Year 106 later half.

Rebuilding. There is much to do.

I have a mission, and I want to return the forest to the continent. This devastation is foreign, alien, and it is my task to restore it.

Or at least, that's what the trees are telling me. A tree spirit's role, along with many other similar creatures, are the world's fixers and balancers, the guys that clean up the court after a game, the cleaners and repairmen. I can feel the call of duty. A duty to the world, to fix it. To restore it to nature.

I wonder whether that is an effect of the Domain. I mean, just as I gain power over a domain, does it mean I also inherit some responsibilities to that Domain? It’s strange, but I believe that the power imposes this sense of duty. I reckon the heroes and the other tree spirits of this level feel it too, that they have a calling. Why else would they go about their ways so single-mindedly?

I wonder what kind of duty I would have, had I chosen Spirit or Astral? A duty to ensure the proper transmission of the dead? A duty to the stars? Or does Astral imply a more anti-demonic role, that I would have to play a bigger role in fighting demons?

Questions, of course. Stupid world. There needs to be a guidebook somewhere.

And the wisp is gone. ‘Wisp?’ I couldn’t find him anywhere. No answer from him either. I wanted to start using Eriz and Yvon too, but that’s stuck because the Soul Forge is out of commission.

[Soul Forge requires a power source. Due to the effects of the weakened curse, and reduced sunlight, the minimum normal tree required to power the soul forge is calculated to be 100,000]

“So... what’s going to happen?” Lausanne asked a few days after my awakening. I was still coming to terms with my new power, and the realisation that, well, there’s this duty thing nagging me at the back of my head. With power, comes responsibility. Just as the energy of the earth nourishes me, and breaks me free of this, it also imposes its desires on me?

I wondered if I went down the Spirit Path, maybe I don’t even need other trees to power a soul forge. Oh well.

“I don’t know, Lausanne. I’ve been asleep.” I need to rebuild my knowledge of the world. 20 years may mean a lot has changed, at least, that’s how it was in my world. In 20 years we went from clunky landlines to smartphones, I wonder what the surviving heroes brought to this world?

“That’s... true. But we’re trapped in this place for 20 years too. So we’re not much help.”

“Well, I suppose first things first, we need to get ourselves out of this hole. This isn’t a good place to be, and we need contact with the outside world.”

“How’d you plan to do that?”

“I don’t know.” I mean, I really don’t. I need to see what works, and what doesn’t. I have some idea of what already worked, in the sense that my roots did manage to block out demonic corruption, so I wonder whether it’s possible to push back at the corruption with more roots. Kind of like using my roots as the blade of the bulldozer, and pushing the corruption back.

I’ve also needed to examine my own state, like, my [curse] is suppressed by my roots of life, but what does suppressed actually mean, like, I am going to experience some kind of degradation, or will the curse flare up?

But the survivors, they felt a sense of calmness that’s been away for a long time. It seemed the entire beetle army had vanished after Horns was in stasis, so they didn’t have help from the beetles either. Now, the horde of beetles returned, no longer in hibernation.

Horns still needed a lot of healing. It’ll take a few months to rebuild his damaged body, but it wouldn’t be a problem.

The demons came again. More of them.

The demons now felt the full brunt of my stronger [demonic suppression aura], no longer hindered by the curse. And they crumbled quickly. These strange, hybrid things. Some are less susceptible to the aura’s effects, but with the beetles back in large numbers, it wasn’t much. We only had to focus on the larger creatures that had the strength of a demon general or so.

I could now house the survivors in [secret hideout] and the various subsidiary tree’s [external rooms] and [tree lodges]. A much welcome change from their basic homes, and also, I have beds! Beds that are stored in my [secret hideout], and various other supplies previously stockpiled in there are now available again.

Still, among the survivors, some of them resisted. “We can take care of ourselves. We did so for 20 years!”

It’s understandable. For me, these 20 years feel like a dream, it passed by so quickly, maybe it feels just like 2, 3 weeks, a month of solitude and confinement for me. But for these guys, they lived 20 years out here, fighting the demons all the time. Life has been miserable for the past 20 years, but they’ve made it through without me.

Why do they need me?

Most were more than happy to return to the comfort of proper beds and a safe environment.

