The Astral soul system

The door automatically opened to let them in and they all ran in, relief painted on their faces.

Zen looked back and saw Jade panting with exhaustion.

"Good job"

Jade waved it off, lifting up Sable who was still barely conscious.

"What would have happened if it closed with my arm in it?"

Jade seemed prepared for the question as she calmly answered.

"I'm unable to close the portal with something in it, so even if i wanted to close it,it would be forced open until in out of Aether,and if i did run out, you would have been forced out of it before it closed"

It seemed Zen hadn't been in any real danger.

Maximilian had immediately went to the control deck for the portal generator to see what he could do.

"So is it active?"

Maximilian looked back at Xavier.

"Yeah, it has power, but I have no idea how to use this thing"

Everyone in the room suddenly turned to Zen.

"I've got it"

Zen walked up to the control deck, started pushing a few buttons and turning dials.

"Do you have any idea what he's doing?"

Maximilian shrugged in response.

"Oh..."

Everyone suddenly became tense. That oh had sounded awfully ominous.

"What is it?"

"There isn't enough power to get back"

"W-what do you mean?" Jade asked,a bit shakily.

"Earth has been locked in as a destination,we can't go anywhere else, and earth is too far away for us to open a stable portal"

Zen's casual words shook them to their core as all hope disappeared.Had all this really been pointless? Getting out of here wasn't a big problem, but were they really stuck here forever?

"There is one thing we can do" Zen pointed out.

Noticing he had their attention, Zen continued.

"I can open the portal to earth. It'll be unstable and close after less than a second, but someone in the academy might see it if we're lucky, and trace it back to us"

Everyone went silent. It was a gamble. If they were unlucky and no one saw the portal, they'd be stuck, and it seemed they could only do this once.

"Ah, what the hell? There's nothing to think about "

Everyone looked at Xavier who had spoken up.

"It's either take a chance,or give up. Seems like a pretty obvious choice"

Zen agreed with Xavier, and looking around,it seemed the others did too. They had already fought all this way, might as well see it to the end.

Jade suddenly whispered something to Zen and he nodded.

Having his answer, Zen pushed a button on the controls, and the portal generator suddenly started warming up, and in a few seconds,an electric humming started as it powered up. A bright light appeared in the circular frame, and a small portal appeared in the center, but this one was different from the previous one, it was much smaller at around the size of a basketball,and it seemed to be distortion as it crackled and sparked.

Jade suddenly pulled out her academy token which doubled as a badge, and quickly threw it in.

A few seconds later, the portal abruptly disappeared.

"Now,we wait"

Zen sat down and closed his eyes.

"Wake me if anything happens"

Jade rolled her eyes and shook Zen slightly to get his attention.

"Come on. If we sit down waiting in silence, things are gonna get depressing. Let's do something to pass the time"

The others seemed to agree with her idea and they all sat down in a small circle.

"Truth or dare?"

No one seemed to object, so they went ahead.

"I'll go first " Xavier rubbed his hands together before pointing to Maximilian.

"Truth or dare"

"Truth"

Maximilian answered without hesitation.

"Fine. Why do you keep avoiding the bathrooms?"

Zen looked at Maximilian. Ever since they met him,he seemed to have a problem with going to the restroom,or even passing by it. Even around his dorm mates, he'd always lock the door when he was going, and insist that they did the same.

Maximilian took a deep breath. He seemed a bit hesitant but in the end he answered.

"A few years back, when i had just got my ability. I was basically a rookie so i was practicing alone and then...i accidentally... peeked on my big sister...in the shower"

Xavier almost fell over from the response.

"You did what?!"

Maximilian was embarrassed by all the wierd looks he was getting and quickly explained himself.

"It was an accident. I had just got it, and the ability is harder to control than you think. I was literally almost a mile away and it still looked like i was right there.

"Did she catch you?" Sable asked, intrigued.

"She had the same ability AND more experience than me,of course she saw me too"

Xavier burst out laughing as he imagined Maximilian red in the face and his sister staring at him with no clothes on and murder in her eyes. Neo on the other hand was still a bit less obvious about it , but he still laughed.

"What happened next?"

"I ran like my life depended on it, she caught me almost immediately, and the worst part was she still didn't have any clothes on while chasing me"

"Let me guess, she told your parents?"

"Nah, she called me a little pervert, gave me a few hits on the head, and forced me to do all her laundry for months. Other than that she just got me to run errands for her, and whenever I said i didn't want to, she'd threaten to tell"

Xavier laughed a bit more and leaned in.

