TREE OF AEONS 4

- You do know we look like swindlers when we tell them stuff like that and we offer the solution, too? - I mean, we did have a pile of anti - mana sand, and conveniently, there was a future demonic corruption crisis to solve. It really looked like I was hacking or even masterminding this shit. - It would be even worse if the explosion didnÆt happen. -

Stella, of course, sat and then mused, - Maybe theyÆve already fought the demon king and the explosion already happened. -

- Oh shit. Then theyÆll need our help, - Lumoof said. - I mean, A/ Æs help. -

- ItÆs a good chance to test out the anti - magic sand, whether it worked as hypothesized, - Alka responded.

- But what can they do if a Sabnoc - style explosion created another Rottedlands? ThereÆs practically no defense against such a weapon. Not on a continental scale anyway, unless they somehow managed to lock the bomb or confine the bomb in a limited area. -

I thought back to the earlier fight against the demon king and recalled that it was possible to defuse or weaken the demonic corruption bomb by draining its mana. But that was something IÆd have to do.

- We have an invasion on our hands? - Roon diverted the topic. - I think weÆre all still busy making weapons. -

Lumoof looked at Stella. - I think we can manage a short visit? -

Also, we began to have some data from the first generation of the - augmented - supersoldiers. The first generational children of the Treefolks and Lizardfolks were reaching the age that they began to have some shape to their souls, and the results were mixed.

Different types of inherited skills caused the first generationÆs children to display some odd qualities. Like enhanced strength meant they spent less time in their spawning pods because their strengths caused them to tear through the pods.

I supposed even with generational skills, the host or breeding facility must be able to endure the super - kids. The kids generally inherited the skills, but they were in a weakened form, which I suspected was due to their age. Once they matured, the skill would become its full form.

There were a bunch of treefolks and lizards that inherited one of the harvested void mage skills to naturally have void mana , and those didnÆt work well. It caused the baby lizards and treefolks to look weak and fragile, and they had to be on life support.

So it wasnÆt as if every skill could be injected. Skills needed to be compatible with the child or it would cause problems.

The researchers and caretakers also squabbled frequently over the conditions they faced. The caretakers were selected from those who used to support the Valthorns and their children. The unusual abilities these children had all needed special care and attention, but the researchers also wanted data, so the two frequently bickered. Right now, there were already third - and even fourth - generation Valthorns, since itÆd been almost one hundred years since IÆd re - emerged from the Rottedlands.

The mountain world was still the same, and when Lumoof returned, we were not greeted with fighting. That was a good sign. The first village we met looked relatively normal, still quite militarized, but everyone looked relaxed.

A bit of casual, alcohol - fueled conversation later, the heroes had been busy fighting demon champions. After they were captured by the demon king, the rumors seemed to say they were afraid of the demon king, so they didnÆt dare to make the final assault. Not something they said out loud, but it wasnÆt difficult to coax it out of drunkards.

It was quite obvious in hindsight that being possessed and captured for so long would be a traumatic thing for the heroes, but I wouldÆve thought the gods mind control would circumvent those fears and drive them toward the demon king.

Or maybe as long as the heroes were still fighting demons and not actively avoiding demons altogether.

- I remember Kei saying that they hear voices in their head, - Lumoof said. Then again, I wasnÆt sure whether these gods applied the same kind of mind control or mental suggestions as those of our world. It wasnÆt exactly the same set of gods, even if there could be some overlap.

Still, the presence of the heroes significantly tipped the scales, as the heroes could take on demon champions easily as they leveled.

It didnÆt take particularly long for us to eventually return to the seat of the Council of Kings and find them in a significantly better mood. There was a return of the arts and entertainment, and the shops looked like theyÆd had a renaissance of sorts.

- Welcome back, Your Excellency. - LumoofÆs presence was initially undetected, but eventually someone saw him and ratted him out. One of the lizardpeople councilors came to greet him. - On behalf of the Council of Kings, we once again welcome the savior of our heroes. -

It was almost public knowledge that there was some otherworldly help by now. Our presence in this world was not a secret, and since the kings knew about it, almost everyone else soon learned of the other worlds.

Some formalities later, a meeting was arranged with the kings, the heroes, and a large group of advisors, where Lumoof then shared our experience with Sabnoc and the post - Sabnoc destruction.

There were only a few differences so far, so it was likely that this demon king was a similar variant as Sabnoc.

The two heroes, now in better shape, even if they were still affected by their trauma, quickly asked whether we would be able to send heroes here. We rejected it using the void mana as an excuse.

Still, there were some things that could be done with the knowledge.

One: there may be heroes where their souls had been captured by the demons.

Two: they started evacuation of the area near to the demon king, based on an estimate of how much area was lost to the demonic corruption. They, of course, didnÆt say the knowledge came from another world but from the gods themselves. The temples didnÆt like it, but thanks to the decade - long war, the kings were more powerful than the temples and so used their powers to make those who lived too near move away. There wasnÆt much to evacuate, either, since thanks to the long war, vast areas were already a mini - Rottedlands.

Three: the heroes also made preparations, equipped with the knowledge of the tricks Sabnoc used. It was like playing with a walkthrough and after discussing how someone else had already cleared the game.

As it was, theyÆd reached a somewhat comfortable status quo where they were just hunting the champions for levels.

We didnÆt say it out loud. I didnÆt want to trigger the gods mental controls.

There was something we wanted to know. What triggered the demon kings win condition? When did they go for the core? Why was the demon king still stationary when the heroes were already free?

- We can hear it. ItÆs calling us to it, - the two heroes said. - WeÆre pretty sure it even sees us. -

We knew.

- But IÆm afraid. - The two heroes were visibly shaking as the boy started to share his fears. - After that first time, IÆm not sure if I could face it again. I know I have to. But. -

I thought I felt divine energies in the air as the heroes let out their worries in a meeting room.

- We have to. - Darn. Triggered it anyway. - Can you help us? -

We had a demon king of our own to fight. We had four years left, and the next demon king, now that IÆd seen it, worried me immensely.

After the meeting, Lumoof suggested that perhaps we could help. The levels would help us against the demon king, since we could get new skills.

It was something worth thinking about.

11

YEAR 208

After watching the heroes show off their new weapons, we tried to make our own glass weapons, and we found the best way was to actually make them the non - magical way. Magical fires interfered with the anti - magical qualities, and conventional fires didnÆt. Or at least mana - powered fires were weakened by the anti - magic sand and just made it harder to actually work with them. That didnÆt stop my craftsmen from trying, and the end result from our first few - successful - attempts were quite similar to obsidian; these glass weapons felt very much like glass cannons and shattered after a few uses.

Our own tests suggested that they were extremely effective against creatures with high amounts of mana, thanks to the mana drain effects, and they also seemed to trigger some kind of nausea if one wasnÆt able to handle the effects of the drain on the body and senses when we tested them lightly on our own folks.

The spears also caused the mana with a person or creature to become more unstable. Anyone with levels should be able to suppress and control their mana, but if not controlled, it could cause the mana to combust.

I suspected this - mana - ignition - quality to these anti - magic sand and the anti - magic solar rays was the cause of my treechikomas combusting into flames. They had little mana regulation or suppression ability, and as such, once the mana in them went crazy, they couldnÆt stop it.

These weapons also didnÆt like magical storage, so they worked against things like bags of holding. Still, RoonÆs super range meant he could still exploit it, and I could still move these things with my portals. They even interfered with certain kinds of teleportation, though not portals. Magic could be applied around them but not through them without significant force.

It really was fascinating to work with these kinds of unique resources, and I wondered what was unique to each of these worlds. Surely, even a world like Treehome must have something unique that wasnÆt found on the other worlds?

So far, I didnÆt have much idea of what truly was unique between my world versus the mountain world or the Threeworld. Not without significant trade and knowledge exchange.

I also commanded my assistants and artificial minds to search Parasiteworld, though we didnÆt find anything so far, and we even tested the waters, too.

I wondered whether it was something like tier or epoch unlocks. Like how in Civilizations, weÆd have to acquire the necessary research and technology knowledge before we were able to locate natural resources like oil or uranium.

If so, maybe I was just too low on the tech - tree. I couldnÆt see what was really unique to our worlds until I got the right skills.

We had about three years left before the demon king would come to our world, and our preparations to face the anti - magic demon king were in full swing.

Lumoof brought up the topic of the otherworldly heroes and shared their trauma and also their appeal for help.

- We should help them. - The heroes themselves volunteered for it. Prabu and Colette were keen to assist once we shared the circumstances of the other world. Ken, of course, realized this tied into his idea for a League of Heroes.

- That involves a deployment of A/ Æs seed on that world. Something weÆre still considering as itÆs A/ Æs last one. - Unless I gained more seeds in the future, but with levels so scarce, it was something to be considered a bit more strategically.

But honestly, there really were really just two types of choices: one against the demon king and the second here on Mountainworld or Threeworlds. After my failed attempt on the demon king on the anti - magic world, I was quite open to the idea of a clone here.

- From what we know so far, each world gets invaded by one demon world at a time, correct? So each world in itself represents an opportunity to explore one more demon world, more demon kings to fight, which is the only good source of high - level experience as it is, - Ken spoke up for the idea.

- But we have three years left before this world gets invaded? -

- Which shouldnÆt matter. Reality is we need to be stronger if the demon king from this anti - magic world is as strong as A/ described. We need to participate in the fight against this demon king, which we can fight on our own terms because itÆs there, stagnant and waiting. Its abilities are also largely known, due to A/ Æs own past experience with a similar demon king. On top of that, it is stationary, which means thereÆs a whole list of abilities that A/ and the rest of us can abuse. -

I thought back to Harris and gang, and even before that, of Meela and Alexis. I remembered they had long - range weaponry and spells.

Edna thought over it and concurred with Ken. - In truth, weÆre only risking the heroes. The domain holders will survive this, and we will gain levels. If we can minimize the risk to our four heroes, that would make this exercise a net gain. - This was simply because they could not be added to my pantheon, and they also could not receive my Court of the Deitree. They could only get normal familiars.

- If we make sufficient emergency teleportation devices, we could avoid most of the risk from a sudden detonation. -

The main cause of death for past heroes was actually the post - death detonation, and that was something they needed to prepare for, so with a few redundant countermeasures, Roon and Johann eventually relented. They were not keen on assisting at first, but KenÆs focus on gaining levels did outweigh the risks, especially with the right countermeasures.

After I heard both sides, I too eventually accepted that supporting the heroes was a good idea. The levels we could gain would help, and there was no reason to stop it.

We also had to consider the risks of defeating the demon king, because Sabnoc did nuke almost a quarter to a third of a continent to death. - A/ , you are much stronger now compared to the time when you faced Sabnoc. Do you think a wall of your trees could block off the demonic corruption if it happens? -

I wasnÆt sure. Maybe? I remembered the energy from such a detonation was exponentially stronger at the core than at the edges. I remembered the wave of demonic energies crushing the trees further away from me. I was pretty sure my clone could survive the wave; it was just whether my wall of subsidiary trees and normal trees could withstand the demonic corruption.

We could use the anti - magic glass weapons to weaken the demonic energies, too, so I started experimenting on anti - magic trees. Trees that were made from the sands of the demon world.

It resisted assimilation into a tree, but the anti - magic weapon could help. For now, they made large, anti - magic glass barriers. These glass barriers would serve as an additional protection for the heroes and my domain holders.

Roon was enthusiastic as we worked out the offensive plan. A stationary target was the perfect target for him to exploit his - shot from the stars, - especially with the anti - magic ammunition and AlkaÆs wide repertoire of star - mana bombs.

As everyone worked out their part of the plan, I felt nervous and even felt privately quite suspicious. Was this anti - magic glass weapon really that much of a super - material? Was everything really going to work so well?

I wondered whether this was going to overstretch us before our own demon king. I had doubts, even if I knew it didnÆt make sense. Logically fighting every battle and gaining levels was the best path forward.

We just had to stack the deck and make sure we attacked every demon king with sufficient overwhelming force.

- A/ , our patron, agreed to assist with the battle against the demon king, but there are conditions, and it will be our plan. - Lumoof spoke to the Council of Kings, the heroes and the gallery of their high - level individuals. - And in return, the two heroes would help us with our demon king. -

The two heroes agreed. Then Lumoof outlined our battle plan for the benefit of those present.

Six heroes in total, four from our world, would face the demon king, and they would be supported by my domain holders. Edna would be present to tank, Roon for ranged weaponry and bombardment, and Lumoof for field healing and to suppress the demonic bomb.

I would have to deploy my clone somewhere close to the demon king and when the time was right teleport the heroes over. The plan also involved walling off the demon kingÆs post - death corruption, just in case it detonated.

We outlined a possibility that the demon king would wake up and attack us once the four heroes from our world arrived or when my main tree was deployed. If that was the case, itÆd be a simple mad scramble to fight the demon king.

If there was some time before we fought the demon king, I would start to gather more of those forest rods. At the same time, weÆd use the time to stockpile star - mana ammunition and bombs. Of course, this would be our ideal outcome.

At the same time, this strategy involved deployment of my clone, and I would like to have a permanent place once I deployed my clone. So Lumoof also negotiated for one of the demonic lands as the spoils for my assistance.

This was contentious, and some of them said it was like we were annexing a plot of land. Which we were, I guessed. Still, it was no oneÆs territory as it was because of the decade - long war. Once my tree was deployed, that location would be the staging point for the assault. The kings haggled a bit but eventually agreed in principle.

I could sense that they grew weary of the long wars, and I even sensed some underlying frustration with their heroes. There were some murmurs in the crowd that this was some sort of land grab and invasion, and the priests looked uncomfortable with letting another force claim their world.

But they couldnÆt deny it in the end. Even in their world, heroes who survived frequently went on to start their own kingdoms, sometimes by force. This was similar.

Lumoof and the councils went over the maps of the world and eventually settled on a spot that was once a forest. Once.

A group of elites escorted Lumoof to the target site, mainly just to ensure that we didnÆt put the seed anywhere else. It wasnÆt hard to blaze a path through demon territory, though we encountered a few demonic champions along the way.

It was located about two to three days away from the immobile demon king, and already we could feel its pulsing presence in the air. It was like an ambient pressure that could be felt in the mana, and even the ground itself was filled with demonic mana.

There was a very clear possibility that the demon king may immediately attack us once I deployed my clone, so everyone was ready for a jump.

Once we arrived, Lumoof immediately entered avatar mode, and my mana cleared the land around us. The clone deployed.

I felt something in the ground once my roots started spreading in the ground. There was once a ley line that flowed underneath that was now streaked with demonic energy, and that line of demonic energy headed to the core. It was subtle, mixed with the energies of the ley line, but I could sense it because I was very familiar with demonic energy now.

It was there, slowly pushing into the ground, and I could feel some kind of resistance.

- The demon king has already started tunneling to the core, but it does so through a magical ley line. -

The demon king tapped into the ley line. I wondered whether this was another piece of the puzzle.

As my own clone grew, I wondered whether the demon king would immediately move, but the demon king did not react.

I was relieved, and my clone took just two days to fully form. The benefits of a world that still had reasonable quantities of ambient mana.

Once I was ready, I began to flood the area with beetles, spawning trees constantly and pushing back against the demonic corruption in the area. Roon, Johann, and Edna arrived soon after.

All the while, the elites stayed put, and the elites of the mountain world were frankly horrified when they faced my gigantic clone tree and my three domain holders. Their reports to their masters back home were filled with similarly colorful words.

At the same time, once my presence stabilized, I felt something different in the air, and I knew something was up. I wasnÆt sure why it didnÆt happen instantly? -

YouÆve connected to the energies of another world.

Soul Forge: Green Unlocked

Artificial Souls Level Cap increased to Level 80.

All artificial souls now have Green option unlocked.

Soul Spiritualization unlocked: Souls empowered with Soul Spiritualization no longer need a physical body to appear outside of the Soul Realm. They will take the form of ghosts and spirits. Ghosts and spirits can gain levels like normal. You may create artificial souls as ghosts or wraiths.

Mountainworld Soul synchronized. You may now collect souls from the mountain world.

Tree - Bounded Souls unlocked: You may now stop any chosen soul from reincarnating. You may stop no more than ten souls simultaneously with this ability.

- Something happened? - Lumoof asked.

- I just got a new Soul Forge Color. - I had forgotten that the soul forge needed a - permanent - connection, not just a temporary one through my Avatar mode. But I didnÆt get this back in Cometworld? Was it because it was a dying world?

And why was there such a long time lag? Because the demon king was fighting or in the process of capturing the core?

- Huh. - ItÆd been a really long time since that happened, and I didnÆt even know what to do. And now was not a good time.

No matter, I focused on the plan. Since the demon king didnÆt react to us, did not seem bothered by my presence, my beetles fanned out in all directors. We hunted for the demonic rods. I only had one left, and I wanted more. My subsidiary trees pushed outward, and we attempted to encircle the demon king. These trees would form a containment ring and at the same time spawn beetles that helped me capture the rods.

It was actually really difficult to find the rods before they were deployed, but this was a matter of time.

We eventually collected about seven more rods, and I sent these rods back to the valley. Meanwhile, Lumoof returned to the cities to coordinate the heroes movement.

He was greeted differently this time around. The reports of the elite had already gone to the council, and I could tell they all felt like they bit off more than they could chew.

Previously, he was treated respectfully, and the kings conducted themselves cordially. This time, Lumoof picked up a sense of fear that was not there before. My priest had a calming presence, and his aura, on its own, was gentle, like the lapping waves of the sea, the gentle but present breeze of the beach.

Mine was different. It was the thick, overwhelming presence of the jungle, and even for just a moment, the elites remembered it. It was imprinted in their minds, just as how my own Valthorns remembered me.

- The heroes are not here yet? - The two heroes of Mountainworld were very eager to meet their otherworld counterparts. I learned their names this time, Adrian and Kelly, and they were in a bus with their friends when a truck came for them. It was always a damned truck.

- They will. - Lumoof smiled. - But not yet. We will try to arrange a session for all of you to meet before the battle. They are also eager to meet some people from their home world. -

I soon learned that Kelly was also a dark knight of some kind, but unlike Edna, she was more of the offensive type and had a mixed skillset between a barbarian and a knight. Adrian, on the other hand, was actually a food - monk - hero and excelled in physical abilities. He had to consume food before battle to release them as power.

Why did the gods think this was a good combination against a Sabnoc - type? Did the gods make a mistake with this demon king?

My trees spread quickly, and some soon covered the cities. With that came information. The kings and elites were visibly disturbed by the beetles that flooded the entire theater of war, and that fear manifested through their conduct. Already there were private discussions of what to do after the war.

How to - deal - with me.

Fear and suspicion. This was the nature of people. Lumoof had to quickly intervene before this got out of hand, and he met the kings and priests.

- Our patron has no intention of invading your world. Once the war is over, we would return the lands back to you, except for the agreed plot, since that is a part of my god. - The agreed plot was still pretty large, comparable to a medium - size kingdom. Sufficient for a presence. - This wall of trees is merely to contain the demon kings. -

What could they do but accept LumoofÆs explanation at face value? The armies of beetles were each in the tens of thousands, and the sight of beetles duking it out against demons was truly gruesome.

