Aris was fearful as he felt something touching his heart. He had never felt so close to death before. If Gravis wanted, Aris would be dead right now.
"I concede. You're more powerful than me," Aris said slowly.
Plop!
Gravis came out of the cut he had entered from and cleaned himself off the blood. Then, he floated in front of Aris and looked him deep into the eyes.
"Aris, you need to learn several things," Gravis said. Aris only remained silent as he listened to Gravis' words. "In actuality, you have made the same mistake I did."
Aris, Cera, and Yersi were surprised when Gravis said that he had also made a similar mistake.
"Just like you, I had charged through one Realm after the other. I thought that everything would continue working out for me as long as I continue tempering myself. Yet, that is not the truth."
"Why am I still a level three King after such a long time? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Do you think I'm just not able to become more powerful?" Gravis asked.
Aris took a deep breath. "In the beginning, yes, but I don't believe that anymore," he said.
Gravis nodded. "Everything changes when you become an Emperor. The Empress and the Grand Elder have explained these things to me, and now I will explain these things to you."
By now, their mindset had completely changed again. Gravis had shown that he was still much more powerful than them. This meant that his words were worth their weight in gold.
Gravis explained to them how old the average Emperor was and how many Laws they had managed to comprehend in that time. He also explained to them how many more Laws an average Emperor would be able to learn with their Law Comprehension experience in comparison to them.
"In short, if you continue going at this speed, you will sooner or later become weak in comparison to others in your Realm. You must take long breaks to comprehend Laws between fights. Otherwise, your Law Comprehension will continue to fall in comparison to your Realm," Gravis said.
"In the last 100 years, I have fully concentrated on only understanding Laws. I didn't do this because I couldn't get any more powerful. I did this in order to keep my foundation solid. If we ignore my Punishment Lightning, I would know enough Laws to reach the average of a level two Emperor, and that's after spending a full century on them."
"Just think about it," Gravis said. "If we ignore my Punishment Lightning, I would still be able to kill every level five King in this world. I had no problems in defeating you while not having used my three most powerful weapons. Yet, that is only the average for a level two Emperor. The most powerful King in existence only knows as many Laws as a level two Emperor. Quite the contrast, isn't it?"
The three kids thought about these things and grimaced. Everything that Gravis said made sense and that was why they didn't like it. They thought that they could continue just like they always had. Looking at Gravis' monstrous Battle-Strength and knowing that this would be the average Battle-Strength of a level two Emperor felt terrifying. Every opponent of them at that Realm would be so overwhelmingly powerful?
Of course, that was not entirely true. Gravis had not used his three most powerful weapons in the fight, after all. One shouldn't forget that he could still use his Punishment Lightning, which also included the Lightning Crescent, and his Will-Aura with the Law of Suppression. If he used these things, his Battle-Strength would be insane, even for an Emperor.
"Emperors are terrifying," Gravis said. "I haven't fought one before, but I now know that they are very terrifying. A level two Law is incredibly powerful, and if you don't know at least double the Laws of such an opponent or a level two Law yourself, you will die. Keep in mind that every Emperor knows at least one level two Law and a ton of level one Laws. You can't even think about fighting someone like that as you are now!"
All three of them remained silent as they listened to Gravis' words.
"Now," Gravis said, "onto your next mistake. You are not trusting and listening to other beasts on your level."
"I trust my companions!" Aris said with power, not happy that Gravis said that he didn't trust them.
Gravis shook his head. "That's not what I meant. What I mean is that you should trust in their experience and judgment. You are no longer young, but in comparison to other level five Kings, you are still young. They have seen a lot more than you or even me."
"When you had been Lords, you should have met a lot of inexperienced and stupid Lords. Yet, that is no longer true for Kings. Every King has managed to comprehend at least one Law and went through the mandatory procreation. They have remained in this Realm for hundreds of years, and in that time, they have seen a lot."
"Have you ever seen the power of an Inquisitor?" Gravis asked as he looked at the three of them.
All three of them shook their heads.
"This is what I meant," Gravis said. "Every experienced King has seen an Inquisitor go into action at least once. Additionally, why are there so few Inquisitors? Is it because no one wants to be an Inquisitor?" Gravis asked.
