Returning from the Feywild, back to the Abyss, Eden settled on one of the lower layers of the Abyss, leaving to the demiplane where his Simulacrum was, along with Tiamat's body, and where time was stretched, to study.
A part of him wanted to just head to the Gaping Maw right away, and face off against whoever Demogorgon had managed to get to his side, but it was wiser to let Graz'zt and Orcus gather their forces, contacting allies.
Besides, he was not far from mastering 7th Circle divination magic, which would allow him to track down the Dead Three's mortal bodies. Not only would he get revenge, he would also finish Mystra's quest, rid Sylfine of her problem, and get divinities to hand out. Myrkul's would be especially good, since it seemed to suit Orcus' just fine, and should allow the Prince of Undeath to ascend to godhood. He was already fearsome as a 'mortal', so he should make a fine ally as a deity.
There might even be some mission reward for helping him ascend.
While he was down there studying, he was warned of Iggwilv's arrival after about a day. It had been a couple years for him, but that was still quite quick.
Bringing her to his demiplane, Natasha circled around Tiamat's body, whistling, "You left her in quite the state. Must have been a tough one to take down."
Sitting down and casually tapping into the secrets of the universe, Eden replied, "Her army of dragons was more annoying than she was."
She looked at him, a smile tugging at her lips, "You could probably tour the mortal realms and get heaps of gold from bounties. There ought to be more than one of these dragons that used to terrorize whole regions."
Eden rolled his eyes, replying, "I have a thousand better ways to get gold, and a thousand less reasons to desire it."
Natasha snickered, landing close to Eden, "Wise old fart."
Eden ignored what she said, focusing on the matter at hand, "I brought you here because you might have interesting insight."
He took out a notebook, and Inscribed the different stages of Tasha's Otherworldly Guise, that being Wrath of the Dead for 5th Circle, and Avatar of Wrath for 6th and 7th Circle.
"I also added in inspirations from Vampiric Touch. But first, we should deal with your handicap."
Natasha, who had been absorbed by the spells, looked up in surprise, repeating in a tone that made Eden wonder whether she was really offended, "My handicap?"
Nodding, Eden said, "Cast a spell."
Natasha pointed a finger to the side, and frowned when nothing happened. She muttered, "Can't be antimagic field, my Fly is still up… Wait, the Weave! How did you do that? And how can you still be casting spells?"
"I draw on my own mana to cast spells, not through the proxy of the Weave. And you should be able to do it too. Don't move."
He got behind her, placing a hand on her exposed back, closing his eyes as he extended his magical sense into her. Before, he had always been forced to rely on his Talent for anything magical, and while he would still use it for internal problems, his magical sense had grown strong enough to be useful.
As her status indicated, Natasha had a lot of mana inside her, even more than Eden did, but it was as if locked. It was Mystra's rule.
But since they were away from the Weave, that lock was weakened, and her mana sought to return to its natural state, so all Eden had to do was give it a nudge in the right direction.
Natasha gasped as her mana was unlocked for the first time, and Eden quickly taught her the fundamentals of casting magic without the help of the Weave. As expected, he did not have to do much, as she was already an accomplished Archmage who had created spells of her own.
After a short while, she pointed a lithe finger at herself, and chanted, "I cast Tasha's Otherworldly Guise."
Her skin turned red, horns sprouted from her forehead, and a pair of wings unfolded from her shoulder-blades. More importantly, though, was that four-layered green magical circle that appeared when she cast the spell.
It was to be expected she would have perfectly mastered the spell, considering she was the one who had created it, but it was still impressive she did it on her first try.
Grinning, she folded her wings, looking at Eden straight since her height only about matched Eden while he was sitting, and said, "You are spoiling me, I'm starting to feel bad. What do you want me to do?"
Turning his attention back to seeing the invisible, Eden articulated, "They may have surrendered, but they are still Demon Lords. Blindly trusting people like Orcus or Graz'zt is tantamount to asking to get backstabbed."
"And I'm different?"
"You are an Archfey who set up the Rule of Reciprocity in her domain. And you were once human, making you infinitely more trustworthy than them."
"Well, it's not like I'd have any reason to join Demogorgon's side anyway."
Eden paused, then looked at her, asking, "And what if Graz'zt decides he has a chance once I take down Demogorgon? What will you do when I kill him?"
Natasha stared back confidently, replying fearlessly, "Orcus would go first, and once you've killed him, Graz'zt wouldn't dare to move. But even if he does, I have no reason to do anything. We used each other for our own things, and he fucks with anything that walks."
"I suppose we'll see. Until then, I want you to help me with Transmutation magic, while I finish polishing a spell."
Natasha raised an eyebrow, looking back at the spells he had Inscribed, pointing at Avatar of Wrath, "Improve on it? That's beyond Epic Magic, that's Divine magic. How am I supposed to improve on that? It'd take me years to just learn it already."
