TREE OF AEONS 3

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 kingûslaying bombs.

- These stories are so absurd. - Kei laughed as she heard the tales recounted to her. - ItÆs so much war propaganda. -

Stella nodded. - ItÆs really a military puff piece. If I was a young, hot - blooded male with a talent for fighting or making bombs, IÆd 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 didnÆt 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 wasnÆt 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? ThatÆs 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. IÆd 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 demonÆs dragon. I mean, at this point, dragons were really stuff of ancient legends.

I know not of their fate.

At this depth, itÆd 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 didnÆt 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 rootÆs - 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, A/ , - 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 cityÆs 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 didnÆt see any reason to burden Lozanna Æs family on more battles and fights if they didnÆt 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 Lozanna , 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 Lozanna 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 wasnÆt 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 canÆt afford to wait. - Lozanna 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 donÆt see why we should assist. There are still two living heroes, arenÆt there? We should reserve our strength. - The skeptical group. The - turtles. -

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

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

- The other temples have never assisted us. -

She took a deep breath. - IÆm 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. -

- IÆm of two minds on this issue, - Chancellor Brandak opined. - ItÆs 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. -

Lozanna paused. The strategic element was a good argument.

- I think the value of ValthornÆs strategic abilities is overstated. Our true power is and always is A/ Æs set of skills and abilities. Revealing Valthorn doesnÆt 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 A/ Æs reach? - It was true. As long as they were on this continent, I could still interfere. But on the other continents, I couldnÆt.

Lozanna 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. -

Lozanna read the unsaid words. ItÆd 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?

Lozanna 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. -

Lozanna shrunk a bit more; it was just a way of saying the idea wasnÆt 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 thatÆs 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 Yura , too. Strangely, I didnÆt 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.

Hmm. 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 û 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 couldnÆt 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 wasnÆt 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 kingÆs 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.

PatreeckÆs 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 kingÆs 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 shouldnÆt aim so high. - Kei laughed as Stella exerted herself again. The idea of teleporting themselves to the moon was pretty crazy.

- If we canÆt even teleport to the moon, how am I supposed to get home? -

- Maybe itÆs 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, thereÆs some kind of interdimensional lift? - Stella rolled her eyes. - Surely magic isnÆt 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 IÆm not a hero anymore, I have to do it the normal way, and it totally sucks. -

StellaÆs eyes rolled even more. Metaphorically.

- IÆm 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, couldnÆt I? Would it be possible to design a tree familiar with a focus on mental and magical abilities that augmented the hostÆs 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, itÆs 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 doesnÆt 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 couldnÆt 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.

- WeÆre 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 didnÆt correct it. - WeÆre hoping to test whether treefolks can act as our gateway and avatars. -

- I believe they should be receptive, but IÆll 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 donÆt 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.

HeÆd also taken control of some fishes. I wasnÆt exactly sure how he did it, but perhaps it was a similar mechanism to my control of the beetles. Out of friendliness, I didnÆt attack any of the fish that he controlled, so I wasnÆt 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 wasnÆt 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 ReefyÆs 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 wasnÆt 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 ReefyÆs 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 didnÆt like boats. It didnÆt 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 ReefyÆs 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 ReefyÆs 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 itÆd 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 shouldnÆt 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 A/ Æs old sewer bunker idea, isnÆt 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 A/ . -

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 wasnÆt going to go wild, else IÆd 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 cityÆs 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 dungeonÆs 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 Lozanna on the war in the Northern Isles. She worried for her two friends, those two bastards that didnÆt even come and help her.

Lozanna shrugged. - TheyÆre doing all right. The demon king isnÆt here yet, just regular mobs. - The elven girl had gotten used to KeiÆs lingo and even used some of their terms.

Kei nodded. - Ah, yes. True. They wonÆt lose to regular mobs. right? - I still didnÆt understand why she was worried. Heroes with their absurd stats wouldnÆt 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. - Lozanna 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, IÆd burn them with fire and blow them up. Truly a spawn of hell. -

Lozanna 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 theyÆll just leak demon-juice. -

- Eww. -

Lozanna 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 Lozanna 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 kingÆs 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 didnÆt 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 templeÆs performance versus the Central Continent spurred a need by the templeÆs 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 didnÆt 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? ThatÆd 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 buildingûsize 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 IÆd 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. WhereÆd they find such anti - magic worms?

