Satoru Gojo looked like a new person entirely. His posture had changed, his body tensed and ready for battle. Although he did not take a proper battle stance, his words felt sharper as he groaned in Japanese, in a deceptively light tone, "To think you, out of all people, would be the one to see through me."
Eden shrugged, keeping his own posture relaxed. He understood everything Satoru had said, of course, thanks to his Perk, and replied, "Offering help against those guys was the first tell. Stitch and I were not friends, we just made a deal. The only reason for him to offer me help was if he needed something from me. Well, that, or he was a deeply altruistic person, but considering he tried to possess you, I did not really consider that possibility."
Gojo slightly titled his head, before sighing, bringing up his fists in his usual fighting stance as he sighed, "I don't suppose there's a way out of this not involving a fight. I guess we'll be getting that spar after all."
But even as Gojo readied himself for a fight, Eden looked at him with his hands in his pockets, tilting his head as he asked, perplexed, "Why is that?"
"Eh?"
Eden shrugged, "I told you already, he wasn't my friend, just some guy I made a deal with. A good deal, but just a deal. I got the fingers, why should I care who ended up in the driving seat?"
Gojo's body relaxed a little, though he still pressed on, "So you're just gonna ignore the Sovereign Rule… wait, you don't even know what it is, do you?"
"How about you say it, to make sure we both know it."
This time, Gojo completely relaxed his body, chuckling to himself mirthlessly, "Of course you don't know about it, you clearly don't give a damn about anything unrelated to you."
Eden's brows furrowed, his voice a little annoyed, "If you really want to fight, you can just say it."
Gojo took out a black blindfold, slipping it over his eyes as he informed him, "The Sovereign Rule is an informal rule put in place by Players which commands all Players to kill NPCs who become Players on sight. So if a possession fails, they should be terminated."
Eden scoffed at that, "What kind of stupid rule is that?"
Gojo was far less amused, "How about the fact that Players lay waste to thousands of worlds for their personal gain? If a native from one of these worlds becomes a Player and gains power, they might hold a grudge."
"I perfectly understand that. I'm just looking down on them for setting down that kind of rule. So, do you hold a grudge?"
The white-haired man's demeanor considerably lightened as he laughed, "I don't care for it. My world was left in quite the mess though, so I'd like to at least deal with that."
Eden realized why Gojo was here, "Is that why you wanted to learn spatial magic then? To return to your world and deal with the aftermath?"
Indeed, since this was Satoru Gojo, he had already more or less mastered his Innate Technique, so the lessons on spatial magic would be useless to him, unless he had another goal.
Gojo nodded, looking at Eden carefully through his blindfold as he probed, "You said something about deals with you being safe."
Eden nodded, "Why, got one for me?"
Gojo leaned against one of the walls, proposing, "I need your help to return to my world. I still have ten of Sukuna's fingers stashed away securely, somewhere no one will find them. If you bring me there, they are yours."
The deal was an absolute win, as far as Eden was concerned, as teleporting Gojo over to his world would only cost him some MP, but he still asked, "What about the Players there? It might have been a Tier II mission world, their Guilds would surely have taken that world as their base. It is a world with an integrated Power System after all, it must be quite valuable. It probably went to the highest bidder."
Gojo shook his head, explaining, "My world has an Overlord figure. You probably know it as fate. It ensures a certain balance, and it rejects powerful Players. Since I'm a native, it should accept me, and I deal with any Players that were accepted. All I need is transit."
Eden observed Gojo, and his confident gait. The deal was great to him. He was essentially acting as a transporter, and he figured that ten of Sukuna's Fingers were a more than acceptable price, so he nodded, "Fine then, I'll help. Let's do this quick."
"You want to do this now?"
"You want to wait?"
Gojo paused, before shaking his head, "Just unexpected. Most people need some time to cast that kind of spell."
"Most people suck."
Saying that, Eden tried to tap Gojo's shoulder, only for his hand to be stopped by Infinity. Or rather than stopped, it was slowed down infinitely. It was a strange feeling, as it did not feel like a solid barrier, but truly like he was slowed.
Someone weaker would have been unable to tell the difference, but with his absurdly high Attributes, Eden could clearly feel how his hand was still technically 'advancing', yet was making less distance the further it went.
Meanwhile, Gojo whistled, "You really are quite something. A tap registered as a danger to my technique. Should I be scared?"
Eden rolled his eyes, and as his hand was freed, he chanted softly, "I cast Surface Record."