We were still not yet ready to hit out at Sabnoc, and about three to four months after my clone was deployed, the demon king seemed to detect my presence and began to attack. We endured multiple attacks from the demon kingÆs subordinates. Champions came for us, and the battlefields were covered in craters from all the demonic champions bombardments.

Still, it refused to move, and I felt the energies of the core fluctuate. As I also began to notice the ley lines were also - taking - from me during the ebbs.

I felt time was slowly, slowly running out and called the four heroes to prepare for teleportation.

12

YEAR 208 (PART 2)

The heroes exchanged greetings, and their arrival was greeted with bombardments from demon champions. Six heroes. Those were relatively good odds, and both Adrian and Kelly were in the low level one hundreds after their long periods of hunting demons.

It actually cost me quite a bit of mana to send heroes through my clones, and it drained about one - third of my mana - storage potatoes.

The heroes were ready, and the demon king continued to pump out demon champions and sent them our way. Magical projectiles from their champions were now a regular occurrence.

There was an air of tension in the air. Expectations.

- WeÆve killed a few demon kings. WeÆve seen something like this in the hero journals, so weÆll do it again. I know you are afraid, but this is our job, and weÆre good at it. You two will be, too. - Chung was the one that spoke and tried to calm both Adrian and Kelly. - All we need you guys to do is hang in there and donÆt get killed. -

After a bit of pep talk, the heroes briefed Adrian and Kelly, again, on what weÆd seen in our own exchange with a similar demon king. A castle demon, perhaps?

- When you come to our world, you should have a look at the journals, - Prabu added. - And snacks. Trust me. YouÆll feel better with snacks. - Colette promptly gave Prabu an elbow.

- DonÆt diminish their trauma like that. -

- I mean, I know. The snacks are just the equivalent of putting flowers on poop. ItÆs still poop, - Prabu responded. - But between the two, I know I prefer flowers on poop. -

Adrian and Kelly just sniggered. - ItÆs all right. -

- ItÆs not. - Colette stared at Prabu. - WeÆve all lost our friends in our own fights against the demons, and all of us will learn to cope in a different way. ItÆs not helpful to make it sound so simple. -

Prabu probably realized this was a dangerous conversation and decided to back off. - Yeah. YouÆre right. IÆm sorry. -

Colette took a deep breath and, after an awkward silence, sighed. - I know you donÆt mean any harm. -

Adrian and Kelly, the two heroes of Mountainworld, just stared. Colette, of course, realized how awkward the conversation had become and decided to switch topics.

- WeÆll be fighting together for some time. So letÆs get to know each other, - the female archmage answered. She looked not much older than when she first came, courtesy of the immense magic she held.

They shared a pot of tea, and the two looked visibly calmer after a cup. They once again went through why their first assault failed and how that led to their capture. The four heroes of Treehome also shared their own battles with their demon king, and they too shared the failures they faced.

How their friends died the first time. There was something about sharing their own losses that seemed to really relieve both Adrian and KellyÆs hearts. Even if it didnÆt fix it. Even if it didnÆt even heal all that much.

- We should get Kei and Stella here, - Prabu added. - They are former heroes. Well, Kei was, but both of them saw as much shit as we all did. But I guess we can meet them. -

- If we live through this, we will, - Adrian said.

Based on what the two heroes shared, there were some differences compared to Sabnoc. For one, this hero didnÆt jam our communication system, so they were not forced to build communication towers. In many ways, what they suggested even seemed to say that this demon king was a weaker variant of Sabnoc.

That wasnÆt confirmed, of course. It was likely that the demon king didnÆt even bring out its best skills, since the heroes were so weak. It still didnÆt make sense why it did this, of course. Why did the demon king - capture - some heroes?

Why keep them alive?

The heroes went through something similar to Alexis. They saw the fields of demonic spires, the vast lands. The demons read their minds, for sure. What was the purpose? Did they use the heroes mana to help their capture of the world?

Or use their minds to help improve or feed their own? Or were they looking for something in the heroes minds? Or was it just a kind of parasitic or herding behavior, that the captured heroes were - farmed - for something?

I felt like I wasnÆt truly understanding all the pieces that were now available to me. My trees also searched the mountain world for daemolite, and we found it everywhere. I was fairly sure I would find it in the Threeworlds, too.

The demons had rift gates, and these rift gates were the way to open paths across worlds. We also knew, at least from a simple guess, that these daemolite were meant to mark their presence to the demons.

Back home we had accumulated daemolite over the years, since our discovery of their purpose, but we had yet to destroy them. Not until we figured out how to manipulate it or at least mislead it.

I had one of the wild ideas to plant the daemolite on the moon and lure the demon king there instead. The fight against the demon king would happen somewhere away from population centers, and we could, if we needed to, blow up the moon. Or use the daemolite to subtly control the rift gates.

Or they could be two entirely independent things. Daemolites were just nothing more than location markers, and once sufficient worlds - locked - onto a world, the daemolites served no other function. If rift gates didnÆt rely on daemolites for any sort of specific targeting beyond locating it as a world, then destroying daemolites may be futile.

It was all speculation at this point.

We took full advantage of the demon king not attacking us to fully prepare ourselves for the fight. Roon was especially keen on unleashing hell on the demon king for a distance. The heroes themselves made plans for failures, and Ken walked through quite a few gimmicks that he thought would be commonly seen in such immobile bosses.

It was surprisingly insightful, and in hindsight, it was actually quite common to see immobile bosses in earlier games, especially side scrollers.

- Ready? - I asked everyone present, spread throughout the theater of war. They would all launch attacks from their respective positions and then all head toward the demon king.

Everyone gave their signal. We were all going to hit it together with long - range weapons. An all - out attack, from everyone, and then weÆd see what happened. Edna and the close - range heroes would move in then. Lumoof would move to support them with healing.

Everyone unleashed their skills as the entire world was momentarily flooded with side effects of using so much magic in a short period of time. The mages launched a massive volley of long - range fireballs, magical missiles, and other kinds of energy blasts. Chung shipped fifty large hero - items through my abilities and used them to shoot a barrage of hero - powered ballista bolts.

Momentarily, there was enough magic flying through the skies that everyone, even those without magic, could feel a pulse in the air. Men and women from villages an entire continent away could feel the vibrations caused by so much magic.

The close - range heroes Hafiz and Kelly both had to stay back.

Roon also used his domain ability to fire star - mana bombs at the demon king. The attacks landed within a span of an hour, and for a moment, the world was greeted with an earthquake that could be felt throughout the entire world. This explosion was bigger than the minefield we had for the previous demon king. There were more heroes attacking, coupled with AlkaÆs star - mana bombs.

The explosion was so intense that it would scar that plot of land with magical residue for decades and cause tremendous magical instability for at least months, but in time, it would heal.

As it always did.

I could sense that the attacks landed, because there was a momentary weakness in the demonic energies, and I felt it ebb in the ground beneath and around us.

Then a pulse and another strong shake. The dust had not settled, but the heroes continued to attack.

They were not going to wait for it to transform. A rookie mistake, and Ken strictly reminded them to double - tap, even if it seemed dead. Roon waited, however, since we didnÆt have that many star - mana bombs.

As the magical attacks provided cover fire, Edna was the first to approach, confident that she could survive anything the demon king threw at it.

The attacks kept on going, and for a moment, we felt the world suddenly tear. A rift opened right around where the demon king once was, and then we sensed demon champions from throughout the world vanish before they reappeared around the demon king.

From those rifts, the demons counterattacked with magical explosions.

- ItÆs still transforming! - Chung said, his eyes glowed with some kind of sight - ability. - DonÆt let it finish. - He recharged his array of magic ballistas, and another volley was unleashed.

The second volley mostly smashed into the demon champions. They took the hit on behalf of their king and were vaporized by the star - mana - charged bolts.

The land around the demon king had transformed into a huge crater, a result of all the weapons we deployed, and there was a thick layer of fire, plasma, dust, and dirt whipped up by all the explosions.

Through my spiritual sight, my view of the demon king was not obscured by dust, only interrupted by the sparks of magic in the air. I saw it transforming and splitting apart and then, for a brief second, a surge in magical energy from within the demon king. Immediately, energy beams fired outward, aimed at the heroes and also our array of weapons.

The heroes dodged, and some of the weapons were destroyed. Our shields couldnÆt fully block the beam. It was still strong enough to destroy my shields and some. Only EdnaÆs ability allowed it to take the hit head - on.

At the same time, the demon champions that survived ChungÆs volley of ballista bolts started to fuse, and a few turned into the supercannon - type demons. This transformation happened incredibly quickly, far faster than what IÆd seen or heard, and once completed, they added cover fire and fired a constant ray of demonic energy.

The rift sent more demon champions through. The heroes weaved through the magical beams and moved closer. Ranged attacks needed longer charge times and just were not as powerful as their mid - or close - range attacks or skills.

Meanwhile, I kept my focus locked on the demon king. My artificial minds supported the wider battle, and we spawned trees as fast as we could. Beetles from these trees supported the larger battlefield as the attack on the demon king seemed to rouse the regular demons out of their routine and caused them to attack their nearby kingdoms.

My trees also tried to close in on the demon king.

- LetÆs shift to close combat. - Hafiz dodged a massive beam of energy overhead, his magical shield battered from all the attacks. The supercannon - type demon champion also blanketed the battlefield with its rays and projectiles.

The earth rumbled again, and this time, I felt a presence inject itself into the ground. It moved toward us.

My roots spread to intercept it, and then something blew up from beneath my subsidiary trees. Or tried to. My roots managed to hold the rocks in place. Another demon champion type surged out of the ground, and it looked like a spiky hedgehog.

I didnÆt hesitate, and in those moments, my roots pierced it quite easily. For a moment, I seemed to have gotten it. It shouldÆve disintegrated.

But the demon king wouldnÆt let its army of demons die.

Then a pulse of demonic energy spread outward as I thought I saw the demon kingÆs energy splinter into a thousand pieces.

The spiky demonic hedgehog, skewered by my roots, glowed and, empowered by demonic energy from the king itself, revived. Multiple champions throughout the battlefield, some killed earlier, were instantly revived by that demonic energy.

- It revives destroyed champions. ThatÆs a new trick, - Chung commented, partly in bewilderment. I was amazed that it had an Edna - like skill. Essentially an army of undying.

The champions themselves were still quite weak, even with the slightly enhanced power, so it didnÆt take much effort to crush them, not with my current levels, but they kept reviving. I skewered the demonic hedgehog again and then wrapped my roots around it. I crushed it, but I didnÆt move fast enough.

And yes, even as I thought it was dead, it wriggled and revived once there was another pulse from the demon king.

- Focus on the demon king! - Edna had already closed in on the main body, a large blob of demonic energy that started to swirl. And then suddenly, it released something strange.

Souls. Spirits.

Three dead heroes and then demonic flesh gathered around those souls.

Kelly and Adrian recognized them and screamed. Kelly immediately charged in her star - mana armor.

The flesh shaped into surprisingly lifelike versions of the dead heroes.

- Kelly! ItÆs us! DonÆt you recognize us? - one of the demonic - fleshed heroes said in an alien but incredibly lifelike voice, but I saw an intense gathering of demonic energy. - What are you doing? -

- Edna! Intercept! ItÆs a trap! - I commanded as my roots immediately surged out and attempted to attack the - dead heroes. - Kelly, retreat! -

But Kelly didnÆt listen, my roots didnÆt do enough damage, and once she got close enough, an intense beam of demonic energy blasted outward from the - demonic hero. - Edna couldnÆt get there in time. My wooden shields and ColetteÆs magic barrier appeared, and we blocked a large bit of the blast, but that attack was no weaker than the demon kingÆs deathrays, so the heroine still took a bad hit.

The demon hero disintegrated, its energy spent, and there were two of the demonic flesh heroes left.

Lumoof quickly moved aside to assist, and we saw her soul fluctuate and weaken. Her skin was charred, like she had just walked through an intense fire. Had we not blocked it, I was sure that wouldÆve instantly killed her. - SheÆs out. - Lumoof lifted her and immediately retreated as fast as he could. She would need intense healing, and the demonÆs energies were so strong it even injected itself into her body.

I vaguely sensed the presence of a demonic curse.

- ThatÆs fucking low, - Chung cursed, and they kept up their volleys at the main blob. It was irritating, though, because the demon champions kept reviving, and even when defeated, they would only remain dead for fifteen minutes or so. The pulses would revive them, and once revived, they would force all the heroes to be on the defense.

It was so irritating that both Johann and Roon directed their attention on the demon champions and concentrated their attacks on the champions to redirect some of the - aggro - and open up some attack windows. The heroes could not attack and defend at the same time, and I could instantly see why this demon king won the first round.

This was one pain in the ass.

Prabu and Colette naturally focused on the other two demonic heroes, and the other two demonic hero - lookalikes just looked at the remaining Mountainworld hero and smiled creepily. - Adrian! -

Adrian cursed. - DonÆt speak to me! YouÆre not them. DonÆt fucking pretend to be them. - He retaliated with magical attacks, and the demon heroes blocked it with magic of their own.

- But we are! Come. Join us! Join our rebellion against the Puppeteers! - they said with a smile. - Why do we serve the Puppeteers, anyway? -

They moved incredibly quickly, with speeds that did not seem weaker than the heroes.

How? How did the demon king animate these lookalikes that even had some almost - hero - tier abilities? I was very curious what kind of world this demon king came from. What kind of environment created this demon king?

Colette, Prabu, and Chung, the three heroes in - middle - range, - all shared a glance. - He needs help. -

I surveyed the battlefield then. Roon and Johann kept destroying the demon champions, but this took all their time. Edna and Hafiz were both in close range, and they hacked away at the massive demon king blob. They seemed to be doing damage, but they didnÆt have much window to assist others, since the blob itself had close - range offensive magics and also detonated small explosions around its main body.

They were occupied, and in fact, Edna and Hafiz needed support, too.

Lumoof withdrew all the way to the rear, a good distance away from the battlefield. He was still focused on stabilizing Kelly. An army of healers was on standby, mostly from the kingdom but some from the Valthorns. They quickly got to work and suppressed the demonic curse within KellyÆs body while keeping her alive.

LumoofÆs magical energies were exceptional at healing, and she got better, but itÆd be at least half a day before she could return to combat.

I needed to free up Roon and Johann to support the others. I helped to kill the demon champions with my roots, but they werenÆt dying permanently. I believed there must be a way to kill them permanently. I remembered how it was possible to interrupt the demon kingÆs reincarnation mechanic, so it must be possible with these lesser creatures. Even if they wouldnÆt die, IÆd just take over these champions or at least drain that piece of demon king away, since that seemed to be the key to their revival mechanic.

Prabu decided to help, so he teleported next to Adrian and created a magical shield. It blocked one of the demonÆs magical blasts. - DonÆt fall for it. TheyÆre goading you. -

- I know, - Adrian said, angry. - But I canÆt help it. -

The heroes traded attacks with the demons, but I concentrated on the demon champions nearby and attacked them with my roots.

But this time, my roots pierced the body and hunted for the demon kingÆs energy. I found it nestled within a slightly harder part of its body.

My root snaked through the innards of the demon champion and touched it. And I absorbed it.

Strangely easy.

The demon champion crumbled, as if all the damage it took from the past suddenly took hold once more.

I immediately set out to repeat it with every demon champion. It was fairly slow as the demons traded attacks.

Edna and Hafiz both cut away at the demon king, but they couldnÆt land that many hits. Not with the demon king detonating explosions. They would retreat, close in to land a cut or three, and then retreat again. Colette and Chung would then attack during the times Edna and Hafiz couldnÆt land a hit.

The gaps between their attacks were also fairly long, since the demon king seemed to constantly shapeshift and would regularly release beams of intense demonic energy that they had to evade.

It was kind of a shit realization, but I realized - defensive - heroes did not perform that well. Not against this demon king where our shields just vaporized so easily, and sometimes even taking a hit behind shields still dealt too much damage. The demon king was in its own class, and the meta at that level of combat was offense and evasive abilities. Defense was useless unless they had something like Edna.

- Roon, Johann, are you able to see the demon kingÆs energies within the demon champion? If you can take it out, it would immediately make it crumble. - They nodded, and both switched their weapons to the mana - draining weapons and went for close - range attacks instead.

They both had some kind of mana - sight ability, and it was quite hard to spot the demon kingÆs energy, but the anti - mana glass worked incredibly well, and the champions revival was interrupted once they managed to hack through the demon champions and get to where that demon energy was stored. They crumbled when that energy was drained.

We cleared the champions quickly, and the battlefieldÆs bullet - hell of magical projectiles gradually became less dense. It would lessen the strain on the heroes to deal damage. With all three of us taking out the champions, it still took about two hours to eliminate all of them from the battlefield.

We were left with the shadow of heroes, and we shifted our focus to help with Adrian and Prabu. I was very curious what these two creatures were.

They weaved and dodged quickly. These demonic flesh heroes were very high quality and had the speed and power to back it up. Still, I noticed that they were still susceptible to my aura, even if just a little bit, and that slowed them a bit.

Eventually, working together with Roon and Johann, I finally stabbed my roots into one of them, and I began draining its mana.

The demonic hero screamed and shouted and then detonated itself. Or tried to. I detected its mana gathering, and my roots immediately intercepted it and interfered with its mana gathering.

Instead, it just disintegrated.

The last remaining demonic hero sensed its doom and before anything decided to detonate itself.

That very act, however, meant its magical defenses were down. Prabu immediately wrapped his magic around the demon, then flung the demonic hero high up into the sky where it detonated midair harmlessly.

Adrian was exhausted. He wasnÆt as high level as the rest, and this battle weakened him. The trauma of facing his deceased friends drained him out.

- Retreat. WeÆll handle it. - We were left with the main body. Kelly had stabilized, but she remained at the rear to recover under the care of the other healers.

- The demon king is hurt for sure. -

The heroes moved to attack; this time it was a clean fight. Four heroes, Edna, and the demon king. The rifts occasionally spawned demon champions, but I took care of that.

I mostly spectated this phase of the battle, occasionally helping with a shield or a root strike. My attacks still didnÆt do much damage. Roon and Johann also retreated, but they also helped with cover fire. The repeated attacks from the heroes eventually weakened it, and we sensed the reduced intensity of its demonic energy, dropping over time. - LetÆs end this. -

With all of its gimmicks removed, the concentrated attacks eventually destroyed the blob, and then a spire - like thing was revealed within.

I saw an immaterial energy - beam that reached for the core of the world.

The spire - like thing started to glow as it floated midair, and I detected a huge surge in corruption - type energies. Very, very familiar stuff.

This was the Rottedlands bomb all over again, and this time, I wouldnÆt let it happen. Lumoof charged forward at my command, as the spire created a magical barrier around itself. The magical barrier blocked the attacks from the heroes but did not stop Lumoof, Edna, or Hafiz from going through it.

I felt my domain push through the barrier, and Lumoof touched the spire itself. At that moment, it attempted to attack us mentally.

Natives. Submit to us.Æ

Domain has blocked attempted mental attack.

Lumoof recoiled at the attack, but he too had a domain, and my energies flooded the spire. The spire smashed into the ground beneath us, and its energies attempted to infect the land.

But by now, my trees were everywhere in the battlefield, and my mana was ready to resist. - Destroy the spire! - I shouted, and the heroes came and unleashed hell on the spire. The spire cracked and then disintegrated into nothingness.

