The Astral soul system

"Let's do it"

The others cheered but Zen shrugged. He had already decided on going in the moment he saw it. His chances would have been much higher alone, but there was nothing he could do about it now.

They walked forward a bit for the next few minutes until they got to the edge of the forest.

"There it is"

The front was covered with beasts, and the doors were locked,so they decided to go around to see if there was anywhere entering would be easier.

After circling around a few times, they found somewhere with a lower number of beasts, and with a hole large enough for them to get in.

"Alright guys, let's- Zen, wait!"

Zen had almost immediately dashed towards the beasts, inconspicuously activating soul blade. Before the beasts could notice his presence,he had beheaded one , and almost immediately, another.

One of the beasts was about to howl, but pitch black tendrils appeared underneath it, wrapping around its mouth, muzzling it. Zen quickly finished it with a soul blade to the head.

He suddenly heard Jade's voice behind him followed by the sound of metal cutting through flesh and bone.

"We've got your back"

"Seriously. What is the point of making a plan if we just end up doing this"

Maximilian complained before retrieving his spear and joining the others.

A few minutes later,they were done, and they hadn't alerted any beasts thanks to Zen's "ability".

"Let's go. Forget the cores"

Maximilian was the first to go in after making sure there were no beasts directly in front of the hole.

"Zen, be careful" Freya warned.

Zen understood what she meant. So far they had only seen second and third tier beasts. It was almost a complete certainty that they would run into something much much higher.

Zen jumped in after the others, entering the dome.

It really did look like a city on the inside. There were huge buildings everywhere,used for either living or research. Of course they had all been partially destroyed already, leaving the entire place in ruins

"Where now?"

Zen pointed in a direction without hesitation or uncertainty

"That's the fastest way.

The others followed his lead, running as quickly and quietly as they could. After a few minutes they stopped. In front of them was a two way road with two beasts on opposite sides. If they tried to move forward, they'd be seen.

Zen thought for a second before running forward. Maximilian tried stopping him but it was too late, Zen had already gone through. They braced themselves, waiting for the attack, but it never came.

Maximilian looked at Zen standing on the other side of the road and suddenly realized he hadn't heard him moving despite his enhanced senses. Maximilian had tried, and he could clearly hear a mouse running if he tried hard enough, but now....

"We can't do that" Xavier mouthed to Zen.

Zen pointed to Jade, and then the beast on the left side, then himself, and the beast on the right.

Jade nodded and prepared her ability.

Zen counted down with his fingers, and the moment he reached zero,a portal appeared directly in front of the beast's head with a spear thrusting out, and Zen dashed as fast as he could for the other one, throwing his star.

[Flame burst]

The shuriken pierced into the beast's eyes, bursting into flames,it was about to scream in pain when more black tendrils appeared below it and wrapped around its mouth, and in a few seconds, its insides were completely burnt

Zen pulled out his shuriken from beast's head and joined the others who had finished with theirs.

"How did you...?"

"One of many useful tricks i was taught. Good for escaping... and other stuff"

Xavier suddenly interrupted.

"Uh,guys?"

They looked at him and suddenly noticed Sable, shifting and turning in her sleep.

"She's gonna wake up soon"

Zen's eyes suddenly widened. Before he could warn them, Maximilian had already done it.

"Scatter!"

The ground suddenly started rumbling and as they all moved out of the way,a giant earth spike pierced through the ground.

Zen looked down and saw the ground crumbling before his eyes. They had been spotted by something, something smart enough to attack from a hidden location.

"Give her to me!" He quickly said to Xavier.

Xavier quickly threw Sable to him.

"Follow me!" Zen said before immediately dashing towards somewhere.

The others hesitated for barely a moment before following. Whatever was capable of using ranged attacks was at least third tier, and they weren't planning on getting surrounded by high level beasts.

Even when he was carrying Sable, Zen was still faster than everyone else, and he barely made any stops, and whenever he did it was because he had to think to compare the dilapidated ruins to what he had in his memory.

"Zen?... what's going on?"

Zen looked back and saw Sable was awake, although a little groggy.

"Long story" was all he said before focusing back on the road.

Sable looked back and all traces of tiredness disappeared from her face. Behind her, the rest of her companions were running, and behind them was a huge beast covered in rocky scales chasing after them with an almost unending army of lesser beasts chasing behind it. Wherever the beasts stepped,the ground would crack and crumble, almost completely splitting.

"Hold on" She suddenly heard Zen say.

She looked forward and saw a huge armored building. She waited for Zen to slow down and turn, but he showed no signs of stopping.

"Zen?" She said worriedly

Behind him, the others were getting concerned as well.

"Trust me!"

[Charge - Active(maximum power)]

[Soul gun]

Zen felt the same energizing feeling as all the other times, and all his stats doubled. A dark ball of energy was starting to gather at his palm. Like a snowball it began to grow and grow, becoming larger and denser until Zen had to hold it with both hands.

Zen looked back at Sable who was looking at his attack with shock, same as the others. He quickly concentrated back on his target. He couldn't care less about keeping it a secret now. He originally wanted Neo to take care of the door, but with his limited control, and the tense situation,he might end up causing the already old building to collapse and be destroyed completely before they could get in.

