Chapter 234 - Earlier

Iliana stared at the lifeless body of the little girl whose head she had just cut off in silence. She didn't understand very well what she was currently feeling, but she was sure regret must be the strongest of them.

One of her shortcomings as a Mage was the fact that she couldn't kill just anyone. Just like what had happened, she had disregarded the possibility of the girl being possessed because she didn't want to kill her.

She had also realized that she was not a deep thinker, but an indecisive Mage. She had thought many ways to solve the situation, but she ended up using the "safest" way because she had been focusing on rescuing the civilians, not solving the situation.

She was torn between her pride and her desire. On the one hand, she wanted to prove Basil was wrong—that she could save everyone—but on the other hand, she just wanted to save the little girl.

She couldn't choose well between the former and the latter, resulting in her losing both. The girl she wanted to save was now dead, and the tens of civilians she wanted to take out safely now only remained a few people.

She had failed splendidly.

"Iliana..." Whitney put his hand on Iliana's shoulder. "It was not your fault."

"I know, Whitney. I am not having a self-deprecating thought, but I am still disappointed in myself nonetheless." Iliana turned around, and looked into Whitney's eyes deeply. "What do you see in me? Do you see a Mage?"

"I see someone great, who I admire the most."

"I see..." Iliana took Whitney's hand off her shoulder. "Not the answer I wanted, but thanks for your confidence in me."

"Iliana..." Whitney clenched his fist helplessly, but nodded his head in the end. "We managed to save 30 people—just know that you still have managed to save lives."

Iliana turned her gaze back to the lifeless body of the little girl on the ground, meanwhile Whitney head back to the others. He knew Iliana was fine, but he was sure Iliana would forever consider this as her mistake.

He didn't even know that he had also been tricked by Iliana, but he knew Iliana must've done many things to prevent this from happening to be that disappointed in herself. He couldn't blame her; he would act the same if his effort ended up being in vain.

Rumble.

Not even a second after Whitney regrouped with the others, the ground faintly shook as a sound of a stone rubbing against another stone was reverberated through the whole cell chamber. Everyone immediately looked up thinking that the ceiling was falling off.

It turned out to be their needless worry, since they didn't see any sign of the ceiling falling off. As soon as they looked at their surrounding however, they noticed another door had just appeared in the room.

The door was immediately opened the moment they turned their eyes to it, revealing the dimly lit passage behind it. Even without checking it, they knew it would lead them outside, because they were sure Basil was the one who had done it.

"Let's go."

"O-Oh, yeah."

Whitney was about to call Iliana when she suddenly appeared in front of him. She had no visible expression on her face, but she was exuding an extremely cold aura—colder than the one she usually exuded when she was pissed.

Whitney was not the only person who was intimidated by her aura; Cray, Steven, and Thompson also gulped drily at her. Even Jocelyn, who could still act bubbly in any kind of situation, was trembling at that moment.

Uncaring to everyone's gaze, Iliana walked towards the passage by herself.

Thompson was the first one to regain his composure, and he immediately cleared his throat to gather the civilians' attention.

"Kuhum! Everyone, let's move! We are going to get out."

The civilians were still too shocked by the predicament that they had gotten out of to properly react, but they still followed the lead of the Mages and Knights quite well. No matter how shocked they were, they still wanted to leave the place after all.

Being ahead of everyone, Iliana was walking by herself in the front. No one dare to approach her, as they understood that she needed some time alone.

'I got your point, but you are doing it wrong, Basil.' She looked ahead as if she could already see Basil from afar. 'It seems you don't understand yourself well either.' She clenched her fist tight as her eyes gleamed incomprehensibly.

...

Basil and the others had just finished their meal half an hour ago, and they were now walking towards the place where Iliana and the others would show up—another secret entrance.

Basil was leading them while pretending he was analyzing the structure of the underground tunnel, while in truth he was just leading them astray to stall them.

He could see every happening inside the Dungeon through [Visualization] that the Guide provided him, and he could hear everything the people inside said due to the Runes Carved on the Sealing Sword in his hand.

To simply explain it, he had been watching the entire event as if he was there all along. From the way the people inside the Dungeon acted, he could say for sure that not even Iliana knew he had been watching.

