Odyssey of the Blind God

"Are you talking to me? Why would I be the vile murderer you're looking for, you dumb idiot!?" Nial asked dumbfounded.

When he emerged out of the dark energy in the ground a moment ago, he had intentionally retracted the dark energy all over the hallways, the darkness that shrouded him, and everything else that could lead to suspicion about him.

However, even then, it looked like the Guard mistook Nial for the mass murderer of the U21 Runicier tournament's participants.

This made no sense, at all, which was why Nial's expression turned ugly.

"Don't spout nonsense, you peasant! Why would the prince of the Balgris race attack someone like you?!"  The guard shouted out in anger, causing a bright smile to form on Finn's face.

The young Balgris looked at Nial as if he wanted to say 'I told you, nobody would suspect me!', and it was only now that Nial understood just how true that was.

"So we have a mass murderer with royal blood right here? Great…" Nial mumbled, struggling to accept the reality as he cursed quietly.

"That's utter bullshit…"

The Guard was at the Peak of the Prometheus rank. His senses were strong and he could clearly hear what Nial said, and brandished his longsword in front of Nial once again.

"One more word and I will cripple you before you'll be taken into custody! Surrender right now, expose your comrades, and you may be executed painlessly!!" The Guard demanded in a stern voice that echoed through the entire hallway.

Nial had a hard time trying to stay reasonable with the guard, who didn't even seem to put an effort into analyzing the situation.

Finn, who was apparently of the Balgris race's royal blood, couldn't be the culprit in the guard's opinion, which left only Nial as the vile murderer, or accomplice of the mass murderers, who were terrorizing and brutally killing the participants of the U21 Runicier tournament.

Nial turned quiet for a moment to think of the simplest solution to convince the guard that something was odd. He perceived that Finn had replaced all the runic armaments that had been destroyed before and that he was wearing even more rings than before.

"If I'm the murderer, why the hell would Finn be in front of my room, after midnight, fully armed as if he was ready to wage war?" Nial asked calmly, trying to put some sense in the guard's narrow-minded head.

The Guard had yet to stop glaring at Nial, but it was only now that he asked himself the same.

"Furthermore, it was me who activated the Copper sphere to send a signal to all the guards. Why would I do something as stupid as that if I'm the murderer? To trick you? Wouldn't that be kind of stupid, though?" Nial continued to speak when he noticed that the Guard's expressions softened and he seemed to be easily influenced.

Nial's words made sense and it was obvious that the guard started to think once again. Until now, the mass murderer had always been a silent killer, who didn't leave behind pieces of evidence of his existence.

The only things that could be considered pieces of evidence were the single wound on each of the victim's bodies, and the fact that there were no signs of struggle on them except for that single wound. It indicated that the victims hadn't defended themselves, which meant that they were taken by surprise.

The mass murderer wouldn't allow anyone to find him, under normal circumstances. This meant that the current situation was out of the murderer's expectations and that something must have gone wrong.

Finn sweated profusely, while Nial looked rather fine. The guard thought that this was the case because Nial must have wanted to wear out the Balgris race's prince before he ended his life.

However, after the narrow-minded guard combined all the facts, it looked more like Nial had evaded various attacks, while Finn was the one to have attacked.

The young Balgris' energy remnants could be found in the various holes his attacks had created in the hallway, and there were lengthy, angry cuts on the wall opposite Nial's door.

"Can that really be?" The guard asked quietly to himself, seemingly convinced that something was wrong.

"The two of you will drop your weapons! I will take both of you into custody. Whoever dares to disobey my command will be crippled or killed in an instant!" The Gard was confused but he could understand that the situation was too much for him to handle. He would let the seniors decide their fate. He was ready to take both into custody if this would mean that the vile murderer would finally stop the massacre.

Finn clicked his tongue in annoyance, which caused the Guard to turn his head in the young Balgris' direction.

"I'm sorry, your majesty, but you will have to come with me, whether you like it—..."The guard was just about to finish speaking when he saw that Finn's expression turned into a devilish grimace.

A weird-looking saber had manifested in Finn's hand and the blade looked like it would crumble a fraction of a second later.

"Get out of my sight, you piece of shit!" Finn shouted, revealing his true face and behavior as he slashed out with the energy blade that seemed to be manyfold stronger than the energy blades he had used against Nial.

Against Nial, it had never been a necessity to use the stronger energy blades, especially since it was not efficient and rather inconvenient.

However, Finn was not able to hold back against the Guard who dared to disrespect him.

He shot the energy blade in the Guard's direction, without a trace of hesitation.

The Guard, who belonged to the Stilak race, wasn't expecting the sudden attack. He was much stronger than Finn, meaning that it was suicidal for any of the two Originals to attack him.

But now that it actually happened, the guard was a quarter of a second too slow to lift his head as the energy blade of a Tier-1 runic armament shot in his direction.

The energy blade's velocity was shockingly high, and the guard, who had paid most of his attention on Nial, was not able to deflect the attack.

His armor and body were cut through as if both were made out of tofu, and the guard slumped to the ground, with a shocked expression.

The moment his legs fell on the ground with a sickening thud, his upper body slipped from his lower body, and blood gushed out of it. His body had been halved…just like that.

The guard didn't believe what had just happened and he hoped that everything was a mere dream…of getting killed by a 5th Mirae ranked Original…that was not possible and had to be a dream…his worst nightmare.

