บท 516: The Citadel
Edward used a spell to temporarily turn into one of the Ricks, assuming the identity of Rick E-345. He knew the citadel had ways to track the Portal Guns of the Ricks, so he ensured there were no problems while capturing them.
Afterward, he and Morgana calmly opened a portal to the citadel. The place was vast and contained myriad places of entertainment. So, he went to get some ice cream.
Half an hour later, he said: "How is it?"
"The security of this place is insane," replied Morgana in Morty's voice. Edward had to hide a cackle, making her stare at him.
"What do you expect? One of the smartest individuals in the world created it?" replied Edward, ignoring her violent reaction. "How long would it take you to crack it?"
"At least five months."
"So long?"
"Whoever created this system made sure it could only be cracked from the inside," she replied, shaking her head.
"We don't have five months. So, let's take it down from the inside."
Wang Wei's plan to take down the citadel was simple and direct; he used the same method Rick-C137 used. He secretly transferred his mind from one Rick to another until he controlled the Rick with the highest Security Level in the Citadel.
With that access, he entered a virus into the citadel's system, allowing Morgana to infiltrate from the inside. Three days later, they had complete control of the thing.
"Beautiful," commented Edward, reviewing the citadel's blueprint before him. This thing was purely technology, so there were many things he did not immediately understand.
However, based on what he deciphered, this thing was truly a masterpiece.
"This thing is truly the highest order of technology," nodded Morgana. After gaining the inheritance of the Technomancer, the Empire's technology tree rapidly developed. However, even with the recent update, the technology before them can be described as "very advanced."
"Are we still going to scan C-137's Life Code and get his memories?"
"Of course. As the main designer of the citadel, it's imperative we get his memories. Furthermore, all signs show he might be the smartest of all the Ricks."
"That's fine, but you should be more careful than usual when dealing with such an intelligent individual."
"I am aware."
People like Rick Sanchez and Doctor Who are similar to him, individuals whose intelligence or talent surpassed the limitations of their worlds. So, he would never play around when dealing with them.
However, he still has an advantage of information when dealing with these people, so he knows how to approach them.
Edward soon put his plan into action. Before landing, he ensured he arrived at a specific time when Bett and Jerry were separated in Season 3 and before Rick destroyed the Citadel.
He approached Bett as a fellow veterinarian and flirted with her. With his natural charm, her loneliness after the divorce, and a few spiritual hint spells, Edward successfully convinced her to have dinner with her family despite not being ready to date so soon after her divorce/separation.
The dinner went smoothly, and nothing expected occurred. Edward was charming and spoke with everyone. Although Rick only gave him a look and was mostly quiet, the kids loved him.
After the dinner:
"So, what do you guys think?" asked Bett.
"Holy shit, mom, you've hit the jackpot," said Summer. "How could you pull something like him?"
"What does that mean?"
"Summer is right, Mom," said Morty. "I'm not into men, and I want him to marry me."
"So, you guys are okay with him? You don't mind me dating so soon after your father?"
"With a hunk like this, screw dad."
"Summer, don't talk like this about your father," she reprimanded; however, her eyes seemed to be smiling. Finally, Bett looked at Rick:
"Dad, why don't you say something? Don't you like him?"
"Something doesn't seem right," said Rick before rushing into his garage. He soon returned with a few pieces of equipment and scanned every room in the house, focusing on the dining table.
Of course, he did not find anything since Edward was so careful. His body was a walking light bulb to advance energy detection. As such, although he was confident in his Mana Control, he could hide it, but he wanted to be extra careful, so he sent a clone to meet with Bett and her family.
Before leaving, he did not leave any bugs or even remain of a spell in the house.
Meanwhile, Rick was not satisfied after not detecting anything. So, he scanned the family. Unfortunately, nothing unusual was detected besides the slightly elevated hormones released from Bett's body.
As for the hormone anomaly, it was expected when people were excited and believed they were in love.
After not discovering anything, Rick decided to keep an eye in case his hunch was correct.
Three days later, Edward invited the family to a fancy dinner, and he was as charming as ever.
Floating City:
"How is it?"
