TREE OF AEONS 4

It sent messages flying, as the other three temples demanded to know the details. At this point, the three Triumvirs had not left, and they sought my guidance.

- Act as if I donÆt exist, - I responded. - You three are to lead Aiva like normal, and that means you must be free to make decisions on that basis, so long as it does not contravene our agreed peace treaty. -

The Triumvirs had to leave quickly, as those back on the Eastern Continent would have plenty of questions. But they first leaked that it was a peace treaty brokered by the Aivan god and that the two faiths had agreed to peace with no reparations on either side.

Peace wasnÆt so bad, and most of them could accept it. The Aivan church would have to cough out some sums from their own treasuries to compensate the kingdoms that were most devoted to the war, but that was it.

Peace as the godÆs will? That was plausible, believable, and certainly, it aligned to what most kingdoms wanted. A war with a continent an entire ocean away? What good did that do?

It was easy, in this case, to claim it was their godÆs will.

A lie, but necessary one. I had bigger problems to fry.

- IÆm not feeling too good, - Kei admitted privately to Stella. The whole thing with the gods made her feel a sense of dread. - And thereÆs no one I can talk to. -

Stella patted her back. It was a useless gesture; she was a golem, so she didnÆt feel any physical muscle soreness. - Oh, come on now. ThereÆs me. -

- You were not a hero. You donÆt know what it feels like to suddenly be told that weÆre just nothing more than medicine. That we are unstable medicines that would harm the flesh. -

Stella sat next to her. - ItÆs something you and the other heroes have realized to some extent, so I personally believed you would have expected it. -

- ItÆs one thing to suspect your parents donÆt want you and another to hear it straight from the horseÆs mouth. -

- I would never have imagined you would think of the gods as your parents. - Stella sat. - ThatÆs honestly quite creepy. -

Kei caught herself. - Yeah. ThatÆs a bad analogy. I guess itÆs like your crush telling you to buzz off, I guess? -

- ThatÆs still kind of weird. - Stella laughed. - But cheer up. Now that you know they donÆt really care, thereÆs no reason to take their requirements all that seriously. -

- I mean. how do I put it? - Kei looked at Stella; her eyes were a little watery. - I think itÆs predatory, what they are doing. They pick us and send us across the worlds, tell us - us young, impressionable souls seeking validation, value, and recognition - that we are destined to be heroes, instill within us this sense of grand purpose, magically influenced our minds such that we stick to the goal. -

- YouÆve known that. -

- Yeah, but hearing it said so matter - of - factly really is different, - Kei said.

Stella smiled. - Heroes are just like young, innocent, fresh graduates who are sucked into the corporate feel - good mission statements and sent out to the world, only to discover that their support isnÆt great and the purported values are nothing more than just something written to satisfy some arbitrary rating system. -

Kei turned and looked at Stella. - Shit. Corporate life is like that? - Despite their age, I still occasionally forgot that all these heroes never had any working experience. This - hero - stint was probably their first job.

- ThatÆs what my friends say, and you seem to be manifesting similar symptoms. Burnout from work. A realization that everything is just corporate speak. -

Kei had a look on her face. - Wait, are you saying IÆm having a quarter - life crisis? -

- YouÆve been at this hero thing for a while, and then you moved on and now focus on helping the heroes. Now youÆre wondering why youÆre doing it all in the first place. That sounds like a quarter - life crisis. YouÆre feeling lost, even without the gods mind control. -

Kei gently smacked Stella on the arm. - Stop it. YouÆre making me feel worse. -

- Am I wrong? - Stella sat. - I mean, weÆve known each other for how long? -

- You didnÆt seem that interested in being my friend at first, though, - Kei responded.

- IÆm just slow to warm up. -

- Really. -

37

YEAR 188

The north was in a frenzy, after a rumor that the missing hero was in the north. Strangely enough, I found him before anyone else did. Once Lumoof was back in the north, my trees continued to spread. My trees soon covered most of the largest island in the north, and I started to spawn subsidiary trees in the unpopulated places in the north.

The north, being a colder place, had most of its populations concentrated on the coastlines and along key rivers. That meant there were large pockets of uninhabited pine and spruce forests. There were also some parts where they were considered - taigas - or snow forests or boreal forests, where I could expand my roots and connect to more trees with little need for holding back.

There were a lot of hidden things in the north. Within a month of expanding, I discovered so many hidden dungeons buried under snow and ice and even more buried cities and towns hidden under no more than a few feet of dirt. The harsh cold and winters seem to deter adventurers, and the cold environment spawned monsters of quite a high tier, generally level forty to sixty. Some were familiar, like the dire wolves and snow foxes IÆd seen during the great blizzard spell.

Snow.

Ice giants were common in the hilly, ice - covered peaks, like those weÆd seen on AriaÆs island.

- Your presence seems to fluctuate a bit. -

- Oh. - Sensing the presence of others was a hard thing. Like the heroes, I couldnÆt sense their presence until they were close to my main body. I concluded that - domain - presence - was something that only the main body possessed. Ice. Forests. An entirely new continent. I wondered what other secrets were buried beneath these dirt. No, more than that, could there be submerged continents?

Were there the equivalents of Atlantis in this world? If so, could I find them with my roots? Right now, my roots still could not cross the oceans. If there was any Atlantis equivalents, they would be in the vast oceans of the world, submerged by some grand magic.

Thus, I asked my mages and Valthorns to perform research on long - lost cities and submerged civilizations. Ah, back to the north again; IÆd gone off tangent.

My trees spied on the cities, and the villages. It was a lot easier to spy on villages that were surrounded by trees and forests, but these were places where nothing much happened. Usually.

Then I found the missing hero in one of these quiet villages, deep in the mountains. We did not recognize him at first; after all, he just seemed like a regular person who hunted in the woods, collecting snakes and lizards.

It was a magical orb that appeared one day that gave him away. It appeared suddenly from the aether, like an invisibility spell was dispelled, and it floated in a wooden lodge. - Ken, are you there? - Ken was a plain, somewhat handsome man, and my allocated minds were listening when the conversation happened. There were many clues in hindsight, because in this village, everything seemed new. The lodges were surprisingly well built, and the facilities were strangely modern. There was also a huge wall and a very large stone building that I couldnÆt look through.

Ken was not alone.

- Your friendÆs calling you again, - a half - elf girl responded. Ken smiled and just patted her head.

- Thanks. - He went to the room and sat down. - Chung. What is it? -

- Where are you? -

- I told you, IÆm not saying a thing. -

- Look, right now, all the temples are looking for you secretly, and thereÆs even the nasty guys out there. The hero - hunters, the wannabe hero - friends, some secret spy and assassin guilds. ThereÆs a lot of people on your tail. They are already on the fake trail I left in the south, but theyÆll figure it out soon. -

- I know, but IÆm close to my breakthrough. Just give me a bit more. -

- Dude. I canÆt keep doing this without you telling me what the fuck is going on, all right? -

Ken took a deep breath. - IÆm going to give up my hero class. -

- . wait. How? - Chung on the other side sounded pissed.

- IÆm going to commit heresy, of course. -

- Heresy? - ChungÆs voice sounded uncomfortable.

- The former hero, Astra, used blood magic. That was enough for him to be excommunicated. I plan to do the same. -

- Wait, Ken. Are you sure? Is this really worth it? Remember that I told you about how Astra was marked? No, Ken. DonÆt do this. -

- Look, my friend. This whole thing is a scam. The journals youÆve seen already hinted at it to you. WeÆre not heroes. WeÆre just tools. I am not planning to let myself be sucked into some stupid overarching system of the gods. Not now, not ever. IÆm quitting. -

- Ken, the demons will come anyway. Why not just be a hero and defeat the demon king? -

- And what? We have ten years and then the next one. No. IÆm calling it off. -

- It doesnÆt work like that. Not with Astra, either. -

- IÆll figure out how to deal with the demon king once IÆm not a hero. IÆm sure after I do this, the gods will meddle with your mind and make you look for me as an enemy. I want you to resist that. Can you do that? -

- Ken, this is insane! What if I canÆt resist them, and IÆll be forced to hunt you down? No, donÆt do this -

Ken pressed something on the Orb, and it went poof. He got out and looked at the others with him. I could now detect the faint presence of blood magic, masked under layers. It was then a strange magical creature appeared from his shadow. A small spirit - snake.

- Was it a good idea to lie to him like that? - the spirit snake asked. - I thought you two were good friends. -

- He is, but it wasnÆt a total lie. We donÆt know what the gods will do, - Ken answered with a sigh. - Come. ItÆs time to summon the rest. -

The snake coughed. He took out a small red knife that glowed in my spirit vision. Ken withdrew multiple other items that were all hidden in his spatial pocket and placed them around the village. All of these items were strange, with markings I had not seen before. I quickly mentally noted them down.

At that point, I noticed something strange with all the other - villagers. - They all had a spirit snake companion of some kind, and they were all behaving unnaturally. It took a bit more effort, I increased the number of trees present to improve my resolution, and then I noticed it.

KenÆs shadow was linked to all of them, a faint magic. The villagers were all possessed. They moved perfectly; they seemed to know where to put everything without requiring instruction. Some of them were mages, and they muttered something under their breath. The stone structure in the middle opened up to reveal thousands of snakes and lizards.

They all moved into position, and Ken walked close to the snakes. With his red knife, he beheaded all of them, one by one, as the villagers started chanting. All of the earlier items all glowed, and then, as he slaughtered the snakes, I saw strange snake - like and lizard - like shadows run around, never able to leave that small area. The ritual lasted three hours, and KenÆs red knife was soon drenched in the blood of all the lizards and snakes. During that entire time, the possessed villagers chanted.

Then he lifted up the red knife, muttered a few words, and I saw all the shadows drain away and sucked into the red knife. Then all the blood and remains of the snakes and lizards melted into a reddish paste, then swirled into the knife.

In a quick but practiced motion, Ken then stabbed himself in the heart with the blob.

At that moment, I felt like I had a stinging migraine, and I felt my mind -

Domain Preventing Mental Attack

Then I saw KenÆs body glow red. The knife glowed, and I thought I saw the shadows of the thousands of snakes and lizards. If this was blood magic, this was a very strange one. I tried to use more powerful surveillance visions then and changed one of the trees to a subsidiary tree.

I now saw fragments of spirits and souls, all in that red knife. I tried to identify the knife.

Blood Knife of Sacrifice û A knife used for sacrifices. Collects fragment of souls, spirits, and essences.

Well, thanks, but it didnÆt tell me what exactly was happening. No, if it collected fragments of souls, what was it trying to do?

A massive red snake made of blood then surged out of his body; in its fangs were a big white marble block. It rolled and coiled, and the white block seemed to attempt to move. But the red liquid blood snake wrestled with the white block; they tossed and spun and rolled, the snakeÆs body smashed into the structures in the village.

Then KenÆs body glowed again, but this time, a massive shadow with thousands of snake - heads popped out of his body, and it smashed into the white marble block. The white marble blockÆs outer layer melted, and what was left was a white, spherical core. Ken moved, and with a swift, well - practiced slash, the red knife slammed into the spherical core. The knife hit the white core head on, and then the white core shook violently.

Warning: The Hero Ken û Error. Status unclear.

I saw the red snake swirl around the white core; it shrank and formed a red cube around the white core. The multi - headed snake shadow followed next; it shrank into the size of a small lizard and then melted into the red cube. It instantly changed the bright red cube to darker red. The knife shattered, then instantly melted.

All the villagers collapsed at the same time, like puppets whose strings were cut.

KenÆs body stopped glowing, and he stood as the molten red liquid from the knife swirled around his body and coated his skin and flesh. His wounds healed.

He didnÆt move for a good ten minutes, and somehow he managed not to fall. Perhaps it was magic, though that was probably the least of the things I should think about. His eyes opened, and he looked around. He briefly closed his eyes again, and then when he opened them, the snake appeared once more from his shadow.

- The Ritual was a success. Though I feel we have. company. -

Ken looked around. - Really? I donÆt see anyone. -

The snake looked around, too. - ItÆs. never mind. -

- Great. Now I can live in peace. - He seemed to activate a skill, and in an instant, his hair grew long, and his facial features changed slightly. His skin turned more scaly.

The magical orb immediately started vibrating, but Ken did not respond. - Ken? Ken? Are you there? What happened? -

He looked at it, tapped it. - I did something. IÆll let you know in two to three months whether itÆs successful. But if it fails, I think youÆll get a notification. - The orb sent a magical arrow that flew up into the air, then disappeared. Ken tapped the orb again, and this time, the orb vanished into some kind of pocket space. The villagers were still unconscious, and Ken left the village that day.

The shapeshifted Ken did not say a word since then as he wandered from town to town, never stopping for more than a week. The villagers who regained consciousness did not seem to remember why they were there and what they did at all.

- This hero probably possessed some kind of mind - control or possession ability through those snake shadows. -

- What are those snake shadows? - I had no idea. As a tree that lived so long and seen so much, it absolutely annoyed me that there were still so many new things IÆd never seen. I suspected whatever that ritual was, it was otherworldly in origin, because it was able to remove or tamper with a hero class.

That said, I still kept watch. Could he be a threat? After all, he was able to tamper with a hero class.

What did he do then? I saw the fragment of souls. no.

I had an epiphany.

I had been trying to remove the hero class by force and magical power. This was when I developed a speculative theory, that he absorbed more soul fragments and some kind of essences, and those essences flooded and merged with his hero class in his soul spring. He wasnÆt removing the hero class. He was corrupting it so that he could be free of its influence! Using the soul - ish qualities of blood magic to enhance and corrupt his own soul such that he was free of the heroes?

The other idea was that they somehow used the soul fragments as some kind of abrasive or removal agent. Like using soap to bind to the hero - class and then pull it out.

- WeÆll need to find a volunteer to try it, - Patreeck said. - But itÆll have to be a hero. Looking at it, it would probably kill anyone else who tried to do it. -

I agreed, that ritual looked really complex, but I had enough data to attempt to replicate it. But how did Ken get the people necessary to do so? I also had other questions. Like who was that snake spirit?

I tried to follow Ken as he moved through the cities. There were parts I couldnÆt see him; here in the Northern Islands, my network of eyes and ears was full of holes.

What did he do?

Thankfully, he dropped his guard about two months after the incident, as he was taking a break. The snake spirit curled out and sat on the log. - How are you feeling? -

- Not as bad as what you described. I think IÆm ready. We got lucky, I think, that the hero class was relatively low level. - Ken sat as he munched on a loaf of bread. It was hard.

- All right, hit me with it. WhatÆs next? - Ken said as he finished his loaf of bread.

- Great. Now we need to prepare for our next step of the bargain. We need to send the swallowed class to my world. ThatÆll be a lot harder. A lot, lot harder. Well, for one, I do not have a foolproof way of sending something back home, - the snake confessed.

Ken paused. - Wait. You do have an idea, then? Is this the crazy - enough - to - work idea? Because if it is, then we should use it. -

- I do, but it involves you dying. ThatÆs not what we agreed on, and I wouldnÆt do it because IÆm stuck with you. -

Ken laughed. - Then tell me the alternatives, but still tell me that idea that involves me dying. Because I need to know. Just in case. -

- Never mind. I still donÆt get where you have all these strange concepts. -

- ThereÆs this website called tvtropes. - Ken said. - Where they explain the common story paths and events. -

- Is this website an oracle? -

- Well, not really, but itÆs more like a. -

- An astrologistÆs predictions? -

- Something like that. - Ken sat. - Anyway, I feel much more clear - headed now that the demons arenÆt always appearing in my dreams. ItÆs safe for me to speak with Chung, right? -

The snake shrugged. - Yes. But later. First, we must investigate that presence we felt last year. I must know whether it is the gods. -

Ken frowned. - Seriously, why do you care? Why get involved in their schemes again, after all youÆve said about their plots? After all you said about how theyÆve surrendered your worlds? -

The snake remained silent.

- I want to live peacefully, find a place somewhere where I can raise a family, and watch my kids grow up. Maybe work as an enchanter or an artificer, - Ken said. - All these plots, in the end, are just the games these powers play. Now that IÆm out, I have no intention of getting back in. -

- We donÆt have to, but. but I just want to know. I want to send word home, if we ever find the gods. -

- I met the gods when I reincarnated. -

- Those are different. -

- Fine, IÆll just ask for news once we get to town. If we can use your abilities to control some people in the towns, thatÆll help. -

- I used up quite a lot of my magic when I performed the ritual. IÆll need more time to recharge. It takes longer for me to replenish my magical energies in this pathetic spiritual form. YouÆll have to do it the old - fashioned way. -

- All right, all right. Just pray I donÆt trigger some stupid town - gathering quest chain. IÆm not jumping from one hero storyline to another type of storyline. -

This Ken seemed. genre aware. That was strange; I supposed I was looking at a hero who had some light - novel knowledge and he was applying it to get himself out of trouble.

They left and headed to town. Sadly, the town they were in was all cobbled up with stone and rocks, and I couldnÆt follow them all the way.

The three Triumvirs returned to their respective cities, and the peace treaty was formally announced. Our growing network of spies revealed that the other temples were quite relieved that it was nothing more than just a peace treaty, and some small trade - ish agreements.

The status quo held, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

38

YEAR 189

It was a little bit more annoying to expand my trees to the cities in the north. Unlike the Central Continent where trees were plentiful and common, in the Northern Islands, the cities were not tree friendly at all. That said, there was still room for shrubs and less obvious trees like wall - crawling plants. But this was inherently slower, and I felt a sense of repulsion for the treeless cities. Even in the cold weather there were ways to integrate plants into the terrain, and I would have used my root - network to use my roots as a form of heat distribution system. That would create a warmer environment that could support more verdant cities.

The lack of parks within the city area itself was also absolutely disgusting; only certain cities had them.

It seemed, though, there were at least two agencies at work.

One was led by the Rosewoods. Their agents were generally well equipped and trained, and they were the counterûhero hunters. But even they had not - so - loyal operatives. Then, there was the hero hunters, those that wanted to kill the heroes and gain some special class, though there was no data on what that special class was.

Also, it was a little pointless for me to kill a hero if I couldnÆt gain classes. So, if anything, it should be a humanoid thing.

- Would you kill heroes? - I asked. He was motionless as he rested in a giant tree. His body was linked to the giant tree, and through him, I controlled the rest of the trees.

- If you ask me to, yes, - Lumoof answered. There were days where I still felt uncomfortable to be at the receiving end of such devotion and loyalty.

- One day I will, - I said. It was inevitable.

- We will be ready, even if we have to die to do it, - Edna responded, too, at the same question.

As my surveillance expanded, I was able to - support - the other Valthorn operatives. I provided cover fire and protected them in the event of any conflict with the other forces. Here, in the north, I decided against using my beetles, since we were supposed to operate without being detected.

I also did not want to reveal that I had somehow stretched my trees to the north. At least, not yet. I would use beetles if I had a more secure root - link to the north. My operatives, with my support and intel, were able to thus confront and attempt more high - risk infiltrations.

This was when I encountered one of the Rosewood hotels, a large wooden structure six stories high and a large subterranean presence. There was a magical quality to it, a very faint but strangely familiar one.

It was when my roots touched the hotels that I felt and then knew who it was.

Domain blocking mental attack.

- What was that? - I immediately put the name to the sensation. - . Meela? -

ItÆd been so long. Had it already been a century? Yes. It had been a century since they left. The sensation immediately made me wonder and think about how theyÆd been after all this time. Their soul contract would have maybe. nine hundred years left?

I thought about Alexis and her constant plots. Was she still angry, or had time mellowed her thoughts?

No, I had to talk to them face to face and then called Edna, Roon, Johann, and a few other of the high - leveled Valthorns together. For old - timeÆs sake, I asked Lozanna to come along, too. She and her mom was probably the only one left who remembered them.

I briefed the group of twelve about Alexis and Meela, and then Stella opened a portal, again, and sent them through to the other continent.

