บท 474: Intelligens
Edward took a moment to remember the information he had about the Intelligens. They were a human civilization with terrible galactic relationships with almost every faction in the Milky Way.
And the reason is that their civilization was similar to the ideal Aryan Race of Hitler. Their population is composed of only humans of Caucasian descent, with the only difference is many of their populations have red, blue, and purple hair.
The Intelligens are extremely racist and xenophobic, and the source of these ideologies in their culture is their hatred for magic or anything supernatural. They reject all these things and only pursue the development of technology.
Edward was inspired to create his conjecture about the Pure Materialism World after studying the Intelligens Culture.
Because of these ideas, no race or factions wanted to facilitate any diplomatic relationship with them, and the Intelligens were perfectly fine with this.
As a result, when Guzznad attacked all the top forces in the Galaxy during the Fall of Darkness, they suffered the greatest damage, and their civilization was almost wiped out.
"So, what happened to them?" asked Edward.
"After the Fall of Darkness, their civilization scattered throughout the galaxy, barely surviving the onslaught of the Undead Legion," explained Olivier. "However, we recently discovered a faction that is regrouping the scattered members."
Oliver showed him the information with a hologram floating before her on the table.
"This information is not enough to pay attention to them. But everything changed when one of our scout ships had an encounter with them. They discovered their technology had drastically improved in such a short period."
Edward frowned, but he did not interrupt.
"This news was suspicious but not enough for me to send you. After all, it's a period of war, so it's normal for technology to develop rapidly. Furthermore, there is a chance they discovered a vestige of an old civilization, leading to their rapid improvement after deciphering it."
The time of war is also a time of prosperity. All factions and races are in a hurry to mine new planets, conquer more lands, and move around. As a result, numerous ancient civilizations are being discovered, leading to the recuperation of new magical and technological knowledge.
Edward's two archaeologist apprentices have been busy, traveling from one tomb to another. So, after taking this fact into consideration, Olivier did not completely pay attention to the Intelligens.
"I was still suspicious, so I sent some spies to gather information–just in case."
"And they found something?" asked Edward.
"Yes. They discovered the Intelligens were studying the application of Cosmic Energy as a way to evolve."
"They want powers using cosmic energy?"
Cosmic energy is a unique form of energy that originated from planets, stars, galaxies, nebulas, and the entire universe. It's a very potent form of energy, capable of accomplishing many wonderful things like mana or other types of energy.
Unfortunately, the Empire's current research in this field can only be described as okay. Many things have been accomplished, even using it through technology.
However, if Edward had to put a level to it, the current level was barely Tier 5.
Olivier nodded her head, "As you know, they hate the supernatural with a passion. So, I found it odd."
"For a civilization like the Intelligens, it would be very difficult to change their culture in such a short time," commented Edward. "Do you think there is an outside force interfering?"
"This is one of the possibilities I thought of," replied Olivier.
"So, what do you need me to do?"
"The spies we sent did not completely fulfill their mission," explained Olivier. "They were detected and had to escape. Luckily, they gathered a valuable piece of information."
She controlled the hologram to show a planet:
"According to the information, this planet is one of their experiment sites. I want you to secretly observe and see how far their experiment has developed."
Olivier changed the hologram again.
"Then, you need to go to their home planet and find the reason for their sudden change."
"Very well," agreed Edward.
"Take the Clone City–it can still last 2 days," added Olivier. The Intelligens are not a threat to the current Edward. However, she wanted to be careful in case there was someone in the shadow.
"Alright."
Edward and Olivier did not waste time and mobilized. She gave the appropriate order, the Time Clone City returned, and Edward took control. He plugged his designated coordinate and headed to Planet Green Sour on the Sweet'n Star System, located more than 30,000 light-years from Earth.
"Hum?" muttered Morgana after they arrived.
"Is there a problem?"
"The detecting system placed around this planet reached Tier 9," she explained. "Their technology truly has developed too fast."
Before the Fall of Darkness, the Intelligens only had Tier 8 technology. And until probably a few months ago, the fact did not change. No, their technology was weaker after the destruction of their home planet.
"Can they detect us?" asked Edward.
"They will if we directly barge in," replied the little elf. "However, give me 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I can create a countermeasure."
