“So, what is the plan?” asked the Ancient One.
“I have a few ideas, but I need a few days to plan everything out,” grunted Edward, caressing his head. “Beforehand, you must prepare to hand over the Sorcerer Supreme position in about three months.”
“That seems a little fast, but alright. Anything specific you want me to do?”
“First, show the others that you are mentoring me personally. Second, after a month, release a rumor that I’m the next Sorcerer Supreme. In the second month, release a rumor that you will retire, and in the third month, we hold a public ceremony for my new position.”
Edward noticed many of these Sorcerers’ extreme worship of the Ancient One, so no one would doubt her decision. However, they might be reluctant to watch her retire, which could cause trouble enacting his plans if those people do not respect or accept his authority.
“Very well,” nodded the Ancient One, and Edward left for his room. Morgana appeared and asked: “What’s the plan? Do you want to start training these people in the ways of Arcane Magic?”
“Yes, but we cannot follow the same path as our home.”
“I was going to suggest thinking of an alternative method since we are running out of time.” The Empire’s magical system took too much time, effort, and resources; as such, it was not suitable since they only had less than three decades.
“What’s your plan?” she asked.
Edward waved his hand to manifest a hologram created from his thoughts, “These people are Sorcerers, so let’s use this fact to our advantage.” Morgana looked at the schematic before her, deep in thought.
“This is good, especially since this world favors the Sorcerer Way of magic.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“In that case, let’s get to work. We have a lot to do,” said the purple-haired elf, dressed like Sorcerers. Edward began his work, and starting the following day, he would receive lessons from Mordo in the morning, read in the library in the afternoon, and learn with the Ancient One at night. Then, as he said, in just two weeks, he would master all the knowledge in Kamar-Taj.
Mirror Dimension:
Edward bent the entire city of New York so that the skyscrapers became the sky. “This world’s understanding and application of the Mirror Dimension is truly advanced.”
“Indeed,” nodded Morgana, who also began stacking skyscrapers to create a building that rushed from the ground to the moon; she was having too much fun. “I feel like we can benefit immensely in this world if we can survive the turmoil.”
Edward agreed with this statement. After applying what he had learned for a few hours, he left the Mirror Dimension to continue his work. However, as soon as he appeared, Mordo rushed into his room.
“Emergency: we’re under attack.”
“From who or what?”
“The Fierce Beast Dimension,” replied Mordo, who seemed to hesitate about something.
“What is it?”
“The Ancient One wishes you to participate.”
“Is there a problem with that?”
Mordo sighed, “You are probably the most talented Sorcerer Kamar Taj has ever seen. But it doesn’t change the fact that you’re young and inexperienced. I fear she might be sending you into battles too soon.”
Edward looked at him oddly, considering he was much older than Mordo by a few centuries—no, millennia. However, he accepted the latter’s concern. Previously, he might have thought it was right to let Mordo follow his previous path, but he would not do so for many reasons.
Firstly, he saw that Mordo was a kind and understanding individual, just a little stubborn in his ways. His act of putting the Ancient One on a pedestal was one of the causes of his downfall. Secondly, he could not give up such a talented Sorcerer if he wanted to have a chance to survive the Multiversal War.
Edward patted his shoulder, “I have seen horrors you could not possibly imagine. Plus, I’m way older than you by a few centuries.”
Mordo looked at him, “Are you serious?”
“I don’t need to lie,” replied Edward. “Talent is insufficient to explain how quickly I can learn and adapt.”
“You’ve dabbled in the mystic art before.”
“Yes, and for centuries. However, my way differs from yours, so I needed to adapt,” he explained.
“But…”
“I know you have many questions, but they will be answered soon enough. Now, let’s go.”
Edward headed to a place inside the temple where he was first transported to the New York Sanctorum before being teleported to an unknown place with purple sky, earth, and grass. A black portal stood in the distance, surrounded by countless Sorcerers.
“Is this the Dimension Nullifier?”
“Exactly,” said the Ancient One, who opened a portal beside him. “I thought you should watch how we faced these threats and maybe see if there are any improvements you can make.”
Edward nodded as he watched the battle. The fierce beast, who looked like mutated creatures from Earth, became drastically weaker once they passed through the portal, giving the Sorcerer a decent chance in the fight.
The Sorcerers were pretty organized. The weaker and inexperienced ones worked together to cast defensive shields on others or use attacks like Eldritch Whip to restrict the enemy. The more powerful ones directly confronted these creatures.
Two creatures saw Edward and the Ancient One in the distance and leaped dozens of meters into the sky toward them. Edward waved his hand to open a portal and closed it, cutting the creature in half. The Ancient One remained quiet, not batting an eye.
Edward lowered his body to look at the creature, “What do you do with the bodies?”
“We used some of them to make Relics, but most are sent to the Inferno Dimension for recycling,” explained the Ancient One.
