Way of the Knights

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"Where in the world..."

When Raven's vision re-adjusted, he found out that he was on a different place altogether.

Dark and ominous clouds loomed over his head. The moon was awfully close and was died with a blood-freezing shade of red.

He could hear howls of wolves, rustling of bushes and he could also feel the heavy atmosphere in the air.

"So...you finally reached this point."

An ethereal voice passed by his ears, sending shivers to his spine. Raven hurriedly looked over and saw the faint silhouette of Inos, sitting on one of the tree branches while looking at him with a kind smile.

"Partner!" Raven said in an elated manner. "You appeared, which means that I reached the first checkpoint right?"

"Correct." Inos nodded in satisfaction. "You might be confused about this, so allow me to explain."

"As the 9th True Heir Candidate, this whole palace grounds is your trial grounds. Letting you experience the Royal Suppression isn't enough to forge you as the rightful heir."

"Scattered in the Palace Grounds are 100 Pocket Dimensions, just like this one. Each of them is a checkpoint on their own."

"Once you enter inside, you cannot leave without clearing the challenges it poses. Try focusing on your mind, you shall see the the current challenge, or mission if that makes it easier to understand."

Listening to Inos' explanation, Raven hurriedly closed his eyes and searched his psyche. There he found golden words that carried profound ancientness and solemnity.

***

Challenge #1: Fight!

- Defeat or Kill enemies. The result will vary depending on your actions so decide wisely Young Candidate.

***

"Have you seen it?" Inos' inquiry woke up Raven from his trance.

Raven nodded and felt quite perplexed.

All of these events took him by surprise. When Inos informed him a while back about his overall goal to become the rightful owner of the Divine Ancestral Crown, a True Heir, many questions found their way onto his mind. Like, who was the creator of the Crown? Why did he created it? Where is this creator? Why does one have to pass these challenges to become the true owner of this crown? And so on...

None of his questions were answered, which lead him to believe that he had to succeed in these trials first before the answer revealed themselves to him.

The existence of these pocket dimensions also brought great waves in his heart. It had to be known that spatial genesis is the pinnacle of Space Laws. Even back in his previous life, there's only a handful of people who had the ability to create their own pocket dimensions, and all of them are incredibly powerful people. Which is saying a lot because they're at the Divine Realm.

But the creator of this crown not only created a pocket dimension inside an item, but also created 100 pocket dimensions inside a pocket dimension. This was enough to send Raven's mind reeling...

"I know this is a lot to take in..." Inos said, breaking Raven's trance once more. "But remember the reason why you wanted to become the rightful heir. Remember and hold onto it, let it be the fuel that you need to go past your limits."

Raven looked up and saw that Inos was already gone. His words lingered onto his ears for a while and filled with his with resolve.

'He's right. It's useless to think about things deeply, I have one major goal. And that is to transcend any challenges that comes my way and protect the people that's important to me. That's everything I need.'

Having his thoughts cleared up, hesitation no longer clouded his mind and he directly looked in front of him.

Raven tried cloaking himself with energy, hoping that he could suppress his presence and do some investigations first without alerting the enemy. However, he was met with a problem.

"My cultivation is sealed." Raven spoke with a tinge of annoyance, he tried using his spiritual sense but it's also sealed. The only thing that's left with him is his formidable body thanks to his Body Path.

"Not just that but..." Raven trailed off, he closed his eyes and tried feeling the atmosphere in a deeper manner than before. He opened his eyes and had a wry smile in his face. "There is no energy here. It's like a dead land, abandoned by the breath of the Earth. Which means, I could only do things the hard way."

Raven said to himself as he lowered his body and chose walk along the bushes, maintaining high vigilance at all times.

He made sure to refrain from making any noise as much as he could, his over all plan was to investigate first before taking any action. He didn't want to blindly go in with fists blazing without knowing what kind of enemies he will face.

*Shua!*

Raven's heart tightened as he heard the fierce rustling of the bushes near him. He immediately ducked and hid while looking around to find the source of that noise.

Not too far from him, he saw a silver silhouette moving at a fast speed. He narrowed his eyes and tried following the movements of that silver silhouette but it was quite difficult.

Fortunately, the silhouette stopped moving, allowing him to finally see it's true form.

'It's a Silver Moonwolf!' Raven exclaimed inwardly.

Sharp canines, muscular body, and bright silver fur along a with piercing blue eyes. This is without a doubt a Silver Moonwolf, this particular one is quite young, about two years old from Raven's judgments.

Raven watched as the young Silver Moonwolf warily glanced all over its surroundings, before finally curling up into a ball and closing it's eyes to rest.

Inwardly, he was puzzled. The young Silver Moonwolf wasn't injured in any way, nor it was exhausted either. From what he could remember, the habitat of these wolves are places that is quite exposed so that they could bask in moonlight.

Well, considering that the moon is currently bloody red, he had no idea if that brings any changes to the Silver Moonwolves or not. In fact, this is the first time in this lifetime that he encountered a Red Moon.

Red Moon, aside from giving humans a creepy feeling, had no real effects on them. But same thing couldn't be said for beasts, as for what kind of beasts are affected and what are the effects of it, he had no idea at all.

Raven was about to get a closer look at the young Silver Moonwolf when suddenly it's body became draped in a layer of blue-ish glow.

The glow got progressively brighter until it obscured his vision. When the glow ended and Raven's vision adjusted, his pupils dilated as he glanced at the previous location of the Silver Moonwolf.

He can't even call it a wolf now. The beast turned into a young boy, probably the same age as he is. He had head full of silver hair, silver brows and eyelashes as well. His skin was a fair as a pearl's and he was wearing a thin white silk, tightly hugging his petite body.

Raven was gobsmacked, is this the effects of the Red Moon? It turns wolves into humans?

The situation was strange, but considering the fact that he was inside a strange land, he didn't find this quite surprising. Instead of making contact right away, he stayed hidden from sight and waited until the proper moment.

A few minutes later, the young boy woke up. The first thing he did was to look at his hand. A gleeful smile surfaced in his young face, he gripped his fists tight as an expression of excitement filled his chest.

"A pity that it only lasts on the nights of a Red Moon. I wish that I could permanently transform as a human." The young boy spoke in a fluent human tongue which shocked Raven once more.

'How intriguing.' Raven thought while smiling. A young wolf that could transform into a human every red moon? This is news to him, and something that he doesn't mind knowing more of.

Formulating a plan for a while, Raven went out of his hiding place. He deliberately made a noise, successfully catching the attention of the young boy.

Raven saw distress surface in the face of the young boy. The youngster immediately stood up and charged at him, his fists turned into claws and as Raven glanced closely at it, he saw how his nails became longer and deadlier.

But instead of dodging his attack, Raven did no effort to evade. With a knowing smile in his face, he easily caught the claws of the young boy and suppressed him through sheer strength.

At first, Raven was worried. He's not a local of this place so he had no idea if they have a unique was of cultivation. But observing the transformation of the young wolf and its actions gave him enough confidence to progress his plan.

And it turns out that he was right. Upon its transformation, the speed of the young wolf was halved and it's overall strength was weakened as well, allowing him to easily catch his attack.

He saw the horrified look on the boy's face as he asked: "Who are you?