Nial was still overwhelmed by the influx of information and memories.
However, he also knew that he was responsible for Bella and Mathias because he had led them to the Lesser Titan youngling.
This forced him to get a grip on himself, calm down, and defeat the threat in front of him without losing anyone!
Nial thus retreated swiftly after the spearhead out of the Titan youngling. While taking a few breaths before he scanned through his surroundings.
The vast majority of Originals were either heavily injured, exhausted due to overexertion of mana, or dead.
As such, he didn't even need to ask them for help.
With a few more strides, he retreated further and reunited with Bella and Mathias, who finally reached him.
The deafening roars of the Titan shook their entire being. It was almost as if their body dissolved into a pudding when the Titan roared at them, making them give an involuntary shudder.
But after seeing that Nial was nearly unscathed despite having been right in front of the Titan when it had roared, they could only force themselves to appear strong.
They acted as if they were perfectly fine and used mana to support their body.
Nial could sense the surrounding mana fluctuations, and use all his senses other than sight.
Through this, he was able to tell how others were feeling even before they might realize it.
Sensing the issues and condition of both members of his team, and even the state of the other Originals, Nial clearly understood that he had to act as their pillar of support.
''Being the backbone while having Bella in my team…feels odd.'' He could only mumble to himself before averting his attention back to the being that was overflowing with mana.
Never in his life had Nial faced a beast with such a high density of mana.
This should be more than enough to intimidate him and instill a sense of fear.
Yet, while the dark energy currents and black miasma enveloped his body tightly, Nial felt even less fear and distracting emotions than usual.
The Odyssey seed prevented him from being easily influenced by emotions, but the current situation made him seem as if he was cold and unapproachable.
It was still fortunate that he was able to be in charge of controlling himself.
After all, when the dark energy currents had enveloped him, they had tried to influence his mind, to lead him to the path of destruction and chaos.
That was something Nial had never planned to do as he had always been a rather placid youth.
However, ever since the Odyssey seed had awoken within him, Nial realized that his mind was being tempered, and slowly being overwhelmed by the dangerous, bitter and bleak reality that would soon become the future of mankind.
They were not far from going extinct, their population was slowly dwindling, and their situation didn't seem to improve, not a lot, at least!
His mindset was slowly changing due to external and internal factors, including the influence of the Odyssey seed. After a while, Nial's expression grew cold as he forcefully subdued the dark energy currents.
He knew that his body was not yet capable of properly controlling even a single darkness current.
But that was not something he could currently care about.
Instead of acting like a coward, Nial embraced the pain that came forth with taking control of the darkness currents.
Simultaneously, he controlled the black miasma and tried to fuse them into one type of energy and objective.
He hoped that it would be easier to control them upon merging them.
However, Nial noticed that he was covered in chills on his first attempt.
It was a small warning given by his body, and Nial understood it almost instantaneously.
'Merging the black miasma and the dark energy currents will kill me, okay, understood…'
Yet, even after he forced his control over the darkness currents, the Odyssey seed did not stop rioting.
? It continued to tremble violently and influenced Nial's mana core which were subtly connected to each other.
It was almost as if the appearance of the Titan youngling in front of them caused all of this, which was certainly weird!
While Nial sensed and experimented with everything, only two seconds had passed in reality.
The Titan youngling stared down at Nial, sensing that it had to eliminate the threat as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, its mission was in danger, which it couldn't accept whatsoever.
As such, while beating its fists upon its armored chest, the Titan released tremendous amounts of mana.
It was equal to the energy, Bella, Mathias, and Nial possessed altogether, causing Bella and Mathias to frown.
Meanwhile, Nial was just quiet, had fully regained his senses, and was ready to fight against an existence that might even exceed the capabilities of someone at the Origin rank!
The Titan youngling pushed its feet off the ground, bursting it open owing to the brute strength that was released at once.
With a single, yet powerful move, the Titan blasted its heavy body forward, cutting down the distance toward Nial in no time.
Reaching out with its fist, the beast's punch reached a shock velocity as it flew through the air.
When Nial perceived the attack, he nearly flinched and remained in the same position.
Fortunately, his instincts caused him to react in time as he thrust the Viper spear out.
He knew that his physical strength alone was not even close to that of the Titan youngling.
Yet, with the additional enhancements, Nial felt that his strength would be enough to withstand the beast's barrages.
It was impossible for him to evade the punches, either way, as Mathias was standing less than a meter behind him.
Meanwhile, Bella was also not that far from him and was clearly within the reach of the Titan.
As such, Nial had to attract the attention of the beast while preventing his friends from being attacked.
That was even more important when the impact of the Titan's armored fist reached him.
Enveloped in mana, the defenses of the Titan youngling were even more terrifying than before.
Using its terrifyingly high defensive measures in order to attack, the Titan youngling's fist didn't even move an inch as it collided with the Viper spear's blade.
