Way of the Knights

---

Raven woke up at the latter half of his stay at the Crown Space. 

Upon opening his eyes, his gaze could give one an impression of ancientness. It was as if Raven was somebody who had seen ages flashed before his very eyes that nothing surprises him anymore. His body released an archaic air as well. 

All of this was due to the World Tree that had sprout within his Inner Cosmos. At the end of his state of enlightenment, everything came rushing back to him, allowing him to re-organize himself properly. 

Raven's view of the world changed once more. Due to his recent enhancement, he couldn't help but feel a bit omnipotent. He felt as if nothing could escape his gaze, as if he could see through every secrets the world has to offer. 

It was a peculiar feeling, something that wouldn't stay for long but he still reveled in it. 

"My Inner Cosmos stabilized...but it looks a bit weird now." Raven murmured. 

Within his Inner Cosmos, a truly peculiar sight could be seen. The swirling cosmos still moved in a rather mesmerizing manner yet at it's very center, there is no core anymore. Instead, there was a lone sprout with one green leaf and one pure white leaf replacing it. Typically, this sprout shouldn't even be visible considering overall size of the cosmos, but this is the sprout of the World Tree...

Although Raven haven't seen an actual World Tree before, according to his research they can grow up to an unbelievable size. Well, the World Tree could truly connect worlds through it's branches and could reflect the infinite realities at it's leaves, then it's size should be one of the things that Raven should consider the least. 

Still, for a massive sprout to be situated at the very core of a cosmos, paints a very strange image indeed. 

"Well, nothing I could do about that. Plus, it isn't so bad." He murmured once more, "Nurturing a world tree within my body huh? Sounds fun." 

Raven inspected his Inner Cosmos closely still and found out that the overall quality of his Cosmic Energy rose up once more. Well, that's just only one of the benefits he receive out of the World Tree Seed blooming.

Setting aside all of the insights he absorbed from it, the World Tree Sprout also allowed Raven to use his Spacetime Laws more smoothly. 

Right now, if he wanted to use Temporal Scrying to scan the past or future of a certain object or location, he no longer was required to make contact with it. All he needs to do is to stare at it and everything he needed to know will be visible to him. 

He could also now travel even further back to either the past or the present. At maximum, he could return at least 3 months to the past or future. In fact his influence over the Trinity of Realities became even stronger thanks to the seed sprouting. 

Even without moving, he could send himself to either the past, present or future, to avoid certain events if he needed to. For example, should a meteor fall down right on top of him, he could simply send his body to either the past of future to completely avoid it. 

Since the meteor will occur at the present, if he sent his body to the past, he could completely come out of it unscathed. In fact, he might even be able to completely deny that reality by altering the past according to his own liking. Changing the past will also alter the events of the present, completely changing the reality as he once saw it. 

This is just a simple application example for his current prowess. Adding the fact that his Spacetime Domain became larger as well, then his options would greatly vary. 

Once he was done inspecting his gains, Raven stood up from his seat and did some stretching. He remained at a meditative pose for more or less three months straight, and he could feel that his bones were a bit stiff. Therefore he decided to do some stretching just to regain his mobility. 

Once he got the blood flowing, Raven decided to take it easy and rest for a bit. He rewarded himself by eating something and sleeping for three days straight. He could see what's going on in the real world so he's not worried at all. 

The War Gods were still trapped inside the trial gate so he still has some time for himself. Move waves of beasts were appearing left and right but the madness rune was still active so he didn't have to worry about them. 

Since he had no burdens right now, then he could really take his time and rest easy. 

Resting allows him to complete the stabilization of his state so it's necessary for him to do so. 

Once he was properly rested and had completely recovered. Raven made the effort of replenishing his lost energies. Yes, even through his Inner Cosmos became larger and it's quality rose up by several notches thanks to the influence of the World Tree Sprout, he's still missing a good amount of it thanks to the aftermath of the seed blooming. 

This time, Raven didn't use any supplements to restore his energies. He chose to do things manually by sitting down in meditation and siphoning energy from his surroundings. 

The quality and quantity of energies present at the world inside the Crown Space were high to begin with. Additionally, Raven had time so he figured why not? 

Doing it this way sure is slow, in his estimations it will take at least one week straight of non-stop energy absorption to completely fill out his missing energy. Raven wasn't fazed though. He had time, and there was no need for him to rush. 

And since he's already at it, Raven also decided to integrate with the insights his Avatars received. 

Just like this, Raven spent majority of his remaining time of seclusion to fully consolidate his gains. By the time he was done, it was about time for him to exit. As much as he would've loved to stay, he didn't want to risk it since the War Gods might exit pretty soon. 

---

"I guess you guys got unlucky once more?" 

This was how he greeted the War Gods once he saw their current states after exiting the Trial Gates. 

The War Gods didn't even have any spare energy to reply to him. None of them could even stand properly and were about to pass out at any given moment. Their bodies will filled with numerous injuries. Lashes, bruises and cuts were visible all over them. 

Their uniforms had definitely seen better days. Their uniforms were shredded, filled with holes, burnt and etc. Their bodies were visibly trembling and their eyes had totally lost focus. 

Raven sighed and pitied their current state, he knew that now's not the time to ask any questions so he immediately helped them out of their predicaments. 

He took them within the formation to eat and rest. The moment the War God smelled the mouth-watering scent of food, signs of life returned to their eyes. Raven didn't say anything and served them food which they devoured like starved beasts. 

Raven observed from the side, hoping that his food will somehow be able to at least return their sanity to them and heal them up a bit but for some reason, it wasn't working. This caused Raven to raise a brow. 

Typically, with nourishment that his food has, the injuries on their bodies would at least show signs of healing. Yet no matter how much food they chowed down, the injuries they had weren't healing at all. 

This prompted Raven to inspect them closely. Rainbow colored light blossomed on his eyes as he inspected their bodies and once he made a thorough inspection, his face abruptly changed. 

"Oh dear, this is bad..." Raven said as he hurriedly took out some material from his spatial ring. "They're poisoned, pretty badly at that." 

Raven had no idea what kind of poison affected them but he could definitely see traces of it. Additionally, whatever poison this was, it could only be lethal to them since it managed to reduce them to this state. These people are War Gods, they're not regular people. 

"This is going to be tricky..." Raven murmured to himself, "Whatever did this to them, must've been an expert of Poison Laws since those are the only types of poison that could affect them. I don't have much experience dealing with Poison Laws but I could only try my best." 

Raven hastily prepared the materials he's going to need. Once he made ample preparations, he summoned the brush of wisdom and began drawing up a rune. 

As the rune slowly manifested, the materials in front of him were being used one by one. By the time he was done, all of the materials were transformed into an apparatus which held the rune in place. 

The rune formed the word 'Cleansing'. It is also fueled with Raven's Cleansing Flames which received an ample boost due to it evolving. 

Once the rune appeared, the War Gods sudden froze and lost consciousness, falling down like sacks of potatoes.