Year 262 (Chapter 264)

The giant tree that stood in the city of Maelga. A prison.

The system recognised my attempts to imprison another domain holder, and warped the Giant Attendant Tree into a special tree.

The [Crystal Prison Tree].

From a distance, it was poetic. It was as if nature rose to defy the magics of the Crystal King.

The once crystalline city of Maelga was now overrun with trees.

The very act of imposing my will on another [domain holder] was exhausting, but he was weakened. Keeping an injured domainholder imprisoned was significantly easier, because most of its powers are used to heal itself.

He was smug, at first. The domain protected his soul from normal things, but I could hurt everything outside of that domain.

“If you don’t intend to kill me, then you can’t hurt me.” He bragged. His crystal core was like a dungeon’s core. It stood imprisoned.

He said, as I destroyed everything outside of it.

Then, I discovered that a [soul tree] was indeed a special thing in the multiverse.

After all, it’s not every day that I had the opportunity to mess with another domainholder. So I did. I tapped the power of my [soul forge], and with its unique power, attempted to pierce his domain.

He was smug. He thought it wouldn’t work like all my earlier attempts to deal damage without killing him.

Then my roots made a hole in the crystal platforms of his soul. I could chip away at his domain!

It would heal, in time. But at that very moment, the Crystal King’s horror was palpable. “Impossible!” He cursed.

But the domain could be cracked by my roots, when they were empowered by the energies of my [soul forge].

This told me one thing. My domain was not a perfect defense. It had worked against the demons so far because their attempts to corrupt my soul were not properly tailored to damage my soul. Even mana was just a bludgeon. Unfocused, even rivers of mana couldn’t harm it. The domain is still an object of the soul, a creation of the soul, and a weapon attuned to the soul’s nature could still hurt me.

In fact, there may be a domain holder, made from some kind of [soul] or [spirit], that could possess the ability to deal soul damage. The ability to hurt the soul directly. This sort of ability would be this multiverse’s equivalent of destroying one’s meridians and crushing one’s energy cores.

This was a dangerous power, and the cracking of the Crystal King’s domain silenced the smug Crystal King.

It released a pulse of energy that spread through the pact of the Tree.

A warning.

***

“How.” Zhaanpu asked my little tree in his garden. “How did you hurt him? Our souls are well protected and should not be damaged, yet I felt you crack his soul at that moment.”

In the same way I fixed a hero’s soul. The [Soul Forge].

I told him, and the old pharaoh thought. “You freed a [hero], and now, you just soul-damaged one of the Three. That makes you a very dangerous existence. Some gods will not consider you a friend.”

“Then I will have to avoid them.”

“Easier said.” Zhaanpu countered.

***

“You’re doing some pretty dangerous things.” Aria and Aispeng’s golem spoke her will. “You’re not afraid how this appears to the rest of us domain holders?”

“It is what it is. He ordered his people to sabotage our actions, there are consequences.”

The golem of Lillies nodded. “Such consequences are mild. 100 years is but a fluttering of the eye. Heroes come and go.”

Yet, as I brought the two golems to Maelga, the Crystal King’s senses were not dulled. I felt it’s attention, it looked in surprise as his senses brushed over the two golems. “-you’ve seen more existences like us.”

“Of course. Which made you a fool.” I spoke back. “I offered you friendship, but you chose hostility. These are friends, both from my world.”

“You seek to rule.” He argued.

“I would prefer not to rule if I have to.” In this situation, where he was imprisoned, I realized it was probably a good time to ‘educate’ him, just like how I shared my experiences and visions with Zhaanpu, Lilies and Aria. It made the three of them see what I see, and gave them understanding. “I would have preferred not to do this.”

“Matter of time.” He still argued as I bombarded his will with my thoughts. “Over time, you seek dominion over me. Even if I offered friendship. The nature of our relationship will not change. The weak will submit to the strong.”

He blocked it with his [domain].

