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?"

he fought with his emotions. It was always hard to concede that someone else was right while you were wrong. This always felt like a loss. After a while, Silva

that's the truth of the world," Gravis said. "You can have all the morals, ways, assets, techniques, or whatever else you want. Yet, the end goal is the same for everyone. We all want to become more powerful, and when your

CRRRR!

but they were all the same size. "We 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

Silva nodded.

are only enough resources for two of them. What would happen?" Gravis

become enemies while some

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

a fixed order of ascension. Some weaker factions will target the one's keeping themselves out of the fight. After all, if they win against the strong factions, the sidelines might get involved and

approach. Yet, the strong will never give you a chance, while the

Yet, this one was bigger than all other

Spirit Beasts. The other one has ten high-rank Spirit Beasts but no Lord.

thought 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,"

"And if there are no external

battle each other

Then, five statues in the second camp were destroyed while one of them grew to the same size as the enemy Lord. "If the Battle-Strength of the ranks were equal, what would be the outcome

annihilated while the second camp

the end, the second camp would have one survivor. Now, if we hadn't sacrificed the beasts to raise

again. "None," he

to you,

looked with interest at Gravis.

to fight itself until the most powerful beast of the ten became a Lord. Isn't this similar to the earlier scenario

and these scenarios. He started understanding why Orthar and Morn liked the concept of the River Tribe that much. It was basically a slightly fairer version of the wider world. Yet, it was as close to

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

Your camp is not your offspring that needs your protection. Just like you

to chase their goal, fearing that they would die, they will never be

don't need to become as cruel and self-serving as Shira, but you need to realize that when they die by their own decision,

to the ground as he thought about many things. His camp was his responsibility. Yet, their survival was not his responsibility?