Way of the Knights

---

"I never thought I would have to use this again, but here we are." Raven's face was somber as he held the Brush of Wisdom tightly. 

He looked up and released a long sigh before moving his hand. He raised the Brush of Wisdom bit his tongue and spat out a glob of his blood essence. 

The glob of blood essence flew towards the brush, dyeing the tip red. Raven paled considerably because of that but the glint on his eyes remained. He supplied even more Cosmic Energy on the Brush of Wisdom causing it to release a brilliant red light. 

'And here I thought I would never have to use this technique again. Well, it isn't so bad I guess. I could always recover my losses anyway.' Raven muttered inwardly as he witnessed the red flash of light getting more and more brilliant as time went on. 

Indeed. After Raven unlocked the entirety of his Cosmic Energy reserves, he never thought that he'd ever use the Blood Essence Exchange technique, ever again. He just didn't think that there would be any cases where he'd be lacking energy to cast some techniques when he literally have too much of it. 

However, the situation really calls for it. 

One could argue that there are other ways aside from this. Raven has Spacetime Laws! He could just go back to the future and warn his past self about this so why didn't he do that instead?

Well, considering the fact that the Spacetime Laws are extremely turbulent on this mountain, Raven didn't really want to risk that. Aside from the Concept of Parallelism, there are also forms of higher concepts of Spacetime Laws present here that could potentially interfere with his Spacetime Laws, therefore he rejected the idea. 

Aside from that, Raven's 'Will', while still intact and effective to him, loses its use when it's supplied with the runes to assist his teammates. The Blood Essence Exchange technique could remedy that, and that's precisely why he's using it right now. 

A brilliant crimson light filled every inch of the Formation. A massive Rune appeared at the tip of the Brush of Wisdom, radiating with intense vigor and will. As the Rune was being formed, Raven could feel some violent reactions around him. 

He couldn't see these reactions even with ocular technique active, but he could tell that these reactions were coming from the 'hidden element' invisible to Raven. He could feel the repulsion around him. The rune he was forming was akin to the natural predator of this 'hidden element', causing it to run away from the rune in fear. 

The rune hasn't even formed yet, but it's already asserting it's dominance. Raven smirked despite his pale face. He could tell that this was going to work. 

Minutes passed by and eventually, the Rune had gotten so huge that it turned as huge as the formation itself. However, Raven was far from done, if anything, he's just halfway through this process. 

Once it reached a certain size, the rune began shrinking in size. This doesn't mean that it's getting weaker, its quite the contrary actually. The rune was condensing, causing it's power to intensify greatly. 

Moments later, the Rune shrank considerably and released one last wave of brilliant crimson light before descending. This was the sign that the Rune was successfully formed. It was now doing it's job, releasing fluctuations around them which serves as a ward against that hidden element. 

Raven released a sigh of relief and guided the crimson rune towards the unconscious War Gods. 

As soon as the Rune came close to them, Raven felt that familiar repulsion like before, however this time it's coming from the bodies of the War Gods. The fluctuations coming from the newly created rune was driving away the hidden element that has poisoned their bodies. 

Looking at their faces filled with discomfort, Raven sighed. This was something unavoidable. It shouldn't hurt them too much since their unconscious and their physiques had been relatively strong, and it should've gotten even stronger through the recent training. 

Raven shook his head and left the rune to work it's magic. For now, he retreated to his own tent to rest. Creating this rune had taken a serious toll on his body. He lost a century of his longevity to form that rune, yet Raven wasn't worried about it. He just wanted to rest for a bit. 

To mortals, 100 years could be considered as their entire lifespan, but Raven wasn't remotely concerned about losing this much longevity. Raven have tons of ways to live an extremely long life. Additionally, since he knows Spacetime Laws, he has the highest potential to achieve true Immortality. Which is why 100 years worth of longevity meant nothing to him. 

Raven decided to sleep. From his initial judgement, his teammates aren't going to wake up anytime soon. They will need sometime to recover from all the stress and exhaustion. And if things turns out good, then they should wake up feeling fresh and brand new. 

Additionally, the rune shouldn't lose it's effect this time around since it's doesn't just simply has Raven's Will in it, it represents Raven's unbending Will and is enhanced by his own longevity. This rune was representing Raven himself, and Raven could more or less ignore the effects of this Hidden Element, the rune should be able to do that too. 

And just as he predicted, even after Raven rested properly. The rune was still working overtime, completely untouched and unbothered by the hidden element. 

Raven checked the conditions of his teammates and saw that they're no longer in pain. Instead, they look like they're having a very good and long dream. 

He nodded in satisfaction and admired his creation for a bit before preparing food for when they wake up. 

In the middle of his task, he felt the War Gods moving. They released a groan and regained consciousness one by one. As soon as they woke up, they stretched a little bit and tried to recall what happened before they lost consciousness. 

Once they realized what happened their faces shown wonderful expressions before looking at Raven with wide eyes.

---

"...damn! Who would've thought. We really let out guard down!" Henry exclaimed as he felt greatly frustrated. 

They were currently sitting in front of the table, just finished eating their meals when Raven told them what transpired. 

"My bad, I was a little bit late to realize it. Had I known then I might've been able to do something to counter it before everything went down hill." Raven smiled wryly as he admitted that he too got a little bit complacent. 

"Oh no! You already did wonderful job. Honestly, being able to sense that there's something messing up with our minds even when it's completely visible is already amazing enough." Theo said. 

"That's right." Charles nodded. "It is out fault that out 'Will' was lacking. Allowing that 'Curse' to erode us and leave us in an embarrassing state. As soon as we're done here, I'll return to the Hall of Ares to fix this issue so that it'll never happen again."

"Still, that was a frightening experience." Logan muttered. "Looking back, I couldn't even tell that it was already that bad. I just felt exhausted and jaded, I didn't even question why I felt that way. I just thought that it was normal. I didn't expect my 'Will' to be the weakest here. To think that I was the first one to cave in..." 

Logan clenched his jaws as felt greatly disappointed in himself. It wasn't just him, the other War Gods also felt the same. In fact, it's not like they could blame him from succumbing to the tempting pull of 'rest'. There wasn't much gap between his and their Will anyway since Raven told them that as soon as Logan succumbed to it, they all followed him right away. 

Even Henry who didn't miss a chance to make fun of Logan, was silent currently. This just show that this matter weighed heavily on their minds. 

Well, there's that. But there's also the fact that Raven remained completely unaffected by it. Which just upped his position to their minds. To think that someone who's at least generations younger than them, possessed an even stronger and firmer Will compared to them was amazing and also slightly embarrassing for them. Not only that, he single-handedly saved this whole trip. 

Had it not been for him, they'd probably fail at their task already. 

None of them expected this climb to be this fierce and scary. They thought that their problems only lies at the trials but they were proven wrong time and time again, and it certainly didn't feel pleasant. At this point, they don't even know who's the true supporting character here, Raven or them. Could they even be considered as a supporting character? Aren't they just extras at this point? 

"Well, how about we move on instead of lamenting about what happened. We already found a solution for it right? Why don't we focus on the more important things instead." Raven stood up and pointed at the path forward. 

"There. There is were our destination lies. We're so close! Only 500 miles left. Since this Hidden Element or Curse could no longer affect you, then how about we see what's at the peak, yeah?" 

The War Gods looked at each other and nodded, they all stood up in determination and was prepared to reach the end of their journey. 

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