Tree of Aeons

Year 246

The Comet was still behind the veil. The barrier’s thickness recovered, which suggested that the demons had reconstruction abilities. They could somehow repair the Sun-Rings so quickly even after Alka’s ability blew up and shattered a chunk of the Sun-Rings.

Yet the transmission the Comet emitted was sufficient. It’ll cross the barrier in a year or two. 

We’ll see it. This was a slow mo truck crash. 

And somehow, I felt nervous. 

***

“Demon turtleworld.” Roon and Johann arrived at the location, along with the void mages. “What a name.”

“You know Lumoof’s never been one for names.” Roon chuckled and looked at the barren plains. As they explored the place a little more, it soon turned out there were more areas in the world than they initially expected, and some of which actually had some kind of murky, quasi-acidic pools and seas.

The demonic turtles were resistant to those acids and we observed them entering the acidic pools and seas.

Johann shrugged as more and more Valthorns arrived. “This is going to be home for a while.” Johann flicked a finger and out of nowhere, a small dragon emerged. The dragon finally hatched, and it was a golden dragon with absolutely beautiful scales. 

There were already Valthorns who asked to buy any excess scales, something which Johann rejected. He was going to keep all of them, and then turn them into armor. Dragonscale armor sounded absolutely amazing. 

The golden dragon hatchling breathed a golden flame that was not seen anywhere else, and even the mages wanted to study it. Dragonbreath. True dragonbreath was something lost to time, and everyone wanted to see it.

The little golden dragon wasn’t big enough to carry Johann yet, but it ate voraciously. We shipped meat over by the truckloads, but honestly, we were not exactly sure what to feed it. In time, I wondered whether Johann would be able to control such a powerful dragon. Even with it’s current size, I already estimated it to be something in the level 80s or 90s. In its full strength, it might even be able to deal as much damage as the heroes. 

“Shouldn’t we just hit the Core of this world just to fuck with the demons?” Roon laughed, his equipment strapped to his back.

“Think we can do that after we deal with the comet.” Johann frowned. “We’re building a base in a place with a quasi-demon-king underneath us.”

“It’s not very different from the Lavaworld.” 

“You know the difference.” Johann arched his eyebrows.

Roon laughed. “We’re here. That’s sufficient comfort for the guys here.” 

Over the next two to three months, the Valthorns discovered that the Demonic Turtleworld experienced regular, large amounts of tremors that shook the ground and moved some of the large barren sands. The tremors came from the core itself, as if something in the core of the planet kept moving. 

Our base on the Demonic Turtleworld therefore had to be built with magical securing artifacts that altered the ground around them, such that the forces of such tremors were diverted away. 

The turtles themselves were fairly easy foes, and despite being demons, they were surprisingly non-aggressive. They attacked when we got close, but these demons didn’t seem to take the initiative to launch attacks. They were similar to the anti-magic giant lizards, they had high defenses, strong melee and close range attacks, and strong magic resistance.

But ultimately, they had certain weak points, such as their underbelly. 

The void mages scanned the sky. The demonic turtleworld had some smaller ‘asteroids’ around it that floated in space. 

They were not immediately obvious, but once we found them, a group of them headed there immediately to set up a second position. The simple reason that the void mages had stronger power in space, and if we were not sure how close or far the demon comet will get when the paths actually cross. 

So, the wider our range, the better our chances of actually catching the comet in its path. 

***

My two domainholders fanned out the demonworld, and began stealing rift gates. Along with the daemolite next to them. We needed large quantities of daemolite to supply the void mana needed to open a portal to the cometworld as it passed by.

Normally, my potato storage units would be able to store the void mana, even with decay, but I didn’t have enough clone seeds to deploy a clone on the Demon Turtleworld, and I also needed one clone seed to deploy on the Comet itself, if that’s possible. 

There was a suspicion from my mages, that the demons have a way of ‘controlling’ worlds, and commanding them to move in the void sea. Just like how the Will of the World said that they could be commanded to do so. If this is the case, my clone will be required to ‘reclaim’ control of this comet’s will of the world. That would allow us to then override the demon’s instructions and steer it away from collision. 

In the meantime, we worked. 

