Chapter 573 The Hunt
The hunt began with the materialization of the Shadows.
Thousands of Shadows morphed into semi-solid forms of their former vessel and they attacked the masses of dungeon beasts that were threatening the existence of the Orion Shelter.
Nial, who had been prepared to forcefully expand his darkness domain and kill everyone with hostile intentions toward him, using a terrific attack created with his entire accumulated dark energy after reinforcing it to the limit, stopped in his tracks.
He exerted the Grasp of Eclipse movement technique and appeared behind the shapeless Shadowmancer Dexter before his empty left hand rose to touch the mass of Shadows and Darkness. The Shadowmancer's shapeless body flinched for a moment as Dexter noticed that it was possible for the blind Original to devour him if desired.
Nial could devour the Shadowmancer's body and turn it into his cultivation energy the moment he desired to do so. That was something not even Damian was capable of. Had he been capable, he would have been able to destroy his Devils but it was not possible for him to forcefully devour the energy of his Devils just because they were in possession of the same dark energy.
The God of Darkness was the centerpiece, the source of dark energy, and it was he who should have been able to control the dark energy no matter which vessel the dark energy was hidden in.
However, that was not the case because the dark energy within other beings merged with the entirety of their body. The dark energy fused with them, altering the energy in its essence!
Because of those changes in the energy's essence, it was not possible to deprive the dark energy of the artificially created Devils anymore, or so it was supposed to be.
Yet, Nial's touch clearly showed Shadowmancer Dexter that the blind Original could steal everything from him, turn it into his own dark energy and advance his cultivation progress drastically if he wanted to do it.
But Nial didn't even think about devouring the Shadowmancer. He needed him, and he gave him more energy rather than forcefully snatching it away from him.
Nial circulated more than half of his remaining dark energy through his body. It was controlled carefully and inserted into the shapeless body of the Shadowmancer. For a moment, Nial was able to perceive the true form of the Shadowmancer, or what he presumed to be Dexter's true form, and his expression changed a little.
'Just what is he…?' Nial wondered while continuing to insert more dark energy inside his newest summoned Devil. He continued to absorb the mana in the surrounding area through his darkness domain, where it was converted into dark energy within a few moments. Afterward, Nial could do whatever he wanted with his energy, without anymore hindrances obstructing the circulation and use of his highly potent power.
When the Shadowmancer sensed the vibrant energy of his master surging through his shapeless body, Dexter momentarily lost control of his body. It took him only a second to regain control, and he began to use his master's energy to materialize more Shadow Monsters. In turn, all of them began to fight fiercely against the torrents of dungeon beasts that stormed through the plateau region with the Origin Shelter as its target.
Thousands of Shadow Monsters were materialized in the blink of an eye and it didn't take long for more batches of Shadow Monsters to follow suit as they steadily kept pouring in. The Shadowmancer's powers had been taken away from him before he was sealed in the Everlasting Ice by none other than his first master, the Late God of Darkness, yet it felt almost as if he had never lost control of his powers as Nial's energy surged through him.
It was a great feeling to have been freed from the everlasting Ice and to be able to use some of his powers once again, something he was bound to feel more often in the future as more of his powers would be unsealed by his new master.
Nial didn't know that a big portion of the tremendous amount of energy he had used to empower the Awakening of the Prymal ability had been utilized to reawaken some of the Shadowmancer's powers. This was also the reason why he was already at the Mythician rank when he emerged in front of Nial.
However, it was only possible to use his powers more smoothly immediately after he had been summoned thanks to the additional energy supply he received from his new master. The amount of energy that entered his body consistently was more than enough to materialize over a thousand Shadows every now and then. That was something he would have never been able to do at the Keltia rank. Even at the Mythician rank, it had been hard for the Shadowmancer Dexter to 'resurrect' more than a thousand Undead with every interval he used his powers.
'Is it because these Shadow Monsters are very weak?' Dexter wondered at this moment as he saw that it took dozens of Shadows to take down a huge dungeon beast at the Keltia rank.
Even the beasts at the Deux rank weren't killed easily by the Shadow Monsters. It took a handful of them to tear apart the Deux Beasts that were charging through the plateau region as if that was everything they could do in an attempt to survive.
Nial noticed the unstable mana fluctuations that radiated from nearly every dungeon beast. He felt a little bit dizzy due to the various emotions that entered his body as information via the mana fluctuations they had been intertwined with.
He was trying to control his body but multitasking made it difficult to seal his mind from the influence of the emotion-intertwined mana fluctuations that were naturally perceived by Nial's range of perception and his Mana Sense.
Performing the Vortex of Abyss Cultivation technique to replenish his dark energy before it could even be used up fully and empowering the Shadowmancer at the same time didn't require a lot of his focus. However, he was in need of his fully unleashed range of perception and Mana Sense to use the Vortex of Abyss Cultivation technique within his darkness domain that had spread dozens of kilometers around him.
Thus, Nial ended up coughing up blood the moment he lost his focus for a quarter of a second.
Dexter stared at Nial, just to see that the corners of Nial's lips were curling upward.
'Another insane master…good gracious…'