Lightning Is The Only Way

"You are finally able to craft the perfect body," the unfamiliar Lord said from the side.

The Lord could be described as some kind of weird octopus. His head was only a meter tall, but his tentacles had five times the length. Additionally, his whole body was covered in tough scales.

Of course, this unfamiliar looking Lord was Orthar.

His tentacles ended in long and sharp claws. Yet, instead of being round, his claws had the form of a four-pronged hook. Orthar was able to move them around, and if he put them together, they would take the form of a powerful spear. After penetrating a target with that spear, he could move the hooks around inside the target to injure it or keep himself glued to its body.

He could crawl along his enemy's body, piercing them with many small hooks along the way. His tentacles also had several more hooks that he could move around. This would allow him to open holes to dig into his enemy's body and kill them from the inside.

When Gravis had first seen Orthar's new body, he was surprised by his small size. Yet, Orthar had told him that he wasn't able to truly make his body that small. When asked for an answer, Orthar told him that this was only his temporary size.

Gravis didn't exactly know what he meant. So, Orthar explained it to him. Apparently, starting at the Unity Realm, beasts were able to make themselves appear bigger or smaller. Yet, when they changed their size, they could only unleash about half their power.

Changing one's size required concentration and put the body under stress. If they wanted to fight, they needed to return to their original size. With his original size, Orthar's head had the length of about ten meters, not nearly as small as he wanted.

When Gravis asked him why he made himself appear that small, Orthar simply said that it was easier to walk around like this. On top of that, fewer beasts would notice him, and he might be able to find out some interesting information by listening to them.

When Orthar had evolved, he went to Gravis to show his new body and to watch him evolve too. Orthar wanted to see what Gravis' perfect body looked like. That's why he was currently beside Gravis.

Right now, Gravis was inside his own cave inside the Spire. Just as planned, the cave was at ground level and could only be accessed by the hole that connected the Abyss and the peak of the Spire. The cave was vast, taking up nearly half the width of the Spire. After all, Gravis needed the cave to be big enough to fit everyone if he required his officers to gather.

There was no furniture or light in the cave. Beasts didn't know the concept of furniture, and Gravis also didn't care. The only human-like thing in the cave was a door that Gravis created. He didn't like it that everyone could just look into his cave.

Right now, Orthar was watching Gravis with interest while Gravis was planning his evolution. His most critical evolution was coming up, and nothing could go wrong now.

When Gravis felt the tickling sensation, he checked his Spirit Space and summoned Heaven's body. His father told him that he should eat it when he reached the Unity Realm again.

When the black worm, filled with eyes, appeared, Orthar looked at it with a mixture of emotions. Somehow, when he looked at the body, he felt himself like an ant before an emperor. It felt holy, powerful, and awe-inspiring. It felt like something that could never be desecrated or hurt.

Crunch!

Orthar was pulled out of his thoughts as Gravis tore half of Heaven's body off with his teeth. Then, he simply swallowed the other half. Orthar somehow felt impressed that Gravis simply tore this seemingly divine thing apart without any reaction. It looked like Gravis only saw this body as more food.

As Heaven's body entered his stomach, Gravis felt himself get transported to a different world. A vision appeared in his awareness, and Gravis felt like he saw the lower world again.

Gravis looked at the world, and he felt his awareness expand until the whole world appeared before his eyes. He saw everything, including the edge of the world. At its edges, the lower world broke off into an abyss.

After seeing the whole world, Gravis finally knew how it looked like. It was a singular continent floating in a mass of chaos, protected by a barrier at the edges, top, and bottom of the world.

Gravis looked closer at the world and noticed some peculiarities. He saw all the Elemental Sects and also noticed that all the dead people had revived. He saw Byron, Old Man Lightning, Lasar, Joyce, and everyone else he knew. He also saw Aion overlooking the south-eastern branch of the Heaven Sect.

Gravis quickly realized that this was the world before he had arrived. He mostly concluded that by the fact that Joyce existed in this world but looked like a teenager.

He also felt an intimate connection with the world. It felt like he could control everything that happened. He could bestow Karmic Luck and steal it. He felt like he could form the world into any shape that he wanted.

He had complete control over this world. All the elements followed his calling. He could summon lightning, lava, wind, rain, fire, and everything else. Nothing was beyond his control.