Stubborn piece of rock.

***

Stella looked at the special chamber in the depths of my main tree, where Alka’s body was being reconstructed. It was magic. It was the [system] at work.

“Wonderful, isn’t it?” I said. I tried to understand what was happening, but this was the [system] on autopilot. I had no input here, because he would be rebuilt exactly as he was.

“It is.” Stella said. “I stare and stare and have no idea what’s happening.”

“I know.”

“It’s nice to stare at something dumbfounding and not have to worry about whether it’s trying to kill me.” Stella added. “It’s a great- how do I say this, relief.”

“That is true. Every unusual or mind boggling thing we’ve seen seems to be trying to kill us, one way or another.” The Sun-Rings, the Demon Comet, Multipus were all strange, wild things. “And this is great insurance.”

“If I have one of my trees survive.”

“With your additional clones, you will.”

“After seeing my recent abilities, I’m not convinced it’s that great a security.”

“You’re worried there’s some demon that deals [soul] damage, that could hurt your soul directly, regardless of how many clones you have.” Stella said. “If that is the case- none of us are safe.”

I doubt it’ll be that bad. Perhaps my domainholders would still remain, so long as I existed. My ability allowed regeneration of my domainholders. The [System] says they can regenerate, and I trust it.

***

Threeworlds reeled from the consequences of the Crystal King’s defeat. The once difficult human cities became instantly subservient.

We would have a need for their lands and their supplies. Stella’s eyes watched the stars, and noticed that the remnant Comets decayed into even smaller Meteors. Without a singular Core to hold it all together, even the smaller rocks fragmented.

But they were undoubtedly still headed towards Treehome. It would be the equivalent of planet earth passing through a cloud of asteroids.

A rain of meteors would be likely, and in the thousands, it would be hard to destroy them all. Still, if they came in waves, it was theoretically possible.

So, after the large bomb building exercise, we redirected our efforts towards a series of construction work. Anti-projectile cannons, magical shields, and one of the largest bunker construction projects.

The construction of bunkers brought back memories.

“Aeon, do you really need the bunkers? The last time we built bunkers was decades ago, and it didn’t help.” Lausanne joked, as he reminded me of the time when we built the bunkers, then Rottedlands happened. That didn’t help.

“But what else is there to do?” I countered. We could also perform emergency evacuation once we get the trajectory of the meteors.

Lausanne laughed. “Build a wall?”

“That’s just bunkers without the roof.”

“The evacuation idea seems to work.”

***

Chung went into a spiral of self doubt and avoidance. He refused to speak to us, but at this point, I expected it. He knew, of course. He wasn’t stupid. I watched him try to drown himself in alcohol, but annoyed by alcohol being mostly useless to him. He needed something that could offset the hero class, in order to get drunk, but he refused to drink anything made with my leaves.

Colette, Prabu, Adrian and Khefri. Survivors.

Adrian retreated back to Mountainworld. Kelly left some things for him. Unlike the other heroes, Kelly didn’t set up her own little kingdom. Instead, her ambitions were smaller, and she ran an elite adventurer’s guild, where the elites received hero items from her. Naturally, she was successful, and now responsibility for the guild passed to Adrian.

A guild was a lot easier to manage. Politics present in nations were less so, with guilds, especially small, focused guilds that just attacked dungeons on Mountainworld.

“You think he’ll kill himself?” Prabu asked his partner as they rested back on Freshka.

“Nah.” Colette said. “Just give him time. A few years. He’ll get over it. Find someone to love or something.”

The two mages worked on creating magical shields, as a contingency for the coming meteor shower. Their hero items were very powerful, and an array of space-based shields should deflect most of the smaller meteors. They had a large mansion with multiple workshops, for them to build all their stuff.

[Hero Forge] did most of the work, but it’s better with materials, plans and space for extra stuff.

“Yeah.” Prabu hoped. “I hope he doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“You know he will. Just not overly stupid.”

