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At Edward's touch, frost appeared on the Ancient One's arm, quickly turning his arm into ice, and spreading to the rest of his body.
Edward fell tears well up to his eyes, he didn't like to cry, it was a matter of pride, but as he personally killed his master in Mystical Arts, he couldn't help it.
Yao smiled lightly, and said, "I have already lived far longer than I should have, it's time for me to go. Just know that I am proud of who you are turning to become, and don't regret teaching you the Mystical Arts."
Edward nodded, lowering his head to hide his face. Meanwhile, Shuma-Gorath felt like laughing watching this, he didn't care about the Ancient One dying.
He would have made a good nourishment, but he didn't need him any longer to enter this universe, as he already had a perfectly fine prey before him.
The Ancient One's soul quickly was completely transformed into an icy sculpture, still the same smile on his face. Then, he shattered, and was absorbed by Edward.
With a sob, Edward felt the power of his Spirit rapidly rise, quickly reaching the peak of his realm, with still quite some energy left.
Edward put aside the last vestiges of the Ancient One's Soul, and felt the changes this brought to him. Now, both of his Soul and his Body had reached the peak of his realm, normally making him ready for a breakthrough.
However, Edward could also feel there was a problem, even without trying. His Soul.
Absorbing the Ancient One's Soul had allowed his own to become much stronger, but it still wasn't enough. Once again, the consequences of his perfect breakthroughs made his next breakthrough even harder.
To breakthrough to Nascent Soul was to fuse Yin and Yang, the Spirit and the Body. Merging two opposite forces was not something easy to do though, and so the Soul had to be strong enough to fuse the two.
But with Edward's perfect breakthroughs, both his Spirit and Body had become so strong that merging them had become too difficult, while his Soul had barely improved since he started cultivation.
The only time had been when Edward had opened the Seventh Chakra, the Crown Chakra, and even then the breakthrough hadn't made his soul nearly strong enough for this.
This meant Edward would have to find a way to make his soul stronger, but that was easier said than done. He could absorb the Spirit of others and use it to strengthen his own, but for their souls, he could only destroy them, not make their energy his own.
"That was quite foolish, and useless. I have already trapped the surrounding space, all I need now is to get into your mind and I will be able to invade your reality."
Shuma-Gorath mocked from the sky, looking down at Edward in contempt.
Edward dried his tears, and did not say a word as the Freezing Crystal resting in his mind released a way of frost outward.
The tentacles surrounding Edward started showing signs of frost, before breaking into pieces where they were hit. Without a hint of hesitation, Shuma-Gorath cut off those tentacles before the frost could attain his main body, and looked at Edward with a hint of fear.
"What was that?!"
Edward closed his eyes, and gathered all of the Ancient One's remaining energy and sent it to the Freezing Crystal.
The natural treasure from Arda was suddenly invigorated as it pumped cold energy at a fast speed, forming a blizzard outside of Edward's body.
The Freezing Crystal was the nemesis of any Spirit and Soul when Edward picked it up, and as he fused with it, it started growing stronger with his Spirit.
Now that his Spirit had reached the limit of the Revolving Core Realm, it had grown much stronger. Moreover, the sudden influx of energy had boosted it's capacities for a short time. Enough to deal with Shuma-Gorath.
Shuma-Gorath tried to flee, but the blizzard was upon his soul in no time, and he quickly began freezing. His eye, filled with fear, looked at Edward in wonder. He couldn't understand this power, nor could he understand this man.
Shuma-Gorath's fear quickly subsided though, and as he was about to die, he said, "This won't be the end, morta…"
Before he could finish his sentence though, Edward appeared before him, and destroyed his soul with a kick. The ice fragments gathered toward Edward, but he chose to completely destroy them as he not only had already reached the limit for his realm, he also didn't forget about the curse Shuma-Gorath used to revive himself, implanting himself in the minds of those who killed him.
With the one who kept this dimension going, gone, Edward was sent away as his Spirit returned to his body.
Opening his eyes, Edward saw the Ancient One's body slumped over his favourite tea table, while Stephen was looking pale, his eyes still red.
Edward felt power like never before, but he couldn't find it in himself to be happy. Stephen, with a hoarse voice, said, "Let's bury him where he asked us to."
Edward nodded shortly, not saying a word as the Ancient one's body started levitating. Stephen opened a portal, and they arrived in a beautiful place.
