[Arch to Reader POV]
So then, it has been quite the time since I and Erebus updated you all. Despite our best attempts to get our tale across, Lord Saratas and Lord Xaradel have been equally busy in keeping the connection to your universe stable. The source of the connection had been terribly exhausted multiple times due to strain across the Omniverse and subsequent Universal Barriers, but such is the cost of telling our stories, isn't it?
Anyways, now that there is a somewhat stable connection to you all for the time being, let me catch you all back up on our adventures, yes?
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[Prologue to Chapter Nine]
Damian Taylor had died on his homeworld of Terra--one of the many variations of Earth in the Multiverse--due to an extinction-level event. Said event had its "ground zero" centered on Damian's neighborhood and therefore vaporized Damian's corporeal form upon impact, but it didn't stop there. His soul--due to the trauma of sudden vaporization--became heavily unstable and had been on the brink of collapsing before one of the Primal Powers selected his soul for a then-popular concept of isekai. He first appeared in the world of Naboo and was granted significant boons to help aid in his recovery. These boons were a powerful [Remnant Soul System], [Primordial Cosmos Physique] suitable to cultivate both body and soul, a high affinity for the Force beyond what Anakin Skywalker's own connection was (120,000 midi-cholrians/cell), the ability to self-revive (similar to a game character), and a bloodline that enabled him to adapt to any [Universal Laws].
Now, you might think "Why is he so overpowered?" or "How is Damian so strong right at the start?"
The answer is that these boons may seem overpowered to you, but most isekai adventurers either have foreknowledge of events within the universe(s) they are born into along with smaller boosts to magical or Force potential OR they are granted Systems to aid them in their adventures. Another big issue for the classic trope of isekai adventurers is that such boons come at no cost to the Host/User. Sure, there are those out there (at a common rate) that have lost their lives in unfortunate accidents either by dumb misfortune or a guilty ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) being idiots, but it still plays into the fact that such adventurers either pay far too little or nothing to be granted such powerful boons.
Damian--however--has far more reason to have such boons due to his soul's instability and sudden death.
Back to the summary, the System had detected significant factors to calculate when Damian first arrived on Naboo six months before the start of Episode I, so it decided--of its own accord--to send Damian back in time right into the era of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Such a temporal shift had affected the Force itself in where four planets had been affected. This also made Damian go into {Character Generation}--or Chargen for short--and further allowed him to customize his new body and starting location. After taking some time to create his new appearance, it soon came time to choose a starting place to spawn in: [Coruscant], [Dromund Kaas], [Tython], or [Korriban].
Those four planets were also the very same planets that were affected by the temporal shift in the Force.
It didn't take Damian--or Erebus Axus as he called himself now--long to choose [Dromund Kaas] as his starting world in the Old Republic era. This was because he did not wish to take up the path of a Jedi yet nor allow those same Jedi to teach him their ways because he understood that--sooner or later--he'd face Palpatine during the Clone Wars era and further beyond. He first had to learn the ways of the Sith before even encountering the Republic as such teachings would prove invaluable in dealing with Palpatine and his plans for Anakin.
Despite not going straight for [Korriban] to get right into the Academy, Erebus desired to make sure he could better control himself on Dromund Kaas before setting foot on the red sandy world. This quickly went into a tutorial of how his System worked and how to navigate it while traipsing through the jungle towards the Dark Temple. It was there that he remembered that he could help Imperial Intelligence in dealing with the terrorists who plotted to blow up the power junction and that led to him acquiring his first (and currently only) lightsaber.
It also led him to Cipher Nine--one of the playable characters from the game--dealing with the terrorists within the Force Ghost-laiden tomb.
After swiftly dealing with the terrorists and dismantling their plot, Erebus had managed to take his first steps in a much longer journey in the Old Republic. As he left the Dark Temple--his mind turning darker with the madness of Shadow poisoning his soul--he had been surrounded by Imperials and Sith acolytes. This made him feel--in full force--the sheer desperation of his own tortured existence and unleashed a dangerous unique version of [Force Lightning].
Under the influence of Shadow's Epiphany, Erebus unleashed the [Wrath of the Immortals].
[Chapter Ten to Nineteen]
This is where I come in. Soon after being made and migrated into the (then unnamed) Voidship's mainframe, I noted a sudden influx of dimensional coordinates. Aware that it must be what I had gotten as part of a Quest from the System, I locked onto those coordinates and activated the [Dimensional Jumpdrives] that the ship came pre-equipped with. Upon my quick arrival, I had swiftly engaged the ship's retrieval systems to transport Erebus' unconscious body right into the medical bay.
