TREE OF AEONS 4

- I suppose? -

The mages left it at that, but I could tell they were still thinking about it. It wasnÆt something they accepted so easily, since the power to vaporize a demon king body in a single blast was really something else.

At the same time, I told Patreeck and my artificial minds to figure out how to replicate that power. If I could do it again, it would be a trump card against the demon kings.

The destruction of the demon king caused the energies that maintained the path between the two worlds to collapse. As it collapsed, it seemed to generate a shockwave of energy through the dark forest.

I didnÆt see this from our world, but it was visible here, from the demon world. This shockwave traveled slowly, and it took months for the energy carried by the collapsing void path to hit the demon world like a really bad solar flare.

I watched as the skies itself turned dark abruptly and blue bolts of lightning descended from the skies. These lightning blasts vaporized most things that it touched, like spires or some of the rift gates.

I immediately attempted to protect the rift gates from the lightning and spawned my trees around them to deflect the blue lightning. The lightning zapped my trees instead and was powerful enough to cut one of my subsidiary trees in half. It even sent a bit of pain through the root network, and I realized these lightning storms were made from the same energies as that void - core - mana mixture.

These lightning destroyed vast quantities of the demonÆs structures and also killed the demons easily. Each blast of lightning came with a shockwave. We then noticed that the lightning was concentrated around that deep hole that nurtured the demon king body, and that black tower filled with void mana received the brunt of it. The lightning smashed into the void tower and the other smaller towers.

I also immediately attempted to capture some of these towers by spreading my trees around them.

Some demons noticed and started attacking my trees, so I spawned my beetles on the demon world and commanded them to defend my trees and also some of them to attack. But I noticed the beetles performed badly on that world, even with the research IÆd done over the decades.

No, more accurately, the demons were just stronger there. This was their world, after all. So I decided to send my artificial mind commanders to the battlefield.

I teleported Horns and a few other beetle - commanders to the swampy demonworld and began an intense war of attrition to conquer some of the spires. The spires spawned demons to fight back, and here, the spires themselves contained demonic energies.

Even with the vast destruction from the blowback lightning, the demon world still had defenders!

Horns, along with the other beetle - commanders, empowered the beetles and led them to war. I felt secondhand embarrassment watching him sometimes.

- Trees for the Tree God! New Soil for the New Worlds! Come, my brothers, let us liberate this world for our lord protector A/ ! -

- For the Deitree! -

The worst thing was the beetle - commanders all seemed to be carbon - copies of Horns and mimicked his behavior in strange ways. Horns even stylized himself First of A/ Æs Beetle Lords. I just prayed I didnÆt get a nascent rebel on my hands.

Their additional auras helped the beetles fight at a stronger footing, but I had to deploy Giant Attendant Trees when faced with the defensive demon champions. Here, they did not deploy parasites; instead, the demon champions were large, four - legged walkers that resembled the demon walkers, but their bodies were made entirely out of the hardened crystalline spires.

This was when I realized I made a mistake. I deployed my tree of clones too near to the rift where we first opened the gates, but not near what I wanted to capture. That meant, in the future, I needed to keep at least two or three seeds so that I could deploy one closer to where the key demonic structures were, so that my tree of clones could directly exert my power.

Instead, even though I was in the demon world, after a certain distance, my power weakened and now I couldnÆt fully exert my power. I needed my full strength to attempt a capture of these structures.

I thought of using the seed I planned for the Threeworlds or withdrawing that tree that still floated on the remnant Cometworld.

Would it be worth it?

The recent levels did not give me more seeds.

As I needed more firepower on the demonworld, I also called Hytreerion and teleported him to the demon world to help suppress the defending demonic champions.

All because of my initial poor main - tree placement, and now we had to wage a long battle as the void - thunderstorm continued to batter the surface of the demonworld. IÆd even lost hundreds of beetles to the storm.

I was able to capture multiple rift gates closer to my main body, but most of them suffered some damage from the void lightning blasts and would need some repairs. The one nearest to me was the one I was able to wholly protect.

Still, I also managed to capture some of the nearer spires by flooding them with my mana. Each spire took a lot of mana, since they were really dense with demonic mana and flushing all that demonic mana out took a long, long time.

- Is it worth it to use my other seed here? - I asked Patreeck and my other artificial minds. I wanted the black tower and that structure that opened the rift, because they felt powerful. These things were used to store void mana and also create those large rifts.

- What do we aim to achieve by capturing those structures? -

But did I have a use for them, even if I did capture them?

I suspected that a large, ring - shaped structure may contain star - maps that would expand my knowledge of the astral realm or the void tower would allow me to learn how to create such void mana.

But was it worth it? IÆd used one seed on the demon world, one seed on the moon, one seed on the cometworld. I had one left, and I felt I should keep one as an option should something like the cometworld appear once more. I could withdraw one of them, but that was also a recharge - timer before I would get a usable seed.

Or deploy Lumoof to the demon world.

I didnÆt like that very much. I preferred Lumoof to be out mingling with these foreign civilizations rather than toiling on the demonworlds.

I had to weigh the opportunity cost of not having a seed of A/ should a rare opportunity appear versus the capture of these structures.

- But these structures may not be unique, - Patreeck said. - If these structures or similar structures are on all demon-possessed worlds, we do not really need to capture them now. We merely need to collect sufficient seeds and claim it later. As it is, we can learn from the structures that we have already captured. -

- ThatÆs true. -

For now, I focused on the assets and structures that I did control. We captured about six riftgates on the demon world. My mages came over, ready to study them.

As my forces expanded on the parasite world, I felt, momentarily, that this was the beginning of our retaliation. After all those years of playing defense, we now had the means to begin a counterattack. This was the start of taking the fight to the demonÆs worlds, and I hoped to retake them, one world at a time.

TREE OF A/ Five

2024 SPAIzzER

1

YEAR 202

- IÆm going to a demon world, - Alka said, his face absolutely horrified. He wasnÆt the only one, of course. A battalion of his research - mages would go with him. Stella, too.

- Yes. -

Thanks to my trees sprouting around the rifts, I noticed that some level of life had returned to the demon world. Very minor, but much better than none. My Giant Attendant Trees also made the place around the rift gates far more hospitable.

- Am I going to die there? - Alka asked.

- No. Certainly not, - I assured him. - If anything happens, IÆll send you back. Some of my forces are there. -

In truth, there was an ongoing, prolonged war on the parasite - demon world, all thanks to my poor main - tree placement. Horns, my beetle commanders, and a small platoon of artificial minds were still helping me run the multiple battles happening at the edges of my territory on the demonÆs world. It was also HytreerionÆs longest ongoing combat experience, and it proved that a large mobile forward base actually had offensive value, since it didnÆt get much of a chance on our home world, where we were the defenders.

- How did A/ get to the demon world? - Kei and Ken asked.

- I snuck him through the rift, - Stella said. Kei rolled her eyes at that.

- Seriously! -

- I thought those portals donÆt last that long? - Ken asked, but he was not aware of my seeds, and that was fine. Snek seemed particularly interested and wanted to know whether this meant there was a way to help retake his world.

Personally, I thought that sounded plausible. It would help me greatly if there was a native force I could rescue, but the thought of facing airborne demon-dragons on their home world didnÆt sound like a good idea. I was horribly outmatched on the aerial front.

Ken and Snek nodded. - ItÆs smart to take the battle to the demons, but. - It wasnÆt the only demon world. We all knew that. So my presence on this demon world was unlikely to affect whether another demon king would invade my world.

Alka mumbled, and they all wore suits of armor meant to protect them from most eventualities. Some druidic and magical equipment, too, just to ensure that they could still breathe, if anything happened.

The void - storms had mostly subsided.

Alka immediately went to Lumoof. - Why not you? -

- You have things to study and the skills needed. A/ has a presence there. Naturally, itÆs you. - Lumoof laughed heartily. - Time to take to the field, Field Scientist. -

Alka seemed somewhat panicked. - I did not imagine IÆd be going to a demon world in my job description. This is hazardous! -

- Not any more hazardous than working with bombs, - Lumoof assured him. - ItÆs fine. A/ has already said this is in a safe zone. -

- How are there safe zones on a demon world?! - Alka seemed surprised. Stella shrugged as she awaited the use of my inter - tree teleportation ability.

- All right. Move it. - The squad was ready. This would take some mana, but not more than when I sent Hytreerion over. I felt mana drain from my network of trees? -

- and they were all sent to my clone on the other side. It wasnÆt far from the rift gates.

Alka, Stella, and the group of mages stared at the greenery around my main tree. My clone had already begun terraforming this segment of land into something habitable. This was far easier than the moon, actually, because there was something here a long time ago, and the worldÆs energy seemed to be recovering once the spires and all that collapsed.

The moon base was growing, but the speed of the terraform was significantly slower than the demon world.

The beetles soon led them to the nearest rift gate. IÆd left all of them untouched, as I wanted some of the mages to look at them before I started flooding them with my mana.

- This doesnÆt look particularly alien, - Stella said. - There are trees. -

- IÆve been transforming the land for a few months. - They stopped and stared at the structures before them. - This is a rift gate. The demons use this to open gates to our world. There are many others like it throughout the world and a super large one thatÆs partly destroyed. -

Stella immediately looked at the gate with far more interest.

- IÆd like to know how it works, whether we can rebuild it for our own purposes, whether we can use them to amplify the portals of the void mages, and whether there is a star map contained within. -

Alka walked up and used some kind of skill on the rift gate. - Hmm. itÆs not some unique material for sure, but there is some really complicated formation and rune work within the structure itself. Which does raise the question: how did the demons build it? -

- Or they didnÆt, - Stella proposed. - This was stolen from somewhere. -

- Or they did, and the demons possess intellectual and crafting abilities higher than what weÆve ever seen, - Alka said. - Are all the others like it? -

- Huh? -

- IÆm asking because I want to know whether they are all exactly identical or just similar but not exactly identical. Because the second implies the work of a craftsman, while the first implies the presence of a replicator. -

I suspected it was likely to be a replicator. - So do you want to see the second rift gate? - I asked. There was one nearby, but that site was occasionally attacked by demons, so it was heavily defended by beetles and spiders.

Since IÆd started my invasion of this demon world, IÆd set up dedicated research labs on creating better beetles, demon-world compatible beetles, in order to better fight battles against the demons.

The second rift gate was not identical. There were subtle variations, but Alka could tell that the inner inscriptions were almost the same. We didnÆt stay long, since this location was a little riskier. Of course, the revelation that they were not identically copied suggested that the demons possessed mastery of this level of craftwork.

I thought back to the two demon cores I possessed and tried to check them. I wondered how this knowledge was transmitted across worlds? Were they embedded inside each demon king, such that each demon king was a walking colonization module on top of an invasion force? If so, they must come from that black blob in space and then be inside this core.

- It could be written in flesh, too? - Patreeck naturally challenged my view.

We previously did extensive comparative analysis using the two demon cores to map what was damaged and try to see if we could somehow build a complete one from the incomplete two halves, but we still did not understand what exactly was happening. Now, with the patterns collected from the rift gates, we attempted to see whether there was any relevance, mainly to see whether there were similar patterns we could then extrapolate from the rift gateÆs set of patterns.

There were some relevant parts, but as a whole, it didnÆt really give any significant breakthroughs.

- Is this part of the Tree of LifeÆs set of powers? - Alka asked Stella while she did her own analysis of the rift gates and the surrounding daemolite crystal structures. She came accompanied with a small group of her students, other void mages who were amazed, perplexed, and afraid all at the same time.

- Yes, - I answered on her behalf.

- Dayum, - Alka said.

- You all are one of the first few non - demons to ever step on this demon world. YouÆre all pioneer space tourists. -

There was a loud bang, and they instinctively ducked. Demonic champions at the front lines and some of the stray magical projectiles blasted across the skies.

Stella smirked. - Very funny. -

Alka complained for a while, but he continued to conduct more tests on the structures.

- How frequently can we go back? - Alka asked.

- Once a month. - I could probably send them back every week or two, but that would leave my mana drained.

Alka looked at Stella, and Stella shrugged. - DonÆt look at me. My void portals donÆt reach this kind of distance. -

- ThatÆs really comforting. So A/ Æs our only ticket out. - Alka complained a little more and then continued to test. My field scientist seemed to be a perpetual grumbler, but I supposed that dissatisfaction with everything came with intellectual prowess.

Of course, Prabu and Colette were very interested to go, but I wasnÆt very comfortable with it. I even hesitated on telling them about it, because I knew the gods were listening, one way or another.

But I still told them, because I wasnÆt the weak tree I was a few decades ago.

With Tree of Life, I felt a lot more comfortable with being more transparent and open, at least with those whose powers I used and relied on. Even if things went south, I now had my clones in three other places, even if two of those clones were in rather vulnerable locations. With the benefit of hindsight, it was clear that I needed to invest in my team and build trust. Even if that trust could go south.

Since Roon and Johann both gained their domains, I gathered my four domain holders and then brainstormed our revised combat strategies. We needed to figure out how to best exploit our domain powers, especially with future demon kings. Roon and Johann also received the full briefing on what happened with Aiva and my own history as a former outworlder.

In their entire career, theyÆd lived to serve me, and the domain was their ultimate promotion, the point where they - grew up - and now could stand for themselves. The path was still long, of course. But the forest was strong because there were many trees, and this was a journey for all of us, together.

Their domains gave them additional power and stats so they could continue to play the role of providing cover fire. In terms of pure damage, both of them were just slightly ahead of Edna, who had a higher level and additional domain skills. They could move quickly, detect enemies from afar, and shoot high - powered projectiles.

- Ever wonder who would win if we had a test fight? - Roon looked at Johann.

Edna just shrugged. Edna would be on the receiving end of their attacks in any spar, but her defensive abilities meant she could endure their attacks almost perpetually.

Johann frowned. - Actually, even with our new abilities, we canÆt even get past A/ or EdnaÆs shields. I think thatÆs our first goal. -

- Oh, come on, a casual fight will be fun! -

- It would. but. -

- Actually, if you two would like a test fight, why not compare kill counts on the demon world? - Lumoof smiled and proposed. - Make yourselves useful for a change. -

Johann and Roon looked at each other, and Edna laughed. - Oh darn, thatÆs a good idea. -

The fabrics increase, Lilies noticed, naturally. They were very attuned to the powers that threaded through the world. One of yours?

Sort of, I responded. ItÆs been a while.

Time has hardly passed.

Ah. WeÆve reached the demon worlds.

Lilies was silent as I shared what IÆd seen on the demon worlds through our root connection. I shared scenes of the demon king, the portals, the spires.

After a long while, Lilies said, We have seen, but we do not recognize anything there.

- All right, weÆre ready. Turn it on, - Alka said after two months of studies. Roon and Johann had a swell time hunting demons and keeping them away from our magical researchers and the captured structures. There were also some demon champions that appeared, and they also helped to push some forces closer to the intact spawning pools.

- I have not actually tried. I donÆt know how to, - I admitted. I may have - captured - the rift gate, but I certainly did not know how to operate it at all. - Did you manage to figure it out? -

Alka rolled his eyes. - I mean, weÆve been studying its structure for two months without actually turning it on. Stella, if you would do the honors? -

Stella laughed. - Certainly. - She started on a monologue. The rift gate buzzed with activity as it drained void mana from the void crystals, and we watched it open, charge up, and then just as abruptly close.

It was like starting a car engine that just cranked, roared, and went dead. Alka and StellaÆs eyes were glued to the gate, and Stella frowned.

- Hmm. These rift gates piggyback off that central path built by the main gate. They are just links to that same void - space tunnel. ThereÆs only one main highway between this demon world and ours, and these rift gates are like little feeder roads linked to this main highway. -

The main highway collapsed. That explained why the demons stopped coming after the demon king got killed.

But this did mean that if the path didnÆt collapse, the demons could perpetually invade. Not just that, if I could recreate these paths, it would mean permanent paths to other worlds. It would essentially enable the worlds to travel to each other, and if I could control them, it effectively functioned as an escape route for the inhabitants of the invaded worlds.

- But these rifts are the first to appear. How does the demon find which world to invade? - Alka wondered and then immediately said, - No. There should be signs. How long does it take? WhatÆs the gestation period for the demon king? -

- I donÆt know whether itÆs consistent. According to Snek, his world seemed to take about twenty to twenty - five years per demon king. But I would suspect the time spent also depends on the type and design of the demon king, the amount of magical energies available in each world, and perhaps many other unknown factors. -

Alka frowned. - A sample of one or two tells us nothing. But let us assume that on average it takes twenty - five years per demon king, which would mean that there are twice to thrice as many worlds that are linked to us. -

Stella retorted. - If we use the number of worlds linked to us by those faint astral paths and presume that all of them are currently carrying a demon king that would be sent to us once it is ready, which is at least eight to ten of them in the sky, it actually suggests that it takes about seventy to eighty years. -

- ThatÆs a wide range. -

There were no astral paths in this world, not after they collapsed, but there were many paths still from Treehome. Those faint paths grew brighter with each year. If these rift gates were like feeders into existing astral paths, could these rift gates be used to open a rift to their world by exploiting those linked to our home world?

I predicted that the paths would return to this world, but I would really like to know how that was done. How did the demon worlds find their targets? Could we mess with that interplanar worldfinder and add Treehome as some kind of - do - not - disturb - world?

- What if we move these rifts back to our world and try to use these rift gates to tap into those astral paths? -

Stella and Alka thought about it. AlkaÆs eyes widened, and I could almost see the gears turning in his head. - ItÆs worth trying. Can we move this rift gate back home? -

- Of course. - I could move objects, too. Naturally, I could move these structures back to Treehome.

Stella then considered. - It does mean that A/ may invade them, even before the demons open a rift to our world. And it would force the demons into a defensive battle on their world by taking over all their rift gates. We would need to figure out how to activate the astral paths or reinforce them to some degree with the core mana. -

- But itÆs possible! This. the possibilities are so interesting. - Alka laughed.

Stella smacked the madly grinning Alka on the shoulder. - You just transformed from being afraid of coming to this world to proposing a pre - emptive invasion on a demon world. -

- Eh, A/ Æs already invading one demon world. WhatÆs a few more? -

- A/ would have to use a seed , though, and A/ doesnÆt donÆt have many of those. ItÆs still a good idea in the long run, but I think thereÆs a lot more to study. -

Alka laughed. - Details, details! LetÆs focus on the final outcome first. An offensive battle would be greatly beneficial for us since, well, we have bombs. A lot of them. -

- Are you. -

- IÆm proposing we bomb the hell out of the demon worlds before they even invade us. We donÆt need some sophisticated targeting. We need an air force, and then we open a portal and just keep sending bombs through it. -

Stella stared at the mad scientist who once lectured me on the morality of bombs. - And I thought you said you wouldnÆt go that far. -

- A/ noticed that thereÆs a big tower of void mana when the demon king was about to appear. -

- And. ? -

- And A/ Æs teleportation ability does not require the use of void mana, so large quantities of star mana can be transported through it without destabilization. -

- Okay. -

- ItÆs also right next to the demon king. -

- Star mana and void mana goes boom? -

2

YEAR 203

We moved one of the rift gates back to Freeka and located it right in the valley. Alka and the rest of them returned, except Roon and Johann, who continued the fight and expansion.

It was frustrating to expand, because of how magically sparse the environment was, even with the recent gradual improvements. Since the demon king ended, I felt mana slow, very, very slowly, trickle back to the world.

