TREE OF AEONS 5

We protected some and encouraged certain populations to grow faster.

Honestly, we were hypocrites.

We applied order and intentionally created chaos. We imposed our rules. Our rules were drafted with a significant bias for choice, for self - determination.

It was hypocritical, because if we really wanted to be wardens, the nature of Treehome should be a state of anarchy. The kingdoms should be able to fight each other to the death if they wanted.

But we didnÆt allow them to in the interest of saving the innocent and sparing the continent from the fallout.

The philosophical difference between myself and Raph was actually really just on the spectrum of our intervention. We advocated a light touch, yet we occasionally intervened, sometimes heavily, thus we suffered the consequences.

Raph would, by the sheer nature of his philosophy, need to consistently intervene. That, to me, was an untenable position. I did not like that.

Initially, my framework for intervention generally considered whether there was an extinction event (such as the last gazelle example), large - scale unnecessary death, a unique or special resource, or if the intervention could significantly alter the direction of the world for the better.

It occurred to me that the framework was structured so wide that it was effectively useless as a framework. What was significant? If one subscribed to Chaos Theory, that small events had large ripples, everything was accordingly significant, and thus, like Raph, I must always intervene.

That was not where I wanted to be.

I wanted to end the cycle, and these days, any intervention was filtered through whether it could lead us further along that path.

Again, still very vague, and not exactly useful. How would you know that a person could someday be the future savior of the world?

It was something that still stumped me, and so, for now, I was going with my gut. Which was mostly my roots.

- Managed to get the crystal computers to work? - Kei looked at the flashing crystals with great interest.

- They work, but all this computational power is not very useful. - Alka was frustrated. We now had the equivalent of computer chips, and Alka was now literally a walking chip foundry. The issue was making that computational power do something useful. What was the worldÆs greatest supercomputer if there was nothing that required that sort of computational power?

Creating a language and operating system for the supercomputer was a challenge in itself, though they were not entirely working from scratch.

It was fairly easy to adapt runes and runic carvings into supercomputers, and that was their first instinct. There was a - language - already native to crystals: runes.

However, it was soon clear that runes were not appropriate. The human - heroes, of course, had some ideas of their own thanks to their earthly origins, but Alka wasnÆt convinced. The crystals had the ability to comprehend certain queries or statements without having to resolve them through a series of yes - no questions.

If the crystals could inherently maintain and process statements directly, AlkaÆs first idea was that they were essentially artificial minds, but in crystal form. So we combined them with my suit of living wooden armor to augment our Valthorns in combat.

This was actually the first useful application, since the supercomputer - crystals could function as the home of the artificial minds. We then combined the artificial minds, the supercomputer - crystals, and the demon kingÆs core. Stella referred to it as the Void Chamber, and it was our first full - scale attempt at supporting StellaÆs attempt to look further and deeper into the demonÆs map.

It worked better than expected. She didnÆt have a nosebleed or her eyes didnÆt hurt, and she could begin to manipulate the map and convert them into something useful.

Coordinates. Directions.

Stella needed the Void Chamber, because the demon kingÆs core was not designed for the regular mind. The chamber helped to interpret and convert the signals and signs and inputs into something more usable and allowed her to take it all in.

- I need a bit of demonic mana, - Stella said after a few days of experimenting with the demon kingÆs core. - There are some segments locked behind a key of demonic mana, certain carved paths within the core that need to be powered by demonic energy. -

- Got it. -

A small army of void mages watched as a demonic - hybrid tree appeared nearby, and a small trickle of demonic energy pierced the demon kingÆs core.

It hummed strangely, and Stella manipulated the demonic energy into the path.

She froze as she felt the presence of an unusual blend of divine energy leaking that then transformed, decaying into something else.

- A/ , IÆm not sure if IÆm reading this right, but from what IÆm seeing. thereÆs a dead thing in the prison. It leaks divine energy, similar to that ancient log, but itÆs very faint, and I think - I think itÆs getting twisted into some kind of demonic energy. -

- A. god? -

- Yes. That blob is like a prison or an extraction device of some kind, and each demon king is a piece of that fallen thing, which perhaps is a god That has been corrupted. -

- WeÆre actually going to fight a god. - I cursed. This was going to be a lot more traditional than I expected. Oh great.

- ThereÆs also - Shit, - Stella cursed. - Heroes. The spirits of captured heroes in that prison. That thing contains both heroes and a dead divine creature. The demon king is essentially a fusion of three parts: the body of the planets, the will and spirit of this. fallen god, and the blood and energy of the demons. That blob contains the will, and the blood is passed on with each demon king. -

- Okay. -

- So. When you corrupt the anti - magic demon kingÆs body, it messes with the blood and energy of the demon, as well as the body of the world, which was why it didnÆt work as well when it landed. -

Stella paused.

- But this doesnÆt help. It doesnÆt tell us how to get to it. The distance between us and the blob is huge. IÆd have to gain at least a hundred levels just to get enough void mana to get close. -

- Can we hop there? -

The Void Chamber hummed as I felt the demon kingÆs core light up. - Yes. WeÆll have to capture at least forty worlds along the way. But hereÆs the thing. The closer we are to the blob, the more demon kings they can throw at us. -

- Wait. Why? -

- They technically have no limit on how many demon kings they can aim at one world. It is just its default setting to aim one world at a time to maximize growth. ItÆs. ItÆs transmitting a command. -

Stella had already started to read the command.

- It can essentially be summarized as a matrix between the nearest world, highest daemolite concentration and special weightage, which is normally zero. So it pretty much tries to invade the world with the highest weighted score, the nearest world on its star map. ItÆs also receiving a pulse from the other demon worlds, every unknown number of years, which helps update that star map. If a world was already targeted by another demon king, thereÆs a negative modifier applied. -

- Wait. Can you tamper with that pulse? -

- I will, but we have to play listening mode for a bit to see what that pulse is like. If I know whatÆs being transmitted, IÆll try to modify and mimic it. IÆll need your help to construct a listening facility of some kind on Lavaworld and the other demonic worlds. -

- And you know what we are looking for? -

- Yes. - Stella grinned. - I just figured out exactly what we need to look for. -

Stella and her void mages soon spent months constructing hundreds of little daemolite - gems filled with a special inscription meant to mimic the exact energy - receiving formation within the demon kingÆs core.

These devices were then scattered on all the worlds, particularly places like Lavaworld and SnekÆs world. They would function as recording devices to see what was transmitted and communicated by the demon mothers, demon kings, and the blob.

Now, we would wait.

We didnÆt bother Raph and the rest of Angelworld, nor was it in our interest to keep interacting with them. We had other things to focus on.

We needed to train new domain holders, and the more my domain holders played a role in the battle, the harder it was for the rest of them to gain a level. It was just a fact that there was limited contribution to go around.

That was pretty much the rule of thumb.

The easier the battle, the smaller their role, the less experience they got.

On Threeworlds, it was time we made contact with the Sandpeople and the Centaurs, despite the crystal kingÆs earlier reservations.

For this purpose, we had our own Centaurs on the Central Continent and trained a group of them to function as spies.

Lumoof would play a more observatory role.

The lead Centaur spymaster, Eudoxus, initiated the contact after months of surveillance. A lesson from Angelworld, or Lawyerworld, was that we clearly could not presume good faith in our contact, and like aliens dealing with other aliens, we must first understand who we were dealing with before attempting to make any contact.

We also needed to infiltrate our targets and know more about them before any proper engagement with the authority figures. I also needed to do it more discreetly, unlike LumoofÆs rather high - profile buying spree in the Crystal Mountain.

It was common sense, in hindsight.

But clearly I lacked it, as IÆd suffered for it over the years. Something about trees lacking common sense.

The Centaurs of Threeworlds had a communal hierarchy organized around their large special land. A special relic controlled their Great Vanishing Country, which protected their kind for centuries. Those who gained control of the relic were ultimately the joint leaders of their land.

But what had happened?

Arjan, one of my long - serving Centaurs, was soon able to coax the story from a few of the Centaur locals.

The locals of Threeworlds, like Angelworld, did not presume the presence of alien Centaurs or Centaurs outside of their immediate control.

- The great patriarch and matriarch couldnÆt fully control the relics of Gayaar! Could you believe that? - The local Centaur chief of the pack cursed over some heavily spiked alcohol. - In our centuries of history, the relic has never failed us. It is their incompetence! -

- The story of the Whisperers claims that the relic had lost power, that our ancestors had overused it! Even with the Centaur - heroÆs energies, the relic is incomplete! - Another Centaur chief of the outskirts was quick to share the tales from the grapevine. The Centaurs were strangely very, very gossipy, though we did eventually realize there was quite a bit of horse shit.

Arjan and Eudoxus, both playing the role of traveling Centaurs from a faraway village, nodded. - I hear there is demonic corruption in the vast steppes. -

The spy - group consisted of six Centaurs, all from Treehome, and they melded seamlessly with the Centaurs of the fringe.

- Yes! - The Centaur chief looked upset. - That has never happened in our history! The great patriarch and matriarch must let go of their position for their failure! -

Arjan prodded. - Is that something that would be offensive to say? -

- Eh. If thatÆs offensive, the patriarch will not be able to hold his place, - the villagers responded, half drunk on some kind of fermented milk - alcohol.

- Soon, the great vote will be upon us, - the Centaur chief said. - And the patriarch will be challenged to defend his position. -

- And would you challenge him? - Arjan asked.

- No. But I hear of those who will. - The local chiefs shared names of at least six who had thrown themselves into the ring. It all sounded foreign.

Back home, we had a discussion on what weÆd discovered.

- There are lands not owned by any faction, - Roon said. These lands were located in the far south, near the edges of the deserts of the Sandpeople, and the edges of the land held by the humans and the crystal king.

The only reason they were not owned by anyone was because these were unproductive lands. They were a littering of overly cold, barren deserts and a smidge of uninhabited canyons. There was no food, and the weather was too darn cold.

There were also no animals, and the place had atrocious weather.

- We could take this, if just to claim territory. - Lumoof had surveyed the land earlier and didnÆt like it. Ideally, getting somewhere with a magical ley line was best. But given my ability to spread trees anywhere, it didnÆt actually matter.

- Or we could come in at the invitation of the other factions. -

- Or just place our trees and spread invisibly? - Roon countered. - With A/ Æs camouflage abilities, how hard is it to hide? -

It was a strange thing to even consider, whether a tree had the right to place itself and grow anywhere it wanted. Having rights to land in itself was a great advantage, since it meant no one could take it away from us, but in reality, they couldnÆt enforce the claim.

In fact, once I had my seed planted on this world, I would be spreading my trees everywhere without any care for legal rules. I didnÆt care for legal rules back on Treehome. Why should I care here?

Maybe I shouldnÆt care all that much and just look for someone far away from the three, just to avoid conflict and spread my trees anyway.

But at least one of them had a domain, which meant they might be able to sense my presence.

It was a risk. Was it worth it?

In my mind, yes. But IÆd do so after contacting the other two factions. There had to be one faction willing or at least was a bit more cooperative than the rest.

Arjan and Eudoxus arrived at one of the largest Centaur gatherings, in their largest city, Hoofhall. They had somehow convinced some Centaur merchants to take them along, and the group of six Centaur spies had established themselves as merchant bodyguards.

Centaurs raided each other, and raiding was a fairly common affair in their society. As a result, theyÆd developed some norms in order to prevent loss of life. Centaur raiding leaders would often battle it out with the head of the bodyguards or the local militia, and if the bodyguard or militia lost, they would surrender their wares, but usually, no one was killed. If they won, the raiders would leave.

Towns and cities even had their own raiding parties who did the same to the other cities. Brutality was generally frowned upon, despite the sheer machismo that Centaur war leaders had to display in combat.

Arjan was a level one hundred thirty - six Spear Saint , and so in combat, there really was no contest. So usually it was Eudoxus who took the role of the head, as Eudoxus was a level eighty - seven Spymaster and level fifty or so Hardened Warrior . It was easy for him to fake his strength as a spymaster.

As they rode through HoofhallÆs gates, they immediately noticed the strange markings on the land, and Lumoof, hidden and camouflaged in the wagon, saw the lines of magic immediately.

The entire city was overflowing with a kind of magic not unlike the shamans or the lizardfolkÆs magics. A blend of runic power and Centaurs folk magic.

Folk magic was a milder blend of soul energy and their own energy. Like how shamans and witch doctors could somehow use a limited array of soul - linked magics, like how the rituals of priests could also touch the soul. The folk - magicians and spiritualists of the Centaurs were developed in such similar concepts.

The Centaur - guards shuffled them in after reviewing some documentation. It was fairly easy to forge, but they didnÆt need to. The Centaur chiefs of the outskirt villages were more than happy to issue them new papers.

The guards instinctively stepped away from Arjan; he was the strongest of the Centaurs present, and his presence still rippled through the system, even if he tried his best to hide it.

- The challenges will begin soon. - Eudoxus quickly shuffled away to get information of what was next.

- Challenge? - Arjan asked.

- The challengers challenge the patriarch for the title? - Eudoxus explained.

- Should we? - Arjan would defeat the patriarch if it was a straight combat.

- We donÆt know anyone. ItÆs best we lay low and build our network. - IÆd given them a decade or two to build a realistic faction within the Centaurs, with the goal of lobbying the Centaurs for friendly terms. With our power, it wasnÆt impossible.

We were the equivalent of an extraterrestrial power funding and influencing a faction and meddling with Centaur politics. When I put it that way, what I was planning to do really sounded distasteful.

I needed the mana, because I didnÆt know what the future held. If I could get it on favorable terms, which mostly just involved non - interference, that would be sufficient.

Eh.

I wondered why I cared.

I should just plant my tree clone and be done with it. Fuck whatever these people said. Roon clearly agreed with that approach.

But legitimacy would smooth a lot of issues. Argh. I was just reminded that I despised politics.

- It would be easier that way in the short run. But all itÆll do is sow the seeds of conflict over the long run. If any of these domain - tier or relic holders can be swayed our way, that will save us a lot of bloodshed in the future. -

We were aiming for the demonÆs heart, and weÆd best have our foundations safe. It would not do to face nibbles from unfriendly natives at our roots.

39

YEAR 227 (ULARA)

- The way of our people has changed, Sawabesarulars, - the Ularan answered as they met in a quiet cave in the canyons of Ulara. Snakeworld, or Ulara, as Snek called it, eventually opened up to his presence. Snek wanted to meet in the open, to show that the Valthorns could give them safety.

- Why? We can undo all of this. I have a hero class. All we need is a young child who has not received her class to accept it. -

- Centuries of living in the shadow of the demons, - the Ularan den lord answered. - We are not the race we once were. We have accepted our fate. -

- Fate? Where was my kind that was proud and willing to stand up to the demons? My fellow Ularans who were willing to sacrifice themselves and partake in the soul arts? To send me and many others like me to seek help? - Snek was furious. - We hid away because we couldnÆt fight then, but now thereÆs an army strong enough to defeat almost every single demon above us and heroes to retake our world. -

- Centuries, Sawabesarulars. - The den lord was pensive. - Will your army be here forever? Will we be able to resist the demons forever? -

- If the other worlds could do it, why couldnÆt we? We resisted them for a long time, too. -

- We had heroes. -

- I have a hero class here. -

- And what? A single hero. When that hero passes, weÆre doomed once more. Perhaps we will face a type of demon that doesnÆt let us survive in the caves and canyons. -

It was a conversation he had with many others. Snek couldnÆt believe it. - I feared that my people were dead. I came to find that my people live but are dead at heart. -

He refused to believe that the young were like that.

- If you refuse, at least let me speak to the young Ularans. Surely some would wish to live in a world not in the shadow of the demons, where we can step into the light with pride. -

The Ularan den lord sighed and then nodded. - Very well, IÆve seen enough that I can trust our young to you. -

Sawabesarulars smiled in relief. - At least some wisdom in the others who remain. -

After his stint on Ulara, Snek eventually settled on two goals: collect as many young Ularans and send them to Tropicworld as possible, and also regain access to the clean blood magic and various rituals.

- Lord Sawabesarulars, is it true that you went to another world? - The young Ularans were extremely curious, and Snek nodded. - That you could defeat the demons? -

Snek, who lost his physical Ularan body form, nodded to the young Ularans. Right now, the Ularans had lost their faith in themselves that they, these small, snake - like creatures, had no ability to fight against the demons. - Yes. I could not, but these people have. -

Snek pointed to the Valthorns. Almost all regular Valthorns were tall, healthy, and strong as the elite soldiers of my force. The Ularans were half their height, and they found us intimidating. Over the years, the idea that Ularans could not win against the demons - what more the giant, dragon - like demons - was carved into their psyche.

If Snek wanted to retake the world, we could do so with our Valthorns. But that would not restore the confidence of the Ularans or destroy the belief that their people were meant to exist in the shadows of these demons.

The snake spirit asked for my assistance to train the young Ularans so that they could show their fellow Ularans that they had the strength to fight the demons, even the champions.

I spoke to my council, and I felt it was worth it, even if there was a risk of creating another - Raph - type - event with the Ularans knowledge of clean blood magic and the existence of the multiverse.

It was a long, hard journey. But they had the time.

- At the rate this world is going, itÆs unlikely to die in the next hundred years. - Snek had spoken to my mages, and the mages had performed a wide range of data collection and magical studies. Their world still possessed a fairly robust core, and though we found the pits to the demon mother, it wasnÆt time for us to go in.

Snek, ideally, would like his own people to be the ones to free his world, a hero made from an Ularan, but he was not yet ready to gift the hero class stored in his soul to a young child.

In fact, he soon confided with me that he would require my assistance to assess the suitability of the young children.

I wondered, personally, whether a hero class like that, taken away from Ken and then later granted to another, would still have the same mental compulsions and controls. My question was the mental compulsion a part of the hero class, or was it something that came together with the application of the hero class?

No matter, the new Ularan hero would be a fascinating case study.

As part of the talks to convince the young Ularans and also inspire them to achieve something, Snek told them stories of the Valthorns and our conquests through the stars. It was quite effective, and eventually a few of the older Ularans agreed to join a small, exploratory batch of five hundred young Ularans to be trained by the Valthorn academy in the ways of combat and offensive magic.

These young Ularans were brought through the rifts produced by the void archmages and to Treehome. They had an experience that was far more exaggerated than the lizardfolks of Mountainworld.

It was expected, since these young Ularans grew up in the relative modesty of their dens in the caves, and they have not seen life out in the open or the vast sprawling cities. Their dens, some which were fairly luxurious for them, were all built in their underground labyrinth, and therefore the sight of a large city out in the open was absolutely alien.

I believe they would have a similar reaction if theyÆd seen the cities of Mountainworld, too. Still, the spectacle helped to convince the young Ularans and their minders to get started on the training program to create the next generation of Ularan warriors.

The Ularans were very amused to see the lizardfolks. Ularans, unlike lizardfolks, were egg layers and did not have the practice of communal spawning pools or private spawning pools. Ularans did generally keep their eggs within their dens, and Snek explained that in the pre - demon days, their dens were pretty much regular buildings.

