Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis arrived in Arc's clearing and looked for him. He saw Arc sitting on a stump, drawing lines in the dirt.

He was probably guessing Laws from the highest world again.

"Hey, Gravis," Arc said with a grin without looking at him. Arc felt a feeling of kinship towards Gravis since they both desired freedom. Additionally, Gravis knew a lot about how the Cosmos worked, giving him the ability to have an actual conversation with Arc. "What brings you here?"

"You didn't notice?" Gravis asked.

Arc frowned. "Did you summon another gate from the Primordial Chaos?" Arc asked as he turned to Gravis.

Gravis chuckled a bit.. "No, something else."

"Look!"

Gravis absorbed some Energy from the surroundings and let a small flower grow on his palm. This flower had no will but a tiny soul.

Arc's eyes sparkled for a bit. 

"Did you make a detour?" Arc asked with a smile. "Weren't you supposed to concentrate on the Emotional Laws? Why are you suddenly interested in the Life Laws?"

"It just happened," Gravis told Arc as he sat down on a different stump. "It just came naturally after I comprehended the Major Law of Life Energy."

Arc nodded.

"You probably already combined your Law of the Dead World with your Law of Life, right?" Arc asked.

Gravis nodded.

"The Law of the Living World, huh?" Arc said as he looked at the sky with a nostalgic expression. "I still remember how I comprehended that one. Gaining the ability to create an entire world filled with life felt surreal."

Gravis nodded. "It sure does. I feel like I'm still on my way to the top, and I still feel like I have a huge distance left to traverse, but I can already create life now."

Arc only smiled. "Yet, is all life equal?"

Gravis' brows furrowed.

"What do you mean?"

"You're looking at the creation of life from the viewpoint of a mortal, Gravis," Arc explained. "Yes, you can create mortal life, but there is still a vast difference in complexity, and therefore also a vast difference of worth."

"The Life Composition Law, the Life Growth Law, and the Law of the Soul already allow you to create life. This shouldn't be something new to you. The inclusion of the Law of Energy Healing simply allows you to skip using your own Energy as an intermediary."

"Creating mortal life actually isn't that hard. After all, even mortals can do it, right?" Arc asked with a smile.

Gravis blinked a couple of times. "I mean, yeah, they can. They can have children."

Arc nodded. "Exactly. The Law of Life by itself is pretty impressive, but it's still missing something."

"However, the Law of the Living World is different."

"Look!"

CRRRRR!

A one-kilometer-wide sphere of dirt appeared in the air before Arc. In a short moment, oceans, rivers, mountains, crevices, deserts, and everything else that made up a dead world were created.

It was a miniature planet.

"You can do the same. Why don't you try?" Arc asked.

Gravis looked before him with an uncertain expression and tried it.

CRRRRR!

Another kilometer-wide sphere appeared in the air beside the other one. 

Then, Gravis shaped the planet to look appealing, but it took far longer for him to reshape the planet, and it also didn't have the appeal of the tiny planet Arc had created.

Obviously, Arc was far better in this.

"A world is a domain," Arc explained. "Do you feel how your tiny planet is absorbing Energy on its own?"

Gravis hadn't realized that. So, he looked at his tiny planet.

After a while, Gravis felt it.

A tiny amount of Energy was flowing into the planet, but it was so little that Gravis wouldn't even have felt it if he hadn't specifically searched for it.

"I can feel it, but it's minuscule."

By Gravis' estimation, this planet would probably have to absorb Energy for millions of years to absorb even 1% of the Energy Gravis had used to create it.

One had to remember that Gravis was an Immortal King, and creating such a vast sphere of matter cost a ton of Energy. 

When Gravis heard that his planet was absorbing Energy, he was thinking about using it to gather Energy for himself, similar to what Heaven was doing. 

However, this was simply too slow.

"Now, look," Arc said.

Gravis closely looked at Arc's planet.

After several minutes, Gravis noticed that a tiny seed had appeared on the small planet's surface.