Not even the demon core remained. At that moment, the flesh of the demon king, much of it separated and cut off, started to transform into daemolite.

YouÆve defeated an otherworld demon king!

Title obtained: Multiverse Demonhunter

YouÆve gained seven levels! You are now level 221.

The heroes slew the demon king of the mountain world. Many others gained levels, too. More importantly, Alka leveled from his constant supply of the weapons of war and ascended to be my fifth domain - holder.

13

YEAR 208 (PART 3)

Vine - and root - related abilities are all significantly upgraded. Your root distance has been significantly increased and the depth and range expanded.

Demonic Mana Resistance significantly enhanced.

New Domain Skill - Guardian Treants

You are able to spawn guardian treants near your clones or your main body. Guardian treants can act independently and fight but may not move too far from your main body or clones.

- Eh. - I found that ability quite weak. It just added more of the same type of ability to my skill set. I already had strong support skills, and guardians. well, that didnÆt add much.

I needed more offensive ability or, failing that, more movement - and mana - related abilities. Adding more flesh to the battlefield generally, well, didnÆt do much.

Yet I also wondered whether that was a wise choice. I was a tree. Even with clones and more trees, I was still a tree. Was I trying to fit a round peg into a square hole?

It was tempting to believe, as one gained levels, that I would become more - all - rounded, - more - able - to do what I was not able to do before. But I was increasingly noticing that the system also forced a type on me, and doing something outside what the system considered - normal - for me generally required extensive preparation. Even then, I would still be outcompeted by those who had the right classes and optimal builds for those things.

The domain choices were really one of the rare times when the system actually allowed us to actively - steer - the direction of our powers.

This was not so for humanoids who, through their actions, could choose what class they acquired.

Monsters, on the other hand, were what they were designed to be, and evolutionary choices still had to remain linked to their core form. Therefore, now that I could somewhat modify living beings to some degree, could I therefore guide this path elsewhere? Just as I attempted to steer the development of my treefolks and my lizardpeople, I was starting to realize perhaps I missed monsters.

The creation of true anti - demon monsters would be a great start. Just as nature was often an arms race between different species, why couldnÆt nature have their own counter for demons? The demons evolved indirectly, adapting the qualities of their captured world into their own, each time expanding the variety of demons, one world at a time.

I would also speculate that each demon king was also slightly different, thus adding another form of evolution to their force. My evidence was that Sabnoc was slightly different compared to the demon king of the mountain world; perhaps the ratio of - demon-and - core - was mixed slightly differently with each new spawn.

So nature had to evolve. The natural world most likely had two main ways of evolution. The first one, unique to this magical world, was the subtle evolution through the spawning process, in which the system created life out of thin air, perhaps using a blend of the existing creations. This was most apparent in the Rottedlands edges, where we had hybrid creatures and plants. Second was of course the supposed earth - way of accumulated surviving adaptations.

I was inclined to believe the first was the - main - evolutionary tool in this world, simply because magic and demon kings just killed everyone so quickly that the system repopulated the world with slightly better - adapted individuals.

But why let the system be the only one doing it? If I could make Treechis, why not make demon-eating hounds and beetles? Giant, demon-eating worms?

Training and equipping Valthorns with the right skills was fine and all, but evolution must consider all choices, a point I had clearly neglected, even when it was what I started with. I had trained beetles, and my artificial minds continued to make incremental improvements to better adapt them to our ongoing war on Parasiteworld. Things that artificial minds were good at.

Faster. Stronger. Bigger.

But I could do more. Especially more - radical - recreations. Different. Reconstruction from the ground up to make them more focused demon-killing machines.

Artificial minds could take one or two steps back, but they were not designed for ground - up remakes.

I could redesign them from bottom up, create stronger versions of their original form. Not just that, I could attempt to fuse the anti - mana glass or any other kinds of material into their structure to create something alien.

Weaker but different, and then incrementally improve that - weaker - type to make it more powerful.

Not just that, looking at it, could I also recreate artificial minds and improve them? I had responded to the growing need for oversight and for routine automation by adding more and more artificial minds to the problem. Patreeck assigned and allocated tasks to them.

Could we make better artificial minds and improve their hardware such that each level they gained did more?

The heroes celebrated the death of the demon king. Kelly recovered after two days of intense care.

- So. now we need to help you with your demon king, - Adrian said. - But how do you already know whatÆs coming? -

- Complicated story, one IÆll let you have more details of once you visit our world. But the gist of it is that A/ can see the demon king coming. Sort of. -

- Whoa. - The two heroes were impressed. - You guys have counters for most demon kings, then? -

Prabu shook his head. - Not for the one thatÆs coming. A/ said the next demon king will be a massive, heavily physical, super - magic resistance, anti - magic type. Something we have no counter for. Not directly. We donÆt have a physical hero in our lineup, and sadly, the two of you are not pure physical types, either. So weÆll have to make do with larger numbers and, hopefully, better equipment. -

The heroes gained some levels, but strangely, it wasnÆt very high. The four heroes and many of those who joined the battle also gained the same title as I did. A useless trinket. Even those who assisted indirectly obtained the title. The four heroes from our world gained four to five levels each, though Adrian and Kelly, being lower leveled, gained about ten.

A big party was held throughout the kingdoms, though the atmosphere was somewhat tense among the elites. My presence partly dampened the euphoria. The kings were fearful, and the worries had many aspects.

Would we leave? What did the heroes want now? Who would do the cleanup of the demonic corruption that covered so much of the world? How did they maintain their power above the temples, or would the kings power and influence be usurped by the temples again?

The heroes were mostly oblivious. They were just happy to have the weight off their shoulders. The commoners partied like it truly was the end of the world.

- Have you guys attended parties like this? - Adrian asked. - Like, back home. -

- Yes. Smaller ones, nothing like this. This truly is something else. - Decades of constant warfare finally brought to an end, and the kings spared no expense to commemorate this momentous victory. Every kingdom contributed a small sum to the party, but combined, it was a truly lavish thing.

A moment of bliss for the common folk. A moment for the heroes to forget the sacrifices and losses along the way.

A moment to drown in the seemingly endless barrels of alcohol. A revenge party for a decade - long war. Because these moments may be all they had until the next demon king came along.

The nobles made the effort to approach the heroes, and their questions were meant to get a sense of how we were back home. An attempt to understand where the kingdoms stood in my world. Of course, I didnÆt expect Prabu to know what to answer.

- The Central ContinentÆs ruled by A/ . Directly, - Prabu said to a noble of Mountainworld

- What about the temples? -

- They rule the other continents, well, indirectly via their influence on the actual rulers, but the Central Continent is pretty much de facto controlled by A/ and his organization. -

The nobles all naturally poked and attempted to drive a wedge between myself and the heroes. - Why do heroes accept such an arrangement? -

Prabu stared at the noble curiously. - Why not? Not all heroes seek to rule, and A/ established a competent military dictatorship to support his realm. His realm is not perfect but largely decently managed. -

- DonÆt heroes want to create their own vision of the world? -

Prabu laughed at that. - I think that only applies if the locals donÆt even know what we want. Then we have no choice but to create it. -

- How is life in the Central Continent? What do kings and nobles do? -

Prabu frowned. - Honestly, I donÆt know. I donÆt see them much. All of my dealings with the world are handled by the Valthorns. -

- Why do you let them treat you like that? - a noble said. - Surely a hero can handle his own affairs. -

It amused me that they goaded the wrong person. They wouldÆve had better success with the other heroes, who mostly remained with Adrian and Kelly. Maybe they would try it with them later. Prabu just laughed at that. - Eh, IÆm quite happy to have a small army of assistants. -

- Do you not feel like youÆre some menagerie animal? -

- Why would I? My needs are met, and A/ may be my best chance to find a way home. -

- Maybe A/ already has a way and has been withholding it from you in order to use you to fight his wars. -

- The only wars IÆm fighting are against demons and my hunger. But maybe you guys should pay A/ Æs clone body a visit and book a tour to our world. - It wasnÆt exactly a secret by now that I sent heroes to their world. - After all, now that A/ Æs clone body is here, he wonÆt be going anywhere. -

The nobles winced.

- Eh. ItÆs quite a pleasant trip! - Prabu went on a promotional spree. - ItÆs safe, and as long as any of the Valtorn OrderÆs guys accompany you, you can be assured of your safety. FoodÆs good, and the accommodations are great! There is some really interesting scenery to see, too. I was told the valleys and the Freshkan colleges are super popular with the younger nobility. -

I somewhat cringed, so I focused on the other group of heroes. Some of the nobles approached them, but they were adept at dodging, and eventually, they left the actual party.

- IÆve got a word of advice, - Chung immediately said to Adrian. - If youÆre gonna start your own kingdom, donÆt stick your thing in too many places, and donÆt have too many kids. -

- You have kids? - Adrian looked at Chung like he said something funny.

- No. But IÆve seen what my predecessors went through, and dealing with the mess isnÆt fun. TheyÆll fight, and it broke my predecessorÆs heart when his wives and children fought with each other. -

Adrian shrugged and nodded.

Chung held his hand. - IÆm serious. One of the things we heroes lack, surprisingly, is self - control. With all this power in our hands, we can get our way easily. But there are consequences, especially with people and with organizations. If you build a kingdom, remember that the kingdom exists because you exist. Once you die, your kingdom collapses with you. -

- Is that why you guys have not made your own kingdoms? - Kelly asked. - When we came to this world, thatÆs what they promised us. WeÆd be kings and queens, heroes, weÆd have the man of our dreams. -

Chung nodded. - ItÆs a lie. The beautiful cake they sold us is filled with worms. Mostly. You gotta realize which parts are not filled with worms. -

- Then. - Kelly looked sad. - Why are we here? What should we do? -

- Survive. Until we all meet our eventual doom at the hand of some future demon king. -

- ThatÆs sad. It makes me feel like what weÆve struggled through so far is pointless. -

- ItÆs not. Even in our world, we eventually die. We are doomed, either disease or old age, or many other reasons. Yet our lives back home didnÆt feel meaningless. -

- I thought going to class all the time was pretty meaningless, - Adrian quipped.

- Meaning is something you can create. Our predecessors tried different things. One went on a hunt for good wines; another dabbled in fashion and arts. They took what they liked and dived deeper into it. For me, I quite like killing demons, so IÆm trying to be even better at it, - Chung answered frankly. - Or you can be a snack addict like Prabu. -

The two other heroes heard him but did not respond.

Around the same time, I also sent my trees to explore the area underneath the demon king. My trees spawned in where that demon king once camped, and I detected strands of daemolite that went really deep into the ground. The ley lines were tainted by demonic energy, though they would fade in time.

I sensed the taint weakening each day, and eventually the ley lines would flush out all the demonic energy.

The demon king had somehow pulled the ley lines of the entire region to this single spot, and now that the demon king was gone, these ley lines were slowly drifting apart. This would be a good time to pin the ley line together to form a dungeon, but then I wanted to see how a world recovered.

Defeating the demon king did not answer the question I had.

What was the demonÆs win condition? How did they win, and what determined how long the world held up?

From what Lilies said, I knew that a demon king could remain undefeated for decades, almost centuries, but still the world did not fall. Yet, from SnekÆs world, their world clearly collapsed quickly.

This was comparable to a doctor trying to diagnose a novel disease, and now we were trying to figure out the mechanics of the disease. A mutating virus.

Concurrently, I started to clean up the corruption in the areas designated to be under my rule.

It didnÆt take more than a week to clear my marked lands of the demonic corruption, my energies easily overwhelming the demonÆs presence.

- WhatÆs the plan with this location? - My domain holders didnÆt stay long; Edna, Roon, and Johann returned home. There was also the topic of names for this new nation, and I decided to call it Branchhold.

I would like to first increase the tree population and increase my total mana output. Later on, I would relocate some of the void archmages to this world and begin surveying the skies for other worlds.

My astral sight was enhanced now that my clone body was here, and already I could see that this world could access Threeworlds and Treehome and also some other further worlds. It was the interstellar equivalent of expansion.

I decided to open my land to refugees and got some of my experienced Valtorn Order administrators and mid - level Valthorns to come over to Mountainworld to set up the new nation of Branchhold.

In time, I would like to introduce the Canari to this world and also implement offshoots of existing institutions.

As for the lands outside, I also cleared a few - safe - paths to the rest of the inhabited worlds in order to kickstart the migration and resettlement, but for now, the rest of the demonic corruption remained.

The locals of Mountainworld called it the demon-touched lands, and they spawned hybrids and demons quite similar to the Rottedlands but still different in their own way. This was useful research, and I wanted to take another opportunity to examine them. It would be good to study them and compare them to the specimens we had back home.

Alka actually gained his domain while bunkered somewhere far from the battlefield, though he was actively supporting the battle by giving the bombs some extra - power - ups. - As a field scientist, he could amplify the strength of certain equipment, and that included the bombs, and I figured through those contributions, he gained the experience needed to get through to the domain.

He naturally joined my pantheon for - life insurance. -

He got the domain of Explosions , and the first extremely unusual ability of his domain, Always a Bomb , was his ability to be a Living Bomb. Essentially, he could detonate a bomb around himself without actually needing a bomb of varying strength and up to the strongest bomb he had ever made. The number of bombs he could release was pretty much scaled to the strength of the bomb.

At the same time, the Field Scientist class returned to me, since, once he had his domain, his class no longer existed. It was merged into the Explosions domain, along with all the skills.

In a way, that sort of made Alka very dangerous. He could theoretically nuke himself next to me if he wanted to, and I was really thankful that I had other bodies as my own personal insurance.

Then again, that was the same class any offensive - geared domain holder would reach. A hero, or a mage - with - a - domain, would probably be similarly dangerous, so there really was no need for excessive paranoia.

I would need Stella to get her domain, and we should largely have the pieces needed to really jam up the demons process.

- Too bad we missed a chance to send some roots through that rift, - Stella said to me privately. - I would love to see what kind of world that demon king came from. -

In the heat of battle, that was not an easy thing to do. The rifts were not common, either. Since this set of demons spawned their own demons by manipulating existing ley lines, they did not require much reinforcements from their home world, except during that final battle with the demon king.

With the festivities mostly over, we had a demon king to prepare for, and this time, I wanted to attempt to jam the demon kingÆs teleportation process.

14

YEAR 209

Lumoof returned to Sandworld alone. The place had not changed, but this time, we were not here for the sand or to study the solar radiation.

We wanted to mess with the mechanisms used to send the demon king through the worlds and see whether we could essentially shoot down an intercontinental ballistic missile while it was ascending from its silo or mess with the delivery vehicle such that the ICBM could not even hit its intended target.

My plan was simple. WeÆd seen the mechanisms used to create the portal, and the goal was to simply smash them before the demon king could use it. After all, the demon king itself may not be able to stop me, since it had to teleport to another world. If it did interrupt and attacked me, that was a success.

If it lured the demon in the core out of the core, that was also a success.

If that failed, IÆd attempt to mess with the mana balance of the portal and see whether I could stop the demon king from teleporting.

Any delay was a success, even if they still eventually made the trip.

- I donÆt think itÆs ready yet, - Lumoof said as we stood above where the hole once was. I could sense the massive pit to the core beneath us. There was no structure here, no tower of void energy. Not yet.

Just the rift gates built into the walls of the pit. We could destroy it, of course. So we did, but I reckoned the demons would be able to regenerate these gates fairly easily. These rift gates, built into the walls of the pits, looked flimsier than the normal gates.

During the day, the pit was covered. We took advantage of the daytime to enter avatar mode, and my roots pierced through the ground beneath us. It was a demon champion that functioned as a mobile cover, and it wasnÆt hard to kill it once I found where its core was.

The path between the two worlds was solid, and now, from this side, I sensed tremendous amounts of core - void blend that had been injected into it.

But I couldnÆt interact with the path. Only Stella could, which made me wonder. I knew it was possible for a normal person to gain void mana, and I myself already had small quantities of star mana. But could we train a regular person to possess star mana or to possess any other kinds of mana?

Anyway, I digressed. I focused back on the pit and its immediate surroundings. How did the demon king - create - those structures, and could we destroy them, copy them, or change them?

There was currently nothing around us. Except for the structure at the edges of the pit, which we had destroyed. Yet I had a feeling it wouldnÆt be so easy.

The next likely candidate was the demon within the world. Maybe it coordinated the transportation and the opening of the rift. It must have had a mechanism to - create - the structures needed to open the gates to the worlds beyond.

If so, IÆd try to intercept it.

- We have two years left, - Lumoof repeated. - ItÆs not here yet. -

- But the rifts will open soon. LetÆs head further underground and try to reach those rift gates and observe from this end. -

Lumoof gulped. - Some days, I think this avatar ability is cursed. -

Back home, war preparations continued, and I used the expanded range of my roots to continue my expansions into the sea and also underground.

There was nothing much to find in the sea, not with my now - increased range. Even underground, it was more of the same thing.

Still, with the expanded range, I could reach even further out of the sea and even deeper, and for once, I began to connect to a string of smaller islands further out to sea from the Central Continent mainland.

They were places I could never reach before, and with it, there was more mana. I realized the folly of my earlier attempt at the womb of the demon king. I was still underpowered, and if I sought to unmake the demons with mana, I would need a lot more than the mana of just one continent.

I needed the mana of at least an entire world. Maybe two or three.

So I shifted my attention to Parasiteworld, now in a state of flux. Did I still need this world?

I needed a world where mana was plentiful, a world that could fuel the war that was to come, and this wasnÆt it.

Actually, as I reviewed all my clones, I concluded both the moon and Parasiteworld should be on the chopping block. Cometworld, too, but since it had the value of traveling through the void - space, I decided it was worth keeping despite the mana shortfall.

My moon seed was now a waste, even if it was the first experiment we did. It had no mana production, and StellaÆs attempt to mess with the void paths into our world did not work. Not even when she tried to block the astral paths on the moon.

It was the equivalent of trying to stop an out - of - control truck with a piece of paper. A really thick black piece of paper. Naturally, it didnÆt work, so I decided I would recall my moon - clone. It was the - easiest - to recall, since it was so close to me that Stella could open a portal to the moon. Thus, the opportunity cost to redeploy was the lowest, if someday I were to find some other use case for a moon base.

I felt my close tree shrivel, shrink, and then. vanish.

Clone Seed recalled. Ten years of cooldown before it can be redeployed.

Ah fuck.

At least I knew it took ten years. A blink of an eye, actually.

My immediate thought was to deploy it on Threeworlds. If I could use it to unlock the new soul forge color, I would be willing to make enemies for it.

With the enhanced mana from Mountainworld, we renewed our offensive against the demons on the demonic parasite world. Parasiteworld was also linked or near its own set of worlds, though I couldnÆt see them clearly.

The sky was littered with the effects of the collapsed void path that acted like clouds.

With more mana at my disposal, I could maintain and support more trees and more beetles, and so we expanded the controlled areas to cover slightly more places.

Over the years, I realized that it was better to claim territory that led to a demon structure I wanted or a place I wanted my Treechikomas to investigate than to just claim the land for the sake of it.

Like a blob, we gave up our land where we found nothing and used the saved mana to push elsewhere. We captured a few demonic spawning pools, and these ones just generated more of these parasites.

It improved my understanding of these parasites but not much else.

