TREE OF AEONS 4

It went without saying that all of us wondered whether we would get a - normal - demon king and what that meant.

Kei, now eager to regain some of her power after sheÆd seen the level that Edna and Lumoof achieved, set out to the south. She hoped to challenge a few demon champions and regain some semblance of power so that she could be of some use in AlvinÆs fight with the demon king.

Oh well. It couldnÆt be helped that she felt a need to assist her one and only remaining friend from Earth.

On the domestic front, I gained a special type of tree while I kept tweaking with the ley lines.

Unique Tree Type unlocked: The Trees of the Earth Veins. Helps to channel and direct ley lines. Requires gems and crystals in large quantities and also tends to spawn monsters.

It reminded me of the Ginseng Tree , another of the trouble tree types that had the whole monster lure functionality. But I wasnÆt the same tree from that time, and I had the ability to station far stronger defenses with dedicated commanders. I functionally had no real limit in terms of artificial minds now that there were tens of millions of connected trees all across the continent.

Sadly, my ginseng tree limit did not change much, in spite of my levels and domains. At about fifteen ginseng plants simultaneously, this was my second real bottleneck in massively increasing the output of high - tier individuals, both unlocking said individual and then subsequently having the dungeons needed to train them up to the necessary levels.

Restrictions.

Right now, I felt like I was hitting quite a few limits. Like in terms of Soul Forge, IÆd not had a new color for quite a while. In terms of Titans, I was still hesitating on activating my third Titan, simply because I was not sure what IÆd need in the future.

Patreeck had been exceptionally helpful administratively, but his levels, too, had stagnated. Hytreerion had only seen one large - scale battle against the demon king, and even in that battle, he didnÆt really show any exceptional performance.

Reviewing their performance thus far, the Titans were pretty much champion class, despite requiring a heroÆs soul fragments. In fact, in all combat forms, they just failed to live up to the strength of a real hero or a domain - class individual.

Thus, as bad as it sounded, I felt that Hytreerion had been a mistake. The Titans, despite their strength, were meant to be utility providers.

- But we donÆt have level limits, well, until level one hundred fifty anyway, - Patreeck clarified. - ItÆs just that. well, itÆs hard for us to level. -

I wondered whether Hytreerion could get to level one hundred fifty, but because of its size, there was no way it could go into a dungeon. Dungeons so far were all relatively - small. - Even the largest of the dungeons IÆd seen and created so far were just big enough for Hytreerion to squeeze in, but it was effectively useless in such a tight spot.

I would have to reengineer HytreerionÆs loadout to be more of a utility player, with more support functions, and to serve as a staging and resupply function for the real damage dealers. The very nature of their capped leveling meant they would never keep up.

So I thought greatly about HytreerionÆs role again. He was huge, and that meant he functioned more as a tank and perhaps a power source. Were there advantages that size had that could not be as easily replicated by levels?

Because levels clearly overpowered everything else, so why should anything be big? Surely there must be merit to being naturally big. So what would that be?

Firstly, I would think about materials. Certain materials had overlapping roles with equivalent skills or levels gained, but size meant massive mana crystals and runic formations. Sure, size meant more space to duplicate skill functions. So, firstly, Hytreerion would need to be reequipped as a mobile mana bank and also store runes. It was also easier to have - conflicting - magical formations separated by the sheer size of Hytreerion. The walkers were all massive creatures, and they could grow even bigger with levels.

Like equipment slots, they should be carrying larger, titan - size equipment. Things that individuals could carry but render them unable to do anything else. Titan - size anti - demon ballistas were one of the first few ideas.

Or could I equip Hytreerion with enough magical crystals to make him a walking bomb, give the demon king a taste of their own medicine? I would have to rejig HytreerionÆs internals such that it could contain a massive, multi - layer bomb.

Still, I decided to put the idea up for discussion.

Using the log obtained from Lilies, I subjected it to a huge amount of scans and tests. Then we ran some tests on how they interacted with the Blackstar Gems. We wanted to know the degree of protection these Blackstar Gems provided, whether they would be able to protect the lower - leveled individuals from divine influence.

I wasnÆt sure what I expected, but the log shook violently after a huge amount of blackstar gems were placed around it. It. needed more tests.

Right now, only Patreeck and the domain had any chance of resisting divine forces. I wondered whether I could enhance or at least replicate a bit of that mind - checking ability, perhaps package it as a familiar? Like a voice next to my followers that helped keep the gods at bay.

I had more questions, of course. Was my domain a type of - divine - power? If so, the domain abilities that Lumoof and Edna both had should encounter some resistance from these Blackstar gems. But then they didnÆt?

Why was that the case? Was domain not the true - divine? - Was there another tier above us? Perhaps domain was the realm of the demigods? In terms of power levels, that idea made a lot of sense, since gods summoned heroes, and whoever managed the demons could create demon kings. So to place them a realm above the domain was sensible.

In terms of levels, would level two hundred be that threshold? Or was it higher still?

- Should we send our senior Valthorns to take on the demon champions, too? - Lumoof suggested. - At this point, with the Court of the Deitree, you could teleport us back at any time. IÆll go with them. -

One of the small - flaws - of the Court was that I had to activate the recall. The recall function could not be activated by the Valthorns themselves, so I would need to send Lumoof with them in order to activate the failsafe.

- Defeating the demon champions will speed up their leveling. -

Duh. I decided that it was worth it, so Lumoof and a group of fifteen Valthorns, all with the Court of the Deitree, journeyed down south and helped suppress the demons. The mission was simple: fight demon champions, level up, and run before the king came along.

It was also my chance to see the south through LumoofÆs eyes.

In terms of bombs, AlkaÆs continued research in the underground cities yielded slightly improved bombs. After all, the idea of bombing the hell out of the demons was hugely appealing, and I supposed one day IÆd like to make Tree of Fruit Bombs.

Between Kei and Aria, we were now acquainted with two beings who were naturally crystalline in nature, so Alka had been really keen to obtain crystal samples from Aria, for testing. The goal, of course, was to find and make even better bombs.

On hexes and soul magic, my progress had not amounted to any real improvement in weaponry, though I was making some improvements in my conceptual understanding of their raw components. The main challenge had been the corrosive nature of hex, which distorted any surrounding runic formations.

I had yet to figure out how to store a hexbomb for long periods. All the hexbombs weÆd made so far had a shelf life of no longer than one year, and after that, the crystal would be destroyed and weÆd have a puddle of hex to clean up.

That said, I was getting a lot better at processing hex. Hex and curses were linked, since my Curse - breaker clearly improved my ability to process and clean up areas filled with hex. From an etymological point of view, the two words did have similar meaning. Was a hex essentially a curse made of the soul?

The Treelogy Priests quickly whipped up the small continent of high - tier Valthorns into a PR campaign to expand our clout among the Southern Continent nations. After all, we were already planning to send Valthorns there, might as well get some good press out of it.

We sent out communications with the southern nations that were in trouble and arranged to send them where they could make a big spectacle by slaying the demonic threat on their lands. Of course, we chose those kingdoms and nations where their relationship with the four churches was already frayed and tested in the recent decades.

The journey to the south took the Valthorns took a month, and then they started whooping ass. Lumoof mostly stayed back, blessing the Valthorns with various enchantments, and I didnÆt pay attention to the battles, since the demon champions were relatively easy foes for a group of level one hundreds.

The Four Churches mostly retaliated by seriously deploying their own forces to help suppress the demonic threat.

But as always, the defense of the Southern Continent was mostly left to the local kingdoms. Most kingdoms quickly formed coalitions to fight the demons together. The churches, after all, lacked the flexibility to deploy their high - level individuals; they already didnÆt have many of them in the first place. Their best generals were around level fifties to seventies, and usually demon champions required a few individuals at that level.

So they compelled the hero Alvin to move out of his harem palace. Like, fucking finally. I still didnÆt understand why the hero didnÆt just rush off and kill the demons. I didnÆt recall Harris and the gang being so lazy. It was free levels and at no risk.

24

YEAR 177

Reefy was located on the southern part of the Central Continent, and I suspected his magical senses had improved recently.

The demons are here.

They are underwater? I asked. I had to treat ReefyÆs words a bit more literally.

No. But I feel them. Invaders. I will kill them.

Uh. Good?

But they donÆt come underwater. They donÆt. swim?

I think they do? I believed the champions did swim over the oceans. Well, at least the walker - series of demon champions could swim over the oceans, but I wasnÆt sure about this current generation of stereotypical winged demons with massive axes. IÆd actually like to capture one of these demon champions, if possible. I wondered what itÆd be like if I managed to convert one of the demon champions into my own.

Would the axe or sword remain? Were those demonic axes a physical body part of the demons or a magical creation of the champions? Why did they disappear when killed?

I wondered what itÆd be like if we got an underwater demon king. ThatÆd be something of a sight, but I supposed since all the demon worlds weÆd seen so far lacked water, I thought that was quite unlikely. The demon kings were clearly - grown - in their home environments before they arrived here. The best they could do was a shapeshifting demon king that took on an underwater form.

Thinking about it, if there were underwater civilizations beneath the oceans, they should theoretically have survived since the beginning of time, unless a Rottedlands - class incident occurred.

But I had not heard of any. Was it because they were hiding? Or was there something else down there that prevented the creation of a long - lasting underwater civilization?

Or perhaps it was just the immense pressures of the deep sea that made it impossible for intelligent creatures to emerge.

The Southern Continent endured the demonic waves relatively well. I saw more rifts open; my vision of the astral ways indicated that one rift now glowed, but I couldnÆt interact with it. Not without void mana.

Stella felt it, too; her own senses for the starways spoke to her. Her skill had an interesting name: The Ways Through the Forest Between Worlds . It really reflected how oneÆs understanding of the world reflected in the skillÆs nature. Or was it the other way around?

To her, she described it like there was a path of torches through the dark forest. More importantly, thanks to the path, she could now look back at the path to their home world. She opened just a tiny, tiny hole. It was somehow easier, despite the distance.

She could tell it was really far away, but with the figurative - torches, - it somehow meant it didnÆt cost as much void mana for her to open a portal to see their home world. The demons clearly had a way of - lubricating - the astral path. With a small peephole, she saw a world of red and fire. Literally fire and brimstone. Demons with wings. It was as if the gods copied a stereotypical demonic home world and pasted it in this world.

We monitored it for weeks and months; the torches got brighter, and there were more of them.

- ItÆs soon, - Stella said, and honestly I knew it was coming. The tendrils appeared to glow and pulse in a bright white and red. I made sure my sensors were all honed in; I wanted to collect every single data point I could get. I notified Lumoof to be careful in the south and that I would recall them immediately if the demon king spawned too close for comfort.

We both saw it. To Stella, it appeared like a fireball that surged through the path. It consumed the torches, growing each time, and then it reached the south. I felt the world twist and turn. To me, the tendrils appeared to flash and glow, like a filament of light. It was incredibly bright when I used it, and I saw like a blob move across that filament of light.

Demon King Ethrezen has arrived.

The world suddenly felt significantly hot. Areas filled with snow - capped mountains started to melt, and avalanches of mud crashed into their nearby cities. In the deserts, oasis suddenly vanished, and the water evaporated into violent thunderstorms, followed by torrents of rain that flooded.

Dry forests burned, and I felt the entire continent was suddenly filled with flash fires. Farms and orchards, too, quickly started to burn. The intense heat generated strong hurricanes and whirlpools, and strong winds battered the coast.

In the south where the demon king landed, it seemed the regular demons now had a halo of flame, their once regular - looking axes replaced by red - flaming axes. The regular hounds turned into fire - breathing hounds.

The demon champions had wings of flame, and their aura of flame burned most that got close.

- Do we stay or retreat? - Lumoof mentally asked. - We can beat the demons with ranged weapons, but fighting at close range is a bit risky. - I may have flame resistance, and Lumoof certainly shared that resistance, but the other Valthorns didnÆt.

My sensors and artificial minds made some calculations and concluded the demon king was quite far from them. - Stay, but engage carefully. -

- Got it. -

Meanwhile, the hero, Alvin, finally arrived in the south.

25

YEAR 178

After locusts, it was a global heatwave. Strangely, the heatwave made some places colder, some places hotter. Global climates were strange things, what with the complicated interactions with magic and mana.

- IÆm not melting, - Aria said through the ice mirror that seemed unaffected by the heat. I was once burning, so the heat didnÆt really bother me anyway. At least, I thought of checking in on the two - in - one ice spirit. - But thanks for asking. AispengÆs powers keep the island cold and snowy, and itÆs strong enough to overpower the demonÆs global influence. -

Local specific powers were stronger than global generic powers. That was like a principle for magic.

The main problems were the volatile winds that now whipped the oceans of the world into a craze. Traditional trade ships that relied on the gentle trade winds to move from continent to continent now had to contend with more chaotic and dangerous winds. But for the more experienced and higher - leveled captains, the stronger winds were a net advantage since they could predict and use these strong winds.

I checked in on the other growing spirit. Reefy just felt rather uncomfortable. ItÆs kinda hot. ItÆs not nice. I recalled some reefs were particularly sensitive to heat, so I wondered whether Reefy felt anything.

Will you be all right?

My energy sustains the reef. Without it, they die.

Will you need help? I offered to supply cold water through the roots. My roots were designed for heat transmission anyway, and it worked both ways.

For now, no. But I want to kill the demons. They did this, right?

Yes.

Can you pull them underwater?

ItÆs in the south. ItÆs too far for me. Maybe next time?

Next time, then.

Lumoof and the group helped to fight off some of the demon champions. They were stronger, empowered by the presence of the demon king. Still, their flames meant their close - range engagements were limited and strictly ranged attacks only.

I could theoretically possess Lumoof and engage the demon champions in close range, but that would defeat the purpose of letting my Valthorns level. Besides, the challenge of fighting a demon champion at range helped their leveling.

Kei was also battling it out with the demon champions, but her tactics were rather underhanded. She fought like Techies from Dota; she planted her crystal bombs in a particular location and lured the demon champions to the bombs, then nuked them. It worked really well with the mostly stupid demon champions.

Their presence was overpowered by AlvinÆs exploits on the battlefield. He did not directly engage the demon king, and the demon king seemed rather content to stay in one place. My mages attempted to use farsight and scrying to view the demonÆs activities, but it seemed this demon king had spying protection.

Was the demon king so confident that it was willing to wait for the heroes to get close?

Alvin and Kei regrouped, and they attempted to fight the demon king for the first time. Kei had one of my Court of the Deitree familiars, too, just so that I could recall her if she was in a bad situation.

It didnÆt go very well, as Kei later narrated the battle to me. The demon king really was a typical demon king, in a sense. It was massive, had six large arms each wielding some kind of flaming weapon or shield, a cow - skull head with four horns, a body covered in some kind of black scale armor, and eight floating fireballs of different colors, each of them capable of independent attack. It was a demon king designed for direct combat.

Alvin and his ranged missile arrays didnÆt do very well. His missiles numbered in the tens of thousands. He rained fury on the battlefield, but the demon kingÆs flaming shield detonated the less - powerful missiles before they got near. His stronger penetration missiles detonated on the demon kingÆs shield - arm, and they made a large hole, but it wasnÆt sufficient to seriously injure the demon king.

Reviewing the battle, I concluded that Alvin was underleveled. His abilities, in the level one hundred twentyûplus range, was not sufficient to singlehandedly take on the demon king at full strength. Kei succeeded as my bombs helped weaken the demon king, but Alvin? He was too weak. Even with KeiÆs bombs assisting at the distance, it wasnÆt enough to tilt the balance.

Alvin lost badly.

He attempted to retreat, and it was then the demon king radiated a big reddish flare that interrupted the heroÆs teleportation ability. The flare latched to Alvin like a chain. The demon king closed in, and Kei slammed the panic button. Kei activated a crystal that contained a short - range teleportation spell and teleported to the nearest city. She then messaged one of the Valthorns for a recall back here. Home.

Alvin died. You received a fragment.

I had a total of ninety - one hero fragments now. Nine more to go.

Once more, the world erupted in panic. The hero had fallen! I swiftly recalled Lumoof and the team, too.

- The demon king is not moving. - My sensors got better at nailing down the demon kingÆs location, the way its energies distorted space, the way its abilities spread into the world and heated everything up. The demon king was a presence, and it wasnÆt afraid to say it.

I looked back at the path between worlds. It was a lot dimmer now, but I wanted to observe something else. The torches were smaller, almost fading away. The demon king itself was some kind of rift conduit; I felt its energies leaking into the pathways between the worlds.

The gods would summon the next batch of heroes soon. I told Stella, too, that if she wanted to see the path home, she would have to focus and pay attention. We would need to see what happened, whether the heroes came the same way as the demon king. If they left trails, we could follow their path.

- What. what do we do now? - IÆd had this question so many times. When the previous heroes also died at the hands of the demon king, they came with this same question. History had clearly shown that all we had to do was wait and watch the cycle repeat itself. It was quite annoying to face these same things, like that coworker that never seemed to learn despite telling them countless times or like being that long employee teaching new interns for the umpteenth time. Was this how it felt?

- Observe, wait, and prepare. - What else was there to do? What was there to do when it rained? We hoped our preparations so far were adequate and observed the situation. If it flooded, weÆd flee to higher ground.

- You all right? - Lozanna and Stella both asked Kei. Kei rested at her house in Freshka after the whole fight. She was injured, but not much.

- . IÆm not sure, honestly, - Kei answered. - I thought I would feel sadder. I know I felt quite sad when I heard Hans died. But somehow this time, I feel a little bad. Like, IÆm more tormented that I donÆt feel sad than from the sadness of his death itself. -

- That sounds quite serious, - Lozanna said. - Mentally serious. -

- IÆm not sure if it is because I actually helped, so I felt like I did what I could. Whereas for Hans, I didnÆt help at all. Not that I could do anything then, but still. I feel kinda bad gaining a few levels, too, even though all I did wasnÆt much. -

Lozanna shrugged, and Stella just patted the golem girl on her shoulders. - So how long do you need to get out of your funk? -

- Uh. IÆm fine. I think. I think I just gotta deal with this feeling. -

Stella shrugged. - Sounds like what you need is some monster - bashing. It helps with my negative emotions, and I think itÆll help with yours. -

- When did you ever become such a monster - hunter? - Kei laughed.

- Uh. itÆs complicated. But seriously, try it. Hunting monsters is fun. The adrenaline and the satisfaction of bashing something is really. wow. -

- WhereÆs the meek and quiet painter I used to know? - Kei wondered aloud.

- ItÆs gone when I lost my classes for Void Mage , - Stella answered. - Seriously, come monster hunting. Shoot some monsters up, like the boys, yÆknow? -

Kei had a facepalm moment. Lozanna just stood there. - What the hell did you see in those forty years? -

- A lot of really mundane stuff. Mostly a lot of warping here and there. I guess that messes with my brain? - Stella laughed.

- This image of three ladies smashing monsters for fun isnÆt exactly what I had in mind. - Kei frowned.

- Two ladies and a golem. Technically, you are sexless. -

- IÆm emotionally and spiritually still a woman. -

- I believe spirits are sexless. No, correction. Your soul is sexless, - Stella emphasized. - You can ask A/ . Apparently when we boil ourselves down to our raw soul particles, we are all sexless. You believe you are a woman because you inherited memories of a woman, but if you let yourself embrace your new body, you will think differently. -

Kei just laughed. - All right. All right. LetÆs go smash some monsters. This conversation took a really weird turn. -

Lozanna just rolled her eyes. - Did you meet some kind of eldritch creature on the other side that youÆre now all cuckoo? -

- I suppose exposure to the void should theoretically make me more susceptible to insanity, - Stella mused. - But monster - smashing time! -

- YouÆre surprisingly calm when thereÆs a demon king thatÆs in our world, - Kei said.

