Gravis returned to the tree without any accidents happening along the way, yet that didn't fill Gravis with confidence. If Heaven didn't make a sound, it only meant that it was preparing something else. Every time that Heaven struck with one of its schemes meant that there was another dangerous period coming for Gravis. Heaven wouldn't send things that he could easily overcome.
Under normal circumstances, Gravis would have died under the Lightning Guild's hand. If he hadn't outplayed Escura with that one trick and forced her to ignore all consequences, he might have died. Only by enraging her was he able to get the tree and the bird involved in the fight. There also was the addition of the Fire Guild. Would Gravis have won against both guilds at once if he had fought alone? Definitely not!
Every day, Gravis hunted Energy Beasts for food and to prepare for something else, but he never spoke his reason out loud. Heaven could hear everything, but it couldn't read his thoughts. As long as he kept his plan a secret, Heaven wouldn't be able to prepare itself.
Heaven had no issues with letting Gravis hunt low-grade Energy Beasts. They were not dangerous enough for him to temper himself, so who cared? That Gravis always returned after a hunt made it even easier for Heaven to plan its next step. Heaven could gather its forces more easily as long as he remained there.
Heaven couldn't control humans, so it was way harder for it to guide humans to his location. As for high-grade Energy Beasts? That was equally as hard. The Heaven of this lower world couldn't completely control such powerful beasts. It could only instill some feelings, but not completely control them, like with demonic beasts. That was easily shown when the parent of Skye spared Gravis' life.
Gravis had already absorbed all the Energy Stones, and they were just enough to get him to the fourth level of Energy Gathering. His Energy was now about double as powerful as his physical body, which further reduced his body's effectiveness. Gravis was still sure that he could kill people on the sixth level, but that would be harder than jumping two realms while he was at the third. As for people on the seventh stage? If Gravis couldn't catch them by surprise, winning was very hard.
From time to time, he was fighting with Skye. Usually, doing a lot of spars would weaken his Will-Aura, but Skye was too weak to have an impact on his will. It was no danger to Gravis, so a spar was more like playing for him. He wouldn't need to concentrate on attacking since he could just play around with it.
Skye would go hunting once a day and would share its prey with its parent. The parent bird remained on the tree each day and would not leave. It still felt uneasy and a little guilty that its offspring nearly died while it was away, so it vowed to be more careful from now on. Its hatred for Gravis also vanished after a while, and it accepted him as a companion. It even allowed Gravis to ruffle its feathers from time to time. That just felt too good to decline.
Yet, this particular day, Skye returned without prey after hunting for a couple of hours, and it complained to its parent. The parent bird was way faster and could hunt further away without leaving for a while. If it went out to hunt, it wouldn't be an issue to catch food. Gravis noticed this, and his eyes shone. It was time!
"You don't have to go!" Gravis shouted, and the birds turned to him. Gravis took the recently slain Energy Beast and threw it closer to Skye's nest. He normally only shared part of his prey with the tree. In order to carry such a massive beast up the tree, he would need to use more force in his lightning movement, which would injure the tree slightly.
Gravis always threw a leg of his prey to the tree's roots before doing that. The tree accepted it, and Gravis wouldn't be attacked by it. Energy Plants were not smart, but they were more in tune with nature and could understand some emotions of other living things. It felt that Gravis didn't want to hurt it, so it accepted the legs and let him do whatever he wanted.
The birds looked at the prey, and the parent bird used its wind to carry the Energy Beast to it. Using wind to carry up something that weighed multiple tons showed its superior might. Skye screeched happily and began eating. Gravis had always kept his new prey just for this occasion.
Gravis knew that Heaven would have issues sending enemies to him as long as the parent bird remained. A high-grade Energy Beast was an absolute hegemon in the middle continent, and it would take multiple people at the ninth level of Energy Gathering to slay it.
So, when Heaven had readied its weapon, it would surely do something about the bird. What was the easiest way to get it to fly away? Remove all food in the surroundings and force it to hunt! Like this, it would be gone when the new squad of enemies arrived. On top of that, Heaven would probably send multiple people at the seventh level of Energy Gathering, at least.
Gravis smirked at Heaven. "Bet you didn't expect that, eh?" he said smugly, and for a second, Gravis thought that he saw a lighting bolt fly across the sky. He couldn't be sure if he saw it correctly since it was too fast and too silent. Yet, Gravis was sure that Heaven must be frustrated right now. "Just try to stop your squad of lackeys now."
Sure enough, one hour later, Gravis saw four people arriving at the bottom of the tree. Gravis' smug grin only grew wider when he saw their levels. Three of the people were at the eighth level of Energy Gathering while the last one was at the seventh. Without the parent bird, Gravis would have died 100%. If he hadn't expected Heaven's scheme, he would have died.
"Enemies!" Gravis shouted loudly while looking at the humans. They were all clothed in blackish-blue robes, showing that they were from the Lightning Guild. He didn't want to kill more disciples, but that wouldn't stop him. It was either his life or theirs. He didn't like killing them, but it was a necessity. He had spared the first couple of lightning disciples before, and that was how he got into his previous calamity.
He wouldn't make the same mistake again. No more sparing of lives! If someone came to kill him, he would kill them, no matter their strength or faction! Even if they were at the Body Tempering Realm, he would still kill them if they showed animosity. He couldn't gamble with his life anymore, since that would make it even easier for Heaven.
After Gravis' shout, the birds turned towards the new arrivals and looked at them. Skye grew excited and screeched aggressively while circling the tree.
"CAW!"
The parent bird released an imposing and loud caw that resonated in the surroundings, and Gravis felt his whole body shake due to the shout. Skye quickly calmed down, looked at the humans, and flew behind its parent. Its parent felt the strength of the new arrivals and knew that any of those four could kill Skye easily.
The parent bird opened its wings imposingly and made its wind circle the humongous tree aggressively. The storm was thunderous, and its sound even made Gravis' ears hurt. The surrounding trees at the ground got turned over and started circling the big tree imposingly. The big bird looked at the new arrivals aggressively and clearly showed its hostility. If they dared to come closer…
The four disciples looked at the tree with ugly grimaces. There had been no info about this mighty bird. The surviving disciple of the Lightning Guild had only told them about Gravis, the tree, and the smaller bird.
The big bird had only returned multiple hours after the fight was over. The surviving disciple had not seen it and, therefore, hadn't reported it. This bird would make everything more complicated for them.
Yet, the disciples still had a plan and looked at Gravis with killing intent.