- WhatÆs 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.

- WeÆd make a massive wall of spears. -

- ThatÆll 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 didnÆt get how priests Æs blessings could stack with my own. I mean, logically, if a priest derived power from a god, a godÆs blessings should automatically be superior to that of the priest. But the fact that they stacked implied it was a system mechanic.

Anyway, weÆd 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 didnÆt 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 wasnÆt 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 theyÆre all right, - she would say.

I would often respond, - They donÆt deserve your concern. -

- TheyÆre assholes, and they left me to die instead of coming immediately as they should, - Kei said. - But they are still my asshole friends. DonÆt you have friends like that? Shit - ass, good - for - nothing friends? -

- IÆm quite surprised by this change of behavior compared to your earlier days. -

Kei frowned. - All right, IÆm still not very happy with them, and IÆm still not on good terms. I mean, I didnÆt even tell them IÆm still alive. But I donÆt wish them ill. I donÆt really want them to die, either. -

- Relationships are confusing. - I sighed.

- They are. I suppose a tree wouldnÆt 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 theyÆre fucked or not. -

- IÆll have one of the advisors meet you. Seriously, why are you invested? Are you going to help them? -

- Me? With my level seventy form? IÆm just trash before that demon king. - Kei frowned. - No. I guess I just want to feel IÆm 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. - ItÆs 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, thatÆs exactly what IÆve done. Nothing. So I feel like shit, kinda. IÆm trying to help Astia, maybe her Void Mana is one way out of this whole circus, but at the same time, IÆm not sure whether my friends should learn of AstiaÆs existence. What would they do if they found out thereÆs someone who has void mana and could possibly open a portal to the other side? Would the godÆs 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, IÆd 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 doesnÆt automatically push another demon king through the rift after a set timer. -

Did I tell her? I thought I didnÆt.

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 IÆd 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. LetÆs get more of those monsters. - I was not sure I should trust her with the full plan. But I supposed a little more couldnÆt 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 Lozanna didnÆt 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. Lozanna 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 Lozanna started talking about the other Valthorns she coached. These other Valthorns were younger and hungrier, and the comparisons, even if Lozanna didnÆt 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, A/ , - 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 PatreeckÆs mind reading.

- A favor? -

- I know IÆm 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 Lozanna Æs daughter was the one that chose to do it.

Lozanna Æs 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 wasnÆt sure.

Even though I could read minds, that didnÆt 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. - IÆve 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 theyÆll 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 wasnÆt one. They didnÆt 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 IÆd 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. IÆd 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, IÆd 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 didnÆt. The beetle splattered as the two parts got torn apart by the rift. oof. Sorry, beetle, that was a horrible, horrible way to die. It was kinda like being stuck in a moving lift door.

Sample one didnÆt 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 canÆt keep the portal open, we canÆt hold any realistic position on the other side. - My minds were, of course, quick to remind me of the obstacles. IÆd 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 IÆd 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 hundredûrange 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.

- IÆve done it, A/ . 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 godÆs 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.

- A/ , 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 canÆt die for a day, and my body canÆt be severed or cut, usable five times a year. ItÆs 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 couldnÆt die for a day, that meant she could tank the demon kingÆs 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. ItÆs 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 CourtÆs 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 donÆt know. - That was a good question. Did a priest, whose power was to channel their patron godÆs 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 domainÆs 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 EdnaÆs case, she was free to go anywhere she wanted.

It seems you have faith.

If I donÆt, whatÆs the point?

- At this point, itÆs 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. IÆve seen the hell the demons bring, and more importantly, IÆve 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, A/ . -

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 IÆd 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 godÆs 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 A/ ic 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 couldnÆt 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. - IÆd imagine Lozanna could do quite a bit of damage to these worms. -

Lozanna 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 A/ Æs powers are stronger, and your linked powers are therefore stronger. -

- True, but itÆs still a big, big gap. - Lozanna shrugged. - And thatÆs not what I want. -

They had not met Edna for years now, but that was normal. Kei, Lozanna , and Astia had been busy hunting dungeons during their short breaks, but Lozanna had to frequently take time off to spend time with Lauda. Lauda, the second child, grew up extremely attached to Lozanna , 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 didnÆt 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, heÆs 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.

