Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2004: Low On Time

The sudden revival of Klaus made everyone stop their battles. The silver robbed Gnome retreated after facing both of Klaus’s attacks, not daring to get close to him. He already found him troublesome while he was still a Seventh stage Sovereign, now that he had broken through to the Eighth stage, he felt his head ache just from the thought of dealing with him.

The Ninth stage Sovereign fighting with Reynolds cursed through clenched teeth at the sight of the retreating silver robbed Gnome, “Idiot.”

He had thought the former had successfully killed the talented Human and had even refined him into one of his Puppets. Not only did the idiot fail to refine the Human into his Puppet, he even failed to kill him as well! How useless could he be? A Ninth stage Sovereign failed to kill an injured Seventh stage Sovereign, then running away in fear as soon as the latter broke through to the Eighth stage of the Sovereign Plane. This was a stain to the Gnome Race!

Reynolds, finally getting his freedom from the Ninth stage Sovereign Gnome, rushed in Klaus’s direction. Alice did the same as well.

Contrary to Reynolds whose opponent held him down completely unscathed and was cursing at the silver robbed Gnome for failing, this Seventh stage Sovereign could care less if the silver robbed Gnome failed or succeeded, all he felt was pure joy that he did not have to try to stop Alice again. Presently, his left arm had gone limp, and he could barely maintain his posture as he swayed repeatedly. Had the battle continued for a minute longer, he was certain that he would not have been able to keep his life. Breathing heavily, he rushed to the side of the Ninth stage Sovereigns.

The Ninth stage Sovereign who was previously fighting with the Commander who was at the Peak of the Sovereign Plane was in an even worse condition than the Seventh stage Sovereign. Both his arms were missing, and there was a large injury on his chest. He also gave off the smell of roasted flesh as he was burnt repeatedly by the Peak Sovereign’s fire element. Compared to when they were originally fighting, the Peak Sovereign became somewhat desperate to rush to Klaus’s side, so he did not hold back one bit in each of his attacks. The Gnome had no choice but to take these attacks since he could not allow the Commander to interfere.

Seeing the sight of the retreating silver robbed Gnome, the impulse to strike him dead washed all over him. He made such a massive sacrifice, yet it was all in vain. If not for the fact that he kept his lost arms and was confident of reattaching them, there was a chance he might have already engaged in a life and death battle with the silver robbed Gnome.

When Reynolds arrived in front of Klaus, he gave him a deep glance before saying while placing his hand on Klaus’s shoulder, “You scared me there bud.”

Klaus’s cold expression softened when he saw the fear and concern in both Reynolds’s and Alice’s face. He felt a wave of emotions before apologizing, “I’m sorry, I had no choice.”

“What do you mean you had no choice?” Alice asked with a confused expression.

“I could have escaped when I noticed how dangerous his domain was, but I felt a slight sensation that as long as I stayed a little longer, I’ll break through. I just didn’t expect that I’d almost lose my life.” Klaus explained with a wry smile. In truth, even though he was weaker than the silver robbed Gnome, he indeed could at the very least escape from the Gnome’s domain range if he paid a little sacrifice. However, the second he was shrouded by the darkness domain, the feeling of breaking came. At first it was fleeting, but the longer he fought on, the more apparent it was. He knew that this was the best chance for him to get to the Eighth stage as if he missed this opportunity of using the pressure to stimulate himself, it would take him a little longer before he finally achieved the Eighth stage of the Sovereign Plane.

Pinning all his hopes on his great defensive capabilities, he decided to take the gamble of fighting it out with the Gnome. He did not expect that his defenses would not be able to last long enough for him to break through the bottleneck of the Seventh stage, which placed him in the precarious position. Luck and his quick-wittedness could actually be said to be the main reason he was able to succeed in the end. Had he not frozen his body to stop the corrosion of the darkness essence in his body, his core would have been corroded, cutting his future path as an Elementalist. Even if he managed to survive, his core would be damaged and there would be no way for him to advance ever again in the future.

His luck also made it possible that even when his body was absorbing the world essence around him, the Gnome was too focused in forming a connection between his supposed corpse and himself, failing to notice the slight change.

Alice glared coldly at Klaus when she heard that it was his greediness to break through to the Eighth stage that he almost lost his life, she almost had the urge of punching his face bloody.

The Commander and Hugh arrived at the time Klaus just finished explaining to the duo. The Commander could not help clicking his tongue at the boldness of Klaus. Daring to put his life on the line to make this breakthrough was beyond bold, it was not even borderline crazy, it was crazy!

From the first time he witnessed Klaus and the others in battle, he already knew that their futures were limitless, so he did not see the need to take such risks for just a breakthrough to the Eighth stage of the Sovereign Plane. He could tell that Klaus was below forty years of age, which was very young for a Sovereign. Most Sovereigns in the Early stages are well above a hundred years, the veteran Sovereign in the Late stages and above were mostly over five hundred years. Take him for example, he broke through to the Sovereign Plane at the young age of seventy, and it took him almost six hundred years to reach the Peak where he has been stuck for close to a century now.

Thinking about Klaus and the others having time, a tinge of sadness came over him. Yes, Klaus and the others were young and talented and with time they would surely be the pillars of the Human World someday, however, would they have that time?

At first he wanted to reprimand Klaus for taking such a foolish move, however when he thought about it, these youngsters did not have the luxury of time. The Human World was already in a state of chaos and those below the Sovereign Plane could barely keep their lives. Even some Half God Plane experts have died in the war, much less Late stage Sovereigns.

There was no other choice, they all had to increase their strengths, even if it meant taking drastic actions.

….

While Klaus and the others were facing off against the Gnomes in that part of the Magical Beast’s Forest.

In an alleyway inside a city in ruins, a flash of light suddenly appeared as a portal around two meters in radius suddenly appeared.

A Human figure walked out of the portal, accompanied by four other Humans. These people were none other than Grey and his entourage who were previously stuck in the Gnome World.

As soon as he appeared in the Human World again, he did not dare to drop his vigilance, carefully inspecting everywhere. Only after confirming that they were safe did he heave a sigh of relief. His entire body was wrecked, and even his clothes had dried up bloodstains on it, a clear sign that he had been involved in a fierce battle.

Grey fell on his back side, gasping heavily for breath. After taking Brown away, he used a series of teleportation arrays he had set up before and in an attempt to escape. Unfortunately, no matter how far he went, he still could not shake off the feeling of being monitored. Even Void and the Bunny Leader felt it as well. He was also overwhelmed with a deep sense of crisis, and it was during the process of taking the Principal and the others away did he understand the reason behind the deep sense of crisis.

He was hunted down by an expert that was strong enough to end his life in a matter of seconds. He only exchanged blows with him from a distance and he still suffered heavy losses. He was fortunate enough that he was already close to the long distance teleportation array he set up.