Some seconds passed in silence.
"That's the thing," his mother continued, "When you become the most powerful cultivator, you won't have any enemies left and no goal. No one can threaten you, so, what now? What's the purpose of becoming even more powerful?"
Gravis released another shaky breath. "It feels lonely," he said.
His mother nodded. "It is lonely," she said, and then she furrowed brows. "Gravis, I'm going to tell you some things about your father and me. Your father won't be happy, but he'll just have to deal with it," she said.
Gravis also furrowed his brows. "Isn't that bad?" he asked.
His mother snorted. "So what? He's the strongest and is already going rampant in the whole world, but what about it? Life isn't an easy road where you never get hurt and always get whatever you want. Your father should know that. He'll just have to suck it up this time," she said with a smirk.
Gravis was a bit astonished at first but then chuckled. "I guess not even father is safe from you," he said.
"He sure isn't," his mother said with a smile, "people have different outlooks and priorities. Your father looks at the world differently from me, but so what? Am I supposed to follow your father's every word? I'm my own person, after all," she said.
Gravis closed his eyes. "Okay, tell me," he said.
"Your father has had a rough life. Similar to you, he put strength above everything else and let no one come close to him," she started explaining. "After many, many years, he was finally the strongest and was able to resist Heaven, but what then? Heaven was the first enemy that he couldn't defeat, no matter how much time passed or how strong he got."
Gravis remained silent as his mother told his father's story.
"One could say that your father already has freedom. He can basically do whatever he wants. Heaven isn't against most things. It only wants to keep the cultivators cultivating and, even though people say something different, he isn't a heartless slaughterer. He doesn't just kill people without reason. So, Heaven is not in your father's way."
"Heaven is even happy about our growing family, more powerful cultivators, and such. Your father can do whatever he wants, but what now? What can he do now that he is at the peak? He still strives to beat his last enemy, but when he accomplishes that, he will have no more goals left."
"Imagine living for billions of years without a goal. You just keep on living with no dream or desire remaining. What's the point of this life? You just see millions of years pass, yet it just felt like a moment. Nothing excites you anymore, and nothing will stay in your memory since it has no impact on you anymore."
Gravis sighed. "That's a sad life. Luckily, my father has us," Gravis said.
His mother's hand stopped caressing, and Gravis opened his eyes to look at her. Right now, she had a worried frown on her face. "What is it?" he asked.
"Yes, he has us, but is that really relevant if he doesn't feel anything for us?" she asked.
Gravis grew even more nervous when he heard that. "But he does," he said.
His mother sighed. "Do you remember when I told you that you might forget how to love? I wasn't making a hypothetical then. Your father had forgotten how to love for a long time," she said.
Gravis jerked up into a sitting position, looking at his mother in shock. "Could you elaborate?" he asked, nervously.
His mother's furrowed brows didn't leave her face. "You're an adult now, so I can tell you these things," his mother said, not making Gravis any calmer. "How do you think your father and I met?" she asked.
"I don't know. I imagine that you were some peerless talent from some Sect or something?" Gravis asked. This slow explanation made him feel anxious.
His mother shook her head. "Your father and I didn't know each other before he became as powerful as Heaven," his mother sighed, "In actuality, I didn't even exist back then."
"So, you were born later?" Gravis asked.
His mother sighed again. "I was born some time after your father and Heaven have concluded their fight. This was the most tragic fight in history. In order to suppress your father, Heaven needed all the Energy it could get, so it converted everything in the world into Energy," she said.
Gravis' eyes widened. He knew what that meant. "Everything?"
His mother nodded. "Everything. Every plant, animal, human, cultivator, land, sea, everything was converted into Energy. After their fight, the world was only an empty, lifeless husk of its former self."
Gravis looked down at the ground. This sounded so unreal. "So, father and Heaven were the last things that remained?" he asked.
His mother nodded. "Yes, they were the only two beings that were left. Your father and Heaven had been exhausted from the fight, and only a small part of their Energy remained. At that point, either both of them would die, or none of them. After a talk, they decided to stop the fight."
"Yet, your father was still happy that he had achieved his goal. He wouldn't be suppressed by Heaven anymore, but when he saw the lifeless emptiness, he felt his goal to be empty. Nothing remained. What now?" his mother continued explaining, and Gravis also felt sad for his father.
Such a situation felt just tragic. The lifelong goal that he had chased only left a feeling of emptiness.
"So, your father left the world to search the Chaos Void for any other life. He searched for around 50 million years, but he never found anything. There was just nothing. At that point, he returned to our world," she said.
"After returning, he saw a world filled with life again, but it was different. The humans felt different and were weaker. After all, they hadn't even discovered cultivation back then. After seeing the whole world get destroyed and reborn, he started feeling a disconnect to life. Was there even a point to life if it could get destroyed and reborn like nothing had ever happened?"
"I don't know the reason behind it, but after your father returned, Heaven did something," she said, but then paused.
Gravis saw her eyes looking towards his father's room. On top of that, she was frowning like she was annoyed. She was obviously talking with his father. But, after some seconds, her frown changed into a victorious smile. Then, she looked back at Gravis. "Where was I?"
Gravis felt anxious about his father's interruption. This didn't seem to fit his demeanor at all. Usually, he let things just happen, but this time, he had actually involved himself. What had Heaven done back then that it had elicited an interruption by his father?
"You said that Heaven did something after father returned," Gravis said, gulping involuntarily.
"Oh, right," his mother said. "I don't know the reason, but Heaven decided to accommodate your father. So, to give his life meaning, it created a perfectly compatible and powerful person to stay by his side," she said.
Gravis' eyes widened.
"That person was me," she said.