Tree of Aeons

Year 289

The Order gathered the data together and made a projection of the future demon king’s invasions over the next few years.

According to Hawa, we would need to wait about 20 to 25 years for the special item to be completed, which we now nicknamed as the “Ringbreaker”.

We expected that by year 290, the demon kings would arrive on two worlds, Caval and Triotuga. 

On Caval, we would keep the demon king pacified until Hawa summoned a hero, if only to allow for experimentations of the nature of the hero’s swords and further understanding of the growing hero items. With Lausanne’s ability to use star mana, we would be able to use our own ways to experiment with the nature of these growing heroic items. The Order also wondered whether Lausanne could then replicate them to some degree. 

On Triotuga, our plan would be simply to just kill it, mainly with our stronger domain holders. Our operations on Triotuga were mainly located in the human side of things. As usual, we would use our Level 140s to try to soften the demon king, before the domain holders stepped in to finish the job. 

After that, Year 293, our estimates based on the strength of paths in the void sea was that Khubur and the White Shores would both face a demon king. On White Shores, we hoped to see our newfound ally, the White Statue in action. So, for the White Shores, we would not send over the Order hopefuls. Instead, it would just be a delegation of domain holders.

It would be a similar sequence of events on Khubur. Since we had made a deal with the Osroids, I’d like to just get in there, finish the job, and get out.

Then, for Year 295, Terras the Floating Islands, The Three Ringed World, and also Delvegard  would have their turn with the demonic invasion.

For the Floating Islands, we wanted to observe the mechanic of the demon king’s invasion. According to the ancient lore of the Floating Islands, the inherent laws of the Floating Islands caused the demon king to spawn in a very specific ‘demonic island’ that floated high above all the other islands, and the demons would then invade the other islands from that main island. 

The Three Ringed World had higher demonic king invasion frequency than the other peripheral worlds due to the two concurrently active demonic pathways, partly due to the unique nature of the three rings. It wouldn’t be much of a problem for us to deal with it.

The dwarves of Darkgard and Delvegard had an interest in the defeat of the demon king, and for them, we wanted them to feel like they had a part in this Great War. So, for Delvegard’s battle with the demon king, we would get the dwarves to battle the rest of the demons while the domain holders dealt with the Demon King. 

On the home front, Threeworlds would have their demon King much later in year 298 together with the peripheral world of Sarlpi and the Great Steppes. 

For these three worlds, it would be the usual plan. 

***

An organization of our scale has to constantly execute. There is a continuous, sustained execution of earlier plans. What I feared most, at this point, was whether we had begun to underestimate the demon kings. 

We had seen many demon kings and had a good feel for their range of capabilities, but was Multipus or that energy-corrupting demon king of Gigantadragon on the higher end of their demon kings?

Were there even stronger demon kings?

Because, if this was what the demon kings were all capable of, how did they defeat the gods? By attrition? 

Surely, those blessed with the powers of faith, and ability to wield faith as miracles could easily destroy such demon kings. If Hoyia and Ebon could manage it, surely many others could as well. 

The Comets, thus, make sense. The powers of faith couldn’t respond quick enough to fend off a comet, unless Hawa himself intervened directly. 

“It costs me faith points to destroy a comet. Too many of these comets, then I would have to delay some of them.” 

“Delay?”

“Faith points can do more than just destroy things. Creation of space, reducing speed.”

“I see. I do not understand how demons can ever hope to triumph against a god.” 

“It can destroy the weaker gods with smaller core worlds. Without sufficient faith points, the demons can destroy them by sheer attrition, and as their builds scale, they can then use that extra volume to wear down even the stronger gods.”

Though for now, they appeared fairly stable. The odds of the demons winning were low.

So, our focus would be growing our strength.

But at the same time, since we were going to allow Caval to have a summoned hero, I asked for an alternative peripheral world. 

“Let me see- Ah. There are two more worlds you may claim. They are a little further from this group of peripheral worlds and will need you to hop through one of my outer ringworlds, but it is also drifting away from me.”

“Would it make a difference in the time you need?”

“It should shave about three years off the time if you get to one of these worlds and destroy the demon king.”

“I see. Send us the coordinates.”

“I will bestow the coordinates on my representative, Olivia. You may get her to give you the details.”

Ah. A visit to see how Olivia of Olpash and the Emperor Erranuel on Shasan would be fun.

***

Hoyia’s choice was fairly simple. 

For a matreearch who preached the glory of Aeon, there really was no other choice worth thinking about.

She chose to bind herself to me, and it was once again, for me, a humbling experience. 

I felt, as if in that instant, a bond formed between mine and hers. Hoyia’s soul opened, and my own spiritual tendrils spawned within her, as if now I lived within and through her. I could, if I wanted to, read every bit of her memories and thoughts. 

“And you are very sure of this?” I asked, unsure if she was ready for this immense commitment.. 

“I do not believe the [system] would offer it to anyone who isn’t willing to make that sort of commitment and decision.” 

That was true.

I found her choice brought about a strange balance to my spirit, as now I had both a man and a woman as my subdomains, a priest and a priestess. An avatar and a zealot. 