Their current practice of tunneling labyrinths, which had grown far more extensive since SnekÆs time, was an evolution of their adaptation. The Ularans had developed and trained good tunnelers and abandoned some of the classes and roles that they no longer needed underground.

In other words, the current Ularan, despite their meekness, were quite the ideal doomsday preppers because they could build entirely self - sustaining environments entirely underground.

The Ularans fighting style needed to take advantage of their natural size, and a brief assessment of their physique soon leaned toward a more magical approach. Despite their size, their magical prowess was comparable to the others, and they were also naturally more in tune to the spiritual side of magic.

They were quite fascinating subjects to study, quite like the angels.

Ken and the rest of the heroes, when faced with the Ularans, found them quite cute, and they were even slightly smaller than the Canari.

Like little pet snakes, but they knew better than to say it out loud. Snek said references to snakes wouldÆve offended them.

They would be specced into mages, druids, or agility rogue - types in order to take advantage of their small size. They were naturally mages and also transformation - type druids, where they would take on giant snake forms to do battle, but their mages never got very far due to limited research on spells and abilities. The system awarded and awakened new spells for a leveling mage, but without centralized teaching for mages, the resources of the land, and the loss of many older records, newer mages didnÆt have the level of competence of even their predecessors.

They were pretty much sent back a few centuries, if not millennia, in terms of magical development.

Within months, the young Ularans displayed promise. Their weakest one was in single digits, simply because the Ularans couldnÆt take on a large dragon - demon on their own, but without low - level mobs for them to gain experience, they couldnÆt progress very far even with spars and practice battles amongst themselves.

Their levels were around twenty to thirty at first, but once they were introduced to the dungeons of the appropriate levels, this quickly shot up to level thirty and forty.

I could use my ability to let one of them instantly reach level sixty, but from my own experience, this wasnÆt a good idea.

I foresaw their progress would slow down significantly, since they lacked the experience - boosting abilities commonly seen in my Valthorns. So I doubted IÆd see a level one hundred Ularan mage or fighter within the next few years, but getting some of them to level eighty should be possible within the next five years.

Snek believed that Ularans taking down a dragon - demon on their own would be a significant psyche change and help break the mental shackles that weighed down their now insular society.

Our forces captured a few rift gates, and Stella immediately worked to set them up. Once they were properly set up, it freed up StellaÆs void explorer to keep on exploring the void sea or void forest.

She also had an epiphany one day, looking at the map contained within the demon kingÆs core.

The alphabets used in the rift gates were in a sequence centered around the void gate. But only if viewed from the demonÆs perspective.

From our perspective, there was no order or sequence.

It made sense since the rift gates were constructed in their language, but it also meant that the rift gates themselves had a way to understand the demonÆs perspective.

How? Why?

If the perspective of the void sea was relative to the viewer, what made the rift gate view the stars as what the demons saw it?

How?

Did all races see the void sea differently?

- YouÆre suggesting that because you and I have human origins, we see the void sea in a certain manner? - Stella proposed.

- What else could it be? -

- Yet it is not the same with mine. What you see and what I see has subtle differences. WeÆve known that. -

Was that because of my mixed origins as a tree with what was once a human soul? - If that is true, our treefolks and other race void mages wouldÆve seen it differently, - I countered. - They donÆt. They see the way you see it. -

- Because I handed them the flame, and their view is forever colored by mine, - Stella mused. - Yours was gained through the system. -

- We should find a way to exploit this different perspective, since it essentially widens our reach. -

- Heh. We already have access to two sets of void - perspectives. Ours, and the demons. - We didnÆt count the subtle differences between mine and Stella.

40

YEAR 228

Threeworld.

Eudoxus, Arjan, and my four other Centaurs had established a network of friends and allies within the Centaurs. Arjan, privately, relayed that as a Centaur, he admired their society. A society where Centaurs were a majority and not a minority.

On Treehome, we had certain areas where Centaurs were the majority, and they were the local ruling government. But in Freshka, Centaurs were definitely a minority, and as strange as it sounded, Eudoxus, my spymaster, soon commented that some of the Centaurs were getting very attached to their newfound friends.

- Are they compromised? - I asked. It wasnÆt entirely unheard of, but it was fairly rare that my agents became compromised, simply because of the sheer superiority of our culture and our extensive training before deployment.

- Not yet. But it is something IÆm concerned with, - Eudoxus commented.

At some point, there was a degree of freedom of association. I didnÆt hold my people to be loyal to me forever, and I generally allowed them to leave service when they wanted to.

Thing was they were entirely remote in another world, where my trees could not see them. I had to trust that they knew what they were doing.

Trust.

That was something I struggled with, but here I had no choice. If these agents ran off, I could catch them, but it would require me to expend significant effort.

Lumoof offered to speak to the Centaurs, as part of a regular briefing session, and so snuck through some portals. My priestÆs assessment was simply that the Centaurs truly considered their new - friends - as friends.

They were still loyal.

But that was a form of compromise, wasnÆt it?

- I suggest we let it go, - Lumoof said.

The Centaur society was honestly one that was nursing its wounds. Their hero, the Centaur hero, and the human hero, died in the final battle against the demon king.

The demon king was the only time when the three heroes of the three sides came together and fought. But that didnÆt mean it was a sign of unity of politics. All three factions clearly disliked each other, and my spies soon revealed that due to the extensive damage suffered by the Centaurs, the humans, and the Sandpeople had begun encroaching on their land.

Only the SandpeopleÆs hero was left, but no one actually deployed their hero against the others due to the bad precedent it set. The heroes themselves, from what the Centaurs gathered, were mostly content with their own kingdoms, all nestled in the security of their respective lands.

I was really curious what a Sandpeople hero would be like, and I quickly made a request to both Roon and Johann, whether theyÆd be keen to do some deep spying into the heart of the SandpeopleÆs territory.

Roon returned to the land of the Sandpeople and this time tried to look for the hero. With his significantly higher levels, and high - quality equipment, he was able to sneak into the SandpeopleÆs cities with no problems.

The Great Pyramid of the Sandpeople was a fortress, and from afar, it appeared entirely made of stone. But closer up, it was actually made of a kind of sand - colored steel and was actually an armor for the large magical construct within.

That magisteel pyramid was humongous, the size of a city and some, and could be seen a mile away. It was pretty much a crystal mountain but made of this magical steel.

We didnÆt detect the presence of the domain, but the pyramid itself radiated energies that felt more like hero - items.

Roon passed through their greatest city, aptly named the Pyramid, and headed for the kingdom of the SandpeopleÆs hero.

Back on Treehome, my focus remained on training more people and preparing for the upcoming retaliation. For most of the world, they still expected to see a demon king in a few more years.

It was when it didnÆt happen that I expected to see some shift in the mindsets of the general population.

The challenge of the Valthorns was to keep our swords sharp, our equipment polished, even when there was no demon invading our world. As the angel rightly pointed out, one of the ways I could keep my warriors in fighting form was to constantly send them to other worlds to fight the demons.

There was a shift in mindset, though. What a warrior had in his mind, when he was defending his home from the demons, versus an expeditionary, invasive force wasnÆt the same.

It didnÆt matter much at the senior level, because my experienced Valthorns all understood our long - term goals of ending the cycle. They could see the purpose of the fights, to eventually reach the demons heartland, if there was such a thing.

How it would affect me, of course, was future recruitment of young talents. - Defend your home from demons, - was a lot more effective than, - Invade the demon worlds - or - Protect the multiverse. -

Okay, maybe protecting the multiverse would work for those with a hero complex. My Valthorns and priests would have to adapt to hiring, but in a world without demon kings, it was likely that there would be higher discontent toward our militarization.

41

YEAR 229

The kingdom, or more appropriately the queendom, of the heroine wasnÆt exceptional, and Roon discovered the hero took the form of a part - scorpion part - woman that resembled an Arachna. She referred to herself as Khefri and her kingdom Khefria.

She won concessions from the Sandpeople to claim the lands located not far from the heart of the Great Pyramids, and it had been said that she possessed a harem of servant men. Not entirely unusual, as many heroines went down similar paths, just like their male counterparts.

She built a great palace of painted sand and stone, with a great oasis with flowers and decorative plants, and she traded her hero - items to fund her lavish life. Food and goods seemed plentiful, though it was soon clear that this queen had no way of sustaining her country beyond her hero - items. It was her hero - items, sold and traded to the rest of the nations of sand, that nknot a semblance of a nation to exist.

All the industries that existed in her city only to support her palace and supply the food, goods, and all the items needed for her harem. Slaves and servants came in droves, enticed by the pay she offered.

If there was a queendom designed to collapse immediately after her death, this was exactly it, and it was soon clear that her hired administrators had other masters.

We had seen this in effect to some degree but never quite so obvious.

Roon approached the palace carefully and deftly avoided the presence of certain magical traps meant to deter assassins. Yet, as he got closer, he began to feel a magical presence that seemed to loom over the entire palace. It came from the hero.

- IÆm not sure whether I should approach, - Roon asked through our familiar link. - It felt like sheÆs coating the inner palace with her presence. We should retreat. -

I agreed. Roon checked the perimeter and felt the heroÆs presence pushing and wobbling? -

Then she appeared in the same room.

- So youÆre the one poking at my detection field? -

She appeared almost undetected, and Roon turned to face her. Crap.

- A human assassin? No. You donÆt look human. - The heroineÆs eyes glowed purple, and she immediately pierced through the illusion. - An elf? There are no elves in this world. -

Roon smirked, and he felt an inspect bounce off his domain.

- And I canÆt see your status. -

The heroine seemed more careful and took out her weapons. She was frankly majestic, a half - scorpion creature with a dark - silver carapace. Her body came with a natural chitin armor, though there was clearly some mark of demonic injury scattered over her dark - silver body.

- Who are you? - the heroine asked.

Roon bowed and decided to engage politely. - Roon, an elven ranger from another world. Pleased to meet you. Can we talk, Queen Khefri? -

The words - from another world - immediately made the hero cautious. She looked around and then nodded. - With me, this way. -

They snaked through the palace, and now her detection field was strong, but it swirled around Roon, as RoonÆs own domain disrupted the magical field. He was led to her throne room, but now, late at night, there was no one there.

The room was adorned with her magical equipment, and Roon felt vulnerable. If a conflict happened, Khefri had a significant advantage.

- It is not polite to approach a woman at night, - the scorpion - lady said as she sat. Her throne was more of a large, plush bed than a chair. - One thinks you either intend to kill me or take me to bed. -

Roon had to admit that was rather funny. - Are there other options? I am here merely to speak to you. Without the presence of your fellow Sandpeople present. -

The lady sat, not amused. - Well, you have my ears for the next ten minutes. Speak wisely. -

The ranger found KhefriÆs aura to be quite different from the other heroes and wondered whether the heroes of this world were different. We didnÆt see any large variance between the heroes of Mountainworld and our own, so this gap with Kherfri was curious. Was it a product of her training?

- Well? -

- I am Roon, a ranger from another world called Treehome, and IÆve been sent here, by our patron, to speak to you. If you are suitable, we would like to consider the possibility for a heroic alliance. We are in contact with heroes of our world? -

- You have heroes on the other worlds? Are they human? -

- Yes, - Roon answered.

- Cursed gods. - Khefri spat. Her face resembled a chitin helmet. - Humans. -

At that moment, she glowed, and she transformed into a human - like person. Yet she wasnÆt. Her hair was dark purple and seemed to be more like a scorpionÆs tail, and her skin was pale gray with the same glowing purple eyes.

- They look better than this, I hope? -

Roon shook his head. - They are humans. -

- Then do you find this form beautiful, elf? -

The ranger was stunned, but he had enough experience to answer her. - It is a unique appearance, Queen Khefri. -

- Bah. Answer it cleanly. Yes or no. -

- Yes. - Roon smirked.

- Good. You answered correctly. So what sort of alliance do you speak of? Some kind of interstellar league of heroes? -

Roon laughed. - ThatÆs exactly what the heroes have in mind. -

- Can I meet them? -

- Yes, if you let our patron plant his tree here. -

- Eh. Just a tree, sure, what could go wrong? - Khefri answered too casually, but then she stopped. - Wait. Why a tree? -

- Our patron is a tree, Queen Khefri. His tree allows us to travel worlds, and with it, he can send you through to the other worlds. -

- And I thought I got fucked to be reincarnated as a scorpionoid. - Khefri laughed. - Your patron is a tree of worlds, then? How did you get here without your patron? -

- We have access to portals, but those portals are incompatible with the heroes star mana. -

Khefri nodded. - I see you are familiar with star mana. That at least supports your statement. How many heroes signed up for your arrangement? -

- Six. -

- Six?! Six in one world? They summon just one! Three of us in total, scattered one each to the one segment of the world, and they restrict us! And thereÆs six on the other worlds? -

- There were more. -

Khefri fumed, and she became pensive. - What do you need to make it happen? -

- Do you have permanent rights to your land, and are you able to surrender a segment to our patron unconditionally? -

- Yes, I could. Well, sort of. - Khefri asked, but Roon could sense she was unsure. - But why? - The scorpion queen adjusted her position, and the way she rested on her plush throne was rather seductive.

- It is better to come invited than to appear out of nowhere, - Roon answered. - Our patronÆs presence can be overwhelming to the less prepared. Our patron is an undying, immortal presence, and he would prefer to own its territory through proper means rather than fight the natives for it. -

- You speak as if the natives will lose. -

- They will, - Roon said. - Unless they deploy heroes like yourself. -

Queen Khefri laughed. - You look down on the natives too much. The Great Pyramid has the power to suppress even a hero like me, the Great Vanishing Kingdom of the Centaurs could imprison a hero in the immaterium, and the crystal king has slain stray heroes with its hero - slaying formation. Why would I just remain here, if not for those relics? What gives you that confidence that you can stand against the three great powers of this world? -

- We defeated a demon king on its home world, - Roon said, but we now had a better idea of what the relics of the world could do. - But what you just said is fascinating. -

Khefri frowned, and her glowing eyes brightened. - YouÆre not a hero, but now I realize your powers are not insignificant, either. What are you? -

- Not unlike the crystal king. -

- You do not like to give straight answers, do you? -

- IÆm not a diplomat, but unfortunately, those suited to deal with heroes are few and far between. -

- Are you the strongest, then? -

- Hah. No! -

- Is there a way for me to meet your patron? I must admit that I am intrigued, but I must know which devil I am making deals with. -

Roon nodded. - Are you able to leave your kingdom? -

- No. The Great Pyramid sealed this entire country, such that I am bound to this land. It is why my land is so close to it. -

- And you are not able to fight it? -

- I could if I try, but I will be vulnerable and then killed. Do you not feel the presence of those designed to kill me? The three powers hoard weapons meant to destroy us heroes, if only to blackmail us to do their bidding. -

- No, - Roon admitted. He had honestly missed them, or probably they were well hidden. - But I could get my patron to visit you indirectly. -

- Then bring him. - I was somewhat annoyed with her tone, but I wondered how much of it was an outcome of her circumstances.

Lumoof and Edna both arrived with Roon a few weeks later. There were some scheduling conflicts that made visiting her difficult. - Meeting a scorpion queen is not something I have on my checklist, - Lumoof quipped. - But I suppose there are weirder things out there. -

- She wants to meet A/ . -

- I know. IÆm just the vessel. - Lumoof laughed as they snuck into her queendom at night. Roon had visited her earlier to inform her of the timing, and she had naturally cleared her palace.

She rested on her throne as usual, in her scorpion form when the trio arrived, and we felt her energies meet with our own.

- I see you were not lying, Roon. -

- I wouldnÆt bother lying, Queen Khefri. May I introduce my compatriots, Patreearch Lumoof and Knight Commander Edna? Patreearch Lumoof is the avatar of our patron, A/ . -

- Well, letÆs cut to it. Who am I really dealing with? -

Lumoof stepped forth, and my avatar descended. As my presence flooded the palace and the world beyond, it instantly triggered some of the hero - itemÆs defensive abilities. Queen Khefri panicked. - Wait, I forgot to turn that off! ThatÆs not supposed to activate! -

It triggered arrows and magical blasts that smashed into EdnaÆs protective shields, and a small barrage later, Khefri looked apologetic.

- My apologies, I had not expected them to trigger. The conditions are usually much more. -

I felt my reach expand from the palace and then to the region beyond. I felt the ripples of my energy radiate outward and then met an energy from within the relic that resisted my own.

It was weaker.

Domain has blocked scrying.

Domain has blocked attempted inspect.

- I see your grand pyramid has started to spy on us. - I spoke through Lumoof. He floated in the air with his eyes glowing. - Greetings, Khefri. I am A/ , a magical tree from Treehome. -

If the Grand Pyramid could sense my presence, it was time we met it and found out what it stood for.

Khefri laughed as my own presence washed over her. I felt from a quick sense of my energies brushing against hers that she was around level one hundred twenty as a hero, but the way her power radiated was different due to her nature and race. - Are my eyes deceiving me? You really are a tree? -

- Why lie? - I answered. - I can break you out of your palace, if you want to, though I would prefer to come to an arrangement with the pyramid. -

- The Grand Pyramid will consider you an enemy if you do. This prison is meant to keep me in. -

- I would prefer not to make enemies when our real foe are the demons, - I answered. - But why does the Grand Pyramid lock you here? -

- Why else? So I could do no harm to the rest of its realm. Is it not obvious that we are just troublesome to them? -

- What is the Grand Pyramid? - I asked.

- It is an ancient pharaoh - scorpion, rumored to be the first hero. The ancient stories say he didnÆt want to die, and the god agreed so long as he served to protect the world and so turned his body into the pyramid. -

- Then let us meet this pharaoh - scorpion. Perhaps a deal can be struck. Would you come with us? -

There was a moment of silence as Khefri stared at me, waiting for me to continue.

- YouÆre not joking. - She looked at us like it was the most ridiculous idea.

- Why would we? Do we need more domain holders present to sell the idea? - I responded, and I felt more of that detection ability fail. - Let us meet the pharaoh - scorpion. He already knows we are here. -

We walked out of the palace and headed toward the Grand Pyramid. Queen Khefri looked at the three of us, a little suspicious. - The Grand Pyramid has just as many anti - hero items in its pyramid. I wonÆt be able to protect you. -

- I think itÆs clear we do not need protecting. - Lumoof smiled. We could just disappear if we were attacked. With my shields and EdnaÆs abilities, we had enough time for me to activate my teleportation.

The Grand Pyramid was quiet at night, the area around the pyramid an incredible silence. We felt it again, a formation quite like the Centaurs that engulfed the city around the Grand Pyramid.

When Khefri approached, the guards bowed politely. - Greetings, Queen Khefri. A late - night meeting with the Grand Pyramid? -

- Yes, - Khefri answered. - I have guests that the great one would find interesting. -

The Grand PyramidÆs magisteel plates shifted like a magical puzzle and reshuffled themselves to reveal a door.

Khefri led the way, and eventually we went into the inner chambers. It was dark and dim, and Lumoof felt the presence of a domain all around us, but my own bubble pushed back. This was when I realized it was weaker than me in terms of absolute levels.

It had centuries if not millennia to stockpile equipment, but it was not stronger. Maybe this was because it didnÆt have to fight much. Maybe it didnÆt have fragments that supercharged my leveling.

