Tree of Aeons

Year 254, Part 2

The Comet is big. It goes without saying that all the bombs we gathered so far, would not be enough if we tried to blow it up from the surface. 

My own scientists estimated the bombs we gathered would probably be enough to create a relatively large tunnel to the core, but nowhere near enough to shatter this Comet. Therefore, the way we used our bombs needed to be quite strategic, and we really needed to hit certain parts of the comet. Places where the magic from the core of the comet holds the entire thing together.

Gravity. It’s not exactly gravity that holds this rock together, but magic. That is expected for objects such as this, it wasn’t created naturally through-

Actually, what is a normal process in this world of magic? Why shouldn’t I consider things that are created by magic as natural? 

Anyway, my Valthorn observed that there are areas within the Comet that were ‘weaker’, and likely more vulnerable to our explosive devices. Based on their estimates, it should significantly weaken the structure of the Comet.

Alternatively, my domain holders suggested weakening the structure of the Comet itself by taking out the eight nodes, or modifying them such that they destroy the comet itself.

I thought it was a genius idea. The Comet fed these eight nodes, and these eight nodes flared on a daily basis to purge the surface of invaders like myself. It was clearly powerful, as it is able to create a flare that covered the bulk of the surface. 

If we could turn the Comet Core’s energy against itself, it would significantly accelerate the process of destroying the Comet.

This meant I needed to seize control of these nodes with my clone, or find ways to hijack the energy flows coming from the core, and through meddling with energy flows, alter how those nodes behave. 

***

“Man, how much deeper do we have to go?” One of the Valthorns was a strength-focused barbarian-type. In order to protect him from the flares, he constantly carried a set of magical artifacts that protected him from magical attacks. He, and about ten others were the tip of our small digging force. 

Each of them were level 125-140, so when they attacked, the ground gave way. Physical force was far more effective on the crystals than magic, and each slam of their skill-enhanced pickaxes, the crystals crumbled. 

Another Valthorn looked at the data. “Probably another two more months.”

The barbarian rolled his eyes. “This is just as bad as camping in the dungeons for months.” 

“I’d say it’s worse.” The Valthorns chuckled. “There’s no underground town to relax and unwind.”

They’ve been digging for months, and about three months in, we noticed the flares were weaker, and less frequent. It’s likely that the nodes were designed only to purge the surface, and not this deep into the Comet.

It didn’t get hotter underground. The core didn’t release any heat, even if we felt stronger magical turbulence. 

According to our sensors, there were subterranean tunnels that crisscrossed the Comet, not by design, but by accident. These were created likely due to how the entire comet was cobbled together, and naturally there were ‘pockets’ of space that just didn’t line up correctly. 

My Valthorns theorized that the Comet was essentially a bunch of different rocks stitched together through the magic from the core, because there were segments where the type of crystal, sand and rocks had slightly different mixture in them. 

If the demons have the ability to construct the Sun-Rings, it is not beyond them to construct something like a Comet. In every way the Sun-Rings were just bigger, more sophisticated and more powerful.

On the other hand, the demonic energies found in this Comet clearly suggested this was meant to be a seeding pool. Perhaps there was a time when the demons just flung them in random distances and hoped they crashed into a world. Then, the remains from the Comet would act like a big flare that marked the existence of a world. 

There’s just a lot of daemolite on this damned rock. 

***

The drill slammed into the wall and it collapsed. The group was instantly assaulted by a wave of heat and magic that rushed in.

“We hit another of those chambers.” 

On the surface, the spawning pools respawned even after we destroyed them. The demonic mana flare-ups just regenerated everything we destroyed, and even created new spawning pools. At some point, it certainly felt like destroying the demons were pointless, because they just respawned. 

Down there, hundreds of miles below and months from the surface, some of the chambers were filled with demons in spawning pools, but here in the depths, the demons take a different form. They resembled more like golems made of crystals, rather than the normal, usual demonic form out on the surface. 

“That’s the sixth one. How big is this one?” Edna looked around, as Lumoof extended his senses. I felt it too. This one stretched quite wide. The Valthorns took out the golem-demons easily, and here, this deep in, there’s no flares to respawn the golem-demons.

At least, not any we’ve seen. 

It’s entirely possible the core itself could release a flare. 

