I Became The Pope, Now What?

What was evolution to Sylvester?

Hell was one of the words. His body was broken apart, mutated, upgraded, changed on a molecular scale, and then put back together. The wooden box that carried King Malisius' dead body was empty, already turned into invisible things that attacked his being. 

It was akin to an invisible fight of his own cells for domination over the cells of King Malisius' body. But, the realization that he needed to use fire on himself turned things manageable, and his situation seemed to be getting better. He felt the warmth, the heat of the cells from the dragon combined into him. 

But that was just the first wave of heat, a mere whisper of the inferno to come, lapping at his skin with a deceptive gentleness. However, as the moments passed, the flames began to sear, transforming from ethereal red to a ravenous blue that sought to consume all it touched. To his shock, even he felt pain. 

Sylvester's breaths came in ragged gasps as the magic within the fire delved into him, not just burning his flesh but sundering his very being.

His muscles that he thought were healing snapped and hissed, like dry twigs thrown into a bonfire. Once again, bones shattered, fracturing under the relentless pressure of the trial that seemed like the repeated beating of a blacksmith's hammer, forging his body slowly.

"Aaaargh…!"

Sylvester's screams echoed through the void that shone blue from the light, a symphony of pain and determination. Each breath was a scorching torment, and he could feel his body breaking apart, disintegrating into flames that refused to die down.

"Nooo!" He tried to keep himself sane, not letting the pain dictate his mind. The process must not be stopped under any circumstances. 

To find some inspiration, he tried to remember the words of Solis again and again, which angered him, giving him motivation to keep going. 

"Use all the power and magic I have blessed you with and ascend to the pinnacle. Only then will your true destiny be revealed."

"I—Control—My destiny!" Sylvester grunted under his breath, his throat that had healed once again shattered with it. His bleeding blind eyes never stopped blinking, as if trying to see and being unable to. 

Sylvester wasn't one to be quenched so easily.

Squelch!

His heart finally gave away, bursting apart like a mushed rodent under foot. His chest lay there completely open, surprisingly having fire within, burning crimson red and fighting the blue flames covering the outside of his skin.

A beacon of pure, incandescent defiance. The dragon's blue fire, which had come to destroy him, now met the fire that burned within him. With every fiber of his being screaming for surrender, Sylvester instinctively reached inward and grasped that inner flame with the force of his palm, absorbing it and fighting against the blue flames that surrounded and burned him.

It was a tug of war. One wished for destruction, and the other creation. Call it rage, anger, desperation, or simple resistance, but the fire within his heart slowly overcame the dead dragon. He was living, blessed by Solis himself; losing was not an option. 

The fire from Sylvester's heart surged forth like a golden phoenix rising from the ashes of his former self. It met the external blue blaze with a furious roar, and with that, the gushing sound of a storm resonated in that ancient void. The blue light that shrouded the darkness slowly turned into white and then golden.

"Haaaaa!" He roared, this time not in pain. The feeling was far too different from before.

Right then, he noticed something as he faced down. His body, which looked nothing less than an eldritch mess made of splattered blood, bones, and flesh, began to come together to heal. 

Once broken, his body began to knit together in a spectacle of miraculous healing. Muscles weaved into stronger fibers, bones fused into unbreakable fortresses comparable to the body of a dragon, and his skin shimmered with a newfound resilience. It was as though the fire itself was becoming a part of him, reinforcing him.

In time, his entire body was surrounded by the crimson flames, dousing the last of the blue flames that were left. His body stood transformed. The pain was gone, replaced by a strength that pulsated in his veins, physically feeling stronger than ever, humanly impossible from what he could feel.

His eyes, once deflated and shattered, now glinted with a golden hue, having more vigor than before and shining brighter than ever. Something had changed, and he could feel it within his body. 

Snap!

With a snap of his finger and thumb together, he created sparks so massive that they engulfed everything around him in crimson. He was also covered in it, but the flames didn't hurt him as he was the master. 

Then he looked down at his naked form. His height had slightly increased, and his build had become more defined. Each muscle seemed like the strongest armor ever forged—dragon's strength, no doubt. 

"With this much affinity with fire… entire kingdoms can be razed to ashes with a single wave of my hand," he muttered, feeling the oozing magical feeling in his veins. This much power was inconceivable, and he could notice within his body that his upper limit had been changed. The solarium reserves in his body had widened beyond what a Supreme Wizard should have.

