"BOOM!!!!!!!"
The ground literally around her literally shattered as a loud sonic boom rang out through the entire auditorium, followed by a mini earthquake which caused everyone in the auditorium to shake and tremble,with some of the the weaker ones even throwing up.
Aurora smiled as she looked at the students who had immediately stopped fighting with each other.
She leisurely started walking among them.
"Alright, that's enough! That's an order!"
Keith realized that his time was up, and guessed that Zen must have known about this.
He suddenly started clapping.
"Good,good. This was really fun, don't you think? However, I'm ashamed to admit that I'm not quite done yet"
Faster than anyone could react, Keith suddenly threw something in his hand with as much force as he could muster to, Zen.
Zen raised a brow as he easily caught the crystalline ball in his left hand.
"That....is an ability circuit. Many of you may recognize it as the source of humanity's power"
Zen's confused expression suddenly disappeared as he realized what Keith was doing. The hand he had caught it in just so happened to be the one that currently wasn't covered with the glove
Everyone in the auditorium suddenly went quiet and watched in horror as the pristine crystal ball in Zen's hand slowly began to loose its shine. Slowly but surely,its usual glimmering exterior faded completely, causing it to resemble a simple rock, and finally, the rock in his hand gradually turned to dust, getting blown away in the wind.
"...."
"...."
"..."
The entire auditorium was silent, even Aurora couldn't say anything and just watched in silence,however it only lasted for a few seconds before another uproar began, one even more chaotic than before.
"What the fuck is that?!!!!!"
"He's a monster!!!"
"That shouldn't be possible!!!"
Zen stared at Keith who was smiling ear to ear. He had long realized what Keith was up to. By doing this, he was practically turning the entire school against him.
People feared what they didn't understand, and hated what they feared. Something like this had never been recorded in history.
He knew it wouldn't take long for people to start avoiding and ostracizing him, afraid of the possibility that he could do the same thing to people with abilities.
It wouldn't be long until...
[Ice magic affinity: +0.2]
[SP: +20]
[Max SP: +0.02]
[No soul found]
Wait?...what?
Zen looked at the notification,suprised. What was this?
He would have spent more time thinking about this, but time was the one thing he didn't have.
"What's wrong, Zen? Now, everyone knows why you don't have an ability"
Zen simply shrugged.
"And you wonder why you were abandoned, and banished"
Zen seemed to have struck a nerve when he mentioned Keith's banishment
Keith suddenly charged at Zen, completely ignoring Aurora's orders.
Zen stared at Keith dead in the eye as he swung at him, and at the last second
"Dash" He softly whispered, and instantly appeared behind Keith.
"You'll always be a failure" Zen spat coldly as he stared at Zen, his eyes glowing ominously.
[Sledgehammer]
Zen's body moved instinctively as he readied for his strike..... the part people could see, anyway.
Left foot back, right foot front. Arm muscles tensed. Right fist positioned in an uppercut position, but facing forward instead of upward. Waist turned slightly.
Zen finished all these in less than a second, and before Keith could turn back, he struck true towards Zen's back.
*Bang!*
A sound resembling a canon firing was released as Zen's fist was released.
Keith's body was flung like a ragdoll as he flew across the room, lifelessly laying on the ground.
Keith slowly shook as he attempted to get up.
"Stay down"
Zen suddenly planted his foot on Keith's back, forcing him back onto the ground as he crushed him under his heel.
Keith gritted his teeth and stayed down. He could easily have just used his ability and escaped but didn't for some reason and just stared up at Zen with gritted teeth.
"You'll never win. You were unworthy, your banishment was justified....as was the death of your family"
Zen seemed to have lost interest as he started walking away, leaving Keith on the ground there.
"You're going to regret this, Zen! Guess what? In this place, you're completely at my mercy. Neither Q,nor those bitches you call family can protect you,cause there all dead! Everyone you've ever cared about is dead!!! Because of YOU!!! Everyone dies and suffers around you !!! They may not know, but I do!!!"
Seeing that Zen still didn't turn back to face him, Keith felt insulted and said.
"You still don't get it,do you? YOU'RE FIGHTING ALL ALONE HERE!!!"
Zen finally stopped walking and turned his head to face Keith.
Keith's breath suddenly hitched as he saw an expression on Zen's face that he both hadn't seen in years, and prayed never to see again. A simple smile.
"You're right"
Zen spoke slowly
"I am all alone.... and for that, you should be grateful"
Zen's usual indifferent expression immediately came back.
With that, Zen walked to the door of the auditorium without any trouble or obstruction as every student made way for him. Aurora watched this happen and could only sigh. In a way, this was the best thing that could be done at this point. She looked at Keith who was getting up slowly and realized that this wasn't over, and that she wouldn't be able to stop whatever was going on between the two of them as unlike other first year-second year interactions, this, was PERSONAL.
Zaria felt exhausted. She felt like ever since she met Zen, her BPM had skyrocketed.
