Tree of Aeons

Year 245

The Comet. It was a red glowing world from our view. 

We saw it only briefly, in the moment when Alka’s explosions temporarily disrupted the barrier of the void. The disruption caused the null barrier to become so thin that we could see what was beyond it.

A moving object in the void sea and it moved slowly, in the still extremely large void sea. During that short window we were able to see it move. It teleported, at least from our perspective, but yet, we were fairly certain it got closer. 

During that brief moment when the barrier was down, a transmission from the comet itself got through, and we detected it as a momentary flash within the demon king’s core-map, quite like when a software update was pushed out to all devices. The comet wasn’t even hiding itself because it shouted its location to all the demon kings and In an act of utmost confidence, the update even came with its trajectory through the void sea. 

We just couldn’t see it on this side of the barrier before, and now, Stella gazed at the core map. “Looks like once it got to the other side of the barrier we’d detect it anyway.”

All in, It would take about another 25 years to reach us, if our estimates were correct.

We now had a countdown to work with, and we actually went to two of the worlds close to its expected path. 

“We have two chances to hop onto the Comet.” Stella repeated. One in eight years, another in fifteen. After that it’s going to go through what appears to be a large patch of void sea with no known astral neighbors. “If we want to hit it and destroy it before it lands, that’s our two moments.” 

“Lumoof could just camp on the comet for two years and deploy your clone once it’s ready.”

We devised a plan to counter the demon comet before, in the off chance we get to face our own demonic comet. The strategy essentially came down to - invade, manipulate, destroy, evacuate.

We would invade the comet, if we could reach it, and attempt to manipulate it. If we can’t, we will destroy it. If we fail to destroy the comet, we’ll evacuate and attempt to reclaim the world after the demonic comet makes impact and smashes into Treehome. Evacuate was my least desired option, since it essentially reset all the gains we had with Treehome. 

Invade, manipulate, and/or destroy the comet. That was my preferred option. 

My void mages were most excited, especially those who worked hard to manipulate the cometworld. Here was a world, traveling through the void sea! They immediately wanted to know how the demons did it, and if there was a secret on this Comet we could learn.

If it was a device, we would steal it. 

That was obvious, of course.

My entire institution was geared for this moment. To get ready for war with the demons. To prepare for an eventual counterattack. We knew it was coming in the days since the demon king was slain on that other world.

Eight years from now, it’s expected path would take it really near to the demonic turtleworld. That was where we needed to be to engage in an attack on the Comet. 

We would have to give up on the Barrierworld and the Sun Rings for now. We would return to it someday, once we resolved our comet problem.

***

“Alright. We got eight years before it actually crosses path with the demonic turtleworld.” Lumoof announced to the group present. The announcement of the coming Comet to the entire senior leadership, and effectively all of the Valthorns, made everyone panic. “Some of you involved in the Margmarian Dwarves’ City Ruins will find this extremely familiar, because we are essentially dealing with the same counterattack from the demons.”

The crowd went wild as they talked with each others. 

“Aeon and the domain holders have essentially outlined a few key strategies, and our goal is to intercept the demonic comet. We will attempt to capture it, failing which, we will attempt to destroy it with as many bombs as we can.”

“Are we doomed, Lord Lumoof?” A Valthorn stood and asked in panic.

“I don’t see why we are.” Lumoof said. “Once we reach that world, we have essentially about 13 to 15 years to destroy the Demon’s Comet. It’s certainly not as scary as I made it out to be.”

“It’s a planet.”

“Our initial estimates based on whatever little data we have reveals that it is a world half the size of our current world. Still pretty big. We largely don’t know what’s on the Comet, whether what we accomplish is even possible, and all that. Our goal, therefore, over the next eight years, is we must be prepared to bomb this world to smithereens.” One of the void archmages stood to present their findings. 

The crowd quieted down when Lumoof raised his hand.

“We will be splitting the Valthorns into multiple task forces.”

Alka took the stage. “I will be leading the destruction force. The goal is to blow this Comet up if we can’t capture it. The existing group that’s making bombs will need to massively scale up it’s work.”

