Lightning Is The Only Way

Eve was dead, and that was that.

Orpheus had dealt with her.

Now that everything was over, Orpheus, Mortis, and Gravis only looked at each other awkwardly.

The Black Magnate saw that the atmosphere became weird and simply teleported away.

"I'm happy you're still alive," Orpheus said after some seconds of silence to Gravis and Mortis. Orpheus didn't only see Gravis as his little brother, but Mortis too. In a sense, Mortis was even more similar to the little brother he had met back then.

"What did you do?" Gravis asked with a sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose in a mix of frustration and annoyance. He had pushed Orpheus away, but Orpheus had come to help him anyway.

How was he supposed to not feel guilty?

How was he supposed to be angry at Orpheus?

Orpheus knew what Gravis referred to, and he only answered with a smile. "I simply assumed the position of Ancestor in the Myriad Sect. I don't have a Sect anyway, and you all need an Ancestor. Without an Ancestor, the Myriad Sect can't talk and negotiate with other powerful Sects."

"I know," Gravis said. "I meant, what did you do to help me with my Sin Aura? You were responsible for paying back nearly 50% of my Sin Aura."

Orpheus looked at Gravis in surprise. 

First of all, Orpheus wanted to know how Gravis could know these things. Gravis hadn't even seen what Orpheus had done, but Gravis still somehow knew how much of his Sin Aura had been dealt with by Orpheus.

Did father tell them?

Orpheus wasn't sure.

Sadly, no one knew that Gravis had already talked to the highest Heaven several times. The things they had talked about had to remain a secret. 

Not even Stella knew that Gravis had talked with the highest Heaven.

However, Orpheus still believed Gravis. Gravis had spoken these words very naturally, and it was obvious that he thought his sources to be reliable.

Orpheus awkwardly scratched the back of his head with a bitter laugh. "I actually didn't want to tell you all what I did. Not even Manuel knows what I have done to help you."

Orpheus sighed. "Well, seems like I can't keep it a secret. I wanted to keep it hidden to show you some of my sincerity, but that's impossible now."

"Just tell me," Gravis said.

Orpheus looked at the Myriad Sect. "The Myriad Sect has more than one Ancestral God now. Several Ancestral Gods of the Sects we have destroyed wanted to join us. Without an Ancestor, this would become very awkward. Ancestral Gods can't directly interfere with the war, but they can inform the other Sects and cause some indirect damage to the Myriad Sect."

"In actuality, it was Manuel that contacted me. He wanted me to assume the position of Ancestor in the Myriad Sect. He was also the one that told me about your Sin Aura."

Gravis nodded. "So, what did you do?" Gravis asked again.

"Well, I dealt with the Ancestral Gods of the destroyed Sects. I accepted three of them for a lot of money, but I didn't directly hand the money to the Myriad Sect."

Gravis' eyebrows rose in skepticism, but he didn't interject.

"Instead of giving the money to the Myriad Sect, I gave the money back to the Ancestral Gods and made them reach the next level in the Ancestral God Realm," Orpheus added. "I told them that the only reason I'm doing this is because of you, which is the truth. If you hadn't condensed a Sin Aura, I wouldn't have given them their money back."

Gravis' eyes shone in recognition.

So that's how Orpheus managed to repay so much of Gravis' debt.

The Ancestral Gods had probably paid a couple billion God Stones, and by making them reach the next Realm, Orpheus would gain credit for their advancement in the form of Karmic Luck.

However, Orpheus had credited the entirety of the Karmic Luck to Gravis.

In short, Gravis had received Karmic Luck equivalent to a couple Ancestral Gods reaching the next level.

It was like a couple of Gravis' disciples had advanced to the Ancestral God Realm.

'No wonder,' Gravis thought. 

"And you wanted to keep that hidden?" Gravis asked.

Orpheus nodded. "I even made them sign a contract, which states that they are forbidden from telling the truth about their advancement."

"Can I see the contract?" Gravis asked.

Orpheus' expression turned into a bitter smile. 

Gravis wanting to see the contract meant that he still didn't fully trust Orpheus' sincerity.

However, Orpheus handed over the contract, and Gravis looked over it.

After reading through it, Gravis nodded to Mortis. "It's real," he said to Mortis.

Mortis frowned in uncertainty.

He wasn't sure how he should feel right now.

Some seconds of silence passed.

Then, Gravis groaned loudly as he violently scratched the back of his head in frustration.

"How am I supposed to be angry at you now!?" Gravis asked in exasperation. "How am I supposed to think about your conduct in the past when you've done so much for me?"

Orpheus only smiled bitterly. "I'm sorry, but I don't want to lose either of you."

Gravis groaned again as he waved his hands dismissively. "Fine. Fine!"

"You wanna be my brother? Fine! You won! Hope you're happy!" Gravis shouted with annoyance.

Orpheus smiled brightly and laughed loudly.

After a while, Gravis also stopped acting like a child and laughed alongside him.

"In actuality, I missed you, Orpheus," Gravis said. "I just haven't been certain of when I should talk with you."

Orpheus came closer and smiled at Gravis. "So, can your big brother have a hug?" he asked.

"Sure," Gravis said.

Then, the two brothers embraced for the first time in forever.

All the bad things were forgotten.

They parted after a couple of seconds, and both of them looked at Mortis.

Gravis wasn't certain how Mortis would react.

Mortis slowly lifted his gaze and looked evenly into Orpheus' eyes.

"It's less what I think and more what my lightning thinks," Mortis said. "The last time we met, you were so very close to becoming my enemy. Only a tiny bit more, and my lightning would have demanded your life."

Orpheus knew that. He knew how lightning could be.

"Even without your help, we now know that Gravis would have survived. Surviving another 5,000 years was an uncertainty, but surviving 3,000 years shouldn't have been a problem. At that point, the Myriad Sect and our own efforts would have already dealt with the Sin Aura."

"So, while you gave your best, your actions didn't have as much of an impact as you might have believed," Mortis added.

Orpheus' smile weakened when he heard these words.

"However, you have done enough to appease the hatred in us," Mortis said. "With that, you no longer are an enemy."

Orpheus sighed. "Well, at least that's something, right?"

Mortis didn't immediately answer.

"And then, you saved our life by killing Eve," Mortis added. "That should have a comparable value to your earlier action, and I think that's enough."

"I'll consider you my brother again from today onward," Mortis said evenly.

Orpheus' face brightened into a smile.

"I'm not the hugging kind," Mortis said as he looked at Orpheus with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, okay," Orpheus said.

WHOOSH!

Suddenly, Mortis disappeared, and behind him, a shocked Gravis stood.

Gravis had just attempted to kick Mortis to Orpheus, but Mortis had made himself intangible.

Mortis appeared beside Gravis.

"You can't force me to hug him," Mortis commented.