- ThatÆs just cruel, - Kei said after she had a moment of grief. - YouÆre telling me thereÆs 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 kingÆs presence. The terrain was a huge mix of large daemolite crystal structures and these massive hatcheries.

Kei frowned. - YÆknow, 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. -

- YouÆre immune to bugs. - Lozanna laughed. - YouÆre a crystal. -

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

- DonÆt 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, thereÆs a locust and pest generator thatÆs spreading these bugs all over the world, and weÆll be seeing food shortages if that place isnÆt 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 heroÆs condition in extreme secrecy. -

- I must go there, - Kei said.

- And do what? - I countered. - YouÆre not a human form. -

- I still must go, - Kei decided, ignoring all of my warnings. - HeÆs my friend, as much as I hate him. -

- In your current form, youÆll get attacked and robbed, cut up and sold as gems. -

- IÆm 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. -

- YouÆd 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 oneÆs 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 Yura had villager classes back then.

- So youÆre 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 FFAÆs 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 monthÆs 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.

EdnaÆs ascension to the domain didnÆt 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.

- WeÆre not bugs, right? - Horns asked.

- Technically, you are. But I like you, - I said. - IÆm referring to these. pests. -

- WeÆll 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. IÆd 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, - weÆll be dealing with these pests for a long time. -

Ugh. I couldnÆt be the only one dealing with this shit.

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

- Strangely, not that bad. There doesnÆt 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 A/ . - 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? - Lozanna picked up the artifact. - I canÆt just walk up to A/ and talk to him just because you said so. - Well, that wasnÆt true.

- Alvin is poisoned by some kind of super - worm poison during the fight with the demon king, but the poison didnÆt 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 somethingÆs just massively weakening him. He canÆt 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 Lozanna , and she spoke on my behalf. - A/ 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. -

- A/ 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. - IÆm 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. IÆm pretty sure he wants to be saved and healed, even if he prefers it not to be through A/ Æs powers, - Kei responded on the magical communication device. - As it is, he canÆt bonk his harem. -

- Does he know that itÆs. you? Did he see you as. you? Did you ask him? -

Kei didnÆt answer, and Edna rolled her eyes. - Seriously. A/ , 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. - IÆll meet you guys once the force lands. IÆve already bought off some of the scouts and folks in that area, but IÆll 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 itÆd be a big middle finger to the four temples, and yet I wasnÆt 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 Isleûsanctioned 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, isnÆt 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, theyÆd 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.

- ThatÆs 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 & ValthornÆs 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. - WeÆre 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 didnÆt 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 couldÆve 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 northÆs intelligence systems are surprisingly robust. -

Johann frowned. - Really? -

- IÆm surprised, too, but yes, - Roon said. - We need to look out for their agents. -

KeiÆs 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 wasnÆt 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. IÆm 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 fiftyûplus 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. wouldnÆt leave the table.

- Huh? -

- WeÆve 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 AlvinÆs 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 didnÆt reply.

- I had the impression organizations like yours donÆt pry into the affairs of your clients. -

- That is normally true. - Another voice spoke. Kei wasnÆt 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 didnÆt reply to that. Hero - hunters? What was that?

The voice on the left continued. - Lady K, right? IÆll be frank. My agents across the continent have been watching and protecting the heroes where we can. So we know when youÆre looking for him, and we even know youÆve managed to somehow sneak into AlvinÆs compound. Once. -

KeiÆs eyes twitched. TheyÆd been watching her for so long? She thought back to all her conversations with Lozanna and A/ . 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 KeiÆs magical disguise was instantly dispelled. It was a very strong - dispel - spell.

- A crystal golem, - the two said. - Interesting. -

KeiÆs fists went up, and she was prepared to fight. - This is a trap. -

- IÆm surprised that a hero - hunter would walk into our trap. Unless you are not one, - the shadows said. - We canÆt 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 wasnÆt 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 didnÆt 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 didnÆt believe that one bit. The walls seemed to close in, and KeiÆs 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 didnÆt give chase.

Kei didnÆt like that feeling. It felt like they were still on her tail, even though she didnÆt see anyone in the entire afternoon. She was now quite a distance away from town; her golem bodyÆs stamina was incredible.

