"Show me!" Gravis said with intensity.
Ferris was a bit taken aback. "What?"
"I want to see the living fire!" Gravis said.
"Okay," Ferris said, still feeling uncertain.
Whooom!
A small fireball appeared beside Ferris and hovered in the air. Additionally, the small fireball moved around a bit and circled Ferris in interest. It even flew over to Gravis to inspect him but quickly lost interest.
Gravis' eyes were filled with intensity as he studied the floating fireball. 'This is beyond powerful!' Gravis thought with seriousness. 'The fireball itself is only a bit weaker than my Punishment Lightning, which means that it is already stronger than the spires from the Inquisitor.'
'My Punishment Lightning and this living fire are both level three Laws, and my Punishment Lightning is a bit stronger, but this only means that this living fire has another advantage that should make it equal to my Punishment Lightning.'
As Gravis continued inspecting it, he found out something terrifying.
'I've never seen anything like this. With this, Ferris might even be able to win against me when he's only one or two levels above me. He might be the only beast in this entire world that can honestly kill me with only a one or two-level advantage.'
What did Gravis find out?
It was rather shocking but also logical.
Gravis couldn't delete the will on the living fire with his Will-Aura.
This meant that Ferris was the only beast in this world that could remotely control their attacks after they had been fired. Ferris could obviously summon many of these flames, and these flames would chase Gravis until they got destroyed. This meant that Gravis wouldn't have the ability to dodge or parry these flames. He could only destroy them by blocking or attacking them.
This meant that Gravis would be forced into a head-on clash. Dodging and parrying had always been Gravis' most reliable defensive methods. Yet, if he fought Ferris, he would be forced to block. With a two-level advantage, Gravis was sure that such an intense fire would kill him very quickly.
If Ferris had a one-level advantage, the fight would be up in the air. At that point, Gravis' armor would be powerful enough to withstand the fire without problems. Then, it depended on how many of these flames Ferris could summon.
So, why was Gravis not able to delete the will upon the living fire?
It was actually rather obvious. Anything that a body touched would receive its will, but as soon as it left the body, no new will could be put upon the thing or attack without touching it again. At least not when it was a beast attacking.
A human's Spirit was like an extension of the being, which meant that a new will could be imprinted on an attack as long as it was inside the Spirit Sense's range.
The difference between normal attacks and this fire was that this fire was its own living thing with its own will. Trying to delete the will on the fire was the same as trying to delete Ferris's will on his own body. It just didn't work like that.
The Spirit and Will-Aura was the greatest advantage that humans had over beasts. With this living fire, if Ferris fought a human, he would take away his opponent's biggest advantage while still keeping the advantages of a beast.
Ferris had become a human-killer!
Ferris looked with interest at his own fire and even played around with it, while Gravis looked with intensity at the fire.
'Ferris has no idea that he's only alive because of me right now,' Gravis thought.
What did Gravis mean?
Heaven's goal in creating beasts was to serve as food for cultivators. Yet, Ferris, as this food, had basically become poisonous. He had an incredible advantage over every single human, and killing him while being in the same Realm as him as a human would prove to be nearly impossible.
Keeping poisonous food around in the house was something only irrational people did. Gravis was sure that, under normal circumstances, Heaven would have killed Ferris right then and there. Ferris' existence was too dangerous to humans. Beasts were supposed to die to humans, not kill them!
Yet, Gravis and his father had already realized that the highest Heaven had a plan in mind for Gravis. Ever since that incident when Gravis had newly become a Spirit Forming Cultivator, Heaven never took away any Karmic Luck from any of his friends. In actuality, the opposite was true. Heaven even increased their Karmic Luck to unforeseen levels.
Was it an attempt to mend its relationship with Gravis? Was it a fail-safe plan to keep his friends alive and use them as hostages if Gravis ever became too dangerous?
Both his father and Gravis didn't know which one it was. The only truth was that Heaven wanted all of Gravis' friends to become as powerful as possible and to survive.
