Chapter 59: Separation

Don't worry this is a chapter, I just wanted to make a big announcement as all the prices of Patréon went down! Now, you can get 5 chapters for 3 euros, 10 chapters for 5 euros, 15 chapters for 7 euros and 20 chapters for 10 euros!

If you do go to my Patréon, be careful as the ancient pledges have not been erased yet to give time to the Patrons to change, so ONLY pick a pledge with a PICTURE and an actual NAME. Body Refinement, Spirit Awakening, Unity and Revolving Core.

https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

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The limit. How annoying. Always catches up.

Edward had a knack for creating new records though, and reaching one limit simply wasn't enough, he had to reach three of them nearly at the same time.

It had been five months since he came back from Camelot, five months he had been in the Unity Realm, and he managed to cultivate to the limit.

The first limit to show up was, much to his surprise, his Spirit, what used to be the slowest to advance had now been the fastest. Very surprising.

Then, it was his Lower Dantian that reached it's capacity limit when he reached 1000 drops of Liquid Chi. He tried compressing his Chi, to purify it further, but he quickly found that to be impossible, his Chi had already reached the best purity possible.

Finally, the third limit came a few hours after that, as his limit also reached the limit, his Chi couldn't strengthen it any more. Hence, he reached three limits.

Since he already had a good idea of how to break the limit and get to the next realm, Edward should have been happy, but as he reached the limit he realized… something was missing.

The path he was following wasn't wrong, he had even managed to start creating a solid core with his Chi, but to his dismay, he couldn't do it.

The process of forming his core wasn't even 10% done when he ran out of both Spiritual Energy and Chi, and he also felt his body being harmed by the power of the forming core.

So yes, he was upset. Despite reaching the clear limit in all three aspects, they were all lacking and stopped him from making a breakthrough.

It was frustrating to pass more time blocked at the limit than actually making progress.

Now, not everything was bad of course.

Today was quite the special occasion, as he and Diana were celebrating… their one year anniversary!

They hesitated for a while on to what they should do, where they should go, but in the end decided to celebrate at home.

After a lot of thinking, they simply realized this was the best place to do that, neither of them really wanted to go in public.

So they celebrated in their apartment, and actually had a lot of fun. However, life had to throw in some obstacles, and it just came to bite them in the ass.

The next day, as Edward woke up, he intended to greet Diana after an intense night, but stopped. Intense sadness came from her. He didn't even need Chi Sense to sense that.

Shocked, Edward asked, "Diana? What's wrong?"

For the first time since they met, Diana was… on the verge of tears. Worried, Edward took her hands, and she said, "Themyscira called. I don't know how, but they learned of our relationship, and they want me to come back."

"What?!"

Edward immediately frowned, "Why? Aren't you free to make your own choices?"

"You don't understand, if I don't go back then they will try to take me back by force. I don't want to fight my sisters, or my own mother."

"So you are just going? You will just leave obediently?"

"If I want to change their mind then it's the only solution."

"I don't care! I can fight them for you!"

"No! I've already decided. I won't be gone for long, I promise."

"You promise? What if they try to keep you?"

"Then I will sneak out, I already did it. Please, trust me. I don't want to leave any more than you, but it needs to be done. I have been fearing their arrival for decades already, I don't want to leave in stress anymore. Let me deal with this. And if I need any help, we still have the Dual Coins."

And so, by the end of the day, Diana had left. Edward was angry. Very angry. A part of it went for Diana, for taking that decision without even asking him.

But the bigger part, was himself. He always was too weak. If he couldn't do anything about it, it wouldn't be that bad, it would be frustrating to be helpless against those situations, but his present situation was even worse.

Even though he was currently stuck for his cultivation, he had more than one way to grow stronger. For example, he could perfect the Lizard Serum Connors had injected himself, perfecting it so he would get a better healing factor and strength.

He could also ask for some mutant tissues from the X-Men, they at least owed him that, and with his enhanced intelligence he was confident in finding a way to provoke a mutation in his body.

And those were only two of his possible plans, magic and science both offered a LOT of possible ways to gain power rapidly.

But he did not go for any of them, not for his own health or any sane reason. The only reason, was his own hubris.

He was proud of being a normal human who only relied on himself to grow stronger. So even though he could become stronger, his pride was stopping him.

And despite coming to this conclusion, despite having his lover taken away, despite being stuck with his cultivation… He still didn't go for any of those options. He couldn't.

As he was starting to get depressed though, another thing came up. A major thing.

Aliens in Trondheim.

It wasn't just some random farmer who saw drawings in his crops or an UFO in the sky.

Trondheim had been attacked by aliens, and it's entire population of more than one hundred thousand people had been forced to evacuate from the city.

An actual alien attack, and they had taken over a human city. It was mind blowing.

