I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-174

Sylvester gritted his teeth as he already smelled the increased scent of death the closer they got. But, this time, the smell of death didn't come as a reminder of danger to him but as a messenger of the news—that death was spreading.

"Look at the sky." Lady Aurora muttered.

Sylvester glanced, frowned and increased the pace. In the distant sky, he saw many burning balls flying from Jartel county towards Raftel County. The catapults were at work, but that also confused him. "I don't remember Jartel possessing catapults."

"Me neither."

They rushed as fast as they could and soon crossed the last ridge that brought the view of the whole battlefield plain to them.

It was a mess… utter chaos. There were thousands of men, impossible to count. They fought each other with their weapons of choice. Magic knights used their flashy magical knight moves, Wizards used their destructive spells, while the common soldiers thrust their swords into each other.

Blood spread around and painted the ground red.

Clank!

Boom!

The catapults were continuously shooting balls of fire from Jartel County, burning Raftel's men and their allies. It was a mindless bloody mess.

Sylvester grunted and headed towards the battlefield. "Why did they start the war all of a sudden? They had sworn in the name of the lord… they don't have any evidence. Did Sir Dolorem arrive?"

"Don't go there, Archpriest!" Lady Aurora stopped him.

"I need to find Felix and Gabriel. I don't care if those noble fools kill themselves, but I need the two lads alive." He boomed.

"Signal them!" She suggested.

He took a leap of faith and raised his hand in the air, then made it shine in bright light. He waited for any reaction, any distinct shout or response. The entire battlefield was in his view, so it was easy. But, at the same time, everyone looked the same from that distance.

"There!" Lady Aurora pointed her finger.

Sylvester followed it and noticed a blinking light in the middle of the battlefield. It was Gabriel, he was sure of it. "Since light magic is useless against another man, only Gabriel has the reason to use it to signal us."

But he felt helpless as well. Yes, he could go in there and save Gabriel, but the latter was not the only man he needed to help. Felix and the rest of the platoon's men were still unaccounted for. So he turned to Lady Aurora. "Lady Aurora, I have a request… I know this is not your mission or your battle to fight. But this whole situation in the Duchy reeks of a conspiracy to me—a conspiracy to destabilise the region. I need your help ensuring the Holy Land's backyard does not turn into a land of chaos."

She didn't say anything and just thoughtfully nodded. There were men dying in front of her for no apparent reason. It was her duty to do something.

"I need you to get Gabriel and regroup back here. I will go ahead and find Felix in the meantime. After that… we shall see what we can do to stop this battle." He advised her since he couldn't order her around.

"Fair enough. Good luck on your end. Ha!" She rode the horse fast towards the battlefield with no fear at all.

Sylvester, too, headed in the same direction, but he went slow as he wished to find Felix first. 'If I were a maniac like Felix, I'd be in the middle of the enemy lines and fighting them all simultaneously.'

He looked around to see if there was any cluster of too many soldiers circling around a single target. And from the looks of it, he could notice at least six such clusters. 'I should hurry and check all of them.'

He increased the speed and started chanting hymns under his breath to make the halo appear. He hoped that seeing him, the men would not attack him, as the halo was sort of his trademark around the continent at this stage.

Bam!

Woosh!

"Fuck!" He cursed soon after. It seemed as if some of the soldiers started to attack him specifically and threw their spears, some ordinary and some imbued with magic. It was strange since this was akin to heresy. "Why are they attacking me?"

He had no other option then. So he held his spear in his left hand and created a ball of fire on the other one. He made the horse go faster and inched closer to the first line of soldiers fighting each other.

Ten metres.

Five metres.

One metre.

Boom!

Sylvester rammed into the crowd like a Rhino. His spear in the right-hand slit throats of all wearing the armour of Jartel County. At the same time, the fire from his left hand kept everyone from attacking him from the other side.

"Who are these third variety of men? Wait… why are they all fighting each other." Sylvester observed the looks of three kinds of armour. But he didn't waste a moment to think and sped towards the first cluster.

Woosh!

"Argh!" Sylvester quickly ducked on the horse as he felt danger. His call proved right as a fireball soon flew over his head. Of course, there were wizards involved in the battle too. But what was their rank, it was not known. He hoped there were not many archwizards.

"Felix!" He roared.

But, seeing no response from the cluster ahead, he realised the only option was to clear things up. So he stopped using fire on his left and instead started to throw light towards the sky. Then, he solidified that light itself and turned them into little spears, sharp and hot.

Woosh!

