Even as Eden smashed in the head of the last goblin, his HP having long gotten back to its maximum and his deeper injuries having mostly recovered, he still felt the lust of battle, but he was forced to stop.
He had chased the last goblins to the doors of the ruined temple, meaning he had to walk back towards the party. As he did, however, he noticed Blanc, staring at him from a distance.
Covered in blood, Eden grinned, spreading out his arms as he exclaimed, "You missed all the fun! Want to give it a go?"
Blanc was no longer dressed in his earlier rags, but instead a dark gold haori, which was a Japanese piece of clothing. Under it he had a dark uniform, all black. Eden felt like he recognized it. Demon Slayer?
He also had a katana sheathed at his hip. He was grasping it firmly with one of his hands, his body tensed, and slightly hunched forward. Then, he leapt forward with a burst of speed impressive for his attributes.
Eden was faster, though.
As the katana's blade arrived in front of him, Eden retrieved the Shattered Flail into his Inventory with a snort, and slammed the tip of Blanc's sword to the side, completely deviating the strike.
Again, it was called a flail, but it was more of a mace than anything.
With his second hand, this one reinforced with Cursed Energy, Eden punched Blanc in the face.
The swordsman's momentum was completely killed as his face crumpled under Eden's fist, his skull cracking as he slammed into the ground.
His fist still rolling with Cursed Energy, Eden looked down at the barely breathing Blanc, praising, "You not only survived my punch, but also had the courage to fight. Good for you."
Blanc was wavering between consciousness and unconsciousness, but he apparently heard Eden as he gurgled, "Kill me."
Eden crouched next to him, patting his cheek, causing Blanc to groan because of his shattered cheekbone, and said, "I refuse. I decided you'd live, so you will live. Find me again. Maybe that I'll want to kill you then."
Blanc fell unconscious at some point, but Eden had a feeling he had heard him.
In all honestly, Eden himself was not sure why he was sparing Blanc. Maybe a part of him hoped something interesting would come out of this. Maybe he just liked broken things. Or maybe Blanc would cause just enough chaos by living that Eden would be able to benefit from it.
Leaving Blanc behind, Eden joined the party back in the throne room. He had to walk past many corpses, most of which were goblins, with some Drows, Worgs and Ogres here and there.
The party were strewn over the throne room, the fight having taken a lot out of them. And they had performed admirably, all surviving. Although, seeing the disappointed looks on their faces, and the sorry expression Halsin sported, they had already learned that the Druid was unable to cure them of their tadpoles.
As he walked in though, Astarion shoved his finger into Minthara's cheek, saying, "She better be worth it, because knocking her out without killing her was a hellish experience!"
Surprised, Eden used Analysis on her, and indeed, she was not dead. Close, but not quite.
[Name: Minthara Baenre]
[Title: Nightwarden, True Soul]
[Talent: ?]
[HP: 30/250]
[MP: 300/300]
[Strength: 28]
[Agility: 26]
[Physique: 25]
[Intelligence: 30]
[Wisdom: 21]
Sylfine quipped in, "We also found the goblins' hoard. We got 10 000 gold pieces, as well as a few artefacts."
Shadowheart spat bitterly, "One of them marked with Selune's mark. We'd do best to throw it away."
Eden nodded, and thinking of loot, he let go of the final soul marked by his contract, and as it was dragged to the Hells, three more Soul Coins landed in Eden's hands, along with a scroll for Disintegrate.
Pocketing them, he looked down at the unconscious Minthara, and shook her awake.
Opening her eyes in alarm, she immediately chopped at Eden's neck, attempting to crush his throat. He easily blocked it though, grabbing her hand with crushing strength as he ordered, "Calm down."
Minthara looked around, and seeing the numerous corpses, and the still standing party, she rasped angrily, "You believe you can stand against the Absolute? You may have defeated us, but the Absolute's Chosen will annihilate you."
