Lightning Is the Only Way

After a long time, Gravis was finally finished with the Laws. That last part had taken way too much time, but it was necessary.

Then, Gravis focused on the embryo of his small world.

He willed for life to exist.

And life began to exist.

Gravis willed life to take on certain shapes in the beginning.

He had chosen his targets that would increase his power.

However, he would make the life in his Cosmos different from Orthar's Cosmos.

What was Gravis' chosen lifeform?

Black Demons.

Black Demons would become the lifeforms with Spirits, and they would be the lifeforms that would have the most impact on his power in the future.

Gravis made no humans.

Black Demons would become the only sentient beings inside Gravis' Cosmos.

Then, Gravis created the beasts.

However, in comparison to the beasts in Orthar's Cosmos, Gravis didn't allow these beasts to reach a conscious state.

These beasts would only receive a rudimentary ability of communication, and they wouldn't have the intelligence to even comprehend the easiest Laws.

In Gravis' mind, Orthar had gone soft with the beasts. By giving them sentience later, Orthar was wasting Energy while bridging the divide between human and beast.

Not in Gravis' Cosmos.

In this Cosmos, beasts and Black Demons would be separated by an unbridgeable gap of sentience and self-awareness.

However, in exchange, Gravis gave the beasts a far more powerful physical body and a bloodline- based Law comprehension system.

The beasts could consume other living things to further their own Law Comprehension.

Their Law Comprehension and their abilities would fully stem from their own blood. The more Laws their blood had and the more powerful it became, the more the beasts could control the Laws in their surroundings.

The beasts wouldn't know how the Laws worked, but they would gain the ability to use their powers regardless.

With all of that, beasts wouldn't need time to grow powerful.

They would only need battle.

They didn't need comprehension.

Only battle.

Additionally, Gravis gave the beasts an incredible ability to multiply. Powerful beasts would multiply like cockroaches and would quickly become adults.

Of course, the tradeoff for all of that was that Gravis couldn't use the Laws and Will-Auras of the beasts in his Cosmos.

What was their purpose?

They had three purposes.

First, they would pull in a lot of Energy since they grew very powerful very quickly.

Second, they would serve as the primary tempering for the Black Demons.

Third, they would defend the Black Demons.

Defend the Black Demons?

That didn't make any sense.

By the sounds of it, the beasts would be the primary danger to the Black Demons' survival.

So, what would the beasts defend the Black Demons from?

Gravis created the beasts and Black Demons on the outskirts of the world. In comparison to Orthar's worlds, the Energy density of Gravis' worlds would gather on the edges. The closer one was to the edge of a world, the denser the Energy.

And in the middle of the world?

Gravis focused on his created Law of Death-based lifeforms.

Gravis had to give his all.

If he didn't try his absolute best, he wouldn't be able to avoid his destiny.

So, Gravis decided to make his own version of his father's Cosmos.

Gravis would make a world filled with Energy and Death.

It was incredibly dangerous.

It was insanely cruel.

If Gravis mishandled his Cosmos, it would turn into pure Death, and it would essentially vanish since Death couldn't keep a permanent state easily.

If Gravis had a choice, he wouldn't do that.

He didn't want to create a Cosmos of suffering.

Yet, he had to.

This could be the thing that decided the difference between survival and death for Gravis.

If he managed to get through this, he could always just eradicate the Death inside his Cosmos. Sure, that would also eradicate all his progress, but he could start anew.

As long as Gravis was safe, he could create a new one.

But for now, he needed power.

In the middle of Gravis' only world, monsters of Death appeared.

Revenants.

Ghosts.

Amalgamations of body parts.

Parasites.

Monsters made of nothing but tentacles.

Wheels filled with eyes.

Eyes with wings.

Tongues with teeth growing out of them.

Floating maws.

Gravis used abstract and monstrous forms for these lifeforms to create a feeling of wrongness and fear in both beasts and Black Demons.

They had to know that these things were their enemies.

They had to know that the Death-based lifeforms were the biggest threat to their survival.

They had to eradicate them!

They had to become powerful to survive!

Then, Gravis willed them into existence.

As soon as the Death-based lifeforms appeared, they turned the surroundings black.

A reviling odor of decay and stagnation filled their surroundings.

The Death-based lifeforms loved that smell, but the normal lifeforms hated and feared it.

War immediately broke out.

The Death-based lifeforms began to fight and devour each other, becoming more and more powerful in the process.

They couldn't comprehend Laws.

They could only become more powerful.

Their minds were filled with absolute violence, hatred, and pain.

Their existence was pain.

Their behavior was violence.

Their perception of the world was hatred.

The worst thing that had ever happened to them was existing.

Yet, they didn't have the mental faculties to comprehend it.

They were unable to imagine death.

They had to survive!

They had to eat!

They had to grow!

They had to destroy!

Everything was the enemy!

The beasts and the Black Demons began fighting very quickly, and the beasts also quickly began fighting with the Death-based lifeforms.

As the years passed, most of the beasts focused on the Death-based lifeforms. The Black Demons were on the edge of the world, and the beasts separated them from the Death-based lifeforms.

The Black Demons tried to survive the never-ending tide of beasts.

However, they failed.

The Black Demons were eradicated.

It had simply been too much.

Gravis had expected something like that. Finding the perfect balance on his first try was impossible. He would need to tweak everything again and again until the Black Demons would just barely be able to survive as long as every single member swore their entire life to fighting for survival. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

Years upon years passed with Gravis recreating the Black Demons and even the beasts again and again.

Eventually, the Black Demons just barely managed to survive.

However, every member had to fight.

Children had to be thrown into life-and-death fights.

War was constant.

Happiness didn't exist.

Freedom didn't exist.

Everything that Gravis strived for didn't exist in his Cosmos.

Gravis' eyes became bloodshot with rage and hatred as he watched his Cosmos be ravaged by nothing but hatred and violence.

Yet, it was necessary!

He had to!

He hated himself for doing all of this, but there was no other way!

He had to make an infinite amount of lifeforms live an existence akin to torture in order to avoid his destiny!

There was a word in Orthar's Cosmos, unknown to these war-torn lands.

Peace.

This concept didn't exist.

In Orthar's Cosmos, Gravis opened his eyes as he smiled.

"I'm ready for the next step," he said, seemingly excited.

Orthar couldn't see Gravis' Cosmos, and Gravis had to appear like he hadn't just created the antithesis of happiness and freedom.

Mortis had also already finished.

Orthar looked at the two of them and nodded.

"Then, for the strengthening process."