Eden shook his head, pointing at Tiamat, "Improvement can come from small increments. Besides, having another person taking a look at my spells can only help. You will learn it, and ask me about anything you don't understand, or think should be changed. Even if you are wrong 100% of the time, your questions might lead me to a breakthrough. Also, while you're learning this, I want you to study Tiamat's body and take notes."
Natasha shrugged, sitting down to study his spells, while Eden himself returned to what he was doing.
Years passed, a dozen, yet in reality, only one week went by.
Eden always had Graz'zt scout the situation in Baldur's Gate, to make sure his plans would not be interrupted by an abrupt end to the Absolute, but the party had made little progress so far, facing much opposition in the city. Everyone had their own plans and interfered with each other.
Not only had they not taken down either Gortash or Orin, they had not even gotten started on weakening their forces. There were too many forces involved, far more than there had been in the game, and Eden estimated that the party were only about Level 15-16.
That meant they were into Tier II, but at the very bottom of it, without the skills to go with it. Adding to that the natural limitations placed on inhabitants of this world, giving them only so many resources every day, they were moving slowly.
Eden stopped after that week because he had finally mastered 7th Circle level Divination magic.
[Surface Records (7th Circle): Tap into the surface level of the Akashic Records, divining events, people, locations and fates across time. Cost: 1370 (350) MP.]
The system description was simple, but this did represent a whole new level of divination. Eden first used it on himself.
His future was blurry, although he did perceive a few things. Danger, success, death… no, murder. Nothing too unusual.
More importantly, he looked for any curse that would explain his bad luck, but did not find any. He did find something about his bad luck though. It not only was not just his imagination, but he also knew the reason behind it.
He apparently was not extremely lucky to begin with, but all the souls attached to him, the countless murders he had committed, weighed down on him, literally. He felt fine because his soul shielded him from any direct effects, but the souls still caused a sort of depression on the fabric of reality, and their negative nature attracted equally negative things to him, hence his impression of having bad luck.
Now that he not only knew, but could perceive it, he could take care of the issue. He did not have to discard the souls either, as he would rather have the bad luck. For now they only helped give him what was essentially infinite Cursed Energy, but once he left this world, consuming the souls should allow him to rapidly advance his Sorcery attribute.
The solution was connected to Cursed Energy anyway.
The thing about Shrine, and Cleave and Dismantle, was that it had no real limit to what it could cut, since it did not create cutting blades, but the very concept of cutting. He needed to know about something to cut it though, or the technique would have already accidentally killed him one way or another.
Sukuna had created the World Cutting Slash after experiencing Gojo's Infinity, and using Mahoraga as both a sensor and a shortcut.
So, Eden extended his Cursed Energy over his body, and stretched it onto his 'fate'. Fate was actually nothing more than the connection between oneself and the various stretches of reality.
Much like every mass distorted spacetime around themselves, creating gravity, every person, event and element of the world distorted the film of reality, thus drawing other elements to them. Causality, Karma and other similar concepts helped move things along.
So, Eden Cleaved his fate.
The moment he did, reality around him suddenly shook, many threads linking him to countless possibilities being suddenly severed.
Reality had been deeply bent around him, and with his sudden disappearance, reality bounced back, thus creating undulations.
It quickly regained its normal form though, it was reality after all, and Eden received a notification from the system. He had gotten a new Perk.
[Free From Fate: You are no longer bound by fate.]
With that done, Eden turned his attention to the Dead Three, whose whereabouts no longer could be hidden from him. Maybe if they had a deity specializing in fate manipulation they could do so, but they clearly did not.
As 'luck' would have it, the three of them were together. They also had a trap prepared for Eden. A trap that would hardly be dangerous to Eden.
Still, considering it was arrogance before these three very gods that had gotten him to the Abyss, he first cast Avatar of Wrath, recuperated his MP, and then teleported over.
Eden appeared in a red sky. The entire world appeared to be bichromatic, either black or red. Below was an infinite expanse of dry desert and rifts of black granite, the red sun covered with black clouds.
Below was a black fortress, which somewhat looked like a Gothic cathedral, though bigger, meaner, and with defenses.
Descending towards it, he was met with three monstrous-looking Quasi Gods, looking up defiantly.
Bane, Bhaal and Myrkul looked just the same way as their astral projections had, but exuded far more power, being at the level of Demigods.
They might have been intimidating once, but Eden had killed bigger and more powerful gods than them. They did appear to be slightly more powerful than the average Demigod, but they were still below a Lesser Deity, and even if all three of them were Lesser Deities, Eden was confident in killing them.
The three's bodies started growing in size as they flew up to Eden's level, Bane leading as he snarled, "As expected, you came. I hope you enjoyed your stay in the Abyss."
Eden gave a pointed look at the hint of a scar on his bare chest, replying, "Probably more than getting your soul injured. My Dismantle was bad enough to affect your physical form, huh?"
Bane snorted, and Bhaal laughed, "My, you are still so arrogant. Honestly, I had hoped you would manage to get out of there, you couldn't miss all I've planned for you."
Eden stood unimpressed, wanting nothing more than for this to end, "Shut the fuck up, you're irrelevant here. Now, bring in your friends, I have better things to do."
