I Became The Pope, Now What?
chapter-92

Sylvester could feel his danger senses tingling through the smells. But he had no idea where the enemy was. He looked at the sky, and there was nobody. He looked at the fields, and they were empty as ever. Not even crops were grown at this time of the year.

He silently sat back down in his seat and closed his eyes, appearing to be meditating, but he was merely trying to focus on the various smells he felt. Death, rage, and lust, he knew that lust was something that didn't only apply to physical attraction but also attraction to money.

And if someone felt all three emotions against him, they were offered some money to kill him. So he was like a golden trophy to the attackers.

"Where is the attack coming from?" Felix asked him.

But Sylvester silently focused on the emotions. 'Not above, not around me, and that only leaves...'

"Got you! Felix increased the speed." Sylvester ordered and jumped to the cloth roof of the carriage. It was strong enough to hold weight due to the frame. Then there, as he stood, he watched the road behind.

"You can't hide!" He put the spear behind himself and used runes since he was still keeping his water and earth elements a secret.

But thanks to the air element, he could quickly create runes on the ground and activate them. The rune was called Earth Rise, a Grade B rune that did what the name suggested.

Boom!

A square, meter by meter block of the hard dirt road rose into the air as if it was pushed from underneath. But Sylvester didn't stop, and as the carriage kept moving, he kept making runes and raising the Earth blocks.

"Now it's time to come out!"

As soon as he felt the feeling of their emotions diminishing, he stopped sending his magic to all those runes and let the blocks of earth fall back to their places.

Boom! Boom!

'Still going to hide underground?' He looked at the road intently, having realized that the enemies must be using Earth elements to create caves for themselves underneath.

A dust cloud rose from the sudden fall of so many earth blocks. Since the road was not paved, it became hideous in no time.

"Felix, stop and prepare to fight." He ordered. He also lightly kicked the big furry cat to wake up and get to work. Miraj's job during fights was simple: sit on his shoulder and keep an eye on his blind spots.

"You bastard!"

Boom!

A blast appeared not far behind the carriage. The ground opened up with a loud explosion, and a few figures jumped out of it, cursing Sylvester as they seemed to have suffered from the sudden falling Earth blocks.

Sylvester had merely played a mind game with them. He reckoned that if they were creating a tunnel to follow him, he could create a tunnel for them from a distance ahead. So that's what he did. And when they came across the long empty tunnel, they thought someone else left it here earlier for a canal, and without thinking, they ran fast in it--a grave mistake as the tunnel suddenly collapsed on them.

Sylvester held his spear in front, and Felix also stood beside him, his sword ready. They were wearing armor as well, but it was hidden under their church robes, though that made them look much bigger than they were.

"Get that blonde boy, don't touch the rest."

The order resounded in the dust cloud before five figures jumped out of it and rushed towards Sylvester. Then once they were out of the dust cloud, Sylvester got to see them for the first time.

"Who are these jesters?" He blurted.

All of them were wearing dirt brown robes with different belts hanging blades or potion bottles. There appeared to be two women and three men. Out of them, one man was at least eight feet tall, akin to a giant.

But, the fight was not a joke.

Sylvester quickly realized that there was a six-member in the group as well, the one who shouted, the leader.

Bam!

Out of the earth, just beside Sylvester, came out a man like a projectile, cutting through the dirt like butter. His right hand aimed at Sylvester's face, showing a glowing red rune ready to be sent out--deadly, without a doubt.

"Not so fast!" Felix was a warrior above everything else, and his reaction speed was much better. In no time, his sword was cutting the air towards the attacker, a short, thin man from the stature.

Clank!

Clank!

Sylvester, in time, moved his head back and avoided the coming rune punch. At the same time, he tried to smash his spear's blade at the man's face since it was a close-quarter fight. But surprisingly, the man seemed highly skilled and blocked the strike from both with small daggers that appeared out of nowhere in his hands.

Sylvester and Felix jumped back to make a distance and assess the situation.

"Do you know who you're attacking? If the word reaches back to Holy Land, they will destroy your entire guild." Felix reminded the assassins what a great folly they were committing.

"Hehe, like we didn't know that before attacking you." The leading man revealed his face as he took off the hood. He was bald, and a tattoo emerged on the left side of his face, surrounding the left eye.

Sylvester looked behind at the additional five members. It was a fight with losing numbers on his side. Four against six, and these assassins were likely more trained.

'I don't even know what their power rank is. It will be a problem if it's a rank higher than me.' Sylvester tried to come up with a scheme to defeat them. He was the strongest wizard in his camp, while his and Felix's knight rank was the same.

Sylvester was, after all, a man who'd rather first fight with the brain than arms. This was the strategy to live the longest until he was strong enough to stomp all. "Who are you?"

The man didn't speak and regrouped with his team. Then, without wasting time, they relaunched the assault, focusing again on Sylvester. 'So King Riveria it is?'

