Waiting in the cell with nothing to do was boring, and felt like a waste of time. He could probably have wiped off the camp in the time he waited. But he waited silently, not only because he was not the type to mindlessly blow off a plan and endanger his team, but also because it was the smarter way to go at this.
Although the goblins were easy to take, adding Players into the mix might complicate things. Eden was still confident he would win, but again, why go at it like a dumb brute when a little bit of strategy could do a better job?
So he waited, and waited, until he finally felt the magic in the coin he had been given change. Its magic was flickering, the spell activated.
Understanding it was time, Eden took a breath, before whispering softly, "I cast Dark Vision."
A faint spell circle shimmered in front of his hand, and the dim cell became clear to him.
Not even bothering with the chains binding him, Eden took a step forward, mumbling, "I cast Misty Step," as he momentarily slipped into the Ethereal Plane. The world turned grey for a moment as Eden's body left the physical plane, only to reappear in the middle of the room.
The goblins were immediately alarmed seeing him appear amidst silvery mist, but he ignored them as he cast Mists of the Underworld around the only exit from the prison.
"Attack!"
Eden grinned as he heard the other prisoners in the cells get rowdier, and took out the Shattered Flail, smashing a nearby goblin's head in as he reinforced his body with Cursed Energy. He did not used his Maximum Output though, and only about half instead.
His initial target was the two ogres, but he could not help but feel amused as he noticed them grouping up around the ogres. They were making this too easy.
"I cast Superior Fireball."
The fireball created did not look much bigger than the one for Strengthened Fireball, but it was much brighter, the color a light orange. It streaked through the air, distorting it, before it landed on one of the two ogres.
The flames spread out instantly, swallowing nearly a fourth of all the goblins present. There were barely any strangled screams before they were all reduced to charred remains. Even the ogres died instantly.
Heading into the Mists of the Underworld, Eden killed the few goblins desperately searching for the exit, their movements extremely impaired by the spell, making them easy pickings.
Slaughtering the goblins, Eden also felt their souls be pulled out of their bodies, their chance for an afterlife snatched away as they became attached to Eden.
While he was clearing out the Mists of the Underworld, Halsin also escaped his cell, not even requiring to Wild Shape into an animal as his natural physical strength was freakishly strong already, standing at the very peak of Tier I.
It was honestly a bit of a waste for Halsin to have become a Druid, since he would gain the Strength of whatever he changed into.
Grabbing his staff, which had been confiscated, Halsin helped Eden in his effort as they easily slaughtered the few goblins and Worgs left. The other Players joined in as well.
It did not take them long to clear the prison from goblin forces.
The group of five Players looked at the ominous Mists of the Underworld, and strangely felt relieved to find Eden was not looking at them when he stepped out of it.
He was staring at the only closed cell left, where the sole Player was. He had silently observed the break-out, but not participated.
Ignoring the nearby group of Players, Eden wiped the blood that had splattered on his face as he asked, "What are you, broken?"
This sole Player, Blanc, did not answer, his whole body hanging limply against the chains.
Grabbing the cell-door, Eden easily ripped it off, which finally prompted a response from Blanc, who spoke in a hoarse voice, his head still hanging down, "Just kill me."
Eden tilted his head, considering the demand. Behind him, one of the other Players said in a tensed voice, obviously worried about his own condition, yet still offering help, "Killing him would be mercy. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but I heard he lost everything in his last mission. He surrendered himself to the goblins yesterday, but they refused to kill him, taking some sick pleasure in prolonging his suffering."
"Is that so?"
He stepped towards Blanc, grabbing his chin and raising his face, forcing him to look into his eyes. His eyes were of a deep blue, but they looked empty. There was no sadness, despair or anything, be it positive or negative. Only emptiness.
"I don't know what is supposed to happen to our souls when we die, but if I kill you, your soul will be consumed. Is this what you want?"
Blanc shifted his gaze away from him to the other Players, warning, "You're too stupid to see it, but he has already decided to kill us."
Eden smiled, letting go of him as he turned back to the group of Players, who looked like they had swallowed a bitter lemon, and asked, "What Guild are you from?"
"Immortals?"
Eden hummed softly, before nudging his hand at them, "I cast Superior Fireball."
Their eyes barely had the time to widen before they were swallowed by the flames, much like the goblins had before them. The explosion threatened to affect Eden and Halsin, but he controlled the flames to stop before them.
As the flames receded, Eden noticed two of them had survived, so he sent a couple of Dismantles, finishing them off.
With the last two dying, nothing happened for a moment, before a Cambion appeared next to Eden. It was not just any however, but Raphael.
He looked at the souls attaching themselves to Eden, flicking his hand, yet they did not move. He looked amused as he said, "So that's what made a fuss lately. You wouldn't believe the number of people wanting to enlist your services, or that even more of them want to annihilate you."
