Chapter 31: Asgard

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As the rainbow light surrounding him faded away, Edward found himself in a gold clad circular room, at the center of which was a pedestal. Behind him, was a huge gate leading to the starry sky, quite the beautiful scenery.

On the other side, was another entrance, where a rainbow bridge stood, and at the end of which, the fabled city of Asgard laid. The towers of gold and silver seemed to exude an aura of both majesty and grandeur, awing anyone seeing them.

"My Prince, you have brought a guest back."

Edward whipped his head back to the center of the room, where a man stood in golden armor, a sword encased in the pedestal. He had just taken the sword out, closing the teleportation array, and was the one who just spoke.

Thor laughed and said "He has defeated me in battle, I believe he is worthier than many Asgardians to be here!"

The man smiled, his yellow eyes starring deeply at Edward, before saying "Yes, he has… The All-Father is waiting for you."

Edward felt a little weirded out by the man's eyes, but seeing Thor start walking away he followed him. As they reached the rainbow bridge though the black Asgardian said "There is no need for disguise in this realm, it would only be disrespectful to our king."

Edward stopped, and after a moment the Armor of the Ancients retracted from his head, revealing his face. The man nodded, and the two walked away.

The bridge was quite long, and as they reached the middle area Edward talked to fill the awkward silence "My name is Edward, I hid my face on Earth because powerful witches are after me, and my family are powerless."

Thor grinned and said "It is admirable of you. I am curious though, are you really a mortal? You do not feel like a mutant, an inhuman or any of those weird variations. How did you become this powerful then? It doesn't feel like it comes from the sword or the armor either…"

Edward smiled and replied "I still am a mortal man, and I am proud of it. Are you familiar with…"

As Edward was speaking a hole suddenly appeared on the bridge in front of them. Edward abruptly stopped himself and Thor, who hadn't even seen it, and looked to their right.

Thor looked at him surprised, before growing angry as he followed his gaze and said "Loki, what is the meaning of this?"

With a flash of green a man seemed to materialize where they were looking. He had short black hair and a malicious smile as he looked at the two.

He said "Well, brother, in case you forgot, I am the God of Tricksters and Mischief. I don't come bothering you when you provoke a storm, so why react like this?"

Edward raised an eyebrow and said "God of Mischief? I assume you are Loki."

Loki's face turned to stone as he said coldly "Who allowed you to speak to me, human?"

Thor frowned and said "Loki, stop acting like a fool and be useful for once, teleport us to father."

Loki was about to say something when a portal opened in between them. Thor smiled and said "Thank you mother." while Loki rolled his eyes and entered.

Standing in the middle of the godly dispute, Edward didn't speak much, and observed, curious. For now, as far as he could see, the so called gods were not so different from humans. He followed the two into the opened portal, and found himself in a grand hall.

On both sides were hundreds of soldiers clad in golden armor standing in two parallel rows. In front of him, was a set of stairs, leading to a throne, on top of which sat a middle-aged man, he had a gold and silver armor on, seemed quite tall even while sitting.

But what stood out the most, was the golden eyepatch on his right eye, as well as the mighty spear in his right hand. He looked serious, and his single eye first looked at Thor upside down before turning to Edward.

There was also a woman standing next to him, she was quite tall herself, and looked slightly younger than the man on the throne. She had platinum blond hair, much like Thor, and looked much warmer than the man on the throne, her husband.

Edward, who knew a thing or two about Norse Mythology, didn't need to be told to guess the identity of the two. Odin and Frigga, parents of Thor and Loki, as well as several other brothers.

Edward saw Thor and Loki bow before Odin, so he hurriedly did the same as them, and instantly felt a pressure surround him.

"Do you think you have the same status as my sons, the Princes of Asgard, human?" The king's deep voice resonated in the great hall as the soldiers behind secretly tensed, ready to attack Edward at their sovereign's order.

Edward could feel Loki laughing on the inside, while Thor exuded a feeling of injustice as he said "Father…"

"I did not speak to you, boy. Let the mortal talk by himself." Odin quickly cut off Thor, never turning his gaze away from Edward.

Edward could feel a spiritual pressure not so different from the one he felt from the evil spirit of the Ebony Sword, except even stronger. However, he kept calm as he replied "With all due respect, your majesty, I was invited here by your son, and am not your subject. In my times, a bow is a great form of respect toward a foreign king."

Odin did not respond to this, but only kept staring at Edward. Strangely though, this silent felt loud, and heavy. The God King's aura also pressed down on Edward's spirit, suppressing it.

At first, Edward easily resisted it, but as the aura increased, his body began trembling slightly as his skin got paler. However, he was feeling blissful inside as he felt his spirit boil in a way it only did once before, when it awakened.

