Chapter 269 Found You!

The moment the wolf was marked by his dark energy, Nial felt much better. He focused on replenishing the dark energy he had used up to mark the surrounding area.

This took him quite a while but it was not as if he was in a hurry.

The wolf left him every few hours, probably to report to Silvian. It indicated that Silvian was not able to see through the eyes of the wolf and that they couldn't communicate with each other over long distances.

'Well, it's not like I care about how Silvian receives his report, whether it is by reading the wolf's memories, or in another way.' Nial just thought. He felt much lighter than before. His entire body was fully invigorated.

The Symbol of Life hadn't stopped glowing for quite some time. Nial was actually not sure why that was the case but it accelerated the production of his dark energy.

He could store more dark energy inside the Odyssey seed as well. There was no disadvantage, either. Thus, Nial accepted the Ankh without thinking too much about possible problems the Symbol of Life might cause in the future.

After a few hours, the wolf had disappeared, and Nial chose to follow the trails left behind by the dark energy mark on the wolf.

Nial appeared in front of a small cave less than 90 minutes later. An expression of curiosity appeared on his face when he perceived quite a few interesting things.

The cave restricted mana fluctuations partially. Some sort of purplish-blue crystal absorbed the mana out of the surrounding area. Nial could still sense his dark energy but even that was absorbed.

By standing close to the cavern entrance, Nial was already forced to control his mana and dark energy to prevent any of it from being suctioned out of his body.

It felt a bit weird but that was not Nial's focus.

'I found you, you bastard!' He thought as his expression twisted into an ugly smile.

Silvian's mana fluctuations were stronger than that of the wolf's. They were stable, and Nial couldn't find a single clue that hinted at an injury of Silvian's mana veins or his mana core.

'Did he already heal his mana core and mana veins? So fast?!' Nial thought in shock. Even if one was perfectly healthy and had a great natural healing ability, healing a cracked mana core, and half-destroyed mana veins within seven days were impossible.

Everything Nial sensed about Silvian was quite weird. His mana seemed to have changed quite a bit. It was altered in a way that was the complete opposite of the holiness the Sacred Knights leader was supposed to have.

'Did he summon…no, that is impossible here. Silvian shouldn't have any Chaos Divine energy left either. His entire power should have been drained. He should hardly be able to move his body. Even if a week is a long time, being able to heal his mana core and mana veins is not possible!' Nial thought, his expression turning more complex, the more time passed.

The situation seemed odd. Thus, he did something extremely stupid.

Nial thought about something before he made a decision, 'Even if he catches me now, he won't kill me immediately, otherwise, he will be thrown out of the Dimension rift before he regains his peak condition!'

With that in mind, he released his dark energy and merged it with his black miasma to shroud his entire body with it as he took a first step inside the cavern entrance.

Dark miasma was released from his entire body but Nial focused most on the dark miasma around his feet. The energy he released streamed inside the ground, leaving behind a trail of darkness.

With every step he took the crystals within the cave tried to greedily take away his energy. The suction force increased in intensity over time.

With every second passing, Nial felt that his body was being deprived of power. The Symbol of Life was glowing brightly, replenishing the deprived power instantaneously, but Nial began to understand the situation much better.

'The living cannot survive long in this place, not if they want to retain their energy.' Nial realized when his body started to tremble.

The shroud of dark energy prevented most of his vigor to be taken from him, while the Symbol of Life quickly refilled what was taken nonetheless.

That was how he could easily survive in the cave with the energy devouring crystals.

His accumulated dark energy was quickly drained but Nial merely smiled. The entire part of the cave he had passed by was covered in Nial's darkness.

This included the energy devouring crystals. The crystals near the entrance of the cave were already overflowing with the mana they had absorbed from outside.

Understanding this may seem insignificant at first, but Nial had already come up with a plan.

'I can control my dark energy everywhere within my range of perception…as long as I have enough mana. Then, how about I reverse the effect of the energy devouring crystals?' He thought, smiling brightly.

If anyone were to see Nial's expression right now, they would never believe that he was smiling. His entire body was tightly shrouded in darkness. It looked like an existence had crawled out of the abyss, and was smiling horrifyingly.

Nial didn't even notice the changes occurring in his body. He had simply shrouded his body in dark energy to block off the power of the energy devouring crystals.

His focus was on making use of the energy devouring crystal's energy, and not on his appearance either.

Right now, even the fact that Silvian took note of him was uncertain. Tremendous amounts of mana were being devoured by the dark energy that trailed behind him.

By using his dark energy to crush the crystals one after another, the mana inside them was released.

Nial's dark energy and the dark miasma devoured everything according to Nial's orders. The dark energy expanded rapidly along the walls, the ceiling, and the ground of the cave while the dark miasma filled the hollow rooms entirely.

Everything was slowly turning into Nial's domain and wherever he stepped, darkness followed behind.

