Gravis arrived at Manuel's faction pretty quickly. The Eternal Fire Sect's territory was gigantic, but it also had many Teleportation Formation Arrays inside it, making it easy for Gravis to get there.
When Gravis arrived, he was surprised by how small Manuel's faction looked. There were barely any buildings, and it looked more like a solitary castle than an entire faction.
However, the twelve core members of Manuel's faction were all present.
Manuel was the Leader.
Aris and Broad Walker were the Vice-Leaders.
Meadow and Narcissus simply sat beneath the headquarters.
Dorian, Ferris, Azure, Stella, Exar, Yersi, and Jake were simply the elite force. Apparently, Elders were no longer necessary due to the new way everything was set up.
Everyone welcomed Gravis, including Mortis. After all, Mortis was also here because of Azure.
"Why are only you guys here?" Gravis asked. "I expected you to create a formidable faction with a lot of members."
"Things are different now," Manuel said with a tranquil smile. "We aren't really warring with other Sects but fighting over resources."
"Resource war?" Gravis asked. "Is it like the Sect Alliance in the higher world I have been to?"
The last question was mainly targeted at Stella, who had even been part of the Sect Alliance back then.
"Not entirely," Stella said with a smile, happy that Gravis was here. "We have about 3,000 Star Gods in our faction, which doesn't sound like much, but 3,000 Star Gods is already the average for the factions inside the Eternal Fire Sect."
"That's not as much as I had thought," Gravis answered with surprise. "Why are there not as many members?"
"Because of the fucking meatgrinder," Dorian said with an annoyed tone.
"Meatgrinder?" Gravis asked.
Dorian snorted. "Yeah. Star Gods have to be able to jump one level outside the Eternal Fire Sect to become true members. Any Star God that joins via a faction or absorbed Sect has to enter the meatgrinder."
"The meatgrinder is basically just an amalgamation of team fights with comprehension breaks between the fights. Three people form a team, and they have to kill their three opponents to advance."
Dorian snorted again. "Even more, the ones the Eternal Fire Sect deems as more powerful will be paired with weaker partners to make the fights fair. Apparently, that fairness exists for late-bloomers. According to them, if one Star God knows a level seven Law and only two level six Laws, they are weak. However, if they can suddenly comprehend a second level seven Law, they will be powerful. That's why the fights have to be equal."
"Guess who they sent into the meatgrinder. Come on, take a guess," Dorian nearly shouted with annoyance.
Gravis only smiled bitterly. "Was it you?" he asked.
"Hell yeah it was!" Dorian shouted with anger. "Oh, you don't feel like someone that can jump a level. We have to be fair to everyone. We don't care if you say you can fight a level above yourself," Dorian mimicked with a sarcastic voice.
Gravis scratched the back of his head with an amused smile. "I mean, I can understand them. Your power is very… non-traditional."
Dorian snorted again. "You shoulda seen my two teammates. I always had to fight two powerful Star Gods at the same time while they had to deal with one, and most of the time, I also had to deal with the third one. It was honestly ridiculous."
"Then, I complained to the Eternal Fire Sect and told them that I was obviously powerful enough. But what did they say? Come on, guess!" Dorian said with a sneer.
"Luck?" Gravis asked.
"Right! They said that I only won due to luck. My opponent was taken by surprise by my fighting style, which stopped them from showing their real power. Even more, my Laws weren't powerful enough for them, apparently. According to them, it was impossible for someone with my Laws to fight someone a full level above themselves."
Then, Dorian smirked. "And then, I put on two additional, dominating performances without even needing to comprehend another Law. I killed eight out of our collective nine opponents, and they didn't even push me into a true feeling of tempering."
Suddenly, Dorian started laughing. "You shoulda seen their faces when they allowed me to truly enter the Eternal Fire Sect. They saw that I killed so many of their Star Gods and the best part was that the fights didn't even increase my Will-Aura. I basically killed eight Star Gods for fuck-all!"
"Man, they looked at me like I just took off my pants to shit on the floor in front of them," Dorian said with loud laughter.
Gravis laughed along with Dorian. Dorian's way of narrating his experiences always managed to elicit laughter from the crowd.
"Sounds just like you, Dorian," Gravis said. "Was anyone else sent to the meatgrinder?"
"Me and Jake," Yersi said from the side while hugging Jake. "Luckily, we ended up in the same team, and we managed to become strong enough to join our dear leader."
Manuel coughed awkwardly into his hand.
Jake just nodded while looking at Yersi lovingly.
"Glad you could make it," Gravis said as he also embraced his daughter.
It would be an understatement to say that Gravis was happy to see his daughter with all his other friends. On top of that, Yersi also had someone that loved her eternally.
"Everyone else managed to enter directly?" Gravis asked.
"Kind of," Meadow added from below the ground.
"Oh?" Gravis asked.
"The Eternal Fire Sect wanted to send Narcissus and me somewhere else. Apparently, we are too valuable to remain here, and they were willing to give us access to many more resources," Meadow said with pride but also disdain.
"I told them to stop talking, or the power of the shit they spew from their mouths might involuntarily push me to the Divine God Realm. That was some top-grade fertilizer they were producing, and I also gave them the friendly advice to bottle their words and sell it to farmers for some insane profits," Meadow said.
"They didn't take my words very well, but I didn't care. As assholes, it was in their nature to spew shit out of their mouths, and as a flower, I react appropriately to the shit and grow a giant middle finger for them to enjoy. I advised them to stop spouting so much shit, or I might grow so big that some of their friends might actually stumble on one of my many hungry root-mouths."
Gravis and Dorian laughed loudly at Meadow's words while the remainder only awkwardly smiled.
Meadow's way of talking wasn't for everyone.
"What about you, Narcissus?" Gravis asked.
"I told them that slow and steady growth is important for our kind. We can't grow too quickly, or things might become bad in the future," Narcissus answered.
Gravis only smirked. "Is that true?"
"No," Narcissus answered.
Everyone laughed again.
Gravis entered the castle, and everyone followed.
For the next couple of years, Gravis stayed with everyone and simply had a good time. Some reports would come from the resource locations, but Manuel would always handle them pretty quickly.
One of them had to leave from time to time, but they also returned pretty quickly.
In the 1,000 years Gravis spent here, he had never seen even an inkling of the ferocious war that was supposed to be going on.