Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis continued doing this for the next five years.

By now, he was able to survive for about a minute inside the Striders' Space Tearing Domain.

'It's time I up my game,' Gravis thought with a smirk.

Then, the outside Gravis also charged at a Strider.

WHOOOOOM!

Then, both of them were under the Space Tearing Domain. With two Space Tearing Domains attacking Gravis at the same time, both of his bodies dissolved many times faster.

BOOOOM!

But after some seconds, one of the Gravises unleashed a pre-loaded Lightning Crescent at the Strider in front of him, allowing him to regain his power.

'Wait, I can make that even better!' Gravis thought.

The other Gravis retreated until he had enough Energy to also pre-load a Lightning Crescent. After that, both Gravises went to the next Striders and killed them after they came close to death.

Now, Heaven had to create two Striders every couple of seconds. Gravis' regeneration and Energy absorption were just too crazy.

After some time, both Gravises had absorbed enough Energy to make two more Gravises, which they did. Now, there were four Gravises.

All four of them pre-loaded a Lightning Crescent. Creating weapons was not an issue since Gravis had a ton of ore.

More time passed.

Now, there were ten Gravises, one for each Strider.

The beasts of the world couldn't believe what they were seeing. In their eyes, there were ten Gravises that all killed Striders without end, but they also didn't ascend. Where did all these Gravises come from!? Where did all these Striders come from!?

By now, all the stars had vanished, but no beast noticed.

Gravis couldn't send all ten of them at once at the Striders, but he could rotate them. If he let all ten of them attack at once, Gravis' being would be scattered in no time.

When one of them had gathered enough Energy to make another Gravis, he simply shot the lightning into the horizon. Heaven would convert that lightning into Energy again.

Many years passed.

By now, all ten Gravises fought against the Striders, and Heaven had to work itself to the bone.

Gravis killed the Striders incredibly quickly and would transform their Energy into lightning, which it had to convert to Energy and then to Striders again.

Every Strider had enough Energy inside it that it would rival a level five Emperor. Meanwhile, Heaven was only in the Immortal Realm. Continually converting so much Energy twice was incredibly exhausting.

At some point, Heaven just decided to only give Gravis as much Energy from the Striders that he was full again. Like this, it wouldn't have to transform lightning into Energy first.

"No, fuck you!" Gravis said as he shot his lightning at the dead Strider and absorbed it. Then, he shot the unneeded lightning into the horizons.

Heaven grew incredibly annoyed and frustrated as the sky shook for the blink of an eye. Why couldn't Gravis just let the Energy return!? All of this was utterly senseless!

"I bet you think that all of this is senseless, Heaven," Gravis said with a smirk. "Isn't that the exact thing I had thought and said back when you forced me to procreate? This is senseless! Doesn't feel good, does it?"

Heaven wanted to say that these two things were unrelated, but it wasn't allowed to talk to Gravis right now. In the end, it was forced to suck up its frustration.

"Isn't this interesting, Heaven?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "You are more powerful than me, but I'm the one forcing you to work while you can't do anything."

"Isn't this what you have taught me? This is suppression! If you actually wanted to give me the Law of Suppression back then, you should be happy. After all, I'm only doing what you have taught me. If you didn't, well shit, you should have given me another Law so that I didn't comprehend this one."

"How does it feel to be suppressed by someone much weaker than you?" Gravis said with a smirk.

Usually, Gravis was not a fan of suppressing others, but this time, he enjoyed it thoroughly. Back then, Heaven had suppressed him with the rules, and now, Gravis was suppressing Heaven with the rules. Wasn't this ironic?

More years passed. Gravis had been tempering himself against the Striders for seventy years by now.

Surprisingly, no more Striders died.

Why was that?

Because Gravis' Will-Aura had become powerful enough to resist the tearing force consistently. Gravis' being was scattering so slowly that he regenerated his being faster than he was being dissolved. This meant that he also didn't need to kill any Striders anymore.

Heaven could finally take a breather.

"Oh?" Gravis said with a smirk. "Do you think I'm done? Of course not!"

BZZZZ!

