TREE OF AEONS 4

No, it may even be possible to grow powerful variants of crystals.

Wait, was Aria and Aispeng essentially growing ice crystals all this while and I didnÆt notice to ask them for more details?

Lumoof looked a bit sad, and then we approached another group of assistants and administrators. The rest of the magics were mostly normal, like spellcasting, forging, and so forth. Then we saw a part of crystal manipulation and crystal forging.

I bet Alka could find really interesting ways to use this new knowledge.

- Maybe it would be better if he was here, - Lumoof noted.

- Yes, but we need to make sure that this is a safe place for someone like him. HeÆs too valuable to just leave him here where others could hurt him. - Alka was not a combatant. As a Field Scientist , he got a lot of skills that supported his research, but he remained vulnerable to combat.

Back in Freshka, Alka was always protected by an invisible army of spiders and beetles. Not only that, there were always eyes to protect him. Here, I was not comfortable with that. Maybe once he obtained his domain and gained the ability to reincarnate.

Lumoof took on the role of the mature man who came to the big city for the first time and feigned ignorance at every turn. To do so, of course, he dressed like a villager. We explored the city molded out of crystal mostly unimpeded; most of the mages just sighed when they saw us approach.

We eventually arrived at a large crystal building that resembled a massive nest. - This is the Hall of Maelas, - a guard said. - No entry unless invited. -

- We should send spies here, - Lumoof said as we rested at an inn. It was nice.

- They lack the background. TheyÆll get detected. If anything, Stella or Alka fits this place best. -

Lumoof paused. - What about Kei? This place is a mountain of living crystal. As a bio - crystalline golem she would be of huge interest to the locals. - But Lumoof realized the problem. - And of course, itÆll be a huge mark on her, as many will ask where she had been all this while. -

Later that night, we joined the innÆs bar and gathered a bit more info. It was still about eight years to the next demon king, and there were still two living heroes, one of the sandpeople and one of the humans. The human hero had apparently started a small kingdom of his own, while the sand hero just turned into a hermit.

My senses still suspected there was something deep in these mountains, even if I wasnÆt quite sure what it was. It may be possible that a spirit lived in these mountains, and it was my gut feeling that there must be.

47

YEAR 197

Another otherworldly episode of Lumoof

Lumoof spent time in the other world, making friends and establishing connections, and I redirected my attention back home.

Home. Snek shared all he knew about the demons.

Since demon kings were not outright creations but were instead - grown - in these large spawning pools, I wondered whether this meant their power level was usually determined by the world that spawned these demon kings. The coreÆs energy, or the worldÆs energy, was drained to feed the demon king.

Essentially, these demons figured out a way to channel an entire worldÆs ley lines to create demon kings.

I was amused that this actually meant that some of the earlier accusations against me that I was a demon god could therefore be true, since using ley lines to create dungeons was probably in the same category as creating demon kings from ley lines.

No, more importantly, could I do the same?

Currently, I was essentially using ley lines to create dungeons, which then translated to experience, to more powerful subordinates.

If SnekÆs understanding was correct, after all, he could still be wrong since he was just an observer of the demon kingÆs spawning pools; it should be possible for me to - grow - a demon king using the powers of a world. Essentially, I could remove the dungeon part and essentially somehow use the ley line to create stronger subordinates directly.

Of course, this was the magical equivalent of me knowing that birds can fly, and then theorizing that I should be able to fly too if I had wings, and now I just needed to go about actually creating the wings. I certainly didnÆt know the nitty - gritty details about plane designs at all.

Patreeck and my artificial minds got down to work and helped consider the issue and possible hurdles I would have to clear.

One: ley lines were currently difficult to manipulate. The demon kings must have a means of manipulating ley lines in order to create more demon kings. I believed this was true, because the forest rod was one such strange item. On this aspect, I would either have to steal the demonÆs way of manipulating ley lines or invade that demon world and see how these strange artifacts were made.

Two: demons had a way of directing energy and mana into creating life or creatures at that level of power. I thought it was probably the harder hurdle. For me, I was not able to do so, and yet I suspected my soul forge colors may essentially be the one of the components. If each color of the soul forge created a more complete soul, a full soul forge should, in theory, create a whole soul. Essentially, I could create artificial souls that possessed sentience and sapience above my existing artificial souls and for them to then function as a vessel of the power from these ley lines. Based on what Snek described, these spawning pools seemed to be large, growing things.

It may be a good idea to - invade - a demon world just to gain control over these spawning pools. These demons were also thematic, and that implied that each spawning pool had to be configured differently in order to produce demon kings with different types of powers.

I supposed in our worldÆs terms, it was the equivalent of one country without planes that witnessed another countryÆs planes, and now it tried to make those planes by collecting the pieces of the planes and piecing them together. Or maybe just capturing the factories that made the planes.

It was possible that the schematics were offsite and the factory was just an assembly plant.

In any case, it was an idea I kept at the back of my head.

It was just Ken, Snek, Stella, Edna, Kei, and Prabu in the room when I introduced Stella and Kei for the first time to both Ken and Snek. Lumoof was still in another world.

Snek paused and looked at Stella. - She has void energy swirling around her. Have you discovered the way of the zaratans? - The zaratans disappeared from SnekÆs world.

Stella smiled. - I was taught by a zaratan. -

Snek was amazed. - That means you could send me home. -

Stella shook her head. - Possible, but I believe we should first match our astral maps. -

Snek gladly shared. This snake spirit was incredibly cooperative. The mages of SnekÆs world did have a map, but their maps were derived from whatever knowledge they stole or spied from the demons. Using the - dragon - demon-world as a point of reference, we were able to roughly estimate the likely locations of SnekÆs home world.

- No. Your world is too far, beyond our astral vision, and so I sadly see no way of getting you there. -

Ken watched Snek and Stella interact, but then he asked, - Wait a minute, all this talk about going to other worlds is only relevant to Snek. I want to know is it possible to send us home? -

Stella shook her head. - Sadly, it seems Earthlings and other Earth variants exist in a different layer of space entirely. Only the gods are able to pierce that veil. for now. -

- Could star mana do so? - Prabu asked. To the archmage hero, star mana was the solution for everything. In most cases, that was usually right.

Kei then added, - Unfortunately, StellaÆs void magic is incompatible with star mana. WeÆve seen it react horribly when used together. So your trip is one - way. -

For now, I supposed. They could die and their gods reincarnate them back to where they started.

The news that Stella couldnÆt send him home was disappointing for Snek, but it was not the end. There was a moment of silence as everyone was in their own thoughts. For Stella, and me, SnekÆs own stellar maps expanded my own view of the multiverse. We knew, at least, it was located really far away, and somehow these demons were masters of these void paths.

- There will be a demon king in four years. It may be possible for you to sneak through those rifts. - If it was the correct world. Each demon king was linked to a different world.

Snek was aware of the need of mana modulation and resonance to access those rifts. - Alternatively, I could wait until the right demon king appeared. One from my world. With the right items and ritual, I could separate from Ken and he would be free to do whatever he wants. -

Ken, strangely, seemed to have an epiphany of his own. But what if Snek and this tree plot something? ItÆs better - Wait, what I am thinking? So what if they have a plot? Why should I even care? All I want to do is get out of this shit. ThatÆs why I gave up the hero class. Does it matter if I live under an autocratic god - emperor of the world, so long as I donÆt have to deal with it? No, if I want to live quietly and retire with a family, thatÆs actually good!

KenÆs sudden change of heart seemed to make him smile. - Yeah. I actually want to just live somewhere safe and quietly for the rest of my life. Maybe itÆs a good idea for us to separate. -

No one heard him say it, well, maybe except Snek.

Since no one responded to KenÆs statement, I merely continued with my proposal. - I think itÆs best to wait till the right demon king appears and figure out whatÆs the best way to send you back. We will have many demon kings to face over the next few decades anyway, and if it is on a rotational basis as you speculated, then your world will come around. -

We actually didnÆt know whether the paths to the demon worlds that faded away eventually returned. The data of past demon-king types had been insufficient to prove that there was a larger - cycle - in the background that rotated the demon kings like some constellation movement.

My gut feeling was there was more than just the eight or ten lines we saw in the sky. The gods said there were thousands or millions of demon worlds. So why were only these few worlds targeting our own?

No, what I also didnÆt understand was why not just flood a world with thousands of demon kings?

Was there some rule or perhaps a magical reason why they couldnÆt come here directly?

Stella came and shouted in one of the rooms where my Tree of Prayers was.

- A/ . A/ . You must see this. ThereÆs a world that suddenly popped into our astral line of sight, and itÆs moving quickly! We must visit it before it goes away. -

Awfully convenient, but I supposed before this, I didnÆt even know they came. We activated the monitor. It was funny that I considered this world home. Actually, I felt it was my home, and it was the same for Stella.

We saw a moving shadow, small and barely noticeable. I would not have noticed it. It may have been there for some time.

- ItÆs lucky that I saw it there. ItÆs thanks to SnekÆs starmaps that I saw something faint that moved. -

It was far, but reachable, at least from what I understood of StellaÆs limits. But it moved quickly, and based on what I could tell, it would move out of StellaÆs range within a year or two. It was very dim, and as with worlds across space, they appeared like little bubbles. It was unique that the bubble was mostly dark, with little bits of light left. The other worlds, like the one Lumoof was in, were bright. - ItÆs a moving world. -

- Yes. We should investigate it quickly. Pull Lumoof back and weÆll send him there now, - Stella insisted, - while I can still reach it. Or send Edna. -

- No. It had to be Lumoof. - Lumoof spent a lot of time in the magic city of Maelga.

- We have a small window of interacting with this world. Given its situation, it may be very different from what weÆve seen so far. -

Indeed. I could pull Lumoof back if I was uncomfortable with the risks. All I needed was my seed to be deployed to this strange world. I immediately pinged Lumoof.

- Lumoof. We have a situation back home. IÆll need to send you elsewhere. - Lumoof nodded. He hurried off to make arrangements and said his goodbyes. It took three weeks for Lumoof to create a story that he would be away for some time. Luckily, no one asked too many questions.

I pulled Lumoof back. I shared the view of the strange alien world that we saw.

- You want to send me there? -

- Yes. Stella said she will be able to send one. It has to be you, because I want to see whatÆs there. -

Lumoof nodded reluctantly. Stella immediately made preparations.

I decided to name the world with the three large factions as Threeworlds, and the stray world as the Cometworld, since its behavior was comet - like. The fact that it drifted in and out of view suggested it had a path that it travelled through space. I was fascinated and intrigued by what a world like that would be.

- But Threeworlds? The magic city? ThereÆs still so much to discover. - I could have put my clone tree somewhere just to lock my access to the world, but I decided it was better to wait. I wanted a good location, and I wanted to see whether itÆd get certain special effects if my tree was located on some extremely powerful ley line.

- We can return to Threeworlds later. - Threeworlds and that other world seemed to be somewhat tidally locked, and our home world and these two worlds seemed perpetually close by. I thought it wouldnÆt leave us for a while.

Lumoof stared. - LetÆs go, then. -

Stella quickly gathered her resources and prepared far larger quantities of crystals than ever before. The spell strained her energy, and I had to support her with my vines.

The portal opened, and my vines went through. - Quickly! - Stella shouted as she felt her void energies fading. The relatively faster movement of this cometworld through the void sea increased the cost and difficulty of the portal. It was essentially trying to throw a line at a moving speedboat.

It was land. I saw floating. islands?

Lumoof stepped through, and I felt searing pain. It was a familiar one, a sensation of being torn apart. No, it was like one was hanging by the side of a speedboat, or one of those tourist things, where the boat lowered a paraglider such that their leg was partly in the water. I felt something smash into LumoofÆs body, and I tried my best to shield him from it.

Lumoof went through.

When we arrived, there were no trees, no grass. Just dirt and dust. The air was hot and burning but filled with magic. Unpleasant, angry magic. It was as if mana itself took a personality, and it was unpleasant. The ground was unstable and rumbled constantly. Huge chunks floated in the sky, and the sky was reddish.

I felt it instantly.

This was a dying world.

We saw a light, and it streaked across the red sky and smashed into somewhere off the horizon. Minutes later, a flash of light, and a shockwave of hot wind. There were more lights in the sky.

I shielded Lumoof instantly and encased his body in an armor of wood.

- What should we even do? -

I activated my avatar form, and Lumoof turned into a massive tree. I spawned trees by the hundreds and more magical labs. If there was somewhere or something left in this world -

I activated a dome of wood; there was another shockwave from another meteor.

The red sky was filled with it. The sun was red, and it was large. My sensors tried to sense for any magic, but there were too many of these shockwaves, and they contaminated the data. It was like trying to listen for the footsteps of ants when there was a band playing right next door.

Boom. Another shockwave.

- We should return, A/ . ThereÆs most likely nothing here. -

- Wait, - I said. If Snek could survive in their world, there must be survivors. Even if all I could do for them was evacuate them offworld, that may be good enough.

As my roots spread, I felt something touch me from the deepest of my roots. It spoke to me directly.

Child of another world.

WhoÆs that? But before anything, I felt like I was entranced.

We are dying. The sun father nears its end. Our world is doomed. Save our children. They are there.

You have received a living map of the Cometworld.

The map appeared before me like -

The ground cracked, and it tore. A part of it started to float.

- We have to move. Quickly. - The map instantly marked certain red spots, which I presumed were where this voice wanted me to go. Lumoof closed his eyes and then brought out a magical scroll.

Greater Teleport

We were instantly warped, and I was suddenly on another cracking island. It looked like a city, or at least a castle. I saw people. No, they were. dogs? They had the head of a dog, and they were each a different type of dog.

They looked at me in horror. - A monster! -

- Kill -

A meteor smashed into one of the castleÆs towers and incinerated it instantly. People were fleeing, but they didnÆt know where they were going.

We saw another meteor. Lumoof instantly jumped onto one of the walls and created a wooden shield. The meteor smashed into the wooden shield and disintegrated. My first direct hit from the falling meteors, and I realized it contained star mana. Within these meteors were star mana. My shield would not have disintegrated so easily. Not to something as simple as falling rocks from space.

I turned and saw more dogpeople; they looked like mages, with their stone staff and crystals. - You. -

Back home, Stella was in no condition to send anyone back. She had collapsed after Lumoof went over. How did I.

No. The clone seed was one of the ways I could save these people. I could exploit the Tree of Clones to send someone to me.

Unlike the moon, which never had any trees, this world once had trees. I knew that from the brief avatar state and from when my roots touched the ground.

- Lumoof. Place my seed in the ground. Now. - Lumoof leaped off the walls and landed on the dirt.

- Are you sure? This world is dying. - Another meteor crashed elsewhere. This was a world experiencing a meteor - pocalypse.

- Lumoof, are you suggesting we let these people die? - I mean, I usually didnÆt care, but I supposed seeing a world dying right before my eyes was something else. This was like watching a movie where someone used a black hole in the center of a planet.

- I can always make more seeds, but let us not waste time. -

My seed was planted in the ground, and it absorbed the mana from the ground and quickly turned into a massive tree. The dog people looked in wonder. I had never used the Tree of CloneÆs transportation ability. I didnÆt expect to have to do an evacuation of an entire planet, but I supposed there was a first for everything.

Our children die.

I felt the voice again through my roots. Lumoof immediately shouted, - This world is dying! We will send you somewhere safe. Come quickly! Tell everyone! -

The dog people talked among themselves, and some walked to the tree. The first dogperson to volunteer looked like a warrior of some kind; he had armor and a spear on his back. He touched my clone tree, and a large tree - door appeared.

I sent him through and felt it drain my own mana.

When he appeared on the other side, Edna had already mustered a group on standby. The dogperson looked shocked, and the first thing he saw was the blue skies outside.

- The skies. They are still blue! - he said. I would talk to them later.

The dogpeople looked apprehensive, but Lumoof was persuasive, and more went through the door. More meteors were crashing, and more of the land cracked and splintered. Essentially, this was a planet that was in the process of crumbling. Within months, the whole planet would turn into separated chunks.

The rest of the dogpeople of this town went through; I couldnÆt tell who was what, it seemed some of them were more important than the others, but eventually almost everyone went through.

There were a few of them left who stayed behind. Not out of suspicion, but to help. The dogpeople had faced the falling stars for weeks. It started with a strange twisting of space, and the stars changed. The sun was once golden, and the skies were once blue, but it turned red, and the world started breaking apart.

Many cities had been destroyed by the falling stars since then.

There were no demons here, just nothing more than plain old stellar catastrophe.

This was no time to hold back on relics, so Lumoof used Teleport scrolls liberally and moved to the other cities. The map was real time, and the red dots marked surviving cities. Each day more of these red dots vanished.

I didnÆt know why, but I felt really sad.

Our children die.

Sadly, the inter - dimensional transportation could only be performed at my main tree of clones.

- You must go, too. We need your portals, else more will die, - I told Stella three days after we were at the Cometworld. By now, the dogpeople had briefed the rest of my Valthorns of what happened in their world.

They were still an official secret, of course, and they never left my Valley of the Unrotten. Instead, the Valthorns set up an entire refugee camp in my valley. It was nostalgic, of course.

My valley was once the refugee camp of the surviving New Freekans.

Stella, with her portal, worked with Lumoof and opened portals between the continents and cities of the Cometworld. Most of these dogpeople called themselves the Canar. Together, for weeks and months, we sent the Canari people to our world.

We didnÆt really negotiate much; it seemed the people there had acknowledged their doom, so LumoofÆs presence was perhaps that of an angel of salvation.

The sunfather collapses.

We couldnÆt save everyone. Every day I saw more red dots vanish, either because of meteors or from the sundered earth. The earth cracked more every day, and eventually, the last red dot was gone from the map. Everyone I could save was saved. Millions more had died.

Three hundred fifty thousand Canari went through those portals over the course of months and arrived at my Valley of the Unrotten. We immediately found an isolated, quiet place on the Central Continent and transported them secretly there through our network of underground tunnels.

Then I sent both Lumoof and Stella back, and in the world of the Cometworld, my tree of clones was the last living thing that remained.

Stella returned, exhausted, and rested. The next day, she vented her despair. - I couldÆve done more if we found them earlier. -

At this juncture, I thought about what would have happened if I chose Crown of Magic or Will of the World . With Crown of Magic, I should be able to create more void mana and therefore open those portals myself. Not just that, in theory, I should be able to use those spells through Lumoof. With Will of the World, IÆd probably try to move our world closer to it.

The CometworldÆs meteor shower intensified, and the world cracked. A huge chunk had separated, and the weather had turned almost unlivable.

But my tree of clones was not something so easily destroyed. My roots extended deeper into the ground. There was something I wanted to do.

I sought out the voice. I may not be able to reach the core of my world, but I should be able to reach the exposed core of this Cometworld.

48

YEAR 197 (PART 2)

The Cometworld crumbled as large chunks that blanked the red sky drifted apart. I spawned my trees quickly, and my roots spread out through the rocks and dirt and grabbed the earth. There were still meteors that rained from the red skies above, but thanks to this large chunk of rock that drifted overhead because of the loss of gravity, it functioned as a meteor - umbrella.

I wasnÆt even sure whether it was gravity or just some weird magical forces in this world. I certainly could feel it as it tried to tear my roots apart.

