Way of the Knights

Chapter 743

"…you!"

A voice echoed to Raven ears. It's been a while since he heard Gaia's voice but he can still recognize it. 

Raven inspected Gaia's condition and it wasn't looking good. From a simple glance, he can clearly see that it's a miracle that she's still alive. He doesn't have any idea how long she has been imprisoned here but it should be a long a time. 

Gaia's body had deteriorated too much. Since she's directly under the domain of the Devil Emperor, she's being corrupted by his evil intent. Anyone could ward off the corruption but there's a limit on how long they can do it. Once they could no longer hold in, the corruption gnawing at them will eventually seep through their flesh and infect them from the inside. 

She's barely holding on, thankfully it isn't too late yet. 

Raven cleaned up the area around her first. Making sure to get rid of the corruption and the shrink the domain of the Devil Emperor to the next floor. After that, he started drawing runes. One to free her from her restraints, and many more to cleanse the corruption out of her. 

Raven used a gentler version of his Cleansing Flames to help Gaia. He's afraid that if he uses the strongest dose of cure, she will die instead of live. Better be safe than sorry. 

He also drew numerous runes to protect what's left of her sanity. The Devil Emperor's evil will has almost cornered her remaining consciousness, if it weren't Raven's assistance, it might've been too late for her. 

Describing what Raven did for Gaia will take longer than the time took for him to actually do it. By the end of his initial treatment, Gaia never felt better. He re-assured her that he will protect her consciousness which allowed her to let down her guard and fall into slumber after so many years of torture. 

The moment she fell asleep, Raven's runes become more effective since her system is not resisting them any longer. After creating an impenetrable barrier that will preserve and heal her consciousness gradually. Raven placed Gaia inside the Crown Space to let her recover. She'll take up a lot of space hut it's not a problem for him.

There, his Avatars will look after her while he continue his work within the pagoda. Gaia was imprisoned on the 89th floor which he already cleared. After creating a seal there which will prevent the Devil Emperor's Domain from seeping through, Raven advanced to the next floor. 

The last then floors of the Devil Emperor's Pagoda was filled with all sorts of Devil Kings, Monarchs and Lords. 

Each one varied in size and strength but in front of Raven, everything they did was useless. All of them were incinerated to ash by the sheer heat of the Cleansing Flames. As its subjects turned in to ash, the Devil Emperor's tantrums became even more crazed. The closer Raven got to it's location the stronger it felt. 

Eventually, Raven cleared and sealed 99th floor. Only one was left. 

Raven took a deep breath and wore a solemn expression as he stepped forward to enter the 100th floor where the Devil Emperor was imprisoned. 

*Clang! Clang!*

*Roaaaaarr!!!*

It hasn't even been five seconds since he entered and Raven could already feel the room shaking. Sounds of clanging chains, agonized and angry roars flooded his ears. When he opened his eyes, he finally met the prisoner that nearly caused Divine Realms fall. 

"…just as I thought." Raven sighed the moment he laid eyes on the prisoner, "Devil Emperor my ass, just a pitiful lackey of the Abyssals." 

"You-!" He heard the prisoner directly addressing him. Bloodshot crimson eyes glared him and the aura of pure evil descended on every inch of his body. However, none of it really provoked a reaction from Raven. 

"…A half-breed Celestial!! You are very brave to invade my prison cell, Brat. Come over here, let me eat you!!!" 

"How old do you think I am? Three?" Raven snorted in disdain, "You think I would fall for that kind of trick? Did your long imprisonment here made you senile? It probably did huh? Forget about being a lackey of those damned Abyssals, I've almost mistaken you for a rabid dog."

Raven's merciless mocking of the Devil Emperor caused it to struggle on its chains even more. Just like what Raven said, it is indeed acting like a rabid dog.

The space of the 100th floor was smaller than he was expecting. In fact, their prisoner is smaller than what he was expecting as well. 

