Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis sat down and gathered all the different insights of all the different element-specific Battle Laws he had comprehended.

Then, he isolated the element-neutral aspects of these Laws, leaving about 33% of each Law behind.

All of this only took Gravis a couple of days.

After that, Gravis looked at the best aspects of the remainder, leaving behind only about 15% of the different element-specific Battle Laws.

This took Gravis a couple of weeks.

However, that still left far too much. After all, 15 times 14 was 210. This meant that Gravis had to reduce the Laws yet again.

This time, it took Gravis a couple of years. It took so long because Gravis had to test the effectiveness of the different aspects and compare them to each other. He also had to see if these aspects could work with each other.

In the end, about 10% of each Law was left. He only had to reduce it a bit more, but it was already proving to be quite challenging.

The next refinement took Gravis nearly 50 years, and 9% were left.

Still a bit too much.

By now, Gravis had reached a point where he didn't want to give up anything. All of these things were absolutely top-notch, but he couldn't have duplicates for the same concepts.

The next refinement took Gravis 500 years, and he was left with about 8% of the insights.

'Just a little bit more!'

The next refinement took Gravis nearly 5,000 years, but in the end, he was done.

He had created a blueprint for his Law.

'I had to give up so much good stuff,' Gravis thought with a sigh. 'However, only the best things are left!'

'Time to finish the Law!'

Gravis took out his saber and tried out many different concepts by swinging his saber. He knew that these concepts all made sense and that they fit together, but they didn't really create a whole. He needed to fuse the aspects together.

As Gravis tried every possible attack he could do with his saber, he tried to make the connection between them as smooth as possible, which was not easy.

Gravis even felt like his concentration was being used up at a terrifying rate. His mind was going through an uncountable number of calculations every instant.

Another 5,000 years passed, and Gravis became much better at condensing the Law.

'Over 10,000 years for a Form Law,' Gravis thought with a bit of frustration. 'That's way too much!'

Gravis was only a single step away, but that step was impossibly hard to take.

Everything had already perfectly clicked into place, but there was one spot between two different concepts that just wouldn't flow smoothly, no matter how much Gravis tried.

It was like these two concepts couldn't be incorporated.

'I mean, I have a different concept from a different Law that I could insert here, but I like this one way better. I don't want to give up this one!'

So, Gravis continued trying to make it fit, but it just wouldn't.

As time passed, Gravis grew more and more frustrated.

'Why isn't this working!?' Gravis thought.

'The concept is perfect! It should work, but it just doesn't!'

'My control is also absolutely perfect! There is absolutely no error in my movement!'

'So, why doesn't this work!?' Gravis thought with gritted teeth.

By now, Gravis had no idea what he should do anymore, which made him decide to check out some other Laws. Maybe something could make the transition between the two concepts work?

Gravis went through all his Laws and, after a while, just randomly tried them out.

SHING!

"Oh?" Gravis suddenly uttered as he noticed something.

The transition had become a bit smoother just now.

'Interesting,' Gravis thought. 'Who would have thought that this Law would help me in making progress? It's actually ironic. Form Laws require a perfect control over everything so that I move accurately every time, but this Law that reduces my control is actually making it smoother.'

Which Law did Gravis mean?

The level three Law of Rage.

The Law of Rage reduced one's control over their attacks in exchange for a powerful boost of power.

Gravis tried out the Law of Rage a bit more as his saber started to shine in red light.

As Gravis activated the Law of Rage, controlling his own attacks became more difficult.

All the other attacks and concepts lost synchronicity, but that one aspect that had caused Gravis so much trouble flowed smoothly now.

Gravis thought that he was onto something here and checked out some other unrelated Laws.

Gravis tried out the level three Law of Calm during the other segments, and, sure enough, they flowed beautifully.

'Perfect!' Gravis thought.

After that, Gravis activated both the Law of Rage and the Law of Calm. If their forces had identical strength, they would cancel each other out, but Gravis didn't do that, of course. He simply used them in alternating powers depending on the situation.

As soon as Gravis noticed that he could incorporate these two Emotional Laws, his progress sped up.

After only a couple of days, Gravis had perfectly gotten used to using these Emotional Laws as support for his attack. He even incorporated the Law of Apathy into his attacks.

Sadly, the Law of Empathy was useless. An attack with a saber had nothing to do with empathy.

After a while, Gravis lost himself in comprehension again. Swinging his saber like this had a magical effect on himself.

It was like he was traveling through the lands of emotion.

Gravis traveled through a dead land.

Apathy was all around him.

The ground around him was a desert, representing the Law of Rage. The Law of Rage had already destroyed everything, leaving only sand behind.

After walking for a while in this illusory land, Gravis saw a tranquil ocean that didn't move. It almost looked like a pane of glass.

Gravis noticed that the ocean and the desert were separated by a small cliff.

For some reason, Gravis thought that this didn't really fit. The only word Gravis could think of was janky.

Gravis lifted his right hand and moved it a bit.

SSHH!

The sand from the desert flowed over the cliff, creating a smooth walkway.

Gravis smiled and looked at his surroundings again.

Now, there were three areas.

One was the desert.

One was the ocean.

And the last one?

The last one was a beach.

Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened as comprehension shone in his eyes.

BOOOOM!

BOOOOM!

Gravis was shocked for a second but immediately had to laugh.

'It was actually so simple?' he thought. 'That was all?'

The Law of Rage and the Law of Calm had not been combined into a single area. They were still separate from each other.

However, there was now an area between them that connected both of them.

In seconds, the beach transformed into a forest, which slowly transformed into a swamp the more it stretched into the ocean.

Gravis looked at the desert.

'The extremes of rage don't allow for life since it destroys everything. This is a form of apathy for life.'

Then, Gravis looked at the ocean.

'The ocean is calm and beautiful, but in order to remain calm, everything that moves has to die. Pure calm doesn't allow other things to influence it. This is also apathy.'

'Only the balanced center allows for life to flourish. This is empathy.'

Gravis glanced at the ocean and desert again.

'And the extremes are apathy.'

BOOOOM!

Gravis smiled.

He had seen that coming.

In the real world, Gravis opened his eyes with a smile as he struck down with his saber.

WHOOOOOOOM!

The world was cut apart.

Everything in front of Gravis had been cut apart. The ground in front of Gravis had a thin crevice now. The trees in the distance had been cut apart. The mountains had been cut apart. Even the clouds thousands of kilometers away were cut apart.

This had only been a normal strike of Gravis' saber.

Gravis stopped and looked at his saber.

'Who would have thought that the core to making my Form Law of the Saber work was the level five Laws of Rage, Calm, and Apathy?'

Yes, Gravis had comprehended the level five Laws of Rage, Calm, and Apathy!

Four of the six Emotional Laws were perfectly incorporated into each other now, and this combination allowed Gravis to create this Form Law of the Saber.

Gravis looked at the split horizon and grinned.

BOOOOM!

Gravis finally comprehended his Form Law of the Saber.

'That's not a level five Law,' Gravis thought with a smile.

'That's a level six Law!'

'No wonder it was so hard to comprehend!'