“-good point.”

Khefri refused to talk to him, and returned to Threeworlds. After long periods of being away from Threeworlds, there was something about the deserts of the Scorpionoid lands that felt like home.

Kei, the designated successor, refused to get her hands involved. “This is a relationship problem between the two. Not something I can fix. I’m staying out of it. I’d rather be recruiting new heroes.”

Chung was stupid.

I just hoped he didn’t walk down a path where he became stupid and dangerous.

I’ve never killed a hero. But if I have to, I believe I can.

***

Stella sent more [Void Explorers] out into the void sea, each in a different direction. There were some unspoken passive effects, such as the higher speed of void explorers, and how the void explorers also moved faster across ‘familiar’ paths.

In short, void explorers moved almost instantly when traveling on existing paths. We have to continue exploring new worlds, only through getting more worlds, we could knit some kind of alliance together.

***

My two new domainholders were on Lavaworld where they tested out their new abilities. Kafa and Ezar were briefed, in totality, of our history, and why we do what we do. It was a recap of things they knew, and an affirmation of loyalty to the cause.

To end the demons. Both were Valthorns, they joined us in our fight in their earlier years, rising through the ranks. Now they have reached the top, and we have to ask them to give even more.

Domain holders.

It made them demigods. They know it. They saw how I imprisoned the Crystal King, and I knew, even if they never said it, that my domainholders would think that they could be on the receiving end of that same treatment.

The next phase of our plan, other than to survive the meteor shower, was to mount a second attack on the Sun-Rings.

Our intention, this time, is to either capture it, or destroy it. Unlike the Demon’s Comet, this was a stationary object, and this time, we would be at the advantage.

After the Comet, and the Meteors, we would be the invaders of the Sun-Rings.

I wouldn’t know when we will be ready, but we will be.

***

Mountainworld. Threeworld. Lavaworld. Tropicworld. It was time to consolidate power. The demands for surviving the coming meteor shower was less intense than the first push towards destroying the Comet. We still had leftover weaponry, and the bulk of the builders focused on space based defenses. The significantly smaller size of each meteor also meant the odds of an existential crisis for Treehome was fairly remote. At best, we’d be dealing with tsunamis.

So, it was time to do what I couldn’t do before. To redirect my attention to domestic affairs, to test out my new abilities, and also, to prepare for the future.

With my newfound abilities, I felt the bubble of reality around these worlds slowly expand outwards, and in doing so, it also extended my range through the void sea.

My Valthorn builders finished the reconstruction of the dwarven kingdom’s capital. They continued to complain about me, but rather than engage them, I decided to pull all my men out. I still had spies, of course, but if the dwarven king continued on his path of hostility, he would soon find himself in an unfortunate accident.

It left a bad taste in my mouth. Once again, I regret being so soft, when I should’ve been more forceful.

Choice. There is an important line somewhere. When do we allow others to make stupid choices? From my point of view, there is always a stupid choice. I can see it, but that’s because I have a perspective they don’t. Or maybe, it’s the other way, they have a perspective I do not share.

One day, a demon king will spawn on another city.

When that time comes, I will give them a taste of Lavaworld, and remind them why they should obey. If they don’t, I’m going to force them out. I will drag them out of their homes, screaming and struggling.

I was wrong to allow them to waste my time. To waste the time of my soldiers, and put those who fight for me at risk.

If given a choice between the life of those who fight for me, and the happiness of these citizens, I know I would choose to save the lives of my soldiers.

Just like with the stubborn Crystal King, I was wrong. There are times when force is necessary. The world is a cruel place, and the demons would not hesitate to destroy us. I cannot allow these people to stop our fight.

So, my Valthorns streamed into the human lands of the Crystal King.

As he predicted, we came as invaders.

We would collect their information. Harvest their knowledge. Learn their magic.

They would not be happy.

But time will undo most wounds, and mortal memories are short indeed.