Eden appeared right where he had left, because that was where he chose to appear: the twelfth layer of the Abyss, Twelvetrees.
He was in a good distance in the air, above the ritualistic site where the devas had been sacrificed, and where he much more recently become the Demon King.
This layer of the Abyss was normally only partially inhabited, yet now, millions upon millions of demons gathered, surrounding the site. Some were regular demons, but there were Demon Lords too, with some of the most powerful among them at the front.
Eden's appearance caused a small stir, as he was not very high. Some recognized him, mostly those who had interacted with him, but the vast majority became rowdy, thinking some celestial had been foolish enough to barge in the Abyss.
Before things could devolve into something unsightly and he ended up required to slaughter a ton of demons, Eden returned to his true form, the robes around him stretching to their limits as Eden released his whole Demon King Presence.
The effect was instantaneous. All demons, be they the weakest Gibberlings or the most powerful Orcus, they all knelt at once, the whole layer seemingly shaking from the simultaneous gesture.
Eden could see that it not been out of their own volition; for many of them at least. But that was just the effect his Presence had over them. Although he had gained a strong level of affinity and even control over demonic realms all over the Omniverse, he was the true master of the Abyss.
This meant that he could do whatever he wanted with it. If he wanted to, he could double the number of Layers, compress them all into one, kill any demon with a thought, and so much more. In essence, this was his Divine Realm, or maybe Abyssal Realm.
Descending toward the ground, Eden noticed that there was still one person not kneeling. The only non-demon present, Tasha.
With a snap of his fingers, she was brought up before him. Although Eden's Perfected One III negated Tier Suppression for combat, it did no such thing for spells, meaning that Tier II spells cost him 25% less, Tier I spells 50% less, and Tier 0 spells 75% less.
The Telekinesis spell of this world was a 3rd Circle spell, meaning Tier I, so its 90 MP cost was halved, then another 30% were removed because of Eden's Perfected One III. It was additive, too, meaning that the cost was reduced by a whole 80%, reducing the cost to 18 MP. Eden had also tweaked the spell, so that instead of casting the spell in one go, it was more of a continuous spell that ran as long as he fed it mana. In that instance, it cost him 1.5 MP per second, and with the same modifiers, that meant a true cost of 0.3 MP per second.
Since he was casting it silently, it was a tad more expensive, but it was negligible at this point.
With Eden's immense 3502 total MP, and his MP regeneration accelerated by ten times, he naturally regenerated about 73 MP per minute, or 1.22 MP per second.
In other words, the spell was essentially free, as it cost him less than his natural regeneration.
Although she could have probably easily broken free from the low level spell, Iggwilv, or Tasha, allowed herself to be brought up as she took in his form. Eden was pleasantly surprised to see that his fully unleashed Presence did not influence her too much, although it was only one of the two.
That was the tricky thing with Eden's Presences; his Demon King normally gave out a primal feeling of terror, spread fear and caused people to flee. However, his Perfected One Presence was antipodal to it, since it spread his perfection and caused people to be drawn to him.
The mix of the two caused this strange reaction from Angrboda. At the moment though, he had only let go of his Demon King Presence.
Although Tasha was only at the peak of Tier II, she was far more experienced that the vast majority of Players, having lived a much longer life, and also having been exposed to plenty of powerful presences, such as that of the Abyss itself.
Eden looked at her, before sending a glance down, at Orcus specifically, and sending telepathically, "Wait for me in your layer, I'll have something interesting for you."
Then, without waiting for a response, he teleported Tasha and himself to one of his demiplanes.
Landing on the false ground with grace, Tasha gave him a face as she blamed, "Leaving me alone with the Goddess of Magic was… uncomfortable. She had suddenly become very curious in as to how I had broken away from her Weave."
Eden grinned, regaining his human form and sealing his Presence as he asked, "What was it that you called me when we first met? Demon King wannabee?"
Tasha rolled her eyes, "How insufferable. You build an army, and end up doing all the fighting yourself. You ask me to study a god's corpse, and yank me out to watch your ascension before leaving."
Eden's grin receded as he passed a hand through his hair, feeling a tad embarrassed as he replied, "Not everything went according to plan, I'm afraid. Still, that won't go to waste. Although I have overtaken the Abyss, I do have a use for an army."
