Lightning Is the Only Way

After leaving Skye, Gravis stayed around for a little while longer, though hidden inside the earth. He had to make sure that Heaven didn't pull anything while Skye was unconscious. When Gravis noticed that Skye regained its awareness, he slowly snuck away. He didn't want to hear its cries or see its pain.

When Gravis sneaked away to a sufficient distance, he sped away with his full strength. His ninth level Destruction Lightning, and his physical body made him even faster than Skye. This was an additional reason why he decided to let Skye go. If he fought an enemy that he had problems with, Skye wouldn't even be able to escape since such an enemy would most likely have an even faster speed than Gravis.

The only reason for keeping Skye was that Gravis would feel less lonely, but obviously, that reason was not good enough. Gravis could only sigh. "Am I still too naïve? Was thinking that we could rise to power together naïve? I honestly can't tell," he muttered to himself.

After running for some minutes, Gravis stopped and started thinking about his next steps. He only had to sell the weapons he got from the Darkness Guild. If he managed to do that, he would have enough Energy Stones to reach the tenth level of Energy Gathering.

The only question was, where would he sell those weapons? The Darkness Guild would be the most profitable option since those weapons were tailor-made for people with the darkness element. The issue with that was that the Spirit Forming experts would probably immediately apprehend him. He killed some people who hadn't paid the pills, which was technically against the rules.

What about selling them in a city? Gravis wasn't so sure if that would work. All the weapons he had were made for people in the later stages of Energy Gathering. How many of those would even be around in a city? Probably not that many. If he spent some weeks in a city, he might be able to sell them, but he didn't have multiple weeks. He had to sell them quickly.

Fire Guild? Would be a possibility, but they were rather far away. Nearly five days had passed, and if, for some reason, Aion returned early, Gravis would be in danger. Wind Guild was also a no-go since they were even further away. The Lightning Guild probably wouldn't even accept a trade from him out of spite.

The Water Guild was the furthest guild from here, so that fell through too. The Light Guild was relatively close, but Gravis doubted that they were interested in daggers, shivs, and short swords. If he went there and they weren't interested, he would have wasted about half a day. As Gravis eliminated one possibility after the other, his face started scrunching up.

'Are you actually serious?' he thought to himself in annoyance. 'Do I actually have to trade with the Earth Guild? I didn't even get my revenge from the last time, and I have to come back and be nice?' Gravis really didn't like this option, but he didn't see a better one.

After a minute, he only sighed in helplessness. 'Just my luck. Alright, I'll trade with the Earth Guild. If they don't try some shit this time, I might actually reconsider taking revenge. Fuck, I hate this!' Gravis thought to himself in annoyance.

Like this, Gravis changed his trajectory and shot towards the Earth Guild. He didn't have any time to waste. The sooner he broke through, the better.

RAAAAAH!

After running for two hours, Gravis saw a high-grade Energy Beast bird. It was nearly as big as Skye and circled the forest. Judging by the way it was shouting, Gravis concluded that it was probably warning other beasts not to invade its territory.

Gravis' eyes shined a little. "2% Energy isn't much, but if it's already on the way, I might as well accept," he said and charged towards the bird.

The bird noticed Gravis when he was still several kilometers away, yet contrary to expectations, it immediately turned tail and fled. Gravis' eyes narrowed and followed it. He was faster than the bird, and it would only take around a minute until he caught up. At that point, the bird would be in the range of his Will-Aura. Gravis would only need to release it, and the bird would be dead.

As Gravis chased, he reminisced. "Man, this reminds me of when I first met Skye," he said to himself. There was no one around again, so Gravis went back into his habit of talking to himself. "I saw it running back to the tree, where I fought it and then…"

CRRRR!

Gravis immediately stopped. His eyes changed to coldness as he watched the bird fly away. "Just like back then, huh?" he sneered to himself. "This won't work this time, Heaven!" he shouted and continued running towards the Earth Guild.

In actuality, Gravis wasn't sure if this was Heaven's scheme, but he wanted to be careful right now. The last time he had been close to a breakthrough, Jaimy had assassinated him out of nowhere. When someone was close to victory, their vigilance would decrease. They would only have their goal in their eyes and ignore potential dangers they would spot under normal circumstances.

Even though Gravis was not sure if that bird had been sent deliberately by Heaven or not, he couldn't risk it right now. Nothing would sidetrack him this time! Gravis grew even more vigilant than usual. The next couple of hours would be the best opportunity for Heaven to strike.

Gravis guessed that Heaven was like a beast backed into a corner. The fact that Heaven might have sent this beast also worried Gravis. If Heaven were ready for him, it wouldn't need to delay him. If Heaven couldn't do anything to him, it also wouldn't have sent this beast and waste Energy. This beast would only have been sent if Heaven was really close to having a possibility to stop Gravis. Every minute counted. That was why Heaven had sent this beast!

'I can only think of a single thing that would require Heaven to delay me,' Gravis thought and narrowed his eyes. 'Aion returned early! On top of that, I am also sure that Heaven has another contingency plan to delay me further. I guess that if I charge with my full speed, I can sell my stuff before Aion appears, but it will probably be close. So, Heaven will probably send something else to stop me.'

Gravis charged with his full speed towards the Earth Guild. Running this fast was draining his Energy immensely, but he was prepared to use the Energy storage inside his mind for this. He had to gain as much time as possible.

If Heaven had teeth, it would be gnashing them right about now. It had tried to delay Gravis for a couple of minutes, but instead of delaying him, it had even warned him further. With Gravis' new speed, he would arrive several minutes earlier than if Heaven had never sent that beast. Heaven grew more and more frustrated and nervous as Gravis' strength increased. It got increasingly more difficult for it to bring him into mortal danger.

After some hours, Gravis saw the mountain of the Earth Guild in the distance. Instead of being relieved, he only grew more solemn. "Let's see what you got, Heaven!" he shouted.

WHOOM!

As Gravis ran closer, he entered the range of someone's Spirit. Initially, Gravis thought that this was just the Spirit of someone of the Earth Guild's upper echelon, but he felt how the Spirit concentrated on him as soon as he appeared. Gravis could also feel bottomless hate being transmitted over it.

CRRR!

Gravis immediately stopped. 'Someone at the Spirit Forming Realm wants to kill me this badly? I can't remember offending anyone at the Spirit Forming Realm, other than maybe Aion. I am also sure this Spirit doesn't come from Aion. I would know if it was him. Nevermind, Plan C it is!' he thought as he shot to the north.

Plan C was his plan for if he met someone at the Spirit Forming Realm.

He hoped that he would survive until he reached his goal.