Lightning Is the Only Way

The two of them remained silent for a couple of seconds.

"If you were more powerful than me, what would that change?" Gravis asked.

"I would have been able to help you with your Sin Aura," Stella answered immediately.

"And I wouldn't have comprehended the True Law of Suffering. By not being of much help, you helped me more than you could have helped by actually helping me," Gravis answered.

Stella frowned.

"Let me finish," Gravis interjected before Stella could say something. "I know that my words sounded very crass, but there is a point to all of this."

Stella suppressed her desire to interrupt Gravis.

"Now, if we ignore this entire Sin Aura thing. If you were more powerful than me, what could you do for me?" Gravis asked.

"I could protect you when-"Stella started, but she didn't finish her words as she realized something.

Gravis nodded. "Exactly," Gravis said when he saw that Stella realized the meaning behind his words. "Anything that endangers my life is tempering, and if I want to become more powerful, I can't have any help with that. As soon as I realize that my life actually isn't in danger since you will intervene, my Will-Aura won't be able to grow anymore."

"Now, let's assume you could give me a ton of Laws I don't know, and all these Laws would increase my Battle-Strength by an entire level. Would that make me safer?"

Stella grimaced.

"No, it wouldn't," Gravis added. "Because, when my Battle-Strength grows, I also have to fight even stronger opponents for tempering. In a sense, you giving me more Laws might actually endanger me more than if you didn't. My power increases, and to help my Will-Aura grow, I would need to put myself under even more danger."

"Then, when I am actually in danger of losing my life, you would have to retreat far away so that you can't possibly help me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to temper myself."

"So, if you were more powerful than me, and if you could give me many more powerful Laws, you wouldn't be able to make my life safer."

"The same thing is true if you could give me incredible equipment. Due to the powerful equipment, my Battle-Strength increases, which means that I have to fight more powerful enemies."

"Now, what about if an enemy appears that I can't possibly win against? Sure, you could save my life and kill them yourself, but at that point, wouldn't you also be many times more powerful than me again?"

"Wouldn't the entire dynamic reappear but with switched sides?"

Stella's mind was trying to come to terms with what she heard.

She hadn't seen these things from that viewpoint.

"Alright, so, what can I do for you with my power?" Gravis asked.

Stella thought about protecting her, but that wasn't even true.

Orpheus and the Ancestral Gods were there, and they were even more powerful than Gravis. Gravis' interference wouldn't make a difference.

Equipment?

Gravis had already debunked that.

So, what was Gravis actually doing for Stella?

"You are still giving me so many Laws," Stella said. "Just based on my own merits, I don't deserve to be as powerful as I am now."

Surprisingly, Gravis chuckled, and Stella frowned.

"It's not about your Battle-Strength," Gravis said. "Let me put it this way. If I had given all these Laws to someone else, would they even be alive anymore?"

"What do you mean?" Stella asked.

"Ability to transcend temperings," Gravis explained. "Most of our friends died in temperings. Sure, some of them were also killed by far more powerful Cultivators, but a lot of them also simply died since they lost against their opponents. They could have theoretically won, but they didn't."

"If they had more Laws, they would have fought more powerful enemies. Would they have survived against these enemies?"

"I don't think so," Gravis added with a slight shake of his head. "Battle-Strength is nice, but you also have to have the ability to triumph against your opponent when they are as powerful as you. When two opponents with the same power fight each other, Battle-Strength becomes irrelevant. After all, they are already equally as powerful. Battle-Strength dictates what opponent you fight for your tempering, not if you win."

"In that situation, the most important thing is your ability to grow under pressure. If your ability to grow under pressure is below your opponent's, you will die. After all, if you both have the same starting point, victory depends on the person that can grow more."

"Only you have control over that ability of yours. The more you want to live, the higher your concentration becomes under these circumstances."

"So what if I gave you some Laws?" Gravis added with a smirk. "You're fighting two or three levels above yourself. Sure, it wouldn't be anything special if others could also get these Laws, but the impressive thing is that you managed to survive more than once."

"If all your Laws came from me, you wouldn't be able to comprehend new Laws during tempering, and you would inevitably die when you meet an opponent that comprehends a new Law during your fight."

