Edward's current idea is to create a planet-size Transmutation Circle that does the same thing as the nanorobots. The process will take less time and would be cheaper.
Although the design for the transmutation circle would be quite complex as it required sending the deconstructed matter to another dimension along with many other things, it was still possible to create after a little time.
Of course, this did not mean that these nanorobots were now useless; they could still be used as weapons against technological civilization.
"Morgana, send more plague nanorobots to the other planets and asteroids of the solar system to gather more data; after a while, we should be able to optimize their efficiency."
After doing this, Edward began to travel in the multiverse, visiting different Earths. Everywhere he went, he would first check the population to see if there were any repeats with the other Earths or the one from his universe.
And every time, the answer was negative. So, Edward did not hesitate to plunder the population before plundering the entire solar system. Unfortunately, after doing this 20 times, he also felt a warning that if he continued, he would suffer a great catastrophe.
Nevertheless, he was still satisfied. After plundering 21 Earths, the Empire's population will increase by about 170 billion. Plus, he still had another additional 10 billion coming from Earth-125.
With such a large population, the Empire will flourish and rapidly develop.
After his plundering day ended, Edward and the others did not stop his navigation of the multiverse. One of his main objectives of this trip was to test and optimize the technology of the Novad that he installed in the Floating City.
That way, it will be much easier to navigate, study, and understand the multiverse in his universe. So, Edward begin to design ways to separate parallel dimensions based on their current time period: the past, present, or future with the years 2000-2020 considered as the present.
His experiment did yield some success as he managed to discover a few Earths that were in the year 2100 to 2400. After stealing these worlds' technology and a few talented scientists, engineers, and people who have the potential to become powerful Arcanists, he moved on.
Unfortunately, he had to stop his experiment. Time in the Blank Realm or even parallel dimensions worked differently. However, Edward had synchronized the passage of time of Earth-125 to him and the Floating City.
So, after three years passed, he knew that he had to return to deal with Nick and Set.
In an office, Edward was reading a long paper with deep focus, meanwhile, a middle-aged man dressed in a black suit stood in front of him, trembling a little as if he was afraid.
"Amazing, Dr. Jekyll," praised Edward after reading the last chapter. "You have used science to break into the field of mystery, the field of magic."
This mad or unorthodox scientist managed to find a way to split the soul into different components or parts: good and evil. And he only used science to do so, nothing related to the supernatural.
After reading this man's research, Edward had so many ideas on to best use this kind of research. Just studying the process of creating these two components of the soul would allow him to gain a deeper understanding of the essence of the soul, the essence of life itself.
Additionally, magic has a great correlation with emotions. Negative emotions or the ones related to evil often fuel black magic or boost them up, meanwhile, positive emotions or good ones are the sources of white magic.
Then there is the negative energy that he discovered in this world that is the source of necromancy magic. Is there any correlation between the evil side of the soul and negative energy? This is worth exploring.
Additionally, there is dark magic, not black magic, but the darkness which is the opposite of light. Not a lot of knowledge is known in the Empire regarding this type of magic–albeit many experiments and theories are being developed every day regarding dark magic. Edward even hypothesized that Necromancy could be a sub-category of dark magic.
The same thing can also be said for Light Magic. Some basic light attack spells have been developed, some of which are quite powerful. Nevertheless, Light magic is not truly developed in terms of treating it like one of the elements of nature; being able to mold like fire magic for destructive property, or using it to heal, remove curses, punish the wicked, etc.
So, maybe studying the relationship between the good side of the soul and the light element might further boost the development of light magic in the Empire.
And there are even more possibilities for this discovery. Good and evil are concepts related to Karma or Causality, maybe something can be studied from here. Edward already had a plan to develop a Detecting Alignment Spell which could tell if a person was [Lawful Neutral], [Lawful Good or Evil], [Chaotic Neutra], and so on.
"Well, Dr. Jekyll, you will have a bright future in the Empire," said Edward who already planned to give this man the status of Tower Master to further his research once he reached a certain Tier.
After saying that, he waved his hand and a white circle entered Jekyll's head. Immediately, the latter could feel that the evil side of him was suppressed. The doctor felt like a heavy burden was lifted from his should as he exhaled out loud.
However, after he reigned in his emotions, he discovered that he was alone in his office. So, after sighing out loud, he pretended that nothing happened.
Edward teleported back to the city in a room where everyone was watching a screen.
"How is it?"
"Things have already started," replied Hermione. "Nick has opened the tomb and chosen to be Set's Vessel."
After nodding, the four of them began to watch the plot unfold. After discovering and taking Ahmanet's sarcophagus, Nick's plane crashed down because of a flock of birds and landed in London.
He died and was resurrected by Ahmanet. Then, she was captured by the secret organization that Dr. Jekyll created to combat evil in this world. Nick learned that the female protagonist, Jenny Halsey, was also part of this organization.
Ahmanet managed to escape and acquire the last piece of the puzzle necessary for the sacrifice ritual to revive Set into Nick's body, a red jewel that was buried with a crusader knight.
Jenny dies, and Nick confronted Ahmanet and stole the dagger in which the jewel was implanted at the hill. He wanted to destroy it to ensure that the ceremony failed, however, Ahmanet told him if he did that, he would ruin his only chance at reviving Jenny.
However, if he proceeded with it, with Set's power, he would have dominion over life and death. In the end, Nick stabbed himself and Set's power and soul descended on his body.
After a little struggle and with his newfound love for Jenny, he managed to suppress Set's consciousness with his weird physique. Finally, he used that power to revive Jenny from the dead, however, after that, he ran away to ensure her safety as he was not sure whether he could retain his consciousness for long.
"Let's begin," said Edward once everything was finished.
A portal suddenly appeared and swallowed Nick who was in the Sahara Desert. And not long after, five massive pillars of light flew from different countries on Earth.
These pillars of lights then turned into enormous magic circles that surrounded the entire planet. And after they were erected, people all over the world began to disappear at an alarming rate; governments all over the globe did not even have the time to react.
Of all the Earths that he has raided, Edward was more concerned about this one since he has been secretly cultivating many people with magical talents for decades.
An untold amount of resources was used in the process, so he did not want something to go wrong. Unfortunately for him, something did go wrong; something out of his expectations and calculations.