The moment his dark energy was drained, an energy devouring crystal was crushed.

When his dark miasma stopped growing, another energy devouring crystal was crushed and the energy within it was devoured.

Inside the cave, Silvian seemed to have regained his power, Nial was slowly gaining more and more strength. The excessive energy entered Nial's body, while the shroud of darkness around him became tighter. It infiltrated his body and became one with him.

A tight armor protected him. However, that was not everything. The darkness seemed to merge with his skin. It circulated through his veins, invigorating him.

Nial's body cooled off. All the negative emotions that he had felt against Silvian seemed to disappear, and Nial's expression calmed down.

There was no feeling of satisfaction, hope, or any desire inside him anymore. The only thought he had was to keep expanding his darkness domain, strengthen his physique as much as possible, and accept the darkness around him.

From the deepest parts of the Odyssey seed, the most potent dark energy was released. When Nial felt this power, his entire body shook.

'Wow…' He could only think while feeling that his entire body was being enhanced.

The Ancient Origin ring within his body was rotating rapidly and absorbing the dark energy around him before expelling it once again.

Nial repeated this process over and over again without knowing why he was even doing this. Only after several minutes that felt like an eternity had passed was Nial finally able to grasp the situation.

'The Ancient Origin ring is slowly transmuting dark energy. It is enhancing the dark energy, and allows it to grow stronger as long as enough mana is utilized.'

The entire cave behind Nial was covered in pitch-black darkness. Not a single speck of light could be seen. Even the faintly glowing energy devouring crystals that had yet to be crushed were not visible.

Nial would crush them when he required more energy. However, his body could hardly contain the energy he had already absorbed, and the cavern tunnel was already trembling. It couldn't stand the overflowing dark energy and the dark miasma.

All of a sudden, the Symbol of Life began to glow much brighter. Before, it desired to absorb mana to fill Nial with more and more vigor. But something seemed to have changed when the Odyssey seed had released the dark energy with the highest potency from the deepest parts of it.

Dark energy streamed inside the Symbol of Life. It was nourished and empowered.

Something was happening to the Symbol of Life, it changed. However, Nial was not able to focus on the Ankh because he entered the large cavern hall, where Silvian was located. The cavern hall was also a dead end.

Without a warning, the wolf, who had been watching Nial for the past few days, appeared in front of Nial.

The beast's hair stood up on its end, and it was visibly scared. But it was unable to disobey Silvian's orders, so the wolf attacked Nial, the existence, who brought forth darkness.

If Silvian had already looked like a monster right now, Nial's appearance caused true horror to every existence in his sight.

With a swipe of his hand, a ginormous claw made of darkness emerged out of the ground. It shot upward, reached the wolf's abdomen before it knew, and blasted up the next instant.

The Wolf was not even able to react as its body was bashed into the ceiling where it was crushed in an instant.

Blood trickled down the claw, while all the bones in the wolf's body were crushed. The wolf that had been alive just a moment ago had been mashed and killed without a second of hesitation.

"That trick is old, Silvian. How about you try something new?" Nial asked rhetorically while keeping his volume low.

If he had been ready to go all-in before entering the cave and face Silvian's torture to procure more information, Nial's current behavior and demeanor were completely different. His entire existence was overflowing with power. There was no trace of fear within him anymore either.

Everything had changed due to the power that flooded his body.

Lifting his hands, he allowed the darkness behind him to fill the entire cavern hall. Only the space between Nial and Silvian was spared from the overflowing darkness that covered everything.

Nial wanted Silvian to see him.

He visualized the Incarnation of the God of Saints and Devils, but what Nial saw was more than just a little bit disappointing.

"What did you do to your body?" Nial asked when he noticed that Silvian's body had rotten away. Silvian was still alive, to some extent. That was, at least, what his mana said.

Silvian was oscillating between life and death but he was not injured anymore. His mana veins and mana core had healed, but that was something Nial already knew.

However, Silvian's body was missing parts of his flesh, and the holiness his body had naturally executed before had turned dark. He had changed.

'He is not undead…but extremely close to being considered undead. Demonification? Probably not.' Nial tilted his head, and thought about an answer while his eerily pitch-black eyes darted at Silvian.

It was impossible for Silvian to stop trembling at the sight of Nial. He clearly recalled the terrifying power of the Ruler of Darkness.

'Kaeldur?? How can he summon this? This is not the power of a 1st Mirae ranked Original!! H-H-He cannot have improved so fast, that is impossible! IMPOSSIBLE!!' Silvian screamed at the top of his lungs, but not a single word escaped his mouth. He had screamed out in his mind, without realizing it.

It took him a while to realize that he was not yet dead. The God of Darkness hadn't killed him the moment he screamed out.

His body didn't listen to him but Silvian forced himself to calm down and ask, "How? How did you–"

"Answer my question!" Nial interrupted, not allowing Silvian to finish first.