Edward did not waste time to start placing enchantments in the Throne Room of the Underworld. Then, he left for the sixth layer, where the Shikigamis had already captured all the angelic devils. Then, he used Lucius's Soul Magic to control them before placing more enchantments in all six layers.
Finally, Edward left the Underworld. The first thing he did was try to enter Elysium again. With the Diamond Origin Grimoire, his grimoire was completed, and he now had more control of the Universe Will.
Unfortunately, he felt an even more powerful resistance preventing his entrance.
'Something is wrong. Why does it feel like God's control of the Universe Will is greater than mine?'
A lot of thoughts flashed across his mind.
'Could it be…' An idea suddenly popped into his mind based on his previous study of the Universe Will.
'If what I'm thinking is true, the final battle against him will not be so simple–especially without my Floating City.'
After making some preliminary plans, he opened a portal to his laboratory in the Clover Kingdom. He first instructed young Sally to create a new body for Julius's soul before meeting Clone Number 8, which was in charge of fixing the World Gate.
"How are things going?"
"Good, but slow," replied Number 8.
"How long before things are fixed?"
"3 to 5 years."
"That means the Gate won't be helpful in this upcoming battle."
"Do you even need it?"
"I have some new information which suggests that this God might be much of a greater threat than anticipated."
Number 8 frowned, "I could quickly fix some of the Tier 7 Canons."
"Do so. What about the other tasks I gave you?"
"Come with me."
Number 9 led him to a room with a few people cryogenically frozen in large glass tubes. Edward walked to the first one, wiped out the frozen fog, seeing a very familiar yet strange face: it was Asta, except with a scar over his right eye.
Edward walked to the other tubes, and they all contained Astas.
"What's their stories?" he asked.
"Asta 1 is after the result of a failed Spade Kingdom Rescue Arc. All the people who participated died at the hands of the devil. Ultimately, his madness allowed him to gather more power to kill all the Dark Triad."
In the original timeline, the Dark Triad captured Yami and Vengeance to open the Gate to the Underworld. Then, a team composed of magic knights from the Clover and Heart Kingdom went to rescue them.
"Asta 2 is one that had to watch Sister Lily and all the people in Hage's people killed.
"Asta 3 forged enmity with Yuno, and they had a legendary battle where he was forced to kill his best friend and rival. The trauma destroyed his life.
"Asta 4 is an interesting one. Sister Lily actually accepted his offer of marrying him. Unfortunately, she later died in his arm as he could not protect her.
"Asta 5 is my favorite. He accepted Noelle's confessions, and they became a couple. However, Mimosa was corrupted by a devil and lured her to kill Noelle in front of Asta."
Number 8 introduced the lives of all the Asta, and the overall thing they had in common was how miserable the latter was.
"Excellent," commented Edward. "These Asta's variants should have high Willpower. So, let's begin the experiment."
Morris' Modification Magic allows him to alter the structure of physical and magical objects. When boosted by the devil's power, he can affect intangible concepts like Dreams and knowledge. So, Edward planned to use it to absorb the Willpower of these Astas from parallel dimensions.
Nevertheless, he needed to test whether taking such a shortcut would have lasting effects. So, he created clones of himself to experiment on them. After using the Modification Magic to transfer Asta's Willpower to the clone, Edward searched the clone's souls, bloodline, mana, spirit, mind, memories, consciousness, and many other things to see if there was nothing wrong.
Afterward, he developed the magic to be permanent so something like Anti-Magic would not reverse what he did. Finally, he applied the magic to himself.
"Is this the limit of my soul? A Willpower of seven."
Edward shook his head as he was so close to the eighth scale he needed to use Conceptual Magic in his universe. Then, a small flame appeared in Edward's hand.
"My control of mana has reached such a subtle level unimaginable. Moreover, I feel like how I see the world is different."
Edward looked in the distance and could see the dimension where the Underworld and Elysium were located. He could see with his eyes the mana in the surrounding; they looked like blue birds.
He could see everything inside his body, including his magic core, soul, bloodline, organs, and even the nanobots. Usually, he would require a spell or machines to detect these things, but he could now see them easily.
Edward even discovered he could see the atoms that make up his body.
"It seems that my Cosmic Awareness Talent has evolved."
He concentrated before returning his vision to normal.
"I have discovered something expected," said Number 8.
"Did something goes wrong?"
"Not necessarily. Based on the recent data, it seems that your soul is not the only reason you cannot improve your Willpower."
"What did you find?"
"It seems that the modification no longer works for Asta. So, in the future, you would have to find other people with high Willpower to absorb."
"No problem. There are many people with high Willpower, like Steve Rogers or Thanos. Anyway, what happened to the Astas?"
"Their souls are injured, and they have lost the ability to control Anti-Magic. For the rest of their lives, they can only be normal people," replied Number 8.
"Is this the side-effect of the permanent extractions?"
"It appears so."
Edward sighed. He initially did want to use this method. His first plan was to copy Asta and modify the clone's soul to be the same as the original. Then, he would place the clone under a powerful illusion, making him experience many things to increase his Willpower before the extraction.
Regrettably, this plan failed before even starting. The clone did not have Asta's naturally high Willpower–even after the soul modification. And even after placing the latter through many cruel experiences in the illusion, his Willpower's growth was abysmal.
So, Number 8 had to proceed to plan B of taking Astas from parallel Universes.
"Heal their soul injuries. Additionally, fix the problems in their timeline, revive the people they care about, and ensure they can live happy and normal life.
"Furthermore, we need a better way to train Willpower.
Edward knew some of his wives–Hermione, Luna, Olivier, and maybe Fleur–would not accept doing such a thing to increase their Willpower. However, they are okay with human experiments–only one that involves clones.
When it comes to doing stuff like this that harms an innocent person for their benefit–even one from other parallel dimensions–they will draw the line.
Afterward, Edward went to check on the other clones and their project. He looked at some data from Number 7, who was responsible for [Project World Stealing].
"Your plan is a little too risky. We'll discuss safety measures after the invasion. Number 2, what about you?"
"My research on Forbidden Spell is complete. I have created a way to sacrifice lifespans to cast a spell at least one Tier above our level."
"Excellent."
"The trouble I am having is with studying the Karma Empowerment."
"What's the issue?"
"I've managed to discover the power of Karma," said Number before casting a spell. Then, above all the clones appeared two numbers: one in black and one in gold. The golden number was much higher than the black number, but the black one was still large.
"As you can see, we all have the same positive and negative karma since we are one. That's not important. The point is, despite discovering the power of Karma, I have no way to harness that power yet."
"What did you find from the devils?"
"They have a unique soul that allows them to use Negative Karma Empowerment. So, this power cannot be used unless we modify our soul to be similar to that of a devil."
Edward shook his head. He has no qualms about modifying his body, but he rarely touches his Soul.
"Well, take your time. I've brought Lucius' body, and he seems capable of using both positive and negative Karma."
"A perfect combination of angel and devil?" asked Number 2.
"Yes."
"In that case, he should be helpful."
Edward handed him the body before tasking Number 6–in charge of the training and teaching of Sally–to turn Satan's remains into an undead. Finally, he went to see the magic knights and captains: the Elysium Invasion was only a few days away.
