A man appeared.
In front of Gravis flew a middle-aged man with silver hair. His robes were black and white, and on his back, he carried a peculiar sword. It was over a meter long and slightly curved. It was thin, and it only had one edge. The last time Gravis saw a sword like this was in the lower world when he fought someone from the Fire Guild.
The sword radiated an incredible power of cutting, even more powerful than the cutting power of Storm. For a second, Gravis was confused. What could cut even better than the Element of Storm?
However, the more Gravis felt the aura of the sword, the more he felt familiarity.
'Space?' Gravis thought with confusion. 'Space can cut with such ferocity?'
The Spirit Sense of the new arrival extended, and he noticed Gravis and Siral. His eyes immediately fell on Siral, and he ignored Gravis.
"He is not your opponent," Gravis said.
The man looked at Gravis.
WHOOOOOM!
He activated his Will-Aura, which was on the level of a Peak Immortal King. His Will-Aura was just as powerful as Gravis' Will-Aura, but there were five levels between them.
By all intents and purposes, Gravis should be unable to move right now. The difference in Will-Aura was so much that Gravis would be suppressed by 100%.
WHOOOM!
Gravis' Avatar appeared, and it shone as brightly as never before.
Gravis could still move, but his eyes narrowed. 'My Avatar is at its limit,' he thought. 'This has never happened before.'
Gravis' Avatar was shaking, and it looked like it was close to breaking. It was like it was using 100% of its full power to resist the suppression of the enemy's Will-Aura.
'Generally speaking, the power of an Immortal King is associated with level five Laws. My Law of Freedom is a level four Law, but since it is also my Avatar, it has the power of a level five Law. The enemy's Will-Aura is at the peak of the Immortal King Realm, which means that its strength should also be at the peak of a level five Law.'
'This means that if my opponent had a Will-Aura at the level of an Immortal Emperor, I would be suppressed by some degree. Sure enough, if my Avatar of Freedom could protect me against every suppressive power, no matter how powerful, there wouldn't be different levels of Freedom.'
The man looked at Gravis' Avatar with intensity. He had never seen such an Avatar, and he could not tell what kind of Law this was.
Gravis moved closer a little bit to demonstrate that he could still move, but there were still kilometers between them. The eyes of the man slightly widened in surprise. He had expected that Gravis wouldn't be able to move.
"As I've said, I'm your opponent," Gravis said.
The man studied Gravis more closely. "You were the one that killed my granddaughter?" he asked.
"Yes," Gravis directly said.
Gravis could see hatred in the man's eyes when he heard that Gravis confirmed it.
"Are you speaking the truth, or are you simply there to take the fall for your master?" the man said as he gazed at Siral.
"I am the master, and he is the servant," Gravis said.
"And you think I would believe something like that?" the man said coldly.
Then, Gravis did the first thing he had planned.
He took out his Life Ring and showed it to the man.
Why!?
If people knew that he had a Life Ring, they would hunt him down!
Even Peak Sects would hunt him down!
"This is a Slave Ring," Gravis said, and the man narrowed his eyes.
For a moment, Gravis had been nervous, but that had vanished when he saw the glint of greed in the man's eyes.
The more valuable Gravis was, the more the man would want to keep Gravis' identity a secret. If the man could get the Life Ring and offer it to the Life Sect, he would earn an insane amount of wealth.
If this were only a matter of enmity and revenge, the man might call someone to help him in this fight if he realized that he might die. However, if he did that now, he would need to share the Life Ring with that other person as well. Additionally, the other person could inform the Life Sect of the Life Ring and act like the man didn't intend to hand it over. At that point, the man would not only not get his reward, but he would also die.
Gravis revealed his Life Ring for precisely this reason.
Gravis had to be certain that no third party would get involved.
The streams of red and brown Energy were already fusing in Gravis' stomach. When Gravis had realized Arc's plan, he had eaten the third fruit. He couldn't show the fruit to the guy, or he might realize what kind of Law Gravis was trying to comprehend.
