The Church of Light was one of the strongest organizations in the entire world. At least, that was what everyone thought. Only the Church itself knew the reality, as there hadn't been many opportunities for the Church to show how much it had grown since the battle with the Church of Darkness.
Many people worshiped the members of the Church of Light as people who saved their world from Demons; however, there were also some people who knew that there was now lots of politics involved in the Sacred Church of Light, especially among the Head Priests.
The Mages of Light were said to be the embodiment of purity and justice. But the Head Priests were quite different from what the stories made them appear... At least some of them. They did so many things for their greed, and due to their jealousy that it was enough to make people lose trust in the Church of Light. Fortunately, those things remained hidden from the public eye.
The biggest incident regarding this hadn't happened long ago, related to the Head of the Ashton Family, who was a member of the Church.
When he was accused, many Head Priests knew that the chances of those accusations being true were meager. Despite that, just to take out a talented competitor for the Head of Church position, which they believed was going to be vacant soon, they all went with the flow, destroying the life of an innocent in the process.
Even now, that person and his entire family were considered traitors by many, all because of some people's greed.
The Church of Light was established not far from the Royal Palace of the Lumen Empire, but surprisingly, the majestic Church building had more area than the Royal Palace. Not only that, the Church of Light was said to be the de facto ruler of the Lumen Empire.
They had more authority than the Royal Palace, and it was said that they could even destroy the Royal Family if they felt that the Royal Family was a threat to the wellbeing of the Empire. However, everyone knew that it was never going to happen since the Church of Light had some members of the Royal Lumen family who were in high positions of Head Priest.
At the moment, the Church seemed to be completely silent. Only the Mages of Light could be seen, guarding the hallways. The Mages had so much discipline that they rarely moved from their place, which they defended, at times looking like statues.
Most of the Priests in the Church were immersed in their meditation to strengthen themselves even more. They all wanted to achieve breakthroughs to the advanced stages so they could also apply to be Head Priests.
Unfortunately, it wasn't that easy for them. In fact, it was said that achieving a breakthrough was the hardest for a mage of light, especially when it came to advanced stages. Most of the new disciples that the Church had directly recruited were sleeping at this hour, while a rare few were training.
A middle-aged man walked down the stairs, being greeted by all the guards respectfully. They all addressed the man as Head Priest.
The man didn't react, only occasionally nodding in response. He reached the lowest floor, where security only intensified, but even here, no one stopped him as the man had the highest authority in the Holy Church of Light.
The man finally stopped before a silver door. He took a deep breath, gazing at his reflection in the silver door.
The man was the latest addition to the Head Priest. In fact, he had been promoted only a few weeks ago. It was his first time attending a special meeting that was called by other Head Priests.
Even though he didn't know what it was about, he did know that it must be something important since the Head Priests rarely came together like this.
Ever since the last Head of the Church of Light died, the Head Priests were divided into various factions of their own. The Church of Light looked united from the outside, but only when one looked deep inside the swamp did they realize that the Church of Light had never been more divided.
The man took a deep breath, patting his clothes. "I hope it's not something bad."
He pushed the door open, revealing a beautiful hall. There were spheres of light floating near the roof and close to the walls that were keeping the hall bright.
At the end of the door, there was a statue... The statue seemed to be of a woman who was looking like a dignified warrior. The man respectfully bowed to the statue, which was said to belong to the Goddess of Light, also known as the first Holy Mage of Light.
The statue was also completely identical to what Gabriel had seen in the dark temple. The only difference was that the statue he saw was even bigger in size and that it was before other statues. Meanwhile, the statue here was on its own.
In the middle of the hall, there was a long round table. There were twenty seats around the table, and around nineteen of them were already filled, leaving only one seat vacant.
The man was slightly taken aback to realize that he was the last person to arrive here. Even though he was right on time, the others seemingly came even before. He rushed to his seat and greeted all the other Head Priests before sitting down.
The other Head Priests also nodded in response.
"Now that everyone is here, we can begin." An old man nodded, glancing at everyone's face.
If Gabriel had been here, he would've been able to recognize the old man who had just spoken. The man was none other than the Head Priest who had come to his small town to recruit him. The man was surprisingly the oldest Head Priest in the Holy Church of Light and the leader of one of the three Factions.
He was also a part of the Royal Lumen Family and the reason that the Church of Light was so cordial with the Lumen family.
"I have some important news for you all..." The old man took a deep sigh. "That's why I had to call you all at such short notice."
"What is it about?" Another Head Priest asked, looking very grim. If an urgent meeting like this had to be called, then something big must have happened... It seemed like bad news as well.
"It's related to our Holy Grimoire..." The old man answered, letting out a deep sigh.
