Tree of Aeons

Year 191

The astral paths open. The path of light that glowed brightest repeated what happened before. Stella and her team of void mages attempted, however little, to meddle with the demon’s path. I watched as her dark energies attempted to tamper with the path, and the void mana drained out of her. 

She was not strong enough to fight the complex powers of the demons. But she tried repeatedly, and she levelled up from the attempts. 

“It’s a lot more complicated than I thought.” Stella commented. “It’s like they’ve just dug this river from their world to ours, and they are just ‘floating’ on it.”

“Huh. Some kind of space travel lane.”

“Yeah, it’s also not just void mana. There’s something else in this ‘space’ river. But it’s not star mana for sure. If I’m right, the demon king’s core is nothing more than a ‘cocoon’ to allow something so large to float through it.” Stella’s ability to ‘visualise’ the path has also improved since 10 years ago, partly due to her levels and new skills. “Or it may be that the astral path is like a rope, and the demon king is hanging onto it like a ropeway, using this demon core as a tether.”

“Oh? That’s new information.”

If what we saw previously was just streaks of light, she’s gained some ability to see what was in the streaks of light. I still couldn’t, so sadly for me, I’m just relying on her narration to figure out what exactly it looked like. This is normal to me, of course. I lived most of my life in this world without full vision, just partial, spiritual vision until I gained the Tree-Eyes ability. 

“I’m not even sure what I’m seeing. It’s like recognising words but not truly comprehending the meaning.” Stella said.

“Yeah.” 

She kept trying, of course. She injected a bit of her void mana into the sky.

And failing. “It’s not working. It’s either my powers are too unfocused, or and by the time my powers reach the path, it’s just less than what it was.” She complained.

Wait. What was that again? “You said it’s less by the time you reach it?”

“Yeah. It's kinda like... it dissipates before it reaches the path.”

“Would being closer to the sky help?” She thought for a moment, and nodded. 

“No harm trying.” 

That was how  I made the tallest Giant Attendant Tree, as tall as I could manage, complete with a wooden, vine-powered ropeway lift to the top. I made it such that there was a large flat surface at the very top, a platform for the kinds of rituals Stella and her team of void mages could ever need.

It was really, really tall, and with my magical augmentation and energies, it was probably the closest I’ll get to a space elevator, even if it’s still pretty tiny. I could even feel like the top of the tree was pulling away from me. 

Her team attempted it again, and still it was not successful.

“It still dissipated. But at least, I’ve only lost about half of our magical strength.” 

Well, to truly escape the world’s planetary shell would require something that’s on the moon or even further. “Do you think you’ll do better if you attempted to interfere with the astral paths from the moons?” 

She thought about it again, she initially shook her head wildly at how crazy the idea was but then I could tell a part of her agreed with the idea. “That’s really, really crazy levels of distance.”

“But it’s possible. With enough magic you could open a portal to the moon. Even then, the moon may not be ideal as the moon may has it’s own sphere of interference.” 

“Well, yes.” I’ve rarely seen Stella’s face look so conflicted. Even more than actual moral dilemmas. “But give me some time to mentally prepare. I’m not prepared to open a portal to the moon. Not yet.”

“Wouldn’t it be cool?”

“What if it just opens a vacuum and sucks everything up?”

“You know that doesn’t happen.”

Stella sighed. “I need some time with the idea.” 

-

I wondered then whether I could spread my trees on the moon. With the right amount of magic, assuming that magic works on the moon, we should theoretically be able to terraform the moon into an inhabitable space. 

In fact, if I could convert the moon into a safe space, that would be a less ideal-long run solution. 

“It’s quite strange that you consider terraforming the moon as a possible idea.” Kei complained one day. 

“I don’t see why you’re complaining? The demons clearly only pop up here.”

“What if they follow you there?”

“Then we’ll deal with that problem later.” I mean, why do all these heroes worry about all this stuff when it hasn’t even happened yet? “We’ll try it, and see whether it works.” 

“Yeah. That’s true. Actually I’m not against the idea of terraforming the moon. I’m  because it’s like... uh, the moon? No. Wait. That doesn’t make sense. I guess I just assign a weird sentimentality for the moon, like it should be what it is.”