The blade might be enveloped by the dark energy currents and the black miasma, but even their enhancement had limits.
This was even more so the case owing to the little amounts of mana that had been used to empower them.
In fact, when the Viper spear collided with the Titan's fist, it was a wonder that the spear didn't instantly crumble into countless pieces.
That did little to make Nial feel satisfied because the impact of the mighty and high-velocity punch swept through the spear, reaching him in no time.
The faint noise of the cracking of bones could be heard, causing his teammates' eyes to widen as they followed the trail of Nial being flung through the air.
He was blasted away, but didn't loosen his grip around the Viper spear, and was smashed into the ground several meters ahead.
Rolling on the ground, his arm twisted as Nial didn't dare to let go of his spear.
That was because his biggest fear was that the Titan youngling would launch a second attack right after.
However, even worse to Nial was the thought that the others might get attacked in the process.
After all, they were not even able to inflict an injury by penetrating the Titan youngling's high defenses.
Nial couldn't be sure about that, but he knew that Mathias' affinity wouldn't be able to break through the armor of the gigantic beast.
Meanwhile, Bella's Innate ability and the [Outburst] ability were something mystical that Nial had yet to gain an understanding of.
Despite all of that, he shot up from the ground, ignoring the severe pain that stemmed from his arms and shoulders.
He could clearly sense that something was broken and that it was not just a small bone in his fingers, but something serious.
For now, he simply inserted some mana, some of the dark energy currents, and black miasma inside his body to momentarily fix the issues of his broken body.
Groaning in pain, Nial staggered back and took a deep breath while the healing took effect. Now was not the time to hesitate.
As such, he used some more mana to insert it into the [Hodur's Heir] curse.
More black miasma was released from his body, which Nial used to envelop around the tip of his spear.
'One lethal blow should be enough…'
He thought, forcing his exhausted mind to think of an action plan.
Nial knew that his body and mind had crossed their limits, and still functioning with ease.
This was something the first pulsating of the Odyssey seed allowed him to do.
Now, he could even go beyond this without any issues, if one were to ignore his body's pain and the strain he put on it.
Thus, in no time, he returned to the Titan youngling, who had averted its focus on Bella to eliminate the second-most threatening opponent.
However, contrary to Nial, Bella didn't face the Titan's punch head-on.
She ducked and pushed herself forward to evade the fist of her opponent before slashing out with her two shortswords.
The sound of metal colliding with metal rang through the area as Bella's attacks were simply blocked off.
This astonished the young woman, only for her face to turn eerily cold as her eyes began to gleam in a golden color.
At the same time, her hair began to shine brightly, and her mana currents gained a subtle golden touch.
Having activated her Innate ability and the [Outburst] ability at once, Bella knew that she had only half a minute to finish off the Titan.
Otherwise, instead of helping her team, she would turn into a burden, just like it happened not too long ago.
Determined to not repeat that mistake, Bella circulated the golden mana inside her shortsword, while also coating them in her mana.
Through this, they began to gleam brightly.
Her mana was, at least, twice as powerful as usual, giving her the confidence to easily cut through the Titan's armor.
Yet, the moment she brandished the shortswords while slashing them at the calf of the youngling's right leg, Bella's ice-cold and serious expression crumbled.
'I don't believe it…'
The shortsword with which she had first attacked the Titan, pierced through her opponent's calf.
Searing hot blood shot out of it, but it was just when she wanted to pull out her weapon that Bella noticed it was impossible.
It was almost as if she was trying to pull Excalibur out of the stone without being Arthur himself.
Bella was only able to tug hard at her shortsword once, before the Titan's arm had already shot towards it.
Moving towards the back of the Titan, she prevented the beast from reaching her.
However, she lost one of her weapons in the process, and lots of time, causing her to be visibly irritated.
At this moment, Bella's eyes fell on Nial who was enveloped in a cocoon of darkness.
He rushed past Mathias, who was trying to use his elemental affinity to obstruct the Titan, rather than attacking directly.
When Nial brushed past his friend, he gently touched him, while releasing some of the black miasma towards him.
While he was unable to control the dark energy currents, the black miasma was fully under his control.
As such, it was also not too much to ask if he wanted to use the new information and memories that flashed through his mind.
In an instant, he separated some of the black miasma to allow Mathias to make use of it, and enhance his elemental attacks by coating them with it.
A second later, he appeared in front of the Titan that had turned towards Bella to end her life.
Perceiving the golden mana currents around her sword, Nial also realized that Bella's mana was wreaking havoc in the calf of the Titan.
Because of that, Nial got an idea, which made him focus on the Titan's other calf.
He knew that it would be near impossible to reach the Titan's chest, let alone his throat to pierce through it, without being flung away by the beast.
Its reflexes were simply too fast.
As such, Nial activated the poison crystal of the Viper spear for the first time in his life before piercing the tip of the spear in the calf of the Titan.
'Let's see if you can move after both calves are crippled!'