Way of the Knights

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"I see…"

Raven blinked as he re-read the contents of the Ancient Art: 9 Destruction Steps. He closed then book and placed it on his spatial ring. He then closed his eyes and channeled the might of his Destruction Laws on his legs and soles. 

As soon as he lifted his legs, a surprising development immediately occurred on his surroundings. 

Cracks appeared within 50 meters around him, each cracks appeared out of nowhere as if they were already there before. When Raven's foot made contact with the ground, the cracks immediately exploded like glass and sent the whole Sun Temple shaking on impact. 

Shockwaves rocked the whole floor, the volcanic rocks that could withstand a beating caved in from Raven's might. 

Raven lifted another foot and the cracks appeared once more, this time it covered everything inside 100 meters around him. When Raven made his second step, a stronger reaction compared before occurred. Now even the beams that supported the temple were also damaged by that step. 

He lifted another foot and this time, the cracks covered a full 500 meters around him. However, seeing the state of the temple, Raven chose to cancel the technique instead. 

"Anymore and the temple might not remain intact from the intensity." He murmured while placing a finger on his chin. 

"Still, from what I felt just now, I could use this skill only until the 5th step. The rest are still unavailable since that requires more understanding about the art and Destruction Laws. Needless to say, the 5th step would cover at least 5 kilometers of destruction that could instantly kill Tier 3 Demonic Beasts. That's already extremely useful."

"This Ancient Art alone is already worth all the trouble of going all the way here. Plus this isn't even the one I'm after, it's just a bonus. But what an incredible bonus it was."

Raven smiled as he felt immense satisfaction on his luck. Truthfully, this art is already worth the trip. Not only did it teach him an incredible technique, it also contained many inspirations that he could use to gain more understanding about his Destruction Laws. 

Just like what he was expecting, his use of Destruction Laws was very crude, barbaric even. To a trained eye, it's like he's wasting heaven's gift. It wasn't really his fault but he still felt embarrassed whenever he's reminded of it. 

The inspiration behind the 9 Destruction Steps could be summarized in one word: 

Pulse. 

By sending a strong yet controlled pulse of Destruction Laws on his legs, the influence of Destruction which appears as cracks in his surroundings will instantly manifest, and as he finishes his step the resonance of the pulse is enough to trigger the cracks, resulting in fearsome shockwaves that could potentially ignore enemy's defenses. 

Compared to how Raven methods before, it isn't really that advanced since the concept behind it is very simple, but for some reason this inspiration completely escaped his mind. 

The best he could do prior to learning the art, is through simply coating his attacks with destruction laws or utilizing the Fault Signs. He even had to ran his law energy through the cracks in the air just to cause destruction.

He had never thought that just by utilizing a pulse fueled by Destruction Laws, such effects could be achieved.

Raven stayed at the 3rd floor to practice some more but he did it in a weaker scale in order to not damage the Sun Temple even further. It took him two days before he finally decided to move on towards the next floor. 

***

4th floor of the Sun Temple. 

Raven's currently facing the 3rd trial of this floor, which requires him to kill his enemies with a specific condition. He cannot use any kind of weapons and only the first technique he use will damage the spawned beasts. 

A unique test that work perfectly according to his desires. Of course, he had been raring to go and beat up some foes with the new trick that he just learned, so this test came at the right timing for him. 

*Boom!*

Raven took one step and every beast within 50 meter radius around him suffered. They were reduced into a pieces of flesh with the blood dyeing the floor with crimson color.

There were at least 20 kinds of Demonic Beasts that he could play with here. His first attack took out half of their numbers already, but it seems that the rest weren't fazed by the death of their comrades. They still charged at him with overwhelming ferocity, seemingly unafraid of death.

He lifted another foot and the cracks spread for 100 meters. He made another step just before a beast reached out to attack him. The surroundings quaked due to the ferocity of his attack and just like the earlier batch, the rest of the beast were all dead. 

"This is a cool art." Raven said while nodding a himself, "A pity that my playmates are too soft. I broke them too easily."

He wanted to test the art more in real combat but like what he mentioned, his playmates were too soft and weak to entertain him. With this Ancient Art, even Tier 5 Demonic Beast stood no chance. 

In his stupor, he failed to notice that there are more ritual circles appearing on the ground. He only noticed that more was spawning when his instincts told him to dodge. 

"Ooh! More playmates! Come!" Raven celebrated as he saw more beast spawning across the room. 

He roughly counted their numbers and figured that at least there's 40 more beasts here. There are at least 5 of them who are Tier 6 Demonic Beast, and it was one of them who attacked him earlier. 

Raven smiled and lifted his foot, however he was surprised that instead of the skill resetting to the first step since he was forced to move, it counted as the 3rd step which covered 500 meters around him. 

When his foot hit the ground, everything excluding the 5 Tier 6 Demonic Beasts, died. The shockwaves rocked the temple once again and the aftermath dealt some serious damage to the ones remaining. 

In the end, there was pool of blood on the 4th floor. The remaining beasts were severely weakened, some of their body parts were even missing due to his attack. Raven didn't finish them right away and instead he was thinking to himself. 

"Oh, so that could happen. With proper control, I could use the skill sparingly according to how I see fit. I might also be able to use the same step over and over again without needing to raise the scale." 

This means that he could perform the 1st Step of the Ancient Art, then use another skill or move in between before using the 2nd step. In the end, it all boils down to his mastery of the skill. 

"And although this was brief, I also saw how the shockwaves destroyed projectiles. That just showed me another room for improvement. If I could somehow gain more inspiration, I would be able to render any projectiles useless even without moving. That's worth researching."

He then walked forward and went closer to the dying beasts. If he wanted to, he could just leave these guys to bleed to death but since they served as a test subject for his new skill, he could at least cut their suffering short. 

Raven proved his earlier theory of being able to use the same step over and over, towards the dying beast. He used the 2nd step twice to make sure that they were thoroughly dead. And just like that, the trial was over. 

He sighed and walked towards the altar, he then confirmed his desire to continue with the next trial and proceeded to clear them one by one, hardly resting along the way.

Time passed just like that, and Raven faced one trial after another. He cleared them with flying colors, hardly posing any kind of difficulty to him. 

He managed to raise his effiency in using the 9 Destruction Steps through battle. With it, his control and skill level on using his own laws grew exponentially. He cleared all the trials of the 4th floor and got a weapon that he might never use. After taking the reward, he then moved on to the 5th floor.

And finally, spending two weeks inside the Sun Temple, he finally reached cleared the 50th trial. He then walked towards the ritual circle on the altar to confirm his completion of the trial and to receive the reward that he's after. 

"This is it." He said in a relieved tone. "The Pom of Vitality. The final ingredient needed to cure the King and the Queen."

Now he got everything they need to concoct the cure. 

The bark and leaves from the Withering Dream Tree of the Withering Forest of the West. 

The Fragrant Rainbow Flower from the Sunken Ivory Castle of the South.

The Ice Crystal Root from the Frozen Tomb of the North.

And the Pom of Vitality from the Sun Temple of the East. 

This concludes his long journey to gather the ingredients necessary for the cure, but before he could go home.. There's one more place he needed to visit. 

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