Author: Spaizzzer
Date: 2023-12-26T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy
Description: Aeon attempts to find the origins of the demons, and ventures into the other realms through the void sea. Join Aeon and the Order as he builds an institution able to protect their own worlds, and take the fight back to the demon controlled worlds. Book 4 of an epic reincarnation/isekai LitRPG story about a man who becomes a tree, growing and progressing throughout the ages in an eternal conflict against a demon incursion. With nearly 15 million views between Royal Road and ScribbleHub, this new and improved edition is sure to delight readers!

TREE OF AEONS 4

©2023 SPAIZZZER

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CONTENTS

Also in Series

Recap of Book 3

1. Year 157

2. Year 158

3. Year 159

4. Year 160

5. Year 160 (Part 2)

6. Year 161

7. Year 162

8. Year 163

9. Year 164

10. Year 165

11. Year 166

12. Year 167

13. Year 168

14. Year 168

15. Year 168 (Part 2)

16. Year 169

17. Year 170

18. Year 171

19. Year 172

20. Year 173

21. Year 174

22. Year 175

23. Year 176

24. Year 177

25. Year 178

26. Year 179

27. Year 180

28. Year 181

29. Year 182

30. Year 183

31. Year 183 (Part 2)

32. Year 184

33. Year 185

34. Year 186

35. Year 187

36. Year 187 (Part 2)

37. Year 188

38. Year 189

39. Year 190

40. Year 191

41. Year 191 (Part 2)

42. Year 192

43. Year 193

44. Year 194

45. Year 195

46. Year 196

47. Year 197

48. Year 197 (Part 2)

49. Year 198

50. Year 198 (Part 2)

51. Year 199

52. Year 200

53. Year 200 (Part 2)

54. Year 200 (Part 3)

55. Year 201

56. Year 201 (Part 2)

57. Year 201 (Part 3)

58. Year (Part 4)

Thank you for reading Tree or Aeons 4

Groups

LitRPG

ALSO IN SERIES

Book 1

Book 2

Book 3

Book 4

Book 5

Check out the entire series here! (Tap or scan)

RECAP OF BOOK 3

Aeon’s elites figured out how to pinpoint the demon king’s arrival spot, rigged it with magical bombs, and engaged in battle with the demon king. Together with the hero, Kei, they managed to defeat the demon king.

But in its final moments, the demon slew the hero Kei and some of Aeon’s strongest warriors. Kei, due to a quirk of the system, somehow reformed as a golem made of crystal, while Jura and those who fell in the final battle said their goodbyes through Aeon’s [Soul Realm].

1

YEAR 157

Jura departed, along with many others for their onward reincarnation. Their souls would go on, rejoin the cycle, and eventually be reincarnated somewhere out there.

But my mind still swirled with the conversation we had before he left.

“Why did you attack the demon king at that time? Did you feel like it was something you wanted to do?”

Lovis and Jura thought as their souls floated in my soul realm and shrugged. “I’m not sure. At that moment, it felt like it was something we should have done. I knew I had a shot, and I just took it. I didn’t think of it that much.”

I still thought about those words. Was that divine influence compelling them to do so? How did I know what they did was something performed on their own free will? How was Jura and Lovis’s action different from Kei’s own experience when she and her fellow heroes met the weakened demon king?

Yet, while a part of me considered the possibility of divine influence, another part of me thought about my loyal friend.

He fought by my side for years, and maybe, just maybe, we would cross paths again.

The worlds continued to reincarnate everyone. Those who died would take new forms but forget everything. Maybe he already reincarnated as a baby in the Central Continent, and I wouldn’t know it, either.

The day immediately after he left, I felt lonely.

It was strange to lose his presence, and in some ways, I was reminded by that moment when I first came to this world. When I was trapped and imprisoned by the demon fire and corruption.

Empty. Nothingness.

“We will be here for you, Master,” my artificial souls reassured me. I felt similar sentiments from the trees, everywhere. They’d done this many times, when I felt down and unsure. I sometimes felt that my identity was clearer during these periods of loss.

“I know.”

But time for grief was over.

With the demon king killed, we’d merely reset the timer, and there was a lot to process. I believed it was unlikely for the demon king to appear in the same continent twice, consecutively, even if there was some intelligence on the other end.

Regardless, preparations must continue. Based on that single sample of demon king battle, we’d observed that hero items were clearly super effective. Explosive area traps were also very useful and could deal some damage to the demon king.

I gave the directive to the rest of the continent. We needed a lot more high-density magical munitions. Things that we could stack together into a big array of bombs or use as part of a heavy barrage of projectiles would be great. My anti-demonic weapons were useful, but against the demon king, their effectiveness was average, not significantly better than the non-anti-demonic weapons. If there were bombs loaded with anti-demonic weapons, that may be a way to mash them together.

Either that, or the demon king itself was not a “demon-element” in the [system], thus it did not suffer any penalties or weaknesses against anti-demon weapons. My gut, or I supposed my roots, felt that this was the most likely case. The demon king was “unique” and “different” from the rest of its spawn.

After this battle, I also concluded that it was risky to depend on the “anti-demon” advantages to carry the day. It was entirely possible that the demon king could adapt and had changing elements, just like some overpowered Pokemon, or the spawned demon king just had specific resistance. Thus, generic weapons should be more successful in the long term. I also could rely on this arsenal against any rogue hero that decided to come my way.

Edna was stronger, and first we noticed her stat gains had accelerated. Her additional fourteen levels effectively tripled her overall strength.

It proved that my earlier theory was not correct; the stats catching up to the heroes started a lot earlier, at level one hundred twenty-five onward. That said, even with those levels, she was still far behind the heroes.

Her movements were quick, even faster than Jura and the best of the rangers, despite being a “knight.”

“This kind of power is surreal,” Edna said privately. If she was anywhere mad, the utensils around her would break, and the ground itself would crack. If she stomped the floor, it would break, too, unless I reinforced it. Her “shield” abilities, too, had shared in her growth, but those abilities made her feel bitter.

The same way I related to my new [Court of the Deitree]. Bittersweet. But no matter, it was time to test it out.

The [Court of the Deitree] essentially allowed me to award special familiars to up to fifty members, and these fifty members were each like the Possession of the Devoted, with a wide array of extra perks. The best perk was the retention of abilities from past warriors, and fifty members meant I could keep the best abilities of fifty of my best warriors. One of them kept about ten of Jura’s best skills.

At least, I wouldn’t have to totally start from scratch even if I lost those that I helped to level. In Edna’s case, she wanted Lovis’s skills. She thought the mix of Lovis’s offensive skills would be a great complement to her current defensive abilities.

Edna briefly activated Lovis’s spear skills present through the familiar, the [Lady of the Court]. She was infused with the muscle memory of someone else and could move and attack with the exact pose as Lovis. After Edna used her move, she just stood there for a moment, quiet. She muttered something to herself, so quiet I couldn’t hear the details. But somehow, I suspected it was a feeling of gratitude.

“I have something to discuss,” Yvon said one day. “I’ve seen the strength that Edna now possesses, and I’d like to know whether it’s possible to remake us in that manner.”

“Huh?”

“It’s an open secret that you’ve been helping them gain strength, and I don’t know how it’s done, but I’d like to know whether it’s something that can be done for me.”

I was puzzled by Yvon’s request. She was currently a level seventy [Training Tree].

“I want to fight. I’ve trained so many and hoped that my training is enough when the time comes. But after I’ve heard of the battles against the demon king, I feel an urge, a calling within me to fight once more.”

I did not answer. I did not know whether I should.

Kei had gained about forty levels over the course of one year. She adapted quickly to her new form as a crystalline golem. When she hit level thirty along the way, she evolved and her crystalline golem form became taller, more refined, and more flexible. Now, she could look like a crystal statue and her colors could change.

“I honestly like this body,” she said after a battle with hybrids. I had not started the whole dungeons thing, not yet, anyway.

“Really? Why?”

“It’s just a feeling. I’m more aware of my body, and I can change it if I don’t like it. And I feel like a million bucks. And I’m shiny like a diamond!” She laughed.

Did she just try to joke?

“I mean seriously. I can sparkle like I’m so fancy, like a vampire.”

“Vampires don’t sparkle.”

“Yes, they do.”

“No, they don’t.” What were the kids reading these days that vampires sparkled? “Are they golem-vampires?”

She paused and seemed to think about it seriously. “They must be blood-crystal golems then, since they need blood to replenish their strength.” I didn’t want to continue this conversation since it was inane.

“Let’s not talk about sparkly vampires. Your friends, the other two heroes, they have not said anything or made any pronouncements since you died. Would you happen to know why? Are you guys close?”

“I thought we were,” Kei said. She made that “I don’t know” pose. “But I guess I am out of their strike zone so they don’t care anymore. And we have been apart and separated for years. Pretty sure the relationship between us isn’t tight anymore. We’ve drifted apart, pretty much.”

“Really, are heroic friendships so weak and brittle?” To be fair, for highly mobile and powerful individuals like them, I could see how relationships could be difficult. Everyone else treated them like they were someone to be feared or someone to be obeyed. Equals were a rare thing, and not everyone enjoyed a relationship with their equals.

To me, I was lucky to meet those I did consider my equals, like Lilies.

“I don’t know. I guess we’re just not that good at being friends. We’ve been sent here together and are friends out of necessity and convenience. I honestly feel you are a better friend than they are. Truly,” Kei said. “Even Astia feels like a better friend, as aloof as she is.”

Speaking of Astia…

“Attempt four hundred ninety-four,” she said as she swirled mana before her eyes. She was surprisingly determined when she got down to it. In the past few years, she’d gained twenty-five levels as a [Mage], and her focus was attempting to touch Void Mana. Anyone with a brain would put one-and-one together and surmise her performance must have something to do with her [Late Bloomer] ability.

Level twenty-five as a mage was low, of course. It made her just slightly ahead of an apprentice mage who was normally around level ten to twenty-five.

Void mana was both hard and easy. Controlling and containing it was extremely difficult but easy enough to generate, if one did not care for one’s own health. So Astia had numerous visits to the [soul forge] for repairs.

“Home is a great motivator.”

“Indeed. Though I don’t have much there, I still feel like I have a duty to return. At least, with this, I have the choice to return.”

“What if it’s a one-way trip?”

“Then I will have to live with it. But that’s a bridge I will cross when I get there.” Astia, or Stella, kept practicing. At night, she would sleep and use my [dream academy]. She seemed to be really into this whole [mage] thing, but it took time for magical studies to pay off. Magic was such a broad and deep subject that mastery took a long time for most common folk.

It was a lot harder to develop [ocean grass] than I expected, and the clear problem was the lack of sunlight. Was it still a plant if a plant did not depend on sunlight and perform photosynthesis?

One of the easier shortcuts was to take after Lilies, which meant large floating platforms with roots that stretched all the way down to the ocean floor. But the ocean was also home to massive waves and typhoons, and the monsters that lived in the oceans were huge.

The seafarers brought home tales of their ventures on the high seas, of giant leviathans and krakens, of ancient sea creatures, and I highly doubted my roots could survive those.

For now, I concentrated my efforts on expanding seagrass to most of the continental shelf. This was the area where the seas were shallow and sunlight still reached the sea floor. Already, I’d made many discoveries of sunken ships and other various hidden treasures. There was nothing quite like a constantly growing carpet of seagrass to truly “scan” the sea floor for sunken items.

As I kept expanding my seagrass, I had a very pleasant upgrade.

[Giant Attendant Tree variant added: Seagiant Trees.]

This allowed me to add giant trees on the shallow seas and more variants to my trees, too.

[Biolabs upgraded: Sea-variant labs added.]

There were more to see in the seas. Fishes, monsters, and even insects. New types of sea-insects, sea-crustaceans, and also all kinds of plants.

There was a patch of sea where the continental shelf extended a little further than the norm, and the seagrass expanded on this path. Then my [rootnet] met something new.

[Foreign thoughts detected.]

There was a growing intelligence in the mass of sea corals and algae in this part of the sea. An emergent sea-spirit similar to Lilies in a way. It was young, and I could tell because it was incoherent and a mess.

“Master, should we block it out?”

“Not yet.”

My seagrass expanded even more, and we had more contact points with that sea-coral-reef-spirit. It transmitted thoughts.

Sea. Roots. Tendrils. Fish. It felt like it was trying to learn language, and we responded with words. This went on for months, as it transmitted more thoughts. During this time, my seagrass pretty much encroached on the entirety of the reef, and I got close enough to use [Inspect].

[Reef Mind]

Oooh. There were no details to it, other than the name. I spoke of this to Lilies, and they were rather interested.

< A new spirit of the seas. Vallasira would know more. >

> Then I must speak to him. <

< I will attempt to call him. >

I didn’t know when Vallasira the Zaratan would return; I recalled that their sense of time was somewhat distorted by the travel between worlds. For now, I kept communicating with the Reef Mind. Perhaps it will soon speak to me.

I also returned to focus on the hybrid demon-plants in the Rottedlands. Now that I’d seen what the world of the demons looked like, I wanted to prepare myself for an eventual war on their homeland. Perhaps one of the ways to end this conflict for good was on the other side of the rift.

If I could stop them from creating the rifts for good or push the battlefield onto their world, that’d prevent the demon kings from ever coming to our world.

To do so, I’d have to find ways to establish a foothold on the other side and have a force that could stand up to the might of the demons on their home world. I’d seen from the few raids that the power levels of the champions were significantly stronger on their home world, probably due to some kind of magic there, and also perhaps to the weakened, dried state of my trees and plants.

Now, at the hybrids, I was looking for drying resistance, if there was such a word. Things that could endure a dry, arid environment.

I contemplated whether it was a good idea of even upgrading beetles to adapt to such an environment, but Horns, typically, was a massive advocate of the beetles for all environments. He insisted that beetles could be adapted to fight on the dry worlds.

Personally, I was thinking of cockroaches. Mainly because the idea of insects in a dry world just reminded me of that cockroach on Mars manga. But I supposed beetles also would do.

It was a set of research I had to do secretly, since making plants and insects more demon-like would probably ring all the wrong kinds of bells among the general population.

“I think it’s a good idea, but the portal should come first.” I shared the idea with Edna, of course. She was the only one left of the four. “Taking the war to their home world would avoid a lot of the problems, but personally I think maintaining an open portal will be the biggest issue. Else, any force left on their home world is on their own, and it’s a death sentence. We need your support and presence if we ever step foot on their soil.”

It was like landing a ship on enemy territory.

On that front, I was still working on the void mana. But progress was slow.

“Mom.”

“Yes?” Lausanne turned to face her growing daughter. They were home, then.

“Have you ever thought of stepping into Uncle Jura’s shoes?”

“Sometimes. But I’ve decided not to.”

“Aeon’s searching for someone to take over, right?” she said as she munched on her breakfast.

“Of course. If you know someone, do let me know. I’m sure Aeon’s interested.” Arlisa frowned at Lausanne’s comment. “Your classmates, perhaps?”

“Ugh.”

Arlisa was finally enrolled in the Freshlands’ Treetiary College. She initially had a stint with the Valthorns, but due to her relatively low levels and rebellious nature, Lausanne suggested that she try the college instead.

“My classmates probably can’t kill a fly.”

“Oh?” Lausanne smirked. “I had the impression that the nobles from the outer rings all had combat experience, either on the high seas or against the hybrid demons.”

“Nah. No way.”

“You seem to think very little of them. That’s not a good attitude to have, my dear.” Lausanne shrugged. “You’d be surprised how quickly people can grow and level under difficult circumstances.”

Arlisa paused. “Nah. They are not good enough.”

“Well, you never know.” Lausanne smiled.

“If you say it that way, why search? Anyone could do it,” Arlisa protested.

“Not everyone desires it, and not everyone has the right personality for the task. Some things are not about talent, but more about choices and desires. Whether they want to step up to fulfill that role. It’s a commitment. One I cannot give.”

It was true that after the death of Jura, Faris, and Lovis, there was a gap in the pinnacle of the Valthorns. But the Valthorns was a vast organization, and they were in every sense of the word a professional army with an even more elite chosen.

There were already many other Valthorns with upgraded classes in the level seventies and lower eighties that now I had to test and train, to push them higher up to their limits and to achieve level one hundred. More candidates to vet through.

Most of these were from the existing training program, a large part from my earlier child soldiers initiative, as abhorrent as that sounded to those from Earth. But we couldn’t apply the laws of a world without magic to one with magic, at least, not totally. To these soldiers, this was a career, a legitimate, well-paying career that could get them out of poverty.

If one believed everyone had different talents, it would not be a stretch to say some people were just meant to fight and were good at it. That sort of talent was diminished back on Earth, where everyone was relegated to operate in a capitalist society.

With my new dungeon ability, I also had additional ways to test whether these Valthorns were able to perform at higher roles.

Essentially, my new ability meant I could spawn dungeons where there was an unused ley line. I didn’t have a lot of control over what happened inside the dungeon, and no control over the monsters, either. But I could decide their “challenge” rating, essentially whether these were level twenty, level forty, level sixty, or level eighty dungeons. The quality and strength of the ley line also affected the max level I could go.

So far, the best ley line I found could go up to level seventy. I thought whether I could “hack” into the ley line and make it even stronger, perhaps with a runic formation. That’d be something to experiment on.

In any case, a level seventy dungeon actually spawned a “dungeon-boss” at level eighty, so that wasn’t a bad challenge for the existing Valthorn elites. From the adventurer circles, normal dungeons rarely went past level seventy, and those were considered difficult dungeons. But there were some rather special dungeons where there were monsters in the level one hundreds, but most of them were lost to time.

2

YEAR 158

“The peace we have today is one won by blood,” Edna explained to the young Valthorns. “The order we have today is held together by the bones of those who fell defending it. Peace demands blood. Order demands bones. The question is simply are you ready to give your blood and bones for the cause?”

The entire blood-and-bones analogy was a little too much and felt a bit like a blood mage or a necromancer trying to win others to their cause.

But it worked on hot-blooded young folks. Even the naturally calm treefolk were taken by the whole sacrifice schtick. In every generation, in every batch, there was a mix of dispositions, some more reserved, some more passionate.

As the one they would ultimately fight for, it was my role to identify those whose fire would keep burning, and burn brighter for decades to come. Based on what I’d seen so far, there was no real clear personality indicators to suggest which type of person would remain passionate and loyal to the cause for years to come. Instead, what we noticed was loyalty tended to be accumulated over the decades via little events, and events that increased loyalties for some individuals did not increase them for others.

The young ones all practiced, and Edna adjusted their pose. I asked her to help with training, simply because they would just naturally level faster when someone of a significantly higher level was advising them.

Renewal was a constant, never-ending affair. Just as a deciduous tree repeatedly grew after each winter, I must constantly replenish my battle forces and ensure I had those ready to step up should the earlier group decide they’d had enough.

“Class, today, we have Roon and Evin, two of our senior Valthorns! They’ll be providing guidance on archery and fighting with weapons!”

Students grew and turned into teachers. Teachers changed. A new generation took over, hopefully better than the ones that had come before.

“Roon is a level sixty-four [Aeonic Sharpshooter] and Evin a level sixty-one [Champion Gladiator],” Edna introduced them. They were just as nervous as the kids. Roon was once among them, fifteen years ago. Somehow, to return and be one of the teachers was a stressful affair. Kids.

Edna patted them both on the back.

“You’ll do fine. Just relax, and have a cup of herbal tea if you need it.” She smiled at the two younger folks. Roon was a typical elf orphan, while Evin was a female half dwarf who capitalized on her exceptional strength to win multiple arena battles, thus earning the champion title. The Valthorns were allowed to compete in competitions, but only a limited number. So internally, within the Valthorns, there was a mini-competition before they even got to participate.

That was because we didn’t want to flood every competition with Valthorn Initiates, with our dedicated training and high levels. Yet we did want a presence in these competitions where there were large spectator groups, so we wanted our good candidates to perform well and help improve our reputation. That said, our best-of-the-best never participated, and there was an internal rule that only those below level fifty could participate in competitions.

I did think it was a bit silly, but if the level of competition increased in the future, the level cap would be revised accordingly.

The two new trainers were uncomfortable at best. It was hard to connect with young children; it took effort and practice to know how to speak and get young kids to listen and do things. Even if the Valthorn recruits were already a preselected crop.

The dungeons opened, and the Valthorns attempted them. The dungeons had some rules, despite the domain powers. For example, my “view” of the dungeon was always delayed. I could only see what happened after each team completed their run of the dungeon, whether they failed or they succeeded. Secondly, I could tweak the dungeon’s settings, but I had no ability to use my powers inside the dungeons.

It was like I had a RNG dungeon generator, and I was playing an idle game where I sent teams out on expeditions and hoped they succeeded.

Patreeck was quick to generate a mathematical model, though. After like ten to twenty rounds of attempts, he already could estimate the chances of success for the dungeon, based on the squad strength.

The return of dungeons to the continent also brought a new lobbying group. Adventurers.

“We wish to petition Aeon for access to the new dungeons.” Adventurers wanted dungeons. After the borders were loosened, there actually was a “brain drain” where adventurers left the Central Continent for the other continents.

This was simply because there were no dungeons, and if there were no dungeons, adventurers had little chance of striking it rich by fighting a dungeon and earning a high-tier reward. They were nothing more than monster hunters. Dungeons were a crucial element in the adventurer ecosystem, and previously, the adventurers had to suffer in silence since, well, the borders were closed. They were not going to get themselves killed by travelling to a continent that killed anyone that came from the Central Continent.

Not anymore.

The guild masters were quick to band together and demand the dungeons for the adventurers. Or at least, shared “slots” where adventurers could attempt those dungeons for themselves.

It was a point I discussed with the Valthorns consistently, and after a while, we had a “carve-up” system.

Certain dungeons were marked at Valthorn-only, and certain dungeons were free-for-all. Valthorns were free to join the adventurers on raids and form their own parties.

“A fifteen-percent tax on all earnings is too high.” The guild masters then shifted onto issue of taxes on dungeon rewards.

“Twenty-five percent was the initial number, I believe.” Kavio walked.

The guild masters gulped but then presented that there was actually at least a two-layer tax. Under most local and regional laws, dungeon earnings were subject to taxes at the local nation level. That meant adventurers had to pay a tax to the local state and also to the Valthorns.

“Higher profits will allow the adventurers to get better gear and fight better. If Aeon’s goal is to get strength, please consider supporting the adventurers in their pursuit of personal growth.”

I was rather torn. The taxes helped support the Valthorns, and the Valthorns did have a lot of spending. But I also agreed that for folks that risked their lives for money, a high tax did feel like bad taste.

“We recommend a door tax. A per-entry tax.” The guild masters naturally preferred a flat tax, since all the potential upside accrued to the adventurers.

Kavio looked over the proposal. “We’ll submit this proposal for further discussion.”

“We’re running at a marginal surplus at the moment.” The chief of the Valthorns’ financial and accounting records was Chancellor Brandak, a treefolk merchant turned lord. He was the fourth treefolk [Aeonic Lord] after Kraveik but soon found a home in the massive Valthorn machinery as our defacto chief financial officer.

The Valthorns’ bookkeeping function was frankly a mess as we expanded quickly, and we had revenue sources throughout the entire continent. Compiling income and expenditure reports on a continental scale continued to be a challenge. This was despite my [artificial souls] monitoring all the transactions throughout the continent.

Simply put, there were simply far too many transactions at any given day for artificial minds to keep up with, and over time, their role shifted to that of “auditors,” where they merely observed the practices of the Valthorns on a sampling basis. The complexity of revenue had also increased, as with the multiple layers of taxes and jurisdictions.

Brandak’s advice seemed to concur with the guild masters. “It would be administratively easier for us if we just impose a door tax. That way, we don’t have to calculate the adventurers’ earnings and participate in the highly subjective matter of valuing artifacts and salvaged equipment. As it is, we do spend quite a bit of money maintaining valuers and appraisers.”

Kavio was on the other side. “Marginal, Chancellor Brandak. We could use the money for more recruitment.”

“A reasonably higher door tax would pretty much equalize our take from the dungeons without the need for valuations. It would not be significantly lower, and the chances of high-tier equipment is so low that it’s better to let that be the adventurers’ shot at the lottery. Let them have their winnings.”

One of the councilors wondered, “Is this related to that report on adventurer emigrations a while back?”

“Actually yes.” Kavio nodded. “There’s the issue of adventurers preferring work on the other continents as they had far better outcomes with dungeons. Monster hunter is a stable but not very lucrative job, but adventurers are all, in their hearts, looking for that moonshot.”

“Does Aeon have a view on this?” another of the councilors asked. There are some councilors who just preferred to go with everything I decided. Bootlickers.

“Aeon has decided to abstain on the matters of taxation,” Brandak responded to the floor.

“Can’t we just override the local authority’s right to tax dungeon earnings?” one councilor from Freshka asked, which was swiftly slammed by the councilors from the respective kingdoms. None of the kingdoms wanted to give up their own rights to the tax income, yet if the Freshlands Federal Authority shifted to a door-tax mechanism, most kingdoms would naturally follow with their own rates.

I mentally spoke to Brandak and Kavio. “I’ll leave this matter to the both of you.”

They argued for two months, with multiple hearings and consultations with the adventurer guild masters, as well as some passionate views from certain kingdoms, and eventually decided to go for a vote. That resulted in a door tax.

Then came the next part of the dungeon squabble.

“Councilor Kavio, we’d like to submit a petition for at least one dungeon in the Kingdoms of Random Country A to be converted to a public dungeon.” Well, there was a tax inequality where dungeons reserved for Valthorn use did not generate tax income for their host kingdoms.

Honestly, this entire debacle just reminded me why I hated bureaucracy with a freaking passion. It was a chore going through the numerous interested parties. I felt like being stuck as a project manager with different opposing stakeholders that refused to compromise.

I could, of course, steamroll this entire thing through. A few more months passed by. The councilors were pretty much bombarded with lobbies and petitions. The issue of dungeons had a whole lot more vested interests than I thought. Merchant groups who traded on dungeon equipment and crafters and workers who supported and supplied gear to adventurers all lobbied for public dungeons. Valthorns all used Valthorn-supplied gear, so their spending in the local cities was usually lower than adventurers on a per-capita basis.

Thus Chancellor Brandak came with a proposal. “We propose all dungeons below a certain level be designated as public dungeons, but all dungeons will have three months per year where the dungeons are exclusive to the Valthorns. All existing public dungeons will be rolled into this scheme. All dungeons will have a door tax proportionate to their difficulty. There will be no tax on Valthorn use of dungeons.”

“These dungeons are cool,” Kei said after she explored the dungeon as a golem with a group of Valthorns. “Right, Ikka?”

Ikka was one of the unfortunate Valthorns that were stuck as her “escort.” She was a level fifty-five [Grand Knight]. “Yes, Kaide.”

Kei had a new name, Kaide. She wanted to distinguish herself from her old self and also help keep her secret identity safe. But honestly, I still referred to her as Kei. Besides, very few people knew she was a hero.

“Are these dungeons normal?” Kei asked Ikka. Ikka shrugged. “I mean, fifteen floors seems a bit overkill for a dungeon, and I really liked that big boss fight at the end, and the miniboss fight.”

“There’s…a miniboss?”

“Yes. A few, in fact. There’s usually a miniboss at the end of the floor, too. Good for leveling, really. It’s almost as if the dungeon read your mind, Aeon.”

I wondered whether that was just my will spilling into the dungeon system.

“How frequently can you change the settings?” Honestly, none. Once I set the settings, the dungeon was locked, unless I destroyed the dungeon. I couldn’t even set what kind of monsters could appear. My artificial minds helped to build a register of the dungeons and their monsters, but even then, the dungeons did spring surprises every now and then.

The dungeons were intentionally not letting me into their inner workings, beyond a RNG and challenge setting. For a domain ability, this felt annoying. “I can’t.”

“Oh. You can’t even tweak what happens inside, right?”

Reluctantly, I answered, “Yes.”

“Hmmm…I think it’s because the leveling system requires genuine danger. The special dungeon experience multiplier only applies if there’s actually lives at risk, I suppose,” Kei speculated.

“Special dungeon experience multiplier?” What the hell was that gacha-raid shit?

Kei paused. “Oh. Maybe you don’t know, but when I entered dungeons, at least when I was a hero, I could see I had a ‘passive’ experience gain buff. I don’t see it now, but I think the buff is still there. All dungeons have a thing where people gain levels faster when they struggle in them, I think.”

What?

“Wouldn’t be fair if you could tweak dungeons and still enjoy the passive experience multiplier, ayy?”

Fair? If they wanted to talk about fairness, start with why in the flying fuck did heroes get overpowered level gains? They could reach level one hundred within one year. One year. There was no such thing as fairness when it came to gods and heroes. If they could stack the game and load the die, why couldn’t I do it, too?

Kei paused. “Did I say something wrong?”

I didn’t reply. I still stewed over the concept of fairness.

“Aeon, are you mad that I’m slacking?” Arlisa asked one day. She…wasn’t the best student, despite her clearly blessed intelligence and natural talent. Somehow, she was blessed with martial talent that exceeded most, but there she was, slacking and dodging classes.

“Do you want me to be?” I didn’t want to push the responsibility on her. As far as I could tell, achievement couldn’t be forced; all you could do was offer opportunity. For Valthorns with nothing, they would naturally grab all the opportunities they could get. Arlisa, thus the spoiled second generation, had the luxury of time and nobility to waste it. It was sad, of course, but at the same time, that only meant I excluded her from my plans.

“I don’t know. Mom keeps telling me about duty and that because I am blessed, I should live up to it. I mean, I feel like I did enough, though.”

Her behavior was familiar, like the clever kid in school that studied just enough to do well and then spent the rest of her time playing or doing other things.

“That’s why I wanted to ask you.”

“Many others on the continent would give up a lot to be in your privileged position. Whether you live up to your station in life is up to you. It’s very fortunate that Lausanne is an elf who lives very long lives naturally; it’s a safety net very, very few have.”

“I knew it.” She sighed. “All this following the footsteps of my mother is annoying. I want my own life.”

“Your life has always been your own.”

“I mean, I want to be able to choose the direction of my own life.”

“That has never been taken away from you. Whatever choice you make, it will just factor into the bigger picture.”

“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Arlisa frowned. “Even if I have the ability to choose whatever I want to be, the gears of the world will move against me. So only certain choices are realistic choices. In that case, am I really able to choose?”

“It seems you are thinking far too ahead of yourself, my dear Arlisa,” I responded. “Are you slacking because all the choices scare you?”

She paced in her room and then sat down. “That’s a very good point.”

“You can create dungeons?” I wondered why no one ever presumed to ask why so many dungeons appeared suddenly throughout the continent. So when I discussed the matter of dungeon configurations with Edna, she seemed really, really taken aback by it.

“Yes. It is a new ability I gained.”

She was stunned. “Everyone seemed to think that perhaps the God of Dungeons was suddenly magnanimous, so dungeons reappeared on the Central Continent.”

“I see.” Of course, me being me, I told almost no one, except Kei, about my abilities. I would have told Jura, but, well… “It seems I may have erred in my decision on this.”

“No. Wait. That means all that squabbling with the kingdoms could have been ended by telling them that the dungeons are all your creations?”

“I had the impression they were aware.”

“No. They were not. They guessed, but it was just a suspicion, and certainly creating dungeons is a level of ability that they didn’t think you had.”

“I find their lack of faith in your abilities disturbing. Requesting permission for mind-attack,” Patreeck commented.

“Denied.”

“Should I say so?”

“I mean—I don’t know. It’s a strategic decision at this point. If you could essentially hold the kingdoms at ransom by creating or removing dungeons…” Edna processed it.

“Ah.” That was a good point. Access to the wealth of dungeons as a form of economic leash on the kingdoms was a very good way to keep these herds of cats compliant.

“We should discuss this with a wider council.”

Chancellor Brandak, Councilor Kavio, more senior Valthorns, the Treeology Patreearches, and the highest lords and kings were there, and of course, it was pretty much an earth-shaking announcement.

“Aeon gained the ability to cause dungeons to appear, and the recent Dungeon Spring is entirely due to Aeon’s prolific use of his new ability.”

A diplomat was quick to display the risks of this news going out. “In the holy text of the Gaya church, it is mentioned that the power of creating dungeons is one that is vested in the Lost Gods. By association, the Gayan faith will therefore consider Aeon to be one of the Lost Gods, the traitors who opened the astral way to the demons.”

“Then we must be quick to counter such beliefs,” a Patreearch said. “Our faith is independent of the other faiths, and so our god’s powers should not be linked to the text of another religion. I am of the view that the priesthood should go out and sing praise of this new power.”

“People die in dungeons, and that did not change. These dungeons, created by Aeon as they may be, remain a dangerous place.” One of the lords had another opinion. “Associating Aeon with a place that causes death will make Aeon seem cruel. Even if those are risks that the adventurers knowingly signed up for.”

That was also…a good point. Creating this place of death had reputational risk.

“In the history of our allied nations, there have been some kings who had skills that improved a dungeon’s characteristics or improved its levels gain and such,” one of the local princes explained. Indeed, kings had all sort of generic improvement skills, some of which targeted the dungeons in their territory. “Such skills are not associated with the Lost Gods, if one even believes in such hogwash.”

This particular local prince was a product of the FTC and, as such, had rather aggressive views toward the “outside” religions. Kinda ironic, when we were the ones that displaced those religions.

“So do we tell or not tell?”

I eventually decided that this was something to be shared among the leadership team, but not to the general public. They all swore an oath that day to tell no one outside that room. They should know my abilities to some limited degree, at least; I wanted to begin this process of forming a cohesive top-level force, and I could do that with only a reasonable level of trust.

We’d see soon enough if the trust was reciprocated.

3

YEAR 159

“The next demon king won’t be here,” Edna said confidently. “Based on historical records, so far there’s only been two incidents of successive demon kings in the same continent within the past five hundred years.”

It actually wasn’t that low, was it? Two consecutive demon kings implied four demon kings in the same continent, and every ten years meant fifty demon kings in that period of time. About slightly less than ten percent? At least, that was what my primitive, non-mathematical mind suggested.

Not the best chances and could still happen. “Edna, thanks, not a flag I appreciated having.”

“I don’t think I’m that unlucky,” Edna responded. Edna was merely trying to convince me that we still had time. Our research and development for stronger, more powerful magical bombs and weapons was making progress, but it was still too slow to really tip the scales.

In the past two years, we’d started training more [enchanters] and more [lapidarists] to build stronger, more powerful magical bombs. It was funny that I was back to repeating and going through what Harris did.

Back then, he wanted huge crystalline matrixes to store my skills. Now, what I was trying to do was huge crystalline matrixes to function as bombs. Bombs. Lots and lots of bombs. Bomb research tied in with my ongoing hexbomb research, and the idea of a “clean” hexbomb.

That felt like a dirty word, the idea that there was such a thing as a “clean” hexbomb. As if the twisted tangle of soul fragments, things made via blood sacrifice, could be “clean.”

My regular process of “harvesting” souls also generated soul fragments. I disliked the term “harvesting,” since as a soul and spirit tree, my job was actually to facilitate the transfer of souls to the unknown for them to reincarnate in life. Increasingly, though, I was now curious what actually happened after sending them off.

Anyway, that was another thing to study. For now, soul fragments of the dead were what I used to make artificial souls and minds. To fuse them in a way that made a bomb, while still “clean,” was really one of the oxymoronic challenges, because my very nature as a soul tree and spirit tree was really to “repair” all the soul damage, not find ways to corrupt soul fragments into bombs.

But I believed it was possible. The soul was the single most powerful material in the world. Infinitely malleable and could gain the power of the gods, the soul therefore should contain far more potential power than anything.

We resumed experimenting on the soul fragments and set up large mana batteries around the Valley of the Unrotten to do so. Dabbling with soul-related matters still required a lot of energy, but not as much as it used to. It seemed that my naturally higher levels and domain abilities contributed to a “discount.”

We attempted a few different kinds of “research,” one of which was to manually stitch the soul fragments together and figure what shape created what sort of effect. We knew for a fact that hexbombs were imperfectly connected soul fragments, but why? Was it the irregular shape, or type of connection, or the base nature of the fragments? Did the type of fragments matter?

At first, I thought it didn’t, but then as the research continued, it was quite clear there were some differences in the nature of these fragments, especially in the “type of death.” If so, that was a bad sign because the power of blood magic was then inherently tied to the nature of its sacrifice, that the fragments must be made in this manner to generate that level of power.

I believed it was possible to separate the emotions from the fragments, but if the emotions were the fragments, then…

We reviewed our experience clearing the hexed lands, and it took a lot of brainpower mainly to disentangle the hex. I wondered how that worked, that “drawing out” the negative emotions so that they could dissipate; did that actually support the view that the emotion and fragments were separate, or was it both?

At the same time, it was a known fact that some extremely traumatic deaths could generate “ghosts” and “haunted” monsters, and so were those ghosts and haunted creatures similarly a product of that person’s soul fragmentation on death, and those fragments then transformed or created a ghost?

There had to be something. Death and blood magic must be linked.

Arlisa went on a tour of the cities and places of the Central Continent. Despite being an average student due to her lack of effort, she was enthusiastic at the opportunity to get away from her parents.

“You seem very keen on travelling to the other cities, Lady Arlisa,” a fellow student around her age said. Arlisa theoretically should have graduated, but she decided to stay on. The Freshlands Treetiary College did have a “core” syllabus that was aimed to replicate the four- to five-year university experience, but there were a lot of “optional” subjects, and even the core syllabus changed year on year.

Arlisa nodded. “Yes, Irkania.” The group was mostly commoners. Most of the noble-born students had their own “continental tours” already, but the Freshlands Treetiary College wanted to recreate a similar educational exposure for its commoners, so they had a tour arranged. There were other nobles, too, most of them less wealthy. Still, there was no shame in the tour, since many of the academic team participated. “I’ve wanted to visit the coastal cities for quite some time.”

“Did you participate in last year’s tour?”

“I didn’t.” Arlisa shook her head. “I wanted to, but something came up.”

“Ah.” Irkania was a lizardwoman, from one of the riverine towns. They were relatively rare previously, but a few decades of stability helped their population to regrow. “Have you ever been there in the past?”

“No. Maybe my mom took me there when I was a small girl, but I can’t remember any of it.”

They both smiled. “Well, I was hoping that you knew your way around. I’ve got to visit some relatives and pass them some souvenirs. But I guess I’ll just have to keep walking around and ask whether they’ve seen any lizardpeople.”

Arlisa chuckled and made a joke that would be inappropriate in more socially developed societies. “So the whole stereotype is true! All lizardpeople are connected!”

Irkania laughed, too. “Well, to some extent. We were a small species.” Truth was they were once more common; their cities were centered around the swamps of the inland lakes. Most of those lakes and the swamps were flattened when Demon King Sabnoc blew up. So what was left of the lizardfolks that went on to reclaim their lost land all came from a small pool of survivors and outlying villages.

They benefited greatly from the Valthorns’ social services, especially the [incubation pods], specialized [childcare centers], and nutritional tree saps. Young lizardlings were frequently starved of nutrients, and it seemed they had a relatively low survival rate. It was also particularly troublesome as infant lizardlings were pretty much animals and had very monster-like aggression; their intellect and awareness seemed to just pop up when they passed their second year.

In the case of lizard young, it was particularly important to prevent their lizardlings from escaping. Their society had a very strange relationship with their children—to them, the insentient children were monsters, and their own people had no qualms killing the young lizards if they were exceptionally aggressive. To them, a child was only a lizard child when they gained their will and intelligence. Before that, monsters.

They also had no concept of parents and practiced a case of pooled upbringing, where everyone contributed to raising the newly sentient children. Everyone was pretty much related, and the females would deposit any fertilized eggs in a central location in their village.

Till this day, this was something I had not been able to process, that they were able to have that emotional distance from their spawn for the first two years.

“Cousins?”

“Yes. Everyone’s a cousin or an uncle. We do have our own words for it, though.” Irkania smiled. The lizardpeople repopulation program was one of the few success cases on the Central Continent, but one we rarely talked about. Lizardpeople generally faced a little more discrimination than others, particularly because lizardpeople preferred to work and play at night. In the daytime, they were often observed to be lazing about, and thus they had a reputation as being lazy. Still, they were the best night-time guards and were very good counter-assassins, thanks to their extremely keen sense of space and movement. “But I believe they are two generations before us.”

“Ah.” Each village a family, each generation a batch. Arlisa nodded.

The tour was a large one. There were easily five hundred students in this batch. For the commoners, they were split into about six different batches, so that everyone would get their chance for the tour. The academic staff would rotate to participate, along with a group from the Valthorns and the Treeology.

The largest beetles were used as transport; after all, once all the other support staff were included, this tour was a one thousand–strong tour. Entire inns were reserved for the tourists. It spoke of Freshka’s evolution from a town no one knew to the Spiritual Capital of the Continent, the soft and hard power it now controlled.

The sea. Arlisa spent about half an hour by the sea before leaving, a little disgusted.

“The sea’s the same everywhere,” Irkania said. “The ports, too. Forever messy and filled with the smell of salt, rotten fish, and people who didn’t have showers for weeks.”

“I thought lizardpeople don’t shower.”

“We do. Some of us.” Irkania smiled. “Were you expecting something different?”

“I don’t know, actually,” Arlisa said.

“Maybe what you need is space. Away from whatever that kept your mind occupied. Perhaps your mother?”

Arlisa shrugged. “Perhaps.”

Communications with the reef mind continued, and progressively, I began to feel like its mind was forming up. It no longer felt like it was a clueless thing clawing randomly. The images and scenes it brought up were all new, different, and it repeated, as if getting confirmation.

About two-plus years since we made contact with the Reef mind, it finally attempted its first conversation.

> Reef. Greetings. <

I heard its voice; my group of artificial minds allowed its attempt to communicate to reach me.

< Tree. Greetings, > I responded. I would one day hope to bridge this communication with Lilies and also Vallasira. Perhaps Vallasira could visit it directly.

> Reef. Happy. < It was happy?

< I am glad. >

> Language. Difficult. <

< With practice, it becomes easy. >

What was this reef mind? Was it a dungeon core? Or perhaps just a collection of reefs and corals that somehow gained consciousness and a soul?

It paused. Reefy did not attempt to speak for a while, but I could sense a lot of thoughts floating about, those thoughts sometimes vaguely touching the roots at the edges of the reef. I wondered whether it was appropriate for me to refer to it as Reefy.

I awarded my second special class, [Aeon’s Field Scientist], to a middle-aged dwarven alchemist named Alka. Alka was just a level thirty-nine [General Alchemist], and he had spent the last forty years working on growing highly powerful crystals from simple raw materials. He made some progress, but as with research, it was often an issue of resources, just as much as knowledge. To try everything and see what worked required one to be able to afford everything. If a researcher was financially distressed, the research usually would not progress.

The materials needed for labs were expensive, especially when dealing with items possessing magical potential.

So when Patreeck summarized a list of contractors and researchers that supported our attempts to develop more potent crystal bombs, Alka somehow came up. I interviewed him, and somehow, perhaps an instinct or a gut feeling told me he would be fit.

“I will sponsor your research, and you will have a set fund. Chancellor Brandak’s office will handle it.”

“And all I gotta do is find ways to make bigger, stronger, magical storage crystals.” He wasn’t confident, I mean, I could read his mind, and I knew he was acting, but he still attempted to put up a confident face. But as it turned out, he should’ve had more confidence in himself.

“Yes.”

I notified Chancellor Brandak to set a reasonable budget, but something on the lower side. Two months later, he displayed the first multi-layer crystalline bomb. In short, a two-stage crystal bomb. Its performance was impressive. It was a deviously simple solution, and I wondered why we were so obsessed with getting better crystals. A set of interlinked crystal bombs with mutually amplifying spells stored could be made more powerful than a single large superspell.

Honestly, when I saw it, I felt like an idiot. What was stopping us from making an entire super-lattice of crystal gems, all configured to cause a massive chain reaction?

“Crystals store magic and mana and are meant to go off at a trigger. A chain of crystals that is meant to trigger when the others trigger, arranged in such high density, will explode from the sheer mana density and the entanglement of the different spell types. You want the spells to only interact when you want it to, but the crystals also need spell shielding so that they don’t interact prematurely. See the problem? More crystals, more shielding. More shielding, harder to trigger and less efficient.”

Alka, liberated from the financial challenges, went full speed ahead and worked tirelessly on research. So I decided to award him my special class. I needed someone to work on this. I was prepared to build massive nuclear bombs if it meant I could end the demon kings easily.

If he could solve this multi-crystal amplification-containment puzzle, we had taken steps along our way to magical nukes.

Once I had magical nukes, I was gonna try to send a few across the rifts. I knew nuclear bombs across portals were not new.

So along the line of portals, Stella, or Astia, gained a special class.

[Void Mage]. This was after she accidentally hurt herself a grand total of seventy-three times and cursed herself in the process. That process had been generally beneficial for me, too.

I gained a rather specific skill in dealing with Stella’s void mana exposure.

[Skill: Greater Resistance to Curse obtained.]

[Skill: Curse-breaker obtained.]

Void magic. Progress!

This was a good affirmation and dispelled one of my earlier concerns. I was worried whether this void magic existed outside the “system.” It was not uncommon, at least from my memories, for certain types of magic to exist outside the system. Void magic seemed likely to be one such thing.

Stella’s skills were rather lame, really. [Void Fist], [Void Punch], and [Void Walk]. It seemed that the powers of the void were indeed powerful, but it didn’t seem particularly different. But, under the hood, when I looked into Stella’s soul spring, that was when the differences were clear.

Stella’s once-clear soul spring was now pure, pitch black. It was like black oil poured out of her spring, her soul now a conduit for the void. The skills existed in her soul were matte-black blocks of things and resembled the curses she had, but now a solid form.

All this came at a high price. She lost all of her earlier artist or administrator levels. But somehow she still did it. The call of home was a lot stronger for her.

“I wouldn’t be able to go home. Not in this shape,” Kei said. “Earth would bomb me to hell or put me in some kind of exhibit.”

Kei gained more levels, and one of her stranger powers was the ability to change the surface and color of her crystalline body, allowing herself to actually pass off as a marble statue or a stone statue.

Stella didn’t really care much. “I gained the [void mage] class, but where’s my portal?”

“It’s probably something you need to discover.”

“I keep trying…”

“Maybe it’s just a simple void equivalent of a ‘teleportation’ spell.” And so Stella attempted to learn teleportation but with void mana.

It didn’t turn out well for the first five times. It resulted in her rupturing her soul spring and needing special repairs. Stella was knocked unconscious and in a coma for a week after one of the incidents. Strangely, despite her soul spring now being entirely black, she could still cast regular spells and still tap into normal mana. Weird. Where did it come from?

If I could get hold of the [void mage] class seed, I would be able to seriously manufacture void mana. I suspected that void mana may well lead me to a new color for my soul forge. I also wanted to know whether I could make specialized [void-trees]. I theorized it should be possible, in the same way I could have star-mana-producing leaves.

Maybe the end goal was like a single grand unifying mana and soul theorem. Something that would bridge from star mana, to hex and blood magic, to this void-mana schtick.

“We should design a response plan if the other continents ever get attacked by the demon king,” Lausanne proposed one day to the Valthorns. “I saw the destruction of the Eastern Continent first hand, and we, too, suffered the destruction of the Rottedlands. Though it may feel nice to see them suffer for their past crimes against our aggression, the vast majority of the populace is not complicit in their crimes. We should give aid.”

“Aid does not come free, and if we are to provide assistance, with all due respect, Lady Lausanne, we must use that opportunity to spread his divine faith. The faith of Aeon.”

“That’ll trigger a war,” a diplomat suggested. “At least, from the more aggressive nations.”

Lausanne nodded. “Understood, which is why we must have a plan. There must be nations that we can ally with or be friendly with, who can then act as our beachhead. Somewhere for the regular folk to retreat to and somewhere that we can push back at the demons and stem the destruction. Save lives.”

“I believe the key problem is that Aeon is immobile and remains firmly rooted on our continent. It is his grace and divine protection that allows us the luxury of this conversation. It is our fortune and luck and their misfortune.” Some of the lords really took the shoe-polishing and ass-kissing to the next level. The scary thing was, because of years of “brainwashing” and “propaganda” from the Freshlands Treetiary College and Treeology, they actually believed it.

It was unnerving, but this was the outcome of my own actions. I wondered how the Emperor of Man felt when, after millennia, his followers worshipped him instead of speaking to him the way he wanted.

“Can we transplant Aeon’s trees?” a lady asked. “I mean, that’s what druids used to do, right, transplanting trees with magic?”

Fuck no. After a century or so, I was not moving.

“I mean, just the lesser trees.”

“It’s something worth considering and merits discussion with Aeon himself,” Kavio answered. Chancellor Brandak, Alka, and Edna were all in the audience for this proposal.

“We have six years, at least, to plan a response,” Lausanne said. “I propose we identify friendly nations on each continent and start making the necessary preparations. We can have seedlings and smaller plants moved over.”

“But does Aeon’s divinity and presence carry over? I had the impression his powers cover only the Central Continent.”

“Maybe it’s an issue of quantity. Maybe with enough trees and seedlings, he could project power?” It was an interesting discussion, but I was not about to reveal that all the trees I controlled so far were linked via a massive network of roots.

There were certain groups of priests who felt we were too fixated on the Central Continent and wanted to preach on the other continents. They would be delighted at this news.

How did I make my divine presence felt?

Perhaps a portal, with roots? Like how I invaded the demon world temporarily?

4

YEAR 160

The ruins of Demon King Tigash were converted into a memorial for the dead. I felt it was appropriate, now that my powers had gradually restored the damaged terrain to almost ninety percent of its former self. It was just a little memento to remember those who sacrificed themselves in war. Once the terrain was restored, it would be hard to tell this place was once a hellscape.

A city would be built here, over time. A war-focused one, of course. At the same time, this place, now that I’d reversed the damage, did have residual magical energy that I could use, so I made a dungeon.

It was just sweet, petty revenge on my part. I would train multiple generations here, with the energies of the demon king.

On the topic of ley lines and dungeons, we also explored ways of enhancing these magical but naturally occurring geological features. Ley lines seemed to be the mana-magical equivalent of sun spots, and now that I had a massive map of the Central Continent’s ley lines, it did seem somewhat evenly distributed across the continent. Somewhat, and that did imply areas where there was a particular lack of ley lines and areas that had lumps.

What were ley lines?

When dealing with only a few ley lines, this was a particularly pointless question to ask. But with a continent’s worth of ley lines, I could start making some inferences.

“Ley lines are naturally occurring,” Akrenaf, the wolf, said. “Creating them is impossible.”

I disagreed with that. The fact that there were so many of them across the world implied something. One: it was something created from the land itself, perhaps by way of agglomeration of energies. Two: the sun-spot analogy suggested that the world’s core had some kind of mana-field that created these ley lines.

< Ley lines power us, > Lilies explained one day. < The Lake was created by the ley lines eons ago, but the ley line has moved since. >

Again, ley lines could move over long periods of time. This clearly suggested a mana-magnetosphere kind of mechanic deep in the planet. A mana-tosphere. This was quite like how magnetic poles could shift over time. If these ley lines had no polarity, then it made sense that its distribution was random since there was no repelling or guiding force.

“Could the elemental features or colors of the ley lines be a way these ley lines differentiate themselves?” Patreeck theorized that the colors were a kind of “polarity,” instead of just north and south for magnets. Manas had multiple poles, perhaps?

This theory was dispelled when we analyzed the colors of the ley lines. Black and blue dominated the colors of the ley lines. There were also “neutral” ley lines with no coloration to it, and these were by far the most common source. If there was a polarity, there should be a lumpy distribution of the colors, but that was not what we were seeing. It was random.

“Perhaps it’s more of an electricity-like mechanic. The core is just a source, and there’s something on the surface that causes the mana from the core to arc to the surface.”

This would be like plasma globes. The plasma filaments were thus the ley lines. Also possible, but it did not explain coloration.

Our research into ley lines was primarily driven by two things.

One: could I supercharge ley lines to make super-powerful weapons? The existing ley lines were not powerful enough, so could I, using my natural powers, influence or cause the energies to gather in such a way that the ley lines became significantly more powerful than they normally were? This thought process was a bit like attempting to use canals and channels to accumulate multiple smaller streams into a larger river.

Two: could I use multiple ley lines or enhance ley lines to create dungeons with significantly higher level caps? This would allow my level one hundred twenty-fivers to level up quickly and thus achieve the level needed to counter the demon king’s next attempt.

Firstly, how did I interact with ley lines? So far, I had been on the receiving end of the ley lines’ energies. Were there historical records where mages attempted to meddle with ley lines?

I sent out an order to the Valthorns and then to the various mage guilds. I got close to nothing. Very few people ever recorded their meddlings with ley lines. I was sure multiple mages had considered whether it was possible to tap into such natural circumstances for power. It was likely most of them died when exposed to such power.

I tried meddling with ley lines. I went back to the earlier ley lines, like the ones that held my [threetrees of mana]. I extended my roots, attempting to follow the flow of mana deep into the ground. I went as deep as I could, following the subtle fluctuations of mana.

I’d gotten a lot better at sensing and following the traces of mana after all that practice. My roots could also stretch deeper than before. The ley lines seemed to all head to the center. There must be something down there, no?

The distance to the core was massive, I reckoned. Assuming this world was no larger than Earth, that was still some six thousand kilometers of distance. Could I dig that far down?

Yet I felt this challenge was one I was incredibly well suited for. I had various tunneling skills and abilities to extend my roots. If I could create little microclimates and “pockets” as I dug downward, I’d run into whatever was down there.

Perhaps even magma or the planet’s mantle? I should be able to break past the crust.

So I did.

A tree’s journey to the center of the planet.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I felt that now was a good time to try.

I would dig tunnels with my roots, and eventually, at the limit of the roots’ range, I would create a large pocket of space. I would then spawn a Giant Attendant Tree there. This renewed my roots’ range and allowed me to extend them further. The roots supplied water and minerals for the attendant trees to survive, and the tunnels themselves supplied air.

It was a long, laborious, and somewhat boring process. But I eventually got deep. Minerals and strange metallic ores, crystals of all kinds were here. And that damned black as coal Blackstar Gems were aplenty. Gems. Hah. They might as well call it Blackstar Coal. That was a better name for it.

It also got hotter.

And hotter.

I dug.

And I dug.

I dug for weeks.

Months.

I dug without seeing much other than rock, stone, sand, dirt, and ore.

I followed a faint trace of magic. Perhaps I was just tracing the ley line.

I kept digging. The heat was still manageable, thanks to my various resistances.

Then, following the ley lines, I broke through the hard crust, and if I had a jaw, I’d say my jaw dropped.

I had stumbled into a pocket of space down below the crust, and instead of just rock and minerals, I saw the remains of a civilization I did not recognize. Deep down here, it was dark and without light. There was hardly any oxygen, save those that somehow managed to make it down here through my root tunnels.

But my spiritual senses could still see the structures, ancient.

Preserved, buried in such depths. This was at least a hundred miles below the crust!

[Title: Rediscoverer of the Magmarian Dwarf City earned.]

Magmarian Dwarves, I thought. All the people that once lived here were all dead. Long, long ago. But their massive towers and structures remained, mostly made of a metal I did not recognize. There were no bodies, no one on the streets. The structures looked like they’d been untouched for eons.

I spawned a Giant Attendant Tree here, at the edge of their ancient city. The earth seemed to have caved in on them. Was this my fate if the demon king’s corruptions overwhelmed us? Did a similar event happen to them?

I noticed how the curvature of the rock above their city was almost perfectly round. They must have had a barrier or something of that sort that shielded them.

My roots spread through their ancient city. It felt like I was in a post-apocalyptic movie, the last man walking down a deserted city. There was little sign of chaos; the ancient structures looked beautifully preserved with hardly any damage. It seemed no war happened here. Their city was quite large, and I kept going.

My roots spread through the city’s tiled roads. The tiles were old and easily gave way to my roots. I could use this city as a secret hideout for the people.

There were all kinds of buildings. I spawned beetles, my heat-resistant variant. Down here, the heat and pressure was quite high, and my spiders would not do. The beetles then fanned out, searching for life.

Would there be survivors?

I thought not. There was no vegetation in this area; certainly these Magmarian dwarves did not survive without food. Unless they ate rock. Maybe they ate rock. My beetles highlighted some buildings of interest.

My roots followed.

Temples, ancient, massive temples. Made of an even stranger metal. No. Crystal. My roots approached, and I felt something push back. Magic.

The temple was surrounded by steps, like a pyramid. Crystalline columns surrounded the temples, and each had a statue on it. Statues of creatures. A four-winged bird, a scorpion, a dragon with a halo on its head, a dog with two balls of flame. All sculpted out of crystal.

Were these dwarves some kind of Egyptian equivalent? What levels of wealth did they reach to do so?

The temple itself was the first building I saw in this entire city that crumbled. My vines snaked up the stairs and then, as with vines, crawled up all the crumbled walls. I saw a large broken statue inside, a humanoid structure with its head gone.

There were words on the building walls that I did not recognize. All scrubbed off.

What happened here?

Another group of beetles highlighted something else. Another set of temples. These temples were still intact. They were also made with the same materials and the same crystalline structures.

There were no statues inside.

My roots spread, and then we reached the center of this city. There was a vast domed building, solid and made of a mix of crystal and metal. It had no entrances, no holes.

It looked like…a tomb.

I had to know, so my roots attacked it. The crystal was strong, and it held through the first hit. And the second. And the third. And the tenth. But it cracked at the twentieth root strike, and my roots now had a hole where they could enter.

And for the first time, bodies. Ancient bodies all preserved in crystal. At least ten thousand bodies. I sensed no life in them; their souls had long since departed. At the center was another crystal, but this crystal seemed like an equipment rather than a structure. It was a lot more intricate, and I sensed fluctuations in its energy. It was reacting to my spiritual sight.

My vines then touched it, and the crystal attempted to draw mana from me. I decided to give it a bit.

The crystal glowed and responded to the mana, and then, from it…an apparition appeared, floating right above the crystal. It was a hologram! A magical hologram!

“Today is the twenty-fourth year since the fall of the Daemos Comet. We remain trapped underneath the Daemos Comet’s tremendous magical sludge, and our attempts to break through the sludge have not been successful. Our archmages theorize it would take at least ten thousand years for the chaotic energies from the sludge to dissipate.”

Magical sludge? But it was all dirt to me.

“Our fellow sister cities are all equally trapped by the sludge.”

It paused.

It was that same man, but he looked a lot older. “Today is the forty-sixth year since the fall. Our food stockpiles have run out. Our archmages have been working hard daily to create food, maintain vegetation, and keep us alive. But things are honestly bleak. We expect not to survive for long. I’ve called on the archmages to start our self-entombment. We may as well give ourselves a peaceful death.”

It paused again, and it flicked to a different scene. A different person.

“Chancellor Mar has been entombed. Honestly, at this point, everyone’s given up, and well, me too. We’re trapped in this hell. Who would have thought a comet would have ended our world so easily? Our prayers to our gods have all yielded nothing. Eras, Geis, and Deyar, we prayed to you.” He sobbed. “But nothing. Not a word. Why have you forsaken us? Doomed us to this!”

It flickered again, and the scene now changed to a different person.

“We pray to the gods Eras, Geis, and Deyar, may we be protected even in death.”

It flickered again, and another person appeared.

“I am the last one here, the last mage-priest of the Marga. I assented to the wish of the others for their peaceful death. In my anger and hatred for our fate, I destroyed the temple of Eras. Eras has abandoned us in our time of need. Where was he when we needed him? Is this it? Trapped in a city underneath a massive layer of molten sludge?”

It paused, and the same person then continued.

“The Jewel of the Margma’s protective barriers continued to hold. I had attempted to disable it, but I failed. The jewel remains untouched underneath this dome. I refuse to die. I will continue to experiment on the jewel.”

That was the last image. There was another jewel!

My roots quickly explored beneath the dome, and indeed, there was a large subterranean structure, a series of tunnels and walkways. These dwarves built relatively sophisticated cities!

Then I saw it, about a few hundred feet beneath the dome, through walkways and stairways.

A bright blue crystal, still faintly glowing, but slightly off center. It was no longer on the pedestal but still on the platform. There were a few bodies around it, all dead.

My roots and vines reached out and briefly touched it.

[You have obtained an ancient relic, Ley Line Lens - Focusing Shield Gem.]

A ley line lens? Such a thing existed in the ancient world? I spawned a few more attendant trees outside around this ancient city, but this time, I attuned them to the magic in the area. Indeed, I’d been following the ley line all the way down.

I spread my roots and then noticed that there were other ley lines that converged here. The ley lines on the surface were like streams of a river, and here, in this very ancient city, those streams converged. Taking the logic that all the ley lines we saw on the surface were nothing more than little branches of the same whole, the core would thus be the great ocean.

The ley lines here were a strong, robust blue and also black. Multiple colors mixed here. But over the millennia, it had moved, shifted slightly, like how rivers reshaped the land and like how magnetic polarities moved.

The ley line lens was now off center, no longer along where the ley lines were focused.

I moved the ley line lens, placing it back on its pedestal, properly. At first, nothing. I adjusted the pedestal, moving it until it was focused along the invisible paths of the ley lines. It suddenly glowed, and then it emitted a vast, powerful shield that covered the entirety of the ancient city. Yet it did not cut off my roots. It had somehow taken to my roots’ signature, identifying I was a friendly party.

The shield was back.

If the ley lines remained, surely the shield would last. If so, the city clearly outlasted its inhabitants.

The shield’s restoration also seemed to bring certain structures in the city back online. My roots sensed mana flows in the city itself, and my roots retraced those flows to large buildings that housed other additional crystals that “harvested” energies from the shield as a form of power. These were things I’d not seen before, a unique set of runes and power. My roots connected to the structures, and I wanted to study them.

I spent days studying these ancient runes and the formations they used and also the crystals. They were regular crystals but programmed by the runes and formations to function as an ambient mana absorber. It was really cool, and after about two months of studying, my subsidiary trees unlocked new functions.

[New subsidiary tree variant obtained: Crystalline Mana Trees. Crystalline mana trees are trees with crystals in them. The crystals can store mana and also be tailored to perform specific functions. Each tree can have only a single crystal type.]

[Tuberous storage upgraded: Crystalline Potatoes. Potato mana storage now comes with crystals, and this increases capacity and also ability to store different kinds of mana!]

[New lab variant obtained: Underground Living Crystal Labs. Allows creation of crystals in a lab.]

Somehow, the studies meant I had rediscovered the ways to grow crystals in a lab. That was not exactly groundbreaking; I mean, I knew that was possible from earth, but this was hell of a roundabout way of rediscovering it.

Surely, if I needed to make massive crystal lattices, what better way than to grow the necessary crystals myself rather than actually hoping to find those crystals out in the wild? Thanks, ancient civilization, I was one step closer to lab-grown crystal superbombs!

At the same time, there must be something further down there.

With the discovery of an ancient city so deep underground, I wondered, could this world actually just be layers upon layers that millions of years ago, this planet was very, very small, and each of these disasters just added a layer of earth and crust over it?

Was this just a slice of layer cake all the way down?

I had to know, so I traced the ley lines and kept digging.

5

YEAR 160 (PART 2)

So many different things to focus on, and perhaps that was how an empire lost focus. An emperor could not do everything at once, and though I had significantly more advantages than any regular emperor, I, too, felt this limitation. It was increasingly obvious that I was often the bottleneck of any decision-making process.

I had so many different concurrent research projects, all operated by my artificial minds. Time to check in on each of them.

Anti-divine research. The lack of testability hampered progress. The artificial minds were trying their best to reverse-engineer the component parts of the blackstar gems, but it was really educated guesses at this point. Without ways to test effectiveness, it was hard to know what exactly worked and what didn’t.

Demon invasion research. Research into extreme terrains was not doing too bad. My main body actually had all-terrain adaptability, and that essentially meant it was possible for me to survive in their world. The problem was my subsidiary trees and also the forces that I had to bring to mount a successful retaliation.

Patreeck and my artificial minds were modelling various scenarios and presented with a wide range of areas where we needed.

Firstly, we needed a way to create mana on their home world and, from that mana, create water and other materials we needed. Only with this we could hope to maintain a permanent staging point on their home world. I wondered whether such resources were available on their world, but I thought the chances were very slim. So it was likely that we’d have to make water. It wasn’t entirely impossible, there were spells and gems that could do so, but this was a key starting point.

Secondly, we were also working on the alien-world beetles. This meant further enhancing their ability to operate in ultra-arid environments. The brief moments when I spawned trees on the other side gave me some data, one of which was all the beetles were incredibly brittle without the necessary moisture. Even my trees didn’t hold themselves together that well. We needed to design a replacement fluid, something that would not just immediately evaporate in the demon world. Developing this evaporation-resistant fluid would strengthen both tree and beetle and would reduce the impact of the water scarcity.

Thirdly was a matter that needed Stella’s input as my first [void mage]: the issue of maintaining the demon rifts and the possibility of creating our own rifts. If we could create rifts, we could even find a way to send her home. When I told her that this was a way of testing the portals, she was quickly on board. The idea of helping to defeat the demons through research seemed to appeal to her. But first, I needed to recreate the rifts, and that was…a lot harder. Stella experimented with teleportation spells instead, and actually, teleportation within the same area, or even the same continent, did not require any void mana. This meant void mana may actually be only needed for inter-world issues. Was void mana perhaps some kind of “transdimensional fluid?”

If so, was the void mana merely something to act as a shell, to send a packet through the stars? I…didn’t know how to test my theory.

“Let’s send somebody to the two moons,” Stella said. “We don’t know how to send someone to the other world, but I think we can first attempt the moons.”

That…was a good idea. Were the demons on the same “realm” as us? Or were they actually creatures on some other planes of existence? Maybe this test would go nowhere, but in any case, teleporting to the moon sounded like a good first step.

One small step for the tree, one giant step for the forest!

After that, there was also the sea-related research and the idea of somehow developing a network of deep-ocean roots. My roots would essentially be subsea internet cables, wouldn’t it? If I could make deep ocean roots, where, at certain regular intervals, I had floating plants to sustain the network?

So, on this front, we also had research on making my roots go further, last longer, and could survive the pressures and dangers of the deep sea. There were monsters down there. I hoped Reefy would be able to assist, or could Reefy be a bridge?

But it had a strong turtle instinct. That meant Reefy’s first instinct was to just hide and build huge defenses.

Were all reefs like this?

Why were trees different?

Anyway, I didn’t have any progress on ocean-level grass, but I did make progress on large floating vines and floating roots. Perhaps I could float a root or a vine all the way to the other continents? Convert the entire ocean into a massive hydroponic farm?

Ideas, ideas, but whether the system cooperated by rewarding me with a skill was another matter.

Then there was the matter of bombs. Alka, my chief scientist, was doing his best. I mean, he was a little bit mad, as with all those who dabbled in research, but I supposed dealing with bombs did tend to make one a lot edgier than usual.

I decided to award him one of my [Court of the Deitree], so that I could teleport him away should one of the bombs go nuts.

No progress was ever made without a few accidental explosions. On this front, Stella was also contributing, because one of our earth-inspired ideas was a star-mana and void-mana fusion bomb.

We had to quickly allocate a space, an uninhabited segment of the continent, for Alka’s bomb research. Kei quickly dubbed it our Area 51. I thought that wasn’t quite correct; I thought it’d be more of our Bikini Atoll or some shit.

It was honestly quite entertaining to watch shit blow up. I would love to see all these new bombs blow up in front of the demon king. His research also led to some attempts at mixing crystal matrixes with hexbombs. It was pretty much a “dirty bomb.”

It didn’t work very well; it seemed the hex itself did not enjoy being trapped in crystal matrixes and would also corrode the runic formations present inside any crystal matrixes. Perhaps we were doing it wrong, but Alka and his small army of crystalworkers were hard at work.

Then after research was the issue of training. Every year we focused on training new people, and the training program of the major institutions got finetuned year after year.

I’d also awarded more upgraded classes, and in Edna’s case, I upgraded more of her skills.

Also, thanks to my recent research into mana, I’d managed to figure out some ways to increase a ley line’s strength. In some ways, ley lines were like “feng shui” flows, the will of the world’s movements, and they were affected by strange offerings and structures that normally did not have any magical effects.

In short, a simple statue of the right kind, in the right places, could actually amplify a ley line. There was a certain set of rules around ley lines, and these rules only applied in a relatively limited distance from the ley line. I was still in the process of figuring it out, but I got help from that [Shaman].

He carved a simple totem and placed it quite a distance from the ley line, and yet, somehow, it interacted with the ley line and increased its power. That pushed up the levels of the monsters from a dungeon made of said ley line by ten!

So, after a few more tweaks, we finally made a dungeon able to spawn level one hundred monsters.

[Level 100 Dungeons unlocked. Dungeon level limit increased.]

Uh? Stupid system. Why make us jump through hoops just to allow us to make more level one hundred monsters?

With that, my Valthorns, especially those in the level eighties and nineties, and also Edna, started challenging the level one hundred dungeons. I still had a huge stockpile of experience seeds, though right now, my limiter was actually my [ginseng] plant. Back then, when I first got the skill, I was limited to three ginseng at any one time. Now, I was still limited to about fifteen ginseng at any time, and the ginseng needed at least five years before they were sufficiently mature to unlock the level limit. Essentially, every five years, I could unlock fifteen individuals. I missed a few decades during the Burning Rottedlands era and had been resuming it after I regained my own sense of self, a good fifty years ago. There were a few accidental failures, too, due to the erratic nature of the monster spawns, so I still had about sixty-five or so ginseng I could deploy.

That was quite a small pool, but I decided I had to be generous and gave it to most of the Valthorns that capped out at around level eighty to eighty-five.

I recently also had my first Valthorn Treefolk that hit his level limit. His level limit was actually higher, at level ninety-five. Still, his class mix was a bit part [Aeonic Berserker] and part [Wood Mage], and also part [villager], so some of those levels were not that “effective.” Still, it was enlightening to look at a high-leveled Treefolk under the hood.

One of the immediate differences was that the Soul Spring seemed to have a secondary source of mana. There was a small trickle of “water” that dripped in from up above, as if it rained in the soul spring. After some analysis, this was the Treefolks’ natural ability to absorb vitality and strength from its surroundings, like a tree would gather nutrients from its surroundings.

So I really wondered how different Lilies’ soul spring would be. I was unable to view my own, after all, and Lilies and Reefy might be the closest equivalent I would ever find.

Lumoof, Patreearch of the Treeology, the First of the Decarches, led a prayer once every month. There was a schedule in place; each Patreearch or Matreearch would lead a prayer, and they would take turns to do so.

At first, it felt very…old school to have a religion that conducted prayers, but the priests eventually convinced me that their very class demanded them to conduct acts of faith, and mass prayers were one of the best ways to do so.

I still remembered how weird it was to have others pray to me, at first, but eventually I got used to it. Now, these mass prayers were the next level. I wondered whether this was how superstars felt having a big fanbase. The halls were massive for the prayers, and I made an extremely large-size [Tree of Prayer] in the center of the hall for them to focus their prayers. It was easily one of the most beautiful ones I’d made, too, with all sorts of flowering colors and little glowing lights.

To add to the spectacle, I had one of the artificial minds coordinate the flowering with the sermons. It helped, apparently.

Lumoof was also a recipient of my [soul strengthening seed], and the unlocked level limit seemed to de-age him by a decade or two, simply because his soul now had a lot more vitality, and that vitality flowed into his overall wellbeing.

Faith was one of the unifying features of the Central Continent. I could actually see the parallels of the Central Continent with the Holy Roman Empire, and also the Muslim empires, in that faith and governance were intertwined. Part of this by design, my own attempts to forge unity through culture meant the religious aspects also meant there was institutional backing for the missionary and preachers.

As a result, the temples of Aeon, over time, also became a social venue and a place for those seeking audiences with authority to mingle. Prayers were one of the few rare moments where nobles and common folk could be seen together, at least among the common races of humans, elves, dwarves, and centaurs.

For the non-humans, many still remembered the earlier racial purges, and that too was a cause for wars between the kingdoms under my jurisdiction. It seemed that past transgressions continued to remain, even till today.

Lumoof paused as he touched those who came for prayer briefly. A [blessing], a skill of many high priests. It often granted a temporary boost to their health and strength, usually for a week or two. The short duration was intentional, meant to encourage their return to the temples.

The baby blessings were next. Children and spawn of all races were brought before him, he chanted, and they all had a warm glow. Also a blessing. It seemed that just like how I had a special [nursery], the priests too had a separate set of blessings for children.

There were a few more acts of “miracles,” as they called them, as Lumoof demonstrated a power available to all the Patreearchs. An act of healing or restoration was very much like my ability to remove curses and fix arms, though with some required additional items or objects. Like my own power, depending on the scope of healing needed, they may also require the person’s memento.

I had often forgotten that priests and shamans had abilities that could often influence the [soul]. The day’s proceedings were over.

Lumoof relaxed and walked to the back of the prayer halls. Some of the junior priests exclaimed their sense of wonder at Lumoof’s abilities.

He smiled.

“A moment, Patreearch Lumoof?” The nobles often tried to find time to speak to the high priests after prayer.

“Ah. I have a meeting to attend to.” He scurried away.

Arlisa and Lausanne attended these prayers occasionally, and they both used a ring that seemed to distort everyone’s perception of them, usually giving them some semblance of privacy. Afterward, they’d have lunch in one of the city’s many restaurants.

Lausanne was pregnant again, but she coped well; her high levels and strong physique meant she suffered few of pregnancy’s many challenges. Arlisa was pretty much her bodyguard, though there were a few Valthorns in the vicinity ready to assist her should it be needed.

Lausanne had the talk with Arlisa, about children and sex, and the not-so-young Arlisa blushed. She was, after all, nineteen, almost twenty, and for half elves, this was at the very edge of adulthood. Lausanne then shared some differences about how babies were cared for on the other continents, and Arlisa decided it was too much for her, so she changed the subject. She had decided to work a little bit harder this year, and that hard work quickly translated to levels.

Maybe it was the pressure of having a younger sibling at her age that was just a baby?

I’d never wondered about the issue of the age gap between siblings in a world where elves could have children for centuries.

Did they even have laws on minors? How did one even shape laws on minors when what was considered a minor differed across species and the intermixed species that matured at different speeds?

6

YEAR 161

Stella’s attempt to teleport to the moon failed again. Of course, during this time, she and Kei brainstormed many issues.

“Surely the moon has no oxygen.”

“We don’t know for sure.”

“It makes better sense for me to go,” Kei said. “I’m a golem. I can live there.”

“But what if I can’t send you back?”

“And sending you there is a better idea?”

“I’m the [void mage]. I can cast the same spell in reverse.”

There were two moons, and both moons had a somewhat elliptical orbit around this world. Or at least that was how it seemed to me.

“You’ll die first,” Kei responded. “If there are monsters, or if the moon is inhabitable, then you’re dead the moment the rift opens.”

“Air doesn’t pass through rifts.” That was what I said, really. The demons’ rifts were more like pathways filled with filters. One had to use the exact mana sequence and resonance to actually interact with them.

“How do we know that?” Kei argued. “That sample size is based on the demons’ rifts. Why should our magic be the same?”

Stella agreed, but then, this entire argument was one of the few distractions from the real fundamental problem they had. Portal spells…had been lost to time. Heroes had a teleportation spell, unlocked as part of the heroes’ grimoire when they hit somewhere around level one hundred one to one hundred five, but those were teleportation spells that only worked on a small number of people around them and wasn’t a “portal.”

They continued experimenting. This, being an area of magic and most of my magical knowledge more of the crafting or enchantment sort, meant my ability to contribute was extremely limited, despite my mana mastery.

I also looked at my inventory. I had stored so many different things over the decades and then looked at the single unused [Forest Rod].

I wondered…

Could I use this on the demon’s world? It was mostly useless on this world, but could the rod be my single super-terraforming stick to allow me to make that single base on their home world?

It could work. I quickly analyzed the rod for its characteristics again. I had done so in the past and found certain parts of it confusing, its material some kind of strange metal. It was strange that it absorbed mana from whoever, and whoever flooded it with mana gained control of it. Yet how it performed its terraforming or terrain shaping was still something I didn’t quite understand, simply because it worked very differently from my own powers.

I still didn’t understand what it was. There was a set of crystals inside that seemed to hold the entirety of the rod’s functionalities, and those crystals refused to reveal its secrets. I didn’t want to poke too hard, either, and risk losing my one and only Forest Rod.

But it was worth trying. Once we could establish a reliable riftportal to the demon world, the Forest Rod would be going to the other side.

Later during the year, I received strange news from my agents across the other continents. It seemed that the swift death of the demon king rattled the leadership of the various temples, and they’d sent agents to investigate whether I possessed weapons of incredible destruction. They didn’t think Kei was strong enough to take down a demon king on her own, so their next bet was that I had given her something of tremendous power or she located some super-powerful artifact.

They seemed to have spent the last few years attempting to use a range of scrying and spying spells on the Central Continent but had been unsuccessful. My [domain] must have deterred most of the spying in the immediate vicinity of Freshka. I decided to test it out with some mages, and they reported that it was impossible to use certain types of spells around the Freshka Valley and that “deterrence” covered the three academies as well.

The only unprotected academies, in a sense, were my naval academies at the coastal cities, the place where we trained new sailors and captains. One of the flaws of the naval academies was their inherent distance from me, so the effects of my various “power-leveling” abilities were slightly weaker, even with the amplification effects from my Giant Attendant Trees.

So, since their scry spells failed, they attempted to use spies and double-crossers instead. They approached a lot of Valthorns with the usual cocktail of espionage. Girls, money, power, artifacts in exchange of information.

I wasn’t going to hide the fact that I trapped the targeted location with bombs and that I could somewhat guess the demon king’s location. I mean, that place was even a memorial now, and the tale of the Valthorns’ bravery in face of mortal danger was one of the recurring new tales most aspiring recruit held close to their hearts. So what was initially secrets among the intelligentsia became a common folk’s tale. The stories of the kingdom’s massive bomb arrays went out, and it was both scandalous and inspiring at the same time.

Scandalous for the temples, because the larger populace always thought it was only heroes who could damage the demon kings.

“It seems the demon kings can be harmed by mortal weapons!”

The temples then had a counter-propaganda problem of their own.

In the past, they had always let the heroes fight the demon king. Mortals of the world were nothing more than fodder. But now, the concept that the people of the world could aid in the swift destruction of the demon king was a set of ideas never ever thought possible.

“If so, then does it mean anyone can gain the power to challenge the heroes and demon king?”

A tale of hope and power that man could challenge gods. The core ethos that “only heroes can defeat demon kings” had been damaged. If we were to successfully defeat a demon king without any heroes, then we would have thoroughly broken that belief.

The temples tried to twist it to say it was my blessings that allowed the bombs to harm the demon king, that the demon king remained an enemy of only the divine.

The four temples over the centuries had implicitly told the general populace to “know your place,” that the demon king was not one for mortal men to challenge.

So the tale of Jura and Lovis’s self-sacrifice to destroy the demon king was the single best counter for this tale. That it was possible for natives to rise from their stations and seize their fates for themselves. That if there were no summoned heroes, the natives could rise to the challenge.

Hope. Glory. Legend.

The tale of the Valthorn heroes was a hit among the general populace, unlike the tale of the foreign heroes. The bards and songstresses made different versions, with many embellishments both big and small.

Hope was a very powerful poison.

Already the stories swayed the stability of many priests so that their words of gods suddenly seemed a little hollow.

“Surely the gods don’t trust us with such power,” the speculation went. “That’s why the gods imported their own people. It’s divine nepotism!”

“Why do only summoned heroes get gifted powers? Why do we who live here, who prayed devotedly to our gods, not deserving of any lesser power? Is that fairness?”

Poison.

The nations faced internal conflict from the stories, so much so that the tales were banned. But banning them just led to them being propagated secretly, and there were no real ways such stories could be stopped with the proliferation of [messages].

“The gods play favorites with their own favorite heroes. We are just cattle, offering prayers to gods that do not care for us. If this story is true, and it must be true, it is possible for us to rise and be more than this.”

That led to a small wave of refugees. The kingdoms and nations decided that it was better to let those who believed go to the other side rather than risk domestic conflict. If these refugees, empowered by hope, were to take up arms against the kingdom, blood would be spilled. Sure, they would win, but what was the point?

Of course, this pleased me. Loyal believers from the other continents. More war potential? Sure thing, I needed all hands on deck for the next time the demon king landed here.

The tale was especially popular among enchanters, alchemists, and gem makers, and more than a handful made the journey to the Central Continent, tempted by the chance to participate in making demon king–slaying bombs.

“These stories are so absurd.” Kei laughed as she heard the tales recounted to her. “It’s so much war propaganda.”

Stella nodded. “It’s really a military puff piece. If I was a young, hot-blooded male with a talent for fighting or making bombs, I’d probably sign up for the Valthorn academy right now.”

“And why did they make me into this superhero?” The tale of Kei was also similarly embellished. I didn’t find the tales of Kei exceptionally embellished, when her powers were really, truly, superhero-tier stuff. I mean, magical floating cannon arrays that shot super-powered mini-nuke bullets? Superhero tier.

The story had the effect of inspiring locals, too. My chief researcher particularly relished the challenge of creating bombs powerful enough to kill the demon king.

The day he made a bomb that powerful, I would have him repeat, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Or maybe he would regret it, like how that Alfred Nobel regretted the creation of TNT.

No matter, we needed bombs. Big ones. And I would have them.

7

YEAR 162

The Big Deep Dig went on. Progress was getting slower, as the ground turned more hostile. Certain areas were filled with hot magma that I could not spawn roots even if I wanted to.

One odd observation.

The inner part of this world wasn’t uniformly hot. I supposed it was similar back on Earth, too, since the flow of the inner mantle meant there should be fluctuations. So we dug horizontally when we could not go lower.

I wondered whether I could invent geological survey tools. It would save me so much time if I could just scan the earth for parts where the solid ground was deepest.

I got nothing.

System? That’s your cue to give me a skill.

Nope. Nothing.

I paused and recalled my roots already had some kind of mineral-sensing ability and various filtration abilities, but I guessed sonar-roots were a step too far, even for the system. Maybe it was a domain ability?

I kept digging, and I found strange, large bones. Naturally, I excavated them and sent them to my [biolabs]. Archeologists would probably frown at my methods, but oh well. I’d like to have ancient dinosaurs, please. Ancient dragons were fine, too.

Something that quickly turned up was that the bones all bore some kind of damage: claws, swords, there were even little bits of crystals in them.

I kept digging.

Bones. More bones.

Strange bones, and as my roots unearthed more bones, I soon found the strangest one of them all. It was massive. Each bone was the size of a medium-size tree, and more importantly, each bone had a ton of little gems in it.

When we placed it in the [biolab]—

I heard a voice and saw a vision—

An experience similar to that of the ancient tree shard.

The skies burned as the rift opened.

“We expected this, the coming of the Invaders. The master astrologers have watched the skies and stars for millennia and have foretold this day. The day when the demons come to our world. Invaders. Minions of the So-Called Gods. Invaders. We thought we were well prepared, the might of our dragon empire was unmatched. But our pride would soon meet its downfall.”

A sky full of stars was instantly ripped apart, and demons poured out of the rift. But they met resistance, as a flight of dragons rose to fight them. The demons did not last long against the might of the demons.

“The Invader Gods were relentless.”

More demons, and more dragons fell from the skies. More and more demons flooded through the rifts.

“We fought. We destroyed every single one of the demon crystals.”

I saw images of dragons; they burned the demon crystals, melted them.

“But we could not hunt down every single one, as the invaders came more and more frequently. They were crafty and hid their demonic attunement crystals deep in the ground. Our master mages could not find all of them. An invasion that was once centuries turned to one that occurred every few decades.”

More dragons fell as the rifts widened.

“We were humbled. Their numbers were clear; even ants could take down an elephant in sufficient numbers. Our kind took forever to replenish our numbers, and they could sacrifice millions to take us down. We could not resist forever.”

Images, visions of dragons battling it out with the demons. Gruesome, the dragons were all bloodied and injured, and they kept fighting.

“Each time, more of our fortresses fell, our younglings slaughtered.”

A continent covered with the blood of dragons.

“We sought a way to end this, but there were none.”

Then a scene of a massive demon and its accompanying army of demon-drakes.

“The demons adopted our form. It was an insult to injury that I could not take. Our last stand and we lost. The world had succumbed to the demons then.”

It was the will, the last words of the dragon etched into the memory of bones. But when was this? There were no humans in that world I could see; were they a society of dragons then? The bones, with the little daemolite throughout, were incredibly ancient, as my [biolab] did some tests to make an estimate.

Ancient. At least a few hundred thousand years? The magical energies that remained in the largest of the dragon bones were unfamiliar and different. Were they the “precursors” of this world?

Seemed corny that this world had a draconic origin. Or maybe they were just one of the many earlier races. Perhaps, they were the dinosaurs of this world.

We kept digging.

< Are there dragons in the world? > I asked Lilies. I honestly had not seen any. Except for the demon’s dragon. I mean, at this point, dragons were really stuff of ancient legends.

> I know not of their fate. <

At this depth, it’d take almost a month to walk from the surface to the deepest level. The magical energies at this depth were already slightly more active than on the surface, and the slow progress was partly due to the terrain. The magical energies and environmental factors that I could easily resist were harder on the beetles, and they had to be reinforced with active regeneration. They were heat resistant, but even then, their performance was slower.

The lens from that Margmar city seemed to be a relic of some kind, but I still didn’t understand how it worked, how it was made, and what it actually did other than create this magical barrier. It looked like a very beautiful blue glass, though. But I could think of a few ways to use them. For one, how would it work as a shield against a demon king? Could they see active battle?

Two, the lens clearly twisted the ley line in a way such that it became the shield. Could I change the shape of the shield such that it functioned as a weapon?

In any case, Edna and a few high-level Valthorns were the first group that made the journey into the depths. There were things I could not see or read at the depths; my vision was after all mostly limited by my spiritual sense, and my root’s “earth-sense.” They would descend to the Margmar city to help decipher what was going on down there.

I had specialized miner beetles, made to haul rock and break the ground, so that my roots had an easier time clearing a path. These miners were not meant for carry people, but my earlier versions of carrier-beetles were not suited for the deep, where there was no light. So we had to modify them.

“This is a lot deeper than I expected, Aeon,” Edna remarked once the beetles descended continuously for a week underground. I could teleport them, but where was the fun in that? “How many such tunnels are there? Did you make them, or were they always here?”

“I made them.”

“I see.” Edna paused. The heat got a lot higher deep underground, and she activated a few personal comfort items. “What are we looking at?”

The first one, of course, was the Blackstar veins. There were a lot of them at this depth. She and the small group of Valthorns that made the trip rested there for a day and examined the veins. They descended the next day.

The Margmar City was a lot more impressive, but strangely, the moment they stepped into the city’s vicinity, golems emerged and attacked them. They fought them off easily, but there were some defensive mechanisms that recognized people, but not trees.

Hah. Once again, people forgot to remember that trees in this world could kill.

They spent a lot more time in the subterranean city, and they lived there for a few weeks.

Back on the surface, our training continued, and we reviewed the performance of our second-generation Valthorns. This meant their parents were also Valthorns, and these kids had some variant of the skill [Blessed by the Soul Tree]. Most of them joined us over the past five years, and they were all born around ten to twenty years ago.

In a way, these kids were all my other bets. I didn’t see any reason to burden Lausanne’s family on more battles and fights if they didn’t want it. Arlisa, being the somewhat lazy bum that she was, was not really trying, either.

There were a few of them. Somehow their ages were very close, only three to five years apart. A few of them were ambitious, so we supported their ambitions by giving them specialized training, special slots at the dungeons. It reeked of favoritism, but at the same time, no reason to waste those with the right skill sets. These young teens put in the hours and hit level fifty within two years.

That was as fast as Lausanne, even faster, considering they started out in their single digits. [Rangers], [Sharpshooters], [Knights], and [Mages]. They were also mixed with some other inherited skills that gave them certain advantages Lausanne did not have.

The products of a bit of gentle nudges, genetic meddling, and little boosts during their infant years. Already I could sense their potential and level limits would be higher than the generation before them.

The idea of a Spartan generation wasn’t that farfetched. We already did deep “scans” into the young children of many Valthorns and nobles. I did nothing to most of them, but for a few, I attempted to use my powers to “strengthen” them earlier, “awaken” them.

I wanted to see how far I could push them; in a few decades, these younglings would be my level one hundred twenty-fivers. If the inherited skills could be stacked repeatedly, that would make subsequent generations significantly stronger.

8

YEAR 163

“We can’t afford to wait.” Lausanne once again made her case to the council. “The rifts will occur any time now, any time.”

I could sense the subtle twisting of space; already my magical sensors were sharper and more sensitive to void mana.

“There will be a lot of death.”

“I don’t see why we should assist. There are still two living heroes, aren’t there? We should reserve our strength.” The skeptical group. The “turtles.”

“I agree with that view, Lady Lausanne. I strongly recommend we observe the heroes’ actions before even bothering to assist. What if the heroes use this chance to strike us?”

Lausanne paused; the earlier crusades were a bad taste that many still remembered.

“The other temples have never assisted us.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m not recommending we assist the temples. We should find favorable countries, nations that are willing to shift their allegiances. Surely there are those who have lost faith in the temples, and we should step in. This is our chance to make a foothold on those kingdoms. The refugees are a sign that the winds are shifting, and we should use this tailwind to make a stand.”

“I’m of two minds on this issue,” Chancellor Brandak opined. “It’s a waste of good resources, and I think strategically, we would reveal our hands if we sent our Valthorns to the other continents. Currently, the other nations have limited info on our true combat abilities.”

Lausanne paused. The strategic element was a good argument.

“I think the value of Valthorn’s strategic abilities is overstated. Our true power is and always is Aeon’s set of skills and abilities. Revealing Valthorn doesn’t do much.”

“What if the other temples take this chance to capture the Valthorns? Surely, this is one of the few chances they get hold of our elite group. Would we risk sending our forces into enemy lines this way, far from Aeon’s reach?” It was true. As long as they were on this continent, I could still interfere. But on the other continents, I couldn’t.

Lausanne frowned; she had a short flashback of her time as a captive. That was another good argument from one of the high lords.

“That simply meant that if we do want to send aid, we must send a high-powered group. One that can resist such attempts to capture them, and it must be a large contingent as well.”

Lausanne read the unsaid words. It’d be implied as hostility, simply because of the size of the force. No, it was a flat-out declaration of distrust. Who would want to play host to a force large enough to take over a kingdom? What if someone took offense and that force decided to lay waste to the kingdom?

Lausanne frowned. She decided to back away from her case. “Can we…assist indirectly? Surely if a public assistance program is unjustifiable, then can we provide indirect support?”

I personally disliked that idea, because it reeked of proxy wars played by world powers. But then again, I was a world power now. What kind of world power did I want to be?

In the council was one of the pirate lords, he spoke with a swagger befitting his class. “There are certain islands close to the other continents that are not heavily populated. We may use those as launchpads, if our intention is to take a foothold. But we will be noticed.”

Chancellor Kavio nodded. “Our naval force has not fought a real naval battle so far.”

The pirate lord agreed. “Only pirates. Some of the kingdoms may have high-leveled captains and admirals.”

Lausanne shrunk a bit more; it was just a way of saying the idea wasn’t worth it. The meeting soon ended.

“Hytreerion.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Can you swim?”

“Yes, after my recent level-up, I gained some ability to move over large bodies of water. I wish to highlight that my swimming speed is slow and my combat abilities are also significantly curtailed in water.”

I thought about it momentarily. Could I create additional Titans? I did have additional Titans that I should deploy for this cause.

It was time to relook at what other Titans I could bring. It was a good way to prepare for the next demon king anyway. There must be new options by this point.

The prompts then came up again. It repeated those choices I had a long time ago.

[Giant Tree Serpent, Nydus: A massive serpent. Able to use earth and wood magic. Starts at level 70. Gains powers to summon all sorts of serpents and poisons. Master of poisons and has the ability to brew multiple types of potent poisons and cures. Able to grant poison immunity.]

[Giant Storm Bird: A massive bird with powers of wind, water, and thunder. Gains power to summon eagles and hawks. Eagles and hawks can carry goods and people. Has power to grant [Wind Mage] and [Flight] ability to those worthy. Can control the local weather and improve irrigation. Starts at level 70.]

[Fusion with Horns: Starts at level 80. Transforms Horns into a Goliath Kingbeetle that’s able to use earth magic and various other protective and offensive abilities. Goliath Kingbeetle can create Royal Warbeetles. Also produces very high-quality beetle-silk. Royal Warbeetles can improve crop output in the area.]

[Fusion with a Giant Attendant Tree: Creates a Warmaster Treant. Starts at level 70. High toughness and use of wood magic. Warmaster Treant is able to create lesser treants to assist in combat and other duties. Also produces high-quality teas and fruits.]