She surveyed her surroundings. All data pointed that she wasnÆt 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 didnÆt 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 weÆre 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, A/ also kept her at armÆs length, even if he entertained a lot of her whims. - All right, we consider that the temples know what Kei knows. Which is thereÆs 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 weÆre 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 weÆve seen, theyÆll know weÆve hired them. -

- IÆll hire them, and IÆll be the bait, - Johann suggested. - Together with three others. -

Edna paused. - Hmm. fine. No. I suggest you split into pairs and hire two groups and mount two separate attacks. WeÆll strike at the third attack. -

- E to K. Please move to pickup one. -

Kei frowned at the instruction. Pickup one? WasnÆt 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 KeiÆs news came from bards and news - speakers.

- Have we spotted him? - Edna asked as Roon returned from the scouting mission.

- Yes. WeÆve finally managed to slip in and get one of the identifier crystals. HeÆs alive, and weÆve 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. TheyÆre still not letting up. - Those intelligence forces came through the forest as well, but they couldnÆt locate the secret hideout .

Edna frowned. - They are more persistent than I expected, but no matter. This will be a matter weÆll 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 KeiÆs 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. -

EdnaÆs frown didnÆt 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. A/ 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.

- Hmm. weÆll 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. A/ wanted to kidnap the hero, whether he wanted to come or not. But if he resisted, it would make things difficult.

- ThatÆs only point one, - Roon said. - The bed must also be considered. I think itÆs some kind of healing or life - support artifact. I think I need one more visit to confirm the artifactÆs 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. A/ didnÆt want that. Not yet. Edna knew he wanted to look at the heroÆs 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 weÆre sending the item, too, weÆll 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? -

- CanÆt 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. WeÆre not sure whether it will work, but if it does, good for us, - Edna said. To what extent did the curse weaken the heroÆs power? Did it nullify immunities, too? DidnÆt 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. LetÆs 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. - IÆll lead eight of us, together with our artifacts, to enter the heroÆs location and capture him at this time. Roon and Johann will lead the rest to hit anti - teleportation crystals and disable them. Once disabled weÆll 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, letÆs get into the tunnels. -

Using their special familiars Root Tunnel ability, theyÆd excavated tiny tunnels that led under the heroÆs compound and also to the magic tower where the cityÆs 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 JohannÆs 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 crystalÆs location, they pinged again.

This was EdnaÆs 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 templeÆs forces to collapse. It was also a relatively easy task; their high levels meant they outclassed the resistance.

Then they reached the heroÆs 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.

- . whoÆre you? - Alvin woke up, groggy.

Edna glanced at him; her mind was on the defensive forces that streamed through the various buildings toward them. - WeÆre here to take you to someone who can help you. -

- But the temples said. only the gods can help me. -

- Well, weÆre 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 shadowÆs 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 domainÆs aura. It instantly caused the shadow to freeze and collapse, revealing a lean, humanoid lady with strange, beetle - like armor. Still, it wasnÆt 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 Æs vines and tentacles. It surged out and wrapped the shadow, injecting the sleep and paralysis directly into the strange ladyÆs body.

Yet that was enough. As she collapsed, her eyes went wide as the vines that now wrapped her body. - . A/ ? - 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? -

- WeÆve 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. LetÆs 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 A/ Æs 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 weÆve never met, but Kei told me to help you. -

- And you think IÆll believe that, A/ ? SheÆs dead, and itÆs your fault, - Alvin responded, surprisingly angry. Eh, and I thought it was his fault for not coming here. - ItÆs out of respect to Kei and her ideals that we didnÆt 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 IÆd also figure out how to disable heroes, too.

15

YEAR 168 (PART 2)

- You donÆt 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, youÆd rather live like this, bedridden for the remainder of your days, than let me try to heal you? -

Alvin didnÆt 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 wasnÆt 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 kingÆs 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 didnÆt 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 demonÆs 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 KeiÆs request, I still see some merit in helping you. And we need you to fix the locust problem thatÆs 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. IÆd seen enough death to see this wasnÆt 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. IÆd live, but I didnÆt think he would.