Lumoof looked around. Here in the depths, the crystals released a strange faint glow. It would have been pitch black without their reddish glow. Yet, it wasn’t hot. There was no heat in this place. No air, either. The only reason the Valthorns could exist was because of our equipment. 

The demons clearly did not expect company. Not on their Comet. 

I suppose they should, since we invaded the Sun-Rings after all. Maybe the next Comet, if there is one, would have suitable countermeasures. This Comet was likely launched before we even demonstrated the ability to find the Sun-Rings.

“This leads fairly close to one of the nodes.” Lumoof said, as he concluding his magical senses. 

Stella felt a range of mana swirling around her, drawn to the magical formation in front of her. It was her magical observation formation “The density of void mana here is getting higher.”

She paused momentarily.

“The core is a mix of void and demonic mana and  I feel there’s Core Mana too.”

“Wait.” Lumoof looked back. “How?”

Stella shrugged. “We’ll just have to find out. Let’s keep digging. The place for Aeon’s clone should be just a bit more to go.” The demons either have some means for storing Core Mana without it decaying into normal mana, or they have a way of generating Core mana. 

The location for my clone was not much further. 

***

“This really is cobbled together.” Roon looked around and said as we reached another different chamber. They’ve passed three more subterreanean chambers over the past month of digging, and now, we finally arrived deep enough. 

We were now on a large subterranean structure that was clearly once part of a much larger rock. It even had a slightly different color, and it contrasted so heavily to the crystalline-mixture that we’ve seen on our way down. 

“Why do they do such a thing?”

“I don’t think anyone knows.” Stella laughed. “But it’s good that they do so. Imagine if it’s crystals all the way down. Then we’re really shit out of luck.”

“True.” Roon nodded. 

Soil. As Lumoof’s legs touched this slightly different part of the Comet, I knew this was probably an asteroid at some point, and it fulfilled the conditions for my clone’s deployment.

“Well, we’re here. We might as well camp here and some of us start exploring what’s around. Let’s start digging tunnels to the various nodes?”

My Valthorns estimated this was the best place to place my clone, at least, until we know more about what we faced in the Core. 

Our own theories generally assume that what’s in the Core is likely to be a demon king equivalent. If planets had demon mothers, something like the Comet with it’s naturally invasive nature meant this Comet should have a demon king in it, that would deploy once it crashes into the planet. 

Records of the energy levels, calculated from the total energy needed to create the daily flareups even suggests that we may have to face multiple demon kings. Not that crazy, if the Sun-Rings able to call on the protection of multiple demon kings. 

We would have to approach it carefully, and find ways to destabilize this comet without triggering such a thing. Or only approach the core once we were sure what we faced and prepared accordingly. 

We’d also prefer to approach the Core of the Comet with the heroes present. With the heroes’ exceptional star power, we could destroy the Comet, and deal with the demons in the Core with higher confidence.

***

Lumoof touched the crystals that formed the walls. Now that we’ve located the place to deploy the clone, a group of Valthorns stayed back to build some structures. At that depth, the flares from the nodes, which only released flares upwards and outwards to the surface, didn’t harm us at all. 

It was quite dangerous to approach the nodes from the surface, because the flares were denser if we approached it. It was like a high pressure water jet, and the pressure was strongest at the top of the nozzle. But, now we were approaching it from the size, and it’s like grabbing a water hose from the back. 

We were getting closer to the channels of energy from the core. 

“I feel like I should’ve gained a level after digging so many tunnels.” One of the Valthorns joked as they walked through the tunnels.

My priest merely chuckled. “If we could get answers from the System, it would’ve been much, much easier.” 

”True that.” The Valthorn Warrior, Ezar, sighed. He was Level 143, in total, from a mixture of Brawler and Ranger-type classes. 

Alka just chuckled. “If the system gave answers, Aeon wouldn’t need people like me.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” Lumoof said as the Valthorns continued to dig closer. “Aeon is always in need of someone to blow shit up.”

“That’s not what I meant.” Alka countered in jest.

“I know.” 

The other Valthorns groaned. Most of the younger Valthorns didn’t realize how much the domainholders ragged on each other for fun. They’ve fought demons together so often that they could take each other’s shit. 

