The Astral soul system-Chapter 95: Do you have any idea?

Zen suddenly opened his eyes. He was on the floor somewhere.

He quickly got up and looked around. He was sure no one had moved him in his sleep so he had no idea how he got here.

He looked around cautiously. Wherever he was it was currently night time. There were multiple ruins and remnants of destroyed buildings everywhere.

"Oh fuck. Not here, anywhere but here. Hey kid! Take us back, we’re not supposed to be here "

Zen looked around for where the voice was coming from.

"I’m in your head, stupid! I thought you’d be used to this by now "

"You’re the one who messed with the portal and took me to that planet "

The voice scoffed.

"Oh no you little shit, don’t you put that on me, that was all you"

"What did you do? Where am I? Get me out of here"

"Me?!! You think I want to be here? We’re both gonna die if you don’t get out of here"

"What do you -"

"Zen! He’s right. There’s no time to argue. Run!!!"

Theia yelled from inside the system

"We’re not supposed to be here"

Zen looked around confused. Literally everywhere looked the same

"Where?" He asked

"Kid,do-"

Zen suddenly saw a red flash in his peripheral vision coming from the sky. He rolled to the left, avoiding it at the last second. The flash of light touched the ground he was on and a large explosion came out of the ground where he was standing before.

When he looked closer it looked like one of those strings he saw.

"Away from that!!!" Theia answered his previous question.

Zen started running in the opposite direction the blast had come from.

"What the fuck are you doing? That’s not going to do anything!!! There’s nowhere to run to! Get out the same way you came in"

Before Zen could ask how exactly to do that , another string came from the sky, this time in front of him. Zen only barely dodged it, running in the opposite direction.

"That won’t work, his influence expands across this whole place. Get out already! Use your shadow "

"I don’t have a shadow "

"YOU DON’T HAVE A... You know what? Forget it, were gonna die"

Zen looked to his wrist and even tried calling him but Black was gone.

An angry voice suddenly boomed from the sky.

"YOU!!!"

The voice in Zen’s head replied nervously.

"Hey bro. There’s really no reason to get vio-"

"I WAS SEALED HERE FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS!!!"

"Hehe, yeah... about that"

"I’M GOING TO KILL YOU AND THAT PATHETIC HUMAN YOU’RE USING AS A HOST. THEN I’M GOING TO BREAK OUT "

The number of attacks increased exponentially and Zen found himself dodging half a dozen attacks every two seconds, utilizing every skill in his arsenal to dodge. He had no intention of doing anything else yet.

"Shit! He’s pissed "

"Zen didn’t do anything. What does this have to do with us?!!!" Thiea questioned angrily

"And why can’t I summon the system screen or reach Freya and Lilith?"

"I don’t know what the system or who Freya and Lilith are but i can assure you they’re fine. I don’t know how but you came here without your physical body. It’s okay, I don’t care how, just do it again so we don’t all die here"

That would be all well and nice but Zen didn’t know how he got here. Was this similar to the summoning before? Would he get out automatically after time passed

Zen looked at the sky and his eye suddenly started itching.

It appeared eye of the destroyer wasn’t just a physical skill as it was effective even in here without his body.

Looking at the sky, Zen didn’t know what to say. It was like someone had knitted a giant basket out of black glowing strings and used it to trap them here.

"How do i break the barrier?" Zen asked while dodging

"Well that wouldn’t be so impossible if you could actually see the -"

"I can see the strings" Zen interrupted.

The voice seemed surprised as it went quiet but after a while it spoke.

"Doesn’t matter. You’re too weak. If you were more experienced you could just leave this dimension. And if you were stronger you could just bend the strings"

Zen didn’t panic and instead asked what the strings actually were.

"It’s difficult to explain, but I guess the easiest way to call it is fate"

"What?"

"Fate. Those strings represent fate, that’s why they’re impossible to break"

Impossible? Zen was skeptical.

He ran as fast as he could to the edge of the barrier, jumping rolling and flipping while steadily getting closer and closer.

Once he was close enough, Zen used sledgehammer and took a swing at the barrier with as much force as could.

"The voice in his head groaned.

"Kid, what are you doing? I told you it was... impossible"

Before Zen’s eyes, the barrier seemed to cave in a little. Observing it, Zen saw the strings bend like metal wires against heat.

Zen could only do this for a second before he was forced into dodging and running.

Theia suddenly appeared in front of him with a pen and paper in hand.

