Chapter 170 - Extermination (End)

Dale Village (8 kilometers from BA-22)

Eugene clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Tsk. Why haven't I received any report from them? Did they fail?" He was thinking about the group of Executioners he had sent to Lone Plain. "There is no way they are delayed ... Unless there is something unexpected."

By saying something unexpected, Eugene was referring to the intervention of the Kingdom, which was very unlikely. Therefore, the only reason he didn't get any report was, the group he had sent had failed in their task.

As to what caused their failure, Eugene still couldn't think of it. However, he considered the possibility of Iliana and the other two students following her were the people who had killed the Executioners. Although he knew Basil was still alive, he didn't think Basil was the culprit.

As long as one had a high enough position in the Church's hierarchy, one would be able to know about things the Church never revealed to public. Therefore, he knew only the people of the Church who could enter and exit Dungeons as they pleased.

Basil was surely not a member of the Church, so he shouldn't know the route to exit the Dungeon. Furthermore, he should be in the run from the Kinslayer, whose mind was already under the Church's control. Eugene was sure of it since none of the Demons would have come out of Death Howl Dungeon if it had been otherwise.

With that being said, the plan should be killing Basil by sending the group of Executioners in the Dungeon. Now that the Executioners had failed however, the plan was a complete failure.

"Huuh... Can't help it." Eugene sighed lightly. "So what if the Executioners couldn't finish him? The Monsters would finish the job sooner or later." He shrugged nonchalantly.

Contrary to the reaction anyone whose plan has failed shows, Eugene was pretty quite cool about it. "But still, I didn't expect Head Priest Eban was the one who first suggested the idea of finishing Basil."

Although Eugene had been humiliated by Basil, he didn't have that strong of a grudge against him. He didn't have any thought to go as far as killing Basil outside a Duel; he could just challenge Basil in another Duel, and settle his grudge there.

Therefore when the acting Head Priest of Randalvine Church, Eban, had bestowed him the right to command a group of Executioners so he could end Basil's life, he was slightly taken aback.

"Hurting you, an innocent Seminarian, is a sin worthy of punishment. Furthermore, his birth in this world is already a blasphemy; he needs to be punished," was Eban's answer when Eugene had asked him for his reason.

Seminarian was the protege of a Priest; Eugene was aware of his status as one, but he wasn't sure his status was that important for the Head Priest himself to declare that Basil should be punished for hurting him.

All he had done was just learning theology under the guidance of the Head Priest; he wasn't even some valuable Priest who possessed an incredible amount of Miracle. He was quite puzzled, and touched at the same time by the Eban's decision.

He was sure there is more depth to the matter, but he didn't entertain the thought too much. Upon growing up amongst the higher-ups of the Church, he knew quite many of the dark things they had done; sticking his nose where it doesn't belong to wouldn't bring a good end good for him.

"Hm? What is happening to the Royal Army? They look panicked." Eugene infused his eyes with Mana, and squinted them at the four remaining legions of Royal Army stationed 8 kilometers away from him and the other Randalvine Students.

He could see each Legion Commander was commanding their subordinates to move quickly. He couldn't make up what was being said, but he could notice the urgency from their movement.

Vibrate!

Suddenly, he felt his Transmission Talisman was activated, which means there was a message coming in. Much to his surprise, he wasn't the only one receiving the message; the other students were also taking their Transmission Talisman out.

Upon grabbing his, Eugene slightly widened his eyes. "Randalvine Magic Institute's official Transmission?" Quickly reading the content of the message, his eyes widened yet again. "Eight Legion Commanders stationed in Ruttenhale Barony have been slain? Raneil Barony has fallen?"

Eugene was bewildered. Although he knew some things about the Church's unethical deeds, he didn't know anything about the deal between the Church and the Demons yet. In this matter, he was just as bewildered as the other students.

"Is this the reason why I haven't gotten any report yet?" He lowly muttered to himself.

He couldn't just imagine the group of highly trained Executioners had accidentally gotten themselves caught up in the Demon Horde—an amateurish mistake to commit.

Clap!

At the sound, everyone turned their head at Darius. "Everyone, may I have your attention, please?" He gazed at the 59 students stationed there with him.

