Way of the Knights

Chapter 892: Simulation gone wrong

Raven sighed after discarding yet another failure.

He looked over at his consciousness and saw that it’s filled with discarded sigil of his past attempts on cracking down the path to transcendence.

How many was here, Raven can’t remember anymore. He has stopped counting since the counter went beyond the thousands.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and decided to empty his thoughts for a bit. He had been experiencing bad headaches time and time again ever since he started this and with how little his progress is, it’s for damn sure that this won’t be the last of them.

Another year has passed since his team became full fledged Divine Knights. Raven had exited his seclusion twice during those times, spending weeks up to a month to stay with his family for a break before returning back here in order to continue his research.

He had made a little bit of progress since then but the end is still nowhere near his sight. He’d be in here for a long time, he had already expected that so he’s way past complaining at this point.

“…I should clear up space here. All these things makes my mindscape a but cluttered.” Raven stated to himself as he went ahead and do just that.

He doesn’t have any plans on wiping everything that’s in here. He’ll just get rid of the useless ones since there’s a lot of them and they’re making this place look bad and unorganized.

Those that have some potential will be left on the side until they’re either used or deemed as a dead-end as well.

With that said, Raven began clearing up his mindscape right away.

He first went through the contents of each sigils before decided whether to keep it or discard it.

This also serves as a refresher for him. At least, he was retracing his steps. If he had missed out on something useful, he’ll notice it eventually.

This process took days to complete. There were just too many of these sigils around. Once he was done, he briefly arranged those that are left according to their potential just so that he knew which one to look for if an inspiration hits him or just for reference.

Then, he’s back at it again with the creation of sigils and simulations.

It’s clear that Raven had gotten so used into creating this sigils due to how he uninterested his face looked like.

At this point, this was reflex for him. He had created so many of these so far that he was even doing them in his dreams at this point.

One notable thing about this is that, even though Raven looked bored while doing this, the quality of his work never faltered.

His work was consistent. Not even a fluctuation of difference from the previous ones he made earlier. It was clear that he had mastered this craft completely that he can even do it instinctually.

And as sigils are just one facet of the Runic Arts – the very basis of Raven’s power, he was also fortifying his foundations with these constant practice.

See, upon reaching the stage where Raven currently stands. The sub-realms of the Divine Knight Stage barely had any importance to him, especially when he follows an unorthodox cultivation route.

Whether he’s faced with an early-Divine Knight Expert or a peak-Divine Knight powerhouse, doesn’t really make any difference to him.

He’d defeat them all the same way as he did his enemies before.

By sealing them of course.

Raven’s knowledge when it comes to Runic Arts were uncontested and will remain like so for a very long time. He was matchless when it comes to this and that’s what separates him from the rest.

The things he can do by just arranging seals and runes in a particular formation was nigh limitless.

With his seals, Raven could circumvent Laws and alter the very fabrics of reality itself.

This is the foundation of his strength, and even as he did these mundane and repetitive act of forming sigils for his simulations, he is constantly strengthening his foundations, pushing the distance between him and his competitors even wider.

“What should I use for these next sigil?” Raven hummed as his mind roughly went through the things he used before.

“I guess, I’ll try another batch of Mediums again. The Polarities showed the most promise after all. There are still some mediums that I’ve yet to use. Maybe one of them, with the correct ratio, will complete the formula.”

The Polarities that Raven mentioned referred to the reaction of two opposing elements or Laws. For example; Fire and Water doesn’t mix well with each other and their clash often results to the birth of another element.

The concept of Raven’s method to reach the Path of the Absolute, is to mix Order and Chaos. Two polar opposites that, if clashed, will either result into extinction or greatness.

Raven wanted the latter part of that of course. But in order to do so is very difficult.

He figured that there has to a Medium for this process. Something that will stand in the middle of the Polar Opposites that will prevent the violent reaction and instead, help with the merging process.

Of course, this process is just the shell of the entire thing. There are couple of nuances that will become a variable in this event which could either turn this to a success or a failure.

One such factors is Raven himself.

Don’t forget that this process will ultimately take place within him. While he might be able to succeed in formulating the correct ratio of Medium for the merging process, it shouldn’t be surprising that it also requires Raven to survive that process as well.

Raven wasn’t suicidal. Far from it, actually. He didn’t want to sacrifice his own life just to pursue the path of the Absolute. He wants to be alive and be the embodiment of it. Not become its sacrificial pawn.

At this point, Raven had used many kinds of elements for the Medium. He had tried the Basic Elements, combinations of it, stand-alone concepts or merged ones, paradigms, and etc. None managed to get him to result he wanted so far and he’s being honest, he’s running out of options.

For the span of over ten hours, Raven repeatedly tested another batch of mediums. All of them were failures.

Raven even did some of the multiple times with their ratios adjusted and they still failed.

He had probably created over ten simulations just for this day but nothing really gave him even an ounce of progress. It just gave him headache that’s all.

Raven could feel himself getting tired so for the following day, his focus was a bit lax.

He did another tests despite his exhausted mind and soul. The sigils still came out well but due his focus greatly weakened by his fatigue, a mishap happened during one of simulations.

He forgot to add a Medium for the merging process.

By the time he discovered this, it was already too late. The simulation already began and he already counted this as a failure.

But…

“Eh…?”

Something peculiar happened as he watched.

Typically, if the process was a failure, Raven would see his own body exploding bits and pieces with no hope of rebirth in sight. This wasn’t the case for this particular simulation though.

Raven saw his simulated counterpart bleeding profusely from all orifices. A rather ugly sight but he had seen worse so this didn’t bother him that much. It’s what he discovered was what truly bothered him.

Raven couldn’t sense the aura of his simulation – no, it’s more like, it completely escaped the realm of his understanding.

It was bizarre but things still look bad as his own simulation never stopped bleeding. He even saw his chest bursting and turning into too goo with how strong the impact was.

And then the simulation opened his eyes defiantly and stared at Raven directly, much to his surprise. This fiery gaze was then followed by a brief nod before the simulation completely fell apart, signifying another failure.

Raven just felt his world rocked by that sudden event.

He was left there with his jaw ajar from the sheer disbelief he felt.

The gears on his hear started turning. His thoughts turned into a blur and later a storm from which ideas were birthed.

That simulation was a total failure. So much so that he didn’t even manage to recover the sigil he just used as it was destroyed by that process. Which also means that he had no reference of that event.

But even if that was the case, Raven felt jubilant.

Yes, that might’ve been a failure but it brought him so much information that he didn’t even know what to do with them.

Hints started appearing in his mind. For once, he could hear the beckoning of that realm which caused him to fell great excitement.

With a manic grin on his face, he started writing seals which depicted what he had just seen.

It would seem that Raven won’t be out of his seclusion for a good chunk of time.