Chapter 164 - Wake Up Call (6)

Whenever one heard someone mentioned "Four Great Gods," one would immediately think of the Church—the association that managed the worshipers of the Four Great Gods in the entirety of Human Empire.

Of course, that also means one would think about anything related to it: faith, devotion, Miracle, Priest, Paladin, and surely the Great Pontiff. One became a firm believer of the Four Great Gods due to the Miracle displayed by the people of the Church.

They believed in the miraculous power the Four Great Gods had bestowed upon the member of the Church, and they, too, wanted to be "blessed" by the Four Great Gods. Of course, there were still some people who became a firm believer due to the teaching.

Miracle: a term that was used by the Church to call the type of energy their members used to achieve feat that defied the law of Magic—regeneration acceleration. It sounds obnoxious, but no one complained about the way they named the type of the energy they used.

Needless to say, countless of Mages had made a theory about the so-called "Miracle" to rationalize what actually happened; they still believed that what the member of the Church had displayed was one of the forgotten Advance Magic.

Still, no one could prove it since both sides were pretty much secretive about what they actually learned ... More like, the latter was too prideful to lower their head to inquire about how Miracle actually worked.

While most of the people knew Miracle was utilized by a Priest to heal people, very little of them knew that Miracle could also be used in a combat. Of course, this couldn't be just performed by anyone; there were only a few chosen people could—Paladin.

Paladin was the soldier of Church; they defended the Church with their shiny golden armour, special utilization of Miracle, Holy Swords, and, of course, the Four Gods' blessings.

Paladin was consisted of a bunch of the chosen Church members that were permitted to take people's lives by the Four Great Gods. To simply summarize it, they were a group of Miracle users who could utilize Miracle to exert violence—in their words, "to correct the people."

One might be asking just whom the Church felt the need to protect themselves from. The answer is, as one might expect, everyone that the Church deemed as an enemy: sinners, blasphemer, and the unfaithful.

With that being said, it is time to speak about the other division of Church that was rarely displayed to the world, and most of the people didn't know due to their secrecy—Executioner.

Executioner was a small group of people consisted of the chosen members of the Church that carried death sentence to the condemned under the order of the Church.

Just like Paladins, they were permitted by the Gods to exert violence. Unlike Paladins that were displayed publicly however, they worked in the shadow while carrying the name of the light.

One should be grateful to never know of their existence; for when one knew about them, that would mean they appeared in front of oneself, which in the other words means death to oneself.

Of course, this only applied to civilians and ordinary Mages and Knights—the unrecognized. For those, who had a high rank in their chosen Principle, they were naturally aware of the existence of Executioners.

They didn't have to feel the need to be afraid of the Executioners, since the authority they held means they got the protection of the Kingdom; unless they defected from the Kingdom, they would never be targeted by the Church.

With that said, the group of people that were eager to take Basil's head was a bunch of Executioners.

Clank!

"Tsk. These guys are tough, aren't they?" Iliana clicked her tongue in annoyance at the Executioner who had managed to block her attack. It had been five minutes into the battle, and the only thing she could do was scratching them.

She turned her gaze to the insignia attached to the ornamental chain wrapped around the Executioner's hand; it was shining in a golden light emitting a foreign yet familiar energy. She believed it was some sort of a catalyst for their power.

Boom!

"Kuhak!" On the other side, one of the Executioners fell lifelessly to the ground as he had his chest punctured by a spiky earth.

"Darn it, these guys are tough!" The culprit of the Executioner's death, Whitney, cursed under his breath. He didn't think the Executioner would be this hard to fight.

When he was about to check the identity of the Executioner, he suddenly developed a sense of foreboding. Quickly turning back, he could see an Executioner coming at him, ready to attack him.

Cursing under his breath again, he quickly rose an earthen barrier up to separate him from the Executioner.

Boom!

Despite so, the Executioner could easily break through it. Of course, by the time the barrier was broken, Whitney was already gone; he had seen Cray was struggling to fight a particular Executioner, and he planned to team up with him.

Only Seven Executioners remained alive, but their power seemed to increase the more of them died. While Whitney teamed up with Cray to fight two of the remaining Executioners, Iliana fought two by herself.

Basil, who was the main target of the Executioners, was fighting three by himself. Compared to the irritated Iliana, and the pressurized duo—Whitney and Cray—he was the epitome of a nonchalant fighter.

It could be even said that he was toying with the Executioners he was fighting. Of course, he didn't just toy with them; he was digging for information from them.

"Did Eugene send you independently or is it the Head Priest's order?"

"..."

He had expected to hear no answer from them, but for him it didn't matter; he had a keen sense toward Mana, and he could easily read the emotion of the Executioners.