- We have A/ , Edna, and Lumoof. TheyÆd give the demon king a good fight if it wants one. -

- You have a surprisingly high level of confidence in their ability. -

- They survived the last demon king, and they leveled for sure. They may struggle, but I think they can force a stalemate. -

- This demon king has an axe. I think itÆll probably have some anti - tree chopping perk. -

- Oh. Let me know when they send a Woodcutter Demon King. Then IÆll panic. -

- That would make a fascinating thought experiment. I wonder the kind of skills and stats that kind of demon king would have. -

- Is that something we should be thinking about? LetÆs go smash monsters. A level fifty dungeon would be good. -

The demon king moved but remained in the Southern Continent. It seemed rather disinterested, and it raided kingdoms throughout the south with its army of demons. It attacked, destroyed cities and towns, and then retreated back. I didnÆt quite understand why it did so, strategically, but now that the demons had their - mind, - I supposed their behavior would change.

Refugees and escapees abounded. In fact, the escape began once the hero died. Most of the royalty sent their children away to escape the problem, and some came here to the Central Continent. It reminded me of my earlier days of being a refugee center. The masses, all fleeing for their lives. The fear.

The refugees that arrived on our southern shores were mostly the less - wealthy sort. The nobles and those with sufficient funds would not antagonize the four churches by escaping to the Central Continent, so they escaped to the other continents instead. So it was those who didnÆt have the flexibility and financial power for a longer journey to the other continents, those who could only afford the shorter trip here. They took whatever they could to make the trip.

Generally, I left the management of refugees to the respective local governments that received these refugees, so each jurisdiction treated their refugees slightly differently. Some had a talent - harvesting or collection mechanism where new refugees were assessed for their skills and qualifications and deployed to fill missing needs.

Some just placed them in dedicated refugee towns and let them fend for themselves. In these places, the refugees then took charge of buying supplies and food from their nearest towns and cities with whatever resources or cash they had.

The life of a refugee was one where they made do with what they could get, and I did think the people of this world had been culturally ingrained to be - hardy. - It was an admirable trait.

The Valthorns generally ceased recruitment from fresh refugees a while ago, due to the suspicions of loyalty. PatreeckÆs mind - reading abilities were, after all, still limited to only the vicinity of Freshka. The refugees themselves usually had some combat ability, though not at a very high level. Usually they would have five to twenty levels in some combat class, which, strangely, made them more combat proficient than my local group.

The newer generation of Central Continent citizens were on average less combat capable than their predecessors, as the presence of beetles throughout the continent had reduced the amount of monster attacks they faced. Instead, for the average citizen, their main threats were petty crimes and thuggery from their local rulers or criminal gangs. For the most part, lesser criminals did not attract the attention of the Valthorns.

On the other hand, the specialized military forces were significantly higher leveled due to their privileged access to dungeons and the effects of my assisted training, and the average Valtorn Order soldier pretty much outclassed everyone except for the above - average adventurers.

As a result, there was a power gap between the common populace and the Valtorn s, and the Valthorns were quasi - nobles, despite their lack of a noble title. A military aristocracy, in a way.

Refugees generally had a very awkward relationship with the Valthorns they encountered, simply because in their other kingdoms, the nobility controled the army. Here, the federal army was an independent entity, and that was something that needed some time to adapt.

That said, based on PatreeckÆs data, almost all refugees eventually settled in the Central Continent, with only a minority returning to their home continents.

In terms of the total number of citizens, the Central Continent had increased between two to three times since fifty years ago. The growth in terms of total number had been primarily caused by the generally higher reproductive rates of humans, at least compared to dwarves or elves. In terms of actual percentage growth, lizard - people and treefolk dominated, due to both of these races coming from a low base, their ability to have multiple children at any time, and the effect of the Treeology Priests various saps and syrups significantly improving their survival rates beyond their infant years.

I didnÆt have the exact number of people on the continent prior to the Rottedlands, but it seemed that records suggested that it took only three decades to repopulate the continent, and it seemed we were about fifty percent more than prior to the Rottedlands. Still, it was hard to really estimate the total lives lost with unreliable data.

We saw the starways dim even more, though there seemed to be some kind of string or line that came from our world, and there were flashes of light that moved through that string. It seemed to suggest that the demon king was able to access the starways from its end and not just rely on their gateways on their home world.

I shared my memories of the demonic gateways with Stella through Patreeck, but it didnÆt do much. She did not recognize the magical words or enchantments on those gates.

Throughout the continent, I kept my magical sensors ready, and just as before, I spread the Valthorns out.

The heroes would arrive soon. When they did, I wanted to know whether they were here. It was important to get them before monsters or any strange criminals got to them. I would need to keep my eyes open for the path they took.

- What if we canÆt see it? - Stella asked.

- ThatÆs a datapoint, too. It meant they used a different method. -

- Huh. True. -

- More importantly, what if you canÆt go home? That it is impossible? -

Stella just sighed. - Uhm. oh well? -

- ThatÆs good. -

- Yeah. I think this world isnÆt too bad. ItÆs in better shape than the other two worlds. -

- Have you met any other spirits on the other worlds? -

- Uh, I mostly stayed with Vallasira and only went to the cities occasionally myself. The good thing is they speak the same language. Strange, how the language of both worlds are identical. -

- It could be a skill, - I wondered. - A passive? -

- Pretty sure it is. Feels like maybe IÆm actually talking gibberish, but the system auto - translated the content to the recipient. -

26

YEAR 179

My sensors were glued to the skies, waiting for the moment. The forest was dark, and then momentarily, there was a flash of light. The darkness of the void momentarily twisted and swirled, and a ring of light appeared. Ten flashes of light shot out, like little meteors streaking through the dark night sky. Despite our best efforts to observe the phenomenon of a hero summoning, the magical energies were extremely subtle.

Ten heroes have been summoned.

Another ten landed, and instantly I sounded the alarm. I wanted eyes on the ground to look for them, whether they were on the Central Continent or elsewhere.

- I didnÆt see much. - Stella frowned, upset at how the path back to her original world eluded her. It was faint, and there was that strange - ring - like thing. Something IÆd not seen before until I had this - astral sight - ability.

Still, while my forces kept watch for the heroes, I and Stella tried to follow that path back. A few of the other senior Valthorns, Kei, and Lozanna all dropped by at times.

- What kind of people do you think weÆll get? - Stella asked. She tried to make conversation while we tweaked with the daemolite and attempted to retrace the path of the heroes. There was no path. It was as if someone had just airdropped the heroes. No, someone just drop - shipped the heroes.

- Probably the same type. Young kids, fourteen to eighteen years old, too young to know how shitty the world truly is, and easily controlled by the gods. -

- That bad, huh? - Stella said. - KeiÆs pretty all right, isnÆt she? -

- She has this weird hang up about helping former Earthlings. -

- Some people are helpful like that. I think too much skepticism and suspicion would just paralyze her. ItÆs good that she still cares, even after what she has seen and been through. I know I certainly donÆt have that kind of mental strength. -

- You survived forty years in other worlds. I think you deserve some credit. - Our experiments didnÆt really seem to go anywhere. It was frustrating that the gods had even more unique powers that even void mana couldnÆt breach.

- Heh, practicing magic for forty years hardly counts as hardship. -

- Well, you did lose some body parts. - Which had all fully healed.

- Shit happens. You know. bad mistakes when practicing magic. In fact, if it wasnÆt for your familiar skill, IÆd probably be dead. The healing abilities of your familiar saved my life a few times. -

Stella just shrugged when it didnÆt work. - A part of me suspected this wasnÆt going to work. The rules of our home world were too different. Our planets and galaxies donÆt float on some kind of interstellar fog. -

- So thatÆs one data point for Earth being an entire alternate universe and demonic worlds existing within our present same - universe. But that raises the next question: why do the gods summon all of the heroes from these alternate universes? -

- My guess? -

- Yeah. Go for it. -

- WeÆre blank slates. Clean, untouched by mana ever. Maybe itÆs just easier to control us that way. -

- IsnÆt every soul a blank slate when they die? -

- Hmm. thatÆs true. Then the next likely thing is that thereÆs something interfering with the gods ability to capture fresh, clean souls from this world. Maybe they just canÆt see this world very well. Maybe our home worlds are godless, so that makes it easy for them to pick and choose who they want. -

- Then why do they need administrators? -

- I donÆt know? - Stella laughed. - Maybe itÆs just specialization, I guess? -

- Ever wondered how they came to be? Like. how did those reincarnation administrators become reincarnation administrators? -

- My bet? The gods made them. TheyÆre not real individuals, just a system personified and anthropomorphized. -

- Huh. -

- Wild, right? I mean, back home we have AI and machines that can mimic people. Why wouldnÆt the same thing be doable via magic? -

That was really true. The gods could easily achieve self - awareness and be mostly autonomous operators. If I could create artificial souls, the gods surely could go further.

Within two weeks, it was clear that the heroes did not spawn on the Central Continent. It was also a good point that none of them died soon after summoning.

- I want to spy on the heroes, - Kei said.

- Huh? Why? -

- I want to see what kind of shit the temples throw at them at the start, whether itÆs the same as us. -

Stella immediately rebuked her. - You do know that volunteering yourself to be a heroÆs secret guide is a huge death flag, right? -

- I have no idea what you are talking about. - Kei rolled her eyes.

- ItÆs a story trope, come on! Mentor occupational hazard! Ever heard of it? - Stella repeated. - I say donÆt do it. -

- Why is it that you believe all these norms? - Kei responded.

- If anyone should go, itÆs either Edna or Lumoof. Edna and Lumoof can get teleported away if they are ever in danger, and they are far stronger than you are. -

- Who wonÆt go because their place is here, - Kei responded. - My place is to assist the heroes. IÆm just going to spy on them. -

- YouÆre a golem, Kei. YouÆre not a spymaster or ranger . Is this really the best use of your time? Going with the heroes to play babysitter is not going to be a good idea. YouÆll stunt their growth, too. -

- I wonÆt participate. IÆm just going to watch from afar and prevent deaths, if any, - Kei said. - Enough have died from this, and I donÆt want any more foolish deaths. -

- There are a lot of foolish deaths, - Stella said. - The worldÆs full of it. -

- I know, but this is the one I choose to do something about. -

- Why, because heroes lives matter? -

- Uh. I guess? - Kei was young, and she wasnÆt very politically aware. - I feel like I should contribute, even if it isnÆt much. -

Stella just had a facepalm. - You know, back home, there are so many people who died for whatever reason, starvation, sickness, lack of jobs, depression. It never occurred to you that the world is usually a shitty place? -

- I guess? - Kei shrugged. - I just want to do this, so just let me, all right? I canÆt save everyone; thatÆs the kind of thing maybe some like A/ can do. IÆm just going to help prevent some deaths. WhatÆs the big fat problem about it? -

- I guess youÆre just a little. hmm. ungrateful, I guess? -

- Look, when you see a doctor and the doctor saves your life, sure, you owe him, but do you reorient your entire life around the doctorÆs whims? No, right? ThereÆs a part where we draw the line and say, all right, thatÆs your life, and this is mine. No, in fact I feel this is my way of paying it forward. -

Stella paused for a while and then laughed. - I guess thatÆs why youÆre a hero. -

- Eh, I actually donÆt think thatÆs a criteria after all. Look at Alvin. He isnÆt really that honorable. -

Kei left on some ships to the Southern Continent once news of their location came. The group of ten was essentially split in two: one group on the Eastern Continent, another group on the Southern Continent itself.

I outfitted Hytreerion with multiple mana batteries and crystals to help it act like a mobile mana battery and then, with the help of many blacksmiths, artisans, and mages, I built a massive magical cannon array on top of it.

Alka named it the Mana Cannon Version One. This was essentially the first idea, to convert Hytreerion to a massive cannon. Hytreerion as it was already had an energy blast, a power inherited from the demon-walker, and on its own generated quite a bit of mana.

Its power still paled when compared to the hero weapons, but at least it could regenerate on time.

- This is a utility? - I wondered.

- Not really. - Alka laughed. But the real utility was the battery. Normal folks were unable to channel huge amounts of mana unless they had specialized skills. So the first real utility test was whether Hytreerion could act as a mobile teleportation gateway, together with StellaÆs existing void powers. The idea was whether it was possible for Hytreerion to act as a mobile link on the other worlds. Of course, this was putting the cart before the horse, because we didnÆt even have a way of opening a portal or rift large enough to the other side. - But once we have the power source, we can figure out what to do with it. -

Another aspect of the utility was - terraforming. -

Essentially, the other worlds, some of them were very hostile to life. The intense aridness of the demon worlds meant my forces would be fighting in an environment that was uncomfortable. It was a penalty we didnÆt need. So, in terms of beetles, and to a lesser extent, Hytreerion, we wanted to see whether we could have - environment generators. -

Beetles that had little combat ability but spent their mana or energy to - empower - their surrounding beetles. This included a wide range of possible functions, from adding humidity to the world such that my beetles joints and limbs operated better, to stacking - auras - such that they could overcome the negative environment on the other worlds.

What we discovered was that it was impossible for beetles to carry - aura - functions. We needed - dedicated - commander - beetles. Like Horns, but taken to the extreme. I also wondered whether it was possible to have an Aura titan, something that boosted the combat abilities of my allies, and the thought instantly triggered the system to award it.

The Aura Turtle û Titan

A turtle with multiple crystals on its back, each crystal generating a different aura. Default Turtle generates healing aura, mana recovery aura, damage reduction aura, and endurance/stamina aura. Additional Auras gained with level, consumption of magical artifacts and upgrades.

- Huh. - I had to think about this, though; was this really a good idea? I only had two titans left.

I finally recreated a level one hundred twenty dungeon after tweaking with a few ley lines. I had to subtly guide four ley lines to meet somewhere deep underground anda new dungeon for my Valthorns to power - level. This time, I tried to mess with the dungeonÆs settings a little bit more, so that the energy was focused on just spawning high - tier monsters rather than just mobs. Essentially, I hoped for a dungeon full of mini - bosses.

A town quickly sprung up outside the dungeon to serve and support the Valthorns making the dive.

- Which is better, hunting champions or dungeon diving? - I asked the Valthorns one day.

- Depends on what kind of dungeon, really. If itÆs the trap - filled dungeons with all sorts of funny tricks, I prefer the Champion any day. - Roon laughed. He was still around level one hundred thirty. It was hard for them to level, strangely. Clearly the effects of the multiple hero fragments were more pronounced than I knew.

Kei sent word that she found one group of heroes. Four of them. One of them had gone missing, but they couldnÆt find him. The heroes were practicing on monsters and smaller demon swarms in the south.

- Missing? - Edna wondered. She was based in the underground city, right outside the level one hundred twenty dungeon, just in case a monster escaped the dungeon. - Is he dead? -

- No. I didnÆt get a notification. - I checked with Stella, just to be sure.

- How many fragments do you have, Stella? -

- Uh. lemme count. I think thirteen? Ten from the bunch I was summoned with and three from KeiÆs batch. Why? -

- One of the heroes went missing, and I wanted to know whether heÆs dead. -

- Huh. Strange. Heroes donÆt go missing normally? Not on some secret training mission or anything? -

- Kei isnÆt sure. If he isnÆt dead, thatÆs a good sign. We just need to wait and watch out. -

There was another group on the Eastern Continent. Five of them. They too managed to survive their initial scare with regular monsters. Kei quickly relayed that this batch of heroes was - conventional - heroes, as in two of them were super - knights, and the other two were super - mages. The missing hero was a super - mage, too.

Conventional heroes and conventional demons, eh? It felt like there was a larger supercycle of demons and heroes. Were the gods just playing some kind of Magic the Gathering campaign throughout the expansions and blocks and were just moving through the gimmicks of each block?

Stella sat. Kei messaged to say she would continue to observe them.

Back home, we continued on with our weapons program. Alka and his group of artificers and mages were very busy with multiple concurrent projects running. He preferred it that way; the multiple projects seemed to allow him to gather magical inspiration from many places. They worked on many types of ideas for anti - demonic weapons, from suicidal golems, flying golems to - airdrop - rigged crystal bombs, and just better crystal bombs and weapons all round.

My woodsmiths and blacksmiths made thousands of anti - demonic spears and enchanted them. The Central Continent had a thriving defense industry, linked by my network of carrier - beetles. Throughout the continent, we built multiple weapons stockpiles.

It was overpreparing in a sense, but high - quality weapons took time to make, and even master smiths and workers labored months on a special weapon, or a special knife, or a special rod. Some enchantments took just as long, especially those that required the threading of multiple different spells.

We didnÆt have the heroÆs overpowered Hero Forge to shortcut a lot of that. If I needed superweapons, I needed to make them early. Ten years early.

The demon king continued its raid on the kingdoms, and the heroes rushed to gain levels. The eastern group apparently started to sail to the south to join their compatriots, the regular monsters of the Eastern Continent insufficient to feed their growth. I wondered whether they had an experience multiplier for killing demons. I suspected they did.

Kei commented that the southern group reached level sixty within a month. Level sixty was enough for a champion, at least, with their hero powers, but the demon king needed them at the level one hundred range. If they were too weak, theyÆd die quickly.

The missing hero was still missing. I wondered what would happen if the missing hero never appeared? Would the gods summon new heroes? Or would the demons destroy the world until they found that hero?

Are they coming? Reefy asked.

No. The demons were still on their continent.

I have new spiky weapons IÆd like to use on them. I donÆt like this heat. But I gained skills now. I have Perfect Waters .

What in the world did that do?

My environment is always perfect for reefs!

Ah. That does sound useful for a reef.

Of course. But can you get me some of the demons? I wonder whether my fishes will eat them. Are they food?

No, Reefy, they arenÆt food. TheyÆre just. enemies.

Spiky corals, then. Poison hurt them?

Some. I didnÆt recall seeing a hero with a poison focus, or maybe I just couldnÆt remember. Maybe it was a bit dumb to have a poison focus when the demons werenÆt even human, so the poisons just didnÆt hurt them. Most likely not.

Ah. No poisonous corals, then. Just really hard and pokey corals.

Yes. That would be optimal.

I thought back about the Tainted Demon Core captured from the demon king. It remained a puzzle I was unable to crack, even as I leveled. Demonic mana remained key, at least, master of it.

The Rottedlands on the Central Continent were extremely small now, a tenth of what it once was. This space was - preserved, - mainly to hold the - hybrid - plants that I could control, and for my Valthorns to continue their combat practice. With the smaller size, the relative strength of the demonic hybrids that spawned naturally dwindled.

This was a limited space for me to practice the mana these hybrid plants sometimes produced.

- Perhaps an artificial mind fused with a hybrid may be the solution? - Patreeck proposed one day. I sometimes wondered why I couldnÆt think of these solutions myself. Did I try it before?

Well. it didnÆt work. The artificial mind collapsed soon after exposure to the demonic mana, like trying to boot up a faulty computer. Or maybe a computer with insufficient parts. Why? Or perhaps. like a computer, it was not.

Wait. Was it a power source issue, then? But artificial souls generated their own mana. Was that why there was a conflict between a hybrid plant that passively generated tiny bits of demonic mana? It was like a computer getting both AC and DC power simultaneously, so it fried the computer.

I supposed it was time to revisit the fundamentals of this - artificial mind. - Like, what was an artificial mind, and what differentiated them from regular people. Why were they limited?