As it got compressed together by the pressure, it refined itself to become better and better, while the pressure only got stronger and stronger. Edward felt he could make his spirit burst at any time, but he also had this strange feeling that the longer he held on, the better it would be.

Meanwhile, the people around Edward were surprised. Odin was a being of immense power, and the aura his being exuded was something barely anyone could withstand. Even Thor would be forced to his knees rather quickly if he suffered his father's pressure for too long, but here was Edward, a mortal man, who managed to keep standing despite the pressure.

The soldiers and the two princes were being impressed, but they also lacked the knowledge to understand what was really happening.

Frigga, as a powerful goddess herself, and someone with a great amount of knowledge, she could feel that despite Edward's spirit being stronger than the average person, it wasn't helping him in the slightest.

On the contrary, this greater spirit allowed him to feel her husband's power better, and made the pressure even worse than it was. What allowed this young man to keep standing, wasn't his spirit, but his great will to not bow.

She couldn't help but wonder how this boy came to get such a will. And what happened to him to make him so reluctant to submit to her husband, the God King.

But what no one in this hall knew, was that the most surprised one was actually Odin himself.

He once sacrificed his left eye for knowledge. He wasn't even aware though of the changes happening in this mortal's spirit though.

He saw his son's fight on Earth, and Edward's victory over him. Edward's power surprised him, and thanks to his great knowledge he determined he got his power from strengthening his vital energy.

Vital Energy was very important for living beings, especially gods as it determined the power of their bodies. His son, Thor's, vital energy was the greatest he had felt in a long while, it was even greater than his own, meaning his son's body would be stronger than any other god.

Thus it could be seen how important Vital Energy was to a living being. So if it could be changed, the method would be valued by many people.

Even with the knowledge from Mimir's Well, he hadn't found a way to enhance one's vital energy, and yet this mortal had apparently succeeded. This made him immensely curious. There was also his strange spirit that seemed unusually active, so he decided to test him.

And while he suppressed the mortal, he felt his strong will, causing even more surprise. He finally couldn't help himself, and used his dark magic to scan the mortal's body and spirit.

This allowed him to confirm his guesses, this Edward wasn't a mutate, mutant, inhuman or any such modified beings. He was a pure human, born with no special abilities. And yet, his body was way stronger than a pure human, and so was his mind.

Something else Odin noticed was how Edward's Vital Energy was constantly circulating around his body, which made his eye shine. This mortal was stimulating his Chi to strengthen his flesh and bones to their limit, instead of letting them be passively nourished as it normally should.

Odin himself was capable of stimulating his Vital Energy, he could either use the raw method of meditation, or he could use technology to plunge himself into his Odin Sleep, to stimulate his Vital Energy greatly and heal from his injuries.

However, neither of these methods were nearly as effective as this mortal's method, and both incapacitated him, while Edward could do so while moving around normally.

Odin knew Edward came from the future, about 1600 years in the future, but he also knew that humans wouldn't even approach the technology level of Asgard even with thousands of years.

So how did this mortal who was in his twenties manage to achieve something even he, someone who lived for thousands of years and obtained the knowledge from Mimir's Well, couldn't do?

And it was when he searched Edward's spirit that he discovered his answer. On the surface, Edward's spirit was currently being compressed by his aura. The problem was, this should be impossible.

Someone's spirit shouldn't be able to change it's form like this, it would be forced to either submit or break, which was why others would bow.

However, Edward's didn't, it managed to do the impossible. And the reason for this, was a special energy that was constantly being emitted from his spirit.

This energy… was foreign to him. He had never seen it before. Or even heard of it. To put this into perspective, the last time he came across something he didn't know was more than 700 years ago.

This energy wasn't particularly powerful, and closely resembled the energy emitted by telepaths and other kinds of races who could use their mind. At least, to most people, they wouldn't be able to differentiate the two energies.

However, he could feel the difference, this energy was special, and was making the impossible possible. The way Edward was absorbing Vital Energy into his body and controlling it to circulate around his body, it was physically impossible to control it to such an extent.

And Vital Energy could only be controlled physically, mental energy couldn't affect it. However, Edward's special energy could, and it controlled it so well that it made the constant stimulation of his Vital Energy possible.

However, as Odin was caught in observing Edward's special energy, that is what he called Spiritual Energy, the later finally couldn't endure the pressure anymore, and he made his spirit explode outward.

In a scene familiar to the one two months ago, but even bigger this time, a giant bubble extended out of Edward's body, and covered the entire grand hall, a much bigger area than last time. The world inside the bubble had turned black and white, and everyone standing in it, even Odin, felt a great will oppress theirs.

The next second, the bubble disappeared, and with it, the hundreds of soldiers fell to the ground, unconscious, while Loki and Thor's faces changed. Only Odin and Frigga seemed unaffected, but the way they looked at Edward had changed drastically.