Lightning Is the Only Way

"CAW!"

Gravis heard the voice of Skye from a distance and turned to it. Skye was hovering at a distance of around 300 meters from Gravis, cawing at him. It had wanted to go to Gravis and congratulate him on his victory, but then this strange dome appeared, and it seriously didn't like that dome one bit.

Skye had been closer when Gravis' Will-Aura had expanded, and it nearly fell from the sky when the Will-Aura had hit it. It felt like all the air in its surroundings was transformed into liquid metal, making it really difficult to move. So, it had retreated into a distance.

Gravis noticed that his Will-Aura was still active and deactivated it. He might not be able to compress it, but after he had regained control of it, he got back the ability to deactivate it. The Will-Aura disappeared, and the blocked river violently flowed down along the channels again. The water also accumulated in the crater that Gravis had involuntarily created. In the future, this crater would become a lovely little lake.

Gravis jumped out of the crater and watched it from outside. A particular feeling started appearing in his mind. 'I can maybe create such powerful destruction if I unleashed a lot of my Energy, yet just my Will-Aura alone has destroyed so much. A crater with a radius of 300 meters, several meters deep.' Gravis looked to the sky. 'This just proves again that my brother and father were right in saying that the will was most important.'

BANG!

Skye landed beside Gravis and rubbed its head on his torso. Gravis smiled happily and ruffled its feathers, eliciting a cry of bliss. "Haha, Skye! I am stronger than you again!" Gravis laughed with happiness.

Skye took its head back and looked at him. First, it wanted to defend its strength, but when it remembered that mighty dome and saw the destruction around it, it accepted it. It released a human-like snort, communicating that Gravis won't remain more powerful for long.

When Gravis saw Skye's reaction, he only laughed louder. They both wanted to be stronger than the other one, but they were also friends and companions. The stronger they got, the better. In reality, none of the two minded it when the other one was stronger. After all, they were comrades. They only showed their superior power to increase the drive for strength for the other one.

BRRRR!

Gravis heard the distant sound of fire and looked over. The audience was beginning to arrive. No one in the audience had a really powerful body, so they all could only use their fire for speed, which was not that fast. Gravis and Red had chased each other for a great distance, and only now did someone appear.

The new arrival was at the ninth level of Energy Gathering but didn't have a powerful body. Yet, he was still the fastest among all others. The new arrival looked at Gravis, who scratched Skye, and then searched for Red, but couldn't find him. "Where's Red?" asked the disciple.

"Dead," answered Gravis nonchalantly. The disciple was taken aback, but he grew suspicious. Even if Red had died, Gravis should have been majorly injured, yet he looked completely fine. What was going on?

Slowly, more people arrived, and they all gathered around Gravis and Skye. Skye grew a bit apprehensive by all the people around it. If they all attacked suddenly, it might die. There was one at the ninth level and many at the eighth level of Energy Gathering. They were a genuine danger to its life.

"Calm down, Skye," said Gravis with a smile, and Skye looked at him. Remembering that powerful dome, it calmed down. It had already felt the power of Gravis' Will-Aura, and it knew that those humans wouldn't be a danger with him around.

While being at the seventh level, Gravis could make everyone at the seventh level lose their consciousness, and everyone at the eighth level lose all ability to fight. That was if he still had his old Will-Aura. His new one would probably just knock everyone unconscious, except that one disciple at the ninth level. There was no danger.

"Where is Red?" asked another new arrival.

Gravis looked around and saw that no new people arrived anymore. Everyone had probably already gathered. He turned back to Skye. "Go eat your food," he said.

Skye's head perked up as it remembered its food. It had seen Red's body when it had been outside of Gravis' Will-Aura. The others didn't see Red's body because it was currently underwater. Skye took to the sky and flew over the newly created lake.

SPLASH!

It picked something up with its humongous head and pulled it out. Red's body could be seen briefly before Skye swallowed it like a fish. Yet, that brief period was enough for everyone to see the body. Their mouths fell open in shock, and their brains stopped working for some time. Red was actually dead!

Their eyes went back to Gravis, and they couldn't stop looking at him. 'Monster!' they all thought in their heads.

Gravis didn't care about their gazes and dusted off his robe. Then, he turned to them, casually. "Someone else wanna try their luck?" he asked them, not hoping for a positive answer.

Some of the disciples were taken aback. Who else would want to fight Gravis? Red had been the elder closest to condensing his Will-Aura, so he was also the strongest one. Red had literally been the strongest person in the Energy Gathering Realm in the Fire Guild. No one else from the Fire Guild would dare to fight Gravis anymore, except for the Spirit Forming Realm leaders.

WHOOSH PACK!

…or not? Gravis caught another bottle of pills, which had been thrown by the sole disciple at the ninth level of Energy Gathering. Gravis showed a surprised look. Why?

"I'm sure you are incredibly exhausted and only try to show an uninjured front to us," the disciple said with narrowed eyes. "You are probably close to falling over, but still want to appear strong. I won't believe that you are uninjured!" he shouted as he took out his halberd.

The others initially felt surprised, but then they understood what the disciple meant. Yeah, it was impossible that Gravis was uninjured. This was actually their best chance of getting a fortune! Gravis had so many body tempering pills.

Gravis accepted the pill and shrugged. He slowly walked over to the nervous disciple. "You think yourself so clever," Gravis said, shaking his head with a sigh. "You think you saw through my guise when in actuality, there wasn't one."

"Wha-"WHOOOSH!

The disciple couldn't finish his words as an apocalyptic pressure completely immobilized him.

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK!

Hundreds of bodies hit the floor. Every single member of the audience had been in the range of Gravis' Will-Aura. Just like Gravis had expected, every single one lost consciousness. The only one still conscious was the sole disciple at the ninth level of Energy Gathering.

Gravis walked over to the disciple and put his hand on his neck. The emotions were going crazy inside the disciple's head, and he couldn't formulate a single rational thought.

RIP!

The disciple didn't have a strong body, so Gravis just tore his head off with a yank. Gravis threw the head to the side and looked through the disciple's belongings. There was no reason in fighting the disciple. With a single activation of his Will-Aura, he could kill anyone in the Energy Gathering Realm. Gravis couldn't temper himself with those people anymore.

Gravis looked through the belongings of the corpse and pocketed some more pills. Then, he deactivated his Will-Aura and looked at the sea of unconscious bodies. Gravis smiled with embarrassment. "It wasn't on purpose. Sorry!" he spoke into the quiet surroundings. No body reacted.

Gravis threw the corpse to Skye, who quickly caught it in its mouth. After that, Gravis turned around and walked away.

"Stop at once!" shouted an aggressive and imposing voice from behind Gravis.