For the average people, they barely started accepting the fact Supers existed that aliens were thrown into their faces.

When he learned the news, and made sure it wasn't a hoax, Edward immediately created a portal to Kamar-Taj, and met with the Ancient One.

"What are Kronans doing in Norway?"

The Ancient One shook his head and replied, "They already tried invading Earth 5000 years ago, and fought against King Gilgamesh, forging his legend. But today, I fear they came for another reason."

Edward frowned, "What do you mean?"

Yao sighed, "Recently, demons have been invading in mass, and not only on Earth. Saturn has also been attacked, and the Kronans are fleeing to Earth."

"They took over a city. And they are threatening to take more of them."

"I know, that's why they must be pushed back, or subdued. Kronans are a proud race, but also a powerful one, and they have sent many of their best warriors, alongside some mages. They are tricky to deal with."

Edward raised an eyebrow and inquired, "That's why I am going to need some help to deal with them. Is Stephen available? Or Wong?"

Yao shook his head, "Both occupied. But don't worry, you will have all the help you need there. The only thing you have to do is to tell Donald to go to the grotto."

"What?"

"Don't worry, you will understand. And so shall he."

"You're doing this on purpose aren't you?"

The Ancient One looked away, shameless, "I don't see what you are talking about."

Edward shook his head and lamented, "Are all old people cryptic? Is it that funny?"

The Ancient One created a portal and snorted, "Yes, it is. Now go, this will lead you to the refugee camp."

Edward rolled his eyes and walked through the portal, and found himself under the rain. Fortunately, he changed into his Serenity costume before entering, so the droplets were all stopped by his armor. One of the benefit of a magical armor was that not a piece of his skin could be touched by rain.

The sky was dark, the clouds were quite thick, and filled with water. Alongside the cries and hushed voices, it was really depressing.

Edward saw a big tent nearby, and saw it was guarded by soldiers. They were looking at him in shock, but they did their job well as they weapons were pointed at him, and one of them asked, "What are you doing here?!"

Edward felt thankful he learned every language on Earth, and replied in Norwegian, "I am here to help."

The soldier looked angry as he spat out, "You shameless fucker, always prancing around, acting as the heroes and bathing in the fame. But now that there is a real problem, when an army come invades, you are nowhere to be seen. Only now do you show up! FUCK OFF BEFORE I SHOOT YOU!"

Edward grimaced at that, but only raised his hands. He understood his anger. Supers were also at the heart of the news.

They had become quite widespread around the world, and there was basically at least one Super in every city in the world, and that included smaller cities.

In bigger cities like Paris, London, Berlin, Beijing or Washington, there were more than a dozen Super. New York actually had the record for the most Supers, with more than 50 of them.

Trondheim was quite a big city too, and although there weren't as many Supers as in other big cities, there were between 5 and 10 Supers in the city, acting as vigilantes.

But as the aliens attacked, a problem quickly surfaced. The police couldn't cope with such an attack, they were outnumbered by more than 1 to 1000, or probably even more, and guns had barely any effect on the Kronans.

Kronans' epidermis was made of a strange silicon substance that basically gave them a rock-like skin. This granted them incredible defence and strength, and against them fire weapons did nothing more than scratches.

Even a strong assault riffle would need more than a mag to kill one Kronan, and that was doubtable. Moreover, Kronans weren't dumb beasts, they were an intelligent civilization, one advanced enough to travel through space, so they were a real army.

The saving grace was maybe that they mainly relied on cold weapons, but even that didn't really help, the police couldn't do anything against them.

As for the army, not only was it difficult to dispatch them in the city, by the time they arrived the city was already taken over.

So in this situation, the most abled to intervene would have been Supers, who had greater strength than the normal human. But throughout the city, no Super was seen defending.

All of them had fled in fear, not even trying to help. As for the Supers in nearby cities, they either completely ignored the situation, or they hid, so they wouldn't be called for help.

It was normal for a civilian to be scared and flee, it would even be abnormal to do the opposite. However, Supers, or more specifically Super Heroes, they held a responsibility.

By acting against normal humans, and upholding 'justice', they gathered great fame. And some, of course, capitalized on that, becoming internet celebrities with that, quite a few were on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram… All of that.

So they quickly overshadowed the police and the army, who did the exact same thing, but without powers, and next to recognition.

Since a few months already discontent rose among the police and the army around the world, but they wouldn't be heard, people were going crazy about Super Heroes.

But today, as an alien army assaulted Trondheim, it wasn't the Super Heroes who enjoyed fame and glory who sacrificed themselves to save others, it wasn't them who endangered their own lives to protect the population.

It was the police, the army, the firemen… All those in the shadows of the 'great' Super Heroes.

So Edward did understand the soldier's anger. Of course he wanted to say not everyone was like them, that he was here to help, but he couldn't. Now, only actions would matter.