The hour had been very dangerous for Gravis. The root from the grass had absorbed around 50% of his Life Energy and had created a hole in his body that just wouldn't stop bleeding. His Life Lightning had run dry, so he couldn't even fix the hole in a short time. On top of that, the blood he had lost due to the shockwaves and the hole had soaked the ground around him.
The blood was an excellent fertilizer for plants, so more and more roots came for him. Gravis was using over 50% of his lightning every minute to eradicate them. If there weren't such a high Energy density, Gravis would have died long ago.
To top it all off, he also couldn't create a Lightning Bomb in here. Such a powerful explosion would throw all the dirt away that was on top of him. By now, the shockwaves had become incredibly powerful. Gravis didn't feel them with his body thanks to the slope of the dirt, but his Spirit felt the effects. As soon as his Spirit went above ground, it would be completely annihilated. He knew that he would instantly die if he touched the shockwaves.
Gravis had felt nervous when he had been above ground, but now, he genuinely felt that his life was in danger. He could deal with the roots of the grass, but what about stronger plants? Fungi had most of their body underground, and one would generally say that a mushroom was more powerful than some grass.
And sure enough, after some minutes, a much more powerful root had appeared. Most of Gravis' lightning had been focused on dealing with it, but the only thing it did was retreat every time. He wasn't able to damage it in any significant way. The other roots also didn't stop coming. On the contrary, they were becoming more and more. His blood was just too appetizing.
'This root is troublesome!' Gravis thought. He was lying unmoving below the ground, almost like he had been buried. Evasion was obviously not an option, and if even the grass was able to penetrate his body easily, this root would just annihilate him if it touched him. After all, it was many times more powerful.
Luckily, Gravis' new lightning was doing wonders. He had gained that lightning from absorbing Heaven's lightning, and it was way more powerful than his previous Destruction Lightning. The root seemed to fear it somewhat, and it couldn't deal with it.
Whenever the root touched the lightning, some of it would break off. Sadly, that broken off part would heal just as quickly. Gravis felt like a shark was swimming around him, estimating if the potential gains were worth the trouble. It really wanted to absorb him, but the lightning was also really troublesome.
Gravis grew incredibly frustrated because he knew he could annihilate the root with a Lightning Bomb, but that would also expose his body to the outside for a bit. If he did that at the wrong time, the shockwaves on the top would annihilate him.
This was a scary situation since Gravis couldn't use his most powerful advantages. He mostly evaded attacks and then killed his enemies with incredible force. He couldn't use either of those in this situation.
'Elemental Synchronicity would be perfect in this situation,' Gravis thought, but he didn't really wish for it. He believed that his current path was better than his lost Elemental Synchronicity. Without his peculiar immunity to lightning, Heaven would have easily annihilated him with its powerful lightning strike.
The time passed by slowly, and after an hour, the grassroots had become fewer. Gravis had eradicated most of the grass, and above ground, one could see a clean area. Gravis had killed multiple square meters of grass.
Yet…
'This fucking root!' Gravis thought in rage. It just didn't give up! It came again and again. It just wouldn't leave him alone! Gravis had been dealing with it for over an hour, but it just kept on coming! To top it all off, it started becoming more and more daring.
By now, Gravis needed to hit it thrice with his lightning to shoo it away. Gravis was still able to deal with it, but that quickly changed as three other roots came towards him. Gravis felt the will of the roots and found out that all these roots came from the same plant.
Gravis gnashed his teeth. 'It's really committed now. Not long, and it will probably go for the kill. Trying to keep it at bay won't work for long anymore, but I will be reduced to ashes by the shockwaves if I use a Lightning Bomb. There is only one last thing I can do. It might be risky, but there is no other chance!'
Whoop!
Gravis summoned the Life Ring. 'You might have a powerful body, but that doesn't mean that you're not in the initial Stages of the Unity Realm! After all, beasts and plants have much more powerful bodies!' he thought.
Then, he strengthened his Spirit to its maximum. His body was weak during that timeframe, and all his concentration was on the ring. If anything unforeseen happened, he would die. His Spirit entered the Life Ring, and he willed it to absorb the root.
The Life Ring shone, and the roots stopped. Yet, only for a short period of time. After that, they started to very slowly extend towards Gravis. Meanwhile, Gravis' eyes started becoming bloodshot as he used all of his Will-Aura to focus on the ring. It was like he was back at the time when he was trying to connect his centers of power. His Spirit was also quickly being drained.
The roots slowly came closer, but Gravis didn't move. He kept concentrating on the ring.
Then, the roots touched his body. Gravis kept concentrating his will on the Life Ring. This was his only chance!
Yet, instead of stabbing into his body, the roots crawled along it, towards the Life Ring. Gravis didn't dare to become excited. One small interval of losing focus would allow the roots to kill him. Slowly, the roots touched the Life Ring and entered it.
Whooom!
As the roots entered the Life Ring, Gravis saw a whole network of them coming closer to his body. There were more and more. The initial four roots were nothing in comparison to this vast network. It was almost like a whole Spirit Tree was below the ground.
After several minutes, Gravis' Life Ring had absorbed multiple kilometers of the roots until a 100-meter-wide sphere of roots appeared. Gravis knew that this was the core of the roots. Sure enough, it was a humongous fungus.
As Gravis' Spirit ran dry, he absorbed the core of the fungus. After that, the remaining roots shot into the Life Ring at ridiculous speeds. In nearly no time, everything was absorbed, and Gravis took a deep breath of dirt.
'Cough, cough,' and immediately coughed. He didn't need air to survive, but he had taken that breath out of reflex. Luckily, his body quickly expelled the dirt. Then, Gravis closed his eyes to relax. 'I survived,' he thought as he felt calm again. He only had 10% of his strengthened Spirit remaining.
By now, no more roots came towards him. The shockwaves were still going crazy above him, but Gravis was safe. Now, he only had to wait. And wait, he did.
For three whole days.
'You done yet?' Gravis thought in frustration. The shockwaves were still going on, and they continued unabated. Yet, Gravis felt no feeling of danger anymore. He was used to the situation. His body was back to full health, and everything was topped up again.
"Hey," Gravis said. "I know that you wanted to teach me a lesson and to offer me some tempering, but it's getting boring now. My Will-Aura has already stabilized and became stronger again."
Whooop!
And like that, Gravis vanished, and reappeared inside his father's room.
Gravis took a deep breath and sighed. Finally, he was above ground again. He stretched his body a bit and looked at his father.
His father was sitting in the middle of his room, like always. Every time Gravis came into his room, he would just sit there.
His father opened his eyes and looked at Gravis with narrowed eyes. Gravis wasn't intimidated since that was how his father always looked. Ever since he could remember, Gravis rarely saw a different expression on his father's face.
"Welcome back, Grassis," his father said.