After releasing the scammer, Gravis sighed and transformed back into his human form. He also deactivated his Will-Aura, which had still been active during the time he was thinking. The surroundings calmed down, and the eagle-eyed guards stopped paying attention to Gravis. As long as he was not destroying or hurting anyone without their consent, they didn't care.
"You look troubled," Yersi said in a soft tone as she came closer.
Gravis sighed again. "This confrontation has given me a lot to think about," Gravis said solemnly.
Yersi felt a bit nervous, and Gravis noticed.
Pack!
Gravis put his hand on Yersi's scaly head and stroked her for a little bit. "You don't need to worry about me," he said with a warm smile. "I won't just disappear like Orthar. I simply need some time to think about things."
Yersi felt a bit embarrassed, but she also felt relieved when Gravis reassured her that he wouldn't disappear.
"Gravis, I'm sorry for getting involved," Jake said as he also came closer.
"It's alright," Gravis said. "You couldn't have known about my power. You only wanted to help, and I understand. Maybe I shouldn't have used such an aggressive tone towards you."
Jake was relieved when he heard Gravis. Jake was far more powerful than Gravis, but Gravis was one of the most important people to Yersi. Jake truly loved Yersi, and if Gravis disapproved of him, there could be consequences for his relationship with Yersi.
"That's good. Thank you," Jake said.
Gravis nodded. "Right now, you're not part of the family, but in the future, you might be. Just treat Yersi with honesty. That's all that I want. As long as you do that, you and I will have no problems with each other."
Jake felt a bit reassured by Gravis' words. He hadn't intended to betray Yersi or anything similar in the first place. This meant that there would be no issues between them.
"I need to think and concentrate on my Laws," Gravis said. "We can hang out some other time, but right now, I need to be alone."
Yersi still felt worried about Gravis. Something wasn't right with him, but she also knew that she couldn't help. Something that stumped even her father wouldn't be something that she could help with. She could only offer her support with his problems.
The three of them said their goodbyes, and Gravis quickly went back to his room. He already had the Virtualization Array for Frost, but he didn't immediately activate it. He simply sat in his room and tried to think of a solution to his problem.
How would he even go about solving this issue?
Every solution Gravis could think of was unfair. Letting his lightning run wild would endanger his life and would suppress his true self, maybe forever. So, this was not an option.
What about comprehending the more powerful Law of Freedom to suppress his lightning? This was also a bad idea. After all, his lightning was also a victim in this case.
If Gravis looked at his lightning like it was another person, right now, it would be like a person that was inside another person's body without any ability to do something. Gravis' Spirit acted as an actualization of the ethereal will of lightning. Thanks to Gravis' Spirit, his lightning was able to think for itself and come to its own conclusions.
The fact that Gravis had been able to reason with his lightning in the past was proof of that. Being able to think but not being able to act or do what it wanted was one of the cruelest forms of Suppression.
Yet, if his lightning left his body, it would be like it died. It would lose access to Gravis' Spirit, and therefore also lose its rationality, personality, and self. This would be no different from death.
So, in short, they were both stuck in this together. No matter who was in control, one of them would always be suppressed.
Swapping control? That wouldn't work. They were inside the same Spirit, mind, and body. No one would want to see themselves do things they severely disagreed with. This was not some dissociative personality disorder. They were not two separate beings, but the same being with different mindsets. The borders between them were far blurrier.
On top of that, Gravis had been the one that invited the lightning into his Spirit. It didn't force itself into Gravis, but Gravis opened the door for it, knowing what could happen. This was a consequence of his own action.
Additionally, this wasn't just some stranger. Gravis had benefited from his intrinsic connection with lightning for several thousand years. Without it, he would have surely already died.
So, right now, Gravis felt like he had pulled an innocent bystander into his house and forced them to work for him without giving them any payment. This was not something that Gravis wanted to do at all. Gravis loved freedom, and because of that, his mindset also abhorred suppressing others.
Yet, he was suppressing a dear and helpful friend of his right now.
"Freedom can only be taken by the person themselves," Gravis said. "Yet, my freedom automatically means the suppression of my other self, if it even is another self of mine. I'm still not certain of that."
"If I annihilate the will of my lightning, if that's even possible, it would be like killing it. If I give it control over my body, it would be like killing myself. By swapping, none of us would be happy. As soon as anything significant happens, we both would want to take control. We wouldn't be willing to see something, in our minds, terrible being committed by ourselves," Gravis said to himself.
Gravis sighed.
"I'm sorry," Gravis said, "but I need to stay in control. I know you very well, but I also don't know you at all. I can only stay in control until I find a solution to this problem. Right now, I don't have any other choice but to suppress you."
"When I ever find a solution to this issue, you can be angry all you want."
Obviously, this didn't calm his lightning at all.
Lightning hated being suppressed, and no matter what Gravis said, it would continue to hate it.
Gravis only said these words for himself because he knew that his words changed nothing. The situation would still continue until there was a solution. There would be no immediate consequences now, but in the future, all of this might change.
At the latest, the consequences would rear their ugly head when Gravis needed to use Divine Lightning in order to survive. This time would come at some point.
Gravis was certain of it.
This meant that he had to find a solution until then.
Sadly, no amount of thinking could solve the issue right now. No matter what powers Gravis used, he wouldn't be able to solve the issue. He didn't even think to ask his father or anyone else about this because this was his problem, which he had caused. He was an adult, and he had to deal with this problem.
After several more hours of thinking, Gravis finally gave up. He didn't have the power to change anything right now, but that didn't mean that he would never have the power. As long as he became more powerful, he might be able to find a solution.
So, Gravis started to comprehend Frost.
Only power would give him a chance to find a solution for this issue.
