Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis looked into the sky for some more seconds and then refocused again. He looked around some more with his Spirit and noticed that his saber and other belongings were strewn across the plain. "Might as well try my Spirit Space," Gravis muttered.

WHOP!

All his belongings vanished into thin air as they reappeared in Gravis' Spirit Space. The lightning inside his Spirit Space seemed to ignore those belongings as it violently stormed around them. Gravis looked into his Spirit Space and saw that he had about five cubic meters of storage space. 'That's a lot,' he thought.

With another thought, Gravis willed his saber to reappear in his hands, and it did. Retrieving his weapon like this would be faster than unsheathing it from his back. As Gravis experienced how the Spirit Space worked, he got several new ideas of how to utilize it.

Then, Gravis looked to Aion, who was standing unsurely around a kilometer away. Gravis had had the ability to feel others' Spirits before, but now it felt like he could interact with their Spirit. Was this how he could transmit his thoughts?

"Hey, Aion," Gravis willed for his thoughts to enter Aion's Spirit. Aion's eyes widened slightly, and then he smiled bitterly.

"Hey, Gravis," he sent back.

Gravis nodded as he got a grasp on how to use Thought Transmission. Yet, Gravis wanted to know something else.

"Say," Gravis transmitted, "what actually happened?"

Now Aion's eyes widened fully. "What?" he sent back. "That's what I want to ask!"

Gravis only smiled. He was happy about regaining his old life-priorities, and he was also incredibly happy about his newfound power. He didn't mind telling Aion what happened. Heaven already knew what happened, after all. Aion was not Gravis' enemy, but only a pawn of his enemy.

"I used lightning instead of Magic to form my Spirit," Gravis transmitted.

Aion's mouth fell open in shock. "How are you still alive?"

Gravis grinned sheepishly. This had been pretty reckless. "Actually," he transmitted back. "I'm not so sure. I think I have died while doing this, yet I am still alive. Could you tell me what happened from your point of view?"

Aion scratched his head. "Sure," he transmitted back. "You were screaming hysterically after that barrier appeared. At the time, I wasn't sure what would be able to shake someone with a Unity-Will this intensely. Though, the lightning thing would explain that."

Aion continued. "After a while, I didn't hear you anymore, and the barrier vanished. When I saw you, you seemed completely different than before. Lightning came out of your whole body, and I had a distinct feeling that that wasn't you anymore. Then, you summoned lightning from the Heavens and just absorbed it."

Gravis had no memory of that. He only remembered being in pain and then vanishing into nothingness. The next memory had been his reawakening. "Interesting," Gravis sent back. "So, what happened then?"

Aion shivered a little as he thought back to what happened. "After you absorbed the lightning, the earlier… man… appeared."

When Aion had first seen the Opposer, his whole body had been frozen. It was like he was looking at something that didn't exist. It was like the man didn't exist, yet he did. The man made Aion feel like he shouldn't exist. His whole thoughts and emotions had resonated with one simple concept.

No.

Everything had just screamed no in unison. It was the purest form of rejection. The man made Aion feel something higher than worship, but also something way worse than terror. His feelings and instincts rejected this person's existence because it was impossible that something like this existed.

Aion remained silent for some seconds as he thought back to the image of the Opposer. Gravis noticed that and smiled slightly. "That was my father."

Deep in Aion's mind, he had felt that this was probably Gravis' father due to their similar looks, but his being hadn't accepted that possibility. Yet, when Gravis confirmed it, it could only be true.

Aion shook his head to regain his bearing. "After your father appeared, something else happened too. It felt like the whole world changed, and…" Aion made a pause here, "it felt like Heaven was no longer there, replaced by something way more powerful."

Gravis rubbed his chin as he thought about that. His father couldn't just involve himself like this, or the highest Heaven would lose all decorum with Gravis. If the highest Heaven actually wanted Gravis to die, he wouldn't even know how he died. So, the appearance of his father must have had the agreement of the highest Heaven. This other power that Aion had felt had probably been the highest Heaven.

"What happened then?" asked Gravis.

"After… they… had appeared, the lighting around you started vanishing until you simply stood there with closed eyes. You should know everything that happened after that better than me," Aion finished the story.

Gravis had multiple thoughts about that. Apparently, he had done something very dangerous. If Gravis died in the lower world, his father wouldn't be able to intervene due to the highest Heaven, yet, this time, he had interfered.

No matter how much Gravis pondered about the situation, he couldn't get to the answer. The only explanation would be if he had become a danger to the highest Heaven, but that was absolutely impossible. Gravis was too weak for that.

"Now," Aion said after a while. "It's my turn. So, what happened?" he asked.

Gravis looked to Aion. "After I had formed my Spirit with lightning, my mind and Spirit both got absorbed by something. I have no idea what had absorbed them, but I feel like I have died at that point. The next thing I remember is waking up in my Spirit Space and slowly regaining my memories."

Aion had thought that Gravis would know more, but apparently, he was out of luck. "Then, what was this other existence that came together with your father?" he asked.

"Oh, that should be the highest Heaven," Gravis answered nonchalantly.

Aion's eyebrows rose. "Highest Heaven? What do you mean?"

Gravis grinned slightly. He hadn't had such a nice chat in a long while. Gravis was a very extroverted person and liked to talk with people, yet he also had to keep his distance to others due to his karmic luck problem. Talking with Aion about his homeworld lifted Gravis' mood.

"We are in one of the lower worlds. Every world has an individual Heaven overseeing that world. The worlds and Heavens make as many cultivators as possible, and when the cultivators become too strong, they ascend into the assigned parent-world."

Another new word appeared that Aion hadn't heard before. "Parent-world?" he asked.

Gravis smiled. "Where do you think your Heaven came from?" Gravis asked back.

Aion wanted to answer, but he couldn't. He had never questioned the existence of Heaven. Heaven was the beginning and the end. How could a mortal know where Heaven came from? Yet, Gravis apparently knew the answer.

Gravis only waited for some seconds for an answer but continued then. "A Heaven in a middle-world created this Heaven. This Heaven then created this world. So, the specific middle Heaven that had created this lower Heaven is the parent-Heaven," Gravis explained patiently.

Even more questions appeared in Aion's mind. "You say specific middle Heaven. Does that mean there are other Heavens just as powerful as the parent of our Heaven?"

Gravis nodded. "Of course. That's why it's called a middle Heaven. If there is a lower and middle, there also has to be a higher one. Lastly, every higher Heaven has been created by the highest Heaven. There is only one highest world, which is also my homeworld."

Aion's eyes widened in enlightenment and wonder. "I never knew there were so many worlds above ours. I don't know what to think about that."

Gravis smiled and continued. He saw a chance right now. "So, in total, there are four levels of worlds and Heavens. If we liken them to our known cultivation realms, the highest Heaven would be the only Unity Realm cultivator. The higher Heavens would be the Spirit Forming experts. The middle Heavens would be the Energy Gathering disciples, and the lower Heavens…"

"would be the Body Tempering mortals," Gravis transmitted with a grin. "Don't you think that it's ironic that you and all the other Heavenborn are worshipping a Heaven that belongs to the absolute weakest category, out of many, many millions? You are basically worshipping the bottom of the barrel."

Aion heard that and his eyes widened.