Way of the Knights

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Raven's heart bled as he gazed upon the countless dead bodies hanged up on the ceiling. He could feel the heavy resentment and shrill cries of the deceased. All of them died unwillingly, totally powerless to fight back.

In the heat of the moment, Raven began blaming himself for all of this. Why haven't he acted sooner? If he didn't stall for as long as he did, none of this would've happened. He also blamed himself for not knowing that such an event could possibly occur, he simply didn't remember this event ever happening back in his previous life. If he had paid attention to the event back then, he could've done something to prevent this cruel ending for them.

Droplets of tears fell from his eyes. He decided to mourn the deaths of the innocent later since he had things to do. He knew that he can't allow this to go on any further.

Raven closed his eyes and roused his blood in full. A strange aura began emanating around him, his body was then covered with a film of gentle red light as he drove his concentration even further. Blood tumbled inside his body, Raven reached out to the very essence of his life; his longevity, and use a technique that he only used on rare occasions.

When he opened his eyes, his pupils became incredibly resplendent. His stealth was broken due to him using a powerful technique yet Raven did not care even in the slightest. Many eyes were drawn to him as soon as they felt his wildly fluctuating aura, even Yael who was focused on chanting before, stopped and looked at Raven with shocked eyes.

They all began to wonder where did this brat came from, why was he here and how come he was never obstructed on his entry. The instructions they gave to the guards were absolute, once the ritual started, no one was allowed to enter, yet this brat was here! How come?

Unfortunately, before they even had the chance to question him, the gentle red aura that covered Raven's body began fluctuating wildly. Not long after that, the red light became a huge pillar that shot up through the ceiling. Unbeknownst to them, that red light not only penetrated the ceiling of this building but also the entire underground district. It practically soared up to the skies and created a huge screen of light that was seen by everyone in the kingdom.

"How many?"

All of the people inside the ritual room were briefly stunned when they heard him ask this question.

"Tell me. Exactly how many people, you imbeciles used to perform this evil ritual?"

Raven spoke with a horrifying coldness in his tone. His voice sent chills to everyone's spine as they listened. Despite this, no one knew how to react in this situation nor answered his question at that. They just stared at him like he was an idiot.

"Not going to tell huh?" Raven let out a visible sneer through gritted teeth, "Fine. I'll just beat it out from you."

A black hammer then manifested on his hands after saying this. The hammer looked unimpressive at first gaze but in reality, it's a heavenly artifact that will cause wars ending in mountains of corpses and rivers of blood if known.

Yael recovered from his initial shock and inspected the boy. After which, a sigh of relief and a visible sneer appeared in his face, he then said: "I don't know how a Soldier Stage brat like you appeared in here, come to think of it, I received reports of some bugs infiltrating my yard earlier, you must be one of them."

Yael sighed in disappointment and continued: "Those worthless vermin, I use my wealth to pay them but they can't even do a simple job of preventing some brats to make a mess out of this place. One even reached all the way here!"

"Like I said, I don't know how you ended up here but consider this your bad luck. You fools, take care of this pest, we have a ritual to continue!"

As soon as he said that, some people got up from their seated position and charged towards Raven. Despite all of this, Raven's facial expression didn't change, he simply glanced at the people who planned killing him and raised the hammer on his hand as a retaliation.

A merciless glint appeared on eyes, Raven clenched both of his hand and swung his hammer down. The hammerhead seemed to grow larger, air whistled and the hammer struck the ground. From the point, web-like patterns swiftly appeared in a huge cone in front of him, next the ground exploded and boulders flew everywhere.

The pitiful people who were charging at him reacted a bit too late and underestimated his prowess, they simply didn't think that a brat like him was capable of delivering such fierce attack. The boulders not only halted their charge but also severely injured them. Those boulders felt more like artillery shells to them and since they were basically defenses, they received the full impact of those. Limbs were mangled, flesh were torn, some heads were smashed and some bodies were outright buried, despite this gruesome ending, Raven never felt a thing, he wanted nothing more than to destroy everything in front of him.

Yael who was watching the scene unfold had his jaw hung open. How many people was that? Ten? Fifteen? Somewhere along those numbers, all of which had at least reached Knight Stage in cultivation, all dead in one attack from a Soldier Realm brat. How is this possible? Is there some sort of mistake here?

A somber expression appeared on Yael's face. What an incredible loss! Without those people, the ritual would surely be slowed down. And if that wasn't enough, he saw that brat gazing at him with cold eyes as he walked closer to the room as if he was leisurely touring his backyard.

"Blood Ritual: Devil's Cradle. This is what this ritual of your is called right?"

As soon as these words left Raven's mouth and reached everyone's ears inside the room, they couldn't help but shudder and look incredously at Raven. As their hearts started wondering how does a little brat like him knew about this, Raven spoke once more.

"A sinister ritual that requires massive amounts of human sacrifices." As Raven spoke here, he instinctively glanced at the ceiling of the room and once again saw the cruel fates of the people hanged up there.

"You're right." Raven nodded his head, "I am one of the people who infiltrated this underground district of yours. Originally, my intentions are just limited to ending the existence of the Burning Heaven Clan, after all if they continue to exist, then my heart won't be at peace knowing that there is a threat to my family."

"I saw this building from a distance and felt my heart stop, at first I wondered why and thought to ignore it but the foreboding sense of urgency gnaws at my heart. My curiosity got the better of me so I infiltrated this place as well and look at what I've stumbled upon? A ritual that ended the lives of many people who mysteriously went missing on the surface."

"And for what purpose?" Raven paused and looked at each ornaments that was placed on a bias across the room. "To summon people from the Black Curtain Guild, am I right?"

Yael felt his mind shook fiercely as Raven ruthlessly spat out the truth. His pupils dilated and his expression turned aggressive.

"You used human sacrifice here while they used blood of infant beasts there. The ritual will create a two-way portal from their location to here, allowing them to send as many of their soldiers to terrorize and cause destruction inside the kingdom."

"Let me guess." Raven gripped the handle of his hammer tighter and spoke in a harsh tone. "They will destroy as many as they could while you sit here and wait. Once the destruction is in full swing, you will step in and save the day, making the Royal Family indebted to you once again. Like this, you can keep eroding the forces of the Royal Family and people's trust towards them, while you reap the benefits and wait until the perfect time to uproot the Royal Family."

"Then because of your leadership, you'll become the next monarch and all of the wealth of the Kingdom will be yours, of course you'll rule alongside the Black Curtain Guild. Got to admit, this plan is really effective since this wasn't the first time that you did this correct? How else are you people allowed to stay inside the kingdom despite the Royal Family hating you?

"Is my line of thought correct? Yael Mort?"

This question finally caused Yael to blow his top. His face was flushed with a deep shade of red as his aura of Half-step Golden Knight Stage cultivation base swept through Raven. Unfortunately, the anger that Raven felt neutralized this suppression, even if he wasn't angry, this suppression would hardly have any effect on him due to constantly tempering inside the Crown Space.

Seeing that his suppression wasn't doing anything, Yael couldn't take it anymore so he yelled: "KILL THIS BRAT FOR ME! KILL HIM! I DON'T CARE HOW YOU DO IT! KILL! KILL!"