“Eh, back home, men have always dreamed of colonising the moon and Mars. Here, a tree dreams of greening the twin moon.”

“You know what, that actually sounds quite cool.” Kei admitted. “Hopefully Stella sees it your way.” 

“Oh she will, she just needs time to process the idea of portals to the moon. She’s like that, her first reaction to any idea is to say no. Usually.” I’ve seen Stella enough to know that her first choice is to do nothing, or hide. This part of her, she still took a while to undo, and in some ways, I really resonated with that. 

-

Stella, as predicted, agreed to the idea a week later, but after suitable preparations were made. For now, she continued her attempts to ‘challenge’ the demons’ astral path from the top of my Tower-Tree, as she felt she could still make improvements to her technique. She tried repeatedly, and at one point, she actually succeeded in interfering with one single transmission. 

She wasn’t sure what happened though. 

At the same time, Lumoof and the team of Valthorns on the Western Continent continued to hunt the demons. We witnessed a few rifts, and the rifts are actually vulnerable weak points. I did not activate my avatar ability, as the heroes were also fighting along. I did not want to reveal the full scope of my avatar powers to them. 

So, we allowed the other Level 100+ Valthorns to lead the battles with the champions. They needed the experience and the levels to prepare them for the real thing. 

Lumoof and Edna mainly played a supporting role, and often just stayed back. Kei, of course, understood this. As for the heroes, they thought it was just kinda weird. They, of course, could not really understand how slow normal people levelled when compared to them. They claim they get it, but they don’t feel and live how slowly it takes for any regular person to level up. With their divine blessings, they usually just need a champion or two to gain a level. 

Demonic ogres and giant ogres were actually pretty pleasant to fight. They fought very much like regular humans, only with exceptional strength and power, and they also had a few skills. This went on for about two months, and during this time my ships and Hytreerion also finally got into their position. Near, but not too near. 

I wasn’t sure what gimmick this demon king would have. Maybe it’ll just cut off the world’s magical communication network again. Hopefully we don’t get that. 

Everyday, Stella would recharge the void batteries, and kept battling the demonic paths. It didn’t seem to make any impact on the number of demons, but she gained levels even from failing, so there was no real reason to stop.

Then the path glowed brightly. It’s coming. Stella wasn’t afraid, so she tried again, this time with everything. She wanted to see whether she could disrupt the path so that the demon king couldn’t properly enter the world. 

Her void energies formed a shovel and attempted to cover the path of light that cut through the void forest. The path glowed, and little sparks of flames lit up along the path. She attempted to put out one of the flames, and she managed to cause one of them to dim slightly. 

The path glowed, and then seemed to bend at where the light was dimmer. Then, a glowing ball of light appeared and moved quickly along the path. Stella held on and used her void mana and attempted to mess with the path. It was either now or never. 

She pushed, and her void mana caused the path of light to dim ever so slightly. The glowing ball, however, smashed into her void mana at full speed, and from the skies above, a void-energy shockwave hurled right at Stella. I immediately wrapped my roots around her to protect her, and created multiple wooden shields.

The void energy shockwave smashed through my shields, but thankfully, I had many, many layers of them, and they were stopped. 

Stella was safe, but shaken by how suddenly it happened. “Fuck that.”

On the Western Continent, my sensors detected the rift energies gathered at a particular location, but then it shifted and moved at the very last minute, like a car that made a last minute swerve.

[Demon King Bagradva descended] 

It appeared right over a river, and the water where the demon king descended instantly vaporized. Through Lumoof, I could feel it’s presence,  it was like a hot fire. It didn’t appear where we wanted it to be, but now we had to lure it to the few designated battlefields across the Western Continent.

The heroes knew it was coming too. 

“Well...” Colette said, and then, a magical gate appeared right next to him. Chung walked right through, fully armed and equipped. “Shall we get with the plan?”

Prabu and Hafiz both nodded. Chung passed the other three heroes some stick-like artifact, then took a glance at Edna and Lumoof. “So you two are the supporting fighters?”

Lumoof smiled. “Yes. Hope we are not much of a bother.”

Chung shrugged. “Oh well, let’s get with it.”

