I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-762

When the rest of the Council realized that Sylvester was going back to the Demon World, they decided to stay the night and wait till he left. Once again, they felt a little worried about this new excursion, but Sylvester made sure they felt confident.

"Raz, Julius, try to use your strongest ability on me." Sylvester stood at the terrace and challenged the two strongest members of the faith. "Don't worry, you won't be able to harm any part of me."

Julius and Raz looked at each other first and came to a tacit understanding with a nod. They had done this before as well, to test the true extent of Sylvester's abilities. So they proceeded the same way and prepared their best attacks.

Julius raised both his palms towards Sylvester. Raz did the same, but his hands aimed at the ground Sylvester stood on. A few bone spurs also protruded out of his back, aiming to strike Sylvester physically as well.

"Proceed anytime you want to." Sylvester kept his hands locked behind his back, like an old man on a stroll in the park.

There were also witnesses. Almost everyone that came to the dinner had come up on the terrace for fresh air. More Bright Mothers had soon joined in order to meet Sylvester after so long.

Everyone waited for something to happen. Eventually, a minute passed, and Julius stopped keeping his arms raised. A frown garnished his face as he looked down at his palms. The same was the case for Raz, unable to cast any sort of attack.

Sylvester smiled from the distance, "As you can see, I've stopped you from creating magic with your body. It's utterly simple since magic is nothing but a reaction between the solarium in nature and the solarium in your body. By stopping nature from reacting to you, I've rendered you useless."

"In other words, you've become nature itself?" Questioned Aurora from a distance. She had no ego in asking Sylvester questions after having seen him grow from being a little boy in the School of Dawn to this. The speed was so fast that his childhood felt like a memory of yesterday.

"I suppose something beyond that," Sylvester answered, and pointed towards the sky. "How many moons are there?"

"Two," Aurora, Xavia, Ella, and many others answered at the same time.

"Are you sure?" Sylvester asked again and pointed up, "Look again."

Thud!

Gabriel fell down on his back, and many others stumbled and sat down silently. Even Julius and Raz joined the rest in gazing up. Speechless with racing hearts, they felt incredibly overwhelmed by this display of might.

No explosions, no destructive moves. The show was silent, and yet so godly.

"H-How? How can you make an entire new moon? Won't it harm our world's climate, sea waves?" Gabriel questioned, aware of the intricate science behind nature. "It looks bigger than the original two too."

"To be completely honest, I feel the same." Sylvester joined them on the floor. "My powers may be boundless now. I haven't gotten used to them yet. It feels unreal, like a dream you can't wake up from. I can make suns, planets, moons, and entire universes with a simple thought… yet it feels like nothing… empty."

"Universes?" Lord Inquisitor exclaimed, his voice raised high. First time anyone had ever heard him like that. "His Holiness has risen beyond humanity? The laws of nature are now mere vanity?"

Sylvester nodded and stood up again. He looked towards the sea, at the Golden Peninsula where the Magna Sanctum temple stood tall with the Orb of Purity inside it. "That's right, Lord Inquisitor."

"Yet weaker than the Primordial Gods?" The old Inquisitor continued. "Of our victory, what are the odds?"

Sylvester candidly replied, "There are no odds. How can you measure chances when you don't know the extent of your enemy's powers? They probably know my past, present, and the future."

"Yet you stand," Julius chimed in, being old and wise in his own right. "What's holding them back?"

"Fear of the unknown. My existence wasn't something they planned, Julius. And nothing happens in any reality without their will," Sylvester answered, raising his hands towards the Golden Peninsula. "They were behind the death of the first Pope. They were behind the vile roots of this church… Roots that I shall destroy now."

Boom!

In the distance, a bright, gigantic explosion resonated. The shockwave was so powerful they all felt it on the rooftop. The mushroom cloud was also grand, illuminating the sky so brightly that it felt as if the sun had risen.

But instead of a sun, it was like a moon—a massive orb of pure white energy, shining bright and deadly. If released out of the confines of the temple premises made to contain its destructive energies, it could kill every creature in the Holy Land and half of Gracia region with its suppressive energy.

But Sylvester easily contained it in an invisible ball of his own energy.

"Let this be a new start for this faith," Sylvester proclaimed and pulled the orb towards himself, and made it hover above the building. Slowly, he began absorbing its energies since it was nothing but a huge, concentrated cluster of solarium. "When I return, let there be free will—true free will."

The wind picked up speed across the Holy Land, turning into a little storm. Their clothes fluttered in the wind as the huge orb lost its size and, in the end, all of its light.

'Once a fear object, now like a tiny drop of water in the ocean,' Sylvester muttered, comparing the orb with the energies he already had in his body.

"Empress Zenith, Dalgan, let's take you back." Sylvester readied himself to make the journey at last. "No need to wait till morning."

"I don't wish to return," Dalgan suddenly spoke up. "There's nothing waiting for me back home. I have lost my family, and my son is a man of his own now."

Empress Zenith didn't like that and grabbed Dalgan by the collar of his robes, "What are you saying? I need good men like you back home, Dalgan. I can't trust the Supreme Commanders."

Her words shocked Dalgan, "And you can trust me? But I betrayed you, Your Majesty. I joined the Prince's side."

