I Became The Pope, Now What?

"He's dead!" 

Sylvester didn't react much and meticulously focused on removing the contraption in Felix's heart. "Calm down, Hendrix. He's a peak Platinum knight. Even when his heart isn't beating, he's not dead—he won't be fully dead for many hours to come, and I only need a few moments."

Wet sounds resounded in the operating room as Sylvester clawed open Felix's chest with his blade created from the solid light element. Beyond the ribcage, he didn't use his hands and instead created little strings of light magic and controlled them to move meticulously around without hurting the heart and cutting apart the contraption. 

Of course, there were a few runes placed on it. But they were far too inferior to Sylvester's knowledge from the Elder Runes. 

Clack!

Not long after, he successfully took out the contraption placed on his heart. It was like a ring locking around the artery. It was programmed with runes to clench in case someone attempted to change the physical characteristic of the victim—in this case, a missing organ was being brought back. 

"The fact that they didn't even tell the victims about it means they wanted to kill anyone with even the slightest amount of resistance in their thoughts. Anyone trying to heal themselves was a traitor in their eyes." Sylvester muttered and clenched the ring in his palm, breaking it apart. 

Quickly, he healed the minor bruising left on Felix's heart and then began closing the wounds on the chest. It took a few extra hours before he could move on to the groin. By then, the heartbeat had also returned with a little bit of manual heart squeezing using electromagnetic field manipulation. 

"He's stable," Hendrix commented.

"Let's finish the whole thing then." Sylvester once again moved on to reconstruct Felix's tool. 

It took hours, and the sun came up again outside. The morning dew settled, and noon came, and it was then that Sylvester finished the procedure and stepped back from the operating table. 

"He will wake up soon. Only then we will be able to see if it worked or not." Sylvester mumbled, took a seat away from the operating table, and invited Hendrix as well. 

The white-haired healer Grand Wizard joined him and started talking immediately, being more talkative than usual. "How did you know a Platinum Knight can survive that long without a beating heart?" 

"I've had my fair share of adventures and run-ins with powerhouses. I try not to let any opportunity go to waste." Sylvester replied and stared at the table. "How is your family? I hope Elaine and Daline can live here openly since elves are no longer enemies." 

"They do feel much more relaxed now," Hendrix replied fondly, smiling. "Elaine was particularly elated when she heard you ended the long war and established peace and trade with Alfia. She truly thinks you're a reincarnation of elven goddess Remira." 

Sylvester chuckled, "She won't be the first. Even the Dryads think I'm related to their ancient gods, as did the Desert Cannibals." 

"Then perhaps you are. Every legend, every rumor has some truth in it, Your Holiness. If they find similarity in you and the rumors, it merely means you are walking the same path that once those 'gods' possibly walked." Hendrix said while thinking deeply about everything. 

"Ah… Where am I?" 

Right then, Felix began gaining consciousness and groaning now and then. His eyes twitched and slowly started to open. There was confusion in them, as well as some relief. 

"Felix, can you feel it?" Sylvester questioned him immediately. "Do you feel any pain around your groin?" 

"Groin?" Felix tried to raise his head, but fell back quickly. "Uh… My head feels heavy, and everything is hazy. I do feel something down there… Are you done?"

Sylvester checked Felix's physical body and made sure there was nothing wrong with him. "You're physically fine. You just died for a few moments. There is nothing to worry about." 

"What?!" Felix jolted up and fell back again. "I was dead? Wait, is that why I saw all that? I felt like I was standing in darkness. There were so many things flashing around me that I couldn't make sense of anything." 

'Afterlife?' Sylvester reckoned, interested since his afterlife experience was quite different and nasty.

"You are fine now." Sylvester patted his shoulder and informed him about the issue with the secret ring in his heart. "...It's lucky I was able to find it. You'd have died otherwise." 

"Ah! Makes sense now. This is how so many of my colleagues at the start died one after another." Felix mumbled, tiredly resting on the operating table. "Can you recheck my body and see if they did anything else?" 

"I already did, but I'll do it again more thoroughly." Sylvester let Felix rest and placed his palm on his chest. By infusing his Solarium into the blood pumped by the heart, he could thoroughly check every part of the body, every inch where blood could go. 

Within a minute, he looked through everywhere and confirmed his findings. 

"You are good to go, Felix." He helped Felix get up and sit down. A soft cotton cloth was already placed atop his groin. Since no surgery was involved, there were no stitches or wounds to heal. "Maybe wait till night to try it out. Inform me tomorrow if everything is fine." 

"Well, the real moment of truth won't come until my kid is born," Felix mumbled as he wore a loose gown over his body. 

Sylvester nodded, noticing something different about Felix at that moment. 'A scent of confusion, sadness, and respect? Shouldn't he be happy?' 

