105 Chapter 105: Zelia's Godhood

To read up to 20 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

-------------

Zelia's mind was a dark place, the dark flames protecting her body were also protecting her mind. As a Spirit, Edward couldn't use his Core to absorb the flames, but they didn't stop him as they were frozen by his Freezing Crystal.

Once in her mind, Edward quickly located Zelia's spirit, which was bigger than his. However, it was not really stronger, it was weaker in fact. However, there was something within it, a source of power that made her what she was.

Godhood.

Edward had believed for some time that gods were nothing more than stronger lifeforms, while that was partly true, Gods also had something special, and that was Godhood. Their Divinity.

Thor could manipulate Thor because of his Thunder Divinity, that gave him control over the lightning power of the world. In other words, Divinity was a more advanced form of a Concept.

Zelia, as the Skymother of the Dark Gods, possessed a strong Divinity, which she controlled nearly completely. Control was one of the main components of a God's strength.

Unlike Edward who struggled to understand his Concepts, Gods were born with them, giving them a basic amount of power at base. However, they would have to understand their Divinity better to control more of it's power.

Because they already possessed a complete Divinity, Gods had an easier time understanding it, but it was still a feat only achieved by some. Thor did not completely control his Divinity, and neither did Zelia. Even Hades, one of the top three of the Greek Pantheon, did not.

So for Zelia to have almost complete control over her Divinity, it showed her great strength. Unfortunately for her, she had met the wrong opponent.

As Edward approached Zelia's spirit, her Divinity shone a little brighter as the dark flames around them intensified, surrounding Edward. In response, the Freeing Crystal merged into his spirit let out several wisps of Yin Chi, freezing the dark flames.

Then, they approached Zelia's spirit, who panicked. But even as her spirit began freezing, she could not say anything as Zelia had never seen the point of cultivating her spirit. She was no magician.

The Skymother's spirit was frozen, and despite her Divinity's best attempts at struggling, her frozen spirit was quickly being eaten by Edward's Spirit through the Freezing Crystal.

With the Skymother's waning Spirit, the black flames around him and the Divinity were getting weaker, and by the time her spirit was completely absorbed, the flames had disappeared and only a faint lustre came from the Divinity.

At death's door, a voice finally emerged from the Divinity, wrathful, "I will kill…"

Before she could even finish her sentence, a burst of Royal Will was emitted from Edward's spirit, which finally crushed into pieces what remained of her Spirit. Those pieces were quickly absorbed by his Freezing Crystal, strengthening his mind, leaving behind a broken Divinity.

Normally, when a God died their Divinity would be destroyed with them, to be rebuilt in another later. As such, there wouldn't be two identical gods in a same pantheon.

However, with the death of the majority of the gods of the Dark Pantheon, and the fact Zelia was it's Skymother, the Divinity somehow knew there wouldn't be any chance to be rebuilt, and fought to remain alive.

Now that Zelia's soul had been absorbed by him, her body had turned into an empty shell, so Edward had no reason to stay here.

Zelia's dead Divinity was brought over to Edward's spirit as he left with it. For those outside, Edward had been standing still with Zelia for barely a few seconds before something flashed out of the Dark Goddess' body, entering Edward, but they could barely perceive it.

Back in his body, Edward analysed the Divinity for a second, before releasing a sigh. As expected, because Zelia died, her Divinity also lost all of it's power. However, it wasn't useless to him, as he could feel the Concept of Fire inside was quite strong.

Still, he crushed the Divinity to ashes without hesitation as he did not want or need this. In the past, he had refused to use science or magic to enhance his body beyond it's limits despite being able to do so out of sheer pride.

In the end, it turned out well as he discovered mutants and mutates had a much harder time cultivating, but the reason still was his pride.

For this Divinity though, and any he would get in the future, he wasn't going to refuse their power from pride, but because he felt this would hinder his path this time.

The Divinities were, as he discovered earlier, essentially stronger versions of Concepts. They were Concepts that had evolved to the point of creating something substantial, it was no longer a simple understanding of the world.

But Zelia's Divinity, and probably every other gods', veered too much toward a certain path.

If Edward were to use them to boost his speed of understanding his Concepts, then the Concepts he understood would be flawed, and so would his Divinity be later on.

Edward had strived to create a perfect foundation for himself as he cultivated, and he intended to keep this up as he continued growing stronger.

The young man then turned to look at what remained of Zelia, her body, and asked to the Asgardians, "Do you have any use for her body? A trophy or something?"

Loki was the first to reply with a grin, "Give me her fingernails then, three should do."

After the God of Mischief, Thor laughed and said, "Give me a femur then."