The Devil Emperor was a humanoid with deep crimson skin, its limbs are covered with inky goo, there's also some tribal markings on its eye. It has antlers similar to a deer, it has hooves for feet and sharp claws. It also has four-pairs of pitch black bat-like wings. 

Its arms were cuffed with chains attached to the top and bottom of the room. The surroundings were steeped in pitch black fog which formed numerous faces and contained nothing bur pure desire to corrupt and destroy. 

Raven sighed and summoned a plume of Cleansing Flames from his hand. The moment it appeared, the black fog retreated like it just met it's mortal enemy.

He shot the plume of fire into the chains binding the Devil Emperor. The moment the flames touched the chains, they covered them from one end to another. The flames also burned the Devil Emperor's limbs, causing it to shriek in pain and wildly struggle on its bindings. 

"Damn you!!"

"Same." Raven replied in boredom. 

He here was expecting to discover something incredible yet he was greeted by a sight of sore eyes. Well, he already had a sneaking suspicion that the Devil Emperor might be related to the Abyssals, he just didn't want to believe it. However, reality is ,at times, often disappointing. 

"Well, had I known that you were just an errand boy of the Abyssals before, I wouldn't have waited all this time to deal with you." Raven stated, "I thought you were some big shot with how much our sect feared you but…oh well…"

"Hah-!" The Devil Emperor snorted, "Although I don't know how a brat like knew about the existence of the Lords, but if you're thinking that you can easily touch me, then you're dead wrong!" 

"Your Sect's forefathers barely sealed me up and the following generations were too afraid of me. They wanted to keep me sealed since they don't know how to kill. But since a brat like you made it this far, then allow me to indulge you by telling you a little secret!"

The Devil Emperor chuckled eerily and continued: "Yes, I won't deny that I am indeed an errand boy of the Abyssals. I invaded this place in order to transform it to their liking and have it as an offering to them. That's when I met with your forefathers and they managed to seal me up."

"You want to kill me? Fine go ahead and try it! In fact, I encourage you to try your hardest since by doing so, you'll be dooming your beloved Divine Realm!" The Devil Emperor laughed maniacally. "The Abyssals have my Life Jade! The moment I died, they'll discover my location and they will find where the Divine Realm is!"

"They will come and they will devour everything that you know and love! Even your pitiful Divine Knights are no match for them so come!! Kill me! Hahahaha!"

"…"

"What about it? Scared? Weren't you so arrogant before!!? Hahaha!? Come! Why don't you go ahead and kill me? You're going to let me live? Oh how sweet of you, you naive little fucker!! I am immortal!! I won't die unlike you pitiful human! I will outlive you and then free myself!"

"Once I'm free! The ending for your little Divine Realm will be the same!! I will fucking destroy everything you know and love! And I'm going to take my sweet ass time doing so!! This is the inevitable future that you can never change!! HAHAHAHAHA! USELESS!! EVERYTHING YOU DO! IT'S ALL USELESS…"

*Sigh…*

"See? This is what I mean. It's so dull. So unoriginal." Raven complained as his shoulders dropped down dramatically. "I mean, how many times have I heard someone saying those same words over and over again? Is there anything new? So overused and boring…"

Raven shook his head and took a couple of steps forward. 

"Whatever, I don't feel like prolonging this anymore." Raven murmured, clearly tired of this shit. "Might as well be done here and never see your smug-ass anymore."

The Brush of Wisdom appeared on his hands. With a single stroke, runes lit up and filled the entire room. They shone with a mixture of golden and silver radiance which caused the Devil Emperor immense pain. 

All of sudden, the brush transformed into a long scepter in Raven's hand. The moment the Devil Emperor saw that, its eyes constricted in fear. 

Raven saw that which caused him to smirk, he lifted the scepter and drew constellations on the air. 

Those constellations were seemingly given life by the scepter while Raven muttered. 

"Yep, this is really dull."