Lightning Is the Only Way

Whenever the young woman in the Lightning Tower came to the third level, she could hear a loud scream from above her. In the beginning, it only sounded painful, but as time progressed, the scream of pain slowly transformed into mad laughter.

Every time she heard it, a chill ran down her back. That man on the fourth level was definitely insane. No human could scream like this while still being rational, and she never dared to enter the fourth level again. She was afraid of that man and wanted to stay as far away as possible.

"Increase the output!" she heard suddenly from above her. She blanched. Was the man speaking to her? What did he mean with "increase the output"? What was he saying?

"Increase the output!" she heard again, and a shiver ran down her spine. She quickly ran out of the Lightning Tower and informed Gorn. Gorn quickly arrived and went to the fourth floor.

"Gravis, the seven days of allotted time will end in some hours. You can't continue," he shouted through the door.

Some time passed until "I need more power! Give me more power!" Gorn heard through the door. Gorn narrowed his eyes and opened the door. When he looked inside, he saw Gravis, fully healed. Gravis' eyes gleamed with madness and rage, and Gorn looked deeply into his eyes.

"I require more power!" Gravis shouted in rage as he looked Gorn in the eyes. Gorn saw the emotions in Gravis' eyes and watched for a while. He lowered his head in thought, and after a while, he looked at Gravis with resolution.

"Okay!" he said and left the room. Gorn walked to the core of the tower, where he could see multiple Formation Arrays and some shining stones. These were Magic- (Energy) Stones. They were named like that because they harbored the Magic (Energy) in the air. They were currency and also functioned as the power output of the Lightning Tower.

Magic-Stones didn't exist in the Outer-Continent, and the guild could only get them by trading with their parent-guild. They needed to send gold, while the parent-guild sent the Magic-Stones. Gorn pulled out several more of those stones and placed them on the Formation Array, which was responsible for the fourth level.

Gorn then changed the settings of the Formation Array and doubled its strength. The woman from the Lightning Tower followed him, and when she saw what he was doing, she grew nervous.

"Guild Master, this is way above our allowance," she said in nervousness. "A stronger output might also damage the Lightning Tower."

when someone doesn't need the full seven days. We have a

are there in case of a crisis. We can't waste them!" she

hell, and he needs all the support we can give him. He has a goal in mind, and I trust

he decided everything. She couldn't change his

had left Gorn when he decided to bet

too weak before, and it hadn't been able to damage his body anymore. Gravis needed to make his body harder. When he would use his own lightning in the future, the output would definitely be stronger than the tower. His body wouldn't

started to climb up by itself. The Destruction Energy was overwhelming the Life Energy in the Lightning Seed and had started destroying it. Gravis knew that his Lightning Seed wouldn't stop until it destroyed every last bit of Life Energy in

wanted to stop it. The Destruction Energy had grown too domineering and wouldn't

could destroy his body again. He continued madly destroying and recreating his body, and the insane increase in power drowned him in a sea of greed and

the lightning grew too weak again. "More power!" He shouted as loud as

increase the power further, it will be

power!" Gravis

decided to bet everything on Gravis, and he would go through with it. He threw every last stone he

with anxiety while cold sweat ran down his body. He was risking it all! If the Lightning Tower got damaged, the foundation of the Lightning Guild would grow unstable. He was betting everything on

new intensity of the lightning violently destroyed Gravis' body again, and the volume of his mad laughter only increased. Pain signified tempering, and tempering signified strength. The more pain he felt, the stronger he would get. He started loving the pain because it symbolized that he was moving closer to

shorter time than before, the lightning grew too weak again. "I need more power! Give me more power!" he

door and looked at Gravis. He saw that Gravis wasn't injured and that an insatiable greed

He then held out his hands. "But I can!"

eyes further and increased the output until he started using all his strength. Gorn was in the third level of the Energy Gathering Realm, and he could put out a considerable amount of

body got destroyed everywhere, and he continued laughing in madness. Gorn looked at Gravis with a mixture of fear and madness in his eyes. He was afraid of what Gravis would become, but he also had a mad curiosity