Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis' mind was going crazy. He felt ashamed when he realized that he hadn't achieved everything on his own. It kind of felt… hollow. What was the point of being granted something when he didn't achieve it on his own? Did he even earn all the power he currently had?

Yet, Gravis was incomprehensibly powerful for his Realm. That was an undeniable truth. Gravis had this power, even if a lot of it came from outside. Gravis was the wielder of this power, and he controlled this power.

After a while, Gravis sighed. "You are probably right, but it still feels hollow. I don't feel like I have achieved my power on my own."

"All power feels hollow!" the young man said, his face suddenly transforming into aggressiveness for the first time. "There is only a single person in the entire highest world that has power but is still happy with their power. Everyone else feels the emptiness that power brings, including me."

This was something Gravis hadn't expected. "I don't understand," he said.

The young man turned to someone beside him. The world was still frozen, and this person just so happened to be frozen while looking directly at the young man.

SSHHHH!

Then, the person was immediately turned into dust by the young man.

"Do you see this?" the young man asked. "A life has just been ended. Their loved ones will grieve for the death of this person. Isn't such an emotional impact interesting?"

Gravis thought about it. "Emotions, in general, are interesting," Gravis said.

"No, they are not," the young man said. "Watch," he said.

Suddenly, some dust gathered together at the spot where the person had died.

Whoosh!

And the same person reappeared in the same position. Gravis trembled. Someone had just been resurrected directly in front of him!

"Have I killed this person? Have I resurrected this person? When no one remembers this person's death, has their death ever taken place? Is this still the same person?" the young man asked one question after the other.

Gravis found it very difficult to answer. These kinds of questions bordered on philosophy, something that didn't have a specific answer.

"I can tell you the truth of power, Gravis," the young man said.

Gravis felt nervous. It was like someone was about to unveil a terrifying and scary truth right in front of him. Yet, Gravis wouldn't run from such situations.

"Tell me," Gravis said.

"So be it," the young man said. The young man turned to Gravis again with an even but calm look. "Power is everything, but power is also empty."

"Everything you strive for is emptiness and greyness," he said.

Gravis tried to understand what he meant, but he didn't. "I don't understand," he said.

The young man looked at the sky. "When you have reached the Unity Realm for the first time, have you seen the wonder of the world? When you came into contact with the Laws for the first time, have you felt their magic? The feeling of excitement of finding something new and learning something?"

Gravis nodded.

Whooosh!

Suddenly, the entire world moved again, and surprisingly, no one acted any different. It was like nothing had ever happened. Everyone was still passing by the two of them as if they didn't recognize them.

Only a very select few people remembered what happened.

The young man looked at Gravis again. "You felt the magic when you first came into contact with the Laws," he said. "Now, tell me, when you were waiting to fight Heaven after becoming a Peak Law Comprehension Realm Cultivator, have the surroundings still seemed so magical?"

"When you have comprehended all the Basic Elemental Laws, time, space, gravity, life, and many other things, were these things still interesting? When that one Law Comprehension Plant gave you access to understand its plants, you were entranced. Yet, if it showed you these things again, would you still be interested in them?" he asked.

Gravis hadn't thought about this before. He had always chased power and always only looked at the Laws he didn't understand. Yet, as he thought about it, he realized that he hadn't thrown a second glance at the things he already understood.

"No, I wouldn't," Gravis said.

"Exactly," the young man answered with furrowed brows. "When we don't know something, we feel the whole thing to be marvelous and magical. When we know a lot about it, we feel that it is interesting, but when we know everything about it, it just becomes a grey concept. You don't see the same beauty and excitement when you watch it as you have before."

"I have just killed and resurrected a person, Gravis," the young man said. "I can do that because I know everything about life, emotions, situations, and Energy. Watch this."

CRRR!

Beside the young man, another black dragon appeared, but this one was leaner.

The black dragon looked around in fear, but when it noticed the young man, it became excited. "Thank Heaven you are here! I thought I die-"

SSSHHH!

And the black dragon turned into dust again.

"This was my dead mate," the young man said. "She was my closest companion for a majority of my youth. When she died, I wanted to become powerful enough to resurrect her."

"When I reached my current Realm, I resurrected her, being happy to be together with her again. Yet, what have I felt? Creating something means completely understanding something. I didn't see my dead lover. I only saw different Laws and Energy working together. Everything about her made sense to me."

"That what you describe as a being is nothing more than Energy, matter, and Laws working together. I can look at my resurrected mate and know exactly what she will do until the day she dies. She is like a smart Formation Array that I have created, and I know exactly what this Formation Array will do in any given situation."

"Emotions are Energy. Souls are Energy. The mind is Energy. A person is Energy," the young man said, becoming increasingly more frustrated.

"Everything is just Energy working together in different ways. Beings are nothing more than smart Formation Arrays. I can make a Formation Array that thinks and acts like a human. I can create a stone with a human soul. I can create a human with a plant souls. I can add new emotions or delete old ones."

"Everything is just on the tips of my fingers. I can create whatever I want!"

"Yet," the young man said as he clenched his teeth in anger.

The whole city started trembling, and no one knew what was going on.

"What's the point of having all this!?" the young man nearly shouted. "When I can have everything and can't lose anything, what's the point!? I have nothing to strive for! I can't become more powerful."

"Friends are just Energy and Laws! Enemies are just Energy and Laws! Your loved ones are just Energy and Laws! You are just Energy and Laws! I am just Energy and Laws!" The young man shouted with rage.

"I can create and delete everything, so what is the point of having it!? I feel no excitement or love when I see someone else, no matter if they are my enemy, my friend, my family, or my dead mate. I only see Energy and Laws."

"The only thing I can lose is my life, and because of that, my life is the only valuable thing remaining in my world. Only when you can lose something can you feel something from it."

Gravis felt a deep heaviness settle in his chest. He couldn't imagine understanding absolutely everything about another person, but he had a frame of reference due to the Laws he already knew.

When Gravis understood absolutely everything, what value would anything have?

"I am the Black Magnate," the young man said as he looked at Gravis. "And I am at the highest normally achievable Realm, a Heaven's Magnate. In order to reach my Realm, you need to know how to make a perfect True World. This means you need to know everything."

The Black Magnate gestured to their surroundings. "Yet, understanding everything means losing everything."

"You strive to become more powerful, thinking that you will be happy then. Yet, the more powerful you become, the more the color of the world vanishes."

"When you become as powerful as me, you will feel the same as me."

"Nothing."

Gravis' insides shook.

"You are not chasing happiness, but chasing emptiness, Gravis."