Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2130: Asterope Faction

Grey and Reynolds were in good moods after wiping out a small number of Necromancers. There wasn’t even any powerhouse in the hideout, the strongest Necromancer was only a Peak Venerable but it didn’t sway the duo from killing them all. Grey loathed Necromancers even more than he hated Gnomes, this was something his friends were already aware of, and to be honest, most humans hated Necromancers, they had even tagged them the ’the betrayers of humanity.’

The duo left this region and headed for Alice. They initially came to take a stroll in the Aurora Continent while also catching up with Alice. Grey also suspected both Klaus and his mother were training somewhere in the Aurora Continent, he just didn’t know where and didn’t want to bother them since he felt they would return when they were done with their training sessions. Also, he knew Cory was still with his Teacher, and he wanted the little girl to stay with Eisendrache a little longer.

....

Dixon Region.

Asterope Faction, one of the leading Lightning Elemental Factions, was situated in the Dixon Region. When Grey and his friends first came to the Aurora Continent, they participated in a tournament that later gave them the opportunity they needed to join top Factions in the Aurora Continent and not be defenseless.

The Dixon Region was currently facing a crisis and being the top powerhouse in the region, it was the Asterope Faction’s job to deal with the dangers plaguing the region.

In the Aurora Continent, the Dixon Region is one of the regions with repeated Gnome attacks. The Asterope Faction had been investigating the reason behind the high frequency of Gnomes in that region but still haven’t been able to get any good reports.

In an open field.

A group of twelve people could be seen carefully passing through the open field as they studied everywhere.

The group had five ladies and seven young men, all wearing the same clothing attire with the insignia of the Asterope Faction embroidered on their clothes.

Alice was the one leading the group, taking a step, she paused and turned to one of the ladies beside her, ”Sara, still nothing?”

The young lady referred to as Sara, shook her head, ”No.” Following a brief pause she asked, ”Are you sure this is where you tracked it to?”

”Positive. I can sense it’s somewhere around her but I don’t know the exact location.” Alice was certain of her senses.

Sara brought out a large tablet that was well larger than a human head. Multiple intricate carvings were on the tablet. After bringing it out, she traced her fingers rapidly along a few of the carvings and it lit up. Array patterns floated out of the tablet, spreading across a hundred meters radius of the group.

A few hand seals later, she shook her head again.

Alice was a little disappointed, but didn’t give up hope, ”Don’t worry we’ll find them soon.”

”I hope so.” Sara dropped her head.

The group continued to search across the open field, every few days Sara would bring out her tablet and perform the same hand seals, the result being the same as the previous ones.

Just when she was thinking of joining the others to tell Alice they should return to the Faction, she sensed an anomaly. Even without Alice reminding her, she brought out the tablet on her own.

When Alice saw this, she knew there was a possibility Sara might’ve sensed something. She used her eyes to signal the others to not make any unnecessary movements so as not to cause any issues.

The array patterns on the tablet lit up after Sara followed the usual method, everything was going the same as before, until a change occurred. It was almost negligible, and if Sara wasn’t paying full attention, there was a good chance she would’ve missed it.

This time when the array patterns floated about a hundred meters radius, on a particular spot of the hundred meters radius was a spot that attracted almost all the floating array symbols.

”There.” Sara pointed in the direction the array lights were clustered together.

Alice, already aware of what she had to do, sent out a bolt of lightning in the direction of the cluster of lights. The lightning bolt seemingly struck empty air, but unlike what should’ve happened, the lightning bolt didn’t pass through the empty air, rather, it struck something heavy and stopped in its tracks.

After the attack connected, the image of a mound that had an opening large enough for Gnomes to squeeze through but too little for humans came to view.

”Wow, they can use ice in such a manner?” One of the young men in the group was taken aback after what was used as the camouflage for this mound. Although arrays were also used, the main concept of the camouflage was simple, it was made with a very thin layer of ice that perfectly reflected the open fields. It was so well done that it was basically impossible to even notice the anomaly unless someone mistakenly walks into it, or in this case, locates it with the help of a special array tablet like the one with Sara.

Alice was relieved to see the mound as well as the opening. It was easy to tell that this place was hidden by the Gnomes after they ran here.

”Prepare for a fight.” She warned the others before she steadied herself. She had been tracking these Gnomes for some days now and had traded blows with them on a few occasions and knew they were not easy to deal with.

”Don’t worry, we can deal with them.” One of the young men said confidently. This particular young man was the second strongest among them, and it was within reason he was confident, after all, he too was an Eighth stage Sovereign like Alice. If not for Alice’s Seelie, he believed he would’ve never lost to her.

”Lewis, we need to make sure we don’t make any mistakes.” Saying this, Alice turned to the group with a stern face, ”My command is law when we go into this place, don’t make me repeat myself when the fighting starts.”

Alice was well-known for her strict personality. She was well-known to be a battle maniac and in respect to actually commanding a troop, she was actually very good. Lucas had even suggested making her one of the Vice Generals. One has to know that only Peak Sovereigns can be considered for the positions of Generals or Vice Generals. Even someone as important as Grey wasn’t given that privilege, so it goes to show just how important that position was, yet Lucas didn’t even hesitate when he suggested it.

Alice declined the idea, saying she wanted to fight beside Grey and the others and didn’t want to be the one giving orders from the back. Lucas respected the young lady’s request and didn’t try to force the matter. Nonetheless, he still did send a message to the Faction Leader of the Asterope Faction to praise her abilities. This was also one of the reasons she was given a top position when she returned to the Faction. She wasn’t able to reject that one, sadly.

The young man called Lewis shrunk his neck when he heard Alice’s tone. During the past few days, there was a day he didn’t follow her commands and the punishment was a sparring session with her. He had thought it would be a normal sparring session, he never thought Alice was a crazy battle hungry young lady who was willing to fight over and over again for hours without rest.

Those few hours were the worst of his life. What was worse was that Alice was extraordinaryly strong, and she didn’t even try to hold back any of her punches. When he got mad at her and tried to reprimand her about her viciousness, she beat him even harder. Since then, he had concluded he would never offend this crazy lady ever again.

Sara and the others also shivered when they heard Alice’s threat. They all watched Lewis’s hours of torture and genuinely felt pity for him. It had to be said that Lewis was extremely arrogant and has been regarded as the leading genius of his generation even after Alice’s arrival in the Faction. He had a higher cultivation, better background and everything. However, he was blown away when Alice returned some months back in the Eighth stage of the Sovereign Plane, the same as himself. He was further flabbergasted when he found out he was weaker than her.

Everyone got their things in order before one of the Dual Elementalists among them used the earth element to skillfully control the opening on the mound, making it large enough to contain them. Alice took the lead, with the others following behind her in a careful manner. The tunnel under the mound was damp and moist, a pungent smell covered every part of the tunnel, making the group grimace in disgust.