Chapter 69: Abduction

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Hippolyta spat out with a glare, "Finally calmed down, boy? Diana isn't here, she has been taken away you mad dog!"

Edward felt insulted, but there were more pressing matters.

"By whom?"

"That filth Hades has always lusted over my daughter, and he has taken her to his kingdom. Go, if you're so brave."

Edward frowned, and asked, "How do I know this isn't just you trying to get me killed?"

Hippolyta snorted and tossed something at him, "You must be Edward, the bastard who wooed my daughter. If you know her then you should know her diadem will always try to go back to her."

Edward grabbed the flying object, and recognized Diana's diadem, he didn't doubt for a second it wasn't hers as it had traces of her aura on it. And as Hippolyta said, it felt like it was trying to lead him in a certain direction.

He looked back at Hippolyta, who said, "Now, give it back and scram from this island!"

The Amazons all drew their weapons at her words, but Edward pocketed the diadem and said, "I am leaving for Hell, to save her. You can cower here while I go."

Hippolyta frowned, "Don't you know your place? Even Cerberus would be enough to kill you, not to mention Hades. You are nothing but a mortal, you don't deserve her, nor is a relationship even possible. Even now that she's in danger, there's nothing but hiding you can do."

Edward opened a portal, alarming the Amazons, and huffed, "You know, we actually had a talk about this once with Diana, and my words to you today are the same as those that day: I will rock the entire fucking universe if it's what I need to do to bring her back."

With those words he disappeared from the island of Amazons, appearing in his cave in the Himalayas, a deep frown on his face.

He wasn't just going to let Diana fend for herself in Hell, he was already feeling rage bubbling inside him as he thought of Hades, and was already ready to murder him.

However, with his current power, that would only be foolish, as Hippolyta mentioned. He was sure that with time he would get strong enough to kill even a god and destroy Hell, but that would take years.

He also thought about Merlin, who was imprisoned in Hell too, but unfortunately they weren't in the same Hell or he could have started with Merlin and finish with Diana. There were different versions of Hell, Diana was in the one ruled by Hades and was exclusive to those who believe in the Greek Gods.

On the other hand, Merlin was in another version of hell, which is a whole dimension, one that was closer to the Christian version. Getting Merlin out of there was going to be even more difficult than Hell. After all, in Hades' Hell, Edward would only be facing Hades, some undead heroes of Ancient Greece and Cerberus.

If it was Tartarus he had to go through, which one is the most difficult could be questioned, but for now, Diana was much easier to save.

Edward also thought about Thor, but his friend wasn't here. Moreover, he probably wouldn't be able to get involved with the Greeks or he could spark a war between the Norse and Greek Pantheons.

Edward's frown only intensified as he couldn't find any solution, but as he was starting to feel helpless, he suddenly felt his surroundings change as an aura he recognized filled the place.

A black portal suddenly opened not far from him, and from it came the voice of an old man, "Mortal, we meet again. I hope you have been doing fine."

Edward sent a look at the portal, and greeted with a dispirited voice, "Eru, now isn't really a good time."

Eru replied with a cheerful voice though, "Wrong! I've made quite the effort to pick the absolute best timing to deliver you your first mission, your first quest in Arda!"

Edward shook his head and lamented, "I can't leave this world for month, I have a trip to make, an assembly that will determine the fate of a large part of the world and… I just can't go."

Eru remained silent for a second, before exclaiming, "Right! You mortals are quite slow, I almost forgot. You will be not just in another universe, but in a whole other Multiverse, meaning the timeline of this universe and Ea do not cross."

Edward felt a sliver at those words as he asked, "Then, even if I spend years in Ea, not a single second will pass here?"

Eru shrugged and replied, "More or less, yeah. As I said, I picked the best time for both you and me. You are in an urgent need to grow stronger, while I need my mission to be finished, and there's nothing better than a man motivated by love for that. I really rock."

Edward, who had already started to feel despair, laughed out loud, "Yeah, yeah you do."

And without another word, he entered the portal. Finding himself in the spacetime tunnel once again, Edward felt Eru's presence near him as soon as he arrived.

He grabbed him by the shoulder, and Edward felt himself move at an incredible speed in the tunnel. While they were moving though, Edward started feeling his strength leaving him, or rather, hiding deep inside his body.

Eru timely explained, "As I have already told you in the past, I am not as omniscient as you think I am. Moving between universes in the same multiverse wouldn't be much of a problem, but since you are leaving your multiverse, there are bound to be drawbacks."

Nearly all of Edward's Chi ended up being sealed, and he could feel his body weaken by a great deal. Both his Chi and Body had weakened to the peak of the Body Strengthening Realm.

Thankfully, he didn't turn as weak as he used to be when he was at this realm. His techniques were still there, and more importantly, his Spirit was not affected in the slightest.

It felt a bit disorienting to lose a big part of his strength, and Edward was feeling a little disappointed, with his strength he would have been able to roll on most enemies within the Lord of the Ring universe, but now that a big part of his strength was sealed, he would be much more limited.

Thankfully, Eru pointed out, "Your vital energy and body have been restrained because of the universal change, but your spirit is not restrained by it, so it wasn't affected. Moreover, you can regain your strength easily."

