I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-618

[A/N: Sorry, a long one.]

Boom!

The avalanches bombarded Sylvester. However, a single slice from his Light Sword turned everything into steam before it could touch him. He never lost his way or allowed the snow to cover his path. He kept his focus on the scents and walked closer to what he guessed was an entrance. A cave entrance was hidden behind a sheet of snow.

"Chonky, start sniffing for the scent of blood," Sylvester ordered.

Quickly, Miraj stood up on Sylvester's head and began moving his nose around, making loud sounds from his intense sniffs.

"Maxy! I hear something!" Miraj's fluffy tail stood straight. "Dig down!"

"Down? But the cave entrance is ahead." Sylvester asked, unsure if Miraj was right this time.

Miraj's little ears twitched. "Umm… I think there's something down here. Just make a hole, Maxy."

Sylvester looked down and plunged his sword without further question. There was no point in doubting Miraj too much, so he attempted to create a hole as suggested. He quickly reached the hard rocks and, from there, easily melted away the surface to make a path.

Slowly, he kept going deeper, and surprisingly, the surface became easier to drill into. The heat radiating from his blade quickly created a meter-wide tunnel, a perfect circle going down.

"We're close!" Miraj chirped.

'A cavern underneath? If the entrance is ahead, then this should be a shortcut,' Sylvester thought, preparing himself to battle at a moment's notice.

The sizzling sound of the stones melting continued to spread. His feet sank in slowly, expecting to fall down at any moment. He didn't wear any powerful armor since it was all useless in a battle against a Supreme Wizard. No material could withstand what he was about to do.

"Right there," Miraj meowed.

Boom!

Right then, Sylvester felt his feet plunge into emptiness. With that, the entire thin crust crumbled apart, and he fell into the underground dark cavern. Without wasting a moment, he formed Light Tiles beneath his feet, and they illuminated the surroundings on their own.

He immediately realized how massive was the cavern they were in. Even his Light Tiles couldn't illuminate all of it, and he had no idea how far down the ground was. He only noticed there were a lot of stalactites around him, huge and sharp.

Sniff! Sniff!

"They're down there." Miraj alerted him with his sniffs.

Sylvester quickly started making his way down while communicating mentally with the Lord Inquisitor and guiding them on how to enter the place. Cautiously, he tried to keep all of his surroundings covered with his senses.

"I'm here, Julius!" Sylvester shouted.

'That way,' he corrected his course toward the scent.

It took a few minutes, but he eventually saw the cave floor covered in stalagmites as tall as buildings. Instead of stepping down between them, he walked above them with his magic. The darkness was a problem, so he changed the composition of his Light Sword and made it shine.

In an instant, he could see much farther ahead. And right at the edge of the light before him, he noticed what he was looking for. Not in the condition he wanted to, nor with the man he hoped to.

At the edge, between Sylvester's flickering light and the cavern's enveloping darkness, a man appeared, kneeling and shirtless. His entire body was covered in hundreds of deep scratch wounds. Eyes bloodshot red, almost shining, with dark black circles underneath them. He was barefoot, his pants torn around his lower legs. Julius looked like a caveman with his long, unkempt beard and hair.

But what worried Sylvester was the stripped, bloodied man tied to a stalagmite behind him. His bleeding eyes seemed damaged, almost as if they were non-existent. The rest of the body was covered with deep gashes, and a few fingers were missing.

"Bloodrain!!" Sylvester shouted for the tied man.

"Your H-Holiness?!" Bloodrain reacted to the voice, painfully so. "Leave… Let this be my end!"

Sylvester had no clue why the man was saying such a thing. Bloodrain was a proud man with unwavering respect for the faith. "Why must this be your end? Julius, release Guardian Bloodrain and cease your actions. I fulfilled our bet and became the Pope within a year!"

The Chief of Anti-light, Julius Aurelius Alexander, didn't move. His bloodshot eyes kept glaring at Sylvester, with his hatred seeping out with such intense scent that Sylvester almost noticed a hint of bitterness from death.

'I need to de-escalate this.'

"I know why you agreed to help me in Masan," Sylvester began, taking small steps closer. "By killing all of Masan's Grand Wizards, you weakened me instead of helping me. You took away any chance I had to gain their allegiance—twenty grand wizards! You reduced my chance of becoming the Pope with their help. But you didn't expect your wager would backfire, and I'd become the Pope despite everything against me."

