Way of the Knights

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The rest of the matches went on as usual. None of the participants revealed their actual identity and instead preferred to wear masks. 

The entertainment brought by the Battle Arena was good, in fact Raven ended up betting to some contestants as well. Since the bets were made before the contestants were revealed, betting became more challenging since it depends on pure luck. However, this hardly was a problem for someone like Raven who could peer through walls. 

It was also helpful to know that the match was staged, and because of Raven's trained eye and good judgement, he managed to earn a decent sum of Merit Points.  action

He earned a total of 30,000, which made Jason incredibly jealous. Nonetheless, this was still within the accepted amount for Raven not to be noticed by the managers of this place. He even lost on purpose just to make sure they won't be suspicious of him. 

Raven knows how gambling works, he also knows how to profit while remaining low-profiled. This amount should be just enough for him to not get noticed. After that, they went back to the base with…well, it should've been both of them but Jason wanted to get his shit wet so he stayed behind. 

He made efforts to stop him, after all he's a guy too. Only, he's loyal to his wife and will never dare to be unfaithful. But he did understand the needs, in fact he too missed it a lot. Unfortunately, he had to endure for a little while. 

Upon getting back to the base, Raven went to his room. He ate a hearty meal and slept soundly. His actions might be lax and some people might even call him lazy but they had no way knowing that he's actually working very hard…well, his Avatars were.

'I have a total of 36,620 Merit Points.' Raven thought to himself, 'Not enough though. I need a total of 70,000 and above Merit Points to purchase all materials to cultivate the 5th stage of Myriad Incarnations Scripture. The fifth stage gives me 54 Avatars.'

54 Avatars, adding the 27 he already has he'll have a total of 75 Avatars, what kind of concept was this? That's 75 minds working together! Worse comes to worst, each Avatar could display a good chunk on Raven's original power. That's just insane. No wonder this technique was preserved! It was so heaven-defying!

'That'd be nice.' Raven thought whilst drowsy. 'Let's take it slow though. I don't want to alert the sect. It's not wise to expose my secrets just yet.' 

Then again, so long as his training as a Cleanser was finished, he'll be able to earn more merit points. By that time, maybe he could start saving up for his real targets. For now, it's in his best interest to be careful. He still hadn't established a good foothold on the sect, he had to play nice for now so that they won't shut him down early. 

With these thoughts in his head, Raven eventually fell asleep…

***

"P-please forgive us!" 

Inside one of the private rooms within the base, Raven could be find sitting on chair. In front of him, were identical twins bowing down so much that their foreheads we're almost touching the table. 

Needless to say, this was the Crawford Twins apologizing in front of him. 

The expeditions team of Unit-17 had arrived two days ago and successfully cleared the mission. According to Floyd, they've met with some difficulties maneuvering since the visibility within the Devil's Cradle turned for the worse. Additionally, Floyd limited himself from joining the battle too much. He'll only interfere when it's needed. Those who fought the most were the weaker ones, which brought in good results for the team. 

The following days after that, the twins consistently avoided Raven. Meanwhile, him on the other hand was counting as the days passed. He already warned Pyra, and she could tell that he's serious which he is. He won't hesitate to really escalate this matter to Henry. 

But then, here they are now.

Raven swept his eyes in front of the twins, arms crossed and his gaze was cold. The piercing coldness of his gaze was clear and obvious, he made no attempts to conceal it. And it caused the twins to inwardly panic. 

Their panic is visible in Raven's eyes through his ocular technique. Needless to say, he was purposefully intimidating them. 

"Sorry…" it was Mira who spoke this time, not even bothering to raise her head. "I treated you unfairly, I was rash, reckless and blinded by hatred. Please forgive us."

"Please forgive us." Pyra repeated. 

Raven continued to remain silent, there's no changes to his attitude at all. His gaze was still cold and he's still exuding an intimidating aura. 

This caused the twins to feel like they were doused in cold water. They could tell that he wasn't moved. Not in the slightest. They don't know what to do. They invited him here and had made up their minds to ask for his forgiveness, they were sincere and really wanted to make-up with him but now…it's seems that they truly stepped over the line. 

Both of them were starting to get nervous, most specially Mira since she's the one who went against him with every chance she could get. She knew that if it weren't for the sect rules protecting them, he would've surely dealt with them by now, and in a sense, he had every right to do so. This is a strength-oriented world after all and he's clearly stronger that both of them combined. 

She was really regretting it now, specially after Pyra told her how her conversation with him went and showed her the portrait that he gave her. She was burdened by guilt, specially now that she knew that he had twin sisters as well. Mira knew that Raven and that guy were not the same person. She and her sister knew it but they still lashed out at him. In all honesty, she doesn't deserve to beg for his forgiveness at all, but at the same time she didn't want them to be expelled. 

After a long and unbearable silence, Mira gnashed her teeth and made a decision. 

"If you can't find it within you to forgive me, then please let my sister off." Mira then raised her head and looked at Raven straight in the eye like a fearsome lioness. "Take it out on me instead. Leave her alone. I'll take the punishment. I'll leave. Let her remain here."

"Sis! No! I-"

"It's okay, Pyra. This was my fault to begin with." Mira replied, still staring straight at Raven's eyes. "It was me who was stubborn and refused to let go. I was blinded by hatred. I just can't move on. In the end, I ended up dragging you into this. It's all my fault."

She then broke her eye contact and looked at her sister who's crying now. "You have to remain here. You have to be strong and achieve our dreams. Don't worry about me, I'll manage on my own. I'll stay in touch I promise."

"Sis…"

Mira shook her head and looked at Raven again. She then said: "Please, let her stay. I'm begging you."

*Knock*

She bowed her head so much that her forehead knocked on the table. 

"Forgive her instead. Take out you anger at me instead. If you want me to be expelled, then do it. I won't say anything, I'll accept the punishment. Just please, leave her out of this."

There was period of silence once again. Mira remained in her position, Pyra was anxiously looking at Raven with pleading eyes, but was only met with piercing cold gaze. She wanted to say something but Mira was already steadfast on her decision. She didn't want any of this but she's in position to say anything since they were at fault to begin with. 

No one can tell what Raven was think right now. The situation within the private room was weird. Raven was akin to a calm and intimidating beast, staring down at his groveling prey. Mira refused to rise unless Raven accepted her request. Pyra was akin to scared little kitten who's about to faint at any given moment.

In the end, Pyra couldn't bear this silence anymore. She yelled: "Please forgive us!" 

"Huh!? What!? Who!? Where!?" Raven jumped from his seat, looking as if he was startled that badly. He then looked at the twins in front of him and sighed: "Oh, sorry about that. I got lost in my thoughts…what are talking about again?"

"…" the twins were speechless. They discretely looked at each other, feeling quite vexed by this situation. 

He can't be serious right? There's no way right? There's no way that he'd lost concentration in the middle of something like this.

"Hey, did I miss something? And you…" He said pointing at Mira, "I admit that's impressive but why are you like that? Isn't that uncomfortable? Am I missing something?"

"Y-you…forgive us…please…" Mira replied…weakly, without raising her head. 

"Excuse me? I didn't hear that." Raven turned her head and asked her to repeat herself. 

"Please forgive us!" The twins said in unison, almost forcefully even. 

"Oh! Sure! Just don't do that again." Raven replied with a smile, he then saw the unnatural faces of the twins and felt something amiss. He then asked them: 

"Are you guys okay?"