Nearly all the beasts had noticed what had happened. After all, the chieftain had stayed at the front, far away from everyone else, making her quite conspicuous. When Gravis killed her, they nearly all stopped breathing in shock. A mid-rank Spirit Beast had killed a Lord? That was impossible!
What would happen to them now? Were they supposed to stay and wait? Could they flee? What were they supposed to do?
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Gravis asked Orthar with a smirk.
"If the chieftain was confident enough in leading a raid-party towards the land with her strength, the opposition on the land shouldn't be something she couldn't deal with," Orthar answered.
Gravis' smirk widened, and he nodded. "Exactly. I've got a Unity Beast to eat now, but I need another one to reach the Unity Realm myself. I should be able to find a suitable one at the shore. After all, the beasts on land surely wouldn't keep their territory undefended."
Orthar looked at the stunned beasts behind them. "Do you intend to use them?" he asked.
"No," Gravis answered immediately. "I'm not a fan of forcing people or beasts into servitude. They can follow me if they want, but they don't have to."
"I'm glad to hear that, Gravis," Orthar said. "I'm also not a fan of forcing others to do my bidding as long as they didn't show aggression towards me."
"I think I should talk to them," Gravis said as he turned to the beasts. Not all the beasts were inside his Spirit's range, but most of them were.
When the beasts saw Gravis looking at them, they grew panicked. If they wanted to flee, this was their chance.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Many beasts suddenly started fleeing with all their powers into the distance while others decided to stay. It wasn't that they wanted to go on land, but that Gravis could probably kill the fleeing beasts. Acting against his potential wishes could doom them.
Yet, contrary to their expectations, Gravis didn't chase any of the beasts. He just let them leave. When the hesitating beasts noticed that, a lot of them also decided to flee. Invading the land? They were not suicidal! Their instincts screamed at them that there was danger, and they followed their directions.
After a minute, only around 10% of the beasts remained. Gravis grew interested in the fact that so many beasts stayed, even though invading the land was basically a death sentence. When he saw no more beasts fleeing, Gravis swam forward.
"It's interesting that you decided to stay," Gravis transmitted to them. "You know that the land has food for me and, therefore, is also enticing to me. Why did you decide to stay?"
Most of the beasts remained silent. They weren't even sure why they didn't flee. Maybe they were just too indecisive?
Even after several seconds, no one answered Gravis.
"Anyway," Gravis transmitted to them. "It doesn't matter what you want to do. You can leave, and I won't stop you. But you can also stay if you want. I have some nice ideas for assaulting the land."
The beasts looked around unsurely. Yes, assaulting the land was akin to suicide, but that was only true when they were forced to attack like a suicide squad. Every beast was interested in becoming more powerful. Wasn't a raid on the continent perfect for that?
"How do you intend to attack?" a beast transmitted.
Gravis was a bit surprised about the clear message he had received. Apparently, this beast wasn't stupid. Gravis immediately noticed the speaker.
It was a thin blue snake, and it was nearly 200-meters-long. Its eyes appeared interested, sneaky, and in control of the situation. Gravis immediately knew that the snake prided itself in its craftiness.
Gravis scratched his chin as he looked at the snake.
"You know what?" Gravis transmitted with a smirk. "I had some plans for an attack, but you look like you have a better idea. Otherwise, you wouldn't have spoken up like this, right?"
The snake narrowed its eyes a bit as its tongue briefly peeked through its mouth. Right now, the snake was thinking about a lot of things at once. It had expected many different answers from Gravis, but not this one.
It was rare that the snake mispredicted its opponents' actions. This threw all its plans into the trash. "Why are you asking me?" it asked back.
Gravis' smirk intensified. He preferred speaking to smart beings.
"Your eyes show a craftiness and greed," Gravis transmitted only to the snake, keeping the other beasts out of the loop. "I think your goal is power, but in a different meaning than most beasts interpret it."
"Go on," the snake said with narrowed eyes. This weird creature in front of it was scary. The snake had never been seen-through like this before.