At the same time, as my tree looked up to the cloudy astral skies, I made a note to send Lumoof into the demonÆs pit once the skies began to clear. Maybe there was something we could learn about how the demon found new worlds to target.

That said, I thought I may have to wait decades for it to target another world.

Still, I could discover another world this way, by hitchhiking on the demonÆs targeting system. I could front - run its invasion by sending Lumoof to the other side.

A future plan.

The demons did not take any precautionary measures even after our invasion into the core. That was, of course, strange. If they were intelligent, they shouldÆve done something.

But they didnÆt. Or maybe this wasnÆt something they normally reacted to, so they didnÆt know how to react.

In any case, it took about the same time to reach the horizontal tunnels again, and we found the lesser demons massing.

There were more spawning pools, and as we explored the tunnels, we realized that these tunnels were everywhere. In a world so large, there was no way I could find all the tunnels without a thorough magical scan of the world.

The demons resembled the creatures we fought on the surface. Hardy, physical, and tremendous magical resistance, and had a soft underbelly, and some known weak points.

My domain holders had already made sketches and gave briefings on how to fight these monsters, training for the Valthorns and mock - demons made from stone elementals.

I also used my dream academy to simulate battle against these demons. Because of the physical nature of these demons, it took quite a bit of effort for my Valthorns to learn mana - less combat methods. We also distributed skill seeds to help my Valthorns augment their arsenal of skills, so that they could have some mana - less skills.

Honestly, the skill - spell issue was still confusing to me. They both felt like they should be one and the same, and yet they were not. It remained one of the puzzles of the system that I didnÆt really understand.

Now that there was only two years left, the energies of the rift began to gather, and it was now possible to get a general sense of where the rifts would appear.

It was going to be in the Eastern Continent again. Naturally, the Aivan Triumvirs were not pleased to learn they would once again face a demon king on their land. It felt like they just had one a few decades ago.

The energies from the rift were still unstable, and because of that, I couldnÆt properly pin down the location of the demon king.

Not yet, anyway. Maybe next year I would get a location, and then we could start planning an ambush.

For now, it was time for the smaller rifts to appear, for the lesser demons and champions to grace our world.

The first rifts opened almost at the end of the year, and the lizards walked out. We didnÆt intervene immediately; my deployed forces mostly just monitored their movements. We knew from Parasiteworld that there were some differences in the demons abilities and behaviors between the demon world and our world, but we were not sure how significant this gap was and whether that was a common thing across all types of demons.

We watched as the Aivan forces tried to fight these physical demons to relatively decent success and eventually concluded that they were actually weaker here.

Their bodies were so used to the dry, mana - less environment that when they came to our world, their bodies hungrily soaked up the ambient mana, and it changed their tough bodies.

We did notice that when sufficient numbers of these demons were around, the ambient mana decreased significantly and made spelling more laborious.

As a whole, though, the regular mobs were weaker, but the demon king wouldnÆt be subject to the same restrictions. It was likely, from extrapolating our initial findings, that the demon king would have some kind of anti - magic ability.

- Maybe weÆll get some global anti - magic? - Edna speculated. - We havenÆt seen global - effect demon kings for some time. -

- You sound like youÆre looking forward to it, - Roon said. - Those were unpleasant times, from what I heard from the survivors. -

- No. I mean, thatÆs just what it is. Trends repeat themselves, and the demons eventually rehash the same ability types. A global magic interruption is likely. -

But how did we circumvent a global anti - magic ability anyway? We would once again see the collapse of the global message system, but if it was anti - magic, it could do more than that. I recalled that they could even interrupt my communication with beetles.

The previous heroes made - transmission towers, - something I was only able to replicate to a much lesser degree. Again, we would need to work around the magic with skill and system.

I made a note to train a physical - only Valthorn and relayed the message to elites.

- This is a bit too late, isnÆt it? - I heard one of the Valthorns naturally grumble about my request. - If the coming demon king is a physical - type, how are we going to get anyone ready? -

I knew, of course. But if the demon kings eventually repeated themselves, a physical - type domain holder would eventually have value. Maybe fifty years, maybe two hundred years, but eventually, we would encounter this type of demon king again.

I acknowledged my failure to consider this anti - magic, physical - only type of demon king, so the right thing to do was to prepare for it.

Essentially, as we reevaluated why we failed to prepare for this type of demon king, we began to realize that we were guessing what kind of demon king was coming, but that was actually unacceptable. For us, as an institution, I had to predict at least fifty to one hundred years ahead in order to prepare someone for that eventual outcome. Fifty years was the estimated amount of time it took to train a domain holder.

I wasnÆt thinking far enough. We needed to brainstorm and start to prepare for the demon kings after this one. Not just the coming one.

I needed to look at where we failed and what kinds of powers we could have. I needed to be Batman and prepare for every eventuality.

In fact, this was where the heroes pop culture and media knowledge became useful. Ken and the rest of the heroes were more than happy to brainstorm, during the lulls and rest periods, the kinds of creatures that may exist on other worlds.

The ideas were wild. Vampires, werewolves, slimes, spiders, eldritch horrors, human - like creatures, machines, supervillains, goblins and ogres, golems, oversize snakes. They essentially recited all kinds of monsters they could remember and tried to imagine demon-king versions of those creatures.

It was a fun exercise, and I found it strangely calming. It was great to be reminded of stories from our world, and it also reawakened my memories of the games I played, the books I used to read, and the stories IÆd heard.

My domain holders, except Lumoof, who was still in the sand world spying on the demons, were naturally horrified by the kind of creatures they imagined.

There were also some really good ones that made me think, such as the possibilities for one of the captured heroes to be somehow turned into a demon king, perhaps through the demonic parasites, or something that was non - physical like a ghost, or a water - based demon king. Or a weapon - demon king. Ken, as a joke, suggested a beaver - demon king.

I personally suspected a water - based demon king was the least likely of them all.

That said, even though they were speculations, it made sense to make some preparations and start training individuals to be able to counter or mitigate some of the threats. I wouldnÆt see the payoff now, but fifty years down the road, who knew what could make a difference?

In this entire world, I was probably one of the best placed to make this kind of moonshot investment. So I must.

We didnÆt face much difficulty with the demonic mobs, so the heroes could breathe easy. Prabu suggested that Adrian and Kelly take a visit to our world. A point I agreed with, since they would fight here, so I had my agents in Mountainworld make the necessary arrangements.

The nobles were not very pleased, but what could they do?

Adrian and Kelly made the trip to my clone, and I sent them here, right to Freshka.

The transportation went well, and there were no system prompts.

Personally, I was pleasantly surprised that there were no punishments or system problems from sending gods summoned to another world. My personal gut feeling was that they didnÆt think it was sufficiently likely, so they didnÆt create any security measures.

Maybe they might, for a future batch, if they realized that heroes were fighting in places they were not - supposed - to. Oh well.

The two heroes were most fascinated by the assortment of snacks and the relative modernity of Freshka.

Their first stop?

The hero logs. I supposed it was like a guestbook that the heroes had to sign every time they came here.

15

YEAR 209 (PART 2)

The heroes arrived in our world for their first trip. They looked quite afraid to approach my clone, but when they arrived, they didnÆt look back or turn around. Instead, they were quickly whisked through the tunnels and out to Freshka where the rest of the Valthorns attended to them.

Snacks and food followed, and a health check, just to make sure they didnÆt suffer any weird symptoms from moving worlds.

Even here, under the biolabÆs inspection, these otherworld heroes largely used the same underlying template. No significant variation in their soul spring or natures, unless. it wasnÆt something I was able to see. Maybe there was another layer to the soul or an ability to look further into the soul that IÆd not seen so far.

The heroes, on the other hand, quickly asked to visit the Hero Logs.

- This is it? - They stared at the strange book, and then Kelly touched it first. I sensed a surge in star mana, and she went into in a trance. Her body glowed, faintly, and I sensed her own star mana enter the book.

The book remained a black box to me, even now, and as more and more heroes used it, I felt the magical energies within the book seem to change slightly. It was a blend of all their mana and yet different.

Kelly eventually snapped out of the trance, and she immediately sat down. Prabu offered her snacks and some tea, said a few words, and then walked away. - Take your time. I thought about what I saw and learned for weeks. ItÆs all right if you want to cry or want to just go somewhere quiet and shout for a while. -

She looked a bit teary eyed and then nodded. - . IÆll be fine. Yeah. IÆll be okay. -

Prabu nodded and walked to rejoin Adrian. - LetÆs give her some space. - Adrian looked at Kelly, and Kelly just nodded.

It was his turn. He went into an hour - long trance, then he immediately fell to the floor. Adrian froze and then sat on a sofa right next to Kelly. He rubbed his head and then asked, - Can I sleep here? I think I need to sleep on it. -

- Yeah. ItÆs fine. No one comes here except us. Maybe except Stella, Kei, and Ken, but they canÆt use the book. Food and water is in that cabinet over there, A/ Æs powers preserve them so theyÆll last. IÆm going to go get something to eat, and weÆll come back after that. Do not run anywhere. This valley is normally off - limits. If you need anything, the Valtorn guys are outside. -

Adrian nodded and settled himself on the sofa. - Yeah. IÆll be all right, I think. -

Prabu and Colette left, and it was just Adrian and Kelly in the chamber of the heroes journals.

- YouÆre gonna sleep? - Kelly asked.

- Yeah. -

- Okay. - Kelly sat and leaned back onto the sofa. - Maybe I should, too. -

- IÆm not sleeping with you, - Adrian responded.

- Of course not. - Kelly laughed. - IÆll be here. -

They both took a nap. Prabu and Colette returned about three hours later and found both of them still sleeping.

- Huh. That really knocked them out. A/ , can you let me know when they are awake? -

- Sure. -

- Is the entire continent like this? -

- No, not really. This level of development was only present here, - Prabu said. - But some of the other cities are becoming more modern, and more. Earthlike. ItÆll take a few decades, though, before they get anywhere near this. - They walked the streets of Freshka. FreshkaÆs city core had become denser, and some of the buildings began to tower into the skies, built into or integrated with the Giant Attendant Trees that covered it.

My massive Giant Attendant Trees served as the skyscraper - equivalent of their central support structures, and craftsmen built rooms and floors anchored to my trees. For now, beetles remained the primary source of fast transport between places, especially for voluminous and bulky goods, but due to demand, there was also a basic teleportation network in place. - It feels like home, in a different way. -

- Yeah. ItÆs crowded. At the street level, it feels like any of the big cities. - Prabu nodded. They walked on elevated paths, separated from the common folk. A network of paths and ropeways crisscrossed Freshka, linking buildings to each other. The Valtorn s built a network of dedicated paths for their own use so that it was easier for them to mobilize and transport goods around Freshka, away from general public traffic. We also had tunnels for that purpose, but the Valtorn s advised that visibility had a value of its own. It was also good practice for my spies.

- Smells like it, too. - Adrian nodded. - I wasnÆt expecting to smell coffee. ItÆs not present in Mountainworld. -

Prabu smiled. - IÆll stop you there. Coffee was not invented by heroes. They already have it natively as a supplement, and itÆs popular with mages and priests as a study aid. -

- Huh. - Adrian nodded. - Does coffee do anything? -

- Yeah. There are magically enhanced and skill - enhanced versions. Some of them can essentially function like drugs back home. IÆve seen some Southerner soldiers have them to help them keep watch through the night. -

- Shit, thatÆs really wild. We couldÆve used something like that on Mountainworld to help with the demons, - Adrian said. - So many alarms missed because someone dozed off. -

Kelly popped in. - Sounds like something to trade. Maybe we can be coffee importers and connoisseurs back in Mountainworld. IÆve always liked cafe culture. -

- Tea culture is stronger here, and honestly, I donÆt even know what good coffee tastes like. - Prabu laughed. - Did your parents ever let you try coffee? They always told me itÆs an adult drink and I had to turn eighteen before I could try it. -

- You have strict parents, - Adrian said. - I always get coffee when I have to cram for an exam. But itÆs homemade stuff, and my momÆs not very good with the coffee machine, so it isnÆt that great. -

Kelly coughed. - Privileged. All I get is premixed stuff. -

Adrian rolled his eyes at the lady. Prabu just grinned. - ItÆs all right. There are some good ones, though their tastes would probably not match what we have back home. Honestly, the only one who could judge is Stella. -

- Oh, speaking of which, when are we meeting her? -

- Now. - They entered the building through the elevated path and into a large, airy chamber. This was normally the top floor of one of the cityÆs many eateries and tea houses. Stella was already there. A Valtorn nodded and then left through the stairs. - Stella, meet Adrian and Kelly, the heroes of Mountainworld. -

Stella smiled. - Well met. ItÆs nice to meet someone from home without having to get a notification that someone died. -

Adrian didnÆt get it. - Sorry, what does that mean? -

- It means the earlier batch must die before I meet someone new. -

- Oh. -

- Anyway, that was my bad. It was a morbid thing to say. Come, have some tea. Have they given these to you before? -

- IÆve had tea, - Kelly said. - But these are different? -

- Ah yes. Then you must try it. - Stella smiled. - Come. Sit. -

Separately, Alka, now with a domain, got the full briefing - a briefing that made his eyes widen and made him shake in excitement.

It wasnÆt as if he didnÆt know or guess, but it was a strong hunch. He had suspected I had intended to stop the demons somehow, but now it was clear that I intended to somehow hack the system, and he naturally understood why I sent Lumoof to do all those otherworldly missions.

- IÆm sorry we couldnÆt tell you all this before, - Edna said.

- No. It makes perfect sense now. - The part on the AivaÆs warning of the eventual end of the heroes summon and the full extent of the discussion was also revealed. He naturally had far more questions than I did.

Things he would take some time to figure out on his own.

- More importantly, now that you have a domain and the protection of my pantheon, I can now send you to the other worlds, too. If you can figure out something, thatÆll be great. -

The next one for the domain would be Stella.

16

YEAR 210

The Aivan forces didnÆt have much problem with the weakened anti - mana demons, but they struggled really badly against the demon champions.

The demon champions that came through were the supersize demons, larger than walkers, and it was their sheer size that made them difficult to kill. They were vulnerable, but it was really hard to reach that vulnerable spot without using magic.

Ballista and bows worked, but they needed to pack sufficient punch to actually deal damage without getting crushed or killed by the anti - mana sludge they released.

Grandmaster Engka, naturally, appealed for help, and we continued to supply them with both weapons and manpower to deal with the anti - mana champions.

The heroes came, too. Chung and Hafiz were eager to try out and see where they stood. They struggled just a little bit; their natural combat instinct was to use their strongest abilities, and these star manaûpowered abilities were weakened by the champions magical resistance.

Once they switched to their mana - less abilities, though, that made a huge difference.

They noticed that using star mana to boost their own - stats - did not suffer drawbacks, though the length of that boost seemed to be shorter, especially if they took a hit from the demons due to mana burn.

In short, these anti - manas demons could - dispel - magical buffs.

It was possible to stack stat - boosting buffs to hit harder, but not buffs that had a magical element.

KenÆs personal preference was to just somehow invent some kind of - bunker - buster - bomb or - TNT, - since this was a mountain - turned - demon, so he wanted to just blow up the mountain, the old - school way. AlkaÆs alchemists and researchers were able to find some substances that created small explosions but were orders of magnitude weaker than TNT.

ItÆd be a long time before our technology caught up to Earth, especially on such non - magical matters. It was quite ironic to think it may be easier to kill this demon king conventionally by a nuclear bomb or tsar - bomba than with magic bombs. Even if I understood the broad principles of such bombs, the actual fact was making such a bomb still required technology I did not have. Technology was often built upon many little incremental steps, and even if I knew what I wanted, itÆd still take a long crawl to get there.

On the other side, we looked at stat - boosting drugs and potions. Alchemists, witches, and shamans could make potions and draughts that temporarily granted boosts. The heroes themselves had magical boosts, but because these magical stat - boosts could be dispelled whenever they took a hit from the demons, it made sense to now consider non - magical boosts.

We had these kinds of stat - boosting potions and equipment for a while, owing to my long research into ginseng roots . My ginseng roots provided permanent boosts, but their relative strength was nothing like these temporary powerups.

One alternative was something like LumoofÆs domain ability, but Empowered Faithful did not boost heroes or my other domain holders. In fact, from my own prior research, only about half of all types of boosting abilities worked on domain holders, but their effectiveness was average.

But better average than none.

Anyway, we gathered all these potions and elixirs and tested them out on the heroes and also my domain holders. We prioritized non - magical ones and then tested them against the demon champions on the Eastern Continent.

Those that were dispelled were sent back for further studies, and those that didnÆt would be chosen for use.

- Looks like we need a domain - level alchemist and shaman, too. - On top of the barbarian/physical combatant, this was also an area we needed support. We already had the knight, the archer, and the priest.

- You are supposed to be our alchemist. -

- I specialize in magical explosive bombs, not potions. I can make lesser ones, but they are not that great. - Alka was right, and generally, I could make a lot of kinds of saps, and these were the extended versions of stuff you could find in nature. Healing saps, hallucinogens, relaxants, stimulants, poisons, and in these types of stuff, I outclassed him significantly.

His stuff was also more magical in nature, because his research was extensive in the areas of magical bombs, runes, and formations.

Oh well, at least we knew there was another gap to fill in our domain party.

- Huh. This continent feels like how it is back in our world, - Kelly and Adrian commented as they visited the Eastern Continent for the first time, the magical - medieval nations and cities, the temples and priests. It was almost as if this was a template copied and pasted over the multiverse.

They were nobodies in this world, nobody knew they were heroes, so it wasnÆt hard to smuggle them to that part of the world.

They were quickly guided to the location of the anti - magic demons, where they fought them for the first time. It wasnÆt a hard fight, since the demons were ironically weakened by the ambient mana, but the mana - dispelling abilities were annoying, and they had to adapt. The demon champions were harder, but less so for Adrian, who had a monk - build.

His heroic, chi - based abilities were only minimally weakened.

Monks. I needed my own version of A/ ic monks. I totally needed monks and physical combat masters. IÆd need to start with a monastery on the mountains somewhere, or an island with peach blossoms.

Maybe they should be called the Seedlin Temple.

I needed physical barbarian types, monks, and alchemists. Only then I would have a balanced team able to weather the demonic storm and perhaps brave the storm and search for the eye. IÆd probably also need vampire hunters, exorcists, witches, doctors. In short, I needed every major RPG archetype out there.

My forest on Mountainworld expanded quickly, and within months we saturated the area under my rule with trees, turning what was once a demonic wasteland into a verdant, monster - filled land. There were some familiar accidents, of course. Exploding demonic trees were also present in this world, but thankfully there was no major damage.

With the land - reclaimed, - creatures spawned, and the native fauna reemerged. They were slightly different, as with all worlds. The dogs were slightly different; the lizardpeople of this world were different from the lizardpeople of Treehome.

Miniscule problems appeared everywhere. There were linguistic problems, and the small group of Valthorns sent to administer this land on my behalf was quick to discover that the language had a lot of minor differences, each carrying different emotional weight. Even if we understood what each other said because of system shenanigans, there were meanings and context that were missing.

That led to diplomats and young graduates of FTC taking their first trip to Mountainworld in an attempt to truly understand this strange new world. I wondered whether I had facilitated the first true alien civilization encounter, even if they were more similar than not.

