Edward took a moment to remember the information he had about the Intelligens. They were a human civilization with terrible galactic relationships with almost every faction in the Milky Way.
And the reason is that their civilization was similar to the ideal Aryan Race of Hitler. Their population is composed of only humans of Caucasian descent, with the only difference is many of their populations have red, blue, and purple hair.
The Intelligens are extremely racist and xenophobic, and the source of these ideologies in their culture is their hatred for magic or anything supernatural. They reject all these things and only pursue the development of technology.
Edward was inspired to create his conjecture about the Pure Materialism World after studying the Intelligens Culture.
Because of these ideas, no race or factions wanted to facilitate any diplomatic relationship with them, and the Intelligens were perfectly fine with this.
As a result, when Guzznad attacked all the top forces in the Galaxy during the Fall of Darkness, they suffered the greatest damage, and their civilization was almost wiped out.
"So, what happened to them?" asked Edward.
"After the Fall of Darkness, their civilization scattered throughout the galaxy, barely surviving the onslaught of the Undead Legion," explained Olivier. "However, we recently discovered a faction that is regrouping the scattered members."
Oliver showed him the information with a hologram floating before her on the table.
"This information is not enough to pay attention to them. But everything changed when one of our scout ships had an encounter with them. They discovered their technology had drastically improved in such a short period."
Edward frowned, but he did not interrupt.
"This news was suspicious but not enough for me to send you. After all, it's a period of war, so it's normal for technology to develop rapidly. Furthermore, there is a chance they discovered a vestige of an old civilization, leading to their rapid improvement after deciphering it."
The time of war is also a time of prosperity. All factions and races are in a hurry to mine new planets, conquer more lands, and move around. As a result, numerous ancient civilizations are being discovered, leading to the recuperation of new magical and technological knowledge.
Edward's two archaeologist apprentices have been busy, traveling from one tomb to another. So, after taking this fact into consideration, Olivier did not completely pay attention to the Intelligens.
"I was still suspicious, so I sent some spies to gather information–just in case."
"And they found something?" asked Edward.
"Yes. They discovered the Intelligens were studying the application of Cosmic Energy as a way to evolve."
"They want powers using cosmic energy?"
Cosmic energy is a unique form of energy that originated from planets, stars, galaxies, nebulas, and the entire universe. It's a very potent form of energy, capable of accomplishing many wonderful things like mana or other types of energy.
Unfortunately, the Empire's current research in this field can only be described as okay. Many things have been accomplished, even using it through technology.
However, if Edward had to put a level to it, the current level was barely Tier 5.
Olivier nodded her head, "As you know, they hate the supernatural with a passion. So, I found it odd."
"For a civilization like the Intelligens, it would be very difficult to change their culture in such a short time," commented Edward. "Do you think there is an outside force interfering?"
"This is one of the possibilities I thought of," replied Olivier.
"So, what do you need me to do?"
"The spies we sent did not completely fulfill their mission," explained Olivier. "They were detected and had to escape. Luckily, they gathered a valuable piece of information."
She controlled the hologram to show a planet:
"According to the information, this planet is one of their experiment sites. I want you to secretly observe and see how far their experiment has developed."
Olivier changed the hologram again.
"Then, you need to go to their home planet and find the reason for their sudden change."
"Very well," agreed Edward.
"Take the Clone City–it can still last 2 days," added Olivier. The Intelligens are not a threat to the current Edward. However, she wanted to be careful in case there was someone in the shadow.
"Alright."
Edward and Olivier did not waste time and mobilized. She gave the appropriate order, the Time Clone City returned, and Edward took control. He plugged his designated coordinate and headed to Planet Green Sour on the Sweet'n Star System, located more than 30,000 light-years from Earth.
"Hum?" muttered Morgana after they arrived.
"Is there a problem?"
"The detecting system placed around this planet reached Tier 9," she explained. "Their technology truly has developed too fast."
Before the Fall of Darkness, the Intelligens only had Tier 8 technology. And until probably a few months ago, the fact did not change. No, their technology was weaker after the destruction of their home planet.
"Can they detect us?" asked Edward.
"They will if we directly barge in," replied the little elf. "However, give me 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I can create a countermeasure."
"No need. Leave the city on standby and prepare to react at any moment. We will enter ourselves."
"As you wish."
The city was too big and required too many complicated things to bypass this planet's system. Meanwhile, Edward used Transfiguration Magic to turn himself into cosmic dust and enter the planet.
As such, the Intelligens' technology will not notice or care about one of the trillions of cosmic dust and rays that entered the planet's atmosphere.
After his successful filtration, Edward placed an invisible spell around him as he looked at the surroundings. He looked around and frowned. Everything seemed quiet, and as far as his eyes could see, he only saw ruins.
"The architecture resembled Earth during the 21st Century."
He looked at a destroyed thing not far from him. He waved his hand, and the thing flew to his hand.
"A smartphone? This planet might have been a human civilization similar to Earth's 21st century. Morgana."
"I'm on it."
In a few seconds, she accessed all the data from the phone and displayed them to Edward. The owner was a human woman of Middle Eastern Descent. She loved to travel as she had many photos in different locations.
"This place was indeed similar to Earth: same ethnicities and races, the same level of technology, and similar culture. The main differences are history and geography."
Planet Green Sour had a massive landmass, similar to Pangea. This continent took 80% of the planet while the rest was water. Because all the lands are interconnected, the humans on this planet travel more often.
Conflict is less than on Earth because of the lack of the ocean as a military barrier. Of course, marine technology is also less developed as a result.
"It's normal," said Morgana. "The Intelligens would want a place like this for their experiment."
"True," nodded Edward. "Do you know what happened?"
"I can't find much information from this phone. I extracted a news video from this phone that indicates a worldwide emergency. However, the owner and I could not recover all the data since the phone was broken."
"Well, let's go over there. We might find our answer."
Edward sensed a weird creature. And he said it was weird because the life energy released by it was abnormal. So, he teleported to the location he sensed and saw a pretty gruesome thing.
A human was eating another while making grunting sounds.
"An undead?" asked Morgana. "But I don't sense any death energy from it."
"That's because it was not created using magic," Edward said as he looked at that creature feasting on its flesh.
"You mean the Intelligens experiment? How could it turn like this?"