98 Chapter 98: Black Hole

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"Muramasa-san?"

The blacksmith turned his head away from his dead tormentor, and got a look of his saviours. Both were obviously Caucasian, one was a black haired woman dressed in a rather strange armor, that did not cover as much skin as it should.

As for the other, Muramasa couldn't actually see his face, but he could recognize the most famous hero in the world, and knew he was American. He wasn't much impressed by the hero himself, Muramasa was nearly immortal thanks to his demonic lineage, and had seen many outstanding people in his time.

Still, he was thankful for being saved, so he asked respectfully, "It is me, but do we know each other?"

"We don't, but I heard of your work, as well as your condition. I came here with a request."

As Edward explained the reason for his visit, Muramasa immediately assumed he was here for the same reason as all the others, "You want a blade forged? You saved my life, I can do that for you." He was grateful for having been saved, and he esteemed his life to be worth a blade.

However, Edward shook his head and said, "Actually, I would like to learn about your technique. I heard your forging technique is quite unique, and results in great blades."

Muramasa froze for a moment, before repeating, "You want to learn my technique?"

"Yes, infusing a part of the user's soul to give the weapon a stronger spirit is genius. Actually, I read about this before… If I'm not wrong, you somehow learned this from Merlin, be it in person or through a book."

Muramasa stared at Edward in wonder, wondering how he knew that, and after a few seconds sighed in defeat as he replied, "I have tried passing down my skill to apprentices before, but since you know about the technique, you should also know it is impossible for humans to learn. One needs Blood Magic for it to work, Demon Blood at that, and there are very few of us."

Edward nodded, he had seen early sketches of a similar technique from Merlin, but apparently he had given up because he did not like the lack of versatility. Muramasa had somehow picked up the technique and finished creating it, but it seemed he hadn't managed to perfect the technique so anyone could use it.

"This is not a problem for me."

Muramasa doubted, "I don't feel any demon blood from you."

"Don't worry, I have my own ways." Edward assured.

His magic was unique to him, and he deemed it the most powerful kind of magic, Origin Magic.

The different paths of magic, the different schools, all used magic in different ways, through different mediums that gave a function to their magic.

Sorcerers formed contracts, Magicians their Mana, Blood Magicians their magic…

But no matter what the path, they all used watered down versions of the fragments of creation, ones that were suited to the specific energy they used.

Edward didn't know how those watered down versions of the fragments of creation ever came to be, or when, but he did not use them, for none were suited to him.

What he used, were the pure, original fragments of creation, in their full power. This made their impact on him much stronger, but it also made all his spells stronger. Moreover, it gave him the ability to copy the spells of any of the paths, were he to chose so.

Although doubtful, Muramasa owed him his life, so if his benefactor wanted his technique, then it didn't matter to him whether he would learn it or not. Actually, it would even be a good thing for him, he always wanted to pass down his teachings.

Muramasa slightly patted his bosom, before looking down in confusion, and exclaimed, "Right, the beast took my notebook… Would you mind helping me search for it?"

Edward raised an eyebrow, and focused harder on his Chi Sense. After a few seconds of concentration, he found something that had quite some of Muramasa's aura, so with a jolt of his arm he levitated it toward him.

A few seconds later, a notebook came flying in, and Muramasa looked at it in surprise. He received it, and looked a little conflicted before he handed it over to Edward.

Edward shook his head though, and replied, "It's fine, I already memorized everything inside."

The demonic blacksmith gasped, while Diana smiled wryly on the side. Edward's powers really got more and more absurd as they increased.

Muramasa was given shock after shock, but he rather quickly calmed himself thanks to his hundreds of years of experience, and said, "What do you intend to do with the members of the Hand?"

Edward slashed the space in front of him with his hand, opening a portal, as he replied, "No need to worry."

Muramasa was curious as to what he meant by that, and although he would prefer if the members of the Hand were killed so they would stop coming after him, Serenity had already saved his life and he couldn't really ask more, especially if it was something that went against his morals.

Walking through the portal, Muramasa found himself in the middle of Shibuya, and as he turned around to ask why they came here, he found the portal to have disappeared.

After sending Muramasa away, Edward opened another portal that lead home. Diana, not to be fooled like Muramasa, asked, "What are you doing?"

Edward smiled and replied, "Don't worry, I'm following you. I'll be leaving a spell here, to destroy this space and the salon outside, which will take it out of the Mirror Dimension."

"What spell?"

Edward extended his hand, and a dark purple ball appeared above his palm. As he let it go, it floated toward the center of the dimension, the throne, and Diana felt a suction force coming from the ball.

"Ever heard of a black hole?"

Diana looked at Edward with wide eyes, so he laughed, "Come on, let's go home."

Diana sent a look at the dark purple ball, which was growing in size and suction force every second, before entering the portal.

As Edward walked through the portal too, he pumped some more magic into the miniature black hole, allowing it to instantly grow in size.

