After absorbing the Spade Origin Grimoire, Edward felt he could control the entire Spirit World. With his mana, he could drive the birth rate of Shikigamis and even close all the breaches connecting it to the mortal world. The only thing he could not do was force the Shikigamis to serve him, but he could ask for their help.
As he continued to sense the Spirit World, he suddenly discovered something, so he focused on it. A few minutes later, he muttered: "The Seal on God is almost broken."
He just learned there were two parts to the seal: one sealed God itself and most of its power, while the other prevented them from entering the mortal world. The first one has already been removed, while the second one is full of flaws and on the verge of breaking.
Edward analyzed the seal before concluding it would break in about 23 years if nothing unexpected did happen. At the same time, he sensed something odd with it: he sensed a massive amount of soul strength. Regrettably, he could not feel everything clearly because he was still missing one last piece.
"I don't want to wait that long, so the Elysium Invasion is still on," he muttered before raising his hand to manifest a new and strange power.
"The Universe Will," muttered Edward. With the grimoire, he now has some control over the Universe Wil; to be precise, this timeline's Universe Will. He could foresee that with it, his research would go exceptionally well.
Furthermore, Edward wanted to gather all the Origin Grimoires across the Multiverse and use their powers to study the Universe Will and accomplish his plan of becoming a Perfect Tier 11 Arcanist.
Furthermore, with control of the Universe Will, he could now use Conceptual Magic in this universe, which was only possible with his Time and Death Staff.
The Time Staff was in the hands of the Konosuba's group, while the Death Staff remained back home. So, it would be advantageous for him to use Conceptual Magic.
"It's a shame I can only use a few spells. I have to get the last Grimoire."
Without the last Grimoire, his control of the Universe Will is limited. Additionally, Conceptual Magic requires a lot of mana, and without the Floating City as an energy source, he cannot use a bunch of spells as he did with his fight against Yahweh.
After analyzing the Origin Grimoire, Edward put it away before leaving. He closed the gate and made it look like nothing ever happened. Before his departure, he looked at the Akimitsu Clone from a distance.
The latter used its power to remove the fog surrounding the capital, close the Spirit World breach, and save the commoners who suffered from this incident. With the royal clans almost destroyed and the noble-affiliated mages, the Yamato Dynasty was essentially crippled.
As such, it was the perfect time for a hero like Akimitsu to rise, rebuild and spread new ideologies to the people. And with reincarnator Onizuka's ideas already existing in the world, the process will not be as tricky or suspicious.
In the future, the people of the eastern continents will integrate much easier into the Arcane Empire under Akimitsu's guidance. And Edward will be responsible for the western continent's people.
After one last glance, a portal appeared before him, and Edward returned to the Western Continent. He did go back to the Black Clover Kingdom but headed straight to the Underworld since he knew something went wrong: his clone with 60% of his power was killed a few days ago.
The first thing Edward noticed upon his arrival was the magic circles he placed in all six layers of the Underworld were removed. So, he did not hesitate to go straight to the seventh layer.
"Lucius?"
"Yes, it's me. Surprised?"
"You've absorbed Astaroth's power?"
"Not just him, but Beelzebub and Lucifero's as well," said Lucius with a confident smile. "I've always believed humans were the most unique race, and your existence is proof of that. You inspired me to take control of my destiny and no longer be Astaroth's puppet."
Edward looked at him with a frown, "Something is odd about you."
"Have you noticed?" Then, he changed his form. He had a large halo floating behind him with a small one on his head. He had three pairs of slender wings and two horns that looked like deer antlers.
"Have you seen it? Humanity's new form."
"A perfect combination of human, devil, and angel," said Edward, with his eyes lit up. Lucius can use bother Negative and Positive Karma Empowerment in this form, with no conflict.
'This must be the reason for him having two souls.'
Edward was slightly excited since he had found the perfect specimen to study Karma Empowerment.
"Where is Julius' Soul?" he asked. Julius was a kind person and a great wizard. Edward wanted to save him if possible–especially since the latter has the talent to wield Time Magic; he would make an excellent Arcanist.
"He's dead," Lucius replied calmly.
"I don't even need to sense your Ki to know you are lying. Without the second soul as an anchor, there is no way for you to control two opposite power of devil and angel."
Lucius did not say anything; he retained his calm and confident side.
"It's either still with you, or you hid it in a safe place," said Edward.
"Enough with the chit-chat. I have conquered all levels of the Underworld and inherited the power of the Archfiend- -"
"You mean Satan."
"Satan? That's a good name, very pleasing and oddly very suitable," Lucius said. "Yes, I have inherited the position of Satan, and only you stand in my way of world domination and modeling humans into higher beings."
Edward secretly shook his head. Although Lucius inherited Satan's position, it's evident that he did not know much. Otherwise, he would know that God was as much of a threat as him.
A giant orb with Lucius at the center suddenly spread out. Edward knew this was the manifestation of Lucius using his Time Magic. Inside that orb, time is his to bend to his will. So, he immediately counter-attacked by spreading an orb of his own, canceling the opponent.
Immediately, Edward frowned. He could tell that the current Lucius was Tier 7, but he still had a larger mana pool than the latter. After absorbing all of Astaroth's understanding of time magic, along with his own study, and a larger mana pool, his time magic should have overpowered the latter, but they were equal.
He glanced at the dark underworld and understood it was because of home advantage. The Underworld Dimension boosted Lucius' strength since he was technically its owner/controller.
Gravity Magic: Black Holes
Lucius used Lucifero's Gravity magic to create five black holes, trying to swallow Edward; however, the latter waved his hand to make five dark slashes that separated the black holes in two before dispersing them.
'Yami's Dark Magic?' thought Lucius before evading the slashes. At the same time, he frowned as he discovered his opponent was preventing him from seeing too far into the future.
Spatial Magic: Space Bombs.
This time, he used Beelzebub's magic to create a bunch of small dimensions and exploded them; there were hundreds of them. Edward made the same number of time spheres to swallow these explosions. Then, he reverted them to their original form.
Meanwhile, countless black lights came from the surroundings to enter Lucius's body. He raised his hand to create an enormous time sphere.
Time Magic: Time Erasing.
Edward calmly looked at the ball and snapped his finger. Ten dark arrows appeared from Lucius' front and back. The front arrows pierced his time spheres before annihilating them.
Although he evaded these ones, the one from his back still pierced his back and arms.
"Anti-Magic? You can use Asta's Anti-Magic?"
"Why are you surprised? They don't call me the God of Magic for no reason–albeit, I'm not too fond of that name."
Edward then used Secre's Sealing Magic in combination with the eastern Sealing Art to create chains to bound Lucius, that could not use any spells with the Anti-Magic Arrows on his body.
Regrettably, before the chains could tie him up, a bone cage appeared to protect him. Edward looked at the three new people that showed up. Like Lucius, they had angels and devil features, and their mana was way beyond what it should have been.
"Dante, Zenon, and Moris," said Edward before focusing on the Diamond Kingdom's scholar.
"I've been wanting to meet you."
"Oh? I don't think we have any reasons to interact."
"You have two things that belong to me," Edward said. "To be exact, one thing that belongs to me and one thing I want."