- I suspect the issues may be. about the creation of life, - Patreeck theorized. - That a full soul is essentially a life and a living being. -

- You donÆt feel like you are a living being, Patreeck? -

- Well, no. I am always a part of you, even if I am capable of independent thought, master. - Huh. Perhaps it was that sense of self? Their soul, being incomplete, like a very good AI, but lacking that last spark that truly made an AI more than just an AI.

But. what was I trying to achieve here? These were dangerous grounds. Did I want to - create - life unwittingly? My goal was to achieve control over demonic mana and thus, hopefully, gain another color for my soul forge. Already, one of the ideas I had was to use the huge stockpiled void mana and attempt to unlock a new soul forge color, but I suspected the system required me to generate my own void mana, not just rely on stored mana.

It was a deconstruction of the artificial souls. Artificial souls were pieced together from the remnants of the dead. To use a computer term, they were salvaged from the usable parts of many - dead - computers and pieced together into a whole. But they lacked the - core - that differentiated a person from a - machine. - IÆd developed quite a significant understanding of these parts over the decades through my analysis of hex. The hex was when these parts were combined in such a way that generated toxic negative thoughts. In other words, hex was pretty much weaponized negativity.

Again, what else could the parts make? Could the parts be better made than how I currently - know - them? After all, I learned it by way of skills and levels. There should be better versions.

27

YEAR 180

- Nine of them spotted, - Kei spoke via long - range message. - All of them are around level eighty, and they are still challenging the champions. The king seemed content to let them do so and continued its destructive acts. -

It was a pattern, repeated since long ago. The king almost always waited for the heroes to level up. This was a quirk that I did not understand. Was it a rule? Or were the heroes - invisible - before they turned level one hundred? But clearly the demon champions were able to find the heroes. So why?

It really felt very game - ish. One instance suggested some observational flaw or quirk. But now after numerous demon kings, it really felt like this pattern suggested a - game - like - arrangement between the demons and the gods. I really hoped the Aivan church agreed to send the triumvirs over. I did want to interrogate the damned Aivan god on why the fuck we were playing this game.

But there was that hero that did the whole - sneak attack thing, but that was because there was an existing group of surviving heroes. If so, the demon king must have a trigger to engage in their hunt.

- No luck on the missing hero? - The missing hero. was still missing. But if he was alive, and he was leveling up, he couldnÆt stay hidden for long. Not with the demon kingÆs divine - hunting sight. I recalled Harris once said that the demons could sense their presences, and the higher levels they were, the stronger they glowed to the demons.

- No. - Kei sighed. - I hope heÆs fine. The other heroes have attempted to contact him, but he refused all communication. -

- YouÆve made contact with the heroes? -

- Yes. We spoke a bit, - Kei said. - At level eightyish, they are able to spot me. There was no way I could remain hidden for long. -

- And what did you tell them? -

- Almost everything, really. But nothing about you, - Kei was quick to repeat. - Just about hero stuff, really. About the things weÆve seen. I mean, about life as a hero. and our lives after we win. And the gods. -

- They didnÆt kill you there and then? -

- They seemed to mumble something about Ken saying the same thing. KenÆs the missing hero by the way, and heÆs. uh, he pretty much went cold turkey and had no contact with the rest of them after the first week together. -

- Huh. - Ken, eh. - So. how are the heroes taking to their new roles as saviors of the world? -

- Quite enthusiastic. ItÆs actually embarrassing to hear it. Was I so naive and innocent? - Kei sighed.

- Yes. Yes you were. In fact, you still are. -

- Ugh. -

Roon and the others kept at their dungeon raids. The dungeon at level one hundred twenty was large, and their foes were a mix of giants. According to their post - raid reports, the space after the dungeon gates was significantly larger than before, and the dungeon exhibited some kind of spatial distortion that magnified its size.

I, too, had some spatial abilities with my Secret hideouts and Subsidiary Tree rooms.

Roon and another of the Matreearchs managed to hit level one hundred thirty - five, so they were only fifteen levels away from their own domains.

The monsters were large, but ultimately they could be defeated. Still, after my earlier experience with the collapsed dungeon, I started work on another set of ley lines, and I hoped to have a new dungeon active before this one collapsed in the future.

These dungeons, their rewards were mostly the remains of the dungeon monsters, and they were often set aside for my blacksmiths and mages to experiment, to craft into weapons and armors. There was a gradual upward drift in the quality of the equipment among the Valthorns, as they got a wider variety of equipment over time, instead of just my own items. Things I made or that were blessed by me personally were strong, but my items tended to have anti - demon effects. Equipment made from the monsterÆs remains in the dungeon tended to be more varied.

Those who made a living outside the dungeon also soon made more - mobile - setups once they were informed of the temporary nature of these high - tier dungeons. These were pretty much the best craftsmen and smiths the entire continent had to offer, and it was something we noticed, that the higher leveled they were, the more likely that they had passion in what they did.

For these level eighty - plus craftsmen, they relished working with the unique materials that a high - tier dungeon provided, so they moved where the materials were. That said, for these craftsmen, almost eighty percent of their time was spent making equipment to process the materials, and only twenty percent on the materials themselves. There was a whole lot of preparation work that went on before the craftsmen laid their lands on the harvested items.

Many of these higher - tier monsters were - new - to us, since the dungeon generated these monsters somewhat randomly, so even - harvesting - the monsters took a lot of experimentation. At higher tiers, the dungeon monsters resembled more like a Frankenstein - ish mixture of creatures, materials, and skills. In fact, I would personally say most monsters looked their best at around level eighty, where they conformed to what I believed was usually considered a monsters - normal - appearance.

At level one hundred twenty, cerberus would have strange laser eyes, teeth or claws made of some rainbow metal, and sometimes even heads that regrew when chopped off, as if it was some lovechild of a cerberus and a hydra. It was like the dungeon system had an archive of what items or effects it considered high level and just mashed them together to form whatever random miniboss. They usually had a few gimmicks, too, like a cerberus where one eye used lasers and one of the heads caused explosions.

I wondered whether a level one hundred fifty or two hundred dungeon would look more - proper - once every part of the monster was upgraded with higher - tier materials. It was just a theory, of course. According to Edna, there was no great difference in their appearance between level one hundred twenty and one hundred thirty, just more skills, more gimmicks, tougher, and stronger.

The whole - moving - ley lines thing also made me think of that volcano I acquired early on. If there were natural sources of energy, I supposed using my own world knowledge, the greatest power source right now would be the sun. The stars and the sun would generate the most power, so I wondered what level would a sun - powered dungeon be?

Could I even - create - gods outright? I mean, if a dungeon had level one hundred fifty monsters, wouldnÆt that mean these monsters were mini - gods in their own right? If so, how could a dungeon contain them?

This suggested a few likely outcomes.

One was that it was impossible to create dungeons beyond level one hundred forty - nine, unless the dungeon itself was some godly being.

Two, it was possible to create level one hundred fifty monsters, but controlling them was impossible, so a dungeon break must happen.

Three, it was possible to create level one hundred fifty dungeons, and it was possible for the dungeon to still control level one hundred fiftyûplus creations despite their domain, or perhaps these creatures did not have a domain. It was possible if the monsters were - soulless - despite having that kind of power level, that they were just super - strong automatons with strength at that level.

Which made me wonder.

- Any of the druids attempted to enslave or tame the dungeon monsters before? - I mean, the dungeons generated high - tier monsters, but druids and beastmasters naturally had abilities to acquire - companions. -

I also remembered that old story of the elven hero with the ability to - enslave - spirits, including spirit trees. It was something that I was still afraid of, even if I had the domain as a shield. I wondered when a heroÆs skills and a domain clashed, how did the system resolve the conflict? Like, a hero with a special spirit - capture ability, against me, a spirit tree with a domain?

Anyway, the druids soon explained that they had attempted to capture the dungeon beasts but had only managed to tame those in the lower - tier dungeons, around level eighty or so. They had not had any success with the monsters from the higher - leveled dungeons. They suspected that it was due to their diversified focus, so their success relied on their huge level differentials.

A pure monster - tamer. That sounded like something from an isekai story. If I was able to - convert - a demon, could a very powerful monster tamer or beast master control the demons and, at even higher levels, take control of the demon champions and kings? It was essentially the same issue with heroes and me, wasnÆt it? If a powerful beast master could control the demon king, a hero must be able to control me.

- That train of thought implies the demon king to be a domain holder, which, from our data thus far, nothing seems to suggest it is a domain holder. In fact, we donÆt even know if the demon king has levels. - Because the king didnÆt talk.

The heatwave meant druids and mages were in huge demand, as they had to help use their weather abilities and skills to help - reduce - the impact of the heat. Our master builders had to rush to the shores and areas that suffered huge floods and rainfalls to help redirect the water, on top of my trees. My trees soaked up the water easily; after all, my roots naturally transported water, and I used this to great effect to help direct water from areas that faced torrential rain and floods to areas that faced exceptionally dry weather.

The response to the weather changes were mixed. Some just moved to places where the effects were milder. Like Freshka itself, it was quite insulated from the effects of the heatwave due to the presence of many druids skills that helped soften the effects of the demon kingÆs energies on top of my own heat - channeling abilities.

The farmlands within the same region as me pretty much survived the heatwave unaffected; at this distance, my abilities easily overwhelmed the global effects of the heatwave. Further out, there had been some fires and destruction of farms. Small damage, generally, as my influence waned somewhat at a distance.

That said, the nobles and royalty were generally pretty pissy about the weather, and theyÆd hired mages and druids to keep the weather pleasant. Strange that they got so pissy. I observed less of such behavior from the older kind.

One group that I needed to assist a little more was the treefolk. They seemed rather sensitive to the weather and needed to consume more water to offset the increased evaporation and heat. Trees generally helped to cool their surroundings through evaporation, but that did mean that they lost more water, and treefolks needed to constantly replenish water, a problem when the rivers themselves were drying up.

So far, no area had faced terrible droughts yet, thanks to my roots performing their role of distributing both heat and water to where they were needed. Funny that all my fire resistance and training from previous demon kings meant I could resist this effect relatively easily. Truly, what didnÆt kill you made you stronger.

The elves, humans, and dwarves were uncomfortable, but they generally did well. The lizardpeople enjoyed the heat, but they preferred the humid heat, not the dry heat, so those close to the coast actually found the heatwave pleasant. The lesser races like those winged garudas and harpies didnÆt enjoy the more turbulent winds from the heat.

Fishing was down significantly, as the heat made the waves more dangerous throughout the world. That said, if a fisher and sailor was to set out now, they would generally level. if they survived.

Trade was wobbly, and so was fishing. But the oceans were generally calmer out in the open oceans. A master captain with a great ship could still make the journey.

- Our pirates and privateers are stranded on the islands. - Well, one of the drawbacks of a land - based continental force was my naval forces werenÆt amazing. Even with all the training and special centers, they just didnÆt have the opportunity to really challenge themselves for sea battles. Unless I did mock battles with Reefy?

Mock battles sounded like a good idea.

Reefy?

Yes?

Do you want to do practice battles?

Practice. battles? I shared images and scenes through our somewhat connected - roots - of practice duels, mock battles, and so on. The purpose was to practice strategy and tactics, gain familiarity on whether combat was effective or not.

Why donÆt just kill?

Not enemies. Friend. Just to get stronger.

Reefy seemed to struggle to process fighting their friends for a while. It seemed to have a rather convenient categorization of friends and foes? Or did it just classify people to their threat levels?

DonÆt understand. Share images again.

I did so. Reefy still seemed rather confused.

In the meantime, since Aria and Aispeng were ice spirits, I wondered whether they had abilities that could offset the heat. They did, but it was an aura ability so they couldnÆt share it. The Northern Isles, despite being naturally colder, had stronger heatwaves, and this manifested in stronger blizzards and winds. In a way, this demon kingÆs abilities werenÆt really a heatwave, but more of extreme weather. Did the demon king copy some climate change rulebook somewhere?

The heroes kept on with their battles, and they had their first encounter with the demon king. It did not go well, but it seemed the demon king did not give much chase.

Ellis Myers has died. You received a fragment.

Jenna Kari has died. You received a fragment.

Kei had apparently attempted to help.

- You idiot! - Stella screamed over the message spell. She had two fragments, too. - DonÆt risk your fucking life. -

- IÆve already died once. WhatÆs another time? -

- I thought you promised us! - Apparently Kei had a promise with the girls? Huh. I sure didnÆt see them being so close.

- . I know. I feel like shit, though, - Kei said. - I canÆt just stand and let them fight. -

- Kei, weÆve talked about this. There are battles that are out of our leagues. Each of us needs to do our part, do what weÆre good at, - Stella repeated. - IÆm a void mage , and IÆm good with portals. That means IÆm not going anywhere near a battlefield. YouÆre a biocrystalline golem , and you can make crystals do all sort of stuff. But youÆre not a one hundred percent combat class, and you donÆt have hero powers. DonÆt fight battles you canÆt do shit in. We all want this shit to end, but we need to work together, dammit. Another act out of line and IÆll get A/ to recall you. -

- . sorry. -

- Good. -

The death of two shook the group of seven left. They were nervous and afraid. What seemed comically easy once they leveled suddenly was hard again. The gap between the champions and the king was large, and only now they understood it.

Kei had to be their counselor. But in the south, there were other temples, and some heroes sought help from the temples instead.

- ShouldÆve sent priests here! Right now they need the calming abilities of the priesthood! - Kei complained. That was something IÆd take note of. Certainly Lumoof could help to provide serenity and calmness in face of loss. These were young teens in need of emotional support, and that was certainly a neglected aspect of their journey.

- Do we have counselor classes? - I asked Lumoof and the group. Actually, if heroes got out of this with PTSD, was that why they ended up indulging themselves in all their harems and all that? It was a way of coping with the shit theyÆd seen? I wasnÆt in their place, and I hadnÆt seen their struggles. But on reflection, it did seem almost all of them were broken or chipped in some way.

I knew his answer before he answered thanks to our mental link, but I let him say it out anyway. - We do have Priest of Tranquility , and certain skills like Calm Composure , Emotional Appeasement . -

- Then we must find ways to train this further. - IÆd been growing class seeds all this while, but I supposed I needed to experiment and create these - counselors - or - psychiatrist - classes.

I looked at my own Tree of Prayers . These helped in the past, just as my tea did. I needed to make them mobile, without using Lumoof. The people of this world were naturally resilient and seemed to endure the destruction really well without emotionally breaking down, but the heroes clearly were cracking, even if they outwardly appeared fine.

28

YEAR 181

The heroes tried again, if anything out of a desire for revenge. The demon king killed two of them, and they were going to live this time. They hunted champions and gained more levels, and all of them were now in their level one hundreds, if only in the early one hundreds. The two fragments each of them had made them level faster and made them stronger.

- They know IÆm talking to you guys, - Kei said.

- So? YouÆre free to have friends, right? -

- I think theyÆre all right, but some of them are suspicious why IÆm reporting everything to you. And rightly so. The way IÆm behaving is very much a spy. In a way, I am a spy. - Kei laughed awkwardly.

- I thought you told them everything? -

- Yes, but still, they continue to maintain some distance. - Kei paused. - If I was in their shoes, IÆd be suspicious of a girl or golem who claims to be a former hero and somehow reports on their activities back to someone they donÆt know. -

- Then stop staying there. I think they no longer need your help. Not anymore. The longer they stay, the more suspicious they get. -

- . youÆre right. -

Kei had one last conversation with the heroes before their fight with the demon king. TheyÆd reached level one hundred, and just as before, theyÆd unlocked their star - mana forms. There were seven of them at level one hundredûplus against one demon king; honestly, the odds were pretty good that theyÆd win. She spoke of hero - made items from previous generations and whether the heroes wanted a trip to the Central Continent before their second encounter with the demon king.

They refused. Well, some of them wanted it, but they already unlocked their own HeroÆs Forge and could make their own hero items.

- You think theyÆll live? - Stella asked through message , as Kei made her way to the shore. I could recall her at any time, but she wanted to wait for the heroes to actually fight the demon king before she left. - What did you think of the demon king? -

- I saw it briefly. I was really far away, but I think. I think they have a good chance of winning. But I think half of them will die. ItÆs still a bit too early. -

- Huh. Are they prepared for a self - destruction gimmick at the end? -

- I donÆt know whether they remembered. When I reminded them they just brushed it off. -

- Huh? - Stella asked.

- IÆm not sure whether what I told them got through to their heads. Lately they just seem. I donÆt know how to put it. -

- Stubborn? -

- No. -

- Confident? -

- Not that, either. -

- Middle - grade syndrome? -

- . that might be it. -

- But they are late teens, right? -

- Yes. One of them reincarnated as a half - dark elf, so age is a little bit more flexible, but yes. Late teens, mentally. -

- You were there once. You should know why they donÆt listen. -

- Fuck that. -

We felt the effects of the battle from a distance. The heroes pulled out all the stops, and my magical sensors felt the churn of magic in the air, even so far away. The weather seemed to sense this, and the world waited for the outcome of the battle of heroes. The instability of magic lasted for a day, and this time, I felt sensations that were very familiar.

It felt like those old, healed wounds had been torn open. But I was still physically fine. Why did I feel it, then?

Demon King Ethrezen has been slain.

Kenny Hills has been slain. You received a fragment.

Elly Pato has been slain. You received a fragment.

Nancy Pelos has been slain. You received a fragment.

Only three deaths. That meant four of the heroes survived. The four survivors were Prabu and Colette, both archmages, Hafiz the Knight and Chung the Archer. There was an explosion at the end, but somehow they still managed to survive it.

Kei, of course, felt the explosion. The explosionÆs shockwave could be felt a world away, and she ran at full speed toward the center of the explosion once it was clear it was done. The entire area had been turned into a volcanic wasteland, but the four were alive, but weak. All of them suffered heavy burns, and their skin was charred. They lived. Both archmages were unconscious, but they somehow managed to sustain a multi - layered magical shield that collapsed once Kei approached them. The burns were so bad that they could not speak, not yet.

She quickly stabilized them with her familiarÆs healing abilities. Despite how horrific the burns were, they were heroes, and the healing quickly restored them. Though they were exhausted and weak, even though somewhat healed, Kei escorted them out and brought them to the nearest town where they got food and shelter.

- Well, thatÆs over. - I gathered the Valthorns. - As usual, weÆll have to face the issue that the heroes may be hostile or may be friendly. We will initiate our hero - preparations procedure again. - We had this preparation since the crusades, mainly to consider how to fight heroes on our home ground should the temples order another round of crusades.

There were four of them. Five if we counted the missing hero. We knew that two of them were mages, and they had good shields, shields strong enough to stop the demon kingÆs last bomb. They also survived the demon king, so that should put them in the level one hundred twenties. In a straight combat, we were in trouble. Even with both Lumoof and Edna, I thought itÆd be a long shot if we even won. So avoiding combat should be the first priority.

At least the propaganda from the temples were not outright hostile these days, so hopefully the heroes didnÆt turn out that bad.

They would have to mop up the rest of the demons, too. There were still demon champions and large hordes of demons left unchecked. The heroes would get to them soon, perhaps in a month.

- We should start aid, - Lozanna proposed. - ItÆs a good way to win friends through the reconstruction process. -

- This is usually the period when they start maneuvering for territory and start their own kingdoms. WeÆll need to be careful not to get tangled in a case where the kingdoms use our support as a weapon or shield against the heroes, - one of the lords presented some diplomatic implications.

- Agreed, but we can just decline or pull out should that happen, - Lozanna proposed.