Edward shook his head and said, "Even if I can regain my strength, my goal is to grow stronger. If I leave this world as strong as I was when I entered it, then it would be a waste of time."

"Ah, how terrible it must be to be so slow. Listen mortal, the universe has sealed your power, but so has your brain. Now, if you manage to undo the seals put by your brain, the vital energy trapped behind those seals will be released into your body and undo the seal put by the Universe.

"So that means everytime you open one of the limiters put up by your brain, you will regain a part of your strength. I estimate that by the time you open your sixth limiter, the one in your glabella, you will regain all of your initial power, plus the power granted by the opening of the gates."

Edward gaped as he had to admit… he was slow compared to Eru. Well, no point comparing with this guy, he was just happy this trip could become fruitful.

After a few minutes, they finally stopped, and Eru said, "Now, for your mission. A company of dwarves has been created to take back their kingdom from the claws of an evil dragon. They are accompanied by the Gandalf the Grey, a wizard, and they will travel from West to East to reclaim their land."

"So my mission is to help them get their kingdom back?"

"Yes and no. Your mission is to destroy evil, as much as possible. One part will be to make sure the dragon dies, which would indeed help the dwarves. However, even if they die, it doesn't matter much to me, all I want is the dragon dead. And Sauron will also try to come back ahead of time, so I will need you to assist Gandalf in taking care of him."

Edward nodded, and felt his body leaving the spacetime tunnel. As he was about to leave, Eru added one last message, "Wait for Gandalf in Bree, he will recognize you, and you will understand each other. And change your outfit, it sucks."

Slightly offended by Eru's last remark, Edward entered the world of Ea for the first time.

The first thing he felt was the rain, it was raining quite hard. He looked around, and saw it was night. The moon shone onto the surrounding houses, and Edward immediately got the medieval feeling of Ea.

The houses were made of stone and wood, and looked a little crude. He was definitely in a human town. As he thought about all the beings inhabiting this world, he couldn't help but anticipate meeting some of them.

Dwarves, Orcs, Elves… If he remembered well, then elves had lifespans of thousands of years, so maybe Legolas was alive. Eru did call Gandalf the Grey, not the White, and he even mentioned Sauron was trying to return ahead of time, so Edward was somewhere between the defeat of Sauron and the Lord of the Ring.

That was a large timeline, so Edward knew he probably wouldn't have any chance of meeting any other canon characters than Gandalf and some elves, but it was already better than nothing.

YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

It was definitely going to be a fun quest. Maybe he would manage to get his mind off his problems.

Thinking back about Diana, Edward felt frustrated, he again wouldn't see here for months, but at least this time he wouldn't make her wait for him. Moreover, he would hopefully be strong enough to save her by the time he leaves.

His motivation strengthened, Edward decided to first change his attire. Although he didn't agree with what Eru said, his outfit really wasn't appropriate for this world.

First was the mask, he looked way too suspicious with it, masking one's face in such a universe was generally because one was searched, so it would only draw attention. And he didn't even have any reason to mask his face here anyway.

As for the rest of the outfit, the white and blue weren't really a problem, but most people dressed in dark colours because any other colour would get dirty in record time. Edward's armor had an enchantment that kept it clean all the time, but he still decided to go dark colours.

Not only was it to his taste, he also didn't want to stand out too much.

A long olive green coat that looked a little worn out appeared on top of him, with a light armor beneath it. His trousers were dark grey, and dark gloves that went halfway up his forearm appeared on his hands. His boots looked a little worn too, but not to the point they could be called decrepit.

With his outfit, Edward really blended in with the surroundings. Clean looking clothes would be strange, especially under the current weather, and although Gandalf could possibly know of his identity, the others wouldn't, and he didn't want to raise suspicions with his future company.

After ruffling his hair a little, Edward walked to the nearest house and jumped on top of it. He wished he could go to the inn, he could even see it not far away, but he did not have a single coin on him.

So being a poor pauper, he decided to spend the night meditating in the rain. He hoped Gandalf would quickly arrive.

Author's Note: The big, terrible nerf has happened, and I can already foresee the legions rising up to take their arms and get my head. Before that, let me explain a bit. As you may now know, my arcs aren't at random, there's an intent behind most of them. The first time Edward learned about the Chakras was by Eru, so it is only fitting he would unlock most of them in his world.

As for the nerf itself, I once again like nuances. Edward left his 'home' only a single time, and that was to go to Camelot. He was still on Earth, but it was another, completely different time, to the point it can be considered another planet. Back then, Edward followed the most generic comic book hero plot when he was outside, forming a strange contradiction in the character I particularly liked.

Here, there will be another contradiction, as it will be the only nerf Edward will receive in the entire story, and yet that will be when he will have the greatest feats of the entire story.

People, including me, generally don't like Nerfs because they are lazy ways for writers to create tension. When an MC becomes too strong, nerfing him makes danger reappear, but as I said, it's just lazy. Here, the nerf has nothing to do with tension, but character development.

In other words, whether I nerf him or not wouldn't actually change anything to the plot itself, all the problems he encounters, whether he overcomes them or not, he would have had the same result if he wasn't nerfed, so once again, I ask you not to freak out. This is a GOOD Nerf, and if you don't believe this exists, please read on as I believe to have made a good damn job.

He will recover his power quickly anyway, and get even stronger than before.