Tree of Aeons

Circa Year 125, immediately after the time the demon king died

“The [Captain] said we’ll reach Port Killos soon.” One of Lausanne’s party-mates announced the news to the group of 10. They were adventurers, the Playing Swords, and they’ve been sailing for a good 5 weeks from Port Anggar of the Southern Continent to Port Killos on the southernmost edge of the Eastern Continent. 

The oceans are vast. It takes a month from one place to another, sometimes three months should the weather be exceptionally bad, or some of the large monster-fishes create hostile patches. There’s been times when a sea serpent made a whirlpool large enough that trade was disrupted for years across the straits. 

Port Killos, the Southern Fortress. Home to one of the largest Aiva temples, and seat of Grandmaster Engka, one of Grand Triumvirs of Aiva. It’s walls were made 830 years ago by the Summoned Hero, Don Mex, and one of the strongest hero-enchanted walls in the world. Still, on the southern part, there was a large hole, a crater from a demonic supercannon blast. A relic of the era of Demon King Sabnoc. 

There’s also a memorial there, to remember the 17,000 who died from that explosion. The ship was finally ready to dock. 

“Alright.” Lausanne nodded. She wore a deep green jacket, and she had three wooden spears on her back. “So what in the world happened in a month?” 

The party, and many other passengers disembarked. The crew and the docksmen started underloading cargo too. But, they quickly picked up something that felt different. There were far more soldiers, and templars. 

Aiva had templars, but the templars rarely left their training grounds except during the demon wars. 

“The Demon King had fallen! The three heroes died!” They got the news, and Lausanne just nodded. That’s good, she thought. A templar approached them. Normally, it would just be a regular port official that did visitor screening. “Name? Which party?”

“I’m Ardi, of the Playing Swords.” A man in his early 40s answered. He quickly showed his many adventurer guild badges. Lausanne’s husband. It’s funny, because Lausanne is more of a spear-user. Swords are pretty low on her list of proficiencies, but the party had a lot of sword users. Each kingdom recognised their own adventurers differently, so most parties obtained multiple certifications. 

“Alright.” The templar nodded. “Cleared. The temples are off-limits, however.”

“Off-limits?” One of the party members asked. She was the party’s healer, and she’s a priestess-warrior. That meant she actually has a holy-enchanted sword, albeit a lesser one. “Is it open for the clergy?” 

The templar looked at the healer. “Clergy may access the outer temples. Central temples off limits to everyone. The Triumvir is receiving a divine message.”

The priestess-warrior’s jaw dropped. “A divine message!”  The templar nodded and signalled them to move along.

Lausanne walked next to the priestess. “Lexi, what’s a divine message?”

“The gods, they sometimes send a divine message. Only those who have the right levels and skills can receive it. But the messages usually need a long time to be received, sometimes months, so the high priests would enter into solitary confinement, often with only a skeleton crew to support them.”

“Why do they want to receive it?”

“Usually it comes with some kind of divine blessings, and almost all priests level up quite a bit after receiving a divine message.”

“Really?” Lausanne just nodded. Ardi patted his wife on the back. “Alright, let’s get to our inn. We’ll check out what quests we have tomorrow.” 

They woke up the next day to sounds of marching men. An army. 

“What’s happening?” Ardi asked the innkeeper. It was about time for breakfast anyway. 

“Not sure. But the central temples have been closed for 3 weeks already. I don’t recall something like this happening in a long time.”

Lexi nibbled on a piece of meat. “That usually means the divine message is quite long. Usually.”

“Have you ever received a divine message, Lexi?” Lausanne asked, curious. 

“No. It’s a gift for the select few, those chosen by the gods as their [voice]. For mere mortals like us, we never get a chance.” 

Lausanne nodded. Ardi came back with a few files. “Alright, the guild’s got some typical hunting missions, and some demon extermination missions. I think the jobs seem relatively easy, so we can split up into two groups. Lausanne will lead the demon-hunting mission. The usual split.”

She nodded. That usual split meant Lausanne, two swordsmen and one mage. Their team is usually smaller, simply because Lausanne, at Level 80, due to her unique history, massively outleveled everyone else in the party. Everyone else was around level 40 to level 55. Ardi himself was only a Level 52 [Swordfighter]. 

