[You have killed a general level veiled guard]

[You have gained 1/100 fragments of the veiled legionary emblem]

Looking at the notification I quickly dismissed it, there was no way that I was going to be able to hunt another 99 of these, the 1000 regular veiled guards though, that should have been done already, just by the sight of how many I had decimated at the start of the battle it should have been more than 200, more than enough to fulfill the condition.

To confirm this I went back to my notification looking at the last one before I had killed the general level veiled guard.

[congratulations on gathering 1000 fragments of the veil.]

[the fragments of the veil are reacting to each other]

[the fragments of the veil are reacting to your combat]

[the fragments of the veil have determined the best form to take]

[the fragments have fused into the veiled dagger]

After I had read the last notification a purple light appeared before slowly descending into my open hands.

Soon after the light had receded, revealing an ornate dagger.

Holding it by the handle I could feel how it was perfectly weighted, the decorations not detracting from that even though they were placed at odd angles the decorations on the handle just added onto the balance of it. The most striking detail of the dagger though was the blades color a pure black, darker than anything I had ever seen, even darker than the oppressive darkness that came from being blind.

Glancing at the blade once more it was like it was less a color and more a hole in reality. It was intoxicating to look at, the darkness giving way to different levels of darkness like it was trying to tell me something.

Raising the dagger into the air I wanted to try its sharpness, to do so I slashed the dagger around in a quick pattern. What I saw was mystifying, not only was it sharp enough to cut the air but it left a trail of nothingness where it seemed like reality was taken away. I dared not touch these holes in reality as my instincts were telling me I would lose my hand if I touched them.

However I wanted to test its sharpness in another way, it was one thing to cut the air but how would the blade hold up against actually cutting something, would the blade come out undamaged or would the edge be chipped.

To test this I walked over to the nearest tree and with the least amount of force that I could muster, I slashed at the tree.

The gash that appeared on the tree was quickly consumed by a trail of nothingness that devoured the immediate area around the tree. I slashed another time to see what would happen and this time the whole tree was consumed by the nothingness generated by the dagger.

~satisfaction~

~sated~

It was then that I noticed an emotion appear from nowhere, a deep sense of satisfaction and bloatedness.

I looked around but saw nothing but the ashes of the veiled guards and myself. Looking down to my hand I finally noticed the source of the emotions.

I looked at the dagger and focusing hard I could see a nascent soul forming in the blade.

'It's sentient' I thought to myself.

I hadn't noticed until now that the dagger had a soul, it must have been so small that my soul sight wasn't able to see it with a cursory glance.

I shook my head, trying to get the thoughts out of my head, the most important thing right now was coordinating with Gabriel and Naomi so that I could have them find me after I returned then coming back to Darwin.

With my objectives set I set out.

..

The trip was silent, no veiled guards bothered me and I did not bother them, my objective had been completed there was no reason for me to actively hunt them anymore. Even then it seemed like they were avoiding me, the ones that I saw actively left the area when I drew near to them. There were even some that I wasn't even in the vicinity of that relocated to another place.

It was most likely either the dagger in my hand that seemed almost hungry for more food after the time that I had spent walking or they had finally felt fear after I had killed their general.

I would have tested my hypothesis if I didn't want to get back to Darwin so much.

With those thoughts in mind I finally reached the area that I had left Gabriel and Naomi in.

When I reached the place that I had dropped Gabriel off, the tree stump, I found Gabriel and Naomi both resting in the same tree that I had left them on. Both were awake though, I could tell from their souls both were alert. It wasn't just that, the subtle twitch of their limbs, the uneven breathing it all signaled that they were not asleep but in some meditative state.

"I'm back"

historical

Their eyes twitched as they woke up from the half awareness they were in.

"I'm going to send you some coordinates message me when you get there, I'll be waiting"

With that I open a direct message to both of them and send the coordinates of my abandoned territory.I was not going to give them the coordinates of Darwin's territory, not until they submit to his will becoming his subordinates.

I didn't bother letting them respond and instantly after activated the gateways ability, allowing me to leave Pandora's Realm wherever I wanted to.

..

With a flash of light I disappeared from Pandora's realm. Appearing right outside of the gateway that I had initially entered.

Instantly I could see the changes to the territory, most striking among them was the giant tree that sat where the house used to be.

However that wasn't the biggest change, I could feel it in the air, the massive amount of nature aligned aether floating around the giant tree that had sprung up while I was gone.