The whole Heaven Sect waited for Gravis to return, but he never did. Aion couldn’t delay the departure anymore and led the Heaven Sect away, fuming with anger. ’When I return, I’ll tear you a new one, Gravis,’ he thought. Didn’t Gravis know how important this visit was? Was this how Gravis thanked him for all the work he had done?
Meanwhile, Gravis was sitting on top of Skye and flew to the east. Behind Gravis lay a gigantic banner about 20 meters long. ’They will travel for a total of six days and will stay for one. I doubt that Aion will return prematurely just because of me. So, they will be back exactly one week from now. I have one week to get as much tempering and wealth as possible, though I should probably stop after six days. Without a good head start, Aion might find me very quickly.’
Luckily, with Skye now being a high-grade Energy Beast, the way to Gravis’ destination was very short. It only took them one day. Gravis and Skye had left on the second day and arrived at their destination simultaneously as the Heaven Sect took off to their headquarter.
Gravis looked at the horizon. There, he saw a gigantic volcano, higher than any volcano or mountain he had ever seen. Just its base was already breaking through the clouds, and a lot of lava was running down its sides. The volcano was always active and spewed lava 24/7. Around the base of the volcano, Gravis could see a lot of buildings made of obsidian. People darted from one building to the other.
Obviously, that was the Fire Guild. Gravis looked around but couldn’t see any Energy Beasts or Energy Plants. It seemed like the strength of the Fire Guild was about the same as the Lightning Guild and couldn’t compare with the Wind Guild.
Gravis furrowed his brows as he saw some peculiar things. In the Wind Guild, no one fought, while he had seen some spars in the Lightning Guild. Yet, that was child’s play in comparison to the Fire Guild. Wherever he looked, he saw people fighting. They were even fighting along the communal toilets. Their battle intent was really crazy. Gravis’ furrowed brows slowly changed into a smirk. ’I bet they’ll love my proposition.’
Skye and Gravis flew closer and stopped near the edge of their borders. A lot of disciples and guards already looked at Skye and pointed with their fingers. It was rare seeing a high-grade Energy Beast around these parts. Many of the guards readied their weapons. Such a foe was dangerous!
"Fire Guild!" Gravis shouted with all his power from Skye’s back. His voice reverberated throughout half of the Fire Guild, and everyone looked into his direction. "I am Gravis from the Heaven Sect, and I have an offer for all of you!"
The disciple’s narrowed their eyes, and their battle intent skyrocketed. Someone not from their guild was flying above them and talking down to them. In their minds, this was blatant disrespect, even if Gravis didn’t mean it like that. That was just how the disciples of the Fire Guild were. They searched for any reason to battle with others.
"We are not interested!" came a strong shout from the middle of the guild. Gravis felt that this shout came from someone in the Spirit Forming Realm. "We don’t care what you offer! We only want to temper ourselves. Leave!" the voice shouted again.
Gravis’ smirk increased. "That’s exactly what I am here for!" he shouted back and, surprisingly, the voice didn’t answer immediately. "Starting today for the next six days, I will accept life and death duels from anyone in the eighth and ninth level of Magic Gathering. This is my personal proposal and has nothing to do with the Heaven Sect. If I die, nothing will happen to you! Of course, I still have one condition."
The disciples talked with each other. It was hard for most of them to find real life and death tempering. Disciples in the higher stages could only find life and death tempering with high-grade Energy Beasts or with other people in their level. Yet, how easy was it to find a high-grade Energy Beast, and how easy was it to find people at their strength, willing to fight them? That was the biggest reason why they had so many people in the higher levels of Energy Gathering but nearly no Spirit Forming experts.
"What’s your condition?" said the voice from the Spirit Forming expert, now with more friendliness. The Fire Guild was very interested in that offer. Free life and death tempering? Who could say no to that? Of course, this was only true for the Fire Guild. The other guilds would probably decline. They have spent so much to get so many strong disciples. Why would they send them to their deaths?
"Simple!" shouted Gravis. "I will place a banner down in front of your guild. Written on it are the names of multiple body strengthening pills. Someone who wants to fight with me to the death has to give me one of those before the fight," Gravis released a small laugh. "Of course, if the disciple wins and I die, they can rob me of everything I have. Why would a dead person care about their wealth?"
At first, some disciples thought this sounded like a scam, but in the end, they realized that it honestly didn’t matter. If they killed Gravis, they would get their pill back, as well as all his wealth, and if they died, their wealth would be irrelevant. They slowly started realizing how confident Gravis was in winning. This made a lot of them furious. In their minds, Gravis was obviously underestimating them! How dare he!?
"Alright, we accept!" shouted the voice again. Gravis smirk intensified, and he took up the banner from behind him. He had created the banner while they were on their way to the Fire Guild. Gravis made Skye dive and threw the banner at the ground. The banner was made out of the wood of an Energy Plant, so it was pretty durable. As it hit the ground, the earth shook, and the banner vibrated for a while.
"I’ll be waiting ten kilometers to the north of here!" Gravis shouted. Skye quickly brought Gravis to their target location and landed. The fighting arena that Gravis chose was outside on a meadow, near a river. There was a lot of open space, and they wouldn’t destroy that much stuff while they fought.
The river was only around a hundred meters wide, and Skye flew to the other side. Skye wouldn’t be participating in the subsequent fights. This whole tempering was all for Gravis. Meanwhile, Gravis’ emotions were a mixture of anxiety and excitement. While killing someone in the eighth level of Energy Gathering was not difficult, killing someone at the ninth was an actual fight that could end in his death.
After waiting for around five minutes, the earth started vibrating. Gravis narrowed his eyes as he looked towards the direction of the Fire Guild. Thousands of people were charging towards him. Gravis took a deep breath. He knew that his challenge would be popular.
But not this popular!