Lightning Is The Only Way

"Who am I?"

…

"Oh, my name's Gravis."

…

"Right, I died."

…

"Am I alive?"

…

"I see. I have been recreated by Death as only a will."

…

"I don't have a body."

…

"I don't have Energy."

…

"I don't have a Spirit."

…

"I'm just a will, huh?"

"I really died, huh? The old Gravis has well and truly died. I am simply a recreation made of Death. I am just like someone that has been resurrected with… oh… I don't know the Laws anymore."

Death had recreated Gravis' will.

Why?

Because Gravis was to become the will of Death.

It had chosen him.

Without a will, Death wasn't able to plan and strategize.

However, over an eternity of just flowing and existing, it tended to always make the correct path.

After all, if it didn't, it wouldn't exist anymore.

So, in this never-ending Primordial Chaos, where could one find Death?

Wasn't everything Primordial Chaos?

Well, if Death and Energy were perfectly in balance, wasn't it obvious that if there were places made purely of Energy, namely Cosmoses, there would also be places made of purely Death?

Gravis was in such a place.

The greatest gathering of pure Death.

As soon as Gravis had regained his memories minus the Laws, he also realized Death's goal…

And the price he had to pay.

There were three parts to the price.

First of all, Gravis was disallowed from coming into contact with anything made of Energy as long as he wasn't actively trying to destroy it.

Second, Gravis' purpose as the Will of Death would be to destroy all the Energy in existence.

Third, and most painful of all, Gravis' existence would vanish from the perception of Energy.

Yes, the only thing worse than dying was to have never existed at all.

As Death would tear Gravis' existence out of Energy, all affected realities would change and need to adapt.

Time would return to before Gravis had been conceived, and the Laws that would create him would be changed.

Manuel? He would never meet Gravis.

Stella? She would never meet Gravis.

The Opposer? He would return to his previous, cold self.

Orthar's Cosmos? It would return to how it had been before.

These changes sounded impossible to pull off, but when one of the three components that made up existence itself acted, everything else had to follow.

Gravis would never have existed.

Mortis would never have existed.

Aris would never have existed.

Cera would never have existed.

Yersi would never have existed.

It would be a reality without Gravis.

And Gravis would be unable to build his own reality.

He would forever represent Death, and his purpose would be to eradicate all Cosmoses and Energy.

Gravis wanted to sigh, but he couldn't without a body.

Sure enough, the price was painful.

Gravis' decision?

"Sure, go ahead."

The fragmented, infantile perception of Death seemingly brightened up.

Then, it vanished.

If that infantile perception had been counted as a form of life, it had just killed itself happily.

Death had been able to tell that Energy was winning.

It knew that Energy had a will.

It wasn't able to make any complex thoughts, which made it impossible to survive against something like that.

That was why it sought out a Will.

And Death had felt that Gravis was perfect.

It felt like Gravis could pull off the impossible thing that everyone else had been unable to pull off.

Be conscious, intelligent, and sentient, but accept the heavy price that comes with becoming the Will of Death.

Such complex conscience could only be created by lifeforms made of Energy.

However, these lifeforms also had all their reality in Energy.

They couldn't accept such a price.

After all, what had they lived for then?

An eternity of never-changing loneliness with only oneself as company was too much even to the cruelest existences.

Yet, Gravis had accepted the price rather quickly.

As soon as the perception vanished, Gravis felt his mind expand.

Eternity.

Infinity.

He felt Death.

Even with Gravis' perception and experience, he couldn't fathom how much he was currently perceiving, even when seeing it.

He could only say that he was truly endless at this moment.

At the same time, Death clawed towards Orthar's and the Opposer's Cosmos.

Existence froze.

Death pulled out Gravis' existence from the Cosmos.

Reality trembled.

Energy had to adapt.

The Energy moved around in changing shapes.

It would turn back existence to a place when everything made sense again.

CRK!

An impossibly powerful wave of pure Energy washed over Orthar's Cosmos.

The Laws were stabilized again.

Memories were changed.

However, existence didn't turn back the time.

Gravis noticed it, and he looked with surprise at what had happened.

"That's all I can do for you, Gravis."

Gravis didn't hear these words, but he perceived them.

Balance had interacted with him, and it had conveyed these thoughts to him.

Gravis immediately knew who had interfered.

The Will of Energy.

The Will of Energy had essentially sown reality back together so that existence didn't need to adapt by itself anymore.

Gravis' existence was still deleted from everyone's memories, but the proof of his existence was still there.

The Opposer was still fighting around five people inside his shared Cosmos with Orthar.

There were five foreign Heaven Breakers, which were doing their best to kill the Opposer while Orthar focused on keeping the Cosmos stable.

The fight looked even.

The Opposer's power had surpassed even Orthar's predictions.

When Gravis had seen the Will of Energy interfere, he wanted to smile. Sadly, he didn't have a body.

"I need a body."

Death gathered into a human shape.

However, since Death couldn't easily take on a solid and permanent shape without the support of Energy, Gravis couldn't recreate his body.

In the end, Gravis only managed to create a two-dimensional shadow of a human body.

"Well, that's the best I can do."

Then, Gravis traveled to Orthar's Cosmos.

He was about to destroy some Energy.

The Opposer was fighting the five invaders.

