Affinity: Chaos

Grey moved the bed and found a chest under it.

"Whatever's here should be in here." He said and just as he was about to open it, he sensed something and couldn't help but shake his head, with a wave of his hand, all the figures that were about to step out from the miasma disintegrated.

Kyle didn't even sense the figures, but Grey had already dealt with them. Not just that, while he was dealing with them, he had also unlocked the chest.

"What's inside?" Klaus asked.

"Some kind of scale." Grey picked up a large dark-brownish scale from the box, its surface was rough and very strong.

"A Dragon scale?" Kyle asked.

"No, I have a Dragon and I've felt his scales, it's not like this." Grey explained.

"You know you didn't have to add the last part, right?" Klaus felt a vein pop on his head.

Grey was obviously showing off! What was the point of speaking about having a Dragon and this? A simple no would've been fine!

"How are you going to believe me?" Grey asked.

"You told us to walk into a dangerous miasma and we didn't doubt you, you think we would cause of a scale of unknown origin?" Klaus felt like beating Grey up.

Grey thought about it and confirmed Klaus was right. They haven't doubted him once, but still, he felt like he had to explain to them how he knew it wasn't a Dragon's scale.

While Klaus and Grey were in the midst of bickering, Kyle looked at Grey in shock once again, he couldn't help but ask softly, "You have a Dragon?"

"Yeah, a baby Dragon. You see, I saved…"

"We don't need to know its fucking story, what has that scale? It looks great." Klaus cut Grey off.

He had already heard the story, there was no point in Grey saying it again. All he wanted to know was what had that scale, he didn't see any reason Grey was diverting to himself owning a Dragon.

Grey sighed and placed the scale close to his nose, after a while he did something that grossed the duo standing close to him. Grey moved the scale close to his mouth, and licked it.

After getting a proper feel of the taste, he said, "It's an animal from the sea. I know this taste anywhere, no matter how faint it is."

"You're such a psycho. Who licks something just to know its origin?" Klaus gave Grey a weird look.

Grey didn't bother with him as he explained, "It should belong to a powerful beast that frequents land. So it shouldn't be a fish, but something that could survive on land as well."

"A sea snake can do something like that, and you know there are a fair few fish that can come to land." Kyle explained.

"I know there are some fish that can come to land, but this one lives on land just as much as it does on water. Some sea snakes or something else." Grey said.

Kyle nodded, "Well there's no point finding its origin. Is it useful?"

Klaus immediately spoke up when he heard this and threw a jab at Grey in the process, "Exactly! This is what we should be doing, not going around licking things that are hundreds of years old just to satisfy our cravings."

Grey was already used to Klaus' behavior and didn't bother with him, he looked at Kyle and said, "Well, you can't, but I think I can."

"Hopefully we can get you something good in the next room." Klaus consoled Kyle as they stepped out of the place.

Grey kept scale and walked behind them, making sure Kyle was in the middle.

Klaus was the one taking the lead this time, he opened the last door in that hallway and didn't find anything good.

The humanoid figure that stepped out of the door was frozen on the spot and Kyle was able to get a good view of it. Unlike Klaus and Grey who had been using a special method to see the figures since, he hadn't been able to sense them. Now that he saw it, he was a little surprised. It wasn't as large as he expected, and their facial features resembled that of a bird.

'Strange…' Something flashed through his head, but he shook his head. He didn't think there was a connection between this and what he just recalled.

The group entered the room and didn't find anything. This was within their expectations since they only found something in over ten previous doors.

They went on to head over to the other stairs on the other side of the Hall.

The first door proved to be productive as they saw a bead, although full with miasma, it seemed to possess some amount of pure essence.

Grey could easily remove the miasma in it so it was something Kyle could use. In this hallway, they found something good in almost every door they entered. But the strength of the figures increased, but it wasn't enough to threaten them.

As they left the hallway and returned to the Hall, Kyle walked closer to the chair that was placed on the end of the Hall, facing the door.

When he got closer to it, his eyes expanded, "Impossible."

"What?"

Both Grey and Klaus' attention were drawn over when they heard him.

"This is the place of a legendary figure, the Phoenix King." Kyle explained.

"The Phoenix what now?" Klaus was confused.

"The Phoenix King." Grey leaned closer to Klaus' ear and said clearly.

"I heard him the first time."  Klaus pushed Grey away with his shoulders.

"The Phoenix King is not technically a Phoenix, rather, he was a powerful Elementalist that was well known for his closeness with the Phoenixes. It is said that he knows the exact place Phoenixes hide and even lives with them…" Kyle explained.

Allegedly, this Phoenix King has a lot of Phoenixes around him and is even said to be a descendant of Phoenixes from a strange story which Kyle didn't go into even after Klaus' insistent pestering.