35 Chapter 35: Worthy

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The pain Edward was feeling throughout his body was terrible, even with his Chi trying to heal him, but as he felt the weakening vitality of Thor, he forced his body to crawl toward the young dying god.

Thor was laying on his back, blood leaving his body quickly. As it turned out, gods' blood was as red as a human, at least for Asgardians.

As he arrived next to Thor, Edward slumped to the ground and said "You fought well today, Thor."

Thor's voice sounded weaker than usual as he replied "It was a great battle, worthy to die from. Are you coming to Valhalla with me?"

Edward closed his eyes, silently inspecting his body, before replying "I might have overestimated my healing factor too… Well, is Valhalla fun?"

Thor laughed weakly and replied "An eternal party… but for the Valkyries to come for our souls, we must die weapons in hand."

Edward looked around for his sword, and saw it a few tens of meters away. Although his spiritual energy was pretty much spent, and he was unable to use telekinesis for the moment, one of the Ebony Blade's power was to fly back to it's user's hand at will, which it did.

Sword in hand, Edward looked at Thor and said "Where is your axe?" Thor replied "Don't know… but I can do that too."

Thor slowly lifted his hand, until it faced the sky. However, nothing seemed to happen. But Edward heard Thor mumble "How did you get so far Jarnbjorn…"

As he uttered these words, the familiar glow of the Bifrost suddenly enveloped him, shocking Edward, as he didn't expect that. The glow remained for a few seconds, and Edward expected Thor to have left by the time it disappeared, but instead he saw a much more astonishing scene.

Thor, back on his feet, a brand new armor on, with a red cape in his back and a winged helmet. He also had a hammer in hand, and the sky had turned murky. But more importantly, all his injuries had magically disappeared, and he was back in top form.

Thor laughed loudly as he said "So that was what you were waiting for, Mjollnir!" Thor swung his hammer, Mjollnir, around as he conjured multiple lightning bolts, each stronger than any he used before, and they stroke the earth repeatedly.

Thor wasn't just playing though, as Edward saw the black miasma left by the demon rapidly disappearing, cleansing the land. And it was also only now that Edward noticed that some of the corpses had risen from the ground, revived through the dark miasma, turning into the demon's puppets. However, they too were obliterated by the powerful lightning.

The fully healed Thor approached Edward with a still sombre face. Edward clicked his tongue under his mask and said "That's cheating."

Thor looked at Mjollnir and said "If only I became worthy to wield it before this battle…"

Edward coughed and said "Well, I don't really want to go either… Would you mind bringing what remains of the demon's core back to me?"

Thor looked confused, but did as he was told. The core of the demon hadn't been cleanly cut in two by the sword, but instead was broken in several fragments, as it had burst apart.

Thor brought them to Edward, putting them down next to him.

Then, Edward slowly moved his arm, and grabbed one of the smaller fragments, before closing his eyes. However, after a few seconds, a sigh escaped his lips as he opened his eyes.

He looked at the fragments of the core with some hesitation before he asked Thor "If the demon were to return, how confidant would you be of taking it on alone?"

Thor showed his hammer to Edward and said "100%. No bragging." Edward weakly nodded, and began piecing the fragments together while he said "This was the core of the demon, and held it's soul. At least, that's what I first thought…"

With a more serious face, he continued "I'm not sure of how it did it, but it somehow managed to gather it's Chi into this core, and even started fusing it's soul with it."

Thor looked as oblivious as before, so Edward added "This means the demon isn't really dead, only incapacitated by it's fragmented soul. If the fragments are gathered back, then the demon may be resurrected."

Thor's head only tilted harder at the explanation though as he asked "So… why are you reassembling the pieces? To offer me a rematch?"

Edward rolled his eyes and replied "Although it will be revived, it's body was obliterated, and creating a new body would take a very, very long time, if it is even able to do so. That's why, it will try to possess a body. It is easier to strengthen and modify an already existing body than creating another."

Thor pointed his hammer at the core fragments and asked "But I still don't get why this is a good thing."

Edward smiled and replied "To possess my body, as it's soul is within the core, the core will have to enter my body and fuse with it. Then, ownership of my body will be fought between me and the demon. And as you have already witnessed, my spirit is much stronger than other people, so maybe that if I overwhelm the demon's soul the power of the core will allow me to heal my body."

A smile finally appeared on Thor's face as he said "That's great! And to think you were ready to die with me, I am touched."

Edward shook his head and said "Dying isn't in my plans, the reason I didn't mention this earlier is that if I lose in the battle against the demon's soul, then it will take over my body, and somehow also manages to keep it's magic resistance, then no one would be able to stop it. It's only now that you have recovered that I am confidant enough to do this."

