Fire Mage

Chapter 439: Secret of Light Church

An hour later, Charles completely burned all of Duke's memories and let out a deep sigh. He learned more about Duke Michael's real motive, ties with Ammar Dynasty, and many more from those memories. But there was single information that shocked him to the core.

It was related to the Light Kingdom!

In truth, Duke and his family members were true Nobles of the Fallen Empire. But after the Empire's demise, most of the nobles united together and created a Kingdom while intending to reform a new future Empire.

They called it the Light Kingdom.

But instead of focusing on conquest and war, these nobles showed much importance to religion. In truth, there was no Light Religion during the Empire. Although citizens of Faith Realm worshiped Goddess Zaqiel as true Goddess, they didn't put any importance on prayers and rituals. They prayed to Goddess Zaqiel from the bottom of their heart.

But the Nobles of the Fallen Empire made some alterations in Goddess's textbooks and started changing the cultures. They first built churches in every town and even appointed priests to perform rituals regularly. Moreover, those priests were also taught to spread the cultural beliefs to others and let everyone follow them. After that, they formed a church-based religious school and started teaching the children about religion, rituals, customs, and even battles.

Then, they created a unique form of Knight Squad and named them Light Knights. They also put some restrictions on the requirements and only took kids with high Light affinities.

From then onwards, those who were born with Light affinities became treasures of the Light Kingdom. Even citizens of other kingdoms adopted such beliefs and started sending their kids to Light Church school.

In no time, the whole Light Kingdom turned into a religious nation. Similarly, the religion and culture of Light Kingdom also spread towards the nearby kingdoms. Before long, the 10+ Human kingdoms became Light Church-affiliated ones.

Following that, a hierarchical system was born within the Light Kingdom. Those Fallen Empire Nobles became Deacons, Bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals, and Sages, and the wisest and powerful one among the Sages became 'Pope' through many religious tests.

In no time, the Light Church became the pillar of human civilization.

During the past 500 years, the Light Church tried to unify the kingdoms thrice. Even Duke Michael's family members were involved in that secret plot.

But something abnormal happened whenever their plans were about to take form. During the first unification process, a Nightmare invaded the world and caused chaos everywhere. Thankfully, the powerful Pope Apollo sacrificed his life, summoned the divine messenger Seraph and sealed her along with that Nightmare in a box to stop its invasion. Because of the Nightmare's intervention, the first unification process came to an abrupt halt.

The next one happened around 340 years ago. But this time, a natural earthquake stuck all over the place and caused destruction everywhere. The one who affected most was the people of the Light Kingdom. Because of this, the second attempt also turned into a failure.

Then, the final one happened around 210 years ago. It was the time when Druids came to this land. At that time, Light Church managed to regain its former strength and decided for the third unification. They even sent letters to all the spies hiding in the other kingdoms and told them to get ready for a massive revolt. Light Knights were secretly dispatched to those Nobles' house to strengthen them. But before the start of such massive revolt, a mysterious identity sneaked into the Light Church and stole the Sealed Box!

Moreover, another mysterious individual also barged into the Holy See of Light Kingdom on the same day and attacked the Pope. Although Pope and others managed to capture this attacker, the Light Church lost the sealed box of Nightmare.

After that incident, no other Pope dared to even think of the unification process. At least, no one wanted to act recklessly.

Because of these abnormalities, Duke lost interest in Church's unification process. Instead, he decided to gain control of this Aetas Kingdom for his desire.

Although Duke's goal was to become a Ruler, his ancestors had long sworn their allegiance to the Light Church and were the true guardians of the Fallen Empire. The reason why Duke got support from Ammar Dynasty was also due to a Light Church affiliated Noble house's help. These spy Nobles appeared in all parts of the kingdom.

Even after hundreds of years, they were still working for the Light Church and were waiting for the orders.

Although it was just a pipe dream, Light Church was still preparing for the following unification process.

'No wonder Duke had the Goddess's Shield in his hand. So, it's Light Church's doing, huh' Charles was surprised inside.

'But my concern is about the demon sorcerer Nash. Who is he? Why does he have such a powerful intellectual artifact? There is also something strange about these abnormalities. The Light Church failed not twice but thrice. It indicates that some other power is acting behind the scenes.' After thinking for a while, he shook his illusionary head and proceeded with his next plan.

He soon left the Astral Plane, appeared near the sofa, and looked at the sleeping Melody.

When he was in Astral Plane, she cleaned the entire bloodstain and even erased all the evidence.

The grand hall appeared good as new.

Upon noticing someone's presence, she opened her eyes, hurriedly stood up from the sofa, adjusted her robe, and bowed her head.

"You don't have to bow me all the time." Charles waved his hand, took a step forward, and started walking towards the keep's exit.

"Follow me. I've some work in the North Tower's base room." He added.

Although she was puzzled by his words, she didn't say anything and followed him quietly.

Truthfully, she knew what was hidden in North Tower and had long planned on telling him about that secret place. But to her shock, Prince Julius managed to find out on his own.

'Did Duke tell His Highness about that place? It seems so.' She thought to herself.

Both soon exited the keep, stepped on the burned garden, and moved towards the northern tower.

At that moment, a few Light Knights and even two priests, who were bandaging a severely wounded Knight's leg, noticed their presence and stopped their work. They then glanced at each other and conversed using hand signals.

After a short discussion, two Light Knights stood up from their position and followed after them.

Charles and Melody, on the other hand, walked past the broken trees and went towards the other side.

After walking for a while, both soon arrived near the tall castle wall and turned their attention towards the castle tower.

Unlike the normal watchtowers, the eight castle towers appeared more like tower buildings. Each tower was separated into three layers and appeared more like a three-storied square house.

Soon, both arrived in front of the castle tower and entered after opening the metallic door.

Before Melody stepped in, she took out the fire torch from the nearby wall and walked in. She soon looked at the messy room, then turned her head towards Charles and asked.

"Do you want me to open the secret chamber, Your Highness?"

"Yes." Charles nodded his head and soon shifted his gaze towards the left side castle wall.

On the other hand, Melody went towards the left side stone wall, placed her hand on a particular black stone, and pressed it forcefully.

A second later, a rumbling noise came from the other side, and then a part of the stone wall moved on its own before revealing a gloomy underground path.

She then moved the fire torch towards the dark path and went downstairs.

Charles also followed after her and soon saw a long hallway supported by tens of pillars.

The pillars appeared to be embedded with some crystals, which reflected the light from the fire torch and caused the whole hallway to illuminate in red light.

At the end of the hallway, Charles saw a sealed metallic door.

It was the castle's secret hideout!

It was a place where some deep secrets were buried.

Although it wasn't used nowadays, Duke still kept this location a secret from others.

Even his commanders and family members knew nothing about it. If not for a century-long loyalty, even Melody wouldn't have known of this location.

Charles looked at those bright pillars, shifted his gaze towards the ceiling, and saw similar portraits of babies that appeared all over the place. But unlike the babies' portraits in Grand Hall, these portraits contained a dense amount of divine power.

'Divine power is gathered from outside and is flowing towards the secret hall.' He nodded inwardly, turned around, looked at the stone staircase, and noticed that the secret door had already closed on its own.

"Go back and guard the entrance. Those Light Knights might come here anytime soon."

He knew that some spies of the anonymous were already monitoring their every action. So, he didn't dare to be careless.

After that, he turned around and started walking towards the secret gate.

....