"That has obviously happened to you before, but you still managed to triumph."

"Even if I gave you no Laws at all, you would still be able to fight, at least, one level above yourself, maybe even two. That's still very impressive."

"Don't forget, you managed to become the Holy Maiden of a Peak Sect of the most powerful higher world in existence. You achieved that all on your own."

"Don't think that you're unworthy of your Realm."

Stella looked at the table with furrowed brows.

"Now!" Gravis added with a loud shout. "Let's talk about what you are actually contributing to this relationship."

Stella looked at Gravis.

"Let's imagine that you stayed at home just to wait for me to return."

"If you did that, Manuel, Dorian, Azure, Aris, Ferris, and Exar would have died in their wild war against the other Sects. Without you, one more powerful Star God would have been added to the pile of enemies, who would have killed everyone," Gravis explained.

"You have saved the lives of nearly all of my friends and my son, just like they have saved yours in the war. I can deal with some deaths, but if everyone died in their effort to help me, I wouldn't be sure if I could forgive myself."

Stella looked absentmindedly at Manuel's faction.

"Next," Gravis said. "If I didn't know how much my death would hurt you, I would already be dead."

Stella's gaze shot to Gravis in shock.

Gravis sighed.

"The Sin Aura was unimaginably terrifying," Gravis said. "I was continually fighting against the desire to kill myself. I just wanted this torture to end, no matter what."

"During that time, I didn't think about my father, or Heaven, or whatever."

"I knew that Aris, Yersi, and especially Cera would be able to handle my death. Sure, Aris and Yersi would grieve for me, but they would get over it."

"The three of them don't need me. It's nice to have me, but they are my children. They don't need me as much as I need them. The death of a parent is horrible, but the children can come to terms with it. Yet, if one's child dies, the parent will likely never recover."

"While I was under the effects of my Sin Aura, I had a lot of horrible thoughts," Gravis said as he looked with a pained expression to the side. "I didn't care for my father's problems. They were his problems, not my problems. That wouldn't stop me from killing myself."

"Mortis? Sure, I would feel a lot of guilt for killing myself, but Mortis hadn't had someone back then. I could accept taking his life away too, as long as this torture would end."

"My friends? They would be able to get over my death, just how I got over their death. It sounds cold, but that's how life works."

"Nothing was stopping me from just ending the torture."

Gravis looked at Stella.

"Except you."

Stella took a deep breath.

"I knew that you would be under unimaginable pain. A part of me even believed that you might kill yourself too."

"The love between two lovers is different from every other kind of love. A parent needs their children, but the children don't need their parents as soon as they become adults."

"Friends want to be with each other, but they don't need the other side."

"However, lovers need each other. I need you, and you need me. If one of us two dies, the other one won't feel complete anymore. We would feel like a part of our self is missing."

"When I was in that dark place, you were the only thing that kept me going," Gravis said as he looked deeply into Stella's eyes.

"The thought of causing you so much pain stopped me from ending my suffering."

"Your existence saved my life, and no one else could have saved my life under these circumstances," Gravis said with a sigh.

A short moment of silence passed before Gravis continued.

"Now, next thing," Gravis said. "My two main priorities in life are happiness and freedom. Power comes after that."

"I can become powerful on my own."

"I can become free on my own."

"But I can't be happy on my own."

"Your existence is the only way I can ever reach happiness in this life," Gravis said. "Without you, freedom and power become meaningless."

"You talked so much about helping me in the aspect of power, but you failed to see that power isn't my priority."

"I want to be happy, not powerful."

"And when you're not happy, I'm not happy," Gravis added.

"So, please, don't try to destroy your happiness for something as unimportant as power," Gravis said as he came closer to Stella.

Then, Gravis lightly took her hand into his.

"Please," Gravis said.

Then, he looked at the ground.

"I only want you to be happy."

Gravis' sincere words touched Stella, and she felt her eyes water.

The frozen love had thawed.

Stella touched Gravis' face and pulled him closer.

And then, they shared a long kiss.

It was like they had never been apart from each other.