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nAsia got down from Basil and then smiled at him. She ignored the noises in the background in favour of shamelessly ogling at him. Basil had half expected Asia to change after interacting with her descendants, the Pacifer, but she didn’t. Vagus’ influence was too strong for her to behave normally. Of course, there was still a chance that she had been a closeted pervert all this time.

n“Do you still want to spend some more time outside?” Basil asked.

n“I don’t think so. It is quite taxing maintaining the Jade of Soul Memoir and I don’t want to unnecessarily burden you.” Asia shook her head. “I am going to return to your Inner World.”

nAfter she said that, Asia dissolved into particles, leaving a jade pendant behind. Basil regained the familiar presence in his mind as he caught the pendant from falling. Turning his attention to the remaining people, he hummed in contemplation as they looked at him expectantly. He honestly didn’t know what to tell them to do.

n“I will take care of the Hydra. You may train your coordination and take care of anything that I can’t take care of,” he said. “The main purpose is not to kill as many as possible but to kill as coordinated as possible.”

n“Understood!”

n“Spread out!”

nQuickly taking the initiative, the Maha Dmitra led the remaining Pacifer clanswomen, leaving Iliana and Ione behind. They didn’t show any intention of following the others as they stared at Basil stoically. He knew what they wanted, so he merely shrugged. He turned around and dashed at the Hydra, allowing the two to follow him.

nWilling one of the gigantic golden swords in the sky to fall, Basil sent it to the Hydra. Several High-Class Demons stood in its way, trying to stop it futilely. They turned into an explosion of gore but managed to make the sword off course. Unfortunately for them, it still hit the Hydra’s leg. The gigantic sword’s cut couldn’t be healed easily.

nHundreds of Middle-Class Demons rushed at Basil, Iliana and Ione. Basil sent them the floating blades in the field, killing them even before they could reach them. Ione materialized her Grimoire, casting a defensive Spell to protect them from the Spells that the High-Class Demons sent. Joining Basil, Iliana sent long-range attacks using Sinister Piercer.

nThe three were unstoppable given the combination. Faster than any of the High-Class Demons would like to see, they reached the Hydra. The Demons shot various Miasma-powered Spells at them while the Hydra lunged its heads. Ione blocked the incoming Spells with her Defence Spell. Basil controlled the gigantic sword near the Hydra and cut three of its heads with it.

nThe High-Class Demons controlling the Hydra smirked, thinking that Basil didn’t know the ability of the Hydra. His giant sword might be able to slow down the healing rate of a Demon, but that didn’t work well on the Hydra, especially its heads. Basil was aware of it. Therefore, even before the Hydra sprouted six new heads, Iliana burned the stump of the beheaded necks.

nShriek!

n“Stop them! They know the weakness!”

nThe High-Class Demons were frantic. They had spent a great deal of Miasma to awaken the Hydra. It should have been a dangerous weapon against their opponents. They were quite indignant to see it being damaged easily like that. Despite that, they still believed that it would be able to turn the tide in their favour; therefore, they concentrated on protecting it instead.

nCurses were thrown at Basil and the girls. Basil deflected them with True Light Magic, allowing Ione and Iliana to focus on the offence. As the barrage of Curses ended, the Hydra lunged its six heads forward, spewing out a torrent of thick ash that turned everything it touched into stone. Basil blocked the ash with a shield produced by his gigantic sword.

nIliana frowned as she stood beside Basil. Even with One with Nature active, she could tell that she could never be able to withstand the ash which Basil did easily. The difference in power between them was palpable. She was well aware that she had yet possessed the power to fight alongside Basil, but it was a humbling experience.

nOf course, that didn’t mean that she would back down. As soon as the Hydra stopped spewing its ash, Iliana jumped over the gigantic sword and activated her Art: Mountain Piercer. She thrust Sinister Piercer at one of the Hydra’s heads, producing a beam out of the spear. The beam destroyed the head and burned the stump of the beheaded neck.

nBefore she could safely retreat, a cloak of Miasma covered her body. She immediately exploded her Mana outwards, thus dispelling the forming Curse. Unfortunately, by doing that, she couldn’t properly use her Mana to Cast Teleportation. As such, she was prone to the incoming attack of the Hydra.

