Lightning Is the Only Way

Today was the day Gravis' fight was supposed to take place. Gravis had already readied himself by putting on his emerald green armor and only waited for the Red King to bring his opponent to him. He wasn't sure where they would fight, but it would probably just be atop the Red King's abode.

After some hours passed, Gravis felt a beast approach his spot. Normally, all beasts kept themselves away from the Red King's abode since this wasn't a place where they were supposed to walk around. After all, the Red King held great pride in his power.

Gravis inspected the beast, and, sure enough, it was a level five Lord. This would probably be his opponent.

The beast was a two-kilometer-long, silver bird. It looked quite sharp and fast but also had a certain amount of aggressiveness to it.

'Silver color, above-average speed, powerful attack,' Gravis thought as he had a weird expression on his face. Was the Red King serious?

"Your opponent has arrived," the Red King transmitted to Gravis as he left his abode and landed before Gravis. Some seconds later, the silver bird also landed on top of the abode. Yet, instead of concentrating on Gravis, it only bowed to its King.

"My King," the silver bird transmitted to the King in a deferential tone. Then, it remained silent, as if it was waiting for orders.

The Red King nodded to the bird in acknowledgment and turned to Gravis. "This will be your opponent," he said to Gravis.

The silver bird also heard these words and looked at Gravis with a mixture of skepticism, confusion, and insult. This was the reason why it had been called? It was supposed to fight some level two Lord? Such a level two Lord couldn't even be considered a snack to the silver bird.

"I would advise you to search for a different opponent," Gravis said to the Red King.

The silver bird only sneered when it heard that. Gravis was already showing signs of fear in front of it. Yet, what would that accomplish? This, obviously, wasn't a fight but an execution. Why else would it have been called to deal with a mere level two Lord?

The Red King narrowed his eyes. "You said you wanted a level five Lord," the Red King answered.

"Yes," Gravis said, "but I want it to be an actual challenge. This bird won't even be able to launch an attack before I kill it."

The silver bird felt shocked and insulted when it heard that. A mere level two Lord was looking down on it?

"Silence, weakling," the silver bird shouted. "How dare you disrespect-"

"Shut up," the Red King said.

The silver bid immediately fell silent and didn't dare to utter another word.

Then, the Red King looked at Gravis again. "Explain," he demanded.

Gravis pointed at the bird. "This bird has the lightning element," he said.

"So?" the Red King asked.

"You don't know, but I have an unprecedented affinity towards lightning. The fact that my lightning is so powerful and that I can transform my body into lightning should give you an inkling. Any beast with the lightning affinity will die when confronted with me."

"No matter its power. This includes Emperors," Gravis said evenly like he was explaining the most obvious thing.

Both the Red King and the silver bird were shocked by what they heard. Had this level two Lord just said that he could kill an Emperor? This wouldn't even be possible inside a dream.

Yet, the silver bird remained silent. The Red King had rebuked it once, and it wouldn't want to get rebuked again.

Meanwhile, the Red King narrowed his eyes in thought as he looked down at the ground. Usually, he would throw such a ridiculous claim out of the window before the beast saying it could even finish their ridiculous boast. Yet, Gravis was different. He had shown many peculiar things that appeared impossible. This could actually be true.

However, the Red King didn't believe the Emperor part. Gravis just had no idea how powerful an Emperor was. That was why he was boasting so grandly.

After some seconds, the Red King made his decision. "I want to see it," he said.

Gravis only lifted an eyebrow when he heard that. "This will waste one of my tempering opportunities," Gravis said.

The Red King sighed when he heard that. "You're even more greedy than me," he said. "You already understand two Laws, and one of them is already more powerful than average Laws."

Gravis knew that the Red King was referring to his Punishment Lightning.

"Your Battle-Strength is already unprecedented, and there is not a big difference between Lords. The real difference in power only appears as soon as a beast becomes a King," the Red King explained.

"Additionally, you haven't had enough time to understand new Laws. The Law you learned last time showed the accumulation of all the wisdom you've acquired. You're not on the cusp of understanding a new Law. I can feel that," the Red King said.

Gravis furrowed his brows. "How would you know?" he asked.

"Beasts that are on the cusp of understanding a Law have a certain type of aura around them. You can't distinguish this aura since you're too young. This feeling allows me to say with certainty that you won't be able to understand a new Law right now."

Gravis looked to the ground for a bit. "Did I have this aura when I was fighting the Golden Dragon?"

The Red King nodded. "Yes, you did. Otherwise, I wouldn't have put you into such a suicidal fight. You were already outstanding enough as a present. Sacrificing you like this would have been a colossal waste."

Gravis sighed when he heard that. Deep inside, he had already known that he wasn't ready to grasp a new Law. He had spent years forging and had learned a ridiculous amount of information from his father about materials. This was the only reason why he had been able to understand this Law so quickly.

Yet, he hadn't had these kinds of advantages in regards to other Laws. Everything else had to be gathered by him alone. So, even though Gravis had spent three entire years comprehending his surroundings and the CMO, he wasn't even close to understanding anything.

Gravis had an excellent guide with the CMO, but the more he watched it, the more he understood how little he actually knew.

All of this meant that Gravis would need to spend a lot of time comprehending Laws. He had charged through the Realms without a break, but now, time was catching up to him. Cultivation took longer and longer, the more one progressed on the path to power.

Gravis had been able to shorten the time of the Spirit Forming Realm. Theoretically, he could also reach the Nascent Nourishing Realm in a matter of hours, as long as he had enough food. Yet, at some point, he would be forced to comprehend Laws, and that would take its time.

Now that Gravis thought clearly, he also realized that his combat experience basically couldn't be increased anymore. There was only so much genius, creativity, and effectiveness that Gravis could use. Gravis couldn't increase the efficiency of his fighting style anymore.

He had perfect control over his power, was incredibly good at dodging, and he had a tremendous amount of creativity and experience. There was nothing more that he could learn in regards to his body and fighting style.

This showed Gravis the cruel reality.

In order to increase his Battle-Strength further, Gravis needed to comprehend Laws. There was basically nothing else he could do. The only other thing would be to increase his Will-Aura, but that required a perfect opponent.

A level five Lord would give him some tempering, but it wouldn't be that much. Gravis could sacrifice a part of his body and attack the opponent with a Lightning Crescent. His lightning was already two and a half times more powerful than initially, and this would be enough to injure even a level five Lord.

This meant that he was in an awkward spot. Level five Lords were slightly too weak, while level one Kings were way too powerful. Even if Gravis became a level three Lord, he still wouldn't have any chance against a level one King. He would, at least, need to become a level four Lord.

After remaining silent for half a minute, Gravis sighed. "I don't like to admit it, but you're right. In regards to tempering, I'm in an awkward spot right now. Fighting a level five Lord would give me some tempering, but not much."

Gravis sighed again. "Fine," he said.

The Red King nodded and then turned to the silver bird. "You two will be opponents. The winner gets to eat the loser."

"You can start whenever."