In the Dimension of the afterlife, Death looked at Edward's battle while thinking about something.

'Did this wizard figure out about my identity during his travel in the multiverse? This will be a problem.'

He raised his hand and a golden light appeared in front of him. 'This amount of faith is enough for me to appear in the material world for 1 minute. This should be enough time, but the question is: what should I do?

'I need this wizard's help to activate the leyline nodes again for me to escape. However, he is becoming more and more arrogant and uncontrollable. Should I just kill him and pick someone else?

'Or better yet, find a way to have someone activate the Deathly Hallows and allow me to leave a clone in the material world.'

Death hesitated. The reason being that he was not sure he could kill Edward in one minute. He knew that he could kill him, but the chances of the latter escaping are very high--especially with that Gate.

Death felt that something was different with the Gate after returning, so he was not sure whether he could use Dimension Lock to prevent the new version from escaping.

After pondering for a minute, he sighed in frustration and decided to use caution.

"Damn it. Ever since science became prevalent amongst humans, it has become even more difficult to gather faith. And without mana in the environment, the process is even more arduous."

The recent events have made Death, no, Herpo very frustrated; it reminded him of the time when he first tried to become a God.

After acquiring the Death Chamber and studying it, Herpo designed specific magic for him to assimilate the power of the Chamber and ascend to Godhood. However, unlike his counterparts in different timelines, he realized that a massive amount of energy would be required for the process.

In his time in ancient Greece, mana still existed in the atmosphere, and it was vast compared to Rowena's timeline. Nevertheless, it was still not enough according to his calculations.

So, Herpo decided to go to a period that was enough. After searching the world, he finally discovered the Room of Time. So, after studying it, he developed a method to go back in time where he believed that mana in the environment was at its peak.

And that time was exactly 12,000 years ago based on the present time. Unfortunately for Herpo, the process was not as smooth as he envisioned. In the process, he lost his body and most of his soul, with only a small part left intact.

Luckily for him, he was a master of the soul, so he managed to swallow an inhabitant of that time and resurrect himself. After regaining his power, he proceeded with his plan, and he succeeded.

Well, partially. Because of his ascension, all the mana in the milky-way galaxy was absorbed, and the leylines shut themselves off. The other Gods of Earth suffered backlash and were forced to revert to the fundamental laws or concepts of the universe.

As for the Lemurian Magical Civilization that existed back then, it was destroyed overnight during that event

The so-called Cataclysm that Herpo mentioned to Edward was caused by him. Nevertheless, Herpo was not happy for long.

He was soon contacted by something called Cronai--which referred to itself as the Will of the Universe--telling him that his magic--which allowed a mortal to directly become a God--was forbidden and should not exist in the world.

And even his existence was forbidden. So, he was punished to remain in the Afterlife for all eternity, without being able to leave. Of course, Herpo would not easily accept such a thing.

He plotted and calculated for thousands of years before discovering a method of escape. First, he slowly influenced the mind of humans to worship him: the God of Death.

Then, he gathered the faith created by the worship. This is one of the reasons that different civilizations of humans have a concept of the God of Death; it was all Herpo's secret manipulation.

Unfortunately, the amount of faith needed for Herpo to succeed was truly tremendous. Additionally, with the passage of time and the decrease of mana in the environment, the process became increasingly more difficult.

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Nevertheless, he still succeeded. By sacrificing most of the faith, he was able to appear in the material plane for a while. So, he created the Deathly Hallow and gave them to the Peverell brothers.

The purpose of the Hallows was to turn these brothers into Death's puppets or clones that he could control in the material plane. Then, he would start the next step of his escape plan: revive the leylines.

Unfortunately for Herpo, things didn't go as planned. The youngest of the Peverell brothers never trusted Death in the first place, so he hid from him. Additionally, Cronai placed a curse on the Hallows to prevent anyone unknowingly accomplishing Death's plan.

So, all the wizards who searched the Hallows in the hope of becoming the [Master of Death] ended up dead, one way or another.

Then, Herpo placed his focus on Dumbledore. Using the young headmaster's ambitions, and even later his sister's death, he thought he could lure him to activate the Hallows, but that also failed.

