Lightning Is the Only Way

'Great, someone from the Wind Guild. Reaching the Wind Wall has just become way more difficult. I wonder if Heaven planned so far ahead that it knew I would flee to the Wind Wall. If I guess correctly, this should be Wendy's father. This whole thing had been months ago. Was Heaven able to plan this far ahead? Honestly, I'm not sure,' Gravis thought to himself.

"If I guess correctly," Gravis said, "you should be Wendy's father, correct? I think your Guild Master has said your name before. Saron, was it?"

When Gravis had said "Wendy", a cold gleam appeared in Saron's eyes, but that was replaced by his surprise. He hadn't expected that Gravis knew his name. He chuckled lightly. "Yes, my name is Saron. I am surprised you know it," he said casually.

"I am actually more surprised by you appearing," said Gravis. "I was sure that Wendy's goodbye-letter would have stopped you from going after me. That was her goal, after all. She didn't want us to become enemies."

Saron got a little confused after Gravis said that and narrowed his eyes. "There was no goodbye letter," he said.

Now, it was Gravis' turn to be surprised. No goodbye-letter? But he had seen how Wendy nailed it to a tree. Why wouldn't he know about this goodbye-letter? Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened, and then they narrowed in fury. "Was this your doing again, Heaven?!" Gravis shouted aggressively at the sky.

The sky didn't react. Instead, it was Saron who reacted, by looking with shock at Gravis. Did Gravis just aggressively shout at Heaven? Was he suicidal? As they continued running, Saron looked at the sky, but nothing seemed to happen. This surprised him even more. What was going on? Why was Gravis still alive?

"What are you talking about?" Saron asked. His goal was killing Gravis, and he had Gravis on the palm of his hand. Gravis couldn't escape anymore, so he wasn't in a hurry to kill him.

Gravis gnashed his teeth furiously. "This fucking Heaven always tries all this shit to kill me. Wendy had nailed a goodbye-letter to a nearby tree where she explained everything about her life and her decisions. Have you not seen her body? Does her body look like we fought?" Gravis asked.

Saron narrowed his eyes further, but he also remembered that Wendy's body was fully intact when they found it. There were also no traces of a fight. The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. "So, what is this all about? You said my daughter had a reason for all of her actions?"

Gravis harrumphed, still annoyed at Heaven's bullshit. "Yes. Why do you think she specifically targeted me? If she just had an enmity with the Heaven Sect in general, she could have just killed some people. Instead, she specifically only insulted me. There was a reason why she wanted to meet me, and she told me all the things she kept inside. She never wanted to kill me. She wanted to die to me!"

Saron's eyes violently shone. "Lies!" he shouted, and the wind blew Gravis' hair away, but nothing more. "I would know about this! I am her father!"

"It was because you were her father that she didn't tell you. She didn't want to hurt you with everything that happened to her. You probably know about her husband from the Outer-Continent, yes?"

Saron was surprised when Gravis said that. How did Gravis know about Wendy's husband from the Outer-Continent? Did they actually talk? Saron suppressed his rage and just nodded.

"Alright, let me tell you about everything that happened to her and the thoughts that plagued her in her life," Gravis said.

Gravis narrated all of Wendy's experiences at that point. He told those things with as much detail as possible to get more time while running. He couldn't trust that this would deter Saron. He had to make this story as long as possible.

It took over 40 minutes until Gravis finished the story. By now, Saron looked crestfallen at the rapidly moving ground below him. This whole thing hurt him immensely. He had thought that Wendy had recovered from her loss. There were also a lot of things he hadn't known about.

He didn't know that the Heaven Sect had killed Wendy's husband. He also didn't know that Wendy wanted to take revenge on Heaven. When she went out to temper herself, he thought that she had realized that strength was the most important thing. He hadn't realized that this was all so that she could take revenge on Heaven.

Deep inside, Saron felt incredible guilt. He felt like he had failed as a father. In his mind, it had been his duty to protect his daughter from harm. How bad would a father have to screw-up so that his daughter wanted to kill herself?

That Wendy didn't feel a single thing when he hugged her had hit him especially hard. Was her life so miserable that nothing could've helped her? Yes, her love had died, but that happened to a lot of people. It was the biggest hit emotionally if one's life-partner died, but most people managed to recover. On top of that, Wendy also had condensed her Will-Aura. She should have been able to recover.

