I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-757

"Named Johnathan?"

"You know him?" Gabriel questioned, suppressing his curious heart as much as he could. He wanted to go back and scream to Xylena and Xavia that Sylvester was back, but this matter took precedence.

Sylvester nodded but didn't elaborate. "Lord Inquisitor, Aurora, and Julius. Stand outside when this man comes. Gabriel, you stay inside with me. Let this be a minor example of what the true 'Gods' are able to do with a fraction of their power."

Immediately, the three Guardians left the office. Alone, Sylvester took a seat, calling Gabriel to do the same. They didn't talk, knowing it'd be a waste since that little moment wasn't enough to satisfy their questions.

Eventually, a knock came from the door.

"Send him in," Sylvester ordered.

The door opened, and an old man with white hair and beard entered. His clothes were more accustomed to this world, at least. With a wrinkled face and sharp eyes, the man exuded the energy of a hunter.

Sylvester recognized him, of course. He had seen that face for an entire lifetime in the mirror. "Take a seat, Johnathan."

"I was told you'd be here today," Jonathan responded and sat down beside Gabriel on the second visitor's chair. "I was curious what you looked like personally. What a cursed life."

Sylvester shared the same mindset. "Why are you here?"

"How was Diana?" Jonathan questioned back instead of answering.

"She was born thousands of years before," Sylvester answered. "Once again, it was too late to save her, to tell her any last few words. So now, tell me, why are you here? For Diana? Did they promise you that?"

"Of course, what else could drive us?" Jonathan responded and put forward a bag on the table that he had brought along. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I don't believe the promise, and even if it was the truth, I don't want it."

"Don't you want to be with Diana?" Sylvester amusedly asked. After all, it took him so many years and devastating experiences to get over her. It was impossible that his other versions would give up so easily.

Gabriel was absolutely confused by their exchange but tried to focus on it nonetheless. He knew he'd get the explanation later on. But it scared him to a degree since Johnathan appeared to have known Sylvester better than even he himself did, from the way they talked.

"Even if we do all they say, and their promise is real. Can they guarantee that it's my Diana? Not a version of her plucked from some other time and space, forced to be with me?" Jonathan said and finally took out a little dagger from his bag. "None of us ever accepted 'their' commands. We were brought here against our will, and we responded accordingly. We're intruders, and there can only be one Johnathan—for this world."

"What was the mission?"

"To kill Sylvester Maximilian. We were given all the information on you, except for the fact that I was you, and you are me, just from a different variation. We were dropped across various times throughout your life—yes, that child who tried to kill you with Moonshade Poison was one of us."

Sylvester fell silent, remembering his extremely active life. Faintly, he remembered a boy trying to kill him many years ago when he was young. It happened somewhere near Goldstown's port.

"So you're accepting that you're here to kill me?"

Johnathan chuckled and pulled out a crown this time from the bag. "All the rest of us were sent here as adults. Only he was a kid—a forever kid. He chose to die by your hands after gauging your identity."

"Gauging?"

"We were only ordered to kill Sylvester. The rest we had to find out on our own—find out why they wanted you dead. One of us watched you in Sphinx Village. Another watched you in Jartel County. We were there when you fought the Soul Eater. We heard all your hymns and witnessed your miracles.

"Your actions were textbook accurate according to us, things we would have done exactly the same. When you began inventing revolutionizing things, that was the answer to all our questions, an endpoint of our varying lives of struggles."

The entire time, Jonathan kept on taking out things: a ring, a bracelet, an earring, a monocle, a piece of stone.

Sylvester eased back into his chair, slowly thinking about life from another Johnathan's point of view. 'If I were thrown here, I'd have tried to investigate too before killing 'Sylvester', a young man who was doing nothing but good for the world. But how can every single Johnathan be the same?'

"Why can't I sense their existence then?" He questioned.

Johnathan promptly answered, "Dead."

"What about you?"