He stepped back and approached Healer Hendrix, who was frantically writing in his notebook. This was a sight to behold in itself since the notebook was only made possible due to the mass production of paper, and the pen was something he had invented long ago. Slowly but finally, minor changes had started to appear in all walks of life. 

"Any new ideas?" He asked. 

Hendrix nodded and showed what he wrote, along with a few diagrams. "Your Holiness said that solarium can be used to do this creation magic. So I wondered what is stopping us from trying the same using the Solarium crystals as well as all the elemental crystals? Even if regenerating manhood isn't viable, we should be able to regenerate bones and muscles—bringing back limbs."

Sylvester thought about it deeply and began writing down a rune scheme on the paper. "Perhaps we can make a machine where we only have to feed the crystals and point it to the area we want to heal. This rune scheme and a few more should be able to direct the released energy. This is truly wonderful, Hendrix. If we're able to make it, we can place them in all Grace hospitals across Sol and beyond." 

"But I'll need the cooperation of the research and development." 

"You'll have it," Sylvester assured and looked back. "Take care of Felix for now. Let him go after he relieves himself once. I must go now. Raz and Julius must be waiting for me." 

"You are really going to fight both of them?" Felix asked weakly. "I want to see it." 

"Nobody can. We will be fighting in the middle of the Endless Sea. Otherwise, Sol will be in ruins from our battle. Besides, I have no idea how long it will last." Sylvester cleaned up the operating theater and sanitized his hands before heading to the exit. "I will see you later."

Felix sighed as he watched Sylvester leave and disappear beyond the door. He looked at Hendrix and laughed. "Why do you look worried?" 

"He has no idea how important he is to maintain this feeble, peaceful balance in the world he created. If he keeps putting himself at risk, one day it might not go as he wishes." Hendrix said, being a realist and secretly worrying for his family. 

"Haha!" Felix laughed, however. "Oh, he knows it very well. There is nobody more paranoid and careful than Sylvester. He has plans for plans, backups for backups, and a dozen ways to deal with a problem before he even attempts to solve it. Don't worry too much—let's just do our part honestly and hope for the best."

"Too confident?" 

Felix shrugged and closed his eyes to rest. "No, I just know him very well… A little too well."

…

East off the coast of the Holy Land, Sylvester, Julius, and Raz moved at lightning speed, two flying and one running on light times. They covered almost a thousand kilometers before coming to a halt and preparing themselves for the battle. 

"Are you sure you want to battle both of us?" Julius once again asked to be sure. "I will not hold back." 

"I don't want you to hold back. This is not a spar but a test of my abilities. A test to see if I am prepared for the next stage." Sylvester replied and maintained some distance as the three stood in a triangle formation. 

"What next stage?" Emperor Raz asked, who considered Sylvester a friend with all his heart—not that he had one.

Sylvester wondered how he could tell them about the doom that awaited them without making it sound too absurd. But the two were important in the equation as he needed assurance when he goes to the Demon realm. 

"You're going to enter it?" Julius asked. It was not that hard to guess. "If we are to believe the demon realm is similar to here, then there should be two or three Supreme Wizards present. If they have internal conflicts like we did, you might have a chance to kill them individually. But, if they are as united as we are now—you will die." 

'Or there could be allies to be made.' Sylvester thought but didn't voice his thoughts. 

"All the more reason for me to prepare. Let us begin now, and please go all out against me," he insisted, beginning to control his breath. 

"As you wish."

"I will respect your decision." 

None of them wore any major armor since it was useless at their level of power. In his white guardian robes, Julius raised his hand towards the sky and created countless gigantic swords made of solidified dark energy. Each sword was at least as tall as a twin-story building, while dark blue thunder crackled around each of the millions of swords that covered the sky. 

"Rise, my little friends!" Emperor Raz instead began waving his palms toward the sea and created massive water sprouts, hundreds of meters wide, dozens of them. As the sprouts rose, giant sharks and other creatures started to come out—all undead. 

Woosh!

The undead creatures got covered with a black layer of dark elemental magic, and they began to fly around, containing the power of Raz's strikes. At the same time, Raz created bone spurs on his back that could pierce through a Supreme Wizard's skin and even poison one fatally. 

'Good, they're not holding back.' Sylvester muttered and closed his eyes for a split second, knowing very well the colossal destruction they were about to bring. 

He focused on what he learned from Eldrich God Nehilius. 

'Creation helped Felix, now destruction will help here. Layer by layer, for everything, is made of Solarium—there are no elements but mere universal nature. The one who controls nature rules all…'

At last, he began stepping forward toward the two on Light Tiles. Unlike the two others, he didn't make any flashy moves and just held his treasured spear in one hand. 

"Fight!" He boomed. 

Woosh!

Millions of dark swords fell from the sky. The countless undeads swarmed at him. 

Sylvester, in the center, just raised his palm up. But this time, there was no light, no halo. 

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