I Became The Pope, Now What?

"Finally!" A thunderous roar echoed through the vast, boundless void of darkness with flickering stars and celestial bodies in the distance of lightyears. "After eons—I, Winmammu, have become an Elder God!"

His body, bigger than any celestial object in that entire universe, eclipsed the deepest and greatest of the voids. Shining in dark green, his ten-headed body was a gruesome sight to see. As if rotting with blisters full of pus and whatnot, he held no humanoid form. Right below the cluster of heads was a single giant octopus tentacle, its little pores so big they could swallow a sun in them.

The ten heads were similarly covered with hundreds of round eyes, randomly placed. There was no mouth or nose, however. Just nasty pus oozing holes everywhere.

"Hah! Just a few thousand years more, and I shall defeat you, Prometheus!" Bellowed the creature despite there being none to hear him.

Crack!

"Hmm?" But just then, he noticed something through his boundless senses that watched every nook and cranny of the space. A crack appeared like the space was glass. From within it, a light spilled out, so bright that even he felt threatened by the energy.

Crack!

The gap in space grew bigger, and a palm came out. Made of pure, shining red and golden energy, the fingers were big enough to ruin galaxies with ease. Yet, the hand seemed careful not to hurt any celestial body.

"W-Who are you?!" Winmammu questioned, preparing himself to face the foe. "Who sent you? Prometheus?!"

Crack!

The crack grew so wide that Winmammu felt utterly scared. Enough to retreat as far away as he could. But then a head came out of the crack, followed by the entire body of the illuminating being. The halo and the fiery flames that surrounded him were so bright that half of the universe started to appear white, not black.

"Prometheus? Who?" the shining being voiced, "I am Sylvester… Pardon my intrusion."

"What?"

Sylvester fully appeared out of the crack in space, making it vanish. But then he punched his fist forward into nothingness. Just before it fully stretched forward, another crack appeared in space, the other side opening on top of Winmammu.

A shining, burning claw emerged and captured Winmammu's heads.

"Thank you for your sacrifice. You shall be remembered." Sylvester apologized and began the absorption of the Eldritch horror before him. This was much uglier than Nehilius. The absorption was far stronger and faster this time, as one Eldritch entity was defeating another.

Thankfully, because Nehilius was so ancient as an Eldritch God, his power far surpassed Winmammu, a newly elevated Eldritch entity who had ground his way to what he thought was the top.

"No! Why now? Who are you? Why me?!"

"For the greater good," Sylvester answered, finishing the massive entity within a few human minutes. It was such a fast end to an entity so strong that even Sylvester was left speechless. "I-I didn't get to ask its name..."

Boom!

Yet, as soon as Winmammu vanished completely, Sylvester felt a Big Bang-like invisible explosion coming out of his body. Once again, he had won control over a universe, a concept he was still in the process of accepting.

'One down, plenty more to go.' Sylvester swept his senses all over the universe under his control and checked how many sentient species existed. After taking an account and stopping natural annihilation events befalling a few of them, he made another crack in space and left for the next destination. 'Thank you, Diana, Xye.'

Gratitude was rightfully expressed. After all, these were the same Eldritch Gods whose realms Sylvester was able to glance into during his entrapment in that Void of Nothingness with Chonky. Although his stay only lasted a few seconds in each of those realms, he was able to return to them now, with his vastly superior control and understanding of spatial magic.

Crack!

…

As expected, Sylvester's actions no longer went unnoticed by those he tried to stand against.

Outside what one conceived as time and space, outside what was once conceived as the container of time and space, two supreme entities discussed the matter as mere voices with no bodies.

"He's rising faster than expected, Aveda."

Ashraska, the counterpart, musingly watched Sylvester through his omniscient gaze, going from realm to realm and devouring the Eldritch Gods with ease. "Prometheus failed to kill Nehilius in time. He failed to kill the Eldritch Gods we are witnessing being devoured."

Aveda's voice gave a hint of intrigue, "Makes me wonder if we were too late in adopting Prometheus."

"Or, we were wrong to adopt Prometheus."

"A betrayal?" Aveda reacted. "Does he not fear us?"

