Chapter 32: Rebel

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Edward felt an exhilarating feeling as he released his spirit and will onto the world. He hurriedly performed a martial greeting as he slightly bowed at Odin and said "Thank you for your help."

Edward was convinced Odin had done this to help him, but he didn't realize the God King hadn't meant to help him and was merely testing him.

Odin felt weird being thanked after suppressing him down, especially considering Edward had pushed him out on his own. Shameful as he had grown to be though, he slowly nodded under the teasing gaze of his wife, and said "You have proved yourself worthy enough to stand in Asgard."

As he said that, he knocked the butt of his spear against the ground, and a ripple seemed to spread out from under his spear.

As it passed the fainted soldiers, they quickly got back on their feet as they looked around in confusion.

Quickly, they remembered what happened and all looked at Edward with apprehension. This man had knocked them all out in an instant, what could they do if he and their king were to fight?

The soldiers clearly misjudged Edward's power because of what happened earlier, thinking he was a being around Odin's level of power.

Odin continued looking at Edward for a few seconds before he said "You can leave."

Edward, Thor and Loki all bowed before walking away. The soldiers followed Edward with their eyes, despite the fear they felt facing him, they still wouldn't hesitate to attack if he did anything.

As they reached the gates of the great hall, Edward looked at Loki and asked "Why exactly are you following us? Is the mortal man so interesting all of a sudden?"

Loki smiled and replied "Oh yes you are, much more fun than you could even comprehend. Tell, what year do you come from?"

Edward raised an eyebrow, and replied after a second of silence "Beginning of the 21st Century, in 2010. Why, you want to come mess with me in the future?"

Thor frowned and said "Loki…"

Loki laughed and said "What image do you have of me? Of course not, I am merely curious, that's it."

Edward looked at Loki a little suspicious, but he kept quiet. He wasn't scared of Loki really coming to mess with him, as a Sorcerer he understood gods were nothing but higher beings, which meant they could be punched.

Soon, the three of them arrived in another grand hall, where several rows of enormous long tables stood. Numerous Asgardians were surrounding those tables filled with ale and meat, but they all were waiting.

As they arrived in the room, all the eyes in the room focused on them, which made Thor grin as he raised his fist and yelled mightily "TODAY WE FEAST!!"

His cry was met by a consensus of cheers as they began enjoying themselves.

Thor looked at Edward and said "Come, I will present you to my friends." Edward nodded and followed him, while Loki somehow disappeared.

Then, for a week, Edward got to enjoy the hospitality of Asgard. And just as he had thought, it wasn't an all perfect palace of gods, they were very much like humans in many aspects.

He had fun with them, although he unfortunately couldn't get drunk because of his ADC that repeatedly cleansed his body. Speaking of which, he was pretty sure he also cleansed a laxative or two, probably courtesy of Loki trying to mess with him.

Unfortunately, all things have to end, and after a crazy week of partying, it was time to come back to Earth, or as they call it here, Midgard.

In front of Camelot was Arthur, his knights and his army, as well as Merlin and Zatanna, whom all gathered, ready to march onto Morgana's castle. The group of vikings led by Leif the Lucky stood next to them too, and they all were waiting for the same thing.

On cue, a giant beam of multicoloured light fell down from the sky, before quickly disappearing, revealing the figure of two people. They were of course Thor and Edward, coming down from Asgard using the Bifrost.

The two each approached their group of people, and Merlin almost looked disappointed as he asked "Didn't you party with the Asgardians?"

Edward grinned and replied "I have been feasting with them for the past week, they didn't even let me sleep a single minute. It was fun though."

Arthur opened his mouth wide as he asked "You didn't sleep for a week?! You can't go fight like this!"

Edward shook his head and said "No worries, I do not need as much sleep as other people, and Asgardian beverages are made to keep you awake."

Merlin smirked and asked "Asgardian parties are said to be the craziest ones, but they usually keep it among themselves. Tell me, how was it?"

Edward flashed a smile and replied "Drink, eat, fight, repeat that cycle for a week and that's basically it."

Merlin raised an eyebrow and asked "No sex?" Edward shook his head and replied "Not for me, I am already taken."

Merlin was about to add something, but Arthur cleared his throat and said "As interesting this conversation is, we have something to do."

The two stopped talking, and Arthur called for the troops to march. Much to Edward's surprise, the vikings followed his command without hesitation, it seemed the influence Excalibur had on normal men was strong.

As the army then marched towards Morgana's castle, the knights of the round table asked a lot of questions to Edward. After all, he had feasted with the gods, even if they were pagan gods, it was still something so incredible they had to ask.

While he replied to their questions, Edward's mind was elsewhere, to what had happened to him when he confronted Odin.

