Way of the Knights

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"Well, that should do it." Raven murmured as he placed the unconscious War Gods at their respective tents while making sure that the Cleansing Rune remained in effect. 

At first he was worried after seeing them lose consciousness all of a sudden but after another inspection, he found out that there's nothing wrong with them and them losing consciousness is actually a good sign. 

Raven analyzed the poison that invaded their systems and managed to find out that except for the fact that it could wither their vitalities from within, fueled with Poison Laws, the poison also managed to penetrate their nervous system and take control of their minds, effectively making them no less than mindless puppets. This is why the War Gods weren't responding to him. 

The reason why they didn't attack them is because the poison hasn't penetrated that deep enough to their nervous system therefore it wasn't fully in control yet. As the War Gods saw Raven as an ally, of course they wouldn't attack him. 

That being said though, had Raven been one step late on figuring out that they were poisoned, the worst might've happened. Raven wasn't afraid of stopping all four of them since he was confident that he could do that, what he feared is that there might be another layer of poison that will be trigger once they fight.

The War Gods were already sufficiently weakened, their bodies won't be able to endure another poison and in result, they might die from that...

Thankfully, everything was over. With Cleansing Rune working overtime in addition to the natural immunity of their bodies, the Poison Laws should be flushed out of their system in no time. 

"Now, I truly wonder what happened inside." Raven murmured to himself. "Of course it's a given that they encountered something or someone that's blessed with high-tiered Poison Laws, but what is it exactly? How come all of them were affected? Questions for later I guess."

Indeed, these are questions for later. Right now, he had to make sure that the War Gods are safe and could rest nice and easy. For that, of course he had something prepared. 

He created another set of Incense Sticks which could release a relaxing smoke. The smoke didn't need to be inhaled to take effect, it just needs to be in the close proximity with a person. 

Raven lit up the incense sticks and placed them inside their tents, allowing the smoke to be enclosed within and take full effect on them. This will allow them to relax and fall to an even deeper sleep where their injuries will recover much faster. 

From what he observed earlier, the Poison Laws did mess up their bodies from the inside. Although their external injuries already healed, it will take an even longer time for them to recover from their internal ones, specially since it was afflicted by Poison Laws. The Cleansing Rune wouldn't cure that nor would the smoke. Their natural recoveries will work but it will take them years if they were to rely on that alone. 

Therefore, Raven decided to cook some more nutritious meals. This time, he didn't hold back. He made sure to fill each plate with a highly nutritious meal that, when digested, will boost their natural recovery to an absurd degree without any side-effects.

Although he could do other roundabout ways to do this, he believed that this is the best approach since it's the most satisfying one. Eating a meal to recover sounds more attractive than having them sit with backs faced against him as he cured them manually. 

Of course, there's no way that Raven would sacrifice the taste of the food he makes. His pride wouldn't allow him to do that. 

A couple of days passed before the War Gods woke up after another. As soon as they got out of their tents, they immediately seduced by the enticing smell of food. Their stomachs rumbled at the scent of food, looking a bit further, they saw Raven preparing meals for them while gesturing them to come over to the table. 

Eating his delicious meals for quite some time now, there's no way that the War Gods would refuse this invitation. All of them wordlessly sat down on the table and waited for Raven to finish up serving the food. 

Seeing mountains of scrumptious food in front of them, the War Gods couldn't help but swallow hard. Raven chuckled and gestured for them to help themselves. Again without saying a word, the War Gods began stuffing their mouths, eating like there was no tomorrow. 

"So good!!"

"This is the best."

*Nom* *Nom* *Nom*

"You'll make a good husband..." 

The War Gods commented as they devoured the food in front of them. Raven casually smiled at the sight of the food mountain shrinking at a pace visible to the naked eye. Raven already anticipated the intensity of their hunger so he prepared more food than usual. 

Of course he didn't miss the chance to observe their conditions while they're at it. If he didn't, then he's completely missing the point of feeding them this highly nutritious food. 

With his ocular technique active, and the War Gods not raising their guards up, he managed to inspect their internal conditions from where he stood. He sighed in relief as he saw his food turning into pure forms of energies that healed their internal injuries at a visible pace. 

The War Gods kept eating for two hours, barely stopping to drink water or breathing. By the time they were done, all of them had blissfully expressions on their faces. 

"My goodness gracious." Theo said as he felt like melting on his seat due to how comfortable he felt. "I never thought I could eat that much but here we are." 

"Same." Logan said while letting out an audible burp. "Feasting after an exhausting battle truly is the best." 

"You're missing the whole point." Henry interjected, letting out a burp as well. "All of those meals were filled with nutrition."

"True, haven't you noticed that all of our injuries, external and internal, are now gone. We're as good as new." Charles commented. 

"Of course, I noticed that." Logan protested. "I'm not that dumb to not notice that. I even know that good ol' Raven here could've healed us using other means but he chose food since it's the most satisfying method. Ain't that right?" 

Logan looked at Raven while grinning, the latter raised a thumbs-up to him as he enjoyed his tea in silence. 

"See?" Logan felt a bit smug after receiving Raven's confirmation. 

"Hmph. I guess you're not that dumb them. But you're still dumb." Henry commented. 

"Whatchoo say?" Logan glared at him. 

"Alright guys, chill. We just finished eating for crying out loud." Theo said as he stopped Henry while Charles stopped Logan. 

Raven merely chuckled at this sight and told himself, 'Yup, they're doing just fine.' 

"How did you guys ended being affected by Poison Laws anyway?" Raven asked, he chose to ask now since the War Gods looked perfectly fine now. 

"It's a long story but..." Henry hesitated but still continued with it. "In short, we just got extremely unlucky once more." 

"Yeah, what he said." Logan nodded his head. 

"We we're faced with an Umbral Crow Emperor." Theo's face twisted as he remembered the encounter. "The son of a bitch were too fucking fast and mastered aerial combat, something that we admittedly fell short to." 

"Not only that, it's also awakened it's God Beast Bloodline, allowing it to have access to a fully mastered Poison Laws. Not even Theo's Cleansing Flames can protect us from that." Charles commented. 

"Oh, I see." Raven nodded his head. 

"We managed to slay it but we still ended up succumbing to the corrosive qualities of its Poison Laws. If we attacked you back then, please excuse us. We weren't on our right minds." Henry said. 

"Oh, don't worry about that. The Poison Laws hadn't corrupted you that deep with the trial gate spat you out anyway so you didn't attack me. Thankfully, I also noticed that you guys were acting quite weird so I managed to discover that you were affected by Poison Laws before you went mad." 

The War Gods let out a sigh of relief when they heard that. That was actually the reason why they felt slightly down as soon as they woke up. They thought that Raven was upset at them when they attacked him. As it turns out, they didn't, so all's well. 

The team relaxed for a bit more. The war gods told Raven what transpired within the Trial Gate and how they managed to take down the Umbral Crow Emperor. Amidst of their discussions, Theo suddenly asked something out of topic. 

"Say, I've been meaning to ask you this for quite sometime now but..." Theo looked around him, precisely at what's happen outside of the formation. 

They've noticed this for quite sometime now but they didn't say anything since it's mostly likely Raven's doing. Apparently, Theo can't hold his curiosity anymore. 

"....why are they killing each other?"