Tree of Aeons

Year 199

The war in the South intensified, and by now, it felt like everyone was fighting everyone else. Yet, the two temples continued to enforce the blockade on the Southern Continent. Only, this time, to keep the people in. The temples did not want the demons to spread to the other continents, so they called on the other continents to reinforce the blockade. 

“This is ridiculous.” Edna spoke to us and the council. “We need to act decisively, the temples are not doing a good job, and a lot of the kingdoms have openly gone against the temples for the recent madness. This demonic parasite is going to spread, and it will spread quickly.”

Madness, as in, glassing of entire cities because of the suspicions of corrupted men among them. The champions also were more crafty than normal. They were adapted to the minds of men, and were able to hide. 

My spies tell me, some are already on the other continents. 

It was a matter of time. 

“I don’t get it. The heroes are clearing up cities.” One of the Lords considered the facts. The heroes met a few champions too, and they made short work of them. 

“Every time a city gets cleared, refugees rush to it by the thousands, and inevitably, the demons return.” Edna explained. “They only managed to build one single large scale star mana emitter so far, and that only cleaned up an area the size of Freshka and it’s immediate surrounding areas. Even that, caused huge political conflicts that the heroes clearly missed.”

The heroes were rather oblivious to the politics of where they placed their ‘miracle cures’. Cities and kingdoms wanted it, and so, the city that possessed such an artifact had to protect it with their lives from the other kingdoms who wanted it. 

Matriarch Hoyia, who was also on the call, said “With every previous demon king, the worlds generally agree to drop their arms against each other and support the heroes with the demons. Not this one. There’s not even a semblance of unity against the demons, and everyone seems to think that someone else is a demon.”

I thought to myself then, that this is what it will be like, in a world without demon kings. Everyone is fighting each other for the slimmest of advantages and wealth. Felt like an absolute shitshow. No. It felt like earth. It was a sad thing to think about, that, even if we stopped the demon king, the world would just revert to its natural state. 

So, I didn’t. 

I focused on the larva that we cultivated in our little patch of Rottedlands, and we experimented with them to a great degree. It was really easy to kill them when they were outside. We could squish them like maggots. The problem was still, how do we kill them when they are already in a host, without harming the host.

Anyway, as we researched, rather than actually gain the ability to create a similar larva-type parasite, I instead gained a different type of parasite.

[You’ve gained the skill : Normal Tree Parasite Creation. You may now create tree parasites of your own. These parasitic trees take the form of vines that grow on the skin and flesh of living beings. They leech on the lifeforce of their hosts.]

I checked. They did nothing else. 

What the fuck. All that and these parasitic trees did nothing else? It doesn’t even let me gain control like the demons?

I need to upgrade the skill, then? Is that it?

Anyway, we conducted more experiments on the larva, with different kinds of materials and injections. It didn’t yield much.

“Maybe we’re not doing it correctly.” Alka suggested as he helped to run another separate batch of tests on these demonic parasites. He didn’t ask questions where the parasites came from, of course. “We should be testing a response on live persons.”

“Why?”

“From our earlier knowledge, we know certain skills and abilities can delay and stop the demons from taking control, but this is not very useful since we can’t give skills on a large scale. But, we also know that mental attacks work very well on these demonic parasites, as they are attuned to thoughts.”

I allowed my field scientist to complete his thoughts.

“Can we drug it to death? Not to kill it, but essentially turn it useless by overwhelming it with stimulation.” 

“With psychedelic sap?”

“Yes!” Alka said. “We should try it out. A dose of strong psychedelics on someone possessed by demons.”

I ran this through my council, the earthlings and my leaders in the South, just for their thoughts. 

“Overstimulating the demonic parasite... could be worth a try.” Stella said. “If it’s better than killing the host.”

One of the Lords theorised. “There’s always been a drug trade, even in the South. If this theory holds any water, those kingdoms where there’s higher use of these psychedelics should see lower demonic-possession?”

“The South doesn't have that kind of data.” Another Lord countered. “Not everyone has a bureaucracy that tracks everything.”

I felt like that was a jab at me, or at us generally. 

“We can send a batch to Matriarch Hoyia and let her test it out with our forces there.”

Edna nodded. “The idea is these things should essentially drive the demons wild?”

Matriarch Hoyia had another view. “What’s our goal here? Even if the drugs work on the demons, we still can’t get it out. Once the drugs go away, will the demons return?”