Tasha poked at his chest a first time, then a little harder, but even as her nails extended and became as sharp as daggers, she failed to even break Eden's skin. She sent him a look that said 'really?', so Eden grabbed her wrist, scoffing, "I'm powerful, yes, but I'm not taking over the Nine Hells all by myself."
She blinked owlishly, before freeing her wrist, clicking her tongue, "You want to restart the Blood War? What's even the point?"
"Not the Blood War, no. I have something swifter in mind. Asmodeus is more powerful than he seems and I would rather not have distractions. Speaking of which, how are your relations with the other Archfey?"
Tasha looked at him suspiciously, but she still replied, "Mother listens to me, but she won't fight for you. The others even less so."
Eden shook his head though, explaining, "I don't want them to fight. I want them to watch."
The truth was that he did want them to be able to provide swift reinforcements. Eden already had an idea in mind, and his Simulacrum was looking up information on the Dungeons and Dragons world at this very moment, which was how he suspected Asmodeus might be tougher than he looks. Having a bunch of Gods on standby in case things went south would make for a good safety net.
As for convincing them to act, Eden was not worried. If his suspicions about Asmodeus were founded, then the other Gods would help out of their own volition, with maybe the exception of some particularly evil Gods.
A look of exasperation appeared on Tasha's face, but she still said, "I don't know what you're scheming, but I doubt they would take kindly to the Demon King taking over the Nine Hells. The Abyss and the Nine Hells are a big enough pain to the Upper Realms when they are fighting, so they will most likely do their best to stop you, or take the side of the weaker one of the two."
Eden had to give it to her, Tasha knew how to play people's hearts. They had known each other for a few years now, with the time they had spent in his accelerated Demiplanes, and she knew exactly how to trigger a reaction in him.
When she mentioned the 'weaker one of the two', she was inferring he might be weaker than Asmodeus, so she was provoking his pride to dissuade him from doing whatever he had planned.
But while Eden may still have remnants of his old problems with pride, he was not the type to get manipulated through it.
"I know what I'm doing. All I need you to do is pass on the message, and get as many of them to watch as you can. But first, how far along are you on your mastery of your magic?"
Eden had unlocked Tasha's magic before, freeing her from the dependence on the Weave. This also meant that she had to learn most of her spells again.
"I've been done for a while now. I cast Avatar of Wrath."
Suddenly, her body gained a demonic aesthetic. However, Eden could tell from a glance that this was not the 7th Circle version he used himself, but the 6th Circle one instead. Moreover, she had not managed to manifest the spell circle, meaning she had not yet mastered the spell.
And indeed, she revealed, "I've also learned the Epic-level version of the spell you gifted me. I still need to thoroughly master it, but I should be a few years away from it."
Eden nodded. He had not cast Avatar of Wrath ever since he had promoted, because he had not needed it. Actually, he only had a single soul attached to him, and that was Enrique's, the Tier III Player from Black Tower.
It would be a waste to use his soul to cast Avatar of Wrath though, since a Tier 0 soul could do the job just fine.
But more importantly, Avatar of Wrath would be a stunted version of the spell if he were to cast it. An invisible 'drawback' to his Perfected One Perk was that he was now unable to use any Transmutation spell lower than 8th Circle on himself, or rather that it would have no effects.
When he had reconstructed his body, he had based it on the Avatar of Wrath template, essentially turning the Transmutation part of the spell into something permanent.
[Avatar of Wrath (7th Circle): Consume a soul to transform into the Avatar of Wrath. Increase defence by 100 (175), gain Fire Resistance III, Poison Resistance III, Lightning Resistance III and Cold Resistance III. Grants wings, and all physical attacks become magical and deal an additional 250 (370) necrotic or radiant damage while unarmed. Heals the user for 50% of the necrotic damage dealt, or 200% the radiant damage in healing deficit for 10 seconds. Damage types chosen when the spell is cast. The effects last for 10 (30) minutes. Cost: 1370 (350) MP.]
The first part of Avatar of Wrath, that is the increased defence, the various Resistances, the wings and the physical attacks becoming magical were all the Transmutation part of the spell, based after Tasha's Otherworldly Guise. They were also all things that had been turned permanent for Eden.