Lumoof transformed back to his normal state, and the giant tree opened up to let him out. - WeÆre going to meet an old friend of A/ , - he said to the group.

The Rosewood Hotel in Roshendam stood. To anyone who did not know, it was just a luxury inn, one of many throughout the Northern Islands. Those that did know understood that it was also the base of an influential espionage and assassin group, also named the Rosewoods.

Lumoof, fully geared for war, walked through the door, and instantly I sensed it. The entire hotel was her. Meela was here, somewhat, and already the employees in the hotel all stared. The receptionist, a half dwarf, merely glanced and quickly bowed. - Greetings, esteemed guests, and welcome to the Rosewood Hotel. Do you have a reservation? -

Lumoof walked close to the receptionist. - No, I donÆt. -

The smartly dressed receptionist glanced at the other members of the group, mainly Edna and Lozanna .

Lozanna looked around and merely smiled. - IÆm actually here for a meeting, and I would like to have a discussion with Lady Mika. -

The dwarf receptionist nodded. - Lady Mika has been expecting your group for some time. -

- Oh? -

The other staff members and guests of the hotel quickly walked away. They behaved as if something was going to happen, and perhaps it was. Already, I spread my roots and trees and attempted to surround the hotel. The half dwarf smiled. - Well, for such high - ranking guests such as yourself, please give me a moment and let me prepare. -

But the place was built with enchanted stone and skill - infused roads. My roots couldnÆt penetrate them so easily. The walls of the hotel were sturdy, easily made to be a fortress, even if it appeared like a luxury hotel. Lumoof smiled back at the half dwarf. - That would be most appreciated. Please assist us to arrange a meeting room. I believe we have a shared history and will have much to discuss. -

The dwarf smiled and picked up a magical crystal. - Call the Board. - There was some inaudible noise from the magical crystal. The dwarf nodded in response and then placed the crystal back on the table. - All right, right this way. -

The dwarf hopped off a stool at the back of the reception counter and then led the way. A magical wooden staircase descended from above, and at the end of it, a door that was previously closed by wood.

- Will everyone be coming, or just the few of you? - the dwarven receptionist asked. - The boardroom is large. -

Lumoof looked at Edna, and Edna nodded. - Just five. - Edna, Lozanna , Roon, and Johann joined the walk upstairs. The rest waited at the lobby. The dwarf signaled to a bunch of other employees, who promptly led them to an area with comfortable sofas. They went there as told, but some insisted on standing up.

Upstairs was a straight walkway. I sensed that the walls were probably moving, and there were hidden rooms around us. Still, nothing that we could not handle.

We were led to a large boardroom with a long, oval - shaped table. There was enough space for at least fifty, and it had high ceilings, magical lighting, and all the amenities one could expect of a boardroom. A few pots of tea were also prepared, with matching cups.

A meeting with tea. That was nice. Fragrant, too. It seemed that Meela had been waiting, but I sensed this wasnÆt really her. No, that wasnÆt right, either. It was her, but this was like just a part of her. I suspected then that Meela probably had a way of - splitting - herself to all of her branch hotels.

- ItÆs been a while since IÆve met someone that works for A/ , and itÆs been a while since weÆve met, Lozanna . - Oh! She probably didnÆt know Lumoof was my avatar and that I could see through him.

Lozanna smiled. - ItÆs been a while, too, Lady Mika. You look a lot better than I last remember. -

MeelaÆs wooden form sat on the chair, and she gestured for the rest of us to sit. - You, too, Lozanna . Come, thereÆs really no need for hostilities today. It must have been a long journey, and we have so much common history that we should at least give diplomacy a chance. Please, sit. -

I smirked at MeelaÆs opening line. Lumoof gladly took the seat, and so did the others. Lozanna was first to ask. - So, uh. only you? -

- Alexis? - Meela smiled. - SheÆs out hunting. ItÆs a busy time for us, with the hero hunters about. What brings you here, really? -

Lumoof took the lead. - WeÆre here to meet the power brokers of the region, of course. - Well, that wasnÆt exactly a lie, but it dodged the point of revealing our own clandestine activities.

- Well, IÆm sure you would be very busy, then. It seems your agents have been doing a lot more than just meeting people. - Meela smiled, her voice strangely firm. - But I suppose I shall lead in establishing friendly relations. I owe that much to A/ . So what do you want to know? -

Lumoof just smiled and lied through his teeth, a gift of the priestly class. - We are genuinely looking to meet those who hold sway over the Northern Islands. There has been incredibly concerning news of attempted assassinations on the heroes and even more blasphemous tales of a supposed tenth hero. -

Meela grinned. - Patriach Lumoof, certainly A/ can tell you with high reliability on whether there is a tenth hero, so there is no need to pull that trick with me. I may take the appearance of a young lady, but I have lived decades in the north. Yes, there is a tenth hero, and we are also looking for him. The hero hunters want to get to him first, of course, for the rumored gift. -

- A gift? - Lumoof feigned ignorance. - Well, I know nothing of a gift. -

- Yes, the Gift. Which we still donÆt know anything about, because nobody has killed a hero. Not that we know of, - Meela said. - We actually thought you guys would be the first to earn it. -

- We? -

Meela pointed at Edna. - ItÆs a pleasure to finally meet the famous Vanguard of the Central Continent. Thank you for not killing Alvin or my partner. -

Edna didnÆt reply, but she had a look of annoyance on her face.

- Anyway, we are bound by soul contract to A/ . - Meela finally got to the point. - So I really donÆt see a need for us to be hostile with each other. Our goals may differ, but IÆm sure we can find common ground. Tell me, what exactly are you here for? If youÆre looking for the hero, we donÆt have him. -

- No. WeÆre here to make friends, - Lumoof deadpanned.

Meela paused. - A/ sent you to make friends? - After a while, she laughed. - Ah, IÆve forgotten A/ Æs dry sense of humor. Surely, that canÆt be true? -

- Well, he also asked us to check on you, whether you are all right. -

She smiled and played along. - IÆm fine, thank you. -

Lumoof nodded. - ThatÆs good. How is Miss Alexis? Does she still hate A/ ? -

Meela stared. - Wait. A/ really sent you just to check on us? -

- Yes. He sensed you recently and wanted to talk to you. I think he thinks of you two every now and then, - Lumoof said. - He felt your presence here. -

There was a moment of silence. Meela didnÆt say a word as she seemed like she was processing the statement. Lumoof, being the trained priest that he was, gave Meela the space to process her thoughts. He could tell when someone was going through some complicated emotions.

I felt maybe I, too, was a party that contributed to that. I thought about them occasionally, and I sometimes missed MeelaÆs rather cheerful presence. Now that IÆd said the truth of my origins to Aria and my senior Valthorns, I wondered whether things would have been different if I had revealed the truth then.

But I consoled myself that circumstances were different, and I didnÆt have the power or security that I had now. No, more important, I had a slightly different mindset. Back then, I hadnÆt experienced the destruction of New Freeka, nor had I resolved that this cycle had to end, even if I did contemplate it.

In truth, it was all the little deviations that led to that branch of the story.

- . this is weird, - Meela responded after that moment of thought. - We struggled, but I like to think we are fine now. -

Lumoof smiled and gently nodded. He allowed her words some space and then finally answered, - ThatÆs good. A/ said to me that he still wished to respect the agreement back then, that the two parties do not bother each other and will continue their separate ways. But with his recent growth and scope, an interaction between the two parties is inevitable, so he hoped to come to some kind of arrangement. There are also some things that he wished for your input. -

Meela nodded with a smile. It actually seemed genuine, rather than a practiced one. - Even after a century, the agreement holds. In this world, only the spirits of nature can uphold and comply with such long agreements. -

Lumoof didnÆt need to respond to that statement, as Meela soon continued.

- Yes, I understand his concerns. It is something we have been thinking about since we heard of his resurgence in the Central Continent. What does A/ have in mind? -

He paused and glanced around. Everyone had heard of it, Lozanna too, even though she was no longer in the higher ranks of the Valthorns. - Is this room secure? -

Meela snapped a finger, and the walls had an additional layer. These were anti - magical sheets. - Mostly secure. A hero could still listen in. -

- Good enough. He intends that we cooperate on matters involving the demons, the gods, and the heroes. -

Lumoof placed his hands on the table, his eyes locked on Meela. A gaze that Meela returned.

- IÆll explain what A/ Æs goal is, and it is only known to the inner circle of the Valthorns, and A/ has said that he wished that these words are not shared to anyone else, other than Miss Alexis. Will you accept these terms? -

Meela leaned in. - Well, yes. -

- A/ Æs grand overarching goal is to end the cycle of demons and heroes. The world has suffered too much, the earth weakened by the centuries of constant warfare. Ruins are scattered all over the world, buried and destroyed. He is tired of this entire scheme; he is tired that this world has to serve as a battlefield of the gods and the demons. So he wants to break the world free of this seasonal disaster. Will you help us? -

MeelaÆs eyes widened, and she processed it. She leaned back on her chair and spun around for a while. Her eyes darted back to Lumoof again. She stared and scanned the eyes of every other person present and then locked on Lozanna . - Lozanna , do you know of this? -

- Only fairly recently, - Lozanna said. She was thankful that she didnÆt accept the soul - strengthening seed, then. A pawn in the war of gods and demons? That was too much for her.

- DoesnÆt this mean he will go against the gods and also the demons? Is he prepared for that? It explains a lot, no, it explains his secrecy, and the things he has been collecting and gathering. This explains all his behavior since those days, too. The perpetual paranoia. - Meela seemed to have a huge trove of data and information that she had collected, and I felt a little slighted at the term. I was always paranoid. It was partly why I liked to work alone.

But I couldnÆt. Not anymore.

Edna chimed in. - A/ believed that yourself and Lady Alexis, as former heroes, can add some insights and provide some perspective to how such a plan can be accomplished. Together with other former heroes and accidental summons, he wished to form a team capable of something more daring. -

Meela looked at Edna. - This revelation must be discussed with my partner. I will say it frankly that I am willing to assist where I can, but the Rosewoods are a partnership. -

Lumoof smiled. - We understand this is quite a bombshell to receive during an unexpected reunion. -

- It is, - Meela said. - I must call my partner now. -

Everyone stood, and they gave gentle nods. - Thank you for the meeting. May we receive favorable news. -

Meela nodded, and ushers came to escort the group out of the hotel. They offered refreshments, of course, but no one took any.

About a week after the meeting, the demonic rifts opened. There were two more years left on the clock for the next demon king. This time, it was on the far Western Continent.

I summoned my Valthorns for a brief strategy meeting. It was time for us to go on the offense and start chasing demon kings and get a bit more of that sweet demon king experience. Fighting champions was a contentious point. In terms of challenge, the higher - level dungeons and their bosses provided an equal if not superior challenge. Yet dungeons at that level had long cooling periods, and fighting demons would be a large part of my Valthorns future combat careers.

- Our plan is simple. When the heroes fight the demon king, we want to be there. I want those with the Court of the Deitrees to fight and support the heroes, so that all of you can get stronger. If any of you are at risk of death, I will warp all of you back. ItÆs possible that I canÆt react in time, or if any of you feel too weak, let me know. Those level one hundred and above will be deployed to chase down champions and destroy them. -

39

YEAR 190

We focused on preparing for the upcoming fight. We were going to hit the demon king hard and hopefully get some levels out of it. I wanted my level two hundred, I was so close, and I would empty my entire arsenal at the demon king if it got me there.

So, first things first, Kei got in touch with the heroes to negotiate an arrangement.

- Hi, Colette and Prabu, where are you two these days! - Kei said. It took a while, but what Aiva said was now faintly at the back of her mind.

- WeÆre actually in the Western Continent already to hunt the champions. - The Western Continent, home and stronghold of the Neiran Temples. Or was it? My spies told me some of the Neiran top dogs had moved to the south. But I wasnÆt sure; Neira was probably one of the more secretive temples but also one of the weakest, despite being spared of most of the demons attacks.

Perhaps Neira was even more distant. No. Maybe Neira didnÆt even bother anymore. At this point, I really wondered which god still looked after this world. Whatever little that meant.

Kei nodded. - All right, thatÆs great. So remember that question you asked a few years back, about having an arrangement to fight the demon king? -

- Uh - huh. - Prabu nodded.

- A/ would like to volunteer his elite forces to support your next battle with the demon king. IÆm not sure whether you guys want our assistance; thatÆs why we thought of asking. -

The two mages paused. - Hmm, I need to talk to Chung and Hafiz, but it shouldnÆt be a problem. More hands should help. At least, we could use some help with the champions and all the other small fries while we focus on the king. -

- All right! - Kei nodded.

Next step was figuring out how to deploy and project sufficient force that we could have an impact on the demon king. The system clearly favored those who contributed to the fight, and it was a reasonable assumption that our level gain was correlated to the contribution.

So this meant we needed a few things. One: a way to send my forces to where the demon king was at a short notice. It was possible to use my own tree - networks and StellaÆs portal to send a small force there quickly, so that meant the logistics of manpower was partly solved.

One of the things I wanted to test out was whether Lumoof was able to function as - home - when using the Court of the DeitreeÆs recall function. It didnÆt work, and they still automatically returned to my main body. I supposed the system for the Court was still programmed to only consider my main body as home.

It was too bad. If it worked, I essentially could use Lumoof as a warp point and then dropship the rest of my forces around him. I could even use him to send people across worlds, as long as he was on the other side.

Perhaps some other upgrade to the Court of the Deitree would allow this. No matter, I had to work with what I had at my disposal.

I also needed to figure out how I could throw huge amounts of crystal bombs at the enemy. Thanks to AlkaÆs persistent experiments over the past few years and almost decades, we now had a rather huge arsenal of crystal bombs. Similarly, we experimented with my vines flinging the crystal bombs through a void portal. It worked, as long as the components of the crystal bombs did not involve star mana.

It was a crude solution, but I didnÆt like the fact that everything depended on Stella and her band of void mages in training. A single point of failure meant if the next demon king had some kind of anti - magic or anti - void energy ability, we wouldnÆt be able to use it. No, there was also the risk that the demon king, a creature with at least some void magic ability, would be able to interfere with StellaÆs magical portal.

So we had to consider alternatives.

Through a bit of upgrades and outfitting, we finally managed to get Hytreerion to gradually swim to the Western Continent with a huge arsenal of crystal bombs. But thanks to its incredibly slow speed, it would take half a year for him to actually arrive there. We also arranged for ships loaded with crystal bombs, too. The idea was to plant the bombs everywhere and then detonate them when the demons were near.

Stella didnÆt seem particularly pleased with the idea. - This has the problem with landmines written all over it. -

- ThatÆs partly true. - But of course, these crystals were magically activated. They shouldnÆt cause such problems, right?

Wait, no. Actually, all bombs had this problem. It was possible that some crystal bombs didnÆt detonate and were instead embedded in the ground. Some day, they would get accidentally triggered by some hapless adventurer. Or their demon-sensing runes would get confused and blow something up.

Everything decayed over time, even magic. So, once they decayed, their behavior was unpredictable. Institutions decayed, too, and I noticed it in the Valthorns. As the Central Continent accepted my dominion, there was a shift in the behaviors of those who were admitted to the Valthorns, especially those who grew up knowing that I was the supreme authority of the land. Arrogance. Minor abuse of power. Some of these were hidden when they were just part of the Valtorn Order, but the promotion to the Valthorns revealed some of this.

Worse, I was only made aware of this after a few incidents I witnessed while doing other things and commanded my artificial minds to highlight all of them. There were many small instances. Arrogance was not punishable, even if it did make us unlikeable. For the minor abuse of power, it was hard to really assess whether it was the person who provided or granted the payments that was trying to curry favor.

There were benefits to being in high places, and I saw how the Valthorns would recommend their friends or families for certain roles. Not exactly unallowed, but it was nepotism.

As an institution, now that the Valthorns and Valtorn Order were considered mature, I needed my artificial minds to play the role of an - opposing - or - offsetting - force, of identifying those who were outside them for admission.

But I went off tangent with my thoughts there. Back to crystal bombs, was excessive use of magical artifacts the equivalent of using landmines? Maybe, but I argued that danger posed by the demon king, as a beast of significant destructive power, offset the risks of using magical artifact.

One day when I, or the non - heroes under my wing, gained sufficient power to challenge a demon king without such bombs, I would remove them from our combat plans. But now, the bombs were a necessity, even if I was doing the magical equivalent of carpet bombing. The destruction of the demon king easily killed more than my bombs ever would.

Stella nodded, though she did make a rather poignant statement. - He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. -

- Nothing to worry there, for I am already a monster. - I was, by all means and definitions, a monster tree with magic and godly powers.

Stella sighed. - In our pursuit of peace and the end of this cycle, we will turn a war between man and demons to a war between monsters and demons. -

- Eh, thatÆs not accurate. The gods were always the puppet masters. In the larger scheme of things, youÆve heard from Aiva yourself that this is a war between gods and the demons. We are just the background, the terrain and the natural environment rebelling against that stupid war. -

- But on the ground. -

- I think thatÆs better, actually. ItÆs better for the citizens that the war is fought by monsters. We can take the losses a lot better. -

Druids gathered giant birds and flying creatures. Most of them were small, but master trainers and animal tamers could - grow - their tamed beasts to larger proportions. I looked back at my Titan choices. If I had an air force, the air force could functionally perform as my bombing squads, drop the crystal bombs from the air, and fly off. Or could I have suicide bombers?

No. It wouldnÆt be suicide bombing if we used - summons - and - spirits - that could respawn to deliver the crystal bomb payload. Magical summons would be the best weapons delivery tool.

Through some magical modifications, we managed to upgrade Hytreerion to be a floating ship with cannons. A battleship. More oil rig than ship, it carried large cannons that could throw the crystal bombs a certain distance to their target. Its range wasnÆt fantastic, so it wouldnÆt be able to shoot far inland unless more upgrades were made.

For Lumoof, he moved to the Western Continent, our expansion plans in the north put on hold. That could resume after we captured whatever experience and levels we could from the demon king. Hell, maybe I could get something that could solve my damned ocean problem.

It was also my first time in the Western Continent.

One thing I noticed was that the culture of the world was actually relatively aligned. There were kingdoms everywhere, and the differences in cultures were usually in the small things. Like the way they ate certain foods and the other small stuff. Kings were still kings, and nations ran the way they were run elsewhere. That meant the local lords were pretty much local gods.

Like the Northern Islands had Aria and Aispeng, I wondered whether there was a tree spirit or some other spirit here in the Western Continent and whether I could rope them into the fight.

The kingdoms of the Western Continent were putting up pretty good resistance against the demons. Many of them had large standing armies, courtesy of their relative safety during the past few decades. Instead, they were mostly focused on fighting each other. From what I understood, they were still in the period of warring states when the demonic rifts appeared. Nothing to unite a nation in war than a bigger bad guy.

Oh well, no matter, Lumoof arrived in a port city called Pelabuhan Dikelang, on the eastern shore of the Western Continent. The first thing I noticed was that the Neira priests had really lovely outfits.

We came, formally, as reinforcements at the invitation of one of the friendly kingdoms on the Western Continent. We came by ship, because we did not want to reveal our possession of void portals.

Our goals were multifold, of course. The main objective was to participate in the battle against the demons and gain levels. Not so publicly, our goals were to make friends, get more information on the powers of those who ruled Neira, and use the demonic attacks as an excuse to freely explore places that were previously not so accessible.

Even more secretly, it was the best chance to mix my spies into their society, get to know some of the individuals, and see how we could gradually grow our influence on the Neiran Temple. Our goal, with Neira, Gaya, and Gawa , was to learn their methods of communicating with their gods.

The Neira priests were hostile, but they did not attempt to fight Lumoof or the entourage. The gap in our strength was clear to anyone who bothered to do some research, even if politically, we generally allowed the other temples some dignity by not openingly comparing our relative strengths.

