Inside the room, Daniel and Drael sat facing each other. The air felt suffocating, and both of them frowned, neither having the will to speak.

What had happened just a few hours ago had completely reversed all their plans, making every effort they had put in useless.

The plan they had spent so much time on had collapsed in the end because of a small variable, one neither of them could have predicted.

Or at least, that's what Drael thought.

"So, what do we do now? Who were those two people?"

"I don't know. Probably backup agents hidden by the Grand Priest." Daniel sighed. He hadn't expected something like that to happen at the last moment.

It was clear that the ones who had attacked were the Grand Priest's dogs. Unfortunately, their identities were unknown, and it was impossible to determine exactly who they were.

But he was sure they were human, completely human, not anything like monsters. He knew this because he had examined the quality and level of their life energy, and it was no different from that of normal humans.

The life energy of humans and monsters is different in both quality and nature. After all, the life energy of a monster is much stronger than that of a human of the same level.

So, the question was, who were they, and where had they suddenly appeared from? He had a few guesses but couldn't confirm which one was correct.

Aside from all that, their plans had failed, and now he had to move to the backup plan. Naturally, he wasn't foolish enough to ignore the possibility of variables and had already prepared for the chance of failure.

"Morvain's suicide also became meaningless," Drael sighed. That priest could've been a good spy if he hadn't died.

Now they had lost a good spy, and their plan hadn't worked either.

"Don't worry. We just need to make the people believe that those monsters work for the Grand Priest," Daniel said calmly, looking at him with an indifferent face.

"And how exactly are we supposed to do that? We have no evidence at all," Drael frowned.

"I'll just take control of the other priests. They'll confess to the people, and boom, their faith will waver, and we can destroy the temple."

"Don't forget, our goal isn't to destroy their faith completely, just to weaken it enough to destroy the temple. Even if it's only temporary, that's enough," Daniel explained, making the young man in front of him fall silent in thought.

He was right. What Drael had ignored, or maybe even forgotten, was that their goal had never been to destroy the faith of the people. From the start, their objective was only to weaken it enough to break the defensive barrier protecting the temple.

To do that, all they needed was for people's faith to waver.

They had no evidence, but did they even need it if they could bring the other priests under control? The man sitting in front of him had already managed to control the strongest priest after the Grand Priest with ease.

Now that he thought about it, why hadn't they just controlled all the priests from the beginning?

"Why didn't we just take control of all the priests from the start? Wouldn't that have been easier?"

"I had my concerns," Daniel replied indifferently.

His concern was that he hadn't been able to use any of his skills at the time, he had too many restrictions. But now that he could use them again, things were different.

He could easily take control of as many priests as he wanted, then make them confess in front of the people to whatever he desired, shaking their faith.

The moment they heard those confessions, their belief had to waver just enough for the temple to be destroyed. That much would be enough.

The only problem now was the Grand Priest and those monsters that had attacked the temple. He didn't know their origin, and that alone made them a dangerous variable.

Besides, unlike the other priests, the Grand Priest was incredibly powerful and likely had several trump cards hidden away. If Daniel wasn't careful, it could cost him dearly.

"Tell Merina I want her to gather as many of the most popular priests among the people as she can, as soon as possible. I want this whole thing finished by tomorrow night," he said, turning to Drael.

The latter nodded and stood up. To pass along those instructions, he had to meet that girl personally. Still, he doubted she could come up with an efficient way to do it.

He'd have to make a plan himself.

After Drael left, Daniel sat cross-legged on the floor and let out a sigh. His eyes focused directly on his spiritual palace.

He looked at the Death Tablet, the Tree, and then the Flower of Eternity. Everything except the last one was fine.

Regarding the third one, his frown deepened as he saw it. The flower looked even more withered, and he realized he had completely forgotten about it during all this time.

Unfortunately, in his current situation, there was nothing he could do for it. The only thing he could do was keep it stable in its current state.

With some concentration, he managed to freeze the death concept that was trying to consume the flower. At least for now, it shouldn't be a problem.

Then, he turned his focus to his soul, Undying Soul of Dragon. Its completion percentage was nearly full, just a little more to go.

He was curious to see what would happen once it was complete. Would his soul evolve? Become stronger? He had no idea.

Seeing that his condition was fine, he spent the rest of his free time filling his mana reservoir. Soon, he'd be controlling a number of priests, and he needed enough mana for that.

Time passed slowly, seconds, minutes, and hours quietly faded away.

Suddenly, a mental connection activated. Naturally, it was none other than Drael.

He slowly opened his eyes and accepted the connection. At that moment, a voice echoed in his mind.

"It's done. Your turn now."

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