Chapter 117: Luke

To read up to 20 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

-------------

"Stop dragging on, and tell us your name."

The copy laughed, and said, "Fine, Luke, I'll be Luke. Don't ask why, just felt like it."

Edward doubted, "To be honest, I thought you would take the name of a god or something."

Edward's copy, now Luke, shrugged and explained, "I'm not getting the name of someone I'll eventually beat. Or you will. Whatever."

Edward then turned to Roma, and explained, "We owe you some explanations, but we don't have much time so long story short, Luke won't merge with me, I will instead create a body for him to live in."

Roma stood frozen for a while, before she asked, still in shock, "But… we came all this way, went through all this, to find you and for him to merge with you… Was that a joke from the beginning?"

Luke approached her and took her hands, which normally would be impossible for a Spirit but he still managed to do so, and said, "Of course not. I wanted to merge back with Edward because I knew we had to go back to him, but he wouldn't let a copy of himself simply live, that would be a potential hazard. We are the person we fear the most."

Roma looked at Edward and Luke in confusion and asked, "Then why didn't you so that?"

Luke smiled and explained, "When I left your body and got face to face with Edward, our souls connected and we formed a connection. That finally fixed my soul after so many years, but also changed me. Not too much, don't worry, but it set me a little more like the original, added what Merlin couldn't add all those years back."

Roma still looked strange though as she asked, "What about power then? If Edward absorbed your powerful soul then his own Spirit would have at least reached the peak of the Revolving Core Realm, maybe even more than that!"

Edward snorted, "You really have a useless disciple, Luke."

Roma flushed at the insult, while Luke rolled his eyes, "Calm down, she's still a child. To answer your question, not only is Edward the very incarnation of pride…"

"Fuck you too."

"… absorbing my soul also wouldn't be so good for him. So much Yin Chi would have forced his Spirit to evolve, probably, but as you know the next realm, Nascent Soul, needs a Spirit and a Body in symbiosis, so it would have done more harm than good."

Edward added, "We've exchanged each other's memories too, and I've corrected whatever was missing in him, so killing him by absorbing him would feel like killing myself, which I do not want to do. Besides, he can't be of any danger to me."

Roma threw a quizzical look at the two, wondering what they were talking about, but neither explained, and Edward instead said, "For now, Luke's body is only a small matter, we have to deal with Sefako." Luke nodded, and dived into Roma's body.

Seeing Edward shift the subject, Scott, aka Cyclops, team leader of the X-Men, decided this moment to approach and ask, "Is Sefako the name of the Adversary?"

Edward nodded, he had learned a lot more about Sefako when he got Luke's memories. Sefako was, as he had guessed, a mystical entity like Dormammu who sought to devour other dimensions.

Originally he had no way to invade Earth, but the X-Men and the Brotherhood opened a breach in Spacetime, which Sefako had been monitoring in case it opened again.

At the same time, the X-Men and the Brotherhood arrived in this time, and after some time spent accommodating to the current time, they went back to their fighting, which led them once again to get in contact with the spacetime tunnel.

There, Roma was finally arriving to her destination after many years of drifting, and met with the mutants. Long story short, Magneto thought of her as some kind of interdimensional goddess whom he could use to fight against the X-Men, and thus led her to their world.

However, while Roma was trying to enter the world, Sefako used the opportunity and tried to enter. Roma tried fighting him with the help of her isle, but was eventually defeated, and Sefako was granted access into this world.

Moreover, she had managed to injure him, she was quite strong after all.

For her cultivation, after many years of cultivation under Luke's guidance, she had managed to reach the realm beyond Edward's, the Nascent Soul Realm.

Just as Edward had theorized, the way forward next was to fuse one's Spirit with their Core, thus forming the Nascent Soul. Edward hadn't found a name for the realm yet, but he liked the name Luke had found. He probably would have chosen the same name anyway, considering Luke was a copy of Edward.

However, Roma hadn't gone through perfect breakthrough like he had, nor did she possess any special natural treasure such as Dragon Fire or Freezing Crystal, she had made her breakthroughs by simply cultivating and evolving her Dantian and Spirit.

So if only their cultivation was taken into account, Edward was actually stronger than Roma in combat, although she had slightly more powers. For example, she could fly easily relying only on her Chi.

Edward could use his Yin Chi to levitate his body, but it still lacked in potency to really make him fly. As it fused with Yang Chi though, the ability of both types of Chi were retained, and strengthened by each other, allowing Roma to fly easily.

There were a few other things that she could do and Edward couldn't do, but in a face to face combat, he would crush her.

But more importantly, both of them were not just cultivators, they were also magicians. For Edward, nearly everything that Roma could do thanks to her merged Chi, such as a flying or making her soul leave her body, he could do the same thanks to his magic.