- Fine. -

I made a giant attendant tree that was focused as a biolab to house AlvinÆs 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 demonÆs 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 û nascent form

What in the fuck? I looked closer, and I saw, indeed, there seemed to be something resembling a. I wasnÆt 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 biolabÆs 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.Æ

I mentally froze, and Patreeck quickly updated. - No mental incursions, master. It appears to be a telepathic message passed via the vines. -

DonÆt remove me.Æ

The. spawn? Indeed, there really was nothing else but the crystal. - What are you? -

I am the demonÆs 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.Æ

. shit. - I do not believe you. -

Certainly, you should not.Æ

- 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 heroÆs mind.Æ

- You are a parasite. -

That I am.Æ

- 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.Æ

- 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 slaverÆs 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.Æ

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.Æ

I was getting some serious XelÆnaga vibes here. No. Kerrigan.

But to do so, I must grow and mature outside the eyes of the Puppeteers and the Slavers.Æ

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.Æ

Was this for real? No. DidnÆt demons always lie? But that was the belief, wasnÆt 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.Æ

Convert to their cause? That choice of word seemed to sound like the demons were attempting to incite people to believe them. WasnÆt 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.Æ

- How do you know this, and how do I know this is true? -

It is our ancient belief that we believe is true.Æ

Oh lord, I was dealing with demonic religion. - What do you want? -

We want to be freed of the Slavers.Æ

- 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.Æ

- 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.Æ

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?Æ

I kept on with the Q&A session. - How do you break free of the SlaverÆs hold? -

Their hold is written in the flesh and in the stones of the soul.Æ

- 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.

- IÆm still trying. -

- I felt like you almost touched it, though. What. what is it? -

- I. I donÆt 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 isnÆt so great, after all. So much for being the god of the Central Continent. - Alvin snorted. Thankfully, I was a tree, and the insult didnÆt 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.Æ

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 SlaverÆs energies.Æ

- 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.Æ

. 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.Æ

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.Æ

- 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. Æ

There were so many things that didnÆt 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.Æ

- 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.Æ

This meant StellaÆs 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.Æ

- 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.Æ

Hmm. 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.Æ

- 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.Æ

All right. Damned Daemolite was bad. This just confirmed it. IÆd 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.

- YouÆve been trying so many times and nothing. - Alvin snorted. - IÆm getting annoyed with this. Just kill me and be done with it. -

- IÆm 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.

- WhoÆre you? -

- IÆm Kei, you asshole. -

- KeiÆs dead. -

- Well, letÆs just say I didnÆt really die. I got blown up by the demon king, but somehow A/ managed to salvage a big chunk of my soul and placed me into this body. - KeiÆs explanation was quite on point.

Alvin stared at the golem.

- What, you donÆt believe me? -

- No. - Alvin shook his head. - Wait. How? -

- I explained it already. WerenÆt you listening? -

- I mean. Yes. No. I mean, how? -

Kei facepalmed. - YouÆre 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 A/ described it as having the entire house blown off. -

- Why didnÆt 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. - A/ , howÆs his condition? -

Should I lie? I decided maybe it wasnÆt worth it to lie. - ThereÆs a parasite inside him. A demonic parasite thatÆs eating up all of his mana and most of his vitality. IÆm still thinking about how to remove it. ItÆs. complicated. -

Kei nodded. AlvinÆs face was one of abject horror. - You didnÆt 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. - YouÆve changed since I last saw you, Lady Edna. YouÆve crossed the line? -

Edna gave a little nod. - Just barely. So howÆs your patient? -

- ThereÆs 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 whatÆs our next step? We wait for A/ to heal him? -

- The parasiteÆs 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 A/ and Edna to deal with it. - Lumoof wasnÆt too far off from level one hundred fifty, either. Now that Edna was back, they could resume their dungeon exploration.

Hmm. 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.Æ

There was something about it that just didnÆt 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 EdnaÆs idea. I thought I had natural - hermit - tendencies, which had not always served me well. Perhaps EdnaÆs 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, IÆve 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 itÆs taking so long? -

- Well, yes, - I answered.

KeiÆs golem face looked like one of betrayal. - A/ . -

- Now, IÆm telling you this because I still intend to heal Alvin. -

- Then? Spill it. WhatÆs really causing the delay? - Alvin accused.

