The Astral soul system-Chapter 93: The light of the sun

Zen watched as the last few people left and quietly he made his way back inside. He looked around for his target, and quickly found her.

He slowly walked towards Zaria who had her back towards him. She curiously tapped away at the keys of the piano in front of her, making an absolute mess of a sound but it didn’t seem to bother her.

"Do you know how to play this?" She asked without looking back.

"Yes"

Zaria sighed

"Man. You know everything,don’t you?"

"Someone certainly wanted that to be the case"

"And did they succeed?"

Zen looked at Theia who was playfully flying around while playing hopscotch on the piano.

"I used to think they were pretty close, but I’m beginning to realize i might know nothing at all"

Zaria looked back and faced him.

"Really? Huh, and I was planning on being the one to break you"

"..."

Zaria slowly brought her hand behind her neck and started fiddling with her hands. Looking closer Zen could see it was a small string she was attempting to untie.

"Remember when you told me about all those chinese myths and legends during our language class?"

Zen nodded.

"Remember that monkey that was ridiculously strong?"

Zen nodded, not sure where this was going.

"Would it be completely insane to say i met that monkey...in real life?"

"Yes"

Zaria sighed.

"Just look at this "

She handed the string to him.

Zen looked at it, unsure of what to make of it. After a few seconds, he decided to use read on it. He wasn’t expecting much, after all it was just....

[Sun wukong’s hair ]

[Stats:??????#$$##@#$&-$##$&##+-_$-_#####$$##_&-##_&$##_&_##$&-###&--$###$_&_@#_&_$-&##@@$_##__##$_&##*’::"!?

Zen hurriedly closed the system screen when it was about to be overrun with error messages.

Zaria suddenly pulled out a sword from under the piano.

"Hold it for me"

Zen carefully held the string that he now knew was a hair with both his hands.

Without hesitation, Zaria brought the sword down, slashing with all her might. Zen watched as the sword landed on the hair before bouncing away harmlessly.

Zaria tried again and again but everytime it was the same effect. There wasn’t a clanging sound or any damage at all to either objects,it just didn’t do anything.

Theia then held the sword with one hand, and formed a fist with the second hand. On the surface, nothing changed but Zen felt like something about her was vaguely different. She threw her fist at the tough iron, bending it slightly.

"Now do you understand?

This really was odd. Zen was quiet for a second before asking.

"It spoke chinese?

Zaria nodded

"Did it say anything?"

"Yeah. There were some words i didn’t understand but what i got was something like ’Follow the light of the sun within you, it will guide you to the end of the world ’ or something like that "

Zen looked at Theia, but the look she gave him told him she wouldn’t be able to tell him even if she wanted.

Zen looked at the hair curiously.

"I wonder if..."

Zen focused on the hair and brushed the hair covering his eye aside. Soul eyes was a passive ability but his right eye wasn’t. He might not be able to see any fluctuating astra but maybe the eye of the destroyer could see something.

The moment Zen shifted his hair, his right eye immediately started glowing as it locked itself to the hair. At the same time, the hair was.... activated? It suddenly started glowing with a golden light and extreme heat.

Zen suddenly noticed his gloves had started to melt around his hands due to the extreme heat. He tried to tear his eye away from it but his head wouldn’t budge.

Zaria had noticed his distress and quickly knocked it out of his hand onto the ground.

"Are you okay?"

Zen looked at his gloves. The fingers had been almost completely melted and his hands were bare.

"I’m fine. No need for these though"

Zen pulled off the now useless gloves.

"Don’t do that, someone might see"

Zen shook his head. He had Black patrolling every angle of the building. Unless they used some tricks,no one was getting in without without his knowledge.

Zen covered his eye . He had definitely seen something, but exactly how to describe it was impossible. It was similar to the string he usually saw, but this one was unique. It looked like dozens and dozens had been sown together to form a single one, and it looked like it was made of golden light"

"Yang energy. An absurd amount of it. As for the string you keep saying you see,i still don’t know

Theia pointed out.

"Isn’t sun wukong a demon monkey in the legend?"

"Doesn’t seem to matter "

Zaria inspected Zen’s hands.

"You’re a little burnt,does it hurt "

Zen wanted to say no but that wasn’t true. It felt like someone had poured oil on his hands and added fire. He also had this nagging feeling that something was eating away at him slowly.

"Zen, quickly! Look at your stats"

Zen opened the stat screen and was suprised

[Hp: 100/200]

[Astra: 0/200]

Zen looked at the hair on the floor. It seemed a bit absurd for a single hair to have done so much damage to him, but if it belonged to who the system said it belonged to, Zen was willing to accept it.

