Wordless Chant... Many people knew about its existence, yet only a rare few had seen it actually in action. Only the Holy Priests were able to use something like that, and it had been over a hundred years since there had been a significant war.
That was the last time where the Holy Priests took part in a large-scale battle and showcased their fighting skills, amazing everyone. Before that moment, even though people knew that the Holy Priests were strong, the extent of their strength was unknown.
It was that battle where most of the Mages saw the true strength of the Holy Priests.
Almost all the Holy Priests used Wordless Chants in that battle, proving the existence of something like that.
Before that war, most people only considered the Holy Priests to be stronger than the Head Priests of the Church, but that war revealed that even an entire army of Head Priests wasn't comparable to a single Priest at their peak!
A holy priest ruled over their Element, and through years of training, they had enough strength to flatten a city with a single spell. That war showed that the Holy Priests were truly the strongest beings in this world.
Even the Kingdoms couldn't stand before a single Holy Priest. That's why all the Kingdoms tried to maintain a good relationship with the Holy Priests.
Unfortunately, there was one exception... The Holy Priest of Darkness. Even before the War, the Holy Church of Darkness was always in isolation, never forming any bonds with any of the Kingdoms outside. The following war destroyed the Church of Darkness, but it didn't affect any of the Kingdoms since none was associated with the Dark Church.
The Church of Darkness still hadn't managed to recover from that destruction, but it finally had an opportunity since there was a rumor spreading in the world that there was a new Ruler of Element of Darkness.
At the moment, the entire Head Council was sure that the young man standing before them was the Ruler of Darkness.
They just saw him use the Dark Maelstrom, which was a well known spell of Darkness. Moreover, he used a Wordless Chant! There was no doubt in their minds now. This guy... He was the Holy Priest of Darkness...
Seeing Yoan hurt badly, Eliana wanted to rush to heal him, but she couldn't abandon her post. Despite Gabriel's assurance that he wasn't going to enter the tower again, she couldn't take the risk.
Fortunately, Rin came to help. She appeared next to Eliana, placing her hand on the young woman's shoulder. "Help him. We will need his strength as well. I'll block the entrance."
Eliana nodded and rushed to Yoan, who was injured, being hit by the Dark Maelstrom from such close proximity. She cast a healing spell on Yoan, healing his broken bones.
"He isn't trying to stop her," Rem commented, analyzing Gabriel's actions. Even when Eliana went to help Yoan, he didn't try to stop her. He didn't attack them either for some strange reason.
This guy... Did he really not consider them strong enough to be a threat? Or did he find some treasure on the hundredth floor, which gave him this confidence? Rem couldn't help but wonder. In any case, they couldn't afford to take Gabriel lightly.
Rem knew that even though Gabriel looked young, he was a really strange mage. Judging him based on his strength was no less than a huge mistake.
'But what then? How can we take him down without killing him? If he really is a threat, we really don't have a choice but to kill him, it seems.'
Until now, Rem wanted to solve this entire mess peacefully by capturing Gabriel alive so they could question him later, but at the moment, it seemed unlikely.
Gabriel momentarily glanced at Yoan, who was being healed.
"High Heal..." He even recognized that spell since he had also learned the same spell from Cylix himself. High Heal was just a slightly weaker version of the lost spell Holy Heal which Gabriel also learned.
Unfortunately, since he also had the Dark Element, the effect of Healing Spells was much lower on him than it would've been on a different Elemental Mage, but it was still better than nothing.
'All of them... They are scared.' Just like Rem was observing him, Gabriel was also observing the Head Council Members. He could sense it. He could feel their concern and their fear of the unknown.
'When I saw them for the first time in their office, they looked so aloof. They were deciding our future, even if it meant damaging someone's Spiritual Potential. They were like gods who could crush us whenever they wished but now... If I were to compare them to the younger Cylix, they would still be slightly weaker.'
'Even if they all came together, they couldn't take down Cylix and Novius. The Head Council... It's not as strong as I thought. If there is anyone in the Academy who could've taken down the younger versions of Cylix and Novius that I faced, it is only one person... the Dean of the Academy, Izen. In his absence, this Academy is very weak. But maybe that's for the best.'
'The only problem is that the Church of Light is still in the city and possibly the Holy Priest of Light as well.'
The Head Teachers still blocked Gabriel's path, motivated by only one goal... The goal to take him down.
"Just what are you after?" Rem asked Gabriel, who was still seemingly lost in some thought.
"Huh?" Gabriel came out of his daze, wondering if someone asked something.
"I want to know what you're after. What do you want to achieve? Do you want revenge for what happened to the Church of Darkness? Do you want to destroy the world? What exactly is your goal?!"
"Revenge for the Church of Darkness?" Gabriel glanced in the distant horizon in the direction of the City of Abadon.
"I can't destroy the entire world, can I?" he asked in return. "His home is in this world too."
When someone talked about the entire world, Gabriel couldn't help but remember the face of Novius when he spoke of his home. If he destroyed the world, that meant he was destroying the descendants of Novius as well.
" I don't have any plans to destroy the world, but I do have one other goal..."
"What goal?" Novius inquired.
"I'm sure you'll all know when the time comes," Gabriel answered, casting the Wings of Flight spell on himself.
His body started rising in the air as he felt like he needed to be somewhere else. There was no need for him to kill the Head Council Members.
"Where do you think you're going?!" As soon as Gabriel started flying away, he heard a shout from the back as a wall of flames appeared before him, blocking his path.
Gabriel stopped in his place, watching the wall of flames expand, surrounding him from all sides. Within seconds, Gabriel was sealed inside a box of flames that could burn any human to ashes on a simple touch.
Yoan was perfectly fine now, thanks to the healing spell of Eliana. Despite being healed, he was still feeling so insulted. Out of everyone here, he also had the worst anger. He couldn't allow Gabriel to leave after hurting him.
"Yoan, don't kill him! We can probably still force him to wear the Sealing Bracelet." Rem suggested, still trying to walk down the passive route.
He knew that if they killed Gabriel, they were never going to get any answers. There were so many questions that needed an answer, like how many Dark Mages were part of Gabriel's group? Where were they staying? What was their strength? And most importantly, what was on the top floor.
"Shut up!" Instead of heeding Rem's advice, he listened to his own rage.
He clenched his fist, filling the inside of the flaming box with a fire, leaving not even an inch that wasn't burned.
"I'm afraid I spoke too soon last time... It seems not all of you will be there to see it when the time comes," A voice came from the back, accompanied by a dark aura.