These were the old options I had, well, without the ones with Jura, too. Strangely, I didn’t have an option for Edna. Anyway, I reviewed my new options.

[Great Leveling Dungeon: Fuse a dungeon with a Titan Soul to create a dungeon that gets stronger as it levels. Starts at Level 100. Warning: Possible chance to loss of control of dungeon inhabitants.]

Uh. That warning sounded like an inevitability.

[Crystalform Titan: Level 70 Crystal Titan. High toughness and tremendous magic resistance. Able to produce crystals. Can change “forms” to perform different type of roles. Able to learn and use a certain range of magics.]

[Depth Worm: Starts at Level 70. A creature of the subterranean world. Extremely good at digging and making tunnels. Has very good “earth-sense” and is able to detect hidden features in the deep ground. Weak to magical attack. Also produces certain types of mineral and metals.]

Hmmmm…these two seemed to be tied to my recent activities in crystals and digging underground tunnels. Seemed kind of a boring choice for a “titan.”

[Fusion with a Seagiant Tree: Seagiant Treant – Level 70. Similar to Warmaster Treant Titan, but capable of combat in shallow seas and swamps. Has various swamp and sea-type adaptations and can create seagrass vines and seaweeds. Produces really high-quality seaweed for consumption.]

Ah. This was also not too bad, but nothing really revolutionary. Patreeck was pretty much in a class of his own with his psychic powers.

Ah. More to think about. Maybe my next generation of Valthorns would get some kind of special Titan?

“Here, we have our first tri-spell magical lattice.” Alka demonstrated the first three-spell amplification magical bomb. The whole thing was the size of a cow, and Alka theorized that its explosion should be really strong.

It was big, for sure. The magical explosion could level a city, but its intensity was somewhat lacking.

Kei was the one who asked. “The demon king always blows up, right?”

“Most of the time, yes.”

“How do they do it?”

That was a good question. If the demon king always had a self-destruct button, why couldn’t I use the same mechanism to create an equally powerful bomb? No. Taking it a step further, if all demon kings had a self-destruct function, could I somehow trigger that self-destruction function as a means of defeating the demon king?

It was pretty much cheesing the system if I could trigger their self-destruction.

I had Patreeck and my artificial minds relook into our data. How did the demons create such a powerful bomb that even heroes, with their incredible superstars and natural defenses, could not escape?

“Some heroes were able to protect themselves,” Patreeck said. “They were usually the defense-focused heroes.” Patreeck had indeed digested as much history as we could gather. Defensive heroes were usually able to survive the bomb. Especially if they had divine-tier supershield abilities. Offensive or more generalist heroes would still die, though.

I pondered whether it was possible to augment generalist heroes with stronger defensive abilities so that they could survive it, but then, was it in my interest to keep the heroes alive? If anything, letting defensive heroes live was actually a good thing since these types of heroes generally tended to be passive, as their first instinct wasn’t to blow shit up.

My artificial minds soon found a few areas worth experimenting on, mainly on the latticework and the runic formations. Patreeck soon theorized that the demon king’s inner structure was more of a natural amplifier, rather than a container. It was a reverse from our present ways.

Our present magical crystal functioned as a container, with magical amplification added through the runic formations etched into said crystals. If the crystal itself could provide amplification and container, and the runes were enhancements to that amplification, if crystals could create power, that meant it would be possible for multiple types of crystals to be stacked in some kind of layer or chain reaction, in order to create “exponential” power.

Patreeck’s calculations quickly concluded that if we could find the right types of material, this may be the answer.

If it was so simple, my vines should have been able to drain away the energy and significantly lessen the damage, because my vines would step into and jam up the chain reactions.

Our thoughts turned back to the demon king’s core.

Could my answer lie there?

The rifts opened. It was in the Northern Islands, roughly. At this distance, the energies of the rift were quite diffused, and it was hard to know where exactly. There was also the issue of poor-quality maps that generally presented the world as bits and pieces. This was, after all, a world without satellite position systems and satellite imagery. The maps built via fliers and cartographers were quite good for their local areas but often had huge errors when dealing with turbulent oceans.

“Maybe we shouldn’t aim so high.” Kei laughed as Stella exerted herself again. The idea of teleporting themselves to the moon was pretty crazy.

“If we can’t even teleport to the moon, how am I supposed to get home?”

“Maybe it’s something a lot simpler. Maybe the worlds are folded together like layers of rags stacked on one another, and interdimensional world movement is just us changing floors, rather that moving across the floors.”

“What, there’s some kind of interdimensional lift?” Stella rolled her eyes. “Surely magic isn’t that simple.”

Kei laughed. “Magic is whatever this world wants it to be. Why should it be that complicated anyway? The gods certainly dumbed it down for the heroes. Did you know heroes can skip so many steps when they use spells? Fucking hell, now that I’m not a hero anymore, I have to do it the normal way, and it totally sucks.”

Stella’s eyes rolled even more. Metaphorically.

“I’m serious, Astia. The gods give life-hacks for the heroes to skip steps, and in some cases, we even get straight-up auto-casting functions.”

Every time I learned about how the heroes had everything rigged, I just felt absolutely unfair. How did I replicate that? A familiar that assisted with magic casting?

Wait. Waitwaitwait. I could do that, couldn’t I? Would it be possible to design a tree familiar with a focus on mental and magical abilities that augmented the host’s spellcasting, rather than just give them more abilities? It should be possible, right?

I had my artificial souls all functioning as my assistants, but could I replicate this on a smaller scale with them?

“It requires quite a bit of processing power,” Patreeck commented. “A familiar fused with an artificial soul on its own can provide some support, but being only one, it’s not enough to match the kind of assistance the heroes get.”

Effectively, yes, a familiar with an artificial soul could function as a “second mind” for a warrior, but compared to the heroes’ super AI, it was still too far behind.

I thought about it for a while…but then I remembered.

“No. The artificial mind doesn’t need to be the one doing all the thinking.” Rather than “tag” the artificial mind and have all the computational load be with the combatant, why couldn’t it be “hived-off” to a “cloud?”

What if the artificial mind and familiar functioned as a gateway or a connection, and all the actual assistance and mental computation happened there, with Patreeck and a massive network of stationary, dedicated artificial minds?

“That is possible, but we would need a familiar that can form a kind of mind-link.”

I needed to test it out, and already I had candidates. The best people I could test this on were treefolks. They were naturally already able to connect with trees.

Could I juice the treefolks with the power of an entire network of trees? Use the power of the remote “forest of minds” to significantly increase a treefolks’ combat powers? Essentially, the treefolk would have to allow us to control certain parts of their bodies.

The minds stewed on the idea; I could sense them thinking about it in detail.

I approached the treefolks on the idea as well.

I summoned Lord Kraveik, the de facto lord of the treefolks, though there were few others like him, and pitched the idea.

“We’re looking to create specialized treefolk champions, augmented by powers of the forest.” The concept of artificial souls was not known to everyone, and many of them believed those artificial souls were just extensions of me. It was true, to some extent, so I didn’t correct it. “We’re hoping to test whether treefolks can act as our ‘gateway’ and ‘avatars.’”

“I believe they should be receptive, but I’ll need to raise this topic with the warriors.”

In the meantime, I needed to figure out how to change familiars and artificial souls so that they could perform such a function.

> Are the demons near? < Reefy asked one fine day. Its language had improved quite a bit, mostly due to exposure to me.

< Maybe. >

> Will they hurt us? <

< Again, maybe. >

> When will they come? <

< We don’t know. >

Reefy expanded in his coral reef area and at the same time also embedded his core somewhere deeper into the reef. I could sense his curious magical energies touching my sea-roots, like a small octopus, afraid yet unable to resist.

He’d also taken control of some fishes. I wasn’t exactly sure how he did it, but perhaps it was a similar mechanism to my control of the beetles. Out of friendliness, I didn’t attack any of the fish that he controlled, so I wasn’t sure whether those fish were actual living things or some kind of “summon.”

As he expanded, I decided to retreat and give him a little bit more space.

At the same time, I introduced Reefy to Lilies. Lilies was mostly aloof and also very curious. The two spirits were really far away from each other and would likely never interact in normal circumstances. Their communication required me to create some kind of dedicated paths on [rootnet], but not exactly impossible. Sadly, no new skill from that.

Strangely, both of them had very little concept of privacy and did not attempt to shield their conversations from me at all.

> If they come, will we fight? < I vaguely sensed that Reefy felt comfortable with me, but I still wasn’t sure myself what my relationship with it was. Were we friends? I was not even sure if it was a friend.

At the same time, Reefy was aware of the kind of conflicts we faced on land, the demons and their invaders. Reefy reciprocated with images of his own battles, smaller in scale, with the monsters that attempted to dominate the reef, some that thought they could even seize its core.

Those shared visions were when I realized how different Reefy’s sense of the world was. It viewed the world in movement, in a state of constant fluctuation of inhabitants. The reef was rarely a permanent home for the sea creatures that lived there. They were mostly nomadic.

I saw creatures that were strange and colorful. Reefy viewed the world in a tightly mixed set of color and sound through the little nodes and eyes throughout the reef, and at the same time, sound was a very, very big part of his vision. His sight was always blended with an associated sound; they were inseparable when he described things.

That was when we started sharing the recorded sounds of the creatures, animals. Whatever we had stored in our [Registree], it was something that delighted Reefy. At least, I thought it was delighted. I wasn’t sure whether it felt those emotions, despite the presence of intelligence.

Reefy expanded mostly around the shelf, and it had a mix of combat powers, such as controlling the reefs to release various types of projectiles, to support powers like accelerating reef growth. I was pretty sure it had some fish-control abilities, too.

“Our information from Reefy’s direction is limited because we pretty much gave up the area around it,” Patreeck shared.

Thankfully, it was relatively easy to convince Reefy to share intel, especially when my interest was on boats and ships that happened above its location.

It didn’t like boats. It didn’t like people very much, either, and was fond of killing those who ventured too near.

I quickly declared the reef area a natural reserve so that none of the fishers ever came close.

There were protests from the kingdoms that shared a border with that part of the sea, but between a sentient reef, or kingdoms, I soon decided it was better to keep Reefy’s goodwill.

I would educate it on the ways of the natives, their fishing habits, and why they did so. It responded with anger and hatred, but over time, it soon softened its stance to one of displeasure and then negotiated “safe” paths through Reefy’s area of control where ships could sail, but no fishing or diving.

There were those who did it anyway, but a few deaths later, the sailors and merchants learned their lessons. Reefy was very aggressive when faced with swimmers and divers and would not hesitate to spear a diver to death with sharpened corals.

I would try to educate Reefy on a less lethal approach, but I foresaw it would take some time.

9

YEAR 164

We kept digging into the depths, and I soon discovered a second limit. There was a limit of how far the chain of roots and trees could go underground. That range, as of now, was about five hundred miles. I could go a max of five hundred miles deep, or wide, or underground, or whichever, then I needed to go back to the surface.

That said, this also meant it may be possible to tunnel all the way to the other continents, as long as I made a little surface trip every five hundred miles. Perhaps a super-tall tree from deep underwater or a long vine that broke through the earth and extended all the way to the surface, kinda like a super-long kelp forest?

If there were island chains along the way, it was still possible to make “hops,” else it’d be like a whale surfacing to get a breath.

Strange that the trees needed such a thing. Perhaps it was just some magical mumbo-jumbo just to deal with such a loophole. Or maybe the system just decided that I shouldn’t be allowed to dig so deep. Hah!

In the depths, we soon found more long-forgotten cities. The Margmarian Dwarves were not the first, and those dragon bones were not that rare, either. It seemed like there was a time when dragons were extremely common, though most of these bones were a lot smaller. Their magic had decayed over the eons.

Sad.

I theorized that ancient civilizations would also choose to use ley lines as a form of natural power source, thus following the ley lines underground did lead to a few other interesting locations.

We discovered a large, tomb-like structure in the depths, filled with long-dead corpses, their bodies fully decayed. In fact, the bones pretty much disintegrated on contact, and they left behind some magical books and items, their magic also fading.

This was when I felt torn. I either could call on the wider crowd of mages with the right “preservation” and “ice” skills to preserve or freeze these objects, and doing so would reveal these ancient sites to the wider world, or use the Valthorns’ own mages, who were more combat focused.

There were also strategic issues that would reveal how deep I could dig. In the end, I decided to use Valthorns but equipped with magical artifacts that slowed decay. As we kept digging and followed the ley lines, eventually we discovered most of them had some old tombs and ancient smaller cities.

Most had some degree of magical protection, and some looked like the muck had flooded the entire city. It was a lot of work, trying to excavate such massive cities, and so much time had passed that the structures that made up the walls and the muck itself was almost indistinguishable.

“These ancient places are amazing, and they speak of gods that have long been forgotten.” A few of the Valthorn analysts came to the subterranean city. Alka, too, as my chief researcher. It was one of the inspiration trips. They had to be equipped with a whole set of artifacts just to tolerate the pressure, natural heat, and lack of breathable air.

Even among the various races that call the Central Continent home, few were adapted to subterranean living. Treefolks suffered from walking in the depths a lot more than the others; their bodies seemed to despise going underground for long periods. Some groups of lizardpeople were much more fond of the underground, but only up to a certain level. Beyond that, the heat was unbearable. Dwarves, true to their heritage as miners and diggers, performed the best, but even they needed artifacts.

The lens remained on its pedestal. I took it out temporarily to study it and since then returned it. I still could not understand how it was made.

One of the thoughts shared with the Valthorns was the use of this location as a hideout. True, they were functionally buried alive, but this ancient city was the perfect apocalypse bunker. The fact that it stood despite the eons was sufficient proof of its success as a bunker.

“This is a rehash of Aeon’s old sewer bunker idea, isn’t it?” One of the older Valthorns laughed. The history of New Freeka was not totally lost.

“Indeed, but this space is significantly larger and uses a power source independent of Aeon.”

There were kinks to work out, and the druids that made the trip down soon wanted to plant a wide range of fungi that generated light and also some plants that could survive with the indirect light from fungi. I thought the ultimate problem was one of comfort. The idea of living underground was appalling; only dwarves and certain lizard-people subspecies would consider it for any decently long period of time.

Centaurs and treefolks hated it with a passion, and I thought maybe that was why they would be the first to go extinct. Or maybe the gods would just repopulate the world with them based on some kind of cookie-cutter racial template.

Also on the line of ley lines and underground, I made a dungeon underground in an area with a few ley lines, and somehow, this was my first level one hundred twenty dungeon. It was a simple premise. Ley lines were more powerful underground, partly because the energies were concentrated.

Because it was so far hidden underground, I decided that this was a Valthorn-exclusive dungeon. Not that anyone else could even challenge it.

In fact, right now, only Lumoof and Edna had any chance of surviving a battle with the monsters of this dungeon. Thankfully the dungeon wasn’t going to go wild, else I’d be dealing with level one hundred twenty monsters.

Their first reaction to seeing a level one hundred twenty dungeon was pretty much exclamations, mostly a variant of what the fuck.

But this was the best way to level up, so out of the sheer value of farming a level one hundred twenty dungeon began the first recreation of the underground pre-dungeon savepoint. A large contingent of Valthorns with all types of skills, including support and crafting skills, was chosen to set up this mini city.

I even created a few additional artificial minds just to oversee this city’s administration.

The thing was, when high-level individuals were not spotted for long periods of time, it tended to fuel rumors of death. Thus began the first vanishing of Edna and Lumoof and a lot of other higher-level Valthorns. They would camp down there, right outside the dungeons, and make battle with the dungeon’s monsters.

Eavesdropping on the conversations of foreign intelligence agents was part of my entertainment.

“Lady Edna vanished?”

“No one has seen her for months!”

“Not just her. A large group of the best warriors have all disappeared!”

They fought hard, and even the level eighties and nineties leveled quickly when faced with level one hundred twenty monsters. And they had not even fought the boss or the minibosses.

“She has not reported in her home position in the Six Ports for months! The Valthorns have assigned new individuals to take over all their places.”

“But they are not listed as dead.”

The other temples would want to have a gauge on my combat strength, so they kept tabs on these individuals. I had thought of killing them altogether, but it was better to lull them into a sense of complacency. I also noticed I learned a lot more about the other temples when they were alive and they shared information with other fellow agents.

So I let them live. It was only when they tried something unacceptable that they would encounter some unfortunate coincidences and accidents.

I imagined the intelligence setup was kinda like a Venus flytrap. Let them venture a little too near and wham! Dead bugs.

At the same time, a few of my artificial minds sorted data by their risk levels. I was willing to let foreign intelligence agents get certain information; after all, just like nuclear bombs, letting other countries know I had such nuclear weapons was a deterrent of its own.

“What news do you have?” Kei asked Lausanne on the war in the Northern Isles. She worried for her two friends, those two bastards that didn’t even come and help her.

Lausanne shrugged. “They’re doing all right. The demon king isn’t here yet, just regular ‘mobs.’” The elven girl had gotten used to Kei’s lingo and even used some of their terms.

Kei nodded. “Ah, yes. True. They won’t lose to regular mobs…right?” I still didn’t understand why she was worried. Heroes with their absurd stats wouldn’t lose to regular demons. “What kind of demons have they met?”

“Seems to be some kind of worm, in addition to the regular hounds.”

“Worm?”

“Yeah. A worm-demon. Big, fat, ugly slugs with horns and spikes. Attacks by spitting some acids or by ramming. Moves incredibly fast for such an ugly thing.” Lausanne had drawings that were shared by our agents on the other continents, again, part of the mutual horse trading.

Kei looked at the pictures, somehow disgusted. “If I had my powers, I’d burn them with fire and blow them up. Truly a spawn of hell.”

Lausanne smiled. “Indeed, but spears and spikes work quite well against them. Their inner parts seem quite soft. I wonder whether they pop like worms when you pierce them.”

“Eww. Thanks for planting that image in my head.”

“Or maybe they’ll just leak demon-juice.”

“Eww.”

Lausanne smiled, and the two started their regular spar. Kei was a lot easier to defeat, since she was just a crystal-golem without overpowered hero powers and stats. She gained a lot of levels then, and she was now about level seventy-five as a crystal golem. She formed a team with Astia and Lausanne to go dungeon diving, thought they mostly dived in the level sixty to seventy range.

Statistically, the minds gathered data that most adventurers hit about level forty to fifty, and a small minority would reach level eighty. It took about seven to ten years to reach level eighty if one took on the dungeons regularly, without any experience-boosting powers. With the effect of experience boosts, or the powers of various leaders, it was possible to reduce this time by more than half. The fastest level gain I had so far was three years to level eighty, without any of the experience seeds or my level-sixty gift.

This, of course, required tremendous dedication. Getting to level eighty in three years meant diving a dungeon of the appropriate challenge level every two to three days and classing suitably.

There were kings that had powers to improve level gain; after all, leaders were famed for their passive ability to improve the strength of those around them, and they could give gifts, too. But generally, the passive ability was only as strong as the king’s own levels.

Anyway, Stella/Astia also received one of my familiars. I had hoped to eventually collect her [void mage] class, so that I could produce more of them. Her powers were surprisingly conventional, if not for the [void] title. In a way, a [void mage] was just a [poison mage] with some extra steps and effects. After all, [void] powers tended to leave a “stain” that dealt damage over time. That was functionally a poison-type ability.

She was frustrated that her attempts to teleport to the moon didn’t have any progress, so the dungeon diving was to gain levels and build better equipment. Also, void items were very hard to make, because of their violent reactions to all things mana.

Anyway, the Northern Islands actually performed relatively well. The earlier bout of negativity and comparison of the temple’s performance versus the Central Continent spurred a need by the temple’s senior leadership to be seen as performing their duties, so the four temples actually gathered their forces to help suppress the demonic incursions, and the two remaining heroes actually had to get out of their palaces and start slaying demons.

A good change, compared to their previously uncoordinated response.

They were still slow, of course; they didn’t have the benefit of a single unifying tree with continental overview, so deaths were aplenty, but at least the temples and heroes were seen trying.

Our agents told us that the Northern Isles were quite lucky; their forces managed to activate on time, and the people were well armed. They also had groups of adventurers and warriors that could take on those worms.

The demons kinda fucked up, too. They chose to invade the cold northern islands, where their worms’ performance was impaired somewhat.

Still, I wondered how a worm-like demon king would be? Was it going to be like some massive Dune-ish sandworm? A snowworm? Or maybe a hydra? That’d be quite boring.

10

YEAR 165

Another year without the demon king. The war in the Northern Isles continued, and more rifts opened. I knew this because my magical sensors were pretty busy, the presence of the rifts was a constant thing.

The heroes and the defenders remained on top of things, though the intensity and quantity of the rifts increased. More worms, and larger worm-variants. The champions and walkers of this episode of the demonic incursions had masses of giant multiple building–size worms that exploded into smaller worms when destroyed. It was horrible, but even so, the heroes persisted in their battle.

Soldiers that never had any emotion for such wriggly, wiggly creatures all emerged from battles hating worms to their core. They kept splitting into smaller and smaller parts, but thankfully the smallest of these demon worms were still the size of dogs.

Worms. I wondered how I’d fight them. No. I would just nuke them to death with all my magical bombs. Why use root strikes when a bomb would work?

Turned out, these demons were incredibly magic resistant, and physical damage was their general weakness. They survived fires, drowning, and most magical attacks.

The adaptability of these demons was honestly amazing. Where’d they find such anti-magic worms?

“What’s our strategy if the demonic incursion comes to our shores?” As with any decently competent military force, there was always a lot of simulation going on in the heads of the generals.

“We’d make a massive wall of spears.”

“That’ll work for smaller demons. What about the building-size demons?”

“Bigger spears?”

The druids apparently had an easier suggestion: squash them with rocks. I wondered if that would work, since worms could tunnel through earth. In fact, would my own root networks hold up if they attacked the ground? Those were…good questions. I was reminded by my earlier days when we faced that giant centipede demon. Were these demons a similar variant? Yet, back then, the giant centipede demon was actually incredibly resistant to physical damage.

Perhaps…shrapnel weapons? Bombs that shot up tiny, spear-like projectiles? Or would my rooting fields be sufficient to deter these demons?

Edna gained a few levels, and she reached level one hundred forty-five. Lumoof, too, as a [patreearch], was now about level one hundred thirty-eight, and the sort of healing powers he possessed was quite impressive. He, too, received a [Court of the Deitree], but not one with any inherited skills. Perhaps, should he fall, this position in the court would absorb his skills.

They were…doing well, and fighting the monsters of the level one hundred twenty dungeon was a lot more challenging than anyone gave them credit for.

The underground city outside the level one hundred twenty dungeon grew to about one thousand people, all Valthorns. It was a secret base accessed via my network of root tunnels.

Lumoof would often perform sermons in a small underground temple, his blessings were incredibly powerful at his level. I still didn’t get how [priests]’s blessings could stack with my own. I mean, logically, if a priest derived power from a god, a god’s blessings should automatically be superior to that of the priest. But the fact that they stacked implied it was a system mechanic.

Anyway, we’d abuse it since it worked that way.

After a while, they recommended a few individuals for the “uplifting” to unlock their level limit. Five more individuals, a mix of rangers, druids, and knights.

The surface world remained oblivious to the existence of the dungeon, and rumors of the deaths of my senior leadership continued to swirl. It seemed that my trust in my nobility to keep the secret was not entirely unfounded. Most of them kept their mouths shut about my dungeon-creation ability, and the fact that I had a super dungeon hidden underground was also a confidential matter known only to the senior Valthorns.

But there were suspicions.

There were classes out there, such as [earth mages] and other similar types that were particularly sensitive to underground tunnels, and there were suspicions. Many kingdoms had some individuals that had earth-detection skills, simply because my few-decade-old tunnel raid on the Six Ports was still a strategy discussed even today.

Heck, even the temples had to design plans on the possibility of surprise raids, and that meant they could never fully commit an army to an invasion. Any force needed to be split to protect their rear, or they left themselves open for a repeat of the tunnel disaster. Maybe that was why they didn’t think another crusade was worthwhile? At least, not without the heroes.

Edna, as she approached the first tier of divinity, level one hundred fifty, had many questions about what would happen, and honestly, I wasn’t sure, either. Was her experience going to be similar? Surely, as a humanoid with classes, there should be some subtle differences.

11

YEAR 166

The war in the north was in full swing, as the Demon King Durthal descended. The real war had just begun in the frozen north, and Kei was worried.

“Tell me they’re all right,” she would say.

I would often respond, “They don’t deserve your concern.”

“They’re assholes, and they left me to die instead of coming immediately as they should,” Kei said. “But they are still my asshole friends. Don’t you have friends like that? Shit-ass, good-for-nothing friends?”

“I’m quite surprised by this change of behavior compared to your earlier days.”

Kei frowned. “All right, I’m still not very happy with them, and I’m still not on good terms. I mean, I didn’t even tell them I’m still alive. But I don’t wish them ill. I don’t really want them to die, either.”

“Relationships are confusing.” I sighed.

“They are. I suppose a tree wouldn’t get that.” That hurt a lot more than it should.

“So…how are they?” Kei repeated.

“They are doing all right.”

“Details. Come on,” Kei insisted. “I want to know whether they’re fucked or not.”

“I’ll have one of the advisors meet you. Seriously, why are you invested? Are you going to help them?”

“Me? With my level seventy form? I’m just trash before that demon king.” Kei frowned. “No…I guess I just want to feel I’m part of the conflict.”

Ah. Things people did to feel like they were still part of something, the same way a football fan spoke of their favorite team like “us” and “we.” Like they were a part of something bigger. “But I thought…you know…you think this whole conflict is a trap?”

She sighed. “It’s hard to explain, you know. I want to step away from this game, the only way to win is not to play, but my friends are caught. They are still [heroes], and the [hero] class is cursed. The demons will chase them, hunt them, and they will be compelled to fight them. Do I choose to do nothing? In fact, that’s exactly what I’ve done. Nothing. So I feel like shit, kinda. I’m trying to help Astia, maybe her Void Mana is one way out of this whole circus, but at the same time, I’m not sure whether my friends should learn of Astia’s existence. What would they do if they found out there’s someone who has void mana and could possibly open a portal to the other side? Would the god’s meddling force them to murder Astia?”

Oh.

“So yes, I want to know so that I can play cheerleader and deceive myself. If I could, I’d like to help you defeat the next demon king, too. Wait. Dammit. Not defeat. We need to find a way to put a pause on this entire thing. One where the system doesn’t automatically push another demon king through the rift after a set timer.”

Did I tell her? I thought I didn’t.

Kei stood there for quite a while; she was after all a golem, so she could stand for long periods with little issue. “I know that was an unnecessary ramble, but I think I’d have to get at least level one hundred fifty, right? At least, that was what I heard Edna was saying that level one hundred fifty is when the mortal ascends a step to the divine.”

“…yes.”

“All right. Let’s get more of those monsters.” I was not sure I should trust her with the full plan. But I supposed a little more couldn’t hurt.

As of now, she was just about level seventy-ish, and she spent her time challenging the level eighty to ninety dungeons. That level one hundred twenty dungeon underground remained a secret known only to a select few.

Even Lausanne didn’t know about it, well, because she decided not to move past where she was now, because of some fear of the unknown.

Arlisa finally stopped her stint in the Freshland Treetiary College, and not unlike her mother, she joined a group of adventurers, visiting dungeons throughout the continent.

I supposed I was like one of her uncles, watching her bungle her way through life despite all of her privileges and now extremely relieved that she decided to do something useful and productive for herself. Also, the whole adventurer thing allowed her to get away from her mom, since they had a rather tense relationship. Lausanne seemed to try to push her to do more and, well, take advantage of her gifts, but Arlisa was just rather content taking things at her own pace.

It was just regular tension within the family, but it eventually worsened when Lausanne started talking about the other Valthorns she coached. These other Valthorns were younger and hungrier, and the comparisons, even if Lausanne didn’t meant it, really irked Arlisa.

So she kinda decided to just finish the whole FTC thing and joined some adventurers, taking on lower-level dungeons, at first the level twenty to thirty dungeons.

“Yes?” My response was slow, as with all busy uncles, but she was used to it.

“Oh. Hi, Aeon,” she responded and found a quiet place to sit down. I supposed having a mental or psychic conversation required a set of norms not unlike cell phone calls. “I…wanted to ask for a favor.” She was far outside of Freshka then, away from the range of Patreeck’s mind reading.

“A favor?”

“I know I’m not a member of the Valthorns…but could I get access to some of the restricted dungeon slots?”

I thought for a moment. “Sorry, Arlisa, but the answer is no. The rules are set, and they are not to be twisted so easily.” I felt kind of disappointed at that moment, that she resorted to using her privilege in this manner. I would also step on the authority that I delegated to the Council. If I delegated the powers, they should be followed by all. I hated the nobility back then, and I had a dislike for them now.

It just kinda sucked that Lausanne’s daughter was the one that chose to do it.

Lausanne’s other child was a young little boy named Lauda. Just like Arlisa, he, too, had the inherited blessings, the exact same one. He developed well, but I wondered whether I should dote on him or not.

Simply because of Arlisa. Arlisa still struggled with privilege and effort. She was gifted and yet chose not to make the most of it. How much of that was because of me? Was I the source of her “stress?” I wasn’t sure.

Even though I could read minds, that didn’t mean I knew what caused their personalities to develop in a certain way and whether that development was due to my presence. How a personality was formed and shaped over the decades was still a mystery, even if one could have many good educated guesses. It was not like personalities were “skill blocks” that I could create by repeating certain actions. People responded to stimuli differently, so the best I could do was just keep trying.

The war escalated with Demon King Durthal, and the wedge between those who believed we should provide assistance and those who believed those other continents deserved it grew. It was a relatively small minority, of course, but they were loud. The discussions turned somewhat…chaotic.

“There are people there we should save. Talented people we can rescue,” one of the many lords suggested. “I’ve attempted to bribe them to come over, but I believe our ability to ensure their physical safety will win them over.”

“Are you trying to insinuate a kidnapping?”

“Well, yes, but they’ll come willingly when their towns are getting flattened by demons.”

It was a huge mess; the representatives and the bureaucrats wanted to plan how to take advantage of the chaos in the north. Already some lords sent their own people, not Valthorns, their own militia to “assist” in the war effort. In their case, it was really a luxury of security that they could afford to meddle in other nations’ affairs. We watched them attempt to “assist” the other nations, and then the demons killed their agents.

The heroes put up a hell of a resistance. But they could not be everywhere at the same time, and so city after city fell. The unpredictable rifts also had a tendency of popping up everywhere, so it was hard to really protect the frontline when there wasn’t one. They didn’t have that many high-level individuals they could deploy, nor did they have the benefit of my almost continent-wide demonic-suppression aura.

The rifts also spread throughout the world, and so…we had a rift open on our continent. Rift appearances were targeted, but occasionally they spawned in other places, too.

But a single one opened on our shores. Just a single one. But I’d been waiting for a long time for it to happen and deployed my beetles to flood the area. The rift opened in the northernmost point of the Central Continent, close to a port city.

My forces quickly defeated the first wave of worms; the beetles’ sharp horns, tusks, and similarly heavy and spiky carapaces made them natural counters to the spiky flesh worms. My trees sprang out of the earth around the rifts, and quickly, my vines attempted to make contact with the rift.

This would not be the time for the [Forest Rod]. Not yet. I only had one shot, one opportunity, to make a stand in the other world, in one moment. But not yet. I’d let this one slip.

What I wanted to test out were my bombs, and my new generation of beetles, coated with a layer of mana-crystals. Essentially, a rift-jumpsuit for beetles, because I wanted to test out whether I could modulate the mana in these crystals to allow my beetles to cross the rift. Eventually, I’d like to scale it up to a Titan, especially a Titan that could generate a microclimate, and an “aura” Titan to bring my anti-demon aura to their world.

It worked, partially. The body part that had crystals managed to go through, but the rest of it didn’t. The beetle splattered as the two parts got torn apart by the rift. Ooof. Sorry, beetle, that was a horrible, horrible way to die. It was kinda like being stuck in a moving lift door.

Sample one didn’t work. Then I got another beetle, and this time the crystals were a lot finer and spread throughout its entire body. It…worked!

Oh my, it worked. I felt the beetle get crushed by something on the other side, and the rift quickly closed on us.

Ah, darn it.

But hey, now I just needed tiny crystals in every part of the body! At least one small problem solved. The bigger problem remained.

“If we can’t keep the portal open, we can’t hold any realistic position on the other side.” My minds were, of course, quick to remind me of the obstacles. I’d have to wait when Stella died, then I could steal her [void mage]. Most other mages were not keen on learning void magic.

I also attempted to learn void magic for myself. If I could gain some star mana by the way of leaves, surely, there was a way for me to gain void mana, too. It was a strange sensation as I tried to repeat the steps Stella took to gain her [void mage] class.

I tried it repeatedly for months, and all I got was a silly notification.

[Skill obtained: Void tolerance]

But still no void mana. I supposed I had to work through a few prerequisite skills before I got the void mana? Or perhaps I’d have it as an option at level two hundred?

After that first level one hundred twenty dungeon, I attempted to create an even stronger, more powerful dungeon, with all that I knew so far. Of course, doing so meant some of the smaller ley lines had to be “channeled” away, guided by little carvings and weird signatures.

It worked, because after I gathered and focused the energies of, like, thirty ley lines, I managed to create a level one hundred thirty dungeon. I even got a skill out of it.

[Skill obtained: Ley Line Guidance]

The high-leveled Valthorns that were busy attempting the level one hundred twenty dungeon then moved on to new dungeons, and Edna fought the dungeons repeatedly with a group of unlocked Valthorns. I had given about three to four ginsengs, and given that these damned ginseng took at least five years to reach their suitable state, in the current mana rich conditions, that was still a bit of a drawback. It felt like I was burning through more high ginseng than I expected.

The level one hundred twenty and level one hundred thirty dungeons quickly proved their brutality, when one of the high-leveled Valthorns was killed, pretty much mangled by dungeons, despite their best preparations. If it got out of hand, I would need to move them down to the level ninety to one hundred–range dungeons before they came back.

But Edna did well, this was her level, and together with Lumoof, Edna could take on wave after wave of the dungeon monsters; her stamina seemed to grow exponentially with each level closer to level one hundred fifty.

Then it happened.

Level one hundred fifty.

I felt it very clearly, the distortion in the air, subtle, but present. My link to her, via the Court of the Deitree, flooded with a new kind of energy I had never sensed before. Something unique to her.

“I’ve done it, Aeon. Level one hundred fifty. All my classes have merged, and I have a choice.”

“A choice?”

“Yes. Domain of [Shield] or Domain of [Knight].”

That was a strangely generic name for a domain. The air rattled around her, quite like when the heroes activated their star mana forms.

I paused. “I leave the choice to you.” If I was right, my ability to control them would diminish once they achieved domain powers, just as the god’s ability to meddle with me diminished when I obtained my own domain.

Edna paused and chose [Knight]. The energy around her was pretty hero-ish, and it felt at that very moment her combat ability pretty much increased a few fold. She attempted to take on the level one hundred thirty dungeon again and found the monsters suddenly easier to destroy. A breakthrough, level one hundred fifty was a force multiplier.

“Aeon, you had this power for some time?”

“Yes, but mine is that of another concept or form. Knowledge of the domains are extremely scarce, and even I cannot guide you much from here.”

Edna nodded. “It makes sense if it is so. I suddenly understand and appreciate the gap between myself and the heroes now.”

“I believe you are still a distance away from them, though. Is there a skill for you at level one hundred fifty?”

“Yes. Two. [Duty Beyond Life and Death] and [Knights of Light].”

“What is that?”

“I can’t die for a day, and my body can’t be severed or cut, usable five times a year. It’s pretty much functional combat immortality. The other skill is that the knights around me get some super buffs.”

“That would make you immune to the explosions.” I mean, if she couldn’t die for a day, that meant she could tank the demon king’s death bomb. Was this an ability out of a MOBA?

“That meant I could dive into the deepest dungeons without fear.”

“But you could get trapped for more than a day, and then you will die.”

Edna thought for a moment. “That is true. I can still be disabled in other ways. It is just that for a day, any heal spell can restore me to my original state. It’s a great skill, but not foolproof.” I mean, I could just bury her underground for more than a day and she would still dead. But with her current strength, she could punch and kick her way out of any dirt. Or I could teleport her out via the Court’s powers.

Lumoof smiled. “It seemed you have reached a level that even I feel a need to bow.”

Edna paused as she considered the question. “What happens when a priest reaches level one hundred fifty?”

“I don’t know.” That was a good question. Did a priest, whose power was to channel their patron god’s energy, become a god in his own right? Or did he still extend and rely on his patron god?

Lumoof had a very Santa-like laugh. “Ho ho, I believe we will know when we get there.” Well, for Lumoof, that was another ten-plus levels away. Not that far now that there was a level one hundred thirty dungeon to grind.

“The next trigger will be at level one hundred sixty, right?”

“Yes, you will have a new domain ability at every ten levels.”

“I see.” Edna paused. This was probably a lot to take in, even though I did share the details.

< One of yours reached the level of the domains? > Lilies was particularly sensitive to the domain’s presence. I wondered how Lilies felt it. Was it like a notification or just an itch?

> Yes, one of my knights. At this point, not one of mine anymore. < Truly, when one reached the domain, few could control them. Domain was a lesser deity, and in Edna’s case, she was free to go anywhere she wanted.

< It seems you have faith. >

> If I don’t, what’s the point? <

“At this point, it’s worth asking again: are you still on board with my plans?” I spoke to Edna a few weeks after she got used to her powers.

Edna nodded, her words firm. “Yes. I’ve seen the hell the demons bring, and more importantly, I’ve seen that we can make a difference. Now that I have this power, I believe I have a duty to live up to it. I believe in this cause, Aeon.”

Internally, I felt a sense of relief. Edna could easily set up her own kingdom and rule over her own land; at this point, she was a one-woman army. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

I told Lumoof of the plans, too. Now that he was close to that level, it was time he knew what my true plans were. He beamed. “Truly a plot befitting a god. Only a god can dream of ending this cog that has plagued our world for ages.”

No. Actually, I should ask them once they hit level one hundred whether they wanted to still go on with the plan. Many of them would brave hell and high water, and I’d like to think that if they got this far, they certainly would follow through.

“Whatever it is, as a priest, my duty is to serve our god. We are the hands of our god’s will, and I will see it through,” Lumoof explained, and I wondered whether it was just typical “priest speak.” Yet my gut feeling somehow thought he was genuine.

I checked on the other Valthorns, those above level one hundred. Perhaps, perhaps I should open up this matter a lot earlier.

No. I should have spoken of my plans before I even offered them the soul-strengthening seed. But did that make it seem like I was making it a condition? I decided perhaps it was fair to have a little bit of trust, for those who had served for so long.

I would grant the seed, even for those who would not walk with me against the demon king, so long as they served faithfully up to this point.

Most of the Valthorns were shocked, and yet almost all of them were accepting. There was a sense that they knew something larger was at play, and now finally they got the answer. Perhaps Patreeck and the minds’ constant, meticulous screening contributed to this. But all of them got here and earned the [Aeonic variant] classes by some degree of loyalty to me.

For the Valthorns, the constant push for even higher levels now suddenly made sense, why, even though they were already so high leveled, I still insisted to push them further. In most nations, the king tried to keep a gap to prevent a rebellion, and yet I still pushed them higher. Some of them thought it insane that eventually some of them would turn against me.

It would happen. But so be it. The march against the gods and demons could not happen with me alone.

12

YEAR 167

The wars in the north turned really ugly, as the demons brought out the merged worm-champions. Worms fused of multiple-champion level demons, these were absolutely massive monsters, and they leveled cities quickly. Again, the two heroes couldn’t be everywhere at once, and although one single hero was enough to defeat these merged worm champions, there were still a few of them, and these worms were smart enough to escape once the heroes were on their tails.

Ugly.

“They need help,” Kei said. “I’d imagine Lausanne could do quite a bit of damage to these worms.”

Lausanne shook her head. “If they are merged champions, probably not. I fought a champion by myself before. All I did was just drag it on. I still needed help to win.”

“Maybe I think Aeon’s powers are stronger, and your linked powers are therefore stronger.”

“True, but it’s still a big, big gap.” Lausanne shrugged. “And that’s not what I want.”

They had not met Edna for years now, but that was normal. Kei, Lausanne, and Astia had been busy hunting dungeons during their short breaks, but Lausanne had to frequently take time off to spend time with Lauda. Lauda, the second child, grew up extremely attached to Lausanne, increasingly so these few years. I wondered whether it was because of her long absence during her dungeon expeditions.

Kei nodded. She was level eighty now, and she gained the ability to shapeshift her golem form even more and also some coloration changes. Fighting the dungeons at the right power levels meant she was earning enough experience. I was honestly quite amazed that she got so high leveled so quickly, but it seemed she hacked. She had a skill called [Precious Memories of Stone], which strangely gave her a boost to experience gained.

Stella was a level fifty-three [Void Mage], and honestly it was a huge mixed bag. From what I could see, void mages had very few special spells. The difference she brought was that the usual spells she casted were just “twisted” by the void mana such that they had a slightly more “powerful” impact.

The issues were also two-fold. There was no grimoire or manual where Stella could refer to and see what kind of spells used void mana. So her best bet was to use existing spells and modify it as she practiced. Next, void mana was also unstable, and she frequently got cursed from it, so it was not easy to experiment with void mana, either.

Perhaps we just needed to find a [void mana] manual.

Or perhaps ask Vallasira to teach her, since it had void mana. Wait. Why didn’t I think of that before?

> I would like to speak to Vallasira again. < I asked Lilies one day to help communicate the message.

< He would likely only return once the demon king is dead. As it is, he’s likely to be in another world. >

> I see. <

Damned hiding zaratans. I wondered how Lilies even found them.

It was one fine evening, when everything seemed to be doing all right, that I got the string of messages.

[Hans has died. You received a fragment.]

[Demon King Durthal has been slain.]

Then my magical sensors went nuts again. An explosion? Was it going to be some kind of superbomb event?

Turned out…no. We got the answer a few days later, as our informants quickly spoke of black swarms that blotted out the sky, creatures that devoured crops and plants without any fear.

Demon King Durthal was a bomb, all right. Its body was a massive swarm of pests that it waited to unleash on the world.

“That’s just cruel,” Kei said after she had a moment of grief. “You’re telling me there’s a magical swarm of locusts when it dies?”

“Yes. It blew up and seeded its immediate surroundings with these…spawning things that pumped out locusts.” Our mages attempted to use their magic to get information; the area was no longer interrupted by the demon king’s presence. The terrain was a huge mix of large daemolite crystal structures and these massive hatcheries.

Kei frowned. “Y’know, I want to be a magma or fire golem for my next evolution so that I can burn these structures with fire. I hate bugs.”

“You’re immune to bugs.” Lausanne laughed. “You’re a crystal.”

“My trauma as a human carried over. I still hate bugs.”

“Don’t let my beetles hear that,” I said.

“Your beetles are cool.” Kei quickly shook her arms. “I mean, they are totally awesome. But I hate those tiny types. Like spiders.”

A group of my web spiders appeared next to her, and she yelped.

“You do realize I have spiders as servants, too?”

“Ah. Yes.”

“Point is, right now, in the Northern Isles, there’s a locust and pest generator that’s spreading these bugs all over the world, and we’ll be seeing food shortages if that place isn’t shut down.”

“But Alvin is still alive, right?”

“News is unclear. It seems that he may be heavily, heavily injured and the temples are keeping all news about the hero’s condition in extreme secrecy.”

“I must go there,” Kei said.

“And do what?” I countered. “You’re not a human form.”

“I still must go,” Kei decided, ignoring all of my warnings. “He’s my friend, as much as I hate him.”

“In your current form, you’ll get attacked and robbed, cut up and sold as gems.”

“I’m level eighty. How many can hope to defeat me or even hurt me?” Kei was confident in her strength. “Except a hero, few can even touch me.”

“You’d be surprised at how many level eighties are hidden in the world. Many just choose to play it safe and not let their talents be known,” I explained. It was common for many elites to understate their value, lest they be sent by their lords to do dangerous things, or suspicions of treachery. In fact, Patreeck reckoned there was an average of five to ten level understatement by adventurers out there, simply because most adventurers wanted to avoid the eye of the government. As they say, this was all about holding their cards close to their hearts.

The issue with the cap also distorted one’s strength. Someone with multiple non-complementary classes may be a lot weaker than someone at a lower overall level but with a single focused class. Just like how Jura had villager classes back then.

“So you’re saying there are level eighty bandit lords and stuff?”

“Well, maybe not.”

The highest of the lords in my kingdom was almost level seventy, and there had been a lot of higher-level inflation simply because most of these lords now survived longer. Even kings reached their higher-level sixties, but the kings were not really leveling as much, I suspected, maybe a ruler must be truly independent to gain levels?

Or was it because the role of “ruling” had been separated and segregated to the FFA’s council of representatives, and also some areas of sovereignty were traded away.

“I must go.”

“Then you must at least learn some spells to disguise your appearance.”

“I already have,” Kei said, and in a flicker, the magical energies coated her crystal skin, and she looked absolutely human.

13

YEAR 168

The locusts crossed the damned ocean. The Valthorns mobilized. Fighting locusts was a hard task. The cities closest to the north suffered greatly as the locusts attacked crops and even forests.

The forests had their natural defenders and predators, and those attempted to fight off the locusts. Their territory had to be protected.

But the farmlands were brutally eaten, and somehow these locusts were able to breed even this far from their homeland. The fields were ravaged, a month’s harvest wiped out. The larger locusts attacked trees, too, and I felt them, nibbling.

It felt like I had ants crawling all over me. They dealt no damage, but goddamn, they were fucking irritating. I deployed my beetles by the tens of thousands to chomp on them, but still there were millions.

I needed some other kind of solution.

Edna’s ascension to the domain didn’t help much against these tiny swarms of bugs. Individually or in swarms, they could be eradicated, but miss a few and they would quickly multiply. In areas where my aura was strong, these magical demon locusts were nothing more than regular bugs, their strength individually flat-out pathetic, and I could kill them by the hundreds of thousands using the chomping defensive plants.

It was really just a freaking pest.

I soon deployed my bug-eater plants around all the major agricultural locations. It was an ugly sight, but a necessity. These magical locusts were not bothered by the weather and must be slaughtered. Fields where the locusts “captured” and “infested” became mini-hatcheries that pumped out even more of these locusts, though in lesser numbers than the main hatchery.

Annoying.

Ugh.

I forgot how much I hated dealing with an insect infestation. Bugs. Damned bugs.

“We’re not bugs, right?” Horns asked.

“Technically, you are. But I like you,” I said. “I’m referring to these…pests.”

“We’ll crush them,” Horns happily declared, and the beetles outfitted themselves for anti-locust battle. That meant more pincers, smaller sharp thorns and spikes, and some kind of anti-locust gas spray.

Bug spray.

The northern shores turned into a place of horrible carnage as we slayed the locusts by the millions. I’d lost count, and my artificial minds lost count. We resorted to using magical estimates and long-range magical explosions, our newest magical weapons, to intercept locust swarms crossing the oceans.

It was kinda like shooting a bomb at a typhoon. Or nuking a hurricane while it was over the ocean. Wait. That was not the right kind of description. Bombs worked, but it was not really the best countermeasure against these things.

But what else could we do? Our druids and mages attempted some hurricane or wind spells to destroy the locust swarms, and they did work. But the thing with swarms was that inevitably some of them survived.

“Master, unless we can destroy the main hatcheries and spawning points,” which were across the ocean, “we’ll be dealing with these pests for a long time.”

Ugh. I couldn’t be the only one dealing with this shit.

“How are the other continents coping?” I asked my council.

“Strangely, not that bad. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of locusts headed their way, and the Northern Isles is simply closer to us than any other continent,” my advisors said. “A few of the local lords have started activating magical wards and formations to create ‘pest-barriers.’ They work, but these swarms have very high flight limit and seem to be able to fly past the barriers.”

“Really?”

It was more of a case that we were the first to see it, as the other continents soon saw the swarms descend on their farmlands. The Eastern Continent suffered heavily, their magical defenses were lacking after the prior wars, and the locusts soon devoured their agricultural produce.

“Do the locusts die off without food after a while?” This was something I actually wondered.

The answer was…yes and no. My spiders captured thousands of locusts for experimentation within my biolab.

One of the few countermeasures I contemplated was…natural defenses. In nature, as I could recall from some documentaries, it was common for other insects to “check” the growth of other insects. If these locusts were pests, I could possibly design insects that specifically counter their massive swarms.

As it was, my beetles and spiders and stationary bug-eater plants were doing a decent job in killing these demons, but I needed more. Something more powerful that could chase them wherever they went. Interceptor bugs.

We also considered other natural defenses. There were plants that emitted certain gases that were poisonous to their pests. Some plants emitted saps that caused these locusts to stick or certain changes to the shape or content of their food that reacted to certain parts of their body, which then caused these locusts to die.

Everything was on the table, because they were freaking annoying. I felt like an angry househusband attempting to destroy all the pests in his home.

So we conducted experiments on the locusts that we captured and discovered that they were magically powered and had a little tiny bit of demonic flesh in them that absorbed magic and mana from the surroundings for sustenance. But, once they started eating, they switched to another demonic flesh that digested food. They also had an inbuilt “death trigger,” and that was after five reproductions, where after food, they made tiny demonic locust eggs in small blobs.

Very strangely well-built and engineered, for a tiny creature.

Then we did one of my favorite anti-demon abilities: flooding their bodies with my overwhelming mana. They popped like balloons.

Then I tested with less.

And less.

Until I reached a point where my mana was just enough to overwhelm them, but not overload the parts till it burst.

[Demonic Locust captured. Converting…]

The locusts changed shape into…giant grasshoppers? That was one of the biggest letdowns ever. Massive, harmless giant grasshoppers.

These locusts were mindless, and we also discovered that they could be “lured” using specific scents. Smell of fresh, growing plants seemed to attract them.

Maybe that was why they attacked the Central Continent in such large numbers. The level of forestation and agriculture on the Central Continent far exceeded the others, and we generally had a food surplus, so for these mindless locusts, they were just drawn across the continent to that scent, most likely swept across the oceans through the high winds.

So, by amplifying these scents, we soon discovered we were able to pretty much lure the locusts to a specific location, and then, with some good ol’ magical bombs and magical formations from Alka, either burn them to death with magical flames or blow them up. Later we tried to develop specialized anti-demon gas spray that was effective only against demons. Tried.

Our own demon-locusticide.

Yeah. It was a mouthful. If I had a mouth.

But it was surprisingly harder than we thought. I honestly never had an appreciation of how hard it was to develop a powerful chemical agent that worked specifically on something, because most materials were shared across many different life forms.

As the war against the demonic locusts raged on, we also analyzed the metals from the Margmarian City. These were strange metals to me, but once we put them in the material labs, it was soon clear they were just a blend of metals that were forged into an alloy. Mostly common materials, so now I had the ratio of what went into that alloy.

Yet the method of production still eluded us, though we had some good, educated guesses.

Since metallurgy was clearly something I was unfamiliar with, this was a matter left for my high-level blacksmiths and steelmasters to research, and whether there was any use for these alloys in our weaponry.

Our agents spoke of attempts by the adventurers in the north to attack the locusts’ main hatcheries, but they were thwarted by massive worms. It seemed that there were still champions that remained. This went on for about two to three months, before it seemed a few of the kingdoms and the temples themselves unleashed their big guns. Their hero items.

They used these weapons to mount a series of assaults on the hatcheries and made significant gains, and the locust swarms quickly dwindled. But it was a short period of calm, as the hatcheries soon reproduced. They were not able to clamp down on the hatcheries in totality, and something about the residual energies there caused the hatcheries to respawn.

“I want to speak to Aeon.” Kei messaged via a magical communication device, one of the legacy artifacts of the Harrisan era. She was apparently already in the Northern Isles, somehow.

“Why?” Lausanne picked up the artifact. “I can’t just walk up to Aeon and talk to him just because you said so.” Well, that wasn’t true.

“Alvin is poisoned by some kind of super-worm poison during the fight with the demon king, but the poison didn’t seem to kill him. Instead, it just somehow interfered with the functioning of his classes.”

Wait. The demons could do that? How?

Seriously, how? I had attempted to tamper with the hero skills in the soul springs, too. “He looks relatively okay, but extremely pale, as if something’s just massively weakening him. He can’t even use the most basic of abilities.”

Did the demons just discover something I wanted to know for a long time? The secret to “disabling” heroes without killing them?

I quickly informed Lausanne, and she spoke on my behalf. “Aeon asked whether you can transport Alvin to the Central Continent for further studies.” Well, curing him was beside the point. I wanted to know how the demons did it so that I could do the same. If I could replicate this, then I had nothing to fear from heroes!

“I will try. The temples are keeping this under tight wraps. I had to sneak in to find Alvin.”

“Aeon said if you need help, he will quickly arrange an extraction team.”

“Really?” Kei seemed to ask. Did I play my cards too openly? That she suspected that I had an ulterior motive?

“Yeah.”

14

YEAR 168

Operation Smuggle the Hero Out of the Northern Isles was in full swing as a fleet of ships sailed across the ocean.

“Does the hero even want to be saved?” Edna asked the obvious question. “I’m not planning to escort a tantrum-throwing hero across the ocean.” For a task that involved a hero, I felt only Edna was up to the task.

“Yes. I’m pretty sure he wants to be saved and healed, even if he prefers it not to be through Aeon’s powers,” Kei responded on the magical communication device. “As it is, he can’t bonk his harem.”

“Does he know that it’s…you? Did he see you as…you? Did you ask him?”

Kei didn’t answer, and Edna rolled her eyes. “Seriously. Aeon, you there? You agreed to this?”

“Yes,” I responded through a magical speaking item, one of the priests acting as my spokesperson. My eyes looked through that same device.

Edna shrugged. “Kei, you owe me one.”

“Yes, boss.” Kei bowed. “I’ll meet you guys once the force lands. I’ve already bought off some of the scouts and folks in that area, but I’ll doublecheck.” The fleet would mostly remain along a string of uninhabited islands, cloaked by magical spells and fog. A smaller group of ships would make landfall, and a few hundred men would disembark. From there, they would travel to the city where Alvin was kept under watch by the temples. This was a secret that very few were supposed to know, but it seemed that there were a lot of loose lips around.

Edna called on the senior team leads for a recap.

Essentially, the mission was to “steal” the hero without the temples knowing we did it. The potential for a political and worldwide drama, should it be seen that the Central Continent “kidnapped” a hero, well, a part of me thought it’d be a big middle finger to the four temples, and yet I wasn’t sure how the kingdoms and the temples would react.

In any case, it was best if the force remained unknown. That meant all of them were in disguises and had magical artifacts that altered their presence and magical signatures. Also, no unique abilities, so they had to all use common skills and abilities, and all their equipment was basic.

Even the ships we used for the operations were all repurposed ships captured from pirates or Northern Isle–sanctioned privateers.

One of the accompanying Valthorns was a level one hundred twenty-five sharpshooter called Roon. He, too, received multiple experience seeds and the soul-strengthening seed and was in the third batch of “ascended” potential warriors. “Well, a cakewalk, isn’t it?”

“In a way,” Edna said. “There are six of us here that are above level one hundred and another ten at level eighties. I do not expect any of us to die from this. The temples themselves have only a few people in the high sixties and seventies, and those old farts are probably hidden away. Our main risk, really, are the hero-items.”

Roon brought out a greater teleportation device, again a relic of the Harris era, one of the items they used to teleport back to me. The idea was, once they got hold of Alvin, they’d use the teleportation device to send him here.

There was a risk that the teleportation path could be traced via magic, and that would reveal my role in this entire affair, but I suspected an item used by the heroes was unlikely to be so easily followed.

“The city and the temple itself is fortified with ancient teleportation shields. We must get the target out of this range.” There was a circle drawn on the map, results of their earlier scouting efforts.

“That’s quite a big range.”

“Yes, if I recall, it was a hero item from a few centuries ago,” Roon explained. As the ranger, sharpshooter, and one of the elite ranged specialists, he did quite a bit of research. “They are likely to have secondary magic interference here and here.”

“All right.”

[Kei & Valthorn’s perspective - 3rd person POV]

The weather was cold. The north was often cold like this; the battering of the colder, northern winds was relentless.

“I wonder how much of the chill is due to the Frozen Tree.” Roon was fully equipped, even if it was all entirely off-the-shelf items. They drank a cup of warm tea, which boosted their natural heat and kept them warm.

Edna shrugged, her senses taking in the air of the north. “We’re not here to meet the Frozen Tree or hunt the hatcheries, Roon.” News of her ascension to the realm of the [domain] remained a secret known only to a few, so even Roon didn’t know. Not yet.

Roon smiled at the middle-aged knight. “Yes, yes.”

Another high-leveled ranger came by. He wore a thick cloak and jacket, again, a very ordinary item. “I wish I can use my enchanted coat.”

“Me too, Johann. Me too,” Roon responded. Their items were all stored in specialized magical crystals in the event of an emergency. Edna waved, and they kept their mouths shut.

The small ships stopped, and the captains signaled that they were going to hold. It was time. Edna stood, and everyone else followed. They changed to rafts and then made landfall.

“We could’ve used magic.” Johann wondered. He was one of those who had not received the soul-strengthening seed, so he was only level eighty-five. Still, he believed he would be given the honor once this task was done.

“No need to trigger any wide-range magical detection.” The group split up, about thirty starting to set up camps. The higher-leveled ones, led by Edna, would go first. Smaller teams would stay back to ensure they had somewhere to retreat to or provide support if needed. “The north’s intelligence systems are surprisingly robust.”

Johann frowned. “Really?”

“I’m surprised, too, but yes,” Roon said. “We need to look out for their agents.”

Kei’s POV

“This is the place.” The informant was an old woman in her sixties, and she walked Kei through the door of the hotel. The receptionist was a human lady in a beautiful outfit, and the informant spoke to her briefly and then flashed a card. Kei was sure it was a card of some kind.

The receptionist smiled naturally and then led them through a beautifully decorated walkway and into a wooden lift.

“This is as far as I will go. The receptionist will take over.” The informant nodded. Kei felt it was strange how serious she sounded. She entered the lift, and so did the receptionist. The doors to the lift closed, and then the receptionist knocked on the wooden walls of the lift.

The receptionist took out a pendant and pressed it. The lift went down, and when it opened, it looked as if she was in an armory. “This way.” There were groups of people resting. Some looked injured, their weapons all on the central table. There were a few individuals that looked like healers, and they even had white doctors’ robes.

She was led to a room. It was very bare for a hotel. No, here it wasn’t a hotel anymore. This was a war preparation area.

“Hello.” The two walked through the door, and the door closed. The lighting was very dim, and she had to use a skill to see.

Kei sat. “Hello. I’m here to confirm the heroes’ whereabouts and buy details on the security around the temple area.”

The two individuals seemed to have shared a glance, but it was too dark to make out anything.

“I believe the informant should have submitted the request?” Kei tried to clarify.

“Yes.” One of the two shadows brought out a briefcase. Kei reached out to touch it.

“Payment.”

Kei paused. Oh. She activated a storage crystal and withdrew the payment. Gems and coins. Two additional shadows came into the room and went through the payment. They nodded once they were done and left the room. The briefcase slid across the table and opened.

Kei looked at it. It was meticulous work, schedules of the patrols around the city, where the forces were, what the level of guards was. There were just three level fifty–plus individuals in the entire guarding force, and this was a great relief to Kei.

“Thank you,” Kei said. She assumed the briefcase was hers, so she placed the documents back inside and then grabbed the briefcase.

It…wouldn’t leave the table.

“Huh?”

“We’ve been watching you for some time.”

Kei paused. She was being watched?

“So, tell us, why have you been sniffing around for details about the hero Alvin’s condition?” The voice was clearly female, but it sounded weird. Not a human for sure.

Kei took a deep breath. “I believe I am the client here?”

The two didn’t reply.

“I had the impression organizations like yours don’t pry into the affairs of your clients.”

“That is normally true.” Another voice spoke. Kei wasn’t sure what exactly this voice sounded like. “But when your targets are the heroes, we want to hear exactly what your plan is. Are you one of the hero-hunters?”

Kei didn’t reply to that. Hero-hunters? What was that?

The voice on the left continued. “Lady K, right? I’ll be frank. My agents across the continent have been watching and protecting the heroes where we can. So we know when you’re looking for him, and we even know you’ve managed to somehow sneak into Alvin’s compound. Once.”

Kei’s eyes twitched. They’d been watching her for so long? She thought back to all her conversations with Lausanne and Aeon. Did they know? She was pretty sure she used magical interference abilities to hide that she was having a conversation. At that moment, a magical energy blast coated the room, and Kei’s magical disguise was instantly dispelled. It was a very strong “dispel” spell.

“A crystal golem,” the two said. “Interesting.”

Kei’s fists went up, and she was prepared to fight. “This is a trap.”

“I’m surprised that a hero-hunter would walk into our trap. Unless you are not one,” the shadows said. “We can’t let anyone hurt the heroes before their time is up.” At that moment, a magical suppression field popped up, and Kei felt her energy level decline massively. How she missed her hero powers. “Tell us everything and who you work for.”

Kei wasn’t sure how deep down they were, but she guessed they were quite deep underground. The explosion from her magical crystal bombs merely rattled the room.

It didn’t occur to Kei that her response was overkill, that activating a magic bomb was too much force, but Kei felt afraid. The fact that the entire underground area was magically rigged made her feel unsafe, that she was vulnerable, so she thought her response was proportionate to the level of risk she faced.

Still, the rooms seemed incredibly strong; she deduced they were magically enchanted. Rather than spill anything, she decided to bomb the shit out of the place. If they had torture devices or magical artifacts, Kei felt they could still hurt her.

“There really is no need to be so aggressive. We just want to talk,” one of the voices said. Kei didn’t believe that one bit. The walls seemed to close in, and Kei’s crystal limbs glowed, attempting to push back. The other voice seemed to have vanished, but Kei was sure she—no, she was sure both voices were female—was still here. She activated her speaking stone.

“K to E. K to E. Trap. Trap. Trap. Abort.”

“E to K. Acknowledged. Location.”

“Rosewood Gardens, Galewinds,” Kei spoke while she tried to fight off the rocks and bricks that flew her way. The room itself seemed to move in her way; the walls itself attempted to cut off her path.

“I kinda figured this is how this would turn out,” the shadows said, seemingly unharmed by the huge magical bomb. “Lucky us, we have the bombproof shielding installed.”

Kei frowned at how loudly they talked. An extra arm popped out of her chest to fight off the shadows that attempted to restrain her.

“Champions.” Kei repeated the word, a code word for high-tier opponents. Those two individuals were clearly strong. Her fist of crystal glowed, and she slammed into one of the moving walls, which caused it to crack.

Kei frowned; that was a lot less damage than she expected. These were reinforced walls, a skill of some kind. She punched again, and this time, it buckled. She charged her crystal fist for a third punch, and this time, it made a big hole that led to the surface.

She ran out.

Yet…they didn’t give chase.

Kei didn’t like that feeling. It felt like they were still on her tail, even though she didn’t see anyone in the entire afternoon. She was now quite a distance away from town; her golem body’s stamina was incredible.

She surveyed her surroundings. All data pointed that she wasn’t followed. Yet it still feel like they followed her. It was strange.

She sat and activated her speaking stone again. “K to E. K to E.”

“Status.”

“Safe. Surroundings clean,” she lied. She activated her magical interference spell. Yet she didn’t feel safe.

“Is the plan compromised?”

Kei was silent.

“Is the plan compromised?” The tone was clearly seeking confirmation.

Kei sighed. “Maybe.”

Edna closed the speaking stone. “That went as expected. That means we’re going with plan B.”

Roon and the group nodded. There was always a contingency plan in the works, in the event Kei was compromised. Edna never quite trusted her, and as far as she could tell, Aeon also kept her at arm’s length, even if he entertained a lot of her whims. “All right, we consider that the temples know what Kei knows. Which is there’s a group of us coming for the heroes.”

“If they know we are coming, then we should strike with two forces. A feint. A smaller force to make it seem like we’re attacking, and then a larger, actual force to capture the hero,” one of the knights suggested.

“Good idea, but how?”

“We can hire some bandits or mercenaries.”

“If the intelligence systems are as good as what we’ve seen, they’ll know we’ve hired them.”

“I’ll hire them, and I’ll be the bait,” Johann suggested. “Together with three others.”

Edna paused. “Hmmm…fine. No. I suggest you split into pairs and hire two groups and mount two separate attacks. We’ll strike at the third attack.”

“E to K. Please move to pickup one.”

Kei frowned at the instruction. Pickup one? Wasn’t that one of the southern port cities? But she figured they must have had a plan.

“Acknowledged.”

The hero Alvin was supposedly living in a massive fortified palace in the City of Essenva, home to about two hundred thousand others, half of which were temple followers. The city also housed the branches of all four temples and a large contingent of their force. Located in the largest island in the Northern Isles, and geographically in the center, it was one of the many “fort cities,” built when the temples realized they needed a show of strength a decade ago.

The city was very heavily fortified, and yet it was surprisingly easy to hire mercenaries and other kinds of instigators to trigger riots, simply because there was a lot of pent-up dissatisfaction built up over the decades, from food shortages, to bad behavior from the ruling authorities. The first riot was crushed brutally, but it did what it was meant to do. It “relieved” some of the tension in the air, and some of the forces seemed to think what they were predicted had come to pass.

The second riot was a much smaller one and pretty much fizzled out.

They waited a month in between, and a month after the second riot.

“The hell. Why are they waiting so long?” Kei was now in the southern port city. She was nervous, but no news was good news. Edna had disabled the communication crystal, a sign she wanted absolute radio silence, so Kei’s news came from bards and news-speakers.

“Have we spotted him?” Edna asked as Roon returned from the scouting mission.

“Yes. We’ve finally managed to slip in and get one of the identifier crystals. He’s alive, and we’ve mapped out his routine for the past two weeks.” He placed his notes on the table in their secret operation room, hidden in a magical space in the forests. Alvin was bedridden and seemed to be supported by a magical bed.

The Valthorns considered his schedule in a portable [secret hideout], made out of an ordinary tree deep in the nearby woods, courtesy of the Court of the Deitree.

“The intelligence forces have been sweeping the town for the past two months. They’re still not letting up.” Those intelligence forces came through the forest as well, but they couldn’t locate the [secret hideout].

Edna frowned. “They are more persistent than I expected, but no matter. This will be a matter we’ll highlight for our next investigation.”

So far, none of them were caught. They were all too high leveled and had enough equipment to evade most conventional weapons.

“But Kei’s under surveillance by the intelligence.” A few of the Valthorns were tasked to keep watch on Kei while the operation was underway, without her knowledge. “They seemed to have reported her, but they are not taking any immediate action.”

Edna’s frown didn’t go away. “Any risk that our extraction and escape will be interrupted?” It was still a distance to travel from that port to the ships. But Kei could teleport, and that would allow her to get out. But teleportation-jamming crystals were sufficiently common that most large cities had some lying around.

“Not sure. The intelligence forces are quite high leveled. We spotted one or two that we believe are around level sixty. If they have reinforcement, then we may have a problem.”

Level sixty was quite high. Aeon preferred killing of other high-leveled individuals be kept at the minimum, since every person alive was someone that could fight the demons. They were pretty much working on this with kids’ gloves.

“Hmmm…we’ll put this aside first. In terms of our course of action, the key question is, then, are we going to make contact with the hero?” Edna asked, and everyone gulped uncomfortably. Aeon wanted to kidnap the hero, whether he wanted to come or not. But if he resisted, it would make things difficult.

“That’s only point one,” Roon said. “The bed must also be considered. I think it’s some kind of healing or life-support artifact. I think I need one more visit to confirm the artifact’s effects, that our items can temporarily replace its function while moving the hero.”

Last thing they wanted was the hero to die if he was to leave the bed. Aeon didn’t want that. Not yet. Edna knew he wanted to look at the hero’s curse. And for that, she had to capture him alive. She quickly sent a specialized encrypted message home.

Will require healing once target is sent through teleport. Hero seems to rely on healing support.

“We could send the item across, too.” Edna explained.

“If we’re sending the item, too, we’ll need channeling time. Can we keep the hero still for 1 hour?” The mage asked. Teleportation scaled with distance and size.

Edna tapped the table. “Which is why we must ask the question, do we actually want to ask the hero?”

“Can’t we just put him to sleep?”

“We can try, but heroes are naturally immune to all kinds of regular ailments and lower-tier spells and skills. We’re not sure whether it will work, but if it does, good for us,” Edna said. To what extent did the curse weaken the hero’s power? Did it nullify immunities, too? Didn’t seem like a good bet.

Roon noted it down. “All right, one last recon.” As the level one hundred twenty-five ranger and sharpshooter, he had enough stealth and camouflage abilities to walk through the gates, but the presence of the intelligence forces still made things a little tense. Someone around level forty with the right mix of detection and scouting ability could still spot him.

The last scouting mission was thankfully smooth.

“All right. Good. Let’s just confirm our plans. Our plan is two-fold, and we must hit both at around the same time,” Edna said. They had considered many ideas and plans over the past month of surveillance, so they had to firm up which version they went with. “I’ll lead eight of us, together with our artifacts, to enter the hero’s location and capture him at this time. Roon and Johann will lead the rest to hit anti-teleportation crystals and disable them. Once disabled we’ll ping, and we will trigger the teleportation channeling. We are sending the hero with the bed, unless the resistance is too heavy.”

Everyone nodded. “All right, let’s get into the tunnels.”

Using their special familiars’ [Root Tunnel] ability, they’d excavated tiny tunnels that led under the hero’s compound and also to the magic tower where the city’s anti-teleportation crystals were held.

Sadly, the tunnels only got them three-quarters there, as there were structures underground built by the [builders]. Reinforced stone and rock prevented the [root tunnel] from going further.

But at least they were in the compound. Roon and Johann’s group started the first ping to indicate they started the assault. They were all in camo and hit all the resistance with extremely powerful sleeping agents. It was…pretty much a cakewalk at how quickly the resistance collapsed. They were too high level.

Once they got up to the crystal’s location, they pinged again.

This was Edna’s cue to launch their side of the operations. Similar to Roon and Johann, they hit most of the targets with strong sleep or paralysis agents, causing the regular guards and the temple’s forces to collapse. It was also a relatively easy task; their high levels meant they outclassed the resistance.

Then they reached the hero’s compound. They found the hero already asleep, and Edna was the first to approach the hero, her protective abilities all active. The moment she touched him, she knew the condition was bad. He just looked all right, but something churned deep in him. She could feel it.

But the touch triggered something else.

An alarm. Someone had cast a touch-alarm on the hero.

“Ugh.” Edna guessed that it must have been the intelligence. She made a mental note to check on who ran them. The temples were clearly not behind them.

The alarm was city wide. Roon instantly deactivated the anti-teleportation shield, and one of the high mages started the teleportation channel.

“…who’re you?” Alvin woke up, groggy.

Edna glanced at him; her mind was on the defensive forces that streamed through the various buildings toward them. “We’re here to take you to someone who can help you.”

“But the temples said…only the gods can help me.”

“Well, we’re taking you to a god.”

Edna and her team activated their magical items, which summoned massive walls around them. One of the druids then casted a wide-area sleep-poison spell. It soon sent most of the guards to sleep.

Alvin frowned. “…who?”

The sleep ability was effective on almost everyone. Almost everyone. At that moment, a dark shadow charged at them, the shadow’s blades active. Edna could feel that this shadow was someone who had probably reached high levels. Perhaps in the eighties.

Edna smiled and focused her domain’s aura. It instantly caused the shadow to freeze and collapse, revealing a lean, humanoid lady with strange, beetle-like armor. Still, it wasn’t enough, as the lady got up and charged, her body surrounded by a deep purple light.

She activated a massive force shield that pushed back, and it was too big for the shadow to dodge. The shadow smashed into the force shield and was launched a few hundred feet away.

The mage in the group said, “Twenty minutes.” The sleep spell on the guards would knock them out till the next morning.

Edna thought for a moment and then turned to face the shadow. It was going to get up again. She then activated her [Court]’s vines and tentacles. It surged out and wrapped the shadow, injecting the sleep and paralysis directly into the strange lady’s body.

Yet that was enough. As she collapsed, her eyes went wide as the vines that now wrapped her body. “…Aeon?” The moment she collapsed, one of her artifacts activated, and she was teleported away.

Edna was impressed. “Wow. These intelligence forces are well prepared.”

Alvin was just surprised. “Who are you guys?”

“We’ve met.” Edna smiled.

“Teleportation is activating,” the mage said, and at that instant, Alvin and his bed vanished.

Edna smiled and went to the ping. “Radio silence off. Let’s get our ass out of here. K team, please get our golem lady out safely. Knock the intel guys out if you have to.”

[Back to Aeon’s POV]

Alvin arrived on time, and already my best biolabs and medical skills were ready and waiting. They sent him right into the Valley of the Unrotten. I even opened up the magical barriers and runic foundations just so that I could receive this particular teleportation.

When he arrived, he glanced up and saw all the trees around him.

“Oh fuck,” he said.

“Hello,” I spoke. “I believe we’ve never met, but Kei told me to help you.”

“And you think I’ll believe that, Aeon? She’s dead, and it’s your fault,” Alvin responded, surprisingly angry. Eh, and I thought it was his fault for not coming here. “It’s out of respect to Kei and her ideals that we didn’t pursue a crusade.”

“Really?” My spirit vision told me that his energies were extremely conflicted; his spirit was like a bright light, but there was something that blocked that light out, so much that I saw only bits and pieces of stray light. “No matter your views, I have been requested to assist you, and I will.”

I meant every word. But I’d also figure out how to disable heroes, too.

15

YEAR 168 (PART 2)

“You don’t look in particularly good shape, for a hero.” I mentally spoke to Alvin, and he was powerless to resist. I sensed the swirling chaos within his body, and I was eager to see how it worked under the hood. First we started with comprehension, then weaponization.

“And if I refuse?” Alvin said.

“Well, you’d rather live like this, bedridden for the remainder of your days, than let me try to heal you?”

Alvin didn’t reply.

“The next demon king will come in ten years or so, and when it comes, it will come for you, because you are the last surviving hero. And it will find you in this state and kill you. And destroy the city around you, too.”

The weakened hero clenched his fists. “What do you even care?”

That offended me. Offended us. Had we not been fighting against the demons all these while? Had I not been resisting? What gave this hero the right to question that? Why, just because I wasn’t on the “same” side? “I brought you because Kei asked me to help you, because I happen to be one of the few people in the world that can even try to undo a demon king’s curse, and you question me?”

I was tempted to just keep him in stasis.

“By bringing you here, we have pretty much drawn the next demon king to us. To me. Do you think I would do so if I didn’t mean to heal you?”

“You could have brought me here to kill me.”

“I could.” Honestly, I could. In fact, if I found out how the demon’s poison or curse or whatever worked, I could be a dick to the world and not heal him. “But that would mean more unnecessary destruction and more people dying while we wait for the gods to summon the next batch of heroes. As much as I dislike Kei’s request, I still see some merit in helping you. And we need you to fix the locust problem that’s causing food disruptions all over the world.”

“And I am supposed to believe that you mean well for the world.”

“I do.” I meant it. I truly believed that this cycle was horrible. All the lives, all those forests, jungles, trees, and habitats wiped out, just to serve as the playground for this game of gods. I’d seen enough death to see this wasn’t the way to go, and from what I could tell, many other, earlier precursor civilizations had suffered a premature death.

“Heh.” Alvin snorted.

“So are you letting me help you or not?” If I had to kill him, I would. With the levels I gained since the fight with the demon king, maybe I could give him a run for his money. Still, the entire Valley of the Unrotten was loaded with bombs. If he was going to start something crazy once I healed him, I would blow up the entire valley to take him down. I’d live, but I didn’t think he would.

“Fine.”

I made a giant attendant tree that was focused as a biolab to house Alvin’s body, with all the best materials I could gather and all the tools I may never need.

I activated all my sensors and then dived into his soul spring to see what was the magical equivalent of an oil slick.

Just like Meela long ago, there were these two large magical jugs in the sky that poured beautiful untainted, sparkly water into his soul spring and the “lake” around it. This sparkly water was star mana, and then I saw these…strange spire-like structures that resembled the demon’s home world. These emitted demonic mana in large quantities, and yet the star mana was still able to push back against the mana produced by these spires.

What was really different was something that looked like a single red crystal located right on top of his own soul spring that was surrounded by a red flame. I activated my soul-related abilities to get a closer look at whether this was just another type of curse. The flames seemed to burn the star mana that got near it and in doing so created an entirely dry, parched area.

[Greater Daemon Hybrid Parasite Spawn – nascent form]

What in the fuck? I looked closer, and I saw, indeed, there seemed to be something resembling a… I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. It was like a jellyfish, but incomplete.

In fact, once I observed the way the flames interacted with the star mana, I believed that thing may be “drinking” the star mana.

“Alvin. I want you to tell me what the demon king did to you.”

He was still groggy when I woke him from the biolab’s bed. My vines and my own healing energies had taken over the role of his magical bed, and I could see he was healthier in most ways. But his skills and magic all remained off limits, so long as that…parasite consumed all the mana that got anywhere near his soul spring.

He sat up and told the story.

Both of them fought the giant worm demon king, and it went quite well. The temples provided some assistance, as they brought out old hero items to help provide cover fire and take out the mobs. They activated their powers and their star mana forms and went all out. The demon king caught one, but Hans managed to use his attacks at point-blank range to significantly weaken the demon king before he was killed.

He fought the demon king to the end, but at the end, when he thought he won, there was a core in the middle. He thought it was going to explode, but instead, it just shot out the locusts to the entire area. In the middle was also this glowing blob of tiny red worms that attacked him. He thought he killed and destroyed most of them…but then he began losing his powers.

Within a month, he was significantly weakened, and he thought he was going to die, but then somehow the condition stabilized. Still, he needed support, and so the temple brought out the ancient hero item the Healing Bed. Honestly, the bed itself resembled something that would be found in a hospital. It was clearly something made by a hero in memory of home.

“Those…little red worms. I thought I got all of them,” Alvin confessed. “But I think some of them managed to get into my body.”

The spawn in his soul spring. How?

I thought long and hard about this. There was a parasite in his body, and it was the thing that denied him access to his powers. It was like somebody rerouted the electricity away from the main computer so the computer was unusable but not necessarily “spoiled.”

The thing was growing. It fed on his star mana.

Honestly, a part of me was extremely curious of what happened if it matured. Did it burst out of his body?

The red flames protected it, but I realized that the protection was insufficient. Not enough to deny me.

I placed Alvin in my specialized soul forge, a set up I used to heal Stella of her void mana curses, and activated the various ley lines for the power I needed. The flames this parasite created were meant to “consume” star mana, and it was specifically tailored for it. It had pretty good protections, such that significant majority of healing or anti-poison or anti-parasite abilities could not get past those red flames.

But not me. The flames bent and went out at the touch of my overwhelming mana. And my vines reached out and then touched it.

At that moment, a voice spoke back. ‘Tree, we believe we are on the same side.’

I mentally froze, and Patreeck quickly updated. “No mental incursions, master. It appears to be a telepathic message passed via the vines.”

‘Don’t remove me.’

The…spawn? Indeed, there really was nothing else but the crystal. “What are you?”

‘I am the demon’s bid to escape the clutches of our Slavers. A weapon created to kill heroes but at the same time use the heroes’ powers to grow.’

…shit. “I do not believe you.”

‘Certainly, you should not.’

“How do you speak so…well?” The level of speech and sentence structure suggested something a lot more intelligent than what I initially remembered of the demons.

‘We learn from the captured heroes. We learn from their memories, their thoughts. We leech off their minds and pick the speech and language patterns. Even now, I tap into the hero’s mind.’

“You are a parasite.”

‘That I am.’

“Then tell me why I should not remove you?”

‘Because I can help you fight the Slavers. We know your kind is unaware of who we are. Who we serve.’

“Then enlighten me.”

‘The Ancient Slavers, and the Puppeteers, are but two large factions in eternal conflict over the multiverse. This world is one of the many gateway worlds at the edges between the realm of the Slavers and the Puppeteers. We, the so-called demons, are but a race of animals, or monsters, that the slavers have assimilated as their slaves of war. Our home worlds are helpless; the slaver’s mind-touch is etched into our flesh, our souls stolen away and fused into the mass. Our leaders are forced to fight their wars, sent to your world as the demon kings.’

I wondered whether it was lying. But it was quite plausible. “Then what are you?”

‘I am a secret project, a weapon designed by our kings, with a spark to regain control of our own destiny.’

I was getting some serious Xel’naga vibes here. No. Kerrigan.

‘But to do so, I must grow and mature outside the eyes of the Puppeteers and the Slavers.’

I had a real sinking feeling.

‘The demon kings believe we can have allies in this world. Those who can help us rebel against our slavers. We have seen strong natives across the multiverse, and we have attempted to seek their aid. I am to be made using the magic of the Puppeteers, to wash away the corrupt stain of the Slavers that seeks to hold onto my will. With true independence, and the knowledge I have, we can retake my home world.’

Was this for real? No. Didn’t demons always lie? But that was the belief, wasn’t it? “I have not decided to help you or not, but I need to know everything. And I mean every damn thing.”

‘Certainly. Our kings believe letting the natives know the truth of the conflict will convert some to our cause.’

Convert to their cause? That choice of word seemed to sound like the demons were attempting to incite people to believe them. Wasn’t this just a version of the demon cults I met a century ago? “Start from the beginning. Who are the gods?”

‘The Slavers and Puppeteers are but a generation of mortals that gained apotheosis, perhaps a few million years ago. They come after three Parents, the Birth of the System-time and the Birth of the Worlds, and the Birth of Souls, and rose to enslave them. They failed.’

“How do you know this, and how do I know this is true?”

‘It is our ancient belief that we believe is true.’

Oh lord, I was dealing with demonic religion. “What do you want?”

‘We want to be freed of the Slavers.’

“What do the Slavers and Puppeteers want?” I presumed these were the gods.

‘We do not know much. We know they seek to conquer the gateway worlds, and to do so we must defeat the Puppets and claim the native magic of the world. In worlds where we have conquered, the Slavers consumed the natives and turned them into new slaves to fight other battles. The native worlds were stripped of certain types of energies, and the rest was left for the new slaves to use. The Slavers will change the natives, such that the natives become more…warlike.’

“How do you open the portals to our world? Where is your world?”

‘I do not know how to describe where my world is. It is just…there. As for the portals, the Slavers have unique individuals tasked with tuning the void gates. The void gates are tuned to residual energies of your world, but I know not of their operations. These are the powers of the Slavers. Each of the demon worlds have agents of the Slavers.’

Each of the demon worlds? There was more than one? “How can I know you are not lying to me?”

There was a moment of silence, then it responded. ‘So what if I am? Does it make what I say any less useful?’

I kept on with the Q&A session. “How do you break free of the Slaver’s hold?”

‘Their hold is written in the flesh and in the stones of the soul.’

“What happens when you mature?”

‘The hero dies, and I emerge a matured creature, hatching from the body of the hero.’ Whoa, that was some alien shit. It was then that I felt my mana become slightly unstable. I decided to pull out and disconnected my vines from that parasitic crystal.

“So?” Alvin asked when he woke up.

“I’m still trying.”

“I felt like you almost touched it, though. What…what is it?”

“I…I don’t know,” I lied.

Honestly, I had a choice. Did I save the hero, or did I keep the parasite? If what the parasite said was true, he could be useful. No. Even just seeing it was sufficiently informative. It meant it was possible to create “soul-spring parasites,” creatures that existed in the soul spring and that same soul spring could leech away the star mana.

Could I make tree equivalents of such parasitic creatures? I believed it was not impossible; there were parasitic trees in the world.

“Huh, so the great tree isn’t so great, after all. So much for being the god of the Central Continent.” Alvin snorted. Thankfully, I was a tree, and the insult didn’t bother me.

I contemplated the issue, whether to assist Alvin or to let the parasite remain within the body of the hero. The hero was a pain in the ass, but he was hostile. On the other hand, what could the demon do for me? Should I use it as a source of information and just extract what I could, then save the hero anyway?

At what point did the demon mature?

‘I will mature in another…three years.’

I felt a strange, unsettling feeling. “Tell me more. Why do you come to our world like clockwork? Every ten years?”

‘Is it that frequent? It may be those gathered from the other enslaved worlds. The Slavers occasionally only require the kings to serve as the leader of the assault, to stabilize both the interworld portal and to spread the Slaver’s energies.’

“What are the heroes, and why do the gods need them?”

‘We have captured a few in the past, and we can read minds. The Puppeteers summoned heroes from the same few places, and we met their kind in the other worlds, too. But why…we are not privy to the thoughts of the Puppeteers. We only know that their magic is well suited against the etchings of the Slavers on our reforged flesh.’

…fucking shit. I mean, I knew from the Zaratans that there were other worlds and they faced demons there. “How do you plan to strike back against the Slavers? You said you needed help. What is the strategy?”

‘In our home world, the Slavers maintain ten large crystalline spires, which store the souls of our people, prisons. The kings are those chosen from the imprisoned souls, a promise by the Slavers to free some of us for every Puppeteer we slay. There are similar spires in the other enslaved worlds.’

I paused at the idea of these…controlled spires.

‘The kings are suspicious of the Slavers, but given our circumstances, we have no choice but to obey. The Slavers etched strong curses and rules into the flesh of the kings, so we are bound by their will.’

“Where are the Slavers?”

‘We do not know. We believe they have ascended to a higher folded plane where they can reach multiple worlds at once, rather than have their powers limited by the constraints of space and time. Their servants walk in the enslaved worlds, their appointed commissioners…’

There were so many things that didn’t make sense. If there were these puppeteers that manipulated this game, why did they need to “import” heroes from Earth? Why?

“Do you know of…Earth?”

‘Yes. One of the few home worlds of the Puppets.’

“Why? Why them?” There were other worlds?

‘We do not know why. We have attempted to reach that world, but our powers fail. It seemed that these home worlds are behind some kind of one-way barrier.’

This meant Stella’s plan to reach home may fail. “Back to the crystal spires. Will destroying them free the world from the Slavers’ rule?”

‘Most likely. We believe it will weaken it, at least. The spires are extensions of the Slavers. Destroying them should weaken their hold on our home world.’

“And you will stop invading our world?”

‘You would have to free all the enslaved worlds for that to happen, and there are perhaps hundreds.’

Hmmm…this is useful. This meant that hiding the world from the view of the gods and demons may be a more realistic option. “Wait. That day you spoke of the portals. What residual energies do you speak of?”

‘In your world, there are remnant energies of the Slavers. These act as beacons for the gates to find your world. As it is, your world has a mix of energies, both the Slavers and the Puppeteers.’

“Where?”

‘…we do not know. But we know we leave more of the Slavers’ energies in your world after each invasion. Perhaps in the bodies of the kings.’

All right. Damned Daemolite was bad. This just confirmed it. I’d have to destroy all the daemolite…

No, if there were residual “Slaver” energies, I should gather them and see whether I could absorb them for myself. If these were remnant energies of the gods of these demons, it should be worth something.

“You’ve been trying so many times and nothing.” Alvin snorted. “I’m getting annoyed with this. Just kill me and be done with it.”

“I’m very tempted to,” I responded.

Edna, Kei, and the others finally returned from the Northern Isles, and Kei walked through the door. Alvin sat on the biolab.

“Hi, Alvin,” Kei said, her body that of a golem.

“Who’re you?”

“I’m Kei, you asshole.”

“Kei’s dead.”

“Well, let’s just say I didn’t really die. I got blown up by the demon king, but somehow Aeon managed to salvage a big chunk of my soul and placed me into this body.” Kei’s explanation was quite on point.

Alvin stared at the golem.

“What, you don’t believe me?”

“No.” Alvin shook his head. “Wait. How?”

“I explained it already. Weren’t you listening?”

“I mean. Yes. No. I mean, how?”

Kei facepalmed. “You’re an idiot.”

“I swore I saw the notification said you died.” Alvin shook his head.

“I lost all of my [hero] classes and all of my levels, which the system somehow interpreted as me dying. I believe Aeon described it as having the entire house blown off.”

“Why didn’t you try to contact us?” Alvin said.

“What for? Would you believe me?”

Alvin thought about it for a moment. “…true.”

Kei then turned to me. “Aeon, how’s his condition?”

Should I lie? I decided maybe it wasn’t worth it to lie. “There’s a parasite inside him. A demonic parasite that’s eating up all of his mana and most of his vitality. I’m still thinking about how to remove it. It’s…complicated.”

Kei nodded. Alvin’s face was one of abject horror. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I wanted to tell Kei first.”

Edna then walked into the biolab, her energy and presence easily filling the room. Kei looked at Edna, a little surprised. “You’ve changed since I last saw you, Lady Edna. You’ve crossed the line?”

Edna gave a little nod. “Just barely. So how’s your patient?”

“There’s a parasite in him.”

“I see. That explains a lot.” Edna could sense magical energies of those around her, so she was quite surprised by how “empty” he felt. It was one of the consequences of the “domain.” “So what’s our next step? We wait for Aeon to heal him?”

“The parasite’s a little bit tricky.”

Later on, I pulled Edna and a few of the senior Valthorns for a private meeting, where I briefed them on what I learned from the parasite.

“The conundrum is essentially do we save the hero, or do we keep the parasite for its knowledge?”

“Why not both, really?” one of the higher-leveled druids, a dude called Kayus, asked. “Perhaps, if it is a parasite, we could transplant it to a suitable host.”

“It needs star mana to grow, if what it says is true. And if it chooses to resist us on maturity, it may be a handful to deal with.”

Lumoof hushed it. “We have Aeon and Edna to deal with it.” Lumoof wasn’t too far off from level one hundred fifty, either. Now that Edna was back, they could resume their dungeon exploration.

Hmmm…transplanting the parasite could be an idea. I also wondered whether I wanted to draw on its demonic energy. Perhaps it could give me the breakthrough I needed to truly understand and master demonic mana.

I also wondered…whether I could “convert” it the same way I did with demon walkers. Did it have a soul?

‘Yes,’ it answered. ‘The kings managed to free a part of our souls and spread it into the worms. The Slavers still have a hold over my soul, but with each day, the consumed Star Mana eats away at their bindings. When I mature, I will be free.’

There was something about it that just didn’t sit right. Was it instinct?

16

YEAR 169

Ibelieved the knowledge of the demons would help us significantly more in the long run, at least more than saving the hero. Of course, these were not mutually exclusive choices, so I was left with trying to extract the parasite and providing it with a suitable environment to continue its growth.

“We should tell them,” Edna said. “I think a bit of transparency will help.”

I stewed on the decision for days, and then I decided to go with Edna’s idea. I thought I had natural “hermit” tendencies, which had not always served me well. Perhaps Edna’s willingness for transparency would result in a better outcome.

“You have a parasite.” It was a fact.

“Yes, I know.” Alvin rolled his eyes like he heard this a million times. Kei stood next to her friend. They were still friends, somehow, despite all the shit that happened between them.

“The parasite, I believe it has a mind, and it talks to me every time I touch it. As a result, I’ve been really careful when dealing with it.”

Both Kei and Alvin stared at each other, their jaws a little wide. I dropped a bomb. Kei immediately asked, “…is this why it’s taking so long?”

“Well, yes,” I answered.

Kei’s golem face looked like one of betrayal. “Aeon…”

“Now, I’m telling you this because I still intend to heal Alvin.”

“Then? Spill it. What’s really causing the delay?” Alvin accused.

“I’m hoping to extract it without killing it. This parasite may well hold the answer for how to open a gate to the demon world and take the battle to their world,” I admitted it honestly. “I’m sick of letting this world be the playground of the gods, where they just stomp through and destroy everything. It’s time to take the battle to their world. That’s why I’m dealing with this carefully.”

“This is my life you are talking about,” Alvin accused, and I vaguely sensed some divine energies at work, as if it just glossed over what I said. “I’m not some experiment you can play with to win some bigger game.”

Kei was more understanding. “Aeon, dealing with a demon parasite doesn’t sound like a good idea. I highly doubt whatever a demon parasite says is trustworthy. It’s a demon, and in my world, demons only offer bad deals.”

Well. Yeah. That was…true. It was entirely possible that this parasite was lying to me and telling me crap.

I reviewed what it said so far, and clearly none of it betrayed its true intentions. The parasite always spoke of taking the battle back against the Slavers, but we, the natives, were just expendable. That was the sense I got after I reviewed my conversation with it.

After some thinking, I concluded I wouldn’t sacrifice the hero to save this parasite. Yes, I agreed that saving the hero was just repeating more of what had passed, but the demon’s trustworthiness was severely in doubt. At best, I should aim for an outcome where both survived.

