Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial was now standing in front of the three Nightshadow Elves, whom he had pulled upward. They were now standing on their own two feet and were staring at Nial with confused expressions.

He had terminated the Ancient Devilization, which left him in an exhausted state.

However, that was not a problem because it looked like he was able to change his relationship with the Nightshadow Elves and the Dark Elves

This was just an idea he had in mind but it was quite interesting, especially since he had figured that the Nightshadow Elves' behavior had changed ever since they found out that he was in possession of the Essence of Darkness.

Nial had yet to figure out what exactly made the Elves change their opinion but they were extremely silent when Nial released the bits of Darkness Essence he was left with inside his Odyssey seed.

He manifested it in his palm and showed it straight to the young Nightshadow Elves, who were staring at the liquid-like Essence in terror and fascination.

Their eyes moved from Nial to the Essence of Darkness then back to Nial once again.

They seemed to be contemplating something and it had nothing to do with ill intentions. Nial was quite surprised when he figured that the Nightshadow Elves had shed their earlier ill intentions against him.

On the contrary, it seemed like they looked up to Nial, even though they were at a higher rank than him.

This was quite surprising but it was definitely not something bad.

"What exactly is Darkness Essence, and why are you guys reacting like this?" Nial asked cluelessly.

He only found out that his Odyssey seed could create Darkness Essence shortly before he fought Sylvian. The God of Darkness' memories about the Darkness Essence had yet to be transferred to him, which was why he was rather clueless about everything.

"Y-you…don't know what the Essence of Darkness is, yet, you can control it?"

"I can also create it. What's the problem with that? Isn't it just a more potent type of energy than dark energy?" Nial asked, manifesting dark energy in his other palm.

The Nightshadow Elves were once again astonished. It looked like Nial was completely ignorant of what he was able to do, and the two brats, who had been overly arrogant and confident until now, slumped to the ground.

Their legs didn't want to bear their weight anymore. The two could only stare at Nial in disbelief.

"Just a more potent type of energy than dark energy…" One of them mumbled, shaking his head every now and then.

Nial tried to extract more information out of the two but it looked like the circuits in their brain were melting. Thus, he turned his attention to the young female Nightshadow Elf.

She was shivering and looked uncomfortable. Nial ended up removing the darkness vines around all three Nightshadow Elves so as to relieve them of their fear and worry.

The situation had changed and it looked like he could get his hands on quite some information by asking the brats about Dark energy and the Darkness Essence instead of threatening them.

When she was released from the shackles, the female Nightshadow Elf calmed down a bit. She could tell that she was not being sacrificed, which was reassuring.

"Can you tell me more about the Essence of Darkness? I just know that dark energy is basically a purer and highly altered version of mana and that it is extremely easy for me to control it," Nial asked with a smile on his face.

Nial didn't feel any hostility toward the Nightshadow Elves anymore. This was mostly because it felt like the Nightshadow Elves had been subdued by him, which was a bit weird.

However, it was not a bad feeling!

"The Essence of Darkness…is something only the royalty of the Nightshadow Elves are born with, and only a few of them at that. It is said that they're even higher beings than Nightshadow Elves but that might only be legends.

I've never seen someone with the Essence of Darkness…until now…" The female Nightshadow Elf said, slowly coming back to her senses.

She was awed by Nial and didn't dare to leave out any information. For the following ten minutes, the girl continued to speak and Nial listened carefully.

"So to put it simply, the Essence of Darkness is the highest darkness attributed to energy that exists, and only a few lifeforms can create it. It can be nourished but not be accumulated, under normal circumstances," Nial summarized before he added the most important point.

"And being one of the strongest darkness-attributed energies, every being with the Essence of Darkness can devour energies with darkness properties, such as shadow energy as long as the Essence of Darkness is not of a much lower rank than the energy they want to devour.

That being said, I could easily defeat you guys!"

Nial had a few more things he wanted to say but it was not really necessary. The two Nightshadow Elven boys seemed to go rigid as they sat on the ground in a submissive manner.

Their kneecaps were digging into the ground and it felt like they were about to bow toward him at any moment.

This reaffirmed Nial's guess; the fact that Nightshadow Elves looked at beings with the Essence of Darkness as their Ancestors.

'If I remember correctly, Nightshadow Elves were born out of desperation for more strength. They had been Dark Elves first…maybe that has to do with the Essence of Darkness as well? If their first ancestor was a Dark Elf that was born with the Essence of Darkness, turning him into a being higher than the Dark Elves and Nightshadow Elves, all the descendants without an Essence of Darkness might have turned out to be Nightshadow Elves…' Nial theorized.

