Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis took a deep breath to calm himself down. One of his friends, Silva, had been dead for many years now. Gravis had always hoped that Silva would be able to live his life in peace. Of course, that was only because of Gravis' emotions being optimistic. From the very beginning, Gravis knew that Silva had already become too powerful to escape the world.

A Spirit Beast in the ocean would have had no issues in living out their life in peace. Outside the continent, battles were only between single beasts and not between two organizations. If Silva had decided to live in the ocean, he would probably still be alive.

"He wasn't decisive enough in his choice," Gravis said, sadness in his voice.

"Correct," Orthar said. "He wasn't willing to commit to the path to power, but he also didn't abandon it. Land beasts have no issues living inside the vast ocean, and he should have gone to it. Yet, he had decided to live on land. My guess was that he had regrets regarding his path to power."

Gravis nodded. "I think so too. It was his own indecisiveness that killed him, which is very regrettable," Gravis said as he smiled bitterly, "Because, now, I don't have anyone that I can blame for his death but him."

Gravis took another deep breath. "So, every member of the River Tribe, except you and me, are dead, huh?" Gravis asked.

"Not entirely," Orthar said.

"Oh?" Gravis asked. "Who's still alive?"

"Liza," Orthar said.

Gravis remembered the hyena that had nearly killed Orthar. "Liza? She's still alive?"

"According to my spies, she has become a King and serves on a defensive line," Orthar said. "Yet, her potential is too weak. Her Battle-Strength has become very average, and she will have a huge issue in becoming more powerful. According to expectation, she won't be able to become a level five King."

Gravis sighed again. "Not everyone reaches the top, huh?" Gravis asked.

"Naturally," Orthar answered.

Then, silence reigned for some minutes as Gravis thought about his old River Tribe. From thousands of members, only three were still alive.

Yet, that was already incredible. The path to supreme power was perilous, and two members from an innocuous Tribe at the edges of the continent had become powerful enough to contest with Emperors. This ratio was already terrifying.

Orthar and Gravis talked for a couple more hours, and the mood recovered. Gravis had had a lot of his friends and companions die on his journey. This was nothing new to him. It still hurt when he heard of the death of one of his companions, but he had grown used to it.

"So, what do you plan to do now, Orthar?" Gravis asked.

"I will remain in your Life Ring until the Light Ultimate has left this world. Then, I will continue on my path. Yet, I have developed a thought over our conversation that I'm not sure I should share," Orthar said.

"Oh? Something you're not sure about?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "I gotta hear this."

Orthar remained silent for some seconds, which surprised Gravis. Apparently, Orthar took this thought very seriously.

"Gravis," Orthar said slowly. "Beasts are too simple. Ever since I have met you, I have seen the ingenuity and far-reaching mindset humans can have. I have not seen this mindset in any beast, but I feel like I would fit better into a human society."

Gravis blinked a couple of times in confusion. "What are you getting at?" he asked.

"Gravis," Orthar said slowly as he looked into Gravis' eyes. "When you return to your homeworld, can you take me with you?"

Gravis was taken aback. Orthar wanted to return with Gravis to his homeworld? That came out of nowhere!

Gravis fell into thought as he seriously considered this action. "It's not impossible," Gravis said. "The problem is that living in the highest world is many times more dangerous for you than remaining in a natural world."

"Honestly, I don't know much about the relationship between humans and beasts in my homeworld. Beasts in human bodies may have been all around me in the city, but it is also possible that there were only humans. After all, I was too weak to feel the power of an Immortal or higher."

"I'm unsure what would happen. It could be that you would be disallowed to live in human society and would be forced to live in the wilderness. Yet, it's also possible that there is no difference between humans and beasts in society."

"On top of that, the battles between Immortals and Gods produce shockwaves that can be felt for many thousands of kilometers. Additionally, humans have Karmic Luck, while beasts don't. I can't tell this to any human since that would destroy their Karmic Luck, but I can tell you since you're a beast. After all, you don't have any Karmic Luck, to begin with," Gravis said.

The matter of Karmic Luck hadn't been relevant in this world. After all, no being in this world had any Karmic Luck. Yet, Gravis didn't forget the enormous impact that Karmic Luck had had when he had been in the lower world. Just because this concept hadn't been relevant in this world didn't mean that the concept wouldn't become relevant again as soon as other humans got involved again.

Gravis explained to Orthar the concept of Karmic Luck and how it might result in his death against a human that would usually die to him. A randomly missing attack or a random interference from outside could make the entire difference between life and death.