My trees had spread as far as I could, during the attempts to rescue as many of the Canari people, and I spawned more Giant Attendant Trees wherever I could. Still, a stray meteor that I failed to block could singlehandedly destroy my Giant Trees. These meteors contained powers that exceeded their size, and it was getting stronger.

The sunÆs redness turned even redder, and it felt larger. The heat was immense, and part of my mana was spent cooling down my entire network of trees as I attempted to reach the exposed core of the cometworld.

There were no monsters left. No one.

Just the pull of some unusual magic tearing the entire world apart. It wasnÆt godly, either. Magic didnÆt work anymore. The tearing energies here seemed to interfere with magic, which was why I sent Stella home.

I popped my trees as fast as I could, and it was a race against time before the chunk of earth I was on would be torn away.

The meteors smashed into one of the floating chunks, and it split in half. A part of it drifted back to the glowing exposed core. I didnÆt know why, but I felt drawn to it.

A large meteor slammed into the exposed core of the Cometworld, and large chunks were torn out. The parts that glowed flew up and turned into rock almost instantly, and I saw the core shrink in size.

I attempted to reach it.

Too late, child of another world.

I felt a really strong pulling force on the ground, and even as I increased the number of roots, it ripped them apart. I was trying to hold the ground together with flimsy tape during an earthquake.

The path to the core was lost, and I felt a bit weaker. No, my trees in that world felt a bit weaker.

The core was smaller, with most of the bits around it drifting apart. I saw the exposed core glow, and then it exploded into multiple fragments. A strange white fragment flew right toward me.

It was a white ore the size of a tree trunk, and it flew and dropped close to one of my other subsidiary trees. My roots immediately wrapped it and pulled it to my tree of clones. No time to analyze what it was, because I sent it back.

Once I did, the core seemed to glow again and then. crumbled. A layer in the sky shattered. It was like a protective dome that once existed over the entire planet faded away, and the entire world was blanketed by a burn. All my lesser trees were destroyed, and the ground burned briefly and then stopped.

There was nothing to burn. Nothing left.

Yet my main tree of clones survived; the reddish sun continued to batter my tree of clones with searing hot energy, but it did nothing. My tree of clones shared my resistance.

A part of me floated in space, and I watched the red sun glow and grow. It grew even larger and took up a bigger part of space.

Meteors now flew at me directly, drawn to me by some kind of magic. I felt the air was thick with a kind of mana and magic that I didnÆt quite understand. It was like star mana yet different. I couldnÆt get my magical sensors to check it; they were destroyed too quickly by the perpetual ambient rays. No, more accurately, everything disintegrated. except me.

The red sun grew over the course of the year and then, in a sudden moment. vanished.

Gone.

My tree of clones drifted alone in space, in seemingly perpetual emptiness and darkness.

- The world vanished. - Stella looked in horror back from the safety of our home. - How? -

There was nothing. absolutely nothing at all. All the stars in that world seemed to have disappeared as well.

In the emptiness, back home -

YouÆve obtained a title: Witness of a WorldÆs Death

YouÆve obtained a title: Otherworldly Rescuer

The Canari people got a title. Otherworld Refugee . Both Lumoof and Stella all got the title Otherworldly Rescuer as well. Titles seemed mostly useless to me, but the fact that the system awarded them meant there had to be some use.

Anyway, Lumoof had to break the news to the Canari directly. - Your world has died. - The Canari howled and wailed. By now, they had relocated to a secret mountainous area in the Central Continent. Perhaps one day they would be introduced to the wider world, but for now, there were too few of them. There were secret convoys that brought food to them, while they adapted to the new world.

The Canari also had to organize themselves in order to communicate with me. Edna and Lumoof were both so powerful that to them, they were pretty much living gods. Strangely, they didnÆt seem to notice me much and mostly paid attention to Lumoof. But I needed Lumoof elsewhere, now that the Cometworld was lost. I wanted Lumoof back in the Threeworlds.

I had Valthorn druids assist to build temporary housing for them, while their own builders and workers built something more to their own liking.

We had a meeting, mostly to discuss the future plans and also to better understand the past.

The meeting was held in a makeshift wooden hall in their part of the world. Their people sounded happy, but I wasnÆt sure since I couldnÆt exactly read the facial expressions of the Canari, mainly because I was entirely unfamiliar with them. In a sense, this was a problem I faced with the lizardfolks and treefolks, too.

At the very least, these Canari had tables and chairs, so this part was normal. - HowÆs everything? -

The Canari split into one large faction that largely embraced this new world and two smaller factions, one that seemed a little suspicious and wanted to go back, and a third group that strangely wanted to die. These last group seemed to say that they shouldÆve died with their world, with everyone else that died.

Stella called it - survivorÆs guilt. -

I honestly didnÆt know what to say about it. It seemed quite similar to what the heroes and those who survived great destruction experienced to some degree. All I could do now was to pop some tree of prayers and keep their stress levels manageable. I knew for a fact that the people of this world were hardy and seemed to take the frequent destruction and death in stride.

So the Canaris were somewhat different, and I wasnÆt sure why. I also attempted to introduce my priests to them, to help these groups manage their anxiety and trauma, but most of them only pushed the priests away. They didnÆt want help, even if they needed it.

There were people like that everywhere, and all we could do was ease them into their new environment. Some would always cling to their old world, just like how some reincarnated heroes still dreamed of home.

I focused on those who accepted reality.

- It happened out of nowhere, - one of the Canari folk explained to us. He was a level sixty - five Lorekeeper and spoke of their world history.

The world of the Canari had demons, and they came rarely, once in a while, with no real certainty or regularity. Even so, their description of demons seemed so relatively weak that their - champions - could defeat them. Their best warriors in the high level eighties were enough. I suspected they were the demon champions and not the demon king proper.

- ThatÆs so strange, - Stella said frankly. - Why the demon champions, but not demon kings? -

As the world moved so quickly across the void sea, was it possible that perhaps the demon kings just could not establish a stable portal? It explained that they had enough time to open a small path that champions could walk through, but not enough for the kings.

- Our world is usually at peace, and our wars are fought with each other and monsters, - the Canari loremaster said. - We donÆt know why our world suddenly behaved that way. We had wars and we had fights, but nothing seemed to have changed. -

A Canari astrologer gave a differing view. - Other than the stars vanishing from our skies. -

The gods that they worshipped were based on the sun, the land, the moon, and the darkness beyond. They didnÆt have a notion of otherworldly visitors, other than the demons themselves, which they thought were just nothing more than creations of darkness beyond.

So they didnÆt even know about Zaratans.

As we spoke to more and more Canari, all of them had no idea. They didnÆt know why. All they could do was observe the eventual destruction of their world.

Some posited wild theories that the world was angry. Or that someone offended the sun. The sun was once a different color, and the sky, too. But somehow it just died.

I thought of the white ore.

The white ore stood in my main tree, hidden inside my secret hideout . These days, there was no one in my main bodyÆs secret hideout. All of them lived outside.

Laufen lived with her grandson, Lauda, in Freshka. Lozanna usually taught at the Valthorn academy when she wasnÆt chilling with her friends.

I took a good look at it.

Shard of A Destroyed World

Well, here goes nothing. My vines inserted it into a pod, and I had a vision, and I heard its voice again.

Our sun died, for no reason other than age. We are an ancient world, and our world lived for too long. Our sun was never meant to live long, for it burns bright and burns quickly. I shielded my children for as long as I could, but death comes even for a world like me.

I saw a shortened clip of a sun growing and then fading.

The grand mechanisms of fate granted me a final hope, a portal to another world. A hope for my children, instead of the nothingness I offer. For that, thank you.

YouÆve received a skill: Canari Knowledge and Biology.

Your astral map has been updated.

The world sent me a goodbye memo. That sucked. But I was drawn to a sudden increase in my astral map. I saw, for a sudden moment, wide swaths that were revealed to me. This cometworld travelled in a long arc through the void sea, and I understood that these worlds may have moved since then.

I felt like a xianxia protagonist suddenly realizing the existence of the world beyond worlds.

Now that I saw how large the multiverse was, it truly narrowed my focus. I didnÆt think it was possible for me to save the thousands of other worlds out there, and nor did I intend to,

My goal should be this world. Home. I would protect my home, and I would stop the demons from entering my world. The greater world could be a later problem, but my first and main focus should be to save this world.

I may consider reinforcing Threeworlds and the other neighboring world as a means to properly protect this world.

The path of the Cometworld through the seas also revealed that it came in close contact with some demon worlds. There were way too many demon worlds.

There was something else in the Shard. A strange mana I didnÆt understand and that refused to interact with me. Did the Shard leave something else in there?

Ugh.

But the fact that this world could even talk to me told me something very important.

It was possible to talk to the world, and that meant it must be possible to talk to my world. If I elected Will of the World , did that mean I would merge with the thing at the center of this world?

What other kind of power did an entity like that have? From what IÆd seen, the core had some way of creating shields, since the core shielded their world from the harmful effects of their dying sun and also had the power to give skills.

I remembered that some of the elves and treefolks worshipped variants of the - nameless mother, - and these were likely references to the world itself.

Did every world have a will at the center of it all?

Lilies. Do you know of the will of the world?

It sleeps at the heart of our world.

Have you ever spoken to it?

No.

How do you know of it?

We felt it once, a long, long time ago during a period of great destruction.

Huh. What was the relationship of the gods and the will of the world? Was the Will of the World a god? What is the will?

We donÆt know.

Great. If it wasnÆt a god, then it mustÆve been a creation of the system itself. I didnÆt understand why there were gods and demons in the first place. Like, our own world didnÆt have them, but the ancient people invented them to explain the world.

But the other world called the Canari their children. Did this mean that the will of the world was responsible for the creation of the inhabitants, and thus all of those who lived here were creations of the will?

Wait. If we extend this train of thought, did this mean that the gods needed otherworldly heroes because the will of the world interfered with their meddling of the natives? Or maybe, only some would of the world interfered, so for those worlds, they needed to use externally sourced heroes.

Looking at it in another way, from what Snek described of how the demons used the energy of the core to create demon kings, this suggested that the demons ultimate goal was to capture the will of the world in order to create more demon kings.

But why? Why create more demon kings?

What was the end goal for the demons?

What was the end goal for the gods?

Some things just are, Lilies answered frankly. Like a reef that grows, it grows because it must. There is no why.

Was that a jab at Reefy?

LetÆs assume that Lilies was right. The demons invaded other worlds, took control of their world, and then just used it to invade more worlds. If so, they were essentially a virus.

Then the gods? Each god was a sentient, sapient creature with its own intellect. So each of them would have their own goals, but clearly, each god had a limited sphere of influence. If they were higher - leveled versions of me, their ability to touch multiple worlds was clearly constrained by simple, practical issues like distance, unless the system allowed certain overrides.

Stella was also thinking about it, and she posited a fascinating possibility.

The void sea was expanding, in the same way EarthÆs distance between galaxies expanded. A slow expansion of the multiverse, so worlds where the gods could reach were getting less, as each of them drifted further and further apart.

Certain worlds, where they were close enough such that they were clustered and locked together by local - magic - gravity, - remained reachable to each other, but those further apart were being ripped apart.

The expansion of the universe was an issue over millions, billions of years on Earth. But perhaps here, there was a magical equivalent at play. If so, this implied that each world would eventually be unreachable to the others. Even demons would eventually disappear.

49

YEAR 198

Lumoof was back on the Threeworlds to continue making connections and also travelled to find a good place to plant my seed. The little incident with Cometworld really made me feel the vastness of the world, that time and some space energies could tear a world apart so easily.

But what was important occurred back home.

We saw the rifts open. One of the pathways had lit up, and that meant the demons had arrived. I was sure I didnÆt see any of it on the Central Continent, so that was a good thing.

- ItÆs in the south, - Stella said as she observed the skies from the highest peaks.

My tree on the moon was growing well and was growing faster. At StellaÆs advice, I agreed to encase my tree in a sphere of roots; essentially I created the first wooden biome on the moon. I didnÆt get any accomplishment for that. Still, it wasnÆt ready for habitation yet.

I thought of converting the moon into a safe space for the Canari folk. They still struggled to adapt to their new life, though most of those struggles were mental and structural rather than physical. They had to rebuild their institutions from scratch and come to terms to live in entirely foreign lands.

It wasnÆt easy to forget oneÆs entire life in another world, and even worse when they remembered that they could never, ever go back. It was a horrible feeling.

I would deal with them later. For now, I focused on looking for the demons.

Snek and Prabu met up frequently, and Prabu could feel the demons. Snek, too. Snek was sensitive to the starways, as a creature that managed to travel into the space between worlds, and he came from a world infested by demons, so he knew what it was like.

- As it always has. - Prabu sighed. - And it will come for me. ChungÆs already making preparations for the demons. -

Colette had returned to the Central Continent to be with Prabu, and she slapped Ken the moment she saw him. She called him a - reckless piece of shit that abandoned his friends. - Ken took it like a man and admitted his faults.

- So, this Snek is an otherworldly creature that the gods may not approve of, - Colette said frankly, but somehow Snek didnÆt seem afraid. Not this time.

Prabu displayed his work over the past few months and years to Colette. Here, in the Central Continent, and also in the special Tree of the Heroic Journal, Prabu made heroic items for the next generation and for himself. Weapons of war.

Ken acknowledged it was a good idea. - The strength of a civilization is its collective memory and collective capacity. I wonder why it took so long for heroes to come up with an idea like this. -

Prabu answered, - Because it leads to nukes and mutually assured destruction. -

- You two are walking nukes. -

- And thatÆs why itÆs not a good idea. -

- Have you ever wondered whether itÆs possible to mitigate the effects of a nuclear apocalypse with some global power? Something that A/ has? - Ken wondered.

- What are you implying? - Prabu stared at Ken uncomfortably.

- I mean, like, could we just nuke SnekÆs world to death and then send A/ to fix it back after the world was effectively glassed? -

Snek glared at Ken. - Human, that is not an idea to be entertained. -

Ken continued, ignoring the snake. - Think about it. Remember how the Protoss glassed the Zerg - infested worlds to control their spread? WhatÆs stopping us from doing exactly that? Especially if we could theoretically fix it back up. -

- YouÆre killing a bunch of innocents, too? - Prabu said. - IÆm amazed that such an idea even came from you. Here you are, accusing this continent of being the literal Empire, and now you come up with this shit? What did you think this is? The Death Star? -

Snek agreed. - DonÆt burn the bridge if you think of crossing it later. -

- ItÆs just a thought experiment. In the long run, there really is no loss. Especially if we could find ways to evacuate the innocents and then bomb them to hell. ItÆs the only way to be sure. -

- ItÆs not. There are millions of demon worlds out there. You canÆt bomb all of them. -

- If not, is there a way to just. I donÆt know, break all these interworld travelling altogether? Interrupt how the demons travel here, - Ken said, and of course, he had a similar idea as us. StellaÆs goal was to interrupt the paths.

Snek paused. - YouÆre suggesting to destroy the void space rather than to close the paths. -

- Yeah. - It was the xianxia equivalent of severing the pathways to immortality. Destroying the world tree that linked the nine worlds.

- ThatÆs absolutely a nuclear option, - Prabu said.

- But it will end the problem. -

- I donÆt think it does, - Prabu said as he looked at Snek. - It just stops the many worlds from getting help, either from the gods or from each other. -

That was something worth thinking about.

We finally received reports of the demonic sighting, and it was not good. It was honestly the hardest kind of opponent for my Valthorns.

- The entire village was infested with corrupted men and women. These demons are all parasites, and they converted the humans into these demon knights! -

- What? - Edna said. - Corrupted? -

- Yeah. Some of them seemed still human, but they had demonic parts on them. They would still behave humanly but would then attack. -

Many of my Valthorns were powerful, and they had slain many demons. But corrupted men and people were a lot harder. How did they know who was still human? Not just that, it was possible they faked it.

- We did not engage. -

- Can they talk? -

- Yes! ThatÆs what makes them so unnerving. We were not sure whether they were humans or elves or demons anymore! - Our spies were really disturbed by it.

Around the same time, the Churches of Gaya and Gawa both announced an immediate lockdown of the Southern Continent. They declared that they would handle the demonic infestation on their own.

- Fuck? - That wasnÆt helping. If anything, we needed everyone on the field to figure out how to deal with these corrupted humans.

- Can you capture some of these infested demons? Knock them out? Send them to our nearest allied state. -

- Will try, Commander Edna. The men are quite disturbed by this. Some of them donÆt have any visible demonic - infestation marks. -

- Shit. - Edna nodded. This was really the worst kind of demon. We could use some psychic abilities to suppress the demons or perhaps, in the old priestly way, exorcise the demons from these infested folks.

But Lumoof was still in the Threeworlds. I had to make do with the rest. I called the rest of my Patreearchs and Matreearches for counsel.

- Yes, we have some exorcist skills, mainly to remove foul spirits and curses. We could try them out, - Matreearch Arcila advised. - We will await the test subjects. -

Our forces in the south were quite strange. Level sixty or so, but even then they were surprised by how suddenly these demons attacked. Perfectly normal - looking towns could hide a demonic infestation, and they would spawn randomly.

In actual combat, my Valthorns could easily defeat the demons. The problem was the morale took a real hit. It was really something emotional to see a demon pop out of a perfectly regular - looking commoner, and a lot of the spies were emotionally affected by it.

It made them paranoid. Every single living being could be a demon. A cow could have a demon hiding in it. A playful cat. A friendly innkeeper.

My former heroes were all stunned by it. - How? -

- ItÆs safe to say that any place where the demons appeared are likely to have been completed corrupted, even if they appear outwardly normal, - our lords reported, and the counsel was somber. It was a difficult thing.

At least, if they died, it was a clean, clear death. This group of demons took the Alien route. They manipulated the hosts.

- Is there a puppet master? - Kei asked. - Most possession stories have a puppet master at the back, someone that holds the strings. Can we use our magic to find it? -

We were still struggling to get samples.

- Also, what if itÆs like a virus? It corrupts people by touching the demonic flesh? - Kei added.

At that moment, I wondered whether my guys could be corrupted, too! The senior Valthorns frowned as she heard the briefing. Roon, Edna, and Johann all shared an uncomfortable look. They would face hard choices in the future.

- How do we know who is safe? - Matriarch Hoyia, one of the decarches, asked. - We need a group to smuggle ourselves there and see for ourselves. This corruption is not suited for spies. We should go and see. -

- I assume that you are volunteering? - a lord said, and Matriarch Hoyia nodded, albeit a little reluctantly.

I mentally pinged Edna. - Domain holders have some resistance to corruption. I think you should go and see for yourselves. -

Edna then nodded. - I will go with you. - Matriarch Hoyia looked relieved at EdnaÆs offer. If Edna couldnÆt protect her, very few could. The meeting ended soon after, and the two met up for a chat along the hallways of the Valtorn Keep.

- Thank you for offering your protection, Lady Edna, - Hoyia said. She was, like Lumoof, far older than Edna in appearance. But, in reality, she was not much older. Edna achieved her high levels and domain, so her aging had ceased. Hoyia, on the other hand, was a priest of Gawa before she switched over. Some of her skills carried over, though she did suffer a small penalty for her conversion out of her faith.

