Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2147: Cinderloch City’s Hidden Threat

The man’s screams eventually broke into broken sobs. Sweat soaked his clothes and pooled on the dusty floorboards of the second warehouse. Grey’s mental pressure remained steady, neither increasing nor decreasing, simply waiting with quiet patience.

”Last chance,” Grey said, his voice low and even. ”How do we enter without triggering the array?”

The captive’s voice came out hoarse and defeated. He reached into his storage ring with difficulty and produced a small, dark crystal. ”There’s a loose floorboard... third from the left under the broken shelf. Pour a drop of blood essence on it while using this. The array will open a path for ten seconds.”

Grey took the crystal and studied it for a long moment, eyes cold and assessing. A faint pulse ran through the brand he had left in the man’s consciousness, confirming the information was true.

”Good enough.”

He hauled the sealed man up by the collar and left the second warehouse with Reynolds close behind. They crossed the quiet streets quickly, keeping to the shadows between lanterns. A few late-night pedestrians passed without looking up. Within minutes they slipped back into the first building through the same upper window they had used before. The wide, empty floor looked unchanged. Moonlight still cut thin silver lines across the thick dust, and the air still carried the dry scent of old wood and neglect.

Grey moved straight to the corner he had marked earlier. He found the broken shelf exactly where the captive had described, counted the floorboards, and located the loose one. A small cut on the captive’s finger produced a single dark drop of blood. Grey forced a thin thread of blood essence through the man’s sealed body, mixed it with the power of the crystal, and let it fall onto the wood.

A section of the barrier opened. The floorboard sank with a soft, precise click, and part of the wooden floor slid aside without a sound, revealing a narrow stone stairway that descended into deeper darkness. A faint, cold draft rose from below, carrying the unmistakable scent of death, old blood, and something faintly chemical.

Grey glanced at Reynolds. ”Stay close.”

They descended in silence, the sealed captive dragged between them by a thread of wind elemental energy. The stairs were steep and uneven, the walls damp to the touch. After a short descent the passage opened into a low stone chamber lit by several dim greenish lamps fixed to the walls. The light they gave off was sickly and cold, casting long, distorted shadows across the floor.

Five figures stood around a rough stone table covered in black diagrams, sealed jars, and half-finished tools of their craft. Four of them radiated the aura of Seventh-stage Sovereigns. The fifth, standing at the head of the table with his back partially turned, was an Eighth-stage. The air in the chamber was heavy with the residual energy of dark techniques and the faint metallic smell of preserved flesh.

All five heads snapped up the moment Grey and Reynolds stepped fully into the chamber.

The Eighth-stage Necromancer’s eyes widened in shock. ”Who?!”

The moment the Necromancers noticed the condition of the captive, they immediately summoned their puppets.

Grey’s mental energy flared outward in a sharp, invisible wave that filled the entire chamber. The four Seventh-stage Necromancers froze in place as the connections to their puppets were severed for a critical second. Their bodies locked as if invisible chains had bound them.

Reynolds moved at the same instant. Lightning exploded from his body in a brilliant white-blue surge as he closed the distance on the two nearest Seventh-stage figures. His first strike took one cleanly through the chest, the lightning spear punching out the other side in a spray of blood and scorched cloth. The second man’s head was separated from his shoulders by a horizontal arc of condensed lightning before he could even raise a defense. Both bodies collapsed to the stone floor within the space of a single breath.

Grey appeared in front of the Eighth-stage Necromancer almost simultaneously. Blue flames and crackling lightning coiled tightly around his right arm as he drove an open palm forward. The Necromancer managed to form a hasty shield of black energy, thick and layered, but the shield shattered on contact like thin glass. Grey’s palm struck his chest with a deep, resonant impact and sent him crashing into the far wall hard enough to crack the ancient stone. Dust and small fragments rained down around him.

The remaining two Seventh-stage Necromancers broke free of the mental stun a second later and tried to flee toward a narrow side tunnel at the back of the chamber. Reynolds cut them off with a wide, crackling arc of lightning that filled the narrow space from wall to wall. One fell immediately, his body convulsing as the lightning tore through him. The last managed to raise a desperate barrier of bone and swirling darkness, only for Reynolds’s Elemental Warrior to appear behind him and drive its lightning fist cleanly through his back. The barrier collapsed. The Necromancer dropped without a sound.

Silence returned to the chamber in less than twenty seconds. The only remaining noise was the soft crackle of residual lightning and the uneven breathing of the two sealed captives.

The Eighth-stage Necromancer pushed himself up from the base of the cracked wall, blood running freely from the corner of his mouth and staining his dark robes. He looked at the four corpses scattered across the floor, then at Grey, and his face twisted with a mixture of rage and raw fear.

”You... you’re Grey Dawson...”

Grey did not answer. He stepped forward without hurry and sealed the man’s cultivation. The Eighth-stage Necromancer’s aura collapsed in an instant, leaving him slumped against the wall, completely unable to move.

Reynolds checked the side tunnel quickly, lightning still flickering around his hands, and returned a moment later. ”Clear. No one else down here.”

Grey scanned the stone table and the sealed jars with a brief glance. Most of the materials were the usual Necromancer items and bodies for experiments. Nothing suggested a larger force was expected anytime soon.

They dealt with the remaining traces, secured the two sealed captives, and left the underground chamber.

The next night, the bunny leader appeared on Grey’s shoulder while they were still in the city.

”He has left the Mayor’s manor. He’s heading in the direction of where you first sensed the Necromancers.”

Grey’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The western alley. The weathered building at the end of the long, narrow lane where he had first caught the unmistakable presence of Necromancers upon arriving in Cinderloch.

He looked at the two sealed captives they had retrieved from where they kept them the previous night, then at Reynolds.

”Looks like the other guy can’t wait till tomorrow.”