Lightning Is the Only Way

After the two of them finished their conversation, Gravis charged forward.

This time, he was even far faster than before. Gravis used the fastest speed he could muster, which was far faster than anyone else in the tournament.

The eyes of the Vice-Sect Masters opened widely when they saw his speed.

Gravis had been holding back against his previous opponents!?

WHOOOM!

Gravis released his Will-Aura. On top of that, he used his Law of Major Suppression.

However, the Law of Major Suppression was different now.

During the earlier fights, Gravis had only used it with the power of a level four Law, but now, he was strengthening it with the Law of Perceived Reality. This gave Gravis' Law of Major Suppression the power of a level five Law.

The opponent was suppressed by 30%. One had to remember that he had a Will-Aura on par with a Mid Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor.

The Holy Son Candidate narrowed his eyes and took out two sabers. Apparently, that was his choice of weapon, pure offense.

WHOOOOM!

However, Gravis activated his Laws of Storm's Pressure, Storm's Power, Storm's Efficiency, and Storm's Mass to harden the surroundings.

It was becoming hard for the Holy Son Candidate to move, but his eyes didn't show panic.

WHOOOOM!

Then, Gravis used the Laws of Graphite's Gravity, Graphite's Mass, and Graphite's Efficiency.

By now, the opponent narrowed his eyes. He was taking Gravis very seriously right now.

WHOOOOM!

Then, Gravis used his Laws of Frost's Cold, Frost's Penetration, Frost's Efficiency, and Frost's Power to freeze the insides of his opponent.

With all of these suppressive forces stacked together, the Holy Son Candidate was so slow that he couldn't even block Gravis' attack anymore.

The Vice-Sect Masters looked with shock at Gravis.

So many Laws!

Gravis' saber hit the opponent's chest.

SHING! CLANK!

Gravis' saber shook violently like it had hit something incredibly hard.

BANG!

The Holy Son Candidate was shot into the wall of the arena as a cloud of dust exploded.

Gravis furrowed his brows.

Clink!

The sound of metal boots could be heard as a black, shiny foot came out of the cloud of dust.

WHOOM!

The dust cloud was blown away, and Gravis' opponent was revealed.

Black.

His entire body was encased in black armor.

Gravis narrowed his eyes, and the Sect Master smirked.

'This armor has been created with the Hard Complex Material Law. In addition, it has been made out of Low Minor Circulation Immortal Emperor Rank Materials.'

'That armor is no joke.'

"Quite impressive," the Holy Son Candidate said calmly. "If you weren't fighting a Holy Son Candidate of the All-Matter Sect, you would have already won. To think that you are two levels below me and still force me to unveil my armor is beyond impressive."

"Sadly for you, your Realm is just too low to get through this armor," he said calmly as he stopped in the middle of the arena.

Then, he lifted his arm to demonstrate his armor.

"If you were at the same level as I, you would need to unleash an attack on the level of a level six Law to get through this. This means that every Element that isn't your Avatar would be useless."

"However," the Holy Son Candidate said calmly. "I will definitely survive a strike, and that's all I need. Even if you break this armor, I can simply summon a second set."

"Originally, I intended to use this armor only against the Holy Maiden of the Nine Elements Sect, but you forced me to summon it early. Very impressive."

Then, he shook his head. "Sadly, you are two levels below me. If you want to break through this armor, you need something with the power of a level 6.5 Law. This means that you would need to use your strongest Weapon Technique with your Avatar to get through this. That costs a ton of Energy, but it should still be possible."

"Of course, that doesn't really matter," he said. "After all, I have 20 sets. Even if you are faster than me, I can easily outlast you."

"Concede," the Holy Son Candidate ordered. "I don't want to humiliate you. You have shown enough power as is."

Gravis' eyes shone slightly. "20 sets? Do you have the authority and money to buy so much ore?" he asked.

"No," the Holy Son Candidate said. "At most, I can buy around four, and that would already consume most of my wealth."

