Chapter 248 Unexpectedly Unexpected

When Basil's vision returned to normal, just a few seconds had passed. In Iliana's eyes, he had merely been staring at the photographs in the journal blankly for the past few seconds, so she didn't think much of it.

In her mind, Basil was just shaken at seeing what his father had experienced. She was also a little bit shaken at the magnitude of the atrocity the Supreme Court had done to Halton under the Church's instruction—it was normal for him to think that way.

It would have been better if they had immediately executed Halton, but they had tortured him by giving him many semi-fatal injuries. Iliana didn't need to experience it—she could imagine what kind of pain Halton must have been enduring before being executed.

"Are you all right?" Iliana looked at Basil.

"I am all right."

"You currently look like someone who will reduce a Kingdom to ashes however."

Basil hummed lightly at Iliana's words, and mused to himself. 'Why am I enraged? I don't even know my father personally—it is strange to think that I get mad for what happened to him ... Is this because blood is thicker than noodles?'

Basil was recalling the look of regret in the face of the person who had opened his veil just a moment before [Visualization] ended.

The person, who was also one of the judges, was the only person who seemed to know Halton personally, and knew he had done something wrong.

Basil could clearly see the look of guilt and self loathing in the person's eyes. He was very sure the person would never forget what he had done that day.

Still, it didn't mean Basil held no grudge towards the man. Like what the Church had said to his father, the man could only blame his fate of being one of the judges who had judged his father; the man would still become his future target.

He was still puzzled about why he felt mad about what had happened to the parents he previously didn't know he had, but he wasn't stupid enough to forgive the people who had wronged his family.

He had heard many things, though not nearly sufficient, about his parents, and he could see how much they had actually cherished him.

His father, though had entrusted him to the wrong person, had saved his life. He wouldn't be here, if his father had failed in protecting his identity.

Tak!

Basil put the journal back to its place in the rack, and decided to stop reading the others. The other journals merely talked about the detailed journeys of his father as a Mage, and he didn't need to know about it.

He wasn't a child who was extremely curious about his parents' journey anymore—he had never even been one. Knowing about how his father in general was, and what kind of atrocity the bastards had done to his father was enough for him.

Facing his head to the side, he was met with Iliana's solemn look. Her face told nothing about what she felt like usual, but her Mana was unusually disturbed—even Deacon, who was on his shoulder, noticed it.

As he quirked his eyebrow in curiosity as a gesture of asking her what bothered her, Iliana pointed her finger towards one of the furthest sections from them. Basil faced the direction she pointed her finger to, and his face, too, immediately turned solemn.

Whoosh!

Iliana merely felt a gentle breeze, and in the next moment, Basil had already appeared in front of the section she was pointing to. She quickly followed suit, but unlike Basil, she didn't utilize any of her Step Art.

[The Cursed Witch: Maya Pacifer]

As he read the title of the book dedicated to his mother, his hold on it immediately got tighter. He could already picture what kind of a person his mother was the day Iliana told him about her, and the way every author of the journal had written about his mother really irked him.

Unlike Danzel, his father figure, who he had met late in his past life, he had Irene, who had been on his side since he was a baby, as his mother figure. Therefore, regardless of whether he personally knew Maya, he had a stronger emotional attachment to her.

This is the reason why he reacted more "violently" when he saw how the bastards of the Church had treated his mother.

"These good for nothings..."

Basil's eyes turned as cold as a bottomless abyss the moment he looked at the photographs in the journal. They were the photographs of the procession of his mother's execution.

He couldn't even admire his mother's otherworldly beauty, and muse about how similar she looked to Iliana, as his mind was overwhelmed with the thought of the most painful death he could give to the bastards in the photographs.

How could he not think of that? There were photographs showing his mother's naked upper body—exposing his mother's body that was full of injuries—and some men who were smiling in satisfaction at what they had done.

He could instantly deduce the bastards had been the people who had whipped his mother's body until it attained such gruesome injuries.