Balder then shook his head, showing he didn't want any of her body parts, and Tyr refused too.

After removing the parts Loki and Thor wanted for themselves, Edward stored Zelia's body in a Pokeball, signing an end to the war they had been waging in Muspelheim.

Before leaving though, Edward took a look at the sealing runes Zelia had been trying to destroy, and warned the Asgardians, "Although Zelia failed to deliver Surtur from his shackles, she managed to loosen them. If nothing is done, then Surtur will be able to free himself in the future."

Tyr frowned at that, and nodded, "We should go report back to the All-Father."

Everyone nodded at that, and Edward opened a portal to Asgard. With three of Asgard's princes, they didn't need to wait for a long time before Odin had them enter.

After reporting the rough events of the war as well as it's results, Odin remained silent for a moment, thinking about the whole situation, before saying, "While Surtur's seal has been weakened, his seal has always been linked to Ymir's, so as long as Ymir's seal remains intact, Surtur shall not be able to free himself. Zelia was foolish to think she could forcefully overcome the seals put in place by me and my brothers so many years ago."

Then, his remaining eye trailed to Edward as he continued, "Edward Bell, you stood by your promise and have been a great help to the war. I would reward you, but I believe you already took your trophy yourself."

Edward only grinned at that, not feeling any shame at his actions. Odin, seeing this, didn't say much more and looked at Diana, and asked, "Daughter of Zeus, I must thank you for your help too. Do you have any prize in mind?"

Diana respectfully bowed and asked, "For the great king who sacrificed his eye to Mimir's Well for knowledge, information would be the best reward."

This made Odin smile a little, not because of the flattery of course, he was used to flattery after several centuries of it, but instead because of her decision. With his nod, Diana asked, "A mortal friend of mine was attacked by Circe and forcefully turned into a…"

Diana proceeded to tell Odin about Barbara's story. After Edward freed her from her cheetah-human hybrid form, she had shown signs of insanity and disappeared.

Odin asked, "So you are asking why she turned mad, and where she is?"

Diana visually cringed at the word mad, she didn't like her friend being called as such, but she only wordlessly nodded.

Odin replied, "For some time now, Urzkartaga, a powerful plant god, has been restless in Midgard, in Africa. He's had a history of turning female humans into powerful hybrids to reward their faith. If he found one as thirsty for power as your friend, then it would explain why he reacted the way he did."

"So I must find this Urzkartaga? I will need to make some research…" Diana trailed off as she thought about ways to save her friend. Edward nodded in thanks to Odin, who nodded back and tapped the butt of his spear onto the ground, opening a portal.

Pointing at it, Odin continued, "This will lead you to King Eitri, I can't promise you he will teach you, but I can advise you to be honest with him."

Edward nodded in thanks, and turned to look at Diana, who smiled and said, "Go without me, I need to find Barbara."

Edward took her hand, lightly caressing it as he said, "Do you want me to come?"

Diana smiled and shook her head, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Go to the dwarves, and Hephaestus. I will warn Diana on the way."

Edward continued caressing her hand for a few more seconds before letting go, and walked toward the portal.

But before he could enter, to his surprise not Thor, but Loki approached him. Faced with Edward's inquiring look, Loki waved his hands harmlessly, "I took Zelia's nails to make daggers for myself, so of course I need to go see the dwarves."

Edward could feel that Loki's manners had changed around him. When they first made, he made sure to point out the difference between their power and mortality, but now that he had grown roughly to his level of power, Loki did not show any of his earlier arrogance.

Instead, in the week in Muspelheim, the two had worked together a couple of times, both of which went well. The reason was rather simple too.

Loki was disliked by many for his tricks and pranks, he was the God of Mischief for a reason. However, for most he relies on his illusion magic to do those tricks, but that didn't work on Edward as his Chi Sense wasn't fooled by Loki's illusions.

After understanding pranking Edward was impossible, Loki had simply stopped trying, and became civilized. Of course, only he knew whether he had really stopped his attempts or if he was trying to find a way to go past Edward's Chi Sense.

But to go to Nidavellir, Edward didn't see any problem with Loki following him so he nodded and walked through the portal.

As soon as he arrived in Nidavellir, Edward felt a rich density of Yang Chi around, not as great as in Muspelheim, but it shoved in second place in all the places Edward ever went to.

Unfortunately, he couldn't determine the source of the Yang Chi as he appeared within a rather simple room, within a bigger fortress like structure.

Through his Chi Sense, Edward felt several forges, with beings of rather strong power working in them. The strongest of them all, which Edward assumed was their King Eitri, was standing in the very same room they appeared in, and was looking at them, a hammer in hand.

Oh, and he was a giant.