- ItÆs nothing, - Edna said. - It is a matter of national interest, and as one of the domain holders, I should see it for myself. A/ said us domain holders have increased resistance to corruption. -

- I see. - Hoyia frowned. - I hope it is corruption or possession we can remove, and not body consumption and assumption. -

- You mean body snatchers. -

- Yes. Because thatÆs the most horrible outcome. We have individuals that look like us but cannot be saved. ItÆs a real hit to morale. -

Kei and Stella were in the hallway, too. - If itÆs body snatchers, then we are truly fucked. -

Hoyia shook her head. - Not quite. Us as A/ ic Priests have access to A/ Æs familiars, and we have access to a lesser version of A/ Æs spirit vision . One of my theories is if these are body snatchers, there should be no souls left, and we should be able to pick out who the demons are. -

- Oh. - Stella nodded. - Infra - red goggles, essentially? -

Kei tapped Stella lightly. - They wonÆt get that. -

Edna and Hoyia both nodded a little. - Greetings, Lady Stella and Lady Kei. -

- My concern is, if the demons are in the process of consuming the souls, we need to decide who can be saved and who canÆt under battle conditions. - Hoyia continued her conversation, and both the former earthlings squirmed uncomfortably. - IÆd imagine being eaten inside out may not be the most pleasant sensation, and for us, weÆd have to wield the scythe of judgment on people who look very much like us. -

Edna nodded. - ItÆs a task meant for the most heartless of us. -

I thought back to KenÆs earlier idea of glassing the entire world. Would I have to order the glassing of entire villages with this?

- IÆd rather hope we not get there, so IÆd first like to gather some samples and observe these demons in action, - Hoyia said. - I would prefer if Alka goes with us. His remote labs would be very useful. -

Edna smiled and shrugged. - AlkaÆs staying put. But weÆll have an army of mages and his other assistants with us. -

There was a huge clampdown on trade and movement of people in the Southern Continent as the temples combated the demons. They began huge inquisitions, where entire villages were captured and interrogated.

The temples took different approaches, and what happened reminded Stella of our own worldÆs history with witch hunts.

Entire villages were torched. In cases where the temples employed judgment, it led to a whole lot of false accusations, especially in larger cities. Those who were strange, had different hobbies, or were of an entirely different species were outed and accused as demons.

- I sometimes forget that IÆm in a medieval fantasy world, - Stella said. - Sometimes. I thought here, in the Central Continent, I saw something that resembled an early - modern society. But then, this just really reminded me that outside of this place, itÆs all fucked. That even with magic, the nature of people is just. ugh. -

- Those who use such a thing to accuse those they donÆt like as demons should be punished, too! -

It was hard to tell who was a demon, and who was not. Partly because, well, the demon possessors bled like normal. At least, at a first glance.

So Edna, Hoyia, and a delegation of my Valthorns snuck into the Southern Continent. It was easy to do so with StellaÆs portal ability, and I also used StellaÆs portal ability to temporarily extend my trees to the south in a repeat of what I did in the Northern Islands.

EdnaÆs report came a week later.

- We located the demons. HoyiaÆs suspicion is correct. Spiritual vision is able to fully discern those that have been fully corrupted by the demons. Our problem is really with those in the process of corruption. Exorcism works to a limited degree but is more likely to cause the demons to trigger some kind of self - destructive behavior. Hoyia was injured from one interrogation incident. We may require A/ Æs dedicated interrogation chambers. The biolabs would be very useful here. We may need to request Lumoof to return. -

An assessment I agreed with, but it still annoyed me that I needed Lumoof everywhere. If I could spread my roots everywhere in this world, then I wouldnÆt have to deal with this restriction.

But oh well, what was done was done. IÆd have to improvise. Stella could only maintain the portals for a few days before she needed to rest, and she rotated with her other void mages. Her other void mages were gaining levels, but somehow they still lagged behind her.

With some coordination, Edna and the priests honed in on one village that had been confirmed to have demons, and Stella opened the portal. I placed my roots through it and then my trees. We had to work fast; I spawned my biolabs, and Edna moved swiftly to capture a few of those where we saw had - vanishing - spiritual presences.

In those where there were no more - spirits, - the entire inner organs had been converted into a demonic hatchery. There was a demonic creature that controlled the flesh, and it crawled and swam through its host.

They made these small, circular baby larva, and they attempted to infest my biolab. But my mana was too overwhelming so they were swiftly crushed. They were like little leeches or maggots.

With my trees, I also managed to observe it in action. It attached itself to a personÆs leg, and often the person did not notice it at all. Its bites had a numbing effect, such that the person did not feel pain for the first few minutes.

Demonic parasitic leeches that possessed people.

With those that had been fully converted, I was able to have a conversation.

- YouÆre a demon. -

The infested woman denied it. - No. IÆm Larri, a housewife. - The demon often left the brain untouched; instead, the demon had functionally attached itself to the brain such that the brain supplied the knowledge and the information.

- DonÆt lie to me. - My vines wrapped around its leg. - I can see you wriggling in this personÆs body. -

I wished I had PatreeckÆs offensive psychic abilities here in the south. I could use it on the demon. Hoyia came and used Exorcise . It hurt, but the demon was so firmly embedded in the body and flesh that it was pointless. The woman screamed, - KILL! ! ! ! ! ! ! - Its arms exploded and transformed into a whip. It attempted to attack Hoyia.

My wooden shield parried the strike, and my vines wrestled the demonÆs appendages.

- SheÆs no longer a half elf. - Hoyia took out a staff and then manifested a root. The root pierced through the body. The body wriggled, but the demon was not dead. We had to hit the parasite exactly.

- I see why the temples and the spies are having problems. We need to hit this thing. - My turn, my vines pierced through the ladyÆs body and my vines entered. Then I dug out, through the severed neck, a hairy worm. - This is the demon. -

It struggled and wrestled, and the female body collapsed like a puppet. Hoyia frowned. - It can move in the body? -

- Yes. And itÆs not easily visible, even in spiritual vision. -

Spirit vision told us that it was a demon or demon possessed, simply by the extinguished soul. But it did not tell us where it was located within the body. I needed something that was the magical equivalent of battlefield X - Ray and MRI.

Else, it was possible that this larva could even infect someone directly. I cut the body of the lady up, and more larva appeared. They were in small blobs. I took some for studies.

Even in their small size, they could leap and hit someone.

Edna frowned at this. - The temples are just burning entire villages to the ground. IÆm afraid I see merit in their approach. -

Me, too.

There had to be a better way than glassing a continent.

50

YEAR 198 (PART 2)

One of the junior Valthorns developed a simplified process to check on demons, especially when demons were not available. Something that apparently a few other places had independently developed.

If a demon consumed or destroyed a soul, essentially, that was just a body, but without the will in it. A personÆs skills and abilities were tied to the soul, so the theory was most of these lesser demons would not be able to copy skills. Accordingly, they may appear like a person, but if they were unable to use any of their skills, they were quite likely to be demons.

It was quite clever.

Of course, it was likely that demons were still able to copy some skills, especially the champion class. So far, we had not seen any of these champion - class parasites, and honestly, it kept me awake. What could a demon king that was entirely focused on possessing people do? Could it even possess a hero?

I thought back to Meela and Alexis and wondered.

Was their demon king a corruption king, too? Or at least a variant of it? Why else was Alexis consumed by the flames of the demon? That batch even had those talking demon-knights!

That was at least one hundredûplus years ago. Had we finally looped the cycle?

I would have to approach them and ask them for more info. I recalled Alexis didnÆt have much knowledge of the demons that possessed them.

Also, these demons were able to - read - memories of the bodies they captured. From this alone, I immediately considered Stella and Kei as very high risk. If they were captured by the demons, that would be a really, really bad outcome, especially if the demons were then able to share their memories back to where they came from.

I also wanted to know how these demons spread. They seemed to jump from person to person, and we noticed that they invaded drains, gutters, toilets, and other naturally dirty environments. We also found them in the waters, where they were, strangely, eaten by fish with little consequence.

They were able, with surprising adaptability, to infest travelling merchants and somehow remained dormant or non - hostile within them, at least until they reached a new area.

All these observations suggested each of these parasites had intelligence, one corroborated by how they responded to my abilities.

How did we fight them effectively while minimizing deaths?

Ken, Prabu, and Colette met up in Freshka, and by now, my Valthorns had shared a dossier of the demonic body snatchers with them and a rough summary of what weÆd discovered so far. I wanted the heroes to live, at least, if they could gain enough levels.

Both Prabu and Colette had accepted my familiars as part of the deal to allow them to live here, and it was advantageous for me to keep them at a high level.

- How does the trope normally go? Body snatchers eh. - Ken said. - There should be a kind of magic that should be specifically effective on them. -

Prabu shrugged. - And what would that be? -

- I donÆt know, weÆd have to run some experiments. The common ones are usually electrical shocks or some strange foods. Maybe we could get some anti - parasitic drugs? Or maybe just some strange rare chemicals, - Ken said as he tried to approach it from a trope angle.

My Valthorns were already capturing these demonic larva specimens to conduct my own tests. We wanted a widespread way to hit these demons, and we wanted to know their weaknesses. They had weaknesses for sure.

There was one very immediate sample that worked really well.

Using StellaÆs gateway, we sent three possessed individuals to Freshka, and Patreeck blasted the possessed individual with his psychic power.

It worked really well, since the person literally convulsed, and the demon actually crawled out of the possessed individualÆs mouth in an attempt to avoid the psychic blast. It was pretty much nightmare material as everyone squirmed. Well, almost. Only the knights or those who usually had the Still Heart or Calm Mind or Horror Resistance or other similar passive abilities didnÆt react to it.

Luckily, as long as the person was not dead, they did not spawn additional larva. In order to make a person into a living hatchery, theyÆd have to fully convert the person, so in such cases, it was straightforward. Kill anyone who didnÆt have a soul.

Since they were just demons that had the appearance of people.

Snek suggested that it should be possible for certain classes to fight off such parasites, usually through boosting their own spiritual power. Their world, at least, prior to the conversion to the demon lands, were filled with naturally occurring parasites and body snatchers. But this was like multi - generational adaptation to parasites, not something that was possible for the people of this world to acquire on a widespread scale.

Wait. Unless I massively distribute Skill seeds with these skills. But I would need these skills in the first place. No, IÆd need to know which skills work best against these demonic body snatchers!

Stella was extremely fascinated. - This is essentially planning to develop some kind of anti - demonic possession vaccine, and now youÆre in the concept phase of testing which skills work best? -

I had a lot of skill seeds, and with them, I could make class trees and skill trees. These were old abilities that I still used on a smaller scale, but if this worked, it would essentially create safe villages.

- How are you proposing to test the effectiveness of the skills against the demonic possessions? No one here is going to volunteer themselves, and where do you get the demons? YouÆd have to have a hatchery! -

On a high level, the idea was really rather repulsive. It meant IÆd capture one of these demon-possessed persons and keep it alive as a hatchery for demonic larvae and then test out the demonic larvae on different individuals of different skills and monitor them. Not just that, it was essentially a test that I could only perform in Freshka, since PatreeckÆs psychic/mind blast could effectively sterilize anyone infected with the demons.

Stella, of course, wondered, - Could we replicate this psychic attack on a smaller scale? -

The heroes, on the other hand, went in a different direction. A good solution, too, but not one I could apply on a large scale. It worked well only for them since they had the star mana.

Chung, the archer in the south, asked for help. In fact, the idea even came from him, since he was on the ground. - We know demons donÆt like star mana, and star mana is effective against them. Can we inject the villagers with star mana as a wave essentially? Is there a spell like that? If there is, can you make that spell into a hero - item and give it to me? I really, really hate having to kill all these guys that look like humans. I didnÆt fucking sign up for this shit. -

Prabu and Colette, the two archmages, went to work. They end up with a kind of star - mana electromagnetic wave, essentially Star Mana X - Ray guns. It tingled for us, but it killed the larva and demons effectively, and they began making large quantities of them.

They also planned on creating large versions of the weapon, something large enough to cover entire cities, so that they could - clean - the entire city and areas in a single blast.

It was possible, but they needed time. Time that meant more cities were getting infested with demon-possessed folks.

The temples of the South Continent, however, publicly rejected all offers of assistance and claimed they had it all under control.

They didnÆt.

Instead, they torched entire villages once they realized it wasnÆt helping very much. The larva was able to remain dormant within a body, so just because one passed a skill check didnÆt meant it did not carry the larva!

Entire cities became infested with demon-possessed individuals, even with the skill checks and spell checks. Chung had to essentially sleep alone out in the wilds, surrounded by multiple forcefields, because he got so paranoid with people and animals. Anyone could be possessed by demons. Anyone!

Then the kingdoms started going to war with each other and the temples. Trade and travel essentially slowed down to a halt, and cities that relied on food from trade had no choice but to go to war.

- Look, the cure is worse than the disease. - Glassing entire cities, and it was not even effective since the larva could still be in the waters.

- How is the cure worse? TheyÆve become demons! They should die. -

- We donÆt know who can still be saved. -

- WeÆre not taking that risk. -

Paranoia, suspicion, and madness turned nations to chaos. Kings, mages, and healers tried their best, but when anyone could be possessed, it was not easy to even compel anyone to work. Some cities enforced massive lockdowns, banning visitors outright.

It took three months before the heroes all moved to the south, and Prabu and Colette had finally completed the first version of their new star - mana emitters. The emitters could even kill dormant larva.

They were greeted by feral monsters, as the emission of star mana on a wide scale merely triggered the possessed to run wild. At least now they resembled demons. The heroes killed the demons.

The only problem was emitting star mana on a large scale drained huge quantities of star mana, and the heroes could not be everywhere at once. There were too many infested cities, too many infested towns. Even if they methodically cleaned city after city, the demons could still return.

They needed something to hold the fort while they pushed their emitters outward, skills that helped resisting demonic parasites and body snatchers.

Edna made an observation while in the south, covertly. We were unannounced, the temples knew we were there, but they were too busy fighting their own fires to give EdnaÆs delegation trouble.

- The demonic suppression aura weakens the larva and slows the rate at which they take over individuals. - We could plant my Giant Trees everywhere, since those suppressed the demons.

I wasnÆt particularly fixated with using my clone seeds on other worlds.

Edna shot down the idea. - No. Your clone trees should be reserved for the demon king. We shouldnÆt deploy them yet. We can handle it. WeÆll just need to deploy more Valthorns and higher - ranked priests to suppress the demons presence. -

But the aura fluctuated, especially for creatures that needed sleep, and true enough, the demons were still able to return.

We needed a better way to spot them, especially since these parasites had incredible natural camouflage and infiltration abilities.

An entire village attacked EdnaÆs delegation when she approached. The team had to kill them all, and they all needed a pep talk. Then we saw a man who seemed to be surrounded by thick, demonic energy.

A champion. He looked every bit human, well, other than the armor of demonic flesh that gave him wings.

- To think that the natives still resist. -

Hoyia saw and was bewildered. - He still has a soul inside! It didnÆt consume it. -

- Consume? Why consume when we can enslave? Is that not our role? - The demonic champion shot a beam of fire, and Edna immediately stepped in to create a shield. Fire didnÆt work. - Hmm. letÆs see. this human can do this. -

The demon charged ahead and swung its sword. - Double Cut . - The sword blurred into two and slammed into EdnaÆs shield. Yet, at that moment when they were close, the demonic flesh detached from the human and latched onto Edna.

It attempted to infiltrate EdnaÆs body, and then, just as suddenly, EdnaÆs body made a glow of light. The demonic champion was incinerated by the power of her domain and turned to cinders.

Edna frowned as she later reported back. - This is not good. Demon champions can use possessed skills. Luckily, it went for me instead of the others. - Everyone was horrified as they tried to imagine the champion possessing them.

This meant the checks done could still miss the demon champions, since the demon champions were able to go beyond physical control and even turn the possessed person to a puppet and use its skills in conjunction with its own demonic abilities.

Could a demon king, therefore, possess a hero?

- You canÆt be serious? - Prabu vented as we shared the news of the demon champions with them. - I feel like weÆve just made a few steps forward and this demon champion sent us all back to square one. -

Ken didnÆt join them as he, without his hero class and without any star mana, was pretty much a sitting duck. - I donÆt think you need to panic. The demons clearly are designed to attack heroes wherever you are. So, even if you miss them, they canÆt help themselves and will attack you. -

Snek agreed with the assessment. - Our own records agree with that. Demons canÆt help but attack heroes. ItÆs in their very nature. So itÆs almost confirmed that you did not miss any champions so far. -

- . IÆm not convinced, but all right, - Prabu said. - Anyway, can you arrange a shipment of snacks? -

- ThatÆs not critical at this time, - Kei answered.

- It is. IÆll work for five years if you can send snacks here. Help me negotiate with the Order, please? -

Ken and Kei shrugged. Ken sighed. - Prabu, you know, if you keep doing this snack thing, youÆll be relegated into the disposable joke or fodder character trope, and youÆll die. DonÆt play that part, please? -

- Fuck that trope shit. I want my snacks! -

We had a few spies infected by the demons, and we brought them back for further investigation. My familiars apparently helped to detect the demons, and because my familiars also occupied a link with the soul, they contested the demonic parasiteÆs attempts to possess my spies.

My spies received regular familiars, and the demons won two out of three times. But, even though they won, it took them longer to gain control of the spies bodies, and this gave the others time to get help or, in our case, put them into a magical coffin for further studies.

It had to be done, and we captured more and more of these demonic larvae. With sufficient samples, we sent them to Freshka for further studies in my biolab. I also created a small section in the Rottedlands, secretly, to attempt to - breed - these larvae in non - human bodies, such as hybrid demon-monsters.

It created a few rather strong monster - demons, but nothing we couldnÆt handle.

We needed a solution, as our news in the south indicated the infestation spread really, really quickly. The heroes literally could not sterilize cities faster than the demons could infest them.

Worse still, some of the templars and warriors of the Gaya and Gawa temples were infested, and against the backdrop of a full rebellion by the kingdoms, it was getting, really out of hand.

Lumoof continued his time in Threeworlds magic crystal city. He played the role of the charming, affable, and clumsy old man wonderfully, and some of the local mages were quite smitten with him.

He spent a lot of time gathering information about the world generally, but the knowledge of magical crystal growth remained elusive. Those who held the secrets gave it in bits and pieces, and never the whole picture. Perhaps that was how it was structured over the years, that all these little pieces were separated in order to prevent total theft.

- Sir Lumoof, this way. - A mage was more than happy to introduce some interesting types of magic to Lumoof. To the locals, Lumoof seemed to be a wealthy but foolish old man, and they were happy to make money off him.

It was small money for us. After all, his expedition was pretty much funded by the entire Central Continent, which was, on an overall level, more developed than this world, even if this single city was pretty unique on its own.

They demonstrated some magical formations and ice spells, all tethered to crystals. They had slightly different magical formations, and they were really good at using some of the natural properties of these magic crystals. - What do you think, Sir Lumoof? -

- ItÆs nice. IÆve never seen it. How much would it cost? -

- Ah, this formation would cost three hundred forty - four gold coins. Or we would be happy to trade for an artifact of sufficient quality. -

Lumoof nodded. - I see. - He retrieved another magical sword from the inventory, made by a level fiftyûplus magical smith. - I was told this was worth about four hundred fifty gold. If you can throw in another few more manuals. -

The mage stared with greed and nodded. - Certainly. -

Alka and a group of high - ranked mages assisting Alka would receive all these scrolls, and they would study them. They were aware of our expeditions to another world, even if they didnÆt know of the full details. Anyway, once they studied the scrolls, they would proceed to replicate the spells and formations back home, and this added to our body of knowledge on magic and formations generally.

