Chapter 67: Mermaids

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Surrounded and bothered by all the noise, the Hulk roared and bounced away with such strength that the ground trembled from the jump's might, and as everyone got back their balance the Hulk wasn't in sight any longer.

"Don't chase him."

Edward turned to look at the man who just talked, and saw a black bald man with an eyepatch, dressed all in black. He had several guns on him, but approached Edward without any of them.

His first comment was, "You don't look as impressive in real life."

Edward could feel the man was trying to annoy him, so he replied calmly, "I don't care. Bye."

He was ready to open a portal and leave when the man added, "Wait, before you go, we will be taking the corpse with us."

Edward raised an eyebrow, and said with a smile, "What corpse?"

At the same moment, the Abomination, who was right next to their feet, roared in anger, making the black man jumped and all the nearby agents aim their weapon at him. However, after roaring it didn't move.

Edward kicked it in the head, making another breaking sound, and chuckled, "He isn't dead, his neck is just broken. I was expecting you to take him with you, I'm not taking this guy home. Bye then."

The man once again tried to stop him, but Edward didn't listen to what he had to say and walked through a portal, closing it behind him.

Then, he created another one and came back home.

Because he had stepped away from the Sorcerer's Path, it also meant that he couldn't use Sling Rings anymore, so the portals he had been making were actually made in his very own capacity.

However, his portals were also much better. Back when he discovered the way to make his own portals, he was only using his understanding of space to create the portal. During the past week he had researched quite a lot about space though and now used Spatial Energy to fuel his portal making, so now he could create his own blue portals as swiftly as he used to do with the Sling Ring.

As for the toll, he could go as far as to the moon, but he didn't try. If he teleported to his limit, then it would take him some time to recover his Chi to return home, and he didn't want to be stuck in space.

Everytime he used magic now, a part of his Chi would be consumed to nullify the impact from the fragment of creation entering his body. Back when he bound the Abomination down, all of his Chi had been exhausted.

But he recovered enough Chi to come back home as his regeneration speed was quite fast, and he didn't need to step by the Himalayas anymore. Another change that came with the new portals is that one can't see through them anymore, the insides of the portal was only a smoky blue screen, courtesy of the space energy Edward used to fuel his portals.

Anyway, as he returned home he planned to continue reading his book while waiting for his Chi to recover, but was surprised to see Donna waiting for him. She pointed her phone toward him and said, "That was a pretty cool fight, but you really should stop fighting enemies out of your league."

Edward laughed, "What do you mean out of my league? I would never do that."

Donna gasped at his shamelessness, but before she could add anything he said, "Don't bother me with your nonsense, can't you see I need to prepare dinner?"

Donna ended up rolling her eyes before storming back to her room, playing with her phone like the teen she was.

Edward really made dinner, as always with at least one ingredient he infused with Chi. But as they ate in silence, watching the TV where they were reporting the fight in Harlem, Donna commented, "Diana is a way better cook than you are."

Edward didn't even feel offended and simply replied, "Yep."

Donna rolled her eyes, she liked doing that, and after a moment of hesitation asked, "When is she coming back."

Edward stopped for a moment, before saying, "She willingly left, it was her own choice to do so."

But his answer didn't satisfy Donna as she smashed her fist on the table and yelled, "Won't you fucking man up?! Your girlfriend was taken away and you're just letting it go?!"

Edward looked at Donna in surprise, and saw her storm to her room, slapping the door shut behind her.

Her words made him think though. Was he really such a coward he wasn't going to do anything? He had been disillusioning himself by saying it was her own choice, but she had obviously been reluctant to leave, and she was already gone for two weeks…

Edward's own fists clenched as he realized his mistake, and he got up from his chair, opening a portal to Asgard.

He appeared in the Bifrost room, where Heimdall was keeping a watchful eye over the Nine Realms.

Normally even with all of his energy Edward could only teleport to the moon, but he also could teleport to Asgard, which was much, much farther than the moon.

The reason for that is Yggdrasil, the legendary world tree of Norse Legends. In real life, it wasn't actually a real tree, but rather an energy field that connected the Nine Realms to one another. It was thanks to this energy field that it was so much easier to teleport to any of those worlds than even closer ones.

It still took him a good part of his Chi, but he had recovered enough while he was making dinner and eating.

Heimdall looked at Edward and asked, "Friend from Midgard, what can I do for you?"

Edward cleared his throat and respectfully asked, "Is Thor available?"

Heimdall slightly shook his head and revealed, "Our Prince is in Muspelheim, fighting a force of Fire Demons. I don't know when he will be back."

Edward frowned, "Then do you know where Themyscira is? Can you lead me to the island?"

"Themyscira is the land of the Greek Gods, and you will need their approval if you want to go there."