"Interesting," the man said as he fully turned towards Gravis. "You showed this ring on purpose, hoping that I won't call someone else to interfere."
Gravis wasn't perturbed by these words. This was an open scheme, which meant that it was irrelevant if the opponent knew the goal of the scheme or not. It would work either way.
"This means you are confident," the man said. "Tell me, what makes you so confident? Is it your servant?"
"No, my servant won't involve himself," Gravis said.
"So, you're saying that you believe you have the power to contend with me?" the man asked.
"I do," Gravis said, and the man's eyes narrowed. "I have killed several beings four levels above me already, and you are the first opponent that's five levels above me. I have waited for you for a long time."
"You expected my arrival?" the man asked with narrowed eyes.
"You are supposed to be my servant's tribulation," Gravis said. "However, I will be overtaking his tribulation for today since I need to push myself to my absolute limits."
The man inspected Gravis closely, but he didn't see any kind of nervousness on Gravis. Someone like Gravis shouldn't be able to lie to him, which meant that Gravis was either a masterful liar that knew the Law of Lies, or he was telling the truth.
"Commendable," the man said. "I respect someone with a powerful Battle-Strength. If you had not killed my granddaughter, we could have been friends. Alas, you won't see tomorrow."
The man slowly took out his sword, and it started to warp and change. Space was bending around it.
"You don't act like someone from the Primordial Force Sect," Gravis said. "Are you per-chance from the Purist Sect?"
The man raised an eyebrow. "Quite a clever boy. Yes, I'm from the Purist Sect," the man said. "I know the Law of Primordial Force, but the Primordial Force Sect is not to my liking."
Gravis also took out his saber. He had sent Siral to buy a ton of extremely powerful materials and created a lot of weapons. It was important to be as prepared as possible.
When the man saw Gravis' saber, he scoffed, but then he realized something, and his eyes narrowed. "Your weapon has only been forged with the Hard Pure Law, but it has several attributes that do not conform to the Law. Did this weapon come from an Ironworker?" the man asked.
Gravis hadn't heard about Ironworkers before, but he could tell what they did, based on context clues. Ironworkers were probably Forgers that knew several Battle Laws of the Core Element, which increased the power of a weapon. Forgers with a metal affinity were very rare, which made these weapons highly sought after.
"Just something I made myself," Gravis said.
Usually, the man would never believe that Gravis could be an Ironworker, but Gravis appeared very peculiar and unique in the man's eyes.
"An unknown Avatar and an Ironworker. A Slave Ring and a Slave four levels above yourself. Maybe it's not impossible that you are as powerful as you claim."
"Fine," the man said as his eyes became sharp. "I accept you as a powerful opponent, even though you are so many levels below me. Take it as a sign of respect from me."
"My name is Eran," the man said. "My Avatar is of the Law of Primordial Force, and I know the level five Law of Space Manipulation."
Gravis took a deep breath when he heard Eran's introduction. 'Sure enough, he knows a level five Law. Right now, I don't feel like I can win, but that is only considering my current power. If I can't grow in this fight, I will die.'
"I am Gravis," Gravis said, "and I have far too many Laws to introduce, which is why I won't introduce them."
The man wasn't surprised. Someone who could fight four levels above oneself had to know an insane amount of powerful Laws.
The man could easily judge the battle style of his opponents with a single glance, but he couldn't judge the battle style of Gravis. Gravis showed no peculiar aura for any kind of Law or fighting style.
Yet, that was not entirely accurate. It was more like Gravis was showing all of the signs for all kinds of battle styles at once.
The man immediately saw Gravis' biggest power.
Variety.
Flexibility.
Adaptability.
Creativity.
However, instead of growing more respectful, the man felt disdain.
Gravis was the perfect antithesis to him.
"Jack of all trades, master of none," the man said. "In front of ultimate offense, all your powers are useless."
"Why don't you try it?" Gravis asked with a smile as he readied himself.
"Hmph."
SHING!
And Gravis' left arm was cut off.
