He pushed his body up and stood. There were thousands of questions in his head, but he had answers to none. The only thing he knew was that he was in trouble, and he also knew whose fault it was.
Because of the Element of Darkness, he couldn't go to the Church of Light. The High Priest was going to kill him at sight, calling him an abomination! Even if he tried to hide this marking, he was sure that the High Priest of Light could sense it.
His dream of becoming a Holy Mage of Light... It was forever broken with no chance of ever coming true. At the same time, instead of becoming the light that was appreciated by everyone, he became the darkness that was hated by the whole world!
His head had started spinning due to stress. He didn't know what to do. What could he even do? Was there anything that could solve his problem? He didn't know anything.
His breathing slightly fastened as he started walking back and forth.
"I will be forced to hide my existence if I don't want to be killed by the Church of Light. All because of those two! They ruined my entire life... They took everything I held dear and made me this... this Cursed creature!" He looked at the dark mark on his right hand.
He paced back and forth for a few minutes before coming up with an idea.
His eyes lit up. "Wait! That's right. I still have the Symbol of Light! If I keep my Symbol of Darkness hidden, maybe... Maybe I can fool the others? The High Priest will obviously find my identity if I go before him, but the villagers won't. If I wait for the High Priest to leave, I might be able to enter the village without being caught. And then those two bastards..."
"Still, my life is mostly over now. No matter what I do. Because of Darkness, I can't go to the Church of Light to learn spells. I don't have the staff of Magic of Light either. At the same time, there is no Church of Darkness to give me their spells. Despite having two elements, I can't use any. I... I might be the first person to have two elements yet can't use even one."
"It is all because of those two. I will make them pay!"
Even though he didn't know how to do it or use spells, he made a promise to himself. He couldn't let his murderers roam freely after killing him. But first, he needed to leave this place. He had a mountain to climb to get back to the village.
Just as he started leaving, he remembered something else that he had forgotten entirely.
"The strange Book!" He exclaimed as he remembered what he had seen when he was in his spiritual form.
He abruptly stopped and started looking for the book, which wasn't lying too far from him.
He stepped closer to the book, wondering if this book was actually what he thought it to be? The Book of Dark Spells?
He reached out his hand toward the book, bending forward. As soon as his fingers touched the book, he felt a strange sensation inside his body. It was as if he had met a long-lost friend. The feeling was so surreal that, for a moment, he thought he was in heaven.
After he picked up the book with his right hand, he placed his left hand on it to hold the book with both hands.
"Argh!"
As soon as his left hand touched the book, the white symbol of Holy Light in his left hand shone brightly. Gabriel felt as if his left hand was on fire. He immediately removed his left hand, letting the book fall to the ground.
As soon as he freed the book, his pain subsided. He thought for a few moments before picking up the book again, but this time, he only held the book with his right hand.
"Strange. If it's an ordinary book of spells, why can't I hold it with my other hand? I know Elemental Mages can't hold the Grimoires of other elements, but they have no problem holding Basic Spell books. If this was an ordinary spell book, I should've been fine holding it even with my left hand. Could it be a... Grimoire? Impossible! It can't be the Holy Book of a Church of Darkness!"
It was said that an Elemental Mage could hold the Spell Books of Other Elements if he wanted. The only book that an Elemental Mage couldn't touch without hurting himself was the Grimoire of other Elements!
Each Element only had one Grimoire, and it was called the Holy Book for that Element! Each of those Grimoires were kept in the Church of that Element in complete security. Only the Head of the Church of that Element was allowed to use the Holy Book.
"This is the Holy Book of the Church of Darkness? How is this possible?"
Gabriel was freaking out at the thought that he could be holding the Holy Book of Church of Darkness! If that was the case, this book should've been kept with their strongest and Highest Ranking member! A Holy Book was different from other ordinary spell books, after all. They were also called the Forbidden Books!
For a moment, he had forgotten that the Church of Darkness was completely destroyed. It didn't have a Head of Church anymore. Moreover, in the destruction and the terrifying battle, the last Head of the Church of Darkness was killed.
It was only after he remembered it that he realized. "The Church of Darkness was destroyed in the last war, and everyone was killed. Even then, how did the book end up here? The War happened far away from this place. This book couldn't have traveled here alone? What is it doing here?"
Since he couldn't hold the book with both hands, he placed the book on the ground. He needed to use his right hand to turn pages. He wanted to see what was inside.
He was going to take his first step on the journey of Darkness.
Gabriel opened the cover and looked at the first page of the book. Fortunately, he was able to read it properly since he was a mage of Darkness now.
A spell book of one element could only be read by a member of that element. If he didn't have the Dark Element, he couldn't have touched the holy book of Darkness at all.
To a person who didn't possess that element, the spells only looked like a jumbled mess of strange characters thrown in together, but for him, the words were no different than the common language he was used to reading. That was the advantage of sharing the element.
On the first page of the book, there were only a few words written in bold letters.
On top of the page, there was a symbol of two black scythes, making a cross which was the same as the one which was on his right hand. Under the symbol, there were four words written.
"Forbidden Book of Necromancy."