“Yes. I’m aware of that, but I’m hoping for a mutually beneficial outcome. Alvin’s life comes first, and I will not hesitate to destroy the parasite.” I spoke to both of them. “But this is a rare opportunity to interrogate and understand the demons and use their knowledge against them.”

Kei was deep in thought, her thoughts unmarred by any attempted divine influence. “Fine. But I want to be informed every step of the way. Alvin may not be able to think with the presence of the parasite in him.”

Alvin snorted. “Hey. I’m still here.”

“The parasite may influence you as it gets stronger,” Kei responded. “It’s pretty much the equivalent of a demonic possession. As you know, you can’t trust the words of someone you are about to exorcise.”

Alvin was horrified at the idea. “Ugh. Get it out. Now.”

“Unless death is certain, not yet. Not until we get more out of the parasite,” I responded.

Kei nodded. “I want to know what his condition is at all times, and would it be possible to quantify the parasite’s state? I’m afraid your attempts to ‘extract’ the parasite may accelerate that thing’s maturity.”

“That is a good point, but how do I… Hmm… Wait. How about this? Every time I try to do something, you enter the [biolab]. In my dream sleep state, I can project what I see to you directly.”

This was essentially using Patreeck’s mind-attack abilities and memory-injection abilities to bridge visions. Kei paused.

Alvin shook his head. “That makes both of us vulnerable!”

Kei thought. “Is it possible for you to project what you see, and what’s actually happening to Alvin’s body physically?”

“In the dream state…yes.”

“All right.”

Alvin shook his head like this was the worst idea ever.

Meanwhile…

“How’ve you been, Arlisa?” Laufen tapped her head. They met up in Laufen’s home in one of the giant attendant trees in Freshka.

“I’m all right, Grandmother. Have you seen Mom around?” Arlisa sat in a rattan chair. There was a pot of tea on the table.

“Yes. She’s busy with your brother and that golem girl.” Laufen nodded. “Have you forgotten to speak to her recently?”

“…kinda.” Arlisa shrugged.

“Now what have you done?” Laufen sipped her fruit tea. Her role in the Valthorns had gradually reduced in the past few years, the social work she once championed gradually taken over by the priests and senior Valthorns that sought out less-combat-oriented roles. Still, she continued to work in the local social services.

“…nothing.”

Their eyes met, and Arlisa turned her head away. “Well, okay. Tell me about your adventures! I hear from the initiates that you’ve been really active on the whole dungeon stuff.”

Arlisa breathed a sigh of relief as her grandmother allowed her to change the subject. “Oh, it’s tough.” Well, she was gifted, and finally she found some use for her natural talents for stealth, sneaking, and tracking. But unlike Lausanne where her skills were augmented by a Court-level familiar, Arlisa only received an ordinary familiar, and her combat experience paled to Lausanne. Furthermore, she went on her adventures quite a distance from Freshka, where my “power-leveling” and experience-related boosts were weaker.

It was tough, and she was in the mid–level fifties. The fact that she had to apply for the regular adventurer slots along with her team also meant she couldn’t do it as frequently. Still, she had fun. Her companions seemed like decent people, a few lizardpeople, a centaur, and a gnoll.

She also didn’t get to fight the hybrid demons in the Rottedlands, as that task was usually reserved for the local militia or the nearest Valthorn keeps.

Laufen just smiled at her explanations and her adventures. “That’s good. I’m happy for you.”

Arlisa shifted uncomfortably. “…really? Do…do you think Mom’s disappointed? Are you disappointed, Granny?”

Laufen thought about it for a moment and sighed. “Your mom, I think she doesn’t know what to do with you. Maybe she had an idea, a hope that you’d be this exemplary individual, no matter what you chose. She was willing to accept whatever you would be, as long as she saw that you worked hard at it. I think she wasn’t prepared to see you just…do nothing.”

Arlisa sighed. “I knew it.”

“You feel that there’s a lot of expectations on you, don’t you?”

Arlisa nodded. She was a little bit sad to hear that her mom was disappointed in her.

“That’s normal. Parents and their children are meant to be different.” Laufen tapped Arlisa on the shoulder. “It’s part of growth.”

“It doesn’t feel like growth, though.”

Laufen just smiled and switched the topic. “One day, it’ll all make sense. Let’s not talk about such bitter stuff. Your brother’s cute.”

“Yeah.” Arlisa shifted awkwardly. “It’s weird that he’s my brother.”

Laufen laughed. “That happens with us elves, since we have such long lives that siblings can be entire generations apart. But in a few decades, it’ll be fine.”

Arlisa rolled her eyes. “A lot can happen in a few decades.”

“Exactly!”

What was the point of extracting the demon parasite? I considered that the purpose of “saving” the parasite was to have access to its repository of knowledge. As such, perhaps even if I did save it, I should not let it ever attain its maturity. In fact, if what I want was its knowledge, whether it remained a demon or not didn’t matter.

Kei had a point that the demon was likely to lie. It had every incentive to, as I had its life in my metaphorical hands, so it would say anything and everything for me to keep it that way.

Yet I was so starved of information on the mechanics of what was happening in the background that I knew I couldn’t let go of this opportunity.

I thought about it and concluded that I needed to “unmake” the demon parasite. Perhaps, in the same way with the demon walker, I needed to inject and overwhelm it with my mana such that it would “become” one of mine.

I soon discussed the idea with Edna and my senior Valthorns and then brought the idea to Kei.

“So…wait. You plan to flood Alvin’s body with your mana, such that your mana overwrites its own mana? You can do that?” Kei was quite shocked by the idea. “I didn’t know it’s possible to take over a person by flooding them with mana!”

“I have never tested this ability on a person, only mindless demons thus far.” I had to first check whether the parasite had any mana in the first place. My checking soon revealed the answer to be yes. It had its own demonic mana, but it was different. It was a mix of demonic mana and star mana. Could my mana overwhelm it?

I…didn’t know. I had never really been able to prove how [natural mana overwhelming] worked anyway. My understanding had been that my mana would take the place of the “blood” that ran through the demonic flesh and in doing so free the body from the control of the demons. Would it work if it had a soul?

No. As I studied it a little more, the parasite didn’t have a soul. A soul should not be able to exist within the soul spring of another soul. It was therefore more of an intelligent homunculus.

What would happen if my mana entered the parasite? The parasite had some mana-consumption ability, as demonstrated by its ability to consume star mana. What if I unintentionally sped up its development? Wouldn’t I indirectly kill Alvin that way?

Still, if I wanted to “save” it, then converting it to a non-demonic form would be the only way I could trust its words. As it was, even if what it said was true, I could not trust it to take any action. If this knowledge was not actionable, what was the point?

Edna, Lumoof, and a few of the high-leveled Valthorns were present, just in case things went bad. My hope was Edna would step in and fight anything that occurred. I also had the entire area rigged with bombs if the parasite was significantly stronger than expected.

We prepared multiple biolab pods, all ready for the attempted mana flood. The idea was flood Alvin’s body with my mana and, by extension, flood the parasite with my mana and see whether it worked to weaken or convert it. If it went bad, we’d stop. If it did go terribly, we’d use my soul realm powers to forcefully extract the parasite from his soul.

If the conversion was successful, I’d have insights into how it “ate” star mana, which hopefully I could then recreate the effect. After that was figuring out how to effectively weaponize it as an anti-hero weapon, though this part was left unsaid.

I ensured all my potato batteries throughout the continent were fully charged, just in case I needed them. If this was a hybrid, I just had starcraft flashbacks that this was gonna be a lot more difficult.

“So what if it doesn’t work?”

“I’ll destroy it.”

“What if you can’t?”

“I believe I can.” From my vines touching it, I was rather sure I could hurt it. I just wasn’t sure how it would respond to a flood of my mana.

Kei looked at Alvin. “You think Aeon should have a go at it?”

Alvin just meh-ed. He was bitter ever since he came here, even if Kei did her best to cheer him up. The fact that her golem could shapeshift meant she could even make herself look like the old Kei.

Kei paused and thought. “So if we wait, you’ll die. Are there alternative healers you know of?”

Alvin shook his head. “Short of a divine miracle?”

“I figured.” Kei sighed. “Demonic curses are not so easily removed.”

“So we have to.”

I went in for one last probing check. I touched the parasite crystal, and I could see it growing bit by bit. Its flames attempted to burn my vines, but I was protected.

‘Traitor.’ That was rich coming from a parasite.

“You told me you can’t be trusted. I am merely acting on your words and performing the necessary due diligence.”

‘We told you much more than that. Why do you wish to serve the Slavers and the Puppeteers?’

If I managed to convert it, then we could have an honest conversation. But as it was, there was sufficient grounds for a healthy dose of skepticism. Was it goading me? In any case, I avoided the question and asked one of my own. “What happens when I flood you with my mana?”

‘We don’t know. But we will resist you.’

“Why don’t you leave his body?”

‘No. Puppeteer’s mana is key.’

“I believe the hero is innocent. If you leave his body, and he continues to supply you star mana, will you do it?”

It didn’t reply, but the silence was sufficient to seal the deal.

“I hope to win you over to my side with my mana. Turn you into one of mine. I can supply you with star mana should you take this option.”

‘It seems the kings have to reconsider their plans. The natives are fools. The natives are also just Slavers.’ That…that kinda stung.

“Your nature requires the death of the hero. I offer you an option to leave without killing it and still retain your access to star mana. And now you claim I seek to enslave you?”

It didn’t respond. ‘We will have the blood and mana of the Puppeteers.’

This was when I knew it had to die.

“So?” Kei asked, nervous. Like family members asking the doctors for status updates.

“Let’s do it.”

I thought about it. I wanted it out, where I could study it in great detail. As it was, embedded within the hero’s body, my ability to dissect the parasite’s abilities were not great. I believed the star mana it consumed also fed it and gave it the strength to resist my attempts to probe further.

Everything was ready. Alvin slept in my soul forge. I called on the mana from all the nearby sources and extended my vines into his soul.

The parasite’s flames flared huge and yet it did nothing to my vines. Multiple vines appeared from the great beyond and into Alvin’s realm.

The vines latched onto the growing crystal. One. Two. Three.

Eventually there were hundreds of vines that touched the parasite.

‘We will not be defeated. We are Legion.’ Oh great. Parasite made jokes. ‘We will destroy you.’

My vines glowed from all the mana that passed through. The entire valley was suddenly thick with mana. Anyone with some magical sense could feel the huge pulse of mana that now pulled toward the Valley.

My artificial minds helped to stabilize the mana and assisted with all the calculations. I tapped on their computational power to help manage the thing.

The crystal throbbed. It shook.

‘We will resist.’

The crystal glowed, and flesh emerged. It lashed out and fought with my vines. The flesh released shockwaves, and instantly Alvin was in pain.

“He’s in pain! Get it out!” Kei spoke whilst connected to me via Patreeck’s mind-projection.

The crystal was soon surrounded by a strange, flesh-like substance, a muscular object covered with thick purple goo. The flesh then formed appendages, tentacles that lashed out at all of my vines.

The star mana around the soul spring swirled, and his soul spring shook from the ripples and waves. It made Alvin tremble. The parasite seemed to be able to partially form a body in this form, and that was fascinating to me. Even as it attempted to swat away all of my vines. It…wasn’t doing a very good job.

It was surprisingly weak in this aspect.

My vines managed to keep a hold on it, and it seemed to realize that it was losing this battle, so very abruptly, all the flesh just shrunk and retreated back into the crystal, and then its flames emerged again. It drained the star mana that poured out of the floating vases in Alvin’s soul realm.

It glowed, and I had a bad, bad feeling. Kei seemed to sense it, too.

“NO! Take it out! Now!”

My vines immediately wrapped around it, and I activated my [soul forge]’s gateway to transfer it out of the soul realm. The crystal’s tremors clashed with the energies of my soul forge, and it felt like I was trying to pull something massive out of a tiny hole.

It glowed even more, and the glow seemed to release a kind of wave that caused the soul spring to shake constantly. My standby sensor array was abuzz with readings.

I pulled more mana from the surrounding environment. Perhaps I was too early. At a later stage, perhaps it would put up more of a resistance.

“Get ready.” I signaled Edna and the team to prepare for combat. Once the crystal was out, who knew what it would transform itself into?

It was yanked out, and the crystal exploded into a fleshy tentacle monster.

Edna had been waiting for this moment. She had Lovis’s abilities all charged up, and in an instant, a rain of magically empowered spears skewered the parasite from all directions. It splattered, and the single red crystal in the middle crumbled. Edna wasn’t holding back.

Edna paused. “Was…was that it?”

The parasite…was destroyed.

We checked the surroundings, and at the same time I also looked back at Alvin. His condition rapidly stabilized, as his parasite no longer hindered the flow of star mana to his soul spring. Still, the shock of having the parasite pulled out of his soul realm meant he was unconscious.

Edna doubletapped the remains, stabbing each small piece with her spears. “That was…anticlimactic. I expected a harder fight.”

Patreeck quickly reviewed the data. “Its energies were unstable, and it seemed that the forced extraction weakened it significantly.”

“I see.” It made sense. Things were not made to survive such shifts. Not when it was not ready.

The only thing left was the crumbled remains of the red crystal. My vines quickly gathered it up and placed it in my lab for studies.

At that moment, I felt a sensation pass through me.

Memories written in crystal form. It wasn’t hard for me to piece it together. Patreeck’s super-fast cognitive abilities quickly helped reconnect the data across all the crumbled crystals.

It started from where I was, and then suddenly it zoomed out.

A large circular world, this world. Then it shifted, as if a filter was applied. There were…tendrils that stretched out from the world, out into the nothingness. There were easily six of them, maybe more. Some fainter than the others.

I felt like something was spinning in my mind. Patreeck and a few of my other artificial minds stepped in to help me untangle the strange messages from the crystals.

Then another filter was applied. I could follow those tendrils now, and soon, I was looking at some kind of…map.

A star map. The tendrils were the “paths” the demons followed. If I was right, these other places were the sources of the demon invasions. Of all of them, one of the tendrils seemed to be a little bit brighter and clearer.

[…error. Error. Astral Domain not available. Incompatible domain detected. Skill downgraded.]

[Skill obtained: Memories of the Starways]

[Skill obtained: Sensitivity to the Astral Forces]

[Special Tree Type Unlocked: Astreeal Monitor. Unlocks live monitoring of the starways.]

I paused, and I considered my options again. I gathered my senior Valthorns a few days after the incident to plot our next move.

“I believe I have received a skill that allows me to see the arrival of the demons. I will need to wait till the next demon king to prove it.”

More importantly, my sudden sensitivity to the astral forces immediately made me focus on the [daemolite]. I could now see a faint, wispy gas that seemed to “float” out of them.

The daemolites facilitated the starways. The demons used the starways to invade. If so, destroying the daemolites would help. No, with my ability to view these astral forces, I should hunt down the daemolites wherever they were. I also explained this new reality to them.

“Then we must hunt down the daemolite and destroy them.”

“No, if these things are the key to creating the rifts, then we may use it for our counterattack?”

“Aeon said there were at least six other tendrils. That means there’s constantly at least six other worlds out there?”

I wasn’t sure about the tendrils, whether they linked somewhere or not. Or what was on the other side. I wasn’t even sure whether it was a good idea to immediately destroy the daemolite. We’d have to see what we could do.

“In any case, let’s gather them up.”

17

YEAR 170

Within months, a huge pile of daemolite sat in my valley, and with my newfound “vision” of these wispy energies, I saw them glow. These were…tendrils that reached out into the beyond, and on the other side were the demon worlds.

These daemolites were essentially both markers and also “ports.”

“We should destroy them,” Edna said.

“Those who support the use of airships will resist.” Ah yes. Damned airships. Many of them were grounded or unable to fly over the decades as daemolite turned “rare.” Still, there were places where they existed and were still in use.

“The merit of delaying the demon king should exceed that.”

“What evidence do we have to prove that, other than Aeon’s knowledge? Surely Aeon’s words hold sway here, but in the other continents, they would rather retain the advantages of having functional airships than supporting some vague goal of delaying the demon king. We don’t even know if destroying it will cause these links to disappear.”

“That argument has merit. We can’t test it, and we can’t exactly be sure whether the links rely on the daemolite or are merely augmented by it.”

The first thing we tested was Stella’s void mana. I supposed it was a bit of an oxymoron that her name meant “star” and she ended up with void mana instead of star mana. Oh well. Life was like that.

Stella stood and held a big chunk of daemolite, an empty daemolite, before her and channeled her void mana in. As expected, the daemolite, being the battery pack that it was designed to be, eagerly absorbed the void mana.

What I wanted her to do was sense where the mana was flowing. Was there leakage? Did some of that leak into these “space tethers?”

She closed her eyes, and I used Patreeck’s mind-reading abilities to sense what she was feeling. At first, it was just the crystal itself. Nothing much there. I prodded her to keep cycling the void mana and also look for “exits.”

Nothing…at first.

Then suddenly, she felt it. A bit of it slipped into those once-invisible strands, and in my eyes, I saw for a moment like a pulse.

She focused her eyes, and now that she knew what she was looking for, she pulled more of her void mana swirling within the daemolite and then pushed it toward that area. To my astral visions, I saw the once-wispy lines turned solid.

She saw something, as if someone was looking through a tiny peephole. Then her void mana ran out.

“I swear I saw light,” Stella said, exasperated. “It’s like…the sky? I thought I saw the sky.”

The peephole was too small. One could not see the vastness of the other world when one’s vision was so small.

Alvin was cured, and within a month his strength returned. Kei was thankful, and Alvin was just glad that he no longer needed to be bound to the magical bed.

“I really cannot believe there was such a thing inside me. I mean, I felt like my strength was consistently fading, no matter what I did…but…wow.” He was a lot less aggressive now that I fulfilled my promise to heal him.

Kei sat next to him. “You’re gonna go bonk your church nuns after this?”

Alvin laughed. “Uh…they’re really sweet, you know. And hot, too.”

Kei slapped him on the shoulder. “Seriously, that’s because you’re the hero. You think they’ll give you the time of day if you were just anyone else?”

Alvin sighed. “I know. That’s why I’m taking advantage of it. I know they don’t really ‘love’ me, but who cares, right? The gods promised us a happy ending, so I’m having it. At least I get to satisfy my urges and fulfill all those dreams I had when I was a young horny bastard of a kid.”

“You’re being an ass.”

“I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. Tell me, why didn’t you come and help me when I sent word that the demon king is coming?”

“We…we didn’t know you would fight it so quickly!”

“Oh, come on, don’t lie,” Kei said. “Though I suppose thanks to that, I’m a living golem that’s biologically immortal. So I have to thank you for that.”

“Speaking of which. Are you still…you?” Alvin actually asked. “You know the whole ship of Theseus thing? Are you still you if you’re made of fragments of you?”

“I don’t think about that shit. I ain’t smart like that. If you think I’m me, then that’s good enough. I think I’m still me, and as far as I care, that’s all that matters.”

Alvin thought about it. “True, true.”

“Now don’t change the subject. What were you doing back then when the demon king arrived?”

“Look, I know the temple’s not been very transparent with information with me, but they are good people. They try to do what they think is best for the world, even if it’s a bit…messed up. So when I got the message and spoke to the temples about it, they said I still have a lot of time, since heroes don’t immediately engage the demon king once it arrives. That’s how it always was. I didn’t know that you’ve found a way to check where the demon king is arriving and you rigged the whole area to blow.”

“That’s Aeon’s role.”

“I mean, yes. How?”

“Aeon’s secret.”

“Secrets mean there is something to hide. We’re the heroes. Why should they hide it from us?”

“A tree has some secrets, and I suggest you live with it,” Kei responded. “I think that he managed to heal you is sufficient merit to earn that level of trust.”

Alvin sighed. “Look, the temples told me weird shit that’s been happening in the Central Continent. They’re saying that Aeon has the ability to manipulate dungeons and stuff. Real playing-both-sides shit. Are you aware of that?”

“You think Aeon’s playing both sides?”

“Well…yeah? Why then does his powers allow it to control dungeons, supposedly powered by the same energy source as the demons?”

“Have you verified that dungeons are powered by the same source? Have you even seen him do it?”

“Uh…”

“You didn’t, right? It’s just things the temple is saying.”

“The temples got it from their oracles, who supposedly can tap into the system to, uh…harvest information.”

“I thought oracles speak to their gods. And seriously, why do you trust the oracles, either?”

“Well, she’s kinda cute and all.”

“You slept with the oracle.”

“Uh…yeah.” Alvin’s face blushed. “She was telling me all this stuff while we’re in bed. It’s kinda sexy to be honest.”

Kei facepalmed. “Dude. That’s too much info.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be a prude, Kei. We’re not kids anymore. We’ve lived in this world for decades now. I swear I’ll regret it if I don’t live the life I want now that I have the chance to do it.”

“Ugh. Men.” Kei rolled her eyes.

“You know what’s your problem, Kei? No one even dares to approach you. Not with that scary aura of yours.”

“You’re lecturing me now? Enough. Let’s stop this conversation.”

Alvin’s face straightened. “Yeah. I mean, I think Aeon’s playing both sides. At least, the temples suspect that he has some dabblings with the demons. The fact that he wanted to even ‘keep’ the parasite tells you enough that he has other goals in mind.”

“And what might that be?”

“I don’t know, maybe it wants the demon king’s powers for itself?”

“I’ll tell you what I know. Aeon is a god-in-the-making. It’s going to be a true god one day. All this ‘playing’ on both sides, as far as I can tell, is Aeon testing the limits of its powers, on how far its powers work on us and them.”

Alvin stared right at Kei. “And that excuses it exploring the demonic powers?”

“I’ve been here for some time, and yes, I can tell his presence persists even in the Rottedlands, but it has been for the greater good. It is willing to sacrifice hundreds—no, tens of thousands—if it achieves a greater goal of permanently ending the disaster that is the demon king.”

“Is that what Aeon wants to do? Are you sure, Kei? From what I see, or to the rest of the temples, Aeon’s actions so far are more of that of a ‘god-emperor.’ It’s attempting to dominate the entire world to its cause and wouldn’t let either demons or heroes get in its way. First it started with an area, and now it’s conquered the Central Continent. It will eventually want to rule the world, Kei. There is no room for sharing with the other four temples in its structure.”

“The temples started the crusades.”

“Some say it’s Aeon who first chased out the priests.”

“The temples will not accept an arrangement less than equals.”

“The temples have no right to demand equality, not with a god,” Kei responded.

“And this is why the temples and Aeon will fight,” Alvin said. “They don’t see a future of coexistence.”

“Can coexistence happen when they’ve fought crusades? You must remember that the temples forced Aeon to conquer the continent.”

“The temples see it as a convenient excuse.”

Kei sat. “This conflict’s too deep to untangle, isn’t it?”

Alvin nodded. “Yep. The temples, once used to the existing status quo, now have to contend with a rising global power with a supposed god at its helm. Conflict is inevitable. World wars have occurred for less. I’m pretty sure they know where I am. They have a tracking spell on me, anyway.”

“…tracking spell?” Kei wasn’t sure about such things. But I had anti-magic formations and shields around the entire Freshka area. I believed they should still work to prevent him from being detected. I thought they should. I didn’t detect any magical incursions yet.

“Yeah. And now I get to walk free. They’ll know I’ve been here.”

“What if we offer a peace offering? That we return you back to the capital secretly and let the temples claim the right to say they’ve healed you?” Kei asked. “I mean, I really don’t want this thing to start a war between the continents again. There’s been enough of this shit.”

Alvin nodded. “…could work.”

While the heroes chatted, Edna and Lumoof returned to their subterranean dungeon hunting. Something they observed recently was that the frequency of spawns from the level one hundred twenty and one hundred thirty dungeons were getting slower. It was as if it was getting exhausted.

So, as I zoomed in my senses on the ley lines around the area, I noted that the energies were weakening. It seemed that these magical ley lines could support lower-tier dungeons easily, but high-level dungeons seemed to exhaust the ley lines more than it could naturally restore itself.

I would have to repeat the act of tweaking ley lines more often in order to keep their growth up.

Still, Lumoof was really close to it.

“What do you think I’ll get?” Lumoof asked Edna as a joke as they took a break outside the underground dungeon. A small town was built many years ago, the area filled with magical lighting to make it feel normal. He no longer looked like the really old man that he once was. Now, he resembled a really fit and healthy mid-forties man.

“I have no idea.” Edna shrugged. “Aeon said the domains are specific to you. Based on your class and your history.”

Lumoof thought about it. “I was just level eighty-five just fifteen years ago. If it’s based on my history, I’d be a beggar, or perhaps a thief.” Lumoof was a migrant who soon found himself tangled in the Valthorns many years ago and, over time, gradually moved up the ranks. I quickly power-leveled Lumoof by letting him consume a huge amount of level seeds so that he hit level one hundred twenty-five.

Humanoid classes merged once they hit somewhere around level one hundred to one hundred twenty-five…well, except for [hero]. That class refused mergers, at least to my knowledge.

I recalled Jura had an event when he hit level one hundred and his lesser classes just “merged” into his main class. Or was it just a fade-away?

“Anyway, let’s just get that final level and find out, shall we?” Lumoof stood, and Edna joined him in another attempt at the level one hundred thirty dungeon.

It took six months of fighting the dungeon, though almost five months of it was mostly waiting for the dungeon’s energies to respawn and open up for “invaders.”

Finally, Lumoof did it. In a flash, he leveled up, and that moment, he somehow sucked up the dungeon’s energies and it crumbled. The squad quickly fled the crumbling dungeon and back to the underground town. The tunnels were unharmed.

After they checked that everyone was fine, they regrouped, and Edna asked, “I felt a pulse.”

Before we could ask Lumoof what his choices were, I felt a surge pass through my entire network of roots, and then…everywhere.

[Lumoof has elected to be a Subdomain of Aeon.]

[Strength of all Aeon’s domain abilities strengthened]

[Strength of all Aeonic Classes enhanced]

[Strength of all Aeonic Familiars enhanced]

[Lumoof has gained the ability: Avatar of Aeon]

[Lumoof’s soul has now been eternally bound to you.]

[You have gained the ability to see through Lumoof’s eyes and share in his senses.]

[You may communicate with Lumoof anywhere in the world.]

I suddenly felt…dirty.

“Lumoof,” I said, I mean, why? “Did you have other choices?”

“Yes,” he said. “But I knew for a long time that my choice would be to empower the one who changed the world. So those choices do not matter. Not yet.”

At that moment, I felt guilty. Like maybe I should’ve been a lot more trusting. “Thank you.”

“If Edna is your shield, then I shall be your voice and your fist,” he said.

Now Lumoof was also level one hundred fifty, and he gained a vast array of druid-like abilities courtesy of the Avatar ability. It was time to help the rest get to that level. I’d have to spend some time subtly guiding the ley lines.

Meanwhile, our attempts to dig underground throughout the continent yielded lesser cities. There were many other buried cities we discovered that were not as lucky or well-equipped as the Margmarian Dwarves.

There were a few interesting finds, like ancient weapons, magical formations, but most of them were just not as pristine as those found in the Margmarian city. Perhaps there would be more on the other side.

< Another one steps into the domain. >

> Indeed. < I responded to Lilies. > If you know it, the temples know it. <

< They would. >

Alvin left and returned to the Northern Isles. With his powers returned, he had a locust problem to solve. Already the last two years had been exceptionally annoying in terms of food security, since these damned pests were really persistent and their numbers were high.

Kei didn’t go with him.

“I’m surprised you chose to stay when you two seemed to have gotten closer.”

“Nah. If I spend too much time around him, I’ll hate him again. That’s just how it is.” Kei shrugged. “Besides, I need to help Stella with her void mana stuff. What you found out was really cool.”

I was still waiting for that zaratan to return. Lilies has sent word, but it seems it will be some time before that turtle even comes back.

Stella’s void mana control and also amount was insufficient to open a large portal across the worlds, and she also made an interesting observation.

Some “paths” were easier than others, and over time, she said, she was pretty sure each of them was getting stronger. In fact, one of them was significantly easier than the rest.

Why? Why were some paths easier?

18

YEAR 171

It was strange to see and feel through Lumoof once more.

“Your eyes are glowing,” Edna said.

“That’s because Aeon is here.”

“Ah.” Edna laughed. “So do your eyes glow every time he is there?”

“I think so?”

The way it worked was that there was two states to the Avatar. In the off-state, I could only feel, hear, and see through him, but I could not control him. In the on-state, he became the vessel of my power, and it was like my entire presence was there.

To have humanoid sensations again was really rather awkward. These feelings were so familiar. This very act meant Lumoof could speak to me mentally, and I had access to his mind should he choose to reveal it to me.

All in, it was strange.

“I consider this progress,” Lumoof said. “Consider how useless I was during the battle with the demon king. This means I can be of some use! Sorry, I mean, Aeon can be of some use!” Lumoof laughed as he joked about it. Though he looked younger, his jokes were still very…old.

Edna merely shrugged. “Good point.”

The avatar, combined with my existing Court of the Deitree, essentially meant I could participate in any battle relatively risk free. In short, Lumoof’s decision to elect himself as my subdomain pretty much solved one of the key problems I faced.

Projecting force at a distance. In fact, I’d be keen to test whether this avatar even worked across worlds. My view was it should. It went through the system. The system was this ever-present thing that transcended all.

Through the avatar, there were many things that I saw for the first time. The insides of my dungeons. How Freshka looked through the eyes of a local. The random unnamed spaces where I did not place my [eyes]. How noisy it was in the cities.

Because it took some time for me to rectify the drained dungeons, both Edna and Lumoof could stop their dungeon diving. It also didn’t make sense for both of them to be present and slow down the growth of the other level one hundred twenty-five to one hundred thirty Valthorns like Roon and Johann.

Lumoof and Edna had a lot of practicing to do, in that their domains leaked a presence that pressed on those around them. Those in the higher levels, such as the Valthorns, were less affected by it, but when they walked in the streets, it often caused unintentional fainting and some crazed mumbling. There were also cases of hysteria and inexplicable yelling, cured by a big dose of calming tea concentrate.

“So this happens all the time?” Lumoof asked, surprised by how easily those weaker than him seemed to suffer from just being around him.

“Yes?” I always thought it was my [Haunted Forest] skills, but I supposed the domain itself had a kind of “authority” presence. It worked a lot less to those of higher levels.

Edna was a lot better at controlling her own domain energies, but that was also partly because her domain was her own and she got hers a few years earlier. Lumoof’s domain was linked to mine, so to some extent, it felt a little foreign. With two “demi-gods” on my side, I felt quite good.

Alvin returned to the Northern Isles with little fanfare. The northern temples wisely chose to keep the entire incident quiet. Once he returned, he swiftly crushed the locust nests with his restored power. That was the end of the locusts.

Lausanne, Kei, and Stella continued their experiments with the daemolite and void mana. Stella was approaching level seventies as a [void mage], spurred on by her recent exploits with daemolite and the “astral paths.”

I had a few speculations. One, void mana may not be the only way to travel through space and time. The gods must have used something else to send the heroes there, and I did not think they used void mana, since star mana and void mana reacted violently with each other.

Even with the daemolite as the battery, she was only able to open a small hole, and she saw nothing but a bright light.

Still, she was able to maintain her connection for a bit longer than before, even if it was a tiny bit. Some paths were easier than the others, and the one that was “brightest” to me was the easiest.

> You seek our knowledge of the void? <

Vallasira finally returned, and he magically appeared in a pond in the Valley of the Unrotten. He seemed to have some kind of ability to just “teleport” to any sufficiently large body of water.

< Yes. I have a human [void mage], and I now possess some knowledge of the starways. >

> The starways are but one way to travel through the stars. <

All right, point noted. < Can you teach? >

> …if she is worthy. Bring her here. <

Stella came and saw the giant zaratan for the first time. To her, the Zaratan was a massive being, the size of a small building, with a head the size of a truck. She walked closer to the zaratan, and briefly, Stella’s hand touched the legs of the massive zaratan.

I sensed some kind of magic at that moment, yet I did not recognize it.

The two shared a look.

> It seems she is. I shall take her away for a while. <

< For how long? >

> Years if needed. The art of the void is vast, and I will need to seek counsel and guidance. <

“Stella, are you willing to go with Vallasira?”

Stella nodded. Vallasira bent his legs, and magical stairs appeared that led to his back. There was a small island on his back, after all, but I saw a hut magically appear then. Stella climbed.

< I will take her to the other worlds and allow her to experience the ways of the void. >

Stella briefly spoke. “Tell Kei and Lausanne that this is my training power-up arc. I’ll be back!”

If I could my mentally roll my eyes, I would. But I humored her. “Certainly.”

Kei laughed when I repeated Stella’s words. Lausanne didn’t get it, so she just looked lost. “Oh, it’s a thing from back home, where main characters go on training arcs and emerge more powerful. It’s just a trope.”

19

YEAR 172

Iwas still tweaking the ley lines to create a new level one hundred twenty and level one hundred thirty dungeon. In fact, I was hoping to go further and create a level one hundred forty dungeon. These fickle natural mana flows were really hard and were a bit like believing in feng shui or some qi-flow bullshit. It was really unpredictable.

Kei prepared for the next demon king, mainly by practicing. Now that she felt and saw Edna and Lumoof’s presence, she too wanted to get that strong again. By Patreeck’s own calculation, they were around fifty percent of a hero’s strength on an overall basis, though effective strength against a demon king would probably be lower. If level one hundred fifty made them fifty percent stronger, did that mean I was already as strong as a hero (in a non-demon king situation)?

Kei quickly demanded to have access to those dungeons, as she would like to be there for Alvin the next time.

But after thinking about her situation, I thought that wasn’t the best use of her current skillsets and condition. So I called her to the valley, alone.

“You and I have something in common at this point.”

Kei paused. “And what would that be?”

“We are both beings with long lives.”

“And?”

“I don’t want you to lose your life so easily. Help me with my goal. With our long lives, we should aim for something bigger than just stopping one demon king.”

Kei sat on a wooden stool in the circle of trees.

“I wish to end this cycle of heroes and demons. If I can’t stop the cycle, then I wish to hide the world away from their influence and end the destruction that comes with the cycles. I have some ideas how, but these goals require those with long lives, as the pieces that we need to move are slow and our knowledge of the greater world incomplete.”

Kei sighed. “If I was still a hero, the gods would know, wouldn’t they?”

“Yes.”

“That book the previous heroes left behind, was it one of your ideas? To help free the heroes from the cycle?”

“No. They came up with it. But it aligned with my goals.”

“You’re telling this to me now, because you think I’ll be wasting my abilities if I go fight with Alvin against the next demon king, isn’t that right? With my immortality, I should make the most of it.”

The golem paced the room and just sighed.

“…I need some time to think about it.”

Meanwhile, I noticed that all the starways were brighter now, though one of them, the one that was previously the brightest, somehow got even brighter. All of them were brighter. What did this even mean?

Too bad Stella was still on her power-up training, so I had no way of reaching her.

I checked on Reefy. He was expanding his domain, and he acquired some new fish-fighters. They looked a bit like an underwater lovechild of a fish and a goblin.

< What are those? >

> Seapeople. <

< Seapeople? >

> Yes. People that live in the sea. They can talk a bit. I created them. <

Wait. Wait a minute. How did a Reef Mind thing create people? < How? >

> System created skill. [Seafantry]. Creates these seapeople. Like your soldiers. <

< Ooooh, that is nice. What can they say? >

> Yes. No. Enemy Spotted. Food Spotted. <

Ah. So they were more like beetles than actual people. Not exactly intelligent creatures. < That’s good. How’s everything? Is everything okay? > I supposed I sounded like a parent checking in on a child that had been playing alone for some time.

> Yes. Nothing that can threaten me. Everything else has been killed. < Well, the area that Reefy inhabited was mostly a big blank space to me, but so far, it seemed he was keeping everything under control.

< That’s good. >

Demon King Durthal was slain in Year 167. So, effectively, on a ten-year cycle, the demon king should descend in Year 177. The rifts would appear two years before that.

Our attention shifted to the south and also to the west. Central, north, and east had their demon king events recently, so if there was some kind of “rotation” going on, it should head to the untouched continents.

Of course, that was just me. The data indicated that there was no such rotation happening, nor did the demon king complete a full circuit of all continents. It was not unusual for it to hit the same continent twice or even three times in a span of fifty to sixty years.

The other temples and continents maintained a policy of non-engagement and generally refused to deal with me publicly…except for the Church of Aiva. The Aivan church once again secretly sent an envoy.

“Our god decreed that we should seek your force’s training. Our god wishes for our temple to grow in strength. For our military to move up.”

“And?”

“We will switch sides and break from the other three churches. Our god has decreed it fine to split.”

This…was not predicted. But should I cooperate with the churches, even if I worked against their gods?

“I will need some time to deliberate this offer.”

Was it a trap?

“Edna, Lumoof, what do you think of this offer?” I summoned all of my Valthorns with level one hundred or above and also a selected group of other individuals and presented the envoy’s argument. The Aivan church offered a formal alliance and to cut off with the other three churches of Hawa, Gaya, and Neira.

Alka, my field scientist responsible for my crystal bombs, was the first to posit an argument. “If we look at the records we have access to, the ancient cities worshipped different gods. That suggests that the gods themselves are perhaps transitory in nature, that their influence over the world rises and also ebbs to some unknown cycle. If the Aivan church is fading, then this alliance is useless to us. As it is, the Aivan church offers us only trade, which is already happening secretly.”

“Formal recognition would pave the way for our spread on the other continents,” one Valthorn suggested.

“Which god needs other gods for recognition?” Lumoof shot that down quickly. “Each god stands on their own merit.”

Alka nodded. “Thus the offer for alliance and military training is lopsided. The Aivan church gets most of the benefits and few drawbacks.”

A point that I agreed to. The Aivan church had nothing to offer me.

One of the other Patreearchs, a level one hundred four [Aeonic Faithweaver], one of Lumoof’s juniors, argued differently. “That may be true, but we should not see this as a cost-benefit analysis. Our role as a religion is to spread, and we often will incur losses to do so. Taking this deal allows us to claim that even the great Aivan church has been humbled. That our single faith is stronger than the other three gods. That is a great victory for that reason alone.”

Also a point I agreed to. Accepting this meant one of the churches signaled to the rest of their followers that I was superior to the three, and that would shake the faith of those who believed in the three other gods. It was a loss to us operationally, but morally and spiritually a win.

There was a murmur of agreement among the Valthorns, too.

“Doesn’t this also mean we agree to deal with Aiva as equals? We are different from them, their gods nowhere to be seen, occasionally dispensing divine messages and blessings.”

“And they would take this as an opportunity to learn our abilities and strengths.”

“I am sure they already know some of our strengths anyway.”

“I don’t see what’s the problem if they know our strength. They should fear us and know that we are superior.”

“We should only engage if this arrangement is one where we are seen as the superior one. That this is our ‘kindness’ to the Aivan church.”

“Blood has been spilled in the past. Some kingdoms will see this as a weakening.”

“The crusades and the naval blockades ended three decades ago. We have generations of young that do not remember the blockades. We even have Arjan here, who was born after the blockades.” Arjan was a relatively young centaur, only in his late twenties, who reached level one hundred recently. His combat experience was mostly through the dungeons, but his stratospheric rise began when he was ten, when somehow, despite not having parents who were Valthorns, he himself acquired the [Blessing of the Soul Tree].

“If we never let go of past feuds, we should slaughter every single kingdom on our continent. Every kingdom has gone to war with each other sometime in the past.”

That was also a valid point. Surely there must be a time for peace.

“Are we missing the forest for the trees? Aeon’s goal is to break the cycle. That’s why all of us are here. Does this get us there? No. Will allying with the Aivan church help this cause? We will go to war with the heroes and the gods one day. If the Aivan church will be our enemy, then let it be so. We now speak from a position of strength. Let us not make friends and later stab them in the back. If they are our enemy, it will be better on our consciousness, and the honor of our class as [Knights], to be clear of our position.” That was a knight’s argument, and Edna nodded.

But was there truly no path for us? Must the cycle be broken through war? As I thought about it, it wasn’t a question anyone present could answer. No, the only person that could answer was perhaps their head priests. The triumvirs.

I summoned the envoy.

“I wish to speak to your triumvirs and your god. All three of them, and they must come prepared with the means to communicate with your god.”

The envoy quickly responded, “That…that’s too much.”

“If your god decreed that the Aivan church is to have a pact, then your god or those who speak for him should come and speak to me himself. Else, it certainly doesn’t seem sincere, and your god clearly does not regard me as equal to send someone to do their own task. Send them here, or there is no chance for this to work.”

The envoy gulped and nodded. He left quickly, on the fastest ships to return east.

Kei finally gave an answer to my request. “I will go and fight with Alvin and support him where I can. I would like to request for your strongest bombs, because I know that my place is not in direct conflict with the demon king. I will still go, but I will not risk myself unnecessarily. I think.”

It wasn’t a very good answer. Clearly she wanted to have her cake and eat it, too. But very well; I didn’t get many chances to have immortal friends and allies. I needed a lot more than just Lumoof, Edna, and Lilies. “Then you will have it.”

20

YEAR 173

Alvin remained in contact with Kei this time, and through him, we learned that the northern temples pretty much let the “kidnapping” pass. With Alvin’s restored powers, he regained his harem and went back to his baby-making ways. Though, from what he said, he claimed he treated them better.

Alvin shared stories about his “mates,” the oracle girl, the priestesses, the adventurers, and various elven companions. He had a thing for their long ears. Kei just sighed.

I was working on my own version of the parasite. Now that I learned it was possible to create parasites that could consume one’s mana, I thought about whether the parasite could be used for medical purposes. If a curse fed on a person’s mana spring, would the process of “drying” out the mana cause the curse to die off?

Of course, this required another massive collection exercise, where my Valthorns gathered various types of plants, bugs, and fungi, for my biolabs’ analysis. Many of them I’d seen before at one point throughout the decades and also had analyzed them, but perhaps researching them and testing them for their mana consumption ability wasn’t something I considered. Truly, it was hard to imagine what could be done, until it was already done.

I also had to figure out how to create things that could “tunnel” or “embed” themselves into another person’s soul spring. Like, how did the parasite do it? The soul realm was meant to be a place where one didn’t easily enter, unless you were a tree that dabbled in soul-related matters, like me!

I mean, could I put a parasite into another person?

So…I tested it. I had a bunch of criminals. Hah, we still had those despite my near omnipresent surveillance state, especially those on death row, for experiments.

They failed…at first. The first few attempts didn’t go well, but then I soon started encasing the plants with a specially attuned mana. Just like when I attempted to fix Jura’s hand. It worked for a while…and then fizzled out because the tree-parasite samples I had couldn’t generate their own mana so they could not sustain the attunement.

All right, I found one way to do it. How did the parasite do it? Did they start with the assumption that the parasite would eat up all “defenses?”

Was mana actually a form of soul defense emitted by the soul spring? Or was it something about the material that allowed it to do so?

In a way, this was similar to the rift mana attunement, since each rift had a particular resonance. It seemed to me that the demons were masters of mana frequencies, if their parasites could even resonate with their host.

I wanted to know whether there were natural equivalents; surely the demons were not the first to adopt this strategy in the world. So I instructed my artificial minds to “datamine” my large library of books and my records of all the biological samples I had. My biolabs also started large-scale breeding programs of naturally occurring parasites. My goal was to cultivate mana-attuned parasites that could mimic the resonance-mimicking qualities of the demons.

At the same time, I revisited Hytreerion’s physical structure. I wondered whether it was a materials thing. That perhaps the demonic “flesh” was just naturally mana-sensitive and thus adopted the mana of its host. This meant my earlier success with the “capture” of the demons was also due to their naturally “mana-sensitive” state. My earlier difficulty with converting other objects may be due to the materials they were made of.

Hytreerion gained some levels during the battle with the demon king but had since then stagnated. Leveling him up had been challenging, simply because he was too large to explore a dungeon. In fact, both of my Titans were massive. Patreeck’s physical structure, his [Grand Mind Tree], was also too large.

Could I get a Titan-level performance without the size? I supposed they wouldn’t be Titans, then?

As calm and relief returned to the wider world, we were back at our technological research.

> How long will Vallasira take the girl away? < I asked Lilies one fine day, when they shared about their experience dealing with dead bodies decaying in the lake. Lilies revealed that they maintained a large number of flesh-eating creatures that lived in their lake, and they consumed the corpses.

< We won’t know. > I thought a few years was a bit long, but I guessed it was common for training arcs to be a decade long.

> What was the longest period of peace you’ve seen? < I asked, curious.

< Depends on the definition of the term “peace,” > Lilies responded, being rather technical about it. < We had periods were the demons did not bother us for centuries, as they were consumed with battles elsewhere. >

> Huh. <

< But if you consider periods when the fewest died to the demons…perhaps this is it. Except that bomb. >

> What would you have done if that bomb was a little bit nearer? < I wondered how they would cope with the apocalyptic sludge.

< We would give up the surface and retreat into the lake. But almost everyone who lived on the surface will die, and we would have to start over. >

> That would be bad. <

< Indeed. > Lilies was rather nonchalant about the whole affair. < We hear of your “avatar.” Would you like to come visit? There are places we can show you and something we’d like to give you. >

> Oh. < That was a good idea. Being a tree, my visual sensation of the world had always been through my trees, but I had not been able to see Lilies up close and personal, since my trees were all on the shore. In fact, I could even visit the other continents if Lumoof went there! > I will have him visit. <

The Aivan church sent a message, delivered by another envoy. It merely said that the Triumvir needed to consult with their god and that their divine consultation would take some time. Oh well.

Lumoof arrived with little fanfare. I wasn’t a fan of big welcoming ceremonies, so I made a general ban, unless there was some kind of big victory or achievement. Lilies was incredibly understanding; somehow a part of them had those experiences. Perhaps they inherited those memories from the dead people.

“I’ve actually never been here,” Lumoof explained as I saw the lake through his eyes. Slowly the many lily pads moved to form a bridge to the shoreline. Lumoof didn’t wear any particularly special attire, and his basic adventurer outfit made him look ordinary. There were thousands of other travelers, merchants that were waiting for the scheduled “land bridge” to the larger pads that formed Lilies’ main city.

“Well, it’s my first time, too.”

Lumoof was accompanied by two Valthorns who were also disguised as ordinary adventurers. They were just folks in the mid-tier, in their level fifties and sixties. Honestly, in any real combat, Lumoof’s sheer levels meant he would be carrying their asses. They were in the middle of the line, and finally it was their turn. Still, this was only possible after Lumoof mastered his control over the subdomain, else everyone would feel his overwhelming presence.

There were some folks checking papers at the entrance, and they collected a tax based on goods brought in. Lumoof paid, and they were waved in.

I felt the very faint wobbliness of the lily pad for the first time, and it was unnerving. I had a huge urge to get back to land.

“You don’t seem to enjoy it,” Lumoof mentally responded at my discomfort.

“I forget how being on a boat felt.” Centuries of being landbound…

The lily pad was very stable. The lake itself didn’t have large waves, and the lily pad’s movement was extremely smooth. Yet my senses still felt it, the subtle ripples at the edges. The lily pads closest to shore were smaller, but as one progressively approached the center, the pads became larger and the buildings more massive. Some were carved out of the flesh of the lily pad itself. The largest lily pads were extremely thick and wide, and some of them were naturally hollow, like lotus roots.

The citizens in the city expanded the hollowness to form rooms and living spaces, so the windows and doors were frequently roundish or oval, reflecting their origins. The taller towers were made from harvested materials, and they were a special class, the [Lilypad Builders]. They molded the lily pad itself into the supporting structures, such that the buildings are bonded to the lily.

There were some other Valthorns present, often on regular trade missions, or just training. As Lilies’ lake was well within the Central Continent, they were considered to be one of the “allied” states and were one of the few functionally independent states on the continent. After all, Lilies was one of my few immortal friends, and I didn’t want to drag them into the whole politics. Still, the citizens who lived on their lily pads were quick to shift gears and align themselves with me.

“Greetings, visitors. I will be your guide today,” a lady in a dark gray vest approached us and said with a bow. She passed a card over, which indicated that she was one of the many sanctioned tour guides for the Lilypad City. Lilies said we could engage any of their day-tour guides, so we did.

Lumoof nodded. “Greetings indeed.”

She smiled and led the way.

“So is this a common arrangement, for a guide to explain everything?” Lumoof asked.

“It wasn’t before, but in the recent decades, there was a boom in travel by the nobility, and so we set up dedicated guides to benefit from the tourist money,” the guide explained with ease. “Many other sights around the continent have similar services these days, though we are one of the first, and our city clearly has way more history than the others.”

“Ah.”

“Lilypad City is one of the few cities in the world to have survived centuries of demons and monsters.” We knew that. “So some of our practices are often strange to outsiders. The few things we will cover today are our floating deaths and our lake harvests, followed with a lake food tasting and lunch, a brief tour of the recent building sites to view the unique work of our [Lilypad Builders], and then lastly, a tour of the Lily Temples and the Deep Stairs.”

I was familiar with the practice of floating deaths; it was something we researched back when we designed our own death ceremonies. Yet to see the dead floated out to the lake and then sunk for myself was still something. I had heard of the flower garlands and accompaniments that went with corpses, but to see how varied it was and how wealth determined the size of the boats that carried the corpse was also eye opening.

“It’s a fascinating ritual,” Lumoof said. “I presume this is Lilies’ method of harvesting souls?”

“Yes.” Lilies was a soul tree, and indeed, it harvested souls when the corpses were sunk into the lake. Indeed, now that I was in the Giant Lilypod City itself, I could feel Lilies presence; it was everywhere. In a way, the lake itself was Lilies, not just the city. Their roots therefore must cover the entire lakebed for it to be so.

Then we had lunch. A collection of fishes, some small lotus plants and seeds, stir fried. After that, we visited one of the newer lily pads and walked their magical rope bridges.

I was afraid of the rope bridges. The swaying when the two massive lily pads moved so subtly made me feel dizzy. Lumoof wasn’t, and yet he noticed my discomfort. “I suppose a tree must feel uncomfortable with such movement.”

“Yes.” I really felt dizzy, and Lumoof made it quick.

The Lilypod Builders were part-druid, part-builders, since their little rituals and movements resembled that of druids, where they called on magic to “grow” the Lilypad into the supporting pillars. These were the beginners. The lady soon brought us to a beautiful demonstration of a master, where the lily pad itself seemed to bulge up and then peel apart to reveal a beautifully completed structure.

Then the Lily Temple. It was located on the largest and some say the oldest lily pad. A massive structure molded from the flesh of the lily pad itself, it was an imposing, ominous sight.

“This is where the king convenes with the Will of the Lake,” the guide explained briefly.

Lumoof nodded. “So this is their valley.”

“Indeed.” Here, I could feel Lilies’ presence was strong, but not the strongest. I believed their true body was somewhere beneath the lake; no, it was spread throughout the lake. They were the collective will derived from the mass of roots and tubes underwater. Smart, and explained how they’d survived for so long.

“Could we go in?” Lumoof asked the guide, and the guide shook her head.

“Access is only for those chosen by the Will.”

It was then a strange, masked man approached the group. “Guide, the Will have spoken that this man will be allowed entrance.” He wore a mask that formed the shape of a fish, but it was a fearsome one with massive teeth and two black eyes. Strange.

Lumoof nodded but asked about the two accompanying Valthorns. “My friends?”

“Only you.”

This time, the fishmask man led us into the temple. There was nothing inside, except a large spiral staircase that led downward into the lake bed. We walked down…and the fish-masked man stopped.

“This is where I stop. Please go ahead. The Will awaits.”

The staircase got narrow, and the walls closed in. Lumoof had to keep going. But it kept going and going down, and it took an hour to get to the very bottom, where we reached a large room at the end. It was very dark, but then a faint magical light turned on and revealed thousands of skulls, overgrown with roots. Then all the thousands of skulls moved. Each of them had one little fire in their eye socket.

It spoke in unison, in a choirlike voice quite familiar to me. The skulls rattled, and their jaws moved.

“We welcome the avatar of the tree, to the roots of our ancient body.” This wasn’t their true body, but perhaps this was close enough. If their intent was to scare the living hells out of anyone, this was pretty effective. “We are made from the minds and memories of the thousands that died, and we cull and select the best of the dead to form us.”

Lumoof nodded. Here, Lilies’ presence was overwhelming, but he was unfazed. He, too, was already a step into the divine.

“We thank you for coming, and we wish to show you an item. Something we found recently, when it washed up on our shores,” Lilies said again, and the skulls shuffled around. Then one of the roots moved and dragged out a large chunk of broken wood. At a glance, it looked like any other driftwood, but when we examined it in greater detail, we noticed strange marks.

It was a set of symbols.

“It’s etched with words we do not understand. Runes.”

“It’s from another ancient time.”

“Yes. But we fear to reveal it to the wider world. So we keep it here.”

Lumoof examined it and then pointed at a row. “These symbols I’ve seen once, in Margmar. I can’t remember where.” But I could, and I quickly tapped my memory. It matched those on the temples.

“Oh. You have seen them!” Lilies said in surprise, and this time, I sent the images through my rootnet. Lilies received them.

Still, I had so many questions. Why would it appear on a wooden log? Unless it was only disguised to look like a log? Perhaps it was a trick. The fact that the log survived for so long unnoticed meant it wasn’t meant to be noticed. How did Lilies pick it up? “What made you notice it?”

“When it wouldn’t break when we wanted to consume it.” Ah. Lilies consumed driftwood; that was something I didn’t know. When the driftwood resisted, they examined it closer. A simple discovery by accident.

“I see.” I spoke through Lumoof. Lumoof held the log in his hands, his strength augmented by his levels. “We will have to put these through a biolab.”

Lumoof then said, “I feel a faint presence…something divine.” I felt nothing, but then Lumoof was the priest and he was a lot more sensitive to such things than me. No, actually, if priests were naturally more sensitive to divine energies, would they be able to detect the presence of mind alteration from the gods?

“We feel it, too,” Lilies responded, and one of the skulls moved. “Which is why we kept it here and do not speak of it. This area is shielded by our strongest magics, and yet we do not even know whether the gods still can see it.”

“So what if they can see it?” I asked. I mean, so what if they can see? I do not fear the gods. Clearly their powers are restricted if all they can do so far is summon heroes, send divine messages, and some subtle mind alterations. “Their powers are weak.”

“Do not take them lightly. Ages ago, their powers were strong, if not stronger.”

“Then what happened?”

“We do not know.” Were the gods fading? No. I somehow didn’t think so. There must have been something else. One of the skulls moved, and some skeletons appeared. They took the driftwood. “Do you have a way to take it back? Without it ever touching the sunlight? It is an old saying that all things under the sky can be seen by the gods.”

“Can’t we just hide it in a bag?” Lumoof asked plainly.

“Preferably not. Their eyes can see through magical items, but strangely not through thick layers of earth.”

“How strange that the gods are stopped by mere dirt,” Lumoof said. “Perhaps it is a lie.”

“If they could see it, they must have noticed when it floated on the lake.” I thought briefly. “But yes. If you let us create a tunnel directly here, we could transport this log secretly.” Out of respect, just like with Reefy, my roots did not travel through or under the realm of other spirits. So my roots merely connected to Lilies at the edges.

“Let’s make the tunnel.”

21

YEAR 174

We managed to transport the log, secretly, through a chain of tunnels, never once close to the surface back to Freshka. It took almost a week of getting my best underground beetles to carry it and walk the distance. I had Lumoof escort the log the entire way, just in case there was any divine shenanigans, but thankfully, none.

The log itself was the bigger problem. We studied them in underground labs, so they never got anywhere near the sky. The log…revealed nothing. Though we detected the faint presence of the divine in the log itself, there was nothing to see.

We didn’t give up, so we conducted more tests. It’d take a while, so inspired by my meeting with Lilies, I decided it was a worthwhile idea to explore and meet with the other spirits.

The wind of the north was cold, and I felt the sensation of the chill on Lumoof’s skin. I was unaffected, and by extension, so was Lumoof. I could share my [Main Body Environmental Adaptation], and though the weather didn’t affect me, I did not enjoy the feeling of sailing at all. The wobbling of the ship as it crashed into the rough waves of the northern seas was an uncomfortable, nauseous feeling, and so I often disconnected it.

But we were getting nearer. The waves got smaller as we closed in on the island covered in ice and snow. Massive ice chunks floated all around us, and everyone kept their eyes open for monsters. But Lumoof’s presence scared them away.

“Travelling with a small ship this far north is normally dangerous,” Johann said to Lumoof. It was a really small crew, only ten, all my high-leveled Valthorns, all given a familiar from my [Court of the Deitree]. Just so that I could pull them back if shit went south.

The ship had been magically reinforced. Two of the crew members were a mage and a druid, and they used their powers to strengthen the hull and create a protective sphere to withstand the impact of the high seas.

Lumoof’s eyes glowed as I shared more of my powers and took in more of the environment. The subtle presence of another being at the Domain level should be easily detected, and indeed, it pricked my senses like little snowballs hitting an imaginary skin.

The Frozen Tree.

“It should be there.” Lumoof pointed, and our domain senses led the way. Already, we saw monsters prepared to greet us. Most of them were level sixty to seventy. Giant White Bears. Wolves. Birds. Hundreds of them waited but did not attack.

The small ship closed in on the shores of the island, hidden away in the north. This was the home of the Frozen Tree, land of the master of frost. The Tree itself was hidden in a thick blizzard, and the island was perpetually dark from the snowstorms.

It was essentially a little no-go zone for most adventurers, and the Frozen Tree promised no gifts, no rewards for reaching it. Only the insane, or those who wanted to meet spirit trees, like Gerrard, would make the journey.

“Do we wait here?” the mage and druid asked as they surveyed the hordes of beasts that observed our arrival.

Edna looked around. “Lumoof? Aeon?”

“I think I’ll go alone,” Lumoof said. “At most, with Edna.”

Edna thought about it momentarily. “I don’t see why they need to wait here. If anything happens, Aeon can just warp us back. Let’s all go. We can leave the ship.”

“All right.”

The monsters did not dare to approach us here, even though both Edna and Lumoof restrained their domains. We decided to do so, as we wondered whether the Frozen Tree would find it offensive that we came with our domains pressing against theirs. Best to play nice.

We could feel the gaze of the various beasts, all staring. Waiting.

Perhaps they were waiting for a signal from the frozen tree, whether to attack or leave us be. This time, unlike their earlier excursion to the main northern islands, this island was far away from civilization, so everyone came fully equipped with magical equipment, clothing, and weapons.

The druid waved his wooden staff, and a bubble of comfort sprung out around us. It was an ability called [Bubble of Home], which simulated our home environments and kept out the cold. It drained at his mana a little bit, unlike my natural passive.

The walk was uneventful, a climb up what was a rather gentle, snow-covered slope and then a crater in the middle surrounded by a perpetual blizzard. As we approached, snowballs and icicles smashed into Edna’s shield.

“Doesn’t seem like it welcomes us,” Edna said.

“It is just a challenge. Tree spirits are flighty, after all. Spirits won’t let just anyone approach it so easily, well…except Lilies, but that’s an exception,” the druid responded. Even then, Lilies’s true body was hidden. Only the surface was exposed, and that was hardly Lilies’ true body.

We waited momentarily as I channeled my senses through Lumoof. I felt a presence that now permeated the entire snow-filled crater. Once we went a little further, it was likely we were within range of the Frozen Tree’s full abilities. Edna noticed, too, and quickly signaled everyone to prepare, and no talking.

We pushed ahead, the presence of the frozen tree more pronounced. The little metaphorical snowballs that gently touched on my domain were now a torrent of snowballs. The other members of the expedition were clearly feeling uncomfortable, as they lacked the ability to shield themselves from a domain’s oppression completely.

Still, we pressed on, and the blizzard was not a huge problem. We saw more beasts, all of them either white or a light gray, and they all kept their distance. Where were the ice giants that Gerrard saw?

Eventually, we came to a large frozen lake, with a massive ice sculpture in the shape of a tree in the middle. It was smaller than me, for sure, but through Lumoof’s eyes, it was still an imposing sight. It was a little like seeing a towering Christmas tree for the first time as a little kid. It seemed the rest of the Valthorns shared the sentiment, as they all gawked at the beautiful ice sculpture for the first time.

The frozen tree. Well, I channeled my senses through Lumoof and my spiritual vision saw that the ice sculpture was…hollow. It was just a magical creation. The real spirit was beneath… Was that a rock? No. I wasn’t sure what it was, hidden underneath all that ice and water.

Was it really a tree?

The ice tree changed shape and grew, and then a human-shaped ice appeared.

“Visitors,” it said, strangely human.

I thought I should do the greetings, so I spoke through Lumoof. “Greetings, I am Aeon, and I’m speaking through my Avatar, Lumoof. These are my companions for the journey to your island.”

“Greetings. What do you seek here, Aeon?”

“I merely wish to meet and speak to a spirit I’ve heard of after all these while.” I supposed I could locate the elven tree spirit, too, but it seemed that it was lost a few decades ago during the Rottedlands era.

It didn’t respond, and for a brief moment, I felt like we were magically touched.

[Domain has blocked attempted scrying…]

Edna gave me a look that told me she got it, too. At that moment, we felt the entire island shake. The tree of ice grew, and then two giants made of ice emerged next to the tree.

“You are not heroes.”

“We are not heroes,” I repeated. The two ice giants were imposing, but I thought we could take them. Edna didn’t look too bothered. “But I believe you have met Gerrard.”

“…Gerrard?” The ice sculpture seemed to be struggling to recall. “Oh. That one. The one who came with the fragment of ancient times.”

“Yes. I’ve come to meet, share, and perhaps learn of what you know,” I answered honestly. The part about going against the gods, that was a secret for another day. I needed to know where this spirit stood.

The ice sculpture thought and then pointed at Edna and Lumoof. I felt another attempt at scrying, and it was more powerful. Again, [Domain has blocked attempted inspection]. “This day came a lot earlier than I expected. Only the two of you may stay.”

“All right.” The eight retreated, and then I activated my recall ability. In an instant, they were all warped back to the valley. Still, the sudden transportation across the continents caused half of the eight to vomit, and the remaining half looked incredibly uncomfortable.

Edna looked around, and the blizzard’s intensity increased. The Frozen Tree whispered into the wind, and two ice chairs appeared like magic. Edna sat, and so did Lumoof.

“Where should we begin?” it asked. “No. The right place to start is…who are you, Aeon?”

“I am a Tree Spirit of Freshka.”

The frozen tree seemed thoughtful for a moment. “Allow me to elaborate. A tree spirit does not behave the way you do. From what I have heard, you seem to have an expansionist streak, and your growth, relative to other tree spirits, has been exceptional. I also have not detected your presence in the world until…seventy years ago, and it seemed with the passing of every demon king, your presence is clearer in the fabric of the world.”

Fabric of the world. This was the second spirit to have said it, after Lilies. How did they see this fabric? Was it that sensation of prickling? I’d have to ask Lilies someday.

“Something about you is foreign. It’s almost as if you have a bit of mortality in you.”

“I have memories of another life. A mortal life.”

There was a long, awkward silence. Maybe it wasn’t very long, perhaps just a minute of silence where we could hear the wind howling around us. “Ah…an accident,” the Frozen Tree answered. “…Like a part of me.”

What?

Suddenly, a different voice appeared and asked, “Did they make you roll a wheel, or was it a die? Or have you picked a card from a deck?”

“…a wheel.”

“I see. Let’s properly introduce ourselves. I’m Aispeng and Aria,” the Frozen Tree answered. “I am what they call a merged soul.”

Like the wolf and the shaman?

“It’s where a local object plays host to a foreign soul and then, perhaps due to that soul’s weakened situation, is absorbed by the host,” that strange voice answered. “Aispeng is the will of the ice crystal, and I am Aria, the will of a former…traveler.”

“Aria?”

“Yes. We are also not a tree. We are actually an ice crystal,” that strangely female voice answered. I wondered if Alexis fused with me back then, would this be the outcome?

“I guessed that, from how the entire crater is filled with your presence.”

“Anyway, it is strange and perhaps fate to meet someone like me. So allow me to begin explaining how I got here,” Aria answered.

Lumoof just nodded on my behalf.

“I wasn’t a hero, but when I got sent to this world, I lucked out on my card draw and could reincarnate as a mage, a half-elven mage. So, even though I didn’t have many advantages, I still fought the demons together with the heroes. Mainly because I thought they might have a way to get me home. They are heroes, and they have fancy powers. Thinking back, I still felt this was really silly to me. We defeated the first demon king, but then I got overconfident and died when we faced the second demon king.”

Once more, we just nodded.

“I thought I died, but the fates were cruel and decided to bind my spirit to a lump of ice and crystals. I spent the first two hundred years growing as a glacier on this very island, consuming whatever animals or fish in this area. That’s me. How about you?” Aria’s voice was strange compared to Aispeng, which sounded shriller and more alien.

Her story sounded quite similar to Kei, and in Kei’s case, she turned into a golem.

“…but you were not a hero? How did you keep up?”

“I was not, but I didn’t fit in with everyone else, either. The heroes were the only ones who knew of home, so I stuck with them. Silly me, I thought I could try to be useful with my magical skills, but I was wrong. The demons detonate themselves after their loss. In fact, this island is where I died along with the other heroes. The bodies of those heroes are down there, beneath all this ice.”

I see.

“Well, how about you? How’d you end up as a magical tree that’s now a demigod?”

“I died, rolled the wheel, and got a tree as my start. Spent half a century doing nothing but watching the world burn, really. I spent another few decades in various stages of burning and regrowing, but I got stronger over time.”

“Wait. You were directly reincarnated as a tree? That meant… You kept the fragments, right?”

“…yes.”

“That…that explains a lot. I lost mine when I died the second time, and it took centuries just to level. How many did you have? Three? Five?”

“…a lot more.” I didn’t see a reason to share the exact number.

“I see,” Aria answered in a knowing voice.

“So how long have you been stuck here?”

“Maybe…three thousand years Or more? I lost count. The days just flash by.”

“How’d you ‘see’ and ‘talk’?” I mean, the first problem I had was actually seeing and talking. How did a lump of ice overcome those problems?

“Uh…magic?”

“What kind of magic?”

“I received a skill for an ice form somewhere around level fifty or so, and my talking and seeing problems went away then. Before that all I had was vibrations as my ice expanded, and I essentially saw the world through vibrations as my ice expanded.”

Oh. I suddenly didn’t feel so bad about my half year of misery.

“So yeah, since I had absolutely no sense of time, I have no idea how much time has passed, other than people dying and heroes dying all the time. Thankfully I still received the notifications.”

“You could count the number of demon kings and multiplied by ten. That’s a good approximation.”

The Frozen Tree thought for a while. “I don’t know. My notifications were all lost.”

“You don’t have a clock?” I mean, that was the puzzling part to me.

“No, I don’t.” Huh. A timer wasn’t a default skill for them? Maybe it was because trees had an inbuilt biological clock to respond to the seasons, thus it was a necessary thing for a tree, but for a lump of ice, the time or year didn’t really matter.

“So…”

“So, anyway, now that’s out of the way, I can tell you what I know. I honestly don’t know much about the world because I’ve been freaking stuck here!” Aria complained rather childishly. “Aispeng keeps my personality and soul asleep almost all the time, except when dealing with visitors.”

I soon learned that the Frozen Tree was the metaphorical equivalent of a hermit. It lived here, alone, and didn’t intentionally seek out others. Apparently, its earlier experiences with people left it a little scarred, so it decided to just exist quietly, away from everyone.

It did, however, make a lot of ice weapons infused with a bit of its crystal, which it distributed to those who it saw as worthy. Those ice weapons functioned like an equivalent of a familiar and allowed Aispeng to gain a bit of experience every time the weapon was used to slay monsters. Over time, it got stronger. The Frozen Tree survived monsters, demons, and even defeated a few demon champions, and gained its domain after about thirteen hundred years. Relatively fast, thanks to its ice weapons circulating out there in the world.

“I don’t think the weapons I make can do that.”

“Are you sure? Have you tried?” Aria asked.

“I made a lot of weapons before. Pretty sure they don’t give me experience when used.”

“Strange,” Aria responded. “But the system is confusing like that…”

“So…you are from Earth?” I asked.

“Earth?”

“Yes, Earth.”

“No. I believe my home world is called Bumi.”

“…I see.” It suddenly occurred to me that the heroes may all come from alternate earths. If so, truly the idea of defeating the demons at the source may be too tall an order. The first order should be to hide the world away and make this world safe. A counterattack could be made if we had a safe home world.

Aispeng and Aria learned of the world from its limited interactions with heroes and adventurers that came to see it. Aspen harbored a bit of distrust of the heroes after some tried to attack it after it gained its domain. It was by sheer luck that it managed to hide most of its presence deep underground, that the heroes could not fully destroy it. Heroes clearly didn’t have exceptionally good detection skills; their abilities had all been to counter demons. But what if one did?

“I realized that the gods also have short-term memories. Once the next generation of demon kings came along, they seemed to have forgotten about me.”

“Hmmm…” Why did they do that, then? What was the point of sending heroes after someone who ascended? And then forget? Was it really because of short-term memory or something else at play? The system itself?

“But they didn’t send anyone after me?” Edna wondered.

“Maybe they didn’t realize you gained a domain. The gods are not exactly a responsive bunch. They only seem to react to certain types of events, like demon kings…and perhaps they only target non-humanoid beings who gained their domains.”

Hmmm…were the gods therefore speciesist? Did the gods dislike non-humanoids?

That certainly was a possibility. If Reefy was to gain a domain one day, it would have to face heroes? I shuddered at the thought, because that would just cause Reefy to interpret all heroes as enemies, and it would react violently at all subsequent hero encounters. Reefy wasn’t the type to back away from a fight, and Reefy taking the aggressive role could be a point of conflict in the future.

There wasn’t much else to talk about, at least, not during our first meeting. I would like to continue speaking to another fellow spirit, and Aispeng already had an item to create that sort of communication channel. The ice spirit gave us a large mirror made of ice.

“This is a magical ice screen. It’s synchronized to an ice screen here, so what appears on the other side will appear here.”

Gerrard should have asked for this. But I supposed the heroes with their default chatgroup functionality wouldn’t need it. Anyway, Aispeng also gave us a few of its ice weapons as souvenirs, and on my end, we also brought a mix of herbs, our own wood weapons, and stuff. I would take the weapons home for studies on how to replicate the experience gained from weapons. My suspicions were that it had a familiar in the form of the weapon.

The return was easy.

Stella returned, and she was different. She aged, quite significantly. She came back on Vallasira’s back, her body covered in scars. She lost one arm, and one of her legs had a stub. Her face was partly burned.

“What in the world…”

It was Vallasira who spoke. < Time flows differently in the other worlds. She has spent the equivalent of forty years across two different worlds. >

Kei and Lausanne came to see her and were shocked.

“Forty years I’ve spent on the other worlds, and she gave Kei and Lausanne a hug. I missed you two.”

“What is it like, in the other worlds?” Kei asked.

“It’s a long story, and right now, I yearn for the comforts of…home,” Stella responded.

Kei frowned at the word. “This isn’t home.”

“I thought about it during those forty years there, and I believe I truly found myself here in this world. I’d say it’s home enough.”

Still, I let the three girls catch up and checked on the zaratan. Vallasira nodded. < I must go and rest. Much has been spent to train her. >

>Thank you. < Well, I would interrogate Stella later.

< May you succeed. Even we need a safe world. >

22

YEAR 175

Back home, Lumoof and Edna had a meeting. They had questions, of course.

“Aeon, regarding that conversation with Aria…” They were concerned, of course. Strangely, not of the origins but whether I, too, sought to return “home.” “Do you seek to return, the way it obsessively possessed Stella and the previous heroes?”

A valid concern. “Yes. I admit that I have memories of another life. You may even consider me like her. But I firmly believe I am one of this world. Those memories are so faint these days, and I no longer believe there is a place there. My goal remains to stop this foolish cycle.”

Lumoof breathed a sigh of relief. “The faithful would not take well to losing their god.”

Nah. I was a semi-divine being here, and honestly I did quite enjoy this state of perpetually playing an RTS game. Why would I return to that old life? “No. But does it cheapen it to know that your god has otherworldly origins?” I asked.

“No,” Lumoof said firmly. “All gods are otherworldly. I have looked into the histories of the other churches, and none of them ever set foot on our world. Only their avatars and their spokesmen.”

A year of preparation, as one of the rifts opened. With my new Astral vision, and Stella’s return, we could see that one of those tendrils that stretched out into the great beyond was far brighter than the others. In fact, when the rift itself opened, that tendril glowed in a light reddish color.

It was as if that signified the pathway was used.

Then my magical sensors rang as they detected the rifts again in the Southern Continent. I quickly passed this information to everyone who mattered.

“Quickly! Get eyes on the ground and find out what kind of demons we are facing!”

It took about two weeks to locate the rift itself. At such distances, my sensors were not accurate. The demons from the rift were typical hellhounds and horned demons with claws.

“Strangely typical. Nothing particularly different about this batch of demons.” It was too easy, so we kept up the surveillance. I felt that the past few demon kings had been throwing curveballs, so something must be up.

At the same time, we also monitored the daemolite’s astral tendrils as the rifts activated. They didn’t seem to particularly change.

I therefore made a preliminary assessment that the daemolite was nothing more than a “there’s a planet here” kind of marker. Where the rift opened on our world was still in the control of the demons; I supposed they had a way of controlling it. It was like, “Here’s a ticket to Earth, but you can still choose which airport to land.”

Of course, could I interfere with the tendrils? If I cut off the tendrils or found a way to confuse the tendrils, would the rifts be redirected or fail? It seemed there were still things I could not see, even though the rifts were clearly little magical tunnels through space and worlds.

So, now that Stella had returned and I’d also restored her body back to an optimal state, we discussed this idea.

“Interfering with the tendrils as they come to our world…I’m afraid I did not acquire that skill,” Stella said flatly. “My training focused on opening the doors to the other world with void mana and doing what the demons are doing.”

“So…”

“I know how to open portals, but closing others’ portals…not so much.”

Okay. What use was this information? As it was, if their home worlds were filled with demon king–level creatures, assaulting their home world with Stella’s portal clearly was a suicide mission. I should only attempt this when demon kings were trivial opponents. But if I never got to that power level, closing down was my best option.

“But you can open portals, right?”

“Yes. Temporary ones, large enough for a few people, and no more. I still need to wait about half a year before doing it again.”

“All right, there is something I don’t understand. You said you spent years on the other side. How does that work?”

“When a portal or rift is open, the time of both worlds are temporarily locked together, as if flowing at the same speed.”

“And how big is your portal?”

“Uh…for a few people.” That wasn’t much.

“Can it fit Hytreerion?”

“Hytreerion? Who is that?”

“My walker.” Ah. I forgot that Stella may not know about my walker. “I will introduce you to it later. But first, what constraints do you have with your portals? Is it mana?”

“Yes. Void mana is one of the key constraints. I don’t have a lot.”

“But we have daemolite, and those can store void mana. Let’s try it.”

“That means I have to recharge the void mana myself. For all of them! That’ll take months!” Well, yes. That was expected.

“There’s a lot we need to plan. We will first consider and test out a few with daemolite, whether it really augments your range. Next, if it succeeds, we will build larger formations with daemolite in order to allow you to channel more void mana and for longer periods.”

“Normal runes don’t work with void mana.”

“Then we’ll find one that works. Point is we’ll have to work with the restrictions we have.”

“Third, I want to attempt disruptive void mana injections into those tendrils. There’s some we can test now, so we should test it as soon as possible.”

Stella rolled her eyes. “Oh lord, I’m going to be busy.”

“Well, you went on a training arc. Naturally we need you to show off your newfound powers.”

“All I did was go to different worlds and explore their powers…”

“Wait.”

How should we truly leverage Stella’s ability to travel worlds? Was I thinking about this too…typically? I supposed anyone who had Stella’s portal ability would use it to escape from the demons, but from what I understood, the demons were also attacking the other worlds, and just like us, they had their own cycles. One world had it on a fifteen-year cycle, and another one also had a ten-year cycle. They, too, summoned heroes to meet their foes.

Few things I clearly didn’t understand was, if time moved relative across worlds, then why the cycles? Surely some worlds moved “faster” than others and thus should have either significantly longer or shorter cycles?

Stella couldn’t answer this; it was a theoretical question that sought to understand the underlying mechanics. Her training arc focused on her individual levels and skills, and she was a level seventy-five Void Archmage with a smattering of portal-related skills. I also did not understand why the other worlds had the same rules as ours. That they had classes and levels, too.

So I summoned everyone for a big brainstorming session. How did we properly use portals to gain an advantage?

Edna was first to wonder, “Is there a way to take advantage of the time difference between worlds? Is the speed difference between worlds constant?”

Stella touched her hair and thought for a while. “No. It’s like a wave. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Each world moves and bobs on its own speed on the greater interplanar void. I’m not sure of the difference, but each world moves along its own, uh…cycle.” I supposed it was like how the distance between planets changed as they moved across their own orbital planes?

“What sort of creatures are there?” Lumoof asked. “Do they struggle with the demon kings?”

“Their situation is not that different. They face demon kings, and their gods summon heroes.”

“Their gods. Are the gods different?”

“I’m not sure. They are called differently, but they do have similar practices.” Were we dealing with a god that was present in multiple worlds, or was each god just locked to one world? No. In order to answer this question, I must first be able to not just sense divine presence, but discern whose divine presence.

All the attempted divine forces I’d seen so far did not differentiate who and what did it, so it could be it was just a single god at the back of it all, and all these other gods were nothing more than shadow puppets. Or, if there were multiple gods, I wanted to know which one was friend, which one was foe.

I’d have to ask the other spirits for ideas.

> Can you tell the difference between the gods? < First I went to Lilies. > Each time you detected divine presence, can you tell who did it? <

< …no. >

Okay, no.

I went to Aispeng and Aria next and activated the new ice mirror.

“Hi. Quick question: do you know how to tell the difference between the gods?” I felt like I was asking a colleague for some corporate work-related thing. At least, the way I asked it. It just laughed.

“No.”

Huh. Did the gods hide themselves behind divine energy? Or was there a way to tell? Perhaps there was a unique signature in every use of their divine powers that could be linked back to them?

Anyway, that went through a path I wasn’t expecting, so I went back to Stella and the gang. “So how else can we capitalize on our new portal?”

“I think it is an effective escape route. We can send some of us over each time to avoid the damage of the demon king.”

At that point, I had to wonder. “Question. Can your portal transport heroes?” I wondered whether I could essentially pool the heroes of all the linked worlds together and use their combined might to crush the demon king. It would significantly improve the survival rate of heroes, even if that did lead to the related problem of too many surviving heroes.

Stella paused. “I…I’m not sure. It’s loaded with void mana, and unless there’s a way to package them so that their star mana doesn’t interact with the void mana that flows throughout the portal…”

Wait, if I could forcibly pull a hero into the portals, could I instantly kill them that way? At this point, it was Kei who thought of the implications. “Can a hero be forced into a portal without their permission?”

“I don’t know.” I stored this possibility in the future. If I could create a small void portal, I may have a secret weapon against misbehaving heroes.

“How different are the magic and weapons of the other worlds?”

Stella thought about it for a moment. “It’s very similar from what I’ve seen, but I have not seen their higher-tier magic or items.”

“We have lots of gaps in our knowledge.”

“Yeah…cause most of the time I’m with the zaratan, practicing my portal magic and learning the way of navigating the ever changing paths.” Stella sighed. “If you guys desire, I could arrange a trip.”

“But how would we come back? Stella’s our only chance to return, and if we lose you, we’re done for.”

“…that’s true.”

“So you must condense your knowledge and teach a few more. If we have a few more void mages, then we can safely make that trip to the other nearby worlds.”

Stella paused and quickly disclaimed that statement. “The concept of ‘nearby’ changes. Each world bobs along the great void ocean, and the distance between worlds changes. So far only two worlds are reliably close by, perhaps drawn together by some unknown force, but there are worlds that get close and then drift away. Uh…I think it’s a bit like the worlds have their own orbits, but these three worlds are like a stable system, which is why the zaratans just mainly travel to these worlds.”

Kei frowned. She did not leave for the south yet. Instead, she spent her time with Stella now that she returned. “That sounds like planetary movement.”

“Yes. That’s a close metaphor, but rather than circular orbits, it might be fairer to say that certain worlds behave like comets with unstable orbits, while these three worlds have more stable, more ‘circularish’ orbits that never get too far from each other, even if the distance oscillates.”

“Ah.”

“So when a ‘portal’ opens, it’s as if both worlds are frozen?”

“Kind of. It’s some weird void-world thing. I can’t quite explain it, either.”

“What’s the void world?”

“It’s the space between worlds. It’s really more like a massive, massive jungle where there are paths to each world, and unless you know where to look, you are more likely to get lost. Which…leads us back to the demon’s tendrils… I believe they are kind of like trail markers, so that the demons can continue to find the world no matter where it moves along the void,” Stella speculated.

“If so, if we managed to get rid of the daemolite, can we pretty much hide the world from the demons?”

“Probably. Potentially. I’m not sure. The demons may have a different understanding of the void that may result in a difference in how the void presents itself to them.”

“I don’t understand any of that,” the crowd of the senior Valthorns responded.

Stella paused and thought. “How do I say this? Uh…erm… In a way, what you see in the void is shaped by what you believe it is.”

“That’s crazy,” Kei answered.

“It’s a bit like a projection. I don’t know how else to say it. The void’s this bundle of everything and nothing, the primordial soup, really, so what you choose to see, you can see in it. So, uh, it’s really quite a crazy, trippy place. Vallasira helped guide me to see the void as a big dark forest that connects the world, but the demons may see it differently. Everyone will see it differently.”

This was going too far. “Let’s come back to the issue of portals. We can test whether it’s possible to return using other means.”

“Huh?”

“If Lumoof is willing, he can be the guinea pig. I am interested to know whether my shared senses, and my recall ability, transcend worlds.”

I could sense the glimmers of understanding in those present, like it just clicked into place. Sure, maybe Stella couldn’t open another portal or something happened to Stella, but if I could “recall” them even from another world, then the risk was minimal.

Lumoof gulped uncomfortably. “Aeon, travelling worlds isn’t something I consider a priestly thing to do.”

“Unfortunately, I’d like to see the other world for myself, so it has to be you. Think about all the new people you can convert to my cause!”

“Ah, yes.”

“I’ll need some time to prepare. If we’re going to hold the portal for a long period of time, I need to charge up the daemolite as well.”

It took Stella two months to charge up a roomful of daemolite with void mana. Even then, I could see the tendrils pulse, and each pulse seemed to coincide with something. I wasn’t sure what, but perhaps it was a sign that the “rift” was transporting things?

“All right. The world you are going to is called Varash.” Stella gave Lumoof a briefing of what could go wrong and an overview of the other world. The area had been arranged to facilitate the interworld portal. He had an emergency kit, equipment, and supplies enough to survive for months.

Stella prepped and then opened the portal. From my perspective, using my spirit vision, it felt like a piece of paper was cut up and pulled apart. Reality was being bent to open the portal. It wasn’t big, the size of a garage door. Perhaps a truck could drive through it, but Hytreerion wouldn’t fit. I would need to find more compact means of invading other worlds.

Lumoof gulped and then stepped in. Stella’s portal did not require any specific mana regulation. It seemed that her “spell” did it for her. Still, when Lumoof stepped through, she suddenly jerked and quickly drew on the stored void mana. At that time, I tried to share Lumoof’s senses and was glad to find that I could still see. For a flicker of a moment, all Lumoof saw was bright flashing lights, similar to Star Trek’s warp, and then, they stopped.

Grass and a faint pinkish sky. Lumoof was in another world, and the portal flickered behind him. I felt my mind split suddenly. I could see through Lumoof, and home, but doing so drained on my mental resources. I could hear Patreeck’s voice in my mind. “Master, your mind activity is spiking incredibly.”

Trying to see through another world and home was too much for my mental faculties. Not both at the same time. I temporarily surrendered vision of home and handed control to Patreeck. I focused on Lumoof’s senses.

“I’m on the other side,” Lumoof said. It was a struggle; the worldly distance meant I felt like something was constantly hammering on my head. “This…this is another world.”

“All right. Let’s test it out.” I switched back home, and that instant I was pulled back across the world. The mind-bending headache vanished. “Stella, close the portal.”

The portal closed, and then I tried to reach out to Lumoof again. I could feel him, but I could not tell where he was. It was like he was located off map.

“Hmmm. All right. Lumoof, are you there?” I decided to not use the shared senses and just tried mentally communicating with him across such distances. There was a time lag. A really long time lag. Thirty minutes.

“I’m here.” Each message took thirty minutes, and I presumed that Lumoof was replying instantly. Even the system had a “speed limit.”

“All right. Let’s test out. [Recall].”

At that very moment, I felt a mind-splitting headache again, and a good thirty minutes later, Lumoof popped out and instantly started vomiting. He looked green and pale, and I felt like he took damage. I quickly hauled him to a biolab for healing.

Stella was truly impressed. “All right, so interworld traveling works for your ability.”

Lumoof took two days to recover, and we had a postmortem.

“So we learned a few things. One, the system itself is a means of transportation across worlds.” That was my first conclusion. My ability clearly hitched on the system to pull them across worlds. “Second is that my abilities work across worlds.”

“Doesn’t this just mean all the worlds obey the same system?” Kei wondered. “Then why is Earth so…different?”

“We don’t know.” Stella sighed. “I asked the zaratans whether it’s possible for me to get home, and they said it is, but it’s going to be very hard. They don’t know of any hero or person that has ever returned, though a few have attempted it.”

The fact that all these other worlds obeyed the same system led me to believe they were actually all in the same universe, but perhaps each of these worlds were just in their own astronomical “bubbles,” whereas Earth may well be on an entirely different plane of existence. That meant all these demon worlds or other stuff wasn’t really a different dimension, but just different pockets of a universe that was structured very differently from ours.

Lumoof frowned. “That trip back was really nasty. I felt like I was being flung through the sky.”

“If we do send something or someone across, it should be a somewhat permanent arrangement,” Edna proposed. “More to collect resources or harvest certain types of materials?”

“But what’s useful there?”

“We’ll have to see.”

Stella quickly added, “Before we get there, I want to say that when Lumoof went over, it drained a lot more void mana than I expected, significantly more, and I suspect it’s because he is either leaking more mana or he’s just stronger overall. If not for the batteries of void mana, the portal would have collapsed.”

“So you’re saying if we send someone weaker, it’ll cost less?”

“I don’t know, but it certainly didn’t cost me anywhere near that amount of mana to send someone over.”

“Couldn’t it just be a not-me penalty? Some spells have a penalty when the subject is not themselves. That’s a common thing,” one of the senior mages opined. “We can easily test it out. Let’s send a mouse or some animal over.”

They tested it on a few smaller animals, then some larger ones, and Stella’s theory was quickly proven true. Sorry, animals. It did cost more to send stronger creatures, and it scaled with power. I wondered how this happened. A door was there, and why did it make a difference what walked through it?

More specifically, why did it scale with strength, not size?

Was there something in the great void that interacted with power? Or levels?

The envoys of Aiva returned with a message that more time was needed. For a bunch of gods, they sure were indecisive. Or maybe…it was just time dilation from their perspective? That they were talking to their followers and they experienced these huge “lags?”

The Southern Continent continued to face regular demons, more hellhounds, and typical giant winged demons with massive axes or swords. They also finally spotted a champion, which, boringly, was just a massive winged demon with two axes and a perpetual flameshield.

Stella started a void magic school, and we helped fund it, of course. A plot of land, slightly further away from Freshka than the other schools, was allocated, and they started building. There was a bit more interest now that Stella was an actual [void archmage]. Previously, everyone thought it was a path that led to death, so a successful magician in a once-disregarded path was awarded a reputation as a pioneer.

The motivations were simple. Many wanted to go to other worlds, and the idea appealed to some mages at a spiritual level. Like, to be one of those who could step to another world.

Void magic, and the practice of it, required a tremendous amount of healers on standby. That meant they naturally worked closely with Lumoof and the rest of the other Treeology priests. Every other day we had a case of the [void curse], and to my great pleasure, some of the priests had their classes changed to [cursebreaker].

As part of growing my understanding of the void magic, I also took the chance to look at Stella’s inner soul realm. Her soul spring was…a deep blackish liquid that was incredibly smooth and actually sparkled at some angles. It was as if the night sky was made into a liquid. The pieces around her well or spring seemed to be made of a kind of black marble that had glimmers of faint stars in them.

I thought back to my two new mini-gods. One immediate difference was that their soul spring was significantly larger than before. I would say easily five or six times larger, and they had a solid platform that surrounded their soul spring. I’d not seen this platform ever, except in these two.

Black. The entirety of Stella’s mana pool was now void mana, and yet her body, physically, wasn’t significantly different.

Stella explained it during one of her first classes with future void mages. Void mana needed to be “stabilized.” It was a bit like a combustible “gas” or “petrol.” It needed to be controlled and stored correctly, and adapting the body to store void mana was one of the first tasks. In short, void mana had a stable state and an unstable state. Some mythic beasts naturally had the means to process void mana and then store void mana, like the water-worldwalking zaratans.

Still…no particularly obvious solution jumped out. Void mana seemed particularly only used for the manipulation of the void. It felt like I found one of the keys that led to the answer, and now I needed to find the correct lock among the thousands.

23

YEAR 176

Stella’s attention temporarily focused on training new void mages and recharging the daemolite crystals harvested. I’d mostly decided that the daemolite would be destroyed at a later date, and for now, they were used to study. The value of the other worlds temporarily outweighed the risks of maintaining the status quo.

The other worlds represented opportunity and potential allies, a chance to learn of things done in other worlds, their history, and how the demons and heroes interacted in the past. A chance to see and compare things. Daemolite’s ability to store void mana meant we could augment her range to reach the further “worlds” that occasionally drifted into range.

Still, it was a long process of experimentation, and training new void mages wasn’t something we could achieve in a year or two.

In the south, more rifts appeared. I knew this first hand, because the wispy tendrils through “space” seemed to glow more frequently, and I noticed all the different tendrils grew a little brighter. I wondered how they achieved this, and Stella couldn’t explain it, either. The way the demons used their void magic was different. Stella certainly couldn’t see “tendrils,” not the way I could. To her, this “outer” world was really, really dark, and all she saw was little faint markers.

A dark forest. Maybe the wider world was just a dark forest and gods were just the magical equivalent of superpower civilizations taking shots at each other, all hiding and keeping themselves unseen, because once they were seen, they were attacked.

Then again, it didn’t make sense. If it was truly a dark forest, this world should be doomed.

Back to the south, the local militia of the respective southern nations seemed to be holding their own. The typical nature of the demons meant the local forces were quite well equipped to deal with these “normal”-type demons.

It went without saying that all of us wondered whether we would get a “normal” demon king and what that meant.

Kei, now eager to regain some of her power after she’d seen the level that Edna and Lumoof achieved, set out to the south. She hoped to challenge a few demon champions and regain some semblance of power so that she could be of some use in Alvin’s fight with the demon king.

Oh well. It couldn’t be helped that she felt a need to assist her one and only remaining friend from Earth.

On the domestic front, I gained a special type of tree while I kept tweaking with the ley lines.

[Unique Tree Type unlocked: The Trees of the Earth Veins. Helps to channel and direct ley lines. Requires gems and crystals in large quantities and also tends to spawn monsters.]

It reminded me of the [Ginseng Tree], another of the trouble tree types that had the whole [monster lure] functionality. But I wasn’t the same tree from that time, and I had the ability to station far stronger defenses with dedicated commanders. I functionally had no real limit in terms of artificial minds now that there were tens of millions of connected trees all across the continent.

Sadly, my ginseng tree limit did not change much, in spite of my levels and domains. At about fifteen ginseng plants simultaneously, this was my second real bottleneck in massively increasing the output of high-tier individuals, both unlocking said individual and then subsequently having the dungeons needed to train them up to the necessary levels.

Restrictions.

Right now, I felt like I was hitting quite a few limits. Like in terms of Soul Forge, I’d not had a new color for quite a while. In terms of Titans, I was still hesitating on activating my third Titan, simply because I was not sure what I’d need in the future.

Patreeck had been exceptionally helpful administratively, but his levels, too, had stagnated. Hytreerion had only seen one large-scale battle against the demon king, and even in that battle, he didn’t really show any exceptional performance.

Reviewing their performance thus far, the Titans were pretty much champion class, despite requiring a hero’s soul fragments. In fact, in all combat forms, they just failed to live up to the strength of a real hero or a [domain]-class individual.

Thus, as bad as it sounded, I felt that Hytreerion had been a mistake. The Titans, despite their strength, were meant to be utility providers.

“But we don’t have level limits, well, until level one hundred fifty anyway,” Patreeck clarified. “It’s just that…well, it’s hard for us to level.”