“Tell me all you know about the monsters you’ve been fighting over the past 20 years. What abilities do they have, what they are like, when they appear, any weaknesses?”

Those who frequently led the fights, Lausanne, Jura, the captains and many others all gathered around, and all talked about what they experienced. Like the demonic creatures are like half-demon, half-monster, and so the larger monsters have two hearts, one demonic, one monster, and they have to take both of them down to kill it, else they would regenerate. These demons also retained the ability to agglomerate themselves and form a larger creature, something less powerful than a walker, but it’s probably due to size limitations within the valley itself.

They have mini-projectile energy blasts, also similar to walkers, and the more humanoid forms tend to have crude weapons.

They have no tactics, other than a strange ability to sense and track them. Stealth abilities are not effective. They have heads, but their heads are actually just decorations. Chopping their heads off does nothing, because the heart is the engine of the monster. The parts that resemble a head are nothing more than an arm. The eyes on the monster are also similarly useless, and blinding those eyes merely disables the beam abilities.

In short, the parts that resemble a regular monster are there because the ‘template’ requires those sorts of appendages and parts, but they are not critical to the monster’s ‘life’. If it has one.

Other than that, they’ve mostly taken life day by day. Living in the moment.

Monsters.

Unlike demons, their corpses linger around a bit longer, but entirely inedible because it's innards are contaminated with demonic juices. Demonic bodies decay significantly faster than monsters, so it's quite difficult to harvest any of its body parts for materials or equipment.

The monsters have large spikes, horns, and also tentacle-like features. Had it not decay and could be preserved, maybe they could be made into strong weapons. But like wood, these 'organic' materials need treatment to last, or they decay quickly, and no one had enough time or survived demons to even research it.

Well, except these guys. One of the surviving warleaders, out of sheer boredom trapped in a valley, soaked the small remains of a demon in olive oil. And noticed it didn't decay. Preserved demonic appendages in olive oil.

“Fascinating thing.” I observed the specimens shown by that 70-year old elf. They do have a surplus of olive oil, since some of the olive shrubs survived. They cook with it, season their vegetables with it, preserve chunks of fruits with it, and this one elf had the inspiration to preserve demonic remains.

My inner biolab got to work quickly.

[Preserved Demonic Parts - olive oil used to significantly slow and stop the decay of demonic matter]

“Yeah. I thought it’s interesting, but I only worked with small parts of the demon.”

“Did you gain a class for it?” I reckon there should be [fermenter] or [preserver] or something like that.

“I didn’t, ‘cause I’m already capped out at level 60 [soldier] and level 20 [villager].”

Ah. “A shame. I would’ve liked a bigger sample. To observe demons in their native state without decay.” I did recall having captured hellhounds, and those were very interesting. But here I have other demonic specimens, and these are even half-demonic hybrids. So they had a lot of value to be understood.

Even the survivors are very interesting. It seemed 20 years of solitary confinement had also changed their physical appearances. Their ordinarily fair, pinkish skin have now turned almost grey. I wonder whether it’s Vitamin D deficiency, perhaps elves, creatures of the forest, need more sunlight than others, so lacking sunlight their skin loses much of their color?

The treefolk seemed to suffer the effects of being trapped in the valley a little harder than the rest. The treefolks at first glance seem the same, but they remarked their bodies feel weaker, more sickly, and the effects of little-to-no sunlight was especially pronounced on the quality of their inner structures. They were more prone to fall sick, and a few have died from sickness.

Some of the centaurs suffered from muscular degradation, they were used to having large areas to roam, like horses, so confinement into a valley meant their lower bodyparts became weak. Those with certain unique skills like [tiptop condition] or [peak performance] were able to remain physically fit, but for the rest of them, they had to resort to all kinds of exercises to maintain their health.

The dwarves, well, they seemed perfectly fine. Apparently, being in a valley trapped underground isn’t something uncommon for dwarves, who remarked it sounded quite like being trapped in a mining accident. A few of them even had skills that made surviving in such an environment comfortable. Like I think one dwarf probably had some kind of ale-making ability that he's not sharing with others.

But oh well. It’s something to examine, for sure, but I want to get out. My duty calls to me

And I have to work with some of the survivors that are still a bit skeptical of me, some of them wonder whether the flames on my head are signs of demonic influence, and they don’t buy my [curse] explanation all that easily. Still, they are obeying my requests but they are guarded. I could hear their conversations.