She coincidentally managed to lock eyes with her roommate, Diane who was gesturing for them to leave. Seeing no reason for them to stay, she nodded. Jade, luckily,was still asleep when the summon had been issued, and was already in their room,so they didn't have to look for her.
At the same time, Xavier and Maximilian found Neo and expecting Zen to be going back to the room,they all started leaving.
Slowly but surely,all the other students started leaving, the auditorium, however it was obvious that this experience would stay with them forever.
As soon as they got out, Xavier suddenly pulled Maximilian and Neo to a secluded corner.
"What's up?" Maximilian asked
Xavier laughed cheekily for a few second before he suddenly pulled two things out of his storage ring.
"Check it out"
Xavier said, showing off the metal staff and long spear that had been used against Zen during the fight.
"Are those what I think they are?"
"Oh yeah! I figured that since the second years are sooooo powerful, they wouldn't miss these two little things"
Xavier laughed a bit and extended the two weapons to his dorm mates.
"I already inspected them both, and they're definitely beast gear, and in pretty good condition too. So come on, Zen already has his throwing star and I have my gauntlets. You guys pick one each"
Neo and Maximilian were surprised that he'd do something like that, and Neo even tried to reject it.
"You really don't need to do that"
Xavier rolled his eyes
"Come on, you guys are my bros. Max, which one do you want?"
"I'll take the spear. Thanks "
Maximilian didn't bother being polite and took the spear ,placing it in his storage ring .
Neo looked flabbergasted, but eventually accepted it, thanking Xavier multiple times
"Haha, don't worry about it. Besides, you should really thank Zen. He had to tank the hits from those things like a total frickin' unit"
Neo nodded, making sure to remind himself to thank Zen when he could.
"Umm... could you hold onto this for me? I don't have a storage ring"
Neo asked to which Xavier gladly agreed, saying that they would fix that problem pretty soon.
**************
While his dorm mates and thought he'd go directly to his dorm, Zen had actually gone back to the cave that was actually a dungeon corpse, whatever that is.
Zen sat down on the leafy,grassy ground and let out a sigh.
"You okay, kid?" Freya asked.
Zen nodded.
"Nothing serious. I'll sleep it off"
Black slid off Zen's wrist and took a snake like shape.
"We could have killed him"
"No we couldn't" Zen layed down on his back and explained.
"Although he's a failed product, and in the grand scheme of things,an irrelevant, Keith still poses a significant threat to me. Also i can't kill him in public"
"Well then how should we go about it?"
Zen thought for a while before saying that he still wanted to focus on Clyde for now. He wanted to see how much he could milk him for, before trying anything else. Who knows? He might level up once or twice.
Now with time, Zen started thinking back to what happened in the auditorium, opened his system and checked the notification that popped out when he touched the aether circuit.
[Ice magic affinity: +0.2]
[SP: +20]
[Max SP: +0.02]
[No soul found]
Ice magic affinity? What was that? And what did it mean when it said no soul found. Did that mean he was able to gain souls from aether circuits? If so,then that was a real shame.
Due to his excellent memory, Zen could clearly remember that the number of different aether circuits that his adoptive parents had spent on him in hopes that one of them might bypass his mutation which Zen had started calling a curse since he first discovered it was approximately six hundred and seventy three, and every single one had failed.
The reason Zen thought it was a shame was because if he had possessed the system back then, that would have been over six hundred chances to obtain souls, and no matter how small the chance of obtaining souls was,six hundred wasn't a small number.
Regardless, Zen was too lazy to say anything more on the matter and quickly moved on from that issue.
Zen realized that he had nothing else to do, and after weighing his options, decided to do his daily quest, however looking at himself,he noticed.
"I'm filthy. Sigh. Those guys kept stepping on me and kicking me,and now my only clothes aside from my uniform are ruined"
Zen really didn't mind. He was almost always filthy before.
He was about to go when he noticed the crystal clear water of the pond.
"Hmmm. I wonder if I can drink this....or maybe wash my face"
Zen looked at the clear water and once again inspected it, only to come up with question marks.
"Is this even water?"
Zen thought as he slowly dipped one hand into it and was suprised as it started glowing even brighter than before
[Ding!]
[Origin pool located]
[Binding complete]
[Host has successfully been registered]
[Beginning quest]
[Objective:complete the task you have been summoned for]
[Reward: memory fragment]
[Host shall succeed once a satisfactory results is met]
[Punishment for failure: DEATH]
[Hint: Prove your wisdom]
"What?"
Zen immediately tried to remove his hand from the pond but realized he couldn't. He was stuck in place.
[Skill level to low]
"What skill?"
[Accessing origin pool]
[Energy supplemented for soul transport]
Zen suddenly realized what skill the system was talking about.
[Energy sufficient to sustain phantom form. Please Standby]
Zen watched the glow of the pool become brighter and brighter till it was blinding, and realized he didn't have much time,so with his last few seconds he spoke to Black.
"Black, I'm gonna be gone for a while. Make sure to protect my body at all costs. I don't know how long I'll be gone,so make sure you don't lea-"
Gone.