"I haven't added any Energy, and I haven't used up the stored Energy of the planet," Arc explained. "This tiny seed has been created by the passive absorption of the planet."

"Do you feel a difference in the amount of Energy absorbed?" Arc asked.

Gravis concentrated again, but it was difficult to tell.

The difference was just too small.

"I can't tell," Gravis said.

"Give it some hours," Arc said. "Just look at it and think about what you're seeing."

Gravis nodded as he looked at Arc's planet.

Over the next couple of hours, the seed became a plant, and more seeds appeared after more time.

"Do you feel a difference now?" Arc asked.

  "I'm not sure," Gravis said.

"How long would it take to absorb 1% of the Energy I used to create this planet," Arc asked.

Gravis made some calculations, and his eyebrows rose.

"About 900,000 years, more or less," Gravis said.

Arc nodded. "Yes. Just these tiny seeds already absorb more Energy than the entire planet on its own. The more life grows on the planet, the greater its draw of Energy. Life automatically seeks Energy, and it absorbs it from the surroundings."

"Of course, Energy isn't endless," Arc explained. "Every tiny part of Energy the planet absorbs is taken from my higher world."

"So, tell me, Gravis," Arc said with a smile. "What's the difference between this planet and an island in my higher world?"

Gravis' brows furrowed again as he tried to think of a difference.

Yet, he didn't find an answer.

"I don't think there is a difference," Gravis said.

"Right," Arc said with a nod. "The only difference is the shape, which isn't relevant. In short, this Law of the Living World isn't anything different from any random island. It still requires Energy to exist, and if this small 'living world' weren't in an actual world, it wouldn't be a world."

"Look at your planet," Arc said.

Gravis looked over at his planet for the first time in several hours and was quite surprised.

His planet also had life on it.

However, this life was different from the life on Arc's planet.

Gravis saw that Arc's planet had created an entirely new kind of plant that didn't exist in this higher world. Additionally, over 99% of Arc's planet was still bereft of life.

Meanwhile, Gravis' planet was filled with life.

Nearly every free space already had plants growing on it.

"I isolated this planet from my actual world," Arc explained. "The life on my planet has been created naturally, which is why there is nearly no life on it yet."

"However, you haven't isolated your planet. The life of my higher world has infiltrated your planet."

"In short, my world doesn't treat your planet any different from another piece of random ground."

"In the end," Arc said with a warm smile. "Isn't the Law of the Living World just a garden? What can a garden do if it isn't in a world?"

Gravis took a deep breath.

Now, Gravis understood what Arc wanted to show him.

Gravis didn't have full control over life.

His Law of the Living World was working on the foundations of an actual world.

Without being in an actual world, Gravis' Law of the Living World wouldn't be able to create actual, new life.

After hearing this, Gravis felt much better.

Gravis had suddenly felt a ton of responsibility and pressure after he realized that he had control over life itself. 

Yet, Gravis didn't have as much power as he had thought, which greatly reduced the feeling of pressure and responsibility.

"Thanks, Arc," Gravis said with a smile.

"No problem," Arc answered. "However, I have something else to show you."

"Oh? What?" Gravis asked, now being in a much better mood.

"The actual combat power of the Law of the Living World," Arc said.

"Look at this!"

BANG!

The planet before Arc exploded as its fragment floated in the sky.

Then, the tiny seedlings started to grow at insane speeds as they absorbed the Energy stored in the matter of the destroyed planet.

The fragments of the world started to dissipate as the plants became more powerful. 

After some minutes, the plants grew legs, heads, and arms.

At one point, their absorption stopped, and the remaining fragments of the destroyed world that survived the absorption changed shape.

CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

The fragments encased the plant-people and solidified.

Clank!

Gravis' eyes widened.

In front of him stood a hundred plant-people, all wearing a full set of equipment.

However, this wasn't the most shocking thing.

The most shocking thing was that they were all at the Peak Law Comprehension Realm!

Arc had created an entire army in an instant!