Year 223

“No void mages in the angel world.” Stella agreed after my discussion. “They seemed so reasonable, though.”

“The most frightening folks usually sound reasonable. That’s how they get their foot through the door and win over followers. It is an art of guiding the blind, to achieve more perverse goals.”

“Is it really that bad?” Edna said. “If we need to, we can fight them. They lack the means and ways to compete with us.”

“Four-winged, six-winged angels, or higher, have no level restrictions, so don’t exactly count them out.” Lumoof answered. “They are in the same class as dragons and that kind. They may gain their own domain holders, in due course. Given that they even can innately see the astral paths, they may gain access to other worlds sooner than we think.”

“...fuh.” Edna nodded.

“We should kidnap some and study them.” Roon suggested. “They are fascinating.”

“ROON!” Stella said. “You cannot be serious! You’re suggesting kidnapping innocent angels for studies! Aeon hasn’t gone that far!”

“Then bribe them! Entice them with money, knowledge. Trade small useless information for it. The more we learn about them, the more we can prepare for them.” Roon proposed.

“That’s... Unethical.” Stella said.

“But it works.” Roon said, and Edna nodded along. “Keep our demons close, and in this case, angels, closer.”

“I agree. If these angels have innate astral-knowledge, that could be a welcome addition to our lineup. We may not need angels directly, but there are humans who developed similar abilities. Surely some arrangement can be made.”

Stella frowned. “I feel like that’s cheating.”

“It’s called preparation.”

“...fine.” Stella wasn’t pleased.

“If they get there, I think that’s not a bad thing.” Edna admitted. “Someone that could help fight the demons is still a net positive.”

A point which I agreed with, and was why I let Raph go. “We don’t need much ties, beyond being there for the final battle, I guess.”

“If we want them there for the final battle, we will need ties.”

Of course, if there’s such a thing as a ‘final battle’. There’s a possibility this conflict is like pest-removal. Just a constant, never ending war against a multiversal cockroach infestation.

***

The second revelation, of course, was about my two new seeds. “Just two seeds...?” Roon and Johann immediately realized that this wasn’t going to go that well. “If let’s say there’s another two more seeds further down the road, after what... three decades, we’d just have a grand total of nine worlds?”

It wasn’t great, and it meant that the total ‘stable’ war potential was spread over nine worlds, more if we could add Stella and the void mages’ portal abilities.

The future we foresee is a war of attrition against the demons, and I could see the shifting battlelines in the stars. The war will be fought over many worlds, with the heroes, and nine worlds is not enough.

“What if we did what we did in the lava-world, and attacked all the demons’ blobs.”

“They could take countermeasures.” Stella said. “The black blob wasn’t adequately protected, and what makes you think these demons won’t realize it? They have some battlefield intelligence, and can adapt to us.”

“So you’re saying what we did was a fluke.”

Stella paused. “Not exactly. In specific circumstances, we could repeat it. I do not mean to reduce our achievements down to something less. It’s just that... it’s a changing battlefield, and the demons can and will adapt.”

The ranger laughed. “Alright, alright. We gotta hop to the Mountainworld. They’ll have a demon king too.”

***

Unlike our little stint in the lavaworld, I took a step back for the Mountainworld. A cursory scouting mission to the demon’s world, which returned us to the boreal demonworld filled with ice and trees.

“Sure you guys don’t want to do more?”

Lumoof shrugged. “We’ll take a step back and support you guys this time.”

We did identify the location of the teleportation, and rigged the place with bombs. I didn’t want to destroy the astral paths so quickly, not without knowing what was coming for us.

It wasn’t fair to put the Mountainworld through that risk, so we hedged, and decided to engage the demon king when it arrived instead. The giant ice-giant-like demon king that arrived was nuked quite heavily the moment it arrived, which removed it’s outer shell

The heroes did most of the fighting, my domain holders provided support and cover fire. Many kingdoms and empires of the Mountainworld sent their spies and scouts to observe the fight from afar, but six strong, well leveled heroes supported by a good team of domain holders meant the battle went smoothly.

They prepped. No, everyone was prepared to teleport if there was any sign of the detonating bomb. It did, but relatively speaking, it was a weak bomb.