Orthar also remained silent as he re-evaluated his choice. He hadn't known about the concept of Karmic Luck. In order to become more powerful, it was imperative for Orthar to temper himself. Yet, one couldn't just freely choose their opponent.

If a human decided to attack Orthar, he would have no other choice than to fight back. The concept of Karmic Luck was inherently unfair, and if Orthar wanted to temper himself fairly against beings that also had no Karmic Luck, he would need to keep away from human society.

So, then there would be no difference between here and there. In both cases, Orthar would only come into contact with beasts. This would defeat the entire purpose of him wanting to see human society.

Yet, at this moment, something happened that shocked Gravis immensely. He had never expected that something like this would happen.

Gravis looked at Orthar as a sense of his was awakened that he hadn't used in over a hundred years.

In Gravis' eyes, Orthar's body gave off a particular feeling. Gravis knew this feeling.

This was the feeling of when someone's Karmic Luck changed!

Right now, in front of Gravis, Orthar received Karmic Luck from Heaven!

Gravis' eyes narrowed. 'What's your plan, Heaven?' Gravis thought. 'Why are you giving Orthar Karmic Luck now?'

Gravis very quickly came to a conclusion that made sense. 'This middle Heaven doesn't break the rules. This means that this Karmic Luck doesn't come from this middle Heaven but from the highest Heaven.'

'Father and I have already realized that the highest Heaven wants as many of my friends to reach the highest world as possible. We're both unsure if the highest Heaven wants to use them as hostages later or if it truly just wants to repay me.'

Gravis stood up and looked at the sky of his Life Ring. Orthar was confused about Gravis' sudden change of expression and emotions. These emotions made no sense to Orthar and seemingly came out of nowhere.

"Is this it?" Gravis asked. "Do you want to show me that Orthar can also temper himself against humans in the highest world? You are ready to sacrifice the inherent advantages that humans have over him to further insure yourself against me?"

Gravis looked at Orthar. "Heaven, I'm uncertain of your goal, but if your goal is to make me complacent with the status quo and no longer pursue supreme power, this won't work. If that is your goal, you won't be able to achieve it."

Gravis continued looking at the confused Orthar. Yet, Orthar's Karmic Luck didn't reduce at all.

"That's not your goal, huh?" Gravis asked. "Fine, then I'm fine with this. Even if you want to take more hostages against me in the future, in exchange for a future of one of my friends, I'm willing to take the risk."

Gravis took a deep breath. "I doubt that you would want to hurt me by deceiving me right now. That's something that the idiotic lower Heaven would have done, not you. It's just not worth it. Additionally, you also know that you wouldn't be able to hide it in front of father."

"So, I hope that you keep to your word, highest Heaven," Gravis said.

"Gravis, what's going on?" Orthar asked.

Gravis turned to Orthar. "The highest Heaven has granted you Karmic Luck. I have told you of my conflict with the highest Heaven. Either it wants to repay me for what it had done to Stella, or it wants you to become powerful so that it can use your life to stop me."

"Are you willing to follow me to my homeworld, knowing about these possibilities and dangers?" Gravis asked.

Orthar didn't even hesitate. "Tempering is always dangerous, as is the unknown. I see no difference in danger between staying here or following you to your homeworld."

Gravis nodded. Then, he smiled.

"Then, I'm happy to have you on board!" Gravis said. "It seems like our paths will only split for a short time until I leave this world. Try to become as powerful as possible during that time."

Then, Gravis smirked. "And I have just the thing that will help you," he said.

"Oh?" Orthar said with interest.

Whooop!

Suddenly, a small green slime appeared in front of Orthar. "This is the CMO. By watching it, you can comprehend a ton about Life Laws. From now until the day the Light Ultimate leaves this world, you should look at it."

"The more Laws you manage to comprehend, the better," Gravis said.

Right now, Orthar felt like they were back in the River Tribe with Gravis as the leader. Orthar was not an emotional beast, but he couldn't help himself thinking about the past.

"I will," Orthar said.

Gravis nodded. "Great, I'll leave you to it."

Then, Gravis looked at the horizon of his Life Ring again. "Meanwhile, I will also concentrate on learning as many new Laws as possible in the next 50 years. I'll tell you when the Light Ultimate leaves the world."

"Gravis," Orthar said with uncertainty. "It feels unnatural as a beast, but if I am to live among humans in the future, I should get used to it. So, let me try this."

Gravis raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Gravis," Orthar said.

"Thank you."