Kapitel 36: Chapter 36: Smite Me
To read up to 20 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW
---------------
No matter how strong his mind became after his Spirit Awakening, Edward's mind couldn't match the three entities. Even though only a minor part of their power was stored inside this demon's body, they were so much stronger than Edward that it was still too much for him.
However, as Edward's spirit was losing more and more ground, a light suddenly appeared from one of the three entities, Chthon. Before anyone could react, his figure exploded into as another figure took his place.
It was a female human, who looked very sensual and wore revealing clothes. Edward easily recognized her as Morgana.
With one of the entities gone, Edward felt the brunt on his spirit become suddenly lesser, and the contest between him and the two remaining entities got back into a stalemate. However, at that moment, the demon's soul moved once again as it took another bite on Edward's spirit, causing immense pain and a lack of focus for a second, pushing his Royal Will closer to himself once again.
Morgana, who had just appeared in Edward's consciousness, looked at him with a smile as she said "You are quite handsome under that mask."
Edward didn't answer her as he focused on defending, but he felt the situation was getting grimmer and grimmer.
Morgana approached him, ignoring the surrounding entities, and said "You look quite tensed. You don't have to worry though, I am here to help."
Edward finally spared a part of his focus onto her as he looked at her, clearly not believing her. Morgana smiled and said "You thought I was a slave of Chthon because I held his book?"
Edward didn't say anything, but that was exactly what he thought. Nearly all those who got hold of the Darkhold became Chthon's slaves in exchange of his power. Although Circe wasn't one, she was a witch several thousand years old who could fight gods.
Morgana was nothing but a dark witch of Arthurian Legends, so he doubted she could do the same as Circe.
Morgana approached even more Edward, and at the same moment the demon tried to take another bite out of Edward. However, Morgana waved her arm and sent the demon flying.
She then said "When I strengthened this demon with Chthon's power, I hid a part of my power inside him as well, as a countermeasure in case something went wrong."
Edward clenched his fist as he strengthened his Royal Will, pushing it back a little further as he exclaimed "Worked wonderfully!"
Morgana's face turned a little colder as she said "I didn't plan for Knull to associate to the demon. I didn't even know you grew so much stronger, nor that you had a god to help you, so why would I take a risk to make it even stronger when it trounced you all once already?"
Although he didn't want to admit it, she did have a point. He snorted "Talking to you is fun, but I am quite busy as you can see. If you can't help me, please leave."
Morgana smiled and said "But I can help you handsome…" She approached even closer, and suddenly kissed him deeply on the lips.
Edward couldn't even move as she did so, and he suddenly lost focus as his Royal Will nearly crumbled apart. He tried to push her afar with his Royal Will too, but she seemed to be able to ignore it.
She separated from him after a few seconds and licked her lips as she said "Good luck, Edward…"
Under his astonished eyes, she began disappearing as she turned into energy, flowing toward him. And as she did, Edward felt a new source of power fuel him as his Royal Will expanded even more quickly. It crushed the influence of the entities in an instant, and now with no protection left, the demon's soul, who had been rushing at him to eat his soul, was destroyed too.
Everything that was destroyed turned into energy and flowed toward Edward's spirit, strengthening it. But as the entities disappeared, Edward felt several dark voices speak to him. The words were incomprehensible, but Edward didn't need to understand their words to understand the entities he had just fought were cursing and threatening him.
As his mind was being rapidly strengthened as it absorbed the soul energy from all the beings that invaded his mind, Edward thought of what Morgana had just done.
Her magic spell was quite an advanced one that allowed her to place a part of her soul into the demon. Normally, this was used as a countermeasure to instantly destroy the soul it had infiltrated. However, it was rarely used like this as destroying the soul meant destroying that part of the soul too, which would weaken the magician for some time.
Injuries on the soul were quite terrifying, and were much harder to recover from than injuries of the body.
What Morgana had done here had been to sacrifice this part of her soul to strengthen his own, so he would defeat them. Edward wasn't a fool and didn't believe she fell in love with him, so it made him ponder on her behaviour.
According to what he knew of her, this was an unnecessary sacrifice. While the demon was a threat to Earth, as a powerful dark sorceress Morgana could have hidden in another dimension and completely avoided the threat. As such, the more logical choice for her would have been to leave his mind and return to her main body, avoiding an injury of the soul.
Giving part of her soul in sacrifice to Edward's didn't benefit her in the slightest, but saved the lives of a lot of people.
Then, maybe Morgana wasn't as bad as he thought. Allegedly, the origin of the fight between Morgana and Camelot was because Morgana's lover, a knight, had challenged Arthur to a death match and had lost.
