Way of the Knights

Chapter 597 - Madness

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"Well, well..." Raven muttered while smiling wryly as he looked at the devastation in front of him. 

He's still in the middle of a fierce blizzard, yet due to what he had done, he could feel a strange wave of heat assaulting his face. The biting cold of the blizzard and the heat coming from what's in front of him really made everything a bit complicated. 

"I might've went a little too eager with this." Raven said while laughing mirthlessly. 

Aside from the vast blanket of snow and the raging blizzard around him, there is now an enormous boulder releasing an intense heat, which is being doused by the on going blizzard, causing a puddle of water to form beneath the boulder. 

"Yup. Summoning a meteor to kill those things were definitely overboard." Raven nodded to himself, as if he didn't realize this prior to him summoning the meteor that's now in front of him. 

There's virtually no remains of neither the Ice Trolls, Snow Harpies or Northern Merfolk that could be seen due to the severe impact of the meteor. In fact, the impact caused the mountain to tremble. Raven originally wanted to summon more than one but he decided against it. Which is definitely the right the decision on his part.

There's no knowing if the path beneath him could withstand another meteor impact just like before. 

"Ugh, why did I even do this? I'm such an idiot!" Raven smacked his cheeks as it was just now sinking how stupid this idea was. "Summoning a meteor just to deal with these things? Really? That's first idea that come to my mind? And to think that I actually did it, is even more absurd!"

"I could've easily played with this things with barely an effort, yet I just had to summon an freaking meteor! Ugh! How am I going to explain this now?" Raven was feeling a bit stressed. 

It was truly surprising for him to be this childish. He didn't know what has gotten onto him which made him summon a meteor to kill these creatures. Yes, they are troublesome to deal with but it's not like summoning a meteor was the only option he has. He could think of ten different ways to deal with them with ease, yet he still picked a meteor amongst all options. 

"All this has done is to confirm the fact that I can indeed summon a meteor from the Outer Space thanks to the seals and nothing else. It wasn't worth the effort since from previous experience, there's bound to ne another wave of these things appearing later, no way I'd summon another meteor to deal with those. Additionally, it drained a good chuck of my Cosmic Energy."

"It hasn't even been that long since I promised to them to not overdo it, yet I've already did just that. Way to go, me." Raven sarcastically commented. 

In the end though, what's done is done. It's not like he could return this thing back to where he had taken it. He could only think of ways to get rid of it since it's somewhat blocking a good portion of the road. 

Raven sighed and took out the Brush of Wisdom once more. He then walked at the direction of the meteor and began drawing something out in the air. He swiped the brush in several directions, once his done, a huge rune appeared in the air and shot towards the meteor at a blinding speed. 

The rune began grinding the meteor down, turning it to dust as time went on. The process took at least ten minutes before the enormous meteor was nowhere to be seen and the puddle of water below where it was before became frozen solid. 

Once he was done dealing with the meteor. Raven went back to the formation where it's warm and cozy. He took a swift glance at the Trial Gate and saw no changes so far. That means that the War Gods are still inside, and was probably working hard to clear it. 

"They'll probably be in there for a while." Raven muttered as he entered his tent to get some sleep. 

Since he's within the absolute protection of the formation, he could take it easy and set the pace according to his own will. Even if the formation were to be damaged, he'd be informed in time and could most likely diffuse the situation, given his abilities. 

Lying down on the soft and fluffy bedding that he brought for himself to use, he stared above whilst in deep thought.

"I wonder what's going on with the sect right now." He murmured. "Had I not agreed with this climb, I wonder was I was supposed to be doing right now?" 

"...most likely I'd be drowning in paperwork. Well, that may not be the case either. Who knows? Either way, there's no way I'd know since I'm not physically there right now." Raven told himself. "Dang it, I should've left an Avatar. That way I'd know what's going on." 

"Ah well...too late for that I guess." 

Raven became a bit silent for quite sometime before he felt a sense of drowsiness on his body. He couldn't help but think about the War Gods and their well being. 

"I wonder what's the trial this time around." Raven softly said, his eyelids were slowly turning heavy due to the drowsiness he felt. He yawned and continued saying: "I hope their luck wouldn't be too bad. Else they'd come out injured and severely exhausted once more." 

Raven's mind were filled about numerous thoughts about the trials, he was too occupied that he didn't even realized that he already succumbed to the drowsiness and fell asleep. 

---

"Oh wow." Raven was somewhat speechless when he saw the commotion outside once he walked out of his tent after waking up. 

His lips twitched as he saw droves of beasts roaming around the vicinity of the formation. There were too many of them of that he didn't even need to activate his ocular technique to see them since they were visible. If he could see this much of them even without his ocular technique, then he didn't need it to realize that he's completely surrounded. 

"Summoning a meteor now wouldn't be as bad of an idea unlike before however...I don't really need to do that, right?" Raven muttered as the Brush of Wisdom silently appeared on his hand. 

Raven didn't even bother to step outside of the formation, he just felt too lazy to do so. Nevertheless, even if he didn't went out, it still wouldn't change the outcome. 

Since they were here, then they can forget about returning...

Drawing several lines up in the air, another large rune appeared above him. This time, the rune was filled with an extremely malicious intent which Raven purposefully applied in there.

Shortly after, the rune began condensing. The lines began converging, forming a single world which is filled with animosity that Raven never displayed to anybody he met in the sect so far. 

'MADNESS'

That is the word that the rune formed after if was done. Raven nodded his head in satisfaction and lifted a small portion of the Formation to send the rune outside. 

As soon as the rune came out, every beast around stared at it. 

It was as if they've seen something so incredibly beautiful and bewitching that they can't peel their eyes away from it. Shortly after staring at the rune, the eyes of the beast glowed with crimson light. Raven smiled devilishly as this sight as this was a sign that they were already caught in his trap. 

"Now then..." Raven murmured with a strange voice. "Let this Madness consume you. Slaughter to your heart's content!" 

Raven's voice was constrained by the formation, meaning that none of the beast actually heard what he said. Yet as soon as he was done saying his piece, it triggered an absurd reaction and the beasts began tearing each other apart. 

Pained groans and dying wails filled his surroundings. Raven watched in silence as the troublesome beasts began slaughtering one another. So far, the Ice Trolls were dominating the battle simply due to their absurd physical strength, yet the Northern Merfolk still managed to even out the playing grounds by diving under the blanket of snow and ambushing them. 

The most pitiful ones were the Snow Harpies. Sure they could fly but that's all there is to it. They were too slow to avoid the powerful swings of the Ice Trolls nor fast enough to avoid the tridents being thrown by the Northern Merfolk. 

Raven wanted to give himself a pat in the back as he watched this horrible scene. Since he wasn't included in it and he was hidden behind the absolute protection of his very own formation, he didn't pity the beasts, and instead felt greatly satisfied with this outcome. 

He sat down on the table and cupped his chin with his hands. He watched in amusement as corpses started being swallowed by the ferocious blizzard. 

"See? Dealing with them is as simple as lifting a finger for me.. There's absolutely no need to summon a meteor."