Lightning Is the Only Way

"Nice to meet you, Arc," Gravis said with a slight smile.

"Nice to meet you too, Gravis," Arc answered with a slight laugh. "You know, you are the first being with whom I can talk openly."

Gravis nodded. "Understandable. Most beings, after they hear who you are, would automatically feel distant from you. Additionally, they don't know how the intricacies of the worlds work and what Heavens actually are."

"Right," Arc said. "In the past, I told some people about my background, but they either didn't believe me or distanced themselves from me. It didn't matter how long I have known them previously. As soon as they realize that I have created the entire world, they become distant."

"By the way," Gravis said. "I never knew how you Heavens actually made worlds. How does that work?"

Arc smiled. This casual and relatively intrusive question showed that Gravis wasn't talking to Arc like he was some supreme being. 

"Depends on the level of the world," Arc said. "Lower and middle Heavens will never be able to learn enough to create a world. So, they get an already finished blueprint of a world that they can change however they want."

"As soon as life gets involved, the higher Heavens get involved and summon the kind of lifeforms that the Heaven wants. Everything else depends on them. By the way, to become a higher Heaven, you need to know the High-Tier Law of the Living World," he said.

"How do the Heavens learn the relevant Laws?" Gravis asked.

"Don't you have a lot of questions?" Arc asked with a laugh. "But I don't mind it. I might as well tell you how Heavens start existing and what happens between their creation and them taking over a world."

Gravis nodded. He wanted to know how all of this worked. The comprehension of Laws could probably be implanted in them, but what about their Will-Auras? 

"When a higher ranked Heaven sees that they need something more of a specific resource, they often begin the creation process of a new Heaven. For example, if you were responsible for a world filled with humans, but the beast population and average power can't oppose the humans anymore."

"You can't just let the beasts die. That would make finding tempering far more difficult in the future. So, you create a new Heaven for a new lower-ranked natural world," Arc said.

"Wait," Gravis interrupted. "I thought the different categories of worlds don't cross over."

"That's true up until the higher world," Arc answered. "We still try to keep elemental and battle worlds separate, but most higher worlds require lower-ranked natural worlds to keep up with the consumption of the human population."

"The more powerful the humans become, the more powerful beasts you need, and the more powerful beasts you need, the more weaker beasts you need. So, we create a world that's only there to create one powerful beast after the other."

"Of course, one natural world isn't enough. We need a lot more beasts than only one natural world can provide. Additionally, the more powerful your average Cultivators are in your world, the more powerful the average beasts need to be, which needs even more beasts," Arc explained.

"What about your world?" Gravis asked.

"Well," Arc said, "I like to keep the powers of beasts and humans the same. I also allow my beasts to ascend. I don't care which side produces more Energy. I only care about the individual and their talent. To me, a beast and a human are the same things."

Gravis nodded. "How do you accomplish that?"

"I don't," Arc said with a smirk. "My children do this for me. I let them do whatever they want in their worlds. I'm responsible for my cluster, and I don't force them to do anything. There are no rules they have to follow."

"No rules?" Gravis asked in surprise.

"None," Arc confirmed with a nod as he slightly tapped a fish below him with his toes. The fish quickly swam away.

"What about the highest Heaven in all of this?" Gravis asked.

"He doesn't care about lower and middle worlds," Arc explained casually. "If I were to compare it to a company, you could say that he is the owner and us higher Heavens are the managers. He only looks at his managers and demands things. How we accomplish these things is left to our discretion."

Suddenly, Arc remembered something and laughed. "Man, you're really good at sidetracking the conversation."

Gravis also chuckled a bit. "I've heard something similar before."

Gravis sat down beside Arc since he felt awkward just standing there.

"Anyway, about how Heavens come to be and such," Arc said. "Generally, when we need a new Heaven, we implant parts of ourselves in newborn beasts or humans. Then, we let them cultivate until they reach the power to ascend from a lower-ranked world than ours. They will subconsciously emulate the looks of us Heavens, and as soon as they become powerful enough, they will realize why they existed."

"They know of their purpose, and they know who they are. As soon as this happens, they know their destiny. As soon as they realize who they are, they will enter specific places to comprehend all the relevant Laws they need, except for the Lightning Law. The Lightning Law will be handed out by the higher-ranked Heaven since they wouldn't be powerful enough to comprehend it."

"As soon as they know all the relevant Laws they need, they will be given their own blueprint of a world," Arc said as he gestured to the world. "And that's how Heavens are born."

Gravis' mind was going wild.

Subconsciously emulate Heaven's looks?

Immediately know who they were and their destiny as soon as they became powerful enough to ascend?

Wasn't this just like Orthar!?

Did this mean that Orthar was a new middle Heaven in the making? Was this why he had immediately changed and left as soon as he became an Immortal?

Arc looked at Gravis. "I see that you have made the connection," Arc said.

Gravis was a bit surprised and wanted to ask how Arc knew about Orthar, but then he remembered that the highest Heaven had shown Arc Gravis' past.

Gravis nodded. "Was Orthar one of these Heavens?" he asked.

"Well," Arc said. "I'm not responsible for that cluster, so I can't be sure, but from what I have seen, it looks very likely. Your friend, Orthar, was probably infused by the higher Heaven of his cluster to become another middle Heaven."

Arc scratched his chin in thought. "I think based on his personality, he will probably be responsible for a fodder world. That is a world that's responsible for creating as many Ascenders as possible, regardless of individual quality."

Arc chuckled a bit. "Your friend's personality is very similar to the personality of my creator, funnily enough. Your friend also has this incurable urge to control everything. Everything must go according to plan, and he hates taking many risks. Additionally, he is only interested in the result and doesn't care about the means with which he will achieve his goal."

Gravis nodded. That really sounded like Orthar. 

This revelation came as quite a shock to Gravis. 

Orthar, his closest friend, was a middle Heaven now. 

Gravis thought about how a world under Orthar would look like, and Gravis realized that he wouldn't want to be born in Orthar's world. 

Everything would be controlled and micro-managed.

Individual talent would be suffocated to make way for conveyor belts filled with supremely average beasts. 

Gravis had a close bond with Orthar, but in terms of ideology, Orthar was the polar opposite of Gravis.

Gravis was freedom.

Orthar was suppression.

It was sad to acknowledge, but Orthar was perfect for being a Heaven.