The Astral soul system-Chapter 205: A soul’s past

The door to the room opened and Maximilian walked in. The first thing he noticed was Zen sitting cross legged on his bed,a floating orb in front of his chest glowing and looking like it was charging energy.

He stared for about two seconds before shrugging and walking in, letting Xavier walk in behind him.

Xavier also stared for a second and just scratched his head in confusion before walking in,Neo slung over his back.

"Should we.... wake him?"

"Well we could... but what if it’s the other guy who pops up. Plus I’m pretty sure he’s not even asleep. Right Zen?"

A few seconds passed before the orb suddenly flew into Zen’s body and he opened his eyes .

"Way too slow"

He muttered under his breath.

The cultivation speed and efficiency really had been cut by three, which was practically like cutting the speed by nine. It was almost impossible to keep up with Moirai’s energy requirements.

"Have you been sitting there for the past five hours?"

"..."

Zen got up, looking at Neo

"Put him on the floor "

They did as he asked and placed Neo on the ground.

Zen kneeled in front of him, his eyes suddenly transforming.

"What’s wrong with him?"

Xavier asked.

"Lets see"

[Soul bridge]

[Soul form]

[Soul realm]

Zen’s body suddenly transformed, becoming ethereal before suddenly condensing into what looked like a black orb. It floated around for a bit, releasing what looked like smoke and strange energy before suddenly slamming into Neo’s chest, entering his body.

"..."

"..."

Xavier sighed and suddenly got up

"Where are you going?"

"To go get snacks. This’ll probably take a while. Want something?"

Maximilian thought for a second before placing a request, watching the body on the ground.

Zen quickly found himself in the familiar solar system world of Neo’s soul.

He examined his body and realized he was a bit translucent.

Looking around, he noticed that most of the stars were gone and it was a lot darker too. He also noticed some of the planets looked cracked.

He quickly spotted Neo at the center, sitting on the star which had dimmed considerably.

He closed in carefully,sure that Neo would sense him soon

And this he did. Neo suddenly turned around after a few seconds to look at him.

"Who’re you -... Zen?"

Zen nodded.

"You’re here... again "

"I am -"

"Why the fuck are we here?!-"

"Is he okay?"

Neo stared, unsure of what to say.

"Um...are you okay?"

To him, Zen had just started yelling words, jumbling them up.

"I’m fine. Just try to focus on my voice,filter out the others"

Zen said, holding his head

In this place there was little difference between thinking and talking,It was all about intention. So he had no way to keep the conversation civil.

When he’d looked at Neo, he’d noticed that he was absorbing all the energy in his surroundings like a vacuum and concluded he was probably conscious,at least in a sense, and doing something.

"Come to help?"

"I’m not exactly sure what the problem is"

"Like I’d fucking help you"

"Anything you need"

Neo sighed and gestured to his world.

"I guess I put too much strain on it. I’m not sure, but my world sort of... broke. And I’ve been trying to fix it"

"Any luck?"

"Yes but progress is slow. How long have i been knocked out?"

"About twenty four hours, give or take"

Neo groaned, rubbing his temples.

"This is gonna take weeks at this rate"

He sighed, looking at Zen

"Got any fancy tricks to get me out of this predicament?"

Zen thought for a second.

"Not sure, but I’ll keep thinking. I need to go"

The other two voices echoed but neither of them had anything to offer either so he just nodded and watched as they left.

Zen popped out of Neo’s body, landing on the ground where he’d been before. He looked to the side and saw Neo and Xavier, watching him with several wrappers in their hands.

"Well that was sooner than expected "

Zen ignored them and asked Theia

’Well?’

Theia scratched her head

"Well honestly the best thing to do would be to just give him time to solve it, but if we want him up and running as soon as possible, i can think of a few ways, though none which I’d consider safe

"I could help"

Sylphie’s voice rang like a delicate bell in his mind as she reminded everyone of her existence.

"If i had a body"

She added

Zen would have rolled his eyes. He already promised to get her a body once he could and she hadn’t stopped talking about it.

’How?’

"He’s suffering from internal spiritual damage caused by excessive strain. One of the few things he needs is a large energy source. This would be all he needed if he also knew how to channel his own life force. So far what he’s doing is just patching his realm up with scraps of energy. I can do it much more efficiently "

Zen looked at Theia and she shrugged, not sure what advice to give.

’How can I trust you ’

"Simple,we enter a contract. You give me a body and i help your friend "

’He isn’t my friend, and I’m not even sure if you can sign a soul contract ’

Zen thought for a few seconds before asking Theia

’Can we give her what she’s asking for?’