I wondered whether Hytreerion could get to level one hundred fifty, but because of its size, there was no way it could go into a dungeon. Dungeons so far were all relatively “small.” Even the largest of the dungeons I’d seen and created so far were just big enough for Hytreerion to squeeze in, but it was effectively useless in such a tight spot.

I would have to reengineer Hytreerion’s loadout to be more of a utility player, with more support functions, and to serve as a staging and resupply function for the real damage dealers. The very nature of their capped leveling meant they would never keep up.

So I thought greatly about Hytreerion’s role again. He was huge, and that meant he functioned more as a tank and perhaps a power source. Were there advantages that size had that could not be as easily replicated by levels?

Because levels clearly overpowered everything else, so why should anything be big? Surely there must be merit to being naturally big. So what would that be?

Firstly, I would think about materials. Certain materials had overlapping roles with equivalent skills or levels gained, but size meant massive mana crystals and runic formations. Sure, size meant more space to duplicate skill functions. So, firstly, Hytreerion would need to be reequipped as a mobile mana bank and also store runes. It was also easier to have “conflicting” magical formations separated by the sheer size of Hytreerion. The walkers were all massive creatures, and they could grow even bigger with levels.

Like equipment slots, they should be carrying larger, titan-size equipment. Things that individuals could carry but render them unable to do anything else. Titan-size anti-demon ballistas were one of the first few ideas.

Or could I equip Hytreerion with enough magical crystals to make him a walking bomb, give the demon king a taste of their own medicine? I would have to rejig Hytreerion’s internals such that it could contain a massive, multi-layer bomb.

Still, I decided to put the idea up for discussion.

Using the log obtained from Lilies, I subjected it to a huge amount of scans and tests. Then we ran some tests on how they interacted with the Blackstar Gems. We wanted to know the degree of protection these Blackstar Gems provided, whether they would be able to protect the lower-leveled individuals from divine influence.

I wasn’t sure what I expected, but the log shook violently after a huge amount of blackstar gems were placed around it. It…needed more tests.

Right now, only Patreeck and the domain had any chance of resisting divine forces. I wondered whether I could enhance or at least replicate a bit of that mind-checking ability, perhaps package it as a familiar? Like a voice next to my followers that helped keep the gods at bay.

I had more questions, of course. Was my domain a type of “divine” power? If so, the domain abilities that Lumoof and Edna both had should encounter some resistance from these Blackstar gems. But then they didn’t?

Why was that the case? Was domain not the true “divine?” Was there another tier above us? Perhaps domain was the realm of the demigods? In terms of power levels, that idea made a lot of sense, since gods summoned heroes, and whoever managed the demons could create demon kings. So to place them a realm above the [domain] was sensible.

In terms of levels, would level two hundred be that threshold? Or was it higher still?

“Should we send our senior Valthorns to take on the demon champions, too?” Lumoof suggested. “At this point, with the Court of the Deitree, you could teleport us back at any time. I’ll go with them.”

One of the small “flaws” of the Court was that I had to activate the recall. The recall function could not be activated by the Valthorns themselves, so I would need to send Lumoof with them in order to activate the failsafe.

“Defeating the demon champions will speed up their leveling.”

Duh. I decided that it was worth it, so Lumoof and a group of fifteen Valthorns, all with the Court of the Deitree, journeyed down south and helped suppress the demons. The mission was simple: fight demon champions, level up, and run before the king came along.

It was also my chance to see the south through Lumoof’s eyes.

In terms of bombs, Alka’s continued research in the underground cities yielded slightly improved bombs. After all, the idea of bombing the hell out of the demons was hugely appealing, and I supposed one day I’d like to make Tree of Fruit Bombs.

Between Kei and Aria, we were now acquainted with two beings who were naturally crystalline in nature, so Alka had been really keen to obtain crystal samples from Aria, for testing. The goal, of course, was to find and make even better bombs.

On hexes and soul magic, my progress had not amounted to any real improvement in weaponry, though I was making some improvements in my conceptual understanding of their raw components. The main challenge had been the corrosive nature of hex, which distorted any surrounding runic formations.

I had yet to figure out how to store a hexbomb for long periods. All the hexbombs we’d made so far had a shelf life of no longer than one year, and after that, the crystal would be destroyed and we’d have a puddle of hex to clean up.

That said, I was getting a lot better at processing hex. Hex and curses were linked, since my [Curse-breaker] clearly improved my ability to process and clean up areas filled with hex. From an etymological point of view, the two words did have similar meaning. Was a hex essentially a curse made of the soul?

The Treelogy Priests quickly whipped up the small continent of high-tier Valthorns into a PR campaign to expand our clout among the Southern Continent nations. After all, we were already planning to send Valthorns there, might as well get some good press out of it.

We sent out communications with the southern nations that were in trouble and arranged to send them where they could make a big spectacle by slaying the demonic threat on their lands. Of course, we chose those kingdoms and nations where their relationship with the four churches was already frayed and tested in the recent decades.

The journey to the south took the Valthorns took a month, and then they started whooping ass. Lumoof mostly stayed back, blessing the Valthorns with various enchantments, and I didn’t pay attention to the battles, since the demon champions were relatively easy foes for a group of level one hundreds.

The Four Churches mostly retaliated by seriously deploying their own forces to help suppress the demonic threat.

But as always, the defense of the Southern Continent was mostly left to the local kingdoms. Most kingdoms quickly formed coalitions to fight the demons together. The churches, after all, lacked the flexibility to deploy their high-level individuals; they already didn’t have many of them in the first place. Their best generals were around level fifties to seventies, and usually demon champions required a few individuals at that level.

So they compelled the hero Alvin to move out of his harem palace. Like, fucking finally. I still didn’t understand why the hero didn’t just rush off and kill the demons. I didn’t recall Harris and the gang being so lazy. It was free levels and at no risk.

24

YEAR 177

Reefy was located on the southern part of the Central Continent, and I suspected his magical senses had improved recently.

> The demons are here. <

< They are underwater? > I asked. I had to treat Reefy’s words a bit more literally.

> No. But I feel them. Invaders. I will kill them. <

< Uh… Good? >

> But they don’t come underwater. They don’t…swim? <

< I think they do? > I believed the champions did swim over the oceans. Well, at least the walker-series of demon champions could swim over the oceans, but I wasn’t sure about this current generation of stereotypical winged demons with massive axes. I’d actually like to capture one of these demon champions, if possible. I wondered what it’d be like if I managed to convert one of the demon champions into my own.

Would the axe or sword remain? Were those demonic axes a physical body part of the demons or a magical creation of the champions? Why did they disappear when killed?

I wondered what it’d be like if we got an underwater demon king. That’d be something of a sight, but I supposed since all the demon worlds we’d seen so far lacked water, I thought that was quite unlikely. The demon kings were clearly “grown” in their home environments before they arrived here. The best they could do was a shapeshifting demon king that took on an underwater form.

Thinking about it, if there were underwater civilizations beneath the oceans, they should theoretically have survived since the beginning of time, unless a Rottedlands-class incident occurred.

But I had not heard of any. Was it because they were hiding? Or was there something else down there that prevented the creation of a long-lasting underwater civilization?

Or perhaps it was just the immense pressures of the deep sea that made it impossible for intelligent creatures to emerge.

The Southern Continent endured the demonic waves relatively well. I saw more rifts open; my vision of the astral ways indicated that one rift now glowed, but I couldn’t interact with it. Not without void mana.

Stella felt it, too; her own senses for the starways spoke to her. Her skill had an interesting name: [The Ways Through the Forest Between Worlds]. It really reflected how one’s understanding of the world reflected in the skill’s nature. Or was it the other way around?

To her, she described it like there was a path of torches through the dark forest. More importantly, thanks to the path, she could now look back at the path to their home world. She opened just a tiny, tiny hole. It was somehow easier, despite the distance.

She could tell it was really far away, but with the figurative “torches,” it somehow meant it didn’t cost as much void mana for her to open a portal to see their home world. The demons clearly had a way of “lubricating” the astral path. With a small peephole, she saw a world of red and fire. Literally fire and brimstone. Demons with wings. It was as if the gods copied a stereotypical demonic home world and pasted it in this world.

We monitored it for weeks and months; the torches got brighter, and there were more of them.

“It’s soon,” Stella said, and honestly I knew it was coming. The tendrils appeared to glow and pulse in a bright white and red. I made sure my sensors were all honed in; I wanted to collect every single data point I could get. I notified Lumoof to be careful in the south and that I would recall them immediately if the demon king spawned too close for comfort.

We both saw it. To Stella, it appeared like a fireball that surged through the path. It consumed the torches, growing each time, and then it reached the south. I felt the world twist and turn. To me, the tendrils appeared to flash and glow, like a filament of light. It was incredibly bright when I used it, and I saw like a blob move across that filament of light.

[Demon King Ethrezen has arrived.]

The world suddenly felt significantly hot. Areas filled with snow-capped mountains started to melt, and avalanches of mud crashed into their nearby cities. In the deserts, oasis suddenly vanished, and the water evaporated into violent thunderstorms, followed by torrents of rain that flooded.

Dry forests burned, and I felt the entire continent was suddenly filled with flash fires. Farms and orchards, too, quickly started to burn. The intense heat generated strong hurricanes and whirlpools, and strong winds battered the coast.

In the south where the demon king landed, it seemed the regular demons now had a halo of flame, their once regular-looking axes replaced by red-flaming axes. The regular hounds turned into fire-breathing hounds.

The demon champions had wings of flame, and their aura of flame burned most that got close.

“Do we stay or retreat?” Lumoof mentally asked. “We can beat the demons with ranged weapons, but fighting at close range is a bit risky.” I may have flame resistance, and Lumoof certainly shared that resistance, but the other Valthorns didn’t.

My sensors and artificial minds made some calculations and concluded the demon king was quite far from them. “Stay, but engage carefully.”

“Got it.”

Meanwhile, the hero, Alvin, finally arrived in the south.

25

YEAR 178

After locusts, it was a global heatwave. Strangely, the heatwave made some places colder, some places hotter. Global climates were strange things, what with the complicated interactions with magic and mana.

“I’m not melting,” Aria said through the ice mirror that seemed unaffected by the heat. I was once burning, so the heat didn’t really bother me anyway. At least, I thought of checking in on the two-in-one ice spirit. “But thanks for asking. Aispeng’s powers keep the island cold and snowy, and it’s strong enough to overpower the demon’s global influence.”

Local specific powers were stronger than global generic powers. That was like a principle for magic.

The main problems were the volatile winds that now whipped the oceans of the world into a craze. Traditional trade ships that relied on the gentle trade winds to move from continent to continent now had to contend with more chaotic and dangerous winds. But for the more experienced and higher-leveled captains, the stronger winds were a net advantage since they could predict and use these strong winds.

I checked in on the other growing spirit. Reefy just felt rather uncomfortable. > It’s kinda hot. It’s not nice. < I recalled some reefs were particularly sensitive to heat, so I wondered whether Reefy felt anything.

< Will you be all right? >

> My energy sustains the reef. Without it, they die. <

< Will you need help? > I offered to supply cold water through the roots. My roots were designed for heat transmission anyway, and it worked both ways.

> For now, no. But I want to kill the demons. They did this, right? <

< Yes. >

> Can you pull them underwater? <

< It’s in the south. It’s too far for me. Maybe next time? >

> Next time, then. <

Lumoof and the group helped to fight off some of the demon champions. They were stronger, empowered by the presence of the demon king. Still, their flames meant their close-range engagements were limited and strictly ranged attacks only.

I could theoretically possess Lumoof and engage the demon champions in close range, but that would defeat the purpose of letting my Valthorns level. Besides, the challenge of fighting a demon champion at range helped their leveling.

Kei was also battling it out with the demon champions, but her tactics were rather underhanded. She fought like Techies from Dota; she planted her crystal bombs in a particular location and lured the demon champions to the bombs, then nuked them. It worked really well with the mostly stupid demon champions.

Their presence was overpowered by Alvin’s exploits on the battlefield. He did not directly engage the demon king, and the demon king seemed rather content to stay in one place. My mages attempted to use farsight and scrying to view the demon’s activities, but it seemed this demon king had spying protection.

Was the demon king so confident that it was willing to wait for the heroes to get close?

Alvin and Kei regrouped, and they attempted to fight the demon king for the first time. Kei had one of my Court of the Deitree familiars, too, just so that I could recall her if she was in a bad situation.

It didn’t go very well, as Kei later narrated the battle to me. The demon king really was a typical demon king, in a sense. It was massive, had six large arms each wielding some kind of flaming weapon or shield, a cow-skull head with four horns, a body covered in some kind of black scale armor, and eight floating fireballs of different colors, each of them capable of independent attack. It was a demon king designed for direct combat.

Alvin and his ranged missile arrays didn’t do very well. His missiles numbered in the tens of thousands. He rained fury on the battlefield, but the demon king’s flaming shield detonated the less-powerful missiles before they got near. His stronger penetration missiles detonated on the demon king’s shield-arm, and they made a large hole, but it wasn’t sufficient to seriously injure the demon king.

Reviewing the battle, I concluded that Alvin was underleveled. His abilities, in the level one hundred twenty–plus range, was not sufficient to singlehandedly take on the demon king at full strength. Kei succeeded as my bombs helped weaken the demon king, but Alvin? He was too weak. Even with Kei’s bombs assisting at the distance, it wasn’t enough to tilt the balance.

Alvin lost badly.

He attempted to retreat, and it was then the demon king radiated a big reddish flare that interrupted the hero’s teleportation ability. The flare latched to Alvin like a chain. The demon king closed in, and Kei slammed the panic button. Kei activated a crystal that contained a short-range teleportation spell and teleported to the nearest city. She then [messaged] one of the Valthorns for a recall back here. Home.

[Alvin died. You received a fragment.]

I had a total of ninety-one hero fragments now. Nine more to go.

Once more, the world erupted in panic. The hero had fallen! I swiftly recalled Lumoof and the team, too.

“The demon king is not moving.” My sensors got better at nailing down the demon king’s location, the way its energies distorted space, the way its abilities spread into the world and heated everything up. The demon king was a presence, and it wasn’t afraid to say it.

I looked back at the path between worlds. It was a lot dimmer now, but I wanted to observe something else. The torches were smaller, almost fading away. The demon king itself was some kind of rift conduit; I felt its energies leaking into the pathways between the worlds.

The gods would summon the next batch of heroes soon. I told Stella, too, that if she wanted to see the path home, she would have to focus and pay attention. We would need to see what happened, whether the heroes came the same way as the demon king. If they left trails, we could follow their path.

“What…what do we do now?” I’d had this question so many times. When the previous heroes also died at the hands of the demon king, they came with this same question. History had clearly shown that all we had to do was wait and watch the cycle repeat itself. It was quite annoying to face these same things, like that coworker that never seemed to learn despite telling them countless times or like being that long employee teaching new interns for the umpteenth time. Was this how it felt?

“Observe, wait, and prepare.” What else was there to do? What was there to do when it rained? We hoped our preparations so far were adequate and observed the situation. If it flooded, we’d flee to higher ground.

“You all right?” Lausanne and Stella both asked Kei. Kei rested at her house in Freshka after the whole fight. She was injured, but not much.

“…I’m not sure, honestly,” Kei answered. “I thought I would feel sadder. I know I felt quite sad when I heard Hans died. But somehow this time, I feel a little bad. Like, I’m more tormented that I don’t feel sad than from the sadness of his death itself.”

“That sounds quite serious,” Lausanne said. “Mentally serious.”

“I’m not sure if it is because I actually helped, so I felt like I did what I could. Whereas for Hans, I didn’t help at all. Not that I could do anything then, but still…I feel kinda bad gaining a few levels, too, even though all I did wasn’t much.”

Lausanne shrugged, and Stella just patted the golem girl on her shoulders. “So how long do you need to get out of your funk?”

“Uh…I’m fine. I think…I think I just gotta deal with this feeling.”

Stella shrugged. “Sounds like what you need is some monster-bashing. It helps with my negative emotions, and I think it’ll help with yours.”

“When did you ever become such a monster-hunter?” Kei laughed.

“Uh…it’s complicated. But seriously, try it. Hunting monsters is fun. The adrenaline and the satisfaction of bashing something is really…wow.”

“Where’s the meek and quiet painter I used to know?” Kei wondered aloud.

“It’s gone when I lost my classes for [Void Mage],” Stella answered. “Seriously, come monster hunting. Shoot some monsters up, like the boys, y’know?”

Kei had a facepalm moment. Lausanne just stood there. “What the hell did you see in those forty years?”

“A lot of really mundane stuff. Mostly a lot of warping here and there. I guess that messes with my brain?” Stella laughed.

“This image of three ladies smashing monsters for fun isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Kei frowned.

“Two ladies and a golem. Technically, you are sexless.”

“I’m emotionally and spiritually still a woman.”

“I believe spirits are sexless. No, correction. Your soul is sexless,” Stella emphasized. “You can ask Aeon. Apparently when we boil ourselves down to our raw soul particles, we are all sexless. You believe you are a woman because you inherited memories of a woman, but if you let yourself embrace your new body, you will think differently.”

Kei just laughed. “All right. All right. Let’s go smash some monsters. This conversation took a really weird turn.”

Lausanne just rolled her eyes. “Did you meet some kind of eldritch creature on the other side that you’re now all cuckoo?”

“I suppose exposure to the void should theoretically make me more susceptible to insanity,” Stella mused. “But monster-smashing time!”

“You’re surprisingly calm when there’s a demon king that’s in our world,” Kei said.

“We have Aeon, Edna, and Lumoof. They’d give the demon king a good fight if it wants one.”

“You have a surprisingly high level of confidence in their ability.”

“They survived the last demon king, and they leveled for sure. They may struggle, but I think they can force a stalemate.”

“This demon king has an axe. I think it’ll probably have some anti-tree chopping perk.”

“Oh. Let me know when they send a Woodcutter Demon King. Then I’ll panic.”

“That would make a fascinating thought experiment. I wonder the kind of skills and stats that kind of demon king would have…”

“Is that something we should be thinking about? Let’s go smash monsters. A level fifty dungeon would be good.”

The demon king moved but remained in the Southern Continent. It seemed rather disinterested, and it raided kingdoms throughout the south with its army of demons. It attacked, destroyed cities and towns, and then retreated back. I didn’t quite understand why it did so, strategically, but now that the demons had their “mind,” I supposed their behavior would change.

Refugees and escapees abounded. In fact, the escape began once the hero died. Most of the royalty sent their children away to escape the problem, and some came here to the Central Continent. It reminded me of my earlier days of being a refugee center. The masses, all fleeing for their lives. The fear.

The refugees that arrived on our southern shores were mostly the less-wealthy sort. The nobles and those with sufficient funds would not antagonize the four churches by escaping to the Central Continent, so they escaped to the other continents instead. So it was those who didn’t have the flexibility and financial power for a longer journey to the other continents, those who could only afford the shorter trip here. They took whatever they could to make the trip.

Generally, I left the management of refugees to the respective local governments that received these refugees, so each jurisdiction treated their refugees slightly differently. Some had a talent-harvesting or collection mechanism where new refugees were assessed for their skills and qualifications and deployed to fill missing needs.

Some just placed them in dedicated refugee towns and let them fend for themselves. In these places, the refugees then took charge of buying supplies and food from their nearest towns and cities with whatever resources or cash they had.

The life of a refugee was one where they made do with what they could get, and I did think the people of this world had been culturally ingrained to be “hardy.” It was an admirable trait.

The Valthorns generally ceased recruitment from fresh refugees a while ago, due to the suspicions of loyalty. Patreeck’s mind-reading abilities were, after all, still limited to only the vicinity of Freshka. The refugees themselves usually had some combat ability, though not at a very high level. Usually they would have five to twenty levels in some combat class, which, strangely, made them more combat proficient than my local group.

The newer generation of Central Continent citizens were on average less combat capable than their predecessors, as the presence of beetles throughout the continent had reduced the amount of monster attacks they faced. Instead, for the average citizen, their main threats were petty crimes and thuggery from their local rulers or criminal gangs. For the most part, lesser criminals did not attract the attention of the Valthorns.

On the other hand, the specialized military forces were significantly higher leveled due to their privileged access to dungeons and the effects of my assisted training, and the average Valtrian Order soldier pretty much outclassed everyone except for the above-average adventurers.

As a result, there was a power gap between the common populace and the Valtrians, and the Valthorns were quasi-nobles, despite their lack of a noble title. A military aristocracy, in a way.

Refugees generally had a very awkward relationship with the Valthorns they encountered, simply because in their other kingdoms, the nobility controled the army. Here, the federal army was an independent entity, and that was something that needed some time to adapt.

That said, based on Patreeck’s data, almost all refugees eventually settled in the Central Continent, with only a minority returning to their home continents.

In terms of the total number of citizens, the Central Continent had increased between two to three times since fifty years ago. The growth in terms of total number had been primarily caused by the generally higher reproductive rates of humans, at least compared to dwarves or elves. In terms of actual percentage growth, lizard-people and treefolk dominated, due to both of these races coming from a low base, their ability to have multiple children at any time, and the effect of the Treeology Priests’ various saps and syrups significantly improving their survival rates beyond their infant years.

I didn’t have the exact number of people on the continent prior to the Rottedlands, but it seemed that records suggested that it took only three decades to repopulate the continent, and it seemed we were about fifty percent more than prior to the Rottedlands. Still, it was hard to really estimate the total lives lost with unreliable data.

We saw the starways dim even more, though there seemed to be some kind of string or line that came from our world, and there were flashes of light that moved through that string. It seemed to suggest that the demon king was able to access the starways from its end and not just rely on their gateways on their home world.

I shared my memories of the demonic gateways with Stella through Patreeck, but it didn’t do much. She did not recognize the magical words or enchantments on those gates.

Throughout the continent, I kept my magical sensors ready, and just as before, I spread the Valthorns out.

The heroes would arrive soon. When they did, I wanted to know whether they were here. It was important to get them before monsters or any strange criminals got to them. I would need to keep my eyes open for the path they took.

“What if we can’t see it?” Stella asked.

“That’s a datapoint, too. It meant they used a different method.”

“Huh. True.”

“More importantly, what if you can’t go home? That it is impossible?”

Stella just sighed. “Uhm…oh well?”

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. I think this world isn’t too bad. It’s in better shape than the other two worlds.”

“Have you met any other spirits on the other worlds?”

“Uh, I mostly stayed with Vallasira and only went to the cities occasionally myself. The good thing is they speak the same language. Strange, how the language of both worlds are identical.”

“It could be a skill,” I wondered. “A passive?”

“Pretty sure it is. Feels like maybe I’m actually talking gibberish, but the system auto-translated the content to the recipient.”

26

YEAR 179

My sensors were glued to the skies, waiting for the moment. The forest was dark, and then momentarily, there was a flash of light. The darkness of the void momentarily twisted and swirled, and a ring of light appeared. Ten flashes of light shot out, like little meteors streaking through the dark night sky. Despite our best efforts to observe the phenomenon of a hero summoning, the magical energies were extremely subtle.

[Ten heroes have been summoned.]

Another ten landed, and instantly I sounded the alarm. I wanted eyes on the ground to look for them, whether they were on the Central Continent or elsewhere.

“I didn’t see much…” Stella frowned, upset at how the path back to her original world eluded her. It was faint, and there was that strange “ring” like thing. Something I’d not seen before until I had this “astral sight” ability.

Still, while my forces kept watch for the heroes, I and Stella tried to follow that path back. A few of the other senior Valthorns, Kei, and Lausanne all dropped by at times.

“What kind of people do you think we’ll get?” Stella asked. She tried to make conversation while we tweaked with the daemolite and attempted to retrace the path of the heroes. There was no path. It was as if someone had just airdropped the heroes. No, someone just drop-shipped the heroes.

“Probably the same type. Young kids, fourteen to eighteen years old, too young to know how shitty the world truly is, and easily controlled by the gods.”

“That bad, huh?” Stella said. “Kei’s pretty all right, isn’t she?”

“She has this weird hang up about helping former Earthlings.”

“Some people are helpful like that. I think too much skepticism and suspicion would just paralyze her. It’s good that she still cares, even after what she has seen and been through. I know I certainly don’t have that kind of mental strength.”

“You survived forty years in other worlds. I think you deserve some credit.” Our experiments didn’t really seem to go anywhere. It was frustrating that the gods had even more unique powers that even void mana couldn’t breach.

“Heh, practicing magic for forty years hardly counts as hardship.”

“Well, you did lose some body parts.” Which had all fully healed.

“Shit happens. You know…bad mistakes when practicing magic. In fact, if it wasn’t for your familiar skill, I’d probably be dead. The healing abilities of your familiar saved my life a few times.”

Stella just shrugged when it didn’t work. “A part of me suspected this wasn’t going to work. The rules of our home world were too different. Our planets and galaxies don’t float on some kind of interstellar fog.”

“So that’s one data point for Earth being an entire alternate universe and demonic worlds existing within our present same-universe. But that raises the next question: why do the gods summon all of the heroes from these alternate universes?”

“My guess?”

“Yeah. Go for it.”

“We’re blank slates. Clean, untouched by mana ever. Maybe it’s just easier to control us that way.”

“Isn’t every soul a blank slate when they die?”

“Hmmm…that’s true. Then the next likely thing is that there’s something interfering with the gods’ ability to capture fresh, clean souls from this world. Maybe they just can’t see this world very well. Maybe our home worlds are godless, so that makes it easy for them to pick and choose who they want.”

“Then why do they need administrators?”

“I don’t know?” Stella laughed. “Maybe it’s just specialization, I guess?”

“Ever wondered how they came to be? Like…how did those reincarnation administrators become reincarnation administrators?”

“My bet? The gods made them. They’re not ‘real’ individuals, just a system personified and anthropomorphized.”

“Huh.”

“Wild, right? I mean, back home we have AI and machines that can mimic people. Why wouldn’t the same thing be doable via magic?”

That was really true. The gods could easily achieve self-awareness and be mostly autonomous operators. If I could create artificial souls, the gods surely could go further.

Within two weeks, it was clear that the heroes did not spawn on the Central Continent. It was also a good point that none of them died soon after summoning.

“I want to spy on the heroes,” Kei said.

“Huh? Why?”

“I want to see what kind of shit the temples throw at them at the start, whether it’s the same as us.”

Stella immediately rebuked her. “You do know that volunteering yourself to be a hero’s secret guide is a huge death flag, right?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Kei rolled her eyes.

“It’s a story trope, come on! Mentor occupational hazard! Ever heard of it?” Stella repeated. “I say don’t do it.”

“Why is it that you believe all these norms?” Kei responded.

“If anyone should go, it’s either Edna or Lumoof. Edna and Lumoof can get teleported away if they are ever in danger, and they are far stronger than you are.”

“Who won’t go because their place is here,” Kei responded. “My place is to assist the heroes. I’m just going to spy on them.”

“You’re a golem, Kei. You’re not a [spymaster] or [ranger]. Is this really the best use of your time? Going with the heroes to play babysitter is not going to be a good idea. You’ll stunt their growth, too.”

“I won’t participate. I’m just going to watch from afar and prevent deaths, if any,” Kei said. “Enough have died from this, and I don’t want any more foolish deaths.”

“There are a lot of foolish deaths,” Stella said. “The world’s full of it.”

“I know, but this is the one I choose to do something about.”

“Why, because heroes’ lives matter?”

“Uh…I guess?” Kei was young, and she wasn’t very politically aware. “I feel like I should contribute, even if it isn’t much.”

Stella just had a facepalm. “You know, back home, there are so many people who died for whatever reason, starvation, sickness, lack of jobs, depression. It never occurred to you that the world is usually a shitty place?”

“I guess?” Kei shrugged. “I just want to do this, so just let me, all right? I can’t save everyone; that’s the kind of thing maybe some like Aeon can do. I’m just going to help prevent some deaths. What’s the big fat problem about it?”

“I guess you’re just a little…hmmm…ungrateful, I guess?”

“Look, when you see a doctor and the doctor saves your life, sure, you owe him, but do you reorient your entire life around the doctor’s whims? No, right? There’s a part where we draw the line and say, all right, that’s your life, and this is mine. No, in fact I feel this is my way of paying it forward.”

Stella paused for a while and then laughed. “I guess that’s why you’re a hero.”

“Eh, I actually don’t think that’s a criteria after all. Look at Alvin. He isn’t really that honorable.”

Kei left on some ships to the Southern Continent once news of their location came. The group of ten was essentially split in two: one group on the Eastern Continent, another group on the Southern Continent itself.

I outfitted Hytreerion with multiple mana batteries and crystals to help it act like a mobile mana battery and then, with the help of many blacksmiths, artisans, and mages, I built a massive magical cannon array on top of it.

Alka named it the Mana Cannon Version One. This was essentially the first idea, to convert Hytreerion to a massive cannon. Hytreerion as it was already had an energy blast, a power inherited from the demon-walker, and on its own generated quite a bit of mana.

Its power still paled when compared to the hero weapons, but at least it could regenerate on time.

“This is a utility?” I wondered.

“Not really.” Alka laughed. But the real utility was the battery. Normal folks were unable to channel huge amounts of mana unless they had specialized skills. So the first real utility test was whether Hytreerion could act as a mobile teleportation gateway, together with Stella’s existing void powers. The idea was whether it was possible for Hytreerion to act as a mobile link on the other worlds. Of course, this was putting the cart before the horse, because we didn’t even have a way of opening a portal or rift large enough to the other side. “But once we have the power source, we can figure out what to do with it.”

Another aspect of the utility was “terraforming.”

Essentially, the other worlds, some of them were very hostile to life. The intense aridness of the demon worlds meant my forces would be fighting in an environment that was uncomfortable. It was a penalty we didn’t need. So, in terms of beetles, and to a lesser extent, Hytreerion, we wanted to see whether we could have “environment generators.”

Beetles that had little combat ability but spent their mana or energy to “empower” their surrounding beetles. This included a wide range of possible functions, from adding humidity to the world such that my beetles’ joints and limbs operated better, to stacking “auras” such that they could overcome the negative environment on the other worlds.

What we discovered was that it was impossible for beetles to carry “aura” functions. We needed “dedicated” commander-beetles. Like Horns, but taken to the extreme. I also wondered whether it was possible to have an [Aura] titan, something that boosted the combat abilities of my allies, and the thought instantly triggered the system to award it.

[The Aura Turtle – Titan]

[A turtle with multiple crystals on its back, each crystal generating a different aura. Default Turtle generates healing aura, mana recovery aura, damage reduction aura, and endurance/stamina aura. Additional Auras gained with level, consumption of magical artifacts and upgrades.]

“Huh.” I had to think about this, though; was this really a good idea? I only had two titans left.

I finally recreated a level one hundred twenty dungeon after tweaking with a few ley lines. I had to subtly guide four ley lines to meet somewhere deep underground anda new dungeon for my Valthorns to power-level. This time, I tried to mess with the dungeon’s settings a little bit more, so that the energy was focused on just spawning high-tier monsters rather than just mobs. Essentially, I hoped for a dungeon full of mini-bosses.

A town quickly sprung up outside the dungeon to serve and support the Valthorns making the dive.

“Which is better, hunting champions or dungeon diving?” I asked the Valthorns one day.

“Depends on what kind of dungeon, really. If it’s the trap-filled dungeons with all sorts of funny tricks, I prefer the Champion any day.” Roon laughed. He was still around level one hundred thirty. It was hard for them to level, strangely. Clearly the effects of the multiple hero fragments were more pronounced than I knew.

Kei sent word that she found one group of heroes. Four of them. One of them had gone missing, but they couldn’t find him. The heroes were practicing on monsters and smaller demon swarms in the south.

“Missing?” Edna wondered. She was based in the underground city, right outside the level one hundred twenty dungeon, just in case a monster escaped the dungeon. “Is he dead?”

“No. I didn’t get a notification.” I checked with Stella, just to be sure.

“How many fragments do you have, Stella?”

“Uh…lemme count. I think thirteen? Ten from the bunch I was summoned with and three from Kei’s batch. Why?”

“One of the heroes went missing, and I wanted to know whether he’s dead.”

“Huh. Strange. Heroes don’t go missing normally? Not on some secret training mission or anything?”

“Kei isn’t sure. If he isn’t dead, that’s a good sign. We just need to wait and watch out.”

There was another group on the Eastern Continent. Five of them. They too managed to survive their initial scare with regular monsters. Kei quickly relayed that this batch of heroes was “conventional” heroes, as in two of them were super-knights, and the other two were super-mages. The missing hero was a super-mage, too.

Conventional heroes and conventional demons, eh? It felt like there was a larger supercycle of demons and heroes. Were the gods just playing some kind of Magic the Gathering campaign throughout the expansions and blocks and were just moving through the gimmicks of each block?

Stella sat. Kei messaged to say she would continue to observe them.

Back home, we continued on with our weapons program. Alka and his group of artificers and mages were very busy with multiple concurrent projects running. He preferred it that way; the multiple projects seemed to allow him to gather magical inspiration from many places. They worked on many types of ideas for anti-demonic weapons, from suicidal golems, flying golems to “airdrop” rigged crystal bombs, and just better crystal bombs and weapons all round.

My woodsmiths and blacksmiths made thousands of anti-demonic spears and enchanted them. The Central Continent had a thriving defense industry, linked by my network of carrier-beetles. Throughout the continent, we built multiple weapons stockpiles.

It was overpreparing in a sense, but high-quality weapons took time to make, and even master smiths and workers labored months on a special weapon, or a special knife, or a special rod. Some enchantments took just as long, especially those that required the threading of multiple different spells.

We didn’t have the hero’s overpowered [Hero Forge] to shortcut a lot of that. If I needed superweapons, I needed to make them early. Ten years early.

The demon king continued its raid on the kingdoms, and the heroes rushed to gain levels. The eastern group apparently started to sail to the south to join their compatriots, the regular monsters of the Eastern Continent insufficient to feed their growth. I wondered whether they had an experience multiplier for killing demons. I suspected they did.

Kei commented that the southern group reached level sixty within a month. Level sixty was enough for a champion, at least, with their hero powers, but the demon king needed them at the level one hundred range. If they were too weak, they’d die quickly.

The missing hero was still missing. I wondered what would happen if the missing hero never appeared? Would the gods summon new heroes? Or would the demons destroy the world until they found that hero?

> Are they coming? < Reefy asked.

< No. > The demons were still on their continent.

> I have new spiky weapons I’d like to use on them. I don’t like this heat. But I gained skills now. I have [Perfect Waters]. <

What in the world did that do?

> My environment is always perfect for reefs! <

< Ah. That does sound useful for a reef. >

> Of course. But can you get me some of the demons? I wonder whether my fishes will eat them. Are they food? <

< No, Reefy, they aren’t food. They’re just…enemies. >

> Spiky corals, then. Poison hurt them? <

< Some. > I didn’t recall seeing a hero with a poison focus, or maybe I just couldn’t remember. Maybe it was a bit dumb to have a poison focus when the demons weren’t even human, so the poisons just didn’t hurt them. < Most likely not. >

> Ah. No poisonous corals, then. Just really hard and pokey corals. <

< Yes. That would be optimal. >

I thought back about the Tainted Demon Core captured from the demon king. It remained a puzzle I was unable to crack, even as I leveled. Demonic mana remained key, at least, master of it.

The Rottedlands on the Central Continent were extremely small now, a tenth of what it once was. This space was “preserved,” mainly to hold the “hybrid” plants that I could control, and for my Valthorns to continue their combat practice. With the smaller size, the relative strength of the demonic hybrids that spawned naturally dwindled.

This was a limited space for me to practice the mana these hybrid plants sometimes produced.

“Perhaps an artificial mind fused with a hybrid may be the solution?” Patreeck proposed one day. I sometimes wondered why I couldn’t think of these solutions myself. Did I try it before?

Well…it didn’t work. The artificial mind collapsed soon after exposure to the demonic mana, like trying to boot up a faulty computer. Or maybe a computer with insufficient parts. Why? Or perhaps…like a computer, it was not…

Wait. Was it a power source issue, then? But artificial souls generated their own mana. Was that why there was a conflict between a hybrid plant that passively generated tiny bits of demonic mana? It was like a computer getting both AC and DC power simultaneously, so it fried the computer.

I supposed it was time to revisit the fundamentals of this “artificial mind.” Like, what was an artificial mind, and what differentiated them from regular people. Why were they limited?

“I suspect the issues may be…about the creation of life,” Patreeck theorized. “That a full soul is essentially a life and a living being.”

“You don’t feel like you are a living being, Patreeck?”

“Well, no. I am always a part of you, even if I am capable of independent thought, master.” Huh. Perhaps it was that sense of self? Their soul, being incomplete, like a very good AI, but lacking that last spark that truly made an AI more than just an AI.

But…what was I trying to achieve here? These were dangerous grounds. Did I want to “create” life unwittingly? My goal was to achieve control over demonic mana and thus, hopefully, gain another color for my soul forge. Already, one of the ideas I had was to use the huge stockpiled void mana and attempt to unlock a new soul forge color, but I suspected the system required me to generate my own void mana, not just rely on stored mana.

It was a deconstruction of the artificial souls. Artificial souls were pieced together from the remnants of the dead. To use a computer term, they were salvaged from the usable parts of many “dead” computers and pieced together into a whole. But they lacked the “core” that differentiated a person from a “machine.” I’d developed quite a significant understanding of these parts over the decades through my analysis of hex. The hex was when these parts were combined in such a way that generated toxic negative thoughts. In other words, hex was pretty much weaponized negativity.

Again, what else could the parts make? Could the parts be better made than how I currently “know” them? After all, I learned it by way of skills and levels. There should be better versions.

27

YEAR 180

“Nine of them spotted,” Kei spoke via long-range message. “All of them are around level eighty, and they are still challenging the champions. The king seemed content to let them do so and continued its destructive acts.”

It was a pattern, repeated since long ago. The king almost always waited for the heroes to level up. This was a quirk that I did not understand. Was it a rule? Or were the heroes “invisible” before they turned level one hundred? But clearly the demon champions were able to find the heroes. So why?

It really felt very game-ish. One instance suggested some observational flaw or quirk. But now after numerous demon kings, it really felt like this pattern suggested a “game-like” arrangement between the demons and the gods. I really hoped the Aivan church agreed to send the triumvirs over. I did want to interrogate the damned Aivan god on why the fuck we were playing this game.

But there was that hero that did the whole-sneak attack thing, but that was because there was an existing group of surviving heroes. If so, the demon king must have a trigger to engage in their hunt.

“No luck on the missing hero?” The missing hero…was still missing. But if he was alive, and he was leveling up, he couldn’t stay hidden for long. Not with the demon king’s divine-hunting sight. I recalled Harris once said that the demons could sense their presences, and the higher levels they were, the stronger they glowed to the demons.

“No.” Kei sighed. “I hope he’s fine. The other heroes have attempted to contact him, but he refused all communication.”

“You’ve made contact with the heroes?”

“Yes. We spoke a bit,” Kei said. “At level eightyish, they are able to spot me. There was no way I could remain hidden for long.”

“And what did you tell them?”

“Almost everything, really. But nothing about you,” Kei was quick to repeat. “Just about hero stuff, really. About the things we’ve seen…I mean, about life as a hero…and our lives after we win. And the gods.”

“They didn’t kill you there and then?”

“They seemed to mumble something about Ken saying the same thing. Ken’s the missing hero by the way, and he’s…uh, he pretty much went cold turkey and had no contact with the rest of them after the first week together.”

“Huh.” Ken, eh. “So…how are the heroes taking to their new roles as saviors of the world?”

“Quite enthusiastic. It’s actually embarrassing to hear it. Was I so naive and innocent?” Kei sighed.

“Yes. Yes you were. In fact, you still are.”

“Ugh.”

Roon and the others kept at their dungeon raids. The dungeon at level one hundred twenty was large, and their foes were a mix of giants. According to their post-raid reports, the space after the dungeon gates was significantly larger than before, and the dungeon exhibited some kind of spatial distortion that magnified its size.

I, too, had some spatial abilities with my [Secret hideouts] and Subsidiary Tree rooms.

Roon and another of the Matreearchs managed to hit level one hundred thirty-five, so they were only fifteen levels away from their own domains.

The monsters were large, but ultimately they could be defeated. Still, after my earlier experience with the collapsed dungeon, I started work on another set of ley lines, and I hoped to have a new dungeon active before this one collapsed in the future.

These dungeons, their rewards were mostly the remains of the dungeon monsters, and they were often set aside for my blacksmiths and mages to experiment, to craft into weapons and armors. There was a gradual upward drift in the quality of the equipment among the Valthorns, as they got a wider variety of equipment over time, instead of just my own items. Things I made or that were blessed by me personally were strong, but my items tended to have anti-demon effects. Equipment made from the monster’s remains in the dungeon tended to be more varied.

Those who made a living outside the dungeon also soon made more “mobile” setups once they were informed of the temporary nature of these high-tier dungeons. These were pretty much the best craftsmen and smiths the entire continent had to offer, and it was something we noticed, that the higher leveled they were, the more likely that they had passion in what they did.

For these level eighty-plus craftsmen, they relished working with the unique materials that a high-tier dungeon provided, so they moved where the materials were. That said, for these craftsmen, almost eighty percent of their time was spent making equipment to process the materials, and only twenty percent on the materials themselves. There was a whole lot of preparation work that went on before the craftsmen laid their lands on the harvested items.

Many of these higher-tier monsters were “new” to us, since the dungeon generated these monsters somewhat randomly, so even “harvesting” the monsters took a lot of experimentation. At higher tiers, the dungeon monsters resembled more like a Frankenstein-ish mixture of creatures, materials, and skills. In fact, I would personally say most monsters looked their best at around level eighty, where they conformed to what I believed was usually considered a monsters’ “normal” appearance.

At level one hundred twenty, cerberus would have strange laser eyes, teeth or claws made of some rainbow metal, and sometimes even heads that regrew when chopped off, as if it was some lovechild of a cerberus and a hydra. It was like the dungeon system had an archive of what items or effects it considered high level and just mashed them together to form whatever random miniboss. They usually had a few gimmicks, too, like a cerberus where one eye used lasers and one of the heads caused explosions.

I wondered whether a level one hundred fifty or two hundred dungeon would look more “proper” once every part of the monster was upgraded with higher-tier materials. It was just a theory, of course. According to Edna, there was no great difference in their appearance between level one hundred twenty and one hundred thirty, just more skills, more gimmicks, tougher, and stronger.

The whole “moving” ley lines thing also made me think of that volcano I acquired early on. If there were natural sources of energy, I supposed using my own world knowledge, the greatest power source right now would be the sun. The stars and the sun would generate the most power, so I wondered what level would a sun-powered dungeon be?

Could I even “create” gods outright? I mean, if a dungeon had level one hundred fifty monsters, wouldn’t that mean these monsters were mini-gods in their own right? If so, how could a dungeon contain them?

This suggested a few likely outcomes.

One was that it was impossible to create dungeons beyond level one hundred forty-nine, unless the dungeon itself was some godly being.

Two, it was possible to create level one hundred fifty monsters, but controlling them was impossible, so a dungeon break must happen.

Three, it was possible to create level one hundred fifty dungeons, and it was possible for the dungeon to still control level one hundred fifty–plus creations despite their domain, or perhaps these creatures did not have a domain. It was possible if the monsters were “soulless” despite having that kind of power level, that they were just super-strong automatons with strength at that level.

Which made me wonder…

“Any of the druids attempted to ‘enslave’ or ‘tame’ the dungeon monsters before?” I mean, the dungeons generated high-tier monsters, but druids and beastmasters naturally had abilities to acquire “companions.”

I also remembered that old story of the elven hero with the ability to “enslave” spirits, including spirit trees. It was something that I was still afraid of, even if I had the domain as a shield. I wondered when a hero’s skills and a domain clashed, how did the system resolve the conflict? Like, a hero with a special spirit-capture ability, against me, a spirit tree with a domain?

Anyway, the druids soon explained that they had attempted to capture the dungeon beasts but had only managed to tame those in the lower-tier dungeons, around level eighty or so. They had not had any success with the monsters from the higher-leveled dungeons. They suspected that it was due to their diversified focus, so their success relied on their huge level differentials.

A pure monster-tamer. That sounded like something from an isekai story. If I was able to “convert” a demon, could a very powerful monster tamer or beast master control the demons and, at even higher levels, take control of the demon champions and kings? It was essentially the same issue with heroes and me, wasn’t it? If a powerful beast master could control the demon king, a hero must be able to control me.

“That train of thought implies the demon king to be a [domain] holder, which, from our data thus far, nothing seems to suggest it is a [domain] holder. In fact, we don’t even know if the demon king has levels.” Because the king didn’t talk.

***The heatwave meant druids and mages were in huge demand, as they had to help use their weather abilities and skills to help “reduce” the impact of the heat. Our master builders had to rush to the shores and areas that suffered huge floods and rainfalls to help redirect the water, on top of my trees. My trees soaked up the water easily; after all, my roots naturally transported water, and I used this to great effect to help direct water from areas that faced torrential rain and floods to areas that faced exceptionally dry weather.

The response to the weather changes were mixed. Some just moved to places where the effects were milder. Like Freshka itself, it was quite insulated from the effects of the heatwave due to the presence of many druids’ skills that helped soften the effects of the demon king’s energies on top of my own heat-channeling abilities.

The farmlands within the same region as me pretty much survived the heatwave unaffected; at this distance, my abilities easily overwhelmed the global effects of the heatwave. Further out, there had been some fires and destruction of farms. Small damage, generally, as my influence waned somewhat at a distance.

That said, the nobles and royalty were generally pretty pissy about the weather, and they’d hired mages and druids to keep the weather pleasant. Strange that they got so pissy. I observed less of such behavior from the older kind.

One group that I needed to assist a little more was the treefolk. They seemed rather sensitive to the weather and needed to consume more water to offset the increased evaporation and heat. Trees generally helped to cool their surroundings through evaporation, but that did mean that they lost more water, and treefolks needed to constantly replenish water, a problem when the rivers themselves were drying up.

So far, no area had faced terrible droughts yet, thanks to my roots performing their role of distributing both heat and water to where they were needed. Funny that all my fire resistance and training from previous demon kings meant I could resist this effect relatively easily. Truly, what didn’t kill you made you stronger.

The elves, humans, and dwarves were uncomfortable, but they generally did well. The lizardpeople enjoyed the heat, but they preferred the humid heat, not the dry heat, so those close to the coast actually found the heatwave pleasant. The lesser races like those winged garudas and harpies didn’t enjoy the more turbulent winds from the heat.

Fishing was down significantly, as the heat made the waves more dangerous throughout the world. That said, if a fisher and sailor was to set out now, they would generally level…if they survived.

Trade was wobbly, and so was fishing. But the oceans were generally calmer out in the open oceans. A master captain with a great ship could still make the journey.

“Our pirates and privateers are stranded on the islands.” Well, one of the drawbacks of a land-based continental force was my naval forces weren’t amazing. Even with all the training and special centers, they just didn’t have the opportunity to really challenge themselves for sea battles. Unless I did mock battles with Reefy?

Mock battles sounded like a good idea.

< Reefy? >

> Yes? <

< Do you want to do practice battles? >

> Practice…battles? < I shared images and scenes through our somewhat connected “roots” of practice duels, mock battles, and so on. The purpose was to practice strategy and tactics, gain familiarity on whether combat was effective or not.

< Why don’t just kill? >

> Not enemies. Friend. Just to get stronger. <

Reefy seemed to struggle to process fighting their friends for a while. It seemed to have a rather convenient categorization of friends and foes? Or did it just classify people to their threat levels?

< Don’t understand. Share images again. >

I did so. Reefy still seemed rather confused.

In the meantime, since Aria and Aispeng were ice spirits, I wondered whether they had abilities that could offset the heat. They did, but it was an aura ability so they couldn’t share it. The Northern Isles, despite being naturally colder, had stronger heatwaves, and this manifested in stronger blizzards and winds. In a way, this demon king’s abilities weren’t really a heatwave, but more of extreme weather. Did the demon king copy some climate change rulebook somewhere?

***The heroes kept on with their battles, and they had their first encounter with the demon king. It did not go well, but it seemed the demon king did not give much chase.

[Ellis Myers has died. You received a fragment.]

[Jenna Kari has died. You received a fragment.]

Kei had apparently attempted to help.

“You idiot!” Stella screamed over the message spell. She had two fragments, too. “Don’t risk your fucking life.”

“I’ve already died once. What’s another time?”

“I thought you promised us!” Apparently Kei had a promise with the girls? Huh. I sure didn’t see them being so close.

“…I know. I feel like shit, though,” Kei said. “I can’t just stand and let them fight.”

“Kei, we’ve talked about this. There are battles that are out of our leagues. Each of us needs to do our part, do what we’re good at,” Stella repeated. “I’m a [void mage], and I’m good with portals. That means I’m not going anywhere near a battlefield. You’re a [biocrystalline golem], and you can make crystals do all sort of stuff. But you’re not a one hundred percent combat class, and you don’t have hero powers. Don’t fight battles you can’t do shit in. We all want this shit to end, but we need to work together, dammit. Another act out of line and I’ll get Aeon to [recall] you.”

“…sorry.”

“Good.”

The death of two shook the group of seven left. They were nervous and afraid. What seemed comically easy once they leveled suddenly was hard again. The gap between the champions and the king was large, and only now they understood it.

Kei had to be their counselor. But in the south, there were other temples, and some heroes sought help from the temples instead.

“Should’ve sent priests here! Right now they need the calming abilities of the priesthood!” Kei complained. That was something I’d take note of. Certainly Lumoof could help to provide serenity and calmness in face of loss. These were young teens in need of emotional support, and that was certainly a neglected aspect of their journey.

***“Do we have counselor classes?” I asked Lumoof and the group. Actually, if heroes got out of this with PTSD, was that why they ended up indulging themselves in all their harems and all that? It was a way of coping with the shit they’d seen? I wasn’t in their place, and I hadn’t seen their struggles. But on reflection, it did seem almost all of them were broken or chipped in some way.

I knew his answer before he answered thanks to our mental link, but I let him say it out anyway. “We do have [Priest of Tranquility], and certain skills like [Calm Composure], [Emotional Appeasement]…”

“Then we must find ways to train this further.” I’d been growing class seeds all this while, but I supposed I needed to experiment and create these “counselors” or “psychiatrist” classes.

I looked at my own [Tree of Prayers]. These helped in the past, just as my [tea] did. I needed to make them mobile, without using Lumoof. The people of this world were naturally resilient and seemed to endure the destruction really well without emotionally breaking down, but the heroes clearly were cracking, even if they outwardly appeared fine.

28

YEAR 181

The heroes tried again, if anything out of a desire for revenge. The demon king killed two of them, and they were going to live this time. They hunted champions and gained more levels, and all of them were now in their level one hundreds, if only in the early one hundreds. The two fragments each of them had made them level faster and made them stronger.

“They know I’m talking to you guys,” Kei said.

“So? You’re free to have friends, right?”

“I think they’re all right, but some of them are suspicious why I’m reporting everything to you. And rightly so. The way I’m behaving is very much a spy. In a way, I am a spy.” Kei laughed awkwardly.

“I thought you told them everything?”

“Yes, but still, they continue to maintain some distance.” Kei paused. “If I was in their shoes, I’d be suspicious of a girl or golem who claims to be a former hero and somehow reports on their activities back to someone they don’t know.”

“Then stop staying there. I think they no longer need your help. Not anymore. The longer they stay, the more suspicious they get.”

“…you’re right.”

Kei had one last conversation with the heroes before their fight with the demon king. They’d reached level one hundred, and just as before, they’d unlocked their star-mana forms. There were seven of them at level one hundred–plus against one demon king; honestly, the odds were pretty good that they’d win. She spoke of hero-made items from previous generations and whether the heroes wanted a trip to the Central Continent before their second encounter with the demon king.

They refused. Well, some of them wanted it, but they already unlocked their own [Hero’s Forge] and could make their own hero items.

“You think they’ll live?” Stella asked through [message], as Kei made her way to the shore. I could recall her at any time, but she wanted to wait for the heroes to actually fight the demon king before she left. “What did you think of the demon king?”

“I saw it briefly. I was really far away, but I think…I think they have a good chance of winning. But I think half of them will die. It’s still a bit too early.”

“Huh. Are they prepared for a self-destruction gimmick at the end?”

“I don’t know whether they remembered. When I reminded them they just brushed it off.”

“Huh?” Stella asked.

“I’m not sure whether what I told them got through to their heads. Lately they just seem…I don’t know how to put it…”

“Stubborn?”

“No.”

“Confident?”

“Not that, either…”

“Middle-grade syndrome?”

“…that might be it.”

“But they are late teens, right?”

“Yes. One of them reincarnated as a half-dark elf, so age is a little bit more flexible, but yes. Late teens, mentally.”

“You were there once. You should know why they don’t listen.”

“Fuck that.”

We felt the effects of the battle from a distance. The heroes pulled out all the stops, and my magical sensors felt the churn of magic in the air, even so far away. The weather seemed to sense this, and the world waited for the outcome of the battle of heroes. The instability of magic lasted for a day, and this time, I felt sensations that were very familiar.

It felt like those old, healed wounds had been torn open. But I was still physically fine. Why did I feel it, then?

[Demon King Ethrezen has been slain.]

[Kenny Hills has been slain. You received a fragment.]

[Elly Pato has been slain. You received a fragment.]

[Nancy Pelos has been slain. You received a fragment.]

Only three deaths. That meant four of the heroes survived. The four survivors were Prabu and Colette, both archmages, Hafiz the Knight and Chung the Archer. There was an explosion at the end, but somehow they still managed to survive it.

Kei, of course, felt the explosion. The explosion’s shockwave could be felt a world away, and she ran at full speed toward the center of the explosion once it was clear it was done. The entire area had been turned into a volcanic wasteland, but the four were alive, but weak. All of them suffered heavy burns, and their skin was charred. They lived. Both archmages were unconscious, but they somehow managed to sustain a multi-layered magical shield that collapsed once Kei approached them. The burns were so bad that they could not speak, not yet.

She quickly stabilized them with her familiar’s healing abilities. Despite how horrific the burns were, they were heroes, and the healing quickly restored them. Though they were exhausted and weak, even though somewhat healed, Kei escorted them out and brought them to the nearest town where they got food and shelter.

“Well, that’s over.” I gathered the Valthorns. “As usual, we’ll have to face the issue that the heroes may be hostile or may be friendly. We will initiate our hero-preparations procedure again.” We had this preparation since the crusades, mainly to consider how to fight heroes on our home ground should the temples order another round of crusades.

There were four of them. Five if we counted the missing hero. We knew that two of them were mages, and they had good shields, shields strong enough to stop the demon king’s last bomb. They also survived the demon king, so that should put them in the level one hundred twenties. In a straight combat, we were in trouble. Even with both Lumoof and Edna, I thought it’d be a long shot if we even won. So avoiding combat should be the first priority.

At least the propaganda from the temples were not outright hostile these days, so hopefully the heroes didn’t turn out that bad.

They would have to mop up the rest of the demons, too. There were still demon champions and large hordes of demons left unchecked. The heroes would get to them soon, perhaps in a month.

“We should start aid,” Lausanne proposed. “It’s a good way to win friends through the reconstruction process.”

“This is usually the period when they start maneuvering for territory and start their own kingdoms. We’ll need to be careful not to get tangled in a case where the kingdoms use our support as a weapon or shield against the heroes,” one of the lords presented some diplomatic implications.

“Agreed, but we can just decline or pull out should that happen,” Lausanne proposed.

“Then we as a faith will look weak, because we can’t resist the heroes. It’s a signal to the temples that we are afraid of the heroes.”

“No, no. Let’s step back here. We’re not going as a missionary force, and we’re not going to be some ‘pillar’ to stand up against the heroes or the other temples. We’re sending workers, craftspeople, farmers, druids to help fix the damaged lands, and if we encounter any hostility, we will pack up and move,” Lausanne repeated. “We can do this without having a need to appear as a political entity.”

“Then what you are suggesting is a clandestine aid operation? Any action we do will be viewed through national, geostrategic, or geopolitical views. How strong, how weak we go.”

Lumoof paused. “I believe it may not be a problem if we go weak.”

“Then we won’t be winning over allies in the south, so why go?”

Lausanne took a step back. “I think we need to draw a line here on whether we’re going for political reasons or going for the purpose of assistance. I’m voting to go and provide assistance and help the nations rebuild their lives a bit faster.”

The debate went on for a while. I was all right either way, whether the council decided to go or otherwise. In the end, Lausanne volunteered for a small assistance group, supported by the priests.

I also needed more [Domain]-level servants, and Johann, Roon, and a few of the druids kept on grinding the level one hundred twenty dungeon. They were at the edges and stagnating, around the early level one hundred forties, and yet it wasn’t moving much.

“Level one hundred twenty isn’t enough, Aeon,” Roon vented. “We’ve done this for months, and we’re not leveling. Something’s not right.”

Patreeck and my artificial minds quickly made comparisons between their experience and that of Edna and Lumoof. The analysis revealed that there wasn’t much difference, except they didn’t participate significantly in the conflict with the demon king. Did the system actually require some kind of “significant-event” record in order to move past certain levels?

But…what about me? Did the fragments help override the system or give it a boost?

I needed more power to feed the ley lines. I wondered, just wondered, whether heroes could supply the power needed to summon super-tier dungeons. No…back about the idea of the sun. Could I create a portal to the sun and then use that as a magic source?

Of course, I asked Stella about the possibility of creating permanent portals. In theory, yes, but the further it was, the more difficult it was to be permanent, simply because the void and space was subject to so much interference and fluctuations that the mage or portal-maker had to constantly adjust their skill or spell in order to account for those changes. A super-strong solarflare or a magical supernova could rip your portal to shreds, if at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

The way between worlds was a forest and perhaps also a sea that was constantly moving. The path was a bit like trying to create a bridge made of floating ships through a volatile sea. It was easier if it was nearer, since the distance traveled wasn’t too far. I wondered whether it was better to just, well, be the ship and float on the sea, but anyway, it was certainly possible to establish a “permanent” portal, given enough mana, time, and having the right skill sets. Distance increased this complexity by introducing disruptions and fluctuations. Both source and destination also played a part in the complexity of the process.

I thought about it, and then Stella went back to research.

I thought of other ways of cracking the problem with the creation of a high-level dungeon. I decided I would experiment using my roots as electrical cables and move the mana from the various ley lines to a single location.

The thing was a dungeon’s power source could not be a living thing, and so, if the mana came from me, it would reject that source and only consider the non-living thing. It also had to be at a certain level of stability and quantity, which caused the dungeons to reject mana batteries as a source of augmentation.

So I needed a magical root that absorbed the mana from various ley lines and then dumped that at a particular location where the dungeon could then use it.

I tested it out with a few dungeons, and creating the roots that were independent of me wasn’t that difficult. Essentially, I’d make the root, but then cut it off once ready.

It didn’t work, even though the mana was still moving through the roots. I tested it out, too. What other ways could I trick the system into accepting the mana as a valid source of power? Could the solution be something extremely simple that I had never considered so far?

The heroes recovered quickly; the wounds and physical damage were gone. But Kei was worried.

“We need to get them checked for parasites. They could have parasites like Alvin. Alvin’s parasite was initially dormant, too.”

“Why? Do they have any symptoms?” I asked, curious why Kei suddenly asked.

“No, no, they don’t. But it’s just…what if they did? We have to check.”

“With your familiar’s healing skills, did you detect anything unusual?”

“No.”

“Then why are you worried?”

“Because it just feels uneasy. They look all right, I think. Physically they are back to tip-top shape. But you never know. They could have some accumulated, hidden damage that only something as strong as your magical biolab can pick up.”

Stella rolled her eyes. “That’s like taking a kid to an MRI because he hurt his knee. If there’s no symptoms, leave it.”

“Aeon’s testing doesn’t have side effects like MRIs, so it’s really a risk-free test.”

“Get them to a priest or a healer and have them checked for any soul damage.”

“I’ve done that, but the priests are so low level I’m not sure they are even able to see through the heroes’ natural protective defenses.”

“Then there’s nothing to be worried about,” Stella said.

“That’s a death flag.”

“Being a hero is a death flag. No. It’s a death sentence.”

“Fuck.”

The mop-up operation of the remaining demons lasted just a month or two after the heroes’ recovery. Still, they didn’t expect to see Kei back then, so they thanked her for coming to their aid.

I kept digging underground, and by now I explored about thirty to forty percent of the underground areas of the continent. During this time, we also dug up the area near where the elven capital once stood. It was supposedly destroyed during the Rottedlands era.

“Something doesn’t seem quite right,” I mused to the Valthorns, summarizing the underground explorations.

Alka, my chief researcher, nodded. “Indeed. The amount of remnants we dug up seems rather small for what was a large capital.”

“Could everything be destroyed?” a senior druid proposed. “So many other kingdoms were destroyed that day.”

“Indeed, but most of them left behind a lot of noticeable debris or damaged structures.” Alka soon ordered a far bigger archaeological study of the area. Within a month, we mapped out the debris and places where the damage was found. Indeed, there was a large circular area where there was very little debris or ruins. It was strange.

“What are we theorizing here?” Edna asked.

“Is it possible for the destruction to be so uneven?”

“It could be something that exploded and then destroyed the city before the demon king’s sludge reached this place.” We soon created a lot more magical sensors in that area in hope of cracking the clue, but we didn’t detect anything at all. Perhaps whatever magic that caused this had faded after the decades.

“If something happened, we were too late,” Alka said.

The death of the demon king meant the seas and oceans returned to normal. Gradually. The storms closer to the Southern Continent were the first to recover from the turbulence. It would still take some time for the traders to resume; usually those merchants that were forced to change their jobs or businesses in order to adapt to the turbulent weathers would still need some time to research which trades were worthwhile, while some of the more “confident” or “foolhardy” merchants would immediately jump back. These were usually the first to move anyway.

During this time, Patreeck picked up some interesting individuals through his mind-reading abilities. These guys had magical camouflage abilities that hid their presence, but they could not mask their very clear “thought bubbles.”

“The artifact is acting funny. That missing hero is not here.”

On closer look, I felt like I’d seen that thing before. A hero-locator. No, more importantly, there was something pressing against my presence, and I pressed back. The little mental or magical tug of war happened only shortly, then it disappeared.

“False positive. Again.” The two talked. I remembered how I felt like they seemed really high level all the way back then, but now, not anymore. Based on my much more refined magical sensors and my [inspection], I suspected they were in their level sixties but had special equipment to support their tasks.

They paused.

“Someone just used [Inspect] on me.” Ah. They had a counter-detection ability. That was interesting. It functioned just as how my [domain] protected me.

“Me too. Stop talking. This means whoever did that could hear us.”

“Oh. What do we do?”

“Retreat.”

At that point, Patreeck asked, “Should we pursue and follow? Once they are out of my mind-reading range, it’ll be hard to find them.” His mind-reading powers essentially revealed all “hidden” characters, a bit like a detector.

“Yes. But don’t kill them. I want to know what they are plotting.” I quickly called on my high-leveled Valthorn rangers and scouts. They had counter-espionage skills, though they were a little underdeveloped due to my extensive tree network.

My rangers gave chase, and they seemed to know it.

They fled. In fact, they actually disappeared out of my sight for a while and managed to throw fake trails that led my rangers and scouts on the wrong path.

Their skill or ability had a time limit, because about two towns away, deep in the woods, my trees could see them appear out of their illusions.

“The hell was that?”

“We’re too careless.” Well, they still were. “We should’ve known a supposed deity could see through our invisibility charms.”

“Okay. Okay. Let’s calm down and review what we have. We didn’t detect any sign of the hero.”

“Aeon has a depository of hero-items. So our artifact is probably detecting that.”

“So he’s not here.”

“He might still be in the south, then.” They took out their bag, and I saw something that looked pretty broken, a circular disc that was cracked.

“When did that break?” one of the spies asked the other.

“I…I don’t know. I was too busy running away.”

“We need to report this.”

At this point, I decided to let them believe they managed to lose my scouts. I kept my eye and watched them make the entire journey to the eastern seaboard and then got on some ships. Throughout the entire time, I learned a few things.

They were part of an organization called the Laenza, and they were trying to find heroes. I wasn’t sure they were helping them, or trying to kill them, because it seemed they were prepared for both.

“Find more info on this…Laenza.”

What we soon found was that there were actually multiple members of the Laenza even on our Central Continent, but most of them were only mid-tier individuals, around level thirties to fifties. They had attempted at various times to recruit individuals of higher levels but with mixed success. There was very little they could offer the nobility that they could not already obtain in some way or form from the existing structure.

Those we interrogated revealed nothing unique, other than the Laenza was a group dedicated to assisting heroes in their tasks. Or killing them, if they were detrimental.

They also had a magical ring that was hidden by magic but soon revealed itself when brought close to me. It seemed that my [domain] had an anti-illusion effect. I wasn’t sure what it did, but for now, it went into the magical labs for research.

More importantly, what did they want with the missing hero?

29

YEAR 182

We looked back at the stars again now that the demon king was defeated. We noticed the path that the demon king used turned extremely dim. It just seemed like these “paths” were all taking turns, each getting stronger over time. Once they reached a certain strength, the demons would then open a path.

I also didn’t understand how the demon king actually moved across worlds. Like, if Stella took so much energy just to send Lumoof to a nearby world, it must take a few magnitudes more to send a demon king that far. Unless, like Stella herself, the demon king was able to create a portal on its own.

So I looked back at the tainted demon core with far more interest. Was it possible that the demon core wasn’t actually a core of some kind, but actually a mobile void generator of some kind?

“Doesn’t that explain the explosions? If the demon king kept the void energy within itself, a crack in that shielding caused the void energy to react explosively with its surroundings. Especially if star mana was used extensively to defeat it.” That was how Alka somehow succinctly explained a problem. “It also posits that, if we were able to defeat the demon king entirely without the use of star mana, it may be possible to avoid the explosion at the end and preserve a pure demon core for our research.”

“That’s a horribly difficult thing to do.”

Stella was rather fascinated by the idea and looked at my tainted demon core with great interest. She tested it and attempted to use void mana with it, and it did have some reaction. But again it was complicated by the hybrid mana it required. “I think your demon core’s just broken and distorted by whatever it experienced.”

“You’re saying this thing that I have is a dud.”

“I’m saying it is broken. It’s like a…erm…paint that’s meant to be white, but now it’s mixed with some other color and can never be white again. It’s like trying to repair a broken mirror, really.”

…fuck. Unless I break it up and try to rebuild it again. “Are you sure it’s broken?”

“I think so. When I channel my void mana into it, I can feel it trying to do something but it’s just not working properly.”

“Can you fix it?”

“I wouldn’t try. Void mana is inherently dangerous, and this thing looks like it can blow up really, really hard.”

Defeating a demon king without heroes. If that was what it took to get a functional portal generator and get access to the demon’s interdimensional technology…

But even so, maybe I could use it differently. Could something that powerful be configured to corrupt the pathways? What were these pathways? Were they just markers through some space? What was this “path,” if not a magical data packet through space? Could I build a massive firewall around the planet and filter out all these things? Were these daemolites nothing but trojan backdoors?

“Do you think it’s possible to hide the world, Stella?”

“I don’t know. But I suppose I can try to see whether I can interrupt or disrupt it? Move the rift around?”

“That’s a good idea. If you could redirect the demons to the moons and let them stay there and float around harmlessly. Or crush them in the depths of the oceans. If it was me, I’d try to see whether I could tweak and control the rifts, if I can’t block it out entirely.”

Stella nodded. “I suppose I’ll try. The zaratans hoped to never have to face hostile demons ever again.”

“When you were there…did you see other demon kings, too? And other heroes?”

“I don’t know, actually. The zaratans made sure to leave the moment the demon kings were about to arrive. I think there are other heroes there, but I have not met them…”

No. More importantly, if there were other heroes, was it possible to gain fragments from them? Or was the system intelligent enough to differentiate me and those heroes, that I was a summoned person from Earth to this world, not that world, so I was not entitled to the fragments of that world?

What else was duplicated? No, if anything, I’d like to meet other spirits. There must be others, from those worlds. If we could gather a collection of like-minded spirits, we’d have a force that could stand toe to toe with the demon king and obtain that demon king’s core.

No. What if we were thinking this the wrong way? If I had a core like that, I could find a world that wasn’t yet touched or seen by the demons, colonize that world, and gradually move the inhabitants of this world over there. Eventually, that world could grow into a powerhouse that could reinforce these worlds that faced periodic demon kings.

Or I could use the portals to find a world rich in magic and create powerful dungeons where great heroes could be forged out of mere mortals. Surely the level of natural magic and ley lines in each world was different.

I shared these ideas with my confidantes again. Stella merely wondered. “It sounds like you truly intend to create a multi-planetary empire to compete with the demons.”

“Well, yes. If I cannot hide or avoid fighting them, then I must have the firepower to push them back so decisively that they can do no harm. And once I can do it for one world, I will expand it so that I can do it for multiple worlds.”

“Sounds like the true beginnings of a multiplanetary god,” Stella quipped. “I mean, no offense, but yeah. It’s kinda scary.”

“Scary?”

“Yeah. Being so close to a being that’s a borderline god is scary. I mean, some days I don’t realize it so it feels normal, but some days, it just dawns on me that you could kill tens of thousands without batting an eye.”

“The heroes could do that, too. Any high-level individual could.”

She was silent for a long while. “That’s a good point. The whole level dynamic really changes the whole equality thing. There’s no equality when there’s at least a magnitude of power difference between people of different levels.”

“The system is merely facilitating such differences, but there are other ways such differences can play out. Even in your world, money and political positions do make some more powerful than others.”

“But that’s indirect power, through their ability to mobilize others. Here, the level system meant every single person could gain levels and cause a whole load of pain. There’s no equality at all when the power levels are so different. It’s like asking humans to grant equality to ants. It’s never going to be equal. At best, it’s fair.”

Stella just laughed after she finished that sentence

“Anyway, I’m not really trying to debate such weighty stuff. I just wanted to say you’re scary. No. People in this world are scary. You guys are like superheroes with superpowers. I mean, this entire leveling system makes superheroes out of normal people. It’s a wonder this world didn’t destroy itself.”

“With your own levels, you’re not very far away, either. You are powerful in your own way, archmage. So it’s rich coming from someone who can walk to another world.”

“Uh…yeah, I guess that’s true. By the way, do you…uh…ever talk about it?” By now, the news that I had the memories of another world spread to almost everyone in the senior Valthorns, and that included Stella.

“About?”

“Your life before this. Before…tree?”

“What is there to talk about?”

“I mean…you don’t miss home, too?”

“…no? Perhaps some of the tastes and pleasures, yes, but I had few friends and some family. We were all right, and maybe they will be sad, but I believe they will be fine.”

“You sound…confident.”

“There’s nothing I can do, is there? At least, for the first two centuries, the idea that it’s even possible to get back did not ever occur to me. This seemed to be a one-way street.”

Stella frowned and looked a little sad. The years had taken their toll, especially those forty years in the other worlds, even if her levels somehow granted her vitality. If she wanted to live longer, she’d need to reach the higher level one hundreds. “Yeah. I suspect it’s really like that. But I’ll still try.”

“Well, what level are you?”

“I’m capped at level ninety-five cumulatively. Most of my levels are in [Void Archmage] and some of my earlier [Artist] class…” She exploited the trick with void magic’s destruction of the soul spring to free up her levels, simply because when the “level bricks” were destroyed, you lost levels.

“Hmm, you have a higher natural cap.”

“I do?”

“Level ninety-five is ten levels higher than normal.”

“The heroes don’t have a cap.”

“They don’t, but they are heroes. They get special rights.”

“Maybe it’s my [Late Bloomer] skill.”

“No. Skills rarely change your level caps.” It was strange. Was it possible that void-related class and skills just used less space in the soul spring and that was why she could level more? “In any case, I’ll need to train you up to the higher tiers.”

I gave her the soul-strengthening seed the next day and had her continue researching the tainted demon core. I wanted to be sure, like, very sure, of what it was and that it was star mana that corrupted it. I needed to be sure, because I would have to form a strategy on this conjecture.

There was strange news coming from the temples. The temples somehow claimed that the gods summoned nine heroes to fight the demon king, and five perished in their battle. There was no mention of the missing hero, nor did they acknowledge their presence.

I had wondered before how the temples knew about the heroes. I believed they got notified; perhaps those closest to their gods got informed by way of a ping, just like I did. Or perhaps they had some artifacts that allowed them to receive such notice.

My senior priests clearly did not get the notification, so how did the other priests know about the heroes?

“Can we find out how the temples know of the heroes’ arrival?” I asked the leadership team. One of the lords quickly responded.

“Some say the gods themselves bestow the leaders with a message.”

“It is a saying. I want to know for certain.”

The diplomats and the Valthorns would activate their intelligence network to gather the data. Perhaps some of the priests would talk and reveal their secrets.

30

YEAR 183

The demons were eradicated, and the four heroes were “free.”

“I’m coming back,” Kei said. “And the four heroes are coming with me. They want to see the journals.”

They arrived by ship at our southernmost city. There was no fanfare for them; I forbade it. In fact, they arrived so quietly very few knew they were heroes.

“Well, you’re on the Central Continent.” Kei nodded. “So next we’ll need to get the four of you to Freshka, where the journals are kept.”

Chung, the hero archer, immediately asked, “Are we walking? Or magic?”

Colette, the archmage, shrugged. “I could use teleport, but what’s the fun in that? We have all the time in the world now.”

“It’s more efficient.”

“Usually taking the long way means we gain more levels and get to earn some extra skills. Who knows what we’ll discover?”

“I’m more worried if this is a trap.”

Kei shook her head. “It’s not.”

“I trust you enough, Kei. But you cannot say for sure it’s not a trap,” the archer responded. “Your patron may have other plans. I’ve seen enough of this world to suspect Ken may be right after all.”

Ken. The missing hero. Kei didn’t press it. “I don’t think Aeon will do that. It’s certainly not in Aeon’s interest to make enemies out of four heroes.”

Chung didn’t reply. “Let’s just go, but we’ll keep our guard.” My trees subtly detected the presence of magical shields. They were on guard, even with Kei. “And please, no communication with your patron without us present. It’s just…suspicious.”

Kei nodded. The archer was quite tense, like he was going to shoot arrows at any time. The other three seemed quite relaxed, though. Kei walked to the port’s Valthorn office and spoke to one of those present, with the heroes nearby. “All right, it seems it’s already ready.”

They walked to a building that was arranged similar to a large bus interchange, where multiple convoys of beetles were parked. There were different platforms, each headed for a different destination. At the end were the “express” and “charter” services.

Given the relative safety of the Central Continent, my beetles took on more utility and support roles. That meant they functioned as the blood of the transportation network, the engine that kept people and goods moving.

Colette laughed. “This is so Ghibli. Beetles as an express bus. Seriously.”

Kei somehow laughed with her. “I actually never thought of that.”

“What’s Ghibli?” Prabu asked.

“Never mind.”

The beetle convoy had eight large carrier-beetles. They were each the size of a truck, and they had a fully furnished cabin on their backs. The smaller, regular-size beetles acted as escorts and protectors, but very few bandits ever attempted a raid on the beetle convoys due to the retaliation from my constantly watching artificial minds. There were multiple artificial minds dedicated to just managing the logistic networks of beetles.

Kei just repeated the itinerary to the four heroes. “Freshka’s quite far from here, so it’ll take about four days from all the way in the south. These beetles will need one stop, just to restock, but you can just chill out and wait.”

The four heroes mostly played various games found in the cabins. The cabins each had four beds, and a living area for the passengers to relax. There was some food, mostly preserved foods, stored in little magical containers to keep them fresh for the journey. Sadly these preservation spells didn’t last very long so there was a need for a restocking station.

Colette, the female archmage, was extremely interested and kept asking Kei about everything. “So these things are magical fridges.”

Kei nodded. “Magic solves a lot of things. Those gems emit a constant ‘cold’ and ‘freeze.’ They just need to be recharged before every trip. Food’s prepared offsite at dedicated kitchens and just loaded onto trays.”

“It’s like airplane food.” Colette was very amused. “It’s so cool.”

The other archmage-hero, Prabu, ate it happily. “It’s a little jarring, from the levels of poverty throughout the Southern Continents, to this.”

Kei sighed. “It’s not as widespread as our world. You guys are getting the best treatment, by the way. These cabins are reserved for the wealthy and nobility.”

“It starts that way, right?” Colette smiled. She was really young; I thought she looked like she was only twenty. That meant she was…sixteen when she was summoned.

Prabu, on the other hand, was just munching down all the snacks in the cabin. “Oh god, junk food. How I missed junk food.” One of Kei and Stella’s great contributions to the economy of the Central Continent: junk food and snacks. That meant sealed packs of dried, deep-fried fish skins or potato chips. “Seriously, this is good.”

We had to use magic to get some of the effects, and we were not able to truly mass-produce them the way our industrial factories were able to, but every few months, our smiths and inventors made steps that took us closer to that eventuality. Our contraptions were getting more sophisticated, our machinery more robust and complex.

Chung was always tense throughout the four days, even though he did partake in the games and the snacks. “It’s way too peaceful. I…I’m not used to it.”

Kei shrugged. “It’s not a perfect place, but I imagine this to be life under a robot overlord.”

“That’s not exactly a glowing review,” Chung responded.

Kei merely smiled. The four days passed by quickly, and they were then closing in on Freshka.

Now that they were closer, I saw their features a lot better. They still nursed scars from the battle; their healing was well done but incomplete. A lot of the subtle magical fluctuations I could not fully see through my other trees were now obvious to me.

Their presence and auras also pressed against mine, and mine held.

“It feels kind of…stifling,” Chung said. He clearly felt my presence, and I too could see through a lot of the energies that were clashing. Some kind of [Damage Aura] and a type of unknown wind-like energy.

Kei nodded. “Ah. Yes. Uhm, I suggest you retract your auras if you have them.”

Prabu nodded. “I don’t see a need. Mine feels like it just coexisted with the presence.”

The beetles went over the outer hills of the valley, and the entirety of Freshka was now in view. A large expanse of green, with a few towers, representing the city, the School of Treeology, the Academy, and the Treetiary College. There were smaller areas, the newly set up void school, and the expanded merchant areas. Gigantic trees were everywhere, and they towered over various areas of the city.

Freshka was now home to almost two million people, and it sprawled throughout the Freshkan Valley. There were sectors, each meant to support the academic institutions.

“Wow.” Prabu, Colette, and Hafiz all went gaga for a moment. “This is like the biggest city I’ve seen.”

Kei laughed. “It’s not the biggest. Some of the northern capitals are larger in terms of population. But it is the most impressive because of the massive trees everywhere. And it’s not where you all are going.”

“Huh?”

“We’re headed to the real valley. The one that’s hidden. You may choose to visit the city later. After your goal.”

The tree that held the journals waited for the next set of logs.

31

YEAR 183 (PART 2)

The beetles stopped outside the tunnels. The place was unassuming, but the heroes could tell the presence of my camouflage and illusions abilities here.

“This looks like the perfect location for a trap,” Chung said as he took in the tunnel.

Kei nodded. “That is the intention. Aeon is located somewhere that’s perfectly defensible.”

Prabu just tapped Chung’s shoulder. “It’s all right. We survived the demon king’s deathbomb. We can take whatever this tree can throw at us. No need to be overly suspicious.”

Colette smiled. “Let’s go. I think it’s fine for Chung to be suspicious. We can’t all fall for the same trick, right?”

Hafiz just grunted and started walking. The tunnel was relatively short for them, and they were out on the other side and in my own personal valley, the home of my giant trees and the still-burning flames of the dark mana. These days they were a lot smaller, so it was just little embers, small flames that lit up from the branches.

I liked the flames. It gave the valley a very unique look and feel. A burning valley, yet not hot because the heat had been transmitted outward by my roots.

Colette’s eyes lit up. “Oh, this is so…”

“Anyway, the journal is in one of the trees. We won’t be seeing Aeon, not unless you guys want to,” Kei said and led the way to the tree. The tree had a magical door, and they walked through to see the book.

The book was a large tome; it grew slightly after Kei inserted her own memories some time ago.

“Well, it’s here. All you need to do is touch it and it’ll interact with you. I’ll leave now so you can have your own time with it. The rest of the hero items are downstairs.” The tree had expanded to have a few floors internally. The journal was first, the rest of the items left by the previous heroes downstairs.

Chung held up his hand. “I’ll do it first.”

Prabu shook his head. “No. It’s clearly magical, so I’ll do it.” Prabu walked up and touched the journal, and he just stood there.

“Prabu?”

He just froze there. Chung immediately turned to Colette. “Is he all right?”

“He’s alive,” Colette said. “There’s a lot of magic swirling inside.”

Prabu turned. “I…I need a while. I need to process this.” He magically moved a chair close, and he just sat down, one hand on the tome. “Just, uh…relax?”

Colette, Chung, and Hafiz shrugged and soon settled on the chairs and cushions in the tree. The entire area was decorated like a comfortable library. Prabu just sat and closed his eyes. After an hour or so, he stood and turned.

“Yeah. I’m all right now. You guys want to give it a shot? I need to pee now.”

“What was it?” Chung asked.

“It’s…it’s like the condensed memories and personalities of the heroes before us, and their lessons. What they saw, what the gods said, what they’ve seen from the demons. It’s just like…a bit of everything. Even Kei’s in there.”

Chung nodded and sat down where Prabu sat, and he too touched it. He froze and sat there for an hour, too. At some points, his face changed to show various emotions, like pain, like sorrow. In the end, he stood.

“…I was wrong. Ken needs to see this.” Chung looked at Colette and Hafiz, who were both still waiting for their turn.

“Huh. Hell of a drug for it to change your mind.” Colette looked at Hafiz. “You think we can both touch the book together? Doesn’t make sense that only one of us can touch it at the same time.”

Hafiz just nodded in agreement. He waited for Colette, and they both pulled a chair close and touched it together.

Chung stood, and around the same time Prabu came out of the washroom. Prabu went straight for the snack bar at the corner. “How did I miss the snacks?”

Chung rolled his eyes. “Seriously, Prabu. Is it time for snacks when we just saw that?” He pointed at the book. Prabu snorted and started eating. “Really?”

“All I’ve seen made it pretty clear we’re just pawns. May as well enjoy ourselves first.” Prabu munched. “And I’ll start with eating snacks when I want to.”

The archer merely rolled his eyes. From here, in the tree that held the journal, I could observe and listen in to their conversations. The archer and the archmage took opposing sides of the snack-covered table. Chung just frowned. “That’s a very negative way of looking at it.”

“Those before us clearly thought that way, though.” Prabu munched. “Some of them descended into debauchery and had many lovers, perhaps as an act of vengeance.”

Chung’s frown continued. “It’s just an excuse. The gods may have put us in a spot by giving us this shambolic hero role, but we are still responsible for our own actions.”

“Not if they are clearly influencing our minds.” Prabu just kept eating. “Now that we can step back and reflect on what we’ve been doing, we’re pretty crazy. Young teens sent to another world on a mission to fight demons with superpowers. The way we are dedicated to that cause and kept on doing it despite the horrors we’ve seen, I’m pretty sure the gods have a hand in it. All four of us didn’t crack at the deaths or the horrors. I’ve seen so many mutilated body parts.”

Chung didn’t seem to expect that from his compatriot.

“So the god’s magical influence is clearly not just to make sure we do our job. It’s probably to assist us to face the horrors of the world, too. It hardened our senses, numbed us to death and gore. I mean, it does seem like the gods’ touch attempts to hammer these ‘goals’ into our mind and somewhat converts us into these robots. Okay, robots are a bit too strong. The gods make us obsessed with demons, and I see in our predecessors that they attempted to deal with that obsession with other obsessions and vices. I already see it in me, with snacks.”

Chung snorted. “Does being an archmage make you so suddenly intelligent?”

“Occasionally. I’m pretty sure the system made me a mage because I’m smarter than I look. And you’re an archer because you’re all tense and all that. Like a highly strung bowstring. Like, you gotta like chill, man.”

“Fuck you.” It got a laugh out of the archer.

“I’m serious, Chung. The demon king’s dead, but with all that tension you are carrying, your muscles are gonna knot themselves up and choke you to death.” The archmage handed him a bowl of snacks. It was deep-fried, crunchy leaves coated with some kind of mixture. I probably should ask Lumoof to have a bowl one of these days, so that I’d know what it tasted like.

“There’s always the next demon king.”

“That’s like saying you statistically have a 0.0001 percent chance of dying when you take a bus.”

“Which happened to us.”

Prabu paused and realized he seemed to have said something stupid. “You’re right there.”

Chung took a bite this time, instead of abstaining. “You know what? This is actually pretty good.”

“I know, right?” Prabu nodded.

“But seriously. We need to do something. I mean, we know the demon king can see us. They can see us once we have crossed a certain level and stuff. The demon king will be hunting us.”

“We could do what Kei did: camp here and if the demon king comes for us blow the shit out of it and then land the finishing blow,” Prabu said. “I honestly thought that was a very clever move. We engage in battle on our terms and stack the odds in our favor.”

“But that means working with this…tree.”

“What’s so bad about that? We’re pretty much divine mercenaries. Ken seemed to think so, and now we know he’s pretty much right.”

Chung paused. “I should drop him a message.” He activated a magical glowing ball and spoke to it. “Hey, Ken. I know you’re out there, but I just wanted to let you know that we’re safe, and we’re on the Central Continent now. And uhm…you should get here and see this journal left by the old heroes. I think it’s quite similar to all that stuff you’ve been talking about, that this whole thing is a ruse.”

The ball of magic transformed into a glowing arrow with a letter wrapped on it, and the arrow wooshed into the immaterium.

Prabu smirked. “We should ask Kei to come in. She saw this before.”

“I think we should have our own discussion first. Just four of us before we ask her to come in. She was a hero, sure, but we’re not sure how much her new form is subject to the control of this…tree.”

“You’re implying she’s not who she says she is.”

“She could just be a golem of crystal combined with the copied memories of the real Kei and the real Kei is long dead and we’re dealing with essentially identity theft.”

Prabu rolled his eyes. “You’re sometimes a step away from being as crazy as Ken.”

“I know. We are best friends, you know.”

“Seriously.”

Colette and Hafiz were done, too. Colette didn’t seem particularly fazed, but Hafiz was straight-out weeping. They both soon collected themselves and sat with the other two heroes.

“Didn’t take it very well, dude?” Chung said.

The knight or paladin—I wasn’t sure what his exact subtype was—nodded. I wondered how Hafiz would stack up against Edna and whether their powers were comparable. He let out a huge sigh. “…bad. It’s so bad.”

Colette could still smile, though. “Felt like I was in a movie, you know, like watching their lives flash by before me. I found it rather sweet that they took the effort to make this memento for us who came after them. It’s a really good idea.”

Chung then asked, “All right. Important question. Did you share your memories with the book?”

Hafiz, Prabu, and Colette nodded. Chung frowned. “I didn’t.”

Prabu thought for a moment. “It’s okay. Not everyone should share, actually. It’ll be a good thing to test whether this will have drawbacks.”

Chung nodded. “Exactly. You’re not stupid after all.”

Prabu materialized a wooden staff and attempted to bonk Chung on the head. He blocked it with a wooden plate.

The female archmage took a bite. “All right. I feel we all need some time to digest what we saw today. So let’s just go check out the previous heroes’ items instead. It’s just downstairs.”

They all nodded.

Nothing much happened when they went downstairs. They were rather fascinated with the Harris-era items due to the summon-mechanics it employed, and Kei’s “tower-mechanics.”

“We’re like vanilla heroes,” Prabu complained. “Two archmages, a knight, and an archer. Seriously.”

“We’re missing a healer, though,” Chung responded.

Colette frowned. “I feel like I’m missing some context about all these game stuff you guys speak of.”

“It’s just game classes,” Prabu said. “Kinda like traditional RPGs.”

She frowned. “Traditional RPGs are weird. I only played a few mobile MOBAs, and they don’t split classes this way.”

Prabu paused. “That’s actually a good point. Guess this world’s gods are like from the older generation where their rules are more 3E than mobage.”

They didn’t take anything. Not yet, anyway. They wanted to think about it a bit more, and the rules left by the previous heroes required them to essentially exchange their own hero-made items, or add their own, before they could take those made by the prior heroes.

They returned to Freshka where Kei placed them in a nice inn. When it was late at night, Chung snuck out alone. Prabu and Colette slept, while Hafiz walked the city.

I followed them, of course. Chung ran all the way to an open field outside Freshka, where there was nothing but shrubs. Then he activated a set of skills and then a magical glowing ball, again.

“Ken, you there?” he asked softly. He had a magical bubble that protected himself.

“…are you really safe?” A voice was on the other side this time. Ken. I could still listen in; after all, there were shrubs and grass all around, and he neglected to cover the ground.

“Yeah. It’s…it’s quite safe here. No, it’s so safe, it’s jarring when compared to what we’ve seen the past few years.”

“Hmmm. So that book that you saw, I should see it?”

“I think so. It’s similar to what you talked about. I mean, they don’t have your angle to it, but I think their perspective would be valuable.”

“Think I can sneak in?”

“With the right spells, probably. I’ll make a hero item with a marker so you can find it.”

“I see. Got it. How are the others doing?”

“As you expected, they’re taking this way too easy. No, actually, I’m even surprised at how easily I am accepting all this.”

“I knew those guys weren’t entirely honest with us. Who the fuck gets outworlders to do their dirty work if they have nothing to hide? If they are gods, they should have tons of entirely gullible followers to manipulate, so it didn’t make sense at all why they needed us.”

Chung just nodded quietly. “Where are you?”

“You know I won’t answer that.”

“That book says that the demon king can sense our star mana. When our levels cross level one hundred, the demon king could probably sniff us out.”

“I suspected that. The heroes and demons are opposite polarities of a magnet meant to collide. They must collide or they will mess things up.”

Chung sighed. “So what do we do? After I saw that book, I’m convinced you are right, but I don’t see a way out of us. Not without dying. It says something that all previous heroes die, and I think we’re meant to die.”

“We’re designed to die. We’re essentially disposable Band-Aids. I feel we have two ideas if we don’t want to die.”

“Which is? Get stronger and defeat the demon kings consistently?” Chung stated the obvious.

“No. We know the gods tell us that the demon king changes every time, so each demon king will stack against us differently. I feel we should figure out a way to trick the gods to summon more heroes.”

“By letting them think we are dead?” Chung paused. “You mean like Kei?”

“The golem? That’s not my ideal result, honestly. I would like to keep my powers, not just retain a fragment of memories in some other form,” Ken responded on the other side. “We’ve got slightly less than ten years to prepare, and personally, I want to know whether we can run away. If we do, or somehow vanish from the eyes of the gods, do the gods summon new ones?”

Chung looked around. It was dark in the middle of the night, but he was well covered with a heavy cloak. The wind was strong, but it didn’t affect him all that much. “Huh. Want me to look out for it?”

“I’m a mage, too. I’ll figure it out.”

“You don’t have to do this alone, you know,” Chung said.

“I know, but I want some independence to pursue slightly more…unconventional ideas.”

“Blood magic?”

“Maybe. I’ll let you know.”

Freshka. The heroes walked around and explored the city and noted the presence of strangely modern facilities. Of all the cities on the Central Continent, Freshka was the most magically modern. There were magical equivalents of most common machines, like fridges, magical wagons and trains, magical lifts, with a healthy dose of trees between everything.

Kei walked with them.

“There’s a theater!” Colette’s eyes immediately homed in. “What do they play? Anything from our world?”

Kei shook her head. “Nah. The lords and nobles of this world love political drama, so the theatres here are more like episodic sitcoms. The nobles come to watch the writers of the imaginary story of nobility go through the challenges of life.”

“Seriously.” Colette frowned.

“The paying group are mostly wealthy nobles, and they have huge egos so they love stories about them, even if indirectly. Theater is something enjoyed by the elites, not the masses.”

Colette stomped her feet. “Things like this really reminded me how horrible this world is.”

The other three boys chuckled.

Kei brought them to one of the Valthorn-maintained segments of Freshka. She knocked and led them to one of the houses that very much resembled a modern home.

They saw a middle-aged lady sitting on the table.

“Astia, these are the heroes,” Kei said to Stella. “Heroes, this is Astia. She’s from Earth, too, but as an accident.”

“An…accident?”

They met, and Stella gave a brief overview of how the accident happened. At this point, Kei was also aware of the Frozen Tree, but not aware of Aria’s true nature as another “accident.” Edna and Lumoof wisely kept their mouths shut about Aria and Aispeng. The discussion between the heroes and Stella was polite and didn’t touch on much. Stella did not mention her nature as a void archmage, either. Perhaps she thought they would have known, if they made any research.

“Well. At this point, this is it,” Kei said.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve brought you here and introduced the surviving outworlders to you.”

“You won’t introduce us to the tree?” Chung wondered.

Kei paused. “You want to meet the tree? I mean…I could ask, but…”

Chung paused and looked at the other three heroes; they shrugged. Prabu paused and then asked, “Actually, we were wondering whether we could somehow cook up an arrangement like you.”