As it was, my expansions essentially relied and drained mana from the Central Continent, in order to support my trees and my forces on the demon world. This was because there was a shortfall in the natural mana and - life - in the soil, so I had to top up that shortfall with my own mana. This was similar to the moon, but as my moon baseÆs trees grew, they were able to generate more mana passively and a few years ago were mana - neutral on my overall mana - production.

The fact that I had to constantly support and regenerate my beetles and trees at the battlefronts also amplified the mana drain on the Central Continent.

In the long run, though, things were positive. At the rate of natural mana recovery in the world, in a few decades, my trees would turn mana - positive, and I would be able to mount a more coherent and decisive push toward all the major structures of the demons.

There was no reason to expand when doing so only increased the mana use without the capture of any particularly unique structures.

All these were lessons for our next planned invasion for the demon world.

Alka also had other ideas, one of which was to develop a supermassive star mana bomb, something with so much mana that we could throw at the tower of void mana and hopefully disrupt the demon king while it was still gestating.

I was somewhat skeptical of the star mana bombÆs chances of actually destroying the demon king, because IÆd seen the demon kingÆs body gestating really deep in the ground, and I doubted a supermassive explosion would be able to reach deep into the worldÆs core. Still, destroying the void tower would mean they couldnÆt come to our world that fast, since it would take out the fuel that supported the pathway to our world.

It may buy us some time for little to no cost. It may possibly also weaken the demon king, such that we would be able to survive it with better odds.

Of course, Alka also proposed to sink the tower in that deep tunnel and then detonate the bomb. The idea of detonating such a powerful bomb underground probably would be very damaging to the world, but it did mean an explosion closer to the gestating demon king.

Possible, but more moving parts. It was more difficult to send a bomb in the tunnel where my roots or trees couldnÆt reach. I could, theoretically, have a tree next to the tower, teleport it right there.

Anyway, Alka was thus focused on developing the bomb. He already had some ideas, gathered from his past research, on how to make a large star - mana bomb.

Ideas that he quickly pitched to Prabu and Colette, and he shared our findings, as well.

- This is A/ Æs idea? - Prabu immediately asked.

- Not really. More like mine, but he consented to the budget for a super star - mana bomb, meant specifically to activate on contact with the void tower. -

The problem was star mana, just like void mana, had corrosive effects on its containers. The objects that held these things could not hold them for very long, unless they were made by the heroes through their special hero forge , and in those cases, the mana stored evaporated very slowly over time. Even my specialized potatoes eventually decayed, and the stored mana leaked out, though they did last quite long.

Only my own three hundred star mana did not cause any decay, and I suspected that the soul may be the most common object that could hold star mana without these storage problems. That, of course, implied it could be possible to make living star mana batteries.

Could I create artificial souls specifically to store star mana or void mana? I saw Stella was able to accept and handle large quantities of void mana without much issues, even if it did make her soul transform into this pitch - black mass of. thing.

Despite how her soul looked, her body clearly didnÆt suffer for it. She was healthy by all measures, and her body, even though drenched with void mana, didnÆt seem different. Perhaps the soul had a passive effect of - controlling, - manipulating, - and - processing - mana, such that it didnÆt harm itself.

It was a worthwhile idea, even if one I previously never considered because of how many artificial minds I could support. Nowadays, with a continentÆs worth of trees and more, it was really not much of a problem to use artificial minds more freely, even if they were just made to be sentient batteries.

- Worth exploring? - I asked Patreeck.

- It really depends how much mana an artificial mind can store. However, based on what weÆve seen, itÆs likely that they wonÆt be as effective as a fully formed soul. -

I paused as those words sank in. Patreeck clearly had more data than me, even if he was functionally a part of me. If PatreeckÆs speculation were true, mana responded more strongly to the inner part of the soul. No matter, I had to try.

I created one of my tuberous storage in an uninhabited part of the Central Continent and created an artificial mind for it. This part went normally.

Then I injected it with star mana. At least, the three hundred star mana I had. I borrowed a little bit more from the heroes and injected a little bit more. Then like a balloon that suddenly had a hole, it just shrank and died.

- One thousand, - Patreeck said.

- ThatÆs too little. -

I did the same, this time with void mana. We had void mana from Stella and those I previously stole from the demon king. They were already in various states of decay; some of them only had less than ten percent of the void mana originally.

I wondered whether this could be some kind of evaporation loss and the vessel only controlled the degree of evaporation loss.

Or was the soul actually producing mana, thus it offset the evaporation loss? But artificial souls could produce mana, too! Patreeck seemed to think it was likely that fully formed souls could produce star mana or void mana, thus their production of these mana types kept their vessel full. Sadly, I had no way of testing whether mana evaporation or mana loss was better when there was a soul, because my artificial minds didnÆt produce these mana types.

With normal mana, it didnÆt seem to have this issue. Or was it likely that on Treehome, the environment had sufficient mana that there was no mana loss due to differences in mana density?

I knew that I had to support my trees on the demon world or my new expansions on the moon.

I checked my floating tree, floating in the pitch - black darkness of the void, clinging to a massive shard of what was once Cometworld. It didnÆt need mana from me because it produced a little bit of mana.

My artificial minds quickly helped me build up some data sets, and then I realized that each of my clones produced a small amount of their own mana, and then, on top of that small passive production, it also absorbed and amplified mana from the environment. In places where there was very little mana, like the demon world or the moon, this part of my natural mana - producing abilities were weak.

In short, my clones were best strategically placed where there was a lot of natural mana, and that would significantly improve my mana amount. It was like finding the correct spot to put a wind turbine.

Once my clones were placed, I couldnÆt move them unless I killed my clones. There was also a gestation period for the seeds to reappear, and I would have to contend with losing my connection to that place.

- So A/ managed to invade the demon world, - Chung repeated on the magical communication device. It was a meeting joined by my senior Valthorns and the otherworlders as well. Well, except Meela and Alexis, who were in the north. But anyway, now that we had something resembling a plan, we needed help.

- Yes, and Alka proposed that we attack the demon world before the demon king invades. I can see merit in the argument, since we can save lives by preventing the invasion in the first place. - There were no official tallies of how many people died during the parasite wars, but my Valthorns observed that even in well - defended towns, the population was down by about twenty percent. So the parasite war was probably one of the higher ones in terms of fatalities because refugees couldnÆt escape, and even if they did, they were suspected of harboring the parasites.

It was a grim episode that I was glad ended well. Had they been more intelligent, we would be dealing with a persistent, ongoing issue.

Prabu did most of the explanation, where he went over StellaÆs void portal abilities, my ability to resonate with the rift gates and sneak my vines through the gates, and then, lastly, my tree clones.

Deep in my valley, the rift gate, now surrounded by hundreds of mages and researchers, was undergoing reconfiguration.

- So thatÆs something from a demon world? - Chung and Hafiz were on the magical communicator. - A rift gate? -

- Yes. The demons build these paths across worlds, and these paths gather in the skies above over decades. Alka and Stella think it might be possible to open these paths earlier and invade them before the demons are even ready for us. -

Alka then explained about the void tower, and the giant circular gate, which I suspected, was the primary gate.

- DonÆt we need that primary gate, then? - Chung asked.

- Alka and Stella suspect that it may not be necessary since the astral path is already there, just not fully activated. They want to use the worldÆs core mana to open a small gate and send one of A/ Æs clones there, and well, bomb the shit out of them. -

- ItÆs interesting. - Chung nodded. Strangely, the godÆs inhibitions didnÆt attack the heroes, because, after all, this was a conversation about destroying demons. Just not demons in this world. Alka and Stella were both well - educated on the hero class mental overrides, so we made no mention of gods. But we reminded Alka and Stella to not speak of the - ending the cycle - part, since that triggered the heroÆs mental blocks the last time I touched this subject with Prabu. For now, we were laser focused on defeating the next demon king, and that seemed to avoid triggering the overrides. - WhatÆs our role? -

- The plan is frankly quite simple, - Alka repeated. - WeÆll bomb the void tower and try our best to cause massive damage, and if it doesnÆt kill the demon king, A/ will teleport all of you to the demon world, and you can fight all out there. WeÆll provide cover fire and clear the grounds. -

Prabu nodded. - I think it makes a lot of sense. We can fight the demon king offensively, likely in a weaker state thanks to the bombs. No need to hold back, no collateral damage because the demon world is uninhabited. -

- Are the demons stronger there? In their world? - Chung asked.

Alka paused. - We. I don’t have enough data to say for sure. From the one or two worlds A/ has visited, itÆs possible that the mobs are stronger. We donÆt know whether there is any change in the strength of the demon king. -

Chung was surprisingly cooperative. - ItÆs a decent idea in principle. Once the gate is active, then letÆs meet again and go through our plans. -

With their agreement obtained, Alka and Stella now worked on actually getting the rift gates to work in reverse. From our world, to theirs.

Back on the demon world, Roon and Johann fought the horde of demons from the demonic spawning pools. We observed that some of these pools had - regenerated - and were somehow repaired, and the speed of this recovery seemed aligned to the recovery in the natural ambient mana of this world.

This swampy demon world used to be a world with life. And now, in the areas where my trees dominated, I began observing the effects, as some normal creatures spawned for the first time. Only small ones, because they were insects, but the fact that creatures were created by the system meant we were undoing the demonÆs hold.

Horns and a small army of beetle commanders complemented Roon and Johann in the battle for the demon world.

This was a long war, and Horns loved it. Horns lived for war, it seemed, and even though he got squashed a few times, he never stopped returning to the front lines. Hytreerion, my massive walker, was also pleased that it was useful for a change, rather than being mostly useless back on Treehome, since it was able to storm through enemy lines with its massive size.

This was a war that would only gain in intensity, since the recovering ambient mana of the world meant both sides would gain strength. I could deploy more trees and more beetles, and for the demons, they could regenerate their spawning pools, spawn more demons, and spawn stronger demons.

Still, the recovering mana also meant the demon forces noticed my trees near the massive hole of the demon king. A location I wanted but was not able to hold due to the sheer distance from my main clone body, as my trees and beetles were overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of demons.

Thankfully, now Roon and Johann both were up for some scouting.

The deep hole of the demon king was now flooded with normal demons, and they saw the collapsed towers and the rubble had somehow vanished. The entire hole had transformed into a massive spawning pool.

But because there were too many demons, they did not attempt to engage. Not with just two of them. It was likely that the demon spawning pool, given its size, was some kind of pre - demon king pool.

Still, after that spying, and all the fighting on the demon world, they were both really emotionally drained, and Roon requested to return to Treehome. There was something about fighting in the lifeless world that was just more emotionally taxing than normal.

Edna called it the - Long - Term Dungeon Syndrome. - Similar to fighters whoÆd spent too long in the dungeons, they would crave some normalcy.

Oh well, I supposed I would need to start considering some kind of otherworld combat roster. Maybe that was what happened with Prabu and Colette and their snack withdrawals. They needed an emotional base, and fighting long periods away from home drained that - battery. -

There was something else I had to work on, which was core mana. The activation of the astral path seemed to rely on the core mana, though it was possible to wait for the rifts to open, and only then invade. But we wanted the option to invade at our own time.

So I had to figure out core mana.

I intensified my analysis of the Cometworld Shard and concluded that I needed to dig deeper. Much, much deeper. What kind of creature would have core mana?

I already reached my limit on Treehome in terms of depth. I couldnÆt get deeper, even with all the intermediate trees in the way. This was the secret at the center of the world.

Lilies, do you know how to contact the will of the world?

No.

Ah. I got similar replies from Aria, who didnÆt even know about the will of the world.

I only had one seed left. Unless I could gain more levels, IÆd have to use it strategically.

- Lumoof, when you were on the Threeworlds, were there any really, really deep places? Like chasms or cracks that led all the way into the core? -

Lumoof naturally got what I was trying to get at and shook his head. - Not that I know of, unless the Sandpeople and the Centaurs are hiding it. Do you want me to ask? -

- Then we should aim elsewhere. LetÆs go to another world. - I supposed LumoofÆs job scope now expanded to also look for sources of core mana, usually in really, really deep places.

There had to be a world where there was already a natural crack in the world. Such things were common in fantasy, after all, places where the world ended and it led to the great beyond.

Threeworlds, Cometworld, and Treehome had been typical planets, but not all worlds were like that. If I wanted core mana, I needed to find a world where the core. wasnÆt in the center of a spherical world.

Lumoof nodded. - Yes, boss. -

Maybe the next world wonÆt have my answer, but we had to try. Our next best choice was a stray world similar to Cometworld, where its core was exposed in some way.

I then thought about my little trigger - happy Reef friend.

Reefy.

Yes?

Do you know any deep, deep place?

Ocean not deep?

Deeper. Much deeper. Like, far deeper than the Marianas. Even my own underground trees had gone a lot deeper.

No. Why? Someone there?

I contemplated that question for a moment. Was the Will someone? Well. Yes. Maybe.

Want me to find it?

If you could, please.

Okay. IÆll send my fish.

I actually had no idea what Reefy had been up to underwater, but it seemed to be pretty stable, so I presumed it to be all right.

3

YEAR 204

Snek proposed that we dig underground, in the demon world, for the same reason as SnekÆs home world. In SnekÆs world, the snakes migrated underground to avoid the demons. If there were survivors, theyÆd be hidden underground or in places where the demons could not reach.

That was a decent idea, and from what I knew, digging underground seemed to be the archeological equivalent of traveling back in time. So we started to dig underground.

The first month we found absolutely nothing, at least around where I started to dig. This process of digging drained more mana, too, since underground my trees didnÆt produce mana.

My subsidiary trees and normal trees produced more mana when there were ambient sources of mana in the ground, water, or some kind of light source, either sunlight or starlight. Once again, in the mana - starved worlds, like the moon or the demon world, their production was curtailed.

The first few layers we dug through felt no different from the surface. In fact, due to the poor quality of the soil itself, my root tunnels were a higher drain on my mana than normal. Alka wasnÆt here to help, since he was really laser - focused on developing star - mana superbombs, so he sent some of his assistants instead.

Well, these assistants were still high - leveled mages and magical researchers , and they explained that they couldnÆt tell the difference in the soil, so we had to go deeper.

It may be due to our lack of the right set of skills to properly analyze soil. Which was kinda silly, because I was really good with studying the soilÆs nutrition, magical qualities, and mineral content. But looking at it from an archaeological point of view seemed to be a related but different skill set.

I wondered what would happen if a geologist reincarnated to this world. Could they find magic - oil? Would we start an era of magic - oil freedom?

- Maybe weÆre digging in the wrong place, - the mages suggested. In truth, I just decided to dig right underneath my tree of clones, since that seemed to be the easiest place, and after that, we expanded sideways with horizontal tunnels.

So the researchers requested for historians and cartographers from our world and attempted to use our own history to make a map of the demon world, at least the part of the demon world that was under my rule. With their aid, we made an estimate of the places where cities were likely to exist.

This was sensible, of course. EarthÆs cities liked to be next to rivers, and this world, while swampy, didnÆt have oceans. It was just a vast world of shallow lakes, small rivers, marshes, and swamps.

With our new set of estimates, we decided to dig underground, in a few of these places, where the rivers met the lakes. Our initial findings were bad. We found nothing.

There had to be something, and I went to my other advisors for advice. My four domain holder Valthorns didnÆt have any ideas; magic research really wasnÆt their forte. Stella suggested the use of some shamanic or land - communion power, which seemed to make sense, but IÆd have to locate a person with the right skill set that could be trusted with knowledge of the demon world.

So I went and spoke to Lilies. Lilies, having survived the longest of us all, must have seen the changes in the soil over the generations. Perhaps they could give us a clue?

How to identify dirt or soil?

Yes. Calculate their age, uh. I wanted to say carbon dating, but I hadnÆt the slightest clue how that actually worked in practice. It was one of those things that I knew scientists did but I wouldnÆt be able to do myself.

No. Not possible. Unless the core itself leaves imprints on the soil.

Wait. It should. If the world of the demon king went through periods of growth and death, the soil itself would feel the effects of the rising and fading of the mana density in the land. But this affected the entire world, not just a certain layer of soil.

But if new soil was created by acts of magic and were subject to fewer such wave - like mana patterns, would we be able to tell? Maybe most types of soil were essentially indistinguishable. We would have to locate the right type of soil or stone that could retain the effects of such waves.

You seem to have an inkling?

I do, but IÆm not sure if thereÆs the right type of soil or stone in the world that behaves in that manner.

In the other world?

Yes. IÆd like to see how long it has been and if we could tell whether a planet supports the birth of demon kings indefinitely or at diminishing rates.

Lilies didnÆt answer that, likely because they never experienced that part of the end of the world. From Lilies explanation, even if the demon king won, there was still a period of time before it actually - took over - the world, and during that time, the gods could try to challenge the hold.

This suggested that so long as heroes were continuously summoned, demons would never hold the planet. Eventually one hero would break the demon kingÆs kill streak.

Taking this thought further, it also meant that worlds only truly became demon worlds if the gods lost access to the world and they could no longer defend it.

Essentially, it was the equivalent of taking life support off and the world either finding a way to defend itself or the world died, consumed by the demon king.

In any case, I also asked the Valthorns to speak to miners and stone collectors whether they were aware of such stones. It would be easier to find something if we knew what they looked like in our world.

- WeÆre just grasping at straws, - the mages new to the process of research said.

- ThatÆs what itÆs like to be at the forefront of magic research. WeÆre trying to imagine or figure out how things work with whatever clues handed to us. - The researchers laughed. - Many of these clues are misleading! But it is very, very intellectually stimulating. Occasionally. Most of the time is really a lot of boring cataloging and data collection work. -

One of the good points of Stella, KenÆs influence on the magic researchers was the introduction of more robust data collection methodology, mainly using our own worldÆs logic of statistics and data. I just hoped we didnÆt draw the wrong conclusions. I wasnÆt very good at statistics, so my own guidance was very high level and could even be wrong.

A laymanÆs comprehension of statistics and the conclusions they drew from the data may not be correct, even if they seemed logical from a laymanÆs view. Still, more data was always welcome.

Patreeck and my artificial minds could easily shift through the data. In fact, one of the things Patreeck suggested was a physical - avatar - for Patreeck and the artificial minds, such that they could interact with the reports and data directly.

As it was, my artificial minds could mentally communicate with each other through my roots, thus forming a network. My subordinates, like Horns, were also connected to the network. However, their connection was not through the roots, but through telepathic speech, and telepathic communication was inherently slower and more prone to misunderstandings.

In short, our current data collection method required either someone to read the data and that data get mentally copied by Patreeck or the artificial minds borrowed one of my regular eyes, which were capable of regular vision, to read the data directly. Useful, but could be expanded.

They were able to collect sound data directly, but because my artificial minds viewed the world mostly through my senses - such as my spiritual vision, sound, and also a vibrative sense - reading documents was out of the picture. They were already able to manipulate vines in my biolab - focused artificial minds and get readings from them directly.

Again, the demon world itself was more prone to magical disruptions. Demons had been consistently attacking my trees throughout the demon world, sometimes with those demon-spire - walker champions, and these champions had some type of magical interference.

At this point, I estimated the ambient mana in the demon world to be about five percent of Treehome. From PatreeckÆs initial estimates, the break - even point where the mana cost of supporting the subsidiary trees was equal to the mana generated by the trees themselves on the demon world was somewhere around twenty - five percent.

