The Astral soul system

The sky was a fading orange as the sun began to set on the sleepy town, giving the usually chaotic place an air of serenity.

A bright light suddenly flashed in one building and a few seconds later a person in a mask ran out as fast as possible, followed closely by a much smaller and younger girl.

They were halfway across the street when a loud boom sounded inside the building and it exploded, crumbling and sending him pieces of debree in every direction.

Zen and Iris luckily weren’t hit but it didn’t mean they were safe.

"Go"

Theia said, sending iris away, and she didn’t need to be told twice as the girl immediately found somewhere else to hide.

Zen turned to face the building that was now all just rubble and dust.

He clenched his fist as he heard something wading through the debris , seeing a massive shadow behind the smoke.

Slowly it stepped out in all its grotesque grandeur.

It was about three to five times the size of a normal person with disproportionately large arms . Its body was a disgusting mixture of metal and muscle, looking like it had been turned inside out with muscles and nerves on the outside, sticking out in places they didn’t belong all. Then it’s entirely body was coated head to toa in a gold substance that attached to the flesh like glue, holding pieces together and amalgamating together with it.

Curved Spikes ripped up out of his back and along his spine and elbow. It’s eyes had turned completely black.

Its massive body had swelled to such a size that it had to rest with two of its hands like an animal on four legs.

Looking at him it roared, slamming its fists into the ground and destroying the ground beneath his feet before charging towards him, reaching him in a matter of seconds, one of its arms swinging towards him.

His eye breifly darted to its hands, noticing the gold knuckes seemed to have melded into his hands . All the more reason not to get hit

Zen pulled back as much as he could, using any skill that MIGHT increase his speed just enough and he barely managed to dodge it, just barely succeeding and retreating.

The roar behind him and the rapidly approaching sound of feet crushing concrete beneath its mass was all he needed to know he had its attention.

He summoned lucky, throwing it behind him without looking back.

[Flare,Drill,Bless]

[Buff:HP and SP Regen increased by 20%]

Three minutes. Quaint

He heard it let out a roar for a second and slow down for a bit, though it wasn’t for long. In a manner of seconds it was on his tail again, furious as ever.

He held his hand out as it returned before throwing it behind him again

[Flare,Flare, Explode]

Perfect.

He immediately turned around just as it hit its target,a loud boom following a blinding flash of light and fire.

Dashing towards it he formed a soul blade, swinging down right on its body and legs, sliding under it to get behind.

Looking back, he saw the exposed muscles and tendons reattaching themselves in seconds as it turned around to look at him.

Raising its massive arms, the gear suddenly activated, the previously small spikes Theia had mocked becoming massive blades that ripped out from under its skin.

Growling, it slammed its hands into the ground, shattering it as a golden energy rushed into it and to Zen, destroying the ground in its trail , exploding once it got to his feet and knocking him back.

Zen fell onto the ground, clutching his head as his body started convulsing from the violent energy,blood vessels popping and veins bursting all over his body.

He groaned, getting up. The effect of the weapon had gotten worse. Luckily he could deal with the psychic aspect to some degree but the internal damage was still there.

Luckily his buff was still active do his healing was faster than ever.

By the time he looked up, its hand was already crashing down on him.

[Fortify]

Was the only action he could make in that time as it started crushing him into the ground.

Raising its fist again it was about to bring it down on him when it noticed it was no longer down there.

It suddenly let out a roar of pain as something tore through its body from behind, ripping through its defenses before exploding.

Before it could move, another came again, tearing into its body before exploding.

It quickly turned around to see Zen bleeding from multiple points in his body with on of his legs visibly broken and probably multiple more that just weren’t visible.

Somehow he’d gotten behind him and somehow his mask was still holding on. Dawn and dusk were in his hands, glowing slightly and having fired two incendiary rounds.

He was about to fire another when he saw the wounds that he’d just made immediately close themselves like nothing had never happened.

Before it could start moving he shot another bullet for it’s head, hitting it right between the eyes .

The blaze that followed engulfed it’s head and the Plagueridden began to stumble backwards,at least for a few meters before it stopped, and Zen could see the metal and muscle start to reform until it snuffed out the fire and was back,more horrific looking than before.

He tilted his head, realizing this thing didn’t have any vital areas, meaning no critical hit damage.

It really was just like a Zombie.

He took a breath, lowering his guns as it started charging at him again.

As it did he quickly reloaded , locking four ice bullets and four explosive rounds into the chamber spread out between the two

He shook him leg a bit. It wasn’t completely healed but it’d have to do

Once it was close enough, he ran to meet it and shot two bullets at its leg, watching ice immediately form over the surface, and two more at its arms, leaping high over its head and landing on its back.

Holding on by planting his feet on one of its spikes he immediately blasted two explosive rounds into it point blank.

In the next second a muffled boom came from inside its body and chunks and pieces of it splattered onto the ground from the other side, leaving a smoking hole in its stomach .

Before he could pull the trigger again the spikes suddenly rattled a bit before shooting out towards him. He shifted his head just in time, trading decapitation for a scratch on his face, though one of his hands wasn’t so lucky.

He jumped off its back, shooting the remaining bullet he had, the explosion staggering the beast but not killing it.

He looked down at the fresh cut where his left hand used to be, right at the forearm. It was already starting to heal, though he’d lost a gun for now.