"I see. So that guy has the ability to mobilize you at a very young age..."

One might wonder how could Basil read the emotion of the Executioners, despite them utilizing Miracle instead of Mana. The answer is, as stated above, because Miracle was another form of Mana.

Different indeed, however it had the same root. This is the reason why Basil could use his keen sense toward Mana to read their emotion.

Basil had hypothesized about this before, however he hadn't been sure whether Miracle was actually Mana. Therefore, he had asked the Guide for confirmation.

Although some of the explanations were still omitted, surprisingly, Basil could already confirm his hypothesis about Miracle was true.

CLANK!

"Kah!"

An Executioner was thrown away after blocking Basil's sword with their Miracle protected hand. Judging by the voice, the Executioner was a female.

"Oops. I put too much power," muttered Basil. Turning his gaze to the Executioner he had just thrown away, he quirked his eyebrow. "I thought the Church was a very conservative bunch of people ... They have changed the rule, it seems."

It wasn't Basil's first time of being targeted by Executioners. In the past, he had even fought an army of Paladins chasing his butt.

Therefore, he knew well that none of them had been a woman. It was one of the Church's regulations: women should not dwell themselves in violence.

"Devotion knows not gender; every human is equal in front of our Gods' eyes," one of the Executioners replied. When the Executioner Basil had thrown away stood up, she pointed her hand at Basil. "In front of our Gods' eyes, you shall never be forgiven."

Basil's response to that was a condescending smirk. "Show it to me." Brandishing Death Howl's Sealing Sword in his hand, he said, "What kind of righteousness you, who dwell with Demons, have."

Basil had said that offhandedly, but the three Executioners faltered slightly. Basil noticed that, and his disdain over them was amplified yet again; his guess of them conspiring with Demons was proven to be true.

He abhorred it; the hypocrisy was disgusting. Even the fact that they knew about "Demons" itself was enough to make him frown. No one should know about Demons unless one had a certain knowledge about the past—the real history.

Still, the Executioners were devoted to their task. Cupping their hands together, the golden insignia hanging on their wrist shone intensely.

[O the wise God of Peace, Layland. Bestow upon thy lowly servant a power to eliminate he who hateth peace. Bound of Suppression!]

From below the ground of the female Executioner, four golden chains emerged. They were quickly heading toward Basil, and all of them had an aura that was true to their name—suppressing.

Not stopping there, the other Executioners also utilized their Miracle.

[O the righteous Goddes of justice, Justina. Bestow upon thy lowly servant a power to bring justice to he who is lost in their path. Podium of Judgement!]

An ethereal golden light platform appeared out of thin air right behind Basil. It did nothing to him for the moment, but he could already feel the faint force pulling on his body.

[O the merciful Goddes of Love, Lindy. Bestow upon thy lowly servant a power to pardon the sin of the man who fancieth chaos. Blade of Mercy!]

With the three of them had fully utilized their Miracle, the complete suppressing power finally took place. All of that happened in a span of five seconds, showing how good they were at doing their job.

Needless to say, Basil hadn't been idling since then; he had observed each one of them to look for the weakness of their attack. Needless to say, he had seen through of them.

When the golden chains came at him, he extended his Sealing Sword, and lightly twisted it. A suction force was created by the wind swirling around it, and the golden chains were pulled to the sword.

It was all possible due to Basil's extreme control over his Mana, and the quality of the Mana he utilized; not just anyone could imitate the same feat.

When the chains were close to wrap around the sword due to the swirling wind, Basil quickly exploded his Qi that he had gathered on the sword's tip.

Boom!

That way, the golden chains were shattered—the process only took two seconds. Feeling the pulling force from the astral golden platform behind him was getting stronger, Basil quickly dashed toward the female Executioner.

[Slip]!

Like a flash, he reappeared in front of the flustered female Executioner after disappearing briefly from everyone's vision. Quickly grabbing her clothes, he threw her directly to the astral platform.

As her body reached the platform, like a case, it wrapped around her body, and slowly sucked the moisture of her skin. "Gah! Stop this immediately!" She screamed painfully, as the pain it caused was unbearable for her.

Still, none of the two Executioners had any thought on rescuing her; they were still focused on killing Basil—especially the one with a golden dagger in his hand. Basil merely drew his Qi, and utilized his Aura—the second form of Qi.

[Master Of Weapons]!

In turn, his Aura Ability was activated too. Although not as much as when he used [Synchronization], he became more in tune with the Sealing Sword in his hand. Brandishing the sword lightly once, a mark was left on the ground.

Then, Basil charged forward.. This time, he was seriously intending to kill them.