It took about a day for Eden's Innate Technique to recover, which translated to slightly more than 2 minutes to the outside world.
For his ascent up the Abyss, two minutes represented a negligible amount of time, so that was not why he was against spamming Domain Expansion against every enemy.
Rather, it was because of the period of weakness that followed. If he carelessly used his Domain Expansion and someone ambushed him right as his Domain dissipated, he would become an easy target.
While he could still cast 4th Circle magic, Eden was sure some of his enemies were more than capable of sealing space well enough to stop that kind of magic. So, his Domain Expansion was a last-effort kind of mean.
Once he had recovered, Eden directly teleported to the next layer, seeing no point in remaining a second longer on Kali's layer. He had already earned her approval, and if she could be turned into an ally, he could always come back later.
Unfortunately, in his fight with Kali, Eden had his equipment destroyed, failing to withstand her divine might. Unfortunately, even Tier II equipment was quite rare in Dungeons and Dragons, as Legendary equipment, which translated to Unique Rarity in Dreamland terms, were only early Tier II.
There were some pieces of equipment above the Legendary rarity, such as the Sword of Zariel, that reached Epic Rarity in Dreamland, or peak Tier II, but even that would not be enough for Eden's battles.
Since the Sword of Zariel was his only Epic artefact, and it could not be used, he decided to go with trash he would not be able to sell. Fortunately, many of the things he had gotten in the Forgotten Layer were magically enchanted to fit their monstrous wearers, so Eden could wear them despite his size increase.
After Eden's fight with Kali, the several next layers were filled with Demon Lords, but not a single one of them wanted to fight him, and had yielded without so much as a word. It was understandable, as the demons challenging him could feel their respective challenges.
The Title of Demon King was a special one deeply tied to the Abyss, which meant that all Demon Lords could feel it clearly. Kali was also probably a famous deity in the Abyss, since she had made one of its layers her home, so once she took back her challenge, many demons had probably understood what it meant.
With how battle-crazed Kali was, it meant she approved of Eden's strength, and that was enough to dissuade many.
Many, but not all.
After Kali's, the next interesting Layer was the 601st, which was ruled by a living flame going by the name of Alzrius. It was interesting because it was made of a special kind of fire called the Abyssal Flame. It was special because it was capable of bypassing Fire Resistance and Immunity.
In technical terms, the flame itself was a normal one. Powerful, and magical, but also mundane. However, it was infused with the power of the Abyss itself, granting it a poisonous quality. To resist it, one would thus need a Resistance towards both Fire and Poison damage.
If someone had Resistance to only one of the two, then they would still receive full damage. It worked exactly like Hellfire, though that one mixed Fire with Necrotic damage. It did not deal any additional damage, but it was a good way to get around Resistance and Immunity.
Alzrius was one of those who kept his claim up even after Kali took back her own, and even when its essence was torn apart and took back its challenge, Eden did not let it go. Instead, he took it for study.
With it in hand, Eden took a short break from his ascension of the Abyss, to study the flames.
Eden loved to use fire, but at his level, at least in this world, Resistance and Immunity to fire damage had become so common that his fire spells had become essentially useless. That was why he wanted to learn to cast such a flame.
It only took him a few days inside his Demiplane too as he had already researched Hellfire back in the Forgotten Layer. He had been unable to replicate Hellfire because Eden had no connection to the Nine Hells, and since it was lorded over by Asmodeus, it was nigh impossible to form steal the Nine Hells' essence for research.
Eden did not have that problem with the Abyssal Flame. After all, it used the power of the Abyss, and as a Demon Lord, Eden faced no hurdles. From this, he got a new Perk.
[Abyssal Flame: All of your fire and poison spells now use Abyssal Fire. For any damage calculation involving Abyssal Fire, the lowest Resistance, Immunity or Weakness between the damage types is used.]
