The Astral soul system

Interesting. The quest didn’t end when he killed these two. Were there more?

Well, the people inside definitely knew he was coming now ,no hiding that,so maybe some of them had taken it as well.

Though how many of them exactly had these syringes.

He looked at the remaining bodies, walking towards one. He briefly checked its pockets or anywhere on its body something could be hidden. Nothing.

Maybe this guy didn’t bring his?

He checked another,then the last one.

Nothing

So only one of them had it.

That complicated things

Unfortunately the syringe itself had been destroyed so he couldn’t study it.

He looked towards the door, focusing on whatever was behind it. For some reason his biology had a strange reaction to that plague,or perhaps it was the Plagueridden themselves, either way, from where he was standing, he couldn’t feel anything behind those doors.

He stepped right in front of the door, looking back at the mess he’d made.

’Theia , what exactly is the endless plague?"

"I... don’t know "

Something Theia didn’t know? That’s new. He breifly remembered that Theia and the system weren’t entirely the same thing, since the system itself seemed to know exactly what these things were, and how dangerous they could be.

Calamity level insurgence. Definitely wasn’t something he should underestimate.

"Is it over?"

Iris slowly peeked out from her hiding spot, seeing Zen being the only one standing

She walked out, making sure not to step on something . He wasn’t worried about her stomach. Anyone who could live alone in this area could handle a few dead bodies.

"You’re okay "

"..."

He looked at her hand and saw the elemental core once again in her hand.

"Oh no no no. I didn’t steal it this time. It fell out of your pocket when you were fighting and I held on to it "

He stretched out his hand, demanding she return it.

She groaned.

"Why can’t I keep this one, you probably have a lot of them?"

Though she complained she still handed it over.

He suddenly crouched down to her level, looking her in the eye as he took it, his charred glove still somehow holding together.

"You earn this...by fighting. So fight"

He said simply, taking it from her and putting it in his pocket.

He glanced back and noticed a thoughtful look in her eyes. After a few seconds she snapped out of it and nodded with a determined look in her eyes.

He knocked the door a few times, getting a feel for how tough it is before kicking it down with a single precise hit.

He walked in, Iris trailing behind him cautiously.

The inside resembled a club. Or at the very least tried to.

There were seats and glasses scattered everywhere , hardly anything worked in here and it only looked a little bit better than the outside.

He was immediately attacked,a punch headed straight for his face. He stepped back at just the right time like he already knew it was coming, avoiding the hit entirely.

He grabbed the arm, flipping the guy it was attached to and throwing him across the room.

"It’s him! It’s him!!!"

He looked at the bar where the voice came from. On it was the guy who’d tried to take his necklace. His arm was currently being bandaged.

"Even better. Now we don’t have to go look for you"

Beside him was someone Zen hadn’t met yet.

"Psst. That’s him. It’s Axe"

Iris said, pointing at him.

The errand boy for the boss?

Well this wasn’t a complete waste of time.

"Looks like Stan and the others couldn’t stop you. Oh well, you’re still going to die"

So these guys did hear him coming they just didn’t bother running. That kind of confidence could easily be mistaken for stupidity...or vice versa.

"Hey it’s the bitch who owes us money"

Axe said, looking at iris with an excited smile.

"Looks like I finally have an excuse to fucking kill you myself. I’m going to enjoy this"

Iris shrunk back at his intense stare, clutching Zen’s clothes.

"Kill him! And bring her alive. You can rough her up but I want to finish her"

They all immediately got up,some picking up makeshift weapons and some displaying their abilities as they charged at him.

Twenty units of Astra disappeared as two blades of energy formed in his hands, flying off as he threw them, killing two random gangsters.

Of course he couldn’t kill them all this way. He’d run out of energy. To finish this ad quickly as possible,he needed to turn his luck around

The eight sided throwing star appeared in his hand and he threw it into the most densely populated area

[Curse, Flare, Drill]

The star blew up in a massive blaze, spinning as it ripped through many gangsters at once. The curse debuff was a bit pointless since most of the people it hit were killed instantly.

He dashed forward, kicking a table up in front of him to block a fireball.

He quickly formed another knife in his hand, throwing it right at his attacker’s neck, killing him instantly.

Throwing his weapon again,he watched it arch in the air and come back down.

[Stun,Flare, explode]

A loud boom suddenly rang out, spreading fire in all directions and killing even more.

By the time it had returned he’d killed another two bare handed.

The entire battle was chaotic and towards the end,many of them tried to escape but he didn’t let them, killing every last one.

"Hey,over here!"

He heard a voice as lucky returned to his hand one more time.