This land was a blank slate, and knowing what I knew now, there were a few things that I had my new settlers work on. Mistakes to avoid back with Freshka.

One: a clear constitution for this new land, with clearly set - out delegations of authority. The central continent of Treehome was a troublesome, cobbled - together hodgepodge of nations, many subservient to different degrees, each with their own set of rights and laws. It worked on Treehome essentially through the brute force of my artificial minds, providing the much - needed oversight. I could crush those who opposed it, but I didnÆt think it was necessary to force such a change when it worked so far. Again, since this was entirely new, I hoped to avoid that by having a simpler constitution, a leaner organization, and clearer laws.

Two: clear boundaries and standardized currency. Back home, the currency system was frankly a mess, and I wanted to avoid that. Even boundaries between internal disputing nations gave rise to unnecessary wars.

Three: better - planned cities and nations. When Freshka was built, it was planned, but there were flaws. Mistakes due to lack of foresight. Every time I had a new addition, like the Treeology colleges or FTC, I had to earmark additional land outside of existing city boundaries. It made for a city that sprawled outward, that worked only because of a constant network of beetles that transported people from one part of the city to another. Defensive structures were added sometimes proactively, sometimes reactively, as and when we needed them. I had indirectly built a version of suburbia.

So, before any major construction was done, my settlers would first do up a structural plan for the entire land, together with a defensive plan for both demon kings and other enemies. Mountainworld would face its own demon kings, and naturally, any new nation or city must be designed with that in mind. WeÆd also try to consider how we could accommodate future needs.

One of which was my domain transportation ability. Right now, anyone who wanted to visit Mountainworld would have to make a visit to the Valley of the Unrotten, because the teleportation ability only worked between my main body and clones. So they had to at least touch my roots in order to work. With this place acting as a center for trade between the two worlds, I needed to design the cities to enable that to be a seamless process.

A city around my clone body, instead of FreshkaÆs design where I was located far away from the valley. Freshka was essentially traveling two hours to an airport far from the city center. If possible, I wanted this new nation to have what was the equivalent of a city airport.

It made sense back then because I wanted to protect the valley; the valley had things I wanted kept away from others. Again, historical baggage that I could change with this new piece of land.

Four: it was likely that the diplomatic relationship with the other nations would deteriorate over time. Our contribution to their security and victory would be forgotten in decades, and what was a friendly relationship would eventually turn to war. I hoped to avoid that, so to do that, I wanted to significantly reach out to all the temples and find ways to stop it.

I had nothing to fear, since I was confident I would win, but another crusade was a waste of resources and an unnecessary sacrifice of the high - leveled individuals of Mountainworld, who would be inescapably summoned to fight against me.

So my expansion in this world must be accompanied by a significant spy - arm to intercept negative intelligence and take out unfriendly parties and a significant propaganda arm in order to build a positive public impression, such that the nobles were dissuaded from war.

Five: if Treehome fell to some demon king, this world would serve as our backup plan. The land must be designed such that it could accommodate Treehome refugees for a reasonably long period of time.

17

YEAR 211

These days, I felt like IÆd been moving from one demon king battle to another demon king battle. After the parasite demon king, we moved on to the demon king of Mountainworld, Akkila, or Sabnoc - lite. Now, we were waiting for the demon king to come to our world.

All the preparations had been made, and there was not much I could do beyond what weÆd done. Not in that short a time.

Now, we had to hope that what we did was enough. I hoped it was, but reality had a tendency of surprising us, just as how I was surprised by their anti - mana nature. This was essentially the grind. We kept fighting demons and hoping that it gave us an edge for the next one.

It even felt. boring to me.

Strangely, the heroes and my domain holders didnÆt feel that way. Their normal sense of time meant there really was a long gap between the demon kings, and those ten years were filled with normal life stuff.

Ah, well.

We already had our conventional weapons prepared, and Stella got better at sensing the rift gates. As a result, she was roughly able to estimate the location of the demon kingÆs movement.

With that, we quickly worked with the Aivan temples to evacuate the location and prepare for war.

It wasnÆt easy, because AivaÆs hold on the continent was weak. The warnings were quickly dismissed, and the political ruling parties that had valuable establishments in that area were quick to suspect a greater ploy at play. They suspected that the Aiva wanted the place evacuated in order to claim it for themselves.

Honestly, from my own assessment of the Aivan temples, I was not surprised. Corruption and power - grabbing behavior permeated their structure to a far greater degree than ours. Two - thirds of all priests of the Aivan temples were in someoneÆs pockets, and the Triumvirs themselves were compromised to some degree.

They had their biases, each favoring their home nation or their own original backers. So when the Aivan temples made decrees, which they did often, resistance was naturally much higher.

A riot broke out, clearly instigated by the nobles. The heroes were away fighting, trying to level against the demon champions and also trying out their anti - mana glass weapons against the demon champions.

So, for now, we watched as the Aivan templeÆs guys tried to quell the riot.

- This is stupid. - Stella smacked her head. - A/ should just march the Valthorns here and theyÆll just shut up. -

They were safe, away from the riots in the cities around them. Edna shrugged. - To some extent, this is an internal matter for the Aivan temples. -

- What good is A/ Æs forces if they are not projected at this time? The Aivans clearly need our help, and they canÆt get them to agree. We need to put our foot down and force them to. This is one of the times where a forced evacuation makes all the sense in the world. -

- The heroes should be here to evacuate them. ThatÆs what the Aivan temples prefer. Declaring our presence so overtly would make it difficult for the Aivan temple to maintain cordial relations with the other three temples. -

Our relationship with the other temples had mostly calmed down, with them tolerating our presence and my Valthorns trying their best not to mount an invasion. It was a common line of thought among the nobles and Valthorns, who believed the Central Continent was significantly better than the unruly nations of the other four continents.

The worst kinds were those who truly believed how good we had it, and they took the quality - of - life differences as the reason for us to invade them. As if it was our - duty - to uplift these other folks.

My believers would definitely prefer to impose Central Continentûstyle federal rule on the others, and while I understood why, it was something I didnÆt really want to do.

I disliked that sort of thought, as hypocritical as it sounded. Yes, IÆd secured the security of Freshka through a massive military and economic expansion, defeating and killing my way to power. But I thought at some point one must acknowledge that further expansion of the Valthorns was just pure greed.

The Central Continent produced enough, and why did I want to impose my way on the others? There was space for coexistence. For diversity. Dominance did not have to equal annihilation for the other side.

It was tempting, when in positions of power, to always apply force to get our way. That worked, but ultimately, if the general masses perceived the ruling party as one that only got things done by force, it also restricted the ruling party to a path of only using force.

In short, if the other parties thought you had a hammer and would only use a hammer to hammer down everything, they would act and prepare themselves in response. A ruling party must be able to do all things in order to maximize its policy choices, because the hammer was not always the best choice.

An olive branch or a stern warning may sometimes be all that was needed.

Anyway, I had the privilege of being distanced from these issues, because I had other lands where I didnÆt have to deal with such things.

- A mob listens to no one. Even the nobles that started it. - The Aivan temples tried their best to suppress the riots.

One of my undercover priests nodded. - They seem to be exceptionally angry. -

The spies sent to support my small Valthorn delegations agreed. - There must be some spies or instigators working for the nobles. With some leadership and rebel type abilities, itÆs not hard to convince regular villages to take up arms. -

- Come on. We canÆt be waiting for the heroes to get things done. -

The heroes were busy. They fought a few demon champions for practice throughout the continents.

In the sand world, Lumoof waited in the tunnels. We had already destroyed the rift gate structures back at the entrance to the pits, and we were pretty sure those things regenerated after a while, because it was the fourth time we destroyed them.

We made regular trips down into the pits to check on the status of the dormant demon king, and each time, we took in the magical changes down below.

We noticed the strength of the mana drain from the depths below increased over time, but it wasnÆt getting bigger. Perhaps this was already the maximum size of the demon king.

For now, we only made a few probing attacks and mostly remained outside its senses; the demon mother formed a strong demonic bubble that acted as its means to sense intruders.

The demon seemed to be particularly sensitive to my roots, and every one of my roots triggered the demon mother to respond with a huge blast of acid. The acid wasnÆt explosive, but it was heavily corrosive and seemed to suck mana out of everything.

I had wanted to gather some of that acid for my own research, but it was really hard to collect samples since it was heavily corrosive and seemed to eat through my vines and roots rather easily.

As we monitored, we began noticing the rate of mana drain began to plateau. Was the demon king finally mature? - Is it happening? -

- I think so. - The ground shook, and Lumoof sprang into action. My roots surged out from our tiny cave and smashed into the demon kingÆs bubble, but this time, I pushed harder.

The demon mother roared in defiance and attacked with its corrosive acid blast. A wall of wood temporarily redirected the acid blast, buying time for Lumoof to move out of the way. More roots, and this time, we attacked both the demon mother and the dormant demon king.

The earth shook some more, and the weird bubble around the dormant demon started to show wavy lines that seemed a bit like symbols. They were similar to the ones we saw on the rift gates but different.

- Remember what we see. - My artificial minds tried their best to record the signages and lines, but we were moving quickly, and my wooden shields blocked our sights. In any case, we were not getting a good view of the whole thing.

The lines began to glow, and then that bubble of magic around the demon king started to wobble and swirl, like a blob of water floating in space. It wobbled, swirled, and then started to move upward.

At that moment, I felt a strong void mana presence above us.

The dormant demon king twisted and turned. It began to unfurl its body, and now I saw it for what it seemed to be.

A gigantic stony lizard with two heads, one on each side. It looked deformed. There were streaks of glowing green in parts of its sand - colored body, and those glowing green parts emitted a strangely familiar energy.

But we had no time to dwell on it. We moved upward, and my roots blasted out like a machine gun. I caused the walls of the pit to collapse and hoped that the rocks would slow down the demon king.

The rocks that collapsed just melted into that blob. It was some kind of liquid - mana mixture, and some of my vines drained some of its energy. It was demonic mana and core mana, plus something I wasnÆt sure about. Like the remnants of the physical components of the demon king that it didnÆt need.

Thankfully, it was relatively slow, and Lumoof was able to shoot up the pits faster than the demon king. We needed to get to the void tower before the demon king did and hopefully hack it.

- NowÆs the time to send more people over? -

- I canÆt, - Stella said. - ThereÆs something thatÆs over the demonÆs world, and itÆs interfering with it. -

- What? -

I couldnÆt see it, but Stella could, and she said that the demon world at this moment was covered in a cloud of void mana.

Was it the doorway to that black sun I saw on Parasiteworld?

In any case, as we approached the exit of the pits, I saw the previously destroyed rift gates had been somehow magically reconstructed. No matter, my roots smashed into them, and this time, they were charged with so much void mana that they blocked my roots.

Initially.

I tried again with more force, more power, and borrowed some star mana. I took out a few of the towers, and they exploded, releasing the void mana with it.

- A/ , the astral path is wobbling. -

We looked up. The sky was dark, and Lumoof shot out of the pit like a fighter jet, and at that moment, there were a ring around the pit, filled with void mana. It kept pulling void mana from that black sun, and I felt its void mana grow.

Patreeck had to step in once again, as I felt a strong mental attack coming from the black sun. But I was stronger now, and we stared at the black void. It wasnÆt a voice, just a really irritating background hum. It would turn anyone else insane, and Lumoof looked very uncomfortable even with my mindÆs shielding.

The black sun filled the world with void mana.

So I pulled star mana from the heroes and charged my anti - demon magical spears.

And I threw them at the oversize ring around the pit. It exploded violently, and some of the void mana leaked out.

- A/ , whatÆs happening? The astral path is wobbling a lot. -

Mana surged out of the pit, and then the destroyed rift gate towers magically reappeared. I pulled out more of my spears and threw them at the rift gates. They regenerated even after my attacks, but I sensed their energy levels dipped slightly. - What causes it to wobble more? -

- Uh. itÆs not wobbling as much now. -

I charged another spear with star mana and flung it at the ring again. There was another huge explosion as the void mana reacted violently to the star mana.

At that point, the black sun pulsed, and the sky was suddenly flooded with void mana. I attempted to charge one more spear, and the spear exploded immediately, even before I threw the spear.

- Smart. - I cursed as Lumoof emerged from a shell of charred wood. I used normal mana to charge up the spears, but they didnÆt do as much damage.

The rift gates were charged, in a similar alternating pattern of void mana and core mana. The two - headed lizard emerged from the depths.

- If I canÆt hit the gates, why not the demon king? - Lumoof smashed into the demon king and landed on top of it. Immediately, my roots pierced the demon kingÆs sandy top.

I wasnÆt sure whether this demon king awakened or not, but there was no harm trying. Lumoof mentally agreed. - Well, to hell with it. LetÆs hit it. - My mana surged through Lumoof, and I knew it wouldnÆt work.

But I wanted to weaken it and see whether I could mess with it. If star mana reacted badly with void mana, injecting star mana into a demon king should cause it to fail to travel through the astral path, or at least disrupt it.

I injected the demon king with star mana again. This time, I wanted the void mana in the ambient surroundings to trigger an explosion.

- A/ , what the flying fuck is happening? - Stella cursed as she watched the astral path wobble like someone was shaking a string from the other end.

- LumoofÆs trying to attack the demon king. -

- What?! -

- We planned for this. WeÆll see how it goes. -

Stella couldnÆt send someone over, but I could constantly pull things through the vine ropeway. More spears smashed into the demon king as a large rift cracked open in the skies above us, revealing a massive, multicolored blob.

Another black droplet emerged from the blob, and it flew toward the demon king at incredibly high speed. - Stop that thing! -

My roots surged outward and smashed into the black droplet. It was incredibly tough, and I barely chipped a bit off.

But I did.

So I tried again. I managed to land two hits and then placed multiple wooden shields along its path. It smashed through them easily.

I wrapped vines around it, but it burned through my vines like I was a level - one tree.

I smashed it repeatedly, each time a little chip off. I attempted to trigger it with star mana, and the explosions didnÆt hurt it at all.

The black droplet touched the demon king, and it merged seamlessly. The demon king, previously without a will, now opened all of its eyes. It shook its body midair, then both the black sun and the formless blob vanished abruptly.

I felt magic around us shift and concentrate itself around the demon king. At that very moment, Lumoof could even taste it in the air and feel it on his skin. Even in my avatar form, the void and core mana were thick in the air.

How? The whole place was meant to be an anti - mana world, and the demon king itself was meant to be an anti - magic demon king. The mana was drawn into the demon king at that moment, and then the same runic swirls appeared around us.

- A/ , itÆs wobbling, - Stella said back on Treehome. - And the riftÆs moving! ItÆs going somewhere else. -

The gate to our world opened, and the demon king was immediately wrapped in a huge bubble of magic. It was going to warp to our world, with Lumoof still on the demon kingÆs back.

My roots pierced the demon kingÆs outer shells and strapped in for the ride.

18

YEAR 211 (PART 2)

- How do they get more insane with every generation of demon king? - Ken said as he mused about the implication of interrupting the demon king. He was safe in Freshka, far from the sight of the conflict, and he had tea.

Prabu, who was on one of his snack runs and one teleport away from the Eastern Continent, shrugged. - Actually, I think the gods are the insane ones. They are just doing the same thing repeatedly and somehow hoping that it wonÆt get a bad result. ThatÆs insanity, too. - He seemed to momentarily experience a mental attack then and quickly downed a cup of tea made from my leaves.

Ken laughed and turned to see Kei. Kei sometimes joined them for their tea outings. - Actually, us heroes are pretty boring. It says a lot that a magical tree has better ideas than us. We really should have our own ideas. -

- The League of Heroes is a good one. - Prabu sipped his tea. - Combining forces is still a great idea. -

- It is. - Ken nodded and then sighed. - Ideally, we should reach more worlds and recruit more heroes. If we could hit ten to twenty heroes at max levels, we could essentially attempt to engage demon kings the moment they spawn. -

Kei chipped in, then she shrugged. - Yes, but honestly, IÆm not too convinced. Local history suggests that heroes were summoned in high quantities many, many decades ago. Twenty isnÆt much. -

- Then a hundred. A super squad of heroes. -

- WeÆd have to somehow reach at least ten civilized worlds if each world summons ten. On average, weÆre looking at smaller and smaller numbers, which does align with SnekÆs own experience. -

Ken shrugged. - Ten worlds is doable, just a matter of time. If you think about it, the demon king is no longer an existential threat to this world. With A/ Æs ability to access multiple worlds, he could effectively evacuate people from one world to another, thus preventing a total extinction. All we need is A/ or Stella to somehow reach more worlds. -

- I donÆt see how itÆs not an existential threat. Annihilation of ninety to ninety - five percent of the population is still pretty much an existential threat. -

- Let me clarify. As it stands, it means A/ has achieved a kind of stalemate. Stalemate in the sense that A/ has effectively prevented total loss since, with A/ Æs ability to reach worlds, he could easily mount a counterattack on any demon king. The demonÆs world is never truly safe as long as A/ can reach it, - Ken answered as the little Snek coiled around his shoulder. - ThatÆs something very few worlds can claim to do. -

- I donÆt get that leap of logic. If a demon king wrecks this world, how is that a stalemate? -

- Think about it. In normal cases, like SnekÆs world, thereÆs no return or chance to retake the world. Not without some otherworldly aid. A/ Æs link to this world means there is a chance, just as how he already partially reclaimed the surface of Parasiteworld. This world will never truly fall to the demon world. Not with A/ around. ItÆs like having a retry after every game. -

- ThatÆs nothing. - Prabu shrugged. - IÆm sure the gods own home worlds or home - systems have achieved the same result, and even better, since the demons most likely canÆt beat these gods in their home turf. The kind of stalemate is just more of the status quo, really. Another one or two very safe worlds. -

Ken nodded. - Fair, but think about it. With levels, A/ could have more clones. More safe worlds. ThereÆs no real limit as long as A/ keeps gaining levels. -

- What makes you think thereÆs no upper limit to the levels? What if the gods are all maxed - out characters that canÆt do more because the system no longer gives them more power? What if they cap out at level five hundred? -

Ken paused. - Wait. That would suck. What level is A/ ? -

Prabu laughed. - I donÆt know. I canÆt scan his level. I canÆt scan any of the domain holders, really. -

- If there is a level cap, then the focus should shift toward getting more individuals to that level rather than just one. -

- Which is already happening. -

- You mean A/ knows there is a level cap? - Ken paused. I had no idea about the existence of a higher level cap, but I enjoyed eavesdropping. Their predictions could be really wild.

- I donÆt. IÆm just speculating. This behavior of training up others to gain levels seems consistent with preparing for a level cap up ahead. A/ Æs trying to hit it with a strong party. -

- Which brings us back to your idea. More heroes. Numbers game. - Prabu nodded. - League of Heroes. Totally a good idea. -

Ken choked on his tea. - Fuck. I didnÆt say all that to get you to give me praise. I didnÆt need your validation that my idea was a good one. -

Prabu grinned. - Well, it looked to me like a long - winded way of getting compliments. -

- No! - Ken rolled his eyes.

