Chapter 324: Self Stage

Gravis concentrated and went into his own Spirit Space. The size of the Spirit Space had increased by quite a bit due to his fusion with his copy, or was it the fusion with the original? He still wasn't sure if he was the copy or the original, but that didn't matter. There was one real Gravis, and it didn't matter for how long he had been alive. He had his memories, and they were what created him.

Even with the new size of his Spirit Space, everything was still packed with lightning. Just like the first time after he had entered his own Spirit Space in the Tree Stage, it became difficult for him to move around. The lightning was seemingly solid and filled everything.

"Let's start!" Gravis said and then willed for his Spirit to condense. The lightning began to pulse, and the familiar pain reappeared. This time, it was more powerful than ever before. It was nearly as intense as the pain he had felt when he broke into the Spirit Forming Realm.

Yet, Gravis' will was many times more powerful. This intense pain had made him screech and scream in pain when it had first appeared, but now, Gravis only gritted his teeth with all his power. His eyes became red with pain, but he didn't need to scream. It was indescribably painful, but it didn't even come close to making him doubt his path.

As the pulsing increased, he felt the pressure of the lightning reduce. It was all slowly gathering in the middle of his Spirit Space.

Multiple hours passed and, by now, only a small clump of lightning was left in the Spirit Space. Every other area was completely empty. Gravis noticed that the lightning was no longer shrinking, yet the pain still remained.

"I guess there is only one last step left," Gravis said through gritted teeth.

Gravis walked to the lightning. It was around two cubic meters big and radiated an incredible aura of pure destruction. There was so much lightning that if Gravis decided to detonate it, he would probably destroy a huge chunk of the Core-Continent. Yet, to him, it was just more of himself.

Whoom!

Gravis stepped into the lightning ball without any hesitation. As soon as he entered, he felt the lightning get absorbed into his body. This was not Gravis' real body, but only an illusory body created out of his own thoughts.

The illusory body absorbed all the lightning in a matter of minutes, and after that, nothing was left. The pain stopped, and only Gravis stood in the middle of his Spirit Space. Yet, the body was no longer illusory. It was now a body entirely made out of pure lightning. He was now his Self.

Gravis took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

WHOOOOOM!

His Spirit Space widened, and he felt his Spirit also become more powerful. He felt pure power course through him as he saw his Spirit reaching further and further into the distance.

After some seconds, his Spirit Space stabilized. It now had a diameter of 100 meters. His Spirit also stabilized, and Gravis smirked when he felt its range.

"1,000 kilometers," he said.

He hadn't been able to test his Spirit's range previously since the walls, ceiling, and floor blocked his Spirit. Yet, he was in the fifth trial right now, a space that stretched seemingly into infinity.

BZZZZ!

Gravis also compressed his lightning. Even though his lightning had doubled, it could still only be considered to be in the Tree Stage. Therefore, the newly compressed lightning also fit snugly into his dantian. Like before, there was still a lot of space left.

BZZZ! BOOM!

Gravis summoned a small Lightning Bomb to test the ratio between his Spirit and Lightning. "One to six," Gravis mumbled with furrowed brows. "Shouldn't it be one to four? Why is it one to six?" Gravis looked at the sky. "Is it due to my special kind of way that I broke through?"

Gravis rubbed his chin, but then he noticed something. "What is this?" Gravis involuntarily said.

He felt his physical body, lightning, and Spirit resonating with each other. He felt like he only needed a thought to combine them. Yet, Gravis didn't do that. "I guess this is the way to reach the Unity Realm," Gravis said.

'So, just like the name implies, the Unity Realm represents the unity between all my three centers of power,' Gravis thought. 'By establishing the connection, all my centers of power would be connected to each other. I guess they can then also flow into and support each other. So that's why the Unity Realm is so much more powerful.'

One had to know that increasing one center of power way further than the others would increase the power more than increasing all of them for only one level. Someone at the initial Stage of Spirit Forming with a Sapling Stage body would have a way higher chance of winning than someone that had everything at the Seed Stage. Of course, that was without considering the Will-Aura.

With every center of power connected, one could move all their power around. If one wanted, they could make their bodies become mortal, make their Spirits become weak and frail, but unleash an absurd amount of Energy, many times higher than their maximum.

If Gravis had been able to connect his centers of power previously, the fight against the priest in the first trial would have been a cakewalk. He could have moved the power of his Spirit and physical body into his lightning and could have released a ridiculous amount of lightning that would have destroyed the priest. The Jade Tokens wouldn't have mattered.

The same thing would happen if he moved his lightning and Spirit into his physical body. His physical strength would have become so powerful that he could easily punch the priest and throw him against the wall. With another punch, he would have decimated the priest.

'It's not yet time to break into the Unity Realm,' Gravis thought. 'My Spirit and body are at the Tree Stage, but my lightning isn't. First, I want my lightning at the same level or maybe even more powerful. After all, that ratio between my Spirit and lightning doesn't seem right.'

Gravis scratched his chin in thought. 'Maybe the particular way in which I broke into the Self Stage increased my Spirit farther than the maximum allowed. Since my Lightning can also be increased without any apparent limit, I should make it equal to my Spirit. This means that I need to quintuple my lightning.'

Gravis smirked while thinking. 'Luckily, I already know just the way to achieve that. Sorry, Heaven, but our fight has to wait for a little longer,' Gravis thought.

Then, he turned to the sky. "As soon as I break through, I can fight you. The time has finally arrived, huh?" Gravis said. He didn't want to tell Heaven his real plan so that it couldn't plan around it. He wanted to take Heaven by surprise.

Of course, no answer came from Heaven.

Gravis laughed a bit and looked at the doors leading to and from this trial. The door that was previously closed had long since opened, and Gravis walked towards it.

"Let's see what you have for me as my reward for beating this trial," Gravis said with a smirk.