Tree of Aeons (an Isekai Story)

330b. Invasive Species

Year 301 Part 2

“A dive into the Sun-Rings?” Lumoof paused as Alka explained his theory. The discoveries on the world of Darkgard III and the ancient, preserved records of the dwarves suggested the possibility of some old ruins hidden deep within the Sun-Rings, from an era when Sun-RIngs were a recent creation of Eras.

If they were really a creation of Eras, of course.

“Is there a possibility that they are actually talking about the three-ringed world, rather than the Sun-Ring?” Lumoof questioned. After all, the descriptions recorded within those old tomes appeared to be tales of Eras as told by the high priests and avatars of that ancient era. 

But I soon remembered that the Three-Ringed world, sadly, lacked any old records of its older times, and our brief contact with the Will of the Three Ringed world did not suggest it had links to the god of craft.

It was thus unlikely. 

“It feels like a trap, though. If we are within the Sun Rings and not on the surface, there’s just something more dangerous about such enclosed spaces.” Lumoof frowned, perhaps, inheriting a bit of disdain for closed spaces.

“If there’s any trap that’s ten thousand years old still functioning, I kinda gotta give it credit.” Alka countered.

“Fair enough. Who’d you want?”

“At least you and Edna. And Roon.” 

“Very well. We’ll do that after we deal with a demon king.”

“Fine, fine.” Alka shrugged. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to get Lumoof to move until after the Mountainworld’s demon king. Our recent capture of the demon mother and experiments on the [Stem Mass] also brought us a wee bit closer towards actually attempting a capture of a demon king. 

Year 302

We needed to have the mana from a few more worlds. 

I now had 4 clone trees unused, and these clone trees would function best on worlds where I intended to maintain a strong presence. Conveniently, there was also a test case coming up. Mountainworld was finally under attack from the demon king. 

Again. It certainly felt like I had just dealt with a demon king from Mountainworld. Has it been 15 years already?

“Let’s plant a clone tree on Landas.” Lumoof suggested. “It’s a large world, and the elves are heavily in our favor. This means this is an easy world to expand. Or, have the Clone Tree in the world of Twinspace.”

“I would like that.” Hoyia agreed. “The zealots deserve to witness the greatness of our god, and the weight of a clone would be immense.”

Strategically, the conditions of the new continent, the prosperity and the general dominance of the Temple of Aeon’s zealots also meant that it would be a friendly place. I would be able to significantly expand and further influence the zealots with my abilities directly.

So, I shortlisted Twinspace for a clone. 

But where else? 

In terms of raw magical power, Gigantadragon was also quite high up. The unusually strong nature ley line power meant I could probably access the equivalent of one and a half worlds with it. 

But I couldn’t just cut it without some margin. From what I’d seen in the demon mother’s recorded memories, the demon kings had multiple countermeasures if they found themselves in an unfavourable situation. They would likely attempt self destruction or send a warning to request for reinforcements. 

The demon mother’s memories also did not have any frame of reference of the strength of the other demon kings, only its own. After Patreeck ran some models, it was likely we needed an additional five to seven new worlds to be able to confidently take on and attempt to overpower most demon kings through pure magical energy alone.

Even if we based it on our existing model, we probably could take on certain weaker demon kings now.

Since Mountainworld would soon face a demon king, I thought it was appropriate that we gave it a shot. 

***

Darkgard II.

Parasites. Lumoof picked up a group of them and chucked them into multiple biolabs for studies. These dwarven-looking demonic husks were examined repeatedly. 

Alka hoped that there was some semblance of intelligence in them. 

But none.

The only thing dwarven about them was how they looked like dwarves. But other than that, these husks were thoroughly demonic, and so, the decision was an easy one. We would have to purge the world of these parasites. 

With that determined, Alka returned to Darkgard I and Darkgard III to prepare the dwarves on both worlds for the coming invasion of their sister planet.

The liberation of Darkgard III brought about massive changes to that once-demon controlled world. The once unmoving world, a part of it constantly burning from the heat of their sun, started to move. 

The planetary core of Darkgard III was like an engine that was long asleep. Even so, its stored energy was heavily consumed by the demons, and so it was much, much weaker than it once was. Just like Tropicsworld, it would take decades for it to regain its old strength. 

