"Before everything else, I will tell you my origin so that you can better prepare and understand what you're getting yourself into," said Edward as he waved his hand to display two planets Earth in the air.
"I came from a parallel universe."
"Interdimensional Travel?" asked Chloe.
"Yes." Edward liked the fact that communicating with modern people was much easier to explain many things.
"Is this the reason you're so powerful? Could it be in that parallel world, our witches have developed magic to such an extent?" asked Chloe with a little excitement in her voice.
One of the main reasons that she wanted to learn from Edward was because she was always scared of her power, afraid to use it after accidentally injuring her brother one day. However, she believed that maybe with the guidance of such a powerful person, maybe she could master her gift.
"No," replied Edward. "In that world, magic has essentially become extinct. However, there are gods like Anubis and Zeus that once existed there. The artifacts that these beings left are the only proof of magic left."
Chloe then looked at him with puzzlement.
"The universe is vast, with an unknown number of galaxies. And you take into account the multiverse, it is indeed infinite," said Edward as he waved his hand to show a holographic image of the universe; it seems to expand infinitely to display the vastness of the cosmos.
For Chloe, this was a beautiful experience. It was like she was traveling throughout the universe experiencing the birth and destruction of countless stars, solar systems, galaxies, and many other cosmic wonders.
Thinking about how small she was compared to the cosmos, a small existential crisis overcame her.
"Now, imagine that universe was a giant egg floating in nothingness," after saying that, Chloe found herself floating in a white space with something that looked like an egg made of crystal.
"What is that nothingness? And what else exists in it?"
"Ot-Other Universes," she mumbled.
"Exactly, and that's where I'm from," replied Edward as he took Chloe to travel in the white space to another "egg" and enter.
"The world I'm from was similar to yours. Magic was weakened while technology was rapidly developing. The tension between the magical and non-magical was growing each year.
"I did not like this, so I change the world. United the two sides and integrated the advantage of both magic and technology."
Chloe then witnessed a brief history lesson about the Empire. She watched as it grew from a backward place without even the internet to an interstellar Empire.
She took a moment to process all the information she just received, then a frown appeared on her face.
"If you have any questions, you can ask."
She hesitated for a moment before saying, "It's not that I don't trust your words, however, there are some odd things or inconsistencies that I noticed."
"Oh, like what?"
"The development of the Arcane Empire was too fast. In less than a hundred years, it develops from the Pre-Information Age to the Interstellar Age; that seems a little far-fetched even with magic."
"Good question. The answer to that can be divided into three main parts: advanced intelligence, unrestrained experiments, and knowledge from the future with the last one being the main."
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Chloe frowned, "I still don't understand."
Edward waved his hand and a mirror appeared in front of her. Then, he cast a spell. Chloe immediately saw that her youthful face rapidly began to age, and in just a few seconds, she turned into an old woman.
She caressed her face for a moment before taking out her phone and looking at it again. "Please turn me back."
Edward snapped his finger and she returned to her youth. "With time magic, I was able to acquire future technology for the growth of the Empire. Unfortunately, messing with time is dangerous in any world so I was a little restricted on how further in the future I could go.
"However, I managed to bypass this restriction by traveling to parallel dimensions where Earth was in the future. By stealing those timeline's technology, the development of the Empire was further accelerated.
"Furthermore, when a quick result is needed for some important discoveries, I would allow people to work in rooms with Time Acceleration. Dozens of years could pass inside while only a few months passed outside."
Edward sighed as he reminisced about the early days of the Empire. It's a shame that traveling to parallel dimensions back then relied purely on luck so he could not always find future timelines. Fortunately, things were different now.
"In that case, what about the other reasons you mentioned?" asked Chloe.
"By intelligence, I mean that literally. There are artifacts in my world that can make individuals more intelligent. I made sure to make them used widespread to help develop all fields of both magic and technology.
"Additionally, with genetic engineering, increasing the intelligence of the overall population was easier. Currently, the average IQ of the Empire is between 200 and 235, and it's rapidly growing."
Chloe was once again surprised by this statistic. The average IQ score on earth is between 85 to 115. Such a large disparity made her a little uncomfortable for some reason.
"As for the last reason, it's just as stated. Human Experiments are very prevalent in the Empire and have greatly contributed to its development. Of course, we most use clones and animals."
After saying this, Edward waited for her to process this information as he knew that not everyone was alright with this kind of thing.
"Aren't clones real people?"
"Yes, they are," replied Edward. "In this world, there is nothing perfect. To ensure that the Empire develop rapidly, for my own benefit, I made the choice to sacrifice them."
The moment Edward learned that clones had souls, he knew that they were considered humans or living. Nevertheless, he still made the choice to treat them as such. His decision has resulted in clones being treated as nothing but commodities in the Empire.
The sins of all these lives were on his head, but he did not regret his decision.
"Do I have to experiment on people too?" asked Chloe after a few seconds of pondering.
"It depends on your choice."
After pondering for a moment, she sighed and decided not to think too much about this issue. As long as she was not required to do so, it was alright for now.
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
Chloe thought that she would just be taught magic, however, instead, Edward thought her all about his origin and so on. So, there must be a reason.
"The main reason is that I want you to understand how vast the universe, is and for you to understand the potential of magic. I want to instill in you a sense of wonder, the desire for pursuing the truth, to discover the unknown."
What Edward was doing was essentially the same thing that the Ancient One did to Strange when he first went to Karma-Taj. Otherwise, he could have just directly planted the information about the Empire inside her mind
"As for the secondary reason, it's to prepare you."
"For what?"
Edward paused for a moment before saying, "After mulling it over, I have decided to conquer this dimension and plunder its population."
Chloe took a small step back after hearing this, however, Edward continued: "This Earth is full of people with magical talents. Although the majority of witches and warlocks are weaker than most wizards' children back in the Empire, that's only because there are no systemic training methods.
"After they are transported back to my universe and attend school, many powerful arcanists will be born. Of course, I will not only take the witches but also the regular people."
This world has a decent population of magically gifted individuals, even higher than the Harry Potter Universe before Edward established the Empire.
Additionally, many muggles have witch' bloodlines that are not activated because of the long intermarriage between witches and muggles. Not to mention that there are squibs in this world too just like Dolan 37th.
All of these people are possible arcanists once they arrived in the Empire.
Chloe had a hard time processing the information she just received. With what she learned about the so-called Arcane Empire, she knew that there was no way for the Earth to defend itself against such an invasion.
"Do you have to do this?" she asked.
"Yes. However, I can promise you that not a single drop of blood will be shed."
Chloe was silent, not knowing what she was thinking.
"I can give you a few days to think things over. If you still choose for me to be your teacher, come see me. If not, I will leave the library for you."