"Who are you?" Arishem asked, no, demanded in an aggressive tone. Edward squinted his eyes as soon as he saw him in person.
"As I said, I'm the Sorcerer Supreme and Guardian of Earth."
"Guardian? By whose authority?" Arishen has lived for trillions of years, so the guardian status of one planet will not deter him or his actions. However, he also wanted to know if this man had someone backing him so that he would be this bold.
"Whose authority? This one," Edward replied before pointing his finger northwest. A beam of light rushed to a distant and barren galaxy, wiping it out instantly. He then snapped his finger to rebuild it atom by atom. Arishem's Cosmic Senses allowed him to experience the entire process.
"I'm sure you're now willing to talk," Edward muttered.
"What do you want?"
"You should have recognized that thing?" Edward pointed to the magic circle, which was not far away.
"Human, what have you done?" Arishem immediately noticed one of his kind.
"Calm down. He's still alive and can still hatch properly."
"What do you want?"
"Now, we're talking," Edward sneered. "I only want one thing: all your knowledge about Cosmic Energy — including how to build a World Forge. In return, I'll hand over the egg to you and help you hatch it."
"You can do that?"
"How about I show you?" Edward pointed at his magic circle, and it started absorbing a strange energy similar to faith. The celestials require energy from intelligent lives, but it was not faith since no humans knew of their existence or worshiped them. Due to the similarity, it did not take Edward long to analyze and replicate that energy.
Arishem sensed the rapid complication of its kind, proving that the human was telling the truth. After a few minutes, Tiamut the Communicator was born.
"Now, it's your turn."
Arishem looked at the magic circle, and after thinking it over briefly, he raised his enormous palm to condense a crystal. 'Morgana,' Edward called. 'I'm on it," swiftly replied the little elf. 'No problem.'
"Pleasure doing business with you," Edward declared, removing his magic circle to reveal Tiamut in its complete form.
"Thank you, human, for your help," Tiamut stated after his emergence.
"This is just a deal," Edward nodded calmly. "Here, you can take your people." He moved the Eternals before him.
"No need," said Arishem. "They can stay on Earth as diplomats to facilitate communication between us."
"Communication? You want to have another deal with me?"
"We are not cruel," stated Tiamut. " If there is a way for our kind's emergence not to affect the planet, we would not mind using it."
"Hmm, that's not a bad idea. I can even build machines capable of achieving what I did," Edward replied. "However, I live by the creed of Equivalent Exchange. If you want my help, you must pay something of value."
"We will communicate with the others before coming to a decision," said Arishem. "So, be prepared for our next meeting." The two opened a black hole to teleport away.
'The Celestial Race is born with Tier 6 strength and can grow to Tier 9 — Tier 10 for the ones like Arishem, so they will make excellent allies,' Morgana commented. 'But are you sure about this? I know you noticed it from him.'
'The power of Law/Authority,' Edward muttered. Arishem was the first person in this universe with an [Authority], as even the Panther Goddess did not have one despite her body being enveloped by faith. Moreover, Arishem was not a faith god, and his authority was powered entirely by cosmic energy.
'The celestials' origin and purpose is unknown, but as of now, we can categorize them as allies.' He teleported everyone back to Earth.
"Well, you heard what the man said," Edward stated before handing the celestial communication sphere back to Ajak.
"Can someone please explain what's going on?" Spite asked. Edward glanced at Ajak, and she sighed deeply before explaining their true mission and the emergence.
"That can't be," muttered Sprite.
"Are you saying we've been raising humans to be slaughtered like pigs?" Sersi asked.
"Things are not so simple," Ajak replied,
"But they are, aren't they?" sneered Druig. "Why didn't you tell us?"
"I'm sure she had her reason," Icarus butted in.
"Of course, you would defend her."
"What does that mean?" Icarus asked with a frown.
"What else are you hiding?" Phastos asked, trying to prevent an argument between those two.
"I'm not hiding anything else," Ajak replied.
"She's lying," Edward said. "She didn't tell you about the memories or Thena's Mahd Wy'ry." Ajak wanted to curse as she did not expect him to know so much.
"Ajak," Sersi asked. She grunted before telling the entire truth, mainly that this was not their first mission. The group was quiet as they tried to process all this information. For a moment, many of them did not know what to do.
"Can you cure her?" Gilgamesh suddenly asked, looking directly at Edward.
"You're talking about Thena?"
"Yes."
"Sure, but why should I?"
"If you do, I will forever be in your debt," Gigamesh bowed.
"There is no need to go so far for my sake," Thena said.
"No, it's worth it."
"You were always my favorite," Edward said. "Good, I'll help you, but remember your words."
"I will."
Edward approached Thena and raised his hand to her head. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"Erasing the memories from your previous mission. You're suffering because there was an issue with the process."
"Couldn't you make me remember instead of erasing them?"
"I could if I had access to the place Arishem stored them. Since I don't, this is the best solution." Edward was not telling the truth since he could help her recreate her memories. But it was faster and safer to erase them.
"I see." Edward placed his hand on her head and erased the residual memories. He ensured he did a thorough job, unlike Areshem. "Well, it was a pleasure to meet all of you." Edward opened a gate, preparing to return home.
"Wait," yelled Ajak. "I must go with you."
"Why?"
"Arishem said we would be the communication link between you two, so I think it would be best for me to remain close."
"Hmm, you have a point. Fine, you can come with me."
"What about us?" Sersi asked. "Shouldn't we know how to contact you?"
"I live in Kamar-Taj in Nepal. You can visit if you wish." The portal closed, and the two disappeared. The Eternals looked at each other before walking away for a reunion after thousands of years.
Edward found a room for Ajak. "I don't think you care about living a modern lifestyle, do you?"
"I'm fine as long as I have a roof over my head."
"That's good. You can ask any of the sorcerers if you need anything."
Edward returned to his magic tower and started his work. "Morgana, how is it?"
"The information we've received is enough to push our understanding and application of Cosmic Energy to Tier 10."
"That's good news," Edward nodded. "Send all the information and your analysis into my mind."
"No problem, sir."
In minutes, Edward absorbed billions of years of the Celestial Race's study of Cosmic Energy.
"Did you find how to build the World Forge?" he asked while absorbing the knowledge.
"Here is the blueprint, and I've already optimized it."
Edward nodded, not surprised. The forge obviously had plenty of flaws. For example, Arishem created the Deviants to help hatch the celestial seeds, but the Deviants evolved beyond his control and rebelled. He made the Eternals synthetic life and inhibited their ability to improve and evolve, but Sersi did so in the movie. Edward would never have used something with so many flaws.
Edward found a few small ways Morgana's blueprint could be further upgraded, and once he modified it, they immediately started building the forge.
"Being able to manufacture Eternals will be very useful for the Convergence," Edward nodded. Besides the Nova Empire, they had an additional method to create middle-level troops.