The Astral soul system

Chapter 241: What a night

Ava let out a breath as her body and mind finally calmed down

"What in the actual hell was that?"

Ava rolled her eyes, ignoring the AI and bending over to pick a piece of her destroyed house... whatever it was

"Hey, don’t you pretend you can’t hear me. I’m talking to you"

But she still didn’t reply, moving around, trying to pick up some scraps and junk that remained of her place

"Hey,do you think this came from a table?"

She asked, looking down at a strange piece

"Maybe a.... desktop or even -"

"You almost got killed! If he hadn’t bought your bluff -"

"But I didn’t,okay? Jeez,I never get to do anything around here. You sound just like my mom"

Ava said, giving up on her clean up and crashing down into a mostly undamaged chair

"We both know your mom wouldn’t care about this so don’t compare me to her"

"Yes ma’am"

Ava groaned, rolling her eyes again

"You know, one of these days I’m seriously going to go through with rebooting you, maybe program you to be a bit nicer"

Nina sighed

"Look at this place "

Ava still didn’t react like her words meant much,eyes glancing over the room for a few seconds before replying, her tone even flatter than usual

"Yeah, almost looks like i threw a party"

Nina groaned. It felt like she was trying to communicate with a brick wall, even moreso than usual

"Look, I’m fine. And I got more data to use next time"

"He didn’t hesitate. He took every chance he got to kill you and then you kissed him. And what do you mean next time?"

"You heard him, didn’t you? He’ll try again, and I have to be ready"

Nina scoffed

"No you have to get help. Get someone else to deal with his crazy ass,hire a merc if you have to "

Ava chuckled

"What next, you’ll tell me to hand over the evidence to the authorities and let them deal with it?"

"Well you definitely could. You have enough evidence to at least start an investigation, and it won’t take long before they find the conveniently placed tattoo "

"..."

"But you’re not going to do that because you have issues with authority "

"I can deal with this Nina...myself "

"And if you end up dead?"

"Then you deal with it. You-have access to everything I have and you can do whatever you wish with it if I fail"

Nina sighed, hearing Ava’s usually stoic voice crack

"You know I’m going to bring this up again literally every chance I get"

Ava let out what looked like a smile

She looked around the room again, thinking about how most of the rest of the place was like this and sighed

"Screw this, I’ll clean up in the morning "

She said, curling up into the side of the chair that was still slightly smoldering,too lazy to make it to the bedroom which was in a similar state anyway

Nina knew that by "Clean up" she was really just going to build a machine to do it for her, but she didn’t say anything.

Before she could doze off though, Nina asked something

"But what was with the kiss?"

Ava gave a mischievous smirk

"Oh, just a little something extra."

She said,her voice implying she was hiding something, but she didn’t give any explanation, going back to sleep

"So you just gave away your first for a little something extra ?"

Ava didn’t respond this time though

"You are seriously weird"

********

A distance away from Ava’s house,close to the school,a dark figure suddenly appeared on top of a building, seemingly out of thin air.

The arcade uniform had already been recalled so the only thing covering their face was their hood

"Well that went poorly"

Theia said, appearing in front of them.

"We’re down to ten percent of our health,we lost all our beast crystals and got thoroughly humiliated"

When they didn’t reply, Theia got a bit worried, flying closer

"Guys? We good?"

She looked under the hood, seeing their eyes were strangely vacant, with no light or color, almost like none of them were in there

After a few seconds,a voice finally slipped out

"An interesting encounter"

"Interesting? We got our ass handed to us"

"She could have killed us... exciting"

They finally relaxed, sitting on the rooftop more comfortably

"So was this a fail?"

Zen shook his head

"Care to explain?"

But he didn’t reply

She sighed and continued

"At least we now have an estimate of her abilities. Self repairing robots, lasers and all kinds of weapons. She’s quick on her feet too. She found a way to disable your shadow ability "

"She found a way to disable everything. Nothing they tried worked after the first attempt. This she-demonl is the worst kind of enemy. She learns from the opponent. The more you show her, the deeper of a pit you’re digging yourself in. I’ve seldom seen such an analytical mind in such a young vessel "

Zephyr said, though it was unsure whether he was praising or cursing her

"Her mind isn’t the only problem. She has resources. Those robots will probably all be replaced by morning and with everything she’s learned about you, the next attempt will be even more difficult,you might even lose"

A silence briefly took hold as no one else spoke after that,all in their own thoughts until

"So...are we gonna talk about the kiss or...?"

Hearing Freya bring it up, Theia finally stopped pretending it wasn’t eating her up inside

"Yes please! I nearly exploded"

She said before actually exploding into flashing lights. A few seconds later she reappeared,hands on her chin

"So,First kiss. How’d it feel?"