The heroes quickly moved to position, and they periodically activated their star mana forms. Our spies and scouts tracked the demon king’s movement, and it seemed to have picked up the heroes’ location and moved towards them.

This was a good sign, since it meant it wasn’t intelligent enough to recognise the trap. Either that, or it would learn from this experience and not fall for it the next time. 

More crucially, through Lumoof, I called my Valthorns together and I spoke to them. I’ve sent them to war many times, but few as risky as this. Perhaps, only the war with Kei.

“My faithful Valthorns, once again I call on you to fight the demon king, and this time, through Lumoof, I will be right at your side with my full strength. I do not intend to lie that all of you will be safe. You’ve seen for yourself those who have sacrificed their lives in earlier battles, and I make no guarantees for your survival. We will go to war with the demon king, whose powers we do not fully comprehend. Though risky and many will die, it is a step we must take, only through challenging the demon king itself, we can gain the powers needed to stand our own feet, and stop our world’s toxic dependence on heroes.” 

Everyone present nodded. Kei merely listened, as one of those who would play a supporting role. She would not join the fight. Not now. 

“First we beat the demon king, then we break this cycle of destruction. Only then, peace will truly come to our world.” Through Lumoof, I nodded. “We all know the plan, so let’s do it. Let’s bomb the demon king!” 

They roared. 

-

The Valthorns split up. They all had their part to play. Lumoof immediately joined the heroes in a pre-built fortress, this time, it was dug out of the ground itself. There was no point to above-ground structures that would be vaporised by laser beams, unless specially enchanted. 

“It is moving as predicted. Each flare and use of star mana powers, it adjusted its position and direction.” The scouts explained. The heroes had their own monitoring artifacts, and archmages like Prabu and Colette had magical farsight. Chung, being the archer, had a set of magical birds that could spy for him. 

“So, time to show off what you’ve been working on?” Prabu asked. 

Chung nodded. “Yup.” At a large empty clearing, he pulled out a large contraption that seemed to unfurl itself into an array of massive ballistas. 

Prabu just stared. “Wait. You built a huge ballista?”

“Yup. But not just any regular ballista. This is a combination weapon of at least 20 hero-item equivalents. Sadly. Only single-use. Use it once and it’ll break apart.”

“This is your plan?”

“It’s very, very difficult to make a combination weapon, mind you. Had to workaround the stupid [hero forge] restrictions.” Chung complained. “What about you guys? Did you make the mecha zords that you wanted?”

Prabu shook his head. “Nope. We just built a large number of magical batteries and healing devices, all around this continent. We’re not going to repeat the earlier mistake of taking on the demon king without preparation.”

“Good.” Chung nodded, “Pray that it is enough.”

“You’re not the type to pray.” 

The demon king and its horde of ogres crossed one of the designated battlefields. We’ve rigged the place with so many magical crystals that it should cause some harm. All of the crystals were hidden underground, and made to be magically ‘linked’ such that they cause all the crystals nearby to detonate simultaneously. Burying them was hard work, and it took months of my druids’ time. We activated the crystals, and Alka waited for news. 

He was like a scientist who’s waiting to see how his invention performed against the real thing. He was excited, stressed and just a big bundle of nerves. 

We felt a sudden pulse, and the battlefield exploded. Our scouts watched from afar, but the demon king was unharmed. There was a huge red sphere that protected the floating demon king. It was a massive demon king, and had a rhino-shaped head and a big, buff body with a dark maroon hide. A glowing tattoo covered its entire body, the demon king held up a large flaming axe made out of flesh and metal on one of it’s thick arms, and roared.

The earth shook, as massive chunks of rocks were lifted from the ground, and then melted into round spheres of lava. With those molten balls of lava, it was used to bomb the land in its path. This detonated or destroyed the crystals that were hidden in the ground.

Ah darn.

It was smart enough to destroy the land in front to eliminate any traps. We had to move on to the next stage. Our ranged weapons. We had limited ability here, the only truly ranged weapon we had in the area was Hytreerion, and an assortment of middle-range weapons like super-large ballistas and other similar classes of weapons. 