And even later on, Harry Potter--the descendant of the youngest Peverell Brothers--even destroyed one of the Hallows and made sure that no one could find the other.

Finally, Herpo placed his eyes on Edward--the outlier of Fate, the one that should not exist. At first, he thought that Edward was just a talented wizard that could be seduced to activate the Hallows. Later, Herpo changed his plan after noticing the existence of the Gate.

He thought that he could slowly lead Edward to directly activate the leylines for him. Unfortunately, he greatly underestimated the latter's wisdom and ability.

---Scene Break--

Edward walked to his aunt's office and saw a bunch of documents in front of her. Amelia raised her head, "Did you deal with the problem?"

"Yeah. I hunted down all their secret bases and recovered all the missing nuclear submarines. This entire planet is basically under our control for now."

"So, we are ready for the next phase," replied Amelia, then she handed a document over to him.

"What's this?"

"The curriculum for all the magic schools in the world according to your requirements."

Edward took the document and quickly scanned it. The new curriculum had many things added to them.

For example, alchemy was now a required subject for all the schools. This also includes basic muggle science like biology, chemistry, and physics. For the DADA, students are also required to study dark magic. However, not until they are 14 years old and master the Mechanize Mind Spell.

Charm class will be divided into two parts: magic theory and practice. For magic theory, students have to learn basic knowledge about mana and magic core, and even Limiters. Although the way to break them is considered high-level knowledge that requires Reward Points.

More importantly, Edward added an Honors Program to all the schools where magically gifted students can have harder classes and more rigorous schedules. These children in that program will have access to more resources than ordinary children.

"I don't understand why Swordsmanship is a mandatory subject," asked Amelia. "I thought you hated any sports-like activity. I remember you once called wizards that fight with melee weapons barbarians."

"Just because I condemn their practices does not mean that I will not use it. I can tell you I'm a pretty good swordsman," replied Edward, without any shame. "As for the reason that it is mandatory, it's to prepare in case of wizards encounter a situation where the power of their magic is useless or ineffective."

"Without their magic, what can they do with a sword?"

"Recently, I learned from Albion a very crude way of using mana to strengthen the body and granting wizards superhuman strength, speed, and durability. I plan to teach this method in the Swordsmanship Class."

Amelia nodded her head, then asked: "Well, let's get back to another important topic. After all our plans are done, what will be the title of the Empire? What will be your title?"

"Hmmm, let's call it the Arcane Empire, and I will be the Arcane Emperor," replied Edward.

"Great name. Anything else to add?"

"Well, make sure that the law clearly states that as an Emperor, I have the right to an Imperial Harem. As a matter of fact, make polygamy legal."

Amelia was momentarily speechless, then she said: "Whatever you want."

"Additionally, make it that every 500 years, anyone can challenge me for the throne. If they can prove that they are more powerful and knowledgeable than me, then they can inherit the position of Arcane Emperor."

Amelia frowned before asking: "What's the point of doing something like that?"

"To give people hope," replied Edward. "Muggles are different from wizards; the idea that everyone is equal has been ingrained in them for many years. So, I can foresee that they will not easily accept being controlled.

"However, if they have hope that they can slowly climb to the top and become the ones that rule, they will not revolt so easily; they will convince themselves that the person at the top deserved and worked hard for that position. And if he can achieve this level of success, then maybe they can too."

"Aren't you just giving them false hope?" said Amelia.

"True, but only a few people will realize this, but without the help of the majority, they will be helpless to change anything about it," replied Edward. "Plus, it's not necessarily false hope. With all the advantages that I have, if someone can truly beat the odds and become more powerful than me, then I will gladly give him or her the throne."

"So, you want to use this method to always keep you on your toes and not let power go to your head."

"You can say that."

As soon as Edward said these words, an owl came to the window. With a frown, he opened it and took the letter from its feet. After reading it, he smiled.

"What is it?" asked Amelia.

"A challenge from Dumbledore."

"Now?"

"No, a month from now."

"Are you going to accept it?"

"Yes, as this is a perfect opportunity. Recently, I noticed that a group of people in the magical world has taken a neutral stance on my movement. And I know the reason for that is that they are waiting for Dumbledore's action.

"So, not only will I accept this challenge, but broadcast it to the entire magical world."