Eventually, the heroes came to a compromise. Meela’s argument sort of won.

“Here goes.” Meela dips in. The rest of the heroes look on, some with a rather concerned expression.

Alexis and the fan lady activate some kind of magical ability, and Meela glows somewhat.

“Insurance. Anything unnatural, we go in.” The mage explains, and I deduce it’s some kind of magical short-range teleportation ability.

Max shakes his head, “If this Tree saved Meela’s life, and Meela has done this before, I really do not see why such precautions are necessary.”

Hendry puts his hand on Max. “Yes. Yes he did. But our gift, our burden must be carefully guarded, and not put under the knife, or risk getting stolen. Precautions are necessary.”

I sigh… These reincarnators are a pain, but whatever. “I’m not stealing it. I’m just having a look at it.”

Meela shakes her head. “You guys, stop being paranoid. I want to do this, and we voted. I’ll be fine. I can dip in a pool.”

One of the heroes poke in. “I don’t see the issue too. Our ability comes from the gods, and I highly doubt it can be easily stolen or copied or whatever. Just because you can see the schematics does not mean you have the tools and materials to create a machine.”

Well, he has a very good point.

Meela’s fully submerged, and the roots and vines attach itself to her. And I could sense the data flowing into me, so I start to peek into her body.

What is most immediately obvious, is that the two waterfalls from the aether that once pour normal clear water into the lake of her soul, is now pouring a sparkly liquid, and it sparkles with starlight. I think this is what they refer to as, “star mana”.

The black whirlpool also disappeared, and so the water that flows down into the rest of her body is strong, thick like that of a raging river. That starlight water pours and feeds every part of her body, and enhances her body’s strength even more than before. It’s kinda like those athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, really, only the change in muscle strength and texture is permanent.

The star-mana is the fuel that powers their tremendous destructive ability, and their exceptionally large and powerful soul is the engine, and the body is the vehicle.

Comparing Jura, Laufen to Meela, it is obvious to me that in every where, Meela’s soul is just huge, and as a result, their displayed potential is just absurd.

“Is it done yet?” Hendry asks, it’s about an hour in. They seem really anxious, but perhaps they are unaware how long medical procedures actually take. But I think it’s enough for me to gather all the data I need.

“Yes.” The hatch opens, and Meela steps out. She shakes her body abit, and yawns.

“That was a very pleasant nap. I felt like your healing energies were all inside me!” Meela laughs, and she looks at her worried teammates, “See. I am fine!”

Alexis and Max both casts some kind of spell and then nod. “Yeah, she’s fine.”

Max then looks up to the Tree, “Apologies for our reservations. Hope you keep whatever you discovered a secret.”

“Honestly, all I discovered is your souls are exceptionally large, you have huge amounts of star mana pouring into your body, and the huge natural mana from your soul and the star mana changes your body into anti-demon superhumans.”

All the heroes pause.

“Really, that’s it.”

“Star mana?” Alexis pauses, and then she blinks. “Hmm… that makes sense.”

“What?” The others turn and look at Alexis, the group’s wizard.

“I mean, it explains why we have such success against demons. Star mana is rare, known to be naturally effective against demons who are extraterrestrial in nature and yet our body overflows with it. It, it never occured to me that the special mana that we all get access to is just star mana. it should have been obvious, how our recent abilities have star-like names.”

Alexis then sits in one of the many root-benches in the lab.

“Did you see our… gifts?”

“Hmm, I can’t identify which one is a gift without comparing to another body. It’s from your differences that I know what is what, else I have to assume all that is the same is the norm for everyone.”

“Hmm. That is true. You need a control or reference to interpret the results.” Alexis rubs her chin.

“Alexis?” Hendry walks over.

“Hmm.. nothing.” Alexis then walks out of the lab, and eventually all the heroes follow.

Once they are out, I turn my attention towards digesting the new data I possess, now stored like a medical record.

Indeed, I am not lying when I do not know where the divine gift is, and comparing two reincarnators with different gifts would be one of the easier ways to find them, since one would naturally expect different gifts to appear and manifest differently in one’s soul.

