Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis and the Red King traveled for a couple of hours. The Red King was many times faster than Gravis and probably could have already arrived at their destination, but due to him adjusting his speed to Gravis, they hadn't even left the area of the Red Kingdom.

After these couple of hours, they finally managed to reach the edge of the Red Kingdom, and the Red King suddenly stopped.

"This is the border between my Kingdom and the Empire. Luckily for you, my Kingdom is directly beside the Empire, which makes this whole journey much faster and easier. As soon as we approach the border, some guards will come to us. Just remain silent and don't say anything. I'll handle the talking," the Red King said.

Gravis nodded. "I have no reason to go against you right now. In the future, we will have our fight. Sowing problems for you now would just be petty."

The Red King felt a mixture of emotions when he heard Gravis' words. On the one hand, he was quite relieved about the fact that Gravis agreed to remain silent, but on the other hand, Gravis had reminded him again that he wanted to kill him. This part made him feel more disdain and a bit of aggression towards him. Of course, that was just the Red King's battle intent.

The Red King nodded. "Good," he said. Then, they flew towards the border again but slower.

A couple of minutes later, some beasts came charging at them with impressive speeds. Gravis felt the power of them as soon as they reached his Spirit Sense, which had grown to a radius of 40 kilometers by now. One of them was a level two King, while the rest were level five Lords.

"Welcome, Red King," the leader of the guards shouted. "Is it time for the regular meeting again?" he asked.

The leader of the guards was a blue snake, making Gravis wonder why he was meeting so many snakes in this world.

The Red King nodded. "Yes," he simply answered. He didn't even greet the guard. However, that was to be expected. After all, power was everything, and it didn't matter that this guard was part of a stronger organization. In terms of personal power, the Red King could sneeze this King to death.

The guard also didn't mind. He was probably used to the Red King's conduct and then moved his attention to Gravis. The leader of the guards looked at Gravis with judging eyes. Any beast had an innate sense of power and superiority, which other beasts could feel.

Gravis' felt the King's superiority reaching out to him, which made him lift one of his eyebrows in a questioning look. This King was nearly a whole Realm above Gravis, and such a display would weaken the fighting intent of any weaker beast.

This wasn't the first time Gravis had been in such a situation. Back then, when Gravis had been ready for his final practical exam, Forneus had also used his Will-Aura to suppress Gravis. This situation was very similar to back then.

Yet, Gravis had grown way more powerful, and even the Red King wasn't able to make Gravis react in any way. So, in the end, this whole display of power went past Gravis like it didn't even happen. His only reaction was a calm, questioning gaze.

Gravis simply looked into the eyes of the King like he was asking what he was doing. This surprised the King quite a bit. He felt a bit of respect for Gravis due to his resistance to his pressure, but he also felt some disdain, which was quite contradictory. The King was way more powerful than him, and by not reacting, Gravis had basically shown that he didn't acknowledge his power.

"Hoooh," the King said with an impressed tone. "You've found quite a good one this time, but I'm also a bit surprised. I thought you wanted to bring your disciple."

"He died," the Red King commented nonchalantly. If it were his disciple in Gravis' shoes, the Red King might have intervened. However, the Red King knew Gravis, and he also knew that not even he could intimidate him. All in all, he didn't even care about this guard's disrespect towards him.

"My condolences," the guard said. Of course, this was only meant to mock the Red King. Everyone knew that this guard didn't give a shit about the Red King's disciple.

"Can we go now?" the Red King asked in annoyance.

The King looked at Gravis again, but this time, Gravis didn't even react at all. He simply looked past the King with his usual, even look.

The guard huffed. "Okay, you can pass," the guard said. "You know where the mountain is. Please don't go anywhere else."

"Sure," the Red King said.

Then, all the beasts went back to their earlier positions while the Red King and Gravis continued their journey.

After some minutes, Gravis looked at the Red King. "Was this some kind of test?"

"No, that guy is just an ass," the Red King said. "If I were part of the Empire, I would just massacre this guard. Sadly, if I did that now, it would be seen as a betrayal towards the Empire."

As soon as Gravis heard that this was no test, he immediately lost interest. Because of that, no follow-up questions came from him.

After this brief intermission, the two beasts traveled for nearly three days. The Empire was way bigger than Gravis had estimated previously. He had to fly with his full speed for over three days just to reach the center of the territory. One had to remember that Gravis was already a level three Lord with his speed nearing the level of a level four Lord.

After these three days, the two finally arrived at their destination. The beasts became much more powerful, and Gravis couldn't even feel the power of a single one of them. This meant that all of them were probably, at least, level five Kings, which surprised Gravis quite a bit.

Normally, an Emperor shouldn't have so many level five Kings, right? After all, they were pretty rare. This gave Gravis the suspicion that the Empress wasn't weak, even in comparison to other Emperors. Gravis also guessed that there were probably also some Emperors among the beasts he had seen.

"Impressive, isn't it?" the Red King asked with a smirk.

Gravis nodded. "How powerful is the Empress?" he asked.

The Red King only smirked when he heard that question. "She's a level three Empress. Quite powerful, right?" he asked.

Gravis narrowed his eyes. He had already expected something like this after he had witnessed the power of the surrounding beasts. A level three Emperor would be in the Middle Law Comprehension Realm. Three more breakthroughs and she would ascend. This really was near the peak of this world.

Right now, Gravis felt like he was out of his depth. In the lower world, he had always resided in areas appropriate for his level. Yet, now, he was already in an area with the most powerful beings in the world, while his journey in this world had just begun.

Suppose one compared the current power dynamic with the power dynamic of the lower world. In that case, Gravis could count as someone in the middle of the Body Tempering Realm while the surrounding Emperors were all in the Spirit Forming Realm. It was like Gravis was already inside the Core-Continent while still being in the Body Tempering Realm.

"We're here," the Red King said, interrupting Gravis' thoughts.

Gravis looked forward and saw the most massive mountain he had ever seen in his entire life. From his current position, it simply looked like a wall that split the world apart. The appearance of this massive mountain reminded Gravis of the time he had seen the walls of Opposer City.

The mountain easily reached beyond the clouds. Gravis grew surprised when he realized that his Spirit Sense didn't even reach far enough to see the top of the mountain. This meant that this mountain was over 40-kilometers-tall.

Gravis also noticed another detail, which made him even more surprised. This absolutely gigantic mountain was made entirely out of materials in the Law Comprehension Rank. Gravis wasn't able to feel or study these materials with his current Realm, but he recognized the materials due to their appearance and properties. After all, Gravis had learned about every available material in the middle worlds.

"Welcome to the Mountain of Pride," the Red King said to Gravis with a smirk.