The dragons' numbers started dwindling down as Eden changed tactics, his Avatar of Wrath allowing him to mostly ignore their attacks. As for their regeneration ability, although the radiant damage was no longer there to stop it, each of Eden's attack dealt so much damage that it only prolonged the suffering.
That was not to say the fight was a one way street, as the dragons got their fair share of hits in, sometimes managing to bring Eden's HP below 100, but with Tiamat being unable to land her attacks, Eden always survived.
The only ones she could hit him with were her breath attacks, but Eden was Resistant to four of her elements, and immune to the fifth, meaning it dealt more damage to her dragons than to Eden.
"Is this all the famous Demon King is capable of? Fight me you coward!"
Tiamat threw many similar provocations at Eden, but he ignored them, killing her children one after the other.
But no matter what, Eden found the Reverse Cursed Technique to always elude him, remaining constantly out of grasp, no matter how many times he came close to death. It was frustrating, but there was nothing more he could do.
Moreover, while he would have liked to fight indefinitely, he noticed that Tiamat started becoming less and less enthusiastic about their fight, and so did her dragons, who were showing signs of wanting to retreat.
And sure enough, when Eden's Avatar of Wrath ran out, and he cast it again, Tiamat, who had recovered her fifth head, roared a retreating order to her children, and the spacetime in her domain started shifting, a sign she was about to teleport away.
Gritting his teeth, Eden took out the Bow of Darkness, and used its special skill, Godly Arrow.
This arrow, while also made of shadows, was much more concentrated, and the fabric of space wavered around it. Eden added his Cursed Energy to it, as much as his output allowed him to, and let loose of the arrow.
Tiamat felt something was coming, going by the way her heads jerked, but the arrow remained invisible to her Truesight as it slammed into her chest, right where her five heads connected.
The arrow did not deal any more physical damage than any other arrow would, since Tiamat did not have Resistance to Magical Piercing damage, so while it broke through her scales and dug into her flesh, it did nothing more on the physical scale.
However, along with it came Psychic damage, which bypassed the physical and struck directly at her mind.
Her focus was messed up, halting her effort to teleport, and Eden arrived precisely at that moment next to her, slapping his hands together in a Buddhist hand sign.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
The shrine of corpses manifested next to the evil dragon queen, and a sea of blood spread out from it, washing over Tiamat and every other dragon remaining, wrestling the surrounding space away from Tiamat's control.
The dragons, who were buffed just a second ago, suddenly found themselves assaulted by countless invisible attacks. Moreover, teleportation was suddenly rendered impossible.
Their first instinct was to flee away from the domain, and Eden ignored them, flying up to Tiamat instead and slammed his fist into one of her necks, adding a Cleave to it.
The remaining Great Wyrm, braver than others, tried to attack him, but it barely opened its mouth that Eden fired a Dismantle, severing its mouth in half.
Tiamat ignored his attack, tangling her necks to get him in a choke-hold, and as he severed her lightning head, the four remaining necks formed an air-tight barrier, and she used all four of her breath attacks at once.
"I cast Wall of Force."
An invisible sphere of force energy appeared around Eden however, and the breath attacks slammed into it harmlessly.
Wall of Force was only a 3rd Circle spell, but it could cancel out any Tier II damage, and Tiamat might be a Goddess, her breath attacks were only Tier II. She was only a Lesser Deity, she had to exchange something for her five heads and five damage Immunity.
Her attacks countered, Eden dispelled the sphere, while Tiamat tightened her necks, in an effort to crush Eden inside. A bad idea.
Tiamat's regeneration was working at full speed, but it did not match Eden's domain. Even Kali, a goddess whose specialty was regeneration, could not match it, much less Tiamat.
Adding to that Eden's punches, which increased in intensity since he was surrounded by Tiamat's necks, Tiamat only lasted for a few seconds before she was forced to uncoil her necks.
Maybe she thought the dragons, who had been fleeing before, waiting for him right as she did so would be a surprise, but they were inside Eden's domain, so he could easily feel them, and even as they attacked, Eden was one step ahead as he teleported to the other side of Tiamat's body, grabbing onto her tail as he repeatedly slammed his other fist into her scales.
She tried to turn around, but her Agility once again proved to be a problem for her as she struggled to do so. Her dragons, despite doing their bests, were also in a bad spot. Malevolent Shrine attacked them all over their bodies, and their relatively more fragile wings were the first to get incapacitated.
In an area without gravity, that meant they could essentially not move.
30 seconds in, the Great Wyrm, the last remaining dragon, was finally killed, leaving only Tiamat, whose situation was not much better.
Her whole body was covered in cuts, her Draconic Regeneration completely overwhelmed, and the blood that was pouring out had turned black, her body starting to rot because of all the necrotic energy forced into it with all of Eden's punches.
She tried to fight back, but her massive body and low Agility worked against her. Eden also cast Shattering Darkness under her. Although she was nearly half the size of it, she was still fully inside it, meaning she was not only blinded, but also getting attacked by Psychic damage every ten seconds.