Further in, the path kept reshuffling, and eventually, a straight path emerged that led us directly into the deepest catacombs of the pyramid.

Where the pharaoh - scorpion, in all of his golden glory, waited for us.

- Greetings. It is unusual for Khefri to come at this time, but the circumstances explain themselves. I am Zhaanpu, the Master of the Grand Pyramid. -

Lumoof stood first. - I am Lumoof, a priest and an avatar of our patron, A/ . These are my compatriots - at - arms, Edna and Roon. We greet Zhaanpu, the Master of the Grand Pyramid. May we get directly to the matter? -

- Proceed. -

- We wish to form an alliance of heroes across the many worlds invaded by the demons, and also an alliance of powerful entities like yourself, to assist us in the great battle with the demons. -

- You intend for Khefri to go with you to the other worlds? -

- Yes. Join forces, and fight the demon kings. -

Zhaanpu was a golden - scorpion, though its face was more of a dried skeleton than a steel - helmet. Its eyes had a golden glow. Zhaanpu looked at Khefri, then back at Lumoof.

It pulsed briefly, and then it opened its arms. - If she goes with you and returns when it is time, I agree. -

- Agree? -

- Yes. I shall aid you in the battle against our old ancient foes, and Khefri shall do so as well. It is her task, as the gods commanded her. I am tasked in the same manner, though I also have the task to ensure the safety and prosperity of my fellow people, the children of the sands. You have the power to send people through the stars, do you not? -

- Yes. -

- Then there must be worlds filled with more sand than my people can imagine. These are my two conditions: first, Khefri and any subsequent hero must return when the demon king is here, and second, I want a world of sand for my people. I am tired of this tripartite stalemate. -

Lumoof paused. - We are not invaders. We do not invade other living worlds. But if there are such demon worlds that we reclaim, we shall deliver them to you. -

Zhaanpu considered the statement. - Fair. That is acceptable. Are you able to move something of my size? -

Queen Khefri had not expected the question, and honestly, neither did we. Unlike before, we had done some research, but the Grand Pyramid remained an elusive, unknown thing. It acted to protect its people, but there was nothing substantive about its beliefs and personality.

This was ultimately a risk of dealing with fellow immortals. No one truly knew what was an act of duty and what it really believed in.

Lumoof considered it. - Possible, but it would need some workarounds. It would likely not happen so quickly. We would also like to negotiate on the placement of our patron, A/ . -

- There are uninhabited deserts in our realm. You may select any you deem fit. - Zhaanpu retrieved a golden plaque from a magical pocketspace and threw it at Lumoof. - This sign shall signify my approval of your claim. -

The golden - pharaoh stared at Khefri.

- I shall organize an army of one thousand sandwarriors to be deployed in your service. Use them well. -

Khefri did not expect that and lashed out. This conversation did not go how she imagined it to go. - Why?! Why do you treat them so differently?! You didnÆt give me an army when we fought the demons. -

- Why not? They are not immature children chosen by faraway gods. I see and feel the weight of their actions, and the experience on their souls has substance. They are immortals like me. It is accordingly expected that our conduct would be different. -

- IÆm a child?! - KhefriÆs mana and aura radiated outward. It was unstable and hostile.

- Yes. You still are, young Khefri. I believe some time on the other worlds would help you mature. -

- You didnÆt let me visit the other nations and even travel out of my land! -

- The Pact of the Three binds the three forces of the land. But now you will. -

- This is stupid. - The heroineÆs arm - claws glowed, but just as abruptly, the glow vanished. We felt the Grand Pyramid somehow drain away at her power.

- The Pact of the Three binds you, too, young Khefri. -

- ARGhh! - She stomped and protested with her six scorpion legs and turned to walk out. - This is so damned stupid! This shit is all a scam! -

As she ran out, Zhaanpu just sighed. - Forgive the young child. Her life is still too short to realize the weight of her actions. I had hoped keeping her in her palace would give her time to think once she grew tired of her harem, but I thought wrong. -

Lumoof just rubbed his forehead. - It seems we have signed up to be nannies. -

- We are all caretakers of children once. - Zhaanpu chuckled. - Please, take this child off my hands. -

42

YEAR 229 (PART 2)

We selected a large, mostly deserted desert on the furthest north of the SandpeopleÆs domain. My goal was more mana, and to do so I needed trees. I could spawn desert adapted trees and convert some of these deserts into ordinary land where normal, more productive trees could form.

So a largely deserted desert was fairly ideal for me. The Sandpeople loved sandy deserts, but only if they were not too far from bodies of water.

They also preferred warmer climates, and the cold deserts further north were also not ideal. The only reason it was their territory was because it was at the far end of their territory, too far from both the Centaurs or the humans.

The administrators of the Sandpeople handled the transfer quickly; the golden plaque from the Great Pyramid itself was indisputable. We had our papers within days; the administrators worked hard and pretty much dropped everything else to give us the necessary documents.

All because the Great PyramidÆs will was absolute.

- Their behavior is very much normal! - Lumoof laughed. - You should observe the Valthorns when you grant them an order personally. Their reaction is entirely, entirely normal. -

Once all that was sorted out, Lumoof traveled personally to the location to place the seed.

The cold in the fringe territories of the Sandpeople was actually quite comfortable. My immunity to weather effects and terraforming abilities meant I could easily alter the temperature and makeup of the place.

I recalled when I placed my seed on Mountainworld and set up Branchhold, I got access to another color of my Soul Forge. I wondered whether the same would happen now.

Did each full will of the world have the ability to grant access to Soul Forge?

- Well, letÆs see. -

My seed emerged from LumoofÆs palms like magic. I felt the seed touch the cold sand, and then my seed drilled into the ground. I felt a sudden but not overwhelming surge of mana as the seed created new roots.

Roots immediately soaked in the mana of the new world, of Threeworld. After being in multiple worlds, I could largely feel slight differences in the nature of mana. It was not a significant one such that it changed the type or quality, but in a way, it was like how water somehow tasted slightly different in different places.

It was still water, perfectly drinkable.

Normal mana that was produced by almost everything could be said to be a blended form of mana. It was the potpourri of everything, the neutral element in the world.

Star mana, demonic mana, void mana, blood mana, and normal mana.

I had learned of the existence of a type of blood mana recently, as some of the Ularans visited and salvaged old, destroyed dens. With the Valthorns providing protection and support, they had nothing to fear of the demons, so they could freely travel to where their old Ularan dens were and look for ancient documents and text.

Some were lost forever. But burying magical books in this canyon - like, water - scarce world was a surprisingly good way to preserve them.

The truth was even normal mana could be separated into elemental types of mana, which all fell under the greater normal mana pool.

It was an imperfect mental image, but I imagined elemental mana as the equivalent of flavored drinking water. Water with certain flavors accentuated.

Star mana, in this concept, was a little like carbonated, condensed, high - pressure water: powerful, but dangerous in the hands of those not able to cope with it.

Demonic mana was dirty, sludge - like water, like wastewater.

Void mana was kinda like oil or grease. Or maybe a kind of alcohol. I hadnÆt quite truly understood what void mana should be.

So, in this image, each worldÆs drinking water had a slightly different flavor; the ratio of elements and other components differed in minute amounts.

- Nothing yet. - The ground and the sand shook, and a tree sprouted out. I felt my mind connect to my new clone, and now I saw through it. I had a decision now.

What did I want to do on Threeworld?

I spawned trees all around my new clone and soon realized they produced decent quantities of mana, despite how terrible the land was.

I had thought there was some correlation between the health of a tree and how much natural resources it had to the mana it produced. This did seem true on Treehome, though the gap wasnÆt that big. A cactus produced mana. A shrub in the steppes produced mana.

- Master, trees produce mana best when the species or form of the tree is the form that is optimally adapted to its environment. An alpine tree in an alpine world would produce more mana than an alpine tree in the desert. A desert tree would produce more mana in the desert world than in the tropics, - my artificial minds stepped in to correct. They handled all the nitty - gritty aspects for me.

- But we also influence the natural state at the same time? - I had some environmental tweaking powers, after all.

- Yes, so over time itÆs possible to cause trees to be less optimized to their environment through our modification of the land. - That was a little strange and meant terraforming this land was usually unnecessary if the goal was only to gain mana.

So, did I intend to build a city here, like how I did on Mountainworld?

Or would this solely be a mana - producing facility?

My council advised that as it was, they already had their hands full. We were expanding on Tropicworld (formerly known as Parasiteworld), managing Branchhold, and managing the Central Continent itself.

A full town was unnecessary, and I didnÆt really want to upset the balance of power between the three factions, either.

Therefore I decided to go low key and start modifying the terrain underground. It was partly inspired by the Ularans, and it reminded me of the century when I had New Freeka dig up underground bunkers.

It was fairly easy to create a perpetual mist that obscured the presence of the trees, and the entrance to the underground chambers was through my subsidiary trees . With my Root Tunnels , and the help of earth mages and builders, we created underground homes, offices, and stores.

In time, this would be a bit like a secret military base, where my operatives in the Centaur and Sandpeople lands could return to recharge.

But.

Still nothing on the soul forge front.

Then again.

Clone deployed on Threeworlds: You are now able to receive the souls of those from Threeworlds and also the soul fragments of the Threeworlds heroes.

Freshka was now at least a hundred years old. This city was named a good hundred and seventeen years ago, and so much had changed since then. Patreeck also began serving me a hundred years ago. It honestly didnÆt feel that long. Thinking back, it felt like just remembering something that happened a year or two ago.

The Six Ports fell to my rule slightly over a hundred years ago too, and that was the beginning of the empire. IÆd seen my vision expand from a little village, to a region, then a continent, and now the entire world.

My trees landed on every large significant piece of land of Treehome, and it truly now deserved to be called Treehome.

The world felt more vibrant, more. alive.

And as I covered more and more of the world, my trees now extended to all major areas of the other continents.

Ngeh.

In hindsight, the speed from the rebirth of Freshka to what was my trees spread to the entire world was exceptionally fast. If I had to fight to conquer the other lands, I thought it would take a long time, but the thing about trees was we were always perceived as invisible. We were always a background element.

Except when there were evil trees, but that had been quite rare even in stories.

Now that my trees reached everywhere, I had a title.

New Title Unlocked: One Who Covers the Surface World

In an instant, I felt something extremely powerful reach out and pull on my will.

Greetings, Tree.

The voice was in my mind, just as sudden as the voices of others. It was a little like Lilies, but more gentle, more motherly.

I was roused by a notification, and I awoke to find a tree had claimed my surface world. You have the faint whiff of my fellow sisters and brothers. How strange.

- Hello. - This was a sensation familiar to me. It was when the Will of the Tropicworld reached out to touch me and when the Will of the shattered Cometworld touched me. - I am speaking to the Will of the World? -

Yes, but I am no will, but a relic of the creation of worlds, the residual thoughts and structured processes, a system left behind to operate each world.

I felt a tugging sensation, and at that moment, I could feel that tugging sensation reached out to touch many others throughout the world. It touched normal trees, people, everyone.

The will of the world awakens. Lilies quickly pinged me. We felt your presence close to it.

I am speaking to it.

Fascinating. We would love to speak to it again.

How strange indeed. You have seen the demise of my sisters and brothers and restored the structure of my consumed brothers.

- Are you reading my mind? -

No. Merely reading the minds of those around you.

From what it answered, it seemed the Will was merely an AI. It didnÆt actively resist intrusion by the demons, and that was why the demons could consume the core. The world was a bio - magical, life - creating machine, and the Core of the world was but the vessel and controller of the machine.

YouÆve gained powers quite like mine, and you had a chance to consume my will, make me a part of you. But you did not.

- I did not. -

Strange, but the Great System must have offered something else.

Now that I was speaking to the Will of the World, I wasnÆt sure what I wanted it to do. - Are you able to control your movements in the void sea? -

Void sea?

A long pause, and I felt its tendrils touch unprotected minds.

Ah. The primordial soup. I could, but I am not allowed to.

- Not allowed? -

Your understanding of us is not flawed. We are bound, controlled by rules. Those rules dictate what we do and what we cannot do. It binds our actions, our decisions. Perhaps, if you one day claim one of my sisters or myself as a part of you, you may instruct us accordingly, but now, I cannot do so.

- What happens if I do? -

An enemy of the other worlds. Your presence will be forever marked by our curse, just as these - demons - are forever marked by the collective curses of my brothers and sisters.

Interesting. The more I discovered, there clearly seemed to be some thought put into the design of these wills of the worlds. was that why the demons became enemies everywhere they went? That everyone felt them? That the worlds rejected their presence because of that taint or marker?

- Then I want knowledge. Tell me what you know of the demons. -

We know nothing, except that they carry the markers of destroying my siblings. Those are clear for us to see, and so we resist. Their presence stinks. It is foul. We know not of their history. We know not of their origins. We only know they are an enemy, and we tell the system to reward those who slay them.

- You can tell the system things? -

We submit a notification, and the system decides what it decides.

That wasnÆt helpful. - What happened in the past? To the Margmarian Dwarves? To the Dragons? -

My children come and go. They died or changed. That is the way.

- If I merged with you, would I get marked? - I may not be able to get the Will of the World, but then again, could Lilies or Reefy or Aria get it?

If the Great System grants you the option, the choice, no. What comes from the System is law.

- Then what are gods? -

Every system must have those who create the rules, modify the rules, those who punish the rulebreakers, those who maintain the systems as they are and operate them. Every system must react to the forces acting on it, lest it perish.

Gods are those who create and modify the rules and those who punish the rulebreakers.

Those who reach the point where the System judges them worthy are offered a choice, and? -

Wait.

Oh. You have not had the choice.

- The choice? -

To be bound by the SystemÆs Pact, in exchange for the Powers of the System.

The implication was clear. At some point in our levels, we would face a choice with the system, and I wondered whether the Pact was the same pact that restricted the gods, like Aiva, from doing what it wanted. If so, were AivaÆs words a warning to me? To be wary of the systemÆs pact?

But. why?

Merchant guilds had always existed since I first came to this world, but it was in the great era of peace that merchant guilds gained strength and accumulated wealth to rival kingdoms.

With the enhanced rule of law on the Central Continent, that, as it was on Earth, empowered guilds, and these guilds eventually formed alliances.

As a military - educational - magical organization, we did business with guilds, and as our demands grew, the guilds grew with us. Over time, guilds amassed wealth, hoarded and stored in various places where they could not be stolen easily. First they gained wealth, then they purchased power.

They hired the best adventurers money could buy. They attempted to sway the trained Valthorns, to some degree of success, with money and rewards to work for them.

The structure put in place for the Valthorns was massive.

Dedicated healing, defensive outputs, focused training and equipment, and guided opportunities. For those who aspired to reach the one hundreds, money was not that useful. Influence or money didnÆt buy access to the level one hundred to one hundred forty dungeons. Influence or money also wouldnÆt buy access to the kinds of unique weapons we made.

In a way, the Valthorns were stuck in the system, and unless a large quantity of them left, it was hard to replicate it outside on their own.

Even if they could, they didnÆt have access to the other worlds, or the unique materials, or the higher - grade classes, or the various experience boosting abilities I had.

I didnÆt realize it.

It was this system that made it very hard for them to quit, even if they were not loyal.

That didnÆt stop the merchant - guilds from trying, because a single level eighty - five to ninety Valthorn was a huge powerhouse, even if it didnÆt seem that way. They did have some luck in recruiting retired Valthorns, though all of them were smart enough to ensure that none of their assignments would directly put them in conflict with us.

After all, theyÆd seen the monsters we had to fight; they knew what we had at our disposal and our willingness to deploy it. Many Valthorns were also familiar with our spying division. Their role had increased of late, as Treehome settled into a new status quo.

Still, it was interesting to bear witness to the first large - scale guild wars, where a merchant guild actually attempted to overthrow a kingdom that blocked its shipments. Right up to the last moments, I watched the merchantÆs leaders wonder whether we, the Valthorns, would intervene. We didnÆt, so long as they played by the rules.

It was well in the news and a hot topic for discussion.

The rise of the merchant - nations, as they called it.

Our non - interference in that one incident, unfortunately, set off a race.

It set off a wave of merchant - guilds, many prosperous and very wealthy through decades of trade on the Central Continent, to plan to use their financial might to overthrow kingdoms and nations on the other four continents.

The kingdoms of the Central Continent were generally wealthy, safe, and also able to hire mercenaries, which made them relatively tougher opponents for the guilds. The nations of the other continents were relatively weaker and didnÆt have easy access to the high - quality weapons produced by the Central ContinentÆs many industrial cities.

It naturally led to some concerns from my higher council, who wondered whether this would jeopardize our status quo.

The four temples, mainly Gaya and Gawa , were quick to spin this as some kind of proxy invasion.

We thoroughly denounced it and claimed that the Central ContinentÆs merchant guilds were also open targets. The other nations were free to attack the merchant guilds, so long as they obeyed the rules of engagement on the Central Continent.

This was controversial, of course.

The guilds were able to do what they did, because their finances were secure, safe in the various Valthorn - controlled cities of the Six Ports or Freshka.

No one attacked a bank in Freshka or the Six Ports.

Rather than being seen as protecting the guilds finances from retaliation, I therefore ordered that the property of any merchant guilds that waged wars on other kingdoms, not to be subjected to our protection, and any funds held with our Valtorn OrderÆs trade departments be returned to the respective guildÆs own banks and vaults.

But it was still a lopsided arrangement.

The Central Continent was safer, stronger, and the merchant guilds of the Central Continent were able to work out a temporary understanding not to attack each other while they focused on their target nations on the other continents.

The age of guild - invasions and expansion had begun.

A part of me wanted to just let it happen, to witness the consequences.

43

YEAR 230

In many ways, many Centaur habits or traditions were persistent even though they were of different worlds. It certainly made it easy for Centaurs to adapt to their new life in Hoofhall, and they were quite slow to form their own sub - clan within the Centaurs.

The news of the land transfer to - the Temple of A/ , - however, spread quickly and reached the Centaurs. It spurred a surge of magic as they attempted to find out who and what this particular Temple of A/ did.

The human - faction didnÆt outright declare war, but within weeks, there were spies in the new area.

All they found was an empty, barren land. A ruse, they called it.

My clone was hidden behind huge layers of illusions and spells that it was almost impossible for any lesser person to find. They did try.

Yet they didnÆt ask the Grand Pyramid directly. Communication between the factions was scarce in the best of times.

Zhaanpu also wouldnÆt say too much. The three factions didnÆt trust each other, even if they worked together under a pact. They had a status quo that none of them liked but didnÆt and couldnÆt break free of it, either.

Arjan and Eudoxus, thus, came with a fascinating proposal.

- As the Sandpeople are now aware of our presence, we would like to propose that we open up and declare our affiliation to Treehome. The Centaurs deserve to know of the other worlds, and open communication would permit us to do so. -

- WouldnÆt we be seen as lying to them all these years? Our papers were forged. If anything, it should be another Centaur that leads the conversation, and we remain as the hidden hand behind the scenes. -

Declaring our presence after being hidden was a scumbag move, so I believe that wasnÆt a good idea. Our goal was to find a nice place to plant my tree, and now that weÆd achieved it through Zhaanpu and the Sandpeople, I no longer needed a spot in the Centaur Lands.

