Derius fell silent for a long time at this answer.
Byrne glanced at the clock again. It was time. He tapped the desk twice and said, "Your time for shock is over."
He paused.
Then Byrne continued, "Or rather, the time you were allowed to express your shock outwardly is over."
Derius licked his somewhat cracked lips, took a deep breath, and said, "Didn't you say that becoming the Church Venerable meant entering the Messenger Space and being infused with the insights and memories of every past Church Venerable? That I would no longer be myself? Then... what about the Church Venerable?"
"You thought that infusion meant absolute loyalty to Pamireth. In reality, it means absolute loyalty to Order."
"..." Derius.
Byrne folded his hands, smiling. "I told you, Order infiltrated the Pamireth Church far earlier than you imagined. Long ago, the first infiltrator to successfully reach the top of the Pamireth Church altered the succession ritual in the Messenger Space.
"So, over all these years, although people who weren't arranged by our Order God Church became Church Venerable on quite a few occasions, once they completed the infusion in the Messenger Space, they... hehe, became our people."
"How... is that possible?"
"Nothing is impossible. The spatial forging techniques the Pamireth Church possesses are simply too important to our Order. We cannot allow the Pamireth Church or the Messenger Space to fall into the hands of another Orthodox Church.
"And when Order sets its sights on a medium-sized church, its inability to resist is normal. Being able to resist would be abnormal.
"I can tell you something else. The first successful infiltrator seized the opportunity presented by Light's decline. At the time, the Pamireth Church belonged to Light's camp, just as their True God, Pamireth, ultimately switched allegiance to the