Grey and his friends soon heard of a city that was reportedly wiped out by Gnomes close to the region they were.
"We should go check it out." Klaus suggested.
"No, like I said the last time, it's too dangerous."
"We better head back home." Alice said.
Grey and Reynolds had no problems with Alice's suggestion, they also had the same idea in mind. If they followed Klaus' words and encounter people too strong for them to handle, it would be dangerous. As much as Grey hated Gnomes, he has always tried to do things within his abilities. If the Gnomes dared to do something like this, then it meant they were prepared for whatever might happen if the news of this spread out.
They found out about this thanks to the bunny leader's network of bunnies that has spread across the entire Aurora Continent. As it stands, there's almost no one with as much current information as the bunny leader. It knew about almost everything happening in the Continent.
"Our adventure has been cut short by those short bastards. I'll send them all down into a frozen lake." Klaus complained.
He enjoyed times like these, having to go back to the Faction is one of the most frustrating things to do. He would have to focus only on training which he didn't even enjoy.
Grey and the others had the same thoughts towards the Gnomes. None of the people in the Aurora Continent liked them, with the exception of Necromancers. The Necromancers know what they stand to benefit once the Gnomes take charge of the Aurora Continent hence their devotion towards helping them.
Given the fact that necromancy came from the Gnomes was also one of the factors that helped solidify their stand in this war. But there are a rare few who didn't entertain the Gnomes taking over the Aurora Continent and wanted them to stay in their own world.
The crew started their journey back to the Western Continent, heading back to their Factions.
Grey had the choice of either going to the Pyrmond Faction or heading over to the Dawson Family. As much as he liked being with his parents, he felt he would get a better training condition compared to the Dawson Family.
His father is very busy and doesn't always have the time to help him out with his training, but in the Pyrmond Faction, there will always be someone that could help him out. Of course, there are a few people who wanted him dead, but as long as he played his cards right, he was sure he would be able to keep his life.
As they headed back to their part of the Continent, Grey didn't forget Lewis and Robert. The duo were very valuable and Grey had the plan of taking Robert into the secret realm the Gnomes and humans shared. He wanted to use Robert's ability of mind control to take control over one of the Gnomes so they could have an insider in the world of the Gnome race.
When he told Robert of his plan, Robert didn't have any issues with it and readily agreed to follow Grey there.
The group had to head to the Middle Continent once again, needing the assistance of the Burchard Family.
With Grey's relationship with them, he was confident they would be able to let him enter with Robert. After all, he was the one who helped them acquire it in the first place.
It took them a few weeks, but they finally got to the Middle Continent.
….
The Burchard manor.
Sylvia and her father were discussing when a guard came over to tell them of Grey's arrival.
"What is he doing here?" Sylvia's father asked, not expecting Grey to come over at such a time.
"We'll only know when we see him." Sylvia replied. She always had a soft spot for Grey after he fulfilled his promise to her. She never thought Grey would be the one to help them conquer the Nether Faction, but as luck would have it, without Grey, they would've lost this battle once again.
The guard went out to invite Grey and his friends inside the place.
When Grey saw Sylvia's father, he bowed to show his respect to him. He also bowed slightly to also give Sylvia her respect. Even though he was stronger than her now, he still couldn't forget the times she was stronger and forcefully trained him. As much as he hated competitions and tournaments because of this, he also knew her hard training was one of the reasons he was able to grow quickly during a certain period.
After greetings, Grey went straight to the point, "Can I enter the secret realm with him, there's something we want to try out."
When Sylvia's father heard Grey's request, he took a glance at Sylvia. Normally, he wouldn't entertain anyone randomly coming to him for a chance to get into the secret realm, but this was Grey and they were indebted to him. He also heard of how Grey helped out his son and the special guest they had in the secret realm the last time he came.
"Will it endanger the lives of those training there?" He raised a brow.
"No, we're only targeting a few Gnomes. Those close to the top but not at the very top. Of course getting a few at the top wouldn't be bad." Grey explained, he didn't go into details, but he let them know that their target was Gnomes, and he wasn't even going to kill any of them.
Sylvia's father was a little taken aback when he heard that Grey wasn't going to kill them. According to all he had heard about Grey's exploits in the secret realm, he always gives the Gnomes a run for their money, why the sudden change?
He wanted to ask, but then he realized Grey purposely left out that detail which meant he didn't want to disclose it.
"Alright, you can use it." He readily agreed.
Grey thanked him and left with Robert. The others were left to stay in the Burchard manor.
