Affinity: Chaos



Grey was continuously shattering the old man's view. 

"He only has two more rounds and he'll complete the stages." He muttered to himself. 

In total, there were eight rounds, adding the turtle's round, it was nine but this only applied to Grey. Others were still in their third or fourth round, Grey had already reached his seventh. It was a shocking thing given some people entered this place before he did. 

….

Grey's vision blurred, and when it became normal, he appeared in another space. 

This place was different from the other places he had been to. Unlike those places, he seemed to be caught in space here. Other than the vast emptiness, he couldn't see anything else. 

"Hey guys, you two are good with the space element. Are we stuck somewhere or is this another test?" Grey asked Void and the bunny leader. 

The duo were masters with the space element, so he wanted to know if they could figure out what was happening. 

"Not trapped." Void replied within a few seconds. 

'Head in that direction, there are some spatial fluctuations there.' The bunny leader pointed in a particular direction. 

Void, on the other hand, pointed in another direction, "That way, I can sense some fluctuations there." 

Grey was caught in a dilemma, the reason for this was because he had also sensed a spatial fluctuation, but it was different from the one the duo were pointing to. 

"I can sense a spatial fluctuation over there." Grey pointed behind him. 

The direction Void and the bunny leader sensed the spatial fluctuations were different from each other. 

Grey thought for a while before deciding, "We'll each go to the places we sensed the spatial fluctuations. We've been together, so even if we get separated, the chances of appearing on the same round is higher." 

He didn't know how many rounds were left, but he felt there was a reward in each of the places they were sensing spatial fluctuations. With this thought, he wanted to make sure they got the best out of this place. 

It would be a shame if they missed out on something great just because they wanted to be together. 

Void and the bunny leader had no issues with going separate ways. They all turned in different directions and headed into the spatial tunnels that appeared when they got to the place they were sensing the spatial fluctuations from. 

They exchanged glances and walked in. 

Grey appeared in a wasteland, the moment he stepped foot into the place, he felt his skin start to hurt. 

He slightly panicked and looked around. Bones of large beasts were scattered across the place. There was no sign of life, only a sand filled place with large bones. It was clear that the owner of the bones died a long time ago. 

He took a step and heard a crunching sound, looking at his foot, he noticed he was stepping on the skull of a human. The skull shattered the moment he stood on it. 

'My body is drying up.' He was a bit taken aback. 

At the moment, he was not losing essence. According to how things had been going here, he should be more worried about his essence, but in this space, he didn't seem to have that fear, his main fear was the life-force seemingly slowly leaving his body. 

He unconsciously used his light element to try to balance it, stopping the outflow of his life-force while also enhancing it. 

As he walked further into the wasteland, he could feel the force sucking out his life-force increase with each step. 

From where he was standing, he could see the shape of a building. Without needing anyone to tell him, he knew that was his only way out of this place. The only issue was that advancing was very difficult. 

His life-force was leaving faster than he could replenish it. At this rate, he would be all dried up, if not dead by the time he got to the building. 

A look of worry appeared on his face, there was no way back. He could only advance, but advancing meant that he might die. His light element was the weakest of all his elements, making his situation worse. Had he been stuck in a place with extreme cold, he would've been able to use his fire element to fight against it, but here, he couldn't do anything. 

"Damn it! Who created this place?" He cursed under his voice and sat on the ground. 

He wasn't even halfway through the journey, but he had already been facing this much difficulty. The thought of how difficult it would get as he advanced made him shiver. 

Determination flashed through his eyes, "I have to increase the elemental grade of my light element." 

His only chance of getting through this place was by increasing his light elemental grade. Once he could at least catch up with the outflow of life-force, he would be out of danger. 

His target was getting into that building. 

With both eyes closed, he started to control the light essence in his body to repair his skin that was starting to fall off. When it got to a stage, he gave up on that and focused on stopping the outflow of his life-force, that was more important than his appearance, as long as he survived, how he looked doesn't matter. 

A few hours later, he felt the outflow of life-force reduce significantly. He heaved a sigh of relief and started walking forward once again. 

Presently, most of his skin had fallen off and just his flesh and bones were left. He looked hideous, but he didn't care. It wasn't like there was anyone present. Even if there was someone there, it had nothing to do with him, his aim was surviving.

He could only walk for around five hundred meters before stopping again. The force sucking his life-force had increased once again. With no choice, he was forced to stop and repeat the previous process. 

This time it was longer before he was able to stabilize it.

He continued the same process, going for some meters, pausing and stabilizing it. Hours later he got to the door of the building, his flesh all dried up, he was almost left with only bones.