She coated her body with her five elements, which dealt damage to Eden every time he hit her, and that was by far the most effective tactic of hers, but it just was not enough for Eden to care as he straight up ignored it, Avatar of Wrath healing him.
That was not to say it was useless though. Without it, Eden would have switched to the Radiant version of Avatar of Wrath, which would have basically shut down her healing factor, and she would be dead already.
But again, that only prolonged her suffering. Honestly, the dragons should have done better, but after half an hour of attacking Eden continuously and him healing off all the damage, as well as expanding their spell slots, they had been weakened and demoralized. Had he started the fight with his domain expansion, they would have all done better, but he had not, so they had died now.
By the 40th second, Tiamat reached her limits, and finally started begging.
"Let me go, and I will swear you servitude!"
Eden ignored her, finding the reward of slaying her to be far more valuable than her servitude, especially with her dragon army dead. She surely had some more, but dragons were not infinite, and the more powerful ones would not swear servitude to her.
The Dragon Queen thus died with grievances, the last remaining bits of her lifeforce eaten away by necrotic energy as her soul, wrapped in godly power, flew over to Eden.
[Side Mission 'Slay Tiamat, The Evil Dragon Goddess' Completed!]
[Main Reward: Tiamat's Quindent, One Divine Boon of the Player's Choice.]
Although he had just killed Tiamat and got some undoubtedly great rewards, Eden still could not help but feel frustration as Reverse Cursed Technique still eluded him. He felt like this was as close to a fight to the death he could get, yet that had not been enough.
While his domain was still active, Eden opened a large rift to a demiplane, and threw Tiamat's body into it. The original spell was limited to a small door attached to a flat surface, but Eden was beyond that.
It was just that this was not very viable as a way to store things because the rift was unstable, and anything passing through it would get shredded by space, but Tiamat was tough enough to just tank it, even while dead.
His Domain Expansion running out, Eden felt the familiar weakness, although it was not as pronounced as usual, and felt that there was a silver lining at least with his Cursed Energy.
He might not have learned Reverse Cursed Technique, engaging in so many domain clashes had improved his understanding of domains. He was not there yet, but he estimated that he would be able to improve his domain soon enough.
Eden also stored the corpses of the other dragons, despite the terrible state he had left them in, since he figured they had to be valuable. He might be able to sell them to the Hall of Perfection for Player Possessions, as he was convinced a good enough profit was enough to bypass all grudges. And if nothing else, they were interesting material for his studies of both Alchemy and Transmutation magic.
Besides, he could create as many demiplanes as he wanted.
He also wanted to go pick up the items left behind by Vlaakith, but with his Innate Technique and mana burned out, it would not be safe, so he retreated to a demiplane with altered time, and checked his rewards.
For the Divine Boon, Eden could choose between Damage Immunity, Godly Fortitude and Godly Speed.
Out of the three, Godly Speed was by far the most attractive. Damage Immunity was insane, and worked long term, but it was not as all-rounder of an enhancement as the other two were.
Where the real hesitation came from was between picking Godly Speed right now, or holding onto it until he got an Epic Boon to get the Boon of Godly Offense.
But in the end, for the same reason he had not picked it last time, Eden selected the Boon of Godly Speed.
As he did, he felt his body get 'lighter'. It was more metaphysical than physical, but it was like he had partly fused with the world, as if he was blending in.
And yet, at the same time, a heaviness followed. An inward one. He had slotted yet another power into this Tier I body. By now, if it were not for his Binding Vow, Eden would have been unable to stop his promotion to Tier II, but since there was his Binding Vow, his body had to make place for this new power.
Next, he took out the recent addition to his Inventory, Tiamat's Quindent.
It was a five-pronged trident, with a dragon head at the base of each prong. Its shaft was metallic, a silver and gold mix, although Eden was sure it was magical versions of the metals.
[Tiamat's Quindent]
[Rank: Legendary]
[Attack: +450]
[Strength: +13]
[Physique: +13]
[Elemental Sting: Add 50 Fire, Lightning, Poison, Acid and Cold damage to the corresponding prongs.]
[Elemental Power: Any ability dealing Fire, Lightning, Poison, Acid or Cold damage deals 50% more damage.]
[Dragon Hide: +200 Defence.]
[Dragon Queen's Fury: Conjure a spectral Tiamat, unleashing one of her five breath attacks. Deals 480 Fire, Lightning, Poison, Acid or Cold damage to every target within a 30 by 5 meters line in front of the wielder. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
Eden was pleasantly surprised by the weapon. Of course, a Legendary weapon would always have some redeeming qualities, but this would at least be of some use to him.
Eden liked spears, but a quindent, or a trident for that matter, was different, and not so much of his taste. He liked spears because they could be used to stab or slash, meaning a large move-set, and a lot of freedom in battle. In comparison, a quindent, which could only be used to stab, was much more restricted.