- Could the blowback be detected? - Patreeck asked. - The collapse of the astral tunnel through the void. That collapse carpeted the entire world with a single but very noticeable wave of magic energy. -

Ah, so rather than rely on the wave - like pattern of the declining ambient mana in the world, use the collapsed astral tunnelÆs energy as a - time marker - ? That seemed possible, but I would need to find materials on the demon world that would show the effects of such things.

Again, I would get the guys to pay attention to their surroundings, but if there was nothing, there was nothing.

For my artificial minds, I needed a new kind of mobile - artificial mind that also functioned as a laboratory, for their research functions, with a direct link to the root network through their legs. At least, they would need to stop and connect with the network directly to upload the bulky datasets.

With my evolutionary powers from Tree of Life , I started looking at creating smaller versions of Hytreerion, crossed with the qualities of the Treefolk.

The Treefolk could connect to the Rootnet. In fact, that was one of their unique selling points, though we blocked them from the network.

This part of the process, modifying existing things in order to fit my need and growing them in my biolabs , wasnÆt exactly hard.

In fact, they were quite cute. Like little Tachikomas made of wood and trees. It would take about a few months to properly form them.

- Threeworld this time? - Stella asked. SheÆd been working on the rift gate, but it involved huge amounts of reconfiguring the runic patterns. She said sheÆd get better with time, but for now, sheÆd need another year or two.

In my experience, there was bound to be hiccups, so if she completed it within three years, it was considered a success.

Lumoof shook his head. - Nope. The other world. Unless thereÆs something else? -

- Nope. Skies remain unchanged. For now. -

I scanned the skies from my lone tree that floated nowhere, in the remnants of Cometworld. So far, nothing.

Stella paused and looked at her notes. - All right. Just you? -

- No. - I decided not to send Lumoof alone this time, so I got one of the higher - ranked Valthorns to accompany him, one of EdnaÆs juniors and disciples, a Level 110 A/ ic Battle Knight named Ebon. I figured that I would gradually rotate my level 100+ Valthorns on these adventures to other worlds to let them learn from the other worlds.

I suspected the system seemed to recognize and give value to a wider perspective and thus rewarded those who had seen other worlds. It may also be partly why I gained levels faster, too, on top of my heroic fragments. Or maybe just a different perspective just gave a more holistic comprehension of powers, thus recognition by the system?

In any case, I would send Lumoof to the other worlds as part of my many other projects to get Core Mana. I also had miners dig into the depth of the world from the already deep depths.

I had mages and others attempting to create a portal into the core itself.

I would have core mana. Then we would take this battle to the demons.

The portal opened, and both Lumoof and Ebon walked out to what appeared to be a massive battlefield with the stench of rotting corpses and blood in the air. Back home, Stella and her team strained a little more than usual. - Weird, felt like I was trying to push through mud. -

The battlefield was littered with corpses, some still looked relatively fresh. This battle wasnÆt very long ago. Maybe a week or a month.

- Ooh. - Yet the first thing I wanted to see was the sky. Lumoof then looked up, and we both saw the glowing, bright astral path through our shared astral vision. LumoofÆs expression paled instantly. - The demon king is here. -

- Here? - Ebon asked. Immediately, he started to look around anxiously.

- No, I mean, heÆs in this world, - Lumoof clarified.

- Oh. - Ebon relaxed. He started to survey the surroundings.

- If the astral path is open, then the invasion is still ongoing. We should spot some heroes, then. -

The corpses were humanoid. At least, some looked like elves and dwarves. Lizard people and drakes, too.

- Where should we go? - Ebon asked, returning from his short walk around. - I see their equipmentÆs rust is quite early - stage. This battle mustÆve been just about two to three weeks old. Strange no one raided their equipment. -

- Demons donÆt need equipment. -

- Ah yes. I forgot since we had the parasites. - Ebon answered.

Lumoof paused, and I briefly entered the avatar - mode. I felt my senses extend through the ground, and the world around us? -

There was a loud explosion in a particular direction, carried by the winds, and there was very visible magic flying through the sky. Lumoof and Ebon exchanged glances.

- If thereÆs fighting, thereÆs people, - Lumoof answered. Ebon nodded. Lumoof activated his domain skill on Ebon, and EbonÆs body glowed, supercharged. He ran, his speed almost as fast as the heroes through the battlefield.

It was quite far away.

Both Lumoof and I could see through Ebon with LumoofÆs ability, and we saw an army of lizardmen, at least two thousand of them, battling an army of at least ten thousand humanoid demons. These demons were armed with reddish demonic weapons. They were awfully familiar, like the ones that gave me the Forest Rod .

Was this a rehash of the demon-walker champions? The ones that triggered the huge calamity of the Central Continent?

I felt a little tingle of fear through my senses.

The lizardmen were outnumbered, and we saw the very familiar demonic knights and demonic generals.

- Lumoof, itÆs Demon King Sabnoc again. - Lumoof was a baby when the Sabnoc incident happened, but it was mandatory education for the Valthorns on the origins of the Rottedlands.

- Sabnoc, here? -

- Maybe not Sabnoc, but those demons are from that generation of demon kings. There will be Hytreerion - type champions! -

- Ah! - This world was faced with a large - scale invasion of demons.

Lumoof ran as fast as he could, which was really fast, but it still took him longer to arrive in the battlefield. The lizardmen were already fighting the demons, and they were the ones unleashing their magical spells and projectiles.

Ebon smashed into the center of the demon army like a descended god, and his large gladius glowed green from power. Ebon, for the purposes of this battle, received one of the Court of the Deitree slots, which complemented his close - combat battle skills with my own wide - area abilities, like Rooting Fields .

The lizardmen clearly didnÆt expect the assistance, and the sight of Ebon as a single, supercharged individual able to easily defeat tens of these normal demons per swing seemed to raise their morale.

- Aura! - Lumoof mentally spoke to Ebon. - Activate the demon-suppression aura! -

He had a weaker version, but it helped slow down the demons a little bit, such to give the lizardmen army some breathing room.

The demon knights and general - types clearly noticed Ebon, and they charged at him. But if Lozanna at level thirty could fight a demon knight, Ebon at level one hundred ten could kill a few of them in a single swipe. They really were not much now.

Only champions could give Ebon a challenge, so Ebon slaughtered the demons like the worthless things they were. When Lumoof arrived a little bit later, the victory was certain. Once he was in avatar mode, the demons were killed quickly, the full strength of my demonic suppression aura flooded the battlefield, and they were as good as motionless statues.

The lizardpeople then easily cut down the army of demons, and the battle was over.

A group of heavily armored lizardpeople immediately approached Ebon. - We, the army of the Alderri City, thank you for your assistance in the battle with the demons! -

Ebon, who was in heavy armor, nodded in his helmet. Lumoof moved to join Ebon. - This is Lumoof, my superior. I am Ebon, a knight. -

- Greetings! - Lumoof said. - I hope we did not interrupt much? -

One of the lizardpeople laughed awkwardly. Their leader stared at the laughing lizardperson, and he immediately quieted down. - Ah. In fact. we were prepared to fight to the death to hold the demons back. Our reinforcements were delayed by a few days. -

Lumoof nodded. - All right. Would you mind filling us in? I must admit IÆm new to the region. -

That made the lizardperson leaderÆs eyes twitch. - IÆm afraid I donÆt understand what you mean by that. -

Lumoof smiled. - We teleported here. From a really, really far place. So I need a briefing. Everything, really. -

One of the lizardperson immediately asked, - Are you the heroes? -

That lizardperson was promptly slapped by the one next to him. - Are you stupid?! Heroes are always young teenagers! These two guys look like war veterans. -

The leader stared, and the two bickering lizardpeople immediately quieted down. - IÆm afraid I will have to invite you back to our city and uh. let the proper person answer you. -

- Please. - Their city was really a fortress, a huge structure with thick, multi - layered walls meant for siege battles. Magical enchantments covered the walls, and there were magical formations and traps scattered around them. They were clearly geared for war.

In fact, the guards were hugely surprised to see the army returning at all. The doors flew open, and a group of elves and lizardpeople came out to greet them.

- General! How?! YouÆve pushed them back? -

One of the elves hugged the lizard - leader. He patted the heavily armed young teenage elf on the head. - Shush. We have honored guests who came to our rescue. I must take them to meet the council now. -

- But. - The elf looked tearful.

The lizard general said firmly, - I live, son, when I was meant to die today. It is already a miracle, so wait. Let me take the guests to the council. - The elf nodded, and the general turned to Lumoof. - Please, Lord Lumoof and Ebon. -

The council was a group of humans, lizardpeople, and elves. About the same as the corpses we saw from the previous battlefield. Everyone was heavily armed.

The general gave the introductions, and the council was blunt with its questions. - Where are you from, exactly? There are no known individuals with your type of combat abilities left. -

Lumoof thought for a moment and decided to go for the truth. - Another world. But we are not heroes. Just a neighboring world. -

There was an audible gasp from the entire council. - How? -

Lumoof smiled. - Classified information. At this point, I can see that all of you need help. But, first, fill us in. What exactly is going on in this world? -

One human leaned forward. - We really do. Are there more individuals like yourself? -

- Maybe, - Lumoof answered.

The human councilor looked at the rest, as if waiting for something. The lizardman councilor nodded and spoke. - At this point, we need everything we can get. If there are no objections, IÆll do the walkthrough. -

We listened as the council - lizardperson explained that the demons arrived sixteen years ago, and the heroes went to defeat the demon king. At first, to the people of this world, it was business as usual. But the heroes that went to defeat the demon king did not do so, and it seemed like all news of the heroes had since vanished.

The demons then resumed their expansion, and the entire world turned into a battlefield.

Their priests attempted to divine the nature of what occurred, and they discovered that the heroes were defeated and almost all of them killed. Except two, who were somehow captured by the demon king. Captured, and not killed, so no new heroes were summoned to the world.

At that point, I suddenly wondered what would happen if Alexis was never killed.

This world was one with many high mountains and mountain passes, so most kingdoms and nations had easily defended chokepoints. Thankfully, the demons did not have many flight - capable creatures, and even their demon generals were only able to fly a short distance.

Thus, for the whole of the last decade and more, it was a continuous and never - ending battle against the demonic armies. The worldÆs nations stopped fighting, as every combat - talented person was drafted to join and defend the world against the demonic armies.

- What of the demon king? - Lumoof asked.

- The demon king appears to be a large, stationary castle. -

Lumoof cursed. - ItÆs Sabnoc again. -

- Sabnoc? -

- We had a demon king that created these demonic armies. It was called Sabnoc. -

- Hmm, this demon king is called Akkila. -

- How do you respond to champion - class demons? - Lumoof then asked.

- Our relics. The hero items. The joint command of elite forces handle these items and move them to where the champions are sighted. -

- Ah. - ThereÆs a regional joint command that moved these things around to help push the demon champions back. - The hero - items need time to recharge. -

The councilors nodded. - Yes. So over time, we still lose ground. The demons can outnumber us and field champions repeatedly. Our warriors can gain levels, and we do have strong elites from those who survived multiple battles, but itÆs a balance thatÆs not in our favor. -

Lumoof nodded. - So everyone who can fight fights. -

- Yes. Our old luxuries had to cease. There really was no other way. Our people must fight, make items to support the war effort, or produce food and supplies. -

One councilor interjected, - Are you able to bring us to your world? -

- Are you thinking of leaving already? - Another councilor immediately stood up.

Lumoof smirked. - There are demon kings in our world, too. -

That same councilor paled. - Surely with powerful individuals like yourself? -

- All it takes is one demon king with the right skill sets and weÆre still doomed. - Lumoof didnÆt let him finish.

The entire war council nodded in agreement. The human continued. - We must report your presence to the joint command. -

Lumoof thought about it for a moment. - What if I just decide to go back? -

The human immediately paused, and he prostrated on the ground. - Please. Please help us. Our people have been fighting this war for a decade, and thereÆs no end to it. We need hope. Something to buy us time. -

- Buying time for what? - Lumoof asked. A miracle, probably.

The councilman did not answer immediately. - Buy time for us to live a bit longer. -

The general, too, immediately knelt. - Please, Lord Lumoof. Your presence and abilities on the battlefield would help us greatly. -

Lumoof sighed, and I could sense the dilemma in his heart. - It is not what I am here for. -

- WeÆll give you anything you want. -

- Tell me, is there a place where the planetÆs core is exposed? -

The councilors shook their heads at first and then immediately nodded. Lumoof could tell they were lying. Desperation. Exhaustion.

Lumoof looked at Ebon. - Well, letÆs leave this for later. IÆm tired from that battle, and we need a place to rest. -

One of the councilors immediately ran out to make arrangements, and they were given the finest rooms they could manage. It was clear it had not been used or cleaned for months before this. Walking through the streets, everyone was focused on war, but the exhaustion and sense of despair was clear.

Lumoof sat and asked Ebon, - What do you think? -

- We should help. These people look like they need it. Way more than we do. -

I thought back to the Canari people. I helped them, too, and now that I had the power, maybe I shouldnÆt be so selfish. I didnÆt have to take the demon king, either.

All we needed to do was find the captured heroes and free them.

Or kill them, if we couldnÆt.

4

YEAR 204 (PART 2)

Ebon, as a knight, felt strongly about helping these people. As for me, I didnÆt want to take ownership of this conflict and expand my already growing plate. I didnÆt want to play the role of another worldÆs peacekeeper, too.

Still, I did agree that we could have a limited scope of assistance, something more focused. We could either free the heroes or, failing that, kill them, such that the cycle of reincarnating heroes may continue.

As it was, I had at least thirty to fifty individuals like Ebon in the level one hundred category, and this really was another battlefield. Letting them fight another war on another world could help them experience things and prepare them for the coming invasion of the demon world.

Despite my reluctance to assist, Lumoof and some of my Valthorns felt we had the capacity to do more. After the badly handled disaster that was the crystal king, this was our other world left, and Lumoof felt we should try to make allies on this world.

If we help now, we come as saviors. Allies.

These opinions can shift quickly, and I wasnÆt sure what was the political, social and religious sentiment on the ground. A wider scope of assistance may also face pushback, and as the crystal king said, we would be occupiers.

Maybe he wasnÆt that wrong, after all. If the purpose of allies was as a backup if our world fell, we would retreat here as refugees. Eventually, though, we would also transform into occupiers, demanding some of these lands as our own.

Politics was hard. IÆd rather just fight demons.

After a dayÆs rest, Lumoof and Ebon returned to face the council, and Lumoof immediately asked for information on the heroes and where they were captured.

Lumoof could see their eyes light up, excited at the prospect of our assistance.

In truth, they couldnÆt help. This was a border city, a fortress that faced the demon hordes. The information on the heroes and on such grander strategic matters were all deeper in their - protected - hinterlands.

So they proposed to send two messengers, carrying scrolls written by the council, to guide and accompany us to one of their greater cities that still stood. It would be a two - week journey by horse, but Lumoof shook his head at the council.

- Then letÆs use teleportation scrolls. Let not waste time. -

The councilors were horrified at the suggestion. - We mean no offense, Lord Lumoof, but we cannot afford to use scrolls. Teleportation scrolls are only for our elite forces to move to places under heavy attack. -

That was a sensible use of teleportation.

Lumoof coughed. - Sorry, I mean, I have greater teleportation scrolls. I just need some of you to come with me and link me with the right person. My scroll can carry five. I just need one of you who has been to that city to update the location. -

Teleportation scrolls from our world relied on the mana - pathways in the sky, the same way message spells worked. These teleportation scrolls were a step further and could use direct coordinate input, but it needed some tweaking.

- Oh. - One lizardperson and one human stood. - Then we will go with you. -

One of the councilors was a mage, and he stared at the scroll for a moment. - These are really interesting teleportation runes. -

Lumoof coughed again. - Shall we? -

- Ah yes. -

Lumoof and Ebon landed in a large teleportation platform in their magical capital, and when we arrived, we were greeted by an army, ready for war.

There were three relatively high - level soldiers. One was a naga, and the other two were lizardpeople with quite good equipment, their spears and axes up and ready to strike. - Councilman! Explain this unauthorized use of teleportation! -

- Stand down! We sent a message earlier! We are sending VIPs over! - the councilman said.

The high - leveled naga seemed to be a magic - swordsman, judging from the three magic swords he wielded. The naga immediately shouted through its helmet. - The capital has not agreed to your request! The protocol states any use of teleportation must be centrally approved! -

- These two here possessed their own teleportation scroll! Surely that protocol does not apply! -

Lumoof sighed, and then a wave of his power flooded the entire area. - My name is Lumoof, and this is my guard, Ebon. We are otherworldly visitors, ambassadors of our divine protector, A/ . WeÆve come to speak to your mages and your priests and discover what has interfered with the usual cycle of hero - summons. I do not wish to fight, but I can, if I have to. -

The magic swordsman and the rest of the soldiers buckled, just a little, but the difference of power was clear, and when the naga sheathed his swords, the rest did, too. - . very well. -

Lumoof looked at him briefly, estimated he was probably around level eighty - five, and would give Lozanna a run for her money. These were folks that fought many battles over the decades and had gained levels as a result. Lumoof nodded. - Thank you. Now let us see how we may aid this long conflict. -

The level - eighty - five barrier could be surpassed, by sheer force of will, but most mortals would never get there, even if they reached level eighty - five.

The barrier was a cruel one. I didnÆt see why the world had such a silly level limiter. It denied the world of their opportunity to save itself, even when these folks clearly, if they leveled enough, had the chance to do so or at least force the demons to a state of weakness.

Lumoof offered a counterpoint. - In any system that rewards killing to gain levels, those who gain the levels will be those who killed the most. I would think if such powers were not limited in some way, the world would naturally die from its inhabitants killing each other in the pursuit of more power. -

That didnÆt explain dragons, of course. Or why dragons were counterbalanced by their need for huge amounts of rest and sleep that they never actually managed to kill that many people.

Lumoof and Ebon were escorted from the teleportation gates and out to the world. Their magical capital was filled with towers, but they were all shaped for war. There were clearly multiple magical defensive artifacts active, and we could feel their magical energies bouncing off LumoofÆs domain.

We looked up and saw at least three layers of magical shields. Each of these shields were quite weak on their own, but with three, they were a reasonably good defense, even if inferior to my wooden shields.

Everyone was armed, except the children, and there were weapons hung and placed all over many parts of the streets. There were also many children. Actually, come to think of it, there were really a lot of children back in the border city, too.

- WhatÆs with all the children? - Lumoof asked, and the councilman that accompanied us immediately answered. - SomeoneÆs got to fight the wars, so we have many children. -

I couldnÆt help but feel how insane that was.

- The Council of Kings combined their powers to create a continental edict, which means all our children grow up faster than normal, and everyone also gained more experience. About three to four times faster. ItÆs one of the few abilities thatÆs allowed us to hold on in this long battle. -

Ah. That made sense. Lumoof nodded in agreement and commented, - IÆm impressed that the nations actually got their act together and responded to this threat coherently. -

Actually, that was really true. I remembered the nations back in Treehome treating the demon king as the heroes problem. But then again, these guys got lucky, too, that they got a stationary demon king that pumped out demons instead of the usual wandering, trigger - happy nuclear machine gun.