- If there is a level cap, then it totally becomes a game of numbers. We would discount the benefits of snowballing the heroes individual strength by gaining levels. The League of Heroes must continuously get more heroes. -

- Which is a flaw, since we donÆt know whether we can reach more worlds, and the hero - summoning clearly has a timer, - Kei answered. - If the league loses more heroes than it can recruit, itÆll die eventually. -

- Now youÆre saying my League of Heroes is a dead end, arenÆt you? - Ken laughed. - IÆll still continue it, though. -

- No. Not at all. - Prabu laughed.

- I wasnÆt expecting this, - Lumoof mentally spoke to me as we dug in. I sensed his thoughts were mixed with pain, and I could feel his suffering, so I tried my best to take it off him.

It wasnÆt hard to dig into such a massive creature; my roots spread out of Lumoof and easily found loose pieces of flesh and rock that I could wrap around as an anchor. The rift gates in the ground had regenerated and the skies above twisted, as if a piece of cloth was cut up.

I felt an energy pulse from within the demon king, and it flowed outward. That energy created a bubble around us. It didnÆt seem disturbed by our presence, not that much anyway.

The skies turned bright and sunny as the two massive structures vanished. Instead, in the vast bright skies, there was a surreal patch of darkness, as if someone just copy - pasted a part of the starry sky here. That magical energy from within the demon king swirled everywhere in this bubble, and my sensors rapidly attempted to make sense of what was happening.

Lumoof coughed in pain, as the magical energies were quite overwhelming. The magical distortion smashed and cut his body. It felt like he was stuck in extremely fast - moving water.

I tried my best to shield him, but even those decayed quickly when faced with this onslaught of weird blend of demonic magic.

Then, in a sudden burst of movement, the entire bubble of the demon king was pulled through that patch of darkness.

I saw a flash and then darkness. There was a surge of mental attacks, and Lumoof yelped in pain.

Then the pain receded a little, the mental assaults on our presence weakening. Only momentarily.

We were now in this. starry sky, and around us we saw so many other astral lines. Paths to other worlds. There were thousands of them, each their own line, glowing in their own way. They were not connected; these glowing astral paths seemed to float and move in a big sea of darkness, covered in little specks of dust.

There seemed to be an epicenter to the lines, a blot of darkness in the middle of everything.

They were far away, and at that moment, another incredible headache. The attacks were back, and they were stronger.

Domain has blocked attempted intrusion.

The warning repeated, and Lumoof had it, too. He had it worse, even in avatar mode; he had to endure both the violent magic of this land between worlds and the mental attacks.

But unlike before, I could feel a direction to this attack, and it came from somewhere, a spot of darkness in the void sea.

It kept attacking, and like waves at the beach, it was possible to see the direction of the waves.

My domain blocked more intrusion.

The violent magic of this space seemed to tear us apart fundamentally, and I had to constantly try to pull it together, like trying to piece together pictures that had been cut up. Reality itself seemed to be breaking apart, even if I knew it wasnÆt.

It just felt that way. Strange and unnerving. My vines and my abilities seemed helpless, and I tried my best to use my mana.

But then, in this space between worlds, I looked around, and in this huge sea of darkness, I zoomed in on the specks of dust that seemed everywhere.

Then I saw little flickers of something I knew very well, deep within all those motes of dust.

Souls.

From a distance, they were wrapped in this dust, drifting.

Drifting, moving between the space taken by the path between worlds.

They were like tiny plankton and algae, on a sea of darkness, bobbing along the waves and ripples from the demonÆs magic. They came out of one world, and then, pushed by these - void - waves - in the - void - sea, - went to other worlds. Some vanished when they got too close, but on closer look, they seemed to have just - warped - out of existence altogether.

Where were we, exactly?

Yet the fact that there were souls here made me call upon my soul forge and attempt to channel its powers through Lumoof. He was in poor shape, so IÆd try everything.

My soul forge was most effective around my main body, so my soul forge Æs abilities could only affect a small area around Lumoof.

Yet it was what we needed. It worked incredibly well; the tearing energies around us suddenly didnÆt hurt us anymore. The tearing forces that we experienced was a bit like the reconstructive energies in the soul forge when I tried to piece souls back together. Here, it was used offensively to tear us apart.

Was the void sea also some kind of interplanar soul soup? Was this where the souls went after they were ready to be reincarnated? The space where they would eventually find their new worlds?

It was frustrating to find myself asking more questions than getting answers. Why couldnÆt I access it through the rift gate? Why didnÆt StellaÆs void portal bring us to this space between worlds?

I focused my sensors on the magical bubble around us and the demon kingÆs pulsing energy. I was certain it created this bubble, and this bubble accessed this space.

Domain has blocked attempted magical intrusion.

The warnings did not stop, but as I kept studying this space around us, I began to suspect that the souls were always there, but I lacked the means to see it.

Souls were everywhere. IÆd been absorbing souls without seeing them most of the time, only when they were close to me. But I absorbed souls and their remnants from the entire continent, and after my automatic soul processing, these inner souls left my body somehow.

This was most probably where they went.

It was fascinating, and the demon kingÆs core must have something that allowed this to happen, so I would revisit the core after this incident.

Souls, like clouds of little tiny dusts swept around by the waves of this violent sea, wobbled.

I didnÆt know why, but I liked this place. I stretched my roots outward, even though Lumoof was in immense pain, and then felt the bubble push back.

I couldnÆt get out of the demon kingÆs bubble. My roots extended outward, attempting to reach into the outside. I felt like a kid letting my hand hang out of a moving carÆs open windows and felt it push back harder.

If I could just put my seed here. In this vast sea? -

I felt the demon kingÆs bubble of energy swirl intensely as more of that energy tried to keep my vines from touching the walls of the bubble.

Lumoof looked barely conscious. Although we no longer faced the tearing effects, we still experienced the demon kingÆs energy intensely, and now it felt like all of it was focused on us.

I tried to support him and send more of my mana through him. I pushed back against the demonÆs energies.

- A/ ! The riftÆs moving violently! - Stella screamed at me, back on Treehome.

- WeÆll be there soon. -

- WhatÆs happening?! - The location where the demon king was projected to land kept changing. It was like a gunman whose aim was getting interrupted by someone nearby. - It almost felt like itÆs not going to be in the Eastern Continent anymore. IÆm trying to track it, but itÆs moving very violently! -

- I seem to be interrupting the demon king by my presence. -

- You need to stop or itÆs going somewhere we are not prepared to defend! -

The Aivan temples were immediately appalled to find out that the demon king wouldnÆt land in the scheduled location. They protested and complained how weÆd just made them use up their reputation and political capital for something that would not happen, but I ignored them. I had bigger shit to fry.

The heroes, likewise, were just slightly surprised that the demon king would no longer be at the initial scheduled location. The two heroes of Mountainworld werenÆt even fazed. They didnÆt know it was possible to predict the demon kingÆs location in the first place, so this wasnÆt unusual to them.

- WeÆre still trying to track it, - Stella said as her group of void mages, scattered throughout the Eastern Continent, reported on their observations. The higher - level void mages were improving, and quite a few were able to detect the energies of the rift.

Lumoof struggled, and we felt the world twist around us again, as if everything was suddenly stretched.

I pushed back strongly and did not hesitate to try to interfere with the demon kingÆs energies. My avatar screamed as my energies swirled and fought, and it visibly caused reality around us to bend and twist in unnatural ways.

The demon king roared, and I briefly thought it was in pain or uncomfortable, because the bubble around us twisted. I kept doing it, and it bent a bit more.

Then that oppressive energy vanished.

It was unmistakable as the environment became one we were very familiar with.

The rift had somehow opened somewhere high up in the sky.

Demon King Busihir has arrived.

The world around us suddenly turned to flames as we started to fall. Really quickly.

Lumoof had barely any consciousness now, holding onto the demon king by sheer willpower. I briefly saw a vast sea, and I immediately pulled Lumoof back to my main body. He would need some extensive healing from what heÆd been through.

- The demon kingÆs right over the Northern Peninsulas! - Stella screamed as everyone quickly made preparations to move there. I wasnÆt sure how long we were trapped in that collapsing fireball.

Lumoof was quickly back in Freshka, and my healing pods started their work.

I felt the demon king burn through the starry sky, and then the demon king landed like a massive meteorite, and it crashed into the area that was once a shallow sea.

The impact momentarily pushed away all the sea and turned it into land. The impact was so strong that it became the epicenter of a tsunami that propagated outward, and my roots picked up both the vibrations and shockwave of the impact.

It was time to fight once more. Stella and the void mages were quick to pinpoint the location, then the heroes and my domain holders activated teleportation abilities.

My domain holders and other folks arrived on the site and were greeted by a strange sight.

The demon kingÆs other head had been partially severed, half of its head damaged by the twisted rifts. Throughout the demon kingÆs body were strange cuts, like parts of its body had been torn apart.

- A/ , the demon king looks like itÆs been through something, - Edna said as the image we provided earlier didnÆt match what landed.

At this point, I felt a bit drunk and dizzy, like IÆd gotten a migraine and also had too much to drink. The magical energies of the demon kingÆs astral path were so unnerving that I momentarily couldnÆt quite think clearly. So those words didnÆt quite get through to me.

The demon king was sluggish, and with Lumoof disabled, all I could see was what Stella and my mages could show me through magical scrying. It roared, and then, momentarily, I felt a force attempting to pull magic toward it.

I couldnÆt focus; my mind seemed hazy from all IÆd seen in that trip through the worlds.

I could briefly feel the demon king activate something, but it wasnÆt that strong. Throughout the world, magic seemed to momentarily fade.

- MagicÆs being suppressed but still manageable, - they reported as the heroes and my domain holders quickly moved to engage. - We are engaging. -

- Okay. - My mind gradually cleared up, but I lacked the means to view the battle or participate. I felt the ripples of their battle from afar.

19

YEAR 211 - EDNAÆS POV

Lumoof was in bad shape. Edna knew when A/ said it would take him a few days to recover. The patriarch of the Treeologies was almost never out for a few days, so what transpired didnÆt seem good.

Yet she had a feeling it wasnÆt all that bad.

- Edna, get ready. StellaÆs giving us the location now. - The sky told them the general direction. The rift gate opened so high up in the sky, and what followed was a streak of light that burned through the sky.

The demon king had somehow opened its rift way up in the sky and was on track to? -

A sudden shockwave of magic rippled through the air.

Everyone felt the explosion, especially those on the northern parts of the Eastern Continent. It landed so strongly that a huge burst of wind temporarily destabilized the regular weather patterns.

EdnaÆs skin felt a little tickled at the sensation of the unstable magic within the swirling winds, and she waited briefly for it to settle. She tapped the teleportation scroll and chanted the coordinates. - All right. LetÆs go. -

She wondered whether it world work, but then she smiled when the stored magic from within the scroll activated. She felt it tug, and they were teleported about half a dayÆs distance away from the impact site, on what was once a beautiful natural beach.

Instead, her eyes saw a vast, charred crater and at the center a demon king that looked burned and glowed. Its magical energies felt unsure, and that was when Edna knew something was wrong.

- A/ , the demon king looks like itÆs been through something. - Magical communications still worked, and Edna quickly went through her preparations.

The massive demon king was visibly injured from the impact, its outer shell charred and twisted, and Edna felt unusual magical energies radiating from many parts, as if some of its magic from traveling through the land between worlds had not been completely removed.

There were smaller explosions, and the demon king seemed to reel from the impact.

- What the hell is happening? - Roon asked, but he was getting ready.

- I donÆt know, but we should attack. Hit it while itÆs weak. -

The heroes clearly thought the same. They arrived no later than Edna and began their attack after a short minute. This was an advantage, and they were not going to waste it.

Edna took out javelins made of anti - mana glass, loaded with as many non - magical enchantments the Central ContinentÆs blacksmiths and weavers could fit. Then she popped a few elixirs and felt her strength surge through her blood and muscles.

There were better magical equivalents, but this was what they had to work with.

The heroes first wave of attacks landed with a loud explosion and a smaller shockwave. Every explosion was physical; they felt it in the air as the shockwave passed through their body.

She sometimes had dreams of these shockwaves. Or maybe nightmares. Moments when she thought about fighting demon kings. She took a breath, and those thoughts faded.

She focused on the giant before them.

The demon king was huge, and the heroes attacks only took out chunks of its massive outer shell. From afar, the heroes were explosive fire ants, trying to kill an injured giant tortoise.

The heroes tried magic, and magic seemed to work.

Then the demon king opened one of its undamaged eyes. For a brief moment, Edna felt magic around them attempt to drain away, but then just as suddenly, it was interrupted. The demon king jerked and seemed to cough, if such a thing was possible for the demon king.

Instead, they saw green streaks appearing throughout the demon kingÆs body, and it felt strange, familiar. It pulsed in resistance, and for a moment, Edna felt like it was fighting the demon king.

What was Lumoof and A/ doing back on the sand world? Had A/ Æs attempts to inject it with his seed actually succeeded?

- A/ , is that you? - Edna asked. There was no reply.

- What are we seeing, exactly? - Roon asked through their shared magical network, which thankfully wasnÆt drained away. - It wasnÆt like this when we saw it down there. -

- I have no idea, - Edna said as she approached the massive body and hacked at it. It didnÆt do anything, but their attacks hardly hurt.

The magical suppression aura from the demon king seemed weak and unstable. There were sudden periods when magic was suppressed and then periods when it wasnÆt.

The heroes clearly figured it out as Edna watched them time their magical attacks during the gaps.

Those magical attacks exploded on its massive shell, and more of it was blown off. Edna, realizing that her attacks were still not that useful, decided to retreat and provide defense for her peers.

Most of the attacks from the demon king seemed to be physical, as it launched rocks and massive boulders at extremely high speeds. With magic not fully suppressed, it wasnÆt a problem for her magical shields to block, and when magic was suppressed, she could easily manifest skill - based shields to divert the attacks.

For a moment, it all seemed to be going well.

Roon and Johann clearly looked uncomfortable, but they didnÆt say a word. Edna knew something was wrong, and her peers knew it, too.

She noticed it when they fired their attacks a little slower and kept their eyes looking. JohannÆs companion beasts also stopped attacking and focused on watching.

Edna sighed and decided to ask. - A/ , do you feel anything? - She inwardly cursed and felt LumoofÆs absence from the battle.

- My magical sensors are detecting ripples from the battle. Is everything all right? -

- I donÆt know. It looks like itÆs going according to plan. - Edna got in position and felt one of the large rocks smash into her shield.

Roon was the first to notice it when they saw the crumbled chunks turn to sand. Dark, dirt - like, but very clearly sand. Black sand.

The demon kingÆs residual energies were still uncertain, and one magical explosion ripped the shell in half. It cracked open, and then smaller demons emerged. In the hundreds and thousands, they were the lizards theyÆd fought.

- Ah darn. Mobs. - Roon cursed, but somehow it relieved their tension. Fighting the demon king was always stressful, and they could really use LumoofÆs calming presence. The mobs died easily, their anti - magic energies weakened.

Alka wasnÆt in the plan for the battle, since his focus had been magical bombs. So the initial plan mostly assumed magical bombs would be useless, but from the heroes attack, that wasnÆt true. They still packed a punch.

Then the air around the demon king started to swirl, and the black sands started to form a barrier around the demon king.

Giant wurms made of rock and sand surged out of the ground.

- Is it me, or is this a little easy? - Roon cursed as his anti - magic glass arrow punched through the giant wurmÆs body.

At the same time, the demon king roared.

Johann rolled his eyes. - You had to fucking say it. -

- I couldnÆt keep it in forever, - Roon quipped as he took cover behind EdnaÆs shield. - The tension was getting to me. -

Acid began to pour out of the demon kingÆs body, and this time, the anti - magical energies in the land really surged. They felt like they were back on the sand world once more. The thick acid flooded the crater.

The heroes lost their ability to fly as the anti - magical energies jammed their magical movement. - Oh dear. - Prabu and Colette cursed as they felt some of their magical attacks drain away.

Their fireballs got smaller as it traveled above the acid - filled crater, their lightning bolts seeming to shrink and weaken.

The demon king essentially made a moat, a crater - lake of anti - magic acid around its main body.

- This is all your fault, - Johann said, but his attacks increased in frequency. He fired more of the glass arrows, but they seemed to do nothing.

Roon just rolled his eyes. - ItÆs a fucking coincidence. We all knew this was going to happen one way or another. -

Edna just smirked as they retreated up the crater to the rim. - Well, boys, thereÆs a lake between us and the demon king. Ideas? -

- We need to drain this acid away. We can just knock a hole in the craterÆs rim, and acid should be able to flow out, - Roon said.

Edna nodded. - Agreed. -

The heroes stood on the rim and launched their ranged skills, but with their arsenal of skills restricted by the anti - magic lake and the large distance to its large body, the rate of damage was easily halved.

- All right. - Roon nodded and pinged Alka. - Alka, we need earth - busting bombs here. -

- Got it. -

The skies suddenly flashed as multiple projectiles flew their way. The bombs detonated on the rim of the crater, and even though some of its effectiveness was drained away, it achieved its goal. The crater - lake started to leak, and the acid started to flow out into the city.

- Stella! We need a portal! We need some platforms. -

A black void portal emerged a distance away. Stella couldnÆt activate it close to the crater, but A/ Æs roots began to shift the earth around them. A few platforms of rocks emerged throughout the crater, but before any larger space could be created, the demon kingÆs mouth opened.

The very presence of A/ Æs roots seemed to cause the demon king to roar, and then it blasted acid in the direction of StellaÆs portal.

- HowÆd it know? - Stella asked. The portal forcefully closed when acid smashed into it.

Roon shook his head. - I think A/ Æs been bugging it so much on its home world that it remembered A/ Æs presence. -

Edna smirked. - YouÆre saying A/ irritated the demon king. -

- Is that not what A/ did? - The acid flowed slowly out of the crater, and the heroes moved closer to attack on the platform.

The heroes closed in and attacked with all their might. Then the demon kingÆs body cracked apart, and then. it split.

- Uh. - They pointed as they saw the demon king crack apart and transform into five smaller demon kings. - I hate split - body demon kings. -

It roared and attempted to open a rift. But then one of the split - bodies was covered with green streaks, and it glowed. The rift collapsed before it could open. Edna once again felt that familiar presence and wondered.

Had A/ somehow corrupted the demon king?

The heroes engaged the split bodies, and honestly, they were not exceptional. They were tough, but relative to Sabnoc or Akkila, this was probably a whole grade weaker.

It almost seemed like it was under the effect of some kind of weakening effect, so when they successfully destroyed two of the split bodies, they eventually focused on the third one.

The crater - lake was half - drained, and that meant their spells effectiveness had recovered somewhat. It was odd that the anti - magical properties were contained within the liquid instead of its main body.

The third and fourth split body was destroyed a while later, again without any particularly unique gimmicks. It seemed to rely on its high strength and toughness, but beyond that, the heroes took them down.

Down to its fifth body, it roared, and then the acid started to float. The heroes attacked it relentlessly, and they hoped to interrupt the transformation.

And they did.

It cracked, and then, just as its outer shell vanished, it revealed a round, black - green crystal.

The heroes knew what it was and immediately teleported away. Everyone else warped away, except for Edna.

Edna felt a pulse from the crystal filled with dense, anti - magical qualities. It was good that the heroes warped out at first sight. If they got caught in the pulse, they wouldnÆt be able to leave or defend themselves from the explosion.

