Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2140: Rampaging Duo

While Grey finished dealing with the scarred Gnome, Alice and Reynolds tore through the ranks of the Sixth- and Seventh-stage Sovereign Gnomes without restraint.

The Gnomes could barely put up any real resistance against either of them. After only a few exchanges, the remaining members of the Asterope Faction, everyone except Lewis, who was still locked in a hard fight with the scout leader, stopped attacking and simply watched. Two figures wrapped in lightning moved through the ruined city like storms given human shape, cutting down Gnomes with ruthless efficiency. They had already known Alice was a frightening Lightning Elementalist. Watching Reynolds from the moment he first appeared until now left them completely stunned by the gap in power between themselves and the duo.

Reynolds noticed the Asterope group had stepped back and given them free rein. He threw his head back and laughed. The complex lightning armor covering his body suddenly detached, flowing outward and solidifying into a complete humanoid form made entirely of living lightning. The Elemental Warrior stood slightly taller than Reynolds himself. Reynolds continued to radiate the aura of an Eighth-stage Sovereign, while the Elemental Warrior gave off the clear pressure of a Seventh-stage. Growing an Elemental Warrior to that level inside the Sovereign Plane demanded enormous resources. That was one of the main reasons Reynolds spent so much time outside his Faction, he simply could not afford to feed its growth otherwise.

Alice glanced at the newly formed warrior and scoffed.

”Show off.”

A bone-chilling cold suddenly spread from the ground around her feet. Her Seelie appeared at her side. Its body had changed since the last time anyone in the group had seen it, now pure snow-white, radiating waves of intense cold that made the air itself sparkle with tiny ice crystals. The moment the Seelie fully materialized, it turned its head toward the nearest Sixth-stage Gnome. Frost raced across the Gnome’s body in an instant. He did not even have time to raise a defense before he was frozen solid, a look of shock still locked on his face.

Reynolds’s Elemental Warrior moved at the same time. It raised a majestic sword of condensed lightning and brought it down toward the head of a Seventh-stage Gnome. The Gnome twisted aside, trying to dodge, but the warrior, being pure lightning, moved far faster than flesh and blood. The sword continued its path.

The Gnome hurriedly formed thick strings of darkness that wrapped around the blade, stopping it only centimeters from his skull. The Elemental Warrior showed no reaction. Its free hand formed a spear of crackling lightning and thrust forward, aiming straight for the Gnome’s chest.

Still struggling to hold the sword, the Gnome’s heart raced as the spear closed in. He tried to throw himself backward, but the distance was too short and the warrior too fast. The lightning spear punched cleanly through his chest and exited from his back. Blood sprayed from both sides of the wound. A pained grunt escaped his lips. If he had moved even a fraction slower, the spear would have pierced his heart.

The Elemental Warrior gave him no chance to recover. It yanked the sword free from the darkness threads and swung it down again in a clean arc. The Gnome tried to retreat, but the spear still lodged in his chest suddenly transformed into writhing ropes of lightning that bound his arms and torso in place. He could not move, could not block.

His terrified scream cut off abruptly as the lightning sword severed his head. The head tumbled through the air, eyes still wide with despair, before hitting the broken stone below.

Sara and the rest of the Asterope squad watched in complete astonishment. Only a short time earlier they had been on the verge of being overwhelmed by these same Gnomes. Now Alice and Reynolds were carving through them as if the numerical advantage meant nothing.

When they finally looked for the reason this was possible, the sight that met them was even more shocking than the one-sided slaughter. The two Ninth-stage Sovereign Gnomes stood quietly beside the masked man, making no attempt to fight or flee. Their eyes were listless, the eyes of people who already knew they had lost everything.

”Did they say he’s Grey Dawson?” one of the women asked Sara, her voice low. Now that they finally had a moment to breathe, the name the scarred Gnome had shouted earlier came back to them.

Sara nodded slowly, still staring at the two defeated Ninth-stage Gnomes.

”That Grey Dawson?” a young man asked, surprise clear in his tone.

”Yes. Alice mentioned him a few times. I never thought he would actually show up here.” Sara’s answer confirmed what most of them had already begun to suspect. Grey’s name was well known among humans as well as Gnomes. His father was regarded as one of the strongest experts alive and had been the greatest genius of his generation until Grey appeared. Even without that lineage, many old experts who had seen Grey fight already ranked him among the greatest talents the world had produced in recent centuries.

”Is it normal for him to be that strong?” the Dual Elementalist asked, his mouth twitching slightly. He had not even seen how Grey had dealt with the two Ninth-stage Gnomes; the fights had ended too quickly.

The others joined the quiet discussion, almost forgetting that Alice and Reynolds were still finishing the remaining weaker Gnomes only a short distance away.

A few minutes later the last of the Sixth- and Seventh-stage Gnomes fell. Alice and Reynolds stood amid the scattered bodies, lightning and frost still fading from the air around them. Lewis needed a little longer, but after a brutal, drawn-out struggle he finally cut down the scout leader as well.

One by one, the surviving members of the Asterope squad gathered around Grey. The two sealed Ninth-stage Gnomes remained standing beside him in silence, their former power now completely locked away under the bright sunlight that filled the ruined underground city.