Candidates for canonization are recommended and discussed by the Church. The fact that heretics tainted by black magic have infiltrated the ranks is not entirely the Pope's responsibility; other administrators of the Pope are also culpable.

But now the Pope has become the focal point of all the pressure, with Dante and all the brown-robed messengers focused on him.

There was no scolding; just staring at him was enough to make him sweat profusely.

The Pope was also sent down from the Papacy, and in terms of faith, he was no less than anyone else present, so he was particularly aware of the seriousness of the matter.

He recognized the dead dark sorcerer; he had been one of the many church cleaners.

In the Pope's recollection, he was both focused and happy while cleaning the church, as if he were a servant wholeheartedly serving his king.

On one occasion, he even knelt on the ground for an entire day just to wipe away a stubborn stain on the hem of the statue of Pymisa.

But this believer was actually a heretic who worshipped an evil god!

The thought of him polluting this sacred place day after day in the church made the Pope feel nauseous and ashamed enough to want to kill himself!

"I...I repent..."

After speaking in a trembling voice, the teacher placed the thick book on the altar, then collapsed to the ground with his legs giving way.

Dante did not press the matter further, turned his gaze away, and raised his hand above the corpse.

Tiny specks of dust fell from his palm, and then the corpse suddenly burst into flames, its entire body engulfed in pure white flames, quickly burning away without a trace, leaving not a single mark on the ground.

"Notify all believers that initiation is halted! Bring all candidates into the church, including those selected yesterday; I will examine them one by one!"

After Dante finished speaking, the Pope quickly got up, grabbed the notebook containing the candidates' names, and ran outside.

The believer responsible for relaying the message was somewhat surprised upon hearing the order, but he still complied.

As the names were uttered by the believers, the white sea below quickly began to boil.

"What's going on? Are we going to be assessed together?"

"How is that possible? I've lived this long and never heard of such a thing."

"Could this not be the list of candidates...? Oh no! They called my name!"

……

One by one, white dots emerged from the crowd and walked onto the church. In addition, some believers rushed out of the church to quickly find the believers who had been selected yesterday.

An hour later, more than two hundred people dressed in white robes stood neatly in the church.

When the believers found Gondola, it was quite excited, thinking that the Pope and his followers had given it a chance to be re-examined. But upon closer inspection, it seemed that wasn't the case.

"Lord Dante, everyone is here," the Pope said softly.

"Step back," Dante said, and the Pope and the brown-robed messengers stepped back behind him.

Dante raised his right hand, and a golden-white halo appeared on his withered palm. The halo quickly expanded, transforming into a hazy mist that silently spread out, enveloping every believer before him.

This was a sixth-order illusion magic. The believers only felt a slight dizziness, and then a blank look appeared on everyone's face as they were deeply immersed in the illusion.

Some dreamed of their childhood, some dreamed of playing with their loved ones, some dreamed of their religious kingdom...

These illusions bring out the most relaxed and unguarded state of the subject, and then Dante's will manifests as a character in the illusion, who then poses questions.

In this situation, it's highly unlikely that anyone would lie.

Dante then asked them one by one, "Are you a dark sorcerer?"

Without exception, the answers were all negative.

One by one, the candidates awoke from their hallucinations, their expressions blank, clearly having just experienced an incredibly vivid dream.

Dante's gaze swept across their faces one by one, occasionally lingering briefly on a particular person, but eventually moving away.

Until it was a woman in the middle of the line's turn.

After Dante asked the question, the woman, like the other candidates, naturally answered no.

But Dante noticed something amiss: the woman hadn't been poisoned by the rat at all; she had used a high-level mental defense spell, and her earlier appearance was an act!

When she saw Dante staring at her and lingering there, she knew she had been exposed.

Her right hand, which was hanging inside her sleeve, trembled slightly, and a string of pearls on her wrist silently slipped off.

It is strung with a dozen beads of different colors, one of which is emitting an ominous red light.

A large cloud of black smoke billowed from beneath the woman's feet. Dante flicked his sleeve with a whoosh, dispersing the smoke and the woman vanished without a trace.

The surrounding candidates gasped in surprise, and the scene briefly descended into chaos.

"Invisibility? That's definitely a skill exclusive to dark magicians."

He raised his left hand and gently clenched his fist.

An invisible barrier rose from the floor of the main hall, like a giant, transparent bowl turned upside down, enveloping the entire church.

His senses spread out inch by inch within the barrier, like an impenetrable net.

The woman concealed her form with dark magic, but the fluctuations of her magic were as clear to Dante as a campfire in the dark.

Dante gently hooked his finger towards the southeast corner.

An invisible force precisely locked onto the stealthy woman, and a sound suddenly rang out in the open space in front of Dante.

Suddenly, black smoke billowed from the empty ground, and the woman lay motionless on the ground.

Dante stepped forward and noticed a small knife stuck in her neck.

Blood flowed from the wound, staining the white robe crimson. Seeing that the dark sorcerer's filthy blood was about to stain the church floor, Dante quickly did the same thing to her as he had to the man.

The white flames died down, and the woman's body was burned to ashes. The candidates trembled with fear at the sight of this horrific scene.

"I'm going to be killed! I'm going to be killed too!" Gundo's pants got wet, and he fled in a panic, only to be stopped by a male believer a second later.

"Calm down! Didn't you see that woman is a dark sorcerer? If you run away now, you might be mistaken for an accomplice and killed along with her!"

Upon hearing this, Gondor calmed down, but he was even more shocked. "How did the dark magicians get in here? Weren't they all killed during the dark magic hunt?"

"Everyone, please be quiet and stay where you are. I will let you leave once I have finished searching the remaining dark mages." Dante said, glancing at the trembling Pope behind him.

The Pope was now completely devastated.

It was already incredible that there was a dark magician among the candidates, but now a second one has been found!

If there are any hidden among the remaining people, I would have no face to face this sacred church!

The Pope looked at the towering statue of Bimbisara with tears streaming down his face, his eyes filled with resolve.

He could no longer face these believers. He slowly took off his robes and outer garments, covered his head with the outer garments, and rammed his head against a pillar.

A heavy thud echoed through the church as the pope's head slid off the pillar and landed motionless on the ground.

The brown-robed messengers rushed forward to check on the injury, but Dante turned away coldly:

"Let's continue."

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