- IÆm 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. - IÆm sick of letting this world be the playground of the gods, where they just stomp through and destroy everything. ItÆs time to take the battle to their world. ThatÆs why IÆm 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. - IÆm not some experiment you can play with to win some bigger game. -

Kei was more understanding. - A/ , dealing with a demon parasite doesnÆt sound like a good idea. I highly doubt whatever a demon parasite says is trustworthy. ItÆs 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 wouldnÆt sacrifice the hero to save this parasite. Yes, I agreed that saving the hero was just repeating more of what had passed, but the demonÆs trustworthiness was severely in doubt. At best, I should aim for an outcome where both survived.

- Yes. IÆm aware of that, but IÆm hoping for a mutually beneficial outcome. AlvinÆs 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. IÆm still here. -

- The parasite may influence you as it gets stronger, - Kei responded. - ItÆs pretty much the equivalent of a demonic possession. As you know, you canÆt 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 parasiteÆs state? IÆm afraid your attempts to extract the parasite may accelerate that thingÆs 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 PatreeckÆs 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 whatÆs actually happening to AlvinÆs body physically? -

- In the dream state. yes. -

- All right. -

Alvin shook his head like this was the worst idea ever.

Meanwhile.

- HowÆve you been, Arlisa? - Laufen tapped her head. They met up in LaufenÆs home in one of the giant attendant trees in Freshka.

- IÆm all right, Grandmother. Have you seen Mom around? - Arlisa sat in a rattan chair. There was a pot of tea on the table.

- Yes. SheÆs 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 youÆve been really active on the whole dungeon stuff. -

Arlisa breathed a sigh of relief as her grandmother allowed her to change the subject. - Oh, itÆs tough. - Well, she was gifted, and finally she found some use for her natural talents for stealth, sneaking, and tracking. But unlike Lozanna where her skills were augmented by a Court - level familiar, Arlisa only received an ordinary familiar, and her combat experience paled to Lozanna . 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 midûlevel fifties. The fact that she had to apply for the regular adventurer slots along with her team also meant she couldnÆt do it as frequently. Still, she had fun. Her companions seemed like decent people, a few lizardpeople, a centaur, and a gnoll.

She also didnÆt 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. - ThatÆs good. IÆm happy for you. -

Arlisa shifted uncomfortably. - . really? Do. do you think MomÆs disappointed? Are you disappointed, Granny? -

Laufen thought about it for a moment and sighed. - Your mom, I think she doesnÆt know what to do with you. Maybe she had an idea, a hope that youÆd 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 wasnÆt prepared to see you just. do nothing. -

Arlisa sighed. - I knew it. -

- You feel that thereÆs a lot of expectations on you, donÆt you? -

Arlisa nodded. She was a little bit sad to hear that her mom was disappointed in her.

- ThatÆs normal. Parents and their children are meant to be different. - Laufen tapped Arlisa on the shoulder. - ItÆs part of growth. -

- It doesnÆt feel like growth, though. -

Laufen just smiled and switched the topic. - One day, itÆll all make sense. LetÆs not talk about such bitter stuff. Your brotherÆs cute. -

- Yeah. - Arlisa shifted awkwardly. - ItÆs weird that heÆs 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, itÆll 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 didnÆt 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 couldnÆt 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 AlvinÆs body with your mana, such that your mana overwrites its own mana? You can do that? - Kei was quite shocked by the idea. - I didnÆt know itÆs 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. didnÆt 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 didnÆt 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? WouldnÆt 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 AlvinÆs 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, weÆd stop. If it did go terribly, weÆd use my soul realm powers to forcefully extract the parasite from his soul.

If the conversion was successful, IÆd 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 doesnÆt work? -

- IÆll destroy it. -

- What if you canÆt? -

- I believe I can. - From my vines touching it, I was rather sure I could hurt it. I just wasnÆt sure how it would respond to a flood of my mana.

Kei looked at Alvin. - You think A/ 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, youÆll 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 canÆt 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?Æ

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 donÆt know. But we will resist you.Æ

- Why donÆt you leave his body? -

No. PuppeteerÆs mana is key.Æ

- I believe the hero is innocent. If you leave his body, and he continues to supply you star mana, will you do it? -

It didnÆt 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 didnÆt respond. We will have the blood and mana of the Puppeteers.Æ

This was when I knew it had to die.

- So? - Kei asked, nervous. Like family members asking the doctors for status updates.

