Year 204

Snek proposed that we dig underground, in the demon world. For the same reason as Snek’s homeworld. In Snek’s world, they, the snakes, migrated underground to avoid the demons. If there were survivors, they’d be hidden underground, or in places where the demons could not reach.

That’s a decent idea, and from what I know, digging underground seems to be the archeological equivalent of traveling back in time. So, we started to dig underground.

The first month we found absolutely nothing, at least, around where I started to dig. This process of digging drained more mana too, since, underground, my trees don’t produce mana.

My subsidiary trees and normal trees produced more mana when there were ambient sources of mana in the ground, water, or some kind of light source, either sun light or starlight. Once again, in the mana-starved worlds, like the moon or the demon world, their production is curtailed.

The first few layers we dug through felt no different from the surface. In fact, due to the poor quality of the soil itself, my [root tunnels] were a higher drain on my mana than normal. Alka wasn’t here to help, since he was really laser focused on developing star-mana superbombs, so he sent some of his assistants instead.

Well, these assistants were still high leveled mages and [magical researchers], and they explained that they couldn’t tell the difference in the soil, so we had to go deeper.

It may be due to our lack of the right set of skills to properly analyze soil. Which is kinda silly, because I’m really good with studying the soil’s nutrition, magical qualities and mineral content. But looking at it from an archaelogical point of view seemed to be a related, but different skill set.

I wonder what would happen if a [geologist] reincarnated to this world? Could they find magic-oil? Would we start an era of magic-oil-freedom?

“Maybe we’re digging the wrong place.” The mages suggested. In truth, I just decided to dig right underneath my tree of clones, since that seemed to be the easiest place, and after that, we expanded sideways, with horizontal tunnels.

So, the researchers requested for [historians] and [cartographers] from our world, and attempted to use our own history to make a map of the demon world, at least, the part of the demon world that was under my rule. With their aid, we made an estimate of the places where cities were likely to exist.

This was sensible, of course. Earth’s cities liked to be next to rivers, and this world, while swampy, didn’t have oceans. It was just a vast world of shallow lakes, small rivers, marshes and swamps.

With our new set of estimates, we decided to dig underground, in a few of these places, where the rivers met the lakes. Our initial findings were bad. We found nothing.

There had to be something, and I went to my other advisors for advice. My four domainholder Valthorns didn’t have any idea, magic research really wasn’t their forte. Stella suggested the use of some shamanic or land-communion power, which seemed to make sense, but I’ll have to locate a person with the right skillset, that could be trusted with knowledge of the demon world.

So I went and spoke to Lilies. Lilies, having survived the longest of us all, must have seen the changes in the soil over the generations. Perhaps they could give us a clue?

> Yes. Calculate their age, uh... < I wanted to say Carbon dating, but I haven't the slightest clue how that actually works in practice. It’s one of those things that I know scientists do, but I wouldn’t be able to do myself.

Wait. It should. If the world of the demon king went through periods of growth and death, the soil itself would feel the effects of the rising and fading of the mana density in the land. But this affects the entire world, not just a certain layer of soil.

But new soil, if created by acts of magic, are subject to fewer such wave-like mana patterns, would we be able to tell? Maybe most types of soil are essentially indistinguishable. We would have to locate the right type of soil or stone, which could retain the effects of such waves.

> I do, but I’m not sure if there’s the right type of soil or stone in the world that behaves in that manner. <

> Yes. I’d like to see how long it has been, and if we could tell whether a planet supports the birth of demon kings indefinitely, or at diminishing rates. <

Lilies didn’t answer that, likely because they never experienced that part of the end of the world. From Lilies’ explanation, even if the demon king won, there’s still a period of time before it actually ‘takes-over’ the world, and during that time, the gods could try to challenge the hold.

This suggested that so long as heroes are continuously summoned, demons would never hold the planet. Eventually one hero would break the demon king’s kill streak.

Taking this thought further, it also meant that worlds only truly become demon worlds if the gods lose access to the world, and they could no longer defend it.

