Way of the Knights

Chapter 757

The appearance of the Six Legendary Heroes stunned the whole crowd. 

As they walked out of the portal and into the front, many eyes followed them. Most people had already forgotten about the Emperor, all they felt was overwhelming exciting and reverence towards the people who helped shape the Empire of today. 

These legendary six are the ones that brought the Golden Age for the old kingdom and the current empire. Even after they were gone, their actions are still affecting the world. 

Majority of the people here heard and grew up listening to stories about them. They only heard legends about them and never got the chance to see them. Now however, all of that changes.

They've returned home after decades of being gone. The impact of their appearance was shocking. Every single one of them had auras that surpasses even that of the Emperor himself. 

The families of these six couldn't help but to puff their chest in pride, but deep down they all knew that they have little to no share in their glory. All of their achievements were something that they earned for themselves, they were of no help in the process. Still, the fact someone from their family reached such frightening heights, filled them with overwhelming pride. 

As the six arrived where the Emperor is, they saw them lining up and surveying them. 

They way they carried themselves shows experience. Although they stood up close to them, everyone knew that these people are at a place they can never hope to reach. 

Raven looked at the audience. From one glance, he can tell what the people are thinking. Most of them were left in awe of their presence. Others were filled with overwhelming pride and a few felt a slight displeasure about them – not that Raven and the rest cares about these people. 

"Take it away, Bro. You have something say right?" Balmung shrugged and went back to his seat. Raven nodded to him as he stood in front of everybody 

His wife and friends sat amongst their family, leaving Raven alone in front to start the conference. 

"It's good to be back." Raven smirked, stating his first words to the crowd. "The Divine Realm is a good place but in the end, nothing beats home. Well, some of you might find yourselves disagreeing with me and that's fine. For me at least, no kind of beauty or wonder the Divine Realm has can ever come close to being home with my family." 

Raven's impassioned speech roused the emotions of the crowd. All eyes were focused on him, paying attention to every words he says…

"I'm seeing some new old and new faces here." Raven smiled as he surveyed the crowd with his eyes again. "For us who follow the path of Knighthood, three to four decades isn't really long. Cultivation blesses us with extended longevities after all. Still, being away from home for that long really causes one to be sentimental." 

Raven looked around the palace and muttered: "The last time I was here, this didn't exist." 

His voice was soft but the crowd can hear him. His tone was filled with melancholy and nostalgia.

"Before we left, there was no Empire, only a Kingdom." Raven continued, "a Kingdom that had stood for many years refusing to fall. A Kingdom that has citizens who're always under the constant threat of Demonic Beast Hordes. A kingdom that has became my home…our home, and one that I'll always return to." 

"But, the establishment of the Empire is a proof of how far we've come." Raven continued, "A proof that all of our efforts weren't in vain. Gone were the days that we have to be afraid of demonic beasts. Gone were the days that we were ignorant about what it's like outside of the tall walls. Gone were the days that we have to rely on the wall for protection."

"When we left, there's only a few Golden Knights around and only a single Hero Knight. Now, it's totally different." Raven chuckled, the crowd smiled along with him. 

"But see, I don't feel like that's enough." Raven said. "In fact, let me correct myself. It is not enough." 

"Take it from someone who had seen what Divine Realm is like. Believe me…believe us when we say that this is far from enough." Raven stated. "Far, far from enough." 

"We can always do better." 

The Brush of Wisdom suddenly appeared on Raven's hand. He drew a single stroke in the air, leaving a golden line which transformed into motes of light that re-arranged themselves as a massive image. 

The image was that of a plane which looked like a massive floating island. It has four sharp corners, a sun and a moon which rotated and revolved from east to west. 

"You all know what this is…that's right, this is what world looks like." Raven muttered as he saw the entranced look on the audience's faces. Although they had the Skynet Array – which allowed them to map out the entire world, they never see their world's entirety. This is the first time. 

Raven moved a finger and the image shrunk into a mote of lights, surrounded with more motes of light which looked a ring of fireflies. 

"This ring represents how many lower planes there are, although I can't be sure about their exact number, there's at least millions of them. Our world is only one amongst them, even with that said, this world is too small to even be considered as a lower plane." 

"A damn shame considering that Divine Realm wouldn't be under Humanity's jurisdiction if it weren't for our world. After all, the first batch of humans who went to the Divine Realm came from this world."

Everyone was enamored with Raven's story, except maybe his wife and friends as they knew about this already. 

"See, all of us, who are born in this world, are connected to it by a Karmic Link. Our actions and pre-destined achievements will be reflected to our home world."

"Those who ascended to the Divine Realm back then, never returned." Raven stated, "Which ultimately caused the stagnation of this world's growth. As the others lower planes continued to grow and eventually evolved into Great Worlds, our world remained small and weak because none of them returned."

"There's not much left before this world reach it's natural lifespan, when that happens, everything we know and love will disappear. Blaming those people will be a little too late now." 

Raven's words were particularly alarming. Even Balmung and the Imperial Family looked solemn. 

"But then again, isn't that why we're here?" Raven smirked, not feeling even the slightest bit apologetic for making everybody nervous. 

"See, I've already knew that this world's time was running short. That's why I'm in a hurry to get strong. That's why I pushed my friends, and yes that includes my wife, to work harder. All for the sake of preventing this world's destruction." 

Raven's wife and friends chuckled at his antics. The crowd was now heaving a sigh of relief, some of them hated Raven for making them nervous but they didn't dare to say it out loud. 

"I've already made preparations before we left. And now that we're back, it's time to finalize that and open the curtains for the new era that shall descend into this world!" 

The Brush of Wisdom on Raven's hand turned into a scepter. He slammed the scepter into the ground and the palace was suddenly dismantled into to piece, much to everybody's surprise and it didn't end there. 

To everyone's, yes even his wife and friends included, shock. They saw that the whole Empire was floating inside the vacuum of space, supported by a massive golden and silver rune. 

"Hey, look behind him!" 

Someone from the audience pointed out, everyone looked behind Raven and they could see a massive island trembling. Everyone was dumbstruck, that island was their world! None of them had any idea what's happening right now. 

"Like I told everyone before…" Raven's voice returned their attention back to him, "…everyone who's born in this world has a karmic link to it. I, with my wife and friends, are no different. And unlike the ungrateful people of the past, we returned bearing gifts as thanks for this world raising us."

"This, is the effect of our homecoming." Raven stated. "As we piled up stellar achievements even with Divine Realm's standards, our return caused our Karmic Link to our world to react and ignite the flames of evolution." 

"This is what I mean when I say that we can always do better." Raven smiled widely, "From here on out, the Grand Ancestral Plane shall move on from being a weak small plane to becoming an Empyrean World! Everyone who attended this banquet shall witness our worlds evolution!"

"Fret not about the citizen's safety, all of them have fallen into slumber and currently under my protection. None of you will be harmed during this process. When the evolution of the world is finished, we will simply return and the Empire shall be rebuilt at the center of the world once more." 

"Well then! That's it for me! Everyone, let's continue this banquet under the blanket of infinite stars!!

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