บท 604: Harsh Training (I)
Edward explained the plan to Odin and Frigga, and with their acceptance, he started. The first step was to refine a potion to deal with Odin's faith poison. The poison was already too deep, so it was impossible to remove it completely, so Edward went for the option of gathering most of it in one spot before removing that body part.
He did not waste time as he started his work. Odin granted him access to Asgardian resources since he needed to modify the potion formula to fit this world's needs, and he did not want to use his own. After a week, the potion was brewed, and Odin drank it. His right arm turned dark purple before Edward amputated it.
The next step was to upgrade the Odin Sleep Chamber. This process granted access to this highly advanced Asgardian technology, which should greatly benefit him and the Empire. After his success, the chamber could sustain Odin's body as he revived his soul flame.
Edward enchanted the room with the sleep chamber for the procedure. He even linked the enchantments to the Soul Stone to provide enough energy for the procedure.
"As you know, the last step of this treatment is for you to change your genetic code to become a pure-energy lifeform," Edward explained. "Before starting that step, I've left a Virtual Reality headset for you to practice or simulate the process. Use it wisely."
He was very interested in Odin's final transformation. For many reasons, he abandoned the path of turning into a half-energy and half-flesh life form but still created spells to turn him into energy creatures if necessary. As such, he was interested in the data from Odin's transformation.
"Once again, I cannot thank you for everything you've done for me, my family, and Asgard," Odin said with the utmost sincerity. He had already tried the updated sleeping chamber and the revival of his soul and could already feel the effect. Although he did not know whether this would work, he had hope — and this was more than he could say since Edward arrived in his realm.
"It's fine. Everything is for the future."
"Yes, for the future."
"Where are you up to next?"
"Nidavellir. I wish to meet the dwarves. Then, I will return to take the prince to Earth."
"I wish you the best in your journey, and I will apologize in advance for whatever my son does."
Edward nodded before leaving. He had spent approximately a month in Asgard but only two weeks with the dwarves. He met their king, Eitri, drank with them and shared smithing and enchanting skills. Edward realized these dwarves were the real deal as their accomplishments were not below him in some categories, primarily single artifact creations.
While the dwarves were not on par with him with complex systems — like Netheril — they surpassed him in making single weapons like swords, spears, or other magical tools. So, he ensured they had a good relationship to better corporate in the future and maybe even exchange knowledge. However, for now, he worked on establishing a good relationship.
…
After returning to Earth with Loki, he showed him his room.
"What's this?" asked the Asgardian Prince.
"Your room and the wi-fi password?"
"You expect me to sleep in such a cramped place?"
Edward looked at him. "Did you come to learn or experience a luxurious vacation?"
"I just think it's unfair. Look how much effort Asgard put into receiving you and compare it to your treatment of me."
"What can I say? We, Midgard Sorcerers, live a more monastic and minimalist lifestyle. Plus, why are you complaining? I know for a fact you've lived in the worst circumstances during some of your expeditions with Thor and the Warrior Three."
"Those were different."
"Unfortunately for you, you can take it or leave it," Edward said before leaving, and Loki snorted coldly to display his dissatisfaction. Edward summoned him early in the morning for their first training session. He ignored the trickster god's unhappiness and immediately got to the point.
"Do you know about your identity?"
"Identity? What do you mean?"
"You're not Odin and Frigga's biological child. You were an abandoned Frost Giant that Odin rescued."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" Loki asked, truly wondering whether this man was crazy. But Edward pointed at him, his skin turned blue, and his body released a cold mist.
"Impossible! What did you do to me?"
"I'm sure your mother and father said something to you before you left."
Loki's body paused as he remembered: his father apologized to him before saying he loved him. His mother told him to accept Edward's teaching with an open heart and be a little more forgiven.
"No, no, no — this can't be happening."
"It's the truth."
"Hahaha," Loki laughed with a mocking and deranged atmosphere. "So many things now make sense. The favoritism, the alienation, and his disdain for me." The pain in his voice was palpable, and it was soon replaced by anger and hatred.
"The worst part is that the coward didn't even have the courage to tell me himself."
"Do you think your father never loved you?"
"Isn't that obvious? He saw me as nothing but a diplomatic move to pacify the frost giants. I never had a chance at the throne, but he made it look like I did." Loki's eyes were red, and he spoke with gritted teeth.
