I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-230

"Xavia got what? Show the letter to me." Lady Aurora took the letter and read it in a low voice.

"Big brother, this is Raven Maxwell, Gabriel's sister. I work as Mother Xavia's assistant. I am writing this to you because Mother Xavia refuses to, for she fears it would worry you too much. Two days ago, when we had gone to the villages near the Holy Land's border to oversee the free health camps, two men attacked her and stabbed a small dagger in her neck while shouting--Death to God's Favoured. Thankfully, Sir Zeke was the guard and protected Mother Xavia, killing the two attackers in a tough battle.

"Mother Xavia is out of danger, and you need not worry. She has received the best medical aid and is conscious, but her voice has temporarily suffered. The two attackers were men from Clergy as well. They were Archpriests--Jeffery Rivers and Harold Bloom. I just thought you would like to know the names--as you'd know best what to do with the information.

"Please write a letter to Mother Xavia so she may feel calm. She misses you a lot and worries for your safety."

Lady Aurora folded the letter back, her hands shaking as her anger took over. She liked Xavia, too, after all. She had spent a lot of time with her during the time they were in the Holy Land. She felt like the woman was her big sister, albeit younger.

"These bloody waste of fresh air. Rivers and Bloom are family names of the branch families of the Riveria royal family. This attack clearly has the name of Riveria written all over," She barked.

Isabella, who also had a favourable view of Xavia, was taken aback. "That's so... wrong. Why did they do that?"

Sadly, only Sylvester knew the answer to that, but he couldn't tell anyone. 'King Riveria has gone senile from his age, it seems. He still has not forgotten the disappearance of his son. And the only person famously known to have any animosity or reason for hostility against Romel was me--since I got Bishop Norman caught and killed.

'So King Riveria wants kin for kin? But he made a move, and now I must make the final move in return. But how? I'm sitting too low in the food chain to do anything against a mighty king protected by the whole kingdom.'

Sylvester wished to neutralise the man as soon as possible. The mess had gone on for far too long and needed to be sorted out now. He didn't want to live in fear of Xavia being in danger at all times--even inside the Church.

'How did this even happen so close to the Church? Why didn't the Church do anything even when knowing that if she died, I'd have no reason to stay with them? Is the Pope planning something again?'

"Syl..."

"Sylvester!"

'If she's fine, I have no reason to go so far back right now. I need to first end this mess as quickly as possible and start plotting for the distant future.'

"Hmm?"

"Sylvester! Hey!" Lady Aurora shook Sylvester firmly. "What's the matter? I called your name so many times."

"I'm fine, lady Aurora. I was just thinking about a few things. Mum is fine; that's good to hear. But I'm sure the higher-ups will take care of the situation--they all know how important she is to me, after all." He replied and started walking back towards the village.

Lady Aurora didn't follow for a second, though. As per what she could understand, she could feel this was a veiled threat. If something happens to Mother Xavia, then the Church could say goodbye to having another Supreme Wizard in the near future.

'How did such a thing even happen? I don't remember the Holy Land being this unguarded and clumsy.' She wondered as anyone would at that point.

...

Sylvester put all his focus on the mission at hand. He had waited so many days in the village, yet no words had come from Cardinal Cornelius. He was growing impatient as he saw little progress here as well.

"Lady Aurora, we will only wait three more days. If you can't level up, then we will evacuate this area completely and let the experts from the Holy Land handle this--whoever they may be. If you level up or enter into the levelling-up process, then we shall enter the mist and kill the demon. I have also ordered a few things through Running Men. As long as we get them, our mission will get easier." He briefed Lady Aurora. A sense of urgency was evident in his voice now.

She had no option but to agree with him as well. Otherwise, they would be jeopardising the primary mission.

So, they got to work, preparing for the fight. Lady Aurora kept practising alone even after training with Sylvester. Isabella would go and heal the sick, and Sylvester had a solo trip to a nearby road to exchange some precious items.

He used Felix's help to acquire another batch of Solarium, Light, Explosive and a few other types of crystals. He was spending a lot of money this time, though he had decided to pay with diamonds since keeping that much gold in pouches was too much. It would weigh more than a hundred kilos if he were to do that.

"Woah! I never came out this far from home before. Big brother, what's that?"