"I think you're interested in authority," Gravis transmitted. "I think you're chasing power to enable you to rule over the others. You want respect, followers, riches, beautiful companions, and many other things. Am I correct?"
"Isn't that why every beast tries to become stronger?" the snake answered, not denying Gravis' claim. "They all want to live in security and live their lives to the fullest."
"You're wrong there," Gravis said.
The snake narrowed its eyes. "How am I wrong?" it asked.
"You are assigning your values to others. I, for example, have no interest in ruling over others. I want the power to be free and unconstrained. The lives of the weaker beasts are irrelevant to me. Why would I care what an ant thinks about me?" Gravis said.
"Some beasts have the same goals as you, but a lot of others chase power for different reasons. Revenge, freedom, riches, respect, protection, surviving, and even knowledge are motivators for others."
The snake looked around at the other beasts and was honestly thinking about these words. Normally, when someone just said something, the snake wouldn't start doubting its usual outlook on life.
Yet, Gravis had proven his intelligence by seeing through its plan. Gravis was also quite powerful. The words he spoke could be valuable knowledge.
"Is that why you directly asked for my plan?" the snake asked.
Gravis nodded. "Yes. You probably wanted to take part in the invasion and use your ingenuity to gain some followers."
The snake remained silent for a bit. "I must admit that you're correct. Yet, even though you knew my goal, why did you still ask?" the snake asked with interest. It couldn't understand this beast's reason for directly giving the snake part of its authority. This seemed like Gravis was giving away part of his power for seemingly no reason.
Gravis laughed a bit. "Because, as I said, I don't care about ruling over others. I'm only interested in becoming powerful. I'm interested in freedom. Ruling over others will inherently force me to bend my will to their wellbeing. This is only a restriction."
"A true ruler bends to no one," the snake said.
"It depends on what your goal is," Gravis answered. "If you suppress everyone below you, they will feel stifled. As your following grows, the dissidents may start to overwhelm you and revolt. Maybe they will run to an enemy and inform them of your plans. As long as you rule with fear, your rule will only be shallow."
"If someone leaves, I'll just kill them," the snake said.
"That works once, or maybe twice, but the more you do it, the more your followers will fear for their own lives. They will start fearing for their lives even when they have never intended to betray you. At that point, they will only run away. With your power alone, you might be able to stay at your current position, but you won't be able to rise."
The snake still wasn't wholly convinced. This went completely against its ideology. Yet, it remained quiet since its arguments felt very weak right now.
"For example," Gravis said. "If I were to force you into serving me, you would search for every opportunity to get away from me, correct?"
The snake narrowed its eyes again.
"Yet, if I give you the authority you want, you wouldn't go against me. After all, we're allies. As long as I don't get between you and your goal, I won't be a hindrance, but an asset."
The snake still had narrowed eyes, but its mind was going crazy. This strange beast was showing proof of its claims by using the snake as an example. The snake knew best what it would do in the situations that Gravis spoke about, and it knew that Gravis was right.
After some seconds, the snake showed a kind of smirk, at least, that's what Gravis thought he saw.
"I want authority and knowledge," it said. "In return, I will manage the battle and beasts."
Gravis shook his head. "As I said, I don't intend to rule over others. So, I'm not interested in finding or founding a group."
Yet, the eyes of the snake remained confident. "You're new to this area, aren't you?" it asked.
Gravis furrowed his brows. "Yes, so what?" he asked.
"I thought so," the snake said. "If you want to become stronger than a level one Lord, you need a group. Without a group, it's impossible."
"How so?" Gravis asked.
"Because the Kingdoms and Empires don't just allow anyone into their territories," the snake answered. "Of course, you can go to their territories as prey and live there. After all, if all beasts are hunted down in those territories, they would lose their value."
"Yet," the snake said with a crafty sparkle in its eyes. "Prey is meant to strengthen the Empire or Kingdom, not weaken them. Not many beasts know of this, but as soon as a prey has killed a set number of assets from the Empire or Kingdom, someone far out of their class will come to clean them up."
Gravis narrowed his eyes as he looked at the snake.
Meanwhile, the snake only smirked.