The way this worked was that if someone had Fire Immunity but Poison Weakness, then their Fire Immunity would be ignored, and they would take double damage, and the same the other way around. If they had weakness to both, then they would still only take double damage, and if they were immune to both, then they would not take any damage.
As far as Eden could tell, there were no downsides to this.
However, Eden quickly dispelled the Perk, his fire magic returning to normal. Although Abyssal Flame was good, most demons had Immunity to Fire and Poison, meaning that it was not of much use.
And as a Solar, Eden was deeply attuned to radiant energy, so using his insights into the Abyssal Flame, as well as a short trip to Mount Celestia, Eden managed to create another kind of fire.
[Holy Flame: All of your fire and radiant spells now use Holy Fire. For any damage calculation involving Holy Fire, the lowest Resistance, Immunity or Weakness between the damage types is used.]
That, was much more interesting, and would allow him to finally use fire spells effectively against demons. Radiant damage also happened to be one of the rarest forms of Resistance and Immunity, so it was objectively better than the Abyssal Flame.
Of course, Eden's greedy side wanted to merge the two flames, but that would be wasting too much time, so he left the task to his Simulacrum while he resumed his purge of the Abyss.
And soon, Eden passed his first milestone, the 600th Layer.
It was a well known Layer, that of Demon Lord Baphomet, the Endless Maze. However, Eden did not feel any challenger in this realm, and after some digging, he discovered that Baphomet was absent from his realm. It was disappointing, but Eden carried on.
The next realm of interest was the 586th, which was yet another prison. The Abyss was a good place to imprison people.
It was quite small in comparison to other layers, and was made of a swirling vortex of air, gas and flying rocks, and in the center of the storm was a stone throne set with precious gems.
Spacetime in this layer was messed up, and although not quite reaching the Forgotten Layer's level, Eden would have rather dodged it if he could, but there was a challenger to his title here, and a powerful one.
Bound to that throne was a gaunt figure, his whole being chaotic as it never quite settled on one color. The only fixed aspect of his were his bloodthirsty, red glowing eyes.
[Name: Diinkarazan]
[Title: The Mad God, God of Madness]
[Talent: ?]
[Perks: Tier III, Truesight, Regeneration, Magic Resistance II, Wild Magic III, Maddened Mind II, Domain of Vengeance]
[HP: 700/700]
[MP: 2673/2673]
[Strength: 70]
[Agility: 80]
[Physique: 70]
[Intelligence: 99]
[Wisdom: 95]
[Immunity: Bludgeoning II, Slashing II, Piercing II]
[Resistances: Fire II, Acid II, Cold II, Lightning II, Poison II]
[Weaknesses: None]
It was yet another deity, though this one was limited. Although he was Tier III, and had Tier III Perks, his attributes were still restrained to Tier II. Moreover, he was also bound to his throne, so Eden approached fearlessly.
Carefully observing the restraints, Eden thought for a moment before stepping inside the Mad God's Domain as he asked, "You are not taking back your challenge, are you?"
Diinkarazan's response was to send an invisible wind blade at Eden.
Dodging it with ease, Eden confirmed that Diinkarazan did not have a 100% accuracy rule implanted in his domain, meaning his attacks could miss.
In retaliation to the attack, Eden fired a Dismantle from a distance. Bound to the throne, Diinkarazan could do nothing to avoid the attack as it cut deep into his chest.
But then, something unexpected happened.
A retaliation came from Diinkarazan's domain, and this one was unavoidable. What was more shocking to Eden though was that it was a Dismantle that had targeted him. One with the exact same power as the one he had attacked Diinkarazan with.
It was surprising, but focusing his Maximum Output on the point of impact nullified the damage while Eden flew right out of the bounds of Diinkarazan's domain.
Some more testing confirmed any doubts Eden had. Diinkarazan's Domain of Vengeance did not contain any innate offensive capabilities, but it did possess the ability to replicate any attack aimed at the god.
