Way of the Knights

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"Ugh..."

A groan escaped from Raven's mouth as he felt a sharp stinging pain on his head. He felt the world spinning, and his body aching as well. 

He tried opening his eyes, when he did his vision was slightly blurred. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in. He then sank his perception within his body to discover what's wrong with him and when he did, his lips couldn't help but twitch.

His reserves were as dry as it could get. The once blooming cosmos within his body was reduced to a dim and lifeless one. The only thing that brought color to it, was the small sprout resting at the very center of the cosmos. 

It was no wonder why his body was aching badly...

He briefly checked upon his Avatars and saw them doing their own thing, thanks to them being almost a separate entity from him, they could still function even if he was unconscious. 

Raven asked them how long he was out and one of them answered almost one month. 

One month. That's probably the longest time that Raven had lost consciousness ever since his Soul Rebirth. Of course this didn't count the times when he was having breakthroughs, this time was different. 

He briefly recalled the memories he had before passing out and sighed. 

That event was tough...

What originally should be a rather simple mission, turned into a huge deal. It even started a whole ass war. 

Raven went all out with the war. He practically spared no amount of effort in order to make sure that they come out on top of the whole thing. And thanks to his valiant efforts, they did. 

He didn't know the specifics just yet but from what he could remember, this war should be an overwhelming victory for their side. 

With that out of the way, Raven could now focus on his recovery and relaxing. He really outdid himself in that War. 

He discovered the scheme and the devious plot, he formed a plan that benefitted many people. He created seals for the 9th and 12th Floors, they wiped out an army of devils which was at least millions in numbers, slain the Sin's Children and Lust itself. All of this was an outstanding merit, and Raven was at the center of it. 

Still lying down on his bed, he started siphoning energies from his surroundings to refill his dried Cosmic Energies. 

Due to Raven's incredibly large reserves, he knew that he won't be able to refill everything overnight but still, he should be able to absorb an amount which allows him to move and feel slightly better. 

'I really went all out in there, huh?' Raven chuckled slightly inwardly. 'I shouldn't be dry of energies but that Sin just has to appear and ruin everything. Man, I thought I could be sneaky but alas...'

'The Sin of Lust was too strong...if I didn't went all out on my attack back then, I would probably end up in a more miserable position.'

Their confrontation against the Sin of Lust might seem easy and fortunate but in truth, it'll only take one wrong move for them to suffer a huge loss. 

Even with many War Gods by his side, the Sin of Lust was a troublesome opponent to deal with. Had it not been for Levi appearing, the War Gods would've probably lose their confidence to deal with Lust, specially after seeing how easy it dealt with the full-powered retaliation from Paolo. 

Raven managing to sneak past the sin was pure luck. The situation was tense and everybody's attention was focused to Lust, the Sin itself, was overly arrogant and completely disregarded its surroundings. Lust wasn't even paying attention to his surroundings at all, its guard wasn't up since it was looking down on the War Gods who appeared to be extremely weak on its eyes. 

This allowed Raven to sneak past Lust and seal the entrance to the 12th floor. And by the time that everyone noticed him, it was already too late. He already laid down the seal and it only needed a small amount of time before it starts functioning.

Raven was also lucky enough that he was able to repel Lust from attacking him. Nevertheless, his attack drained him most of his energies. On top of supporting everyone with his cleansing flames, Destruction Domain and pseudo-Slaughter Intent, his energy reserves were really wrung out. 

It was already a miracle that he was able to lay down the seal for the 9th floor before fainting.

As he recovered, Raven asked his Avatars what happened during the time he was unconscious. 

According to them, the Grand Elder/Current Zeus, showed up just after he fainted, which really shocked him. He wondered what he was doing in there, wasn't the Grand Elder supposed to be visiting the Black Rose Organization? 

The Avatars answered him. According to what they heard, the Grand Elder already did just that, meaning that he already wiped out the whole Black Rose Organization. This caused Raven to exclaim in admiration. It hasn't even been an entire day and the Grand Elder already finished, he was even faster than them. 

They also told him that the Grand Elder was watching their performance for quite sometime. He only chose to appear when Raven lost consciousness from fatigue. It was the Grand Elder himself who returned Raven here and let him rest. 

And on the next following days, the War Gods visited him. Someone already told them about his situation, they were just waiting for him to wake up, which unwittingly lasted for an entire month. Kyrie was the one taking care of him, sometimes it would be Anastasia as well.

Raven panicked when he heard that, he hurriedly asked his Avatars if that woman molested him during his sleep. He was relieved when they said no, but felt chills when they said that she was obviously thinking about it. 

They also told him that whenever it's just him and Anastasia, they would see her staring at his crotch with an obscene smile on her face. The closest she got was placing her face near his...there and inhaling sharply to acquire his scent.

Thankfully that's all, but Raven still felt somewhat displeased and helpless. 

'That woman sure is bold and thirsty...dehydrated actually...' Raven said inwardly. 'Hopefully she won't overstep her bounds...anymore than this.'

He softly shook his head and continued to focus on his recovery. 

While he's idle, he also digested some of the enlightenment that the Avatars kept for him. Thanks to the time difference, the Avatars had a huge progress for him. All Raven needed to do was to properly digest everything and his abilities rise even more. 

To his delight as well, Raven had a huge improvement to his cultivation. He's just a few inches away from reaching the peak stage of Saint Knight Realm. This was thanks to the constant battle and pressure he faced so far. 

Nevertheless, he didn't doubt that from here on out, advancing will become even harder. Depending on what missions he'll receive, his luck and the opportunities he'll come across with, searching for resources to aid his advancement will be more challenging. 

Well, it's not like he didn't see this coming at all. 

What worries him was his competitors for the title. He caused a huge splash this time, and if they're not dumb - which Raven highly doubt they were, then they would probably be raising their guards against him. 

He originally didn't want to get their attention if he could help it but the mission was too important for him to not to do something. 

Like what Kyrie and the rest mentioned to him, comrades they might be but a healthy competition wouldn't be bad. And now that he's caused a huge splash, he wouldn't be surprised if his days will become increasingly difficult.

'Bring it on then...even a Deadly Sin couldn't stop me, what makes you guys think I'll be scared of you?' Raven snorted inwardly. 

'But what's the plan?' Raven asked himself. 'If I'm not wrong, and I really hope I'm not, then I should be receiving a lot of Merit Points this time. The Official Writ should be affordable for me now and I should really prioritize it.'

'My original plan was to buy the Lower Plain Official Writ, to bind the Grand Ancestral Plane to me. Next was to hire a Blacksmith and buy the soul of a Crimson Dragon Emperor for my gloves, I also planned on buying the seed of a World Tree but that's no longer necessary. The last one is to buy a residence at the Hall of Ares.'

'The last one could be replaced with something else. I'm already exclusively living at a pocket dimension thanks to my status as the Chosen of Zeus. I think I would concentrate at the first two goals, it would be too late to think about the next thing I want to buy.' Raven sighed and had an idea. 

'Come to think of it, I've been out for a whole month. The Merit Points should be here already...'

"HOLY SHIT!!"

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