Lightning Is the Only Way

For a while, Gravis and Mortis remained silent.

Now that they knew the power of the Law of Sentience, they started to question everything that had happened to them in this world.

The highest Heaven knew the power of the Law of Sentience.

The Opposer knew the power of the Law of Sentience.

Arc knew the power of the Law of Sentience.

This meant that they knew exactly how a fight between Arc and Gravis would look like.

So, why did they all act the way they did?

It made no sense.

Gravis looked at Mortis.

"I think things are not how they have been told to us," he said.

Mortis nodded solemnly. 

"I refuse to believe that none of the three beings involved in this could overlook something like that," Mortis said. "Something smells fishy."

Gravis also nodded. "It's too weird. A lot of the things father told me don't seem to add up."

Mortis looked through the roof of the cave with cold eyes, directly at the sky.

"Do you think he lied to us?" he asked.

Gravis also looked at the roof of the cave.

Silence.

"I'm not sure."

Mortis nodded.

"There's not enough information to make a clear judgment," he said.

Gravis looked at Mortis.

"Then let's get enough information."

SHING! SHING!

Then, the both of them teleported away.

In just a couple seconds, the two of them reached Arc's clearing. 

They didn't need to use Arc's emblem to come here anymore.

They could go wherever they wanted.

SHING! SHING!

Gravis and Mortis appeared a couple meters away from Arc, who was bathing his feet in his lake with a smile.

Silence.

"Don't you have some questions?" Arc asked with a smile as he turned to them.

Gravis' brows furrowed.

"Why have you helped me in comprehending the Law of Sentience?" Gravis asked.

Arc laughed a bit.

"You asked that question before, Gravis," Arc said. "My answer is still the same."

"Because you want to," Gravis repeated. "However, you have elaborated further by talking about your loneliness in this world. I get that you are tired of living for so long with no change, but I don't think that you are someone that wants to commit suicide."

Arc smiled and hummed a bit. "You're right. I'm not."

"Then why did you help me in comprehending the Law of Sentience?" Gravis asked.

Arc slowly stood up.

"Gravis, I might be a nice guy, but I'm not a saint," Arc said. "Every living being has some selfish desires."

Gravis narrowed his eyes. "Is that why you helped me? Is there something you want to gain by helping me?"

Arc rubbed his chin with a hum. "In a sense, but I also didn't lie."

"Elaborate."

"Well, I really feel a connection between us, and I really see you as a close friend," Arc explained. "I also haven't lied about my original reason. Remember when you asked the question of why I helped you for the first time? It was just after I helped you in comprehending the level two Law of Safety."

"Back then, I told you that I wanted to help you, which is true. I also told you that I want our battle to be exciting. That's also true."

"Tell me, Gravis, were my thoughts from back then incorrect?" Arc asked.

Gravis thought back.

For a second, he remained silent.

"If you're still not sure, let me add another piece of information," Arc said. "I'm allowed to use my higher world as an asset in our fight."

Gravis' eyes shone.

"This means that my Energy storage and Life Energy storage are basically infinite," Arc continued. "It would be impossible for you to win in a drawn-out match. You would need to kill me in a single strike."

"After all, if you can't kill me in a single strike, I would immediately recover to my peak condition in an instant."

Gravis thought about how a fight between them would go in that case.

Sure enough, the fight would be insanely difficult.

However, everything had changed.

Yet, Gravis didn't jump to any conclusions.

"Did you know that I would resolve my issue with my lightning by creating Mortis?" Gravis asked.

Why did Gravis ask that?

Because Mortis was one of the two key factors of why everything was different now.

"No, I didn't," Arc answered. "If I could read your Emotional Laws, I would have been able to foresee it, but I couldn't. You're not made of pure Energy, after all."

"How did you think I would have solved my issue?" Gravis asked.

"I expected you to find the easiest solution," Arc answered.

"And what is the easiest solution?" Gravis asked.

Arc chuckled a bit. "That question shows me that you still haven't thought of that solution. Quite surprising, actually."

Gravis furrowed his brows. "Is that solution really so easy?"

Arc nodded. "Yes. The easiest solution is to deal with the source of your disconnect with your lightning."

"Tell me, Gravis, what is the source of that animosity between you and your lightning?" Arc asked.