"So, where did you get so many from?" Gravis asked. It was rather obvious to him where the Holy Son Candidate got these sets of armor, but he wanted to hear the real reason from him. After all, the reason might change Gravis' plan.

"The All-Matter Sect, obviously," the Holy Son Candidate said. "We have already lost two of our strongest Core Disciples to the Holy Maiden in the last tournaments. So, for this one, we went all out. I will take the Holy Maiden away today."

'Sure enough, it was the All-Matter Sect,' Gravis thought as he narrowed his eyes. 'This makes things different.'

'Originally, I wanted to work together with the All-Matter Sect with my grand plan, but that has changed now. If it were only him, I wouldn't care. After all, he's just a single person, and his actions don't reflect the entire Sect.'

'However, since his entire Sect is behind him, it means that he wants to take Stella away with borrowed power. There is no issue with borrowed power inherently, but it depends on what kind of borrowed power it is and for what it is used.'

'The All-Matter Sect is willing to throw pride and self-respect away to get Stella. Seems like the upper echelon of the All-Matter Sect isn't any different from the upper echelon of the Nine Elements Sect. Both of these organizations are schemers and politicians. The individual isn't important. Only the Sect is important.'

'I hate that mindset!' Gravis thought.

'However, he is right. I can't break through his armor in the traditional way. Even a Lightning Crescent with Divine Lightning might not completely kill him. This armor is four levels above me.'

'There are only two attacks that can break him, Mortality with Divine Lightning and Samsara.'

'I don't want to show that I know Divine Lightning already. That would be too conspicuous.'

'Well, time to test Samsara.'

BZZZ!

Gravis reforged his saber.

"Still not giving up?" Gravis' opponent asked.

"You know, I actually don't have anything against you," Gravis said. "You have treated me with respect and have explained several things to me. Under normal circumstances, we could even become friends, even with our different mindsets."

"However," Gravis said with conviction as he narrowed his eyes. "You've chosen the wrong target!"

"You honestly believe you can win?" the guy asked. "Do you plan to use a soul attack? You do know that there are Formation Arrays on my armor that also protect my soul, right? I obviously wouldn't overlook such a glaring weakness."

Gravis took a deep breath.

"Anyway, thanks for explaining everything," Gravis said.

Then, he lifted his saber.

The Vice-Sect Masters looked with confusion at Gravis' saber.

Stella and Liam looked with intrigue at Gravis' lifted saber. They knew that Gravis didn't utter empty boasts. He had something he could rely on.

The Sect Master only smirked.

This was her trump card.

Even if Gravis could battle four levels above himself, he wouldn't be able to exhaust the wealth of the All-Matter Sect. It was simply impossible for him to create an attack that was powerful enough to win in a single shot.

Power gathered on Gravis' saber as his opponent only watched. He wanted to see what Gravis could do.

Suddenly, Stella's eyes widened.

'That's the Law of Freedom, but how?' she thought. 'Why do I feel the Law of Freedom in his saber? Also, isn't that also the Law of Suppression and the Law of Danger?'

Then, it hit her. 'Wait, is there an overarching Law for all these situational Laws? What kind of Law would that even be? These Laws have nearly nothing in common with each other!'

Then, Gravis slashed down.

CREEEEEEE!

A grey crescent was released, and it made an ear-grating sound. It was like an insanely fast piece of metal was cutting through gravel as it was ground to nothingness. This was the sound of Perceived Reality clashing with Physical Reality. Perceived Reality was cutting through Physical Reality.

Many pictures appeared inside the slash as it moved forward. It was like a different form of reality could be seen in these pictures.

For the instant that the slash existed, many people felt drawn in. The slash looked wondrous. It was like it had impossibly many possibilities and opportunities inside it.

Suddenly, the Holy Son Candidate felt his body shake.

Death!

He felt death approaching him.

But how!?

How could an attack from such a weak Cultivator cut through his armor!?