- LetÆs do it. -

I thought about it. I wanted it out, where I could study it in great detail. As it was, embedded within the heroÆs body, my ability to dissect the parasiteÆs 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 parasiteÆs flames flared huge and yet it did nothing to my vines. Multiple vines appeared from the great beyond and into AlvinÆs 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.Æ

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.Æ

The crystal glowed, and flesh emerged. It lashed out and fought with my vines. The flesh released shockwaves, and instantly Alvin was in pain.

- HeÆs in pain! Get it out! - Kei spoke whilst connected to me via PatreeckÆs 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. wasnÆt 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 AlvinÆs 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 Æs gateway to transfer it out of the soul realm. The crystalÆs 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 LovisÆs 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 wasnÆt 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 wasnÆt hard for me to piece it together. PatreeckÆs 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? -

- A/ said there were at least six other tendrils. That means thereÆs constantly at least six other worlds out there? -

I wasnÆt sure about the tendrils, whether they linked somewhere or not. Or what was on the other side. I wasnÆt even sure whether it was a good idea to immediately destroy the daemolite. WeÆd have to see what we could do.

- In any case, letÆs 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 A/ Æs knowledge? Surely A/ Æs 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 donÆt even know if destroying it will cause these links to disappear. -

- That argument has merit. We canÆt test it, and we canÆt exactly be sure whether the links rely on the daemolite or are merely augmented by it. -

The first thing we tested was StellaÆs 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 PatreeckÆs 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. - ItÆs 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 oneÆs 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. - YouÆre gonna go bonk your church nuns after this? -

Alvin laughed. - Uh. theyÆre really sweet, you know. And hot, too. -

Kei slapped him on the shoulder. - Seriously, thatÆs because youÆre the hero. You think theyÆll give you the time of day if you were just anyone else? -

Alvin sighed. - I know. ThatÆs why IÆm taking advantage of it. I know they donÆt really love me, but who cares, right? The gods promised us a happy ending, so IÆm 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. -

- YouÆre being an ass. -

- IÆm not. -

- Yes, you are. Tell me, why didnÆt you come and help me when I sent word that the demon king is coming? -

- We. we didnÆt know you would fight it so quickly! -

- Oh, come on, donÆt lie, - Kei said. - Though I suppose thanks to that, IÆm a living golem thatÆs 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 youÆre made of fragments of you? -

- I donÆt think about that shit. I ainÆt smart like that. If you think IÆm me, then thatÆs good enough. I think IÆm still me, and as far as I care, thatÆs all that matters. -

Alvin thought about it. - True, true. -

- Now donÆt change the subject. What were you doing back then when the demon king arrived? -

- Look, I know the templeÆs 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 itÆs 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 donÆt immediately engage the demon king once it arrives. ThatÆs how it always was. I didnÆt know that youÆve found a way to check where the demon king is arriving and you rigged the whole area to blow. -

- ThatÆs A/ Æs role. -

- I mean, yes. How? -

- A/ Æs secret. -

- Secrets mean there is something to hide. WeÆre 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 thatÆs been happening in the Central Continent. TheyÆre saying that A/ has the ability to manipulate dungeons and stuff. Real playing - both - sides shit. Are you aware of that? -

- You think A/ Æs 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 didnÆt, right? ItÆs 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, sheÆs kinda cute and all. -

- You slept with the oracle. -

- Uh. yeah. - AlvinÆs face blushed. - She was telling me all this stuff while weÆre in bed. ItÆs kinda sexy to be honest. -

Kei facepalmed. - Dude. ThatÆs too much info. -

- Oh, come on, donÆt be a prude, Kei. WeÆre not kids anymore. WeÆve lived in this world for decades now. I swear IÆll regret it if I donÆt live the life I want now that I have the chance to do it. -

- Ugh. Men. - Kei rolled her eyes.

