I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-746

"Chonky, we're inside your damn belly!"

"What?!" Miraj exclaimed in shock and looked down at himself, kneading his fat fur. "But my belly is here. How can we be inside?"

"Your belly is a dimensional space itself. It's not impossible for both of us to be inside it. Besides, this sea of gold explains it. This is the wealth we've stol—earned in my lifetime." Sylvester guessed, even if it was just a plausible theory.

With the space eels, he was able to discern that there was something around him. But now, he found himself utterly helpless, as it was just a simple, dark, empty void. The place likely had things that Miraj had eaten in his long life.

"Can't you throw us back out?" Sylvester asked.

"Uwaaa…!" Miraj began to force himself to vomit. But a stagecoach came out and floated in front of them. "I don't think so, Maxy."

All hope seemed lost, but also more questions arose. It was a fact that nothing alive lasted in Miraj's belly. So, how was he alive? He tried to use the newly learned spatial magic as well, but he couldn't even feel the space around him to be able to move in space. As far as he could feel, it was just a void of nothing. No coordinates could be felt or made out there.

"Oww… What are you doing?" Miraj suddenly yelped when Sylvester grabbed his fluffy body and started squeezing him, turning him around and looking at him carefully.

"Trying to see what you even are."

"I'm a cute little fluffy cat!"

"With wings?"

Miraj blinked rapidly, thinking vigorously. "God of cats?"

"That you might just be." Sylvester sighed and defeatedly looked around. Nothing came to his mind that could help them. At best, he could still feel solarium there, and his abilities were intact. "We have no idea about the time relativity here either. Dalgan and Zenith are trapped there as much as we are here."

He was absolutely angry. But he controlled himself to the best of his abilities and tried to think of a way out. "Start thinking, Chonky. Otherwise, we'll die here from old age."

Miraj did understand his folly and silently pondered on what to do. He knew he wasn't that smart, but since it was his own belly, he felt he should be able to do something about it. If he's able to eat themselves up, he should be able to throw up himself and Sylvester as well.

Unable to do anything, Sylvester began moving around in that darkness, leaving behind the sea of gold. He didn't even remember all the things he had made Miraj eat up all those years, and Miraj also had a life before meeting him. There ought to be a lot of things, he reckoned.

'What's that?' He finally noticed something in the great distance, appearing like a shadow against his shining body. It was massive to say the least.

"What's that?" He asked.

Miraj stopped using his ability and looked. "Hmm? That? I don't know."

"What do you mean? It's inside y—" Sylvester stopped midway as he finally saw the thing in a better light. It's just a mountain of dirt. Why did you eat so much dirt?"

"I did? When?"

Sylvester sighed and massaged his temples. It was just a simple massive pile of nothing but dirt. Formed into a cluster that was almost round like a planet. In fact, it was big enough to be called a moon.

He stepped away from the dirt mountain and continued to move aimlessly. Once again, he saw a reflection, and this time came across a huge blob of nothing but water. Deep blue and utterly clean, it was the size of an actual planet. There were also fish inside, but they were all dead, yet preserved.

Clank!

However, the next thing he found left him numb. Just as he came close to the giant structure, he felt something had struck him. On further inspection, it turned out to be a loosely packed area filled with skeletons, discarded clothes, and other personal items that were likely the possessions of those skeletons.

'I've killed plenty in my short life here, but it's definitely not this many. When did Chonky kill this many people?' He wondered in confusion and glanced at the leftover armor of the bodies. As far as he remembered, he had already used all the armor he had gained in his wars.

'These have the seal of the Church. When did Chonky massacre this many of them?' The mystery deepened, and he looked at the fluffball who was making popping noises from his mouth. 'He has partial memory loss too.'

"Oh! I feel itchy on my back again." Miraj exclaimed all of a sudden and looked at Sylvester. "Can you give me scratchies?"