"No need. Leave the city on standby and prepare to react at any moment. We will enter ourselves."
"As you wish."
The city was too big and required too many complicated things to bypass this planet's system. Meanwhile, Edward used Transfiguration Magic to turn himself into cosmic dust and enter the planet.
As such, the Intelligens' technology will not notice or care about one of the trillions of cosmic dust and rays that entered the planet's atmosphere.
After his successful filtration, Edward placed an invisible spell around him as he looked at the surroundings. He looked around and frowned. Everything seemed quiet, and as far as his eyes could see, he only saw ruins.
"The architecture resembled Earth during the 21st Century."
He looked at a destroyed thing not far from him. He waved his hand, and the thing flew to his hand.
"A smartphone? This planet might have been a human civilization similar to Earth's 21st century. Morgana."
"I'm on it."
In a few seconds, she accessed all the data from the phone and displayed them to Edward. The owner was a human woman of Middle Eastern Descent. She loved to travel as she had many photos in different locations.
"This place was indeed similar to Earth: same ethnicities and races, the same level of technology, and similar culture. The main differences are history and geography."
Planet Green Sour had a massive landmass, similar to Pangea. This continent took 80% of the planet while the rest was water. Because all the lands are interconnected, the humans on this planet travel more often.
Conflict is less than on Earth because of the lack of the ocean as a military barrier. Of course, marine technology is also less developed as a result.
"It's normal," said Morgana. "The Intelligens would want a place like this for their experiment."
"True," nodded Edward. "Do you know what happened?"
"I can't find much information from this phone. I extracted a news video from this phone that indicates a worldwide emergency. However, the owner and I could not recover all the data since the phone was broken."
"Well, let's go over there. We might find our answer."
Edward sensed a weird creature. And he said it was weird because the life energy released by it was abnormal. So, he teleported to the location he sensed and saw a pretty gruesome thing.
A human was eating another while making grunting sounds.
"An undead?" asked Morgana. "But I don't sense any death energy from it."
"That's because it was not created using magic," Edward said as he looked at that creature feasting on its flesh.
"You mean the Intelligens experiment? How could it turn like this?"
บท 475: Zombie Anomaly
Morgana quickly scanned the zombie to analyze why it turned into an undead without Death Magic.
"Cosmic Energy?" she muttered. "A large amount of cosmic energy was introduced into its body, forcibly altering its DNA. Is this the experiment of the Intelligens?"
"It would take time to slowly study and understand cosmic energy," replied Edward as he looked at the zombie. "So, they found a planet with humans of similar genetic base and bombarded the entire planet with massive amounts of cosmic energy.
"The people with talent will survive the process and have their DNA forcibly altered, gaining powers and the ability to control cosmic energy. Meanwhile, the one who fails will turn into this shape."
"A very rude but effective method," commented Morgana. "But something is wrong. The people who fail to adapt to the cosmic energy should not end in this situation."
"You're right. Based on our understanding of comics energy, their genes should have collapsed, resulting in death–they should not turn into zombies."
"Do you think it was the result of the concentration? After all, we have never experimented with placing ordinary people under such tremendous energy."
"That's a possibility," replied Edward as he reviewed the data from the scan. However, he did not find anything–including a virus like the T-Virus.
"Let's continue to observe," said Edward, and the two teleported to a location where he sensed a clash of energy.
He saw two people fighting. To be precise, a human and a massive bear. The human had the ability to metalize his body, turning into a silver man. Meanwhile, the bear could create an energy construct in the shape of bear claws.
Both were Tier 2 and fought nonstop, trying to kill each other.
"Both had their genes forcibly altered by cosmic energy," analyzed Morgana. "And it seems through repeated use of their abilities, they can passively absorb the energy in the surroundings to strengthen their genes."
"Very primitive power system, but the fact they already created a Tier 2 entity in a few months, that's a feat," commented Edward. "And they might not be the most powerful creatures on this planet."
Edward read the mind of these two and learned a few things about the people of this world.
"5 Disaster Class Ability Users and 7 Demon Kings; how interesting."
There are 5 people on this planet whose strength reached Tier 4, capable of destroying a country on their own. Then, there are 7 animals who also reached this level.
"Master, did you find something interesting?"
"Yes, let's check it out."
