Way of the Knights

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It's been two weeks since Raven and his friends tackled the mission of conquering the Danger Zones inside the kingdom.

Paul had managed to clear the Immersion Forest by the skin of his teeth. He was nearly digested by the forest but thankfully he managed to break the illusion he was in.

He never thought that Illusions could be this scary. Even the weaker illusions could paralyze him for a minutes, if that happens in a live battle, he'll be dead a dozen times already. Of course, Paul's efforts in dealing with the illusions aren't in vain. Despite its difficulties, he developed a keener sense towards illusions and he had developed some sort of counter measure against them. 

But the illusion at the core of the Immersion Forest was just too fearsome. His countermeasures didn't do a single thing against it. 

The Illusion was so realistic. It fooled every single sense he had, even with the earlier tempering against Illusions didn't prepare him from that. 

It was an illusion on top of an illusion, after managing to break the first one with much difficulty, he was so relieved that he dropped his guard. He grabbed the core of the Immersion Forest and kept it with him as the forest returned to it's original form. After that, he reunited with his friends and they celebrated their success. 

The same night, he found courage to finally tell Ellen everything that he was keeping as a secret. He confessed everything and his desired outcome happened. He was so elated that he felt like the stars were aligning just for him. After that, they were treated as heroes. Hand in hand with his friends, they defeated their enemies and ushered the Golden Age of the Final Haven Kingdom. Everything was looking bright and beautiful. It was everything that he had dreamed about night and day. 

And that's precisely what made him skeptical. Why was everything so easy? It was then that a funny idea came across his mind.

What if everything that happened was only an illusion? 

In that same moment that he thought about this idea, a strange buzz inside him became a signal. He laughed mirthlessly as he shattered the final illusion that almost took his life. 

He woke up underground, precisely in front of the core. As it nearly consumed him, Paul reached out to the bright orb and it gave him a stigma in his forehead, this stigma is a power that Paul earned by living through all of the illusions. It granted him a high level of immunity against illusions and the ability to create some himself. This stigma grows with him so the stronger he gets, the higher his immunity against illusions is and the more powerful his illusions would get.

The ground spat him out and Paul left with the orb on tow. This time around, he knew that he's not under any illusions since he could tell if he was now is he was inside one.

When he went back to the their meeting place, he saw that everyone except Raven was there. 

Compared to them, Paul and Raven's lot were tougher. But that doesn't mean that they had it easier than them.

Upon his arrival, he saw Mark sleeping on Anne's lap, making Paul smile inwardly. It was evident that he was exhausted. Well, dealing with stacking gravity and the stress of clearing it under record time isn't really something that anyone could breeze through. 

At the Ninth Hill of the Hills of Gravity, he had to face the suppressive force of 90 times greater than the normal gravity. He had lost count on many times he fell flat on his face under that gravity. If it weren't for him breaking past the speed of sound and his strong body, he wouldn't have been able to clear that Danger Zone.

According to Ellen and the rest, Mark had just arrived not long before he arrived so it makes sense while he still haven't rested yet. 

Paul noticed that Ellen was sitting away from the group. When she asked her about this, she could only sigh helplessly. It's because she was having a difficult time controlling her fiery energy, which is why she was sitting away from them. According to her, she was releasing a hot temperature around her unconsciously, since she have a high affinity towards fire, she was relatively fine but for others, not so much. 

This is due to her actively resisting the temperature around the Field of Perpetual Chill. She didn't notice that she had raised the temperature of her flames to the extent of hurting anyone she comes close to. Now she has to deal with the aftermath.

Paul had a hard believing her since when he approached her, he wasn't feeling anything. He even touched Ellen's hand to prove his point. Anne and Luna were baffled since there's no way they were wrong about that. In the end, they figured that this must be because of their Spirit Entities. 

Anne could still feel a headache from all the riddles she had to clear in the 100 Stone Labyrinth. In her opinion, she would much rather shoot her bow all day long instead of solving those god forsaken riddles and constantly mapping out the labyrinth in search of a pattern. No one could explain how relieved she was that she's finally out of that place. Inwardly, she was hoping that she'll never had to experience the same thing again.

Luna on the other hand was relatively relaxed. Her mission went without a hitch. Her superior Light Affinity made her the natural enemy of the ghosts in the Dead Man's Mansion. Under her light, the souls were purified and departed with peace. She took advantage of that place to train her Lightshield Luminescence to a high degree. She was using this technique unconsciously during the war since she had no prior knowledge about it. But with the King here, she received many insights and pointers towards this technique and other things.

In the end, her proficiency towards the technique was not too far from the King's level. Give it time and she'll surpass him eventually.

Now, they are just for Raven to arrive. He should wrapping up things soon.

***

"Damn! That hurts, you bitch!" Raven exclaimed as he hurriedly got up from the ground after being thrown there harshly.

In front of him, there was a butcher that rivaled the size of a Little Stone Titan. 

The butcher was bald, its eyes were hollowed, wide and flat nose, had wide neck, muddy skin tone, and had an enormous belly. Its holding a giant cleaver with nicked edge and stained with dried blood. The butcher was wearing that same blood stained apron and dirty trousers as it widely hacked at Raven.

Despite its enormous size, it was fast. The slaughterhouse was reduced into mere debris through their clash. The area around them trembled fiercely due to the sheer force of their strikes. 

Raven was facing the 100th Demon Butcher. And the things he had to go through before he reached this stage was taxing. 

He basically had to engage in a deadly slaughter night and day. For each Demon Room he cleared, he will face a deadlier butcher at the next room. These butchers were coming at him to kill. Each successive butcher was faster, stronger and tougher than the last. This really pushed Raven's battle instincts to reawaken. He had been wounded, thrown, punched, slashed, pierced, poisoned and many more but he got up every single time. 

As he went through the rooms, the butchers he faced were smarter as well. Some could even talk to him, one even mocked him for overestimating himself, Raven silenced that baldy by crushing its entire body.

Each Demon room has five clones, which then he had to kill five times to face the true butcher in that room to move on. Dealing with numbers were more complicated that dealing with one but it doesn't mean that it's easier. 

And finally, with his efforts, he was now facing the final demon butcher. Well at least he hoped that this guy was the last.

Due to his size, the Demon Butcher was having a difficult time hitting him. Raven was quick on his foot as well a heavy hitter. Each of his strikes were capable of making the butcher lose his footing, causing the nearby forest to be destroyed by their clash. 

Raven had long since told the Royal Guards to retreat from this place. He didn't want them to be a collateral as he faced this guy. The guards did what he said and retreated to a point where they're safe but could still see the battle.

'Come on, show me an opening.' Raven thought inwardly as he ran around the giant butcher. Even though it wasn't deliberately following him with its eyes, Raven knows that it could see him. It was on guard so Raven can't make a move. Needless to say, its showing signs of impatience, and that's what Raven was aiming for. 

Finally, the butcher lost its patience and sharply turned, it raised its giant cleaver and hacked Raven down. Raven's eyes gleamed, deftly evading the blow, he placed all of his strength into a decisive attack. 

Grunting loudly, he performed a might swing and instantly after, ten Phantom Fists appeared. The pillar sized fist rained down and punched holes all over the body of the butcher with the final one crushing its brain.

Raven quickly moved forward and got on top of the butcher's corpse. He then saw a gleaming red crystal inside the head of the butcher. Performing numerous seals, he wrapped the crystal in a tight cocoon of seals to prevent it from taking anymore actions.. And with that done, Raven conquered the 100 Demon Slaughterhouse.

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