But first, the demon mother. The demon mother of Darkgard II was fairly easy to find, and just like with Darkgard III, I wanted to do the same thing. I wanted to know how many [Stem masses] I could control at any point, and in a rather fun twist of irony, each [Stem Mass] made it easier for me to conquer more [Stem Mass].

In a snowball fashion, I explored what ways to use the [Stem Mass] and realized there were two good ways of using them.

One, as mana producing stores. Using the [Titan Frames]. it was possible to reshape these [Stem Masses] into mana generating existences. This was due to their history as demon kings that stored and produced tremendous levels of mana. Most of that ability was lost when they transformed into their ‘mother’ forms, but what remained was still pretty damned good.

The second way was to use them to offset the demonic corruption. In mathematical terms, these demon mothers were designed to corrupt things, but the very abilities they used to corrupt things could be reversed through my power, and so, it was actually possible to use [Stem Masses] to assist in the capture of demon mothers, even if they were not strong enough to do so individually. This ability would most likely help when we attempted to overwhelm a demon king and convert it into one of us. 

“Do you think you can do a few this month?” Edna quipped over our shared senses as Lumoof dived into the pits of Darkgard II, accompanied only by the new form of the [Aeonic Stem Mass]. [Counterdemon Mass] was a giant green mass filled with green vines attached to Lumoof.

“I hope so.” Lumoof said. If we could free multiple demon worlds from the hold of demons, even if we couldn’t be there to rehabilitate them, it would still stop the decline.

The demon mother at the heart of Darkgard II was fairly similar to its sister on Darkgard III, with an exception. It actually attempted to corrupt Lumoof, only to be burned by that spiritual connection. After that single contact, it seemed to realize it had no chance and started to flee.

It was no use.

Lumoof caught up to it and through our [Natural Mana Overwhelming], our energies spread quickly. The [Counterdemon Mass] helped to guide the mana such that it was able to perfectly offset the demon’s defenses, and it produced some mana of its own that helped speed up the process.

It was a brief moment, because our mana now moved swiftly and precisely through its entire body, and so, the demon mother was now a second [Stem Mass].

“You’ll run out of Titan Frames, three to four could be equal to a single world’s passive mana generation.” 

As with the first [Stem Mass], we saw a dream. The dream was similar, and again, the data points from the second demon mother pointed to the same signal emitter worlds. 

Then, once that was removed, Lumoof attached himself to the hollowed planetary core of Darkgard II and began to purge it of demonic mana.

This process took three weeks, as Lumoof himself sat at the heart of the core. On the surface, the demonic parasites were still untouched. These creatures had no way of traveling to the core.

The three worlds were freed.

***

It happened just as suddenly, as the three world’s cores and suns emitted a strange presence. All three worlds seemed to reach through the void sea and touched each other. 

It was at that moment, that I saw another dream.

A voice. There were three voices. It was one voice. 

“We were once whole, and forced apart. Thanks to you, we are now whole once more.”

The newly united will of Darkgard flooded me with memories of a truly ancient time. Perhaps a few hundred thousand years ago.

“Eras. Our world’s creator and patron of the dwarves, the machines, the hermits, and the serpents of the deep. The dwarves will walk on these three worlds once more, a blessing from us, from the Will of the World to the children who persevered. We were once a collection of worlds called Erasia, but in honor of our saviors, we shall rename ourselves as Darkgard.”

It was at that moment that the entire dwarven population received a great blessing on all the dwarves of the three worlds. One even Alka received.

[Darkgard’s Blessing - Enhanced Lifespan. Greatly Enhanced Fertility. Greatly Enhanced Health and Growth Rate. Experience Gain Increased. Blessings of Darkgard Will Expire in 100 years.]

“May our dwarven children return to greatness once more.”

Darkgard must have been incredibly powerful in its prime, which was why it could be separated into three worlds. The fact that it could even create a powerful Blessing was something we’d not encountered before.

The changes to the three Darkgard worlds were impressive, as even Darkgard II demonic parasites were soon under attack from newly spawned monsters. 

The blessings were enjoyed by anyone who had lived in these three worlds. With renewed energy and the blessings of the land itself, even our warriors felt stronger and healthier. So, Darkgard II was soon purged of its demonic parasites. 

