Lightning Is the Only Way

A week passed, and most of Gravis' advisors had left.

Yet, that didn't matter to Gravis whatsoever.

The ones with shaky loyalty had left, and that was good. Oftentimes, internal dissent was a Kingdom's downfall, not external enemies.

Gravis' approach was similar to back when he had raised the River Tribe, but for different reasons.

Back then, Gravis had not suppressed anyone since beasts wanted to gain power more than anything. Suppressing their power would only make them leave.

This time, Gravis let the humans leave because of loyalty issues.

As long as someone was the most powerful, no beast in one's tribe would betray them.

However, when it came to humans, this wasn't the case.

Humans liked to use a lot of schemes to circumvent power and gain an advantage.

Because of that, unity in one's ranks was more important than with beasts.

When a week passed, the thing that Gravis had expected finally happened.

BOOOOM!

Gravis' castle was blown apart, leaving only Gravis on a throne.

The rest of the castle had turned into rubble.

"Would you have ever expected that this day would come?" a young man with a crown said with authority from above Gravis. Two other Unity Realm Cultivators flanked him.

"Yes, I did," Gravis said with a smirk.

WHOOOOM!

Then, Gravis activated his Will-Aura, making it impossible to move for anyone else.

Immediately, the invaders felt like they had committed a grave mistake.

And then?

There was no then.

The three invaders died quickly under Gravis' royal sword.

This hadn't even been a fight.

'Humility, huh?' Gravis thought with a smirk.

'I've used Humility to destroy my enemies.'

'That's what this is all about, right?' Gravis thought.

Over the next couple of days, Gravis' Kingdom annexed the other Kingdom, becoming more powerful in the process.

Sadly, the entire fortune of the other Kingdom was only enough to create one more Cultivator in the Unity Realm. 

Well, at least Gravis' Kingdom had two Unity Realm Cultivators now instead of one.

Unfortunately, the trial still continued since Gravis hadn't comprehended the Law of Humility yet.

For the next couple of years, Gravis did his best to use Humility to get rid of his enemies.

Gravis deliberately made his Kingdom look weak, even fooling his own new advisors.

Eventually, another Kingdom had decided to attack them, and Gravis dealt with them just like he had dealt with the previous Kingdom.

Ten years later, Gravis had four Cultivators in the Unity Realm.

His Kingdom prospered.

And then, exactly 15 years after Gravis had arrived in this world, the end came.

A band of robbers from a more prosperous area went through the Kingdoms, annihilating all the powerful Cultivators and stealing the resources.

In the end, this band arrived in Gravis' Kingdom.

They were made up of five Early Unity Realm Cultivators and ten Initial Unity Realm Cultivators.

The five Early Unity Realm Cultivators united against Gravis, while the remaining ten dealt with the other Unity Realm Cultivators under Gravis.

Gravis quickly killed two of them, but the remaining three started to exhaust him.

Gravis didn't have his beast body, and he didn't have his affinity towards lightning.

This meant that killing an enemy didn't replenish his Energy.

Whenever he killed an enemy, the Energy he had used to accomplish that was wasted.

On top of that, these Cultivators had quite refined Battle Styles. 

Gravis tried his best, but he was eventually exhausted to death in the face of overwhelming power.

For the first time in his life, Gravis died.

And then, Gravis reopened his eyes, which quickly narrowed.

'Just as I've thought,' Gravis thought. 'Death is not the end in this trial.'

'Seems like I made some mistakes along the way.'

"Your majesty, you need to make a decision on this matter."

Gravis looked at his advisor and frowned.

'I'm all the way back at the beginning. It seems like dealing with the Red-White Kingdom is not the true goal. The band of raiders that comes in 15 years is far more dangerous than the Red-White Kingdom.'

'I need more power!'

The advisor had just asked Gravis what they should do, but instead of getting an answer, something else happened.

BANG!

Gravis exploded forward as he flew out of the hall.

The advisors had no idea what had just happened.

In less than an hour, Gravis reached the Red-White Kingdom.

Then, he annihilated the three future Unity Realm Cultivators and gathered the remaining resources.