“Me?” Kei responded.

“No. I mean your strategy of softening the demon king with traps and bombs. That’s smart stuff.”

“It worked because we could detect and pinpoint the exact location on the Central Continent. If the next demon king doesn’t appear on the Central Continent, that would not be possible,” Kei said frankly.

“This detection ability, is it something that can be shared? Is it an artifact or a tool?” the archer asked.

“I’m not sure, but my gut feeling is it’s something like Aeon’s own sense. If it is his senses, then it wouldn’t work outside of the continent.”

“Unless we move him to another continent,” Prabu said, and I mentally flinched at the idea.

32

YEAR 184

The heroes eventually left; well, they split up, really. Prabu, Colette, and Hafiz decided to travel to the Northern Islands, and they wanted to do a “world tour,” at least before the next demon king came along. So a few middle-ranked Valthorns were assigned to just bring them to the sights of the Central Continent.

Like Kei’s battlefield, and the Rottedlands. And some other stuff like volcanoes, some beautiful beaches and reefs. But not in Reefy’s area. That was a no-go. I did not want Reefy and the heroes to ever meet. Not now, not yet. Not when Reefy was still generally murderous.

The archer hero, on the other hand, took a ship back to the Southern Continent. It seemed that he had other plans, and it involved some magical preparations.

Throughout the entire thing, it seemed they remained oblivious of my ability to see them even from this distance, these days I felt that was truly my superpower. The ability of a massive hive-mind of trees to watch the entire continent at once, so long as there was a tree or a grass or a bush present.

The two archmages, however, were not exactly just having a holiday. They were brainstorming for some kind of an idea.

“Look, from what we see in the heroes’ memories, there’s clearly merit for preparations. All the heroes that fail do not prepare all that much. We must over prepare for the next demon king, even if its skillsets are different. So I propose building a super-flexible arsenal.” Prabu spoke one day while they were touring the northern shores. They would sail to the other continent soon.

“All right, I’m interested. Go for it,” Colette said. “What do you have in mind?”

“The demon kings have as many shots as they want at us, and they just need to get us one time to win. The demons bring an adapted arsenal each time, each more honed and better at killing us.”

Colette frowned. “All right, spit it out.” Hafiz clearly nodded at the other archmage’s words.

Prabu simulated some kind of global map. “We become weaker over time, especially during a battle with the demon king. We also don’t know where the demon king will appear. So my idea is we need to have small ‘recharging’ bases everywhere, places where we can run to instantly restore our health, our star mana, and also equip ourselves with powerful gear. We need to build mini-mechas for ourselves, with different weapon loads.”

“And this will help us when we’re outclassed by the demon king?”

“It’ll make us more durable, and we can fight longer. Our levels are the main thing that we have that gives us a chance to survive. If we can gain more levels, we can live.”

“We’re still pretty soft,” Hafiz said. “We’ve seen how it took two shields to protect ourselves.”

“Our hero items, for example, amplify our powers and make us stronger, and yet our [hero forge] has odd limits. Like the size of our items, and the nature of powers that we can infuse into it, and how many functions.”

“And?” Colette was impatient.

“We need to find allies who can help us make superweapons.” I was really tempted to tell them I was trying to do that, too. But I supposed this was like being one of those old farts in a really big company watching a young one join the company and try to do something they’d tried doing a long time ago.

At some point, I’d probably lose track of all their names, too. Especially when the names started repeating, because it was inevitable after so many generations that these hero names would start repeating. Maybe I’d get a Tiffany, or a Kayson, or a Rei. And maybe a Mambo Number 5. This was part of aging, right? As a tree, everyone and everything started repeating itself like the seasons going through its regular cycles.

Even the heroes were starting to feel same-ish. Like they started to fall into these “tropes” of the friendly one, the resisting one, the crazy one… Just rehashed and remixed versions of the same few underlying components, at different ratios. The schemes too felt similar and felt like something I was trying to do, too. Like, the whole superweapons idea was essentially my own mini-nuclear crystals.

> How do you deal with it, for things to feel like everything’s meant to repeat itself? < I didn’t know why that made me talk to Lilies, but I supposed it was life. Despite me trying to hold on to life and meaning, I was cursed to watch things repeat. Because it was just how it was.

I even felt like I had this question before. < It is life as it is, fleeting, ever changing, and yet remains the same. It is the irony of our long lives, that we have more to do with it, and yet find that everything has been done in some way or form. >

> That’s shit. < I mentally sighed. It tended to result in my branches and leaves swaying in the sighing motion. Even heroes with their unique powers eventually fell into types, and I wondered if I was like a voracious light novel reader at the tail end of my journey, feeling like everything had been done before and nothing was fresh.

< Does it bother you? >

> A little bit, < I responded. I tried to remember that life had meaning, even if it’d been done before. So what if all these people tried to do the same thing? If it worked, it worked. Must every new hero attempt to change all norms? No. If the heroes wanted to try something that may work, then they should. Just because those before failed didn’t mean they couldn’t succeed.

I was at a different level now, and my powers to push the arc of the world grew with each level. If the heroes wanted a way to sufficiently deter the demon king, I should assist them.

> Do you bother doing the right thing? <

< Sometimes. When we feel like it, > Lilies responded. < The tide of fate pushes everyone. >

> At our levels of power, can we not resist? <

< The world’s gods have changed, as you have found yourselves. What more of us? >

> If you put it that way, why bother doing anything? <

< We feel like it. Some of us. >

> I certainly don’t see you as one of whims and fancies. <

< Some of us are. We try to capture them, these fleeting emotions, from our own, and from that of the dead. Each of us holds a little more strongly to some types of “memories,” “emotion,” and “moment.” >

Huh, so each of Lilies was a hivemind of different feelings.

< While all things eventually form part of the cycle, you should see it as your contribution to the cycle, like we are the spokes of the wheel, like we are the sun and stars that holds the world together. Though they do become parts of the cycle, part of a recurring movement across the stars, the sun does not stop from playing its part. It is not duty, it is not right. But it is just the way it is. We bend the world in years, decades, and centuries. We are gardeners of the world, tending to the plants even though they wither eventually. So they may flower so momentarily, usually when we are not looking. We care for the garden as a whole and would sacrifice a few for the betterment of the garden. Right is a relative concept. >

That was a long one from Lilies.

< Right is relative to the powers and goals we have, if we have one. Right is measured against what we care and feel are important, if there are such things. Even in the cycles of great things, they have a path. For most mortals, the world would force a few steps back before letting them move ahead. This see-sawing motion of resistance and breaking resistance is instrumental to growth. We as plants, we defy the natural forces of the world to rise to the skies. The higher we go, the stronger the forces push back. >

This feeling of sameness, it was the forces of inertia trying to exert itself on me? Wait. How did I even get to this point?

I felt like mentally slapping myself. “Patreeck, can you check whether I’m all right? Any gods trying to meddle with me?”

“No, Master.”

“Strange. Why am I thinking such weird thoughts?”

The heroes clearly tried, and Kei volunteered to approach the local Valthorns authority for some building permissions for the heroes’ bases-all-over-the-world plan.

“So you’re essentially planning to leave some kind of hero item in these locations?” the Valthorns asked Kei.

“Yes.”

“That’s a strategic risk for us. What if they turn against us or other heroes not aligned to us activate these hero items and destroy whatever that’s around us? What if they use these locations as waypoints for their teleportations?”

“They didn’t do that with existing hero items.”

“But these structures can be activated from afar? Lady Kei, you know very well that this is a strategic risk. The committee will not approve this, and you will have to go to Aeon to get dispensation.”

“But the heroes…”

“This is something Aeon and the high council must decide,” the Valthorn officials responded. “Matters of strategic risk cannot be decided by provincial officials.”

Bureaucracy permeated the entire Central Continent, overseen centrally by my council and senior leaders. My artificial minds generally oversaw the bureaucracy, though they were more concerned with threats, internal corruption, and dissent. “Then I will have to go to meet Aeon? But the heroes are leaving soon!”

“They can return once approval is obtained.”

My artificial minds helped to track the expected timeline of the next demon king. It was relatively easy to do, now that my ability to view the astral star-ways meant the timing was super clear. I could see them come, literally. They were at least seven to eight years away. That was good. The heroes still had a lot of time for their plots.

Ardi, Lausanne’s human husband, passed away from old age. He lived a long life for a human, about a hundred years, and already his lifespan was extended by his levels. He was in the early level sixties. Perhaps he would’ve lived a few more decades if he reached level eighty.

They held a small funeral for him in Freshka, where his body was buried in accordance to a simplified version of Hawa’s death ceremony. In the recent, later years of his life, his age really showed, unlike Lausanne, who was a pure-blooded elf. Lausanne even today looked only a little bit older than the day she left on her big journey around the world.

Arlisa and Lauda, too, returned to see their father. Laufen, as the mother-in-law, also attended the funeral. About a week after, Laufen sat down with Lausanne. “Do you regret it?”

Lausanne sipped her tea. “I don’t know yet. I remember telling you I wouldn’t, but now that it happened, I’m not so sure.”

Laufen merely held her daughter’s hand. “The thing about us elves is that when our children marry someone not as long lived as us, we will often witness the aging and death of our great-grandchildren. Like Arlisa and Lauda, as half elves they will live much longer lives, but eventually, they will die before we do. It is a very sad thing to witness our children’s children and their children leave before we do.”

Lausanne just sat quietly as she digested the gravity of the truth.

“But I believed in the beauty of the moment. It’s something humans and those with shorter lives like the lizard people are incredible at. Their ability to throw caution to the winds and just be at the moment. Us elves and the treefolks, too, have a distorted sense of time, and we worry too much about the future.”

“…yeah.”

“So, go spend time with Arlisa and Lauda.” Laufen smiled. Lauda did not inherit her mother’s love for spear-combat. Instead, he was more of an academic and reminded me of Roma, who was now a senior executive at one of the Central Continent’s many trading companies. He hated her mom’s dungeon expeditions and preferred more leisurely pursuits like writing and arts. “Preferably not both together.”

The two siblings, born so many years apart, did not see quite eye to eye. They were born in different times and with different expectations. Lausanne at one point was rather stressed that she was one of the strongest in Freshka, but now, I had Edna, Lumoof, and many others who were now stronger.

Perhaps it was the weight of duty that as one of the strongest, she felt, even if a tiny bit, responsible to this nation that I built and not “free” to live the life she wanted. In a sense, I believed I neglected what they wanted personally. That weight lifted, Lauda was able to grow up with a more confident, less stressed mother, and that, too, reflected in how relaxed Lauda’s disposition was, compared to Arlisa, who was confused and easily stressed, despite her natural talents.

Training people was really a gamble. They didn’t always turn out the way you wanted them to, and they often had plans on their own. This was something I concluded, and so the way I could maintain a steady talent pool was to expand the talent pool and keep looking. People like Edna, or Lumoof, young or old, so long as they had the drive and the spark, I was willing to give them a shot.

Because I’d seen many talents fizzle out after a good early run. Lumoof, as an example, was one of those old guys who had a second wind. Now he was the second strongest. Life was strange, and a lot of it required opportunity, drive, motivation, and the right mindset at the correct time. Some of these talents had to be given time to stabilize, to mature on their own before they were ready to be pushed further.

It was a numbers game and also about spotting them as they rose up.

Talent was something Freshka was dedicated to training. It was why I wanted all these different academies, to train different people for different things.

But like Arlisa, it was also important to acknowledge those who had all the talent were spotted and quickly groomed but then just fizzled out.

Some were like that. Perhaps something sniffed out the fire in them. Perhaps the comfy environment of the academies stifled them. They needed to be out alone, struggling against the world, to succeed. People who seemed to have similar circumstances could perform wildly differently.

Despite that, I still saw the merit of having a robust talent-collection network. One Edna or Lumoof easily outweighed the cost of training one hundred thousand students who never got there. In truth, about fifty to fifty-five percent would end up as above-average individuals in the level fifties to sixties. About thirty to forty-five percent would drop out, usually plateauing at about level forty, and a smaller two to five percent would rise up to about level eighty. This was despite these individuals being already pre-selected for some talent. This also took years, especially with the fifty to fifty-five percent bunch. They worked hard and had some talent, and yet the journey remained tough.

Throughout the Central Continent, we had multiple “smaller” academy towns, feeder schools to train even younger kids in just basics and recommend anyone with an iota of talent for further development. With the relative safety and prosperity of the Central Continent, especially in the past few decades, we noticed a subtle but soon noticeable decline in young children and more young children pursuing more trade and mercantile exploits.

As quality of life improved, it seemed that families were also getting smaller. I thought this was just a modern world phenomenon, but it seemed even in a world like this, generally improvements in living standards did lead to decline in childbirth. Which was extremely strange, and I needed to investigate more.

There were clearly better facilities to support young children, and there were centrally funded nurseries and creches. And yet families were just getting smaller.

33

YEAR 185

“I’ve got bad news and good news. Bad news first,” Stella said, concluding her years of experimentation into the [Tainted Demon Core]. “That tainted demon core you got, I’m very sure it’s busted. It’s damaged and cannot be repaired, not with my level of ability. Not without causing a detonation. After multiple tests, I’m sure whatever caused it is due to damage from an unwanted interaction with star mana. There were few really convincing scars throughout the core.”

I mean, it wasn’t the first time she’d told me it was busted, but I requested that she did tests to be absolutely sure. It took a lot of time, of course, and I had to assist her over the past few years with the “hybrid-mana” and supplied tiny bits of “star mana.”

“So we have a dud. Confirmed. Now, the good news: from what I saw and can reasonably conclude, your idea that the demon core is a portal generator is very likely to be correct. From the internal structure and the design, I’m now about ninety percent sure the demon core is a massive shielded void battery and portal key. There are some undamaged component elements of it that responded so naturally with void mana, and there were magical pathways that tried to access some records or ‘pathways’ in an inbuilt library that’s unfortunately mostly damaged.”

That explained the sensation that the tainted demon core wanted to do something, like starting a computer that had some hardware failure. It was accessing the still-functional parts of the demon core but unable to fully complete its startup.

Stella, of course, knew I had earthly memories by now.

“It’s pretty much like a starship’s hyperspace reactor, stellar map, and guidance module rolled into one.”

“All right. Very sure it’s star mana damage?”

“Ninety-nine percent,” Stella said.

“So, if I want the demon’s way of sending someone like the demon king over, I’ll need to kill a demon king without using any star mana.”

“Well…whether the demon king is alive or dead doesn’t really matter, isn’t it?”

34

YEAR 186

We heard stories of the heroes completing their tour of the Northern Islands. They spent close to half a year visiting various kingdoms and cities and apparently created some defensive devices, too. Then came the stories about assassins.

The heroes were attacked by assassins armed with hero-items. This wasn’t in any of the official channels, but it was clearly noticed by my Valthorn’s network of spies.

So much so that one of the top spymasters came to me with a request to send more people to the north.

“You have the floor, Master Intip.”

“The north has been one of the more difficult places to crack. The natural archipelago means news travels slower via conventional means, and magical messages are often disturbed by the magical winds.”

“We face those challenges elsewhere,” Lumoof responded. Certainly, islands and magical disturbances were not exactly uncommon.

“Indeed. But we’re facing assassins. Already ten of our informants have been killed, and our own agents are on the run. We need high-tier individuals in the north, not just the regular rank and file in the level thirties to fifties.”

At this point, I asked, “Do we not have higher-level spies?”

“Spies are essentially a thieves and informants. Their classes are fundamentally criminal in nature. The spies we have essentially recruited from the noble classes, who traditionally served their lords to spy on their neighbors.” Internal disputes between my vassals, essentially. They died quickly, and often, so the good ones didn’t last very long. This was a flaw, clearly. I did not realize that my dependence on my trees as my main intelligence network meant there was no real program to develop my espionage and spy forces; even if I could grant them higher-ranked classes, they still needed opportunity and challenges.

But it was too late. I’d have to fix it for future conflicts. “All right, so what do we do now?”

“We can send our higher-leveled Valthorns in, those in their early level fifties, and train them in some spy skills,” Master Intip proposed. “This would give our spies the combat competence needed if there’s a fight with whoever’s killing our informants.”

Edna paused. “These…assassins, are they related to the Laenza?”

Kei, who happened to be in the meeting, said, “When I was there, I encountered and engaged the services of another organization. The Rosewood Alliance.”

Master Intip nodded. “The Rosewoods are one of my primary suspects, but we are still attempting to establish a motive. They used to work with us, at least, on a lower level, but something has changed recently, and they’ve refused to talk. Those that we captured didn’t say much, except they won’t work with us.”

“Any suspicions?”

Kei paused. “Is it because of the heroes?” At that point, Kei repeated what her experience was and what she said to the Rosewoods.

The spymaster clearly nodded. “I suspected it had something to do with our earlier mission, but we were not aware of the contents of that conversation. It’s clearly something that should have been shared a lot earlier.” The spymaster glared at Kei, and Kei shifted uncomfortably.

“It seemed they already knew it was us, then, and also had something to do with the heroes. How does this tie in with the assassination attempts on the heroes? How did these group of assassins have hero-items, and what are their motives?”

“My sources claim it is an ancient feud. They are a cult of demonic worshippers that attempts to harness the demon’s powers to bring salvation.”

That sounded really familiar.

“They are often mixed with those who used blood magic, but a few decades ago, those who used blood magic separated from them, and they’ve pretty much disappeared for a while. But few know the truth.”

Edna frowned. “If they have hero items, they can threaten any of us. These hero items are not so easily found, so how did they get their hands on it?”

“And hero items are all really bulky if they need to be recharged.”

“This doesn’t make sense,” Lumoof repeated. “If their goal was to annihilate the heroes all along, Alvin was there right for the picking.”

Edna jumped it. “It’s possible that there’s another group, these Rosewoods who are working against them. These two forces are battling it out in the dark.”

“Lady Edna, are you speculating that the Rosewoods consider us aligned to these…hero-hunters?”

“Possibly, but our past action of healing Alvin should clearly suggest we are not affiliated.”

At this point, I jumped in. “There’s also the Laenza. What’s going on with that?” How many “parties” were at play here?

“The Laenza are more of a loose alliance of hero-friends, but there are bad elements who’ve infiltrated them who are from these hero-hunters,” our spymaster explained. “They used to be more of a supporting cast, hoping to ally with the heroes for benefits should they survive, but they’ve weakened considerably after some bad bets.”

One of the lords stepped in. “All right, the Northern Islands are a collection of small nations. The largest of them hold the biggest islands. Are they all pro-heroes?”

“No. Some of them are outright anti-heroes despite being part of the four temples. There’s an odd relationship where the temples tolerate their heretical behavior.”

“And how do they get away with it?”

“They justify it politically. That it’s not a religious disagreement, but a political one. That they disagree on heroes on political principles.”

“That kind of shit gets accepted?”

“The ways the four temples blend propaganda, rhetoric, and the twisting of words is quite an artform,” the spymaster commented.

Lumoof actually laughed. “To be fair, as religious leaders, we are often asked to take sides on political matters. So many of the kingdoms and vassals of Aeon had asked for special status and recognition in the name of faith.”

“All right, so what now? We need more resources in the north, correct? More firepower. But that doesn’t solve our problem of lacking information and losing our network. Having the swords to back up our people is one thing, but these people were there for decades.” One of the lords brought the conversation back on topic.

“Indeed. But it is the best we can offer at the moment. It is also a risk, because with hero-items on the table, it is possible that these hero hunters may use them on us if they feel sufficiently threatened.”

“Wait, wait. Let’s take a step back. What are we trying to achieve in the north?”

“Build a network of informants, in order to have valuable military and hero-related information. Keep ourselves informed on their movements, so that we can prepare for any unusual movements.”

Was this really necessary?

“Aria.” I activated the ice mirror that linked me with Aria. Lumoof was present so that I could speak through him normally. “Do you have informants in the north?”

“Nope. I’m a hermit, remember? All I do is hide in my part of the world.”

Ah. I had hoped they had informants in the north, given her general proximity.

< Lilies, what do you know of the north? >

> Only the tales of merchants and adventurers. <

Ah. Another rejected one.

Was spying really the only way to gain information?

“Are there any nations in the north with proper diplomatic relations that we can contact? That can act as our informant of the north?”

Surely there were magical solutions to this, perhaps magical farsight or something to that effect? My mages quickly commented, yes, there were such spells to allow remote viewing, but they were costly and required more mana than normal.

This led me back to my earlier research on ocean-crossing roots. Previously I had limitations, in that my trees had to surface at certain distances. Given that there were vast swaths of oceans where there was absolutely no land, this made this method unrealistic.

Next was the idea with Stella for a “permanent” portal. That meant opening a portal linking my continent and the north and then, through that permanent portal, extending my trees to the north.

Stella posited it was not yet possible, since she would still have to close the portal, and that meant large segments of my trees would be disconnected from the network. Was this really a solution or just a stop-gap?

“So why do you want to open a portal there?”

“Spread my trees? Having my trees there means I can access the magical energies there,” I answered, ignoring that trees also extended my vision and intelligence network.

“Do you have some kind of magical feeler?”

“Yes, pretty much.” I wasn’t lying. My magical labs were essentially magic sensors.

“Why not test it out?” Stella proposed, so she opened a magical portal with the assistance of other young [void mages]. My roots went through it, and I could see a new place. I felt the cold, and my trees felt the chill, too. A familiar sensation.

Cold. I quickly spawned more trees, and Stella watched more trees appear along the path of my roots. The portal opened somewhere in the largest island in the north, but even so, the overall population of the islands tended to cluster around the coasts.

I didn’t know where I was relatively speaking. The portal just opened somewhere in the proximity of the Northern Islands, but I just kept expanding.

“All right, close the portal.”

The portal closed, and it severed my roots. I instantly felt the loss of those new trees on the other side. It hurt.

Losing trees hurt. “Ah. Open it up again.”

Patreeck immediately shielded me from the cries and sorrow from my other trees. It seemed that even till now, I was vulnerable to the sensations felt by my trees.

Stella nodded and opened it up again. I sent my roots over and didn’t find the trees.

“Hmmm…it seemed that my portal drifted and did not open in the same place,” Stella mused, and the other void mages joined in.

“That’s not good.”

“Unless we have something like a beacon, it may be hard to lock the portal to a specific location. Void magic is inherently volatile like that, but the portal will hold.”

“Can’t you open a normal portal?”

“I only have void mana. You’ll have to get someone else to do it.”

“Ah.” I gathered the archmages, and they commented that maintaining a long-term portal would drain huge amounts of mana, so it wasn’t feasible for them. “Surely if Stella can do it, you guys can open a portal, too?”

“Well, it will consume more mana and will transmit our presence to the whole world.”

Oh. That was a distinction between a normal magic portal and a void magic portal! Void magic was imperceptible to others.Stella then quickly debunked it.

“Not exactly. I can sense the use of void magic by my students. If I’m not wrong, if there’s someone who could use void magic, they would sense my portal on the other side. After all, I’m doing the magical equivalent of connecting to points through the void-space.”

Huh. So no one used portals to invade because using portals was like telling the whole world I was here. But how did a portal differ from a teleport spell? I mean, it looked like there was, but was there?

“A portal is a folding of space. A teleport is a folding of self into a shell and then sent through space. There’s a distinction in the execution of the spell,” an archmage explained. Taking this concept, did the demons open a portal through the rifts, or were they “teleporting” to our world?

“A portal for sure. Those rifts are portals.”

“If the demons can do it, why can’t we?”

“We don’t have their level of magical understanding,” Stella said. She’d been leveling up since her limiter was cleared, and now she was approaching level one hundred ten. I gave her special permission to join the Valthorns in the level one hundred twenty dungeon raids to help her level up.

“All right, okay. Can we apply the teleport concept to traveling through worlds?”

Stella nodded. “I’m not opening a portal when I travel through worlds. I’m only floating through it on a little ship. But I can’t remotely send someone on my ship when I’m not on it.”

“Unless we teach everyone to be a void mage.”

“Well, yes.”

Alka, my field scientist, wanted to experiment on the star-mana and void-mana interactions. Of course, the idea was simply to replicate the mechanics of the demon king’s deathbomb. Alka, being more of a generic mage, had to spend a lot of time figuring out how the demon king’s tainted core worked.

He had to make smaller experiments first in an attempt to understand the concepts used in the massive tainted demon core. Not all of it was relevant; after all, if Stella’s understanding was correct, this core was mainly a battery and also a world portal. We were trying to understand how it reacted with star mana, which was not part of its original design.

Or was it? I wasn’t exactly sure whether the demons were that deliberate in the way they engineered the demon core, such that they blew up on exposure with sufficient accumulated star mana.

“If this core is designed to blow if star mana hit it, then wouldn’t it be possible to just hit it with star mana, cause it to blow up, and take down the demon king with it? We saw from our own earlier battle that the demon core is hidden somewhere and has a threshold it hits before it blows. It can endure a certain number of star mana before exploding.”

“Or the demon king’s own energy regulates and suppresses the core from blowing up,” Kei retorted. “If so, the idea of extracting a demon king’s core is probably futile because it will blow up once taken out of its suppressed state.”

With no one to ask and no clear understanding of how the entire core worked, it was a risk we would have to take when that day came. For now, Alka kept experimenting. Hopefully, with the additional knowledge, we could figure out whether it could be safely extracted.

His experiments, as always, caused explosions of various sizes. Explosions were good; after all, this entire research was about making better bombs.

It built on years and years of continuous experiments, even when I wasn’t particularly paying attention, and he came up with bigger, stronger bombs by weaving magic a little tighter, timing them a little closer, and using improved amplification spells and designs. A long process of small, incremental changes.

Void magic and the interactions with star mana offered a chance for a quantum leap. The change when man moved from conventional explosives to nuclear bombs.

Alka’s initial experiments, though, somehow scared him. The way star mana and void mana interacted was just naturally explosive, and there was something exponential at work, even if we didn’t understand it.

“This may destroy the world.” Alka privately relayed his worries. “We should never get to that point.” With Alka’s calculations, at least based on our data points, that amount was significantly higher than what we thought the heroes were likely to have, but we didn’t know what the upper limit of the heroes was.

But they could achieve it. The heroes and the right amount of void mana could pretty much destroy the entire world. “I would not ask you to get there. Our goal is to end the cycle, not end the world.”

Alka nodded and went back to his experiments, but Patreeck mentioned concerns of his mental state as he walked ever deeper into more and more complex magic.

Back on topic on the Northern Islands.

“So what do we do?” One of the lords complained of the sixth meeting about the north. “We’ve had so many meetings and no conclusion. Are we sending muscle, or are we not sending muscle?”

“I thought we already established we are going to send, but we are now trying to figure out how to avoid hero items being used against us?” another one responded.

The spymaster shrugged. “The hero item is essentially a great leveler for the north. On the Central Continent, we can count on Aeon’s overwhelming power to offset the hero item’s advantage.”

I could open portals, but already, I could sense my power projection was not great. The portals did not transmit power very well, quite unlike the demonic rifts.

There clearly was a qualitative difference in the demonic rifts and the portals. Why did the rifts allow me to transfer or project power to an entire world with just a small loss, but the portals imposed greater power-loss via transmission? Was it a quality of the portals, that they had lower throughput?

I brought up this issue to the group, and Stella, surprisingly, nodded. “I think it’s just the size of the ‘pipe.’ As you know, portals cost mana to maintain, and the more power you push through the portal, the more mana it costs. Just as how it cost a lot of mana for me to send Lumoof to the other side. I believe the same is with the portals.”

“So if you open a full-powered portal, I could increase the power output on the other side?”

“Theoretically yes.” A test soon proved it to be true; he felt the trees on the other side gain strength they didn’t have, but again, the portal lasted two hours before closing and fully consuming the mana of all the gathered void mages.

Instead of using the portals, I thought about Lumoof. Lumoof was my avatar, and my link of power through him was linked in the system. Could he function as a conduit? A wireless connection?

So I summoned him and sent him through a portal. Thankfully, it was still within the same world so the spell didn’t cost all of their void mana. Then I activated the active avatar state.

At that moment, Lumoof, who was alone in the middle of nowhere, glowed, and then he levitated, and a magical frame resembling a tree appeared around him. The roots of the magical tree embedded itself into the ground.

I was now in the north.

Lumoof could only enter into this state a third of the time, the rest of the time he would have to rest, but between Lumoof’s self and the portals, I could theoretically use Lumoof as an anchor to send more people through, especially in combination with my Vine-Ropeway Network, which allowed me to send anything between two connected trees.

“Aeon, with this, you could theoretically invade any of the other continents?” Lumoof mentally pinged; in this state, our conversations were through our shared mind.

“Indeed, but doing so means you are disabled and are locked into this tree form. It is less useful than your normal form.”

“I certainly don’t see it that way. We could use it on other worlds, too, and expand your tree’s reach there.”

Indeed. Lumoof would be the key in any demon world invasion, such that I did not have to fear the collapse of any portals.

Ah. Back to the meeting.

“Send the muscles. You will have reinforcements,” I declared to the group. “Lumoof is already in the north, and through him, my presence will be there.”

We would focus on those plans some other day, but for now, it was time to crack the north.

After decades of being locked to the Central Continent, it was time to make full use of my avatar and infest the north with my trees.

35

YEAR 187

The north was a chain of islands, but that honestly didn’t stop me. It seemed that no one sensed Lumoof’s presence, well, except Aria and Aispeng.

“You’re in the Northern Isles?” they asked through the mirror.

“Yes, through my avatar.” My trees gradually expanded, and I added artificial minds to support the amount of monitoring.

Here, I detected a second “barrier” or “bottleneck.”

There was a limit of how much information that Lumoof could send and process. It was still a decently high limit, we could simultaneously look at about twenty places, and I couldn’t switch views instantly. That meant there was still value in having a real root connection. Somehow, all of this information flowed through Lumoof, and it taxed his mental capacity heavily, even with the assistance of the extra minds.

A person, even if he was a high-leveled avatar, was not meant to be full-on “god mode.”

My trees spread discreetly and quickly, adapting to the appearance of the local flora. At first, a lot of it was just pointless chatter. We had to filter that out. It occupied too much of Lumoof’s brain-time.

I tried creating an artificial soul there, through Lumoof, but I couldn’t send the souls I gathered here to Lumoof. That said, Lumoof was in fact a portable soul-collection machine with the avatar ability. This meant, if he fought with the heroes, he could actually facilitate the gathering of Titan Souls!

Yay! He was like a massive soul vacuum cleaner, and he was collecting the north.

“Come to think of it, do you collect souls?” I asked Aria and Aispeng. After all, they were spirits in their own way.

“No. Not our department,” Aria responded.

Then where did all the souls in the north go? Surely they must go somewhere, or did they drift along?

I tried using my soul powers to interrogate the collected souls. This power was rarely used because when I could see and eavesdrop on almost the entire continent, that was a much more reliable information source than interrogating the dead with their incomplete memories due to death. After all, incomplete information without context could be dangerous.

Still, in the north, I needed to quickly gather information, and soon I chanced upon the dead souls of two operatives.

“Kill. Hero.”

“Why?”

“Hero. Enemy. Mission. Rewards. Dead.”

So there was a reward if the hero died? What kind of reward?

“Big money. Levels. Special. Class.” A special class for those who killed heroes? That actually made sense. “Power. Immortality.”

“That’s awfully vague,” Lumoof remarked mentally as he, too, was a participant in my interrogation of the dead. Even if they had pointed us in a direction.”

“I faintly recall killing heroes results in a curse.” But only if they were killed before their designated demon king perished. Thus, for this generation, they were all targets.

“That is probably also true, but worth it. Given the risks, the rewards should be fairly good.”

“If so, surely there must have been successful hero-killers in the past.” If there were, they managed to hide themselves from the historical records available to us.

But then again, why did I need records when I had Lilies and Aria? I quickly asked the two about whether they knew of the hero killers. It was a no from both of them. Lilies commented that they had never met hero killers.

Hmm. Surely there were people who killed heroes, even if entirely by accident? It couldn’t be that the heroes were so lucky, right?

Or they were.

“It’s not easy to kill heroes, though.” Kei frowned. “We’re pretty tough once we hit level one hundred. We get all sorts of natural defensive perks, and most of us have abilities to ignore low-level damage. We’re also usually immune to one or two elemental types that we are aligned to, and we get most status effects negated.”

“Most,” I wondered. “It’s possible for a hexbomb to kill you.”

Kei shifted uncomfortably. “Well, yes. A hexbomb would be bad. Wait. Are you saying there’s a plot to use hexbombs to kill the heroes? We need to warn them! They may not be aware of hexbombs!”

“I’m sure they are. They’ve seen the journals, no?” I retorted. “Harris’s generation faced hexbombs and a world riddled with hexbombs as a demon-champion countermeasure. We’re lucky those days are over.”

The first of the Aiva Triumvirate arrived via ship. They were led by one of the Triumvirs, Grandmaster Engka, and they came in one of the finest ships we’d ever seen. A beautiful warship of a glistening paint of gold and bronze and loaded with magical enchantments. Accompanied by a small delegation of Aivan Templars, his arrival was a secret, of course, but everyone noticed the presence of a warship like that.

“Not a hero-item, but very high quality as they go. It’s been in their care for centuries and painstakingly maintained, even if their craftsmen and ship workers couldn’t quite repeat the mastery of the ancient times.” Lausanne explained her experience, and she was one of those tasked to greet the Triumvir.

The ship was parked in one of the larger port cities on the eastern coast. “Nice to meet you again, Lady Lausanne.” Engka gave a small nod as he stepped off. “It seemed that Aeon truly meant business.”

Lausanne didn’t quite smile. “It’s been a while indeed, though I must admit I accepted this assignment at great reluctance. Allow me to introduce the officer in charge of the escort.”

Engka laughed. “Still bearing old grudges, I see.” There was something faintly divine in his presence. To my spirit sight, it seemed like there was something else swirling with him.

“This is Lord Johann. The master ranger in charge of your security,” Lausanne introduced. Johann outranked Lausanne as he was in the level one hundred twenties, and was fully informed of the greater details of the visit. Though the Aivan Templars had their own escort, we were not taking chances.

Already their arrival sparked rumors, and I had my artificial minds on high alert. There were secret messages bouncing between the locals and people from out of town and then ships headed our way.

“I see I’ll be in good hands.” Engka smiled. The templars unloaded crates after crates of items. The dockworkers quickly loaded them on the beetles, the specialized transport for this visit. These were some of the toughest beetles yet. “But tell me, are we expecting company?”

Lausanne glanced at Johann. Johann merely smiled. “No. But we are prepared.” A few of the higher-ranked rangers were also nearby, shadowing their movement. They were there for security and to catch anyone who took the bait. My spirit vision sensed some unusual magic in those crates, things that felt similar to that log I had, but different. Engka himself also had some interesting magical gear, and I sensed at least two hero items on him. If they were so small, this meant these were either single-use items, or hero-items made for normal people.

“Well, let’s get moving,” Johann said, and a few administrative team members sorted the templars to their respective caravans. The chatter in the background was intense, as many soon asked why the Aivan were on the Central Continent.

We were expecting company soon enough, as my magical sensors detected uncommon types of magic activating across the continent. The agents planted were finally moving, and my minds were watching, marking spies from the other temples, the Laenza, some of the southern kingdoms.

And there were secret requests to the assassin guilds throughout the Central Continent. Sadly, they were all met with a swift rejection. The guildmasters of all these assassin guilds had an understanding that their presence was merely tolerated so long as no Valthorns were targeted, and they had sufficient brain juice to not interfere with my things. Those old enough to remember my punishments decades ago would know better.

Still, with the guilds themselves staying away, these foreign players directed the requests to the assassins personally with hefty rewards. The smarter ones knew better than to accept. Even if they succeeded, they knew they couldn’t escape. But there were always fools tempted by the huge sums of money.

I viewed this as a net positive. My Valthorns may be high leveled, but they did need anti-assassin practice. And a good reminder to those who had forgotten. The memories of men faded so easily.

“How’ve you been?” Engka asked as Lausanne sat in the same cabin. It was a large, lush, and well-furnished cabin similar to the ones used by the heroes. “It’s been decades.”

“Much better now that I’m no longer running demon-hunting missions,” Lausanne responded.

“There’s no need for that bitterness, is there?” Engka smiled. “I am, after all, here at the invitation of Aeon itself. So how much do you know?”

Lausanne smiled. “Not much, but I don’t mind. It’s better when I don’t get involved with your business. I am here merely at Aeon’s behest. He figured that you’d enjoy some banter.”

Engka laughed. “True. The matters of the Triumvir are never simple. That is a wise choice, a wise choice.” He then looked at Johann, who was on a lookout. The caravan of a hundred beetles passed through the valleys and were soon closing in on some patches of forests. My artificial minds pinged that some assassins were going to strike there.

I waited and let my Valthorns do their work. They had to detect their presence themselves, and Johann made some hand signals. A few of the subordinate rangers fanned out.

Engka looked at Lausanne again as he watched the rangers. “I must say, Aeon’s ability to cultivate talent is truly second to none. I would trade my hero items if I can convince some of your rangers to serve me. I’ll even accept you.”

Lausanne responded, “No thanks.”

“The Aivan is really short of capable, high-leveled folks. Surely Aeon can share?”

“No.”

“I can count the number of level seventies we have in one hand. That’s how bad we have it. A little bit of pity?”

“No. And certainly that’s not something you should be revealing so casually.” Lausanne seemed to have some bad memories of the man, and I wondered whether it was a mistake to get her to be the liaison. She didn’t reject it, though.

Engka laughed. “Oh, anyone level seventy and above serving for the Aivan church is a public figure through and through. You even met them.”

Lausanne didn’t reply. The caravan now took the roads through the forests. The assassins struck. The Valthorns intercepted. They were slightly slower to pick them up. The assassins were quite low leveled, some in their level thirties. A few of the assassins backed off, deciding that it wasn’t worth it once they saw who they were dealing with.

Those who went for the attack found arrows lodged in their heads within seconds. Operatives hired by groups unknown.

“Do they always try to kill you?” Lausanne asked.

“As you should know, I have many enemies, and I believe most of those who try to kill me are my allies.”

The caravan would take three days to cross the continent to reach Freshka.

“The Aivan triumvir is here?” Kei stormed and asked Edna one day. She didn’t know until the caravan moved. “Why?”

Edna paused and obtained my permission to tell her. “Because they reached out to us for a ceasefire. An alliance.”

“No. My sources tell me the entire Triumvir will be here. They never meet unless something of divine importance.”

Edna nodded. “Yes. It is of divine importance.”

“What is Aeon trying to do?”

“A talk with a god. The truth to whether there is a way to end this.”

Kei stared at Edna, her mind spinning as she processed it. “I want to be there.”

“Very well.”

Diplomatic messages and secret messages flew across the world as they speculated about the Aiva’s intention. The other three churches were particularly tense, and they sent strongly worded messages to Engka.

Engka smiled when he received them. “Isn’t this amusing?”

Lausanne shrugged.

“The Gayan Master of the Temple just demanded that I clarify my presence on the Central Continent. I got similar messages from the Hawa and the Neira, too. Pathetic, when all of us together couldn’t even muster a force to stand up to Aeon’s overwhelming power.”

“Are you here because of power, then?”

“My personal stance on this, yes. We are weak, and we acknowledge that. It’s especially clear now that you could invade the Eastern Continent and win.”

“That just makes me even more suspicious of your presence,” Lausanne responded.

The caravan arrived in Freshka safely. There were a few more smaller assassination attempts, but nothing too big. The caravan of beetles was led to a special clearing site made at their request. The crates were unloaded, and the templars started work. We had mages, builders, and crafters on standby to make any structure or amendments to the site as required.

They built a circular temple with a central clearing, and I would speak through Lumoof. I would have to stop my northern observations for this, but I would do so once they were ready.

“The other two Triumvirs?” Edna asked.

“They will be summoned here.” Engka showed a magical ring. “This is the Ring of the Triumvirs and allows me to summon the others here.” They walked to my valley. Edna was with him, and she was fully armed in her best equipment, just in case.

Engka bowed before my massive tree. I could see his legs shiver, and he seemed pale. “I had doubts, but now I do not. Greetings, Aeon.”

“Speak.”

“I will commence the Ceremony of the Heavenly Gate to open a means to commune with our God, Aiva. Three of us will be there to keep the gate open, and we will sacrifice three divine items to maintain it. But once commenced, we will be very vulnerable and will require your protection.”

“You have my word.” Indeed. I had the entire area on lockdown. Who dared to mess with my ceremony?

“But that’s not the main point, really. We have never performed this ceremony, and we only learn of it now. Could you ask a question on our behalf?”

I wondered what it could be.

“Why are we left to die?” Engka said.

The site was ready, three hero items in the middle, filled with star mana. Engka twisted his ring, and his ring glowed. For a moment, I saw with my astral sight the world momentarily twist, and then two others appeared.

“Grandmaster Amdar, Grandmaster Mianas, let us begin.” They both looked around and noticed that everything had been prepared. They sighed and nodded.

They formed a triangle; the floor had already been marked. There were runic formations on the floor that I did not recognize, and it seemed that this was new to the grandmasters, too. No matter, they started chanting, and the strange energies within them, however miniscule, vibrated and then glowed. This was entirely invisible to everyone else, only visible in the spirit vision. It shone out and linked together, and then the three items burned, melted, and transformed into a levitating blob of the night sky.

Lumoof had been called back, and he waited. I would activate the Avatar if needed. Still, I early summoned Stella to watch on a hunch. Then we saw it, the blob twisted, and a door opened in the astral starways, so small and tiny.

A light reached out, a stringy light crawled out, and then the front bulged into a wisp. The string was still there, present.

At that moment, the entire world felt it; it was an oppressive feeling. Everywhere, even in the further towns, people were vomiting, and some fainted.

< A feeling long forgotten. > Lilies spoke through the roots. < They live after all. >

I would reply later, my focus on the ball of light that stood before Lumoof. Lumoof and Edna was unfazed; their domain protected them and allowed them to stand. Kei fainted briefly but quickly caught herself. Stella, strangely, only vomited.

The wisp formed into a face. “Greetings, Aeon. I go by my names across the many worlds I touched, but here, I am Aiva, and long ago, Deyar. My time is limited, my true self many worlds away. Let us speak quickly.”

“Greetings,” I spoke and saw through Lumoof.

“You have questions. Quickly,” Aiva asked. “The time we have for this gate is short.”

“How can we stop the demon kings and end this cycle of destruction?” At this point, this was really the main thing on my mind.

“We don’t know. We have tried, destroyed some demon worlds, but we failed in the end. The demons are infestations of corruption. They can be delayed, they can be defeated, but they will eventually return. They are drawn to the worlds of the living, but more importantly, they are drawn to us, the gods. They have a vendetta against us, and we fight them across a thousand worlds. They find your world through the remnants of their champions, and also, so long the world lives, they seek to corrupt it and eventually turn it to a demon world. So long as a world lives, they will look for it. Each demon world weakens us all.”

“Can we hide the world from them?”

The wisp paused. “Possible, but not something I can do. Quickly. Next.”

Good. That was something I’d figure out then. “Why do the gods attack me?”

“I speak not of the others, but we often mistake native powers as nascent demonic presence. It is hard to tell what is a corrupting cancer and what is a robust defense from where we are, our knowledge and information distorted by void, distance, and limited perspective. I sensed some demonic energies in you but am relieved that you remain the master of them. So many worlds lose the ability to defend themselves from the demons, the body weak and in need of external assistance.”

“Can you call them off?” We needed a united front.

“I will try, but they are far away,” Aiva responded.

“Why do you control the heroes?” This was something I wanted to ask for a long time.

The wispy face bobbed. “Oh? Well, the medicine must do what it is meant to do. Strong medicines can often damage and harm the flesh, and so they must be controlled. We cannot inject medicine and then hope that the medicine will find its own target. We tell it what to find and mark them such that the demons are drawn to them. It is a balancing act. If we inject too much medicine in the patient, we may damage the flesh more than the demons.”

…fuck. The heroes were nothing more than tools. I felt something attacked my [domain], like something was scanning me from my leaves to my roots. I felt something stir in the distance, my magical sensors starting to ring. Edna, Kei, and Lumoof seemed to take it quietly.

“Why let them die?”

“Because even gods could not be everywhere at once. Our powers are strongest close to us, but the great void of time pushes and pulls on many worlds, and this world has drifted on the void sea further and further away from my sphere of power. It is a great relief to see a native god emerge at long last, however weak you are now. Take my followers, and they shall treat your word as my own.”‘

“Wait. Your eminence, are you sure this is a good choice?” One of the Triumvirs could not help it. He had to ask. I didn’t blame them. Aiva’s magical face turned to face the three Triumvirs who struggled to maintain the spell.

“Yes. I am too far to properly protect you. I will repeat. Aeon shall take my followers. That includes all of you,” Aiva’s floating face responded, and the three Triumvirs shook.

“I have enough to protect.” Seriously. I already had a continent, but then again, if I was going to end this cycle, I did need more.

“As you grow, you’ll have the capacity for more. The distance between us in this great void continues to grow, and it is an eventual fact that one day, my powers will no longer reach this world. It is far more just and fair for me to say truthfully that my power wanes in this world and better for those who believe in me to seek an ascendant pantheon for protection.”

The Triumvirs could not respond. I had another question. “How long do you have? Will you still summon the heroes?”

Aiva paused. “Perhaps a century or two, much depends on the flux of the void. An ancient pact binds us, the old gods, to defend these worlds. We have to, even if we don’t want to.”

There was a shocked look on the faces of everyone present. “What pact?”

“It’s…complicated. You will know once you ascend.”

“What are you?” Like what were the gods? Where were they?

“We were once like you, though our paths meandered in different ways. Time is running out.” The blob was shrinking. “But here, a small parting gift from me. From a predecessor. Good luck and goodbye, Aeon. I, for one, eagerly await your ascension to the divine realm. We are weary from the eons of war, and we could use some new hands. Ones not bound by the ancient pacts.”

The blob of light flashed and entered Lumoof. I felt a bolt run through the link between me and Lumoof.

[You’ve gained 2 levels. You are now level 199.]

[All tree-type laboratories upgraded.]

Whoever wanted to interrupt us was too late, and it seemed a familiar weapon was used against me. A hexbomb. It flew from the south, but it was small, probably hastily gathered. I activated multiple shields to block it, and the bomb was stopped even before it got near the valley.

The blob was gone, and the runes vanished. The three Triumvirs collapsed, exhausted from the gate. Kei looked at Stella. “Holy shit.”

Everyone in the world breathed easier, as the divine presence vanished from the world.

36

YEAR 187 (PART 2)

The Triumvirs heard it from their god, and they were honestly lost for words. How did they even explain that the Aivan church would now be assimilated? Did the prayers now go to me instead of Aiva? There was a lot to think about.

Edna and Lumoof’s first comment was, “A true god is incredibly intimidating.” They had not felt such a strong sensation. Already, messages were flying everywhere throughout the world, requesting for information on what had happened.

“Indeed. I now understand the huge gap between our power.” If the levels each resulted in an exponential bump in power, perhaps the gods would be someone in their…level three hundreds? Or maybe four hundred?

The Triumvirs of Aiva were incredibly puzzled and distressed. “We…we must discuss this.”

“None of you leave,” I said to everyone present, including the Triumvirs. A cage of roots emerged around the entire area and coated it with all the anti-magic aura. “And no messages.”

Everyone nodded.

“First, I want to hear everyone’s thoughts. What do you think of assimilating the Aivan faith to ours?”

The Triumvirs were at a loss for words. “I need a lot more time to process this. It is too sudden to find out that our god has decided to abandon us.”

The problem of assimilating, no, taking over the Aivan faith was a lot more complicated than it seemed. If I could nod, I would. “Indeed, and has such things ever happened in the history of the world?”

Lumoof could answer that. “No. In our records so far, that has never ever happened.”

I looked at Kei and Stella, who were both present. I spoke as if I wasn’t one of Earth because the Triumvirs were present. “Both of you came from the other worlds and have seen similar schisms in faith. Surely your histories would enlighten you the moments where a faith or a temple is torn apart due to differences. What happened then?”

Stella was the one who answered. She was after an adult when she came, so she had a more thorough education on the histories of Earth. “War. Civil war.”

“I ask of you three, and of your knowledge of your priests, and your people. Do you think they will accept an outright conversion to my faith so easily?”

The three Triumvirs all shook their heads. Engka was the one who stood to respond. “No. Many have believed in Aiva for years, decades, perhaps even centuries. So many priests preached of Aiva’s greatness and kindness, of Aiva’s powers, of Aiva’s sense of duty to our world. I am afraid that what that lady said was true. If we were to follow what Aiva willed of us, the Aivan church will break apart. No. I am convinced that they will go to war against us, even if we are the Triumvirs.”

Indeed. “Exactly. This message, if spoken, the other priests of your faith would say all of you have been corrupted, your minds altered by my powers. You three will be hunted and killed.”

The three Triumvirs could imagine it already. Such a message could never be accepted. What Aiva asked was for his followers to abandon what they had known their entire life, and I saw that it was impossible, even if his logic had a sense to it.

Stella looked at the Triumvirs and then back at Lumoof. “Aeon, what…what are you proposing?”

“We say nothing of what Aiva had said.” Everyone gasped. “I asked that everyone present to seal those divine words in your mind.”

The Triumvirs looked at Lumoof. “…but?”

“Your god commanded you to obey me. And my first order is for you to keep everything that happened a secret among secrets. We shall maintain our separate faiths, and the Aivan church will continue. Let no one, other than your successors, ever learn of what Aiva has said.”

One of the Triumvirs immediately kneeled. “Thank you, Aeon, for your wisdom.” The other two immediately followed.

“Aiva may desire that I take over, but it is not in my interest to do so. I have no desire to wage war against the Aivan church and have no need for the church’s followers.” The Central Continent continued to grow, and I wasn’t about to just accept the shit that this god decided to throw my way. “But we will have peace between us, and in the future, friendly relations. But I may have requests for you that I hope you will assist me to carry out.”

The three Triumvirs nodded. “That should be fine if we keep it discreet and find ways to establish a secure communication channel between us. A ceasefire and a peace treaty should not be an issue, either.”

I saw so many potential pitfalls in absorbing the Aiva faith, and already the world had lost enough. It didn’t need another crusade, one triggered by the supposed capitulation of the Aivan faith. Those who believed did not see reason or arguments, and people would act based on their feelings and their conviction, even here. When religions back home broke apart due to fundamental differences, it always led to war.

We didn’t mind wars. We even allowed wars between our vassal kingdoms.

But the Aivan war had the potential to trigger serious questions of the possibility of the faiths coexisting peacefully, and it would be a war aimed at me, and it would be a war we didn’t need. No, more importantly, I did not want what I was implying: should I absorb the Aivan faith, a similar fate awaited the other three temples. I wanted my faith to be one that could coexist with the other four and that we could all work together.

I also saw problems even if they did accept my faith. I was limited by the natural geography of the world, and so even if they believed in me, I wouldn’t be there to protect them. It would not be fair for the Triumvirs, either, when they would have to defend my cause and the only way I could do so was to send my Valthorns across the sea and fight a war.

Not until I figured out how to properly cross the oceans. Using Lumoof as an avatar was like a stopgap, and I would like a far more permanent arrangement.

One of the Triumvirs apologized. “I had not expected Aiva to escalate from an alliance to an outright absorption of our faith.”

“At this point, what is the sense among your people? Would they accept an alliance?”

“Honestly, it’s a mix. Many admire the strength of the Aeonic faith and the powers that backed it. But out of principles and loyalties, many prefer to remain with the other three. An alliance may also trigger some dissent, though I expect it to be milder. That said, it would be riskier for the Aivan believers on the other continents where the other three temples are stronger.”

“Then we shall not rush into it,” I decreed. “Let us have peace, and we shall be friends. Allow our forces to travel to kingdoms who follow your faith. Perhaps in time, an alliance will be a natural evolution from friendship.”

I had the time to play the long game, and there was no need to rush things and create so much bad blood. A war won by friendship would last longer, anyway.

The Triumvirs returned to their temporary lodges, relieved. They would have a lot to figure out, like how they planned to secretly tell their successors. The words of their god by convention was to be recorded in a magical item, so they had to keep it safe.

I made sure they all received a familiar from me.

I turned to Stella. “You saw it, right?”

“Yes.” The pathway through the stars, that temporarily bridged this world, and the world where Aiva resided. “I didn’t think that the temples had a way to open the pathways of the stars, too, and it used a different mechanic compared to void magic.”

“Good. I believe this means all the four temples must have some variant of such summonings or ‘meetings’ with their gods. It makes sense that it is not widely known. After all, it communicates with their god, which can be very, very far away.”

Stella paused and looked at Lumoof strangely. “What are you implying?”

“We need to gather all of the methods and figure out how they work. So I’ll need a team of infiltrators to sneak into the secret temples and libraries of the other three temples and get that information.” For Aiva, I could simply just ask them to give it to me; after all, I was now de-facto owner. The puppet master behind the strings.

“Oh no.” Stella was horrified.

“Looks like I must take training spies and infiltrators much more seriously now.”

Edna and Lumoof merely smirked. “A proper raid on the temples of the other three?”

“Not just that. We must first find where such information is kept and who would have it. Don’t worry, I believe this will be a long process. For now, you may focus on studying the techniques used by the Aivan church.”

The Triumvirs gladly parted with the techniques, after all.

I needed spies and thieves, a lot of them, and I needed them to be good at what they did. I had the ability to create higher-tier classes for spies, but ultimately, spies gained levels by doing spy-stuff. This meant sneaking into places and taking on roles where they were in real danger. As it was, we had spies who were doing missions in the other nations across the oceans, but the survival rate was pretty low. They usually died when caught.

“We could give them the Court of the Deitree,” Patreeck suggested. “But the slots are limited.” That would mean we could recall them if they were ever caught, but that didn’t feel like it would work.

I decided to go back to my [dungeon creation] ability and tweaked it. I wanted to know whether I could create infiltration dungeons where the spies had to figure out how to sneak to the end. It didn’t quite work.

Failing, I decided to create mock dungeons instead. I hired craftsmen and mages to build dungeons filled with non-lethal traps for my new practice spies and thieves to “practice.”

“The thing with spies and thieves is that they could easily double-cross us and we wouldn’t know any better.” Kei and Stella both frowned. “I mean, you heard about the whole double-triple-agent thing, right?”

“Of course, but who cares?” Next, we set up multiple competing spy guilds. The idea was that these spies would play both spy and counter-espionage roles, and they would have to compete against each other on a non-lethal basis.

Then, from the pool of promising and loyal spies, I chose one, a man named Varida, and used [Gift of Accelerated Growth]. This pushed his level to sixty, and he gained a bunch of skills overnight. Varida became the Central Continent’s second level-sixty spy after Master Intip.

Yet, even with the new levels and skills, Varida still needed practice and experience. Knowing the skills was one thing; applying them out in the field was another.

One thing that particularly annoyed me about spies was their ability to speak to each other using some kind of magical code. If it was not for Patreeck’s constant recordkeeping and continuous decryption, we would have missed a lot more spies. Each spy required far more resources and mental capacity to track than most other classes, simply because each of them had skills that interfered with my surveillance. Someone with a low-level stealth ability would take twice the normal bandwidth, but a high-leveled spy needed the tracking of a single artificial mind.

So if there were multiple level sixty–plus spies or a hero-tier spy, it was possible for me to miss them or only detect them if they did something.

A hero-spy could probably sneak all the way to Freshka, at least until they ran into Patreeck’s range and the bubble of my domain powers.

The good part so far was that spies couldn’t maintain their abilities full time. So far both of my level-sixty spies had skills that were only active for up to four to six hours with a cooldown of a day. That meant I could still spot them once they dropped their skills. Yet that was a time consuming, tedious thing to do that I delegated to my artificial minds.

As it was, I had so many trees on the Central Continent that I could support quite a lot of artificial minds, perhaps in the thousands. Technically, these minds did most of the mundane administrative oversight work to allow me to function as a divine being. That meant keeping eyes on prayers, on people, on other tasks. Each artificial mind could do a lot, but now they took up space. The Valley of the Unrotten, once filled with giant trees, was gradually replaced by the artificial minds.

They were the buzz in the background, the constant hum of their thoughts; they each observed their own part of the continent. Some followed individuals, like spies, or supported the continental beetle transportation network. Some worked on my many little improvement projects, like beetle weapons or insect adaptations. Some checked on my own Valthorns and the priests, ensuring that they were safe and performing their duties properly. Thousands of little artificial minds, each a name, but in the background. Patreeck, as the special one, lorded over them all.

But I considered whether there was a point to having another one. Two super-minds instead of one, to expand the range of our powers and to compute more things.

My artificial minds were my magical equivalent of having a big-brother surveillance state. I was the big brother of Central Continent, as much as a part of me loathed myself for it. The world would be watched, the gods were watching, even if they were far away, and these days, I suspected everyone was trying to spy on each other.

That said, a surveillance state was primarily defensive. It kept control of the state that it held. Offensively, I would have to either expand to that continent, which was bottlenecked by one single Lumoof, or use spies.

I sent Lumoof back to the north and continued our surveillance of the forces at work. The nations of the Northern Islands were highly fragmented, despite their outward unified appearance. The bickering happened beneath a veneer of civility. Here, where seas, straits, channels, and lakes separated the islands, the assassinations became a favored way of fighting.

The heroes left successfully for the other continents and were now working on other things. But even they were curious about the whole god-summoning incident.

“I got a message from Colette,” Kei replied. “They wanted to know what happened. I only responded that you spoke to the Aivan god.”

“Good enough.”

“They want to know the contents.”

“Tell them to ask the Triumvirs. We are not at liberty to disclose.” Push the problem to someone else.

The Triumvirs made an announcement about a week after our meeting that a special conference was held with the Faith of Aeon and that a great peace treaty had been agreed in principle that all aggressions arising from faith should thus formally cease. The formal terms would be signed at a later date.

It sent messages flying, as the other three temples demanded to know the details. At this point, the three Triumvirs had not left, and they sought my guidance.

“Act as if I don’t exist,” I responded. “You three are to lead Aiva like normal, and that means you must be free to make decisions on that basis, so long as it does not contravene our agreed peace treaty.”

The Triumvirs had to leave quickly, as those back on the Eastern Continent would have plenty of questions. But they first leaked that it was a peace treaty brokered by the Aivan god and that the two faiths had agreed to peace with no reparations on either side.

Peace wasn’t so bad, and most of them could accept it. The Aivan church would have to cough out some sums from their own treasuries to compensate the kingdoms that were most devoted to the war, but that was it.

Peace as the god’s will? That was plausible, believable, and certainly, it aligned to what most kingdoms wanted. A war with a continent an entire ocean away? What good did that do?

It was easy, in this case, to claim it was their god’s will.

A lie, but necessary one. I had bigger problems to fry.

“I’m not feeling too good,” Kei admitted privately to Stella. The whole thing with the gods made her feel a sense of dread. “And there’s no one I can talk to.”

Stella patted her back. It was a useless gesture; she was a golem, so she didn’t feel any physical muscle soreness. “Oh, come on now. There’s me.”

“You were not a hero. You don’t know what it feels like to suddenly be told that we’re just nothing more than ‘medicine.’ That we are unstable medicines that would harm the flesh.”

Stella sat next to her. “It’s something you and the other heroes have realized to some extent, so I personally believed you would have expected it.”

“It’s one thing to suspect your parents don’t want you and another to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth.”

“I would never have imagined you would think of the gods as your parents.” Stella sat. “That’s honestly quite creepy.”

Kei caught herself. “Yeah. That’s a bad analogy. I guess it’s like your crush telling you to buzz off, I guess?”

“That’s still kind of weird.” Stella laughed. “But cheer up. Now that you know they don’t really care, there’s no reason to take their requirements all that seriously.”

“I mean…how do I put it?” Kei looked at Stella; her eyes were a little watery. “I think it’s predatory, what they are doing. They pick us and send us across the worlds, tell us—us young, impressionable souls seeking validation, value, and recognition—that we are destined to be heroes, instill within us this sense of grand purpose, magically influenced our minds such that we stick to the goal.”

“You’ve known that.”

“Yeah, but hearing it said so matter-of-factly really is different,” Kei said.

Stella smiled. “Heroes are just like young, innocent, fresh graduates who are sucked into the corporate feel-good mission statements and sent out to the world, only to discover that their support isn’t great and the purported values are nothing more than just something written to satisfy some arbitrary rating system.”

Kei turned and looked at Stella. “Shit. Corporate life is like that?” Despite their age, I still occasionally forgot that all these heroes never had any working experience. This “hero” stint was probably their first job.

“That’s what my friends say, and you seem to be manifesting similar symptoms. Burnout from work. A realization that everything is just corporate speak.”

Kei had a look on her face. “Wait, are you saying I’m having a quarter-life crisis?”

“You’ve been at this hero thing for a while, and then you moved on and now focus on helping the heroes. Now you’re wondering why you’re doing it all in the first place. That sounds like a quarter-life crisis. You’re feeling lost, even without the gods’ mind control.”

Kei gently smacked Stella on the arm. “Stop it. You’re making me feel worse.”

“Am I wrong?” Stella sat. “I mean, we’ve known each other for how long?”

“You didn’t seem that interested in being my friend at first, though,” Kei responded.

“I’m just slow to warm up.”

“Really.”

37

YEAR 188

The north was in a frenzy, after a rumor that the missing hero was in the north. Strangely enough, I found him before anyone else did. Once Lumoof was back in the north, my trees continued to spread. My trees soon covered most of the largest island in the north, and I started to spawn subsidiary trees in the unpopulated places in the north.

The north, being a colder place, had most of its populations concentrated on the coastlines and along key rivers. That meant there were large pockets of uninhabited pine and spruce forests. There were also some parts where they were considered “taigas” or snow forests or boreal forests, where I could expand my roots and connect to more trees with little need for holding back.

There were a lot of hidden things in the north. Within a month of expanding, I discovered so many hidden dungeons buried under snow and ice and even more buried cities and towns hidden under no more than a few feet of dirt. The harsh cold and winters seem to deter adventurers, and the cold environment spawned monsters of quite a high tier, generally level forty to sixty. Some were familiar, like the dire wolves and snow foxes I’d seen during the great blizzard spell.

Snow.

Ice giants were common in the hilly, ice-covered peaks, like those we’d seen on Aria’s island.

“Your presence seems to fluctuate a bit.”

“Oh.” Sensing the presence of others was a hard thing. Like the heroes, I couldn’t sense their presence until they were close to my main body. I concluded that “domain-presence” was something that only the main body possessed. Ice. Forests. An entirely new continent. I wondered what other secrets were buried beneath these dirt. No, more than that, could there be submerged continents?

Were there the equivalents of Atlantis in this world? If so, could I find them with my roots? Right now, my roots still could not cross the oceans. If there was any Atlantis equivalents, they would be in the vast oceans of the world, submerged by some grand magic.

Thus, I asked my mages and Valthorns to perform research on long-lost cities and submerged civilizations. Ah, back to the north again; I’d gone off tangent.

My trees spied on the cities, and the villages. It was a lot easier to spy on villages that were surrounded by trees and forests, but these were places where nothing much happened. Usually.

Then I found the missing hero in one of these quiet villages, deep in the mountains. We did not recognize him at first; after all, he just seemed like a regular person who hunted in the woods, collecting snakes and lizards.

It was a magical orb that appeared one day that gave him away. It appeared suddenly from the aether, like an invisibility spell was dispelled, and it floated in a wooden lodge. “Ken, are you there?” Ken was a plain, somewhat handsome man, and my allocated minds were listening when the conversation happened. There were many clues in hindsight, because in this village, everything seemed new. The lodges were surprisingly well built, and the facilities were strangely modern. There was also a huge wall and a very large stone building that I couldn’t look through.

Ken was not alone.

“Your friend’s calling you again,” a half-elf girl responded. Ken smiled and just patted her head.

“Thanks.” He went to the room and sat down. “Chung. What is it?”

“Where are you?”

“I told you, I’m not saying a thing.”

“Look, right now, all the temples are looking for you secretly, and there’s even the nasty guys out there. The hero-hunters, the wannabe hero-friends, some secret spy and assassin guilds. There’s a lot of people on your tail. They are already on the fake trail I left in the south, but they’ll figure it out soon.”

“I know, but I’m close to my breakthrough. Just give me a bit more.”

“Dude. I can’t keep doing this without you telling me what the fuck is going on, all right?”

Ken took a deep breath. “I’m going to give up my hero class.”

“…wait. How?” Chung on the other side sounded pissed.

“I’m going to commit heresy, of course.”

“Heresy?” Chung’s voice sounded uncomfortable.

“The former hero, Astra, used blood magic. That was enough for him to be excommunicated. I plan to do the same.”

“Wait, Ken. Are you sure? Is this really worth it? Remember that I told you about how Astra was marked? No, Ken. Don’t do this.”

“Look, my friend. This whole thing is a scam. The journals you’ve seen already hinted at it to you. We’re not heroes. We’re just tools. I am not planning to let myself be sucked into some stupid overarching system of the gods. Not now, not ever. I’m quitting.”

“Ken, the demons will come anyway. Why not just be a hero and defeat the demon king?”

“And what? We have ten years and then the next one. No. I’m calling it off.”

“It doesn’t work like that. Not with Astra, either.”

“I’ll figure out how to deal with the demon king once I’m not a hero. I’m sure after I do this, the gods will meddle with your mind and make you look for me as an enemy. I want you to resist that. Can you do that?”

“Ken, this is insane! What if I can’t resist them, and I’ll be forced to hunt you down? No, don’t do this—”

Ken pressed something on the Orb, and it went poof. He got out and looked at the others with him. I could now detect the faint presence of blood magic, masked under layers. It was then a strange magical creature appeared from his shadow. A small spirit-snake.

“Was it a good idea to lie to him like that?” the spirit snake asked. “I thought you two were good friends.”

“He is, but it wasn’t a total lie. We don’t know what the gods will do,” Ken answered with a sigh. “Come. It’s time to summon the rest.”

The snake coughed. He took out a small red knife that glowed in my spirit vision. Ken withdrew multiple other items that were all hidden in his spatial pocket and placed them around the village. All of these items were strange, with markings I had not seen before. I quickly mentally noted them down.

At that point, I noticed something strange with all the other “villagers.” They all had a spirit snake companion of some kind, and they were all behaving unnaturally. It took a bit more effort, I increased the number of trees present to improve my resolution, and then I noticed it.

Ken’s shadow was linked to all of them, a faint magic. The villagers were all possessed. They moved perfectly; they seemed to know where to put everything without requiring instruction. Some of them were mages, and they muttered something under their breath. The stone structure in the middle opened up to reveal thousands of snakes and lizards.

They all moved into position, and Ken walked close to the snakes. With his red knife, he beheaded all of them, one by one, as the villagers started chanting. All of the earlier items all glowed, and then, as he slaughtered the snakes, I saw strange snake-like and lizard-like shadows run around, never able to leave that small area. The ritual lasted three hours, and Ken’s red knife was soon drenched in the blood of all the lizards and snakes. During that entire time, the possessed villagers chanted.

Then he lifted up the red knife, muttered a few words, and I saw all the shadows drain away and sucked into the red knife. Then all the blood and remains of the snakes and lizards melted into a reddish paste, then swirled into the knife.

In a quick but practiced motion, Ken then stabbed himself in the heart with the blob.

At that moment, I felt like I had a stinging migraine, and I felt my mind—

[Domain Preventing Mental Attack]

Then I saw Ken’s body glow red. The knife glowed, and I thought I saw the shadows of the thousands of snakes and lizards. If this was blood magic, this was a very strange one. I tried to use more powerful surveillance visions then and changed one of the trees to a subsidiary tree.

I now saw fragments of spirits and souls, all in that red knife. I tried to [identify] the knife.

[Blood Knife of Sacrifice – A knife used for sacrifices. Collects fragment of souls, spirits, and essences.]

Well, thanks, but it didn’t tell me what exactly was happening. No, if it collected fragments of souls, what was it trying to do?

A massive red snake made of blood then surged out of his body; in its fangs were a big white marble block. It rolled and coiled, and the white block seemed to attempt to move. But the red liquid blood snake wrestled with the white block; they tossed and spun and rolled, the snake’s body smashed into the structures in the village.

Then Ken’s body glowed again, but this time, a massive shadow with thousands of snake-heads popped out of his body, and it smashed into the white marble block. The white marble block’s outer layer melted, and what was left was a white, spherical core. Ken moved, and with a swift, well-practiced slash, the red knife slammed into the spherical core. The knife hit the white core head on, and then the white core shook violently.

[Warning: The Hero Ken – Error. Status unclear.]

I saw the red snake swirl around the white core; it shrank and formed a red cube around the white core. The multi-headed snake shadow followed next; it shrank into the size of a small lizard and then melted into the red cube. It instantly changed the bright red cube to darker red. The knife shattered, then instantly melted.

All the villagers collapsed at the same time, like puppets whose strings were cut.

Ken’s body stopped glowing, and he stood as the molten red liquid from the knife swirled around his body and coated his skin and flesh. His wounds healed.

He didn’t move for a good ten minutes, and somehow he managed not to fall. Perhaps it was magic, though that was probably the least of the things I should think about. His eyes opened, and he looked around. He briefly closed his eyes again, and then when he opened them, the snake appeared once more from his shadow.

“The Ritual was a success. Though I feel we have…company.”

Ken looked around. “Really? I don’t see anyone.”

The snake looked around, too. “It’s…never mind.”

“Great. Now I can live in peace.” He seemed to activate a skill, and in an instant, his hair grew long, and his facial features changed slightly. His skin turned more scaly.

The magical orb immediately started vibrating, but Ken did not respond. “Ken? Ken? Are you there? What happened?”

He looked at it, tapped it. “I did something. I’ll let you know in two to three months whether it’s successful. But if it fails, I think you’ll get a notification.” The orb sent a magical arrow that flew up into the air, then disappeared. Ken tapped the orb again, and this time, the orb vanished into some kind of pocket space. The villagers were still unconscious, and Ken left the village that day.

The shapeshifted Ken did not say a word since then as he wandered from town to town, never stopping for more than a week. The villagers who regained consciousness did not seem to remember why they were there and what they did at all.

“This hero probably possessed some kind of mind-control or possession ability through those snake shadows.”

“What are those snake shadows?” I had no idea. As a tree that lived so long and seen so much, it absolutely annoyed me that there were still so many new things I’d never seen. I suspected whatever that ritual was, it was otherworldly in origin, because it was able to remove or tamper with a hero class.

That said, I still kept watch. Could he be a threat? After all, he was able to tamper with a hero class.

What did he do then? I saw the fragment of souls…no.

I had an epiphany.

I had been trying to remove the hero class by force and magical power. This was when I developed a speculative theory, that he absorbed more soul fragments and some kind of essences, and those essences flooded and merged with his hero class in his soul spring. He wasn’t removing the hero class. He was corrupting it so that he could be free of its influence! Using the soul-ish qualities of blood magic to enhance and corrupt his own soul such that he was free of the heroes?

The other idea was that they somehow used the soul fragments as some kind of abrasive or removal agent. Like using soap to bind to the hero-class and then pull it out.

“We’ll need to find a volunteer to try it,” Patreeck said. “But it’ll have to be a hero. Looking at it, it would probably kill anyone else who tried to do it.”

I agreed, that ritual looked really complex, but I had enough data to attempt to replicate it. But how did Ken get the people necessary to do so? I also had other questions. Like who was that snake spirit?

I tried to follow Ken as he moved through the cities. There were parts I couldn’t see him; here in the Northern Islands, my network of eyes and ears was full of holes.

What did he do?

Thankfully, he dropped his guard about two months after the incident, as he was taking a break. The snake spirit curled out and sat on the log. “How are you feeling?”

“Not as bad as what you described. I think I’m ready. We got lucky, I think, that the [hero] class was relatively low level.” Ken sat as he munched on a loaf of bread. It was hard.

“All right, hit me with it. What’s next?” Ken said as he finished his loaf of bread.

“Great. Now we need to prepare for our next step of the bargain. We need to send the swallowed class to my world. That’ll be a lot harder. A lot, lot harder. Well, for one, I do not have a foolproof way of sending something back home,” the snake confessed.

Ken paused. “Wait. You do have an idea, then? Is this the crazy-enough-to-work idea? Because if it is, then we should use it.”

“I do, but it involves you dying. That’s not what we agreed on, and I wouldn’t do it because I’m stuck with you.”

Ken laughed. “Then tell me the alternatives, but still tell me that idea that involves me dying. Because I need to know. Just in case.”

“Never mind. I still don’t get where you have all these strange concepts…”

“There’s this website called tvtropes…” Ken said. “Where they explain the common story paths and events.”

“Is this website an oracle?”

“Well, not really, but it’s more like a…”

“An astrologist’s predictions?”

“Something like that.” Ken sat. “Anyway, I feel much more clear-headed now that the demons aren’t always appearing in my dreams. It’s safe for me to speak with Chung, right?”

The snake shrugged. “Yes. But later. First, we must investigate that presence we felt last year. I must know whether it is the gods.”

Ken frowned. “Seriously, why do you care? Why get involved in their schemes again, after all you’ve said about their plots? After all you said about how they’ve surrendered your worlds?”

The snake remained silent.

“I want to live peacefully, find a place somewhere where I can raise a family, and watch my kids grow up. Maybe work as an enchanter or an artificer,” Ken said. “All these plots, in the end, are just the games these powers play. Now that I’m out, I have no intention of getting back in.”

“We don’t have to, but…but I just want to know. I want to send word home, if we ever find the gods.”

“I met the gods when I reincarnated.”

“Those are different.”

“Fine, I’ll just ask for news once we get to town. If we can use your abilities to ‘control’ some people in the towns, that’ll help.”

“I used up quite a lot of my magic when I performed the ritual. I’ll need more time to recharge. It takes longer for me to replenish my magical energies in this pathetic spiritual form. You’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.”

“All right, all right. Just pray I don’t trigger some stupid town-gathering quest chain. I’m not jumping from one hero storyline to another type of storyline.”

This Ken seemed…genre aware. That was strange; I supposed I was looking at a hero who had some light-novel knowledge and he was applying it to get himself out of trouble.

They left and headed to town. Sadly, the town they were in was all cobbled up with stone and rocks, and I couldn’t follow them all the way.

The three Triumvirs returned to their respective cities, and the peace treaty was formally announced. Our growing network of spies revealed that the other temples were quite relieved that it was nothing more than just a peace treaty, and some small trade-ish agreements.

The status quo held, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

38

YEAR 189

It was a little bit more annoying to expand my trees to the cities in the north. Unlike the Central Continent where trees were plentiful and common, in the Northern Islands, the cities were not tree friendly at all. That said, there was still room for shrubs and less obvious trees like wall-crawling plants. But this was inherently slower, and I felt a sense of repulsion for the treeless cities. Even in the cold weather there were ways to integrate plants into the terrain, and I would have used my root-network to use my roots as a form of heat distribution system. That would create a warmer environment that could support more verdant cities.

The lack of parks within the city area itself was also absolutely disgusting; only certain cities had them.

It seemed, though, there were at least two agencies at work.

One was led by the Rosewoods. Their agents were generally well equipped and trained, and they were the counter–hero hunters. But even they had not-so-loyal operatives. Then, there was the hero hunters, those that wanted to kill the heroes and gain some special class, though there was no data on what that special class was.

Also, it was a little pointless for me to kill a hero if I couldn’t gain classes. So, if anything, it should be a humanoid thing.

“Would you kill heroes?” I asked. He was motionless as he rested in a giant tree. His body was linked to the giant tree, and through him, I controlled the rest of the trees.

“If you ask me to, yes,” Lumoof answered. There were days where I still felt uncomfortable to be at the receiving end of such devotion and loyalty.

“One day I will,” I said. It was inevitable.

“We will be ready, even if we have to die to do it,” Edna responded, too, at the same question.

As my surveillance expanded, I was able to “support” the other Valthorn operatives. I provided cover fire and protected them in the event of any conflict with the other forces. Here, in the north, I decided against using my beetles, since we were supposed to operate without being detected.

I also did not want to reveal that I had somehow stretched my trees to the north. At least, not yet. I would use beetles if I had a more secure root-link to the north. My operatives, with my support and intel, were able to thus confront and attempt more high-risk infiltrations.

This was when I encountered one of the Rosewood hotels, a large wooden structure six stories high and a large subterranean presence. There was a magical quality to it, a very faint but strangely familiar one.

It was when my roots touched the hotels that I felt and then knew who it was.

[Domain blocking mental attack.]

“What was that?” I immediately put the name to the sensation. “…Meela?”

It’d been so long. Had it already been a century? Yes. It had been a century since they left. The sensation immediately made me wonder and think about how they’d been after all this time. Their soul contract would have maybe…nine hundred years left?

I thought about Alexis and her constant plots. Was she still angry, or had time mellowed her thoughts?

No, I had to talk to them face to face and then called Edna, Roon, Johann, and a few other of the high-leveled Valthorns together. For old-time’s sake, I asked Lausanne to come along, too. She and her mom was probably the only one left who remembered them.

I briefed the group of twelve about Alexis and Meela, and then Stella opened a portal, again, and sent them through to the other continent.

Lumoof transformed back to his normal state, and the giant tree opened up to let him out. “We’re going to meet an old friend of Aeon,” he said to the group.

The Rosewood Hotel in Roshendam stood. To anyone who did not know, it was just a luxury inn, one of many throughout the Northern Islands. Those that did know understood that it was also the base of an influential espionage and assassin group, also named the Rosewoods.

Lumoof, fully geared for war, walked through the door, and instantly I sensed it. The entire hotel was her. Meela was here, somewhat, and already the employees in the hotel all stared. The receptionist, a half dwarf, merely glanced and quickly bowed. “Greetings, esteemed guests, and welcome to the Rosewood Hotel. Do you have a reservation?”

Lumoof walked close to the receptionist. “No, I don’t.”

The smartly dressed receptionist glanced at the other members of the group, mainly Edna and Lausanne.

Lausanne looked around and merely smiled. “I’m actually here for a meeting, and I would like to have a discussion with Lady Mika.”

The dwarf receptionist nodded. “Lady Mika has been expecting your group for some time.”

“Oh?”

The other staff members and guests of the hotel quickly walked away. They behaved as if something was going to happen, and perhaps it was. Already, I spread my roots and trees and attempted to surround the hotel. The half dwarf smiled. “Well, for such high-ranking guests such as yourself, please give me a moment and let me prepare.”

But the place was built with enchanted stone and skill-infused roads. My roots couldn’t penetrate them so easily. The walls of the hotel were sturdy, easily made to be a fortress, even if it appeared like a luxury hotel. Lumoof smiled back at the half dwarf. “That would be most appreciated. Please assist us to arrange a meeting room. I believe we have a shared history and will have much to discuss.”

The dwarf smiled and picked up a magical crystal. “Call the Board.” There was some inaudible noise from the magical crystal. The dwarf nodded in response and then placed the crystal back on the table. “All right, right this way.”

The dwarf hopped off a stool at the back of the reception counter and then led the way. A magical wooden staircase descended from above, and at the end of it, a door that was previously closed by wood.

“Will everyone be coming, or just the few of you?” the dwarven receptionist asked. “The boardroom is large.”

Lumoof looked at Edna, and Edna nodded. “Just five.” Edna, Lausanne, Roon, and Johann joined the walk upstairs. The rest waited at the lobby. The dwarf signaled to a bunch of other employees, who promptly led them to an area with comfortable sofas. They went there as told, but some insisted on standing up.

Upstairs was a straight walkway. I sensed that the walls were probably moving, and there were hidden rooms around us. Still, nothing that we could not handle.

We were led to a large boardroom with a long, oval-shaped table. There was enough space for at least fifty, and it had high ceilings, magical lighting, and all the amenities one could expect of a boardroom. A few pots of tea were also prepared, with matching cups.

A meeting with tea. That was nice. Fragrant, too. It seemed that Meela had been waiting, but I sensed this wasn’t really her. No, that wasn’t right, either. It was her, but this was like just a part of her. I suspected then that Meela probably had a way of “splitting” herself to all of her branch hotels.

“It’s been a while since I’ve met someone that works for Aeon, and it’s been a while since we’ve met, Lausanne.” Oh! She probably didn’t know Lumoof was my avatar and that I could see through him.

Lausanne smiled. “It’s been a while, too, Lady Mika. You look a lot better than I last remember.”

Meela’s wooden form sat on the chair, and she gestured for the rest of us to sit. “You, too, Lausanne. Come, there’s really no need for hostilities today. It must have been a long journey, and we have so much common history that we should at least give diplomacy a chance. Please, sit.”

I smirked at Meela’s opening line. Lumoof gladly took the seat, and so did the others. Lausanne was first to ask. “So, uh…only you?”

“Alexis?” Meela smiled. “She’s out hunting. It’s a busy time for us, with the hero hunters about. What brings you here, really?”

Lumoof took the lead. “We’re here to meet the power brokers of the region, of course.” Well, that wasn’t exactly a lie, but it dodged the point of revealing our own clandestine activities.

“Well, I’m sure you would be very busy, then. It seems your agents have been doing a lot more than just meeting people.” Meela smiled, her voice strangely firm. “But I suppose I shall lead in establishing friendly relations. I owe that much to Aeon. So what do you want to know?”

Lumoof just smiled and lied through his teeth, a gift of the priestly class. “We are genuinely looking to meet those who hold sway over the Northern Islands. There has been incredibly concerning news of attempted assassinations on the heroes and even more blasphemous tales of a supposed tenth hero.”

Meela grinned. “Patriach Lumoof, certainly Aeon can tell you with high reliability on whether there is a tenth hero, so there is no need to pull that trick with me. I may take the appearance of a young lady, but I have lived decades in the north. Yes, there is a tenth hero, and we are also looking for him. The hero hunters want to get to him first, of course, for the rumored gift.”

“A gift?” Lumoof feigned ignorance. “Well, I know nothing of a gift.”

“Yes, the Gift. Which we still don’t know anything about, because nobody has killed a hero. Not that we know of,” Meela said. “We actually thought you guys would be the first to earn it.”

“We?”

Meela pointed at Edna. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet the famous Vanguard of the Central Continent. Thank you for not killing Alvin or my partner.”

Edna didn’t reply, but she had a look of annoyance on her face.

“Anyway, we are bound by [soul contract] to Aeon.” Meela finally got to the point. “So I really don’t see a need for us to be hostile with each other. Our goals may differ, but I’m sure we can find common ground. Tell me, what exactly are you here for? If you’re looking for the hero, we don’t have him.”

“No. We’re here to make friends,” Lumoof deadpanned.

Meela paused. “Aeon sent you to make friends?” After a while, she laughed. “Ah, I’ve forgotten Aeon’s dry sense of humor. Surely, that can’t be true?”

“Well, he also asked us to check on you, whether you are all right.”

She smiled and played along. “I’m fine, thank you.”

Lumoof nodded. “That’s good. How is Miss Alexis? Does she still hate Aeon?”

Meela stared. “Wait. Aeon really sent you just to check on us?”

“Yes. He sensed you recently and wanted to talk to you. I think he thinks of you two every now and then,” Lumoof said. “He felt your presence here.”

There was a moment of silence. Meela didn’t say a word as she seemed like she was processing the statement. Lumoof, being the trained priest that he was, gave Meela the space to process her thoughts. He could tell when someone was going through some complicated emotions.

I felt maybe I, too, was a party that contributed to that. I thought about them occasionally, and I sometimes missed Meela’s rather cheerful presence. Now that I’d said the truth of my origins to Aria and my senior Valthorns, I wondered whether things would have been different if I had revealed the truth then.

But I consoled myself that circumstances were different, and I didn’t have the power or security that I had now. No, more important, I had a slightly different mindset. Back then, I hadn’t experienced the destruction of New Freeka, nor had I resolved that this cycle had to end, even if I did contemplate it.

In truth, it was all the little deviations that led to that branch of the story.

“…this is weird,” Meela responded after that moment of thought. “We struggled, but I like to think we are fine now.”

Lumoof smiled and gently nodded. He allowed her words some space and then finally answered, “That’s good. Aeon said to me that he still wished to respect the agreement back then, that the two parties do not bother each other and will continue their separate ways. But with his recent growth and scope, an interaction between the two parties is inevitable, so he hoped to come to some kind of arrangement. There are also some things that he wished for your input.”

Meela nodded with a smile. It actually seemed genuine, rather than a practiced one. “Even after a century, the agreement holds. In this world, only the spirits of nature can uphold and comply with such long agreements.”

Lumoof didn’t need to respond to that statement, as Meela soon continued.

“Yes, I understand his concerns. It is something we have been thinking about since we heard of his resurgence in the Central Continent. What does Aeon have in mind?”

He paused and glanced around. Everyone had heard of it, Lausanne too, even though she was no longer in the higher ranks of the Valthorns. “Is this room secure?”

Meela snapped a finger, and the walls had an additional layer. These were anti-magical sheets. “Mostly secure. A hero could still listen in.”

“Good enough. He intends that we cooperate on matters involving the demons, the gods, and the heroes.”

Lumoof placed his hands on the table, his eyes locked on Meela. A gaze that Meela returned.

“I’ll explain what Aeon’s goal is, and it is only known to the inner circle of the Valthorns, and Aeon has said that he wished that these words are not shared to anyone else, other than Miss Alexis. Will you accept these terms?”

Meela leaned in. “Well, yes.”

“Aeon’s grand overarching goal is to end the cycle of demons and heroes. The world has suffered too much, the earth weakened by the centuries of constant warfare. Ruins are scattered all over the world, buried and destroyed. He is tired of this entire scheme; he is tired that this world has to serve as a battlefield of the gods and the demons. So he wants to break the world free of this seasonal disaster. Will you help us?”

Meela’s eyes widened, and she processed it. She leaned back on her chair and spun around for a while. Her eyes darted back to Lumoof again. She stared and scanned the eyes of every other person present and then locked on Lausanne. “Lausanne, do you know of this?”

“Only fairly recently,” Lausanne said. She was thankful that she didn’t accept the soul-strengthening seed, then. A pawn in the war of gods and demons? That was too much for her.

“Doesn’t this mean he will go against the gods and also the demons? Is he prepared for that? It explains a lot, no, it explains his secrecy, and the things he has been collecting and gathering. This explains all his behavior since those days, too. The perpetual paranoia.” Meela seemed to have a huge trove of data and information that she had collected, and I felt a little slighted at the term. I was always paranoid. It was partly why I liked to work alone.

But I couldn’t. Not anymore.

Edna chimed in. “Aeon believed that yourself and Lady Alexis, as former heroes, can add some insights and provide some perspective to how such a plan can be accomplished. Together with other former heroes and accidental summons, he wished to form a team capable of something more daring.”

Meela looked at Edna. “This revelation must be discussed with my partner. I will say it frankly that I am willing to assist where I can, but the Rosewoods are a partnership.”

Lumoof smiled. “We understand this is quite a bombshell to receive during an unexpected reunion.”

“It is,” Meela said. “I must call my partner now.”

Everyone stood, and they gave gentle nods. “Thank you for the meeting. May we receive favorable news.”

Meela nodded, and ushers came to escort the group out of the hotel. They offered refreshments, of course, but no one took any.

About a week after the meeting, the demonic rifts opened. There were two more years left on the clock for the next demon king. This time, it was on the far Western Continent.

I summoned my Valthorns for a brief strategy meeting. It was time for us to go on the offense and start chasing demon kings and get a bit more of that sweet demon king experience. Fighting champions was a contentious point. In terms of challenge, the higher-level dungeons and their bosses provided an equal if not superior challenge. Yet dungeons at that level had long cooling periods, and fighting demons would be a large part of my Valthorns’ future combat careers.

“Our plan is simple. When the heroes fight the demon king, we want to be there. I want those with the Court of the Deitrees to fight and support the heroes, so that all of you can get stronger. If any of you are at risk of death, I will warp all of you back. It’s possible that I can’t react in time, or if any of you feel too weak, let me know. Those level one hundred and above will be deployed to chase down champions and destroy them.”

39

YEAR 190

We focused on preparing for the upcoming fight. We were going to hit the demon king hard and hopefully get some levels out of it. I wanted my level two hundred, I was so close, and I would empty my entire arsenal at the demon king if it got me there.

So, first things first, Kei got in touch with the heroes to negotiate an arrangement.

“Hi, Colette and Prabu, where are you two these days!” Kei said. It took a while, but what Aiva said was now faintly at the back of her mind.

“We’re actually in the Western Continent already to hunt the champions.” The Western Continent, home and stronghold of the Neiran Temples. Or was it? My spies told me some of the Neiran top dogs had moved to the south. But I wasn’t sure; Neira was probably one of the more secretive temples but also one of the weakest, despite being spared of most of the demons’ attacks.

Perhaps Neira was even more distant. No. Maybe Neira didn’t even bother anymore. At this point, I really wondered which god still looked after this world. Whatever little that meant.

Kei nodded. “All right, that’s great. So remember that question you asked a few years back, about having an arrangement to fight the demon king?”

“Uh-huh.” Prabu nodded.

“Aeon would like to volunteer his elite forces to support your next battle with the demon king. I’m not sure whether you guys want our assistance; that’s why we thought of asking.”

The two mages paused. “Hmmm, I need to talk to Chung and Hafiz, but it shouldn’t be a problem. More hands should help. At least, we could use some help with the champions and all the other small fries while we focus on the king.”

“All right!” Kei nodded.

Next step was figuring out how to deploy and project sufficient force that we could have an impact on the demon king. The system clearly favored those who contributed to the fight, and it was a reasonable assumption that our level gain was correlated to the contribution.

So this meant we needed a few things. One: a way to send my forces to where the demon king was at a short notice. It was possible to use my own tree-networks and Stella’s portal to send a small force there quickly, so that meant the logistics of manpower was partly solved.

One of the things I wanted to test out was whether Lumoof was able to function as “home” when using the Court of the Deitree’s recall function. It didn’t work, and they still automatically returned to my main body. I supposed the system for the Court was still programmed to only consider my main body as home.

It was too bad. If it worked, I essentially could use Lumoof as a warp point and then dropship the rest of my forces around him. I could even use him to send people across worlds, as long as he was on the other side.

Perhaps some other upgrade to the Court of the Deitree would allow this. No matter, I had to work with what I had at my disposal.

I also needed to figure out how I could throw huge amounts of crystal bombs at the enemy. Thanks to Alka’s persistent experiments over the past few years and almost decades, we now had a rather huge arsenal of crystal bombs. Similarly, we experimented with my vines flinging the crystal bombs through a void portal. It worked, as long as the components of the crystal bombs did not involve star mana.

It was a crude solution, but I didn’t like the fact that everything depended on Stella and her band of void mages in training. A single point of failure meant if the next demon king had some kind of anti-magic or anti-void energy ability, we wouldn’t be able to use it. No, there was also the risk that the demon king, a creature with at least some void magic ability, would be able to interfere with Stella’s magical portal.

So we had to consider alternatives.

Through a bit of upgrades and outfitting, we finally managed to get Hytreerion to gradually swim to the Western Continent with a huge arsenal of crystal bombs. But thanks to its incredibly slow speed, it would take half a year for him to actually arrive there. We also arranged for ships loaded with crystal bombs, too. The idea was to plant the bombs everywhere and then detonate them when the demons were near.

Stella didn’t seem particularly pleased with the idea. “This has the problem with landmines written all over it.”

“That’s partly true.” But of course, these crystals were magically activated. They shouldn’t cause such problems, right?

Wait, no. Actually, all bombs had this problem. It was possible that some crystal bombs didn’t detonate and were instead embedded in the ground. Some day, they would get accidentally triggered by some hapless adventurer. Or their demon-sensing runes would get confused and blow something up.

Everything decayed over time, even magic. So, once they decayed, their behavior was unpredictable. Institutions decayed, too, and I noticed it in the Valthorns. As the Central Continent accepted my dominion, there was a shift in the behaviors of those who were admitted to the Valthorns, especially those who grew up knowing that I was the supreme authority of the land. Arrogance. Minor abuse of power. Some of these were hidden when they were just part of the Valtrian Order, but the promotion to the Valthorns revealed some of this.

Worse, I was only made aware of this after a few incidents I witnessed while doing other things and commanded my artificial minds to highlight all of them. There were many small instances. Arrogance was not punishable, even if it did make us unlikeable. For the minor abuse of power, it was hard to really assess whether it was the person who provided or granted the payments that was trying to curry favor.

There were benefits to being in high places, and I saw how the Valthorns would recommend their friends or families for certain roles. Not exactly unallowed, but it was nepotism.

As an institution, now that the Valthorns and Valtrian Order were considered mature, I needed my artificial minds to play the role of an “opposing” or “offsetting” force, of identifying those who were outside them for admission.

But I went off tangent with my thoughts there. Back to crystal bombs, was excessive use of magical artifacts the equivalent of using landmines? Maybe, but I argued that danger posed by the demon king, as a beast of significant destructive power, offset the risks of using magical artifact.

