Sylvester soon arrived at the Pope’s Palace and went directly to the large underground arena. He had five more months to train with the Pope and wanted to make the best of it. Currently, being Archwizard level three, he wished to push himself to the next level by the end of the year.

He still didn’t understand how and why he could level up so fast and reckoned it had something to do with his body’s ability to turn the blood into solarium, but he didn’t have the time to research.

His next five months were thoroughly planned and packed with things to do. Focusing on training, printing the book, inventing more things, and expanding his influence in and outside the Holy Land.

“Good, you’re on time.”

The Pope entered the arena. He seemed prepared already, as there was nothing on the torso but shredded muscles and a few scars of his might. He didn’t even greet Sylvester and right away picked dual longswords from the weapons rack.

“Today, I shall teach you how to fight ten wizards simultaneously. Because even if you’re a Supreme Wizard, twenty or so Grand Wizards can kill you.” The Pope got right to it.

Sylvester didn’t waste time in greeting either and held his spear up. “Thank you for the lessons, mentor. They really helped me fight the Bloodling recently.”

A small smile leaked from the old man’s face. “That’s good, now focus on my movements and try to imitate them. Slowly, I will move close, and we will clash the swords and spears. At the same time, I will launch a few basic elemental runes, which I want you to predict and copy simultaneously.”

Sylvester nodded and prepared to move.

Woosh!

Soon, the Pope started to fight an imaginary enemy, swinging swords masterfully. He would sometimes throw one sword in the air and use an elemental rune, projecting it on the ground. Sometimes it would create fire on the ground, sometimes a ditch, or sometimes quicksand.

All the while, the Pope moved closer to Sylvester slowly, giving him enough time to adapt and plan the fight.

“Start!” the Pope roared and finally him.

Boom!

Thud!

Sylvester fell back on his butt in one clash. The Pope was going especially hard this time for some reason, and the man seemed to have no reservations even now.

“Stand up! Your enemy will never wait! Once you fall, your head is gone!” The Pope bellowed and cast a fire rune right underneath Sylvester.

But Sylvester saw it and copied it. He cast a fire rune under the Pope as well. Not only that, but when the Pope countered it by placing a water rune on it, Sylvester did the same and jumped to his feet.

‘He’s particularly serious today. What happened? Did Saint Seer finally get on his nerves?’ Sylvester wondered and waited to clash again.

This time, Sylvester used Knight’s magic and reinforced his body by imbuing magic in his arms, back and leg. But that also started eating up more of his solarium reserves.

Clash!

This time Sylvester did not fall but still got pushed back a little.

Woosh!

Following the clash, three runes came at the same time. One created a ditch, the other made mud, and the third put the mud on fire.

“Argh!” Sylvester could only see two of them come out and react as quickly as possible, only to get burnt by the last one. The Pope was not pulling himself back much. His speed, power, and magic were at least that of a top-level Archwizard.

Clash! 𝐞𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺

Bam!

Following the runes, multiple strikes from the duel swords came. Sylvester successfully blocked them using the deflecting style instead of a head-on collision.

“Faster, son! Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Light, Dark and many more hybrids! There are masters around the world, masters of magic you can’t even fathom. Some have harnessed the power of time, while some have mind or poison! You can do it! Use all your strength. I am not even using five per cent of my power, so worry not about hurting me!” The Pope lectured him at the same time.

‘I-I smell… Fear and anxiety? Is he worried about my well-being? Why?’ Sylvester smelled strange emotions from the man. This time, he was more taken aback as this was too intense. It wasn’t like before when the Pope worried for him because he was the future of the faith. No, this was more personal for some reason.

Boom!

Sylvester jumped back while copying the Pope’s runes that made ice spikes. “Mentor, you said, fighting ten wizards at the same time. How can I do that?”

The Pope didn’t stop and continued to speak. “I never said you would learn it in one day. This is likely going to take the coming five months. Knowing the trick to fight multiple wizards and warriors at once is the same as knowing how to fight masters of all basic elements.

“Statistically, most wizards you will meet outside are masters in one of the elements. So, as long as you have a great presence of mind and know how to fight these masters, you can win against multiple of them. It becomes even easier as you are proficient in all elements, and few know.”

Clash!

The Pope kept sparring with Sylvester, increasing his powers every time they’d clash.

“I will push you to exhaustion every single day! That’s the only way to grow stronger fast. You are special, my son. When I was your age, I was still a mere priest trying to master the runes. While you, at seventeen, are proficient in much of magic and mind. We must not let your talent go to waste. We must ensure you can grow to the Supreme Wizard rank at the earliest.” The Pope sounded desperate at the end.

Sylvester tried to get the Pope to speak more. “May I ask why this sudden change?”