There were some boring formalities of introducing ourselves to the local rulers and all that, but that was a task I allowed Lumoof and the group to do. Even in the face of demons, there were sycophants and asskissers. These were tiring for me to deal with, so when there were political matters, I allowed Lumoof to handle it.

Lumoof wasnÆt the wisest politically, but he had enough sense to give empty but pleasant - sounding assurances most of the time, such that the asskissers realized that they were going to have better luck with his subordinates.

On this front, this was also one of the problems we had with diplomats, spies, and our other agents. When they were away from my eyes on the Central Continent, all I could do was trust them to know what to say, to know how to spot those who sought to curry their favor with the powers they possessed, to know that just as we sought to gain from them, they too would gain from us. There, I had to believe that they had the experience and skills needed to spot what they should spot and know of their biases.

There were no eyes to watch them when they were away.

Well, except through Lumoof.

While Lumoof handled the preparations on the Western Continent, I also spoke with my fellow spirits.

- I intend for my warriors to join the fight against the demon king. Would you be willing to make some weapons for them? - I asked Aria and Aispeng for the best weapons they could make. They agreed and forged ten weapons made out of some magical ice, which I offered to ten of my strongest Valthorns.

For Lilies, they made five sets of magical staffs made of fused bone and metal, which amplified both healing and death - elemental magic.

I also asked the fused wolf - shaman for some things, but it had nothing to offer. That was fine.

I decided not to ask for anything from Reefy. I thought it would probably be mistaken what my intentions were.

The demons that spawned this time were mostly smaller, impish creatures. They looked like dark - red versions of goblins, with small reddish wings that seemed to do nothing but let them hop a little bit higher.

We also encountered one demonic champion, a large, two - headed reddish ogre with tentacles. I thought we were gonna have the demonic corrupted orc hordes for the demon king. If so, were we gonna get some kind of corrupted orc shaman for a demon king?

- I must admit I am absolutely clueless about what you are talking about. - Both Kei and Stella probably didnÆt play the popular gaming series.

Of course, we also met the heroes, this time as fellow combatants.

- IÆm actually pleasantly surprised that A/ would help us, - Prabu said face - to - face to Kei. Lumoof was there, of course. Edna was on her way by boat. One of my concerns was what if the demon king was early? In that case, we would avoid combat until we could get our full forces in order. - You made it sound like he was rather hesitant. -

Kei smiled. - Well, just consider it a pleasant change of heart. -

- Just to be sure, thereÆs no catch, right? -

- Nope. Just help fight the demon king, and theyÆll leave right after, - Kei repeated. Of course, the prize was the demon king itself.

- So whatÆs the strategy? -

- Wait for the demon king to spawn and lure the demon king to you on favorable grounds, - Kei said. - IÆm sure youÆve seen in the journals how the demon king can see us. ItÆs possible to pretty much shout, WeÆre here, with the use of star - mana. Hopefully we get a dumb one that woill fall for the trap, then weÆll soften the demon king up and you guys can land the finishing blow. -

The part where Yura and Lovis landed the finishing blow was happily omitted. There was no need to highlight that it was my people that did so. But it was a common story on the Central Continent, so maybe theyÆd heard it.

The mage - hero nodded. - Sounds doable. WeÆre setting up our own magical formations, too. Hopefully itÆll help. But if the journals are right, there must be a trick. -

The heroes, too, were scattered. Only Prabu, Colette, and Hafiz were here. Chung seemed to be working on some kind of secret project, but he promised that he would magically teleport to the Western Continent once his project was ready. As for Ken.

With Lumoof preparing for the demon king, I lost my ability to see through the trees of the Northern Islands, so I lost Ken. I was not very confident I could find him again, especially with that snake spirit, but I weighed my priority and decided that gaining levels from the next demon king outweighed whatever risk they posed.

- Well, we canÆt predict the trick. The best we can do is prepare and fight like crazy, - Kei said.

Prabu paused. - True, not like we have a choice with all that godly mind control all over us. -

- Try some tea, - Kei offered. - It might help. -

40

YEAR 191

The astral paths opened. The path of light that glowed brightest repeated what happened before. Stella and her team of void mages attempted, however little, to meddle with the demonÆs path. I watched as her dark energies attempted to tamper with the path, and the void mana drained out of her.

She was not strong enough to fight the complex powers of the demons. But she tried repeatedly, and she leveled up from the attempts.

- ItÆs a lot more complicated than I thought, - Stella commented. - ItÆs like theyÆve just dug this river from their world to ours, and they are just floating on it. -

- Huh. Some kind of space travel lane. -

- Yeah, itÆs also not just void mana. ThereÆs something else in this space river. But itÆs not star mana for sure. If IÆm right, the demon kingÆs core is nothing more than a cocoon to allow something so large to float through it. - StellaÆs ability to visualize the path had also improved since ten years ago, partly due to her levels and new skills. - Or it may be that the astral path is like a rope, and the demon king is hanging onto it like a ropeway, using this demon core as a tether. -

- Oh? ThatÆs new information. -

If what we saw previously was just streaks of light, sheÆd gained some ability to see what was in the streaks of light. I still couldnÆt, so sadly for me, I was just relying on her narration to figure out what exactly it looked like. This was normal to me, of course. I lived most of my life in this world without full vision, just partial, spiritual vision until I gained the Tree - Eyes ability.

- IÆm not even sure what IÆm seeing. ItÆs like recognizing words but not truly comprehending the meaning, - Stella said.

- So itÆs like you have two eyes but you canÆt see Mount Tai. -

- Yeah. -

She kept trying, of course. She injected a bit of her void mana into the sky.

And she kept failing. - ItÆs not working. ItÆs either my powers are too unfocused, or by the time my powers reach the path, itÆs just less than what it was, - she complained.

Wait. What was that again? - You said itÆs less by the time you reach it? -

- Yeah. ItÆs kinda like. it dissipates before it reaches the path. -

- Would being closer to the sky help? - She thought for a moment and nodded.

- No harm trying. -

That was how I made the tallest Giant Attendant Tree, as tall as I could manage, complete with a wooden, vine - powered ropeway lift to the top. I made it such that there was a large flat surface at the very top, a platform for the kinds of rituals Stella and her team of void mages could ever need.

It was really, really tall, and with my magical augmentation and energies, it was probably the closest IÆd get to a space elevator, even if it was still pretty tiny. I could even feel like the top of the tree was pulling away from me.

Her team attempted it again, and still it was not successful.

- It still dissipated. But at least IÆve only lost about half of our magical strength. -

Well, to truly escape the worldÆs planetary shell would require something that was on the moon or even further. - Do you think youÆll do better if you attempted to interfere with the astral paths from the moons? -

She thought about it again, and she initially shook her head wildly at how crazy the idea was, but then I could tell a part of her agreed with the idea. - ThatÆs really, really crazy levels of distance. -

- But itÆs possible. With enough magic, you could open a portal to the moon. Even then, the moon may not be ideal as the moon may have its own sphere of interference. -

- Well, yes. - IÆd rarely seen StellaÆs face look so conflicted. Even more than actual moral dilemmas. - But give me some time to mentally prepare. IÆm not prepared to open a portal to the moon. Not yet. -

- WouldnÆt it be cool? -

- What if it just opens a vacuum and sucks everything up? -

- You know that doesnÆt happen. -

Stella sighed. - I need some time with the idea. -

I wondered then whether I could spread my trees on the moon. With the right amount of magic, assuming that magic worked on the moon, we should theoretically be able to terraform the moon into an inhabitable space.

In fact, if I could convert the moon into a safe space, that would be a less - ideal, long - run solution.

- ItÆs quite strange that you consider terraforming the moon as a possible idea, - Kei complained one day.

- I donÆt see why youÆre complaining? The demons clearly only pop up here. -

- What if they follow you there? -

- Then weÆll deal with that problem later. - I mean, why did all these heroes worry about all this stuff when it hadnÆt even happened yet? - WeÆll try it and see whether it works. -

- Yeah. ThatÆs true. Actually, IÆm not against the idea of terraforming the moon. IÆm because itÆs like. uh, the moon? No. Wait. That doesnÆt make sense. I guess I just assign a weird sentimentality for the moon, like it should be what it is. -

- Eh, back home, men have always dreamed of colonizing the moon and Mars. Here, a tree dreams of greening the twin moon. -

- You know what? That actually sounds quite cool, - Kei admitted. - Hopefully Stella sees it your way. -

- Oh, she will. She just needs time to process the idea of portals to the moon. SheÆs like that; her first reaction to any idea is to say no. Usually. - IÆd seen Stella enough to know that her first choice was to do nothing or hide. This part of her she still took a while to undo, and in some ways, I really resonated with that.

Stella, as predicted, agreed to the idea a week later, but after suitable preparations were made. For now, she continued her attempts to challenge the demons astral path from the top of my Tower - Tree, as she felt she could still make improvements to her technique. She tried repeatedly, and at one point, she actually succeeded in interfering with one single transmission.

She wasnÆt sure what happened, though.

At the same time, Lumoof and the team of Valthorns on the Western Continent continued to hunt the demons. We witnessed a few rifts, and the rifts were actually vulnerable weak points. I did not activate my avatar ability, as the heroes were also fighting along. I did not want to reveal the full scope of my avatar powers to them.

So we allowed the other level one hundredûplus Valthorns to lead the battles with the champions. They needed the experience and the levels to prepare them for the real thing.

Lumoof and Edna mainly played a supporting role and often just stayed back. Kei, of course, understood this. As for the heroes, they thought it was just kinda weird. They, of course, could not really understand how slow normal people leveled when compared to them. They claimed they got it, but they didnÆt feel and live how slowly it took for any regular person to level up. With their divine blessings, they usually just needed a champion or two to gain a level.

Demonic ogres and giant ogres were actually pretty pleasant to fight. They fought very much like regular humans, only with exceptional strength and power, and they also had a few skills. This went on for about two months, and during this time, my ships and Hytreerion also finally got into their position. Near, but not too near.

I wasnÆt sure what gimmick this demon king would have. Maybe itÆd just cut off the worldÆs magical communication network again. Hopefully we didnÆt get that.

Every day, Stella recharged the void batteries and kept battling the demonic paths. It didnÆt seem to make any impact on the number of demons, but she gained levels even from failing, so there was no real reason to stop.

Then the path glowed brightly. It was coming. Stella wasnÆt afraid, so she tried again, this time with everything. She wanted to see whether she could disrupt the path so that the demon king couldnÆt properly enter the world.

Her void energies formed a shovel and attempted to cover the path of light that cut through the void forest. The path glowed, and little sparks of flames lit up along the path. She attempted to put out one of the flames, and she managed to cause one of them to dim slightly.

The path glowed and then seemed to bend at where the light was dimmer. Then a glowing ball of light appeared and moved quickly along the path. Stella held on and used her void mana and attempted to mess with the path. It was either now or never.

She pushed, and her void mana caused the path of light to dim ever so slightly. The glowing ball, however, smashed into her void mana at full speed, and from the skies above, a void - energy shockwave hurled right at Stella. I immediately wrapped my roots around her to protect her and created multiple wooden shields.

The void energy shockwave smashed through my shields, but thankfully, I had many, many layers of them, and they were stopped.

Stella was safe but shaken by how suddenly it happened. - Fuck that. -

On the Western Continent, my sensors detected the rift energies gathered at a particular location, but then it shifted and moved suddenly, like a car that made a last - minute swerve.

Demon King Bagradva descended.

It appeared right over a river, and the water where the demon king descended instantly vaporized. Through Lumoof, I could feel its presence, it was like a hot fire. It didnÆt appear where we wanted it to be, but now we had to lure it to the few designated battlefields across the Western Continent.

The heroes knew it was coming, too.

- Well. - Colette said, and then a magical gate appeared right next to him. Chung walked right through, fully armed and equipped. - Shall we get with the plan? -

Prabu and Hafiz both nodded. Chung passed the other three heroes some stick - like artifact, then took a glance at Edna and Lumoof. - So you two are the supporting fighters? -

Lumoof smiled. - Yes. Hope we are not much of a bother. -

Chung shrugged. - Oh well, letÆs get with it. -

The heroes quickly moved to position, and they periodically activated their star mana forms. Our spies and scouts tracked the demon kingÆs movement, and it seemed to have picked up the heroes location and moved toward them.

This was a good sign, since it meant it wasnÆt intelligent enough to recognize the trap. Either that, or it would learn from this experience and not fall for it the next time.

More crucially, through Lumoof, I called my Valthorns together, and I spoke to them. IÆd sent them to war many times, but few as risky as this. Perhaps only the war with Kei.

- My faithful Valthorns, once again I call on you to fight the demon king, and this time, through Lumoof, I will be right at your side with my full strength. I do not intend to lie that all of you will be safe. YouÆve seen for yourself those who have sacrificed their lives in earlier battles, and I make no guarantees for your survival. We will go to war with the demon king, whose powers we do not fully comprehend. Though risky and many will die, it is a step we must take, only through challenging the demon king itself, we can gain the powers needed to stand our own feet, and stop our worldÆs toxic dependence on heroes. -

Everyone present nodded. Kei merely listened, as one of those who would play a supporting role. She would not join the fight. Not now.

- First we beat the demon king, then we break this cycle of destruction. Only then, peace will truly come to our world. - Through Lumoof, I nodded. - We all know the plan, so letÆs do it. LetÆs bomb the demon king! -

They roared.

The Valthorns split up. They all had their part to play. Lumoof immediately joined the heroes in a pre - built fortress; this time, it was dug out of the ground itself. There was no point to above - ground structures that would be vaporized by laser beams, unless specially enchanted.

- It is moving as predicted. Each flare and use of star mana powers, it adjusted its position and direction, - the scouts explained. The heroes had their own monitoring artifacts, and archmages like Prabu and Colette had magical farsight. Chung, being the archer, had a set of magical birds that could spy for him.

- So time to show off what youÆve been working on? - Prabu asked.

Chung nodded. - Yup. - At a large, empty clearing, he pulled out a contraption that seemed to unfurl itself into an array of massive ballistas.

Prabu just stared. - Wait. You built a huge ballista? -

- Yup. But not just any regular ballista. This is a combination weapon of at least twenty hero - item equivalents. Sadly, only single - use. Use it once and itÆll break apart. -

- This is your plan? -

- ItÆs very, very difficult to make a combination weapon, mind you. Had to work around the stupid hero forge restrictions, - Chung complained. - What about you guys? Did you make the mecha zords that you wanted? -

Prabu shook his head. - Nope. We just built a large number of magical batteries and healing devices all around this continent. WeÆre not going to repeat the earlier mistake of taking on the demon king without preparation. -

- Good. - Chung nodded. - Pray that it is enough. -

- YouÆre not the type to pray. -

The demon king and its horde of ogres crossed one of the designated battlefields. WeÆd rigged the place with so many magical crystals that it should cause some harm. All of the crystals were hidden underground and made to be magically linked such that they caused all the crystals nearby to detonate simultaneously. Burying them was hard work, and it took months of my druids time. We activated the crystals, and Alka waited for news.

He was like a scientist who was waiting to see how his invention performed against the real thing. He was excited, stressed, and just a big bundle of nerves.

We felt a sudden pulse, and the battlefield exploded. Our scouts watched from afar, but the demon king was unharmed. There was a huge red sphere that protected the floating demon king. It was a massive demon king and had a rhino - shaped head and a big, buff body with a dark maroon hide. A glowing tattoo covered its entire body. The demon king held up a large flaming axe made out of flesh and metal on one of its thick arms and roared.

The earth shook as massive chunks of rocks were lifted from the ground and then melted into round spheres of lava. With those molten balls of lava, it bombed the land in its path. This detonated or destroyed the crystals that were hidden in the ground.

Ah darn.

It was smart enough to destroy the land in front to eliminate any traps. We had to move on to the next stage. Our ranged weapons. We had limited ability here, the only truly ranged weapon we had in the area was Hytreerion and an assortment of middle - range weapons like super - large ballistas and other similar classes of weapons.

The demon king had a shield or barrier ability of some kind, and it looked like it was better for us to use our ranged weapons during the fight with the demon king. The shield was most probably rechargeable, so if we were to use them now, we would just waste our weapons and traps.

Therefore, we decided to just wait as the demon king approached. The heroes, too, got ready. They had their own weapons and traps, and they understood enough.

- Well, time to do it again, - Prabu said as his body shimmered from the glow of star mana. The four heroes all transformed, their bodies surrounded by their unique star mana armor.

The demon king approached closer; the heroes and demon king were now in combat distance. It raised its axe up high. That instant, both Stella and I felt the fabric of space twisted. All the rifts moved, and it now appeared above the demon king itself.

The astral path burned with a strange light. At that moment, the rifts twisted and expanded. Then the heads of monsters appeared from the rift. These were large, as large as champions, maybe even more.

There was no notification, but Lumoof quickly used Inspect on the giant monsters that appeared.

Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Worm

Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Fox

Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Hawk

The three monsters that appeared quickly split up. The hawk soared, while the demon worm immediately went into the ground. The fox landed smoothly next to the demon shaman king, and the fox also roared.

- IÆm the archer, so IÆll go for the hawk. - Chung immediately moved to his large ballista, and the ballista glowed.

- Wait, shouldnÆt we discuss this? - Prabu said as he activated a magical shield. Colette and Hafiz both looked a little lost, but the ground started shaking. Hafiz, the paladin or knight, activated a shield ability as the ground tore apart. The worm had started to engage.

Edna looked over at Lumoof and the rest of the Valthorns. - Well, itÆs already started. Shall we? -

Lumoof nodded, and through him, the avatar activated. I immediately could sense where the worm was, my treeÆs root senses. It would be the easiest to destroy. - Heroes, IÆll handle the worm. -

Lumoof glowed and transformed into a tree, and instantly we flooded the ground around us with roots. From our experience with demonic worms and centipedes, the roots would effectively disable the worms from tunnelling. The worm moved quickly, but the roots extended and chased after it.

We created multiple giant trees everywhere, and beneath the ground, the roots of these trees formed a cage underground.

My roots attacked the worm and found it had thick shells. Yet my roots broke through easily, and I unleashed a barrage of root strikes that skewered the worm underneath. The worm compressed and then detonated with a small boom. However, my roots were able to withstand the underground explosion.

The demon shaman king immediately turned and faced me and Lumoof, and it charged at us immediately instead of the heroes.

Edna got in position. - All right. - She charged her shield with her mana and then waited. The demon shaman kingÆs burning fire axe came crashing down, and there was a huge wall of flames. Edna activated her shield, and the shield glowed in white. The axe landed, but it did not break. Edna stamped her feet then, and my roots immediately wrapped around her leg and supported her. I felt her drain mana from my roots as her shield glowed and grew even larger.

The axe didnÆt get through, and her shield released an energy blast. It hit the demon shaman king right in the chest.

It didnÆt really hurt it; there was a reddish layer of magical protection around the demon king. There was a look on the demon shaman kingÆs face, but I wasnÆt sure what it was. The demon king was massive, and it was way larger than Edna.

Perfect for root strikes. The larger the body, the more places I could hit. Roots flew from the ground and smashed into the demon shaman kingÆs reddish magical shield.

At the same time, Edna charged ahead with both shield and spear. EdnaÆs spear glowed, and she stabbed the demon shaman king. Her spear met the demon kingÆs shield. The magical energies from the tip of EdnaÆs spear hummed and clashed with the red energy shield in huge sparks of light and color, and she pushed.

The demon kingÆs fiery axe came down, but rather than dodge it, Edna took it head on, her spear active, and activated her domain skill Duty Beyond Life and Death . Her body instantly glowed in a faint yellow, and the axe smashed into her arm. There was an explosion around her, but the buckler on her arm did not break. Her ability allowed her to absorb the demon kingÆs attack.

I thought I saw her faintly smile when her domain skill activated.

The demon pulled the axe back and hacked again. But Edna had abandoned defense altogether, and she retaliated with a spear stab. I helped with more root strikes through the immobile Lumoof.

