Affinity:Chaos

"Uh! There's an old-looking palace over there. Is this where the energy you're feeling is coming from?", a voice asked thoughtfully while studying the old-looking palace on the right path on an intersection that was giving off an ancient vibe.

'No, it's still some distance away. But we should check this place out, it might probably have something good', a smaller voice replied, only, the voice sounded in the head of the first speaker.

The duo speaking is none other than Grey and Void.

Grey had his hand on his chin while he was scrutinizing the palace calmly with Void laying on his shoulder as always.

It had been almost thirty minutes since they left the castle Jonas was in, and following the directions Void pointed out, they had gone through two other intersections. Their journey here could be said to be filled with blood since he also had multiple battles on the way here. Some were against beasts, but most of them were against humanoid creatures that Grey had not seen before.

One had to say that those who would pass through the same route Grey passed through could be considered lucky because Grey didn't hesitate to eliminate every creature he found on the path. The creatures were either in the First or Second stage of the Origin Plane and to Grey, they weren't that strong.

The only thing that might have complicated things was their numbers, in some instances, he faced off against ten at a time. But since he's an inscriber, facing off against multiple opponents wasn't an issue for him as long as he got his inscriptions up quickly.

And after his breakthrough, his spiritual energy also saw an improvement. Now, the time he needed for inscribing was almost halved. Previously, he needed just over two minutes at most when creating the symbol, but now, he could create it within one minute and ten seconds.

If he were in the Fusion State, then he could create multiple symbols almost instantly. The only regret he had during the battles was that because he was in a hurry, he didn't test out the strength of his body.

Now, they were currently at another intersection with the path on the right leading to an old-looking palace. It was very small compared to the other ones he had seen since entering the trial land.

"There's an array outside the palace", Grey spoke, after studying the palace a little more.

'Since this palace is covered with arrays, there have to be treasures inside. Grey, can you destroy it?', asked Void.

He did not know arrays, so there was nothing he could do here.

"It shouldn't be a problem. If this array had been recently created, it wouldn't be possible for me to find the flaws or even think of breaking it, but because it has been here for too long, most of the power of the array has already disappeared and a lof of flaws have appeared.", Grey nodded, then strode towards the old looking palace.

Staring at the palace, he couldn't help thinking about his friends.

"I wonder how they're doing", Grey muttered to himself, but he didn't worry about them as much.

There were only a few people who could be of a threat to them, and he felt the greatest threat had to be that Darkness Elementalist.

Soon, Grey approached the palace. His spiritual energy spread out like a torrent, allowing him to quickly find the flaws of the array very quickly. Then, he formed a seal with both hands, striking out a series of complicated seals that rapidly merged into a miniature array, then struck at the weakest spot of the old array.

Bang!

After a bang, cracks instantly appeared on the array. Once more, Grey struck out another series of seals. Due to the array having existed for a very long period of time, it could no longer withstand the pressure and shattered on the spot.

After breaking the array, Grey came to the front of the palace. The wooden door of the palace seemed shabby. Its surface was full of traces of time. With a slight push, the door collapsed like a decayed wood. The scent of decay that came from the inside made Grey frown slightly.

He wasn't in a hurry to go in. Instead, he scanned the surroundings with his spiritual energy. He wanted to make sure that there was no danger inside before stepping in. Although his strength had improved drastically, he didn't allow it to get to his head.

In a place like this where dangers could be found everywhere, there was no mistake in being careful wherever you went.

Sensing no danger, Grey walked inside. The interior of the palace was very small and empty. There was nothing in it. It was gloomy, looking like a haunted house that gave people an extremely uncomfortable feeling.

But very quickly, Grey saw a box in front. It was a black box. This was probably the only thing in the palace.

'Get that quickly. There must be something good inside the box', Void urged.

Grey walked forward and stopped in front of the box. Despite existing for so long, there wasn't any mark on the box. It only showed how extraordinary the material used in making the box was. He picked up the box and felt its weight wasn't as heavy as he expected.

The box could be opened directly as there wasn't any lock on it. Grey struck out an air wave using the wind element and the box flung open. For an instant, Grey's vision blurred.

Opening the box, he expected something to happen, but not this. Instead of it to give off a brilliant light, all Grey saw was darkness. It was like he was sucked inside the boundless space, the feeling was unique. Just as he was starting to feel something about it, everything returned to normal.

A scroll could be seen floating at the top of the box. Grey stretched his hand and grabbed it.

Opening it, the word 'Great Void Technique' was written boldly at the top of it. Below it was the description of how to use the technique.

"It's a space element technique!", Grey exclaimed in delight.

Void read the description of the technique and couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.

'It's just like my movement technique, only, it is more advanced. If only it was made for beasts', Void said with disappointment evident in his tone.

Because of how different the bodies of beasts are compared to humans, they couldn't use the same techniques as humans and had to create their own.

This movement technique was a very sophisticated technique that even Void wanted to acquire it. It was a shame the technique was for humans alone.

"Haha, this is a great treasure", Grey was beside himself with joy.

'Why are you so happy? It's not like you can use the space element', Void asked on seeing the excited Grey.

Hearing Void's question, Grey refrained from answering. He didn't know if he could trust Void yet, so he didn't bother to answer.

'If I could comprehend this technique, then I wouldn't have a problem comprehending the space element', he thought.

Although he tried to keep a poker face on, he couldn't stop himself from smiling. He had been thinking about how he could comprehend the space element for a long time now. But unexpectedly, even after entering the Chaos space, he didn't find anything related to the space element.

This has stumped him for some time now, but it looks like his luck isn't bad. Keeping the scroll, he once again observed the palace to ensure he didn't miss anything. After confirming there was nothing else here, he turned around to leave the place.

…..

Outside the palace, two youths could be seen looking at the palace.

"This is where it came from", one of them said.

The other narrowed his eyes to observe the palace closely.

Both youths were attracted here by a strange phenomenon. They were walking when they suddenly saw the path behind them go dark. With the way the darkness moved, it seemed to originate from somewhere before shrinking back to where it came from.

Following the darkness, it led them here. So, they were certain someone had acquired the treasure here or was about to. And the treasure was what brought about the darkness. For something to cause such a strange phenomenon, if it wasn't a mysterious treasure, then what is?

"We should head in, maybe the person hasn't been able to acquire the treasure yet", the other youth suggested.

They didn't delay and started walking towards the palace, only to stop after taking four steps. Because, a figure who had a black cat on his shoulder was coming out from the palace, and from his expression, it looked like he obtained something good.

"It's you!", one of the youths pointed at Grey with anger visible in his eyes and his entire body trembling.

Grey who just stepped out of the palace was stunned by the youth who pointed at him. He didn't recall seeing this youth anywhere before.

"And you are?", he asked in a confused tone.

When the youth heard Grey's question, he flared up once again.

"You bastard! I'll kill you and those friends of yours!", he shouted seemingly on the verge of going crazy. Tears could be seen at the side of his eyes.

"I don't recall having any conflicts with you", Grey who was smiling previously was currently frowning.

He could sense a dense killing intent from the youth, and it was directed towards him. This was one of the things he hated the most!

"What happened", the other youth couldn't help but inquire of his companion on seeing he was on the verge of losing himself to anger.

The youth recounted his experience with Grey and his friends, but because of his anger, he couldn't explain properly.

But Grey heard one of his sentences clearly, and it immediately struck a bell.

This was the youth Klaus kicked in the nether region!