Lightning Is the Only Way

Mortality shot at the Black Demon and hit his chest.

BANG!

The spear met some crazy resistance when it hit the Black Demon's chest, and the form of the spear was already bent beyond recognition. It was basically shrinking in on itself as the power of the lightning runes that launched it compressed it to an insane degree.

CRK!

As the tiny Lightning Crescent in the spear's tip exploded, the scales of the opponent's chest were blasted apart.

While all of this was happening, the Black Demon still shot his spears forward at Gravis, but the force of Mortality was pushing his body back, which made it impossible for the Black Demon to hit Gravis.

As the main-head of the spear exploded with the Lightning Crescent, the hidden spike below the spearhead stabbed into the Black Demon's exposed chest.

BRRRRRRRR!

The actual Lightning Crescent exploded in the Black Demon's chest, but the sound was very different from usual.

Usually, the opponents just exploded when they got hit by Mortality, but the insane defense of the Black Demon was just too powerful.

As the Lightning Crescent exploded inside of him, it made a sound more akin to a violently burning flame slowly melting through metal.

In the end, a big, circular hole appeared in the Black Demon's chest. A small part of the hole went through his entire body, but most of it had turned an extensive area of his chest into a crater.

Gravis wasn't surprised by this.

The Black Demon had survived two fully-powered Lightning Crescents from Mortis.

Being able to survive something like that showed that the Black Demon knew some defensive Laws.

Gravis knew what kind of Law that was.

It was the level five Law of Physical Power, the level five Law that was created out of a fusion between the level four Major Laws of Speed, Defense, and Power.

This was the Law that Gravis wanted to learn.

The Black Demon had shown an insane defense, and he had also shown insane speeds.

This meant that he had a Law that boosted his defense and speed to an entire level above himself, and only the level five Law of Physical Power could accomplish something like that.

In essence, the Black Demon had a body six levels above Gravis and Mortis while only being five levels above them in Cultivation Realm.

Black Demons sure were powerful.

The Black Demon was thrown back, but since he had also charged forward with a ton of force, his body wasn't thrown back with a lot of speed.

BANG!

This meant that Gravis could catch up!

The Black Demon was still off-balance, allowing Gravis to close in on him.

SHING! SHING!

Gravis replaced all his spears with sabers, which meant that he was now carrying six sabers.

The Black Demon noticed that Gravis was closing in and attacked Gravis with his swords.

BANG!

Suddenly, Gravis stopped with an explosion of lightning, and the Black Demon also stopped his attack.

SHING! SHING! SHING!

However, in an instant, Gravis suddenly appeared directly in front of the Black Demon, basically touching his body.

Gravis had used the Law of Perceived Reality to make it seem like he had stopped because of the swords. After all, who would want to charge into such a powerful attack?

However, in reality, Gravis had slipped between the stopped swords, appearing behind them.

Then, Gravis buried all six of his sabers in the crater in the Black Demon's chest.

"Have fun!" Gravis said with a smirk.

The Black Demon immediately reacted and stabbed with his two spears at Gravis.

Whoop!

Sadly, he missed.

Gravis had vanished.

The Black Demon recognized which Law Gravis used. 'The Law of Shadow's Subtlety and Shadow's Movement!'

Something like the Law of Shadow's Movement only worked once against an enemy since they would immediately know how to counteract it when it was used again.

'If he knows Shadow Battle Laws, then does that mean that these sabers…'

The Black Demon immediately felt his Life Energy dropping violently.

All six of Gravis' sabers had been infused with the Law of Shadow's Poisoning!

The Black Demon gritted his teeth in hatred.

BANG!

Then, he charged away and pulled all the sabers out of him, throwing them to the side.

However, the damage had already been done.

The sabers had absorbed 50% of his Life Energy!

This was a terrifying amount! After all, the body of a beast already had an insane amount of Life Energy, and this Black Demon was five levels above Gravis.

Mortis' two Lightning Crescents had barely used up 5% of the Black Demon's Life Energy, and Mortis received an injury during that process.

In comparison, Gravis managed to waste 50% of the Black Demon's Life Energy without wasting all his Energy and without receiving an injury himself.

The difference was striking!

By now, the Black Demon also realized what was going on.

'This guy knows some kind of Law that affects my perception,' the Black Demon thought. 'A lot of things that don't make any sense have already happened during this fight. I need to check everything thoroughly!'

And like this, the Law of Perceived Reality became basically useless.

As soon as someone realized that Gravis could manipulate their perception, the Law of Perceived Reality became useless as long as the power of Gravis' Will-Aura wasn't enough to suppress the opponent.

Gravis' Will-Aura might be on the level of an Early Major Circulation Immortal Emperor's, but the level difference was just too massive, making it impossible for Gravis' Will-Aura to suppress the Black Demon.

Additionally, Gravis didn't want to use his Will-Aura.

After all, he was still in the beast territory.

'Well, the easy part is over,' Gravis thought. 'I've used the Law of Perceived Reality so many times by now that he probably won't be affected by it.'

'Seems like I have to clash against him openly.'

By now, the right side of the Black Demon's body had regenerated fully, and the crater in his chest was also healing.

'After his wounds have fully healed, he will probably only have 40% of his Life Energy left. This means we still have to severely injure him a couple of times.'

Yes, this was Gravis' and Mortis' goal.

Their offensive power wasn't great enough to kill the Black Demon in one shot, which meant that they either had to destroy his soul or drain all his Life Energy.

Sadly, the effects of the Deep Wood Element weren't powerful enough to destroy the Black Demon's soul in a short amount of time. They didn't have any powerful soul-based Weapon Techniques to attack someone's soul, except for Samsara.

However, Samsara was basically useless against beasts.

Why?

Because Samsara played on the heart and mindset of the target.

Humans had complex desires and emotions. Additionally, most humans cared deeply about the perception of others towards themselves. Humans also often did things they regretted or felt guilty about.

And beasts?

Beasts were simple, and they did what they wanted whenever they wanted.

The life of beasts was mostly bereft of regret or guilt.

Because of that, if Gravis used Samsara on the Black Demon, the Black Demon would only look at his life again and nod in appreciation. As long as the Black Demon's mind and emotions didn't get thrown into disarray, the injected Law of Deep Wood's Destruction wouldn't have a great angle to destroy his soul.

Without such an opening, the soul-destroying effect of Samsara wouldn't be more powerful than just a direct attack with the Law of Deep Wood's Destruction.

Meanwhile, Gravis would probably have to sit through a collective million years worth of memory, which might very well kill his personality.

Yet, even though Gravis and Mortis didn't have a good technique to attack the Black Demon's soul, they had a ton of techniques to attack the Black Demon's body.

Because of that, they decided to target the Black Demon's Life Energy.

'This one is even more dangerous than the white one,' the Black Demon thought as he looked at Gravis. 'The other one should require some time to regain his Energy. During that time, I have to kill this one!'

BANG!

The Black Demon charged at Gravis again with his full speed.

Gravis' smirk vanished as his eyes narrowed.

'I have to resist his assault without the help of my Law of Perceived Reality for a while.'

'I have to buy some time for Mortis. That's the only way we can win!'