What could possibly have happened that it stopped Orthar from ascending? The only two things Gravis could think of were Meadow or Heaven interfering. Yet, if Heaven interfered, Orthar wouldn't be alive anymore. Keeping troublemakers alive was not something that Heaven usually did.
"What happened?" Gravis asked.
"Someone contacted me, telling me that you were still in this world and that I only had to wait for you to reappear," Orthar said.
"Did you know that voice? Was it Meadow?" Gravis asked.
"It was not the ruler," Orthar said. "It was a male voice. His voice radiated with an indescribable feeling of authority and power. When I heard his voice, it felt like existence itself was talking to me. When I heard him, my entire being rejected his voice. It was like my being couldn't acknowledge that someone like this even existed."
"Oh!" Gravis said. "That was probably my father."
"Your father?" Orthar asked. "You have told me that he is impossibly powerful. Yet, is he so powerful that he can even see my actions from your homeworld?"
Gravis nodded. "Father watches over me when I'm in another world. He does that to ensure that Heaven doesn't pull something sneaky. He knows that we are companions and informed you to wait. Since he contacted you, it also means that he has probably agreed that you can come home with me."
Orthar remained silent for a while. "So, I have come into contact with one of the two most powerful beings in existence," Orthar commented quietly.
"Eh," Gravis said with a dismissive wave. "He's not so bad. I'll introduce you to him when we return to the highest world."
Orthar wasn't sure if he actually wanted to meet the owner of that voice. His whole being told him that he shouldn't come into contact with that person. Orthar felt that if he came into contact with the Opposer, he would have broken a taboo. It would feel like he had done something unforgivable.
Gravis noticed Orthar's subtle change and groaned. "Oh, come on," Gravis said. "Father is just a human. Meanwhile, you have an incredible amount of tentacles, and there are eyes all over your entire body. As far as I see, you look like the one that someone wouldn't want to meet."
Yes, Orthar's appearance had changed. Instead of only having eight tentacles, Orthar was basically oozing with many thin and long tentacles. Additionally, there were a ton of eyes all over his body.
"Man, if I didn't know you, I would think that you look like-"
Gravis suddenly stopped.
Yes, there had been another being that looked similar to Orthar.
Orthar noticed that Gravis stopped talking and grew interested. He hadn't expected such a reaction from Gravis.
"Orthar," Gravis said evenly, "why have you chosen this form?"
Orthar noticed the change of tone in Gravis' voice transmission. Gravis didn't sound like his usual, friendly self. Instead, he sounded highly suspicious, like he suspected Orthar to be a traitor.
"I feel closer to the Laws with this form," Orthar said. "When I became an Emperor, I have decided to let the Laws guide my evolution. That was how I ended up with so many eyes."
Gravis looked with concentration at Orthar, like he wanted to discern if Orthar was speaking the truth. After looking at Orthar for a while, Gravis sighed.
Orthar's explanation made a lot of sense. After all, hadn't Azure chosen a similar form to a human's for the same reason?
"Good," Gravis said. "That makes sense."
"Gravis," Orthar said. "You seem to know something about why this form makes me feel closer to the Laws. Please, tell me."
Gravis noticed that Orthar said please, which was something that beasts didn't really do. Apparently, he had gained quite some experience in acting like a human.
Gravis sighed again. "It's logical that this form makes you feel closer to the Laws."
"After all, you look very similar to Heaven," Gravis said.
The Heaven from the lower world had looked like a long, black worm with a ton of eyes. Meanwhile, Orthar also had a ton of eyes. This strange and unnatural aspect of having so many eyes made them look similar. Additionally, if one cut off one of Orthar's eye-filled tentacles, one would think this tentacle to be a Heaven.
"I look like Heaven?" Orthar asked. For once, he was actually surprised. He had no idea how Heaven actually looked like, but he had subconsciously taken a similar form? Was that possible?
While Orthar was thinking about his appearance, Gravis also noticed other things. Orthar's cold and logical mindset in managing a power also resembled Heaven's conduct. Orthar only looked at the gains with no care for any feelings of loyalty or companionship.
If Orthar were leading a world instead of Heaven, Gravis guessed that Orthar would act very similarly to Heaven.