Without warning, he threw spears of light towards the cluster of soldiers. The spears fell like rain and punched into the armour and joints of many. It was easy to spread mayhem, so the cluster broke apart quickly, revealing the form of a strong warrior from Raftel County.

"Ugh!"

He continued to another cluster instantly. But he knew this was an inefficient way of finding Felix. He couldn't go to each cluster as he was already running on luck. The moment his horse falls, things will get worse.

"Chonky! Do you know how to ride a horse?" He wanted to try something.

"..."

"Meow?" Miraj was surprised at that question.

"You don't? No problem. Horses are dumb creatures. Just keep these reins in your mighty little jaws, okay? Don't let it go too loose or tighten."

"Where are you going?" Miraj worriedly asked.

"Nowhere. Just maintain this direction and speed. I will try to find Felix from a height." He ordered and didn't ask again. He made Miraj sit on the saddle, and himself stood up on it. "Here goes nothing."

He jumped forward and created a light step under his feet. It worked like stairs, while Sylvester maintained his speed and kept climbing up in the sky while maintaining his position on the horse.

Once he was high enough, he looked at the remaining five clusters. On the north side, he saw two men at the centre he didn't recognise. On the south side, he noticed Count Jartel and Count Raftel, and in the last cluster, one tall man was swinging his sword with his armour shining bright—it was Felix.

"That madman! He's smiling while chopping heads." Sylvester grunted and made his way back towards the horse below.

Woosh!

"Woah!" Sylvester quickly stopped, ducked again, and caught whatever was flying at him. "A spear? Why are some men targeting me?"

He reckoned he could help Count Raftel at least as the man appeared to be in a pickle. So he imbued Knightly magic with the help of exploding runes in the spear he just caught and sent it flying.

Boom!

In no time, it blasted near the cluster around the men trying to kill Count Raftel. The man was quick enough to turn things around and used the moment from the surprise explosion to get out of the encirclement. The Count just glanced at the sky, noticed Sylvester, and gave a nod of thanks.

Thud!

Sylvester fell back on the horse and continued to spear his way to Felix. On his way, he met countless men and put holes in their heads with his spear, or he burnt them with fire.

"Chonky! Take the little bag of magic crystals from under my chest plate and throw explosive crystals on the ground." He ordered.

"Wraaaa!" A giant knight appeared all of a sudden, at least eight feet tall.

Sylvester didn't stop and increased his speed. He then aimed the Spear of Infinity at the man and made it heat up.

Woosh!

He threw it so fast that only its afterimage and the sound of it cutting air were audible. The giant Knight blocking his way fell silent, and his shoulders fell lifelessly, along with the two battle axes.

"Rot in hell!" He plucked the spear back from the Knight's skull, where it had made a big hole and had crossed to the other side.

The entire battlefield was full of such mad knights and wizards. Some are strong, and some weak. It was a common rule to make sure that each army focused its powerhouses on the powerhouses of the enemy. This way, the little weaker soldiers don't end up dying too fast in one shot kill.

"There he is!" Sylvester finally found a large cluster of men ahead. It was like a mountain of dead bodies by now, on which Felix stood above all while the enemy soldiers from Jartel County and some third-party men tried to lay siege to him. But, he was too strong, and even a simple kick from him threw men into the air away from the mountain of corpses.

"Felix! Let's go!" Sylvester roared and made a brought light from his hand to grab attention.

"Haha… Max! Look at these buffoons! You won't believe what just happened! I finally ranked up! In both, Wizard and Knight ranks. These fools are nothing to me!" Felix shouted in pride from the corpse mountain.

Sylvester cursed under his breath. Not because his friend ranked up, but because he knew that was nothing. Felix just became a Master Wizard and a Diamond Knight, most likely. Where the Knight's rank was really good, the Wizard's rank was not that great.

"We must retreat and plan! This is not our war to win!" Sylvester roared with utmost seriousness while occasionally stopping some men from attacking him. He could feel the scent of death increasing around him—it showed how fast the bodies were dropping dead. He wished to understand the situation quickly and stop the war soon.

"Fine!"

Woosh!

Felix jumped and stepped onto one of the enemy soldiers as if they were stones and, in no time, landed beside Sylvester on the same horse. "Why didn't you run away? Why engage the battle?"

"It was a surprise attack when we came to Count Raftel," Felix replied. "We couldn't run."

"Jartel attacked?" Sylvester questioned while sprinting the horse. "That man swore in the name of Solis. He swore his family never uses underhanded means or lies to make war."

Felix patted Sylvester's shoulder. "Max! The attacker wasn't Count Jartel—It was Duke Grimton of this Duchy!"

"What?!... Why?"

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