It was a very laborious process, but it worked.

I hoped this would allow me to unlock the knowledge needed to truly comprehend the demon kingÆs core, but from what I could see, progress remained very, very far away. Even with a platoon of researchers and mages, it was a very long process. The journey to get from the iron age to the space age was long indeed.

51

YEAR 199

The war in the south intensified, and by now, it felt like everyone was fighting everyone else. Yet the two temples continued to enforce the blockade on the Southern Continent, only this time to keep the people in. The temples did not want the demons to spread to the other continents, so they called on the other continents to reinforce the blockade.

- This is ridiculous, - Edna said to us and the council. - We need to act decisively. The temples are not doing a good job, and a lot of the kingdoms have openly gone against the temples for the recent madness. This demonic parasite is going to spread, and it will spread quickly. -

Madness, as in glassing of entire cities because of the suspicions of corrupted men among them. The champions also were more crafty than normal. They were adapted to the minds of men and were able to hide.

My spies told me some were already on the other continents.

It was a matter of time.

- I donÆt get it. The heroes are clearing up cities. - One of the lords considered the facts. The heroes met a few champions, too, and they made short work of them.

- Every time a city gets cleared, refugees rush to it by the thousands, and inevitably, the demons return, - Edna explained. - They only managed to build one single large - scale star mana emitter so far, and that only cleaned up an area the size of Freshka and its immediate surrounding areas. Even that caused huge political conflicts that the heroes clearly missed. -

The heroes were rather oblivious to the politics of where they placed their - miracle cures. - Cities and kingdoms wanted it, so the city that possessed such an artifact had to protect it with their lives from the other kingdoms who wanted it.

Matriarch Hoyia, who was also on the call, said, - With every previous demon king, the worlds generally agreed to drop their arms against each other and support the heroes with the demons. Not this one. ThereÆs not even a semblance of unity against the demons, and everyone seems to think that someone else is a demon. -

I thought to myself then that this was what it would be like in a world without demon kings. Everyone was fighting each other for the slimmest of advantages and wealth. Felt like an absolute shitshow. No. It felt like Earth. It was a sad thing to think about, that, even if we stopped the demon king, the world would just revert to its natural state.

So I didnÆt.

I focused on the larva that we cultivated in our little patch of Rottedlands, and we experimented with them to a great degree. It was really easy to kill them when they were outside. We could squish them like maggots. The problem was still how did we kill them when they were already in a host without harming the host?

Anyway, as we researched, rather than actually gain the ability to create a similar larva - type parasite, I instead gained a different type of parasite.

YouÆve gained the skill: Normal Tree Parasite Creation. You may now create tree parasites of your own. These parasitic trees take the form of vines that grow on the skin and flesh of living beings. They leech on the lifeforce of their hosts.

I checked. They did nothing else.

What the fuck? All that and these parasitic trees did nothing else? It didnÆt even let me gain control like the demons?

I needed to upgrade the skill, then? Was that it?

Anyway, we conducted more experiments on the larva, with different kinds of materials and injections. It didnÆt yield much.

- Maybe weÆre not doing it correctly, - Alka suggested as he helped to run another separate batch of tests on these demonic parasites. He didnÆt ask questions where the parasites came from, of course. - We should be testing a response on live persons. -

- Why? -

- From our earlier knowledge, we know certain skills and abilities can delay and stop the demons from taking control, but this is not very useful since we canÆt give skills on a large scale. But we also know that mental attacks work very well on these demonic parasites, as they are attuned to thoughts. -

I allowed my field scientist to complete his thoughts.

- Can we drug it to death? Not to kill it, but essentially turn it useless by overwhelming it with stimulation. -

- With psychedelic sap? -

- Yes! - Alka said. - We should try it out. A dose of strong psychedelics on someone possessed by demons. -

I ran this through my council, the Earthlings, and my leaders in the south, just for their thoughts.

- Overstimulating the demonic parasite. could be worth a try, - Stella said. - If itÆs better than killing the host. -

One of the lords theorized, - ThereÆs always been a drug trade, even in the south. If this theory holds any water, those kingdoms where thereÆs higher use of these psychedelics should see lower demonic possession? -

- The south doesnÆt have that kind of data, - another lord countered. - Not everyone has a bureaucracy that tracks everything. -

I felt like that was a jab at me, or at us generally.

- We can send a batch to Matriarch Hoyia and let her test it out with our forces there. -

Edna nodded. - The idea is these things should essentially drive the demons wild? -

Matriarch Hoyia had another view. - WhatÆs our goal here? Even if the drugs work on the demons, we still canÆt get it out. Once the drugs go away, will the demons return? -

- We donÆt know, but some studies would be good, - Alka said. - These demons are really fragile things, even if they have some ability for self - repair. IÆd like to know if these drugs could at least destroy their ability to interact with the body. Our tests on the larva itself so far seem to cause it to convulse and then die, but outside of a host, these demonic parasites seem to die to everything. -

- If it doesnÆt get the demon out of the body, I really donÆt see the point. But I will conduct some studies, - Matriarch Hoyia answered.

At the same time, I wondered, could I use my dream academy or similar skills offensively on these demons?

Psychic or mental attacks worked, but I rarely saw those in this world. In fact, outside of Patreeck, I really could not remember many other instances of psychic attacks.

Then we had our first instance of near - attacks from a nearby kingdom. It was only through HoyiaÆs priestly abilities that an actual pointless conflict was avoided.

- Demons! These guys are here to spread the demons! -

Hoyia immediately used one of her priestly skills on them, one of her strongest pacification abilities.

Each patriarch and matriarch developed slightly different skills. Like Lumoof seemed more toward devotion and empowerment, Hoyia was more of the peace and calm type, so her ability at level one hundred was something called Hour of Calm , which gave the entire mob present an hour of peace and calm. Hoyia and Edna quickly used that moment of sanity to have a conversation with the generals.

Sadly, these abilities didnÆt seem to work on demons, since, well, demons couldnÆt actually be reasoned with.

As it turned out, some of the templars were infected by the demonic parasites, and they had been spreading the parasites. Accordingly, they suspected Edna and Hoyia to be the same.

Truth was, out in the fields, we were not sure, either. Hoyia and Edna both could use some level of spiritual sight due to the Court of the Deitree, but even that was not foolproof. It was possible that some of our guys had dormant demonic larva in them, and if we wanted to check this, they had to go under the biolab regularly.

Using StellaÆs portal, we did these checks every three to four days, and so far, so good. But it was possible for demons to infest my guys over those few days, especially the weaker guys.

I only had faith in Edna, due to her domain. But even then, what if a demon king tried to possess her?

My only saving grace was that, if anything happened, I could revive her with my Tree of Life. Not so for the rest of them, who were lost if they couldnÆt reach the domain stage and join my pantheon.

The kings were paranoid, and rightly so. Everyone was a suspect, and the demons were quite adept at stealth since they liked tunnels and hidden parts. These larva were pretty much parasitic pests, and they were very good at crawling through hidden places.

Across the continent, mages created various barrier spells, and these were pretty successful at keeping out the demonic larva itself, but not if these demons were already inside someone.

We needed something to force the demon larva out, so we experimented on more types of drugs.

Some of them worked really well, like my dose of psychedelic drugs seemed to trigger the demons, but their side effects were rather terrible on their hosts. We wanted something milder that still caused the demons to show themselves.

Then we stumbled on one little part of the solution.

Well, we stumbled on it over a cup of thick coffee. Edna and Hoyia traveled to a town in the south that was really big on coffee production, and through StellaÆs portal, I also extended some trees there in order to help scout out the terrain.

At first, we didnÆt notice anything.

But then Patreeck and the group of artificial minds noticed that the demonic larva was strangely absent from the coffee factories and cafes. Most of us were not trained to think about what was missing, instead of seeing what was there, so we started doing some tests.

Moderate quantities of coffee confused the demonic larvaÆs tendrils, and the confused larva tried to escape the coffee - laced environment. It would then be ejected from the body, usually through poop.

The host had to consume moderate quantities since a small amount was insufficient and the larva could still endure the mild level of coffee, so this was not picked up in our earlier observations. In fact, we didnÆt test coffee as a possible solution initially.

- So we need to mass produce coffee shots and make everyone take them. -

- But kids canÆt take it. -

- Small victories are better than none. -

This solution, sadly, only worked on humans, elves, centaurs, and dwarves. We still did not have a solution for demonic infestation for other races such as lizardmen, drakes, and treefolk, though both treefolk and lizardmen infestation so far had been rather mild.

Interestingly, there was also a race that was very resistant to the demonic parasites, almost to the point of immunity.

Minotaurs. Their bodies produced certain kinds of liquid that regularly flushed out parasites, and the pulses of energy throughout their bodies seemed to interfere with the demonÆs ability to control them.

But minotaurs were an extremely small group in the south, and they were wary of all humanoid races.

I had yet to introduce the demonic parasites to the Canari since, well, it didnÆt seem right for me to subject them to the horrors of our home world.

With the discovery of coffee as a possible solution for - cleansing - the body of parasites, we had to quickly grow large quantities of coffee. As it was, the Central Continent already had some coffee plantations, and we had some existing coffee stockpiles, but it was certainly insufficient if we were to push for a wide - scale consumption of coffee.

As we pushed the kingdoms that were affiliated or in a - hidden - alliance with us to consume more coffee, the temples seemed to have discovered our solution, and they too started widely promoting the consumption of coffee.

As a solution for the south, which had a large population of humanoids, the coffee worked for a few months, since it essentially forced the larva to make a choice: either - infest - or - leave - the body, rather than remain dormant or hidden.

The widespread consumption of coffee reduced the demonic parasites hold and brought about the end of internal wars and an odd tradition of visitors and travellers having to down a dose of coffee before entering new towns. I believed this would probably be a new tradition unique to the south, since they bore the brunt of the demonic infestation.

The temples, of course, began touting the discovery of coffee as their success, a claim that we disputed but did not strongly pursue. What was the point, anyway?

Also, the demons adapted and took a more adversarial stance. Once they possessed someone, the demons immediately infested and surfaced, rather than remaining dormant. This helped clear the confusion and fog on who were demons and who were not.

The kingdoms continued to struggle with the demon champions, since these champions were still very powerful, but it was easier when one didnÆt have to watch their back all the time.

The heroes, thus, continued to push toward the demon-infested nations. There were large swaths of the south where the demons had fully conquered the kingdoms. The risk, of course, was that there were some that have yet to be infested by the demons, but the heroes advanced with their star mana serving as a beacon.

They burned brightly, and the demons were moths drawn to the flame.

- Two more years. - The demons were slain eight years ago. At least two more years to go.

52

YEAR 200

Coffee didnÆt work that well on treefolk, drakes, and lizard - people. This was a secret, of course, but we couldnÆt keep it for long. Once news of infested drakes and treefolks went out, it only resulted in more speciesism, as trade and deals with the treefolks, drakes, and lizard - people essentially dropped to zero. They were pretty much the pariahs in the Southern Continent.

That sucked. We needed something that worked for them, and it was partly because of how their bodies processed coffee. The caffeine that overwhelmed the demons was absorbed by certain organs unique to these three races and thus spared the demons.

Strangely, even minotaurs got ostracized even though they were close to immune to the effects of these parasites.

The Gawa temple, which counted humans, elves, and dwarves as the majority of its believers, outright commanded that these other races be banned from all of its allied territories and led to large refugee camps as these races were forced out of their homes and villages.

It annoyed me very much that our solutions amplified racial issues. We tried stronger doses and so on, but it didnÆt work. We needed something with caffeine that the bodies of these races didnÆt absorb.

So back to the drawing board. I tasked a few lizard - people and treefolks to lead the research, since I sensed that some of the human and elven researchers didnÆt give the issue the same weightage as before.

That also annoyed me.

Meanwhile, the heroes attacked more of the demon-infested kingdoms. The demon champions had already taken over as the rulers of the various kingdoms, and they ran the kingdoms with their stolen skills.

It was annoying to fight them, because the demons were already strong with their own abilities, which augmented the basic strength of their hosts, and on top of that, they were blessed by the stolen king class skills or general or strategist skills. Some of these king skills gave these demons usable skills!

They could steal skills! They could even stack the skills and make the regular demons stronger than usual.

It didnÆt occur to me to think about how to exploit the demons natural abilities, until Alka, who was still busy with LumoofÆs purchased otherworldly research, offhandedly suggested, - Capture one of these demon champions. We may learn how to use its power against the demon king. -

- Huh. - That made so much sense to me.

I felt like an idiot. I always was, of course. That was why I relied on those smarter than me.

I immediately pinged Stella and Edna, Stella to open one more portal and Edna to tell me where the nearest demon nation was. I would like to find one of these demon champions, if not more.

- We donÆt know. ItÆs not as if the demons say they are demons. They just somehow know that they are demons. -

That was also a good question. How did these demon parasites identify each other as demons?

If there was a mechanism, could we copy it and alter it such that the demons identified us as demons? With such an ability, we could essentially smuggle ourselves into the demon world and explore it without fear.

Actually, taking that to the extreme, if everyone in the world was identified as demon, could we pretty much co - exist with the demons?

53

YEAR 200 (PART 2)

It wasnÆt very hard to identify the demon-infested kingdoms, since, with the recent events, they declared themselves quite publicly. The demons as a whole was not a functional kingdom, since the citizens comprised of possessed demons.

They, sadly, cleverly used the population as a meat shield. The population all had demonic larva in them that were not fully infested, such that these populations could still interact and talk like normal, though, with some mental controls. Those who struggled or resisted the demonic control were quickly fully infested or killed.

When I started offensively expanding my trees into these demonic - parasite kingdoms, I noticed a glaring weakness.

The demons could not detect my presence. They had some sense of their own, but as parasites, they mostly leeched off the senses of their hosts. And if their hosts did not notice me, they didnÆt, either.

That meant, with Stella and void mages, I could observe the demons without outside intervention!

First thing I noticed was how absolutely ordinary some of these villages were, except for a few villagers who clearly had demonic appendages throughout their bodies. No one reacted to it, even those we could still detect the presence of a soul.

Even as a - dormant - or - larva - form, the demons were clearly able to alter or change minds. There was no other reason why these people, who clearly retained some of their own cognitive abilities, accepted these demons so easily.

I therefore classified the demons into three categories, though the line between the infested stage and transformed stage was very thin.

The first was the larva possession stage. The demon was embedded within a living person, and the demon parasite controled the host via some kind of mind control. At this stage, they were able to use skills, and they could still be saved. Multiple larva could actually be inside the same body, so the larva possession stage could still infect others.

Then there was the infested stage, where the demons had killed the hostÆs soul and the body started to breed other larvae. At this stage, they were essentially demons, but with the appearance of regular people.

And lastly, there was the transformed stage, where the demonic presence could be visibly seen.

On top of these three stages, we had the demon champions, who were at the larva - possession stage but were able to either steal or mind - control and simultaneously merge it with their own demon champion abilities.

Those who were still in the larva possession stage continued to live relatively normal lives, though they focused on eating. Now that they did not have to keep up any semblance of a society, they abandoned things like paperwork and trade. The demonic parasites reorganized their society such that the larva - possessed collected food centrally.

That said, they continued to produce weapons and equipment, which these demons used.

These demons were able to use equipment, including magical equipment. Could they use hero items? As we continued to observe, we noticed the transformed demons taking charge. We kept spreading our trees and noticed even more cities infested with demons and finally found the prey we wanted.

A champion.

No. There were two of them.

We knew they were champions, because the transformed demons deferred to them, the way all these humanoid demons obeyed their commands.

Both the human king and queen had a champion in them, and if we strained our magical sensors a little, we could pick up their masked magical powers. Their strength was self - evident; it rippled outward in little motions.

- These human bodies are so fragile, - the possessed king said to the queen.

- Would you rather possess a lizard, then? -

- If it is a big one, yes. - The king laughed, strangely human. How did they speak? - Or are you referring to the Lizardfolk? -

The queen did not respond.

- No matter. Let us wait for the True King. -

We knew, with certainty, that these champions could not possess me. I saw how the champions were torched by EdnaÆs soul. I wanted to capture these demon champions, so I asked Stella and the void mages to rest for two days. I needed them at their best when I pushed my powers through their portals.

It wasnÆt hard to find them after the two days. The two champions were incredibly confident. They walked about their - kingdom - with no guards, no defenders. Not necessary, when the demons as a whole respected and obeyed their inherent hierarchy.

I initially tested the concept on the demon parasites, the lesser larva to the effects of my mana. It killed them. They were just fragile to most things when not in a host. But I had a feeling it would work on the champions.

- All right, be ready, because IÆm going to attack a demon champion, - I told Stella. I had my labs and everything on standby.

- Ready. - Stella understood my plans to study the demon champions, though she didnÆt quite agree with having a war of the parasites.

The two champions were apart. One was with some of the possessed, and the queen was with a small battalion of demonic knights. These knights were no longer human, though they looked every bit like it.

I readied my artificial minds and went for it.

Somewhere nearby, I immediately created two Giant Attendant Trees . These helped amplify my aura and power. Then, at the same time, roots shot out from the ground and immediately wrapped the two of them. They reacted quickly, but their response was to attack my roots.

The two demon champions both released a huge burst of flame that burned the entire city, taking down a huge number of other demons with it, but it failed to burn through my trees.

- Heroes? - the king yelled as it transformed, and the demonic appendages fought the hundreds of vines and roots that spawned from the ground.

It was like two masses of snakes or eels with different colors wrestling in shallow waters. They were no match for me. Not with my current levels of power.

They struggled hard, and they resisted. But I didnÆt mean to kill them.

I flooded them with my mana.

The eyes of the possessed king widened in fear. - no! -

It was time for the corruptor to be corrupted.

ItÆs time for reverse wololo.

Stella struggled, but she worked with a team of Void mages to stabilize the portals as huge amounts of mana were pumped through the portals. A few fainted, and they had to swap. But now, her school of void mages numbered in the hundreds, and this was within the same world.

My mana flooded the demon champions, and in the end, one of them decided to self - destruct rather than to submit to my influence. The body of the king splattered into mush.

The champion that inhabited the queen was not so lucky. My roots and vines penetrated the body and found the championÆs true body. A large, hairy, worm - like creature lived in the husk, and my mana flooded it.

The champion struggled, and I sensed its panicked flailing. It killed its host at that moment, but the body was still alive. Shit.

Was it going to run?

A chrysalis of wooden vines and roots emerged around the captured body, a vessel for the conversion. The demons in the surrounding area and the nation, who were not destroyed by the demonic flames, went wild, and they ran toward our location at full speed.

I spawned beetles by the hundreds and thousands and blocked them off. Horns went through and helped lead the defense of the wooden shell.

The demons rushed by the thousands, and the beetles fought off the demonic hordes from the surrounding nations for hours. My artificial minds supported the battle as I focused on capturing the demon champion.

It took hours, as my mana gradually worked its way through the demon championÆs real body.

