Chapter 115: Tactical Retreat

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Spiting out some blood, Edward felt his Spirit a little shaken by the blow as he looked at the Ghost Rider, who had come back from the dead to punch him.

He had read in Kamar-Taj about the Spirit of Vengeance and the Ghost Rider, and in the very same book learned that their head was their weak point. Unfortunately, it seemed to info was outdated as this Ghost Rider had managed to regenerate from that.

Edward then sent a glance at the Red Lantern, but was relieved to see Magneto and an X-Man fighting against him, managing to stall him for now.

He was forced to look back at his undead opponent though as he felt movement from him, and saw him take out an Uzi. The fire weapon was not a normal one though as it had been modified, it now looked like it was made of silver, was encrusted with skull patterns within which the Ghost Rider's flames were flowing, the Hellfire.

He had named Spyro's new Dragon Fire Hellfire after the Ghost Rider as it looked similar to the Ghost Rider's Hellfire's description, but after experiencing it himself he quickly understood that the Ghost Rider's Hellfire was superior to Spyro's.

The Uzi aimed at him released several bullets that went much faster than normal bullets, but they weren't enough to catch Edward. Since they were powered by Hellfire, Edward decided not to try to block them and bended the space in front of him, making them miss.

Then, with a gesture of Edward a strong gust of wind was sent toward the Ghost Rider, and as the demon tried to keep his footing, Edward sent a stream of flames too with another spell.

The fire came in contact with the wind and was strengthened by it as a barrage of steel melting fire engulfed the Ghost Rider. Feeling the Ghost Rider was still fine inside, Edward formed claws with his hands as claws formed in the ground around the Ghost Rider, tearing at him.

However, even amidst the fire barrage that would melt a bus in less than a second, the Ghost Rider looked fine as he punched each of the claws, destroying them with ease. Then, he grabbed the metallic bat that ended with a skull from his back and jumped passed the flames with great speed, nearly instantly reaching Edward.

Forced into a close fight, Edward was not taken off guard though as he used a Chi covered arm to block the bat, and dealt a punch at the Ghost Rider's undefended stomach with the other hand, sending him flying with a few cracked bones.

Edward looked at the arm he had used to block the blow, and saw that the Armor of the Ancients had been completely burned off by the flame, and his skin underneath was quickly forming a bruise, and hurting.

His regeneration quickly kicked in though as his Golden Blood solved the problem and the Armor of the Ancients covered the recovering wound.

Although the Armor of the Ancients was starting to get limited in his recent fights with his new level of power, it still was able to block a rather large percentage of any attack, often time more than 50% of any attack, so it was still a great armor.

Unfortunately Edward was not the only one with a great regeneration as the Ghost Rider's broken bones were quickly recovered, and it pointed it's bony hand at Edward as it growled, "Time to die, sinner!"

Edward merely snorted at that and took out Aeglos. Until now he used his magic and tested out his new techniques from his Concepts, but time was quickly passing and the being coming from the dimensional gate had to be stopped.

Edward's whole aura seemed to change as he took out Aeglos, it wasn't just the addition of the Spear Aura that caused that change, Edward's whole demeanour seemed more serious as he took out his spear.

The Ghost Rider was quite shocked by the change, and even more so as Edward disappeared due to his speed. The air between them was rendered apart as Edward appeared in front of the Ghost Rider, and Aeglos was heading for Ghost Rider's chest.

The Spirit of Vengeance was not easily outdone though as he swung his bat toward the incoming spear with a frightening precision as it would hit the exact tip of the spear, which was the best spot to hit to stop it's momentum.

However, as he was in the middle of his swinging, Aeglos was suddenly covered in a strange invisible aura, and like a snake slithered past Ghost Rider's punch.

A fist sized hole was punctured through the Ghost Rider's chest, and despite being a mere ribcage the Spirit of the Ghost Rider was hit too, meaning the damage was as real as it would be to a normal human.

The Ghost Rider wasn't sent flying this time, and fell to his knees before Edward as the Spirit of Vengeance seemed to subside a little, letting the human take over.

As for Edward, he looked at the flame burning inside the Ghost Rider's skull, and was tempted to absorb it right there as he could feel it would strengthen his Dragon Flame, and thus his Core, quite a lot, but before he could decide himself a felt a strong disturbance in space.

