Pleasing The Pope

"The next step is to push all of the magic into one place, in your case, you want to move the magic into your hands."

This was one of the reasons wands were so much help during magic casting. They acted as a sort of magnet for magic power that guided the magic towards it. When casting without a wand, the person had the move the magic with their own willpower.

"Now this may take you a while as it's much harder than the first step."

Surely enough, it took a couple of hours before Michael got the hang of it.

"And finally, the operation step. Now you have to visualise the spell and imagine your magic touching points of a constellation. When you say the words of the spell you should see the constellation in your head."

"Then, you have to touch those constellations with a certain amount of force and in a certain order. This is where you have to guess a little, but you should be able to feel if your close."

This was also where wands were helpful as they skipped the constellations and drew their own one, the magic power in the wand guiding the amount of magic power you should use, albeit not fully - it still required a bit of your own effort.

This step took the longest for Michael and he was only able to grasp it after 2 days.

After those 2 days, a small, white light appeared on the tip of his finger when he commanded it.

"Well done! You successfully used the Lumos charm without a wand!" Edward congratulated.

Beaming, Michael shot white lights around the castle until he collapsed into Edward's arms.

"You silly boy, you've exhausted your magic," Edward chuckled as he stroked his son's hair and carried him back to the castle.

***

4 years later, Michael set off for Hogwarts on a small carriage, waving his tearful mother and proud father goodbye.

Edward believed it was the right time to visit his stepson and then explore the rest of Europe.

He apparated to a forest outside of a familiar village.

He walked through the village, feeling slightly nostalgic, and eventually came upon a small hut.

Opening the door, he saw an old man hunched over a cauldron that held a strange, bubbling mixture of green.

"Hello, Merlin."

The old man reared his head to see his stepfather, who somehow looked much younger than him.

"Father! How have you been?" Merlin hugged Edward.

"Court Wizard's a tough job, no?" Edward smirked.

"Yeah, since Arthur died a year ago, I decided to go back to being a hermit. I don't trust the new king, he's so hell-bent on his Christian ways; he'd never accept magic like Arthur," Merlin sighed.

"You kept your noble title, though, despite the new king removing many nobles," Merlin observed.

"It took a lot of Legillimency, let me tell you," Edward explained exhaustedly.

"Drink?"

"Sure."

Edward took a sneak peek at Merlin's status as he turned to get some alcohol.

[Name: Merlin Lyore

Strength: 7

Dexterity: 6

Constitution: 7

Spirit: 8

Intelligence: 547]

The most powerful wizard from this word still couldn't compare to Edward.

Merlin brought back the drinks as they both sat down at the table.

"To the House of Lyore," Merlin shouted.

"To the House of Lyore."

***

After drinking with Merlin and convincing him to live in Gifle Castle, seeing as it was barely used, Edward left for his trip to Europe.

First stop - The Pope.

Edward apparated to a little village in Rome and hitched a ride on a carriage towards the Lateran Palace.

Eventually, the carriage arrived at a large building with statues standing atop the intricately carved exterior.

To get through, Edward used Legillimency to make the guards think he was an artist, he was sent to a small room to await an audience with Pope Benedict IX.

In the room, he looked around before summoning a canvas.

"System buy the Art skill."

[What level?]

"The highest."

[Purchasing Art: Level 10...]

He then paused time, summoned all the equipment he needed, and got painting.

Once finished, he placed a red covering over the painting and held it.

A while later, a guard notified him that he would be given an audience and ordered him to follow - naturally, his memory had been altered to believe he had a giant canvas the entire time.

He followed the guards through beautifully decorated corridors of stone until finally arriving in front of a stone throne where a wrinkled man sat, two men in red robes either side of him. 

"Greetings your holiness. I am a noble that has travelled here from the Kingdom of England to show you my artwork and see the Holy Father in your glory."

He bowed respectfully.

"What is your name old man?"

Edward had made himself look older so that he looked normal for his age.

"Earl Edward Lyore of Somerset," he replied.

"Well, Earl Lyore, show us what you have travelled so far to display," Benedict said dismissively.

Edward pulled the red cloth from the painting and showed it to the Pope, who reeled in shock.

The painting showed Jesus' resurrection: a bearded man with a compassionate expression and loose pure-white robe held his arms open. Behind him, stone cracked due to the holy light that surrounded him and wherever he had walked, flowers had bloomed, trees had grown, animals followed. On the other side - where he had yet to step - the ground was barren and soaked with blood, Roman swords littering the ground. Rushing from the barren side to Jesus' was his mother Mary.

There were so many other beautiful details and intricacies in the image, such as Jesus wearing a crown of blossoms instead of thorns, but they were to numerous to list.

The Pope and two men next to him were infatuated with the image, unable to take their eyes away.

"What do you think, your holiness?"

Benedict could barely breathe. Who could blame him? The techniques and materials used shouldn't turn up for another couple of hundred years.

"This piece...it's divine!" Benedict cried.

"Give it to me, and this piece will hang in this building for eternity!"

Edward grinned.

"This is my masterpiece, your holiness, and when I die, I wish to be remembered by it."

"Do not worry, your name will go down in history because of this, I assure you."

"There is one other thing I'd like to request, your holiness. You see, I'm also quite skilled in architecture, maybe more so than painting, and I would like to build a Cathedral in my Earldom as I wish to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ to the English people."

"Unfortunately, I don't have the funds currently, however, if you could give me them, I will dedicate the Cathedral to you - Benedict Cathedral."

If what this noble was saying was true, then this building could go down in history, and if it was named after him, he would be remembered for eternity.

"Yes, Catholicism is indeed weak in the English Kingdom. I agree to your request," Benedict said, stroking his chin as if he had to consider it.

***

After 6 years, Edward erected a huge and beautiful cathedral, reminiscent of 13th/14th century ones. He had basically just waited until it seemed like a reasonable time for building a Cathedral had passed.

Needless to say, Legillimency was used to make people believe it was built by hand.

This was one of the grandest structures in the world at the time and Benedict Cathedral was visited as a sight of pilgrimage from Christians across Europe.

Pope Benedict was obviously pleased and sent more money to Edward as a reward. This money went in the same place as the previous - the treasury. The future of the Lyores needed a foundation.

Anglo-Saxon England, Somerset, Frome, 1050

Currently, Edward was on his fake deathbed. His son Michael, held his wrinkled hand as he cried. Despite knowing of Edward's immortality, Cynewise and Merlin teared up too, knowing that this would be the last they saw of him.

"It's time for me to leave you all. Michael, my son, look after the Earldom."

"I promise I will, Father," Michael blubbered through tears.

"And Cynewise, look after our son, no matter how old he is."

"I will, dear," Cynewise promised solemnly.

"And Merlin, never stop learning the wonders of magic."

"I won't," Merlin resolved.

"Now let me rest."

3 days later, Edward created a fake corpse and left it on the bed..

He watched the whole process after his death; they first buried his body in a sarcophagus in the crypt beneath Benedict Cathedral before creating a golden effigy tomb (he had given instructions to Cynewise on what to do) to be placed in the Cathedral.

A month passed as Edward hung around the area, using his own created invisibility cloak, admiring the City of Frome that he had built. During this month, he slept in the crypts of the Cathedral and saw many people praying to him. He happily obliged to any of their requests, such as making it rain in a certain area for crop growth, it was his final gift.

Finally, he prepared to leave.

"System, will anything I've done affect history?"

[It could, but System can make sure it doesn't by controlling people to do certain things, assuring the future will be the same. Does Host want this done?]

"Yes. Also, allow the Lyores to survive but not affect history."

And with that, Edward travelled back to the future.