- Then we as a faith will look weak, because we canÆt resist the heroes. ItÆs a signal to the temples that we are afraid of the heroes. -

- No, no. LetÆs step back here. WeÆre not going as a missionary force, and weÆre not going to be some pillar to stand up against the heroes or the other temples. WeÆre sending workers, craftspeople, farmers, druids to help fix the damaged lands, and if we encounter any hostility, we will pack up and move, - Lozanna repeated. - We can do this without having a need to appear as a political entity. -

- Then what you are suggesting is a clandestine aid operation? Any action we do will be viewed through national, geostrategic, or geopolitical views. How strong, how weak we go. -

Lumoof paused. - I believe it may not be a problem if we go weak. -

- Then we wonÆt be winning over allies in the south, so why go? -

Lozanna took a step back. - I think we need to draw a line here on whether weÆre going for political reasons or going for the purpose of assistance. IÆm voting to go and provide assistance and help the nations rebuild their lives a bit faster. -

The debate went on for a while. I was all right either way, whether the council decided to go or otherwise. In the end, Lozanna volunteered for a small assistance group, supported by the priests.

I also needed more Domain - level servants, and Johann, Roon, and a few of the druids kept on grinding the level one hundred twenty dungeon. They were at the edges and stagnating, around the early level one hundred forties, and yet it wasnÆt moving much.

- Level one hundred twenty isnÆt enough, A/ , - Roon vented. - WeÆve done this for months, and weÆre not leveling. SomethingÆs not right. -

Patreeck and my artificial minds quickly made comparisons between their experience and that of Edna and Lumoof. The analysis revealed that there wasnÆt much difference, except they didnÆt participate significantly in the conflict with the demon king. Did the system actually require some kind of - significant - event - record in order to move past certain levels?

But. what about me? Did the fragments help override the system or give it a boost?

I needed more power to feed the ley lines. I wondered, just wondered, whether heroes could supply the power needed to summon super - tier dungeons. No. back about the idea of the sun. Could I create a portal to the sun and then use that as a magic source?

Of course, I asked Stella about the possibility of creating permanent portals. In theory, yes, but the further it was, the more difficult it was to be permanent, simply because the void and space was subject to so much interference and fluctuations that the mage or portal - maker had to constantly adjust their skill or spell in order to account for those changes. A super - strong solarflare or a magical supernova could rip your portal to shreds, if at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

The way between worlds was a forest and perhaps also a sea that was constantly moving. The path was a bit like trying to create a bridge made of floating ships through a volatile sea. It was easier if it was nearer, since the distance traveled wasnÆt too far. I wondered whether it was better to just, well, be the ship and float on the sea, but anyway, it was certainly possible to establish a - permanent - portal, given enough mana, time, and having the right skill sets. Distance increased this complexity by introducing disruptions and fluctuations. Both source and destination also played a part in the complexity of the process.

I thought about it, and then Stella went back to research.

I thought of other ways of cracking the problem with the creation of a high - level dungeon. I decided I would experiment using my roots as electrical cables and move the mana from the various ley lines to a single location.

The thing was a dungeonÆs power source could not be a living thing, and so, if the mana came from me, it would reject that source and only consider the non - living thing. It also had to be at a certain level of stability and quantity, which caused the dungeons to reject mana batteries as a source of augmentation.

So I needed a magical root that absorbed the mana from various ley lines and then dumped that at a particular location where the dungeon could then use it.

I tested it out with a few dungeons, and creating the roots that were independent of me wasnÆt that difficult. Essentially, IÆd make the root, but then cut it off once ready.

It didnÆt work, even though the mana was still moving through the roots. I tested it out, too. What other ways could I trick the system into accepting the mana as a valid source of power? Could the solution be something extremely simple that I had never considered so far?

The heroes recovered quickly; the wounds and physical damage were gone. But Kei was worried.

- We need to get them checked for parasites. They could have parasites like Alvin. AlvinÆs parasite was initially dormant, too. -

- Why? Do they have any symptoms? - I asked, curious why Kei suddenly asked.

- No, no, they donÆt. But itÆs just. what if they did? We have to check. -

- With your familiarÆs healing skills, did you detect anything unusual? -

- No. -

- Then why are you worried? -

- Because it just feels uneasy. They look all right, I think. Physically they are back to tip - top shape. But you never know. They could have some accumulated, hidden damage that only something as strong as your magical biolab can pick up. -

Stella rolled her eyes. - ThatÆs like taking a kid to an MRI because he hurt his knee. If thereÆs no symptoms, leave it. -

- A/ Æs testing doesnÆt have side effects like MRIs, so itÆs really a risk - free test. -

- Get them to a priest or a healer and have them checked for any soul damage. -

- IÆve done that, but the priests are so low level IÆm not sure they are even able to see through the heroes natural protective defenses. -

- Then thereÆs nothing to be worried about, - Stella said.

- ThatÆs a death flag. -

- Being a hero is a death flag. No. ItÆs a death sentence. -

- Fuck. -

The mop - up operation of the remaining demons lasted just a month or two after the heroes recovery. Still, they didnÆt expect to see Kei back then, so they thanked her for coming to their aid.

I kept digging underground, and by now I explored about thirty to forty percent of the underground areas of the continent. During this time, we also dug up the area near where the elven capital once stood. It was supposedly destroyed during the Rottedlands era.

- Something doesnÆt seem quite right, - I mused to the Valthorns, summarizing the underground explorations.

Alka, my chief researcher, nodded. - Indeed. The amount of remnants we dug up seems rather small for what was a large capital. -

- Could everything be destroyed? - a senior druid proposed. - So many other kingdoms were destroyed that day. -

- Indeed, but most of them left behind a lot of noticeable debris or damaged structures. - Alka soon ordered a far bigger archaeological study of the area. Within a month, we mapped out the debris and places where the damage was found. Indeed, there was a large circular area where there was very little debris or ruins. It was strange.

- What are we theorizing here? - Edna asked.

- Is it possible for the destruction to be so uneven? -

- It could be something that exploded and then destroyed the city before the demon kingÆs sludge reached this place. - We soon created a lot more magical sensors in that area in hope of cracking the clue, but we didnÆt detect anything at all. Perhaps whatever magic that caused this had faded after the decades.

- If something happened, we were too late, - Alka said.

The death of the demon king meant the seas and oceans returned to normal. Gradually. The storms closer to the Southern Continent were the first to recover from the turbulence. It would still take some time for the traders to resume; usually those merchants that were forced to change their jobs or businesses in order to adapt to the turbulent weathers would still need some time to research which trades were worthwhile, while some of the more - confident - or - foolhardy - merchants would immediately jump back. These were usually the first to move anyway.

During this time, Patreeck picked up some interesting individuals through his mind - reading abilities. These guys had magical camouflage abilities that hid their presence, but they could not mask their very clear - thought bubbles. -

- The artifact is acting funny. That missing hero is not here. -

On closer look, I felt like IÆd seen that thing before. A hero - locator. No, more importantly, there was something pressing against my presence, and I pressed back. The little mental or magical tug of war happened only shortly, then it disappeared.

- False positive. Again. - The two talked. I remembered how I felt like they seemed really high level all the way back then, but now, not anymore. Based on my much more refined magical sensors and my inspection , I suspected they were in their level sixties but had special equipment to support their tasks.

They paused.

- Someone just used Inspect on me. - Ah. They had a counter - detection ability. That was interesting. It functioned just as how my domain protected me.

- Me too. Stop talking. This means whoever did that could hear us. -

- Oh. What do we do? -

- Retreat. -

At that point, Patreeck asked, - Should we pursue and follow? Once they are out of my mind - reading range, itÆll be hard to find them. - His mind - reading powers essentially revealed all - hidden - characters, a bit like a detector.

- Yes. But donÆt kill them. I want to know what they are plotting. - I quickly called on my high - leveled Valthorn rangers and scouts. They had counter - espionage skills, though they were a little underdeveloped due to my extensive tree network.

My rangers gave chase, and they seemed to know it.

They fled. In fact, they actually disappeared out of my sight for a while and managed to throw fake trails that led my rangers and scouts on the wrong path.

Their skill or ability had a time limit, because about two towns away, deep in the woods, my trees could see them appear out of their illusions.

- The hell was that? -

- WeÆre too careless. - Well, they still were. - We shouldÆve known a supposed deity could see through our invisibility charms. -

- Okay. Okay. LetÆs calm down and review what we have. We didnÆt detect any sign of the hero. -

- A/ has a depository of hero - items. So our artifact is probably detecting that. -

- So heÆs not here. -

- He might still be in the south, then. - They took out their bag, and I saw something that looked pretty broken, a circular disc that was cracked.

- When did that break? - one of the spies asked the other.

- I. I donÆt know. I was too busy running away. -

- We need to report this. -

At this point, I decided to let them believe they managed to lose my scouts. I kept my eye and watched them make the entire journey to the eastern seaboard and then got on some ships. Throughout the entire time, I learned a few things.

They were part of an organization called the Laenza, and they were trying to find heroes. I wasnÆt sure they were helping them, or trying to kill them, because it seemed they were prepared for both.

- Find more info on this. Laenza. -

What we soon found was that there were actually multiple members of the Laenza even on our Central Continent, but most of them were only mid - tier individuals, around level thirties to fifties. They had attempted at various times to recruit individuals of higher levels but with mixed success. There was very little they could offer the nobility that they could not already obtain in some way or form from the existing structure.

Those we interrogated revealed nothing unique, other than the Laenza was a group dedicated to assisting heroes in their tasks. Or killing them, if they were detrimental.

They also had a magical ring that was hidden by magic but soon revealed itself when brought close to me. It seemed that my domain had an anti - illusion effect. I wasnÆt sure what it did, but for now, it went into the magical labs for research.

More importantly, what did they want with the missing hero?

29

YEAR 182

We looked back at the stars again now that the demon king was defeated. We noticed the path that the demon king used turned extremely dim. It just seemed like these - paths - were all taking turns, each getting stronger over time. Once they reached a certain strength, the demons would then open a path.

I also didnÆt understand how the demon king actually moved across worlds. Like, if Stella took so much energy just to send Lumoof to a nearby world, it must take a few magnitudes more to send a demon king that far. Unless, like Stella herself, the demon king was able to create a portal on its own.

So I looked back at the tainted demon core with far more interest. Was it possible that the demon core wasnÆt actually a core of some kind, but actually a mobile void generator of some kind?

- DoesnÆt that explain the explosions? If the demon king kept the void energy within itself, a crack in that shielding caused the void energy to react explosively with its surroundings. Especially if star mana was used extensively to defeat it. - That was how Alka somehow succinctly explained a problem. - It also posits that, if we were able to defeat the demon king entirely without the use of star mana, it may be possible to avoid the explosion at the end and preserve a pure demon core for our research. -

- ThatÆs a horribly difficult thing to do. -

Stella was rather fascinated by the idea and looked at my tainted demon core with great interest. She tested it and attempted to use void mana with it, and it did have some reaction. But again it was complicated by the hybrid mana it required. - I think your demon coreÆs just broken and distorted by whatever it experienced. -

- YouÆre saying this thing that I have is a dud. -

- IÆm saying it is broken. ItÆs like a. erm. paint thatÆs meant to be white, but now itÆs mixed with some other color and can never be white again. ItÆs like trying to repair a broken mirror, really. -

. fuck. Unless I break it up and try to rebuild it again. - Are you sure itÆs broken? -

- I think so. When I channel my void mana into it, I can feel it trying to do something but itÆs just not working properly. -

- Can you fix it? -

- I wouldnÆt try. Void mana is inherently dangerous, and this thing looks like it can blow up really, really hard. -

Defeating a demon king without heroes. If that was what it took to get a functional portal generator and get access to the demonÆs interdimensional technology.

But even so, maybe I could use it differently. Could something that powerful be configured to corrupt the pathways? What were these pathways? Were they just markers through some space? What was this - path, - if not a magical data packet through space? Could I build a massive firewall around the planet and filter out all these things? Were these daemolites nothing but trojan backdoors?

- Do you think itÆs possible to hide the world, Stella? -

- I donÆt know. But I suppose I can try to see whether I can interrupt or disrupt it? Move the rift around? -

- ThatÆs a good idea. If you could redirect the demons to the moons and let them stay there and float around harmlessly. Or crush them in the depths of the oceans. If it was me, IÆd try to see whether I could tweak and control the rifts, if I canÆt block it out entirely. -

Stella nodded. - I suppose IÆll try. The zaratans hoped to never have to face hostile demons ever again. -

- When you were there. did you see other demon kings, too? And other heroes? -

- I donÆt know, actually. The zaratans made sure to leave the moment the demon kings were about to arrive. I think there are other heroes there, but I have not met them. -

No. More importantly, if there were other heroes, was it possible to gain fragments from them? Or was the system intelligent enough to differentiate me and those heroes, that I was a summoned person from Earth to this world, not that world, so I was not entitled to the fragments of that world?

What else was duplicated? No, if anything, IÆd like to meet other spirits. There must be others, from those worlds. If we could gather a collection of like - minded spirits, weÆd have a force that could stand toe to toe with the demon king and obtain that demon kingÆs core.

No. What if we were thinking this the wrong way? If I had a core like that, I could find a world that wasnÆt yet touched or seen by the demons, colonize that world, and gradually move the inhabitants of this world over there. Eventually, that world could grow into a powerhouse that could reinforce these worlds that faced periodic demon kings.

Or I could use the portals to find a world rich in magic and create powerful dungeons where great heroes could be forged out of mere mortals. Surely the level of natural magic and ley lines in each world was different.

I shared these ideas with my confidantes again. Stella merely wondered. - It sounds like you truly intend to create a multi - planetary empire to compete with the demons. -

- Well, yes. If I cannot hide or avoid fighting them, then I must have the firepower to push them back so decisively that they can do no harm. And once I can do it for one world, I will expand it so that I can do it for multiple worlds. -

- Sounds like the true beginnings of a multiplanetary god, - Stella quipped. - I mean, no offense, but yeah. ItÆs kinda scary. -

- Scary? -

- Yeah. Being so close to a being thatÆs a borderline god is scary. I mean, some days I donÆt realize it so it feels normal, but some days, it just dawns on me that you could kill tens of thousands without batting an eye. -

- The heroes could do that, too. Any high - level individual could. -

She was silent for a long while. - ThatÆs a good point. The whole level dynamic really changes the whole equality thing. ThereÆs no equality when thereÆs at least a magnitude of power difference between people of different levels. -

- The system is merely facilitating such differences, but there are other ways such differences can play out. Even in your world, money and political positions do make some more powerful than others. -

- But thatÆs indirect power, through their ability to mobilize others. Here, the level system meant every single person could gain levels and cause a whole load of pain. ThereÆs no equality at all when the power levels are so different. ItÆs like asking humans to grant equality to ants. ItÆs never going to be equal. At best, itÆs fair. -

Stella just laughed after she finished that sentence

- Anyway, IÆm not really trying to debate such weighty stuff. I just wanted to say youÆre scary. No. People in this world are scary. You guys are like superheroes with superpowers. I mean, this entire leveling system makes superheroes out of normal people. ItÆs a wonder this world didnÆt destroy itself. -

- With your own levels, youÆre not very far away, either. You are powerful in your own way, archmage. So itÆs rich coming from someone who can walk to another world. -

- Uh. yeah, I guess thatÆs true. By the way, do you. uh. ever talk about it? - By now, the news that I had the memories of another world spread to almost everyone in the senior Valthorns, and that included Stella.

- About? -

- Your life before this. Before. tree? -

- What is there to talk about? -

- I mean. you donÆt miss home, too? -

- . no? Perhaps some of the tastes and pleasures, yes, but I had few friends and some family. We were all right, and maybe they will be sad, but I believe they will be fine. -

- You sound. confident. -

- ThereÆs nothing I can do, is there? At least, for the first two centuries, the idea that itÆs even possible to get back did not ever occur to me. This seemed to be a one - way street. -

Stella frowned and looked a little sad. The years had taken their toll, especially those forty years in the other worlds, even if her levels somehow granted her vitality. If she wanted to live longer, sheÆd need to reach the higher level one hundreds. - Yeah. I suspect itÆs really like that. But IÆll still try. -

- Well, what level are you? -

- IÆm capped at level ninety - five cumulatively. Most of my levels are in Void Archmage and some of my earlier Artist class. - She exploited the trick with void magicÆs destruction of the soul spring to free up her levels, simply because when the - level bricks - were destroyed, you lost levels.

- Hmm, you have a higher natural cap. -

- I do? -

- Level ninety - five is ten levels higher than normal. -

- The heroes donÆt have a cap. -

- They donÆt, but they are heroes. They get special rights. -

- Maybe itÆs my Late Bloomer skill. -

- No. Skills rarely change your level caps. - It was strange. Was it possible that void - related class and skills just used less space in the soul spring and that was why she could level more? - In any case, IÆll need to train you up to the higher tiers. -

I gave her the soul - strengthening seed the next day and had her continue researching the tainted demon core. I wanted to be sure, like, very sure, of what it was and that it was star mana that corrupted it. I needed to be sure, because I would have to form a strategy on this conjecture.

There was strange news coming from the temples. The temples somehow claimed that the gods summoned nine heroes to fight the demon king, and five perished in their battle. There was no mention of the missing hero, nor did they acknowledge their presence.

I had wondered before how the temples knew about the heroes. I believed they got notified; perhaps those closest to their gods got informed by way of a ping, just like I did. Or perhaps they had some artifacts that allowed them to receive such notice.

My senior priests clearly did not get the notification, so how did the other priests know about the heroes?

- Can we find out how the temples know of the heroes arrival? - I asked the leadership team. One of the lords quickly responded.

- Some say the gods themselves bestow the leaders with a message. -

- It is a saying. I want to know for certain. -

The diplomats and the Valthorns would activate their intelligence network to gather the data. Perhaps some of the priests would talk and reveal their secrets.

30

YEAR 183

The demons were eradicated, and the four heroes were - free. -

- IÆm coming back, - Kei said. - And the four heroes are coming with me. They want to see the journals. -

They arrived by ship at our southernmost city. There was no fanfare for them; I forbade it. In fact, they arrived so quietly very few knew they were heroes.

- Well, youÆre on the Central Continent. - Kei nodded. - So next weÆll need to get the four of you to Freshka, where the journals are kept. -

Chung, the hero archer, immediately asked, - Are we walking? Or magic? -

Colette, the archmage, shrugged. - I could use teleport, but whatÆs the fun in that? We have all the time in the world now. -

- ItÆs more efficient. -

- Usually taking the long way means we gain more levels and get to earn some extra skills. Who knows what weÆll discover? -

- IÆm more worried if this is a trap. -

Kei shook her head. - ItÆs not. -

- I trust you enough, Kei. But you cannot say for sure itÆs not a trap, - the archer responded. - Your patron may have other plans. IÆve seen enough of this world to suspect Ken may be right after all. -

Ken. The missing hero. Kei didnÆt press it. - I donÆt think A/ will do that. ItÆs certainly not in A/ Æs interest to make enemies out of four heroes. -

Chung didnÆt reply. - LetÆs just go, but weÆll keep our guard. - My trees subtly detected the presence of magical shields. They were on guard, even with Kei. - And please, no communication with your patron without us present. ItÆs just. suspicious. -

Kei nodded. The archer was quite tense, like he was going to shoot arrows at any time. The other three seemed quite relaxed, though. Kei walked to the portÆs Valthorn office and spoke to one of those present, with the heroes nearby. - All right, it seems itÆs already ready. -

They walked to a building that was arranged similar to a large bus interchange, where multiple convoys of beetles were parked. There were different platforms, each headed for a different destination. At the end were the - express - and - charter - services.