- You know whatÆs your problem, Kei? No one even dares to approach you. Not with that scary aura of yours. -

- YouÆre lecturing me now? Enough. LetÆs stop this conversation. -

AlvinÆs face straightened. - Yeah. I mean, I think A/ Æs 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 donÆt know, maybe it wants the demon kingÆs powers for itself? -

- IÆll tell you what I know. A/ is a god - in - the - making. ItÆs going to be a true god one day. All this playing on both sides, as far as I can tell, is A/ 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? -

- IÆve 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 A/ wants to do? Are you sure, Kei? From what I see, or to the rest of the temples, A/ Æs actions so far are more of that of a god - emperor. ItÆs attempting to dominate the entire world to its cause and wouldnÆt let either demons or heroes get in its way. First it started with an area, and now itÆs 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 itÆs A/ 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 A/ will fight, - Alvin said. - They donÆt see a future of coexistence. -

- Can coexistence happen when theyÆve fought crusades? You must remember that the temples forced A/ to conquer the continent. -

- The temples see it as a convenient excuse. -

Kei sat. - This conflictÆs too deep to untangle, isnÆt 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. IÆm pretty sure they know where I am. They have a tracking spell on me, anyway. -

- . tracking spell? - Kei wasnÆt 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 didnÆt detect any magical incursions yet.

- Yeah. And now I get to walk free. TheyÆll know IÆve 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 theyÆve healed you? - Kei asked. - I mean, I really donÆt want this thing to start a war between the continents again. ThereÆs 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 IÆll 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. - A/ 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 itÆs based on my history, IÆd 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 Yura 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, letÆs 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 dungeonÆs 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 dungeonÆs 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 A/ .

Strength of all A/ Æs domain abilities strengthened

Strength of all A/ ic Classes enhanced

Strength of all A/ ic Familiars enhanced

Lumoof has gained the ability: Avatar of A/

LumoofÆs soul has now been eternally bound to you.

You have gained the ability to see through LumoofÆs 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 shouldÆve 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. IÆd 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 didnÆt go with him.

- IÆm surprised you chose to stay when you two seemed to have gotten closer. -

- Nah. If I spend too much time around him, IÆll hate him again. ThatÆs 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.

StellaÆs 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.

- ThatÆs because A/ 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, A/ 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, LumoofÆs decision to elect himself as my subdomain pretty much solved one of the key problems I faced.

Projecting force at a distance. In fact, IÆd 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 didnÆt 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. LumoofÆs 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.

Lozanna , 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, StellaÆs 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 Lozanna that this is my training power - up arc. IÆll be back! -

If I could my mentally roll my eyes, I would. But I humored her. - Certainly. -

Kei laughed when I repeated StellaÆs words. Lozanna didnÆt get it, so she just looked lost. - Oh, itÆs a thing from back home, where main characters go on training arcs and emerge more powerful. ItÆs 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 LumoofÆs presence, she too wanted to get that strong again. By PatreeckÆs own calculation, they were around fifty percent of a heroÆs 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 wasnÆt 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 donÆt 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 canÆt 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, wouldnÆt 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. -

- YouÆre telling this to me now, because you think IÆll be wasting my abilities if I go fight with Alvin against the next demon king, isnÆt 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.

ooh, 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. ThatÆs good. HowÆs 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.

ThatÆs 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 forceÆs 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 envoyÆs argument. The Aivan church offered a formal alliance and to cut off with the other three churches of Gawa , 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 A/ ic Faithweaver , one of LumoofÆs 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.

- DoesnÆt 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 donÆt see whatÆs 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? A/ Æs goal is to break the cycle. ThatÆs 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 knightÆs 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 wasnÆt 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. thatÆs 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 doesnÆt 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 wasnÆt a very good answer. Clearly she wanted to have her cake and eat it, too. But very well; I didnÆt 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 AlvinÆs 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 oneÆs mana, I thought about whether the parasite could be used for medical purposes. If a curse fed on a personÆs 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 IÆd 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 wasnÆt 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 personÆs soul spring. Like, how did the parasite do it? The soul realm was meant to be a place where one didnÆt 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 didnÆt go well, but then I soon started encasing the plants with a specially attuned mana. Just like when I attempted to fix Yura Æs hand. It worked for a while. and then fizzled out because the tree - parasite samples I had couldnÆt 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 HytreerionÆs 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. PatreeckÆs physical structure, his Grand Mind Tree , was also too large.

Could I get a Titan - level performance without the size? I supposed they wouldnÆt 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 wonÆt 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 youÆve 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 weÆd 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 wasnÆt 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.

- IÆve 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 didnÆt 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, itÆs 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, LumoofÆs 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 donÆt 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 didnÆt have large waves, and the lily padÆs 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 didnÆt 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 wasnÆt 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.

- ItÆs 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.