Strangely, no demon champion came. Not even from the nearest kingdom, which hosted more demon champions. Just more regular stuff.

The demonic larva attempted to infiltrate the beetles, and some succeeded. But the beetles had extremely strong, demonic - resistant carapaces, and it was easy to tell which beetle was infected, since we would lose control of the beetle.

Horns, for example, couldnÆt be infested, simply because my artificial minds were all linked to me at a fundamental level. My domain powers maintained the link with them, and that link burned any attempted infestations.

The battle lasted for two days, and Stella was exhausted. She didnÆt sleep for two days, as my own trees and vines back home supported her.

The demon champion finally caved.

Natural Mana Overwhelming has converted a Demonic Infestor Champion.

You converted the demon into an A/ ic Infestor Champion.

The Skill Natural Mana Overwhelming has been upgraded.

The wooden chrysalis opened and revealed that same human queen but different. Her eyes were green and her voice ethereal. She retained some of her demonly features, but there were parts that were clearly wooden. Her skin now had a greenish tone instead of the original dark red of the demons.

The infestor kept the host, though the host changed as a result.

Stella was already at her breaking point; it was only my own energies that kept her awake. Since it was done, I allowed her to rest. Another group of void mages then took over and opened a portal to let the converted champion through.

The champion seemed to understand instinctively and stepped through the void portal. It was now in Freshka.

The infestor looked around, and the void mages stared. They were visibly afraid. Two of my Valthorns were there, ready for any eventuality. RoonÆs bow and arrow glowed, ready to fire.

I felt it was safe, as PatreeckÆs psychic power descended on the infestor. Nothing.

It bowed and knelt. - Greetings, A/ . I am your humble slave. -

Roon stared, still worried. - Stand, and speak. Who are you? -

- I am. I am nameless, A/ , but this vessel was once named Queen Ally Ardiasan of Erat. I was once an infestor champion from the Demon World of the Infestors, spawned from the powers of the Infestor King. - I felt my mana permeate the converted demon.

- So Ally, then. -

- If you so will, I will be Ally, - the former demon answered, and at that moment, I had more questions than ever.

- Do you remember where you came from? -

- Not much. We are created by the Infestor King, or what the people of this refer to as the demon king. The demon king created us as lesser versions in his image, with his powers to corrupt and to control. -

- What is the Infestor King? -

Ally stood, unsure how to reply. - I know little of its power, save that it has corruption and the ability to control others through its tendrils. -

- What do you know, then? -

- We are here to infest, spread our kind far and wide. We are to use the knowledge of the people against itself and prepare for the kingÆs descent and kill the Puppets. -

- The Puppets, - I repeated.

- Yes. Heroes. Puppets. Same thing, - Ally answered. Roon and Johann stared at the infestor.

- A/ , this is not a demon? -

- No. ItÆs. a converted demon. -

- ItÆs possible to convert demons? - Roon asked. IÆd forgotten most of them had not seen my attempts to convert the demons.

- Yes. Hytreerion was made from the shell of a demon walker, - I added. It was quite strange that Ally didnÆt need any of that, despite being a demonic champion. Or wait. - Ally, are you able to infest anyone or use your powers? -

Ally wanted to and then stopped.

A/ ic Infestor Champion requires a power source. You may attach a Titan Soul or an artificial soul to power it. It is currently relying on residual energies stored within its body and will need to rest near a tree to recharge. While in this low - power mode, it is unable to infest anyone.

- Oh. - Darn. The infestor champion had a memory box and thought unit but still needed a power source. Now that I robbed it of its original power source, it needed something from me. This sucked, since it meant I couldnÆt scale this operation.

But I realized this infestor champion essentially was a spyÆs greatest weapon. I could deploy Ally to other worlds and help me gather information that I could not gather myself. In a way, Ally was even better than Lumoof, since, well, Ally could seamlessly blend into the existing folk.

- Ally, do you kill your hosts? -

- Do you want me to, Master? As infestors, we have two modes, possession and infestation. Infestation kills the host. -

The only problem was I couldnÆt see what Ally was doing.

- Tell me more about how you steal powers? -

- As infestors, we attach to the soul springs of our hosts and hijack it. We are all innately able to confuse the soul spring into thinking our commands are the soulÆs commands. We exist on two levels, at a physical level and at a soul level, we can inject ourselves into the soul. This injection process, of course, drains a lot of magical power, but we also simultaneously steal power from the soul springs of our host. When we kill our hosts, we grab hold of the pieces of their soul spring and attach them to our own. But it doesnÆt always succeed, and using these powers requires mana like normal. -

- Wait. Get into the biolab. -

Ally nodded and got into the biolab as commanded.

I saw a constantly shapeshifting, bloblike creature that resembled a jellyfish. It was hollow in the middle, like it was waiting for a power unit or a soul spring to power it. There were smaller rocks that floated in between the multiple blobby tentacles of the infestor champions, and I realized these were the stolen skills.

Skills taken from the queen.

I couldnÆt see how it interacted and inserted into another soul, because, in its current state, it lacked the means to do so.

The tentacles and the blobs moved constantly, and there was no permanent form to the body. This was unlike how the others had a defined shape to the lake of their soul.

I doubted the shape was what gave it the ability to possess another, and I probably would have to insert a Titan Soul in order to fully understand what these demon champions could do. That, of course, sounded like a waste of a Titan Soul.

Well, maybe not, because from what I observed, Titans were most useful in a utility role. PatreeckÆs usefulness had exceeded Hytreerion by a lot, so to use Titans for combat roles was frankly a waste of time.

In that case, would using the Titan Soul on Ally, an infestor, be a waste? Did I have other, better uses for the Titans?

Meanwhile, the kingdom that the champions once ruled turned into a frenzy, like a zerg swarm without their cerebrates. Wild, primal, and they rushed toward us.

This was strange behavior, as each parasite was capable of some degree of thought and self - regulation. Surely, they did not require a champion to function. But it did.

While the war against the parasites continued, Lumoof was still in Threeworlds.

- Sir Lumoof, this way. - A merchant led him to a large room that displayed one of the largest, most detailed maps of the Threeworlds. Lumoof had a sense something was off, but he wasnÆt worried. No. If anything, he wanted them to bite. It was something he had planned for a while.

The three merchants gathered and started explaining the map, and Lumoof looked at it intently. This was helpful, at least, to strategize where to plant my clones . There were dungeons and magical ley lines marked, to the best of their knowledge.

It was a commission that took the past two years and a lot of our treasures. Lumoof nodded as the merchants started to furl up the map. It was made with some kind of magical cloth and with shrinking spells such that it shrunk to the size of a regular scroll.

The merchant passed it to Lumoof. - Payment, Sir Lumoof. -

Lumoof nodded and withdrew a magical sword from his pouch. The other merchants all stared, and someÆs mouths seemed to be watering.

The goods exchanged hands, and the merchants stared at the magical sword. They used some inspection abilities and some kind of merchant - valuation ability. Yet at that same moment, the doors slammed open, and about forty mages walked into the room.

Lumoof quickly held the map, and in an instant, it vanished, sent back to Freshka. The merchants looked around, and they were all clearly puzzled at the mages. They stared at each other.

- WhatÆs happening? -

WeÆd known something was up, especially when we detected a few failed Inspection type skills. Lumoof had a cloak that confused such skills, but it wasnÆt perfect. So it was a matter of time before the Maelas priests sensed something was up.

In fact, I was surprised that they took so long to even attempt to arrest us. Here was an old man walking about asking for information, learning spells and so on. The mages were armed, and one pointed his staff at Lumoof. - Lumoof, on the orders of the council of High Priests of Maelas, you are to be detained on the suspicion of espionage. -

Lumoof lifted his arms. We were ready for this, and we would go along with the capture. The mages used a kind of crystal shackle and shackled Lumoof.

But all that happened was.

. detecting attempted skill - control. Domain overriding.

The crystal shackle shone, and then, like a whimper, it crumbled. The mages stared at each other. One of the high mage - priests immediately walked over and took out another shackle.

The second shackle crumbled, too.

- ThatÆs. not supposed to happen. -

Lumoof smiled. - Anyway, gents, itÆs fine. Come, lead me. -

The mages stared at each other, unnerved at how easy Lumoof went along with the capture. No, we wanted to be captured, because it was a convenient excuse. From what we knew, the high priests questioned their suspects within the depths of the Crystal Mountain, where they kept their strange artifacts, and that was somewhere we wanted to go anyway.

The mage - priests were shocked, of course, because it now seemed like they were escorting Lumoof rather than capturing him. - DonÆt worry, I have no intention of resisting. -

Eventually, we entered a cave, high up on Crystal Mountain. Here, we took a look, and it was beautiful.

- Can I just appreciate the view for a moment? - Lumoof paused.

The mage priests looked at each other uncomfortably and then glanced toward the high priest for guidance. The high priest nodded. - No more than two minutes. -

Lumoof nodded and just looked at the view. It really was beautiful to see the entire city of Maelga with crystals everywhere. It was partûcrystal mine, partûmagic academy, and the glowing magical crystal lights paired with the faint fog and haze from the dusts only gave it an eerie, mystical aura.

- All right, letÆs go. -

Lumoof nodded, and we went into the mountains.

54

YEAR 200 (PART 3)

The depths of the crystal mountain were magical. They had a magic lift, and the crystalline walls glowed in many colors. It was beautiful, and the ambience truly seemed magical.

- This is quite beautiful, - Lumoof said to the mages, who all seemed a lot more afraid of him than the other way around. Something about the shackles crumbling seemed to remind them that Lumoof was not just any old man, even though he had kept his domain in check for the entire period he was here.

The high mage tried his best to play along. - It is. Everyone who stepped into these lifts for the first time remarked how beautiful it is. Even the heroes. -

Lumoof nodded. - Ah yes, the heroes. They came from another world, right? -

The high mage gave Lumoof a suspicious look. - You seem familiar with them. -

- I have met a few. - Lumoof nodded.

- Are you from the nation of the Sandpeople, then? -

- No. - Lumoof smiled, and the high mage just gave him a stare. But Lumoof was used to such things. The lift eventually stopped gently, like it slowed down on a very measured drift. They hardly felt it. The door opened, and they were led into a chamber made of crystals.

The entire chamber was shaped by the crystal growth, and for me, looking through Lumoof, this chamber reminded me of ice palaces and chambers carved out of ice. Only it was crystals, and it wasnÆt cold.

In fact, it was quite warm. The chamber led to smaller hallways, similarly carved out of ice. There were crystalline lights embedded into the crystal walls.

- This way. -

Lumoof nodded, and he was led to another chamber with a chair.

- Sit here. -

Lumoof complied. This seemed to be an interrogation room, but the high mage looked at the shackles and hesitated. The mages stared at each other. - Should we use the shackles? -

The high mage shook his head. - No, weÆve wasted two already. Just call the interrogators. -

The mage scurried out of the magical door. They used wooden doors, embedded with crystals. We could see that it was some kind of mixed item, part wood, part crystals. I wondered whether I could grow Crystal Trees, like how Kei was a crystal golem in the shape of a lady.

Maybe I could experiment with that dryad body I had stored all this time.

The interrogators, despite their fearsome name, were three skinny - looking humans with long crystal spears and many smaller pins and needles, all similarly made of crystal. They had different colors, and from a casual glance, I sensed that each of them was imbued with a different type of spell.

A torture set. Interesting. A far more elaborately dressed woman came immediately after, and I sensed that she was higher level than the rest, at least level eighty.

- LetÆs make this simple, Sir Lumoof, - the lady started. - I have my interrogators with me, and I want to know, who are you, who do you work for, and what do you want? YouÆve been buying magical spells and collecting various locational information for the past few years. Who are you sending it to? The sandpeople? Or the centaurs? -

Lumoof merely smiled. - Can I get your name? -

The lady shrugged and laughed. - IÆm the Fourth Archpriest of Maelas, Yaddah. - There was an air of magic around her, strong, but nothing particularly impressive. Not when she was compared to my near - domain - level mages.

- Well, since you asked so nicely, IÆm Lumoof. I serve the Temple of A/ , and I came from a faraway place. -

- WeÆve checked. ThereÆs no such thing as the Temple of A/ . -

- Oh, there is. - Lumoof smiled. - Now, if you want the juicy details with all the fruits, I would like to meet the true ruler of Maelga. I would happily explain then. -

Yaddah stared. - You wanted us to come to you. -

Lumoof smiled. - Well, itÆs hard to get the bureaucracy to pass a message, isnÆt it? What better way to get direct access to the top by making you come to me? -

- I could kill you here. -

Lumoof shrugged. - I think you know well enough that you canÆt. In fact, maybe only the true ruler of this living mountain can hope to even hurt me. -

YaddahÆs fists glowed with magic, and she punched. A wooden barrier emerged and blocked it. Vines instantly absorbed the magic in her fists, and those vines quickly wrapped around her arms, and she stared. She flinched as she felt magic drain away from her arms. - . who are you? -

- Were you listening? My name is Lumoof, and I serve the Temple of A/ . - The vines let her arms go, and Yaddah staggered backward. The interrogators stared dumbly. They were not used to their subjects being able to use their skills.

Lumoof didnÆt move and just stretched his legs.

- It really does annoy me when young ones donÆt listen to what us old folk have to say. -

Yaddah stood, but she realized the power gap.

- So, now that I am here, deep within the mountain, I want to talk to the true ruler of this mountain. Can you get me an audience? I certainly hope we can have a friendly meeting, rather than one where IÆm forced to go on a warpath. -

Yaddah dusted her robes. - I see we have invited the snake into the house. -

- Eh, IÆm not a snake. IÆm just a priest of A/ . I donÆt bite. -

Yaddah looked at her team. - Stay here. IÆll go call the Crystal Holders. -

The interrogators looked afraid. - Milady -

Lumoof immediately interjected. - There really is nothing to worry about. Can I have some tea while you sort out the details? -

Yaddah looked at the interrogators. - Well? Go get some. - She pointed a finger at Lumoof. - And you donÆt get too smug. You donÆt know who youÆre dealing with. -

My priest just stretched and yawned.

- But - The interrogators looked at Lumoof again and decided it was better to just get him some tea.

The tea was not bad, and Yaddah came back about three hours later. The interrogators kept watch, but they felt so uncomfortable around Lumoof that they decided to wait outside the door.

- The Crystal Holders will meet you now, - Yaddah said with a commanding tone. - Then youÆll know better than to offend us. -

- Oh? -

They led Lumoof through more narrow crystalline pathways and down more crystalline stairs and then another lift. A lift that went even deeper.

Then deep underground, we walked out of the lift into a massive cavern, with glistening crystals on the roof. The crystals had many colors, and around us, we saw giant crystal golems. These were massive things, and they looked like these golems could open up to be even larger.

There were a few more pathways that led to this cavern. Clearly the way we took was not the only way in.

- Feeling scared yet? - Yaddah smirked. Lumoof shrugged, and she couldnÆt believe her eyes. - . youÆre acting. -

WeÆd fought demon champions. Golems were just creatures in the same class. Then we arrived at a platform. There were eight large crystals and eight individuals seated right before them.

- Archpriest Yaddah, this is the individual that wants to meet us? -

Lumoof looked around, and here, I felt the conflicting presence of something. It was that something that hid underneath the mountains, it was here, but it darted everywhere, hopping from crystal to crystal.

These eight men were just spokespeople. The equivalent of my Valthorn councils, but not. me.

- Where are you looking, spy? - one of the individuals said. The voice was feminine, but here in the dim cavern, where the lighting came from the glow of crystals, it was hard to make out her features, unless we activated our skills. My spiritual sight identified her as human.

Lumoof looked around, and we tried to follow the presence. - Looking at the real power behind all of you. -

One of them slammed the crystal table. - We are the real powers here. -

Lumoof smiled. - All of you are just like me. The hands and legs. The executors of divine will. - He paused briefly and then said, - Minions. -

Three of them glowed, as I sensed them gather their magical power. Still, our eyes focused on that presence, and at that moment, a ninth crystal, one larger than the eight others, rose up out of the crystal floor. The ninth crystal was shaped like a throne, and a golem sat on it.

We felt that presence gathered in the golem. The golem was just a puppet of the spirit of this crystal mountain. Yet the golem looked incredibly life - like. No, at a casual glance, the golem seemed every bit human.

The eight immediately bowed. - We greet the Immortal Crystal King. -

Yaddah knelt, and she gave Lumoof a smug look. - You fucked now, old man. -

Lumoof smiled and respectfully clasped his hands together. We didnÆt kneel. - Greetings. -

The presence was similar to Lilies and Aria. Maybe just a bit stronger. The golem radiated his domain , and the aura of the crystal kingÆs domain closed in and attempted to smother us. All of them cowered in its presence.

This was nostalgic. I did the same thing to my Valthorns. The crystal king stopped and stared with its purple eyes. The eight cowering minions immediately attempted to explain. - Your majesty, this is a spy. He claims to be a priest of A/ , but weÆve checked, and it does not exist. -

- No, - the king answered, and he sounded human. This was some really good puppetry. - Who are you? -

His domain did not pierce through LumoofÆs skin. Instead, it was pushed back. Lumoof gave a nod. - Greetings, Immortal Crystal King. I am Lumoof, a priest of A/ . Finally, we have been hoping to speak to the true master of the mountain. -

- We? - The king narrowed its eyes.

Lumoof nodded, and I descended. My domain pushed against the crystal king, and everyone, including the other minions of the crystal king, cowered. - . what?! -

- Greetings, Crystal King. I am A/ , and Lumoof is my avatar. - I spoke as LumoofÆs eyes glowed green, and my presence was clear for all to see. A greenish glow of light shaped into a tree appeared around Lumoof.

The golem narrowed its eyes as our two domains met. The usually quiet and motionless air of the cavern was twisted by our energies, and it whipped it up into a small, twisting gale. Yaddah, the archpriest, and the eight Crystal Holders were all horrified.

- I have been meaning to speak to you, though it is hard to get you through all of your institutional red tape. - I bet those who wanted to talk to me felt the same way.

The crystal kingÆs face was serious. - Speak, you have my attention. -

- I come from another world, just next to yours. I come in search of allies in my bid to defeat the demons that plague my world. -

- Is that not an affair of the gods? - At this point, all nine other humans dared not speak. They were all quiet. This was not their stage.

- The gods will abandon us in a century or two, - I said.

The crystal king looked. - I do not care of the cause. What do you want exactly? -

- Knowledge and skills. Cooperation. Friendship. -

The king glared, and stated bluntly, - Denied. I have no reason to cooperate and share my knowledge with those of another world. Every creature or beast of other worlds eventually attempts to invade us. Even the summoned heroes are not much better. No. We are an insular world, and we will remain so. No trade with outworlders. Friendship with another existence from another world? Impossible. -

- And what of trade? - I asked. Inwardly I was shaken by the immediate refusal. But Lumoof kept a stoic face.

- No. I refuse, - the crystal king said firmly, and I felt my spirit sink. What was this straight - out stonewalling?

- Any guarantees I can offer? What can I do to change your mind and work together? - I certainly came in peace, but it seemed they didnÆt believe me.

- No. There is no negotiation to be had with otherworlders. I reject your presence in my lands. Leave and return to where you came from. The human - lands of this world will not receive you. -

I felt angry. Why? What was the cause of this. this. selfishness? What was the word for it.

