Chapter 347 A Haunting Music (3)

Although Basil had made it clear that he wouldn't intervene in the matters of Lawson's army, he still took the lead to Southern Sea Region. Lawson didn't mind following his lead, but still couldn't help wondering where they were going.

Although he had only visited Southern Sea Region once, he was sure the direction Basil was leading them to wouldn't bring them there. He wasn't aware of the shortcut however, so he didn't say anything about it.

It wasn't until two hours in the march did he find many people share the same confusion. By this point, instead of going south, Basil was leading them southwest, which made it apparent that they weren't heading to Southern Sea Region.

Edward took the initiative to ask Basil about it even before Lawson. "Head Commander, I am afraid we are already off the course. We are heading southwest currently, which will never lead us to Southern Sea Region."

"Trust me," was Basil's simple answer.

Edward smiled wryly, and eventually nodded his head. By then, he had understood that Basil was unpredictable and full of surprises, so he was sure Basil was planning something that would blow everyone's mind.

Slowing down the speed of his horse, he returned to the line of Commanders that was a few steps behind the 6 metres tall Deacon. They exchanged an uncomfortable look with each other before shrugging as they decided to believe in Basil.

"Ah... Aren't they alike?" Lawson mused as he looked at Iliana sitting behind Basil. "I thought everything would be different when I am old, but nothing changed: I still can't understand how geniuses think!"

The Legion Commanders and the Princes who heard Lawson's muttering smiled wryly. They completely agreed with him since they were having a hard time to understand what Basil was thinking from time to time.

Whizz!

When 30 minutes passed after Edward confronting Basil about the route he had chosen, the people noticed something weird in the air. It was causing the hair on their hands and the back of their neck to stand on end.

At a certain point, they found out that the sickening feeling was Demonic Mana. At that moment, the Demonic Mana in the air was thick enough to slightly slow them down due to its repulsive nature.

"That is... That thing!"

"What?! How can that thing be here?!"

When they looked ahead of them, many of them were bewildered to find one of Charybdis' clones in a lake that was barely big enough to contain it. They then instinctively turned to Basil as they wondered what they were going to do with it next.

Basil was aware of the gaze, but he refused to speak. He was too amused by the scene in front of him to mind the people's curious gaze.

Scylla's Spell allowed Charybdis to make clones and distribute them to any body of water that was big enough to contain them. Regardless of how much space it left after, as long as it was big enough, Charybdis' clones would appear in it.

The phenomenon in front of them was the result of the weakness of the Spell. It was causing unnecessary Mana usage to Scylla, and Basil found it funny that she hadn't noticed it yet.

"Halt!"

When they arrived before the lake, Basil told them to hold in their place, and jumped down from Deacon. He stood on the lakeside, and looked into the mouth of Charybdis' clone that was just ten centimeters away from the lakeside.

He actually got to know of this clone's existence thanks to the Guide providing him the information. The guide had been trustworthy for all this time, but his cautious nature still made him want to make sure.

"It is connected to the main body. We can use it as a means of transportation," he muttered.

Turning to the people behind him, he was greeted by their baffled face. All of them were extremely curious about what they were going to do with the clone, and he was ready to surprise them with the answer.

"Let's jump into it."

Coughing in bafflement, Lawson asked, "I am sorry, what? I find the joke very funny, but I don't think this is the right time to joke around, Head Commander."

"Do I look like I am joking?"

At Basil's question, Lawson opened his mouth only to close it again in the next moment. He didn't know what to answer; to be frank, Basil had always looked serious even when he amusing rare insults at people.

"This is just a clone of the main body. By jumping into it, we will come out of the mouth of the main body, which is in Southern Sea Region. In short, this thing is a biological Teleportation Gate."

Silence greeted Basil's explanation for a few seconds. It was only broken when Lawson decided to ask him the question in everyone's mind.

"How did you know about it? I know that those Aquatic Monsters came out of the mouth of creatures like this, but how can you tell it is a two way gate?"

"It is written in many books... About folklore." Everyone's face immediately turned dark, and got darker at Basil's next remark. "It looks slightly different from the description, but this thing is Charybdis."

Whether they were people who were close to Basil or those that just respected him as the Head Commander couldn't help looking at him weirdly. They really didn't expect him of all people to say something as delusional as that.

