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.

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

more suited to be

Will-Aura to the maximum once again. With that, he would be able to suppress a level three Emperor by 30% instead of 10%. That was

has changed," Azure said to

put his fingers together and leaned back on the throne. "Tell me

couldn't have been prepared for the violent changes the world

Styr everything, Styr stood up and paced around the top of the Mountain of Pride as he stroked his long

be redistributed. Yet, these

actually need to station level four Emperors there, but the level four Emperors are all leaders of

continued pacing. "But if they aren't ready to station themselves at the frontlines, a random level four Emperor could take out all four of the core defensive lines. If that happens, we will

long as you and Azure are still here, the Empire

is not only there to serve as a springboard for the Emperor. We are all in this together, and if the Empire grows more powerful, the Emperor will

above the good of the Empire would result in a short-term power gain, but it would cut off the long-term power gain. We require powerful beasts to keep the Kingdoms in check and to resolve problems that they can't

Law Comprehension Areas. With fewer Elders, the Empire would be less powerful, 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, they might suspect that the Empire would soon

Empire, obviously, won't fall since Azure and I are still here, but that doesn't matter.

are very interested in. When they see that they no longer have access to such a fitting area, they might also defect to other Empires. In the end, we will only have a handful of Elders left with nearly

image others have towards you is unimportant, but if you want to create and maintain a large

you build a force with the philosophy of cultivation, it will break apart

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

Styr was right.

had a lower Realm than an opponent, the opponent often wouldn't be interested in them. Yet, land and resources would always be valuable, even for more powerful forces. If Gravis had been

level four Lords had arrived back then,

Styr had said I shouldn't do. I have pushed the Tribe to its absolute limit until it broke apart. In just a short while, the whole Tribe became incredibly powerful for our area, but it

politely. "Thank you,