The Royal City of Leviria was the City with the highest population in the entire Empire. It was also the largest city in the Empire.
Gabriel was immediately taken aback by its grandeur which was quite different from the other Royal Cities he had been in. Everywhere he looked, there were towering buildings of gold and marble, intricate sculptures adorning their facades. The streets were bustling with people from all walks of life - merchants hawking their wares, courtiers in their finery, commoners going about their daily lives.
The City was more lavish than he expected. He could only be amazed at how wealthy this city was. Looking at the other cities of the Leviria, he hadn't expected that the Royal City to be like this.
At every corner Gabriel found something new to marvel at; a serene garden tucked away between two stately manors; an ornate fountain spouting crystal clear water into a pool surrounded by statues depicting ancient gods; a massive clock tower that seemed to loom over the entire city like some sort of silent sentinel keeping watch over it all.
Not too far from him, his attention was immediately grabbed by the Royal Castle in the distance.
The massive castle sparkled like diamonds in the distance. It had towering spires, intricate carvings, and grand arches that were blanketed with bright colors from the setting sun.
As he walked closer to it, he saw an emerald green moat surrounding the castle walls and lush gardens within them. Around the castle, he noticed a large crowd gathering. He didn't understand why the crowd would be gathering here all of a sudden, but it looked like some big event was taking place here.
He stopped a woman closest to him who looked like she might know something about why so many people came here today.
The young woman turned to him with a surprised look on her face. "Yes? Do you need something?"
"Do you know why so many people have been gathering here?" Gabriel asked the dark haired woman. "What is happening?"
"Young man, didn't you hear the news already?" The woman exclaimed in surprise, finding it hard to believe that there was still someone in the Empire who didn't know about it.
Looking at Gabriel's unaware expressions, the woman sighed. "It seems you really don't know. I'm not sure under which rock you were hiding to not know something like this, but people are here to see a battle. A young mage of flames is challenging the Emperor for the throne! If he can win the battle, he would become the new Emperor."
"Aigh, I still don't understand what the man is thinking. It would've been much better for him to join the Church of Flames instead. Even if he wins today, he'll only be lowering his status. Then again, it's his life. I am just here to watch the battle between the two!"
After briefly explaining, the woman rushed through the crowd to get a better position to watch the show.
"Battle to snatch the throne?" Gabriel shook his head lightly. "If only everything was this easy in Arecia, how good would it be... Then again, it could've led to people challenging me again and again in the future. That would've been a real headache. I suppose it's better that we have a different system..."
"What's even better is that this weakens the Church of Flames even more." He could already see that some of the members from the Church of Flames were already here to officiate and watch the battle. This left the Church of Flames even weaker for him to handle.
Having no interest in watching a battle, he left the Royal Palace behind and approached the Church of Flames with a sense of purpose.
As he reached near the Church of Flames, he found a place where no one could see him. After getting some isolation, he cast a Summoning Spell to bring Raphael back to help him. He wasn't sure if Raphael was busy doing something or not, but at the moment, he believed that it was better to take help just to be safe.
Half his strength was restricted because of the mysterious formation of the Church of Flames that covered the City. He didn't want to underestimate the Church as it was their base.
"I wonder if the Army of Undead spell will work on Head Priests of Church of Flames. If it works, it should be a great harvest this time. The spell didn't mention too many details though. I still don't have enough knowledge about the spell. I have no idea if they can still use their Flaming Spells when I turn them into undeads or if they can still use the Element of Flames. It would be a big waste if they can't..."
Gabriel came to the Church of Flames mainly for one reason... To make sure that Lerian was going to leave Arecia alone! However, at the same time, he also wanted to utilise this situation for his own advantage by increasing his army.
He wanted to create his army of undead, and believed that this was the best opportunity for that since he was already going to be killing some people.
This way of creating an army was at least much safer since he could use the first tier Army of Undead to turn recently killed into Undead. It was better for him compared to going to the realm of Undead to control the already existing undeads with the second tier Undead Army spell!
He didn't feel that he was strong enough for the latter yet, especially if there were powerful undeads like Raphael there! He wanted to be prepared when he attempted that. For now, he focused on the Church of Flames which had no idea as to what was about to happen in the next few hours.
A black summoning circle appeared before him which was filled with the mysterious energy of death that was the rarest in the world of living. The energy coming from the Summoning Circle wasn't much and couldn't be sensed by the people in surroundings, but that was all because of Gabriel using one of his Numen.
In the centre of the formation circle, a figure appeared. The person was covered in a dark mist of death, however his eyes were closed. It was only after the person felt the energy of the living that he opened his eyes.
"I don't sense any danger. What did you need me for?" he directly asked after observing his surroundings.
Gabriel simply pointed in the distance, at the majestic Church of Flames.
"I called you here because I need to borrow your strength this time," Gabriel answered as he called out his Ancestral Staff of Necromancy after a long time.
"Since the Church of Flame wants to pin the blame on Arecia, then I will gracefully accept. No more avoiding! No more hesitating! They're looking for a villain... I'll give them one…"
