Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis tried his best to get the answer out of Mortis, but no matter what he did, Mortis only smirked.

Eventually, Gravis tried thinking about any possible Law Mortis might have understood, but that also didn't help much.

That was until Gravis thought about the Emotional Laws.

Gravis quickly noticed that he now knew the level three Law of Calm, and his eyes widened. 

Mortis had comprehended an Emotional Law that Gravis was supposed to learn?

That was…

"That's awesome, Mortis!" Gravis transmitted with excitement. "See? I told you that you're not worse than me! You even comprehended a Law that I was supposed to comprehend!"

Mortis only smiled lightly as he lay on the ground.

There was no feeling of envy, jealousy, or anger coming from Gravis..

Gravis was genuinely feeling excitement for Mortis.

'If I were in Gravis' shoes, I would have exploded from self-loathing,' Mortis thought bitterly. 'Yet, Gravis is only excited.'

'Wouldn't I have been the weak one then?' Mortis thought. 'Having such an extreme emotional reaction to something like this means that I feel threatened. Yet, Gravis doesn't feel threatened at all. He doesn't need to feel threatened since nothing I can do feels threatening to his confidence.'

Mortis sighed.

'If only I had noticed that sooner.'

Gravis and Mortis talked some more. They weren't talking about anything important. They were only talking, nothing more.

After a couple of hours, Gravis cut off the connection as he contacted Stella again. This time, Mortis should be stable enough to not get angry.

And, sure enough, Mortis didn't get angry this time.

For the first time, Mortis was actually not resisting the feelings of love Gravis was feeling. 

'Love, huh?' Mortis thought as he looked at the sky. 

'It feels good.'

Mortis remained silent as he savored these feelings. It was like he was feeling them.

'I want to meet Joyce,' Mortis thought. 'I also want to feel these feelings. I also want to have a relationship.'

Slowly, happiness claimed a part of Mortis' power-filled heart. 

Power was still Mortis' most important goal but feeling happy was also important to him now.

Like this, Mortis continued lying on the ground, just thinking about his life.

Gravis was done talking with Stella after a couple of hours. 

After he finished his talk with Stella, Gravis felt reinvigorated as he focused on Laws again. 

'My Will-Aura is now exactly one Realm above me, which means that I don't need to temper myself until I've made some breakthroughs,' Gravis thought.

However, Gravis suddenly frowned.

'Tempering, huh?' he thought. 'Tempering will become even harder in the future. Our fight against the Black Demon was hard, but it wasn't as intense as the fight against Eran. However, the Black Demon should be nearly an entire level stronger than Eran in relation to my Realm.'

'With my current Realm, opponents five levels above me are no longer a danger to me, especially now that we have comprehended the level six Law of Suppression. On top of that, my Will-Aura is now at its peak.'

'I think my Will-Aura, together with the level six Law of Suppression, can suppress someone five levels above me to 20%. We already won against the Black Demon without suppression, and he was probably one of the most powerful Mid Early Circulation Immortal Emperors in the world.'

'As I am currently, I can only look for beings six levels above myself.'

Gravis sighed.

'It took me a long time to jump five levels. Yet, the jump to six levels is already directly in front of me. My Battle-Strength has improved significantly, and that's all thanks to one single Law.'

'The Law of Perceived Reality.'

'I only used the Law of Perceived Reality at the beginning of the fight, but it alone has already allowed me to reduce the Black Demon's Life Energy by nearly 50%. Just the Law of Perceived Reality had won me half of the fight.'

'On one hand, that's a good thing, but on the other hand, this makes tempering awkward.'

'As I am now, I could probably fight someone six levels above me. However, what would be the point? My Will-Aura already is at the top, and I can already comprehend level five Laws without tempering.'

'So, it would only make sense to continue tempering when I've made some breakthroughs.'

'Yet, at that point, my opponents would become even more powerful, and my Will-Aura will be weaker again.'

Gravis scratched his chin.

'I think I should reach the Early Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor Realm before I temper myself again. At that point, I can choose if I want to fight a Mid Major Circulation Immortal Emperor or a Late Major Circulation Immortal Emperor.'

Gravis nodded. 

'Yep, that sounds good.'

'Anyway, I should get back to comprehending Laws. I've made quite some improvements on the Major Law of Physical Power by fighting against the Black Demon, and I think I should finish that one first. After that, I should go check up on Stella again. She wanted to inform herself about the Form Law of Sabers.'

'Lastly, I think I should spend a couple thousand or ten-thousand years with Stella so that we can consolidate our Laws.'

'And then…'

Gravis took a deep breath as he looked towards the center of the beast territory.

'I will focus on the Mixed Elemental Laws.'

Gravis felt complicated when thinking about the Mixed Elemental Laws.

Why?

Because there were far more than in the middle world.

Back in the middle world, a lot of the Mixed Elements still somewhat made sense, which meant that there was only a limited number of Elements that could be mixed.

Yet, this was no longer true in the higher world.

Gravis had already seen some of these examples.

Graphiteinferno.

Shadowinferno.

Frostinferno.

Punishment Inferno.

Hidden Wood.

All of these things didn't normally exist in nature. It was like all of these Mixed Elements were artificially created.

With nine Primary Elements, how many combinations of Mixed Elements would there be?

36.

36 different Elements.

36 level five Laws.

That was so much!

How long would that even take?

Gravis already needed 300+ years of level four Laws.

Comprehending level five Laws the normal way would probably take thousands of years.

Even more, the ones that Gravis had a horrible affinity for, Graphite and Core, might even take over ten thousand years each.

Gravis quickly shook his head to get these thoughts out of his mind.

'One thing at a time!'

'First, the level five Law of Physical Power!'

After finishing his thoughts, Gravis sat down and closed his eyes.

In order to comprehend the Major Law of Physical Power, Gravis didn't need a Law Comprehension Area or a teacher. He had already seen how the Black Demon had activated the Law, and Gravis' mind had been pushed to its limits under mortal danger.

Gravis already had an inkling how it worked, and he would only need to experiment on his body.

Push some Energy into there in that way.

Take some Energy from there in this way.

Fuse the Energies like this.

This was what Gravis was trying out. He was simply fusing the Void Lightning inside of him in peculiar ways to see if he could activate the three level four Laws of Physical Power simultaneously.

And like this, Gravis fell back into comprehension for many years.