Way of the Knights

Chapter 289 - Anchor

"I don't know how but I ended up inside the sigil. I didn't even know that such a thing was possible to happen."

"I am getting pieces of memories from time to time. I know that there is someone who's borrowing my body to do abominable things. And from the memories I received from you earlier, I am now aware just how terrible the state of my body is."

"Even if I go out of this place, it won't take long before…"

"Hold it right there, Your Majesty." Raven interrupted. "Please refrain from saying anything that's negative. I made a promise. I am getting you out of here and you will be reunited with your family. Just, give me some time and trust me. I can do this."

Queen Elizabeth was stunned by his words. She could feel Raven's sincerity and confidence brimming all over his body. For some reason, she was starting to believe that he could do anything so long as he put his mind onto it. 

"I appreciate it." She replied, tears falling down her face as she felt immense guilt and regret. 

Elizabeth couldn't help but to blame her own selfishness once more. She often thought about all of the things she did that led up to this point. Often wondering about what she could've done differently. What if's and what could've been's always visit her thoughts. 

Maybe if she'd done this, or maybe if she'd done that, maybe things are different from now. Unfortunately, no matter how much she wished to have that second chance, it never happened. She became stuck here, imprisoned and missing her family so bad. 

She even have to rely on a child to get her out of this mess. 

All of this makes her thing that she's just the worst human being ever. 

Nevertheless, Elizabeth was desperate too. She wanted to see her children so bad. She wanted to return to her husbands embrace once more. She wanted to experience their warmth and to stay to them until she pass away from old age. 

She wants to go home. 

Raven could more or less understand what the Queen was feeling right now. 

He knows desperation when he sees it. Wasn't he like this during his past life? If anything, the Queen's desperation is no way near the level of what he once had. 

Raven wasn't innocent. 

He did questionable things in his search for a way to bring them back. Even in his failure to achieve his goals, he still often look back to his memories just to ease up his lonely heart. 

Nevertheless, wallowing about the past won't do him any good. He has to work fast since he can't stay out of his body for too long. 

Raven went into a deep thought. He studied the structure of the sigil from the inside and dissected it to trace it's origins. This is the first time that he encountered such a sigil so he didn't know where to start. Fortunately, he managed to grasp a single point and start from there. 

The Queen saw him in deep thought. He kept on staring at the sky while rainbow colored lights reflected on his pupils. She would often see him draw something that she cannot see, but from what she could tell those must he inscriptions. 

At first she was a bit dejected. She did everything possible to escape this place but nothing worked. She even thought for once if escaping this place was a wise choice since if she went back, it would be Alastair's face who would welcome her, not her family's. 

She misses her family, but she's also helpless against Alastair. She couldn't possibly allow him to know the location of the Fountain of Youth since the Oath Alastair made had expired already. Though she might've been absent on her position for a while, she's still the Queen of the Kingdom. She couldn't bear to allow her enemies to grow stronger just for her personal interests.

Elizabeth was in such a deep thought that she didn't even notice that Raven was already beginning to move. 

'This Sigil of Fate Love is really mysterious.' He thought. 'I guess it has some sort of a protective measure just in case the bearer of the sigil experienced an accident.'

'I'm guessing that it acted on it's own when the Queen was in danger. It's keeping her here ever since. Although she didn't say anything, I'm guessing that she tried to escape. But knowing that she's will just end up in hands of the enemy, she's placed in a tough spot.'

'She's right. Even though I could return her to her body, it won't take before her body gives up from the stress. It needs to recuperate for a very long time. But if I brought her out of here, she needs a place to stay.'

'What makes things complicated is that, the King needs physical touch in order to summon the sigil. And from what I can tell, he also needs to rouse not only his energy but hers as well. The Queen's body needs rest, and every single drop of energy she has would be crucial to her recovery. Constantly summoning the sigil just to meet her is unadvised.'

'Well, she just needs something to anchor her soul and prevent it from dissipating right? That makes this easier then.'

"Your Majesty, I think I have a solid plan now."

***

Raven left the space inside the sigil. 

His soul flew back to his body, making him regain consciousness in the living world. 

As the crowd saw him stood up, all of them were expecting him to say something but got nothing from him. Luna was about to ask him what happened but was stopped by his brother. Balmung shook his head, signaling Luna to not disturb him as he knew from Raven's face that's up to something. 

Everyone watched as Raven took out several pieces of high quality ores from his spatial ring. Using his raw strength, he crushed them one by one, scattering them on the floor in a messy yet organized manner. 

He used at least fifty high quality ores. It had to be known that a single piece of this ore would fetch a high price in the market, yet Raven unhesitatingly crushed them since he has a use for them. 

The crushed pieces of ores on the floor arranged themselves to appear like a ritual circle. To complete this process, Raven fetched a jar of beast blood and some bones as well in his spatial ring. He also summoned a huge and decrepit looking Fang. 

He crushed the fang into huge chunks and scattered them on the ground along with ores and the beast bones. He then splattered them with blood, just enough to cover each one with a trace. Once all of that is done, he approached Luna and said: "I need some of your blood Princess."

Without hesitation, Luna pulled her sleeves up and looked directly at Raven's eyes, saying: "Take as much as want."

Raven smiled and kissed her forehead. He took out a dagger and nicked a small wound on her wrist, letting her blood pour over a jar that he prepared beforehand. After filling the jar halfway through, Raven placed a finger on her wrist and used his Chaos Force to close her wound. 

"You can take more Avi. No need to worry about me." Luna said, afraid that the blood wasn't enough.

Raven gave her a reassuring smile and said: "Don't worry, it's enough. Just stay there. This won't take long."

He then walked back to the ritual circle and brought the jar of Luna's blood by his side. Raven took a deep breath and smacked his chest hard, causing blood to seep from his lips. Everyone was shocked as they didn't expect that Raven would hurt himself but they prevented themselves from doing anything since they don't want to distract him.

Raven's hands turned into a blur, going through several hand seals in quick succession. He then clasped his hand together and summoned all Chaos Force that he could muster at this moment. 

The ritual circle in front of him pulsed with a flash of white light. All of the bones, ores and chunks of the fang started levitating and forming a shape of human before everyone's eyes. 

Raven flicked his finger and Luna's blood started floating towards the statue that Raven created. 

As Luna's blood started seeping through the statue, its facial features started become more and more defined. So much to the point where they could almost tell that this statue was starting to look like the Queen herself. 

For his finishing act, Raven spat a glob of his blood essence on the statue containing at least 80 years of his lifespan. Once he did this, the statue was seemingly given life and started to look more and more real as time goes on. 

Raven then looked back at the sigil that is still present. With a clench of his hand, he pulled something out of the sigil and hurriedly placed it one the statue. 

The statue erupted with one final flash of light, causing everyone to be momentarily blinded.. But when they regained their visions, they could now see that the statue's eyes were open.