It was an interesting, and admittedly powerful effect, though it was limited to only attacks coming from inside the domain. The domain was only fifty meters across, so any attack dealt from outside would not be sent back. And since Diinkarazan was bound to his chair, incapable to move, the easy way to defeat the God was to attack from afar.
Yet, ironically, Eden did not possess any means of actually hurting Diinkarazan from that far. Of course, he could use his own Domain Expansion to crush Diinkarazan's, but Eden felt like that would be a waste of resources. Moreover, he knew just what to do.
"I cast Avatar of Wrath."
Avatar of Wrath, when cast in its radiant version, fell under the list of spells that would be affected by Eden's new Perk, Holy Flame. Ironically, Eden had to force himself to not cast the spell through Holy Flame, using the regular version that would only deal radiant damage.
Diinkarazan stood unafraid as Eden flew back into his domain, and smashed his fist towards his face. Although it would first have to take the damage to dish it back out, he could feel that Eden was much less resilient than he was.
Eden did not place any Cursed Energy in his fist, and as expected, as the radiant energy exploded in the Mad God's face, a similar attack exploded in Eden's face.
Expect that where a chunk of the Mad God's face was blown off, nothing happened to Eden's.
Eden was Immune to Radiant damage, so he only received the bludgeoning damage from his punch, and since he did not reinforce it, it only accounted for Eden's 49 Strength. His 175 additional defence from Avatar of Wrath was more than enough to nullify that kind of punch.
That was why he had consciously stopped his Holy Flame Perk from activating. While Eden had Immunity to radiant damage, he only had Resistance for Fire, meaning he would have taken half the damage of the explosion still.
With the basic version though, he only took radiant damage, and that, he was immune to.
Despite how evidently fucked Diinkarazan was, the god was apparently too lost to madness as he continued to fight with wild abandon, mainly through the use of wind spells, but in the end, there was nothing he could do as Eden slammed his fist through his chest, burning his insides with radiant energy.
[Side Mission (Slay the Mad God) Completed!]
[Main Reward: Epic Boon of the Player's choice.]
Fault of giving him any loot, Eden did get some reward out of killing the bound God.
[Boon of Fortitude: Increase HP by 500, and all sources of HP recovery are 25% more effective.]
He hesitated to pick the Boon of Fate, that would have improved his luck, which he seemed to desperately need, but he decided to go for the power up instead. He needed it more, and frankly, he had picked himself up despite his already horrible luck.
Eden did not think he could reach a lower point than he already had, and luck was not what he needed for his plans. Besides, he expected there to be many other similar beings to kill in the near future. That meant more Epic Boons.
With Diinkarazan's death, more challengers disappeared, and Eden continued his journey down.
By the 524th Layer, he found yet another God, one slightly stronger than Diinkarazan, though weaker than Kali. He was no challenger though, so they did not fight.
Further down, on the 422nd Layer, he found an interesting Demon Lord.
[Name: Yeenoghu]
[Title: Demon Lord of the Death Dells, Prince of Gnolls, Gnoll Lord, Lord of Savagery, Beast of Butchery, Ruler of Ruin, Destroyer]
[Perks: Tier II, Monstrous Strength II, Butcher's Constitution II, Hunter's Will II, Magic Resistance II, Rampage, Truesight, Telepathy]
[HP: 1840/1840]
[MP: 260/260]
[Strength: 95]
[Agility: 39]
[Physique: 80]
[Intelligence: 26]
[Wisdom: 70]
[Immunity: Poison II, Bludgeoning II, Slashing II, Piercing II]
[Resistances: Fire II, Cold II, Lightning II]
[Weaknesses: None]
Yeenoghu was a giant Gnoll, and his resemblance to Gorellik stopped about right there. His face was split open by a large maw full of sharp teeth, stuck in a savage grin. His four meters tall body appeared skeletal, being pale and gray, yet it contained undeniable strength. He also had a wild mane.
