Odyssey of the Blind God

The new Devil was called Erio and it had many memories and emotions to share with Nial. It was almost as if the devilized beast was trying to dump all its emotions and memories onto Nial who sorted out the most useful feelings and memories while discarding the rest quickly.

He chose to give the cubs the chance to decide whether they wanted to be devilized as well but they were not in a hurry. Maybe, once they grew into adults, they would choose to follow into the footsteps of their father and become Devils.

However, even if they wouldn't want to become Devils, Nial hoped that the Phoenix-Fire Lion cubs could become a valuable asset for the new shelter. Whether it was for the purpose of defending the shelter or turning into assistants in the forging hall, Nial hoped that the cubs would prove themselves to be resourceful. After all, their flames were exceptionally useful when it came to forging.

'The future will tell if they want to stay in the shelter, to begin with. Erio's memories are more important right now, either way…' Nial thought as he finished the chaotic mess of compiling his newest Devil's memories.

He found out that some poachers had already killed the mother of the cubs. The Lioness had been in a weakened state after giving birth to several cubs and her cubs would have nearly ended in the exact same way if not for the father of the cubs who came to the rescue. He had been out hunting to provide the mother of his cubs with enough nutrition to recover from the exhaustion of giving birth, only to end up finding a group of poachers mercilessly killing the Lioness when he returned.

Erio wreaked havoc and killed more than half of the poachers but was gravely injured in the process. But he still managed to save his cubs by taking them into his maw.

While fleeing the poachers followed him for a while just to disappear at the sight of more than a hundred thousand Originals that had appeared in the humongous plateau all of a sudden. They thought that the Army of Dracos were also poachers who had heard the roars of the Phoenix Fire Lions and their cubs.

Of course, that couldn't be further from the truth and Nial was slowly getting angry. The raging emotions of his newest Devil influenced Nial which was also why he turned around to the Elvingar Elves and Michael.

"We will kill the other poachers so as to get rid of them and teach them a lesson. They won't even be able to think about bothering us in the future," Nial clenched his fists before he jumped on the back of the Eclipse Fire Lion.

While riding Erio, Nial's presence changed all of a sudden. He felt more dominating than ever before as his milky-white, lifeless eyes stared down at the Elves and the Draco.

"If anyone dares to hurt the cubs, I will immediately terminate my cooperation with the entire race. The cubs are Erio's, and Erio is mine!"

Michael and the Elves nodded their heads meekly, not daring to retaliate.

On the other hand, Erio looked down at his cubs lovingly before he turned in the direction where he came from. The Eclipse Fire exuding from his mane expanded and he burst forth, turning into a black flash as he accelerated.

'Pretty fast, that's for sure,' Nial thought while expanding his range of perception by using some dark energy that had been reinforced with Chaos, Essence of Darkness, and crimson moonlight.

The resulting range in which Nial perceived all kinds of sources of mana was several hundred kilometers. That was more than enough for him to sense a mass of strong Mana sources that were gathered around a source of mana that felt similar to the Phoenix-Fire Lion and its cubs.

Nial predicted this fleeting source of Mana to be the corpse of the Lioness.

"Go a bit further to the right and you will find the poachers, and the remains of your beloved," He said, not too sure whether most beasts were as emotional as humans when it came to the loss of their loved ones.

It was pretty obvious that Erio was not taking the loss of his mate well but the rage he radiated was mostly from having been injured severely. Erio wanted revenge more than anything but Nial couldn't tell what the biggest driving force for the revenge was.

At the end of the day it didn't really matter what triggered Erio's rage to the maximum. It was important that he wanted revenge and that Nial was willing to help him.

He didn't want the Phoenix-Fire Lion cubs to be raised in the fear of possibly getting killed and their unawakened Phoenix-Fire Crystal to be snatched by other poachers or greedy beings because it was extremely valuable.

Nial understood the mindset of the poachers since it was only logical that rare treasures such as the Phoenix-Fire Crystal would be extremely helpful in various ways…but the cubs were now part of his group, and nobody was allowed to take what belonged to him!

After Erio changed their course, Nial focused on analyzing the strength of the poachers. He was also trying to make out what kind of race the poachers belonged to, just to realize something very interesting.

'Humans?'

The corners of Nial's lip curled upward as he visualized more than a hundred human poachers at once. He couldn't help but think that it was quite ridiculous for him to meet another human race all of a sudden.

However, that didn't mean he wouldn't do anything to them. Nial would not think twice to tear apart a bunch of humans if they tried to play around like fools.

There was something Nial wanted to test out which was why he told Erio to disappear inside the Heart of Darkness for a moment while he used Grasp of Eclipse to appear in the shadows of the Phoenix-Fire Lioness' body.

Nobody took note of him for a few seconds, until he touched the 'safeguarded' corpse of the Lioness that disappeared inside his spatial ring just a moment later.

Nial was not sure why none of them had done that already until he perceived the levitating flame that had been extracted from the body of the Lioness.

"So that's what you guys were doing?" Nial mumbled, alarming everyone who was baffled about the sudden disappearance of the large Lioness' body.

"Who the hell are you?!" The voice of an old man thundered through the surrounding area, "How dare you infiltrate our camp and steal our prey?!"

The pressure being radiated by a Mid Keltia-ranked Original weighed down on Nial, but he turned in their direction without a change in his expression.

"Your prey is the mate of my subordinate. So you fucking killed what belongs to me…and you are telling me that I AM stealing YOUR prey?!" Nial thundered back, amplifying his words with traces of Chaos which caused shudders to run down everyone's spine.

"If you hand over everything in your belonging, I might spare your lives," Nial added, his sharp voice cutting through the entire camp that had been constructed at the border between the Savannah and the plateau.

Nial knew that the poachers wouldn't accept his 'deal' but he didn't want anyone to cry out loud that he didn't even offer them a chance to survive.

Thus, he gave his offer while Erio was waiting impatiently inside his Heart of Darkness. Though Nial shook his head when he heard the reply from one of the poachers.

"You insane bastard, go die!!"