However, the moment his eyes fluttered shut to escape the dream, he entered an eternal slumber…

"Peak Prometheus…killed just like that….he was even equipped with a full Tier-1 armor…" Nial mumbled in disbelief. He had perceived the tremendous strength behind the energy blade that had been created from activating [Limit Breaker] on a Tier-1 runic weapon, but he still couldn't believe what he had just witnessed.

It didn't make any sense that Finn was able to create such powerful attacks…

"My Innate ability is great, isn't it?" Finn asked pridefully as his head flicked in Nial's direction. The young Balgris Prince was visibly exhausted and breathed heavily but it looked like he was satisfied with his achievement.

He looked at Nial as if he didn't even see him as a threat. This would usually be annoying but Nial merely visualized the Prince of the Balgris race, trying to make sense of everything.

"Well, it seems to require quite a bit of mana… You cannot handle Tier-1 runic armaments with that ability yet, not too often at least!" Nail observed and stated the fact rather calmly when he recovered from the first shock of what had just happened.

Nial didn't think that Finn would actually attack him. In fact, he had thought that Finn would try to kill him, and run away from the guard, or do something similar.

In the end, he was lucky, in multiple ways at that.

All of a sudden, a faint smile crept up Nial's face, which warned Finn. Nial wasn't supposed to be smiling right now!

Something was wrong but Finn didn't notice anything.

"Why are you smiling, you creep!" He shouted out in panic, feeling extremely uncomfortable with every single action of Nial.

"I think you've just killed your entire race," Nial responded while shrugging his shoulders as he added, "Killing the Guard was an impressive feat but you've been exposed now, poor you."

Nial's sarcastic undertone caused Finn to grind his teeth. However, he didn't understand what exactly Nial meant, which forced him to halt in his tracks for a moment.

He could tell that Nial was not only trying to stall but had some ulterior motives as well, especially since something felt odd to him.

"You should have studied more about the Guards of the Golden City, or about surveillance runic armaments," Nial laughed before he turned quiet once again.

He was slowly retreating and didn't allow Finn to come too close to him. Now it was only a matter of time before Finn would be caught.

The entire Balgris race would be subjected to the ire and wrath of other races and face many issues in maintaining a relation with any of the 10 main races that reigned Ximatra.

The Balgris race was similar to the Elves. They had only a small branch spread out to Ximatra because they wanted to improve their knowledge of runic armaments and create new business relationships.

However, considering that the Prince of the Balgris race had killed more than 50 highly talented Runiciers, and a Guard of the Golden Armaments Union, it would be difficult for the Balgris race to stay on Ximatra, let alone to prevent waging war with everyone.

The actions of someone with royal blood reflected the attitude of the entire race, after all!

"What do you mean surveillance runic armaments? The Guard is not equipped with a surveillance runic armament!!" Finn screamed at the top of his lungs and Nial could only nod his head.

"Yeah, that's right. I lied to you about that part. But you should take a look behind the Guard….around 20 meters, on the ground," Nial was enjoying the current situation much more than before.

Finn was on the verge of losing his sense of reasoning. The young Balgris Prince was also exhausted from activating [Limit Breaker] on a Tier-1 runic armament. It seemed like the ability would demand exponentially more mana the higher the quality of the object the Innate ability was used on.

Nonetheless, the Innate ability was extremely powerful, especially since it allowed someone at the Mirae rank to easily kill a fully armed Guard at the Peak of the Prometheus rank.

That was simply insane!

"You wanna share the reason for your actions before you will be caught by the other guards that will come soon?" Nial asked lightly when he perceived that Finn was staring intently at the surveillance runic armament he had set up not too long ago.

He had placed it using tiny traces of his mana when he had been talking to the Guard to convince the narrow-minded Stilak to use his head to determine who the real murderer was.

It recorded everything and sent it to the transmitter that was in Nial's possession, or so it ought to be. Finn turned his head in Nial's direction with wide eyes. Realizing that Nial possibly had proof to expose him, his eyes turned bloodshot and he released several black Tier-0 daggers from his body.

"Give me the fucking receiver, or I will cut you into thousand pieces while still not letting you die. You will face the worst death you can possibly imagine!!" Finn threatened but Nial laughed it off.

"Looks like your confidence is crumbling. You can only attack someone if they're off-guard. Your attacks may be powerful but you are just throwing them at your opponent without aiming precisely. There is not an ounce of strategic knowledge in your mind…no wonder that the Balgris race might cease to exist because of your actions today," Nial said with a smug expression.

If he had been annoyed and frustrated before, he couldn't help but feel that the given situation was much better than he could have hoped for.

"You do realize that you can also turn someone else's message crystal into a receiver as long as you have their contacts, right?" Nial asked, and Finn, who was just about to attack the blind Original, froze in place.

"Just tell me why you killed everyone! Don't even try to convince me that you acted only on your own because that wouldn't make any sense!" Nial added, releasing his dark energy to make sure that he was intimidating enough.

Simultaneously, the dark energy was a means of protection, in various ways at that.

"You fucking bastard! Who do you think you are?!" Finn howled, releasing one energy blade at Nial, who evaded it rather easily.

The distance he kept from Finn was just enough to perceive the attack and evade it without too many difficulties. He had analyzed the strength and the speed of Finn's ordinary Tier-0 energy blades, which was enough for him to feel safe and sound.

"Me? I'm Nial Orin, and quite hard to kill!"