Gravis knew the source very well.

"Sparing the middle Heaven," Gravis answered. "The middle Heaven had gone way past my bottom line, but I spared it to prove that I am free, that I am able to make my own decisions."

Arc nodded. "Exactly. Then, the next question, were you free when you made that choice?" Arc asked.

'Was I free?' Gravis thought.

This was kind of a weird question.

After all, Gravis had spared the middle Heaven precisely because he was free.

He had had the choice, and he had made it.

Had Gravis wanted to kill the middle Heaven?

Of course!

Gravis would have loved to kill the middle Heaven.

Yet, to prove…

That's when Gravis' eyes widened.

At the side, Mortis furrowed his brows.

He had come to the same conclusion.

"You realized it, huh?" Arc said with a smile. "Were you free?"

Gravis took a deep breath.

"No," he answered.

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't do what I wanted to do," Gravis answered. "Freedom is doing what I want to do. Yet, at that moment, I didn't do what I wanted to do. Instead, I went against my own desire to prove something to myself."

"When I spared the middle Heaven, I was neither free nor true to myself."

"If I had simply killed it, I would have been free. After all, I wanted to kill it," Gravis said.

Arc nodded. "Exactly. You thought you understood freedom back then, but if you truly did, you would have comprehended the True Law of Freedom, not the level four version. Your knowledge regarding freedom still wasn't complete, and it still isn't."

"So, you didn't only betray your lightning, but yourself as well. Would people generally consider that a mistake?" Arc asked.

A complex expression appeared on Gravis' face.

"They would."

"Would you consider that a mistake?" Arc asked.

Silence.

"If I had previously known that sparing the middle Heaven would result in Mortis' creation, I wouldn't consider it a mistake. After all, I have another close friend now."

Mortis didn't react to Gravis' words.

"However," Gravis continued, "since I hadn't known that, I would have to consider it a mistake."

Arc nodded again. "And what do we do when we make mistakes?"

Gravis sighed.

"We apologize."

Silence.

Several seconds of silence.

"Was the solution truly that easy and obvious?" Gravis asked.

Arc nodded.

"Since the lightning inhabited your Spirit back then, it was able to make reasonable decisions. It could even think for itself. Have you forgotten how you have been able to reason with your lightning back in the lower world? You entered that clan to repay your debt, but the clan treated you quite badly. Yet, instead of killing the offender, you found a workaround."

"Normal lightning doesn't work like that."

"So, if you had simply apologized and admitted that sparing the middle Heaven had been a mistake and swore to do better in the future, the lightning would have been angry at you for a time, but it would have eventually calmed down."

"In a sense, the disconnect between you and your lightning was because of your inability to see your own mistake."

Silence.

Gravis sighed again.

"This issue with my lightning had been plaguing my mind for a long time. Yet, who would have thought that simply saying sorry would have solved the issue."

"I would have never needed to suppress my lightning with the Law of Freedom."

"Do you regret not apologizing?" Arc asked.

"Not completely," Gravis said, surprisingly. "This solution would have been easier, but my mind would have still been bound by the personality of lightning. Now, I can do whatever I want, even if it is against lightning's temperament."

"I mean, sure, morally speaking, I should have apologized, but I think that I more than made up for my mistake," Gravis said as he looked at Mortis.

Mortis nodded. "I think my personality is more in accord to lightning's temperament. Someone weak-minded might have doubts about being a real being, but I don't. I'm not only you, and I'm also not only lightning. I'm both, and I'm myself."

"I like being one with lightning."

"Also, I wouldn't exist without you," Mortis said.

Gravis nodded at Mortis with a smile.

Then, Gravis turned to Arc and furrowed his brows.

"We went on a tangent for a bit, but my original question still hasn't been solved," Gravis said.

"You said that you wanted our fight to be great, and that was one of the reasons why you helped me."

"Yet, why did you help me again with the Law of Humility? At that point, you already knew of Mortis' existence."

Arc only continued smiling as he let Gravis finish speaking.

"You know Mortis' power, and you also know the power of the Law of Sentience."

"So, you should have known back then…"

"As soon as I comprehend the Law of Sentience, with Mortis' help, our fight won't even be a fight anymore."

"You have no chance of winning."

"So, why did you help me, even though you already knew that for a fact?"