I liked this aspect of these people already. A sense of ownership for their lives, development of the necessary organizations and focus to defend themselves. It really further solidified my conclusion that I should not assist them excessively and focus on a narrow scope. Like a child learning to walk, IÆd be doing them a disservice if I gave them the easy way out. Their bones would not be strong.

If anything, the right thing to do was to help them without them feeling indebted to me, even if I and Lumoof did want allies here.

The two forces of encouraging their independence and self - reliance versus helping them and earning their gratitude battled in my mind. I didnÆt want to contribute a data point toward the argument that their problems would be solved by outside help. IÆd seen enough of that in my world, and it was irritating.

I knew the knights and priests would generally prefer to provide aid where able. It was how they were trained and raised in the Central Continent.

The lizard councilperson frowned. - Well, it took two continents to fall under complete demonic rule and tens of millions of dead citizens across thousands of fallen kingdoms for us to get our act together. If anything, this war - alliance was written in the blood and bones of the dead. -

Lumoof nodded. - I see. -

The group arrived at a massive temple that was clean, and as we looked around, there seemed to be a lot of students, all in robes. - Junior priests. We need healers on the front lines, and we are mass - training. -

Lumoof was visibly disturbed at how familiar it was. - I must say, I canÆt imagine sending such freshly trained junior priests to the front lines. - As I saw through him, I saw him imagine the young students of the School of Treeology on the front lines, dying to the demons.

- They will level and grow. -

- Many wonÆt survive. -

- But those that do will carry the torch. Such is war. -

- It is horrific, indeed, - Lumoof said. WeÆd seen our own horrible wars. The recent parasite war had been horrifying.

Three heavily armed priests appeared. They had large shields on their backs and magically enchanted war - maces. - Councilperson. Is this the guest? -

The lizard gave them a nod. - Yes. This is Lord Lumoof, Ambassador of A/ . -

The war - priests motioned Lumoof to follow them into the temples. - Come. The high priest will see you. -

The templeÆs inner grounds were clean and spartan. There were gems and gold once, but most of them had been stripped out. The sound of chants and prayer songs filled the halls, and despite it being to another god, Lumoof found it calming and could not help but ask. - Which god do you pray to? -

- Tharaz. The God of Perseverance. -

Lumoof just nodded and walked behind them and soon arrived at a room on the highest floor. Once more, it was probably once a heavily decorated room, but now it was empty. The shelves were all bare. What was left were a few paintings and some writings.

They got to the point immediately. - High Priest, these two claims to be from another world and ask for information on the heroes. -

The high priest glared at Lumoof but then quickly smiled. - ThatÆs a bold claim. -

Lumoof laughed. - It is, isnÆt it? -

- Can you prove it? -

- Yes, of course. - LumoofÆs aura gently filled the room, and the high priest paled.

- . I see. - The high priest and Lumoof sat down. Ebon sat at another chair to the side. - Before that. are there really other worlds? -

- Yes. -

- HowÆd you get here? Scripture and the gods said only they could do it. -

Lumoof frowned at the words but realized he could twist it. - ItÆs not exactly wrong. I would say A/ , my god and my benefactor, is the one who sent me here. -

- Huh, but doesnÆt that make you a hero? -

- No. WeÆre. different. A/ is a relatively new god. The old gods are those that summon heroes to your world and to mine. We donÆt get the hero - type powers. -

- But you feel strong. -

- ItÆs complicated and not something I can share, - Lumoof said. - Now, tell me about the heroes. -

The high priest sighed. - Very well. Truth is what we have was quite vague. We have this hero - item that can locate the hero, and all we have is a location. We know they are alive because the hero - item still works, but the fact that they didnÆt move suggests that they were either captured or unconscious or some degree of both. -

- A location? Was anything done to rescue them? -

- Well, no, - the high priest said with embarrassment.

- Then? -

- Our data is already out of date. The last time we used it was eight years ago. The item ran out of the heroÆs mana a while ago, so we donÆt even know whether itÆs in the right place or whether the hero had moved. We didnÆt dare to send anyone to that location with our poor information, and the demon kingÆs magical structures interfered with all our magical scrying and teleportation abilities. -

Lumoof nodded and realized this part could be relatively easy to solve. - Can we get access to it? -

- ItÆs considered one of our most prized possessions, even if itÆs unpowered. It would need the approval of the Council of Kings and Grand Marshals. But why? -

- Can you get it? -

The high priest stared. - What are you really saying? -

- We may be able to recharge it. -

- How? -

- We have access to the heroÆs mana. A small bit, at least. -

The high priestÆs eyes widened in shock. - You are not lying? -

- No. -

The high priest paused. - But. wait. -

- You need to gather your strongest men. All those level eighties and above. We will provide assistance and cover, but the rescue will be done by your forces, - Lumoof said. He understood that I preferred that these guys help themselves.

- But that would leave some of our cities unprotected. -

Lumoof looked at Ebon.

The high priest sighed. - I will have to raise this to the council. Once we recharge the item, we can decide on the next course of action. -

- Good. -

We were still working on our star mana bombs, and the fact that the demon king of this was stationary raised some interesting questions.

- If itÆs stationary, why donÆt we throw a wide range of bombs at it? - Alka had been working on bombs so much that he pretty much joked that his first course of action was to bomb them. It was only half a joke.

That said, the demon king could just - pretend - that it was stationary. All the previous demon kings that resembled actual castles could float, fly, and move like giant walkers. The current stationary appearance may well be a ruse, or maybe it was just waiting for the heroes.

- If we donÆt try, we donÆt know. -

- Do we really want to trigger an escalation of conflict? Like, this seems to be a rather uncomfortable but stable state for the world, - I said frankly, again. - Attacking the demon king may jolt it out of its current stationary state and cause it to attack the kingdoms directly. Then it becomes our conflict, because we caused it. Worse if we canÆt rescue the heroes. -

It was very easy to stray from our goals. As persons in power, we were frequently petitioned to assist with many things, with very convincing arguments.

I looked at my objectives. I wanted core mana, and my adventure to this mountainous world was to find core mana. As a secondary goal, we would try to make some friends and allies, so that we had somewhere to fall back to, like a backup.

Yet, at the same time, I also realized they had a good thing going for them, and that was their scrappy temperament, perseverance, self - reliance, and sense of ownership. I didnÆt want to snuff that out by playing the role of the outworld helper, even if I knew this path would probably mean more deaths for their world. Once lost, it was hard to get it back without even more deaths.

At the same time, I recognized that I had some self - interest in protecting this world, because since they were so close to me, that meant if they fell to the demons, we could be invaded by the demons more often. This was just my speculation, because StellaÆs view was that it didnÆt work like that. The demons seemed to ignore distance when choosing their targets, because their choice of targets seemed random.

Each world led to other worlds, and Stella was keen to visit the Threeworlds and Mountainworld for herself again and see whether there were other worlds within the range of these worlds.

Anyway, another secondary goal was to look for creatures and powers like myself and make allies.

There was a lot we could do with power. Using them correctly was a far more difficult question. Against these goals, I also posed the questions to my allies.

- As a knight, I would help where I am able. But I do see your point, so perhaps we can come in as a defender of last resort, - Edna said. - We should be invisible, such that they do not count on our help. -

- Are you willing to take over this conflict for them? - Roon disagreed. - I think we may be overstretching ourselves. We havenÆt even really secured our world, and here we are trying to send forces to the other world. WeÆre also waging a war on the parasite world and plan to invade a demon world. We should save our forces. -

- With Stella and A/ Æs ability to teleport us back and forth, weÆre not really overstretching, - Edna argued. - And stretching isnÆt really fair because, well, we gain levels from all of this. -

- The question is simple to me. If thereÆs a demon on our world and a demon on theirs at the same time, where do we fight? The answer is clearly here, because this is our home. ThatÆs not our home, and itÆs not our battle, - Roon countered. - If we accept responsibility for one, are we eventually accepting it for all? -

- I agree that home is where we should protect. - Edna nodded. - But that does make our worldÆs lives more valuable than theirs, doesnÆt it? We have capacity. Many of our level one hundreds are just clearing dungeons. -

- It is a fact that our world is more valuable. They are unfortunate that they do not have an A/ . So it is even more important that their own people rise to the occasion, - Roon countered. - WeÆve seen that a child born in the Central Continent grows up stronger than most in the other continents, and this sort of luck is true across worlds, too. -

- They are level - limited. They canÆt, even if they want to, - Edna responded. - But A/ could. -

- It is a limited resource, but not that limited. I would be willing to give a few if they are worthy, - I responded. I still had a few in stockpile. It wasnÆt even an instant win, because IÆd seen my guys whoÆd gotten the soul seed but never actually did much. I also liked that this was in line with helping them help themselves and did not involve putting my people on the line. - But IÆll need Lumoof to get to know them better before giving them such an item. The last thing IÆd want is to empower someone whoÆd go against me. -

Edna smiled. - Even if you give ten of them seeds, theyÆre a long way from being able to stand against you, A/ . It took us decades of constant grinding to get both Roon and Johann to the domain - tier. I think thatÆs not something to be worried about. Not in the next half - century. -

That was true.

Even if they did turn against me, so what? They couldnÆt travel worlds. Our home base was safe.

So I could help, with very little losses, all the upside with very few downsides. If it went well, weÆd get some friendly parties. If it didnÆt, no major harm done.

5

YEAR 205

It took a while, and a lot of discussions over at the so - called Council of Kings, and a few actual meetings with Lumoof, before they even allowed Lumoof to see the item for himself. Stella couldnÆt teleport the heroes, because their star - mana opposed the void mana too strongly. Not like me, where the star mana I possessed was relatively tiny, but it didnÆt matter.

The object itself was a large, circular, metal disk with many rings. It looked like an ancient feng shui compass, only with a clear glass center. It was created six centuries ago by an archmage hero, and over time, its mana had been exhausted. It was clearly made only to accept star mana, not like the hero - items that were made to accept normal mana.

Lumoof was flanked by ten of their strongest fighters: some mages, some archers, and some knights. It was just security theater, really.

There was nothing they could do if we tried anything.

Lumoof touched the disk, and my avatar descended. All that were present felt my oppressive presence fill the room and the entire building.

I channeled my meager three hundred star mana into the disk, and the disk clearly started to glow. It was thirsty. It was a really greedy disk.

- Hmm. - Lumoof mused. - It still needs more. -

So I had to borrow. Prabu gladly volunteered. I wrapped my vines around his body, and he sent his star mana into my body. I weaved it through myself and through the avatar into the disk.

The disk glowed, and this time, it was enough. Lumoof felt uncomfortable, though.

The clear glass turned murky and swirled like a witchÆs cauldron, and then it revealed a location and a vision to all that was present.

The heroes were possessed, one resembled a giant demon knight, and another was inside a demonic cage. Their location was not far from the demon king, too.

- Well. There you have it. The heroes, - Lumoof answered as my presence faded away. - Are you ready to free them? -

Lumoof sat in their magical archives; there were just a few mages here. These archives used to have hundreds of mages, all pouring over where to push their magic. These days, every single mage was working in the workshops, making weapons, or fighting in the battlefields.

- Not here. - Lumoof sighed. Our quest for core mana in this new world was fruitless. Not here, not Threeworlds. It seemed that we would need Stella here if we wanted to find somewhere else with core mana.

- Is this core so important? - one of the local dwarven mages asked. She had been tasked to attend to LumoofÆs queries.

Lumoof nodded. They had relatively good maps, at least from a decade or two ago, before the demons invaded. I felt like I was missing something.

Why was there a stationary demon king? It wasnÆt the first time the demon king had been stationary, but. why?

Sometime later, Lumoof and Ebon met the group gathered for the mission of rescuing the heroes.

They were all level eighties, the highest among them level eighty - seven, a dwarven magical maceman of some kind. He was the stereotypical dwarf, with a grumpy attitude. Because of how extensive and long the war was, there were about fifty of them around level eighty, but only about twenty would join the mission.

The initial concept was a small, dedicated strike team.

- Are you the upstart who called us here? - the dwarf said.

Ebon hid his aura well and shook his head. - That would be my superior, Lord Lumoof. This idea of rescuing the heroes was our benefactorÆs suggestion. -

Lumoof smiled at the dwarf, and the dwarf walked closer to Ebon and sniffed. He returned the smile afterward. - Well, at least weÆre dealing with guys who can put their lives on the line. - Ebon shrugged as they activated the fully - recharged hero - item. A group of mages explained the location of the possessed heroes.

- WeÆll do the rescue? - the group asked. - Against possessed heroes? -

- Yes, - the local archmages said. - Our current situation has been a stalemate for too long. -

- But then our defenses? Who will handle it, then? -

- The rest of us will have to just hold out. -

One of the lizardpeople looked at Ebon and Lumoof. - What if this is just a trap to weaken us? If all of us die, we just lost twenty of our strongest fighters. These guys are from another world, and maybe they are here to invade us. -

The dwarf nodded. - Exactly. Since they are suggesting it, shouldnÆt they help us out? Not just that, how are we expected to deal with the possessed heroes? We canÆt just kill them, right? We need the heroes alive. Somehow. -

- We certainly have no intention of anyone dying on this mission. We will go with you, though our role will be minimal or only where your team does not have the capability. Are there any strong priests who are good with high - level exorcisms? - Lumoof answered.

There was a collective head - shake. - Our strongest priests are heavy healers and buffers. Exorcism isnÆt something we have to deal with. -

- In that case, if there are no further objections, I would like to handle the exorcism of the heroes. I would need the help of everyone present to keep the rest of the demons at bay and weaken the possessed heroes. -

- So weÆre bodyguards, - one of them answered.

- Perhaps. - Lumoof smiled. - Ebon will stay back and support the defense, if there are any particularly strong attacks during this period. -

- One person is not sufficient. -

- Across all the theaters of battle, certainly. But if there are any huge threats, he is more than sufficient. -

The plan was relatively simple. A small group would teleport as close as possible, then rush for the possessed heroes. The hero - item confirmed that the heroes were still in the same location, and twenty - two level eighties and an assortment of level fifties from their various armies joined the force, mainly as support.

Level eighties put them in the same category as Lozanna , so twenty - two of them were a very decent fighting force. This group could take down demon champions easily, even without the hero - items.

Some of them had anti - demon abilities, too, thanks to the decade - long endless conflict. The system favored conflict and awarded those who struggled really long against it.

Lumoof had to just tag along and follow the group as they pushed through the demon territory. Not all of it was occupied; after all, these type of army - demons favored ley lines as their bases. Where there were no ley lines, these places were sparsely guarded, even if there were regular demonic patrols.

The only reason the locals hadnÆt taken these territories back was because of how vulnerable their location was to the demons from the nearby demon bases.

- You said you were from another world, - the group asked as they made their way to their first rest spot. - How? -

- My patron has a way of opening portals to another world. This world is just in the same neighborhood. -

- How is it there? -

- From what I can see, weÆre very similar. We also have regular demonic attacks, but weÆve not had a situation like this, - Lumoof answered.

- I always thought heroes could never be possessed by demons, - one of the mages on the trip said as they discussed the idea of a possessed demon. - Guess what the temples tell us isnÆt always true. -

Lumoof laughed. - Honestly, they donÆt know any better. The gods donÆt exactly communicate much. -

- But yours does. -

- Well. thatÆs because my patron is a rising native god. A/ lives on our world, and A/ gets stronger over time. Have you spoken to your gods? -

All of them shook their heads, and I was secretly impressed by LumoofÆs clever sowing of doubt. - How powerful is A/ ? -

Lumoof grinned at the question. - IÆm sure anyone here knows that power isnÆt so simple to explain, especially with the way classes work at high levels. In A/ Æs field of mastery, I would say A/ is unparalleled, just like how IÆm very good at what I do in my field. My companions are similarly powerful in their chosen field. Power isnÆt a linear scale. -

They nodded in agreement. One of the knights present couldnÆt help but ask, - Sir Lumoof, may I ask. what level are you? -

Lumoof smiled as they took the bait. - More than level one hundred. -

There was a collective gasp. - How? We all stagnant in our level eighties. -

The dwarf rolled his eyes. - You donÆt really need us to protect you. -

Lumoof didnÆt respond to the dwarf and instead looked at the rest. - The system limits most of us to the level eighties, and only a rare few can break through with incredible force of will. But my patron, A/ , is a Spirit Tree, a master of souls and spirit. -

We had their attention.

- And he has a special fruit that can break through the limitations of our souls so that we can ascend even higher. -

There was a collective silence as they digested the statement. The dwarf asked, - Ebon. That knight of yours. HeÆs level one hundred, too? -

Lumoof nodded. We would rest in this quiet mountain for an hour.

- Do you still need the heroes? -

- Yes, - Lumoof answered without a doubt. - Even with our levels, the gap between us and the heroes is incredible. Even my patron, A/ , cannot stand against the demon king alone. We still need the heroes. -

For now.

The group present digested LumoofÆs words, but eventually one of them approached Lumoof during the break. - How do we get that fruit? -

Lumoof shrugged. - It is A/ Æs to give, not my decision. -

- Can we have an audience somehow? - Greed. Lumoof sensed it. A lust for power. Lumoof smiled and shrugged again.

- Perhaps. -

That started a torrent of inquiries as the others all asked for it. They all believed they could go further. Lumoof just nodded, shrugged, and repeated that it was not his to give.

But LumoofÆs abilities as a priest allowed him to measure the weight of each of their personalities, and he concluded that only three persons may be worthy: the dwarf, one of the knights, and one of the rangers.

Rest time was over, and the group continued. We met more demons, but the group was strong enough that they crushed them easily. Only champions would really delay them, especially a small group like this.

In a large - scale war, it was very easy to attack, especially with a small, highly powerful mobile force, but very hard to defend when the attacks could come from anywhere. It was this observation that led to the plan to attack the demon worlds preemptively.

Offense was focused. Defense was spread out. The sheer speed with which the group cut through the demonÆs territory and toward the possessed heroes was evidence.

The group arrived at the possessed heroes supposed location within two days. There were just one demon champion there, and a horde of the regular mobs. Easy pickings for the group.

Of the two heroes, only one was able to fight, and even so, they couldnÆt use the heroÆs powers, only a limited range of abilities, derived from demonic mana from the possessing demon. The giant demon knight fought the group, but the group of twenty - two level eighties outnumbered them.

Lumoof stayed back and watched. He did use a blessing or two to help those in trouble, but this was their fight.

The champion was slain, and the demon knight - hero was quickly defeated.

One of the mages blasted the ground, and we soon found the cage. It was a massive demon, and the hero was wrapped in tentacles and demonic organs.

- All right. This is where we step in. - Lumoof nodded, and he moved toward the cage. The living demonic cage wriggled as it attempted to defend itself. Lumoof merely placed both of his palms on the demonic cage itself, and then my Avatar descended.

My presence instantly caused the demons around us to freeze, and their movements slowed to almost a halt. The wriggling cage whimpered, and my mana pumped through the LumoofÆs body.

The demon knight also wriggled and struggled, but with my demonic suppression aura, the mages quickly disabled it in a cage of magic.

It wasnÆt hard to flood the demonic cage with my mana; this was easier than the demon king by a mile. My mana pumped through cage, and within ten minutes, I felt the demonic cage itself transform.

The cage wriggled and shrank into a small wooden chest.

Natural Mana Overwhelming has assimilated the demonic hero - cage mimic. Demonic Hero - Cage Mimic transformed into a Tree - Cage - Mimic.

