I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-771

Snap!

The flesh of the immortal ripped apart like a piece of cloth. Sylvester's one hand clawed the head off of the torso, leaving a spillage of black tar-like blood everywhere, floating without any gravity or forces of nature.

On one hand, the severed head, and on the other, the neck of the torso. Sylvester kept the body in his grasp since he knew this wasn't the end of Ashraska's story. He picked up the severed head and faced it, finding signs of life.

"Without you, there shall be no need for war," Sylvester said. "Without you, Aveda will be the sole Primordial God. You are alone in this, and you shall die alone."

Fear lingered on the demonic face, its horns already broken by Sylvester in that raging sphere of light around them. Ashraska had accepted his brother's betrayal. "H-He won't help you… human!"

"But there won't be a need for war." Sylvester ignored the pleading, dying voice of Ashraska, "With your death, there shall be a new chance to live… so, fade away into nothing!"

"It's a never-ending cycle. You can try, but you will never escape its jaws." The supreme God felt helpless. He felt all those emotions he never knew existed. He never knew what it felt like to be a mortal until now. "No matter what, you shall remain a lesser being—unlike I, you remain a mortal!"

Sylvester clenched the body and the head harder in his palms. He knew Ashraska still thought Sylvester couldn't completely kill him. "I'm grateful to countless people in this life. One of them is Nehilius—God or not, creation and destruction work the same in this reality of yours."

"You will be killing yourself if you push your mortality," Ashraska warned in a disguised attempt to plead.

"Maybe," Sylvester didn't care. "But I'll definitely die if I don't."

Sylvester felt energized by the sacrifices of his predecessor gods and used that energy to turn Ashraska's body into a mist of blood. Squeezing the head so hard that it caved and splattered everywhere.

Ashraska couldn't speak anymore, but he was still alive. As long as even a speck of his dust remained, he was alive.

But in the end, the blood, the body, the flesh of Ashraska was nothing but energy. The energy that Sylvester could absorb through his abilities. Just like how he had devoured countless Eldritch Gods, he repeated it.

However, this time, the release was too much. Even Ashraska's condensed energy inside the sphere of fiery light around Sylvester's humanoid but nonhuman form, was more than all the energies Sylvester had absorbed in the past combined.

And worse—it was corrupted.

"Ugh!"

Although incapable of feeling physical pain in that form, Sylvester could feel the cosmic energy he started to absorb, trying to take over—It was violent, it was dense, and it was alive. It fought against his control, turning his radiant crimson and golden energy a shade darker.

'I can't lose my mind.' He reminded himself. Mind was the key to taming this new form of energy that predated and superseded reality itself. It was a tiny fraction of Ashraska's true form that was isolated outside the sphere, yet it felt too much to handle.

It filled Sylvester with some dread. He could see there was no way of winning against Ashraska if he hadn't isolated the physical body. But there was still Aveda to face outside.

The god resisted, and Sylvester persisted. Slowly but surely, he reduced Ashraska's body to nothingness. The entire head was gone and Sylvester focused on the torso. It was harsh on him as flickering sparks appeared across his shining body.

Darkness tried to take him, but he fought against it the best he could. It was like explosion after explosion occurring, all inside of him. Every cosmic, godly particle of Ashraska was like a whole Nehilius. It made sense how and why the two Primordial Gods were so powerful.

They were born with this might from the very beginning.

Sylvester tried to calm his senses, imagining the faces of Miraj, Xavia, and his friends. He felt his control over his own body waning, disappearing slowly. But this was the risk he had accepted the moment he left home.

'How will I defeat Aveda?' He asked himself, starting to plan for the next battle while struggling with the current one. 'He's much wiser and calmer than Ashraska… No! I'm losing my mind!'

He quickly realized his thoughts were drifting into space. He had to remain collected to fend off Ashraska's dark influence. Although absorbing the energy was easy, making it his own and giving it space to exist within his control was hard.

Time passed, and Ashraska's body eventually vanished. Sylvester started to make the burning sphere around him reduce its size and slowly envelop him from all sides as if forming another layer of skin on his body.

It kept on getting smaller and eventually morphed into Sylvester's humanoid shape, coating him.

