Chapter 125: Shuma-Gorath

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The mass of darkness sticking to the Ancient One's soul released a strange wail as it was forcefully separated from the old man.

Yao's soul visibly grew dim as he extracted Shuma-Gorath's soul fragment from himself, but he kept going as the mass of darkness started forming a body.

Finally, as the last piece of Shuma-Gorath left Yao's soul, the old man slumped backwards, his soul flickering unstably. Obviously, he would be useless for this fight.

The mass of darkness in the mind of the Ancient One quickly ended it's transformation, to reveal the shape of Shuma-Gorath's body.

Shuma-Gorath had the body of a lovecraftian creature, the center of his body was a giant eye, to which many tentacles were connected.

The ancient creature's eye first went to the Ancient One, before settling onto Edward and Stephen. Then, a voice they recognized as Shuma-Gorath's sounded in their ears, "So you really came… To think I would be gifted with such quality souls as soon as I arrived in this universe. For that, you have my thanks."

Edward raised a hand, and a giant fireball appeared above him as he said, "Here's another gift, Shuma-chan."

The fireball continued growing in size as Edward threw it toward Shuma-Gorath, who grumbled in annoyance and swiped several of his tentacles at the fireball. However, as they were about to make contact, the fireball suddenly made a swerve in the air, bypassing the tentacles to hit Shuma-Gorath in the eye.

The fireball was quite strong, but to someone like Shuma-Gorath, it had very little danger, so all Shuma-Gorath did was to close his eye, his eyelid negating the damage.

But as he opened it again, he saw a bunch of ice pikes had appeared in the air, and with a wave of Stephen's arm, they started raining down on him.

Shuma-Gorath did not close his eye this time though as he had lost sight of Edward, and didn't want to be sneak attacked, so he used several of his tentacles to block the incoming ice.

As Shuma-Gorath raised his tentacles from the ground though, it revealed Edward, spear in hand. Of course, it wasn't the real Aeglos he had in hand, he was not in the material world, but all Edward needed was a spear.

Edward's spear rose as fast as lighting, cutting off one of Shuma-Gorath tentacles with the slash, while a pillar of earth rose from underneath Shuma-Gorath, smashing into his eye with Edward's motion.

Using the momentum of his spear, Edward also jumped, reaching the same height as Shuma-Gorath, before bringing down his spear. This time, the blade of his spear was covered in wind, and extended, as he brought it down on Shuma-Gorath's eye.

However, before it could connect, one of the demon's tentacles appeared before Edward and smashed into him, sending him flying and cancelling his attack.

But Shuma-Gorath was stopped from following up as several invisible claws appeared all around him, each one trying to tear him apart.

With a simple snort of Shuma-Gorath, all the claws were destroyed, and Shuma-Gorath's tentacles seemed to expand to infinity as they covered the sky, leaving no escape for the two.

Neither were scared though, as the Sorcerer raised both hands in the air, and summoned the Seven Suns of Cinnibus. The holy light of the seven suns eroded at the tentacles, slowing them down, and withering them.

At the same time, Edward performed a long cut with his spear, rending the air and the ground apart as a spear of earth and wind rushed toward Shuma-Gorath's eye. Without waiting to see the result, Edward made several slashes in the air, while his feet tapped on the ground in a strange rhythm.

As the two elemental spears reached Shuma-Gorath, the slashes of Edward took form as crescents of energy, and they remained in suspended animation above his head, forming an Eastern dragon's face.

An illusory roar came from the dragon head as it finally left it's suspended animation, and the dragon head formed with spear slashes kept it's form together as it headed for Shuma-Gorath.

Meanwhile, the ground below Edward shifted to form a long serpentine body, which attached itself to the dragon head, forming a full eastern dragon more than ten meters long.

Stephen, who was in the middle of a spell, couldn't help but gap as he saw the way Edward attacked. Yao, who could only watch the fight from the side, also looked surprised, he had known for a while Edward was able to use Reality Manipulation, making him one of the rare Reality Warpers on Earth.

But it seemed Edward had reached quite the level in his Reality Warping, to be able to make such attacks.

Actually, even Shuma-Gorath, a Reality Warper himself, felt shock at the attack. Not only was it powerful enough to be a danger, as Shuma-Gorath tried to use his own Reality Warping on the dragon, he felt rejection from the world.

Something not very known was that there were levels of precedence in Reality Warping, because of the small amount of Reality Warpers. Usually, this wouldn't matter much, but against other Reality Warpers, this was very important.

One's level of precedence did not determine the power of one's Reality Warping, but rather the authority one had over it compared to others.

In terms of scale and power, even in his weakened form, Shuma-Gorath was leagues ahead of Edward, and if he wished to he could create much more powerful constructs than Edward's dragon.

However, no matter how much power he tried to use, he wouldn't be able to affect Edward's area, for his level of precedence was lower.

This was very alarming to Shuma-Gorath, because this meant Edward was a danger.

As one of the strongest and oldest beings in existence, one that predated even the Multiverse, Shuma-Gorath had faced tons of Reality Warpers, with different levels of Precedence.

Levels of Precedence weren't immutable, for example Shuma-Gorath's precedence in his conquered universes was much higher than in foreign dimensions, and the difference was even greater in his home dimension, where he was considered omnipotent.