They spent the whole morning going through the quest dossiers, but then, a group of templars marched into the inn. Heavily armed too, a group of 10 templars. 

“We’re looking for the Playing Swords.” One Templar Captain said, and Ardi nodded. 

“Yes. We are the Playing Swords.”

“Per our records, is Lausanne Searwind, the ‘Greenspears’ present?” The templar asked. 

Lausanne stood. “Yes. That would be me.”

The templar nodded. “Alright, Lady Lausanne, I’m afraid we need you to come with us. The rest of you can stay here.”

Ardi panicked. “Wait. She’s my wife, is everything alright?”

The templar paused, his brain was probably processing the information. “I’m afraid the Triumvir only ordered for her. The rest of you, please wait here.”

“Will she be alright?” Ardi asked again, noticing that the templar didn’t answer his question.

Lausanne smiled. “I’ll be fine.” Honestly, what could they do? Lausanne had the best chance of escape, she did have her Warden. 

-

The templar escorted her to the Core Temples. They didn’t attempt to restrain her, so Lausanne assumed it had not been a crime. At least, not yet. She did not take her woodspears along, her three woodspears were with her party, but still, if she needed a weapon, Warden was more than able to create a few. 

The Core Temples were large, ancient buildings, built during the era of the hero’s descendants. Don Mex was summoned by Aiva, at least, according to Aiva Scriptures. Who knows how the scriptures have changed over the hundreds of years? Regardless, it was still imposing and grand, and Lausanne nodded. She felt a pressure pressing down on her, but it was a lot lighter than Aeon’s [Haunted Forests]. 

The templars guided her to one corner building, it resembled a small keep. It was the templar’s headquarters. She noted the armored guards throughout the building, as the templar captain led up the stairs to a higher floor. Eventually she arrived at a large room with glass windows that had a beautiful vantage of the ports and the bay of Port Killos. 

“Greetings, you must be Lausanne.” A middle-aged man said. He sat on a large, beautifully decorated seat, and he was flanked by a few high ranking templars. She nodded, and vaguely sensed some kind of skill. 

[Warden has applied Magic Suppression Aura. Skill effects cancelled]. Lausanne just smiled. It wasn’t the first time someone had tried to use a skill on her. Warden, a special familiar, was unique in many ways. It was like having a mini-Aeon around, with many of Aeon’s abilities, to a lesser degree. 

The man’s head jerked a little, he probably noticed his skill was cancelled, and the presence of an aura.  “Well, I shouldn’t have known it won’t be so easy. Alright, let me just give you a brief explanation of why you are here, and why you should cooperate.”

Lausanne didn’t respond.

“Our records say you originated from the Freshlands, and was born in New Freeka. You lived there until 16 or 17 years ago.”

“Technically I was born in Freeka.” Lausanne corrected. 

“Alright. So, you confirm you lived there until 16 to 17 years ago?”

“Yes.” Lausanne didn’t see where this was going. 

“So, what do you know about.... Aeon.”

Lausanne paused. She didn’t like talking about Aeon, simply because well... most people didn’t understand what it’s like to live with a massive demi-god whose energies just permeated her world. She grew up under his care, and to everyone else, that was an alien concept. In fact, she spent a few years adjusting to the reality that her experience was extremely unique. “...what do you want to know?”

“His powers. His weaknesses.”

Lausanne had a gut feeling it wasn’t going to be good. “Honestly, I don’t know of his weaknesses. Maybe... demon kings?”

The questioning templar’s eyebrows moved. 

“His powers... he can summon beetles, create walls of trees and roots, and attack with root strikes. He also has a lot of healing abilities, like, he healed my uncle’s dismembered arm. He also has massive shield abilities.” Lausanne honestly didn’t know the full breath of Aeon’s abilities.

“How far can he attack?”

Lausanne shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“What’s the furthest?”

Lausanne paused. “Everywhere in the valley? That puts it at... 60 to 80 miles, maybe even a 100??”  Honestly, Lausanne didn’t know either. She was not aware of Aeon’s battle with the faraway walker, nearer to Lilypod City. These questions actually made her wonder how much she knew about Aeon, because she realised that she couldn’t give a definite answer for most of it. 

The templar’s eyes widened, and he quickly jotted that down. The middle-aged templar flipped through his notes and a book. 

“What is this about, really?” Lausanne asked. 

