Lightning Is the Only Way

Some hours later, Skye and Gravis reached their destination. Gravis was confused because he saw nothing but a gigantic mountain. Even at their height of several kilometers, he could still not see the top of the mountain. There were no buildings or anything on that mountain, but the map clearly stated that this was where the Earth Guild should be.

Gravis looked up, trying to see the top, but he doubted that the Earth Guild would be built that high up. He could understand building a guild at the height of nearly ten kilometers if it was for the Wind Guild, but for the Earth Guild? Gravis doubted that. "Skye, fly lower," he said, and they started descending. The Earth Guild had to be here somewhere.

They flew along the base of the mountain, not seeing anything unusual for a long while. After they had circled around a quarter of the mountain, which had been a distance of many kilometers, Gravis finally found something. He saw a big cave entrance, over a hundred meters tall. Gravis would've ignored such an entrance if it weren't for the multiple guards in front of it. "So, they're inside a cave."

The guards were around two meters tall and wore earthen-yellow robes. They carried long lances and heavy tower-shields. The shields were about as big as the guards themselves. Gravis imagined fighting someone from the Earth Guild with comparable strength to himself and concluded that it would be frustrating to fight someone like that.

They were probably able to wield those shields skillfully. Even if Gravis' physical power were stronger than theirs, they would still be able to stop him from overwhelming them with attacks. On top of that, their earth element was incredibly good in increasing their physical power.

The enemy would only need to commit a single mistake, and the disciples of the Earth Guild would unleash a devastating counter. Gravis did not doubt the ability of those disciples to stall a fight long enough for their opponent to grow impatient. 'It's an unusual way to fight, but I can see its effectiveness.'

Gravis already noted several key-points of the Earth Guild. The disciples were patient and steadfast. If something encroached on their territory, they would block it with all their might. Gravis guessed that they were probably not very aggressive. Their disposition seemed similar to lightning, actually.

Lightning also didn't do anything until something encroached upon its territory. In that sense, earth and lightning were similar. The difference, though, was that as soon something came too close to lightning, it would attack with all its might to destroy the offender, while earth would stay immovable.

As Gravis saw other elements, he also learned more about lightning. Gravis guessed that the disposition of lightning could be summarized by taking half of the disposition of earth and half of fire. Lightning would act like earth, but when something came too close, it would act like fire. "Huh, this actually sounds like me," Gravis muttered to himself.

Gravis fell into deeper thought. 'Was I always like this?' he asked himself. 'I don't think so. A year ago, when I just came to this world, I let all those bandits escape that tried to stop me. I mean, later, I learned that those bandits aren't actually such bad people, but I didn't know that at the time.'

Gravis continued thinking. 'On top of that, I also gave second chances to that one youngster from the waterfall and the Lightning Guild disciples. That doesn't seem to fit lightning.'

Suddenly, Gravis' eyes widened. 'Wait a minute! I remember that when I fought those disciples from the Lightning Guild that my lightning didn't work properly. My Destruction Lightning of the third level should have been able to kill a lightning disciple of the fourth level. I think I hit two of their disciples with my lightning, but surprisingly, they survived without getting injured majorly.'

Gravis felt like he was onto something. 'At that time, I wondered why my lightning didn't work that well, but I quickly forgot because I had bigger things to worry about. Maybe my disposition was the reason why my lightning didn't work as expected.'

Gravis remembered the Lightning Codex. 'The Lightning Codex said that a disposition similar to the chosen element was one of the most important things. If the disposition didn't fit, the element would be weaker and harder to control. When those disciples fought me, I didn't genuinely want to kill them, even though they tried to kill me. That was not how lightning works. So that's the reason why my lightning didn't work back then.'

Gravis rubbed his chin in deep thought. Skye had been hovering above the cave's entrance for several minutes now, unsure of what it should do. It had noticed that Gravis fell into deep thought, so it kept quiet. It trusted in Gravis' decision.

The Earth Guild's disciples had also noticed Skye for quite a while. In the beginning, they had been impressed by such a gigantic bird. Skye had a wingspan of about 100 meters, casting a dominating shadow across the ground. The guards had seen several beasts roaming around the nearby surroundings, but this one was the most imposing of all.

When they saw that the bird only hovered a couple of hundred meters above their cave entrance for a long while, they grew nervous. They were both at the eighth level of Energy Gathering, and they could feel the danger emanating from Skye. If it decided to attack, they would have to retreat into the guild and get help. After Skye had remained for a full 30 seconds, one guard immediately fled into the guild to get backup. The risk was too high. The other guard retreated a little so that he stood inside the cave.

After some more seconds, Gravis shook his head. 'It actually doesn't matter what happened back then. I have reaffirmed my path, and I accept what I would become. Sometimes, I have to do the wrong thing to increase my power. I knew it back then, but my emotions didn't accept it. With my new Will-Aura, I am also able to accept that path emotionally.' Gravis' eyes narrowed, and they emanated a cold light. 'I will achieve my goal, even if I have to create a mountain of corpses.'

"Skye, let's go down," said Gravis.

Skye cawed in affirmation and landed near the cave. The guard grew nervous, but he remained stalwart. If the bird decided to attack, he would risk his life to gain time for his guild to answer accordingly.

Such was the way of the Earth Guild.