Affinity: Chaos

The Space Elementalist stared at the sealed spatial tear for a brief moment and let out a short breath of relief. He did not dare linger. Grey would not remain trapped in the chaotic void for long. Every second counted.

He turned and fled deeper into the Magical Beasts’ Forest instead of toward the outer edge. The bunny army was still engaged with his companion and the remaining puppets in that direction. Running toward the exit would be the same as handing over his life. He melted into the dense trees and undergrowth, using what remained of his spatial power to erase his traces as best he could, and soon vanished from ordinary senses.

Several seconds later a new spatial fluctuation rippled through the air. A tear opened and Grey stepped out.

His appearance had changed. Fresh cuts and burns marked his arms and torso, injuries that had not been there when he was dragged into the void. His breathing was slightly uneven, and a rare trace of lingering fear showed in his eyes as he glanced back at the spot where the tear had closed.

”That place is genuinely dangerous,” he muttered, patting his chest once to steady himself. ”I need to avoid falling into it whenever possible.”

He swept the surrounding area with his senses. As expected, the Space Elementalist was already gone. Grey was not particularly surprised. He looked deeper into the forest for a moment, snorted coldly, then turned and flew back toward the original battlefield at full speed.

When he arrived, the situation was exactly as he had sensed from a distance. The pure Darkness Elementalist and the two puppets were barely holding on under the assault of the Peak Sovereign bunnies. Their defenses were cracked, their auras unstable, and exhaustion was written across every movement.

Grey did not waste a single word.

A four-colored fusion orb formed in his hand and shot forward with vicious force. The already damaged lightning puppet, which had belonged to the escaped Space Elementalist, took the residual shockwave and simply disintegrated. Grey ignored the scattered remnants and joined three of the bunnies in focusing on the remaining fire puppet. Under the sudden increase in pressure the fire puppet’s defenses collapsed within moments. Its body ruptured in a burst of dying flames and scattered essence.

The Darkness Elementalist’s face drained of color as he watched both puppets fall. The moment Grey returned, he had already understood that his partner had abandoned him. Escape was no longer possible.

His expression twisted. A vicious light that had been hidden until now flared in his eyes. He threw his head back and laughed, the sound sharp and unhinged.

”I’ll make sure you pay for this,” he snarled. ”Even if I can’t kill you...”

Before the final words fully left his mouth, a terrifying aura exploded from his body.

Grey, Reynolds, and Void all felt their hearts lurch at the same instant.

”Damn it!”

Grey reacted without hesitation. He crossed the distance to Reynolds in a single spatial shift, clamped a hand on his friend’s shoulder, and poured everything into an emergency spatial transfer. Bright light enveloped them and the immediate surroundings.

He was fast, but a Peak Sovereign’s self-destruction was faster.

The detonation triggered before the transfer could fully carry them away. A blinding white light swallowed everything within a two-kilometer radius. From high above the forest, it looked as though a second sun had been born among the trees. The light lasted only a few seconds, then a catastrophic shockwave expanded outward from the center, racing through the woodland in a widening ring of destruction.

The ground heaved. Ancient trees that had stood for centuries were ripped from the earth or snapped like dry twigs. Leaves and branches turned to powder. Soil and stone were flung into the air, forming a massive dust cloud that blotted out the sky. Magical Beasts for many kilometers around fled deeper into the forest in blind panic, their instincts screaming at the sudden appearance of such destructive power.

At the heart of the blast, the landscape had been completely rewritten. What had once been dense, multi-layered forest was now a barren wound. Most of the trees within the core area had been reduced to scattered splinters and charred stumps. A deep, irregular gorge had been carved into the earth directly beneath the spot where the Necromancer had stood, its sides still crumbling and smoking. The air stank of scorched wood, overturned soil, and residual destructive essence. Broken trunks lay at odd angles across the cratered ground. Patches of the forest floor had been fused into glassy, uneven surfaces by the extreme heat and force. Further out, the damage gradually lessened, yet even hundreds of meters from the center the trees leaned precariously or had been stripped of their upper branches.

Time seemed to stretch as the last echoes of the explosion rolled through the forest.

Then, from a pile of shattered wood and debris near the edge of the gorge, a section of wreckage was suddenly blasted aside.

Grey, Reynolds, Void, and the bunny leader emerged.

Grey, Reynolds, and Void looked largely as they had the moment before the detonation, disheveled and dust-covered, but intact. The bunny leader, however, was different. Streaks of bright golden light ran through its white fur, and small golden fragments drifted around its body like slow-moving sparks. A semi-transparent shield of the same golden energy still hovered around it, flickering faintly before beginning to fade.

The bunny leader snorted, voice calm and disdainful. ”Fool. Trying petty tricks in front of me.”

Grey and Reynolds stared for a moment, both clearly surprised that the self-destruction of a Peak Sovereign had been blocked so cleanly.

The impressive golden radiance lasted only a few more seconds. Then it receded. The streaks of light vanished from the bunny leader’s fur, and its appearance returned to normal.

”What about the army?” Grey asked at once.

”They’re fine.” The bunny leader waved a paw dismissively. ”I recalled them the moment I sensed what he intended.”

Grey let out a short breath of relief. At least the Peak Sovereign bunnies had not been caught in the blast.

Reynolds glanced around at the devastated forest, then back toward the direction the Space Elementalist had fled. ”What about the other one?”

A cold light flashed through Grey’s eyes. He looked deeper into the Magical Beasts’ Forest, where the escaped Peak Sovereign had disappeared.

”Let’s go hunting.”