Lightning Is the Only Way

Suddenly, a gigantic pillar of fire shot at the spider, forcing it to abandon its attack.

"I knew you would appear here! You can't flee now!" a mighty screech went throughout the Grand Lake.

Sary used this opportunity to heal herself and re-engaged the three Ultimates. If this stranger hadn't stopped the attack of the spider, she would have died.

Yet, she only felt a complex mix of emotions regarding her current situation. On the one hand, she was happy to still be alive. On the other hand, someone had involved himself in her fight. She had no idea how she should feel about her current situation. So, she decided to push that thought back until she was done fighting.

"Stop chasing me!" the spider screeched at the new arrival. "You can't catch me, so just stop!"

Meadow and Gravis released a breath of relief. Sary had survived. Yet, this new arrival was truly powerful! The sea Ultimate didn't even attempt to fight back. She simply screeched as she tried to merge with the darkness and leave.

BRRRRRR!

A bright pillar of white fire appeared, which illuminated the world. Gravis had never seen this kind of fire before, but he could guess what kind of fire it was. That was because he knew that voice.

The light of the fire illuminated everything, including the spider. Then, a burning white hawk with fiery red feathers shot at the spider like a meteor.

This was the Inferno Emperor.

On top of that, he had become a level four Emperor. Yet, even though he had only become a level four Emperor, he was already chasing an Ultimate without her even being able to fight back.

As soon as the Inferno Emperor had become a level two Emperor, he had invaded the sea beasts and slaughtered every powerful beast he could find. He needed to become more powerful!

What was the reason for that?

Gravis!

The Inferno Emperor already knew of Gravis' terrifying talent. Yet, when he had heard that Gravis even managed to kill an Inquisitor as a level two King, he realized that there was a genuine chance that Gravis could kill him before he managed to ascend.

The Inferno Emperor knew that Gravis wanted to kill him. Yet, instead of hunting down Gravis and killing him, he was using Gravis as pressure. Gravis' constant danger put the Inferno Emperor under a terrifying amount of pressure, which allowed him to become stronger at a ridiculous rate.

This was precisely why he had never attacked Gravis, even though he had an uncountable amount of chances. He could have just invaded the Icy Pride Empire if he wanted. He was far more powerful than Azure, after all.

Yet, that would slow down his progress. He needed Gravis to become more powerful!

Gravis narrowed his eyes as he saw the Inferno Emperor again for the first time in over a hundred years. Sadly, the Inferno Emperor was currently far above Gravis' power. 'Just you wait! Even in the next world, you won't be safe!' Gravis thought with hate.

The sea Ultimates became nervous as they saw that everything was going wrong! They hadn't helped their comrade before since the spider was unparalleled in fleeing. After all, the spider was an Ultimate with a darkness affinity.

But now, they regretted that they hadn't involved themselves earlier. The Inferno Emperor had comprehended some form of Law related to the light aspect of fire. This made it nearly impossible for the Darkness Ultimate to retreat.

The Darkness Ultimate and the Inferno Emperor had fought three times already. The first fight had been about equal, but the Inferno Emperor managed to flee. The second fight between them resulted in the Darkness Ultimate fleeing. In the third fight, the Darkness Ultimate couldn't even fight the Inferno Emperor anymore.

The last fight had happened ten years ago. Yet, since that time, the Inferno Emperor had, apparently, comprehended a Law related to light. The Inferno Emperor wanted to kill this prey of his! Sadly, when he had comprehended the Law, he had no idea where the Darkness Ultimate was. She could have been anywhere!

As he continued searching, he had seen Meadow's world-shaking display. That was when he flew over there out of interest. With his speed, he had arrived very quickly. He had even watched Gravis fight the grey elephant, which just reaffirmed his nervousness and fear. Gravis was even more terrifying than he had thought.

When the Inferno Emperor saw Sary charging into the Grand Lake, he realized his chance. If Sary managed to comprehend a level three Law and managed to draw the Darkness Ultimate out, he could kill two birds with one stone! If that happened, the Darkness Ultimate would reveal himself, and on top of that, the other Ultimates couldn't get involved in their fight.

If the other Ultimates got involved, the Inferno Emperor would most likely die. He could kill one of them, but two were already very difficult. A third one would doom him. Yet, with the addition of the Darkness Ultimate, there were four! Yet, with Sary keeping the other Ultimates at bay, he could kill his prey.

The fight continued, but…

BANG!

A fifth Ultimate appeared!

All the land beasts became shocked, and they all felt like they had dodged a bullet. They had thought that there were only three Ultimates. Yet, there were actually five, just as many as the land beasts had! Where had all these Ultimates come from!?

If this situation hadn't happened, the sea beasts might have managed to create even more Ultimates than the land beasts! For the first time in forever, the land beasts felt like they were actually in danger of losing the war.

Would Meadow get involved? Probably not. Meadow wasn't some saint, and she also didn't particularly care about the camps. She only cared about her Empire, her comrades, and herself. As long as the sea beasts didn't touch Sary or Meadow's Empire, Meadow wouldn't get involved.

Of course, they also knew that Meadow wouldn't get involved if Sary died during normal tempering. As long as Sary had a chance of survival, everything would be fine. At most, Meadow might kill the beast that killed Sary.

Because of all these reasons, the sea beasts were actually a genuine threat to the land beasts.

The fifth sea beast Ultimate was a white snake, and she immediately used her light affinity to heal the injured Ultimates fighting against Sary. Then, she also charged at Sary.

"You're mine!" a new voice shouted as a grey panther charged at the snake. This was the Metal Ultimate from the land beasts. He hadn't been able to get involved earlier, but he had walked closer after the fourth Ultimate had shown herself. Maybe there was a fifth? If there really were a fifth, the Metal Ultimate wanted that one!

Funnily enough, the Metal Ultimate didn't realize that he had only gotten this opponent because of Meadow. The reason for that was the Lightning Ultimate. The Lightning Ultimate also wanted to become more powerful, and with his superior speed, he would have arrived before the Metal Ultimate.

Yet, Meadow wasn't the biggest fan of the Lightning Ultimate, so she told him not to intervene. The Lightning Ultimate even found some courage to ask for a reason, and Meadow simply replied, "Fuck you, that's why!"

The Lightning Ultimate couldn't counter this solid argument and bitterly remained at his usual spot.

The three fights continued for hours as the Ultimates comprehended one Law after the other, constantly turning the battles around.

Well, except for one.

SHING!

The Darkness Ultimate was impaled by the Inferno Emperor's claws. Then, the Inferno Emperor became bigger and threw the corpse into his beak. The first Ultimate had died.

The Inferno Emperor became bigger as he became a level five Emperor. He had already eaten plenty of level four Emperors, but he wanted to kill an Ultimate before he left this world, which was why he had chased the Darkness Ultimate for so long. He had always heard about the Ultimates' power and had even seen them a couple of times. He wanted to prove to himself that he had reached their power by killing one.

After the Inferno Emperor finished his evolution, he glanced at Gravis with cold eyes. Gravis simply looked back with the same eyes.

After some seconds, the Inferno Emperor left. Yet, he didn't truly leave the current area. He simply left one battlefield to join another.

BRRRRRRRR!

The Inferno Emperor was surrounded by white fire as he shot at a Strider like a meteor.

Today, he would ascend!