“I may have a better use for them,” he muttered. The two watched this battle, only helping to ensure no one died. Once that was over, the dimensional portal closed, and Earth was safely protected.
“What do you think?”
“Besides missing healing and buff spells, I have no comment, given the low numbers and fighting style.”
“Those types of magic are not our strong suit,” nodded the Ancient One.
Three months passed, and it was Edward’s crowning ceremony to become the Sorcerer Supreme. The Sorcerers were unsurprised as these rumors had been spreading for months, but some people still felt it was too soon for the Ancient One to retire. Regardless, the majority of Sorcerers across the three sanctums, leaving a few people to protect them.
The ceremony went smoothly as the Ancient One handed him the Eye of Agamotto. Edward then looked at the crowd to begin his speech.
“I know many of you have questions, feeling this situation is a little rushed,” he said in a voice everyone could hear. “And I can tell you there is a reason for everything.” The Sorcerers focused their eyes, listening deeply.
“The Ancient One saw a terrifying future where we failed our missions to protect Earth and our reality. Our universe was wiped out from existence.”
These sorcerers looked at him as if he were crazy. However, after seeing the seriousness in his expression and the Ancient One's nod, they began to murmur.
“How could this happen?” asked someone.
“I can show you if you desire,” said Edward as he snapped his finger, showing them snippets of the terrible future he saw. Many people immediately began to yell:
“Impossible.”
“That’s not true; that’s an illusion.”
“So much death.”
“My family — how can they survive such a catastrophe?”
Edward frowned, realizing these people might go insane as their minds break. So, he snapped his finger to remove the memory from their mind but left the impression the memory had on them.
“Is this…really the future?” asked Wong.
Edward did not answer but motioned for the Ancient One to say something, “Yes. I saw this future years ago and have been preparing to change it. I saw countless futures and possibilities, and the best answer I came up with is him.” She pointed at Edward.
“How can he help us?”
“He has mystical knowledge from an extremely advanced magical civilization,” the Ancient explained. " With that knowledge and his decisive and unorthodox means, we will have a slight chance of survival.”
The sorcerers quieted down briefly before saying, “Salutation to the Sorcerer Supreme.” This chant echoed throughout the entire mountain. Edward nodded calmly.
“The Ancient One might have sugar-coated things for you, but I won’t. My unorthodox means are cruel, inhumane, vile, and devoid of any morality. In other words, I will do whatever it takes to protect the Earth and our reality.
“I don’t expect you to accept some of my actions, but you must follow them. If you’re unwilling, please be prepared to leave, as I will not accept insubordination. I am responsible for the lives of too many people, and I will not consider your feelings or morality when protecting them.
“Is that understood?”
Love this story so f*cking much.
Let's build the EMPIRE!
Thanks for the chapter)
Is this the second time he's building an empire or the third?
@mattzem well he "uppgraded" the black clower one and in fate he just got inserted. So technicaly it's the 3rd time. But could say he's done it 4 times
@iqlime
1. His main universe
2. Black Clover universe
3. Naruto universe
In Fate he actually didn't
@3er0 when he becomes a tier 11 entity, he will have retroactively done it. Cause there is his empire built by a version of him in the fate universe.
But you are also correct that currently, the current him did not. :)
@iqlime now that I’ve thought about it, is he going to convince his main universe only, or is all the multiverses that he or his variants visited to create variants in every possible universe in that multiverse included to become a “perfect” tier 11?
@Former-God-of-Existence I would think that it is a soul technique, so then he applies it on all the universes that he has clones in (manualy). also said earlier is that you should spread your presence (by merlin) and that tier 11 isimportaint but scippable (merlin)
It is said that tier 12 is to be able to use the void/become a being of the void so this is why I think it is a soul technique.
@mattzem I thought this was the 4th.
@iqlime it is definitely a soul technique, and it likely involves the soul flame, as shown when he was researching how to increase the soul limit, during his research he tried fusing two souls, the “original” and it’s parallel timeline counterpart, while it did work, a few seconds later the soul flame turned black and soon extinguished, likely because of a mechanism on how ascension to tier 11 works, what I’m asking about is an inkling(or speculation) on how he’s going to insert himself into every possible timeline in the main multiverse, and whether he has to do it in multiverses that have his variants as well to be considered a “perfect” tier 11
@Former-God-of-Existence I sugested to the author a long time ago to do it like a nirvana training. Where he goes to a small world with a low powercealing, there he inserts morgana so that she becomes the universe will. Then he splitts his mind in to how many clones he can and then lives a lot of lifes. That leading to him being able to make a kind of hive mind technique.
