Lightning Is the Only Way

It had been about a month since Gravis had tempered his body. Nothing special happened in that time, except that he broke into the sixth level of Energy Gathering. There were no missions for him to do, and Gravis was bored. After his breakthrough, he went outside and looked for Skye. Gravis was happy that he finally was stronger than Skye again.

Though Gravis' excitement quickly transformed into a bittersweet feeling. Skye had reached the level of a high-rank Energy Beast. Gravis was incredibly surprised when he saw Skye's new size. It looked nearly identical to its parent and was probably also as powerful as it, maybe even stronger. Skye was incredibly smart and had learned a lot from Gravis. With its increased smarts, it might actually be stronger than its parent.

Gravis could only smile bitterly. He was happy that Skye grew that quickly, but he also felt a little defeated by its rapid progress. Though, he didn't grow envious. Skye was continually hunting for strong beasts, and it had weathered way more life and death experiences in the last couple of months than Gravis.

When was the last genuine life and death experience that Gravis had experienced? Gravis thought back and concluded that the last real one was when he reached the Heaven Sect. He hadn't gone through a single life and death experience while he had been in the Heaven Sect. This was an issue. His realm had increased by two levels with no real fights in-between.

Though, that didn't mean that his will hadn't increased during that time. Due to the whole situation with Wendy, his will had increased substantially. The whole thing made him question his goal and what he wanted to become, which made it similar to body tempering. His will had been injured and shaken, and when his will had recovered, it had become more powerful.

Gravis had decided that his goal was most important. Wendy would have died either way, with or without his interference. He had also been sent to kill her, which made it substantially easier for him to accept it. The only thing he could do for her was to never forget her thirst for revenge on Heaven. He had accepted the situation.

His will had also slightly increased in his body tempering experience, but not by much. It had slightly increased during the first day, but after that, physical pain was no longer enough to temper his will. Due to that, he decided to increase the Energy in his mind. By now, his head had been filled to 90% saturation, and the headache would kill someone with a weak will.

Reaching this saturation of Energy already required someone to have a Will-Aura. Yet, it only allowed them to keep themselves alive while they cultivated their Spirit. Feeling the pain for days on end was something completely different. The pain in the mind was multiple times stronger than the pain that Gravis had felt while tempering his body. The headache was unbelievably powerful and constant, but Gravis was happy about that. Like this, his will would rise.

Gravis spent a couple of days with Skye and remembered that his birthday was coming up in about two weeks. Gravis grew a little shocked when he realized that he had only been in this lower world for less than a year. It felt much longer to him. He had remained in the Outer-Continent for about six months and had stayed in the Middle-Continent for about three or four. Gravis had already been sixteen when he came to the lower world. All this only happened in less than a year.

Gravis could only sigh as his mind wandered and thought about everything he had done. The whole thing about Gorn still gnawed at him, and he could probably never forget that. Gorn had been a turning point in his life, and the whole thing had changed Gravis' path substantially. Gorn's death had created several life and death experiences for Gravis, making him stronger, but Gravis didn't want to think about his death this way.

Gravis didn't consider his death as a way that made him stronger, but about a reminder that he had to keep himself in check. Yet, when Gravis thought about his reckless plan, his mind wavered. His plan involving the Pre-Forming Technique and the jade token from Wendy could change him if it succeeded. Would he still remain himself when that happened?

Gravis shook his head to ignore that thought and had some fun with Skye. They flew around for a full day and did whatever they wanted. Of course, with Heaven constantly keeping an eye out for Gravis, they couldn't possibly meet any other high-rank Energy Beasts. Those might actually be possible for Gravis to defeat, and Heaven didn't want any tempering experiences for him.

Yet, Gravis was not that annoyed by that. The higher the power of a beast, the harder it was for Heaven to control it. In order to keep all the strong beasts away from Gravis, Heaven probably used a lot of power. Gravis had already seen how difficult it was for Heaven to control such beasts when Skye's parent first appeared. In the beginning, it wanted to kill him, but Skye managed to convince it otherwise. This showed that Heaven couldn't absolutely control such powerful beasts.

Gravis guessed that it was probably nearly impossible for Heaven to control Spirit Beasts. He actually didn't mind the lack of high-rank Energy Beasts. He already had a plan for the time when he would leave the Heaven Sect, and he would get plenty of tempering then. Until that time arrived, Gravis relaxed.

And just like that, the time had arrived just a day later.

"In three days, our branch will visit our headquarter in the Core-Continent for the yearly gathering," said Aion to the gathered Heavenborn in front of him. "As always, we will travel for about three days and then stay there for about a day. Meeting the High Priest is an honorable experience for every one of you, so you better cherish it!"

The gathered Heavenborn nodded at Aion. They remembered the last time they had met the High Priest and were still impressed by his awe-inspiring presence. Gravis showed an expression of longing, but inside, he sighed. 'The time has come,' he concluded.

Meeting the High Priest? Gravis wasn't suicidal. Aion might not notice that he was not a Heavenborn, but the High Priest would surely notice it straight away when he saw him. Gravis didn't care about the other Heavenborn, but he felt a little bad about "betraying" Aion.

Yes, Aion was his enemy, and that had been decided since the very beginning, but he still had helped Gravis a lot. Yet, Gravis' decision had been made. They couldn't remain friends or allies. As soon as Gravis was outed as not being a Heavenborn, Aion would kill him without hesitation. They were Heaven's lackeys and children, and they wouldn't go against their creator just for Gravis.

It was not always possible to change reality, no matter how much one wished.

After the meeting was over, all Heavenborn returned to what they were doing. There were no more missions for anyone during that time, and they all waited for the three days to pass. For the next two days, Gravis always went outside to play with Skye and would return early in the morning.

Yet, when the third day arrived, he didn't return.

Gravis was gone.