Daemolite. We collected so much daemolite from across the entire demon turtleworld, and bit by bit, moved them to the nearby asteroids. The Valthorns quickly set up a base, complete with all the life-support supplies needed to operate on a rock without breathable air.

We developed powerful earth magic, meant to move large amount of dirt and ground in a short period of time. The idea was that we’ll need these earth magic to dig into the Comet, it’s likely not to have an open pit that we could just drop into. Powerful earth-escavation magic was created and stored on tens of thousands of magical scrolls. 

Demonic turtleworld transformed into warbase by the end of the year, with tens of thousands of bombs and various ordinances. 

Magic truly is amazing. Skills too. 

The demons attacked us, but so far, the demon mother refused to leave it’s pits. So, we didn’t have any reason to enter it. 

Not when I only have one clone left, and it’s still in cooldown. 

***

Aria’s avatar was ready. The wooden avatar was linked to her, and then, transformed into an icy tree resembling an evergreen pine. It had hair in the form of evergreen leaves’, that meant, pins, and she said it was based on her original form.

“I shouldn’t feel so bad for being born a scorpionoid.” Khefri chuckled as I introduced Aria’s avatar to the heroes. 

“I believe I would rather trade places.” Aria laughed. “Being a block of ice for centuries isn’t fun. The only reason I have not gone insane is because magic and skills put me through hibernation.” 

The scorpion lady had lightened up significantly since a decade ago. Traveling multiple worlds and fighting demons across the worlds gave her confidence, and her new friendship with the fellow heroes gave her life a meaning she once lacked. Even though her relationship with the archer hero Chung was fraught with the usual relationship ups and downs.

Then Prabu dropped the bomb on me one day.

“Aeon, I would like to try and have children with Colette.” 

Okay. Heroes mating with each other- that’s that’s normal, I suppose. 

“We’ve known each other for decades now, and for a while, it felt like fighting demons was our only purpose in this world. But as the class’s hold on our mind wavers, we- we want to have children.”

“Why now? You don’t have the need before this?”

“It- it’s just something we never thought about. The idea of having children as heroes fighting demons was so wild. I mean, I could imagine other people having children, or non-heroes having children, but having one with Colette- it’s just different, somehow.”

Hero-class mind-fuckery? That’s so-

“Do you think there will be side effects? I mean, right now, the strongest, most powerful healer in the entire multiverse is likely you.”

“I don’t think it’ll be a problem, but given what we’ve seen of other hero-offsprings, there’s no special benefits. Hell, you might still be like you now, by the time your kids grow up. Is that something you want?”

“We’ll be like elves, then.”

“Yeah, and I’m not saying it lightly, that it’s going to be a huge mental block.” Having children is fine. A hero losing their children. That’s when shit gets crazy. A mad, angry hero was probably going to be way more destructive.

“I know. Harris once said he was surprised how little he actually cared for his offspring. It took his conscious effort and reminder to overcome his innate urge to ignore them.” Prabu said. “I’m not sure whether a child of two heroes would be different. I feel it might be.” 

“If it’s not clear, the hero class is clearly designed for you heroes to have a ‘light’ touch on the world. With as little attachment as possible.”

“That is fading, clearly.” Prabu repeated. “It’s been many, many years, and I’m more- more in control of the class. I feel I’m getting better at spotting the class’s attempts to mess with my mind.”

“The fact that you can have this conversation is probably a sign that it’s hold wanes.”

“That’s dangerous, isn’t it?” 

“It is. I cannot afford a runaway hero. Or a hero that is destructive. There is too much at stake. Not when there’s a comet headed our way. I don’t even know if we can deploy a seed or a clone on the Comet. If we can’t, then we really have a limited window to hop on the Comet.”

Prabu looked sad. “After the Comet, then. I’d like to move to Tropicsworld. Permanently. That world doesn’t get invaded.”

“For now.”

I wondered briefly, what would happen if Treehome fell, but the heroes still lived. Would the mental compulsions on the hero vanish if their homeworlds no longer existed? Was there even such a condition in the class? It was a pointless thing. I chucked that thought into the back of my head. 

“But yes, after the Comet.” 

“You want us to wait a few more years. No, maybe two decades. My child could grow up till he or she is seven, or eight, or even in his teens.” Prabu said. “Actually- maybe there’s no good time after all.”