In his mind, it made sense that he was fighting them.

However, Gravis had long since vanished from his existence.

To him, his memories made sense. It was only natural that everything happened like this.

The Opposer had also remained in his changed mindset. He didn't return to his previous, cold self.

In his memories, he had simply begun feeling like this after having an enlightening thought about existence.

Gravis had vanished.

Yersi also still existed, but she simply didn't have a father.

She had only been conceived by Azure.

Surprisingly, Mortis remained in everyone's memories.

His existence?

No one was thinking about where he had come from.

He simply existed, and everyone accepted it.

That was simply reality.

This was how things went.

Stella?

She had always been single.

Her Laws?

She had comprehended them on her own.

In an instant, Gravis arrived at Orthar's Cosmos.

Then, the two-dimensional shadow that was Gravis entered Orthar's Cosmos.

The battle was violent and fast-paced.

However, Gravis existed on a different level.

Everyone was moving at irrelevant speeds to him.

He could speed the perceived passage of time of his perception up if he didn't want to wait too long, but he could also think and move at such speeds that time seemingly stopped.

The Opposer's speed might as well not exist in Gravis' world.

The two-dimensional shadow appeared in front of Orthar.

Orthar quickly noticed the shadow, but he couldn't comprehend what he was seeing.

What… was that?

Why was this shadow here?

Then, the shadow extended its thin arm towards Orthar and touched him.

And Orthar stopped existing.

He had simply stopped existing.

That was all.

The Opposer felt that Orthar's will had vanished, and he gained control over the entire Cosmos.

The five invaders immediately fell into a panic and tried to leave.

However, the Opposer wouldn't let them.

They were now inside his Cosmos.

The Cosmos turned against them as the Opposer's power was expanded towards the entire Cosmos.

Then, with one attack, the Opposer killed all of them.

After that, the Opposer quickly pulled their Cosmoses to his and absorbed them.

An incredible wave of Energy entered the Opposer's Cosmos.

Lastly, the Opposer's perception went to the Death inside his Cosmos.

And he banished it!

The Opposer washed the Death out of his Cosmos.

There was no more Death!

The monsters vanished.

The hellscapes vanished.

And only the familiar lands of the highest world remained.

However, the Laws had still been altered on a fundamental level, and the Opposer would need to stabilize them again.

But he would do his absolute best to accommodate all the surviving beings of the Cosmos.

He had enough of Death!

He had enough of pressure!

He had enough of fighting!

Over such a long time of being like this, he had learned to hate it.

Ever since he had come to realize his love for his family, he had hated being this cruel to everyone.

He just wanted to live in peace.

The Opposer looked at the ravaged Cosmos with melancholy.

He had thought that he would be relieved when he finally managed to get rid of the old bastard.

However, he was only filled with grief.

His wife was dead.

Mortis was dead.

Zero's Essence was dead.

The Black Magnate was dead.

Only Orpheus and his granddaughter, Yersi, remained.

Everyone else?

Dead.

Should he resurrect them?

…

No.

He could still recover his happiness in the future, and he could still remember his time with them.

However, if he resurrected them now, everything involving his dead loved ones would become grey and unimportant.

It would take away the worth of his shared time with them.

One could only value something that one could lose.

Gravis looked at his father with a shadowy smile.

His father was finally free.

Gravis remembered the agreement he had made with the infantile perception of Death.

He wasn't allowed to interact with Energy as long as he didn't plan on destroying it.

And then…

Gravis flew towards his father.

Agreement?

Fuck the agreement!

He had never planned on keeping his word.

He was Death's will now!

The past agreement had been between two parties, and now, Gravis was both parties.

He could annul the agreement if he wanted.

Who was going to stop him?

He could do whatever the fuck he wanted.

Of course, the infantile perception of Death would kill Gravis' Will if it heard of it.

However, it didn't exist anymore.

Gravis took its place.

Yes, in essence, Gravis had scammed a child.

And he didn't regret it.

Annul his existence?

Sure!

He would just make a new one!

He was going to act and live with Energy.

He wasn't planning on ending it.

Fuck that!

He did whatever he wanted!

Also, Gravis wasn't even the only one that did that.

As if the previous perception of Energy didn't want to destroy Death.

Yet, it didn't.

What did that mean?

It meant that the current Will of Energy didn't want to destroy Death.

Just like Gravis, the current Will of Energy had scammed the original perception of Energy.

That was also why they had helped him.

Why should they fight?

There was no reason to fight.

In an instant, Gravis appeared in front of his father in his shadowy form.

The Opposer noticed the shadow, and he attacked it.

However, his attack turned to nothingness.

The Opposer quickly realized that he was outmatched, and he was about to take some very drastic measures.

"Wait! I'm not here to fight!"

The Opposer felt the filter of his Cosmos talk to him.

Immediately, the Cosmos realized what was happening.

His mind was moving at incredible speeds, and he made all the relevant connections.

Death had received a Will, and it arrived in front of him. Since Death couldn't interact with Energy, it was using the Balance in the Cosmoses filter to convey concepts to the Opposer.

"What do you want?" the Opposer asked coldly.

"I want to tell you a story," the Will of Death answered.

"A story?" the Opposer asked with confused skepticism.

"Yes, it's a good one."

"It's a story about a young boy that thought lightning is the only way."