Beastmen Love-Chapter 199: Lost Soul

Claud and Kangki force themselves up and then try to go to Astri. But there’s an invisible shield, that when they touch it, they feel a strong wind and vibration pushing them away. They keep forcing to pass, and their clothes start to burn.

"ASTRI!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!!" Claud screams.

"YOU CAN’T DO THAT!!" Kangki says.

They start to feel their marks hurting. When they feel that pain, her spouses stand up and run stumbling on their feet, but not stopping even if they’re crawling on the ground.

Baal chuckles, even if he’s feeling his body being destroyed.

"You know that I won’t give up. That’s why you don’t let me go."

Astri doesn’t answer, and continues steady on her decision. Trusting what she’s feeling from Nature.

"I might take a long time to have a form again, and you too. But will they handle being without you for so long? Will they survive without you?" Baal says, laughing of her.

Her shine grows stronger and the lines holding Baal grow thicker. His line got weaker, but it doesn’t let go of her. He fights to keep his line still holding her. He believes that if he’s not going to get what he wanted, she won’t have what she wants either.

Xzan feels that something very bad is going to happen, Dante too. The guards can feel that if Claud and Kangki are that desperate it is because something bad is going to happen. So they decide to fight that shield, too.

"I’m going to be fine. He can’t kill me." She says in their minds, making them stop fighting the shield.

"But.. You might not handle.. or break your soul!" Kangki says, gasping for air.

"What does that mean?!" Lee says, holding his spousal mark, fallen on his knees and breathing heavily.

"I will be fine, loves. Trust me."

"BUT WE WON’T! I WON’T!! STOP THIS NOW!!" Kangki roars, fighting the shield again.

"Yes. Stop it. Don’t be selfish." Baal says, but his voice is trembling because his body is deformed, as he was melting slowly. His eyes are melting to his mouth, and mouth is going down to his neck.

"He needs to know what happens when he deals with Nature. He will never have a form again, because of what he did. Because Nature knows that he wanted to be stronger than his own creator." Astri explains.

Baal growls, angry with what heard, because he was believing that his body would have a form again somehow. That he was going to destroy something in her, too.

"I will never...give up on having a form." He says.

"I know. And I won’t ever give up on the people I love. I trust Nature more than anything, and I know I’ll be fine."

Her spouses are still trembling in fear, even though her voice is calm and reassured of what she’s saying. The pain on their spousal marks doesn’t let them trust her words entirely.

Astri neighs loudly, then her body shines strongly blinding them.

Baal’s body dissolves entirely and the fog fades away. She feels her consciousness fading, but also sensing like her body went into a void. As if an airplane exploded and her body was sucked out of it to the sky.

When everyone could see again, Astri’s Pegasus form was lying on the ground. They ran to her, feeling the most horrible pain on their hearts. It’s like their hearts are shattering, trying to rip their chest and come out.

They call for her, shaking her, but she doesn’t answer. They’re feeling like their heads want to explode, too.

"No... She can’t... No!!" Xzan says, watching her spouses crying desperate and feeling so much pain.

For them to be acting that way it is because she died. They’re feeling the backlash.

"NO!! SHE CAN’T BE DEAD!!" Dante cries, running to her, too.

Her spouses cry hugging her body somehow. They cry so desperate that the guards cry too, sensing their pain on the air. Galion wakes up, when he sees what is going on it was like his heart got empty.

Galion turns back into his human form and runs to Claud. He holds Claud’s shoulder, trying to share his pain and do what Claud did for him hundreds of years ago. Claud cries and cries, but he’s feeling that the pain is fading away slowly.

He rips his vest and looks at his chest. Her spousal mark is still there, its color is softer, but it is there.

"She’s not dead... She’s not dead!!" Claud says, then he pushes Dieg who was hugging at the end of her neck.

He puts his ear on her body. All of them look at their marks on each other’s marks to see that her mark isn’t gone. When a female dies, the spousal mark goes away from her spouses’ marks.

Claud can hear a faint heartbeat.

"She’s not dead. Astri is not dead." He affirms, and cleans his face.

He tries to do the chest compressions she taught them long ago, but when he checks her heartbeat again it’s the same thing. He does it again, and tries to hear her heartbeat once again. It doesn’t change. It keeps the same way. It’s not getting stronger or weaker.

"What is happening...?" He asks himself in loud voice.

"I believe that if she’s not dead. Then her soul... Her souls was shattered." Kangki answers.

"What...?" Everyone asks, confused.

"The Emperor absorbs souls to get more powerful. He connected his evil essence to us and was sucking our soul. He would end killing all of us. She made him connect the lines of evil to her, and suck her soul. But her soul is connected to Nature and he can’t have it. That’s why he lost his form, but he could break her soul and she could keep only part of it inside of her. Keeping her body alive." Kangki explains.

"What do we do now?" Beau asks.

"Yes. How can we complete her soul again?" Zin asks.

Shung and more other warriors from outside come inside. They were trying to break the gates for a long time. For some reason, the gate wasn’t bulging. The feathered beastmen was also feeling a shield repealing them from getting inside from the sky. They could only see what was happening from the sky.

When they watched Astri’s spouses crying desperate, the feathered beastmen couldn’t move for several moments. Not believing that she died. That’s when Shung and the others could finally open the gates and run inside.

"Astri... Astri!" He runs to her.

"I don’t.. I don’t know." Kangki answers Zin’s question.

"What do you mean? There must be something we could do. If her soul is shattered, we can make it back together." Lee says.

"Yes. I felt that he took my soul out of my body and she made it come back." Dante says.

"We can’t ask her to know how she did it. I’m old, lived long, but I never saw something like this happening. Her soul could be literally anywhere, now." Kangki answers.

"Like when I revived... I revived on a faraway place." Dieg softly says.

"You need to tell me what’s going on! What happened to her?! What happened?!" Shung asks, crying and touching Astri’s face.

Skalven and the others come outside, because it’s been sometime they didn’t hear anything else. Skalven panicked when he saw Astri not moving, and also demanded to know what happened.

Kangki and Claud had to explain everything again because he was the only one who understood what happened entirely, now. But as they explained, their voices cracked, feeling tears falling on their faces again.

"No.. She will never wake up again?" Skalven asks, feeling the panic raising to the point he wanted to scream.

"If it’s the same that happened to me, she will wake up somewhere. We just need to find her. Claud, Kangki try to find her. You can find her anywhere." Dieg says.

Claud and Kangki sit down, then breathe deeply to try to calm down their minds and hearts. They start to look after her soul. Claud is the one who knows better how to find a soul, he found her in another world, so he knows how to find her.

"This might take time. We should... Fix everything that was destroyed. Find a safe place for her to stay. And... tell the children." Galion softly says.

Everyone fell silent. How they can be strong for their children while they feel so shattered, too? However, they gathered the courage and determination to be strong for them. Be calm and find a solution. That’s what Astri would like them to do.

"She said.. That she would be fine. We need to trust her." Cyprian says.

The others nod and clean their tears, with a different resolution.

It was hard to watch the children crying on their mother, pleading for her to wake up. Atlas was crying, not being capable to say exactly what he wanted to say, but feeling everyone’s sadness, and for his mother not answering him.

"What are we going to say to our people? That she traveled again?" Shung asks.

"One day, they would find out we’re lying. We need to trust them and tell the truth. The truth will give them hope.." Lee answers.

Everyone need to have the faith that everyone is going to be all right.