Odyssey of the Blind God

While Commander Ullyr was fighting the strongest Dryx, who had emerged from the purple portal, Nial and the others hurried to clear the plaza of the Dryx's corpses.

Despite their frantic attempts to do so, they were still too late to start storing the corpses. At least 300 Dryx had devoured more than 1000 mana cores, thereby increasing their strength drastically.

The Soldiers, whose talent was not even close to the young participants of the Teradan military camp, couldn't cope with the sudden increase in pressure they had to face.

Because of the increased pressure, many Soldiers were losing their upper hand against the Dryx they faced, forcing them to work together as small groups of five while fighting a single Dryx.

Unfortunately, this was not feasible simply because the strength of the five soldiers was still hard to regain their upper hand.

Against certain Dryx, even a group of five was not enough to defeat them. They had devoured too many mana cores of their brethren and it didn't look like they were stopping at all.

The situation was slowly escalating and the advantage the young Originals had hoped to gain for by killing the weakest Dryx was now working against their favor.

Even Nial felt that the situation was slowly spiraling out of their control. This forced him to avert his attention from collecting corpses to fighting the Low ranked Prym Dryx.

His mana core's size might only be on par with a 10th Origin rank but his mana control, control over his abilities and the lethality of his ability exceeded the norms of an ordinary 10th Origin rank by far already.

The same could be said about Bella and Mathias, whose strength had increased drastically throughout the last three months.

Adding the tremendous value of runic armaments in the fight, the three young Originals gained a huge advantage while fighting against the Dryx, who had already created their first Advanced Origin ring.

Even those few, who had consumed the mana cores of their brethren were no match to the terrifying combat prowess Nial and his friends exhibited as a team.

They worked hard, and focused on restricting their opponents first before killing them as quickly as possible.

It was certainly not easy to defeat the Dryx but Nial didn't even think of holding back his strength.

He used the Tier-1 runic armament Gravity Boots, in order to tweak his weight at any time, whether to increase the power behind his spear thrust and slashes or to run through the surrounding without feeling much of a restriction due to the gravitational force.

Other than the Tier-1 Gravity Boots, Nial also used three bracelets simultaneously in order to increase his mana circulation slightly, increase his perception of the surroundings, and get a better grasp of what to do with the Dragonflame spear.

These three bracelets were also runic armaments but Nial was neither sure what Tier they were, nor he know what their actual use was.

He simply used them based on the way he felt that they should be utilized.

That was the only thing he could do, either way...using everything he had up his sleeve to fight against opponents that were stronger than him.

In fact, fighting the Dryx was far easier than going up against the Lesser Titan youngling. Nial and his friends became much stronger and their equipment had been upgraded a lot.

However, even then, the biggest problem they had to face was the existence of numerous stronger Dryx flying through the air, picking out opponents to fight.

Nial and his friends could only tackle a single Dryx at a time. The moment they took on two, three or potentially more opponents, the fight grew prolonged.

This would prevent them from clearing the battlefield of Low Prym ranked Dryx as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, fighting more opponents simultaneously would not only prolong the fight but it simultaneously increased the dangers they faced because the small group of three wouldn't be able to support each other.

Meanwhile, the chances of more Dryx joining the fight were not low either.

Continuing to fight with all of these things at the back of their minds, Nial slowly realized that one thing was amiss.

'Where is that Peak Seclon ranked Dryx?!'

The situation had slowly gotten back under the control of the Originals, mostly thanks to Miranda's powerful attacks.

It had truly been a good decision to sell her one of the Peak Tier-1 Wands they had found in the palace of the ancient ruins dungeon.

Not many wands had been created by mankind until now, and their strength was certainly not great.

That was why powerful wands were either extremely rare, or the wands that were compatible with one's abilities didn't exist in the first place.

Miranda was someone, one could label as a unique Witch. Instead of focusing on Elemental affinities or anything one could learn slowly over time, Miranda's abilities were extremely difficult to master and their efficiency seemed to be extremely low at the first glance.

However, that was only what it looked like at the first glance, or from an outsider's point of view.

While facing the Witch of the South one would slowly realize that she was an extremely terrifying opponent. Her combat style was complex and until one could see through her pattern, it was not unlikely that one would have had several near-miss brushes with death.

After buying the Peak Tier-1 runic armament from Nial and the others, her strength had increased even further. That was also why the Low Tritan ranked Dryx was still under everyone's control as Miranda could help others while keeping her combat power at a peak.

The surrounding Dryx were rapidly decreasing in number, and the Soul Space fragments didn't seem to have much energy left either.

If stronger monsters had emerged from the portal, the Soul Space fragment would have long since dried out. However, at the same time, the Teradan military camp and everyone within would have ceased to exist as well.

The number of Dryx had decreased to less than 100, and the small number of Dryx emerging from the purple portal was also under control.