They must have forgotten I could do so since for them, the memories of twenty years ago are probably hazy.

So, after a bit of information gathering, I decided to try pushing back at the sludge. It's a strange thing, this sludge. It has all hardened now, and yet monsters can spawn in them. How? The sludge itself creates them?

Anyway, I pushed. At one corner, furthest away from where the survivors made their home, I pushed. The corruption from outside is strong, but now that I am awake, I like to think I am stronger. At least, in this area.

The pushing worked. I pushed back at hardened sludge, and it buckled. It bent. And I kept pushing. Each time I pushed, my roots moved in to form a protective barrier. The protective barrier didn't work on every time though, the roots sometimes would run into an aquifer or something, and it would squeeze out a bit of water, and those leaked through the gaps in the root.

"Uh... water?" The survivors were watching with great interest, from the safety of their treehouses.

Well, it made sense that there are pockets of water in the ground. I mean, I am sure rain or precipitation or condensation continued even if the demon king corrupted the land.

I pushed, and my ability [root tunnels] triggered to form a wall. But they are unfortunately porous and water could leak through.

"Aeon, please stop." One of the survivors said. "The water is still coming in."

Ah. The water is still leaking through the root walls. Why? Maybe I should push upwards instead?

So, I started to push my roots upward and outward, in a way, like a stadium with movable roofs. It was already partly open from my earlier efforts, but I stopped midway as I realised more of the firestorm was getting into the valley.

“Maybe just one side, Aeon.” Lausanne remarked. “Would it be possible for a tunnel or path that leads up to the surface?”

Indeed. That’s what I tried over the next few days. Strategically, a tunnel would be better. Far easier to defend if anything massive comes around, rather than an open path. The sludge becomes a natural wall that hides this valley. I should keep that strategic advantage.

So a tunnel.

A second attempt. Hopefully I don’t bump into pools of water trapped underground.

I pushed upwards this time, again, from where the previous tunnel started.

Unlucky!

There was more water, the tunnel ran into a pool of water, and the water rushed down the tunnel like rainwater in a storm drain, and it spilled into that segment of the valley.

“Well, at least we’re not there.” Some of the elves, well, if the makeshift houses were there, they’d be in trouble. Eventually, the flow of water from whatever pool I bumped into slowed down significantly.

There’s small trickles of water that seeped through the tunnel walls, and those trickles turned into a small stream of water down the tunnel and into the valley. Unlike the first surge, it’s just a small trickle, so, no big waves there.

I pushed on. We’re quite deep, and so I had to keep pushing. The angle couldn’t be too steep or it’s useless as a path.

It took a few weeks of constantly pushing, dealing with the monsters that appeared from the sludge, and eventually the tunnel was done. A reinforced path to the surface.

Year 107

The surface was hellish. More monsters roamed on this strange, apocalyptic land. Jura and the group that went out and explored it the first time remarked it resembled nothing. It’s just as strange as a place that’s been thoroughly corrupted by hex.

The surface was not empty. There were many different demonic monsters that roamed the terrain, some of which they’ve met in their twenty years of battle.

And there were stationary monsters.

That was what they assumed at first. Stationary monsters that looked every bit like a monster, and they didn’t move. But they attacked things that approached them, or emitted poison. This was entirely new to the elves, because, well, these monsters couldn’t move, and they were stuck underground. There wasn’t a way for the two groups to ever meet.

Until now.

But, on closer observation, they noticed some of these monsters had branches. Like trees. They thought they were horns at first, like how antler horns resembled some branches.

It was reddish leaves on one subtype of demonic hybrids that finally made some of them go ‘aha!’. Hybrid demon-plants.

If there are hybrid animals and monsters, surely there are hybrid plants!

This fact was extremely interesting to me, and I had a million and one questions.

Like, why did they exist? Magic? Divine powers? If divine creation was the answer, why were they created as hybrids and not pure monsters or trees? Or did it mean the influence of the terrain was able to interfere with the process of divine creation?

Or are these creatures products of the demonic corruption, that the demonic corruption borrows from the land and thus created these hybrids?