"How devoted you are to those who played you. The Absolute is no god, and those three are certainly not her Chosen."
Minthara scoffed, "Blasphemy. Did you spare me to bore me with lies and delusions?"
Eden was about to say something, but the Draw Paladin suddenly furrowed her brows, her tadpole communicating with those around her. It lasted for a few seconds, at the end of which Minthara started looking at him with fear, incomprehension, and some reverence.
"You… This can't be true. Tricks of the mind! How could you possibly stand against Bhaal?"
Understanding what she had been shown, Eden said, "Believe what you want. And I spared you because you are meant for more than dying for a useless cause…"
Halsin, who was back in his human form, and in the best shape in the group, asked, or rather challenged, "Do you truly wish to spare her, and have her join you? She would have destroyed the Grove without your intervention."
Eden raised a hand, reasoning, "She might be no saint, but she was under the influence of the Absolute. Now though, she is shielded from it," he looked at her in the eyes, and saw her expression changing as he added, "Look back on what you did. What was done to you. Do you still feel this absolute devotion to the Absolute and her Chosen?"
It took her some time to process everything, but by the end of it, though she did not know of it, her eyes gained an almost fragile shine to them, and she said, "I do not know what you saw in me, but I thank you for sparing me, and allowing me to get my revenge on my tormentors."
Eden nodded, helping her up as he explained, "This was only the first step towards ending the Absolute. We will be heading to a nearby Githyanki Creche first, before moving through the Underdark to join the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Until then, you should present yourself to the rest of the party."
As Minthara walked to her own corner, Halsin approached Eden, and said, "I will be going back to the Emerald Grove, to put my affairs in order. I am sure there will be celebrations, would you care to join us?"
Eden looked at the rest of the party, gauging their reactions, and shook his head, "Thank you for the offer, but we have important matters to take care of. We could certainly use the help of an Archdruid against the Absolute, however."
Halsin laughed, "And I am sure it would make for great adventures. Sadly, I must refuse for now, as I too have my own matters to handle. But perhaps we shall meet in the Shadow-Cursed Lands."
They bid each other farewells, and Eden rested along with the party for the rest of the night. He had not slept much during the last day, so he managed to get some sleep.
The night's rest allowed Eden to make a full recovery, his body's healing factor having been enhanced alongside his Physique attribute. It also helped that most of his injuries were not too grave.
He also got some time to work on his own thing. He started by absorbing the souls he had gotten, and as expected, they were far more potent than the Evil Spirits he used to have. He would have to absorb hundreds of Evil Spirits to even increase his Cursed Energy by a few points, but he now only needed five goblin souls to raise it by a point.
With all the goblins he had killed, Eden easily brought his Cursed Energy to the absolute peak of Tier I, absorbing 24 Goblin souls and some Evil Spirits he had left. Now, his Cursed Energy was at 1699, and he would theoretically only need to absorb a single goblin soul to raise that to 1700, which was the threshold for Tier II.
Eden also discovered something interesting. Ever since his had eaten Sukuna's Finger and gotten his Sorcery attribute, his body had always felt bloated, as if he was approaching the limit his body could hold. This feeling only got stronger as he improved his Cursed Energy.
And now that his Cursed Energy reached the limit of Tier I, he could clearly feel that his body had reached its limit, and blindly feeding souls to his Cursed Energy would not lead to any improvement. Eden figured this was the 'bottleneck' between Tiers.
He had already experienced it when he promoted to Tier I, when he earned his perks for Intelligence and Wisdom. It had been easy to pass, but it undoubtedly required more than simply advancing an attribute.
Eden could feel this would also require more effort on his part, although his recent Black Flashes helped bridging the distance between the two Tiers considerably. As Todo said in Jujutsu Kaisen, there was a world of difference between a Sorcerer who had experienced a Black Flash and one who had not.
This not only showed through his Tier, but also through his Cursed Energy Output, which had improved considerably since his arrival in the goblin camp.
