Let's begin with a rough summary of the MCU Arc. The next arc would have been Ultron. After what he had experienced with Thor's battle, Tony realized the power he, along with the Avengers and Edward, wielded, and decided to create contingency plans for them in case these guys went too far — so, he created Ultron. Edward was not there to stop him in time, including the busy clone, and just as he returned to the Marvel World, it was then that Ultron was born.
Edward rushed over since his Cosmic Sense warned him of danger, but it was too late. He was so angry that he almost killed Tony on the spot. Ultron — who now contained the technological and magical knowledge that Edward gave to Tony — was a worthy adversary. It also did not make it easy that he saw an alliance with Mephisto. I didn't have everything planned, but Edward would eventually destroy Ultron only because of the Dark Kamar-Taj created by Kaelicilius, who was acting as a double agent. I had planned that after Mephisto was defeated, Edward would refine his soul and turn him into a puppet to help him rule over Hell.
The arc after Ultron would be the retrieval of the Floating City. In my outline, I planned for the city to be taken by the Collector. However, this was not just any collector, but a pseudo Tier 11 Collector who had collected unique variants of himself and absorbed them. Edward would use the help of the dwarves to create a prototype of the Chains of Heaven. The Collector would be the first test before he used it on Cosmus.
The MCU final arc would have been the Grand Convergence. Countless universes would fuse, and Edward and his team would defeat variants from these timelines. With each universe they survived, their citizens would become more powerful, and other heroes or groups would appear in the timeline. I planned to draw inspiration from the comics to bring unique characters. According to my plan, Edward would successfully protect his timeline until the last 10 remain, but eventually, they would be destroyed, and he'd have no choice but to take a few of the survivors and run away home.
One last thing I wanted to use in the MCU was Edward's return to Primordial Earth. He would have used She-Hulk's ability to break the fourth wall to find his way to Primordial Earth for a brief visit. I was also playing around with the idea that Edward's girlfriend from Primordial Earth was reincarnated as Clea, the woman who appeared in the after-credits of the second Doctor Strange movie. I hadn't decided whether they would get back together or not.
After returning home, Edward would focus on his Time Trial. With all the knowledge he had acquired, the trial would be nothing for Edward. So, instead, he also laid a trap to capture Cosmus. By the time he had returned home, he had almost all the data needed to achieve Tier 11, but he was still missing a few things, and the capture of Cosmus would be the final step. If I controlled the pace correctly, Edward would have had the energy level of 10,000 universes by the time he returned, which would be ten times higher than the 1000 requirement to reach Tier 11. So, he would become a Multiverse Entity after capturing Cosmus by casting a spell similar to Dream Walking that Wanda Maximoff used. But instead of taking over the body of only one of his variants, he would have taken the body of everybody.
Tier 11 is an interesting level because of the process. I've already foreshadowed this, but a few of Edward's wives — I chose Hermione, Luna, and Fleur — will have other variants who became Tier 11 before them. But as Edward planned, before the assimilation, they would use a reincarnation spell to acquire a new identity and no longer be considered variants of their Tier 11 counterparts.
After becoming Tier 11, Edward will focus on conquering his home world. He will finally have a showdown with the Gods of his universe. As you can imagine, as the only Tier 11 Entity in the world, the conquest was easy, but only at first. At some point, these traitors would allow entrance to the top planes, such as the Titan Plane, Heavenly Dao Plane (a world of cultivators), Wizard Plane, Disaster Plane, Abyss Plane, and Alkabula Plane (a world that utilized shamanic magic). All these planes have found the remains of the Magus Race and cultivated a flawed Tier 11.
The war would involve them. I have only written two significant plot points for this war. First, it's that Edward would convince the Magic Goddess, Delilah, to abandon her Divinity and become an Arcanist. Second, the Titan Plane, the Alkabula Plane, and half of the Heavenly Dao Plane would eventually surrender to Edward, which would turn the tide of the war. By the end, Edward would have incorporated everybody into the Empire, except the abyss. They would have become a weapon of war.
After the war, the Empire would enter the Age of the Omniverse. Edward would allow Arcanists to travel to other universes to gather knowledge and resources. Meanwhile, he would focus on reaching Tier 12, a Void Lifeform. To reach this tier, one must have a Void Body, a Void Soul, and a Void-Quality Energy. Despite the name, Void Energy was not required, but its utilization is considered the standard approach. Edward needed to find a way to allow his body and soul to survive in the [Void], which is the space between universes. Lastly, he also needed to purify his mana once again to raise the quality of the energy to be on par with Void Energy. Rowena has been studying such aspects for many years, so the process was much easier.