Then, there’s the question of whether they are ‘trees’, in the sense that, can I, with my powers as a Tree Spirit, hold any influence, communicate and control them? Are these tree-like demonic things, actually trees? I thought they might be part-tree, just like how the demonic creatures that attacked the valley were part-monster.

And how did they exist? How are they powered? Do they produce seeds or fruits? Any chance those are edible, or poisonous thus can be weaponised? Do they have abilities or powers, like certain species of trees? Can they be made into items like how certain trees are harvested for timber. Is this their ideal environment? Do they respond well to different environments? What do they consume?

Do they need sunlight? Do they need water? Is that why there’s puddles and pools of water underground? Do they have roots? I don’t recall encountering any, but is that because their roots are shallow?

“Master.” Trevor’s voice broke through my deep contemplation. “A decision. The survivors have been waiting.”

I didn’t realise it, but I spent a month just studying the few demonic samples brought back by the scouts. It was just that fascinating to me. “Waiting for what?”

“They are asking whether you can start creating trees on the surface.”

“Why?”

“Oh, they wanted somewhere to stay outside the valley. Somewhere... safe.”

“When did I agree to this?”

“No, you didn’t. I recall Master ignored them the first time when you were studying the demonic specimens.”

“I did?” I didn’t even realise that they were talking to me. When did it happen? That’s strange. Did I somehow ignore everything when I focused on the demonic tree samples?

“Yes.” Trevor said quite matter-of-factly.

The hybrid tree samples were too fascinating. Or did I somehow tune them out? “I don’t recall even having the conversation.... Never mind.”

The terrain and the demonic corruption takes the form of a sludge. The demonic energy that passes through the sludge, kind of like a current of electricity travelling through a conductive liquid. It passed through it, and also radiated it like a radioactive material. According to the elves, some of them with the gift of darksight can see a faint glow in the sludge.

So, the process of clearing the land means either removing and pushing away the sludge, or neutralising the sludge. What I have been doing so far is well, a mix. By pushing it away with my roots like a natural bulldozer, and at the same time, my main body acts as a filter and cleaner, using my roots to absorb the demonic sludge, and the volatile, combustible mana that comes with it.

It’s slow. Because I’m the bottleneck. Back to the oil pollution analogy, there’s a limit of how much ‘oil’ I can process per day, and against the constantly expanding oil, I feel like I’m in a game of candy crush fighting against a field of ever expanding chocolate. Or like Alpha Centauri where the native vegetation is encroaching on my forests. Come to think of it, this is very much like Alpha Centauri. Alien creatures attacking what it perceives as enemies? The only difference is well, we’re the natives, and they are the aliens.

Are the demons colonists?

I’ve gotten sidetracked again. Oil analogy. I have a processing rate, and the terrain itself imposes a minimum on me to ‘process’, else the root walls won’t hold. Every time the strength of the root walls increase, I need to process less, because the walls can hold back more of the corrupting demon mana and sludge. The walls are like an oil silo, then, and it has a capacity.

So, can I increase my processing capacity now that I’m back to consciousness?

Can my [Giant Attendant Trees] play that role to a lesser capacity? I would have to design the Giant Attendant Tree’s available [customisable rooms] specifically for the function, to have much higher self-healing ability, and demonic absorbent abilities.

-

The two heroes are still there.

“Hi.”

“Oh. You’re back. You must be bored to come and find us again.”

“Well, yes. I’m free now.” After I said that, I instantly regretted it.

“Oh, nice. Can you help us?”

“Not sure. I don’t even know where you are?”

“I think I do.” Simone said. “There’s a red crystal like thing somewhere near the demon king site. I think we’re there. Or at least, our souls are imprisoned there. Free us.”

“Huh.” Fuck. Did I just get myself into a quest? “No.”

I felt a massive headache (ahem, I don’t have a head, but yeah) then, like something trying to force me to say yes. I resisted. Fuck this. It’s probably divine in nature, because the calling of duty generally radiates from my roots.

“Why not?” They asked.

That pain was getting stronger, but I pulled the energy from within me to resist it. I even pulled the energy from the nearby trees and the earth.

[Domain has resisted divine influence.]

“I’m no hero.” And fuck, did the gods just tried to mind-control me? Since when did the gods directly attempt to influence things? I thought they’re not supposed to do that.