Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis felt a pit in his stomach.

Wendy looked down at the ground. "You can probably guess what happened next. The executioner had been sent here to kill my husband," her voice quietened. "He never stood a chance."

Gravis also sighed. Wendy went through a lot of hardships. The closest person to Gravis that ever died was Stella, back in his homeworld, which couldn't be compared with losing one's love. They had only been very close friends, and Gravis had still been young.

Wendy continued narrating. "I was devastated for months, and I only felt pain. How foolish was I to believe that Heaven sent my husband back to me? I tried to cope with the situation by learning about history because I wanted to understand why that happened. I went to a city and learned all I could about Heavenborn and how they acted."

"After a long time and a lot of reading, I realized that Heaven didn't care about the individual. It only cares about the whole. Everything that it deems a danger to its rule would be destroyed. The history books said that no one who managed to condense a Will-Aura in the Body Tempering Realm ever survived to reach the Magic Gathering Realm."

Her eyes grew severe, and Gravis could feel rage coming from her. "I was angry, and I started hating Heaven. Why did my husband have to die when he managed to save his life? Did Heaven doom him to be a slave? Was being a slave his only way to survive? At that point, my ambition had returned, and everything I felt before, vanished."

Gravis sighed and thought that if the same thing happened to him, he would maybe also change into something completely different. Something like this could change a person fundamentally.

Wendy gnashed her teeth. "I know that my husband only wants me to live in happiness, and I also know that he would never wish for me to fight against Heaven," then she sighed, "but I am not that strong. I can't forget him, and I only want to meet him in the afterlife."

Her eyes started burning with rage again. "But then what about Heaven? I couldn't allow for it to never pay for what it had done. On that day, I decided to dedicate my life to fighting Heaven. I was pretty sure that Heaven heard and saw everything, but I guessed that it couldn't read minds."

Gravis nodded. That was about right.

"I kept everything inside of me and buried my hatred. When I wept for my husband, I never said anything bad about Heaven. I knew that I could never release my inner feelings, not even when I was alone," she sighed. "It was incredibly hard to never talk about this, and this is the first time that I have ever talked about this with anyone."

Gravis nodded again. "You're right. Heaven can hear and see everything, but it can't read minds. If you spoke your feelings, it might have sent another Heavenborn or might even kill you directly."

Wendy didn't ask Gravis how he knew about such things and, instead, continued telling her story. "I quickly joined the Proxy-Wind Guild and managed to break through into the Magic Gathering Realm. According to the history books, Heaven had never attacked someone at the Magic Gathering Realm just because they have a Will-Aura."

"Instead of going to the Wind Guild, where my father was, I started roaming the Middle-Continent. I fought nearly every day with multiple beasts and explored a lot. About a year later, I managed to condense a Will-Aura while I was still in the third level of Magic Gathering, but that wasn't the end. I never stopped tempering myself and never stopped exploring. I knew that a Will-Aura wasn't enough to take my revenge. I needed something that could damage Heaven!"

Gravis listened intently, and he could empathize with her undying greed for strength. He was similar to her in that regard.

"One day, I managed to find an inheritance from someone that had ascended," she said, and Gravis perked up.

"Those exist? How is that even possible if they ascended?" Gravis asked. He knew that no one could come back into this world. He was absolutely sure that only his homeworld had that ability, and his homeworld wouldn't allow someone to do something like this.

Wendy looked at Gravis. "When people reach the Unity Realm, they can remain in this world for one month before they are forced to ascend. That's probably something that Heaven grants them so that they could get their affairs in order. What can they do anyway? The High Priest of the Heaven Sect can't be beaten by someone that broke through just recently."

'Unity Realm, huh?' Gravis thought. Now, he heard the name of the fourth major Realm for the first time. He wondered why it was called Unity Realm.

Wendy continued telling her story. "He was also an enemy of Heaven and wanted to take his revenge. When he broke through, he attacked the Heaven Sect and got beaten back by the High Priest. For some reason, the High Priest didn't kill him and just let him continue living. Seeing that he couldn't take his revenge, he created his inheritance in that one month. I accepted the inheritance and grew more powerful."

Wendy smiled bitterly. "But if not even that senior managed to do anything against Heaven, then what can I do, even with his help? At best, I could just do the same as him. What would that change? After I inherited everything, I became very powerful, and I returned to my guild. My family thought that I had died, and they wept for me."

Wendy looked at the floor again. "Yet, when I hugged my mother and father, I felt nothing," she said. "Every feeling of warmth had died, and not even the warmth and love of my family warmed my heart. It was like I looked on as a stranger hugged their family. It felt like this whole situation had nothing to do with me."

Gravis sighed and felt for her. He couldn't imagine losing his emotions and growing so cold that even his family couldn't help him recover. Compared to Wendy, his life had actually been easier. She couldn't even release her inner rage for fear of Heaven striking her. Gravis could, at least, do that since his father forced Heaven into a fair fight.

"I had been away from society for years and wasn't very talkative," she said. "My father wanted to help me acclimate to society again and sent me down to be a Proxy-Guild Master for three years. I wasn't a fan of that decision, but I followed it anyway. I didn't have a target anymore, because the more I learned about Heaven, the more I realized its power. How could I ever take my revenge?"

Then, she looked at Gravis. "Then I met you," she said with interest. "I noticed your Will-Aura and got reminded of my husband. For the first time in a long while, I felt bad for someone else. I knew that your destiny would be the same as my husband's."

Her eyes focused on Gravis. "And then, the situation in the Basin of Nature happened. I already knew that you were not a Heavenborn, and I slowly realized that Heaven didn't want to temper but actually kill you! I thought you would die immediately when you cursed at Heaven, but for some reason, it never directly attacked you. It only sent beasts at you, and you actually came out in one piece."

Gravis just continued listening. "The other Guild Masters were not even close to me in strength, and they didn't notice, but I saw how Heaven tried to strike you after your last comment. I, somehow, felt Heaven's rage explode at that time. Maybe I managed to feel it thanks to my obsession with it. Yet, when it tried to strike you, everything disappeared, and the clouds vanished."

She looked with burning eyes at Gravis. "At that point, I knew that for some reason, Heaven couldn't do anything against you directly. As far as I know, you are the first person where this situation ever happened. My lost ambition returned, and I saw a chance in you. Maybe, you can do what others couldn't!"

"When you joined the Heaven Sect under the guise of a Heavenborn, I was sure that something was different about you. Couldn't Heaven just inform the Heaven Sect that you are not a Heavenborn? Yet, it didn't, and you even did several missions for it. Something stops Heaven from acting directly against you. Could you tell me what it is?"

Gravis sighed.

"I'm not from this world."