"What? But I heard several men came to the island in the past, and none of them had an invitation."

Diana had told Edward about her first love, Steve Trevor, as well as the Nazis who followed him. Thor and Hercules being granted access wasn't much of a surprise since Hercules was Zeus' son, but Steve Trevor and the Nazis sure didn't have any kind of authorization.

At his question Heimdall smiled slightly, "The Greeks tend to ignore anyone trespassing on Themyscira, they don't really care about territory since Antiquity, and people don't usually actually need permission."

"So why would I need one?"

"Well, Hera has always hated the bastards of Zeus, and she does all that is in her power to bring harm to them. You are going there to fetch Diana, daughter of Zeus, aren't you? She is your girlfriend, right?"

Edward sighed and nodded. Why had everything to always be so complicated? Was he really going to have to smash a goddess, Zeus' wife at that, to take Diana back?

But when thoughts that would shock anyone related to the gods, Heimdall added, "I didn't say you had to ask the permission from Hera though. You could ask any of the Olympians."

Edward was enlightened by the revelation, and asked, "Where can I meet one of the Olympians then?"

Heimdall remained quiet for a few seconds before informing him, "The Greek Gods can be quite difficult to deal with, especially the Olympians. With them, nothing comes for free, and that includes meeting them. However, that's for mortals. Wait here for a second."

As he said that Heimdall closed his eyes for a few seconds, before reopening them and saying, "Okay, you can go. I will create the portal for you, but do know you will have to swim a little, Themyscira has a magical barrier around it that blocks my sight and the Bifrost."

Heimdall then twisted his sword, opening the Bifrost, and added, "Before you go, you should know the island is surrounded by mermaids ever since the Amazon Princess left a few decades ago. As for the Amazons, although they haven't faced any real battle for centuries they are still a warmongering group of women, and if you want them to answer your questions, you may need to fight them, and go hard. Don't try to go easy on them, you can be violent, I got your back. Don't forget, they took your girlfriend away, you can't spare them from a good beating. Don't kill them though."

Edward found Heimdall to be unusually chatty about the Amazons, and weirdly insisted a lot about going at them seriously. Wondering what happened between Heimdall and the Amazons for him to insist so much on beating them, Edward walked into the Bifrost.

But as Edward walked through the portal, Heimdall closed his eyes once again and said, "My king, he has left."

With those words, Heimdall heard Odin's voice in his head, "Are you sure about what you saw?"

Heimdall replied, "I may not be able to see Themyscira, but Hell and Tartarus are no problem. When Edward finds out…"

Odin snorted, "It is his own matter, I'm sure he won't go too far. This will also allow him to grow. Watch out for what he does once he comes back from Themyscira, make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

Heimdall nodded and bowed to nothing in particular.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, the Bifrost dropped Edward in the middle of the sea. The sea was calm, with only a few ripples appearing as Edward dropped in the water.

Within the water, Edward was still able to breath thanks to his ADC, so he looked around curiously. Unfortunately, the water was too dark for him to see anything, or maybe there simply wasn't anything under water.

Edward swam back to the surface, and as he did he first saw only the vast sea around him, with no sign of any boat or land.

But after a few seconds, a beacon of light appeared in the sky, and Edward saw a dome of light appeared in the distance, mirages of an island reflecting on it's surface.

Seeing how far it was though, Edward couldn't help but grumbled, "Did he really need to drop me that far?"

But before he could start worrying about swimming, a faint melody entered his ears. It sounded surprisingly enticing, it was the best music he had ever heard. Diving down back into the water, the music only became clearer as enchanting voices made their way to him.

The words sung were strangely impossible to understand, and yet he felt so attracted to them. Then, the singers appeared to him.

A bunch of mermaids swam to his side, their body exposed to his sight as nothing covered them. Two grabbed his arms, and another came up in front of him, still singing, and grabbed his chin, ready to kiss him as the mermaids tried to pull him down.

But clarity appeared in Edward's eyes as he did not budge, and slowly but firmly pushed the mermaids away. None of them turned into disgusting monsters after his refusal though, and only swam back to him, looking sad at his refusal and still trying to drag him down with them, hugging him, and a bold one even went for his…

Edward only pushed them back though, and swam back to the surface while saying, "Begone."

Because he was underwater his words were incomprehensible, but the mermaids seemed to understand as they only looked sadder. However, they stopped approaching him, and only looked at him from a distance.

Frowning, Edward released a wave of Royal Will, not knocking them out but pushing them away. And yet, they stayed, still looking at him with pitiful faces.

Finally, Edward clicked his tongue and said, "Fine, if you want to make yourself useful then carry me to Themyscira."

The mermaids looked excited as they flocked to his side, and each grabbing a part of his body, swam at full speed toward the hidden island.