"I don't care what happened in the past. My sister was the Empress back then, but now it's me, and I need you to help me serve our world better." Zenith requested sternly, "If you live here, you'll be wasting your talents. Look at yourself, Dalgan. You don't look human, nor an elf, or a dragon."

There was truth in that. Dalgan even had an extra pair of eyes. But in the end, the man looked at Sylvester.

"If you're worried about the promise you made, you don't have to. In fact, I would like you to help Empress Zenith to run your world better," Sylvester requested. "You'll be doing me a great favor by preserving the last Empress' legacy."

Dalgan sighed and looked down.

"I'll get you married to a fine lady back home. Don't worry, and just start a new family," Zenith added, luring him.

But, the man was old, a General who had served for a long time. "I have no such desires, Your Majesty. But I will join if that's what the Pope wants."

Sylvester clapped at that, "In that case, let's not waste any time and head to the Darkpit Sea. Chonky, let's go."

He walked over to Xavia and hugged her tightly. For a few moments, he didn't let her go and whispered something into her ears that pushed her eyes to tear up uncontrollably. She didn't whimper and just hugged him back tightly.

After that, Sylvester gave Gabriel a hug, and finally, Isabella. Promising her to bring Felix back in a day.

"May the Holy Light enlighten us." Sylvester looked at all the Guardians and Council members.

Thud!

All of them saluted him back and replied in one single, mingled voice.

"We are enlightened."

'That's new. When did they start doing this?'

Sylvester didn't mind their strange goodbye and called the two demons to stand behind him. Knowing what needed to be done, Zenith and Dalgan placed their palms on his shoulder. Miraj also came flying and landed tightly in Sylvester's embrace.

Snap!

And just like that, their figures vanished from the terrace. Was it flying? Was it teleporting? None there had any idea. Sylvester had become an existence that was officially way above their pay grade.

"Why did you salute Father like that?" Ella went over to Aurora and asked. "Isn't that the wrong way?"

"It's something we decided to do previously. In our eyes, Sylvester is the Holy Light that enlightens us now." Aurora smiled, taking Ella's little hand to walk towards Xavia, whose eyes were still wet. "What did he say to make you cry?"

Xavia wiped her eyes clean and smiled. "H-He thanked me… for bringing him into this world."

…

Snap!

"This's the portal." Sylvester hovered in the air above the massive hole in the middle of the Darkpit Sea. Yes, it was still nighttime, but Sylvester made his own body illuminate with such light that the entire hole and hundreds of miles around it were visible to them as if it were day. "Let's go in."

"Wait, are you sure?" Zenith questioned, "I don't feel any energies resembling my world coming from it. It should have them if it's a portal."

Her words held some truth. So Sylvester checked the entire sea again and noticed something peculiar. "Strange, those mutated creatures used to flock to this place and circle it in layers. But now they all seem to maintain distance… as if…. They're frightened."

Zenith tried to step away from Sylvester, but she didn't know how to fly. "I don't think we should jump in there."

'She's scared?' Sylvester smelled her fear. 'Is it because of the recent experience?'

"Empress Zenith, don't be scared by how it looks. I can feel that this hole is still a portal to somewhere. You witnessed my powers before, so have faith in me. Even if we don't end up in your world, I know how to make a way back here," he reassured her.

Dalgan patted the Empress' shoulder, "Have faith in the Pope, Your Majesty. He could have let us die back then but chose to save us instead at the cost of himself."

Zenith breathed deeply and closed her eyes. "I-I won't look. Just drag me in there."

"Fine." Sylvester didn't ask a second time and grabbed her gauntlet by the wrist. With a fierce pull, he dived straight down into the dark hole in the sea.

In a moment, they went past the sea level and continued to go further in, unrestricted. No matter how much depth, Sylvester failed to sense any of the monstrous creatures. It raised his suspicions greatly.

'Is this why Felix jumped in?'

Finally, he felt a spatial distortion. To protect the passengers, he surrounded them in a sphere of energy that made Miraj visible.

At last, they all felt as if their bodies were being stretched to a thin rope. Yet there was no pain or discomfort. The spatial distortions increased to their peak and eventually started to fade away.

Their stretched bodies turned back to normal after a while, and intense heat started to take over. It was manageable, however.

"Lava?" Sylvester exclaimed when he looked above. It felt as if they were in freefall but upwards, and at the roof was a sea of red lava.

Splash!

It turned out to be just that. But the moment their bodies were about to touch the lava ceiling, it became the floor, and all the darkness around them faded away, leaving behind what seemed to be rocky walls all around them.

"We're inside a volcano," Sylvester realized and flew upwards towards the volcano's mouth. However, just after coming out of it, Sylvester stopped moving and hovered in the same place.

Crack!

Woosh!

"What the!" Zenith exclaimed as a massive, castle-sized boulder flew past them toward the sky. "Who threw that?!"

"Look up," Dalgan muttered, his voice defeated.

Zenith followed the gaze and shut her mouth. Dread took over her being, and the fear of failing the legacy of her ancestors now felt imminent. "I-It's a… Black Hole! How? It wasn't there before!"

"This world is already stuck in the event horizon." Sylvester mumbled, "Point of no return."

"How is that possible? There was no black hole anywhere near this solar system!" Zenith asked, panic clear in her eyes.

Somewhere deep down, Sylvester knew the answer.

"They have started to react."