Magic wise, Edward was also stronger than Roma, after all the girl had mainly been creating her own magic and searching her way forward, while Edward had copied the knowledge of thousands of years of magicians in his head.

Although Roma had passed by a few worlds, she had always been a little lacking in her Spirit because she often relied on Luke's Spirit for many things, such as memorizing things.

Anyway, Edward was stronger than Roma in everything, except for her isle, which empowered her while she stood on it. If she didn't have it, she stood no chance against Edward. If she did have it, then she was stronger, but unfortunately, to injure Sefako she had partly destroyed her isle, which would need time to be restored.

So Edward was their strongest force for this fight, and Roma came in second, which would be important for their planning.

Back to the situation at hand, Cyclops looked at the different people present before saying, "I think we can all agree on the important enemies being Graxus, the flaming skeleton and Sefako. For the rest, they can easily be dealt with."

Several people nodded, and Magneto stepped forward as he revealed, "This… Sefako, I noticed something as he arrived. He arrived near the Wolverine, but instead of attacking him, he moved away. Something to say?"

All gazes turned to one of the X-Men, a feral looking man who growled, "You think I'm with him?"

Before things could escalate Edward said, "He was repulsed by something in you, Wolverine. What is your mutation?"

Wolverine crossed his arms and replied, a little grumpily, "Regeneration, but my skeleton was coated in adamantium."

Scott scratched his cheek and commented, "He could be afraid of adamantium then. What about the other two, does anyone have interesting info on them?"

Edward nodded and explained, "The flaming skull is an average human who has been possessed by the Spirit of Vengeance, transforming him into the Ghost Rider. His powers grow as the Spirit of Vengeance takes a stronger hold on him. When I arrived, the human had full control and thus was weak, but when I destroyed his skull the Spirit of Vengeance fully took over and became much stronger.

"To defeat him, Blessed Weapons are the best weapons, but we do not have any as far as I can tell, so brute force seems the only way. As for the other one, Graxus, he is an alien belonging to a force called the Red Lantern Corp. He has a ring that feeds on his rage, and which can use this rage to empower him in various ways. He is a very dangerous opponent too, more dangerous than the Ghost Rider."

The others frowned as they thought of a strategy, and while they were thinking Edward said, "Sefako is weakened, but I am still no match for him. However, if I absorb the Ghost Rider's flame then I should be enough to beat him… Magneto, can you control the metal in Wolverine's body?"

Magneto showed a cocky smile as Wolverine was suddenly lifted from the ground. He unsheathed his metals claws, growling at Magneto, who kept smiling cockily. Edward rolled his eyes at that and said, "I understand, you can put him down. Wolverine, please don't attack him as soon as he drops you."

Magneto, showing still the same smile, dropped Wolverine, and lo and behold, he pounced on him, only to be stopped in mid air. Cyclops sighed and put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Logan, please."

Wolverine, or Logan, still looked pretty pissed, but he ended up retracting his claws, and as Magneto dropped him, he stayed put.

Edward sighed in regret before even exposing his plan, and finally said, "Roma will fight against Graxus, alongside with speedy boy and witch girl from the Brotherhood."

They didn't look so pleased, but Magneto sent them a glare, and they nodded. Edward then pointed at Scott and added, "We keep saying the demons aren't much of a threat, but if they aren't dealt with then they could mess everything up. Cyclops, you will lead the X-Men and the rest of the Brotherhood to fight all the demons."

Scott nodded, and Edward finally turned to Magneto before saying, "Magneto, you will work in concert with Wolverine to…"

"Stop joking bud."

"A change in leadership seems necessary."

For once, both agreed on the same thing. Edward already expected such a reaction, hence his earlier sigh, so he continued, "I understand you are enemies, and have diverging ideologies, but if Sefako isn't stopped then everyone on the planet dies, so stop acting like children and do as I say."

Well, it wasn't exactly true, Edward was pretty sure there were forces strong enough to stop Sefako, such as the Ancient One or others, but if they could avoid to face the full strength of a dimensional tyrant, then they better not know about it.

Thankfully, Edward's charisma and Royal Aura helped him convince the others. Actually, it surprised Edward Wolverine and Magneto refused him so quickly, they might be enemies, Edward's Royal Will was no joke, and it proved they both had a strong will to be barely, if any, affected.

Magneto and Logan sent a look at each other, and one could almost see the cogs rotate in their heads as they weighed the pros and cons. They both hated each other, Logan more than Magneto, but cooperating was better than death.

So despite their reluctance, they eventually both agreed.

Since everyone had their role decided, Edward ordered, "I estimate we have three hours before Sefako starts recovering his powers, so you have the next two hours to rest before we go fight."

Edward would have liked setting up a time array to let them all rest properly, but this would potentially reveal their position to Sefako, and the risk wasn't worth it.