They flew for another five minutes in silence until Saron regained some of his bearings. "So, Wendy saw her opportunity to take revenge on Heaven in you? That's why she entrusted everything to you?"

Gravis nodded. "Yes, she had noticed how I insulted Heaven, yet still lived. You've also seen me insult it some time ago. Do you think that if I were any other person, I would still be alive right now?"

For Saron, it would have been hard to believe such an outlandish claim. Yet, he had seen how Gravis had insulted Heaven for himself. Another thing was also that Gravis knew too much about Wendy. By now, Saron believed Gravis that there should have been a goodbye-letter. Everything made sense. The only open question was why Gravis was able to insult Heaven without dying. Gravis hadn't told him about that.

Saron took a deep, emotional sigh. "Would you mind telling me how you can insult Heaven like this? Can you help others to do the same?" he asked. He tried to control the emotions in his voice, but his eyes gave him away. Deep in his heart, he started hating Heaven, just like Wendy. It was not fair what happened to Wendy. Her husband had managed to survive against all odds, yet Heaven had executed him.

If something like this happened to someone else, one wouldn't care much about Heaven's unfairness. This was just how things worked. Yet, if it happened to oneself, the whole matter would change. Heaven hadn't treated Wendy fairly, and Saron wouldn't forgive Heaven for this injustice!

Gravis was about to answer Saron but stopped when he looked at him. Heaven had noticed what was going on, and all of Saron's karmic luck had vanished just now. Heaven had realized that Saron was its enemy. If this enmity with Heaven had been created by Saron himself, or by talking with anyone else, Heaven might not have noticed. Unfortunately, all of Heaven's attention was on Gravis' situation right now, and therefore, also on Saron.

Gravis could only sigh when he noticed this. "Heaven has noticed your hatred and just stole all your karmic luck," Gravis said emotionlessly.

Saron's eyes widened in disbelief. It stole all his karmic luck? How was this possible? How would that even work?

Gravis didn't wait for Saron to answer and continued. "I can see the karmic luck of others because I am the only human without it. Without karmic luck, you will meet one calamity after another, but that is not a sure death sentence. If you manage to survive all these calamities, you might become stronger than you have ever imagined since your life will always be in danger. All these calamities, though dangerous and frustrating, increased my strength to its current level."

Saron looked solemn, but after a while, he only bitterly laughed. "What a joke. I have served Heaven for over 200 years and have cultivated many talented disciples, yet it threw me away just like this. You know, if anyone else said this, I wouldn't believe them, but you have proven that you are special."

Saron laughed bitterly again. "Calamities and tempering? I am already over 200 years old. I have long given up on the path to power. Who knew that my life would end like this?"

Gravis actually felt a little guilty inside. Yes, Saron had wanted to kill him, but he was also the father of the person who had helped him the most, except for Gorn. This whole thing was destined to be a tragedy. If Gravis didn't tell Saron, then Saron would kill Gravis.

If Gravis told Saron, then Saron would die. They didn't have to fight since the beginning. If Saron had known Wendy's thoughts, this whole situation wouldn't have happened. Heaven had moved two pawns to each other and forced them to fight. There had never been a right way out of this situation.

"You know," Gravis said, "if I didn't tell you all of this, you would still have your karmic luck, and you would be able to live your life in peace."

Saron looked at Gravis with pity and sighed. "It's alright. If you didn't tell me what happened, I would have never understood the reason behind Wendy's death. Also, if you didn't tell me, you would already be dead by now. You don't need to regret telling me. I loved my daughter dearly, and I am happy dying with this newfound knowledge. My remaining life would have been bitter anyway. I guess I am just collateral damage between your war with Heaven."

Gravis still felt a little bad about dooming Saron. This whole thing hadn't been necessary. This whole situation reaffirmed Gravis' need for power. Heaven could only play them like this because it was stronger than everyone else. If Gravis were as powerful as Heaven, such a tragedy wouldn't happen.

Gravis stopped running. He was incredibly close to the Wind Wall, and he would only need to run for a minute more to reach it. Yet, the fight had ended before it even began. There was no need to enter the Wind Wall.

Suddenly, Gravis got an idea.

"Are you up for a trade?"