"I feel—something. This Void is… This is actual space!" Sylvester mumbled and looked around himself. His body still radiated with fire, just a tiny layer that covered him all around, from his fluttering long hair to his feet. 

Pop!

Abruptly, he was pulled back to stand before the carcass of the Eldritch God again. The pain he felt still hadn't fully subsided, but it was now manageable, along with his calming breath. 'My Soul!'

The sight of Nehilius reminded him of something. Quickly, he used everything that Soulbreaker had taught him and looked within himself. 

'It's changed!' He noticed something was different. It felt heavier and defined like a sphere. 'I don't feel any tampering by Nehilius—but can I ever be sure?' 

"You are becoming one with nature itself, Sylvester Maximilian," Nehilius' voice reverberated. "An Eldritch entity is nature—I am the origin and the end of this reality." 

Sylvester stared at the giant godly being's head. The blob was still shining. "What now?" 

Woosh!

Out of nowhere, a massive asteroid appeared in front of Sylvester. It was almost five hundred kilometers in radius but with an uneven surface. It was dirty brown with some ice and lots of smaller craters. It floated in one place, not even rotating on its own axis. 

"The next phase of your training shall begin, Sylvester Maximilian. To be a supreme entity, you must learn the art of creation and destruction. You are to destroy and rebuild this asteroid with the elemental powers you possess," Nehilius explained his next task, the first step, apparently. "As you will evolve further, you shall learn to construct and destroy even more complex things and beings—gaining a higher understanding of everything that exists and that does not." 

Sylvester's brows furrowed, being a scientific man. "How is that possible? The conservation of mass states that mass can neither be created nor vanish completely, but transformed from one to another. Destroying is understandable, but how can I create something out of nothing?" 

"Elevate your mind, look forward but not behind. You are nature, and the laws are of your creation. A new realm, you have ventured higher. Here, you can create anything that you desire," Nehilius said and revealed something, a feat of magic that left Sylvester astonished. 

Slowly, the asteroid right before his eyes started to change. It grew bigger in size, more and more, and then started to rotate around on its axis. After a while, volcanoes erupted on it as the rock grew a core out of nowhere. But then, acid rain occurred, the atmosphere appeared, and the magnetic fields took effect. Plants grew, and strange animals with no limbs appeared, which eventually evolved into various species until one of the species ended up becoming humanoid with blue skin and bird feathers. 

Right before his eyes, Nehilius created an entire planet with life on it. But the Eldritch God didn't stop there and continued to propagate life. The planet grew into an agricultural society. Empires came, wars ravaged the world, plagues appeared, and then many inventions—cities formed, tall skyscrapers akin to the original world he had come from—Earth, as he remembered the name. 

It all occurred so fast that it felt like a dream. 

"Reality can be whatever you desire when you control creation and destruction," Nehilius voiced, and right away, the planet began to rotate too fast, bringing catastrophes across it with tsunamis, monster cyclones, and all volcanoes erupting at the same time. All life ceased to exist in no time. "The void is nothing, but as soon as you come into existence, you become the source of all creation. Your energy itself becomes the originator of life and bringer of destruction." 

Boom!

The planet exploded, leaving nothing but the same old asteroid that it was before. 

'And Primordial Gods are stronger than this,' Sylvester felt hopeless; that was perhaps an understatement. 'I'm not even at a decimal point one percent of Nehilius' power.'

"Sylvester Maximilian, you have started the journey, so now you must not doubt your ste—"

"Can I increase the lifespan of a person if I learn this?" Sylvester interrupted the godly being with a personal question. 

Nehilius shook his head, "I have warned you before, and I warn you now—never go against fate, for that reality is not yours to be ruled. The moment you attempt to utilize these divine powers in your reality, the two Primordial Gods will be alerted." 

Sylvester found himself without words. He knew Nehilius could create and destroy entire galaxies on a whim, yet the being was scared of the two above.

"Defeat them!" Nehilius added, sensing the dwelling trouble in his mind. "Kill the two Primordial Gods and rule your reality."

"Hah, please don't jest, Nehilius," Sylvester self-deprecatingly laughed. "Suggest me something that is not impossible." 

"Are you not already en route to face them eventually? Is that not written in your dest—"

"Enough! No more talk of destiny," Sylvester raised his hand and focused on the asteroid. "Let's not fantasize too much. I don't even know if I can do what you ask me to yet." 

"You can," Nehilius responded. "That is why you are my inheritor."

"I hope you're right."

'When I'm not even from this world.' 

_________________

Thank you for reading. Gifts and GT votes are highly appreciated.