The heroes, went back to their camp. Using some kind of magic they create a magical transportable inn that allows them to live in comfort, even whilst travelling. Ah, such a magic would put hotels and inns everywhere out of business, but the hospitality business can count on their lucky stars, as such magic is so far exclusive to heroes.

Later that night, Meela came over again.

“Hey Tree Spirit. I, I just want to apologise for my team’s behavior. We, we tend to behave like that, it’s all about us, and not anyone else. Everything just to further our own aims of beating the demons.”

If I could nod I would. On hindsight, the heroes are pretty asshole-ish.

“You saved my life, our lives, and helped us alot. So I think we owe it to you, and I am really unhappy with what my team did. Even Hendry and Alexis are suspicious, and I.. I don’t know why.”

Meela pauses and sits on one of my many roots. Some of them are flat on top now, to serve as tables and benches.

“Can I make a deal with you? Once we beat the demon king, I’ll come back and help you, even if I am not as magically clever as Alexis.”

Hmmm, I’m not sure whether that sort of help is useful, but if I had to ask...

“Tree Spirit, do you have any requests?”

Hmm, “Accept my familiar.” I gain experience if they die, so in many ways that helps me. “In fact, ask everyone to take a familiar, that’ll be enough.” These heroes are going to fight more demons in the days after this, might as well profit out of it.

Meela nods, “Oh that is fine. Give me one first, and I can ask the rest.”

I activate the familiar contract, and Meela accepts. She grins. “Ooh it's like a summon.”

The next morning, Meela shows off her new familiar abilities to the heroes, and about half of them do end up accepting a familiar from me. The other half have their reservations, though. Oh well, better than nothing. Six heroes with familiars, and five without.

They left that afternoon. Perhaps it is better that way.

Experience from the demon champion battle

[You are now level 110. (+6 levels)]

[Secret hideout : biolab upgraded.]

[Wood shield upgraded. Steelwood barrier obtained]

[Constrict significantly upgraded]

[Absorption significantly upgraded]

[Obtained Tree ability : Subsidiary Tree]

[Customisable branches options expanded]

---

The Heroes’ POV. (Alexis)

After the defeat of the 3 demon champions, we were feeling quite good about ourselves. We gained on average 10 levels each, and all of us now at least level 100. We felt we are ready for the demon king.

[Heavenly Form]. We got that power when all of us hit level 90, and now after the demon champion, it leveled up, and we gain variants of that power. Max for example has [Heavenly Barrier Armor], and does not require that stupidly long chant time anymore.

And even that chant time is somewhat irrelevant, now that Freyas, our resident lady with a fan, gains a power called [Accelerated chanting - Heavenly form], which allows all of us to enter into the form within a minute.

The gods plan on winning. And we are accordingly equipped with powerful abilities and skills.

Yet, why did so many heroes die in the past?

Meela sits next to me. “Still thinking about it?”

We left the tree spirit a day ago, and Meela seems fine despite our initial disagreements on what we should do with the Tree’s request. After all, we do have a common enemy, the big bad that is the demon king.

“Yeah. Still bothers me.”

“It bothers Max too.”

We’re closer to the rift now, and it almost feels as if we can sense it.

The next demon champion is last spotted guarding one of the rifts, and our goal is to destroy all the demon champions.

Meela usually rides next to me. “Maybe it’s hidden in plain sight. Something… obvious.”

Possible!

Some demons attack, we dispose them off easily. We are a group of 11 level 100+ heroes after all.

The journey towards the rift brings us to more demons, and in a way it’s good. THe more demons they throw at us, the higher level we get.

Two days later, we arrive at the rift.

It’s like a glitch in the system, like a damaged LCD monitor. What’s a beautiful view is jarringly broken by a large black gash floating midair, and demons are pouring out of that gap like water. Thankfully, just lesser hounds.

The demon champion here is a giant cyclops with multiple arms, and it plays a function more than just a guard. It’s also a guide for the new demons. It would point, and the hounds would go off in a direction.