The immortal crystal king was blunt. - I shall apply the full force of my powers should I ever see you again after today. I do not accept foreigners from another world. Leave. -

The crystal king flexed his domain, and his energies strengthened. I wondered, - Why? You accept the heroes! -

- They are part of a bargain we struck with Maelas. -

I felt there was an undercurrent of fear. - Must it be this way? -

- Yes, - the crystal king said. - Go. We are not friends. No. Friends do not exist for existences like. us. There are those stronger and those weaker. The strong take, the weak obey. -

Was that a challenge? Should I just take it, then? Darn. There seemed to be something at the back of all of this. Some history from long ago? No. Conflict should not be the first thought, especially when we had no reason to be enemies. LumoofÆs attempted capture was a small matter, really. Nothing was at risk. - LetÆs talk this through. It is not my intention to come and occupy your world. -

- You will learn, and eventually, you will occupy. That is how it is, that is how it will be, and I reject your attempts to plant a seed here. Go. Leave. I shall entertain you no further. Leave peacefully, and that is the end of it. -

- And if I donÆt? -

- Then it will be war. Our eventual outcome is war. It is the same with the others, as with the demons, and as with those before us. War is inevitable. -

If it was inevitable, why shouldnÆt I just raise war right now?

But no. I calmed myself and focused. What was my goal?

My goal was to end the cycle of heroes and demon kings, not for all worlds, but at least for my home world. War with other spirits and forces was unnecessary, unless it led to the end of the cycle. This group of people seemed to have knowledge of crystals, which I could use in the future, but did I want to go to war with them just to have this knowledge, which may or may not lead to breakthroughs?

Would a war here, with this mountain, be a worthwhile investment of resources?

I stared, and for a moment, the entire cavern shook as our domains clashed. My power radiated outward like a wave and met the opposing force of the immortal crystal king. My greenish energies lit the dark cave with my mana.

The human minions stared, with their jaws wide, and two of them fainted.

I knew for certain I was stronger overall, but even then a battle would be hard to predict, since this was their home base and this crystal king most likely have more combat abilities. The strangely human immortal crystal king squinted his eyes and took a step back.

Ugh. Fucking fucking fucking fuck. Why the fuck was this damned crystal so irritatingly. aloof? What was the word I was looking for -

Lumoof mentally responded to me, - LetÆs go, milord. There really is no need to wage this pointless war. We can have other means. Or find somewhere else. They are not the only masters of crystals. -

I sighed. - Very well. We will leave. -

The crystal king looked to its cowering minions. - Escort this otherworlder out of my mountain. DonÆt let him in ever again. Notify me if he ever dares to appear at my doorstep. -

Such arrogance, but I had no real beef with this guy. I wanted knowledge, and there really wasnÆt any need to destroy this mountain just because he refused to cooperate. In the end, my end goal was the demons and this cycle. Focus on the end goal, I told myself, using that to calm myself down. I did not have to destroy other functional civilizations to get there.

I tried to relax and reminded myself that not everyone saw things my way, and that was all right. It was normal that some people were just not cooperative.

It was normal. Perfect, perfectly normal.

I tried to convince myself, really, because I felt mad. Maybe mainly because I got rejected. It was fine. It was okay. I was a salesman, and I didnÆt have to make every single sale. Not everyone was like Lilies or Aria.

The minions stared at Yaddah, and Yaddah gulped. She had been commanded, and so she did.

She escorted Lumoof, respectfully and quietly. Not a peep.

Back home, it was a game of whack - a - mole, as demons kept popping up despite the efforts of the heroes, temples, and us to clamp down on the demonic parasites.

We were generally gaining ground as we discovered more and more ways to detect them and counter them.

The food makers and coffee brewers around the world made condensed caffeine sweets and caffeine pills. The coffee makers and sweet makers even gained unique skills: Anti - Demon Coffee and demon-Preventing Coffee Sweets .

It was really cute that those who made food actually contributed to the war effort.

I supposed this was a feature of the system, that the system did respond to changes, but it took a while for it to hit the necessary threshold to - award - a skill.

Anyway, with foods and consumables that deterred the demons from infesting, the tide was somewhat shifting, and it was slowly returning to good old conventional demon warfare.

Normalcy! How I missed it so.

At the same time, I also granted one of my Valthorns a class Lovis once had: A/ Æs Demonslayer .

I suspected that itÆd help to sense demons, and it did, but its effectiveness was linked to the personÆs level. It wasnÆt very useful on a large scale, since, like the heroes, it was tied to a particular individual and so was largely local.

But it was good for interrogation and detection of demons among areas previously cleared.

Despite our progress, we knew it meant nothing if the demon king wasnÆt killed. As the ten - year deadline slowly passed by, we waited for the demon king. I really, really wanted to know the kind of demon king we would face.

55

YEAR 201

The demon king took its time, and we waited. So I went on the offense and wanted to claim a few more demon champions for myself. Just like the Forest Rod , which I clearly wished I had more, I wanted more of these infestors.

I could find uses for them. Someday. Ally stood like a machine back in Freshka, and I quickly commanded it to sleep in one of my bio pods, safe in the valley. I didnÆt want an infestor like her walking about the city, mainly because I felt such abilities were more suited to be hidden. A spy was most effective when no one suspected a spy.

Thus, only Stella and a few others were aware of it, and I made it a point to make them know it.

- What are your weaknesses? - I asked Ally, like, I tried my luck whether it was possible to directly ask a former demon the answer.

- I donÆt know. - It wasnÆt so easy, sadly.

We watched the star - ways with great interest. One of the paths glowed bright, but it wasnÆt yet ready for the demon king. There were tell - tale signs when the demon king was about to cross, and so far, we had not seen them.

Down in the Southern Continent, we continued our great game of demon-parasite whack - a - mole, and eventually, I managed to catch two more demon champions. One was a general named Genid from a destroyed kingdom, and another was a king, King Rhoma of the Sanndea kingdom, which was no more since everyone alive was infested and incurable.

These two demon champions did not reveal anything new. They were similar creations of the infestor king and had no memories.

As our reach expanded in the south, I finally managed to catch something I was looking for.

A rift.

- What are you doing? - Stella asked as my trees approached a rift. She sensed some unusual magic fluctuations, a little more drain than usual. - Another demon champion? -

- Not exactly. While waiting for the demon king, IÆve decided to go on the offense. -

StellaÆs eyes squinted and then widened as she realized what I meant. - Wait. You need the entire team here -

My roots and vines approached the rift and slowly tested out its magical resonance. Like the previous demons, I needed to know the exact mana frequency to confuse the rift, such that it would let me through to the other side.

- Why? - Stella asked as she felt the energies passing through the void portals.

- I have nothing to lose, and I realized with my seeds that I should use them offensively. Playing defense is tiring. - I had two seeds left. From what I gathered, it did take a while for any destroyed tree to respawn as a new seed, but with both Threeworlds and the other world remaining close by, I was willing to do it.

It was my first attempt at launching an offensive attack. From what I learned from Snek, I suspected that the demons most likely did not have means of communication with other demon types, and each demonic world was largely independent, though there were some means of coordinating invasions.

I needed a solid presence in one such world if I wanted to know what exactly happened. I couldnÆt learn about the demons without seeing them in one of their controlled worlds.

The last time, I needed the forest rod. I wouldnÆt use the forest rod now. With the seed of A/ , I could use my clones as disposable scouts. My only risk was if they possessed my clone bodies, but I suspected that was impossible.

I spawned more artificial minds, just in case. I needed the backup.

- We donÆt know what our home world is like. We were created, and before we could see or sense, we were flung to this world through the rifts, sent to infest anyone who feels strong. -

I also learned that my infestors used to have some kind of ability to see strength that was inactive as they were currently unpowered. Could they infest something like me? I suspected probably not, since a soul tree like myself should be invincible in its native domain. When asked, they seemed to answer, - We donÆt know, but we are programmed to try. -

Huh. That was rather strange.

I soon found the resonance needed to get myself through the rift gates. My roots and vines went through!

Stella immediately winced as my roots went through.

The first thing I attempted to do was see.

A gate. I saw a gate. The gate was on a platform, and around the gates were those same void crystals. There were some other demonic structures around those void crystals, and this time, I was able to sense some magic flowing through it.

But immediately beyond the dry platform was water!

This demon world was not dry! If anything, it was more of a corrupted world. There were demonic trees and gigantic monsters that would not be out of place in the Rottedlands. I saw large blobs filled with hundreds or thousands of those demonic parasites being hauled by large demonic creatures. They were pushed through the rift - gate, and they appeared on the other side.

The blob didnÆt survive the transfer, but the parasites did.

I immediately extended my roots and vines into the water, and I felt the pollution and dirt. No, this was some kind of muck. IÆd have to analyze the details later.

The last time I sent my roots through the rift, some demons saw them and immediately cut us off. I wasnÆt going to let that happen to me now.

I deployed my seed of A/ , right here, right next to the rift gates.

I felt my seed sink into the water, and then little roots extended out of the water. I sensed my seedÆs root searching for dirt and earth.

Barren.

Even though there was water, the ground or dirt felt lifeless and weak. It was a little like the moon but different. The moon was just naturally empty, its surface covered with moon dust that needed to be rehabilitated gradually.

This world was drained, as if every bit of life that once was had been sucked out by the demons. I knew through my clone that the demons did this to their captured worlds and that meant SnekÆs world was on a timer.

Eventually the demons would drain the world until it had no ability to support life.

Was that how it always went?

I had to check with Lilies.

Lilies. You said the demons won before. Do you remember how long those demon-ruled periods were? When was that?

We do not recall the exact time as we were dormant, but from what we know, it was not very long. Almost one hundred years. We hid within the depths of the lake, and time was lost to us. It was then we heard the will of the world, once.

What happened? Do you remember how it stopped?

The gods summoned their chosen.

Hmm. That didnÆt quite answer the question. We didnÆt know how long SnekÆs world had. It could be hundreds more years or thousands. Or maybe it was already lost.

Either way, my seed spread roots into the lifeless soil, and rather than gathering nutrients from them, I attempted to sense magic.

These demons were not as alert as the previous ones. I suspected this was because the parasites themselves seemed to have rather strange senses when they were not in a host. In a way, they were quite blind. But eventually one of the demons that carried those blobs noticed the little roots and vines coming through, and they immediately closed the rift.

I felt a jarring sensation, similar to how a livestream would get stuck when switching from a wired connection to a wireless connection.

It came back a short while later, as my seed now supplied me with my senses. I was already on the other side, and my vines, now connected through my seed, continued to observe the demons. I decided to take advantage of my past hybrid demon-tree knowledge and changed my roots to appear somewhat demon-tree like.

I had to support my seed from the system, and I could feel the seed grow when I fed it mana. It was not getting enough mana from its ambient surroundings, just like my tree in the destroyed cometworld.

Luckily, the moon - tree had grown sufficiently that it was no longer a drain on my overall mana, even if it still depended on my mana to grow outward.

In short, even though I had clones, each clone still needed to generate its own power. If it didnÆt due to the poor environment, it would then draw down on the primary reserve, which was my own mana pool.

I would have to develop plants able to collect mana in this polluted demon world. My roots moved through the dirty waters, and we sensed the presence of metals IÆd not seen back on our home world.

As my roots spread out from the gate, I noticed that the demons were actually quite concentrated in certain areas, and there were still vast swaths where there was absolutely nothing. Just plain dirt. Lifeless dirt and polluted waters.

The waters were shallow, and that was good. ItÆd be a pain if I encountered oceans in a demon world, since that was a problem in itself that I had yet to solve.

I spawned a few discrete smaller trees in these sparse places. In doing so, I limited the number of beetles each of them could support, but no matter. I wanted to see the demon world for myself beyond what I could see from the gates.

I didnÆt encounter any resistance, and my roots found the dirt. The parasite world had a single, bright blue sun that was really small. It was probably further away than our normal sun, which meant the weather would have been cooler, if not for the thick smog that seemed to coat the air. Even with these small trees I sensed the presence of strange minerals in the air.

I wasnÆt sure whether this was native to this world or whether this was an output of the demons. I didnÆt manage to collect such data from my previous incursions to the other demon worlds.

With more and more discreetly placed trees, I was able to spawn some labs to begin analyzing the magic in this world, and the first thing that immediately stood out to me was how little magic was in the air, and there were no. ley lines.

That was weird, and it reminded me of the moon. No. Even the moon wasnÆt so empty.

Were ley lines essentially magical - blood vessels - of the core, and ley lines essentially supplied - life - to the world?

I thought of the strategy demons and their demonic rods. They were essentially using the worldÆs ability to create life to create demons. I was doing the same thing with dungeons. The world did it normally, too, through the spawning of natural dungeons.

I knew, from my own experience in Treeworld, that ley lines were rare. The moon, too, didnÆt have any noticeable ley lines, but I initially suspected this was because I had not expanded much on the moon. That was because I still detected some faint magic that moved in the depths of the moon.

But here, in this demonworld, there should be ley lines or very faint inklings of them, especially once my roots started spreading really far and wide.

What was happening?

Back home, I immediately summoned Snek for an audience.

- Tell me about the lines from your home. Are you aware of them? -

- Yes. These are the magical energies of the world? -

- Have you observed any change in the magical energies of the ley lines since the demons took over? -

Snek frowned. - IÆm afraid I donÆt have information on this. We are aware of some changes in these magical strands, but I did not look into it. -

- DidnÆt you say you were an expert on your world? -

- . I lied, oh great A/ . - The little snake spirit prostrated on the floor. - I merely have a high - level knowledge of it. To have knowledge of everything in my world is not something one snake can achieve. -

I spread my roots and trees more and more and eventually stumbled on something IÆd seen in the dreams of the heroes: pillars and spires, filled with dark red blobs. Looking at it for myself, I saw the spires were linked to large pillars and spikes, which embedded into the ground, like stakes. There were also large vats and pools right next to the pillars filled with some kind of colored muck. The blobs on the spires themselves all seemed to contain smaller, almost baby demons.

I felt a draining effect in the land itself, and thankfully, I was resistant to it. It felt like a vacuum cleaner sucking on my toes, and it didnÆt really hurt. It was just slightly irritating.

It wasnÆt the only such structure I saw.

As I spread my trees as far and wide as I could in this new demonic world, I saw many more such structures. I was looking for the thing that created the demonic champions.

I soon found other rift - gates, and as my trees spread, I realized there were at least ten of them; each of them had a whole bevy of void crystals around them. I watched the rift gates open, and the demonic parasites were sent through.

This part was not new to me. What was new was what happened after the rift gates were closed. I saw demons that replaced the crystals, and they replaced them by the hundreds and thousands.

Each rift gate was supplied, continuously, by a supply chain of these demons who did nothing but carry these void crystals.

So I followed this supply chain. It took some time, at least a month, since the supply chain was very, very long, and eventually I came upon what was the largest spawning pool IÆd ever seen. The waters were different. They were black with streaks in them, like a very thick soup.

Around the holes were massive spires that joined up at the top in the shape of a ring. From my viewpoint, it looked like a supermassive rift gate that was exactly above the hole.

My roots sensed something lurking within these lakes, and here, that sucking effect was extremely strong. But, more importantly, I felt its focus that went deep underground. I felt it draw energy from the depths.

I spread my trees around this lake and noticed some parts where demons emerged from the lake, hauling smaller void crystals.

This lake produced void crystals or were they mining them from deep underground?

I tried to dig underground, like how I dug back home, and I soon found that this hole stretched downward, and I sensed pain.

A pain that came from the world itself.

I followed the pain and kept digging. The demonÆs hole was still there! How did they manage to dig so deep? As I went deeper, as deep as I could manage, I sensed a powerful presence wrapped in a shell. I knew it was powerful, because its energy was like a constant hum, and it pressed on my roots.

The hum became a constant grinding noise as I went deeper, and I realized it was the nascent demon king. It was further down. Much, much further down.

The core of the world was the womb of the demon king.

56

YEAR 201 (PART 2)

We saw the path through the void sea lit up, and this time, I tried to see what was happening from this side of the world. I saw a massive tower emerge from the ground, right next to the huge hole that led to the worldÆs core.

The tower was pitch black, mixed with little bits of other colors, and I felt huge amounts of strange magic being pulled through that pillar. It was absorbing something. from somewhere.

The smaller spires around the massive hole glowed, as if it stored the energy that was being pulled.

I switched to my astral sight, and I saw a dark blob appear right above the demonÆs world. There was a black pillar of energy that linked to that physical tower. I felt a huge, splitting headache, and Patreeck immediately stepped in.

As I concentrated on the sky above the demonic world, I saw it.

A huge black sun of void magic. It had many other little pillars that I couldnÆt quite see, like. easily hundreds or maybe thousands. What was this? The demonÆs power source for void magic?

Or was it an actual demonic god?

That pitch - black tower seemed to pull void mana from the black sun, and I felt the air tense with void energies. It was void mana, the very same void mana that Stella used.

At the same time, my magical senses were attacked by a huge surge of power that came from the core itself. This part wasnÆt void magic, but a different kind of energy. It was also familiar, like the one I saw from within that shard of Cometworld.

It surged out and then alternatingly split to the smaller pillars around the hole. One pillar was void; another one was this core energy.

Void mana from the black tower was then transferred to the pillars, again in alternating patterns. The ring above the hole started to float into the sky and expanded.

Then I watched as the spires formed pairs. One spire that contained the core energy and another spire that contained the void mana from the black tower mixed together to form this weird mana.

The pairs glowed, and then the floating ring in the sky spaced out.

The pair of spires each shot a beam of energy to the ring in the sky, and I felt the world bend. From the center of the circle, a huge rift opened. The ground rumbled as the demon king moved out of its cradle deep in the core of the world.

It rumbled for a long time; the demon king didnÆt move very quickly. At that very moment, I saw that tower of darkness glow again, and there were three astral paths in the skies above.

One that led to Treehome, where my main body was. Another one that led to that black sun - this path was filled with a constant flow of void mana - and this third one was another black object. It resembled -

I wasnÆt sure what I was looking at. It looked like a constant moving blob. Maybe it looked like a lava lamp? I wasnÆt sure what it was.

At first, I didnÆt know they opened a path to this blob. But there had to be a purpose, so I watched. No one opened a pathway to this faraway place, bending space and dimensions for no reason. There had to be a purpose.

The ground rumbled and rumbled some more.

Then this formless blob that constantly moved separated a small, tiny droplet of pitch - black darkness, and that darkness went through the pathway. It came out of a rift right above the ring, and I saw a black and dark red crystal descend and fall into the deep pool that led to the core.

But this crystal had a familiar energy. It was a part of the demon king; I was sure of it.

The crystal descended into the pool, and the rumbling intensified. I felt the demon kingÆs body stop somewhere, and then I tracked the two energies approaching each other. The crystal and the body, fusing somewhere along that massive hole.

The pathway that led to that blob closed first, and now there were two left. One that led home and one from that black sun. The black sun continued to pump void mana through the path, and I noticed that even though I could very visibly see this astral path, it had a far more robust structure.

I needed Stella to see this. Maybe she could learn how to reverse - engineer this portal!

Just then, I felt the two separated energies of the demon king; the crystal and the demon kingÆs body from the core completed its fusion. It was noticeable and familiar as I felt the fabric of the world bend to the presence of this emerged being.