So, after some consideration, I decided that they should remain hidden and changed the scope of engagement.

I wanted Eudoxus and the Centaurs to just keep tabs on them and make sure they didnÆt engage in overtly harmful activities.

Arjan, however, requested to return to Treehome. Unlike Eudoxus, he wasnÆt a spy, so maintaining this double life was more taxing than to the spymaster who flipped through personas as easily as changing profile pictures.

My spear saint just couldnÆt take it anymore.

- IÆm torn from keeping lies and hiding our origins, - Arjan admitted to me as he made the journey back. Of the original six Centaurs sent to infiltrate the Centaurlands, Arjan and one other decided to return. - IÆd rather fight ten years in the dungeons than this. IÆve no idea how Eudoxus does it, but I canÆt. These centaurs that I know, that I meet and befriended, they are nice people, good folks. Friendly, but I have to be on guard, and I canÆt tell them stuff that reveals our own exceptional upbringing. -

They didnÆt manage to prevent all of it. Eudoxus did say that the non - spy Centaurs did leak a few words or statements that pretty much indicated their foreign origins, but so far their new friends had not picked up.

Arjan thought he was ready for it before he started this mission. But this long campaign in the Centaur - ruled lands proved him wrong. It wasnÆt easy to lead a double life at all.

That was expected, and it was entirely why spies and spymasters were needed. They had the ability, the instinct to know what to do, and could manage the double lives easily without feeling their own minds tearing apart. It required amounts of mental strength and intellectual prowess that not everyone had.

In fact, once he returned to Treehome, the two went back to their real family, and I witnessed both of them have a small emotional breakdown. It wasnÆt that bad, as Freshka was pretty much saturated with my tree of prayers , which generally improved their moods. Tree of prayers became less effective on those of higher levels, however, simply because of the mental protections of a stronger soul.

Eudoxus understood. He had seen this too many times, and as the main handler, he was familiar with the emotional turmoil. He assured me that it could be managed.

Ularans adapted well on Treehome, and Snek was pleased. Stella had withdrawn the portals, but because we already raided a few of the rift gates and obtained their rift coordinates, we were able to access their world.

The young Ularans joined the Valtorn OrderÆs academies, and they leveled. Meanwhile, Snek was able to share his new blood magic.

The heroes, and Ken specifically, watched with great interest. Ken still wondered about my intentions for SnekÆs blood magic and so wanted to see what Snek collected.

Most of them were benign, but the Ularans used blood magic extensively prior to the era of the demons to augment their souls and gain spiritual powers.

- How do you insert a hero class? - I asked, wondering whether the Ularans had a mechanism different from how I inserted a class seed into a fruit and the Valthorns then ate the fruit. Maybe it worked out the same way, maybe it didnÆt.

I knew for a fact not all classes were created equal, and it was possible for the body to reject a class. A Hero class was probably the most powerful class IÆd ever seen, so I wanted to know SnekÆs plan for it.

- In truth, itÆs likely weÆll need more blood magic to tie the hero class with a new soul, - Snek admitted, much to KenÆs horror.

- What?! More sacrifice? - Ken said, but as far as I recalled, removing KenÆs hero class didnÆt require living sacrifices beyond snakes. The others just fainted.

- Great power requires great sacrifice, but if it goes well, no one has to die, - Snek said. - TheyÆll just lose their blood. ItÆs called blood magic, not sacrifice magic, even if it does get used interchangeably. -

As we reviewed the old blood magic tomes collected from the various old buried sites in Ulara, it occurred to me most of them were spying, buff, transformation, and summon type spells. They summoned various serpents and snakes to do their bidding.

Of them all, I found the buff and summon type spells to be particularly fascinating. The buff - type blood magics temporarily enhanced the soul and unlocked a higher level of power by temporarily stitching itself to the soul. We immediately wondered whether it was possible to forge this into something more permanent, in the same way that the ginseng was crucial to breaking the level limits.

As I reviewed the blood magicÆs summons, I also had a council of mages pull together some information on summon magic in our worlds.

The concept of a summon was particularly important to identify, because were we borrowing power from another world or from the system or from somewhere else altogether? Where were these summons when they were not summoned?

Eventually, I concluded that summons pulled power from the system itself. That these summons were functionally creations of the system and not really another realm. The blood magic, and some of the faux - demonic magic, worked the same way.

The concept of hell was a system - creation, a part of the system presets.

Still, the soul - augmentation through blood magic, essentially taking pieces of souls and adding them to existing souls to strengthen them, was worth exploring further.

We already augmented the body and mind with my artificial minds and the wooden - crystal suits, and now we wanted to augment the soul.

It would make them different.

At some point, would Valthorns still be the races they came from?

Khefri made the journey to the far north, escorted by Roon and Lumoof. Though she stomped off, since our last meeting, in truth she didnÆt go far. All she did was let out her anger on some empty piece of land and blew shit up. Eventually, she calmed down and returned to her own queendom.

With the barriers down, she was free to travel.

- You two seem too used to this. - The scorpion - heroine was quite chatty.

Roon shrugged. - WeÆve been visiting worlds all the time. Once you get used to it, you will. -

- Why canÆt we use the way you guys came? -

- Oh. I thought we told you about the star manaûvoid mana interaction? - Roon scratched his head. He swore he had that conversation.

- You did? I mustÆve forgotten. What are we heading to, anyway? -

- A/ . - Roon smiled.

- WhatÆs stopping me from going crazy once I get to the other side? - Khefri asked.

- Us. - Roon laughed. In truth, we didnÆt really know how well weÆd fare if a hero decides to go rogue and started bombing the shit out of our world. But I was fairly certain at our levels of power we could pacify one hero. At the cost of tremendous destruction.

Khefri paused and then nodded. - Fair. And. what. -

As the mist lifted and the terrain itself shifted, they arrived at the sight of my clone tree that stretched to the skies above.

- Nice. - She looked impressed.

- WeÆll walk close, and A/ will send us to Treehome. The other heroes are waiting to meet you. -

- Really? -

They approached the tree, surrounded by shrubs, and arrived at a platform, a flat part of my exposed roots.

- Hi. - Khefri looked awkwardly at the six heroes. They nodded back.

- This is Khefri. SheÆs one of the three heroes of the Threeworlds. The other two died in battle, so sheÆs the last one left. She used to be human. -

Khefri sighed. - I got the short end of the stick when they made me this scorpion - thing. -

Chung whistled. - On the contrary, milady. I think monster girls are exactly my - Prabu and Colette smacked Chung on the head.

Roon and Lumoof laughed. - Well, you guys get to know each other, all right? WeÆll give you heroes some privacy. You can have a visit to the heroÆs journal if youÆre ready. -

As they stepped out, the heroes began to chat. We served them tea, hopefully for some clarity and honesty of thought.

They all shared what theyÆd been through, and I listened through my tree, where they had their little meetup. The heroes journal was in the tree right next door.

- Man. I didnÆt know some worlds have additional rules on the heroes. - Adrian, the Mountainworld hero, cursed. - I thought we had it bad when we were imprisoned by the demons. -

- ThatÆs pretty bad, actually. I wouldnÆt want to be captured, - Khefri countered, and it almost felt like I detected a softening of her tone.

Then a dam broke.

- It sucked that I had no one to turn to, no one to talk to, and all these Sandpeople just suck up to me. I had followers but no one I could confide in. That stupid pyramid corpse thinks IÆm a child. Like, did he even know I wanted this? I didnÆt! -

- No one did, - Adrian countered.

- I had a family. I had friends. I was happy. - Khefri crumbled, and I thought this was the effect of the tea. The hero class imbued her with a sense of duty to defeat the demons, and here, all her suppressed emotions erupted. - Then that stupid accident, and three of us flung into another world. And we canÆt even talk to each other for long. All we could manage was a word or two! ItÆs? -

The other he - es didnÆt understand, of course. When they arrived, they had each other.

It took a while for her to settle down, and eventually, she too went and read the heroes journal .

Over time, the heroes journal had gained quite a bit of power. I sensed the stored star mana and other energies within it grow and get stronger over time, but I couldnÆt look into it. Strange.

She too shared her memories and thoughts with the journal, the combined effort of so many heroes before her. Her reaction was very similar to the other heroes.

- Now the sappy partÆs over, - Ken said. - LetÆs take you out on a tour of Freshka and the nice places. I think itÆll feel quite nostalgic. -

- IÆm not sure if IÆm ready for nostalgia, - Khefri admitted.

- You need it to move on. Come, weÆll be there with you. Like it or not, the seven of us are unique in this multiverse. -

Kei was very, very interested in AlkaÆs supercomputer crystals. As a bio - crystalline golem, she was a natural fit to using the crystals, though we were a bit leery of directly experimenting on people.

But over the past two to three years, Alka had gotten more comfortable with the inner workings of the supercomputer crystals and began testing out versions with Kei.

Simply put, Kei wanted to know whether it was possible to augment her body by replacing it or converting her entire body into a supercomputer, essentially transforming her into a living supercomputer.

We were all intrigued by the idea.

Kei, as she was today, was fairly weak. At level one hundred twenty or so, even with the extensive power - leveling in the dungeons, she was still really far away from even getting back her previous strength as a hero.

In a way, she was stagnant. Many Valthorns plateaued at this stage; the level one hundred twenty to one hundred forty - nine was where each level felt like it took forever to climb. Roon and Johann vividly remembered the long struggle of this particular stage.

In hindsight, I really, really lucked out with all the fragments I hoarded.

The first small - scale experiment started with converting a bit of her shoulder into the supercomputer and then somehow wiring it to connect to her mind.

At first, she didnÆt feel any different.

But within a month, she claimed it was nothing short of exceptional.

- This is what sci - fi wants to show us but always fails. ItÆs like certain regimented thoughts, like calculations can be made instantly, instead of manually going through the numbers in my head. ItÆs just amazing. Memory also seems far more fresh, more vivid, and I just store way more detail. I know exactly whatÆs the fastest way to go from here to there. I know the time it takes to do certain things, what and who said stuff. -

- So youÆve become better at crunching numbers, storing information, and retrieving itm - Alka repeated. - Sounds like an artificial mind - assistant. -

- Yes, and IÆm not selling it short here. Even with the hero classÆs intelligence augmentation, I donÆt feel like this. The hero classÆs effects feel more like a really strong gut feeling of what to do. This is. I know exactly the calculation that was made. ItÆs like seeing the options available instead of having a gut feeling of what is the right path. -

KeiÆs newfound computational power did improve her ability to make computations, but it was still all about asking the right questions, and the crystals themselves didnÆt understand complex or vague questions.

Garbage in, garbage out.

It would take some time for standardized process and computations to form. We had some ideas of what would be useful in battle against the demons, but IÆd like to see them tested.

On Threeworlds, I expanded my trees as quickly as I could. Though most of it was barren, I could still, via roots, spawn other types of trees that fit the terrain. Cactuses and certain types of shrubs were naturally adapted to such lands.

I spread them quickly, and eventually, the trees also reached the city of Pyramid, home of Zhaanpu and the Great Pyramid.

- Your presence is interesting, - Zhaanpu said. He spoke to a palm tree in his cityÆs courtyard. - No wonder the crystal king claims you are an invader. -

- I see you can sense me. -

- We are inanimate objects. I am a corpse bound to the pyramid, my life sustained through this connection. This connection extends throughout the city and into the land beyond. I know when trees appear out of nowhere. Still, it is nice to finally speak without the presence of children. -

- It isnÆt so bad. -

- There must be some things you want to ask. -

- The pact with the gods. Does that allow you to communicate with them? -

- Rarely. When the stars align, and the wobbles of the sun happen to be in the right place, we could. -

- How? -

- We pray and sacrifice two of my priests. Their blood and my magic unlocks a key, which allows us to speak to that faraway god once more. -

I chuckled. - It seems that the gods have a poor reputation. -

- Well deserved, for a distant god. What could we say except he is not here when we need him? - Zhaanpu sighed.

- You could get there, gain the levels. You do gain levels, right? -

- Me? In the last hundred years, I gained four levels. Four. - Strangely, at that moment, Zhaanpu didnÆt look like the powerful pharaoh of the Sandpeople; instead, he was just a sagging, tired corpse.

- The system benefits combat. -

- And I failed as a ruler, if I had to take the field and the battle reached my city. Failed. How contradictory, donÆt you think? -

- CouldnÆt you nominate those to fight on your behalf? -

- I did. They die too quickly. -

There was nothing much to say beyond that.

44

YEAR 231

Iwatched the children play. The void - attuned children.

Perhaps it was sentimental value, but I had requested for the children who spoke to me to call me TreeTree.

My priests quickly spun it into two aspects of my divinity. A/ , the guardian of the continent, and TreeTree, the tree of youth and children. It was a little cringe to hear the sermon in person, but I supposed if propaganda worked, it nknot.

It was normal in myths and legends for gods to have different aspects of themselves. Just like how Lilies had different faces, different views, because they were a combination cobbled together from the spirits of the dead.

That was a small matter, really, though I did wonder whether this was how those multi - faceted or multi - headed gods started.

No matter, I focused on the small group of children, playing and wrestling. Kaala and the rest of the void treefolks grew up well, and we witnessed the first of the void - attuned lizardfolks. She had a black olive skin, her scales shining in a way that was different.

Small, but no less dangerous in potential.

This play - based training was not really combat training. Not yet. Kaala would speak to me, about their friends, about their lives.

They were special, and they sensed it. By now, we had specialist caretakers, matrons and caregivers that had skills to ensure their children grew up healthy and strong. Some even had the ability to improve stats permanently by sheer exposure, though the amount of absolute increase in stats wasnÆt that great. Yet, at that age, it was a relative advantage.

On Treehome and Branchhold, weÆd observed improvements in the childrenÆs health. A regular child of the Central Continent or Branchhold now had health and physical conditions comparable to the wealthy, powerful nobles of the past.

That said, being sick did sometimes lead to levels. Every kind of setback was measured against their condition, their struggles, the process of healing.

One of the issues that occurred, really, was that as my healing aura got stronger, the speed at which my healers gained levels slowed. Priests also unlocked less healing spells and more buff - type abilities.

This was a consequence of the challenge - based experience system.

As a mitigation, to ensure my healers still kept pace, they spent more time in dungeons to heal those injured or poisoned by the creatures of the dungeons, so dungeons and the city around them transformed into centers where healers congregated.

- How many heroes is enough? - Khefri asked the question that pretty much was on everyoneÆs mind.

- We donÆt know, - I answered. The scorpionoid hero wanted details on what exactly she signed up for.

- We are trying to get better reads and sensors on the relative power levels of the black sun and all the other defensive structures that we can see, but thatÆs really more of a range and does not truly convert into power. Power levels are a really fuzzy thing, - Stella explained.

- You donÆt know, - Khefri repeated with emphasis. - So this thing that we are preparing for? -

- Wait. ThereÆs some misunderstanding here, - Lumoof immediately clarified. - As I understood it, the League of Heroes is largely a defensive pact. The problem, in short, is that the heroes will eventually stop. The godÆs ability to turn the tap and churn out new heroes is either limited by quantity or limited by some kind of magical distance. The League of Heroes aims to prolong the survival of the living worlds by pooling together the heroes and so effectively nullifying the demon kingÆs inherent design advantages against the heroes. -

Khefri understood the gist of it from the Book of Heroes.

- So you donÆt plan to attack that black sun? -

- Wait. Let me clarify. We, as in A/ and the domain holders, do, - Lumoof answered. - With or without the heroes. If we can destroy the black sun, we will try to do so. We want to see what happens and whether there is an end to this stupid wave of attacks. -

- And if there are other black suns out there? -

- Then weÆre screwed. - Everyone looked horrified, and Lumoof laughed. - Well, not really. WeÆll just have to constantly play this game of whack - a - mole and stomp out the demon kings as they appear or take the battle to the demon-lands, free the core, and over time create a buffer zone between the living cities and the demon world. -

- So this League of Heroes. We hope from world to world and defend it from demons. Like a bunch of superheroes, - Ken explained. - What I do want to know, of course, is how the presence of other heroes interacts with the pact of the gods that your world has. -

Khefri shrugged. - Do I look like I know such things? All I do is play with my pretty boys. -

The heroes rolled their eyes, but in my mind, it was likely this was not unique. There must be worlds where some local powers made arrangements with these faraway gods.

- The plan is to play defense while we find ways to go on the offense. The demons can see the heroes, we know this, but we donÆt really know whether this is true on a planar scale, - Ken explained. - This is why itÆs best for A/ Æs domain holders to do the scouting. -

- All right, but letÆs play a number, - Khefri insisted. - Twenty? I mean, to attack that black sun thing. -

- No, - Stella answered. - At least a hundred. -

- Shit. WeÆre nowhere near if each world only has one or two like me. -

- Unless we find a way to drift closer to where the gods are summoning heroes, - Stella said. - The issue, from our point of view, is that distance has an impact on how many heroes the gods can summon. ItÆs also likely each god has a specific range, and some places are just too far from any god to get summons. -

Ken nodded. - ThatÆs one merit for going in the other direction, instead of toward the demon sun. ItÆs likely that we get closer to the gods, and in doing so, we access worlds with more heroes. That should bring us up to the number we need. -

The Mountainworld hero nodded. - If we ever encounter the gods again, IÆm going to give them a piece of my mind. Like, fuck Æem so hard. -

The scorpionoid heroine rolled her eyes. - I should be first in line. IÆm not even human! -

- You have a point. WhatÆs up with this humanoid supremacy for heroes? - Ken agreed. - ItÆs almost as if all the heroes are derived from humans with just minor cosmetic changes. -

- Maybe the first gods are human? -

- Or maybe the source worlds are human? - If all the - source - of heroes were from these earth - clones, it was only natural that this got propagated over the multiverse. Especially with how frequently heroes set up harems and mate with the locals.

- You do realize that means every human in these worlds are descendants of some horny hero somewhere? - Chung interjected.

The girls had a horrified look. - Eww. -

- So youÆre saying the constant introduction of heroes, which are majority human, function as super - breeders into the population, which helps lead to a humanoid - majority population. - Ken nodded thoughtfully. - ThatÆs a very interesting theory. -

- ThatÆs like Genghis KhanÆs lineage. -

The girls shook their heads. - Guys, letÆs not take this conversation there. -

- WeÆre all adults here. Why canÆt we have this conversation? - Chung responded. - ItÆs fascinating to consider the implications of heroes on the long - term trends of the human population. Our extended aging also means we could have more children. -

- Goodness, that makes heroes sound like super - breeders, like hypersexual individuals, and thatÆs really uncomfortable to think about. -

- Harems have effects. -

Khefri paused uncomfortably. She had a harem, and as it nknot out, Hafiz and Adrian also possessed a harem. A small one, but a harem nonetheless, so they kept quiet during the conversation.

- ShouldnÆt this apply to all long - lived creatures? Even high - level individuals. -

Ken coughed. - You do realize heroes have many cards stacked in their favor? -

On Branchhold, it was an era of relative quiet, and my attempts to build a vertical, denser city encountered some obstacles.