Sylvester talked with the little ghost of Amy. He had to work hard not to feel sad while talking to her. He wanted to tell her that she was dead but didn't have the cold heart to say it yet. At least he wished to first defeat the demon.

"That's a big haystack, Amy. And don't fly too far from me, or you'll get lost. Do you want a bad monster to chase you again?" he tried to keep her as close as possible.

"Okie! But... Why won't you let Chonky play with me more? I want to hug him."

Sylvester looked at the furry boy sitting on his shoulder. "Fine, you can play, but you must sit here."

Sylvester lifted the thin sheet of the blanket he was using to cover himself and let Miraj jump under it. "Come here and tuck yourself in."

Woosh!

"Yay!" She chirped happily and jumped on Miraj. Sylvester could not touch her, no matter what, so Miraj's touch was the only source of warmth for the poor girl.

Though, Sylvester soon came to regret letting the two inside his blanket as they started playing, and Miraj became violent, sometimes rubbing his paws on Sylvester's stomach. Amy was also giggling, singing rhymes and telling stories to the cat.

The whole way passed before they knew it, and Sylvester arrived at the rendezvous point. The man he was dealing with was obviously from the black market of this world that he didn't know much about. The only rule Felix asked him to follow was to 'never ask any questions.'. Just take your items and leave.

Like the last time, soon, a man appeared on horseback with a leather bag on his back. Sylvester also reached the man on his horse and spoke the codeword. "A rat thinks the earth is flat."

The tall hooded man nodded his head and passed on the leather bag. At the same time, Sylvester handed over a pouch full of diamonds.

The man looked inside and checked all the diamonds and then left with no words spoken. That's how the Undersun Trading Company did its business. Silently and quickly. They were notorious for declining clients or outright banning them if anyone tried to act smart. But nobody knew who ran the organisation or where it was even headquartered.

"Well, that takes care of one aspect. With this many crystals, dealing with a single demon should not be that hard." He spoke to himself and quickly returned to the Ender Village.

By the evening of the same day, Sylvester arrived back in the village and immediately started planning to enter the mist again without caring if they first cleared it or not.

But what awaited him there was a surprise as he found Lady Aurora jumping in excitement. "Sylvester! It has started! I can feel it... the level up is happening. I will soon be the ninth rank!"

He shared her joy with words. "But you will still need a push, right? Don't worry. I have a trick to generate a much stronger Wrath of Heavens for you to fight against."

He planned on using his solarium stones to increase the beam's intensity and temperature. What he wanted to do was to make Lady Aurora finally feel pain.

"Really? Then let's go and try. The quicker we are, the faster we can kill the demon." She chirped and grabbed Sylvester's hand to drag him outside.

It was about to turn very dark, but Sylvester decided to entertain her. However, he didn't allow her to go too far from the village. After all, he still had to be careful about the Shadow Knight.

"Alright, stand right there and wait for me. Be careful, and this time it will be somewhat different--and try not to jump aside, but use your body to block it instead. It's okay if you get somewhat hurt." He gave her the same strategy that boxers use to strengthen their knuckles.

Lady Aurora nodded firmly from a distance and took a defensive position.

Sylvester prepared for the attack. But, he had to first sit down and take some tools out of his bag. He wished to make an IED, after all.

Lady Aurora's shoulder fell, and she walked closer to him to check. "What are you even doing? I thought you'd attack."

"I am but a weaker wizard than you. You have already faced my peak strength and lived to see the day. Hence, I am left with no choice but to increase my magical strength in the hopes of causing you some real damage. This solarium explosion will greatly intensify my light--and temperature." Sylvester explained while he diligently crafted the bomb.

"Is this your wide area destruction move you talked about?" She asked him interestedly.

Sylvester shook his head. However, a scheming smile was on his face--borderline evil. "Oh, that, well... I can show you a mini version, but I will use the real one in the war! Its element of surprise is what will win us a great many things--I know it!"

Now that excited Lady Aurora like nothing else. "But first, you must win against me. Are you ready?"

Sylvester rose to his feet with the Solarium bomb in his hands. "Prepare to cry, Aurora. But never forget, I am your brother--and you shall have my shoulder to cry on forever."

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APE TOGETHER STRONG!