"Ummm. Would it be cool if I ask you a few questions"

"Now?"

"It’ll be really quick i swear. Plus i sort of have no choice"

Thiea ignored Zen’s precarious situation and started asking. She couldn’t access the system so there was nothing she could do to help.

"Question number one: If you had the opportunity to be reborn, theoretically that is. Would you choose to be reborn as a male or female?"

"What?"

"Or do you want to look like a boy and have a.... lady’s parts or look like a woman and have a man’s parts?"

The voice snorted.

"Just answer,kid. Best you know everything about yourself before you go"

"But I -"

"Did nothing. There are several layers to this barrier. You just barely bent a small section of one of them. Although impressive for a human, it’s not going to get you out of here"

But he wasn’t a human. Not anymore anyway. Still, the voice made a fair point,he could keep this up for a long time, but not forever.

"Answer, please. Note that genderless and both genders are plausible options "

Zen was a bit confused but answered.

"Male?"

"Are you sure?" Theia asked with urgency.

"Yes" Zen answered, not understanding what was going on.

Thiea sighed and wrote something on the book in her hand.

"Next question. Theoretically,if you could choose to be reborn, would you keep your physical features and appearance or choose to change them?"

"Theia what’s going on?"

A stray attack suddenly struck Zen in his chest, knocking him flying into the ground and forming a deep crater.

Although he couldn’t see blood, Zen felt like he was already almost half dead from that attack alone. He could take at least two more.

He quickly got up and went back to dodging. He didn’t even see his attacker and his attacks were coming from everywhere, so this was all he could do.

"Okay I’m going to be honest, Zen... You’re going to die"

"Wha-" Zen sidestepped, dodging another attack.

"The system automatically gives quests after assessing that there will be a reasonable amount of difficulty. The only times the system won’t grant a quest is when the portal difficulty is either too low to warrant one,or...."

Theia didn’t finish, but Zen got the point.

"What’s up with the questions then?" Zen asked, completely unfazed by the prospect of death

"It’s for your reincarnation form. Upon death,all system users are granted a second chance at life in any world of their choosing with the ability to make personal requests and adjustments. It’s a sort of ultimate perk for helping out with the system "

Zen held on to one piece of information in that explanation.

"There are other system users?"

"Yes and no. Never more than one at a time. You’re the nine thousand, seven hundred and eighty sixth, excluding experiments "

Zen was about to ask something else when she stopped him and asked the previous question again.

Zen thought about it and realized it was a very good deal. There was no reason not to take advantage of it.

"Leave me the way i am "

Theia nodded and scribbled something into her note.

"Makes sense. Who would give up fifty points in charm "

"Next question: If you could be reborn,what species would you be. I can’t give you the specifics now but I’ll tell you that there are humanoid races, beast like races, celestial or divine races, aquatic races,shadowy or undead races,hybrids or unique races, and otherworldly or alien races"

Zen ignored Theia for now and looked at the barrier again.

"Hey, whoever you are. Assuming i was powerful or skilled enough, how could I pass the barrier "

"Huh! Well I already said it. If you were strong enough you’d need to harness more fate than him and forcefully break through it"

"Fate...fate"

Zen mulled over the word and looked at the back of his right hand. The mark on him was still there despite that not being his body.

"I wonder if I can still..."

The crest suddenly lit up according to Zen’s will,glowing a vibrant but menacing shade of purple.

"Fate.... That’s what he called you, right?" Zen mused as a figure flashed in his mind.

A dark purple light suddenly creeped out of the mark, surrounding his hand and looking like it was about to form something.

"W-what is that?!"

Even the attacks from the sky stopped, probably due to the suprise of the entity launching them.

Zen ran towards the barrier, dodging the attacks from the sky that had doubled in intensity.

Halfway through, The light from the mark had formed a soul blade similar to his original one, but this one was twice as long, covered in purple energy, and in Zen’s vision,made completely of the strings of fate.

"Wait,No! Stop!"

The voice in his head yelled but Zen didn’t stop. The attacks from the sky seemed to have momentarily stopped as Zen headed straight for the barrier.

"Stop! Don’t do it"

Zen blocked out the voice and with a swift slash, Zen cut a rift in the barrier without any resistance whatsoever.

Zen suddenly felt a suction force coming from the small rift he caused, and unable to resist,he was pulled in.

"You little shit! Do you have any idea what you-"

The voice abruptly disappeared.

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