I Became The Pope, Now What?

721 720. A Godly Pact

'Maxy… That darkness… I feel like it's my belly!'

Sylvester silently stared at the darkness in the tree. 'What? What do you mean? This portal is a similar spatial distortion as your belly? Chonky, are you a Demon?'

Miraj shook his head. 'I'm just a cat… But this darkness feels so… so normal.'

'You have wings, Chonky. A cat with wings isn't normal. And what do you mean by normal? Do you mean non-threatening?'

Miraj kept staring at the darkness in the shape of a door. His chubby face tilted every few seconds, confused and amused with what he was feeling. 'I don't know, Maxy. I don't have an answer.'

In the end, Sylvester decided to ignore it. He was going to enter it one way or another. 'We'll investigate it later. Perhaps it's just a spatial distortion, and you have a natural affinity with the Space Element.'

"So, Vogthil and Alvath, which one of you is dying?" Sylvester glanced at the two generals who had tried to escape. "I'm a man who likes to keep his promises."

The two demons pointed at each other.

Sylvester sighed and looked at Aurora while extending two of his fingers. "Pick one."

She came forward and tapped on the right finger. The two demons deduced what it was about, and the selection placed the one on the right in despair.

Boom!

Sylvester merely waved his hand at the neck. The one on the left, Alvath, found his head falling to the ground. His life slowly receded from his consciousness, and with the shocked expressions permanently etched on his face, he died.

"Vogthil, if you do something foolish again, this will be your reward," Sylvester warned him.

Then he walked closer to the tree trunk before making a wooden gate on it, enforced by Elder Runes. "Let's put a cover on this until it's needed again. Dalgan, lead us down to the fire and stop your followers from putting humans on fire. You ruled this continent, and you better solve the mess."

General Dalgan readily agreed. "Once we stop the process of reforming the tree, the effects on their minds will stop as the supply of the altered energies will vanish."

"Then do it."

At the order, they all jumped down from the branches and soon landed on a part of the ground that was still green. There were still burning pyres all around them, but they were significantly less as most of the trafficked humans had been saved beforehand, and the demons were absent all over the continent. There was nobody to command the servants.

"Please kill all those putting the pyres on fire," Dalgan suggested. "Only those completely brainwashed come here to do this work. There's no hope for them to return to normal."

'No lies.' Sylvester looked at Felix and Aurora, gesturing for them to go and do the job quickly.

"We shall enter the portal in two weeks. Until then, you'll work here under the eyes of Julius, and bring this continent back to normality. Failure to do so will mean your death. I'll be taking your son, Lord Two, and your colleague, General Vogthil, with me to the Holy Land," Sylvester gave commands one after another.

Normally, he'd hope to stay back and do this work himself. But knowing only two weeks were left, he needed to return home and start preparing—especially the training sessions with Nehilius, as well as the next stage of his evolution.

'I hope the Solarium-Fusion Reactor is in its advanced stages by now.'

…

While Sylvester planned for the oncoming vital excursion into a new world, a strange meeting took place between two beings so powerful that their mere existence broke the laws of reality.

Floating in the immense, nigh-infinite void of darkness, Nehilius's dead body remained as fresh as the day he was killed. His remaining soul, however, constantly observed everything that was around him. And today, he noticed a difference in the darkness.

A speck of light appeared from nowhere, and as that light grew and became larger, Nehilius felt alarmed and prepared himself to destroy whoever dared intrude in his realm. His realm already had a new master. It wasn't for another, otherworldly being, to take.

"Show yourself intruder. Why have you dared to infiltrate the realm of this Eldritch God?"

Ting!

With a resonating vibration, the light grew and almost battled with the darkness around Nehilius. However, he tried to fight off the light and contained it away from his gigantic body. But before he could make a move, the other entity spoke.

"Beings of different realms, and yet our goal is the same. We are beings of opposite nature, and yet we teach the same student."

Nehiliu was a god, after all, and instantly understood who this being shrouded in light was. Even if he couldn't see the face or form of this godly creature. "Solis?"

"Darkness and Light, enemies when different, but the strongest entity when combined. Nehilius, the time has come for a pact to be signed. For his young mind to remove the veil keeping him blind." Solis spoke in his usual warm and godly tone of voice.

