Affinity:Chaos

Grey was about to speak when he heard a familiar voice from inside. 

"Let him in, he's a friend."

Grey took a peek at the person who spoke and it was the young man who was the leader of the group he met at the gorge. 

"I thought you wanted to leave?" The young man asked. 

"I never said that, I only said I don't trust you people. And yes, I did want to leave." Grey replied as he looked around. 

He was a little familiar with a few faces, while most of them were faces he wasn't sure he had seen before. Even if he had, he must've forgotten their faces.

"Then why are you here?" One of the young men from the side asked coldly. 

Grey threw a glance at the young man but didn't give a reply to his question. 

The young man glanced at the person who spoke before moving his gaze back to Grey, "Then, what made you change your mind?"

"I couldn't leave." Grey's reply surprised the others, especially those who fought with him when they were fighting against the geniuses of the horned race. 

They knew from then that he wasn't someone who placed humanity on a high pedestal, so they never for once thought he would be unable to leave after seeing what humans were going through in this realm.

"Looks like you changed after seeing some things." One of the young ladies said. It was the young lady he met in the first town. 

"No, I literally couldn't leave. They managed to find the location where the portal was located. When I got there, they were already trying to destroy it." Grey answered. 

The others exchanged glances and couldn't help but look at a particular figure. It was a young man among them. 

"You're the cause of this." Gil said coldly. 

"I only told them to leave, how is it my fault that they would give away the location of the portal?" The young man asked with a grunt. 

"Hmph! I'll deal with you later. The problem now is how do we leave this place?" The leader of the group snorted. 

"The only way we can. There's another portal, the one they use in entering our world." Grey stated. 

"It would be protected, and we don't even know the location." The leader of the group replied. 

"Don't worry, I've helped out with the location of the portal, all I need is support when heading there." Grey answered. 

"So, in short, you want to use us?" A young lady asked. 

"Not entirely, it's more of a mutual benefit. I show you the way to leave, and you help me deal with some problems. You can say we're using each other." Grey's reply was straightforward, and it made a few of the youths have a change in expressions. 

They looked at Grey with an annoyed expression. 

Even if you want to use us, do you have to be so plain about it? 

This was the question in the heads of the youths, even the leader of the group was a little taken aback. 

Gil was the only one with a smile, he was even laughing softly. 

"I like straightforward people." Gil laughed. 

"We still haven't raided the capital yet. If you agree to render your help for this mission, we'll naturally assist you in this." The leader of the group didn't feel annoyed with Grey's words, it was the truth to begin with. 

It was just like the time they asked Grey to join them in the raid, they only asked him because they knew he was powerful, if he wasn't, they wouldn't be bothered with him. 

Grey stayed quiet for some time, looking around. He contemplated the matter for some time before nodding. Although he could leave on his own, it would be difficult for him, especially since his opponents would be too many. 

He has no problem when fighting against a crowd, but not a crowd of people whose strength was almost on his level when he goes all-out. 

"Great, we'll be heading out in three days time, we are on the final stage of our plans." The leader nodded before walking deeper into the cave. 

Grey didn't say anything else and went to sit down at a secluded corner, away from the people. 

Void was still in the capital, trying to snoop for any information. He didn't forget to tell Void about seeing this group since this was one of the reasons he told Void to sneak into the city. 

Grey had his eyes closed, speaking with Void when a figure walked up to him. It was the young lady from the Faction he encountered in the town. 

"You came." The young lady said, a happy smile on her face. 

"I had no choice." Grey replied. 

The young lady heard Grey's explanation the first time, so she didn't bother to ask any further. She sat close to him and started to engage him in small talk. 

Grey decided to entertain. He listened to her words, while occasionally saying some things. He found out from the young lady that her name was Margaret, and she was from a Faction that can't really be called a top Faction in the Region like the ones Klaus and the others joined, but it wasn't a small one as well. It was a wind-based Faction.

She and her companions were captured when they saw the horned race. They blindly charged into the formation the horned men did, and their strength was reduced by a lot. Before they could think of how to break free, they were quickly taken down by the group of horned men. 

Grey shook his head before asking how their experience here was. Margaret told him they were being transferred to a place called the white desert when the group of five intervened. 

'Guess the top-level geniuses are sent to the white desert for proper extraction and refining.' Grey thought to himself. 

Time slowly went by and other than Margaret, he spoke with a few more people. 

The day they planned to raid the capital finally arrived.