Edna activated her Duty Beyond Life and Death . She sped ahead and went as close as possible to the black - green crystal. She had a javelin made of anti - mana glass and stabbed it. It cracked the crystal, and then she felt the crystal pulse.

The glass crystal glowed as it absorbed mana, then it cracked.

She took out a few more and stabbed it in again. Each of the anti - magic glass javelins sucked mana out of the crystal and interfered with whatever reaction that happened within it. It was amazing how these glass weapons seemed to work better than A/ Æs vines in some way.

The green - black crystal pulsed weakly.

And then, with a whimper, stopped.

Demon King Busihir was defeated.

Edna smiled and gave the all - clear once there was no explosion for ten minutes.

- Stella. Portal, please. -

A void portal swirled open right next to the black - green crystal, and A/ Æs roots surged out. It wrapped itself around the crystal like a hungry octopus consuming its prey and, once it had a good grip, pulled it through the portal.

The air was still filled with the anti - magic qualities. Edna began to check the other destroyed bodies and noticed it had begun its transformation into daemolite.

Yet her eyes were drawn to the remains of the body with black - and - green streaks. It wasnÆt transforming into daemolite. As she got close and investigated, it really felt like A/ Æs energies, and her mind began to speculate whether A/ Æs constant magical harassment during its gestation period interfered with its development.

- A/ , we should look at this, too. -

A void portal appeared next to her, and again, roots and vines pulled the remains through.

A demon king was slain once more. Honestly, it felt like a chore, and Edna wondered whether this was how A/ felt. It had seen so many generations of demon kings and participated in so many of its conflicts.

This was a tiring, tiring chore.

20

YEAR 211 (MONTHS AFTER THE VICTORY)

- How are you feeling? - Edna came and checked on Lumoof. There were lingering side effects from the exposure to that twisted space.

- Better. ItÆll take some time before IÆm fully in shape, though. The strange energies of the demon king and that void space are far more persistent than A/ expected. -

The tearing forces of the void forests were mild, but they lingered and manifested quite a bit like demonic curses. I could remove curses quite easily, but these were not exactly curses, either. They felt a bit more like reality being in conflict with itself, which was really hard to explain. I also noticed they seemed to mark Lumoof like a sign, though eventually it went away.

Lumoof gained about ten levels from the trip through space, and he unlocked a new skill, Forest Sanctuary . It wasnÆt a combat skill, but it created some kind of pocket dimension, as long as there were a few trees in the area. The Forest Sanctuary essentially functioned as a super - safe campsite, since, well, it was in its own pocket dimension.

Around the same time, I got the briefing on the battle with the demon king from the team, though I saw most of it through magical scrying and the moments when my trees were through to the other side. The anti - magical energies of the acid interfered with the scrying, and EdnaÆs mention of the weird greenish glow made me suspicious.

The flesh we harvested that didnÆt rot or disappear or the demon kingÆs core both had greenish glows.

They had never glowed in that manner.

The core of the demon king was safe in the valley, and they looked strange and out of place. Like someone tainted the demon kingÆs core.

I vaguely recalled the pulse to be quite weak, at least initially, but now they pulsed with a far stronger glow and with much more fixed intervals. It felt a bit like two incompatible songs mashed together.

On top of that, the battle with the heroes meant their star mana already damaged the core, so it wasnÆt fully usable.

Still, we now had multiple specimens of the core, sufficient for my researchers and scientists to perform comparative analysis. They also began to construct a smaller model based off the various undamaged components across all the cores.

It was the equivalent of stripping multiple crashed airplanes to get sufficient parts for a usable whole, and it was AlkaÆs little pet project.

While they worked on that, I focused on the tainted energies of the demon kingÆs core, the green streaks.

They were mine. We made them.

It wasnÆt hard to figure out that these were created from my mana; the cumulative effects of our attacks on the demon king during its gestation clearly left a long - lasting impact on their formation. Coupled with what the heroes reported, I suspected that my mana had somehow lingered or was absorbed by the demon king.

The fact that this could happen validated parts of our offensive strategy.

What if I could taint all the demon kings? Could the taint stop the demon kings from behaving the way it currently did? Did the taint carry over to the next demon king? Could I render the planetÆs cores - infertile - such that demon kings could not spawn from them, even if they won? Extrapolating my earlier - conversion - of the demon walkers, would it be possible to - convert - the demon king?

The next step was naturally to scale this up by an entire order of magnitude. What we needed to do was effectively deliver such a high quantity of mana to the demon king that I corrupted it when it was still in its infancy.

The quantity of mana I needed was more than what I had now, but it was not impossible.

IÆd also need to improve LumoofÆs ability to deliver mana and cope with my power. Though he could project my power and my abilities, he also suffered from the side effects of that projection.

Therefore, he began mana practice. He was a priest, but he had to train and get used to large quantities of mana. We did this training before, but our goal post had shifted. The goal was to prepare Lumoof for mana at least ten times more than what I had now.

With that amount of mana, weÆd then attempt to - poison - the demon king once more and see whether we could essentially stop the demon king before it even happened.

It was painful to subject Lumoof to the large amounts of mana, but like Stella, only through exposure to excessive amounts of mana could he hope to gain the immunity to it. With higher mana tolerance, Lumoof would last longer in the demon worlds.

He cursed, of course. He understood, but he cursed. The path to end the cycle required sacrifice. Pain.

My avatar understood the purpose.

But the pain was real, and it hurt like hell.

The astral pathways collapsed instantly after the demon kingÆs death, and though I was a little sad that I would lose access to the anti - magic sand, I was also curious of what came after. What would the next demon world be like?

Stella was quiet as she watched the astral paths collapse, the revelations of the starways being this space that was not really empty. There were souls, and maybe even other things we may not even think of.

Maybe the gods truly resided in this void space?

The dust had settled, and it seemed I gained a few levels. I wasnÆt there for the bulk of the battle, so I was still pleasantly surprised by the additional levels.

You gained 5 levels. You are now Level 226.

Astral Sight improved. You may now see further between the realms.

Natural Mana overwhelming upgraded.

Mana storage upgraded.

It was nice that the system rewarded my mana poisoning with more mana - related skills. These upgrades were incremental improvements, little bits of extra efficiency and effectiveness from every point of mana.

We had a post - battle review with the heroes, too, and strangely, they actually said the battle was comparatively easy. There were very few truly threatening moments, and their problem was just dealing damage to the demon king.

They had a small panic moment when the bomb appeared at the end, of course, but that was something we all saw coming.

Based on the data from the domain holders, the heroes were generally right. It wasnÆt that bad for a demon king. Unlike Sabnoc or Akkila, the number of strange gimmicks were few, just that acid lake defense.

I wondered whether that was because our mild mana poisoning had somehow interfered with the full breadth of the demon kingÆs powers. They had easy mode because we locked some skills.

- A/ and Lumoof should invade the demon world more often. -

Lumoof choked. Edna just grinned. - Now, now, letÆs not get ahead of ourselves. It just so happens that the demon world was an anti - magic world. For the next demon king, we should consider a more thorough invasion. One led by the heroes. -

The heroes squirmed at EdnaÆs response. The initial plan a few years ago was a hero - invasion, one that had to be modified because of the unique qualities of the anti - magic sand world. Now, it was time to revert back to our original plan.

- ThereÆs nothing to worry about. We would do the initial scouting and reconnaissance, but the plan should not change. -

Both Alvin and Kelly of Mountainworld were just too stunned to respond. They couldnÆt wrap their heads around a pre - emptive invasion, or at least struggled to. Even after theyÆve seen Lumoof do it, it still baffled their minds.

I wondered whether their mental controls were slightly different from that of Chung, Prabu, and gang, but when they dipped into my biolabs, I didnÆt see anything different.

At least, not from the outer appearances.

Chung just sighed. - CanÆt delay it forever. -

- ItÆs likely we will get something more normal for the next demon king, - Edna speculated. - If the next world is anything like Parasiteworld, the plan will proceed. WeÆll see which world comes first, either this or MountainworldÆs demon king. -

- The frequency of our demon kings isnÆt that high, I think, - Kelly said. - I think. I canÆt remember. -

- Fifteen, if IÆm not mistaken, - Lumoof answered. - Their records are just as choppy as ours. -

- Darn it. Why is ours so frequent? -

- Daemolite, - Edna answered. - We have more daemolite than them. -

- That doesnÆt make sense, - Chung answered. - The demon kings create daemolite. Why would more daemolite result in more frequent demon kings? -

Edna shrugged. - I donÆt know, but the daemoliteÆs linked to the frequency. -

- Wait. Have you guys known this for a long time? - Prabu asked.

Edna paused, and she momentarily wondered whether this was revealed before. - Yes. To some extent, itÆs something weÆve been speculating, but we were not sure. We saw it in ancient dreams. Or more like A/ saw it. -

The heroes murmured as the statement stewed in the air.

- The locals wonÆt like that, - Chung said. - All the native rulers use daemolite to varying degrees for stuff. -

Edna nodded. - Indeed. Even StellaÆs void portals and the rift gate relies on daemolite to store the void mana. It is currently the best available source of void - mana storage. Other alternatives just donÆt work as well. -

- So if we destroy it, we may or may not reduce the frequency, but we lose our best known way to store void mana. -

- Yes. ThatÆs right, - Edna answered. - ItÆs why we did not say much, until we have more certainty. -

BranchholdÆs growth was good, and I was quite fascinated by the idea of starting a city from scratch.

My spymaster seemed excited to have a new assignment, and I thought he grew bored of the challenges back home. He denied it, of course.

Branchhold itself was designed to be significantly more compact, with my clone tree at its core. One of the things we took advantage of was creating vertical structures using my Giant Attendant Trees as the anchor and support.

This allowed greater density and more efficient use of space. Normally, with increased densities, there needed to have sufficient food and water to support it, but a city composed of trees had its advantages. Food and water was not a problem, since we could produce fruits and pull water from beneath the ground.

In other cities, they had to go an extra step of having magical food equivalents.

Thus, Branchhold was designed to be significantly more vertical than Freshka that sprawled outward.

This resulted in some redesigns for my beetles. Beetles naturally had the ability to climb up trees and slopes, but their packages and cargo had to be properly supported since gravity still applied.

I liked the idea of a city that was dense, and strangely, it appealed to the beetles, too. It seemed that humans, Canari, and elves didnÆt quite like it, but dwarves found it quite similar to the mines, so density wasnÆt a problem.

The treefolk also didnÆt like dense places; they got comfort from their link to the earth, so dense cities didnÆt appeal to them.

The local folks were neutral to the idea of density. They seemed more interested in the safety aspect of any institution, most likely the residual impact from the long period of war. Those who faced long periods of uncertainty due to war valued security far more than those who didnÆt. Generally, of course. There were those that embraced the nihilism and meaninglessness of life in the face of war.

What I learned from the locals through BranchholdÆs extensive surveillance was rather telling.

The drive to survive created a hardened society and nobles who were far more warlike. A decade of constant war created nobles who were now eager to expand their power, and that power turned on each other.

I had expected that my presence would deter them from actually fighting each other. After all, in our world, the presence of a strong superpower pretty much resulted in an era of peace.

That did not happen.

The system, which indirectly encouraged conflict, since everyone gained levels from fighting, essentially was stuck in this hostile loop. War was inevitable, not just because of demons, but because war rewarded those who survived them. The system granted levels, which then equated to strength.

Strength to impose oneÆs will on others and, thus, war.

Therefore, how could a world that granted power through warfare have a state of peace?

It could, if somehow everyone turned away from the system. But that left a world defenseless against the demons. With no outside interference, either divine or demonic, those who possessed power would fight for more power.

Of course, this was a very pessimistic assessment of the nature of people. Not all people sought out power, but those who became nobility and the rulers tended to be those who were more likely to seek out power and cause conflict.

It was just the necessity of their role. Even if one originally did not covet power, those who coveted their power would rise up and attempt to overthrow those who could not defend their position.

Thus, by sheer elimination of more peaceful rulers, as they failed to defend their throne, the world should naturally veer toward violence.

On the Central Continent, we mitigated this through our extensive education program, the FTC, and also the presence of our priests.

But I knew that wars could not be entirely avoided. In fact, small wars were like controlled fires, a thought that sometimes horrified a part of me. It kept the military on their toes instead of decaying into a state of complacency, especially since the threat of demons had dwindled significantly over the past few decades.

IÆd tried to mitigate that with more dungeons and more dream - wars, but a lifestyle of war? An entire society engineered toward winning a war? That was something else, and that was what Mountainworld had.

That kind of focus was admirable, and I admired how well they handled it. I wondered whether that was how Lilies felt as they grappled with the constant shifting forces of the world.

Competition and conflict created true strength. This was true back home, because it forced everyone to be on their toes. On a macro level, if I wanted a strong army, it must be allowed to experience war and battle.

Back on Branchhold, they had yet to have all these cumulative systemic changes, and thus a state of warfare was the default. The peace created by the two heroes did not last very long.

A rather pessimistic state of affairs, but so be it.

Their weakness meant I had gaps to exploit, and I freely expanded my trees on Mountainworld to increase my total mana capacity.

It didnÆt matter if I didnÆt formally own the land; in a way, that was just a feint.

As I thought about it, the crystal dude was right. I was an invader, and right now I was spreading my trees to invade this world and steal its mana.

My actions were justified, because I couldnÆt defeat the demons and end this stupid cycle without some invasions to gain more mana. At this juncture, it was a good and timely reminder for that age - old phrase: - He who fights with demons should take care that he does not become a demon. -

I supposed with all the demon hybrid experimentations, I wasnÆt far off from being one.

On the topic of experiments, Alka approached me to explore - bomb - beetles, - essentially massive suicide beetles or a swarm of tiny ones, using my biological evolutionary engineering to craft or grow a bomb - compatible beetle with flight or movement for the explicit purpose of blowing itself up at the target.

Smaller experiments were successful, and now we wanted to take it to the extreme with supersize bombs and superfast swarms of them. Speed, stealth, and power were the primary issues.

The idea was to create a literal flying swarm of explosive beetles and then, with a large enough portal, send enough through to the demon world.

Why not just normal bombs?

Simple. Alka wanted to exploit system shenanigans to overcome - manufacturing - constraints.

My subsidiary trees could spawn beetles by pure system effect and mana. If I could create suicide beetles and the subsidiary trees, of which I had an absurdly large number of, I essentially had the ability to bypast resource restrictions and just bomb the demon world with just an army of banelings or exploding zerglings.

We could then bomb Parasiteworld to hell and break the status quo. The war on Parasiteworld had reached another status quo.

We were beginning to question the value of this world. I wasnÆt learning much on Parasiteworld. The fringes of my expanded territory had to endure more demonic attacks, and I noticed some changes in the demon types used to attack my lands, but it really felt like it was going nowhere.

If anything, I should ask the six heroes to mount our first - liberation - mission on Parasiteworld.

- Liberate a world from the control of the demons? - Prabu wrapped his head around the idea of a counter invasion. - I thought we wanted to invade the demon world to attack the demon king before it attacked us. -

- Yes, but A/ proposed something more radical as a test bed. - Edna was the one to deliver the message. LumoofÆs recovery meant he wasnÆt in his best shape, but it was time. - A/ Æs incursions into the demon world highly suggested the existence of a demon king that metamorphosed into a mother in the core of the world. We believe that if we defeat it, it may free the core from the demonÆs control, and the planet then reverts back to a normal world. -

Ken and Snek were excited at the idea. If this worked, it meant Snek had a chance to save his home world. It was proof that it could be done.

- A/ has been expanding on Parasiteworld, right? -

- Yes. A/ has a large force present currently fighting a long - drawn out war of attrition. It reached a stalemate recently, due to mana limitations. - The heroes glanced at each other uncomfortably.

- We know what we are hitting? -

- No. A/ Æs unable to see whatÆs in the core as the pit that leads to the core is flooded. -

- IÆm not doing it without Lumoof doing recon, - Prabu said. - Or at least, can the flooded pit be drained? If we know what we are hitting, then maybe. -

- Possible. With enough trees, A/ could drain some of the water out. But if it goes all the way to the magical core of the world, it would take some time. The roots would need to reach that deep in the first place. The demon motherÆs also likely to be weaker than a full demon king. At least, thatÆs the sense I got from the demon I saw in the core of the anti - magic world. -

- Another free world, - Prabu answered. - Could we get heroes there? -

Edna shook her head. - I donÆt know. ThatÆs entirely up to the gods. -

- They only summon heroes in response to a demon king. -

- Is. Parasiteworld linked to any other worlds? -

- Yes, but they are too far with our current abilities. Anyway, letÆs have that conversation later and get back on topic. The battle, if any, will happen in the core of the world, because itÆs highly unlikely weÆll be able to get the demon mother away from the core. -

The heroes looked at each other. Strangely, it was Chung that asked, - Ken, what do you think? -

- Fighting a demon in the core of the planet feels very endgame boss to me. -

Chung rolled his eyes. - Eh, nowÆs not the time for a gaming reference! -

- ItÆs a risk, - Ken said. - Snek would definitely like to see it happen, but if A/ could stack the battlefield in our favor, and with the full recovery of their team, it may work. -

- CanÆt we just drop a bomb into the core? -

- You mean like Star Wars? -

- Yeah. Death Star and all that. -

- We could, but that may blow up the planet. And thatÆs not what we want. -

- A/ would prefer to keep the planet in shape in order to have another hospitable world to our stable of safe worlds. - Well, if I could free Parasiteworld from the demons, theoretically the mana recovery should improve significantly. Not being in a mana - deficit would support my goal of increasing my mana output.

Adrian and Kelly were both too flabbergasted to digest the idea. Aiding the defense of another world was one thing, but an invasive liberation of a demon world never quite crossed their mind.

- You have time to decide, - Edna said. - WeÆre waiting for the full recovery of the entire team before we attempt this. -

- What do you think of the idea? - The heroes had their own session.

- Yes, - Prabu said. - I say go for it. We have the necessary skills, and as heroes, this is what we do: defeat demons. -

- You sure thatÆs not your mental overrides hitting you? - Chung asked.

- I know, but itÆs the right thing to do. If it resets that world, it may mean more hero summons in the future. More candidates for the League of Heroes. -

- ItÆs insane, - Kelly just said frankly. - So yes. -

- YouÆre insane, - Chung said. - Why are we taking this risk? WeÆre risking our lives here, going down to the demon worldÆs pit to fight this thing in there. IÆm against this. We donÆt need this fight. -

Colette shrugged. - I donÆt know. I want more information before I decide. -

Hafiz and Adrian both nodded. - Yeah, IÆm with Colette. I need to know more. If itÆs an easy fight we should go for it. KenÆs right. If A/ could stack the odds in our favor, then we have nothing to lose. -

Chung sighed. - All right, then IÆll let Edna know that we want more info. WeÆre not going in there blind. -

Prabu laughed. - ThatÆs a privilege, Chung. Our predecessors all had to face their demon kings with no data. -

- But this isnÆt a necessary fight. -

- Maybe not, but it is our duty. -

- ThatÆs the gods speaking. -

- Maybe. -

21

YEAR 212

Lumoof had finally recovered from the effects of the trip, and he noticed his sensitivity to the soul realm had increased. There were moments when he saw specks of things flying in the air and briefly wondered whether his vision was bugged.