The demon king of the Mountainworld, [Demon King Myrgizan] was defeated on the same day as it arrived, and the Mountainworld could see another fifteen or so years of peace.

My domain holders gained a level or three, but they’ve reached a point where it’s starting to slow down, and Edna suggested rotating the soon-to-be-domain holders to play a much larger role.

***

From our victory on the Lavaworld, I now possessed a full demon king’s core undamaged by any star mana, and this was something we placed into my biolabs for studies. Like the copy or replica we made from the assembled copy, it immediately opened up to a far larger map of the multiverse.

It was a field of stars, with lines. Paths. There was just one blob at the heart of it, and as I prodded it for more information.

[The Slaver’s Prison]

“Huh.” Stella saw it too, as she experimented on the core of the demon king. Unlike before, there was nothing blocking our attempt to intrude on this ‘network’. Stella played with it, and her eyes began to bleed. “Shit. Sorry.”

A bit of healing later, her eyes were restored, but it did make her feel a little uncomfortable.

“The demons have a collective memory, each of these demon worlds actually transmit information back to the black suns and the blob.” Stella used her magic to make a pale copy of the starmap. “Their view of the void forest is fixed to this perspective, but mapping it, it doesn’t quite line up.”

As Stella once said, the void forest appeared differently to everyone else. What was near for me, could be incredibly far away to someone else, and that ‘perception’ of the void forest can get very distorted. Astral neighbours, like the Mountainworld and Threeworlds, actually are quite far apart on the demon’s map.

This was odd, to me, but to Stella, a space that’s dependent on one’s frame of reference was normal.

No matter, my concerns led back to the blob. “That blob is our target, isn’t it?” I asked her. She earlier said there was no single target. Yet, here it is.

A single blob at the very center. A prison of... gods? Or heroes? Or cores?

“That blob ‘directs’ the will, and I’m not certain if that’s the only blob. It looks, according to this map, to be only one blob, but yet, it’s referred to as [The Slaver’s Prison]. “It might not be the real thing, and we are just taking out the means by which the demons command a particular ‘segment’ of its forces.”

Stella poked at the core for a bit more. “I highly, highly doubt it is the only one.”

The gods once said that they fought a war with the demons across thousands of worlds, and from this map, there were thousands of worlds.

“Are you able to use this map, and exploit this demon king’s core? I want to know whether we can visit our ‘neighbor’ in the demon’s frame of reference.”

Stella nodded. “It should be possible. The rifts should be able to line up to the commands of the core. I’ll need a year or two, but I should be able to rig this to one of the rifts. But I’ll need you to supply us with the core mana, and we can start experimenting on its abilities.”

“Got it. What about your [void explorer], how far is it from the Snek’s world?”

“It’s... almost there, another three to five years, I think.” Stella explained, as one of the other void archmages came in with some more schematics and notes. “A short time to rescue Snek’s kind.”

Snek and Ken made preparations, of course. Ken, in the past few years, learned Snek’s language, and taught a small group of Valthorns to speak it.

We just hoped that there was still someone there.

***

Year 224

Stella was getting better at manipulating the demon king’s core, though she had to be healed after using it. The unusual magical architecture of the king’s core strained her mind, and she asked.

“Aeon, are you able to augment my mind? Through that dream academy?”

“What.” The heroes themselves were unnerved by the statement. “You’re asking Aeon to-”

“I know what I am asking, but the demon king’s core needs more mental power, and every time I use it, I feel my mental capacities are insufficient, even if I have the right mana type for it.” She made progress, and her team of void mages, supported by a group of dedicated [void enchanters] and [crafters of the void], created a huge contraption around the demon king’s core. “You must remember that this thing is essentially designed for the demon king, and not meant for mere mortals.”

The demon king’s core was pretty much a nuclear reactor, linked to multiple arrays of crystals and potatoes filled with void mana and core mana. At the end of it, was a riftgate and a control panel, which Stella would use.

“You do realise you are sharing your mind-” Chung, being the natural voice of skepticism among the heroes.

“Lumoof does it and he’s alright.” Stella said. “Look. I know the risks, but we have this core, and we have to crack it. We can’t fight this war against the demons blind. We’re currently essentially reacting to every single invasion.”

