"This is more than a disaster — this is The disaster," Odin complained.
"The world is really trying to force us to kill each other," Frigga sighed.
"Now is not the time to lament our situation," the Ancient One stated. "Sealing these people's strength may not be the best plan."
"What do you suggest we do?" King T'Chaka asked.
"We teach them how to control this strength so they can be prepared for the real event."
"And how do you suggest we do such a thing?" As soon as T'Chaka asked, he and everyone else had an answer. They turned to look at the tired Edward, who was caressing his temple. He groaned softly.
"I'll build a Dream World that takes these people's spirit into a battle-training world. When the time comes, we can remove the seal, and they'll remember their training and know how to control their strength."
"As reliable as ever," the Ancient One praised.
"If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask," Odin stated.
"Although Wakanda cannot provide much help, we're willing to offer our services as well."
"I will ask if I need it," Edward responded. The meeting ended soon afterward, and Edward exhaled: "I'm going to need a vacation soon."
"I agree. I don't think I've seen you this stressed out," Morgana stated.
"The worst part is this is just the beginning," Edward complained. Once he survives this world, he has to deal with the Time Game, and after that, he might be directly jumped into Merlin's Omniversal War. His future looks bleak from an objective point of view.
"We'll talk about the vacation later, but for now, let's focus on the tasks at hand," Morgana said. "You don't have to worry too much about the Dream World. I can build that myself; you only need to review the blueprint and maybe put some final touches on it.
"Your current priority should be increasing your strength and Project Scarlet Wizard."
"I know. So, let's—" Edward stopped himself as he received a communication call from the Time Force.
"Ra? Did something happen?"
"We detected another dimensional anomaly similar to the ones from New York."
Edward squinted his eyes: "Where?"
"The moon," Ra replied, and Morgana immediately took action, showing a screen of the moon. A hidden civilization lived peacefully on the moon; they looked as if they had always been there.
"The Inhumans," Edward muttered. After the first convergence he tested, the Defenders appeared in this timeline, but this time, it was another group—the Inhumans. In some ways, surviving these convergences seems to strengthen this timeline.
"What should we do?" Morgana asked.
"We'll deal with them later," Edward said. He went to his magic tower and continued working on the Scarlet Wizard. After weaving the clone's memory, he left a Time Crystal with his Time Law for him before dropping the clone close to the temple where the Darkhold was located.
…
"Where am I?" The Scarlet Wizard asked himself. He looked at his injured body, but his mind was groggy, preventing him from knowing how he got here and why he was so severely injured.
"I remember. I'm a sorcerer trying to revive my family. I learned of the Darkhold and wanted to use its power, but it was destroyed. I needed a Time Crystal to summon it from the river of time and had to steal it from a sorcerer in another dimension."
The Scarlet Wizard quickly checked his neck and found the crystal hanging on a necklace. "What a relief. It's still here." He had to open a portal home, and something went wrong in the process, hence his injury. He opened a portal and took out something.
"Good. The Soul Stone is still there."
The Scarlet Wizard then took a potion from the portal and drank it, alleviating his injuries. "It seems I'm close to Mount Wundagore. Excellent." He soon reached his destination, and as expected, the Darkhold engraved in the walls was gone. He did not hesitate to use the Time Crystal.
A red hue emanated from his fingers to enter the green crystal. Then, under his control, the engravings in the temple rapidly reverted to their original state. However, it did not take long before the murals quickly reverted to their destroyed state.
'Whoever cast the spell that erased the Darkhold is truly powerful,' the Scarlet Wizard thought. I must enclave this temple in a time bubble to isolate that power's influence.' He accessed even more power from the Chaos Dimension using the power of the Time Crystal. This approach worked, as he successfully recreated the Darkhold.
The Scarlet Wizard did not hesitate to engrave the magic in the murals into a new book — a new Darkhold. Then, he lost himself in the knowledge contained inside. Of course, Edward — who was behind the scene — also received all the knowledge of the Darkhold.
A few weeks passed, and the Scarlet Wizard successfully mastered all the knowledge in the Darkhold. He looked at his fingers, which were now dark. He sighed. Despite his early preparations, he was still corrupted by the Darkhold. However, this was not enough to stop him.
'Whoever destroyed this thing erased all copies of this book from the multiverse,' he thought. 'Now, if I want to revive my family, I must gather soul energy from the soul stone from the entire multiverse.'
The Scarlet Wizard summoned the Soul Stone before starting to cast the same spell that Wanda from Earth-616 used to eliminate the Darkhold, but he modified it to suit his purpose.
A bright golden crystal of soul energy rapidly formed before the Scarlet Wizard as he drew energy from Soul Stones across the multiverse. The process took him more than 10 minutes, and he almost passed out by the end. However, the result was more than satisfactory as he looked at the golden crystal.
"Excellent. The first step is completed." The Scarlet Wizard raised his hand to put these things away, but something happened before he succeeded. A portal appeared beside him, showing an angry-faced sorcerer with a long beard.
"You!" The Scarlet Wizard was shocked.
"You think you can steal from me and get away with it?" said the bearded sorcerer before pulling him into the portal.
"No," screamed the Scarlet Wizard, trying to take away the crystal and soul stone as he was dragged into another dimension. Sadly, he was too weak in his current state to resist, so he was captured, and the dimension portal disappeared. Less than five seconds later, Edward teleported to this temple and took the crystal and soul stone.
"With this thing, we should be able to achieve Soul Divinity," he commented.
"Are you sure it was a good thing to get rid of him? He's technically a Tier 11 clone," Morgana asked.
