"Oi, dafuck are you on about?" Meadow said as she suddenly included herself in the conversation. "What's with these ominous fucken words!?"
Gravis only smirked. "Meadow, can you feel my power right now?" he asked as he looked towards Meadow's direction.
Meadow remained silent for a bit.
"You are as powerful as me," she said after a while, without any sarcasm or snark.
"Half-right," Gravis said. "I wouldn't be able to kill an Immortal while you can, but thanks to my Will-Aura, I would still be able to fight with you."
"Now," Gravis said, "how powerful do you think I would be when I am an Immortal?"
"Very," Meadow said.
"And how powerful do you think Heaven is?" Gravis said.
Meadow remained silent again.
"I don't know," she said after a while, "but Heaven is probably more powerful than me."
Gravis nodded. "Heaven is definitely more powerful than you. If you were an Immortal, you might have a slight chance, but I would still put my money on Heaven. Heaven is just that strong. Do you understand what I'm getting at?" he asked Meadow. He transmitted his voice only to Meadow so that nobody else could hear him.
Now, Meadow realized what Gravis wanted to say. That was true. If Heaven and Gravis fought, this entire world might be destroyed. It would take forever for the world to return to its previous state if that was even possible.
"And you have a plan to save the world?" Meadow asked. Surprisingly, she had been pretty serious throughout this conversation. Apparently, she cared for the world.
"I have a plan, but I'm unsure if it will work," Gravis said. "If it works, I would need you to help the beasts of this world. You will naturally know what to do. Could you do that?" Gravis asked.
Meadow remained silent again for a while.
"Urgh, fine," she groaned. "But your plan better work, or I will have to spank your butt."
Gravis smirked. "I thought you wanted my plan to succeed. Why are you now enticing me to fail?" Gravis said.
"Ew," Meadow said, "Fuck off, pervert! I'll go back to cultivating, weirdo."
Gravis had to chuckle. Obviously, Meadow was only joking around with him, as was Gravis.
After that, Gravis gave his order again, and the two remaining level four Emperors left. For the next century, only Lords and weaker would be allowed to participate in the war. Everyone else had to find tempering inside their own camp. Like this, the deaths of the beasts would vastly decrease.
After everything was taken care of, Gravis went over to his three children. "You have one century to learn as many Laws in peace as you can. After that, depending on how it goes, you might need to fight for your lives."
The three of them narrowed their eyes. Comprehending Laws for a crazy long time felt terrible for beasts, but as long as they had a specific timeframe, it wouldn't be a problem. After all, after a century, they would fight again and become stronger.
"We will," Aris said.
Gravis nodded. "Good," then he turned to the Striders with a gleam in his eyes. "I will also make use of my time."
Why had Gravis given everyone a century? After all, he could just simply kill enough Striders to ascend in a single day.
The reason for that was something else he had planned.
Gravis flew over to one of the Striders and summoned all his power. He summoned a spear full of lightning as he activated the process of Mortality. Then, he unleashed a fully loaded Lightning Crescent from his saber.
Lastly, he used his Law of Time to manipulate the speed of both of his attacks so that the Lightning Crescent would hit first and Mortality a split second later.
The Lightning Crescent hit the head of one of the Striders and exploded violently, easily destroying the surrounding 200 kilometers of space. Gravis was a level three Emperor now, and with that, his strength had also reached insane degrees. If most of his attacking power hadn't been focused on the Strider, the explosion would have been many times bigger.
A third of the Strider's head was destroyed, and shortly after, Mortality buried itself into the Strider's brain.
Boom.
A tiny noise was heard as Mortality exploded inside the Strider's head. It wasn't powerful enough to blow the whole thing up, but the insides of the Strider's head were utterly destroyed.
CRRRRR!
A deafening sound of something gigantic falling over could be heard as the Strider fell over, dead. It hadn't even had any time to unleash its offense or defense. It had died immediately.
The world became silent as every beast looked towards the humongous Striders in the core of the world. The Striders were visible from nearly everywhere, so Gravis killing one of them would also be noticed by nearly everyone.
Everyone knew who had killed the Strider. Did this mean that Gravis would ascend soon?
"Is it time?" Orthar asked as he appeared near Gravis.
"Not yet," Gravis said. "You have another century. In one hundred years, it is time. If you know where Morus is, please inform him of that fact too. I still have to pay him back, even if I don't want to."
"Okay," Orthar said as he returned to his Abyss.
Meanwhile, Gravis absorbed the power of the Strider. Sadly, its power wasn't enough to make him a level four Emperor. For that, he would need to kill two more.
