The Astral soul system

"maybe we should look into this"

Theia repeated.

He looked down at iris. Auburn hair , freckle stained rosy cheeks and bright brown eyes. Her clothes looked a bit old but compared to the general state of people in this area,it was fine. She didn’t seem to be suffering exactly. Orphaned children weren’t a strange sight in this world. Whether they were abandoned like him and iris apparently,or their parents died. He could confidently say she was doing well for herself, and she hadn’t lost her soul yet. That glint in her eyes that said she was still a kid inside. Innocent yet ingenious.

That look rose conflicted feelings within them.

It’s the main reason Zaine didn’t immediately cut her hands when she tried stealing from him

He wasn’t sure how long it would last in a place like this. A place that wanted to snuff it out

He was still considering the offer when he suddenly turned to look at the door. It seems the choice had been made for them.

The next second the door was kicked open. She didn’t waste anytime, jumping behind the couch, making herself look as small as possible.

One after another multiple gangsters rushed in until about five of them were right in front of the door.

"Huh? Who are you?"

"..."

"The damn brat’s been dead barely a few minutes and some crackhead’s already mucking up the place. Fuck off before we mess you up"

It seemed it was a good idea to ditch his academy uniform for one of his hoodies.

Seeing that he didn’t get up or say anything, the brute suddenly walked towards him, grabbing him and lifting him off the ground by his collar with one hand.

Interesting. But that didn’t mean he had an ability.

"The rest of you go find where the boss’s money is, and if that brat’s alive,bring her here. As for you..."

He still hadn’t moved, letting him do as he pleased.

The brute looked down, noticing Zen’s necklaces,a greasy smile appearing on his face.

"What’s this? Looks like it might be worth something "

He said, reaching to grab it with his other hand

He was a hair’s breadth away from it when Zen held his hand, stopping it firmly in place.

The brute grunted, looking suprised as he tried to free his hand from Zen’s iron grip but he couldn’t move an inch

"You want to die you-"

A loud scream suddenly rang through the room and everyone froze, looking at where Zen was standing.

Blood dripped to the ground, followed by an arm.

"Yikes!"

Theia mumbled as the brute keeled over.

Big mistake. It didn’t matter which personality was in charge,that necklace was their reverse scale. She glanced at the couch where iris was hiding, feeling grateful that she’d only stolen the core. If she’d gone for his necklace,she couldn’t confidently say what would happen to the poor girl.

He grabbed the head of the gangster and pushed him, sending him flying out the open door and into the street.

His cold half lidded eyes moved across the room waiting for something to happen.

"Get him!"

One of them yelled as they charged at him.

Instead of waiting he stretched out his hand and a black tendril shot out, wrapping around one of their necks and pulling him into Zen’s open grip. With a simple snap and crack, he broke his neck, paralyzing him from the neck down and throwing the body away.

The next managed to land a punch on him so he grabbed the hand, twisting it behind her back, breaking it in three places before kicking her leg forcing her to her knees and slamming her head into the ground, stomping it into the concrete floor for good measure and walking over the motionless body.

For the remaining two he let the tendrils slip out of his sleeve again,as they attempted to run, latching onto one of them and pulling him back as he screamed, gripping the floor as hard as he could.

In the end it was pointless, he was reeled in like a fish. Turning to the last one, Zen saw him about to run out the door. He was considering what to do when out of nowhere iris ran out of her hiding spot with a hammer held above her head.

Yelling and closing her eyes she swung right for his legs, making a crack and pop sound as he fell to the ground. She didn’t stop there, raising it high again and dropping it on his other leg.

He screamed out loud, feeling the bones in his knee and ankle shatter.

Dropping the hammer and breathing heavily she looked at him giving him a thumbs up and a shaky smile that let him know this was the first time she’d done something like this.

Interesting

He quickly paralyzed the one currently in his hand without even looking before dropping him.

He looked around at the massacre, though it couldn’t exactly be called that since he hadn’t killed any of them.

Like other people, they had watches as well that would send a signal to emergency services once their hearts stopped. Though whether or not this area even had that was up for debate.