"Looks like I'll have to set an example out of Bhaal. But first, we had a deal." Eden flicked over the agreed upon soul, and said, "I want Tasha's Otherworldly Guise."
Raphael cocked an eyebrow, commenting with a sly smile as he snatched the soul with a snap of his fingers, "Not the most common of spells, but I happen to be a resourceful devil. Planning a visit to the Hells perhaps?"
Eden said nothing, pocketing the conjured scroll, and crushing two of the Soul Coins, and pocketing the third one. This put his Cursed Energy at 1695, very close to the absolute peak of Tier I for him. Far beyond that of others.
Raphael looked over his shoulder, and said, "The last one is near… Might as well tell me the last spell now."
"Disintegrate."
Saying that, Raphael made a mock bow, disappear among red sparks, while Eden dispelled the Mists of the Underworld, something that would have been impossible to him before his arrival in this world.
He had never really cared about it since he did not need it, but it was only recently that Eden had learned to cancel a spell already cast.
This world performed magic differently from his own way, but there were certain spells that required 'concentration', like Cloud of Daggers, which he had learned. Such spells would need the user to concentrate on keeping a certain spell active over a period of time, and stopping that concentration would cause said spell to fizzle out.
Mists of the Underworld, if learned by someone from this world, would be a concentration spell.
Eden's magic worked quite differently as he could cast as many spells as he wanted, and once they were cast, they would naturally maintain themselves. From what Eden understood, this was because his magic was powered by his own mana, a personal, natural force, while wizards and other spell-casters in this world drew on the weave.
Still, there were similarities between the two systems, and as Eden learned some more about Metamagic, the art of shaping spells, he got the ability to cancel a spell, were he to ever need to.
As the Devil disappeared, Halsin chose not to comment on him, and instead asked, "Shall we escape then? I have already learned everything I came here for."
Eden did not answer, looking back at Blanc instead, and asking, "So, you lost something? And just decided to lose hope. That's cowardly, if you ask me. And stupid. Are you truly so fragile as to shatter at the first impact?"
Blanc was unfazed, "What are you doing?"
"Trying to get a rise out of you, but I'm not doing very good, am I? So, tell me, what's got you so pumped?"
"You should be more worried about yourself. The Freedom Alliance are with the Goblins. And the Drows. That's a Tier V Guild." Blanc scoffed.
"You're starting to bore me. What is it, someone killed your girlfriend or something?"
Blanc, who had basically been unresponsive so far, showed a slight reaction. It was faint, but it was there. Seeing it, Eden rolled his eyes, throwing up his hands and severing the chains with Dismantles as he said, "Of course it's love, it's always love."
Blanc almost fell to his knees, but he caught himself before that. Hunched over, he slowly stood straight, and glared at Eden as he did, asking once more, though with far more gravitas than before, "What are you doing?"
"What's it look like? I'm freeing you."
"What's the point? You want me to help you? Because if you are, don't bother, there's no surviving that bounty of yours."
Eden turned around, mocking, "Your help? What would I do with a looser like you?"
Watching him walk away, Blanc involuntarily raised his voice, asking in a tone that almost sounded like pleading, "Why did you save me then? I asked you to kill me!"
Eden laughed, finding the question genuinely funny, "Because I wanted to."
The answer stunned Blanc, and before he could ask Eden to elaborate, he left the prison, followed by Halsin, who looked at Blanc with an encouraging smile.
Outside, seeing how Halsin was smiling at him now, Eden was sure the Archdruid thought he had a secret kind side or something like that. But the truth was just what he had told Blanc. He felt like doing it, so he did it.
What was the point of gaining absurd amounts of power if he could not do whatever he wanted with it?
Leaving philosophical debates behind, Eden noticed the corpses of a small team of goblins on the other side of the prison door. Corpses he had not made.
Snorting, Eden reinforced his body, broke out into a run.
It did not take him long to find goblins, and start the slaughter. He was quickly followed by a large Cave Bear, and together, the two of them plowed through the goblins, who futilely tried to stop them as they headed for the other commotion, which happened to be the rest of the party.
They were in a large throne room, with a small army of goblins attempting to enter from two large doors. One of the doors was covered in a cloud of pitch darkness not too different from Eden's Mists of the Underworld, and the other had what looked like to be a tornado of ethereal daggers blocking it.
They were not alone inside however, as they were currently facing a few humans, Players, as well as a Hobgoblin. Despite being overwhelmed, they were doing remarkably well.
Rushing through the darkness, despite having Dark Vision activated, Eden found himself blinded inside. More than that, it felt like he had suddenly been stranded into space, the cold of space attempting to seep into his bones, while shadowy tendrils latched onto him, attempting to burn his skin with acid.
