Year 221

“Is this normal?” A section of Branchhold was cordoned off for work. Construction of the weapons meant for the lava-demonworld required the combined efforts of many skilled workers, across the entire empire..

“I’ve never seen something like it.” The citizens of Branchhold stared.Most migrants to Branchhold had not seen our large scale ‘directed’ plans, and they could not fathom a civilization able to deploy the resources across an entire empire, and now, across worlds. All they saw was a mobilisation for a war.

Those on Branchhold were tasked with the manufacture of spears, hooks, and chains.

It alarmed the spies scattered in Branchhold, and reported the findings to their masters in their own capital cities. ‘Branchhold geared for war’ splattered across intelligence communiques, all over the world. The nearest nations to Branchhold immediately received a huge influx of more spies, and more scouts.

Fools, really. If we really wanted to invade, we didn’t need such mobilisation.

On the lava-demonworld, the area around the pit became one of the largest magic formations we’ve devised.

Multiple redundant large scale magical snares, thousands of stationary weapons, more bombs and explosives than I bothered to count littered the area, and more was made every day. We built larger ballistas, equipped with chained harpoons.

The place was geared for war, and frankly, the mood in the air was optimistic.

“Man, the demons would regret invading our world after this.” Roon said as he admired the temporary war city on the lava demonworld. There were hundreds of level 80-100 druids and mages deployed to conduct minor terraforms.

“They could just melt everything in a volcano.”

“They could, but with the number of mages we have, we’d still survive.”

On top of those plans, there was a quasi-suicidal plan with Lumoof at the center. The idea was simply to freeze or solidify the entire surface of the lava pit, have Lumoof enter avatar mode in the center, and have my avatar form latch on to the demon king as it attempted to teleport to the other world.

Stella’s void mages also made their own set of preparations. Large quantities of void crystals, and multiple void-magical formations created.

The target was the black sun that appeared as part of the demon king’s ascension, and this time, they planned to attack and interrupt it directly, in the same manner as how Stella disrupted the demon-mother of the parasite world.

All of this was only possible, because of our efforts across the decades. If it’s not enough, we’ll go back and work harder.

Our sensors were on overdrive, and these days, Stella, the void mages and the elemental archmages had their own set of magical sensors. I had a feeling we’d see the demon king this year, and rushed the team to work faster.

Back home, Stella had largely triangulated the direction of the accumulating astral energies, though, so far, not a single rift had opened.

This was simply because my Valthorns regularly scoured the landscape for any rift, and captured them or destroyed them. That meant, no rift for the demons.

It was very effective, and this time, the demon king was projected to land somewhere in the Southern Continent.

Unlike before, I didn’t give any advance warning, since the demon king was going to land in one of the wide deserts of the South.

***

Back on the lava-demonworld, we realised we had a real simple problem.

If we failed - the demon king would leave for our world. That’s normal and all is status quo.

But what if we succeeded in ‘detaining’ the demon king? If we succeed, we’d have to fight the demon king without the heroes.

“Or we could just leave, since we technically achieved our mission of detaining the demon king. I’m sure Stella would be fascinated to see what happens next. Does the demon king attempt to open the portal again?”

“I think it would, since the path through the void forest is still there. It only collapses when the demon king dies.” This was also a project for Stella and her team, where they would attempt to ‘collapse’ an astral path before it’s used.

In fact, the void mage academy had to be expanded quickly, due to the scale and requirements we needed in the far future. So much depended on having enough void mana, and enough magical talent to run all we needed to do.

“So if we succeed, we... uh... just watch?”

“We weaken it, I guess?”

“It sounds like the real success case is to tear it apart while it’s in the astral path.”

“Yes.”

***

“Our role is just backup, this time.” Chung grinned, amused that they didn’t have to travel to the other side. “Or if the interruption fails and the demon king comes here.”

They were still happily resting in the Central Continent, in one of the seaside towns facing the ocean. On the other side of that vast ocean was the Southern Continent.

***

The core pulsed. We felt it, a cracking in the movement. The core of this world was probably just really hot, molten iron and other minerals.

“Well, ready?” Everyone got in position, and we expected this. The heroes were somewhere near to the Southern Continent, assisted by a small group of Valthorns and void mages.

The lava-swepted world cracked, and we felt a powerful presence move from the core, up into the surface.

“Alright! Let’s get the party started!” Alka laughed maniacally. “Freezing bombs!”

The mages and his assistants detonated hundreds of ice-element magical crystals, and the sudden surge of large quantities of ice magic caused the huge pit of lava to temporarily freeze over. It wouldn’t last for long, as the heat from the core would eventually melt it again, but for now.

Lumoof jumped into the middle of the hardened lake, and activated avatar mode. My roots pierced through the hardened lava, and expanded as fast as I could. The roots covered every part of the pit.

A living barrier.

Roon and Johann led the thousands of ballistas at the side, all armed with hooked harpoons, each equipped with bombs. There were at least a hundred different types of bombs. My sensors felt the force from within the core surged upwards, and the ripples of that force pushed against my roots. It was trying to uproot Lumoof and my roots from down below, but I resisted.

My roots held onto the igneous rock and earth, as the pressure built up beneath us.

“Are we going to trigger an explosion if this keeps up?” Stella looked as the pit began to bulge upwards. My roots resisted the magma and lava displaced from the demon king’s escape, and the demon king approached at high speed. “It’s coming up the chamber really quickly.”

The pressure from lava beneath us strengthened, and this time, I felt the effects of heightened demonic magic. It attempted to tear at my roots, but we held our ground. Literally.

Towers began to emerge out of the walls of the pit, the ‘gate’ mechanism. It was a point of great interest, to see how the demons created these riftgates out of thin air. For now, that was something my builders, mages and crafters studied intently, while a battle broke out around us.

The demons emerged from all around us, and attempted to retake the pit.

They failed.

From beneath, the demon king shot up the lava chambers like a missile. The demon king was going to smash right into me, and it clearly didn’t care.

“Lumoof, brace for impact.” The ground beneath us was filled with my roots. It’ll have to destroy my roots to get out.

On the surface, the rift towers began to channel their abilities, and the void mages studied it intently. This was the second time it’s happening, but the first time such a large group of void mages was deployed to study it.

“Alright, we're going to have to start interfering with the black sun once it emerged!” Stella shouted to her team of void mages. Their magical formations were ready and charged up.

The demon king smashed into my roots from below, and I felt a strong, burning sensation. My roots were incredibly resistant to heat and fire, so I wasn’t disturbed by that aspect.

Yet, it’s ensuing impact shook the entire pit, and then, it pushed the entire chunk of hardened magma upwards, like a superhero lifting an entire city from down below.

“FIRE!” Roon and Johann commanded as we got line-of-sight on the demon king. It was a demon king of tradition, a massive horned beast with eight wings and four arms, each with a weapon-made of lava. It was huge, in the same size as the anti-mana demon-turtle.

The hooked harpoons fired from all around the pit, all aimed at the demon king’s body. The demon king pushed, and the hooks and harpoons slammed into the demon king. Our projectiles attached itself to its skin like a pesky parasitic seed.

Up above, the skies twisted.

Stella and her void mages swung to action, and their magical formations activated. A dome of void mana emerged above us, and at the same time, they had their own set of void-energy ballistas, all aimed upwards.

The sky tore apart, as the black sun emerged in view. The ballistas shot out, some with the antimagic projectiles, some with void mana projectiles.

It flew at it... and burned in a black flame.

The rift towers glowed, as core mana and void mana pooled in them at the same alternating pattern. The Valthorns attempted to smash them.

The demon king itself began to emit some kind of energy, as it flung the chunk of rock filled with my roots aside.

Then, the multicolored blackish blob emerged in the sky, like it teleported out of nowhere. A fragment of it, a droplet, descended from it.

“Now!” Stella yelled, and all their magical projectiles and abilities activated.

A full year and some, her void mages prepared magical projectiles, meant for this moment. It worked on the demon-mother, and now they tried it on the king.

I felt a strong pulse of energy struck that black droplet. Its outer shell crumpled like a Prince Rupert’s Drop shattering.

And it detonated.

“Shit. Shields!” I activated shields where I could.

“Teleport out, now!” Stella and her crew all escaped as soon as they could, and my domain holders warped back. All except Lumoof and Edna, and we watched a huge explosion happen in the skies of the demonworld.

We were too near.

It destroyed all the structures and weapons that we made, but some of my Valthorns didn’t make it.

Not everyone could teleport out in time, even with their fastest scrolls.

About thirty percent of my thousands of Valthorns deployed perished, because our shields were not strong enough to block a demon-king-tier explosion. As they say, safety measures were written in blood, and the next time, we would have significantly higher shielding.

From our world, we saw the demon’s path wobble, wobble, and wobble, and shrink.

Stella, now safely back on Treehome, slammed the nearest table and cursed.

A huge ball of charred wood protected Lumoof, and in the aftermath, we saw a half-burnt demon body, all the harpoons and hooks had been burnt away in the explosion, and a much, much smaller droplet.

The two merged, and struggled.

It felt... incomplete. Like a car with an engine that was far too small.

It didn’t fly off immediately, and the path continued to wobble.

