Lightning Is the Only Way

The Emperor glared at Gravis while gritting his teeth. He had to end the fight now! He couldn't waste more time here!

BRRRR!

Five more fire-copies appeared around him as he charged at Gravis again.

CRRR! SHING! BANG!

Several bone spikes grew out of Gravis' skin. Then, he broke them off with his Spirit and launched them at the copies, which quickly exploded from a distance. The Emperor grew enraged when he saw this. He couldn't use his fire-copies anymore with this new defensive technique!

BANG!

The Emperor attacked Gravis with his claws, and Gravis used his Spirit to move an arm into his way. The arm immediately exploded since it wasn't powerful enough to resist such an attack without muscles.

BANG!

The attack also broke through the other arm, but when the tail came between them, the attack had been weakened to the degree that it became nearly useless. Gravis was thrown into the distance again as the Emperor continued chasing.

CRRR!

Gravis' limbs regrew, but he narrowed his eyes. 'Regrowing these limbs still takes around 20% of my Life Energy. This is too much! I need muscles!' he thought.

The next attack arrived, but before it could hit Gravis, one of his arms suddenly thickened and blocked the attack. He had finally learned the last Law regarding Body Growth.

Gravis had watched the CMO for a long time, and he had been on the cusp of understanding the Growth Laws regarding the body for quite a while now. This fight allowed him to learn all of them since he needed them to survive.

BANG!

Gravis was thrown back, and the bones in his right forearm broke. Yet, since he had just filled his right forearm with muscles, it didn't get completely destroyed. Gravis could still block another time with this arm before he had to regrow it.

At least, that would have been the case in the past.

CRRR!

Gravis used his new Laws and completely fixed the arm. '5% Life Energy to block one attack. I can deal with that!'

The Emperor grew enraged and nervous as he continued violently assaulting Gravis with everything he had.

Thanks to Gravis' Law of Suppression and his Law of Fire Composition, the attacks never managed to completely destroy his blocking arm in one hit. This allowed him to fix them for a much smaller cost every time.

Gravis fixed his blocking right arm many times between attacks, and several minutes passed. By now, Gravis' usage of Life Energy was just a bit below his regeneration of lightning. As long as nothing unforeseen happened, Gravis could kill the Emperor in the next hour. He only had to survive!

Yet, something unforeseen did happen. Something happened that Gravis would have never expected.

The Emperor stopped attacking and only glared at Gravis for several seconds. Then, he took a deep breath.

"I give up," the Emperor said.

Gravis was shocked when he heard that. Was this some kind of trick? The fight wasn't over yet! The Emperor couldn't possibly know that Gravis was out-regenerating him.

"What?" Gravis asked, shocked.

"I give up," the Emperor said again.

"Why?" Gravis asked.

"Look around you," the Emperor answered neutrally.

For the first time, Gravis had time to pay attention to his magma-filled surroundings.

'So, that's why!' Gravis thought as he realized the reason.

What did Gravis see?

In the surrounding 500 kilometers, Gravis saw a total of four different Emperors watching the fight. These were all Emperors from the land beasts' camp. Several minutes had passed, which was enough for the scattered defensive line to inform the surrounding Empires. The Emperors immediately charged to this location and had been watching the fight.

Of course, none of these Emperors were as stupid as Commander Rime. They all kept themselves out of the fight since this was Gravis' tempering experience. Yet, if the traitorous Emperor decided to flee or if Gravis died, they would charge him.

Gravis' death was only worth something if the traitorous Emperor could claim the reward. Yet, with all these Emperors around him, he knew very well that he wouldn't be able to survive.

This had also been the reason why the Emperor had been so desperate to finish the fight so quickly. He had gambled on the fact that he could kill Gravis before the Emperors arrived. Sadly, he had lost the gamble, and now, it was too late.

The fight was over.

"And you don't want to kill me out of revenge?" Gravis asked coldly.

"What's the point?" the Emperor asked neutrally. "My goal is supreme power, not your death. You were only a treasure that I wanted to obtain to make me more powerful."

Gravis sighed when he heard the Emperor. What a disappointing end to a fight. Instead of fighting to his death, his enemy had simply given up. On top of that, he had missed the perfect opportunity of killing Gravis due to his indecisiveness.

What opportunity?

Every Emperor counted as a Divine Beast, which meant that they also all had the all-out attack of Divine Beasts. If the Emperor had used that attack at the right moment, Gravis would have died. Yet, the Emperor hadn't been willing to fall an entire Realm. This had been his undoing.

"Go ahead, end it. I won't defend myself," the Emperor said neutrally as he just stood there, motionlessly.

"I don't have enough Energy to kill you yet. First, I need to regenerate," Gravis said.

The lizard nodded. "Then hurry up and make it quick."

Gravis still felt awkward about the anticlimactic end of this fight. None of his opponents had given up like this before. This was something entirely new for him.

Several minutes passed in which nothing happened. Gravis had calmed down by now, and his Will-Aura had already finished increasing. Gravis had been at the edge of death multiple times during this fight, which made this fight supreme tempering for him.