Even with a full body reinforcement from Cursed Energy, Eden still felt it damage him slightly, but he only stayed inside for a moment, emerging essentially unscathed.
The throne room was rather large, though just as crude as one would expect from a goblin camp. The room itself, a Selunite ruin, was quite well preserved, with tall pillars made of light grey stone reaching up to the roof.
On the sides of the room were a couple of stairways, leading up to another platform above. However, the aesthetic of the place had been ruined by the goblins, with a throne having been created in the middle of the room. It was made of bones and animal skin, and was surrounded by tribal ornaments. There were also wooden beams above, their purpose unclear.
Several goblin corpses were strewn around, along with a few Drows. The whole party was still standing, some in better conditions than others.
Facing them were three groups, or what had been three groups: One composed of Drows, led by a white-haired female Drow, goblins led by a Hobgoblin, and Players. The Players only had a single missing member, downed with an arrow to the throat, but the first two groups only had their leaders left, Minthara and Dror Ragzlin.
Lae'zel was currently facing Minthara on her own, the two trading injuries, while Shadowheart held off Dror Ragzlin. The two appeared to be overpowered, and had quite a few injuries, but they held on, in no small part thanks to Astarion, who was up on the beams and providing support.
The most dangerous threats were by far the Players, however. There were four of them left, with three standing back, providing support to the last one. He was a humongous beast of a man, one that was just as large as the past Guardian of the Underworld in heavy armor, but this guy was bare-chested instead. His long mane of blond hair reached past his shoulders, giving him a wild look. However, Eden could see that his eyes were calm and calculating.
Sylfine and Karlach were both facing him in close quarter, with Wyll switching between Eldritch Blasts and sword attacks, but even with the three of them together, they struggled to even properly damage him. He had a few injuries, but they were light.
The true reason the party was still standing was the large corpse of a Spectator at the back of the room, its large eye caved in. Astarion must have opened the Iron Flash, and the Players killed it.
[Name: Magni]
[Title: Defender, Berserker]
[Talent: ?]
[HP: 480/480]
[MP: 280/280]
[Strength: 49]
[Agility: 41]
[Physique: 48]
[Intelligence: 23]
[Wisdom: 31]
This had to be their team leader, and the one who killed the Spectator. The moment Eden appeared, his somewhat lazy attitude immediately disappeared, his features sharpening as he ignored his opponents, bulldozing his way through them to reach Eden.
Grinning, Eden shouted at Halsin to help the other, and met Magni's fist with his mace, empowering it with Cursed Energy. He instantly felt the power difference, as despite his Cursed Energy, Eden's weapon getting blasted back.
Had Eden not guessed it would happen from his danger sense and dodged ahead of time, the fist would have continued its course to his chest.
Eden tried to take a few steps back, but Magni was relentless, throwing in several quick punches, all filled with devastating power.
Weaving in between some, he slightly deviated another by hitting Magni's wrist, activating a Maximum Output Cleave as he did.
A gash was opened in Magni's wrist, yet, despite having hit his unprotected skin, the Cleave did not even reach the bone. The berserker ignored the injury, closing the distance with Eden while visibly attempting to grapple him.
Knowing that if Magni did manage to get a grasp on him he would suffer quite a bit, he warned with a smile while dodging the lunges, "This was Cleave. I can reinforce my body with Cursed Energy, and my Innate Technique is Shrine. I have access to two of its abilities. One of it is Dismantle, which allows me to send invisible slashing attacks from a distance. The other is Cleave, which you just experienced. It also slashes, and it much stronger, but requires physical contact. Also, revealing this to you enhanced the power of my techniques."
Magni frowned as Eden once more tapped him, this time on the chest, and another gash appeared. It was larger than the earlier one. In an instant, his tactics changed, going from attempting to catch him to going back to punches, all aimed at vital spots. His aim was clearly to end him with a single attack.
Revealing One's Hand was one of the most basic Binding Vows, literally exchanging information for power. However, nothing obligated Eden to say the truth, as the only consequence would be that his power would not increase.
A more interesting use of the Vow, however, was to give half-truths.
It was true that Cleave activated with physical contact. However, Eden could not just hold onto someone and spam the technique infinitely. He had assumed he could at first, but through training it found out that he needed to 'hit' his target to activate Cleave.
This meant that touching his opponent allowed one activation, and a second activation would require Eden to let go of them and touch them again.
Since Cursed Energy was a rather well known Power System, and Eden proved that he had said the truth about his ability with his strengthened Cleave, Magni was now under the presumption that if he really caught Eden, the latter would be able to rapidly spam Cleave and kill him.
Maybe he had doubts, but that would be betting with his life, so he changed tactics.