While entering the Milky Way galaxy, Edward sensed some resistance before things finally settled down, and he headed straight home. However, as soon as he arrived, Morgana told him he was discovered despite being in Hidden Mode.
Furthermore, he received notifications that numerous weapons were pointed at him. Luckily, Morgana quickly used his highest authority to calm down all the detection systems in the Solar System.
"Something must have happened for everyone to be on such high alert," he muttered before heading straight to his castle. The moment Edward left the Floating City, he could sense he had access to an enormous amount of mana.
One of the titles the Akashic Record granted him allowed him to take a small portion of mana from all the Empire's citizens. But now, he sensed he had enough mana to reach Tier 8 Star System Level.
"Our population has expanded to this scale?"
Not long after his arrival, Olivier walked into the throne room to see him. She calmly walked toward him with a smile before hugging him. However, Edward was not happy for long as he saw the veins in her neck.
"Kairos Poisoning?"
"Yes," she replied. "Not long after you left, the war suddenly broke out. To cope with the situation, I allowed many Arcanists access to the Time Acceleration Rooms to become Tier 7 quickly, but everyone suffered from Kairos Poisoning as a result."
Before he opened the Time Acceleration Room for people to reach Tier 6 rapidly, he experimented on clones and discovered a form of poisoning called Kairos Poisoning.
The symptoms included certain parts of a person's suddenly aging forward or backward. And in the worst-case scenario, the person could suddenly die of old age or revert to a fetus.
He created a way to suppress the symptoms. However, this resulted in other symptoms such as drastic physical weakening, loss of vitality or life force, soul injuries, and decreased mana control.
Edward frowned as he had not found a cure for Kairos Poisoning yet. But, he was not the same person he was before leaving. He used Lucius' Time Magic to create a bubble around Olivier.
Then, he extracted the anomalous time energy inside her body. The veins on her body shrunk in size but did not completely disappear.
"I will make a potion with time attribute to fix your problem."
"I knew this would not be a problem for you," said the pale-looking Rowena, who had just appeared, accompanied by Luna and Bellatrix. Edward kissed them before removing some of the poison from their bodies.
"When did you get back?"
"Two years after you left," Luna replied.
"Did something happen?"
"No, we succeed in our mission."
"Really? Did you get the watch?"
"Yes, we penetrated that isolated timeline and sneaked in. Then, we can create a clone of you and give it an unsuspicious identity in that timeline. Afterward, we orchestrated the event for your clone to get his hands on the watch."
"Excellent," said Edward. If this infiltration mission succeeds, he won't have to rely on the Akashic Record to travel to other worlds.
Then, he had them accompany him to the palace's lab; he wanted to brew a potion for them as soon as possible. In the Black Clover World, he learned about wide varieties of magic–including poison.
One member of the Black Bull, Gordon Agrippa, was an expert on poison magic. His entire family has been studying poison magic for countless generations. Adding to his new profound understanding of time magic, he learned from the devil, Astaroth. Edward knew he could create a potion to deal with the issue.
Meanwhile, Olivier filled him in on what happened after his absence.
"Not long after you left, an event called the Fall of Darkness occurred. Guzznad suddenly appeared and destroyed the headquarters of the Intergalactic Federation, killing all their powerhouses.
"Afterward, he attacked all the Tier 8 Civilizations. The Elf Kingdom survived because of its Divine Tree but suffered tremendous damage. The Starskin survived because of a strange weapon their Queen used. But they also suffered tremendously.
"The Intelligens seemed to be destroyed in the attack. However, they recently showed up. We do not know how they survived the attack."
Edward frowned after hearing this, but he did not interrupt her and continued brewing his potion.
"As for us, we survived because of the Death Staff and the Aether Core you left for the second Floating City. Even then, 2.7 billion from the solar system died in that attack."
Olivier remembered that attack with great detail. Her, Bellatrix, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and the Flamel couple had to fight Guzznad back even though they were on a bunch of Tier 6 Arcanists.
Although they succeeded, the Empire lost billions of its people.
"Did you revive these people?" asked Edward.
"We tried but only succeeded in bringing a quarter of them back. Guzznad's Death Authority granted them true deaths, with their souls completely destroyed. Ultimately, we could only honor their memories with a national funeral."
Edward nodded as he knew some things were impossible to change.
"After that, we entered war mobilization mode," continued Olivier. "The first thing I did was to gather the resources needed to build the second Floating City. The process was smoother than expected since the entire galaxy was now in chaos.
"I knew it would take time to build it, so I took some drastic measures. I had the Artificer department use the Time Acceleration Room. However, to combat the Kairos Poisoning, I used clones.
"The Artificer building the city placed their consciousness inside specifically create clones–who would then build the Floating City inside the Time Acceleration Room."
"That would not work," commented Edward.
"You're correct. They built the city relatively quickly, but all the Artificers were poisoned, and many good ones even died."
Olivier sighed as she felt sorrow for the death of these talented individuals. However, in times of war, death was inevitable, and she knew this fact too well. Death has not been completely conquered, even in an advanced civilization like the Empire.
"You did your best, and that's all that matters," said Edward with doting eyes. Olivier smiled at him before continuing.
"With the floating city, and Rowena and Luna's return, the war situation was under control. Guzznad also appeared to be busy regarding something and only appeared in the form of clones that were way weaker than his main body.
"I've proceeded with our plan to use the chaos to annex and expand our territories. We currently have 167 star systems with life and 397 star systems with no life but with resources.
"While all the other civilizations' territories are rapidly shrinking, we are growing exponentially. As long as the other Tier 8 civilizations surrender, we will only have to deal with Guzznad before we can conquer the entire galaxy."
"I see," said Edward as he raised a potion battle before his eyes and swirled it. He shook his head before starting over with new ingredients.
"Do you have any information on the fallen Intergalactic Federation?"
"No, their last leader died two years ago; they are no longer part of the equation."
"What about Guzznad? Any information."
"We know he is somehow related to the Magus Race," said Luna. "And there is a high chance he is after the Divine Sparks and us."
"Can't you divine any information about him?"
"No; he seems to have a very powerful magical artifact related to divination. Many times, he has even bested me."
"The magus race, huh?" muttered Edward as he focused on the potion.
"Everything about them seemed extremely precious," commented Rowena.
"If they are truly the only Tier 11 Civilization this plane has seen, it makes sense," added Bellatrix. After that, the group did not continue talking as they waited for Edward to finish.
A few hours later, he had a blue potion in his hand, and he nodded with satisfaction. He first tested the potion on a clone before he allowed them to use it.
And as expected, most of the chaotic time energy in their body was expelled; their souls were now healed, and they had no problem controlling their mana.
Of course, the potion was not an instant fix, as there were still some problems. But, a month of more recuperation should bring them back to full health.
"So, tell me, how was your voyage?" asked Rowena.