Sighing faintly, he said, "I want you to do one thing, trust me. I can't guarantee your life in the battlefield, but I can guarantee you that you won't die upon jumping into it."

At that, all of them reluctantly nodded their head. Don't get them wrong—they wholeheartedly believed Basil, but they were still unsure if there would be nothing unexpected happening in the way.

Uncaring to their worry, Basil jumped on Deacon, and said, "I suggest you Mages to cover yourself with Wind Magic, and you Knights to reinforce your feet since we will be dropped from the air upon reaching Southern Sea Region."

Whoosh!

Even before the people asked what he meant by his words, he had instructed Deacon to jump into Charybdis' clone mouth. The four of them disappeared from their view, and they could only watch it in bewilderment.

There were so many things that they wanted to ask—like how Basil could identify it was Charybdis and why they would be dropped from the air—but they immediately forgot it, followed Basil's instruction, and jumped into the mouth of Charybdis' clone.

"Uwaaaah! We are free falling!"

"Bloody hell, Monica! Don't wiggle around otherwise you'll fall!"

"We are already falling, Cray! Hahaha!"

"... Touché."

Cray's conversation with Monica was the only thing filling Charybdis' tunnel. The others were too tense thinking about what awaited them to mind talking to each other.

Not long after, they found a screen of water ahead of them that was shining bright enough to illuminate some of the area in front of it. Deacon was a few seconds away from it, allowing them to watch as he and the people he carried pass it.

Having a feeling that their fall would soon come to an end, the people readied themselves. When they passed through the screen, they were immediately enveloped with water; and, like Basil said, they were dropped from the air.

...

A few moments before the people Basil led decided to jump into the mouth of Charybdis' mouth, Anthony was in the middle of retreat after taking down the Third Great General, Calea.

His teeth were gritted in annoyance as he recalled how unexpectedly hard it was taking her down. As a Seventh Circle Mage, his pride was hurt since he knew Basil, a Fifth Circle Mage, could take two Great Generals down by himself.

"Just how in the world that lad faced their unruly fighting style?!"

That was what made Anthony different from Basil. Basil could easily adapt to his opponent's fighting style due to his experiences facing formidable abominations, whereas Anthony couldn't.

Anthony, too, had faced quite a lot of strong Demons throughout his life, but all of them had been Upper Middle Class Demons that had been kicked out from the Obelisk. They also didn't fight like human, so defeating them wasn't actually a chore.

Calea was on a whole new level compared to the Demons he had faced since she was dramatically stronger and smarter than them. Power wise she wasn't superior to him, but her fighting style was so foreign, it had managed to overwhelm him slightly.

"Your Majesty! The death toll has reached 20,000 people!" Carlyle ran up to Anthony. His horse had long been killed. "What should we do?"

"Let us retreat for a moment, and wait until reinforcement comes."

"Your Majesty..."

Anthony and Carlyle's face turned sour at the situation they were in. 20,000 of them had been eliminated in the span of 6 hours, and it was starting to intimidate the remaining 70,000 people.

How many had died didn't intimidate them, but how quick they had died did. If they were kept being forced to fight in their current state, only defeat would greet them.

Hum!

Just as Anthony reached the frontmost line of his army—just before he commanded them to retreat, Charybdis, who hadn't done anything trembled. Her mouth contracted, and the air shook in the next moment.

Every head turned to Charybdis in confusion, including Goap's and Scylla's. Other than the two, whose expression had already darkened, no one knew what was happening or what was going to happen.

Phwoosh!

Seconds passed without anything happened. Just as the battle was about to continue, Demons and humans alike were surprised by a huge surge of water Charybdis shot at them.

They quickly moved away from the place where the water would hit in panic. Some that didn't manage to get away were crushed by the water, but all of them were Demons.

The water kept coming out of Charybdis' mouth for a few seconds, occupying an area of 4 square kilometres. When the water stopped coming out, much to their bewilderment, they found an army consisted of 48,000 people in the spot.

Anthony couldn't help blinking his eyes when he noticed Basil in the frontmost line, and soon chuckled as he found the situation as funny as it was baffling.

"The reinforcement has come!"

The people Basil brought were still slightly overwhelmed by their leap of faith earlier, but as soon as they heard Anthony's exclamation, they immediately got a hold of themselves.

Turning to Basil expecting his order, they immediately moved once he gave them the green light. The flow of battle changed once again at their participation; this time, it was in the human's favour.