His realm, the Death Dells, was lit by a low hanging red sun that washed the land in its bloody light, and it almost looked like a savanna, but it was strewn with countless corpses. The part Eden was in was between this savanna and a forest that looked haunted, all its trees dead.
Yeenoghu was inside a large fortress, pulled around by enslaved Gnolls, and was in the middle of a feast when Eden appeared.
Despite his brutal appearance though, Yeenoghu, unlike most Demon Lords, did not attack straight away, allowing Eden to speak telepathically, "I am not here to fight."
The giant Gnoll, that was no God but Demon Lord, snickered, but raising his hand, proclaiming with a savage laugh, "But all must fight here!"
The Gnolls, hyenas and every hybrid in between howled as one, their beings enveloped in a sheet of bloodlust thick enough it was palpable. They could only howl at Eden, however, who was still in the air.
Yeenoghu did not mind the air-disadvantage apparently as he leapt from the ground, reaching Eden with surprising precision, swinging his three-headed flail at him.
By its nature, the weapon was hard to predict, and thus block or dodge. A normal flail was already hard to follow, courtesy of its design, since an iron mace attached by a string or a chain moved very differently from a straight weapon like a sword.
This one, being three headed, made predicting its attacks nearly impossible, as there not only were three different heads with their respective chains, meaning three trajectories, but they affected one another as well, possibly knocking into each other during the attack.
Eden supposed this weapon was one of Yeenoghu's strengths, but it was useless against him as his danger sense ignored the randomness of the weapon. Strafing past the attack, Eden narrowed his eyes at the Demon Lord, and grunted, annoyed, "Violence is the only language you demons truly understand, isn't it?"
Yeenoghu cackled, and Eden punched him in the chin, when the unexpected happened.
Eden's Cursed Energy flashed black as space distorted, and Yeenoghu's jaw shattered on impact as he was sent flying to the ground, falling on his back with such force a dust cloud mixed with blood that had not staled yet rose up.
Though undoubtedly surprised, Eden's Black Flash placed him in a state of hyper-focus, in the 'zone', so he immediately followed up on the first strike by diving from the sky like a missile, landing a knee-strike right into Yeenoghu's abdomen less than a second after the first one.
His body folded under the might of the blow, and he spat out a mouthful of blood through his ravaged mouth. Only now did Eden realize that his first punch had completely dislocated the lower portion of Yeenoghu's jaw, leaving it to hang limply. That second attack, the knee strike, destroyed some of his internal organs.
Eden could feel he had several more Black Flashes in store, but he would inevitably kill Yeenoghu, so he stopped there. Besides, he had already gotten more than enough out of these Black Flashes.
Placing his foot on Yeenoghu's chest, Eden circulated his Cursed Energy fluidly, the barrier once blocking him breached as he scoffed, "I fought Gods. Several. And yet, it was against you that it triggered, and my output reached the next level. The irony."
Yeenoghu mustered up a confused gargle, not understanding what Eden was speaking about. It did not matter, Eden was speaking to himself.
Eden had been stuck at 999 output for a while now, probably a few decades, though time back in the Forgotten Layer remained hard to quantify. Although he had a theoretical ceiling of 1699, he was only Tier I in the end, and perfectly controlling an energy a full Tier above his own was hard enough already, but two Tiers? That was not something he was supposed to be able to do. For Mana, it was not so much a matter of controlling Mana as it was understanding spells. For Cursed Energy though, this was pure energy control.
And he had done it.
[Dismantle (7th Rank): Launch an invisible slash with a range of 50 meters to deal 400 magical slashing damage. Output: 1100 CE.]
[Cleave (7th 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 520 magical slashing damage. Output: 1100 CE.]
Number-wise, it was only a little more, but again, damage values were exponential. Maybe even logarithmic. And now, both his Dismantle and Cleave had crossed the threshold of Tier III damage. Cleave had been for a while, but it had gotten even higher.
