Chapter 124: Dao

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Stephen scratched his cheek, but as he looked around he exclaimed, "Right, the black hole did serve a purpose in maintaining balance in the galaxy's orbital trajectory. Are you sure your tiny black hole is going to be enough?"

Edward snorted, "First, don't ever say that again. And yes, for now it is weak because we are next to it, but in less than a year it will devour enough stars to grow to it's usual size."

Yao intervened, "I'm no expert in black holes, but it sounds a little unusual for a black hole to reach the level of a supermassive one in only a year. And you said you were following nature's order, but how did you create a black hole exactly?"

Edward, hearing the question, showed his empty palm to the two, before closing it into a fist. Then, a couple of seconds later, he opened it like a budding flower, and in the center of his palm was a miniature black hole.

"My powers allow me to create weak black hole-like entities, although they aren't really black holes. But as I was staring at the place where the previous black hole used to be, I felt something whisper to my mind, and I followed. So if it's your question, I wouldn't be able to recreate a supermassive black hole whenever I want."

The two nodded slightly, still stunned Edward was capable of creating black holes whenever he wanted, even if they were small in size. Edward, seeing this, slightly shook his head, a smile on his lips, before closing his eyes and concentrating.

A few seconds later, a portal opened before Edward, one leading to Earth. This time, the two showed as much shock as the other, and Yao asked, "I thought you were confined to Yggdrasil?"

Edward grinned, "My energy reserves were massively improved, and my understanding of space has also increased by a great deal. I think I'm only a step away from forming a Divinity for the element of Space… But enough chit chat, the black hole is about to get stronger, and believe me, we won't be able to survive it. What we faced earlier was nothing compared to a real black hole."

The two nodded, and the group of three walked through the portal, entering Kamar-Taj.

Now back on Earth, Edward nodded at Yao and Stephen, before saying, "With that, gentlemen, I will be leaving."

He made a short bow, not unlike a Victorian Era noble, making Stephen smile, but Yao did not seem so amused. Instead, he sighed, "Unfortunately, I still have one thing to ask the two of you?"

Edward and Stephen both raised an eyebrow in surprise, their gesture strangely similar to the other. It was unknown who gave his habit to the other…

"Shuma-Gorath, as powerful as he is, needed a beacon to find our world in the void… " Yao began, but Stephen quickly cut him to ask, "The void?"

The Ancient One nodded, "Yes, the void, the emptiness behind most black holes. The outside of the universe, where nothing exists. Don't think about it."

Edward's face became grave, as he could already feel where this conversation was leading to, although he didn't know about Shuma-Gorath, he had read about the Great Old Ones, and their supposed 'immortality'.

Still, with a sliver of hope, Edward asked, "The beacon… you know where they are. Somewhere on Earth?"

Stephen looked confused, while Yao smiled softly, "I know you've already understood, Edward. I'm the beacon."

Edward remained silent for the first two seconds, before a heavy sighed left his lips. Still confused, Stephen asked, "What is the problem? I understand having a beacon will allow him to find our dimension, but each try to enter our dimension takes thousands of years, and even if you remove the beacon, I doubt Shuma-Gorath would be troubled to find another."

Edward looked into Yao's eyes, and saw his resolve, so he explained, "No, Stephen. It isn't so easy for a Great Old One to make a beacon. The Great Old Ones are known to be immortal not because killing them physically is impossible, but because they possess the ability to invade the mind of whoever managed to kill them, and slowly take control, thus creating another vessel."

Yao revealed, "A thousand years ago, not long after I became the Sorcerer Supreme, Shuma-Gorath managed to send a part of himself into our dimension, and I defeated it. However, a piece of his mind latched onto me, which I have been resisting and using for the past thousand years. He is the reason I managed to live for so long as a human."

Edward added, "But he is now awakening, and you won't be able to resist him anymore, so if nothing is done, Shuma-Gorath will gain direct access into our realm."

Stephen's face turned grave, and he asked, "What are our solutions then?"

Yao sighed, but before he could talk Edward said, "We can enter his mind, and battle Shuma-Gorath's mind in there."

Yao frowned, "No, you won't take such a danger only to save an old man like me. I have already lived longer than I should, by a large margin. I haven't kept you here to save me, I want you to absorb my soul."

Stephen's eyes widened as he exclaimed, "Have you gone senile?! That's a total extinction of the soul, why would you want that?!"

Edward bit his lips, and explained, "It's better than to become Shuma-Gorath's slave… But you can't ask me that, without even trying to save you."

"It's good to see you are not drunk on power, but this is my last will. I have felt the energy wave from the black hole's destruction strengthen your Chi, you must probably have reached one of those limits. Absorb my spirit, reach your limit, and overcome it to become a better protector of Earth."

