"You did an excellent job — better than I anticipated," Edward praised. "This is your reward for this mission." Loki swiftly checked his number of points, and a big grin appeared on his face. He can spend three months straight in the library.
He exhaled to calm down. "What do you want me to do with Thanos?"
"Kill him and take over his forces," Edward ordered. He had gathered five infinity stones, only missing the reality stone. Thanos was an uncontrollable variable, so it was time to remove him.
"My pleasure," Loki replied. Ever since he knew Thanos killed him in his original future, he's been waiting for an opportunity to avenge himself. Now, the time has arrived.
"Well, you can go." Edward had a lot of work to do, so he dismissed Loki.
"Before I leave, can I ask for a favor?"
"Favor? What is it?"
"Could you make a weapon for me?"
"Why all of the sudden?"
"I struggled so much against Thor because I lack a personalized weapon," Loki explained.
"With today's accomplishments, you can ask your father to request a weapon from the dwarves," Edward said.
"I know, but I want one from you."
"Hmm," Edward muttered. "Fine. I'll give you two options. The first is to pick from my treasury, where I hold my best work. The second option is I will make one personally for you, but you may have to wait a few years."
"I choose the second one," Loki answered without hesitation.
"Are you sure?"
"I am."
"Alright," Edward nodded. "Anything specific?"
"I want something multipurpose," Loki explained. "Something that can boost my sorcery and close-combat abilities."
"That's fine. Anything else?"
"Maybe portable? It would be good if I could easily carry it with me at all times."
"Doable. What else?"
"That's it."
"Alright, but like I said, you may have to wait a while."
"That's fine by me."
Edward finally dismissed Loki before starting his work. "What's the result?"
"They didn't take the bait," Morgana answered. "I've been scanning all activities on the planet and even surrounding galaxies and dimensions, but I found no signs of Hydra."
"It seems Mephisto is more patient and calculating than I gave him credit for," Edward groaned softly. He was not a fan of this kind of enemy. "Forget about him. Let's finish the Death Corp and Project Scarlet Wizard." Edward's first stop was to finish the Death Lantern and create the Death Rings. After regaining control over his Death Law, he completed the finishing step. However, he encountered a second problem — finding the right people to wield the death rings.
It takes a unique kind of talent to wield the death rings, and even after scanning the entire universe, he only found 12 people with the talent.
"I think we may have to recruit undead for this corp," Morgana suggested.
"I know, and that's their original purpose in the first place," Edward added. "Convert the enemy's dead into soldiers on our side." Edward created a clone to recruit these 12 individuals and trained them. Once they are proper members, they can start making and recruiting undead for this corp.
His next focus was on Project Scarlet Wizard. He cared deeply about this project because it would help him achieve Soul Divinity and amass even more data on Tier 11. While Edward was deep at work, someone else was in a similar state.
After flying away from the Helicarrier, Tony checked on Pepper to ensure she was okay. Once that was done, he returned to his home in Malibu. He opened the TV, and a reporter talked about the invasion and its effect on the planet — including casualties.
"Jarvis, do a deep background check on the victims," Tony ordered.
"As you wish." Tony knew it would take Jarvis a few minutes, so he prepared himself a drink.
"Sir, it appeared the Secretary was telling the truth."
"What did you find out?"
"All the victims did not exist before two years ago," Jarvis stated. "Their birth certificate, social security number, and ID only appeared in the system two years ago. However, they have a well-created digital footprint that goes decades."
"So, whoever created their identity was thorough," Tony summarized. "What about their bodies?"
Jarvis showed him a picture of a woman crying over her dead boyfriend. "I cannot tell whether the body is real or just another illusion."
"The woman?" Tony asked.
"All signs indicate she's an agent."
"Indeed, very thorough," Tony commented. He stood up to fix himself a second drink before walking to his lab. "Jarvis, we're starting a new project."
…
Edward looked at his clone with a red aura circling his head like a crown. "He's now worthy of the name Scarlet Wizard." The clone had a deep enough connection to the Chaos Dimension to use an unparalleled amount of energy.
"The next step is to weave the perfect memory and build a one-time use Time Law Artifact," Edward commented.
"Boss, you were right to have me keep an eye on Tony," Morgana suddenly said.
"Oh, what is he doing?"
"He has invented Multiversal Travel Technology."
"Seriously? How long has it been outside?"
"2 weeks."
Edward frowned. "Even if he is Tony Stark, it's a stretch for him to develop such technology so quickly? Especially with no foundation or knowledge to stand on?"
"But he did have something to stand on," Morgana added. "He used the data captured by Stark's satellites when Loki used the Tesseract."
"I guess that makes sense," Edward nodded while lamenting the world's unfairness. The civilizations in his homeworld spent billions of years trying to open the door to the multiverse, but Tony Stark did it in two weeks — a time even shorter than himself.
"He's about to test it out," Morgana said, showing him a screen. Tony stood before a towering metal gate with a portal at the center. "What do you want to do? Stop him?"
"No, this is an excellent opportunity to beat up his pride," Edward said. "Secretly take control of his gate and ensure he enters a rank 0, no, rank one timeline." While Morgana was doing this, Edward contacted the Time Force so they wouldn't suddenly rush into Tony's house and arrest him.
Once everything was ready, Edward patiently watched as Tony ran countless tests before entering the gate himself. He returned an hour later, still excited about whatever he had just experienced. Edward secretly smiled before teleporting to his room.
"What have you done?" Edward asked with a severe tone.
"Just inventing multiversal travel," Tony answered casually with some hidden smugness.
"You just created a convergence, forcing our two universes to clash."
"I did no such thing."
"That's what happens when you open the door to another parallel dimension."
"No way," Tony said in shock. He only wanted to verify whether this man was telling the truth. Ra suddenly appeared in the room, and a slight surprise flashed on his face.
"Sir, we have detected a dimensional anomaly originating from this place. Was that you?"
"No. It's this idiot — he created a convergence."
Ra looked at Tony with red glowing eyes. "Should I arrest him?"
"Arrest me? I didn't do anything wrong, "Tony argued. "And where is the proof that I created this so-called Convergence?"
"Show him the data," Edward ordered, and Ra handed Tony a small tablet. He swiftly scanned the information on it. "No way." Tony rushed to his computer and used his gate to double-check this information. His face turned pale. The data was authentic.
The dimensional walls between this universe and the one he had just visited were now gone, and from the residual energy he could detect, they were headed to each other.
"This can't be," Tony said, feeling his mind blank.