Chapter 135: Interstellar Travel

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"Already?"

"Starro was only one of the first to come because of his relationship with Shuma-Gorath, so he thought he could take advantage of his earliness and conquer the Earth before the others came, but he was stopped. Now, we need to stop the rest."

Edward sighed as he knew Stephen was right. Still, it had only been a few days since Starro, and he wanted some rest.

Stephen smiled as he knew what Edward was thinking about, and said, "While it may not necessarily compare to a nuclear explosion, the tournament to become the Sorcerer Supreme was quite intense. That Doom guy you faced in New York some time ago nearly had me."

Edward nodded slowly, before asking, "You got anything from that?"

Stephen replied, "Many strong entities accepted to make great contracts with me because of my new identity as the Sorcerer Supreme, and I was also granted a few things from the Vishanti. Although I don't match up to what the Ancient One used to be, I would say I've caught up to you."

Edward smiled, bemused. It wasn't that he didn't believe Stephen, he actually did, it was simply… funny.

Had it been before his trip to Arda, he would have felt this was unfair, he wouldn't have complained to anyone, but he would have been dissatisfied that Stephen could just make such a big jump in terms of power by obtaining a position.

Now though, Edward didn't really care. Everyone had their own path, some were born to become strong, while others may do so through hard work.

Actually, Edward wondered whether he was born to be strong, or if he fell in the hard work category. If he had to guess, he would say a bit of the first, and a lot of the second.

He felt like he couldn't put himself in a single category though, and thinking about it, it was probably the case for everyone.

Although it was through his own efforts, if Edward hadn't had his Sixth Chakra half opened, then maybe he would never have been able to awaken his Spirit. Or maybe he would have, simply after a longer time.

Whatever the answer was, he didn't know it, and so he believed to be in both. It was the same for others, even Thor, who was born to become the strongest Asgardian, reached his level of power through hard work too. Had he simply lazed around, even Loki would have become much stronger than him.

So yes, Edward was bemused, not by the situation itself, but by what his reaction would have been before Arda. It was pointless, and fortunately he had grown past that.

Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Edward asked Strange, "What exactly is it that you want to do?"

Stephen replied, "We don't have enough numbers to fight all over the Earth, nor would we be able to protect the people. For this situation, the Ancient One had started designing a spell from the Vishanti that would create a giant Mirror Dimension to use as a battlefield, but obviously it's not that simple to cast."

Edward nodded slightly, although there were Supers pretty much everywhere on Earth, many demons were immune to physical attacks in one way or another, so most Supers would be useless in a fight against them.

Stephen scratched the back of his head and said, "I need a specific item to activate the array, but I won't be able to get it myself as I have to prepare Earth's defences, gather our forces and… well, it's not exactly easy to get it, so I can only ask you…"

Edward held up his hand, stopping him, and asked, "Tell me what you want me to do."

Stephen waved his hand, and a projection appeared in the air. He explained, "This is Markar, a planet which used to be inhabited by a peaceful race of biologically strong humanoids. However, some years ago, a species known as the Blood Parasites took over the planet, killing everything on it."

Edward threw a glare at Stephen, a bit bothered by what he heard. Stephen himself seemed to shiver a little as he continued while the image of the planet turned to a humanoid, "Those Blood Parasites nests themselves into the brain of those they take over, and completely control their nervous system. They also feed on spinal fluids…"

"Stephen, seriously, stop. That's disgusting. Just tell me what you want."

Stephen coughed as the image of a Blood Parasite appeared before Edward, it had a central mass, to which several long tendrils were connected. If Stephen were to zoom, they would be able to see many small teeth-like indentations on those tendrils, which were what allowed the parasites to control the nervous system of beings.

The image then changed to a much bigger version of the parasites, with even bigger tendrils as Stephen explained, "This is the Queen, the Blood Parasites all share a telepathic bond, and they all serve the Queen. What I need, is exactly this queen."

"Anything else I need to know?" Edward frowned slightly, this wasn't going to be exactly easy.

"The people possessed by Blood Parasites are basically zombies, their bodies are dead, and so is their mind, so mercy would be to finish them. Also, they mostly live underground, so you would spend a long time in tunnels."

"Sounds like a wonderful vacation."

"Always knew you had weird tastes." Edward rolled his eyes at that, and sighed, "So, about transportation, is Markar in our galaxy? I can teleport about anywhere within our galaxy, but if it isn't then I would be troubled."