The demon king has a shield or barrier ability of some kind, and it looked like it’s better for us to use our ranged weapons during the fight with the demon king. The shield was most probably rechargeable, so if we were to use them now, we would just waste our weapons and traps.

Therefore, we decided to just wait as the demon king approached. The heroes too, got ready. They had their own weapons and traps too, and they understood enough.

“Well, time to do it again.” Prabu said, as his body shimmered from the glow of star mana. The four heroes all transformed, their bodies surrounded by their unique star mana armor. 

The demon king approached closer, the heroes and demon king were now in combat distance, and it raised its axe up high. That instant, both Stella and myself felt the fabric of space twisted. All the rifts moved, and it now appeared above the demon king itself. 

The astral path burned with a strange light. At that moment, the rifts twisted and expanded. Then the heads of monsters appeared from the rift. These were large, as large as champions, maybe even more. 

There was no notification, but Lumoof quickly used [Inspect] on the giant monsters that appeared.

[Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Worm] 

[Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Fox] 

[Summons of Bagradva - The Demon Hawk]

The three monsters that appeared quickly split up. The hawk soared, while the demon worm immediately went into the ground. The fox landed smoothly next to the demon shaman king, and the fox also roared. 

“I’m the archer, so I’ll go for the hawk.” Chung immediately moved to his large ballista and the ballista glowed. 

“Wait, shouldn’t we discuss this?” Prabu said as he activated a magical shield. Colette and Hafiz both looked a little lost, but the ground started shaking. Hafiz, the paladin or knight, activated a shield ability, as the ground tore apart. The worm had started to engage.

Edna looked over at Lumoof and the rest of the Valthorns. “Well, it’s already started. Shall we?”

Lumoof nodded and through him, the avatar activated. I immediately could sense where the worm was, my tree’s root senses. It would be the easiest to destroy. “Heroes, I’ll handle the worm.” 

Lumoof glowed and transformed into a tree, and instantly we flooded the ground around us with roots. From our experience with demonic worms and centipedes, the roots would effectively disable the worms from tunnelling. The worm moved quickly, but the roots extended and chased after it. 

We created multiple giant trees everywhere, and beneath the ground, the roots of these trees formed a cage underground.

My roots attacked the worm and found it had thick shells. Yet, my roots broke through easily, and I unleashed a barrage of root strikes that skewered the worm underneath. The worm compressed, and then detonated with a small boom. However, my roots were able to withstand the underground explosion.

The demon shaman king immediately turned and faced myself and Lumoof, and it charged at us immediately, instead of the heroes. 

Edna got in position. “Alright.” She charged her shield with her mana, and then waited. The demon shaman king’s burning fire axe came crashing down and there was a huge wall of flames. Edna activated her shield, and the shield glowed in white. The axe landed, but it did not break. Edna stamped her feet then, my roots immediately wrapped around her leg and supported her. I felt her drain mana from my roots, as her shield glowed and grew even larger. 

The axe didn’t get through, and her shield released an energy blast. It hit the demon shaman king right in the chest. 

It didn’t really hurt it, there was a reddish layer of magical protection around the demon king. There was a look on the demon shaman king’s face, but I wasn’t sure what it was. The demon king was massive, and it was way larger than Edna. 

Perfect for root strikes. The larger the body, the more places I can hit. Roots flew from the ground and smashed into the demon shaman king’s reddish magical shield. 

At the same time, Edna charged ahead with both shield and spear. Edna’s spear glowed and she stabbed the demon shaman king. Her spear met the demon king’s shield. The magical energies from the tip of Edna’s spear hummed and clashed with the red energy shield in huge sparks of light and color, and she pushed. 

The demon king’s fiery axe came down, but rather than dodge it, Edna took it head on, her spear active, and activated her domain skill [Duty Beyond Life and Death]. Her body instantly glowed in a faint yellow, and the axe smashed into her arm. There was an explosion around her, but the buckler on her arm did not break. Her ability allowed her to absorb the demon king’s attack. 

I thought I saw her faintly smile when her [domain] skill activated. 

The demon pulled the axe back, and hacked again. But Edna had abandoned defense altogether, and she retaliated with a spear stab. I helped with more root strikes through the immobile Lumoof. 