Edna stood, unharmed by the scarring. She grinned and approached the giant, smoldering demon king, her weapons flared with magic and power.

“A battle to avenge the fallen. Come King, only one of us will remain standing.” Edna laughed and attacked the injured demon king. Lumoof observed the massive crater around us, and also charged at the Demon King.

The demon king was weak. It did not have the strength I expected of demon kings, but perhaps, this was a sacrifice of those who fought it. My vines stabbed it, and each time, I tried to drain a bit more of it’s mana away.

“We need to get back there.” Roon and Johann said.

Stella immediately tried to check the riftgates. “I can’t. The explosion temporarily weakened the astral path. It’ll be months before it’s ready.”

“Aeon! We need your seed there!”

A seed on a lava world? It’ll cost me 10 years. I thought about it briefly, but as the battle between the demon king and Edna raged on, I agreed.

This may be an opportunity I won’t see in a while.

Lumoof fought the demon king too, and the battle stretched across the battlefield. Then, he landed somewhere, and embedded my refreshed Seed into the ground. My tree sprung up instantly, in a sudden burst of magic.

I sent Roon and Johann immediately to the other side, and they joined the battle.

“I think we can win this.” Edna said, as her antimagic sword slashed. My roots, now empowered by my actual clone body, pulled the demon king closer. My vines stabbed it’s large demonic wings, and I called on the powers of my two, no, three worlds, and flooded the demon king with my mana.

A giant demon was, in some ways, just a really big target.

It roared, and I felt it’s massive demonic axe chop off one of my branches. It hurt as hell, the demon king’s lava axe landed on my wooden shields. Roon and Johann deployed all their magical weapons.

It was a battle of attrition, as Edna and my tree traded blows with the demon king.

Yet, I felt we had a chance.

Stella and the void mages’ detonation of the black droplet was key. That black droplet contained a significant chunk of the demon king’s power, and with this, we now have an idea how to weaken the demon king.

My domain holders unleashed their fury. It wasn’t in the same tier as the heroes, but we were not fighting a full-powered demon king.

Just a pale, weakened version.

I struck it repeated with my roots, and noticed it’s movement was sluggish.

My roots kept up the pressure, and drained the demon king of it’s energy. By my own measures, that explosion left the demon king with only 20-30% of it’s strength.

The King’s movement was slower, it’s massive body seemed too heavy for the power it had inside. It struggled, and eventually realised it couldn’t keep up.

Then, it decided to shed its larger outer shell, revealing a smaller, human-sized demon.

Lumoof, Edna, Roon and Johann kept fighting, but this smaller one was faster, and almost landed a hit on Roon, if not for my shields.

“I think you two need to back off.” Edna said, as she kept up with the faster, smaller demon king. This demon’s form was better suited to its power, but the demon king that struggled.

The King’s power weakened some more, each hit from my roots chipped a little more of it’s energy.

My guardian treant emerged to fight it, battling it, and eventually, my roots got a good hold of it’s smaller body. I drained it’s still large quantities of mana, and realised...

We were winning.

I actually struggled to believe it.

Edna landed a few more hits, and my two archers attacked with their anti-magic arrows. The demon king was... immobilised. My treant guardians punched and held the demon king.

And it was battered.

I felt the King’s magical energies drop, as Edna’s cut began to remove demonic matter from the demon king. It’s healing stopped.

Another strong punch from my treant.

The king’s body crumbled, and revealed what I always, always wanted.

An undamaged demon core.

It didn’t detonate. Not with what little magical energies it had. It felt like an eternity, as my vines wrapped around the core, just to be sure. I drained it, but there was nothing left inside to be drained.

It was an empty, purely undamaged demon king’s core.

I was left speechless for a moment, as the madness of battle suddenly gave way to exhaustion. Edna looked pensive.

Holy freaking shit.

Did we just win?

Lumoof, Roon, Edna and Johann all stared at each other, waiting for something to pop up. They looked up to the sky, wondering whether the sky would split apart to reveal some gimmick.

It had taken so much to get here.

But I looked at those who fought, and felt genuine joy burst out from my soul.

“We won!”

Everyone felt like a huge weight lifted off their shoulders, and they looked at my giant tree-clone, safely and grinned.

“WE WON!”

In a strange twist of fate, we had somehow managed to defeat a demon king without the heroes. It took extensive preparation, attacks from everyone, and a bit of luck that the blob at the end detonated, but whatever it was, we got through the finish line.

My domain holders glowed, and I felt their strength increase.

Power. We would need a lot more of it in the coming days.

“Holy shit I gained like fifteen levels.” Edna shouted, and punched the sky.

“Me too!” Roon, Johann and Lumoof all gained levels.

