Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis looked at his friends with a wide smile.

Nearly everyone was gathered.

The only people missing were Stella, Liam, and his three kids, but they were all waiting somewhere else. 

Meadow was also missing, but she would arrive later.

However, everyone else that was still alive was now here.

Memories shot through Gravis' mind as he saw all of them. 

It was like no time had passed.

"You changed, you know," Manuel said.

"I know," Gravis answered with a wide smile. "You can say that I managed to see my true goal. Power isn't my goal. Freedom and happiness are."

Skye didn't think that her little brother had changed much. After all, she had only been in contact with him when he hadn't grown truly ruthless yet. 

However, Manuel and Dorian felt the biggest difference.

Back then, Gravis had been a brutal teenager that only respected power. He even threatened the Freya Clan several times with annihilation just because they said some things he didn't like. He had also played with the lives of the Earth Sect due to their disposition, and he had no qualms in annihilating the Darkness Sect, even though it had only been Byron that had acted against him.

Gravis had been Mortis back then, and Mortis was quite different from the current Gravis.

Ferris didn't really think about these things. Gravis was his friend. Nothing else mattered.

Azure, Styr, and Sary had met Gravis when he was becoming more empathetic, but they hadn't met Gravis since the defining moment that completely changed him. That moment had been when Gravis had comprehended the level four Law of Freedom.

The last change had been when Gravis finally united with Stella.

His life was no longer filled with darkness, and he had even dreamed about stopping to cultivate at one point. Obviously, Gravis had only thought about that possibility. He wouldn't go through with it. It was simply an escape from the pressure and stress of Cultivation.

"Manuel," Gravis said, "did you know that you are the biggest reason why I've changed so much?"

Manuel was a bit surprised. "Me? What did I do?" he asked.

"You told me back then, in front of the Heaven's Trial, that I might not be as cold as I thought myself to be. These words made me realize that I had a lot of repressed emotions. I worked on them ever since, and this allowed me to become who I am today."

"Without you, I might have never realized that, and I would probably have become even more ruthless and cold-hearted," Gravis said.

Manuel looked with wonder at Gravis. "Really? I don't even remember saying something like that."

"Really," Gravis said with a laugh. "It might have been an unimportant comment to you, but it has changed my life."

Manuel only awkwardly rubbed the back of his head since he didn't remember. "Really? Then, you're welcome, I guess?"

"So, are you a good guy now?" Manuel asked.

Silence.

Then, Manuel and Gravis started laughing.

Was Gravis a good guy?

No.

No Cultivator with sufficient power was a good guy. 

In order to comprehend Laws, Cultivators often created natural disasters that killed an uncountable number of innocent lives. 

When Cultivators fought, their shockwaves would destroy every life for thousands of kilometers around. 

Cultivators attacked other Cultivators and beasts just for the sake of tempering. This essentially meant that Cultivators killed other Cultivators just to kill them. 

Cultivators that weren't willing to do these things would never reach their power. These kinds of Cultivators would have long since died.

There was no good or bad.

There were only shades of grey, at least 50 of them. 

Then, Gravis remembered something and facepalmed. 

"Hey, Arc!" Gravis shouted, turning around. "I forgot to introduce you."

"Oh?" Arc uttered absentmindedly. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. I'm just looking at all these powerful Cultivators in the city. I've never met such powerful Cultivators before. I think there are over 100 Ancestral Gods in this city alone. They sure feel incredibly powerful."

Gravis also stretched out his Spirit Sense, but he could only find around 20. 

"Are the other 80 behind powerful Formation Arrays that go beyond the power of level eight Laws?" Gravis asked.

Arc nodded. "They're all just thinking about Laws. It feels really great to see so many people I can't beat. I almost feel young again."

Gravis found this a bit funny since Arc already looked quite young.

"Speaking of young, aren't you technically older than father because of the time dilation?" he asked.

Arc nodded.

The Opposer didn't care.

"But it doesn't really matter. After all, if you count age like that, there are actually trillions of beings older than your father," Arc said. "If you want to meet the truly ancient existences, you only need to look at the lower Heavens." Arc laughed.

Gravis' eyebrows rose.

That actually made a lot of sense.

Lower worlds had a time dilation of 1,000 to 1. 

In essence, lower Heavens would be the most ancient existences in the Cosmos.

THUNK!

Gravis' eyes widened as he felt a tap on his head.

His head snapped back as he saw Dorian with a smirk on his face.

That guy managed to hit him again!

Sure, Gravis hadn't been careful, but it was still hard to hide such an attack from him.

Dorian's smirk vanished as he assumed the posture of an old man again. "You got sidetracked, youngster! You wanted to introduce us."

Gravis furrowed his brows.

"You're lucky I'm impressed with your weird powers, old man," Gravis said with a bit of annoyance.

Dorian's right eyelid twitched. "Who are you call-"

SHING!

Dorian's stick appeared in Gravis' hand. 

"You shouldn't hit the elderly, Gravis," Dorian said with a serious tone. "Show some respect for your elders."

This guy.

'He immediately gets offended if I call him an old man, but he has no problem in assuming that role when it suits him,' Gravis thought.

'I bet the old man has been an absolute nightmare for his enemies.'

'He's shameless, slippery as an eel, unparalleled in enraging others and filled with creativity.'

'His power can't be measured by normal means. He's somewhat in a league of his own.'

'Honestly, I have no idea how powerful he actually is.'

"Now you know how we felt," Manuel said. "We've had to deal with him for over 200,000 years."

Gravis looked at Dorian, who still had an expression of an admonishing elder on his face. The expression was absolutely perfect. His face was young, but he still felt like an old man. 

Gravis threw the stick back to Dorian. "Anyway, back to the topic," he said as he turned to the others in the room. "This is Arc. He's also one of my friends. I think you have heard of him from Stella and Liam."

The group looked at Arc with a complex expression.

"I just want to make sure of something," Styr said as he slightly stepped forward, looking at Arc. "We've heard of someone called Arc, but I must still make sure. Are you really the higher Heaven of your world?"

Arc smiled widely. "Ex-Heaven," he said. "Right now, I'm a Cultivator, just like all of you."

The group took a collective deep breath. 

They had refused to believe it, but Arc had confirmed it.

They had heard of Arc, the Heaven of the higher world.

However, something like a Heaven was too elusive, distant, and mysterious for all of them.

Not a single person of their group had ever seen a Heaven.

Gravis had killed the lower Heaven in a dying world, away from all prying eyes. Everyone had only been able to see the destruction they created.

None of them had actually seen the lower Heaven.

In their eyes, Gravis had basically fought the world itself.

It was like the magma, mountains, land, and oceans rose up to battle him. 

They hadn't seen any kind of central area for where Heaven had been. 

In the middle world, Gravis had been the last remaining living thing. 

There had been no one to witness his fight with the middle Heaven.

They had no idea how a Heaven looked like. They didn't even know what a Heaven even was. Was it some kind of lifeform? Was it some kind of Law? Was it the sky?

And, right now, a Heaven was just standing there, like anyone else.

They hadn't been able to fuse the concept of Heaven with this normal-looking guy. Sure, he had five eyes, which made him look rather special, but there were a lot of beings that looked weird. 

The illustrious, mysterious ruler of a world, unsurpassed in power, was just standing there, smiling at them. 

It was so incredibly normal that it seemed surreal.