The spear landed a few more hits and then shattered. She took out another spear from her magical pocketspace. 

“How does she take the attack like that?!” Prabu seemed surprised but took the chance to activate more magical spells on the demon fox. Hafiz, the knight-hero charged ahead with his glowing star mana sword and attempted to slash the demon king.

The hero’s sword met the energy shield. 

The star mana energies on the sword sparkled and then, the demon’s shield cracked. Hafiz pushed and the shield shattered. The demon king took attacks from myself, Edna and Hafiz once the shield was done.

The sword from the hero caused a cut across it’s massive body, my barrage of root strikes and Edna’s spear-stab caused small holes along it’s chest. 

It roared and the tattoo throughout its body glowed. The wounds we made closed, and the fiery axe moved autonomously and hacked the knight-hero. Edna took full advantage of her near-immortality to help block the demon king’s attack with her magical shield. The shield cracked and broke apart, and then met her arms. 

She parried it, despite her relatively small size, and then stabbed the demon king.

The knight-hero ducked below the axe and landed a few star-mana powered cuts on the demon king. He activated some kind of magical slash skill, and his sword flashed. He chopped off the demon king’s arm. 

Through Lumoof, I immediately called on my roots to wrap around the demon king, and I felt the roots connect and touch the demon king’s skin. I attempted to drain it’s mana.

The demon king glowed. I knew then it was one of those area-clearing abilities. 

“Shields up!” Colette and Prabu shouted, as they activated magical barriers. Chung immediately stopped engaging the Demon Hawk and with a magical step, retreated next to Colette. Hafiz activated a magical armor that coated his entire body, but even so, he retreated.

The demon king emitted a bright flash of light, followed by an energy blast that incinerated everything around it. Well, except Edna, she ignored the attack and just stabbed the demon king. The energy blast burned some of her equipment and singed her skin lightly, but it quickly regenerated. 

When the bright light subsided, the demon king’s dismembered arm had regenerated. 

Edna’s spear was vaporised by the attack, but then, she punched the demon king with her energy infused fists. She shouted. “I’m not dealing damage!”

“What the hell is that overpowered ability?” The heroes shouted in unison, clearly unaware of Edna’s short term combat immortality. Still, despite her multiple punches, those punches didn’t do much damage. It merely annoyed the demon king. Edna was quite similar to me, in the sense that she has tremendously high defensive abilities, but her offensive abilities lagged far behind. 

Hafiz immediately ran ahead and summoned two star mana swords. He threw one of them at Edna. Edna was the only one nearby, and she grabbed the sword. She slashed and managed to land a few cuts. 

Then the sword ran out of star mana and turned to dust. 

The demon king punched, and this time, Edna was knocked back really far. She may not take damage, but they could still push her. The demon fox took the chance to rejoin it’s master. 

I immediately mentally spoke to the heroes. “Let Edna do the tanking. You guys keep attacking the demon king.” 

They nodded, and the two archmages charged up a bluish energy ball, and fired it. The blue energy ball transformed into a glowing piece of ice and smashed right into the demon king’s regenerated shields. 

The shield instantly shattered. Edna moved in. 

Edna pulled out a magical ice sword from Aria, and slashed. The ice sword landed five hits, and then shattered. She pulled out another set of spears, and stabbed the demon king when the energy shield was down. I also followed up with a few root strikes. Once again, I attempted to wrap the demon king with my vines.

Our attacks did some damage, but it was Hafiz’s star mana sword-slash that dealt most of the damage. 

But I could tell the heroes were at least impressed that we were holding on and could even contribute. Around the same time, I immediately got my mid-range and long range weapons to be ready. Hytreerion got into position, and a few of my other Valthorns prepared the magical artillery, loaded with an arsenal of crystal bombs. 

The hawk in the sky launched thunderbolts. It’s dark-red feathers were lava and lightning combined. Chung’s magical arrows chased the hawk through the sky, but Chung also tried to launch an attack at the demon king every now and then.

The hawk took a hit, and it crashed on the ground. Right before it flew off, my roots immediately surged out of the ground and wrapped it, and attempted to drain as much of its mana. The hawk struggled. 