As Edward arrived home and the portal closed, the miniature black hole grew in size quickly as everything within the dimension was consumed.

In the massage salon, at the impasse where the pocket dimension was located, the runes abruptedly disappeared as the miniature black hole appeared from there.

It had grown quite considerably, and it immediately absorbed the entirety of the massage salon, as well as every member of the Hand hiding inside, sending it out of the Mirror Dimension as it did so.

However, it did not grow anymore in size, and instead quickly fizzled out, and disappeared before it could do anymore damage, leaving a large hole in the middle of Tokyo.

Back in New York, where it was still the morning, Diana asked as soon as he appeared, "You can create black holes? What about Tokyo then?!"

Donna, who was playing on the X-box in their absence, looked at Edward in surprise too. Edward merely laughed though and said, "Of course I can't, and don't worry, Tokyo is fine. My spell only has similar effects to a black hole, but isn't really one."

"But you can still throw a small black hole at any of your enemies. Where do they even end up?" It was Donna who asked, wondering at the same time how cool it would be if she could throw black holes in the game she was playing.

Edward shook his head though, "My spell essentially gathers Void Energy, which will devour the surrounding space. Anything that enters it will be shredded to mere atoms, which will be then sent to the edges of the universe. The Void surrounds our universe, and our universe is ever expanding because of it.

"The Void devours everything, and sends it to the different universes to grow them. The only things it doesn't devour are the things it created, ergo the edges of our universe. So anything eaten by my spell will help our universe grow a little bigger in size."

"So you can throw black holes whenever you want."

Edward sighed at Diana's statement, "No, I can't. The Void energy I can harness is not enough to affect our universe. For the spell to work, it attacks the weaknesses of the surrounding space, and the bigger it is, the harder it is to affect. I can make a black hole in a small dimension, but our universe is way too big, there's no chance here. Not with the current spell anyway."

Diana asked, "What about the sealing runes? I thought you couldn't use magic."

"The Beast was the channeller of those runes, meaning they lost their power with his death. Any more questions, because I would like to work."

Diana sighed and shook her head, making Edward smile as he quickly kissed her and ruffled Donna's hair before opening a portal.

Walking through the portal, Edward saw Peter, who was leaning against a workbench, his back turned toward him.

"Hey kid." Edward greeted, but Peter did not show any reaction, he seemed lost in thoughts. Edward approached him from behind and patted his shoulder, making Peter jump on the spot, sending a jab at Edward's face.

Edward slightly tiled his head, easily dodging the teen's attack, and asked with a raised eyebrow, "You got your lunch stolen at school or something?"

Peter wanted to apologize, and after a second sighed, "Actually, yes. Sorry about that, I didn't hear you coming."

"Something you wanted to talk to me about?" Edward could feel strong emotions from Peter, he obviously had something on his mind.

Peter shook his head though and looked away, "It's nothing, really." Peter looked back at Edward, and saw he wasn't having it, so he quickly changed the subject as he said, "You feel stronger. That was a heavy pat."

Edward shrugged and replied, "Yeah, I went through some changes. I'll tell you later, I don't want you to suffer from a heart attack because of overexcitement."

Peter gave him a curious look, which he proceeded to ignore as a vial filled with a thick purple liquid floated toward one of their machines.

Peter looked at the vial, and wasn't really surprised by the fact it was floating, but sighed, "Is there really no way for me to learn this?"

Peter was a kid, and a fan of Star Wars at that, so obviously telekinesis, which resembled the Force the most, had a great appeal to him.

Unfortunately, Edward destroyed his hopes before they could take root.

"This is a power impossible to be mastered by mutates, and probably mutants. Only a human who has not been tempered with can learn this."

Peter looked away in disappointment, but still asked with a sliver of hope, "Aren't you teaching the Invisible Girl? She is no ordinary humans."

Edward sighed, stopping what he was doing for a moment to turn toward Peter, and explained, "Cultivation is split in several realms, the first of which is the Body Strengthening Realm. Then, it is the Spirit Awakening Realm.

"Anyone can cultivate the Body Strengthening Realm without a problem as it relies more on the Chi inside the body than anything else. However, for the Spirit Awakening Realm, one needs to draw much more resources from the outside world, something mutates and mutants can't assimilate well in their bodies."

Edward explained to Peter as best as he could, but felt a little sad seeing his disappointed face, so after a few seconds of hesitation, he added, "If I become stronger, and learn more about the human body, I may be able to find a solution, but…"

"YAY!" Peter didn't wait for his answer as he cried out in excitement.

Edward rolled his eyes and continued, "But I can't make any promises. Also, I would like for you to tell me what it is that is bothering you, I don't need a distracted assistant."

Peter opened his mouth, before closing it, and opening it again. He took a few a seconds to think about what to say, before sighing. Edward remarked Peter sighed an awful lot for his age.