The Astral soul system-Chapter 187: Recompense

Sable looked at the blood on her fist. It wasn’t hers, and machines definitely didn’t bleed so... What was going on?

That wasn’t all. Something about this blood was strange. It smelled odd to her

Suddenly, every other robot in the facility seemed to shut down and stopped moving, some of them even falling over harmlessly

"What..."

She kept her guard up for a few seconds but they were all inoperative, staying motionless even when she hit them.

She suddenly heard crackling and looked at the robot she’d punched with the red mist. It was twitching and trembling like it was struggling to get up but it failed

"What...are you?"

She said as she approached it cautiously.

Why had defeating this specific one stopped all the rest. She’d had enough of all this. She’d been fighting sn unknown enemy who’d not only ruined her whole day but had tried to kill her, not to mention she now had to explain to jade why her bow was in pieces

It was time she got some answers

Her fingers touched the cold steel that was covered in the viscous red liquid, tracing over the cracked edges gently as she considered what exactly to do now.

"Should I -"

She suddenly stopped taking and looked down at the blade that had been stabbed into her abdomen. Her eyes slowly followed it to see it protruding from a compartment in the robot’s body.

"...That hurt"

She said with a chilling lack of emotion before cleanly braking the blade off from where it was attached to the robot before slowly pulling it out of her body.

She brought it closer to her face and sniffed it

"Poison"

She noted apathetically before throwing the blade away.

"Well that was rude"

She added, tilting her head curiously before once again placing her hand on the metal frame, and violently began ripping it open to see what was inside.

The robot seemed to have lost any ability to resist as it just sat there while she turned it into scrap with her bare hands.

A few minutes of surprisingly hard effort on Sable’s part and she finally ripped the frame off, enough to see the inside in whole and the moment she saw what was inside,her eyes widened and she dropped the pieces of metal in her hands.

"Th-this is..."

Immediately ignoring her still bleeding hands she immediately started climbing the biggest tree she could find. They would heal soon anyway.

The moment she reached the top of the tree, she has jumped as high as she could, looking in the direction of the base

Somewhere else, Zaria was surrounded by multiple robots,or what was left of them anyway. She seemed exhausted,gasping for breath as she glanced at the larger more menacing robot she’d destroyed.

"Damnit. What’s wrong with me? Am i coming down with something again?"

She asked, knowing better than anyone how much of a sickler she was.

She sighed, sounding both confused and frustrated.

"I’m nowhere near as strong as those times "

She said remembering two specific fights

"Why did that only happen when I was fighting him. Something about him triggers my curse...it still doesn’t explain why i could just do that all of a sudden"

She gripped her necklace tight and let out a faint breath before opening her ring and taking some pills her mom had forced her to take on the trip, throwing them into her mouth and swallowing immediately.

She slowly approached the massive machine and before she could even touch it, she felt a tick go off in her mind

"This..."

She suddenly covered herself in a bright golden light.

"This is going to drain me almost completely but I have to be sure "

She said, suddenly taking off, shooting into the sky at inhuman speeds , hastily looking around to see if she could find the base.

Somewhere else, Zen fired a final soul gun straight into the chest of a large robot, watching as the rest followed.

"Hmmm interesting"

He said , approaching the larger machine.

[Read]

His eye flashed with a deeply unsettling light as he light as he realized what he was looking at

At the same time, Sable and Zaria found what they were looking for, although they wished they hadn’t

A massive sleek space ship was docked on the base, it’s mechanical legs gripping onto the spherical structure while dozens of robots shuffled out of them.

All three of them muttered at the same time with varying emotions

"Aliens"

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

"Aliens?"

Ava nodded without looking back at Maximilian,still working on her portable screen.

"I also intercepted that while searching for information. Appearantly our attackers are from an alien race known as the vanora,a race known for their below average physical prowess and affinity for technology. From records it can be assumed that their physical forms differ greatly from humans but they do keep a rather humanoid shape "

Maximilian facepalmed

"But why are they-"

Ava interrupted him

"Population: unknown. Species status: endangered and on the brink of extinction. Cause:... I’m certain you can guess"

Maximilian sighed

"The war... Whoever is attacking us probably still sees humans as the cause of it all, and their species almost dying out "

Ava nodded

"And they’d be right to. After all,humans are the demons of the universe, the destroyers of the cosmos. We exist only to bring pain and destruction wherever we go...or at least that’s what alien parents tell their children at night, and why wouldn’t they, we’re the reason most of them don’t have homes or planets"

"That was the Arcade "

"Yes, but the arcade was made up of humans, and despite how unsavory they were,in regards to extraterrestrial affairs, they always acted only in the benefit of humanity,no matter the cost"

Maximilian couldn’t argue with that. The arcade had slaughtered millions of humans but they’d also slaughtered billions or maybe even trillions of extraterrestrials. It was a known fact that they had an unstoppable despise for all aliens ever since the war first broke out centuries ago. Now humans have won the war, but they were now collectively hated and feared throughout the universe. Monsters, demons and all sorts of unsavory names were used to describe them. Even creatures that had biological advantages to humans didn’t dare have ANY form of contact with them, hostile or otherwise.

"So it seems this whole thing is a revenge plot. The major families of humanity are common knowledge around the galaxy, and it shouldn’t have been difficult to find out that almost half of us went to sentinel academy this year"

Ava nodded

"From that point it becomes simple. Capture or maybe even slaughter us in cold blood as an act of recompense"

"It’s bold... stupid even. The effects of that can’t even be estimated. It could turn out to be completely pointless even if they succeed"

Ava shrugged

"This is most likely a last ditch effort. There is no objective other than to spite humanity as a whole. They’ve been pushed to the edge and want nothing but to see people suffer. They probably don’t even care if they die to achieve this"

Maximilian sighed, still looking calm like this wasn’t a ploy to eliminate him and most of his friends

"Well that explains the robots. They lack numbers "

"The last recorded headcount of the Vanorans populace was barely in the thousands, and even those were living harsh lives, scattered across the stars. They don’t have the manpower to even risk something like this so it’s most likely the work of a single crazed individual or a small group "

That lined up with what Maximilian was thinking.

"Shouldn’t we tell the rest of our school mates "

Ava shook her head

"I have no intention of informing naive adolescents that they may need to kill living sentient creatures, and risk them losing their momentum and or worse... becoming merciful"

Seeing the look in her eyes, Maximilian couldn’t help but think she was similar to Zen in his indifference.

Changing the subject,Ava muttered

"I’d honestly have liked to meet a member of the Arcade one day. Shame they were all killed. It would have been enlightening to see how one of them thinks"

"..."

Maximilian was grateful for the fact that she couldn’t see his current expression in this moment and just stayed quiet, trying to recollect himself.

"Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it"

He left those cryptic words and hurried to the front with his halberd, on guard for any sneak attacks.

Ava tilted her head, confused as to why he’d suddenly cut off their conversation.

"Did i say something?"

She didn’t really get along with many people, not even her own family, and she’d never really been sure why, though she never cared enough to ask so she just shrugged and focused on her screen

"Oh...it seems like things are moving along. Gary storm, Diane Leonel and Xavier Void are closing in on their targets"