Eden looked at Angrboda, then at the four holding up the pseudo-domain. They would be the ones to deal with first.
But as Eden was about to move, Angrboda suddenly ordered for their retreat. None of them protested, teleporting away in an instant through some means, leaving only Angrboda and the crumbling pseudo-domain around them. Their summons also disappeared.
Eden frowned as he looked down at the woman, asking, "That's it? You bothered me for this?"
Eden was no battle-junkie, but he did feel dissatisfied. It all felt like a waste of time, like he had been prepared to siege a giant castle, only for it to reveal itself to be made of cards, blowing with the first gust of wind.
Not to mention using his magic or Cursed Energy, Eden had not even gotten to try out his new body. He had slapped one fly, stopped one mosquito bite, and they had decided to call it quits. Heck, things had happened so fast he had only gotten to unleash less than 10% of his presence. That was a good place to start.
Completely removing the self-imposed seals, Eden's presence was fully unleashed for the first time since his promotion.
There was nothing to be seen. No flash of light, no sensible aura, nothing that could be picked up by the senses. Yet, all who looked at Eden in that moment knew one thing instinctively: they were standing before the Demon King.
That knowledge did not incite any one particular emotion. Instead, the response to his presence would vary depending on the person feeling it. But whatever was felt, it was never something good. It was like it brought out the worst in people, and tore them apart doing so.
Angrboda, who had remained impassive so far, now had a touch of hatred as she looked at him. Some of it was directed at him, some of it was not.
Eden was not interested in her history though, so he flew down towards her, keeping his expression neutral as he asked, "What about you then? Will you fight? Or was this all some spectacle at your expanse?"
The hatred intensified for a moment, before she took a breath, her face returning to its earlier apathy as she muttered, "Demon King… We should kill you here, now."
Eden leaned forward, looking down on her small form and replied, "Don't give me that. I'm standing right here, I gave you all the opportunity. And the truth is, if you cowards felt confident, you would have taken it. But you're not confident, are you?"
She shuddered ever so slightly as he approached, and he added, "You hide behind indecision, but the truth is, you're scared of making fools of yourselves. You're scared of sending your Tier IV and Tier V after me, and still failing to kill me. And how could you not? You are weak."
He kept his hands in his back, his stance remaining devoid of any hostility as he burrowed his way into her head, "You hold the power to bring worlds to their knees, and yet you allow yourselves to be shackled. You close them yourself. Because of pride, you won't even try to kill me today."
Angrboda followed him with her gaze, her shadow reflecting her inner turmoil, "You speak of pride to me? Are you even hearing yourself?"
This made Eden chuckle, "Don't be a child, you know they are not the same. Your pride is an inhibitor, mine is an expression of freedom."
"Do you really think your words could convince me? You are nothing more than a selfish, self-absorbed monster. What you call inhibitors, I call bonds. I have responsibilities, to the people I love. You live only for yourself, and think yourself clever. What is even the point of your life?"
This actually made Eden smile, thinking of his time in the Abyss as he opened up, "A question I asked myself often. But you are looking at this through the wrong angle. Freedom does not come at the cost of relationships, nor is it an inherently selfish endeavor. If your true self is that of a saint, then your freedom will be defined through helping others."
He stopped in front of her, diminishing in size as he met her eyes, and she asked provocatively, not even noticing that her aloof persona had been broken, revealing her raw emotions, "So you admit to being evil? And you can actually live with yourself?"
"That is a very manichean way to look at the world. Think what you will of me, I am simply conversing, since you won't fight."
Angrboda frowned, before her focus slipped. Then, her expression returned to a more stony one as she said, "All that only matters if you get to live."
Eden chuckled in agreement, "On that we agree. So long, child of sorrow."
He felt her gaze on his back as he flew back towards the Nightmare Realm, putting the lid back on his presence.
Predictably, every gaze was turned on him as he walked back in. Not a single one of those who had fled felt any shame. Good for them, he reasoned.
Sitting back at the bar, under the stern gaze of Maggie, he snatched Guts' drink, sipping on what he surprisingly found to be tea, and said, "Eight million, and they still don't throw themselves to their deaths."
Guts stared at him with murderous intent, but he still said through gritted teeth, "Natural selection. Those who would die for that money are already dead. Same can't be said for thieves."
Eden pushed the cup back to Guts, huffing, "Not my taste anyway. Too soft. Got used to spicy demon blood."
"Sometimes I don't know when you're joking."
"That's because I'm not."
Guts rolled his eyes, and Maggie snapped her fingers to get his attention. When he did turn to look at her, she had her finger in his face, berating, "Now listen here, you little shit-"
"I'm over five hundred years old."
"Fucking fossil, whatever, you don't just get to violate rules and act like nothing happened. Also, I need a favor from you."