'Naivety equals to a weak poison: it doesn't kill us immediately, but gives us the most painful death. You have it in you, Iliana, and I have removed it for you ... I am sure you will thank me for it one day, just like how I thanked you in the past.'

Basil had actually no intention of making Iliana aware of her shortcomings this way. He had merely baited her to go inside the Dungeon with the civilians, so he could kill Eugene without her intervention.

He was sure Iliana would've stopped him with all she got if he didn't "throw" her inside the Dungeon. This Iliana wasn't mature yet, so she wasn't daring enough to play with risks and she still had little faith in him, unlike the Iliana he knew in his past life.

Basil had merely intended to change the structure of the Dungeon while Iliana was inside, so he could stall her until he killed Eugene. The moment he saw Iliana's look when she volunteered to go with the civilians however, he immediately decided to root out the problem.

Her eyes belonged to an idealistic, stubborn person, who would rather die than admitting their defeat.

He had been like that too, and the Iliana he knew had also confessed she had been like that in her early days as a Mage. Her naivety had made her lose her invaluable friends, and live years of her life in guilt.

Basil was made aware of his condition—that he was already emotionally dead—after he had killed Eugene. He couldn't sympathize with people other than those who were dear to him.

Naturally, he didn't care about Iliana's friends at all, however he couldn't see Iliana got sad because of their death. This is the reason why he made Iliana aware of her shortcomings using the civilians instead of her friends.

'Do I care towards anyone though? What drives me treat all of them kindly? Sincere compassion or the need to pay the favor back?' The more he mused to himself, the more he couldn't understand himself. 'Human—what a complicated creature...'

He lately couldn't help doubting his identity as a human. The fact that he Cultivated Mana Heart, Carved Ultimate Circles, and was connected to the Fragment inside him made him aware of the apparent difference between him and the other humans.

He had ever acted like he wasn't himself—being unusually compassionate towards people—prior to advancing to the Middle Realm. Things weren't very different now, but whenever he acted 'out of character,' he always felt that he was the closest to his true self.

Needless to say, he also considered all of the things happening to his personality were related to the Fragment and the Guide in him.

'Well, no matter what it actually is, I am fine the way I am now.' Basil stopped in his track, and stared silently at the cave in front of him. 'I can't still fit in well in this day and age, but it is just a matter of time—I am sure of it.'

The others also stopped seeing that Basil had stopped, then looked at the entrance of the cave in anticipation. They could faintly hear footsteps coming their way, and they dearly wished the footsteps belonged to their friends.

"She is here..." Basil lightly smirked before stabbing the Sealing Sword into the ground. "I can feel the anger. Ah, how nostalgic—I was like her too when she made me kill my betrayer of a party mates."

No one could hear what Basil was saying, partly because he was muttering to himself, and partly because they were too focused on the cave. They heaved a sigh of relief a few minutes after, as their friends came out of the cave safely along with the civilians.

They fist bumped, hugged each other, and expressed how glad they were that their friends could get out of the predicament safely ... Except for Iliana and Basil. They were staring at each other silently, making the others nervous.

Tap. Tap.

The more Iliana inched closer, the more nervous everyone became. Although she had a neutral expression on her face, they all knew from the aura she was exuding that she wasn't happy.

Basil was just standing her with his eyebrow quirked as if taunting her, and they were all worried about his safety. The moment Iliana stopped right in front of Basil, everyone didn't dare to breathe.

"I don't like your method."

"I know."

"Are you even human?"

"I am a person, but I am not quite sure about it."

"Do you have a heart?"

"It is full of Mana."

Iliana stared at Basil silently again, before abruptly materializing her four Magic Circles and channeled the Mana to her fist. Everyone turned aghast upon witnessing the scene as they fully believed the punch would take Basil's head off.

'What are you doing? Dodge!' They became even more bewildered upon noticing that Basil didn't have any intention to dodge.

Whoosh!

Fortunately, the people's imagination didn't come true as Iliana stopped her fist just a few millimeters away from Basil's face.

"Can you... Even feel?"

Basil merely smiled at Iliana's question as he took her in his embrace. "I don't know, but you can teach me."

Iliana didn't say anything, but she hugged him tightly.