The hero trapped within collapsed, pale, unconscious but alive. A shot of healing later, color returned to his face, but he still needed to rest. - Take care of him. Let me deal with the other one. -

The wooden chest jumped onto LumoofÆs back. The group of fighters present stared. - That? -

- Oh, ignore it. ItÆs part of my patronÆs powers. -

Lumoof walked to the weakened demon knight. The effects of my aura essentially meant it was quite weak. I wondered whether I couldÆve saved Alexis back then if I had the strength I had now. I probably could.

Funny how things repeated themselves. I supposed when one lived for so long, one couldnÆt help but notice the way things repeated, just in different iterations and forms.

Lumoof touched the demon knight at the head. It struggled but was disabled by the power of my aura and the spells of the mages.

Again, we flooded it with my mana, and the giant demon knight shook violently. This one refused to be assimilated, and rather than let my mana overwhelm it, it attempted to kill the hero within. But my mana had already flooded every bit of its body, and I quickly protected the hero.

The demon knight exploded to reveal an unconscious young human girl within. We also healed her, and it was time to get out.

Getting out was easy. A small group was incredibly mobile.

The demons did not launch any large - scale attack during the time, which was rather strange. Ebon didnÆt even have to fight during the three days.

The heroes regained consciousness on the second day but remained groggy and were rather zoned out. They were already fully healed physically, but their star mana took some time to restore itself, and their souls were weakened from the prolonged possession.

Everyone gave them space to recover. They were teenagers, thrust into the role of a hero by gods that treated them like disposable tools.

Once we reached the city, the two heroes were in better shape and began to talk about their fight. They were essentially underleveled. Their entire party was only in their level eighties because they didnÆt farm enough demon champions. This demon king didnÆt produce that many champions in the first place, preferring massive armies. But these individually weak massive armies didnÆt help them level.

So when they got to the demon king, the demon king easily overwhelmed them and consumed them. It killed the rest and captured the two of them.

From what the heroes shared, I realized that the demon king may have a certain range of demon-creation abilities, as they could create these demonic cages and the possession demon. That meant the demon king was essentially the tactical mind behind the entire demonic invasion, even if some of it was delegated to the stronger demons.

With the heroes returned, there was a sense of excitement in the councils. The heroes were still compelled by their hero class to defeat the demons, and they seemed eager to return to the field within two weeks of their freedom.

- They really are children, - Lumoof said. - I felt it only a bit with Prabu and the rest, but these two really felt like children to me. -

- Teenagers. -

- Still children. - Lumoof sighed. - Such great responsibilities in the hands of the young, and thereÆs not a trace of guilt among the kings for letting them do it. -

Defeating the demons didnÆt gain levels, sadly.

Thanks to the success of the rescue mission, the Council of Kings had increased trust in Lumoof and Ebon, and we were given access to many parts of the civilized worlds. The heroes, of course, realized their mistake and went about farming demon champions. With the heroes returning to the battle with their heroic powers, they made noticeable gains against the demons within months.

We were given a small escort, and we visited many of their cities and temples and, more importantly, places where we suspected may have things of value.

We found one soon enough, practically hiding in plain sight. In the center of one of the largest cities, there was a massive park with an ancient tree. Thanks to the war, there wasnÆt much maintaining it.

The rest of the park was an overgrown mess, but we sensed it the moment we were in the city. We headed there immediately. Lumoof looked at the overgrown park, and we gradually made our way in. We didnÆt cut any of the trees or vines, but we felt the pulsing presence of something smaller.

A tree spirit, like myself.

Smaller, and not yet a domain holder, because Lumoof instantly detected it wasnÆt very high level. Only about level eighty, despite its extremely old age.

- Greetings, - Lumoof said.

There was no response, and Lumoof got closer and placed his hand on the treeÆs trunk. In an instant, I felt a mental connection.

Greetings, I said through Lumoof.

I was instantly flooded with images.

Greetings. It sounded old, like a very tired grandmother.

I am A/ , a tree spirit from another world, and Lumoof is my avatar.

Well met, A/ and Lumoof. I am Tgtherian, a tree spirit.

Yes. It is always pleasant to meet another of my kind, I said. Generally tree spirits had been. nice.

Ah. Our kind are few. Many trees are cut down before our consciousness can fully form. I reckoned it took centuries for that to happen. A soul only took root in a tree after a certain size and age.

Tgtherian didnÆt know much. She was about eighteen hundred years old, but it spent most of that time in this park, from a small sapling, and she gained consciousness and awareness about fifteen hundred years ago. She leveled slowly, even though she offered familiars to druids, shamans, and rangers. She didnÆt have the hero fragments supercharging her experience.

Because she was relatively - young, - she didnÆt remember about the Will of the World or any other such things.

A shame, but I supposed I couldnÆt expect every spirit I met to be as powerful as me. Many would be below level one hundred.

Now that I met another tree spirit, I wasnÆt sure what I was about to do with it. I decided to just leave her alone for now.

Stella continued to experiment with the rift gates with Alka. Alka already made his first prototype star - mana bomb, and he came with a rather interesting idea.

- A/ , do you think you can fuse a soul with the bomb? -

- You want to make a sentient bomb? -

- Yes. Our theory is that souls can reduce the decay from storing star mana or void mana. But IÆm also interested in whether it can function as a regulator of the star mana, if the storage function is handled by the hero - item. -

Prabu made it with the hero forge , but Alka wanted to see whether there was potential for hero - made items and souls to coexist together. Hero - made items didnÆt leak star mana that much, due to some unknown mechanism, so Alka wanted to inject a soul within it to examine how that worked.

It didnÆt work. The hero - item rejected my attempts of inserting an artificial mind into it. - Nope. -

- Darn. -

It would be quite overpowered if it could.

On the parasite demon world, we started deployment of my newly developed treechikomas, version one. That was the name I gave for the walking tree - labs that were a hybrid between a demon walker, a beetle, and a lab, invented, or really modified, from a demon walker - base - courtesy of my Tree of LifeÆs evolutionary powers.

Treechis, for short.

The Treechis, each of them with their own artificial minds, were assigned to scan and examine the demonworld in more detail, with more - active - and - live - testing with their ability to directly perform tests.

The Treechis each had a different type of lab on their back, were each about the size of a small car, and worked in teams of five. They would test the soil, test the mana, and perform examinations in contested territories.

For now, they didnÆt produce any spectacularly groundbreaking findings, but all the little bits of new data helped push my knowledge of the demon world and supported our researchers out in the fields.

Along with the Treechis, we also began experimenting with specialization of the Treefolks and Lizardpeople of the Central Continent, through thematic use of my new evolutionary - inherited skill powers.

Our goal was to create natural - born, - skill - engineered - specialists, even if it did feel like I was robbing these guys of - choice. - Like, what if a Treefolk who was born with a natural skillset for healing and defense wanted to be a fighter? Or a lizardperson who inherited a bunch of spear skills wanted to be an archer?

Then again, that was how it was in our world, too. Not everyone had the physique to excel at certain kinds of activity.

Oh well. For now, the treefolks seemed all right with the inserted skill - experimentation. I started with simple skills harvested from some fallen paladins and knights, such as Demonic Resistance , and skills from some of the rangers, such as Strength . I wanted to see the implications of having inherited skills in young babies and how they manifested.

I didnÆt want super - powered little babies killing their caretakers.

6

YEAR 206

Lumoof announced their plan to return to the others, and strangely, they asked to watch his return. We consented, since, well, there was no real risk. It wasnÆt as if they could replicate it anyway.

Or maybe they could if they had some kind of hero artifact with spell - copying abilities, but I highly doubted it.

In any case, trying to get Stella to open a portal where we wanted her to was actually quite hard. One of the methods we found to help Stella find where to place the portal was to connect her to me and, via dream academy , share LumoofÆs location to her. It enabled highly accurate portals across worlds, but only around individuals I could sense, like Lumoof and the Valthorns. It was also slow, because the process of sharing the location took a while.

She described that each world was centered around the planetÆs core. Not the star or the sun, but the planetary core. So a portalÆs position was calculated relative to the core, and the core itself had a bubble that protected it from portals or any spells.

Anyway, the portal of void opened in the chambers. Everyone gasped as they saw a portal materialize out of nowhere. The heroes were busy hunting demons, and they didnÆt come.

From what we understood, they were about level one hundred now; it took a while for them to regain their pace. TheyÆd been asleep and weak for so long that even though they wanted to fight the demons as a result of their compulsion, their bodies struggled.

- Will you be back? - one of the dwarven strategists asked.

- With the heroes back in action. maybe not. Unless the heroes need our help to take on the demon king. -

- They did say they would appreciate the help. -

- Then IÆll see what I can do. But for now, duties back home require my urgent attention. - Lumoof gave everyone watching a wave, and they stepped through it.

- Lady Lozanna , free to talk? - Prabu and Ken approached her one day after her class at the Valtorn Academy. Lozanna Æs role in the Valthorns had declined significantly, and she had quite fully transitioned to the role of an administrator and trainer, a bit like what Yura did for her.

- Ah. Yes. - They met at one of the many cafes along the streets of Freshka. - Is this confidential? -

- Quite. -

Lozanna nodded and took out one of the standard privacy artifacts given to all Valthorns. It created a small bubble of magic around them that blocked sound. But it didnÆt block me. Because a little bit of my roots were inside the bubble.

- WeÆre thinking of pitching an idea to A/ and Stella, and we want your thoughts on what you think A/ will think. -

Lozanna laughed. Lozanna , Laufen, and Yvon were all sought after, even as their roles had changed. They were the go - to persons for the pre - pitch assessment. Essentially, the equivalent of having someone who had a lot of experience looking through their resume. - Yes. ThatÆs what I do in my spare time these days. So. Hit me with it. -

Ken coughed. - WeÆre thinking that A/ should start the equivalent of the multiverse League of Heroes. -

Lozanna stared and then coughed. - Sorry, I donÆt understand. -

Ken paused as he realized Lozanna may not comprehend references. - So. Each habited, civilized world has their own heroes, and frequently, we are all stuck trying to fight each demon king by ourselves. -

Lozanna caught on immediately. - But A/ can consolidate all the power, so that you can hit the demons with the power of heroes from multiple worlds. -

Ken smacked the table. - Exactly! ThatÆs what we want to pitch. This combined force can also function as a reclamation force to retake worlds lost to the demons. -

Prabu added, - Each demon kingÆs powerset is tailored differently, and the heroesÆ. Each of us have a different power meant to counter our generationÆs demon king. So our responses to different types of demon kings are essentially less effective because our matchup sucks. But, if we get other heroes who are meant for different types of demon king, we could cover up for our shortfall. -

- Yes. Stella currently needs void mana for her portals, which means us heroes canÆt use her methods. But A/ Æs clone - body teleportation doesnÆt need void mana, which means heroes could move through it. A/ can essentially be the tree that links all the heroes together. -

Lozanna nodded. - I think A/ would be keen to listen, but it does require friendly heroes. Heroes that can play by A/ Æs rules. There are risks to it. IÆm sure you are aware that A/ Æs naturally cautious with you guys due to the powers you all have. -

Prabu nodded.

- A/ Æs actions are also often misunderstood, as his perspective is very broadly zoomed out. A/ is probably not keen to play coordinator for heroes, so one of you must be willing to step up for that. -

Prabu nodded and looked at Ken. - Actually, I have just the candidate. The guy whose superpower is his knowledge of tropes. -

- Fuck that. - Ken looked back at Prabu.

- Lozanna has a point. ItÆs your idea. You have to manage it. You canÆt just propose ideas and expect others to run it for you, - Prabu responded.

- What if these other heroes try to kill me? - Ken said. - IÆm powerless! -

- That could be your advantage, really. ItÆs because youÆre now outside this whole setup that you could be the manager! - Lozanna answered, and Prabu nodded along. - I do think it is a worthwhile setup and could serve to bring all these worlds closer. -

- . IÆll need to think about it. - Ken wasnÆt keen on it.

But I quite liked the idea of a combined hero - force, but that essentially meant I had to invest my tree of clones in both Threeworlds and this mountainous world.

I liked that I had one tree on the moon, another on the demon world, and another one on the remnant cometworld drifting through the vast void sea. They felt strange and unique enough to deserve one of my clones.

Back home, the pathway to the next demon world was getting quite clear in our sky, and Stella was a little. excited. I wasnÆt sure whether AlkaÆs research craze was spreading or if she was really thrilled by the prospects of visiting another world with the rift gate instead of her own powers.

The rift gates were tweaked to enable almost anyone to use them. At least, in theory, I should be able to dump an entire army of Valthorns on the demon worlds without the need to deploy my clone.

The army was tense, and we gathered what was nothing less than an invasion force, really. What the demons did to us, we would go full reverse uno and invade them first.

Our first victory condition was simple: capture or destroy the rift gates so that we could stop their ability to send mobs across the stars. It was the military equivalent of destroying their landing ships and aircrafts.

Our second victory condition, which was not so critical, was attempt to defeat the demon king on their home world. This would require deployment of my clone, since only through the clone could I send the heroes. But we had a debate whether to deploy my clone or not. My clone would significantly add combat strength to the demon world, but I wasnÆt sure whether I could sustain battle on two demon worlds simultaneously.

Not yet, not until the mana from Parasiteworld recovered.

My team commented that if I was not there, then it made this battle far riskier. They did not have an exit plan. It was only this portal, and what if the demons interrupted it?

For those with my Court of the Deitree familiars, I could even summon them directly. But that was a very small contingent.

A point which I agreed with. I wasnÆt sure whether I wanted to invest my clone on this other world. I was torn between deploying it on the two worlds or invading this world directly. Honestly, we also didnÆt know for sure whether that - deep hole to the core - and the - tower of void mana - was something common across all the demon worlds.

As it was, Alka planned on the assumption that these towers were universal, that the mechanism of creating demon kings and the process of sending them across the stars were largely identical. Even if it didnÆt work out, there were ways to abuse a star - mana bomb, and the technological knowledge from developing such weapons was useful.

Anyway, in the end, we decided that my clone would be deployed at the last minute, once we confirmed that it was possible to assault the demon king. We would choose a better location this time. Ideally next to the tower of void and the deep hole.

If all went well, then the heroes would join us for the battle against the demon king. If not, they would stay back on our world and watch the chaos unfurl.

All this knowledge was gradually uploaded to my tree of knowledge, the Registree. It had been growing since IÆd gotten it almost sixty years ago.

The hope was that through knowledge accumulation, even if we lose Alka, we didnÆt have to start from scratch.

That was the hope.

The good thing was the Registree wasnÆt a limited tree, just a special type that I could make more of, so I made some extra copies on the moon. I couldnÆt place it in the Cometworld Shard because there was no space.

In any case, deployment of my clone was optional. The team, naturally, had so many questions about an assault, and they raised good questions.

- How do we find the rift gates? - We couldnÆt just blindly attack. They could be located all over the world of the demons, and there was no way we could hit all of them without proper intelligence. Especially since we were holding off my clone deployment until much later. That meant my own vision was out of the picture.

- What if itÆs not hospitable on the other side and we die immediately when we reach it? - That was also a possibility but should not be difficult to solve. My familiars could create a small bubble of atmosphere with some mana - drain, essentially living astronaut suits.

On the rift gates, Stella thus started work on some kind of item that detected other rift gates by tapping into their void mana signature. Essentially, she made a compass that led to the nearest strongest source of void mana.

That was the best we could do at the moment. I would like to have a global view of the demon world, but that would be impossible without some kind of satellite constellation to map the demon world.

It wasnÆt like the habited worlds where there were existing maps to use.

The skepticism and worry among the general forces were quite high, especially since I wasnÆt taking the field myself with my trees.

But with all four of my domain holders taking the field, it shouldnÆt be a problem. At least Roon and Johann should be able to provide significant intelligence data before a full - fledged assault.

Horns and Hytreerion fought many battles on the demon world. The boundaries of places controlled by my trees and those controlled by the demons fluctuated a lot as beetles and demons met on the battlefield. I controlled an area on the demon world that was slightly larger than the size of the Central Continent, and it was at the edges, where my influence was weak, that we saw all these changing borders.

Horns actually got destroyed a few times, but he was able to eject his artificial soul before destruction, and then I redeployed him in new bodies. It was a modification we made to his physical form, as he was really quite fragile when faced with demon champions that popped out with sufficient regularity.

My new treechikomas were busy, too, gathering more samples throughout the land.

It was a large place, even if most of it was empty, and it would take years to completely build a database of the magical energies and data of the land.

I could, in theory, deploy my lab - trees everywhere, but because such lab trees actually consumed mana, I would just make the mana - problem on Parasiteworld worse, and that would increase how long it took to regenerate my beetles.

I could wait decades for the mana of this world to recover, but I also didnÆt want to wait that long.

In theory, if I could gain the mana of the Threeworlds and the Mountainworld, it was possible for it to spend more of that mana here.

Looking at it that way, it sure seemed like my moon base and my Cometworld deployment had a - mana - opportunity cost. - I lost the mana that could be generated by having a clone on these normal worlds in exchange for the novelty and exploratory aspects of the Cometworld, where I could travel to other worlds and see those other places, and for the security of the moon base.

Our treechikomas did find some good hints, though. There were certain rocks with metallic ores that seemed to retain a kind of mana layer, but that didnÆt help us much in terms of identification of dates.

Our digs into the underground also didnÆt reveal much.

I also started to wonder about the system again. There was a missing piece in the game. Something obvious that I wasnÆt seeing or realizing.

So I took some time to do a bit more thinking and tried to understand what was the demonÆs win condition. LetÆs say the demon king won, the demon king defeated the heroes, and the heroes no longer came to the world.

Was that it and they won? The world would automagically turn into a demon world? Essentially, that question could be explained as what made a demon world. a demon world? Why did a normal world, perfectly able to spawn regular stuff before this, stop creating the normal monsters and stuff and start spawning demons?

The only one who saw a world lose was Snek. Lilies didnÆt actually go through the full - loss. -

- I donÆt really know? - Snek answered. - We lost our world to the demons, but we were so afraid that we spent our times running and hiding. -

- Wait, wait, wait. Do you know what happened to the demon king? -

- Not really. It was. there? - Snek answered. - But honestly we were just trying to survive in the underground tunnels that no one checked. -

- But do you have any idea whether the demon king left? -

- . maybe? WeÆre not sure, but I think it probably didnÆt, because the world started to produce demons and probably other demon kings, too. But we were too far from such places to actually know. -

- Wait. - I had an epiphany, then.

If the demon king sent to invade other worlds were products of existing demon kings, then didnÆt that mean there should, in theory, be at least one demon king still on Parasiteworld somewhere, playing the role of the - queen - or a - hatchery? -

Maybe the demon king was just a massive forest rod that captured the core?

This absolutely clicked. No. It explained how such a massive tunnel to the core was created. The demon king that won dug toward the core and captured the core. Through that process, the worldÆs natural spawning mechanism was - converted - to produce demons.

Each demon king was a massive colonization mothership, too. But. how?

That also meant that somewhere in the core of Parasiteworld was a demon king. Perhaps no longer a demon king because it had been deployed to control the core of the world.

If this was the case, I needed to send the heroes to Parasiteworld and attack the core.

Free the core from the control of the demons and that would greatly change the balance of power of our world. Maybe this would also significantly improve the natural mana recovery and get access to the coreÆs mana.

Of course, I then submitted this theory to my domain holders and the other senior leaders.

- DoesnÆt that just mean the demons that won essentially started digging downward? - Lumoof speculated. - But that doesnÆt happen, does it? -

Edna, who was also present, asked, - Are you suggesting an attack on Parasiteworld? A/ , with all due respect, we have no ability to attack two worlds at the same time. -

- I am aware. -

Actually, this cycled back to the mountain world again.

The demon king was not moving.

Was it digging all this time?

- So we have three ways of checking. One, we send the heroes to the parasite demon world and attack the hole to the core. Two, we go back to the mountain world and figure out what the demon king is doing underground. If your theory is right, it should be attempting to reach the core, - Edna repeated. - Three, we also have the rift gate to this new world. If we do fight the demon king on this new world, and our initial conjectures are proven correct, the heroes and us could mount an assault on the core of this new demon world and see whether thereÆs one there. -

Three priorities and I had to decide which one to pursue.

I was keen on the rift gates, so that was a clear yes.

But this would mean all my domain holders would be deployed there in order to achieve my intended objective of denying the next attack. My seed would also be there for a while, at least until the battle was over and everyone was safe back home.

KenÆs League of Heroes would have to wait until this was over.

7

YEAR 206 (PART 2)

Lumoof and Edna were the first to go through. With their abilities, they had little to fear whatever may be on the other side.

The rift gate hummed in a strange sound. Stella and her team of void mages were excited to fire up the rift gate. Our hope was that we would eventually be able to manufacture these rift gates, but for now, I was content with salvaging and pillaging the demons for their rift gates.

I found it silly that the civilized world was the backward one, that we had to resort to pillaging the demons for their interplanar technology.

The Valthorns wargamed this entire operation about fifteen times, tapping into PatreeckÆs mind - reading ability and my Dream Academy as preparations for this special military operation into the demonic lands.

According to the void mages, the rift gate should theoretically be able to send through about one thousand guys before it ran out of void mana, at which point Stella and all would have to recharge them.

Stella could not reach the demon world using her normal void portals, so the rift gate was crucial to ensure that a portal could be opened. Based on what weÆd seen, these demonic portals traveled both ways.

It was time to see whether our plans could survive first contact.

I felt a buzz as we traveled through the rift gates. It was similar to that time when I snuck through using my own roots, but this time, it was Lumoof who went first.

The sky was bright, like an extremely sunny day, and the first thing we felt was the incredibly strong sunlight that burned. Literally.

It wasnÆt fire, or at least fire immunity didnÆt seem to protect against these harsh rays.

Lumoof instantly activated a wooden shield to serve as an umbrella, and even then, the naturally fire - resistant shield still got warm. Items that were not protected quickly caught fire.

It wasnÆt just sunlight, too. It was some kind of magical UV that seemed to heat everything up. For Lumoof, it was still tolerable thanks to his wide range of resistances, and Edna, she was protected by a magical shield.

This was not a good development, since it meant the lower leveled, those in the level eighties and nineties, would have to sit out from the invasion. The mana cost of sustaining a perpetual sunshield would mean their ability to fight would be severely impaired. Even my beetles, unmodified, would find themselves weakened by the incredibly strong sunlight.

There was a bright, glowing white sun that burned overhead, and the place, at first, was just a vast desert canyon, sand, dirt, and rocks of all shapes and sizes.

- Hold, - I told the guys back home and shared our first findings. Our plans designed around a habitable environment had to be immediately scrapped. We had some plans designed around inhospitable environments, but that meant the strike force was now a much, much smaller one, composed of my level one hundred twentyûplus elites.

Alka was keen to go through, but instead, I sent one of my Treechikomas over. I hoped to use it to conduct some experiments? -

It burned to death.

So back to the drawing board. I had to design something with natural shielding, so I sent my minds out to scour our archives and Registree for such items and technologies. We should have some kind of natural shields or design large walkers for it.

Alternatively, we could immediately start tunneling in the sand to avoid the rays and try to bring the fight below ground. But LumoofÆs initial assessment wasnÆt great. The ground was naturally sandy, and our tunnels would cost a lot more mana to maintain.

- Well, spot any demons? - Lumoof looked around, squinting. The large wooden shield acted like a massive umbrella.

Edna looked around, and then we saw them, camouflaged by the sand and the dirt. Giant sand lizards.

- There. - Sand - lizard demons. Their backs looked like rocks, and they blended really well against the canyon. The sand - lizards didnÆt move; they were frozen, unmoving. The only thing that truly made them demonic was very faint reddish lines that glowed with demonic energy.

Edna didnÆt move, not yet, anyway.

All of a sudden, the sand started to shake, and then wind started to blow. We saw a wall of sand in the distance.

- Sandstorm. - Lumoof walked next to Edna, and a shield went up around them. The sand blasted through the surroundings, and the sand actually dealt damage. This was corrosive sand.

- Well, weÆre truly in hostile territory. - Edna smirked.

- Funny, - Lumoof joked as the wooden shields all had sand embedded in them. The sand smashed into the shields repeatedly, and they didnÆt do much damage against those powerful shields. - The lizard should be attacking any time now. -

They didnÆt.

The sandstorm stopped almost as quickly as it came. The sands, once whipped up by the sudden gusts, now fell back to the ground.

The sand - lizards did not move.

Edna and Lumoof shared a glance, and Lumoof asked, - Should we engage? -

- No. LetÆs go find the demon king. -

Lumoof and Edna activated their magical artifacts and started to fly across the terrain. Indeed, moving on foot in this sandy terrain seemed like a huge pain in the ass. Everywhere was sand and rock.

There was no sign of water anywhere but plenty of sand - lizards. As they flew, they spotted other kinds of demonic creatures, too. There were a few sand - serpents and worms - these were more like gigantic wurms with a rocky skin - and then there were these rock - like scorpions and insects, too.

- This entire place is a demonic desert wasteland, - Edna commented and had to stop as the flying artifact ran out of mana. Somehow flying in this place took a lot out of the place, and Edna noticed the magical artifact seemed to drain out quicker than others.

Which, after a little bit of investigation, was due to the sunlight. The sunlight directly damaged magical items and also drained mana out of them. The sun, as strange as it sounded, had a strong magical - ignition quality to it, such that it weakened everything with mana.

- How does a world like this even hold demons? -

We noticed that the demons frequently hid underground, too. Even the massive rockwurms and the serpents all tunneled underground after a while, and they only surfaced momentarily.

I knew that demons were generated by their spawning pools or the spires. But in such a world, where were they?

Edna took out StellaÆs void - mana detector, and it went Æround and Æround like a compass faced with magnetic interference.

- This is strange. -

Was there void mana in the air itself? Or was the sun emitting some kind of void energy? I wasnÆt sure.

The demons were strangely quiet and mostly didnÆt move.

- Are they. only active at night? - Edna speculated. If the sun was so oppressive during the day, it was entirely possible that these demons would only move at night.

Demons were not exactly the type that adapted to their environment. Lumoof similarly agreed with that premise, but then he added, - Then again, this world does seem exceptionally inhospitable that some level of adaptation is necessary. -

It was an interesting idea, of course, to kill demons using a solar death ray. If only it didnÆt kill everything else in the process. In a way, this was like killing cancer with chemotherapy. It also killed the host and was used when there was nothing else that could be done. Even then, demons adapted!

- What kind of demons are these? -

The wind whipped up again, and Edna activated another layer of shields. The sandstorm was not as strong as the first one. No, more importantly, how did they even have rift gates in a world that seemed so hostile? Maybe there were places where there were no sandstorms.

- We wait? - Edna looked at Lumoof. - Or do we keep going? -

Lumoof used a few Inspection on the demons, but it didnÆt reveal anything useful. - If the fact that these demons are nocturnals is true, then it may be a good idea to keep going. -

They kept moving. Edna and Lumoof both had to constantly reinforce their shields. The air was hostile, and I began to suspect that the sun was both anti - magic and some kind of radiation.

Lumoof, while moving, also picked up some of the sand and dirt, which was immediately sent back to our world for testing.

Somehow, it was quite hard to test them, and with stronger prodding, we soon discovered that the sand and dirt of this world had mild anti - magic qualities, and they generally drained and destroyed mana from their environment.

This entire world was an anti - mage world.

I had Lumoof enter Avatar mode and then, though Lumoof, created some trees in the surroundings.

I felt noticeably higher levels of mana loss from each tree, like each of them sucked my mana. This was also a demon world, so the ambient mana generated was low anyway. That meant each tree took more out of me than I put in. The sunÆs strong anti - mana rays also meant my trees were not producing much mana, either, unless we adapted our trees to absorb those rays.

That would need a lot of research.

I was really intrigued.

- The invasionÆs gotta be scrapped. - Lumoof realized that the sheer amount of anti - magical things in the environment meant even maintaining or sustaining a beetle army that also consumed a bit of mana was going to be difficult. - I think our scope of attack should strictly be to destroy the rift gates. if we can find them. -

Not just that, the idea of sending both Prabu and Colette, two archmages to this world probably had to be scrapped. This was essentially sending them to the place where they were least suited to fight. I didnÆt like those kinds of odds, so I wouldnÆt risk them.

If my gut feelings were right, we needed some kind of skill - empowered physical strength to defeat these demons. Taking it further, if the demon king was essentially an anti - magic or super - resistant type of demon king, it meant magic as a whole would be largely useless.

If so, did we need barbarian/gladiator - type heroes?

Anyway, we tested the anti - magic properties against void and star mana and noticed it also dispersed them but at slower rates. That was good news, since, all right, the heroes probably wouldnÆt be entirely useless, just fighting with a handicap. They were slightly more effective on star mana than void mana, but only by a little bit.

The sun was getting dark. There were no moons in this anti - magic demon world, just stars. The skies were incredibly clear, cloudless as far as we could see.

Then we felt the rumbling of the sands. The demons emerged from the sands as darkness fell on the desert. The first thing we saw was their faintly glowing red eyes.

Edna sighed. - LetÆs see how strong they are. -

Lumoof shrugged. - A/ , why not convert some of them? -

It was a good idea. We had to use some skills in order to see them in the darkness, but these sand - demons didnÆt move very fast. Lumoof, in avatar mode, extended our roots everywhere, and with each extension I felt a bit more mana drain on me. Still, I had the mana production of an entire continent, so it wasnÆt that bad.

Then the lizards spat out acid, and I felt that acid pull mana from the air.

The acid smashed into our wooden shields, and though the acidic qualities didnÆt get past the shields, the acid itself seemed to absorb magic from whatever it contacted. It was bizarre to see a shield crumble because its magical energies were siphoned out of it.

Luckily, we had multiple layers of shields, and this time, we channeled a bit more mana into them. The acids didnÆt get through them now, but fighting in this world was going to be very taxing magically.

My roots immediately caught one of the lizard - demons, and I noticed that it was exceptionally tough on the top half but quite soft at the bottom. It would be difficult for a conventional fighter to get to the soft part.

I pumped mana into the lizard continuously. The lizardÆs hard scales started to glow, then it exploded. It ate up a lot more mana than I expected.

My first attempt to capture failed.

Edna noticed something strange as she rotated through her different kinds of shields. - Magical shields suck, but skill - reinforced shields work just fine. The more mana goes into the shield, their acids seem to react against it. A simple steel shield enhanced with non - mana skill would be able to block it just fine. -

That was weird. In truth, the lines between what a - skill - was and what a - spell - was was really. well, non - existent. There were spells that were also skills and vice versa. There were skills that created spell - like effects, like there were Fireballs generated purely out of skill and Fireballs out of mana.

There were skills that used mana and spells that didnÆt use mana and instead used ambient mana. It was a contentious topic.

- As long as we didnÆt use mana, then its natural qualities didnÆt react to it, - Edna said as she deftly cut through the lizard - demon. She had to fight like a close - combat brawler and used spears to lift the lizards upward in order to expose their soft, vulnerable bottoms.

It wasnÆt the worst matchup for us, since Edna was more skill - based, and we had the ability to make more non - mana items. The heroes hero - items, though, were essentially made with mana and would experience weaker performance.

I wrapped my vines around another of the sand - lizards and once more pumped mana through it, this time not as much, and I pierced my roots into its soft belly and attempted to look for its core or heart, if it had one.

The sand and earth trembled. The skies seemed to shift abruptly.

My vines snuck into the body. There was something like a demonÆs core, a stone, really, and it was made of the same rocks of the world. My roots snuck and caught it. Then I pumped mana through my roots and attempted to take over the lizard. The lizard struggled, and it was physically very strong. The stoneÆs demonic mana resisted my mana, and I felt like half of my mana was wasted by the mana - absorbing substances that made up most of its body.

For all its strength, it was no champion. It put up a fight, but my mana still overwhelmed it.

This time, I knew when to stop and stopped when I felt like it was going to blow. I slowed down the rate at which my mana entered the demon and instead circulated my mana within the demon and began to - take control - of the body.

It tingled, honestly. It was as if there was a demonic pianist playing a tune, and I was trying to kick the demonic pianist off while not destroying the piano in the process. It took a bit of holding back, but not everything needed to be hammered by my overwhelming mana.

Natural Mana Overwhelming has assimilated the demonic sand - lizard. Mana - absorbing demonic sand - lizard has transformed into Mana - absorbing sand - lizard.

The lizard whimpered as its reddish glow was replaced by a greenish one. The other sand lizards struggled, and Edna killed them easily once she got used to their movement patterns. These were demons, and they all had a style.

The earth shook, and we looked around. - Well? - Edna asked as she stood in the midst of thirty demonic corpses. - Hmm. they donÆt decay as quickly as the other demons. -

Lumoof nodded, and the whimpering sand lizard crouched. - Strange. Demonic bodies should begin to fade within minutes. -

There was a reason why it was difficult to harvest or recover demonic parts. From what weÆd seen, some demon champions left their bodies behind, but all began decaying and reverting to demonic mana within minutes, even if that process took a while.

- Do you think itÆs the anti - mana qualities? - Edna speculated. - That itÆs interfering with their natural process of returning to demonic mana? -

Lumoof shrugged. - No idea. Maybe these demons are made of real materials, and the decaying parts are only - Lumoof flipped one of the bodies over and noticed some of the softer underbelly decaying as normal. - Yeah. Only parts sustained by demonic mana? -

Edna was quiet as she stared. - Mountain - eater demons? I recall something similar in the really old archives. - She immediately began to close her eyes and expanded her senses. In the darkness of the night, we felt the ground and the sand tremble and shake. I stretched out my senses and realized something had just gone underneath us during the fight, and it was moving. It was as if the entire desert moved.

The anti - magical qualities interfered with our senses, and we didnÆt sense its movement beneath us. It was deep, but the ground moved. At its size, it was probably a demon champion, but it lumbered slowly. I wasnÆt sure because of all the natural dirt and rock really messed with my senses, and I wasnÆt sure whether it was pure rock or part - demon.

Still, I believed it was like a supermassive lizard that took a step every half an hour. It was almost a stationary target.

- Oh great. Mountain - size anti - magical rock demons. - Edna cursed. - WeÆll need miners and magical pickaxes. -

Lumoof squinted his eyes to look in the distance. - I say itÆs a good opportunity for Alka to test out his bombs. He always lamented that the demons are too small or move too quickly. I say one of his bigger ones would take this one out. A bombÆs a good way to level a mountain, especially one that probably seems to be a moving mountain range. -

- ItÆll take a lot of mana to get it to work - Wait. ThereÆs more? - Edna turned and focused her senses even further. This world didnÆt have moons, so it was really, really dark. But she could still feel it, the seemingly synchronized movements.

Lumoof laughed. - Eh, heÆs just gotta wrap up the bomb in one of A/ Æs massive anti - demon spears. Or just get our two new domain holders to pop the bomb right under its belly. -

I wondered inwardly whether this was a good time for strategic banter between my two domain holders.

Edna clapped her hands together. - ThatÆs a good idea! I suppose itÆs time for Roon and Johann to display their new domain skills anyway! -

I had to interrupt. - Guys, whereÆs the rift gate? -

More importantly, how were these things going to get through the rift gates? They were way larger than the largest demon champions IÆd seen so far, unless the rift gate had some kind of temporary shrinkage ability?

Lumoof took out the device again, and it was similarly jammed. - Nope. Not working. Maybe we need Stella here, but thatÆs a risk. -

A small one since Stella also had my Court of the Deitree ability, so I could pull her back if needed.

- Stella? -

Stella paused. - Are these creatures. captured and converted zaratans? -

Huh?

- ThereÆs an uncanny similarity in their nature as moving mountains and zaratans as moving islands. -

- Are you saying these monsters donÆt need rift gates because they can tap into the astral pathways directly? -

- ThatÆs a good point, but no. IÆm saying these guys may be former zaratans. Maybe this world was a zaratan world. -

- I donÆt see the similarity, honestly. Other than their size. - I honestly didnÆt see it. Maybe that they may be reptile - inspired creatures?

- Anti - magical demons. Is that a first? - Chung asked through the magical device. He was somewhere else; we were not sure where. Probably somewhere in the Southern Continent.

- Apparently no, - Colette said as she read the dossier my Valthorns had compiled. - There was something similar many, many years ago. About. twelve hundred years ago. But those were regular - size creatures. Apparently these ones are massive stuff. -

- The demons are out to get us. HowÆd they know we have two archmages on the team? -

Colette and Prabu collectively shrugged. - Random chance, I suppose, or perhaps through the arrangement of demon-king types? I mean, if you know what kind of demon kings you will introduce in a series and what kind powers work against earlier demon kings, you could, without knowing what exactly is deployed, arrange subsequent demon kings to be counters of what countered the earlier demon kings. -

- So youÆre saying this is purely from the demonÆs end and that this arrangement, or sequence of demon kings, is pre - set. They predicted that the previous king would be countered and thus set subsequent demon kings to be counters of the hero counters. -

- Yeah. Like Pokemon. If youÆre going to play a Grass type, and you predict the enemy will make a counter, perhaps Fire type, then you could, without knowing whether itÆs actually a Fire type, set that the Pokemon that follows is a Water type. -

- . that makes sense. -

At which point, Prabu added, - This makes KenÆs idea of a League of Heroes even more compelling, honestly. We could essentially theorize whatÆs a counter for the counter of the current generation. -

Chung paused and thought about it for a moment. - But how are parasites our counters? -

- Maybe thereÆs a sequential pattern, or paired patterns, that only three successive sets of demon kings follow this counter - of - counter pattern. The ones in between are all randomized. -

Chung sighed. - Are we attributing actual intelligence and predictive ability to the demons now? -

- They are intelligent. They can talk. And they can think. They have strategic ability, - Prabu responded. - Even if itÆs just concentrated on each demon king. From what weÆve seen, they are not purely stupid. -

Colette smiled and just stretched. - Maybe the demons are just some kind of ancient, self - replicating war program. -

Chung actually laughed. - ThatÆs my theory, too! -

- Did I tell you Ken thought the demons sounded like some kind of multiverse - wide life - harvesting system? -

ChungÆs face straightened. - DonÆt tell me you believe that. -

- ItÆs possible, I think. Even though we donÆt see any evidence of harvesting. -

- Maybe we lack the tools to see what exactly they are harvesting? -

- What, theyÆre harvesting war energy like Ares? -

- Possible! -

8

YEAR 206 (PART 3)

Iwondered whether the demons essentially acquired their unique skills as a result of adaptations to their current worlds. If so, what kind of world created demons like Sabnoc and their army and encampment style? One of those - quirky - worlds where everything was linked to some capture - the - flag system?