Essentially the equivalent of taking life support off, and the world either finds a way to defend itself, or the world dies, consumed by the demon king.

In any case, I also asked the Valthorns to speak to [miners] and [stone-collectors] whether they are aware of such stones. It would be easier to find something if we knew how they looked like in our world.

“We’re just grasping at straws.” The mages new to the process of research said.

“That’s what its’ like to be at the forefront of magic research. We’re trying to imagine or figure out how things work, with whatever clues handed to us.” The researchers laughed. “Many of these clues are misleading! But it is very, very intellectually stimulating. Occasionally. Most of the time is really a lot of boring cataloging and data collection work.”

One of the good points of Stella, Ken’s influence on the magic researchers was the introduction of more robust data collection methodology, mainly using our own world’s logic of statistics and data. I just hoped we didn’t draw the wrong conclusions. I wasn’t very good at statistics, so my own guidance was very high level, and could even be wrong.

A layman’s comprehension of statistics and the conclusions they draw from the data may not be correct, even if they seem logical from a layman’s view. Still, more data is always welcome.

Patreeck and my artificial minds could easily shift through the data. In fact, one of the things Patreeck suggested was a physical ‘avatar’ for Patreeck and the artificial minds, such that they could interact with the reports and data directly.

As it is, my artificial minds can mentally communicate with each other through my roots, thus forming a network. My subordinates, like Horns, were also connected to the network, but their connection was not through the roots, but through telepathic speech, and telepathic communication, was inherently slower and more prone to misunderstandings.

In short, our current data collection method required either someone to read the data, and that data gets ‘mentally-copied’ by Patreeck, or the artificial minds borrowed one of my regular-eyes, which were capable of regular vision, to read the data directly. Useful, but could be expanded.

They were able to collect sound data directly, but because my artificial minds views the world mostly through my senses, ie my spiritual vision, sound and also a vibrative-sense, reading documents was out of the picture. They were already able to manipulate vines in my [biolab]-focused artificial minds and get readings from them directly.

Again, the demon world itself was more prone to magical disruptions. Demons have been consistently attacking my trees throughout the demon world, sometimes with those demon-spire-walker champions, and these champions had some type of magical interference.

At this point, I estimate the ambient mana in the demon world to be about five percent (5%) of Treehome. From Patreeck’s initial estimates, the breakeven point where the mana cost of supporting the subsidiary trees was equal to the mana generated by the trees themselves on the demon world was somewhere around 25%.

“Could the blowback be detected?” Patreeck asked. “The collapse of the astral tunnel through the void. That collapse carpeted the entire world with a single but very noticeable wave of magic energy.”

Ah, so rather than rely on the wave-like pattern of the declining ambient mana in the world, use the collapsed astral tunnel’s energy as a ‘time-marker’? That seemed possible, but I would need to find materials on the demon world that would show the effects of such things.

Again, I would get the guys to pay attention to their surroundings, but if there’s nothing, there’s nothing.

For my artificial minds, I needed a new kind of mobile-artificial mind that also functions as a laboratory, for their research functions, with a direct-link to the root network through their legs. At least, they would need to stop and connect with the network directly to upload the bulky datasets.

With my evolutionary powers from [Tree of Life], I started looking at creating smaller versions of Hytreerion, crossed with the qualities of the Treefolk.

The Treefolk could connect to the Rootnet. In fact, that was one of their unique selling points, though we blocked them from the network.

This part of the process wasn’t exactly hard. Modifying existing things in order to fit my need, and growing them in my [biolabs].

In fact, they were quite cute. Like little Tachikomas made of wood and trees. It would take about a few months to properly form them.

-

“Threeworld, this time?” Stella asked. She’s been working on the rift gate, but it involved huge amounts of reconfiguring the runic patterns. She said she’ll get better with time, but for now, she’ll need another year or two.

In my experience, there’s bound to be hiccups, so if she completes it within three years, it’s considered a success.