That got Eden's attention. He looked up at her, interested, and asked, "Wanna make a deal?"
"Stop it with the Devil bullshit. I need you to train someone. In spatial magic."
Eden rolled his eyes, but lowered his head into the counter, groaning, "My time is precious, I'm not wasting it on some dickhead. Besides, that's a costly favor you're asking for, and you have nothing that interests me."
Maggie countered, "I can wave all future fees for transactions between us. And you won't be teaching a dickhead, you would be teaching Morgana."
Eden looked up at that, and found the cute little witch to have snuck-up to him, now looking at him expectantly. The sight of her actually brought a smile to his face as he asked in a friendly manner, "Hey there, long time no see. You doing alright?"
Morgana sat down next to him without any pretense, her small form barely reaching the counter as she replied, "Probably better than you. How was the Infinity Bag?"
Eden liked her. Their first interaction had been pleasant already, and she stood out to him as a truly kind person. It was not because he was not one himself that it stopped him from appreciating one. If anything, it made him appreciate kind people even more.
Maybe it was because of his taste for balance. In any case, Eden had to give it to Maggie, she certainly had chosen her target well.
"It was great! I even took some inspiration from it to improve my spatial magic."
That was the truth too. The bag had not seen much use once Eden had mastered Demiplane, but he had mastered Demiplane much more easily thanks to it. Morgana seemed happy at that as she turned her attention to her drink.
Watching Morgana lift a big mug of butterbeer, Eden said to Maggie, "Fine, that'll do. Also, you wouldn't happen to know someone capable of upgrading weapons?"
Satisfied with his response, Maggie eased up a bit, nodding, "I do. Some are harder and thus more expensive to upgrade though."
Eden nodded, his Necronomicon Copy coming to mind. It had been with him the longest, and it was no longer of any use to him. If he truly tried, he could probably improve it himself by adding in some enchantments, but it would be a pointless endeavor.
What he wanted to upgrade was the Bow of Darkness, his best weapon. Tiamat's Quindent was among the weapons he had put up for sale, and the Wand of Supreme Fear was fine, but while it gave him a good boost for magic, it also occupied one of his hands, turning his usual brawling style useless.
The Bow of Darkness took both hands, of course, but it offered an alternative way to fight. If he needed to use the bow in the first place, it was to pick out opponents at a distance, and it was a much cost-friendly option for doing so than hurling spells around.
He sent Maggie a screenshot of the Bow of Darkness, and she immediately nodded, saying, "That can be done. It will cost a fair bit though. If you want to push it to Mythic, that would take about a million Dream Points. For Ethereal, 7 million."
Mythic was the second rarity of Tier III after Legendary, while Ethereal was the first for Tier IV.
Eden nodded at the offer, finding it fair, "Let's do that then. You can take from what I'm selling, plus the million I have in the bank."
"I trust you then. Give me the million, and I'll get started on it right away, and get it done before Invincible."
They made the exchange, and both left happy out of the deal. Everything Eden had given her was worth somewhere around that anyway. Most of what he had brought was in Tier II, and only sold around 100k Dream Points. The Tier III ones were around half a million, so he should be left with some spare in the end.
Glancing back towards Morgana, Eden asked, "Where should we train then? I don't have access to the Training Halls anymore, but I got some pocket dimensions."
Morgana did not answer straight away, and instead thoughtfully asked, "Is it really okay? I don't mean to waste your time, you probably need to train too."
Guts dryly commented from the side, "Were you sleeping for the past half hour? Does this asshole look like he needs anymore training?"
Eden slung his arm around her shoulder, shaking his head, "Don't listen to him, he's just jealous. And of course it's fine, I got a clone training for me at all times anyway. And teaching is also an important part of learning, to strengthen foundations and check for any gaps."
"Well, if it's really okay with you…"
Eden nodded again, separating from her as he said, "How about we go to my room and get you started then?"
Morgana's eyes widened, and she instantly chugged her butterbeer under everyone's shock. As she looked at him expectantly with her owlish eyes, Eden chuckled, "I like your style," and teleported the both of them to his room with a pat.
As he did, he could feel a sort of instinctual warning from Dreamland, warning him not to hurt Morgana. She was a Tier II, after all, and thus still had the System's protection. They might be in his room, he had teleported her over, so she had not technically come out of her own will. Eden supposed Lady Phoenix had received a similar warning that time she had teleported him away from the protected Training Grounds.
With a thought, Eden extended his personal room to form a training space for them. As he did, Morgana stared at his Simulacrum, which was in its own corner and under his full form. The Simulacrum ignored them, so she asked, "Why is he so big?"
Eden glanced over, and replied honestly, "That's my true form. It doesn't bother me much to take this size, but my Simulacrum doesn't need any distractions."
