Odyssey of the Blind God

"This may be a dumb question, but is everyone here a High Elf, or some sort of Sacred Elf?" Nial asked quietly, feeling extremely stupid. He tried to hide his embarrassment with a faint smile but that didn't work well.

They were still in the Holy Hall but Jilas and the others had left. They were sent to the Sacred Court, where they would be punished for their crimes.

Jilas had committed a serious crime by abusing Yggdrasil and by destroying the Holy Hall. This was already enough for him to receive a harsh punishment, and the way he treated Nial only made matters worse for him. He had attacked someone much weaker than himself without any actual reason, at that.

Insulting an honorable guest of the Royal family was also not something one should do just for the sake of it. Nial was exactly that; an honorable guest of the Royal family. Master Crevian was just the messenger who had been sent by the royal family to invite Nial over on their behalf.

Master Crevian had received permission to invite Nial to Yggdrasil and to request him to join the U21 Runicier tournament. Treating him properly was only natural, and Jilas' behavior had maligned the Royal family's image and name drastically.

It would be a wonder if Nial were to see Jilas until he would leave Yggdrasil for Ximatra, or the Golden City, to be precise.

Nial was not that worried about Jilas anymore but he started to feel a bit bad for the youngster.

'His teachers messed up real bad, didn't they?' Nial thought, feeling that the biggest responsibility for the mess had been the other Elves. They could have done so much and prevented him from throwing a fit, only to end up watching everything Jilas had done.

"You know about the difference between High Elves and Sacred Elves? That is remarkable," Princess Evalyne remarked, not noticing that Nial's lip twitched at the thought of it.

'I didn't even know that Sacred Elves really exist…let alone what the difference between them is…' Nial thought inwardly with a weird smile on his face as he kept listening to Princess Evalyne.

"The Holy Hall can only be accessed by the Elven nobility or royalty. This includes all sub-races or the higher elves that have evolved from the first Elves. Even if not everyone in Yggdrasil is a High Elf, the few Elves you met before were all High Elves, including Jilas," Princess Evalyne explained before she quietly added,

"That's why it is a great achievement that you survived so long against him…lucky for us."

Princessy Evalyne was uncomfortable about the way Nial ended up arriving. She complained inwardly to Yggdrasil for changing his final destination without informing them beforehand but it was not as if the World Tree would bother about her complaints.

At the end of the day, she was just happy that Nial didn't die. His death would have been the worst possible outcome of his battle against Jilas, and it would leave long-lasting effects.

They needed the Tear of the Dryad Queen by all means but that was not the only reason they allowed a human to enter Yggdrasil. Nial was an anomaly amongst anomalies. This was something Princess Evalyne now understood much clearer than she wanted to acknowledge before.

Master Crevian was impressed by his talent and ambition as a Runicier and it was quite obvious that he had a great future in front of him. His strength was no less amazing, which Ina and the other High Elves had been quite direct about when they told the Royal Princess what had transpired between Nial and Jilas.

They also said that they would have never allowed Nial to die, but their comments were not something Evalyne was satisfied with. In her opinion, their comments were just an excuse, nothing else.

"Are there also Dark Elves and Glacier Elves in or near Yggdrasil? I heard Master Crevian speaking about them a bit. He mentioned that they would be quite interested in my dark energy, or the fact that I will become a True Destroyer or something like that. My connection to mana, nature, and destruction would intrigue them," Nial spoke with a trace of excitement as he followed Princess Evalyne outside the Holy Hall.

After she had inspected the entire Holy Hall, she could roughly gauge Nial's combat prowess. The glow around her golden eyes dimmed down after she absorbed enough information. Her connection with Yggdrasil told her a lot about the love both nature and mana felt toward Nial, which was why she could only agree that many Elves would be intrigued about him.

p "Do you have something special in you that is connected to the Essence of Life?" She suddenly asked instead of answering his question. Princess Evalyne didn't even hear most of his earlier questions because her mind felt like a maze of confusing thoughts.

Nial noticed that she was a bit lost in her own world, so he didn't mind her behavior.

"Isn't that quite obvious?" He countered Evalyne's question, stupefying her a bit.

"You do know that you are speaking to the future Empress of an entire race? The Elven race at that, right?" She asked, squinting her eyes. Not even her mother treated her as nonchalantly as Nial had begun to act around her.

Earlier, Nial had been trying to be overly polite but he quickly noticed that this was useless and not how he would act under normal circumstances. He chose to take the easy route and not be too bogged down by her social status which was also why the tension in his body had been released.

'I know that. But you don't seem to understand who you are talking to,' Nial wanted to say but he kept quiet. It would be foolish to reveal too much information that connected him to Damian.

His dark energy may have been exposed but considering that neither Yggdrasil nor any of the High Elves did something against him, he seemed to be fine.

Even the Royal Princess didn't do anything against him after sensing his dark energy.

'Thanks, Yggdrasil, you are probably my savior, am I right?' Nial thought and his smile widened as he thanked the Ankh within him as well.

The Symbol of Life was literally his life savior, his advantage that allowed him to befriend the Elves, and the reason for him to end up in Yggdrasil as well.