Zaria slowly went to pick up the hair that had stopped glowing and burning. When she wasn’t looking, Zen hurriedly consumed a ton of crystals. He had to keep himself in top shape in case it attacked him again.

"How did you do that?"

Zen shrugged. He didn’t control the eye of the destroyer,he simply harnessed it. It did whatever it wanted.

Zaria thought for a bit and mimicked how Zen held it before in both hands before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. A description Zen gave her a while back resurfaced in her mind.

A staff made of black iron and adorned with golden bands. This gives it a striking appearance, combining the dark hue of iron with bright, lustrous gold.

Zaria couldn’t see anything with her eyes closed but Zen’s eyes widened and he was even forced to cover them to protect from the gold light that had surrounded Zaria.

"Zen,we have to leave!"

Theia directly opened the system screen, showing that Zen’s Astra and HP were rapidly going down just from being in the vicinity.

Zen made a move to run but before he could, the light started dying down rapidly before completely fading.

As Zaria came into view, Zen felt a chill go down his spine as he saw what was in her hand.

Zaria opened her eyes and looked at the staff in her hand identical to the one she imagined.

"It worked! Zen look it’s just like the story you told me! It.... Zen?"

She suddenly noticed Zen heaving and panting on one knee while looking at her cautiously.

Perhaps due to her loosing focus, the staff turned back into a hair. Zaria ignored it completely, rushing to Zen.

"Are you okay?"

Zen looked at his stats

[HP: 5/200]

[Astra: 0/200]

Zaria wanted to help Zen get up but he got up himself fairly quickly.

"I’m fine"

Theia looked at him like he was an idiot.

"Uh,no you’re not,dude"

Zaria suddenly saw a black raven fly in like it was panicked.

Zen ignored Black and looked at Zaria.

"We need to stop"

"Listen,i know i hurt you, but it was an accident and..."

Zen shook his head. She didn’t understand.

"I don’t know what you did, but whatever it was it was as bright as the sun. It was probably visible from the evey corner of the city. It won’t be long before people come in here and want to know what happened"

Zaria suddenly realized he was right.

"Black, follow her"

Zen ordered.

Zaria could barely register what he said when the black raven landed on her shoulder and some black goo came out of its body, briefly waving at Zaria before returning.

"Black it’s you"

The bird cawed in response.

Zen looked around warily, he could already hear footsteps coming from outside. Zen briefly remembered the security cameras but there was no time. He’d come for them later if he could.

Zen and Zaria ran out opposite ends after Zaria picked up the hair.

Zen dashed out as fast as he could, ignoring the pain in his chest and eating crystals as he ran. Even now he felt like the golden energy was burning him from the inside out.

"Are we really running back?"

"Yes" Zen answered plainly.

Thiea looked at him hopefully.

"Can you at least transform? It’ll be faster that way"

"Tell me how "

Theia looked like she was about to say something but suddenly stopped with a downtrodden look on her face.

"You just gotta...feel it "

Zen understood she couldn’t say anything and just shook his head.

"I don’t feel "

Zen was about to start running when a car suddenly pulled up in front of him.

"Get in" Aurora said.

Zen didn’t bother thinking and jumped in. Aurora stomped the gas as far as it would go, blasting off with insane speed.

"Are you okay?"

"I’m fine"

"He’s not" Theia groaned but no one could hear her.

"Lucky for you I’m heading to the academy. You coming with or do I need to drop you off somewhere?"

"The academy, please "

Aurora nodded and everything went quiet for a few seconds before Aurora suddenly looked at him.

"Good job by the way. I saw your fight "

"Thank you "

Aurora scoffed.

"For what? I’m supposed to be training you but I’m not sure there’s much i can do"

Zen shook his head but didn’t reply.

"There are a few ways i can help you though"

A few minutes later they arrived at the academy.

"Come with me " Aurora said after getting out of the car without bothering to properly park.

Zen followed her inside and after a while he realized they were heading for her secret room.

Zen locked the door behind them making sure no one was following them.

They were back in the library, but why?

Aurora slipped out of her coat, getting comfortable on a sofa. Zen had been in here a while and Aurora had made it clear he didn’t need permission so he took a seat in front of her.

"Kid...First i want to know. All those stories you gave the news about your ability, fearlessly rushing into a dungeon, beasts surrounding both sides, accidentally stumbling on a mysterious stone obelisk you later realized was an original circuit...was it true?"

"I was unconscious most of the time but yes"

Aurora sighed.

"What exactly do you know about your ability?"

"..."

"Story time "

Zen was suprised. This again?