Lightning Is the Only Way

Silva's emotions weren't calm anymore. A lot of the things that Gravis had said rung true inside his mind. On top of that, he was also sure that he would try to think of his errors in this hypothetical scenario and what he could have done better. Slowly, he started becoming more open to Gravis' words.

"What can I do to take advantage of my strength?" Silva asked.

Gravis smirked and laughed a bit. "You already did without realizing," he said.

This was not the answer that Silva had expected. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Gravis laughed some more. "You have done something that will help you become stronger that Shira won't ever do," Gravis said as he walked over and now leaned on the statue of Silva. "You've asked for help."

Silva wasn't happy with that sentence. "I asked for guidance, not help," he said.

"That's the thing," Gravis said. "When we refer to help, we don't only refer to the aspect of combat. Guidance is also a form of help. Depending on someone else's strength will be detrimental to you, but asking for guidance is learning, and learning is growing. As long as you fight your battles yourself, this kind of help will only be beneficial to you."

"Tell me," Gravis said. "Is it forbidden for Shira to ask for guidance?"

"No," Silva said.

"Do you think that if she were to ask for guidance, we wouldn't help her?" Gravis asked.

"No. I'm sure that you would answer her questions too," Silva answered.

"Yet, why doesn't she ask for guidance?" Gravis asked.

"Because she is too prideful. Asking for help would feel like she has lost against me," Silva answered.

"And that's her weakness," Gravis answered. "She can grow by asking for guidance, but she doesn't. You could sacrifice some of your assets to kill some of hers, but you don't. These are the weaknesses of both of you."

"Now," Gravis said as he stepped towards the middle of the room. "If it weren't for Shira's pressure, would you have realized these truths? If you weren't backed into a corner, would you have learned all of these things?"

his emotions. It was always hard to concede that someone else was right while

else you want. Yet, the end goal is

CRRRR!

all have a few close ones and a countless amount of enemies. There are not infinite resources in this world. Look at these ten statues. Imagine that these statues represent all the beasts in

Silva nodded.

only enough resources for

some will form teams of two,"

would be true if these spots were permanent. Yet, as soon as someone achieves one of these spots, they will ascend to the next

Some weaker

dying and try to take a safe approach. Yet, the strong will never give you a chance, while

as the statues all moved to the same side. Then, another statue appeared. Yet, this one was

The other one has ten high-rank Spirit Beasts but no Lord. What would the second camp need to

for a bit. It wasn't that this was a complex solution, but that he didn't like the answer. "The second camp needs to raise a Lord," Silva

nodded. "And if there are no

battle each other until one becomes a

five statues in the second camp were destroyed while one of them grew to the same size as the enemy

while the second camp would

we hadn't sacrificed the beasts to raise a Lord, how

sighed again. "None,"

action seems cruel to you, but

with interest at Gravis. "Which is?"

We have only allowed the camp to fight itself until the most powerful beast of the ten became a Lord. Isn't this similar to the

that much. It was basically a

given them the freedom to rise to power," Gravis said. "Everything

the father of your camp. Your camp is not your offspring that needs your protection. Just like you have decided to chase

them to chase their goal, fearing that they would die, they will never be able to achieve their goal. To many, not having the chance of reaching their

intelligence to realize that fact. You don't need to become as cruel and self-serving as Shira, but you need to realize that when they

about many things. His camp was his responsibility. Yet, their survival was not his responsibility? To him, it felt contradictory. Yet, what Gravis had told him also