Sylvester quickly lifted Chonky and patted his back. The itch was just under his wings on the lower side. He rubbed his fingers there to feel what was going on inside it. It had been years since the itch had started to develop, and the last time it gave the cat some wings.

"Hmm… I feel bone formations again," he hummed. "You're probably going to grow two more wings, Chonky."

"More? But why?"

"The question is why now." Sylvester focused more on the timing. "It started after you tried to use your abilities more than usual. Even last time, your wings appeared because you used the ability more. If I can grow by practicing my magic repeatedly, perhaps you can change, too."

"Change?" Miraj turned his head almost one-eighty and tried to look at his own back. "If I use my power more, can I grow strong?"

"It's a hypothesis. Why don't we test it out? Fly ten meters from me and open your mouth with the power activated. I'll use a continuous light beam attack and throw it at you. When you swallow it, try to direct where it goes and see if you can control the destination by bringing that beam of light here." Sylvester planned elaborately. "If you can master it, we might find a way out."

No words were spoken. Miraj flew away and sternly opened his jaws in wait. He knew punishment was coming, and this was a little attempt to avoid it. He tried to speak with his ability activated. "Thradyyy-eh!"

Sylvester raised a single finger towards Miraj and used creation magic instead of light element. Immediately, a harmless, but voluminous beam of golden-white light ushered towards the furball. He aimed it perfectly.

'It can't become an infinite loop.' Sylvester felt truly curious.

Meanwhile, Miraj watched the beam of light vanish between his jaws. His fluffy tail wagged the whole time without stopping. His eyes closed shut because of too much light. But he didn't stop trying to sense the magic.

Before, he never really bothered to feel where the things going in his belly landed. He just usually knew what was where when it came to throwing things out. But this time, he tried to do the opposite, selecting a designated area and then guiding the beam there.

"Ummm…" He hummed the whole time, his patience waning. He wasn't very patient to begin with, losing interest in things at the first sign of inconvenience. But he wanted to return home and sleep on Big Mum's lap. He didn't want to spend the rest of his time in that dark space.

His whiskers twitched, as did his invisible brows. He concentrated so hard that he already felt a headache. However, the itch on his back also increased, and it got to the point that it started to physically annoy him.

"Nnnyooo…" He roared, trying to ignore the increasing itch.

But then he sniffed and noticed something. It was a smell, so strange and yet familiar. Then he felt something hot behind him, as if burning. Once again he ignored it, but when it got too much, he just moved away from the beam and looked.

"Oh, fire… FIRE!" At first normal, he soon roared when he noticed it was his own tail burning. "Beam hit me on my booty! Nyaaaaa!"

From a distance, Sylvester watched every single aspect with his senses open. He didn't bother with panicking Miraj since he had made the fire to be unharmful. But what amused him was that Miraj was able to direct the beam of light.

It had appeared from far away in the distance behind Miraj, hitting him on his own tail. Clearly, Miraj could control it.

"Chonky, prepare for another one!" Sylvester shouted and, without warning, fired another beam.

Surprised, Miraj tried to run away from it at the start. But when the bean followed him, he just opened his jaws and tried to direct it again. This time, he was faster and highly efficient, not hitting his own tail anymore.

Woosh!

The beam entered Miraj's jaws and appeared out of nowhere just beside Sylvester. It was continuous, and when Sylvester tested it by breaking the beam a few times, the beam that appeared out of nowhere also showed the same sequence.

'It's like a portal inside his belly that opens to let items in.' He realized and looked back at Miraj. 'His mouth is a portal to a different dimension and… I don't think it's all in his belly.'

He kept going for a few more minutes before stopping the experiment and flying over to Miraj. It was time to see if they could quickly escape the void.

But he forgot the plan as soon as he reached the furball. There was something different about him, something more powerful.

"Maxy! Look at me! Look at my teeth. They are so big!" Miraj had noticed it already. "Oh, look at my back. I got two more wings."

Sylvester shook his head and flew around him, checking his body.

"No, Chonky. You grew bigger and fatter overall."

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