Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis wasn't sure how he should feel right now.

Joyce had definitely become someone that couldn't be saved anymore, and her actions were more than enough to kill her.

Yet, Gravis just couldn't forget the young girl he had met back then.

Joyce had traveled the lower world to hand out gifts for eventual repayment.

When Gravis had met Joyce again in her Clan, their start had been rough, but Joyce had even managed to convince Gravis somewhat that he was running away from his emotions.

Joyce had been a very kind girl back then, and she even had issues accepting when anyone died in front of her. She saw these deaths as unnecessary.

However, this was exactly one of the things that had drawn Gravis to her.

Gravis had been in a dark place back then, and he had acted like a cynical teenager. He had constantly told everyone how difficult he had it and how many bad things had happened to him.

In a sense, Joyce had been a pure and innocent light in a world of oppressive darkness for Gravis. Joyce had had something that Gravis had lost.

They had even promised each other that they would be together when they reached the highest world.

Sadly, they had both changed severely, and they were no longer compatible.

Mortis shared these same memories, and maybe that was also one of the reasons why he was even attracted to Joyce.

If Joyce and Mortis hadn't met each other before, they might not have ended up together. They weren't even truly that compatible.

'Maybe her extreme purity back then resulted in her becoming the other extreme,' Gravis thought with a sigh. 'Her innocence couldn't possibly have survived until now, even if she tried to preserve it.'

Joyce's death made Gravis think, but he didn't have any great emotional reaction to her death.

It was like Gravis had long accepted that Joyce would eventually die like this.

Because of that, Gravis' mind quickly went back to the deaths of his other friends.

Liam, Styr, Sary, Skye, Yi Lu, Siral.

them were

Gravis. "They made their choice, and they had known about the

Gravis said while looking at Joyce's corpse in the distance. "Everyone believes that they won't die. After all, it hasn't happened before. We know in our minds that we can die, but our emotions don't truly

that it has become normal. Being close to death is so normal that it doesn't feel as dangerous anymore. We've gone through it numerous times, and we have always managed

if they knew that they

Aris didn't answer.

but if I had to sacrifice my life, I don't know if I could do that for anyone, including

Gravis looked at Aris.

me, would you sacrifice your life for me?" Gravis

and shook

guilty when he gave his

Aris' shoulder. "Don't feel guilty. We are Cultivators, and we chase power so that we

gone through so much pain and have lived for so long that we can't give up now. The more we survive, the more we have invested. Surviving has reached an unfathomable level

someone else are the ones that have given up

listened to Gravis' words, and his guilt

feel guilty for feeling exactly like

in which

is negligible by now, you are still

A Forger can teach an Alchemist about forging, and an Alchemist can teach a Forger

learned different lessons. In our case, I just know a lot about Sentience and, by extension, intelligent life itself. That

Aris asked with

know a lot about lightning, but that mostly comes from my Spirit's disposition. If I didn't have the ability to just directly absorb Heavenly Lightning, you would know more about lightning than

when he heard that,

knowledge about lightning had always been far superior to his. He still remembered how Gravis had shown Aris how to use lightning properly, and even now, Gravis knew

weren't for that ability, Aris would be superior to Gravis right now in terms of Lightning

had overtaken Gravis in that

realized that he had truly grown

overtaken his father in one of

also knew that this wasn't actually worth that much. In the end, Battle-Strength was the most important thing, and Aris knew that he couldn't

Sect?" Gravis asked, changing the topic.

powerful than me since he

"Makes sense," Gravis commented.