It was a choice Sylvester made. He still feared that an unsensed particle from Ashraska could be lingering somewhere in that small space. So he squeezed it all and continued to absorb everything, even his own energies. Not leaving even a tiny gap for anything to leak out, he only started forming flesh on himself after he was sure.

By then, the blazing, fiery, shining light around had vanished. The black particles still continued to flicker, Ashraska's might still wreaking havoc within Sylvester.

"You did not let me down."

Sylvester noticed Aveda's voice, so majestic, warm, and deep. Like a true god, unlike Ashraska's demonic nature. It made him even more cautious of this one. "You could have stopped me."

"I could have stopped you eons ago."

'Eons?'

Aveda sensed his confusion, and appeared to muse over it, "So you are still unaware?"

"Unaware of what?" Sylvester questioned, sensing there was more to the story. "The reasons behind your childish actions? Two primordial beings warring for the last universe remaining? Countless lives ruined, misery made, and killed—all for a mere division of assets?"

Aveda entertained his questions, his voice once again a monotone flow of words. "When Father left, there were many of us. Through long battles and plots, Ashraska and I won against them all until only we remained. But our clash was inevitable, and yet we intimately knew one another's strength. We both understood how equally gifted we were in might—except for thoughts."

Sylvester also maintained a calm and monotonous aura and finished Aveda's explanation. "So you divided all of the existence between yourselves until all but my universe remained? Then used my world and the Demon World as chess pieces. You won one, Ashraska won one, and this was the last?"

"Wonderful." Aveda muttered, "For a mortal, I truly admire you."

Snap!

Abruptly, things started to feel different. Sylvester, much stronger now and his senses sharper, felt the energies in the space moving and concentrated not far from him. In no time, he noticed a small white orb forming. It constantly grew bigger until it took the humanoid form of a newborn baby.

"You did what I could not. You ended Ashraska without losing yourself—you won me all of existence." Aveda's voice still reverberated from all sides. "You did exactly what I needed you to do."

The size of the baby grew and took the form of an adolescent boy, and from there came adulthood. More refined, more human, and more adult-sized. Aveda was unlike his brother—his skin was so pale that even the color white paled in comparison. His hair was longer than his waist, and twin wings were made of what appeared to be the same skin.

A single blue gem also adorned the middle of his chest. What its purpose was remained elusive to Sylvester. However, he did clearly feel the raging power condensing in that body—more than Ashraska.

"I have been watching you from the day you were born. An anomaly in the world under my brother's control. He did not notice you, but I did. While he remained preoccupied, trying to mimic a fraction of my wisdom in creating new Popes, or Saint Scepters—I watched your rise, your thoughts, and your desires."

Sylvester knew something was going to happen. Aveda was being too talkative for someone who valued plotting and wisdom above everything else.

Woosh!

Just when Aveda finished creating his physical body, a wave of disturbance spread out in all directions from his body.

'He has it!' Sylvester felt it. Aveda just tried to claim control over the other half of the space that was occupied by Ashraska's leftover energies. 'He's fighting… and winning.'

Right before his senses, he could feel Ashraska's energy flowing into Aveda's body. It was invisible, but it could be felt.

God of the entire existence—The very being that gave birth to Aveda and his siblings.

'He's trying to become the one true God.'

Aveda tried, but he didn't look human at all. He lacked any color but ashen white. And somehow, in Sylvester's gaze he looked more demonic than Ashraska.

"Along the way, to have theorized the purpose of the war of two worlds, and yet remaining silent despite it being so petty and meaningless." Aveda's lips curved in a smile, but it held no warmth. "I shall spare your world. The feud remains no more. The existence lies undivided now—mine."

Sylvester knew there was more, so he waited for the rest of the words.

"As much as I desire this control over reality—I desire you."

Sylvester frowned and prepared for his next move right away. Both his arms raised on his sides, palms spread open.

"Sylvester Maximilian, become the enforcer of the one true God." Aveda offered, or rather demanded. "Become what I used to be—Become my only Primordial God and rule with me."

"Hah!" Sylvester sneered a chuckle, "Aveda, there can only be one end to this insanity—only your death will purify this reality!"