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?"

that someone else was

smirked. "And 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

CRRRR!

were all the same size. "We all have a few close ones and a countless amount of enemies. There are not infinite

Silva nodded.

Yet, there are only enough resources for two of them. What would

would all become enemies while some will form teams of two," Silva

as someone achieves one of these spots, they

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

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

another statue appeared. Yet, this one was bigger than all

has ten high-rank Spirit

complex solution, but that he

nodded. "And if there are

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

grew to the same size

annihilated while the second camp would have one Spirit

one survivor. Now, if we hadn't sacrificed the beasts to raise a

sighed again. "None," he

cruel to you, but

at Gravis.

going to be. We have only allowed the camp to fight itself until the most powerful beast of the ten became

started understanding why Orthar and Morn liked the concept of the River Tribe that much. It was basically a slightly

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

Silva. "You are not the father of your camp. Your camp is not your offspring that needs your protection. Just like you have decided to chase supreme power, they have

allow them to chase their goal, fearing that they would die, they will

Yet, most of the beasts don't have the 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 die by their own decision, it's not

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