Affinity:Chaos

Chris watched on as the man disappeared before chuckling to himself.

"Brown, it's time to escape." He said as he walked closer to the array.

'Hopefully that old man stays out long enough for me to break this array.' He thought as he started looking for a way to break the array.

This array was more advanced than the ones he's familiar with, having more nodes that connect, making it difficult to break. But there's one thing few people knew about him, when it came to learning, he was a genius.

With the knowledge he had in arrays, although it was shallow when compared to this one, he was confident that if he was given enough time, then he would be able to break it.

He soon focused fully on breaking the array while the old man was gone.

_____

At the battlefield.

The Ice Dragon roared angrily before pursuing the duo who were currently out of sight.

But before it got far, it sensed a familiar aura getting close to it and stopped.

"Why have you come?" The dragon spoke in an ice-cold, detached voice.

"You're just as cold as ever, Aetonth." The old man appeared mid-air, standing before the dragon.

"Hmph! That puny human and annoying cat stole my crystal, I must get it back." Aetonth said angrily.

"Oh! No wonder you're awake. Don't kill the boy, I'll retrieve the crystal from the cat." The old man said.

"What about the cat?" Aetonth asked icily.

Even if it wanted to spare Grey, it didn't want to spare Void. To it, Void is more annoying.

"Don't kill any of them." The old man said.

"Hmph! Fine! I'm going back to my cave then." Aetonth said turning around.

Since it wasn't allowed to kill any of them, then what's the point in chasing after them?

"Actually, I have a job for you. Keep on chasing them like you were previously doing, beat them up, I want to see the boy's limit." The old man said.

"Fine, besides, I've been sleeping for so long, I need to stretch my legs a little before going back." Aetonth replied before once again giving chase.

The old man smiled and followed behind them, it took Aetonth over ten minutes before it caught up with the duo.

'His speed is terrifying!' The old man was left dumbstruck by Grey's speed.

Given Aetonth's speed, he should've been able to catch up to them within five minutes even after the delay, yet it took over ten minutes. When he was at Grey's stage, he paled in comparison when it came to speed.

'I should go back, Aetonth knows what to do.' The old man thought before disappearing.

He made sure to secretly retrieve the crystal from Void's spatial storage, and to his greatest surprise, accessing Void's spatial storage without him knowing was quite difficult. Even given his strength, he still had to be careful.

Other than the difficulty in accessing it, he was once again shocked by what was inside of the spatial storage.

'Now I get it, it likes shiny things.' The old man thought when he saw the items.

Although there were good items in the spatial storage, most of the items inside were shiny, some weren't even useful, yet Void kept them.

Some seconds later, he appeared back at the mountain peak, but there were no signs of Chris or Brown.

"*Sigh* To think he broke it this quickly." The old man sighed before sitting down on top of the rock and shutting his eyes.

The array he set up was actually a test for Chris, he knew Chris was knowledgeable about arrays, but due to his personality, teaching him was difficult. He was already having a hard time teaching him about cultivation, if he were to teach him about arrays as well, then he might probably die from headache.

He spread out his spiritual sense outside his body, and within ten seconds, he was able to sense Chris' aura, although Chris hid it, it wasn't a challenge for him.

But what surprised him was the fact that after he sensed it the first time, it was suddenly cut off. It was like Chris was never there.

"Oh, smart. He managed to sense me." The old man chuckled before disappearing.

Three minutes later, he could be seen with Chris in tow.

Chris had an angry expression but since he couldn't fight back, he could only helplessly follow the old man back.

But storms were currently brewing in his mind, with multiple questions running through it. Although he didn't get far, he was able to recognize this place, after all, it was just like the other side where the geniuses all explore, only, it was more intact.

'This place is definitely that place, but how come there are people this strong here? I thought it was abandoned?'

"You're quite good, to be able to actually break this array within such a short time." The old man praised before fixing the array once again, but this time, it was more complex.

"Where are we? I recognize this place, I've been here before." Chris asked seriously.

"Oh, try breaking this one and you'll get an answer." The old man said before shutting his eyes again.

At least with this, Chris would be too busy to complain to Brown about how bored he was here.

______

Back at the forest.

'Void, it's here again!' Grey said when he saw Aetonth getting closer to them once again.

As Aetonth flew through the sky, snow fell from behind it, making the area colder.

'I haven't even been able to get a proper rest.' Void complained.

'Well, it's not my problem.' Grey said while preparing to attack.

'Do you think it will let us go if I return the crystal?' Void asked.

Grey was shocked when he heard this, he didn't believe Void would actually think of returning the crystal since it was shiny. He knew just how obsessed he was with shiny things.

Boom!

Aetonth attacked the moment it got there.

The duo managed to block the attack, and Void instantly decided to return the crystal since they might die from Aetonth's attacks.

But his expression changed when he couldn't find the crystal in his spatial storage.

'Where is it?' Void asked.

'Where's what?' Grey had a baffled expression on his face.

'The crystal.' Void said.

'I knew you'd never return it.'