Chapter 141: Great Sorcerer War (1)

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As he struggled to regain his breath, Super Skrull looked at Edward, who had been glowing like a sun a minute ago, and asked, "Did you… did you really absorb that thing?"

Edward smiled and didn't say anything, making Super Skrull gulp. Inwardly, he swore to himself that he would set Edward as a universal level threat as soon as he came back to his home world.

Edward tapped his finger toward one of the pieces left from the wreckage earlier, and it was drawn over to them as Edward said, "I believe those were the people chasing after you. It means our agreement is now over."

Super Skrull nodded slightly, before looking around and asking, "But how are we coming back to Xandar? We can't possibly drift back to Xandar on this rock."

Edward shook his head at that and opened a portal, "I won't be coming with you, jump into this portal and you'll arrive in Xandar."

Super Skrull looked at the portal apprehensively, his wariness over Edward once again rising as he also wondered whether this really led to where Edward said. Maybe he would want to hide his real prowess after all…

"Or maybe this leads into a star. Who knows." Edward knew what was on his mind, so he joked. Actually, he preferred for the universe to know the danger he represented, as there was nothing like dissuasion to keep the peace ongoing.

After a moment, Super Skrull steeled his resolve, and jumped through the portal.

As he arrived on the other side, he didn't recognize the place at the first glance, but after a few seconds, his breath stopped as he recognized this place as Xandar. However, it was in ruins, and spaceships were fighting in the sky.

He turned toward the portal, but it had already been closed.

Back on Markar, Edward, who was unaware of what was happening on Xandar, hummed slightly to himself as he closed the portal, and opened another, this one leading to Earth.

Edward did not directly go home though, as he wanted to hand what he came to Markar for as soon as possible.

So Edward appeared in Kamar-Taj, in the library. As he arrived, he realized it was uncharacteristically empty, so he expended his Chi Sense to search for the Sorcerers, and Stephen.

He found nearly all of them congregated somewhere underground, in the middle of chanting a spell. For this spell to need hundreds of Sorcerers gathering together and chanting together, one could only imagine the might of it.

Edward silently teleported in the room, and hid himself from sight using the power of Concepts. He didn't want to use any of the surrounding magic, it could disturb them.

In the room, Edward saw all the Sorcerers were sitting in a circle, chanting like Buddhist monks under their breath. Below them, was a giant array of great complexity which formed a strange kind of web that went toward the center of the circle.

There, Stephen was sitting cross-legged in mid air, the Eye of Agamotto shining with a bright red light as he powered the array too, but also shaped it.

Unlike the other Sorcerers, Stephen felt Edward coming in and wasn't fooled by his disguise, but he said nothing as he continued using the Eye of Agamotto to create the array.

The Eye of Agamotto was one of the most powerful artefacts in Kamar-Taj wielded only by the Sorcerer Supreme. With it's help, Stephen slowly formed the array, and after another half an hour, the array was finished.

As it was finished, it reduced in size and entered the Eye of Agamotto, hiding inside. Following that, the exhausted Sorcerers returned to their quarters, leaving Edward and Stephen alone.

Without a word, Edward took out the pokeball holding the Queen Parasite, which Stephen easily caught and stored in his own Spatial Bracelet.

Then, Stephen said, "You were faster than I thought you would be, and that's fortunate. The array just now was only part of a larger array, the one that will set the battlefield."

Edward pointed at the Eye of Agamotto and asked, "Why use the Eye of Agamotto to make the array? The old man had other artefacts for better arrays."

Stephen shook his head and replied, "The Eye of Agamotto is first used to discover the truth. Some of those demons may very well be able to hide their true form, and we can't miss any of them, so using the eye will allow the array to find every demon."

Edward nodded slightly, before asking, "Any better estimate of when they will attack?"

"A week."

"That is faster than expected." mused Edward.

"I have taken the decision to let go of our hiding arrays to focus on defence. They are going to find us anyway, and since you came back earlier than planned, I just need to change a few arrays."

Edward raised an eyebrow at that, surprised Kamar-Taj was able to hide the dimensional coordination of the Earth despite many of the demons having been prepared this attack for centuries.

Strange put a hand on Edward's shoulder, and said, "Enjoy the following week, and prepare for the battle. We shall win."

Edward nodded, grinning, "But of course, this is the only plausible outcome for us."

"Of course."

Then, Edward teleported away, to prepare.

Unlike what Stephen advised him to do though, Edward did not go home. Actually, he had never planned to do so.

He had told Diana and Donna he would be gone for a month, and although he didn't expect to find the Queen Parasite so quick, he knew he would take less than five days to find it. As for the demons' attack, even if Strange did not do anything, it would have happened around two weeks from now.

So overall, he was still rather far from that one month he talked about, and that was calculated. The fight with the demons wasn't going to take a single day, their battlefield was going to be the entire Earth, there was a reason for that.

The fight itself should take around a week considering the plans Stephen and Edward had, those left by the Ancient One for instance.

The reason he had said that was not to worry them. They were already plenty worried with him leaving once, so coming back only to go back a week later to fight wouldn't be good for anyone.

So he would rather have them believe he was simply going to a far away location and would take a long travel time.

So instead of going home, he teleported to the top of Mount Everest, where he entered meditation. Time seemed to pass in a flash as Edward did not train during this week. Instead, he simply meditated, preparing his mind for what was to come, emptying unneeded thoughts.

Until the fateful day came.

On the 16th of November 2011, unknown to almost everyone on Earth, Edward and the Sorcerers around the world were about to risk their lives to save the planet.

Edward had thought about asking for help, for example the newly formed Justice League his girlfriend was part of, could have helped them, and so could have the armies over the world, but in the end they decided it would only end badly.

Although some of those demons were purely physical in power, many were also spiritual in nature, meaning Supers like Superman, Diana, Aquaman and such wouldn't be able to do much against them.

But even worse, there was the possibility of possession. Not only would they be incredible threats to face, Edward would rather face an army of demons on his own than fight against one of them, especially Diana.

But that was enough explanations, for he had already been called.

The snow that had accumulated on his body slid off him as Edward's body revealed itself to be spotless.

Exhaling for the first time after a week of deep meditation, Edward breathed in the fresh air around him as he looked around. His vision pierced through the clouds as he looked at the surrounding mountain ranges.

He could see Kamar-Taj in the distance, as well as several villages spread between the mountains. The sun rising over the horizon, while the moon was still slightly visible at the other end, bidding farewell to this part of the world.

While he admired nature, Edward felt a wave of energy spread out around him as the spell was launched. The wave of energy left as soon as it came, and as it left, Edward's surroundings didn't look any different.

However, they were very different as he was no longer on Earth, but on a copy of it in the Mirror Dimension. This would serve as their battlefield, and they could unleash as much destruction as they wanted here.

Despite the battles certainly already starting, Edward had a mind to remain here for some more time to continue admiring nature, and maybe understand something from it, but unfortunately, the demons didn't agree with him.

Several kilometers from him, legions of demons of all kinds appeared around the replica of Kamar-Taj, and some of them drifted towards him.

Seeing this, Edward stretched out his hand, and Aeglos appeared in it. The next instant, the top of the Everest blew off as Edward appeared in the midst of the demons, and with a circular swipe of his spear all the demons were bisected.

Whether they were corporal or not, they were all killed by this attack, despite Edward not using any Chi. This was thanks to his Spear Aura.