Then it was clear it was actually the souls movement in the world. He could seem, faintly, and if he was in a zone.

- Is it because of all the mana practice we are doing? - Lumoof asked.

- IÆm not sure. -

- I didnÆt get a skill, though. -

I thought it was a matter of time.

- I thought we get the skill first, then we see the results, not the other way round. - Lumoof chuckled. We both knew the system could be irregular and inconsistent, even if it broadly tried to stick to a set pattern. Broadly.

Level - specific things had been followed quite strictly, but when did people actually learn or acquire a skill had been one of the weirder aspects of the system. Perhaps a system had to have hard and soft aspects, both RNG and checkpoints in order for it to work?

Mana practice and soul - sight practice took up most of LumoofÆs time. His mana control wasnÆt poor, but now, his mana tolerance had improved.

It made him sick, and he actually got skills to cope with more mana. Just that the quantities we needed to poison the demon king were too high.

He would have to reach even higher levels.

For me, AlkaÆs team of scientists finally gave me one demon king core model. It was a replica constructed from the data gathered from all the demon cores we had so far.

It did not contain all the elements of the demon, just the parts of the runic carvings that we somewhat understood. They said it seemed to open up some kind of network, but it fizzled out before they could get further. The amount of power needed by the model was quite high, and Alka said he saw what appeared to be a very, very large three - dimensional map in his mind.

But it hurt his head so much he had to stop. His speculation was that it was not designed for mortal minds, or at least designed such that it suited how the demonÆs mind worked. Therefore they brought it to me.

My vines wrapped around the object made of some of the toughest crystals we had, and my mana flooded it. The runes within it flared, and then I briefly saw the entire core glow.

I felt it and saw the magic of the replica core seemed to tap into something. Something that existed in an entirely different place.

It was a mini - portal within it. No, metaphorically, it was the equivalent of an interdimensional wireless modem that was now making a call to this. space in another part of the world.

I felt a connection, and instantly my mind was assaulted. My artificial minds stepped in to protect me. It wasnÆt a domain - type attack, but more like a - DDOS - or a - Ping - bombardment.

Mental firewall activating. filtering.

This felt like a nostalgic return to the days of Rootnet.

Then I felt a strange, uncomfortable sensation, like something attempting to pull me from the other side of that connection.

It pulled, and then? -

- snapped.

At that moment, I saw the stars that Alka claimed to see. It was vast, and then they disappeared. And reappeared again.

The map seemed to twist in unusual ways, and I realized it wasnÆt actually three dimensional. I wasnÆt even sure it was a map.

That uncomfortable sensation returned, and then I felt something push back against my presence very, very strongly. It was so strong that the energy somehow spilled through the replica, and the replica cracked.

The connection was lost, then.

Alka just looked at the cracked replica with a look of bewilderment. - What just happened? -

- I saw the stars, and then something kicked me out. IÆm not sure what. - Alka strapped in as I shared what I saw with him through our dream academy.

- ThereÆs a guardian on the other side of that. It might be possible to kick it out or at least stop it from kicking you out. - My bomb - domain holder touched the cracked demon-core replica. - WeÆll have to make a few more of these out of different materials to see whatÆll work well. -

- What do you think we saw? -

- A star map. An invasion plan. A path. Or just a history of worlds invaded. -

If there was a centralized controller that told demons where to go, it had to be on the other side of the demon core.

I wondered whether every demon king essentially called home and asked, - Where do I go? - and somebody or something on the other side told it where to go.

The key point was, if I figure this out, I could fuck with it. If I stopped all the demons from being able to essentially dial home, could I take out the momentum behind the demon kingÆs constant invasions? Essentially, cause them to turn on themselves, or invade worlds that were already invaded, and so slow their expansion across the multiverse?

This strategy was an expansion of my earlier demonic IFF - interference strategy.

Of course, I eventually shared our findings with the other domain holders, the heroes, and my other senior members.

- It sounds like the demon kingÆs actually a remote - controlled drone, and the mind behind the demon king is safe somewhere else. - Ken quickly made the connection and gave a wild speculation. - We have been fighting clones all this while. The core of each planetÆs just a clone factory to manufacture more drones. -

Lumoof, naturally, understood what that meant. - Are you saying each demon king is an avatar of some controlling entity? -

- Well, close. Actually, yes. ItÆs like how A/ speaks through you. Absolutely. -

- Then we just have to take out the demon kingÆs controller and all of this should end? -

Actually, if the demon king was really some kind of entity like myself, that was actually a lot harder. It meant the entity behind the demon kings, if there was such a thing, could have many, many clone bodies and were manufacturing these self - replicating motherships.

I pondered the thought for a while and realized that countering the demon kings as a whole fell into two large long - term angles.

One: destruction and extinction. If it was possible to destroy its power source or if there was some kind of central will at the heart of all the demons, then destroying it should end this demonic plague once and for all. Part of this strategy required heavily levelling my domain holders so that they could fight battles on the demon world. There were lesser outcomes under this angle, such as just destruction of its ability to travel worlds or destruction of whatever was assisting its wayfinding.

Two: confusion and redirection, messing with the demonÆs - world - finding - abilities and, under this umbrella, messing with its friend - foe identification. Under this set of strategies, if it was not possible to destroy the demons as a whole, maybe because there wasnÆt actually a center or a node, then we would essentially confuse the shit out of it and mess with its ability to find habited worlds. We could create curtains, such that they couldnÆt find us, or jam the teleportation portals such that the demons couldnÆt invade us.

There were lesser angles or ones I considered unlikely, such as assimilation. From an evolutionary standpoint, if the demons at the center were some kind of code or virus, could I alter them such that they became benign?

If the demons were some kind of rogue program or magical gray goo that ran out of control, could someone reassert control over them?

The evolution of beetles with more specialized materials continued, even beyond AlkaÆs suicide beetles. Since the creation of specialized Treechikomas, weÆd expanded the evolutionary development to a wider range of creatures.

My domain powers over evolutionary meddling extended beyond beetles, so itÆd be a waste to restrict myself to them. Horns would be upset, but heÆd understand. And he was too busy fighting demons in Parasiteworld to nag me about it.

We experimented on anti - magic - infused beetles, but creating them consumed the anti - magic glass, which was now a finite resource. The first few designs were crap, and the regular beetle - mind struggled, so I made artificial - mind variants.

These performed better with the custom - designed bodies, but they also struggled. Actual performance in the battlefield didnÆt seem to match up with how they were designed, so we had to make multiple revisions.

It wasnÆt as if they were not working, but when compared to a regular beetle at the same level, their performance was lacking at first.

The later versions finally managed to perform just as good, but it did take about sixty different variations. The artificial minds too had to adapt to their new bodies, and that was also another lagging aspect.

These minds were able to seamlessly work with regular monsters because it seemed their movement and attitudes were already in them somehow. It was like there was a blueprint of how to move a spider or how to move a beetle already available, while this modified anti - mana beetle was different, so even basic things had to be learned from the ground up.

Honestly, some of the earlier designs were embarrassing. It reminded me of my younger days when I played with Spore, and I just placed all the horns and spikes I could and made what looked like a nerubian or a porcupine - beetle.

Yeah. More spikes was better. not really.

Over time, the refinements made by my artificial minds made them more functional, and they began to look more like something more functional.

In terms of experiments, I also relooked at my artificial minds and tried to create more powerful, fully formed souls.

With my higher number of soul forge colors, it was theoretically possible. It took some time, but eventually I managed to increase the artificial mindÆs overall performance and mana production.

It still wasnÆt much, not when compared to the Titans. But twice as fast or twice as much mana was still a significant improvement and helped the artificial minds cope with the huge amount of background administrative work to keep everything running.

Branchhold had its own set of artificial minds to run the wooden lifts and coordinate the carrier - beetles.

I also sent Ally over to Mountainworld, and she - or it, really - took the form of a lizardperson, salvaged and repaired from the corpse of a dead lizardperson. Ally, as the parasite, received an artificial mind at the core, essentially giving it sufficient power to function, but not enough to truly exhibit the full range of its abilities.

A converted demon-champion parasite was something even my own Valthorns viewed with an uncomfortable suspicion. There was just something uncanny about a shapeshifter that could possess another that made normal people uncomfortable.

Something that I didnÆt get. Maybe it was the assurance that it was almost impossible to possess me that made it discount that threat.

In any case, Ally would assist my spymasters in my plan to bend the opinions of Mountainworld in my favor.

Within the immigrants to Branchhold, we swiftly detected agents of the various kingdoms eager to find out more about us. At this point, I merely informed my spymasters of their presence but did not do more than that.

I didnÆt want the natives to realize I could monitor them, so I decided to let the agents work as they please and only allowed capture in places where it was probable that someone could have noticed them.

In short, my spymasters had to hunt for spies without relying on my treeÆs surveillance. This was good practice for him, of course, and it also hid the full extent of my abilities from the natives.

Working in other worlds would be a common occurrence as this went on, as I foresaw my gradual expansion over time.

Eventually, as I got in touch and had a presence in more inhabited worlds, IÆd see myself become some kind of centralized transportation network, the warp network between the worlds.

IÆd probably make a lot of money just by charging for transport, and with very few alternatives, well, except the void mages, IÆd essentially be a monopoly.

Of course, as it was, IÆd already have tremendous economic advantage because I could easily arbitrage any pricing differences between Treehome and Mountainworld, and the Central Continent, by extension, had access to two economic markets.

The merchant lords easily saw the economic opportunity to exploit the pricing difference, but all these depended on me agreeing to teleport the goods.

I decided against it, as it would not be good for me to crash the prices by flooding the market with essentially imported goods from another world.

There were some ideas that came out before our supposed invasion of Parasiteworld.

What if we shifted daemolite from our world to Mountainworld?

- No. What if it triggers a permanent increase in demonic invasions to our world? That would not be good. - Kelly and Adrian refused, and frankly, I could see their point. I wasnÆt sure how the demonic surveillance and targeting mechanism worked, and if I shifted it there, could I essentially trigger more demons without reducing ours?

So I considered some more alternatives. One was to shift the daemolite to Parasiteworld or to Cometworld.

I didnÆt want to shift it to Cometworld, because, if the demons could somehow see the daemolite, essentially the daemolite were surveillance bugs. I didnÆt want the demons to target a hyper - mobile void explorer.

Thus we settled on sending more of these daemolites to Parasiteworld and see whether it affected the frequency of the demon kingÆs invasion to Treehome.

We shifted almost all of our daemolite to my clone on Parasiteworld.

- No change to the existing astral paths, - Stella said. - But the further ones are wobbling and fading. It seems removing daemolite only reduces the frequency of demon kings multiple decades down the road. -

Stella later theorized those that had already locked onto our world were coming as scheduled, but those further away had not properly locked on, thus removing the daemolite made targeting more difficult. Essentially, that meant daemolite was some kind of aiming aid. Without it, the demon could still find us, but it was just a bit harder.

We kept the daemolite in Parasiteworld.

Lumoof kept practicing with mana and trained hard. He needed to be ready for the shit I was gonna throw his way, and after the shit I put him through, he clearly understood he would be seeing things way out of his league.

Even the invasion to liberate Parasiteworld essentially depended on Lumoof to provide support, since the heroes demanded his presence as a condition to the invasion.

My trees were busy draining the waters from Parasiteworld to create patches of drier land. Strangely, now that my trees covered a large part of Parasiteworld, some normal weather had returned.

There was a return of seasonal rainstorms and small snows during the colder period. Parasiteworld had always felt a little hot and humid, a bit like being in a tropical swampland, but my large patches of trees had gradually repaired some of the weather. I found it weird, because this wasnÆt a conscious thing.

I didnÆt actually attempt to change the weather, but the changes on Parasiteworld over time had been rather dramatic, and some parts absolutely no longer resembled what was still a demon-controlled world.

With more mana coming from Mountainworld, I gradually inched closer and closer to the pit of Parasiteworld.

Each piece of territory was won through a constant war of attrition against the hordes of the demons. They spawned more creatures, newer variants, but we had improved beetles to counter them.

The demons clearly had some ability to learn and adapt, especially on the demon-controlled worlds, since they were able to spawn new variants. The fact that demons in the invaded worlds did not adapt that strongly when compared to the demons on their controlled worlds made me wonder whether demon kings and demon mothers had some control over the development of demons.

Or perhaps, because the system considered demons to be native in this world, the system spawned adapted demons? Or was there some kind of automated learning or just through recombining known traits in different ratios, in the same way nature adapted to changes in the environment through reproductive processes?

The only way IÆd know was if I controlled a core.

My trees encroached on the areas around the pit to the core, and we began the process of draining the pit of water. Moving water wasnÆt difficult, and I eventually released the water throughout my controlled areas, essentially creating rivers out of these once - shallow lands.

There was a lot of landscaping to do.

The water from the pit had to be cleaned and filtered, too, as I noticed it contained far higher quantities of demonic presence within it.

I didnÆt know how long it took for the core to spawn another demon king, but from what I could detect on the surface, there was hardly any progress, and it seemed like an exceptionally long spawn time.

New lakes appeared, too, as more water was shifted out of the flooded pits. The fact that it was an exposed pit made it significantly easier for me to remove the water because I could spawn trees all the way to the edge, and those roots at the edge functioned like pumps. Water was then gradually sucked out of the pit and then channeled through the root network.

At the rate we were draining the pit, I estimated it would take about two years to drain the water and reach the core.

Good enough. By then, Lumoof and the heroes should be ready for another fight in the depth.

22

YEAR 213

- Isee the transportation went smoothly. Glad to see you, Master Johann. - I rotated domain holders between the two worlds. One of my newer treefolk lords, Baron Threid, and a delegation of administrators were present to greet him when I sent him over.

I could send him over unannounced, but the Valthorns had a huge operating procedure built up for fixed deployments, so I went along with the bureaucracy. Baron ThreidÆs kind was a rarity on Mountainworld, but he was one of those willing to take a relocation package over the Branchhold. At level fifty, he was relatively lower level, but that was normal for those with noble classes. Noble classes and ruler classes leveled slower, just like those with the higher tier or upgraded classes, but they made up for it by their aura and other state - level abilities.

This act of greeting domain holders and receiving visitors was one I felt a bit iffy about. There was an element of brown nosing that I didnÆt quite like, but Lumoof and my senior leaders claimed that it was nothing more than a good practice of hospitality. Eventually, I settled and agreed to let the practice continue but forbade lavish and large receiving parties.

- Well, IÆm here for my assignment. HowÆs everything? - It was his first visit to Branchhold this year.

Baron Threid shook his head. - We caught another four spies. IÆm fairly sure Branchhold is infested with spies at this point. Our spies are trying to weed out the rest, but with so many immigrants, itÆs quite hard. Some of them essentially do nothing but feed info back to their minders back in the kingdoms. -

Johann laughed. - Well, IÆm sure A/ saw it coming, so good luck there. -

Baron Threid paused at the statement. - Would you be assisting the counter - espionage efforts? -

Johann looked at the treefolk lordÆs misaligned eyes for a moment and shook his head. Treefolks were not what people would consider pretty. They were more tree than people, so their body structure was unusual. - No. ThatÆs not what IÆm here for. Counter - espionage remains the task of BranchholdÆs designated council. I believe A/ Æs intention is for the council to level, so it wouldnÆt be right for me to interfere. -

- Ah. I see. - I would step in if things really got out of hand, but it was important to let the people make mistakes and learn from them, as long as it wasnÆt a lethal one.

That said, I did find my tolerance of lethality increasing over time.

- Instead, I want a briefing on the latest wars of the foreign nations. -

Baron Threid nodded. - Right this way. -

There were days when I thought war was inevitable. The system facilitated and encouraged the act of combat.

Not just that. There were days when I thought war was good. The system was part of this worldÆs nature. It was how this world worked, and war was how the system and people of this world ensured the survival of the fittest.

The survival of those who could gain the levels and skills needed to survive. War accelerated that process, as conflict ensured and required each and every one to strive harder to protect what they had and to survive.

War was coming, because the system encouraged it.

War was coming, because those who survived were better equipped to face the future.

It was a morbid, cruel assessment of the world. Or was it me becoming numb to this constant state of war?

Despite the benefits of war, it came at the expense of generational learning, because war encouraged destruction of infrastructure and knowledge. War was the equivalent of stepping on others to go higher and destroying others ladders.

There had to be a balance somewhere between the two, and I wasnÆt sure whether the Central ContinentÆs model was the best one, even if it worked very well so far.

I also didnÆt think it was right to transplant a governance model that worked for the Central Continent to Branchhold and the wider Mountainworld as a whole, because both worlds and people had different histories.

Johann sat and contemplated the briefing. My spymasters had built a basic information - gathering network throughout the other kingdoms of Mountainworld. This complemented the information I gained through my trees, which also expanded outward.

The mountain world people fought a lot. In fact, the wars of this era seemed more violent than ever.

The level eighties of Mountainworld fought each other, and their levels meant the destruction they wrought was more extensive. Conflicts seemed to arise from the smallest things, the rulers eager to shake the status quo with the military power accumulated over the decade of war.

This was partly why there was a surge in immigration to Branchhold, once it became clear to the population of the world that no one actually attempted to invade us. BranchholdÆs military power remained a huge unknown to the people of this world.

- We should arrange a visit to the Central Continent of Treehome and establish the sheer gap in power between our two worlds. Once they realize the kind of military power we have, it would greatly ease our efforts on Branchhold. -

What was the point in that, really? Show that we had a bigger stick? Was there a point to scaring the people? Was it not the same as what the heroes did? Their presence frightened the other nations into compliance and gave them the - right - to have their own kingdoms.

- ItÆs useful to get some of the nobles to work with us. There are those who feel that they can oppose us if they combine their might. -

Fear. IÆd prefer if we were liked, but then again, being liked never stopped them from fighting against us. If anything, IÆd like my spymasters to bribe, blackmail, preach, and twist these other nations to get out of my way.

After all, why kill when you could convert them or bribe them? It was unnecessary bloodshed. Money was not an object for me anymore.

Over the decades and centuries, I watched the value of money fluctuate, and now I was at the point where money was kind of a secondary result of my will. After all, money was useful to convince others to mobilize and do what you want. Now, though, with the resources of a continent and my power, should I choose to wield it, absolute, money was just an intermediary.

After all, money was just a means of exchange and also a way for the state to exercise its power to govern. A nation could pay its employees with food, lodging, or any other kind of benefit in order to compel them to do what the nation required them to do.

At the core of it, what was a nation? A nation was a means to create an overarching structure to enable the provision of services not possible at a smaller scale. Back home, democratic systems generally tried to ensure that the government had a mandate, so to speak, from the people that it governed.

This, partly, was to ensure stability, to align the will of the people and that of the rulers.

In a world with magic and skills, how did this mandate play out?

Frankly, in a world where skills, levels, and magic existed with monsters of varying strength, the value of the common man was not much.

It was more of an oligarchy of the powerful.

Too frequently, it became a - mandate of the system. - Not unlike the mandate of heaven. The system bestowed a select few with the power to rule, and thus they created their kingdoms. Levels created power, and that power was exercised to rule over others. Those who had power and gained power used it to oppress and to demand those beneath them to obey.

I was aware that was essentially what I did. My overwhelming levels ensured I could execute my will and bend Treehome to the direction I wanted it to go.