A connection to both souls, and as a subdomain, it brought with it all the extensions that entailed. Yet, a subdomain also empowered the main domain.

[Number of clones increased by 1. You may now deploy one more additional clone.]

I suppose for every additional subdomain I could get an extra clone. Maybe more once they got stronger. When Lumoof went up to Level 200, he also improved my own combat abilities.

***

Year 290

Triotuga. 

The demon’s invasion had begun, and the boarfolks transformed into their demon-possessed forms. 

The presence of demon champions opened a spiritual link that poisoned the land, and that poison then spread onto the boarfolks who opened their soul to that sort of demonic influence.

The boarfolks split into two. Those that controlled demons and those that didn’t. The demon tamers of the Boarfolk, now overwhelmed by the powers of the demons, exhibited unique demonic abilities. They took on demonic forms with outer carapaces made of the same kind of demonic stuff as the regular demonic creatures. 

This was where we noticed how the demons were more powerful on Triotuga.

The demon-controlled [Demon Tamers] were now working for the demons, and the demon’s champions used the [tamers]’s powers to enhance their own strength. 

Curious, my Order operatives quickly captured and incapacitated few of these [Demon Tamers] and placed them under observation within my biolabs.

Their spiritual realm was transformed by the presence of the demons. 

In the regular spiritual spring, the spring with rocks around it released clear water into the world around them and in doing so nourished the body. 

In heroes, there were these extra floating vases that poured star mana into their souls.

In the [Demon Tamers], these were instead vases of fire, and out of that came the fiery demonic mana. 

The bodies of the boarfolk accepted the demonic mana easily. Our biolabs soon realized that the flesh of the boarfolk were adapted to demonic exposure. 

We looked into their souls and realized that their mana was now split into two. The upper layer was the demonic mana. It flowed into almost every part of their body. Then beneath that was a layer of thin, unusual form of mana that separated the regular waters of their spirit from the burning demonic mana above. 

We quickly tried to extract this unusual form of mana. 

Only to discover it wasn’t mana. It was a form of spiritual layer, where mana turned spiritual. A coating. 

The look into the nature of their soul spring was enlightening. There were demon-geared skills, and these took the form of glowing red rocks. As if molten lava was frozen and encased in glass. They glowed when the fires of the demonic mana touched them. These red rocks emitted abilities that enhanced the demons close to them. 

I wondered if these spiritual layers could be replicated, and I wondered how I could use them to manipulate the forms of mana within a soul. Not just that, could I use this to safely use void mana and star mana with massively reduced side effects?

If so, I could potentially introduce a newer generation of void mages much faster, without the complicated void mana exposure, de-curse, and healing under the existing process. 

Also, I wondered whether these demon tamers operated and were controlled in a manner similar to the demonic parasites from a few decades ago.  They were not. They were more like demonic spirits. 

In fact, this was more like demon possession by a spirit as my old life knew them. A situation where the demonic spirit was more powerful than the host, instead of a mutually symbiotic relationship. A situation where the host or contract maker was a slave of the spirit.

Even within the confines of the biolab the demonic energies were constantly exerting itself throughout the body, while the normal mana of the boarfolk was suppressed beneath that spiritual layer. 

I could see why the demons possessed them.

The power of the [demon tamers] made the strength of the demon armies much stronger, similar to how [beast tamers] like Johann could empower their animal companions. These demon-possessed boarfolk also added a layer of tactics and strategy to the normally reckless demons, though in actual combat, they attacked and fought viciously with no care or self control. They had fully submitted to the demon’s power. 

Fascinated with the nature of their soul spring, I commanded more order operatives to capture the demon-possessed boarfolk on a large scale.

We captured thousands of demonic tamers and with the help of [void mages], chucked them to my clones where I began extensive experimentation on them.

Quite a large number of these demonic tamers died as a result. For the rest that survived, I forcefully extracted the [demon taming] aspect of their class for studies. 

I wondered, partly out of curiosity, could a domain holder resist the effects of the demon taming. Could a boarfolk demon tamer, who reached a [domain], overpower the demon’s control? 

The idea was fascinating, but actually experimenting on the idea was untenable. The idea of a Level 140 Valthorn under the demon’s influence did not appeal to me. There was no way of ensuring that these demon tamers could respond to our command and remain friendly when exposed to the immense presence of a demon king. 

Unless, I shored up their souls with our own presence. It was an absolutely crazy idea and the benefits were quite low, so after a few days I chucked the idea into the bin.

But it was interesting to observe the boarfolks with their [classes] ripped out of them. 

The demon’s ability to control them faded the moment those demon-linked classes were removed, and many looked absolutely puzzled. 

I was torn on whether I should kill these formerly demon-possessed boarfolk.

On one hand, they had intentionally chosen the [demon tamer] classes and used demons to maintain power and wage wars against the humans and fairies. The boarfolks even maintained small demonic hatcheries in order to ensure a steady supply of demons. 

On the other hand, without the presence of the stronger demon champions that awakened their  senseless aggression, they were pretty much like any other society. 

It was a problem that annoyed me, and so, in the end, I elected to release the class-removed boarfolk into the wild for now. I would observe them for a bit more before deciding whether the boarfolk should be eradicated.