We attack, and with our newfound powers we crush the demon champion easily. Max’s star-mana powered [Starlight Smite] skill weakened it significantly in a single blow, and a few hits later it collapsed.

The rest of the lesser hounds didn’t last very long. A few AoE spells, and these fragile hounds die.

The rift is still pouring demons out.

“Can we do something about it?”

Meela nods. “I’ll need help, but I think so.” Meela starts dancing in a rhythmic fashion, and her body starts to glow in a myriad of colors.

“Meela?” I sense the presence of her mana, that special mana, and.. .something.

“I had a dream.” She points both her swords at the rift, and two beams of light shoot out towards the rift. “When I was in the pod.”

The light hits the rift, and it looks like the rift’s energies start to battle the light.

“In the dream, I see a rift close when some heroes channel their power into it.”

The rest of us try, and indeed, together, our combined powers start to overwhelm the rift’s energies, and it shrinks, and eventually vanishes in a spark of light. The deserted, destroyed valley suddenly becomes quiet, and… normal again.

Demon King.

A sensation in our body, like an ice cube just rolled down our back. We feel it, the demon king. It’s coming for us.

All of us share a few glances. “It’s going to happen soon.”

“How long, you think?”

I felt it again, that presence. I know it knows where we are. And I think I know where it is, too.

Max and Hendry both sit. “I have a feeling… maybe two weeks.” Strange, I had the same number in my head as well. We all can feel it.

“Strategy?”

“Hit it with all we got. At range.”

“It’s going to come to us with everything it got, too.”

“Then I suppose we should intercept it, take it off guard.”

“I could do that.” Indeed, for a long range homing attack, I think I might have just the spell.

It took a day’s preparation, but we got into position. We could sense it, and if we can sense it, we can attack it.

Eleven of us concentrated our energies into a glowing white energy ball above us, this is our “opening act”.

[Neutron Comet] A large building sized ball of light, containing our daily charged energy.

It zooms towards the demon king, flying at high speed, perhaps a few thousand miles per hour. The demon king is far, perhaps a thousand miles away, but this is tuned to that “sense” of him, and I believe I can hit it.

Impact, and we could feel as if the air shakes a moment.

And then, a retaliation. A wave of boulders fly towards us. We deflect them easily.

Still, it shows we can hit each other, so we resume our daily comet.

And the two weeks is over, every day we attack with a comet, and it retaliates with the boulders. There are lesser demons too, but we crush the, easily. And then, we have visual contact.

The demon king Andraas takes the form of a large flying fortress with multiple spider-like legs, multiple tentacle-covered buildings as its body, and has multiple spires with eyes. It’s as if a tentacle monster merged with a fortress to become this… monstrosity.

It’s angry. And it attacks.

[Demon King Andraas]

It’s unleashes a wave of rocks at close range, and these rocks are magically enchanted with demonic energy. And it’s spires and eyes shoot beams of energy at us.

“This is it.” Hendry puts up a magical barrier, and yet it cracks when the beams hit it.

And we descend into battle.

It’s faster, stronger, and tougher.

The heroes and demon king is now in close battle, and the deserted valley is instantly filled with beams of light, flying rocks, and our counter-magics.

A jagged rock flies right past me. I duck.

I felt a shiver.

The jagged rock breaks up into a million tiny needle like shrapnels next to me.

[Fireform]

My body of fire burns up the tiny rock needles. And a few other rocks that fly my way.

The other heroes have their own ways of protecting themselves. Freyas with her wind magic is able to surround herself with a constant layer of magically enchanted high-speed winds that shred the needles.

“Help!” I turn to look at our gunner. A massive tentacle is trying to crush him.

[Holy Thunderstrike] A thunder zaps the tentacle, paralysing it for a split second, but enough to let him escape.

Max’s sword glows with holy magic, and he slashes the tentacle. It explodes, and the demon king’s blood get everywhere.

“I thought they normally look like… demons.”

“Well, that’s what the record says. But this demon king has been doing strange things from the start, it has elemental hybrids!”

Hendry creates a huge barrier, and we take this moment to enter our [starlight armor] form.