He wasn’t willing to take the risk though, especially since the watched were capable of recording the host’s last moments.

"I got him"

She said, stepping closer

He tilted his head

He’d actually wanted that one to get away. That way he could follow him to their boss.

So much for that plan.

He knocked out the final one to stop the screaming.

Luckily he’d planned ahead.

He looked out the door to see a pile of blood and a trail leading somewhere.

"Jackpot"

Theia said, reappearing on his shoulder

"Are you going to follow him?"

Iris asked.

"Take me with you. I can help"

"We can’t leave her here with a bunch of bodies"

Theia said, looking around at the mess.

"Plus,once they wake up, this place will be a permanent target. She’ll never be able to come back"

That wasn’t his problem.

Even if he took them somewhere else, they’d still come back. And once again he couldn’t kill them because of their-

He suddenly received a mental note from Black. It wanted to feed.

He thought for a second. This fixed...most of the problems.

Black could assimilate their watches first so they’d be inactive and then consume them. They could leave it here and let it do its thing. How would it get back to them though. Black couldn’t survive for long periods without a host.

He looked towards the one who had both his legs broken by Iris.

That’ll work

He stepped out of the house and iris followed behind him, closing the door and looking back, a look of concern on her face.

"What am I going to do about the bodies? I’ll get in trouble"

Zen didn’t say anything or react to her slip up.

A few minutes ago she said she lived alone.

"That black thing is your pet too?"

"..."

"You have weird pets"

"..."

"Your ability is cool though. It’s very strong"

She thought the black tendrils were his ability. That made sense,he might as well keep it that way.

"Is your hand okay?"

"..."

"How strong exactly are you?"

...

They followed the trail of blood for a bit while iris talked despite the lack of a response.

Seems like she’s been living without being able to talk to people for a while,so now that she had someone who listened she just let it all out .

After a while the trail of blood went cold. He saw more pairs of footprints so it was safe to say the bait had found more people who’d probably helped him.

Though at the end of the day, gathering fish was the specific function of bait.

"How do we find them now?"

He looked down at her then up at the sun.

This whole ordeal no matter how trivial had been an eye opener for him.

He’d genuinely forgot how strong he was compared to regular people. He was almost hoping he found some people with abilities. Literally anything he could do felt like overkill in this case.

Unfortunately his run of the mill enemies were an inhuman,a millennia old godlike being and his old mentor/father figure who was hell-bent on genocide on a cosmic scale for some reason.

Taking a breath, he suddenly put his hand on the ground, his eyes transforming.

Luckily they weren’t too concerned about hiding their tracks.

Calmly he kept walking with Iris trailing behind him.

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

*Gasp*

He suddenly opened his eyes, feeling like he’d just woken him up from a nightmare.

He suddenly felt like someone had dumped cold water all over his head. Shaking his head,he looked around.

What happened,where was he?

He suddenly looked in front of him, realizing he was sprawled on the floor right in front of the open door.

That’s right,he was trying to escape. They were attacked. Everyone was killed.

He looked around but he couldn’t see any bodies

What. Did they move them? Why did they leave him then. The entire place was in pristine condition. He couldn’t even smell a hint of blood.

He looked back out the open door.

It was dark out. The night sky shining in his eyes.

No one is here

He could run.

But no,he can’t. That girl broke his...

He suddenly felt something move. Looking back, he saw his legs, completely fine and moving. He quickly scrambled to his feet.

It’s a miracle.

He thought, dismissing any further though.

’Now I can go back to the boss’

’yes-’

He suddenly paused, feeling like something wasn’t right. He was forgetting something.

The sudden awareness, the strangely straightforward and linear thoughts since he woke up. It almost felt like -

’I can’t keep wasting time. The boss needs to know about this. We’re under attack ’

He shook his head

"Y-yes. I need to go"

’He will probably give me a reward too’

His mind was flooded with thoughts of rewards in credits and pleasure. He didn’t even pause to think about how absurd this train of thought was.

He quickly headed out of the door, running back to the base as fast as he could