Lumoof shook his head. “Nope. The other world. Unless, there’s something else?”

“Nope. Skies remain unchanged. For now.”

I scanned the skies from my lone tree that floated nowhere, in the remnants of the Cometworld. So far, nothing.

Stella paused and looked at her notes. “Alright. Just you?”

“No.” I decided not to send Lumoof alone this time, so I got one of the higher ranked Valthorns to accompany him. One of Edna’s juniors and disciples, a Level 110 [Aeonic Battle Knight] named Ebon. I figured that I would gradually rotate my level 100+ Valthorns on these adventures to other worlds to let them learn from the other worlds.

I suspect the system seems to recognise and give value to a wider perspective, and thus rewards those who have seen other worlds. It may also be partly why I gained levels faster too, on top of my heroic fragments. Or maybe just a different perspective just gave a more holistic comprehension of powers, thus recognition by the system?

In any case, I would send Lumoof to the other worlds, as part of my many other projects to get Core Mana. I also had [miners] dig into the depth of the world from the already deep depths.

I had mages and others attempting to create a portal into the core itself.

I will have core mana. Then we will take this battle to the demons.

-

The portal opened, and both Lumoof and Ebon walked out to what appeared to be a massive battlefield, with the stench of rotting corpses and blood in the air. Back home, Stella and her team strained a little more than usual. “Weird, felt like I was trying to push through mud.”

The battlefield was littered with corpses, some still looked relatively fresh. This battle wasn’t very long ago. Maybe a week, or a month.

“Ooh.” Yet, the first thing I wanted to see was the sky. Lumoof then looked up, and we both saw the glowing, bright astral path, through our shared astral vision. Lumoof’s expression paled instantly. “The demon king is here.”

“Here?” Ebon asked, immediately he started to look around anxiously.

“No, I mean, he’s in this world.” Lumoof clarified.

“Oh.” Ebon relaxed. He immediately started to survey the surroundings.

“If the astral path is open, then the invasion is still ongoing. We should spot some heroes, then.”

The corpses were humanoid, at least, some looked like elves, and dwarves. Lizard people and drakes too.

“Where should we go?” Ebon asked, returning from his short walk around. “I see their equipment’s rust is quite early-stage. This battle must’ve been just about two to three weeks old. Strange no one raided their equipment.”

“Demons don’t need equipment.”

“Ah yes. I forgot since we had the parasites...” Ebon answered.

Lumoof paused, and I briefly entered the avatar-mode. I felt my senses extend through the ground, and the world around us-

There was a loud explosion in a particular direction, carried by the winds, and there were very visible magic flying through the sky. Lumoof and Ebon exchanged glances.

“If there’s fighting, there’s people.” Lumoof answered. Ebon nodded. Lumoof activated his domain skill on Ebon, and Ebon’s body glowed, supercharged. He ran, his speed almost as fast as the heroes through the battlefield.

It was quite far away.

Both Lumoof and I could see through Ebon with Lumoof’s ability, and we saw an army of lizardmen, at least 2,000 of them, battling an army of at least 10,000 humanoid demons. These demons were armed with reddish demonic weapons. They were awfully familiar, like the ones that gave me the [Forest Rod].

Was this a rehash of the demon-walker champions? The ones that triggered the huge calamity of the Central Continent?

I felt a little tingle of fear through my senses.

The lizardmen were outnumbered, and we saw the very familiar demonic knights and demonic generals.

“Lumoof. It’s the demon king Sabnoc again.” Lumoof was a baby with the Sabnoc incident happened, but it was mandatory education for the Valthorns, on the origins of the Rottedlands.

“Sabnoc, here?”

“Maybe not Sabnoc, but those demons are from that generation of demon kings. There will be Hytreerion type champions!”

“Ah!” This world was faced with a large scale invasion of demons.

Lumoof ran as fast as he could, which was really fast, but it still took him longer to arrive int he battlefield. The lizardmen were already fighting the demons, and they were the ones unleashing their magical spells and projectiles.

