"Your ancestral beliefs teach you to hunt young children in the middle of the day, and I can't even question it?" Damian shot back.

"Live in the delusion if you wish to, but when my people are threatened once again, there won't be a Sun Temple left on this land to have the Sun God faith."

"Once again?" The emperor questioned, "Red knights are only active in the Empire after the Last Demon war."

"He was hunting my friends with a whole unit of knights. When I intervened, I too was attacked despite the man knowing full well who I was." Damian answered.

"Where did this take place?" Land-breaker asked.

"On the border of Old Empire and Eldoris."

"That is still the Empire." The emperor's wife said.

"Are you saying in the empire, it's fine to hunt women and children in broad daylight?" Einar asked, with no so amused expressions.

"Perhaps we should reconsider the empire's commitment to the alliance now that their borders are not threatened with demons," Souldealer added.

The emperor sat back, his wife surprised, followed behind, hiding her gray esper energy.

"We owe you too much to go against you. But even you can't fight a whole religion." The emperor stated, looking in his eyes.

Damian held the gaze for a while. It's clear the emperor did not believe in this religion, but his wife does. Without the Sun Temple, the empire would have to do a lot more, change a lot more, and even then, uprisings and rebellions would not stop.

"Warning of what might come, my friend," Damian replied. "Do not be content with things as they are. Keep religion in its place and authority in another. The only reason they obey you is your strength. You let them grow too much, and your advantage is lost forever."

"There is no way they can gain that much strength." The Esper wife came back to reason.

"The second-ranker knight I fought had the physical ability rivaling a peak-level pugilist, while chanting a unique, advanced, and above-level spell. All the while showing impressive spellsword skills." Damian revealed.

"So much talent.." Evrin murmured.

"Sun Temple is old. They have seen several kings taking the throne and being gone while they remain as they were. Even their secrets have secrets. I wouldn't be surprised if they have some hidden transcendent or worse, hidden away somewhere." Damian ended.

"Keeping an eye on them has always been one of our duties," Land-breaker said.

Damian nodded.

"And the shadow organizations - those are just fledglings, but they had a connection to demons somehow, and there is some high-profile hidden mind behind them as well. Damian has some special potions, the use of which changes appearances for a while. I have talented agents, but if the alliance gives us more, we will have a better chance to infiltrate to the very top." Souldealer stated.

"We have plenty of men to spare. A disguise that can't be sensed is indeed a good plan to start investigating their inner workings." Land-breaker agreed.

"We shall send a few of our best, too," Hellstorm added.

The emperor nodded, and so did Ilvanya and Vidalia. The Shadow Organization was no one's favorite.

"Remember, though, it's the criminal organization that is the problem, not the species it highly associates with. People you send should be aware of that. In time, the alliance should come up with something to solve the beastmen's mistrust issues on the mainland. I don't want to separate them... but if it comes to that, perhaps they too would thrive when they have no one to compare themselves with. We wouldn't stop them from visiting, though." Damian spoke up, finishing the discussion.

"They were at their strongest when there was a beast-nation." Land-breaker sighed.

"The first ever pugilist was a beastman. Is that true?" Torvin asked.

Land-breaker smiled, "Yes, it is. I grew up on the stories of Aetheron. The king of beasts that entered the battlefield with half the number of his enemies and returned with double that. He was a great man. They followed behind him. If Aetheron had kept his techniques a secret for just his own house, life would be really different right now."

"Very well, we end this meeting here then. After lunch, we begin the private meetings." Damian said, standing up.

The sanctum side collectively followed behind. Then the guests. Shaking a few hands, they separated.

The six heads, however, kept on his heels, entering his office together. Each took a seat of their choosing without being asked. Sam was even pulling out a bottle from his premium alcohol gift section. Souldealer and Evrin started brewing a cup of tea - ever since he did it once, they had become entranced by it. He doubted if they even liked the tea.

"Was it just good acting, or is the emperor truly not involved in this?" Lucian asked, seated on the soft couch facing the transparent giant wall.

"I honestly can't tell," Sam replied.

"Perhaps his wife is, and he knows a thing or two," Torvin added, accepting a glass of alcohol from Sam.

"The only way to find out is to go and check ourselves," Einar stated.

"Unlike Shadow, the Sun temple only lets the followers of the Sun God join, and even that after a long period of closed meditation, which in reality is who knows what," Souldealer replied.

"We wouldn't have to go; they would come here to get one of us once the news reaches them," Damian said, seated beside his desk.

"News of dungeons?" Torvin asked.

"It can't possibly be for this," Souldealer asked with wide eyes.

"Of course not," Damian replied. "But I knew it wouldn't be without some backlash. The rumours we let circulate already made the ears of the temple believers twitch. Sun Temple seems to have some strong opinions on the use of dungeons, I had read once."

"Yes, that's true." Souldealer nodded. "According to the temple, the pathfinders are the chosen people, and the gods gave us all the dungeons on behalf of those. Basically saying only powerful pathfinders can enter the dungeons or own them."

"And now we have opened it for everyone," Torvin murmured.

"Not just that," Lucian added, "We specifically showed projections of this supposed god's gift to everyone. The projections also had mundane soldiers fighting in the dungeons and earning dungeon loot."

"Wait a second! You specifically asked us to do that if I remember correctly!" Sam looked at him.

"He did," Einar confirmed. "I thought he was trying to show the mundanes could enter without discrimination."

"You truly wish to start this with the temple?" Evrin asked.

"I did not start it." Damian replied, "Besides, no one tells us what rights the free people of Sanctuary are supposed to have. It's law for us to consider pathfinders and mundanes as the same - others not believing that means they don't respect our nation."

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