'No change in his emotions,' Sylvester found himself in a pickle. 'A fight seems inevitable.'

"Why have you tortured Lord Bloodrain like this? What did he do to you?" He questioned, at least trying to find answers to the strange situation.

"You will never understand." Finally, Julius spoke and stood up. His chest heaved with long breaths, wild fury taking over him. His fist clenched so hard that his palms began to bleed, but it looked like the man was trying to hold himself back. "Leave, Bard—I have no desire to kill you."

"Not without Bloodrain," Sylvester insisted, practically inviting the man to fight. "I have lost too much and need experts like him."

"So you stand with a sinner? The butcher of innocents?" Julius growled, fuming with anger. "You choose to stand with the wrong side of history?"

Sylvester continued to walk forward, "If you don't tell me, I can't imagine what history you're talking about."

"YOUR FAITH!" Julius abruptly boomed, his emotions driving him. "That night, my village merely refused to entertain your Inquisitors. We refused to feed them or entertain them when we were barely surviving in the harsh winter. But your faith deemed us heathens—your loyal Inquisitors still stormed through, enraged and out for blood."

"Blackrock?!" Sylvester suddenly exclaimed. The story Aurora once told him echoed in his head, the story that had led to Bloodrain blinding himself in repentance and as a reminder of his mistake.

"They burned everything! Pillaged, raped daughters in front of fathers, wives in front of their husbands, and mothers in front of their sons—they killed slowly, tormenting everyone for days, just for their amusement. I—the village chief, they spared to tell the tale!" Unbridled rage consumed Julius' mind, clouding everything. He, too, began to walk toward Sylvester, his eyes revealing a semblance of tears. "Your faith is demonic! Bloodrain, the commander of the Inquisitors, still lives—why?"

'He's… blinded by thirst for revenge.' Sylvester clenched his Light Sword firmly, 'I know this feeling all too well.'

"Bloodrain wasn't there. Nor did he hide the crime. He hunted each one of those thousand Inquisitors down and publically killed them—he destroyed his eyes to remind himself of his oversight forever," Sylvester tried to argue. "You have no more enemies left to kill, Julius. Your battle is with your own mind."

"Aaaaaa!" Julius abruptly roared and flew headfirst faster than Sylvester could react. "Tell that to my son! Tell that to my daughter! Tell my wife! You can't—because they were murdered!"

Boom!

Julius struck Sylvester's chest and grabbed his waist. He never stopped flying and soon began to slam Sylvester onto the stalagmites, as big as large buildings. The trail of destruction shook the entire cavern like a large earthquake, and at last, they reached the cavern walls.

"No mercy for killers!" Julius roared, abandoning any semblance of holding back. He picked up speed and struck the massive, thick cavern walls inside the mountain.

"Gah!" Sylvester's back cracked in several places as he was slammed into the walls. But it didn't stop him as the massive force created a large hole. Julius kept pushing him, creating a tunnel.

"I'll kill anyone who stands in my way!"

Boom!

Woosh!

Sylvester felt the cold air brush his face, and he looked around. Finally, they were out of the trembling mountain, flying through the air. He kept his teeth clenched as the pain was unbearable, but this wasn't the end of the fight, merely the start of his plan. 'They should have gotten Bloodrain by now.'

"Haaaa!" Sylvester gathered his strength and locked his hands together. Then, he hammered his combined fist at Julius' back, using his peak Platinum Knight power. "Open your damn eyes!"

A deafening, loud thump echoed in the desolate mountains. Julius was thrown down from the sky, crashing onto a smaller mountain with such force that the peak flattened upon impact, forming numerous avalanches in the deadly endless wilderness of the north.

'Good thing my body can withstand this,'' Sylvester prayed in gratitude to Solis and Nehilius for all the help. 'Now to knock some senses into him.'

Woosh!

Julius wasn't harmed. He flew up toward him at a speed too rapid, even for Sylvester. But this time, Sylvester dodged by a hair's breadth. This was Julius' advantage. He was a Supreme Wizard and could fly.

"Don't stand in my way!" Julius roared and formed a massive Black Orb of pure dark magical energy on the palm over his head. Black thunder crackled around the entire orb and seemingly tried to pull everything into as if it were a black hole.

