After his discovery, Edward decided to bring this group back to the hideout where his main body was. He needed to gather more information on these people, so he left clones with each of them.
Subsequently, he sent numerous Automatons to attack the reincarnators in the Shinobi World. His purpose was to record what kind of power systems these people used. He also wanted to wait until the Lord God made his next move before deciding what to do.
Meanwhile, his main body continued recording the Origin Rune in Hernandes' soul. The process took two days, and that was due to the help of Tobias' group.
"Now, for the next step," said Edward. "Morgana, are you ready?"
"Yes, sir."
"Our objective should be to save as much of his soul possible."
"I am aware."
"Then, let's begin."
Edward created a Soul Blade and tried to cut or separate the part of the runes in Hernandes' soul. And as expected, an unknown and powerful force activated, trying to obliterate the latter's soul.
Edward and Morgana wanted to save the majority of Hernandes' souls. Unfortunately, the Lord God's power was fast and ruthless. In less than a second, a quarter of Hernandes' soul was obliterated–and that was despite the countless spells the two used to try to slow down the process.
In the end, they only saved a quarter of his soul, while the rest was gone.
"This power was truly overbearing," commented Morgana. "Luckily, we still saved a quarter of his soul."
Even if a tiny piece was saved, they could revive Hernades. However, the amount of information they could retain would have been pitiful. Furthermore, Hernandes might even lose his regular memories.
"It's good the situation is better than we–"
Edward stopped midway as his face suddenly changed. He felt great danger coming, not toward him but toward Hernandes' piece of soul.
"That's…" muttered Morgana, who detected something a few seconds after him.
"The power of Cause of Effect," said Edward with gritted teeth. "The Origin Rune wants t to obliterate his soul. And since there is still some of it left, the effect part has not been achieved."
"In that case, this power will chase Hernandes no matter we go–even if we return home," commented the little elf.
"That's the horror of Cause and Effect–space, time, and even the concept of distance means nothing to it."
"What should we do? At this rate, our effort will be in vain," said Morgana, working her computing power on overdrive, trying to come up with a solution to the current situation. However, during such moments where instant decisions are required, her analytical abilities are nothing compared to Edward's.
"Karma is a part of Cause and Effect. We can use it."
"Isn't karma simply the concept of how actions have good and evil consequences?" Although Morgana knew her explanation was an oversimplification; however, she understood time was of the essence, so quick and efficient communication was required. Furthermore, she knew Edward would understand her meaning.
"In some ways, it can also be interpreted as the connections of all living beings. Two people from the other end of the globe might be connected in some way or form."
"So, you want to cut off the connection Hernandes has with the Lord God to save this piece of soul."
"Yes."
"Alright." The moment Morgana asked the question, she had already accessed her database–focusing on the Empire's research on Karma. Queen Hermione's primary research focus has been Karma ever since her travel from the Konosuba Universe, so there are decent data.
So, she used the research as a base to create a spell that countered this situation and sent it into Edward's mind. He reviewed the data and modified it accordingly.
Thousand of magic circles of different colors appeared above the planet where this base was.
"It's not working," said Morgana.
"I know, so you need to buy me some time."
Morgana waved her hand to place thousands of different Soul Protection Spells around Hernandes' soul, delaying the power of Cause and Effect attacking it. However, the Lord God's power became more aggressive because of her defensive measures.
Morgana frowned as she knew the situation was perilous. So, she waved her hand to destroy the surrounding thousands of Star Systems, obliterating hundreds of thousands of planets and stars.
She turned everything into pure energy to power up her spell. With this method, she managed to buy more time for Edward.
"I can't last much longer," said Morgana.
"Hahaha, I'm truly a genius," said Edward as he modified the spell once again. Suddenly, an white and ethereal string originated from Hernandes' soul and connected to somewhere deep in the void.
"What is that?"
"Karmic String," muttered Edward before waving his hand and trying to cut off the string. Unfortunately, it did not work. Not wanting to waste time, he took the orb containing Void Energy and manipulated it to cut the string.
To his surprise, the thing was not easily destroyed as he had imagined.
"The power of Karma is really not simple," he commented before finally succeeding. Immediately afterward, the Lord God's power disappeared since it could no longer find its target.
"How did you do it?" asked Morgana
"Do what?"
"The spell; how did you succeed too quickly." Her spell was the result of the entire Empire's research on Karma. However, she also knew the spell had too many flaws, and their actions had a minuscule possibility of success. After all, the research Karma was in its early stages, so there was not as much data.
"In fact, we already have sufficient data on Karma, or Cause and Effect, but we simply did not know," explained Edward.
"Oh, how?"
"Curses."
Morgana's eyes lit up. "Indeed. Curse Master can use a person's hair, nails, appearance, and even date of birth to curse someone. And there is no requirement for distance. At its core, Curse Spells use the power Cause and Effect."
"Exactly. After I figured this out, it was simpler to modify the spell," said Edward. He was considered a Curse Master since he was paranoid that someone would use a powerful curse to kill him.
Furthermore, after the Black Clover Universe, he used Magicula to gain a powerful Curse Immunity, thus also deepening his understanding of Curse Spells.
And now, he found the essence of Curse.
"You should be able to control Curse Rules now, right?" asked Morgana.
"Yes, but only after a little bit more research and training."
"Space, Time, Destruction, Death, and now Curse; you're no longer a weak Legendary Arcanist," she added.
"Indeed."
"Are you going to focus only on these five? Or are there going to be more?"
"Element Rules will definitely be next," pondered Edward. "Hermione should control Karma Rule, so I can learn from her.
"I don't know if there is a Void Rule, but Rowena should learn it, so I can also learn with her."
"You have no chance to use Fate or Destiny Rule," added Morgana. "Wiz should learn Light and Darkness Rule; however, that's part of Element. Olivier will most likely use Ice Rule, which is another element."
"Well, the future is bright," agreed Edward.
"Before we leave this world, we can try to steal these different rules as we did in the Full Metal Alchemist Universe."
"There is no need to steal the rules when we can steal the entire universe," said Edward. As he knew the importance of studying rules from different universes, he would let his family have an early start.
So, he also planned to steal this timeline and preserve it as he did in Konosuba World.
"We should start stealing timelines and store them to study different universe rules," said Morgana. "We can send troops in these weaker universes and start preparing."
"That's a good idea. We can send Clone and Golem Legions to prevent anything unexpected from occurring. The only issue is the price we have to pay to buy so many World Coordinates from the Akashic Record."
"We might not have to pay," said Morgana. "Have you forgotten where we are?"
"Huh? You're right. Maybe we can reverse engineer the world coordinates from these reincarnators."
Each power system has its unique imprints, so Wang Wei could find these worlds based on that.
"With Havika's Omniverse Mathematical Model, it should be easier," nodded Morgana.
"Well, I'll leave it to you."
—----
(AN: For those who forgot, Havika is one of the Lynchpin introduced in ch 377.)
