Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis didn't need long to tell his story. Even though he told it with a lot of details, he hadn't had as many extraordinary things happening to him as Orthar. When Gravis compared his story to Orthar, he felt like his story was boring.

He had only had some fights, some children, and in the remaining time, he had been mostly comprehending Laws. His story didn't have political intrigue or grand plans that spanned over many years. All this excitement of having a long-standing plan succeed was absent from Gravis' story.

"If I had been in your position, I would have long died," Orthar said.

Gravis was a bit surprised when he heard that. "Why? There were no times when I needed to use some grand plan to guarantee my survival, while you had to constantly rely on your planning to survive."

"That's because of your power, Gravis," Orthar said. "You don't need scheming and planning to survive. If I had been in your position, the very first battle after we parted ways would have resulted in my death. All my planning would have become irrelevant and meaningless when two Lords, two levels higher than me, had been ordered by their King to kill me."

Gravis thought about Orthar's words, and he quickly realized that Orthar might be right. Orthar would have died in Gravis' position. "Okay, that might be true," Gravis said, "but I would have also had problems in your position, Orthar."

"I don't think so," Orthar answered, surprising Gravis again.

"But I can't scheme like you due to my closeness to the lightning element," Gravis said.

"That doesn't matter," Orthar said. "You don't need to rely on scheming if you have enough power. If you had met the association in my place, you wouldn't have needed to employ any schemes. You could have just run in and kill all of them and easily become a level five Lord. I hadn't had that power, which was why I had to resort to scheming."

"But what about the Kings that had chased you? Even my power wouldn't have been enough to battle a level three King as a level five Lord," Gravis said.

"Irrelevant," Orthar said. "Just because you don't use schemes doesn't mean that you are dumb. You are smart, Gravis. If I were able to see the approaching danger, you would have also been able to see it coming and act accordingly."

"Don't forget that you managed to survive years while the most powerful being in your lower world wanted to kill you. Scheming only helps marginally against an omniscient being that knows your exact power and whereabouts," Orthar said.

The things that Orthar said made sense to Gravis, but his feelings disagreed. All these things sounded incredible when spoken out loud, but to him, these things only appeared natural. Of course, Gravis tended to believe his head more than his emotions.

a sigh. "Even though my story might not appear as exciting as yours, my

talked for a couple more hours about what they went through and what they had learned. Surprisingly, Gravis didn't

but all the careful plans that Orthar

all about these plans

confusion. "Don't you just want to share your experiences

said directly. "Momentary emotional relief isn't conducive to my

uncertainty. "Then, why

realize that it is all your knowledge

are you, and you learned a lot of concepts yourself. You're

this question in seriousness. "Have you learned any

for some seconds. "Honestly,

my goal in telling you my experiences," Orthar said. "My plans are beyond the comprehension of nearly every beast in this world. Every beast that would hear my story would become shocked and intrigued by the advanced concepts

something and then show it to you if it turned

find out?" Gravis asked, honestly

intelligence and wisdom are terrifying, Gravis," Orthar said. "When I had been a Spirit Beast, I felt like your words were constantly opening a new world to me. Even now, when you explained the relations between different Laws,

bit uncomfortable

normal for humans or not, but this human knowledge is very powerful in this world. Yet, that is not what I wanted to confirm since I have

me," Gravis said with

you have realized the power of the knowledge that you have," Orthar

because it was evident that his knowledge was powerful. "I

be the Red King. Without you, I would have died. Without you, this Ferris would die a level one Emperor. Without you, the Grand Elder of the Icy Pride Empire would take a lot longer to become more

significantly, and

over 3,000 years of accumulation. You had been smart ever since I met you, which was my main reason why I chose you as my guide back then. It wasn't my sole contact with the beasts that made them rise