The Valthorns extended the tunnel, and then magic rushed through. “Well. We’re here. Looks like we found the mana aqueducts.” Lumoof looked at what appeared to be a ley line in physical form. 

It was a massive, pillar-like structure that extended from the core itself, and up to the node. Huge quantities of magic flowed through it, and transformed the rocks and crystals along it’s path into a glowing, reddish, highly-dense crystal structure. 

Some of that mana leaked out, but most of it flowed through the pillar. 

“There should be seven other such pillars.” 

“You think we’ll shatter the Comet if we blow up all these pillars?” Lumoof asked.

Alka shook his head. “Not if we don’t disrupt the magical flow. These pillars merely exist as a byproduct of the flow of energy from the core to the eight nodes. They are not the cause, and destroying them wouldn’t change anything. I think it would even regenerate itself.” Alka said as he tried to chip away at the highly dense crystal structure. 

It was incredibly hard, and any chip seemingly repaired itself before their eyes. 

“You know, it feels quite shit that we made all those bombs only for them to be useless.” Lumoof said.

“Not exactly. We can use it to blow up the source.” The core. The demon kings. “Anyway, boys, time to dig upwards. We need to get to the nodes.”

“Got it.” The Valthorns answered. 

***

Back on Treehome, Snek looked at an upset Ken. 

“Colette wants to suppress her hero class, to see what was before all of this.” Ken answered. Unlike the rest of the heroes, Ken actually remembers what life was like before they were selected to be a hero vividly. He has seen how the rest forgot so much about their past, the effects of the hero class meddling with their memory. 

Suppressed. Faded. 

The effects of it on the heroes were insidious, as if it was subtly molding the person into this person focused on the demons. It stripped out the memories over time, while trying its’ best to retain the qualities it desired of the heroes. Yet, it couldn’t just delete it. 

Was it because the gods protected the hero’s memories while they were sent to another world, and the hero class stood on top of it? Therefore, if the gods removed the memories, they essentially destroyed the foundation on which the hero class stood on, and the heroes would develop in a way different from what they wanted?

In Ken’s case, once the hero class was not there, he could freely access that memory. But for the heroes, it was like there was a concrete floor that hid all that memory, and as the hero class got stronger, that concrete floor got bigger and wider, and eventually, they couldn’t even see what was underneath anymore. 

Prabu, naturally, was afraid. He wasn’t sure what Colette would do if she could remember. But he couldn’t tell her no. 

“Don’t you want to remember, Prabu? About life before all of this? About our parents, our family. Our old friends, all back home. Even if you don’t want to remember, why don’t you let me remember? We are not complete, Prabu. This is just a part of us. The part the gods want to keep, so that we serve as their tools. Hafiz is free. I want to be free, too.”

“But-”

“I want Rohana to see her mother completely. Not just this aspect of us. She needs a mother, and increasingly, I fear that this class prevents me from being a good one. A complete person. I want to know.”

Prabu had no answer for her, and all he could do was ask for some time. Time Colette gladly gave, since there were still many things for them to do. 

***

“Do you think we should use the hero class?” Snek asked. “I have it, and I initially intended to use it to save my world. But now I realized there are ways to achieve my true goals without it.”

Ken looked at the little Snek. Snek held the [hero] class, stored in his soul. The one Ken gave up. “-wait. What’s the catch?”

Ken may have spent forever with his little Snek companion, but the [hero] class was always Snek’s prize.

“I am willing to trade the [hero] class for Aeon’s clone. Convince Aeon to deploy a clone permanently on Ulara, and be our gateway. My people will benefit from access to the wider world.”

“You know that he refused to do that before.”

“I know, which is why I’m willing to trade the class for it.”

“-we don’t even know what’s the conditions to use that [hero] class.” No one has ever tried to create a hero from a hero class seed. There may be conditions to that class that we are not aware about. 

In fact, it’s entirely possible for the [hero] class to turn out to be a dud. I could therefore see why Snek would offer it in exchange for permanent access and connection to the wider world. 

But, I may not want it either. What was I to do with a hero class, anyway? Do I even want to create another hero?

My clones are genuinely in short supply. It’s already hard to level up, and even if I do gain more clones, each additional clone is further away. 

There are so many worlds, and I need to use them wisely. 

***

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