Turning around he saw the one armed gangster holding onto iris with a victorious smile on her face.

"Surrender or I kill this kid"

"..."

"You think I’m joking?! If I even see that weird light or stupid gear move, she’s dead!"

"..."

Zen completely ignored one armed McGee, looking at Iris, not because he was worried about her, but because he’s could see gears turning in her head, cutting through the haze of her fear.

Obviously she hadn’t been properly restrained. He’d only grabbed her arm,one hand and all, still, she was just a kid, right? So that should be enough, right?

Zen’s eyes caught the edge of a blade that she’d picked up at some point and was keeping hidden.

She grit her teeth, pulling it out from behind her and slashing his wrist. Screaming,he let her go and as a thank you she immediately stabbed it into his side before running to Zen and hiding behind him again.

"Looks like she listened to your advice"

"..."

He formed a blade in his hand, throwing it right in his chest, the force of the attack pinning him to the wall.

He tilted his head, seeing the attack lasted quite a bit longer, like an actual solid knife. He wondered how long he could get it to last and how he could use it to-

"He’s getting away!"

Iris yelled, pointing at Axe’s retreating figure.

Zen didn’t bother running after him, creating another and throwing it right at his leg.

Shouting in pain,Axe crashed to the ground, clutching his leg.

Zen and Iris walked towards his screaming figure at a relaxed pace, quickly reaching him.

"You’re dead"

Axe spat viciously but Zen didn’t really have time to listen.

Picking him up by his neck, he held him firmly.

Theia suddenly appeared in front of his face, wearing a sleek black suit and pants,her hair combed to the side

"Hey buddy,I was hoping you could help us out here. The performance enhancing drug your guy outside used,where did he get it?"

"The fuck are you talking about ?"

Zen answered by slamming his head into a table, breaking a hole in it with his face.

"You sure you don’t know what we’re talking about?"

"Screw you "

Axe spat as Zen pulled him back up.

Hearing that, Zen looked around for another table, slamming his head through it.

"Come on, buddy. You help me,I help you. Tell me what I want to know and I’ll convince my buddy here to stop roughing you up. You can walk away from this alive, it’ll be a sick story to tell your boss,huh?"

Axe spat blood, his face already messed up and his mind in about a dozen pieces

"G-go suck a dick"

"Oh well "

Theia shrugged as his face was smashed through another table.

She turned to look at Iris who’s eyes lit up like light bulbs seeing her.

"Hey sweetie "

She waved

"You look thirsty,go in the back and find something to drink, alright? There should be some orange juice or something like that somewhere here"

Iris wasn’t dumb. She understood why they wanted her to leave, still she didn’t complain and headed back into the bar. Maybe she could find something around here.

Something valuable that is.

A few minutes of ransacking later and she eventually found something in the back office.

It was a safe hidden under the desk.

She spent the next few minutes cracking itr, eventually getting it open.

As she crouched down to see what was inside,a pair of glowing eyes appeared in the shadows behind her,curved almost like they were laughing.

Feeling a chill go down her spine she turned around, breathing a sigh of relief since nothing was there.

Turning back to the safe, she reached into it, pulling it out before running to go show Zen.

"I swear on my mother I don’t know. The boss never tells me this stuff. Some weirdo just came for a meeting a few weeks ago and he’s been acting weird ever since"

Unlike when she let, Axe right now was all too cooperative.

"And do you know who this weirdo is?"

Theia asked crossing her legs as she hovered in the air

He shook his head as fast as he could manage.

"The boss said we shouldn’t bother him, but I overheard something. They’re from the inner city, like really deep in, and they’ve got connections. I warned the boss that messing with those people would never end out good but he didn’t listen. I don’t know what they’re pitch was but it was good."

"Anything else we can use?"

"Um...uh...Hydra! Yeah, yeah. I heard the boss mention it once. I don’t know what it means though"

Theia sighed. He might not, but she did.

"Where’s your boss now?"

"He’s in a meeting. I don’t know where though,he went alone. Wouldn’t let anyone else come with him.

She turned to Zen

"Meaning he’s probably still with his other associates"

"..."

"Hey,hey! Look what I found "

Iris skipped in, holding a letter and a syringe.

"I found this in the office "

Zen dropped Axe on the ground, taking the things from her.

The syringe was filled with a dark liquid, probably the same thing the fire user had taken, and the letter...

He opened it and it only confirmed his and Theia’s previous conjecture

Kane

Now it made sense why Gio couldn’t find out what ge was up to. He was out here

As influential as Hydra was, their resources also didn’t extend this far out of the city. Then that begged the question

What was Kane doing here?