[Dismantle (5th Rank): Launch an invisible slash with a range of 35 meters to deal 220 magical slashing damage. Output: 600 CE.]
[Cleave (5th Rank): Inspect the target and use the exact amount of Cursed Energy required to cut them apart. Must be in contact with the target, deals a max of 320 magical slashing damage. Output: 600 CE.]
With his Innate technique entering 5th Rank, he now officially had Tier II skills. This meant he should be able to defend himself against some Tier II beings, although the Tier suppression should also be taken into account.
On another note, the Black Flashes and fighting also seemed to have improved his attributes, increasing his Strength and Physique by 3, and his Agility by 2. Black Flashes were truly something.
Lastly, he also looted the Player he had killed. He got a grand total of 17518 Dream Points from their Player Caches, a bunch of potions, and some nice equipment. Most of the ones at Uncommon had been destroyed, but Eden did get a few Rare pieces of equipment. There were no Super Rare, unfortunately, but he got enough Rare equipment to give to the rest of the party, and finish his own set of armor.
Eden had never really bothered with Common and Uncommon armor, since he believed they were too cumbersome for the little defence they offered, but Rare was another threshold. So, he got himself one piece of equipment from what he looted, a headgear.
[Circlet of Spell Resurgence]
[Rank: Rare]
[Intelligence: +2]
[Wisdom: +3]
[Spell Blocker: Absorb up to 100 damage from a spell targeting the user, storing it into the circlet. The circlet may only contain one charge. Cooldown: 12 hours.]
[Resurgence: Converts the charge into lifeforce, healing the user.]
The circlet, which had belonged to the mage from the Freedom Alliance, was surprisingly powerful. It had a full charge in, which probably came from the first bullet Eden had fired. Cobra dealt magical damage, after all.
Unfortunately for that mage, Eden had fired four bullets, so he was still dead, and that before he could even use Resurgence. In any case, this was a really good head-wear, and it looked fancy too.
With this, Eden had nearly all of his 'equipment slots' filled out, and only had enough space left to equip a pair of gloves/gauntlets, and accessories. Accessories were naturally rarer than other equipment, while Eden would have to sacrifice the use of Cleave if he put on gloves.
The material itself was not necessarily a problem, but since they were imbued with magic, it would hamper with his Innate Technique, so he did not get any.
Overall, this battle had netted him quite a lot.
With his ever increasing attributes, Eden's need for sleep lowered, so he did not spend his entire night sleeping, and used the opportunity to continue learning his 4th Circle Spells, which were True Sight, Tasha's Otherworldly Guise and Disintegrate.
All three had interesting effects, but Eden stuck with learning True Sight first, as he believed it to be the most important.
Unfortunately, Eden's hopes of quietly studying his spells were shattered rather quickly.
While everyone was sleeping, Eden noticed a disturbance, and saw the Astral Prism suddenly rise in the air, pulsating with its deep orange light. It reached every member of the party, currently asleep, drawing them into a dream.
It also reached out to him, but recoiled as soon as it brushed him, like water and oil. Looking at the floating prism, Eden said, knowing the Emperor could hear him, "Don't fuck with me, and I won't fuck with you, Balduran. Don't think your… condition would give you any advantage."
A faint purple wisp floated out of the Astral Prism, and Eden allowed it to connect with him. He heard a man's voice that was both deep and ethereal reached his mind, "We share the same goal, the destruction of the Absolute and its cult. Since you know so much, you probably know that already."
"I know what happened to you, the choices you made, those you did not, and those made for you. For now, you indeed are an ally. A valuable one, since Orpheus' power cannot be harnessed by just anyone."
The Emperor asked, politely, "I would appreciate it if we could keep my condition from them for the time being. They are not ready to ally with an Illithid, even an independent one."
Eden's fingers brushed against the Scroll of True Sight, and agreed, "For now. They will have to know though, in time."
"Of course."