Way of the Knights

Chapter 197 - Smite

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Even before the Crown Prince lead the retreat of the forces. Raven and his friends already retreated back to the entrance of the cave.

The Ruler's Vision was already turned off by Raven, he figured that the kingdom had seen enough and there is no longer any need for them to see the results of the battle.

As the forces of the Final Haven Kingdom retreated, Raven along with his friends didn't leave. They stayed and watched as the Golden Knights battled the Devil Prince. As everyone was busy leaving the premises, they weren't able to notice that the kids actually stayed.

Raven had no reason to doubt the strength of neither Old Lee, Leona or Morel. He had personally seen their prowess during his previous life and he knew that they weren't nothing short of being formidable. However, for some unknown reason, his instincts told him that something wrong will happen which mainly the reason why he chose to stay. Luis might've felt this too but he was busy escorting the prince and the rest of the forces to notice anything weird.

The little warriors watched the whole scene unfold. No one dared to speak a word as they were afraid of disturbing the battle, the last thing that they wanted, was to distract the Golden Knights from battle. That would surely lead into some horrible ending.

When Raven saw how well the Devil Prince used his Death Laws, he was unbelievably astonished. Something that he didn't feel often due to him having experience of two lifetimes.

He couldn't imagine how the Devil Prince was able to reach the second stage of Death Laws in this remote Lesser World. It had to be known that even in the Divine Realm, people who reached this stage are not too many, this is on the premise that the Laws that are present in the Divine Realm are at its finest, which in turn allow more people to have an easier time perceiving them.

Raven instantly knew that something was wrong. He refused to believe that the Devil Prince was able to gain enlightenment on the second stage of Death Laws on his own. He knew that something was up, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it yet.

The group watched on, they saw how the Golden Knights were able to counter whatever the Devil Prince threw at them. Then, their faces fell when the creature made out of pure bones appeared. His friends couldn't believe it either just like the Golden Knights. They asked to themselves if whatever they were seeing is true.

It was then that Raven's grim voice echoed in their ears.

"That's not a Dragon." He shook his head, "It's a Wyrm."

"A Wyrm?" The rest asked in confusion.

"Yes." Raven nodded in agreement. "Dragons are considered as God Beast. From the moment they were born, they are cared for by the nature and bestowed with overwhelming strength and affinity towards Laws. That being said, because of their staggering potential, their reproducibility is incredibly low. In the end, in their desire to leave descendants behind, they mated with other beasts who are weaker than them, granting them a part of their bloodline."

"Qilins, Dragon Turtles, Salamanders, Flood Dragons, etc. These came after that process, but despite their bloodlines being impure, there are ways to awaken it bit by bit and eventually transform them into true descendants of Dragons."

"The initial awakening will transform them into a Wyrm, then a Drake and eventually a True Dragon. I don't know where he got that from but from what I could tell, this Wyrm is still alive although barely. It clings on life using Death Laws, nevertheless even though it's just a Wyrm, the Elder might find themselves in a difficult position."

Listening to Raven's explanation, the rest were enlightened. They didn't ask nor doubted his knowledge, at this point, Is there any reason for them to question the things he know? There's absolutely no reason for him to lie in this kind situation.

'A Wyrm, huh? Did he form a contract with it? That should be the case, how else could he call it out to fight for him? But shouldn't be possible though. Any beast that has a God Beast bloodline are incredibly haughty and arrogant to their core. I'm sure that forming a contract with such a weak human is such a disgrace for it, so there's little to no chance of it happening.'

'The only scenario, I could think of, that a Wyrm would enter a contract with a human is if it was the one who offered the contract itself. But that doesn't make sense though! Why would it enter a contract with a human willingly? Even in it's dying breath, it should still be stronger than Alastair during their first meeting. It could've just consumed him instead. So why?'

'Unless…'

'Wait! Death Laws… Requiem Stage! Ah! Damn, why am I so slow with that! I understand! So it's like that huh?'

'Since it dared to this, then I shouldn't miss this chance!'