On one hand, there was a clear increase in overall quality of life; on the other, the density, noise, and hectic environment, even when suppressed by tree of prayers , did turn off some of the inhabitants, which led to emigrations to the surroundings.

Sprawl, essentially. Lifestyle.

Some people just preferred a quieter environment but still desired the safety that we provided.

No one tried to attack us so far, but based on my spies and trees, it was an inevitability. Jealousy, fear, all these factors still popped up, though some were wise enough, or their system gave them enough warning that theyÆd lose, that they decided against it.

Lilies finally created an avatar. An inferior one, well, I supposed everything would be inferior when compared to Lumoof, but an avatar nonetheless.

The avatar was essentially a soul fragment of that greater hivemind, possessing a wooden puppet. It was created from a combination of a permanent scry spell and some kind of projection ability.

That said, it had zero combat power, and the range of the wooden puppet was still fairly limited. For now, it could only travel a small region around Lilies.

With more levels, it would gain extended range, something they really looked forward to, because they really wanted to experience and see the other worlds for themselves.

Aria and Aispeng also tried to do something similar, because being repeatedly shown what IÆd seen on the other worlds was strangely tempting. They tried to create an ice - avatar, since that was where their shaping and sculpting abilities were best, and Aria insisted that they wanted to look good.

I privately felt like they were spending too much time on appearances, but it was inconsequential. That was how they chose to spend their efforts.

As fellow members of the pantheon, I tried my best to communicate with them, so Patreeck helped schedule me to talk to them at least once every three years, and ad hoc if there were any big developments.

Three years felt quite regular for my two fellow immortals. It almost felt like we were meeting every other week. I wondered whether as my age increased even more, itÆd feel too frequent. But for now, the conversations with the two were mostly about showing what weÆd seen, and they would give commentary and ideas.

On Treehome, the Continental Guild Wars - some called them the Vassal Wars or Puppet Wars - were quite messy. For now, the fighting was mostly smaller - scale skirmishes and targeted attacks. Due to the guilds history and exposure to combat on the Central Continent, their first instinct was to conduct surgical strikes, attacks to remove the leaders of the respective kingdoms and replace them with their own puppets. Essentially a replica of how they fought on the Central Continent against each other due to our rules of engagement.

But over time, this morphed into conventional warfare, and this was where the guilds noticed their first flaw.

They lacked the high - level commanders needed to lead large - scale conventional invasions and maintain invasion - period logistics, again, due to their lack of experience on the Central Continent.

If they hired generals from the regular kingdoms, they didnÆt have a level advantage against the kingdoms of their respective continents; in fact, they were frequently out - leveled by the generals of those kingdoms who had more conventional war experience due to the constant kingdom wars.

The last large - scale conventional wars on the Central Continent were during the Sabnoc era, and most of the great generals of that time died during the final explosion, and many more were killed during my subsequent expansion to the rest of the Central Continent.

As I remembered it, my expansion to the Central Continent was primarily led by the elite force, supplemented by a near - infinite army of beetles, and against the tide, the kingdoms folded.

The guilds didnÆt have such an advantage, so the local kingdoms of the other continents adapted and hired significantly more security.

As the Guild War raged, the guilds themselves found that superior equipment and technology was incredibly helpful during the first strike, but the advantage it provided diminished over time as survivors counter - leveled and managed to steal the equipment from the dead.

Survivors adapted, gained skill - counters, and began to fight back.

My Valthorn strategists and leaders collected data on the various wars fought by the guilds and used them to create learning experiences and case studies on what the leaders shouldÆve done. Patreeck and my artificial minds also used the data to build simulations, where my strategists and leaders could try out different tactics and attacks.

I quickly learned that the simulation was incredibly taxing, because it was impossible to account for the use of skill and level gains by the troops on the field.

The systemÆs pattern of awarding levels was also something that we didnÆt have much data on. Most reporting of the levels, at least by my Valthorns, was done after the fact. That meant we couldnÆt specifically tie level gains to specific events, even if we understood the patterns.

We deployed AlkaÆs crystal supercomputers to supplement and speed up the simulations, and I really, really found it sad that all this computational power was used to fight wars.

My first observation from this conflict was wars of attrition had to be done quickly, and more overwhelmingly, with no combat survivors. It essentially encouraged slaughter, since survivors had the highest chance of gaining counters.

So if I were to, hypothetically, invade these kingdoms, it had to be swift, and I had to strike with overwhelming force. Once the conflict dragged on, the winning percentage would shrink and casualties would increase. I was still confident of victory due to the massive level gap, but more people would die.

The second observation was that the temples were rallying the other kingdoms in defense. Aiva and the other three temples came to support the defenders and fought against the guilds. For this reason, the Eastern Continent was the least attacked by the guilds, due to the Aivan temples higher levels and constant shared training with the Valthorns.

The other kingdoms and temples tried to retaliate by cutting off the guildÆs finances on the Central Continent, attacking caravans and trade shipments.

On this front, I was forced into a rather annoying situation: whether I should continue to protect trade shipments from such attacks. After all, the incredible prosperity on the Central Continent was due to an active internal trading between nations, and allowing attacks on the trade routes fundamentally attacked our economy and our overall prosperity.

In any case, I decided to stick with the principle of non - interference and instead marked all the expeditionary guilds as war participants and therefore not subject to our protection. This extended to subcontractors and shipment partners. That meant trade shipments were separated, by convoys, into - protected - and - unprotected - convoys. Even trading posts had to be separated into protected and unprotected. The markets had to be reorganized as well to prevent collateral damage.

I wondered whether the guilds were trying to force my hand, but from Patreeck and my treeÆs observations, they stumbled into it. Isolating the war participants led to an outroar from the guilds, because non - war participants could undercut them for waging war, since their shipments were protected.

Yet this process added complexity into trade, because everyone traded with each other at some level, so where did the line stop? Who was subject to the protections, and who was not? Was the baker who sold bread to the warring guilds a supporter of the war? Where was the line where one was complicit?

I wondered whether this was similar to money - laundering issues, because protecting these warring guilds was essentially subsidizing their war effort.

It was also interesting to observe the new Merchant Kings and Guild Lords in action as they consolidated their powers and responded to the challenges both in their new vassal kingdoms. Communication and oversight at such distances was a problem. Message , Scry , and all that helped but didnÆt compare to the full - time surveillance state that I employed.

They couldnÆt match our speed of reaction or how quickly news of an attack spread. They were always a few days behind, and things changed.

All of this dictated deployment of high - level individuals, dependable ones on the ground to take over but left them exposed.

Some of the defending nations had hero - items and heirloom artifacts that gave them an edge. The guilds, despite their immense wealth, could buy some from the other kingdoms, but most of the time, these items were not for sale.

The deterioration and stress placed on the guilds due to the war also invited attacks from non - war participant guilds, who used the chance to muscle in on their poorly defended territories.

It was very much a criminal gang war, and I really wondered whether stepping in was the right choice.

For now, the Central Continent remained largely unscathed. The Valthorns continued to protect unrelated parties from these gang wars, but the embers of war were spreading.

45

YEAR 232

Based on the notifications I received when I placed my clone on both Threeworlds and Mountainworld, it seemed that I could only collect hero fragments and souls from the worlds where I placed my clone.

This naturally raised a practical issue with the League of Heroes. My clone should only be placed where there were a lot of heroes.

I had one left, and I didnÆt know how many I could claim to get over the next few battles. If letÆs say I got an extra five seeds in the next fifty levels, and each world only added perhaps two heroes, then that was just an extra ten heroes to the existing pool. It was clearly a limitation, because the only way heroes could travel and visit each other was via my clones. Without the clones, there was no League of Heroes.

My senior leaders also knew this, which was why RoonÆs idea of targeting only living worlds made sense. Reclaiming demon worlds didnÆt add to our hero strength.

Ideally, if domain holders could gain a full hero - tier strength, that would remove the dependency on my clones, since StellaÆs portals and the rift - gate network were quite robust and domain holders could freely travel. It was also less risky, since domain holders in my pantheon effectively couldnÆt die.

In a way, it totally made sense to throw my domain holders at the grinder, since theyÆd be able to take risks heroes couldnÆt. They understood it, of course, but they still didnÆt feel too keen on dying. They may revive, but death must leave a mark.

Someone who revived repeatedly would probably feel the strain of death in some way or form. Very few abilities were without some kind of flaw.

- What if thereÆs some abilities that are only unlocked after multiple repeated deaths? - Lumoof asked. - After all, one gains resistance to certain events after repeating them. What if itÆs the same for death? -

Death was a fairly unique element of the world, since it was the process of separating the inner soul from the body. A person was dead when the soul left, even if the body was alive.

We studied the blood magic tomes Snek collected, and I found the aspect of willing sacrifices to be worth pursuing further.

My problem was really a matter of test subjects.

I harvested my - sacrifices - from the scum of society. These were criminals who broke the law, and not just any law, but the serious ones like rape or murder. These were very rarely willing sacrifices. They all had strong needs, strong cravings.

SnekÆs society, at least in the early days, maintained a large cult of the blood, where people truly were devoted to the goals of that blood cult, and at the side were people whoÆd seen the positive effects of that cult.

Unlike our mortals, somehow the Ularans managed to avoid the negative, bloodthirsty natures of the blood magic. Their focus on augmentation of the soul revealed something that I soon saw in the Ularans themselves.

Their souls were robust and could repair themselves from damage far faster than our regular souls. These Ularans essentially had inbuilt soul - regeneration. In their day - to - day life, I noticed that the Ularans did not face permanent limb loss. Their souls, even when a limb was lost, could maintain the soul - schema of the limb without any phantom limb pains.

Strangely, it was this self - regeneration that allowed the users of said blood magic to resist the corruptive effects of using blood magics. The hex generated from blood magic was corruptive.

When looking at Snek, I couldnÆt really notice it, because his soul was already warped in order to survive the void forest.

The young Ularans, despite their tiny size, could recover from most kinds of non - lethal damage with absolutely no drawback physically. This, compared to the other humanoids, was where healing or limb reconnection had to be done within a short day or two timeframe or it was gone for good. But this wasnÆt very useful when faced with the giant demon dragons who could kill them in a single strike.

If the Ularans faced a goblin - type demon king, or something more zerg - like, theyÆd have far, far better outcomes.

Anyway, back to the blood magic. My issue was I didnÆt have a way to volunteer individuals for blood magic sacrifices, and I didnÆt think using Valthorns was a good idea. They were an investment.

I also found the idea of getting people to volunteer to die for the sake of science a little iffy. But as it turned out, I shouldnÆt feel that way.

- A/ , the Valthorns are willing to die for various causes. We battle great wars, and in doing so we risk our lives. Many will die in the line of battle. That is expected, - Lumoof advised.

Initially, I thought of approaching those who were about to die due to various medical conditions anyway to volunteer for such experiments. It was uncommon even back in our world, but for science, many had put their lives on the line.

But, because of my medical and healing abilities, the general health of the populace was very high, so this was an incredibly small group of people, nowhere enough to actually do experiments.

Next, I tried looking for those who were emotionally unstable or wanted to die. Yet, as I spoke to a few such individuals, I wasnÆt particularly comfortable using them for such blood magic. There was the issue of contamination, because their emotional states also affected the condition of their souls, so their souls were not high quality.

In the tomes gathered from Ulara, they went at length to clarify the conditions to create clean sacrifices. From what they explained, it was likely that if I used those who were mentally not at a good place, I may still end up having hex because their mental states were not clean.

So this clean blood magic was a really wonky situation where you needed to be emotionally stable, mentally sound, and able to commit to killing yourself for a cause.

Absolutely ridiculous conditions, in my opinion, but the Ularans method of augmentation of the recipient soul was without much of the downsides associated with blood magic.

On another hand, I also knew and very much preferred my own method of stitching soul fragments together into the soul bomb, since these required no sacrifices. Now, I just needed to find ways to link the two together. They clearly were meant to be linked, since they were both soul - type abilities, but I just needed to figure out the relationship between these two concepts.

It was a bit like a blind man touching an elephantÆs trunk and an elephantÆs tail and now had to figure out what the whole thing was supposed to look like.

- ItÆs quite rare youÆve paid attention to us again, - Yvon said as I observed the children in their care. Both Eriz and Yvon were in their somewhat humanoid forms, connected to their respective trees.

- I hope you do not feel neglected. My minds tells me you are all doing well. - Well, I was aware of them through my artificial minds, but my attention was on the children.

- I still feel it. A little, - Eriz answered as one of the focused caregiving trees of Freshka naturally interacted heavily with the children in our care.

Children like Kaala, or the void - attuned lizardfolks and treefolks, needed our best nursing and care, and so it naturally fell on people like Eriz to look after them. Once they were ready for any kind of training, it was also my training trees, like Yvon, that trained them in the basics.

- They are well, if thatÆs what you are wondering, - Eriz answered. She was in the level seventies as some blend of caregiver. - Some of the new caregivers have gained specialized skills dealing with them. -

The health of children throughout the Central Continent was good, though there were areas with spotty coverage, where the Valtorn OrderÆs childcare services were less robust or the persons handling the task of lower levels.

One of the bigger issues that we faced, that people like Eriz and Yvon helped with tremendously, was staffing and resourcing. These sort of administrative and domestic work leveled slowly, and training young women and men for these roles was a challenge.

It wasnÆt perceived as a sexy or glamorous role, even with the high salaries the Valtorn Order gave for these roles. To me, caring for children was part of my talent management program, part of the pipeline, so it was only natural that they were paid a good salary.

But after decades of stability on the Central Continent, the general populationÆs mindsets shifted and now began to resemble earth - like societies where young men became pickier with their roles and classes .

My own obsession with giving the people choice essentially led to these folks choosing certain careers and leaving certain careers understaffed, even with higher pay.

The young also wanted to move to the bigger cities, where everything was. For full - time mothers, we did notice that younger children tended to be healthier than the older children as a result of mothers themselves gaining more skills related to caring for their children.

In the Central Continent, the cities with strong Valtorn Order presence had good birthrates, mainly due to the nearly free end - to - end childcare services provided to those who wanted to have children. So, with the mental load of caring for children taken off most parents, they were free to fornicate as they pleased, and that kept birth rates decently high.

I did this, not for altruistic means, but merely to make sure that the modern society didnÆt face a population crunch, which would lead to a talent and resource crunch. The cost of providing such services was essentially my talent cost.

As the society progressed and individuals had more choice, I would have to add more incentives in order for the society to produce what I wanted it to produce. For caregivers like Eriz, this was a role IÆd need more.

I noticed that certain races had aspects that made them excellent at certain parts of giving care. For example, treefolks and dwarves were persistent and encouraged a great connection to the ground. Treefolks and elves were both very good at looking at the effects of actions after longer periods of time.

They could visualize how hard work today would payoff decades down the road and didnÆt perceive it as a pointless exercise. So that made them great guides and counselors, because of their long - term views. Humans and the shorter - lived races were better at quickly emotionally bonding with the flock, establishing passionate relationships and rapport. But these also came and went quickly, unlike the longer, more respectful, and mutual trust that elves and treefolks usually tended to have.

Usually.

For longer - lived creatures, I noticed how Laufen and Lozanna Æs relationship evolved over time. To Laufen, it was expected that her daughter would be an adult, and that was the same for their children, Arlisa and the boy, Lauda.

As full adults, they lived normal lives, though Arlisa did go through what essentially amounted to a two - decade - long rebellious phase. Her mother had to bail her out of trouble a few times, though frankly, everyone gave Lozanna a lot of leeway.

We rarely spoke these days, though she did make regular trips to the Northern Continent to meet up with Meela and Alexis.

Old friends, she said, and MeelaÆs hospitality was impeccable.

Speaking of Meela, my domain holders approached her on the idea of a multiverse arrangement, whether her branch hotels could be used as a replacement for my clone trees. She seemed agreeable, but her branch hotels did not have teleportation ability, and without the teleportation ability, what use was it?

The heroes were curious on the next step. - All right. WhatÆs next? WhatÆs next? We canÆt be waiting here! -

My people explained that it was a slow process. We were, after all, trying to plot against something that had the corpse of the dead god or something to that effect. If it could destroy gods, it certainly could destroy us.

- But what are we doing offensively? Surely there is something that can be done, - the heroes said, and I wondered whether this was an effect of their mind control.

Since weÆd disclosed the presence of the black sun, IÆd been curious whether the gods would take action. I long suspected that the gods had some way of seeing the world through the heroes, though nothing had truly been confirmed.

But they had a point.

Perhaps I was moving too slowly.

How did I get closer to the black sun?

I wanted to avoid a situation where I sent people after the black sun only to die catastrophically. There was no way to test it out; the best I could do was a simulation.

The void mages came with an interesting idea.

- The will of Treehome said that they could move through the void sea, correct? -

- Yes. -

- Therefore, it is likely that any will, or any world, could move through the void sea, sensible? -

Yes, that sounded right.

- So we have Cometworld, barreling through the void sea. ItÆs moving too fast, but it is a small world. Tiny, in fact, and we believe itÆs almost invisible to the demons. -

Oh.

ooh.

- It would be interesting to attempt to control or manipulate its movements, - one of the void archmages suggested. - I donÆt know what itÆll take, and if you can ask the Will of Treehome for details, that would help. If we can control and direct Cometworld? -

We could turn it around and aim it toward the black sun. We could, essentially, have something that could deliver a strike team right at the enemyÆs heart.

If the demons sent a comet at Treehome many, many centuries ago, why couldnÆt we do the same?

It was just poetic justice.

46

YEAR 233

The void mages were the busiest group these days. They had so many moving parts, but there was only so few of them.

Stella had about fifteen hundred void mages under her and her four other archmages. There only used to be three, but even one more wasnÆt enough. Not with what we wanted to achieve.

One group focused on deciphering the map within the demon kingÆs core and developing ways to make the most of the map.

There was another group that designed the listening devices and the potential interference devices. They looked out for demonic transmissions to figure out how the demons communicated with each other through vast distances, coordinated their attacks, and selected their targets.

One group worked on expanding the rift gates and trying to combine the language of the rift gates to the maps. They also tried to find ways to work around the limitations of the star mana, which was our main stumbling block for a proper interdimensional League of Heroes, and empire.

Now, we had the group working on moving Cometworld through the void sea. On one hand, I realized that the will of the world was able to move through the void sea without void mana, thus I suspected that void mana may not be necessary for that purpose, but core mana would be the more likely material or resource. Yet void mages were the ones most familiar with the void sea, and so it was them who committed to the task.

There were smaller groups, like those focused on weaponizing the void mana and developing better ways to destroy the demon king and that demonic glass droplet.

Mages, as a whole, were relatively rare. Void mages even more so, and even till this day I felt the lack of high - level mages acutely. We had level one hundred twenty mages, but so far, only Stella reached the domain.

I didnÆt know what a domain - tier archmage or wizard could achieve, but having someone at that level should greatly help our cause.

We saw this with Lavaworld, where we lacked the means to securely access the core.