As several layers of reality peeled back for Eden, Gojo lifted his blindfold slightly, staring at the spell circle that appeared curiously as he muttered, "Fascinating. I got to learn that."
Eden ignored him, looking into his origin instead. From there, it did not take him long to derive the dimensional coordinates of his original universe. It was a strange feeling, but it almost felt like he was guided there by some invisible hand.
The coordinates were protected, of course, but Eden was searching into the database of existence itself. He might only have surface access to it, making physical contact with Gojo helped make things much simpler.
And once he had the coordinates, he only needed one other spell.
"I cast Superior Teleportation."
[Superior Teleportation (7th Circle): Breach through reality itself to appear to the desired location. Puncture space-time to bypass locks placed on it. Cost: 1370 (350) MP.]
Superior Teleportation was the spell he had developed back in the Forgotten Layer of the Abyss, and which had allowed him to escape from there. It was an especially potent teleportation spell, as it could bypass any Tier III space lock. Eden never had a chance to test on something higher, but the spell was more than good enough for traveling the universe.
It probably would not be enough to normally jump from one universe to the other, but the Nexus helped with that.
This teleportation was unlike any before though. Eden did not reach his destination straight away, but instead stopped… somewhere. To say he was in the void would be wrong, as that would be antithetical to the idea itself.
If he had to put a name on it, he was stopped within the infinity of time and space, where nothing and everything happened, where the universes connected and separated.
Gojo did not face a similar situation, as he had been granted entry into the world. As for Eden, he could feel the attention of… something on him. Fate, according to Gojo.
It was a disquieting experience, but also an interesting opportunity. Even at that very moment, Eden could feel the chaotic currents of time and space attempt to tear into him, only to fail. He was immortal, or immune to time, and the waves caused by space were negated by his natural defence.
This raw state of spacetime was a unique sight though, and already Eden could feel the insights coming in. This was the ideal place to study both time and space magic.
This place was not going anywhere though, and now that Eden knew about it, he could come back anytime. He still had something he had been meaning to do since he came back.
He still attempted to create a demiplane of the place, but space was far too chaotic for it to hold. He suspected that opening a domain there would also be impossible.
That did not stop Eden from teleporting to one of his demiplanes. Or rather, the only demiplane he had that was not of his own making.
It had more 'life' than the ones Eden always created. The ground was made of dark, jagged rocks, and there was even a small cliff, with a lava-fall. It accumulated in a small pond of lava, forming a sort of perpetual cycle.
And next to that lava-wall sat a skeleton corpse, one Eden had placed himself. There was also a soul attached to it.
Abraxax.
Abraxax was technically the person Eden had spent the most time with ever since he arrived in Dreamland, although in the end it had only represented an insignificant fraction of his time in the Abyss. Still, the devil had been a friend, and he at least owed him a try.
Eden already knew that Wish was not good enough to resurrect Abraxax, the devil had died for far too long for that to be effective. Learning a spell that would effectively resurrect Abraxax would also take a while, and take quite some time out of his training as well.
Eden liked Abraxax, but not to the point of wasting weeks, or even months, on. Fortunately, Eden had other means.
"I cast Superior Teleportation."
Coming back to the chaotic spacetime between worlds, Eden found the teleportation to be somewhat more complicated than it had been from the Nexus, but it was still considerably easier than while inside a world.
Eden arrived before another world, and once more felt the gaze of a figure. An Overlord. Ans this time, it came out to greet him.
It appeared before him in the form of an old human man, although he only had the shape of a man. His body was seemingly made of space-time itself, with a torso made out of galaxies. His deeply set eyes were like a couple of black holes, and his head was assorted with a long mane of white hair.
[Name: Ao (Overlord)]
That was all the System had to tell Eden concerning the figure confronting him. Eden's eyes saw more than that, however, and what he saw was surprising.
Ao was powerful, for sure, but he was also a constrained existence. All powerful in his world, yet limited to it. More than the ruler of this universe, he was the universe itself.
Eden said nothing, seeing no point to a greeting. Neither did Ao, apparently, as it said, "You've come back."
Its voice was monotone, robotic, without a hint of a feeling behind it. Eden felt like he was talking to a machine.
"I have. I'm not here for trouble."
Ao kept perfectly still as it said, "Do not destroy balance."
Before Eden could answer to that, Ao disappeared, and Eden felt that he had been granted access to this universe. As for Gojo, Eden did not worry about him. He was on his friend's list, so he could simply send a message whenever he was done.
The messaging feature was disabled during missions, but they were not on a mission.