The Astral soul system-Chapter 235: Peer pressure

She immediately cut the call, leaving the place eerily quiet

"Jade..."

He muttered

’Theia,I thought you said I’d be able to feel if anything went wrong with her.’

"Well you’ve been focusing on a lot of other things, haven’t you?"

Zen couldn’t retort. Yes he’d sidelined her when she was his responsibility, but only because this was more important right now

"Boss?"

"Stay here. If I need you, I’ll call. Everyone else,we need to go, now"

"What about Max?!"

"He’s fine,for now"

He didn’t wait for responses or anyone to follow him and quickly ran out of the building in the direction of the school

***********

"Where is he? Where is he? Where -"

She suddenly stopped her pacing, looking towards the hallway and two seconds later Zen walked in

"There you are?"

She said, approaching him.

"What’s going on?"

He asked, looking around. On his way here, people had been mumbling and muttering about something that happened with the words green hair being thrown around. Whatever had happened was enough to cause an uproar.

"Jade got into a fight with someone "

Zen looked at the infirmary door they were standing in front of and asked, raising a brow

"So? Did she lose?

Zaria shook her head and then paused before nodding, eventually groaning before just opening the door so he could see Jade.

She was lying in a hospital gown in a bed, and beside her, Diane was sitting, monitoring her

She seemed fine. She was mostly just a bit scratched up but she’d been through worse. He even checked her stats and her health was still high

"She’s fine "

He said, turning to Zaria who was behind him

*Sigh*

"Come with me"

She said, turning to leave

Zen saw Elaine in a corner of the room and she waved at him, smiling. He looked at her for a few seconds before leaving.

He quickly caught up to Zaria

"Where are we going?"

"Class"

On the path, Zen saw even more people mumbling about something that he’d apparently missed.

After a few seconds, he realized where they were going

"Hand to hand combat?"

"Yep. Teachers were recalled for some important meeting so we skipped regular classes and students were left in their clubs. You know? The place where you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her?"

"..."

"Nothing to say for yourself"

"I was busy"

"Doing what exactly?"

"..."

She just scoffed and kept walking

"Hunter’s been kidnapped"

She suddenly stopped and turned to face him

"Max?"

He nodded

"I found a lead last night and went to investigate. It took more time than I thought"

She immediately went silent, looking confounded

"Did you find him,or at least know where he is?"

Zen shook his head

"I do know he’s still alive and well"

She sighed again, her face buried in her palm

"And we can’t trust his family either"

"What? Why"

"Because someone in his family wants him dead, and we don’t know who?"

"What?! How long has this been going on? Why didn’t you tell me?"

"..."

Zaria’s eyes widened in realization and she scoffed

"I probably wouldn’t be any use without my powers anyway "

"..."

She turned around and kept walking

"It’s always one thing after the other with this school. I don’t think we’ve had a single bullshit free week since we got here?"

Zen was a bit surprised. He didn’t think he’d ever heard her swear before

"At this rate I’d be surprised if we all made it to our second year alive "

’Probably not’

They quickly made it to the combat room and Zaria opened the door, walking in

"Take a look"

"... interesting. Jade did this?"

He said, looking at the mostly destroyed class

There were cracks in the walls and floors that looks like they had been formed by an earthquake. The equipment and even some rings had been crushed. The entire room looked like a giant had come through, stepped on it by accident and left.

Even the ceiling had cracks!

"Yep. Or at least she’s the only one that could have"

"How, her ability is portals"

Zaria shrugged.

" I thought you would know. I wasn’t here to see what went down. I might have been able to stop it if I was. From what I’ve heard though. She got into a fight with some guy who was picking on her. The details don’t add up but basically he was about to win when Jade suddenly screamed and... this happened"

"..."

"Oh, don’t look at me like that. No one in this stupid class is able to tell a detailed objective story. Plus from what I’ve been hearing, apparently she started the fight, and even cheated"

Zen raised a brow

"The same girl who gets startled by her own reflection?"

"Yeah,I thought so too"

"So it was just another moron who tried to be tough when up against a weaker student"

Zaria suddenly remembered something and scratched ger head nervously

"Well...he might have picked the wrong student "

"Hmmm?"

"Just know you don’t have to worry about finding him "

"You know?"

"The infirmary "

Zen didn’t speak this time and waited for her to finish

"Fifty five broken bones, three ruptured organs and currently on life support"

"..."

"..."

"...I thought you said he was winning."

"He was. That’s actually the only consistent thing in all those stories "

"Strange"

Zen said, getting up on the destroyed ring ,or rather down since it was basically a mini crater and finding a blood splatter. Most likely where they’d scraped off whatever his name was off the ground.

"Elaine said she’d never seen anything like it. It’s like his body collapsed in on itself. The main theory their using is that she snuck in bombs since people heard a sound like thunder. But they’ve checked,no signs of gunpowder or anything else in the entire class."

He looked at the cracks in the ground, seeing how they spread out from the ring. His eyes run along the strange but... sensible pattern.