The spear landed a few more hits and then shattered. She took out another spear from her magical pocketspace.

- How does she take the attack like that?! - Prabu seemed surprised but took the chance to activate more magical spells on the demon fox. Hafiz, the knight - hero, charged ahead with his glowing star mana sword and attempted to slash the demon king.

The heroÆs sword met the energy shield.

The star mana energies on the sword sparkled, and then the demonÆs shield cracked. Hafiz pushed, and the shield shattered. The demon king took attacks from me, Edna, and Hafiz once the shield was done.

The sword from the hero caused a cut across its massive body, and my barrage of root strikes and EdnaÆs spear - stab caused small holes along its chest.

It roared, and the tattoo throughout its body glowed. The wounds we made closed, and the fiery axe moved autonomously and hacked the knight - hero. Edna took full advantage of her near - immortality to help block the demon kingÆs attack with her magical shield. The shield cracked and broke apart and then met her arms.

She parried it, despite her relatively small size, and then stabbed the demon king.

The knight - hero ducked below the axe and landed a few star manaûpowered cuts on the demon king. He activated some kind of magical slash skill, and his sword flashed. He chopped off the demon kingÆs arm.

Through Lumoof, I immediately called on my roots to wrap around the demon king, and I felt the roots connect and touch the demon kingÆs skin. I attempted to drain its mana.

The demon king glowed. I knew then it was one of those area - clearing abilities.

- Shields up! - Colette and Prabu shouted as they activated magical barriers. Chung immediately stopped engaging the demon hawk and with a magical step retreated next to Colette. Hafiz activated a magical armor that coated his entire body, but even so, he retreated.

The demon king emitted a bright flash of light, followed by an energy blast that incinerated everything around it. Well, except Edna, she ignored the attack and just stabbed the demon king. The energy blast burned some of her equipment and singed her skin lightly, but it quickly regenerated.

When the bright light subsided, the demon kingÆs dismembered arm had regenerated.

EdnaÆs spear was vaporized by the attack, but then, she punched the demon king with her energy - infused fists. She shouted, - IÆm not dealing damage! -

- What the hell is that overpowered ability? - the heroes shouted in unison, clearly unaware of EdnaÆs short - term combat immortality. Still, despite her multiple punches, those punches didnÆt do much damage. It merely annoyed the demon king. Edna was quite similar to me, in the sense that she had tremendously high defensive abilities, but her offensive abilities lagged far behind.

Hafiz immediately ran ahead and summoned two star - mana swords. He threw one of them at Edna. Edna was the only one nearby, and she grabbed the sword. She slashed and managed to land a few cuts.

Then the sword ran out of star mana and turned to dust.

The demon king punched, and this time, Edna was knocked back really far. She may not take damage, but they could still push her. The demon fox took the chance to rejoin its master.

I immediately mentally spoke to the heroes. - Let Edna do the tanking. You guys keep attacking the demon king. -

They nodded, and the two archmages charged up a bluish energy ball and fired it. The blue energy ball transformed into a glowing piece of ice and smashed right into the demon kingÆs regenerated shields.

The shield instantly shattered. Edna moved in.

Edna pulled out a magical ice sword from Aria and slashed. The ice sword landed five hits and then shattered. She pulled out another set of spears and stabbed the demon king when the energy shield was down. I also followed up with a few root strikes. Once again, I attempted to wrap the demon king with my vines.

Our attacks did some damage, but it was HafizÆs star mana sword slash that dealt most of the damage.

But I could tell the heroes were at least impressed that we were holding on and could even contribute. Around the same time, I immediately got my mid - range and long - range weapons to be ready. Hytreerion got into position, and a few of my other Valthorns prepared the magical artillery, loaded with an arsenal of crystal bombs.

The hawk in the sky launched thunderbolts. Its dark - red feathers were lava and lightning combined. ChungÆs magical arrows chased the hawk through the sky, but Chung also tried to launch an attack at the demon king every now and then.

The hawk took a hit, and it crashed on the ground. Right before it flew off, my roots immediately surged out of the ground and wrapped it and attempted to drain as much of its mana as possible. The hawk struggled.

Chung immediately charged up a magical arrow and blasted the hawk through the head. The hawk disintegrated to magical dust. We were left with the fox and the demon king. The fox roared and blasted out an energy wave.

It leapt toward Edna, its claws armed and ready.

The fox clawed and slashed Edna, but it didnÆt hurt her at all. However, it freed up the demon king from EdnaÆs annoying presence, and the demon king took the chance to charge at the rest of the heroes. The demon kingÆs shield was back again. As it charged, it attempted to move the earth around the battlefield.

I felt the demon kingÆs magic tug at the ground strongly, but my roots had covered the entire battlefield, and together with Lumoof, we fought back and kept the ground stable. It roared in frustration and then used lightning instead. Lightning from its axe surged toward the heroes. Both Colette and Prabu somehow automatically activated magical shields, and the lightning axes smashed into the shield.

It exploded, and both the archmages were knocked back.

Yet the same attack also gave Hafiz an opening. The knight - hero slashed the demon king from the back and left two large gashes that ran down its massive body. It roared and glowed again. This time, I felt a stronger twist of magic in the air.

The two archmages were a little drowsy from being knocked back, and they got up. They immediately put up shields. HafizÆs body glowed in armor, and he too slashed again. Edna continued to battle with the fox, and she was winning. The fact that the fox could not hurt Edna meaningfully meant she ignored her defense and just kept on attacking the fox.

I wrapped the demon king with my roots again. Its glowing body twisted and struggled. This time, it turned to face Lumoof. It shot out a focused beam toward Lumoof.

I activated all the shields as I could manage, and the beam pierced through almost all of it. But my shields was sufficient to deflect the beam slightly off center, and it merely hit Lumoof right in the legs. It vaporized his legs, and my roots immediately stepped in to start healing the wounds. I would have to mend it later.

Lumoof yelped in pain, but he grit his teeth. - We can continue, - he insisted. My roots managed to stop the bleeding and started repairs. My roots entered the wound and supported his body momentarily, but permanent repair would need to happen after the battle.

The demon king stopped glowing, and the gashes healed again. Yet the change in the magic in the air was clear. Each regeneration drained it. It swung its axe around like a hurricane and surrounded itself with a fiery tornado. It activated more magic, and the earth itself turned to lava. The lava burned my roots, and I quickly flooded my roots with water drawn from a river not too far away.

The ground turned into a mix of lava and water. The ground started to release steam as the water evaporated and the lava cooled. The demon king stomped the ground, and the ground shattered. Pieces of hardened, dried lava rock cracked out of the floor.

The heroes activated a range of ice - spells as they pulled moisture out of the team and formed them into icicles and launched them at demon king. This also helped clear out the mist. It was then I noticed ChungÆs contraption was already destroyed.

Some of the dirt and lava rocks broke free from my weakened roots, and these dirt chunks transformed into lava axes midair. The demon king magically hurled them toward Lumoof, Edna, and the heroes. The sky swirled above as the heroes also activated some kind of blizzard spell. Ice shards started to rain down, and these shards homed in on the demon king.

They smashed into the demon kingÆs red shield. These ice shards didnÆt crack the shield.

The lava axes met one of my wooden shield skills and exploded. At that time, the demon king raised both its arms, and then the sky parted. Edna dodged the lava axes; she made sure to avoid the places where the ground was soft. The lava may not kill her, but she could get trapped and be effectively disabled.

A massive, deep - red fireball came crashing down.

- Fuck! - The heroes screamed as they grouped together and then activated various shields. I instantly surrounded Lumoof with layers and layers of wooden shields and barriers. The entire battlefield exploded, and it destroyed all my giant attendant trees.

But the heroes survived. All four of them huddled together. Only one shield remained. Had they used their shields separately, they would have died. For Lumoof, the fires burned through most of the shields, but thankfully my avatar mode meant he shared my fire resistance. Had it been any other element, Lumoof would be in trouble.

Yet the explosion left the demon king frozen in a daze. It stood motionless.

This was EdnaÆs moment, again. Edna immediately took out more spears magically and stabbed the demon king. Her attack snapped all of us to action. I called on Hytreerion and my mid - ranged Valthorns to start their barrage while I also activated more root strikes. The heroes attacked.

From afar, my crystal bombs zoomed across the skies and then landed around the demon king. They exploded on impact. The heroes magical spells landed on the motionless demon king and left multiple wounds. My root strike pierced through some of the weakened parts of the demon kingÆs skin. The knight - hero left more cuts and gashes across its body and then attempted to behead the demon shaman king.

His star mana sword stopped halfway.

The demon king glowed, and everyone retreated except Edna. She went in, activated her Court of the Deitree and surrounded herself in wooden armor, and started punching. Her fists were shaped like spears, augmented by the wooden casing around her.

The demon king regenerated, again.

Edna punched, and the demon king smashed Edna with its molten club. The rest of my Valthorns, those in the level one hundred twenties to one hundred thirties, launched ranged attacks where they could. Roon and Johann, who was initially located a distance away to coordinate the mid - ranged weapons, now came to join the battle.

Their attacks didnÆt do much. All of us lacked the firepower to deal game - ending damage, as our attacks were stopped by the shield that came back online.

Chung launched a rain of magical star - mana arrows at the demon king, and the arrows slammed into the demon kingÆs back. The torrent of star - mana arrows cracked the shields.

- Its shields are down! - Chung said.

The two archmages launched magical energy blasts and reactivated their blizzard spell. This time, the ice shards slammed right into its body. The demon shaman king raised its axe, and this time, a rift appeared in the sky. A demon-dragon came out. Summon of Bagradva - Demon Dragon

The dragon roared and shot huge beams.

- Focus on the demon king! - Chung shouted. - ItÆs already dying! -

The dragon immediately landed on the ground with a slam and attempted to attack the heroes. But before it could do so, my roots surged out of the ground and constricted the dragon. Thousands of vines and roots emerged and pulled the dragon down. I drained the dragonÆs mana, and Lumoof coughed as the dragonÆs energy flowed through his body.

The heroes kept attacking the demon king. The demon kingÆs axe slammed right into HafizÆs shield and cracked it. The ground shook slightly, my regenerated roots absorbing the vibrations. The steam turned to mist as the heroes blizzard reduced the temperature greatly.

HafizÆs glowing star mana sword slashed a few more times, and finally, with a great glowing slash, he beheaded the demon shaman king.

The severed head immediately sprouted a snake - like body.

- What the shit? ItÆs not dead yet! - Chung screamed in frustration and used a star mana blast. The energy blast missed as the head slithered away quickly. I activated my roots and attempted to wrap it.

- IÆll hold it. Take a shot once it stops! -

My roots wrestled with the snake - body of the demon kingÆs head. It was strong, but I was just a bit stronger. My roots twisted, and it stopped. I tried to crush the body but couldnÆt; all I could do was hold it in its place.

Colette and Prabu launched a combined super - dense ice blob, and it exploded right at the head. The head turned to ice, and then the entire head and the snake body disintegrated. The summoned dragon also immediately disintegrated.

At this time, we felt a magical pulse coming from the original demon king body. We knew what it was.

- ItÆs gonna blow. -

No. My roots immediately wrapped the original body and pierced it. It was weaker now, and my roots searched for the core.

We found it. The demon core. I wrapped it with huge amounts of roots and vines and started to drain the mana.

Lumoof coughed and winced in pain as his body endured the huge amounts of demonic mana and other kinds of weird energies from the demon core.

My head hurt; I felt like I got hit with a jackhammer and then fed a few bottles of alcohol. Both drunk and dizzy. Was this mana poisoning? But I kept on draining mana from the demon core, and then the pulse finally stopped.

Demon King Bagradva has been slain!

You have gained 9 levels. You are now Level 208.

Yet, immediately after the notification, I felt the effects of the mana poisoning sink in, and I felt like I needed to sleep. For a short while.

41

YEAR 191 (PART 2)

The battle was over, and I rested for a few days. Lumoof, thankfully, recovered from the damage far faster than I did. It seemed that in avatar mode, all the mana was transferred to my main body, so I bore the brunt of the mana intoxication. Patreeck and the rest of my artificial minds assisted to regulate the excess mana and stored them in the potato batteries. We would come back to it someday. I hoped.

Edna had to take a long, long nap and spent days doing nothing but sleeping. Though her ability gave her combat immortality, once the one - day timer was up, she was pretty much a puppet whose strings were cut. She could barely walk or move.

But it was worth it. She gained a lot of levels and hit level one hundred sixty - five and gained even more abilities with it. Her new ability Regenerating Guardians granted her the ability to create five guardians that shared her toughness.

Lumoof, too, gained some levels, but most of it only enhanced his connection with me such that he could withstand more of my power.

But more important were those that we wanted to groom. Roon, Johann, Alka, and Stella all gained levels from the victory for their contributions to the combat effort.

Roon, Johann, and Alka were now in the higher level one hundred forties. It was likely that we could breach the level needed to obtain their domains by the time of the next demon king.

No, more importantly, I returned to my notifications. I activated the menu, and instantly a long list of notifications appeared.

You have gained 9 levels. You are now Level 208.

Level 200 grants Minor Pantheon Powers. Minor Pantheon Powers are dependent on subdomain choices.

Further skills once a subdomain power has been chosen.

Subdomain Power Choices: You may choose one out of three choices below.

Subdomain Choice: Tree of Life. This choice leads you down the path of regeneration, evolution, immortality, and life creation. Each of your main body and your cloned bodies gains significant regenerative abilities. This choice allows the creation of cloned bodies under the Tree of Clones. Your trees gain the ability to adapt to all kinds of environments, and terraforming ability.

This subdomain choice will lead to creation of life, greater - monster minions, evolution - alteration, healing, endurance, regeneration, clones, and multi - body skills in the future.

This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - Immortal Tokens - Domain - level individuals who join your pantheon can be remade and regenerated even if they are killed. On death or destruction, their souls will return to you for - respawn. - The respawn time depends on how strong they are. Stronger deities require longer respawn times. However, choosing this ability will mean the death of these pantheon members will no longer grant Titan Souls, and you will not be able to gain any stored experience from their familiars. These domain holders can still die if all your tree of clones and your main body are destroyed.

Choosing this subdomain also unlocks the Trees of Clones: You may now create clones in addition to your own. The number of main - body clones increases with level. You cannot die unless all cloned bodies are destroyed. You can regenerate any destroyed bodies after a small recovery time. Each clone body and your main body are magically intertwined, and you may move items and people between them, subject to a distance - adjusted mana cost, with a discounted or minimal cost for A/ ic - related items, classes, and individuals and also familiar - holders. Clones initially take the form of a basketball - size seed that can be transported and planted elsewhere. Tree of Clones may be placed anywhere and naturally terraforms their environment. They do not need to be physically linked as their connection is through the system.

Subdomain choice: Will of the World. This choice takes the first step in merging with the world that you are in. This choice removes any distance or depth restrictions for roots and trees. You will thus be able to spread your roots anywhere in the world, through oceans and under them. You may also create underwater trees. This choice leads to terrain and elemental magics and abilities, significantly improved offense and damage for you and those touched by your powers, creation of elementals, weather control, terrain shaping, and wielding the land as your weapon.

This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - Strength of the World: This grants significant stats and strength boost (at least hero tier), improved elemental resistance, and enhanced abilities with the four main elements. Pantheon members also gain the ability to terraform and gain ability to temporarily transform into elementals.

Choosing this subdomain unlocks Elements of the World. This is a path where you gain access to the controls of this world. This includes more accurate astral maps, ability to move the world in the void sea, bend space and distance around the world and its neighbors.

Subdomain choice: Crown of Magic. You gain the ability to use all kinds of spells without requiring skills or classes and simultaneously generate star mana, void mana, blood mana, and any other mana type you discover. This path leads to - global - and - multi - world - spells and abilities. You will also be able to override any hero - item restrictions and use them to their full potential. Your magical laboratories and sensors gain increased sensitivity and functionality. Your main tree can now learn magic just by sight, and certain types of hero - abilities. You can also grant magical abilities to a limited number of individuals.

This subdomain grants the Pantheon Power - A Land of Magic: Domain Members can access and store their unique mana types in areas where your trees are present. They may also pre - cast and store skills and spells in the land itself, thus skipping any casting time and mana cost restrictions. Your trees will function as magical amplifiers for their abilities.

Tree of Magics: You may create Great Magical Trees. Each of these magical trees can generate a choice of star mana, void mana, blood mana, or any other mana type discovered. These Great Magical Trees can weave and cast multiple magical enchantments that apply over an area as large as a continent. Magical Trees can significantly enhance existing ley lines, link distant ley lines together, cast wide - scale protective spells, and interfere with other magic.

Crown of Magic also allows you to Forge Magical Items without restrictions. These weapons and items can generate their own mana, act as the locus of area enchantments, and amplify magical powers. You are also able to fuse Titan - Souls with deity - class (or higher) magical items to create unlimited - class weapons that can grow, gain their own levels, and transform into weapons that can exceed even the gods.

I sat down and looked at the three choices. Tree of Life allowed me to bypass the Avatar limitation and free up Lumoof to truly be my mobile avatar. It also pretty much made me functionally immortal, especially if I could get my seeds off world to the other two worlds or any uninhabited world.

This was a good choice for expanding to the demon worlds and the other continents and was essentially a step toward an intreedimensional empire. A true multi - world force. I could, through this ability, even take on demon kings on other worlds, thus speeding up our leveling speed.

The pantheon ability also made it less risky to put any lesser domain holders like Lumoof, Roon, and Alka right before the demon king. That said, this ability was quite useless with Edna, since she could already take all the damage.

The second choice, Will of the World, had the main benefit of bypassing all distance restrictions all over the world. With this, I could invade all the continents at the same time. That said, this choice did not allow me to spread my roots to the other worlds, and my main body still remained the single point of failure.

But the boosted stats to all my domain - wielders meant this ability synchronized really well with EdnaÆs Duty Beyond Life and Death . She could endure all the hits the demon king could dish out and then keep dealing damage with her significantly improved offensive abilities.

From the battle with the demon king, it was quite obvious that the heroes did a lot of the damage, if not most of it. Even my root strikes, which were generally super effective against demons, did not do exceptional damage against the demon king. If I wanted to kill a demon king with the rest of my pantheon members quickly, this seemed like a decent choice. It also negated and weakened the range of the demon kingÆs elemental attacks, so it wasnÆt a total tradeoff against survivability, either.

The last choice led us down the path of magic. It seemed to overlap with StellaÆs void magic; perhaps this meant I could amplify her power to actually deny the demon king, and the global magics suggested I could also use them to hide the world or redirect the demon kings.

This choice enhanced survivability indirectly through the stored spells and skills, which felt like an exploitable mechanic. The growing weapons that had no limits also felt exploitable, though I needed more time to think about a good way to abuse it. The ability to - grant - hero - tier magical abilities was also an interesting choice; again, I didnÆt know what exactly that meant until IÆd used it.

Did it mean I could functionally create heroes?

I could link ley lines together with the ability, so that was also a very good interaction with my dungeon ability, which would allow me to create even stronger dungeons for my Valthorns.

This path had the most unknowns, because I didnÆt know what magic was capable of at that level. This choice potentially had the means to break the cycle through some kind of great magic, or perhaps it was possible to seal off the entire world from the demons, buying us some time to grow and recover. Alternatively, the enhanced magic could possibly interfere with the demon kingÆs void magic.

All these choices were interesting, and I brought the matter to my senior Valthorns for their input.