Gravis regenerated his lightning over the next hour and killed the next Strider.
One hour later, another one died.
After Gravis absorbed that one, he finally became a level four Emperor. Yet, he didn't stop.
Gravis unleashed a singular Lightning Crescent at the fourth Strider, and that Lightning Crescent was enough to kill it. This meant that Gravis' killing speed had doubled. Yet, to become a level five Emperor, Gravis would need ten Striders.
After three hours, Gravis had killed six Striders since becoming a level four Emperor, but then, he stopped.
'This should be enough,' Gravis thought.
BZZZZZ!
Gravis transformed into lightning and split himself into two. He had enough Spirit/Lightning inside of him to create two Gravises with the power of a level four Emperor.
One of them flew closer to a Strider, but the Strider didn't react. After some seconds, that Gravis even came so close to the Strider that he could touch it. Sadly, it still didn't react.
BANG!
Then, Gravis kicked it.
The Strider didn't react.
"What, you don't even count that as an attack?" Gravis asked. "Then how about this?"
Gravis used his Body Composition Law to attack the Strider.
Nothing happened.
The Strider didn't react, and it also didn't dissolve.
Gravis blinked a couple of times in shock. "What?" he exclaimed.
Now, Gravis was in the same situation that his enemies had been in when fighting him. That one elephant and the Tornado Emperor had both tried to dissolve his body with their Laws but failed. The same thing had now happened to Gravis.
"You're not made of flesh?" Gravis asked as he scratched his chin.
The Strider didn't react as it continued to dumbly stand there.
Then, Gravis went through one Composition Law after the other. First, he tried the materials and then all the elements. Yet, the Strider continued to just stand there.
WHOOOOOOM!
Suddenly, Gravis felt an incredible force tearing at his body. The Gravis near the Strider had to resist the spatial tearing as the outside Gravis looked at the Strider with perplexity.
"You're a fucking plant!?" he shouted. "Why are you a fucking plant!?"
Gravis had just tried to dissolve the body of the Strider with the Plant Composition Law, and looky there, it worked. Who knew that these brown cow things were plants?
The Gravis, close to the Strider, gnashed his teeth in pain as he tried to resist the spatial tearing. Yet, the spatial tearing was just too powerful, and he felt his body getting torn apart.
BZZZZ!
Then, Gravis transformed into lightning.
As soon as Gravis did that, the tearing became barely bearable, but he was still being torn apart.
'Stay in one piece! Stay in one piece! Stay in one piece!' Gravis continually shouted at himself. Even the outside Gravis gritted his teeth. One shouldn't forget that both Gravises were the same being, which meant that they both felt the same pain.
After some seconds, the Gravis closer to the Strider was completely dissolved. The Punishment Lightning scattered and was turned back into Energy. Like this, all of Gravis' previously absorbed Energy had returned to the world.
The Strider calmed down when it killed the attacker and continued standing there dumbly.
The surviving Gravis rubbed his chin with a smirk as a gleam appeared inside his eyes. 'It works!' he thought.
Why had Gravis given the beasts a century?
The reason for that was his Will-Aura.
When he had been a level five King, his Will-Aura had been at the absolute possible peak for his Realm, which was about the first level of an Immortal. Now, Gravis was nearly an entire Realm higher, which meant that he could also push his Will-Aura nearly an entire Realm higher.
Gravis had had this plan to temper himself against the Striders ever since he realized that Styr couldn't help him anymore with his Will-Aura. Styr had been able to temper Gravis' Will-Aura by trying to scatter Gravis' being.
Meanwhile, the Striders tore someone apart with their weird Law of Space Tearing or something. If Gravis remained inside a physical body, it wouldn't help him much since that would be only physical pain. Yet, if he transformed into lightning, wouldn't that be the same as Styr's tempering? After all, the Strider would tear at his entire being.
Yet, in comparison to Styr, these Striders were not here to help him. They wanted to kill him, which required Gravis to become more careful. Because of that, he created another body and sent it in.
The disadvantage of that was that he would die after some seconds and would waste half of his foundation in a matter of seconds. Such a wasteful training method was unsustainable.
At least, it would be unsustainable if there weren't an unending supply of Energy right in front of Gravis. Gravis would kill four to six Striders, create a new body, let it die in tempering, and consume more Striders. As long as Heaven kept converting his dispersed lightning into Energy, the Striders would never stop.
"Heaven," Gravis said with a smirk, "I hope you're ready to work your ass off because this won't stop for the next century. Try to keep up with me, okay?"
BOOOOM!
Then, Gravis killed another two Striders.