Their expressions solidified, before dozens of portals appeared. From most of them came Demon Lords, along with some Demigods, Lesser Deities, and even three Intermediate Gods.
They arrived with their domains released, clashing with one another due to their conflicting natures, but all pressing down on Eden, in an attempt to trap him. If he wanted to, he could leave, but that would defeat the point of coming here.
Looking through the crowd of newcomers, it was obvious they were Demogorgon's army, considering the Prince of Demons was present.
So… that was the alliance against him? That was what he had been preparing for?
Eden had felt there would be a trap, but his divination also told him they would not be able to endanger him. Seriously, had he been gathering forces for… this?
Eden did not even bother trying to call for his forces. He could feel a ban on the place, and it was not like they were needed anyway.
Looking at the small army surrounding him, and the different domains overlapping over him, Eden decided to give them a proper greeting.
"Domain Expansion: Malevolent Shrine."
Eden's domain, when he had left the Forgotten Layer of the Abyss, was at around the peak of 7th Rank, and had overpowered Kali's own domain. Kali was an Intermediate Goddess with a sub-par domain, but hers was still above that of a Lesser Deity.
Eden estimated that by then, his domain was at the level of a strong Intermediate Deity. With his learning and mastery of Reversed Cursed Energy however, Eden's Cursed Energy had been brought forward a whole rank, and he felt it could now match a Greater Deity's domain, being at the very peak of Tier III. He had a feeling no God in this universe could beat him in a domain clash, only equal him at best.
It was not just a feeling.
The Shrine of corpses manifested in mid-air, the mountain ever so large, and the sea of blood spread out from it.
Eden's domain was normally 150 meters in radius with his last upgrade, but his recent Binding Vow had doubled that size, meaning that a sphere extending 300 meters away from Eden appeared. Its diameter was more than half a kilometer, and thus easily covered all of his ambushers.
Most of their domains barely offered any resistance before being overpowered, their influence shattered by the Malevolent Shrine. The three Intermediate Deities lasted a moment longer before their domains were also destroyed.
Countless Cleaves and Dismantles instantly assaulted all those present, each attack at the peak of Tier II.
Those under Tier III, the Demon Lords, died in mere moments. Even Demogorgon, Prince of Demons, only lasted for a few seconds, doing his best to flee from Eden's immense domain, before dying an unsightly death as well.
The different gods did comparatively better, although the Demigods were getting rapidly overwhelmed as well, but they were smart enough to try to flee. Only the Lesser Deities and three Intermediate Gods rushed at Eden, in a bid to stop his domain by stopping him.
In response, Eden took out the Wand of Supreme Fear, his total MP shooting up to 2134, allowing Eden to cast Shattering Darkness seven times. Each one could cover a diameter of 150 meters, thus covering a large portion of his domain.
Shattering Darkness covered their sight, and although those still standing were capable of shrugging off the debuffs, their defences were still lowered slightly, and now being blind, getting out of his domain suddenly became harder, and so did tracking him down.
Taking out the Bow of Darkness, Eden started picking off the Demigods trying to flee, starting with the Dead Three. They did not even see the arrows coming as they died like dogs, running blindly.
Ignoring his rewards for now, Eden turned his attention to the rest, but realized that the Lesser and Intermediate Deities were starting to run as well.
Since he wanted to catch as many of them as possible, the moment one of them approached the edge of his domain, he placed his bow back in his Inventory, and held out both hands.
"Furnace: Open."
Eden's Cursed Energy ran in reverse, and positive energy was born from his brain, activating the Cursed Technique there as a red flame appeared in his hands.
"Divine Flame."
Unlike Sukuna's Divine Flame, there was no sound. No explosion. The Divine Flame simply spread to the entire domain in an instant, and ignited.
The world flashed red as Eden's surroundings were covered in the red flames of his Divine Flame, burning everything standing inside his domain. That flame burned more than the physical as well, burning through the suppressed domains.
Flying through the flames unharmed, Eden sent Positive Energy to his brain, forcefully healing his Innate Technique and Mana, completely canceling the side effects of Domain Expansion. It was not instant though, and was taking a few seconds.
Sukuna and Gojo could do it, and Eden had mastered his domain far more than either of them had. He had far more time to do so after all.
The Divine Flames quickly receded, their fuel having been burned, revealing the extent of the damage.
The landscape was just fine, since they had been fighting in the sky, but the gods who had been inside were another story entirely.
Those with lower constitutions had been straight up turned into ashes, and only those with a Physique into Tier III had survived. And even they were in a bad state, as Divine Flame had not been the only thing targeting them.
The Cleaves and Dismantles had dealt quite a lot of damage, and even Shattering Darkness, which dealt Psychic damage, could not be ignored. Of the three Intermediate Deities, only two had survived, and for the Lesser Deities, only one.
Out of dozens of ambushers, many of them gods, three had survived. Unfortunately, as they saw Eden flying down unharmed, they immediately teleported away, looking at him with utter terror before disappearing.
They never stood a chance, they realized.