When Zen felt it was large enough, he pushed slightly, sending the huge attack to the building.

[Astra: 50/200]

It was unknown what material the building was made of, but it held up for barely a second before it gave in and the soul gun destroyed it before exploding with enough ferocity to halt their advance for a few seconds.

Zen looked at where he had fired and only saw dust and smoke. Without waiting, Zen jumped in. He turned around in mid-air, extending his hand, and multiple black tendrils came out of the ground and grabbed the others,lifting them off the ground and pulling them with him.

They all fell into the building, some of them landing on their feet.

"Neo, bring it down!"

"What?"

"Bring the building down. The portal in the room here is likely no longer functioning. There should be an underground emergency bunker with a functional portal"

Neo was still a bit hesitant but he stretched his palm towards the top of the building.

"Lets go "

Sable didn't understand what was happening. She couldn't see anything happening, but as Neo pointed, the building started rapidly collapsing.

Zen led the others with him to the underground emergency bunker, making rapid twists and turns. The elevator was obviously no longer functioning so they took the stairs down.

*CRASH!!!*

They all looked back and saw a huge boulder behind them, blocking the path they had come through.

"Neo's back there!"

Sable cried but the others weren't worried.

"He's fine" Zen said before continuing downward.

A similar boom suddenly rang out and this time when they looked, it was Neo running towards them, and all that was left of the boulder was a giant rock with a hole in the center, only it was more hole than rock.

"Keep moving!" Neo yelled out while stretching his palm at the path behind him.

A few more minutes of frenzied running and dodging, they reached a hatch. Zen immediately got to opening.

"Come on, hurry, the whole place is coming down"

Maximilian suddenly heard something and looked up

"Rock!"

Before anyone else could react,Jade made a leap, using the crouched Zen as a support before kicking away the imminent threat.

Zen groaned. The hatch had a million security checks that were somehow still active. He tried the ones he remembered from Celia's place, but they didn't work, and even if they did, nothing could be done about the biometric and retina test.

Zen was about to just blast it open when Neo beat him to it.

Neo placed his hand on the hatch and immediately it started...disintegrating? It almost immediately fell apart.

One by one they all jumped in, escaping just in time to avoid being crushed.

*Cough*cough*cough*

The dust took a few seconds to dissipate and when it did, they found themselves in a tunnel,the walls floor and ceiling lined with metal.

In front of them was a steel looking door.

"Awesome,there it is!"

They all let out a sigh of relief.

Excited, Xavier immediately tried pushing it open, but no matter how hard he tried,it wouldn't budge.

They all went to help him but even with their combined full strength,it wouldn't budge.

"What do we do now? There's no handle"

Neo wanted to try destroying the door, but Zen stopped him.

"The hatch up their still had power, meaning this place probably does too. The door was designed so that if anyone tried entering forcefully,the entire room would self destruct. We can't attack it"

That immediately stopped Neo. They hadn't come all the way here just to blow up their only way home.

Zen checked if he could get any signal here but there was still nothing.

Some of them sat down, exhausted, not physically, but mentally. The stress of the entire situation was enough to completely make a normal person break down,so the fact that they were just tired,was impressive.

"Jade, can you open a portal to the inside?" Zen suddenly asked.

"Yeah, but my portals aren't big enough to fit people"

"I just want to see what's inside"

Jade walked towards the door, and a portal suddenly opened on the door.

Zen put his head through, looking into the surprisingly large room. It was lined completely in metal and looked like the inside of an egg, there were some interesting devices in the room,a large control deck, and at the center of it all,a portal generator.

Zen looked around to see if there was anyway to open the door and found a panel on the door and a space for a multiple digit code.

"Hmm?"

Zen suddenly heard chuckling.

Bringing his head out, Zen heard all the laughter stop and a few of them struggling to stifle it.

Looking back, he saw Xavier frozen, looking like he was about to kick him in the butt.

"Uh... Zen,hi... what did you see?"

Maximilian asked, trying to stifle his laughter.

Zen ignored the incident and answered.

"It looks like it was made to be opened from the inside, with guads stationed there"

The previously energized atmosphere died down a bit. If that was true, how would they get in without the code.

Zen was considering walking through the door with soul form to find a way to open it . It seemed to be the only plausible move, but another one of his secrets would be revealed.

"Let me do it" Theia suddenly spoke up.

"What? How?"

Theia puffed up her chest proudly.

"I'm not just some hologram,you know? You're speaking to the most advanced AI in the known AND unknown universe. All you have to do is touch the panel and I can hack it and get you the code"

Zen asked Jade to reopen the portal, and this time he put his hand through it and touched the panel on the door.

A smug smile tugged on Theia's lips.

"Thirty seconds. That's all I need"

Zen relayed the message to Jade, telling her to keep the portal open for about thirty seconds. The task was daunting, after all she was still only a level two, but she replied that she could do it.

The others looked at Zen, confused, but they let him try. It couldn't to try, right?

After thirty seconds,Theia quickly told him the code, and he hurriedly typed it in without looking, luckily having memorized the position of the keys.

Zen pulled his hand out and a few seconds later they heard a clicking sound followed by an electronic buzzer.