Considering Eden's fighting style and strongest spell depended on him being unarmed, it would take one hell of a weapon to have him switch over, and that was not it.
Still, Eden could see himself using it in some circumstances, when he judged spells were more appropriate than close quarter combat. The boost to elemental spells was welcomed, and the increase in defence would also play well with his robes.
As for the skill associated to it, Eden was not so enthused about it. It did not deal as much damage as his Starburst, in a smaller area, and it had a cooldown of an hour.
Putting the weapon back in his inventory, Eden turned his attention to his Simulacrum, now in a similar time-stream, and inquired about the progress it had made.
He was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was not only coming close to mastering 7th Circle divination magic, but it had also made some progress with the Solar Metamorphosis and its ties to Transmutation Magic.
It had pinned down that it was a 7th Circle spell, meaning it was not out of reach, and it was not much more powerful than Avatar of Wrath. Actually, most of the power had been from another source, stored inside the sword as well by some god.
The spell itself only changed someone's race, and the increased attributes supposed to come along came from that power source.
Since the plans were to work on Transmutation magic once he got down the 7th Circle divination, he moved alongside his Simulacrum to the demiplane holding Tiamat's body.
Dragons were the toughest lifeforms Eden had encountered, so improving his Transmutation magic with them felt natural to him.
After a day in there, which he used to study, Eden cast a few preservation spells on the corpse, just in case. Since Tiamat was immortal and in a controlled environment, her corpse should not start rotting, but he still did it, just to be sure.
Returning to the Astral Plane, where only a couple of minutes had passed, Eden flew back to Tu'narath, which was getting agitated, having no doubt learned the dragons had lost, but Eden ignored them as he flew over to the castle.
With his speed boosted, and in a zero-gravity environment, Eden felt like he had turned into a speedster. He was not quite yet at the speed of sound, even while traveling, though he was certainly getting there.
Vlaakith's castle had crumbled down, but that was no problem to Eden as he cleaved his way down through it, until he reached Vlaakith's corpse.
It had been turned to ashes, along with most of her equipment, by Tiamat's flames, which were unfortunate. The scepter was somehow nowhere to be found, leaving only her sword and her crown.
They were both Epic, and both unfortunately no better than trash for him. The crown was called the Crown of Corruption, and it was a cursed artefact that turned its user paranoid, and in exchange improved any spells that charmed others. It did not even offer improved attributes.
As for the sword, it was just a better crafted Silver Sword, but of the same variety as the one Voss had, along with a Vorpal enchantment that made any attempt at decapitation more successful.
In other words, it was useless, since Eden could already do that just fine with Cleave, and it was easier to get his hands in there than a sword.
Though disappointing, Eden took them, since he had essentially infinite storage, to sell them later. With his loot picked up, it was time for Eden to leave for the Feywild.
Honestly, he could probably wish himself to appear near Iggwilv's palace, but he had heard the Feywild was a beautiful place, and since it was a sort of projection of the Prime Material Plane, it was about the same size as Toril, which itself was similar in size to Earth.
There were many realms hidden in pockets of space, but for the purposes of reaching his destination, even if Iggwilv's Domain of Delight was on the other side of the world, it should not take Eden more than two days to reach her.
So, he simply Plane Shifted using the Feywild as his destination.
Breaching through spacetime, Eden appeared in the Feywild in an instant, and realized where it got its reputation.
Eden appeared in mid-air, high up in the sky, giving him a good view of his surroundings. The first thing he noticed however was the mana. It was dense, much like in the Astral Plane, but where the Astral Plane only had a heavy concentration of it, here it felt different.
He could see it with the weave, as mana not only suffused it, but encroached on it like a vine. It was like this world was purer than the others, closer to its natural state.
Around him were several mountains whose peaks pierced through the sky, standing tall and proud, like they were connecting heaven and earth. The fluffy white clouds rolled around them, and standing so close to them, Eden could see that they were denser than normal ones. Not to the point of being able to bounce on them, but nearly.
On the ground level, a vast forest sprawled out over kilometers and a giant lake sat further in the distance, the whole landscape bathed in the rosy light of the setting sun. Even the sun itself was somehow not blinding to look at, even when one stared directly at it.
And as he did just that, Eden felt himself slipping into a sort of trans. Maybe it was the effect of the Boon of Godly Speed, which made him somewhat merge with the world, something that was especially impactful here, as he felt himself becoming one with it.
This allowed him to feel how everything came together on a deeper level. Not in the physical sense, but a sort of harmony of the world. All elements within interacted with each other, coexisting and forming a whole.
Eden's Innate Technique was, at its core, a mean to divide. And the opposite of that was to bring things together.
He already knew that, and yet, Eden felt like he understood it for the first time as he raised his hand. His Cursed Energy ran in reverse, activating his technique.
No invisible blade was formed. Instead, a small flame appeared, gently flickering, though Eden felt like it could destroy the world.