At Tier 12, Edward would reunite with Merlin and learned more about the war. His conjecture was correct: these powerful magicians and entities were fighting against the Old Gods, such as Cthulhu. The Old Gods have been ravaging countless worlds, and Merlin's side was on the losing side. At this point in the story, Edward would continue to travel to other worlds, but the events of the war would have drastically altered all of them. I also planned to add some original worlds not based on movies or pop culture.
Tier 13 is called Omniversal Existence. There are many versions of Merlin, Arthur, or Solomon throughout the Omniverse, and that is how to achieve Tier 13: spreading legends or variants in other universes. Edward's clone in Fate was a manifestation of his story, and everything he traveled to a universe and talked about his Arcane Empire, he was, in fact, spreading his legend, which also increased the speed of achieving Tier 13. At that level, Edward not only has infinite variants from the Harry Potter World, but infinite variants in all the universe in which his story has spread.
Tier 14 is called Nexus Being. Edward's path to this realm involved evolving his Magic Domain into a world and creating a Source of Energy. In most tiers, mages or other paths have to rely on foreign energy to increase or replenish their mana. But at Tier 14, they must become the source of their energy, thus having an infinite amount of it.
Tier 15 is called Conceptual Existence. This tier requires Arcanists to condense their own laws or [Authority]. After studying the laws of countless worlds, they can create a Void Rune, which is a manifestation of their laws. Edward has been studying the Primordial Runes of many universes and eventually combined them into his Void Rune.
Tier 16 is called Aspect, and it's the level of Merlin and Solomon. At that level, a person must become the origin of their law. For example, Merlin is the Aspect of Magic, meaning all magic originated from him, and no one else can reach Tier 16 with the Law of Magic. However, Morgana once stole a portion of his law to become the Aspect of Dark Magic, hence why they are enemies and why their legend is so intertwined. Edward would become the Aspect of Arcane Knowledge, or all knowledge that involved power or mystery.
I haven't planned too much for the ending, but there are a few plot points in my outline. First, Edward would have a small confrontation with the Magus Race. After meeting them again, these people — who have a very homogeneous culture —could not believe the "barbarians" they left behind on their homeworld would give birth to such a powerful civilization after their departure. Edward would show them off, but things would not escalate too much. He would even try to rescue them when their civilization was destroyed.
Secondly, Bellatrix would accidentally become pregnant, meaning the Empire would have an heir. I planned to make the child OP, as he would be Tier 6 as a baby. I looked forward to writing Edward as a father. While the child would have been unexpected, he would have been ecstatic, and also worried, given the state of the Omniverse.
Lastly, the Arcane Empire would have been destroyed around the time Edward was Tier 15. There is no eternal empire, and it's the same for this one. I already foreshadowed the parallel when I mentioned there used to be a former [Arcane Emperor] who died, and when Edward chose that name, he also inherited the latter's fate. While Edward's family would be alright, the Empire and many others would be gone during the war.
The destruction would have activated the Legacy State, essentially allowing Edward to leave his inheritance to someone else, who would then inherit the title and the Empire's knowledge. Now, the entire Omniverse is on the verge of destruction, meaning this approach appeared meaningless. One thing Edward would learn is that beyond the Omniverse, there is a wider realm called Chaos Origin, also known as Hongmeng in the Eastern World.
The Chaos Origin is basically an even grander version of the Void, but instead of housing countless Universes, it housed countless Omniverses. In fact, in the Chaos Origin, every Omniverse is called a Chaos Universe. Edward would send the legacy of the Arcane Empire through the Chaos Origin and into other Chaos Universes. In fact, it's his desire to do so that gave him the idea of how to win the war.
In the final volume, Edward would use the data gathered from Fatima's Daughter to fuse with an Old God and reach Tier 17, Transcendent. He would have been the very first in the universe. Unfortunately, the Old Gods have five other Tier 17, and the only reason they haven't directly destroyed the universe is that everything was a game to them. But now that Edward was a real threat, they decided to end things as quickly as possible.
Edward would fight them to a standstill, but as time passed, he would slowly be weakened. So, he chose another way. He would place a powerful seal around his world to block these five before sending clones of himself to other Chaos Universes to spread his legacy, search for the path to Tier 18, and maybe ask other powerhouses for help. I originally planned to have him show up as a cameo in my cultivation novel to reveal what eventually happened to him. Additionally, for the fanfic, HP: Planeswalker, I planned for the last volume to involve one of the Chaos Universe who received the Arcane Empire's legacy.
That's it. Interest for this story has been mostly eliminated since I announced the ending, but if you have any questions about anything or a character's fate, I'll be more than happy to respond. It's hard to think what people want to hear while I'm writing this chapter. Regardless, thank you to everybody who has accompanied me so far. Despite how complicated I feel about the original IP that this story originated from, it means a lot to me.