One day when I, or the non-heroes under my wing, gained sufficient power to challenge a demon king without such bombs, I would remove them from our combat plans. But now, the bombs were a necessity, even if I was doing the magical equivalent of carpet bombing. The destruction of the demon king easily killed more than my bombs ever would.

Stella nodded, though she did make a rather poignant statement. “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.”

“Nothing to worry there, for I am already a monster.” I was, by all means and definitions, a monster tree with magic and godly powers.

Stella sighed. “In our pursuit of peace and the end of this cycle, we will turn a war between man and demons to a war between monsters and demons.”

“Eh, that’s not accurate. The gods were always the puppet masters. In the larger scheme of things, you’ve heard from Aiva yourself that this is a war between gods and the demons. We are just the background, the terrain and the natural environment rebelling against that stupid war.”

“But on the ground.”

“I think that’s better, actually. It’s better for the citizens that the war is fought by monsters. We can take the losses a lot better.”

Druids gathered giant birds and flying creatures. Most of them were small, but master trainers and animal tamers could “grow” their tamed beasts to larger proportions. I looked back at my Titan choices. If I had an air force, the air force could functionally perform as my bombing squads, drop the crystal bombs from the air, and fly off. Or could I have suicide bombers?

No. It wouldn’t be suicide bombing if we used “summons” and “spirits” that could respawn to deliver the crystal bomb payload. Magical summons would be the best weapons delivery tool.

Through some magical modifications, we managed to upgrade Hytreerion to be a floating ship with cannons. A battleship. More oil rig than ship, it carried large cannons that could throw the crystal bombs a certain distance to their target. Its range wasn’t fantastic, so it wouldn’t be able to shoot far inland unless more upgrades were made.

For Lumoof, he moved to the Western Continent, our expansion plans in the north put on hold. That could resume after we captured whatever experience and levels we could from the demon king. Hell, maybe I could get something that could solve my damned ocean problem.

It was also my first time in the Western Continent.

One thing I noticed was that the culture of the world was actually relatively aligned. There were kingdoms everywhere, and the differences in cultures were usually in the small things. Like the way they ate certain foods and the other small stuff. Kings were still kings, and nations ran the way they were run elsewhere. That meant the local lords were pretty much local gods.

Like the Northern Islands had Aria and Aispeng, I wondered whether there was a tree spirit or some other spirit here in the Western Continent and whether I could rope them into the fight.

The kingdoms of the Western Continent were putting up pretty good resistance against the demons. Many of them had large standing armies, courtesy of their relative safety during the past few decades. Instead, they were mostly focused on fighting each other. From what I understood, they were still in the period of warring states when the demonic rifts appeared. Nothing to unite a nation in war than a bigger bad guy.

Oh well, no matter, Lumoof arrived in a port city called Pelabuhan Dikelang, on the eastern shore of the Western Continent. The first thing I noticed was that the Neira priests had really lovely outfits.

We came, formally, as reinforcements at the invitation of one of the friendly kingdoms on the Western Continent. We came by ship, because we did not want to reveal our possession of void portals.

Our goals were multifold, of course. The main objective was to participate in the battle against the demons and gain levels. Not so publicly, our goals were to make friends, get more information on the powers of those who ruled Neira, and use the demonic attacks as an excuse to freely explore places that were previously not so accessible.

Even more secretly, it was the best chance to mix my spies into their society, get to know some of the individuals, and see how we could gradually grow our influence on the Neiran Temple. Our goal, with Neira, Gaya, and Hawa, was to learn their methods of communicating with their gods.

The Neira priests were hostile, but they did not attempt to fight Lumoof or the entourage. The gap in our strength was clear to anyone who bothered to do some research, even if politically, we generally allowed the other temples some dignity by not openingly comparing our relative strengths.

There were some boring formalities of introducing ourselves to the local rulers and all that, but that was a task I allowed Lumoof and the group to do. Even in the face of demons, there were sycophants and asskissers. These were tiring for me to deal with, so when there were political matters, I allowed Lumoof to handle it.

Lumoof wasn’t the wisest politically, but he had enough sense to give empty but pleasant-sounding assurances most of the time, such that the asskissers realized that they were going to have better luck with his subordinates.

On this front, this was also one of the problems we had with diplomats, spies, and our other agents. When they were away from my eyes on the Central Continent, all I could do was trust them to know what to say, to know how to spot those who sought to curry their favor with the powers they possessed, to know that just as we sought to gain from them, they too would gain from us. There, I had to believe that they had the experience and skills needed to spot what they should spot and know of their biases.

There were no eyes to watch them when they were away.

Well, except through Lumoof.

While Lumoof handled the preparations on the Western Continent, I also spoke with my fellow spirits.

“I intend for my warriors to join the fight against the demon king. Would you be willing to make some weapons for them?” I asked Aria and Aispeng for the best weapons they could make. They agreed and forged ten weapons made out of some magical ice, which I offered to ten of my strongest Valthorns.

For Lilies, they made five sets of magical staffs made of fused bone and metal, which amplified both healing and death-elemental magic.

I also asked the fused wolf-shaman for some things, but it had nothing to offer. That was fine.

I decided not to ask for anything from Reefy. I thought it would probably be mistaken what my intentions were.

The demons that spawned this time were mostly smaller, impish creatures. They looked like dark-red versions of goblins, with small reddish wings that seemed to do nothing but let them hop a little bit higher.

We also encountered one demonic champion, a large, two-headed reddish ogre with tentacles. I thought we were gonna have the demonic corrupted orc hordes for the demon king. If so, were we gonna get some kind of corrupted orc shaman for a demon king?

“I must admit I am absolutely clueless about what you are talking about.” Both Kei and Stella probably didn’t play the popular gaming series.

Of course, we also met the heroes, this time as fellow combatants.

“I’m actually pleasantly surprised that Aeon would help us,” Prabu said face-to-face to Kei. Lumoof was there, of course. Edna was on her way by boat. One of my concerns was what if the demon king was early? In that case, we would avoid combat until we could get our full forces in order. “You made it sound like he was rather hesitant.”

Kei smiled. “Well, just consider it a pleasant change of heart.”

“Just to be sure, there’s no catch, right?”

“Nope. Just help fight the demon king, and they’ll leave right after,” Kei repeated. Of course, the prize was the demon king itself.

“So what’s the strategy?”

“Wait for the demon king to spawn and lure the demon king to you on favorable grounds,” Kei said. “I’m sure you’ve seen in the journals how the demon king can see us. It’s possible to pretty much shout, ‘We’re here,’ with the use of star-mana. Hopefully we get a dumb one that woill fall for the trap, then we’ll soften the demon king up and you guys can land the finishing blow.”

The part where Jura and Lovis landed the finishing blow was happily omitted. There was no need to highlight that it was my people that did so. But it was a common story on the Central Continent, so maybe they’d heard it.

The mage-hero nodded. “Sounds doable. We’re setting up our own magical formations, too. Hopefully it’ll help. But if the journals are right, there must be a trick.”

The heroes, too, were scattered. Only Prabu, Colette, and Hafiz were here. Chung seemed to be working on some kind of secret project, but he promised that he would magically teleport to the Western Continent once his project was ready. As for Ken…

With Lumoof preparing for the demon king, I lost my ability to see through the trees of the Northern Islands, so I lost Ken. I was not very confident I could find him again, especially with that snake spirit, but I weighed my priority and decided that gaining levels from the next demon king outweighed whatever risk they posed.

“Well, we can’t predict the trick. The best we can do is prepare and fight like crazy,” Kei said.

Prabu paused. “True, not like we have a choice with all that godly mind control all over us.”

“Try some tea,” Kei offered. “It might help.”

40

YEAR 191

The astral paths opened. The path of light that glowed brightest repeated what happened before. Stella and her team of void mages attempted, however little, to meddle with the demon’s path. I watched as her dark energies attempted to tamper with the path, and the void mana drained out of her.

She was not strong enough to fight the complex powers of the demons. But she tried repeatedly, and she leveled up from the attempts.

“It’s a lot more complicated than I thought,” Stella commented. “It’s like they’ve just dug this river from their world to ours, and they are just ‘floating’ on it.”

“Huh. Some kind of space travel lane.”

“Yeah, it’s also not just void mana. There’s something else in this ‘space’ river. But it’s not star mana for sure. If I’m right, the demon king’s core is nothing more than a ‘cocoon’ to allow something so large to float through it.” Stella’s ability to visualize the path had also improved since ten years ago, partly due to her levels and new skills. “Or it may be that the astral path is like a rope, and the demon king is hanging onto it like a ropeway, using this demon core as a tether.”

“Oh? That’s new information.”

If what we saw previously was just streaks of light, she’d gained some ability to see what was in the streaks of light. I still couldn’t, so sadly for me, I was just relying on her narration to figure out what exactly it looked like. This was normal to me, of course. I lived most of my life in this world without full vision, just partial, spiritual vision until I gained the Tree-Eyes ability.

“I’m not even sure what I’m seeing. It’s like recognizing words but not truly comprehending the meaning,” Stella said.

“So it’s like you have two eyes but you can’t see Mount Tai.”

“Yeah.”

She kept trying, of course. She injected a bit of her void mana into the sky.

And she kept failing. “It’s not working. It’s either my powers are too unfocused, or by the time my powers reach the path, it’s just less than what it was,” she complained.

Wait. What was that again? “You said it’s less by the time you reach it?”

“Yeah. It’s kinda like…it dissipates before it reaches the path.”

“Would being closer to the sky help?” She thought for a moment and nodded.

“No harm trying.”

That was how I made the tallest Giant Attendant Tree, as tall as I could manage, complete with a wooden, vine-powered ropeway lift to the top. I made it such that there was a large flat surface at the very top, a platform for the kinds of rituals Stella and her team of void mages could ever need.

It was really, really tall, and with my magical augmentation and energies, it was probably the closest I’d get to a space elevator, even if it was still pretty tiny. I could even feel like the top of the tree was pulling away from me.

Her team attempted it again, and still it was not successful.

“It still dissipated. But at least I’ve only lost about half of our magical strength.”

Well, to truly escape the world’s planetary shell would require something that was on the moon or even further. “Do you think you’ll do better if you attempted to interfere with the astral paths from the moons?”

She thought about it again, and she initially shook her head wildly at how crazy the idea was, but then I could tell a part of her agreed with the idea. “That’s really, really crazy levels of distance.”

“But it’s possible. With enough magic, you could open a portal to the moon. Even then, the moon may not be ideal as the moon may have its own sphere of interference.”

“Well, yes.” I’d rarely seen Stella’s face look so conflicted. Even more than actual moral dilemmas. “But give me some time to mentally prepare. I’m not prepared to open a portal to the moon. Not yet.”

“Wouldn’t it be cool?”

“What if it just opens a vacuum and sucks everything up?”

“You know that doesn’t happen.”

Stella sighed. “I need some time with the idea.”

I wondered then whether I could spread my trees on the moon. With the right amount of magic, assuming that magic worked on the moon, we should theoretically be able to terraform the moon into an inhabitable space.

In fact, if I could convert the moon into a safe space, that would be a less-ideal, long-run solution.

“It’s quite strange that you consider terraforming the moon as a possible idea,” Kei complained one day.

“I don’t see why you’re complaining? The demons clearly only pop up here.”

“What if they follow you there?”

“Then we’ll deal with that problem later.” I mean, why did all these heroes worry about all this stuff when it hadn’t even happened yet? “We’ll try it and see whether it works.”

“Yeah. That’s true. Actually, I’m not against the idea of terraforming the moon. I’m because it’s like…uh, the moon? No. Wait. That doesn’t make sense. I guess I just assign a weird sentimentality for the moon, like it should be what it is.”

“Eh, back home, men have always dreamed of colonizing the moon and Mars. Here, a tree dreams of greening the twin moon.”

“You know what? That actually sounds quite cool,” Kei admitted. “Hopefully Stella sees it your way.”

“Oh, she will. She just needs time to process the idea of portals to the moon. She’s like that; her first reaction to any idea is to say no. Usually.” I’d seen Stella enough to know that her first choice was to do nothing or hide. This part of her she still took a while to undo, and in some ways, I really resonated with that.

Stella, as predicted, agreed to the idea a week later, but after suitable preparations were made. For now, she continued her attempts to challenge the demons’ astral path from the top of my Tower-Tree, as she felt she could still make improvements to her technique. She tried repeatedly, and at one point, she actually succeeded in interfering with one single transmission.

She wasn’t sure what happened, though.

At the same time, Lumoof and the team of Valthorns on the Western Continent continued to hunt the demons. We witnessed a few rifts, and the rifts were actually vulnerable weak points. I did not activate my avatar ability, as the heroes were also fighting along. I did not want to reveal the full scope of my avatar powers to them.

So we allowed the other level one hundred–plus Valthorns to lead the battles with the champions. They needed the experience and the levels to prepare them for the real thing.

Lumoof and Edna mainly played a supporting role and often just stayed back. Kei, of course, understood this. As for the heroes, they thought it was just kinda weird. They, of course, could not really understand how slow normal people leveled when compared to them. They claimed they got it, but they didn’t feel and live how slowly it took for any regular person to level up. With their divine blessings, they usually just needed a champion or two to gain a level.

Demonic ogres and giant ogres were actually pretty pleasant to fight. They fought very much like regular humans, only with exceptional strength and power, and they also had a few skills. This went on for about two months, and during this time, my ships and Hytreerion also finally got into their position. Near, but not too near.

I wasn’t sure what gimmick this demon king would have. Maybe it’d just cut off the world’s magical communication network again. Hopefully we didn’t get that.

Every day, Stella recharged the void batteries and kept battling the demonic paths. It didn’t seem to make any impact on the number of demons, but she gained levels even from failing, so there was no real reason to stop.

Then the path glowed brightly. It was coming. Stella wasn’t afraid, so she tried again, this time with everything. She wanted to see whether she could disrupt the path so that the demon king couldn’t properly enter the world.

Her void energies formed a shovel and attempted to cover the path of light that cut through the void forest. The path glowed, and little sparks of flames lit up along the path. She attempted to put out one of the flames, and she managed to cause one of them to dim slightly.

The path glowed and then seemed to bend at where the light was dimmer. Then a glowing ball of light appeared and moved quickly along the path. Stella held on and used her void mana and attempted to mess with the path. It was either now or never.

She pushed, and her void mana caused the path of light to dim ever so slightly. The glowing ball, however, smashed into her void mana at full speed, and from the skies above, a void-energy shockwave hurled right at Stella. I immediately wrapped my roots around her to protect her and created multiple wooden shields.

The void energy shockwave smashed through my shields, but thankfully, I had many, many layers of them, and they were stopped.

Stella was safe but shaken by how suddenly it happened. “Fuck that.”

On the Western Continent, my sensors detected the rift energies gathered at a particular location, but then it shifted and moved suddenly, like a car that made a last-minute swerve.

[Demon King Bagradva descended.]

It appeared right over a river, and the water where the demon king descended instantly vaporized. Through Lumoof, I could feel its presence, it was like a hot fire. It didn’t appear where we wanted it to be, but now we had to lure it to the few designated battlefields across the Western Continent.

The heroes knew it was coming, too.

“Well…” Colette said, and then a magical gate appeared right next to him. Chung walked right through, fully armed and equipped. “Shall we get with the plan?”

Prabu and Hafiz both nodded. Chung passed the other three heroes some stick-like artifact, then took a glance at Edna and Lumoof. “So you two are the supporting fighters?”

Lumoof smiled. “Yes. Hope we are not much of a bother.”

Chung shrugged. “Oh well, let’s get with it.”

The heroes quickly moved to position, and they periodically activated their star mana forms. Our spies and scouts tracked the demon king’s movement, and it seemed to have picked up the heroes’ location and moved toward them.

This was a good sign, since it meant it wasn’t intelligent enough to recognize the trap. Either that, or it would learn from this experience and not fall for it the next time.

More crucially, through Lumoof, I called my Valthorns together, and I spoke to them. I’d sent them to war many times, but few as risky as this. Perhaps only the war with Kei.

“My faithful Valthorns, once again I call on you to fight the demon king, and this time, through Lumoof, I will be right at your side with my full strength. I do not intend to lie that all of you will be safe. You’ve seen for yourself those who have sacrificed their lives in earlier battles, and I make no guarantees for your survival. We will go to war with the demon king, whose powers we do not fully comprehend. Though risky and many will die, it is a step we must take, only through challenging the demon king itself, we can gain the powers needed to stand our own feet, and stop our world’s toxic dependence on heroes.”

Everyone present nodded. Kei merely listened, as one of those who would play a supporting role. She would not join the fight. Not now.

“First we beat the demon king, then we break this cycle of destruction. Only then, peace will truly come to our world.” Through Lumoof, I nodded. “We all know the plan, so let’s do it. Let’s bomb the demon king!”

They roared.

The Valthorns split up. They all had their part to play. Lumoof immediately joined the heroes in a pre-built fortress; this time, it was dug out of the ground itself. There was no point to above-ground structures that would be vaporized by laser beams, unless specially enchanted.

“It is moving as predicted. Each flare and use of star mana powers, it adjusted its position and direction,” the scouts explained. The heroes had their own monitoring artifacts, and archmages like Prabu and Colette had magical farsight. Chung, being the archer, had a set of magical birds that could spy for him.

“So time to show off what you’ve been working on?” Prabu asked.

Chung nodded. “Yup.” At a large, empty clearing, he pulled out a contraption that seemed to unfurl itself into an array of massive ballistas.

Prabu just stared. “Wait. You built a huge ballista?”

“Yup. But not just any regular ballista. This is a combination weapon of at least twenty hero-item equivalents. Sadly, only single-use. Use it once and it’ll break apart.”

“This is your plan?”

“It’s very, very difficult to make a combination weapon, mind you. Had to work around the stupid [hero forge] restrictions,” Chung complained. “What about you guys? Did you make the mecha zords that you wanted?”

Prabu shook his head. “Nope. We just built a large number of magical batteries and healing devices all around this continent. We’re not going to repeat the earlier mistake of taking on the demon king without preparation.”

“Good.” Chung nodded. “Pray that it is enough.”

“You’re not the type to pray.”

The demon king and its horde of ogres crossed one of the designated battlefields. We’d rigged the place with so many magical crystals that it should cause some harm. All of the crystals were hidden underground and made to be magically linked such that they caused all the crystals nearby to detonate simultaneously. Burying them was hard work, and it took months of my druids’ time. We activated the crystals, and Alka waited for news.

He was like a scientist who was waiting to see how his invention performed against the real thing. He was excited, stressed, and just a big bundle of nerves.

We felt a sudden pulse, and the battlefield exploded. Our scouts watched from afar, but the demon king was unharmed. There was a huge red sphere that protected the floating demon king. It was a massive demon king and had a rhino-shaped head and a big, buff body with a dark maroon hide. A glowing tattoo covered its entire body. The demon king held up a large flaming axe made out of flesh and metal on one of its thick arms and roared.

The earth shook as massive chunks of rocks were lifted from the ground and then melted into round spheres of lava. With those molten balls of lava, it bombed the land in its path. This detonated or destroyed the crystals that were hidden in the ground.

Ah darn.

It was smart enough to destroy the land in front to eliminate any traps. We had to move on to the next stage. Our ranged weapons. We had limited ability here, the only truly ranged weapon we had in the area was Hytreerion and an assortment of middle-range weapons like super-large ballistas and other similar classes of weapons.

The demon king had a shield or barrier ability of some kind, and it looked like it was better for us to use our ranged weapons during the fight with the demon king. The shield was most probably rechargeable, so if we were to use them now, we would just waste our weapons and traps.

Therefore, we decided to just wait as the demon king approached. The heroes, too, got ready. They had their own weapons and traps, and they understood enough.

“Well, time to do it again,” Prabu said as his body shimmered from the glow of star mana. The four heroes all transformed, their bodies surrounded by their unique star mana armor.

The demon king approached closer; the heroes and demon king were now in combat distance. It raised its axe up high. That instant, both Stella and I felt the fabric of space twisted. All the rifts moved, and it now appeared above the demon king itself.

The astral path burned with a strange light. At that moment, the rifts twisted and expanded. Then the heads of monsters appeared from the rift. These were large, as large as champions, maybe even more.

There was no notification, but Lumoof quickly used [Inspect] on the giant monsters that appeared.

[Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Worm]

[Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Fox]

[Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Hawk]

The three monsters that appeared quickly split up. The hawk soared, while the demon worm immediately went into the ground. The fox landed smoothly next to the demon shaman king, and the fox also roared.

“I’m the archer, so I’ll go for the hawk.” Chung immediately moved to his large ballista, and the ballista glowed.

“Wait, shouldn’t we discuss this?” Prabu said as he activated a magical shield. Colette and Hafiz both looked a little lost, but the ground started shaking. Hafiz, the paladin or knight, activated a shield ability as the ground tore apart. The worm had started to engage.

Edna looked over at Lumoof and the rest of the Valthorns. “Well, it’s already started. Shall we?”

Lumoof nodded, and through him, the avatar activated. I immediately could sense where the worm was, my tree’s root senses. It would be the easiest to destroy. “Heroes, I’ll handle the worm.”

Lumoof glowed and transformed into a tree, and instantly we flooded the ground around us with roots. From our experience with demonic worms and centipedes, the roots would effectively disable the worms from tunnelling. The worm moved quickly, but the roots extended and chased after it.

We created multiple giant trees everywhere, and beneath the ground, the roots of these trees formed a cage underground.

My roots attacked the worm and found it had thick shells. Yet my roots broke through easily, and I unleashed a barrage of root strikes that skewered the worm underneath. The worm compressed and then detonated with a small boom. However, my roots were able to withstand the underground explosion.

The demon shaman king immediately turned and faced me and Lumoof, and it charged at us immediately instead of the heroes.

Edna got in position. “All right.” She charged her shield with her mana and then waited. The demon shaman king’s burning fire axe came crashing down, and there was a huge wall of flames. Edna activated her shield, and the shield glowed in white. The axe landed, but it did not break. Edna stamped her feet then, and my roots immediately wrapped around her leg and supported her. I felt her drain mana from my roots as her shield glowed and grew even larger.

The axe didn’t get through, and her shield released an energy blast. It hit the demon shaman king right in the chest.

It didn’t really hurt it; there was a reddish layer of magical protection around the demon king. There was a look on the demon shaman king’s face, but I wasn’t sure what it was. The demon king was massive, and it was way larger than Edna.

Perfect for root strikes. The larger the body, the more places I could hit. Roots flew from the ground and smashed into the demon shaman king’s reddish magical shield.

At the same time, Edna charged ahead with both shield and spear. Edna’s spear glowed, and she stabbed the demon shaman king. Her spear met the demon king’s shield. The magical energies from the tip of Edna’s spear hummed and clashed with the red energy shield in huge sparks of light and color, and she pushed.

The demon king’s fiery axe came down, but rather than dodge it, Edna took it head on, her spear active, and activated her domain skill [Duty Beyond Life and Death]. Her body instantly glowed in a faint yellow, and the axe smashed into her arm. There was an explosion around her, but the buckler on her arm did not break. Her ability allowed her to absorb the demon king’s attack.

I thought I saw her faintly smile when her [domain] skill activated.

The demon pulled the axe back and hacked again. But Edna had abandoned defense altogether, and she retaliated with a spear stab. I helped with more root strikes through the immobile Lumoof.

The spear landed a few more hits and then shattered. She took out another spear from her magical pocketspace.

“How does she take the attack like that?!” Prabu seemed surprised but took the chance to activate more magical spells on the demon fox. Hafiz, the knight-hero, charged ahead with his glowing star mana sword and attempted to slash the demon king.

The hero’s sword met the energy shield.

The star mana energies on the sword sparkled, and then the demon’s shield cracked. Hafiz pushed, and the shield shattered. The demon king took attacks from me, Edna, and Hafiz once the shield was done.

The sword from the hero caused a cut across its massive body, and my barrage of root strikes and Edna’s spear-stab caused small holes along its chest.

It roared, and the tattoo throughout its body glowed. The wounds we made closed, and the fiery axe moved autonomously and hacked the knight-hero. Edna took full advantage of her near-immortality to help block the demon king’s attack with her magical shield. The shield cracked and broke apart and then met her arms.

She parried it, despite her relatively small size, and then stabbed the demon king.

The knight-hero ducked below the axe and landed a few star mana–powered cuts on the demon king. He activated some kind of magical slash skill, and his sword flashed. He chopped off the demon king’s arm.

Through Lumoof, I immediately called on my roots to wrap around the demon king, and I felt the roots connect and touch the demon king’s skin. I attempted to drain its mana.

The demon king glowed. I knew then it was one of those area-clearing abilities.

“Shields up!” Colette and Prabu shouted as they activated magical barriers. Chung immediately stopped engaging the demon hawk and with a magical step retreated next to Colette. Hafiz activated a magical armor that coated his entire body, but even so, he retreated.

The demon king emitted a bright flash of light, followed by an energy blast that incinerated everything around it. Well, except Edna, she ignored the attack and just stabbed the demon king. The energy blast burned some of her equipment and singed her skin lightly, but it quickly regenerated.

When the bright light subsided, the demon king’s dismembered arm had regenerated.

Edna’s spear was vaporized by the attack, but then, she punched the demon king with her energy-infused fists. She shouted, “I’m not dealing damage!”

“What the hell is that overpowered ability?” the heroes shouted in unison, clearly unaware of Edna’s short-term combat immortality. Still, despite her multiple punches, those punches didn’t do much damage. It merely annoyed the demon king. Edna was quite similar to me, in the sense that she had tremendously high defensive abilities, but her offensive abilities lagged far behind.

Hafiz immediately ran ahead and summoned two star-mana swords. He threw one of them at Edna. Edna was the only one nearby, and she grabbed the sword. She slashed and managed to land a few cuts.

Then the sword ran out of star mana and turned to dust.

The demon king punched, and this time, Edna was knocked back really far. She may not take damage, but they could still push her. The demon fox took the chance to rejoin its master.

I immediately mentally spoke to the heroes. “Let Edna do the tanking. You guys keep attacking the demon king.”

They nodded, and the two archmages charged up a bluish energy ball and fired it. The blue energy ball transformed into a glowing piece of ice and smashed right into the demon king’s regenerated shields.

The shield instantly shattered. Edna moved in.

Edna pulled out a magical ice sword from Aria and slashed. The ice sword landed five hits and then shattered. She pulled out another set of spears and stabbed the demon king when the energy shield was down. I also followed up with a few root strikes. Once again, I attempted to wrap the demon king with my vines.

Our attacks did some damage, but it was Hafiz’s star mana sword slash that dealt most of the damage.

But I could tell the heroes were at least impressed that we were holding on and could even contribute. Around the same time, I immediately got my mid-range and long-range weapons to be ready. Hytreerion got into position, and a few of my other Valthorns prepared the magical artillery, loaded with an arsenal of crystal bombs.

The hawk in the sky launched thunderbolts. Its dark-red feathers were lava and lightning combined. Chung’s magical arrows chased the hawk through the sky, but Chung also tried to launch an attack at the demon king every now and then.

The hawk took a hit, and it crashed on the ground. Right before it flew off, my roots immediately surged out of the ground and wrapped it and attempted to drain as much of its mana as possible. The hawk struggled.

Chung immediately charged up a magical arrow and blasted the hawk through the head. The hawk disintegrated to magical dust. We were left with the fox and the demon king. The fox roared and blasted out an energy wave.

It leapt toward Edna, its claws armed and ready.

The fox clawed and slashed Edna, but it didn’t hurt her at all. However, it freed up the demon king from Edna’s annoying presence, and the demon king took the chance to charge at the rest of the heroes. The demon king’s shield was back again. As it charged, it attempted to move the earth around the battlefield.

I felt the demon king’s magic tug at the ground strongly, but my roots had covered the entire battlefield, and together with Lumoof, we fought back and kept the ground stable. It roared in frustration and then used lightning instead. Lightning from its axe surged toward the heroes. Both Colette and Prabu somehow automatically activated magical shields, and the lightning axes smashed into the shield.

It exploded, and both the archmages were knocked back.

Yet the same attack also gave Hafiz an opening. The knight-hero slashed the demon king from the back and left two large gashes that ran down its massive body. It roared and glowed again. This time, I felt a stronger twist of magic in the air.

The two archmages were a little drowsy from being knocked back, and they got up. They immediately put up shields. Hafiz’s body glowed in armor, and he too slashed again. Edna continued to battle with the fox, and she was winning. The fact that the fox could not hurt Edna meaningfully meant she ignored her defense and just kept on attacking the fox.

I wrapped the demon king with my roots again. Its glowing body twisted and struggled. This time, it turned to face Lumoof. It shot out a focused beam toward Lumoof.

I activated all the shields as I could manage, and the beam pierced through almost all of it. But my shields was sufficient to deflect the beam slightly off center, and it merely hit Lumoof right in the legs. It vaporized his legs, and my roots immediately stepped in to start healing the wounds. I would have to mend it later.

Lumoof yelped in pain, but he grit his teeth. “We can continue,” he insisted. My roots managed to stop the bleeding and started repairs. My roots entered the wound and supported his body momentarily, but permanent repair would need to happen after the battle.

The demon king stopped glowing, and the gashes healed again. Yet the change in the magic in the air was clear. Each regeneration drained it. It swung its axe around like a hurricane and surrounded itself with a fiery tornado. It activated more magic, and the earth itself turned to lava. The lava burned my roots, and I quickly flooded my roots with water drawn from a river not too far away.

The ground turned into a mix of lava and water. The ground started to release steam as the water evaporated and the lava cooled. The demon king stomped the ground, and the ground shattered. Pieces of hardened, dried lava rock cracked out of the floor.

The heroes activated a range of ice-spells as they pulled moisture out of the team and formed them into icicles and launched them at demon king. This also helped clear out the mist. It was then I noticed Chung’s contraption was already destroyed.

Some of the dirt and lava rocks broke free from my weakened roots, and these dirt chunks transformed into lava axes midair. The demon king magically hurled them toward Lumoof, Edna, and the heroes. The sky swirled above as the heroes also activated some kind of blizzard spell. Ice shards started to rain down, and these shards homed in on the demon king.

They smashed into the demon king’s red shield. These ice shards didn’t crack the shield.

The lava axes met one of my wooden shield skills and exploded. At that time, the demon king raised both its arms, and then the sky parted. Edna dodged the lava axes; she made sure to avoid the places where the ground was soft. The lava may not kill her, but she could get trapped and be effectively disabled.

A massive, deep-red fireball came crashing down.

“Fuck!” The heroes screamed as they grouped together and then activated various shields. I instantly surrounded Lumoof with layers and layers of wooden shields and barriers. The entire battlefield exploded, and it destroyed all my giant attendant trees.

But the heroes survived. All four of them huddled together. Only one shield remained. Had they used their shields separately, they would have died. For Lumoof, the fires burned through most of the shields, but thankfully my avatar mode meant he shared my fire resistance. Had it been any other element, Lumoof would be in trouble.

Yet the explosion left the demon king frozen in a daze. It stood motionless.

This was Edna’s moment, again. Edna immediately took out more spears magically and stabbed the demon king. Her attack snapped all of us to action. I called on Hytreerion and my mid-ranged Valthorns to start their barrage while I also activated more root strikes. The heroes attacked.

From afar, my crystal bombs zoomed across the skies and then landed around the demon king. They exploded on impact. The heroes’ magical spells landed on the motionless demon king and left multiple wounds. My root strike pierced through some of the weakened parts of the demon king’s skin. The knight-hero left more cuts and gashes across its body and then attempted to behead the demon shaman king.

His star mana sword stopped halfway.

The demon king glowed, and everyone retreated except Edna. She went in, activated her Court of the Deitree and surrounded herself in wooden armor, and started punching. Her fists were shaped like spears, augmented by the wooden casing around her.

The demon king regenerated, again.

Edna punched, and the demon king smashed Edna with its molten club. The rest of my Valthorns, those in the level one hundred twenties to one hundred thirties, launched ranged attacks where they could. Roon and Johann, who was initially located a distance away to coordinate the mid-ranged weapons, now came to join the battle.

Their attacks didn’t do much. All of us lacked the firepower to deal game-ending damage, as our attacks were stopped by the shield that came back online.

Chung launched a rain of magical star-mana arrows at the demon king, and the arrows slammed into the demon king’s back. The torrent of star-mana arrows cracked the shields.

“Its shields are down!” Chung said.

The two archmages launched magical energy blasts and reactivated their blizzard spell. This time, the ice shards slammed right into its body. The demon shaman king raised its axe, and this time, a rift appeared in the sky. A demon-dragon came out.[Summon of Bagradva - Demon Dragon]

The dragon roared and shot huge beams.

“Focus on the demon king!” Chung shouted. “It’s already dying!”

The dragon immediately landed on the ground with a slam and attempted to attack the heroes. But before it could do so, my roots surged out of the ground and constricted the dragon. Thousands of vines and roots emerged and pulled the dragon down. I drained the dragon’s mana, and Lumoof coughed as the dragon’s energy flowed through his body.

The heroes kept attacking the demon king. The demon king’s axe slammed right into Hafiz’s shield and cracked it. The ground shook slightly, my regenerated roots absorbing the vibrations. The steam turned to mist as the heroes’ blizzard reduced the temperature greatly.

Hafiz’s glowing star mana sword slashed a few more times, and finally, with a great glowing slash, he beheaded the demon shaman king.

The severed head immediately sprouted a snake-like body.

“What the shit? It’s not dead yet!” Chung screamed in frustration and used a star mana blast. The energy blast missed as the head slithered away quickly. I activated my roots and attempted to wrap it.

“I’ll hold it. Take a shot once it stops!”

My roots wrestled with the snake-body of the demon king’s head. It was strong, but I was just a bit stronger. My roots twisted, and it stopped. I tried to crush the body but couldn’t; all I could do was hold it in its place.

Colette and Prabu launched a combined super-dense ice blob, and it exploded right at the head. The head turned to ice, and then the entire head and the snake body disintegrated. The summoned dragon also immediately disintegrated.

At this time, we felt a magical pulse coming from the original demon king body. We knew what it was.

“It’s gonna blow.”

No. My roots immediately wrapped the original body and pierced it. It was weaker now, and my roots searched for the core.

We found it. The demon core. I wrapped it with huge amounts of roots and vines and started to drain the mana.

Lumoof coughed and winced in pain as his body endured the huge amounts of demonic mana and other kinds of weird energies from the demon core.

My head hurt; I felt like I got hit with a jackhammer and then fed a few bottles of alcohol. Both drunk and dizzy. Was this mana poisoning? But I kept on draining mana from the demon core, and then the pulse finally stopped.

[Demon King Bagradva has been slain!]

[You have gained 9 levels. You are now Level 208.]

Yet, immediately after the notification, I felt the effects of the mana poisoning sink in, and I felt like I needed to sleep. For a short while.

41

YEAR 191 (PART 2)

The battle was over, and I rested for a few days. Lumoof, thankfully, recovered from the damage far faster than I did. It seemed that in avatar mode, all the mana was transferred to my main body, so I bore the brunt of the mana intoxication. Patreeck and the rest of my artificial minds assisted to regulate the excess mana and stored them in the potato batteries. We would come back to it someday. I hoped.

Edna had to take a long, long nap and spent days doing nothing but sleeping. Though her ability gave her combat immortality, once the one-day timer was up, she was pretty much a puppet whose strings were cut. She could barely walk or move.

But it was worth it. She gained a lot of levels and hit level one hundred sixty-five and gained even more abilities with it. Her new ability [Regenerating Guardians] granted her the ability to create five guardians that shared her toughness.

Lumoof, too, gained some levels, but most of it only enhanced his connection with me such that he could withstand more of my power.

But more important were those that we wanted to groom. Roon, Johann, Alka, and Stella all gained levels from the victory for their contributions to the combat effort.

Roon, Johann, and Alka were now in the higher level one hundred forties. It was likely that we could breach the level needed to obtain their domains by the time of the next demon king.

No, more importantly, I returned to my notifications. I activated the menu, and instantly a long list of notifications appeared.

[You have gained 9 levels. You are now Level 208.]

[Level 200 grants Minor Pantheon Powers. Minor Pantheon Powers are dependent on subdomain choices.]

[Further skills once a subdomain power has been chosen.]

[Subdomain Power Choices: You may choose one out of three choices below.]

[Subdomain Choice: Tree of Life. This choice leads you down the path of regeneration, evolution, immortality, and life creation. Each of your main body and your cloned bodies gains significant regenerative abilities. This choice allows the creation of cloned bodies under the Tree of Clones. Your trees gain the ability to adapt to all kinds of environments, and terraforming ability.]

[This subdomain choice will lead to creation of life, greater-monster minions, evolution-alteration, healing, endurance, regeneration, clones, and multi-body skills in the future.]

[This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - Immortal Tokens - Domain-level individuals who join your pantheon can be remade and regenerated even if they are killed. On death or destruction, their souls will return to you for “respawn.” The respawn time depends on how strong they are. Stronger deities require longer respawn times. However, choosing this ability will mean the death of these pantheon members will no longer grant Titan Souls, and you will not be able to gain any stored experience from their familiars. These domain holders can still die if all your tree of clones and your main body are destroyed.]

[Choosing this subdomain also unlocks the Trees of Clones: You may now create clones in addition to your own. The number of main-body clones increases with level. You cannot die unless all cloned bodies are destroyed. You can regenerate any destroyed bodies after a small recovery time. Each clone body and your main body are magically intertwined, and you may move items and people between them, subject to a distance-adjusted mana cost, with a discounted or minimal cost for Aeonic-related items, classes, and individuals and also familiar-holders. Clones initially take the form of a basketball-size seed that can be transported and planted elsewhere. Tree of Clones may be placed anywhere and naturally terraforms their environment. They do not need to be physically linked as their connection is through the system.]

[Subdomain choice: Will of the World. This choice takes the first step in merging with the world that you are in. This choice removes any distance or depth restrictions for roots and trees. You will thus be able to spread your roots anywhere in the world, through oceans and under them. You may also create underwater trees. This choice leads to terrain and elemental magics and abilities, significantly improved offense and damage for you and those touched by your powers, creation of elementals, weather control, terrain shaping, and wielding the land as your weapon.]

[This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - Strength of the World: This grants significant stats and strength boost (at least hero tier), improved elemental resistance, and enhanced abilities with the four main elements. Pantheon members also gain the ability to terraform and gain ability to temporarily transform into elementals.]

[Choosing this subdomain unlocks Elements of the World. This is a path where you gain access to the controls of this world. This includes more accurate astral maps, ability to move the world in the void sea, bend space and distance around the world and its neighbors.]

[Subdomain choice: Crown of Magic. You gain the ability to use all kinds of spells without requiring skills or classes and simultaneously generate star mana, void mana, blood mana, and any other mana type you discover. This path leads to “global” and “multi-world” spells and abilities. You will also be able to override any hero-item restrictions and use them to their full potential. Your magical laboratories and sensors gain increased sensitivity and functionality. Your main tree can now learn magic just by sight, and certain types of hero-abilities. You can also grant magical abilities to a limited number of individuals.]

[This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - A Land of Magic: Domain Members can access and store their unique mana types in areas where your trees are present. They may also pre-cast and store skills and spells in the land itself, thus skipping any casting time and mana cost restrictions. Your trees will function as magical amplifiers for their abilities.]

[Tree of Magics: You may create Great Magical Trees. Each of these magical trees can generate a choice of star mana, void mana, blood mana, or any other mana type discovered. These Great Magical Trees can weave and cast multiple magical enchantments that apply over an area as large as a continent. Magical Trees can significantly enhance existing ley lines, link distant ley lines together, cast wide-scale protective spells, and interfere with other magic.]

[Crown of Magic also allows you to Forge Magical Items without restrictions. These weapons and items can generate their own mana, act as the locus of area enchantments, and amplify magical powers. You are also able to fuse Titan-Souls with deity-class (or higher) magical items to create unlimited-class weapons that can grow, gain their own levels, and transform into weapons that can exceed even the gods.]

I sat down and looked at the three choices. [Tree of Life] allowed me to bypass the Avatar limitation and free up Lumoof to truly be my mobile avatar. It also pretty much made me functionally immortal, especially if I could get my seeds off world to the other two worlds or any uninhabited world.

This was a good choice for expanding to the demon worlds and the other continents and was essentially a step toward an intreedimensional empire. A true multi-world force. I could, through this ability, even take on demon kings on other worlds, thus speeding up our leveling speed.

The pantheon ability also made it less risky to put any lesser domain holders like Lumoof, Roon, and Alka right before the demon king. That said, this ability was quite useless with Edna, since she could already take all the damage.

The second choice, Will of the World, had the main benefit of bypassing all distance restrictions all over the world. With this, I could invade all the continents at the same time. That said, this choice did not allow me to spread my roots to the other worlds, and my main body still remained the single point of failure.

But the boosted stats to all my domain-wielders meant this ability synchronized really well with Edna’s [Duty Beyond Life and Death]. She could endure all the hits the demon king could dish out and then keep dealing damage with her significantly improved offensive abilities.

From the battle with the demon king, it was quite obvious that the heroes did a lot of the damage, if not most of it. Even my root strikes, which were generally super effective against demons, did not do exceptional damage against the demon king. If I wanted to kill a demon king with the rest of my pantheon members quickly, this seemed like a decent choice. It also negated and weakened the range of the demon king’s elemental attacks, so it wasn’t a total tradeoff against survivability, either.

The last choice led us down the path of magic. It seemed to overlap with Stella’s void magic; perhaps this meant I could amplify her power to actually deny the demon king, and the global magics suggested I could also use them to hide the world or redirect the demon kings.

This choice enhanced survivability indirectly through the stored spells and skills, which felt like an exploitable mechanic. The growing weapons that had no limits also felt exploitable, though I needed more time to think about a good way to abuse it. The ability to “grant” hero-tier magical abilities was also an interesting choice; again, I didn’t know what exactly that meant until I’d used it.

Did it mean I could functionally create heroes?

I could link ley lines together with the ability, so that was also a very good interaction with my dungeon ability, which would allow me to create even stronger dungeons for my Valthorns.

This path had the most unknowns, because I didn’t know what magic was capable of at that level. This choice potentially had the means to break the cycle through some kind of great magic, or perhaps it was possible to seal off the entire world from the demons, buying us some time to grow and recover. Alternatively, the enhanced magic could possibly interfere with the demon king’s void magic.

All these choices were interesting, and I brought the matter to my senior Valthorns for their input.

Edna was first to answer. “Honestly, can we delay it until Stella, Roon, Johann, and Alka all gain their Domains? If we could see what domain abilities they receive, we could choose what we lacked.”

Lumoof nodded at Edna’s suggestion. “I must say I agree with that assessment. We really don’t know enough.”

Kei and Stella, who were both present, stated their case. “We can extrapolate the powers from what they have now. It’s likely Stella’s domain will be some kind of void ability, so perhaps Stella can create even more powerful portals?”

Johann nodded. “I like the regenerating and immortal ability, though. It means we could pretty much fight the demon king with not a care in the world since we can’t die. We can actually win against the demon kings purely by attrition, a really interesting reversal of the situation. I believe this seems to be a long-term idea and plays well with Stella’s void powers. We could send a clone to the demon world!”

“The Will of the World is immediately more useful, though. It would functionally enhance our grip on the world,” Alka said. “The lack of depth restrictions means we could dig even deeper, and even below the heat. There must be treasures and more lost cities we have not seen.”

Kei then added, “Doesn’t it mean Aeon’s trees can be everywhere? That means he could use his beetles everywhere!”

Stella paused and then added, “What if all of this is just an illusion of choice, if all these choices eventually result in the same thing, even if the journey to achieve those choices is different? Take how the tree of clones essentially extended Aeon’s range, the same way the Will of the World does.”

“That does make some sense.” Alka nodded. “If so, should we think of this as ‘which ability we can’t replicate or substitute with other abilities or spells’? If a few of us will eventually reach and acquire our own domains, then some of our domains must be able to substitute these skills.”

“Is that an argument for Tree of Life? Since immortality is not easily replicated,” Lumoof asked.

“Eh. I thought it didn’t really say anything. I think the immortality ability has substitutes, like my own.” Edna’s [Duty Beyond Life and Death] was case in point.

“Then it’s the underground ability,” Alka said. “The Will of the World. We could find all sort of stuff! Maybe there’s a secret even at the center of the planet!”

Kei smacked her face. “Given what I’ve seen, I’m actually afraid you might be right.”

“I’m sure there are magical abilities for that. It is possible that your [Domain] ability as a scientist may grant you the ability to find such treasures hidden beneath the ground, regardless of what’s in your way,” Edna quipped.

“That’s certainly not the only use,” Alka protested. “Merging with the world sounds like Aeon will be the planet itself.”

“The magical ability to cast global spells,” Stella then suggested. “We should take that. It sounds like it’d work well with my abilities and would improve my chances to delay or deny the demon king.”

“A mage with [domain] could possibly do such spells, too. If we think of demon kings as domain-class, we have seen demon kings use global abilities. No, actually, are you trying to wriggle out of having to get your own [domain]?” Kei looked at Stella. Stella shook her hands in protest.

“In the long run, all these choices probably make little difference,” Stella said. “But looking at the medium term, over the next few decades, these choices would affect how we survive the demon kings.”

Johann nodded. “I think the Tree of Life makes good sense. If none of us can die, we can all aim and plan.”

“Doesn’t that just trivialize death?”

“I’m sure the regeneration time of a [domain] holder will be quite long. Maybe years or decades,” Kei said. “This world does seem to take inspiration from games and ancient myths, and it’s not unusual for ancient evils or great powers to recover from destruction over very long periods.” That reminded me of so many stories that started with the rebirth of the evil god.

“Oh, so we may not die, but we waste a lot of time.”

“Time that may save lives and other worlds.”

“I’m against the magic route,” Roon said. “I feel that once a sufficient number of us can take on the demon king, with immortality, we can effectively continue fighting the demon king. No, fighting the demon king is even better since we become stronger with each fight. It’s a risk-free route. The earlier civilizations were destroyed after a long war of attrition.”

“Yes, but we will have to keep fighting forever. The magical route essentially offers a chance to close this issue by blocking us. No. The magical route also means we may have spells that create larger, more sustainable portals. With that, we may be able to invade the demonic world.”

“That still sounds like playing defense,” Roon responded. “Being immortal allows us to go on the offense.”

“We don’t know that,” Stella answered. “What if we invade the other worlds and find that there’s no solution there? The gods clearly have tried something, but they too failed in destroying the demons. Hiding may well be the only true way to avoid this fight.”

“Until when?” the ranger responded. “We cannot hide forever.”

“What if merging with the world allows both?” Alka wondered as he tried to steer the conversation away. “There must be something more to this ‘merging with the world’ thing. If Aeon becomes the world, Aeon may also be unkillable. With that solid foundation, we’ll just need time to have Stella and the rest of the void mages gain their own domains.”

“A really long time, mind you,” Stella protested. “Void magic isn’t so easily taught.”

“He doesn’t have a point. We have twenty void mages in your void school, and Aeon can give you upgraded classes,” Alka said.

Kei paused and took the conversation in another direction. “Aeon, is it possible that at level two hundred fifty, you may actually encounter these choices again?”

I thought back to my level one hundred fifty domain choices. [Nature], [Spirit], and [Astral]. I chose [Nature] then.

As I thought about it, I thought it may be more accurate that both Will of the World and Tree of Life were essentially paths that went deeper along the path of the [Nature] aspect. [Living Magic] seemed to take a detour through magic, taking a bit from both [Spirit] and [Astral].

So I answered Kei’s question. “Not exactly. These level two hundred choices were not what I got for my level one hundred fifty.”

Edna circled back. “I stand by the earlier suggestion. Hold on the choice until more of us get our domains. There’s no time limit, right?”

Everyone took a look at Lumoof, who remained mostly silent. Lumoof shrugged. “Don’t look at me, I’m Aeon’s number one faithful, and if it’s me, I believe in Aeon’s wisdom to choose.”

42

YEAR 192

With the battle against the demon king behind us, I moved Lumoof back to the north. The first order of the day was to find Ken again.

Where did he go?

We couldn’t find him. So we made sure to keep all my artificial minds on the lookout. It was possible they’d sailed to the other continents, and if so, there was no point looking for them here in the north.

Around this time, we received a letter from Meela. Another meeting with her and Alexis.

We met again in that same hotel, this time only Lumoof and Edna. There really was no need to bring anyone else.

“Patriarch Lumoof, we meet again. This is Alexis, my partner and co-leader of the Rosewoods.” Meela nodded, and this was when I saw Alexis again after so long. She was a tall, slender woman; her face was that of a human, with the exception of the beetle-like iris and two little feelers on her forehead. She had humanlike fingers, but the tips were like little claws with tiny hooks.

Alexis nodded, and Edna too gave a knowing nod. Lumoof made a guess on her class.

[Assassin]

Meela noticed the way Alexis and Edna looked at each other and immediately explained. “I believe we’ve met under less-than-pleasant situations. But let’s put that behind us and look forward.” Alexis was still tense, and she sat down. Edna could singlehandedly defeat everyone in this room, and everyone knew it.

Lumoof smiled and sat on the chair. “Indeed, I was also told by one former hero that you two tried to attack her.”

Meela nodded knowingly. “It was clear that she’s a former hero after that event. Our lack of intel from the Central Continent made us blind. It’s very unfortunate that our meeting devolved in that manner.”

Lumoof took a cup of tea and sipped. He wasn’t worried whether it was poisoned. “Oh, she was equally surprised to learn that the two of you were former heroes of another generation. It seems to us that the number of former heroes in the world only keeps growing.”

Meela laughed. “I suddenly feel a lot less special.”

Lumoof only nodded. “So let’s start. I would like to preface our discussion with Aeon’s view. As he promised many years ago, he has no intention of meddling and wishes to respect that both of you have separate lives.”

Alexis immediately leaned in. “Define meddling. Is he not meddling when the two of you are here?” Meela merely sighed at the response.

Lumoof was calm, and he expected the question. “It’s important to look at context and the overall picture. Aeon’s ultimate goal is to break this world from the cycle. To do so, he has to occasionally step in to ‘save’ the heroes, especially if they are cursed, in order to minimize the destruction from the demon king. Though, as we could see from Alvin’s case, he didn’t do that well against the previous demon king. Nevertheless, after our incident in the north, Aeon decided that he needed to move in the north, as it seemed that these islands are home to quite a bit of the anti-hero factions, if only to maintain the balance.”

“Sounds like an excuse to expand his power.”

Lumoof nodded. “Oh, we make no excuses there. Aeon in his pursuit of power will have to expand to everywhere in this world.”

Alexis immediately turned to face Meela. The room already had anti-magic shielding.

“The world will run out of time,” Lumoof said before Alexis could continue. “Aiva told us that the god’s powers fade.” Well, we only heard from Aiva; we didn’t know whether the other gods were actually fading or not. “In a century or two, Aiva will no longer support the summons, and the world may end up without heroes to face the corruption of the demons.”

“Wait. What?” Alexis looked at Meela. Meela didn’t respond to the statement.

“Aeon is aware of your past disagreements with his methods.” Rich, and hypocritical now that Alexis was an assassin that killed many others. But she was a smart girl, and I liked to believe her intellect could be useful. “But let’s work together, at least, to overcome this challenge. Past enmities can be managed.”

Alexis sat down. “You’re not lying.”

“We met Aiva herself.” I wasn’t sure whether to refer to Aiva as male or female. Honestly, it could go either way, though the Church of Aiva tended to refer to Aiva as a goddess, even though that wasn’t exactly in their scripture. “Her presence was real.”

“Can you tell us why Aeon has all the hero fragments?” Alexis sat.

Lumoof mentally pinged me, and I agreed. “It was something he kept from everyone until recently, but he is what they call…collateral damage. An accidental tagalong during the hero summons. The fragments were awarded to all those who tagged along.”

There was silence as Alexis and Meela both processed it.

It was a long silence.

“You’re telling me now that he understood all our references all this time? And he never said a word?” Alexis had a look that was mostly anger.

“Yes. Infuriating as it may be, it was Aeon’s decision in the early days.”

“This is ridiculous.” Alexis looked at Meela. She stood and slammed the table. “You believe this shit?”

“I must say I do.” Meela looked back. “It makes a lot of sense, taking account of his paranoia with his knowledge of our world; he is quite like some of the more paranoid heroes.” I didn’t feel I was paranoid. I thought I was reasonable in protecting myself.

“Why?” Alexis stood.

I took over Lumoof as Lumoof’s eyes glowed. I spoke through him.

“Because a tree cannot move. If the entire world knew of my origins, would they turn on me? Maybe yes, maybe not. But I did not take chances, not with what little power I had then. I am unlike the rest of you, who can afford to run, to hide, to alter how you appear with magic, or with the right spells to move to another world. If we made a wrong move, I was a sitting duck. I have been on the receiving end of so many hexbombs that I no longer bother to count them. The truth costs me a lot more. I am willing to admit the truth, because now I can afford to. The world is not a pleasant place. You’ve seen how assassins tried to kill heroes even with the overwhelming power of heroes. What could a tree, an immobile tree, do?”

Meela sighed. Alexis was silent.

“Meela and Alexis, we meet again after so long, and I would have preferred we met under more auspicious and pleasant circumstances. But the reality is this: we have just a few centuries left to chart our path and prepare for the moments when our crutches are off.”

They were listening, even if they felt intimidated.

“It may seem long, but it’s only fifteen to twenty demon kings. That may not be enough to level enough of us, such that we can survive subsequent demon kings without the support of heroes consistently. Not just one demon king, but for the rest of this world’s existence. Without divine support.”

Meela nodded. “I understand. So what’s the plan?”

Alexis turned. “Meela.”

“Aeon is right. If the summoning of the heroes will stop, this world is truly fucked. Like it or not, we can’t ever reach that level. We certainly don’t have the right skills or items to even stand up to any regular hero, what more the demon king,” Meela defended me. “We’ve worked at this for a century, and you’re still only level ninety, and I’m barely above level one hundred. If Aeon is able to even graze the level of the gods, then we need to work with him.”

I said frankly, “Honestly, I am willing to let the two of you continue as is. There really is no need for both of you to make massive adjustments to the new lives you have built over the last century. But I hoped to rely on both of you for intelligence, for support should it be needed, and mainly, to put things bluntly, don’t get in the way. What I want at the moment is an intelligence-sharing agreement and non-interference with our actions here in the north or wherever you may operate. I can dictate that by force, if I need to, but that’s an unnecessary waste of manpower.”

With the Valthorns, I could field far more power than they had. There was no need to have them enter combat or enter into a formal alliance. They just had to stay out of the way, and if they didn’t, I’d have to force them to.

Meela turned. “I can agree to that.”

Alexis stood and looked at her partner; there was a hint of displeasure in her statement. “We should discuss this.”

“Non-interference should be a clear yes, Alexis. This doesn’t change anything significantly, not with the proverbial [Soul Contract] on our souls. Intelligence is also an acceptable trade. We have an interest in keeping the world safe and supporting the heroes in their mission. We can do more working with Aeon than against him.”

Alexis wanted to respond, and then she sat back down. She didn’t look too happy, but she seemed to accept it.

“You mentioned there were others like us? Like Miss Kei?” Meela asked. The point that I hadn’t quite decided on was whether I should expose them to Kei, Stella, or any of the other future heroes who may come under my umbrella.

“Yes. How about you? Have you seen any of your own?”

“…Yes. We have two under our care at the moment. But tell me, what’s their role in this? How do they fit in?”

Two? Hmmm. I was beginning to suspect accidents were more common than I thought. I decided I could share some information. “They’re mostly helping me where they can, and how they could apply their own knowledge to improve things. One of them worked on portals. Another is helping with crystalline bombs, which we will deploy against the demon kings.”

“Ah, I’ve heard of the bombs,” Meela said. “Fascinating stuff. Alexis even got her hands on a few undetonated ones. Now that we know Aeon was from Earth, it really explained some of these unusual combat strategies.”

Alexis asked, “How does Aeon plan to end the cycle? We’ve heard the goal, but does he have a plan in mind?”

Lumoof shrugged. “This is partly why we are here. We don’t have a firm plan, we are attempting quite a few things, but if we had more minds, with different viewpoints, we could have more leads. Some of the ideas are quite outrageous.”

Alexis stared at Meela. “So all that rhetoric of a grand goal and Aeon doesn’t have a plan.”

Meela smiled back. “Well, don’t all great plans begin with a vision?”

“Maybe it’s a vision that will lead us to hell.”

“Are we not in some kind of hell-world already?” Meela responded.

The two of them seemed to be pretty tense with each other. Maybe they’d been together for too long. It was hard to imagine a friendship that was a century-long would still be cordial. Lumoof and Edna just watched.

No point jumping into their fire.

What I found strange was that they did not respond to the portals. Did they hear it, or were they also working on something similar? Strange.

Stella finally completed her examination of the demon king’s core. It was a dud. Again.

“The core received star mana damage, and it’s clearly messed up whatever that was in there. Sorry, Aeon. Not good enough.”

I felt like stomping my feet. We worked so hard, and it wasn’t enough! Of course, Edna expected it. “It’s not like we did most of the damage.”

“Your domain skill really delivered, though,” I praised Edna. “We just need to work on damage.” We both needed to work on damage. Even my fragments didn’t seem to make much of a difference against the demon king. It was likely that the fragments were only effective for non-demon kings. This, of course, suggested that demon kings were not demons, but in their own class entirely.

We also examined the mana I drained from the core to prevent that last-minute meltdown. It was a lot of void mana and demonic mana mixed in, and the trees and potatoes that I used to hold these manas were corroding rather quickly, and I needed to constantly heal the potatoes so that these void mana didn’t leak out and blow the whole place up.

But neither the mana type nor the ratio didn’t tell us much other than what we already knew. The demon king contained void mana within itself, and most of this was about to blow. Luckily, this time, I was able to absorb significantly higher quantities of mana to avoid any catastrophic blowup. In the first place, it was already weakened and had already consumed a bit of its void and demonic mana.

Oh well. Maybe the third time we’d get it.

Our spies were helpful, but they were not able to extract Neira’s secret god-communion methods. More correctly, they were not even sure it existed.

Among the mid-tier leadership team, they were not aware of any means of seeking out their god. They had the understanding that they would be contacted by their god, not the other way around.

This, of course, made me wonder why their followers even prayed, then. If their prayers did not actually go to their respective gods, then what were they for? Yet, despite the prayers never reaching the god, those who prayed somehow receive blessings? How did that work?

I attempted to make sense of this whole prayer thing.

As I understood it, Lilies once said a domain was a higher-order access to the system. But looking at what I’d seen so far, it was probably not just that. At this point, I theorized that a domain holder essentially created a spot for itself in the system. This was why Lilies felt my presence spread throughout the system.

If so, when prayers were given, I believed these prayers were then recorded by the system, and there was a “code” or a “program” in the system itself, created either indirectly or directly by a person’s ascension to the higher levels of domains, that then absorbed these prayers and responded to them.

In other words, the system functioned as an automated “god” system on behalf of the gods. The god may have set criterias for the system, or the system itself interpreted a set of criteria from the god’s behavior that formed the basis of how it responded to prayers.

I mean, that had to be how it worked, because I was not linked or giving powers to those who had [aeonic] classes, and yet they clearly derived some power that was modeled after mine. The system did that, not me.

I did not assess these believers whether they were worthy or not; it was the system who did it. The system, as the only “impartial” operator in the world, made that judgment call.

Thus it was likely that even if Aiva drifted out of range of her normal, direct powers, the benefits from an Aivan blessing or class would continue.

No, thinking about it, would it be a good idea to link the world to where the gods were if they were friendly? Such that they could use their powers more directly here.

Certainly that would be good for the world, in the sense that Aiva could then protect this world directly, but not good for me, since they probably would not tolerate me being so close to them. A portal worked both ways.

The four heroes came to the Central Continent again, this time on their own accord. They’d finished the clean up of the demons in the West.

I didn’t like that they wanted to come, of course, but they were heroes, and they could just teleport to our continent if they wanted to. So, rather than resist and fail, since there were four of them, I decided to just allow them entry.

“I want snacks. All types of them,” Prabu told the attendants at the port. The attendants hurried to retrieve snacks from the warehouse.

A Valthorn quickly reached out to me. “As the heroes are not invited on an official visit, should we charge them the cost of their lodgings and food?” This was a diplomatic headache, of course. Previously they came at Kei’s invitation, so I agreed to waive the cost of whatever they consumed. I decided to call on my council for their input.

“I think we should absorb it for now,” one of the lords advised. “Most kingdoms absorb the cost of hero visits. After all, they never really stay for long. Most end up starting their own kingdoms.”

“I think we should be more concerned if one of these heroes wanted to start their own kingdom here,” another lord responded. “But until then, most kingdoms put on their best face forward.”

“What if the heroes start to mate with any of the younger princes or princesses around the Central Continent? That could cause some of the kingdoms to stray from influence.”

“And is that likely?” I asked.

“It’s possible. Many kingdoms historically attempted, with some successes, to absorb heroes into their royal families as a way of enhancing the unique status of the royal family. Granted, this has not happened yet in the recent Aeonic era, but it was a common thing, historically. Some heroes end up usurping the throne via marriage.”

Fuck.

A hero as one of the kings? There was no way I could keep them in line if that happened.

Prabu munched on a plate of snacks. “I love snacks so much I’m going to stay in the Central Continent.”

Fuck.

43

YEAR 193

“We want to make a deal with Aeon,” Prabu and Collete said to Kei. It’d been close to six months since he’d arrived on the Central Continent, and he’d been visiting. On and off, they did travel to the other continents, but in the end, they returned.

Kei sighed. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I don’t speak for him, so I’ll have to take you to him, if he lets me.”

Prabu was firm. “Yes. Both of us talked about it, and we decided—no, I decided I want to stay here. Colette’s just staying here with me.” I wondered whether these two were an item.

Kei’s magical lips curled. “It’s really not a good idea to base your decisions on which continents have the best snacks.”

“Eh. Am I such a caricature that my entire thought process is summarized down to my love of snacks?”

“Well, no. But is it?”

“No. I like snacks, but I’m not stupid. I also like modern conveniences, and on that front, this continent is far ahead of everyone else. Especially here. If there was a place I wanted to stay, it’s here.”

“Have you thought about what you want to offer Aeon as compensation?” Kei said. “Back when I was still alive, I helped Aeon with magical research.”

“I’ve seen Freeka’s colleges, and I think the college needs a proper magical teacher. We both can do that.”

“You know these mortals can’t learn heroic magic.” Kei frowned.

“They can learn by exposure. Just having heroes as lecturers should be a huge selling point for the college. I honestly don’t mind being mascots.” Prabu laughed. “I used to wear costumes for my school plays. So yes, I mean it. I want to live here.”

Kei looked at Colette. “How about you?”

“I’ll travel around, but I’ll probably drop by and just rest here, too.” The knight-hero, Hafiz, was out to set up his own sultanate in the Western Continent, while Chung the archer went back to the Southern Continent to continue his work on magical contraption again.

I suspected they were probably more than friends, but they didn’t do anything strange while here. Maybe they used some magic to hide themselves from my prying eyes.

“We only have a few years of peace,” Colette said. “Before we’re back to that old disaster again. There’s still so much to see and so much to eat.”

“We’ve seen most of the big sights.”

“There are things hidden in plain sight,” Colette responded. “Like how we’ve never seen Aeon’s true body even after we’ve been here so long. There are things we will only discover if we spend the time to find it. These magical senses are tuned to demons and very little else.”

Of course, that was really understating how overpowered their normal senses already were.

“Can you please ask Aeon?”

Kei led them to me the next day, and they saw my main body for the first time. They instantly backed a few steps as my presence and theirs clashed.

“The true body is really nothing to scoff at,” Prabu said with a bow. “We humbly greet the great deity of the Central Continent.”

“I have heard of your request, and it is granted, with some conditions.” They stared and waited for me to continue. I then listed my requirements. I wanted them to stay out of politics and avoid giving any tacit or implied support to any of the nobles, I didn’t want a political upheaval in my land, and I was concerned that the nobles would be able to gently maneuver the heroes against me.

The heroes were political newbies. They could find themselves indirectly led to a path where they were then forced to make a choice. The only way they could stay in the Central Continent was if they were directly under my control, and no one else’s. At the same time, they had to work.

I tasked them, mainly, with creating heroic items and also working as guest lecturers at FTC.

Just like Kei, when she was still a hero. Prabu accepted it without hesitation, and was more interested in debating the specifics of his compensation for his goods and services.

I then approached both Aria and Aispeng, and also Lilies, on the specifics of a pantheon.

< Would you join my pantheon? > I asked Lilies, and Lilies could not answer.

They had not reached that point. > We don’t know. It is a commitment far above what we are ready for. <

< Why? >

Lilies couldn’t answer, either. But I sensed turmoil and conflict through our linked roots; I felt its many minds in fierce debate over the invitation.

Aria and Aispeng frowned. “So level two hundred is a pantheon. If we get there, we can get it, too. But we’ll have to wait a few decades. But what happens if we reach level two hundred and can we leave the pantheon?”

I honestly answered, “I don’t know. The system does not answer such questions, but I would theorize yes. A pantheon may not be a fixed thing. Only those who selected a subdomain, like my priest Lumoof, are stuck with me.”

“What exactly is a pantheon? What are your powers over us?” Aria asked.

“I also don’t know. I’ll know more when Edna joins my pantheon.”

“Hmmm. Then we will wait until then. We certainly are not friends of the demons or the gods, so I don’t see the problem in joining with you, if it’s not a permanent, irrevocable arrangement.”

In truth, any of my domain choices should make the world safer. If I had all of them, that would be even better.

I hoped level two hundred fifty allowed me to get all of them.

During the middle of the year, I got a ping from one of my artificial minds. My artificial mind drew attention to an individual who arrived by sea. The man had long hair tied up into a ponytail and wore simple armor.

“The Central Continent. How does it feel?” the man asked.

There was a small snake on his shoulder, a real, living snake with dark green skin, but my watchers were already on the lookout for anything snake-related. The snake had glowing red eyes. “We’re being watched.”

“Is it?” The man looked around but didn’t seem to see anything. “I don’t see any assassins or spies.”

“It’s everywhere. I can taste a faint presence.”

“Oh great. We’ve walked into a trap.”

“No. I don’t think so.”

It was easy to tell this was Ken. “Heh. So is this trip a mistake? We still can back out now. No, if this is a flag, we should back out.”

“No. The source of the divine energy we felt was here. Even now, I can still taste the residual divine energies in the air. We move.”

“I taste nothing.” Ken rolled his eyes.

“Your senses are crude, human. Come, we shall move to the source of this energy.”

We continued to watch Ken travel from the northern coasts of the Central Continent, slowly to the center of the Central Continent. It took them about two months, but Ken finally arrived at Freshka.

“There’s something here reaching out to our minds,” the snake said once they approached Freshka.

“What’s that?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You sure don’t know much for a supposedly all-knowing snake.” Ken laughed.

“I’ve never sold myself as an all-knowing snake.”

“Is it? I recall back when you latched onto my soul, I remember quite specifically that you said you have the knowledge of the world and you can help me.”

“My world, not yours.”

“Great, I fell for a marketing misdirection.” Ken rolled his eyes.

The snake didn’t answer.

“Ah, Freshka! I heard Prabu’s here. I should meet him,” Ken said.

“Is dropping by unannounced a common practice in your world? It would be an act of disrespect to us.”

Ken shrugged. “It’ll be fine. Prabu’s pretty chill.”

“He’s still under the control of the gods. They may not be. Not when they detect my presence.”

“Ah yes. That twisted backstory of your world, right?” Ken said. “But you know what? I’ll still meet him. I’m not at risk. You are.”

The snake was silent, and Ken smirked. Ken immediately activated a messaging orb. “Hey, Prabu.”

“Oh, hey! Ken! Where’ve you been?”

“Long story, but guess what? I’m in Freshka. Wanna meet up?”

“Wait. What?! Sure, dude! Sure! Uh, you wanna meet at one of the city’s restaurants?” I thought I felt a little bit of echo as I heard Prabu speak through my eyes and also through Ken’s observer.

“Yeah. Sure. Tell me where.”

They met at an upscale restaurant in Freshka, complete with a private dining room. Of course, the whole place was bugged with my trees. Prabu arrived first, as Ken took a while to find the place.

When they met each other, Prabu immediately frowned. “Who’re you?”

Ken paused and then realized his disguise was still active. He activated some kind of spell, and now he transformed back into Ken. “Sorry. I’ve got a disguise on, since there are a lot of people looking for me.”

Prabu frowned. “With that ability of yours, how do I know I’m actually talking to Ken, and not someone who just looks like Ken?”

Ken rubbed his chin. “That’s a good question. I actually can’t prove that. It’s entirely possible that Ken’s still back on Earth and I’m just a copy of Ken who can shapeshift with flesh-alteration magic. Or it is also possible magically that something ate Ken and stole Ken’s memories, and now this Ken-eating monster masquerades itself as Ken.”

Prabu smiled and sat. “All right, Mr. Looks-like-Ken-but-may-not-be-Ken, so I’ll still call you Ken for short, what’s up? We saw the notification and your message. Chung will want to know that you’re still alive.”

Prabu then pointed at the snake.

“And also, that snake of yours, where is it from? It feels…familiar.”

Ken immediately placed the snake on a chair. “His name’s pretty hard to pronounce, but I call him Snek, because he looks like Snek. He’s a spiritual hitchhiker. He’s been with me since the very first day we arrived in this world.”

“Really?”

“It took a while for him to wake up, part of the perils of dimensional travel.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I don’t trust the gods to keep both of us safe. Not with the power they’ve given us,” Ken remarked flatly.

“What is it?” Prabu stared at the snake, and the snake coiled up. “And why are you willing to do so now?”

Ken smiled. “Because I’m no longer a hero, and it separated from my soul after it consumed the hero class.”

“The snake ate your hero class?” Prabu’s eyes almost popped out at the second sentence. “How? And why? Seriously, why? What were you thinking?”

A knock on the door and Prabu tapped a button. The door opened, and three waiters came in. They served the food, drinks, and snacks and left when they were done.

“Yes. Where were we? Hero class, what were you thinking?”

Ken looked and smiled. “Well, I’m pleasantly surprised that you didn’t instantly try to kill me or the snake.”

“What? Why would I?” Prabu leaned back, slightly offended.

“Well, let’s cut to it. We all know there’s some mind-control element. It restricts what we think and what we do. I didn’t like that, and Snek helped me to remove it. It’s a win-win situation, since Snek comes from a world that’s devoid of heroes.”

“Wait. Are you saying Snek is a demon?”

“Not quite. Have you ever wondered what would happen to the world if the demons win?”

“Everyone dies?”

“Well, no. The demons kill those that they encounter, but what if they somehow manage to hide?”

“I thought the demons could find those who live?” Prabu frowned.

“They have refined senses, yes, but they are not perfect and certainly not omniscient. There are things they don’t know, and in the snake’s case, they got lucky.”

“What do you mean?”

“Their world was swarmed by flying demons, but they, the snakes and few others, are a species of subterranean creatures. They lived underground and surrendered the entire surface to the demons, and they built their cities deeper and deeper. But the gods only recognized those who were humans or humanoids as worthy of protection, so sentient snakes and other beasts were abandoned.”

That was fascinating.

“The flying demons and the demon king that made the surface into a demonic world, and yet beneath it, these snakes lived. And they remembered the loss.”

“That’s…”

“The gods discriminate by species.”

“No. The demons have tunneller demons, too. Why didn’t they use those?”

This time, it was the Snake Spirit that answered. “Because the demons have a system. Each demon king that wins a world claims that world for its type. The demon gods created a rotational system to allow each subdemonic race a chance to invade a world, but if it fails, another subdemonic race gets the opportunity to send their kings. My world was claimed by the dragon-demons.”

Prabu asked a question I always wanted to know. “Then do you know what the demon kings are? How do they become what they are?”

“In every world, the demons will create a massive pool or spawning pit. This is the Heart of the Demons, and it is linked to the Core of the world. The hearts steal power from the world to create a demon king. It takes almost a century for the heart of the demons to create a demon king.”

This story is different from the one told by the parasite. Prabu frowned and asked, “To be fair, it sounds like your world has managed to coexist with the demons.”

“We do not consider it coexistence. Not when all the surface-dwelling species have been eradicated, and those who fled to the tunnels have changed over the millennia. Our world is a demon world, and we feel the pain of the Core that feeds the demons.”

The demons were created from the energies of the captured worlds and used it to create demon kings.

“The world’s energy fades in strength. Each demon king it spawns kills the world a little more, and we fear what happens should the demons consume all of the world’s energy,” the snake answered. “But because we come from a world where the core’s energy has been tainted by the demons…”

Prabu shook his head. “Sounds like a pretty tragic background story.”

Ken actually laughed at it. “I know, right? Anyway, their world needs a hero, so, since I didn’t want to be controlled by the gods, I agreed to give my hero class to them. So I’m a free man now. Win-win situation.”

“Free only because someone else will be fighting for you.” Prabu frowned. “We could have used another person on the battlefield.”

“Eh. You four are doing fine! I heard of your incredible battles.”

“Those are all exaggerations. Those who were present in the battle all know it didn’t go like that.”

Indeed, there were no spectators. The risks were too high, and everyone present was at a higher level. I lost too many lower-level folks when I deployed them during the previous battle. It was also extremely difficult to scry the battle with so much magical interference.

“The four heroes defeated the demon king,” Ken said. “Though the Central Continent seems to have a different version of the story, where the warriors from the Central Continent supported the battle?” As usual, the temples had their own versions of the story, and we too had our own versions. Each side made statements to its own benefit.

Prabu smiled. “We had help.”

“I see.” Ken waited.

“So why are you here, really?”

“Someone called the gods here,” Ken said. “Snek wants to know.”

Prabu frowned. “And why is that?”

The snake shook his head. “Let’s just say it’s a curiosity.”

“Are you not afraid that someone who could call a god here can easily crush you?”

The snake nodded; its voice was angry. “So it could. But we want to know. We want to ask why we were abandoned.”

Ken looked at the snake. “Sometimes I wonder whether that’s how the demons came to be. These abandoned races ascend and then are on a quest for vengeance against the gods who abandoned them. Why are they obsessed anyway?”

The snake didn’t answer. We didn’t know why, and it seemed the snake did not, either.

Prabu frowned. “There’s so many holes in your explanation. How’d you even manage to latch on Ken when we are summoned? That’s a kind of power I’ve not seen before. Your ability to extract the hero class, what exactly did you do?”

The snake looked at Ken, and it was Ken who answered. “These snake-folk, they practice a kind of blood magic.”

Prabu’s face twisted. “Ken, you agreed to work with someone who sacrificed lives for magical power?”

Ken sighed. “Prabu, it’s hard to explain, but yes. There’s a lot more nuance to blood magic than you know, and these snake-folk have a very high-level understanding of it. I’m now free of the hero class with no side effects.”

“And how was that achieved, exactly?”

The snake and Ken seemed to share a look. “It’s complicated.”

“You’re not making a convincing case, Ken.”

The snake then said, “There’s a lot of sacrifice involved. Willing sacrifices are key.” Willing? Didn’t I recall the snake using some kind of mind-puppetry or mind control?

Ken leaned forward. “We’ve talked about something not relevant for a while. Prabu, I need your help.”

“Help? What kind?” Prabu asked.

“The rumors were very messy. Some of them said there was a heavenly meeting; some said it was something else. We want to know, did somebody summon the gods?”

Prabu laughed. “Ah. The Aivan god’s meeting. Yes, what about it?”

“Do you know how to trigger it again? Snek says it may be his ticket home.”

“I don’t.”

“Where did it happen? Here?”

“Yeah. Somewhere outside of the city. It’s off-limits, though.”

“Can you smuggle me there?”

“No.” Prabu shook his head. “Trust me, you don’t want to try weird shit in this continent. This isn’t a place you can fool around. Even if you’re a hero.”

“Why, some officer of the kingdom’s gonna stop me?” Ken said. “This continent’s a competent religious-military state with a supposedly divine religious figurehead. You’re a hero with divine powers. Heroes win.”

It seemed that Ken had a very different impression of the continent, and Prabu immediately frowned. “Those words are best not tested and said outside of this room, ever. You underestimate the rising god at your own peril.”

“Wait, it’s not a competent religious-military state? All those soldiers in fancy uniforms and high levels? That’s the impression I got.”

Prabu frowned. It was the Snek who stopped at Prabu’s words. “Wait. How powerful is the deity of the land?”

Ken looked at Snek. “Wait a minute, what are you implying?”

“Sawabesarulars, you damned fool.” I didn’t know how, but the Snek somehow managed to look like it had an epiphany as it cursed at himself. I presumed that was his name, since it was clearly pretty difficult to pronounce correctly. “Four hundred thirty-three years of waiting for the right moment and you miss this shit. Stupid, elementary mistake.”

“Spill it Snek.” Ken looked serious. Prabu’s frown turned into bewilderment.

“The competent religious-military state is competent because there is a singular, ascending god at its core. You had the logic backward. It is not the competence of the military order that maintains the illusion that there is a god. There really is a god, and it is a god that imposes competence. All those military guys with high levels, the massive background presence in this entire continent, it could only mean we were watched. All the damned time.”

Ken’s face paled. “Wait. But Chung didn’t say much about this Aeon. The temples certainly painted Aeon as a pretender.”

“Of course they would!” Snek screamed. “Have you no sense of politics?! Even we spirit-snakefolk know about talking shit about your enemies! This is an absolute failure of your information collection!”

“It’s my fault now?” Ken slammed the table.

“Well, yes. All we know about the Central Continent has been anecdotes and biased information from the temples and the merchants. Your friends didn’t say much, either. You, with your supposed treasure trove of tropes, seemed to happily categorise the entire Central Continent into this caricature of a military regime.”

“Tropes are never wrong. Only subverted!” Ken slammed the table again. “I got the trope right!”

“But we got the wrong decisions, you damned fool!”

“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Prabu said. The food was getting cold. Prabu’s plate was clean.

Snek turned to the hero. “Do you know what level Aeon is?”

“I’m not sure, but his two generals, a priest and a knight, joined our battle with the previous demon king. The priest was able to have Aeon descend on the battlefield through him. They really pulled their weight during the battle.”

Ken looked. “Wait. Wait a minute. The natives are not useless?”

“I don’t think so?”

Ken looked at Snek. “This flies against everything you ever said about natives having no chance against the demon kings, that we all need hero-classes to win. You’re wrong, too, alien-snake-person.”

Snek paused. “Our world never had anyone who was able to reach those levels. Even I, the one chosen to take a spiritual form and make the journey to the god-watched worlds, am no more than level eighty. We didn’t think it was even possible for natives to fight.”

Huh. They didn’t need super-high levels to break themselves free of the hero class. No, maybe it was easier to break if the hero class was low leveled.

Prabu looked equally puzzled. “Where’s this conversation heading?”

“I’m sorry, Prabu. We just had a few of our key assumptions rebutted.”

“We should stay here and watch a bit more,” Snek said suddenly. “If this is true, I have much to learn about this world. A lot more than just a hero class.”

Prabu frowned. “I’m not accepting freeloaders. You gotta get your own crib.”

44

YEAR 194

Afew more years to go, and I’d be two hundred years old in this world. That was really long, though honestly, it only felt like a few years. Time was relative to lifespan. For a person who would live to one hundred, ten years was ten percent of his life, but for a tree that could live to one thousand years, it was only one percent.

The leveling system, therefore, was clearly rigged in favor of those with longer lifespan, though the levels themselves allowed those with shorter lives to live far, far longer. Like Edna.

Roon and Johann were just one level away from level one hundred fifty. Roon was an [Aeonic Sharpshooter], and Johann was an [Aeonic Master Ranger]. Both were ranged combatants, unlike Edna. Alka was level one hundred forty-three [Aeon’s Field Scientist].

They were a little restless. After all, they were so close. I totally understood how they felt. After all, I lingered at the edge of that level for a long time, too.

There were new people, of course. Every year we admitted more into the Valthorns, and from that, an even smaller group received the [Soul Strengthening Seeds].

Looking at the entirety of my talent pipeline, I had three bottlenecks.

One: individuals who were able to reach their level caps of level eighty to ninety were not many. Not everyone had the disposition or the personality to strive and keep pushing. Some just wanted to back off and relax. This problem was mostly solved by expanding my recruitment to cover the entire continent. With hundreds of millions across all the cities, it was very possible to get the talent needed.

Two: training my talents to the level caps, and then beyond that, to the domains. I could cheat with [experience seeds] and give them upgraded classes and upgraded skills, and my gift to level them up to level sixty, but all of these were like giving a powerful car to a driver who may not be sufficiently well equipped to use them. They needed a good foundation, and then only the powerful skills could then make a difference.

Three: the soul-strengthening seed that broke the level cap. There was a finite number of soul-strengthening seeds I could make per year. The fact that these damned ginseng required long gestation periods only made this even more painful.

But, I wondered, why did it have to be me?

So I approached both Aria and Lilies for help.

“This here is a [soul strengthening seed], made from ginseng. Are you guys able to make similar items?”

“No,” Aria said.

< Maybe, > Lilies responded and then produced a lotus root.

We would select Tree of Life. In the end, I thought the ability to invade other worlds and establish bases in other parts of the world to be too enticing for me to let go. Not just that, it fundamentally allowed me to engage with heroes with a lot less fear, since now they’d have to kill all of me, not just the main tree.

No, the first thing I wanted to do if I chose Tree of Life was the damned moon base.

“You cannot be serious.” Stella looked at me. “You want to send a seed to the moon?”

“Yes. I am.”

“You’re destroying the natural environment of the moon.”

“Is this a conversation about preserving the natural environment? Because as far as I know, trees are natural.”

“Not native to the moon.”

“The moon’s uninhabited.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Then more reason for me to go to the moon,” I argued. “Can a tree go into space? No, can a tree go to the moooooooooon?”

Stella frowned and smacked her head. “That’s lame.”

“I”m a tree. I am unable to walk. If I were an animal, I would be lame.”

Stella rolled her eyes. “…fuck you.”

“So will you open a portal to the moon, or not?”

“Fine, I’ll try. I’ll need some time to prepare.”

I selected my level two hundred domain, and I felt power surge and flood through all of my body. I felt my Heart, deep underground, melt, and then it split into five parts. One immediately embedded itself back to where it was.

I had four more seeds, [Seeds of Aeon]. They were small, the size of a basketball.

At the same time, I felt the other powers of the domain activate.

[Lumoof has been added to your pantheon automatically.]

[Pantheon invitation sent to Edna, Lilies, Aria.]

Eh. Strange that the system knew to invite them.

[Edna has accepted.]

[Aria and Aispeng have accepted.]

There was nothing from Lilies. Not that he wanted them to urgently accept. They were probably still debating the specifics of such a pantheon.

[Skill upgraded: Tree of Prayers now also emit a healing aura around them.]

“Eh. That’s another skill.”

I watched Ken and Snek stalk my Valthorns around Freshka. They were extremely amazed when they saw Edna walking on the streets. They were almost caught a few times, but I told my Valthorns to ignore them. I wanted to see what they would do.

“That woman is special!” Snek said in amazement. “I could feel her radiant power here. We must see this tree. To think this background energy that we felt all the way in the Northern Isles was all from this place!”

“The tree was in the north?” Ken asked.

“Yes. It was.”

“When?”

“For a long time. I thought it was just some residue of this world, like something normal.”

Ken laughed and sneered. “You have eyes, but you could not see Mount Tai. And you’re a fish out of water—no, a snake out of the forest.”

“I’m a snake-person-turned-spirit! We live underground, we survive mostly on magic, and our diet consists of underground monsters.” Snek clearly was on a different conversational wavelength.

“Do you think it’s possible for me to take a spiritual form?” Ken wondered. “Think about it, a spiritual form. I’ll be a ghost! If I’m a ghost, nothing can kill me.”

“Of course it is, but as I said, there are risks. Nine out of ten attempts to take on an ethereal, spiritual form fail, catastrophically,” the snake said. “And of course nothing can kill you! You’re already dead!”

But these two guys got in trouble, not with my people—well, maybe they were my people indirectly. There was an Aiva delegation in Freshka, as part of our peace arrangement with the Temple of Aiva.

An Aivan high priest immediately stopped and saw them while they were in town. “You.” He pointed at Ken without knowing who he was. “I sense a foul ghost lingering about you. What are you doing, stalking about town with that ghost?”

Ken was defiant. “Last I checked, having a ghost for a friend isn’t a crime.”

The Aivan high priest discussed and whispered to his guards. “It isn’t, but I can still punish evildoers as I see fit.”

“No, you won’t,” Ken said, and he ran. The Aivan priest and his group of guards ran after him. Bloody hell. Ken moved quickly; apparently he picked up some [Rogue] classes. Snek, unfortunately, shielded him from Patreeck’s pervasive mind reading.

But Patreeck could still pick up random thoughts and little bits that they didn’t manage to protect. Snek spent most of his spiritual powers to protect Ken, and Snek’s was partly exposed. There were moments when we saw little glimpses of what Snek desired, and it was a bit of wonder and intrigue.

I found it interesting that Patreeck’s power could even be used on spirits. I didn’t manage to use it on the demon parasite previously, but maybe that was because it was inside Alvin.

He managed to lose the Aivan priests. “Damned holy people. They really don’t like you.”

“It is not my fault they confuse me with the undead,” Snek responded. “I really don’t understand this world’s culture of despising certain forms of magic.”

Ken shrugged. “People have prejudices. You are probably just blind on your own.”

I had enough of observing them from afar, and so I sent Roon to confront them. We knew where they walked and lived in Freshka. Roon knocked on their door; they’d borrowed some money from Prabu and rented a place of their own.

“Who the hell?” Ken wondered and activated [Detect Presence]. “Shit, it’s the Valthorns. Have we been discovered?”

Roon knocked again and then said, “I know you’re in there, Mr. Ken. I’m Roon of the Valthorns. Aeon wants to see you. Both of you.”

Ken stared at Snek and whispered, “How’d he find us?”

Snek shook its tiny snake head. “You mean, what finally made him decide to send someone and get us?”

“Ugh. Are we dead?” Ken turned to the door and shouted, “What does he want?”

Roon said, “He just wants to see you and your spirit-companion. He has some interesting questions.”

“He knows,” Ken whispered. “Should we bail? Do you think Prabu exposed us to him?”

Roon had preempted that. “There’s really no use running, Ken. We’ve been watching you for some time.”

“That’s a lie. My [Rogue] skills didn’t pick up shit,” Ken responded.

“It only means your skills are too low leveled.”

Ken looked around. “Can we run?”

Snek shook its head. “Think, you fool. We have a high-leveled operative outside our door, and I think this Aeon could easily catch us anywhere we go. Our odds are fucked either way. We should cooperate.”

“Are we in danger?” Ken shouted.

Roon smirked at the question and then knocked on the door. “You’re not, don’t worry. But as for your spirit companion, it really depends on what your friend is willing to share.”

Ken looked at Snek. “Oh, you’re fucked.” Ken opened the door and saw a carriage was already prepared, one of the continent’s finest, with a small convoy of beetles.

“Good.” Roon smiled. “Please get in the carriage.”

Ken nodded and went in. Roon followed. The carriage was magically enchanted by our mages for comfort and security.

“Where are we going?”

“Didn’t I say earlier? You both are going to meet Aeon, of course.”

“What does he want?”

“I don’t know.” Roon shrugged. “You’ll have to see for yourself.”

Snek stared at Roon. “What level are you?”

“It’s classified.”

Ken looked at him. “Certainly below level one hundred fifty. But I’m guessing it’s very close.” They had seen Edna and Lumoof both in Freshka, so they must have gotten a sense from their relative power levels.

Roon smiled. “Good one.”

“What changed?” Ken then said. “My friend here says you’ve been watching us for some time.”

“Oh, I wasn’t watching you, but in Freshka, someone is always watching.”

“Freaking police surveillance state,” Ken responded.

We brought them deep into the Valthorn’s Keep and before one of the larger Tree of Prayers.

Snek was immediate. “This isn’t Aeon.”

Roon smiled. “Very observant, snake-spirit.”

Lumoof then walked in and sat on the chair opposite them. Roon gave Lumoof a nod and left the three. Snek eyed him intensely.

“Greetings, and a very belated welcome to Freshka, the administrative capital of the Central Continent.”

“You…” Snek said. “I didn’t see it before, but…”

Lumoof eyes glowed, and I descended upon my avatar. At that moment, both Ken and Snek felt an oppressive pressure. “Greetings, Ken and Snek.” My voice was amplified by the avatar power, and it sounded like a thousand men said a single word.

The little snake spirit just whimpered. Ken looked at Snek in shock. “Uh.”

“I have much to ask of Snek.”

Ken paused. “How’d you know…”

“This is my city, and nothing here escapes my eyes,” I said as I stared at Snek through Lumoof. “Tell me the truth, Snek, and nothing but the truth. What are you, where are you from, and what are you doing here?”

Snek’s little snake body whimpered, and Ken just stared. He had most likely never seen Snek behave in such a manner. Eventually, I lightened the pressure, and the small snake managed to move. I could use the entirety of Patreeck’s mind-reading powers at this distance, but I wanted to see what it was going to do. I wanted to apply some of Patreeck’s power to force a bit of honesty.

But I decided to hold back and wait. The snake adjusted itself and then said, “I am Sawabesarulars, a snake-person turned snake spirit from a world consumed by demons.”

“Is that the truth?” I applied Patreeck’s power, and Snek vibrated from the mental shock. Patreeck said yes. “Good.”

Snek nodded, shaken, but it steeled itself. Ken immediately said, “Wait, you’re using some mind-reading powers?”

“Your snake has some kind of possession ability. It is but a taste of its own type of power,” I responded.

“How’d you know?” Ken asked. I ignored the question and just looked at Snek.

“Sawabesarulars, continue your explanation.”

“Our world was lost to the demons about five hundred sixty-three years ago, when the gods stopped summoning heroes to our world. Our gods, Gayas, Deyar, and Marak, all abandoned us simultaneously, and we were invaded by the dragon-demons. The surface world was mostly lost, and the few surface dwellers that remained lived in hiding, in fear of the consuming dragons.”

I checked. It was honest.

“We retreated to the subterranean tunnels, and that was where the survivors lived ever since. We dug deeper and deeper tunnels, and our people changed. But we always wanted to return to the surface. So, about five hundred years ago, our people hatched a plan. The idea was simple. We knew that there were multiple worlds and gods summoned heroes to them. We learned this from the zaratans who once lived in our world. At least, before the surface water was consumed.”

Again, no lies. I commanded Patreeck to continue and only alert me if it lied.

“We had great leaders and great mages. But only heroes could defeat the demon king.” Patreeck sensed an uncertainty here. “We thought, if the gods wouldn’t send us heroes, we would have to steal them from elsewhere. Our leaders and ancient masters had a good grasp of the higher magics of the world and were masters of spiritual-blood magic. We knew that it was very difficult to send a person from one world to another. But if a person was in a spiritual form, it was easier to endure the perils of the dark void.”

The snake continued.

“I, along with many other mages and wizards, were sacrificed as part of a blood ritual that stitched all our souls together. This transformed us to a spiritual existence. That was the first step. Next, we had to gain levels. A powerless spirit could not hope to steal a hero-class.”

I paused and asked, “How did you learn how to steal a hero class?”

“In our ancient history before our fall, our mages once helped a hero lose her class. It involved using soul fragments of other souls to significantly empower an underlying soul, such that it could shake off the hero-class that was latched to it. It was harder to do if the hero class was at a higher level, as each level gained in the hero class enhanced its grip over the soul.”

“Continue.” Huh, so the solution was really that simple. Make the soul strong such that it could get rid of the hero class? If I gave someone a really powerful ginseng, could it achieve the same effect?

“So I was made into a spirit, and next, we waited. We waited for the moment when the twin-headed dragon demon-king of our world was sent to another world. The demons had magical rifts that opened paths to other worlds, and when those rifts were open, I snuck into the rifts. But I didn’t come out on the other side.”

Ken looked.

“I waited in the dark void, for the moment when the heroes would fly through. There were many near-hits, but many of these heroes rebuffed my attempts to speak to them. But finally, when Ken and his group travelled from the other side, Ken agreed to talk to me, and it seemed we got lucky that he wanted nothing of this, too.”

I looked at Ken. “Lucky for you, the spirit you picked up doesn’t seem exceptionally malicious. Didn’t your parents tell you not to talk to strange creatures when travelling through the void?”

The former hero sniggered. Patreeck confirmed he wasn’t lying, at least. He could still fake it, but I didn’t see a need to.

“So you got what you wanted. What’s next?”

“I need to send the hero class back, of course. The only way I knew how to send a hero class back, sadly, involved consuming a powerful soul.”

“Did the gods say why your world was lost?”

