Lana didn't even pause to think for a moment before entering the secret passageway.

Ever since the Effer Kingdom was overthrown, Lazaar had been quite wary of others employing the same tactics against him, so one of the first things that he did as emperor was ensure that the secret underground network beneath Sarus was completely filled.

However, there was a secret passageway under the Holy Spectacle Cathedral, which had clearly been dug out by the True Light Church without Lazaar's knowledge.

Let's see exactly what the True Light Church is up to here, Lana thought to herself with slightly furrowed brows as she silently made her way through the underground passageway. Thankfully, there were no branches, and it was only a single path that led downward.

The secret underground system beneath Sarus had been extremely convoluted, resembling a complex maze. However, the underground passageway beneath this cathedral was extremely straight and simple with uniform walls that had clearly been carefully carved out.

Furthermore, the walls and the ceiling of the passageway were all paved with orderly slabs of Yin Mountain Stone, while the ground below was paved with green noshain stone tiles. Even Lana couldn't help but be impressed by just how luxurious the passageway was.

Lana continued to make her way down the passageway, and it didn't take long before a grand and majestic underground divine temple appeared before her eyes, much to her shock and amazement.

There were several dozen intricately carved pillars positioned in an orderly fashion on either side of the divine temple for support, while the ceiling was constructed from transparent glass. There was sunlight shining down from above, but for some reason, after passing through the glass, the light dimmed significantly. It was as if the entire divine temple were submerged under the sea, basked in an ultramarine glow that gave it a peculiar and mysterious appearance.

With the natural light filtering down through the glass ceiling, Lana was finally able to spot Brad and the priests. At the moment, they were standing in the shadow cast by the altar at the center of the main hall, and Lana could just barely make out the metal chests that had been unloaded from the dozen or so carriages sitting behind the group of priests.

Upon careful reconsideration, Lana realized that there was no way that the ceiling was actually constructed from glass. Otherwise, it would've already collapsed long ago. With that in mind, she looked up closely at the ceiling and discovered that there were many rock fragments of different sizes littered in a haphazard fashion above it. She then thought back to the structure and direction of the underground passageway, and she extrapolated that the divine temple just so happened to be right beneath the site of the former royal palace.

To put it more accurately, it was right beneath the Sandmoon Pond beside the former royal palace's Star Caressing Pavilion.

On the night that Erwin fled Sarus, the royal palace of the Cameron Family was completely destroyed by Onean's golden dragon spell, and the area where the Star Caressing Pavilion was situated naturally wasn't spared. Most of the Sandmoon Pond was destroyed, and after the incident, Lana had inspected the sight. From her inspection, she recalled that the Sandmoon Pond was the only place among the wreckage of the former royal palace that could allow light to pass directly into the underground.

She then carefully inspected the divine temple around her, and it was clear that such a massive project couldn't have commenced anytime recently.

This divine temple had to have already stood for many years. Even if construction was only completed on it recently, that could only have applied to the underground passageway that I just went through. In that case, this is very strange. There's a divine temple right under the royal palace, yet Cameron was oblivious this entire time? Surely he would've noticed something amiss each time he passed by the Sandmoon Pond and looked into it, Lana thought to herself with a perplexed expression.

With that in mind, she was even more convinced that the ceiling couldn't have been constructed from glass. Whatever the material was, it was definitely something that prevented one from getting a clear view of the divine temple from the Sandmoon Pond.

The fact that the natural light had become a lot dimmer after passing through the ceiling further supported this theory.

All of a sudden, voices rang out from the altar at the center of the temple, snapping Lana out of her train of thought.

"May the Lord have mercy." The dozen or so True Light Church priests and Brad made their way to the foot of the altar, then extended a greeting toward the person who had just arrived, and as they did so, all of them had their hands clasped together in prayer in the same posture as the statue of the True Light Holy Lord.

The person who had just arrived on the scene was none other than Pope Sirius of the True Light Church. Lana was too far away to see which direction Sirius had come from, but she presumed that there had to be more than one entrance to this divine temple.

The divine temple was extremely spacious, and no matter which corner of the temple one was situated in, even the lightest of pin drops would be clearly audible. Thus, Lana was able to hear the conversation between Sirius and the others without any trouble.

"These are all of the newly arrived Fall Crystals, Your Majesty," Brad said as he pointed at the metal chests that were lying nearby.

A cold smile appeared on Lana's face upon hearing this, and she thought to herself, Did I just hear them refer to him as Your Majesty? Looks like the True Light Church has some serious ambitions.

She now understood that her father's concerns had been very much warranted. The magisterium was something that couldn't be allowed to get too out of hand.

At the same time, Lana finally knew what all the chests contained after hearing what Brad had to say. So all of these chests are filled with Fall Crystals. What are they doing with all these Fall Crystals? Sirius told Father that the purpose for mining these Fall Crystals was to use them to tame the twin-foot flying dragons, but it looks like that was definitely a lie.

Sirius looked around at the metal chests, then nodded in response before suddenly bringing down his staff in one swift motion. The bottom tip of his staff made contact with the tiles on the ground with a crisp clang, which echoed throughout the entirety of the massive hall.

Around a dozen bursts of silver magic energy erupted out of his staff, surging toward the dozen or so chests, and upon making contact with the silver magic energy, the seals on the chests instantly faded. Immediately thereafter, all of the lids on the chests sprang open, revealing countless pieces of dull and lusterless Fall Crystal ore.