Edward had talked about his cultivation to the Ancient One more than once, so the old man understood how beneficial this would be to Edward, other than helping him.

But Edward still shook his head, and insisted, "I won't let you die without trying anything. Moreover, our last fight with Shuma-chan felt anticlimatic, this would serve to be a nice boss battle."

Stephen grinned, and Yao's face scrunched up as a baleful aura came out from his body, before he quickly managed to rein it in.

Edward grinned too, and continued, "Looks like Shuma-chan doesn't like our way of addressing him. I do wonder how he understood that, but I'm glad he got angry. Come on, you can't keep us out when your guest wants to see us so much."

Yao looked at the eager faces of his two apprentices, pride arising from the bottom of his heart, as well as guilt. He taught them well, perhaps too well, why couldn't they just let him die, that would make everything simpler.

Despite the Ancient One's reluctance, they prepared everything that needed to be prepared for them to safely enter the Ancient One's mind, before finally doing it.

The insides of the Ancient One's mind were pretty similar to any other human's mindscape, but it felt quite different. From the moment they entered, Edward and Stephen felt a darkness lurking in the mindscape, watching them from afar while trying to take the territory for itself.

As Edward and Stephen approached the center of Yao's mind, where his Soul resided, they felt the darkness thicken, and a pressure weight on their minds.

Finally, the duo reached Yao's soul, and the spectacle wasn't one they enjoyed.

There was only Yao there, as he should be, be there was a black mark on his chest, on that spread slowly to the rest of his soul, while also releasing a dark aura outside.

Yao smiled helplessly and said, "It looks bad, but this was actually the best way to stop his progression, and allow me to live for so long… I will free Shuma-Gorath from my soul, cleansing myself, but also allowing him to use his powers. You either destroy him, or destroy my soul, and his access to my soul will be bared."

Edward and Stephen nodded, having already agreed beforehand that Edward would be the one to deal the finishing blow. Unlike Stephen, Edward had the Freezing Crystal to protect himself, and even without it his mind was much stronger. If Shuma-Gorath tried to enter his mind, he would probably end up as a nutriment.

Yao took a deep breath, and said, "Before we start, let me fill you in about Shuma-Gorath, and his powers. He is capable of reality warping, and an extremely high level of it, so as long as he wishes to, he can attack in any way he wants, so expect anything.

"However, he has his preferences, such as using his body, crushing enemies with his pressure, or soul and spirit attacks, so be on guard against those kinds of attacks. As for his weaknesses, it would mainly be his pride."

Edward nodded shortly, wondering what would come on top between his Freezing Crystal and Shuma-chan. The Freezing Crystal had even been a danger to Gandalf, whom was the equivalent of a god in Arda.

Shuma-chan was much stronger than that, but only a part of him was within the Ancient One's mind, so the level of danger should be reduced.

Hence, Edward's Freezing Crystal actually stood a chance against Shuma-chan.

Well, there was only one way to know, and that was to fight. Although he expected a lot from his Freezing Crustal, Edward didn't completely rely on it, as he had already thought of more than one way to fight the interdimensional demon.

As for Stephen, he was a little more stressed, his eyes were closed as he thought of spells that would be useful, and others that wouldn't.

They couldn't just use any magic in a landscape, they would be fighting as spirit, against spirit, so many magics would be useless, or perhaps not even available for us.

Fortunately, Sorcerers were created to defend Earth against demons, and many of those demons were spiritual in essence, so many of the spells of the Sorcerers could be used in a spirit form.

As for Edward, the panel of spells he could use was much larger than Strange, not only did he know all the spells written in both Kamar-Taj and Frigga's library, he had even started designing some of his own spells.

For now, those spells weren't the strongest, but in some situations they could be more useful than other. Also, Edward had his Concepts, and the skills that came with them.

Speaking of which, Edward had finally found an appropriate name for his skills, those martial techniques that followed his understanding of his Concepts to use his Concepts to the best, such as his Cruising Palm.

And the name he had chosen for those techniques, were Dao Techniques. The Dao was a Chinese term that more or less meant 'The Way', not as in asking the way, but more of the Way of the World, the rules of the universe and this kind of things.

In a way, his Concepts followed that ideology, he was understanding the rules of different aspects of the universe, or Dao, and using his knowledge of those rules to either go around them, or manipulate them at his will.

And so he had a few Dao Techniques already, other than his Cruising Palm, some of them even using the strength of two Concepts for stronger effects.

But back to the situation at hand, as Stephen opened his eyes, Yao sighed lightly, and said, "Let's begin."