"I was tasked to wait and meet you. All of us Johnathans had come together—twenty of us. Other than investigating your origin, we also investigated the two 'gods'. You likely know more than us, but we were able to find out that only this world and the Demon World are not under the direct control of any one of the two gods," Johnathan revealed as he finished emptying the bag. "These are the artifacts we either created or discovered throughout our lives. It allows one to expand their mental comprehension beyond the physical world, and turn invisible from the eyes of the two gods."

The whole ordeal felt too charitable. Sylvester expected some type of confrontation.

"So all of you lived your entire lives for this moment? To hand me all this? Are you sure?"

"We're not supposed to be here, Sylvester." Johnathan got up from the seat, taking the dagger he had first taken out of the bag. He went to the exit door and knelt down. "From the moment we realized who you were, we knew what must be done. This isn't our story, not our reality, nor our destiny."

Sylvester also stood up, knowing what the counterpart was going to do. After all, this man him, with the same thought process.

"Where do you go now?" Sylvester questioned.

Johnathan smiled, his old wrinkly face appearing at peace. He untied his tunic so his chest was bare. "Like the rest, it's the end for me. Those artifacts number twenty in total. This dagger is what I made."

Gabriel realized what was going to happen just then and jumped up, "Stop him, Your Holiness."

Sylvester shook his head and raised his hand to stop Gabriel. "We don't change the order of nature, Gab. This is merely a correction in the order of things that was forcibly disturbed by the gods."

"Precisely." Johnathan firmly placed the dagger's tip on his chest, right where his heart was. "All of us had no regrets, no enemies, Sylvester. For some reason, they picked us just after we enacted our revenge on that traitor. We had accepted our fate already—this was a mere pointless extension."

'This could have been me.' Sylvester thought while watching. 'The only thing separating us is this body of mine.'

"This isn't my story either."

Johnathan laughed like an old man at that. "Then patiently wait for your end."

"You don't want to take my place?" Sylvester asked further.

"I don't." The dagger gently slid into Johnathan's chest. "None of us did. We were mere tourists here against our will. This one's your canvas, and you are the quill."

Sylvester chuckled, "So you learned to rhyme?"

"You're not too bad either." Despite the dagger killing him, Johnathan was able to quip. "Kill those two bastards, will you? They troubled Diana too—unacceptable."

'Is this what's most common among us? Love for Diana?' Sylvester wondered and waited for Johnathan to find his peace against the forced prison he was thrown into.

Sylvester finally thought about the entire experience, especially what Solis had said to him. 'Are all Johnathans similar?'

By then, Johnathan's heart was punctured, and he began to die rather quickly. The dagger stabbed through the lungs, too, making him cough blood. But there was no sign of fear or pain on his face.

Just an old, wise smile remaining constant.

"G-Good luck, old boy." Johnathan blurted his last words with a mouth full of blood and fell backward, his body relaxing but not hitting the ground, locked by the knees. His white beard was stained crimson, his heart stopped beating, and his lungs empty.

Sylvester walked closer to the dead body and pulled out the bloodied dagger. As if in a stupor, he stared at it without saying a word. Not even noticing Gabriel's shouting words, and shaking body.

"Why did you let him die?! He didn't tell us where Felix is!" Gabriel bellowed.

"Ha ha…" But Sylvester abruptly exploded in a burst of hysterical laughter. His face stared at the ceiling as if he could see something there, something that Gabriel could not. "So this is the reason? This is why Johnathan became Sylvester?"

He laughed even more at the two gods who were undoubtedly watching him and seething in rage or something. Their grand plans had all failed, and each time, Sylvester was the reason in one way or another.

"You failed to realize what made Johnathan Colt Westerling uncommon!" Sylvester boomed, "No version of me will ever betray himself!"

In simple words, Johnathan Colt Westerling was made to be Sylvester Maximilian.

Sylvester Maximilian was made to be the end of Aveda and Ashraska.

Thank you for reading the book. Gifts and GT votes are highly appreciated.