Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis sat under the lightning. The difference between this lightning and Jaimy's lightning attacks was the intensity of the Energy. A lightning bolt with 50% destruction energy with not a lot of Energy could only hurt a tree, but with enough Energy, it could destroy a mountain.

The lightning in the Lightning Tower was made for refinement, so its Energy was not particularly high. Yet, Gravis poured all the lightning into his body, not caring about any damage it might make along the way. The pain was intense, but Gravis had been feeling pain for a while now. He didn't care about the pain at all. Only hate, rage, and a thirst for power remained.

His body already had a significant amount of lightning resistance, and that reduced the impact of the Destruction Energy, by a lot. It took way more Life Energy to heal something than it took Destruction Energy to destroy something. Yet, with Gravis' lightning resistance, he had enough defense to out-heal the new damage.

The lightning circulated in his body, and it was starting to regrow flesh, blood, and skin. After about an hour, his eyes had returned, and his face was squirming with new muscles. There were only unsatiable greed and bottomless hate in Gravis' eyes.

When Gravis had fully healed, he sent the lightning to every corner of his body to check any part that hadn't been tempered yet. Normally, the lightning was only supposed to temper the muscles, not the other parts. Sending lightning into the organs was incredibly dangerous and foolish, but Gravis couldn't care less right now.

He sent the lightning into his heart and immediately fried it. Gravis felt the familiar feeling of being unable to breathe again. He quickly sent the lightning to his skin, who also started frying. While the Destruction Energy destroyed other parts of the body, the Life Energy was collected and sent to his heart.

Gravis nearly lost his consciousness due to the lack of air, but his consciousness suddenly cleared again. His heart had enough Life Energy to heal in time. Gravis realized that if he fell unconscious and let go of the lever, the lightning would stop and he wouldn't be able to heal anymore.

So, he proceeded to weigh it down with the last parts of clothing he still had. They were soaked in shit and blood and were heavy enough to keep the lever down. Like this, the lightning would never stop.

Gravis continued circulating the lightning across different parts of his body. In the beginning, the destruction was faster than the healing, and he quickly returned to looking like a corpse. It was incredibly painful, and anyone could die from just the pain alone, but Gravis managed to keep his head clear, even if he had to violently grit his teeth.

This insane tempering wouldn't be possible without having had tempered organs and blood for many years. It would also be impossible if someone didn't have a strong enough will to create their own Will-Aura. Gravis had the unique circumstances that fit the right criteria to survive such a suicidal tempering.

As time progressed, the destruction of everything started to slow down, while the healing slowly overtook the destruction. Then, Gravis poured the lightning into his Lightning Seed, while his body hadn't fully healed yet. He slowly increased the purity of the Destruction Energy in his Lightning Seed.

As time progressed, Gravis noticed something. The ratio of Destruction Energy and Life Energy was climbing multiple times faster than he had initially thought. Gravis had been sure that it would have taken around 40 hours to increase the purity to 50%, but with this speed, it would only take five hours.

Gravis was very surprised and narrowed his newly regrown eyes in thought. This didn't make any sense. Energy couldn't be created from nothing, and he didn't gain or absorb new Energy outside of lightning. Yet, there had to be an explanation.

Gravis continued watching, and the speed of increase in the purity of the Lightning Seed slowed down until it finally hit the expected speed. Now, Gravis realized what was happening.

"My body absorbs the Life Energy to regenerate. It pulls out the Life Energy from the lightning, thus increasing the ratio of Destruction Energy." A fire of ambition appeared in Gravis' eyes. "It is possible to go further in purity!" he shouted.

Gravis quickly started destroying more parts of his body with the lightning and concentrated on his body's sensation when it absorbed the Life Energy. It took some time, but Gravis was finally able to pinpoint the sensation and make his body stop absorbing the Life Energy.

Then, Gravis got another idea. If this sensation was the Life Energy, then maybe he could…

BOOM!

Gravis' shoulder exploded and splashed across the room, yet Gravis only had a mad grin on his face. "It works!" he shouted. By sensing the Life Energy in the lightning, Gravis was able to manipulate it with his Elemental Synchronicity.

By only manipulating the Life Energy, he was able to move it somewhere else than the Destruction Energy. With this, he had separated the two, immediately making his shoulder explode due to the pure destructive lightning.

Now, Gravis had a different problem. If he separated the Life Energy from the Destruction Energy, it would destroy his body. He could, theoretically, let it pass into his Lightning Seed with his Elemental Synchronicity. However, if he used his lightning in the future, it would still destroy his body if he lost his concentration even once.

Gravis started laughing madly. "If my body can't handle it, then let it be destroyed and reforged!" he screamed in madness. He made the lightning scatter all around his body and pulled the Life Energy out.

BOOM!

Nearly all the flesh exploded off of his body. The essential organs were still there, and he wouldn't bleed out with the life Energy. The explosion of his body was unimaginably painful, and even Gravis couldn't go through it without reacting.

"AAAHHH!" he shouted in pain with all his strength. Yet, Gravis didn't lose his full concentration and sent some remainders of the Destruction Energy into his Lightning Seed. He had to increase its purity together with his body's resistance.

Gravis then split the lightning again, but this time, he used his Elemental Synchronicity to make the Destruction Energy pass through his body and into the Lightning Seed. The pure Life Energy started regenerating his body, while the purity of his Lightning Seed increased.

When his body had healed again, Gravis did the same thing again and screamed in pain. The explosion of the whole body was unimaginably painful, but he persisted. He screamed in pain and madness but didn't stop. He channeled all the pain he felt into hatred, and his pain only fueled his hatred and rage.

After an unknown amount of time, Gravis noticed that his body didn't explode as violently anymore. His body was starting to adapt to the lightning. It was also growing stronger at a rapid pace. After some more time, his body didn't get hurt anymore by the lightning's Destruction Energy.

His skin and muscles were immune to the lightning. Now, it was time to reforge his organs. Gravis methodically destroyed one organ after another. While he healed one destroyed organ, he already started destroying the next one. The pain was just as intense as when his body exploded, and he continued shouting in pain.

Yet, his screech of pain slowly started to resemble mad laughter.