They were much weaker without their classes. Some of them expressed shock, most of them didn’t believe that they would wake up from the haze. They were hugely adapted to live in the demon-corrupted lands of Triotuga, a place that the humans or the fairies didn’t want. 

I reckon they only survived as the third force on Triotuga due to the terrain and were the weakest of the three. 

The boarfolk encampments throughout their terrain were small and most of them remained hidden. The demons slaughtered boarfolk if they met, so it was not as if being one with the boarfolk spared the rest of their kind from the problem. 

If by some miracle that the boarfolk [demon tamers] survived the destruction of the demon king, then they would be considered as those who survived a terrible storm. 

But, the residue of the demon king’s presence on their souls was so strong that many turned insane or became incredibly aggressive, even against their own kind. 

In other words, if I wanted boarfolks to survive and be a part of regular society, they could not take the demon tamer class or any of the other demon-related classes. Else, they would have to be exterminated. But it seemed that the system remembers this racial bias and the boarfolk were offered the chance to be [demon tamers] quite regularly.

I did not want to eradicate their species, even despite their extensive demonic use. 

So, in the future, I planned to have the Order offer the surviving boarfolk, any who wanted it, a chance to have their [demon tamer] and other similar classes removed. Anyone who didn’t would have to die. 

The demon’s power was too dangerous, especially since they lost their own sense of self. 

While this happened, the demon king finally arrived. The demon king was a fairly powerful giant beast. It resembled some kind of bear and had a range of elemental powers. 

But its strength was in the middle of the pack. 

The war against the demon king of Triotuga was swift. Lumoof, Edna, and my domain holders arrived and the battle was over in about a day. They gained a level or two, but nothing particularly special. 

With the demon king dead, the powers of the demonic champions faded and the boarfolk returned to normal. 

It was the shortest demonic war in the recorded history of Triotuga. 

But the scars left by the demonic possession among the remaining boarfolk would take much longer to heal. 

***

Caval

The arrival of the demons on Caval wasn’t a big deal for the natives. Many of the towns and cities already had a strong standing army, and the generally high leveled knights, equipped with the heroic descendant swords, were able to defeat the weaker demons without much problem. 

The demons that arrived this time were mainly land based behemoths that took on a few forms. The larger class of demons were big, golem-like creatures that resembled rough stone structures, the smaller ones were wolf-like rock demons. These demon’s heavy natural armor made them resistant to regular weapons, but still vulnerable to the descendant sword’s magical powers. 

It was also Lausanne’s first exposure to the hero swords. 

“They call out to me. I can hear them.” Lausanne blinked as she approached one of these fortified knight cities.

Edna nodded. “It’s interesting, isn’t it. Ebon told me he heard them once before, but now he can’t hear them at all. I can’t, either.”

“So star mana is behind it all.” Lausanne said as she focused. “I see. The voice transmission is through some kind of subtle use of star mana.”

“Exactly.”

“They need star mana.” Lausanne frowned as she recited what they said. 

“Oh?” 

“The swords, they don’t have much star mana left.” The domain holder hesitated to approach the hero-swords. 

“I don’t see why you should avoid it.” Edna shrugged. “Feed them some of your star mana. They could be stronger that way. That helps our cause.”

The main hero sword vibrated as Lausanne approached. Guards tried to stop them, but they couldn’t move in Edna’s presence. A domain holder’s presence was immensely effective in petrifying any guards with the weight of their levels.

Lausanne reached out and touched the hero-sword, located at the center of the square, with a single finger. There was a brief spark, and then her star mana flowed into the hero-sword. Then, the glow of the weapon intensified, as if it was recharged by a hero. 

She blinked, when at that moment, a magical summoned copy of the same sword she just touched appeared in her other hand. 

Edna clapped, while the petrified guards watched helplessly. “Oh, you made a copy?”

“Not really. It’s my ability to replicate the sword’s power. I can’t replicate the ability to create descendant swords, but I now have this sword’s attacks and skills. I believe this is what a hero would get, if they actually touched the sword.” Lausanne made practice swings with the magical summoned copy and nodded. She then turned to the hero-sword, which settled back to its position, now fully recharged. “Thank you.”

It glowed briefly in response. 

“Would you like a tour of the cities? Shouldn’t be too hard to find all the nearby hero-swords and get them a good touch up.” Edna offered. “I think Samuel did something similar when he recharged all the hero-defensive items.”

We were not sure whether the [system] would trigger a hero-summon if an actual hero was present. So for now, we decided to keep Colette and the rest of them off Caval. 

The demons were easy to deal with. The slightly harder problem was keeping the demon king occupied without killing it. 

In the end, after Lausanne’s tour of the hero-swords, the domain holders decided to beat up the demon king until it was half dead, and then left Lumoof behind to keep it suppressed. Lumoof would regularly drain magical energy from the heavily wounded demon king, not enough to cause it to trigger its self detonation, but enough that it was occupied.

I wondered how many heroes would come to Caval. I hoped we could get at least two. That way we could have some experiments on how strong these growing weapons could get and on what influenced their growth.