“There will be war, milady.” A templar answered. “With Aeon, as a false deity.”

“False deity?” She didn’t like the sound of that at all. To her, he was a deity and guardian spirit in every way. She stared at the templar, “On what grounds?”

“Our god decreed so.” The templar said. “From what I understand, so will Hawa, Gaya and Neira.”

Lausanne paused. She wasn’t sure how to take the news. Is this war? Are all these people going to march on the Freshlands, against Aeon? 

Are they insane? Have they not seen the thousands of beetles he has? As far as she can remember, Aeon’s supply of beetles seemed almost limitless. Sure, a high levelled individual can kill hundreds, if not thousands of beetles, but exhaustion eventually sinks in. They need sleep, food, pee and poo. Aeon could just repeatedly throw beetles at them until he finally won. 

He was a tree. Roots can break stones, and he was not afraid of taking forever to do it. She wanted to speak. No, she was quite tempted to just shout.

But the templar said. “We’re rather confident. We are even authorised to use hero-items.”

Lausanne paused. Hero-items... she thought about it for a moment, and she recalled the hero-made wooden armor that Uncle Jura had. She remembered it quite vividly, and if they can deploy hero-items, Aeon has them too. She knew for a fact that hero-items are weaker in the hands of regular folks, and Aeon has way more mana to power the hero items than the temples.

Have these templars lost their minds? Emperor Harris made so many hero-items for Aeon, do they know about that? 

She felt conflicted. TreeTree would probably tell her to not say a word. He was fond of pulling off little surprises like that. Maybe he’d even use tunnels and sappers, like he did so many years ago. 

“Am I... under arrest?” Lausanne asked. She was relatively sure they wouldn’t be able to hurt her. Even now, she was confident in defeating everyone in the room. 

“Oh.” The templars flipped through some notes. “Uh, yes. I’m afraid we have to keep you under house arrest for a while.” 

The higher-ranked templars walked towards her, and she shook her head. “It’s alright, I won’t resist.” 

The templars led her to another area of the Core Temple grounds, and she was given a small but comfortable room. “A maid will attend to you, but during this time, I’m afraid you have to be here. We cannot have you leaking our troop movements to the Freshlands.”

Lausanne shrugged. She sat, and she processed her feelings. She believed Aeon would be fine. No. She knew they would be fine. Only someone with a hero’s power can stand up to Aeon. All these cities struggled to even contain a Demon Walker, that’s why they resorted to hexbombs. 

They’d have to bring out their hidden big guns to even have a chance. 

-

“Are you alright?” Ardi came, the templars strangely allowed her husband to visit her and even gave him the option to stay with her during her ‘house arrest’. “I heard the gist of it from the templars.”

“I’m perfectly fine.” Lausanne nodded. “We’ll just have to stay here for quite a while. The team can go on with their missions. In fact, you can join them if you want to.” Lausanne winked. Being confined for a few years, what’s new? She was confined in a valley for 20 years before and had to fight hybrid demons every other day, this wasn’t a big deal. In fact, this was pretty much a staycation.

“Do I need to warn anyone?”

“Nope.” Lausanne shook her head. “I don’t want my mother to know.”

Her husband sat next to her and gave her a hug. “Alright.” 

“Go with the team. Pretty sure they need you. More than me. I’m just going to be trapped in this building for a while, nothing particularly dangerous, really.”

He paused, and he looked rather conflicted. Eventually he nodded. “We’ll probably drop the demon-hunting missions without you around.” 

Lausanne shrugged. “Give yourself some credit, dear. I’m sure you can handle them. Go, don’t waste your time trapped here with me.”

Ardi gave her another hug. She gave him a knowing look. The ‘I-can-break-out-anytime look’. He smiled. “Alright.”

“Good.” 

He left later that day, and Lausanne spent some time exploring her new ‘prison. It was a simple bedroom and she looked into the mirror. Her hair was short, now. She had it cut a few years ago after she found it rather annoying during combat. Short hair didn’t get tangled so often, especially when they were in close-combat situations. A templar came in.

“Milady. Your presence is requested by the Grandmaster.”

“Oh?” Grandmaster Engka. Now that’s a person she never met yet. He was famously reclusive, and refused to meet. And now she had the chance to meet him. 