Meanwhile, Lumoof went down and around, and these giant demons created canyons out of their footsteps. Well, not in a single step, but the texture of the sands and rocks seemed to suggest that the entire canyon was formerly just a flat desert, but the weight of these massive demons had essentially carved a path where there was none.

- These demons moved the same path all the time, - Lumoof observed. The night was long. Really, really long. The day - night cycle in this demon world was essentially two full days long.

It strangely repulsed me. A primal part of me rejected such an unusual day - night cycle, and it was uncomfortable, quite like the feeling I got from my clone on the Cometworld Shard.

- But why? -

Magic was really, really faint here. The sands and everything absorbed mana, but yet the demonÆs heart clearly had some demonic mana. Did the rocks release the mana eventually?

The labs back home studied it intensely, and then they tested a small spot by overloading it with mana. The sand exploded, and that explosion released mana. My researchers and Treechikomas quickly suggested that the demons rocks absorbed mana, and through a series of - controlled - overloading of mana released the absorbed mana through these explosions.

But it was a net loss. The very nature of the sand drained mana from its surroundings and accelerated the decay of magical things.

Then we had the very obvious answer. Crushing the sand released small amounts of mana. Essentially, the demons ate the anti - mana rocks for the little bits of mana within them. So they became the anti - mana demons.

There was no vegetation whatsoever, and I wondered if it wouldÆve been really easy for the demons to conquer this world, since there was no resistance.

The demons continued to walk and walk, and when the sun began to peek out of the horizon, they all stopped. They shook their bodies and then sat down. They hid their legs, their heads underneath their massive body of the anti - mana rock and sand.

At that moment, they were very animal - like, and I felt a sense of wonder. These massive creatures were wonders in their own way, even if they were demons. Massive lumbering, moving mountains. It was a sight to behold when it wasnÆt attacking us.

The demons, as they were now, were just ravenous locusts with extra steps, meant to consume and extract each of their captured worlds to produce more of themselves. Could their nature be altered?

I remembered that Aiva said they had attempted to destroy the demons, but they still came back. So maybe destroying them was really rather futile. It was like attempting to exterminate cockroaches. Perhaps, was there a way to change their behavior at their source, if it wasnÆt something that could be destroyed?

Was there a way to, like, with mosquitos, introduce less hostile variants into their genetic code?

We looked at these hidden giants, and the vast deserts around us, only mildly accentuated by some rocky outcrops.

- Lumoof, letÆs capture one of these massive demons. -

He gulped. He didnÆt really enjoy mana sickness, and he guessed this one would be almost as bad as the demon king.

- Later. LetÆs find one of the rift gates. - I could sate my curiosity later.

During the long day, we noticed that most of the demons just hid in the sand or the dirt. There were some rumblings and shakes here and there, implying that there was some subterranean movement, but for the most part, the hostile, mana - draining sun seemed to be so overwhelming that the demons entered this low - energy mode.

With the sun above us, the demons frankly didnÆt bother us, and it was entirely possible for us to walk everywhere uninterrupted. If this was a demon world, it sure wasnÆt what any of us would have expected.

Roon and Johann both joined Edna and Lumoof on the sand - demon world, and they moved quickly, too. They had more scouting and exploration skills due to their heritage as rangers and archers.

JohannÆs bird companion literally caught fire as it flew in the sky and then exploded. Lumoof also transformed into the full avatar mode, and I attempted to perform more tests on the solar light that seemed to cover the entire world.

It took a while, but after a bit more detection and sensing, we noticed that the anti - mana rays of light carried a special kind of particle. It wasnÆt mana, and it was highly unstable. But it was these particles that gave the rays their anti - mana qualities.

It was the magical equivalent of super - strong UV rays that significantly increased magical decay.

Our converted sand - lizard lost mana when it walked, and I felt it dry out as it moved. For my domain holders, their souls generated far higher quantities of mana than they lost, so it wasnÆt that bad. But weaker creatures would find themselves drained from exposure, so they hid in the soil and sand instead.

I couldnÆt quite capture this strange particle; it refused to be confined by my attempts to lock it and slipped through me easily.

It was like cosmic rays passing through my body, igniting mana in the process. It got weakened by obstacles or objects in its path.

This was extremely fascinating, because I immediately realized there was tremendous weaponization potential for this sort of particle.

Could we essentially - disable - heroes and demon kings with very high quantities of such particles? Or at least weaken them to a state where we could then capture them and bind them?

I would love to conduct long studies on the qualities of this particle, especially how it reacted to various types of materials. But experiments were a long process, and I would need to have a semi - permanent placement here.

- Lumoof. - Roon spoke through our familiars, routing it through the system. In this world, message spells were unusable. It was like trying to send mail through the ocean, without protecting it in glass. The water disintegrated the paper over time. - Spotted something. A strange valley. -

There was a valley that was more like a rift in the earth itself. The opening was small, but it went really, really deep.

The top part of the opening had been battered by the anti - mana rays and transformed into the same kind of material and sand we see everywhere else. But the lower half actually looked normal. Like. rock?

No. Water? Like, really deep down?

LumoofÆs body was surrounded by vines, and the vines acted as anchors. The vines and roots emerging from LumoofÆs body pierced the cliff walls, and like a massive, multi - legged spider, we gradually went downward.

- The sand layerÆs really quite deep, - Roon observed as my four domain holders regrouped. They stood on wooden platforms created from the wooden roots. We were about fifteen stories deep when we began to see soil and rock that resembled our own. - ThereÆs. nothing here. -

- ItÆs likely they just appear at night, - Edna said.

- But I donÆt detect anything, - Roon commented. I couldnÆt sense them, either, so it was probably nothing.

We found the floor or the bottom of the chasm about eighty stories down. There was water, just a bit, gradually trickling out of the rock. The rock felt wet. Lumoof touched it, and I attempted to extend my senses into the ground.

Nothing.

Parasiteworld felt dry before the demon king left. This was similar.

Even in the depths, there was a sense of emptiness, a world parched of what once was.

- Not here. -

We spread out again and continued our search. There had to be a rift gate somewhere. What was a demon world without rift gates, and how would they invade us then?

There had to be a rift gate, because something was creating this pathway through the stars, and why was this pathway not destroyed by their hostile sun? I mean, void mana seemed somewhat resistant to the mana - destroying effects of the sun, but it still decayed faster. Unless the core mana had somehow offset the effects of the particle.

- What if the rift gates are hidden underground and they only appear at night? - Edna asked the clearly obvious idea.

Everyone, of course, clearly looked at Edna with that - of course it does - look. It made sense, and naturally we all felt a little like idiots. Especially Johann, who looked like heÆd been absolutely disappointed that he didnÆt think of nocturnal behaviors.

- But the one with the demon king may not be? Surely it has to be visible. - Then again, Stella could open her portals even when she was indoors. Not as if a roof actually made a difference.

Edna, of course, furrowed her brows. - Maybe what we are looking for. is a huge mountain that blocks out the sun, and the demon kingÆs rift gate is hidden under that mountain. -

- ItÆs also possible that the demon king just hollowed out the ground and itÆs beneath us. -

- If so, itÆs only visible to us at night. If at all. -

The long night came once more, and the demons emerged from the sands and the dirt. It wasnÆt hard to defeat them, especially once we realized they were vulnerable to skills , just resistant to mana . It was the equivalent of magic - resistant blobs that took damage from physical attacks.

We didnÆt capture any of the demons and instead tried to look for the rifts.

At night, message was usable once more. Magical interruptions were essentially driven by the sun. We were looking for the demon king or the rifts, and at night, JohannÆs bird could unleash its full strength.

In fact, it was a lot easier to find than anticipated. All we had to do was follow the line that the gigantic mountain demons took and follow it to its end.

It was a long journey that took one full day, amplified by their movement skills, and we found a large hole in the ground, so massive that it was easily four times bigger than the one on the Poisonworld.

There were no towers here. Instead, it was just this massive hole that looked like someone mined all the way into the core. There was also no water, unlike Parasiteworld. It was just a pit that seemed to lead down.

- WhereÆs the rift gate? Oh, there. - Roon pointed at the edges of the hole, and we noticed that the rift gate was also supersized and built into the hole, like the rims of a bottle.

- A giant demon king, - Lumoof commented. - There was literature like this. -

- A very physical demon king with high levels of magic resistance. - Roon stared at the surroundings. There were demons on the other sides that threw more rock and sand into the pit. These massive demons were like dump trucks, dumping their load of sand, soil, and rock into the massive pit.

- Is it feeding the demon king? -

A part of me felt like animal observers, trying to discern demonic behavior from what we saw.

- I have no idea, - Lumoof said. RoonÆs bird continued to search the lands for smaller rift gates, and there were none. Or at least, none that we could see.

- Do you think we should go down there? - It was a massive pit, but the edges were still rock, and we could move down there slowly.

- Yes, - I said. If we wanted to see what the hell was happening, this had to be our best chance.

The rest of them gulped, and we slowly made our way down into the biggest pit ever. It was dark, and here, there were no demons. We just had to avoid the sand and rocks that the demons dumped overhead.

If we fell, magic wouldnÆt save us. We felt a strong anti - magic drain in the entire pit, and as we went further and further down, the team noticed their magical items starte to fizzle and make strange sounds.

Thankfully, my four Valthorns were domain holders, and their domains protected most of their mana from the mana - draining effects of the surroundings.

As we went down, we noticed a ray of light starting to emerge overhead. It had been almost three days.

- The sun is rising. -

The earth rumbled, and we saw something cover the entrance of the pit. It looked like a massive demon, or perhaps a few massive demons.

- Oh fuck, - Roon said, and here, strangely, our voices did not echo. Roon made an actual fire to brighten up the darkness.

We kept going down. My roots and vines were like the feet of an insect, crawling along the walls of this pit. There was nothing for another one day, and then we saw a horizontal tunnel along the vertical pit.

It was filled with demons.

- There. LetÆs go in there. - Johann pointed, and my roots pierced through the demons in that horizontal tunnel. It was like weÆd taken a lift down, and then we went sideways.

There were similar demons; these were smaller lizards, just like the ones on the surface. But how did they get so deep?

It didnÆt matter. They died easily to my roots. Thank goodness my roots were technically skill and physical effect. Once we were in that tunnel, we found that it led to more tunnels, and it was a labyrinth. Tunnels and tunnels, and we followed them. Here, in the depths, the rocks did not drain mana. The only thing that did were the demons, and here, they were active all day long.

In these tunnels, far away from that vertical pit, my guys rested. Here, their mana could regenerate normally, and it seemed mana attracted demons.

The demons were drawn to mana, like ants drawn to sugar. They were ravenous.

Hungry.

And we killed them.

We explored these horizontal tunnels some more and soon found a large cavern with something weÆd always been wondering about. Rift gate. A normal - size rift gate, exactly the same model.

- Subterranean rift gates. Interesting. - ShouldÆve seen it coming when my own rift gates were in the Valley of the Unrotten, hidden from view.

We moved to capture it and cleared the place of demons. Those guarding the rift gates didnÆt pose much of a challenge, and my aura meant they were mostly frozen in place. Lumoof briefly entered avatar state and created a few subsidiary trees around the rift gates. Then I activated the star mana variant of my Vine Ropeway Network and shoved the rift gates back home.

- All right, thatÆs one. Bet thereÆs more, - Roon commented.

The group explored the tunnels for days and found one more. We also captured the rift gates and the nearby daemolite and then sent them back home. This part of the tunnel now fully explored, the team went back down the pits.

We went deeper, and the journey down took even more days. It was also getting really hot as we approached the core, and the magical forces in our surroundings got even wilder. It wasnÆt difficult to deal with the heat, since I had the ability to adapt to all kinds of environments, so I protected the domain holders in a sphere of wood as these woods were linked to me via Lumoof, like a small, enclosed space.

Essentially, they rode a wooden pumpkin wagon going down a deep hole. Sadly, it wasnÆt Alice in Wonderland or Cinderella, because down there was probably a monster. There was magic here, but it struggled and fought an extremely strong, draining force.

About fifteen days in, the core was not molten lava and instead was a dried lattice of what appeared to be volcanic rock, and the heat had mostly stabilized. In fact, that strong draining force seemed to be keeping things cool.

The walls had now transformed into what was probably a really intricate latticework of rocks, and as my vines touched these rocks, I could tell there was once a really strong magic in these rocks.

They were a little like the core shard I got from Cometworld.

We kept going. This deep, there were no demons. Nothing.

And we began to feel a really strong pulse.

The anti - mana energies pulsed periodically, and it flared outward in a rhythm.

- We didnÆt see the sand or rock that was poured overhead, - Roon commented.

- Maybe the anti - mana draining effects transformed them into something else. -

Indeed. So deep down, everything was just these - dried, - lattice - like black rocks. There was once a flowing thing here, maybe centuries ago.

It took a total of almost a month, and it actually became really cold. All heat was sucked out of the air, and it would be impossible to breathe outside. There was no ice and no water as we reached the massive core cavity.

The entire core of the planet had been largely hollowed out. There were still some massive rock pillars similar to the dried, lattice - like rocks. Filling up the gaps was this structure resembling a really complicated web of flesh and demonic, spire - like structures.

They all radiated a small, faint pulse.

The structure was demonic for sure, filled with streaks of demonic energy that was familiar. Yet, at this point, we both sensed it. There were two forces here, both similar to a demon king and yet different.

One of the structures itself, here, up close, it radiated a really strong, corrupting energy, quite like the effects of the Rottedlands and a Forest Rod . The structure was like a network and web that spread out.

- The structure around that cocoon is something. - We began to look around, and then we saw an area where there was a very large mass of demonic flesh. It was a large, lizard - like creature, but many parts had been hollowed out. That part of its body was wrapped around a large, rocky structure that had an extremely faint energy.

It was a demon king. The first source of the demon energy and this demonic energy was throughout the structure that covered this hollowed - out core. It wasnÆt hard to put our observations together and conclude that our earlier theory was mostly correct.

- Damn to think there really is a demon king in the core, - Edna vented. - ItÆs possessing the world? -

- It is. - Lumoof nodded. - The structure that was now intertwined with the demonic cocoon should be the core of this world. Or whatÆs left of it. -

The demon king itself was just a massive Forest Rod , meant to capture worlds and control it, such that it transformed into a demon world. The win condition for the demon kings wasnÆt just defeating the heroes. It was also to reach the core and then possess it.

With the core, I suspected they would gain system rights to the world, and that allowed them to spawn demons instead of the usual monsters. There should be something similar that lived within the core of Parasiteworld, and we should reach it.

It was the equivalent of a hacker getting access to the mainframe and then reconfiguring it for its own purpose. Or capturing a mine and using its resources to support its own war effort.

That second source of demonic energy was a large cocoon. A nascent demon king. It was coiled up, and it was a gigantic lizard or wurm of some kind.

It was massive, the single largest object IÆd ever seen. It was the size of an entire mountain and would blot out entire cities with any single one of its legs.

My first suspicion was mostly confirmed. Demon kings were made out of the energies gathered from the core of the world. If so, that explained the - drained - feeling and why that recovered slightly postûdemon king. But if there was a demon king still in the core, continuing to possess it, it also meant Parasiteworld would never fully recover. Once it reached a certain threshold, it would start producing another demon king.

- How the fuck were the heroes supposed to fight this? - Roon said. - Without magic! -

- Hack it repeatedly, - Edna answered. - There should be a core somewhere. -

Lumoof looked at the rest. - A/ ? -

A demon king, still in its earthly womb, without its will. If it was a machine, was this a mecha without its pilot? A body without a soul? Could I hijack it? I felt all sorts of torment, but would I ever have an opportunity like this ever again? What could I lose, and what could I learn from this?

Frankly, a lot.

But what did I do with the demon king around the core? Should I attempt to destroy that and free the core?

Or should I attempt to control the growing demon king and use it to destroy the structure?

- Lumoof, take my seed out, and throw it into the cocoon. -

In any case, all I was sacrificing was just a seed.

9

YEAR 206 (PART 4)

Ihad questions. If the demon king possessed the core, then why did Parasiteworld spawn normal monsters and animals once we reclaimed some of the land and populated them with trees? How did this system mechanic work? Did the demon kingÆs hold on the world fluctuate?

- A/ , whatÆs our plan? - Lumoof asked. - I mean. what if that thing attacks us? Wait. Let me clarify that. IÆm actually quite sure it will attack us. -

- Teleport out if it gets really bad. IÆll get you guys out if anything goes south. -

At the same time, I got Patreeck to make the necessary preparations, and the entire Central Continent hummed with activity. We added additional artificial minds and made sure that all the mana batteries were fully charged. I remembered that time when the demon king attempted to possess me, and I somehow used that kind of soul blast, and I wanted to see if I could repeat it.

I wanted to see if I could weaponize that sort of defensive mechanism with my clone seed by using it against the demon kingÆs body and then forcing the gestating demon king to a battle of wills. The odds were low, generally speaking, and I had very little to lose. Not with this kind of encounter.

If I lose the close seed, I lost time. If I succeeded, I would definitely level. If it was somewhere in the middle, that was still a success.

Looking at the clock, we didnÆt have much time left, as in a few years this demon king would be headed to our world. If I intercepted it before that happened, I also wanted to know if I could mess up the entire sequence of events by triggering an event before it was meant to happen. In a way, I essentially wanted to cause the process behind the demonic invasions to either - fail - or encounter some kind of - jam. -

Best - case scenario, we successfully stopped the demon king from invading our world forever. Worst, well, the demon king somehow took over my clone, and also somehow, through that system, it could take over my body.

I thought that was unlikely. I could also cut off my connection with my clones if needed. It was also possible that handling a demon king could somehow send me into a coma. But I felt it wouldnÆt actually happen. With my domain now, it was very unlikely I would get sent into a coma.

- A/ , I think weÆre more concerned with what happens if you go through a long sleep, - Lumoof answered frankly. - We believe you would survive, but if you were to be weakened for long periods, the Central Continent would suffer from it. -

- There are the four of you and the entirety of the Valtorn Order. If the Valtorn Order cannot survive without me sleeping for certain periods of time, then IÆve clearly not done enough to nurture the strength of the order. -

There was never a - good - time to cut the umbilical cord, and I supposed I would have to watch the institutions weather their test. In history, that first transition of power from a founder to its successor institutions was critical. Would it be good enough?

I looked at the demon king - it grew slowly - and the unstable energies of the world.

There were some interrupted voices in the energies in the air. Whispers, broken and shredded by the harsh powers of the demons.

- LetÆs just freaking do it, - I declared, and everyone braced. Lumoof entered full avatar mode, and I felt the violent magic of the depths batter our body. It was a sensation quite similar to opening the windows when moving at high speed.

I wrapped my seed in a multilayered massive wooden spear and attached it to a vine just as thick for control. Then I thrust the spear toward the demon king, through the demonÆs tendrils, and the gaps in the shell.

Through the vines and the spear, I could feel the biting cold outside and the environment draining mana from the spear.

The layers of wood crumbled and withered away, like the peel of an onion, swept away by the strong magical current of the core and the demons.