Edna was first to answer. - Honestly, can we delay it until Stella, Roon, Johann, and Alka all gain their Domains? If we could see what domain abilities they receive, we could choose what we lacked. -

Lumoof nodded at EdnaÆs suggestion. - I must say I agree with that assessment. We really donÆt know enough. -

Kei and Stella, who were both present, stated their case. - We can extrapolate the powers from what they have now. ItÆs likely StellaÆs domain will be some kind of void ability, so perhaps Stella can create even more powerful portals? -

Johann nodded. - I like the regenerating and immortal ability, though. It means we could pretty much fight the demon king with not a care in the world since we canÆt die. We can actually win against the demon kings purely by attrition, a really interesting reversal of the situation. I believe this seems to be a long - term idea and plays well with StellaÆs void powers. We could send a clone to the demon world! -

- The Will of the World is immediately more useful, though. It would functionally enhance our grip on the world, - Alka said. - The lack of depth restrictions means we could dig even deeper, and even below the heat. There must be treasures and more lost cities we have not seen. -

Kei then added, - DoesnÆt it mean A/ Æs trees can be everywhere? That means he could use his beetles everywhere! -

Stella paused and then added, - What if all of this is just an illusion of choice, if all these choices eventually result in the same thing, even if the journey to achieve those choices is different? Take how the tree of clones essentially extended A/ Æs range, the same way the Will of the World does. -

- That does make some sense. - Alka nodded. - If so, should we think of this as which ability we canÆt replicate or substitute with other abilities or spellsÆ? If a few of us will eventually reach and acquire our own domains, then some of our domains must be able to substitute these skills. -

- Is that an argument for Tree of Life? Since immortality is not easily replicated, - Lumoof asked.

- Eh. I thought it didnÆt really say anything. I think the immortality ability has substitutes, like my own. - EdnaÆs Duty Beyond Life and Death was case in point.

- Then itÆs the underground ability, - Alka said. - The Will of the World. We could find all sort of stuff! Maybe thereÆs a secret even at the center of the planet! -

Kei smacked her face. - Given what IÆve seen, IÆm actually afraid you might be right. -

- IÆm sure there are magical abilities for that. It is possible that your Domain ability as a scientist may grant you the ability to find such treasures hidden beneath the ground, regardless of whatÆs in your way, - Edna quipped.

- ThatÆs certainly not the only use, - Alka protested. - Merging with the world sounds like A/ will be the planet itself. -

- The magical ability to cast global spells, - Stella then suggested. - We should take that. It sounds like itÆd work well with my abilities and would improve my chances to delay or deny the demon king. -

- A mage with domain could possibly do such spells, too. If we think of demon kings as domain - class, we have seen demon kings use global abilities. No, actually, are you trying to wriggle out of having to get your own domain ? - Kei looked at Stella. Stella shook her hands in protest.

- In the long run, all these choices probably make little difference, - Stella said. - But looking at the medium term, over the next few decades, these choices would affect how we survive the demon kings. -

Johann nodded. - I think the Tree of Life makes good sense. If none of us can die, we can all aim and plan. -

- DoesnÆt that just trivialize death? -

- IÆm sure the regeneration time of a domain holder will be quite long. Maybe years or decades, - Kei said. - This world does seem to take inspiration from games and ancient myths, and itÆs not unusual for ancient evils or great powers to recover from destruction over very long periods. - That reminded me of so many stories that started with the rebirth of the evil god.

- Oh, so we may not die, but we waste a lot of time. -

- Time that may save lives and other worlds. -

- IÆm against the magic route, - Roon said. - I feel that once a sufficient number of us can take on the demon king, with immortality, we can effectively continue fighting the demon king. No, fighting the demon king is even better since we become stronger with each fight. ItÆs a risk - free route. The earlier civilizations were destroyed after a long war of attrition. -

- Yes, but we will have to keep fighting forever. The magical route essentially offers a chance to close this issue by blocking us. No. The magical route also means we may have spells that create larger, more sustainable portals. With that, we may be able to invade the demonic world. -

- That still sounds like playing defense, - Roon responded. - Being immortal allows us to go on the offense. -

- We donÆt know that, - Stella answered. - What if we invade the other worlds and find that thereÆs no solution there? The gods clearly have tried something, but they too failed in destroying the demons. Hiding may well be the only true way to avoid this fight. -

- Until when? - the ranger responded. - We cannot hide forever. -

- What if merging with the world allows both? - Alka wondered as he tried to steer the conversation away. - There must be something more to this merging with the world thing. If A/ becomes the world, A/ may also be unkillable. With that solid foundation, weÆll just need time to have Stella and the rest of the void mages gain their own domains. -

- A really long time, mind you, - Stella protested. - Void magic isnÆt so easily taught. -

- He doesnÆt have a point. We have twenty void mages in your void school, and A/ can give you upgraded classes, - Alka said.

Kei paused and took the conversation in another direction. - A/ , is it possible that at level two hundred fifty, you may actually encounter these choices again? -

I thought back to my level one hundred fifty domain choices. Nature , Spirit , and Astral . I chose Nature then.

As I thought about it, I thought it may be more accurate that both Will of the World and Tree of Life were essentially paths that went deeper along the path of the Nature aspect. Living Magic seemed to take a detour through magic, taking a bit from both Spirit and Astral .

So I answered KeiÆs question. - Not exactly. These level two hundred choices were not what I got for my level one hundred fifty. -

Edna circled back. - I stand by the earlier suggestion. Hold on the choice until more of us get our domains. ThereÆs no time limit, right? -

Everyone took a look at Lumoof, who remained mostly silent. Lumoof shrugged. - DonÆt look at me, IÆm A/ Æs number one faithful, and if itÆs me, I believe in A/ Æs wisdom to choose. -

42

YEAR 192

With the battle against the demon king behind us, I moved Lumoof back to the north. The first order of the day was to find Ken again.

Where did he go?

We couldnÆt find him. So we made sure to keep all my artificial minds on the lookout. It was possible theyÆd sailed to the other continents, and if so, there was no point looking for them here in the north.

Around this time, we received a letter from Meela. Another meeting with her and Alexis.

We met again in that same hotel, this time only Lumoof and Edna. There really was no need to bring anyone else.

- Patriarch Lumoof, we meet again. This is Alexis, my partner and co - leader of the Rosewoods. - Meela nodded, and this was when I saw Alexis again after so long. She was a tall, slender woman; her face was that of a human, with the exception of the beetle - like iris and two little feelers on her forehead. She had humanlike fingers, but the tips were like little claws with tiny hooks.

Alexis nodded, and Edna too gave a knowing nod. Lumoof made a guess on her class.

Assassin

Meela noticed the way Alexis and Edna looked at each other and immediately explained. - I believe weÆve met under less - than - pleasant situations. But letÆs put that behind us and look forward. - Alexis was still tense, and she sat down. Edna could singlehandedly defeat everyone in this room, and everyone knew it.

Lumoof smiled and sat on the chair. - Indeed, I was also told by one former hero that you two tried to attack her. -

Meela nodded knowingly. - It was clear that sheÆs a former hero after that event. Our lack of intel from the Central Continent made us blind. ItÆs very unfortunate that our meeting devolved in that manner. -

Lumoof took a cup of tea and sipped. He wasnÆt worried whether it was poisoned. - Oh, she was equally surprised to learn that the two of you were former heroes of another generation. It seems to us that the number of former heroes in the world only keeps growing. -

Meela laughed. - I suddenly feel a lot less special. -

Lumoof only nodded. - So letÆs start. I would like to preface our discussion with A/ Æs view. As he promised many years ago, he has no intention of meddling and wishes to respect that both of you have separate lives. -

Alexis immediately leaned in. - Define meddling. Is he not meddling when the two of you are here? - Meela merely sighed at the response.

Lumoof was calm, and he expected the question. - ItÆs important to look at context and the overall picture. A/ Æs ultimate goal is to break this world from the cycle. To do so, he has to occasionally step in to save the heroes, especially if they are cursed, in order to minimize the destruction from the demon king. Though, as we could see from AlvinÆs case, he didnÆt do that well against the previous demon king. Nevertheless, after our incident in the north, A/ decided that he needed to move in the north, as it seemed that these islands are home to quite a bit of the anti - hero factions, if only to maintain the balance. -

- Sounds like an excuse to expand his power. -

Lumoof nodded. - Oh, we make no excuses there. A/ in his pursuit of power will have to expand to everywhere in this world. -

Alexis immediately turned to face Meela. The room already had anti - magic shielding.

- The world will run out of time, - Lumoof said before Alexis could continue. - Aiva told us that the godÆs powers fade. - Well, we only heard from Aiva; we didnÆt know whether the other gods were actually fading or not. - In a century or two, Aiva will no longer support the summons, and the world may end up without heroes to face the corruption of the demons. -

- Wait. What? - Alexis looked at Meela. Meela didnÆt respond to the statement.

- A/ is aware of your past disagreements with his methods. - Rich, and hypocritical now that Alexis was an assassin that killed many others. But she was a smart girl, and I liked to believe her intellect could be useful. - But letÆs work together, at least, to overcome this challenge. Past enmities can be managed. -

Alexis sat down. - YouÆre not lying. -

- We met Aiva herself. - I wasnÆt sure whether to refer to Aiva as male or female. Honestly, it could go either way, though the Church of Aiva tended to refer to Aiva as a goddess, even though that wasnÆt exactly in their scripture. - Her presence was real. -

- Can you tell us why A/ has all the hero fragments? - Alexis sat.

Lumoof mentally pinged me, and I agreed. - It was something he kept from everyone until recently, but he is what they call. collateral damage. An accidental tagalong during the hero summons. The fragments were awarded to all those who tagged along. -

There was silence as Alexis and Meela both processed it.

It was a long silence.

- YouÆre telling me now that he understood all our references all this time? And he never said a word? - Alexis had a look that was mostly anger.

- Yes. Infuriating as it may be, it was A/ Æs decision in the early days. -

- This is ridiculous. - Alexis looked at Meela. She stood and slammed the table. - You believe this shit? -

- I must say I do. - Meela looked back. - It makes a lot of sense, taking account of his paranoia with his knowledge of our world; he is quite like some of the more paranoid heroes. - I didnÆt feel I was paranoid. I thought I was reasonable in protecting myself.

- Why? - Alexis stood.

I took over Lumoof as LumoofÆs eyes glowed. I spoke through him.

- Because a tree cannot move. If the entire world knew of my origins, would they turn on me? Maybe yes, maybe not. But I did not take chances, not with what little power I had then. I am unlike the rest of you, who can afford to run, to hide, to alter how you appear with magic, or with the right spells to move to another world. If we made a wrong move, I was a sitting duck. I have been on the receiving end of so many hexbombs that I no longer bother to count them. The truth costs me a lot more. I am willing to admit the truth, because now I can afford to. The world is not a pleasant place. YouÆve seen how assassins tried to kill heroes even with the overwhelming power of heroes. What could a tree, an immobile tree, do? -

Meela sighed. Alexis was silent.

- Meela and Alexis, we meet again after so long, and I would have preferred we met under more auspicious and pleasant circumstances. But the reality is this: we have just a few centuries left to chart our path and prepare for the moments when our crutches are off. -

They were listening, even if they felt intimidated.

- It may seem long, but itÆs only fifteen to twenty demon kings. That may not be enough to level enough of us, such that we can survive subsequent demon kings without the support of heroes consistently. Not just one demon king, but for the rest of this worldÆs existence. Without divine support. -

Meela nodded. - I understand. So whatÆs the plan? -

Alexis turned. - Meela. -

- A/ is right. If the summoning of the heroes will stop, this world is truly fucked. Like it or not, we canÆt ever reach that level. We certainly donÆt have the right skills or items to even stand up to any regular hero, what more the demon king, - Meela defended me. - WeÆve worked at this for a century, and youÆre still only level ninety, and IÆm barely above level one hundred. If A/ is able to even graze the level of the gods, then we need to work with him. -

I said frankly, - Honestly, I am willing to let the two of you continue as is. There really is no need for both of you to make massive adjustments to the new lives you have built over the last century. But I hoped to rely on both of you for intelligence, for support should it be needed, and mainly, to put things bluntly, donÆt get in the way. What I want at the moment is an intelligence - sharing agreement and non - interference with our actions here in the north or wherever you may operate. I can dictate that by force, if I need to, but thatÆs an unnecessary waste of manpower. -

With the Valthorns, I could field far more power than they had. There was no need to have them enter combat or enter into a formal alliance. They just had to stay out of the way, and if they didnÆt, IÆd have to force them to.

Meela turned. - I can agree to that. -

Alexis stood and looked at her partner; there was a hint of displeasure in her statement. - We should discuss this. -

- Non - interference should be a clear yes, Alexis. This doesnÆt change anything significantly, not with the proverbial Soul Contract on our souls. Intelligence is also an acceptable trade. We have an interest in keeping the world safe and supporting the heroes in their mission. We can do more working with A/ than against him. -

Alexis wanted to respond, and then she sat back down. She didnÆt look too happy, but she seemed to accept it.

- You mentioned there were others like us? Like Miss Kei? - Meela asked. The point that I hadnÆt quite decided on was whether I should expose them to Kei, Stella, or any of the other future heroes who may come under my umbrella.

- Yes. How about you? Have you seen any of your own? -

- . Yes. We have two under our care at the moment. But tell me, whatÆs their role in this? How do they fit in? -

Two? Hmm. I was beginning to suspect accidents were more common than I thought. I decided I could share some information. - TheyÆre mostly helping me where they can, and how they could apply their own knowledge to improve things. One of them worked on portals. Another is helping with crystalline bombs, which we will deploy against the demon kings. -

- Ah, IÆve heard of the bombs, - Meela said. - Fascinating stuff. Alexis even got her hands on a few undetonated ones. Now that we know A/ was from Earth, it really explained some of these unusual combat strategies. -

Alexis asked, - How does A/ plan to end the cycle? WeÆve heard the goal, but does he have a plan in mind? -

Lumoof shrugged. - This is partly why we are here. We donÆt have a firm plan, we are attempting quite a few things, but if we had more minds, with different viewpoints, we could have more leads. Some of the ideas are quite outrageous. -

Alexis stared at Meela. - So all that rhetoric of a grand goal and A/ doesnÆt have a plan. -

Meela smiled back. - Well, donÆt all great plans begin with a vision? -

- Maybe itÆs a vision that will lead us to hell. -

- Are we not in some kind of hell - world already? - Meela responded.

The two of them seemed to be pretty tense with each other. Maybe theyÆd been together for too long. It was hard to imagine a friendship that was a century - long would still be cordial. Lumoof and Edna just watched.

No point jumping into their fire.

What I found strange was that they did not respond to the portals. Did they hear it, or were they also working on something similar? Strange.

Stella finally completed her examination of the demon kingÆs core. It was a dud. Again.

- The core received star mana damage, and itÆs clearly messed up whatever that was in there. Sorry, A/ . Not good enough. -

I felt like stomping my feet. We worked so hard, and it wasnÆt enough! Of course, Edna expected it. - ItÆs not like we did most of the damage. -

- Your domain skill really delivered, though, - I praised Edna. - We just need to work on damage. - We both needed to work on damage. Even my fragments didnÆt seem to make much of a difference against the demon king. It was likely that the fragments were only effective for non - demon kings. This, of course, suggested that demon kings were not demons, but in their own class entirely.

We also examined the mana I drained from the core to prevent that last - minute meltdown. It was a lot of void mana and demonic mana mixed in, and the trees and potatoes that I used to hold these manas were corroding rather quickly, and I needed to constantly heal the potatoes so that these void mana didnÆt leak out and blow the whole place up.

But neither the mana type nor the ratio didnÆt tell us much other than what we already knew. The demon king contained void mana within itself, and most of this was about to blow. Luckily, this time, I was able to absorb significantly higher quantities of mana to avoid any catastrophic blowup. In the first place, it was already weakened and had already consumed a bit of its void and demonic mana.

Oh well. Maybe the third time weÆd get it.

Our spies were helpful, but they were not able to extract NeiraÆs secret god - communion methods. More correctly, they were not even sure it existed.

Among the mid - tier leadership team, they were not aware of any means of seeking out their god. They had the understanding that they would be contacted by their god, not the other way around.

This, of course, made me wonder why their followers even prayed, then. If their prayers did not actually go to their respective gods, then what were they for? Yet, despite the prayers never reaching the god, those who prayed somehow receive blessings? How did that work?

I attempted to make sense of this whole prayer thing.

As I understood it, Lilies once said a domain was a higher - order access to the system. But looking at what IÆd seen so far, it was probably not just that. At this point, I theorized that a domain holder essentially created a spot for itself in the system. This was why Lilies felt my presence spread throughout the system.

If so, when prayers were given, I believed these prayers were then recorded by the system, and there was a - code - or a - program - in the system itself, created either indirectly or directly by a personÆs ascension to the higher levels of domains, that then absorbed these prayers and responded to them.

In other words, the system functioned as an automated - god - system on behalf of the gods. The god may have set criterias for the system, or the system itself interpreted a set of criteria from the godÆs behavior that formed the basis of how it responded to prayers.

I mean, that had to be how it worked, because I was not linked or giving powers to those who had A/ ic classes, and yet they clearly derived some power that was modeled after mine. The system did that, not me.

I did not assess these believers whether they were worthy or not; it was the system who did it. The system, as the only - impartial - operator in the world, made that judgment call.

Thus it was likely that even if Aiva drifted out of range of her normal, direct powers, the benefits from an Aivan blessing or class would continue.

No, thinking about it, would it be a good idea to link the world to where the gods were if they were friendly? Such that they could use their powers more directly here.

Certainly that would be good for the world, in the sense that Aiva could then protect this world directly, but not good for me, since they probably would not tolerate me being so close to them. A portal worked both ways.

The four heroes came to the Central Continent again, this time on their own accord. TheyÆd finished the clean up of the demons in the West.

I didnÆt like that they wanted to come, of course, but they were heroes, and they could just teleport to our continent if they wanted to. So, rather than resist and fail, since there were four of them, I decided to just allow them entry.

- I want snacks. All types of them, - Prabu told the attendants at the port. The attendants hurried to retrieve snacks from the warehouse.

A Valthorn quickly reached out to me. - As the heroes are not invited on an official visit, should we charge them the cost of their lodgings and food? - This was a diplomatic headache, of course. Previously they came at KeiÆs invitation, so I agreed to waive the cost of whatever they consumed. I decided to call on my council for their input.

- I think we should absorb it for now, - one of the lords advised. - Most kingdoms absorb the cost of hero visits. After all, they never really stay for long. Most end up starting their own kingdoms. -

- I think we should be more concerned if one of these heroes wanted to start their own kingdom here, - another lord responded. - But until then, most kingdoms put on their best face forward. -

- What if the heroes start to mate with any of the younger princes or princesses around the Central Continent? That could cause some of the kingdoms to stray from influence. -

- And is that likely? - I asked.

- ItÆs possible. Many kingdoms historically attempted, with some successes, to absorb heroes into their royal families as a way of enhancing the unique status of the royal family. Granted, this has not happened yet in the recent A/ ic era, but it was a common thing, historically. Some heroes end up usurping the throne via marriage. -

Fuck.

A hero as one of the kings? There was no way I could keep them in line if that happened.

Prabu munched on a plate of snacks. - I love snacks so much IÆm going to stay in the Central Continent. -

Fuck.

43

YEAR 193

- We want to make a deal with A/ , - Prabu and Collete said to Kei. ItÆd been close to six months since heÆd arrived on the Central Continent, and heÆd been visiting. On and off, they did travel to the other continents, but in the end, they returned.

Kei sighed. - Are you sure this is a good idea? I donÆt speak for him, so IÆll have to take you to him, if he lets me. -

Prabu was firm. - Yes. Both of us talked about it, and we decided - no, I decided I want to stay here. ColetteÆs just staying here with me. - I wondered whether these two were an item.