Arthur, his knights and Merlin were confidant this wasn't the real reason for her attack though, and thought she only used this as an excuse as she only really sought destruction.
But now, Edward couldn't help but consider the possibility that this wasn't an excuse. Maybe Morgana wasn't so bad, maybe she really was heartbroken. For sure she was mischievous and liked to tease, as seen with how she kissed him unnecessarily, but she didn't seem bad.
Unfortunately, he would have to leave this train of thought for later as he had other things to worry about.
He felt exhaustion like never before, both from his spirit and his body. His Royal Will was supposed to be used as a burst of power, not a continuous attack or shield. Moreover, he poorly mastered it, and the effect on his mind was terrifying to say the least.
However, despite his exhaustion, he couldn't fall asleep, as he knew he wouldn't wake up. He had to stay awake to first tell Thor to attack, and later rebuild his body. He felt another bout of tiredness as he thought of the still humongous task ahead of him, but he ignored it as he forced himself awake.
As he opened his eyes, he saw Thor waiting in front of him, his hammer ready. He wanted to say 'Smite me', but even that he found too strenuous to say, so he simply nodded weakly.
Thor understood the message though as he whirled his hammer, and a bolt of lightning fell from the sky. The lightning reached Edward in an instant, and enveloped his whole body.
All the blood flowing out of his body was burned away as his flesh soon followed. He had just suffered from a most terrible pain of his soul being torn away by the demon's soul, and now his body was going through terrifying pain once again.
However, it wasn't for nothing. As his body was being destroyed, the dark core that had infused into his body and started corroding it was being purified, leaving behind only Chi that helped reform his body.
The lightning bolt disappeared, but his transformation wasn't over, so he said with a terrifying voice "Another."
Thor was starting to feel spooked as he saw the state his friend was in, but he did not hesitate to send another bolt of lightning.
And like this, Edward's body started entering a cycle of destruction and repair, being rebuilt from it's very core. During this process, Edward forced himself to remain awake as if he fell asleep his Chi would stop circulating, after all he couldn't breath in the state he was in, so he had to manipulate his Chi manually to recreate his body.
Actually, he should have died many times as he rebuilt his body, but his evolved mind was potent enough to live in a 'dead' body for a few seconds, enough time for his body to be considered alive once again, before going dead again, and relive.
While he did feel immense pain, Edward could also feel his body getting stronger, and he was feeling as if a void in his body was being filled. He couldn't say for sure what that void was, but everytime he reconstructed his body, that void would fill up a little more.
And now, he was feeling the need to fill that void. The energy from the demon's core had been completely purified with the third bolt of lightning, but he continued asking for bolts because he felt the need to fill the void that appeared in his body.
When the 81st bolt of lightning hit Edward, only his cracked skeleton and some bits of flesh were left of his body, as each bolt of lightning was stronger than the last. For some time now he had lost the ability to speak, and he signed to Thor.
This time though, he didn't. After 81 strikes of lightning, he finally felt the void in his body being filled up.
He looked at the Chi in his body, which came from both his own reserves and the demon's core, and saw that not only had they seamlessly fused together, the previous dark Chi with hints of purple had now turned into a regal purple.
In terms of quantity, there was also much less than before, but Edward knew he didn't lose out as the quality became much better. It seemed all impurities of the mortal world had been cleansed from his body, turning his Chi into it's purest form, regal purple.
A normal person's Chi was a murky yellow, for example his master Dragon. This wasn't because he had a bad lifestyle, but because the older one got, and the fainter their Chi would become. Be it through eating, drinking or breathing, one would always take in impurities, which tainted the Chi.
Because he had become a Chi Master very young, much younger than anyone else before, Edward's Chi was still quite dark in color, and in a few years would turn yellow.
Thanks to this rebirth he had just experienced, all traces of impurities had been cleansed from his body, allowing it to reach it's peak.
And it was with this purest Chi that Edward rebuilt his entire body. A Pure Body. Despite not breaking through the limit, he felt his body once again became stronger, and by a lot.
Finally, as Edward's body was entirely reconstructed, he felt the stupendous changes he went through. His body easily became twice as strong as before, his Chi ten times as efficient, and his will had been strengthened by a great deal too.
There was also his Spirit Energy, or Spiritual Energy, which had reached the limit after absorbing the demon's soul, as well as Morgana's and the three entities' power. The bits eaten by the demon's soul had already been healed.
And unlike last time, Edward wasn't blocked by his limit, as he had an idea on how to get past the barrier, and he would do it now.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein