TREE OF AEONS 6

Gigant dragon, the world that they came from, was still fairly independent, and with the enemy demon king slain, their world could get back to normalcy on their own. They still had multiple surviving large nations and cities that could invest and rebuild their old destroyed nations, and they did.

Samuel wanted to wait and see. The handsome elven hero had decided, somehow, that the hero class was sacred and shouldnÆt be tampered with. Perhaps it was a holdover of all the education from the Sacred Cherry Tree of Landas.

Regardless, I helped Khefri and Adrian adjust their protruding stone structures and clean up some of the accumulated - waste - within their heroic soul springs. Just like with Prabu, I received a little more of the heroic dust . It was a strange thing, but I wanted to experiment with it a little bit more.

But with Khefri, this time I noticed there was something else in there. A differently colored rock within her soul spring. I didnÆt know why I never noticed it before, or perhaps, because it was in the inner side of the soul spring, obscured by the turbulent star mana of her soul.

It had a connection to another.

This was a part of the Pact of the Three , between the three powers of Threeworld.

It was how Zhaanpu kept some limited control over Khefri. Once I just gently touched it, it responded back to me, and it felt like something I knew.

It was a skill, a Contract .

A Soul Pact of the Three .

Soul Pact of the Three is invisible to its host. An ancient bond that ties all heroes to the three hegemons of Threeworld. It allows the Three Hegemons to exercise some control and influence on the heroes.

I knew that Zhaanpu had some ways of controlling Khefri. But now I know how.

I left it untouched, but I wondered whether I should let Khefri know. For now, I adjusted the rest of the protruding stones and removed the tampering effect on the flow of her star mana.

Threeworlds

Khefri returned to the world of Threeworlds feeling refreshed. Her mind was clear. Clearer than it had even been.

Somehow, when she stepped into her old palace, something she did out of habit, she looked around and asked herself.

- Why am I doing all of this? -

The more she wandered through her old palace, she truly didnÆt understand what she went through. It didnÆt make any sense. It used to feel comfortable. As if it appealed to a part of her. What was the harem of dancing boys for?

It puzzled her. The clarity of mind suddenly placed all her past actions under question, and she began to realize that they were coping mechanisms.

The hero class distracted her from things. She wandered her palace and, in the end, decided to go talk to Zhaanpu.

- YouÆve come to see me willingly, - Zhaanpu said with a sigh. - What happened now? -

- A/ removed some of the inhibitions of the hero class. -

Zhaanpu sighed. - He should not have done that. They exist for a reason. -

- Did you know this would happen? -

- Me? No. I have never seen it done. But heroes are dangerous. You can be dangerous. These inhibitions and distractions are how the gods ensure heroes remain functional and non - destructive in a world that only needs you for moments in time. The reality of being ripped out of your old world and placed into a new one is hard for you. -

Zhaanpu geared for a fight, as if Khefri was here for a showdown. Maybe it was ZhaanpuÆs old past lifeÆs experience. His past with heroes often involved showdowns.

But he didnÆt get one. - No, - Khefri countered as she realized Zhaanpu was prepared to fight her. He was worried that without the inhibitions, she would go rogue. But no. That was not what she was there for. - No, itÆs not. Not for me. ThereÆs no need for this, - Khefri said as she realized that ZhaanpuÆs fears were unfounded. - I have my fellow hero - friends, and as long as there is a community, I can deal with this. I just came to talk. -

That made Zhaanpu a little puzzled. - That is quite a surprise. -

- Yeah. I think you can just take back my palace and assimilate my old queendom. I donÆt need it anymore, - Khefri said. - But I will return to fight the demons, as I must. -

- I see. This is an interesting turn of events. -

Khefri seemed to agree. It was great that there was a place that increasingly reminded her of her old home. The chaotic city life of Freshka was very Earth - like, as were all the various entertainment and food options.

She should return to her fellow hero friends. Maybe they, too, need a friend in her.

YEAR 286

Darkgard, the demon world connected to the Dwarven World of Delvegard

The world of Darkgard was home to a demon mother nursing a growing demon king within its planetary core, and in a decade or two, she would launch an attack on Delvegard.

- There are two things we can do, - Alka said. - One, we attack the demons directly, here on Darkgard and potentially trigger a demonic comet. The demonic comet is an extremely powerful countermeasure, and it will require the entire Order to intervene. As it is, even with the full might of all of us dwarves here, it is unlikely that there will be a successful attack on the demon king at the current point, so that leads us to option two. -

The crowd listened.

- We wait for the demon king to attack Delvegard. There is a risk of some collateral damage in the second option. In the past, our preferred strategy was to rig the landing point with explosives and weaken the demon king so much that the high - leveled Order operatives could crush the demon king. We can reclaim the demon world fairly safely after that. -

The dwarves of Darkgard had built, within a year, a large, sprawling city filled with fortifications, and here, their gigantic war machines were used to combat the demons.

Save for the new dwarven city, which was now named DarkgardÆs Stand, the demon world remained almost entirely demon-controlled. Hordes of demonic spawning pools throughout the wider region would release thousands of demons that charged toward their new city walls.

In response, DarkgardÆs Stand had three layers of walls made from the local regionÆs stone and minerals.

But interestingly, the dwarves themselves realized Darkgard wasnÆt always a demon world. There were places, purged from the demonic blight, that contained old, ancient structures that were probably a few hundred years old.

There was a time when there were humans here. That was all gone now. The dwarves found these ancient civilizations to be fascinating and called them the Old Darkgardians.

For now, the Order existed as the final - security - measure for the dwarves who wanted to prove themselves in this outpost. The defensive battles were a great outlet for their energy.

WeÆd planned a few years ago to deploy my nodes across the peripheral worlds, but as of now, we had not yet deployed our node treeson the world of Triotuga, Caval, Twinspace, and the world of the Floating Islands.

The delay was mainly one of the finer details.

We were not exactly sure where the best place to deploy on Caval was and who was the most friendly to us as visitors. Just as Ebon and Edna had realized, the worldÆs value to us was really in the chance to experiment with heroes. The knights and the hero - swords were a fairly limited value to us on their own, outside of the concept of a growing weapon.

I told Stella that I intended to allow Edna the chance to experiment, and she refused to talk to me for a month. But in the end, Stella demanded some safeguards to protect the future hero and a chance to mingle with the rest of the heroes. Stella and Edna took some time to visit the world of Caval. StellaÆs void domain wasnÆt a particular fan of the star mana used by the various hero swords of Caval, but she wanted to see it anyway, just to know why Edna wanted to experiment with it.

The visit went smoothly, and Stella begrudgingly understood the merits of a growing weapon but doubted the System would allow a weapon to exceed its original ownerÆs level. I personally doubted that, too.

For Twinspace, it was about a great cleansing spectacle, so the node was put off until there was more development on the demonic continent.

For Triotuga, we had some operatives on the ground building up our relationships, but we were likely to base ourselves on the human side. Triotuga was a borderline world, and we wanted to experiment on the boarfolkÆs demonic connections. It was a chance for me to test the extent of the faerieÆs control over my trees.

For Terras, we also had some guys infiltrating the three major island empires.

After the defeat of the demon king on Mountainworld, we redirected our attention to the coming demon kings of Caval, Triotuga, and of course Twinspace.

In the background, Hoyia was working on her plan of how to make the battle for TwinspaceÆs demon king a spectacle. She had roped in Ebon and a few other Level 140s to help. She wanted to make it a fully televised event. The magical ability to scry and farsight was well known, though they were often interrupted by the magical disruptions by a powerhouse like the demon king.

So in the past, viewing demonic battles was often choppy and the image wasnÆt clear. Mages who saw the demonic battles also found it hard to reliably share what they saw with their peers, though there had been good advancements in the past few decades such as some unique shared vision types of spells.

The challenges didnÆt stop the matriarch, so at her funding, there was a dedicated group of mages researching ways to properly and stably scry a demon king battle, even while the huge amount of magical energies interfered with it.

In a strange twist of our old worldÆs influence on this magical world, the initial versions were pretty much magically insulated mechanisms with really long insulated cables, which were then linked to a transmission artifact located far away from the actual battle. There were magical formations already able to convert light and vision into magical recordings, and they had been around for a while.

But there had been no real push to create interference - resistant scrying tools until Hoyia came along, which would then feed into a great spectacle on how the Temple of A/ conquered the demon continent and freed it from the menace that was the demon king.

All in the name of propaganda.

I wondered if Hoyia gained a domain someday, could it be the domain of propaganda? Or domain of misinformation? A cultural domain of some sort?

It was an interesting thing to think about.

I looked at the rest of my Valthorns and wondered which sort of domain they would get.

Of all of my Valthorns, Ebon stood out as the oldest of them, and I wondered whether the System would be so cruel as to give him one that reflected his long journey to a domain. On some level, I didnÆt understand why the System didnÆt give him a domain. In terms of feats and achievements, he had tried as much as anyone else.

Then there were those who were hot on his heels. Hoyia, Blackthorn, and a few other Order operatives were all in the Level 140s.

On our pantheon front, we continued to grapple with one big gap, maybe two. The first of these gaps was a lack of domain - level mages and wizards. As of now, Blackthorn and a few other void archmages were up there. Magic remained a realm where we still lacked that bit of extra firepower.

Perhaps magic was just too overpowered?

I sometimes tried to imagine Stella at really high levels with her control over void magic. Maybe she could destroy or reroute the demonic paths through the void sea. If she could do something like that, it would truly change how we thought about fighting demons.

Even in spite of years, decades of experiments into manipulating the void sea, we had not been able to redirect the Cometworld. Maybe it took someone at the Level 250s to do so.

The second big gap was one about crafters. The heroes had their hero forge , but for the rest of us, our crafting abilities remained fairly limited outside of Alka. AlkaÆs crystal - explosive focus did constrain the full scope of crafting. We had high - leveled crafters who were now taking more combat roles, in order to get them closer to the domains, but progress was mixed.

There were a few of them who reached Level 140s, but I wondered whether this was the right thing to do. Should we really get crafters to Level 150 by getting them to fight demon kings? Did that lead to more combat - type abilities? If it did, it wouldnÆt really solve our need for more super - crafters.

Then there was the problem with reclaiming the demon worlds such as Darkgard. We needed a way to quickly rejuvenate the reclaimed worlds so that they could withstand a return of the demons.

Like Treehome and Tropicsworld, IÆd used the large population, resources, and supplies of Treehome and many other worlds to repopulate Tropicsworld, but even so, the weaker ambient levels of mana meant the world itself wasnÆt as prosperous as the rest.

Was there a way to reset this quickly?

- Reclaiming the demon worlds? - Lumoof returned to Satrya briefly to speak to Gawa once more. - ItÆs not worth it. Those demon worlds have been stripped of most of its accumulated reserves and energy. Replenishing it would take centuries. In that time itÆll have to defend against tens of demon kings. Unless it was freshly conquered, and its world coreÆs magical reserves are still fairly healthy, it is not worth it. -

The odds of a world bouncing back from demonic invasion was slim.

Of the worlds I had a presence in, Tropicsworld really wasnÆt doing so bad. It probably had thirty, no, almost forty percent of its old strength, and I wondered whether there was a way I could independently accelerate this recovery. In some ways, I believed it was already much faster than it originally was.

I was a tree. We were a force of nature, and healing broken lands should be well within my powers.

Could I amplify this further so that the captured cores could heal faster?

Out of instinct, I reached back deep into the various worlds I was in, like Mountainworld, Treehome, and Threeworlds, and tried to call to their Will of the World.

I wondered, if the strong worlds could reinforce the weak worlds? Could the Will of the Worlds share their energy?

At first, there was nothing.

But I tried anyway.

There must be a way to help the damaged worlds recover so that they were strong enough. So that they didnÆt immediately collapse to the demons in a case of re - invasion.

I thought of the challenge as a medical matter, that these damaged worlds were chronically ill patients, and I wanted to use transplanted blood and organs from healthy individuals to shore up these chronically ill individuals and speed up their recovery.

I shared those thoughts to the Cores I was in touch with.

Nothing.

It was not that they were not listening. The Will of the World always listened, and they did so passively through the worlds many mechanisms.

Maybe, just like me, they needed time.

YEAR 287

The treasure ships landed on Port Tarfa, and the stores filled with gems and metals were hauled off the boats. As Hoyia predicted, the crowds gawked at the sheer wealth and resources of the stones, and the entire continent watched.

In their eyes was a mix of faith, validated belief, and greed.

The world was a dried field of grass, and she had brought oil and matches. - Behold, my fellow believers. The proof of the wealth that was denied to us all, trapped here in the old world because of your old beliefs! The proof that there is great opportunity in the Promised Land. In A/ Æs vision, the demonic continent is a promised land, filled with metals, gold, silver, and gems, and fertile land! -

And the mistress of propaganda was soon back at the affair of fanning the flames of zealotry.

- Now to prove that it is so bountiful that even this chunk of rock is worthless, come! - Hoyia had the rocks filled with unpolished gems to their temple and placed them outside. She touched it, and with the powers of her familiar, the giant, gem - studded rock was shattered into thousands of smaller rocks. - Believers, those who believed and contributed to the expeditionary fund, over the next few weeks, you will be summoned to receive some of these rocks as a token of your faith. -

The same day, many nations independently started their own demonic continent program. Greed was such a potent resource, perhaps more so in a world of scarcity.

On ExpeditionÆs Landing, the native zealots were able to expand further and deeper into the demonic territory, and they began to encounter stronger resistance from the demon champions that prowl the land.

This continent, the - New World, - was under the influence of demonic rule for centuries, and it seemed that the demon king had been around for a few decades. The truth of the matter was shrouded in poor record keeping and lack of a centralized way of checking when the last demon king had defeated the heroes.

It didnÆt help that not everyone got the - announcement - when a demon king arrived, and for the existing priests of Gawa and whatever gods that would receive some notification, they were not really incentivized to record it or share that knowledge with others.

Ebon, like many other of his peers, was here. This was the last of the demon kings among the peripheral worlds, for now.

On some level, I wondered, perhaps, if there was a narrative element to the System . That each of us domain holders represented a story. I looked back at my own journey and realized my rise to a domain was probably quite stratospheric.

Was Ebon, therefore, missing the story that would elevate him to a domain? A tale of his journey that would cement him as one of us? In other words, if we looked into the ancient histories and myths of our world, could it be that Ebon needed a unique myth? For Edna, Johann, Roon, Kafa, and Ezar, I wasnÆt quite sure why they had relatively easier paths compared to Ebon. Edna as a knight. Roon as a sniper. Johann as a ranger. Alka as an explosives alchemist. KafaÆs claws, and EzarÆs fists.

Was it because they had a clear focus?

No. As Patreeck and my artificial minds digested the data, it didnÆt seem like they had a particular focus, nor did they seem better designed. I could sense EbonÆs inner turmoil. With each battle, it still shook him. He was unsure whether he would make it.

It was a familiar feeling. Both Roon and Johann had similar feelings when they were struggling to cross that final barrier.

Ebon traveled alone, cloaked in protections to spy on the demon king. The demon king was small, relative to the other demon kings weÆd seen, but it thrummed with power. It was about the size of a beetletruck that we used for logistics and held two large, perpetually burning axes on its two arms and had two black horns from its head.

It was, in other words, the quintessential demon lord, without the demonic wings.

The demon king on the cursed continent of Twinspace seemed to have noticed EbonÆs presence.

- It sensed me, - Ebon said as we spoke through my spiritual familiar. - And yet it does nothing. -

- ItÆs waiting for heroes. - One of the theories we had earlier was that the demon kings needed hero - souls to generate sufficient energy for their mining operations toward the core of the world.

- Lumoof and Edna can take it. - Indeed, it may be on the slightly higher end of the demon kings from its energy signature, but two domain holders could hold it down. - It may suddenly attack us if it doesnÆt like our presence in its space. I should teleport out so that it doesnÆt follow me. -

The demon king was a presence we could sense even from far away, especially to my priests and mages who were attuned to how the demon king warps the presence of magic around itself.

As it turned out, Ebon was right. HoyiaÆs plan didnÆt go according to plan, because about four months into the demonic continentÆs expedition, the demon king began to move.

And it was moving quickly toward ExpeditionÆs Landing.

- What - the demon king is coming our way? What jolted it out of its passivity? - Hoyia said but tried her best not to reveal her underlying turmoil. - Wait. How much time do we have? -

- A day, maybe less? - the void mages working for her said. The way the demon king emitted void and demonic mana was something we could track.

She closed her eyes. It was too late to evacuate, and she didnÆt want to waste all her efforts. - I suppose things have been going too well for me, hasnÆt it? - Hoyia smiled and did her best to put on a brave front. - Well, letÆs see what this demon kingÆs got. -

She did her best to arrange for the mages to view their battle, with what little preparations they got and readied the rest of the forces for battle.

- My fellow zealots and faithfuls of A/ . - Hoyia gave a speech as the leader of the Twinspace operations. - It seems that our faith has drawn the envy and anger of the demons, and now, the demon king itself is headed this way! -

That caused an audible gasp throughout the rest of the zealots. Their power levels were far too low to defeat the demon king.

- But fear not, this is all but the will of the heavens. I have called on A/ Æs warriors to help us, and I, too, will take the battlefield with my compatriots. -

Hoyia stood with the Level 140s who were there with her. Most of them were ready, as well as they could be. But the fight against the demon king on Mountainworld was still fresh in their minds.

- Go and make a name for yourself, Ebon, - I said. A myth. A legend. Perhaps that was what they needed.

The demon kingÆs presence was unmistakable to all those present, and without the domain holders to shield them, the zealots from afar trembled. These were believers who had never faced something as powerful as the demon king.

Hoyia held my greatstaff in her hands and was first to launch a set of blessings for the rest of her team. The few mages and druids in the team followed soon after, and the battle was on.

I watched as the Valthorns flung themselves toward the demon king. They were afraid, but they made the leap anyway. In the eyes of zealots, they could not falter now.

The domain holders were somewhat nearby and watched.

- A part of me thinks we should intervene, - Edna said. For her, watching her friend Ebon try and try again just worried her. Each time, just like Lozanna , Ebon tried harder. More. Better. - But we shouldnÆt. We shouldnÆt. -

Edna was trying to convince herself. It was something they all were. They couldnÆt steal the fight from those who aspired to join their ranks. They could not rob them of the ladder that they had used to climb to their level. It was hard for each of the domain holders who had friends amongst those who were the Level 140s. Like Lumoof, who considered Hoyia a peer, as one of the Decarches. Or Alka, who worked with many of the mages and alchemists present.

They watched them struggle against the might of the demon king. It was too much for them, even if all their equipment and tools gave them protection and shielding. Things that allowed them to tank a strike from a demon king.

The ax of the demon king slammed into HoyiaÆs greatstaff and flung the matriarch far away. She slammed into the fairly new wall of ExpeditionÆs Landing. The zealots gasped, but Matriarch Hoyia emerged in a cocoon of hardened wooden roots. She lived, even if injured.

- I am fine! - she roared, defiant.

Ebon and the rest of the warrior Valthorns launched powerful attacks repeatedly at the demon king, and they dealt some damage. But just like Edna, it was miniscule. Weak.

Their attacks only lightly injured the demon king, even with all their power together. All their attacks were barely able to overcome the innate regeneration of the demon king. It would take a lot more than this.

And yet the demon king somehow sensed or perhaps was drawn to HoyiaÆs greatstaff. It gave chase and tried to hunt her down.

- Is this the point we step in? - Edna looked. There was too much uncertainty, but Lumoof touched her shoulders and held her back.

- No. Too early, - Lumoof cautioned, but I knew in LumoofÆs heart he steeled himself for a real loss of life. Someone would die, in order for the rest to advance. That was how it was in the past. Maybe it would be the same here. Maybe it was Hoyia. Maybe it was Ebon. Maybe it was the dwarven mage Blackthorn. Maybe it was the others who he called friends and colleagues.

Edna shook her head. - You wonÆt stop me from preventing deaths. I will leap right in there if I feel it. -

Ebon and the few warriors stepped in and tried to stop the demon king from charging in HoyiaÆs direction. Maybe it sensed her weakness. Maybe it was the greatstaff. We didnÆt know why it chose Hoyia as a target, but the rest of my Valthorns blocked the demon kingÆs advance.

- No, you are not getting to her, - Ebon said as his weapons tried to chain and hold down the demon king. His sword cracked as he traded blows with the demon kingÆs burning magical axes. He had gotten quite good at digging deep into his soul for the last dregs of strength and stamina. A part of him grew tired of it all, and he was prepared to let it all go to achieve the next step.

Lumoof looked at Edna. - ItÆs hard. I want to step in there as much as you. But they will be those who walk with us, and we must respect their determination to put their lives on the line. -

- I agree, and thatÆs why I am not going to let them die because of it, - Edna said as an army of lesser demons descended on ExpeditionÆs Landing. They were late; after all, these lesser creatures could not move as fast as the demon king. The zealots were not ready, but it didnÆt matter. - Guys, do you mind taking out the small fries? -

The four combat - based domain holders - Roon, Johann, Kafa, and Ezar - naturally understood and moved to deal with the rest of the demons coming their way. The beetle titan, which was nearby, also quickly flew to intercept the demonic forces. With the four and a fleet of flying beetles, the Valthorns could focus their energies on battling the demon king to the best that they could.

For Lumoof, Edna, and Stella, their eyes were locked on the demon king battling it out with Ebon and the others.

- It seems to be drawn to Hoyia, for some reason, - Lumoof said as he flipped through his various types of vision. What was the demon king attracted to? Star mana?

We didnÆt quite know. Maybe it was the presence of priests as a holy existence.

- EbonÆs being just as reckless as Lozanna . - Edna sighed as Ebon stood and blocked the demon king with all his might. He used a range of abilities so that he was slightly larger and increased his heft.

- It worked for Lozanna , - Lumoof said. - Success becomes an example. -

The zealots were enraptured as they watched the Valthorns do their best to hold back the demon king. They were mere Level 30 to 50 warriors, and the demon king was an existence far above their level.

HoyiaÆs greatstaff glowed as she channeled my power. A weakened version of my roots tried to chain down the demon king. It didnÆt hold it down for long, but the fact that the demon king needed to exert effort to break through those roots was a sign of her strength.

The rest of the Valthorns attacked the demon king and managed to weaken it slightly.

Hoyia tried her best to bless the rest of her peers and yet.

A miracle.

The greatstaff. My greatstaff, made from my soul, drew power from the System .

The power released at this moment was immediately familiar to Lumoof and Edna. - This feels like the holy relics from Satrya. - Lumoof blinked. WeÆd seen the divine relics of Gawa and knew that they distorted reality in a certain way.

But relics were relics for their ability to summon divinity, and we would later discover it was this sort of relics that allowed the Champions of Gawa to stand up against the demon king invaders. They were, in other words, borrowing power through stored faith. Relics, as it turned out, were weapons of faith. The stronger the worldÆs faith was, the more powerful they became.

That meant Gawa Æs relics could draw on exceptional power on worlds where Gawa Æs beliefs were strong, but on worlds owned by demons, they were no more than special artifacts.

In other words, relics were defensive weapons, mediums of faith of the world they existed in. A shame they didnÆt exist in the far - flung worlds where the people believed in gods.

Hoyia, Ebon, and a few other Valthorns at the moment were suddenly possessed by divine fury. Their bodies glowed in a way that was simultaneously my power and not mine. Because it didnÆt come from me directly.

- Well, what do you know? - Edna said. - HoyiaÆs decision to request for a relic has some merit, after all. You clearly should ask A/ to make more. -

- This didnÆt trigger on Mountainworld, - Lumoof said. - What are the conditions for using divine relics? -

The demon king now suffered real wounds, empowered by divine might.

- Fervor, zealotry, perhaps? If we compare Twinspace to Mountainworld, the immediate thought that comes to mind is faith. Given the existence of the World Faith System, there clearly is a reason why the old gods chose to move to it, - the knight responded. - I think you need to go visit that old god again to talk about divine relics and how they work. ItÆs not the power of the item itself, but what it taps into, and we should be able to do that, too. -

The blessings of a relic brought the battle to a fairly equal state. The demon king suffered real damage, and incredibly, the damage dealt by divine fervor didnÆt heal easily. The demon king couldnÆt regenerate its way out of wounds.

But the power of divinity eventually ran out.

The relic was only able to sustain the blessing for slightly over an hour, but that was transformative.

In our eyes, the demon king likely lost half its strength in that hour of pitched combat, while Ebon, Hoyia, and the others were drained.

- TheyÆre spent, I think. LetÆs clean this up, - Lumoof said.

Edna nodded, and the two domain holders walked in to finish the job. The demon king was slain a few moments later, and two new domain holders ascended to join their ranks.

YEAR 287 (PART II)

- What are relics? -

It was a simple question and came with a simple answer.

It was a fragment of divinity, and anyone who held the relic could then channel a fragment of that worldÆs faith to create miracles. Miracles then took on many different forms. Miracles were things such as a sudden surge in the combat power of Hoyia, Ebon, and the others.

Miracles, in their case, took the form of the power to singlehandedly overturn the tide of battle.

Relics enabled miracles, and they were an inherent part of the old system.

- The old gods moved to the World Faith System because they all knew that faith was powerful. Miracles were there even before the first gods came to be, through things such as worldly miracles. There was a time when the people used to worship and believe in the power of the land and the elements. That was faith as well. Faith in the world, faith in the old nature before an existence like yourself came to be. -

- Faith is thoughts, beliefs. They are things in the hearts of men, and they linger within our souls. This is a power, even if unseen and untouchable. They flow into the aether and thus empower the world as we know it. -

Faith was the fuel that existed throughout the world. It was how the old masters exceeded their inherent level limitations.

Faith existed, with or without the World Faith System.

Relics were conduits. A connection to something more that took the form of gods, systems, and the Wills of the World. This connection relied on faith to fuel its effects.

With all three, a relic, the faith of their user, and a world where there was sufficient faith flowing about, they enabled such miracles to occur.

The old gods defended their core worlds with the use of relics and special champions empowered with multiple relic - grade items. It was likely the faith point cost of such an act was significantly cheaper than summoning heroes, and they would have more control.

In other words, theyÆd managed to reliably trigger miracles in order to defeat the demon kings.

In a similar way, HoyiaÆs use of a relic enabled a miracle.

She was a few levels behind Ebon, but triggering this miracle made her gain many, many levels. Enough that she reached Level 150.

The matriarchÆs choices were limited. Only two choices, but to her, it might as well be one.

Subdomain of A/ - The Burning Tree. This subdomain channels the power of believers, grants the ability to sense the zeal of zealots and empower zealots. It is stronger in worlds with high levels of faith and weaker in worlds with no faith. The Burning Tree is able to temporarily condense the levels of its believers into the domain holder, to significantly increase their own power. The maximum increase in level is two times the current level. In addition, the Burning Tree is able to enter Sacrifice Form, where the user gains a temporary tripling of power for a period of three days. Once the use of power expires, the user will die and be eligible for resurrection. If the user dies this way, resurrection will take twice as long to complete.

Hoyia considered it to be a defensive choice, strong in worlds with high faith, and the Sacrifice Form seemed exceptionally powerful in emergencies.

Domain of the Heartshaper. This domain channels oneÆs ability to shape the thoughts and hearts of those around it. The user is inherently able to sense the emotions, thoughts, fears, and weaknesses of those around them and form direct connections to reassure those around them.

This domain holder can enthrall others who are of a slightly lower level, and the enthralled individuals will obey all commands of the domain holder. The Heartshaper can cause those enthralled to enter - Berserker - form, where they gain a large increase in strength equal to 50% of their levels, though without the skills and abilities of the higher levels. The enthralled individuals can be broken out of their controlled state with sufficient time. Other Domain holders are immune to effects of the Enthrall.

It was an option that reflected her recent actions, of how she manipulated her believers and her reputation in the non - believer nations as the great seductress.

It was powerful in its own way, but Hoyia knew what her choice was.

The other individual, Ebon, also finally crossed the level threshold.

- You did it. - Hoyia approached the knight.

- Well, you too. - Ebon took off his battered knightÆs helmet and gave a long sigh of relief. The man was old, but the influence of the domain had begun to de - age him. - ItÆs. I almost thought it wouldnÆt happen. -

- Well, that was a miracle. -

- Do you think theyÆll let us replicate it? - Ebon wondered. - A/ Æs gotta make more of those relics for the others to step into the final realm. -

Hoyia paused as she thought about it and then shook her head. - I believe, even if indirectly, that there is a penalty for taking the known path. -

- Heh. We are lucky, then. -

- That is so. What options did you get? - Hoyia asked.

The knight had three choices.

Domain of the Knight - Trainer - This domainÆs focus is on training and perseverance. It excels at training others and can formally take up to three students as a DomainÆs Squire , who are granted a significant experience boost, and a single non - rechargeable instant respawn ability. The respawn ability will not apply to those above Level 100. The effect of the experience boost is significantly stronger in older, more mature students. In addition, the domain holder will be able to sense and influence the type of skills and classes of students and also remove unwanted classes. While in the presence of students, the Knight - Trainer gains significant defensive abilities and can protect students from harm.

In addition, the Knight - Trainer gains a passive boost to overall abilities and strength proportional to the number of levels gained by the DomainÆs Squire while under their tutelage. If the squires eventually ascend to a domain of their own, the Knight - Trainer will receive a special skill based on the domain of their students.

Domain of the Enduring Knight - This domain has a focus on long, pitched battles and can name a target as a - marked - target. The domain knightÆs regeneration and overall strength will increase at a stepped basis, relative to how long a marked target remains alive during battle and the targetÆs starting level. In addition, the Enduring Knight also gains an ability to Lock its target, which enables the domain holder to instantaneously teleport next to the target. The strength increase can be up to three times the current level of the domain knight. It will take about half a day for the effect to reach a 50% increase in power, a full day for a doubling of power, and five days for an effective increase equal to three times of the current level. However, if the Enduring Knight or the Marked Target leaves the battle during this time frame, the timer is reset. This domain will also significantly enhance defensive, healing, and also targeting abilities.

This option seemed to focus on long battles against a strong, highly defensive opponent. I wondered whether the targeting function worked for fixed, stationary objects or only moving creatures.

Then the last option.

Domain of the Castle Knight - The Knight gains the ability to create and summon up to three magical castles, called the Sacred Citadel , with their own linked artificial souls. These Sacred Citadels have their own magical summoned knight army, magical protections, anti - enemy auras, and facilities to heal allies and feed refugees as well as their own magical mana pool. All three Sacred Citadels can be linked and enable movement between them. Those with Knight and related classes can travel between the magical castles with no cost, while movement of all other objects and individuals will cost some magical energy. The Castle Knight can move to any of its Sacred Citadels instantly. These castles can have magical fixtures and items installed into them and will retain these fixtures until they are destroyed.

The Castle Knight can also temporarily fuse with their Sacred Citadels to enhance their own strength, endurance, and healing.

- Well, which one do you think youÆll go for? - Hoyia asked.

Ebon rubbed his chin and looked around. - I donÆt know. I didnÆt plan for anything beyond the end of the battle. -

- Me neither. - Hoyia punched the knight on the shoulder. - But for me, itÆs quite clear what I want. -

- IÆll need a few days to process this. A part of me still doesnÆt believe it and is more than ready to be disappointed once more. -

- Take all the time you need, friend, - Hoyia said.

Choices. We gave them time to think, just as we gave Lozanna . Now we had three of them at the cusp of their own choices.

- So. There are no more demon kings on the peripheral worlds. - Lumoof returned to the world of Satrya. - How long do we need to wait? -

- I ask that you wait for two more decades. It will be ready soon, - Gawa responded through the communications relic.

Two more decades, year 307.

In a few years, there would be a new wave of demon kings, but there was nothing to fear. Now, we could have a few years of peace. To rebuild, to regenerate the various broken cities, and to elevate their people.

- What will be useful for the coming attack on the demonic home world? - Lozanna approached a few of the domain holders one day and asked for opinions.

- We do not know, - Stella said. - IÆve tried to poke at the barrier to see what lies beyond, but during that brief moment when the Sun Rings was damaged, all we saw was the demonic comet. -

- Since we are talking about the Sun Rings , do you think we can try to break it down ourselves, right now? - Edna asked, perhaps a little curious of whether her own strength would be sufficient. The tale that I faced two defender demon kings on the Sun Rings was a fact known to our upper circles, but now, we had the means to deal with them.

As we were now, we would win against two demon kings at the same time. Three, even.

- We could potentially make Gawa Æs work harder, if we didnÆt destroy it immediately. The Sun Rings could possibly gain defensive measures as a result of our actions. We donÆt exactly know how the demons repair their structures and whether this is a reversion to norm or it comes with upgrades. If I was the builder, IÆd rebuild with new countermeasures, - Alka countered. - If we hit it, we need to hit it fully with the intention of destroying it in its entirety. -

- But I am still quite torn on what to select. - Lozanna redirected the conversation to her own dilemma.

- What do you want to do? - the lady of the void asked and then decided to dip her feet in the ring. - If I were you, IÆd pick the Unchosen Champion, simply because the star mana potential independent of the hero class would be a good insurance against whatever stuff the demons have on the other side. -

- I had an inkling that was the case, - Lozanna said, - but the alternative is that I will have to wait until Gawa Æs item breaks the Sun Rings , and thatÆs a two to three decade wait. I donÆt think I should wait that long without the full extent of my powers. -

- DonÆt worry too much, my dear. - Stella smiled back at the elf. - You will not be the last domain holder, so if there is something we lack, weÆll just have to train new domain holders to fill up that gap. -

Edna coughed. - You make it sound like weÆve got it figured out. -

- I think we do. Mostly. -

The void sea was immense.

StellaÆs void explorers, now that she had more of them, traveled further and further away, in search of the lands controlled by the other gods. The other half of our plan involved engaging other gods to fight the demons together.

- Well, anything? -

- Nope, - Stella said and went on with her usual statement about how the void sea was really big and it took a lot of time to get anywhere.

But I could tell Stella was partly bothered by the prior visit to the void layers. There were days she sat in her room making notes about her observations in the void layers, and she also made predictions about what was on the other side of that barrier.

A part of it was a subtle but ever - present nagging sense of uncertainty. We did not truly understand the demons, and the more we learned from multiple sources, the better prepared we would be.

StellaÆs void explorers played a crucial part in this information - gathering exercise, and we needed to reach the other gods - Gaya, Neira, or even Aiva.

A part of me feared something else entirely. What if the void barrier wasnÆt meant to keep us out, but instead was something to keep the demons in?

I thought that was incredibly unlikely, since it was a structure controlled by demons, but the risk, however infinitely small, was not zero.

Alka returned to the world of Darkgard and continued to train the dwarves to prepare for their role.

Over the past two years, weÆd gotten fairly comfortable with the Delvegardian dwarves and began to send groups of them to Treehome and a few other worlds for them to experience life outside of Delvegard.

At the same time, weÆd also started the first series of technological exchanges between Treehome and the Delvegardians and also started work on the dwarven war machines that combined the resources, equipment, and materials of both sides.

We had advantages in terms of sheer levels, wider variety of materials, weaponry designs, and magical powers, but the Delvegardians did have details and finesse honed over a much longer period of continuous improvements.

As a whole, I still considered ourselves technologically superior to the Delvegardians. But there was no use hoarding some of the lower - and middle - tier techniques, and these dwarves had joined our Great War.

Twinspace

The defeat of TwinspaceÆs demon king had a significant impact on the overall strength of the demons on the demonic continent.