'Not enough,' Gravis thought with a frown. 'They have already used most of the resources. Sadly, I can't consume corpses to become more powerful since I'm not a beast.'

'I need more resources!'

Thus, apocalypse had come to the Kingdoms on this day.

Gravis went through every Kingdom, killing the most powerful Cultivators and grabbing their resources.

In just one week, Gravis had accomplished what had taken him 15 years previously.

'I still have nearly 15 years left,' Gravis thought as he checked the resources.

It was about half of what he needed to become a Mid Unity Realm Cultivator.

'I need more!'

Gravis went towards the east since he had already killed all the Kingdoms he knew.

And then, death arrived.

Just as Gravis went past a mountain, he ran into a Nascent Nourishing beast.

Gravis couldn't even defend himself.

BANG!

Gravis opened his eyes again, back in the hall.

Then, he immediately left the hall again.

Just like last time, Gravis annihilated all the Kingdoms and pocketed their resources.

Then, Gravis went north.

And found an even more powerful beast.

Gravis opened his eyes again, back in the hall.

The same thing repeated itself, but this time, he went west.

Another beast with too much power.

The process repeated again, and this time, Gravis went south.

This time, there was no beast.

Gravis was ecstatic when he noticed that there was no beast here.

Sadly, the further he traveled, the weaker everything became. The Energy density also fell severely, as did all the resources.

After a month of searching, Gravis found nothing that could help him.

'Is this for real!?' Gravis thought. 'There are not enough resources to make me become a Mid Unity Realm Cultivator!?'

'Seems like I have to find another way.'

Gravis went back to his Kingdom and killed the "new king" that had been crowned in his absence.

After that, Gravis pushed two of his most trusted advisors to the Early Unity Realm. There might not have been enough resources for Gravis to reach the Mid Unity Realm, but there were enough to create two Early Unity Realm Cultivators.

Like this, they would have enough power to resist the marauders.

In the next fifteen years, Gravis did his best to teach his two new helpers. They had to become as powerful as possible for the eventual invasion.

Sadly, three years later, they betrayed Gravis.

After a bloody battle, Gravis had killed the two of them.

Yet, he could only grit his teeth.

The resources had been wasted!

This meant that Gravis would die again when the marauders came.

Gravis did his best to plan for the battle, but this time, Gravis did even worse in the battle.

Why?

The last time, the Initial Unity Realm marauders had been distracted by the Initial Unity Realm Cultivators under Gravis.

Sadly, this time, Gravis was alone.

The concentrated attacks of all the Unity Realm Cultivators killed Gravis in minutes.

Gravis opened his eyes again and gritted his teeth.

The same thing repeated itself, but this time, Gravis gave his resources to other advisors.

Fortunately, no one betrayed him this time.

When the marauders arrived, Gravis had three Early Unity Realm Cultivators on his side, more than enough to distract the enemy. As long as his enemy was distracted, Gravis would be able to kill them!

The battle commenced…

And Gravis' two advisors fled!

Gravis died again and opened his eyes.

BANG! BANG!

And killed the past incarnations of his two advisors.

Then, a similar process happened this time. 

And again.

And again.

And again.

In the end, over a thousand years had passed for Gravis, but he had never been able to get through the Marauders.

No matter what he did, something would go wrong!

BANG!

Gravis hit his throne, decimating it in the process. 

'Fuck! I tried fucking everything! What do you want me to do!? How am I supposed to get through that!? There are not enough resources for me to become more powerful, and no matter whom I give the resources to, something always goes wrong!'

"Y-Your majesty?" one of the advisors asked in terror.

BANG!

Gravis killed all of them.

"Shut up! I need to think," Gravis shouted into the empty hall.

All of these beings were not real, which was why Gravis didn't mind killing them. All of this was only a Heaven's Trial.

Then, Gravis fell into thought.

'This entire setup exists to teach me the Law of Humility. This means that I can only survive by comprehending the Law of Humility.'

'There must be something that has to do with Humility that will allow me to triumph!'

Silence.

'But what?'