Gravis and Ferris hadn't talked to each other for much and hadn't gone through any fights together, but their personalities clicked. Gravis acted like Ferris annoyed him, but Ferris' earnest, friendly, and exciting demeanor basically forced Gravis to like him. It was almost like Ferris was an excited dog instead of an Emperor wolf.
Ferris just radiated positivity without showing any kind of naïve ideology. Ferris had already shown that he liked Gravis very much, but Gravis was sure that Ferris would become terrifying if an enemy appeared. After all, he was an Emperor and managed to live for over 3,000 years. He was definitely not naïve.
This positivity played off rather well on Gravis' cold and logical directness. Instead of thinking that Gravis was a cold dick, Ferris found Gravis' words interesting.
Because of that, even though they hadn't interacted so much with each other, there was already a bond forming between Gravis and Ferris.
Additionally, Gravis had a high standard for friends. Only after someone had proven themselves with their power would he consider them as companions.
Gravis hadn't cared about Joyce until she proved that her ideology was not as naïve as he had believed.
Gravis hadn't cared about Manuel until Manuel proved to be very mature and very powerful.
Gravis hadn't cared about Nero until Nero proved to be powerful and caring.
Ferris was more powerful than Gravis, and he had comprehended a level three Law now, making him even more powerful. Additionally, Ferris was very positive and honest with Gravis, and Gravis just couldn't be mad at him.
"Hey, Gravis," Ferris said after looking at Gravis's troubled expression for a while. "Why are you looking so troubled?" he asked.
Gravis shook his head for a bit. "Sorry, I was just lost in thought."
"You sure?" Ferris asked with concern. "You looked like something horrible happened to you."
'That again!' Gravis thought with annoyance.
Gravis sighed. "No, that's just my thinking-face. I have been told that I look like someone killed my parents when I think," Gravis explained.
Ferris looked confused. "No, you don't. You look like you are troubled, not like your parents died."
Gravis sighed again. 'Yeah, guess what. When the parents of humans die, they often than not feel rather troubled,' Gravis thought.
"Forget it," Gravis said. "Anyway, your fire is very impressive. I'm certain that it is a level three Law now."
Ferris smiled widely when he heard that. "It is? Wow, I almost can't believe it! This is great!" he shouted with glee as if he could only believe it now. "Does that mean that I no longer need to comprehend any new Laws?" Ferris asked Gravis.
"Do you think the next world is some paradise?" Gravis asked. "The next world isn't any different than this one. It just has more powerful beasts. So, if you don't comprehend new Laws, you will become average and then below average in that world. You can never comprehend enough Laws."
Ferris scratched his ear with his back-leg again. "Okay, if you say so."
Gravis blinked a couple of times in surprise. "Wait, you're not asking how I know that or why I'm so sure?" Gravis asked in surprise.
"No, why should I?" Ferris asked honestly. "Your words have already allowed me to comprehend a level three Law! It has worked great up to now, so why change it?"
"Huh," Gravis uttered. "That makes sense, I think. But are you not afraid that I might betray you?"
"No," Ferris said directly. "You don't feel like the sneaky kind. Additionally, why would you explain so many things about Laws to me if you wanted to harm me? That makes no sense."
This reasoning felt way too simple for Gravis, but it was also pretty solid. He wondered, was Ferris way too trusting, or did he have a very developed feeling about whom he could trust? Gravis wasn't sure, but he tended to believe that the second one was more likely. After all, if Ferris' trust were easily gained, he probably wouldn't have become an Emperor.
"Hey, Ferris," Gravis said, eliciting a questioning look from Ferris. "I want to continue learning."
Ferris was a bit taken aback. "Oh, right. Forgot about that," Ferris said with a bit of embarrassment. "I'll look around some more. I think I've grown addicted to learning new Laws! See you soon!"
And with that, Ferris was off.
Gravis sighed when Ferris left. 'An Emperor with a level three Law. This is incredibly terrifying. I wonder how the Empress and the Grand Elder will react when Ferris returns. Right now, Ferris should be more powerful than even the Grand Elder. The Empress should be able to win against Ferris, but it would probably be a real fight, not a one-sided slaughter.'
After thinking that and sighing again, Gravis went back to probe the last bits of his surroundings. He was nearly done with the mountain!