Given the relative safety of the Central Continent, my beetles took on more utility and support roles. That meant they functioned as the blood of the transportation network, the engine that kept people and goods moving.

Colette laughed. - This is so Ghibli. Beetles as an express bus. Seriously. -

Kei somehow laughed with her. - I actually never thought of that. -

- WhatÆs Ghibli? - Prabu asked.

- Never mind. -

The beetle convoy had eight large carrier - beetles. They were each the size of a truck, and they had a fully furnished cabin on their backs. The smaller, regular - size beetles acted as escorts and protectors, but very few bandits ever attempted a raid on the beetle convoys due to the retaliation from my constantly watching artificial minds. There were multiple artificial minds dedicated to just managing the logistic networks of beetles.

Kei just repeated the itinerary to the four heroes. - FreshkaÆs quite far from here, so itÆll take about four days from all the way in the south. These beetles will need one stop, just to restock, but you can just chill out and wait. -

The four heroes mostly played various games found in the cabins. The cabins each had four beds, and a living area for the passengers to relax. There was some food, mostly preserved foods, stored in little magical containers to keep them fresh for the journey. Sadly these preservation spells didnÆt last very long so there was a need for a restocking station.

Colette, the female archmage, was extremely interested and kept asking Kei about everything. - So these things are magical fridges. -

Kei nodded. - Magic solves a lot of things. Those gems emit a constant cold and freeze. They just need to be recharged before every trip. FoodÆs prepared offsite at dedicated kitchens and just loaded onto trays. -

- ItÆs like airplane food. - Colette was very amused. - ItÆs so cool. -

The other archmage - hero, Prabu, ate it happily. - ItÆs a little jarring, from the levels of poverty throughout the Southern Continents, to this. -

Kei sighed. - ItÆs not as widespread as our world. You guys are getting the best treatment, by the way. These cabins are reserved for the wealthy and nobility. -

- It starts that way, right? - Colette smiled. She was really young; I thought she looked like she was only twenty. That meant she was. sixteen when she was summoned.

Prabu, on the other hand, was just munching down all the snacks in the cabin. - Oh god, junk food. How I missed junk food. - One of Kei and StellaÆs great contributions to the economy of the Central Continent: junk food and snacks. That meant sealed packs of dried, deep - fried fish skins or potato chips. - Seriously, this is good. -

We had to use magic to get some of the effects, and we were not able to truly mass - produce them the way our industrial factories were able to, but every few months, our smiths and inventors made steps that took us closer to that eventuality. Our contraptions were getting more sophisticated, our machinery more robust and complex.

Chung was always tense throughout the four days, even though he did partake in the games and the snacks. - ItÆs way too peaceful. I. IÆm not used to it. -

Kei shrugged. - ItÆs not a perfect place, but I imagine this to be life under a robot overlord. -

- ThatÆs not exactly a glowing review, - Chung responded.

Kei merely smiled. The four days passed by quickly, and they were then closing in on Freshka.

Now that they were closer, I saw their features a lot better. They still nursed scars from the battle; their healing was well done but incomplete. A lot of the subtle magical fluctuations I could not fully see through my other trees were now obvious to me.

Their presence and auras also pressed against mine, and mine held.

- It feels kind of. stifling, - Chung said. He clearly felt my presence, and I too could see through a lot of the energies that were clashing. Some kind of Damage Aura and a type of unknown wind - like energy.

Kei nodded. - Ah. Yes. Uhm, I suggest you retract your auras if you have them. -

Prabu nodded. - I donÆt see a need. Mine feels like it just coexisted with the presence. -

The beetles went over the outer hills of the valley, and the entirety of Freshka was now in view. A large expanse of green, with a few towers, representing the city, the School of Treeology, the Academy, and the Treetiary College. There were smaller areas, the newly set up void school, and the expanded merchant areas. Gigantic trees were everywhere, and they towered over various areas of the city.

Freshka was now home to almost two million people, and it sprawled throughout the Freshkan Valley. There were sectors, each meant to support the academic institutions.

- Wow. - Prabu, Colette, and Hafiz all went gaga for a moment. - This is like the biggest city IÆve seen. -

Kei laughed. - ItÆs not the biggest. Some of the northern capitals are larger in terms of population. But it is the most impressive because of the massive trees everywhere. And itÆs not where you all are going. -

- Huh? -

- WeÆre headed to the real valley. The one thatÆs hidden. You may choose to visit the city later. After your goal. -

The tree that held the journals waited for the next set of logs.

31

YEAR 183 (PART 2)

The beetles stopped outside the tunnels. The place was unassuming, but the heroes could tell the presence of my camouflage and illusions abilities here.

- This looks like the perfect location for a trap, - Chung said as he took in the tunnel.

Kei nodded. - That is the intention. A/ is located somewhere thatÆs perfectly defensible. -

Prabu just tapped ChungÆs shoulder. - ItÆs all right. We survived the demon kingÆs deathbomb. We can take whatever this tree can throw at us. No need to be overly suspicious. -

Colette smiled. - LetÆs go. I think itÆs fine for Chung to be suspicious. We canÆt all fall for the same trick, right? -

Hafiz just grunted and started walking. The tunnel was relatively short for them, and they were out on the other side and in my own personal valley, the home of my giant trees and the still - burning flames of the dark mana. These days they were a lot smaller, so it was just little embers, small flames that lit up from the branches.

I liked the flames. It gave the valley a very unique look and feel. A burning valley, yet not hot because the heat had been transmitted outward by my roots.

ColetteÆs eyes lit up. - Oh, this is so. -

- Anyway, the journal is in one of the trees. We wonÆt be seeing A/ , not unless you guys want to, - Kei said and led the way to the tree. The tree had a magical door, and they walked through to see the book.

The book was a large tome; it grew slightly after Kei inserted her own memories some time ago.

- Well, itÆs here. All you need to do is touch it and itÆll interact with you. IÆll leave now so you can have your own time with it. The rest of the hero items are downstairs. - The tree had expanded to have a few floors internally. The journal was first, the rest of the items left by the previous heroes downstairs.

Chung held up his hand. - IÆll do it first. -

Prabu shook his head. - No. ItÆs clearly magical, so IÆll do it. - Prabu walked up and touched the journal, and he just stood there.

- Prabu? -

He just froze there. Chung immediately turned to Colette. - Is he all right? -

- HeÆs alive, - Colette said. - ThereÆs a lot of magic swirling inside. -

Prabu turned. - I. I need a while. I need to process this. - He magically moved a chair close, and he just sat down, one hand on the tome. - Just, uh. relax? -

Colette, Chung, and Hafiz shrugged and soon settled on the chairs and cushions in the tree. The entire area was decorated like a comfortable library. Prabu just sat and closed his eyes. After an hour or so, he stood and turned.

- Yeah. IÆm all right now. You guys want to give it a shot? I need to pee now. -

- What was it? - Chung asked.

- ItÆs. itÆs like the condensed memories and personalities of the heroes before us, and their lessons. What they saw, what the gods said, what theyÆve seen from the demons. ItÆs just like. a bit of everything. Even KeiÆs in there. -

Chung nodded and sat down where Prabu sat, and he too touched it. He froze and sat there for an hour, too. At some points, his face changed to show various emotions, like pain, like sorrow. In the end, he stood.

- . I was wrong. Ken needs to see this. - Chung looked at Colette and Hafiz, who were both still waiting for their turn.

- Huh. Hell of a drug for it to change your mind. - Colette looked at Hafiz. - You think we can both touch the book together? DoesnÆt make sense that only one of us can touch it at the same time. -

Hafiz just nodded in agreement. He waited for Colette, and they both pulled a chair close and touched it together.

Chung stood, and around the same time Prabu came out of the washroom. Prabu went straight for the snack bar at the corner. - How did I miss the snacks? -

Chung rolled his eyes. - Seriously, Prabu. Is it time for snacks when we just saw that? - He pointed at the book. Prabu snorted and started eating. - Really? -

- All IÆve seen made it pretty clear weÆre just pawns. May as well enjoy ourselves first. - Prabu munched. - And IÆll start with eating snacks when I want to. -

The archer merely rolled his eyes. From here, in the tree that held the journal, I could observe and listen in to their conversations. The archer and the archmage took opposing sides of the snack - covered table. Chung just frowned. - ThatÆs a very negative way of looking at it. -

- Those before us clearly thought that way, though. - Prabu munched. - Some of them descended into debauchery and had many lovers, perhaps as an act of vengeance. -

ChungÆs frown continued. - ItÆs just an excuse. The gods may have put us in a spot by giving us this shambolic hero role, but we are still responsible for our own actions. -

- Not if they are clearly influencing our minds. - Prabu just kept eating. - Now that we can step back and reflect on what weÆve been doing, weÆre pretty crazy. Young teens sent to another world on a mission to fight demons with superpowers. The way we are dedicated to that cause and kept on doing it despite the horrors weÆve seen, IÆm pretty sure the gods have a hand in it. All four of us didnÆt crack at the deaths or the horrors. IÆve seen so many mutilated body parts. -

Chung didnÆt seem to expect that from his compatriot.

- So the godÆs magical influence is clearly not just to make sure we do our job. ItÆs probably to assist us to face the horrors of the world, too. It hardened our senses, numbed us to death and gore. I mean, it does seem like the gods touch attempts to hammer these goals into our mind and somewhat converts us into these robots. Okay, robots are a bit too strong. The gods make us obsessed with demons, and I see in our predecessors that they attempted to deal with that obsession with other obsessions and vices. I already see it in me, with snacks. -

Chung snorted. - Does being an archmage make you so suddenly intelligent? -

- Occasionally. IÆm pretty sure the system made me a mage because IÆm smarter than I look. And youÆre an archer because youÆre all tense and all that. Like a highly strung bowstring. Like, you gotta like chill, man. -

- Fuck you. - It got a laugh out of the archer.

- IÆm serious, Chung. The demon kingÆs dead, but with all that tension you are carrying, your muscles are gonna knot themselves up and choke you to death. - The archmage handed him a bowl of snacks. It was deep - fried, crunchy leaves coated with some kind of mixture. I probably should ask Lumoof to have a bowl one of these days, so that IÆd know what it tasted like.

- ThereÆs always the next demon king. -

- ThatÆs like saying you statistically have a 0.0001 percent chance of dying when you take a bus. -

- Which happened to us. -

Prabu paused and realized he seemed to have said something stupid. - YouÆre right there. -

Chung took a bite this time, instead of abstaining. - You know what? This is actually pretty good. -

- I know, right? - Prabu nodded.

- But seriously. We need to do something. I mean, we know the demon king can see us. They can see us once we have crossed a certain level and stuff. The demon king will be hunting us. -

- We could do what Kei did: camp here and if the demon king comes for us blow the shit out of it and then land the finishing blow, - Prabu said. - I honestly thought that was a very clever move. We engage in battle on our terms and stack the odds in our favor. -

- But that means working with this. tree. -

- WhatÆs so bad about that? WeÆre pretty much divine mercenaries. Ken seemed to think so, and now we know heÆs pretty much right. -

Chung paused. - I should drop him a message. - He activated a magical glowing ball and spoke to it. - Hey, Ken. I know youÆre out there, but I just wanted to let you know that weÆre safe, and weÆre on the Central Continent now. And uhm. you should get here and see this journal left by the old heroes. I think itÆs quite similar to all that stuff youÆve been talking about, that this whole thing is a ruse. -

The ball of magic transformed into a glowing arrow with a letter wrapped on it, and the arrow wooshed into the immaterium.

Prabu smirked. - We should ask Kei to come in. She saw this before. -

- I think we should have our own discussion first. Just four of us before we ask her to come in. She was a hero, sure, but weÆre not sure how much her new form is subject to the control of this. tree. -

- YouÆre implying sheÆs not who she says she is. -

- She could just be a golem of crystal combined with the copied memories of the real Kei and the real Kei is long dead and weÆre dealing with essentially identity theft. -

Prabu rolled his eyes. - YouÆre sometimes a step away from being as crazy as Ken. -

- I know. We are best friends, you know. -

- Seriously. -

Colette and Hafiz were done, too. Colette didnÆt seem particularly fazed, but Hafiz was straight - out weeping. They both soon collected themselves and sat with the other two heroes.

- DidnÆt take it very well, dude? - Chung said.

The knight or paladin - I wasnÆt sure what his exact subtype was - nodded. I wondered how Hafiz would stack up against Edna and whether their powers were comparable. He let out a huge sigh. - . bad. ItÆs so bad. -

Colette could still smile, though. - Felt like I was in a movie, you know, like watching their lives flash by before me. I found it rather sweet that they took the effort to make this memento for us who came after them. ItÆs a really good idea. -

Chung then asked, - All right. Important question. Did you share your memories with the book? -

Hafiz, Prabu, and Colette nodded. Chung frowned. - I didnÆt. -

Prabu thought for a moment. - ItÆs okay. Not everyone should share, actually. ItÆll be a good thing to test whether this will have drawbacks. -

Chung nodded. - Exactly. YouÆre not stupid after all. -

Prabu materialized a wooden staff and attempted to bonk Chung on the head. He blocked it with a wooden plate.

The female archmage took a bite. - All right. I feel we all need some time to digest what we saw today. So letÆs just go check out the previous heroes items instead. ItÆs just downstairs. -

They all nodded.

Nothing much happened when they went downstairs. They were rather fascinated with the Harris - era items due to the summon - mechanics it employed, and KeiÆs - tower - mechanics. -

- WeÆre like vanilla heroes, - Prabu complained. - Two archmages, a knight, and an archer. Seriously. -

- WeÆre missing a healer, though, - Chung responded.

Colette frowned. - I feel like IÆm missing some context about all these game stuff you guys speak of. -

- ItÆs just game classes, - Prabu said. - Kinda like traditional RPGs. -

She frowned. - Traditional RPGs are weird. I only played a few mobile MOBAs, and they donÆt split classes this way. -

Prabu paused. - ThatÆs actually a good point. Guess this worldÆs gods are like from the older generation where their rules are more 3E than mobage. -

They didnÆt take anything. Not yet, anyway. They wanted to think about it a bit more, and the rules left by the previous heroes required them to essentially exchange their own hero - made items, or add their own, before they could take those made by the prior heroes.

They returned to Freshka where Kei placed them in a nice inn. When it was late at night, Chung snuck out alone. Prabu and Colette slept, while Hafiz walked the city.

I followed them, of course. Chung ran all the way to an open field outside Freshka, where there was nothing but shrubs. Then he activated a set of skills and then a magical glowing ball, again.

- Ken, you there? - he asked softly. He had a magical bubble that protected himself.

- . are you really safe? - A voice was on the other side this time. Ken. I could still listen in; after all, there were shrubs and grass all around, and he neglected to cover the ground.

- Yeah. ItÆs. itÆs quite safe here. No, itÆs so safe, itÆs jarring when compared to what weÆve seen the past few years. -

- Hmm. So that book that you saw, I should see it? -

- I think so. ItÆs similar to what you talked about. I mean, they donÆt have your angle to it, but I think their perspective would be valuable. -

- Think I can sneak in? -

- With the right spells, probably. IÆll make a hero item with a marker so you can find it. -

- I see. Got it. How are the others doing? -

- As you expected, theyÆre taking this way too easy. No, actually, IÆm even surprised at how easily I am accepting all this. -

- I knew those guys werenÆt entirely honest with us. Who the fuck gets outworlders to do their dirty work if they have nothing to hide? If they are gods, they should have tons of entirely gullible followers to manipulate, so it didnÆt make sense at all why they needed us. -

Chung just nodded quietly. - Where are you? -

- You know I wonÆt answer that. -

- That book says that the demon king can sense our star mana. When our levels cross level one hundred, the demon king could probably sniff us out. -

- I suspected that. The heroes and demons are opposite polarities of a magnet meant to collide. They must collide or they will mess things up. -

Chung sighed. - So what do we do? After I saw that book, IÆm convinced you are right, but I donÆt see a way out of us. Not without dying. It says something that all previous heroes die, and I think weÆre meant to die. -

- WeÆre designed to die. WeÆre essentially disposable Band - Aids. I feel we have two ideas if we donÆt want to die. -

- Which is? Get stronger and defeat the demon kings consistently? - Chung stated the obvious.

- No. We know the gods tell us that the demon king changes every time, so each demon king will stack against us differently. I feel we should figure out a way to trick the gods to summon more heroes. -

- By letting them think we are dead? - Chung paused. - You mean like Kei? -

- The golem? ThatÆs not my ideal result, honestly. I would like to keep my powers, not just retain a fragment of memories in some other form, - Ken responded on the other side. - WeÆve got slightly less than ten years to prepare, and personally, I want to know whether we can run away. If we do, or somehow vanish from the eyes of the gods, do the gods summon new ones? -

Chung looked around. It was dark in the middle of the night, but he was well covered with a heavy cloak. The wind was strong, but it didnÆt affect him all that much. - Huh. Want me to look out for it? -

- IÆm a mage, too. IÆll figure it out. -

- You donÆt have to do this alone, you know, - Chung said.

- I know, but I want some independence to pursue slightly more. unconventional ideas. -

- Blood magic? -

- Maybe. IÆll let you know. -

Freshka. The heroes walked around and explored the city and noted the presence of strangely modern facilities. Of all the cities on the Central Continent, Freshka was the most magically modern. There were magical equivalents of most common machines, like fridges, magical wagons and trains, magical lifts, with a healthy dose of trees between everything.

Kei walked with them.

- ThereÆs a theater! - ColetteÆs eyes immediately homed in. - What do they play? Anything from our world? -

Kei shook her head. - Nah. The lords and nobles of this world love political drama, so the theatres here are more like episodic sitcoms. The nobles come to watch the writers of the imaginary story of nobility go through the challenges of life. -

- Seriously. - Colette frowned.

- The paying group are mostly wealthy nobles, and they have huge egos so they love stories about them, even if indirectly. Theater is something enjoyed by the elites, not the masses. -

Colette stomped her feet. - Things like this really reminded me how horrible this world is. -

The other three boys chuckled.

Kei brought them to one of the Valthorn - maintained segments of Freshka. She knocked and led them to one of the houses that very much resembled a modern home.

They saw a middle - aged lady sitting on the table.

- Astia, these are the heroes, - Kei said to Stella. - Heroes, this is Astia. SheÆs from Earth, too, but as an accident. -

- An. accident? -

They met, and Stella gave a brief overview of how the accident happened. At this point, Kei was also aware of the Frozen Tree, but not aware of AriaÆs true nature as another - accident. - Edna and Lumoof wisely kept their mouths shut about Aria and Aispeng. The discussion between the heroes and Stella was polite and didnÆt touch on much. Stella did not mention her nature as a void archmage, either. Perhaps she thought they would have known, if they made any research.

- Well. At this point, this is it, - Kei said.

- What do you mean? -

- IÆve brought you here and introduced the surviving outworlders to you. -

- You wonÆt introduce us to the tree? - Chung wondered.

Kei paused. - You want to meet the tree? I mean. I could ask, but. -

Chung paused and looked at the other three heroes; they shrugged. Prabu paused and then asked, - Actually, we were wondering whether we could somehow cook up an arrangement like you. -

- Me? - Kei responded.

- No. I mean your strategy of softening the demon king with traps and bombs. ThatÆs smart stuff. -

- It worked because we could detect and pinpoint the exact location on the Central Continent. If the next demon king doesnÆt appear on the Central Continent, that would not be possible, - Kei said frankly.