They were on top of a mountain, and the sun could be seen rising in the horizon. The Ancient One's body was put down, and Edward said softly, "We should dig his tomb with our hands… I'll make his coffin."
An Eldritch shovel was summoned by Stephen, and Edward uprooted a large tree down the mountain, and using it's wood crafted a marble-like coffin. Changing the type of wood was all too easy for him…
They dug a grave, and placed the Ancient One in it, before lowering him down six feet underground. They placed several enchantments, both to protect the coffin, and preserve the corpse.
The funeral was done in a small comity, and only the two of them knew where the grave was. As the two stood before the freshly dug grave, their emotions stabilized, Edward said, "You need to become the Sorcerer Supreme now."
Stephen frowned, and after a moment of hesitation asked, "Why don't you become the Sorcerer Supreme yourself?"
Without any hesitation, Edward shook his head and said, "No, Yao wanted you to succeed him, and so do I. I'm not fit."
"You are much stronger than me, including in magic."
"And I'll always be there to help you. But you need to become the Sorcerer Supreme yourself, and you must hurry up. You know what the Sorcerer Supreme's death means."
Stephen nodded gravely, of course he did. The Ancient One had kept many demons at bay through reputation alone, and now that Earth's greatest defender had perished, many demons would flock from their holes to attack Earth.
Stephen looked into the sky, before sighing, "I know, of course I do. But I'm not even sure I can become the Sorcerer Supreme. I will have to face all the magicians of Earth in a tournament, and win. And do that before the demons arrive."
Edward smiled slightly and said, "At least you won't face the strongest."
"You cocky bastard."
Edward laughed, and opened a portal home. Sending a last nod at Stephen, who did the same, Edward closed the portal behind him.
Edward had arrived in his Japanese Garden, and he sat down on one of the rocks to start meditating. His mind was in a mess with the Ancient One's death.
But after a moment, a soft sigh escaped his lips, and he disappeared from where he was, appearing at the edge of his Chi Sense.
Direct Teleportation was quite the convenient power, but it was quite hard to pull off. He needed to concentrate, be still, and the level of visualization was such that he could only teleport to a place within his Chi Sense.
So it was mostly unusable in his fights, as anyone who could become a problem to him in a fight would have more than enough time to kill him while he concentrated to teleport. Only in more unique situation such as his fight with Shuma-Gorath could he really use it in combat.
Anyway, Edward appeared next to Donna, his daughter, who was training with the spear against a tree.
Grabbing the shaft of her spear, he stopped her and asked, "Why are you ruining my trees?"
Donna smiled sheepishly and replied, "I'm going traditional!"
"Traditional?" Edward had honestly no idea of what she was talking about, but summed it up on the age difference. He was getting too old… Grandpa Edward.
"I thought you used the sword?" That though, was not something youth could explain.
Donna replied, "I only used the sword because I was forced to, but I never really liked it. But I saw you train with the spear the other day, and so I wanted to try it out…"
By the end of her sentence, Donna was growing sheepish. Edward smiled at that and took the spear from her hands before saying, "Then I will teach you the spear."
Donna grinned, and the two started training. Some time later, Diana arrived with snacks, and the training went on for most of the day. Although young, Donna was stronger than any adult, so it wasn't much of a problem for her to train all day.
For the next few days, Edward relaxed with his family at home, recovering from the death of the Ancient One, while resting for the trouble he knew was about to come.
Unfortunately, the trouble did eventually come, in the form of a phone call.
"Director Fury, what owes me the pleasure? I don't remember giving you my number."
Although he said that, Edward knew how easy it was for someone like Fury to get his number. There wasn't much he could do about this though, a phone was quite useful, and not many people would manage to find it and annoy him.
Fury ignored Edward's second question and said, "Big trouble. Very big."
Edward sighed, and asked, "Where is this trouble?"
"It landed in the Atlantic."
"So you are want me to search the entire ocean for a big trouble?"
"With it's size, it's bound to have made a commotion. I'm sure you will manage. Or maybe you need help? Like… a team?"
Edward almost laughed out loud at Fury's words, he was good, he was good…
"I'll be fine for now. Don't put people's life at risk for your schemes."
Fury snorted on the other side of the phone, "I work for the people of the world, before anyone else."
Edward hummed, satisfied with the answer, before hanging up, and opening a portal to the Atlantic.