บท 588: Breaking the Soul Limit
"This is the oath stone, linked directly to the Cosmos," said the Ancient One. "You only need to hold it and make the oath."
Edward held the stone and looked at it. "The Universe Will? No, it is an entity that represents the cosmos. So, Eternity is the one binding the contract."
"You seem to know a lot."
"I'm curious, and I've lived a long life—well, compared to humans," Edward explained casually. After knowing how this thing worked, he had no issue swearing. Once he finished, a chain came out of the stone and entered his head.
Edward swiftly checked, and as expected, the chain appeared around his Soul Flame, meaning it was truly the most binding contract form.
"What now?" asked Edward as he returned the stone.
"You will study under Wong, and once you've shown your talent, you can learn everything from me."
Edward frowned, "Give me access to all your books, and I can master everything in less than two weeks."
"I have no doubt about that," said the Ancient One. "However, you must participate in this performance."
"You want me to build prestige amongst the other Sorcerers?"
"Although I have the right to directly elect my successors, it would be easier if they could see how capable you were and accept my decision."
"What about Kaecilius?" asked Edward.
"What about him?"
"How do you want me to deal with him?"
"Do as you please. Since I've chosen you as my successor, I won't intervene."
"The Time Stone?" continued Edward.
"In six months, you should have everybody accept your status as the next Sorcerer Supreme. Afterward, I will hand it to you."
"Hmmm," muttered Edward. "The situation is better than I anticipated."
"What did you expect?"
"Despite the oath, I expect more distrust and political struggle," replied Edward honestly.
"When you get your hands on the stone and see the future I saw, you'll understand why I give you free reign."
"Now, I want to know what you saw," said Edward, who immediately cast a spell to see the future.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Why?"
"You should not be messing with any time magic not affiliated with the Time Stone before the year 2008," said the Ancient One.
'2008? That's when Iron Man started,' thought Edward. "Is it because of the TVA? I thought they had already opened the multiverse since no one came to prune me."
Edward knew about the TVA and ensured his landing would be after the event of Loki 1 when the TVA underwent a shuffling, opening the Multiverse. Otherwise, his presence would have opened another timeline, and these people would have come to prune him to ensure the sanctity of the sacred timeline.
"Yes and no," explained the Ancient One. "2008 is a cutting point for the world; it's when everything goes into motion, and the Earth enters a new era. Your time magic might disrupt this event, leading to many problems."
"Was that one of the timelines you saw?"
"Yes," nodded the Ancient One.
"Very well." Edward controlled his curiosity. He had a month's break before starting his Sorcerer duty and training. "By the way, do you know the coordinates of the planet Vormir?" He tried divination to no success, so this planet was either naturally protected because of the stone or his divination skill was not up to par to find the coordinates.
"You want the Soul Stone?"
"Yes."
"Sorry, but I don't," said the Ancient One.
"Alright. I'll figure it out," replied Edward before leaving. He could have teleported to another timeline and taken it from Thanos' dead hands, but he figured it might be a better idea to use the one in his universe.
Edward's next destination was to find Gamora and get the location from her mind. She was not protected, so it was easy to find her location while on a mission for Thanos on a planet called Grir. Watching her assassinate a man, he took the information from her mind before silently disappearing.
He opened a portal to the planet Knowhere, full of outlaws and criminals. He needed to find a cruel man full of sins who also cared deeply about someone, either their wife or daughter. That person also needed to be terrible and full of sins.
It took a moment, but he found who he was searching for — a pair of criminal lovers called Lom and Vie; they are one of the biggest child traffickers on the side of this galaxy, and although they've committed many atrocities, they are also famous for their endearing live, willing to do anything for each other.
Edward gave Lom a prophesied dream that he was destined to rule the universe as he was willing to sacrifice everything after reaching a place called Vormir. After this hypnosis, Lom woke up the next day and looked at his wife with complicated emotions. Then, on the same day, he hopped on his ship with her, heading directly to Vormir.
By the time they reached their destination, the drug he placed on her beverage had functioned, and she passed out. Lom carried her onto the planet, and after the Guardian (Red Face) explained the situation, he kissed her one last time on her forehead before throwing her down the cliff.