Looking at the rift where the entity was supposed to come from, he first saw a female being thrown out at great speed, followed immediately by a strange being. As soon as he felt that being, Edward knew that not only it was very strong, it was also not from this dimension.

Before he could do anything though, Edward saw the mystical being known as the Adversary point his palm toward the sky, and a deep blue array was shot out of his palm, and would envelop the sky in no time.

Still, Edward had the time to look at the runes, and was livid as he understood what each of them did. If he didn't do anything, then every living being in this city would be killed, leaving only the strongest who were the only ones who had a chance to resist the curse.

Ignoring everything else, Edward created a hasty rune himself and sent it flying toward one of the runes making the array in the sky, and as a dome started to appear above the city, Edward's rune collided with the targeted rune.

The deep blue rune wasn't able to resist in the slightest as the red rune took it's place, and merged with the surrounding array. Unfortunately, it arrived a little too late to destroy the array, but was still able to change a part of it's function as instead of being erased from existence, the people inside were removed from the space inside the array to outside.

However, because of the hasty change, the array did not work as strongly as it should have, and while every normal people were removed from the array, everyone who had been fighting managed to remain in the array.

Only Edward knew about the people leaving though, and the others were more focused on the Adversary, who had just arrived.

The deity from another dimension looked at them, and seemed ready to attack, so Edward quickly summoned a large wall of earth in between their two sides, blocking his sight for a moment.

This would normally be useless against a foe of such power, but Edward could also feel that the Adversary was weakened. One reason was most probably the rules of the dimension, just as his power was sealed when he entered Arda, the Adversary's power was weakened when he arrived on Earth.

But now wasn't the time to bother about this, they needed to retreat. Thankfully, the mutants seemed to understand the danger of the situation as Magneto lifted all the members of the Brotherhood to carry them, while Marvel Girl took the X-Men with her telekinesis.

With a simple thought, Edward opened a rather large portal, and everyone was quickly rushed in, including the passed out woman who was ejected from the space rift, and Edward closed behind.

A few tens of meters underground, Edward closed the portal as he looked at everyone present. He had felt this old bunker while he had been fighting, and although they were very close to the Adversary, he shouldn't find them.

Still, to be sure, Edward quickly set a bunch of arrays around the bunker they entered, shielding it from others' view.

Once he was done, he looked at the only person he didn't know in the room, the woman who had been thrown out of the spacial rift just before the Adversary.

The X-Men were gathering around her, obviously caring about her well being, so she shouldn't be an enemy. Moreover, Edward could feel something familiar from her, it came from her blood.

While Edward was analysing her, the woman was silently replying to the X-Men's inquiries, keeping a rather calm facade as she did so. However, after a moment, as she looked around the room and saw Edward, her eyes widened in surprise as she suddenly got up, despite her injuries.

Edward raised an eyebrow at that, he didn't think he knew her, but she obviously knew him. He wouldn't be very surprised if an ordinary person reacted like that when they saw him, but she wasn't by any means normal.

She had demon blood in her, and her Chi was quite strong. Moreover, she seemed to be a capable magician, her body reeked of magic, proving she had used quite some magic in her life.

The woman was quite beautiful, she had wavy black hair styled in a rather large bun tied with azure blue ribbons, and was dressed in a long robe that did not look like much of an armor.

Ignoring those around her, the woman limped slightly toward Edward, examining him with wide eyes, before she asked a little shaken, "M-Master?"

Everyone around looked at her a little strangely, including Edward. A little confused, he asked, "Do I know you?"

The woman still looked shaken for some reason, and tears started welling up in her eyes. Edward was gobsmacked as he wondered what he made to make her cry, he tried feeling her feeling through his Chi Sense, but there seemed to be something covering her spirit from his senses.

Edward didn't think much of it at first, but then noticed there was something even more familiar with whatever was blocking her Spirit from his.

However, he couldn't put his finger on it, and while he was thinking a transparent figure left her body, a soul. However, it wasn't hers, but it was the figure of a man.

A man very similar to everyone in the room, as a carbon copy of him stood before the soul. The soul stood unbothered by the gazes of everyone though as he waved at Edward and said, "Yo, main body. Quite the surprise aren't I?"