I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-568

Sylvester picked Miraj off of his shoulder and looked at his fluffy chubby face. "Can you eat them? Aren't they too big?"

"Fish is still fish, no?" Miraj questioned back.

Sylvester again looked down amidst the rain. The thundering illuminations from the sky clearly revealed the gigantic and mysterious size of the creatures. And their ship was firmly planted on one creature's back.

"If you manage to eat this, I'll give you ten bananas," Sylvester quickly offered.

Miraj's eyes shined with delight. "Understood, Maxy!"

Without hesitation, Sylvester leaped from the ship and landed on the creature's stiff, shell-like back. It was like a turtle's shell, with layers of seashells and natural formations. It looked and felt like a giant rock.

"Max! What in the world are you doing? Get back here!" Felix's voice echoed from the ship.

Sylvester gave a thumbs-up without uttering a reply. Instead, he crouched down and placed Miraj on the ground. But before letting Miraj try and devour it, he attempted to understand what the thing was. And the easiest way to do it was to use Elder Magic and manipulate the Solarium in his body to enter the creature and check its biology.

Given the creature's enormous size, Sylvester held little hope, but there was no harm in at least trying it. He closed his eyes and let his Solarium feel through the creature's body. The invisible particles of magic searched through the parts and reacted to various things.

"It's at least on the same physical level as a Diamond Knight," Sylvester concluded. "And it has a magical affinity with the water element, likely on par with an Archwizard."

Sylvester evaluated the creature's threat level. From that, it was clear that he could kill the thing with ease without breaking a sweat. However, he allowed Miraj to try his luck. "Chonky, go ahead."

Miraj nodded and quickly slapped his mouth on the creature's back. Like the trunk of an elephant taking in the water, Miraj opened his mouth wide. He activated his magical ability—the void of infinite space opened up with its irresistible pull.

Woosh!

The creature began to shake violently as if trying to fight the strange pull on its back. Meanwhile, the second creature that was behind it also reacted and slapped the sea surface furiously, while also swimming in circles around the creature Sylvester was on.

"Eeeee…"

The second creature generated a loud sound, similar to whales, but this one had much more base and depth. It was so loud that even the air seemed to vibrate in response.

Miraj persisted, taking a considerable amount of time. However, his ability seemed to be having an effect, considering the creatures' reactions.

"Eeeee…!"

Just then, a third whale-like call sounded, and Sylvester looked behind. This was a third creature, but much smaller than the first two. It reacted the same way as the second one, and swam around while crying, causing massive waves in the ocean with its colossal body.

"STOP!" Sylvester abruptly pulled Miraj up.

"Fwooo… Fwooo…" Miraj's mouth was still pouting in an 'O' shape, but he stopped using his ability. "Maxy, don't steal my banana… I was just about to gobble it up!"

Sylvester placed Miraj on his shoulder. "You'll still get your bananas. I know you can eat it. But Chonky, I think these three creatures are a family. That little one in the back is probably the offspring of these two. You were about to eat one of the parents—Let's not kill one and leave the other two sad."

Miraj rubbed his chubby chin with a paw. "Oh, then I eat all three! Nobody will be sad."

"..."

"That's an option, but no." Sylvester tried to impart some important lessons. "When there's no need for violence, we shouldn't use violence. That's rule number one of being too strong. Let's just move the ship and go. I'm sure these guys were unintentional."

Miraj looked down, deep in thought. "So no chop-chop heads when talk-talk is good?"

"Yes, that's what civilized people do. Talk first, and if things still don't work out, then you hit them." Sylvester replied and walked toward the ship to push it onto the water.

It was as easy as moving a feather for Sylvester, so in no time, the three-mast elven ship was on the water again. The storm had passed by, but unfortunately, another one was on the horizon.

Finally, he patted the creature's back, jumped over onto the ship, and continued their voyage. There was no need to kill everything they came across. After all, they were the visitors in these waters, not the other way around.

"Eeee…!"

Just as they moved away, the three giant creatures, capable of swallowing them without a second thought, made happy whale-like noises. The team had no idea what they meant. It was just Chonky who said the creatures were happy—to have escaped him.

Apparently, in a sea filled with eldritch monsters, the apex predator turned out to be a small cat who loved bananas, naps, Maxy, and his big mum.

Unfortunately, their peace didn't last long. Just a few hours later, another monstrosity appeared to take interest in them. This time it was even bigger, on a scale they couldn't even imagine how it could be alive.

"Max! It's a giant octopus!" Felix roared from his post in the ship's crow's nest.

The storm had returned, the sea roiled violently, and the sky was the same. But they were stuck in a massive whirlpool in the ocean, slowly being sucked to the center. However, the whirlpool wasn't natural. A gigantic octopus with over a hundred tentacles had caused the vortex.

