AFFINITY: CHAOS

Mortar City.

Later that day.

Grey was still going through the book on arrays when Ellis suddenly approached him.

"Come on, let's go," Ellis said.

"Hmm," Grey raised his head to stare at the figure of Ellis. He could sense anxiety in his friend's demeanor, "I'm not fully certain that it will work, so don't get your hopes up, yet,"

"I know, but no one has said they could help with this, so even if you're not successful with what you want to try, I won't blame you," Ellis nodded.

"It's good you understand," Grey said before following Ellis out of the room. On their way out, Ellis started to tell him about his family and the problem with his uncle.

Ellis' uncle was out of the mansion, just as he predicted, and this was the best time he had to take Grey over to his father. Even though his father and uncle are brothers, because of who would lead the family, they started to drift apart.

The drift became more apparent when Ellis was born, he was on a whole new level when compared to his uncle's son who was a year older. Even as a child, everyone could tell that he would be more talented than his brother. The only consolation he got was Ellis somewhat feminine voice, but it didn't change anything. In the end, it was just as everyone predicted, Ellis was well ahead of his cousin in terms of strength and talent.

Ellis had an elder brother and sister, but they were both killed when they went out for a mission a few years after he was born. It was a strange event in the family, but at that time, they were dealing with an enemy, and they knew the chances of them being killed by the said enemy was very high.

The O'Brien family isn't the most loved family across the Aurora Continent, it was evident from how Ellis told Grey not to ask of them in other continents apart from the Southern.

According to Ellis, one of his family's ancestors made a mistake during the great war of the gods, causing heavy casualties to the other families. Even though he rectified it at the cost of his own life, it still wasn't enough to dispel the hatred and doubt that grew in the minds of the other families.

Some of the families thought it was a plot to weaken their strength, even to this day they still speak ill of the O'Brien family. The Southern Continent is the home of the O'Brien family, but if they go out of the continent, they're mindful of their actions since they weren't really on the good side of the other families.

….

Grey was both shocked and astounded by what he was hearing, it was only after hearing this did he realize why Ellis told him not to speak of the O'Brien family outside of the Southern Continent. If he had made the mistake, then he might've been attacked by some people who still held a grudge against them.

They continued speaking as Ellis took him through the long hallway, going through a series of doors before getting to a larger hallway.

"Wait," Ellis stopped, peeping ahead of them to see what was ahead of them.

Grey could hear at least three voices, but he was still behind so he didn't know which people were there, nor if they had gotten to where they were going.

"Alright, I'll try to see if I can distract the guards. I'll take them to the next hallway, but you will only have a timeframe of a few seconds or a minute at least to enter the room," Ellis said.

Grey nodded, before preparing himself for his task.

"Oh, before I forget, there's an array that would notify the Elders once someone new enters the room. It's made to sense the essence of the person going in, so you can't escape it," Ellis added.

Grey paused, staring at Ellis with a long face.

"What? I forgot about it since I'm part of the family. You're lucky I remembered now, what if you went in without knowing this?" Ellis raised a brow.

Grey shook his head before dragging Ellis back and taking his position.

"I'll try to study the array from here and see how I can maneuver through it," Grey said.

"Okay, but try to be fast. Time's not something we have right now," Ellis looked behind them warily.

Grey gently sent out his spiritual senses, slowly taking it over to where the room was located. He made sure to avoid the guards who were standing at the front of the door. If his spiritual sense was to touch them, they would definitely sense it, given their strength.

As soon as his spiritual senses got close to the room, he started to feel the array in the room. The array almost gave off the alarm, luckily, he called back his spiritual senses quickly.

'Hmm, I'll still need to probe it a few more times before trying to block it,' Grey thought while running multiple simulations of arrays in his head before he tried to probe the array once again.

Just like the first time, the array almost gave off the alarm, but he quickly called back his spiritual senses. After a minute-plus of probing repeatedly, Grey managed to think of a way to slightly escape the array. But only after trying will he know if it would work.

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"Aren't you ready yet?" Ellis asked while looking around.

"I'm not too confident about it. Although I don't like doing things I'm not certain of, we have no choice. Come on, let's go," Grey said.

Ellis nodded before jokingly saying, "Even if you were caught, I'll come out to take the blame. At most my uncle will kick me out of the family, he has been searching for an opportunity since I returned,"

"Let's hope it doesn't get to that stage," Grey said before taking in a deep breath.

Seeing that Grey was ready, Ellis walked out, heading towards the three guards at the door.

"Three of you, come with me, I noticed something a few rooms away," Ellis ordered.

"I'm sorry Young Lord, but we can't leave our position, you can call the other guards," One of the guards said.

"I wonder what my uncle will say when he finds out that because of you three, a thief infiltrated the mansion," Ellis sneered before turning around decisively.

Now, it was time to see if his plan will work or not.