Or, at least, that was what he had thought until he noticed something. He noticed that he couldn't control the elements of the beasts or cultivators. Their elements belonged to them, and he had no power over them.

'So this is how Heaven feels, huh?' he thought.

Gravis also felt his body changing. He hadn't noticed it until now, but he was inside this world not with his Spirit, but with his actual body. His fifty-meter-long, snake-like body hovered above the world, in the chaos.

He felt the control of the elements fusing with his body. When Gravis felt that, he immediately knew what was happening. He also realized what the choice was that his father had mentioned in the past.

He could keep his affinity towards lightning, but Gravis could also regain the Elemental Synchronicity that he had lost. At that point, he would have the best of both worlds, an unprecedented affinity towards lightning and Elemental Synchronicity.

Yet, Gravis sneered.

BANG!

All his connections with the elements broke apart until Gravis felt nothing but lightning. When he destroyed his connections to the other elements, he felt his consciousness expand. It felt like his mind was way more relaxed than before.

Apparently, keeping up the connection to these elements put pressure on his mind. He hadn't noticed that pressure until now, but as soon as it vanished, he felt its absence.

'A pressure-less feeling, huh? I'm not a fan of that,' Gravis thought with a smirk.

Whoooom!

Gravis' mind concentrated entirely on lightning. He felt his mind becoming more strained, but at the same time, his control over lightning increased. Soon, even the lightning from the living beings was under his control.

Gravis knew that this world wasn't real, so he had no qualms about destroying it. All the cultivators and beasts with lightning affinity died as their lightning left their bodies. Additionally, the lightning storms all over the world vanished until there was no more lightning left in the world.

It had all gathered together to appear in front of Gravis as a massive ball of lightning.

BZZZZ!

A hole burned through Gravis' abdomen as his own lightning joined the massive lightning ball. Then, the massive lightning ball changed until it was fully converted into Punishment Lightning. After that, Gravis concentrated on the lightning ball and forced it to shrink.

After some minutes, the lightning ball had the size of an apple. It appeared minuscule in Gravis' humongous hand. Gravis looked at it with a smirk and felt the drain on his mind. It felt like controlling this lightning was sapping him of all his concentration.

"There is only lightning," Gravis said.

Then, he swallowed the ball.

Immediately, Gravis felt his body get destroyed by the lightning. Immense pain assaulted him, but he realized that it wasn't just mindless destruction that his lightning brought. When the lightning "ate" part of his body, it left behind an identical part.

Yet, that identical part was still lightning. All matter in the world was made out of Energy, but not these parts. There was no Energy, only lightning.

Gravis felt pain, but it also felt exciting. It was like he heard the dying cries of his inadequate body as it was replaced by something more powerful.

All matter in this world was comprised of Energy. Yet, that didn't include Gravis' body anymore.

His old body burned away as a new one took its place. The gigantic body vanished into nothingness and only left behind a seemingly small speck.

Yet, this speck was only small in comparison to Gravis' old body. This was Gravis' new body.

He was two-meters-tall, and his black scales seemingly absorbed all the light in the world. His body also had a new addition in the form of legs. Gravis had long finalized the look of his new body, and he had concluded that human legs were inadequate.

Instead, his legs were nearly identical to a raptor's legs. There were only some very minute differences that one would only notice when they searched for them.

Now, Gravis' body was complete.

He had powerful, black scales that gave him incredible defense. He had powerful and long arms that had a superior grip to a human's. His hands had long claws that he could use as an additional weapon.

His mouth was filled with fangs. His snout was like an alligator's to give him a powerful bite. His chest and neck were broad to support the power of his arms and head. His waist was flexible and allowed him to make complex motions without having to move his lower body.

His tail was long and powerful, allowing him to defend his back and use it as an additional weapon. His legs were optimized for speed and acceleration. With one jump, he could achieve ridiculous speeds in no time.

His legs covered the aspect of speed.

His scales covered the aspect of defense.

Everything else covered the aspect of offense.

He had converted his body into a powerful weapon.

Additionally, by eating Heaven's body, Gravis had achieved what he had been missing. Back then, the manifestation of lightning had converted his Spirit and Energy into lightning. Yet, his father and the highest Heaven had stopped it before it could convert the body into lightning.

Now, his Spirit was lightning, his Energy was lightning, and his body was lightning.

Gravis smirked, and then, his whole body transformed into a lightning bolt that shot out of the world, into the endless chaos.