He teleported to a place with human habitat. It was a military city with countless humans living in a city surrounded by massive steel walls. While invisible, Edward appeared in a room where a man of South Asian descent sat cross-legged deep in meditation.
A few minutes later, the man opened his eyes and sighed:
"I need to reach Disaster Class as soon as possible. My method is the future of humanity."
The man stood up from his position and walked to the window, looking into the horizon.
"That man, could it be?" asked Morgana.
"That's right–he's a path seeker like me," replied Edward. "Most of the humans on this planet rely on the mutation of their genes to acquire their powers. However, he created a method to sense, absorb, and control cosmic energy.
"Although this method is rough and rudimentary, it's still a great accomplishment for such a short period."
Morgana swiftly scanned his body and discovered a crystal in his brain, "He condenses a crystal of cosmic energy in his brain, acting as an energy core. However, he recently reached the limit of Tier 3 and is searching for a way to reach Tier 4."
"In his current state, if he wants to reach a higher Tier, he has two options. The first is to walk Sorcery's path and find ways to control the cosmic energy in the environment.
"And the second is to condense more core. However, the brain is a very complicated machine. He was lucky to choose the right place for the first one, but he might not be lucky a second time."
Edward was not speaking nonsense as he used Time Magic to look at the past and saw this person condense the first Cosmic Energy Core, and it was purely out of luck he succeeded.
His method was perfect, but he chose the brain for the core, which has its advantage. However, although this person can be considered a genius in energy manipulation–especially cosmic energy–he knew very little about anatomy or the human brain.
So, the location he chose succeeded only out of luck.
"Boss, what should we do? Do you want to bring him back to the Empire? He's very talented and could make a great Arcanist," asked the purple-haired elf.
"No–at least, not now. Let this planet develop on its own to see what kind of civilization it can create. Then, we can show up and take the fruit."
After a few years, the Empire might increase its understanding of Cosmic Energy based on this planet's development.
Furthermore, this planet also walked the path of Gene Modification but using cosmic energy. The Empire can also benefit from this aspect of its technology tree.
"In that case, we must take control of this planet from the Intelligens."
"Correct, but wait until we discover what's going on with them."
"Okay. Do you want to go now?"
"Not yet. I want to know how these zombies appeared," replied Edward. "Before we leave, let's give him a Luck Potion to help him achieve Tier 4."
Edward secretly gave the man the potion before disappearing. He began to capture, observe, and experiment on the zombies.
"There is a weird energy affecting their bodies," noted Morgana. Not every human with low energy affinity turned into a zombie. Many died due to gene collapse, but the rest only became sick for a while before surviving, with no power.
The previous man, Raj, was one of these people. But, he used his knowledge of meditation to sense cosmic energy and created a method to condense the core.
So, the zombies were an anomaly.
"This energy seemed to be a negative polarity of cosmic energy. Let's call it Dark Cosmic Energy," added Morgana.
"And you said I'm bad at naming."
However, she chose to ignore him. "The problem is where this thing originated. The Empire never discovered this aspect of Cosmic Energy. Is it some type of change due to the concentration? However, this conjecture does not seem to have much merit."
Edward pondered for a moment, but he could not think of anything. So, he said: "This energy should appear when the experiment begins. So, let's observe them and see if we can detect something."
He did not hesitate and activated his time magic to see when the Intelligens experiment began a few months back. He saw how everything was normal until a bright light appeared in the sky during the broad daylight.
Then, everything changed for this planet.
Soon, Edward sensed the weird energy that mutated the people into zombies. Morgana quickly recorded its fluctuation before ending the time spell. Then, Edward also began to search for the origin of the energy.
He closed his eyes as he sensed. He soon found a direction.
'The Multiverse?'
He continued searching and soon found himself in the Blank Realm, looking at the infinite timelines.
(Blank Realm: the space between timelines. Also, the place black holes send things it swallows.)
'No, something is wrong,' said Edward while in this Mind Projection state. 'There is a dark, depressing, and negative aura surrounding the timeline, I noticed. What's going on?"
Edward's mind jumped from one timeline to another, and he always felt this negative aura. He even sensed it while in the Blank Realm. Countless thoughts flashed in his mind as a term came into his mind:
"The Dark Multiverse?"
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