Not stopping there, there were even photographs showing the procession of his mother's crucifixion.

[Ding!]

[A piece of history is detected!]

[Initiating Visualization... Target: The Great Church of Azarthan, 2003 ACE.]

The Guide also seemed eager to show him directly what the bastards had actually done to his mother, and his eyes turned colder at that fact. As his vision warped, he arrived at the reality the Guide had created—the site of the execution.

The place was a secret underground room, located right below the Great Church of Azarthan. The place looked as bright as the surface, but the aura filling it was sickeningly dark—creating an apparent contrast to the brightness of the room.

There were seven men and one powerless woman in the middle of the room, but only the men who could stand on their feet. The woman was lying weakly on the ground, while looking at the white ceiling emptily as if she wasn't even there in the first place.

"If not for the fact that this harlot is a heretic, I would have a go at her."

"Hmph! Just the thought alone is already disgusting. Aren't you ashamed at the fact that you just had a thought of mingling with an animal?"

"Hahaha! I was just saying it was a pity that this kind of physique belonged to an animal."

The more Basil listened to the conversation between the two men about his mother, the closer he got to them. He was already right in front of one of the men when the man was laughing, and he had already swung his sword at the man's neck by the time he knew it.

He immediately kept his sword the moment he regained his composure. He knew whatever he did in the current reality would be futile as he couldn't hurt the man even in the slightest.

Still, he couldn't help but stare at the man he towered over in front of him like he wanted to kill the man and his descendants.

He properly engraved the man's face in his head, so he wouldn't forget the man's face. He would definitely kill the man the moment he encountered the man in the future.

p "Huh? What is this?" The man, who was being stared at by Basil felt a chill in his spine. "Weird ... I think I felt a killing intent for a moment there."

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah... Did you feel that earlier?"

"What?"

"The killing intent..."

The other six men turned their head towards Maya, who was lying on the floor, then laughed at the man who was being stared at by Basil as they turned their head back at him. They were thinking that the man was intimidated by Maya.

"You just said that you wanted to mingle with this animal, and now you are afraid of her?"

"That is not the case!" The man retorted angrily. "I clearly felt something!"

The other men laughed at their friend again, before moving beside Maya, who was still staring emptily at the ceiling. The man in front of Basil followed them not long after, and shivered the moment he passed through Basil.

Basil was sharp enough to not disregard what had happened, but he still attributed it to coincidence. After all, if he really had the ability to affect this reality, that means, he had just sent his soul to the past to watch the entire event.

He knew he had never had such an ability, and the Guide wasn't capable of doing that.

Turning his body towards his mother, he walked towards her slowly. The men were lifting her roughly to a human sized cross, but she still remained motionless as ever.

His mother looked miserable with the injuries covering her body, but her beautiful face remained as flawless as ever. The Pacifer Seal on the middle of her forehead was shining intensely in purple, adding a certain otherworldly charisma to her.

Tak! Tak!

His mother didn't even flinch even when the men were nailing her limbs to the cross, and it was honestly painful to look at for Basil. He really hoped he could do something about it at the moment.

The emotions he had thought he had buried deep inside his heart resurfaced, overwhelming him as he looked at his mother's helpless state. His eyes immediately shone in gold, and his Pacifer Seal appeared in the middle of his forehead afterwards.

Boom!

An otherworldly aura instantly surrounded him the moment the Seal shone intensely in gold, and he immediately felt connected to his mother. It wasn't something superficial—he really felt connected to his mother.

It was as if he had established a [Link] with his mother: he could feel her agony, and the pain she had been enduring for hours.

Still, the connection with his mother didn't attract his attention as much as the scene of his mother turning her head towards him. The previously emotionless face was now filled with emotion as tears profusely stream down her eyes.

"My son!"

Basil widened his eyes in bafflement, but his mouth was quicker than his mind. Just before he could rationalize what had just happened, he answered his mother's call emotionally.

"Mother..."

"You are here... My son is here!"

Much to his bewilderment, his mother could really see him.