Magic, despite its perceived ubiquity, was still quite hard to train even if we had made incremental improvement over the last century. There was a certain level of genius that I felt the system expected from a mage and the mage would not progress far without it.

Even with decades and centuries of magic training, it was surprisingly hard to reliably get someone to a master, even if we did have a large amount of competently trained mages.

Madeus, my first resident wizard, many decades ago, once said that it was quite easy to learn the basics; after all, the first spells were not much more complicated than skills.

Now we had an army of mages at his level. But our attempts to grow stronger archmages were just slightly successful.

We only had about a hundred to two hundred mages that were above level one hundred. The highest of those were in the level one hundred thirties.

Magic was extremely hard to excel in, because there was a component that was not dependent on experience but comprehension of some kind of vague magical concepts.

Our statistics indicated that, although almost one in two individuals gained some type of magical ability and spellcasting, such that they could use simple and intermediate spells, only one in forty had the talent to walk the path of a mage.

Of this small fraction, most just plateau at the level forty to sixty. In our Valthorns, the number seemed to suggest that only one in twenty mages made it to level sixty, even with magical experience boosts from the dungeon.

Of the almost half a million mages we trained over the last century, we only had less than two hundred level one hundred mages.

Attempts to brute - force the levels didnÆt contribute to magic classes gaining levels; instead our attempts to force them to level caused their classes to reflect a combat focus.

The system essentially started funneling levels to combat - type mages instead of pure magic classes. This meant mages evolved into Battle Mages and Great Warmages , or similar sort, and they gained more combat - spells skills instead of pure magic skills.

This was useful in its own way, but what I wanted was the out - of - the - world, hail - Mary type of magical solutions that eccentric mages could provide.

So, over the last century, the way we trained mages also changed. Instead, we rotated mages to various roles on the Central Continent. They would perform research, perform exploration of the underground chambers and ruins, conduct classes in the FTC, and provide basic concepts on magic to the administrator classes, and maintain various magical artifacts and formations throughout the continent.

Combat was still needed, which meant mages would still participate in dungeons, but only after a reasonably good and long stint in non - combat roles.

This was how we discovered the way to somewhat reliably level a mage into proper wizard and archmages instead of relying on brute - forcing and dumb luck.

It reminded me of the time, during the early years of Freshka, and the FFA, I tried creating archmages and wizards through class seed fusion. That didnÆt work back then, and it still didnÆt work now. My large stockpile of high - tier archmage class seeds instead came from the small army of archmages that died over the last century. My artificial minds claimed the archmages all had their own quirks, and reading their minds often involved great leaps and thoughts that seemed rather disjointed.

Training mages was still a problem we hadnÆt truly cracked.

We could teach them skills. Teach them spells from our massive library of spells. Let them have the resources needed to experiment.

But it all got stuck somewhere.

Maybe in that way, it was the same with everyone else. I had knights that never made it as far as Edna, even if EdnaÆs path was clear for them to see. Most Valthorns plateaued before level one hundred, even with the level - breaking gift.

Only those who breached a level one hundred could even try to challenge the monsters we faced.

Right now, we had about two thousand level one hundred individuals, and so far, all of them were sucked into the system, a part of the structure we created.

Reality was, if they all turned against me, IÆd have a big problem on my hands. But they wouldnÆt, simply because theyÆd all seen what was beyond and realized we were all still just small fish in a very big pond, and together, we were stronger.

More importantly, I began to think the reason the guilds failed to entice the true powerhouses to their camp was because of the level one hundreds increasingly long perception of time.

Capitalism was meaningless when one got better at visualizing the changes after some passage of time. The powers that the guilds tried to claim and control was nothing more than holding on to a candle.

It was bright and warm but momentary. It would fade and was not something that would last.

They knew, as weird as it sounded, that whatever they created outside would collapse in decades, and they would return to our fold anyway. They didnÆt have to look far. Even on our Central Continent, guilds came and went, kingdoms as well.

Even creations of heroes could collapse once their heroes fell. Whatever the guilds were doing, it would be just a fling.

A summerÆs dream.

A project made for profit.

Gone, once they got bored of it. Canceled, once it wasnÆt profitable.

I wondered whether IÆd trained my Valthorns too deeply in my own ideals that they failed to relish in the beauty of momentary flings.

My artificial minds, the thousands of them that now crowded around the valley and also near to all my various clone trees, essentially sustained and operated the entire continent. Without my artificial minds, I would be immediately overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things that required my attention.

IÆd pretty much attribute the modernity of the Central Continent, down to the artificial minds organizing, maintaining, and monitoring the various aspects of our continent. Without artificial minds, I would not be able to achieve any kind of omnipresence in the Central Continent.

I would be stuck to just the area around the valley, and even then, IÆd be able to focus on just a few things at a time.

The topic of artificial minds came up fairly recently as Alka tried to do some resilience tests to see how we would fare in various types of events.

We had a massive vulnerability because the entire beetle network, the application of growth boosts, the monitoring of crime and trade, monster attacks, all essentially relied on my artificial minds. They did the heavy lifting, supported by a smaller army of administrators and druids.

If by some event a magical virus or disease were to sweep through my artificial minds or a demon king with an EMP - pulse ability that could disrupt communication with my artificial minds and the trees went off, we could face a huge setback.

They would need to design some backup systems and processes for such an unlikely event. All of this was additional cost and manpower.

- I have envoys from the crystal king, and the message clearly requests your presence, - Zhaanpu said with a chuckle. - Your attempts to stay hidden didnÆt work, and it seems to have figured that we made contact. -

- I figured as much, - I said through a tree located in the Pyramid CityÆs parklands. My trees, cactuses, and shrubs covered vast areas of the SandpeopleÆs land and also segments of the Centaur lands. - Domain holders are not so foolish. -

More mana. That was what I wanted, and I was getting it. Zhaanpu merely grinned. - Then have your priest be present. -

Lumoof smiled as he saw a familiar face. The envoy was the lady he met, Fourth Archpriest of Maelas, Yaddah. - Ah, Lady Yaddah, itÆs nice to see you after thirty years. -

She had aged quite a bit, but as someone at level eighty, she clearly had at least a few more decades in her. She froze for a moment, as if a memory she long suppressed reawakened. - It is you. -

She didnÆt say a word to him after that.

Zhaanpu did not appear in person. Instead, he had one of his own senior ritualists attend the meeting, dressed in the most gaudy and overwhelming attire ever.

- Speak, envoy of the crystal king. -

Yaddah didnÆt dare point fingers. Instead, she unfurled a scroll and said, - The crystal king demands, as per the pact, to know the deal with this A/ . Outsiders are not a party to the pact, and the Pact of the Three dictates that the land is shared by the three parties and not to be yielded to third parties. -

ZhaanpuÆs priest was quiet for a moment and then responded. - The Great Pyramid merely leased the land to the Temple of A/ to conduct some farming activities. They are just customers of the State of Sand. -

Lumoof didnÆt respond to the lie.

- Is there an agreement? -

- We can provide the documents in due time. - They would have to create a fictitious set of agreements, but Lumoof didnÆt intervene. This was ZhaanpuÆs territory, and he should handle it as he saw fit.

- Now, - Yaddah insisted.

- The crystal king is intimately familiar with the concept of patience. We highly suggest he apply it. Retrieving documents takes time, - ZhaanpuÆs ritualist responded.

- Fine. We will wait three days. - Lumoof could feel there was some kind of communication happening, a set of encrypted magical messaging. But she looked away every time Lumoof glanced at her.

ZhaanpuÆs priests quickly gave some land transaction records, and it was clear this was a fake set of records for some kind of large - scale forestry and farming project.

- It is less troublesome that way, - Zhaanpu admitted later. - I dislike dealing with my peers, even if I do respect them for what they are. -

- What exactly is the CentaurÆs uh. guardian? -

- YouÆve not seen it? Last I recall it was a possession - linked formation where the two joint patriarchs of the Centaurs would meld with the formation, thus granting the Centaur leaders access to the ancient wisdom and also the means to control the formation over Hoofhall and its surrounding lands. -

Just like the Pyramid, the truth was also shrouded in mystery. Even until today, my Centaur spies were still trying to piece together the identity and abilities of the CentaurÆs guardian.

To some extent, I wondered whether I could force them to react to me. My trees had also begun to spread to the lands owned by the crystal king and the Centaurs, and though I kept it low profile, I was sure theyÆd realize it eventually.

Would the crystal king wage war because I had trees in their land?

My bet was no.

It was just posturing.

One thing became clear once the guilds controlled kingdoms and nations: capitalism didnÆt inspire loyalty in the same way as a monarch or a religion.

The loyalty a guild leader had was just not to the same degree that a king or a priest had. Hired mercenaries bailed when the risk - reward ratio no longer made sense, but a loyal knight or fanatical zealot would keep fighting until their last breath.

The guilds, after decades of prospering as a business and treating its lower - ranking people callously, now needed to find ways to brainwash their men to fight with their lives on the line. A guild leader cared about the bottom line, cared about the salaries of its people and operations, but now it had to think further, of winning loyalty, of winning over hearts and minds.

This lack of loyalty meant the guilds often had to deploy larger forces, stronger forces with bigger, better equipment, just to convince the mercenaries they had good odds of winning, or it was quite likely that there was a sudden collapse in morale, where mercenaries, particularly multiple different groups, all quit in succession.

The guilds also discovered that they needed to - insource - military might to have internal competence and ability. Guilds that built up a stronger internal military arm or had adventurer - guild subsidiaries or partners performed better than those that had to hire all their military strength from mercenary guilds.

Various mercenary and assassins guilds, many of which merged with the merchant guilds over the decades, began taking on larger roles and used their growing importance in the war for new territories to take over their own conglomerates. When the merchant guilds concentrated on just trading alone and focused on Central Continent businesses, the leaders of such guilds tended to be pure administrator/merchant and assassin types. But with their newfound colonial ambitions, the military and combat leaders had more visibility, so they moved up the ranks.

There was no space for weaklings when the assassins began to target the leaders on the Central Continent.

There was also a growing schism, when some of the leaders sent to rule their newly conquered territories began to amass wealth in their new territories and used it to defy the Central Continent guilds leaders.

After all, the heaven was high, and the emperor was far, far away.

Even with magic, the Central Continent guilds needed the means to enforce its rule, needed ways to ensure loyalty of its farflung representatives. Some guilds relied solely on the loyalty of its invasion leaders, which, as they soon discovered, wasnÆt very loyal.

Some realized they didnÆt need the Central Continent and convinced the entire invasion army to rebel and set up independent nations.

It was such a clusterfuck across the world that my leaders began to discuss intervention methods.

Even the kings and representatives who met regularly at Freshka for their own quarterly updates and discussions were very worried about the chaos created by the guild wars.

WeÆd tried our best to sequester the conflict to specified zones and ensure innocents harmed were minimized.

There was death.

Death could not be avoided in a conflict.

YouÆve become very much like us.

Lilies spoke; they too were aware of the guildÆs chaos.

There was a time where you would put a stop to this nonsense. Like when you unified the continent under your single rule.

I am afraid so. I realized that Lilies was right.

Time does this to all of us immortals. We cannot help but see the big picture and realize what is necessary is often full of death and destruction. We cannot help but watch them make mistakes.

I thought about the past decade and realized I was beginning to drown in the big picture. I wished I could sigh. I am torn between choice and life, and I am often reminded that I prefer choice over life. This is an extension of that decision, the consequences. Mortals must be given choice, and they must suffer from the consequences.

But it is necessary. The consequences of these organizations theyÆve made and their pursuit of wealth and power, they must remember this. They must feel it. You know very well that for most creatures, their mind remembers only pain. Only pain delivers permanent, lasting memory.

Then I must engineer them away from such mental frailties. It is a flaw to be corrected.

And you walk ever closer to the gods. Who is right to say it is a flaw?

I realized my earlier sentence was dangerous. If I began considering mortals as flawed, and as such began engineering them away from such flaws, how was it their choice?

But I had been doing it. My void treefolks, the void lizardpeople. The augmented children.

I had been engineering with their forms, trying to fix their flaws. Their weaknesses. Give them skills, give them advantages.

I veered so close to the edge of darkness.

And I felt Lilies minds.

The road you walk takes you to where few have tread. It may be wise to seek wiser counsel. Perhaps those gods in their safe abodes can advise in their experience.

I mentally sighed. It was an incredibly hard challenge to balance the two opposing poles.

To focus on the big picture yet not lose sight of the small things in life.

To focus on the arc of civilization over the decades and still live in the minutes and hours of the people.

47

YEAR 234

The kingdoms ramped up their counter for the guilds financial strength: religion. As they were quickly reminded, zealots and fanatics were not easily tempted by money, and the Gawa , Gaya, Aiva, and Neira faiths all had fairly deep pockets of their own. Worse, some zealots took their money and went to the other side anyway.

Secretly, the triumvirs were quite concerned about the conflict, and through our private channels, they relayed their feedback. Our line of thinking remained; this was a private affair undertaken by the new corporates of the Central Continent, and accordingly, we would not interfere, and we would not protect them. If the Aivan faith wished to retaliate, they were free to do so.

If I didnÆt intervene in conflicts between kingdoms of the Central Continent, it certainly didnÆt make sense for me to intervene in conflicts between a kingdom and a kingdom of another continent.

I reiterated my commitment to the overarching framework of non - interference, to the disagreement of quite a significant portion of my ruling class. As long as the rules of engagements were obeyed, I would uphold my part.

Royals rose and fell over time. Was corporatized royalty any different? If they had imperialist ambitions, they were free to test it and see whether they succeeded or failed. If they failed, they died. It came as a package with their position.

The rise of higher - level zealots, in the range of level fifty among the defending nations and templars, spurred the counterattack against the merchant kings, their superior equipment, financial wealth, and higher - level employees.

The defenders had some success, but the merchants wealth seemed limitless to the defenders.

The guild territories expanded some more.

Based on my artificial mindÆs data collection, of the fifty or so guild - groups that set out on their imperialist ambitions, all managed to conquer at least one city on another continent. About half managed to fully take over an entire kingdom or nation, but all of them encountered fierce resistance, guerilla warfare, and rebellion throughout the past few years. They deployed mercenaries liberally to crush the resistance to varying degrees of success.

Of the half of the guilds that conquered entire kingdoms, about a third managed to suppress the resistance, mostly at great cost that the financial returns from the lower labor costs and resources collected barely compensated for the sums expended to wage the war. But of the third that managed to control the resistance, half of them should be able to make a profit within another two to three years, as the costs of managing the resistance began to dwindle, and the population adjusted to the new regime.

A few luckier guilds actually generated a profit already, but all of them faced the prospect of more prolonged wars as the temples ramped up on their propaganda against these capitalist entities.

My spies soon discovered that a few of the guilds seriously debated pulling out of their vassal kingdoms.

For some, the profits from their vassal kingdoms were impressive. Some managed to get hold of large gem or gold mines that meant they were able to recoup the cost of maintaining their far larger defensive force, especially when these gems and precious minerals were sold back on the Central Continent, where prices and demand was naturally higher and more sophisticated.

But fanatics were one of the factors they were not able to fully mitigate. The guildÆs rulers became the target of the religious propaganda from the temples, and this led to fanatics and covert assassinations.

Even if the guilds still had the advantage, this was frightening to the guilds, because of how ruthless they were.

The guilds needed a counter, so some of the guilds began to form alliances to attempt to develop counters.

But ultimately, they realized loyalty, a problem they always had, could only be resolved with fanatics of their own. They could hire mercenaries and soon realized mercenaries would change sides if the other side offered more.

Fanatics were different.

Inspiring loyalty to the point of death wasnÆt something guilds excelled at. TheyÆd always known that, but it wasnÆt as if they lacked references. There were some kings among them, those who got the title through their conquest of the kingdoms on the Central Continent, and they leveraged their position to create? -

- A Royal Cult. - Lumoof rubbed his head when the spies gave the briefing. Back on Earth, kings used to wrap their position with pseudo - divine references, as if they were anointed by some god or descendants of some legendary hero, to enhance their position in society.

- Yes, Patreearch. WeÆre very concerned that these cults, whose existences entirely serve to reinforce the throne of these merchant kings, may threaten our faith. -

The gospel of prosperity, with a merchant king at the top. A cult of money.

An act of desperation, simply because I refused to support their outbound conquests, while the defenders had the support of the defending faiths.

Lumoof paused for a moment and thought. - We are no stranger to cults. We were a cult once. I suggest we leave them be. -

- But weÆre different, Patreearch! Surely you see the difference! -

- Eh. From my vantage point, it is just system levels that differentiate a cult and a religion, - Lumoof answered. - If they can ascend to the level of a religion, that is a good thing. -

- But weÆll be displaced? -

- Are we that inferior as a faith, - Lumoof challenged, - that we cannot tolerate cults? A/ is not a god that cannot deal with challengers! If anything, we will emerge stronger from their attempts to usurp our position. These pretenders are but polishing stones in our path for ever more greatness. If they are strong, we will crush them and emerge ever stronger. -

The spies nodded, and indeed, if I wanted choice, I had to allow it. - But let them know this. If they try to attack us, we will crush them. If they leave us alone, obey the rules of engagement, and leave innocents alone, we will leave them alone, too. -

It was only fair to let these nascent little cults have their chance. In the way of nature, if I couldnÆt compete, I surely didnÆt deserve my position at the apex of this world. How did I even claim legitimacy to push outward to other worlds?

When you broke it down, every cult was just a form of association between a group of people with stronger bonds, with a set of shared beliefs. A fan club could easily be a cult. A group that madly chased after money was a money cult.

The issues with a cult were not the cult itself, which could easily be benign. It was often the negative activities undertaken by the cult, in the sense that they had their own set of laws and acted beyond the scope of what they could.

There was a separate discussion among my clergy.

My patreearchs and matreearchs had their own set of views.

- But who is innocent? A child brainwashed from young by a cult is innocent, but because he embodies the beliefs of said cult, he doesnÆt know it. -

- LetÆs think of this in extremes. What if there is a cult that seeks to destroy us? Is A/ going to tolerate that? -

- No, - Lumoof said after I expressed my feelings through him. - We will crush those that go past the boundaries that we set. We were more than willing to coexist with the other temples, but it was their attacks, their crusades that forced our hand. Likewise, weÆll set certain terms. Terms to ensure reasonable conduct. -

- I do feel this still cuts too closely to our faith. - Matreearch Hoyia was also present. - All religious cults weÆve seen have been fairly hostile to our rules. -

WeÆd seen cults - blood cults, secret cults - but again, all of them did crazy things, so we clamped down and crushed them. But these corporate cults and royal cults were different. They were not that different but merely existed to support their kings.

In fact, I considered them to be a return to the olden days, when the kings maintained a huge myth around themselves. They were not just men, but more.

The guilds merely adopted them to instill loyalty. It was extra pomp and pageantry meant to inspire those serving them into believing they were part of something greater. More rituals, more little ceremonies.

And it worked to some effect.

The system acknowledged rituals. Symbols. Those who went through the process usually got a modified version of their class to acknowledge their rituals, and this only reinforced the necessity of the process.

Knights and soldiers became Blessed Knights or Ritual Soldiers .