KeiÆs magical lips curled. - ItÆs really not a good idea to base your decisions on which continents have the best snacks. -

- Eh. Am I such a caricature that my entire thought process is summarized down to my love of snacks? -

- Well, no. But is it? -

- No. I like snacks, but IÆm not stupid. I also like modern conveniences, and on that front, this continent is far ahead of everyone else. Especially here. If there was a place I wanted to stay, itÆs here. -

- Have you thought about what you want to offer A/ as compensation? - Kei said. - Back when I was still alive, I helped A/ with magical research. -

- IÆve seen FreekaÆs colleges, and I think the college needs a proper magical teacher. We both can do that. -

- You know these mortals canÆt learn heroic magic. - Kei frowned.

- They can learn by exposure. Just having heroes as lecturers should be a huge selling point for the college. I honestly donÆt mind being mascots. - Prabu laughed. - I used to wear costumes for my school plays. So yes, I mean it. I want to live here. -

Kei looked at Colette. - How about you? -

- IÆll travel around, but IÆll probably drop by and just rest here, too. - The knight - hero, Hafiz, was out to set up his own sultanate in the Western Continent, while Chung the archer went back to the Southern Continent to continue his work on magical contraption again.

I suspected they were probably more than friends, but they didnÆt do anything strange while here. Maybe they used some magic to hide themselves from my prying eyes.

- We only have a few years of peace, - Colette said. - Before weÆre back to that old disaster again. ThereÆs still so much to see and so much to eat. -

- WeÆve seen most of the big sights. -

- There are things hidden in plain sight, - Colette responded. - Like how weÆve never seen A/ Æs true body even after weÆve been here so long. There are things we will only discover if we spend the time to find it. These magical senses are tuned to demons and very little else. -

Of course, that was really understating how overpowered their normal senses already were.

- Can you please ask A/ ? -

Kei led them to me the next day, and they saw my main body for the first time. They instantly backed a few steps as my presence and theirs clashed.

- The true body is really nothing to scoff at, - Prabu said with a bow. - We humbly greet the great deity of the Central Continent. -

- I have heard of your request, and it is granted, with some conditions. - They stared and waited for me to continue. I then listed my requirements. I wanted them to stay out of politics and avoid giving any tacit or implied support to any of the nobles, I didnÆt want a political upheaval in my land, and I was concerned that the nobles would be able to gently maneuver the heroes against me.

The heroes were political newbies. They could find themselves indirectly led to a path where they were then forced to make a choice. The only way they could stay in the Central Continent was if they were directly under my control, and no one elseÆs. At the same time, they had to work.

I tasked them, mainly, with creating heroic items and also working as guest lecturers at FTC.

Just like Kei, when she was still a hero. Prabu accepted it without hesitation, and was more interested in debating the specifics of his compensation for his goods and services.

I then approached both Aria and Aispeng, and also Lilies, on the specifics of a pantheon.

Would you join my pantheon? I asked Lilies, and Lilies could not answer.

They had not reached that point. We donÆt know. It is a commitment far above what we are ready for.

Why?

Lilies couldnÆt answer, either. But I sensed turmoil and conflict through our linked roots; I felt its many minds in fierce debate over the invitation.

Aria and Aispeng frowned. - So level two hundred is a pantheon. If we get there, we can get it, too. But weÆll have to wait a few decades. But what happens if we reach level two hundred and can we leave the pantheon? -

I honestly answered, - I donÆt know. The system does not answer such questions, but I would theorize yes. A pantheon may not be a fixed thing. Only those who selected a subdomain, like my priest Lumoof, are stuck with me. -

- What exactly is a pantheon? What are your powers over us? - Aria asked.

- I also donÆt know. IÆll know more when Edna joins my pantheon. -

- Hmm. Then we will wait until then. We certainly are not friends of the demons or the gods, so I donÆt see the problem in joining with you, if itÆs not a permanent, irrevocable arrangement. -

In truth, any of my domain choices should make the world safer. If I had all of them, that would be even better.

I hoped level two hundred fifty allowed me to get all of them.

During the middle of the year, I got a ping from one of my artificial minds. My artificial mind drew attention to an individual who arrived by sea. The man had long hair tied up into a ponytail and wore simple armor.

- The Central Continent. How does it feel? - the man asked.

There was a small snake on his shoulder, a real, living snake with dark green skin, but my watchers were already on the lookout for anything snake - related. The snake had glowing red eyes. - WeÆre being watched. -

- Is it? - The man looked around but didnÆt seem to see anything. - I donÆt see any assassins or spies. -

- ItÆs everywhere. I can taste a faint presence. -

- Oh great. WeÆve walked into a trap. -

- No. I donÆt think so. -

It was easy to tell this was Ken. - Heh. So is this trip a mistake? We still can back out now. No, if this is a flag, we should back out. -

- No. The source of the divine energy we felt was here. Even now, I can still taste the residual divine energies in the air. We move. -

- I taste nothing. - Ken rolled his eyes.

- Your senses are crude, human. Come, we shall move to the source of this energy. -

We continued to watch Ken travel from the northern coasts of the Central Continent, slowly to the center of the Central Continent. It took them about two months, but Ken finally arrived at Freshka.

- ThereÆs something here reaching out to our minds, - the snake said once they approached Freshka.

- WhatÆs that? -

- IÆm not sure. -

- You sure donÆt know much for a supposedly all - knowing snake. - Ken laughed.

- IÆve never sold myself as an all - knowing snake. -

- Is it? I recall back when you latched onto my soul, I remember quite specifically that you said you have the knowledge of the world and you can help me. -

- My world, not yours. -

- Great, I fell for a marketing misdirection. - Ken rolled his eyes.

The snake didnÆt answer.

- Ah, Freshka! I heard PrabuÆs here. I should meet him, - Ken said.

- Is dropping by unannounced a common practice in your world? It would be an act of disrespect to us. -

Ken shrugged. - ItÆll be fine. PrabuÆs pretty chill. -

- HeÆs still under the control of the gods. They may not be. Not when they detect my presence. -

- Ah yes. That twisted backstory of your world, right? - Ken said. - But you know what? IÆll still meet him. IÆm not at risk. You are. -

The snake was silent, and Ken smirked. Ken immediately activated a messaging orb. - Hey, Prabu. -

- Oh, hey! Ken! WhereÆve you been? -

- Long story, but guess what? IÆm in Freshka. Wanna meet up? -

- Wait. What?! Sure, dude! Sure! Uh, you wanna meet at one of the cityÆs restaurants? - I thought I felt a little bit of echo as I heard Prabu speak through my eyes and also through KenÆs observer.

- Yeah. Sure. Tell me where. -

They met at an upscale restaurant in Freshka, complete with a private dining room. Of course, the whole place was bugged with my trees. Prabu arrived first, as Ken took a while to find the place.

When they met each other, Prabu immediately frowned. - WhoÆre you? -

Ken paused and then realized his disguise was still active. He activated some kind of spell, and now he transformed back into Ken. - Sorry. IÆve got a disguise on, since there are a lot of people looking for me. -

Prabu frowned. - With that ability of yours, how do I know IÆm actually talking to Ken, and not someone who just looks like Ken? -

Ken rubbed his chin. - ThatÆs a good question. I actually canÆt prove that. ItÆs entirely possible that KenÆs still back on Earth and IÆm just a copy of Ken who can shapeshift with flesh - alteration magic. Or it is also possible magically that something ate Ken and stole KenÆs memories, and now this Ken - eating monster masquerades itself as Ken. -

Prabu smiled and sat. - All right, Mr. Looks - like - Ken - but - may - not - be - Ken, so IÆll still call you Ken for short, whatÆs up? We saw the notification and your message. Chung will want to know that youÆre still alive. -

Prabu then pointed at the snake.

- And also, that snake of yours, where is it from? It feels. familiar. -

Ken immediately placed the snake on a chair. - His nameÆs pretty hard to pronounce, but I call him Snek, because he looks like Snek. HeÆs a spiritual hitchhiker. HeÆs been with me since the very first day we arrived in this world. -

- Really? -

- It took a while for him to wake up, part of the perils of dimensional travel. -

- Why didnÆt you tell us? -

- I donÆt trust the gods to keep both of us safe. Not with the power theyÆve given us, - Ken remarked flatly.

- What is it? - Prabu stared at the snake, and the snake coiled up. - And why are you willing to do so now? -

Ken smiled. - Because IÆm no longer a hero, and it separated from my soul after it consumed the hero class. -

- The snake ate your hero class? - PrabuÆs eyes almost popped out at the second sentence. - How? And why? Seriously, why? What were you thinking? -

A knock on the door and Prabu tapped a button. The door opened, and three waiters came in. They served the food, drinks, and snacks and left when they were done.

- Yes. Where were we? Hero class, what were you thinking? -

Ken looked and smiled. - Well, IÆm pleasantly surprised that you didnÆt instantly try to kill me or the snake. -

- What? Why would I? - Prabu leaned back, slightly offended.

- Well, letÆs cut to it. We all know thereÆs some mind - control element. It restricts what we think and what we do. I didnÆt like that, and Snek helped me to remove it. ItÆs a win - win situation, since Snek comes from a world thatÆs devoid of heroes. -

- Wait. Are you saying Snek is a demon? -

- Not quite. Have you ever wondered what would happen to the world if the demons win? -

- Everyone dies? -

- Well, no. The demons kill those that they encounter, but what if they somehow manage to hide? -

- I thought the demons could find those who live? - Prabu frowned.

- They have refined senses, yes, but they are not perfect and certainly not omniscient. There are things they donÆt know, and in the snakeÆs case, they got lucky. -

- What do you mean? -

- Their world was swarmed by flying demons, but they, the snakes and few others, are a species of subterranean creatures. They lived underground and surrendered the entire surface to the demons, and they built their cities deeper and deeper. But the gods only recognized those who were humans or humanoids as worthy of protection, so sentient snakes and other beasts were abandoned. -

That was fascinating.

- The flying demons and the demon king that made the surface into a demonic world, and yet beneath it, these snakes lived. And they remembered the loss. -

- ThatÆs. -

- The gods discriminate by species. -

- No. The demons have tunneller demons, too. Why didnÆt they use those? -

This time, it was the Snake Spirit that answered. - Because the demons have a system. Each demon king that wins a world claims that world for its type. The demon gods created a rotational system to allow each subdemonic race a chance to invade a world, but if it fails, another subdemonic race gets the opportunity to send their kings. My world was claimed by the dragon - demons. -

Prabu asked a question I always wanted to know. - Then do you know what the demon kings are? How do they become what they are? -

- In every world, the demons will create a massive pool or spawning pit. This is the Heart of the Demons, and it is linked to the Core of the world. The hearts steal power from the world to create a demon king. It takes almost a century for the heart of the demons to create a demon king. -

This story is different from the one told by the parasite. Prabu frowned and asked, - To be fair, it sounds like your world has managed to coexist with the demons. -

- We do not consider it coexistence. Not when all the surface - dwelling species have been eradicated, and those who fled to the tunnels have changed over the millennia. Our world is a demon world, and we feel the pain of the Core that feeds the demons. -

The demons were created from the energies of the captured worlds and used it to create demon kings.

- The worldÆs energy fades in strength. Each demon king it spawns kills the world a little more, and we fear what happens should the demons consume all of the worldÆs energy, - the snake answered. - But because we come from a world where the coreÆs energy has been tainted by the demons. -

Prabu shook his head. - Sounds like a pretty tragic background story. -

Ken actually laughed at it. - I know, right? Anyway, their world needs a hero, so, since I didnÆt want to be controlled by the gods, I agreed to give my hero class to them. So IÆm a free man now. Win - win situation. -

- Free only because someone else will be fighting for you. - Prabu frowned. - We could have used another person on the battlefield. -

- Eh. You four are doing fine! I heard of your incredible battles. -

- Those are all exaggerations. Those who were present in the battle all know it didnÆt go like that. -

Indeed, there were no spectators. The risks were too high, and everyone present was at a higher level. I lost too many lower - level folks when I deployed them during the previous battle. It was also extremely difficult to scry the battle with so much magical interference.

- The four heroes defeated the demon king, - Ken said. - Though the Central Continent seems to have a different version of the story, where the warriors from the Central Continent supported the battle? - As usual, the temples had their own versions of the story, and we too had our own versions. Each side made statements to its own benefit.

Prabu smiled. - We had help. -

- I see. - Ken waited.

- So why are you here, really? -

- Someone called the gods here, - Ken said. - Snek wants to know. -

Prabu frowned. - And why is that? -

The snake shook his head. - LetÆs just say itÆs a curiosity. -

- Are you not afraid that someone who could call a god here can easily crush you? -

The snake nodded; its voice was angry. - So it could. But we want to know. We want to ask why we were abandoned. -

Ken looked at the snake. - Sometimes I wonder whether thatÆs how the demons came to be. These abandoned races ascend and then are on a quest for vengeance against the gods who abandoned them. Why are they obsessed anyway? -

The snake didnÆt answer. We didnÆt know why, and it seemed the snake did not, either.

Prabu frowned. - ThereÆs so many holes in your explanation. HowÆd you even manage to latch on Ken when we are summoned? ThatÆs a kind of power IÆve not seen before. Your ability to extract the hero class, what exactly did you do? -

The snake looked at Ken, and it was Ken who answered. - These snake - folk, they practice a kind of blood magic. -

PrabuÆs face twisted. - Ken, you agreed to work with someone who sacrificed lives for magical power? -

Ken sighed. - Prabu, itÆs hard to explain, but yes. ThereÆs a lot more nuance to blood magic than you know, and these snake - folk have a very high - level understanding of it. IÆm now free of the hero class with no side effects. -

- And how was that achieved, exactly? -

The snake and Ken seemed to share a look. - ItÆs complicated. -

- YouÆre not making a convincing case, Ken. -

The snake then said, - ThereÆs a lot of sacrifice involved. Willing sacrifices are key. - Willing? DidnÆt I recall the snake using some kind of mind - puppetry or mind control?

Ken leaned forward. - WeÆve talked about something not relevant for a while. Prabu, I need your help. -

- Help? What kind? - Prabu asked.

- The rumors were very messy. Some of them said there was a heavenly meeting; some said it was something else. We want to know, did somebody summon the gods? -

Prabu laughed. - Ah. The Aivan godÆs meeting. Yes, what about it? -

- Do you know how to trigger it again? Snek says it may be his ticket home. -

- I donÆt. -

- Where did it happen? Here? -

- Yeah. Somewhere outside of the city. ItÆs off - limits, though. -

- Can you smuggle me there? -

- No. - Prabu shook his head. - Trust me, you donÆt want to try weird shit in this continent. This isnÆt a place you can fool around. Even if youÆre a hero. -

- Why, some officer of the kingdomÆs gonna stop me? - Ken said. - This continentÆs a competent religious - military state with a supposedly divine religious figurehead. YouÆre a hero with divine powers. Heroes win. -

It seemed that Ken had a very different impression of the continent, and Prabu immediately frowned. - Those words are best not tested and said outside of this room, ever. You underestimate the rising god at your own peril. -

- Wait, itÆs not a competent religious - military state? All those soldiers in fancy uniforms and high levels? ThatÆs the impression I got. -

Prabu frowned. It was the Snek who stopped at PrabuÆs words. - Wait. How powerful is the deity of the land? -

Ken looked at Snek. - Wait a minute, what are you implying? -

- Sawabesarulars, you damned fool. - I didnÆt know how, but the Snek somehow managed to look like it had an epiphany as it cursed at himself. I presumed that was his name, since it was clearly pretty difficult to pronounce correctly. - Four hundred thirty - three years of waiting for the right moment and you miss this shit. Stupid, elementary mistake. -

- Spill it Snek. - Ken looked serious. PrabuÆs frown turned into bewilderment.

- The competent religious - military state is competent because there is a singular, ascending god at its core. You had the logic backward. It is not the competence of the military order that maintains the illusion that there is a god. There really is a god, and it is a god that imposes competence. All those military guys with high levels, the massive background presence in this entire continent, it could only mean we were watched. All the damned time. -

KenÆs face paled. - Wait. But Chung didnÆt say much about this A/ . The temples certainly painted A/ as a pretender. -

- Of course they would! - Snek screamed. - Have you no sense of politics?! Even we spirit - snakefolk know about talking shit about your enemies! This is an absolute failure of your information collection! -

- ItÆs my fault now? - Ken slammed the table.

- Well, yes. All we know about the Central Continent has been anecdotes and biased information from the temples and the merchants. Your friends didnÆt say much, either. You, with your supposed treasure trove of tropes, seemed to happily categorise the entire Central Continent into this caricature of a military regime. -

- Tropes are never wrong. Only subverted! - Ken slammed the table again. - I got the trope right! -

- But we got the wrong decisions, you damned fool! -

- What the fuck are you two talking about? - Prabu said. The food was getting cold. PrabuÆs plate was clean.

Snek turned to the hero. - Do you know what level A/ is? -

- IÆm not sure, but his two generals, a priest and a knight, joined our battle with the previous demon king. The priest was able to have A/ descend on the battlefield through him. They really pulled their weight during the battle. -

Ken looked. - Wait. Wait a minute. The natives are not useless? -

- I donÆt think so? -

Ken looked at Snek. - This flies against everything you ever said about natives having no chance against the demon kings, that we all need hero - classes to win. YouÆre wrong, too, alien - snake - person. -

Snek paused. - Our world never had anyone who was able to reach those levels. Even I, the one chosen to take a spiritual form and make the journey to the god - watched worlds, am no more than level eighty. We didnÆt think it was even possible for natives to fight. -

Huh. They didnÆt need super - high levels to break themselves free of the hero class. No, maybe it was easier to break if the hero class was low leveled.

Prabu looked equally puzzled. - WhereÆs this conversation heading? -

- IÆm sorry, Prabu. We just had a few of our key assumptions rebutted. -

- We should stay here and watch a bit more, - Snek said suddenly. - If this is true, I have much to learn about this world. A lot more than just a hero class. -

Prabu frowned. - IÆm not accepting freeloaders. You gotta get your own crib. -

44

YEAR 194

Afew more years to go, and IÆd be two hundred years old in this world. That was really long, though honestly, it only felt like a few years. Time was relative to lifespan. For a person who would live to one hundred, ten years was ten percent of his life, but for a tree that could live to one thousand years, it was only one percent.

The leveling system, therefore, was clearly rigged in favor of those with longer lifespan, though the levels themselves allowed those with shorter lives to live far, far longer. Like Edna.

Roon and Johann were just one level away from level one hundred fifty. Roon was an A/ ic Sharpshooter , and Johann was an A/ ic Master Ranger . Both were ranged combatants, unlike Edna. Alka was level one hundred forty - three A/ Æs Field Scientist .

They were a little restless. After all, they were so close. I totally understood how they felt. After all, I lingered at the edge of that level for a long time, too.

There were new people, of course. Every year we admitted more into the Valthorns, and from that, an even smaller group received the Soul Strengthening Seeds .

Looking at the entirety of my talent pipeline, I had three bottlenecks.

One: individuals who were able to reach their level caps of level eighty to ninety were not many. Not everyone had the disposition or the personality to strive and keep pushing. Some just wanted to back off and relax. This problem was mostly solved by expanding my recruitment to cover the entire continent. With hundreds of millions across all the cities, it was very possible to get the talent needed.

Two: training my talents to the level caps, and then beyond that, to the domains. I could cheat with experience seeds and give them upgraded classes and upgraded skills, and my gift to level them up to level sixty, but all of these were like giving a powerful car to a driver who may not be sufficiently well equipped to use them. They needed a good foundation, and then only the powerful skills could then make a difference.

Three: the soul - strengthening seed that broke the level cap. There was a finite number of soul - strengthening seeds I could make per year. The fact that these damned ginseng required long gestation periods only made this even more painful.

But, I wondered, why did it have to be me?

So I approached both Aria and Lilies for help.

- This here is a soul strengthening seed , made from ginseng. Are you guys able to make similar items? -

- No, - Aria said.

Maybe, Lilies responded and then produced a lotus root.

We would select Tree of Life. In the end, I thought the ability to invade other worlds and establish bases in other parts of the world to be too enticing for me to let go. Not just that, it fundamentally allowed me to engage with heroes with a lot less fear, since now theyÆd have to kill all of me, not just the main tree.