Stephen shook his head and replied, "No worries, it is within the Milky Way. However, I won't be able to send you there, as I only know vaguely about that planet. Thankfully, it is not too far from Xandar, so you can go there first, and take a spaceship there… Well, I guess you could probably fly in outer space, I wouldn't be surprised if you could."

Edward smiled and didn't say anything, but Stephen clicked his tongue in annoyance as he perfectly understood what he meant. Edward could travel in space as he wanted, the void of space was no problem to him.

Edward already had Xandar's destination set, meaning he could open a portal to the planet at any he wished. Stephen sighed and apologized, "Sorry to give you the hard work, you somehow always end up taking things onto yourself."

Edward replied, "Don't be sorry, as Voltaire would say, 'great powers come with great responsibility'."

"I'm glad you take it so well then. I asked you because I know you are stronger against those kinds of enemies, but still, don't go die on some random planet to some lousy parasites." Stephen joked lightly, but his tone was serious.

Edward snorted, "Who do you take me for? I'm the king of AOE, it's basically my speciality to wipe out armies. Those zombies can't be that strong, and even an entire planet's worth of enemies isn't enough to tire me down."

That was actually true as one of the factors for the concentration of Chi in a certain area was the number of living being living on it, as the more people there were, the more Chi they would passively absorb, even for ordinary people.

As for Edward, he was actually more of a purifier than a big absorber. Although Edward absorbed a lot of Chi, he also released about as much of it, and it was in a much purer form, so being around him was actually good for health, as they Chi around the person would be stronger.

For Markar, although the parasites were probably living beings, they shouldn't consume a lot of Chi considering their size, and their hosts were zombies, so they were dead. As for the planet, it looked pretty barren from what Edward could see, so considering it was a world that had hosted life for millions of years before their eradication to the Blood Parasites, the Chi there should be quite plenty.

Meaning that over there, Edward should theoretically not feel the same shortage of Chi as he does on Earth, and so even if the entire planet throws itself at him, even if he didn't have enough Chi to wipe all of them out, he most certainly had a strong enough regeneration to wither them out.

Stephen nodded slightly at Edward's words, and after a moment of silence wished him good luck, before portaling away.

Once the now Sorcerer Supreme was gone, Edward moved back into the house, and headed to Diana's workshop. He found her there, working on a digital tablet.

He walked behind her, and wordlessly hugged her from above. Diana smiled, and decided to remain silent to enjoy the gesture.

They stayed like that for a few minutes, before Edward sighed. Diana slightly rubbed his arm and asked, "What's making you sigh?"

Edward replied, "Problems, again."

"Earth is in danger, again? What is it this time?"

"Demons. Lots of them."

"So magician stuff. You need help?"

Edward tightened his hug on her before replying, "Maybe. For now, I need to go into space to go search for something."

"Space? How long will you be gone?" Diana had stopped working by now.

Edward shrugged in response to her inquiry, "I don't really know, definitely less than a month, but I could be back tomorrow like I could return in four weeks."

"Then we're lucky you improved those coins yet again. We can now hold proper conversations." Diana praised Edward, and the later nodded this time.

"You're leaving again?"

Both Edward and Diana turned to see Donna, her training spear in her hands, and a sad expression on her face.

Edward sighed again, "Sorry, I would like to stay, but…"

"But there's always a but." Donna shot back, more sad than angry.

Seeing this, Edward dragged her over with his telekinesis, and pulled her into the hug before saying, "Donna, you know I wouldn't go if it wasn't necessary."

Then, with a teasing smile he added, "Besides, it could also be a good opportunity for you, you know."

Donna rolled her eyes at that, not breaking out of the hug but still lamenting, "I know, train my spear technique, stab the leaves…"

Edward merely guffawed, "Train your Tekken techniques! I wiped the floor way too easily! You should train in zombies too, last time we only lasted 21 rounds on Moon. Do you know how embarrassing that is to me?"

Donna tried to act tough, but ended up laughing, and was quickly followed by both of her parents. The mood now lightened, Edward decided to spend most of the rest of the day with his daughter, as well as with Spyro, who was growing by the day.

As for Diana, although they spent some time together, it wasn't anything special. She was an adult, and quite an old one… Edward hoped for his life she didn't suddenly learn to read his thoughts, yet there's that sudden killing intent…

But anyway, she understood more about his duties, his responsibilities, and although she would rather have him at home, she knew he would ask for help if she could be useful.

Unfortunately, all things, good or bad, had to end, and so after a rather funny day, Edward teleported to Xandar.