Chung immediately charged up a magical arrow and blasted the hawk through the head. The hawk disintegrated to magical dust. We were left with the fox and the demon king. The fox roared and blasted out an energy wave. 

It leapt towards Edna, it’s claws armed and ready.

The fox clawed and slashed Edna, but it didn’t hurt her at all. However, it freed up the demon king from Edna’s annoying presence, and the demon king took the chance to charge at the rest of the heroes. The demon king’s shield was back again. As it charged, it attempted to move the earth around the battlefield. 

I felt the demon king’s magic tug at the ground strongly, but my roots had covered the entire battlefield, and together with Lumoof, we fought back and kept the ground stable. It roared in frustration, and then used lightning instead. Lightning from its axe surged towards the heroes. Both Colette and Prabu somehow automatically activated magical shields and the lightning axes smashed into the shield. 

It exploded and both the archmages were knocked back. 

Yet, the same attack also gave Hafiz an opening. The knight-hero slashed the demon king from the back, and left two large gashes that ran down it’s massive body. It roared, and glowed again. This time, I felt a stronger twist of magic in the air.  

The two archmages were a little drowsy from being knocked back, and they got up. They immediately put up shields. Hafiz’s body glowed in armor and he too slashed again. Edna continued to battle with the fox, and she was winning. The fact that the fox could not hurt Edna meaningfully meant she ignored her defense and just kept on attacking the fox. 

I wrapped the demon king with my roots again. It’s glowing body twisted and struggled. This time, it turned to face Lumoof. It shot out a focused beam towards Lumoof.

I activated all the shields as I could manage, and the beam pierced through almost all of it. But my shields was sufficient to deflect the beam slightly off center, and merely hit Lumoof right in the leg. It vaporised his legs, and my roots immediately stepped in to start healing the wounds. I would have to mend it later. 

Lumoof yelped in pain, but he grit his teeth. “We can continue.” He insisted, my roots managed to stop the bleeding and started repairs. My roots entered the wound and supported his body momentarily, but permanent repair will need to happen after the battle.

The demon king stopped glowing and the gashes healed, again. Yet, the change in the magic in the air was clear. Each regeneration drained it. It swung its axe around like a hurricane, and surrounded itself with a fiery tornado. It activated more magic and the earth itself turned to lava. The lava burned my roots, and I quickly flooded my roots with water drawn from a river not too far away. 

The ground turned into a mix of lava and water. The ground started to release steam as the water evaporated, and the lava cooled. The demon king stomped the ground, and the ground shattered. Pieces of hardened dried lava rock cracked out of the floor. 

The heroes activated a range of ice-spells, as they pulled moisture out of the team and formed them into icicles, and launched them at demon king. This also helped clear out the mist. It was then I noticed Chung’s contraption was already destroyed. 

Some of the dirt and lava rocks broke free from my weakened roots and these dirt chunks transformed into lava axes mid air. The demon king magically hurled them towards Lumoof, Edna and also the heroes. The sky swirled above as the heroes also activated some kind of blizzard spell. Ice shards started to rain down, and these ‘shards’ homed in on the demon king. 

They smashed into the demon king’s red shield. These ice shards didn’t crack the shield. 

The lava axes met one of my wooden shield skills and exploded. At that time, the demon king raised both its arms, and then the sky parted. Edna dodged the lava axes, she made sure to avoid the places where the ground was soft. The lava may not kill her, but she could get trapped and be effectively disabled. 

A massive deep red fireball came crashing down. 

“Fuck.” The heroes screamed as they grouped together and then activated various shields. I instantly surrounded Lumoof with layers and layers of wooden shields and barriers. The entire battlefield exploded, and it destroyed all my giant attendant trees.

But the heroes survived. All four of them huddled together. Only one shield remained. Had they used their shields separately they would have died. For Lumoof, the fires burned through most of the shields, but thankfully my avatar mode meant he shared my fire resistance. Had it been any other element, Lumoof would be in trouble. 

Yet the explosion left the demon king frozen in a daze. It stood motionless.

This was Edna’s moment, again. Edna immediately took out more spears magically and stabbed the demon king. Her attack snapped all of us to action. I called on Hytreerion and my mid-ranged Valthorns to start their barrage, while I also activated more root strikes. The heroes attacked. 

