Affinity: Chaos

Chapter 117: Touch It!

Grey slowly observed the castle after closing the door. He was currently in a hall that had four pillars that acted as a support, there were some seats placed at the side with a throne at the other side of the hall. The hall was at least one hundred and fifty meters in length, and it was seventy meters wide.

That throne was obviously the seat the owner of the castle previously used. Seeing there was nothing of interest here, he changed his attention to the two doors by the side of the throne situated on the other side of the hall.

“I’ll quickly check them out then leave this place, I still have no idea where this place is”, Grey muttered while randomly choosing the door on the right and walking in.

Void on the other hand was looking at everything curiously, he had never seen these things before. But he was able to deduce what they were, obviously.

Ten minutes later…

Grey came out of that side of the castle and faced the other door. After passing through the door, he entered a hallway. There were only six rooms there, and other than beds, chairs, and desks, he found nothing else. So he didn’t delay and quickly came to the other door, maybe he could acquire something nice here.

Another ten minutes passed, yet he still couldn’t find anything.

“Strange, could it be there’s nothing here? Oh well, guess I’ll have to leave then”, Grey muttered under his breath.

He sensed there was something here, but even after searching all the rooms, he still couldn’t find anything. He found the feeling quite strange since he was clearly sensing there was something here.

Shaking his head, he headed towards the door.

‘Wait! There’s something here’, said Void.

“You can feel it also?”, he stopped in his tracks while observing everywhere once more.

‘Yes, but finding the location of it is another story’, Void nodded.

Just like Grey, he could also sense there was something here, but couldn’t locate where it was.

“Let’s search this hall thoroughly”, gestured Grey.

Void nodded before jumping off his shoulder and looking around.

Three minutes went by and the duo still hasn’t found anything.

Although Grey wasn’t impatient, he wouldn’t spend his entire time searching for what he didn’t even know. There were still things he had to do.

Just as Grey was about to leave, one of the pillars caught his attention. On the pillar, there were weird inscriptions on them.

When he observed them clearly, he knew they were arrays, but due to how complex they were, he had no idea what type of arrays they were.

Following the inscriptions, he noticed the lines ran into the floor before moving in a particular direction. He traced the lines with his eyes and noticed it headed to the throne at the other end of the hall.

He went to the other three pillars to confirm if they had it too, and just like the first one, they also did, and they all connected at the throne.

Seeing how Grey was studying the pillars, Void realized Grey had found some clues about what was here.

‘Did you find anything?’, he asked.

“Yes, I think. I’m not too sure about it yet though”, Grey replied truthfully.

He once again focused on the throne before walking towards it. When he got close to the throne, he studied it properly before trying to figure out what the array was.

Although it took him quite some time, he was able to find out what it was.

‘It’s just like that stone Teacher placed in front of the valley’, he thought in realization.

Now, all he had to do was find the spot he needed to touch before the secret opening appears.

“Come here”, he gestures towards Void.

‘What?’, Void asked while walking in Grey’s direction.

“Touch any suspicious part of the throne”, Grey instructed.

‘Uh!’, Void exclaimed unconsciously.

He didn’t expect Grey would tell him to do that, but before he could question any further, he realized Grey had already gotten to work.

Since there was nothing else for him to do, he also started touching everything he could find. The first thing he touched was the armrest of the throne, but when he noticed nothing happened, he started touching other places.

In two minutes, they had molested the throne so much that there were only a few places left.

Rumble!

The sound of something opening up rang out in the hallway.

“Haha, I knew there was a secret opening”, Grey laughed happily.

‘Yeah, after molesting the throne, that is’, Void mocked while looking at him strangely.

“Molested! All I did was touch some parts”, replied Grey angrily.

“And it’s a throne for crying out loud!”, he added.

‘That’s how they all start though’, Void continued mocking.

“Shit! What the hell are you even saying? Sometimes I feel like you’ve been in this world for so long now”, Grey’s body trembled.

‘Where does this little guy get such ideas?’, he thought while looking at Void suspiciously.

After they finished their small quarrel, Grey focused his attention back on the opening. At the center of the hall, a stairway that led underground could be seen.

“Let’s go in”, Grey said still slightly annoyed.

They headed into the stairway and disappeared underground.

….

In a secret room under the castle, a figure could be seen covered in flames. His eyes were closed, and he was sitting in a crossed leg position.

Unknown to that figure, there was an old-looking man, floating quietly above him.

The man couldn’t be seen with the physical eyes.

The old man was still staring at the figure quietly before suddenly raising his head and looking in the direction of the door that leads into the room.

One minute later…

“There’s a door here”, Grey said while walking closer to it.

He pushed the door and saw a figure bathing in flames, due to acquiring the fire element recently, and how high the grade was, he didn’t feel the heat radiating out of the room.

Looking closely, he realized the figure was familiar.

“It’s him”, he spoke unconsciously.