He did hold the stone in his hand, feeling the power coursing through his veins. With tears in his eyes, Lom walked inside his ship, preparing for his glorious future. However, his body immediately disintegrated. If not for Edward's power, how could he hold an infinite gem with such a weak and mortal body?
As Edward held the stone, powerful energy rushed into his body. He controlled it to enter his Soul Dimension, heading directly to Morgana. He watched as her pale body rapidly recovered until it returned to normal.
'That's enough for now,' he thought; she should be back to wake up in a few months and return to normal. He teleported to a deserted planet, where he immediately began to lay enchantments. For the next week, the planet was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of magic circles with the Soul Stone at the center.
'Let's begin,' thought Edward as he activated the enchantments. A powerful soul energy rushed into his Soul Dimension, and he immediately started the process of fusing his soul into the Soul Flame. With the method he received from his Nasuverse counterpart, the process was fast and had no issue.
Edward's soul released a blinding light, and afterward, he saw two small flames in his soul's eyes.
"It looked like an undead," commented Edward before shaking his head. The appearance did not matter; this experience's true value was breaking his soul's limit. Edward now felt it was a simple matter to reach higher tiers.
'The next step.' The next step was to temper his body, and the soul stone was also the core of this process. He converted the soul energy released by the stone into life energy that tempered his body. In the meantime, he observed the new soul flame that grew on the fourth layer of his dimension while gathering data and experimenting.
Edward knew this method was universal but still needed to test it out. So, while training his body and waiting for his second soul flame to appear, he conducted experiments on this method of breaking the soul limit.
'It is universal, and Soul Energy is not required but can help accelerate the speed of the process while also making it safer,' concluded Edward. The process was not 100% as his experiments revealed that the Soul Flame could, in fact, destroy the soul despite its inherited connection, or they might reject the fusion.
'Now, let's test the Soul Divinity and reach Tier 10 in one fell swoop,' thought Edward before proceeding with the next part of his work.
บท 589: Tier 10
The steps involving achieving Soul Divinity were to use the [Knowledge Ring] around the soul flame as a carrier for his Willpower and rules before fusing it with the soul. Edward already had experience in the fusion, but he still needed trial and error to nourish Willpower and rules.
So, he first started with his Willpower. The study of Haki has greatly increased the development and understanding of willpower throughout the Empire, so the process was easier than anticipated. Edward finished the fusion after a few trials and errors, and his soul flame changed.
A light gold flame is required to reach Tier 9, and during the previous breakthrough, his soul reached gold after absorbing enough energy from the Soul Stone. Now, after the fusion of his willpower, the gold was deepened, probably heading to the level required to become Tier 11 – deep gold.
The next step in this process was the addition of rules, and Edward was in a small bind. He did not meet the requirement to wield the rules of this universe. Luckily, he was prepared for such a situation and created Law Weapons, containing all the laws he could wield, except for the soul and the mind, because he only achieved these laws in the Nasuverse and did not have the opportunity to create a weapon for them.
He summoned the items from his personal dimension and began fusing them with his Soul Flame. He watched in wonder as his soul flame turned deep golden before heading toward dark gold. However, the process stopped because the Soul Gem could not provide enough energy to complete it.
'This is a problem,' thought Edward; he guessed he could continue the Soul Divinity now and upgrade it later, but he would rather have his soul flame reach the limit before the fusion. However, it seems the energy needed for the process is not something even the Soul Gem could provide.
He paused briefly to think of possible solutions.
Edward's first thought was to use the same spell in the DC Universe when dealing with Darkseid. He summoned Soul Gems from a different moment in time, increasing their numbers and providing him with more energy.
'This won't work since the Ancient One warned me about using my Time Magic. So, this plan might only work after she hands over the Time Stone,' concluded Edward, who thought of his second plan: the Doubling Charm.
This spell is a Wandcraft Spell that allows him to double items. Once he becomes Tier 10, copying the Soul Gems should be no problem. Although he deduced they wouldn't exist for more than thirty minutes, they could still give him ample energy.
'The best option would be to link the Soul Gem to all its counterparts in the Multiverse. This would provide me with more than enough energy for the process, but I don't have such a spell.'
Then, an idea suddenly popped into his mind. 'The Darkhold might contain such a spell.' The Darkhold was written by the first demon, Chthon, and that demon is definitely a Tier 11 entity. And since the book will try to lure its owner by their deepest desires, it's possible to show Edward the spell he needs.