"Did you get a good look?"

A loud bang rang out as a punch landed on Xavier's face.

"Too good "

Xavier moved back while rubbing his face.

"Geez man,i was just asking an innocent question. At least now I know why you avoid things like that "

Maximilian rolled his eyes.

"Alright, next. You're up Zen. So what'll it be"

"Truth"

Xavier thought for a while before he finally found something he wanted to know.

"You're a member of the arcade, right?"

"Is that the question?"

"Forget it. Have you ever been caught or in prison?"

"Yes"

The entire room was in silence for a few seconds.

"Seriously?"

Zen looked at them strangely.

"I'm part of the world's largest terrorist organization. I honestly think it would be stranger if I hadn't been in prison"

"So...you...served out your sentence?"

"The sentence for any person with even a slight relationship with the arcade is either death or life"

"So how did you..."

"I broke out"

"Wait a minute? You staged a prison break?"

Zen kept talking like it was something casual.

"It was a prison kept seperate for prisoners without abilities, so it wasn't too difficult "

"How did you even get there?" Jade asked.

"It was part of our training. Something about learning to trust no one"

Theia suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Are you sure you should be telling the secrets of the big bad evil organization to a bunch of regular teenagers"

Zen shrugged and replied with his mind.

"I doubt they'd care"

Seeing that Xavier was about to ask something else, Zen shut him down.

"That was way more than one question"

"Fine, let's move on. Jade, your turn. Truth or dare?"

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

"No"

"Come on "

"I am not telling you how old my sister is "

Maximilian refused to answer Sable's question.

"Come on,i just want to know "

Maximilian shook his head. The look on Xavier's face was all he needed to know he'd regret answering if he did.

"Fine, you big baby. I'll pick something else"

Sable was about to ask a different question when they all suddenly felt tremors.

"Shit " Maximilian stood up.

"We've been spotted "

Although Zen and Neo didn't have Maximilian's senses, they could both sense the beasts coming to this place.

"What do we do?"

The most reasonable course of action would be to escape. They could try holding the beasts back, but it was only a matter of time before they reached here, and once they did, the room would blow up.

Zen walked up to the door and opened it, walking out.

"Guess we're doing this"

Everyone except Sable followed behind him.

They all walked under the hatch they had come from.

"Well on the bright side, it's pretty small, they won't be able to come all at on-"

As Neo was talking,a huge claw larger than a person suddenly poked out from the top, completely destroying the hatch.

"You were saying?"

Zen immediately threw a soul gun at the claw, landing a direct hit but barely scratching it.

The beast seemed enraged as it roared even louder.

"Out of the way"

Neo aimed at the opening the beast had come from and a second later it was suddenly gone. Unfortunately,so was the huge pile of rocks blocking the hatch, and one by one, smaller beasts started climbing in.

"Okay, that might have been a bad idea"

"You think?!"

"Focus" Zen broke up the argument.

[Charge]

Zen extended both his hands and started firing soul guns from both palms as fast as he could, releasing releasing a volley of black balls of energy towards the oncoming beasts.

Neo did his best to help but getting rid of the first beast had taken more out of him than he expected.

As seconds passed they were continuously pushed back.

"Zen,we have to leave!"

Zen looked at Neo and was already sure that he didn't have enough in him to get them out of here.

"I don't think we still have that option"

Maximilian and Xavier suddenly got what he meant and looked at Neo whose face said it all.

"Neo, get in, and try to recover as much as you can. We'll buy you time "

Neo hesitated a bit, but eventually listened.

Xavier, Maximilian and Jade were getting hits in whenever they could, helping to slow them as much as they could, but it looked like they'd eventually be overrun.

"Zen, we're running low. If we keep going like this,we won't have enough to escape with soul form"

Zen paused. Theia was saying the truth, he had already used almost half of his total energy.

His aura calmed down as he deactivated charge.

"One more attack. Then we leave"

Thiea nodded silently. Zen was saying that they were abandoning the others, but it was the only way.

"Black,get inside me" Zen warned.

Zen's left eye became pitch black with a blue iris as he gave the order to Theia.

[Equip soul: Freya]

[Gained lightning attribute]

[Gained passive effect: shock]

[All attacks now have a chance to stun enemies]

"I'm right here with you buddy,so there's nothing to be afraid of" Freya encouraged him, knowing what her ability did to him.

"Thank you"

Zen held both of his hands in front of him and started charging a more powerful soul gun.

