Chapter 9

The halls were wide and long. Wide enough for a carriage to fit through and so long it felt you could walk for miles. The walls were adorned with bright silver candle stands and bright bluish white moon shiners that glowed softly at night. Paintings of kings of past hang on these walls looking judgmental at each passing individual.

Passing through these judging halls was a middle-aged man that towered at an impressive 1.9meters. His frame was straight and ramrod despite his height. His black hair contained a bit a grey but that only made him more handsome for his age. His face as stoic and judgmental as the paintings. His red and gold-trimmed robes were overly large which properly and completely hid his frame except for his wrists and head.

Passing by the few men and women cleaning the halls, they would each stop and take a bow and he would nod his head only slightly in return. The faces of the servants were filled with awe and respect for the man passing.

Even with the bows and nods, the man's steps were quick and precise, not missing a single beat. The further he walked, the fewer people there were until the halls were completely empty. After a few more meters, he crouched into a room. The room was spacious enough to contain a large and long table with eight chairs on each side and one each at the ends of the table.

In the room, a man in mage robes stood by the side in a submissive manner. The moment the man walked into the room he bowed deeply and said "Your highness, the leaders have all gathered. They are only waiting on you, my king.". The king merely nodded to the mage, pulled out the chair and sat down on it.

He then looked to the mage and nodded slightly. The mage nodded and pulled out a large globe the size of an adult head with different swirling colors. The mage chanted a few words and the globe glowed brightly. The room darkened a bit when suddenly three transparent figures appeared, each sitting a few places away from the king.

"Finally, King Casimir, you decide to grace us with your presence?" The king turned to the first figure sitting closest to his left side of that spoke in an annoyed tone, showing his several lost front teeth. His voice was raspy and grating much to the displeasure of the king although there was no change in his expression. The man was old with very little hair on his head. He had his left eye slightly larger than his right eye and a crooked nose.

The man was the current head of the Church of Darkness. Tume Juht. A name given to every person that assumes the position to the leader of the Church of Darkness. The old fool had sacrificed so much in order to get to his position and even more in order to keep it.

King Casimir had no idea exactly how old the ugly fool was exactly. He had been around since the era of his grandfather and he still looked the same as he did, maybe uglier. To him though, the old fool was just a ghost out of place in time.

Tume Juht's anger began to rise as he glared at the king who just stared at him in an unconcerned manner without the slightest change in his expression. The hall had suddenly turned a bit uncomfortable as the king just kept staring at Tume Juht, unmoved and unbothered, almost as if he was staring at a child throwing a tantrum, a fool no doubt, until a voice made him break the stare.

"While I hate to admit it, the old bat is right. No matter your position as king, we are high leaders of this kingdom, and to have us wait for such a while, maybe you position on the throne have made you forget your basic manners."

King Casimir turned to look at the man that just spoke. He wore white robes with blue trimmings with a pendant around his neck; a circular pendant with numerous lines meeting at the center of it. The symbol of the church of light. He had lush blonde hair with a very handsome face, no doubt to seduce the women of his kingdom. The handsome man was the leader of the church of light. Benedicite Lux.

A pretentious fool with his cult spewing hypocritic bullshit all around and what was worse was his stupid naïve second daughter had been hooked on that crap. A stupid girl being so easily manipulated to such an extent. He suddenly felt he had let go of her reigns a bit too much. It was probably time to tighten her noose.

For the first time the king suddenly sneered at the blonde haired man in front of him. That sneer of the king caused Benedicite Lux to grit his teeth hard. Those eyes made him feel as though the king across from him knew all his secrets and he felt nothing more than to reach over and rip them out. To watch as the king and his entire line burned in the holy blessed light of their benevolent god.

As if reading his mind, the king's sneer grew wider, almost daring the little shit to try.

"If you gentlemen are done with flexing your pecks, can we get to the real reason we have gathered?" Sitting across from the men was a dark-skinned woman with short silver and black hair. She had a scar running down her right eye which was covered with an eye patch, down to her right cheek. Her currently uncovered eye glowed a beautiful sapphire blue color. She was the head of the guild associations. Agnes.

She came out of nowhere and took over the position of guild master. Within a month she cemented her position by beating down every contender that came for her position when she issued out a challenge; Anyone that could best her could have the position of guild master. No matter how many came at her whether it was one on one or many against one, she beat them all down.

After a year and a half, she gathered the majority of the underground guilds, especially the leading assassin's guilds in the kingdom and brought them all under her. Of course, such an act was not publicly known. All they know was she single handedly went about destroying those guilds which earned her quite the reputation.

The king stared straight at her, his face returning to his neutral stoic nature as these thoughts run through his head. He then looked back at the two other leaders who were still glaring at him and spoke for the first time. "The reason we have gathered, concerns the reports coming from the hundred floor dungeon."

The two leaders of churches forcefully composed themselves at the mention on the dungeon, although they were still both glaring it was not so much as before.

"So tell us, leader of light, what is the current situation?". The king turned to Benedicite Lux and asked with an expressionless face.

Lux took in a deep breath once more. "According to reports reaching us suggests there's a problem with the 60th level. Almost all the men that have climbed up to that level have died, those that survived can only remember getting to that level. Everything that happened after, they seem to have no recollection of it."

"That is right, my guild members seemed to have suffered the same fate, even flushing the place with numbers seemed to not change much except more casualties." Agnes said looking round the table as the various leaders as they all nodded their heads indicating they had at some point done the same thing.

"For now, I have barred my members from going to that dungeon, I can't keep losing men to an unknown source. I would rather sacrifice them than have my men continually go die to an unknown monster.". Tume Juht's old annoying voice echoed out in the room.

Ignoring the bit about the sacrificing, all the leaders agreed with the old shriveled man. Their main concern was that they still had no idea what they were dealing with.

King Casimir nodded and spoke up, "Then I will send Anna to investigate. I expect you all to contribute your trusted personnel as well. It's better to get this over with once and for all, and with her leading the way there shouldn't be any complications. Three months should be enough preparation.".

"Three months it is then, my right hand will be ready at the gates exactly three months from today." Agnes stood and walked away, terminating the connection without acknowledging those present.

"With her gone, king Casimir, shall we talk about Anna?" Benedicite lux spoke with Tume Juht nodding his head in agreement.

[A/N: I am still so sick but i have tried hard to put this together and made it longer considering i have not posted in a while. Please let me know if there are any errors cos there probably will be. Stay safe and enjoy]