- This detection ability, is it something that can be shared? Is it an artifact or a tool? - the archer asked.

- IÆm not sure, but my gut feeling is itÆs something like A/ Æs own sense. If it is his senses, then it wouldnÆt work outside of the continent. -

- Unless we move him to another continent, - Prabu said, and I mentally flinched at the idea.

32

YEAR 184

The heroes eventually left; well, they split up, really. Prabu, Colette, and Hafiz decided to travel to the Northern Islands, and they wanted to do a - world tour, - at least before the next demon king came along. So a few middle - ranked Valthorns were assigned to just bring them to the sights of the Central Continent.

Like KeiÆs battlefield, and the Rottedlands. And some other stuff like volcanoes, some beautiful beaches and reefs. But not in ReefyÆs area. That was a no - go. I did not want Reefy and the heroes to ever meet. Not now, not yet. Not when Reefy was still generally murderous.

The archer hero, on the other hand, took a ship back to the Southern Continent. It seemed that he had other plans, and it involved some magical preparations.

Throughout the entire thing, it seemed they remained oblivious of my ability to see them even from this distance, these days I felt that was truly my superpower. The ability of a massive hive - mind of trees to watch the entire continent at once, so long as there was a tree or a grass or a bush present.

The two archmages, however, were not exactly just having a holiday. They were brainstorming for some kind of an idea.

- Look, from what we see in the heroes memories, thereÆs clearly merit for preparations. All the heroes that fail do not prepare all that much. We must over prepare for the next demon king, even if its skillsets are different. So I propose building a super - flexible arsenal. - Prabu spoke one day while they were touring the northern shores. They would sail to the other continent soon.

- All right, IÆm interested. Go for it, - Colette said. - What do you have in mind? -

- The demon kings have as many shots as they want at us, and they just need to get us one time to win. The demons bring an adapted arsenal each time, each more honed and better at killing us. -

Colette frowned. - All right, spit it out. - Hafiz clearly nodded at the other archmageÆs words.

Prabu simulated some kind of global map. - We become weaker over time, especially during a battle with the demon king. We also donÆt know where the demon king will appear. So my idea is we need to have small recharging bases everywhere, places where we can run to instantly restore our health, our star mana, and also equip ourselves with powerful gear. We need to build mini - mechas for ourselves, with different weapon loads. -

- And this will help us when weÆre outclassed by the demon king? -

- ItÆll make us more durable, and we can fight longer. Our levels are the main thing that we have that gives us a chance to survive. If we can gain more levels, we can live. -

- WeÆre still pretty soft, - Hafiz said. - WeÆve seen how it took two shields to protect ourselves. -

- Our hero items, for example, amplify our powers and make us stronger, and yet our hero forge has odd limits. Like the size of our items, and the nature of powers that we can infuse into it, and how many functions. -

- And? - Colette was impatient.

- We need to find allies who can help us make superweapons. - I was really tempted to tell them I was trying to do that, too. But I supposed this was like being one of those old farts in a really big company watching a young one join the company and try to do something theyÆd tried doing a long time ago.

At some point, IÆd probably lose track of all their names, too. Especially when the names started repeating, because it was inevitable after so many generations that these hero names would start repeating. Maybe IÆd get a Tiffany, or a Kayson, or a Rei. And maybe a Mambo Number 5. This was part of aging, right? As a tree, everyone and everything started repeating itself like the seasons going through its regular cycles.

Even the heroes were starting to feel same - ish. Like they started to fall into these - tropes - of the friendly one, the resisting one, the crazy one. Just rehashed and remixed versions of the same few underlying components, at different ratios. The schemes too felt similar and felt like something I was trying to do, too. Like, the whole superweapons idea was essentially my own mini - nuclear crystals.

How do you deal with it, for things to feel like everythingÆs meant to repeat itself? I didnÆt know why that made me talk to Lilies, but I supposed it was life. Despite me trying to hold on to life and meaning, I was cursed to watch things repeat. Because it was just how it was.

I even felt like I had this question before. It is life as it is, fleeting, ever changing, and yet remains the same. It is the irony of our long lives, that we have more to do with it, and yet find that everything has been done in some way or form.

ThatÆs shit. I mentally sighed. It tended to result in my branches and leaves swaying in the sighing motion. Even heroes with their unique powers eventually fell into types, and I wondered if I was like a voracious light novel reader at the tail end of my journey, feeling like everything had been done before and nothing was fresh.

Does it bother you?

A little bit, I responded. I tried to remember that life had meaning, even if itÆd been done before. So what if all these people tried to do the same thing? If it worked, it worked. Must every new hero attempt to change all norms? No. If the heroes wanted to try something that may work, then they should. Just because those before failed didnÆt mean they couldnÆt succeed.

I was at a different level now, and my powers to push the arc of the world grew with each level. If the heroes wanted a way to sufficiently deter the demon king, I should assist them.

Do you bother doing the right thing?

Sometimes. When we feel like it, Lilies responded. The tide of fate pushes everyone.

At our levels of power, can we not resist?

The worldÆs gods have changed, as you have found yourselves. What more of us?

If you put it that way, why bother doing anything?

We feel like it. Some of us.

I certainly donÆt see you as one of whims and fancies.

Some of us are. We try to capture them, these fleeting emotions, from our own, and from that of the dead. Each of us holds a little more strongly to some types of - memories, - emotion, - and - moment. -

Huh, so each of Lilies was a hivemind of different feelings.

While all things eventually form part of the cycle, you should see it as your contribution to the cycle, like we are the spokes of the wheel, like we are the sun and stars that holds the world together. Though they do become parts of the cycle, part of a recurring movement across the stars, the sun does not stop from playing its part. It is not duty, it is not right. But it is just the way it is. We bend the world in years, decades, and centuries. We are gardeners of the world, tending to the plants even though they wither eventually. So they may flower so momentarily, usually when we are not looking. We care for the garden as a whole and would sacrifice a few for the betterment of the garden. Right is a relative concept.

That was a long one from Lilies.

Right is relative to the powers and goals we have, if we have one. Right is measured against what we care and feel are important, if there are such things. Even in the cycles of great things, they have a path. For most mortals, the world would force a few steps back before letting them move ahead. This see - sawing motion of resistance and breaking resistance is instrumental to growth. We as plants, we defy the natural forces of the world to rise to the skies. The higher we go, the stronger the forces push back.

This feeling of sameness, it was the forces of inertia trying to exert itself on me? Wait. How did I even get to this point?

I felt like mentally slapping myself. - Patreeck, can you check whether IÆm all right? Any gods trying to meddle with me? -

- No, Master. -

- Strange. Why am I thinking such weird thoughts? -

The heroes clearly tried, and Kei volunteered to approach the local Valthorns authority for some building permissions for the heroes bases - all - over - the - world plan.

- So youÆre essentially planning to leave some kind of hero item in these locations? - the Valthorns asked Kei.

- Yes. -

- ThatÆs a strategic risk for us. What if they turn against us or other heroes not aligned to us activate these hero items and destroy whatever thatÆs around us? What if they use these locations as waypoints for their teleportations? -

- They didnÆt do that with existing hero items. -

- But these structures can be activated from afar? Lady Kei, you know very well that this is a strategic risk. The committee will not approve this, and you will have to go to A/ to get dispensation. -

- But the heroes. -

- This is something A/ and the high council must decide, - the Valthorn officials responded. - Matters of strategic risk cannot be decided by provincial officials. -

Bureaucracy permeated the entire Central Continent, overseen centrally by my council and senior leaders. My artificial minds generally oversaw the bureaucracy, though they were more concerned with threats, internal corruption, and dissent. - Then I will have to go to meet A/ ? But the heroes are leaving soon! -

- They can return once approval is obtained. -

My artificial minds helped to track the expected timeline of the next demon king. It was relatively easy to do, now that my ability to view the astral star - ways meant the timing was super clear. I could see them come, literally. They were at least seven to eight years away. That was good. The heroes still had a lot of time for their plots.

Ardi, Lozanna Æs human husband, passed away from old age. He lived a long life for a human, about a hundred years, and already his lifespan was extended by his levels. He was in the early level sixties. Perhaps he wouldÆve lived a few more decades if he reached level eighty.

They held a small funeral for him in Freshka, where his body was buried in accordance to a simplified version of Gawa Æs death ceremony. In the recent, later years of his life, his age really showed, unlike Lozanna , who was a pure - blooded elf. Lozanna even today looked only a little bit older than the day she left on her big journey around the world.

Arlisa and Lauda, too, returned to see their father. Laufen, as the mother - in - law, also attended the funeral. About a week after, Laufen sat down with Lozanna . - Do you regret it? -

Lozanna sipped her tea. - I donÆt know yet. I remember telling you I wouldnÆt, but now that it happened, IÆm not so sure. -

Laufen merely held her daughterÆs hand. - The thing about us elves is that when our children marry someone not as long lived as us, we will often witness the aging and death of our great - grandchildren. Like Arlisa and Lauda, as half elves they will live much longer lives, but eventually, they will die before we do. It is a very sad thing to witness our childrenÆs children and their children leave before we do. -

Lozanna just sat quietly as she digested the gravity of the truth.

- But I believed in the beauty of the moment. ItÆs something humans and those with shorter lives like the lizard people are incredible at. Their ability to throw caution to the winds and just be at the moment. Us elves and the treefolks, too, have a distorted sense of time, and we worry too much about the future. -

- . yeah. -

- So, go spend time with Arlisa and Lauda. - Laufen smiled. Lauda did not inherit her motherÆs love for spear - combat. Instead, he was more of an academic and reminded me of Roma, who was now a senior executive at one of the Central ContinentÆs many trading companies. He hated her momÆs dungeon expeditions and preferred more leisurely pursuits like writing and arts. - Preferably not both together. -

The two siblings, born so many years apart, did not see quite eye to eye. They were born in different times and with different expectations. Lozanna at one point was rather stressed that she was one of the strongest in Freshka, but now, I had Edna, Lumoof, and many others who were now stronger.

Perhaps it was the weight of duty that as one of the strongest, she felt, even if a tiny bit, responsible to this nation that I built and not - free - to live the life she wanted. In a sense, I believed I neglected what they wanted personally. That weight lifted, Lauda was able to grow up with a more confident, less stressed mother, and that, too, reflected in how relaxed LaudaÆs disposition was, compared to Arlisa, who was confused and easily stressed, despite her natural talents.

Training people was really a gamble. They didnÆt always turn out the way you wanted them to, and they often had plans on their own. This was something I concluded, and so the way I could maintain a steady talent pool was to expand the talent pool and keep looking. People like Edna, or Lumoof, young or old, so long as they had the drive and the spark, I was willing to give them a shot.

Because IÆd seen many talents fizzle out after a good early run. Lumoof, as an example, was one of those old guys who had a second wind. Now he was the second strongest. Life was strange, and a lot of it required opportunity, drive, motivation, and the right mindset at the correct time. Some of these talents had to be given time to stabilize, to mature on their own before they were ready to be pushed further.

It was a numbers game and also about spotting them as they rose up.

Talent was something Freshka was dedicated to training. It was why I wanted all these different academies, to train different people for different things.

But like Arlisa, it was also important to acknowledge those who had all the talent were spotted and quickly groomed but then just fizzled out.

Some were like that. Perhaps something sniffed out the fire in them. Perhaps the comfy environment of the academies stifled them. They needed to be out alone, struggling against the world, to succeed. People who seemed to have similar circumstances could perform wildly differently.

Despite that, I still saw the merit of having a robust talent - collection network. One Edna or Lumoof easily outweighed the cost of training one hundred thousand students who never got there. In truth, about fifty to fifty - five percent would end up as above - average individuals in the level fifties to sixties. About thirty to forty - five percent would drop out, usually plateauing at about level forty, and a smaller two to five percent would rise up to about level eighty. This was despite these individuals being already pre - selected for some talent. This also took years, especially with the fifty to fifty - five percent bunch. They worked hard and had some talent, and yet the journey remained tough.

Throughout the Central Continent, we had multiple - smaller - academy towns, feeder schools to train even younger kids in just basics and recommend anyone with an iota of talent for further development. With the relative safety and prosperity of the Central Continent, especially in the past few decades, we noticed a subtle but soon noticeable decline in young children and more young children pursuing more trade and mercantile exploits.

As quality of life improved, it seemed that families were also getting smaller. I thought this was just a modern world phenomenon, but it seemed even in a world like this, generally improvements in living standards did lead to decline in childbirth. Which was extremely strange, and I needed to investigate more.

There were clearly better facilities to support young children, and there were centrally funded nurseries and creches. And yet families were just getting smaller.

33

YEAR 185

- IÆve got bad news and good news. Bad news first, - Stella said, concluding her years of experimentation into the Tainted Demon Core . - That tainted demon core you got, IÆm very sure itÆs busted. ItÆs damaged and cannot be repaired, not with my level of ability. Not without causing a detonation. After multiple tests, IÆm sure whatever caused it is due to damage from an unwanted interaction with star mana. There were few really convincing scars throughout the core. -

I mean, it wasnÆt the first time sheÆd told me it was busted, but I requested that she did tests to be absolutely sure. It took a lot of time, of course, and I had to assist her over the past few years with the - hybrid - mana - and supplied tiny bits of - star mana. -

- So we have a dud. Confirmed. Now, the good news: from what I saw and can reasonably conclude, your idea that the demon core is a portal generator is very likely to be correct. From the internal structure and the design, IÆm now about ninety percent sure the demon core is a massive shielded void battery and portal key. There are some undamaged component elements of it that responded so naturally with void mana, and there were magical pathways that tried to access some records or pathways in an inbuilt library thatÆs unfortunately mostly damaged. -

That explained the sensation that the tainted demon core wanted to do something, like starting a computer that had some hardware failure. It was accessing the still - functional parts of the demon core but unable to fully complete its startup.

Stella, of course, knew I had earthly memories by now.

- ItÆs pretty much like a starshipÆs hyperspace reactor, stellar map, and guidance module rolled into one. -

- All right. Very sure itÆs star mana damage? -

- Ninety - nine percent, - Stella said.

- So, if I want the demonÆs way of sending someone like the demon king over, IÆll need to kill a demon king without using any star mana. -

- Well. whether the demon king is alive or dead doesnÆt really matter, isnÆt it? -

34

YEAR 186

We heard stories of the heroes completing their tour of the Northern Islands. They spent close to half a year visiting various kingdoms and cities and apparently created some defensive devices, too. Then came the stories about assassins.

The heroes were attacked by assassins armed with hero - items. This wasnÆt in any of the official channels, but it was clearly noticed by my ValthornÆs network of spies.

So much so that one of the top spymasters came to me with a request to send more people to the north.

- You have the floor, Master Intip. -

- The north has been one of the more difficult places to crack. The natural archipelago means news travels slower via conventional means, and magical messages are often disturbed by the magical winds. -

- We face those challenges elsewhere, - Lumoof responded. Certainly, islands and magical disturbances were not exactly uncommon.

- Indeed. But weÆre facing assassins. Already ten of our informants have been killed, and our own agents are on the run. We need high - tier individuals in the north, not just the regular rank and file in the level thirties to fifties. -

At this point, I asked, - Do we not have higher - level spies? -

- Spies are essentially a thieves and informants. Their classes are fundamentally criminal in nature. The spies we have essentially recruited from the noble classes, who traditionally served their lords to spy on their neighbors. - Internal disputes between my vassals, essentially. They died quickly, and often, so the good ones didnÆt last very long. This was a flaw, clearly. I did not realize that my dependence on my trees as my main intelligence network meant there was no real program to develop my espionage and spy forces; even if I could grant them higher - ranked classes, they still needed opportunity and challenges.

But it was too late. IÆd have to fix it for future conflicts. - All right, so what do we do now? -

- We can send our higher - leveled Valthorns in, those in their early level fifties, and train them in some spy skills, - Master Intip proposed. - This would give our spies the combat competence needed if thereÆs a fight with whoeverÆs killing our informants. -

Edna paused. - These. assassins, are they related to the Laenza? -

Kei, who happened to be in the meeting, said, - When I was there, I encountered and engaged the services of another organization. The Rosewood Alliance. -

Master Intip nodded. - The Rosewoods are one of my primary suspects, but we are still attempting to establish a motive. They used to work with us, at least, on a lower level, but something has changed recently, and theyÆve refused to talk. Those that we captured didnÆt say much, except they wonÆt work with us. -

- Any suspicions? -

Kei paused. - Is it because of the heroes? - At that point, Kei repeated what her experience was and what she said to the Rosewoods.

The spymaster clearly nodded. - I suspected it had something to do with our earlier mission, but we were not aware of the contents of that conversation. ItÆs clearly something that should have been shared a lot earlier. - The spymaster glared at Kei, and Kei shifted uncomfortably.

- It seemed they already knew it was us, then, and also had something to do with the heroes. How does this tie in with the assassination attempts on the heroes? How did these group of assassins have hero - items, and what are their motives? -

- My sources claim it is an ancient feud. They are a cult of demonic worshippers that attempts to harness the demonÆs powers to bring salvation. -

That sounded really familiar.

- They are often mixed with those who used blood magic, but a few decades ago, those who used blood magic separated from them, and theyÆve pretty much disappeared for a while. But few know the truth. -

Edna frowned. - If they have hero items, they can threaten any of us. These hero items are not so easily found, so how did they get their hands on it? -

- And hero items are all really bulky if they need to be recharged. -

- This doesnÆt make sense, - Lumoof repeated. - If their goal was to annihilate the heroes all along, Alvin was there right for the picking. -

Edna jumped it. - ItÆs possible that thereÆs another group, these Rosewoods who are working against them. These two forces are battling it out in the dark. -

- Lady Edna, are you speculating that the Rosewoods consider us aligned to these. hero - hunters? -

- Possibly, but our past action of healing Alvin should clearly suggest we are not affiliated. -

At this point, I jumped in. - ThereÆs also the Laenza. WhatÆs going on with that? - How many - parties - were at play here?

- The Laenza are more of a loose alliance of hero - friends, but there are bad elements whoÆve infiltrated them who are from these hero - hunters, - our spymaster explained. - They used to be more of a supporting cast, hoping to ally with the heroes for benefits should they survive, but theyÆve weakened considerably after some bad bets. -

One of the lords stepped in. - All right, the Northern Islands are a collection of small nations. The largest of them hold the biggest islands. Are they all pro - heroes? -

- No. Some of them are outright anti - heroes despite being part of the four temples. ThereÆs an odd relationship where the temples tolerate their heretical behavior. -

- And how do they get away with it? -

- They justify it politically. That itÆs not a religious disagreement, but a political one. That they disagree on heroes on political principles. -

- That kind of shit gets accepted? -

- The ways the four temples blend propaganda, rhetoric, and the twisting of words is quite an artform, - the spymaster commented.

Lumoof actually laughed. - To be fair, as religious leaders, we are often asked to take sides on political matters. So many of the kingdoms and vassals of A/ had asked for special status and recognition in the name of faith. -

- All right, so what now? We need more resources in the north, correct? More firepower. But that doesnÆt solve our problem of lacking information and losing our network. Having the swords to back up our people is one thing, but these people were there for decades. - One of the lords brought the conversation back on topic.

- Indeed. But it is the best we can offer at the moment. It is also a risk, because with hero - items on the table, it is possible that these hero hunters may use them on us if they feel sufficiently threatened. -

- Wait, wait. LetÆs take a step back. What are we trying to achieve in the north? -

- Build a network of informants, in order to have valuable military and hero - related information. Keep ourselves informed on their movements, so that we can prepare for any unusual movements. -

Was this really necessary?