A crackling sound escaped from his palms as a black spark appeared in his palm. Zen felt his fear act up and had the urge to drop it and escape or freeze up,but similar to the last time,it felt like someone or something was holding his hands in place in the correct position with the skills of someone with years of experience, like he instinctively knew what he was doing.

The spark started snowballing , rapidly increasing as black lightning surged, some brief sparks escaping and damaging the metal walls to the awe of the three that were with him.

"Get behind me,fast! As far as possible"

They didn't need to be told twice as they ran back to the room, closing the door just enough for them to see.

Zen took several deep breaths. Despite Freya's soul helping him tolerate the electricity,it didn't mean his fear was gone.

Zen's eyes glowed, one with a deep blue and the other with multiple colors. A low growl escaped his mouth as his aura skyrocketed despite him not using charge. The image of a terrifying beast appeared behind him as a visible trail of multicolored light escaped his mutated eye.

[Eye of the destroyer: Active]

A more deafening roar came from Zen, throwing all the beasts and even humans into immediate panicbut strangely his mouth was closed, he hadn't said anything. It had just appeared out of nowhere

When he felt like he was going to loose control, Zen released it with as much strength as he could muster, pushing it towards the beasts.

An epic boom reverberated throughout the tunnel as the beasts were completely engulfed in the bright light. Although Zen couldn't see what was happening, the constant exp notifications and the Sounds of beasts wailing was enough to let him know there was an effect.

This went on for a few seconds before eventually dying down and letting Zen see what happened.

Zen looked around and there were dozens of charred beast corpses on the ground, but looking deeper, Zen could see a small figure. With brown scales as resplendent and gold and a large body, Zen easily recognized what the beast looked like.

"Armadillo?"

Unlike all the other dead beasts in front of it, the armadillo beast wasn't even scratched, and even worse,all the beasts behind it were also safe.

"We did all we could, Zen. We have to go" Theia urged and Freya agreed with her.

Zen nodded and was about to move when he suddenly fell to his knees.

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

Zen felt like his entire world was crumbling as he found himself unable to stand straight. His eyes were turning,his ears were ringing and every muscle in his body was trembling in fear.

Zen suddenly realized what was happening. He had let go too early. Freya may have enabled him to ignore his fear, but the moment he unequipped her, the effects came crashing on him. Back in the desert and even in the dungeon, he had waited some time after he was out of battle before unequipping, and then he had immediately rested both his body and mind,but this time it had been too sudden, his body hadn't been able to adapt in time.

Everyone in his mind was panicking as they saw him on his knees.

"Zen,come on please. Listen,i can do it. I can equip Freya,all you have to do is authorize me,all you have to do is authorize me and I can save us"

"I...I..."

Everytime Zen tried to open his mouth to say something, the dizziness would get worse. His mind would be overwhelmed by visions of lightning and thunder, and all the chaos around him was making it worse. He was experiencing a sensory overload.

The beast in front of him seemed to notice his weakness, and stayed back, seemingly enjoying watching him suffer and struggle

"Kids!"

Zen suddenly heard a familiar voice, looking back he saw a familiar figure with mostly blonde hair.

"Aurora?"

The portal was open.

"Come on, Zen. We can escape. The portal is right there,you just have to push"

Zen struggled to stand up but he could only rest on the wall.

"Guess this is it. In the end i made the same choice,they escaped,i didn't... just like with my old...friends. Too bad i couldn't save them all"

A few blurry images went through his mind as Zen felt his vision blur.

A loud voice suddenly called out to him waking him up immediately.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

Zen's eyes burst open. There was a clear difference between this voice and Aurora's. He couldn't explain it but something about this person's voice struck his heart like an arrow... literally.

[-5 HP]

[Sensory overload resolved]

Zen felt everything quickly come back to him. Whatever ability that that person had used,it brought him back.

Zen suddenly felt someone touch his shoulder.

"We need to leave, now"

Zen looked back at the woman and noticed she looked a strangely familiar. Smooth face,blonde and white hair, and a fit physique... strangely familiar indeed

Zen looked at her hair a bit more and suddenly felt he might know why she looked so familiar.

Zen nodded and turned to leave with her as they both ran full speed towards the portal.

Looking back, Zen realized they were being chased by the armadillo beast.

"Don't look back, were gonna make it" The woman said.

They entered the room and Zen suddenly pulled out his throwing star.

As they jumped towards the portal, Zen threw it with as much force as he could towards the door that had closed behind them.

"What are you doing?"

"Finishing this"

[Flame strike]

Zen jumped into the portal with the young woman, disappearing from that planet .