It took a long time to describe, but everything happened in an instant. Before the Holy Son Candidate could even react, the slash hit him.

Samsara ignored everything physical. In its reality, the enemy didn't wear any armor. The enemy didn't even have a physical body. Only things that could come into contact with ethereal things mattered.

And humans had such a thing.

The Spirit.

Everything else didn't matter.

Samsara went past everything and directly hit the Holy Son Candidate's Spirit.

WHOOOOM!

Time seemingly stopped.

"That's your little brother," a graceful woman said.

'What's happening?' the Holy Son Candidate thought. 'Is that my mother?'

"Yay, I have a little brother!" the Holy Son Candidate shouted.

'Wait, I didn't say that! Why do I sound female?'

Then, the vision changed as the Holy Son Candidate saw a tiny child in the adult woman's arm.

'That's my mother, and that baby, it's me!' he thought with shock.

"Hey, little bro!" the Holy Son Candidate seemingly shouted.

He was in the body of his big sister, and he saw the moment of his birth.

Years passed.

The Holy Son Candidate saw himself growing up, and he looked different than he remembered.

In his past, he had always seen himself as someone prideful and powerful.

Yet, in his sister's eyes, this boy looked adorable, cute, and innocent.

'Is this really me?'

More years passed.

"Save me, little bro!" the Holy Son Candidate seemingly shouted with his female voice.

In front of them were raiders.

Right now, the past version of the Holy Son Candidate was on an excursion…

And he wouldn't return for five more days.

The Holy Son Candidate felt the reality of his sister's demise.

The raiders forced themselves upon her multiple times and then killed her.

"Little bro," she said with tears as a blade came down upon her. "Be happy."

CUT!

The cold heart of the Holy Son Candidate felt emotions for the first time in an eternity.

Then, a new image appeared.

This time, he was looking at the newborn version of himself from the viewpoint of his mother. He looked adorable and helpless.

This time, as he grew up, he saw himself differently again.

In his mother's vision, he looked troubled. The sister didn't see the issues with her brother, but the mother noticed the problem with her son.

He held some kind of apathy and pain inside. In her vision, he appeared like a hurt and angry teenager.

"Why didn't you just stay and become a farmer?" were the last words of his mother after she went through the same torment as the Holy Son Candidate's sister.

Then, she also died.

The next vision was of his father.

This time, as the Holy Son Candidate grew older, he appeared disrespectful and cold. He also had slight cracks in his appearance.

In his father's mind, his son was broken and had to be fixed.

His father died as he tried to defend himself against the raiders.

"You've abandoned your family for glory!" he shouted to himself in rage before he died.

The next vision was of one of the Holy Son Candidate's previous friends.

The next one was from another friend.

The next one was from an enemy.

The next one was from one of his previous masters.

The visions just didn't stop, and they became longer and longer as the Cultivators also became more powerful. After all, the Cultivators could live longer.

'Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!'

This was what the Holy Son Candidate had shouted to himself for years now.

He just couldn't take it anymore!

He saw himself making several decisions he had regretted without being able to change them.

'Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!'

The visions continued.

After the 30th one, he started to doubt himself.

'Who am I? Is this person really me?'

All the different visions affected him.

He had been in these visions for far too long, and without the ability to do what he wanted, he started doubting his very existence.

What would he have done?

Yet, he saw himself do several things.

'Have I really done that?'

'Why would I do that?'

His thinking became slower and slower. It was like he just couldn't think as fast anymore. It was like his Spirit was becoming smaller and weaker.

This was the effect of having one's Spirit destroyed. It usually happened instantaneously, but these realities slipped by with such insane speeds that the instantaneous destruction of the Holy Son Candidate's Spirit by the Law of Deep Wood's Destruction played out over millennia upon millennia.

'Who am I?'

'What am I?'

Who… am I?'

'Who… am…'

'Who…'

And then he stopped thinking.

He didn't exist anymore.