- Aria. - I activated the ice mirror that linked me with Aria. Lumoof was present so that I could speak through him normally. - Do you have informants in the north? -

- Nope. IÆm a hermit, remember? All I do is hide in my part of the world. -

Ah. I had hoped they had informants in the north, given her general proximity.

Lilies, what do you know of the north?

Only the tales of merchants and adventurers.

Ah. Another rejected one.

Was spying really the only way to gain information?

- Are there any nations in the north with proper diplomatic relations that we can contact? That can act as our informant of the north? -

Surely there were magical solutions to this, perhaps magical farsight or something to that effect? My mages quickly commented, yes, there were such spells to allow remote viewing, but they were costly and required more mana than normal.

This led me back to my earlier research on ocean - crossing roots. Previously I had limitations, in that my trees had to surface at certain distances. Given that there were vast swaths of oceans where there was absolutely no land, this made this method unrealistic.

Next was the idea with Stella for a - permanent - portal. That meant opening a portal linking my continent and the north and then, through that permanent portal, extending my trees to the north.

Stella posited it was not yet possible, since she would still have to close the portal, and that meant large segments of my trees would be disconnected from the network. Was this really a solution or just a stop - gap?

- So why do you want to open a portal there? -

- Spread my trees? Having my trees there means I can access the magical energies there, - I answered, ignoring that trees also extended my vision and intelligence network.

- Do you have some kind of magical feeler? -

- Yes, pretty much. - I wasnÆt lying. My magical labs were essentially magic sensors.

- Why not test it out? - Stella proposed, so she opened a magical portal with the assistance of other young void mages . My roots went through it, and I could see a new place. I felt the cold, and my trees felt the chill, too. A familiar sensation.

Cold. I quickly spawned more trees, and Stella watched more trees appear along the path of my roots. The portal opened somewhere in the largest island in the north, but even so, the overall population of the islands tended to cluster around the coasts.

I didnÆt know where I was relatively speaking. The portal just opened somewhere in the proximity of the Northern Islands, but I just kept expanding.

- All right, close the portal. -

The portal closed, and it severed my roots. I instantly felt the loss of those new trees on the other side. It hurt.

Losing trees hurt. - Ah. Open it up again. -

Patreeck immediately shielded me from the cries and sorrow from my other trees. It seemed that even till now, I was vulnerable to the sensations felt by my trees.

Stella nodded and opened it up again. I sent my roots over and didnÆt find the trees.

- Hmm. it seemed that my portal drifted and did not open in the same place, - Stella mused, and the other void mages joined in.

- ThatÆs not good. -

- Unless we have something like a beacon, it may be hard to lock the portal to a specific location. Void magic is inherently volatile like that, but the portal will hold. -

- CanÆt you open a normal portal? -

- I only have void mana. YouÆll have to get someone else to do it. -

- Ah. - I gathered the archmages, and they commented that maintaining a long - term portal would drain huge amounts of mana, so it wasnÆt feasible for them. - Surely if Stella can do it, you guys can open a portal, too? -

- Well, it will consume more mana and will transmit our presence to the whole world. -

Oh. That was a distinction between a normal magic portal and a void magic portal! Void magic was imperceptible to others.Stella then quickly debunked it.

- Not exactly. I can sense the use of void magic by my students. If IÆm not wrong, if thereÆs someone who could use void magic, they would sense my portal on the other side. After all, IÆm doing the magical equivalent of connecting to points through the void - space. -

Huh. So no one used portals to invade because using portals was like telling the whole world I was here. But how did a portal differ from a teleport spell? I mean, it looked like there was, but was there?

- A portal is a folding of space. A teleport is a folding of self into a shell and then sent through space. ThereÆs a distinction in the execution of the spell, - an archmage explained. Taking this concept, did the demons open a portal through the rifts, or were they - teleporting - to our world?

- A portal for sure. Those rifts are portals. -

- If the demons can do it, why canÆt we? -

- We donÆt have their level of magical understanding, - Stella said. SheÆd been leveling up since her limiter was cleared, and now she was approaching level one hundred ten. I gave her special permission to join the Valthorns in the level one hundred twenty dungeon raids to help her level up.

- All right, okay. Can we apply the teleport concept to traveling through worlds? -

Stella nodded. - IÆm not opening a portal when I travel through worlds. IÆm only floating through it on a little ship. But I canÆt remotely send someone on my ship when IÆm not on it. -

- Unless we teach everyone to be a void mage. -

- Well, yes. -

Alka, my field scientist, wanted to experiment on the star - mana and void - mana interactions. Of course, the idea was simply to replicate the mechanics of the demon kingÆs deathbomb. Alka, being more of a generic mage, had to spend a lot of time figuring out how the demon kingÆs tainted core worked.

He had to make smaller experiments first in an attempt to understand the concepts used in the massive tainted demon core. Not all of it was relevant; after all, if StellaÆs understanding was correct, this core was mainly a battery and also a world portal. We were trying to understand how it reacted with star mana, which was not part of its original design.

Or was it? I wasnÆt exactly sure whether the demons were that deliberate in the way they engineered the demon core, such that they blew up on exposure with sufficient accumulated star mana.

- If this core is designed to blow if star mana hit it, then wouldnÆt it be possible to just hit it with star mana, cause it to blow up, and take down the demon king with it? We saw from our own earlier battle that the demon core is hidden somewhere and has a threshold it hits before it blows. It can endure a certain number of star mana before exploding. -

- Or the demon kingÆs own energy regulates and suppresses the core from blowing up, - Kei retorted. - If so, the idea of extracting a demon kingÆs core is probably futile because it will blow up once taken out of its suppressed state. -

With no one to ask and no clear understanding of how the entire core worked, it was a risk we would have to take when that day came. For now, Alka kept experimenting. Hopefully, with the additional knowledge, we could figure out whether it could be safely extracted.

His experiments, as always, caused explosions of various sizes. Explosions were good; after all, this entire research was about making better bombs.

It built on years and years of continuous experiments, even when I wasnÆt particularly paying attention, and he came up with bigger, stronger bombs by weaving magic a little tighter, timing them a little closer, and using improved amplification spells and designs. A long process of small, incremental changes.

Void magic and the interactions with star mana offered a chance for a quantum leap. The change when man moved from conventional explosives to nuclear bombs.

AlkaÆs initial experiments, though, somehow scared him. The way star mana and void mana interacted was just naturally explosive, and there was something exponential at work, even if we didnÆt understand it.

- This may destroy the world. - Alka privately relayed his worries. - We should never get to that point. - With AlkaÆs calculations, at least based on our data points, that amount was significantly higher than what we thought the heroes were likely to have, but we didnÆt know what the upper limit of the heroes was.

But they could achieve it. The heroes and the right amount of void mana could pretty much destroy the entire world. - I would not ask you to get there. Our goal is to end the cycle, not end the world. -

Alka nodded and went back to his experiments, but Patreeck mentioned concerns of his mental state as he walked ever deeper into more and more complex magic.

Back on topic on the Northern Islands.

- So what do we do? - One of the lords complained of the sixth meeting about the north. - WeÆve had so many meetings and no conclusion. Are we sending muscle, or are we not sending muscle? -

- I thought we already established we are going to send, but we are now trying to figure out how to avoid hero items being used against us? - another one responded.

The spymaster shrugged. - The hero item is essentially a great leveler for the north. On the Central Continent, we can count on A/ Æs overwhelming power to offset the hero itemÆs advantage. -

I could open portals, but already, I could sense my power projection was not great. The portals did not transmit power very well, quite unlike the demonic rifts.

There clearly was a qualitative difference in the demonic rifts and the portals. Why did the rifts allow me to transfer or project power to an entire world with just a small loss, but the portals imposed greater power - loss via transmission? Was it a quality of the portals, that they had lower throughput?

I brought up this issue to the group, and Stella, surprisingly, nodded. - I think itÆs just the size of the pipe. As you know, portals cost mana to maintain, and the more power you push through the portal, the more mana it costs. Just as how it cost a lot of mana for me to send Lumoof to the other side. I believe the same is with the portals. -

- So if you open a full - powered portal, I could increase the power output on the other side? -

- Theoretically yes. - A test soon proved it to be true; he felt the trees on the other side gain strength they didnÆt have, but again, the portal lasted two hours before closing and fully consuming the mana of all the gathered void mages.

Instead of using the portals, I thought about Lumoof. Lumoof was my avatar, and my link of power through him was linked in the system. Could he function as a conduit? A wireless connection?

So I summoned him and sent him through a portal. Thankfully, it was still within the same world so the spell didnÆt cost all of their void mana. Then I activated the active avatar state.

At that moment, Lumoof, who was alone in the middle of nowhere, glowed, and then he levitated, and a magical frame resembling a tree appeared around him. The roots of the magical tree embedded itself into the ground.

I was now in the north.

Lumoof could only enter into this state a third of the time, the rest of the time he would have to rest, but between LumoofÆs self and the portals, I could theoretically use Lumoof as an anchor to send more people through, especially in combination with my Vine - Ropeway Network, which allowed me to send anything between two connected trees.

- A/ , with this, you could theoretically invade any of the other continents? - Lumoof mentally pinged; in this state, our conversations were through our shared mind.

- Indeed, but doing so means you are disabled and are locked into this tree form. It is less useful than your normal form. -

- I certainly donÆt see it that way. We could use it on other worlds, too, and expand your treeÆs reach there. -

Indeed. Lumoof would be the key in any demon world invasion, such that I did not have to fear the collapse of any portals.

Ah. Back to the meeting.

- Send the muscles. You will have reinforcements, - I declared to the group. - Lumoof is already in the north, and through him, my presence will be there. -

We would focus on those plans some other day, but for now, it was time to crack the north.

After decades of being locked to the Central Continent, it was time to make full use of my avatar and infest the north with my trees.

35

YEAR 187

The north was a chain of islands, but that honestly didnÆt stop me. It seemed that no one sensed LumoofÆs presence, well, except Aria and Aispeng.

- YouÆre in the Northern Isles? - they asked through the mirror.

- Yes, through my avatar. - My trees gradually expanded, and I added artificial minds to support the amount of monitoring.

Here, I detected a second - barrier - or - bottleneck. -

There was a limit of how much information that Lumoof could send and process. It was still a decently high limit, we could simultaneously look at about twenty places, and I couldnÆt switch views instantly. That meant there was still value in having a real root connection. Somehow, all of this information flowed through Lumoof, and it taxed his mental capacity heavily, even with the assistance of the extra minds.

A person, even if he was a high - leveled avatar, was not meant to be full - on - god mode. -

My trees spread discreetly and quickly, adapting to the appearance of the local flora. At first, a lot of it was just pointless chatter. We had to filter that out. It occupied too much of LumoofÆs brain - time.

I tried creating an artificial soul there, through Lumoof, but I couldnÆt send the souls I gathered here to Lumoof. That said, Lumoof was in fact a portable soul - collection machine with the avatar ability. This meant, if he fought with the heroes, he could actually facilitate the gathering of Titan Souls!

Yay! He was like a massive soul vacuum cleaner, and he was collecting the north.

- Come to think of it, do you collect souls? - I asked Aria and Aispeng. After all, they were spirits in their own way.

- No. Not our department, - Aria responded.

Then where did all the souls in the north go? Surely they must go somewhere, or did they drift along?

I tried using my soul powers to interrogate the collected souls. This power was rarely used because when I could see and eavesdrop on almost the entire continent, that was a much more reliable information source than interrogating the dead with their incomplete memories due to death. After all, incomplete information without context could be dangerous.

Still, in the north, I needed to quickly gather information, and soon I chanced upon the dead souls of two operatives.

- Kill. Hero. -

- Why? -

- Hero. Enemy. Mission. Rewards. Dead. -

So there was a reward if the hero died? What kind of reward?

- Big money. Levels. Special. Class. - A special class for those who killed heroes? That actually made sense. - Power. Immortality. -

- ThatÆs awfully vague, - Lumoof remarked mentally as he, too, was a participant in my interrogation of the dead. Even if they had pointed us in a direction. -

- I faintly recall killing heroes results in a curse. - But only if they were killed before their designated demon king perished. Thus, for this generation, they were all targets.

- That is probably also true, but worth it. Given the risks, the rewards should be fairly good. -

- If so, surely there must have been successful hero - killers in the past. - If there were, they managed to hide themselves from the historical records available to us.

But then again, why did I need records when I had Lilies and Aria? I quickly asked the two about whether they knew of the hero killers. It was a no from both of them. Lilies commented that they had never met hero killers.

Hmm. Surely there were people who killed heroes, even if entirely by accident? It couldnÆt be that the heroes were so lucky, right?

Or they were.

- ItÆs not easy to kill heroes, though. - Kei frowned. - WeÆre pretty tough once we hit level one hundred. We get all sorts of natural defensive perks, and most of us have abilities to ignore low - level damage. WeÆre also usually immune to one or two elemental types that we are aligned to, and we get most status effects negated. -

- Most, - I wondered. - ItÆs possible for a hexbomb to kill you. -

Kei shifted uncomfortably. - Well, yes. A hexbomb would be bad. Wait. Are you saying thereÆs a plot to use hexbombs to kill the heroes? We need to warn them! They may not be aware of hexbombs! -

- IÆm sure they are. TheyÆve seen the journals, no? - I retorted. - HarrisÆs generation faced hexbombs and a world riddled with hexbombs as a demon-champion countermeasure. WeÆre lucky those days are over. -

The first of the Aiva Triumvirate arrived via ship. They were led by one of the Triumvirs, Grandmaster Engka, and they came in one of the finest ships weÆd ever seen. A beautiful warship of a glistening paint of gold and bronze and loaded with magical enchantments. Accompanied by a small delegation of Aivan Templars, his arrival was a secret, of course, but everyone noticed the presence of a warship like that.

- Not a hero - item, but very high quality as they go. ItÆs been in their care for centuries and painstakingly maintained, even if their craftsmen and ship workers couldnÆt quite repeat the mastery of the ancient times. - Lozanna explained her experience, and she was one of those tasked to greet the Triumvir.

The ship was parked in one of the larger port cities on the eastern coast. - Nice to meet you again, Lady Lozanna . - Engka gave a small nod as he stepped off. - It seemed that A/ truly meant business. -

Lozanna didnÆt quite smile. - ItÆs been a while indeed, though I must admit I accepted this assignment at great reluctance. Allow me to introduce the officer in charge of the escort. -

Engka laughed. - Still bearing old grudges, I see. - There was something faintly divine in his presence. To my spirit sight, it seemed like there was something else swirling with him.

- This is Lord Johann. The master ranger in charge of your security, - Lozanna introduced. Johann outranked Lozanna as he was in the level one hundred twenties, and was fully informed of the greater details of the visit. Though the Aivan Templars had their own escort, we were not taking chances.

Already their arrival sparked rumors, and I had my artificial minds on high alert. There were secret messages bouncing between the locals and people from out of town and then ships headed our way.

- I see IÆll be in good hands. - Engka smiled. The templars unloaded crates after crates of items. The dockworkers quickly loaded them on the beetles, the specialized transport for this visit. These were some of the toughest beetles yet. - But tell me, are we expecting company? -

Lozanna glanced at Johann. Johann merely smiled. - No. But we are prepared. - A few of the higher - ranked rangers were also nearby, shadowing their movement. They were there for security and to catch anyone who took the bait. My spirit vision sensed some unusual magic in those crates, things that felt similar to that log I had, but different. Engka himself also had some interesting magical gear, and I sensed at least two hero items on him. If they were so small, this meant these were either single - use items, or hero - items made for normal people.

- Well, letÆs get moving, - Johann said, and a few administrative team members sorted the templars to their respective caravans. The chatter in the background was intense, as many soon asked why the Aivan were on the Central Continent.

We were expecting company soon enough, as my magical sensors detected uncommon types of magic activating across the continent. The agents planted were finally moving, and my minds were watching, marking spies from the other temples, the Laenza, some of the southern kingdoms.

And there were secret requests to the assassin guilds throughout the Central Continent. Sadly, they were all met with a swift rejection. The guildmasters of all these assassin guilds had an understanding that their presence was merely tolerated so long as no Valthorns were targeted, and they had sufficient brain juice to not interfere with my things. Those old enough to remember my punishments decades ago would know better.

Still, with the guilds themselves staying away, these foreign players directed the requests to the assassins personally with hefty rewards. The smarter ones knew better than to accept. Even if they succeeded, they knew they couldnÆt escape. But there were always fools tempted by the huge sums of money.

I viewed this as a net positive. My Valthorns may be high leveled, but they did need anti - assassin practice. And a good reminder to those who had forgotten. The memories of men faded so easily.

- HowÆve you been? - Engka asked as Lozanna sat in the same cabin. It was a large, lush, and well - furnished cabin similar to the ones used by the heroes. - ItÆs been decades. -

- Much better now that IÆm no longer running demon-hunting missions, - Lozanna responded.

- ThereÆs no need for that bitterness, is there? - Engka smiled. - I am, after all, here at the invitation of A/ itself. So how much do you know? -

Lozanna smiled. - Not much, but I donÆt mind. ItÆs better when I donÆt get involved with your business. I am here merely at A/ Æs behest. He figured that youÆd enjoy some banter. -

Engka laughed. - True. The matters of the Triumvir are never simple. That is a wise choice, a wise choice. - He then looked at Johann, who was on a lookout. The caravan of a hundred beetles passed through the valleys and were soon closing in on some patches of forests. My artificial minds pinged that some assassins were going to strike there.

I waited and let my Valthorns do their work. They had to detect their presence themselves, and Johann made some hand signals. A few of the subordinate rangers fanned out.

Engka looked at Lozanna again as he watched the rangers. - I must say, A/ Æs ability to cultivate talent is truly second to none. I would trade my hero items if I can convince some of your rangers to serve me. IÆll even accept you. -

Lozanna responded, - No thanks. -

- The Aivan is really short of capable, high - leveled folks. Surely A/ can share? -

- No. -

- I can count the number of level seventies we have in one hand. ThatÆs how bad we have it. A little bit of pity? -

- No. And certainly thatÆs not something you should be revealing so casually. - Lozanna seemed to have some bad memories of the man, and I wondered whether it was a mistake to get her to be the liaison. She didnÆt reject it, though.

Engka laughed. - Oh, anyone level seventy and above serving for the Aivan church is a public figure through and through. You even met them. -

Lozanna didnÆt reply. The caravan now took the roads through the forests. The assassins struck. The Valthorns intercepted. They were slightly slower to pick them up. The assassins were quite low leveled, some in their level thirties. A few of the assassins backed off, deciding that it wasnÆt worth it once they saw who they were dealing with.

Those who went for the attack found arrows lodged in their heads within seconds. Operatives hired by groups unknown.

- Do they always try to kill you? - Lozanna asked.

- As you should know, I have many enemies, and I believe most of those who try to kill me are my allies. -

The caravan would take three days to cross the continent to reach Freshka.

- The Aivan triumvir is here? - Kei stormed and asked Edna one day. She didnÆt know until the caravan moved. - Why? -

Edna paused and obtained my permission to tell her. - Because they reached out to us for a ceasefire. An alliance. -

- No. My sources tell me the entire Triumvir will be here. They never meet unless something of divine importance. -

Edna nodded. - Yes. It is of divine importance. -

- What is A/ trying to do? -

- A talk with a god. The truth to whether there is a way to end this. -

Kei stared at Edna, her mind spinning as she processed it. - I want to be there. -

- Very well. -

Diplomatic messages and secret messages flew across the world as they speculated about the AivaÆs intention. The other three churches were particularly tense, and they sent strongly worded messages to Engka.