-

They met in a small cozy tea room. There were four sofa chairs with plush cushions, and the Grandmaster was known to be an old man, and has maintained control over the Aiva temples for almost half a century. His hair entirely white, yet his body was in no way frail. In fact, his body looked as fit and muscular as any of the templars. From a distance, one may think he is no older than 40. 

He gestured to the sofa opposite his, and Lausanne sat. A few servants served them tea and cookies. “I was told ladies like tea and cookies. Have some. They are the best in the region.”

Lausanne smiled and took a tea. She sipped it. It was a kind of flower tea, a rose and chrysanthemum mixture. It had good balance and a bit of light, fluffy sweetness. The aftertaste was very gentle, and didn’t stay long on the tongue. “It is a good tea.”

Grandmaster Engka nodded. “Good. You must be surprised by these sudden developments, but I’ll direct. I’ve received a divine message from our patron god, and well, it certainly is complicated.”

Lausanne just smiled. She vaguely sensed a skill, again, and she pushed back at it. It wasn’t a problem to push it back. She was, for all that it’s worth, an [Aeonic Weaponmaster] with a total level of 80. She was originally a swordswoman, but after she increased her use of spears and bows, her class fused together. The Grandmaster was perhaps of a similar level. 

The Grandmaster chased everyone out of the room with a wave, and he activated another kind of skill. “What I say here is for your ears only. We don’t want war with Aeon, but we must be seen as doing war with Aeon.” Grandmaster Engka said. “The other three temples do want war, but Aiva’s more interested in just being seen as participating.”

Lausanne frowned. Why was he telling her this? What’s the point? There’s nothing she can do. 

“Are you able to communicate with Aeon? My scouts and past reports claimed that communicating with Aeon is a perilous affair, many suffer nightmares from being around him.”

Lausanne wondered again. She had to ask, that statement was borderline absurd “Why? There’s no such thing as a pretend-war. The world’s certainly not a safe playground where people can play-fight. Anyone else will tell you that you are bullshitting and trying to lie to me.” 

“Indeed. That’s my dilemma. It’s a difficult message, one that I had not told anyone yet. How do I tell otheres that my God wants me to send these men to their deaths, with no actual intention of victory. For what?”

“Then?” Lausanne didn’t get it. “Why am I here?”

“Can you communicate with Aeon?”

“...Yes. But not here. Only back in the valley.”

“My informants told me that you have an extensive history with Aeon. So, can we find a way to communicate with him? Any... how should I say this, pointers?” 

Lausanne frowned. “Be frank and honest. Tell him what your god said, word-for-word if possible. I believe Aeon may understand your gods’ intentions far better than we do. In my experience, we cannot understand the thoughts of a tree spirit, so the best tip I know is you can only say what you want, and see how he responds.”

Grandmaster Engka nodded and visibly relaxed. "Indeed. Us mere mortals cannot truly fathom the thoughts of greater beings. In honesty, this... war is a futile endeavour. If Aeon is really a semi-divine being, we mortals have no way of truly harming such a being. Perhaps, only heroes and ancient monsters stand a chance.”

Lausanne leaned forward. That was an upsetting thing to hear. “Then why?”

“The Gods have a wish. We, their humble servants, must try our best to fulfill it, lest we lose our classes and suffer a divine retribution. A curse. The closer one steps to the gods, the more we are bound by their whims.” Engka said. “Even if it seems as if the task is futile, we must believe in the gods that they will bless us, and that we play our supposed role in their larger, unfathomable plans.”

“So even if it seems like suicide or stupid, you will do it because it’s part of the God’s plan?” Lausanne asked. She couldn’t help it. 

“Yes. We must put aside our disagreements and carry out our God’s will.” 

Lausanne felt tormented, and she stared at the Grandmaster. He seemed every bit the wise and smart man, and yet something like this came from him. Were the gods all like this? 

Now she felt like she should send a [message] home and ask Aeon to be merciful. She thought of the heroes again, and she remembered how they too, seemed like they were pawns of their gods, despite their incredible power. How they were constantly, subtly influenced by the gods. 

She sighed. “And because of this foolish endeavour, I’ll remain under house arrest?”

“I’m afraid, yes, milady. Though I can tell our walls honestly cannot hold you back should you ever wish to escape.”

Their eyes met and she felt it was they who were imprisoned.

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