The demon king roars, it’s tentacles and legs flail repeatedly at the barrier. It cracks, and it cracks quickly.

Will we make it? I wonder as we chant, the cracks appearing throughout the barrier.

Hendry nods.

A flash of light. The armor is done, and the barrier explodes, and a white flame burns the tentacles close to the barrier. But still, the demon king looks relatively unharmed.

The demon king’s spider-leg stab Max in the stomach. “UGH!”

“MAX!” Meela’s light sword cuts the spider-leg off, but a stab is a stab. He’s hurt.

Max’s blood drips onto his sword, and he enters a frenzy. He climbs onto the demon king’s spider leg and rushes forward.

“WE should get on the body!”

“Good point. There might be a heart somewhere we can destroy!”

The fan lady calls the rest of us to her, and she sweeps a fan. And a tunnel of wind appears, carrying us to the body of the demon king. The castle itself.

And the fortress is like a disneyland turned into a demonic playhouse. Tentacles everywhere, each house covered with eyes, and giant spiders roam the fortress.

“Should we just blow up this entire structure?”

“We could.”

And we start attacking everything. The floor, the buildings, everything we see. The tentacles and giant spiders try to attack us, but it doesn’t do much.

We eventually bore a hole right into the fortress itself, and we found what we wanted. One of the many hearts of the demon king. Max, in his fury, slashes it, and it blows up, and tonnes of it’s black blood splash everywhere.

“One.”

An army of human-sized demon knight appears as we look for the next heart, easily a thousand of them, accompanied by spiders. They are strong, but in our starlight form we crush them easily.

We found the next heart in a tall spire, and it is our gunner who blows it up.

The third heart is hidden in one of the many buildings. The fourth in a corrupted church, and the fifth in a barracks.

Each time, more and more demons try to stop us.

“How many hearts are there?”

“Nine?”

We found the sixth and seventh hidden in another set of buildings.

The demon king starts to lose ability to fly, and starts to crash onto the ground. More demon knights and demon champions try to stop us, but we destroy them easily.

The eighth heart is in what looks like a market, and then, the ninth heart is in what appears to be a corrupted garden.

“That’s it?”

At this point, we are all drenched in blood and whatever gunk the demon king is made of.

The fortress crashes onto the ground, yet the tentacles are still attacking us. But unlike before, their attacks seems to be blind flailing.

Then, the entire thing starts to shake. All the remnants of the demon king’s hearts start to float out of their remains to pool together into a black ball midair.

Meela laughs. “This is like a video game. It’s not even it’s final form!”

The tentacles, the eyes, the legs, they all melt into a black liquid that merges with the black ball. We throw every ranged attack at it, and we manage to incinerate some of the black liquid away.

And then… an eyeball appears on a black ball. An evil eye?

The next form is a massive eye. And it lets out a wave-ray of destruction.

Max and Hendry join together to put up a barrier, but that ray destroys it instantly. And then starts to burn us. Unlike before, it’s not a focused beam, but more of a shining light, and everything that is lit by that light burns.

“Ahhhh.” We attack it, and cuts appear in its body. Yet it seems to be a partial liquid form that seems to nullify our attacks.

Meela uses a special ability and manages to jump onto it. And she stabs it repeatedly with her two swords.

The eye closes, and tries to turn and twirl repeatedly, but the Meela’s magical swords are deeply embedded into its’ body, and sticks even with it’s liquid forms. Still, it tries to shake her off, Meela flings around like a ragdoll.

She’s fine though, and she shouts.

“There’s something hard deep inside. I think we need to get it!”

That is the cue we needed, and our gunner takes out a special harpoon like weapon. It shoots a chained-harpoon and stabs into the eye. I wince a little at the imagery.

And he channels a kind of energy through the chain into the eye, and it blows up. Meela thankfully manages to jump away in time.

A round red crystal.

And it pulses.

And pulses.

And it starts to glow.

“Oh fuck it’s going to explode.”

All of us huddle together, and activate all the defensive and barrier spells we have at our disposal.

It then blows up with the strength of a huge hydrogen bomb.

[Demon King Andraas has been slain]