"Maybe one day but right now? No way"

He sighed

’Sorry but -’

"But....we can get her the next best thing"

’What?’

Theia hastily nodded

"It’s one of the things we can do with the codex. A spirit form,sort of like how your body is only half real sometimes, but more solid. That could satisfy her for now, and protect her from the mutation for a while"

’is it something we can attempt right now?’

Theia nodded before stopping

"Well we need a huge amount of Astra, and I mean huge. Plus a place with a strong spiritual connection "

Zen thought for a second, suddenly glancing at the black raven in the corner of the room and remembering something

"Would the cave work?"

Theia’s eyes lit up.

"Yes! The dungeon corpse, and the pool there is basically the perfect material "

The dungeon corpse. A strange thing Zen still didn’t fully understand. Could a dungeon actually die? If so what was the significance of that? Did it simply mean it was no longer active or something else.

He finally got up and walked out of the room under Maximilian and Xavier’s gazes

"Should we follow him?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Naaah"

"Yeah, he’s probably just busy"

They said as they opened another bag of chips.

***********

"What exactly is the benefit of giving her a soul form"

"Well,if you sign a contract with her, basically it’s just like having a real person who sometimes fights for you "

"So nothing "

"Well not nothing. The codex will fuse with her essence" 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

"I still don’t know what a codex is"

Theia sighed and disappeared. A few seconds later she reappeared in a white button up shirt and a pencil skirt,her hair tied into a bun and glasses to adorn her cute face.

Zen didn’t even bother asking. He already knew how much she liked to dress up

"Listen up,cuz class is in session"

She said, coughing with what she probably thought sounded like authority.

"A codex is a record, basically a big big big big book, except it’s not a book, it’s energy. It’s main purpose is to store everything about you, your kin,and your kind, literally everything down to the last atom in your body has been completely replicated in this small orb"

Zen raised a brow. Thay sounded... important?

"It’s also... alive,sort of. Basically if you were to die it could theoretically use the information it has to build a perfect and complete clone of you. It knows every skill, every ability, every thought,every piece of knowledge you have,sp does it, and that also applies to Jade,or Jynx now "

"So if it can create a clone of me it can do the same for sylphie"

"Technically no. Which is why we’re fusing her with it. Souls on some level are just bits of information, there are multiple levels to souls,so don’t think that simplifies things. The point is we can transfer that energy to the codex from you and make a... simulacrum "

"Won’t she be able to escape then?"

"No. The codex is bound to you,it literally is you. If anything she’ll be even closer to you than a regular soul"

"Will it be permanent?"

"..."

"Theia?"

"For now,yes. But not forever "

He relayed all that information to Sylphie and surprisingly she asked to speak to Theia.

Zen didn’t have a problem with that and allowed it.

"You wanted to speak to me?"

"Yes. How far is this world from the one he found me in?"

"Far? That concept doesn’t really apply as much as it does with regular travel but I’d say very."

"And is it possible for anyone else to make a similar journey?"

Theia raised a brow.

Was she running from something? Zen said he found her sealed in a ring a small girl had given to him. The girl said it was a family heirloom so it had been with her family for generations.

The most important question to ask was simple.why was she in a ring?

She hadn’t said anything about her past, same with Lilith, but Theia knew it was important to remember. These souls weren’t just voices in Zen’s head. They were people, people with feelings, and a history. A history that often wasn’t quite finished yet.

She answered that she wasn’t sure, though it was unlikely

Sylphie thought for a second before asking Zen.

"You remember our previous deal?"

"You said it might not be an issue"

"I thought so at the time but I might be wrong"

"..."

"You don’t have to worry about me leaving. I’m stuck in another world alone. If i left you I’d have nowhere to go, and someone with green skin would likely be killed on sight in this world of yours"

He wasn’t worried about that

"Fine then. I accept, and I’ll help you in any way I can"

"They quickly reached the foot of the mountain and Zen climbed into the cave.

He immediately felt the same suffocation he’d felt last time.

"Far too much pure concentrated energy in one place "

He took off a glove and the very air surrounding his hand seemed to die a little, becoming far less rich

"Hmmm"

"Let’s hurry, before more parasites come through. Go to the pond"

Zen put the glove back on and went to the pond, sitting at the edge

The codex shot out of his chest, moving around excitedly from the abundant energy

He quickly calmed it down

"Alright, let’s begin"