a deep breath to calm her heart. She looked at his retreating back with her little hands clutching her heart silently.

"It’s the same person... but why is he so scary?"

Taking another deep breath she took a step forward in his direction.

’Okay,it doesn’t matter. He won’t hurt me...i hope ’

"Hey, wait for me"