Way of the Knights

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"Hey, Raven!" 

A voice called out to him as he was walking inside the base, he turned around and saw that its Jason. He stopped on his tracks and let him catch up. When he came close, he asked: "What's up?"

"I'm planning on visiting the Fighting Arena, wanna come with me?" Jason asked. 

To which, Raven raised a brow and said: "You're on duty today right? Don't tell me you're slacking off? That's a bad example dude."

Jason flinched. What Raven said was true, Jason was supposed to be monitoring the status of their teammates who went out today. Which is why Raven accused him of slacking off, this is their first rotation of duty. It wouldn't be a good example if he, as the elected leader, skipped his duty just because he wanted to watch some dudes fight it out.

"Ey, don't be like that. I've informed Pyra about it. She said that she alone should be enough for that - hey! Don't look at me like that! It's true! You can ask her right now! I'll even go with you." Jason exasperatingly said, he even gestured at Raven, signaling that he's really willing to prove his innocence.

Raven could only sigh and say: "What's taking them so long anyway?" 

"Beats me." Jason shrugged, "When the Imp Overlord died during the eruption, many of its minions managed to escape. In a sense they should be able to find many of them lurking in the Devil's Cradle, but it seems that such isn't the case. If it was, then they should be returning by now."

It has been five days since the first group went into patrol and they still hadn't returned. 

Just like what Jason said, this situation seems a little bit strange since there should be a decent amount of Imps lurking around the Devil's Cradle. Unfortunately, they have no way to know what truly is happening within the place so they could only pin their hopes to their teammates that they will return safely. 

"Anyway, there's no use on being so overly worried. Floyd is with them. If anything, he should be able to handle hordes of Imps on his own." Jason waved his hand, showing a confident expression. "So? You coming or not?"

"I can't." Raven replied, "I need to train somethings for my job. Search for another one." 

This was a blatant lie, but Jason doesn't need to know. 

"Ah, the Cleanser thing!" Jason was enlightened, he then nodded and said: "Alright, I guess I'll go with someone else. See you later."

With that, Jason walked away and Raven continued on his way towards the official training rooms within the base. 

Many things had happened since he exited his most recent seclusion...

First and foremost is the his control over his monstrous strength. If before, he was still wary of his actions and needed to constantly pay attention lest he unconsciously destroy whatever he's holding, now he didn't have to worry about it anymore. 

With his arduous training, he attained utmost perfection in his strength control. He trained it to an instinctual level that he no longer needed to wear any strength suppressing seals. With his perfect control, his physical strength can go from 0 to 100 with a thought. 

Sufficed to say that the skills which are directly tied with his physical strength are also trained to their current acme. 

He didn't improve much when it comes to his laws due to a few reasons. His Destruction Laws were stuck in a bottleneck. He needed a spark of inspiration in order to gain knowledge about its second concept, and that is something that happens naturally - which means that even if he uses every mind enhancing supplements there is, unless it isn't fated to happen, it won't happen. 

As for his Spacetime Laws, it received some small boosts and that's about it. He was able to extend the time by one whole day for both 'Historical Reading' and the effects of his 'Spacetime Domain'. The Spacetime Void also became a little easier for him to pry open, allowing him to fit his head but he didn't take the plunge just yet. 

Another are which he improved upon was the seals - which were giving him the biggest headache instead of laws. [99 Destruction Seals], [99 Holy Seals], [Forbidden Scarlet Seal Art] - the reward he received from acing the second trial, and the [Ancestor Sealer's Rosary] - which was handed to him by Elder Gin in hopes of freeing the Heavenly Elk situated at the 89th floor of the Devil Emperor's Pagoda.

There way too many freaking seals for him to learn! So far, he only managed to decipher the first five seals of both the Destruction and Holy Seals, the others are too difficult to decipher. He hadn't even touched the Forbidden Scarlet Seal Art, and only deciphered the 1st Seal on the rosary - which is just as difficult as the first two sets of skills he needed to learn by the way…

Even though he recently just had a new batch of Avatars to help him, there's just way too many things on his table and it's possible that there's more to come in the future. He felt that he couldn't have enough Avatars for this. The problem is that, the materials needed for the other stages of Myriad Incarnations Scripture will only progressively become more expensive. 

He doesn't even have a solid way to earn Merit Points yet for crying out loud. 

Finally, as for the 9 Cleansing Plumes, he had learned them all. He didn't dare to say that he mastered everything but at least he could perform everything while omitting the chants needed altogether. He managed to achieve this due to his closer connection to the flame seed - which by the way, shrank in size. When he received the flame seed earlier, it's size was that of a regular seed but now, it became hardly visible. 

However, even if it shrank in size, the purity of its flames and the runic lines covering it became even more intense. Which is why he was able to control it better than before. All in all, despite what he said, this short bursts of seclusion are still giving him fruitful results. 

And even though he isn't actively cultivating, he wasn't afraid of being left behind thanks to the existence of the Crown. If he really wanted to, he could focus all of his attention to cultivation and he'll have a breakthrough in no time, but for the sake of possessing the most solid foundation he could possibly get, he'll just let breakthroughs occur naturally. 

Although Raven just recently entered seclusion, he felt somewhat agitated which prevented him from sleeping. Therefore he decided to do some exercises under multiplied gravity just to tire himself out and fall asleep.

"Hey, Raven." 

Another voice called out to him. Raven turned around and was surprised. It wasn't Jason who called him, it was Henry. 

"Senior Brother! I didn't expect you to be here!" Raven greeted, "I'll call everyone else, just a moment…"

"No need." Henry stopped him before he could call out to the rest. "I'm actually here because of you."

"Me?" Raven was surprised again, pointing at himself even. 

"Don't worry, you aren't in trouble." Henry chuckled, "Can we talk somewhere privately?"

"O-okay…" Raven replied somewhat hesitantly. Nevertheless, he followed Henry as they entered a vacant room. Henry locked the room and placed a Silence Seal around to prevent others from hearing what they're about to discuss. 

"Before we start, I just want to say that the contents of our conversation right now concerns a very sensitive subject. It would be for the best if you don't leak this information to another soul or else you'll be forcing my hand, understood?"

"Yes, Senior Brother." Raven nodded with a serious expression. He sat on the table and was ready to hear whatever Henry has to say. 

"Thank you." Henry stated, he then sat down in front of Raven and smiled: "So, a little bee has told me, that someone managed to meet the Flames of Olympus face to face and got himself a Flame Seed. I wonder if this news was reliable?"

'Oh, so he wanted to talk about that. Whew, for a second there I thought that the Crown was exposed.' Raven inwardly sighed in relief but didn't dare to show any changes on his expression. 

"Yes. That news is reliable. The Flames of Olympus did give me a Flame Seed when I met with it." Raven revealed, causing Henry's smile to widen and eventually turn into a booming laughter. 

"Good! Good!" Henry said with a wide smile, "This is good news! I truly did not expect this!" 

Henry then cleared his throat and looked at Raven intently, asking: "If you don't mind, can you tell me everything that led up to this point?"

"Sure, no problem. It all started when…"  action

Raven then proceeded to explain everything to Henry, not hiding anything from his encounters. Henry listened to him closely and was somewhat surprised by the end of the story, so much so that he started mumbling to himself.

"The flames…can't remember what his name is, huh…"