Lightning Is the Only Way

Gravis and Azure talked some more, and after a while of talking, they decided to return to the Icy Pride Empire. While they had been talking, Gravis had also told her about his decision to leave the camp of the land beasts.

Azure thought it was a good idea since he was powerful enough to protect himself and wouldn't be bound by any obligations. Additionally, being a neutral party also gave him more freedom to choose his way of tempering.

Of course, the bad aspect of that decision was that one needed to be powerful enough. If one were too weak, any beast could just kill them without any repercussions. There were a ton of beasts just waiting for a tempering opportunity. If a solitary King went into an Empire, they would be attacked by several other Kings that would all want to fight them.

Even if one was powerful for their Realm, choosing neutrality would still be dangerous. If one of the most powerful Kings decided to go solo, they might not be attacked by Kings but by an Emperor first. Of course, these Emperors wouldn't be interested in the corpse of the King, but they would be interested in using this King to temper their soldiers.

Maybe the Emperor would send five other Kings at him. Maybe the Emperor would halt the fight if one of their beasts would die. In the end, it didn't matter what this King would do. Eventually, they would be ground into nothingness.

Because of these reasons, one first needed to be a powerful Emperor to consider going solo. Yet, one also had to remember that it wasn't mandatory to attack a neutral beast. They could also just trade or talk. The only difference was that one party wouldn't have any backing. They could only rely on their own power.

Of course, Gravis was already powerful enough to go solo. If he had still been a level four King, it would have been risky since he would have had the power of a level one Emperor, which wasn't that safe. After all, there were plenty of level two Emperors.

Yet, with the power to immediately decimate a level two Emperor and with a slight chance of winning against a level three Emperor, Gravis should be safe. Therefore, with all things considered, it was a good idea for him to leave the camp of the land beasts.

After some time, the two of them returned to the Mountain of Pride in the Icy Pride Empire. Right now, instead of Azure, the Grand Elder was sitting on the throne. However, he couldn't be called the Grand Elder anymore since he had taken up the position of the actual Emperor.

Styr, the Emperor, saw Azure and Gravis return and greeted them with a polite smile. "Welcome back. How were your gains?" he asked.

Gravis noticed that Styr acted differently than usual. It wasn't that he had changed but that he was exhibiting an aura of royalty. The way he sat and talked gave others the feeling of justice, friendliness, and fairness.

The contrast between when Azure had been the Empress and the current Styr was stark. Azure had always appeared taciturn, cold, prideful, and reserved. It was like she had been an ice queen.

Yet, in human terms, Styr appeared like a king that would often visit the farmers to check if they had any issues. He appeared like someone that valued the prosperity of his kingdom above his own.

simply acted like a proper ruler should act, but as soon as he would see his chance to become more powerful, he would return to his

Styr was more suited to be a ruler

enough, Styr had become a level three Emperor. This meant that Gravis could push his Will-Aura to the maximum once again. With that, he would be able

has changed," Azure said

as he put his fingers

have been prepared for the violent changes the world would soon feel, and the more Styr heard, the more solemn he

stood up and paced around

need to be redistributed. Yet, these four defensive lines are under the leadership

are all leaders of their own Empire.

at the frontlines, a random level four Emperor could take out all four of the core defensive lines. If that happens, we will lose half

and Azure are still here, the Empire won't fall. Do the lives

Empire is not only there to serve as a springboard for the Emperor. We are all in

my own goals above the good of the Empire would result in a short-term power gain, but it would cut off the long-term

and for safety reasons, some Kingdoms might defect to another Empire. As soon as the Kingdoms see that the Empire has taken a large hit,

that doesn't matter. The Kingdoms

that several Elders are very interested in. When they see that they

Gravis," Styr said. "When you cultivate, the image others have towards you is unimportant, but

while an Empire relies on others. If you build a force with the philosophy of cultivation, it

listened intently. Most of the time, he knew a lot of the concepts that others talked about, but this time, he had learned something new. Styr's teachings resonated with him

Styr was right.

be interested in them. Yet, land and resources would always be valuable, even for more powerful forces. If Gravis had been alone and had killed so many

had been the aggressor, multiple level

to its absolute

politely. "Thank you,