During the time he had been left to recover from the expenditure of his Energy reserves, I kept an eye on this world's version of internet--called the HoloNet--and gathered more information that I felt like was required. I also noted the varying factions--Sith, Jedi, Republic, Imperial, and Cabal--were being quite active in breaking the Treaty of Coruscant. Hidden amongst the background chatter--in mostly secured chat channels--I noticed that both Republic and Imperials were keeping a big eye on Erebus. This made me very concerned considering the two major galactic powers--in any era--were vying to take Erebus into their fold, so I decided to keep Erebus out of the limelight for however long I could.
Which hadn't been too long.
Soon after Erebus woke up, he decided to cultivate and reflect on what he had endured. Through six hours of reflection, he had gained sufficient experience in using the Force to be regarded as an Acolyte or Padawan. It was also during this reflection that he learned the path to mending his soul--which was to cultivate into higher realms to trigger a Spiritual Rebirth.
After learning the path forward, Erebus soon began to ponder about how much of a disturbance his very presence within the Star Wars universe could be to the events within the Canon timeline. He then learned that he hadn't even made a scratch on what was set to happen--making his foreknowledge still rather viable. This meant he could plan ahead and save some of his favorite Jedi from being killed due to Sheev Palpatine's plans.
Unfortunately--as I re-tell you these events--I can assure you that some things did not exactly go to plan with one of them.
Going back to the re-telling, Erebus' plan to learn from the experts on the Dark Side--avoiding being taught by either Sidious or Plagueis--had succeeded. Unbeknownst to Erebus, two Dark Council members--who would later become his Masters in the Dark Side--were quietly trying to make sure they would acquire him to teach him the ways of the Sith.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He had gotten a quest from his System to travel to Korriban and learn the ways of the Sith there, but who awaited us had shocked us both: Kreia. She was the teacher of Revan himself prior to his supposed fall to the Dark Side, but her teachings--made heretical to the Jedi of her age--made many question the very nature of the Force. Besides that, she was a legend to true fans of Star Wars Legends and the games she starred in alongside Meetra Surik.
[Interlude (13~14)]
Staying as close as one could to the canon lore from the Wizarding World, this chapter explained how--at least in this fanfiction--the Unforgivable Curses would work. This was an extra chapter just to explain these three spells in particular especially since it would be later used during the Korriban Arc.
{Returning to Arch to Reader POV}
As we landed on Korriban, we had allowed Kreia to board our ship. From there, we all learn things from each other. I and Erebus learned about the ways of the Force--despite my innate inability to wield it like a true Force-sensitive--while Kreia learned more about other worlds far different than her own original one. She even got to learn about the existence of Systems and their relevant Hosts from me along with the dire situation of Erebus' life.
At this time, neither I, Kreia, or Erebus knew about other transmigrators or even how the Emperor's Wrath had regressed. Now that discovery will have to be told in the far future.
For weeks after having Kreia join us in the ship, we kept ourselves busy running our own little training camp. I had also kept all of the major groups' information gatherers off of our backs during this time--though it had been somewhat odd to have only the Republic and Imperials try to find us with mostly radio silence from Cabal sources--but it was also during this time that Erebus' System went through an update.
This introduced Erebus to the [Dungeons] function of his system along with a major revamp of his levelling gains. Through this function, Erebus unlocked his magical affinities--those primarily being Shadow, Death, Storm, and Primal Magic.
Unbeknownst to us at the time, him choosing the [Primal Magic] affinity enabled him to skip most of the bullcrap in gaining the requirements to attend Hogwarts. The main problem of that was skipping most of the requirements meant a far rougher ride into the correct world and time period. Another unintended side effect of that was that Erebus became involved with the main storyline of Hogwarts Legacy and dived into the greater mystery of Ancient Magic alongside Alex Fross.
When Erebus returned from the dungeon with his magical abilities fully unlocked--allowing him to utilize Energy--he quickly started the grind to get to level Twenty. As soon as he got to Level 20, it made it possible to traverse across dimensions with a whole slew of discovered worlds--including the famous Wizarding World franchise.
Along with a small nod towards Matt Smith's Doctor Who era about traversing all of the Variant Timelines, Erebus had chosen to go to Hogwarts. Little did we know then that we'd be involved in a Void Storm which granted him a mysterious skill. Even when we all eventually reconnected, I couldn't decipher the skill save for only one line:
"This skill will unlock once Erebus Axus discovers those who dared to hurt him."
[Chapter 20 to 29]
This began a very long search for Erebus' signal. I could tell you exactly how long it took to finally find him at our intended destination--though wrong time period--but I'll spare you all that.
What was very nice was that time within the Void--at least for Kreia--was practically non-existent. This made my job even more easier to temporarily put Kreia into suspended animation which she had fully understood when I explained how difficult it was for non-immortals to traverse the Void. Despite the technology on the ship being far more advanced than even carbonite freezing, I had to make sure Kreia's form stayed frozen until I arrived in the right world.
