Lightning Is the Only Way

After planning his next course of action, Gravis shot into the sky. If the world became hotter the further down one got, the world should also get colder the higher one got. Otherwise, how could the normal world have a normal temperature if there was no cold temperature that equalized the heat?

In comparison to the lower world, the ceiling of this middle world was far higher up. Back in the lower world, after only some tens of kilometers, one wouldn't even be able to feel any Energy anymore. Yet, in this world, the Energy was even present at the height of over a thousand kilometers.

After 1.000 kilometers, Gravis could already feel the cold. Air was no longer present, but he didn't need air anyway. The tearing force of the vacuum was also absolutely negligible. Something like that would be an issue for Spirit Beasts, but not for a King.

After 5.000 kilometers, even Lords would have issues surviving. The temperature was just far too low.

When Gravis reached the height of 10.000 kilometers, even he had issues surviving. Parts of his body quickly froze over, but he used Heated Lightning to warm his surroundings. Gravis was immune to lightning, but Heated Lightning also had fire in it. Typically, if he used the Heated Lightning so close to his body, he would get burned.

Luckily, since Gravis had comprehended the Law of Heat as well, he could reduce the heat of the Heated Lightning to such a degree that he could keep himself alive. Of course, Gravis didn't make the temperature normal. If he didn't feel the cold, he couldn't comprehend it. Because of that, he kept the temperature at such a point that he would use up just enough Energy that his regeneration could keep up with it.

Yet, there was nearly no Energy that far up. If there were no Energy that Gravis could absorb, he couldn't regenerate his Energy storage. Thankfully, Gravis found a way around that.

What did Gravis use to regenerate Energy?

It was his Life Ring.

His Life Ring automatically absorbed Energy from the surroundings to keep the miniature world inside it going. This meant that it was also a massive storage for Energy. Sadly, Gravis couldn't absorb the Energy faster than usual. After all, it was just another atmosphere filled with Energy. There was no difference in absorbing this Energy and the Energy of the outside world.

Of course, that was only true when the outside world had as much Energy in the atmosphere as the Life Ring. Right now, in this area without Energy, Gravis could regenerate just as much Energy as if he were on the ground.

The Heated Lightning moved around his body, heating up the parts of it that were about to freeze and die. The rest of his body was exposed to the cold.

Being exposed to such insane temperatures created enormous pain, but physical pain could not bother or annoy Gravis. He had grown so used to it that it made no difference to him if he constantly felt this small bit of pain or not.

Like this, Gravis stopped in the darkness. Of course, darkness was only relative in this case since the sun directly shone upon him. All his surroundings were dark, with the exception of one impossibly bright spot.

Yet, one thing surprised Gravis. The sun had become many times bigger in his vision. This meant that he had closed in on the sun. 'Interesting. I thought that the sun would be further away, but it's actually not that far away. Maybe only 20.000 kilometers more, and I can even touch it.'

At the same time, Gravis also noticed something else.

The stars were moving at quite some rapid speeds. This meant that he was also very close to the stars.

'Okay, this interests me,' Gravis thought as he increased the power of his Heated Lightning. Then, he shot at one of the rapidly moving stars.

After only 2.000 kilometers, Gravis reached one of the stars. Surprisingly, it was only around 20 kilometers wide, far smaller than he had thought.

By now, Gravis was using up more Energy than he regenerated, which meant that he couldn't remain here indefinitely. Yet, his interest in the stars was just too intense.

Gravis looked at the glowing orb and extended his hand. His hand entered the star without any issues, but Gravis was shocked when he felt the essence of the star.

'It's Energy!' Gravis thought with shock.

The star was a concentrated ball of Energy. It even had a far higher density than the Energy at the core of the world.

Gravis' mind went wild with possibilities. There had to be some use to these stars. Heaven didn't create useless things. Gravis was very sure that Heaven didn't create these stars simply because they looked pretty.

After some seconds, Gravis reached a possibility that made far too much sense.

'This is the world's Energy storage!' Gravis thought with excitement. 'Creating a Strider takes an absurd amount of Energy. I saw three Ascenders absorbing several Striders at the same time, but the Energy density of the core of the world only dropped by a little bit. Normally, one Strider should have enough Energy inside it that the density should drop noticeably if a new one was created.'

Gravis' eyes shone as he scratched his chin. 'So that's where Heaven keeps all the backup Energy. Additionally, no one would notice some stars vanishing when a Strider was killed. After all, everyone would focus on the death of the gigantic Strider.'

Gravis' gaze moved over all the stars. Then, he flew around some more to see if he missed any. His Spirit Sense didn't reach so far that he could encompass the entire world, which was why he had to use his eyes to look at them.

After some minutes, Gravis was sure that he found most of the stars. 'I need to do some calculations,' he thought as he compared the Energy inside a Strider with the Energy inside the stars.

'There are enough stars to create about ten Striders. So, together with the already existing ten Striders, this world has enough Energy to keep 20 Striders alive without it affecting the Energy density of the world. That's why I only felt the Energy density drop after nearly all Striders had been absorbed.'

Yet, instead of being happy that he found out about a secret of the world, Gravis frowned. 'That's a problem,' he thought. 'When I become a level five Emperor, I would need to eat a total of 40 Striders to become an Immortal. That would even empty out the Energy storage of the entire world.'

'But there must be a way. Heaven wants me to become powerful. Even if it tried to do something like that, my father wouldn't have sent me here. He knows far more than me, and he has surely foreseen my Energy requirements and how much I would need to ascend.'

'This means that I can become an Immortal in this world. Additionally, even if there were no way for me to become more powerful, father would simply call me back. After all, I shouldn't forget that he is not Heaven. He is not bound by any rules. If he so wanted, he could kill all my enemies, and there would be nothing that Heaven could do about it. After all, isn't it normal that a father would help his son?'

'He only keeps himself out of my life to grant me tempering. Yet, having no Energy to progress is not tempering. If there were truly no way for me to become an Immortal in here, he would simply call me back, but I don't think that this will happen.'

'This Heaven keeps fanatically to the rules. Therefore, it must give me a way to become an Immortal. I'm guessing that this Heaven will lower its own cultivation to give me enough Energy to become an Immortal.'

'As far as I know, this Heaven should also be one level higher than a typical Ascender, just like in the lower world. This means that this Heaven should be a level two Immortal if there actually are levels in the Immortal Realm. I don't know the specific progression inside that Realm yet,' Gravis theorized.

Gravis did some calculations.

'This means that Heaven should have enough Energy inside it to create around 64 Striders. That's enough for me.'

Gravis looked at the stars again. 'Anyway, there's no Law I can comprehend by looking at these stars. If I wanted, I could also create something similar. It's just pushing Energy together. The only reason why I can't create something as dense as these stars is because of my cultivation. Heaven should be a level two Immortal and can therefore exhibit more force when compressing Energy.'

Gravis left the star and went back to his old position. Now, he was no longer distracted and could concentrate fully on comprehending the Law of Cold.

What about the sun?

Trying to reach the sun with his current power was a fool's dream. Gravis was not sure if the surroundings would become even colder or hotter if he closed in on the sun, but it didn't matter. He wouldn't survive either way.

If it became even colder, Gravis would freeze to death before he was even close to it. If it became hotter, Gravis would still freeze to death before he could reach that area. Additionally, the heat of the sun was transferred via beams, not surrounding heat. This meant that his front would burn while his behind would freeze. He would still run out of Energy that way.

Concentrating on the Law of Cold would be more effective. If he managed to comprehend it, he could maybe reach the sun.

Thus, Gravis started his comprehension of the Law of Cold.