Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial was pretty excited at the thought of ordering around the Nightshadow Elves, and the results were even better than expected.

The three young Nightshadow Elves were hurriedly scurrying like mice while trying their best to follow every single command he had given them as quickly and perfectly as possible.

This attracted lots of attention, especially when the Nightshadow Elves ordered the Dark Elves to obey Nial's command as well.

They kneeled down in front of him on a knee and swore allegiance to Nial.

Nial hadn't really expected this to happen, and neither had all the Elves around them.

The Forest of Life had become home to not only the Elves but also new Elves and many sub-races, who had taken temporary residence in the Forest of Life for a few days.

Until now, it looked like the Forest of Life was under the sole authority of the Moonlight Elf Valvian and that he was losing control of his small 'territory'. After all, the Nightshadow Elven brats had undermined Valvian's authority as much as they could.

But now things had changed. The Nightshadow Elves listened to Nial's command and they didn't even think about continuing to create trouble for anyone.

Instead, they looked at Nial with glistening eyes that hinted at reverence as they followed his commands.

"What the hell is going on?" Moonlight Elf Valvian asked in confusion. He felt as if he had aged even more than before and looked at Master Crevian, trying to seek help.

"Did you expect that to happen when you said that Nial is troublesome? Was that really what you thought would happen? He asked, not sounding pleased at all.

Master Crevian didn't say anything for a while. He tried to wrap his head around the events that happened in front of him, but that was easier said than done.

"That was not…really…what I expected to happen…" Master Crevian finally acknowledged.

He had been certain that Nial would use his dark energy to defeat the three brats of the Nightshadow Elven race. Master Crevian knew that Nial's dark energy had become a lot stronger than before and he had sensed that it was more powerful than the Nightshadow Elves' shadow energy.

His gut feeling told him that there was no need for him to be worried about Prometheus ranked, young Nightshadow Elves as long as Nial was there.

However, that didn't mean he thought something like this would happen.

"A human subdued Nightshadow Elves, just like that…" Valvian mumbled in disbelief, totally ignoring the fact that all the Nightshadow Elves that had emerged on Jundra were between ten to thirteen years old.

They didn't have much combat experience, and their willpower and mentality had yet to be fully developed. Thus, it was easier for Nial to subdue them.

When Nial was sure that the Nightshadow Elves would pay heed to his command and that they would ensure that the Dark Elves followed suit as well, he chose to leave their side.

He returned to Master Crevian's side while ignoring everyone's gazes.

Nial only thought about satiating the curiosity of Master Crevian and Valvian.

"Don't look at me like this. I'm just as astonished that they actually listen to me as much as you guys," Nial declared to stop them from bombarding him with more questions. Sadly, he failed.

"You have some Essence of Darkness in your body? How the hell are you even alive?" Valvian blurted out when Nial finished his explanation.

Nial looked confused, especially since he had never had any trouble with his Darkness Essence. In fact, it had been quite helpful to suppress the bits of Cursed Divine energy he devoured from Sylvian.

"The Essence of Darkness is extremely dangerous to all living beings. In fact, only someone with a unique constitution should be able to endure it. All beings related to darkness are said to become much stronger just by being close to beings who possess the Essence of Darkness.

The remnants of the Essence of Darkness ought to make them stronger, which is probably why the Nightshadow Elves are eager to follow you," Master Crevian started to explain when he realized that Nial hadn't changed.

The Old Elf feared that Nial was different now that he had faced so many different situations and achieved so much. Fortunately, that was not the case and Nial was still the same person as before. At least his head was not filled with pride and ego, and this was everything that counted!

"The Elven was told that all Elves with the Essence of Darkness are Monarchs, or future Reigns because only the Royal bloodline of the Nightshadow Elven bears offspring with the Essence of Darkness.

Thus, now that there is a human with the Essence of Darkness, the young Nightshadow Elves feel like they had found a new Monarch at their new place," Master Crevian said, sounding both worried and careful.

He didn't want to say the wrong thing, let alone make it look like Nial was at fault. The young Original had merely tried to help out the Elven, which the Nightshadow Elves had bullied.

This was a good deed, and Master Crevian didn't want to make it seem as if it was something wrong. After all, the aftermath of his intervention might be different than anything Nial could guess at this moment.

