Chapter 328 A Parting Gift

At Basil's interruption, Tristan's attempt to take control over Iliana's mind completely failed. In result, Iliana was pulled out of her misery of reliving the day she had been trying not to recall.

Upon opening her eyes, Iliana was immediately greeted by the scene of Basil holding Tristan above the ground by his hair. Blood colored Tristan's face red; no sound came out of his mouth.

Her eyes immediately turned to Basil after looking at Tristan's state. Basil's eyes instantly took her attention as she didn't expect to see them this soon.

Murderous, cold, incomprehensible, and deep—his eyes made him look like an enraged ancient soul. His presence was overwhelming; not because it was violent, but because it was so profound, one couldn't help but tremble in his presence.

One doesn't fear the ocean because of how violent it is, but because of how deep and unpredictable it is. Basil was just like this: his heavy yet calm presence instilled an indescribable fear to those he despised.

Extending his right hand, his unoccupied hand, Basil covered Iliana's sewn mouth with it. Channeling Mana to his hand, he cancelled the Dark Spell in a second, removing the thread sewing Iliana's mouth.

"Basil... How did you... Nevermind. I knew you would be able to find me." Iliana smiled in defeat.

Ignoring Iliana's words, Basil turned his gaze to Iliana's stomach. Then, he put his hand on the shaft of Sinister Piercer that was puncturing it.

"This is going to hurt, but please bear with me," Basil softly said.

"Pull it out in any time—I am ready," Iliana casually replied.

Infusing his Mana into the spear, the blade retreated into the shaft like a turtle into its shell in the next moment. Basil pulled it out afterwards, causing Iliana to wince slightly.

"You have nothing to be ashamed of," Basil stated. "I would like to praise you for the tenacity you showed while enduring all of those things. You've done well."

"You are saying it as if you know what I have gone through."

"I do know."

Basil did know. He had been watching Iliana through [Visualization] to make sure she stayed in the same place.

He had seen all of those outrageous scenes as clear as day. There were even many occasions where he had almost lost his patience and ended up venting his anger to the Demons standing in his way.

He had wished he could've been by Iliana's side the moment Goap started disemboweling her so he could prevent her from suffering. This was why he had been agitated before arriving there.

"Is that so?"

Iliana lightly frowned before eventually smiling helplessly. Shaking her head faintly as she wondered just what Basil couldn't do, she couldn't help herself from asking something that showed how distress she was.

"If you saw what happened, why didn't you come sooner?" Iliana immediately widened her eyes after the words were uttered. "Ah, forget that. I was just too exhausted."

Basil waved his hand lightly. "Something got in the way. The Demons—they were filling up the entire Obelisk. We have to kill a lot of them to reach here."

"We? Obelisk?" Iliana was confused. "What do you mean by that."

"Let me unshackle you first before talking about that." Basil waved his hand lightly.

Turning his gaze to Tristan, he wondered what he should do to him. He knew Charles wasn't emotionally close to his disciple, so Tristan definitely wasn't worthy enough to be a hostage.

After recalling what Tristan had done to Iliana however, he immediately got a perfect idea for what he should do to Tristan.

"Ione," Basil called out.

"Ione?" Iliana asked.

Without saying anything, Ione, who had been looking around the room to spot Charles walked to Basil's side, allowing herself to be seen by Iliana. Both of the women immediately widened their eyes upon seeing each other, but none of them said a thing.

"Yes, My Lord?"

"I want you to take care of this pile of waste."

After motioning at Tristan, Basil tapped the ground twice with his foot. The ground rumbled for a few seconds before iron bars emerged from the ground and wrapped around Tristan like a vine.

Clank!

Upon being dropped to the ground, Tristan squirmed as he utilized his Mana to free himself from the iron bars wrapping around him.

Basil, of course, didn't have any intention to let Tristan do whatever he wanted. Just a second before Tristan materialized his Magic Circles to burst some of his Mana to destroy the iron bars, Basil slammed his hand to Tristan's chest.

Shatter!

"Ah! My Magic Circles! AAAHHHhhhh!"

With one move, Basil destroyed Tristan's Magic Circles.

The method he had used was simple. He had only positioned all of his five Magic Circles in front of his hand after adjusting their size to fit his hand and destroyed Tristan's Magic Circles with them.

Magic Circles were Carved on one's heart. Beside directly destroying the heart, one could just destroy Magic Circles the way Basil did: clashing one's Magic Circles with those of one's opponent.

Of course, this wasn't the safest way to end the Mage career of one's opponent. One needed to make sure one's Magic Circle's foundation was more solid than one opponent's for this to work.

If one ended up being the one with the shallow foundation, one should never try this method. Doing it even after knowing that fact would only bring one the misery of losing one's Magic Circles.

