Gravis didn’t wait for another second after the leader of the guards told him to enter. He walked through the door and looked at the guild behind the gates. Just like he had seen from far away, he saw a lot of imposing buildings. What he hadn’t seen from a distance though were all the disciples walking around. It was actually very lively in the Lightning Guild, and a lot of disciples walked around the streets. This Lightning Guild was not as desolate as the Proxy-Lightning Guild.
Gravis saw a lot of people peddling their wares and even sparring a little. He could even see signs for different shops. There were probably many disciples who tried to sell stuff that wasn’t exchangeable in the Exchange Hall or things that were sold at a lower price than in the hall. The Exchange Hall probably only accepted Energy Stones as currency, but trading with other disciples would remove the currency restriction.
Some of the disciples noticed Gravis, and their expression quickly changed. Nearly every single disciple looked at him like he had killed their family, which was also probably not far from the truth. The disciples looked at each other like they were actual brothers and sisters, so it was understandable why they reacted like this. Gravis tried not to let those venomous glances discourage him. He only had to reach the peak in this world. Everything would resolve itself then.
BANG!
One guy picked up a stone and threw it at Gravis violently, shouting "traitor!" The disciple was in the third level of Energy Gathering, and he had only used his physical strength, so the stone did nothing more than stain Gravis’ robe a little.
BANG!
One of the guards rushed to the disciple and hit him in the stomach with the butt of his spear. The disciple keeled over and fell to the floor, clutching his abdomen. The other disciples were first shocked and then enraged. They seemed like they were about to riot as they started shouting insults at Gravis. Gravis just crossed his arms and waited with narrowed eyes.
"Stop!" a mighty shout from the leader of the guards echoed throughout the whole Lightning Guild. The leader was in the ninth level of Energy Gathering, and his shout shook the disciple’s bodies. "We know how you feel, but he is now a representative of the Heaven Sect! Everything that happens to him inside the Lightning Guild will fall back onto our shoulders!" he explained with his loud voice.
If anyone else had thrown a stone at Gravis, he would thrash the person, but Gravis accepted it from the Lightning Guild’s disciples. He had killed their family, and they were not unjustified in their anger. The stone didn’t even tickle him, so Gravis let the matter pass. If it had actually hurt him, he might have acted differently.
"The Lightning Guild apologizes to the Heaven Sect," said the leader of the guards, only showing the bare minimum of courtesy. The guards were not apologizing to him, but to the Heaven Sect.
"It’s alright. It didn’t hurt, so I will let it slide," Gravis said.
The guards and disciples were surprised that Gravis let this insult just pass like that. Wasn’t he the enemy of the Lightning Guild? Of course, they were only surprised, and their feelings towards Gravis had not changed by even a little bit.
"Follow me," said the leader of the guards as he continued walking, while the other three guards surrounded Gravis. They probably wanted to intimidate him and to make it as uncomfortable as possible for Gravis. Gravis didn’t object since they would just say that this was for protection. He just ignored them.
Gravis followed the leader of the guards until they arrived at a massive, black palace. It was nearly as big as the palace of the Heaven Sect, but Gravis could judge that the monetary value of both palaces was like Heaven and Earth. Gravis had seen the storage of the Heaven Sect, and he also felt like the material the Heaven Sect’s castle was made out of was way superior to this castle. Even with tens of thousands of disciples, the Lightning Guild probably couldn’t compare to the Heaven Sect in wealth.
Other guards were standing before the castle, all four of them in the ninth level of Energy Gathering. The leader of the guards escorting Gravis explained the situation to the other guards, and they nodded after a while. The guards from the entrance of the guild left, while the guards from the palace surrounded Gravis.
"Show the proof of the mission," demanded one guard, and Gravis felt some pressure. Gravis’ eyes narrowed as he looked at the guard. The guard was actually releasing his Will-Aura on him. Yet, how could this newly created Will-Aura compare with Gravis’? Gravis didn’t care about the Will-Aura and just showed the shining dossiers.
The guards were surprised that Gravis ignored the Will-Aura of their captain. They narrowed their eyes at Gravis and realized that Gravis was not as simple as they had thought. Nevertheless, they acknowledged the official dossiers and opened the door for Gravis. "Follow me," the leader of the guards told him.
Gravis followed them into the castle, and they walked up multiple stairs. It took a while to get to the top, but when they did, the guards stopped and blocked the stairs. The leader stepped forward and pointed at a majestic door at the end of the hallway. "Go inside," he said coldly.
Gravis could already guess who was behind that door. Gravis didn’t hesitate and walked to the door, but it didn’t open. "You need to use your lightning," Gravis heard the leader say from the back. Gravis followed his advice and infused his lightning into the door.
WROOM!
The door shook and then opened by itself. Gravis entered, and the door behind him shut immediately. Gravis didn’t see the absolutely confused and shocked looks of the guards. They wanted to embarrass him because the door was only openable by people at the fifth level of Energy Gathering. Gravis was at the fourth level, and it was absolutely impossible for him to open it. What was going on?
Gravis looked at the hall behind the door. Many decorations of lightning and clouds adorned the room while the light grew brighter and dimmer at times, similar to the light released by a lightning strike. Around the room, Gravis could see a lot of people sitting on different kinds of thrones. Most of the people were, at least, middle-aged or older, though not all of them.
All the people sat around the middle of the hall. Most of them sat on black thrones with nine sharp spikes coming out of the top of their thrones. Gravis guessed that those spikes probably represented that those people were in the ninth level of Energy Gathering, the widely accepted highest level of Energy Gathering in this lower world. Only a very select few ever reached the tenth level.
At the end of the hall, Gravis saw three people sitting on different thrones. One throne was more prominent than all others and had a middle-aged man sitting on it. Gravis saw how the man used his strength to try to crush some metal balls in one of his hand, but without success.
The other two thrones were slightly smaller than the previous one, and they were also placed a little lower. Gravis saw those three thrones and could infer that those three people were probably in the Spirit Forming Realm.
’I didn’t expect three people in the Spirit Forming Realm to welcome me,’ Gravis thought.