However, Nial was not stupid, even if he was not actually the smartest either.

"Basically, you're trying to warn me that it could become troublesome when more Nightshadow Elves come over, or even someone from Royalty. They could try to stir trouble for me for 'deceiving' them, and for controlling the Nightshadow Elves without having the actual 'right' to do so?" He concluded with the subtle clues Master Crevian had revealed.

The Old Elf nodded his head faintly but he quickly tried to reassure Nial so as to not make him feel bogged down.

"But until anyone of royal blood will be able to emerge on Jundra a few years will have to pass. The last royal Nightshadow Elf was born hundreds of years ago and they have long since surpassed the Deux rank.

Until then, you won't have much trouble controlling the Nightshadow Elves as long as you don't overdo it…" Master Crevian tried to gently warn Nial to not make him think too highly of himself just because he could control the Nighthshadow Elves.

Nial understood that the Old Elf meant it well, which was why he took his advice to heart. Controlling the Nightshadow Elves was basically equal to being able to control every single Elf in the Forest of Life.

After all, they were the only truly 'noble' and 'pure' Elven race that was currently on Jundra. Until the planet would finally awaken its planetary mana core it would stay like that, which was more than enough time for Nial to do whatever he wanted, and to gain a huge advantage over everyone else.

However, Nial didn't really need control over everyone. He just wanted the Elves to live peacefully with each other and to get his hands on various resources.

The Nightshadow Elves and the Dark Elves were the perfect troupe of versatile combatants Nial needed to conquer all kinds of dungeons.

He could hire laborers for cheap money but to keep them protected and to conquer high-ranked dungeons with ease was not something many Originals could do.

And those Originals were usually expensive, which meant that it was not worth it for Nial to hire them. It would result in a big loss to him which was something Nial couldn't accept.

He was not greedy for money but he was in dire need of lots of money for various things, especially to experiment freely to hone his skills as a Runicier.

The Heaven's Gates organization was still in his debt but Nial was pretty sure that their enormous debt wouldn't be enough to let him do whatever he intended to do.

After all, his plans were getting bigger and bigger!

Nial was keeping his plans a secret for now because he needed much more money to achieve them, and the debt of the Heaven's Gates organization was something he would have to use to accumulate more money and experience as a Runicier.

Simultaneously, there were certain things he had to do, including binding his second ability to his mana core and searching for a third ability.

He might as well accumulate more mana and keep advancing in the ranks as long as he would have bound five ability crystals to his mana core before advancing to the Deux rank.

This was the only pre-requirement he had to fulfill to make sure that he wouldn't lack anything in his quest to become stronger.

After Valvian and Master Crevian were certain that Nial didn't intend to do anything bad, they calmed down a bit.

It was still a bit of a shocking fact that Nial was in possession of the Essence of Darkness despite not having the required constitution.

​ Not a single being with the constitution to possess the Essence of Darkness could be loved by nature. That had been their absolute undeniable truth until the fateful day Nial came along and changed their worldview instinctively.

The Essence of Darkness was one of the most destructive energies that existed, and it was bound to destroy the nature around the beings who possessed it.

Thus, the most shocking for the Moonlight Elf and Master Crevian was definitely the fact that Nial was still loved by nature. In fact, since Nial had spent months inside Yggdrasil, nature had a much deeper connection to the young Original.

Master Crevian heard that the Fairy Queen had given him the blessing of her race, which could only happen because Yggdrasil had been willing to link to Nial and to lead him to the Fairy Queen's hidden place!

It was a heavy pill for Master Crevian to swallow when he figured that Nial was even more unique than he had believed until now.

They were always surprised when being around Nial, and whether the reason for this was good or not didn't matter.

When Nial and the two Elves finished talking, they went their own ways.

Only Valvian and Master Crevian were left behind, who seemed to have been thrown into a tormenting storm of emotions.

"What do you think about Nial?" Valvain asked for the first time since he had gotten to know the young Original. At first, he was just thankful for Nial but the more he developed, the more frightening the young human became.

"He is nice, he loves his family and he truly cares about the humans on Jundra. Nial even helped us to get the Dryad Princess' tear, knowing that it would be extremely dangerous…" Master Crevian started to speak, just for Valvian to interrupt, "But..?"

"But…I'm pretty sure that if someone enrages him, hell will break loose…"