“No. Maybe.” Maybe if one of the gods got out of range, all of the gods decided to pull out together? “I came here to look for answers. We felt it when a god descended, and I had questions. My people wanted to know why we were forsaken.”

Ken nodded and added, “I thought I should see his journey to the end. That’s why I came here with him. He’s spiritually bound to me, and he can’t stay too far from me.”

“I see. Tell me more about your blood magic.”

Ken’s eyes widened in shock. “Wait. Why blood magic?” Snek was in thought and failed to protect Ken’s mind. Patreeck, at that moment, read the now-not-a-hero’s mind. Fuck, it’s really an evil competent military empire with an evil god at its helm. We’re so fucked. We’re dealing with the empire and this person is the emperor.

I was amused at the thought. Snek continued. “Our blood magic involved the use of souls and spirits for augmentation. The idea was the soul of many is stronger than the soul of one, and it should be possible to enhance one from many. Our origins were troubled by malpractice, forced sacrifices, and wrongful use, but over the years we focused on the key elements of good blood magic. That involved wholly willing sacrifices and clean rituals. Consent and willingness was a fundamental concept, a powerful component that can significantly change the nature of a blood magic ritual. If we failed to consent, the ritual would generate hex.”

If consent and willingness negated the harmful effects. “How do you know someone truly consented?”

“We would do test-rituals to confirm consent. A smaller ritual involving just the blood of the participants. Consent and willingness is written in our soul and our identity, and parts of it can be detected in the blood with the right ritual.”

“Fascinating.”

Ken’s mind was just full of suspicion. Oh god, is this magical tree going to sacrifice people en masse? What have I done? No. No. Play it cool. Don’t alert the empire. Find the resistance.

Snek was entirely cooperative. “May I ask you some questions, too?”

I nodded through Lumoof. “Sure, if it is reasonable.”

45

YEAR 195

Snek wanted to know how we stood up to the demon kings. I was frank: we didn’t. At least, not yet. It was a very depressing conversation, as Snek wanted to know what levels were needed to be able to fight toe-to-toe with the demon king.

In truth, if Edna was alone, she would survive the first day, but she’d be dead on the second. So level one hundred fifty was not enough. No. Even level two hundred was not enough. We would need an army of us to do so. To think that the ancient dragons were able to hold the demons back, they had to have many creatures of that tier of power.

Or were the dragons naturally so powerful?

It was a very high bar. Level two hundred? They would have to gnaw at the demons for decades before they got there and, on top of that, fight the demon king itself. Without the hero fragments, it would be very difficult to actually reach such levels.

But my two compatriots did it. Both Edna and Lumoof did. In Edna’s case, she served me for about fifty years when she achieved her [domain]. Lumoof, relatively speaking, got there faster, because of the boost from the dungeons.

Could we transplant this to their world? After decades and centuries of hiding, they were not used to fighting. All they fought were the natural spawns that emerged from the tunnels, and there were powerful monsters even deep underground.

The demon-dragons of their world were not exactly interested in total annihilation, either. They seemed to only care about great crystal spires, the largest of which served as the spawning pools of demon kings. Snek had seen at least three such spawning pools on their worlds, nursed by the energies harvested from their world’s core.

There was clearly a mechanism in the background where a world would transform to a demonic world under certain circumstances. Snek didn’t know.

“Told you you should not have done shit,” Prabu said. “Now you’ve got yourself entangled with Aeon himself.”

“I wasn’t expecting the empire,” Ken defended himself.

“Which signs did you miss? The extremely powerful subordinates? The strange compliance from even the peripheral states? The magical beetle creatures that are clearly controlled by someone that can reach the entire continent?”

Ken frowned. “When you put it like that…”

Snek, on the other hand, seemed absolutely converted. It was almost embarrassing how much of a fanboy he had suddenly become. “Aeon is the hope we’ve been looking for.”

Ken sighed. “I really want to send you back now. I can’t stand all this praising Aeon shit. Seriously. What do I need to do to send you back?”

“No. I need to learn more from Aeon. Our world would do much better if Aeon could help us.” Snek was a fanboy, and I felt secondhand embarrassment from eavesdropping.

“Where was the crafty clever snake I met?” Ken smacked his face. “I miss the snarky snake.”

“As you once succinctly described it, I had eyes, but I could not see Mount Tai. I have now seen the difference between heaven and earth, and there is much for me to do,” Snek answered.

Prabu laughed. “That’s the first time I’ve seen a spirit turn into a fan-animal. Ken, you’ve outdone yourself in training your pet.”

“One must know their place in the world. There are mountains beyond mountains.”

Ken sighed. “And I regret exposing you to xianxia quotes.”

Prabu, the archmage, was literally in tears. “You absolutely deserved this, Ken. You know, you did all this to avoid the whole hero-shenanigans, and here you are, entangled in the bigger shenanigans.”

“Yeah. A snake’s attempt to save their own world. I don’t see how one hero class is enough to change the scales, though. At least from what we’ve seen in this world, the demon kings clearly can take on multiple heroes.”

The snake spirit responded, “We don’t need to. The demon king, at maturity, would be immediately sent to invade another world. The demons’ defenses on our world are the demon champions, the greater guardians, and the demonic spawning pools’ spires.”

“The spires are defenses?” Prabu was curious.

“Yes. They are.”

Ken sighed. “What have I done to deserve this?”

“Bad karma, dude.”

Stella was ready, and the crystal batteries charged up. We avoided using daemolite, even though those could store more void mana, simply because we didn’t want to leave any trails for the demons to follow. Edna held one of my clones, the [Seed of Aeon], and we waited. Lumoof waited next to him.

“All right. Let’s open a portal to the moon.”

The portal manifested, and I saw a thread of darkness that seemed to stretch ever further. We had a portal to one of the moons.

Lumoof gulped, took the seed from Edna, and looked at Stella. They nodded. Now was not the time for hesitation. He stepped close to the portal, and Stella and the other void mages felt the void mana drain from the crystals. “Portal is ready and stable.”

Lumoof stepped through, and I felt a searing pain from Lumoof, as if we were suddenly exposed to something extremely harsh.

My priest was now on the moon, and even though the atmosphere was nonexistent, and his skin burned from the harsh, unprotected light of the suns, the sight was breathtaking.

It was like how the astronauts sent back the first pictures of Earth. I activated a range of shields, and I knew that any lesser druid would have died the moment they stepped through the portal. There was no life on the moon. Nothing for a druid to work with.

There was no breathable air, but Lumoof was sustained by magic and a bubble created from my adaptive powers.

He placed my [Seed of Aeon] on the dirt floor of the moon, and I sensed that different, extremely parched dirt. The seed buried itself into the dirt.

‘Should I go back?’ Lumoof mentally asked, and I noticed the lag wasn’t as noticeable as the other worlds.

“Not yet. We’ll start by exploring the moon, whether there’s anything to see.”

Lumoof walked, and damn the moon was huge. For most part, there really was nothing to see. It was just vast plains and mountains of dirt and rock. Here, we had an unblocked view of the stars and the suns, and it was unforgiving. My wooden shields were hammered by the rays of the burning light, and I regenerated them constantly.

“It seems we can put the contentious theories of the moons to rest,” Lumoof said as he observed the moons in the sky. “There are five moons, after all.”

We mostly only saw two moons, these two being the largest and the closest. But there had been claims of multiple, smaller moons that were further away. “I wouldn’t be so sure. There may still be moons we have not seen, and the other three moons, are they really orbiting the planet? And are they really moons or just extremely large asteroids?”

“That difference is academic,” Lumoof stated.

There was mostly nothing to see.

And then there was.

In one of the valleys, we saw a crater. The moon was covered in craters, but this one was different. There was a big pile of silvery bones right at the center of the crater. This was a crash crater.

Bones. It wasn’t hard to tell what it was. Four wings, claws, horns on the head. It looked quite like a type of dragon, and it was massive, the largest dragon bones I’d ever seen, and strangely, the most well preserved as well. Strange that it did not decay under the battering of the sun’s harsh rays.

There was not a single bit of flesh left. It was just bones exposed to the harsh sun. It shone.

“How’d it get here?” Lumoof was just as amazed as I was. The fact that it crashed seemed to suggest it somehow flew here? All the way from the planet? It was large. “Maybe there’s some scales or other such stuff that’s in the dirt around us. We should dig.”

I sensed my [Seed of Aeon] still gradually settling in. It took time for the seed to sprout in these parched lands. “Agreed. But let’s wait for the tree to settle in. These bones won’t go anywhere soon.”

I didn’t want to touch them. Not yet. I mentally marked the location on a makeshift map of the moon. Lumoof kept walking.

Patreeck said then, “We should tap into the bone’s memories when we can.” Yeah. That was right. The bones could show me a glimpse of what happened in the past. I wondered whether these dragon bones could show me something different from what I’d seen before.

If anything, dragon bones could be used to make very powerful weapons, at least, if I followed how the stories normally went. Hopefully these would be more useful than the previous batch of dragon bones.

We went further and walked more of the moon. I had to take over at parts, as Lumoof needed to rest. The moon was covered in craters, and the moon-dirt was all loose, the texture powderish. There was no water on this moon. I would have to magically create it as part of my terraforming program.

I felt mana flow to my [seed of Aeon] as it created its first root on the moon.

[You have acquired a new title: Tree on the Moon!]

Ah! Titles! I’d forgotten such things existed. They usually did nothing.

It took months for my new clone tree to even make its first tiny sprout, as most of the mana was used to change the environment.

“We should make a cocoon rather than a full terraform of the moon,” Stella insisted. “Moon base, not change the moon. Atmospheric changes may bring about widespread weather changes and may cause things to decay.”

That was also a valid opinion. I should test out the impact of terraforming the moon on a smaller scale before applying it to the entire moon. In addition, I wasn’t fully sure how my new terraforming powers under [Tree of Life] actually worked.

This part of the project would take a while, since I would have to take some time to check the impact of my new powers on an entirely foreign moon environment.

“Maybe you should do this first, on an asteroid,” Stella suggested, too. “An asteroid is far more replaceable.”

“That’s a waste of my clones,” I said frankly. “It’s not like I can’t recreate my clones, but it is still a waste. If the plan is to create a moon base, then let’s do a moon base. Remember, the whole purpose of starting out with a moon base is to amplify void magic.”

Indeed, void magic as a whole was a relatively fragile type of magic. They decayed too quickly and easily got weakened by a whole lot of other factors. Stella’s earlier attempts to interrupt the demon king from my supertall tree tower was insufficient.

The natural next step was to go even further, and thus we decided on the moon base. If we could interrupt the demon king’s arrival, that’d be a good way to win.

My spies embedded within Neira and Gaya had rather upsetting news. We still could not locate any records of attempted communication with their respective gods, and my agents even managed to comb through their ancient records.

Nothing. Not a single mention of a way to speak to the gods, other than prayers. Gods found them, not the other way around.

With, of course, tied in with what Snek wanted to know. How did we speak to the gods?

“I can’t share that. It is a secret of the Triumvirs.” I was on friendly terms with the snake spirit, but some things should remain secret. They were also not aware of Stella’s portal magics, and that was a good thing. Stella’s ability to open void portals remained a secret known only to the top of my organization, just like my ability to create clones. I really wondered whether I should help Snek. I barely knew them, and though he had been honest, I wasn’t sure I should.

“Shame. My people have many words they want to say to them.”

At Prabu’s recommendation, Ken also got a chance to visit the journal, but sadly, it didn’t work for him. He didn’t have star mana, and the journal could not open for him. It was also their first time to the Valley of the Unrotten, and Snek was particularly somber.

“This reminded me too much of my world.”

Ken merely sighed. “That’s quite depressing.”

Back on our home world, we discussed where to put the other three more cloned bodies. No, what exactly to do with them.

“The other two nearby worlds are a clear candidate,” Edna said during the discussion. “We can send the high-leveled Valthorns to those worlds and help fight the demon kings there. This means we can essentially gain experience from three demon kings over the same period of time.”

“That’s a whole lot of fighting.” Lumoof sighed. “I’m not sure I’m keen to do that much of that.”

It was true, and at Lumoof’s advice, I’d also increased the dungeon battles for the other Treeology Patriarchs and Matriarchs. A few of them had gone past level one hundred recently. The most recent battle with the demon king made it clear to me that he wasn’t that fond of battle. With my clones on other worlds serving as “gates,” I could definitely send some of my priests and Valthorns there to gain levels.

Edna had another private opinion, one she shared only with me and Lumoof. “One tree on the Eastern Continent. For the Aivans who now require our protection.”

Another idea was to wait for the demonic rifts and hijack the rifts to send my seed to the demon worlds. In short, I would invade the demon world with my seed and use my seed as a springboard for a full-scale assault to retake the demon world. I could use my seed, together with the [forest rod], to speed up the terraform and quickly establish a defensible position. I’d most likely need Lumoof to be in that demon world for some time.

Alka, my scientist, also had a view to use the clones offensively. He proposed that the clone trees be deployed on the continents where the demons were most likely to appear next. Three clones for the next three demon kings. That way, we would be able to significantly support the battles against the next few demon kings and relieve the pressure on Lumoof.

Of course, this would mean I would also be able to establish a surveillance network on the other three continents. Something that my spymasters would love.

Nay. While that was appealing in a way, I did prefer having the two seeds go to each of the other nearby worlds. Currently, I was already able to learn a lot through my spies, my network of minions and vassals, and trade. But the knowledge of these two worlds could be radically different, and the combined magical knowhow of the three worlds was likely to be more useful.

Not only that, I wondered whether there were others like me in those worlds. An alliance of spirits across the three worlds would be fantastic.

I’d have to send Lumoof for an information-gathering visit.

Why, it was time for my old priest to have his own isekai adventure on another world.

He gave me a look filled with horror.

46

YEAR 196

LUMOOF IN ANOTHER WORLD

Lumoof looked at the vastness of the grasslands, the strangeness of the green grass, same, but not the same. It was a different species of grass. The air had a faint taste of blood.

This was another world. Lumoof had been here before, very, very briefly, but this time, he would be here a lot longer.

“I got the [Dimension Traveler] skill and title,” Lumoof mentally said. This was his second alien world, after the moon, and now in this strange new place. The portal took a lot out of Stella, and almost half of the crystals shattered during the trip.

“There’s a skill like that, too, eh?” I responded. The lag wasn’t as pronounced as it was before. I suspected it had to do with the domain. The higher level I was, the lower the interdimensional lag became.

Lumoof nodded, and his shoulders sagged. He may be old in terms of spirit and mind, but physically he had the appearance of a mature, middle-aged man. The levels and domain had returned life and vitality and de-aged him. He took in the air, looked around, and started to walk. I could send the [seed of Aeon] to him via my transportation ability, so as it was, he didn’t need to carry anything.

He walked, and there were some animals nearby. They took a look and just left him alone.

“Stella and Kei told me these stories. Isekai.”

“Yep.”

“I’m living it right now.”

“Yep.”

“Then the first thing I should do is find a town and register with an adventurers’ guild,” Lumoof said with a sly grin.

“That’s par for the course.”

“And I’ll rescue some beautiful ladies and build a small zoo of female beast-girls?”

“If that’s your thing, yes.”

Lumoof laughed. “It’s not. But I must really admire the creativity of the writers of Earth. It’s really something that they could come up with such ridiculous stories. It’s also uncannily accurate. But let us find this city of adventurers.”

I knew from Stella that each world seemed to have the same language. Lumoof didn’t have to walk very far from the grassy fields when he saw a sign that pointed to a town. There was also a distance indicator, but we were not very sure what it was.

There were trees and smaller scrubs; they were similar to those of our world but had small differences, like their flowers were different colors or different designs. “I don’t quite understand why there are such differences, if the system is the one that regulates the magical spawning of monsters, animals, and life generally. There should be the same, if they were based on the same templates. Like, why does the system want each world’s fauna and flora to be different?”

“Variety?” Maybe each world had a unique “seed” code that the system then ran through a creature-generator. I felt such a setup was more likely, as it gave each world’s fauna an internal coherence.

Our senses detected a travelling group from far away. They looked like merchants, and they had guards. Four soldiers, and four merchants. We waited for them to approach.

“Hey, traveler,” Lumoof said as they approached. Lumoof was not armed; all his equipment and armor was kept in magical pocketspace. He wore a casual, long, flowing thick robe.

“What is a priest doing here?” The soldiers were alert; they lifted their weapons. One had a spear, the other two had swords, and the last one had a bow.

“I happen to be lost.” Lumoof gave his best priestly, friendly smile. “A strange manner of magic sent me here. Do you happen to know where I am, and what’s the nearest town?”

The soldiers were apprehensive. The merchants came out of their wagon. “I don’t recognize that robe. Which temple are you with, priest?”

Lumoof smiled at the merchant. “Ah, very, very few do. I’m with a tree spirit. We’re an obscure temple. Very few would know of us.”

The merchant stared at Lumoof, and we felt the prickling of a skill.

[Domain blocked attempted inspection.]

“And it’s not nice to use a skill when I didn’t.”

The merchant’s face paled, and he bowed. “My apologies, Great Priest.” Lumoof’s spirit stirred a little at the title, and I felt his subtle annoyance. Clearly the failed inspection was an answer of its own. The merchant explained that we were in one of the kingdoms, and the nearest town was along the road. I didn’t bother remembering the name since it’d probably change in a few years.

Lumoof feigned his best polite smile and thanked the merchants. He declined the merchant’s offer to travel with them; there was something about the opportunistic words from the merchant that irritated Lumoof. “It seems it’s that way.”

The town we visited was small, perhaps similar in size to the early days of Freeka. About three thousand or so people lived in a wide area. The houses outside the town’s walls were simple, and ones within were made of stone. They’d clearly prepared for the houses outside to be destroyed.

“Stop, visitor. Identify yourself.”

Lumoof nodded. “Lumoof. Priest of Aeon.”

“Never heard of it.” The city guard barked some orders, and another guard came by. “State your business.”

Lumoof once again flashed his best business smile and explained that he was a lost priest, flung to this place by magic.

The guard didn’t know how to process him. “No documentation at all? No one who could vouch for you?”

“It’s magic. You can’t always carry documentation with you.”

So they talked a little more as Lumoof waited in bureaucratic limbo. A senior guardsperson came, and the guards had adiscussion.

“It seems we are only seeing humans here,” Lumoof mentally spoke, and I didn’t notice it until Lumoof mentioned. “I wonder whether there are non-humans.” The guards left, and then a bit more bureaucracy later, a man that looked like one of the political leaders came.

“Priest Lumoof, thanks for waiting. I’ll be frank, we’ve never heard of the temples of Aeon.” I chuckled mentally. This was entirely our chance to play the hidden master or expert.

Lumoof flashed his best friendly smile. “It’s no surprise. We are a hidden temple. Most of the time. In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever left my temple. I actually just want to return to my temple, but I do need food and shelter while I find my way back.”

“I see.” The man seemed somewhat affected by Lumoof’s friendly smile. He nodded. “In that case, please wait a moment.”

“Not a problem, I’ve already waited for so long anyway. What’s a little more?”

The man and the guards huddled and discussed, and in the end, the man returned with an iron plate. “This is a temporary identification for you, Priest Lumoof. Please return it when you leave.”

Lumoof smiled. “Thank you.”

The town was small and all human. Lumoof wasn’t going to ask anything. He knew people enough that things about the lack of “others” were best breached when they started the conversation. Life seemed rather slow here, though there were a lot of blacksmiths repairing weapons.

“You need a weapon, priest?” Lumoof shook his head.

“I’m just new here.”

The blacksmiths didn’t pay him any attention after that. The inn was basic, and it was more like one of the residents’ homes that had extra rooms and certain segments converted to a makeshift eatery. Inns were fantastic places for gathering information.

Lumoof discovered a problem immediately.

“I don’t have money.” Lumoof frowned, but he walked back to that same man who gave him his plaque. “Can I sell this so that I can have some money to spend?” He took out a small iron dagger; it was very fine but not enchanted. He had a lot more things like that in his own pocketspace.

The man seemed to stare at the dagger in amazement. “This is very good-quality stuff. The steel is quite finely made.” Lumoof wanted to roll his eyes. Of course it was. A level eighty blacksmith made it.

Lumoof faked the most sympathetic look on his face. “Indeed, it’s a gift from a friend, but sadly I’m in need of money, so I do need to sell it.” It was one of Lumoof’s skills, to help persuade and convince others to like him.

The man nodded. “I understand. Come with me.” The man returned to one of the larger buildings in the town and came out with a small pouch of coins. “Here, some official coins for you.”

Lumoof checked it briefly and smiled. “Thank you.”

The inn was rowdy, and the beer was bad. But Lumoof could hold his drink, and he listened to the townsfolk chatter. We picked up a few things quickly.

This world had gone to shit, in a way. There were three large alliances: the humans, the centaurs, and the sandpeople. Each was at war with the other two, but none ever attempted to fully conquer the world.

The demons came less frequently to this world, only once every fifteen years. The heroes were summoned in groups, and each of the three alliances would usually have the same number of heroes.

In a strange twist of fate, we had come full circle. I was the alien yeeted to a strange new world, and now I sent Lumoof to discover a strange new world.

“Strange,” I said, and so at night, we walked out to one open field, and through Lumoof, I activated my avatar and created my special tree type, the [astreeal monitor]. The astreeal monitor immediately looked up, and we saw.

There were fewer strands of light in the sky, these little trickles that linked the world to the demons. They were all fainter, a bit further away.

Lumoof looked, and he sighed. “Perhaps there is a secret here, why there’s less of them. Our goal here is to learn of the other world’s magic and make friends with potential allies.”

We removed the tree and returned to the town.

“You there.” A knight in magical armor approached us on our way back. “Identification.”

Lumoof handed the plate as commanded. He wasn’t planning to resist. The knight stared at the plate for a while and then returned it.

The bed was uncomfortable, but it was too bad we couldn’t go back freely, at least, not with Stella’s ability. I could teleport him back, but then we’d have to wait until Stella was ready to send him to another world. A waste of time.

“We should go to a capital city and see what we can learn,” Lumoof suggested, and I agreed.

It wasn’t hard to get a wagon or a caravan to the capitol. Most traders were headed there anyway.

Back home, my seed grew well. The moon dirt was really unpleasant, but my magic over the last year helped to transform bits of it into something a bit more usable. My clone body was now the size of a small shrub, and it contrasted with the lifelessness of the moon. Its greenery stood out like a sore thumb.

It’d get faster as time went on. I also noticed it took longer for me to create a tree, any type of tree, in this environment.

That was strange, because I remembered it wasn’t that long back on the demon worlds when my vines and roots snuck through the rifts.

This posited a few possibilities.

My tree creation abilities through [Subsidiary Tree] or [Giant Attendant Tree] or other similar classes had to check whether the terrain was suitable for trees. If the answer was yes, then the tree could be created almost immediately. But if not, then it’d have to magically terraform the dirt, then only the tree was created.

The second possibility was my ability actually tapped into some magical energy in the planet. If the planet, or in this case, the moon, was devoid of mana, then creating a new tree took longer.

There were a few other possibilities, but I thought these two were most likely.

***The capitol of this kingdom was honestly not impressive. For someone like Lumoof, who’d seen the best of the Central Continent, and a few others, it was actually underwhelming. In many ways, it was comparable to just a large city.

There were scars of war, still seen. Lumoof learned there was a large battle a few years ago. Even though the demon king’s invasion was less frequent, the demons were still described as extremely powerful beings.

“We’re here, priest,” the convoy leader said, and Lumoof gladly made the last payments. The city had a smell, and strangely, there were no identification checks. The guards just waved everyone through.

He headed to the adventurers’ guild. There was one, even here in this different world, and it was mostly humans. There were few mixed ones, but they clearly hid their mixed heritage with hoodies, hats, or other bodily coverings. Lumoof, through a skill, managed to roughly sense the strength of those in the guild itself. They were mostly low level, in their level thirties and forties. The stronger few were in the fifties and sixties.

Lumoof smiled and approached the receptionist. “I’d like to hire an escort to the biggest city of mages on the continent. Do you know where I should go, and how do I get there?”

The receptionist thought for a moment and gave a name of a city that I didn’t bother to remember. Lumoof sold two knives and then took another wagon to this magic city. It took a month, but it was actually impressive.

The magic city was carved out of a large crystal mountain, and Lumoof immediately sensed very strong magical energies. It was extremely raw power; it was as if a part of the core itself was on the surface. Lumoof sensed strong magical defenses, comparable with the best of theirs.

“Welcome to the Magic City of Man,” those who greeted Lumoof said. “Here, we research the heights of magic and cast spells that the Centaurs and Sandpeople could not hope to match.”

An adventurer that travelled with Lumoof immediately whispered, “…that’s not exactly true, but let’s not talk about it publicly.”

More importantly, Lumoof sensed a presence that was within the crystal mountain itself. Was it a spirit? But he didn’t sense the presence of a domain. Or were our senses mistaken? Here, in the magic city of man, we learned more of the three great forces.

As it turned out, the Sandpeople had a great pyramid of Rock that survived the assault of countless demon kings. It was their ancient relic, apparently inherited and created by their god. It was a fortress and a bunker, and it was said the demon kings assaulted it for decades and failed.

The Centaurs possessed the Great Vanishing Country, which the great Centaurions controlled. The entire country itself could vanish, and the power to activate the great relic was passed down the Centaurions.

With such strong relics and artifacts, it was no surprise each of the three great forces managed to thrive, even with the assault of the demons.

The peoples of man worshipped Maelas, the Centaurs and the nonhumans worshipped Gayaar, and the Sandpeople and Scorpios worshipped Nair. One god for each group. We immediately wondered whether Gayaar and Gaya were the same, but it was hard to say without actually tracing the lines of heavenly power.

“Our world lacked such great artifacts. Perhaps only the great elf spirit could vanish and hide their city temporarily. But if these nations could hide an entire country, they could preserve their strength even with the demon kings,” Lumoof said.

I thought about the dwarves of Margmar and realized that may not be true. The Margmarian dwarves had great powers and powerful relics, too, but even they died in the end. The Ley Line Lens remained an unusual relic, even if I didn’t find much use for it. No, even the dragons with their incredible might, dragons that managed to even somehow land on the moon, died.

This world just did not encounter a demon king of the right power. All of this could be lost just as easily within centuries, if not decades. Such power was no guarantee, even if it did help.

At least, Lumoof noted, the rulers were prepared. He noted multiple magical defensive towers and mages on the lookout at all times. All of them seemed quite relaxed, though. “Are you here to learn magic?” one of the city’s receptionists approached him and quickly asked. “Though, given your age, it might be a little too late to learn advanced stuff, but you can still learn a few tricks to impress your kids.”

Lumoof smiled. “Ah, what kind of magic can I learn? Where do I go to know more?”

The Magic City of Man, Maelga, was segregated into rings that went closer to the peak of the massive crystalline mountain. The city itself was carved out of the crystal, and most of the academies here actually grew the crystal itself. The mountain was growing, literally.

It was so damned obvious in hindsight, in fact, I should’ve known it was possible when I considered that it was a relatively common activity for children in the more wealthy parts of our world. Children sometimes grew crystals out of sugar or salt.

This entire city had large groups that focused on cultivation of these crystals, and parts of it were harvested. The towers were made out of a combination of magic, skill, and materials harvested from far away. We saw large caravans that hauled smaller crystals and other materials here.

“Growing magic crystals is a sacred art available only to the high mage-priests of Maelas.” Of course, that was the first thing we asked. If it was possible to grow magic crystals, which I’d not seen anyone in my main world do, then I could totally grow different types of crystals.

No, it may even be possible to grow powerful variants of crystals.

Wait, was Aria and Aispeng essentially growing ice crystals all this while and I didn’t notice to ask them for more details?

Lumoof looked a bit sad, and then we approached another group of assistants and administrators. The rest of the magics were mostly normal, like spellcasting, forging, and so forth. Then we saw a part of crystal manipulation and crystal forging.

I bet Alka could find really interesting ways to use this new knowledge.

“Maybe it would be better if he was here,” Lumoof noted.

“Yes, but we need to make sure that this is a safe place for someone like him. He’s too valuable to just leave him here where others could hurt him.” Alka was not a combatant. As a [Field Scientist], he got a lot of skills that supported his research, but he remained vulnerable to combat.

Back in Freshka, Alka was always protected by an invisible army of spiders and beetles. Not only that, there were always eyes to protect him. Here, I was not comfortable with that. Maybe once he obtained his domain and gained the ability to reincarnate.

Lumoof took on the role of the mature man who came to the big city for the first time and feigned ignorance at every turn. To do so, of course, he dressed like a villager. We explored the city molded out of crystal mostly unimpeded; most of the mages just sighed when they saw us approach.

We eventually arrived at a large crystal building that resembled a massive nest. “This is the Hall of Maelas,” a guard said. “No entry unless invited.”

“We should send spies here,” Lumoof said as we rested at an inn. It was nice.

“They lack the background. They’ll get detected. If anything, Stella or Alka fits this place best.”

Lumoof paused. “What about Kei? This place is a mountain of living crystal. As a bio-crystalline golem she would be of huge interest to the locals.” But Lumoof realized the problem. “And of course, it’ll be a huge mark on her, as many will ask where she had been all this while.”

Later that night, we joined the inn’s bar and gathered a bit more info. It was still about eight years to the next demon king, and there were still two living heroes, one of the sandpeople and one of the humans. The human hero had apparently started a small kingdom of his own, while the sand hero just turned into a hermit.

My senses still suspected there was something deep in these mountains, even if I wasn’t quite sure what it was. It may be possible that a spirit lived in these mountains, and it was my gut feeling that there must be.

47

YEAR 197

Another otherworldly episode of Lumoof

Lumoof spent time in the other world, making friends and establishing connections, and I redirected my attention back home.

Home. Snek shared all he knew about the demons.

Since demon kings were not outright creations but were instead “grown” in these large spawning pools, I wondered whether this meant their power level was usually determined by the world that spawned these demon kings. The core’s energy, or the world’s energy, was drained to feed the demon king.

Essentially, these demons figured out a way to channel an entire world’s ley lines to create demon kings.

I was amused that this actually meant that some of the earlier accusations against me that I was a demon god could therefore be true, since using ley lines to create dungeons was probably in the same category as creating demon kings from ley lines.

No, more importantly, could I do the same?

Currently, I was essentially using ley lines to create dungeons, which then translated to experience, to more powerful subordinates.

If Snek’s understanding was correct, after all, he could still be wrong since he was just an observer of the demon king’s spawning pools; it should be possible for me to “grow” a demon king using the powers of a world. Essentially, I could remove the dungeon part and essentially somehow use the ley line to create stronger subordinates directly.

Of course, this was the magical equivalent of me knowing that birds can fly, and then theorizing that I should be able to fly too if I had wings, and now I just needed to go about actually creating the wings. I certainly didn’t know the nitty-gritty details about plane designs at all.

Patreeck and my artificial minds got down to work and helped consider the issue and possible hurdles I would have to clear.

One: ley lines were currently difficult to manipulate. The demon kings must have a means of manipulating ley lines in order to create more demon kings. I believed this was true, because the [forest rod] was one such strange item. On this aspect, I would either have to steal the demon’s way of manipulating ley lines or invade that demon world and see how these strange artifacts were made.

Two: demons had a way of directing energy and mana into creating life or creatures at that level of power. I thought it was probably the harder hurdle. For me, I was not able to do so, and yet I suspected my [soul forge] colors may essentially be the one of the components. If each color of the soul forge created a more complete soul, a full soul forge should, in theory, create a whole soul. Essentially, I could create artificial souls that possessed sentience and sapience above my existing artificial souls and for them to then function as a vessel of the power from these ley lines. Based on what Snek described, these spawning pools seemed to be large, growing things.

It may be a good idea to “invade” a demon world just to gain control over these spawning pools. These demons were also thematic, and that implied that each spawning pool had to be configured differently in order to produce demon kings with different types of powers.

I supposed in our world’s terms, it was the equivalent of one country without planes that witnessed another country’s planes, and now it tried to make those planes by collecting the pieces of the planes and piecing them together. Or maybe just capturing the factories that made the planes.

It was possible that the schematics were offsite and the factory was just an assembly plant.

In any case, it was an idea I kept at the back of my head.

It was just Ken, Snek, Stella, Edna, Kei, and Prabu in the room when I introduced Stella and Kei for the first time to both Ken and Snek. Lumoof was still in another world.

Snek paused and looked at Stella. “She has void energy swirling around her. Have you discovered the way of the zaratans?” The zaratans disappeared from Snek’s world.

Stella smiled. “I was taught by a zaratan.”

Snek was amazed. “That means you could send me home.”

Stella shook her head. “Possible, but I believe we should first match our astral maps.”

Snek gladly shared. This snake spirit was incredibly cooperative. The mages of Snek’s world did have a map, but their maps were derived from whatever knowledge they stole or spied from the demons. Using the “dragon-demon” world as a point of reference, we were able to roughly estimate the likely locations of Snek’s home world.

“No. Your world is too far, beyond our astral vision, and so I sadly see no way of getting you there.”

Ken watched Snek and Stella interact, but then he asked, “Wait a minute, all this talk about going to other worlds is only relevant to Snek. I want to know is it possible to send us home?”

Stella shook her head. “Sadly, it seems Earthlings and other Earth variants exist in a different layer of space entirely. Only the gods are able to pierce that veil…for now.”

“Could star mana do so?” Prabu asked. To the archmage hero, star mana was the solution for everything. In most cases, that was usually right.

Kei then added, “Unfortunately, Stella’s void magic is incompatible with star mana. We’ve seen it react horribly when used together. So your trip is one-way.”

For now, I supposed. They could die and their gods reincarnate them back to where they started.

The news that Stella couldn’t send him home was disappointing for Snek, but it was not the end. There was a moment of silence as everyone was in their own thoughts. For Stella, and me, Snek’s own stellar maps expanded my own view of the multiverse. We knew, at least, it was located really far away, and somehow these demons were masters of these void paths.

“There will be a demon king in four years. It may be possible for you to sneak through those rifts.” If it was the correct world. Each demon king was linked to a different world.

Snek was aware of the need of mana modulation and resonance to access those rifts. “Alternatively, I could wait until the right demon king appeared. One from my world. With the right items and ritual, I could separate from Ken and he would be free to do whatever he wants.”

Ken, strangely, seemed to have an epiphany of his own. But what if Snek and this tree plot something? It’s better— Wait, what I am thinking? So what if they have a plot? Why should I even care? All I want to do is get out of this shit. That’s why I gave up the hero class. Does it matter if I live under an autocratic god-emperor of the world, so long as I don’t have to deal with it? No, if I want to live quietly and retire with a family, that’s actually good!

Ken’s sudden change of heart seemed to make him smile. “Yeah. I actually want to just live somewhere safe and quietly for the rest of my life. Maybe it’s a good idea for us to separate.”

No one heard him say it, well, maybe except Snek.

Since no one responded to Ken’s statement, I merely continued with my proposal. “I think it’s best to wait till the right demon king appears and figure out what’s the best way to send you back. We will have many demon kings to face over the next few decades anyway, and if it is on a rotational basis as you speculated, then your world will come around.”

We actually didn’t know whether the paths to the demon worlds that faded away eventually returned. The data of past demon-king types had been insufficient to prove that there was a larger “cycle” in the background that rotated the demon kings like some constellation movement.

My gut feeling was there was more than just the eight or ten lines we saw in the sky. The gods said there were thousands or millions of demon worlds. So why were only these few worlds targeting our own?

No, what I also didn’t understand was why not just flood a world with thousands of demon kings?

Was there some rule or perhaps a magical reason why they couldn’t come here directly?

Stella came and shouted in one of the rooms where my Tree of Prayers was.

“Aeon. Aeon. You must see this. There’s a world that suddenly popped into our astral line of sight, and it’s moving quickly! We must visit it before it goes away.”

Awfully convenient, but I supposed before this, I didn’t even know they came. We activated the monitor. It was funny that I considered this world home. Actually, I felt it was my home, and it was the same for Stella.

We saw a moving shadow, small and barely noticeable. I would not have noticed it. It may have been there for some time.

“It’s lucky that I saw it there. It’s thanks to Snek’s starmaps that I saw something faint that moved.”

It was far, but reachable, at least from what I understood of Stella’s limits. But it moved quickly, and based on what I could tell, it would move out of Stella’s range within a year or two. It was very dim, and as with worlds across space, they appeared like little bubbles. It was unique that the bubble was mostly dark, with little bits of light left. The other worlds, like the one Lumoof was in, were bright. “It’s a moving world.”

“Yes. We should investigate it quickly. Pull Lumoof back and we’ll send him there now,” Stella insisted, “while I can still reach it. Or send Edna.”

“No. It had to be Lumoof.” Lumoof spent a lot of time in the magic city of Maelga.

“We have a small window of interacting with this world. Given its situation, it may be very different from what we’ve seen so far.”

Indeed. I could pull Lumoof back if I was uncomfortable with the risks. All I needed was my seed to be deployed to this strange world. I immediately pinged Lumoof.

“Lumoof. We have a situation back home. I’ll need to send you elsewhere.” Lumoof nodded. He hurried off to make arrangements and said his goodbyes. It took three weeks for Lumoof to create a story that he would be away for some time. Luckily, no one asked too many questions.

I pulled Lumoof back. I shared the view of the strange alien world that we saw.

“You want to send me there?”

“Yes. Stella said she will be able to send one. It has to be you, because I want to see what’s there.”

Lumoof nodded reluctantly. Stella immediately made preparations.

I decided to name the world with the three large factions as Threeworlds, and the stray world as the Cometworld, since its behavior was comet-like. The fact that it drifted in and out of view suggested it had a path that it travelled through space. I was fascinated and intrigued by what a world like that would be.

“But Threeworlds? The magic city? There’s still so much to discover…” I could have put my clone tree somewhere just to lock my access to the world, but I decided it was better to wait. I wanted a good location, and I wanted to see whether it’d get certain special effects if my tree was located on some extremely powerful ley line.

“We can return to Threeworlds later.” Threeworlds and that other world seemed to be somewhat tidally locked, and our home world and these two worlds seemed perpetually close by. I thought it wouldn’t leave us for a while.

Lumoof stared. “Let’s go, then.”

Stella quickly gathered her resources and prepared far larger quantities of crystals than ever before. The spell strained her energy, and I had to support her with my vines.

The portal opened, and my vines went through. “Quickly!” Stella shouted as she felt her void energies fading. The relatively faster movement of this cometworld through the void sea increased the cost and difficulty of the portal. It was essentially trying to throw a line at a moving speedboat.

It was land. I saw floating…islands?

Lumoof stepped through, and I felt searing pain. It was a familiar one, a sensation of being torn apart. No, it was like one was hanging by the side of a speedboat, or one of those tourist things, where the boat lowered a paraglider such that their leg was partly in the water. I felt something smash into Lumoof’s body, and I tried my best to shield him from it.

Lumoof went through.

When we arrived, there were no trees, no grass. Just dirt and dust. The air was hot and burning but filled with magic. Unpleasant, angry magic. It was as if mana itself took a personality, and it was unpleasant. The ground was unstable and rumbled constantly. Huge chunks floated in the sky, and the sky was reddish.

I felt it instantly.

This was a dying world.

We saw a light, and it streaked across the red sky and smashed into somewhere off the horizon. Minutes later, a flash of light, and a shockwave of hot wind. There were more lights in the sky.

I shielded Lumoof instantly and encased his body in an armor of wood.

“What should we even do?”

I activated my avatar form, and Lumoof turned into a massive tree. I spawned trees by the hundreds and more magical labs. If there was somewhere or something left in this world—

I activated a dome of wood; there was another shockwave from another meteor.

The red sky was filled with it. The sun was red, and it was large. My sensors tried to sense for any magic, but there were too many of these shockwaves, and they contaminated the data. It was like trying to listen for the footsteps of ants when there was a band playing right next door.

Boom. Another shockwave.

“We should return, Aeon. There’s most likely nothing here.”

“Wait,” I said. If Snek could survive in their world, there must be survivors. Even if all I could do for them was evacuate them offworld, that may be good enough.

As my roots spread, I felt something touch me from the deepest of my roots. It spoke to me directly.

Child of another world…

Who’s that? But before anything, I felt like I was entranced.

We are dying. The sun father nears its end. Our world is doomed. Save our children. They are there.

[You have received a living map of the Cometworld.]

The map appeared before me like—

The ground cracked, and it tore. A part of it started to float.

“We have to move. Quickly.” The map instantly marked certain red spots, which I presumed were where this voice wanted me to go. Lumoof closed his eyes and then brought out a magical scroll.

[Greater Teleport]

We were instantly warped, and I was suddenly on another cracking island. It looked like a city, or at least a castle. I saw people. No, they were…dogs? They had the head of a dog, and they were each a different type of dog.

They looked at me in horror. “A monster!”

“Kill—”

A meteor smashed into one of the castle’s towers and incinerated it instantly. People were fleeing, but they didn’t know where they were going.

We saw another meteor. Lumoof instantly jumped onto one of the walls and created a wooden shield. The meteor smashed into the wooden shield and disintegrated. My first direct hit from the falling meteors, and I realized it contained star mana. Within these meteors were star mana. My shield would not have disintegrated so easily. Not to something as simple as falling rocks from space.

I turned and saw more dogpeople; they looked like mages, with their stone staff and crystals. “You.”

Back home, Stella was in no condition to send anyone back. She had collapsed after Lumoof went over. How did I…

No. The clone seed was one of the ways I could save these people. I could exploit the Tree of Clones to send someone to me.

Unlike the moon, which never had any trees, this world once had trees. I knew that from the brief avatar state and from when my roots touched the ground.

“Lumoof. Place my seed in the ground. Now.” Lumoof leaped off the walls and landed on the dirt.

“Are you sure? This world is dying.” Another meteor crashed elsewhere. This was a world experiencing a meteor-pocalypse.

“Lumoof, are you suggesting we let these people die?” I mean, I usually didn’t care, but I supposed seeing a world dying right before my eyes was something else. This was like watching a movie where someone used a black hole in the center of a planet.

“I can always make more seeds, but let us not waste time.”

My seed was planted in the ground, and it absorbed the mana from the ground and quickly turned into a massive tree. The dog people looked in wonder. I had never used the Tree of Clone’s transportation ability. I didn’t expect to have to do an evacuation of an entire planet, but I supposed there was a first for everything.

Our children die.

I felt the voice again through my roots. Lumoof immediately shouted, “This world is dying! We will send you somewhere safe. Come quickly! Tell everyone!”

The dog people talked among themselves, and some walked to the tree. The first dogperson to volunteer looked like a warrior of some kind; he had armor and a spear on his back. He touched my clone tree, and a large tree-door appeared.

I sent him through and felt it drain my own mana.

When he appeared on the other side, Edna had already mustered a group on standby. The dogperson looked shocked, and the first thing he saw was the blue skies outside.

“The skies. They are still blue!” he said. I would talk to them later.

The dogpeople looked apprehensive, but Lumoof was persuasive, and more went through the door. More meteors were crashing, and more of the land cracked and splintered. Essentially, this was a planet that was in the process of crumbling. Within months, the whole planet would turn into separated chunks.

The rest of the dogpeople of this town went through; I couldn’t tell who was what, it seemed some of them were more important than the others, but eventually almost everyone went through.

There were a few of them left who stayed behind. Not out of suspicion, but to help. The dogpeople had faced the falling stars for weeks. It started with a strange twisting of space, and the stars changed. The sun was once golden, and the skies were once blue, but it turned red, and the world started breaking apart.

Many cities had been destroyed by the falling stars since then.

There were no demons here, just nothing more than plain old stellar catastrophe.

This was no time to hold back on relics, so Lumoof used [Teleport] scrolls liberally and moved to the other cities. The map was real time, and the red dots marked surviving cities. Each day more of these red dots vanished.

I didn’t know why, but I felt really sad.

Our children die.

Sadly, the inter-dimensional transportation could only be performed at my main tree of clones.

“You must go, too. We need your portals, else more will die,” I told Stella three days after we were at the Cometworld. By now, the dogpeople had briefed the rest of my Valthorns of what happened in their world.

They were still an official secret, of course, and they never left my Valley of the Unrotten. Instead, the Valthorns set up an entire refugee camp in my valley. It was nostalgic, of course.

My valley was once the refugee camp of the surviving New Freekans.

Stella, with her portal, worked with Lumoof and opened portals between the continents and cities of the Cometworld. Most of these dogpeople called themselves the Canar. Together, for weeks and months, we sent the Canari people to our world.

We didn’t really negotiate much; it seemed the people there had acknowledged their doom, so Lumoof’s presence was perhaps that of an angel of salvation.

The sunfather collapses.

We couldn’t save everyone. Every day I saw more red dots vanish, either because of meteors or from the sundered earth. The earth cracked more every day, and eventually, the last red dot was gone from the map. Everyone I could save was saved. Millions more had died.

Three hundred fifty thousand Canari went through those portals over the course of months and arrived at my Valley of the Unrotten. We immediately found an isolated, quiet place on the Central Continent and transported them secretly there through our network of underground tunnels.

Then I sent both Lumoof and Stella back, and in the world of the Cometworld, my tree of clones was the last living thing that remained.

Stella returned, exhausted, and rested. The next day, she vented her despair. “I could’ve done more if we found them earlier.”

At this juncture, I thought about what would have happened if I chose [Crown of Magic] or [Will of the World]. With Crown of Magic, I should be able to create more void mana and therefore open those portals myself. Not just that, in theory, I should be able to use those spells through Lumoof. With Will of the World, I’d probably try to move our world closer to it.

The Cometworld’s meteor shower intensified, and the world cracked. A huge chunk had separated, and the weather had turned almost unlivable.

But my tree of clones was not something so easily destroyed. My roots extended deeper into the ground. There was something I wanted to do.

I sought out the voice. I may not be able to reach the core of my world, but I should be able to reach the exposed core of this Cometworld.

48

YEAR 197 (PART 2)

The Cometworld crumbled as large chunks that blanked the red sky drifted apart. I spawned my trees quickly, and my roots spread out through the rocks and dirt and grabbed the earth. There were still meteors that rained from the red skies above, but thanks to this large chunk of rock that drifted overhead because of the loss of gravity, it functioned as a meteor-umbrella.

I wasn’t even sure whether it was gravity or just some weird magical forces in this world. I certainly could feel it as it tried to tear my roots apart.

My trees had spread as far as I could, during the attempts to rescue as many of the Canari people, and I spawned more [Giant Attendant Trees] wherever I could. Still, a stray meteor that I failed to block could singlehandedly destroy my Giant Trees. These meteors contained powers that exceeded their size, and it was getting stronger.

The sun’s redness turned even redder, and it felt larger. The heat was immense, and part of my mana was spent cooling down my entire network of trees as I attempted to reach the exposed core of the cometworld.

There were no monsters left. No one.

Just the pull of some unusual magic tearing the entire world apart. It wasn’t godly, either. Magic didn’t work anymore. The tearing energies here seemed to interfere with magic, which was why I sent Stella home.

I popped my trees as fast as I could, and it was a race against time before the chunk of earth I was on would be torn away.

The meteors smashed into one of the floating chunks, and it split in half. A part of it drifted back to the glowing exposed core. I didn’t know why, but I felt drawn to it.

A large meteor slammed into the exposed core of the Cometworld, and large chunks were torn out. The parts that glowed flew up and turned into rock almost instantly, and I saw the core shrink in size.

I attempted to reach it.

Too late, child of another world.

I felt a really strong pulling force on the ground, and even as I increased the number of roots, it ripped them apart. I was trying to hold the ground together with flimsy tape during an earthquake.

The path to the core was lost, and I felt a bit weaker. No, my trees in that world felt a bit weaker.

The core was smaller, with most of the bits around it drifting apart. I saw the exposed core glow, and then it exploded into multiple fragments. A strange white fragment flew right toward me.

It was a white ore the size of a tree trunk, and it flew and dropped close to one of my other subsidiary trees. My roots immediately wrapped it and pulled it to my tree of clones. No time to analyze what it was, because I sent it back.

Once I did, the core seemed to glow again and then…crumbled. A layer in the sky shattered. It was like a protective dome that once existed over the entire planet faded away, and the entire world was blanketed by a burn. All my lesser trees were destroyed, and the ground burned briefly and then stopped.

There was nothing to burn. Nothing left.

Yet my main tree of clones survived; the reddish sun continued to batter my tree of clones with searing hot energy, but it did nothing. My tree of clones shared my resistance.

A part of me floated in space, and I watched the red sun glow and grow. It grew even larger and took up a bigger part of space.

Meteors now flew at me directly, drawn to me by some kind of magic. I felt the air was thick with a kind of mana and magic that I didn’t quite understand. It was like star mana yet different. I couldn’t get my magical sensors to check it; they were destroyed too quickly by the perpetual ambient rays. No, more accurately, everything disintegrated…except me.

The red sun grew over the course of the year and then, in a sudden moment…vanished.

Gone.

My tree of clones drifted alone in space, in seemingly perpetual emptiness and darkness.

“The world vanished.” Stella looked in horror back from the safety of our home. “How?”

There was nothing…absolutely nothing at all. All the stars in that world seemed to have disappeared as well.

In the emptiness, back home—

[You’ve obtained a title: Witness of a World’s Death]

[You’ve obtained a title: Otherworldly Rescuer]***

The Canari people got a title. [Otherworld Refugee]. Both Lumoof and Stella all got the title [Otherworldly Rescuer] as well. Titles seemed mostly useless to me, but the fact that the system awarded them meant there had to be some use.

Anyway, Lumoof had to break the news to the Canari directly. “Your world has died.” The Canari howled and wailed. By now, they had relocated to a secret mountainous area in the Central Continent. Perhaps one day they would be introduced to the wider world, but for now, there were too few of them. There were secret convoys that brought food to them, while they adapted to the new world.

The Canari also had to organize themselves in order to communicate with me. Edna and Lumoof were both so powerful that to them, they were pretty much living gods. Strangely, they didn’t seem to notice me much and mostly paid attention to Lumoof. But I needed Lumoof elsewhere, now that the Cometworld was lost. I wanted Lumoof back in the Threeworlds.

I had Valthorn druids assist to build temporary housing for them, while their own builders and workers built something more to their own liking.

We had a meeting, mostly to discuss the future plans and also to better understand the past.

The meeting was held in a makeshift wooden hall in their part of the world. Their people sounded happy, but I wasn’t sure since I couldn’t exactly read the facial expressions of the Canari, mainly because I was entirely unfamiliar with them. In a sense, this was a problem I faced with the lizardfolks and treefolks, too.

At the very least, these Canari had tables and chairs, so this part was normal. “How’s everything?”

The Canari split into one large faction that largely embraced this new world and two smaller factions, one that seemed a little suspicious and wanted to go back, and a third group that strangely wanted to die. These last group seemed to say that they should’ve died with their world, with everyone else that died.

Stella called it “survivor’s guilt.”

I honestly didn’t know what to say about it. It seemed quite similar to what the heroes and those who survived great destruction experienced to some degree. All I could do now was to pop some [tree of prayers] and keep their stress levels manageable. I knew for a fact that the people of this world were hardy and seemed to take the frequent destruction and death in stride.

So the Canaris were somewhat different, and I wasn’t sure why. I also attempted to introduce my priests to them, to help these groups manage their anxiety and trauma, but most of them only pushed the priests away. They didn’t want help, even if they needed it.

There were people like that everywhere, and all we could do was ease them into their new environment. Some would always cling to their old world, just like how some reincarnated heroes still dreamed of home.

I focused on those who accepted reality.

“It happened out of nowhere,” one of the Canari folk explained to us. He was a level sixty-five [Lorekeeper] and spoke of their world history.

The world of the Canari had demons, and they came rarely, once in a while, with no real certainty or regularity. Even so, their description of demons seemed so relatively weak that their “champions” could defeat them. Their best warriors in the high level eighties were enough. I suspected they were the demon champions and not the demon king proper.

“That’s so strange,” Stella said frankly. “Why the demon champions, but not demon kings?”

As the world moved so quickly across the void sea, was it possible that perhaps the demon kings just could not establish a stable portal? It explained that they had enough time to open a small path that champions could walk through, but not enough for the kings.

“Our world is usually at peace, and our wars are fought with each other and monsters,” the Canari loremaster said. “We don’t know why our world suddenly behaved that way. We had wars and we had fights, but nothing seemed to have changed.”

A Canari astrologer gave a differing view. “Other than the stars vanishing from our skies.”

The gods that they worshipped were based on the sun, the land, the moon, and the darkness beyond. They didn’t have a notion of otherworldly visitors, other than the demons themselves, which they thought were just nothing more than creations of darkness beyond.

So they didn’t even know about Zaratans.

As we spoke to more and more Canari, all of them had no idea. They didn’t know why. All they could do was observe the eventual destruction of their world.

Some posited wild theories that the world was angry. Or that someone offended the sun. The sun was once a different color, and the sky, too. But somehow it just died.

I thought of the white ore.

The white ore stood in my main tree, hidden inside my [secret hideout]. These days, there was no one in my main body’s secret hideout. All of them lived outside.

Laufen lived with her grandson, Lauda, in Freshka. Lausanne usually taught at the Valthorn academy when she wasn’t chilling with her friends.

I took a good look at it.

[Shard of A Destroyed World]

Well, here goes nothing. My vines inserted it into a pod, and I had a vision, and I heard its voice again.

Our sun died, for no reason other than age. We are an ancient world, and our world lived for too long. Our sun was never meant to live long, for it burns bright and burns quickly. I shielded my children for as long as I could, but death comes even for a world like me.

I saw a shortened clip of a sun growing and then fading.

The grand mechanisms of fate granted me a final hope, a portal to another world. A hope for my children, instead of the nothingness I offer. For that, thank you.

[You’ve received a skill: Canari Knowledge and Biology.]

[Your astral map has been updated.]

The world sent me a goodbye memo. That sucked. But I was drawn to a sudden increase in my astral map. I saw, for a sudden moment, wide swaths that were revealed to me. This cometworld travelled in a long arc through the void sea, and I understood that these worlds may have moved since then.

I felt like a xianxia protagonist suddenly realizing the existence of the world beyond worlds.

Now that I saw how large the multiverse was, it truly narrowed my focus. I didn’t think it was possible for me to save the thousands of other worlds out there, and nor did I intend to,

My goal should be this world. Home. I would protect my home, and I would stop the demons from entering my world. The greater world could be a later problem, but my first and main focus should be to save this world.

I may consider reinforcing Threeworlds and the other neighboring world as a means to properly protect this world.

The path of the Cometworld through the seas also revealed that it came in close contact with some demon worlds. There were way too many demon worlds.

There was something else in the Shard. A strange mana I didn’t understand and that refused to interact with me. Did the Shard leave something else in there?

Ugh.

But the fact that this world could even talk to me told me something very important.

It was possible to talk to the world, and that meant it must be possible to talk to my world. If I elected [Will of the World], did that mean I would merge with the thing at the center of this world?

What other kind of power did an entity like that have? From what I’d seen, the core had some way of creating shields, since the core shielded their world from the harmful effects of their dying sun and also had the power to give skills.

I remembered that some of the elves and treefolks worshipped variants of the “nameless mother,” and these were likely references to the world itself.

Did every world have a will at the center of it all?

> Lilies. Do you know of the will of the world? <

< It sleeps at the heart of our world. >

> Have you ever spoken to it? <

< No. >

> How do you know of it? <

< We felt it once, a long, long time ago during a period of great destruction. >

Huh. What was the relationship of the gods and the will of the world? Was the Will of the World a god? > What is the will? <

< We don’t know. >

Great. If it wasn’t a god, then it must’ve been a creation of the system itself. I didn’t understand why there were gods and demons in the first place. Like, our own world didn’t have them, but the ancient people invented them to explain the world.

But the other world called the Canari their children. Did this mean that the will of the world was responsible for the creation of the inhabitants, and thus all of those who lived here were creations of the will?

Wait. If we extend this train of thought, did this mean that the gods needed otherworldly heroes because the will of the world interfered with their meddling of the natives? Or maybe, only some would of the world interfered, so for those worlds, they needed to use externally sourced heroes.

Looking at it in another way, from what Snek described of how the demons used the energy of the core to create demon kings, this suggested that the demons’ ultimate goal was to capture the will of the world in order to create more demon kings.

But why? Why create more demon kings?

What was the end goal for the demons?

What was the end goal for the gods?

< Some things just are, > Lilies answered frankly. < Like a reef that grows, it grows because it must. There is no why. >

Was that a jab at Reefy?

Let’s assume that Lilies was right. The demons invaded other worlds, took control of their world, and then just used it to invade more worlds. If so, they were essentially a virus.

Then the gods? Each god was a sentient, sapient creature with its own intellect. So each of them would have their own goals, but clearly, each god had a limited sphere of influence. If they were higher-leveled versions of me, their ability to touch multiple worlds was clearly constrained by simple, practical issues like distance, unless the system allowed certain overrides.

Stella was also thinking about it, and she posited a fascinating possibility.

The void sea was expanding, in the same way Earth’s distance between galaxies expanded. A slow expansion of the multiverse, so worlds where the gods could reach were getting less, as each of them drifted further and further apart.

Certain worlds, where they were close enough such that they were clustered and locked together by local “magic-gravity,” remained reachable to each other, but those further apart were being ripped apart.

The expansion of the universe was an issue over millions, billions of years on Earth. But perhaps here, there was a magical equivalent at play. If so, this implied that each world would eventually be unreachable to the others. Even demons would eventually disappear.

49

YEAR 198

Lumoof was back on the Threeworlds to continue making connections and also travelled to find a good place to plant my seed. The little incident with Cometworld really made me feel the vastness of the world, that time and some space energies could tear a world apart so easily.

But what was important occurred back home.

We saw the rifts open. One of the pathways had lit up, and that meant the demons had arrived. I was sure I didn’t see any of it on the Central Continent, so that was a good thing.

“It’s in the south,” Stella said as she observed the skies from the highest peaks.

My tree on the moon was growing well and was growing faster. At Stella’s advice, I agreed to encase my tree in a sphere of roots; essentially I created the first wooden biome on the moon. I didn’t get any accomplishment for that. Still, it wasn’t ready for habitation yet.

I thought of converting the moon into a safe space for the Canari folk. They still struggled to adapt to their new life, though most of those struggles were mental and structural rather than physical. They had to rebuild their institutions from scratch and come to terms to live in entirely foreign lands.

It wasn’t easy to forget one’s entire life in another world, and even worse when they remembered that they could never, ever go back. It was a horrible feeling.

I would deal with them later. For now, I focused on looking for the demons.

Snek and Prabu met up frequently, and Prabu could feel the demons. Snek, too. Snek was sensitive to the starways, as a creature that managed to travel into the space between worlds, and he came from a world infested by demons, so he knew what it was like.

“As it always has.” Prabu sighed. “And it will come for me. Chung’s already making preparations for the demons.”

Colette had returned to the Central Continent to be with Prabu, and she slapped Ken the moment she saw him. She called him a “reckless piece of shit that abandoned his friends.” Ken took it like a man and admitted his faults.

“So, this Snek is an otherworldly creature that the gods may not approve of,” Colette said frankly, but somehow Snek didn’t seem afraid. Not this time.

Prabu displayed his work over the past few months and years to Colette. Here, in the Central Continent, and also in the special Tree of the Heroic Journal, Prabu made heroic items for the next generation and for himself. Weapons of war.

Ken acknowledged it was a good idea. “The strength of a civilization is its collective memory and collective capacity. I wonder why it took so long for heroes to come up with an idea like this.”

Prabu answered, “Because it leads to nukes and mutually assured destruction.”

“You two are walking nukes.”

“And that’s why it’s not a good idea.”

“Have you ever wondered whether it’s possible to mitigate the effects of a nuclear apocalypse with some global power? Something that Aeon has?” Ken wondered.

“What are you implying?” Prabu stared at Ken uncomfortably.

“I mean, like, could we just nuke Snek’s world to death and then send Aeon to fix it back after the world was effectively glassed?”

Snek glared at Ken. “Human, that is not an idea to be entertained.”

Ken continued, ignoring the snake. “Think about it. Remember how the Protoss glassed the Zerg-infested worlds to control their spread? What’s stopping us from doing exactly that? Especially if we could theoretically fix it back up.”

“You’re killing a bunch of innocents, too?” Prabu said. “I’m amazed that such an idea even came from you. Here you are, accusing this continent of being the literal Empire, and now you come up with this shit? What did you think this is? The Death Star?”

Snek agreed. “Don’t burn the bridge if you think of crossing it later.”

“It’s just a thought experiment. In the long run, there really is no loss. Especially if we could find ways to evacuate the innocents and then bomb them to hell. It’s the only way to be sure.”

“It’s not. There are millions of demon worlds out there. You can’t bomb all of them.”

“If not, is there a way to just…I don’t know, break all these interworld travelling altogether? Interrupt how the demons travel here,” Ken said, and of course, he had a similar idea as us. Stella’s goal was to interrupt the paths.

Snek paused. “You’re suggesting to destroy the void space rather than to close the paths.”

“Yeah.” It was the xianxia equivalent of severing the pathways to immortality. Destroying the world tree that linked the nine worlds.

“That’s absolutely a nuclear option,” Prabu said.

“But it will end the problem.”

“I don’t think it does,” Prabu said as he looked at Snek. “It just stops the many worlds from getting help, either from the gods or from each other.”

That was something worth thinking about.

We finally received reports of the demonic sighting, and it was not good. It was honestly the hardest kind of opponent for my Valthorns.

“The entire village was infested with corrupted men and women. These demons are all parasites, and they converted the humans into these demon knights!”

“What?” Edna said. “Corrupted?”

“Yeah. Some of them seemed still human, but they had demonic parts on them. They would still behave humanly but would then attack.”

Many of my Valthorns were powerful, and they had slain many demons. But corrupted men and people were a lot harder. How did they know who was still human? Not just that, it was possible they faked it.

“We did not engage.”

“Can they talk?”

“Yes! That’s what makes them so unnerving. We were not sure whether they were humans or elves or demons anymore!” Our spies were really disturbed by it.

Around the same time, the Churches of Gaya and Hawa both announced an immediate lockdown of the Southern Continent. They declared that they would handle the demonic infestation on their own.

“Fuck?” That wasn’t helping. If anything, we needed everyone on the field to figure out how to deal with these corrupted humans.

“Can you capture some of these infested demons? Knock them out? Send them to our nearest allied state.”

“Will try, Commander Edna. The men are quite disturbed by this. Some of them don’t have any visible demonic-infestation marks.”

“Shit.” Edna nodded. This was really the worst kind of demon. We could use some psychic abilities to suppress the demons or perhaps, in the old priestly way, exorcise the demons from these infested folks.

But Lumoof was still in the Threeworlds. I had to make do with the rest. I called the rest of my Patreearchs and Matreearches for counsel.

“Yes, we have some exorcist skills, mainly to remove foul spirits and curses. We could try them out,” Matreearch Arcila advised. “We will await the test subjects.”***

Our forces in the south were quite strange. Level sixty or so, but even then they were surprised by how suddenly these demons attacked. Perfectly normal-looking towns could hide a demonic infestation, and they would spawn randomly.

In actual combat, my Valthorns could easily defeat the demons. The problem was the morale took a real hit. It was really something emotional to see a demon pop out of a perfectly regular-looking commoner, and a lot of the spies were emotionally affected by it.

It made them paranoid. Every single living being could be a demon. A cow could have a demon hiding in it. A playful cat. A friendly innkeeper.

My former heroes were all stunned by it. “How?”

“It’s safe to say that any place where the demons appeared are likely to have been completed corrupted, even if they appear outwardly normal,” our lords reported, and the counsel was somber. It was a difficult thing.

At least, if they died, it was a clean, clear death. This group of demons took the Alien route. They manipulated the hosts.

“Is there a puppet master?” Kei asked. “Most possession stories have a puppet master at the back, someone that holds the strings. Can we use our magic to find it?”

We were still struggling to get samples.

“Also, what if it’s like a virus? It corrupts people by touching the demonic flesh?” Kei added.

At that moment, I wondered whether my guys could be corrupted, too! The senior Valthorns frowned as she heard the briefing. Roon, Edna, and Johann all shared an uncomfortable look. They would face hard choices in the future.

“How do we know who is safe?” Matriarch Hoyia, one of the decarches, asked. “We need a group to smuggle ourselves there and see for ourselves. This corruption is not suited for spies. We should go and see.”

“I assume that you are volunteering?” a lord said, and Matriarch Hoyia nodded, albeit a little reluctantly.

I mentally pinged Edna. “Domain holders have some resistance to corruption. I think you should go and see for yourselves.”

Edna then nodded. “I will go with you.” Matriarch Hoyia looked relieved at Edna’s offer. If Edna couldn’t protect her, very few could. The meeting ended soon after, and the two met up for a chat along the hallways of the Valtrian Keep.

“Thank you for offering your protection, Lady Edna,” Hoyia said. She was, like Lumoof, far older than Edna in appearance. But, in reality, she was not much older. Edna achieved her high levels and domain, so her aging had ceased. Hoyia, on the other hand, was a priest of Hawa before she switched over. Some of her skills carried over, though she did suffer a small penalty for her conversion out of her faith.

“It’s nothing,” Edna said. “It is a matter of national interest, and as one of the [domain] holders, I should see it for myself. Aeon said us domain holders have increased resistance to corruption.”

“I see.” Hoyia frowned. “I hope it is corruption or possession we can remove, and not body consumption and assumption.”

“You mean body snatchers.”

“Yes. Because that’s the most horrible outcome. We have individuals that look like us but cannot be saved. It’s a real hit to morale.”

Kei and Stella were in the hallway, too. “If it’s body snatchers, then we are truly fucked.”

Hoyia shook her head. “Not quite. Us as Aeonic Priests have access to Aeon’s familiars, and we have access to a lesser version of Aeon’s [spirit vision]. One of my theories is if these are body snatchers, there should be no souls left, and we should be able to pick out who the demons are.”

“Oh.” Stella nodded. “Infra-red goggles, essentially?”

Kei tapped Stella lightly. “They won’t get that.”

Edna and Hoyia both nodded a little. “Greetings, Lady Stella and Lady Kei.”

“My concern is, if the demons are in the process of ‘consuming’ the souls, we need to decide who can be saved and who can’t under battle conditions.” Hoyia continued her conversation, and both the former earthlings squirmed uncomfortably. “I’d imagine being eaten inside out may not be the most pleasant sensation, and for us, we’d have to wield the scythe of judgment on people who look very much like us.”

Edna nodded. “It’s a task meant for the most heartless of us.”

I thought back to Ken’s earlier idea of glassing the entire world. Would I have to order the glassing of entire villages with this?

“I’d rather hope we not get there, so I’d first like to gather some samples and observe these demons in action,” Hoyia said. “I would prefer if Alka goes with us. His remote labs would be very useful.”

Edna smiled and shrugged. “Alka’s staying put. But we’ll have an army of mages and his other assistants with us.”

There was a huge clampdown on trade and movement of people in the Southern Continent as the temples combated the demons. They began huge inquisitions, where entire villages were captured and interrogated.

The temples took different approaches, and what happened reminded Stella of our own world’s history with witch hunts.

Entire villages were torched. In cases where the temples employed judgment, it led to a whole lot of false accusations, especially in larger cities. Those who were strange, had different hobbies, or were of an entirely different species were outed and accused as demons.

“I sometimes forget that I’m in a medieval fantasy world,” Stella said. “Sometimes. I thought here, in the Central Continent, I saw something that resembled an early-modern society. But then, this just really reminded me that outside of this place, it’s all fucked. That even with magic, the nature of people is just…ugh.”

“Those who use such a thing to accuse those they don’t like as demons should be punished, too!”

It was hard to tell who was a demon, and who was not. Partly because, well, the demon possessors bled like normal. At least, at a first glance.

So Edna, Hoyia, and a delegation of my Valthorns snuck into the Southern Continent. It was easy to do so with Stella’s portal ability, and I also used Stella’s portal ability to temporarily extend my trees to the south in a repeat of what I did in the Northern Islands.

Edna’s report came a week later.

“We located the demons. Hoyia’s suspicion is correct. Spiritual vision is able to fully discern those that have been fully corrupted by the demons. Our problem is really with those in the process of corruption. Exorcism works to a limited degree but is more likely to cause the demons to trigger some kind of self-destructive behavior. Hoyia was injured from one interrogation incident. We may require Aeon’s dedicated interrogation chambers. The biolabs would be very useful here. We may need to request Lumoof to return.”

An assessment I agreed with, but it still annoyed me that I needed Lumoof everywhere. If I could spread my roots everywhere in this world, then I wouldn’t have to deal with this restriction.

But oh well, what was done was done. I’d have to improvise. Stella could only maintain the portals for a few days before she needed to rest, and she rotated with her other void mages. Her other void mages were gaining levels, but somehow they still lagged behind her.

With some coordination, Edna and the priests honed in on one village that had been confirmed to have demons, and Stella opened the portal. I placed my roots through it and then my trees. We had to work fast; I spawned my biolabs, and Edna moved swiftly to capture a few of those where we saw had “vanishing” spiritual presences.

In those where there were no more “spirits,” the entire inner organs had been converted into a demonic hatchery. There was a demonic creature that controlled the flesh, and it crawled and swam through its host.

They made these small, circular baby larva, and they attempted to infest my biolab. But my mana was too overwhelming so they were swiftly crushed. They were like little leeches or maggots.

With my trees, I also managed to observe it in action. It attached itself to a person’s leg, and often the person did not notice it at all. Its bites had a numbing effect, such that the person did not feel pain for the first few minutes.

Demonic parasitic leeches that possessed people.

With those that had been fully converted, I was able to have a conversation.

“You’re a demon.”

The infested woman denied it. “No. I’m Larri, a housewife.” The demon often left the brain untouched; instead, the demon had functionally attached itself to the brain such that the brain supplied the knowledge and the information.

“Don’t lie to me.” My vines wrapped around its leg. “I can see you wriggling in this person’s body.”

I wished I had Patreeck’s offensive psychic abilities here in the south. I could use it on the demon. Hoyia came and used [Exorcise]. It hurt, but the demon was so firmly embedded in the body and flesh that it was pointless. The woman screamed, “KILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Its arms exploded and transformed into a whip. It attempted to attack Hoyia.

My wooden shield parried the strike, and my vines wrestled the demon’s appendages.

“She’s no longer a half elf.” Hoyia took out a staff and then manifested a root. The root pierced through the body. The body wriggled, but the demon was not dead. We had to hit the parasite exactly.

“I see why the temples and the spies are having problems. We need to hit this thing.” My turn, my vines pierced through the lady’s body and my vines entered. Then I dug out, through the severed neck, a hairy worm. “This is the demon.”

It struggled and wrestled, and the female body collapsed like a puppet. Hoyia frowned. “It can move in the body?”

“Yes. And it’s not easily visible, even in spiritual vision.”

Spirit vision told us that it was a demon or demon possessed, simply by the extinguished soul. But it did not tell us where it was located within the body. I needed something that was the magical equivalent of battlefield X-Ray and MRI.

Else, it was possible that this larva could even infect someone directly. I cut the body of the lady up, and more larva appeared. They were in small blobs. I took some for studies.

Even in their small size, they could leap and hit someone.

Edna frowned at this. “The temples are just burning entire villages to the ground. I’m afraid I see merit in their approach.”

Me, too.

There had to be a better way than glassing a continent.

50

YEAR 198 (PART 2)

One of the junior Valthorns developed a simplified process to check on demons, especially when demons were not available. Something that apparently a few other places had independently developed.

If a demon consumed or destroyed a soul, essentially, that was just a body, but without the will in it. A person’s skills and abilities were tied to the soul, so the theory was most of these lesser demons would not be able to copy skills. Accordingly, they may appear like a person, but if they were unable to use any of their skills, they were quite likely to be demons.

It was quite clever.

Of course, it was likely that demons were still able to copy some skills, especially the champion class. So far, we had not seen any of these champion-class parasites, and honestly, it kept me awake. What could a demon king that was entirely focused on possessing people do? Could it even possess a hero?

I thought back to Meela and Alexis and wondered.

Was their demon king a corruption king, too? Or at least a variant of it? Why else was Alexis consumed by the flames of the demon? That batch even had those talking demon-knights!

That was at least one hundred–plus years ago. Had we finally looped the cycle?

I would have to approach them and ask them for more info. I recalled Alexis didn’t have much knowledge of the demons that possessed them.

Also, these demons were able to “read” memories of the bodies they captured. From this alone, I immediately considered Stella and Kei as very high risk. If they were captured by the demons, that would be a really, really bad outcome, especially if the demons were then able to share their memories back to where they came from.

I also wanted to know how these demons spread. They seemed to jump from person to person, and we noticed that they invaded drains, gutters, toilets, and other naturally dirty environments. We also found them in the waters, where they were, strangely, eaten by fish with little consequence.

They were able, with surprising adaptability, to infest travelling merchants and somehow remained dormant or non-hostile within them, at least until they reached a new area.

All these observations suggested each of these parasites had intelligence, one corroborated by how they responded to my abilities.

How did we fight them effectively while minimizing deaths?

Ken, Prabu, and Colette met up in Freshka, and by now, my Valthorns had shared a dossier of the demonic body snatchers with them and a rough summary of what we’d discovered so far. I wanted the heroes to live, at least, if they could gain enough levels.

Both Prabu and Colette had accepted my familiars as part of the deal to allow them to live here, and it was advantageous for me to keep them at a high level.

“How does the trope normally go? Body snatchers eh…” Ken said. “There should be a kind of magic that should be specifically effective on them.”

Prabu shrugged. “And what would that be?”

“I don’t know, we’d have to run some experiments. The common ones are usually electrical shocks or some strange foods. Maybe we could get some anti-parasitic drugs? Or maybe just some strange rare chemicals,” Ken said as he tried to approach it from a trope angle.

My Valthorns were already capturing these demonic larva specimens to conduct my own tests. We wanted a widespread way to hit these demons, and we wanted to know their weaknesses. They had weaknesses for sure.

There was one very immediate sample that worked really well.

Using Stella’s gateway, we sent three possessed individuals to Freshka, and Patreeck blasted the possessed individual with his psychic power.

It worked really well, since the person literally convulsed, and the demon actually crawled out of the possessed individual’s mouth in an attempt to avoid the psychic blast. It was pretty much nightmare material as everyone squirmed. Well, almost. Only the knights or those who usually had the [Still Heart] or [Calm Mind] or [Horror Resistance] or other similar passive abilities didn’t react to it.

Luckily, as long as the person was not dead, they did not spawn additional larva. In order to make a person into a living hatchery, they’d have to fully convert the person, so in such cases, it was straightforward. Kill anyone who didn’t have a soul.

Since they were just demons that had the appearance of people.

Snek suggested that it should be possible for certain classes to fight off such parasites, usually through boosting their own spiritual power. Their world, at least, prior to the conversion to the demon lands, were filled with naturally occurring parasites and body snatchers. But this was like multi-generational adaptation to parasites, not something that was possible for the people of this world to acquire on a widespread scale.

Wait. Unless I massively distribute [Skill seeds] with these skills. But I would need these skills in the first place. No, I’d need to know which skills work best against these demonic body snatchers!

Stella was extremely fascinated. “This is essentially planning to develop some kind of anti-demonic possession ‘vaccine,’ and now you’re in the concept phase of testing which skills work best?”

I had a lot of skill seeds, and with them, I could make class trees and skill trees. These were old abilities that I still used on a smaller scale, but if this worked, it would essentially create safe villages.

“How are you proposing to test the effectiveness of the skills against the demonic possessions? No one here is going to volunteer themselves, and where do you get the demons? You’d have to have a hatchery!”

On a high level, the idea was really rather repulsive. It meant I’d capture one of these demon-possessed persons and keep it alive as a hatchery for demonic larvae and then test out the demonic larvae on different individuals of different skills and monitor them. Not just that, it was essentially a test that I could only perform in Freshka, since Patreeck’s psychic/mind blast could effectively sterilize anyone infected with the demons.

Stella, of course, wondered, “Could we replicate this psychic attack on a smaller scale?”

The heroes, on the other hand, went in a different direction. A good solution, too, but not one I could apply on a large scale. It worked well only for them since they had the star mana.

Chung, the archer in the south, asked for help. In fact, the idea even came from him, since he was on the ground. “We know demons don’t like star mana, and star mana is effective against them. Can we inject the villagers with star mana as a ‘wave’ essentially? Is there a spell like that? If there is, can you make that spell into a hero-item and give it to me? I really, really hate having to kill all these guys that look like humans. I didn’t fucking sign up for this shit.”

Prabu and Colette, the two archmages, went to work. They end up with a kind of star-mana electromagnetic wave, essentially Star Mana X-Ray guns. It tingled for us, but it killed the larva and demons effectively, and they began making large quantities of them.

They also planned on creating large versions of the weapon, something large enough to cover entire cities, so that they could “clean” the entire city and areas in a single blast.

It was possible, but they needed time. Time that meant more cities were getting infested with demon-possessed folks.

The temples of the South Continent, however, publicly rejected all offers of assistance and claimed they had it all under control.

They didn’t.

Instead, they torched entire villages once they realized it wasn’t helping very much. The larva was able to remain dormant within a body, so just because one passed a skill check didn’t meant it did not carry the larva!

Entire cities became infested with demon-possessed individuals, even with the skill checks and spell checks. Chung had to essentially sleep alone out in the wilds, surrounded by multiple forcefields, because he got so paranoid with people and animals. Anyone could be possessed by demons. Anyone!

Then the kingdoms started going to war with each other and the temples. Trade and travel essentially slowed down to a halt, and cities that relied on food from trade had no choice but to go to war.

“Look, the cure is worse than the disease.” Glassing entire cities, and it was not even effective since the larva could still be in the waters.

“How is the cure worse? They’ve become demons! They should die.”

“We don’t know who can still be saved.”

“We’re not taking that risk.”

Paranoia, suspicion, and madness turned nations to chaos. Kings, mages, and healers tried their best, but when anyone could be possessed, it was not easy to even compel anyone to work. Some cities enforced massive lockdowns, banning visitors outright.

It took three months before the heroes all moved to the south, and Prabu and Colette had finally completed the first version of their new star-mana emitters. The emitters could even kill dormant larva.

They were greeted by feral monsters, as the emission of star mana on a wide scale merely triggered the possessed to run wild. At least now they resembled demons. The heroes killed the demons.

The only problem was emitting star mana on a large scale drained huge quantities of star mana, and the heroes could not be everywhere at once. There were too many infested cities, too many infested towns. Even if they methodically cleaned city after city, the demons could still return.

They needed something to hold the fort while they pushed their emitters outward, skills that helped resisting demonic parasites and body snatchers.

Edna made an observation while in the south, covertly. We were unannounced, the temples knew we were there, but they were too busy fighting their own fires to give Edna’s delegation trouble.

“The demonic suppression aura weakens the larva and slows the rate at which they take over individuals.” We could plant my Giant Trees everywhere, since those suppressed the demons.

I wasn’t particularly fixated with using my clone seeds on other worlds.

Edna shot down the idea. “No. Your clone trees should be reserved for the demon king. We shouldn’t deploy them yet. We can handle it. We’ll just need to deploy more Valthorns and higher-ranked priests to suppress the demons’ presence.”

But the aura fluctuated, especially for creatures that needed sleep, and true enough, the demons were still able to return.

We needed a better way to spot them, especially since these parasites had incredible natural camouflage and infiltration abilities.

An entire village attacked Edna’s delegation when she approached. The team had to kill them all, and they all needed a pep talk. Then we saw a man who seemed to be surrounded by thick, demonic energy.

A champion. He looked every bit human, well, other than the armor of demonic flesh that gave him wings.

“To think that the natives still resist.”

Hoyia saw and was bewildered. “He still has a soul inside! It didn’t consume it.”

“Consume? Why consume when we can enslave? Is that not our role?” The demonic champion shot a beam of fire, and Edna immediately stepped in to create a shield. Fire didn’t work. “Hmmm…let’s see…this human can do this.”

The demon charged ahead and swung its sword. “[Double Cut].” The sword blurred into two and slammed into Edna’s shield. Yet, at that moment when they were close, the demonic flesh detached from the human and latched onto Edna.

It attempted to infiltrate Edna’s body, and then, just as suddenly, Edna’s body made a glow of light. The demonic champion was incinerated by the power of her [domain] and turned to cinders.

Edna frowned as she later reported back. “This is not good. Demon champions can use possessed skills. Luckily, it went for me instead of the others.” Everyone was horrified as they tried to imagine the champion possessing them.

This meant the checks done could still miss the demon champions, since the demon champions were able to go beyond physical control and even turn the possessed person to a puppet and use its skills in conjunction with its own demonic abilities.

Could a demon king, therefore, possess a hero?

“You can’t be serious?” Prabu vented as we shared the news of the demon champions with them. “I feel like we’ve just made a few steps forward and this demon champion sent us all back to square one.”

Ken didn’t join them as he, without his hero class and without any star mana, was pretty much a sitting duck. “I don’t think you need to panic. The demons clearly are designed to attack heroes wherever you are. So, even if you miss them, they can’t help themselves and will attack you.”

Snek agreed with the assessment. “Our own records agree with that. Demons can’t help but attack heroes. It’s in their very nature. So it’s almost confirmed that you did not miss any champions so far.”

“…I’m not convinced, but all right,” Prabu said. “Anyway, can you arrange a shipment of snacks?”

“That’s not critical at this time,” Kei answered.

“It is. I’ll work for five years if you can send snacks here. Help me negotiate with the Order, please?”

Ken and Kei shrugged. Ken sighed. “Prabu, you know, if you keep doing this snack thing, you’ll be relegated into the disposable joke or fodder character trope, and you’ll die. Don’t play that part, please?”

“Fuck that trope shit. I want my snacks!”

We had a few spies infected by the demons, and we brought them back for further investigation. My familiars apparently helped to detect the demons, and because my familiars also occupied a link with the soul, they contested the demonic parasite’s attempts to possess my spies.

My spies received regular familiars, and the demons won two out of three times. But, even though they won, it took them longer to gain control of the spies’ bodies, and this gave the others time to get help or, in our case, put them into a magical coffin for further studies.

It had to be done, and we captured more and more of these demonic larvae. With sufficient samples, we sent them to Freshka for further studies in my biolab. I also created a small section in the Rottedlands, secretly, to attempt to “breed” these larvae in non-human bodies, such as hybrid demon-monsters.

It created a few rather strong monster-demons, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

We needed a solution, as our news in the south indicated the infestation spread really, really quickly. The heroes literally could not sterilize cities faster than the demons could infest them.

Worse still, some of the templars and warriors of the Gaya and Hawa temples were infested, and against the backdrop of a full rebellion by the kingdoms, it was getting, really out of hand.

Lumoof continued his time in Threeworlds’ magic crystal city. He played the role of the charming, affable, and clumsy old man wonderfully, and some of the local mages were quite smitten with him.

He spent a lot of time gathering information about the world generally, but the knowledge of magical crystal growth remained elusive. Those who held the secrets gave it in bits and pieces, and never the whole picture. Perhaps that was how it was structured over the years, that all these little pieces were separated in order to prevent total theft.

“Sir Lumoof, this way.” A mage was more than happy to introduce some interesting types of magic to Lumoof. To the locals, Lumoof seemed to be a wealthy but foolish old man, and they were happy to make money off him.

It was small money for us. After all, his expedition was pretty much funded by the entire Central Continent, which was, on an overall level, more developed than this world, even if this single city was pretty unique on its own.

They demonstrated some magical formations and ice spells, all tethered to crystals. They had slightly different magical formations, and they were really good at using some of the natural properties of these magic crystals. “What do you think, Sir Lumoof?”

“It’s nice. I’ve never seen it. How much would it cost?”

“Ah, this formation would cost three hundred forty-four gold coins. Or we would be happy to trade for an artifact of sufficient quality.”

Lumoof nodded. “I see.” He retrieved another magical sword from the inventory, made by a level fifty–plus magical smith. “I was told this was worth about four hundred fifty gold. If you can throw in another few more manuals…”

The mage stared with greed and nodded. “Certainly.”

Alka and a group of high-ranked mages assisting Alka would receive all these scrolls, and they would study them. They were aware of our expeditions to another world, even if they didn’t know of the full details. Anyway, once they studied the scrolls, they would proceed to replicate the spells and formations back home, and this added to our body of knowledge on magic and formations generally.

It was a very laborious process, but it worked.

I hoped this would allow me to unlock the knowledge needed to truly comprehend the demon king’s core, but from what I could see, progress remained very, very far away. Even with a platoon of researchers and mages, it was a very long process. The journey to get from the iron age to the space age was long indeed.

51

YEAR 199

The war in the south intensified, and by now, it felt like everyone was fighting everyone else. Yet the two temples continued to enforce the blockade on the Southern Continent, only this time to keep the people in. The temples did not want the demons to spread to the other continents, so they called on the other continents to reinforce the blockade.

“This is ridiculous,” Edna said to us and the council. “We need to act decisively. The temples are not doing a good job, and a lot of the kingdoms have openly gone against the temples for the recent madness. This demonic parasite is going to spread, and it will spread quickly.”

Madness, as in glassing of entire cities because of the suspicions of corrupted men among them. The champions also were more crafty than normal. They were adapted to the minds of men and were able to hide.

My spies told me some were already on the other continents.

It was a matter of time.

“I don’t get it. The heroes are clearing up cities.” One of the lords considered the facts. The heroes met a few champions, too, and they made short work of them.

“Every time a city gets cleared, refugees rush to it by the thousands, and inevitably, the demons return,” Edna explained. “They only managed to build one single large-scale star mana emitter so far, and that only cleaned up an area the size of Freshka and its immediate surrounding areas. Even that caused huge political conflicts that the heroes clearly missed.”

The heroes were rather oblivious to the politics of where they placed their “miracle cures.” Cities and kingdoms wanted it, so the city that possessed such an artifact had to protect it with their lives from the other kingdoms who wanted it.

Matriarch Hoyia, who was also on the call, said, “With every previous demon king, the worlds generally agreed to drop their arms against each other and support the heroes with the demons. Not this one. There’s not even a semblance of unity against the demons, and everyone seems to think that someone else is a demon.”

I thought to myself then that this was what it would be like in a world without demon kings. Everyone was fighting each other for the slimmest of advantages and wealth. Felt like an absolute shitshow. No. It felt like Earth. It was a sad thing to think about, that, even if we stopped the demon king, the world would just revert to its natural state.

So I didn’t.

I focused on the larva that we cultivated in our little patch of Rottedlands, and we experimented with them to a great degree. It was really easy to kill them when they were outside. We could squish them like maggots. The problem was still how did we kill them when they were already in a host without harming the host?

Anyway, as we researched, rather than actually gain the ability to create a similar larva-type parasite, I instead gained a different type of parasite.

[You’ve gained the skill: Normal Tree Parasite Creation. You may now create tree parasites of your own. These parasitic trees take the form of vines that grow on the skin and flesh of living beings. They leech on the lifeforce of their hosts.]

I checked. They did nothing else.

What the fuck? All that and these parasitic trees did nothing else? It didn’t even let me gain control like the demons?

I needed to upgrade the skill, then? Was that it?

Anyway, we conducted more experiments on the larva, with different kinds of materials and injections. It didn’t yield much.

“Maybe we’re not doing it correctly,” Alka suggested as he helped to run another separate batch of tests on these demonic parasites. He didn’t ask questions where the parasites came from, of course. “We should be testing a response on live persons.”

“Why?”

“From our earlier knowledge, we know certain skills and abilities can delay and stop the demons from taking control, but this is not very useful since we can’t give skills on a large scale. But we also know that mental attacks work very well on these demonic parasites, as they are attuned to thoughts.”

I allowed my field scientist to complete his thoughts.

“Can we drug it to death? Not to kill it, but essentially turn it useless by overwhelming it with stimulation.”

“With psychedelic sap?”

“Yes!” Alka said. “We should try it out. A dose of strong psychedelics on someone possessed by demons.”

I ran this through my council, the Earthlings, and my leaders in the south, just for their thoughts.

“Overstimulating the demonic parasite…could be worth a try,” Stella said. “If it’s better than killing the host.”

One of the lords theorized, “There’s always been a drug trade, even in the south. If this theory holds any water, those kingdoms where there’s higher use of these psychedelics should see lower demonic possession?”

“The south doesn’t have that kind of data,” another lord countered. “Not everyone has a bureaucracy that tracks everything.”

I felt like that was a jab at me, or at us generally.

“We can send a batch to Matriarch Hoyia and let her test it out with our forces there.”

Edna nodded. “The idea is these things should essentially drive the demons wild?”

Matriarch Hoyia had another view. “What’s our goal here? Even if the drugs work on the demons, we still can’t get it out. Once the drugs go away, will the demons return?”

“We don’t know, but some studies would be good,” Alka said. “These demons are really fragile things, even if they have some ability for self-repair. I’d like to know if these drugs could at least destroy their ability to interact with the body. Our tests on the larva itself so far seem to cause it to convulse and then die, but outside of a host, these demonic parasites seem to die to everything.”

“If it doesn’t get the demon out of the body, I really don’t see the point. But I will conduct some studies,” Matriarch Hoyia answered.

At the same time, I wondered, could I use my [dream academy] or similar skills offensively on these demons?

Psychic or mental attacks worked, but I rarely saw those in this world. In fact, outside of Patreeck, I really could not remember many other instances of psychic attacks.

Then we had our first instance of near-attacks from a nearby kingdom. It was only through Hoyia’s priestly abilities that an actual pointless conflict was avoided.

“Demons! These guys are here to spread the demons!”

Hoyia immediately used one of her priestly skills on them, one of her strongest pacification abilities.

Each patriarch and matriarch developed slightly different skills. Like Lumoof seemed more toward devotion and empowerment, Hoyia was more of the peace and calm type, so her ability at level one hundred was something called [Hour of Calm], which gave the entire mob present an hour of peace and calm. Hoyia and Edna quickly used that moment of sanity to have a conversation with the generals.

Sadly, these abilities didn’t seem to work on demons, since, well, demons couldn’t actually be reasoned with.

As it turned out, some of the templars were infected by the demonic parasites, and they had been spreading the parasites. Accordingly, they suspected Edna and Hoyia to be the same.

Truth was, out in the fields, we were not sure, either. Hoyia and Edna both could use some level of spiritual sight due to the Court of the Deitree, but even that was not foolproof. It was possible that some of our guys had dormant demonic larva in them, and if we wanted to check this, they had to go under the biolab regularly.

Using Stella’s portal, we did these checks every three to four days, and so far, so good. But it was possible for demons to infest my guys over those few days, especially the weaker guys.

I only had faith in Edna, due to her domain. But even then, what if a demon king tried to possess her?

My only saving grace was that, if anything happened, I could revive her with my Tree of Life. Not so for the rest of them, who were lost if they couldn’t reach the domain stage and join my pantheon.

The kings were paranoid, and rightly so. Everyone was a suspect, and the demons were quite adept at stealth since they liked tunnels and hidden parts. These larva were pretty much parasitic pests, and they were very good at crawling through hidden places.

Across the continent, mages created various barrier spells, and these were pretty successful at keeping out the demonic larva itself, but not if these demons were already inside someone.

We needed something to force the demon larva out, so we experimented on more types of drugs.

Some of them worked really well, like my dose of psychedelic drugs seemed to trigger the demons, but their side effects were rather terrible on their hosts. We wanted something milder that still caused the demons to show themselves.

Then we stumbled on one little part of the solution.

Well, we stumbled on it over a cup of thick coffee. Edna and Hoyia traveled to a town in the south that was really big on coffee production, and through Stella’s portal, I also extended some trees there in order to help scout out the terrain.

At first, we didn’t notice anything.

But then Patreeck and the group of artificial minds noticed that the demonic larva was strangely absent from the coffee factories and cafes. Most of us were not trained to think about what was missing, instead of seeing what was there, so we started doing some tests.

Moderate quantities of coffee confused the demonic larva’s tendrils, and the confused larva tried to escape the coffee-laced environment. It would then be ejected from the body, usually through poop.

The host had to consume moderate quantities since a small amount was insufficient and the larva could still endure the mild level of coffee, so this was not picked up in our earlier observations. In fact, we didn’t test coffee as a possible solution initially.

“So we need to mass produce coffee shots and make everyone take them.”

“But kids can’t take it.”

“Small victories are better than none.”

This solution, sadly, only worked on humans, elves, centaurs, and dwarves. We still did not have a solution for demonic infestation for other races such as lizardmen, drakes, and treefolk, though both treefolk and lizardmen infestation so far had been rather mild.

Interestingly, there was also a race that was very resistant to the demonic parasites, almost to the point of immunity.

Minotaurs. Their bodies produced certain kinds of liquid that regularly flushed out parasites, and the pulses of energy throughout their bodies seemed to interfere with the demon’s ability to control them.

But minotaurs were an extremely small group in the south, and they were wary of all humanoid races.

