477 The Dark Multiverse (II)

Morgana cast a spell that allowed her to search the entire planet. After discovering where Voldemort placed Nagina, she left a note in Harry Potter's quarter and a spiritual hint on the note so the latter would believe it.

Then, Edward's Astral Projection opened a gate to another timeline. And as expected, the world was still dark and gloomy. Upon arrival, he immediately noticed the overall population of the earth had drastically decreased.

"How many people are there?" he asked.

"3.3 billion," replied Morgana.

"What year?"

"2007."

"Around that time, the population should have been twice that. So, what caused so many people to die in a few decades?"

He used the same technique to find the place with concentrated destiny and teleported. He found himself in a villa near Godric Hollow that he recognized.

He frowned for a moment before entering. In a large room, two people were talking. To be precise, one man talked while the other–a woman–floated in the air, looking at the speaker with a blank.

The speaker talked for a few minutes before the listener suddenly became transparent. The man suddenly panicked for a brief moment before taking his wand and activating a spell.

Then, a black magic circle on the ground suddenly lights up. Countless black tentacles emerged from the ground; they were accompanied by screams of agony and hatred. The tentacles entered the woman's body, stabilizing her state.

"It seems like it's about time to replenish our stock," muttered the man, his voice containing worries. He proceeded to use his wand to send a message before continuing to talk to the floating woman.

Edward watched all of this with a calm expression. Although he has seen many horrors and even did many of them, what he saw was still a little unsettling.

"I can't believe Dumbledore turned into this," said Morgana, her eyes penetrating the basement of this house where there were thousands of humans in captivity. She could sense the terrifying grievances, ghosts, and dark spirits bred in that dungeon, and it was terrifying.

"Grief is truly a powerful emotion," commented Edward, who had already figured out what happened to this timeline without reading anyone's mind or doing much research.

Dumbledore became enamored with the Resurrection Stone–one of the three Deathly Hallows. He used it to revive his sister, Ariana, whom he felt guilty about after believing he might have been the one who killed her.

However, the Resurrection Stone is nothing but bait that Herpo, the Death God, used to lure powerful wizards to help escape his imprisonment. And that's exactly what Dumbledore did.

The stone only summoned a shell of his sister's soul. And this shell could not stay long in the world of the living. So, in his madness to save her, Dumbledore began sacrificing souls to stabilize her.

At first, he probably used some dark wizard in a vain attempt to keep his insanity and morality. However, things soon escalated, and he enslaved the entire planet and used them as livestock to harvest their souls.

In just a few decades, he absorbed the souls of billions of people to keep his sister's soul intact. Or so he thought.

Most of these souls were Herpo's snacks. And the death energy created by so many killings was probably enough to escape and regain his full strength.

"Master, what should we do? Do you want to kill that bastard Herpo?"

"Not now," replied Edward. "Record the magic he is using and see if he can learn something new."

Morgana scoffed in displeasure before recording Dumbledore's Soul Absorbing Magic Circle.

"I remember I created a project to fuse the same objects from different timelines to see if they will evolve into something unique?"

"Yes, we have tried to fuse the Ancient God's Godheads, but there has been no success as of yet."

Edward wanted to see what would happen if he fused two Time Rooms from the Mystery of Department, what would happen. Unfortunately, these rooms were Godheads from powerful creatures in the universe and could not be easily fused.

"Expand the project and try lesser objects like the Deathly Hallows," he ordered. The hallows were created by Herpo, who is a Tier 8 Death God. However, they are only low-level items, but they are unique because they contain certain traces of divinity.

"Alright."

Edward continued his journey through this Dark Multiverse and only saw different Earths with devastating results. However, he also noticed a pattern. Something changed from the original Harry Potter timeline that deviated from the lives of certain people, leading them into darkness.

For example, in one timeline, Hermione's mind broke after Bellatrix tortured her, and she became the new Dark Lord, leading chaos and destruction to the wizarding and muggle world.

In another, Harry watched Ron die by Scabbers or Peter Pettigrew's hand. As a result, Voldemort's piece of soul corrupted his mind, and became the new Dark Lord.

In another, Ron became the Dark Lord after trying to destroy Voldemort's Horcrux, and the latter showed him an illusion of Harry and Hermione being together.

"Where are the timelines related to the Empire and us?" asked Morgana after traveling for a few hours.

"Let's try again but use our new Karma Spell as a link to find a new timeline," said Edward, and they took a few minutes before opening the portal to the new timeline.

As soon as they arrived, the group knew they were in the right place. They could be the Empire's official language mixed with other languages. Furthermore, they were now located on a battlefield with countless mages, golems, and ships.

Both sides massacred each other, leaving the planet in a devastated state as countless Tier 4 Arcanists launched their attacks without restraint.

"What the hell happened?" asked Edward, who was uncomfortable after seeing the state of Earth and his Empire.

"According to the memory of this battle's commander, the Arcane Empire suddenly went mad after an experiment. No one knew the exact reason, but there were rumors some type of demon or entity corrupted his soul.

"After his madness, he began to abuse his power–he became more brutal and fierce. Then, the royal family–led by his wives–tried to stop him. Sadly, the result was a full-out war between the two sides, causing catastrophe to the entire planet."

"I was corrupted? Well, that makes sense," commented Edward. "But how did they manage to stop me? Did they activate my protocols?"

"Hold on, and let me check." Less than five minutes later, she responded, "Yes. The royal family and the members of the Illuminati banded together to deal with you, and they almost succeeded."

"I see. When did this happen?"

"Around the time you reach Tier 5."

"Luckily, it was around this time. Otherwise, the consequences would have been more severe."

"I'm sure there are timelines where you went mad during your later Tiers," uttered Morgana, and Edward gave her a deadly stare.

"Did I say something wrong? You are the kind of person who likes to play with fire. Without your extreme caution and severe paranoia, you would have long died or been corrupted due to your curiosity."

"What do you know? I'm the embodiment of the perfect Arcanist: great curiosity practiced using extreme caution."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," the little elf rolled her eyes. "What do you want to do? Do you want to interfere or check out other timelines?"