"I agree with you that this was indeed a terrible decision on your father's part, but to say he did not love you? Now, this is where you're wrong."
"If this is how he shows his love — I don't want it."
"Your mother knew the truth and can be said to be complicit in hiding this lie. Do you think she did not love you?"
"Don't talk about my mother!" Loki roared as he conjured two daggers to attack. The daggers disintegrated before reaching Edward, and chains materialized from the ground to bind Loki, hindering his magic and movement.
"I know this is a hard truth to confront, but this is a necessary part of your training."
"How is this training?"
"Body, mind, and soul are the three main parts needed for a sorcerer to truly reach the pinnacle of their skills. As a Frost Giant –"
"I'm an Asgardian."
"Your body and soul have no problem, but your mind…Well, describing it as fragile and corrupt is an understatement."
Loki looked at him furiously.
"Let's get back on topic. Do you think your mother loves you?" Loki did not answer. "Don't make me put a truth spell on you. I promise you don't want to experience what it feels like to reveal your deepest secrets or embarrassing moments."
Loki still did not say anything, so Edward raised his hand.
"Fine, I'll say."
"I'm listening."
"I…I don't know if she loves me after covering up such a lie."
"Think about all your time together — all the good and bad times. Do you think they were not genuine?" Loki did not answer, not out of some sort of rebellion, but because he truly did not know the answer.
"I will show you your future if I never show up and disturb the timeline. Tell me how you feel after seeing it."
Edward pointed at Loki's forehead and had his spirit experience some of the events of Earth 616. Loki looked dazed after experiencing everything, including his death and everyone that he knew and loved.
"This is not true, right? Tell me none of this will happen."
"Our timeline has diverged from its original course, but that doesn't mean none of these things will happen. Some events are considered nexus of time and are simply inevitable."
"What–"
"Don't worry about those. How do you feel now after living another life?"
บท 605: Harsh Training (II)
"Well?"
"I don't know. I don't know what to think," Loki replied. All this information was too much for him to process.
"Tell me your first instinct — your first thought."
"That…I caused everything. If not for my selfish actions, maybe Mother could have been saved. Father would not have died so early before Thor was prepared for the throne. I'm the reason Thor finally stopped trying to reach out — why Asgard was destroyed."
"You're giving yourself too much credit. Most of the tragedies that occurred resulted from your father's actions and destiny. However, you are responsible for how terrible your relationship with your family turned out and countless other atrocities," Edward calmly stated.
Loki was quiet for a few seconds, "So, what should I do?"
"See a therapist."
"Excuse me?"
"I didn't stutter. Whatever deep psychological issues you have cannot be dealt with in a single day. So, you need a therapist."
"You're serious? You expect a God like me to see a therapist?"
"Why not? I've done it, and there is nothing embarrassing about it," Edward replied. "If you're worried about a "mortal" being your doctor, I know an artificial intelligence specially programmed to deal with mental health issues. I'll let you use it."
"Absolutely not. I will do no such thing."
Edward shrugged. "I wanted to give you the illusion that you had a choice. I guess that's no longer happening."
"You!"
"Follow me for the next training step," Edward ordered as he opened a portal to the mirror dimension. Loki was shocked at what he saw inside the mirror dimension — a colossal tower that rose to the cloud. The thing was so magnificent that he thought he was momentarily at the palace. However, this was not the main reason for his shock.
"What's this?"
"My magic tower. It's my laboratory. Unfortunately, it's not up to standard."
"Are you serious?" Loki could feel the crazy amount of energy pumping through this tower. He had only seen this level of energy once in his life, and it was when his father was working on the Odinforce and showed it to him and Thor.
Edward was not trying to brag. He created the tower to replace his floating city. However, although he had a spare of all his machines in his personal interdimensional ring, the tower could not replicate the energy availability of Netheril without access to the Mana Grid. He tried different methods by searching many dimensions to siphon energy from, but they all paled compared to the infinite energy from the Mana Grid.
Edward led Loki to an empty room full of magic circles. "What are we doing here?"
"I'm going to show you what true power is and that it does not need to be destructive," Edward explained. "Morgana, let's begin." The enchantments activated to form a cube at the center of the room.