Attacking the Dryx the moment they emerged might be a cruel tactic but in a life and death battle caring about fighting fairly was plain stupid.

'Only half an hour and everything should be over…but where the hell is this fucking Peak Seclon ranked Dryx?!'

One particular Dryx had garnered Nial's attention from the moment it had emerged from the purple portal. There was something weird about it, which worried Nial a lot.

It was larger than ordinary Dryx, but could deflate its body easily. This was what it had done after realizing that its chances of survival were lower than others. Simultaneously, the Dryx had begun to conceal its strength before it started to eat mana cores of the Dryx, who had been killed further away from the main battlefield.

Staying under the radar of the strongest Originals, it never stopped eating mana cores to stealthily strengthen itself. However, instead of attacking Miranda or someone else, the moment it was confident that it had grown stronger than the others, the Dryx had simply disappeared.

'I could clearly sense that something was wrong about this Dryx…something tells me that I should remember what the things I sensed are, but I cannot get a grasp of it…'

What Nial thought that he should remember were certain memories that he had inherited from the late God of Darkness.

However, there was nothing he could do about it as he couldn't get hold of the information he wanted to see and hear once again.

It was impossible for him to perceive the Peak Seclon ranked Dryx as well, which was more problematic than he expected.

Nial's senses were manifold higher than anyone else's. This did not only include his mana perception that was partially enhanced due to [Hodur's Heir] and his Innate ability [Mana sense] but also his other senses.

Yet, none of his drastically amplified senses was able to discern where the Dryx was exactly located. That meant it was neither moving nor releasing a single trace of mana nor was it making a sound.

At least, that would be the case if the Dryx was still in his range of perception, or in the Teradan military camp, to begin with.

Somehow, Nial doubted that the said Dryx was still anywhere close to the mountain in which the Teradan military camp was located.

But that was even more worrisome because it meant that the Peak Seclon ranked Dryx didn't follow the wild instincts that would force it to fight 'pure' living beings the moment it sensed them.

Rather, it looked like it was simply strolling around or had been ordered to do something else. Going up against its wild instincts was not easy for a Dryx as they were considered to be more of a beast than an intelligent race.

Thus, Nial felt a chill crawling down his spine the moment he realized that the situation had gotten out of hand.

'It is carrying something, that I'm sure about….but I don't remember what it was…these fucking memories come and go whenever they want!!'

Nial was frustrated, which was completely contrary to the behavior of everyone else. The number of casualties was extremely little, considering that they had been facing a surprise attack from someone, who could manifest dungeon-like portals.

The fight was still not over but the number of Dryx decreased rapidly.

The low Tritan ranked Dryx was still not killed, but it wouldn't stay alive for long.

After all, even Nial had had enough of this annoying Dryx, even more so after he felt uncomfortable with the escape of the abnormal Peak Seclon-ranked Dryx.

That was why he gave one of the huge Tier-2 longswords that had belonged to the Tier-2 Guardian Knight puppet runic armament to Commander Ullyr.

It was heavy and not easy to wield for agility-focused Originals. However, that was not an issue for Commander Ullyr because he was well known for being good at using his brute force to fight his way through his opponents.

That was why he had been easily defeated by the Giganodes, whose hide was tough enough to absorb the impact of brute force, and also why the Commander was capable enough of defeating the Low Tritan ranked Dryx the moment he got his hand on the huge Tier-2 longsword.

Even if the fight had ended, Nial's mood was still bad. The purple portal had disappeared and the Soul Space fragments had fallen to the ground looking like ordinary crystals….and the fight had ended.

Many had died but the death toll was much less than one would assume after looking at the number of corpses that were tightly stacked in the spatial rings of all the Originals.

All of a sudden, a booming voice echoed through the air in front of Nial, and dust was stirred up. Commander Ullyr had appeared in front of Nial, his eyes gleaming brightly while his body was drenched in dark blood.

"I want that Sword!" Commander Ullyr said the moment he emerged in front of Nial and his friends.

It was as if the Commander had turned into a small child because he seemed to have stepped out of his role as a commander and simply demand a toy.

Nial didn't even say anything but Miranda had already appeared behind the Commander.

She was extremely exhausted after fighting for several hours, and everyone else felt the same.

Yet, their Commander was still playing around.

With a swift movement, Miranda got her hands on the Tier-2 sword before she returned it to Nial.

Nial stored it away without saying much, just for Miranda to nod her head.

"Do your job properly. Afterward, you can ask my disciple how much he wants in exchange for the sword!"

"Eh…okay…yeah, right…I should go. Please take good care of my baby until I return!"

Commander Ullyr said, feeling slightly dejected.

Nial merely shook his head, questioning how Commander Ullyr had been able to reach his position if he could be so childish.

However, he quickly averted his attention to somewhere else.

'Why do I feel so odd…something isn't right…'