"We have successfully scanned his brain wave, Life Code, and received his memories," replied Morgana, making Edward very satisfied. In the show, Evil Morty used a similar method by inviting Rick C-137 to the citadel for dinner and used the short time to scan his brain and acquire the secrets of the citadel.
With that knowledge, he broke through the Central Finite Curve, leaving the small Multiverse where Rick was the smartest man in the world.
With these two meetings, Edward's scan was more thorough–especially since he already had the information from the other Ricks.
Looking into the distance, he sighed deeply, "I'm sorry, Bett."
After that, he did four things before leaving. The first was to take away the citadel and put it inside the floating city. Sadly, he could not take away all the Ricks.
Despite this man's great intelligence, his self-destructive tendencies are too extreme. Only one of them is enough to throw the Empire into chaos, let alone a thousand of them. However, Edward was satisfied with having a history of the council so he could learn how to better deal with the inter-political relationship of his own council.
The second thing he did was to gather more Portal Gun technology. Rick was not the only one who invented this technology, and there is a sentient race of dinosaurs who even improved on his design. He was more than satisfied after getting his hands on it.
The third thing was to go to the magic dimension called Draygon. He stole all their magical knowledge and learned a new magical language. From his memories, he knew wizards developed portal spells similar to Rick's Portal Gun and was interested in this magical knowledge.
The last thing Edward did was capture a creature known as Unity. It was a hivemind creature, so he was interested in studying such a unique species.
After everything was done, he entered the void and headed home.
"Boss, we were lucky."
"What do you mean?"
"I spotted a void creature."
"Again?"
"Yes," nodded Morgana. "Luckily, it only glanced at us and did not pay much attention."
Edward sighed in relief; he did not even ask her why he did not remind her. He knew trouble would follow if she dared to pay too much attention to such a creature or even record it.
"The Void seems more active than usual," muttered Edward, thinking of Merlin's long absence; he started to worry about the Old Man.
"We got what we wanted, so let's return."
The group returned to the Empire, preparing for the next step.
—-
(AN: I know some fans might have wanted this arc to continue since Rick and Morty have plenty of potential–especially with the many world-defying technologies. However, the last season I watched was the 4th one, so I don't remember much.
(Furthermore, I have prepared for the next few worlds to be this short, and I don't want to deviate from my outline like I did for the Naruto World.)
บท 517: More Time
After returning home, Edward discovered only a few hours had passed despite spending a week in the Rick and Morty Universe. So, he no longer wasted time and got to work after checking on his family.
He had two weeks before the Council Meeting. In such a short time, he needed to understand and be capable of using all the Citadel's technology.
Technology did not come as naturally to Edward, but he still had an extremely high IQ, so it took him some time in a Time Acceleration Room to master the technology of the Citadel to the point of being able to replicate and upgrade it.
Finally, he had to prepare before activating the thing. The process took three more days. Finally, Edward launched the citadel. A few members of his family accompanied him along with the Time Aurors.
The Citadel will now fall under their jurisdiction, so they need to know how to control and incorporate it into their existing system.
The process was simple, at least on the surface. Edward felt a slight tremor, but it was too subtle and unnoticeable by most.
"How is the data?"
"Everything is fine," replied Mulatu Amine, an Arcanist from the Ethiopian Region and the current Department Head of the Time Auror. He was born with a unique perception of time since the Old Era. Unfortunately, his talent never had a chance to shine until the Empire.
He was discovered to be one of the few people with the talent to wield Time Magic, so Edward used every means to nurture him. He did not let him down and proved his talent. Then, Edward granted him control over the Time Auror, guarding the Empire's timeline.
"We have successfully placed a wall around our timeline."
Amine felt relieved as his job just got a hundred times easier. People would be surprised how often individuals tried to mess up with time and rewrite history.
There were more Time Turners than the Ministry of Magic of the previous era told the people existed, and some people are born with the talent to control time magic. However, instead of training properly, they often hide their talent and engage in dangerous secret experiments that can endanger the space-time continuum.
Finally, their job is to also prevent creatures from the Blank Realm and from other timelines from entering their timeline. Before Edward's variant, they rarely encountered such a thing. However, plenty of scary creatures from the Blank Realm roam from one timeline to another.