Engka smiled when he received them. - IsnÆt this amusing? -

Lozanna shrugged.

- The Gayan Master of the Temple just demanded that I clarify my presence on the Central Continent. I got similar messages from the Gawa and the Neira, too. Pathetic, when all of us together couldnÆt even muster a force to stand up to A/ Æs overwhelming power. -

- Are you here because of power, then? -

- My personal stance on this, yes. We are weak, and we acknowledge that. ItÆs especially clear now that you could invade the Eastern Continent and win. -

- That just makes me even more suspicious of your presence, - Lozanna responded.

The caravan arrived in Freshka safely. There were a few more smaller assassination attempts, but nothing too big. The caravan of beetles was led to a special clearing site made at their request. The crates were unloaded, and the templars started work. We had mages, builders, and crafters on standby to make any structure or amendments to the site as required.

They built a circular temple with a central clearing, and I would speak through Lumoof. I would have to stop my northern observations for this, but I would do so once they were ready.

- The other two Triumvirs? - Edna asked.

- They will be summoned here. - Engka showed a magical ring. - This is the Ring of the Triumvirs and allows me to summon the others here. - They walked to my valley. Edna was with him, and she was fully armed in her best equipment, just in case.

Engka bowed before my massive tree. I could see his legs shiver, and he seemed pale. - I had doubts, but now I do not. Greetings, A/ . -

- Speak. -

- I will commence the Ceremony of the Heavenly Gate to open a means to commune with our God, Aiva. Three of us will be there to keep the gate open, and we will sacrifice three divine items to maintain it. But once commenced, we will be very vulnerable and will require your protection. -

- You have my word. - Indeed. I had the entire area on lockdown. Who dared to mess with my ceremony?

- But thatÆs not the main point, really. We have never performed this ceremony, and we only learn of it now. Could you ask a question on our behalf? -

I wondered what it could be.

- Why are we left to die? - Engka said.

The site was ready, three hero items in the middle, filled with star mana. Engka twisted his ring, and his ring glowed. For a moment, I saw with my astral sight the world momentarily twist, and then two others appeared.

- Grandmaster Amdar, Grandmaster Mianas, let us begin. - They both looked around and noticed that everything had been prepared. They sighed and nodded.

They formed a triangle; the floor had already been marked. There were runic formations on the floor that I did not recognize, and it seemed that this was new to the grandmasters, too. No matter, they started chanting, and the strange energies within them, however miniscule, vibrated and then glowed. This was entirely invisible to everyone else, only visible in the spirit vision. It shone out and linked together, and then the three items burned, melted, and transformed into a levitating blob of the night sky.

Lumoof had been called back, and he waited. I would activate the Avatar if needed. Still, I early summoned Stella to watch on a hunch. Then we saw it, the blob twisted, and a door opened in the astral starways, so small and tiny.

A light reached out, a stringy light crawled out, and then the front bulged into a wisp. The string was still there, present.

At that moment, the entire world felt it; it was an oppressive feeling. Everywhere, even in the further towns, people were vomiting, and some fainted.

A feeling long forgotten. Lilies spoke through the roots. They live after all.

I would reply later, my focus on the ball of light that stood before Lumoof. Lumoof and Edna was unfazed; their domain protected them and allowed them to stand. Kei fainted briefly but quickly caught herself. Stella, strangely, only vomited.

The wisp formed into a face. - Greetings, A/ . I go by my names across the many worlds I touched, but here, I am Aiva, and long ago, Deyar. My time is limited, my true self many worlds away. Let us speak quickly. -

- Greetings, - I spoke and saw through Lumoof.

- You have questions. Quickly, - Aiva asked. - The time we have for this gate is short. -

- How can we stop the demon kings and end this cycle of destruction? - At this point, this was really the main thing on my mind.

- We donÆt know. We have tried, destroyed some demon worlds, but we failed in the end. The demons are infestations of corruption. They can be delayed, they can be defeated, but they will eventually return. They are drawn to the worlds of the living, but more importantly, they are drawn to us, the gods. They have a vendetta against us, and we fight them across a thousand worlds. They find your world through the remnants of their champions, and also, so long the world lives, they seek to corrupt it and eventually turn it to a demon world. So long as a world lives, they will look for it. Each demon world weakens us all. -

- Can we hide the world from them? -

The wisp paused. - Possible, but not something I can do. Quickly. Next. -

Good. That was something IÆd figure out then. - Why do the gods attack me? -

- I speak not of the others, but we often mistake native powers as nascent demonic presence. It is hard to tell what is a corrupting cancer and what is a robust defense from where we are, our knowledge and information distorted by void, distance, and limited perspective. I sensed some demonic energies in you but am relieved that you remain the master of them. So many worlds lose the ability to defend themselves from the demons, the body weak and in need of external assistance. -

- Can you call them off? - We needed a united front.

- I will try, but they are far away, - Aiva responded.

- Why do you control the heroes? - This was something I wanted to ask for a long time.

The wispy face bobbed. - Oh? Well, the medicine must do what it is meant to do. Strong medicines can often damage and harm the flesh, and so they must be controlled. We cannot inject medicine and then hope that the medicine will find its own target. We tell it what to find and mark them such that the demons are drawn to them. It is a balancing act. If we inject too much medicine in the patient, we may damage the flesh more than the demons. -

. fuck. The heroes were nothing more than tools. I felt something attacked my domain , like something was scanning me from my leaves to my roots. I felt something stir in the distance, my magical sensors starting to ring. Edna, Kei, and Lumoof seemed to take it quietly.

- Why let them die? -

- Because even gods could not be everywhere at once. Our powers are strongest close to us, but the great void of time pushes and pulls on many worlds, and this world has drifted on the void sea further and further away from my sphere of power. It is a great relief to see a native god emerge at long last, however weak you are now. Take my followers, and they shall treat your word as my own. -

- Wait. Your eminence, are you sure this is a good choice? - One of the Triumvirs could not help it. He had to ask. I didnÆt blame them. AivaÆs magical face turned to face the three Triumvirs who struggled to maintain the spell.

- Yes. I am too far to properly protect you. I will repeat. A/ shall take my followers. That includes all of you, - AivaÆs floating face responded, and the three Triumvirs shook.

- I have enough to protect. - Seriously. I already had a continent, but then again, if I was going to end this cycle, I did need more.

- As you grow, youÆll have the capacity for more. The distance between us in this great void continues to grow, and it is an eventual fact that one day, my powers will no longer reach this world. It is far more just and fair for me to say truthfully that my power wanes in this world and better for those who believe in me to seek an ascendant pantheon for protection. -

The Triumvirs could not respond. I had another question. - How long do you have? Will you still summon the heroes? -

Aiva paused. - Perhaps a century or two, much depends on the flux of the void. An ancient pact binds us, the old gods, to defend these worlds. We have to, even if we donÆt want to. -

There was a shocked look on the faces of everyone present. - What pact? -

- ItÆs. complicated. You will know once you ascend. -

- What are you? - Like what were the gods? Where were they?

- We were once like you, though our paths meandered in different ways. Time is running out. - The blob was shrinking. - But here, a small parting gift from me. From a predecessor. Good luck and goodbye, A/ . I, for one, eagerly await your ascension to the divine realm. We are weary from the eons of war, and we could use some new hands. Ones not bound by the ancient pacts. -

The blob of light flashed and entered Lumoof. I felt a bolt run through the link between me and Lumoof.

YouÆve gained 2 levels. You are now level 199.

All tree - type laboratories upgraded.

Whoever wanted to interrupt us was too late, and it seemed a familiar weapon was used against me. A hexbomb. It flew from the south, but it was small, probably hastily gathered. I activated multiple shields to block it, and the bomb was stopped even before it got near the valley.

The blob was gone, and the runes vanished. The three Triumvirs collapsed, exhausted from the gate. Kei looked at Stella. - Holy shit. -

Everyone in the world breathed easier, as the divine presence vanished from the world.

36

YEAR 187 (PART 2)

The Triumvirs heard it from their god, and they were honestly lost for words. How did they even explain that the Aivan church would now be assimilated? Did the prayers now go to me instead of Aiva? There was a lot to think about.

Edna and LumoofÆs first comment was, - A true god is incredibly intimidating. - They had not felt such a strong sensation. Already, messages were flying everywhere throughout the world, requesting for information on what had happened.

- Indeed. I now understand the huge gap between our power. - If the levels each resulted in an exponential bump in power, perhaps the gods would be someone in their. level three hundreds? Or maybe four hundred?

The Triumvirs of Aiva were incredibly puzzled and distressed. - We. we must discuss this. -

- None of you leave, - I said to everyone present, including the Triumvirs. A cage of roots emerged around the entire area and coated it with all the anti - magic aura. - And no messages. -

Everyone nodded.

- First, I want to hear everyoneÆs thoughts. What do you think of assimilating the Aivan faith to ours? -

The Triumvirs were at a loss for words. - I need a lot more time to process this. It is too sudden to find out that our god has decided to abandon us. -

The problem of assimilating, no, taking over the Aivan faith was a lot more complicated than it seemed. If I could nod, I would. - Indeed, and has such things ever happened in the history of the world? -

Lumoof could answer that. - No. In our records so far, that has never ever happened. -

I looked at Kei and Stella, who were both present. I spoke as if I wasnÆt one of Earth because the Triumvirs were present. - Both of you came from the other worlds and have seen similar schisms in faith. Surely your histories would enlighten you the moments where a faith or a temple is torn apart due to differences. What happened then? -

Stella was the one who answered. She was after an adult when she came, so she had a more thorough education on the histories of Earth. - War. Civil war. -

- I ask of you three, and of your knowledge of your priests, and your people. Do you think they will accept an outright conversion to my faith so easily? -

The three Triumvirs all shook their heads. Engka was the one who stood to respond. - No. Many have believed in Aiva for years, decades, perhaps even centuries. So many priests preached of AivaÆs greatness and kindness, of AivaÆs powers, of AivaÆs sense of duty to our world. I am afraid that what that lady said was true. If we were to follow what Aiva willed of us, the Aivan church will break apart. No. I am convinced that they will go to war against us, even if we are the Triumvirs. -

Indeed. - Exactly. This message, if spoken, the other priests of your faith would say all of you have been corrupted, your minds altered by my powers. You three will be hunted and killed. -

The three Triumvirs could imagine it already. Such a message could never be accepted. What Aiva asked was for his followers to abandon what they had known their entire life, and I saw that it was impossible, even if his logic had a sense to it.

Stella looked at the Triumvirs and then back at Lumoof. - A/ , what. what are you proposing? -

- We say nothing of what Aiva had said. - Everyone gasped. - I asked that everyone present to seal those divine words in your mind. -

The Triumvirs looked at Lumoof. - . but? -

- Your god commanded you to obey me. And my first order is for you to keep everything that happened a secret among secrets. We shall maintain our separate faiths, and the Aivan church will continue. Let no one, other than your successors, ever learn of what Aiva has said. -

One of the Triumvirs immediately kneeled. - Thank you, A/ , for your wisdom. - The other two immediately followed.

- Aiva may desire that I take over, but it is not in my interest to do so. I have no desire to wage war against the Aivan church and have no need for the churchÆs followers. - The Central Continent continued to grow, and I wasnÆt about to just accept the shit that this god decided to throw my way. - But we will have peace between us, and in the future, friendly relations. But I may have requests for you that I hope you will assist me to carry out. -

The three Triumvirs nodded. - That should be fine if we keep it discreet and find ways to establish a secure communication channel between us. A ceasefire and a peace treaty should not be an issue, either. -

I saw so many potential pitfalls in absorbing the Aiva faith, and already the world had lost enough. It didnÆt need another crusade, one triggered by the supposed capitulation of the Aivan faith. Those who believed did not see reason or arguments, and people would act based on their feelings and their conviction, even here. When religions back home broke apart due to fundamental differences, it always led to war.

We didnÆt mind wars. We even allowed wars between our vassal kingdoms.

But the Aivan war had the potential to trigger serious questions of the possibility of the faiths coexisting peacefully, and it would be a war aimed at me, and it would be a war we didnÆt need. No, more importantly, I did not want what I was implying: should I absorb the Aivan faith, a similar fate awaited the other three temples. I wanted my faith to be one that could coexist with the other four and that we could all work together.

I also saw problems even if they did accept my faith. I was limited by the natural geography of the world, and so even if they believed in me, I wouldnÆt be there to protect them. It would not be fair for the Triumvirs, either, when they would have to defend my cause and the only way I could do so was to send my Valthorns across the sea and fight a war.

Not until I figured out how to properly cross the oceans. Using Lumoof as an avatar was like a stopgap, and I would like a far more permanent arrangement.

One of the Triumvirs apologized. - I had not expected Aiva to escalate from an alliance to an outright absorption of our faith. -

- At this point, what is the sense among your people? Would they accept an alliance? -

- Honestly, itÆs a mix. Many admire the strength of the A/ ic faith and the powers that backed it. But out of principles and loyalties, many prefer to remain with the other three. An alliance may also trigger some dissent, though I expect it to be milder. That said, it would be riskier for the Aivan believers on the other continents where the other three temples are stronger. -

- Then we shall not rush into it, - I decreed. - Let us have peace, and we shall be friends. Allow our forces to travel to kingdoms who follow your faith. Perhaps in time, an alliance will be a natural evolution from friendship. -

I had the time to play the long game, and there was no need to rush things and create so much bad blood. A war won by friendship would last longer, anyway.

The Triumvirs returned to their temporary lodges, relieved. They would have a lot to figure out, like how they planned to secretly tell their successors. The words of their god by convention was to be recorded in a magical item, so they had to keep it safe.

I made sure they all received a familiar from me.

I turned to Stella. - You saw it, right? -

- Yes. - The pathway through the stars, that temporarily bridged this world, and the world where Aiva resided. - I didnÆt think that the temples had a way to open the pathways of the stars, too, and it used a different mechanic compared to void magic. -

- Good. I believe this means all the four temples must have some variant of such summonings or meetings with their gods. It makes sense that it is not widely known. After all, it communicates with their god, which can be very, very far away. -

Stella paused and looked at Lumoof strangely. - What are you implying? -

- We need to gather all of the methods and figure out how they work. So IÆll need a team of infiltrators to sneak into the secret temples and libraries of the other three temples and get that information. - For Aiva, I could simply just ask them to give it to me; after all, I was now de - facto owner. The puppet master behind the strings.

- Oh no. - Stella was horrified.

- Looks like I must take training spies and infiltrators much more seriously now. -

Edna and Lumoof merely smirked. - A proper raid on the temples of the other three? -

- Not just that. We must first find where such information is kept and who would have it. DonÆt worry, I believe this will be a long process. For now, you may focus on studying the techniques used by the Aivan church. -

The Triumvirs gladly parted with the techniques, after all.

I needed spies and thieves, a lot of them, and I needed them to be good at what they did. I had the ability to create higher - tier classes for spies, but ultimately, spies gained levels by doing spy - stuff. This meant sneaking into places and taking on roles where they were in real danger. As it was, we had spies who were doing missions in the other nations across the oceans, but the survival rate was pretty low. They usually died when caught.

- We could give them the Court of the Deitree, - Patreeck suggested. - But the slots are limited. - That would mean we could recall them if they were ever caught, but that didnÆt feel like it would work.

I decided to go back to my dungeon creation ability and tweaked it. I wanted to know whether I could create infiltration dungeons where the spies had to figure out how to sneak to the end. It didnÆt quite work.

Failing, I decided to create mock dungeons instead. I hired craftsmen and mages to build dungeons filled with non - lethal traps for my new practice spies and thieves to - practice. -

- The thing with spies and thieves is that they could easily double - cross us and we wouldnÆt know any better. - Kei and Stella both frowned. - I mean, you heard about the whole double - triple - agent thing, right? -

- Of course, but who cares? - Next, we set up multiple competing spy guilds. The idea was that these spies would play both spy and counter - espionage roles, and they would have to compete against each other on a non - lethal basis.

Then, from the pool of promising and loyal spies, I chose one, a man named Varida, and used Gift of Accelerated Growth . This pushed his level to sixty, and he gained a bunch of skills overnight. Varida became the Central ContinentÆs second level - sixty spy after Master Intip.

Yet, even with the new levels and skills, Varida still needed practice and experience. Knowing the skills was one thing; applying them out in the field was another.

One thing that particularly annoyed me about spies was their ability to speak to each other using some kind of magical code. If it was not for PatreeckÆs constant recordkeeping and continuous decryption, we would have missed a lot more spies. Each spy required far more resources and mental capacity to track than most other classes, simply because each of them had skills that interfered with my surveillance. Someone with a low - level stealth ability would take twice the normal bandwidth, but a high - leveled spy needed the tracking of a single artificial mind.

So if there were multiple level sixtyûplus spies or a hero - tier spy, it was possible for me to miss them or only detect them if they did something.

A hero - spy could probably sneak all the way to Freshka, at least until they ran into PatreeckÆs range and the bubble of my domain powers.

The good part so far was that spies couldnÆt maintain their abilities full time. So far both of my level - sixty spies had skills that were only active for up to four to six hours with a cooldown of a day. That meant I could still spot them once they dropped their skills. Yet that was a time consuming, tedious thing to do that I delegated to my artificial minds.

As it was, I had so many trees on the Central Continent that I could support quite a lot of artificial minds, perhaps in the thousands. Technically, these minds did most of the mundane administrative oversight work to allow me to function as a divine being. That meant keeping eyes on prayers, on people, on other tasks. Each artificial mind could do a lot, but now they took up space. The Valley of the Unrotten, once filled with giant trees, was gradually replaced by the artificial minds.

They were the buzz in the background, the constant hum of their thoughts; they each observed their own part of the continent. Some followed individuals, like spies, or supported the continental beetle transportation network. Some worked on my many little improvement projects, like beetle weapons or insect adaptations. Some checked on my own Valthorns and the priests, ensuring that they were safe and performing their duties properly. Thousands of little artificial minds, each a name, but in the background. Patreeck, as the special one, lorded over them all.

But I considered whether there was a point to having another one. Two super - minds instead of one, to expand the range of our powers and to compute more things.

My artificial minds were my magical equivalent of having a big - brother surveillance state. I was the big brother of Central Continent, as much as a part of me loathed myself for it. The world would be watched, the gods were watching, even if they were far away, and these days, I suspected everyone was trying to spy on each other.

That said, a surveillance state was primarily defensive. It kept control of the state that it held. Offensively, I would have to either expand to that continent, which was bottlenecked by one single Lumoof, or use spies.

I sent Lumoof back to the north and continued our surveillance of the forces at work. The nations of the Northern Islands were highly fragmented, despite their outward unified appearance. The bickering happened beneath a veneer of civility. Here, where seas, straits, channels, and lakes separated the islands, the assassinations became a favored way of fighting.

The heroes left successfully for the other continents and were now working on other things. But even they were curious about the whole god - summoning incident.

- I got a message from Colette, - Kei replied. - They wanted to know what happened. I only responded that you spoke to the Aivan god. -

- Good enough. -

- They want to know the contents. -

- Tell them to ask the Triumvirs. We are not at liberty to disclose. - Push the problem to someone else.

The Triumvirs made an announcement about a week after our meeting that a special conference was held with the Faith of A/ and that a great peace treaty had been agreed in principle that all aggressions arising from faith should thus formally cease. The formal terms would be signed at a later date.