I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-674

Boom!

For the nth time, the massive asteroid blasted into pieces. It wasn't a satisfactory result since he was supposed to destroy it layer by layer, slowly, while feeling its existence. It wasn't easy, however, since his immensely enhanced fire elemental affinity overpowered everything, raising his destructiveness.

"Balance your elements. The same force that can unmake can also rebuild. Everything that is before you is built from the same energy that powers your magic. Solarium is a real thing, but it is merely another name for the energy that surrounds all, be it a void or a space full of life—this invisible energy powers everything," Nehilius taught him with words of advice from time to time.

Sylvester grunted and tried it again as the asteroid quickly returned to its previous shape. Every single time, he attempted to do things differently, but nothing seemed to work. And in Nehilius' words, this was something he had to learn on his own.

"When you are unaware, it seems impossible. But a moment will arrive when you will suddenly feel aware—and everything will make sense," Nehilius added, clearly stating he couldn't help.

Sylvester kept at it, thinking about what it was that was supposed to make sense to him. Again and again, he tried his best, and in the end, the asteroid always blew apart with the slightest flare of magic from him.

'Calm down—I have mastered Elder Magic in six years. This shouldn't be too hard. What is it that I need to understand?' Sylvester tried to keep his cool.

With a deep breath that drew on the vacuum itself, he extended his hands. A fiery flame leapt from his palms, streaking toward the asteroid. The impact was cataclysmic, a silent explosion of light and heat, and the asteroid fractured, its ancient unity cast asunder into a million shards of stone. This was better as it didn't explode but broke apart.

Now, he decided to try and bring it all together. He reached out again, this time not with force but with a gentle coaxing. Elemental magic surged, a delicate dance of earth, air, fire, and water weaving through the void. Shards of the asteroid began to drift together, aligning with tentative slowness.

Sweat formed on Sylvester's brow, each droplet instantly freezing in the void as he struggled to maintain the balance. The shards shivered, some spinning back into the darkness, others colliding with a chime that reverberated through space. His face twisted in frustration as the asteroid remained stubbornly deconstructed.

"Patience," Nehilius's voice echoed again. "Creation is a symphony, not a command. You must be both the conductor and a part of the symphony."

"Alright," Sylvester muttered and focused deeply, slowly coming to the realization that he didn't need to use elemental magic, but rather his simple control over solarium, the invisible particle. That was enough.

For hours, or perhaps years—it mattered little in the void—Sylvester toiled. His initial clumsy, forceful attempts softened into a graceful melding of power and patience. Piece by piece, the asteroid reformed, becoming whole once more. It was not perfect; craters were misshapen, and valleys were shallower than before, but it was whole.

Crack!

"Aaargh!" Just when he thought he succeeded, the asteroid broke into pieces again, and it wasn't repaired perfectly.

Exhausted, Sylvester let his arms fall to his sides. He gazed at his work, a failure, but he learned a few new things.

"This is going to take time… I wonder what everyone else is doing outside."

'Let's try a different approach this time.'

…

"It's been eight days. I miss Maxy." Miraj sat in Xavia's lap, bathing in the sunlight as the woman didn't go to work that day and stayed with him. "Scold him when he comes back, Big Mum."

Xavia chuckled, caressing Miraj's fluffy hair, although she couldn't see him. "I sure will, Lord Chonky. Oh—your wings are so soft."

"Hehe, of course they are. I lick them clean every morning and before bed. Oh, oh, why don't I fly you out? Let's go to Pope's Phallus."

"..."

"Palace, you mean Palace. But I'm scared of heights, so even if we go, let's not fly." Xavia got up and donned her simple Bright Mother robes before locking the house and going out. Thankfully for the reinsman of her personal carriage, his life was far better than Sylvester's carriage reinsman.

She got in and soon arrived at the massive Palace under which Sylvester was training secretly. She didn't want to disturb him and kept herself restrained. However, that wasn't possible for the second-highest-ranked Bright Mother and the blood mother of the Pope.

"High Mother!" The knights standing guard outside the Palace knelt down quickly.

High Mother was what they called her ever since Sylvester became the Pope. Just being the woman who gave birth to a Pope was enough to grant her the honor of a lifetime. But in her case, she was also an amazing Bright Mother. However, they chose to only call her High Mother and not Great Mother since the latter was an official designation.