"I don’t think that’s what we should be talki-"

"Wait, wasn’t his first with that Celia girl?"

Freya growled, displeased just from the mention of the girl’s name

"That one doesn’t count, right?"

She asked (though it was less like asking and more like demanding the others agree with her)

"Well I wasn’t really awake for it so..."

Zyro said

"Oh yeah, and neither was Zaine,so I guess it is your first. But what about Zen?"

He didn’t respond however, still thinking.

"Zen!"

"Hmm?"

This time Freya called and he responded immediately, though it seems he hadn’t been listening so far

"Your first kiss?"

He still seemed confused, tilting his head

"You kissed that... thing"

Zen seemed to think it over for a second before shaking his head,then think again before nodding and shaking his head again

"What does that mean?"

"It wasn’t me"

He shrugged

"Ha!"

Freya exclaimed like she’d won some huge debate

"Right. He wasn’t even conscious back then. So it doesn’t count "

"I don’t know what you’re proud of. He didn’t kiss one psychopath, but he kissed another"

Lilith said, exasperated

Theia seemed curious and pressed further

"Do you remember it?"

He thought as hard as he could then shook his head. Even with his perfect memory, everything from the time he was locked up by murphy to unlocking the system was just a smudge in his mind.

"So, how did this one feel?"

That he didn’t answer

"Maybe we should get back on track"

Zephyr said

"Theia,can you scan me?"

"Huh? Why?"

"Just do it. My entire body"

Theia was a bit confused but started the process

"You do know that you actually have to do more than just kissing to get an S-"

[Anomaly detected]

"Huh?"

"What is it?"

"Something’s... moving inside you...lots of little somethings"

"What are they?"

Theia looked like she was looking closer at whatever it was

"It’s... small... really small"

"Is it carbon based? Or maybe graphene"

"It looks close"

He stopped asking questions, like he already had an idea of what it was.

"Nanites"

"But.. how?"

He brought his thumb to his lips, gently brushing it over them

"That would work i guess... but it’d have to be a very... intimate kiss, at least for you not to notice this many"

"..."

"Oh my Gaia ,it was!"

Theia exclaimed , which was quickly seconded by Freya, and soon enough he had another migraine

"What are they doing?"

He quickly changed the subject before his eardrums gave out

"They’re... coming together?"

"That’s what i felt. Nanites work better in tandem . What exactly are they doing?"

"Not sure. Many of them are grouping up in different places in your body, forming some weird structures and just...staying there "

"These structures,are they big enough for me to touch?"

"Yeah,i think "

Her eyes widened as he suddenly pulled out his sword

"Alright,tell me where they are"

"Are you insane?! Absolutely not!"

"I don’t know what their doing so I can’t let them stay inside. It’s a logical move"

"You’re on less than ten percent HP!"

"I’ve calculated the damage ,I have a high chance of survival. Proceed"

"What? No. Period, you’re insane. I don’t know why that suprises me at this point, but my answer is final"

"You cannot disobey your host’s orders"

Theia scowled at his perfectly expressionless face

"I also said I didn’t want to kill you which -"

"I can do it "

Black suddenly said

"Huh?"

"I can locate these bad things inside you and destroy them myself. It won’t cause any unnecessary damage. I’ll just consume them"

Theia seemed pleasantly surprised to hear this

"The alien parasite delivers again. Combat partner, master interrogater, multipurpose tool/weapon, field medic, reconnaissance scout and now surgical panacea. I didn’t think you could get any cooler"

"Do it"

Zen said immediately.

The parasite immediately got to work, minute amounts of the black substance closing in on the nanites.

Slowly and carefully, they approached, careful not to cause any extra damage. It slowly surrounded one, creating a complete cover around it before slowly closing in, successfully latching onto the nanite structure.

"I’ve got one. Now to-"

*Bang!*

Zen quickly clutched his chest, feeling like someone had just detonated a bomb inside him, and from the sound he just heard, that was likely the case

He felt iron in his mouth as his lungs worked to force the blood out. He opened his mouth, spitting out spurt after spurt of blood

Feeling the damage it had inadvertently done to it’s host, the parasite stopped immediately, not touching any of the others and moving to instead patched up the places the attack had been damaged. With his currently low energy reserves,he needed all the help he could get

"That was...a defense mechanism. If we try to interfere with whatever it is these things are doing or try to get rid of them

Theia didn’t finish but the answer was obvious

"How vicious "

Zephyr mused

"I think it’s better we leave them in,at least for now. And you three get some sleep

"..."

Slowly they came down from the top of the building, licking the blood off from their lips before looking to the road and walking back to the academy

What a night