A 250-meter-tall version of Gravis escaped out of the fallen Life Ring. This had been a gamble because if the Emperor's attack had been a wide-range attack, the Life Ring might have gotten destroyed along with Gravis' weaker body. Fortunately, Gravis had judged the personality of the Emperor correctly.
What exactly had happened? How was Gravis a level four King suddenly?
When the Emperor appeared, Gravis told the Commander that he would confiscate all the corpses and consume them to become a level four King. If the Emperor were a traitor, Gravis would fight him and buy time for the defensive line to retreat. If the Emperor weren't a traitor, Gravis would pay the corpses back in the future.
As soon as that happened, Gravis put half of his being into the Life Ring and consumed the corpses, becoming a level four King. Gravis was sure that the Emperor was a traitor, which was why he didn't even hesitate to consume the corpses. The long talk he had with the Emperor previously was enough time for him to finish his evolution.
Additionally, the new Gravis was not naked. He was currently wearing a red-black suit of armor. Since he had already seen the element of his future opponent, he created a suit of armor suitable for the fight. Of course, Gravis wasn't powerful enough to manipulate materials at the Law Comprehension Rank, which had been an issue.
Well, it would have been an issue if Gravis didn't already know a lot about Hard Complex Materials.
By mixing some materials together, Gravis managed to create a material that was stronger than Peak Nascent Nourishing Rank but weaker than Initial Law Comprehension Rank. These materials didn't exist naturally, so Gravis had to create them.
Of course, since Gravis didn't know the full Hard Complex Material Law, he couldn't fully take advantage of the material. He was only able to manipulate it with his Hard Pure and Medium Pure Material Laws, which meant that the armor and weapons weren't any stronger than a Half-Step Law Comprehension Rank Material that had been forged with a level one Law. Yet, this still allowed him to create the suitable material he needed.
Gravis also infused the armor and weapons with Pure-Fire Ash, which increased its resistance to fire. Usually, such armor would melt very quickly when it came into contact with a fire Emperor. Yet, with the Pure-Fire Ash, Gravis' armor was powerful enough to resist the usage of a level one Fire Law. Only the level two Law that the Emperor knew would be able to destroy his armor.
Gravis was fully prepared for his fight with the traitorous Emperor. "Everyone flee and inform the surrounding Empires!" Gravis shouted as the Emperor still looked with shock at Gravis. Gravis should be dead! Why was he still alive!?
After around a second, the Emperor narrowed his eyes. He had made his choice, and now he needed to commit to it!
BRRRRR! BANG!
Fierce fire came out of the Emperor's right front claw, and he attacked Gravis with it. Gravis immediately blocked with his shield, and the fire exploded violently.
BANG!
Gravis shot into the water below them, creating a massive fountain of steam. The explosion had increased the heat of Gravis' armor and shield to insane levels, which made all the water in the surroundings boil.
About 20 level four Kings from the defensive line died due to the explosion.
"Run!" the Commander ordered to the defensive line, which quickly recovered. Then, all the Kings scattered in all directions.
"No one will escape today!" the Emperor shouted with cold eyes as 200 fire-spears shot out from his body. Even such a scattered attack would kill every King in the vicinity. All the fleeing Kings felt their lives flash before their eyes. A lot of them managed to comprehend Laws in this time of crisis, but that wouldn't help them.
Whooosh!
Yet, instead of chasing the Kings, the fire spears continued shooting in a straight line, only killing another 25 of the Kings.
The Emperor's eyes widened in shock. Why couldn't he control his fire remotely!? Meanwhile, the surviving Kings almost couldn't believe that they were still alive. Yet, they only fled even faster. They couldn't think about what was happening right now. Only their survival was important now!
Seeing the fleeing Kings, the Emperor tried to shoot more spears after them, but before he could release the spears, he had to redirect his attack.
All the summoned fire-spears angled towards Gravis, who was charging at him. As soon as the fire-spears shot at Gravis, he destroyed the will upon them and activated his Will-Aura as well as his Law of Suppression. The attacks were scattered attacks, and each one of them only had enough power to kill a level four King.
SSSSHHHH!
The Law of Suppression weakened the attacks immensely, and when Gravis used his Law of Fire Composition, all the fire-spears vanished into nothingness. These fire-spears were simply too weak.
Gravis closed in on the Emperor with his full speed and loaded his saber with a Lightning Crescent. He hadn't had enough time to pre-load a Lightning Crescent, which forced him to create a new one. Then, Gravis shot the Lightning Crescent directly at the Emperor.
BRRRRR!
