Odyssey of the Blind God

"That's it?" Nial mumbled to himself while Ryu rubbed his head against Nial's chest.

He was confused because there was no special phenomenon or anything like that happening when he began binding [Mental Control] to his mana core.

This was out of his expectations because binding the ability had been just like it would be for everyone else.

The only difference was that Nial had used a humongous amount of Origin crystals to unleash the hidden potential within his ability.

Thus, [Mental Control] had evolved to [Dominion] which was quite a surprise and something Nial had hoped for. He couldn't know that Mental control would evolve to Dominion for sure but he had hoped that his ability would evolve a bit.

That was exactly what happened, which was due to it becoming a linked ability, where it was fused with a portion of his Mana core's Essence. The overflowing mana from the Origin crystal had been connected to his ability and it had immediately nourished the Mana core's Essence within [Mental Control]. That in turn, unleashed some of its hidden potential, thus resulting in the given evolution.

"Dominion…allows me to suppress other beings if their willpower is weaker than mine…If I overwhelm them, it's even possible to turn them into my loyal subjects…that's crazy…" Nial mumbled while trying to sort out the flood of information that appeared in his mind.

It was not easy to organize everything because some facts clashed with others, confusing him. That was quite a hassle and Nial took a while to figure out what was going on.

In the end, he was pretty satisfied with the ability, even more so because he knew that he would never have to actively train the technique to improve it.

However, there were a bunch of new thoughts that flashed through his mind.

"How can I make proper use of that ability? Should I try to find another linked ability that suits this one perfectly, to turn it into something that allows me to become manyfold stronger than I already am? How can I achieve that? What's the perfect ability to create an undefeatable synergy with [Dominion]?" He blurted his thoughts out loud and tried to figure out what exactly he was supposed to do.

'Well, I can always think of what to do when the time is ripe…I am broke now…time to earn some contribution points!' Nial told himself and he got up from the ground.

By using his Mana Sense, he shrouded all emptied Origin crystals and stored them inside his spatial ring before he left the isolated space below the Pagoda.

Once Nial reached the surface, he encountered Khain and the others. Khain stared at him for a few seconds before he walked over to Elder Walin, who had shown up as well.

She was just about to start teaching her students when her gaze fell on Khain. Slowly, her eyes moved over to Nial, who greeted everyone before she nodded her head at them both.

"Nial, do you mind sparring with Khain? He wants to see how much you've improved since you arrived, and I'm also quite interested in your progress!" Elder Walin proposed and Nial agreed without giving it a lot of thought.

"I wonder how much stronger I've become as well. I'm just returning from the isolated space where I bound my new ability," He revealed and many pairs of eyes were drawn to him after his revelation.

"You said that you had three ability vacancies left when you arrived in Alliance city, right?" Khain asked all of a sudden and Nial nodded his head once again.

"Yep, and now I have only two ability vacancies left," He acknowledged and everyone could visibly see that Khain was getting more and more uncomfortable.

Valxians didn't have many ability vacancies. Most Valxians could only bind one ability to their mana core because they had a few special traits as a race. Binding more abilities would harm their body which was mostly focused on attaining physical strength rather than depending on the usage of abilities.

Nonetheless, there were some Valxians who were capable of binding two abilities to their mana core without issues.

But even that was nothing in comparison to what Nial was capable of. His physical strength was lower than a Valxian's innate strength even if it was not too much, and he could bind three to four more abilities than them.

Furthermore, Nial seemed to be in possession of other special traits that made him stronger than ordinary humans, which was something many were envious of.

Life was not fair, it had never been but it looked like Nial was a walking cheat code who kept receiving fate's blessings in abundance.

"Don't hold back while fighting me!" Khain stated, trying to see if he had a chance against Nial when he gave his all.

He would also give his everything but that was only obvious.

"Hm…okay…" Nial was in thoughts for a while but he nodded his head regardless.

"Elder Walin, please take precautions if anything happens to him…or me. I don't know what exactly will happen," He added honestly.

This caused Khain to look at Nial with furrowed eyebrows for a few seconds before he went to the arena on the first floor of the pagoda. Everyone else made some space for them while Elder Walin kept her eyes glued to Nial.

She was not sure what would happen but she followed Nial's advice and started to set up extra security measures so as to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances arising out of their spar.

When Nial saw that Elder Walin did as requested he was relieved and went over to the other side of the arena.

"We can start whenever you want," Nial said while Khain bumped his fists together and soon his skin started to turn red.

Khain's skin began to steam and it was quite obvious what was going to happen.

'Did he learn to control the Berserk thing of the Valxian race?' Nial wondered but he quickly averted his focus as he noticed something of much more importance.

'That is possible? For real?' He began to smile, which was quickly noticed. Khain was being extra cautious of Nial and did not want to lose this time. A moment later, Elder Walin initiated the countdown.

"Three…twoo…one….fight!" She announced loudly and Khain charged forward the moment the battle started.

His body inflated, his skin turned completely red and the steam that emerged all around his body made it seem as if he had gained a second layer of protection from all kinds of physical attacks.

However, Nial just smiled as one of his eyes turned crimson in its entirety before it started to glow brightly.

Using the [Blood Eclipse Moon] ability together with [Dominion], Nial gained an upper hand over the spar and Khain's mind in an instant. Khain didn't even know what was going on and he was already on the losing side. The little natural defense of the Valxian's mind was broken in an instant and he only realized that something was odd when one of the corners of Nial's mouth curled upward in a smirk.

"Stop!" Nial ordered quietly, but the words rang through Khain's head as if they had been shouted at the top of his lungs and augmented with the use of a tremendous amount of mana.

Khain's head felt like it would burst apart into pieces and he stopped in his tracks, holding his head in his hands. He felt as if his head was on fire and his body had been frozen into a stone statue. Khain was not even able to try to move ahead when a second command was issued by Nial.

"Surrender!" He instructed and Khain's lips began to move on their own.

"I surrender…." Khain spoke the words he did not want to before his legs gave in.

Nial lifted his hand and pointed at Khain when his head turned to Elder Walin.

"I think you should help him," He suggested while his eyes returned to the same color as they had been before, milky white and without a trace of life.

When he stopped using [Dominion], Khain's loud screams filled the arena. His voice reverberated through the whole Pagoda and many students and even the Dojo Master reached the first floor of the pagoda to take a look at what was going on.

Khain's eyes were bleeding as fat drops of blood trickled out of his eyes and his mind faced a meltdown.

"What is going on here?!" The Dojo Master asked in an imposing voice and Nial turned around with a dry smile before he answered,

"Khain and I sparred, he told me to go all out after getting to know that I finished binding my new ability less than half an hour ago…and that's the result. Though I told Elder Walin to take precautions, so I guess nothing will go wrong…maybe?"

Nial didn't really feel guilty about what had happened. His warning had been more than enough, and the Dojo Master could imagine Khain doing exactly what Nial told him.

Thus, he averted his attention from Nial to take a look at Khain, and see if he could help out a bit.

But what the Dojo Master found made him frown deeply because Khain's mind was in a total mess.

"What exactly did you do?" He couldn't help but ask before turning his attention to look at the way too calm human.

"I forced myself in his head and ordered him to surrender," Nial explained nonchalantly and his answer made everyone raise their eyebrows.

"Are you serious??"