The octopus was currently upside down in the water and used its massive tentacles, each as high as the Mount Primis, to create a whirlpool. The octopus was spinning inside the water itself, with its gigantic mouth in the center, looking like a dark abyss.

"This feels… otherworldly," Shadow Knight commented while still calmly sitting at the ship's bow.

Meanwhile, Sylvester, Felix, and Dagorith ran around, trying to control the ship. However, they were getting very annoyed by now.

"It thinks we're fish! It's trying to eat us!" Sylvester shouted back, as it made the most logical sense. The creature was just doing what it knew the best. "I'll deal with it."

With annoyance, Sylvester jumped in the air, as his next move could destroy the ship. He used Light Tiles to walk over to the center of the whirlpool and then summoned his magic. He rarely had to go all out, but he appreciated the chance to do so now.

"We're not enemies!" Sylvester roared as he raised his palm toward the sky. He used the abundant natural element there—water.

Water surged from below, merging into liquid masses, and collected itself into a massive sphere over Sylvester's palm. The sphere continued to grow bigger and bigger until it eclipsed the creature's entire mouth, which alone had a radius of at least a kilometer.

Once Sylvester felt satisfied, he turned the water sphere into a massive waterspout on his palm, and at that moment, it looked like a gigantic rod. He stopped and turned it into solid, freezing ice.

He then used the massive ice rod and swung it down with intense force.

BOOM!

Water violently splashed around, and the sound was comparable to thunder. The octopus bore the brunt of several blows until its massive tentacles sank into the ocean, and it completely disappeared. However, the game wasn't over, as the octopus resurfaced, its six eyes scanning its surroundings to see what had attacked it.

Its head was so huge that one could call it a mountain. Its one eye alone was bigger than their whole ship. But Sylvester had an enormous ice stick, and he wasn't ashamed of using it.

"Stay down! We're not food." Sylvester swung it down again, striking the octopus right on top of its blob-like head in the center. The hit was so strong that a massive red mark was left behind, and the blob-head caved in at the middle.

"WRAAAA!" The octopus seethed in rage and tried to attack Sylvester with its countless tentacles.

But Sylveste swung the ice stick once again.

BONK!

He persisted, relentlessly until every ounce of anger and defiance was gone from the creature's massive eyes. It took a few minutes, but eventually, the lesson was firmly embedded in the creature's mind.

Finally, the octopus slipped back into the sea, watching from a distance as the ship sailed away from the area. It certainly wasn't a great day for the mighty creature of the sea.

Sylvester landed back on the ship, releasing the ice rod. He clapped his hands clean and took the helm again, "Correct the course—We need to go East, not Northeast!"

Felix, Dagorith, Sir Dolorem, and even Shadow Knight stared at Sylvester for a few moments. They had never witnessed such a non-violent and yet so violent battle before. The scale was massive, and the beating was deserved, yet they somehow felt bad for the octopus because of the humiliation.

"You just smacked it to submission," Felix exclaimed.

Sylvester shrugged. "If we start killing every creature we meet on our journey, I'm afraid this ocean will turn red."

"Wisely spoken. They're simple-minded creatures, acting on instinct," Sir Dolorem sided with Sylvester.

"Let's use air elemental crystals and increase our speed," Sylvester proposed to hasten their journey.

After all, only two months were left until the Chief of Anti-Light's deadline. He had to claim the throne at all costs now. No more detours, no more traveling around.

Either he was going to become the Pope, or die trying.

Extra:

Such humiliation, or so thought the mighty Emperor of the Sea, the giant octopus who got smacked to submission. Just minding his own business, swallowing all the fish in the vicinity, and out of nowhere came the tasteless heap of wood.

It wasn't his fault it got caught in the whirlpool, thought the gigantic creature. He watched the ship drift away slowly but also noticed the massive white stick thrown off into the ocean that now sailed with the waves.

Curious and angered, the Emperor of the Sea went closer and took a look. Using dozens of its tentacles, he tried to pick it up and succeeded in doing so. But his noodle arms, albeit massive, weren't that strong.

BAM!

He lost grip, and the stick fell on his head once again, in the same place.

"Wreee…!"

It hurt, and he got angry. But then a light bulb lit up, and he realized the massive opportunity. The weapon of the mighty had now fallen into his hands. With it, defeating the other Emperors of the Sea was going to be a breeze—with it, he could be the God of the Sea instead.

Bubbles of excitement came from the massive octopus' mouth, and he took the giant ice stick with him to battle against his first and greatest foe, the giant eel.

"Wrererere…" It giggled along the way, dragging the stick with him.

Sadly, it was only going to be a momentary happiness, as the ice had already started to melt. While he swam with dreams of triumph, he had no idea the humiliation that was headed his way.

The giant stick may have hit his body, but the greatest injury was yet to befall him—the injury to his pride.

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