The gestation period within the cradle of the world was over, and so a demon king was born.

The ground vibrated strongly, and I felt it rupture. Massive chasms emerged as the demon king suddenly shot upward.

The ring in the sky burned, and through my astral sight, I saw the path to Treehome lit up. The demon king shot out of the boiling sludge and straight through the massive rift. The rift immediately started to shut down, but the chasms around the hole to the core continued to widen.

The pillars around the hole to the core started to collapse and break; a few even exploded from magic overload. The draining sensation I felt a while back vanished entirely.

Instead, all I sensed was pure emptiness and nothingness. Even in my deeper roots and trees in the little subterranean tunnels, there was a real sense of emptiness. Like all life had been sucked out, all value drained. This absence of magic and life seemed to cause the dirt and the demonic spires to start collapsing, the earth itself breaking apart.

That didnÆt make any sense. The pillar of void energy was still there.

Maybe what was holding this world together was. Wait. It was like Cometworld again. The core energy held the place together and.

Did that mean the core generated some kind of stability mana that allowed the rifts to travel such great distances?

Was I looking at this wrong the entire time? That void mana may be the liquid or the juice of interplanar travel, but the coreÆs energy was what allowed for stable travel?

It was something I had to test out, but we had a demon king to fight.

Back home, the path lit up, and Stella watched with great interest as the path opened, and the demon king descended on the Southern Continent.

Demon King Exikant has arrived.

This demon king wasnÆt hiding at all. The rift opened, and the sky rained with demonic larva. On the parasite world, the rifts opened and larva was dumped through them by the hundreds and thousands.

Even if coffee afforded some protection, the larvae were now able to resist the coffeeÆs influence, since these larvae were empowered by the demon kingÆs presence. But the demonic parasites also exhibited a strange behavioral weakness. They all wore their demonic presence publicly, no longer hiding it.

I wondered whether this was a conscious decision by the demon king or just something out of instinct or just driven by their new state of power. Even the simple larva now could take a punch, and their bites now had power. In their transformed stages, they were at least three times stronger than before.

Which was pretty weak, since I had all my anti - demon buffs, but it still caused them to attack.

The rain of larva happened mostly in the Southern Continent, but it also happened in the lower parts of the Central Continent.

Thankfully, together with my artificial minds, we were able to spot where the rifts opened and target those areas specifically, blocking off entire areas with large domes of wood. This meant the raining larva slammed into my wooden barriers and then was quickly picked off by my spiders and beetles. The overwhelming presence of my giant attendant trees meant my anti - demon auras also significantly weakened the larva, such that their threat levels remained low.

The Southern Continent had it rough. The star - mana emitters still worked well, but for those less - protected areas, it was honestly really bad. Families would wake up to someone in their family transformed into a demon.

It was like a zombie apocalypse, with demons!

A few of the allied nations where I had discreetly placed giant attendant trees, protected by camouflage , fared slightly better. The effects of my aura continued to suppress these parasites, which slowed their ability to spread throughout the population and protection to be raised against them.

The priests and the healers were not entirely stagnant, either, and they were able to invent an ability. The sheer existential threat of a demonic parasite seemed to strike fear in the priesthood, unlike the other demons before them, and the priests, somehow, managed to invent an internal holy fire . Strange that my own priests attempted to create something similar but didnÆt manage to achieve it.

I suspected it was the lack of fear of these demons and a lack of conviction.

Apparently, it was invented a year ago, but it just took a while for the skill to spread due to how sensitive and important it was. Essentially, it allowed priests to protect themselves and those not yet converted to a demon with a flame that protected their souls.

My spies managed to bribe a priest who possessed the skill to demonstrate the ability to us. It was not hard for me to understand, since it was essentially a derivative of a soul - ish ability. Matriarch Hoyia immediately learned it just by watching it.

For priests, they were generally able to tap into this pool of power that sat in the system. There were two types, a generic priest pool and a more specific god pool. Each priest, depending on their levels, rank, and relationship with their god or patron, withdrew from this heavenly pool into their own local pool, within their body.

What the priest did was essentially draw on the generic pool and just ignited it around the soul as a barrier. So, instead of using the heavenly powers as god mana, they pretty much burned it.

It was a waste of power and, in a way, the equivalent of burning money. But it protected their souls from the consumption of the demons. The parasites were forced to attack them and were unable to consume them. The problem was this meant the lower - level priests couldnÆt use their other abilities and did not offer any protection to the normal folk.

With this knowledge, I experimented on my familiars and was then able to create soul - protection familiars . These were able to go beyond my earlier familiars, which only gave resistance and slowed down the demonÆs infection, and using the familiars connection to the system battle it out against the demons.

A few tests indicated it was successful, and I rolled it out to the Valthorns operating in the south. It meant they would have to lose their normal familiars and the generally more useful generic abilities.

The demon king immediately raised armies to war, along with champions, but my trees had spread really far into the demon lands, and I spotted the demon king.

In any case, I called up Edna.

She knew that the demon king had arrived. She could feel it in the air; anyone with a domain could. - Yes, A/ ? -

- I found the demon kings. -

- Kings? - There were three of them, each slightly different from one another, but I saw a thick web of magic that tied the three demon kings together. They were one and the same and yet separated into three bodies. How was that possible? He saw only one that left the parasite world; did they separate once they landed?

Still, the three demon kings each resembled humanoids, but each of them had large wings. It seemed to me like poor design; I expected a parasitic demon king called the infestor king to have far stronger powers instead of typical demon knights. Or was that their trick? Take the form of humans and lull the heroes into thinking that these were just normal demon kings?

In any case, I observed their powers and was prepared to share my findings with the heroes. I liked Prabu and Colette enough that I felt they were worth saving, and the fact that Prabu could, at least, have a reasonable conversation with me was something.

These demons did not destroy the trees I planted in the area, nor did these parasites, and that was another strange thing I observed.

The earlier demons were far more destructive of their general surroundings, and I wondered, just wondered, could we co - exist with these demon kings if, say, I was able to construct a pool where these demon kings could remain sleeping?

But I didnÆt know whether keeping a demon king would stop the other demonic worlds from noticing us.

Did the demons identify our worlds by some form of scanning mechanism? Did each demon king emitted a signal to the other worlds that said to the other demon worlds that this world was occupied?

Actually, on that train of thought, could it be possible to mislead the demon worlds on this? Find a way to fake the demonÆs signals, such that they believed this was a demon-controlled world? If I could do that, I could buy time, both for recovery post - invasion and to build strength.

I didnÆt learn anything from watching the three demon kings. They didnÆt move much and seemed to be waiting. I wondered whether this was normal for demon kings.

That said, I wondered whether it was time for me to disrupt the rain of larva from the side of the demon world. If I could cut off reinforcements, I could make it a battle on two fronts against the demons.

There were still many other demon spireûspawning pools throughout their world that continued to pump out demonic larva.

I hadnÆt tried anything drastic yet, as I was also trying to find where the champions were made. My hope was to capture one such spawning pool and see whether it was possible to make my own champion from scratch. My gut feeling was that it was possible to create the body of the champion, but IÆd still need Titan Souls to fuel them. No harm trying.

Anyway, the Southern ContinentÆs war against the parasites had some good developments, again, by sheer necessity. The worldÆs citizens were more resilient and inventive than I gave them credit for, and at the same time, it also reminded me that even with the best facilities and all the money a continent could throw at a problem, sometimes it was those who truly needed such things that found ways to invent something that worked.

The heroes made more star - mana emitters, and that helped keep certain spaces safe. Add to that the soul - protection developments made by the priests, and even stronger variants of anti - demon coffee - based cooking, condiments, and sweets helped the Southern Continent nations endure the demonic wave and slowly begin their counter - attack.

The Valthorns also felt more confident to operate in the south now that they were no longer afraid of the demonic parasites. New skills and spells, such as Inner Fire , Soul Sanctuary , and Soul Guard , all invented by and stolen from the southerners in the past year, helped protect many from the demonic parasites.

So Edna finally moved to the front and joined the heroes in their push toward the demon kings. Roon and Johann joined her, too, as they were both on the verge of their domains, both with my Court of the Deitree familiar, in case of any emergency teleportation. I also deployed more Valthorns to support that final push, though most of them would sit out the battle.

I pulled Lumoof back from the Threeworlds and readied for another battle with the demon kings. Together, we made a push into the demon-occupied kingdoms.

Where the demon kings awaited.

57

YEAR 201 (PART 3)

IdidnÆt look forward to battling these demon kings again. It felt like just yesterday I sent both Lumoof and Edna to the battlefield.

- DonÆt say anything, - I said to both Roon and Johann. - No death flags. - They nodded. I was superstitious. These demon kings did not leave the general area where they arrived, which was a large capital city that had been entirely infested with transformed demons. They didnÆt speak, either, and the demon champions that served them also did not speak. It seemed they gained some kind of telepathic ability, which I vaguely sensed but could not interrupt or crack.

- All right. - I lost three senior Valthorns four decades ago, and I was not prepared to lose more. Even now that wound felt fresh in my heart.

Each demon king had a gimmick. What was this demon kingÆs gimmick? The split bodies? Or an ability to regenerate? Ken, at least, understood our intention to rehearse our game plan. It made sense to him that if there were gimmicks, then those fighting the demon kings should be familiar with the tropes.

- If itÆs split body, itÆs likely to have some kind of kill all three or the rest will regenerate type of ability, - Ken said. - This is common in games. -

Prabu nodded. - So we have a small window to deliver enough damage to all three. -

- Yes, essentially a DPS check. That means damage per second, and weÆre trying to deliver sufficient damage within a short timeframe to overwhelm the regenerative ability. - As a former game designer, I was familiar with the phrase, though both Kei and Stella never heard of it.

- All right. So whatÆs our game plan if thatÆs the case? Should we test it out? -

Ken thought to himself. - You could hold back, destroy one body first, and see what happens. If it really has that sort of function or skill, then only unleash hell on all the bodies. -

It was also likely that each body had a unique ability. Or maybe not. I wasnÆt sure how deep their scope of powers could be.

- ThereÆs four of us, - Colette said. - ThereÆs three of them, and they should be weaker with their separated bodies. We have gained levels since the last time. We should be able to bring this demon king down faster. -

- Ah yes, thatÆs a common trope, too. They might fuse and have some final form. - Ken paused and then continued. - Usually parasite - type demons can, uh. copy or replicate their enemies abilities to some extent. -

- So we should field as few combatants as possible? - Prabu asked. - Wait. Are we safe from possession? -

Ken frowned. - I think the answer is likely to be a no. Think about it, these guys were designed to kill us, and theyÆve taken up a parasite form. We are their number - one enemy. They must be tailored to possess heroes. These guys must be able to do so. -

That was a good point, and it was Snek who gave a good suggestion. - Then you heroes should find ways to store a soul - bomb. -

- What the hell is that? -

Ken looked at Lumoof. - I hear the priests are doing it already, but their skills and spells are at a far lower level. Can A/ deploy something far more powerful? -

I wasnÆt sure, but it was certainly worth trying. Snek pointed it to their type of reinforcing blood magic. - There are some aspects of blood magic that reinforces the soul. -

The heroes were chosen because of their strong souls, or more correctly, they were enhanced such that they had strong souls. I remembered looking at MeelaÆs soul a long time ago and noting how much stronger it was than the others. But would this help against the demon king?

In the case of Edna and Lumoof, their souls had changed since they gained their domain. Both of their soul springs had a building that now surrounded the spring, like a water fountain located within a temple complex. If I looked at my own, it was possible that the building that now surrounded the spring was essentially my domain. It protected my soul from outside forces. SnekÆs type of blood magic essentially collected the rocks and bricks from the dead souls and used those materials to reinforce a personÆs soul spring.

There had to be a way it could be done.

I tried to remember all the past times when I defended myself and then remembered about AlexisÆs attempted possession of my own body.

What had I done then?

Nothing, actually. My soul just protected itself.

But there had to be something that could be done such that some similar strength could be embedded into the heroes.

- I will be safe, - Lumoof said. - If the demon king ever tries to possess me, all you gotta do is take control. -

That was true. Lumoof was likely to be safe, and I knew it, because there was a very strong link in his soul realm to mine. He was my avatar, and a demon attempting to possess Lumoof competed with that.

Edna, Lumoof, and the Valthorns caught up as I mulled more ideas. Lumoof spoke of the Threeworlds, exploring the Centaurs and the land of the sandpeople. But that was a story I would catch up on at a later date. I decided to experiment on Prabu when he managed to teleport back for a short while. One of his snack - collection trips. He agreed to a dip into one of my soul forge - linked biolabs.

- IÆm going to try and give you some anti - demon king resistance. It will hurt. A lot. -

- Okay, - Prabu agreed.

- You sure? -

- Yes. -

- All right. -

I remembered that time when I tried to fix Yura Æs soul and attempted to stir the waters around PrabuÆs soul spring.

- WhatÆs happening? - he asked through our magical link.

- IÆm attempting to reinforce your soul. - Unlike the domain holders, the heroes had these large jugs that floated in their sky, pouring star mana. These added to their own mana from their soul spring, and again the size of the springs was massive. Lumoof and Edna may have the domains, but in terms of star mana, these heroes had us beat. No contest.

Maybe because Prabu was a mage, so his mana was also higher than normal.

It was possible for me to manipulate the space outside of his soul spring, and I attempted to do so.

With the experience of the priests with their soul protection, I called on my domain powers and injected it into PrabuÆs body.

It really drained me, and it was painful for him, but soon I saw a small plant emerge right outside of his soul spring. It sucked quite a bit of his mana and then stopped.

A Grafted Soul TreeÆs Presence . I immediately sensed it forming a link with the familiar IÆd previously given to Prabu.

- Huh. -

I knew that this was only possible because I was much stronger than before, and because of that strength, this chunk of myself could survive the turbulent, star - mana flooded world of a hero.

Planting something in someone elseÆs garden took far more energy than my own, at least an order of magnitude more than taking out a foreign object. This much was obvious. This was why it took a lot less energy to heal or remove something foreign.

This tree was a foreign object and was still tiny, because it was weakened by the eroding forces within the body itself instead of nourishing it.

Unless I could mislead the body into thinking it was not foreign?

Wait.

I should be able to do that, from my experience meddling with Yura Æs hand. The soul clearly could forget what belonged to it and what didnÆt. If I messed with that.

I drew more power from everywhere, and just like trying to convert Ally and the demonic infestor parasites, I tried to alter PrabuÆs soul realm to accept my presence. He was a hero, and previously, they had resistance to all sorts of powers. But with my second, focused domain, the barrier and protection of the hero was tough but not invulnerable.

I just needed more power.

His body shook. And on another continent, I could hear the other heroes wondering what took Prabu so long.

The fabric of the world bent around us as I conducted this little soul surgery, both from the power deployed and the actual warping of the heroÆs soul.

But it was successful. IÆd planted something in his soul, and now, the tree that was once tiny transformed into a thick bramble of thorns surrounding his soul spring. The energies of the star mana and his vast soul flooded that tiny tree and made it grow.

It transformed into Living Wall of the Soul Tree . It should suffice, I supposed. Prabu rested for a day and went back.

I also wanted to experiment on Ally, but at the same time, even if I gave Ally a Titan Soul, who did I test her on? I made a note to come back to Ally some other day.

The demon kings launched their attack once we got close enough. That was our plan, actually. Like with the earlier demon kings, we wanted to bait it somewhere rigged with our crystal bombs and soften up the demon kings.

The first hit using these stationary traps would also help to give us insights into how these demon kings operated and test out some of KenÆs suspicions. Perhaps he was right, as the demons did tend to conform to story norms.

We rigged an entire area with our crystal bombs and waited for the moment when the demon kings got near.

We expected it, at least. We knew that the demon king could not resist attacking the heroes. It was just how they went about it.

The demon kings entered into the blast zone, and an entire area the size of a city rigged with crystal bombs flashed. These were more powerful bombs, the result of incremental improvements in AlkaÆs methods over the years and studies from LumoofÆs purchased magical items.

From afar, the heroes and my senior Valthorns watched the sky light up, a pillar of blue light. It was powerful enough that our magical sensors all the way on the Central Continent detected them.

The heroes watched keenly. - I still feel them. -

- No notification, that should be obvious enough, - Chung responded as he charged his hero items. They were all stronger now, closer to level one hundred thirty instead of the earlier level one hundred twenties when they faced their second demon king. This would be their third demon king.

ColetteÆs hero items floated out around her; they were all magical staffs, wands, and rods of different shapes and sizes. They were all stronger than before, but even they felt the gaze of the demon king. PrabuÆs hero items were two massive staffs packed with more gems than a jewelry store, and Hafiz was one large silver shield.

The three demon kings took the hit directly, and even despite the amount of power packed in them, it did not deal lethal damage. The three demon kings were merely surrounded by a charred sphere of flesh.

Two beams burned through the skies and smashed into the spheres, and the spheres exploded.

- Good shot. - Chung nodded as his bows glowed, and arrows flew toward the demon king. The arrows stopped midway as Chung made a gesture with his fingers. He activated some kind of magical vision.

At that very second, I felt something just blast out from those spheres, and it touched everything. It was very familiar.

The Rottedlands bomb, just a smaller but more focused one.

Lumoof immediately had to step in here, or this parasitic demon king would infest the terrain and use it against the heroes. Lumoof immediately went into avatar mode, and I soon found I had my own battle to fight.

One of the demon kings had fused with the ground itself and transformed into a parasite and corruption emitter! We spawned trees as fast as we could, and I already had artificial minds readied for the task. Multiple giant trees spawned, and my roots fought the corruption in the ground itself.

Lumoof winced when I pulled mana from the Central Continent and emitted it through his body into the roots and trees.

Some parts, already infested by the demon king, emitted noxious gasses and waves that melted whatever came in contact with it.

Ken, Stella, Kei, and the Valthorns that sat out the direct conflict watched the spectacle at home through dream academy . - Oh. So the demon king infests the land. -

- DoesnÆt that mean it can infest A/ ? - Stella asked.

- I donÆt think itÆs stupid enough to try that, though, - Ken said.

A part of me felt it was funny. This was just a repeat of the Rottedlands corruption, with the exact same methods. I called on my first domain power, Roots of Life , and also my Tree of Life , and pumped my mana through the roots. This time, I pushed back.

A tactic that put me into a coma for two decades wasnÆt going to work twice. Not when I fought it for twenty years.

My trees gained ground quickly, and I stopped the demon kingÆs noxious gasses from saturating the place. That demon king in the ground started to attack directly, once it noticed its corrupt energies were dispersed easily.

It formed black tentacles that shot toward my roots, and one of them stabbed it directly. I felt it push its corrupt energies into the tree, and I pushed back. Likewise, I spawned more trees and my roots rushed toward that body.

Underground, my roots and the demonÆs tentacles fought an intense battle as both of us attempted to overwhelm each other with our respective energies.

Above ground, the heroes engaged in combat with the other two bodies, and they defeated one. Ken was right, somewhat. There really was a gimmick as the remaining body would split and regenerate the second body after a short while.

Edna found herself mostly fighting demon champions as the two demon kings seemed to be mostly airborne, zigzagging in the skies and dodging the two mages and ChungÆs arrows. Hafiz played defense and protected the three heroes as they launched their volleys.