"Our Headmaster has notified me to take some of you to head to Raneil Barony. For those who don't want to go with me can directly head to Ruttenhale Barony under my secretary, Annabeth's lead!"

Darius was sure there would be many students reluctant to go to Raneil Barony due to the content of the message. Therefore, he presented them a choice even though the gravity of the situation in both Baronies was the same.

He knew if he were just to assign them the Barony they should go to, they would end up running away instead. Mages were naturally individualistic; none of the students would be willing to risk their lives to save others.

True to his expectation, in the next moment out of the 58 students he gave the freedom to decide the Barony they would go to, 40 of them chose to go with Annabeth to Ruttenhale Barony.

They must have thought since eight legions of Royal Army were there, the situation wouldn't be as bad. Darius didn't mind that in the slightest; he merely nodded his head.

Upon landing his gaze on Eugene however, he was slightly surprised; he didn't think Eugene would go with him to Raneil Barony. Although Euegne was a Seminarian, Darius didn't recall Eugene as someone who was selfless enough to be called benevolent.

'I have to make sure what has actually happened ... I have a feeling I will meet Basil there; I should be the one who end his life.' Unknowing of Eugene's real motive, Darius led the 18 students who had chosen to go with him to Raneil Barony.

...

8 hours had passed since Basil and the others had encountered the horde of Magical Beasts that had come from Lone Mountain. The day would end soon, and they were just a few kilometers away from Raneil Barony's now destroyed gate.

They could reach it that fast because none of them had stopped traveling since 8 hours ago. One might expect only Basil and Iliana, who had an insane control over their Mana, could keep running that far.

Surprisingly however, Whitney and Cray were able to keep up. The reason was also not because they were forcing themselves to keep moving.

"I don't regret I bought this thing!" Cray turned to Whitney. "Now that I think about it, standing on this thing is not as stupid as I thought. Now that I also think about it, you look slightly cool whenever you stand on this thing."

Whitney's eyebrow twitched at Cray's word. Looking down at the Transportation Artefact he was standing on, it was apparent that it was really similar to his [Earth Board]. The only differences were the material that made it, and its fuel.

Different than his [Earth Board] that was made of earth and was fueled by his Mana, the Transportation Artefact the two of them were using was made of a special metal, and fueled by Mana Crystal.

Whitney's head turned to the front at Basil who was leading them; he was, once again, amazed by Basil ... For his wealth. Although Whitney had the Transportation Artefact with him all the time, he didn't use it that much due to the Mana Crystal it required.

If it hadn't been for Basil who had casually provided Cray and him with Middle Grade Mana Crystals to fuel their Transportation Artefact, they wouldn't have been able to catch up to Basil and Iliana.

As an active Mage, Whitney wasn't poor, but he wasn't rich either. Sacrificing three Lower Middle Grade Mana Crystals to power a Transportation Artefact was a stretch for him. Each one of them cost him 3 gold coins—highly expensive!

Still though, he was slightly surprised with Basil's rare show of kindness; he had never seen Basil actually engaged himself with people other than some selected few. So far, he had only seen Basil genuinely interacted with Iliana.

Whenever he interacted with Basil, he always felt the invisible barrier Basil put up around people. If he were to describe it in more detail, it felt like Basil was treating everyone as his enemies. Since Basil was so subtle however, his paranoia wasn't really apparent.

Whitney quickly shook his head at his thought; prejudicing someone who had saved his life once was not a good thing to do.

A few more minutes into traveling, Basil and Iliana finally stopped in their step. Whitney and Cray, who were 40 meters apart from them, also followed suit a few seconds later.

Upon looking at the gates of Raneil Barony at a glance, they could easily say ruined was somehow lacking to describe the situation. At that moment however, Basil suddenly raised his Sealing Sword.

"They are coming," he said cryptically.

"They? Who are they?"

"The horde," Basil answered Cray simply.

At this point, each of them was already familiar enough with Basil to know that something wrong was about to happen whenever he spoke like that.

Rumble.

The ground shook, and they instinctively turned their head to the back. Just as the first Demon inside Raneil Barony noticed them, the Magical Beasts from Lone Mountain entered their vision.

"Exterminate any life that I deem unnecessary," Basil muttered coldly.