Chapter 114: Feeling the wind

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Feeling the body he was possessing turn into wind was a very strange experience, but Edward's soul stuck to the body as he felt for the first time what becoming the wind felt like.

He felt free like never before, and despite being in the form of a gust of wind his metaphysical body did not disperse.

To understand something, observing it could help, but becoming it truly was the best way. Edward began meditating while in this wind form, to get as much from it as possible before dispersing.

Edward's soul did it's best maintaining the wind's form together, but after a few minutes the wind dispersed, turning the Wind Howlers' body he was possessing into mere scattered molecules.

Although the transformation had been short, as he returned to his body, Edward felt his comprehension of the Wind, and by extension the Air Concept, had progressed by a great deal, surpassing even his Space and Time Concepts, which were his best until now.

Edward was tempted to use the rest of the altered magic right now, but it was quite taxing on his soul to possess another body, so he better rest before continuing if he wanted to avoid any permanent damage to his soul.

Exiting his workshop, Edward got to his garden, and as he tended to his vegetables, Edward split a part of his mind to think on the possible applications for his Concepts.

If he wanted to, Edward could care for his vegetables in an instant with his powers, he could even lower himself to create golems to care for them, but Edward hadn't just created this garden for what it would wield, but because he enjoyed taking care of it.

He also planted a few fruit trees, which were growing quite fast thanks to the pure Chi he continuously injected, as well as the ambient Chi in the dimension.

There were also a lot of trees farther into the dimension, forming a small forest in which he had imported a few animals, creating a small ecosystem in there.

But while Edward was working, he heard Donna yell from within the house, "DAD! Come see the news!"

Edward raised an eyebrow at that, and finished tending to the vegetables he hadn't touched yet before heading for inside the house.

There, Edward saw Donna sitting in front of the TV. On the TV, someone seemed to be talking, but the sound of their voice was deafened by the chaos around, and anyone watching the TV would be drawn to the image.

A man was flying in the sky, he was quite high so seeing the details was hard, but he definitely was dressed in purple. But what really mattered were the things floating around him, tons of metal beams, cars and other metallic objects were flying, striking anything that dared to approach him.

With a glance, Edward recognized the man to be Magneto, the supposedly 'important' mutant who came from the past alongside the X-Men.

Looking at the headline, Edward saw this was taking place in Philadelphia, so without a shred of hesitation he opened a portal there.

As soon as he arrived in the sky of Philadelphia, Edward easily spotted the action, Magneto was making quite the mess.

The wind around Edward warped him gently as he glided at supersonic speed while being noiseless, and he quickly appeared next to Magneto. However, as he was about to attack the man, the magnet man said, "What took you so long, guardian?"

Edward was quite curious as to how Magneto had sensed him arrive, but he held himself from attacking as he asked, "Why are you attacking this city?"

Magneto sent a quick look at Edward, one filled with some relief as he said with some spite, "So magicians aren't omnipotent, good. Look down, you think I'm the threat?"

Edward sent a look at the ground, especially where Magneto was attacking, and saw the X-Men as well as the Brotherhood fighting inside the ruins of several buildings. And of course, who else could they be fighting than… demons. It's always demons.

Holding his face for a few seconds to hide his frown, Edward asked Magneto, "How do you keep getting in cross dimensional problems?"

Magneto showed a small… proud smile? Then he said, "It is a talent not many possess. Are you going to help? If you are, there is a fellow magician of yours fighting the one who started all this, the Adversary."

Edward nodded, and without asking where they were he approached the battlefield. As everything entered his Chi Sense though, he felt things weren't as simple as he thought. While there were plenty of demons, two presences among them stood out.

One was vastly superior to any of the people present, it came from not a demon, but an alien dressed in a red suit, which he recognized as a Red Lantern.

The Lantern Corps were universal organizations with strange powers, Edward knew the Green Lantern Corps were supposed to hold peace over the Universe, while the other corps were more ambiguous.

The Red Corps were among the ones tending to do evil things, and obviously this Red Lantern was one such individual.

As for the other strange presence, it wasn't that strong, but he could feel something hidden within it, as if a large part of it's strength was hidden. It came from a demon, this one had a flaming skull, and seemed to be using fire based attacks.

As Edward approached a little closer, something else of importance entered his Chi Sense, and it was a strange fluctuation in space, which Edward recognized as a dimensional gate, a portal that cut through the folds of reality to connect different dimensions.

Something generally used by terrifying entities such as Dormammu. Sensing the biggest threat was there, Edward hurried that way.

However, a growl suddenly came from the Dimensional Gate, and the Red Lantern and the demon which he recognized as the Ghost Rider immediately let go of their current opponents to stand in his way.