We pushed on. The strength of that magical wave was manageable; this was inferior to a demon king, a sign that it was not fully formed. Perhaps the true - will - of the demon king lay within that black mass we saw earlier.

No matter, I would investigate this layer. If I could capture the shell of a demon king, that was sufficient.

The unfocused wave of energy from the demons suddenly tried to concentrate on my wooden spear. It gathered clumsily and attempted to resist and push back against my spear. Yet it was clearly not designed to do so. My focused strike pierced through the layers of demonic energy, even if each step forward seemed to just eat away at the layers of my spear.

Eventually, the spear smashed into the cocoon of the incomplete demon king. It was a relatively - slow - smash, like trying to punch underwater, but the spear still rattled the cocoon momentarily, and then I was hit with a wave of demonic energy again, rousing from within the cocoon. We persisted, and the entire cocoon rumbled.

Awoken by the sudden rumbling, the mass of demonic flesh, spires, and tentacles that surrounded the cocoon started to move.

- A/ ? - Lumoof asked, shaken by the kind of power flowing through his flesh.

The core continued to shake violently, and some of the magical energies in the core became even more pronounced. Some of the dried lattice of rocks started to glow. The demonic flesh, or the host/mother demon, moved toward us.

- We have been spotted, - Edna commented as everyone quickly equipped themselves for combat.

This felt like one of those battles in games, in a glowing cavern in the depths of the planet, facing off against the demon king to decide the fate of the world.

The lattice of dried, crystalized rocks around us glowed and pulsed in a rhythm that seemed somehow linked to the energies released by my spear of wood. The spear pushed further into the cocoon of the incomplete demon king, and each movement seemed to release magical energies into our surroundings.

The flesh that formed the tentacles and spires around the cocoon moved, crawled, and agglomerated, like a mass of nanomachines reforming into a greater, larger whole. This mass of demonic flesh now began to look more like a giant lizard, and once it largely took shape, it immediately spat acid.

The acid smashed into one of EdnaÆs hastily conjured magical shields. The acid vaporized the shield almost instantly.

- No magic! - Roon reminded as he switched to a loadout of anti - demonic spears. Hundreds of spears appeared from his pocket. Those spears all flew and stabbed the mother demon lizard through its body. But this creature was large, and it was like trying to kill a land whale with harpoons. It moved toward us as Roon activated some kind of charged spear ability. One of the spears glowed, not with magic, but with his skill. The small spear smashed into the sides of the giant mother lizard.

It visibly caused the giant mother - lizard demon king to stagger.

At that moment, the entire world around us shook.

Yet it didnÆt do much damage.

- A/ , can we teleport the star - mana bomb here? - Johann suggested.

- Wait. - That was a good idea, too, but I wanted to try using my seed and reaching the demon king. Star mana was a bad thing to expose the demons to. If the core was in this incomplete demon king, then this could be the best time to get it.

I felt more of the incomplete energies of the demon king through the spear that now was halfway into the cocoon. It was an odd mix of core mana and demonic mana. It was on top of the strange powers that twisted this entire area, almost like a skill. It even felt like it was a clash of wills, as I felt something like a soul attempting to exert its way on the world and my seed pushing my own will into this space.

The mother - lizard roared, and the core shook violently. The rocks started to fall toward us, and we werenÆt sure why. The gravity here was unusual, almost entirely driven by some kind of unknown magic. The chamber shook violently, and some parts around us started to collapse.

We were pulled toward the cocoon, essentially, and yet these rocks flew toward us. Lumoof attempted to support the cavern from collapsing as we extended my vines and roots against the collapsing walls of the cavern.

- Is it trying to crush us? - Lumoof mentally said. - But wouldnÆt that destroy the demon king, too? -

- It probably has a way not to get crushed. - I injected the incomplete demon king with my mana, and it felt like I was throwing mana into the void.

Yet that very action triggered the giant mother - lizard. The mother demon king charged at us, somehow walking quickly on the surface of the giant cocoon of the incomplete demon king. It looked like it wanted to smash us into the walls of the chamber. My vines and roots expanded outward from Lumoof, and I attempted to use my vines to hold it back by forming a large web and wall of roots and vines. It wasnÆt of much use, since it was so large.

It was the equivalent of trying to hold back a raging bull with cloth. It merely slowed it down and made it even angrier. It smashed through the wall of roots and vines.

It bought enough time for us to reposition ourselves as the massive lizard smashed into the walls of the chamber, creating a new open area.

My clone seed was already inside the cocoon, but it had not reached the body of the incomplete demon king. A bit further.

Large columns of rock fell down. Again, they felt like they were pulled and manipulated by the mother - demonÆs abilities. Did that mother - demon have gravity power of some sort, as it once again bulldozed through EdnaÆs shields? Roon and Johann attempted to dodge where they could, but they were clearly not suited to fighting in this environment, even if it was possible to manipulate the giant lizard demon to destroy and widen the area for us.

This was the kind of battlefield that demanded the tank and barbarian types - big, raw, Hercules - type physical force - and invulnerability.

In any case, Edna and Lumoof tried to hold back the mother lizard, while a part of me pushed toward the incomplete demon king. I kept pumping mana into the cocoon and at the same time attempted to push my will into it.

In short, I was trying to first change and - convert - the area where my mana first touched, maybe capture the cocoon itself if I couldnÆt get to the body.

As this happened, I felt things smash into my mind.

Or, more accurately, smash into the helmet around my mind. It still shook me a little, but it didnÆt get through.

Raw anger and hunger.

A craving. To consume and to create more, for further consumption. It came from the cocoon; it came from the incomplete demon king.

Feed.

Through my spear of wood, I had attempted to overwhelm the demon king with my mana.

Now, after IÆd pumped so much mana into the demon king, I realized that? -

I was a fool.

I had overestimated myself, and now I realized how hungry the demon king was. I was pouring salt into an Olympic - size swimming pool. Not the ocean, because it wasnÆt that vast, but it was bigger than me. It desired mana, a whole lot more than I had to give.

A demon king was formed from the mana of a world, formed from anti - mana and mana - draining materials, and I was deluded enough to try overwhelming it myself.

It was a bad matchup, and I was outmatched. This thing could eat all of my mana and then some. I knew that even my clone seed would not do much, and now I suddenly didnÆt have much confidence against the residual. So I pulled my clone seed back to Treehome.

The rocks around us glowed, and it began to get warmer. I sent Edna back next through the teleport ability of the Court of the Deitree .

It was just Lumoof left, and we looked around. I detonated my spear within the cocoon, and as expected, it didnÆt do much damage.

- The bomb, - Lumoof reminded me, and I had it ready. But then I saw the core of the world; it had shrunk much smaller than it was once. It was probably a lot larger a long, long time ago.

- No. The core. - I couldnÆt capture the demon king, but the core was there. It was still a very large thing, but maybe I could just take a chunk. Or maybe this was just a portion. I wasnÆt sure, so rather than attempt to fight the demon king and failing, getting a core or a sufficiently large chunk was still helpful for my purposes.

Lumoof moved toward the core as the mother demon chased after us. That was fine, because once Lumoof crash - landed next to what looked to be the core, my vines exploded outward and wrapped the core. What I could, at least.

Lumoof entered Avatar once more, and I sent a fragment of the core home. I couldnÆt send all of it. It was too large, and I didnÆt have that much mana left.

The mother demon charged toward us, and a wall of vines merely delayed it briefly. I knew this was a pointless fight and so pulled Lumoof home through my Court of the Deitree , just as I did with Edna, Roon, and Johann.

Lumoof landed back in the valley, surrounded by a battalion of aids and helpers. - That didnÆt go well. -

But we had a core. Or a fragment of it. We took a chunk the size of a small house out of that entire thing, and I learned how high the mountain was. In many ways, I gained from that exchange.

Lumoof collapsed as his body finally gave in to the exhaustion. Edna, Roon, and Johann were already back in a biolab pod for immediate treatment. They were just mildly injured, but the magical exhaustion really kicked them. The constant state of alertness since we went into that pit was exhausting mentally, even if we rotated rest times.

First, I sent the core into a lab. It was so large that I needed to get one of the bigger labs to look at it, and I immediately felt two presences within. There was also a strong demonic presence within the fragment, one that I felt fighting with the small, tiny presence within.

I decided to quickly drain the demonic energies out, and this was relatively easier, because it was no longer connected to the demon king. Once the chunk was cleaned of demonic energies, I could feel the other presence within stabilize.

It was rousing, and I felt a bit of something gathering within, something that felt like fragments of a will. It was scattered, and then, I began sensing a small buildup of core mana within the house - size fragment.

Perhaps I only got a chunk of it, so that presence was only a fragment?

Still, the core mana was clearly, clearly there. It wasnÆt much, but better something than nothing.

What had we learned? The visit to the depths hadnÆt been entirely fruitless. We now knew that there was a demon king in every core, and that was their win condition. They must capture the core in some way or form, perfectly or imperfectly.

That explained the gap of time where they defeated the - defenders, - but yet the world didnÆt immediately collapse. Heroes were, as the gods put it, medicine to stop the viruses. But in the absence of the medicine, the virus didnÆt immediately win. They had to control the body in order to win.

With this knowledge, could we prevent a world from ever losing?

Not by defeating the demon king, but by making a world uncapturable. For example, what if the core of the planet was suddenly moved elsewhere or perhaps located behind some kind of magical portal such that the demon king could not reach it?

Thinking back to my Will of the World, essentially if I was one with the planet, did that mean the world could not be captured as long as I lived?

On a larger scale, if we could somehow protect each core from falling to the demon kings, could we, by building a wall of uncapturable worlds, eventually block off the demons?

A kind of - moat - strategy on a larger scale.

Because if they could not capture worlds, they would not be able to continue producing demon kings, and the demon kings on that planet would be stuck there. We could eventually drive them to extinction by cutting off the demon kingÆs ability to reproduce.

- ThatÆs a very lofty strategy when we didnÆt even know how to do it. - Roon commented when he recovered.

I knew from Will of the WorldÆs narration that I could fuse with a world meant it must be possible to protect a world from the demon kings. At least it wasnÆt a question whether it was a possibility, more of a question of technical capability.

- A/ Æs plans really seem to get more and more wild with each visit to the demon worlds, - my ranger commented.

- I suppose when you travel worlds, it is quite an eye - opening and mind - broadening experience. -

I thought back to the nature of the demon king, being made of demonic mana, void mana, and core mana.

What if there was a way to fuse star mana and core mana or inject the core with vast quantities of star mana? Essentially exploit the reaction of void mana to star mana during the capturing process. This would essentially create a stored defensive mechanism within the core? At least, sufficient to prevent one capture?

How did core mana and star mana interact?

- I donÆt think we should experiment on our world with that. What if we blow up the planet? -

- Also! ItÆs like saying the core has a mind that could store star mana and use it as a defensive item. -

- The core does have a will. - The shard of Cometworld told me that. Of course, I would ask the core of the world before actually conducting such experiments. It was only logical.

Alka was amused by the idea, naturally. Storing a star mana bomb in the core was his immediate suggestion. Nuke the demon king from within. No, more appropriately, make the core of the world a minefield of star - mana bombs that would trigger once the demon king came. Stella was fairly horrified at the thought of experimenting on planetary cores, commenting that such things rarely went well.

I was actually fascinated by the idea. It made sense. Making the core a minefield of star mana bombs was a pragmatic solution, because only the demon king would come here. There was no risk of accidental triggers since no one went there but the demon, and if the demon king reached the core, it meant the surface was mostly lost anyway, so letting the core have bombs as a failsafe was a good one.

10

YEAR 207

The heroes were strangely relieved that they didnÆt need to go to another world. I supposed the idea of fighting the demon king in the core of the planet really felt like a scene right from a Japanese RPG game.

It was ironic that this world really took so much from the games that we loved so much. It really made me wonder whether I was just in a coma somewhere and this was me lucid dreaming.

Or maybe it was the reverse, that all our creativity was residual memories, creations from what weÆd seen in some reincarnated past life. That was also a rather strange turn of events.

Anyway, we briefed the heroes on the expected nature of the upcoming demon king, and everyone quickly started making preparations. If it was an anti - magic demon king, both Colette and Prabu had to prepare for it.

Everyone expected a counter of some kind. They just didnÆt think it was going to be a massive, anti - magic lizard, essentially a strong counter to both Colette and Prabu, and the whole host of star - mana weapons.

They decided to forge new weapons, of course, imbued with heroic abilities and skills, instead of magic or spells. Items with some level of protection from the effects of mana drain, again, tested against the sand that we collected.

It was hard to make it work, and it took them months of testing. The hero forges were literally creations of star mana, though they could use actual materials to give more substance and permanence to the output. Yet real materials meant the products were not as strong as those made of star mana. After all, how could mundane items hope to rival the power of the stars?

But as they tinkered more and more, they soon gained a deeper understanding of the hero forges and soon came with a request.

- We need more of those anti - mana sands, - Colette said as she showed us a small glassy weapon made of the sand. - We managed to use the hero forge to make a weapon out of their anti - mana sand, and itÆs significantly more resistant to the effects of mana drain since, well, the sand itself is so good at draining mana. It is also good at stopping mana from leaking out. We could make weapons out of these anti - mana sands, and this would hold up. -

The pathway through the stars was still there, though we noticed the pathway itself seemed. wobbly and uncertain.

We didnÆt bring that much sand back, but it certainly was possible to make glass out of that sand if there were sufficient quantities of it. We didnÆt know how much sand we needed, but the idea of mining this sandy planet for the anti - mana sands was really appealing. There could be a lot of uses for such a weapon, and if sufficiently widespread, it could equalize the inherent advantages of magic.

Actually, with sufficient quantities of this sand, it may even be possible to somewhat mimic earth - like, magicless situations.

In fact, once this demon king was over, I would probably lose access to all this anti - mana sand, unless I placed my clone on this world.

Lumoof, of course, had to be sent back to Sandworld. For sand. I wondered whether this was the first actual instance of dimensional mining operations.

- Well, at least it still looks the same. - Lumoof went alone as Stella attempted to keep the rift gates open. It didnÆt work that well with the battering of SandworldÆs harsh anti - magic rays.

Lumoof activated a few storage bags, and then. they exploded. They couldnÆt store the anti - magic sand that interfered with the storage bags itself.

- Oops. - Lumoof laughed. - Looks like weÆll have to send it back the teleportation way. -

Which meant Lumoof actually took large bags made of hemp and cloth and filled them with sand. In avatar mode, Lumoof functioned as the conduit for teleportation to my main tree, through my tree of life . Essentially, he was another - clone - in avatar mode.

Sand. It drained more mana than usual to send the anti - mana sand back, but we needed more. We took advantage of the day to eventually send back a small hill of anti - mana sand, piled up in one corner of the valley.

As I noticed the presence of this anti - mana sand, I also wondered whether it had potential anti - demon uses, since it was also effective against demonic mana.

Could we use the anti - mana sand to clear corrupted places and remove the demonic energies from Rottedlands - type terrain?

If so, these anti - mana sand could be immensely valuable to restore terrain and clean the land from demonic corruption.

Ken, my resident armchair critic, was quick to point out that IÆd had the Space - Grand - Strategy equivalent of a unique resource that gave the faction access to unique units or research. That, of course, tickled my funny - branch. That made sense.

Who wouldÆve thought anti - mana sand was a strategic resource, anyway?

- Lumoof, youÆll be doing mining. A whole lot of it. -

- IÆm a priest, A/ . Not a sand collector, - Lumoof protested, mostly as a joke. - I have sand in every part of my body! -

- Then youÆre doing it right! YouÆll have to be my sand - collecting priest for this month. -

The anti - mana sand, strangely enough, did not cause any unusual reactions with my secret hideout . My spatial skill, which didnÆt use mana - or, at least, didnÆt use it directly - could store this anti - mana sand without much risk, and after all my levels, my secret hideout could be expanded quite a bit.

The heroes took their share, a small truckload, to begin experimenting with larger weapons. At the same time, I also gave a small batch to my blacksmiths, jewelers, and crafters to attempt their own experiments.

Alka, too, used the anti - mana sand for his own experiments, mainly to figure out how to make the bombs react exactly the way he wanted. Within weeks, he made some very good discoveries. With the anti - magic qualities, the sand essentially functioned as - negative - gates, and in small quantities, it could be used to create more compact runic patterns and prevent unnecessary magical interference between unrelated but nearby formations. In short, the sand could be molded into magical walls between spells.

- Given the value of these sands, IÆm thinking A/ should totally deploy a clone tree on this world, - Alka stated. - This sand could herald a new era of super - compact magical weaponry! We may even attempt the computers that the heroes speak of! -

Valid, but I had my reservations.

- ParasiteworldÆs useless. We should abandon it for this, - Alka stated.

Again, I also had reservations. Surely there were resources there, just like the sand, that we had only not discovered.

If I had to, I would probably abandon either Cometworld or the moon base. Most probably the moon because of how easy it was to get to it again.

Still, this was something I had to think about, so for now, we mined sand. A lot of it.

The heroes made anti - magic staff and weapons, and Chung made arrows out of them. Chung and Hafiz both had a balance of spells and skills, as archer and knight - type heroes respectively, so transitioning from glass weaponry wasnÆt too much of a challenge. The weapons were strong; after all, they were made through hero forge , and so were just naturally overpowered weapons.

They made a set for me and a few extra sets for the future heroes. Just in case.

On this front, I thought of KenÆs League of Heroes idea. Perhaps we could start with trade, trade of hero - items between heroes of different worlds.

I gave some to Lilies, just mainly to share the anti - magic sand. They were fascinated with it and immediately wondered whether it could be used with that anti - divine material we had.

Blackstar Gems. The coal - like material that exploded when exposed to star mana, in a way, quite like void mana. When we placed the two types of materials together, nothing happened. From what I recalled, the Blackstar Gems itself didnÆt do much other than resist the effects of the gods, which remained untested even till today.

Our attempts to work with the two together didnÆt get anywhere, but perhaps it was just a matter of discovering the right process.

They were not so amused when I shared what we saw on Sandworld. In fact, Lilies responded with a revulsion. Something about a world filled with so much sand that was so lifeless throughout that seemed to really disgust them.

Or maybe these lake plants just didnÆt like waterless deserts.

ReefyÆs search for the deepest trenches were filled with fights, and Reefy didnÆt say much. All he said was he needed more time, since the trenches were filled with monsters. He seemed fairly amused by the anti - magic sand but didnÆt think much into it.

The images Reefy shared were quite brutal, mostly of heavy fighting and slaughter. The depths were home to violent eels and weird fish - creatures, and they fought ReefyÆs attempts to explore them. He didnÆt seem disturbed by it; instead, Reefy merely remarked that he just needed more time.

Reefy also showed me some special coral weapons that he made, inspired by what IÆd made on the surface.

He had control and ability to directly breed fish and fish - creatures, quite similar to how I created my beetles, and these fish could travel long distances.

I was really curious how he maintained control and vision of them even at such distances, but Reefy didnÆt have an explanation. It was just what it was, and Reefy didnÆt think much of it.

- We should probably warn the Mountainworld heroes about the Sabnoc - type demon king. It might blow up and flood the world with demonic corruption again, - Lumoof pointed out one day during one of the monthly council meetings. It didnÆt feel very good that I was pointing out the problems and also giving the solutions. I felt like one of those business consultants that pointed out a future issue and told their prospective customers to pay up.