Now, both attacks were on the scope of gods in this universe. The weakest kind for Dismantle, of course, but considering Eden could pretty much spam them, defeating anything mortal was not a matter of if, but how long it would take him.
Well, to be fair, that was already pretty much the case, but he did not have to solely rely on Avatar of Wrath anymore.
Of course, were he to choose, Eden would have much rather not spent that time in the Abyss, since he would have reached this point sooner or later, but since he had, at least he had made the most of it. All that was left was to learn Reverse Cursed Technique now, but it still eluded him, somehow.
Looking up at the approaching Gnolls, Eden clenched a fist, lifting Yeenoghu in the air with him. Telekinesis was a 3rd Circle Spell, one that was thus largely useless to Eden considering all creatures that required him to use magic could easily overpower the spell's influence. Besides, if he wanted to momentarily stall them, Shield was much better.
As for objects, Eden had done it with the Sword of Zariel, but using it to fly weapons was mostly a waste of concentration as he did need to consciously control his telekinesis.
Also, while rising, Eden cast a glance at the flail Yeenoghu had dropped, feeling the weapon was powerful.
[Flail of Woe]
[Rank: Epic]
[Attack: +370]
[Strength: +12]
[Physique: +7]
[Solid Head: The first head deals an additional 50 Magical Bludgeoning damage.]
[Paralysis Head: The second head paralyses the target for 6 seconds.]
[Confusing Head: The third head throws the target into confusion for 6 seconds.]
Even Eden felt tempted to take it, with how good its attributes were. Although it was huge, as a magical weapon it would reduce in size to fit him if he did take it, but he ignored it. A three headed flail was a weapon he never learned to use, and it did not suit him. Besides, Eden had grown quite used to not using equipment. And more importantly, its current owner still had a use.
Ignoring the howling Hyenas and other creatures beneath, Eden stared at Yeenoghu, who looked back defiantly despite his situation, and remarked, "I suppose I should thank you for the opportunity. But now, surely you can't still wish to fight me, right?"
Yeenoghu cackled, or tried to, as it came out as a gurgle, but he did transmit his thoughts telepathically, "You are no Solar. At least, not one from Mount Celestia."
Eden deadpanned at him, "Seriously? I'm claiming the title of Demon King, I killed a fucking god for that. Of course I'm not from Celestia. If you must know, I used to be human. So, am I going to need to kill you?"
Yeenoghu had the same physical response as always, cackling, but Eden felt him take back his challenge, thus recognizing him as the rightful Demon King. The number of challengers who withdrew along him was quite staggering, more than any before, showing what a big weight Yeenoghu was in the Abyss.
Kali might be more powerful, she was a Goddess who kept to herself. Yeenoghu, on the other hand, was a maniac who would regularly invade others Layers to lay waste and destruction for the sake of it.
And even without that, Yeenoghu was not just any Demon Lord. He had successfully taken down a god, Gorellik, and was feared throughout the realms. Not in the Abyss, of course, since Demons did not know fear, but Yeenoghu was at the very top of 'mortals', coming close to the barrier between divinity and mortality. In other words, the limit between Tier II and III.
Eden's Black Flashes had trivialized the fight. After all, when he used Maximum Output for reinforcement, his physical attacks reached high up in Tier II. The Multiplier from Black Flash had sent that straight into Tier III, explaining the instant takedown.
Had it not been for his Black Flashes, although Eden could still have killed him rather easily with Avatar of Wrath, or his Domain Expansions, which would have been massively overkill, Yeenoghu would have put up an admirable fight.
Actually, without his best spells and skills, Eden doubted he could defeat Yeenoghu fairly. His danger sense, and his Talent in general, gave him the edge and the initiative in fights, but that was not always enough.
Since Yeenoghu had taken back his challenge, Eden's stance relaxed as he asked, "I'll take that as a no. Now, tell me, would you be interested in killing Bhaal, Lord of Murder?"
Somehow, Yeenoghu managed to regain his grin despite the shattered jaw.