But here, Shuma-Gorath felt that Edward's level of precedence was unprecedented. He had faced many things in his life, some so powerful they could destroy whole dimensions with but a thought.

However, none of them ever held such a Precedence. Shuma-Gorath could feel that even if they were in his home dimension, his level of Precedence would still be lower than Edward's, and that was unacceptable.

For now, Edward was weak, but if he ever grew strong enough to challenge him, Shuma-Gorath knew he would have nowhere to run. Against all existences he met until now, when he was defeated, all he had to do was to go back to his home dimension, and his level of Precedence would allow him to overpower them, hence why he was said to be omnipotent in his home dimension.

Actually, the same could be said about many entities, and if they wanted to conquer other dimensions it was to expand their great precedence to more areas.

Unfortunately for Edward and Stephen, Shuma-Gorath, who had been playing until now, finally grew serious as he felt a threat to his existence.

Shuma-Gorath's Aura Pressure, which he had hidden until now, blasted out at full strength, fully intending on crushing the two humans into meat paste. But before it could even reach Edward's attack, his own Royal Will erupted from his body.

The world around Edward turned black and white, losing all colours, while the world around Shuma-Gorath turned bleak and dark.

In between their two spheres of influence, black lightning erupted out as they clashed, fighting for dominance.

Shuma-Gorath's only eyelid squinted as he tried to make his Aura Pressure stronger, but as it was a by-product of his presence, there wasn't much he could do to make it stronger.

On the other hand, Edward's Royal Will was an extension of his Spirit and Will, and as such, it's strength was influenced by his state of mind.

And right now, Edward was feeling incredibly excited, as he was finally getting a satisfying fight allowing him to go all out. It also helped him get the power up he got from strengthening his Core to the limit in the black hole's destruction.

If before Thor, Diana and others of their category were still a notch stronger than him, Edward could feel that he was now much closer to their strength level. If they were to fight to the death, although Edward was still weaker, he guessed he would probably win 3 out of 10 times.

Anyway, as Edward was excited, his Royal Will was only strengthened, and started gaining ground on Shuma-Gorath's Aura Pressure.

Moreover, Edward's dragon attack reached the place where their two influences were fighting, and seemed to give Edward's Royal Will the final push it needed to crush Shuma-Gorath's Aura Pressure.

As his Aura Pressure retreated to his body, the dragon attack also reached Shuma-Gorath, smashing into his eye, which he closed to offer himself some protection.

But as the dragon head, made of congealed spear slashes, reached his eyelid, it was ruthlessly sliced opened, even injuring the eye behind.

Then, the dragon's body straightened as it turned into a pillar, which smashed into his injured eye. It entered deep into Shuma-Gorath's eye, but the attack wasn't over as the scales stood up, and were fired all around, mutilating the eye from the inside.

A wail of pain came from Shuma-Gorath as his tentacles smashed around, destroying everything in sight. Edward and Stephen retreated a safe distance away, watching as Shuma-Gorath entered his death throes.

However, as they thought the fight was won, Shuma-Gorath stretched his tentacles high in the sky, and deep into the ground. In both directions, they were stopped by a barrier, but the tentacles pierced through the barrier.

A cry of pain came from the Ancient One, and his soul blurred from a moment, shocking Edward and Stephen. They both tried to attack the tentacles, but before their attacks reached the tentacles, they pulled, and the barrier shattered.

An even greater agony assaulted the Ancient One as he felt his mind getting destroyed, and the barrier around him, which had protected him since the beginning of the fight, was destroyed.

Shuma-Gorath once again ignored the attack of the two, and rushed toward the Ancient One. Both Edward and Stephen threw caution to the wind, and also rushed toward the Ancient One, to protect him.

But mid flight, several tentacles erupted from the ground, and before either of them could dodge, they trapped them.

They both felt a strong force trying to crush them come from the tentacles, and felt the grip was so strong it was impossible for them to escape.

With a grave look in his eyes, Stephen nodded at Edward, before disappearing. This was one of the counter measures they had put in place, an instant retreat in case they were in mortal danger.

As for Edward, he also disappeared from the tentacle's hold, but not by using the counter measure, instead by appearing between the Ancient One and Shuma-Gorath.

This was a power Edward had unlocked when his Space Concept reached the peak, Teleportation.

Not through a portal, but actual teleportation. His whole being would move from one place, to the other, instantly. A shift in space.

Of course, for such a great power, he couldn't just use it as he wished. But that would be for another time, as Shuma-Gorath was upon Edward.

Shuma-Gorath many tentacles smashed toward Edward, who punched back repeatedly, but what could two fists do against countless tentacles.

Edward was blasted backwards, into the Ancient One, and the two stumbled a few meters. By the time they got back on their feet, the whole world around them was surrounded by tentacles, and Shuma-Gorath's great eye was looking down at them in amusement. The fight was his.

The Ancient One sighed at the spectacle, and said, "It's time to let go… Edward, do your best to help Stephen once he takes over as Sorcerer Supreme. Take it as an old man's last request."

Edward clenched his fists, angry, he didn't want to do this, but also understood he didn't have a choice. Looking down, Edward nodded, before grabbing the Ancient One's by the arm.