Lightning Is the Only Way

The unconscious body of Gravis lay inside a comfy bed. The room had a window that showed the dark outside, but the room's interior contrasted the outside. The room was painted in a bright color, and lots of comfy chairs and furniture decorated it. There was even a beautiful fireplace, which contained a peaceful fire that was heating the room. The whole room exuded the charm of a lovely home.

WHOOM! BANG!

As soon as Gravis regained even a sliver of consciousness, he immediately jumped up, released his Will-Aura, and released 30% of his lightning in an explosion. He had lost consciousness, and as soon as someone noticed him regaining consciousness, they would be prepared for him. He had no idea why he was still alive, but it couldn't be for any good reason.

The room exploded into fragments and debris as everything was destroyed. Gravis immediately shot off into one direction with all his speed. He was still missing one leg and an arm, yet that didn't stop his acceleration. He immediately noticed a building far away and shot his lightning toward it while grabbing some metal from his Spirit Space. The magnetism pulled Gravis forward violently.

BANG!

Surprisingly, the building wasn't destroyed when Gravis shot his lightning at it, but that didn't matter. The lightning had done its job of shooting him into the distance. Now, Gravis had time to look at his surroundings.

He was outside a gigantic congregation of black buildings. The sky thundered in constant lightning, yet all of the lightning only hit one colossal tower in the middle of the buildings. It seemed like the tower was attracting the lightning.

'Wait! Lightning and black buildings? Is this the Lightning Sect?' Gravis thought as he shot through the air. He also saw a lot of disciples running around in confusion as they heard the explosions. They all wore blackish-blue robes, just like the disciples of the Lightning Guild. After Gravis had that thought, something neared him with unreal speed. It was so fast that Gravis couldn't even react.

BANG!

A cane hit him on the back while he was in the air, shooting him straight to the ground. Gravis hit the ground with incredible force while the surroundings exploded. One shouldn't forget that Gravis' body weighed over a ton. As soon as he hit the ground, he lost control over his breathing as his lungs were nearly crushed. It seemed like a miracle that the impact hadn't broken any bones.

"Destroy my house, will you!?" came an angry shout from beside him, but Gravis didn't even realize what happened before he got kicked in the side. The kick perfectly hit his stomach, and some medicinal soup or juice quickly left his body through his mouth. Meanwhile, Gravis got shot into the distance until he hit a boulder.

"Here I go and save you, and what's the first thing you do?"

BANG!

Another kick shot Gravis into the distance. The kicks were incredibly painful, but Gravis' Will-Aura still allowed him to control himself. Gravis regained control over his body and barely evaded another kick.

"You dare dodge!?" an angry shout came from beside him.

BANG!

The cane hit the still injured side of Gravis' head, which spun him multiple times in the air until his face hit the ground.

WACK, WACK, WACK!

Blows from the cane rained down on Gravis' body, not allowing him to dodge or block. Every time he tried to evade or block, the cane would change its trajectory. He was utterly helpless.

"You ungrateful piece of shit! Every single other person that even touched my home would already be dead!" Old Man Lightning shouted as he continued beating Gravis with fervor.

By now, Gravis realized that he wasn't in danger anymore. Yes, the hits were painful, but they didn't injure the critical parts of his body. If that person wanted him to die, he would already be dead.

"I'm sorry, alright!?" Gravis shouted in-between blows. Gravis was actually feeling a bit guilty. Apparently, this person had saved him, yet Gravis had destroyed his house. Yes, Gravis would still have done the same if that happened another time, but that didn't change the fact that he still destroyed the house.

"You're sorry? Good! Then go rebuild my house!" Old Man Lightning shouted, no longer beating Gravis with his cane.

Now, Gravis finally had some time to breathe. He used his Spirit to look at his surroundings and the old man. Gravis became shocked as he realized that he couldn't feel the Spirit or will of the angry old man. By all intents and purposes, the old man felt like a normal, mortal old man. Of course, the painful bruises across Gravis' body proved that this wasn't the case.

Gravis had felt the Spirit of Byron previously, as long as he hadn't activated his ring. Yet, Gravis was sure that this old man didn't carry any of those artifacts. Nothing was blocking Gravis' Spirit from inspecting the old man, and he saw not a single artifact. Except for maybe that powerful cane. Any ordinary cane would have broken after the first hit.

'I can't feel his Spirit and will even though he isn't masking his presence? That can only mean one thing!'

"You're at the Self-Stage?"

WACK!

The cane hit Gravis' head again.

"Rebuild my fucking house!" Old Man Lightning shouted in anger.

"Alright, alright!" Gravis said and started searching for stones. He quickly found some of the black stones around ten kilometers away. Apparently, the Lightning Sect was built beside a vein of those stones.

BZZZ!

Gravis body immediately regenerated since the inherent Energy of his body had refilled already. Walking and transporting the materials would be a pain otherwise. He hadn't healed himself before because if someone attacked him, he could surprise them with his regeneration. Gravis immediately shot off towards the distance toward the ore.

Meanwhile, Old Man Lightning was surprised about the immediate healing of Gravis. 'This boy has a lot of strange powers,' he thought with interest. 'He also absorbed my lightning previously, which should be impossible. I wonder how he achieved that.'

When Gravis arrived at the ore, he used his lightning to cut or melt it. Surprisingly, the ore seemed to absorb the lightning. It even seemed to become harder.

"You idiot!" came the voice of Old Man Lightning in Gravis' mind. "You can't destroy Balzar with lightning! That's the whole point of why we use this ore as our building material! Don't you know anything?"

Gravis furrowed his brows. "Then how did my lightning destroy your house?"

"Tch," a disdainful sound appeared in Gravis' mind. "Just because it can absorb lightning doesn't mean that it can't be destroyed with the force of an explosion. The shockwave of your lightning isn't made out of lightning, after all, is it?"

Gravis grimaced a little. "Then how am I supposed to cut it? I don't have tools." Gravis couldn't use so much lightning in an explosion every time to mine some stone. That would take forever.

"That's not my fucking problem, is it? If you don't have tools, use your hands!" came the annoyed and still angry voice of Old Man Lightning.

Gravis was growing a bit annoyed, but he told himself that it was understandable that the old man was angry. He would also be angry if someone destroyed his home. Gravis readied his fist and punched the ore.

BOOM!

His fist hit the ore, but it still remained in one piece, which surprised Gravis.

"Put some back into it!" Old Man Lightning shouted.

Gravis gritted his teeth and punched harder, and finally, a big piece of ore fell off. Gravis shook his fist for some time. His right hand wasn't happy with hitting something so hard. The piece was too big to fit in Gravis' Spirit Space, so he carried it to the destroyed house with his hands.

The piece was very heavy, even more so than Gravis had thought. The ground below him cracked, and he needed to quickly shoot forward before his legs sunk into the ground. All in all, the work was exhausting.

Gravis arrived at the destroyed house's location and noticed, to his delight, that it hadn't been that big according to the debris. It probably only had two floors.

BOOM!

Gravis threw the stone to the side, and it created a loud sound. The other disciples looked over and watched him with interest. Some of them were surprised that Gravis was still alive after destroying Old Man Lightning's home, while others laughed at his misfortune.

Gravis looked at the ore and then at the destroyed house.

"How am I supposed to cut this huge stone into uniform sizes?" he asked himself.