“We’re doing a lot!”

“I know, but we can do better. Fight wars without having to fight them, you know? All it takes is more brain power, and in this world of magic, I really don’t see why you’re feeling queasy about it.” Stella said. “Can you build something, a structure or a thing to do so?”

I checked, and realised I could. Essentially, I would have to grow an attachment that would tap into her mind, something like a living helmet, which would then be linked to an artificial mind. “Yes. We’ll start small.”

Within a month I had a prototype, forged out of [wood magic] and my evolutionary powers, to create a wooden suit that essentially linked itself to her scalp. It would tap into her mind, if she granted access, to be augmented by artificial minds.

“Holy Shit, I feel like Iron Man.” Stella said as she was wrapped in a wooden suit that was linked to artificial minds nearby. The limitation was that the transmission of the mind-waves meant the artificial minds couldn’t be very far. “Is this how you see the world?”

Also, because she’s a [domain] holder, she has to explicitly grant access to the artificial minds to her mind. That, in a way, was a weakness. Essentially, a domain was a firewall, and allowing artificial minds was a vulnerability in her mental defenses. Unlike Lumoof, who benefited from avatar mode, which meant he could get the mental support directly without having to open up to that sort of vulnerability. My priest just shrugged. “Yup. It takes a bit of getting used to.”

“You should totally roll this out to everyone. It’s freaking amazing.” Stella said. “It’s like what modern soldiers wanted to have. A dedicated AI for every single one.”

Roon and Johann were both intrigued. “Seriously?”

Alka observed it, and nodded. “It’s that amazing? I already have these lab assistants in my lab.”

“I know, but these things help so much. If they can be specifically configured-” Stella asked. “Aeon, can they be magic focused?”

“They are designed to do specific functions. It would need some prototyping and training before they can do what you want them to.”

“Ah. Never mind. Let’s see how this does against the core’s void-map-” She then tested out her contraption, and tapped into the demon king’s core. I felt the supporting artificial minds glow and then....

They splattered in a small explosion, as the demands of the demon king’s core overwhelmed them. I immediately cut off the connection.

“Oof. Not ready yet.” Stella cursed.

I could use a titan-soul to make an artificial mind. That kind of mind support might be sufficient for Stella’s intentions. But I still didn’t have the option. I needed more void-mind related experiments, before the system grants me the option to create a void-variant supermind.

Despite the failure, I liked the idea enough.

A combination of familiars, artificial minds, special wood-mind suits to support high leveled Valthorns, I could give them support in terms of mental load, coordination and strategy.

It felt like a natural evolution of the Valthornian supersoldier, and so, I immediately got Patreeck to start work on designing new supersoldier suits. In line with its superhero inspiration, I decided the first version would be named the Timberman Mark I.

***

“How’d it go?” I asked Edna, who reappeared from the pocket realm.

“It went well. It wasn’t even that hard a fight.” The knight answered. “Just punching some monsters really hard, and I get this.”

She showed off her new haul, a shining sword. [Sword of the Demon Slayer].

“It’s got buffs quite comparable to your demon hunter special class, but it’s an object, instead of a class.”

It was interesting that the system permitted multiple iterations to achieve the same goals, and the return of the ‘mythical’ era of knights was really appealing to me. My own extrapolation suggested that Edna could even some day obtain some kind of ‘excalibur-equivalent’. At the domain level, the system seemed to encourage the creation of ‘new’ myths or legends.

“Interestingly, I’m permitted to undertake quests to obtain specific anti-swords.”

“Oh?”

“If I chose ‘demons’ as my chosen enemy for the quest, I’d get swords for that purpose. The only condition it needs to fulfill is some kind of ‘evil’ or ‘injustice’ or ‘destruction’ criteria, and I could choose them as a target. That means, should a hero commit evil, I could undertake a set of quests under this ability, that would grant me some kind of anti-hero sword.”

“That’s really overpowered.”

“It is.” Edna said. “Lesser knights can obtain lesser variants, of course, but it is still an incredible force multiplier.”

It meant knights, under this mechanism, would function as a ‘check-and-balance’ since any act of tremendous evil could result in creation of anti-evil quests.