I Became The Pope, Now What?

724 723. Rise Beyond Humanity

"What else will you need for this journey, Max?" Xavia asked while suppressing the worrying thoughts that stormed through her mind. "Do you need more clothes? Or perhaps more crystals and potions?"

Sylvester simply smiled and grabbed her hand to pull her to a seat. "Calm down, Mum. I'm a Supreme Wizard now, and no amount of crystals or potions can help me. So just sit down and relax with me."

"You know I can't do that. If I don't do something, I'll start thinking about the worst." She confessed and sighed a few times. "I feel like I'll die from anxiety these past few days."

There was no denying that there wasn't anything to be anxious about. Sylvester was going to a different world, where nobody in the past ever ventured into. So, he understood her worries.

Taking her hand in his, he tried to reassure her. "This is something that I must do, Mum. Otherwise, we'll just be waiting for our eventual doom. All the great things that we have done and continue to do will be meaningless. As your son, I understand your worries. But as the Pope, you must understand my responsibility."

"I know that, Max. I won't try to stop you, but I'm still your mother. None of us know what's on the other side? What if they have dozens of Supreme Wizards? What if they…"

"Nya!" Miraj suddenly voiced and landed on Xavia's lap. "Don't worry, Big Mum. I'll protect Maxy there! If anyone tries to harm him, I will roar and eat them whole."

Her lips curved into a warm smile as her arms hugged the fluffball. "Thank you, Lord Chonky. I'll pack lots of banana cookies for you."

She couldn't see him but clearly felt Chonky's excited exhales from his nose. "Big Mum is the best!"

"Greedy," Sylvester snarled. "I'll eat half of your cookies."

"Hah, you can try! I'll hide them in my belly forever!"

"No bananas then."

"I'll give twenty at most."

"Heh… Is this how you always fight each other?" Xavia asked, listening to them bicker. "You're like real siblings. Indeed, I feel better knowing you won't be entirely alone there. But how can I be at ease, knowing you might be in mortal danger there?"

Pat-pat!

Sylvester got up, walked behind the couch, and massaged Xavia's forehead. "Look at all those creases you make with your furrowed brows. You'll form permanent wrinkles at that pace, Mum. For you to live long and healthy, and look pretty, you must never overwork yourself. You must never stop exercising. You still have Ella and Rex living here with you. Call Aurora as well, maybe even Isabella at times. There's also ex-Duchess Bethany. She's training to join the ranks of Guardians here."

"'I'll do that," Xavia agreed, knowing Sylvester would never stop otherwise. "You must promise me to return as quickly as possible, and if you find a way, inform us that you're alive."

"That's the plan, Mum. In any case, I've handed over all the work to Gabriel already. So, I'll mainly focus on my final preparations now. I'll be back at night. Let's eat dinner together with the others." Sylvester stopped massaging her head and picked up his bag to leave. "See you later. Chonky, you can stay home."

"Oh… Okay, okay." Miraj quickly realized that Sylvester was going to meet Nehilius, and he hated going in that time capsule-like void.

…

Before going to meet Nehilius, Sylvester chose to enter the Research and Development restricted area, to see how the progress of the Solarium-Fusion Reactor was going. The place was full of activity, and the sounds generated were more than ear-shattering.

However, amidst it all, there was one rumbling hum that Sylvester enjoyed the most. It was the first test reactor that had been made, and it moved a massive turbine with the help of regulated steam. In return, it generated electricity—enough to power an entire state with basic infrastructure such as city-contemporary romance

wide trams, streetlights, and other simpler electric appliances.

"Identification?"

Sylvester showed it to the guards. It was a new identity token given to the Clergymen. Of course, he didn't have the snooping device attached to it.

"May the Holy Light enlighten us!"

"You too." Sylvester entered the massive warehouse and found a significantly smaller reactor working on its own. It was the size of a horse-driven stagecoach, enough to be lifted by even a Black Knight.

"Father!" Ella noticed him and came rushing. "It's all done!"

Sylvester hugged his little daughter first and then looked at everything. "You made two of them?"

"Of course."

"Good, so where's Jinn and Robert? Shouldn't they be working on this?" Sylvester looked left and right. But other than the usual scientific staff, the two chiefs of departments were missing.

"They went to work on other projects. They said they're making small engines that can run on Solarium Crystals. They want to put those in carriages with a steering mechanism. Like a train that runs on the road, but much smaller," Ella explained the plan. "I find it useless as I'm working on that airplane you mentioned… I want to fly in the sky like you."

