Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis was happy that he could finally talk to Orthar again. Orthar had been his first friend in this world, and he still remembered how alone he had felt when Orthar and Silva had left. Back then, he had felt quite lonely again since he hadn't had any other friends or comrades.

Of course, ever since then, he had managed to make a lot of new friends. Azure, Styr, Ferris, and Meadow were all beings that Gravis counted as his friends. Additionally, he also had three wonderful children now.

"You have lived quite a high-profile life, Orthar," Gravis said. "I've seen your influence basically everywhere."

"The warfare amongst beast is simple, crude, and inefficient regarding the greater collective," Orthar answered. "Proving the effectiveness of my strategies was easy and had little noteworthy opposition, except for the Light Ultimate."

Gravis chuckled a bit. "Makes sense. After all, for beasts, an individual's power has the same importance as the greater collective's goal."

"Different strategies have their appropriate times to be used," Orthar said. "The sea beasts were outnumbered and still managed to survive due to them being valuable to the land beasts. However, betting their survival on the fact that this situation might continue is foolish. Therefore, following the traditional strategy is more akin to stagnation than progress."

Orthar had always talked very logically and absent of emotion, which was something that Gravis quite enjoyed. It felt good to hear him talk again. "So, tell me. What happened after we parted ways?" Gravis asked with interest.

Right now, Gravis sat on the floor with Orthar standing or sitting in front of him. It was hard to judge if an octopus was sitting or standing.

"After the River Tribe split up, I have taken most of the sea beasts to the ocean outside the continent. I still remembered the map you have shown me of this world, so I knew that there should be a part of the ocean stretching into the continent. I led the group to that stretch," Orthar said.

"We met heavy opposition from the Tribes when we arrived, but that was only a minor hindrance. The power of the members of the River Tribe was beyond any Tribe we met, which allowed us to create a stable foothold."

"My Tribe rapidly expanded, and I became more powerful along with it. This had gone on for five years until I was leading a level four Tribe. We wanted to expand further into the continent, but we met a powerful roadblock."

Tell me," Gravis said, excited to

direction of the sea inside the Life Ring. "Access to the deeper regions of the ocean had been blocked by an association comprised of several level five Lords and their Tribes. No new Tribe was allowed to

couldn't have happened if the Kingdoms or Empires didn't allow it. However, I can see the advantage of such

the Tribes up into individual beasts, they would get a lot of

"Back then, I required level five Lords for tempering, but if I attacked one of them, the other level five Lords would join the fight. I had the ability to take on two, maybe three, but there were over 20. Attacking

one of the Tribes wasn't an issue with my power, and as soon as

Leader and joined the association. Then, I fused my old Tribe with my new one

my forces. Of course, all of this was within my calculations. They didn't have the freedom to send many members to negotiate with me. Sending two Lords would have already been enough in their eyes, but three also made not

managed to emerge victoriously. By consuming the level five Lords, I have also become a level five Lord myself. With my

the level five Lords, and forced the others into servitude. Then, I abandoned 90% of my territories

had let his Tribe attack anything wildly,

more difficult situations and complicated wars that Orthar told Gravis about. With Orthar's knowledge about advanced warfare, he was winning every war. Yet,

did you decide to win the battle instead of tempering

concern me," Orthar answered. "The Tribe was a tool to increase my own power. The numbers and Realm of my servants took higher

eyebrow. "There surely have been members that realized that you were basically forcing them into mediocrity. Inexperienced beasts don't know the negative effect

sent on a suicide mission

blinked a couple of times. "Including the

members of the River Tribe before I even

deep breath