Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 2199: Solmara Region II

A few hours later, Grey, Reynolds, Ellis, and Ellis’s uncle stepped out of a wide tunnel entrance. Thick black smoke still drifted from the opening behind them, carrying the heavy stench of blood and burned flesh.

Ellis glanced back once and shook his head. ”I didn’t expect there to be this many.”

Earlier, after Grey pointed out the exact location where he sensed the Necromancers, the four of them had entered the canyon’s tunnel network. Ellis and his uncle had already spent days searching the area without success, so they were more than ready to finish the mission. Grey led the way through the twisting passages as if he had walked them before. His spiritual sense stretched far ahead, guiding them past dead ends and false routes until they reached a large underground chamber.

What waited inside was worse than any of them had imagined.

The cavern was vast, lit by dim greenish crystals embedded in the rock. Nearly a thousand living Necromancers moved between rows of stone platforms. On those platforms, and piled in the corners, lay thousands of corpses in various states of mutilation. Some still wore the remnants of human clothing. Others had been cut open and rearranged in ways that made the purpose of the place obvious. This was a research center. The Necromancers were experimenting on the dead.

The strongest aura among them belonged only to a Fifth-stage Sovereign. The rest were weaker. Even so, the sheer number and the oppressive atmosphere of death made the chamber feel heavier than many battlefields.

Grey did not waste time on words. He glanced at Reynolds and gave a short nod.

Reynolds’s Elemental Warrior appeared beside him in a crackle of lightning and immediately charged into the nearest group of Necromancers. It tore through them without restraint, lightning exploding outward with every swing. Grey moved at the same time. Short spatial shifts carried him across the chamber as fusion orbs and precise elemental strikes cut down anyone who tried to organize a defense. Ellis and his uncle joined the assault from the other side, their attacks clean and efficient.

The Necromancers tried to fight back, but the gap in strength was too large. The few who attempted to summon puppets barely managed to form them before Grey’s presence and the overwhelming speed of the attack left them no chance to use them properly. Within a short time the living Necromancers were either dead or dying.

One of the higher-ranked survivors tried to flee deeper into a side tunnel. Grey appeared in front of him and sealed the path with a spatial barrier. The man refused to answer any questions. When it became clear he would give no information, Grey ended it without hesitation.

After confirming no one else remained alive, they examined the chamber more carefully. Notes, incomplete formations, and the arrangement of the corpses all pointed to long-term experiments. Whatever the Necromancers had been trying to achieve, it ended here. Because of the large number of mutilated bodies, they decided against leaving anything behind. Grey and Reynolds set the entire chamber ablaze with controlled flames, making sure both the corpses and the dead Necromancers were reduced to ash.

When they finally stepped back out into the canyon air, the smoke still followed them.

Grey looked at Ellis. ”Is there anything else you need to do here, or should we return?”

”We’re done,” Ellis answered. ”Let’s go back.”

Grey nodded and led them to a quiet, sheltered spot some distance from the tunnel. Ellis’s uncle frowned.

”What are we doing here?”

”Flying back would take too long,” Grey said. ”I set up a small teleportation array not far from your family’s manor on the way here.”

Understanding immediately crossed their faces. The O’Brien Family already knew of Grey’s skill with arrays. He had visited years earlier while placing them across the continent, and his friendship with Ellis was well known.

Grey worked quickly. In a short time the temporary array was complete. The four of them stepped onto it, and the canyon disappeared. They reappeared in a stretch of forest only a few minutes from the O’Brien Family grounds. From there it took little time to reach the manor.

The guards at the gate stared when they saw Grey and Reynolds return with both Ellis and his uncle after only a few hours. At first they assumed the two sides must have met by chance on the road and that the mission had already been finished before Grey arrived. They only realized the truth later.

Inside the main hall, Ellis’s father was reviewing reports when he sensed the approaching auras. He raised a brow, already forming the same assumption as the guards. When the group entered, he looked at Grey with a mild smile.

”It seems you didn’t need to go all the way to the canyon after all.”

Ellis let out a short laugh. ”We just came from there.”

His father’s expression froze mid-reply. The words hung in the air for a second before understanding struck him. Grey was a Space Elementalist, and not an ordinary one. With teleportation arrays, distance meant far less to him than to most people.

”You already dealt with them?” he asked, still catching up.

Ellis explained everything. He made it clear that locating the hidden research center had been entirely Grey’s doing, and that the fight itself had ended quickly once Grey and Reynolds joined.

Ellis’s father listened in silence. When the report ended, he remained quiet for a moment longer. He had always held Grey in high regard. Years ago, when he had been poisoned by miasma and faced certain death, it was Grey who saved him. Even so, hearing how efficiently a major Necromancer hideout had been erased still left him stunned. The rumors spreading across the continent no longer sounded exaggerated. If anything, some of them might still fall short.

He looked at the young man standing calmly in his hall and felt the gap of years more clearly than ever. The same youth he had once met when Grey was far weaker had become someone who could walk into a nest of nearly a thousand Necromancers and end it in a single afternoon.

After expressing his sincere thanks, he let the matter settle.

....

Later that night, Grey, Reynolds, and Ellis sat outside beneath an open stretch of sky. The stars were clear, undisturbed by the smoke and blood of the earlier fight.

Ellis was quiet for a while before he spoke.

”Do you think we can win this?”

Grey kept his eyes on the stars. His voice was calm, but there was no hesitation in it.

”Yes.”

Ellis turned his head slightly, surprised by the absolute certainty. Then he laughed under his breath.

”Yeah,” he said. ”Me too.”