'Sorry, my child. Your father hasn't been able to fly yet.' Sylvester silently sulked over his failure.

"Well, if all the tests are done, we should proceed with the plan of electrification and mass production of energy. Tell Robert and Jinn to install it in Maximilia City and examine the load capacity there," Sylvester ordered and went to pick up another reactor that sat dormant. "Oh, come home tonight. Let's have dinner together."

"Will you be home?"lights

"Of course."

"Chonky?" She asked for her favorite fluff ball cushion.

"He's at home already."

Ella's nose flared up and exhaled like Chonky not long ago. "Then… I'm done with work for today. I'll go home."

"It's still morning."

"I'm very quick, Father," she proudly replied and ran away to get her things. After all, it wasn't every day that Chonky was at home for very long.

'Haha, good luck handling her, Chonky.' Sylvester laughed to himself, knowing Miraj hated squishes, and Ella loved them.

…

Lifting the stagecoach-sized reactor, Sylvester arrived at the Pope's Palace. Then, from a secret entrance, he went multiple levels down the stairs and eventually reached the locked and secured chamber with a lone door that didn't look very important.

'Been a while since I last saw Nehilius.'

Clack!

He inserted the key in the door and opened it. There was the utter void of darkness before him, smelling of death, and sucking him in. Having done this so many times, Sylvester stepped inside with the reactor behind him, which got squeezed into the door like it was made of rubber.

Being sucked through the darkness, and feeling the sensation of being pulled through a squeezing portal, he muttered to himself. "Hello darkness, my old friend… Ah, am I going insane? I talk to myself too much these days."

Woosh!

And just like that, he stood before the mighty form of Nehilius, now without a finger as he had eaten some of it. But that was the issue, he had only eaten a finger, and there was no possible way of eating the whole body in time.

'I hope this new evolution helps.'

"It will, Sylvester Maximilian," Nehilius' echoing voice reverberated. "You have returned at last. Have you borne the offerings as beseeched of you?"

"I have," Sylvester replied, resting the items before the giant body. "That metal box is a Solarium-Fusion Reactor, which is what a sun is. The bag contains the elemental stones that I created by solidifying each element using Creation Magic. At last, the last vial contains the soul of a sacrifice—a demon, however."

"The Essence of Life and the Source of Elements are as demanded. Yet the Origin of Existence remains wanting. A sun is not a mere contraption, Sylvester Maximilian. The heart of the sun outshines the feeble tool you present," Nehilius said, outright rejecting Sylvester's reactor.

Sylvester scratched his head in annoyance. "I only have one sun in my world, and you want me to somehow rip it apart and bring you its core? Forgive me, Nehilius, but that's nonsensical. I will not plunge my world into darkness, even if that's somehow possible."

"If it were in the past, I would have sent you back," Nehilius replied and manufactured a sun right there beside his body. "But I have been made aware of a few circumstances by an acquaintance of yours. Circumstances that I cannot ignore—

Come forth, Sylvester Maximilian. Prepare yourself for your second evolution."

'An acquaintance?'

Before he could ask, he found his body engulfed in a bright golden light, something he didn't expect from a dark entity like Nehilius. It burned him all around, painfully so. Yet he had no idea what true pain was yet.

"Essence of Life—May it become your second soul of sacrifice. A barrier to shield you from life's finality, an instrument to guide your journey," Nehilius voiced as if chanting some ritual and somehow shoved the entire glass vial into his body as if he was nothing but a ghost.

"Source of Elements—Let them be the base of your physical body. The ingredient of the finest creation, worthy of harboring this God's foundation." Next, the solidified elements were placed into his body, while he was slowly being pulled towards the massive sun.

"Aaargh… Directions… What must I do?" Sylvester questioned before he lost himself in the burning pain. This sun looked too big, bigger than his world's. And to think that Nehilius had simply made it on a whim left him in speechless awe. "Tell me before I lose myself!"

"You already have," Nehilius replied as Sylvester's body vanished into the sun and eventually reached its core. The pressure around him was such that Sylvester could feel his body turning into charcoal, while the burns slowly destroyed his body, his screams already lost in the pain.

Nehilius' voice still reached his ears, and it was less of a guidance and more of a declaration.

"Reform yourself with your own mind. Little by little with your own design—This isn't mere evolution, but the birth of a being greatly divine!"

No longer there remained a physical vessel of a soul inside the sun, all turned to ashes and lost. Left only as a soul with a mind. It was now up to Sylvester's consciousness to shatter what kept him confined.

To rise beyond humanity—To become a righteous, breathing, godly calamity.

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