Edward's next task was to deal with the Universe Web; he had to find a way to block the entire galaxy's access to the web, preventing further information from getting to the Tier 10 Gods.
Edward pondered deeply as he looked at the knowledge he had acquired about the Mana Grid. "It will take too much time to design the blocker from scratch, so let's try something else."
He pulled out information about Charles Wentworth. During his incarceration, the group secretly monitored his Soul Dimension to gather more data on his ability.
"I could recreate some version of it," muttered Edward after analyzing the data. He closed his eyes as he used Astaroth's Time Magic. He sent his mind into the future to bring back knowledge on building the Universe Web Blocker.
After a few minutes of trying, Edward frowned as he felt a powerful resistance.
'As expected, it is harder to use time magic in my universe.' Then, he continued his exploration. He felt he was navigating of river composed purely of time. However, many things in the river prevented his investigation.
Furthermore, he could not see, sense or detect these obstructions, making navigation difficult. Simultaneously, he had to use a great deal of his mana and spiritual strength for every second he stayed in the river.
Luckily for him, after more than an hour, he sensed his destination and left the river. At that exact moment, Edward felt countless unknown knowledge transmitted to him from a distance and a familiar source.
"Success," Edward muttered when he opened his eyes. He reviewed the blueprint in his mind that showed how to build this blocker.
"That resistance. Is that the world's natural way to prevent people from messing with time? If that's true, then Time Lords' magic is more special than I thought."
Based on the information the Time Aurors have gathered, Time Lords can forcibly change a timeline through time travel, which makes the time magic they use special or unique in some ways.
'I'll research that later,' he thought before focusing on the task at hand. After digesting everything, Edward quickly concluded he needed an increase in tier to ensure nothing went wrong for this project.
Furthermore, with the current war situation, it was in his best interest to reach Tier 8 as soon as possible to prevent the unexpected. So, without hesitation, he went to work.
He teleported to a room where a 5 meters skeleton lay in the middle of a formation. Looking at Herpo's appearance, he sighed before getting into action. In the past few years, the Empire has done a great deal of research on Divine Energy, reaching the point of almost draining Herpo of all his energy.
With those research as a basis and the research on Godhood from the Konosuba Universe, Edward finished the last step in draining him dry. Then, he removed Herpo's soul from his body and operated on it.
He removed all his memories and emotions before doing a primary purification of the soul and correctly storing it. He planned to use it later as it had many uses, such as creating a Tier 8 Golem.
Furthermore, Edward preserved Herpo's Divine Flame and Altar for further study. Finally, he drained the Death God's blood, heart, brain, muscles, and bones since they were valuable resources.
Herpo the Foul, now Herpo the God of Death, was no longer in the mortal world. Edward took one last look at the departed dark wizard and sighed out loud before leaving.
He proceeded to purify the Divine Energy even more before creating a Soul Increase Potions. Holding a potion with golden liquid, Edward did a few more tests before drinking everything.
He closed his eyes as he sensed the strength of his soul rapidly increase: the feeling was intoxicating that he almost moaned. The process only lasted two hours before ending, and Edward felt the world was brighter than before.
His mind was faster than before, surpassing even some quantum computers if he focused intensely enough. Regardless of how great the sensation was, he did not dwell on it since things were not finished.
He proceeded to drink a second vial of the potion. However, his target was not his soul but his body. Due to the versatility of Divine Energy, he only needed to tweak the potion a little to ensure it worked.
With this new version, Edward could feel his [Aura] drastically increase as it traveled throughout his body, tempering and elevating it to a higher level. The process was excruciating and lasted for five hours.
Then, without wasting time, Edward activated the Pathfinder Title Ability he received from the Akashic Record, allowing him to take a small percentage of mana from all the people who used his Arcane System.
With the current size of the Empire, spreading to dozens, if not hundreds, of Star Systems, countless Arcanist used his system. So, Edward felt a rush of pure mana entering his magic core.
He acted swiftly by controlling these mana to enter his Soul Dimension and store them inside. And in just one hour, Edward not only entered Tier 8 Star Systems Level but also became one that could destroy at least 30 Star Systems with one spell.
He opened his eyes from the meditation state, feeling the power coursing through his veins. With a snap of his finger, he could annihilate the entire Solar System, and this power was intoxicated.
However, Edward quickly regained his bearing since he knew how weak he was compared to beings like Merlin and Solomon. And knowing of the war waiting for him, he knew it was not time to be complacent with a mere Tier 8 Advancement.
So, after regaining his mind, he focused on the new ability he developed called Apostle. He can bless 6 individuals, allowing them to reach the same level of strength as him with enough resources. It did not matter what race these individuals were from or whether they had magical talents.
These 6 people would become his Apostles, his loyal followers. The downside to this ability was the Apostles had their life bonded to Edward. They would die as long as Edward wished it or something happened to him. On the upside, if any apostles died, Edward could revive them as long as he was alive and had the resources.
'Is this the ability Arcanists will awaken after reaching Tier 8? It's not a bad one.'
Edward was relatively satisfied with having six powerful, loyal, and undying followers. With this ability, he suddenly remembered his Shikigami, Hokuto. So, he ordered Morgana to allow it to bathe in divine energy to help him transform. The eastern dragon could significantly boost his strength if used appropriately.
Finally, Edward did a few tests on his strength, and he discovered an anomaly in his soul. He opened a document that contained a recent magical discovery of the Empire. After reading it, he closed his eyes to sense his soul.
"What's going on? The increase of my spiritual power through knowledge is so small that it's an anomaly."
"Boss, I can answer your doubt," suddenly said the little elf, Morgana.
"You know?"
"Yes, you've reached your Soul Limit."
"What do you mean?"
Morgana showed him some new data before explaining.
" A few years ago, the Empire discovered humans had Soul Limit, which determined the highest level of Tier they can naturally reach. It is Tier 6 for humans, and most people cannot even reach the limit of their souls.
"Your Arcane Rune System is well-made, pushing the limit to Tier 7. But from Tier 8 and above, it will not work."
Edward frowned as he scanned through the study.
"I see. My soul is special, so my limit is Tier 8, but it is 7 for the others. Also, Rowena had a mutation, so her limit is also Tier 8. That makes sense."
The specialty of his soul was due to his reincarnation, while she had to undergo years of intense pain and suffering before achieving a successful mutation.
"Is there a solution?"
"The royal family has done some private study with clones and discovered the Soul Limit can be pushed to Tier 8 with enough Divine Energy. But the current data indicate that reaching Tier 9 might require another method. It even theorized that Divine Energy from higher Tier God might not be helpful."
"This could explain why Faith has become so popular in our plane," said Edward while caressing his temple.
"You're correct. Preliminary findings have indicated that faith is another solution to this problem."
Edward did not like faith, nor did he plan to use it on himself. So, he needed an alternative solution.