He’d been disarmed, literally and figuratively.

He looked up at the monster in front of him which now had muscle fibers coming out of its back attached to the spikes like a bunch of makeshift kusarigama,six in total

Attacking it from behind was now no longer an option. He also needed more time for his arm to regenerate completely.

He grit his teeth as it started charging towards him again.

Before either could make a move it suddenly stopped.

Hearing something clattering to the ground, Zen looked down and saw a knife that had to have bounced off the beast.

It turned around at the same time Zen looked past it to see Iris standing there shaking with a look of pure regret.

"Leave them alone!"

She yelled, trying to sound brave but the tremble in her voice was more than obvious.

Zen actually froze for a second, unsure of what to do,in a matter of speaking he... glitched

The beast on the other hand didn’t have any such reservations and immediately turned around to destroy her.

The poor girl was frozen in fear, and even if she could run it wouldn’t matter. She would never escape.

Theia suddenly appeared in front of him

"Zen, you have to save her"

"..."

"Zen? Zen!"

"..."

"AZRAEL WAKE UP!-"

The sound of cutting through flesh reverberated throughout the street that was suddenly deathly silent.

"Huh?"

Iris looked up at the figure over her holding back one of its weaponized spikes by the mass of muscle attached to it

"What a petty beast"

She heard him say, still too scared to move.

"Run. And don’t look back"

He said, looking at her out of the side of his eye.

She nodded, scurrying off. She wasn’t sure if she was seeing things but it almost looked like he had more than two eyes on his face for a second,also...where those... wings?

She shook her head, ignoring those thoughts and running as fast as she can, holding the faint cut on her arm and side to hold the bleeding.

The adrenaline was so much she barely even felt the pain

Seeing her about to leave it swung the rest of its spikes about to attack her when three small blades of energy stabbed into them from the side.

It roared, looking back at him before swinging a fist at him.

He quickly shadow stepped back, avoiding the hit.

He flexed his newly regenerated arm, his four eyes following the movement of every single part of the monster in front of him.

Luckily in this form his regeneration was faster and skill casting as well

"Talk about vindictive too"

Theia remarked, appearing on his shoulder, sitting cross legged.

Noticing his eyes lingered more on the sickles that hung from its back, she spoke

"Those things are the second biggest problem. Right after those knuckles. We need to find a way to cut them down. But soul blade doesn’t have the reach"

He looked down at his hands that had ripped through his gloves during his transformation.

"Theia. Do you know what they say about necessity?"

"Huh?"

He clenched his fist as a glimmer of light formed in his hand, illuminating his face as another shard like knife of energy formed in his hands, and instead of throwing it he let it grow larger and larger until it was about the size of a spear before shifting his grip.

"Hmm"

He didn’t have time to admire as it charged again,its massive sickles of flesh and bone swinging down as it pounced at him.

He shifted his stance, his wings fluttering a bit before tucking as he jumped past it, dodging it completely and passing unscathed.

Once he hit the ground he looked back and the beast crashed into the ground, disoriented as one of its flesh sickles fell to the ground , severed close to its root.

Zen looked at the weapon in his hand. Cutting through all those muscle fibers wasn’t exactly like knife through butter, but It was effective. . Though it had cost him a hundred Astra to form and maintaining it was still draining more. It wouldn’t be long before his regeneration couldn’t sustain it anymore and he’d run out of energy

He had about one minute and thirty minutes left on his transformation. He had to make it count.

He held up dawn in his other hand hand,finger on the trigger as he dashed forward appearing right in front of it in about a second. It reacted quick enough to stab all its remaining sickles towards him.

Brandishing the blade he severed another, flying a little bit to control his trajectory as he used one wing to block from his left, allowing them to strike at his wing, enduring the damage

Two more were coming from his right. He shot at one with an ice bullet, freezing then shattering it with another,then swinging at the others, splitting it right down the middle , before shadow stepping closer and cutting it at the root.

Roaring it tried to punch him again, the golden claws headed for his head, but this time when he deflected it his blade held.

He slipped back, retreating a bit and shooting two incendiary rounds to cover himself.

"Two bullets left in the chamber"

He noted, dashing to the side and slashing another, cutting it down before pulling back.

Seeing it raise its hands to punch the ground again he took the opportunity, dashing as close as he could get and shooting the remaining two explosive bullets.

Seeing it stagger backwards he dropped dawn, gripping the energy weapon with both hands and thrusting it as deep as he could into its abdomen.

Slamming his hand into it,he slammed it even deeper, impaling its and pumping even more energy into it, increasing its size and with all his might, moving it inside its body.

With a deep push he finally cut all the way through it.

He grunted,kicking its top half away and watching as the bottom fell to the ground, spasming as it tried to retain its state before finally it dropped and stopped moving.

He let out a breath as his body started shifting back to normal.

The blade slowly dissipated as he let go, walking towards dawn on the ground, picking it up and wiping it off.

"Well done"

Theia commended

"You did it! You did it!"

He turned to the side, seeing Iris running towards him happily.

Looking lower, his eyes widened as he noticed the bleeding cut on her abdomen.

She suddenly froze, halfway to giving him a hug, looking at the barrel pointing at her temple and looking up to meet his cold gaze

"Huh?"