Carnage... That was the only word that could describe what the citizens saw.
The Sacred Church of Flames that had been in the Lerian Empire for as long as one could remember had fallen... The foundation of the Empire had fallen! The Church was missing as if it had been wiped off the face of the earth.
The people who were far away couldn't see it yet, but instead of the Majestic Church which used to be there, presently there was only a two hundred meter wide crater on the ground, revealing the destruction that took place.
In the middle of the crater, a young man was lying, bleeding all over. The young man appeared to be wearing a mask, half of which was already broken apart.
In the Holy Church of Flames, everything was destroyed. Nothing was left behind... Nothing other than a Statue which wasn't too far from Gabriel.
The statue was still left standing, but there was no aura around it anymore. It was unable to harm Gabriel.
Only a single crack could be seen on the face of the statue. However, that single crack was spreading out slowly. Within a few seconds, the single crack split into thousands of cracks that covered the entire statue.
Not too far from Gabriel, Raphael was present, stunned momentarily. Since he was connected to Gabriel, the Wrath of Undead didn't harm him in the slightest.
As he came out of his daze, he noticed Gabriel lying on the ground in the middle of the crater. He rushed ahead.
On the other hand, the cracks were too much for the statue. The statue couldn't last anymore and broke apart. Gabriel had single handedly destroyed the entire Church of Flames. Unfortunately, in the process, he also lost consciousness. The strength he used while being injured was still too much for him, especially since he was under pressure.
Fortunately, things weren't as bad as before. Since he had strengthened his body with the help of the earring, his body was more sturdy compared to before which helped him avoid most of the dangers.
Not too far from Gabriel, a hand came out of the ground out of nowhere. On the back of the hand, a black mark was clearly visible which seemed somewhat similar to the mark of Flames.
Following the hand, another hand came out. The person who was buried inside the ground after the attack pushed his body up, revealing himself. Not just him, one after another, more than ten Death Knights came out of the ground.
Just like Raphael, they were also linked with Gabriel and managed to avoid the carnage. However, since they weren't as strong as Raphael, they still found themselves buried in the ground in the aftermath.
"Just what did you face?" Raphael frowned as he picked up the bleeding Gabriel in his arms. He still didn't know what forced Gabriel to take this step. The pressure that Gabriel felt was limited to the hall. It wasn't sensed by Raphael.
"Whatever, since you're fine, that's all that matters. We should get out of here first..." He stood up, carrying Gabriel and left with the Death Knights.
Right before the eyes of everyone in the city, Raphael left. By now, people were clear that this was done by them. However, even then, no one dared to stop them.
Even the members of the Church of Flames that were outside the tower of flames before the destruction didn't dare to move as a small army of undead walked out of the city right before everyone's eyes. They didn't even dare to follow Raphael, worried about their life.
****
Right outside the Arecia Empire, Avilia was standing stunned. She didn't know what happened on the other side of the tower of flames, but her Shadow Beast did see the aftermath where the Sacred Church of Flames completely disappeared... They still couldn't believe what she saw.
She initially thought that even if Gabriel managed to kill some Head Priests, he couldn't cause such large scale damage. However, the extent of damage even surprised her.
What was even more shocking for her was to watch Gabriel being taken away by Raphael who was followed by twelve Death Knights!
The Death Knights were filled with the aura of death. However, from their faces, she recognised a few of them. She had seen one of them outside the Meeting of Saints! The man used to be a Head Priest of Flames before! However, now he was an Undead servant of Gabriel? She couldn't understand how this was even possible?
"Power of controlling the dead?" she frowned. This was unheard of in this world, at least for most of the people. However, she had heard some legends related to it, the most prominent of which was the story of Saint Knight in which he met a god who was accompanied by an invincible Army of Undead!
****
[Three hours later]
A wounded Head Priest of Flames flew at his top speed, surrounded by the destructive flames. He didn't even waste a single second to rest, despite his condition. At any cost, he had to inform Lerian of what happened!
He wanted to get to Arecia as soon as possible!
****
In the Royal City of Arecia, Lerian and his two strongest Head Priests were still waiting. They had given the Empire six hours for people with any information about the incident to come out. The time was almost over. Only ten minutes were left before the time was going to run out!
"Ten more minutes!" The voice of Lerian echoed in every city of Arecia. At this point, people were already shivering in fear. Most of them had already accepted their fates, not believing that the culprit was going to come out.
"We're all dead today! No one is coming out! We don't even know who they are looking for! What shall we do?!"
"What can we even do but accept our deaths?" Who told us to be so weak?!"
"If the culprits wanted to come out, they would've already been out. We have no hope of Survival!"
The citizens of Arecia were at the ends of their ropes and all they could do was discuss and mock their destiny as time passed slowly.
"No! I can't accept it! I can't accept death!" A middle aged man known as Reon exclaimed. His heart was racing in fear already. He was one of the wealthiest merchants in the city and to not only lose all his wealth but also his life? He couldn't accept it!
"What can we even do?" A friend of Reon sighed. "Not like we can find the culprit, right?"
"Wait! That's it!" Reon exclaimed, suddenly thinking of something. "I know how to find him!"
