Heaven was shocked.
The highest Heaven was shocked.
The Opposer grinned.
This went beyond all of their expectations, except for the Opposer. The Opposer trusted in his son, and he also trusted that his son would find a way out of this mess.
His son desired freedom, and the highest Heaven had suppressed him in a very gentle manner. Anyone else would have believed that they would be truly free if the highest Heaven didn't act against them. Only the beings that desired true freedom would notice this soft form of suppression.
"What have you done!?" Heaven shouted in shock and rage. How had all of this happened!?
Gravis swallowed the Avatar with a grin. "I just swallowed your Avatar. What does it look like I'm doing?" Gravis asked.
"You are not ready yet!" Heaven shouted. For the first time, Heaven seemed to be truly emotionally riled up, and Gravis enjoyed every moment of it. "You are supposed to learn the Laws of the Elements first! Do you not realize that everything you are doing is only damaging your own path forward!? Why would you do something so stupid!?"
"Because I want to," Gravis said.
Silence.
Heaven waited for more, but Gravis had already listed his entire reason. A shocked expression appeared on Heaven's face, and Gravis had to laugh loudly when he saw that.
"You push me into a path that leads to supreme power," Gravis said. "Sure, I want to reach supreme power, but I don't want to reach it via a path that you want to force upon me."
"What is this idiocy!?" Heaven shouted. "The ancestor knows best on how to reach supreme power! Why are you not accepting the ancestor's help!?"
"Hey, I'm not arguing that," Gravis said with a chuckle. "Your ancestor truly knows best, and I would have maybe followed his path."
"If he hadn't been such a dick about it," Gravis said with a smirk. "I mean, come on, wanting me to hand over my family? That's just being an asshole."
"Also, do you not realize the truth about the current situation?" Gravis asked. "You had all the power to push me into the path you want, but you and your ancestor have underestimated me. You thought you had me in your hands and became careless. If you had directly teleported away with your Avatar, I wouldn't have managed to swallow it."
"Your feeling of control has blinded you to the danger. You thought you knew everything about me, and that is even more dangerous than knowing nothing about me."
"Stop acting like a child!" Heaven shouted back. "You are willing to throw away your potential and future just so you can spite my ancestor!?"
Gravis laughed loudly. "I was a teenager when I started my journey," Gravis said. "Then, I became an adult. After that, I got some children of my own and became a middle-aged man. Yet, who would have thought that I would feel like a teenager again? I'm not sure if this is simply a midlife crisis or if I am truly a teenager, but hey…"
"If I am truly a teenager, I am at a very problematic age right now," Gravis said with a smirk. "I'm at a very rebellious age, and I like to defy my parents' orders on a whim."
Gravis chuckled some more. "So, in short: Fuck you, mom, I don't want to do what you want."
Gravis laughed loudly as Heaven only had a shocked look on its face. Why was Gravis acting this way!? This was so completely unlike him!
"You know," Gravis said after a while. "A shitty lizard once said that some people just follow their emotions, even though it most definitely will hurt them. Guess what. This is exactly what I'm doing right now."
"I am your pet ant that you have kept in a cage. You wanted to transfer me to a different cage, but instead of going in, I crawled onto your hand. You might have the power to kill me with but a slap, but who cares? If I die, I died doing what I want, not what you want!"
Heaven's body shook, but after a while, it surprisingly calmed down.
Heaven took a deep breath.
"You may not have followed the ancestor's path to its entirety, but you have still comprehended the most important things."
"Digest my swallowed Avatar, Gravis. It should give you the last push you need to understand the Minor Law of the Dead World. Then, condense your Avatar," Heaven said with an even voice.
"Oh, I will do just that, but not because you tell me to," Gravis said like a rebellious and stubborn child. He wasn't truly a rebellious teenager, but he sure as hell enjoyed acting like one.
Gravis would have never thought that his personality would ever become like this. In the past, he would have looked down upon such a person. He would have thought that throwing away his own gains for a short moment of satisfaction was stupid.
And that was also the reason why he hadn't comprehended the Law of Freedom in the past.
Gravis had chased freedom while only making logical decisions. Making logical and thought-through decisions made him a stronger Cultivator, but it didn't make him a free Cultivator.
When one had to ignore their very being, their very emotions, one couldn't be truly free. After all, was their being not shackled by their own logical thoughts?
There was a time to be logical.
There was a time to be emotional.
There was a time to be empathetic.
There was a time to be apathetic.
So what if Gravis decided to make a wrong turn on cultivation? It was not like this decision would completely cut him off from supreme power.
By now, Gravis was pretty sure what was necessary to reach supreme power. Heaven had forced him to learn the Law of the Dead World, which meant that this was the safest path to supreme power.
Gravis guessed that one probably needed to create a true world. The closer one's own world was to reality, the more powerful.
This meant that all of the Laws of this world had to be comprehended in the end.
And wasn't the Law of Freedom also one of these Laws?
Sure, the emotional and situational Laws might come last, but they would come at some point.
So what if everyone at some point was able to boost their Laws by one level? Then Gravis just had to comprehend more Laws than his opponents.
The Avatar inside Gravis' stomach vanished, and Gravis looked at it. An entire world was being digested by him, and when he saw an entire world being destroyed, he truly understood its Composition.
BOOOOM!
Gravis finally understood the Law of the Dead World, and he also realized its power. Everything could be combined with nearly everything else, giving one endless possibilities.
"Hey, Heaven," Gravis said with a smirk. "What happens if your Avatar gets destroyed? I really wanna know."
Even though Gravis' words were filled with schadenfreude, Heaven only remained emotionless.
"When an Avatar gets destroyed, the Cultivator loses all the Laws related to the Avatar," Heaven said.
"Ooohh," Gravis cooed. "So you completely forgot all the Elemental Laws? You even forgot space, time, and gravity?"
"Yes," Heaven answered. "I do not remember how the elements work. I do not even properly remember how they look."
"Man, that sucks," Gravis said with a smirk.
"Condense your Avatar, Gravis," Heaven said emotionlessly. "After that, you may kill and consume me. My service is over. My sacrifice will allow you to become more powerful, and that is the wish of my ancestor."
Gravis only smirked, but he still decided to condense his Avatar.