'That is an alternative, but let's not rush to dealing with such entities yet,' thought Edward. He temporarily stopped the Soul Divinity transformation to focus on reaching Tier 10. After a few days, Edward's body reached the requirement to enter Tier 9. Then, something expected occurred before he even started. An unknown force grabbed him out of nowhere, sending him flying backward. He passed through a film, and his surroundings changed.
'What the fuck?' thought Edward as he looked around. He was in this dark space with a red moon and purple sky. The atmosphere was eerie, and after a few seconds, a creature walked before him. It was over three meters tall with horns, red skin, and a mouth so large that it went from his left ear to the right.
"Your soul is interesting; you should be a delicious meal." Edward did not understand this creature's words, but the meaning directly entered his mind, indicating a form of soul or psychic communication.
"Who are you?"
"Huh? Can you communicate with the soul? I guess that makes sense. This lord is the Great Malakai, the Soul Eater, and today, you will have the honor of being my dinner."
'A dimensional overlord?' thought Edward.
Malakai opened his mouth to release a terrifying swallowing power. Edward's defensive abilities activated, but they were useless.
'Damn it; he's at least Tier 10.'
Edward did not hesitate to activate his Green Lantern Ring, releasing a green energy shield to protect him. His action was correct—his shield stopped the swallowing force.
"What an interesting artifact," commented Malakai. He raised his hand to shoot a powerful purple beam full of the power of a corrupted soul. Edward fired back with a green beam of concentrated willpower. Their concentration released intense universal-scale shockwaves, but nothing in the surroundings was destroyed.
'He has absolute control over this dimension. I need to leave as soon as possible,' analyzed Edward after observing around. Malakai snapped his finger, and millions of winged creatures appeared behind him. Edward responded in kind by creating the Empire's Imperial Navy Fleet to annihilate these creatures.
He forced the armada to focus on Malakai to buy him enough time to use the ring to tear through this dimension and escape. Malakai roared, and the entire dimension seemed to come alive, trying to prevent Edward's escape. However, he used that tiny hole he made to cast a spell to travel to another dimension he could sense. He did not stop there; he jumped a dozen dimensions before not sensing anyone following. Then, he finally returned to his previous location.
"What the hell just happened?"
He was baffled. If not for the ring, he might have been a goner. A sense of urgency rushed into his mind, so Edward took the planet to another location. He added a few million more enchantments to block the void and used the green lantern ring as a power source.
Finally, he focused on the task at hand. He converted the soul energy from the stone into mana before absorbing it into his Supersolid Aether Cores in his Magic Core and Soul Dimension.
After reaching Tier 9 Galaxy Level, he felt a sublimation of his body and soul; even his willpower slightly increased. However, this was not Edward's endgame, and he continued his work. He tempered his body before absorbing enough energy to become a Tier 10 Universal Entity. The process was not simple because a galaxy was tiny compared to a universe.
So, he had to reach the level of Super Galaxy, Multiple Galaxies, and Galaxies Clusters before he could achieve Tier 10. Luckily for him, the Infinity Stones were all Tier 10 objects with plenty of energy.
Edward felt the power coursing through his veins. Although it was not the first time he'd controlled this level of mana, the feeling was different than before when it was his own power.
Edward looked into the distance; the universe felt frail to him as he could do terrible catastrophes with one thought. His mind rushed to every corner of the universe, seeing every planet, star, and galaxy. There were a few places that his intuition told him not to check, and he listened.
'As expected, this world is hiding so many terrors,' thought Edward. Despite reaching Tier 10, he knew he was not the only entity capable of affecting the universe on such a scale. However, the others seemed low-key, and he guessed there might be consequences for doing so.
'Regardless, we've made it so far, and that's what matters,' thought Edward. Now, he must focus on reaching the next level: Tier 11.
"Boss, you look handsome."
"Morgana? You're awakened?"
"Yeah, it's been a while, but you were in intense focus mode, and I didn't want to bother you," replied the purple-haired elf, who was wearing a magic robe as an outfit today.
"I'm glad you're alright," said Edward with a smile. "I'm going to use Malakai as a training partner to adapt to my newfound strength. Let's catch up while I deal with him."
"Alright."
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