With that said, possessing the same amount of Magic Circles, Tristan, who only had 3 Grand Circles and 2 Major Circles obviously couldn't win against Basil who had 5 Ultimate Circles.

"I have never seen you do that," Iliana remarked.

"Now you have." Basil held Iliana tenderly after unshackling her. "I know how bad you want to be independent, but listen to your body. They are too exhausted to move."

Iliana didn't say anything, and merely tightened her hold on Basil. She indeed didn't have enough strength to support her body, so she could only rely on Basil to prevent her body from crashing into the ground after being freed from the cross.

She immediately buried her face in his chest the moment he hugged her; not because she was trying to act cute, but because she was ashamed of showing him her helpless state. She prided herself on her power, so being helpless felt no different from a humiliation.

"How is that waste of space doing?" Basil asked Ione as he gently put Iliana on the ground. "I indeed asked you to shut him up, but I hope you are gentle enough to not immediately kill him."

"Everything is fine, My Lord. He is still breathing," Ione responded instantly. "I couldn't do what he had done to Iliana, so to shut him up, I was forced to burn his mouth until they melted to seal it."

"Did you also damage his vocal cords?"

"I punctured his larynx, so the air can only pass through it without vibrating the vocal cords."

Nodding his head at how good of a job Ione had done, Basil returned his attention to Iliana. He sensed too much Demonic Mana in her body, which was the reason why she could barely move.

He was sure she felt like she was burning from the inside since Demonic Mana was really corrosive to any living being. Before her body got used to it, which would take a very long time, she would always suffer from the pain.

Some people like Jacinda got lucky that their body managed to adjust to the violent Mana. Even then, it happened only because the amount of Demonic Mana in their body wasn't as much as the one in Iliana's body.

For Iliana's body to get used to the Demonic Mana was close to impossible, so the Demonic Mana needed to be removed immediately. Luckily, Basil was capable of doing it.

"This is going to be a little bit messy, but I need you to drink something," Basil said stoically.

"Pardon?" Iliana blinked her eyes in confusion. "I... No matter how attractive the helpless me looks to you, I don't think this is the right time to be... Intimate. Let us do it when the—"

"What are you talking about?" Basil quirked his eyebrow in confusion. "I need you to drink my blood so I can expel all of the Demonic Mana in your body with the Phoenix's Core Essence my blood contains."

"Oh..." Iliana's cheeks reddened slightl before she feinted her embarrassment with a cough. "Kuhum! You know me—I don't mind drinking anything that helps me get better."

Huffing softly with a smirk, Basil took Caliburn out of the Solomon's Spatial Ring. Immediately running it through his wrist, his blood immediately gushed out of the cut.

Basil put his wrist above Iliana's mouth and let her drink his blood while simultaneously drawing the Phoenix Essence that he stored in his Qi Core. There was a golden tint in each drop of his blood, and Iliana felt energised each time she gulped it.

After 5 seconds, the cut on Basil's wrist closed after briefly exuding a golden light. Iliana already looked a lot better at this point, but the process wasn't finished yet.

Moving his hand to Iliana's chest, right on the area where her heart was located, he channeled his Mana into her body.

"Keuk... That stings," Iliana remarked. It indeed felt more painful than being punctured by a spear.

"Don't reject my Mana."

"I know."

As Basil's Mana finally entered Iliana's body, he used his blood as the vessel of his Mana. His blood absorbed all of the Demonic Mana running in Iliana's bloodstream, while simultaneously releasing the Phoenix Essence to heal her.

A half and a minute passed, the Demonic Mana was finally purged off Iliana's body. Basil immediately forced the Demonic Mana containing blood out of her body, which was essentially just making her throw it up.

"Kuhuk! Kuhuk! It tasted heavenly before, but it is just disgusting now," Iliana remarked.

"No one told you to taste it."

Basil shook his head in amusement, then turned his gaze to Iliana's abdomen. He couldn't see anymore scar, which was the silent witness to her gruesome experience.

He was glad that the Phoenix's Core Essence could heal all the scars, but he still couldn't forget what had happened to Iliana whenever he saw her abdomen. Because of that, he really wanted to kill Goap himself.

Alas, he didn't have the capability to do that, so he could only smile bitterly.

Putting his hand on Iliana's abdomen, he said, "How do you feel now?"

"Awesome, but... Why? We haven't done anything yet, so you can't sense any lifeform there in my uterus."

Smirking lightly at how easy it was for her to joke even after what had happened to her, Basil knocked her head lightly.

Turning around, Basil met the person who had been hiding himself. It was Charles who had finished integrating the Heart of Bahamut.