***

On Twinspace, Hoyia found a location at the heart of the New continent. A place of incredibly strong magical leylines and great mineral richness. A place to locate the new Clone.

Hoyia decided to pay homage to New Freeka and decided to name the city that would soon be the great pilgrimage site of all the zealots of Twinspace after the world itself. To reflect the union of old and the new tree.

I had extensive leeway to shape how I appear, as long as it was a tree. 

I could be a tree in the shape of a dragon, though, it would still be a tree. For Twinspace, she wanted to name the city Twintrees, and so, asked that if a clone appeared, it should be as if two trees were entangled together like a knot and that the trees should have slightly different colors.

It wasn’t a problem, and so, Twintrees was founded at the heart of the new continent.

As my new clone spread its roots into the soil of Twinspace, I felt a new connection snap into my mind.

A link to its Will of the World, and as with the others, a dream. 

An image of prosperity. Of two prosperous regions. Of the demons manipulating the ley lines so that the prosperity of two continents was now redirected to only one.

Ah. 

***

Mountainworld. 

The demon king arrived, and my domain holders were ready. At first, the demon king was scheduled to arrive at a particular location above a city, but thanks to improved knowledge and recent research by my void mages, as a result of our recent [Stem Mass] and past studies on how their rift gates worked, my void mages tried to meddle with it’s coordinates.

It took Stella and an entire army of void mages, and we were not able to shift it very far, but the very fact that we were able to cause its arrival location to move just slightly outside of a city’s location was a huge success.

At least, we had alternatives to moving an entire city.

The success gave Stella a few levels, and now she was next, closer to the Level 200. Not only that, one of her void archmages, Veter, was now in the high level 140s and hopefully should make it to a domain soon.

***

No matter what it was, after the successes with the demon mothers, it was time we took it to the next level. 

“I’ve got to sit this one out.” Lausanne and the heroes were in an entirely different world altogether. There was a magical projection for them to watch the war. It was still an extremely expensive endeavour at this point, with magical resources to maintain such long range projection still heavily dependent on my network of clone trees and artificial minds.

But one day, this magical world would see something akin to television.  “That makes you one of us.” Colette laughed, the [Liberated Hero] looking absolutely relaxed as Lausanne took her seat in the viewing gallery. The rest of the heroes sat, most of them looked somewhat stressed.

A heavy helping of tea was served. It would calm their nerves. A lot of them wanted to be there for the fight. The voice in their hearts called them to do so.

The hero class compelled them to fight. 

But for now, it was suppressed. Kei sat next to the domain holder. “So, Aeon’s going to try to take over a demon king.”

“It’s been attempted to some degree.” Lausanne nodded. “But let’s see what happens.”

***

“Alright, no star mana.” Lumoof repeated, the rift wobbling as Stella and the void mage’s manipulation kicked in. “Everyone checked their gear?”

“Yup.” Edna smiled, it was the third time he had asked. The demon king was a corrupted dragon of some sort. The creature’s wings were a mixture of rotten flesh and burning magma, while the body was a scaly lattice of charred stone and magma. 

The domain holders stood and faced the demon king, a shockwave swept through the region as it arrived. Yet, perhaps due to our sensitivity and familiarity with demon kings, it seemed confused. 

This was not where it was supposed to land. 

“Alright. Let’s soften this thing up and see whether we can turn it into one of our own.” Edna declared and charged first. Her spears glowed with power, as her [Martial Paragon]’s abilities kicked in. Her spears slammed into the gigantic demon dragon and made it stagger a few steps backward, each spear creating a small crater of its own. 

I had mana stored up in multiple worlds and added additional mana storage potatoes and gems just for this battle. Many of these potatoes would not last beyond the month, the amount of concentrated magic stored in them made them unstable. 

Ten domain holders, excluding Lausanne, struck the demon king, and it weakened with each attack. Lumoof’s avatar form created gigantic roots that trapped the demon king and ensured it was weakened. 

The battle dragged on a little, mainly because we wanted to shave off the creature’s spiritual energy.

All while I kept tabs on its relative strength. Now that we’d encountered so many demon kings, I could largely estimate their strength based on the density of their spiritual presence. The demon king’s soul, if it could be called one, was more like an artificial soul than an actual soul. It lacked the sort of will and independence that made a soul its own person. 

In a way, a demon king was a supersized self-replicating nanobot. