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.

around the Red Kingdom and insult powerful Kings. Then, these Kings would have

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

was to try to kill him. Yet, that would go directly against the Red King's explicit orders and would be seen as an

not powerful enough to kill the Kings himself, he could still kill them by proxy. This would, again, fall back to forcing a powerful

all the plants, mountains, grass, and terrain. He wasn't killing anyone by doing that, but

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

as a tool to become more powerful. Yet, that didn't mean that he didn't care that

his abode without having received a satisfactory answer, which frustrated him even

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

was worth. With this present, he would be

passed in which Gravis seemingly only

months after arriving in the Red Kingdom, something happened. The Red King would leave his abode for a couple of days.

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

you will be next," he transmitted

to calm herself down. "I understand, my King," she said

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

commander," the Red King transmitted one last time before

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

happened. No one spoke a word, and Cynthia didn't avert her gaze. By

Crck!

Cynthia had stood up. On top of that, her claws were out. When Gravis

like Cynthia didn't change

piece of rotten meat. She looked at him like he was the most

one else could hear her. "He has always been a kind and benevolent King, and he would have

the Red King wasn't here anymore. If the Red King were close by, she wouldn't be able to see