Ebon smashed into the center of the demon army like a descended god, and his large gladius glowed green from power. Ebon, for the purposes of this battle, received one of the Court of the Deitree slots, which complemented his close combat battle skills with my own wide-area abilities, like [Rooting fields].

The lizardmen clearly didn’t expect the assistance, and the sight of Ebon as a single, supercharged individual able to easily defeat 10s of these normal demons per swing seemed to raise their morale.

“Aura!” Lumoof mentally spoke to Ebon. “Activate the demon-suppression aura!”

He had a weaker version, but it helped slow down the demons a little bit, such to give the lizardmen army some breathing room.

The demon knights and general-types clearly noticed Ebon, and they charged at him. But if Lausanne at level 30 could fight a demon knight, Ebon at level 110 could kill a few of them in a single swipe. They really were not much now.

Only champions could give Ebon a challenge, so Ebon slaughtered the demons like the worthless things they were. When Lumoof arrived a little bit later, the victory was certain. Once in avatar mode, the demons were killed quickly, the full strength of my demonic suppression aura flooded the battlefield, and they were as good as motionless statues.

The lizardpeople then easily cut down the army of demons, and the battle was over.

A group of heavily armored lizardpeople immediately approached Ebon. “We, the army of the Alderri City, thank you for your assistance in the battle with the demons!”

Ebon, who was in heavy armor, nodded in his helmet. Lumoof moved to join Ebon. “This is Lumoof, my superior. I am Ebon, a knight.”

“Greetings!” Lumoof said. “I hope we did not interrupt much?”

One of the lizardpeople laughed awkwardly. Their leader stared at the laughing lizardperson and he immediately quieted down. “Ah. In fact... we were prepared to fight to the death to hold the demons back. Our reinforcements were delayed by a few days...”

Lumoof nodded. “Alright. Would you mind filling us in? I must admit I’m new to the region.”

That made the lizardperson leader's eyes twitch. “I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean by that.”

Lumoof smiled. “We teleported here. From a really, really far place. So I need a briefing. Everything, really.”

One of the lizardperson immediately asked. “Are you the heroes?”

That lizardperson was promptly slapped by the one next to him. “Are you stupid?! Heroes are always young teenagers! These two guys look like war-veterans.”

The leader stared and the two bickering lizardpersons immediately quieted down. “I’m afraid I will have to invite you back to our city and uh... let the proper person answer you.”

“Please.” Their city was really a fortress. A huge structure with thick, multi-layered walls meant for siege battles. Magical enchantments covered the walls, and there were magical formations and traps scattered around them. They were clearly geared for war.

In fact, the guards were hugely surprised to see the army returning at all. The doors flew open and a group of elves and lizardpersons came out to greet them.

“General! How?! You’ve pushed them back?”

One of the elves hugged the lizard-leader. He patted the heavily armed young teenage elf on the head. “Shush. We have honored guests who came to our rescue, I must take them to meet the council now.”

“But...” The elf looked tearful.

The lizard general said firmly. “I live, son, when I was meant to die today. It is already a miracle, so wait. Let me take the guests to the council.” The elf nodded and the general turned to Lumoof. “Please, Lord Lumoof and Ebon.”

The council was a group of humans, lizardpersons, and elves. About the same as the corpses we saw from the previous battlefield. Everyone was heavily armed.

The general gave the introductions, and the council was blunt with its questions. “Where are you from, exactly? There are no known individuals with your type of combat abilities left.”

Lumoof thought for a moment, and decided to go for the truth. “Another world. But we are not heroes. Just a neighbouring world.”

There was an audible gasp from the entire council. “How?”

Lumoof smiled. “Classified information. At this point, I can see that all of you need help. But, first, fill us in. What exactly is going on in this world?”

One human leaned forward. “We really do. Are there more individuals like yourself?”

“Maybe.” Lumoof answered.

The human councillor looked at the rest, as if waiting for something. The lizardman councillor nodded and spoke. “At this point, we need everything we can get. If there are no objections, I’ll do the walkthrough.”