"What do you think this is?"
"A cub? A tesseract?"
"A new universe," Edward replied, and before Loki could process the shock, he took him inside. It was, Edward stated — a vast and empty universe.
"Is this what the universe looked like at the beginning of time?" Loki asked.
"Probably, except the Celestials were present to mold into what it is today."
"The Celestials are real?" He had heard rumors and stories from his father and mother when he was young.
"Morgana, begin with the next step."
Loki watched in shock as matter began appearing in this new universe, rapidly forming a coherent cosmic system of planets, stars, systems, galaxies, and so on. Loki felt his senses elevated beyond anything he had ever achieved, which allowed him to observe with scary acuity the entire process of this universe's formation.
"How is that possible?" He just watched an entire universe form before his eyes in the spawn of what felt like a few minutes.
"Magic is beautiful and fascinating, isn't it?"
"How is this magic? You just recreated our universe — including the laws of nature and physics! This is the power of a true god — a God of Creation."
"A god is nothing but someone with abilities that the mind cannot comprehend or fathom," Edward replied calmly. "Plus, things are not over yet."
Loki's senses then detected a hidden layer or dimension of this universe with a pool of white liquid. A phantom suddenly materialized from the pool, and a magic circle above it was activated to turn it into a physical body.
"Life — you've created life."
"The body part is easy to create once you've successfully decoded any life form's genetic code. The tricky part is condensing the soul — that takes real skill."
Loki watched in horror as batches of individuals were manufactured in that pool before being sent to different planets across this vast universe. Interestingly, they were not all humans but creatures of different varieties, including non-carbon and plant-based lifeforms.
After creating exactly 100 trillion lives, the process stopped. Loki and Edward watched how these ignorant creatures tried to survive in their chosen habitats across the universe.
"Morgana, don't forget to choose some planets to allow for natural evolution," Edward ordered. He received data about the evolution of Earth from the Fate Universe — including the exact conditions of how single-cell organisms evolved into multi-cell organisms to the modern-day humans or Homo Sapiens. So, it posed no difficulty in recreating these conditions.
At this point, Loki was genuinely speechless. However, Edward was now focused on this experiment.
"Is everything done?"
"Yes,' Morgana replied.
"No problem, right?"
"We're good."
Edward nodded. This experiment was not to show off before Loki. Instead, he had two main objectives. Firstly, it was his way of achieving Level 10 Willpower, as he felt Chris' method was too slow. Every single individual in this world contains his Soul Imprint, which they will pass down to their descendants. When the time comes, Edward can relive the life of every single individual in this universe as a way to temper his Willpower.
The second purpose of this experiment is to determine how to achieve Tier 11 and the study of the Universe Will. Morgana is currently this universe's Will, in charge of controlling or regulating everything. Then, when the time is right, they will branch out and create more universes with Time Law; in other words, they will create their own mini-Multiverse with Morgana as the primary Will.
"This thing is not taking too much of your processing power?"
"Nope, but if you add a few more universes, we will be in trouble."
"We can wait until the Speed Force is created."
Edward finally focused on Loki and took him out. "What do you think?"
"What can I think?"
"You sound defeated."
Loki did not answer. He thought he could come here to steal the sorcerer's source of power, but now he realized how much of a joke his plan was. All his schemes are laughable before such tremendous power.
"How would you feel if I said you have the potential to achieve such a level of strength?"
"I would tell you I'm not as gullible as my brother."
"Then, see for yourself."
Edward pointed at Loki's head before sending his spirit on a voyage through the Multiverse to experience the powers of many of his most powerful variants. He even saw a variant of himself that used illusion magic to create an entire universe to fool one of his opponents.
"Are those really me?"
"Yes, with different life experiences and choices, but in essence — they are all you."
All his life, he thought and felt inferior to Thor, but now, he realizes his hidden potential.
"Please teach me," Loki said.
"No."
"What?"
"I'm just kidding," Edward chuckled. "I will teach you, but you're not ready yet."
"What do you mean I'm not ready?"
"You crave power but have no respect for it, and that's a dangerous combination."
"So, you want me to learn how to respect power?"
"That's correct."
"And how exactly will you do?"
"By making you really work for it. Come, follow me."
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