Lightning Is the Only Way

Some seconds passed in silence.

"By the way," the Opposer said. "You can probably also guess now why the old bastard and I are enemies."

Gravis was a bit surprised when he heard that. He had expected that they had some enmity because of something that had happened previously, yet his father said that he could guess it now?

Surprisingly, finding out why his father and Heaven were enemies was more difficult than finding out why death existed. But after some seconds of thinking, Gravis felt like he found the reason.

"You're a humongous storage of Energy without a key to open it," Gravis said.

His father smiled. "Well done. You always were a smart kid," the Opposer said.

Gravis felt happy to hear his father praise him.

"After a certain time," the Opposer explained, "I have reached a Realm that no one had reached before me, but the old bastard had noticed it too late. At that point, I was able to resist his influence. Obviously, I can't tell you exactly how I did that since that would definitely force him to act against you."

"So, after I was able to resist his influence, I became the strongest magnet for Energy in the whole world. Yet, since the old bastard can't kill me, he can't access my Energy. As you said, I'm a huge storage room of Energy that the old bastard can't access. So, he tried to kill me with everything he had. This created our enmity."

"Honestly, though," the Opposer said while furrowing his brows. "I don't know if the old bastard is truly unable to defeat me or if he is only acting like he can't. After all, I am an incredible source of attraction for Cosmic Energy. It could also be that he can kill me but just wants me to become fatter."

Gravis' insides shivered. He couldn't hear worry from his father's voice, but he was pretty sure that he felt his father worry. This was the first time in his life where his father appeared like he didn't have full control over everything. That possibility hadn't even crossed his mind.

The Opposer sighed something that Gravis hadn't seen before. "Actually, around five days ago, I felt like I fell into the old bastard's scheme."

"What do you mean?" Gravis asked with worry.

The Opposer looked deeply at Gravis. "That was the time when you reached the Spirit Forming Realm," he said.

"Oh, right!" Gravis said. "I totally forgot about the time dilation. It actually feels bizarre that six years have passed for me while only two days have passed for you. By the way, what happened back then?" he asked.

"When you adapted your Spirit to lightning, you have opened a tunnel for lighting to enter you," the Opposer explained. "Energy doesn't have a will, but lightning does. Yet, without a Spirit or soul, lightning can't become conscious."

"So, as soon as it entered you, it became conscious, and it did what it could do best: destroy. Your Spirit was too weak to resist the overwhelming power of lightning, so you died."

Gravis sighed shakingly. He had expected that he had died back then but hearing it from his father made the truth have way more impact.

"The lightning took over your being and started summoning and absorbing more lightning. The old bastard hadn't noticed it since you were too weak for him to care about, but I had," he said.

"You should know that the manifestation of lightning would have absorbed all the lightning in your lower world in a couple of seconds. Then, it would have ascended and would have repeated this process until it reached the highest world."

"At that time, it would already be too late for the old bastard. The old bastard decided that around 50% of his power would be in lightning and if the manifestation absorbed that, the old bastard's power would fall to 50% while the manifestation had the other 50%."

"At that point, I could have just killed the old bastard and then the manifestation. After all, I'm more of an all-rounder. Lightning is only a small part of my power. Like this, I would have finally achieved what I've wanted to achieve for 50 billion years," he said.

Gravis' felt his insides shake. An enmity that had existed for 50 billion years or the life of only one of thousands of children. In Gravis' mind, he guessed that he would have chosen the enmity.

The Opposer sighed. "But I didn't want to lose you," he said, his sad and warm tone shaking Gravis' insides again. "I fell to the schemes of Heaven and had love dictate my judgment. I always believed that following Heaven's schemes, and by extension, his created emotions, would result in my death, but I did it anyway."

"Heaven has created love to make us stronger, but now, the same thing I have avoided to feel for my entire life has affected my judgment. I wanted to sacrifice your life for Heaven's death, but I just couldn't."

Gravis felt a complex mix of emotions. On one hand, he felt happy that his father loved him this much, but on the other hand, he felt guilty that his father wasn't able to achieve his goal. Maybe it would have been better if he stayed dead back then.