Nehilius was a being with dignity, after all, and refused to allow an intruder to make the terms. "Return to the realm you came from, Solis. I can see your might is trapped, encased, and suppressed by those we cannot defeat."

"Indeed, we are powerless before them, as were those who came before. But are we not preparing him for the inevitable war?"

"I'm not. He's my inheritor. That is all I hope for from him. He's too weak to battle them. Even in a billion years, he shall remain weak," Nehilius replied. "We grow strong, but they… they are born with that power. They are supreme beings not to be trifled with."

"What if they can be defeated?" Solis asked.

To that question, Nehilius honestly had no answer. "What pact do you propose?"

"Mutual destruction!" Solis answered.

…

Unaware of what the two godly beings were speaking to each other, Sylvester returned to the Holy Land and busied himself in organizing his final affairs. Quickly, he finished all the administration work and pulled Gabriel into his office.

"Accept the seat and sign on the take-over order."

Gabriel sighed and did as asked. "Yes, master… your slave is ready to die in paperwork."

"Haha, take a break every once in a while, my friend. You still have the Sky Eye, Emperor Rex, and Julius at your service. Never in history has the Church had this many peak powerhouses. As long as you manage everything well, nothing major will occur."

"I know." Gabriel started setting the table for his work. "Go and spend some time with Mother Xavia now. She must be the one most worried about your journey."

"That, I know. And sadly, there's nothing I can do. As a mother, it's natural for her to worry. Even when I leave home every morning to work at the Pope's Palace, she feels worried," Sylvester replied, his voice holding an immense trace of endearment. "That's just how mothers are."

"I can agree there," Gabriel remembered the faint memories of his own mother from the time she was alive. "Go now, and prepare well. You better not die, because then… this realm dies."

"Don't place so much importance on me, Gab. This world existed before me, and it will continue after me. The only question is how corrupt." Sylvester picked up a cotton bag with his items and headed to the door. "All the best, Gab. Felix will be back in a day or two. He's helping Julius clean the Central Continent."

"What about the Sand Continent?"

"Summon the Special Judge sent there. Ask him for regular reports, and expand Sky Eye into it to cross-check the reports."

Bam!

"Your Holiness!" Anya Moller stormed into the room, eyes wide and scared. She would normally never do such a thing. "G-

Giant! There's a giant spotted climbing the port of the Holy Land!"

"Giant?" Sylvester looked at Gab's face.

"When was the last time they were seen outside the Kingdom of Gantis?" Gabriel wondered. "Why now all of a sudden?"

'I don't like the feeling of this.' Sylvester cursed under his breath and stormed out of the room. 'Just before I leave. This can't be a coincidence. Are they going to attack? But that'd be suicide… Could it be related to what those Dryads said?'

Choosing to find answers on his own, Sylvester jumped towards the sky and headed straight towards the port of the Holy Land. From high in the sky, he easily noticed the turmoil down there. The Clergymen, the soldiers, and the port workers were running around to save their lives from the twenty-

meter-tall giant masculine creature.

"Haaaaaaa!" The giant roared towards the sky, raising his colossal metal club. His voice was so heavy that it reverberated in waves, even causing high sea waves and gusting winds on land. "Finally, I've arrived!"

Sylvester frowned and went down, only to stop midair after reaching face level with the giant. "Who are you, kid? Why have you come to the Holy Land?"

"Pope?!" The giant looked at Sylvester and blurted instantly. "Y-

You're the Pope? I saw your paintings!"

'My paintings? In Gantis?'

"Who are you?"

Pat!

The giant patted his chest and proudly voiced while his body, still soaking, dripped sea water on the land and caused massive puddles. "I am Castell Gralith, son of King Fortius Gralith of Gantis Kingdom. I have crossed the mountains, the rivers, and the sea just to meet you—O' fated one! The man of the legends, the ancient texts!"

"..."

Speechless, Sylvester looked behind the giant and noticed there was no particularly large ship. And that begged the crazy question…

"Prince Castell, did you just… Swim across the Blood Sea?"

"Eeeee!" A massive eagle cried in the sky and descended to land on Castell's shoulder. "Aye, Pope… Regretfully, he did."

The eagle spoke, exciting a particular cat.

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