And the first rule of Transmutation magic was that one could not cast two Transmutation spells on themselves at the same time. It was a logical limit, since one could not transform themselves into a Dragon and Kraken at the same time. These were two different forms.
Since Eden's Perfected One was essentially a permanent Transmutation spell, then anything lower than it would simply get negated, and only an equal or strong Transmutation spell could change it. And even then, it might come at the sacrifice of some of his Perk's advantages.
However, that was not to say Avatar of Wrath had become useless, even in its current form. Of course, it would have to be properly modified to turn it into a worthy 7th Circle spell, but the second part of the spell, the necrotic and radiant damage added to unarmed attacks, was not Transmutation but Conjuration magic, meaning it would still work.
Of course, he still needed to work on his Transmutation, as his Perfected One Perk was only at Tier III, meaning it could still be improved. That was exactly what Tasha was there for.
Conjuring a notebook, Eden Inscribed some further insights he had into the spell, handed it over to Tasha, and then sent her into a demiplane with 666 times speed. They had regained their property inside this universe.
Although Eden could no longer make use of it, since his next mission would take place in two months whatever the speed of time was, that did not mean others faced a similar constraints.
While Tasha was busy learning his spells into the lowest Layer of the Abyss, Eden teleported through the Abyss, starting with the different Gods left, such as Kali and Eshebala, and as tempted as Eden was to take some time off with the fox Goddess, he gave them similar instructions as he had to Tasha, that is to gather other deities to attend his fight with Asmodeus.
Although both Goddesses asked for a rematch, Eden postponed it for later, spreading the news through the various layers, before stopping at Orcus' Layer.
Thanatos, his layer of the Abyss, was as dreary as ever. The sky was completely black, devoid of stars, the air was thinner than at the top of Mount Everest, and the lands were nothing but decay.
Orcus was waiting for him in his City of the Dead, where they had met for the first day. Interestingly enough, Orcus did not appear much friendlier than during that first meeting, as the Demon Lord looked ready to fight.
Appearing in his full form, Eden was about half a meter taller than Orcus, and he approached him with a cocky smile as he asked, "Is that for me?"
He was not only referring to Orcus' fighting stance, but to the legions of undead around them. Nothing that would ever threaten Eden, but legions nonetheless.
Orcus growled with his gravely voice, "I do not appreciate being made a fool of, my King."
Eden raised an eyebrow at the form of address, as it meant the bridge had not been completely burned. That was a good thing, as he had plans for Orcus.
Stepping closer to him, Eden revealed truthfully, "That was not my intention, Orcus. The enemy made an unexpected move. They were crushed before absolute power."
Orcus sneered, but the legions below scattered, "Yet you are here, and have been informing the whole universe your plans to attack the Nine Hells. Would you happen to have a use for me, Your Grace?"
The thirst for death in his voice was evident, and it now appeared to Eden clearly what had bothered Orcus. As crazy as it might sound, Orcus had not been disappointed by the lost opportunity at getting Myrkul's divinity, but that he had not gotten to murder people.
Eden loved the guy.
With a thought, Eden opened a rift to one of his demiplanes, gesturing for Orcus to follow him as he stepped inside.
This was not just any demiplane, but there one where all the corpses he had intended to sell were gathered.
Orcus did not have much of a reaction to the numerous corpses, so Eden asked, "Would you be able to raise the corpses of Gods with your current power?"
Orcus did not answer immediately, examining the corpses first, before shaking his head, "Not to their full power, no."
"And if you were to advance to the domain of gods?"
"Then yes."
Eden led Orcus out of the Demiplane, directly to the last layer of the Abyss, where he had been trapped for so long. And while Orcus stared at the barren land, Eden made a snatching gesture, and suddenly, a divinity appeared in his hand.
Myrkul's divinity.
The divinities Eden had gathered on him during his mission had been left behind when he returned to the Nexus, but they had not yet had the time to reform into Gods, since their hosts had been thoroughly killed. As a result, they had been drifting through the Abyss.
It would have been nearly impossible for anyone to track them, but as the Demon King, it only took Eden a thought.
Eden tossed the divinity to Orcus to absorb, along with all the corpses he had intended to sell. Since he would not be able to sell them, this would be a good use of them.
It was not like Eden cared much for a few million Dream Points, or any amount of them really. They made certain things easier, but if Eden really wanted something, he could either take it or do it himself.