"Marcus did not," Ashraska said, and the view before his gaze changed from Sylvester to a different lone entity going from universes to universes, killing Eldritch entities as if stepping on ants. "We have a traitor deserving punishment."

"What better punishment than to send him to kill the one he's protecting," Aveda suggested.

"We cannot. The existence of Sylvester eludes our minds as well. To engage with him directly before understanding the one behind him will be our downfall," Ashraska warned. "Let Sylvester consume as many Eldritch Gods as he can. In the end, we shall strengthen Prometheus equally. Fate shall eventually bring them face to face when only they are left."

Aveda gave a silent agreement and faded into silence. As Primordial Gods, they existed as mere consciousness in the vastness. They could form a body for themselves if they wished to, but there was no need.

For their mere thoughts were enough to fulfill their wants.

…

Unaware of the plot, Sylvester continued his ruthless massacre of gods. Every time he moved to a new realm, he became stronger and faster. A new universe entered his domain of consciousness, becoming his absolute vessel. He controlled every life form in it, and every natural element was his toy.

"Who are you to challenge I, the mighty Yelema'nasura'monkee

—?"

"Thank you for your sacrifice, Yele."

Crack!

At one point, the process moved so fast that he had to shorten the names of some Elder Gods, for some had truly long names. A simple smack of his enormous palm extinguished the existence of the Eldritch Gods.

As Nehilius had suggested, Sylvester caught all the fish he could. He entered all the realms he remembered from his perilous experience. Eventually, he came to a stop when there was nowhere left to go.

Hovering in another universe under his control, he tried to process all the power he had gained and compress it into a smaller form.

'Where to now?' he asked himself while trying to get rid of the flames and glow surrounding him. He attempted to reduce his own size to form a humanoid shape and look like Sylvester Maximilian once again.

Smaller and smaller, he reduced his size to that of a planet.

'I haven't seen Mum in so long,' he muttered. 'She must be in tears.'

Further decreasing, Sylvester was reduced to the size of a humanoid moon. But from there, it started to feel more challenging to compress the energies within himself without losing control and bursting apart.

He felt the need to store his energy somewhere else now. Somewhere easily accessible. Of course, he took an example from Miraj, with the endless void in his mouth.

'I guess I'm the Maxy Bank now,' he japed with himself in that moment of cosmic silence. He then decided to use Nehilius' realm to store chunks of his energy, which was easy since he had absorbed it in the first place.

Secured as orbs of flickering energy in the universe, he finally reduced his size further to a tall human. Perhaps a little too tall, reaching close to seven feet. But it was a matter so small he didn't bother storing more energy.

'Sadly, still no beard.' he sighed to himself. Of course, he could create a beard for himself on his self-made body. But that felt like cheating, and hence not real.

In the end, white robes draped Sylvester's body. Similar to his Pope uniform, but without the mitre on his head. There was no difference in his looks except for a better complexion that could make all the Bright Mothers and queens feel jealous.

"Alright, where to next?" Finally done with self-care, he glanced left and right. "Too bad I couldn't inherit Nehilius or other Eldritch Gods' memories."

Feeling clueless, he wondered if making random cracks in space would help, since he remembered the coordinates for his home world.

Crack!

That was a very similar sensation, but this time he knew he wasn't the cause. Human-sized now, he looked behind himself. A crack in space that was far bigger than what he used had formed with no care for the galaxies that came in its way.

Crack!

"Who is it now?" the tables turned. Sylvester prepared to battle as the crack further widened, and a gigantic being made of dark matter came out. Its body looked as if it was bending the space itself, but on a closer look, it turned out to be something much different. Its body was a container of countless galaxies and celestial bodies.

Humanoid, it crept out of the crack with a scythe-shaped hook in its clutches, made of unknown material. It appeared to be made out of wood, and the blade seemed like multi-layer steel with some patterns.

'Another Eldritch God?'

Sylvester formed his trusted sword made of solidified light, just big enough to match the size of the scythe.

"Who are you?" he inquired carefully.

But before the mysterious creature replied, it began to shrink in proportions at a visible pace and eventually matched Sylvester's.

"I am Prometheus—I am You."

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