All ten Gravises split into four additional Gravises. Now, there were 40 Gravises with the power of a level three Emperor each.

When Heaven saw that, it fell into devastation.

"Let's go," one Gravis said.

WHOOOOOM!

All Gravises charged at the Striders as they started scattering with frightening speed. Yet, for every dead Gravis, another Strider would die, which gave Gravis enough Energy to make another one.

The Striders began to die even faster than before since the Gravises also died faster than before. Now, Heaven had to work even harder than ever before in its life. The sheer amount of conversion of lightning into Energy and then into Striders was terrifying.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

Suddenly, something terrifying happened.

The stars had vanished ever since Gravis had started tempering himself. After all, Heaven needed all the Energy to produce so many Striders.

But now, the sun had exploded!

The beasts felt like doomsday had arrived as the sun had vanished. What had happened!? Why were there no stars!? Why was there no sun!?

The world was plunged into pure darkness as the beasts felt like the end of the world was about to come.

Yet, as the sun exploded, the amount of Energy in the world rose sharply. Heaven needed a bigger storage of Energy so that it could do the tasks in batches instead of one at a time. With this much Energy to spare, Heaven could first transform all the lightning into Energy, which would then stay on standby until it would create a batch of Striders at once. This relieved the pressure on Heaven by quite a bit.

Meanwhile, the world fell into panic.

The sun had exploded!

The animals fled into their hiding places as the beasts flew around in panic. They didn't know why this happened, but they knew that this had something to do with Gravis.

All the beasts looked at the core of the world in terror but couldn't see anything due to the darkness. Was Gravis destroying the world!?

"Do you think that will stop me?" Gravis asked with a smirk. "This world is already at its end. Isn't this a very fitting atmosphere for the last 30 years of the world?"

Even Meadow grew nervous as she noticed that the sun had exploded. She had heard about Heaven but hearing about it and feeling its power was something completely different. Heaven made the sun explode, and such an ability felt terrifying, even to her.

Meanwhile, Orthar looked at the situation with admiration. Gravis was becoming incredibly powerful, and he was glad that he decided to become his companion. The more powerful Gravis became, the better.

The two remaining level four Emperors also felt terrified. The last words they had heard from Gravis echoed in their heads.

"This world is at its end."

More time passed as Gravis continued tempering himself against the Striders.

In these years, nearly all mortal plants had died. High-Tier Energy Beasts and more powerful didn't need food to survive, but a lot of animals and weaker beasts needed them.

First, the plants died.

Then, the animals died.

Then, the weaker beasts started dying as they couldn't always find another powerful beast quickly enough to sate their hunger. The Demonic Beasts and Low-Tier Energy Beasts began to fight more ferociously as they could now only eat other beasts.

Because of that, 30 years later, either the beasts had become powerful enough to not need any food anymore or had died. There were no more weak beasts remaining. When a new beast was born, it would either starve or get some food from its parents of more powerful beasts.

Meanwhile, the level four Emperors gathered near the Grand Lake.

The century was up.

What would happen to the world?

Gravis stopped attacking the Striders as he felt that he had nearly reached the peak of his current Will-Aura. Right now, it was at the peak of the Immortal Realm.

BZZZZZ!

All Gravises gathered into one Gravis, who quickly reached the power of a level five Emperor. Yet, that was not enough.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Gravis quickly killed one Strider after the other until only one Strider remained.

Heaven knew that Gravis only needed one more Strider. After this Strider, Gravis would become an Immortal. Because of that, it didn't create any more.

Yet, before Gravis killed the last Strider, he stopped.

There were no stars.

There was no sun.

There was nearly no Energy in the atmosphere anymore.

The weak beasts, animals, and plants had vanished from the world, leaving behind only a dead land.

Absolute silence.

Deafening silence.

Nothing.

Yet, everyone felt horror and terror deep inside them.

The hundred years were up, and the world was at the brink of destruction.

This day would decide the fate of the entire world and its inhabitants.

Gravis took a deep breath.

Then, he looked at the sky with narrowed eyes.

And began to speak.