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?"

Silva remained silent for a bit as he fought with his emotions. It was always hard to concede that someone else was right while you were wrong. This always felt like a loss. After a while, Silva sighed. "No, I wouldn't."

Gravis 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 end goal is the same for everyone. We all want to become more powerful, and when your way doesn't work, it's not wrong to modify it."

CRRRR!

Several new statues appeared. They all had the appearances of different beasts, but they were all the same size. "We all have a few close ones and a countless amount of enemies. There are not infinite resources in this world. Look at these ten statues. Imagine that these statues represent all the beasts in the world."

Silva nodded.

"All their goals are supreme power. Yet, there are only enough resources for two of them. What would happen?" Gravis asked.

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

Gravis nodded. "That would be true if these spots were permanent. Yet, as soon as someone achieves one of these spots, they will ascend to the next world. At that point, a new spot would open up."

"Then, we would have a complex 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 will target the one's keeping themselves out of the fight. After all, if they win against the strong factions, the sidelines might get involved and kill them when they are exhausted after the fight," Gravis explained.

"Your approach is similar to the people staying on the sidelines. You don't want to risk dying and try to take 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 will never achieve your goal."

"Now," Gravis said as the statues all moved to the same side. Then, another statue appeared. Yet, this one was bigger than all other statues. Another three smaller statues appeared behind the big one.

"These two groups represent Tribes. One group has a Lord and three high-rank Spirit Beasts. The other one has ten high-rank Spirit Beasts but no Lord. What would the second camp need to win against the first camp?" Gravis asked.

Silva thought for a bit. It wasn't that this was a complex solution, but that he didn't like the answer. "The second camp needs to raise a Lord," Silva said.

Gravis nodded. "And if there are no external resources?"

Silva sighed. "Then they need to battle each other until one becomes a Lord," Silva said.

"Alright," Gravis said. Then, five statues in the second camp were destroyed while one of them grew to the same size as the enemy Lord. "If the Battle-Strength of the ranks were equal, what would be the outcome of this fight?"

"The first camp would get annihilated while the second camp would have one Spirit Beast remaining," Silva answered.

Gravis nodded. "So, in the end, the second camp would have one survivor. Now, if we hadn't sacrificed the beasts to raise a Lord, how many survivors would the second camp have had?"

Silva sighed again. "None," he said.

Gravis smirked. "This course of action seems cruel to you, but that's only because you have overlooked one fact."

Silva looked with interest at Gravis. "Which is?" he asked.

"We didn't decide who the Lord was going to be. We have only allowed the camp to fight itself until the most powerful beast of the ten became a Lord. Isn't this similar to the earlier scenario where there were only two spots of supreme power open?"

Silva quickly found the similarities between the River Tribe, the world, and these scenarios. He started understanding why Orthar and Morn liked the concept of the River Tribe that much. It was basically a slightly fairer version of the wider world. Yet, it was as close to the world as a Tribe could be while still remaining a Tribe.

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

Then, Gravis walked closer to 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 made the same decision."

"You should respect that decision and allow them to chase it. Many will die, but many others will become more powerful. If you don't allow them to chase their goal, fearing that they would die, they will never be able to achieve their goal. To many, not having the chance of reaching their goal is worse than death."

"By protecting them, you have restricted their growth. 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 on you."

Silva looked to the ground as he 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 told him also made a lot of sense.

Seeing that Silva was still conflicted, Gravis sighed. "I will help you this once, but it won't happen a second time. For fairness' sake, if Shira asks for guidance, I will also extend my helping hand to her once. Listen carefully, and I will tell you how you can get out of your current crisis."

Silva looked at Gravis. By now, he was exhausted. This conversation had questioned his whole ideology. This wasn't something that he could accept with just a couple of minutes of talking, even if it all made sense right now. In the end, he just nodded.

"Don't restrict the fighting of your camp," Gravis said. "Let them go wild. Let them challenge whatever beast they want. In a short amount of time, the most powerful beast of your camp will reach the power of a Lord. At that point, it doesn't matter how many Spirit Beasts the Sea Camp has. One Lord is worth more than a hundred Spirit Beasts."

"Of course, you should also take part in that. If Shira becomes a Lord when you're not, it will become troublesome again. Doing this will get you out of your current crisis. Yet, if you don't keep fighting, you will reach this position again in the future."

Then, Gravis narrowed his eyes at Silva. "At that point, no one will help you, and you will die. Never let your guard down. All future fights are completely on you."

Silva looked unsure at the floor, but after a couple of seconds, he sighed in acceptance. His old way hadn't worked. He might as well try Gravis' way.

"Of course," Gravis added, "That's only after you have taken the land of the hyenas. Try to gain as many new members as possible. Then, let them all go wild. Shira can manipulate a couple of fights, but not all of them. By making the situation as chaotic as possible, none of you will be able to manipulate it."

Then, Gravis smirked. "Yet, only you have the power to end this chaos. At that time, everything is back to the status quo."

Silva thought about it, took a deep breath, and nodded with conviction. He had decided to go through with this, and when he decided to go through with something, he would use all his power to succeed. "I will."

Gravis grinned and nodded. "Good! Then go take the land of the hyenas!"

"Yes, I will. Thank you, Leader," Silva said with respect and conviction.

Then, he left.

Gravis only scratched his chin with a smile.

"Leader, huh? That doesn't sound that bad," he said.

Then, he went back to the middle of the room and closed his eyes.

No one but Orthar knew what he was doing all day.