Lightning Is the Only Way

Skye shouted in excitement and flew to its parent. Gravis, who was still on Skye's back, smiled happily for Skye as they closed in on each other. The two birds met in the sky and circled each other, while their heads touched. Gravis was glad that Skye could finally see its parent again.

The disciples from the Wind Guild also watched in awe at the two birds. From the ground, it looked beautiful how the two birds circled each other. All of the disciples knew Skye's parent since it was not every day that a high-grade Energy Beast made its nest in the Wind Guild. The bird was probably the strongest being in the Wind Guild, except for the Guild Master and Vice-Guild Masters.

"Hey, there is a person on the new bird's back," one of them shouted, and they looked closer. Surely enough, there was a young man on top of the bird's back. When the disciples saw the clothing that Gravis wore, their mood changed from excitement to bitterness. They all knew how Heavenborn dressed, and they could also guess why Gravis was here.

Who didn't hear about what Wendy had done in all the guilds and towns? Every disciple that had contact with Wendy in the past told her to stop doing what she was doing. They all knew that Gravis would eventually turn up if she continued. Sadly, she didn't listen to any of them and cursed Gravis even more when they tried to stop her. In their eyes, Wendy was suicidal and insane. What person with a normal head would do something like this?

Ultimately, the day had come, and nearly all of the disciples felt some sadness and regret for one of their disciple sisters. Were they angry at Gravis? A little bit, but not that much. Wendy was the instigator of this whole thing, and she acted like she wanted to fight a life and death battle with him.

Even though Gravis was not the aggressor, they still felt uncomfortable when someone would set out to kill one of their sisters. Yet, when they saw Gravis' smiling face and the happy birds, their bad feelings lessened slightly. They didn't know him, but their first impression was that he wasn't as bad of a guy as Wendy made him out to be.

"Hey, can you at least let me down? You can catch up all you want after that," said Gravis after a while. He didn't know what the disciples of the Wind Guild thought, but he wouldn't care much about it anyway. He was hellbent on moving down the path he had chosen, and the thoughts of others wouldn't change anything.

The parent bird noticed Gravis after he had said something and gave a friendly look. It felt that Skye was close to breaking through, and it knew that Skye probably wouldn't have been able to progress this quickly without him. It was thankful for that, and it cawed at Skye to put Gravis down.

Skye perked up, turned its head to Gravis, and charged towards the ground. It did a U-turn at the height of 20 meters, and Gravis jumped down. Skye quickly ignored Gravis and went back to its parent. Gravis could only watch with a bitter smile as Skye quickly forgot him as soon as it met its parent. However, he could understand its feelings.

Gravis threw one last look at Skye and then walked to the Wind Guild. The birds circled each other some more for a while and then flew to a massive tree on a mountain. That was probably where the nest of Skye's parent was.

As Gravis got closer to the Wind Guild, some guards walked over from the entrance. They didn't look aggressive at all and even smiled at him politely. Gravis' reception was like Heaven and Earth compared to his reception in the Lightning Guild. In the Lightning Guild, every guard had charged at him with their weapons drawn.

The guards walked closer to Gravis, and the leader stepped forward. "Welcome to our guild, Heavenborn," said the leader with a smile to Gravis.

"Thank you," Gravis said back with a nod. Friendliness felt better than apathy or hatred. It had been a long while since Gravis could talk with someone this peacefully without them being an enemy. Yes, Gravis was also very welcome in the Heaven Sect, but they were still his enemies in Gravis' mind. He always had to keep up his vigilance and couldn't relax with them. The Wind Guild was the first place where he could talk with people without having to be careful.

"I'm really impressed by your guild," said Gravis with a slight smile. "It radiates harmony with nature, and I can feel the guilds unrestrained nature. It is very much to my liking."

The guards smiled back at the compliment, and the leader gestured for Gravis to follow them. "Thank you for your compliment, Heavenborn. We pride ourselves in our philosophy to be friendly with others until it's proven to be useless. Except for the Light Guild, the other guilds are very distant and careful about every living thing that gets close to them."

Gravis nodded. He could empathize with this philosophy, probably because that was how he wanted to live. Sadly, his infectious karmic luck and everything that happened in this world made this impossible. Gravis looked at the Wind Guild as a reflection of how he wanted to be but couldn't. Maybe this was similar to how Gorn looked at Gravis.

Did Gravis enjoy killing? No, definitely not! He knew that it was necessary, and he had learned from his past mistakes of sparing his opponents. That one weak young man came back with his family to rob him, while the Lightning Disciples told everyone about his whereabouts. He would not spare any of his enemies unless there was a really good reason.

Yet, to Gravis, killing was only something necessary that he had to do. He believed that some people just committed some mistakes and that they only needed a second chance to turn over a new leaf. Sadly, Gravis didn't have the luxury to grant second chances to anyone. His life was too precious for that.

Together with the guards, Gravis walked through the Wind Guild and saw that it was very lively. He could see no fights and no spars, and a lot of disciples had fun with the beasts and trees. The Wind Guild seemed like a wonderland of peace and freedom.

But Gravis knew that the Wind Guild would turn very violent as soon as an enemy would appear. How else would they have managed to establish themselves in this world? In a fight, they would probably transform into an aggressive cloud of hawks and eagles.

They quickly reached a colossal mountain that towered over all other mountains inside the guild. "Do you need help with climbing?" asked the leader as the other guards turned around and walked back to the guild's entrance.

Gravis shook his head and activated his lightning. The leader saw it and nodded as he jumped up and flew upwards along the mountain's surface. Gravis followed by walking upward along the mountain with the help of his lighting movement.

The mountain was several kilometers tall, and they moved for nearly a full minute. They reached the top and jumped onto the flat surface. Gravis noticed how the leader of the guards was short of breath, and he grew surprised. 'He used this much Energy just for this short climb?'

The guard noticed his look and laughed bitterly. "It's easy for us to fly above the ground, but it's hard to climb a wall or a mountain," he explained. "If we flew as we do on the ground, we would shoot away from the mountain, so we have to shape our air pocket into a more complex shape, which costs a lot more Magic."

Gravis nodded with a smile. "Thank you for explaining," he said. The man wouldn't have had to explain why it was hard, but he had noticed Gravis' eyes and explained it to him anyway. This could be considered a potential weakness, and other guilds wouldn't tell those to outsiders under normal circumstances. The Wind Guild was really different than other guilds.

"Let's go inside," said the guard as he walked to the entrance of a castle. Gravis nodded and followed him. The castle was probably where the upper echelon of the Wind Guild resided. In comparison to the central castle in the Lightning Guild or the castle of the Heaven Sect, this castle looked big but simple. There were no expensive ornaments or exotic materials around its walls.

Gravis wondered how the leaders of such a guild would act.