Way of the Knights

Chapter 328: Judgement

Raven hovered in the air, clad with his majestic silver armor and his Archaic Thousand Arms Hammer raised. 

Above him was titanic sized hand covered with a sparkling golden hue. The Golden Hand radiated a kind of power that none of the primates had ever felt before. 

It was awe-inspiring, strong and impossibly huge. 

None of the primates had any doubts that if this hand fell down, it will create so much devastation and will wipe out a good chunk of the land. 

To them, Raven looked nothing like a human right now. 

In their eyes, he was a god. 

A death god who’s peace was disturbed and is handing down judgement on behalf of the heavens. 

“Stop speaking nonsense!!” 

Harry roared out in anger and fear. He was impressed by himself since he was still able to speak even after being exposed to this godly power. But regardless of what he felt, he still needed to try his best to stop Raven, or else his tribe cease to exist. 

“We presented ourselves as threat to humans?” Harry spoke in a distressed tone, “We did no such thing! Everything I did, I did it to unify our race! I never had any thoughts of moving against humans from the very beginning!”

“Even though our founders had been long dead, I still respected their upbringing. I knew that they wouldn’t want us to fight with humans since they were raised by one and I have similar thoughts! It was you who came up with all of this. You just wanted to kill for your own entertainment!”

Harry’s reasoning and accusations made complete sense to the primates who were listening to him. So much so that even Charles himself, was nearly convinced. Unfortunately, Charles knew Harry’s character too well and he couldn’t help but to shake his head in pity because his old fried just cemented their fates from the moment he said all that. 

“Aww.” Raven mocked. “Look at you, using the pity card all of a sudden. Oh, whatever shall I do?” 

Raven’s voice was overflowing with sarcasm as he looked at Harry. He chuckled out of nowhere and said:

“Let me ask you this, Monkey.” Raven went back to his casual way talking, “Let’s say, that everything you said was true…what about it?”

Raven raised his brow and waited for Harry’s response. The latter gawked upon hearing his words and became completely stumped. He tried opening his mouth to retort but no words will come out. Raven didn’t make this situation any better with his bored look. 

Charles who was watching from below shook his head and sighed. He thought to himself ‘They’re done for.’

“Did you honestly think that I, a human, would conform to the morals of you monkeys?” Raven asked in a mocking tone. “Don’t make me laugh.”

“Do you know what we, humans call the area that you and your people live in?” Raven asked, he paused for a moment and after seeing that Harry was speechless, he decided to continue. 

“We call this the Red Zone.” Raven uttered casually. “To us, the entirety of the Red Zone could be summarized by one word: Danger.”

“The Red Zone is oozing with numerous – no, make that countless. Countless of dangerous Demonic Beasts. Our home will be attacked hundreds of thousands of Demonic Beasts at least once a year. Every time that happens, many of my kind will die in your hands. Many humans died because you beasts seek to destroy us, the number is so great that if we pile the corpses together, we will be surrounded with mountains of corpses.”

“Do you see where I’m going here?” Raven asked, but Harry was still speechless. “If you still can’t, then let me enlighten you.”

“Your race and mine. We are enemies.” 

Raven said this words casually, yet the revelation still stumped many of them. For some reason, majority of them wanted to retort his words yet similar to Harry, they had no words. What Raven said next, solidified this statement even further.

“While it’s true that your founders were raised by a human, they are the only one’s that I could consider as allies.” Raven stated, “Their father must’ve adopted them from their infancy and taught them not to hurt humans, which is why they didn’t and embraced our culture as well. I would even believe you if you told me that your founders once thought that they were humans too. But that’s that.”

“Believe me when I say this. If your founders were never raised by a human, they would’ve probably killed more humans than any of you could ever imagine.” 

Everyone who was listening to him felt shivers down their spine. But Raven wasn’t still done. 

“Let me say this once again. I would consider your founders as genuine allies. But that doesn’t apply to you all.” Raven paused and looked directly at Harry’s eyes, his next words shook everyone to their core. 

“Your founders were raised by humans, but the rest of you aren’t. All of you respected them but none of you were related to them by blood since they didn’t have any descendants, remember?”

“Do you now realize how stupid your accusations were?” Raven raised his brow and asked. 

Raven’s question almost made Harry puke blood from anger and despair. There’s nothing that he could say to retort now since Raven made it clear. In his eyes, him and his tribe were enemies that should be destroyed. Every word he said was true and that what made it even more painful.

He lowered his hammer but the golden hand didn’t dissipate. 

“Do you know why I think that your dream of becoming the next Beast Emperor is hilarious?” Raven asked with a thick mocking in his voice. Harry glared at him but Raven’s next words shook his soul. 

“It’s because it’s impossible to happen.” Raven paused and he looked directly at Harry’s eyes. 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that. It’s not because I will eradicate you. If I really wanted to stop the next Beast Emperor from being born, then that would require me to completely cleanse this world of your race. That’s too much work and I have lots of stuff to attend to but thankfully I didn’t have to do it.”

“Why, you ask? Simple.” Raven’s next words made their hearts sink to their stomachs. “It is because this world doesn’t permit the existence of a Beast Emperor.”

Before they could even ask him to clarify his words, he already began explaining. 

“The Beast Emperor is too powerful for this world to handle, even just one movement from it will cause the very fabrics of this world to be ruined. So you tell me, would this world permit that kind of existence then?”

None spoke, everyone could tell that Raven wasn’t lying to them. 

“Forget about metamorphosing into a Beast Emperor, none of the Centennial Tailed Oracles will live past seven tails.” Raven continued his statement. “From the moment that they approach that stage, this world would send down it’s judgement in the form of three sets of clouds, each cloud will shoot three different kinds of lightning, each lightning will strike three times before dissipating.”

“We call this, a Heavenly Tribulation.” 

Heavenly Tribulation, another word that is not foreign to the primates. They knew the term since it was included in the inherited memories. It is said that a Heavenly Tribulation will try to strike down the Beast Emperor before its birth, but they didn’t know that this world would send it that early. 

“I could more or less tell what your personality, even in the brief interaction we had.” Raven told Harry, “Once you inject this tailed oracle bloodline, you will immediately feel the signs of this world rejecting you.”

“Knowing that, and knowing you. I’m sure that you will do everything in your power to achieve your goals.” Raven’s face then turn cold all of a sudden as he raised his hammer once more and continued speaking: “Sooner or later, you will search for my home and invade it to seek answers on how you could evade the tribulation. Of course, there’s a chance that you won’t do such thing. But I’ve never been a fan of taking chances.”

“I don’t know how many of my kind will fall from your hands, and frankly I’m not too inclined to know.” 

The Golden Hand above Raven started to radiate with a fearsome might as if it was responding to Raven’s feelings. 

“So before any of that happens, I might as well pull the problems out from it’s roots. You and your people are a threat to safety my home. That’s enough for me to eradicate you. ” Raven’s godly aura flared with outmost ferocity. 

His strength was like a mighty flood that suffocated everyone who felt it. He was too much for any of them to handle, and they knew that with this kind of strength, numbers are useless. 

“Your time is up, Monkey. Same goes for your tribe as well. Be kind on your next life, should you ever have one.”