Gravis threw the viper back, freeing it from his grasp. The viper felt an avalanche of relief washing over it when that happened. It was still alive.
"I said, I won't kill you, but I still need to show you that you shouldn't go against me in the future," Gravis said.
CRRRRRR! CRK! Puchi!
A powerful force immobilized the viper's body. Then, it pulled at one of its bones inside its body, tearing it off. After that, identical to what Gravis had done to Shira, the bone shot out of the viper's body. After leaving its body, the bone only hovered above Gravis' opened hand.
The viper felt incredible pain and fear. What was this power? How did this beast manage to tear a bone right out of its body without even touching it? Not even their Lord had that ability.
When Shira saw that, she felt some satisfaction. She had gone through the same, and it felt good to her to see someone else go through her humiliation and pain.
Gravis just looked at the viper. "What's your name?" he asked.
"Silva," it said weakly.
"You're male judging by your name, right?" Gravis asked.
"Yes," Silva said.
"Alright," Gravis commented and slithered back to the Spire. None of the gathered beasts dared to get close to him. His display had intimidated them.
"As you all have heard by my discussion with Silva, it makes no difference if we break the laws or not. The Tribes have created these laws to keep their forces together. The land beasts don't want to lose their forces to the sea beasts and vice versa."
"They make everyone believe that there is only one enemy. Yet, that is not true. Plenty of Tribes on the so-called same side fight with each other, maybe even more than with the so-called enemy. When your Tribe gets annihilated by a Tribe from the same side, do you not consider them as enemies? They are ready to kill you. Therefore, they are your enemy."
"Beasts that think that the only enemy is the other kind are blind to the truth. From the very beginning, everyone is your enemy. There may be unions and alliances, but those exist only because they can't defeat each other. As soon as one member of such an alliance becomes weaker, they will all pounce on that member. Do not confuse superficial benevolence with peace."
Most of the beasts were too stupid to realize the meaning behind Gravis' words. These members only followed the words of the powerful, and Gravis had proven that he was powerful. Therefore, convincing these beasts wasn't hard for Gravis.
The real problem was the semi-smart beasts. They understood some concepts but weren't smart enough to realize that they didn't know much. These beasts believed themselves to be superior to others since they didn't have the ability to notice their own flaws.
Yet, these semi-smart beasts were, at least, smart enough to not butt into the conversation. After all, Shira and Silva kept quiet. However, that didn't change their opinion about the other faction. In their eyes, the other faction was beneath them.
"I know that many of you are still against allying with the other kind," Gravis said. "Yet, I see no problem in that. The major difference between land and sea beasts is simply the fact where they live. That's everything."
"But after reaching our power, the environment becomes unimportant. We can live and fight wherever we are, and when a beast becomes a Lord, it becomes completely unimportant where they fight. Water or no water, it makes no difference to Lords."
Gravis chuckled a bit. "But I know that my words alone won't accomplish much. You need to see and feel it for yourself. Therefore, I'm going to end this speech with some announcements."
All beasts paid attention to Gravis.
"First, the Water Makers will carve wide rivers through the territory. This will be the living space for the sea beasts. The Water Makers already know how the territory should look like and will start shortly."
"Second, Shira will officially be the commander of all sea beasts while Silva will be the commander of all land beasts."
"Third, the pangolin, Morn, will be the Elder. He is very wise and experienced and can give any land beasts guidance when they require it. The octopus, Orthar, will be the Oracle. This is the same position as the Elder, but for sea beasts. Of course, every beast can visit both the Oracle and the Elder. There's no restriction."
"Fourth, the Spire will remain and will act as a status symbol and command center for the land beasts. Of course, it will also house the Team Leaders, the Elder, and Land Commander."
"Fifth, we will create a deep and powerful Abyss surrounding the Spire. Of course, we will leave bridges for the land beasts to reach the Spire without having to go through the water. The Abyss will be the command center for the sea beasts and will house the Team Leaders, the Oracle, and Sea Commander."
"Sixth, we will create a hole that starts at the top of the Spire and reaches the bottom of the Abyss to make it easier for the upper echelons of each side to meet. I will live in a separate cave at sea level inside this hole. If something requires both sides to decide on something together, everyone will meet in this cave."
Then, Gravis smirked. "And lastly, seventh, even though you are from the same Tribe, you are allowed to fight to the death with one another. The fights will be duels, and both sides need to be at the same level of power. We will create four arenas with both land and water in them."
"But keep in mind that you need to request a duel from either the Elder or Oracle. If you attack without consent from any of those two, you will be killed. The consent of your opponent is not required."
"That's all," Gravis said. Then, he lifted his arm to the sky and summoned his Life Ring.
Whoosh! SPLASH!
A massive amalgamation of tentacles, or roots, or something similar fell from the sky, right into the water. The beasts had no idea what that was, but it looked incredibly creepy. Was that a beast?
CRRRRR!
Earthquakes appeared as new rivers were being created. This was the second Water Maker, the Common Fungus. It had lived its whole life inside the earth. Therefore, it wasn't weird that it had an affinity for earth.
When Gravis had caught the fungus, he had believed that it would prove itself useful in the Middle World, and it did. It had helped in moving a lot of earth into the ocean, and now it helped in terraforming his new territory.
The fungus was a Unity Plant, and therefore, could move a lot more earth around than Spirit Beasts. On top of that, it could work as an effective defense in an emergency in case Gravis was occupied.
The beasts were astonished by the mystical powers that Gravis had shown. He had ripped a bone out of Silva's body without touching him, and now he had summoned a humongous creepy being out of thin air. They had no idea how he did that.
The pangolin was already huge, with his length of about 800 meters, but this thing that Gravis had summoned was just unreal. Its roots or tentacles seemingly stretched into the horizons.
One shouldn't forget that the Fungus could cover an area over 20 kilometers wide. A Spirit Beast was nothing in comparison to its size.
After recovering from the shock brought on by the fungus, the land beasts concentrated on the beasts from the "other" side. The land beasts looked with hunger, disdain, and battle intent at the sea beasts. Yet, the sea beasts all charged into the water. After all, the bodies of their slain prey were still inside the water.
"Every land beast that has managed to kill a sea beast in the war is allowed to retrieve and consume their prey," Orthar said as his massive body came out of the water. While everyone else had been gathered, he had cleaned up the corpses of the sea beasts that had died in the war.
With the two sides' current relations, making the land beasts dive into the water might intensify the tensions. The land beasts were skeptical of this new arrival. Who was that?
"I am Orthar, the Oracle of the River Tribe," he announced. "I have created a shallow shore and laid out all the corpses of the sea beasts. You are only allowed to retrieve the corpse of your own prey. Anyone found out lying will be killed and consumed."
CRRRR!
Part of the river lifted as a lot of corpses were revealed. Something like this wasn't hard for Orthar. After all, he was also a Water Maker. After that, Orthar climbed out of the water and started climbing the Spire with his incredibly long tentacles.
Surprisingly, he wasn't alone while climbing. He was pulling the corpse of a powerful lion behind him. Apparently, he had also managed to kill a beast. The Abyss wasn't ready yet, so he decided to live on the Spire for the time being.
After around a minute of climbing, he arrived at the Spire's top, where he saw Gravis, Morn, Shira, and Silva all present. All five leaders of the Tribe had gathered.
"The loss percentage of the River Tribe will increase sharply with that last rule," Morn, the pangolin, transmitted to everyone. "What is your goal in allowing our Tribe to fight and kill each other, Lord?"
Gravis only smirked.
