AFFINITY: CHAOS

Chapter 173: Finding The Cause

Whoosh!

Grey heard the sound of the wind brushing against him quickly, looking around, he realized he was falling from the sky, and the ground was still at least over one thousand meters away.

‘Isn’t this a bit too extreme?’ He complained but still felt lucky that he had awakened his wind element which he quickly used to support himself thereby slowing down the speed of his descent.

Some seconds later, he landed softly on the ground like he was only taking a walk. After he got to the ground, he first stared at the sky, before observing his surroundings.

They were presently in a mountain range that stretched out as far as the eye could see, and they could hear the roars of different magical beasts.

‘This is a little different from the one I entered previously.’ thought Grey.

He waited for some seconds, but he didn’t hear the robotic voice he expected to hear. Without the voice, he wouldn’t know what this place was, and given how wide it was, he couldn’t explore it completely before the time they were supposed to spend in the trial land runs out.

‘There’s a building there.’ Void’s small voice brought Grey out of his thoughts.

Looking in the direction Void was pointing to, he saw the outline of a building at the top of a mountain not too far from the one he was currently standing on top of. Counting from the next mountain, it should be the second mountain away from the one he was currently standing on, although, this mountain was higher than them.

“I guess that should be our target.” Grey placed his hand on his chin while scrutinizing the mountain.

Without further delay, he started descending the mountain, heading towards the one with the building.

Twenty minutes later.

“Such a strange beast, it’s a shame it escaped once it realized I was stronger than it was.” Grey said while looking at the ruined area in front of him.

In the past twenty minutes, he had traveled more than halfway through the mountain and had encountered different beasts that were all around the Fourth to the Sixth stage of the Origin Plane, and he had unsurprisingly defeated them all. They weren’t even worth mentioning until he faced this previous one, it was a beast he hadn’t seen before and he hoped to capture it, but it escaped when it saw he was stronger than it was.

The beast stood on two legs like humans, it had a dog-like head, and two hands that had four fingers each. It stood at a height of almost two meters, and its body was a shade of blue and black, with blue taking the majority while black only covered up its chest and belly, as well as some parts of its face. It was surprisingly also a dual element magical beast, having the wind and earth element respectively.

‘Huh! We need to get going.’ Void looked towards the top of the mountain while talking.

“What’s up?” Grey asked after he had already started walking.

He didn’t know why Void said that they needed to get going, but he decided to start heading forward anyway, in case he needed to run, he’ll have a good head start.

‘Looks like one of them entered this place, and it is headed here very quickly.’ explained Void.

“Just one?” Grey wanted to get a confirmation of the number.

If only one of them entered this place, then he wouldn’t mind killing it. After all, the only reason he was running away was that they were just too many, and he couldn’t fight against them.

‘Yes, but since one of them is here, it wouldn’t take long for the others to come in here as well. The sooner we leave this place the better.’ Void advised.

“No.” Grey shook his head.

He initially thought of killing the first one, but after hearing Void’s statement, he changed his mind because he knew he was right.

“The sooner we find out why they’re chasing after us, and how they keep finding us, the better. We can’t keep running forever.” He added.

When they entered this place, he realized something, although one of the frogs attacked Neil when it saw him, it didn’t go after him, rather, it continued chasing Grey. It was like they were only focused on him, and him alone. He had tried hiding his aura, but they keep finding him, now even after entering one of twelve lights which he felt should be able to hide him from them, they are still able to come after him.

‘There must be something giving me away.’ He fell deeply in thoughts.

Being chased wasn’t a good feeling, and although he was starting to get used to it due to how frequently he was getting chased, it still wasn’t a good feeling.

‘Another one’s in.’ Void said after a brief lapse of silence.

‘Could it be the things I took from the lab?’ Grey asked himself while moving forward slowly.

“By any chance, do you think they’re able to find us because of the items we took from the lab?” He asked, thinking this was the most plausible explanation.

‘Another three now. Sorry, what did you say?’ Void who was focused on sensing the beasts that were entering the place was unable to properly hear what Grey said.

Grey repeated the question once again.

‘That…might be a possibility, but we really can’t be too sure.’ Void said.

“Then there’s only one way to find out.”

Five minutes later.

Grey was currently almost at the foot of the mountain, but Void was unexpectedly not with him.

‘Can you hear me?’ He transmitted his voice over to Void who was nowhere to be seen.

Over one kilometer away from Grey’s position, Void could be seen jumping from tree to tree with a grumpy face.

‘Yes.’ He replied grumpily.

Grey chuckled on hearing how he responded, he was still left speechless by Void’s obsession over shiny things.

After he thought of the possible reason they were being chased and found by the beasts, he suggested that he and Void should head in two separate ways with each carrying one of the items he took from the lab. The second Void heard his suggestion, he instantly voted to be the one to take the blade while Grey took the glass tube that held the lizard.

Grey naturally wouldn’t agree to this, and after spending almost one minute arguing who would take the blade, he won. The reason for that was because the blade was in his storage ring.

He was praying fervently, hoping the beasts don’t come after him, because the thought of discarding such a great weapon was already giving him a heartache.

‘It’s amazing how we can communicate even from such a far distance.’ Grey said trying to get Void’s mind off the blade to help lighten his mood.

Void is truly a great companion, and other than his love for shiny things, he was great. Grey isn’t even bothered about it, since everyone has something they love. Although, there’s a high chance that Void’s obsession would get him in trouble, just like with the Lightning Apes.

‘Yeah, I didn’t think we would still be able to communicate even from this distance.’ replied Void.

They soon focused on speaking about the mind link, and its possible limitations which slowly took Void’s mind off of the blade.

‘I’m almost at the next mountain, what next?’ Void asked as he appeared at the foot of the mountain knowing another side, preparing to head into the next mountain.

‘Wait there.’ replied Grey.

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At first, Void suggested that after he was a good distance away from Grey’s location, he would drop the glass tube and head back since he felt the glass tube containing the lizard was the most likely item that was attracting the beasts. But Grey rejected it since he couldn’t take the risk. What if after dropping the glass tube, the beasts still chase after him? Wouldn’t that mean he’ll lose both the body of the lizard as well as the sword?

Grey and Void patiently waited on two separate mountains, the mountains they were currently on was not in the direction of the building, so even if the beasts finds them, after discarding the item, they would head towards the mountain, besides, they could still communicate, and once they get close to one another, they could sense each other.

Ten minutes later.

Rustle!

Grey who had his eyes closed, sitting in a crossed leg position opened his eyes and his face turned sour when he heard the rustling of grass when stepped on.

‘Don’t tell me the blade is the reason they’re chasing after me.’ He shook his head feeling a little dejected.

This was a multi-elemental weapon, the first he had ever seen or heard of. It would be bad if he were to give it up.

‘They’re headed in my direction, I’ve discarded the glass tube.’

Just when Grey was starting to think of what to do, he heard Void’s voice and couldn’t help but sigh in relief. If the beasts went after Void, it only meant they were after the glass tube holding the lizard all along.

‘If they went after Void, then what’s coming towards me?’