The Pope’s eyes contracted, and the smell of anger came. “Because mistakes were made. I should have never let you become a Sanctum Inspector. I should have taken you as my personal student the day you graduated.”

Sylvester didn’t blame him, however. “Don’t misdirect your anger at yourself, mentor. I am thankful that I got to be a Sanctum Inspector. Because of this, I got to see the world, the sinners, and the nature of humanity. After all, it’s not just power, but also experiences that make one stronger.”

“Spoken like the famed wise bard. Well, I also wish to see you become Supreme Wizard fast because then—maybe—you can be the first person to go even higher to whatever rank exists beyond.”

Now that took Sylvester by surprise. He was so focused on becoming the Pope and getting stronger that he never even considered that if he became a Supreme Wizard in his twenties, he’d still have centuries of life left to grow.

“But, the testing orb—”

The Pope interrupted. “Ignore that. Those things can not see beyond Supreme Wizard as they are not designed to sense more solarium than what a Supreme Wizard has. Even sensing a Supreme Wizard ruins the lifetime of those crystals. When I was tested, my testing orb got cracked.”

‘Alright, this is interesting. I now have another reason to work hard.’

Boom!

The training continued, but they also talked in the middle. It was also a part of the training as talking distracts too.

“Mentor, I need a favour. I have a list of some assassin guilds that I want to track. I want to know all the updates on their movements and locations.” Sylvester asked.

“Why?”

“Because they put a bounty on my mum, a hundred thousand more than mine. They have crossed a line, and I only see one way to end it.”

The Pope struck him more intensely. “You want to kill them?”

“Yes, all of them. I envision no place for assassin guilds in the world of law and peace.” Sylvester answered and held on.

Thud!

Sylvester got pressed to his knees while stopping the two swords with his spear. “One at a time, they will die for their sins.”

Woosh!

A sudden halo of light appeared behind Sylvester’s head and blinded the Pope for a microsecond. At that time, Sylvester lowered himself and struck Pope’s feet, and then jumped away.

The law that Solis stipulates.

There are many who manipulate.

These sinners, it’s up to us to regulate.

With our arms of holy justice—Eradicate!?

Sylvester’s hymn was short but impactful, as even the Pope stopped moving after hearing it and just looked at Sylvester.

The silence remained for more than a minute, but Sylvester kept himself on guard, knowing the Pope could strike at any moment.

However, that strike never came as the old man threw the swords to the side, and the scent of worship overpowered everything. “I will order Saint Seer to spy on them. The lesson is over for today, go and sleep. I will see you again in the evening.”

‘Good! These alone times with the Pope are the best for indoctrinating him slowly.’ Sylvester was delighted to smell worship from the man who usually received prayer.

“I will see you tomorrow, mentor.” Sylvester paid his respects and left swiftly.

The word ‘busy’ was an understatement for his life at the moment. He reached his home and tippy-toed towards his room as it was early morning and all were sleeping. He also checked Xavia’s room and found Miraj snoring in Xavia’s arms, hugging tightly.

He tucked them under the blanket properly and entered his room. He locked the door and threw away his sweaty clothes to sit butt-naked beside his table.

‘Alright, let’s start designing the printing machine.’ Sylvester got to work.

Sleep? What was that? Hunger? What was that?

Sylvester had less time and more things to do. First, he had to spread his name far and wide. He had to ensure people saw him in a positive light too. For that, the books were going to help. He was even planning to write a book called ‘How to Write, for Dummies—If you can’t even do this, you’re a donkey.’

Along with the printing machine, he also had to develop a simple steam engine that could power the machine. But, in the middle of planning, he had an idea of using magic runes to make the piston run instead of steam.

He termed such runes as Industrial Runes, which could be etched onto the material’s surface and run by magic provided by solarium crystals. But, eventually, he gave up. The idea was good, but he realised that the world had so few wizards that maintaining runes would be a problem. No normal wizard would do such a small, labour-intensive task of maintaining and reinforcing runes. Perhaps in bigger projects, they could, but not everywhere.

Hence, Sylvester went with the steam power. Because one day, he hoped to hire some disowned, homeless, mentally slow people like Zeke and make them run his underground factory and print propaganda.

‘Maybe I should draw a simple sewing machine too. That should increase the output of the undergarments by manifolds and increase my profits.’

Sylvester’s life, over the coming few months, was going to be all about invention, production and fighting. And, of course, healing Xavia.

Thankfully, being busy has its benefits, as one never realises when time passes.

But Sylvester had no idea how peaceful his life was, as compared to the distant storm that was approaching. To the dark fate, would he submit? Or will he rise and cross the deadly summit?

Only time would tell what would prevail, for much was left in Sylvester’s tale.

________________________

A

/N: Events of the next chap happen over a period of six months.

1000 GT = 1 Bonus chapter.

1 Super Gift = 1 Bonus chapter.

Ape Together Strong