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?"

always hard to concede that someone else was right while you were wrong. This always felt like a loss. After a while,

techniques, or whatever else you want. Yet, the end goal is the same for everyone. We all want to become more powerful,

CRRRR!

appeared. They all had the appearances of different beasts, 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

Silva nodded.

are only enough

would all become enemies while some will form

someone achieves one of these spots, they will ascend to the next world. At that point, a new

a complex mix of sides. Some will stay away and at the sidelines to wait for their chance. Others will form bigger teams and decide on 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 kill them when they are exhausted after the

the people staying on the sidelines. You don't want to risk dying and try to take a safe approach. Yet, the strong will never give you a chance, while the weak will first deal with you. By not risking anything, you have already accepted that you will

Yet, this one was bigger than all

two groups represent Tribes. One group has a Lord and three high-rank Spirit Beasts. The other one has ten high-rank Spirit Beasts but no Lord. What would the

solution, but that he didn't like the answer. "The second camp needs to

if there are no external

sighed. "Then they need to battle each other until one becomes a Lord," Silva

camp were destroyed while one of them grew to the same size as the enemy Lord. "If the Battle-Strength of the ranks

get annihilated while the second camp would have one Spirit Beast remaining,"

second camp would have one survivor. Now, if we hadn't sacrificed the beasts to raise a Lord, how many

again.

"This course of action seems cruel to you, but

at Gravis.

decide who the Lord was going to be. 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 earlier scenario

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 the world as

them the freedom to rise to power," Gravis said. "Everything else is up to

walked closer to Silva. "You are not the father of your camp. Your camp is not your offspring that needs your

will die, but many others will become more powerful. If you don't allow them to chase their goal, fearing that they

have the intelligence to realize that fact. You don't need to become as cruel

was his responsibility. Yet, their survival was not his responsibility? To him, it felt contradictory.