Since the fight was inevitable with those two blocking the way, he burst out with an ever greater speed and arrived right next to the Ghost Rider. The skull turned at a snail pace in his perception, trying to follow him.

Knowing of the Ghost Rider's real potential though, Edward decided not to leave the Spirit of Vengeance any chance to take over and show it's real power, so using his entire strength, he backhanded it in the skull, with a Chi covered hand of course.

The Ghost Rider tried to follow him, but he moved in slow motion in Edward's perception, and his skull hadn't even finished rotating to look at him when his hand hit the skull.

The flaming skull was instantly destroyed and broken into tiny pieces as the headless Ghost Rider was sent flying. With one potential threat out of the way, Edward looked at the Red Lantern, and determined that with the speed he was going at, he would reach Edward before the later could reach the dimensional gate.

The alien quickly reached Edward, and threw a punch that made the wind screech from the sheer speed and power. Edward, knowing the attack was coming, slightly lowered himself, dodging it, and sent his palm into the alien's abdomen.

The Red Lantern tried dodging, but much to it's shock found Edward's palm to suddenly bend like it was made of rubber, and divert it's course to hit him, with the same power as before. Understanding dodging was impossible, the Red Lantern used his rage to fuel his power as a piece of armor appeared between his body and the palm.

The palm looked soft, but as it slammed into the armor, a loud explosion was produced as the Red Lantern was sent flying tens of meters away.

What Edward had done was not to turn his hand into rubber, not only was he unable to do so, his strike would have also lost all its power. Instead, Edward had used his Space Concept to bend the space before him, which not only bended the direction of his palm, but also the direction of light, making his hand look like it was distorted.

This was the answer Edward had found for a better use of his Concepts. When he first began understanding them, he used them in their raw form to manipulate the world, and after some guidance began guiding it with his magic.

However, he had recently found that he could ally his Concepts to his moves, creating techniques. What he had just used against the Red Lantern was the first technique he had learned, which he decided to call Cruising Palm.

To make it work, Edward coated his hand in Chi, including the inside, and circulated it to create some sorts of lines inside it, and used his Space Concept on them. For now, the technique allowed him to bend the space in front of his palm, changing it's direction.

As for sending the Red Lantern flying, it was Edward's raw force, as well as the power of his Chi.

Several tens of meters away, the Red Lantern had crashed into several buildings and was stuck into a thick one. The armor protecting him had a red burned mark onto it, and was covered in cracks. AS the Red Lantern crawled out of the wall, the armor broke into fragments.

Edward tried to head to the dimensional gate while the Red Lantern was stuck, but it quickly caught up to him and once again blocked his path.

Shaping his hand like a spear, Edward stabbed toward the Red Lantern's kidneys, but he punched at Edward, a large tower shield appearing over his hand.

Edward's hand slammed into the tower shield and was forcefully repelled, and the shield then slammed into Edward, this time sending him flying away.

Edward's body slammed through several demons, killing them as their bodies were broken due to the force at which he was sent flying.

Thanks to those demons, Edward quickly stabilized himself, and looked at the Red Lantern with interest.

When he first heard of the Lantern Corps, he was already interested in them as they worked with the power of emotions, and the Green Lanterns, who used their will as their weapon, especially interested him.

However, they were the guardians of the universe, and fighting against them would be unwise, especially for something that could turn out to be useless.

But now that he was facing a Red Lantern, Edward felt the power of the Lantern, and more importantly realized that while he could predict the moves of the alien himself, his Chi Sense was unable to predict the moves coming from the ring, or even their mere existence.

Unfortunately, no matter how interesting this was, a much bigger problem was about to enter this dimension, and he couldn't have that happen.

Taking a deep breath, Edward forced the time around him to slow down as he tried to clapping his hands. Normally it would have been hard to stop so many strong people in time, but because he was also slowing himself down as much as everyone, Edward was able to do so.

Slowing himself along with everyone may make this look useless, but under the slowed down time wind started accumulating between his palms, as the air was the only thing not slowed down.

As Edward's hands approached each other, hot wind gathered in his left palm, and cold wind in his right, and although they were forcefully being compressed, their intensity was picking up as they rolled on themselves.

The Red Lantern knew there was something wrong, and tried to stop Edward, not even feeling the time had slowed down, but before he could reach him, Edward managed to clasp his hands.

The moment he did, a burst of lightning suddenly burst out from between his hands, and struck the Red Lantern square in the chest. He couldn't react to the speed of lightning and was hit without protection by the beam of lightning, charring his chest as he was sent flying away.

The way now opened, Edward jumped toward the dimensional gate.

However, as he was in mid air, he felt something approach, and before he could react a flaming bony hand struck him in the face, and sent him flying backwards for tens of meters too.