Some corporate guild employees, from regular royal merchants transformed into Royal Cult Merchants . They used their new skills to convert the people of their new territories.

All to secure their position.

A natural evolution, and just looking at it, eventually these cults would grow.

Again, I felt it was right to let them grow. If they didnÆt turn against me, I could co - opt them into our structure. If and when they turned against me, I would crush them, and my people would gain levels that way.

Or did I have to?

Discontent toward my hegemony would rise over time; that was expected and normal. No empire lasted forever.

I called on Lumoof and my patreearchs for an idea to consider.

- Vanish, - I suggested. IÆd seen enough superhero and spy movies to realize that all villainous organizations were invisible but somehow everywhere.

Could we achieve this using the cloak of the vassal wars? Could I use these cults to my advantage?

- But why? -

- ItÆs just something to think about, whether we could switch away from the pervasive super - state and become the Illuminatree, with our agents at every major institution and players. Our Valthorns then transform into folk champions and heroes, crushing injustice wherever they go. It would allow us a far wider latitude of action. - I was not sure whether invisible was the best way to achieve my goals, but it was something to consider.

- We already have that latitude of action, - my leaders responded. - If we want to, we can do it. There is no institution, perhaps except the heroes, that can stop us. And they certainly donÆt have our breadth and reach. -

There was also the possibility of just having Freshka disappear from view, but that didnÆt seem particularly useful, since our threats mostly came from demons who somehow could see through illusions. Even if locals attempted to hexbomb Freshka, we had ample defensive measures.

For now, the thought of existing entirely as the hidden hand of the world was shelved.

Even though the vassal wars pretty much swept through all the continents, there were still some concerns on the delayed demon king. We defeated the demon king thirteen years ago, and it was already late.

Aivan Triumvirs naturally asked for updates.

- We defeated the demon kings. - That was all we said.

- But there was no notification, - the triumvirs challenged. Their knowledge of our affairs on the other side was extremely limited, and till now, we hadnÆt shared what we were truly capable of.

The local rulers themselves had a worry or two, but for them, it wasnÆt a problem until it became a problem.

- Their reaction to not having demon kings is more muted than expected, - Edna commented.

- What, you expect them to be grateful? - Roon responded. - WeÆve seen how our people generally think. -

- True. -

There was extensive thought analysis for my Valtorn order and Valthorns. At each step, they were mentally evaluated by my artificial minds before they took the next step.

Loyalty. Compatibility with my beliefs. The evaluation only stopped truly incompatible or potentially dangerous individuals from getting further benefits, but otherwise, I allowed disagreements. But that meant bickering happened a lot, mostly friendly. It occasionally escalated into rivalries between factions. Ultimately, the goal of defeating the demons trumped them all.

We still didnÆt know what sort of countermeasures the demons had, despite the void mages best efforts.

On Threehome, now that we had our own little corner of the world, I sent my void mages here to spy on the skies above and see whether there was somewhere we could visit.

- I still donÆt get how thereÆs trees in this demon world. Never seen it, - Edna said, but then she stopped. - But then again, Ularans managed to have some underground farms. I suppose being a demon world doesnÆt totally exclude the presence of trees. -

Borealworld, or Iceworld. I hadnÆt quite settled on the name.

Roon, Edna, and a continent of level one hundred Valthorns were sent to this demon world to scout out the location. Their last invasion was Mountainworld.

The rift gates still worked, since our void mages were already locked to their rift gateÆs locational codes. WeÆd largely cracked the planar element of the code, but we were stuck on the last few digits. It appeared to be some kind of checksum character, but we were not exactly sure.

The Valthorns were a party of druids, mages, and some other researchers. Here, they collected samples and performed studies.

There was a smaller team that came earlier to deploy the listening devices, and we noticed it was still untouched.

Data collection was a really long affair, and even when we knew what we were looking for, the somehow low frequency of transmissions meant that StellaÆs endeavor was pretty much looking for aliens with super - large radio dishes.

There was a lot of waiting, and there was a lot of nothing.

Meanwhile, the druids harvested and collected the plants of Borealworld. These were unique species to the world, not found on any of the three worlds we were at, but not entirely alien. There were similar plants.

They were surprisingly tolerant of ice, and I wondered whether Aria and Aispeng would love this ice world. It seemed like the perfect place for them to make use of their talents.

Once we could reclaim it from the demon mother of this world.

I decided to bring the idea to Aria and Aispeng, whether they would be keen on moving to this world.

- IÆm immobile, - Aria and Aispeng said. - IÆd be relying on the summoned creatures and the ice monsters to fight for me. -

- ThatÆs like me, - I responded. - All the combat could help your levels. -

- Hmm. -

- It wonÆt be immediate. WeÆre still working on creating the larger rift gates, and thatÆs taking a lot more time than expected? -

- Why do you need a large rift gate? -

- YouÆre big? -

Aria chuckled. - It seems you forget that I can shrink. IÆm an ice crystal with a soul. All these are just excess appendages that I can shed and regenerate. -

- Huh. - I paused and considered the implication. She technically could be deployed anywhere, though icy environments were most advantageous to her. Just like how Zhaanpu would probably excel in a desert, sandy environment.

- Again, let me think about this. I should be able to provide an answer within a few years, - Aria said.

They had specialized skills that worked in such environments. As for myself, I considered myself mostly a generalist, but I exceled in forested or grassy environments that were more temperate or tropical in nature. This was partly because my beetles performed best in these environments. In colder and sandier environments, they needed specific adaptations, which took up some space for other types of skills.

Domain holders like Edna, Roon, and so on had tremendous advantages in combat. They were mobile. They could hit really hard.

But that was also part of the problem. They did not excel in building safe spaces for lower - leveled folks to live.

Lavaworld relied massively on my treeÆs presence to suppress the demons and act as a safe anchor for my forces to retreat to.

For domain holders, it was not an issue. But it was a critical one for those in the level one hundred to one hundred forty - nines, and this was the group of people I really wanted to get to the next level.

We needed forward bases backed by domain holders.

- YouÆre suggesting that we become an invasion force? - Zhaanpu sat and stewed on the question.

- Yes, - I responded. - Let me be clear: this is an idea that we are considering, given our limitations. IÆve stretched myself as far as I can, and we have clones on a few worlds, and one active demon world. But realistically, if we want to strike back at the demons, we need more. -

- ItÆs certainly an interesting proposal. If we succeed, we essentially have the entire world to ourselves, and many of my servants would gain levels, - Zhaanpu said. - But given my size, that would be? -

- ItÆs something we can solve. The demon kings can move their large bodies through space. We should be able to do it, too. -

Zhaanpu stretched and cracked his mummified fingers. - There are some lingering concerns, especially how it affects my pact with the old gods. I would have to revisit the terms and study them. -

I agreed. - There is no urgency. Not yet, anyway. It is an idea IÆm floating with other immortals. -

- It is something that needs much more deliberation. I must contemplate this suggestion a little longer. -

Lilies mulled the idea, though I sensed it was fairly lukewarm. If there was another lake or parasite - type world, Lilies, as a being that could spread roots across the entire lake, could be a candidate. Any swampy environment would do.

That said, the chances were low. TheyÆd never left, and they survived so well in their current state. Why would they change?

But in any case, they didnÆt reject me outright. Just like both Aria and Zhaanpu, they needed time. Relocating to another world, a demon world, just to wage a war wasnÆt a simple decision. It was a commitment.

I remembered I didnÆt like moving. I hated it. My fellow domain holders would agree that moving sucked. Our presence was all about permanence. We existed, and the world warped around us.

If they rejected the offer, that was fine. We were already developing countermeasures and bases that did not depend on my presence.

IÆd probably consider Reefy as well, if there was some water world out there. I believed there should be some water world, though I wasnÆt too sure whether Reefy would even let me move him. Reefy was very, very touchy about his core.

That said, Reefy was probably too low - leveled to reach that stage. The Valthorns worked on smaller, more compact, and self - sustaining bases. Little independent outposts on these demon worlds.

WeÆd find a way.

48

YEAR 235

The vassal wars raged on, and the long war drained both the many defending kingdoms and also the merchant guilds.

The larger merchant guilds, even with their greater risks on the Central Continent, still commanded respectable market power and thus were able to continue to fund the war.

It helped that the Central Continent was far more prosperous and with higher populations. The prospects of achieving greatness conquering other continents led to some uncomfortable propaganda, which I asked my spies to quietly suppress.

The smaller merchant guilds were feeling the strain on their finances and thus began to sought out some financial assistance from the larger guilds, and that led to a string of takeovers by the larger merchant guilds.

It felt like I was witnessing the start of the conglomerates, as smaller entities began cobbling together into a larger whole.

A Guildmaster Æs Skills and Abilities interacted in guilds and corporations in the same way as a KingÆs skill, but it clearly strained with the massive number of members. We spied a few instances where certain skills ran into limits.

Most times, hitting those limits triggered class evolutions. The merchant kings and Guild Kings emerged as an upgrade to reflect the growing power of the guildmasters over their members.

Their powers were stronger on the weaker members but less so on stronger, higher - leveled members. This matched my own control over my Valthorns.

With souls, what mattered was the gap in levels. The higher the level, the stronger the soulÆs ability to withstand outside influence. So it was fair to say, I had fairly little actual ability to force anyone above level one hundred to do what I say, though I did have the weight of the entire institution behind me, which often compelled them to obey.

As the guilds expanded, we also observed the guilds had upgrades of the typical administrator classes to executive and manager classes.

To be fair, the massive Valtorn Order as an institution already had manager and executive classes for quite some time, so these werenÆt totally new, but it was just interesting to note that the guilds finally got them, too.

The powers of contracts were heavily invoked, and Guild Contracts served as the foundation of alliances in their outward war.

Kings and nations had the ability to form alliances and sign contracts with each other for a while, but the nature of kings meant, under the system, they existed above petty contracts . The King class, due to the feudal nature of being above mere men, refused to bow to a contract .

So normal contracts died when they reached a king . Thus alliances of kings, based on trusts and relationships, were frail, brittle, and prone to abrupt dissolutions.

That was not the case for a guildmaster . A well - written normal contract was a chain that a guildmaster could not easily shed, unless his class changed.

A guild, by constitution, existed because the law permitted it to exist. A guildmaster could never be above laws and contracts. Thus, each guild was bound by contracts , even if their members could leave the guild. Leaving a guild usually imposed penalties, even if temporary.

So the ascension of their members to kings led to some interesting shenanigans and vulnerabilities.

A merchant king and a guild king did not have the ability to shrug off the law or the contract as easily as normal kings. In short, they were inferior.

Our observations of their abilities also soon revealed they were weaker than the typical king at the same level of power.

Last year, we noticed some guilds experimenting on cults as an attempt to shore up loyalties, especially when faced with fanatics from the other continents.

The need to increase loyalties was magnified by the increasingly united defenses of the four temples. The four temples selected high - leveled kings and queens and backed them strongly. They engineered mergers of the smaller kingdoms into the larger kingdoms.

It surprised me that the temples were willing to do so. TheyÆd never mounted a coherent response against the demon kings but were strangely united when invaded.

Still, the merger of the kingdoms and the quasi - holy state of these now - larger kingdoms created class upgrades for the defenders.

It was my first encounter with the Holy Emperor and Holy Empress classes.

IÆd never managed to actually create Emperor classes, despite collecting multiple King classes over the decades. Just like mages, there were some strange things about these royal and noble classes.

The first Holy Emperor of the Southern Continent rose to the throne of the empire as the first of kings, cobbled together from twenty - two separate kingdoms. A union forged by the church of Gaya and the church of Gawa , they initiated a grand ceremony to invoke the greater blessings of Gaya and Gawa .

They merely hoped to upgrade the chosen kingÆs class to that of a blessed king , but I suspected because of the scale of the land and followers involved, and perhaps a bit of desperation, they somehow created a holy emperor .

I watched and felt the moment when the kingÆs presence warped and changed from a set of trees within the palaceÆs compound. The first Holy Emperor .

- On this great day, we, the archpriests of Gaya and Gawa , grant and bestow all of the blessings we could muster upon King Erranuel, for the great Erranuel shall be a king above kings and lead our combined empire against the foul advances of the greedy guilds. - The archpriests of the two temples declared, and I felt a great power emerge from within that Erranuel.

His voice changed, as if he had the force of the gods behind him. I knew it wasnÆt, but to any lesser man, it would certainly feel as if one was standing before a god. His body suddenly radiated an incredible oppressive aura.

He was silent for a moment as that strange twisting presence settled.

- I am Holy Emperor Erranuel, and I evoke the EmperorÆs Edict . We wage a holy crusade against the guilds and the foul enemies that lead them from the shadow. -

His followers throughout the continent experienced a sudden surge of power, which we estimated to be close to a ten - level boost. A blessing, the Fury of the Crusaders . At the same time, an Emperor Æs blessing was stronger than a King , and I witnessed the empireÆs financial and economic might seem to improve out of nowhere.

The new Holy Empire of Erranuel retaliated, as the ten - level boost seemed to compensate for the technology and level drawbacks they faced against the guilds.

The weaponization of faith forced the guilds and the merchant kings to adapt and try to develop their own.

I thoroughly disallowed the use of my faith in the conquest. Anyone who did was promptly punished, and thus, the guilds had to seek out other faiths or, in their case, invent their own.

The guilds then found a fundamental issue with faith, especially one that sought to elevate a single person into some kind of reincarnation or blessed by the gods.

A guild was a union of various merchants, working together, thus each merchant had a stake, a shareholder. Due to the fractured ownership, these merchant guilds had structured ways of decision making; almost every guild often resolved and made decisions through committees and councils, and a guildmaster was often elected from the merchants themselves, even if he was the leader.

But a king was different. A king was not elected from a selection of merchants. It was not the nature of the class . Not in this world.

Mix in the feudal structure of a king with the enterprising, raucous nature of the guilds, then add the worship and idolatry present in cults, and that made things complicated.

One of those elements would prevail in the end. For better or for worse.

Some guilds tried to make things into a two - tier system, where the cultish behaviors and messaging was applied only at the lower levels. This seemed to be the smartest solution from some of the guilds.

In some guilds, the feudal elements they introduced proved too strong, and these guilds then faced strong factionalism between those who wanted to hold onto the guildÆs more democratic roots, and those who converted into a master - servant relationships with the kings.

In others, the cults did bring in loyalty but again gnawed at the corporate structure. The ordinary methods of guild decision making were abandoned, and the cult leaders became those who could do no wrong. It was a slippery slope that many merchants didnÆt even see coming. After all, even in ordinary guilds, there were always dominant figures.

As a result of the fraying internal forces of the guilds, and the stronger, united response from the defenders, the vassal wars that were fairly one sided all this while began to seem more balanced. For now, the guilds still had advantage. Tremendous financial advantages, seemingly limitless manpower due to the central continentÆs stability and prosperity, and better quality equipment meant many guilds still held onto their conquered territories.

The four temples rushed to replicate the creation of the holy emperor in the Northern Islands, the Eastern Continent, and the Western Continents respectively. They succeeded in creating two more.

With the Valtorn Order, there were a lot of discussions about the latest developments. For my senior Valthorns, most understood my position that the conflicts of the world were irrelevant.

People fought wars all the time. It wasnÆt for me to step in, unless they crossed the red lines. For most part, wars remained feudal wars where two armies met on some battlefield. My Valthorns, as far as I could tell, understood that these empires would fade in time, and they all recognized the progress being made on defending the world from the demons.

But the question of - When is A/ going to do something about this? - just got ever so loud, and my priests had to go on overdrive to explain my inaction to the general populace and the increasingly unhappy nobility.

The heroes were not unaffected by the war, either.

Some of them maintained small kingdoms and harems. For now, the guilds were smart enough to avoid attacking them, since that was suicide. A hero could level a kingdom overnight.

Instead, the guilds approached the heroes for tech. They offered to pay them for hero - items, superweapons to deploy against the other side.

I had to step in and stop the transaction and reminded the heroes that they shouldnÆt get involved.

The heroes didnÆt quite like it at first, since it meant they didnÆt get big amounts of money, but they understood that hero - items would be tools of mass slaughter. That wasnÆt the reason why hero - items were made. They were designed to be emergency tools, not super weapons meant for conventional warfare. Even defensive hero - items meant the defenders could have a solid base for expansions and counterattacks. So the only winning move was to not sell hero - items.

The heroes also got tremendous pressure from the four temples, demanding that they support the defenders with hero - items. The temples argued that their powers, their presence in the world, was all because of the gods, so they should support the holy emperor in their crusade.

Again, the only possible move was to abstain.

At this point, it was increasingly clear that if the defenders won decisively, a retaliation and a crusade against the Central Continent was almost a certainty.

Buoyed by the high of winning, they would try to reassert their strength as vengeance.

I asked my domain holders privately what they would do if placed in the current situation. Edna sighed. - IÆve been actually getting that question from my knights order. Many are itching for a fight. -

- An unnecessary fight, - Lumoof said. - But this war seemed to have helped create more high - level individuals on both sides of the conflict. -

- ThatÆs a horrible thing to say when people die. - Stella cursed. - A/ , you should stop it. Wars are bad. -

Stella, as an earthling, naturally didnÆt think wars were a good thing. People died, even if the death wasnÆt as crazy. This was simply because of the conventional nature of these feudal - type wars.

Killing citizens that produced goods, operated the mines, and generated resources the conquerors needed didnÆt seem like a good idea. Too much death in a certain area tended to generate death energy, which triggered the spawn of undead and ghosts and created cursed lands.

This still wasnÆt the world of bombs and missiles, even if there were some equivalent - tier weapons. Mages, even if they seemed like they were everywhere, were not so many that they could use their abilities without restraint.

Alka shrugged. - ItÆs appropriate to remind everyone that our goal is stopping the demons for good. If this leads to that goal, indirectly, by leveling everyone, I say that itÆs fine to leave with it. -

- Surely there are better ways to level people up than wars! - Stella protested.

- On a large scale, without a large institution that we have to control? - Alka responded. - Wars are the best way. Second best are demonic incursions into our worlds. -

- Maintaining an institution of that size would be better than this, - Stella said, and then eventually, she had a long sigh. - It just sucks that the sheer presence of levels and magic meant the playing field would never be equal, so the concept of equality frankly is laughable. ItÆs like trying to say a fish is equal to a man. -

- Exactly. On some scale, this is just the natural order of conflict. Your world may have the concept of equality, but it exists only within humans. Can a human ever be equal to an alien with far superior strengths and intellect? Can a human ever be equal with a dolphin or a lion? There must be some kind of shared understanding in order for equality to exist, and to some extent, a narrow range of abilities. With such great ability differences, it is only normal that kingdoms value the level one hundred general way more than the level ten soldier. Because they are not the same. -

- So large power gaps create feudal societies. - Stella cursed. - But I suppose you are right. A chicken farm, even in the millions, cannot prevent man from chopping them off. A higher being with far greater intellect than ours would consider our intelligence no more than that of a farm - raised chicken and thus would slaughter us for food if they find us tasty. -

- Thus it is not beyond A/ to consider A/ Æs decision as the equivalent of a human watching two large armies of ants slaughtering each other. Does a human stop ants from fighting? -

- But these ants could one day grow into something on A/ Æs level. -

- And only then will A/ treat them as another of them. -

Stella scratched her hair, and Edna sighed. - I donÆt quite like that. -

- Choices have consequences, Stella. The choices of the guilds, and the choices of the kingdoms, - Lumoof intervened. - Our goal is to enforce the scope of engagement to limit the damage. Let the children duke it out in the sandpit. -

The knight commander nodded in agreement. - That we will do. -

Stella, of course, was soon distracted by other pursuits. She and a group of void archmages were now on Cometworld, hoping to figure out how to manipulate CometworldÆs trajectory through the void sea.

