Affinity: Chaos

"Broken through just like that?" Klaus was a little doubtful as he checked himself out.

He didn't stand up from where he was seated due to how simple it felt. Initially, when breaking through to the Elemental Venerable, there was supposed to be some sort of commotion. Recalling how serious it was when he wanted to break through the last time, he couldn't help but shake his head.

'Forget it. I'll just take it that I broke through while in seclusion.' He consoled himself.

He was still in his thoughts when he heard Lara's voice, "Aren't you done yet?"

She couldn't sense his aura and didn't know if he had broken through or not. Like Klaus, she also expected to see some sort of disturbance. She had broken through to the Elemental Venerable Plane and had also seen others break through. It was very normal for her not to think that Klaus hadn't broken through.

Klaus stood up, and with a wave of his hand, he destroyed the dome.

When Lara sensed his aura, she was slightly taken aback, "Elemental Venerable?"

"What do you think?" Klaus retorted while sending out an ice shard that struck down the Magical Beast coming his way.

The Magical Beast was already in the Early stage of the Seventh Rank. Since Klaus' attack could bring it down, it meant that his attack power was already in the Elemental Venerable Plane. Previously, only his defense was in the Elemental Venerable Plane, but now, his attack had also reached this stage.

Lara was able to guess why there was no disturbance, "Good, protect yourself."

Klaus didn't say anything else, it's not like he wanted her protection anyway.

After his breakthrough, the duo started to ascend the volcano. They needed to go out of the volcano.

Lara realized the longer they stayed in the volcano, the more suppressed the water element was. They would stay for some time before their attacks would become almost useless against these Magical Beasts.

…..

Grey had successfully passed the stage he appeared in. Klaus was still facing the challenge of climbing out of the volcano.

Reynolds and the others were also going through different challenges at the same time.

With the exception of Keith, the others successfully used the large throne to enter the secret space and were all facing different opportunities and dangers.

….

Grey, Alice, Void, and the bunny leader stepped through the passage and appeared in another location.

This time, they saw a large hall in front of them. At the front of the hall, a Bull was standing guard.

Seeing the Bull, Grey told Klaus and the bunny leader to check it out.

Hearing the arrangement, the bunny leader showed a displeased look on his face.

"It's a Magical Beast. Wouldn't be easier for you two to check it out first. You just have to retreat if it's dangerous." Grey explained.

The bunny leader wanted to say something, but it stopped itself and followed behind Void.

They soon got close to the Bull, but there was no reaction from the Bull whatsoever. It was like it didn't see the duo.

Grey and Void exchanged glances, and with a nod of the head, Void took another step. The moment he stepped on the stairs leading to the hall, the motionless Bull moved. It sprang to life and blocked the path of Void and the bunny leader.

The Bull didn't do anything else, only blocking their paths. With the size of the Bull, as long as it didn't move, there was no way for anyone to enter the building.

Void turned to Grey again, seeking approval if he should attack the Bull. Grey nodded.

The next moment, Void's aura changed, and a sharp claw made of the darkness element appeared and attacked the Bull.

The Bull's eyes shone before it rammed into it. The claw was destroyed instantly.

Void's expression changed and he hastily retreated. The bunny leader tried to use the opportunity to sneak into the building, but the Bull stomped on the ground aggressively with its hindlegs, almost stamping the bunny leader.

The threat of death made the bunny leader rush back to Grey's side, even faster than Void. It shook his head at Grey, telling him they were not as strong as the Bull.

Grey studied the Bull for a while before walking forward.

The Bull's dull eyes came to life, and it charged at Grey.

"Go in, I'll block it."

By the time Grey's voice was heard, he was already entangled with the Bull.

In front of the Bull's large figure, Grey looked like an infant, but he was very fast. The Bull was unable to hit him due to his speed.

Void joined him as the duo teamed up to harass the Bull. Alice and the bunny leader were free, and they walked toward the door leading to the hall.

The Bull, sensing this, rushed at them. Grey and Void blocked its path. Grey even used the chaos orb.

The strength of the orb was frightening after the last round. Now that Grey knew how to balance his strength to minimize the effort and maximize the result, it was pretty easy to create a chaos orb.

They were alone, so Grey had no reservations when using his elements. He created the chaos orb with all eight elements. Even if the bunny leader were to see this, it wouldn't be able to speak about it since it's always with Grey.

Of course, Grey didn't make it too obvious. He made the elements known by most people dominant to hide the aura of the other ones. After grasping how to properly control his elements, he had no issues with this.

The Bull didn't take this attack on, instead, it opened its mouth and shot out a stream of water.

The water collided with the orb and exploded.

The pace of the explosion forced Grey and Void back, the Bull however, didn't move from its spot.

Alice and the bunny leader entered the building at the same time as the explosion.

When the explosion died down, Grey looked around and saw the Bull at its original position when they first entered this place.

"So its job is to stop people from going in?" Grey looked at the Bull.

He wasn't sure of this, but he felt it would be better if Alice was able to find something inside while he was entangled with the Bull.

At first, he thought he would have to kill the Bull to pass through this stage. However, that doesn't seem to be the case.

The second Alice entered the building, the Bull stopped fighting and went back to where it was lying.

Grey walked to the building and stepped in.

Alice turned to look at him, she also sensed that the battle had stopped.

The inside of the building was the normal size which made Grey heave a sigh of relief. Since Grey entered this secret realm, almost all the buildings he had entered were the same, looking small on the outside while being large on the inside.

They didn't rush to do anything as they stood in the same spot, waiting for instruction like in the first round.

Five minutes breezed by, and they didn't see anyone.

"Maybe that place is different." Alice said.

"I guess so." Grey agreed with her words and they decided to start exploring the place.

The hall was mostly empty, but on the sides, there were rows of doors.

He walked closer to one and tried to open it.

No matter how he tried, he was unable to open it. He even went as far as using elemental attacks, but it was futile.

After he failed to open the first one, he went to the next one. In this place, other than doors, there was nothing else. So their only choice was to try to open the doors.

Alice, Void, and even the bunny leader all started to try to open the doors on the side.

A few minutes later, there was finally a reaction. It was from one of the doors Void tried to open. It shook for some time before making a loud clicking sound.

"It opened."

Alice and Grey rushed to the door. The bunny leader also stopped what it was doing and rushed there as well. It was curious what was inside these doors.

The door opened slowly.

The group looked at it with anticipation, but their expressions soon changed when they saw what was inside.

The door opened, and a room appeared in front of them, chains were on the walls, and a skeleton could be seen chained to the ground.

"A dungeon?" Grey blurted out.

That was what this thing looked like. But a normal dungeon looked cruder. This place was a beautiful large hall, if this was its purpose, Grey felt a bit disappointed.

"Probably." Alice replied as she stepped into the room.

Other than the skeleton chained to the ground, there were some things carved on the wall close to it.