Way of the Knights

Chapter 86: Ritual (II)

It’s been a half an hour since the ritual had started.

Raven and his friends had been in the state of deep meditation ever since and there’s still no visual changes that occured.

Old Lee, Korra and the staff that’s present watched over them carefully. They have to wait until the ritual was finished before they could leave.

While in meditation, Raven gradually forgot the passage of time. He also forgot that they were undergoing the ritual, the state that’s he’s in was something that cannot be sought after and only happen by chance. This was a rare state of emptiness that allowed their bodily functions to perform a much better rate.

Though there are no huge visual changes, the transformation had already began happening inside his body. The ritual waters are a special body of water, they are in no danger of drowning here so there’s no need to pay attention to how one breathes. As the water seeps in every corner of one’s body, it penetrated all the way through the dried and clogged up Energy Nodes on his body.

There are 7 Energy Nodes on one’s body. They are on the wrists, soles, top of the head, center of the chest and at the base of the spine. Each nodes are at the size of a bean, as well as many vein-like channels connecting one energy node to another. Each node is capable of storing energy, allowing them to carry more energy for their battles.

Each time the water makes contact with the energy nodes and energy channels, it will be absorbed without any traces. The greater the value of water he absorb, the brighter the energy nodes and channels get. The impurities clogging them are being washed away by the waters, Raven could almost feel like there was another type of pulse running through his body.

While the water gently cleanse their energy body, the waters also went through a mysterious path and illuminated the hidden path on their body. On his back, 9 different symbols appeared in a circular formation. Each of this symbols are incredibly profound and mysterious, no one in this Kingdom, aside from Raven, would be able to explain this phenomena nor even explain it’s significance.

These 9 symbols are the Great Elemental Gates of the Body Path. One that will only show up once one casted a solid foundation on the Fighter Stages.

Time passed and his Energy Body was cleansed as well as the path of the 9 Great Elemental Gates was illuminated. The ritual was almost done, and it was also during this time, that a great phenomena descended on the group of friends.

Raven eyes snapped wide open. He found himself submerged into a deep murky darkness. There are no traces of panic in his face because he was familiar with this place.

He turned around and saw a ball of light at a distance. Glancing up, he could see a faint curtain of light and a blurry aurora of colors. From this view alone, one could easily tell that they were underwater, but he didn’t have any difficulties on breathing. He also knew that trying to swim up towards the surface is useless since he was anchored in this form and no matter how hard he tried, he won’t be able to do so.

Using his mere thought, he went closer to the ball of light not too far away from where he was. Upon taking a closer look, he immediately realized that this thing was no ball of light, instead it was him, curled up into a ball and in deep sleep. In of this version of his, was a tattered looking crown that’s slowly spinning and emitting a faint curtain of light which enveloped the curled up version of him.

Without a doubt, Raven is staring at his own Soul and the place where he’s at right now is his Sea of Consciousness, a realm which contained his soul.

“Hey there buddy.” Raven flashed a curt smile in his face, his voice echoed at every corner of his Sea of Consciousness. The crown trembled a bit and emitted excited vibrations which tickled his current form. “Nice to see you again too. Been a while huh?” He laughed as he stepped closer to caress the crown.

The crown trembled multiple times in joy when it felt his touch. There was a serene smile in his face as he said: “I can finally help you recover.”

He raised his hand and performed a casual wave. Along with his gesture, a slit in space suddenly appeared and from there, volumes of crystal clear water emerged and got absorbed by both his soul and the crown.

The crown shivered multiple times as it hungrily sucked the ritual waters like a starved beast. As for his soul, it also absorbed some but not as intense as the crown did. Minutes passed and slowly the crown was visibly changing. From it’s tattered and old appearance, it now posses that majestic aura and golden brilliance just like what it did in the past.

As for his soul, it’s body shine with a pure bright light and it’s no longer curled up like a ball. Once it absorbed enough energies, it awoken from it’s slumber. The crown jumped from his hands and placed itself on top of his soul’s head. As the crown and the soul merged, his whole sea of consciousness brightened and became like a crystal sea. Untainted with impurities and still like a calm lake. His consciousness form merged with his own soul, afterwards the soul looked up and swam up towards the surface of the water.

It stood on top of the calm sea and carefully took in the endless view of the skies. With a wave of it’s hand, the sky warped. It’s hands tightened and the sky folded in like a crumpled paper with it’s might. With another swipe of it’s hand, the fake skies disappeared and the true skies on the Sea of Consciousness appeared.

An endless starry space filled with multiple constellations. A vague outline of different images and arrangement was displayed right before it’s bright eyes. It roamed it’s gaze on the skies and looked for the brightest constellation that it could find.

It didn’t take long before the soul managed to located the brightest constellation, it looked at it carefully and branded the image on it’s brain.

The constellation was the Myriad Limb, a creature that has multiple arms and legs with a single body and head. The Soul raised it’s hand and made a grasping motion. The Myriad Limb brightened even further and sent a pillar of light towards the soul.

When the pillar of light touched the soul. The Sea of Consciousness shook and golden altar emerged, the soul was in the middle of that altar and watched it form. A smile of satisfaction emerged on it’s space, it sat down and Raven’s consciousness returned to his body.

His soul was now awake and communed with the Starry Skies of the Spirit World. His job was done here and the ritual was about to end so he needed to return,

***

While all of this was happening, all that the audience could see was a resplendent brilliance covering each of students’ bodies.

The people who were used to seeing strange phenomenas were greatly surprised since there has never been a case like this before. They knew that the ritual is good for an individual and the results were amazing, causing their bodies to emit a bright light but these kids took that onto the next level.

Their bodies shone like miniature suns. Each of them looked incredibly sacred and holy as of the moment that one can’t just look away from them. The ritual waters even helped with the refraction of light, making the scene more majestic.

Under their dumbstruck expressions, the light gradually faded. The ritual waters gently went back to it’s space and the kids slowly floated down. Even though there were soaked in the water for so long, there were no traces of wetness on their clothes or their bodies. They appeared just like how they looked before but one could tell that their auras are no longer similar.

On one look, they might appear extremely normal but it one sensed closely, they would find out that there is a majestic and suppressing force hiding inside their bodies. If one of them chose to flared their aura on a Soldier-level enemy, then their aura’s alone could greatly suppress them, even though they just stepped into the realm themselves.

One by one, the team woke up from their meditation. It started with the girls, and then the boys ending with Raven. As he opened his eyes, a faint mark of a star emerged on his forehead before retreating back like it wasn’t there in the first place.

Briefly sensing their auras, Old Lee and Korra can’t hide their astonishment. They stared at them for a good while before eventually shaking their heads…

“Congratulations on safely traversing the Ritual.” They both greeted which made the kids smile.