The Emperor felt the power of the Lightning Crescent and knew that he had to use everything to defend himself. A gigantic pillar of fire appeared in front of him, destroying all the water below him. Fire wasn't good in defense, but its attack could exhaust the Energy of its enemy's attack.
This fire pillar wasn't as weak and scattered as the spears. Gravis' Law of Suppression only weakened it as much as the Emperor himself, which was around 20%. Then Gravis' Law of Fire Composition weakened it by another 50%, making the fire pillar only a bit more powerful than the fire-defense of a level five King.
Gravis' Lightning Crescent shot through the fire pillar, but it had been weakened quite a bit. The traitorous Emperor saw the Lightning Crescent closing in on him and curled into a ball as fire came out of his body in an effort to defend himself.
BOOOOOOOM!
The Lightning Crescent exploded with a violent explosion that took out the surrounding ten kilometers. If the defensive line hadn't fled by now, every beast in the surroundings would have died.
The explosion vanished just as quickly, and the Emperor appeared before Gravis again. A lot of his scales were cracked, and some small bits of blood came out of his skin. Yet, that was only a slight injury that could be healed in about an hour.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
Suddenly, an even more powerful Lightning Crescent hit the Emperor. Before shooting out his first Lightning Crescent, Gravis had gathered the scattered parts of corpses that had survived the Emperor's attacks. This was also a reason why Gravis hadn't stopped the Emperor's initial attack, which had been targeted at the fleeing defensive line. Gravis needed the corpses!
Yet, instead of feeling great, Gravis only narrowed his eyes further. Before the second Lightning Crescent had hit the Emperor, something had appeared in front of him, blocking the Lightning Crescent and making it explode prematurely. Something powerful enough to make a fully powered Lightning Crescent explode had to be the Emperor's level two Law!
As the explosion vanished, the Emperor appeared in front of Gravis again. This time, nearly all his scales were gone, and the muscles that showed were blackened severely. His whole body had been burned beyond recognition. This was a severe injury for an Emperor, but not a lethal one.
CRRR! BRK! CRACK!
The burned muscles were pushed away as new muscle tissue replaced them. Then, a new layer of skin and scales quickly appeared. This whole regeneration had only taken less than a second.
Now, the Emperor had a fully recovered body again. Yet, his breathing was heavy, and Gravis could feel that the Emperor's Life Energy had lessened severely. The Emperor had used two Laws to transform Life Energy directly to physical health, and Gravis knew of both of these Laws. He hadn't comprehended them yet, but he knew that they existed.
'The Law of Muscle Growth and the Law of Skin Growth,' Gravis thought. 'Healing such an insane injury probably cost him nearly 80% of his Life Energy. Yet, if he wants to keep living, he can't allow himself to use much more, maybe 10% more, but that would already be risky.'
Life Energy was responsible for keeping the bodies of beings alive. If the Life Energy went to 10% or lower, their body would slowly start to break down and get injured with time. To heal these injuries, the being would then need to use more Life Energy. At that point, the usage of Life Energy would become greater than its regeneration, which meant that death was not far off.
If Life Energy were reduced to 0%, the body would simply stop being alive. At that point, the body would fall apart like it had never been connected before.
Yet, the Emperor had a fully healed body now. This meant that his Battle-Strength was not hindered in any way. Additionally, since this regeneration cost Life Energy and not normal Energy, he still had a lot of Energy left to fight.
The Emperor glared with hate at Gravis, while Gravis glared back with his raised saber. Even now, the Emperor hadn't returned to his actual size, but that also wasn't necessary.
Lords could shrink their bodies by ten times. Kings could shrink their bodies to anything between their true size and a small fixed size. So, what could Emperors do? Emperors could shrink their bodies like Kings, but in comparison to Kings, their power didn't decrease. This meant that an Emperor was just as powerful in their miniature form as they were in their big form.
Meanwhile, Gravis was 250-meters-tall, towering over the tiny lizard. Yet, the tiny lizard was the more powerful and more dangerous one. Oftentimes, sizes were deceptive.
"Everyone is gone," Gravis commented.
The Emperor had also noticed that every beast had fled, but that didn't interest him right now. Right now, only Gravis was inside his eyes.
Gravis readied his saber. 'All corpses are used up. My lightning is down to 20%, as is my Spirit. I don't even have enough power to injure him right now. This means that I have to survive until everything recovers again.'
'As I am right now, I wouldn't be able to survive for so long. This means that I need to comprehend at least one new Law to survive. If I can't comprehend one, I will die today.'
Outside, Gravis looked solemn, but inside, he was smiling crazily.
'That's exactly the situation I wanted! Comprehend or die! There is no third choice!' Gravis thought as he watched the Emperor prepare something powerful.
Now, it was the Emperor's turn to attack!