"High Mother!" The herald standing at the door noticed her entering the Holy Court. "Should I announce your arrival?"

She still wasn't used to this much respect. It felt out of place when men thousands of times stronger than she knelt and showed fanatic respect. "Please don't. I only came here as a spectator from the stands."

"Ah, then let me call my assistant. He will guide you to the seat nearest to His Eminence, Saint Sandwall."

She didn't object to it since the special seats would keep her hidden, allowing her to talk with Miraj.

"It's empty," Miraj chirped, looking left and right. "Hehe—As expected, Fe-Fe can't beat Maxy. The court isn't even half filled."

Xavia chuckled and watched as the proceedings went on. She rarely ever came to the Holy Court, so this was new to her. The way people had lined outside with various large boxes was peculiar, and she wondered what was inside.

Thud! Thud!

The guards at the gate stomped on their feet to alert the court that the next pilgrim was entering. Just then, a man entered with two others behind him, both carrying massive wooden crates on their backs.

Felix watched the three men enter from the throne of the Pope. Of course, he didn't have the same authority as the Supreme Pontiff, but it was enough to oversee most of the daily tasks. Not that he liked the job, as it contained him to one seat for hours at a stretch.

'Damn you, Max. It's been eight days already. When are you coming back?'

"Woody Wilbert greets Saint Viceman." The pilgrim finally reached the bottom of the stairs to the Pope's throne. "I am a simple inventor who was inspired by the magnificent books that his holiness wrote. I wished to show this to His Holiness, but I am running out of funds to stay in the Guild Peninsula, so I implore you to allow me to show my invention, Your Eminence."

'Fuck! Not a big-headed one again. I didn't understand half of the things they say,' Felix cursed in his head but smiled outside.

"What kind of invention have you made?" He asked.

The man was old, with almost balding hair and some semblance of white hair. His eyes were dark and sunken, his body thin. Even when he spoke, his entire body trembled. "Your Eminence, when I was young, my village would always suffer from water scarcity. There was never enough to drink, let alone bathe.

"So, after I read through His Holiness' new book about chemistry and physics, I came up with this solution to filter any sort of water into drinkable water. It uses a semi-permeable membrane, which is a thin biological material that allows certain molecules to pass through it more easily than others."

The man set up his machine and powdered it with heat crystals. Only water needed to be pumped, after all. The machine looked like a large metal container with an inlet and outlet, and on the inlet side was a bucket of dirty water filled with sand, while on the other side was an empty bucket.

"Your Eminence, semipermeable membranes are used for reverse osmosis, where an applied pressure selectively forces water from a solution through the membrane, to separate it from the solute—look!"

Excitedly, Woody Wilbert pumped in water from one side, and the other side showed clean water coming out.

"Is that all? It's just water that a wizard can make with a wave of his hand," Felix commented abruptly.

Woody frowned, desperately getting closer to the stairs. "But Your Eminence, the number of wizards in the world is nowhere enough to quench everyone's thirst. There are still villages in the west where not a single well holds clean water. People die there of stomach disease every day."

'Ugh, I spoke too early,' Felix regretted his abrupt question and remembered Sylvester's teachings. 'Alright, I should think of myself as a commoner without magic when sitting here. In that case, this is quite priceless.'

"Oh, I meant to ask how scalable this invention is. How many can you make? Can you make them smaller? If the Church invests in your business, can you fulfill our needs?"

"We can!" Woody knelt down excitedly. "I have bought land near the new Green City, Your Eminence. As soon as I have the funds, I can start mass-producing this machine."

"Good. The realm will not forget your contribution. Your further stay will be sponsored by the Church, so wait for His Holiness to evaluate your invention later," Felix tried to act diplomatically, keeping himself in control.

Thud! Thud!

Soon after, the herald announced another entry. But this time, it was a string of names, and even the herald's voice seemed to crack, which was very rare.

'Which noble is it no—' Felix shut his mouth when he saw the arrivals.

"Women?!" He exclaimed in surprise.

Eight of them, walking in revealing robes and confidence oozing from their charming forms.

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