Affinity: Chaos

It took a while but Grey finally started speaking with his father once again. He wasn't really too annoyed with him, especially after he gave him a detailed explanation.

When stepping out of the cave, Grey saw a familiar figure standing outside.

"It's you!" He exclaimed softly.

"Hello, Young Lord." The man standing outside bowed to Grey with a smile.

"Allow me to formally introduce myself, my name is Arlys Orvyn."

"Guardian?" Grey asked with a raise of his brows.

"I guessed you already knew. But yes, I was tasked to make sure you don't die." Arlys replied.

"To think I had such a powerful guardian with me all this while and I was chased across the entire Azure Continent." Grey shook his head with a wry smile.

He had tried to sense the cultivation of Arlys, but he couldn't sense it. He was currently in the Sage Plane, almost in the late stages. With his current strength, he could run riot in the Azure Continent, as long as he doesn't go to the depths of the Magical Beasts' Forest, then he was good. Yet he couldn't sense the cultivation of his guardian, which should put Arlys in the Elemental Venerable Plane at the very least.

"Why do you think you never came across an opponent above your strength?" Arlys asked with a smile.

He took care of a lot of Grey's enemies, and even if Grey doesn't know how many people he took care of, he still wanted to make sure Grey knew he did well.

"You were chased across the continent?" Martha asked as she stepped out, overhearing the duo's conversation.

"Yeah, they were looking for Teacher, since I was his only student, I pretty much became their enemy. Not just that, but the news of me getting the Great Earth Essence Liquid from the Trial Land spread out as well." Grey explained.

"Wait, you have a Teacher?" Martha was a little shocked.

"Remember that senior that came to take me to the Lunar Faction?" Grey asked.

"Good, you have great eyes." Martha nodded. In the Azure Continent, Chris was one of the few people she thought highly of.

'Actually, he wanted me to become his student because of my cooking skills.' Grey said internally.

He didn't say this out loud since it would make his parents think otherwise of Chris. From the start, he knew Chris only wanted him for his cooking skill, he wasn't that dumb not to realize it. With nothing to do, Chris taught him most of the things he knew, including inscribing and being a great array master.

They spoke a little longer before Grey turned to his parents.

'Oh! Void, come out, why are you hiding?'

After getting the go-ahead from Grey, Void appeared on his shoulder.

"I've been wondering where you went." Arlys spoke up when Void appeared.

"Your pet?" Martha asked, staring at the cute-looking Void.

"Partner, actually. He's quite resourceful." Grey replied.

"Hello, Grey's parents." Void spoke out with his small voice.

Neither of the duo showed a strange expression. This was not their first time encountering a Magical Beast that could speak. The only thing that caught their attention was that they knew nothing of Void's breed.

From a glance, they could tell he was different.

"Where did you get him?" Lucas asked as he tried to grab Void, but before his eyes, Void tried to escape with the space element. He smiled but didn't retract his hand.

Void, who thought he had vanished from Grey's shoulder, was stunned when he felt a large hand grabbing him. He tried to struggle, but it was futile.

'Don't resist, he won't harm you.' Grey calmed Void down.

"An egg." Grey replied to his father's question.

"Oh, odd." Lucas said as he continued staring at Void with his curious eyes.

"Such a strange cat. It's like the void." He muttered.

"His name's surprising, Void." Grey said with a chuckle.

"I can see why." Lucas replied.

He tried to peer into Void's body, but all he could sense was an endless void. No matter where he looked, all he saw was nothingness.

He let go of Void, who hurriedly went back to Grey's shoulder.

Staring at his parents, Grey had a sense of loss. Originally, this had been one of his tasks, growing strong enough to sweep the entire Aurora Continent in search of his parents, now, he found out that they had been aware of his movements for some time now, and he was a little lost.

'What now?' He questioned himself internally.

"Grey, are you alright?" Martha noticed Grey had gone silent and seemed to be lost in his thoughts.

"I'm fine, I guess…" Grey told them his plan to search for them after growing stronger.

Finding them now seemed to change some of his plans.

"That's not really a problem. Oh, I forgot to ask, I heard you've had dealings with necromancers." Lucas brought the matter of necromancers up.

"Not just them, there are these short guys that they call their ancestors, those guys seem to want me dead. Well, one of them was almost successful some time ago." Grey replied.

"Hmm…" Lucas fell deep in thought.

"Is anything wrong?" Grey asked.

"The secret realm you want to enter has a portal that leads to that race. So you would be seeing those guys there. Given the mark on you, you're technically a magnet to them." Martha explained.

"Eh?" Grey looked at them, confused.

Only after some seconds did he recall he was fighting in a competition before passing out.

"Oh… that. Did they win?" He asked.

"Yes, with you taking out that young man, the rest was pretty much easy." Lucas replied.

"Good, had my efforts been wasted, I wouldn't have forgiven them." Grey heaved a sigh.

"You should be careful next time. The secret your body holds will bring calamity to you if it spreads. Don't give people the chance to check your body." Lucas warned.

"I didn't think it would be this bad." Grey replied with a wry smile.

This was the first time he used the Fusion State to this level, so he didn't think he would go unconscious for so long.