A fierce glint appeared on Raven's eyes as realization dawned upon him. It seems that the butterfly effect had finally brought him a great opportunity. He had to capitalize on this now since it's very unlikely that he would encounter another chance like this in the future.

"Guys, come here for a second."

Raven gathered his friends and told them his plans. He told them that he wanted to help the Elders in their battle, and to do that, they had to make sure that they won't be interrupted. Thankfully, they are protected by Leona's wall of fire which she erected earlier as an insurance.

Then the six went into action. Raven told them what they had to do while he and Luna prepare themselves to carry out the plan as soon as the preparations are ready. That's right, Luna has a vital role in this plan of his.

While the Elders' battle against the Wyrm was in full throttle, the rest finished preparing the ritual circle.

Raven nodded to Luna and both of them stood on the center of the ritual circle. Standing in front of him, Luna felt Raven's palms on her back. She shivered for a bit as she wasn't used to guys touching her but she suppressed it. She took a deep breath and relaxed, focusing on the chant of Raven to distract herself.

The ritual took time, the rest who were on the lookout became quite anxious as they saw the Golden Knights losing quite badly against the Wyrm. Just as then, Raven's eyes flashed wide open. His whole body emitted a golden light, these brilliance then condensed onto his palms and were transferred to Luna.

When the Golden Light fused with Luna's body, her eyes snapped wide open. Her expression turned somewhat blank as she unconsciously looked up.

Right above their heads, dark clouds appeared and were mysteriously parted with an unknown force. Next thing they knew, a particular constellation shone brightly. Through an unknown reason, a silhouette emerged from constellation.

Luna's gaze was locked with this silhouette, then with a flash of light the silhouette descended and merged with her.

Luna's body emitted a warm and gentle golden light. Under the dumbstruck gazes of her friends, she suddenly started transforming. Her hair turned golden, her eyes changed into a golden color as well. On top of her head, a circlet appeared with a golden gem embedded on the center.

Four pairs of wide and fluttering wings appeared on her back. Her countenance turned extremely noble, holy even. A golden sash appeared on her arms, wrapping around them like gloves. While her clothes remained the same, all of them felt that the girl in front of them was no longer Luna.

She then looked at every single one of them, showing incredibly gentleness and compassion on her face. She specifically looked longer at Raven and nodded. As she looked forward, she saw the madly cackling Devil Prince and the summoned Wyrm. Without issuing any warnings, she stepped forward with her wings fluttering behind her.

She passed by the wall of fire like it was nothing but a breeze. She flew and looked over the abomination in front of her with clear displeased expression on her face.

She lifted her hand and uttered: "Smite."

A golden pillar of light descended and illuminated the entire kingdom. As the rest basked in this light, they felt an incredible sense of peace and comfort, however the same couldn't be said with the Devil Prince and the Wyrm.

The formidable existence of the Wyrm offered no resistance against this golden light. Under its influence, it couldn't even let out a pain roar as it was obliterated in mere seconds. The Devil Prince had it the worst though, this light severely opposed him. For the first time, he felt truly terrified and in the precipice of death.

The Devil Prince even felt that his strength was rapidly being drained, the longer he was exposed on this Golden Light, the more damage he took. His heart pounded madly, without any other thoughts, he fled towards the portal and disappeared. The portal closed up and the battle was over.

In the air, Luna's figure was still present. Again, her face showed clear displeasure, it seems that she wasn't so happy that the Devil Prince managed to escape.

She gave a warm smile towards the Golden Knights and went back towards Raven and the rest. She joined Raven inside the ritual circle and said with an ethereal voice:

"That person won't be bothering you any time soon. I couldn't kill him but him and his contractor are badly injured." She stepped forward and hugged Raven's body, he still had his eyes closed which means that all this time, he was still maintaining the ritual.

"This girl would be unconscious for at least a week. As for him, about a month or two. Take care of them."

After saying this, Luna lost consciousness and returned back from her original appearance. The ritual circle disappeared and both her and Raven fell down on each other's arm, clearly unconscious.

The rest closed in on them, checking their pulses and breathing sighs of relief. It was then that the Golden Knights appeared behind them and asked in unison.

"What in the world happened here?"