At this point, I realized the hero’s mind was made. He was going to have a child with Colette, and the best I could do was just support them through it. 

“We won’t wait.” Prabu said. “We won’t know if we die or not when we fight all the other demon kings, but we ask that my children be relocated to Tropicsworld should the day come.”

The heroes continued to pay me in hero items, and I suppose there’s no harm. Not anymore. “Very well.”

***

“Aeon. I need to go on a demon king hunting spree.” Alka said. 

“Oh?” 

“I know I’ve been tasked with that comet stuff, but I was thinking that the best way forward is to amplify my own destructive abilities. I need to obtain some kind of ability that meshes well with my [Always a Bomb]. If I could get a multiplier effect, I could fundamentally be a mobile land mine to soften any demon king, and the comet.”

That was quite true. Alka right now possessed the single strongest destructive ability that wasn’t restricted by the void mana portals. I couldn’t send certain types of superweapons through void mana, especially those loaded with way too much star mana. 

“Working with Stella’s portals, I am effectively a nuclear bomb. The goal, therefore, is to make me into a bomb capable of cracking the comet. With our resources soon to be split, we will have a problem.”

The demon king of the Mountainworld would arrive at the same time as when the Comet crossed the demon turtleworld, both estimated around Year 253.

I believe the heroes could handle it with my support. But it did mean some of the bombs would not go.

“I could frontrun that invasion, and go to the demon world-” Alka said.

“If you die, and you have to be resurrected- we won’t have you against the comet for a while. We don’t know how long the respawn mechanism takes. Sure, I can send you against the demon king but that comes with risk.”

“It’s worth it.” Alka insisted. “The size of that thing is monstrous. We’re not going to get gains without gaining some levels.”

“If you can get on it, you can use your ability repeatedly to chip off the Comet.”

“What if the explosion causes it to change direction in the void sea?”

“That's the objective achieved.” I answered. 

“Fair. But let me go chase some demon mothers in the heart of the demonic planets. We can start with the demonic houndworld. It seems like a fairly regular place. We have good people in charge of all the departments, we can let them handle it while we try to find and field more firepower.”

I thought for a while, and decided he had a point. We didn’t need my domain holders in charge of the nitty gritty details and administrative matters. They should be gaining levels, and providing direction with their experience. 

Just like Stella’s attempt to search for more resources. 

***

Aria’s level 100 avatar joined Alka, Lumoof, Edna and Stella in his quest to gain levels. Sure, Aria was effectively level capped as a level 100 avatar, but they still gained experience from the battle. Also, just because the avatar was level 100, wasn’t that big a restriction as I thought.

Aria could make really powerful equipment, which could then be wielded by the avatar. This effectively added 10 to 20 levels of combat power to the avatar. 

Their first destination was the demonic houndworld, and they headed straight for the pits.

“So we just nuke the demon mother and run?” Lumoof said. “Aren’t you worried we destroy the core while we’re at it?” 

“That’s why you’re here. You need to flush it out. I need to gain levels. You chase it out, force it out of the core, and it will come this way. I will nuke it when it gets anywhere near me. That should defeat it.”

“If this works we could free multiple demon worlds at the same time.”

“But what if there is a growing demon king in there. The demon mother won’t leave the growing demon king alone.” 

“Then we nuke that too.”

“But we might blow up the core. That’ll piss off the [system] and make us enemies of the world.”

“That- that doesn’t sound good.”

“Let’s just go down there and see what we have? If it doesn’t work out we can find another world. That world before the barrierworld is another good candidate.”

“We should’ve done research.”

“No one’s going to go into the pits without us domain holders being there.” Lumoof frowned. 

“Ah. True. The things we do for the fate of the multiverse.” Alka laughed. 

Stella just rolled her eyes. “Oh come on mister bomberman. We’re getting close.”

The core was similar to Parasiteworld. It was a hollow center filled with rocks, and just a gigantic sphere of rock that was the planetary core. It was a sphere with tunnels criss crossing its spherical structure, and a gigantic creature with it’s tentacles everywhere. 

The demon mother.

It wasn’t growing a demon king. Maybe not yet. 

“Well? Patriarch Lumoof, please do the honors?” Edna teased. 

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