Morgana nodded thoughtfully, but as Eden sat her down to start their lesson, Eden felt someone 'knocking' at the door. A friend.
Granting them access, a tall, white-haired man appeared in the room. His vibrant blue eyes searched across the room, lasting a moment on Morgana, before settling on Eden. Their inquisitive gazes met.
[Name: Satoru Gojo]
[Title: The Honored One, The Strongest]
[Talent: ?]
[Perks: Tier III, Immense Cursed Energy II, Limitless]
[HP: 980/980]
[MP: 290/290]
[CE: 2000/2000]
[Strength: 52]
[Agility: 53]
[Physique: 98]
[Intelligence: 29]
[Wisdom: 67]
[Sorcery: 100]
[Resistances: None]
[Weaknesses: None]
What had once been something he could not even see question marks for, Eden could now see his status in full detail. Looking at it like that, one might think he was not very impressive, but this was the body of someone any Player would kill to possess. All for one of those hidden Talents, the Six Eyes.
"Hello, Stitch."
Satoru Gojo, or Stitch, as Eden knew him, grinned, looking him up and down as he exclaimed with excitement, "Damn, you're a monster. All your attributes are in Tier III? No wonder you didn't need any help. Making me wonder what kind of Perks you're hiding."
That Stitch could 'see' his Status did not surprise Eden. His Talent blocked magical skills like Analysis from scanning him through its shielding function, in the same way it blocked the corruption of necrotic energy.
What Stitch was doing though was examining him through sight alone. The Six Eyes granted its user absolute vision, and what Stitch was seeing was not his Status, but the power of his body. The eyes were probably advanced enough to correlate what his attributes were.
Technically, this was something Eden was able to do with his Divine Sight, although to a lesser extent.
Looking at his friend, who was slightly taller than him in his reduced form, he said, "I'll take the compliment. What can I do for you?"
Stitch passed a hand through his stark-white hair, staring at Eden's Simulacrum as he explained, "Well, I intended to make this visit for a while now. Cursed Energy is not exactly the most common energy source among Players, since it doesn't have the highest ceiling and is a relatively recent addition, so I figured we could exchange pointers, insight. Spar together. That sort of thing."
He looked back at Morgana, grinning as he added, "But I see now that you are having company. I can come back later if you need."
Morgana tilted her head in confusion, while Eden ignored the barely concealed allusion, "Stop playing games, you work with Maggie, so you clearly know Morgana and why she's here. What is it then?"
Stitch showed a look of confusion, an expression that felt foreign and quite strange on Satoru's face, "What do you mean?"
"You may have gotten Gojo's body, but you didn't get his skill with Cursed Energy. You-"
Eden stopped as he narrowed his eyes, observing the space around Stitch. Satoru himself had said they would both benefit from exchanging pointers on Cursed Energy, and it made sense. The Six Eyes were good, and muscle memory was proven to be a thing with Cursed Energy by Sukuna and Yuji, but Limitless was also the most complex Innate Technique in the verse.
Yet, as he observed the space around Stitch, Eden saw how it was passively filtering what could get in and out. That was not just some random application, this was something that required thorough mastery of the Innate Technique.
"Morgana, my Simulacrum will get you started. I'll be joining you in a moment."
Before she could say anything, Eden tapped her shoulder, teleporting both her and his Simulacrum to a demiplane. Across him, Stitch tilted his head, asking, "Something wrong?"
Eden narrowed his eyes, and asked, "The lessons on spatial magic, that's why you're really here, isn't it? You did not come here at this time by coincidence, you want in on the lessons."
Stitch opened his mouth, and seeing the glare Eden was giving him, held up his hands, disarming with a smile, "Alright, alright, you got me. But I wasn't lying! I really think that we both could benefit. I have the Six Eyes, and even I find it troubling to control Cursed Energy. And I don't know if you got started on Reverse Cursed Energy, but it took even Gojo Satoru a near-death experience to realize the true nature of his Innate Technique and unlock Red. If we work together, we could learn it much faster…"
His words trailed off as he noticed how Eden smirked, staring at him like he had gotten him.
Eden, seeing him stop, praised, "You're good. I didn't even know that was really possible."
Despite the apparent praise, Stitch did not appear pleased as he lowered his arms, his eyes staring unblinkingly. Unbothered by the gaze, Eden explained, "It took me over five hundred years to figure out Reverse Cursed Technique, all because I set myself a mental block, thinking it could only be unlocked in a life or death situation, because that was how Gojo did it. And yet, somehow, you know that the true key to it resides not in the energy itself, but in the understanding of your Innate Technique?"
All pretense was dropped by this point as 'Stitch's' expression hardened, the Cursed Energy inside him accumulating, ready to fight.
Seeing this, Eden greeted, "Hello, Satoru Gojo."