---Tree Station 12---

"Here's Paolo. I'm at shield generator building five. A group of refugees is trying to invade the building with force. They are well-armed and their goals seem to be generators," Paolo's voice echoed from an orb inside the command center of Tree Station 12.

"This is Evan from building 4, a bunch of people suddenly attacked and tried to kill the shield generator."

"Here's Ember in building 2, we just apprehended a bunch of people trying to attack the generator."

As the messages came in, Evee looked grimly at the rising number of reports. She was the one who had planned out and built this command where all reports across the Tree Route could be collected. There were not only reports about attacks in Tree Station 12, though they were the only station that was attacked from within.

Other stations reported about the usual foot soldiers running up against the barriers. The real question was what had happened for them to suddenly attack. Did they think Minas Mar was an easy target as long as Seth was gone. Grimly, the underworld Fairy looked over to Leana and Mary.

"These guys are underestimating us, should we play along?"

…

"Look, the first shields are already breaking down, and you doubted our people inside," his colleague pointed out to Glasses, who watched in surprise as the barrier started turning off one by one. Maybe he had been really wrong.

"Who would have thought, they actually managed to catch Minas Mar by surprise..." he mumbled.

"Right. Now hurry. We have to set up the cannon," his colleague said excitedly. Today was the day for the first practical test of their Tree Buster. The peak of fusion between artillery fire, energy weapons, and magic engineering. A weapon that was already in development when Mark Baker was still around.

"While you were gawking at the tree, I already finished setting it up. The batteries are ...loaded. We are ready to fire," Glasses answered emotionless while checking things on his tablet.

"What are we waiting for?" the colleague pestered him. Unfortunately, this was the man who came up with the energy concepts behind the gun, so Glasses couldn't just kick him off the cliff they were standing on. With a sigh, he continued, speaking in a small recorder.

"Battery Status nominal. Tree Buster ready is for the first practical test. Aiming."

"Fire!" the two said at the same time, as Glasses pressed a button. With eerie silence, a massive artillery round left the barrel of the tree buster. It was surrounded by a white laser that propelled the bullet at an incredible speed, ignoring air resistance.

There was almost no time difference between pressing the button and the projectile passing the edge of the tree's crown. Their shot burrowed deep into the trunk of the Guardian Tree, but then the silence continued.

"What happened?" the other asked Glasses, but his only answer was holding up three fingers.

"3,2,1..." he said putting them down one by one. On zero the shell they fired exploded in a massive hex-tech explosion, bursting apart the tree trunk, right below the first branch of the grown. The massive crown shook and detached from the trunk, but was kept in place by the tree houses, that supported the crown, despite the destruction of the central pillar.

"It's still standing.." the man beside him commented slackjawed.

"This is just the start. "

Glasses knew that the Tree could probably heal such a purely physical wound, which was why they had prepared something else and it soon showed its power. Starting with the breakage, the tree started to wither and darken. The dwindling crown quickly dried up and the emerald leaves turned a sickly brown.

"What did you do with the shell?" he heard his colleague exclaim in shock and glee.

"Let's just say our friends from the other side gave us a hand in concocting a mix of magic, curses, and alchemy."

"Now that all their defenses are down, we can send our troops," Glasses heard someone from the back say, when the tree looked thoroughly dead, only moments after the shot. Soon after he saw thousands of people charge towards the wooden city.

The Serks were sent into battle. Compared to before the drugged-up immortals had not just become stronger but also easier to control. Instead of being used to scout out any traps or other defenses, they could be truly used as foot soldiers at this point. With no tree and no barrier, maybe they would not even need their main force to intervene, he thought.

"Haha, look, they are sending their adventurers," his colleague said in visible glee at the imminent demise of their opponents. When Glasses turned back to the battlefield, he heard a "what!?" before he could make out a reason for the man's shock.

His eyes widened in shock when he saw what was happening. With roars of flames and thundering explosions, the adventurers and the serks would meet and vanish in a massive fireball. He was shocked for a moment before he felt disappointed. Blowing themselves up to try and take down the serks? He expected Minas Mar to know that this was useless.

However, what happened next made him forget his useless thoughts. A creature he had never seen before exited from the fire with a burst of maniacal laughter. It had wings like a bat, a humanoid body, horns, and a long tail. Wasn't this the typical depiction of a demon!?

"Are you serious?" "What?" "Look what those things do to the serks!"

He followed his gaze, seeing another of these creatures, holding up one of the freaking out serks in each hand. In horror he watched as their thrashing in its hands grew gradually weaker until the captured people slowly turned to ashes, starting with their feet.

"Musketeers, go and support the infantry!" the call echoes, calling for their sentient soldiers to enter the field, to stop these demonic beings.

"Those aren't adventurers!" Glasses exclaimed but it was already too late for anyone to hear him.

When he took the time to observe the troops of Minas Mar with the skill he found all of them wore mismatched random armor pieces, completely unlike Minas Mar who was proud of their items. The ones wearing them were not people, but wooden puppets!

There was not a single living person among the people that rushed out of the tree Station and every time they slashed with a serk, they would explode and a creature wearing the armor would exit the explosion. The beasts were unimpressed by the entrance of the artillery.

Most of their wounds would heal even if they were ripped to pieces. It took a lot to end just one of them, in the meantime they lost many troops. Why did this feel so familiar? Wasn't this their strategy? To make matters worse, as the battle proceeded, it took more and more to defeat just one of them. They kept continuously becoming stronger.

"Bow to me lowly mortals, for I am Elufsiv, the Esurient have been summoned to claim your souls!" all the creatures exclaimed in a choir.

Summoned?! Glasses pricked his ears when he heard their choir. Was that possible, could Minas Mar have-

--- A few weeks earlier---

"Conjuration!?" Seth exclaimed when he saw the information of the scroll using

The ability to reach out into the darkness and conjure a demon from another plane. Costs and Duration depend on ability level, sacrifice, the individual to be conjured, and preparations.>

"Yes, this scroll will inject the inborn ability of our ancestor into your soul, together with his understanding of conjuration circles. Although it gives you direct knowledge, learning the runes and sigils involved in the conjuration will be a lot easier to learn," the principal explained proudly.

"B-But how does conjuring a demon help with getting rid of these guys?" Seth asked a little confused. Reppit Remington tapped against his nose as he shared his clever idea.

"You usually use souls as a sacrifice to a demon. Although I'm not proud of it, I have to inform you that there are many examples and circles where that sacrifice does not have to be a willing one. Their soul will be swallowed, as long as they are part of the ritual."

Now, it clicked in Seth's head. Instead of painstakingly looking for a way to solve the problem with their immortality, he was outsourcing this problem by selling them to a stronger corporation, that had the means to thoroughly exploit them.

"So I just shove the problem about their souls onto a demon god. They will know how to get their worth out of them."

"Exactly."

If this was true, he just had to find a way to properly utilize this power...