Edna, Roon and Johann led the invasion force. They need to build a massive base of operations on the demonic turtleworld, and also Lavaworld, and prepare for that day. They will need to get there to support the destruction force.

One of the void archmages and a Lord from Tropicsworld would have to lead the evacuation force. We’d plan to evacuate everyone to Tropicsworld around 1 to 2 year from impact if we realize we have no way of avoiding that Comet. 

Stella and another archmage led the void manipulation group, with the intention of redirecting the comet towards somewhere else. This was the same group that worked on the Cometworld, and so, now they would have to take their failure, and hopefully turn it around. 

There was also a group that worked on ‘shielding’ and ‘bunkering’. Essentially, a repeat of what the Margmarian Dwarves did. This didn’t end well for them, but unlike the Margmarian dwarves, we are now a multi-planetary organization. We know exactly what everything is, and as long as my body stands on Treehome, bunkering could be a viable strategy. 

We just needed to be way better prepared than them.

***

Aria and Aispeng naturally panicked. They were not here when the comet came the first time. “Can you move me? I mean,  I know I’m not normally helpful, but I don’t want to die.”

“Your true body is deep underground, right? If so, you may not be that much of a risk.”

“We’re talking about a planet-sized projectile. How are we not fucked? Everything on the surface is going to be destroyed. It’s probably big enough to blow up half the planet and some. Even Lillies is going to be in trouble, but I guess they’re not so much at risk since they can cocoon themselves.”

“We’ll see what we can do about it.” 

“There’s nothing to see. Get some of your guys here, dig my main body out and shift me to one of your other worlds. I have no intention of testing out your reincarnation ability.”

Reefy said as I informed my fellow inanimate object located in the sea. Reefy’s grown, and regularly sends me images of strange monsters from the deep. Leviathans, krakens and stuff like that. They’re all fairly harmless though, creatures in the level of 60 to 80. 

> It’s a little too big for you. < I responded as I tried to share the estimated size of the thing.

Ah yes. Reefy had discovered bombs and used them to bomb his enemies. There are merpeople in the water that he doesn’t like every much. I don’t interact with them, and these merpeople don’t come to the surface either, so, our relationship is one of mutual ignorance. 

Some of them did occasionally travel to my shoreline trees and plants, and those kelp forests, but they didn’t do me any harm. So, I was fairly content to leave them be.

Lilies of the Lake took the news with resignation. 

> Would you help? <

Lilies dug deeper into the ground. I just wasn’t sure whether that would actually help. 

***

Tropicsworld, Mountainworld both began to have larger sites for Valthorns, as we increased our diversification efforts. 

We needed to duplicate everything we had on Treehome, on Tropicsworld as well, and also prepare for the possibility of evacuation, and beyond evacuation, a war to reclaim Treehome from the demons after the Impact. 

The heroes were involved as well, and for them, they would be part of the invasion and comet destruction team. If I could deploy my clone on the Comet, I’d then send the heroes there to destroy the demon’s comet-planet.

Their tremendous firepower was essential, and given what we’ve seen on the Sun-Rings, we are also expecting defenders at the same level as the demon king. 

This buzz of activity was felt by the locals, as they saw my Valthorns gear up for a bigger war. 

The question that came soon after was simple.

What were we preparing for?

Do we tell people that they may die in 25 years?

Should I tell the larger population about the existence of a demonic comet headed our way? Do we want to scare the people and set off large scale panic? 

What was the right thing to do? If we could prevent the demonic comet from ever hitting us, then there’s really no reason to set off a mad rush for safety. But if we told them, and the comet really was still headed our way, their cooperation would make evacuation significantly easier. 

“We need about five years to prepare for a total evacuation of Treehome. We can keep this program quiet for 20 years. There’s really no reason to alarm the people yet. If we fail during the two invasions of the Comet, then we start shouting. Let’s keep this mainly to those in power.” Lumoof recommended. 

It wasn’t an immediate problem to my people, but twenty years is very short to me. 

After much deliberation, there wasn’t much these nobles could do to help, but if they set off large scale panic, we’d need to deploy people to suppress those issues. So informing them was a net-negative. 