Seeing that the fight had ended and that the lizard had truly given up, the Emperors came closer. They looked coldly at the traitorous Emperor, who simply ignored them. Yet, when the Emperors looked at Gravis, they all smiled at him encouragingly.

They all started talking with Gravis as they had all witnessed his power. Gravis had the power of an Emperor now, which made him equal in their eyes.

A new Emperor had been born!

It had been over a year since the last Emperor had appeared. The rise of a new Emperor was always worth celebrating, especially one as outstanding as Gravis.

After around ten minutes, Gravis had fully regrown his entire body. Additionally, his lightning and Spirit had also recovered to about 80%. Thanks to his Pulse, the regeneration of Energy could be expedited.

Now, Gravis had regenerated enough to kill the Emperor.

Yet, as Gravis looked at the Emperor, an idea sprung into his head. What would the death of the Emperor accomplish? Yes, Gravis would consume him and become a level five King, but was this the best use for such an Emperor?

Of course, Gravis wasn't so soft-hearted that he would just let this Emperor escape. Even if he were that soft-hearted, his lightning would vehemently disagree. Yet, Gravis found an interesting solution.

"I have a method for you to survive," Gravis said to the lizard.

The Emperor only sneered. "Even if you decided to spare me, the other Emperors and the Judge wouldn't. It's not up to you."

Whoop!

Gravis retrieved the Life Ring and showed it to the present Emperors.

"This is an Artifact. As long as you do not resist, this Artifact will put undying loyalty towards me in your mind. You will still be yourself, but with the difference that you won't ever be able to betray me."

"So, I would be a slave," he said coldly.

This was Gravis' solution. In Gravis' mind, becoming a slave was worse than dying. Gravis and his lightning wanted the Emperor to pay, which would typically mean killing him.

Yet, since slavery was even worse in his mind than killing, his lightning would have no issues. Additionally, Gravis wouldn't force him into slavery. The Emperor could also decide to simply die.

If the traitorous Emperor also saw slavery worse than death, he would choose death.

"Yes, but isn't following a more powerful beast the same as slavery basically?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "Additionally, I think I will need a helper or servant when I return to my homeworld. I can't deal with everything myself."

"On top of that," Gravis said as his smirk intensified. "As I become stronger, I don't have any use for an Emperor anymore. So, to let you remain useful, I would also need to make you stronger. After all, I'm not about to discard a valuable helper."

In Gravis' mind, having a servant with undying loyalty would be way more profitable in the long run. He couldn't always rely on his father for everything. When he inevitably returned to his homeworld, he would probably spend an extended period of time there to comprehend Laws.

The highest world was the best place to comprehend Laws. There surely was a mountain of unique resources in his homeworld that would help him comprehend Laws. Yet, his homeworld was filled with humans, and when dealing with humans, one needed money.

Having a powerful servant would help immensely with earning money. The lizard could do a lot of menial tasks that Gravis didn't want to waste time on, such as advertising, dealing with customers, finding people, or something similar.

The lizard looked coldly at the ring and remained silent. He was unwilling to give up his path to supreme power, and Gravis had shot through the ranks at insane speeds. The lizard knew that Gravis was only around 160 years old, and he was already as powerful as an Emperor.

If he died now, he would never achieve his goal, but he still had a chance as long as he followed Gravis. Additionally, the lizard expected that if Gravis died, the Artifact would stop working. Wouldn't he regain his freedom then?

In the end, the lizard valued his life over his freedom.

"I agree," the lizard said without hesitation.

Gravis smiled. "Good!"

"Wait!" one of the Emperors to the side said as he interrupted Gravis. "This has not happened before, and we can't let you do anything unusual right now."

Gravis looked with cold eyes at the Emperor. "So? What do you want?" he asked.

"We wait for the Judge to arrive," the Emperor answered. "I, personally, have nothing against this development. You have won against the traitorous Emperor, which means that you can do whatever you want with him."

"But, he is still a traitor, and the punishment of traitors is under the jurisdiction of the Judges. If the Judge agrees, no one will stop you, but if he disagrees, the Emperor will die."

Gravis also looked at the other Emperors to see if they agreed with this proposition. The other three Emperors also agreed.

Gravis put the Life Ring away again. "Fine. We'll wait for the Judge," he said.

'Great, now I have to tell my entire life story again. Otherwise, the Judge won't believe me at all,' Gravis thought with annoyance.

After all of this had been decided, all the Emperors escorted Gravis and the traitorous Emperor back to an Empire of the land beasts. The ocean above them was violently steaming due to the magma coming out of the ground. It would only be a matter of time before a passing sea beast found this anomaly and contacted a sea beast Empire.

After arriving at the Empire, everyone waited for several hours. The Judge was a level two Emperor, and he wouldn't take more than some hours to arrive.

And then, the Judge arrived.

Everyone noticed the arrival of the Judge and stood up with respect to him. Every Judge was outstanding for their Realm, and this Judge was a level two Emperor that could even put up a fight against level three Emperors.

When Gravis saw the Judge, his eyes widened in shock.

"It's you!?"