“We don’t know, but some studies would be good?” Alka said. “These demons are really fragile things, even if they have some ability for self repair. I’d like to know if these drugs could at least destroy their ability to interact with the body. Our tests on the larva itself so far seem to cause it to convulse and then die, but outside of a host these demonic parasites seem to die to everything.” 

“If it doesn’t get the demon out of the body, I really don’t see the point. But I will conduct some studies.” Matriarch Hoyia answered. 

At the same time, I wondered, could I use my [dream academy] or similar skills offensively on these demons? 

Psychic or mental attacks worked, but I rarely see those in this world. In fact, outside of Patreeck, I really cannot remember many other instances of psychic attacks. 

-

Then we had our first instance of near-attacks, from a nearby kingdom. It was only through Hoyia’s priestly abilities that an actual pointless conflict was avoided.

“Demons! These guys are here to spread the demons!”

Hoyia immediately used one of her priestly skills on them, one of her strongest pacification abilities. 

Each patriarch and matriarch developed slightly different skills. Like Lumoof seemed more towards devotion and empowerment, Hoyia was more of the ‘peace’ and ‘calm’ type, so her ability at level 100 was something called [Hour of Calm], which gave the entire mob present an hour of peace and calm. Hoyia and Edna quickly used that moment of sanity to have a conversation with the generals. 

Sadly, these abilities don’t seem to work on demons, since, well, demons can’t actually be reasoned with. 

As it turned out, some of the templars were infected by the demonic parasites, and they have been spreading the parasites. Accordingly, they suspected Edna and Hoyia to be the same. 

Truth was, out in the fields, we are not sure either. Hoyia and Edna both could use some level of spiritual sight due to the Court of the Deitree, but even that’s not foolproof. It’s possible that some of our guys had dormant demonic larva in them, and if we wanted to check this, they had to go under the biolab regularly. 

Using Stella’s portal, we did these checks every three to four days, and so far, so good. But it is possible for demons to infest my guys over those few days, especially the weaker guys. 

I only had faith in Edna, due to her domain. But even then, what if a demon king tried to possess her? 

My only saving grace is that, if anything happened, I could revive her with my Tree of Life. Not so for the rest of them, who are lost if they can’t reach the domain stage and join my pantheon. 

The Kings are paranoid, and rightly so. Everyone was a suspect, and the demons are quite adept at stealth since they like tunnels and hidden parts. These larva, were pretty much parasitic pests and they were very good at crawling through hidden places. 

Across the continent, mages created various barrier spells, and these were pretty successful at keeping out the demonic larva itself, but not if these demons were already inside someone. 

We needed something to force the demon larva out, and so we experimented on more types of drugs.

Some of them worked really well, like my dose of psychedelic drugs seemed to trigger the demons, but their side effects were rather terrible on their hosts. We wanted something milder that still caused the demons to show themselves.

Then we stumbled on one little part of the solution.

Well, we stumbled on it over a cup of thick coffee. Edna and Hoyia travelled to a town in the South that was really big on coffee production, and through Stella’s portal, I also extended some trees there in order to help ‘scout’ out the terrain. 

At first, we didn’t notice anything. 

But then Patreeck and the group of artificial minds noticed that the demonic larva was strangely absent from the coffee factories and cafes. Most of us were not trained to think about what was missing, instead of seeing what’s there, so we started doing some tests.

Moderate quantities of coffee confused the demonic larva’s tendrils, and the confused larva tried to escape the coffee-laced environment. It would then be ejected from the body, usually through poop.

The host had to consume moderate quantities since a small amount was insufficient and the larva could still endure the mild level of coffee, so this was not picked up in our earlier observations. In fact, we didn’t test coffee as a possible solution initially.

“So we need to mass produce coffee shots and make everyone take them.”

“But kids can’t take it.” 

“Small victories are better than none.”

This solution, sadly, only worked on humans, elves, centaurs and dwarves. We still did not have a solution for demonic infestation for other races such as lizardmen, drakes and treefolk, though both treefolk and lizardmen infestation so far have been rather mild.

Interestingly, there’s also a race that was very resistant to the demonic parasites, almost to the point of immunity.

Minotaurs. Their bodies produced certain kinds of liquid that regularly flushed out parasites, and the pulses of energy throughout their body seemed to interfere with the demon’s ability to ‘control’ them.

But minotaurs were an extremely small group in the South, and they’re wary of all humanoid races. 

I had yet to introduce the demonic parasites to the Canari, since, well, it didn’t seem right for me to subject them to the horrors of our homeworld.