Yet, there was also a difference between individual Heavens. Orthar wasn't similar at all to the lower Heaven. The lower Heaven had acted like a child with too much power. Additionally, it was far too incompetent.
Orthar also wasn't similar to the middle Heaven. This middle Heaven followed its ancestor's orders like they were holy decrees. Following orders without thinking for oneself didn't fit Orthar.
Instead, Orthar seemed more similar to the highest Heaven.
Both of them followed cold logic. Both of them used every means to get as many gains as possible. Additionally, both of them were incredibly good at scheming. The highest Heaven was so good at scheming that not even Gravis' father, the Opposer, could see through all of Heaven's actions.
'Is this one of Heaven's schemes, or is this just a coincidence?' Gravis thought. 'It's very possible that Orthar truly only chose this form to become closer to the Laws, but it's also possible that he has been specifically created by Heaven to make me empathize with it.'
'If I have a close friend that's very similar to Heaven, I may develop some feelings of understanding towards Heaven, which makes it more likely for me to forgive it for its past conduct. Yet, it's also possible that it is just a coincidence.'
Then, Gravis remembered something that threw his suspicions out of the window.
'If this was one of Heaven's schemes, father wouldn't have stopped Orthar from ascending. There is no way that father wouldn't have noticed if Heaven did something. Additionally, Heaven had no idea to which world I would go to. Father has chosen the world, and he only told me about it when it was time for me to leave.'
"Forget it," Gravis said. "I was overthinking."
Orthar wasn't sure what Gravis meant with that comment, but he remained silent. If Gravis didn't want to tell him something, he wouldn't ask.
"So, what happened in the past 600 years?" Gravis asked.
Then, Orthar told Gravis about all the changes.
First of all, there were no Ultimates left. There were two level five Emperors, and both of them didn't count as Ultimates. One of them was Orthar, and the other was the ruler of all beings, Meadow.
As far as everyone knew, such a situation had never happened before. There had never been a time when there hadn't been, at least, one Ultimate.
The next thing was that the number of level four Emperors became frighteningly low. Right now, there were only five level four Emperors left that Orthar knew of. Two were from the sea beasts, while the three others were from the land beasts.
That development was explicitly something that Orthar had created. The reason for that was control.
Right now, the southern, western, and northern regions of the land beasts had one level four Emperor each. Yet, realistically, the land beasts only had one level four Emperor. That was because of one of Orthar's actions which made it impossible for them to coordinate an attack.
After the sea beasts had taken over the eastern third of the continent, they stopped expanding outward. The ruler, Meadow, had decreed that everyone would get a half. Yet, she hadn't said how the half had to be distributed.
Because of that, Orthar had only taken a third of the world and then created two mighty rivers. The rivers started at the Grand Lake and ended in the ocean. Each one was over 100.000 kilometers wide, far wider than any beast sense could reach.
These two rivers split the three territories of the land beasts apart. One river went through the northwest, while the other went through the southwest of the continent. Like this, the three remaining territories couldn't talk to each other without invading the territory of the sea beasts.
Additionally, Orthar hadn't taken his entire 50% yet. He could still get another 5% of the total area without breaking Meadow's decree. This made it impossible for any level four Emperor to leave their territory and communicate with another territory.
After all, if one of them left, the sea beasts would know that this territory had no level four Emperor protecting it. This would leave the territory vulnerable to an opportunity attack. None of the three regions wanted to be the one that would lose a ton of their land.
This created a scenario where the sea beasts had less territory but were in complete control. They could decide when and where to attack.
This distribution had created a proverbial meatgrinder. Back then, there had only been two front lines. The southern and northern territory had had one frontline each, while the western territory had nothing.
Now, every territory was surrounded by sea beasts. The frontline stretched over their entire border. This intensified the war between beasts. Everyone was forced to participate in the war if they didn't want to get annihilated.
After all, one had to remember that Meadow ordered the territories to be split. She didn't order that the beasts were not allowed to enter the other's territory.
So, if the defenses of the land beasts failed, the sea beasts could roll over their region and kill every single beast while not claiming their territory for the sea.
This would transform the now three continents effectively into dead wastelands.
The war was as intense as never before, and the sea beasts were in full control.
Orthar had won the war.
