Lightning Is The Only Way

After Gravis was done with forging his equipment, he didn't have much else to do. His future tempering would come to him by itself, and he didn't have to search for it. Now, he only needed to spend his remaining time as productively as possible.

So, Gravis simply split himself in two for one simple reason: Law comprehension. He remembered the picture of Manuel that he had received on his birthday and also remembered the name of the sixth Realm, which was also called the Law Comprehension Realm.

In Manuel's picture, Gravis had seen him sitting inside a massive storm. Gravis was pretty sure that Manuel was thinking about some kind of Law and trying to understand it. Gravis also knew that, at some point, he would probably need to do that too. After all, the comprehension of Laws would definitely become paramount in the future.

One Gravis would keep watching the CMO to gain some knowledge about life, while the other one would simply watch his surroundings. The CMO was his main priority, but focusing only on it felt like a waste of resources to Gravis. So, he decided to also just look at… basically everything.

When Gravis first split in two, the Red King shot out of his abode in shock. He always kept watch over Gravis, and when Gravis suddenly split in two, his eyes nearly popped out. He had never even imagined that something like that was possible.

The Red King immediately started questioning Gravis fervently, but Gravis always only answered with a plain no. The Red King grew frustrated and angry again, but there was nothing he could do about Gravis. Injuring him showed no effect at all and might even make him act out in violent ways.

The Red King knew that Gravis wasn't just peacefully sitting there because the Red King forced him. He knew exactly that Gravis was only sitting there this quietly because he had no interest in doing anything else.

If Gravis wanted, he could start flying away, which would force the Red King to get him back. Then what? Then, Gravis could just fly away again. What could the Red King do in this case? He would either need to waste all his time on Gravis or get a commander to waste all their time on him. This would eat up way too many resources.

What if he let Gravis roam around? That was an even worse idea! He could just go on a rampage and kill a mountain worth of Lords without eating them. The Red King knew that Gravis knew that his life was just too valuable to kill him over that. So, even though Gravis was basically forced into slavery, he could still kind of do whatever he wanted.

What about threatening his life? The Red King knew that Gravis would simply call that bluff. What then? Then, the choice would fall back to the earlier two anyway.

Officially, Gravis was a slave and commodity to the Red King. Officially, the Red King could do whatever he wanted to him. Yet, unofficially, Gravis was basically only under light house arrest.

While Gravis was around, the Red King almost felt like Gravis was the owner of this place instead of him. This frustrated the Red King to no end.

So, in the end, the only thing that the Red King could do was force Gravis into staying in the Red Kingdom and going to the Empress in a couple of years. Other than that, Gravis could do whatever he wanted.

The Red King had already thoroughly thought about the potential disasters that Gravis could create. The Red King knew that Gravis was very smart, and he believed that Gravis could also come up with all these scenarios.

For example, Gravis could run around the Red Kingdom and insult powerful Kings. Then, these Kings would have two options.

One option was to swallow their anger and do nothing. Yet, that would make them frustrated and might even motivate them to leave the Red Kingdom. After all, they were smart enough to know that they couldn't attack him.

The other option was to try to kill him. Yet, that would go directly against the Red King's explicit orders and would be seen as an act of betrayal. The punishment for that was death.

So, even though Gravis was not powerful enough to kill the Kings himself, he could still kill them by proxy. This would, again, fall back to forcing a powerful King to keep watch over him.

Another disaster would be if Gravis simply destroyed all the plants, mountains, grass, and terrain. He wasn't killing anyone by doing that, but the whole Red Kingdom would feel desolate, weak, and broken.

So, if the Red King tried to force Gravis to answer his questions, Gravis might just decide not to be as compliant as before. This whole thing was basically an unspoken pact between the Red King and Gravis. As long as the Red King didn't suppress him further, Gravis wouldn't create disasters for the Red Kingdom.

It was true that the Red King only looked at his Kingdom as a tool to become more powerful. Yet, that didn't mean that he didn't care that someone damaged or destroyed his tool. After all, this was his tool, his property. He couldn't just let anyone threaten it.

Because of that, the Red King was forced to go back into his abode without having received a satisfactory answer, which frustrated him even more. The Red King wanted to know these things so badly, but some weak Lord completely stopped him in his tracks.

The Red King knew that he could kill this weak Lord with a simple sneeze. Yet, that would make all his previous sacrifices meaningless. He had sacrificed his most outstanding disciple, who would have been the present for the Empress, to Gravis. If he now killed Gravis, he would have no good present for his Empress.