From afar, my crystal bombs zoomed across the skies and then landed around the demon king. They exploded on impact. The heroes’ magical spells landed on the motionless demon king and left multiple wounds. My root strike pierced through some of the weakened parts of the demon king’s skin. The knight-hero left more cuts and gashes across it’s body, and then attempted to behead the demon shaman king.

His star mana sword stopped halfway. 

The demon king glowed, everyone retreated except Edna. She went in, activated her Court of the Deitree and surrounded herself in wooden armor, and started punching. Her fists were shaped like spears, augmented by the wooden casing around her. 

The demon king regenerated, again.

Edna punched, and the demon king smashed Edna with its molten club. The rest of my Valthorns, those in the Level 120s to 130s launched ranged attacks where they could. Roon and Johann, who was initially located a distance away to coordinate the mid-ranged weapons, now came to join the battle. 

Their attacks didn’t do much. All of us lacked the firepower to deal game-ending damage, as our attacks stopped by the shield that came back online. 

Chung launched a rain of magical star-mana arrows at the demon king and the arrows slammed into the demon king’s back. The torrent of star-mana arrows cracked the shields.

“It’s shields are down!” Chung said. 

The two archmages launched magical energy blasts, and reactivated their blizzard spell. This time, the ice shards slammed right to its body. The demon shaman king raised its axe, and this time, a rift appeared in the sky. A demon-dragon came out. 

[Summon of Bagradva - Demon Dragon]

The dragon roared and shot huge beams. 

“Focus on the demon king!” Chung shouted. “It’s already dying!”

The dragon immediately landed on the ground with a slam, and attempted to attack the heroes. But before it could do so, my roots surged out of the ground and constricted the dragon. Thousands of vines and roots emerged and pulled the dragon down. I drained the dragon’s mana, and Lumoof coughed as the dragon’s energy flowed through his body. 

The heroes kept attacking the demon king. The demon king’s axe slammed right into Hafiz’s shield and cracked it. The ground shook slightly, my regenerated roots absorbed the vibrations. The steam turned to mist, as the heroes’ blizzard reduced the temperature greatly. 

Hafiz’s glowing star mana sword slashed a few more times, and finally, with a great glowing slash, he finally beheaded the demon shaman king. 

The severed head immediately sprouted a snake-like body.

“What the shit it’s not dead yet!” Chung screamed in frustration, and used star mana blast. The energy blast missed as the head slithered away quickly. I activated my roots and attempted to wrap it.

“I’ll hold it. Take a shot once it stops!”

My roots wrestled with the snake-body of the demon king’s head. It was strong, but I was just a bit stronger. My roots were twisted and it stopped. I tried to crush the body but couldn’t, all I could do was hold it in its place. 

Colette and Prabu launched a combined super-dense ice-blob, and it exploded right at the head. The head turned to ice, and then the entire head and the snake body disintegrated. The summoned dragon also immediately disintegrated.

At this time, we felt a magical pulse coming from the original demon king body. We knew what it was. 

“It’s gonna blow.” 

No. My roots immediately wrapped the original body, and pierced it. It was weaker now, and my roots searched for the core.

We found it. The demon core. I wrapped it with huge amounts of roots and vines, and started to drain the mana. 

Lumoof coughed and winced in pain as his body endured the huge amounts of demonic mana and other kinds of weird energies from the demon core. 

I felt my head hurt, and I felt like I got hit with a jackhammer, and then fed a few bottles of alcohol. Both drunk and dizzy. Was this mana poisoning? But I kept on draining mana from the demon core, and then the pulse finally stopped.

[Demon King Bagradva has been slain!]

[You have gained 9 levels. You are now Level 208]

Yet, immediately after the notification, I felt the effects of the mana poisoning sink in, and I felt like I needed to sleep. For a short while.

Spaizzer

Thanks for reading, and I hope this battle demonstrates how far they've come, and also how much more they need to go.

There's a poll on patreon to vote on the three choices Aeon gets next chapter. It's gonna close soon. 

Also, I'd like to shoutout Zendran's snek core fic. The Great Core paradox!

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/40888/the-great-cores-paradox 

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