He was not really sure if his theory was correct but he believed that parts of it might be close to the truth.

This was quite interesting, especially since it looked like the Essence of Darkness had great influence over the Nightshadow Elves.

"Stand up!" Nial suddenly ordered, so as to test something. He didn't use even a single bit of his dark energy, let alone the Essence of Darkness that was tightly stored in his Odyssey seed while giving out orders.

And as expected, the three Nightshadow Elves jumped back on their feet as quickly as they could. They didn't dare to look into his lifeless eyes, which caused Nial's smile to turn even brighter.

'Can I order them around now that they know I have the Essence of Darkness?' Nial began to wonder as he got an idea.

"Unseal your spatial rings and hand them over to me!" He ordered in an eerily cold voice and the Nightshadow Elves nodded their heads meekly.

There was reluctance in his movements but they did as told.

Nial only accessed their spatial rings when he got hold of them and nothing else. He just wanted to see if he could actually order the Nightshadow Elves around.

After he returned the Nightshadow Elves their spatial rings, he gave them a few more orders before he finally dispelled the dome of darkness that had muffled their voices.

The crowd of Elves around the dome of darkness had increased drastically in the time Nial had used to defeat the Nightshadow Elves and to talk to them.

They were currently void of even a single trace of shadow energy, which Nial had done intentionally to demonstrate that he was not to be taken lightly.

Another offense against him or disobeying any of the commands he had given to them would result in severe punishment. Under normal circumstances, this was not something a human could say to them lightheartedly.

In fact, not even other Nightshadow Elves could say that easily because bullying was something perfectly normal and even acceptable in the rows of the Nightshadow Elves.

It was their tradition to create a ranking of the most powerful Nightshadow Elves of the newest generation. They made it quite clear that the strongest would be nourished the most and that they would gain the most opportunities to grow stronger than anyone else, while the weakest would be given the fewest resources and opportunities.

This tradition of the Nightshadow Elves was considered to support the ultimate survival of the fittest. After all, only the strong could survive, while the weak had to obey, or die.

Nial hadn't heard a lot about the Nightshadow Elves but the few books about the different Elven races he had read until now were more than enough to give him a rough estimation of what he had to do in order to turn the Nightshadow Elves into his subordinates!

'Being the strongest should be enough. It will take time for more Dark Elves and Nightshadow Elves to pass through the Elven Empress' Divinity portal because it requires too much energy….only when Jundra awakens that will be possible.

However, the numbers won't be high because all Elven races will demand a piece of the cake, which is Jundra…I have to use this opportunity!' Nial was getting greedy because the feeling of subduing another race swept through his entire being, making him feel euphoric.

It was a nice feeling and the Odyssey seed reacted to this strongly. The Odyssey seed's productivity was directly influenced by Nial's emotions and greed seemed to influence it the most.

After all, it was one of the seven sins!

There were many things Nial didn't even realize changed in himself, but one thing was for sure; he was getting stronger and the feeling of having powerful subjects under him made him feel ecstatic!

When he removed the dome of darkness, Nial realized that he still had lots of dark energy reserves. Even the Darkness Essence he had used in exchange for summoning Kaeldur had been replenished by absorbing the three Nightshadow Elven brat's shadow energy.

This was pretty advantageous because it allowed him to look full of energy as he and the three young Nightshadow Elves were seen by everyone.

Nial perceived many other Elven races apart from the Dark Elves and Nightshadow Elves but they didn't interest him in the slightest.

For now, the biggest troublemaker had been the Nightshadow Elves. This troublesome pack had been turned upside down and Nial had shown them their place. Nial enjoyed this a lot, even more so when he saw that the young Nightshadow Elves were truly obeying his commands.

They approached the Dark Elves, and spoke to them in a heavy dialect the Dark Elves were known for. The Dark Elves' eyes widened as they looked over to Nial, who seemed eerily calm.

They sensed that the Nightshadow Elves didn't have even an ounce of shadow energy left and they recalled Nial's transformation and his dark energy.

All these facts were more than enough to cause various changes in the expression of the Elves, which was why Nial began to smile even brighter.

"Damian, you probably never expected your Essence of Darkness to be capable of controlling the Nightshadow Elves…" He mumbled, laughing lightly as he perceived everything that happened around him.