When I had finally managed to track down Erebus, I made the ship turn into a old-style British telephone box--very similar to the Doctor's vessel--upon arriving on the fabled Hogwarts grounds. Along with Erebus entering the ship for the first time, I got to see things from his perspective.
From nearly being unwound due to his anomalous existence to arriving in the Wizarding World, I saw it all. I had even began to suspect that there were far greater things going on where Erebus was still recovering--or perhaps the word "stabilizing" is better applied here--his soul. Some kind of strange mystery that no one else could have noticed in the short term.
Oh how I was underestimating such "obvious" clues...
To basically further summarize those events, Erebus and I managed to help Alex Fross, Eleazar Fig, and Alex's friends defeat Ranrok. We couldn't exactly prevent Fig's death--even if I knew it was canonical and not easily prevented with a Totem of Undying--but Erebus began to set into motion his plans to deal with Voldemort.
I even calculated that--at least for us--it'd take well over a hundred years to return to Hogwarts. By that point, I suspected that Erebus would have learned a lot of magic that would make even the Ministry hesitate to fight him.
With Erebus gaining that final quest complete and the end of his year at Hogwarts approaching, we soon departed Earth to return to Korriban. Unbeknownst to us at the time, two years would go by for Alex and his friends and they'd soon gain clues on how to find us again.
That part is for later.
[Chapter 30 to 38]
Now, we are at the more "recent" reports. We returned to Korriban and Erebus began his journey in the Academy to learn more of the secrets of the dark side.
During this time, Erebus encountered a fellow transmigrator armed with some kind of Star Wars-esque system along with the knowledge of the Inquisitor storyline. Unironically, this meant that he had become the new "Lord Kallig" for this timeline along with having decent protection for his meta-knowledge. It was also during this time that I learned of the existence of the Emperor's Wrath being a regressor considering the evidence of temporal energy around his body.
Despite such odd occurrences, both Erebus and I continued our trek through the trials of Sith apprenticeship. Erebus had made sure to use the torture curse on one of the "annoyances" in the Inquisitor storyline--that being Ffon--in the tomb of Ajunta Pall. He also knew that Spindrall wouldn't tell a soul about it considering he didn't care of murder and bloodshed, but anyone who encountered him as part of the inquisitor storyline knows the old man knows things beyond his spoken words.
What did happen as an unintentional hiccup was that Erebus' soul state had been revealed to Spindrall--causing a ripple in the Force. Luckily, the ripple was limited to Korriban only, but that made every Sith on the planet feel a subtle twinge of danger. This had included Darth Vowrawn who had been keeping an eye on Erebus through the Force--making his plans to make Erebus his apprentice speed up.
Despite the main two problematic people in the Imperial faction--those being Darth Zash and Baras--sensing the Force ripple, I had no idea at the time that two Dark Council members would inevitably become Erebus' masters in the dark side. The issue had been made even worse when Kreia informed me of how Erebus--in his sleep--unleashed a powerful wave of dark side Force energy. As fortune had it, he was inside of the ship when he did that, so I had helped reduce its effects massively.
Then both Darths Vowrawn and Marr found us with some added interference by Erebus' system.
After that--and with lots of fear in our hearts--we gained two new crew members. It had also led to our dimensional travel being re-established and a new quest issued for Erebus.
By going to Balmorra to stop the whole bit of Eradicators, Erebus and I helped Cipher Nine in his quest. I had even informed both darths about how their own Darth Jadus was behind the plot--making them angry--but it had been Erebus to tell them that he would let them get their chance when the time was right.
As for the two of them, they calmed down enough to issue a task for their newest apprentice to fight using his lightsaber skills. This enabled me to utilize the {Live Stream} ability of the ship and grant them a front row seat to observe Erebus' skill.
After streamlining the process for Cipher Nine's quest for the Eradicators, all of us got shocked when we noticed--in Erebus' system--that he unlocked the ability to travel to the world of Bloodborne. What did it even more was the line that Kreia, Vowrawn, and Marr were not able to help him at all.
I don't think I need to say why that line made two Dark Council members and an old fossil from the time of Revan extremely pissed off, right?
Anyways, what none of them--including Erebus himself--knew was that this quest seemed to have some kind of hidden secret attached to it. I knew that what wasn't seen in the original prompt was that the reason for Erebus to go there had been because he'd need to trigger a type of evolution.
[...]
This leads to now, dear reader. You will soon be reading more of the events that took place in Yharnam and the Hunter's Dream, but I'd like to warn you.
There will be plenty of problems to read into after all of the other parts I have not yet finishing compiling~ Erebus' story isn't over yet.
Expect more in little more than a month. Take care.
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