[You’ve gained 12 levels.]

[You are now level 238]

[Tree of Life - You’ve gained two extra clone seeds].

[Natural mana overwhelming upgraded]

[Root strikes upgraded]

[Demonic resistance upgraded]

[Domain ability unlocked: Greater Titans]

[Your titans will now change into their greater forms, with wider range and abilities. Patreeck’s mind-reading and protection range will now expand to include all your clone trees, and it’s range is increased significantly. Hytreerion will now be able to temporarily shrink to travel through the Void, and can shapeshift into other battle forms.]

***

[The Demon King ???? has been defeated.]

The announcement of it’s defeat was greeted with a strange feeling.

I lost 30% of those who failed to avoid the explosion, but those who survived gained powers. The star paths linked to Treehome, all abruptly vanished. Including those subsequent to this demon king.

That was not a good sign. It meant the demons discovered that we could ‘counter-invade’ their world, and thus dropped the invasion paths.

It was also a sign that they were preparing for something bigger.

But, there was no use worrying.

We consolidated our gains, celebrated our wins, and prayed for those who fell. The souls we collected, some would move on, some wanted to stay back. I tried, where I could, to give all of them a chance to at least say goodbye to their loved ones.

“Alright, we need a roll call. Who gained what powers?” My domain holders came together, and it seemed among the survivors, quite a few gained a lot of levels.

Stella smirked. “I gained [Void Weapons and Projectiles]. I can’t wait to try it out on the other demon kings.”

“Are we trivializing demon kings already?” Roon cursed. “And you sound too excited for that.”

“They would adapt to our changes.” Stella said. “They are not stupid. The fact that they dropped the star paths shows they are learning, and we probably shouldn’t repeat it for the Mountainworld, unless, well, unless that’s what we want. ”

“Do you think they’ll throw something stronger our way?”

“What else could it be? That black sun or blob is probably figuring out what to do.” I had a tree still in the lava world, and I also needed to figure out what I should do with that tree. “What did you get, anyway?”

“Just some super strong unavoidable null-element arrow-attack.” Roon said with a sigh.

“A domain tier arrow attack can’t be that bad.” Stella laughed.

Edna jumped from level 160s to level 180s, and so gained two domain-tier abilities. First was the strangely-named ability [A Knight’s Myth], and I felt her power spread throughout Treehome, and strangely, only Treehome.

Just like my [Aeonic classes], Edna’s power had changed Treehome. Edna’s new domain ability enhanced all knights on Treehome, and allowed them to take up a special class [Knights of Treehome]. In addition, when defending Treehome, all knights are empowered against outside invaders.

It also had ‘sub’ abilities. A part of the [myth], it opened up a unique set of quests for Edna alone, the [Mythical Knight’s Quest], which, summoned Level 130-150 creatures that existed in a ‘pocket dimension’, that only Edna and a few companions could battle. Each victory, awarded skills and stats.

For the ordinary [Knights of Treehome], they could attempt lesser variants of the [Knight’s Quest], awarded and unlocked through the system.

“Seems like a Knight’s gotta do what a Knight’s gotta do.” Stella grinned. “You’re becoming like the Knights of fairy tales.”

“I can’t really say I hate it.” Edna laughed. “It’s... amusing.”

Edna’s second ability was the [Three Strikes of Honor]. It unlocked a battlefield-wide enchantment that protected everyone, from three instances of an undetected, unreactable attack that would have killed them. An enchantment with additional rules befitting a knight, such that, an attack that was ‘known’ and but cannot be ‘responded’ to, was still covered, but it essentially meant death had to come from known sources, and from known attacks. Instead, heavy but non-lethal damage would apply.

If someone were to be killed by a sword that he saw coming but didn’t react, or incorrectly reacted, the protection would not apply.

Essentially, it prevented ‘instant’ kills. As always, the system had a tendency of awarding preventions after the disaster. The precautions we have were all essentially earned and paid for in blood and souls.

Lumoof’s skill was probably pretty good too, [Projected Presence], which, strangely, allowed his to project himself in another location and essentially be at two places at once. Alka’s new ability was [Crystalline Supercomputer], which allowed him to transform crystals into magical computers.

Johann, in my opinion, got the best new domain skill. [Reconstructed Mythical Companion]. He essentially has the titan-equivalent skill of using bones to rebuild a mythical companion. Obviously, he asked and received the moon-dragon bones. He didn’t even need all of it, just one large piece was sufficient for the ability to start regrowing a dragonling in his [domain-space.]

“A victory is a victory.” Stella said, “We should throw a party.”

Lumoof agreed. “A party to remember the sacrifices of those who fell, and those who survived.”

“Then let’s do it.”