Chapter 588: Not That Easy

"Amunet," Grey said suddenly, looking toward Brad. "She’s alright?"

"Recovered by now."

"Didn’t lose any limbs this time?"

Brad raised an eyebrow, then started chuckling. "No, everything’s intact. Where’s your mind going again, pervert?"

Grey stared at him, genuinely speechless for a moment. "What the fuck? I ask if somebody got dismembered and somehow I’m the pervert? There’s no justice in this world."

Brad laughed harder, but Grey waved him on impatiently. "What happened?"

"Apparently the border regions have gone to shit. Amunet went out to pick up the Nigerian woman from the recap, and when she got there, the entire region was already under attack."

Grey frowned. "Attack from who?"

Brad’s expression became strange.

Grey narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"That’s the problem. We still don’t know."

According to Amunet, there hadn’t been an army marching across the border or some powerful candidate leading an assault, instead the world itself had seemed to turn hostile.

Trees ripped their own roots out of the ground and marched forward in numbers large enough to resemble armies, lightning repeatedly struck populated positions with far too much precision to be natural, and one of the major rivers rose high enough to form a tsunami despite there being no ocean anywhere nearby.

A large portion of the zone had been wiped out before Amunet even arrived.

Grey’s expression gradually became serious.

"Elementals."

Brad blinked. "You think so?"

Grey nodded without bothering to explain further. His mind had already gone back to the first recap episode, particularly the member of the Ashen Arc who had cleared an entire Chapter by turning a lightning storm into a natural disaster.

Elementals could impose their Frames through their elements on an absurd scale if they had enough preparation, and considering how many of the bastards Grey had already managed to piss off, the timing wasn’t remotely coincidental.

The only fortunate part was that they hadn’t managed to kill everyone while Grey was asleep.

That was really their mistake. Honestly, they should have tried a lot harder. But if Grey had to guess, they could probably only send natural phenomena like that at them through the border regions.

Because of the existence of the formation, and the fact it was amped up to such a ridiculous degree, it likely meant that the Melix Territory had a great number of protections.

To make matters worse for them, they had lost Veyrath, which meant that they didn’t have a single figurehead at the head of everything. Only Veyrath’s territory should have been close by enough to do this.

That made Grey wonder, though. They had needed 100% approval to get their representative accepted, and only Veyrath had showed up at the Culling. So who approved them from Veyrath’s territory?

Grey’s lips slowly curled upward as he imagined Veyrath trapped inside his portable oven. Maybe a bracelet was thinking too small, and if the Elementals insisted on continuing to deliver themselves to him, he could eventually make an entire mech suit out of their Spirits.

Now wouldn’t that be fucking hilarious?

Brad took a small step backward. "You look creepy as hell right now."

Grey’s grin disappeared. "Mind your business."

He pushed himself to his feet and immediately felt a small wave of dizziness again, his balance shifting for half a second before his body seemed to snap itself back into place. Grey rolled his shoulders, stretched his neck from side to side until several satisfying pops echoed through the room, then flexed his fingers.

"I need food."

"No, first you need clothes."

Grey looked down.

He was wearing nothing but boxers.

His expression immediately became strange, because he was remarkably clean for someone who had spent two weeks unconscious, especially considering the battles he had fought.

More importantly, Grey distinctly remembered that before passing out, he hadn’t been wearing boxers at all, because Thi Lan’s dress had been serving as a skirt and his balls had basically been enjoying unrestricted freedom for quite some time.

Grey slowly looked toward Brad.

Brad grinned. "Go ask your wife."

Grey paused, then nodded thoughtfully. "Touché."

He walked straight for the door.

Brad’s lip twitched. "You’re seriously not putting clothes on?"

Grey didn’t answer.

Apparently that meant no.

His Resonant Sense expanded as he stepped into the corridor, sweeping through the Palace while Brad hurried after him. Grey was mildly surprised by what he found, because considering he distinctly remembered vaporizing large portions of the place, repairs had gone absurdly quickly.

Then again, this was a world where sufficiently powerful people could level mountains by accident. Construction was probably easy. Or maybe it was the Mech Soul.

Either way, the Palace looked almost brand new, and Grey quickly found the largest concentration of powerful presences gathered inside the restored throne room.

He grinned.

Brad saw the expression and immediately sighed. "Don’t."

Grey vanished.

The doors to the throne room exploded inward a moment later, slamming against the walls hard enough that practically every conversation inside stopped at once.

Dozens of eyes turned toward him.

Grey recognized Mauve, Xerchen, Petri, Rosie, several former Church officials, and a collection of nobles he either vaguely remembered or couldn’t give less of a shit about. There was even a certain Princess from one of the other Empires Elowen had never particularly gotten along with, her expression going completely blank as she took in the sight of Grey strolling into a royal meeting wearing nothing but a pair of boxers.

Grey didn’t care.

His eyes had already landed on Elowen.

She sat upon the throne, dressed in Imperial robes that actually fit her for once, and the instant she saw him her eyes widened.

Grey walked straight past everyone.

"Grey—"

He reached the throne, hooked one arm around Elowen’s waist, and effortlessly lifted her from her seat.

Her startled gasp barely escaped before Grey pulled her against himself.

"I’m not letting you off that easy, dammit."

Then he kissed her.

Not the short, desperate kiss she had given him before he collapsed, but a deep one that left absolutely no ambiguity about whether Grey remembered what had happened.

The throne room fell completely silent.

Grey couldn’t have cared less.