Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 1977: None In The City

Velin City.

Grey returned to the City without the shopkeeper in tow. He wanted to personally investigate this family first before making a move. The shopkeeper mentioned they were the top Family in the City, getting information on them should be easy, or so Grey thought. After asking a few Necromancers, as well as even some Gnomes, Grey realized he could not get a single information regarding this Family. Yes, they were the top Family, and their compound was within the City.

This Family is mostly reclusive, barely interacting with others in the City. It is rumored they only have dealings with the Royal Family and are held in high esteem there. Grey asked around as to why the Royal Family would give this Family preferential treatment, only to discover they had some connections to the last Gnome who became a God Plane expert. It has been a few hundred years since then, astounding Grey.

In the Human World, the God Plane is like a myth. If not for the fact that there were actual records of past God Plane experts, they would have stopped believing there was a Plane above the Half God Plane. The Gnome World was different, according to what Grey found out, every few hundred years or so, a God Plane expert would appear. There were no records of the expert’s whereabouts after their initial appearance which was a little strange.

‘If they have God Plane experts, how come they haven’t conquered our world yet?’ This question rose in Grey’s heart.

It was normal to have such thoughts, after all, with a God Plane expert coming to the fray, he felt Humans would have no way of fighting back, unlike the present scenario.

Tossing all that to the back of his head, he decided to scout the compound where the Family was situated. Being unable to gather any tangible information outside, his best bet was to look around the compound.

The location of the compound was at the northern part of the City, an area that had very few houses. Getting the compound, he realized it was almost twice the size of the compound where he found the Old Man and the two Young Ladies from the Moonlight Faction. This alone showed their strength in comparison to the latter Family. It had thick walls that were well over fifteen meters tall, making it impossible to see what was inside unless one was flying in the sky. In this City, flying was prohibited just like in most Cities. The walls were quite sturdy just from a glance, not just that, they also gave off a subtle fluctuation that most would miss.

‘A detection array?’ He raised a brow. Being an Arraymaster in his own right, he could tell from a glance that the array activated on this wall was none other than a detection array. The moment anyone tries to sneak into the compound, they would be detected almost immediately by the creator of the array. Even given Grey’s mastery in array formations, he was stumped by this. He would need to inspect the array to find the weak spots. Unfortunately, he could tell that the moment his Mental Sense touches the wall, it would alert the creator of the array.

He sent a voice transmission to Void, ‘Can you go through this array without being detected?’

Over the years, he had seen Void negate most array formations like they were nothing. This has helped them acquire quite a bit of good things as well.

Void appeared, staring at the wall before nodding almost a minute later.

Grey was elated hearing this, although it was within his expectations, he transmitted, ‘Since you can, go search for the Principal. You should be able to take him out of this place, correct?’

Void nodded before disappearing from the spot. Grey looked for an alley about a hundred and fifty meters away from the wall. Standing so close to the wall will surely arouse the suspicion of those inside. Not wanting to draw attention to himself, he moved away. After getting to the alley, he called out the Bunny Leader to ask him a few questions regarding how they were able to pass through arrays in such a seamless manner. Other than Void, the Bunny Leader was also an expert in passing through array formations.

‘Innate ability?’ The reply of the Bunny Leader left Grey disappointed. An innate ability is not something that could be passed on. He could imitate it though, only the chances of imitating something this high end is pretty low.

He had once imitated one of Void’s innate abilities, which was using the space element to create small spatial openings around himself to send attacks back to whoever sends them. Sadly, against powerful opponents, the spatial openings are unable to contain these attacks. In fact, once the attacks get into these openings, they become more dangerous and Grey risked creating spatial tears that even he did not want to fall into. He might be a space element, but he was not willing to fall into the void.

Whilst conversing with the Bunny Leader, he received a voice transmission from Void. According to Void, the Principal is indeed in the compound which was good news, the bad news was that it was impossible for him to take the Principal out reason being he was part of a complex array. From what Void said, the Principal’s essence source seems to be connected to this array formation and it was draining it bit by bit.

Grey’s expression turned sour after receiving this information. Void was not good with array formations, so there was no way to get him to help the Principal out of his plight. Only Grey could do so in the current situation.

‘Do you have any idea of the number of experts present in the compound?’ Grey inquired.

‘I can sense two Peak Sovereigns, the rest are below the Eighth stage.’ Void replied after a short silence.

Grey turned to look at the Bunny Leader and asked, “Is there a way you can sense if there are any Half God Plane experts in that compound?”

The Bunny Leader looked in the direction Grey pointed in and shook his head, “There is no Half God Plane present in this City at the moment.”

“Wait… are you certain?” Grey was astounded by this news. If he had known there were no Half God Plane experts in the City, he would not have been acting in such a mild manner. Take for instance, when he knew there were no Peak Sovereigns in the compound where the two Young Ladies and the Old Man were taken to, he brazenly entered the compound. Albeit making sure he was not seen, he had nothing to worry about since he knew even if he was seen, he could easily deal with the people.

Knowing that the Principal is here and also finding out none of the Half God Plane experts were in the City filled him with assurance. He was certain as long as he was careful, he could take the Principal away without too many dangers. A fight against a Peak Sovereign is not something he could win, running away however, is something he was confident he could do. Even when he was being hunted by that Peak Sovereign who could seal space back at True Dawn, he was still able to escape. Now, he even had four six-colored fusion orbs with him which further boosted his confidence.

Grey calmed the waves in his heart and instead of rushing into the compound, he started to create a teleportation array in the alley. He needed to make sure his escape route was guaranteed before making any rash actions. The reason he came to the Gnome World was purely to rescue the Principal. To be honest, he was even shocked at how well things were going. He did not even need Brown to take him to the place where she last saw the Principal, nor has he had any exchange with any top experts. From his point of view, things could not be any better. Of course, this was not reason to be complacent as things could change at any given time.

It took only a minute or so to arrange the array formation. The formation would be taking him to the cave where the shopkeeper was kept, since it was not a long distance teleportation array, it took a shorter time to make.

After completing the array formation, he arranged his hair and strode to the gate of the compound. When inspecting this place, he walked past the two guards standing outside the gate.

Seeing Grey walk over, the two guards stared at him coldly, “You, Human, what are you doing here?”

They found him suspicious, after all, he had walked past some minutes back. Coming again after walking past was a little strange.

“I’m here under the orders of His Highness the Seventh Prince to retrieve an item.” Grey flashed the Seventh Prince’s token that was with him.