Gravis stood in the middle of the crater and looked into the sky. By now, the shockwave had reached the dark clouds and parted them for the first time in centuries. Light shone onto the dead and destroyed plane. Byron was now gone, and the Darkness Sect could be counted as destroyed. Destroying a whole Sect made Gravis fall into deep thought.
'My arrival has changed this whole world,' he thought. 'When I reached the Spirit Forming Realm, the change started taking effect. The highest Heaven keeps a close eye over this world now. Probably no new Heavenborn will appear in this world again. After all, wasting resources on Heavenborn is senseless.'
Gravis then turned his gaze to the Darkness Sect. 'Byron's scheme involving me managed to kill the Sect Master of the Wind Sect, making the whole Sect relocate. People with a Will-Aura at the Body Tempering Realm will no longer be hunted down. The proliferation of the Destruction Lightning will make other Sects seek the Self Stage, while everyone in the Lightning Sect will follow.'
Gravis sighed. 'My scuffle with the Earth Sect might also result in something happening in the future. On top of that, the other, more powerful variants of the elements, have a chance to be harvested now. In total, because of me, the Heaven Sect will vanish, while every other Sect will achieve power incomparable to before.'
'Yet, the good comes with the bad. Even though the Heaven Sect is my enemy, they stop countless cultivators and powers from committing wanton slaughter. With the Heaven Sect vanishing and Heaven no longer involving itself, there won't be direct consequences to people abusing their power.' Gravis sighed again. 'This world will become stronger but also crueler.'
Gravis was still in thought. The knowledge that he had basically eradicated a power that had towered with seven others over the world made him think about the consequences of his actions. 'If I could choose my actions again, knowing what long term consequences would come, I would act exactly the same,' Gravis thought.
'A kinder world with restrictions on slaughter might make it easier for the weak to survive and live happily, but is having strength inherently unfair? In my opinion, total freedom brings total fairness. Those people with power have worked hard for their power, after all. Everyone can train their body and make advances in the Body Tempering Realm. The existence of the loose cultivators proves as much.'
Gravis sighed again. 'But people who are too young to train can't do anything about such a situation. After all, they never had the time to make their choice. Injustice and unfairness will always happen. I guess this is just how the world is. The situation and power dynamic in a world change, and if one can't adapt, they won't survive. Life and death aren't inherently fair or unfair. They just are.'
After finishing his thoughts, Gravis shook his head to regain his bearings. He checked the surroundings with his Spirit but found absolutely no loot. Byron had absorbed all the loot that had laid around, but when he died to the Lightning Crescent, the explosion destroyed all his belongings. Because of that, Gravis got absolutely no loot. He didn't even get his stolen saber back.
After realizing that, Gravis chuckled a little. "I wonder if that is due to my lack of Karmic Luck," he said to himself.
"You finished moping around?" came the voice transmission from Old Man Lightning. "You've been standing there for like five minutes, not doing anything."
Gravis smiled when he heard Old Man Lightning. His choices to destroy the Heaven Sect and make every cultivator more powerful might doom millions or even billions of people to an unjust death, but Gravis' heart was clear. As long as he did what he thought was right, he wouldn't regret anything.
With that thought, his guilt towards Gorn also completely disappeared. Gorn had made his decision back then, knowing full well about the consequences that too much lightning would cause. That he died to Gravis was not much different than someone dying to someone else in a fight.
Starting from this moment on, Gorn was just another one of his comrades who never managed to reach the peak. There was no difference between him, Skye's parent, Wendy, or Wendy's father. They were all the same. People that Gravis cared for but died. He would always remember them, but that was all. The dead had no influence over his life anymore.
Whoosh!
Out of reflex, Gravis took a step to the side, barely evading a cane.
"Tch," Old Man Lightning spat. "And here I thought I finally got my chance," he said with annoyance.
Gravis only turned to Old Man Lightning and smirked. "I need to adapt, or I won't survive," Gravis said with a laugh.
Old Man Lightning looked at the laughing Gravis like he was an idiot. What was so funny about that sentence? Was that a joke? Also, did that guy just laugh about his own joke that only he understood?
Suddenly, Gravis stopped laughing as he remembered something. He quickly looked beside Old Man Lightning and saw Lasar. Gravis was about to release a sigh of relief but noticed something peculiar.
"How did you fall back to the Tree Stage?" Gravis asked in wonder and shock.
Gravis also took a closer look at Lasar and noticed how incredibly injured he was. He couldn't even really stand on his own two feet, making Old Man Lightning support him. His whole left arm and a big chunk of his torso were missing. On top of that, Gravis could see wrinkles and fractured skin all over Lasar's body. Those things appeared when the body was out of Life Energy. Apparently, he had had a brutal fight.
Lasar coughed a little. "This was the most dangerous fight in my life," Lasar slowly said. "I was about to die when I decided to use the Energy in my Spirit for an attack. This destroyed a whole cultivation level but allowed me to come out victorious. The only reason I won was that Old Darkness hadn't expected such an attack."
BZZZ!
Gravis shot some Life Lightning at Lasar, but not much. After all, his storage wasn't even close to full. Yet, the Life Lightning was better than nothing, and Lasar's body became a bit healthier. None of the injuries healed, but that was to be expected.
After all, being injured and also having no Life Energy was an issue. The Life Lightning barely returned some of the Life Energy to Lasar. Thanks to that, his injuries wouldn't worsen anymore, and his body could slowly heal.
Life Energy only directly healed if the body was already fully saturated with Life Energy. Any excess would directly transform into healing. If one had no Life Energy for a while, the passive, nearly unnoticeable destruction of dying parts of their body couldn't be healed. The person would simply whither away.
"Thanks," Lasar said.
"So, how long will it take to reach the Self Stage again?" Gravis asked.
"I think it should take around five years," Lasar said, making Gravis' eyes widen. "But I think it's worth it. My Will-Aura should be nearly as strong as grandpa's was before his fight with the priest. With another five years of accumulation and a couple more years of increasing my strength, I think I may actually have a chance against a priest."
Gravis looked at Lasar with sympathy, then sighed. "I think that might not be possible," he said.
Lasar raised a brow. "why not?"
Gravis had an uncomfortable smile on his face. "I won't remain for so long in this world," Gravis said.
Lasar still looked with skepticism at Gravis. "So? What does that have to do with my tempering?"
Gravis sighed again. "Think about it. When I reach the Unity Realm, I will kill Heaven, and when Heaven dies, what would happen to the Heavenborn? I can tell you what will happen. The Heavenborn will lose their Heavenly Pressure and will fall from the strongest cultivators on their Stage to the weakest. After all, they wouldn't have any Will-Auras anymore. A simple activation of your Will-Aura would knock a priest unconscious."
Lasar and also Old Man Lightning looked with shock at Gravis. They had totally overlooked that fact. Yet, it actually made sense. After all, Heavenly Pressure borrowed the Will-Aura of Heaven, and without Heaven, there was no Will-Aura to borrow. A Spirit Forming expert without a Will-Aura would be weaker than everyone else on the same Stage.
Lasar and Old Man Lightning looked at each other with worry. No word was spoken for nearly half a minute. Both cultivators had to come to terms with the situation. After all, this meant that Lasar would need to wait for, at least, 50 more years to receive his tempering. He was already too powerful for the other Sect Masters and high-grade Spirit Beasts. He could only wait for the next generation to become as powerful as him.
Lasar wanted to follow his grandfather into the next world, but apparently, their roads were about to split. This was a hard blow to Lasar. Old Man Lightning, of course, also wasn't unaffected. After all, Lasar was his grandson.
"I have an idea," Gravis said.