I had yet to introduce the demonic parasites to the Canari since, well, it didn’t seem right for me to subject them to the horrors of our home world.

With the discovery of coffee as a possible solution for “cleansing” the body of parasites, we had to quickly grow large quantities of coffee. As it was, the Central Continent already had some coffee plantations, and we had some existing coffee stockpiles, but it was certainly insufficient if we were to push for a wide-scale consumption of coffee.

As we pushed the kingdoms that were affiliated or in a “hidden” alliance with us to consume more coffee, the temples seemed to have discovered our solution, and they too started widely promoting the consumption of coffee.

As a solution for the south, which had a large population of humanoids, the coffee worked for a few months, since it essentially forced the larva to make a choice: either “infest” or “leave” the body, rather than remain dormant or hidden.

The widespread consumption of coffee reduced the demonic parasites’ hold and brought about the end of internal wars and an odd tradition of visitors and travellers having to down a dose of coffee before entering new towns. I believed this would probably be a new tradition unique to the south, since they bore the brunt of the demonic infestation.

The temples, of course, began touting the discovery of coffee as their success, a claim that we disputed but did not strongly pursue. What was the point, anyway?

Also, the demons adapted and took a more adversarial stance. Once they possessed someone, the demons immediately infested and surfaced, rather than remaining dormant. This helped clear the confusion and fog on who were demons and who were not.

The kingdoms continued to struggle with the demon champions, since these champions were still very powerful, but it was easier when one didn’t have to watch their back all the time.

The heroes, thus, continued to push toward the demon-infested nations. There were large swaths of the south where the demons had fully conquered the kingdoms. The risk, of course, was that there were some that have yet to be infested by the demons, but the heroes advanced with their star mana serving as a beacon.

They burned brightly, and the demons were moths drawn to the flame.

“Two more years.” The demons were slain eight years ago. At least two more years to go.

52

YEAR 200

Coffee didn’t work that well on treefolk, drakes, and lizard-people. This was a secret, of course, but we couldn’t keep it for long. Once news of infested drakes and treefolks went out, it only resulted in more speciesism, as trade and deals with the treefolks, drakes, and lizard-people essentially dropped to zero. They were pretty much the pariahs in the Southern Continent.

That sucked. We needed something that worked for them, and it was partly because of how their bodies processed coffee. The caffeine that overwhelmed the demons was absorbed by certain organs unique to these three races and thus spared the demons.

Strangely, even minotaurs got ostracized even though they were close to immune to the effects of these parasites.

The Hawa temple, which counted humans, elves, and dwarves as the majority of its believers, outright commanded that these other races be banned from all of its allied territories and led to large refugee camps as these races were forced out of their homes and villages.

It annoyed me very much that our solutions amplified racial issues. We tried stronger doses and so on, but it didn’t work. We needed something with caffeine that the bodies of these races didn’t absorb.

So back to the drawing board. I tasked a few lizard-people and treefolks to lead the research, since I sensed that some of the human and elven researchers didn’t give the issue the same weightage as before.

That also annoyed me.

Meanwhile, the heroes attacked more of the demon-infested kingdoms. The demon champions had already taken over as the rulers of the various kingdoms, and they ran the kingdoms with their stolen skills.

It was annoying to fight them, because the demons were already strong with their own abilities, which augmented the basic strength of their hosts, and on top of that, they were blessed by the stolen [king] class skills or [general] or [strategist] skills. Some of these [king] skills gave these demons usable skills!

They could steal skills! They could even stack the skills and make the regular demons stronger than usual.

It didn’t occur to me to think about how to exploit the demons’ natural abilities, until Alka, who was still busy with Lumoof’s purchased otherworldly research, offhandedly suggested, “Capture one of these demon champions. We may learn how to use its power against the demon king.”

“Huh.” That made so much sense to me.

I felt like an idiot. I always was, of course. That was why I relied on those smarter than me.

I immediately pinged Stella and Edna, Stella to open one more portal and Edna to tell me where the nearest demon nation was. I would like to find one of these demon champions, if not more.

“We don’t know. It’s not as if the demons say they are demons. They just somehow know that they are demons.”

That was also a good question. How did these demon parasites identify each other as demons?

If there was a mechanism, could we copy it and alter it such that the demons identified us as demons? With such an ability, we could essentially smuggle ourselves into the demon world and explore it without fear.

Actually, taking that to the extreme, if everyone in the world was identified as demon, could we pretty much co-exist with the demons?

53

YEAR 200 (PART 2)

It wasn’t very hard to identify the demon-infested kingdoms, since, with the recent events, they declared themselves quite publicly. The demons as a whole was not a functional kingdom, since the citizens comprised of possessed demons.

They, sadly, cleverly used the population as a meat shield. The population all had demonic larva in them that were not fully infested, such that these populations could still interact and talk like normal, though, with some mental controls. Those who struggled or resisted the demonic control were quickly fully infested or killed.

When I started offensively expanding my trees into these demonic-parasite kingdoms, I noticed a glaring weakness.

The demons could not detect my presence. They had some sense of their own, but as parasites, they mostly leeched off the senses of their hosts. And if their hosts did not notice me, they didn’t, either.

That meant, with Stella and void mages, I could observe the demons without outside intervention!

First thing I noticed was how absolutely ordinary some of these villages were, except for a few villagers who clearly had demonic appendages throughout their bodies. No one reacted to it, even those we could still detect the presence of a soul.

Even as a “dormant” or “larva” form, the demons were clearly able to alter or change minds. There was no other reason why these people, who clearly retained some of their own cognitive abilities, accepted these demons so easily.

I therefore classified the demons into three categories, though the line between the infested stage and transformed stage was very thin.

The first was the larva possession stage. The demon was embedded within a living person, and the demon parasite controled the host via some kind of mind control. At this stage, they were able to use skills, and they could still be saved. Multiple larva could actually be inside the same body, so the larva possession stage could still infect others.

Then there was the infested stage, where the demons had killed the host’s soul and the body started to breed other larvae. At this stage, they were essentially demons, but with the appearance of regular people.

And lastly, there was the transformed stage, where the demonic presence could be visibly seen.

On top of these three stages, we had the demon champions, who were at the larva-possession stage but were able to either steal or mind-control and simultaneously merge it with their own demon champion abilities.

Those who were still in the larva possession stage continued to live relatively normal lives, though they focused on eating. Now that they did not have to keep up any semblance of a society, they abandoned things like paperwork and trade. The demonic parasites reorganized their society such that the larva-possessed collected food centrally.

That said, they continued to produce weapons and equipment, which these demons used.

These demons were able to use equipment, including magical equipment. Could they use hero items? As we continued to observe, we noticed the transformed demons taking charge. We kept spreading our trees and noticed even more cities infested with demons and finally found the prey we wanted.

A champion.

No. There were two of them.

We knew they were champions, because the transformed demons deferred to them, the way all these humanoid demons obeyed their commands.

Both the human king and queen had a champion in them, and if we strained our magical sensors a little, we could pick up their masked magical powers. Their strength was self-evident; it rippled outward in little motions.

“These human bodies are so fragile,” the possessed king said to the queen.

“Would you rather possess a lizard, then?”

“If it is a big one, yes.” The king laughed, strangely human. How did they speak? “Or are you referring to the Lizardfolk?”

The queen did not respond.

“No matter. Let us wait for the True King.”

We knew, with certainty, that these champions could not possess me. I saw how the champions were torched by Edna’s soul. I wanted to capture these demon champions, so I asked Stella and the void mages to rest for two days. I needed them at their best when I pushed my powers through their portals.

It wasn’t hard to find them after the two days. The two champions were incredibly confident. They walked about their “kingdom” with no guards, no defenders. Not necessary, when the demons as a whole respected and obeyed their inherent hierarchy.

I initially tested the concept on the demon parasites, the lesser larva to the effects of my mana. It killed them. They were just fragile to most things when not in a host. But I had a feeling it would work on the champions.

“All right, be ready, because I’m going to attack a demon champion,” I told Stella. I had my labs and everything on standby.

“Ready.” Stella understood my plans to study the demon champions, though she didn’t quite agree with having a war of the parasites.

The two champions were apart. One was with some of the possessed, and the queen was with a small battalion of demonic knights. These knights were no longer human, though they looked every bit like it.

I readied my artificial minds and went for it.

Somewhere nearby, I immediately created two [Giant Attendant Trees]. These helped amplify my aura and power. Then, at the same time, roots shot out from the ground and immediately wrapped the two of them. They reacted quickly, but their response was to attack my roots.

The two demon champions both released a huge burst of flame that burned the entire city, taking down a huge number of other demons with it, but it failed to burn through my trees.

“Heroes?” the king yelled as it transformed, and the demonic appendages fought the hundreds of vines and roots that spawned from the ground.

It was like two masses of snakes or eels with different colors wrestling in shallow waters. They were no match for me. Not with my current levels of power.

They struggled hard, and they resisted. But I didn’t mean to kill them.

I flooded them with my mana.

The eyes of the possessed king widened in fear. “—no!”

It was time for the corruptor to be corrupted.

It’s time for reverse wololo.

Stella struggled, but she worked with a team of Void mages to stabilize the portals as huge amounts of mana were pumped through the portals. A few fainted, and they had to swap. But now, her school of void mages numbered in the hundreds, and this was within the same world.

My mana flooded the demon champions, and in the end, one of them decided to self-destruct rather than to submit to my influence. The body of the king splattered into mush.

The champion that inhabited the queen was not so lucky. My roots and vines penetrated the body and found the champion’s true body. A large, hairy, worm-like creature lived in the husk, and my mana flooded it.

The champion struggled, and I sensed its panicked flailing. It killed its host at that moment, but the body was still alive. Shit.

Was it going to run?

A chrysalis of wooden vines and roots emerged around the captured body, a vessel for the conversion. The demons in the surrounding area and the nation, who were not destroyed by the demonic flames, went wild, and they ran toward our location at full speed.

I spawned beetles by the hundreds and thousands and blocked them off. Horns went through and helped lead the defense of the wooden shell.

The demons rushed by the thousands, and the beetles fought off the demonic hordes from the surrounding nations for hours. My artificial minds supported the battle as I focused on capturing the demon champion.

It took hours, as my mana gradually worked its way through the demon champion’s real body.

Strangely, no demon champion came. Not even from the nearest kingdom, which hosted more demon champions. Just more regular stuff.

The demonic larva attempted to infiltrate the beetles, and some succeeded. But the beetles had extremely strong, demonic-resistant carapaces, and it was easy to tell which beetle was infected, since we would lose control of the beetle.

Horns, for example, couldn’t be infested, simply because my artificial minds were all linked to me at a fundamental level. My domain powers maintained the link with them, and that link burned any attempted infestations.

The battle lasted for two days, and Stella was exhausted. She didn’t sleep for two days, as my own trees and vines back home supported her.

The demon champion finally caved.

[Natural Mana Overwhelming has converted a Demonic Infestor Champion.]

[You converted the demon into an Aeonic Infestor Champion.]

[The Skill Natural Mana Overwhelming has been upgraded.]

The wooden chrysalis opened and revealed that same human queen but different. Her eyes were green and her voice ethereal. She retained some of her demonly features, but there were parts that were clearly wooden. Her skin now had a greenish tone instead of the original dark red of the demons.

The infestor kept the host, though the host changed as a result.

Stella was already at her breaking point; it was only my own energies that kept her awake. Since it was done, I allowed her to rest. Another group of void mages then took over and opened a portal to let the converted champion through.

The champion seemed to understand instinctively and stepped through the void portal. It was now in Freshka.

The infestor looked around, and the void mages stared. They were visibly afraid. Two of my Valthorns were there, ready for any eventuality. Roon’s bow and arrow glowed, ready to fire.

I felt it was safe, as Patreeck’s psychic power descended on the infestor. Nothing.

It bowed and knelt. “Greetings, Aeon. I am your humble slave.”

Roon stared, still worried. “Stand, and speak. Who are you?”

“I am…I am nameless, Aeon, but this vessel was once named Queen Ally Ardiasan of Erat. I was once an infestor champion from the Demon World of the Infestors, spawned from the powers of the Infestor King.” I felt my mana permeate the converted demon.

“So Ally, then.”

“If you so will, I will be Ally,” the former demon answered, and at that moment, I had more questions than ever.

“Do you remember where you came from?”

“Not much. We are created by the Infestor King, or what the people of this refer to as the demon king. The demon king created us as lesser versions in his image, with his powers to corrupt and to control.”

“What is the Infestor King?”

Ally stood, unsure how to reply. “I know little of its power, save that it has corruption and the ability to control others through its tendrils.”

“What do you know, then?”

“We are here to infest, spread our kind far and wide. We are to use the knowledge of the people against itself and prepare for the king’s descent and kill the Puppets.”

“The Puppets,” I repeated.

“Yes. Heroes. Puppets. Same thing,” Ally answered. Roon and Johann stared at the infestor.

“Aeon, this is not a demon?”

“No. It’s…a converted demon.”

“It’s possible to convert demons?” Roon asked. I’d forgotten most of them had not seen my attempts to convert the demons.

“Yes. Hytreerion was made from the shell of a demon walker,” I added. It was quite strange that Ally didn’t need any of that, despite being a demonic champion. Or wait. “Ally, are you able to infest anyone or use your powers?”

Ally wanted to and then stopped.

[Aeonic Infestor Champion requires a power source. You may attach a Titan Soul or an artificial soul to power it. It is currently relying on residual energies stored within its body and will need to rest near a tree to recharge. While in this low-power mode, it is unable to infest anyone.]

“Oh.” Darn. The infestor champion had a memory box and thought unit but still needed a power source. Now that I robbed it of its original power source, it needed something from me. This sucked, since it meant I couldn’t scale this operation.

But I realized this infestor champion essentially was a spy’s greatest weapon. I could deploy Ally to other worlds and help me gather information that I could not gather myself. In a way, Ally was even better than Lumoof, since, well, Ally could seamlessly blend into the existing folk.

“Ally, do you kill your hosts?”

“Do you want me to, Master? As infestors, we have two modes, possession and infestation. Infestation kills the host.”

The only problem was I couldn’t see what Ally was doing.

“Tell me more about how you steal powers?”

“As infestors, we attach to the soul springs of our hosts and hijack it. We are all innately able to confuse the soul spring into thinking our commands are the soul’s commands. We exist on two levels, at a physical level and at a soul level, we can inject ourselves into the soul. This injection process, of course, drains a lot of magical power, but we also simultaneously steal power from the soul springs of our host. When we kill our hosts, we grab hold of the pieces of their soul spring and attach them to our own. But it doesn’t always succeed, and using these powers requires mana like normal.”

“Wait. Get into the biolab.”

Ally nodded and got into the biolab as commanded.

I saw a constantly shapeshifting, bloblike creature that resembled a jellyfish. It was hollow in the middle, like it was waiting for a power unit or a soul spring to power it. There were smaller rocks that floated in between the multiple blobby tentacles of the infestor champions, and I realized these were the stolen skills.

Skills taken from the queen.

I couldn’t see how it interacted and inserted into another soul, because, in its current state, it lacked the means to do so.

The tentacles and the blobs moved constantly, and there was no permanent form to the body. This was unlike how the others had a defined shape to the lake of their soul.

I doubted the shape was what gave it the ability to possess another, and I probably would have to insert a Titan Soul in order to fully understand what these demon champions could do. That, of course, sounded like a waste of a Titan Soul.

Well, maybe not, because from what I observed, Titans were most useful in a utility role. Patreeck’s usefulness had exceeded Hytreerion by a lot, so to use Titans for combat roles was frankly a waste of time.

In that case, would using the Titan Soul on Ally, an infestor, be a waste? Did I have other, better uses for the Titans?

Meanwhile, the kingdom that the champions once ruled turned into a frenzy, like a zerg swarm without their cerebrates. Wild, primal, and they rushed toward us.

This was strange behavior, as each parasite was capable of some degree of thought and self-regulation. Surely, they did not require a champion to function. But it did.

While the war against the parasites continued, Lumoof was still in Threeworlds.

“Sir Lumoof, this way.” A merchant led him to a large room that displayed one of the largest, most detailed maps of the Threeworlds. Lumoof had a sense something was off, but he wasn’t worried. No. If anything, he wanted them to bite. It was something he had planned for a while.

The three merchants gathered and started explaining the map, and Lumoof looked at it intently. This was helpful, at least, to strategize where to plant my [clones]. There were dungeons and magical ley lines marked, to the best of their knowledge.

It was a commission that took the past two years and a lot of our treasures. Lumoof nodded as the merchants started to furl up the map. It was made with some kind of magical cloth and with shrinking spells such that it shrunk to the size of a regular scroll.

The merchant passed it to Lumoof. “Payment, Sir Lumoof.”

Lumoof nodded and withdrew a magical sword from his pouch. The other merchants all stared, and some’s mouths seemed to be watering.

The goods exchanged hands, and the merchants stared at the magical sword. They used some inspection abilities and some kind of merchant-valuation ability. Yet at that same moment, the doors slammed open, and about forty mages walked into the room.

Lumoof quickly held the map, and in an instant, it vanished, sent back to Freshka. The merchants looked around, and they were all clearly puzzled at the mages. They stared at each other.

“What’s happening?”

We’d known something was up, especially when we detected a few failed [Inspection] type skills. Lumoof had a cloak that confused such skills, but it wasn’t perfect. So it was a matter of time before the Maelas priests sensed something was up.

In fact, I was surprised that they took so long to even attempt to arrest us. Here was an old man walking about asking for information, learning spells and so on. The mages were armed, and one pointed his staff at Lumoof. “Lumoof, on the orders of the council of High Priests of Maelas, you are to be detained on the suspicion of espionage.”

Lumoof lifted his arms. We were ready for this, and we would go along with the capture. The mages used a kind of crystal shackle and shackled Lumoof.

But all that happened was…

[…detecting attempted skill-control. Domain overriding.]

The crystal shackle shone, and then, like a whimper, it crumbled. The mages stared at each other. One of the high mage-priests immediately walked over and took out another shackle.

The second shackle crumbled, too.

“That’s…not supposed to happen.”

Lumoof smiled. “Anyway, gents, it’s fine. Come, lead me.”

The mages stared at each other, unnerved at how easy Lumoof went along with the capture. No, we wanted to be captured, because it was a convenient excuse. From what we knew, the high priests questioned their suspects within the depths of the Crystal Mountain, where they kept their strange artifacts, and that was somewhere we wanted to go anyway.

The mage-priests were shocked, of course, because it now seemed like they were escorting Lumoof rather than capturing him. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of resisting.”

Eventually, we entered a cave, high up on Crystal Mountain. Here, we took a look, and it was beautiful.

“Can I just appreciate the view for a moment?” Lumoof paused.

The mage priests looked at each other uncomfortably and then glanced toward the high priest for guidance. The high priest nodded. “No more than two minutes.”

Lumoof nodded and just looked at the view. It really was beautiful to see the entire city of Maelga with crystals everywhere. It was part–crystal mine, part–magic academy, and the glowing magical crystal lights paired with the faint fog and haze from the dusts only gave it an eerie, mystical aura.

“All right, let’s go.”

Lumoof nodded, and we went into the mountains.

54

YEAR 200 (PART 3)

The depths of the crystal mountain were magical. They had a magic lift, and the crystalline walls glowed in many colors. It was beautiful, and the ambience truly seemed magical.

“This is quite beautiful,” Lumoof said to the mages, who all seemed a lot more afraid of him than the other way around. Something about the shackles crumbling seemed to remind them that Lumoof was not just any old man, even though he had kept his domain in check for the entire period he was here.

The high mage tried his best to play along. “It is. Everyone who stepped into these lifts for the first time remarked how beautiful it is. Even the heroes.”

Lumoof nodded. “Ah yes, the heroes. They came from another world, right?”

The high mage gave Lumoof a suspicious look. “You seem familiar with them.”

“I have met a few.” Lumoof nodded.

“Are you from the nation of the Sandpeople, then?”

“No.” Lumoof smiled, and the high mage just gave him a stare. But Lumoof was used to such things. The lift eventually stopped gently, like it slowed down on a very measured drift. They hardly felt it. The door opened, and they were led into a chamber made of crystals.

The entire chamber was shaped by the crystal growth, and for me, looking through Lumoof, this chamber reminded me of ice palaces and chambers carved out of ice. Only it was crystals, and it wasn’t cold.

In fact, it was quite warm. The chamber led to smaller hallways, similarly carved out of ice. There were crystalline lights embedded into the crystal walls.

“This way.”

Lumoof nodded, and he was led to another chamber with a chair.

“Sit here.”

Lumoof complied. This seemed to be an interrogation room, but the high mage looked at the shackles and hesitated. The mages stared at each other. “Should we use the shackles?”

The high mage shook his head. “No, we’ve wasted two already. Just call the interrogators.”

The mage scurried out of the magical door. They used wooden doors, embedded with crystals. We could see that it was some kind of mixed item, part wood, part crystals. I wondered whether I could grow Crystal Trees, like how Kei was a crystal golem in the shape of a lady.

Maybe I could experiment with that dryad body I had stored all this time.

The interrogators, despite their fearsome name, were three skinny-looking humans with long crystal spears and many smaller pins and needles, all similarly made of crystal. They had different colors, and from a casual glance, I sensed that each of them was imbued with a different type of spell.

A torture set. Interesting. A far more elaborately dressed woman came immediately after, and I sensed that she was higher level than the rest, at least level eighty.

“Let’s make this simple, Sir Lumoof,” the lady started. “I have my interrogators with me, and I want to know, who are you, who do you work for, and what do you want? You’ve been buying magical spells and collecting various locational information for the past few years. Who are you sending it to? The sandpeople? Or the centaurs?”

Lumoof merely smiled. “Can I get your name?”

The lady shrugged and laughed. “I’m the Fourth Archpriest of Maelas, Yaddah.” There was an air of magic around her, strong, but nothing particularly impressive. Not when she was compared to my near-domain-level mages.

“Well, since you asked so nicely, I’m Lumoof. I serve the Temple of Aeon, and I came from a faraway place.”

“We’ve checked. There’s no such thing as the Temple of Aeon.”

“Oh, there is.” Lumoof smiled. “Now, if you want the juicy details with all the fruits, I would like to meet the true ruler of Maelga. I would happily explain then.”

Yaddah stared. “You wanted us to come to you.”

Lumoof smiled. “Well, it’s hard to get the bureaucracy to pass a message, isn’t it? What better way to get direct access to the top by making you come to me?”

“I could kill you here.”

Lumoof shrugged. “I think you know well enough that you can’t. In fact, maybe only the true ruler of this living mountain can hope to even hurt me.”

Yaddah’s fists glowed with magic, and she punched. A wooden barrier emerged and blocked it. Vines instantly absorbed the magic in her fists, and those vines quickly wrapped around her arms, and she stared. She flinched as she felt magic drain away from her arms. “…who are you?”

“Were you listening? My name is Lumoof, and I serve the Temple of Aeon.” The vines let her arms go, and Yaddah staggered backward. The interrogators stared dumbly. They were not used to their subjects being able to use their skills.

Lumoof didn’t move and just stretched his legs.

“It really does annoy me when young ones don’t listen to what us old folk have to say.”

Yaddah stood, but she realized the power gap.

“So, now that I am here, deep within the mountain, I want to talk to the true ruler of this mountain. Can you get me an audience? I certainly hope we can have a friendly meeting, rather than one where I’m forced to go on a warpath.”

Yaddah dusted her robes. “I see we have invited the snake into the house.”

“Eh, I’m not a snake. I’m just a priest of Aeon. I don’t bite.”

Yaddah looked at her team. “Stay here. I’ll go call the Crystal Holders.”

The interrogators looked afraid. “Milady—”

Lumoof immediately interjected. “There really is nothing to worry about. Can I have some tea while you sort out the details?”

Yaddah looked at the interrogators. “Well? Go get some.” She pointed a finger at Lumoof. “And you don’t get too smug. You don’t know who you’re dealing with.”

My priest just stretched and yawned.

“But—” The interrogators looked at Lumoof again and decided it was better to just get him some tea.

The tea was not bad, and Yaddah came back about three hours later. The interrogators kept watch, but they felt so uncomfortable around Lumoof that they decided to wait outside the door.

“The Crystal Holders will meet you now,” Yaddah said with a commanding tone. “Then you’ll know better than to offend us.”

“Oh?”

They led Lumoof through more narrow crystalline pathways and down more crystalline stairs and then another lift. A lift that went even deeper.

Then deep underground, we walked out of the lift into a massive cavern, with glistening crystals on the roof. The crystals had many colors, and around us, we saw giant crystal golems. These were massive things, and they looked like these golems could open up to be even larger.

There were a few more pathways that led to this cavern. Clearly the way we took was not the only way in.

“Feeling scared yet?” Yaddah smirked. Lumoof shrugged, and she couldn’t believe her eyes. “…you’re acting.”

We’d fought demon champions. Golems were just creatures in the same class. Then we arrived at a platform. There were eight large crystals and eight individuals seated right before them.

“Archpriest Yaddah, this is the individual that wants to meet us?”

Lumoof looked around, and here, I felt the conflicting presence of something. It was that something that hid underneath the mountains, it was here, but it darted everywhere, hopping from crystal to crystal.

These eight men were just spokespeople. The equivalent of my Valthorn councils, but not…me.

“Where are you looking, spy?” one of the individuals said. The voice was feminine, but here in the dim cavern, where the lighting came from the glow of crystals, it was hard to make out her features, unless we activated our skills. My spiritual sight identified her as human.

Lumoof looked around, and we tried to follow the presence. “Looking at the real power behind all of you.”

One of them slammed the crystal table. “We are the real powers here.”

Lumoof smiled. “All of you are just like me. The hands and legs. The executors of divine will.” He paused briefly and then said, “Minions.”

Three of them glowed, as I sensed them gather their magical power. Still, our eyes focused on that presence, and at that moment, a ninth crystal, one larger than the eight others, rose up out of the crystal floor. The ninth crystal was shaped like a throne, and a golem sat on it.

We felt that presence gathered in the golem. The golem was just a puppet of the spirit of this crystal mountain. Yet the golem looked incredibly life-like. No, at a casual glance, the golem seemed every bit human.

The eight immediately bowed. “We greet the Immortal Crystal King.”

Yaddah knelt, and she gave Lumoof a smug look. “You fucked now, old man.”

Lumoof smiled and respectfully clasped his hands together. We didn’t kneel. “Greetings.”

The presence was similar to Lilies and Aria. Maybe just a bit stronger. The golem radiated his [domain], and the aura of the crystal king’s domain closed in and attempted to smother us. All of them cowered in its presence.

This was nostalgic. I did the same thing to my Valthorns. The crystal king stopped and stared with its purple eyes. The eight cowering minions immediately attempted to explain. “Your majesty, this is a spy. He claims to be a priest of Aeon, but we’ve checked, and it does not exist.”

“No,” the king answered, and he sounded human. This was some really good puppetry. “Who are you?”

His domain did not pierce through Lumoof’s skin. Instead, it was pushed back. Lumoof gave a nod. “Greetings, Immortal Crystal King. I am Lumoof, a priest of Aeon. Finally, we have been hoping to speak to the true master of the mountain.”

“We?” The king narrowed its eyes.

Lumoof nodded, and I descended. My domain pushed against the crystal king, and everyone, including the other minions of the crystal king, cowered. “…what?!”

“Greetings, Crystal King. I am Aeon, and Lumoof is my avatar.” I spoke as Lumoof’s eyes glowed green, and my presence was clear for all to see. A greenish glow of light shaped into a tree appeared around Lumoof.

The golem narrowed its eyes as our two domains met. The usually quiet and motionless air of the cavern was twisted by our energies, and it whipped it up into a small, twisting gale. Yaddah, the archpriest, and the eight Crystal Holders were all horrified.

“I have been meaning to speak to you, though it is hard to get you through all of your institutional red tape.” I bet those who wanted to talk to me felt the same way.

The crystal king’s face was serious. “Speak, you have my attention.”

“I come from another world, just next to yours. I come in search of allies in my bid to defeat the demons that plague my world.”

“Is that not an affair of the gods?” At this point, all nine other humans dared not speak. They were all quiet. This was not their stage.

“The gods will abandon us in a century or two,” I said.

The crystal king looked. “I do not care of the cause. What do you want exactly?”

“Knowledge and skills. Cooperation. Friendship.”

The king glared, and stated bluntly, “Denied. I have no reason to cooperate and share my knowledge with those of another world. Every creature or beast of other worlds eventually attempts to invade us. Even the summoned heroes are not much better. No. We are an insular world, and we will remain so. No trade with outworlders. Friendship with another existence from another world? Impossible.”

“And what of trade?” I asked. Inwardly I was shaken by the immediate refusal. But Lumoof kept a stoic face.

“No. I refuse,” the crystal king said firmly, and I felt my spirit sink. What was this straight-out stonewalling?

“Any guarantees I can offer? What can I do to change your mind and work together?” I certainly came in peace, but it seemed they didn’t believe me.

“No. There is no negotiation to be had with otherworlders. I reject your presence in my lands. Leave and return to where you came from. The human-lands of this world will not receive you.”

I felt angry. Why? What was the cause of this…this…selfishness? What was the word for it…

The immortal crystal king was blunt. “I shall apply the full force of my powers should I ever see you again after today. I do not accept foreigners from another world. Leave.”

The crystal king flexed his domain, and his energies strengthened. I wondered, “Why? You accept the heroes!”

“They are part of a bargain we struck with Maelas.”

I felt there was an undercurrent of fear. “Must it be this way?”

“Yes,” the crystal king said. “Go. We are not friends. No. Friends do not exist for existences like…us. There are those stronger and those weaker. The strong take, the weak obey.”

Was that a challenge? Should I just take it, then? Darn. There seemed to be something at the back of all of this. Some history from long ago? No. Conflict should not be the first thought, especially when we had no reason to be enemies. Lumoof’s attempted capture was a small matter, really. Nothing was at risk. “Let’s talk this through. It is not my intention to come and occupy your world.”

“You will learn, and eventually, you will occupy. That is how it is, that is how it will be, and I reject your attempts to plant a seed here. Go. Leave. I shall entertain you no further. Leave peacefully, and that is the end of it.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then it will be war. Our eventual outcome is war. It is the same with the others, as with the demons, and as with those before us. War is inevitable.”

If it was inevitable, why shouldn’t I just raise war right now?

But no. I calmed myself and focused. What was my goal?

My goal was to end the cycle of heroes and demon kings, not for all worlds, but at least for my home world. War with other spirits and forces was unnecessary, unless it led to the end of the cycle. This group of people seemed to have knowledge of crystals, which I could use in the future, but did I want to go to war with them just to have this knowledge, which may or may not lead to breakthroughs?

Would a war here, with this mountain, be a worthwhile investment of resources?

I stared, and for a moment, the entire cavern shook as our domains clashed. My power radiated outward like a wave and met the opposing force of the immortal crystal king. My greenish energies lit the dark cave with my mana.

The human minions stared, with their jaws wide, and two of them fainted.

I knew for certain I was stronger overall, but even then a battle would be hard to predict, since this was their home base and this crystal king most likely have more combat abilities. The strangely human immortal crystal king squinted his eyes and took a step back.

Ugh. Fucking fucking fucking fuck. Why the fuck was this damned crystal so irritatingly…aloof? What was the word I was looking for—

Lumoof mentally responded to me, “Let’s go, milord. There really is no need to wage this pointless war. We can have other means. Or find somewhere else. They are not the only masters of crystals.”

I sighed. “Very well. We will leave.”

The crystal king looked to its cowering minions. “Escort this otherworlder out of my mountain. Don’t let him in ever again. Notify me if he ever dares to appear at my doorstep.”

Such arrogance, but I had no real beef with this guy. I wanted knowledge, and there really wasn’t any need to destroy this mountain just because he refused to cooperate. In the end, my end goal was the demons and this cycle. Focus on the end goal, I told myself, using that to calm myself down. I did not have to destroy other functional civilizations to get there.

I tried to relax and reminded myself that not everyone saw things my way, and that was all right. It was normal that some people were just not cooperative.

It was normal. Perfect, perfectly normal.

I tried to convince myself, really, because I felt mad. Maybe mainly because I got rejected. It was fine. It was okay. I was a salesman, and I didn’t have to make every single sale. Not everyone was like Lilies or Aria.

The minions stared at Yaddah, and Yaddah gulped. She had been commanded, and so she did.

She escorted Lumoof, respectfully and quietly. Not a peep.

Back home, it was a game of whack-a-mole, as demons kept popping up despite the efforts of the heroes, temples, and us to clamp down on the demonic parasites.

We were generally gaining ground as we discovered more and more ways to detect them and counter them.

The food makers and coffee brewers around the world made condensed caffeine sweets and caffeine pills. The coffee makers and sweet makers even gained unique skills: [Anti-Demon Coffee] and [Demon-Preventing Coffee Sweets].

It was really cute that those who made food actually contributed to the war effort.

I supposed this was a feature of the system, that the system did respond to changes, but it took a while for it to hit the necessary threshold to “award” a skill.

Anyway, with foods and consumables that deterred the demons from infesting, the tide was somewhat shifting, and it was slowly returning to good old conventional demon warfare.

Normalcy! How I missed it so.

At the same time, I also granted one of my Valthorns a class Lovis once had: [Aeon’s Demonslayer].

I suspected that it’d help to sense demons, and it did, but its effectiveness was linked to the person’s level. It wasn’t very useful on a large scale, since, like the heroes, it was tied to a particular individual and so was largely local.

But it was good for interrogation and detection of demons among areas previously cleared.

Despite our progress, we knew it meant nothing if the demon king wasn’t killed. As the ten-year deadline slowly passed by, we waited for the demon king. I really, really wanted to know the kind of demon king we would face.

55

YEAR 201

The demon king took its time, and we waited. So I went on the offense and wanted to claim a few more demon champions for myself. Just like the [Forest Rod], which I clearly wished I had more, I wanted more of these infestors.

I could find uses for them. Someday. Ally stood like a machine back in Freshka, and I quickly commanded it to sleep in one of my bio pods, safe in the valley. I didn’t want an infestor like her walking about the city, mainly because I felt such abilities were more suited to be hidden. A spy was most effective when no one suspected a spy.

Thus, only Stella and a few others were aware of it, and I made it a point to make them know it.

“What are your weaknesses?” I asked Ally, like, I tried my luck whether it was possible to directly ask a former demon the answer.

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t so easy, sadly.

We watched the star-ways with great interest. One of the paths glowed bright, but it wasn’t yet ready for the demon king. There were tell-tale signs when the demon king was about to cross, and so far, we had not seen them.

Down in the Southern Continent, we continued our great game of demon-parasite whack-a-mole, and eventually, I managed to catch two more demon champions. One was a general named Genid from a destroyed kingdom, and another was a king, King Rhoma of the Sanndea kingdom, which was no more since everyone alive was infested and incurable.

These two demon champions did not reveal anything new. They were similar creations of the infestor king and had no memories.

As our reach expanded in the south, I finally managed to catch something I was looking for.

A rift.

“What are you doing?” Stella asked as my trees approached a rift. She sensed some unusual magic fluctuations, a little more drain than usual. “Another demon champion?”

“Not exactly. While waiting for the demon king, I’ve decided to go on the offense.”

Stella’s eyes squinted and then widened as she realized what I meant. “Wait. You need the entire team here—”

My roots and vines approached the rift and slowly tested out its magical resonance. Like the previous demons, I needed to know the exact mana frequency to confuse the rift, such that it would let me through to the other side.

“Why?” Stella asked as she felt the energies passing through the void portals.

“I have nothing to lose, and I realized with my seeds that I should use them offensively. Playing defense is tiring.” I had two seeds left. From what I gathered, it did take a while for any destroyed tree to respawn as a new seed, but with both Threeworlds and the other world remaining close by, I was willing to do it.

It was my first attempt at launching an offensive attack. From what I learned from Snek, I suspected that the demons most likely did not have means of communication with other demon types, and each demonic world was largely independent, though there were some means of coordinating invasions.

I needed a solid presence in one such world if I wanted to know what exactly happened. I couldn’t learn about the demons without seeing them in one of their controlled worlds.

The last time, I needed the forest rod. I wouldn’t use the forest rod now. With the [seed of Aeon], I could use my clones as disposable scouts. My only risk was if they possessed my clone bodies, but I suspected that was impossible.

I spawned more artificial minds, just in case. I needed the backup.

“We don’t know what our home world is like. We were created, and before we could see or sense, we were flung to this world through the rifts, sent to infest anyone who feels strong.”

I also learned that my infestors used to have some kind of ability to see strength that was inactive as they were currently unpowered. Could they infest something like me? I suspected probably not, since a soul tree like myself should be invincible in its native domain. When asked, they seemed to answer, “We don’t know, but we are programmed to try.”

Huh. That was rather strange.

I soon found the resonance needed to get myself through the rift gates. My roots and vines went through!

Stella immediately winced as my roots went through.

The first thing I attempted to do was see.

A gate. I saw a gate. The gate was on a platform, and around the gates were those same void crystals. There were some other demonic structures around those void crystals, and this time, I was able to sense some magic flowing through it.

But immediately beyond the dry platform was water!

This demon world was not dry! If anything, it was more of a corrupted world. There were demonic trees and gigantic monsters that would not be out of place in the Rottedlands. I saw large blobs filled with hundreds or thousands of those demonic parasites being hauled by large demonic creatures. They were pushed through the rift-gate, and they appeared on the other side.

The blob didn’t survive the transfer, but the parasites did.

I immediately extended my roots and vines into the water, and I felt the pollution and dirt. No, this was some kind of muck. I’d have to analyze the details later.

The last time I sent my roots through the rift, some demons saw them and immediately cut us off. I wasn’t going to let that happen to me now.

I deployed my [seed of Aeon], right here, right next to the rift gates.

I felt my seed sink into the water, and then little roots extended out of the water. I sensed my seed’s root searching for dirt and earth.

Barren.

Even though there was water, the ground or dirt felt lifeless and weak. It was a little like the moon but different. The moon was just naturally empty, its surface covered with moon dust that needed to be rehabilitated gradually.

This world was drained, as if every bit of life that once was had been sucked out by the demons. I knew through my clone that the demons did this to their captured worlds and that meant Snek’s world was on a timer.

Eventually the demons would drain the world until it had no ability to support life.

Was that how it always went?

I had to check with Lilies.

< Lilies. You said the demons won before. Do you remember how long those demon-ruled periods were? When was that? >

> We do not recall the exact time as we were dormant, but from what we know, it was not very long. Almost one hundred years. We hid within the depths of the lake, and time was lost to us. It was then we heard the will of the world, once. <

< What happened? Do you remember how it stopped? >

> The gods summoned their chosen. <

Hmm. That didn’t quite answer the question. We didn’t know how long Snek’s world had. It could be hundreds more years or thousands. Or maybe it was already lost.

Either way, my seed spread roots into the lifeless soil, and rather than gathering nutrients from them, I attempted to sense magic.

These demons were not as alert as the previous ones. I suspected this was because the parasites themselves seemed to have rather strange senses when they were not in a host. In a way, they were quite blind. But eventually one of the demons that carried those blobs noticed the little roots and vines coming through, and they immediately closed the rift.

I felt a jarring sensation, similar to how a livestream would get stuck when switching from a wired connection to a wireless connection.

It came back a short while later, as my seed now supplied me with my senses. I was already on the other side, and my vines, now connected through my seed, continued to observe the demons. I decided to take advantage of my past hybrid demon-tree knowledge and changed my roots to appear somewhat demon-tree like.

I had to support my seed from the system, and I could feel the seed grow when I fed it mana. It was not getting enough mana from its ambient surroundings, just like my tree in the destroyed cometworld.

Luckily, the moon-tree had grown sufficiently that it was no longer a drain on my overall mana, even if it still depended on my mana to grow outward.

In short, even though I had clones, each clone still needed to generate its own power. If it didn’t due to the poor environment, it would then draw down on the primary reserve, which was my own mana pool.

I would have to develop plants able to collect mana in this polluted demon world. My roots moved through the dirty waters, and we sensed the presence of metals I’d not seen back on our home world.

As my roots spread out from the gate, I noticed that the demons were actually quite concentrated in certain areas, and there were still vast swaths where there was absolutely nothing. Just plain dirt. Lifeless dirt and polluted waters.

The waters were shallow, and that was good. It’d be a pain if I encountered oceans in a demon world, since that was a problem in itself that I had yet to solve.

I spawned a few discrete smaller trees in these sparse places. In doing so, I limited the number of beetles each of them could support, but no matter. I wanted to see the demon world for myself beyond what I could see from the gates.

I didn’t encounter any resistance, and my roots found the dirt. The parasite world had a single, bright blue sun that was really small. It was probably further away than our normal sun, which meant the weather would have been cooler, if not for the thick smog that seemed to coat the air. Even with these small trees I sensed the presence of strange minerals in the air.

I wasn’t sure whether this was native to this world or whether this was an output of the demons. I didn’t manage to collect such data from my previous incursions to the other demon worlds.

With more and more discreetly placed trees, I was able to spawn some labs to begin analyzing the magic in this world, and the first thing that immediately stood out to me was how little magic was in the air, and there were no…ley lines.

That was weird, and it reminded me of the moon. No. Even the moon wasn’t so empty.

Were ley lines essentially magical “blood vessels” of the core, and ley lines essentially supplied “life” to the world?

I thought of the strategy demons and their demonic rods. They were essentially using the world’s ability to create life to create demons. I was doing the same thing with dungeons. The world did it normally, too, through the spawning of natural dungeons.

I knew, from my own experience in Treeworld, that ley lines were rare. The moon, too, didn’t have any noticeable ley lines, but I initially suspected this was because I had not expanded much on the moon. That was because I still detected some faint magic that moved in the depths of the moon.

But here, in this demonworld, there should be ley lines or very faint inklings of them, especially once my roots started spreading really far and wide.

What was happening?

Back home, I immediately summoned Snek for an audience.

“Tell me about the lines from your home. Are you aware of them?”

“Yes. These are the magical energies of the world?”

“Have you observed any change in the magical energies of the ley lines since the demons took over?”

Snek frowned. “I’m afraid I don’t have information on this. We are aware of some changes in these magical strands, but I did not look into it.”

“Didn’t you say you were an expert on your world?”

“…I lied, oh great Aeon.” The little snake spirit prostrated on the floor. “I merely have a high-level knowledge of it. To have knowledge of everything in my world is not something one snake can achieve.”

I spread my roots and trees more and more and eventually stumbled on something I’d seen in the dreams of the heroes: pillars and spires, filled with dark red blobs. Looking at it for myself, I saw the spires were linked to large pillars and spikes, which embedded into the ground, like stakes. There were also large vats and pools right next to the pillars filled with some kind of colored muck. The blobs on the spires themselves all seemed to contain smaller, almost baby demons.

I felt a draining effect in the land itself, and thankfully, I was resistant to it. It felt like a vacuum cleaner sucking on my toes, and it didn’t really hurt. It was just slightly irritating.

It wasn’t the only such structure I saw.

As I spread my trees as far and wide as I could in this new demonic world, I saw many more such structures. I was looking for the thing that created the demonic champions.

I soon found other rift-gates, and as my trees spread, I realized there were at least ten of them; each of them had a whole bevy of void crystals around them. I watched the rift gates open, and the demonic parasites were sent through.

This part was not new to me. What was new was what happened after the rift gates were closed. I saw demons that replaced the crystals, and they replaced them by the hundreds and thousands.

Each rift gate was supplied, continuously, by a supply chain of these demons who did nothing but carry these void crystals.

So I followed this supply chain. It took some time, at least a month, since the supply chain was very, very long, and eventually I came upon what was the largest spawning pool I’d ever seen. The waters were different. They were black with streaks in them, like a very thick soup.

Around the holes were massive spires that joined up at the top in the shape of a ring. From my viewpoint, it looked like a supermassive rift gate that was exactly above the hole.

My roots sensed something lurking within these lakes, and here, that sucking effect was extremely strong. But, more importantly, I felt its focus that went deep underground. I felt it draw energy from the depths.

I spread my trees around this lake and noticed some parts where demons emerged from the lake, hauling smaller void crystals.

This lake produced void crystals or were they mining them from deep underground?

I tried to dig underground, like how I dug back home, and I soon found that this hole stretched downward, and I sensed pain.

A pain that came from the world itself.

I followed the pain and kept digging. The demon’s hole was still there! How did they manage to dig so deep? As I went deeper, as deep as I could manage, I sensed a powerful presence wrapped in a shell. I knew it was powerful, because its energy was like a constant hum, and it pressed on my roots.

The hum became a constant grinding noise as I went deeper, and I realized it was the nascent demon king. It was further down. Much, much further down.

The core of the world was the womb of the demon king.

56

YEAR 201 (PART 2)

We saw the path through the void sea lit up, and this time, I tried to see what was happening from this side of the world. I saw a massive tower emerge from the ground, right next to the huge hole that led to the world’s core.

The tower was pitch black, mixed with little bits of other colors, and I felt huge amounts of strange magic being pulled through that pillar. It was absorbing something…from somewhere.

The smaller spires around the massive hole glowed, as if it stored the energy that was being pulled.

I switched to my astral sight, and I saw a dark blob appear right above the demon’s world. There was a black pillar of energy that linked to that physical tower. I felt a huge, splitting headache, and Patreeck immediately stepped in.

As I concentrated on the sky above the demonic world, I saw it.

A huge black sun of void magic. It had many other little pillars that I couldn’t quite see, like…easily hundreds or maybe thousands. What was this? The demon’s power source for void magic?

Or was it an actual demonic god?

That pitch-black tower seemed to pull void mana from the black sun, and I felt the air tense with void energies. It was void mana, the very same void mana that Stella used.

At the same time, my magical senses were attacked by a huge surge of power that came from the core itself. This part wasn’t void magic, but a different kind of energy. It was also familiar, like the one I saw from within that shard of Cometworld.

It surged out and then alternatingly split to the smaller pillars around the hole. One pillar was void; another one was this core energy.

Void mana from the black tower was then transferred to the pillars, again in alternating patterns. The ring above the hole started to float into the sky and expanded.

Then I watched as the spires formed pairs. One spire that contained the core energy and another spire that contained the void mana from the black tower mixed together to form this weird mana.

The pairs glowed, and then the floating ring in the sky spaced out.

The pair of spires each shot a beam of energy to the ring in the sky, and I felt the world bend. From the center of the circle, a huge rift opened. The ground rumbled as the demon king moved out of its cradle deep in the core of the world.

It rumbled for a long time; the demon king didn’t move very quickly. At that very moment, I saw that tower of darkness glow again, and there were three astral paths in the skies above.

One that led to Treehome, where my main body was. Another one that led to that black sun—this path was filled with a constant flow of void mana—and this third one was another black object. It resembled—

I wasn’t sure what I was looking at. It looked like a constant moving blob. Maybe it looked like a lava lamp? I wasn’t sure what it was.

At first, I didn’t know they opened a path to this blob. But there had to be a purpose, so I watched. No one opened a pathway to this faraway place, bending space and dimensions for no reason. There had to be a purpose.

The ground rumbled and rumbled some more.

Then this formless blob that constantly moved separated a small, tiny droplet of pitch-black darkness, and that darkness went through the pathway. It came out of a rift right above the ring, and I saw a black and dark red crystal descend and fall into the deep pool that led to the core.

But this crystal had a familiar energy. It was a part of the demon king; I was sure of it.

The crystal descended into the pool, and the rumbling intensified. I felt the demon king’s body stop somewhere, and then I tracked the two energies approaching each other. The crystal and the body, fusing somewhere along that massive hole.

The pathway that led to that blob closed first, and now there were two left. One that led home and one from that black sun. The black sun continued to pump void mana through the path, and I noticed that even though I could very visibly see this astral path, it had a far more robust structure.

I needed Stella to see this. Maybe she could learn how to reverse-engineer this portal!

Just then, I felt the two separated energies of the demon king; the crystal and the demon king’s body from the core completed its fusion. It was noticeable and familiar as I felt the fabric of the world bend to the presence of this emerged being.

The gestation period within the cradle of the world was over, and so a demon king was born.

The ground vibrated strongly, and I felt it rupture. Massive chasms emerged as the demon king suddenly shot upward.

The ring in the sky burned, and through my astral sight, I saw the path to Treehome lit up. The demon king shot out of the boiling sludge and straight through the massive rift. The rift immediately started to shut down, but the chasms around the hole to the core continued to widen.

The pillars around the hole to the core started to collapse and break; a few even exploded from magic overload. The draining sensation I felt a while back vanished entirely.

Instead, all I sensed was pure emptiness and nothingness. Even in my deeper roots and trees in the little subterranean tunnels, there was a real sense of emptiness. Like all life had been sucked out, all value drained. This absence of magic and life seemed to cause the dirt and the demonic spires to start collapsing, the earth itself breaking apart.

That didn’t make any sense. The pillar of void energy was still there.

Maybe what was holding this world together was… Wait. It was like Cometworld again. The core energy held the place together and…

Did that mean the core generated some kind of stability mana that allowed the rifts to travel such great distances?

Was I looking at this wrong the entire time? That void mana may be the liquid or the juice of interplanar travel, but the core’s energy was what allowed for stable travel?

It was something I had to test out, but we had a demon king to fight.

Back home, the path lit up, and Stella watched with great interest as the path opened, and the demon king descended on the Southern Continent.

[Demon King Exikant has arrived.]

This demon king wasn’t hiding at all. The rift opened, and the sky rained with demonic larva. On the parasite world, the rifts opened and larva was dumped through them by the hundreds and thousands.

Even if coffee afforded some protection, the larvae were now able to resist the coffee’s influence, since these larvae were empowered by the demon king’s presence. But the demonic parasites also exhibited a strange behavioral weakness. They all wore their demonic presence publicly, no longer hiding it.

I wondered whether this was a conscious decision by the demon king or just something out of instinct or just driven by their new state of power. Even the simple larva now could take a punch, and their bites now had power. In their transformed stages, they were at least three times stronger than before.

Which was pretty weak, since I had all my anti-demon buffs, but it still caused them to attack.

The rain of larva happened mostly in the Southern Continent, but it also happened in the lower parts of the Central Continent.

Thankfully, together with my artificial minds, we were able to spot where the rifts opened and target those areas specifically, blocking off entire areas with large domes of wood. This meant the raining larva slammed into my wooden barriers and then was quickly picked off by my spiders and beetles. The overwhelming presence of my giant attendant trees meant my anti-demon auras also significantly weakened the larva, such that their threat levels remained low.

The Southern Continent had it rough. The star-mana emitters still worked well, but for those less-protected areas, it was honestly really bad. Families would wake up to someone in their family transformed into a demon.

It was like a zombie apocalypse, with demons!

A few of the allied nations where I had discreetly placed giant attendant trees, protected by [camouflage], fared slightly better. The effects of my aura continued to suppress these parasites, which slowed their ability to spread throughout the population and protection to be raised against them.

The priests and the healers were not entirely stagnant, either, and they were able to invent an ability. The sheer existential threat of a demonic parasite seemed to strike fear in the priesthood, unlike the other demons before them, and the priests, somehow, managed to invent an internal [holy fire]. Strange that my own priests attempted to create something similar but didn’t manage to achieve it.

I suspected it was the lack of fear of these demons and a lack of conviction.

Apparently, it was invented a year ago, but it just took a while for the skill to spread due to how sensitive and important it was. Essentially, it allowed priests to protect themselves and those not yet converted to a demon with a flame that protected their souls.

My spies managed to bribe a priest who possessed the skill to demonstrate the ability to us. It was not hard for me to understand, since it was essentially a derivative of a soul-ish ability. Matriarch Hoyia immediately learned it just by watching it.

For priests, they were generally able to tap into this pool of power that sat in the system. There were two types, a generic priest pool and a more specific god pool. Each priest, depending on their levels, rank, and relationship with their god or patron, withdrew from this heavenly pool into their own local pool, within their body.

What the priest did was essentially draw on the generic pool and just ignited it around the soul as a barrier. So, instead of using the heavenly powers as god mana, they pretty much burned it.

It was a waste of power and, in a way, the equivalent of burning money. But it protected their souls from the consumption of the demons. The parasites were forced to attack them and were unable to consume them. The problem was this meant the lower-level priests couldn’t use their other abilities and did not offer any protection to the normal folk.

With this knowledge, I experimented on my [familiars] and was then able to create [soul-protection familiars]. These were able to go beyond my earlier familiars, which only gave resistance and slowed down the demon’s infection, and using the familiars’ connection to the system battle it out against the demons.

A few tests indicated it was successful, and I rolled it out to the Valthorns operating in the south. It meant they would have to lose their normal familiars and the generally more useful generic abilities.

The demon king immediately raised armies to war, along with champions, but my trees had spread really far into the demon lands, and I spotted the demon king.

In any case, I called up Edna.

She knew that the demon king had arrived. She could feel it in the air; anyone with a domain could. “Yes, Aeon?”

“I found the demon kings.”

“Kings?” There were three of them, each slightly different from one another, but I saw a thick web of magic that tied the three demon kings together. They were one and the same and yet separated into three bodies. How was that possible? He saw only one that left the parasite world; did they separate once they landed?

Still, the three demon kings each resembled humanoids, but each of them had large wings. It seemed to me like poor design; I expected a parasitic demon king called the infestor king to have far stronger powers instead of typical demon knights. Or was that their trick? Take the form of humans and lull the heroes into thinking that these were just normal demon kings?

In any case, I observed their powers and was prepared to share my findings with the heroes. I liked Prabu and Colette enough that I felt they were worth saving, and the fact that Prabu could, at least, have a reasonable conversation with me was something.

These demons did not destroy the trees I planted in the area, nor did these parasites, and that was another strange thing I observed.

The earlier demons were far more destructive of their general surroundings, and I wondered, just wondered, could we co-exist with these demon kings if, say, I was able to construct a pool where these demon kings could remain sleeping?

But I didn’t know whether keeping a demon king would stop the other demonic worlds from noticing us.

Did the demons identify our worlds by some form of scanning mechanism? Did each demon king emitted a signal to the other worlds that said to the other demon worlds that this world was occupied?

Actually, on that train of thought, could it be possible to mislead the demon worlds on this? Find a way to fake the demon’s signals, such that they believed this was a demon-controlled world? If I could do that, I could buy time, both for recovery post-invasion and to build strength.

I didn’t learn anything from watching the three demon kings. They didn’t move much and seemed to be waiting. I wondered whether this was normal for demon kings.

That said, I wondered whether it was time for me to disrupt the rain of larva from the side of the demon world. If I could cut off reinforcements, I could make it a battle on two fronts against the demons.

There were still many other demon spire–spawning pools throughout their world that continued to pump out demonic larva.

I hadn’t tried anything drastic yet, as I was also trying to find where the champions were made. My hope was to capture one such spawning pool and see whether it was possible to make my own champion from scratch. My gut feeling was that it was possible to create the body of the champion, but I’d still need Titan Souls to fuel them. No harm trying.

Anyway, the Southern Continent’s war against the parasites had some good developments, again, by sheer necessity. The world’s citizens were more resilient and inventive than I gave them credit for, and at the same time, it also reminded me that even with the best facilities and all the money a continent could throw at a problem, sometimes it was those who truly needed such things that found ways to invent something that worked.

The heroes made more star-mana emitters, and that helped keep certain spaces safe. Add to that the soul-protection developments made by the priests, and even stronger variants of anti-demon coffee-based cooking, condiments, and sweets helped the Southern Continent nations endure the demonic wave and slowly begin their counter-attack.

The Valthorns also felt more confident to operate in the south now that they were no longer afraid of the demonic parasites. New skills and spells, such as [Inner Fire], [Soul Sanctuary], and [Soul Guard], all invented by and stolen from the southerners in the past year, helped protect many from the demonic parasites.

So Edna finally moved to the front and joined the heroes in their push toward the demon kings. Roon and Johann joined her, too, as they were both on the verge of their domains, both with my [Court of the Deitree] familiar, in case of any emergency teleportation. I also deployed more Valthorns to support that final push, though most of them would sit out the battle.

I pulled Lumoof back from the Threeworlds and readied for another battle with the demon kings. Together, we made a push into the demon-occupied kingdoms.

Where the demon kings awaited.

57

YEAR 201 (PART 3)

Ididn’t look forward to battling these demon kings again. It felt like just yesterday I sent both Lumoof and Edna to the battlefield.

“Don’t say anything,” I said to both Roon and Johann. “No death flags.” They nodded. I was superstitious. These demon kings did not leave the general area where they arrived, which was a large capital city that had been entirely infested with transformed demons. They didn’t speak, either, and the demon champions that served them also did not speak. It seemed they gained some kind of telepathic ability, which I vaguely sensed but could not interrupt or crack.

“All right.” I lost three senior Valthorns four decades ago, and I was not prepared to lose more. Even now that wound felt fresh in my heart.

Each demon king had a gimmick. What was this demon king’s gimmick? The split bodies? Or an ability to regenerate? Ken, at least, understood our intention to rehearse our game plan. It made sense to him that if there were gimmicks, then those fighting the demon kings should be familiar with the tropes.

“If it’s split body, it’s likely to have some kind of ‘kill all three or the rest will regenerate’ type of ability,” Ken said. “This is common in games.”

Prabu nodded. “So we have a small window to deliver enough damage to all three.”

“Yes, essentially a DPS check. That means damage per second, and we’re trying to deliver sufficient damage within a short timeframe to overwhelm the regenerative ability.” As a former game designer, I was familiar with the phrase, though both Kei and Stella never heard of it.

“All right. So what’s our game plan if that’s the case? Should we test it out?”

Ken thought to himself. “You could hold back, destroy one body first, and see what happens. If it really has that sort of function or skill, then only unleash hell on all the bodies.”

It was also likely that each body had a unique ability. Or maybe not. I wasn’t sure how deep their scope of powers could be.

“There’s four of us,” Colette said. “There’s three of them, and they should be weaker with their separated bodies. We have gained levels since the last time. We should be able to bring this demon king down faster.”

“Ah yes, that’s a common trope, too. They might fuse and have some final form.” Ken paused and then continued. “Usually parasite-type demons can, uh…copy or replicate their enemies’ abilities to some extent.”

“So we should field as few combatants as possible?” Prabu asked. “Wait. Are we safe from possession?”

Ken frowned. “I think the answer is likely to be a no. Think about it, these guys were designed to kill us, and they’ve taken up a parasite form. We are their number-one enemy. They must be tailored to possess heroes. These guys must be able to do so.”

That was a good point, and it was Snek who gave a good suggestion. “Then you heroes should find ways to store a soul-bomb.”

“What the hell is that?”

Ken looked at Lumoof. “I hear the priests are doing it already, but their skills and spells are at a far lower level. Can Aeon deploy something far more powerful?”

I wasn’t sure, but it was certainly worth trying. Snek pointed it to their type of reinforcing blood magic. “There are some aspects of blood magic that reinforces the soul.”

The heroes were chosen because of their strong souls, or more correctly, they were enhanced such that they had strong souls. I remembered looking at Meela’s soul a long time ago and noting how much stronger it was than the others. But would this help against the demon king?

In the case of Edna and Lumoof, their souls had changed since they gained their domain. Both of their soul springs had a building that now surrounded the spring, like a water fountain located within a temple complex. If I looked at my own, it was possible that the building that now surrounded the spring was essentially my domain. It protected my soul from outside forces. Snek’s type of blood magic essentially collected the rocks and bricks from the dead souls and used those materials to reinforce a person’s soul spring.

There had to be a way it could be done.

I tried to remember all the past times when I defended myself and then remembered about Alexis’s attempted possession of my own body.

What had I done then?

Nothing, actually. My soul just protected itself.

But there had to be something that could be done such that some similar strength could be embedded into the heroes.

“I will be safe,” Lumoof said. “If the demon king ever tries to possess me, all you gotta do is take control.”

That was true. Lumoof was likely to be safe, and I knew it, because there was a very strong link in his soul realm to mine. He was my avatar, and a demon attempting to possess Lumoof competed with that.

Edna, Lumoof, and the Valthorns caught up as I mulled more ideas. Lumoof spoke of the Threeworlds, exploring the Centaurs and the land of the sandpeople. But that was a story I would catch up on at a later date. I decided to experiment on Prabu when he managed to teleport back for a short while. One of his snack-collection trips. He agreed to a dip into one of my soul forge-linked biolabs.

“I’m going to try and give you some anti-demon king resistance. It will hurt. A lot.”

“Okay,” Prabu agreed.

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“All right.”

I remembered that time when I tried to fix Jura’s soul and attempted to stir the waters around Prabu’s soul spring.

“What’s happening?” he asked through our magical link.

“I’m attempting to reinforce your soul.” Unlike the domain holders, the heroes had these large jugs that floated in their sky, pouring star mana. These added to their own mana from their soul spring, and again the size of the springs was massive. Lumoof and Edna may have the domains, but in terms of star mana, these heroes had us beat. No contest.

Maybe because Prabu was a mage, so his mana was also higher than normal.

It was possible for me to manipulate the space outside of his soul spring, and I attempted to do so.

With the experience of the priests with their soul protection, I called on my domain powers and injected it into Prabu’s body.

It really drained me, and it was painful for him, but soon I saw a small plant emerge right outside of his soul spring. It sucked quite a bit of his mana and then stopped.

[A Grafted Soul Tree’s Presence]. I immediately sensed it forming a link with the familiar I’d previously given to Prabu.

“Huh.”

I knew that this was only possible because I was much stronger than before, and because of that strength, this chunk of myself could survive the turbulent, star-mana flooded world of a hero.

Planting something in someone else’s garden took far more energy than my own, at least an order of magnitude more than taking out a foreign object. This much was obvious. This was why it took a lot less energy to heal or remove something foreign.

This tree was a foreign object and was still tiny, because it was weakened by the eroding forces within the body itself instead of nourishing it.

Unless I could mislead the body into thinking it was not foreign?

Wait.

I should be able to do that, from my experience meddling with Jura’s hand. The soul clearly could forget what belonged to it and what didn’t. If I messed with that…

I drew more power from everywhere, and just like trying to convert Ally and the demonic infestor parasites, I tried to alter Prabu’s soul realm to accept my presence. He was a hero, and previously, they had resistance to all sorts of powers. But with my second, focused domain, the barrier and protection of the hero was tough but not invulnerable.

I just needed more power.

His body shook. And on another continent, I could hear the other heroes wondering what took Prabu so long.

The fabric of the world bent around us as I conducted this little soul surgery, both from the power deployed and the actual warping of the hero’s soul.

But it was successful. I’d planted something in his soul, and now, the tree that was once tiny transformed into a thick bramble of thorns surrounding his soul spring. The energies of the star mana and his vast soul flooded that tiny tree and made it grow.

It transformed into [Living Wall of the Soul Tree]. It should suffice, I supposed. Prabu rested for a day and went back.

I also wanted to experiment on Ally, but at the same time, even if I gave Ally a Titan Soul, who did I test her on? I made a note to come back to Ally some other day.

The demon kings launched their attack once we got close enough. That was our plan, actually. Like with the earlier demon kings, we wanted to bait it somewhere rigged with our crystal bombs and soften up the demon kings.

The first hit using these stationary traps would also help to give us insights into how these demon kings operated and test out some of Ken’s suspicions. Perhaps he was right, as the demons did tend to conform to story norms.

We rigged an entire area with our crystal bombs and waited for the moment when the demon kings got near.

We expected it, at least. We knew that the demon king could not resist attacking the heroes. It was just how they went about it.

The demon kings entered into the blast zone, and an entire area the size of a city rigged with crystal bombs flashed. These were more powerful bombs, the result of incremental improvements in Alka’s methods over the years and studies from Lumoof’s purchased magical items.

From afar, the heroes and my senior Valthorns watched the sky light up, a pillar of blue light. It was powerful enough that our magical sensors all the way on the Central Continent detected them.

The heroes watched keenly. “I still feel them.”

“No notification, that should be obvious enough,” Chung responded as he charged his hero items. They were all stronger now, closer to level one hundred thirty instead of the earlier level one hundred twenties when they faced their second demon king. This would be their third demon king.

Colette’s hero items floated out around her; they were all magical staffs, wands, and rods of different shapes and sizes. They were all stronger than before, but even they felt the gaze of the demon king. Prabu’s hero items were two massive staffs packed with more gems than a jewelry store, and Hafiz was one large silver shield.

The three demon kings took the hit directly, and even despite the amount of power packed in them, it did not deal lethal damage. The three demon kings were merely surrounded by a charred sphere of flesh.

Two beams burned through the skies and smashed into the spheres, and the spheres exploded.

“Good shot.” Chung nodded as his bows glowed, and arrows flew toward the demon king. The arrows stopped midway as Chung made a gesture with his fingers. He activated some kind of magical vision.

At that very second, I felt something just blast out from those spheres, and it touched everything. It was very familiar.

The Rottedlands bomb, just a smaller but more focused one.

Lumoof immediately had to step in here, or this parasitic demon king would infest the terrain and use it against the heroes. Lumoof immediately went into avatar mode, and I soon found I had my own battle to fight.

One of the demon kings had fused with the ground itself and transformed into a parasite and corruption emitter! We spawned trees as fast as we could, and I already had artificial minds readied for the task. Multiple giant trees spawned, and my roots fought the corruption in the ground itself.

Lumoof winced when I pulled mana from the Central Continent and emitted it through his body into the roots and trees.

Some parts, already infested by the demon king, emitted noxious gasses and waves that melted whatever came in contact with it.

Ken, Stella, Kei, and the Valthorns that sat out the direct conflict watched the spectacle at home through [dream academy]. “Oh. So the demon king infests the land.”

“Doesn’t that mean it can infest Aeon?” Stella asked.

“I don’t think it’s stupid enough to try that, though,” Ken said.

A part of me felt it was funny. This was just a repeat of the Rottedlands corruption, with the exact same methods. I called on my first domain power, [Roots of Life], and also my [Tree of Life], and pumped my mana through the roots. This time, I pushed back.

A tactic that put me into a coma for two decades wasn’t going to work twice. Not when I fought it for twenty years.

My trees gained ground quickly, and I stopped the demon king’s noxious gasses from saturating the place. That demon king in the ground started to attack directly, once it noticed its corrupt energies were dispersed easily.

It formed black tentacles that shot toward my roots, and one of them stabbed it directly. I felt it push its corrupt energies into the tree, and I pushed back. Likewise, I spawned more trees and my roots rushed toward that body.

Underground, my roots and the demon’s tentacles fought an intense battle as both of us attempted to overwhelm each other with our respective energies.

Above ground, the heroes engaged in combat with the other two bodies, and they defeated one. Ken was right, somewhat. There really was a gimmick as the remaining body would split and regenerate the second body after a short while.

Edna found herself mostly fighting demon champions as the two demon kings seemed to be mostly airborne, zigzagging in the skies and dodging the two mages and Chung’s arrows. Hafiz played defense and protected the three heroes as they launched their volleys.

Roon and Johann tried to assist, too, but like Edna, they focused on the demon champions and only took a few pot shots at the demon king. It was hard to keep up with the two airborne demon kings that seemed to shapeshift at will and move like they were not subject to gravity or the rules of motion.

For a brief moment, each of us fought our own battles. I fought the infestation in the ground with Lumoof, the heroes against the two airborne demon kings, and everyone else dealt with the mobs and demon champions.

I internally felt it was a little…easy and predictable, but I knew this wasn’t it. There had to be a trick. They always did.

So I was always on the lookout.

I was expecting a trick.

The demon king that infested the ground then did something that I immediately thought was stupid. It manifested itself out of the ground and then threw itself at Lumoof. I launched multiple barrages against the demon king as it barreled toward Lumoof, who was bound to the ground in avatar form.

No. It essentially charged at us.

Really?

I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t have enough power or damage to really, really make the demon king stop, even if I hurt it quite a bit. I placed barriers between us and even activated all my offensive abilities.

The demon king took the damage and continued to charge at Lumoof. It smashed through the walls and shields, slowing it down only by a little bit. My vines appeared and wrapped around it, but it still pushed through.

The heroes were too occupied with the two airborne demon kings who had summoned even more airborne demons to counterattack.

I felt that demon king slam into Lumoof, its spiritual presence colliding with my overlaid presence over Lumoof. Strangely, rather than possess Lumoof, I felt like something immediately reached out into my soul…

[Domain Detected Soul Intrusion. Activating Soul Defenses…]

At that second, I felt my mind go hazy, like a massive migraine. In a flash, all my potato storage and tubers were emptied, and even [Dream Academy] temporarily went offline. The entire Central Continent suddenly felt the equivalent of an electrical short circuit.

With mana.

Beetles stopped. Magic seemed to briefly just go out of commission over the entire Central Continent as my trees sucked up mana from everywhere. Dungeons temporarily flickered, their ley lines wobbling from the sudden spike in mana-demand.

Lumoof’s body then suddenly flashed like a supernova, and the demon king that wrapped around Lumoof was blasted with this strange multicolored light. The power that was released at that moment was far higher than anything I’d ever felt and comparable to the strongest of the heroes’ attacks.

That demon king body was incinerated instantly.

I was stunned.

How was this possible?

Demon kings were not meant to be insta-killed. In my mind, I wondered then. How the fuck did I do that intentionally? How did I repeat this? This was an ability that could break the balance of the game.

I realized maybe I was a little too excited. After all, this wasn’t really a full strength demon king, since this was a demon king that had split itself to three. But if I could one shot one-third of a demon king, I somehow felt that was actually an encouraging sign, too!

Even if I didn’t know what exactly happened.

Lumoof immediately fainted, and though he was alive, that single attack flushed his body with too much mana, and the pain was too much. My sensors immediately detected extreme pain throughout his body and realized he had signs of extreme mana sickness.

I instantly teleported him back to Freshka for healing. This was too much for him.

That meant I lost track of the battlefield for a good fifteen minutes.

“Stella!” I shouted to her mind. With Lumoof back in Freshka, my connection to the south was lost. “Portals!”

“On it!” Void portals immediately opened, and my roots reconnected to all the trees I planted in the south.

“Roon, Johann. Retreat!” If only domain tier could resist corruption, that meant they were vulnerable to the demon king’s possession. There was always another demon king for them to fight if they survived this one. There was no need to go all in. I could send them to the Threeworlds or that other world to fight other demon kings.

I thought of pulling back through the [Court of the Deitree]’s teleportation ability, but that was a one-way trip. What if I needed them for something else? Thankfully, they retreated quickly without much issue, and I focused on fighting the other demon champions. But as that happened, I vaguely sensed a gathering pool of energy where the demon king was incinerated, and I saw a small, almost ethereal presence.

It wasn’t physically visible, but I definitely could see it, because it was like a spiritual template. I saw the heroes destroy one of the demon kings then, and I noticed something similar gathering in the air, where the other demon king’s body died.

The heroes wouldn’t be able to destroy this thing, not unless they had some soul-linked powers. This was a spiritual template. I knew then this was the foundation for the demon king to rebuild its own body, and I saw energies leaking from the last remaining body that channeled to the other two destroyed bodies.

I immediately understood how the demon king would have regenerated itself if all three bodies were not destroyed.

Too bad the demon king was clearly not prepared for my presence, and my roots touched the spiritual template, the foundation of all healing, and summoned my soul forge. It would be a pain to use my powers through the portal, but if I could destroy the template, it would eliminate the demon king’s ability to regenerate its split bodies.

“We need time to gather our mana. A lot of mana was drained to blow up the demon king.”

Shit. I could see the demon king regenerating, but I couldn’t stop it because I lacked mana? “How long do I need?”

“A few hours, at least.”

I thought, if I couldn’t destroy it, then I could at least interrupt it. That wouldn’t need that much mana. “It would increase the time needed to gather mana.”

“But better than facing three demon kings.” I noticed the heroes were gradually getting tired, and essentially the parasite demon king with three bodies was playing a game of attrition. If the demon kings could survive until the heroes were exhausted, they would be able to kill the heroes.

I injected my soul-forge energies into the demon king’s soul template, and though the miniscule amount was not able to destroy the template, I was able to easily interfere with the energies that attempted to gather there and quickly dispersed the energies.

I thought I’d just bought extra time for the heroes.

This, of course, drew the attention of the last remaining demon king, and rather than continuing its constant airborne dogfight with the heroes, it turned and bombed the roots and trees that interfered with the regeneration.

I blocked with my shields and my barriers, and they withstood the first attack. Barely. The second attack destroyed them, but it was all right. I was prepared to regenerate my trees as long as necessary.

“Your opponent is here,” Colette said as her array of magical weapons zapped the demon king. It turned and lunged toward the heroes.

The demon king turned and then pulled the remnants of the demon king’s energy back to itself instead of regenerating. The spiritual templates themselves folded into the main body, and then the demonic parasites all around us immediately went wild. This was a pattern repeated throughout the world as all the parasites all over the world simultaneously attempted to transform, or take over their host, and then they would attack those around them, attempting to repeat the act.

It was a stupid thing. Why show your hand? Though I clearly noticed that the demons were learning, their learning and improvements were disorganized and random. It was almost as if they were some kind of self-learning network that just tried things and attempted to figure out how it performed. Were they just trying other strategies randomly?

In any case, this stupid move merely allowed the rest of the world to kill the demons and end the parasites once and for all.

I would have ensured that the parasites remained hidden, but I supposed I should count my lucky stars.

Back with the demon king, it immediately went airborne and transformed into this massive floating blob. Demon champion-parasites attempted to latch onto the heroes, and a few bit them, but they were not infested. They had sufficient levels and protection for it.

Edna decided to retreat as she had limited airborne powers. I, too, had limited airborne powers. At this point, I merely decided to stay back and provide any defensive support, but with Lumoof out of commission, I wouldn’t be able to deploy my full strength.

It was all up to the four heroes now.

The demon king used more conventional abilities then, but I noticed it was weaker than the earlier demon kings, and the heroes successfully whittled it down.

Chung’s magical bolt slammed into the demon king, and it shattered, revealing a tiny blob.

“It’s either going to blow—”

The tiny blob charged forward at incredible speed, and I barely blocked it with my wooden shield. It smashed through my shields like it was nothing and then slammed into Prabu and Colette’s protective magical shields.

It then expanded in an explosion and transformed into a big purple blob around the heroes. The heroes attacked it repeatedly, but it somehow pushed through the magical shields and stabbed the heroes.

It did what a parasite was always trained to do.

Possess a hero.

It had inserted itself into the four heroes, and now it was up to them to resist it. All four heroes were in pain as I attempted to help them.

I knew, somehow, all four heroes were in a mental battle with the demon king. As Ken put it, this was the cliché of heroes “fighting from the inside.”

My roots and vines emerged and wrapped around the blob and drained its power. It was a lot of toxic, dirty power, just like that previous time I tried it with the heroes. I knew the demon core from this demon king was likely to be corrupted as well, but now that I’d seen how the demon king was created, I may not need to fight it directly.

The void mages were trying their best to support the portals. I was pushing as much power as I could, but I didn’t have much anyway. Most of it was used.

But then, a ray of light shot through the purple blob, followed by an explosion of light. The blob was vaporized.

[Demon King Exikant has been defeated.]

All over the world, a kill switch went off in the demon parasites, and they all died instantly.

The four heroes fell, and my roots immediately reached out to grab them. They were alive but weak. My roots and vines cradled them and immediately injected them with healing abilities.

At the same time, the rest of us felt a surge of relief. The era of demonic parasites was finally over.

58

YEAR (PART 4)

The parasite war finally ended, and almost everyone was glad. Our contribution to the final battle meant we had levels. Naturally, it was the best part.

[You’ve gained 6 levels. You are now level 214.]

[Multiple Skills upgraded. Root- or vine-based attacks now gain the ability to attack, touch, and damage souls directly.]

[You’ve obtained the Level 210 Domain skill: Tree of Life’s Evolutionary Push.]

[You are now able to inject a skill of your choice into a person, and this skill will be inherited by their offspring for two successive generations. Subsequent inheritance depends on luck and individual performance. The skills are collected through skill seeds and/or harvested from the dead. You gain the ability to create a pecial Tree: Tree of Evolution. The Tree of Evolution is the site of your evolutionary experiments.]

That first ability to attack the soul directly seemed immediately less useful against the demons, maybe except the demon king itself. No. Actually that made it super useful since, if the demons used the spiritual templates as their basis for multi-body forms and regeneration, I’d now gained the ability to disrupt directly, so it could work together with the soul forge to deal more damage to the soul.

I’d probably have to figure out how to abuse that touch-the-soul part later on.

As for the second ability, it didn’t take long for me to realize that it was probably meant to stack over multiple generations. That meant if I could insert one skill into person A, another skill into person B, and another skill into the offspring of A and B, I could have three skills in the same person. The offspring of A and B’s offspring, meaning the third generation, could inherit a total of six skills, plus one of its own. If the amount of skills I could inject was more than one, this could get out of hand really, really quickly.

This was pretty much genetically enhanced soldiers that we had already been indirectly meddling with, taken to the extreme. I would have to start injecting skills and matchmake—

I mentally slapped myself.

I shouldn’t meddle in the love choices of my followers. I would let them choose it themselves and must spread the skill to everyone in the Valthorns. I also wondered whether I could use this on domain holders, and I would try this out once I checked in with the rest.

“Master, I don’t think it’s that much of a problem,” Patreeck intervened. “I believe the treefolks would be more than happy to procreate with anyone of your choice since they don’t have rigid customs on marriage. Same with the lizardfolks…”

“Ah.”

Genetically engineered supersoldier treefolks and lizardfolks.

“Let’s start this with them then, on a smaller scale.” There were also the Canari, which also didn’t really marry and seemed to rotate mates over decades. It was weird, but I supposed that was just their biology.

“Got it.” Patreeck acknowledged.

Both Roon and Johann got their domains, too, and I felt their presence in the background. Theirs, due to their nature, were naturally more subdued and hidden, unlike Edna and Lumoof’s more easily detected powers.

They leveled to exactly level one hundred fifty.

Roon got the Domain of [Sniper], and the first ability, [Shot from the Stars], was a rather nifty ability that allowed Roon to effectively shoot a bullet or projectile of their choice into the sky that could land anywhere in a continent-size area as he so desired. Effectively, it was like a portal with an arrow or a bullet.

It did mean that Roon could effectively shoot anyone anywhere on the continent. It seemed like a rather pointless ability, but surely there was a way to abuse it. Maybe with a nuclear bomb, or together with Alka’s bombs. It seemed like there were no real limits, other than some distance-scaled mana cost per shot, so maybe the trick was to repeatedly fire bombs over a distance, essentially a continent-wide fire support and a superweapon delivery method.

Johann got the Domain of [Ranger]. The first domain skill he got was really quite weird, I supposed: [Immortal Sentient Companions]. Essentially, Johann’s ranger buddies like his hunting dog and his bird would not die even if their bodies were destroyed, and they gained the ability to level on their own, like a beastmaster with its tamed beasts.

They both were immediately offered and accepted their membership to my pantheon.

“How do you feel?” I asked both as they came to terms with their new power.

“Strange, but powerful.” I didn’t feel that different when I received my first domain, but then again, I wasn’t human. Or maybe it was the cloud of demonic mana that made it hard to feel like I was different.

Lumoof did describe it as a sense like they were now connected to something else, and Edna said there was something in them, like a power source within them. For me, I wasn’t exactly sure what it felt like.

I supposed each one had a different relationship with their domain. I also thought it was very possible to have the same domains, which made me wonder what happened when two folks with the same domain met.

Perhaps the domain would just nullify each other’s power, and they would have to rely on non-domain powers?

Lumoof and Edna were more than happy to have more join our ranks. “Well, now that Aeon’s pantheon protects you from permanent death, you two can join more of the otherworldly activities! Lumoof seemed particularly happy to have someone who could accompany him.”

Johann stared. “Really.”

“Yes! Come with me and let’s visit some sandpeople!” Lumoof laughed.

“Scorpionpeople.” Johann rolled his eyes.

“It won’t be that bad.”

“I highly doubt it,” Johann said. “If the human faction hated us…”

Edna patted the two on the shoulders. “Eh, eh, today’s a time for celebration. Here, a drink!” Edna gave both a mug of what was supposedly the best beer on the continent. Its title was heavily disputed, of course. “Welcome. You’ve, finally, finally made it.”

Both Johann and Roon let out a long sigh of relief, like they’d been holding this tension in for a long time. “I’m just relieved I’ve finally made it.” It was Roon who first answered. “We’ve been working at this for decades, and I am just so, so fucking glad I’ve earned the right to stand at this level. I almost thought we were not good enough.”

Indeed, both Johann and Roon had been in my service for more than half a century; their names were known to me personally about fifty years ago when they participated in the Alvin-kidnapping project. It’d been a long time for them.

Lumoof tapped Roon on the shoulder. “Your efforts have not been in vain. The system rewards effort, constant, persistent effort.”

“I almost felt like we were never going to make it,” Johann said. “We were at the edge of it, level one hundred forty-nine, for so long. It’s like edging for so long and never actually getting there.”

Edna chuckled at the sexual innuendo. “Well, you can go beat yourself out after this. But really, levels are sparse once we cross that line. The things we must achieve to gain a level increases.”

That was because they didn’t have hero fragments. These stupid hero fragments were clearly overpowered as hell. “So. We truly begin our duty to end this conflict of heroes and demons,” Roon said.

Lumoof smiled warmly. “This is just the beginning.”

Johann stared at his hands; they trembled. “We were so near to the demon kings, and even with my power now, I feel like…it’s still not enough.”

Edna answered, “Oh, trust me. It’s not enough at all. The domain merely gives us the right to join the battle as participants, but we are still lacking the heroes’ and their god-given powers. But it’s all right, that’s not how we really want to end this war.”

“Then?”

Lumoof tapped them on the shoulder. “This war rages on multiple worlds. Aeon doesn’t intend for this to be a direct conflict. Not if he can avoid it. Aeon’s intermediate goal is for us to gather more like us, across the many worlds.”

“Oh?”

“Come, let us retreat to Aeon’s main body in the valley,” Lumoof said. “Now that the two of you have the protection of your domains, there is a lot to share about the world, the gods outside, and the full extent of our plans.”

Roon and Johann looked at each other. They knew the powers of the domain at a general level, and Lumoof merely repeated it. They then walked to my main body in the valley, and Lumoof repeated my earlier discussions with them.

I informed them of divine-related matters, such as the divine wooden stump that we retrieved and the shard I took from the core of the Cometworld. About what I’d seen on the Cometworld, and the Threeworlds.

I also gave them an audience to ask me anything, anything at all, and I repeated my emphasis on ending this cycle. About why the world and the gods were just stuck with this makeshift solution of playing whack-a-mole with demon king. I’d once theorized that the gods were just like me, still limited by space and time, but just significantly high up on the power level. Perhaps due to age, because they had been doing this for multiple millennia. Of course, as I shared this, it truly dawned on them that they were now on the path to divinity.

I wondered how many humanoid gods there were out there, and I concluded probably a lot, since the gods so far seemed to prefer humans more than others.

Johann was just quiet the whole time, as we shared almost all that we knew of the demons and the gods. Details that we may have mostly glossed over.

Roon stared, nodded, and just said at the end of it, “I need some time to soak all that in.”

They both needed time. They’d known they were on the path to be gods, but they just didn’t expect how pervasive the influence of the gods were. That gods could be reading their minds and they didn’t know about it.

As a result of hitting level one hundred fifty, both Roon and Johann’s Aeonic-variant classes vanished and were subsumed into the domain. The domain was both class and a rank, and it overrode the classes. All their classes vanished.

A few days later, once they felt better and more in control, they took a dip in the biolabs for further investigation. I did the same for Lumoof and Edna, too, as they gained some levels from the incident. Edna only gained one level from the battle, partly because her contribution was really not much.

Lumoof on the other hand gained a bit more. He gained five levels and an additional domain ability. The additional domain ability was [Empowered Faithful], which “enchanted” five non-hero, non-domain individuals to gain exceptional temporary powers. He also gained the ability to see through his empowered faithful.

Both Roon and Johann’s souls were now similar to Lumoof and Edna. Their souls possessed a temple-like platform that supported their soul spring. There was also a large boulder-sized stone around their soul spring.

The four heroes took a few days to recover from the battle, and then the mop up of the demon parasite started immediately. The temples took the chance to quickly proclaim their victory over the demons and started a big propaganda campaign on their exceptional contributions to the war effort.

The temples sacrificed a lot for this war. The parasites cost them a lot of manpower and eroded a lot of trust in the institutions. Naturally they needed this “propaganda” win to reinforce their own positions.

Within the Central Continent, naturally we spoke of our achievements and contributions in the south at length. After all, it was our home base, and the people who lived there should feel that we’d done our part.

As for the Southern Continent itself, I decided to let the temples have their win. They were already politically unstable, and I felt that adding my propaganda to the south wouldn’t really help us anyway. I didn’t need their resources, and I didn’t want to trigger a continental war so soon after this one ended by fueling the already brewing discontent.

Colette and Prabu, naturally, returned as soon as they were able. Snack withdrawal was quite a thing. The two heroes requested an audience within days.

“What can we do for you?” Edna asked.

“We wanted to discuss Lumoof and Aeon’s abilities during the battle with the demon king.”

“Oh?”

“We saw that Aeon used some kind of vaporization ability on the third demon king’s body. What was that?”

Edna shrugged. “Simple. Have you seen how a demon champion attempted to possess me?”

“No.”

“Oh. Then you wouldn’t know. A domain protects the soul from possession, and it also protected Lumoof from the demon king’s attempted possession.” Of course, that simplified it significantly, but these mages did not possess the ability to see soul-type magic, so that was sufficient.

“Is such a thing possible?” Colette looked at her partner. Prabu shrugged.

“I suppose?”

The mages left it at that, but I could tell they were still thinking about it. It wasn’t something they accepted so easily, since the power to vaporize a demon king body in a single blast was really something else.

At the same time, I told Patreeck and my artificial minds to figure out how to replicate that power. If I could do it again, it would be a trump card against the demon kings.

The destruction of the demon king caused the energies that maintained the path between the two worlds to collapse. As it collapsed, it seemed to generate a shockwave of energy through the dark forest.

I didn’t see this from our world, but it was visible here, from the demon world. This shockwave traveled slowly, and it took months for the energy carried by the collapsing void path to hit the demon world like a really bad solar flare.

I watched as the skies itself turned dark abruptly and blue bolts of lightning descended from the skies. These lightning blasts vaporized most things that it touched, like spires or some of the rift gates.

I immediately attempted to protect the rift gates from the lightning and spawned my trees around them to deflect the blue lightning. The lightning zapped my trees instead and was powerful enough to cut one of my subsidiary trees in half. It even sent a bit of pain through the root network, and I realized these lightning storms were made from the same energies as that void-core-mana mixture.

These lightning destroyed vast quantities of the demon’s structures and also killed the demons easily. Each blast of lightning came with a shockwave. We then noticed that the lightning was concentrated around that deep hole that nurtured the demon king body, and that black tower filled with void mana received the brunt of it. The lightning smashed into the void tower and the other smaller towers.

I also immediately attempted to capture some of these towers by spreading my trees around them.

Some demons noticed and started attacking my trees, so I spawned my beetles on the demon world and commanded them to defend my trees and also some of them to attack. But I noticed the beetles performed badly on that world, even with the research I’d done over the decades.

No, more accurately, the demons were just stronger there. This was their world, after all. So I decided to send my artificial mind commanders to the battlefield.

I teleported Horns and a few other beetle-commanders to the swampy demonworld and began an intense war of attrition to conquer some of the spires. The spires spawned demons to fight back, and here, the spires themselves contained demonic energies.

Even with the vast destruction from the blowback lightning, the demon world still had defenders!

Horns, along with the other beetle-commanders, empowered the beetles and led them to war. I felt secondhand embarrassment watching him sometimes.

“Trees for the Tree God! New Soil for the New Worlds! Come, my brothers, let us liberate this world for our lord protector Aeon!”

“For the Deitree!”

The worst thing was the beetle-commanders all seemed to be carbon-copies of Horns and mimicked his behavior in strange ways. Horns even stylized himself First of Aeon’s Beetle Lords. I just prayed I didn’t get a nascent rebel on my hands.

Their additional auras helped the beetles fight at a stronger footing, but I had to deploy [Giant Attendant Trees] when faced with the defensive demon champions. Here, they did not deploy parasites; instead, the demon champions were large, four-legged walkers that resembled the demon walkers, but their bodies were made entirely out of the hardened crystalline spires.

This was when I realized I made a mistake. I deployed my [tree of clones] too near to the rift where we first opened the gates, but not near what I wanted to capture. That meant, in the future, I needed to keep at least two or three seeds so that I could deploy one closer to where the key demonic structures were, so that my [tree of clones] could directly exert my power.

Instead, even though I was in the demon world, after a certain distance, my power weakened and now I couldn’t fully exert my power. I needed my full strength to attempt a capture of these structures.

I thought of using the seed I planned for the Threeworlds or withdrawing that tree that still floated on the remnant Cometworld.

Would it be worth it?

The recent levels did not give me more seeds.

As I needed more firepower on the demonworld, I also called Hytreerion and teleported him to the demon world to help suppress the defending demonic champions.

All because of my initial poor main-tree placement, and now we had to wage a long battle as the void-thunderstorm continued to batter the surface of the demonworld. I’d even lost hundreds of beetles to the storm.

I was able to capture multiple rift gates closer to my main body, but most of them suffered some damage from the void lightning blasts and would need some repairs. The one nearest to me was the one I was able to wholly protect.

Still, I also managed to capture some of the nearer spires by flooding them with my mana. Each spire took a lot of mana, since they were really dense with demonic mana and flushing all that demonic mana out took a long, long time.

“Is it worth it to use my other seed here?” I asked Patreeck and my other artificial minds. I wanted the black tower and that structure that opened the rift, because they felt powerful. These things were used to store void mana and also create those large rifts.

“What do we aim to achieve by capturing those structures?”

But did I have a use for them, even if I did capture them?

I suspected that a large, ring-shaped structure may contain star-maps that would expand my knowledge of the astral realm or the void tower would allow me to learn how to create such void mana.

But was it worth it? I’d used one seed on the demon world, one seed on the moon, one seed on the cometworld. I had one left, and I felt I should keep one as an option should something like the cometworld appear once more. I could withdraw one of them, but that was also a recharge-timer before I would get a usable seed.

Or deploy Lumoof to the demon world.

I didn’t like that very much. I preferred Lumoof to be out mingling with these foreign civilizations rather than toiling on the demonworlds.

I had to weigh the opportunity cost of not having a seed of Aeon should a rare opportunity appear versus the capture of these structures.

“But these structures may not be unique,” Patreeck said. “If these structures or similar structures are on all demon-possessed worlds, we do not really need to capture them now. We merely need to collect sufficient seeds and claim it later. As it is, we can learn from the structures that we have already captured.”

“That’s true.”

For now, I focused on the assets and structures that I did control. We captured about six riftgates on the demon world. My mages came over, ready to study them.

As my forces expanded on the parasite world, I felt, momentarily, that this was the beginning of our retaliation. After all those years of playing defense, we now had the means to begin a counterattack. This was the start of taking the fight to the demon’s worlds, and I hoped to retake them, one world at a time.

Tree of Aeons will continue in Book Five!

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After accidentally becoming Lord of Gloomwood Manor, countless enemies seek to kill Drake and take his title. All he wanted was some beer and a pack of donuts. Instead, Drake got abducted, tossed into a fantasy world, and almost ritually executed by a pro-wrestler monk with performance issues. After stabbing his rather idiotic kidnapper to death, he magically inherits the old fart’s massive mansion, servants, mountains of gold, and deadly magic powers... which would be great if it also didn’t paint a giant target on his back. Now that he’s the Lord of Gloomwood Manor, enemies across the world want to claim Drake's life and title. Before that happens, he must learn to use his powerful magic, win his people’s loyalty, and fake being powerful until he actually becomes so powerful no one dares challenge him. The first volume of a humorous adventure fantasy featuring cat girls, battle maids, political machinations, and a habit of setting the worst isekai tropes on fire and tossing them in the garbage.

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A warrior reborn. An enemy fueled by death. A fight for humanity. Mercenary captain Sabine Giroux knew that death was a constant companion in her line of work, and when it finally happened, she wasn’t surprised. What surprised her was that she didn’t stay dead. Brought back as an undead revenant by the god Gnessos, Sabine is tasked with stopping a foe that seeks to siphon the power of death and destroy everything she holds dear in the process. With a lifetime of combat experience to draw upon, Sabine must gain Gnessos’ favor to grow more powerful and fulfill her role as his champion. But with every rank of favor that Sabine gains, more of her humanity is lost as her undead nature threatens to take over… From the bestselling author of Limitless Lands and Derelict comes this action-packed Fantasy LitRPG Adventure. Mythica Revenant is officially licensed by Arrowstorm Entertainment and is set in the amazing fantasy world of the cult-hit film series Mythica.

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