nBefore the ash could hit and petrify her, fortunately, Ione teleported her to her side. The ash hit the place where Iliana had been, hitting no one. Knowing what she just did was dangerous and thoughtless, Iliana cast an apologetic smile toward Ione. The said Pacifer nodded her head silently.

nThe Hydra groaned, making the two female Pacifers turn their heads in its direction. They found Basil having cut two of its remaining heads. The High-Class Demons reacted quickly, but they were immediately blown up by the bladed weapons that Basil controlled even before they could attack him. He didn’t retreat and kept dealing losses to the Demon’s side.

nIone put her hand on Iliana’s shoulder as she noticed her frowning. “You don’t need to be as strong as him to fight beside him. You have to accept that you have to retreat sometimes to let him take care of the things that we can’t.”

n“I know,” Iliana replied, subdued.

n“Your action doesn’t reflect your words.”

nIliana frowned harder but didn’t say anything. They turned their attention back to the Hydra and found Basil retreating. At this moment, all of the High-Class Demons were no longer alive and the Hydra only had three of its originally nine heads. When Basil was right beside them, he quirked his eyebrow expectantly.

nThe two female Pacifers knew what he wanted and immediately took action. Ione cast her Spells to distract the Hydra meanwhile Iliana rushed as fast as possible at the Hydra. When she was close enough, she swung her spear sideways in hopes of decapitating all three heads at once. It was a major mistake as she was not strong enough to do that.

n“Iliana!” Ione shouted.

nTime froze as Iliana stared at the three Hydra’s heads staring down at her. The heads opened their maws, allowing her to see the ash that was about to petrify her. Her Grand Circles flared as she frantically gathered as much Mana as possible. The Pacifer Seal on her forehead shone brighter than ever as One with Nature filled her with Natural Mana to the brim.

n‘Is this how I will end?’ she thought indignantly. ‘I don’t want to die here. Not before I can properly fight alongside Basil!’

nAs if answering her determination, an insurmountable power rushed through her body. She instantly felt calm. The power rush made her feel invincible. ‘I can do it.’ She relaxed her stance and faced the Hydra confidently. ‘I can fight alongside Basil with this power.’ By the time she knew it, her movement was unhindered in the slowed-down world.

nShe swung her spear like she had. Attempting the same thing twice right after failing splendidly just a few moments ago seemed foolish, yet she felt right doing it. She was sure it would work this time. She wasn’t wrong. As soon as she finished swinging her spear, the Hydra’s remaining heads fell. Before the stumps could grow, they were covered in purple fire.

nThe Hydra reeled back and forth before falling lifelessly to the ground. Iliana watched the entire happening with a bewildered yet satisfied look. She turned around, meeting the gaze that had been planted on her back. She wanted to smirk victoriously at her two audiences but couldn’t do so as she immediately felt lightheaded.

nBasil appeared beside her before she could fall. He caught her in his arms, meeting her questioning gaze with a small smile. She had felt powerful just a few moments ago. She wondered why she felt so hopeless now. Basil merely told her to rest and she complied without any qualms.

n“Now, let’s end this farce. They are no longer needed,” Basil muttered as he looked up.

nRaising his hand, Basil transmitted to his Pacifer clanswomen the order to retreat. They did it without any questions, leaving the Demons in the dust. When the Demons had the initiative to chase after the Pacifers, Basil brought down his hands. Hundreds of thousands of bladed weapons flew toward the Demons.

nThe scene made them stop for a moment, but they were too overwhelmed by bloodlust to properly think about the consequences of their actions. As such, all of them burst into a rain of blood as soon as they made contact with the weapons.

nThe Pacifer clanswomen saw the scene in awe. Basil just did something that hundreds of them even had struggles doing. It reminded them of the reason why he was the Fated Child. At least, that was the thought of the Hina Dmitra. The Maha Dmitra were reminded of who Basil was. He was a Demigod and the Vessel of the God whom they had served.

nThrough Basil, they could see a glimpse of the lost power. Through Basil, they were reminded that it didn’t have to be The Lord who came and saved them.

n“We are going to the Great Forest of Yitoupheo,” Basil said as his Domain dematerialized, revealing the bleak sky above. “Xander, Cyrus, the Maha Dmitra and I will be the spearhead meanwhile the Hina Dmitra become the rearguard. The centre will be filled with civilians.”

nBasil was enough.

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