Thor scratched his head and said "I see… Is there anything I can do to help?" Edward almost chocked when he saw the sadness on Thor's face because he wouldn't willingly die with him, but he quickly replied "No, thank you. It is a battle of the mind…"

But his words quickly halted though as he asked "Wait, I remember legends saying lightning is the enemy of evil and darkness… Is your lightning capable of purifying too?"

Thor grinned with a proud smile as he replied "Exterminating evil is a hobby of mine! What do I need to do?!"

Edward looked at the pieces of the demon's core in his hands, of which only one piece was missing, and said "I need you to smite me with lightning when I tell you to."

Thor asked "Why not do it now, while it's only fragments?" Edward shook his head and said "I don't know how to fuse it into my body, and I need the demon to take the initiative. Once it is in my body, we will fight mentally, and whoever wins will have to deal with the huge amount of dark energy from the core."

"The demon will certainly use it to reform my body if he wins, and if I do win then I will tell you to smite me, so that your lightning may purify the dark energy. Don't worry, just do as I say."

Thor frowned, and asked "What if it isn't you who wakes up?"

Edward shook his head and said "Destroy this body." Thor felt shaken at Edward's disinterest into his own life, talking about life and death as if they were common things he dealt with everyday.

The young god wasn't given any more time to think about this though as Edward put the last piece alongside all the others, and the fragments began shining with a dark light.

In an instant, they took back the form of a core, although smaller than it used to be, and smashed into Edward's chest. He did not feel a heavy impact though, as when it touched him it began dissolving, trying to enter his body.

The Armor of the Ancient did a great job at blocking it, but Edward opened a small hole in his armor as to let the now liquid core enter his body.

As it touched his skin the liquid was absorbed, and Edward began feeling some pain. The dark energy wasn't compatible with his body, and was corroding it. His Chi tried to purify it, but this core was of a much higher quality than the dark miasma from earlier, hence his Chi could do nothing to purify this energy.

But Edward didn't have time to worry about this as he felt the familiar sensation of his mind being invaded.

However, as he felt the faint pressure on his mind, Edward felt surprised. Not at it's strength, but it's lack of.

The demon's soul tried gnawing at Edward's spirit, to devour him, but Edward found defending himself so simple, as if it was only an ant trying to threaten him.

Things revealed themselves to be more dangerous than he thought though, when he tried to destroy it. His method was simple, a burst of his spirit, of his Royal Will.

But as his Royal Will came in contact with the demon's soul, and it started crumbling down, three auras appeared behind it. A burst of power erupted from them, clashing against his Royal Will as it pushed it back.

Edward metaphorically gritted his teeth as he kept his Royal Will on, and quickly entered a stalemate with the three new powers.

While Edward and the three powers were fighting, the demon's soul found itself free from Edward's influence, and cautiously approached his spirit. Seeing there were no dangers even as he practically touched it, a large grin appeared on it's face as it bite him.

Edward could do nothing but watch as a small part of his spirit was suddenly eaten by the demon, and felt indescribable pain at the loss. The pain was so strong his Royal Will was even weakened somewhat, allowing the three powers to push forward.

As for the demon's soul, it became a size bigger as it absorbed the part of Edward's spirit, but also found itself unable to move for a moment.

In this short moment of peace, Edward focused his attention on the powers, the three entities. The first one, in the left, Edward easily recognized as Dormammu. Humanoid in appearance, except for it's face that seemed to be made of a flame.

He couldn't see them perfectly, but he could see their outline and a faint hint of color among the darkness, so he was pretty sure of his guess.

Another looked like he came from one of Lovecraft's novels, and particularly looked like the most famous of Lovecraft's Outer Gods, the infamous Cthulhu. It's face looked like an octopus, but it had a torso below it, as well as limbs, although they all looked rather rather lanky.

Considering Morgana had the Darkhold and used it's powers on the demon, he guessed this was Chthon, an Elder God. He was the one who wrote the Darkhold, which is said to hold his power.

And finally, the one in the middle… He looked the most human, dressed in a heavy armor and long pale hair. The most distinctive thing about him though would be his giant dark red sword.

There were many powerful entities in the void, but the demon could only accept similar sources of power, so it had to be a monster related to darkness.

Most Sorcerers with only partial understanding of the cosmos would only know Chthon for his Chaos Magic, it was his most well known and the one it used the most as it was one of the most powerful kinds of energies in the Universe.

However, it was also extremely proficient in Dark Magic, which was how it bounded to the demon.

So, considering it had to be an entity related to darkness, Edward quickly guessed the identity of the last entity… Knull, another God of Darkness.

That meant he was fighting against an Elder God of Chaos and Darkness, a God who conquered and fused with an entire Universe of Darkness, and an Eldritch God of Darkness said to be one of the oldest things in the Universe.

Great.