"I know that, but you should cut me some slack, considering that I was welcomed in such a fashion, don't you think?" Nial asked instead of giving her the answer he would have loved to say.

Princess Evalyne thought about it for a moment and sighed deeply.

"You are just like Crevian told us…" She revealed, shaking her head as they entered a large hall. They encountered more than ten Elves near the entrance and all of them kneeled on one knee the moment they saw the Royal Princess.

Nail followed her quickly while wondering if everyone treated the Elven royalty with so much respect. It felt a bit weird, especially since it was completely different from everything Nial knew from his life in the human shelters on Jundra.

'I shouldn't have so many problems accepting new traditions…Maybe I just need some time to warm up?' He thought before he turned his focus back to the Princess.

"I hope Master Crevian spoke only good about me," Nial smiled as he said conversationally, and the Royal Princess actually nodded her head.

"He said that you're determined, that your ambition knows no bounds, that he cannot tell how high your talent as a Runicier is because you seem to improve much more whenever your mana core progresses. That is normal but your progress is not linear but exponential, which is abnormal.

Other than that, Crevian thinks that you're trustworthy even if your behavior comes across as a bit standoffish, suggesting that you don't take others seriously. Well, and then there is the fact that you're bound to become a True Destroyer, which Crevian seems to ignore entirely. I'm not yet sure where his trust comes from but when Crevian says that he trusts someone it means a lot…and I mean A LOT!" Princess Evalyne seemed to regard Crevian's opinion highly.

Nial could also tell that she was being nice to him because Master Crevian's opinion of him was so high. This warmed his heart a bit and he felt a bit closer to Crevian than before.

"That's great," He could only say before his range of perception picked up something that attracted his attention.

"How many different types of Elves exist? As I mentioned before, Master Crevian told a bit about Dark Elves and Glacier Elves, but I don't know much about them. Will you become the ruler of all of them when your mother steps down from the throne?" Nial was curious about many things and he didn't think much before asking Princess Evalyne.

Only if she were to glare at him, or do something would he start bothering to think before asking her any questions, but that didn't seem important for now.

"Actually, we don't know how many Elves exist. As a human, you will also find out that there will always be a human-affiliated race you don't know anything about. Many human races have developed differently and there are various unique abilities they have awoken from birth.

Humans from Jundra are unique in the sense that they can bind a total of five abilities to their mana core. That's much more than anyone else can bind to their mana core without having a special trait.

As for the Dark Elves and Glacier Elves, you shouldn't get too close to them. They would probably try to dissect you because many of them lost nature's favor.

And for your understanding, I might become the Elven Queen in the future but that doesn't mean I will lead all of them. Some chose to leave our protection, while others were thrown out after they did unforgivable things. All sub-races have their own royalty and leaders, but the Empress is in charge of all of them simply because she is the strongest!" Princess Evalyne didn't seem to try holding back any information. She was sharing facts with him without any intention to keep him in the dark or doubt his intentions.

This was another reason for Nial not to bother about maintaining any formalities. Princess Evalyne was an interesting person and they were similar in a few ways.

Both could be quite imposing if they wanted to, neither of them really liked formalities, and they only suppressed others if it was truly necessary.

However, there were also differences between them, quite a few, at that. Nial was not born in the royal family of a huge race. He was not the child of a God, nor did he have vast knowledge, talent, and connections at his disposal from the day he was born.

Nial had to work for everything on his own, toil relentlessly for the slightest bits of progress he made after a long time, and his planet was infiltrated and attacked by numerous races, while Princess Evalyne belonged to one of the races, who had infiltrated them. She was privileged and had made use of it to become what she was today.

Nial had to become stronger as quickly as possible, in whatever way possible, in order to protect those he deemed important, while everyone around Evalyne was already powerful.

It was not possible for Nial to bother about being overly prideful because that was not something he could afford to have when it came to protecting those he loved.

This was the biggest difference between them, and also the reason why Nial would make use of every single opportunity to become stronger, whether it was extremely dangerous, or even suicidal.

He had to strive for the strength others were born with, otherwise, he would have never seen the necessity to join the U21 Runicier tournament and to face numerous races all by himself without anyone protecting him from the sidelines.

"Strength it is…I see. So the moment the Empress would grow weak, she would most probably face the attack of others and get dethroned or even killed. That means the current situation is quite problematic, considering that she must have used quite a lot of resources, and fractions of her Divinity to bring the Elves and the Forest of Life to Jundra. Looks like a big mess…" Nial knew that his words could be misunderstood but he still revealed his honest thoughts.

"That's correct…wait, what the hell are you even thinking about, and how do you know all of that?!" The Princess asked in a stupor. She knew from reports that Nial had some knowledge about the Forest of Life, the Divinity Fragment portal and so on. However, right now, she couldn't help but feel baffled.

Evalyne couldn't even get mad at Nial for creating a theory about her mother getting attacked, which was already absurd and something only heretics would dare to say.

But Nial just smiled after Princess Evalyne stared at him with her vibrant golden eyes.

'Looks like winning the grand prize of the U21 Runicier tournament will be even more important than I expected…what a mess…no wonder that Master Crevian told me I will be rewarded with a universal favor from the Empress…I should help the Empress to retain her throne, or so it looks like to be the case.'