'Is that a real black hole?' Sylvester wondered and prepared himself in worry.

"Leave!" Julius finally released the massive black orb toward Sylvester. It didn't approach slowly–in fact, it moved even faster than his flight speed.

"Aaaargh!" Sylvester soon realized it was more than a black hole. It tried to eat his energy and rip his skin apart, with the black thunder holding his physical body back for maximum effect from pulling force. "Dark magic… can't harm me!"

Sylvester gritted his teeth and formed the Light Sword in his hands. He didn't bother giving it a physical texture, allowing it to remain in the form of pure shining light. However, he made it bigger this time, tens of meters in length—all so he could reach the orb.

His eyes glowed red, and the halo formed behind his head as well. Elder Runes formed around the massive Light Sword and began reinforcing the magic. If the Black Orb was a black hole, Sylvester's sword became a gigantic sun that spread soothing warmth.

"Haaaa!" Sylvester swung the blade at last, aiming to hit the orb.

"You thought I would stop?" Julius appeared on Sylvester's left and tried to stab his neck with a claw made of dark energy. "I will kill you if I must."

"You can't!" Sylvester began humming under his breath, and a golden translucent sphere formed around his body.

Boom!

Julius's claw struck the shield and couldn't go through. It amazed the man, but in his frenzied state, instead of standing back and thinking of a plan, he started pounding the shield like a madman.

Bam!

Bam!

Sylvester knew he couldn't keep up with such a drain on his solarium. He pushed his Light Sword at the Black Orb that was still headed toward him. The orb was hard to pierce, but he gave it his all, gritting his teeth, with veins popping up all over his face, arms, and neck. A few even burst under pressure, covering his entire body with blood.

'I need a moment of relief from him to attack the orb first.'

"NOW!"

Boom!

Right behind Julius, out of thin air, a beam of white light materialized and struck him in the back. It contained Sylvester's peak attack and pushed the man aside, even if it couldn't harm him entirely.

"Enough!" Sylvester found an opportunity, kicked the Light Tile under his feet, and pushed forward at the Black Orb. With the Light Sword, he pierced the blackness right in the middle and seemingly split it apart, canceling the dark magic with his light.

Grrrr!

The Black Orb, although split apart, didn't lose its energy. The two sides of the orb fell down and destroyed the landscape in a slow, mind-numbing fury. Eating up everything it touched, be it hills, mountains, or trees—only gigantic craters formed. Mount Primis itself appeared to lose half of its side.

'This would have killed me if not for light magic,' Sylvester sucked in a cold breath.

"You!" Julius approached Sylvester again, ready to strike.

But this time, Sylvester was ready with a counter since he was already exerting himself to the fullest. "Haaaa!"

Sylvester swung his monstrously large Light Sword at the man, which continued to grow longer. His blade touched a few mountain peaks and sliced through them, causing deafening destruction. But the trajectory never faltered, heading straight for Julius.

CLACK!

"Ugh!" Sylvester frowned. The blade was caught by Julius with a single hand, not even throwing him off his flight path. "I understand you, Julius! Stop this!"

Lost in his arrogant, mindless rage, Julius stared at Sylvester while holding the Light Sword's edge with his hand, seemingly unaffected by the light magic. "The pain of losing your family right before your eyes and being helpless to do anything—You will never understand my anger and pain, Sylvester Maximilian!"

Sylvester gritted his teeth, hoping his next actions would do something. His Light Sword slowly started to turn into ropes made of solidified light itself. Without letting Julius feel any change in his hand, the ropes began to encircle him, slowly coming closer to tighten their grip.

"The emptiness in your heart, the sensation of something eating you inside. The self-loathing!" Sylvester replied, being completely honest by letting his own experiences speak. "The infinite questions in your mind, imagining what you could have done—I do understand that, Julius."

The Light Ropes finally knitted themselves close enough for the final squeeze.

Julius had yet to realize it, however. His eyes flickered for a split second, showing he did understand the pain in Sylvester's words, "Then move aside and let me finish what I intended—Let me have my revenge."

"Hah!" Sylvester painfully chuckled as a beautiful smiling face flashed before his eyes, "Even after revenge, it doesn't get better, Julius… You'll never forget the faces, the words, the voices, the emotions—that hopeless emptiness in your heart never goes away."

Creak!