Way of the Knights

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"God Bless our Chapel…" Monica involuntarily uttered as she witnessed the spectacle before her. 

In front of her, Raven could be seen sitting within the kiln, surrounded with raging white flames. The flames were seemingly amplified by him as it had basically covered most of the room they're in. As a contractor of the Cleansing Flames, Monica wasn't hurt by the flames. She only felt boundless warmth and purity in them, in fact it's even stronger compared to the flames that she herself could summon. 

She had seen a similar spectacle before. Monica was one of the first batch of people who became a Cleanser and she happened upon Theodore meditating once. That scene of Theodore controlling the Cleansing Flames was extremely similar to what she's witnessing right now. She was somewhat confused but mostly happy. She has her own suspicions but she needed to wait for Raven to wake up first before confirming them. 

She didn't have to wait long since shortly after, Raven's body jolted as if surprised and she saw him opening his eyes, revealing a radiant gleam on his pupils. Monica didn't say a thing, it would seem that Raven's still hasn't completely woken up from stupor either so she opted to wait for him. 

Moments later, she saw Raven standing up, still covered in the white robes she lent him. He raised a palm and opened them, he exhaled and all of the white flames scattered across the room slowly converged onto his palm and behave tamely in there. 

Monica drew a sharp breath as she saw this, great joy coursed through her body as most of her suspicions were mostly confirmed. 

Raven stepped out of the kiln but didn't go to Monica just yet, he faced the kiln and left the plume of Cleansing Fire on his hand in there. The moment he did so, the plume started filling out every inch of the kiln, burning even more vigorously compared before. After doing that, he turned around and walked towards the almost teary-eyed Monica. 

He was about to say something but all of a sudden, Monica jumped onto him and enveloped him in a tight hug. Raven was stunned but he felt that his shoulders were wet, a sign that Monica was crying, so he ended up just consoling her by lightly patting her back. 

"This is probably not a good time to say this but, I'm married Senior Sister." Raven playfully remarked. 

That earned him a pinch on his arm causing him to scowl a bit, Monica then broke out of the hug, drying her face from tears while snorting at Raven. "You cheeky brat! I'm old enough to be your grandmother I'll have you know."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Should I call you Grandma Monica then?" 

Monica's eyes narrowed dangerously, causing alarm bells to warm Raven of an impeding danger. He then heard her say: "Try me, bitch."

"I'm kidding. I'm kidding." Raven nervously laughed and backed off a couple of steps. Monica only snorted and finished drying up her face. 

"Great…" She said, "Way to really ruin the mood. I was really happy before, I even shed tears of joy. But you just had to ruin all of that. Way to go really…"

"Alright, my bad." Raven sheepishly said, causing Monica to roll her eyes.

She then sighed and said: "Well, it seems that you were destined to be a Cleanser. You even got a seed for yourself. I'm sure Senior Brother Theodore will be elated to hear this."

"Yeah, that really surprised me too." Raven nodded in agreement, he then said: "Right, Senior Sister. I have a question."

"Oh? What is it?"action

"The Flame of Olympus…" He said, causing Monica to raise her eyebrow. "It is like a massive pillar of swirling blue and jade flames?"

Monica seemed to be reeling from his question, although Raven really have no idea why. He just asked even though he pretty much already knew the answer to his question since he thought that it won't be bad to ask. But seeing Monica's expression, it would seem that he asked about something that he shouldn't have. 

"Sorry about that…" Monica replied after recovering from her shock. "I just…didn't expect you to actually…"

Raven tilted his head and noticed that Monica trailed off, so he opted to continue her sentence for her. "Didn't expect me to what? To meet the Flames of Olympus? Yeah, I didn't expect that too. I mean, you only told me to commune with the Cleansing Flame but I ended up arriving there. It was honestly confusing."

"Well, I think it should be a good thing though. Had I not arrived there, I wouldn't probably have the flame seed right now. You said that Senior Brother Theo got his seed from the Flames of Olympus right? Then I just experienced the same thing."

"R-right…you experienced the same thing." Monica chanted almost mechanically. Raven found this weird and had his suspicions but he's not really in any position to ask so he let it go. 

After a while, Monica sighed. She had seemingly collected herself from the shock just now and said: "Listen up, Junior Brother. You mustn't casually discuss to others that you've personally met the Flames of Olympus, am I clear?"

"Y-yes. But why?" 

"Just, do it." Monica didn't say much about the subject. "Aside from me, and your Unit Supervisor, you are not to mention this to another soul. If you do, then it's possible that you will be in grave danger. You just have remember to not tell anyone else, got it? I'll keep this secret for you, and I'm pretty sure that your Unit Supervisor will do the same."

"But the matter about me possessing a Cleansing Flame Seed will eventually go public. What do I say when they ask me about it? And what about Senior Brother Theo? He's bound to know too."

"If you were asked how you received it, just tell them that you aren't allowed to say it. If they insists, then point it towards Senior Brother Theo. That should suffice. As for whether you can trust Senior Brother Theo, then that's not even a matter that you need to worry about. Aside from being the founder of the Cleansing Chapels, he's also a War God. He won't receive both titles if he's bad a person." 

"I understand." Raven replied, "What about the other cleansers then? And what kind of story are you going to tell them. I think I should know this just in case, right?"

"Junior Brother, you are a part of our team now whether you like or not." Monica stated, "We are your allies, we will protect your secret since you've just become another strong link that connects all of us. Trust me when I say that no Cleanser will betray you."

"As for the make-up story, let's just say that you and the Cleansing Fire had formed an incredibly strong bond which lead to a miracle, allowing you to condense a Flame Seed. We'll mostly go with that, I'll inform you if I changed my mind."

"Alright, we'll go according to your arrangements." Raven agreed, causing Monica to sigh in relief. 

She then took out some material from her spatial ring and handed it over to him. She then said: "Take this and give it a good read. This is the mantras we used to control the cleansing flame in order to disperse the evil will of the Devil Emperor."

Along with the book, he also received the same jacket as most of the Cleansers have. "This is yours now, a sign that you are one of us. Remember that whenever you come to the chapel or whenever you do a Cleanser's job, you must ne wearing this jacket or else you won't earn Merit Points that comes along with it."

"Don't worry, the jacket is made out of the same materials as our uniforms. It could repair itself rather well and quick so you don't have to worry about losing it. If you ever do, then don't hesitate to ask for another one."

Raven nodded in understanding and received the things Monica gave to him. 

"Alright, you should go back for now." Monica stated with a smile, "I'm expecting you here tomorrow morning to start your training. Remember what I said earlier and keep them in mind, understood?" 

"Yes, Senior Sister."

"Very good. Now, shoo!" Monica playfully waved him away, causing a chuckled to escape from Raven's lips. He then went to the changing room to change back to his uniform, leaving the white garb behind. After that he left the Cleansing Chapel and went back to the base in order to read the book that Monica gave him. 

When he left, Monica was left standing within the same room. Gazing at the blazing white flames within the kiln with a serene expression. 

She seemed to be unaware of that a silhouette of a tall man with other-worldly looks, manifesting behind her. 

"So that's why I got a strong reaction…" the man whispered. He was heard by Monica who only smiled and nodded. "So it seems that this newcomer is a bit favored by the Flames too."

Monica looked over to the man and saw him smiling, she too smiled. They looked at each other and both uttered: 

"God Bless our Sect."