The Opposer put a hand on Gravis' shoulder and looked deep into his eyes. "Don't feel guilty, Gravis," he said strongly. "I have made my decision, and I don't regret it. Don't forget that if you didn't exist, this possibility wouldn't have even existed in the first place."

Gravis remained silent as he looked into his father's eyes.

"It isn't that you have committed a mistake or injured me. My decision to choose your life over my enmity just made everything return to how it was before. Don't forget that this all wouldn't have happened if you didn't exist."

Then, the Opposer smirked. "Also, it's not like we didn't gain anything out of this. After all, you have an unprecedented affinity towards lightning because of this. If anyone ever reaches my Realm, they can only be weaker or equally as strong as me since we followed the same path, but you are different."

"If you reach my Realm, you will be immune to the old bastard's strongest weapon while keeping your full strength. So, while there is a possibility that you won't be stronger than me, you will definitely be stronger than the old bastard. After all, you're the perfect counter to him."

Tears came out of Gravis' eyes. He had never felt much fatherly love from his father, but everything had changed today. His father had chosen him over his lifelong goal. He had often doubted that his father even loved him, but today, he was proven wrong.

His father might not have shown his love, but he obviously deeply felt for him. For the first time in a long while, Gravis felt genuinely happy. His victory against the lower Heaven had made him feel excited, but it hadn't made him feel happy.

"Thanks, father," Gravis said with some tears.

His father smiled warmly at him. "Don't mention it. You're my son, and I'm incredibly proud of you."

They remained silent for a minute as Gravis enjoyed the closeness to his father.

"After all," the Opposer said with a smirk. "You managed to kill one of the bastard's children without ascending! No one has ever managed to do that before," he said with a laugh.

Gravis laughed a bit. "No one?" he asked.

"Well, there have been cases where someone from a higher world killed a Heaven from a lower world due to enmity, but a stronger Heaven quickly annihilated them."

Gravis sighed. So it had been done before. "But that's only because you protected me," he said. Gravis was only still alive because someone stronger than him had protected him. This irked Gravis to no end. He didn't want to rely on anyone else.

"That's wrong," the Opposer said, surprising Gravis. "I know the old bastard pretty well, and I'm also pretty sure that he wouldn't kill a person that managed to kill a Heaven." Then, the Opposer lifted a finger. "As long as they didn't ascend to a higher world before killing it."

"So," the Opposer said with a smirk. "Even without me, the old bastard wouldn't have killed you for killing one of his children. He values strength above everything else. If one of his children isn't able to kill someone in their world, even though they have the whole world as their weapon, he would find them useless. Thus, since he believes that weakness is wrong, they deserved to die."

Gravis was surprised, but he also felt better about killing the lower Heaven now. "The highest Heaven is this fair?" he asked. "I thought that after the situation with Stella and with the lower Heaven's disgusting conduct, that the highest Heaven would also be like that."

The Opposer sighed. "Well, I don't like the old bastard, but I have to say that he is actually pretty fair. Of course, only if it doesn't involve me. He only acts like a dick towards our family and me. Everyone else, though, he treats pretty fairly. Shenanigans like Heavenborn or the suppression of powerful talents doesn't exist in the highest world."

Gravis was a bit surprised. "There are no Heavenborn?"

His father shook his head. "No, why would he need them? He knows that he is in full control, except for me, of course, so why the need to create something like the Heavenborn? If he doesn't like something, he can just change the rules or get rid of it. Also, having some heaven-chosen people around would make the normal cultivators hate Heaven due to envy."

The Opposer shrugged. "The old bastard has a pretty solid reputation in the highest world. Sheep that follow willingly are easier to manage than sheep that dislike you. In the peoples' eyes, I am the antagonist. I mean, they're not wrong. I probably killed way more people than the old bastard."

Gravis had never seen his father act and talk so casually. Gravis felt the gap between him and his father close further. The cold distance between them was slowly vanishing.

"Anyway, you wanted to know more about the highest world," the Opposer said as he summoned more coffee for himself and his son. "We kind of went off topic there for a while."

Gravis drank his coffee with a smile.

"Do tell," he said.