Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2112: Too Strong

”H... how?”

Grey lay on the ground of a small island, his chest rising up and down as he tried to catch his breath. His appearance was a mess, parts of his clothes were burnt, his hair stood straight. There were no signs of any injuries on his body, but he was drained.

Lucas stood in the air rubbing both palms together, ”Your strength is already almost the same as a Peak Sovereign. You only broke through a month or so before your return, correct?”

”Ye.. yes.” Grey still found it hard to speak.

”That’s impressive. Your cultivation isn’t fully polished yet in the Ninth stage. I’m certain in a few more months or a year you will be able to go toe to toe with a Peak Sovereign and not get beaten as badly as you were the last time with the emissary.” Lucas was amazed by Grey’s strength. He was aware of the trickery Grey used against his previous opponents, hence the reason for the latter part of his statement.

The emissary greatly underestimated Grey’s strength, and he was punished for it. The same could be said for Wilmot who also lost his life to Grey. In a fight between top expects, it was common knowledge that even something as little as a fraction of a second’s delay could not only turn the tide of the battle, it could also lead to death in a lot of cases.

Grey understood what his father meant and also felt the same way as well. Struggling to a sitting position, he raised his head to look at his father.

”How long do you think we have before Half God Plane Elementalists will join the fight?”

Lucas thought for a while and shook his head in uncertainty, ”I have no idea. It might be today, it might be in a hundred years.”

Standing beside Grey, he placed his palm on Grey’s hair, ”Don’t worry, we should still have a year.”

Raising his other hand, he spread out his five fingers, ”If my analysis is accurate, they would attack after five years.”

Not waiting for Grey to speak, he continued, ”They’ve been gathering a lot of resources towards improving the puppets, but I have a hunch that’s not the only thing they have up their sleeves which is far more dangerous than whatever...”

Grey listened to his father’s speculation without interfering. He was the one who told his father about the new set of puppets the Gnomes were creating to nullify Grey’s threat. Just like his father, he also had a suspicion that the Gnomes had something else planned.

The duo spend a few more minutes on the island discussing the current situation of the Gnomes. Grey even asked about the situation of the Aurora Continent and how the Magical Beasts in the Inner Circle were doing. According to his father, the Gnomes tried to set up a camp like they did in the Magical Beasts’ Forest located in the Azure Continent, but it ended in a crushing defeat.

There were countless powerful beings in the Magical Beasts’ Forest, it was within Grey’s expectations that the Gnomes failed in their attempt. The Aurora Continent wasn’t like the Azure Continent that had the main portal between the two worlds, so the number of top experts the Gnomes could send out there were limited. Although a few human top Families had defected to side with the Gnomes, the number of defenders in the Aurora Continent were more than a hundred times the number of experts present in the Azure Continent.

This was also one of the reasons the Gnomes had not started a full scale invasion. As long as the Half God Plane experts did not join the battles, it was impossible for the Gnomes to take over their world.

The Half God Plane experts were trying to minimize their losses hence their unwillingness to join the fray yet. On the side of the Gnomes, they were waiting to slowly drain the humans of their will to live. While the humans on the other hand were trying to groom a new set of Half God Plane Elementalists from the war to help them in the final battle against the Gnomes. The humans were also searching for means to permanently seal the barrier between the two worlds.

The duo returned to Red City when Grey was done resting.

Lucas had no new tasks for Grey, so he decided he would take the opportunity to try to comprehend the wood element. He was still very interested in it and spent most of his free time trying to comprehend the element.

Grey even took the chance to find Hugh so he could learn more from the latter only to find out he requested to be sent to the Aurora Continent to study some of the trees he had never seen before. With no other option, he could only rely on what he had previously learned, and also his own exploration of the element.

Two weeks went by peacefully without anyone disturbing Grey’s peace.

On this day while he was cultivating in his room, he heard a knock on his door.

Grey stood up and walked over to open the door, he already knew who was on the other side even before he opened it.

”You’re back.”

Reynolds grinned, ”Grey, how’ve you been?” He walked into the room without any invitation.

Grey closed the door and followed him inside the room, ”I’ve been good.” Taking a seat, he asked, ”How was your time with your family?”

Reynolds shrugged his shoulder, ”It was okay, boring, but okay. I couldn’t take the boredom any longer so I left.”

”Understandable.” Grey replied.

”What are you up to? Any task from the battlefield?” Reynolds picked up a bronze coin he saw on the small table in Grey’s room.

Grey hurriedly snatched it from his hand, ”I’m not done with this yet. Help is always needed on the battlefield, but dad doesn’t have any task for me, so I’m cultivating.”

Reynolds’s focus was on the coin, nodding absentmindedly, he pointed at the coin, ”Oh, what’s that coin?”

Grey held the coin with two fingers, ”I’m trying to replicate something one of my opponents did a while ago...”

Grey gave a short description of the function of the coin. It was like a spatial storage unit that could only store darkness elemental essence inside of it. What Grey was trying to replicate was Baern’s darkness domain that also had the ability to make one’s senses limited. If not for the puppet he used, he would’ve never been able to locate Baern. Of course, he would’ve destroyed the domain in the end if he couldn’t find Baern.

”The darkness element is a terrifying element.” Reynolds sighed after listening to Grey’s explanation. He had never thought of using something to impair one’s senses within a limited region. He couldn’t help but feel Baern’s domain’s special ability was quite hateful.

”All elements are terrifying, we just don’t know the limit of our elements yet. I sparred with my father some weeks ago and I saw him do things with his element that I’ve never seen or thought of before.” Grey didn’t think any element was more special. He felt each element has their unique traits which made them all special.

”Who won?” Reynolds curiously asked. Hearing that Grey had a sparring session with his father who was a Half God Plane expert didn’t really surprise him since this was not the first time Grey was sparring with his father.

”I lost, horribly.” Grey was dejected at the thought of how his father easily dealt with all his tricks and abilities. Of course, this was expected given his father’s higher cultivation. What made him feel depressed was that even when his father used the strength of a Peak Sovereign, he still wasn’t able to land a single attack. He had battled with other Peak Sovereigns before and even though he knew he was not on the same level strength-wise, he was confident he would land a blow or two in a fight.

Against his father however, he failed to land even one blow. He tried to goad his father into reducing his realm to the same as his own so he could get some revenge, but his father didn’t fall for it.

Reynolds saw Grey gritting his teeth and burst into laughter when he realized Grey was vexed by how strong his father was.

”Your father has been famous even before you were born, it’s normal for him to get the better of you each time.”

”Nonsense, against anyone else at the Peak of the Sovereign Plane I always have a chance.” Grey snorted.

”But you were unable to touch him while he used that level of strength.” Reynolds refuted.

”He’s not a Peak stage Sovereign, he’s a Half God Plane expert, it’s impossible for him to have the strength of a Peak stage Sovereign even if he tried.” Grey didn’t back down.

Reynolds in a mocking tone said, ”Just admit your father is too strong.”