In an instant, it was as if all the weaker demons had lost about one - fifth to one - third of their individual combat strength, likely due to loss of some aura or passive enhancement from the demon king.

ExpeditionÆs Landing, buoyed by the victory over the demon king, quickly expanded. With the threat of the demon king removed from the demons continent, more zealots came over to the new lands and began a new wave of expansion into the demonic continent.

The druids and priests had to do some work to purge the lands of the demonic corruption before the lands were usable, but whatever was beneath the thick layer of demonic sludge and blight was fertile, mineral - rich soil that promised a future of prosperity.

The gold rush for the promised land had begun, and even the other non - believing nations had begun to set sail toward the promised land. Ironically, the act of doing so only proved HoyiaÆs propaganda as right.

It was also much easier to recruit large amounts of zealots now that the wealth of the demons continent was proven by HoyiaÆs few treasure ships. Each of those treasure ships landed with multiple gigantic rocks and stones filled with unprocessed gems and ores embedded within them. Some had unprocessed gold ore the size of wagons, and the arrival of these treasure ships were actual fanfares as everyone crowded along the piers to see what they brought home.

Of course, for those who were not a member of the temple, they had to pay a hefty tax to use the ports about midway between the two continents or risk sailing from one end of the ocean to another without any rest.

That was a difficult act and probably many would die taking such a risk. So in the end, the newly set up Twin Orders of Twinspace made good money charging high taxes on nonûTemple of A/ ûaffiliated ships.

Central, the management body within the Valtorn Order, was partly concerned that the presence of a surge in material goods could heavily destabilize the economies of Twinspace over the long term. One of the exit plans for that was to remove some of that excess production and wealth and redirect them to the other worlds, where the economies were much larger and could better absorb that sort of mineral boom.

On the other hand, the relatively poor conditions throughout the main inhabited continent meant most of the resources went into improving living conditions.

Gigant dragon and Capra didnÆt give us too many problems, as the Order was quickly able to set up offices and buildings.

The local Caprans were rather welcoming, and it was a great relief that we didnÆt have to deal with a combative native population, though we did have to educate the Caprans on certain sensibilities when it came to some of our other Order races such as treefolks.

The Caprans nibbled and gnawed on plants, and they had a large appetite for food. So they initially considered treefolks to be a plant. It didnÆt help that the first few times they nibbled on treefolks, they found their leaves to be exceptionally tasty.

The distinction between plant and treefolk needed to be clarified, and unfortunately, that made Treefolks ill - equipped to work with the Caprans. The rumors of the Treefolks amazing taste only spread among Capran circles and created an underground movement of people who wanted to taste treefolk leaves.

So we sent lizardfolk and dwarves to set up offices and manage our outposts on Capra. Thankfully, it was only a minority, and the Caprans who were recruited to join the first few Order operations were reasonable, good folk who could resist such actions.

Gigant dragonÆs Dragon lings were also quite easy to work with, and in fact, they were outright mercantile with their approach. They viewed the OrderÆs offer entirely on a cost - benefit basis and quite a few Dragon lings , who were a sort of half - dragon - humans, joined us merely to receive higher - quality equipment and tools.

The initial mercantile approach did make us a little suspicious of their loyalties, but we soon discovered that the Dragon lings were generally honest folks who worked and agreed to contracts. They had a culture of honoring deals and agreements, and as long as our agreement was fair, they would do their part without betraying us.

It also turned out that after a few good contracts, the Dragon lings did develop some sort of loyalty to their employers, so it was not as if they were that easily swayed.

The OrderÆs operative recruited about one to two thousand new soldiers and candidates for Capra and Gigant dragon respectively and sent them over to a few of the nearby demon worlds for - practice. -

It was a similar exercise as the dwarves of Delvegard, and through this sort of test, we could largely figure out how well they tolerated the expeditionary lifestyle, where they spent long periods away from home.

To my amusement, Caprans and the Dragon lings were both very tolerant of long periods away from home. Caprans, perhaps owing to their base as half goat - people, were tolerant of distant lands with very harsh environments, as they all had some kind of coping mechanism.

Even my existing lizardfolk, humans, elven, and dwarven warriors all had their own coping mechanisms. For some, that meant the construction of little outposts where they could let loose and be themselves for a bit. The armies rotated frequently to ensure that the soldiers mental states were generally healthy.

For all these new outposts, they would be tested through smaller real battles against the demons, and over time, they would be exposed to harder foes on new demonic worlds.

ItÆd be a long, two - decade wait until the Sun Rings fell, and when that happened, we would need an army ready.

With more worlds, we also started smaller - scale manufacturing of crystal bombs and explosives. We had used up a large chunk against the demons comet, and even if we no longer needed these bombs to deal with demon kings, it was still possible that there were more demons comets and countermeasures of that level of power.

A few suggested that we speak to Gawa as well, to construct a relic able to destroy demons comets without a need for so many different explosives. But now that IÆd seen Hoyia use my greatstaff as a relic, I wondered whether I could do so myself and had the levels of power needed to do so.

I suspected the shift to the World Faith System was motivated by the potential they saw in these relics and how they enabled and weaponized miracles.

With our growing strength, the attack on the inner demon worlds would not be far away.

And so we waited for Gawa to do his part, while we sharpened our blades for what was to come.