"The creator of the Darkhold, Chthon, will definitely notice someone reviving his knowledge. Furthermore, I still believe he's after the Scarlet Witch, meaning he'll become interested in the clone. Now, he's a liability, and he's lucky I allowed him to reincarnate into another timeline instead of eliminating him," Edward calmly explained.
—-
"Still felt it was a waste," Morgana complained. "We could have taken the risk and used his ability for a while."
"We've gathered the best data on Tier 11 from him, and that's good enough," Edward replied. "Plus, we can make as many Scarlet Wizards as we need until Wanda from Earth-616 is revived and retakes her title."
Edward teleported back to his magic tower. "How is the analysis of the Darkhold?" Morgana had been in charge of the Scarlet Wizard's work for the past few weeks while he was preparing to train the Avengers.
"This thing can be described as a masterclass on Dark Magic. Additionally, there are a few spells that we can classify as Tier 11."
"I'm guessing there is a but, and it has to do with its power of corruption."
"You're right. The book is a scam," Morgana explained. "Anyone who used any of the spells will be secretly linked to a dark and ominous entity, which I'm guessing is Chthon, the First Demon."
"Can we remove the flaw?"
"We can, but it's a slow process."
"Then, let's take our time."
Edward's next step was to absorb the soul energy from that crystal and complete his Soul Divinity. The process was smooth, and his Soul Flame turned Dark-Gold.
"How do you feel?" Morgana asked.
"Excellent," Edward replied. My Mana Control and utilization of my Laws are much easier. I can feel that absorbing energy from my surroundings is also faster and easier. My Cosmic Awareness seems to have improved, and my soul has drastically increased in potency and defensive and offensive capabilities."
"Come, let me scan you," Morgana suggested, and with her taking action, they gathered even more detailed data on Edward's transformation.
"This is an overall transformation," Morgana commented. "Your willpower would have improved had you not already reached level 10. Your mana was purified in the process, and your physical attributes have also drastically improved."
The little elf smiled. This development has allowed them to delve deeper into the mystery of the soul. "Alright. Let's test out the Internal Law Project." Edward once theorized that the evolutionary path of a Legendary Arcanist is to no longer rely on their Willpower to control the laws of a universe but create their own internal Law/Authority. By then, it won't matter what world they are or what willpower requirement the world has — they can wield their laws as they pleased. And the first step to achieving this is Soul Divinity.
Edward closed his eyes and accessed the fourth layer of his soul dimension. He had pondered for a long time how to condense his own internal Law, and the answer he came up with was designing his own Primordial Rune based on his understanding of law.
So, that's what he did. He slowly engraved the rune above his Soul Flame using the power it was releasing. Time Law was his most advanced, so Edward engraved a Time Rune. As soon as he finished, his body released a unique aura that he recognized before the rune dissipated.
"What happened?" Morgana asked. "I sensed the power of Law from your body, but it immediately vanished."
"That's exactly what happened," Edward explained. "Let's test it out again." He re-engraved the Time Rune, but the result was the same. So, he tried the other laws he had mastered, but nothing changed.
"It seems we are missing a significant piece of the puzzle," Morgana suggested. "Could it be that we need to achieve Tier 11 first?"
"That could be," Edward nodded.
"The girl is right," suddenly said a voice.
"Merlin?"
"Congratulations on early achieving Soul Divinity, but you're skipping many steps," Merlin's voice continued.
"If you want to have an internal [Authority], you must study the laws of dozens, maybe, hundreds of universes before condensing a Law Rune, which will then evolve into a Void Rune. But even these steps are amongst the last ones."
"So, what should I do?"
"Focus on achieving Tier 11 and take your time to understand the laws of the universe — it should give you a headstart," Merlin explained.
"I understand."
"Good. Keep up the good work." The voice disappeared.
"It's always so mysterious," Edward shook his head. Well, at least we know a little bit more about Void Runes." Merlin confirmed that his plan of combining many Primordial Runes into a Void Rune was possible, and that was good news to him.
"What should we do now?" Morgana asked.
"You heard the old man's advice." Edward already had a few clones working on the laws of the Fate Universe, the DC Universe, and the current Marvel Universe. Now, he was thinking of sending clones to other universes to accelerate the progress.
'Leaving this world now might not be a good idea, not to mention the price I'll need to pay to get the world coordinate from the Akashic Record,' Edward complained. 'If only the clone I sent to infiltrate the Purple Daoist's Samsara Hall had made any progress.'
He knew he could not rush this kind of thing, so he exercised his patience. Edward finally left his magic tower, already overdue for the time he had promised to train the Avengers. His clone has already apologized and delayed the session.
However, even after this exit, he did not immediately see them since he had work to do at Kamar Taj. After the recent events, he had to update the missions for the sorcerers since many events drastically altered this timeline. So, he used the Time Stone to peep into the future before updating the mission halls.
Once that was done, he checked on his guest — Ajak. So far, Arishem hasn't contacted him, so he kept waiting. Meanwhile, this Eternals had broken through the restraint of her mind by realizing she could improve her abilities despite being a synthetic lifeform. She used the knowledge Edward gave her about Cosmic Energy, and she even learned about sorcery from the Kamar-Taj library to supplement her training.
'Maybe the Eternals have the potential to be Tier 10 powerhouses,' Morgana suggested.
"Maybe," Edward nodded. He wanted to wait and observe since Ajak's improvement, while impressive, was not enough for him to invest in their personal training. However, he suggested that she bring Sersi to this place and train him. According to Edward, Sersi has been the one to show the most potential, so her training result will determine how much he will invest in these Eternals.
Once he finished entertaining his guess, Edward opened a portal to SHIELD's headquarters to meet with the Avengers and begin their training. He had a feeling something magical was about to happen in this training session.
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