With the discovery of coffee as a possible solution for ‘cleansing’ the body of parasites, we had to quickly grow large quantities of coffee. As it is, the central continent already has some coffee plantations, and we had some existing coffee stockpiles, but its certainly insufficient if we were to push for a wide-scale consumption of coffee. 

As we pushed the kingdoms that were affiliated or in a ‘hidden’ alliance with us to consume more coffee, the temples seemed to have discovered our solution, and they too started widely promoting the consumption of coffee. 

As a solution for the South, which had a large population of humanoids, the coffee worked for a few months, since it essentially forced the larva to make a choice. 

“Infest” or “Leave” the body, rather than remain dormant or hidden. 

The widespread consumption of coffee reduced the demonic parasites’ hold, and brought about the end of internal wars, and an odd tradition of visitors and travellers having to down a dose of coffee before entering new towns. I believe this would probably be a new tradition unique to the South, since they bore the brunt of the demonic infestation. 

The temples, of course, began touting the discovery of coffee as their success, a claim, which we disputed, but did not strongly pursue. What’s the point, anyway?

Also, the demons adapted, and took a more ‘adversarial’ stance. Once possessed, the demons immediately infested and surfaced, rather than remaining dormant. This helped clear the confusion and fog on who were demons, and who were not. 

The kingdoms continued to struggle with the demon champions, since these champions were still very powerful, but it was easier when one didn’t have to watch their back all the time. 

The heroes, thus, continued to push towards the demon-infested nations. There were large swaths of the south where the demons have fully ‘conquered’ the kingdoms. The risk, of course, was that there were some that have yet to be infested by the demons, but the heroes advanced with their star mana serving as a beacon.

They burned brightly, and the demons were moths drawn to the flame. 

“Two more years.” The demons were slain 8 years ago. At least 2 more years to go. 

Year 200

Coffee didn’t work that well on treefolk, drakes and lizard-people. This was a secret, of course, but we couldn’t keep it for long. Once news of infested drakes and treefolks went out, it only resulted in more speciesism, as trade and deals with the treefolks, drakes and lizard-people essentially dropped to zero. They were pretty much the pariah in the southern continent.

That sucked. We needed something that worked for them, and it was partly because of how their bodies processed coffee. The caffeine that overwhelmed the demons were absorbed by certain organs unique to these three races, and thus ‘spared’ the demons.

Strangely, even minotaurs got ostracized even though they were close to immune to the effects of these parasites. 

The Hawa temple, which counted humans, elfs and dwarves as the majority of its believers, outright commanded that these other races be banned from all of its allied territories, and led to large refugee camps as these races were forced out of their homes and villages. 

It annoyed me very much that our solutions amplified racial issues. We tried stronger doses and so on, but it didn’t work. We needed something with caffeine that the bodies of these races didn’t absorb. 

So back to the drawing board. I tasked a few lizard-people and treefolks to lead the research, since, well, I sensed that some of the human and elven researchers didn’t give the issue the same weightage as before.

That also annoyed me.

-

Meanwhile, the heroes attacked more of the demon-infested kingdoms. The demon champions had already taken over as the ruler of the various kingdoms, and they ran the kingdoms with their stolen skills. 

It was annoying to fight them, because the demons were already strong with their own abilities, which augmented the basic strength of their hosts, and on top of that, they were blessed by the ‘stolen’ [king] class skills, or [general] or [strategist] skills. Some of these [king] skills gave these demons usable skills! 

They could steal skill! They could even stack the skills and make the regular demons stronger than usual. 

It didn’t occur to me to think about how to exploit the demon’s natural abilities, until Alka, who was still busy with Lumoof’s purchased otherworldly research, offhandedly suggested. “Capture one of these demon champions. We may learn how to use its power against the demon king.”

“Huh.” That made so much sense to me.

I felt like an idiot. I always was, of course. That’s why I rely on those smarter than me. 

I immediately pinged Stella and Edna. Stella, to open one more portal, and Edna, to tell me where the nearest demon nation was. I would like to find one of these demon champions, if not more.

“We don’t know. It’s not as if the demons say they are demons. They just somehow know that they are demons.”

That was also a good question. How do these demon parasites identify each other as demons? 

If there is a mechanism, can we copy it, and alter it such that the demons identify us as demons? With such an ability, we could essentially smuggle ourselves into the demon worlds, and explore it without fear.

Actually, taking that to the extreme, if everyone in the world was ‘identified’ as demon, could we pretty much ‘co-exist’ with the demons?

Spaizzer

THERE IS NO CHAPTER NEXT WEEK AS I AM ON BREAK. 

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