"Your agents won't have any problem entering and leaving, right?" asked Edward.
"No problem."
"What about the protocols to ensure no problem?"
"We have updated our security measures and monitor every particle that leaves and enters our timeline."
"Excellent. However, from now on, reduce the number of tasks to the Multiverse to the bare minimum."
With the current situation, Edward wanted to cancel all missions into the Multiverse. However, the Empire needs more resources, and the Dark Multiverse will soon become its main source.
Amine was surprised by this order, but he did not ask much. He is one of the few people in the Empire with the highest security level. So, if the Empire did not tell him, he understood it was an issue beyond security levels.
Such knowledge usually involved the deepest secret of the royal family, and he was politically minded enough to know not to pry.
Edward continued observing the data for this citadel. His understanding of Space-Time Rules and the Multiverse will drastically increase with the newly gathered data.
Sadly, it was not time for study and research.
He left the citadel and returned to his lab. He closed his eyes and waited a few hours. Finally, he succeeded in his attempt.
Soon, he found himself in a white room with a petite woman before him.
"Cronai."
"We don't have much time," she said indifferently. "Be quick and direct."
"I placed a wall around my timeline. Would that solve my current issue?"
"No, it can only buy you an extra ten years."
"So few?"
"The Guardians are monitoring the Multiverse. They won't care about a destroyed timeline, but a disappearing one is another thing. So, once my method is no longer useful and they begin their search for you, they will notice the anomaly of a missing timeline."
Edward frowned before asking, "Could I move the Empire and move to another plane?"
Cronai was quiet; this was the last thing she wanted after putting so much effort into Edward and the Empire. She was already hopeful about them but became even more joyous after seeing the technology to put a wall around a timeline.
Furthermore, she saw this was not the limit of this technology. In the peak era of the Magus Race, they did not have such technology. They had Tier 11 Magus who could easily hide one or multiple timelines but never the technology or magic to do such a thing.
One advantage the Arcane Empire had over the Magus Race was its inclusivity. The Arcane Empire could perfectly fuse and accept everyone and everything, whether it was technology, countless different power systems, multiple races, ethnicities, or civilizations.
Meanwhile, the Magus Race walked the path of assimilation. They assimilated everything into their races and their magic.
As such, she saw hope for them to reach heights greater than the Magus Race.
"Your method might work," replied Cronai, deciding to tell the truth.
"Might?"
"Every life I create has a unique life or soul imprint. I keep a record of these imprints, and the Guardians have access to these records. If you move to another plane, they can track you there.
"However, in other planes, they are only a very powerful Tier 10 God, so it might be easier to deal with. Moreover, you also know the relationship to other planes, they might not be willing to take the risk."
"Maybe before, but not after exposing the citadel," added Edward. These guardians must want to become true Tier 11, so they should lust after his citadel and its technology.
"Possibly."
"Can't you hide my soul imprint from the records?"
"That's against the rule. Furthermore, even if I did, what about all the citizens of your Empire?"
"That's true," nodded Edward. "What about preventing the Guardians from accessing the records?"
"I have a binding oath with them. Unless they no longer hold the position, it's impossible for me to break the rules and reduce their power for the sake of protecting you."
After saying these words, more chains appeared on Cronai's body, becoming visible even to the normal eyes.
"Thank you for telling me the truth," quickly said Edward.
Edward appreciated Cronai not hiding the truth for her benefit. Furthermore, he could also see the risk she took to reveal the truth.
"That's all I can say for now. In the future, you will not be able to contact me. However, as long as you find the Savant Race, you will find a way to deal with the Guardian."
Edward opened his eyes and exhaled deeply.
'This trouble is not as simple as I imagined.'
He did not wish to move the entire Empire to another plane. Firstly, this place was his home, and he had many advantages, mostly in the form of Cronai's blessings.
Edward could predict how much harder it would be for the Empire to rise to the pinnacle of the Astral Realm in other planes.
'Furthermore, why do I need to run away from these Gods? They should be the ones running away from me.'
A ray of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. He would not deal with these Guardians simply to remove his status as a Time Criminal. No, once he has enough information, they should be the ones afraid and running away from him.
Edward left the lab and prepared for the meeting at the Council of Bones.
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