His Chi had already reached the limit of the Spirit Awakening Realm, thanks to his ADC, but his spirit had been lagging behind as he didn't even know how he was supposed to train it.

However, Odin's pressure had allowed his spirit to advance tremendously, albeit it unfortunately didn't reach the peak, it had also set a path for his future growth.

Now, not only was his mind much stronger, meaning any intellectual task had become much easier, his telekinesis had also become even stronger, he could also split his mind to think of two things at once, and perhaps most importantly, he now understood how to release the black and white dome, which he decided to call Royal Will.

Royal Will had him extend his will out of his body with his Spiritual Energy, allowing him to force his will onto the will of those in the dome, and if he won, then they would be forced to submit, and fall unconscious.

The only problem with this move was that although very powerful, it expended a lot of energy, and tired him. For the two times he used it, he was fine afterwards because he was in the middle of a huge improvement of his spirit, creating a ton of excess energy, but if he were to use it at any other time, it would practically empty his Spiritual Energy.

Not having any Spiritual Energy left also meant that he wouldn't be able to his Chi as well. It would continue circulating around his body thanks to his ADC, but he wouldn't be able to control it to coat his body or his weapon, or to heal someone. That's why, it was better not to use it too much if possible.

Finally, he also learned of a way to improve his Spiritual Energy. All he had to do was to replicate what happened with Odin, use a force to compress his spirit and enhance it's quality. He had tried different means, but in the end it was only the very Spiritual Energy created by his spirit that allowed him to refine his spirit.

He believed it to be a crude way, but it was the only one he knew, so he was fine with it. The rate of improvement was of course very slow compared to his ADC, but Odin's pressure had forced his spirit to evolve a lot stronger, meaning that even at the rate he was refining it, it shouldn't take too long for him to reach the limit for his spirit too.

This all added up, alongside his training of Chi and Chi Sense for the past two months, to make him immensely more powerful than when he faced the demon one month ago. Even if the demon had managed to recover it's lost arm and the huge slash he left across it's chest since their last battle, Edward was confidant of killing it for good with the power he had.

Adding Thor into the equation, Edward hardly saw how Morgana could win this battle.

However, as they arrived at Morgana's castle a couple hours later, Edward, as well as everyone else present, couldn't help but take a sharp breath as they looked at the scene of devastation in front of them.

Morgana's Orc army had become several times bigger than it used to be, but they didn't stand in a mighty formation, waiting for them. Instead, they were strewn across the field, dismembered and missing parts, all dead.

The castle was in ruins, and looked like a giant beast had rampaged across it.

As if on cue, a deep roar echoed from within the castle, and the top of it was destroyed in a giant explosion as a pillar of pure darkness rose into the sky, while a human figure was sent flying through the sky.

As it approached them, Edward recognized it to be Morgana, with difficulty. Gone were her beauty and grace, she was covered in blood and dirt, and was breathing weakly.

The humans didn't have to ask her what happened though as following her fall, a huge body clawed it's way out of the top of the castle.

From afar they could see a giant body made of seemingly darkness itself crawled out. It's gigantic claws easily dug deep into the sturdy magical rocks making Morgana's castle, it's mere weight crushing the leftover stones into powder.

As it finally climbed over the shattered top of the castle, everyone was finally able to see it in it's entirety. It seemed a little familiar in the sense it had the general outline of the previous demon, but it also looked very unfamiliar.

It was about 30 meters tall, and it's charcoal black skin seemed to absorb light itself as the light was distorted around the demon, making it look almost illusory.

It's claws were several meters long, and so were it's teeth, and they probably could tear through any of the soldiers present.

Seeing the human army in the distance, the beast roared toward them as a black light started gathering in front of it's mouth. Merlin hurriedly erected multiple powerful barriers to stop the attack, but as the ray of darkness was formed, it tore through the first barrier with ease.

Merlin continued creating barriers at an astonishing speed, and the ray kept destroying them. Thankfully, the energy of the attack was eventually depleted, but Merlin was sweating bullets, and the demon didn't look tired in the slightest.

Seeing it's attack had failed, it gathered power in it's legs before making a jump. The ground below it cracked open as it flew through the sky, heading for the middle of the human army. If it were to land, tens of people would be crushed to death, and the beast would be able to rampage in their midst.

Thankfully, Merlin conjured a spell as an Eldritch Bolt the size of a train appeared in the air and slammed into the beast.

At the same time, a lightning bolt descended from the sky above, where clouds had appeared without Edward even realizing, and crashed into the beast.

The ground burst open with the fall of the huge beast, and the powerful lightning bolt that followed. However, as the dust disappeared, everyone was horrified to find out the beast hadn't been damaged in the slightest.