No, the first thing I wanted to do if I chose Tree of Life was the damned moon base.

- You cannot be serious. - Stella looked at me. - You want to send a seed to the moon? -

- Yes. I am. -

- YouÆre destroying the natural environment of the moon. -

- Is this a conversation about preserving the natural environment? Because as far as I know, trees are natural. -

- Not native to the moon. -

- The moonÆs uninhabited. -

- You donÆt know that. -

- Then more reason for me to go to the moon, - I argued. - Can a tree go into space? No, can a tree go to the moon? -

Stella frowned and smacked her head. - ThatÆs lame. -

- I - m a tree. I am unable to walk. If I were an animal, I would be lame. -

Stella rolled her eyes. - . fuck you. -

- So will you open a portal to the moon, or not? -

- Fine, IÆll try. IÆll need some time to prepare. -

I selected my level two hundred domain, and I felt power surge and flood through all of my body. I felt my Heart, deep underground, melt, and then it split into five parts. One immediately embedded itself back to where it was.

I had four more seeds, Seeds of A/ . They were small, the size of a basketball.

At the same time, I felt the other powers of the domain activate.

Lumoof has been added to your pantheon automatically.

Pantheon invitation sent to Edna, Lilies, Aria.

Eh. Strange that the system knew to invite them.

Edna has accepted.

Aria and Aispeng have accepted.

There was nothing from Lilies. Not that he wanted them to urgently accept. They were probably still debating the specifics of such a pantheon.

Skill upgraded: Tree of Prayers now also emit a healing aura around them.

- Eh. ThatÆs another skill. -

I watched Ken and Snek stalk my Valthorns around Freshka. They were extremely amazed when they saw Edna walking on the streets. They were almost caught a few times, but I told my Valthorns to ignore them. I wanted to see what they would do.

- That woman is special! - Snek said in amazement. - I could feel her radiant power here. We must see this tree. To think this background energy that we felt all the way in the Northern Isles was all from this place! -

- The tree was in the north? - Ken asked.

- Yes. It was. -

- When? -

- For a long time. I thought it was just some residue of this world, like something normal. -

Ken laughed and sneered. - You have eyes, but you could not see Mount Tai. And youÆre a fish out of water - no, a snake out of the forest. -

- IÆm a snake - person - turned - spirit! We live underground, we survive mostly on magic, and our diet consists of underground monsters. - Snek clearly was on a different conversational wavelength.

- Do you think itÆs possible for me to take a spiritual form? - Ken wondered. - Think about it, a spiritual form. IÆll be a ghost! If IÆm a ghost, nothing can kill me. -

- Of course it is, but as I said, there are risks. Nine out of ten attempts to take on an ethereal, spiritual form fail, catastrophically, - the snake said. - And of course nothing can kill you! YouÆre already dead! -

But these two guys got in trouble, not with my people - well, maybe they were my people indirectly. There was an Aiva delegation in Freshka, as part of our peace arrangement with the Temple of Aiva.

An Aivan high priest immediately stopped and saw them while they were in town. - You. - He pointed at Ken without knowing who he was. - I sense a foul ghost lingering about you. What are you doing, stalking about town with that ghost? -

Ken was defiant. - Last I checked, having a ghost for a friend isnÆt a crime. -

The Aivan high priest discussed and whispered to his guards. - It isnÆt, but I can still punish evildoers as I see fit. -

- No, you wonÆt, - Ken said, and he ran. The Aivan priest and his group of guards ran after him. Bloody hell. Ken moved quickly; apparently he picked up some Rogue classes. Snek, unfortunately, shielded him from PatreeckÆs pervasive mind reading.

But Patreeck could still pick up random thoughts and little bits that they didnÆt manage to protect. Snek spent most of his spiritual powers to protect Ken, and SnekÆs was partly exposed. There were moments when we saw little glimpses of what Snek desired, and it was a bit of wonder and intrigue.

I found it interesting that PatreeckÆs power could even be used on spirits. I didnÆt manage to use it on the demon parasite previously, but maybe that was because it was inside Alvin.

He managed to lose the Aivan priests. - Damned holy people. They really donÆt like you. -

- It is not my fault they confuse me with the undead, - Snek responded. - I really donÆt understand this worldÆs culture of despising certain forms of magic. -

Ken shrugged. - People have prejudices. You are probably just blind on your own. -

I had enough of observing them from afar, and so I sent Roon to confront them. We knew where they walked and lived in Freshka. Roon knocked on their door; theyÆd borrowed some money from Prabu and rented a place of their own.

- Who the hell? - Ken wondered and activated Detect Presence . - Shit, itÆs the Valthorns. Have we been discovered? -

Roon knocked again and then said, - I know youÆre in there, Mr. Ken. IÆm Roon of the Valthorns. A/ wants to see you. Both of you. -

Ken stared at Snek and whispered, - HowÆd he find us? -

Snek shook its tiny snake head. - You mean, what finally made him decide to send someone and get us? -

- Ugh. Are we dead? - Ken turned to the door and shouted, - What does he want? -

Roon said, - He just wants to see you and your spirit - companion. He has some interesting questions. -

- He knows, - Ken whispered. - Should we bail? Do you think Prabu exposed us to him? -

Roon had preempted that. - ThereÆs really no use running, Ken. WeÆve been watching you for some time. -

- ThatÆs a lie. My Rogue skills didnÆt pick up shit, - Ken responded.

- It only means your skills are too low leveled. -

Ken looked around. - Can we run? -

Snek shook its head. - Think, you fool. We have a high - leveled operative outside our door, and I think this A/ could easily catch us anywhere we go. Our odds are fucked either way. We should cooperate. -

- Are we in danger? - Ken shouted.

Roon smirked at the question and then knocked on the door. - YouÆre not, donÆt worry. But as for your spirit companion, it really depends on what your friend is willing to share. -

Ken looked at Snek. - Oh, youÆre fucked. - Ken opened the door and saw a carriage was already prepared, one of the continentÆs finest, with a small convoy of beetles.

- Good. - Roon smiled. - Please get in the carriage. -

Ken nodded and went in. Roon followed. The carriage was magically enchanted by our mages for comfort and security.

- Where are we going? -

- DidnÆt I say earlier? You both are going to meet A/ , of course. -

- What does he want? -

- I donÆt know. - Roon shrugged. - YouÆll have to see for yourself. -

Snek stared at Roon. - What level are you? -

- ItÆs classified. -

Ken looked at him. - Certainly below level one hundred fifty. But IÆm guessing itÆs very close. - They had seen Edna and Lumoof both in Freshka, so they must have gotten a sense from their relative power levels.

Roon smiled. - Good one. -

- What changed? - Ken then said. - My friend here says youÆve been watching us for some time. -

- Oh, I wasnÆt watching you, but in Freshka, someone is always watching. -

- Freaking police surveillance state, - Ken responded.

We brought them deep into the ValthornÆs Keep and before one of the larger Tree of Prayers.

Snek was immediate. - This isnÆt A/ . -

Roon smiled. - Very observant, snake - spirit. -

Lumoof then walked in and sat on the chair opposite them. Roon gave Lumoof a nod and left the three. Snek eyed him intensely.

- Greetings, and a very belated welcome to Freshka, the administrative capital of the Central Continent. -

- You. - Snek said. - I didnÆt see it before, but. -

Lumoof eyes glowed, and I descended upon my avatar. At that moment, both Ken and Snek felt an oppressive pressure. - Greetings, Ken and Snek. - My voice was amplified by the avatar power, and it sounded like a thousand men said a single word.

The little snake spirit just whimpered. Ken looked at Snek in shock. - Uh. -

- I have much to ask of Snek. -

Ken paused. - HowÆd you know. -

- This is my city, and nothing here escapes my eyes, - I said as I stared at Snek through Lumoof. - Tell me the truth, Snek, and nothing but the truth. What are you, where are you from, and what are you doing here? -

SnekÆs little snake body whimpered, and Ken just stared. He had most likely never seen Snek behave in such a manner. Eventually, I lightened the pressure, and the small snake managed to move. I could use the entirety of PatreeckÆs mind - reading powers at this distance, but I wanted to see what it was going to do. I wanted to apply some of PatreeckÆs power to force a bit of honesty.

But I decided to hold back and wait. The snake adjusted itself and then said, - I am Sawabesarulars, a snake - person turned snake spirit from a world consumed by demons. -

- Is that the truth? - I applied PatreeckÆs power, and Snek vibrated from the mental shock. Patreeck said yes. - Good. -

Snek nodded, shaken, but it steeled itself. Ken immediately said, - Wait, youÆre using some mind - reading powers? -

- Your snake has some kind of possession ability. It is but a taste of its own type of power, - I responded.

- HowÆd you know? - Ken asked. I ignored the question and just looked at Snek.

- Sawabesarulars, continue your explanation. -

- Our world was lost to the demons about five hundred sixty - three years ago, when the gods stopped summoning heroes to our world. Our gods, Gayas, Deyar, and Marak, all abandoned us simultaneously, and we were invaded by the dragon - demons. The surface world was mostly lost, and the few surface dwellers that remained lived in hiding, in fear of the consuming dragons. -

I checked. It was honest.

- We retreated to the subterranean tunnels, and that was where the survivors lived ever since. We dug deeper and deeper tunnels, and our people changed. But we always wanted to return to the surface. So, about five hundred years ago, our people hatched a plan. The idea was simple. We knew that there were multiple worlds and gods summoned heroes to them. We learned this from the zaratans who once lived in our world. At least, before the surface water was consumed. -

Again, no lies. I commanded Patreeck to continue and only alert me if it lied.

- We had great leaders and great mages. But only heroes could defeat the demon king. - Patreeck sensed an uncertainty here. - We thought, if the gods wouldnÆt send us heroes, we would have to steal them from elsewhere. Our leaders and ancient masters had a good grasp of the higher magics of the world and were masters of spiritual - blood magic. We knew that it was very difficult to send a person from one world to another. But if a person was in a spiritual form, it was easier to endure the perils of the dark void. -

The snake continued.

- I, along with many other mages and wizards, were sacrificed as part of a blood ritual that stitched all our souls together. This transformed us to a spiritual existence. That was the first step. Next, we had to gain levels. A powerless spirit could not hope to steal a hero - class. -

I paused and asked, - How did you learn how to steal a hero class? -

- In our ancient history before our fall, our mages once helped a hero lose her class. It involved using soul fragments of other souls to significantly empower an underlying soul, such that it could shake off the hero - class that was latched to it. It was harder to do if the hero class was at a higher level, as each level gained in the hero class enhanced its grip over the soul. -

- Continue. - Huh, so the solution was really that simple. Make the soul strong such that it could get rid of the hero class? If I gave someone a really powerful ginseng, could it achieve the same effect?

- So I was made into a spirit, and next, we waited. We waited for the moment when the twin - headed dragon demon-king of our world was sent to another world. The demons had magical rifts that opened paths to other worlds, and when those rifts were open, I snuck into the rifts. But I didnÆt come out on the other side. -

Ken looked.

- I waited in the dark void, for the moment when the heroes would fly through. There were many near - hits, but many of these heroes rebuffed my attempts to speak to them. But finally, when Ken and his group travelled from the other side, Ken agreed to talk to me, and it seemed we got lucky that he wanted nothing of this, too. -

I looked at Ken. - Lucky for you, the spirit you picked up doesnÆt seem exceptionally malicious. DidnÆt your parents tell you not to talk to strange creatures when travelling through the void? -

The former hero sniggered. Patreeck confirmed he wasnÆt lying, at least. He could still fake it, but I didnÆt see a need to.

- So you got what you wanted. WhatÆs next? -

- I need to send the hero class back, of course. The only way I knew how to send a hero class back, sadly, involved consuming a powerful soul. -

- Did the gods say why your world was lost? -

- No. Maybe. - Maybe if one of the gods got out of range, all of the gods decided to pull out together? - I came here to look for answers. We felt it when a god descended, and I had questions. My people wanted to know why we were forsaken. -

Ken nodded and added, - I thought I should see his journey to the end. ThatÆs why I came here with him. HeÆs spiritually bound to me, and he canÆt stay too far from me. -

- I see. Tell me more about your blood magic. -

KenÆs eyes widened in shock. - Wait. Why blood magic? - Snek was in thought and failed to protect KenÆs mind. Patreeck, at that moment, read the now - not - a - heroÆs mind. Fuck, itÆs really an evil competent military empire with an evil god at its helm. WeÆre so fucked. WeÆre dealing with the empire and this person is the emperor.

I was amused at the thought. Snek continued. - Our blood magic involved the use of souls and spirits for augmentation. The idea was the soul of many is stronger than the soul of one, and it should be possible to enhance one from many. Our origins were troubled by malpractice, forced sacrifices, and wrongful use, but over the years we focused on the key elements of good blood magic. That involved wholly willing sacrifices and clean rituals. Consent and willingness was a fundamental concept, a powerful component that can significantly change the nature of a blood magic ritual. If we failed to consent, the ritual would generate hex. -

If consent and willingness negated the harmful effects. - How do you know someone truly consented? -

- We would do test - rituals to confirm consent. A smaller ritual involving just the blood of the participants. Consent and willingness is written in our soul and our identity, and parts of it can be detected in the blood with the right ritual. -

- Fascinating. -

KenÆs mind was just full of suspicion. Oh god, is this magical tree going to sacrifice people en masse? What have I done? No. No. Play it cool. DonÆt alert the empire. Find the resistance.

Snek was entirely cooperative. - May I ask you some questions, too? -

I nodded through Lumoof. - Sure, if it is reasonable. -

45

YEAR 195

Snek wanted to know how we stood up to the demon kings. I was frank: we didnÆt. At least, not yet. It was a very depressing conversation, as Snek wanted to know what levels were needed to be able to fight toe - to - toe with the demon king.

In truth, if Edna was alone, she would survive the first day, but sheÆd be dead on the second. So level one hundred fifty was not enough. No. Even level two hundred was not enough. We would need an army of us to do so. To think that the ancient dragons were able to hold the demons back, they had to have many creatures of that tier of power.

Or were the dragons naturally so powerful?

It was a very high bar. Level two hundred? They would have to gnaw at the demons for decades before they got there and, on top of that, fight the demon king itself. Without the hero fragments, it would be very difficult to actually reach such levels.

But my two compatriots did it. Both Edna and Lumoof did. In EdnaÆs case, she served me for about fifty years when she achieved her domain . Lumoof, relatively speaking, got there faster, because of the boost from the dungeons.

Could we transplant this to their world? After decades and centuries of hiding, they were not used to fighting. All they fought were the natural spawns that emerged from the tunnels, and there were powerful monsters even deep underground.

The demon-dragons of their world were not exactly interested in total annihilation, either. They seemed to only care about great crystal spires, the largest of which served as the spawning pools of demon kings. Snek had seen at least three such spawning pools on their worlds, nursed by the energies harvested from their worldÆs core.

There was clearly a mechanism in the background where a world would transform to a demonic world under certain circumstances. Snek didnÆt know.

- Told you you should not have done shit, - Prabu said. - Now youÆve got yourself entangled with A/ himself. -

- I wasnÆt expecting the empire, - Ken defended himself.

- Which signs did you miss? The extremely powerful subordinates? The strange compliance from even the peripheral states? The magical beetle creatures that are clearly controlled by someone that can reach the entire continent? -

Ken frowned. - When you put it like that. -

Snek, on the other hand, seemed absolutely converted. It was almost embarrassing how much of a fanboy he had suddenly become. - A/ is the hope weÆve been looking for. -

Ken sighed. - I really want to send you back now. I canÆt stand all this praising A/ shit. Seriously. What do I need to do to send you back? -

- No. I need to learn more from A/ . Our world would do much better if A/ could help us. - Snek was a fanboy, and I felt secondhand embarrassment from eavesdropping.

- Where was the crafty clever snake I met? - Ken smacked his face. - I miss the snarky snake. -

- As you once succinctly described it, I had eyes, but I could not see Mount Tai. I have now seen the difference between heaven and earth, and there is much for me to do, - Snek answered.

Prabu laughed. - ThatÆs the first time IÆve seen a spirit turn into a fan - animal. Ken, youÆve outdone yourself in training your pet. -

- One must know their place in the world. There are mountains beyond mountains. -

Ken sighed. - And I regret exposing you to xianxia quotes. -

Prabu, the archmage, was literally in tears. - You absolutely deserved this, Ken. You know, you did all this to avoid the whole hero - shenanigans, and here you are, entangled in the bigger shenanigans. -

- Yeah. A snakeÆs attempt to save their own world. I donÆt see how one hero class is enough to change the scales, though. At least from what weÆve seen in this world, the demon kings clearly can take on multiple heroes. -

The snake spirit responded, - We donÆt need to. The demon king, at maturity, would be immediately sent to invade another world. The demons defenses on our world are the demon champions, the greater guardians, and the demonic spawning pools spires. -

- The spires are defenses? - Prabu was curious.

- Yes. They are. -

Ken sighed. - What have I done to deserve this? -

- Bad karma, dude. -

Stella was ready, and the crystal batteries charged up. We avoided using daemolite, even though those could store more void mana, simply because we didnÆt want to leave any trails for the demons to follow. Edna held one of my clones, the Seed of A/ , and we waited. Lumoof waited next to him.

- All right. LetÆs open a portal to the moon. -

The portal manifested, and I saw a thread of darkness that seemed to stretch ever further. We had a portal to one of the moons.

Lumoof gulped, took the seed from Edna, and looked at Stella. They nodded. Now was not the time for hesitation. He stepped close to the portal, and Stella and the other void mages felt the void mana drain from the crystals. - Portal is ready and stable. -

Lumoof stepped through, and I felt a searing pain from Lumoof, as if we were suddenly exposed to something extremely harsh.

My priest was now on the moon, and even though the atmosphere was nonexistent, and his skin burned from the harsh, unprotected light of the suns, the sight was breathtaking.

It was like how the astronauts sent back the first pictures of Earth. I activated a range of shields, and I knew that any lesser druid would have died the moment they stepped through the portal. There was no life on the moon. Nothing for a druid to work with.

There was no breathable air, but Lumoof was sustained by magic and a bubble created from my adaptive powers.

He placed my Seed of A/ on the dirt floor of the moon, and I sensed that different, extremely parched dirt. The seed buried itself into the dirt.

Should I go back? Lumoof mentally asked, and I noticed the lag wasnÆt as noticeable as the other worlds.

- Not yet. WeÆll start by exploring the moon, whether thereÆs anything to see. -

Lumoof walked, and damn the moon was huge. For most part, there really was nothing to see. It was just vast plains and mountains of dirt and rock. Here, we had an unblocked view of the stars and the suns, and it was unforgiving. My wooden shields were hammered by the rays of the burning light, and I regenerated them constantly.

- It seems we can put the contentious theories of the moons to rest, - Lumoof said as he observed the moons in the sky. - There are five moons, after all. -

We mostly only saw two moons, these two being the largest and the closest. But there had been claims of multiple, smaller moons that were further away. - I wouldnÆt be so sure. There may still be moons we have not seen, and the other three moons, are they really orbiting the planet? And are they really moons or just extremely large asteroids? -

- That difference is academic, - Lumoof stated.

There was mostly nothing to see.

And then there was.

In one of the valleys, we saw a crater. The moon was covered in craters, but this one was different. There was a big pile of silvery bones right at the center of the crater. This was a crash crater.

Bones. It wasnÆt hard to tell what it was. Four wings, claws, horns on the head. It looked quite like a type of dragon, and it was massive, the largest dragon bones IÆd ever seen, and strangely, the most well preserved as well. Strange that it did not decay under the battering of the sunÆs harsh rays.

There was not a single bit of flesh left. It was just bones exposed to the harsh sun. It shone.