He knew by now that the King of Riveria was behind it. The man had given him creepy vibes when he once saw him a long time ago. Now, it was clear that the man blamed him for his son's 'disappearance'.

The battle started on the empty roads. The enemies were experts in Earth magic, as they relied heavily on it.

The leader seemed the best with multiple elements as he used Earth and Air. Other than that, there were numerous magic runes, along with various blades.

"Felix, you handle all those with blades. I will handle the leader and the remaining two magic casters. If you can't win, stall the fight until Sir Dolorem and Gabriel come." He ordered and went all out.

"Have fun with these!" Sylvester started with an S-ranked magic move right away and used Whirling Fire that Sir Dolorem taught him. Two enormous fire tornadoes came out from his palms, as tall as a fifty-foot tower.

The use of these was not to kill but to distract, as dodging them was easy, but they would play with his enemy's minds. However, there was something great about surprises, something Sylvester was known to use. He made more tornadoes of fire, in total, ten of them.

"Let's deal with you now!" He stood face to face with the group leader, eyes locked at each other's movements--ready to make any needed adjustments.

"I will offer you double of whatever you were offered." Sylvester proposed for he believed this was the best place to use black money. But he didn't have hopes up because if they belonged to some organization, making secret deals would harm their reputation.

"Even if it were ten times, I would still disagree. Your skull is my prize, priest!"

Sylvester prepared to use light magic, his favorite and strongest element ever since he learned how to harden it. And since it was the middle of the day, the sunlight amplified it. However, the leader was not his target.

Woosh!

Under his feet, a burst of flames exploded and threw him off into the hair, dozens of meters in height. Then, at that height, he used Light Step, an ability that consumed an extreme amount of Solarium, but it was worth it.

Unless of the highest rank or expert in the art of this branch of magic, Wizards could not fly. Sylvester, of course, could not either. But, with the ability to harden the light, he discovered a miniature and bastardized version of flying.

By simply creating a small tile of light in the air, he could stand on it as long as Solarium in his body allowed it.

"Hah, can't fly, maggots?" Sylvester mocked his enemies from the sky.

But, he wished not for his own magical powers to attack them. "Chonky, give me the number eight."

"Aye aye, Maxy! Uwaaa... Uwaaa..."

Eventually, Miraj vomited out a small bag and handed it over. Sylvester quickly opened it and took out a handful of red, finger-sized crystals. His face showed a wicked smile, for he was about to play with his enemies--make them dance.

"Good thing trade outside the Holy Land is allowed. Felix's elder brother got me some amazing crystals." He muttered and looked down. In the distance, he saw Sir Dolorem and Gabriel just reaching and helping Felix.

While the leader of the group and two more magic casters watched him.

"Catch!"

He threw one red crystal at the leader's head. The man was annoyed and shocked by Sylvester's magic, a common trait in whoever sees him.

Boom!

Then the crystal touched the ground and exploded in beautiful red flames of fury.

Boom!

One more crystal exploded, this time straight on the head of the eight-foot giant magic caster. Sylvester targeted him, knowing the man couldn't move fast. And sure enough, the prize was his head.

The crystal exploded the giant's entire skull like it was a watermelon. And the bloodied brain matter fell on his companion beside him, scaring her to no limit. She screamed and jumped away.

The group leader had by now started to use Earth magic to create stairs for himself and reach enough height to at least hit Sylvester with his magic.

Smirking, Sylvester, this time, took a handful of exploding crystals. Yes, each explosion cost him 100 Gold Graces, the equivalent of his 5-month salary, but it was all black money, so it didn't hurt much.

"You should have taken my offer!" He exclaimed and threw away the crystals, raining them down on the shocked woman.

The leader saw it all and shouted in worry. "Bella! Run!"

Sylvester scoffed from the height. "Sure, do it if you're faster than the light."

The woman was stupidly trying to clear pieces of the brain from her robes. So when she looked up, finally, her face revealed a young woman with a similar tattoo, with red hair. But it didn't take much for fear to appear--her eyes to drown in tears of despair.

Boom!

Boom!

A magnanimous explosion so vast that its flames even reached Sylvester at his height. A cloud of mushrooms accompanied it in the sky, going extremely high. Everything was covered in fire, in light with so much might that even Sylvester was amazed by what a dozen exploding crystals could do.

'Two down, one more to go.' He muttered as he looked towards Felix. With the addition of Gabriel and Sir Dolorem, the enemies appeared to be on the losing side, even more so with the demoralizing scream of their leader and the explosion.

"Y-You bastard! You killed my daughter!"

Sylvester looked at the bald, tattooed leader on his Earth stairs just a few meters down from him.

But instead of replying with something abusive, Sylvester simply raised his right palm and spoke a small hymn with a halo--appearing saintly.

♫You and your daughter, chaos you followed,

Cry to me not when death has you swallowed.♫

[A/N: One more coming in 2 hrs. Keep stoning!]

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APE TOGETHER STRONG!