We listened as the council-lizardperson explained that the demons arrived sixteen years ago, and the heroes went to defeat the demon king. At first, to the people of this world, it was business as usual. But the heroes that went to defeat the demon king did not do so, and it seemed like all news of the heroes had since vanished.

The demons then resumed their expansion, and the entire world turned into a battlefield.

Their priests attempted to divine the nature of what occurred, and they discovered that the heroes were defeated, and almost all of them killed. Except two, who were somehow captured by the demon king. Captured, and not killed, so no new heroes were summoned to the world.

At that point, I suddenly wondered what would happen if Alexis was never killed.

This world was a world with many high mountains and mountain passes, and so most kingdoms and nations had easily defended chokepoints. Thankfully, the demons did not have many flight-capable creatures, and even their demon generals were only able to fly a short distance.

Thus, for the whole of the last decade and more, it was a continuous and never ending battle against the demonic armies. The world’s nations stopped fighting, as every combat-talented person was drafted to join and defend the world against the demonic armies.

“What of the demon king?” Lumoof asked.

“The demon king appears to be a large stationary castle.”

Lumoof cursed. “It’s Sabnoc again.”

“Sabnoc?”

“We had a demon king that created these demonic armies. It was called Sabnoc.”

“Hmm, this demon king is called Akkila.”

“How do you respond to champion-class demons?” Lumoof then asked.

“Our relics. The [hero] items. The joint command of elite forces handle these items and move them to where the champions are sighted.”

“Ah.” There’s a regional joint command that moved these things around to help push the demon champions back. “The hero items need time to recharge.”

The councillors nodded. “Yes. So over time, we still lose ground. The demons can outnumber us, and field champions repeatedly. Our warriors can gain levels, and we do have strong elites from those who survived multiple battles, but it’s a balance that’s not in our favor.”

Lumoof nodded. “So everyone who can fight, fights.”

“Yes. Our old luxuries had to cease. There really was no other way. Our people must fight, make items to support the war effort, or produce food and supplies.”

One councilor interjected. “Are you able to bring us to your world?”

“Are you thinking of leaving already?” Another councilor immediately stood up.

Lumoof smirked. “There are demon kings in our world too.”

That same councilor paled. “Surely with powerful individuals like yourself-”

“All it takes is one demon king with the right skill sets and we’re still doomed.” Lumoof didn’t let him finish.

The entire war council nodded in agreement. The human continued. “We must report of your presence to the joint command.”

Lumoof thought about it for a moment. “What if I just decide to go back?”

The human immediately paused, and he prostrated on the ground. “Please. Please help us. Our people have been fighting this war for a decade, and there’s no end to it. We need hope. Something to buy us time.”

“Buying time for what?” Lumoof asked. A miracle, probably.

The councilman did not answer, but then eventually answered. “Buy time for us to live a bit longer.”

The general too, immediately knelt. “Please Lord Lumoof. Your presence and abilities on the battlefield would help us greatly.”

Lumoof sighed, and I could sense the dilemma in his heart. “It is not what I am here for.”

“We’ll give you anything you want.”

“Tell me, is there a place where the planet’s core is exposed?”

The councillors shook their heads at first, and then immediately nodded. Lumoof could tell they were lying. Desperation. Exhaustion.

Lumoof looked at Ebon. “Well, let’s leave this for later, I’m tired from that battle, and we need a place to rest.”

One of the councillors immediately ran out to make arrangements, and they were given the finest rooms they could manage. It was clear it had not been used or cleaned for months before this. Walking through the streets, everyone was focused on war, but the exhaustion and sense of despair was clear.

Lumoof sat, and asked Ebon. “What do you think?”

“We should help. These people look like they need it. Way more than we do.”

I thought back to the Canari people. I helped them too, and now that I have the power, maybe I shouldn’t be so selfish. I didn’t have to take the demon king either.

All we needed to do was find the captured heroes and free them.

Or kill them, if we couldn’t.