Roon and Johann tried to assist, too, but like Edna, they focused on the demon champions and only took a few pot shots at the demon king. It was hard to keep up with the two airborne demon kings that seemed to shapeshift at will and move like they were not subject to gravity or the rules of motion.

For a brief moment, each of us fought our own battles. I fought the infestation in the ground with Lumoof, the heroes against the two airborne demon kings, and everyone else dealt with the mobs and demon champions.

I internally felt it was a little. easy and predictable, but I knew this wasnÆt it. There had to be a trick. They always did.

So I was always on the lookout.

I was expecting a trick.

The demon king that infested the ground then did something that I immediately thought was stupid. It manifested itself out of the ground and then threw itself at Lumoof. I launched multiple barrages against the demon king as it barreled toward Lumoof, who was bound to the ground in avatar form.

No. It essentially charged at us.

Really?

I couldnÆt stop it. I didnÆt have enough power or damage to really, really make the demon king stop, even if I hurt it quite a bit. I placed barriers between us and even activated all my offensive abilities.

The demon king took the damage and continued to charge at Lumoof. It smashed through the walls and shields, slowing it down only by a little bit. My vines appeared and wrapped around it, but it still pushed through.

The heroes were too occupied with the two airborne demon kings who had summoned even more airborne demons to counterattack.

I felt that demon king slam into Lumoof, its spiritual presence colliding with my overlaid presence over Lumoof. Strangely, rather than possess Lumoof, I felt like something immediately reached out into my soul.

Domain Detected Soul Intrusion. Activating Soul Defenses.

At that second, I felt my mind go hazy, like a massive migraine. In a flash, all my potato storage and tubers were emptied, and even Dream Academy temporarily went offline. The entire Central Continent suddenly felt the equivalent of an electrical short circuit.

With mana.

Beetles stopped. Magic seemed to briefly just go out of commission over the entire Central Continent as my trees sucked up mana from everywhere. Dungeons temporarily flickered, their ley lines wobbling from the sudden spike in mana - demand.

LumoofÆs body then suddenly flashed like a supernova, and the demon king that wrapped around Lumoof was blasted with this strange multicolored light. The power that was released at that moment was far higher than anything IÆd ever felt and comparable to the strongest of the heroes attacks.

That demon king body was incinerated instantly.

I was stunned.

How was this possible?

Demon kings were not meant to be insta - killed. In my mind, I wondered then. How the fuck did I do that intentionally? How did I repeat this? This was an ability that could break the balance of the game.

I realized maybe I was a little too excited. After all, this wasnÆt really a full strength demon king, since this was a demon king that had split itself to three. But if I could one shot one - third of a demon king, I somehow felt that was actually an encouraging sign, too!

Even if I didnÆt know what exactly happened.

Lumoof immediately fainted, and though he was alive, that single attack flushed his body with too much mana, and the pain was too much. My sensors immediately detected extreme pain throughout his body and realized he had signs of extreme mana sickness.

I instantly teleported him back to Freshka for healing. This was too much for him.

That meant I lost track of the battlefield for a good fifteen minutes.

- Stella! - I shouted to her mind. With Lumoof back in Freshka, my connection to the south was lost. - Portals! -

- On it! - Void portals immediately opened, and my roots reconnected to all the trees I planted in the south.

- Roon, Johann. Retreat! - If only domain tier could resist corruption, that meant they were vulnerable to the demon kingÆs possession. There was always another demon king for them to fight if they survived this one. There was no need to go all in. I could send them to the Threeworlds or that other world to fight other demon kings.

I thought of pulling back through the Court of the Deitree Æs teleportation ability, but that was a one - way trip. What if I needed them for something else? Thankfully, they retreated quickly without much issue, and I focused on fighting the other demon champions. But as that happened, I vaguely sensed a gathering pool of energy where the demon king was incinerated, and I saw a small, almost ethereal presence.

It wasnÆt physically visible, but I definitely could see it, because it was like a spiritual template. I saw the heroes destroy one of the demon kings then, and I noticed something similar gathering in the air, where the other demon kingÆs body died.

The heroes wouldnÆt be able to destroy this thing, not unless they had some soul - linked powers. This was a spiritual template. I knew then this was the foundation for the demon king to rebuild its own body, and I saw energies leaking from the last remaining body that channeled to the other two destroyed bodies.

I immediately understood how the demon king would have regenerated itself if all three bodies were not destroyed.

Too bad the demon king was clearly not prepared for my presence, and my roots touched the spiritual template, the foundation of all healing, and summoned my soul forge. It would be a pain to use my powers through the portal, but if I could destroy the template, it would eliminate the demon kingÆs ability to regenerate its split bodies.

- We need time to gather our mana. A lot of mana was drained to blow up the demon king. -

Shit. I could see the demon king regenerating, but I couldnÆt stop it because I lacked mana? - How long do I need? -

- A few hours, at least. -

I thought, if I couldnÆt destroy it, then I could at least interrupt it. That wouldnÆt need that much mana. - It would increase the time needed to gather mana. -

- But better than facing three demon kings. - I noticed the heroes were gradually getting tired, and essentially the parasite demon king with three bodies was playing a game of attrition. If the demon kings could survive until the heroes were exhausted, they would be able to kill the heroes.

I injected my soul - forge energies into the demon kingÆs soul template, and though the miniscule amount was not able to destroy the template, I was able to easily interfere with the energies that attempted to gather there and quickly dispersed the energies.

I thought IÆd just bought extra time for the heroes.

This, of course, drew the attention of the last remaining demon king, and rather than continuing its constant airborne dogfight with the heroes, it turned and bombed the roots and trees that interfered with the regeneration.

I blocked with my shields and my barriers, and they withstood the first attack. Barely. The second attack destroyed them, but it was all right. I was prepared to regenerate my trees as long as necessary.

- Your opponent is here, - Colette said as her array of magical weapons zapped the demon king. It turned and lunged toward the heroes.

The demon king turned and then pulled the remnants of the demon kingÆs energy back to itself instead of regenerating. The spiritual templates themselves folded into the main body, and then the demonic parasites all around us immediately went wild. This was a pattern repeated throughout the world as all the parasites all over the world simultaneously attempted to transform, or take over their host, and then they would attack those around them, attempting to repeat the act.

It was a stupid thing. Why show your hand? Though I clearly noticed that the demons were learning, their learning and improvements were disorganized and random. It was almost as if they were some kind of self - learning network that just tried things and attempted to figure out how it performed. Were they just trying other strategies randomly?

In any case, this stupid move merely allowed the rest of the world to kill the demons and end the parasites once and for all.

I would have ensured that the parasites remained hidden, but I supposed I should count my lucky stars.

Back with the demon king, it immediately went airborne and transformed into this massive floating blob. Demon champion - parasites attempted to latch onto the heroes, and a few bit them, but they were not infested. They had sufficient levels and protection for it.

Edna decided to retreat as she had limited airborne powers. I, too, had limited airborne powers. At this point, I merely decided to stay back and provide any defensive support, but with Lumoof out of commission, I wouldnÆt be able to deploy my full strength.

It was all up to the four heroes now.

The demon king used more conventional abilities then, but I noticed it was weaker than the earlier demon kings, and the heroes successfully whittled it down.

ChungÆs magical bolt slammed into the demon king, and it shattered, revealing a tiny blob.

- ItÆs either going to blow -

The tiny blob charged forward at incredible speed, and I barely blocked it with my wooden shield. It smashed through my shields like it was nothing and then slammed into Prabu and ColetteÆs protective magical shields.

It then expanded in an explosion and transformed into a big purple blob around the heroes. The heroes attacked it repeatedly, but it somehow pushed through the magical shields and stabbed the heroes.

It did what a parasite was always trained to do.

Possess a hero.

It had inserted itself into the four heroes, and now it was up to them to resist it. All four heroes were in pain as I attempted to help them.

I knew, somehow, all four heroes were in a mental battle with the demon king. As Ken put it, this was the cliche of heroes - fighting from the inside. -

My roots and vines emerged and wrapped around the blob and drained its power. It was a lot of toxic, dirty power, just like that previous time I tried it with the heroes. I knew the demon core from this demon king was likely to be corrupted as well, but now that IÆd seen how the demon king was created, I may not need to fight it directly.

The void mages were trying their best to support the portals. I was pushing as much power as I could, but I didnÆt have much anyway. Most of it was used.

But then, a ray of light shot through the purple blob, followed by an explosion of light. The blob was vaporized.

Demon King Exikant has been defeated.

All over the world, a kill switch went off in the demon parasites, and they all died instantly.

The four heroes fell, and my roots immediately reached out to grab them. They were alive but weak. My roots and vines cradled them and immediately injected them with healing abilities.

At the same time, the rest of us felt a surge of relief. The era of demonic parasites was finally over.

58

YEAR (PART 4)

The parasite war finally ended, and almost everyone was glad. Our contribution to the final battle meant we had levels. Naturally, it was the best part.

YouÆve gained 6 levels. You are now level 214.

Multiple Skills upgraded. Root - or vine - based attacks now gain the ability to attack, touch, and damage souls directly.

YouÆve obtained the Level 210 Domain skill: Tree of LifeÆs Evolutionary Push.

You are now able to inject a skill of your choice into a person, and this skill will be inherited by their offspring for two successive generations. Subsequent inheritance depends on luck and individual performance. The skills are collected through skill seeds and/or harvested from the dead. You gain the ability to create a pecial Tree: Tree of Evolution. The Tree of Evolution is the site of your evolutionary experiments.

That first ability to attack the soul directly seemed immediately less useful against the demons, maybe except the demon king itself. No. Actually that made it super useful since, if the demons used the spiritual templates as their basis for multi - body forms and regeneration, IÆd now gained the ability to disrupt directly, so it could work together with the soul forge to deal more damage to the soul.

IÆd probably have to figure out how to abuse that touch - the - soul part later on.

As for the second ability, it didnÆt take long for me to realize that it was probably meant to stack over multiple generations. That meant if I could insert one skill into person A, another skill into person B, and another skill into the offspring of A and B, I could have three skills in the same person. The offspring of A and BÆs offspring, meaning the third generation, could inherit a total of six skills, plus one of its own. If the amount of skills I could inject was more than one, this could get out of hand really, really quickly.

This was pretty much genetically enhanced soldiers that we had already been indirectly meddling with, taken to the extreme. I would have to start injecting skills and matchmake -

I mentally slapped myself.

I shouldnÆt meddle in the love choices of my followers. I would let them choose it themselves and must spread the skill to everyone in the Valthorns. I also wondered whether I could use this on domain holders, and I would try this out once I checked in with the rest.

- Master, I donÆt think itÆs that much of a problem, - Patreeck intervened. - I believe the treefolks would be more than happy to procreate with anyone of your choice since they donÆt have rigid customs on marriage. Same with the lizardfolks. -

- Ah. -

Genetically engineered supersoldier treefolks and lizardfolks.

- LetÆs start this with them then, on a smaller scale. - There were also the Canari, which also didnÆt really marry and seemed to rotate mates over decades. It was weird, but I supposed that was just their biology.

- Got it. - Patreeck acknowledged.

Both Roon and Johann got their domains, too, and I felt their presence in the background. Theirs, due to their nature, were naturally more subdued and hidden, unlike Edna and LumoofÆs more easily detected powers.

They leveled to exactly level one hundred fifty.

Roon got the Domain of Sniper , and the first ability, Shot from the Stars , was a rather nifty ability that allowed Roon to effectively shoot a bullet or projectile of their choice into the sky that could land anywhere in a continent - size area as he so desired. Effectively, it was like a portal with an arrow or a bullet.

It did mean that Roon could effectively shoot anyone anywhere on the continent. It seemed like a rather pointless ability, but surely there was a way to abuse it. Maybe with a nuclear bomb, or together with AlkaÆs bombs. It seemed like there were no real limits, other than some distance - scaled mana cost per shot, so maybe the trick was to repeatedly fire bombs over a distance, essentially a continent - wide fire support and a superweapon delivery method.

Johann got the Domain of Ranger . The first domain skill he got was really quite weird, I supposed: Immortal Sentient Companions . Essentially, JohannÆs ranger buddies like his hunting dog and his bird would not die even if their bodies were destroyed, and they gained the ability to level on their own, like a beastmaster with its tamed beasts.

They both were immediately offered and accepted their membership to my pantheon.

- How do you feel? - I asked both as they came to terms with their new power.

- Strange, but powerful. - I didnÆt feel that different when I received my first domain, but then again, I wasnÆt human. Or maybe it was the cloud of demonic mana that made it hard to feel like I was different.

Lumoof did describe it as a sense like they were now connected to something else, and Edna said there was something in them, like a power source within them. For me, I wasnÆt exactly sure what it felt like.

I supposed each one had a different relationship with their domain. I also thought it was very possible to have the same domains, which made me wonder what happened when two folks with the same domain met.

Perhaps the domain would just nullify each otherÆs power, and they would have to rely on non - domain powers?

Lumoof and Edna were more than happy to have more join our ranks. - Well, now that A/ Æs pantheon protects you from permanent death, you two can join more of the otherworldly activities! Lumoof seemed particularly happy to have someone who could accompany him. -

Johann stared. - Really. -

- Yes! Come with me and letÆs visit some sandpeople! - Lumoof laughed.

- Scorpionpeople. - Johann rolled his eyes.

- It wonÆt be that bad. -

- I highly doubt it, - Johann said. - If the human faction hated us. -

Edna patted the two on the shoulders. - Eh, eh, todayÆs a time for celebration. Here, a drink! - Edna gave both a mug of what was supposedly the best beer on the continent. Its title was heavily disputed, of course. - Welcome. YouÆve, finally, finally made it. -

Both Johann and Roon let out a long sigh of relief, like theyÆd been holding this tension in for a long time. - IÆm just relieved IÆve finally made it. - It was Roon who first answered. - WeÆve been working at this for decades, and I am just so, so fucking glad IÆve earned the right to stand at this level. I almost thought we were not good enough. -

Indeed, both Johann and Roon had been in my service for more than half a century; their names were known to me personally about fifty years ago when they participated in the Alvin - kidnapping project. ItÆd been a long time for them.

Lumoof tapped Roon on the shoulder. - Your efforts have not been in vain. The system rewards effort, constant, persistent effort. -

- I almost felt like we were never going to make it, - Johann said. - We were at the edge of it, level one hundred forty - nine, for so long. ItÆs like edging for so long and never actually getting there. -

Edna chuckled at the sexual innuendo. - Well, you can go beat yourself out after this. But really, levels are sparse once we cross that line. The things we must achieve to gain a level increases. -

That was because they didnÆt have hero fragments. These stupid hero fragments were clearly overpowered as hell. - So. We truly begin our duty to end this conflict of heroes and demons, - Roon said.

Lumoof smiled warmly. - This is just the beginning. -

Johann stared at his hands; they trembled. - We were so near to the demon kings, and even with my power now, I feel like. itÆs still not enough. -

Edna answered, - Oh, trust me. ItÆs not enough at all. The domain merely gives us the right to join the battle as participants, but we are still lacking the heroes and their god - given powers. But itÆs all right, thatÆs not how we really want to end this war. -

- Then? -

Lumoof tapped them on the shoulder. - This war rages on multiple worlds. A/ doesnÆt intend for this to be a direct conflict. Not if he can avoid it. A/ Æs intermediate goal is for us to gather more like us, across the many worlds. -

- Oh? -

- Come, let us retreat to A/ Æs main body in the valley, - Lumoof said. - Now that the two of you have the protection of your domains, there is a lot to share about the world, the gods outside, and the full extent of our plans. -

Roon and Johann looked at each other. They knew the powers of the domain at a general level, and Lumoof merely repeated it. They then walked to my main body in the valley, and Lumoof repeated my earlier discussions with them.

I informed them of divine - related matters, such as the divine wooden stump that we retrieved and the shard I took from the core of the Cometworld. About what IÆd seen on the Cometworld, and the Threeworlds.

I also gave them an audience to ask me anything, anything at all, and I repeated my emphasis on ending this cycle. About why the world and the gods were just stuck with this makeshift solution of playing whack - a - mole with demon king. IÆd once theorized that the gods were just like me, still limited by space and time, but just significantly high up on the power level. Perhaps due to age, because they had been doing this for multiple millennia. Of course, as I shared this, it truly dawned on them that they were now on the path to divinity.

I wondered how many humanoid gods there were out there, and I concluded probably a lot, since the gods so far seemed to prefer humans more than others.

Johann was just quiet the whole time, as we shared almost all that we knew of the demons and the gods. Details that we may have mostly glossed over.

Roon stared, nodded, and just said at the end of it, - I need some time to soak all that in. -

They both needed time. TheyÆd known they were on the path to be gods, but they just didnÆt expect how pervasive the influence of the gods were. That gods could be reading their minds and they didnÆt know about it.

As a result of hitting level one hundred fifty, both Roon and JohannÆs A/ ic - variant classes vanished and were subsumed into the domain. The domain was both class and a rank, and it overrode the classes. All their classes vanished.

A few days later, once they felt better and more in control, they took a dip in the biolabs for further investigation. I did the same for Lumoof and Edna, too, as they gained some levels from the incident. Edna only gained one level from the battle, partly because her contribution was really not much.

Lumoof on the other hand gained a bit more. He gained five levels and an additional domain ability. The additional domain ability was Empowered Faithful , which - enchanted - five non - hero, non - domain individuals to gain exceptional temporary powers. He also gained the ability to see through his empowered faithful.

Both Roon and JohannÆs souls were now similar to Lumoof and Edna. Their souls possessed a temple - like platform that supported their soul spring. There was also a large boulder - sized stone around their soul spring.

The four heroes took a few days to recover from the battle, and then the mop up of the demon parasite started immediately. The temples took the chance to quickly proclaim their victory over the demons and started a big propaganda campaign on their exceptional contributions to the war effort.

The temples sacrificed a lot for this war. The parasites cost them a lot of manpower and eroded a lot of trust in the institutions. Naturally they needed this - propaganda - win to reinforce their own positions.

Within the Central Continent, naturally we spoke of our achievements and contributions in the south at length. After all, it was our home base, and the people who lived there should feel that weÆd done our part.

As for the Southern Continent itself, I decided to let the temples have their win. They were already politically unstable, and I felt that adding my propaganda to the south wouldnÆt really help us anyway. I didnÆt need their resources, and I didnÆt want to trigger a continental war so soon after this one ended by fueling the already brewing discontent.

Colette and Prabu, naturally, returned as soon as they were able. Snack withdrawal was quite a thing. The two heroes requested an audience within days.

- What can we do for you? - Edna asked.

- We wanted to discuss Lumoof and A/ Æs abilities during the battle with the demon king. -

- Oh? -

- We saw that A/ used some kind of vaporization ability on the third demon kingÆs body. What was that? -

Edna shrugged. - Simple. Have you seen how a demon champion attempted to possess me? -

- No. -

- Oh. Then you wouldnÆt know. A domain protects the soul from possession, and it also protected Lumoof from the demon kingÆs attempted possession. - Of course, that simplified it significantly, but these mages did not possess the ability to see soul - type magic, so that was sufficient.

- Is such a thing possible? - Colette looked at her partner. Prabu shrugged.