Most suspected something was up anyway, because we massively hired new members for the Valtrian Order, alchemists, blacksmiths, crafters to hugely, hugely ramp up our weapons production, and also bunkers. 

For those on the other worlds like Branchhold and Threeworlds, they witnessed great amounts of crystals and similar others shipped. 

***

“We need to revive our moonbase project. It’s likely as the two worlds collide, the space between the worlds will first meet in space.” Stella said. “Imagine each world as a bubble, the demon’s comet is a bubble of it’s own. If we want to interrupt or disrupt the demon’s comet, there is likely a third opportunity or chance when it gets near to us, if we fail in the first two meeting points.”

It’s speed is likely significantly higher once the two different realms collide. Hell, I think that’s probably the point where an evacuation is the only way forward.

I doubt shields would do much against a planetoid-sized projectile. 

What else could we do? 

That was the question that hung on my mind.

We still had at least a few years before we needed to deal with the demons on Mountainworld and Threeworlds. We could, theoretically invade the demon worlds and get at the demons in those worlds, but like Lavaworld, there was no connection. Lavaworld was cut off when the demon king was killed.

If I ever felt like being pulled in so many directions at once, well, I always have. 

Priorities competed with each other. We always had a time limit, but knowing one’s time limit does put a kind of pressure on everyone to get shit together. We needed to prepare for the comet, but at the same time, I also needed my people to get stronger. 

For those who had not gotten their domains, they worked harder to get it. They attacked the dungeons with renewed vigor, because with the blessings of the pantheon, they knew they would be able to survive. 

***

The Crystal King’s golems were getting stronger. The Crystal King didn’t back down after the demon king was destroyed. Instead, he sent golems into Zhaanpu’s lands. 

Zhaanpu responded with golems of his own. Creatures that resembled sphinx made of sandstone. 

My spies and informants claim such prolific use of these old war machines had not occured for centuries, and partly was due to the presence of Hytreerion on the battlefield. 

They had to shore up domestic support, to convince their own political vassals that they were on par. So, it made the two domainholders reveal their own gigantic creatures. 

Their own spies and people hyped up the strength of their own giant golems, but it was clear they all were nothing much compared Hytreerion’s incredible arsenal. In this big rod-waving contest, I have the biggest, best gun. 

Not much to be proud of, and honestly, an old war machine made from a demon walker reduced to military grandstanding was just sad. 

***

There were fragments of the materials from the Sun-rings in my biolabs. Things that I needed to study. 

I didn’t know what certain parts of them were. They had a component part that was likely to be the anti-magic sand that had been processed into glass. But the steel was not a type of steel found on any of the worlds so far.

That meant the demons had access to a kind of unique metal we didn’t have, and if we wanted to compete with the demons on the same level of ability, we needed to have this metal too.

I called one of the Void archmages.

We still only had four, plus Stella, that made five. Stella’s already busy, one of them worked on the invasion, one worked on the evacuation plans, one worked on the surveys and listening devices throughout all the demon worlds, and another one worked on the demon comet void-sea manipulation plans.

I needed him to hop worlds, and get this metal while the rest of them worked on their tasks. He would go with a small group of protectors. 

They were off.

Those that were still here, they continued to study the metals. We are not sure whether they are engineered, or an alloy, or whether they are natural. 

My team worked on it anyway, because it was key to their Sun-Ring structure. If we could identify the weaknesses, perhaps some kind of magical frequency, or a specific breakpoint, we could tailor our explosives and magic for maximum impact. 

There were multiple Sun-Rings to destroy to gain access to the inner worlds. 

***

“Where’s your [void explorer] now?”

“Still headed in the other direction.” Since her void explorer left Ulara, she went further in the other direction. The hope was that we could reach some of the God-inhabited worlds.

Places where the influence of Aiva, Gaya or whatever was strong. I’d want to speak to them, and then, get them to help us in our fight. They are strong. I am fairly certain Aiva in his or her homeworld would have incredible power that even a demon king is no threat. 

“But nothing?”

“Nope. Not yet. I hope I get somewhere. Soon.”

Spaizzer

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