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 sothing to do with his body's ability to turn the blood into solarium, but he didn't have the ti 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 ti."
The Pope entered the arena. He seed 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 Supre Wizard, twenty or so Grand Wizards can kill you." The Pope got right to it.
Sylvester didn't waste ti in greeting either and held his spear up. "Thank you for the lessons, ntor. They really helped fight the Bloodling recently."
A small smile leaked from the old man's face. "That's good, now focus on my movents and try to imitate them. Slowly, I will move close, and we will clash the swords and spears. At the sa ti, I will launch a few basic elental 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 sotis throw one sword in the air and use an elental rune, projecting it on the ground. Sotis it would create fire on the ground, sotis a ditch, or sotis quicksand.
All the while, the Pope moved closer to Sylvester slowly, giving him enough ti 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 ti for so reason, and the man seed 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 sa 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 ti, 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 ti Sylvester did not fall but still got pushed back a little.
Woosh!
Following the clash, three runes ca at the sa ti. One created a ditch, the other made mud, and the third put the mud on fire.
"Argh!" Sylvester could only see two of them co 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!
Bam!
Following the runes, multiple strikes from the duel swords ca. 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. So have harnessed the power of ti, while so 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 !" The Pope lectured him at the sa ti.
'I-I sll… Fear and anxiety? Is he worried about my well-being? Why?' Sylvester slled strange emotions from the man. This ti, 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 so reason.
Boom!
Sylvester jumped back while copying the Pope's runes that made ice spikes. "ntor, you said, fighting ten wizards at the sa ti. 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 sa as knowing how to fight masters of all basic elents.
"Statistically, most wizards you will et outside are masters in one of the elents. 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 becos even easier as you are proficient in all elents, and few know."
Clash!
The Pope kept sparring with Sylvester, increasing his powers every ti 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 re 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 Supre 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 sll of anger ca. "Because mistakes were made. I should have never let you beco a Sanctum Inspector. I should have taken you as my personal student the day you graduated."
Sylvester didn't bla him, however. "Don't misdirect your anger at yourself, ntor. 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 fad wise bard. Well, I also wish to see you beco Supre 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 beca a Supre 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 Supre Wizard as they are not designed to sense more solarium than what a Supre Wizard has. Even sensing a Supre Wizard ruins the lifeti 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.
"ntor, I need a favour. I have a list of so assassin guilds that I want to track. I want to know all the updates on their movents 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 ti, 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 ti, 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 mont.
However, that strike never ca 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 tis with the Pope are the best for indoctrinating him slowly.' Sylvester was delighted to sll worship from the man who usually received prayer.
"I will see you tomorrow, ntor." Sylvester paid his respects and left swiftly.
The word 'busy' was an understatent for his life at the mont. He reached his ho 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 ti and more things to do. First, he had to spread his na 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 terd 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 so disowned, holess, ntally 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 undergarnts 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 ti 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 ti 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.
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