LazySageDao
patreon
619. Timeline Ranks
🕑 Added 2024-06-20 09:29:07 +0000 UTCYggdrasil Center, God of Story Loki, calmly watched the multiverse, focusing on Edward and his actions. “A ruthless, succinct, and effective move.” He watched as the millions of speedsters rushed into other timelines, forcing them to converge and destroy one another until only one remained.
This move was more interesting because it was just the beginning. As long as someone does not catch on, these speedsters could cause billions of timelines to be destroyed.
“All this work for nothing,” Loki sighed. He made the ultimate sacrifice by imprisoning himself in this tree and molding the multiverse into a stable form, preventing the likelihood of the Council of Kangs from creating a Multiversal War. But all of this was in vain.
Powers behind his comprehension suddenly appeared and unraveled his multiverse, causing an event worse than the Multiverse War. Now, Loki has to figure out his next goal in life. “What should I do? Revive my family? Play happy life with Silvie? Try to protect people again?”
Loki frowned. By watching the multiverse, he saw all the possibilities of his life; in some ways, he had experienced all those lives by living vicariously through all his variants. He could predict how quickly things would become boring if he had to relive them.
His gaze focused on Edward. “No, I need new ideas, new possibilities — new stories. And he’s shown me the way.” He was one of the few people who immediately noticed when Edward arrived in this universe. As such, he had an inkling of the latter’s origin.
“Beyond the Multiverse,” Loki muttered, his eyes shining brightly. He looked at the tree and touched it. “It won’t be long before I’m free. Let’s be patient until then.”
Blank Realm:
Edward opened his eyes, “Everything is done. Prepare to receive the encrypted data.”
“I’m on it,” Morgana replied, and in a few seconds, she latched on to the information scattered in the Blank. This method was safe because the message was everywhere in the Blank Realm, meaning it could not be traced to any world or any single individual — at least, not by any means Edward is aware of.
However, the downside is that anyone with sufficient technology or power can intercept the message. Luckily, Edward was very confident in his encrypted capabilities, as he used the combination of Primordial Runes from different universes.
In other words, even if someone could use divination to interpret the data, they would only unconsciously mumble jumble or nonsense.
“How is it?” Edward asked.
“The encryption itself has no problem,” Morgana explained. “As for the data? They are even better than the one we’ve gathered due to the speed at which the Speed Force is expanding.”
So far, Edward has set up two experiments to gather data on how to achieve Tier 11. The first one is the universes he created, which made Morgana the Will of a newly created small Multiverse. This experiment encountered some problems in the early stages because Morgana could not bear controlling so many universes. However, it was different now after her update.
“Show it to me,” Edward asked, and a screen appeared before him. Although these two experiments looked identical, their essence was not. Morgana’s experiment focused on how complex the mind of a Tier 11 Entity is. How can their mind access all their variants' knowledge, memories, emotions, and experiences across the multiverse. It also focuses on how to control the power from all those variants.
Meanwhile, the Speed Force Experiment focuses on how a Tier 11 Entity’s energy is connected across the multiverse.
“Things are proceeding smoothly,” he muttered. He has prepared a few more experiments for his Tier 11 Path but is still satisfied with the current result. “I think our work here is done.” He only needs to send someone from Time Force to gather the encrypted message at regular intervals, and that will continue until the clone he sent is discovered and dies.
“Wait, there is one last thing,” Morgana added. “I’ve created a system to classify the universes into ranks based on their overall strength I’ve detected.”
“Oh, show me.” Edward received the news, and his brow immediately furrowed: “We’re only Rank 3? And what’s with the B?”
“Correct. Rank 0 is for the worlds without a single Tier 10 foe. Rank 1 means at least one Tier 10 entity. Rank 2 means at least one person on par with an Upper Demon God, and Rank 3 means there is at least one King Level Powerhouse.”
[AN: Refresher: A King can destroy at least 76 universes with one attack.]
“I understand the general gist of this system, but isn’t the difference between these ranks too vast?”
“They are; that’s why we have the numbers. For example, the lowest Rank 3 Universe with only one King is classified as 3F. We are 3B because we have dozens of Kings.”
“What about above B?” Edward asked.
“3A means at least 50 Kings.”
“Merlin’s beards — does home even have so many Gods?” Edward complained.
“3S means hundreds of Kings. 3Z means an unclassified King.”
“Unclassified? Are you referring to a King with the strength of hundreds, maybe thousands of universes? Basically, Pseudo Tier 11?”
“Correct.”
“That makes sense,” Edward nodded, feeling a headache — especially when thinking Merlin’s war is probably even worse. “Is rank 3 the highest?”
“No,” Morgana destroyed his dream. “Rank 4 means at least one Tier 11. Rank 5 is classified for beings above Tier 11. However, this rank is basically empty since I have no data to back up its existence.”
“Is that so?” Edward grunted. “Wait, does that mean you have the data to back up the existence of a Rank 4 world?”
“Yes. I’ve detected a timeline that I labeled Earth-666. The aura released by that timeline is unlike anything I’ve felt before. My instincts warned me that I might be detected, so I stayed away during the data-gathering stage of this classification.”
Edward sighed, “We need to get things rolling if we want to have a chance to survive this world.” He no longer hesitated and returned home, heading directly for the Time Force. He wanted to give them Morgana’s new classification while tasking them to collect the data from the Blank Realm.
“Sir, you’re here at the right time,” Ra said.
“Did something happen?”
“We detect an anomaly in this location,” Ra showed him a map. “We believed it was the result of Convergence and the destruction of that universe.”
“I’ll go check it out,” Edward agreed before giving them orders and teleporting to the map's location. It did not take him to find the source of that anomaly.
“Jessica Jones,” he muttered, and with a quick scan of the planet, he discovered the other members of the Defenders: Luke Cage and Matt Murdock. “These people did not exist in the timeline before, but now they do. Is this what happens when a world is destroyed before a fusion? But why?”
“It could be a reward,” Morgana suggested. “Give the universe more fighting power and increase their survival chances.”
“Did you deduce that from the Golden Energies fused with our timeline?”
“Yes.”
“That’s probably the best explanation we’ll receive currently,” Edward nodded, once again feeling how much harder things are because he does not have the support of his Empire or his family, which is full of talented individuals.
“So, what are you going to do with them?”
[I was supposed to write a second chapter, but I’m tired, and it’s 5 in the morning. So, you’ll get the extra chapter tomorrow.]
Comments
Catherine Colin
Thanks for the chapter. I love the defenders
Thomas Gill
Thanks for the chapter