- HowÆd it get here? - Lumoof was just as amazed as I was. The fact that it crashed seemed to suggest it somehow flew here? All the way from the planet? It was large. - Maybe thereÆs some scales or other such stuff thatÆs in the dirt around us. We should dig. -

I sensed my Seed of A/ still gradually settling in. It took time for the seed to sprout in these parched lands. - Agreed. But letÆs wait for the tree to settle in. These bones wonÆt go anywhere soon. -

I didnÆt want to touch them. Not yet. I mentally marked the location on a makeshift map of the moon. Lumoof kept walking.

Patreeck said then, - We should tap into the boneÆs memories when we can. - Yeah. That was right. The bones could show me a glimpse of what happened in the past. I wondered whether these dragon bones could show me something different from what IÆd seen before.

If anything, dragon bones could be used to make very powerful weapons, at least, if I followed how the stories normally went. Hopefully these would be more useful than the previous batch of dragon bones.

We went further and walked more of the moon. I had to take over at parts, as Lumoof needed to rest. The moon was covered in craters, and the moon - dirt was all loose, the texture powderish. There was no water on this moon. I would have to magically create it as part of my terraforming program.

I felt mana flow to my seed of A/ as it created its first root on the moon.

You have acquired a new title: Tree on the Moon!

Ah! Titles! IÆd forgotten such things existed. They usually did nothing.

It took months for my new clone tree to even make its first tiny sprout, as most of the mana was used to change the environment.

- We should make a cocoon rather than a full terraform of the moon, - Stella insisted. - Moon base, not change the moon. Atmospheric changes may bring about widespread weather changes and may cause things to decay. -

That was also a valid opinion. I should test out the impact of terraforming the moon on a smaller scale before applying it to the entire moon. In addition, I wasnÆt fully sure how my new terraforming powers under Tree of Life actually worked.

This part of the project would take a while, since I would have to take some time to check the impact of my new powers on an entirely foreign moon environment.

- Maybe you should do this first, on an asteroid, - Stella suggested, too. - An asteroid is far more replaceable. -

- ThatÆs a waste of my clones, - I said frankly. - ItÆs not like I canÆt recreate my clones, but it is still a waste. If the plan is to create a moon base, then letÆs do a moon base. Remember, the whole purpose of starting out with a moon base is to amplify void magic. -

Indeed, void magic as a whole was a relatively fragile type of magic. They decayed too quickly and easily got weakened by a whole lot of other factors. StellaÆs earlier attempts to interrupt the demon king from my supertall tree tower was insufficient.

The natural next step was to go even further, and thus we decided on the moon base. If we could interrupt the demon kingÆs arrival, thatÆd be a good way to win.

My spies embedded within Neira and Gaya had rather upsetting news. We still could not locate any records of attempted communication with their respective gods, and my agents even managed to comb through their ancient records.

Nothing. Not a single mention of a way to speak to the gods, other than prayers. Gods found them, not the other way around.

With, of course, tied in with what Snek wanted to know. How did we speak to the gods?

- I canÆt share that. It is a secret of the Triumvirs. - I was on friendly terms with the snake spirit, but some things should remain secret. They were also not aware of StellaÆs portal magics, and that was a good thing. StellaÆs ability to open void portals remained a secret known only to the top of my organization, just like my ability to create clones. I really wondered whether I should help Snek. I barely knew them, and though he had been honest, I wasnÆt sure I should.

- Shame. My people have many words they want to say to them. -

At PrabuÆs recommendation, Ken also got a chance to visit the journal, but sadly, it didnÆt work for him. He didnÆt have star mana, and the journal could not open for him. It was also their first time to the Valley of the Unrotten, and Snek was particularly somber.

- This reminded me too much of my world. -

Ken merely sighed. - ThatÆs quite depressing. -

Back on our home world, we discussed where to put the other three more cloned bodies. No, what exactly to do with them.

- The other two nearby worlds are a clear candidate, - Edna said during the discussion. - We can send the high - leveled Valthorns to those worlds and help fight the demon kings there. This means we can essentially gain experience from three demon kings over the same period of time. -

- ThatÆs a whole lot of fighting. - Lumoof sighed. - IÆm not sure IÆm keen to do that much of that. -

It was true, and at LumoofÆs advice, IÆd also increased the dungeon battles for the other Treeology Patriarchs and Matriarchs. A few of them had gone past level one hundred recently. The most recent battle with the demon king made it clear to me that he wasnÆt that fond of battle. With my clones on other worlds serving as - gates, - I could definitely send some of my priests and Valthorns there to gain levels.

Edna had another private opinion, one she shared only with me and Lumoof. - One tree on the Eastern Continent. For the Aivans who now require our protection. -

Another idea was to wait for the demonic rifts and hijack the rifts to send my seed to the demon worlds. In short, I would invade the demon world with my seed and use my seed as a springboard for a full - scale assault to retake the demon world. I could use my seed, together with the forest rod , to speed up the terraform and quickly establish a defensible position. IÆd most likely need Lumoof to be in that demon world for some time.

Alka, my scientist, also had a view to use the clones offensively. He proposed that the clone trees be deployed on the continents where the demons were most likely to appear next. Three clones for the next three demon kings. That way, we would be able to significantly support the battles against the next few demon kings and relieve the pressure on Lumoof.

Of course, this would mean I would also be able to establish a surveillance network on the other three continents. Something that my spymasters would love.

Nay. While that was appealing in a way, I did prefer having the two seeds go to each of the other nearby worlds. Currently, I was already able to learn a lot through my spies, my network of minions and vassals, and trade. But the knowledge of these two worlds could be radically different, and the combined magical knowhow of the three worlds was likely to be more useful.

Not only that, I wondered whether there were others like me in those worlds. An alliance of spirits across the three worlds would be fantastic.

IÆd have to send Lumoof for an information - gathering visit.

Why, it was time for my old priest to have his own isekai adventure on another world.

He gave me a look filled with horror.

46

YEAR 196

LUMOOF IN ANOTHER WORLD

Lumoof looked at the vastness of the grasslands, the strangeness of the green grass, same, but not the same. It was a different species of grass. The air had a faint taste of blood.

This was another world. Lumoof had been here before, very, very briefly, but this time, he would be here a lot longer.

- I got the Dimension Traveler skill and title, - Lumoof mentally said. This was his second alien world, after the moon, and now in this strange new place. The portal took a lot out of Stella, and almost half of the crystals shattered during the trip.

- ThereÆs a skill like that, too, eh? - I responded. The lag wasnÆt as pronounced as it was before. I suspected it had to do with the domain. The higher level I was, the lower the interdimensional lag became.

Lumoof nodded, and his shoulders sagged. He may be old in terms of spirit and mind, but physically he had the appearance of a mature, middle - aged man. The levels and domain had returned life and vitality and de - aged him. He took in the air, looked around, and started to walk. I could send the seed of A/ to him via my transportation ability, so as it was, he didnÆt need to carry anything.

He walked, and there were some animals nearby. They took a look and just left him alone.

- Stella and Kei told me these stories. Isekai. -

- Yep. -

- IÆm living it right now. -

- Yep. -

- Then the first thing I should do is find a town and register with an adventurers guild, - Lumoof said with a sly grin.

- ThatÆs par for the course. -

- And IÆll rescue some beautiful ladies and build a small zoo of female beast - girls? -

- If thatÆs your thing, yes. -

Lumoof laughed. - ItÆs not. But I must really admire the creativity of the writers of Earth. ItÆs really something that they could come up with such ridiculous stories. ItÆs also uncannily accurate. But let us find this city of adventurers. -

I knew from Stella that each world seemed to have the same language. Lumoof didnÆt have to walk very far from the grassy fields when he saw a sign that pointed to a town. There was also a distance indicator, but we were not very sure what it was.

There were trees and smaller scrubs; they were similar to those of our world but had small differences, like their flowers were different colors or different designs. - I donÆt quite understand why there are such differences, if the system is the one that regulates the magical spawning of monsters, animals, and life generally. There should be the same, if they were based on the same templates. Like, why does the system want each worldÆs fauna and flora to be different? -

- Variety? - Maybe each world had a unique - seed - code that the system then ran through a creature - generator. I felt such a setup was more likely, as it gave each worldÆs fauna an internal coherence.

Our senses detected a travelling group from far away. They looked like merchants, and they had guards. Four soldiers, and four merchants. We waited for them to approach.

- Hey, traveler, - Lumoof said as they approached. Lumoof was not armed; all his equipment and armor was kept in magical pocketspace. He wore a casual, long, flowing thick robe.

- What is a priest doing here? - The soldiers were alert; they lifted their weapons. One had a spear, the other two had swords, and the last one had a bow.

- I happen to be lost. - Lumoof gave his best priestly, friendly smile. - A strange manner of magic sent me here. Do you happen to know where I am, and whatÆs the nearest town? -

The soldiers were apprehensive. The merchants came out of their wagon. - I donÆt recognize that robe. Which temple are you with, priest? -

Lumoof smiled at the merchant. - Ah, very, very few do. IÆm with a tree spirit. WeÆre an obscure temple. Very few would know of us. -

The merchant stared at Lumoof, and we felt the prickling of a skill.

Domain blocked attempted inspection.

- And itÆs not nice to use a skill when I didnÆt. -

The merchantÆs face paled, and he bowed. - My apologies, Great Priest. - LumoofÆs spirit stirred a little at the title, and I felt his subtle annoyance. Clearly the failed inspection was an answer of its own. The merchant explained that we were in one of the kingdoms, and the nearest town was along the road. I didnÆt bother remembering the name since itÆd probably change in a few years.

Lumoof feigned his best polite smile and thanked the merchants. He declined the merchantÆs offer to travel with them; there was something about the opportunistic words from the merchant that irritated Lumoof. - It seems itÆs that way. -

The town we visited was small, perhaps similar in size to the early days of Freeka. About three thousand or so people lived in a wide area. The houses outside the townÆs walls were simple, and ones within were made of stone. TheyÆd clearly prepared for the houses outside to be destroyed.

- Stop, visitor. Identify yourself. -

Lumoof nodded. - Lumoof. Priest of A/ . -

- Never heard of it. - The city guard barked some orders, and another guard came by. - State your business. -

Lumoof once again flashed his best business smile and explained that he was a lost priest, flung to this place by magic.

The guard didnÆt know how to process him. - No documentation at all? No one who could vouch for you? -

- ItÆs magic. You canÆt always carry documentation with you. -

So they talked a little more as Lumoof waited in bureaucratic limbo. A senior guardsperson came, and the guards had adiscussion.

- It seems we are only seeing humans here, - Lumoof mentally spoke, and I didnÆt notice it until Lumoof mentioned. - I wonder whether there are non - humans. - The guards left, and then a bit more bureaucracy later, a man that looked like one of the political leaders came.

- Priest Lumoof, thanks for waiting. IÆll be frank, weÆve never heard of the temples of A/ . - I chuckled mentally. This was entirely our chance to play the hidden master or expert.

Lumoof flashed his best friendly smile. - ItÆs no surprise. We are a hidden temple. Most of the time. In fact, this is the first time IÆve ever left my temple. I actually just want to return to my temple, but I do need food and shelter while I find my way back. -

- I see. - The man seemed somewhat affected by LumoofÆs friendly smile. He nodded. - In that case, please wait a moment. -

- Not a problem, IÆve already waited for so long anyway. WhatÆs a little more? -

The man and the guards huddled and discussed, and in the end, the man returned with an iron plate. - This is a temporary identification for you, Priest Lumoof. Please return it when you leave. -

Lumoof smiled. - Thank you. -

The town was small and all human. Lumoof wasnÆt going to ask anything. He knew people enough that things about the lack of - others - were best breached when they started the conversation. Life seemed rather slow here, though there were a lot of blacksmiths repairing weapons.

- You need a weapon, priest? - Lumoof shook his head.

- IÆm just new here. -

The blacksmiths didnÆt pay him any attention after that. The inn was basic, and it was more like one of the residents homes that had extra rooms and certain segments converted to a makeshift eatery. Inns were fantastic places for gathering information.

Lumoof discovered a problem immediately.

- I donÆt have money. - Lumoof frowned, but he walked back to that same man who gave him his plaque. - Can I sell this so that I can have some money to spend? - He took out a small iron dagger; it was very fine but not enchanted. He had a lot more things like that in his own pocketspace.

The man seemed to stare at the dagger in amazement. - This is very good - quality stuff. The steel is quite finely made. - Lumoof wanted to roll his eyes. Of course it was. A level eighty blacksmith made it.

Lumoof faked the most sympathetic look on his face. - Indeed, itÆs a gift from a friend, but sadly IÆm in need of money, so I do need to sell it. - It was one of LumoofÆs skills, to help persuade and convince others to like him.

The man nodded. - I understand. Come with me. - The man returned to one of the larger buildings in the town and came out with a small pouch of coins. - Here, some official coins for you. -

Lumoof checked it briefly and smiled. - Thank you. -

The inn was rowdy, and the beer was bad. But Lumoof could hold his drink, and he listened to the townsfolk chatter. We picked up a few things quickly.

This world had gone to shit, in a way. There were three large alliances: the humans, the centaurs, and the sandpeople. Each was at war with the other two, but none ever attempted to fully conquer the world.

The demons came less frequently to this world, only once every fifteen years. The heroes were summoned in groups, and each of the three alliances would usually have the same number of heroes.

In a strange twist of fate, we had come full circle. I was the alien yeeted to a strange new world, and now I sent Lumoof to discover a strange new world.

- Strange, - I said, and so at night, we walked out to one open field, and through Lumoof, I activated my avatar and created my special tree type, the astreeal monitor . The astreeal monitor immediately looked up, and we saw.

There were fewer strands of light in the sky, these little trickles that linked the world to the demons. They were all fainter, a bit further away.

Lumoof looked, and he sighed. - Perhaps there is a secret here, why thereÆs less of them. Our goal here is to learn of the other worldÆs magic and make friends with potential allies. -

We removed the tree and returned to the town.

- You there. - A knight in magical armor approached us on our way back. - Identification. -

Lumoof handed the plate as commanded. He wasnÆt planning to resist. The knight stared at the plate for a while and then returned it.

The bed was uncomfortable, but it was too bad we couldnÆt go back freely, at least, not with StellaÆs ability. I could teleport him back, but then weÆd have to wait until Stella was ready to send him to another world. A waste of time.

- We should go to a capital city and see what we can learn, - Lumoof suggested, and I agreed.

It wasnÆt hard to get a wagon or a caravan to the capitol. Most traders were headed there anyway.

Back home, my seed grew well. The moon dirt was really unpleasant, but my magic over the last year helped to transform bits of it into something a bit more usable. My clone body was now the size of a small shrub, and it contrasted with the lifelessness of the moon. Its greenery stood out like a sore thumb.

ItÆd get faster as time went on. I also noticed it took longer for me to create a tree, any type of tree, in this environment.

That was strange, because I remembered it wasnÆt that long back on the demon worlds when my vines and roots snuck through the rifts.

This posited a few possibilities.

My tree creation abilities through Subsidiary Tree or Giant Attendant Tree or other similar classes had to check whether the terrain was suitable for trees. If the answer was yes, then the tree could be created almost immediately. But if not, then itÆd have to magically terraform the dirt, then only the tree was created.

The second possibility was my ability actually tapped into some magical energy in the planet. If the planet, or in this case, the moon, was devoid of mana, then creating a new tree took longer.

There were a few other possibilities, but I thought these two were most likely.

The capitol of this kingdom was honestly not impressive. For someone like Lumoof, whoÆd seen the best of the Central Continent, and a few others, it was actually underwhelming. In many ways, it was comparable to just a large city.

There were scars of war, still seen. Lumoof learned there was a large battle a few years ago. Even though the demon kingÆs invasion was less frequent, the demons were still described as extremely powerful beings.

- WeÆre here, priest, - the convoy leader said, and Lumoof gladly made the last payments. The city had a smell, and strangely, there were no identification checks. The guards just waved everyone through.

He headed to the adventurers guild. There was one, even here in this different world, and it was mostly humans. There were few mixed ones, but they clearly hid their mixed heritage with hoodies, hats, or other bodily coverings. Lumoof, through a skill, managed to roughly sense the strength of those in the guild itself. They were mostly low level, in their level thirties and forties. The stronger few were in the fifties and sixties.

Lumoof smiled and approached the receptionist. - IÆd like to hire an escort to the biggest city of mages on the continent. Do you know where I should go, and how do I get there? -

The receptionist thought for a moment and gave a name of a city that I didnÆt bother to remember. Lumoof sold two knives and then took another wagon to this magic city. It took a month, but it was actually impressive.

The magic city was carved out of a large crystal mountain, and Lumoof immediately sensed very strong magical energies. It was extremely raw power; it was as if a part of the core itself was on the surface. Lumoof sensed strong magical defenses, comparable with the best of theirs.

- Welcome to the Magic City of Man, - those who greeted Lumoof said. - Here, we research the heights of magic and cast spells that the Centaurs and Sandpeople could not hope to match. -

An adventurer that travelled with Lumoof immediately whispered, - . thatÆs not exactly true, but letÆs not talk about it publicly. -

More importantly, Lumoof sensed a presence that was within the crystal mountain itself. Was it a spirit? But he didnÆt sense the presence of a domain. Or were our senses mistaken? Here, in the magic city of man, we learned more of the three great forces.

As it turned out, the Sandpeople had a great pyramid of Rock that survived the assault of countless demon kings. It was their ancient relic, apparently inherited and created by their god. It was a fortress and a bunker, and it was said the demon kings assaulted it for decades and failed.

The Centaurs possessed the Great Vanishing Country, which the great Centaurions controlled. The entire country itself could vanish, and the power to activate the great relic was passed down the Centaurions.

With such strong relics and artifacts, it was no surprise each of the three great forces managed to thrive, even with the assault of the demons.

The peoples of man worshipped Maelas, the Centaurs and the nonhumans worshipped Gayaar, and the Sandpeople and Scorpios worshipped Nair. One god for each group. We immediately wondered whether Gayaar and Gaya were the same, but it was hard to say without actually tracing the lines of heavenly power.

- Our world lacked such great artifacts. Perhaps only the great elf spirit could vanish and hide their city temporarily. But if these nations could hide an entire country, they could preserve their strength even with the demon kings, - Lumoof said.

I thought about the dwarves of Margmar and realized that may not be true. The Margmarian dwarves had great powers and powerful relics, too, but even they died in the end. The Ley Line Lens remained an unusual relic, even if I didnÆt find much use for it. No, even the dragons with their incredible might, dragons that managed to even somehow land on the moon, died.

This world just did not encounter a demon king of the right power. All of this could be lost just as easily within centuries, if not decades. Such power was no guarantee, even if it did help.

At least, Lumoof noted, the rulers were prepared. He noted multiple magical defensive towers and mages on the lookout at all times. All of them seemed quite relaxed, though. - Are you here to learn magic? - one of the cityÆs receptionists approached him and quickly asked. - Though, given your age, it might be a little too late to learn advanced stuff, but you can still learn a few tricks to impress your kids. -

Lumoof smiled. - Ah, what kind of magic can I learn? Where do I go to know more? -

The Magic City of Man, Maelga, was segregated into rings that went closer to the peak of the massive crystalline mountain. The city itself was carved out of the crystal, and most of the academies here actually grew the crystal itself. The mountain was growing, literally.

It was so damned obvious in hindsight, in fact, I shouldÆve known it was possible when I considered that it was a relatively common activity for children in the more wealthy parts of our world. Children sometimes grew crystals out of sugar or salt.

This entire city had large groups that focused on cultivation of these crystals, and parts of it were harvested. The towers were made out of a combination of magic, skill, and materials harvested from far away. We saw large caravans that hauled smaller crystals and other materials here.

- Growing magic crystals is a sacred art available only to the high mage - priests of Maelas. - Of course, that was the first thing we asked. If it was possible to grow magic crystals, which IÆd not seen anyone in my main world do, then I could totally grow different types of crystals.