Lana was hiding in the shadows, watching carefully from afar, trying to see what Sirius was planning to do with this Fall Crystal ore.

A serious look appeared on Sirius's face as he let go of the staff in his hand, allowing it to hover in mid-air. At the same time, he released two bursts of dazzling light toward the staff from his hands.

After being baptized by the two bursts of magic energy, the staff and the dozen or so chests of Fall Crystal ore seemed to have begun to resonate with one another.

To put it more accurately, the staff seemed to be directing the pieces of Fall Crystal ore.

Thousands of Fall Crystals flew out of the chests in unison, then began to arrange themselves in a certain way.

Lana looked on with an incredulous expression at the scene unfolding before her.

Meanwhile, Brad and the priests retreated to either side of the temple, then clasped their hands together in prayer again as they watched the vast expanse of stars with reverent expressions.

With the incandescent staff at the center, some of the Fall Crystal ore had formed dazzling nebulae, some had taken on the shape of resplendent constellations, while others had piled up into scintillating stars.

In what seemed like no more than the blink of an eye, a vast and chaotic universe had appeared within the temple.

Sirius's magic power had been constantly supporting the movement of these Fall Crystals. For some reason, his magic power seemed to be steadily being enhanced by the universe he had conjured up, and as a result, his sensitivity toward his surrounding environment was also elevated.

All of a sudden, he turned around with a sinister expression, revealing a pair of bulging eyes that looked as if they didn't even belong to a living person. Instead, they looked like a pair of eyes that belonged on a corpse, and one that had suffered a terrible death, at that.

The spot that he was looking at was exactly where Lana was hiding.

"Who's there?" Sirius immediately launched a spell with one hand toward Lana's hiding spot.

Lana also reacted extremely quickly, dodging to the side to evade the spell, which crashed into the ground, leaving a massive crater as a result.

Looking at the crater left by Sirius's spell, Lana couldn't help but be stunned by the enormity of his magic power. That spell alone was enough to indicate that he possessed power on par with Mistress Faye.

Sirius is also a grandmaster-level magician? Why has no one ever noticed? Lana thought to herself with tightly furrowed brows. There should've been no way that her father and her teacher had failed to identify Sirius as a grandmaster magician.

Lazaar and Faye had never mentioned to Lana that Sirius was a powerful magician, which meant that in their eyes, Sirius was nothing more than an ordinary person.

"Oh, I was wondering who it was. Welcome, Princess Lana." The sinister and terrifying look on Sirius's face immediately turned into an amicable smile, but there was a hint of cold killing intent intermingled in his smile.

Sirius didn't even take a moment to consider the situation before immediately turning to Brad and the priests as he ordered, "Kill her!"

The priests were struggling to believe what they had just heard.

Brad was also completely rooted to the spot, unable to register that Sirius had just ordered them to kill the princess of the empire. Lana was the woman of his dreams, and often a night came where he would be too enamored with her image of glowing beauty to fall asleep. On one side was his personal goddess, while on the other side was Pope Sirius, who had taken a liking to him and given him a new lease on life, and he had no idea how to choose between the two.

Lana was also quite stunned to hear this. Never did she think that Sirius would be so decisive, choosing to assassinate the princess of the empire in such a brazen manner.

What could've possibly made him so deranged and demented? Is it just because I discovered the secret of the True Light Church? Lana thought to herself. But isn't this just a religious ritual? Surely this is overkill. There's definitely more that's going on here than just a simple religious ritual. He must be using those Fall Crystals to do something else!

Furthermore, Sirius's actions also had another implication, which was that he held no respect or regard for Lazaar at all, and Lana immediately made this realization.

In fact, in this instant, Lana even began to suspect whether the Pillow Sword Tournament incident had been orchestrated by none other than Sirius.

Following Lazaar's arrival in Sarus, Lana had discussed this subject with him before. Seeing as Jenkins wasn't the mastermind behind the Pillow Sword Tournament incident, then the situation was a lot more complex than they previously imagined.

Now that Sirius was showing his true colors, Lana immediately made the connection between him and the Pillow Sword Tournament incident.

"How insolent of you, Sirius," Lana said with a cold smile, and dazzling light began to glow from the Shaved Purple Gem staff in her hand, illuminating the cold look on her face. "It looks like you're not planning to let me leave this place alive."

"What are you all waiting for? Hurry up!" Sirius cast a cold glare toward Brad and the priests, and the look in his eyes clearly told them that there was no room for negotiation when it came to this order.

Looking at the implacable expression on Sirius's face, the priests didn't hesitate any longer and immediately sprang into action, unleashing a series of martial techniques as they rushed directly toward Lana.

Meanwhile, Brad had readied the sword and silver chain up his sleeve, and he was quickly following along behind the priests.

As for Sirius, he was looking on with a cold expression, but didn't attack Lana himself. Once the ceremony began, there was no way to put it on pause. Otherwise, these Fall Crystals would be wasted for nothing.

The dozen or so priests were among the best martial artists of the True Light Church, so they were very troublesome to deal with, and even a magician as powerful as Lana was having quite some trouble against them.

It came as quite a surprise to her that these priests of the True Light Church were so formidable.