Vasco Strada stood in front of the massive crowd of exorcists, priests, nuns, and other members of the church. His neutral gaze made the hundreds of humans in the massive space shift nervously.
Especially the Sacred Gear wielders who knew exactly what was going on, thanks to the information they gained from the Heavenly System's messages, as well as the information given to them by Strada himself.
With most of the relevant people gathered in the place, Strada raised his hand, making the muttering and chatter stop and focus solely on him.
"As you all probably know by now. Some time ago, some of our former members indulged in forbidden arts and cruel experiments to enhance the powers of our exorcists. As punishment, they have been expelled from the church. And, by the decree of Lord Michael, there will no longer be any hidden political games in the Church, and neither is anyone permitted to do any kind of similar experiments in the future."
The simple and straightforward words made many of the former associates of such people who had a hand in the Holy Sword Project, the Sigurd Institute, and many other such shady projects flinch.
But nobody could deny the truth.
How could they? When they had the proof of that incident walking among them?
The miracle of resurrection, which had brought back those two dozen children, and the angel in question, who had himself come back from the dead.
"But, this information is not why I have gathered all of you high-ranked members of the church here, while the lower-ranked ones would be handled by my most trusted subordinates."
The word 'handled' immediately made many of the scheming old men and women feel a chill in their hearts, especially after remembering the sheer fury Strada had shown that day after returning from the Holy Sword Project's headquarters.
That was a day of bloodshed where he directly annihilated many of the higher-ups who were involved with that project and the Sigurd Institute.
Strada took out a pair of glasses and put them on as he stared down passively at the crowd.
"As you might know, there has been a significant change in how the Heavenly System works from now on. And today, I have been ordered by Lord Michael to tell you about the new rule that is to be applied to the church from now on."
He then motioned towards one of his most trusted men despite his young age.
The teenager in question, Dulio Gesualdo, walked onto the stage at his mentor's signal.
"As a wielder of the Sacred Gear, Zenith Tempest, i believe he will be better at describing it to you."
One of the braver members of the group, a nun from one of the lesser-known churches outside the city but one who still held some political sway, raised her hand, making Strada nod, giving her permission to speak.
"Forgive me, Cardinal Strada, but what exactly are you trying to explain to us?"
"The Karma system."
Dulio's words made many of the gathered crowd give him an intrigued look, making the teenager sigh a little before speaking in a confident tone, just like he was taught by his mentor.
"After the Heavenly System was updated, we, the sacred gear wielders, have gained a screen that only we can see. On this screen, we have two things that are the most important for us. One of them is Karma."
Strada moved forward and helped his pupil explain.
"Karma is literally the Heavenly System's judgment of your actions according to Heaven's standards for sins and achievements. For the Sacred Gear users, it is represented in a numerical value."
Dulio nodded and spoke after Strada.
"Neutral Karma, the point where a person has the perfect balance between good and bad deeds, is 0. Positive increments in the value show good deeds. If you sin, the numbers go into negative."
"For Sacred Gear wielders, you might already know the value of these Karma points, and the other value that we have."
The few people with their Sacred Gears awakened nodded at Dulio's words since they had received this information on their screens along with the warnings.
Essentially, the new Heavenly System made it so that all the Sacred Gears around the worlds would now be reset to their base abilities and powers, with the only way to unlock their higher powers and evolution through Experience and Karma.
Experience was easy enough to accumulate, as it was basically their training represented in a numerical way. But Karma is the thing that truly made life difficult for many Sacred Gear users around the world.
According to the message, their Sacred Gears will only evolve and unlock new skills with every 50 points increment in their Karma value, with Balance Breaker only being possible once they reach 400 points of Karma. The moment their Karma drops, they will lose those skills and abilities once again until they regain said Karma points.
As for those whose Karma Value was in the negatives? Their Sacred Gears would be sealed completely.
Looking at the confused faces of those who did not have sacred gears, Strada stepped forward and spoke.
"Long story short. The reason why we are bringing up the Karma system is that, by the decree of the Heavens, nobody whose Karma value is in the negatives is allowed into the Church from now on."
He then tapped the glasses he wore.
"And to detect the karma values, Lord Aetherion gave me these glasses, designed specifically to represent your Karmic values in a visual way for me to interpret."
Those words immediately triggered a lot of protests among those who knew that their hands were dirty and worry among those who were unsure of their own judgment. There were also fanatics whose hands were far bloodier than any devil, yet they still believed that their actions were done with good intentions, not knowing that, in Vasco's eyes, they shone with a malevolent black light, indicating extremely negative value in their Karma.
As the noise of protests and shouts started to spread across the crowd, Vasco let go of his control on his Holy Power, which flooded the room and made nearly all of them kneel then and there under the sheer weight of his power.
His neutral gaze quickly silenced any and all protests.
"This matter is not something that is up for debate. And, seeing what I am seeing now, I can now understand why Lord Aetherion was so upset back then with my defense of this church."
As Vasco Strada stared at the gathered crowd, he felt saddened to see that it was exactly like lord Aetherion had told him all those months ago.
A sea of darkness, with a few shining stars illuminating the void.
Aside from this contrast, there were also a lot of neutral grays mixed in, but Vasco still felt his heart drop as he saw the veritable sea of negative karma, representing just how deep the corruption went.
A sight that Dulio could also see thanks to the screen that every Sacred Gear wielder now had.
On that day, thousands of supposedly holy men and women were excommunicated from the Church. Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant, the denomination did not matter as thousands of people with darkness in their hearts were removed from their positions of power.
Surprisingly, the numbers were much lower in the lower ranks, especially the rank and file exorcists, where only a mere 20% of people were excommunicated, showing exactly where the root of the corruption was.
With the remaining members now made up of truly good people, and those who had the potential to become good, Vasco Strada reorganized the church completely, with him acting as the leader under the orders of the Angels from Heaven.
As for those who were excommunicated? They already had their memories removed by the Cherubim Gatekeepers who arrived to help Vasco Strada with the situation.
It was only after the Gatekeepers had removed every single memory related to the Church's inner workings, their secrets, and anything that could bring harm to the Church or the Heavens, while also having their holy power and magical energy taken away by the system by branding them with Heaven's seal, that these excommunicated people were allowed to leave.
Temporarily, this was a blow to the Church's power, but in the long term, this could only be a net positive.
And so, the church that had long become corrupted from within had been cleansed completely and thoroughly.
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