It sounded weird to say but the pattern made me sense. The branches and cracks,at least if he was looking at...

"Zaria, did anyone say anything about being dizzy, their ears ringing, being unable to properly breathe or difficulty walking"

Zaria was a bit surprised by the question, but more suprised by how the answer to all those was yes

She nodded and Zen looked like he’d just cracked it

"I’m guessing you’ve figured out something i haven’t "

Zen stepped back, looking at it from a distance and she followed

"The main area of effect was much more focused on the center, so it’s mostly caved in while the outskirts suffered minimal damage. It must have gotten weaker the farther it got"

Zaria sighed. He was mumbling

"???. Okay,I understood most of that, and I’m guessing the epicenter is Jade,but what exactly is it "

"Pressure "

"Pressure?"

She asked, uncertain what that meant

"Pressure, weight,mass... Gravity!"

"..."

"That’s why what’s his face collapsed. He was crushed under his own weight , along with everything in here, but he was closer to her. "

"..."

"The damage wouldn’t make any sense if it was bombs or weapons. The center of the room caved in on itself and the rest followed. In fact,i don’t think she even attacked the guy,he was just too close"

He said, looking at the crater and the spot where she had been standing. It had been marked by chalk earlier

"Okay... one problem . Jade’s ability is portals "

"Well...."

"Zeeen! "

"I had to pull some strings to bring her back. It must have been the sprite "

He remembered Theia saying it could be any aspect of reality like fire or even time, though it was like playing roulette. Appearantly gravity was also on the table

"She got gravity?!"

The said, popping out of the system,her mouth gaping

’yes?’

"That girl is either blessed by the gods or she is one. Chances of getting something like gravity when catching sprited is on the low end one in a million, and on the high end one in a BILLION! Not to mention their not even from this world so unless you find a way to move worlds soon,you aren’t seeing another one any time soon"

"Who’d have thought"

At the time Zaine had just randomly stuck his hand into the portal and grabbed anything he could get his hands on.

She must have awakened it during the fight. He remembered Theia saying that just like evolutions, awakenings like the ones he and Neo took , and this one were often but not always... eventful was the word she used

Looking around, he felt "eventful" was an appropriate adjective

He turned to look at Zaria

"Have you ever heard of a gravity ability?"

She thought for a second but couldn’t give an answer

" If it does exist, it’s rare, but i wouldn’t be surprised if it did "

"That’s what I thought "

Zaria sighed

"This is another alien thing, right? I really think you should stop treating her like a child. She’s your responsibility and as her roommate and friend,mine too. I don’t like the way she is right now"

"..."

"Answer me, Zen"

"Maybe you’re right"

Zaria sighed in relief

"Well,an extra ability is usually something impossible,I doubt she’ll be upset by that"

"Yeah we should probably start with that"

"Shouldn’t we like...mess up everything so no one else figures it out. The ability I mean"

Zen shrugs

"Is it possible for people to have more than one ability?"

Zaria shook her head

"Jade is just a weak and timid lower rank three ability user. There’s no way such an incompetent girl could have done this much damage"

Zaria didn’t have to think much to get what he was saying .

"And if we did do anything, all that’d tell them is that someone has something to hide, and they’ll investigate more"

Zaria already understood that but still felt uneasy

"At most she’ll get accused of using bombs to cheat and get some punishment like suspension or something like that "

And that was exactly what made Zaria uneasy

"We should leave, before someone spots us here and decides were involved somehow "

They turned to leave and Zaria jokingly asked

"I didn’t know you were taking forensics"

Funny enough forensics actually was a course that you could apply for in the academy, though he hadn’t even spared it a glance when picking his subjects .

As soon as the door opened they both suddenly stopped, startled by the figure standing there .

Zen suddenly covered his right eye with his hand even though it was already under his eye.

It was a tall figure in a pitch black robe or cloak. The figure stood there silently, just staring at the two without saying a word. Strangely enough, even with how close they were, they still couldn’t see a face under there,it reminded Zen of his player suit but slightly different.

It was the hooded figure from the dean’s speech at the beginning of the school year, and it was even creepier up close.

"Oh,um...hi?"

Zaria tried waving but it didn’t respond. Now that he thought about it, Zen wasn’t even sure if this person had a heartbeat or was breathing.

He opened the system and tried inspecting them but all that showed up was a bunch of question marks and glitches.

The figure suddenly turned to face Zen slowly and creepily, like it had sensed something. Slowly it raised a pale completely white finger towards Zen, pointing at him

Zen suddenly winced in pain, clutching his eye. Covering it wasn’t helping,it was burning like crazy and so were his insides.

The figure slowly tilted its head

"Boy!"

Zephyr suddenly yelled

"Something isn’t right"

"I know that"

Shadows suddenly rose out of the ground around Zen, except he didn’t summon them. The shadows gathered out into the air and towards the cloaked figure, and under the pairs’s confused gazes,a scythe suddenly appeared in its hand raised up high right above Zen who was crouched in pain