Harsh Training (II)

"Well?"

"I don't know. I don't know what to think," Loki replied. All this information was too much for him to process.

"Tell me your first instinct — your first thought."

"That…I caused everything. If not for my selfish actions, maybe Mother could have been saved. Father would not have died so early before Thor was prepared for the throne. I'm the reason Thor finally stopped trying to reach out — why Asgard was destroyed."

"You're giving yourself too much credit. Most of the tragedies that occurred resulted from your father's actions and destiny. However, you are responsible for how terrible your relationship with your family turned out and countless other atrocities," Edward calmly stated.

Loki was quiet for a few seconds, "So, what should I do?"

"See a therapist."

"Excuse me?"

"I didn't stutter. Whatever deep psychological issues you have cannot be dealt with in a single day. So, you need a therapist."

"You're serious? You expect a God like me to see a therapist?"

"Why not? I've done it, and there is nothing embarrassing about it," Edward replied. "If you're worried about a "mortal" being your doctor, I know an artificial intelligence specially programmed to deal with mental health issues. I'll let you use it."

"Absolutely not. I will do no such thing."

Edward shrugged. "I wanted to give you the illusion that you had a choice. I guess that's no longer happening."

"You!"

"Follow me for the next training step," Edward ordered as he opened a portal to the mirror dimension. Loki was shocked at what he saw inside the mirror dimension — a colossal tower that rose to the cloud. The thing was so magnificent that he thought he was momentarily at the palace. However, this was not the main reason for his shock.

"What's this?"

"My magic tower. It's my laboratory. Unfortunately, it's not up to standard."

"Are you serious?" Loki could feel the crazy amount of energy pumping through this tower. He had only seen this level of energy once in his life, and it was when his father was working on the Odinforce and showed it to him and Thor.

Edward was not trying to brag. He created the tower to replace his floating city. However, although he had a spare of all his machines in his personal interdimensional ring, the tower could not replicate the energy availability of Netheril without access to the Mana Grid. He tried different methods by searching many dimensions to siphon energy from, but they all paled compared to the infinite energy from the Mana Grid.

Edward led Loki to an empty room full of magic circles. "What are we doing here?"

"I'm going to show you what true power is and that it does not need to be destructive," Edward explained. "Morgana, let's begin." The enchantments activated to form a cube at the center of the room.

"What do you think this is?"

"A cub? A tesseract?"

"A new universe," Edward replied, and before Loki could process the shock, he took him inside. It was, Edward stated — a vast and empty universe.

"Is this what the universe looked like at the beginning of time?" Loki asked.

"Probably, except the Celestials were present to mold into what it is today."

"The Celestials are real?" He had heard rumors and stories from his father and mother when he was young.

"Morgana, begin with the next step."

Loki watched in shock as matter began appearing in this new universe, rapidly forming a coherent cosmic system of planets, stars, systems, galaxies, and so on. Loki felt his senses elevated beyond anything he had ever achieved, which allowed him to observe with scary acuity the entire process of this universe's formation.

"How is that possible?" He just watched an entire universe form before his eyes in the spawn of what felt like a few minutes.

"Magic is beautiful and fascinating, isn't it?"

"How is this magic? You just recreated our universe — including the laws of nature and physics! This is the power of a true god — a God of Creation."

"A god is nothing but someone with abilities that the mind cannot comprehend or fathom," Edward replied calmly. "Plus, things are not over yet."

Loki's senses then detected a hidden layer or dimension of this universe with a pool of white liquid. A phantom suddenly materialized from the pool, and a magic circle above it was activated to turn it into a physical body.

"Life — you've created life."

"The body part is easy to create once you've successfully decoded any life form's genetic code. The tricky part is condensing the soul — that takes real skill."

Loki watched in horror as batches of individuals were manufactured in that pool before being sent to different planets across this vast universe. Interestingly, they were not all humans but creatures of different varieties, including non-carbon and plant-based lifeforms.

After creating exactly 100 trillion lives, the process stopped. Loki and Edward watched how these ignorant creatures tried to survive in their chosen habitats across the universe.

"Morgana, don't forget to choose some planets to allow for natural evolution," Edward ordered. He received data about the evolution of Earth from the Fate Universe — including the exact conditions of how single-cell organisms evolved into multi-cell organisms to the modern-day humans or Homo Sapiens. So, it posed no difficulty in recreating these conditions.

At this point, Loki was genuinely speechless. However, Edward was now focused on this experiment.

"Is everything done?"

"Yes,' Morgana replied.

"No problem, right?"

"We're good."

Edward nodded. This experiment was not to show off before Loki. Instead, he had two main objectives. Firstly, it was his way of achieving Level 10 Willpower, as he felt Chris' method was too slow. Every single individual in this world contains his Soul Imprint, which they will pass down to their descendants. When the time comes, Edward can relive the life of every single individual in this universe as a way to temper his Willpower.

The second purpose of this experiment is to determine how to achieve Tier 11 and the study of the Universe Will. Morgana is currently this universe's Will, in charge of controlling or regulating everything. Then, when the time is right, they will branch out and create more universes with Time Law; in other words, they will create their own mini-Multiverse with Morgana as the primary Will.

"This thing is not taking too much of your processing power?"

"Nope, but if you add a few more universes, we will be in trouble."

"We can wait until the Speed Force is created."

Edward finally focused on Loki and took him out. "What do you think?"

"What can I think?"

"You sound defeated."

Loki did not answer. He thought he could come here to steal the sorcerer's source of power, but now he realized how much of a joke his plan was. All his schemes are laughable before such tremendous power.

"How would you feel if I said you have the potential to achieve such a level of strength?"

"I would tell you I'm not as gullible as my brother."

"Then, see for yourself."

Edward pointed at Loki's head before sending his spirit on a voyage through the Multiverse to experience the powers of many of his most powerful variants. He even saw a variant of himself that used illusion magic to create an entire universe to fool one of his opponents.

"Are those really me?"

"Yes, with different life experiences and choices, but in essence — they are all you."

All his life, he thought and felt inferior to Thor, but now, he realizes his hidden potential.

"Please teach me," Loki said.

"No."

"What?"

"I'm just kidding," Edward chuckled. "I will teach you, but you're not ready yet."

"What do you mean I'm not ready?"

"You crave power but have no respect for it, and that's a dangerous combination."

"So, you want me to learn how to respect power?"

"That's correct."

"And how exactly will you do?"

"By making you really work for it. Come, follow me."