"No," Yersi said as she said her first word ever since meeting Gravis again. "Everyone wants to be an Inquisitor, including us. It's the best position for tempering and also the safest. We can move around as we want and fight whom we want."
"And why were you not able to become an Inquisitor?" Gravis asked.
Yersi looked to the side. "We were told that we were not powerful enough," she admitted.
Gravis nodded. "That's right. To become an Inquisitor, you need to have comprehended either one level two Law or, at least, ten useful level one Laws. You need to be in the top 10% of level five Kings."
"Now," Gravis said as his eyes narrowed. "All of these things I have said are connected. You do not have enough experience. Yet, that is not so bad if you are able to rely on your companions' experiences. If you lack experience, you can simply trust the judgment of someone that has the experiences. Then, you will still be able to make the right decision."
"You didn't know how powerful an Inquisitor is. Yet, instead of listening to the words of your companions, who have seen an Inquisitor, you decided to ignore their words. You believe them to be beneath you when that is not the case. Yes, their Battle-Strength might be weaker than yours, but their experiences are still very valuable."
"So, think about how you have acted just now," Gravis said. "I have met quite a few powerful Kings on my journey to here since they kept confusing me with you, Aris. When I showed them that I was Gravis, how did they react?"
Gravis remained silent for several seconds as he looked angrily at his children. It was imperative that they realized the error of their ways!
"I'll tell you how they reacted. After realizing that I'm Gravis, not Aris, every single one of them immediately fled, and I could even feel the nervousness inside them. All these level five Kings didn't dare to disrespect me even a little bit, and that's because they know how powerful an Inquisitor is."
"And they know what it means when someone manages to kill an Inquisitor as a level two King," Gravis said.
"So, instead of listening to your companions, you decided that an Inquisitor couldn't be as powerful as everyone says. After all, a level two King managed to kill one."
"If I were an enemy, you three would be dead right now, and why? Because you didn't trust in the experiences of your companions."
Gravis' eyes narrowed. "Never forget, an Inquisitor is more powerful than you, and I've managed to kill one when I was half your age. Even if I just scratched my balls for a hundred years, I would still be more powerful than all three of you at once."
"I killed an Inquisitor when I was 60. You are all now around 110 years old and can't even fight one. Yet, you have the audacity to look at me with disdain!? I'm not angry that you looked at me like that. I'm angry at how stupid you would have to be to run headlong into danger that could be easily avoided by listening to your companions!"
"You were lucky that it was me!" Gravis shouted. By now, he was pretty upset with them, and he needed to rectify this fatal weakness of theirs. "Imagine that you would have seen an Inquisitor of the sea beasts in battle! You would have attacked them, thinking yourself to be so superior, and then that Inquisitor would have destroyed you like some flies."
"This wouldn't have been a death due to tempering, but a death due to stupidity! Learn what you can fight and what you can't fight!"
By now, the three of them felt scared in front of Gravis' tirade. Where had their always happy and loving father gone? They had never seen him so angry!
"I don't want you to die such stupid deaths!" Gravis shouted, but his voice was less angry now. "You are my kids, and I love you! I don't want to lose you because of such a stupid reason. I want you to become powerful, and if your destiny is to die, I want you to die a normal death while tempering."
The three of them didn't know what they were feeling right now. Something deep inside of them felt bad for Gravis. They also felt incredibly sorry and guilty. They had no idea what these feelings were, but these feelings told them that they should listen to him and rectify their mistakes.
BZZZZ!
Suddenly, the lightning inside their bodies pulled them forward. Yet, for some reason, they didn't feel afraid.
Pack!
They all flew to Gravis, and he pulled them all in a group hug. Luckily, they were all back in their shrunken forms.
"I don't want to lose you," Gravis said quietly.
Yersi was the first that returned the hug. Then, surprisingly, it was Aris. Cera took some time since she wasn't sure what she was feeling, but seeing her siblings returning the hug, she just went with it.
A lot of new emotions they had never felt before appeared inside their mind. These emotions were not emotions that beasts felt.
These were human emotions.