It was not an easy task. It certainly didnÆt have any clues.

My attempts to quiz and communicate with the Will of Treehome was greeted with nothing. It had returned to sleep. The other domain holders had no clue, either.

So we had to experiment.

The void mages tried injecting void mana into the world or into the void sea. They suspected that manipulating the void sea was probably how worlds drifted on them, so they tried using techniques similar to the astral tunnels created by the demons and use the tunnels as some kind of oar.

Then a group of void mages observing Cometworld would then monitor for any shifts against expected trajectory.

Nothing.

They tried different shapes of those void tunnels or more power.

They werenÆt sure what they needed, even if we knew what the end goal was. For now, they had to keep on experimenting.

It was possible that we may not be able to control a world without the Will of the World, perhaps via a system. If that was the case, we would need to create a new domain holder who was able to merge with the Will of the World and then send that world on a suicide mission.

That seemed like a far more daunting and horrifying prospect.

The void mages didnÆt give up, though.

49

YEAR 236

- All right, the goal is to push into the ridges, - Edna declared to the group of eight level one hundred Valthorns, and the eight nodded. - WeÆll be here. -

Lavaworld was now our main training ground, other than the dungeons. For most high - leveled Valthorns, their life involved tours through the worlds, visiting places like the Borealworld where they took month - long missions to explore the location and attempt to piece together the history of that world, or a tour on Lavaworld where theyÆd fight through large swarms of demons, arrive at a certain location, set up a temporary base, and defend against the hordes.

With a small team.

We tried our best to push them, to try stranger, harder things. The level one hundreds also suggested missions and challenges for each other. After all, everyone needed to have a mind of their own.

Two of the level one hundreds in the group of eight were members of EdnaÆs order of Valthorn knights. It was an unofficial group, and as it wasnÆt official, they named themselves, partly as a joke, the Order of the Pointy Stick.

Knights were trained to be proficient in a wide variety of weapons, but jousting spears and pikes were favorites of these knights.

It was a practical consideration. When demons were such massive creatures, it made more sense to use spears, especially throwing spears charged with magic and designed to release huge bursts of energy.

The range was just more useful with large magical creatures, and safer.

- HowÆs this group? - Stella sat next to her, taking a break from her own tour through the worlds. She offloaded many of the initiatives to the archmages, since she couldnÆt feasibly attempt so many projects at the same time. The other archmages even took on leadership roles, as Stella and one other void archmage focused on the training aspects of new void mages.

There was a gap in education for void mages, despite my best attempts to copy and record her experiences through my dream academy.

The training outcomes of void mages were always a little bit better when Stella was the instructor, as she had firsthand experience from the zaratans. The pain she went through during the multiple attempts to develop void mana gave her a sense of perspective that younger void mages, with more focused processes, didnÆt have.

The zaratans were not warriors, and Lilies told me that any attempts to get the zaratans to participate in any war effort would fail. The most they would do was teach.

This year was also the first year since the founding of Branchhold that a recruit from Mountainworld was admitted to the elite Valthorns.

ItÆd been slightly less than thirty years since that day, so a single individual from Branchhold, a human swordsman named Farsan, reached level one hundred.

There was nothing quite like the shock of visiting the demon worlds for the first time. To feel the presence of nothingness in a world conquered by the end.

It made it easy to see what would become of their home, should the demons succeed.

A common flaw in people was that many struggled to visualize the future if they didnÆt see it for themselves. You could tell them a thousand tales, but until they were there, to feel it on their skin, to see in with their eyes, that future just seemed ever so remote.

For my Valthorns, especially those who visited the demon worlds for the first time, it was usually an experience.

A reality, a version of the future if their homes fell to the demon.

This usually evoked a visceral reaction in some first - timers, and for Farsan of Mountainworld, it did. Some, even though these were level one hundred folks making their first trip, had a minor panic attack.

For those less than level one hundred, I mostly sent them to fight in dungeons within Treehome or the few dungeons in the underground areas of Branchhold. Once they crossed level one hundred, they would be sent the other worlds to hunt demon champions.

This meant some of them visited places like Lavaworld, or Borealworld, or Ulara.

For Farsan, we delayed his exposure to these other places until level one hundred. The Valtorn Order spoke of the existence of these worlds for a while, but as the first of Branchhold to see what it was like, he returned feeling somber, as if he now had a burden on his shoulders.

- I canÆt be the only one who knows, - he said to the Valthorns, who came from Treehome.

- They know. -

- No, they donÆt. - The Mountainworlder looked at the desolation of Lavaworld, the sense of emptiness and lifelessness. - They donÆt know it at all. -

The Valthorns gave the Mountainworlder a knowing tap on the shoulder. - Once youÆve seen it, you really just canÆt go back and pretend everythingÆs fine. -

I had to give credit to Lumoof and the priests. They were really quite good at selecting fanatics to join my military cult.

From what I knew, a part of it was skills. Over the decades, Lumoof and my senior priests gained skills like Eye for Talent or Recruit Scanner . On top of that, there was also a whole load of education and perspective.

It was probably brainwashing to some degree, though my priests would argue that presenting a set of facts didnÆt constitute brainwashing.

By this point, it felt academic.

TropicworldÆs reconstruction effort was beginning to speed up, as more migrants and pioneers moved to the new world.

ItÆd been ten years since this initiative started. At this point, about seventy thousand from Treehome had moved over to visit a world unlike any other. A world that had all traces of civilization erased and now was ready to be repopulated.

I wondered whether the will of the world resisted it, and it responded with a mere sensation of acknowledgment. I prodded it more, but it responded with a feeling. Acceptance.

Not agreement, but acceptance.

Over the time since weÆd reclaimed this world, TropicsworldÆs natural environment significantly improved. Trees, animals, and monsters now covered most of the world, though the magical energies barely recovered above twenty - five percent of the living worlds.

Three to four small towns emerged, the frontier towns of each of the races.

The Canari were quick to set up their own little place, just for themselves, as did the Treefolks and Lizardfolks.

The air of Tropicworld was different to that of Treehome, and the pioneers who moved to Tropicworld had skills that made settling in easier.

The Treefolks and Lizardfolks had feet better adapted to the muddy terrain, and the Canari gained skills that made them better able to regulate their heat and deal with the generally dirty waters of Tropicworld.

The water system of Tropicworld was still unstable, even if it was carved through the powers of the Core. River banks could easily shift, and rain patterns were still irregular. Some part of this was due to the Core itself; the CoreÆs power ebbed and flowed, and that affected the strength of rains, the speed and growth of monsters, the strength of the winds, and the heat from the ground.

So even rivers and lakes were not permanent as the subtle shifts in the ground due to those fluctuations moved water around.

Some pioneers remarked that the weather only got more erratic as the Core of the Tropicworld regained its energy.

The void mages attempts to manipulate CometworldÆs trajectory through the void sea went nowhere. They were essentially flailing at the unknown.

They tried a wide array of items and techniques, but ultimately nothing seemed to work. Or at least they were not sure whether they made any impact because it was quite hard to measure how it worked.

Meanwhile, the void mages pursued their other tasks, until one day.

- Stella, youÆve got to look at this. - She felt one of her archmages magical energies as the void warped in the area around her office, and her archmage appeared through a small portal.

She stared at the contraption in the void archmageÆs hand. A crystal record linked to the various listening devices. Another void archmage popped up right behind him with the exact same item.

- Oh, youÆre here already, - the second one quipped and laughed.

- Hah. You got the same signal from your side? -

- Yeah. -

Stella checked both of the crystal records and looked at the two archmages. She had her suspicions but then waited for the archmages to give their views. - What are we looking at? -

- Likely some kind of transmission. If all the other planes are getting it, itÆs not a routine one. I was studying it while on the way here, and here. - The void archmage pointed to a part of the transmission. - This was the only part I recognized. A locational coordinate. -

- Treehome, - Stella said as her mind scanned through the transmission again. As of now, weÆd not yet decoded the language of their transmissions, but with our growing lexicon of demonic characters, we could try to guess. - What does it? - ? -

- It may be one of the countermeasures, - the void archmage speculated. - IÆve asked the mages to scan the skies but for now. -

- Nothing. -

Stella paused and looked at the transmission again.

- Stella, you could use the demon kingÆs core to check. - The archmage suggested something Stella already planned on doing, but she was pleased that he brought it up anyway. She nodded.

- Come with me, - Stella said, and then she called out to me. - A/ , IÆll need some mind backup. -

The artificial minds were ready, and Alka teleported in. - I was summoned. -

Stella tapped the bomb - maker on the shoulders. - Got a weird transmission from the demons. -

Alka whistled. - Predictions? -

- Our long - awaited countermeasures, - Stella said as she walked into the special chamber now crawling with roots and vines. There was a station right next to the demon core, surrounded by more vines and roots, with some crystals. Mixed among the mass of regular vines and roots were some black ones, those that produced demonic mana harvested from the few unrestored Rottedlands and the demonic hybrid trees.

A few mages shuffled about, preparing the place and documents.

Stella strapped in, and I felt the artificial minds buzzing with activity. I kept track of her physical state and noticed her heartbeat was elevated. She pulled large quantities of mana at certain moments, and about six hours later, she emerged all sweaty and exhausted.

The third void archmage joined the earlier two. - Lady Stella? -

- Nothing conclusive. My Void Explorer is too far, but I suspect thereÆs something. This transmission came from the demon sun itself. WhatÆs the progress with our attempts to develop extended void - sea detection? -

The three archmages glanced at each other. - WeÆll need to spy on them? - One of them stopped.

- Progress is middling. WeÆre still attempting to test it out on our junior void mages? -

- DonÆt think this can wait. Run the side effects and observations, and if itÆs plausible we need to scale it up as soon as possible. The earlier we can see what the hell the demons are throwing our way, the more time we have to prepare for it. -

The three glanced at each other. - At once, milady. -

- Something concerning I should know about? - I asked Stella at a private session.

- The demons have sent something, but the star paths donÆt indicate anything. No star paths yet? -

- It could be something that doesnÆt travel on a star path. -

- I know what youÆre thinking. WeÆve been predicting it for so long that I know itÆs the damned demon comet. - Stella cursed. - But I want to be sure, so IÆm planning to hop my way as far as I can go. IÆll need some bodyguards. Looking at the demonÆs star map, BorealworldÆs probably the starting point. -

Stella wanted to hop to Borealworld and travel to the nearby worlds and figure out a way to get closer to the demon sun.

Due to the weird nature of the void sea, this could be a decade - long journey or super short, because traveling the void by hopping to nearby worlds didnÆt actually mean getting closer to the core in the demonÆs map.

- Can I take Lumoof and Edna with me? -

I could pull all three of them back instantly through my ability. - All right. -

- You donÆt sound convinced. -

- What if weÆre wrong? - I thought. - ItÆs not a comet, and itÆs multiple demon kings invading at once. The fact that our coordinates, our location is transmitted seems to suggest some kind of coordinated strike. -

- Why not both? - Stella laughed uncomfortably. - In either case, we need to go and see, get some visibility. If itÆs multiple demon kings, weÆd have a chain of astral pathways over our skies. Those things take a while to build, unless. -

Unless the demons had a way to open up such portals instantly.

As it was, the rift gates we had could open portals to other places, even if there were no astral paths, but the void mana cost was significantly higher without the path. That essentially placed a cap in the range of the stolen and repurposed rift gates.

Like, yeah, we had the numbers to call, but it was like not having enough money to call an international number.

- ThereÆs nothing to worry about but to take our next steps, - Stella said. - We need information, and weÆll only get it if we get nearer or can see further. -

With the support and powers of the Holy Emperor at the heart of the new empires, the guilds had to form alliances of their own. Merchant Kings allied with each other and tried to use their combined weight to push back.

Adversity rewarded those who made it through them, and it was horrifying to the kings that the emperor was gaining on them in terms of levels.

A new skill from the emperor or just a few extra levels meant his blessing was stronger, and his empire produced more weapons or some other effect that began to push back. The guilds began to encounter more draws and losses, and the assassin - guilds, previously eager to take the Central Continent guildÆs businesses, began to shift.

The Central Continent guilds decided to double down on the financial and technological prowess to counter the faith powers and the emperorÆs abilities. They invested more on even better equipment and leveraged on their industrial bases to build stronger, more powerful weapons.

Of this came the largest, privately owned warships ever seen on Treehome, equipped with long - range bombardment equipment.

These weapons resembled railguns but were magical. These came about after my craftsmen and Alka all worked on large quantities of long - range weapons against the demon kings. Some of these designs were inadvertently leaked to the general public, and independent craftsmen began designing copies.

The magical railguns, equipped with a crystal - core projectile, were one of those that was copied. It was similar enough to ballistas that the private sector could begin making modified versions, and now they had these weapons that could shoot a location almost a hundred miles away.

At the same time, my Valthorns had to be extra careful with their state - of - the - art weapons and even older generation weapons. My spies and counter - espionage agencies detected large quantities of attempted spying and theft of Valthorn - issue equipment. Any advantage, any exposure would lead to attempts to study, replicate, and then mass produce to use against the other continents.

So far, theyÆd not outright attempted to attack the Valthorns, but my agents and people were increasingly edgy. My artificial minds picked up multiple thefts and spies, some of which were then caught by my own agents.

It felt like the guilds were in a - cold war - with the Valthorns, even if we were publicly cordial and professional.

Even the nobility were fracturing, those who supported the guilds secretly and some publicly. The nobility of the Central Continent all had respectable wealth.

These nobles benefited as they were at the top of their realm, taxing a percentage of all trade going through their nation. Then they could store that wealth in highly safe places, such as with the Valtorn OrderÆs banks, but that was limited. In order to prevent excessive - robbing, - we placed deposit limits on the accounts itself, and the limit was usually about the price of a single reasonably sized mansion. This forced the nobles to have other investments.

These banks were usually safe from attacks and riots from their peasants, so they had a lower risk of losing their money in a political upheaval. It was a deal many nobles took, even with the high storage or custodian fees charged.

Next, they placed their monies in assets and in investments, such as these guilds. It was fairly well known that many guilds were essentially bankrolled by the nobility, even if their management was independent and profited off the nobilityÆs money.

But the increasingly costly wars meant the guilds were now forced to spend a larger share of their monies. It triggered the wealthy nobility watching their money pool shrink.

The response was fairly varied. Some began to publicly campaign for outright annexation of the empire, claiming that these empire - folks were essentially primitive cavemen that deserve to be liberated from the ancient chokehold of their primitive religions.

I found it hilarious, of course. As if the very presence of a Lord was not a primitive thing. As if the Central Continent wouldnÆt begin a devolution if my army of artificial minds was removed.

Intip, one of my oldest spymasters, had to hire and train more counterspies.

He had no choice, because the guilds were fanning the flames of war.

- A/ , like it or not, you will have to step in eventually, - the heroes, Kei and Ken, all remarked. It was a sentiment that my domain holders also increasingly shared.

- This is a challenge to your authority over the Central Continent. The Valtorn Order sits at the top of the continentÆs political pyramid, but right now, by taking actions of waging war and fanning the public opinion, they are trying to drive you toward an outcome. -

Increasingly, Intip and the spies caught a few instigators who tried to paint my non - interference as wrong. Worse, it was an opinion that a growing number of my own Valtorn s shared.

- We were superior, - they said. - If A/ stepped in, this war would be a slaughter. -

But what was the point?

To the lesser Valtorn s, who were not privy to the greater conflict in the background, they felt a lot could be done to improve the condition of the other continents.

I wanted mana. I wanted resources. I wanted talent.

These three things supported the war effort against the demons.

I didnÆt need all the land. I didnÆt need to rule everything. Others could do it.

But it was so, so easy for the nobles and guilds to easily twist it into a narrative. It didnÆt help that the temples and the Holy Empires used those same talking points to amplify the hate.

- A/ Æs long attempts to train administrators and lords through the FTC and the educational institutes was a long - term plan to improve the quality of the worldÆs rulers and nobles. The seed of this conflict began when A/ began brainwashing the nobles. The Central Continent views itself as superior to the rest of us. -

The Holy Empires new crusade against the guilds also attacked us indirectly.

They fanned hatred toward the Central Continent, concocted propaganda against us. It undid all the goodwill and assistance we had and caused a return of the old wars.

Once more, we all felt the beginnings of another crusade, one brought about by my inaction and refusal to stop the guilds expansion.

I could tell that the nobles and merchants were indirectly leading the situation toward an outcome where we could only choose the guilds.

For now, public opinion within the Central Continent itself remained fairly ignorant of the war.

My agents on the four continents also found it harder to defuse the situation.

The propaganda that emerged was full of hate and essentially painted the entire Central Continent as an enemy. The fanatics and the holy believers that now formed the inner circles of the new Holy Empires were harder to crack.

All because I didnÆt stop this war.

A war I wanted no part of.

Yet itÆd been years, and I was getting more and more intertwined with this conflict.

Even as I commanded non - interference.

I wanted to abstain.

My spies sounded the alarm that another crusade was not far away. We had a few years before the anger would boil over and weÆd be faced with a total war.

What a waste of resources.

I stared at the prospect of a demonic counter - invasion. I would need to prepare for it.

But my house was not in order.

So I brought my council, Valthorns greatest spies and agents, together and suggested an idea entirely impossible for anyone but us.

It tormented me to even contemplate whether to use my force in such a manner.

Matreearch Hoyia spoke on my behalf as she stood to the crowd.

- A/ Æs question to everyone is this: if we capture all the rulers of the guilds and all the rulers of the target kingdoms, can we control the vassal war and prevent it from spiraling further out of control? -

All the spymasters and agents, senior Valtorn s, and Valthorns present were quiet. The rest of my domain holders were elsewhere, busy with the bigger things.

- What? -

- Let me rephrase. A/ wants to know whether, if he were to order the capture of all the kings, rulers, merchant kings, priests, lords, and generals and essentially force everyone to sit down and talk, would it stop the nonsense and prevent it from escalating to a total war? -

The crowd stared, as if waiting for the matriarch to continue. She did.

- A/ Æs intention is not to stop the war altogether, but increasingly, we are getting caught in the crossfire. The fanning flames will grow into a crusade and a world war. It is unnecessary, so we intend to have this session to remind the participants of this conflict to keep to their designated scope. As parents often say to their fighting children, we want them to play nice. Or play in the agreed sandpit. -

- What if they donÆt? -

- A/ proposed sending the leaders to Lavaworld for a year as punishment for excessive warfare. Nobles supporting the war will spend some time on Lavaworld, too, depending on the extent of their involvement in this war. -