Affinity:Chaos

Inside the spatial tunnel.

Grey's spiritual sense has been hit over and over again, but he keeps on pushing further.

It was already starting to grow faint.

'Just a little more, a little further,'

He kept telling himself the same thing after being assaulted by the energy wave. One time, two times, three times, it went on and on, he couldn't even keep count.

His physical body was already starting to bleed from his eyes and ears as well. Void was shaking violently, the spatial distortions around them were not just increasing, but they were also growing stronger.

Void was already on his last legs, keeping the spatial tunnel for this long was already starting to have an effect on his core, a bad one. But he couldn't bring himself to stop it.

It has been only five minutes, but Void felt like it has been years. These five minutes currently felt longer than the almost one year he had been living.

'I can't go on anymore,' He thought shakingly.

His thoughts were currently a mess, he couldn't even see what was going on around him. His senses were the only thing telling him about what was happening, and that too was starting to fade.

'Please, stop,' He called out to Grey unconsciously.

He was literally on the verge of losing it, but Grey's consciousness was still inside the spatial tunnel.

A minute more went by, and his senses started losing the last bit of what was left.

'I'm sorry, even if I want to hold on, I can't,' Void said to Grey weakly, his voice growing fainter towards the end of his statement.

Thud!

Void collapsed on the ground.

As soon as he collapsed, the spatial tunnel Grey's hand was inside started flickering. This was the last Void could do, even before going out, he still instilled his will on the spatial tunnel to last a little longer.

In the spatial tunnel.

Grey's spiritual sense was only left with a small faint flickering light, it was so small that it was barely visible.

'Further, I need to go further,'

This was the only statement his mind was resonating to himself.

The spatial tunnel suddenly shook, after shaking, the energy wave which was heading towards Grey's faint, flickering spiritual sense multiplied in strength by at least five times. As it was charging at Grey's spiritual sense, the spatial tunnel was shaking violently.

Boom!

The energy wave hit Grey's spiritual energy fiercely, but this time, the small faint spiritual sense wasn't pushed back, instead, it continued advancing.

Rumble!

The spatial tunnel continued shaking, but the spiritual sense kept moving forward. Ahead of the spiritual sense, a light could be seen.

'I… just need to go further, just a little bit more,'

Grey repeated as he continued moving forward.

His spiritual sense continued moving closer to the light, but the tremors in the spatial tunnel increased. Spatial distortions could be seen on some parts of the tunnel.

'No, no, I just need a little more,'

Grey complained when he noticed the spatial tunnel was slowly starting to fall apart. If he turned around now, there's at least a seventy percent chance that he would be able to get back to his hand and then exit the place since he would be able to move faster when going back.

'No, not after all I've done, and… and… Void, how's he doing?'

He was barely conscious, but he could tell the only reason the spatial tunnel was falling apart was that Void must have most likely lost consciousness.

With the addition of the spatial distortions, the energy wave's power increased once again, by two folds.

'Ah! I refuse to let our hard work go in vain,' Grey yelled and continued pushing forward.

What he was currently doing was like a child going against the current of a huge waterfall. The current was pushing him, but he refused to back down.

The spatial tunnel continued falling apart, as more spatial distortions appeared in the tunnel.

Lenz villa.

Gerald was sitting in his office casually, speaking with three people.

"The roads are getting increasingly dangerous for the merchants, and the mercenaries seem to be charging higher now for escorting the caravans," The lady in the group reported.

"Hmm, I'll send someone to go check out the route. If possible," Gerald suddenly stopped talking and looked in the direction of the secret room Grey was staying in.

'Huh? What's the feeling?' He asked himself before standing up.

"Wait here, I'll be back shortly," He said before walking out of the office.

After stepping out of his office, he saw Diluc outside with a worried expression.

"You also sensed it?" He asked.

Diluc nodded with a serious expression.

"What could he be doing? Even I feel threatened by what I'm currently sensing," Gerald said while walking out of the building his office was in, heading to where Grey was located.

Given his cultivation stage, there is only one thing that could threaten him, and that was a Sage Plane Elementalist. He didn't think the Emperor would send a Sage Plane expert after Grey.

But he couldn't think of anything that Grey could do that would be able to threaten him.

"*Sigh* This kid is trouble, the sooner he leaves, the safer I will feel. I dreamt he died while he was here, and Chris chased me all over the continent before killing me," Gerald trembled when he recalled the dream.

He knew how unreasonable Chris could be, even if he showed him proof that he tried keeping his student safe, he would still blame him.

Diluc sent a glance Gerald's way. He could tell he was traumatized by the thought of making Chris angry. He had heard of Chris from Gerald, but he had never seen him before.

"Don't worry master Gerald, I don't think anything will happen to the boy," He consoled him.

This was the best he could do right now.

They got to the place that led to the secret room within a minute, before pushing the mechanism that hid the door that led to the room.