Way of the Knights

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"I'm guessing that you guys' mission went well?" 

Raven said as soon as he returned to their meeting place. Since he saw everyone in there and with relaxed expressions on their faces, it is most likely that their journey went well.

And as expected, they all agreed to him. Raven went beside Luna and groaned for a bit, he was feeling a little weak due to the last battle.

After his battle against the 100th Demon Butcher and his harvesting of the blood red crystal from its brain. The killing intent surrounding the place, the slaughterhouse as well as the demented criminals, all disappeared. What's left is just the forest that could use some cleaning and it would be habitable again. This means that this Danger Zone had been conquered, it will no longer pose any sort of danger to the Kingdom.

The same scenario also happened for the rest. The Immersion Forest returned to being a regular forest. The Gravity Hills became a bunch of hills, the Field of Perpetual Chill has no cold winds anymore, the 100 Stone Labyrinth is just some rock formations and the Dead Man's Mansion is just some old and decrepit house that turned into dust as soon as Luna was done with it.

"Are you good? Do you want to rest first?" Luna asked in a worrying tone. Raven smiled and pinched her cheeks.

"I'm fine, rest can wait." Raven then turned towards the rest and said: "Take out the items that you guys retrieved, I have something to do with them." 

Each of them nodded and took out the items they got from the Danger Zones. Paul's was the Crystal Core of the Immersion Forest, Mark took out the 9 Layered Jade that he got from the peak of the Ninth Hill in the Hills of Gravity. Ellen took out the Horn of the Northern Winds which she took away from the depths of the Field of Perpetual Chill. Anne has the Mysterious Black Cube from the 100 Stone Labyrinth and Luna took out the Unholy Flag from the Dead Man's Mansion.

Of course, Raven also took out his harvest, which is the Slaughter Demon's Blood Essence Crystal, he unsealed it and placed it on the table in front of him. He also took out another item, this item was the one that he took away from the Royal Treasury as a reward from their contributions during the invasion. This item was called Sky Reflecting Mirror.

On it's own, the Sky Reflecting Mirror could be used as a spying treasure. It allows him to see three s

kilometers in front of him, unfortunately it takes tons of energy to activate and the activation takes a long time. He hadn't had a chance to use it since he there weren't any opportunities to do so. Now he would transform it into something that would be more useful than its previous capabilities.

They all placed the items in one table and Raven immediately took out a brush. Feeding his Chaos Force on the brush, he started writing some golden inscriptions in the air. One inscription after another flowed from the brush tip and encircled the items carefully, some of them even fused with the items, dissolving inside of them in the process.

As the inscriptions rose in number, the items floated one by one. They started spinning in a wide circle under the influence of the inscriptions. As time goes on, the circle got smaller and the items were brought closer to each other. A dense shimmer of light surrounded Raven as he wrote inscriptions, there was a look of complete focus on his face.

What Raven was doing is repurposing the use of each items and binding them into one. He had this place ever since the beginning and now's the time for him to act on it, specially that this will be one of the main requirements of the reform he had in mind. Clearing out the Danger Zones were just a collateral effect, what he's really after is these items.

After a couple of minutes, the seven items are now enveloped into a single orb of light, incubating under the cocoon of inscriptions that he wrote. Raven had stopped fusing more inscriptions since it was no longer needed, anymore and it would just turn this process into a failure. Now he's just monitoring the minute changes inside the orb. Under his gaze, he could see that it was nearly time for the final fusion. His heart beat with anxiety as he prayed that he doesn't fail.

Another minute passed and the moment he had been waiting for finally arrived. Raven unfolded his Chaos Force on full momentum and pushed both of hands together. His Chaos Force clamped on the orb and molded it together, making sure that the force he used was just enough to aid the fusion and not destroy it.

Under that stressful moment, he didn't even noticed that he was sweating bullets. He also didn't notice that Luna was there beside him, wiping his sweat gently and carefully to avoid them from obstructing his vision and making sure to not distract him from whatever he was doing. 

"Merge!" With one roar, Raven made one final push and pressed his hands even more tighter. 

The orb of light in front of him shrank in size and emitted a brilliant shine of light, it was almost as if there was a sun in front of the group.

Eventually, the light slowly dimmed and allowed the rest to see the final outcome of the fusion.

It was a shiny, palm-sized marble that emitted a rainbow-colored glow. It floated towards Raven, who was smiling in satisfaction. He then sighed and went weak for a second. Thankfully, Luna was there to catch him. He smiled and thank her by kissing her cheeks, much to the embarrassment of the girl.

"So?" Ellen placed her hands on her hips and asked : "What does that do?"

"By itself. Nothing much." Raven replied, "But if used properly, it could do many things."

He knows that he was being cryptic in his explanation so he continued: "This is a Formation Core. The effect of the items we got from the danger zones are recorded inside this small thing but of course they were re-purposed. For example, the core of the Immersion Forest could create some fearsome illusion, that function is still here but it was mellowed down, also it won't eat up the people trapped in the illusion."

"The Horn of Northern Wind could still create a chilling field, but it could be turned off at will. Things like that is what I mean by repurposing the items. And it still has a room for adjustments. If I am provided with the sufficient amount of resources, I could still make improvements in this thing. But this will do for now."

The rest were in awe with his explanation. Somehow they are looking forward to see what kind of things Raven has up on his sleeves with the use of this Formation Core. If everything works properly, then they might have a new training grounds for themselves.

"Alright, I think that's enough for today." Luna interjected as she gently urged Raven to lean on her, "We are tired and needed some rest. Let's meet up again once we rested."

Her words invoked a wave of exhaustion to wash over their bodies. Everyone agreed to her words, while they might've rested while waiting for each other, that wasn't nearly enough for them to completely recover. Having a long rest should patch them up. 

That being said, the group dispersed and went to their own homes, of course Luna went with Raven since the latter was really weak. 

"Must you really push yourself this hard? You could've done that tomorrow after you rested." Luna complained as the two travelled back to Raven's home.

"I can't." Raven smiled helplessly, "I had to fuse them today or else they will disappear from your hands and reappear somewhere in the kingdom. There will Danger Zones once again, I can't let that happen."

'Who am I to doubt him?' Luna sighed in defeat and just silently went with Raven to his home.

Raven wasn't really living with his parents anymore since his mom and sisters were staying at his dad's office so that Luis could monitor them closely. Raven bought a piece of land for himself and lived there after their graduation from the Inner Court. He was just visiting his Dad's office whenever he's free to play his sisters.

After they went home, the two took a quick bath and ate some meal. Luna then urged Raven to sleep on his bed, she was planning on returning to the palace when Raven unexpectedly pulled her and wrapped her in a tight hug.

Luna panicked and tried to push him away but Raven's hug was just too strong for her, it also didn't help that there was a mischievous smile on his face as he was doing so.

"Let's sleep together."

Luna gasped in horror. Her heart pounded inside her chest as she hit Raven's chest in embarrassment.

"What are you saying?"

"What do you mean?" Raven raised his brow and flashed a playful smirk. "I meant what I said. Let's sleep together. You're tired as well right? Let's sleep."

Luna was speechless, she pinched Raven's arm as she realized that he was teasing her again. Raven laughed and gently wrapped Luna in his embrace.

"We will just sleep okay? Relax.. Let's rest."