But if we follow the clues that are established I think that the keys to the problem are:
1. Get to tier 10 willpower
2. Do something with origin runes (that seems to be the same in all universes and the only difference is when going in to the void runes)
I think you as a god to go beyond need to imprint yourself in the runematrix of universes, so the way for an archanist should be to creat your own rune. Then make it selfevolving with your essence. There by making you the controller of all your selfs. This also means that you have a failsafe in being able to revive through your other selfs if you die.
3. You need to be able to splitt your mind (this is my theory). if we look at how merlin can be in one body or many, this is why.
It also seems that tier 11 is more a broading of your power and not really a power up. That is why you can skip it.
@iqlime I think tier 11 is more than just a broadening of your power, it seems more like a foundation for future tiers like tier 16 or aspect-tier, maybe a prerequisite of tier 16 is being able to control an aspect you want to embody, like how Yahweh is still a tier 15 or nexus-event level existence, maybe his tier 11 foundation is not profound enough to quickly progress to tier 16 like merlin does.
@Former-God-of-Existence nice!
Would you like to make a theory, or give some more points where it will be relevant during the journey to the peak? :)
(just woak up, will come back here later and try to write some more as a counter responce)
@iqlime I think that tier 11 (Multiverse) is just a Transitionary tier, but a really important one, I mean, the last 2 tiers (Nexus Being [tier 15], Aspect [tier 16]) will very likely involve controlling an Aspect of “Existence” or something similar, with tier 15 being a necessary (Under normal circumstances) transitional realm, to tier 16, akin to training or adapting using a lesser version, perfecting, and refining it, in preparation to using a higher version of it, I think the reason preparing a good tier 11 foundation is for thinking process/space or comprehension, as it can speed up your Realm progression and ease the burden on the progressive tiers, like tier 16 Aspects.
@Former-God-of-Existence hm, good points.
I agree with you on tier 11 being important for further growth and I see your vision of the path forward. It can als connect to how beings of tier 16 (that we have seen) can exsist outside the influence of time. But to further speculate, I think we need to define some things.
1. I think that the threat is either: another reality that is trying to invade and take over our reality to strengthen theirs or to assimilate it to theirs. Or it is an un-reality threat like eldritch beeings.
2. If they can exist outside of time, then why is there a timeline to follow, why are they running out of time? Maybe merlin is providing resources to keep the timeline as stable as possible so they can get them to atleast tier 14-15 to help.
So now we can talk about tier 11. If it's just about inhabiting other souls of your own, then where is the power up? I agree that 1+1=2 and so on but it is not a qualitative change.
It can still be a nessesary tier for higher tiers but I still think it is more of a broadening. BUT if it is for setting up what you said, then it is to learn to inhabit yourself, so you then can inhabit some kind of essence, or title.
Yahwe as an example is harder I think, gods (as I theorise) are ment to consilidate concepts of reality. That is why they can progress fast (this benefits their universes) but enteties that are not gods are also importaint for diversety of powers and creation of new ones (as seen in the fate universe)
They become funnels/refinement points for excisting reality-stretching concepts. Then they probably concume others at tiers 12+ so that they can become the sole god emperor of their concept. Yahwe is the furthest tier 15 iirc, so they can't become tier 16 easily. Maybe he f*cked up the 11th tier and now is paying the price. He probably influences all of his clones to be able to go further than the 10th tier and this makes it much harder to consolidate them as a tier 11 technique. That is why he was wathcing when edward was fighting his clone, he needs it to go to tier 11 to be able to absorb it.
I'm ranting now. Either way, good theory, good points. I think your theory is more aplicable to non good enteties then gods.
@Former-God-of-Existence I read what I wrote again, this is my point with gods contra non gods:
Gods= concentration and acumelation. You want to become the "only one" and all your clones gets assimilated (mind, body and soul)
Other enteties= spread and broaden your knowledge to inlfuence as much of exsistence/reality as possible (to als diversefy the consepts that goads use/rule.
This becomes a loop that is a positive influence on the runes of universes>thevoid>reality that then gods use to become stronger, giving more power to a concept that then self govern entities can use easier and has a higher ceiling of power. And tound and round the circle goes.
@iqlime I think gods on the context of this novel, are considered a law entity or law embodiment, with their general progression being diversification of their core law, with an example of Yahweh, being a god embodying, or is the personification of light the light law, I think during his ascension to tier 11, he only focused on the light side (main multiverse) and not the dark side (dark multiverse), due to some reason, maybe lacking willpower or the suddenness of seeing tragic fates of himself happening, this could be a reason why Merlin advices Edward to imagine or simulate it. I think the reason Yahweh is having a hard time ascending to tier 16 (Aspect) is that his understanding of the light aspect is one-sided focusing only on the light or positive side and not the dark or negative side. My reasoning is that an “Aspect” is the omnipotent version of a law, meaning to control the light or dark Aspect, one must have a certain level of mastery of dark or light laws respectively and achieve balance.