This would be devastating to him because the Red King knew how much this present was worth. With this present, he would be able to get something that he had always wanted, becoming an Emperor. This was how much Gravis' life was worth to him.

Several months passed in which Gravis seemingly only stared into nothing.

Yet, six months after arriving in the Red Kingdom, something happened. The Red King would leave his abode for a couple of days. So, to keep watch over Gravis, the Red King called over Cynthia.

"Don't antagonize him. Don't give him any reason to go and create trouble. Just stay to the side and do nothing. You're only allowed to intervene if he starts going crazy or if he leaves the Red Kingdom. If that happens, suppress him until I return. Of course, he is not allowed to die under any circumstance," the Red King transmitted to Cynthia.

"If he dies, you will be next," he transmitted coldly.

Cynthia took a nervous breath to calm herself down. "I understand, my King," she said deferentially.

The Red King narrowed his eyes at Cynthia and inspected her closely, making her feel incredibly uncomfortable. After nearly half a minute of doing this, the Red King averted his gaze and flew away.

"Don't forget your duties, commander," the Red King transmitted one last time before he left.

Then, silence came upon the mountain. Cynthia just sat silently to the side, watching Gravis, while Gravis only seemed to aimlessly stare into space.

Several hours passed in which nothing happened. No one spoke a word, and Cynthia didn't avert her gaze. By now, night time had arrived.

Crck!

Gravis heard the sound of claws lightly gliding across stone. He looked over and saw that Cynthia had stood up. On top of that, her claws were out. When Gravis saw that, he already knew what was about to happen.

It seemed like Cynthia didn't change her mindset.

Cynthia only looked coldly at Gravis like he was a piece of rotten meat. She looked at him like he was the most despicable existence in this world.

"You have poisoned my King's mind," she transmitted to Gravis so that no one else could hear her. "He has always been a kind and benevolent King, and he would have never let our Kingdom come into danger. You are the most wretched manipulator I have ever seen," she transmitted coldly with disgust.

She had waited several hours to make sure that the Red King wasn't here anymore. If the Red King were close by, she wouldn't be able to see the next day.

Gravis just evenly looked at her, which made Cynthia's rage explode. She hated this look! When Gravis looked at her like this, it felt like everything was in his control. How could such a weak beast be in control in a situation like this!?

"And you truly believe that I have the ability to cloud your King's judgment to this degree?" Gravis asked emotionlessly. "I may be smart, but I'm not omnipotent."

"SHUT UP!" Cynthia shouted in rage. She didn't know why, but as soon as Gravis spoke a word, she just got irrationally angry.

Cynthia had gone through hell for the last couple of months. She just couldn't believe that her benevolent King was so malicious and selfish. Yet, her King had said these words himself.

So, she came upon a crossroad. Either she accepted that the revered image of her King inside her mind was a lie, or she decided to believe in her King regardless. Cynthia tried to justify her King's behavior in her mind. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't find a good reason why he would say something like that.

So, after weeks of deliberation and pain, she found her answer. Her King had been pure and benevolent, but everything had changed as soon as Gravis appeared. Her King had sacrificed his best disciple to Gravis. Then, he brought Gravis to the Red Kingdom.

After arriving at the Red Kingdom, Cynthia had seen that Gravis could do anything he wanted. He was under constant protection, and no beast was allowed to touch him. Was this a slave? No, this was not a slave!

In order to protect his image, Gravis had manipulated the Red King into putting on a show. Gravis would appear as a slave to everyone so that no one minded some new upstart. Yet, in reality, Gravis was in control.

This wretched beast had manipulated and changed her King into doing his bidding! He had corrupted her King until he forgot all benevolence and only saw personal gain in his eyes!

Cynthia knew that if she didn't do anything, the Red Kingdom would die out! The longer Gravis remained, the more his influence would spread. In Cynthia's mind, Gravis was the most manipulative and dangerous beast out there!

These were the conclusions that Cynthia had come to after thinking for a long time. She just couldn't accept the true mindset of her King and shifted all blame onto Gravis. It was all Gravis' fault!

"Your vile manipulation has gone on for long enough, pest!" Cynthia said coldly. "Today, I will kill you to protect my King and Kingdom! When you die, everything will return to normal, and my King will be able to see you for what you truly are, a vile and sneaky manipulator!"

"Prepare yourself!" she said coldly as she readied herself to pounce.

Gravis only looked at her with his usual, even look.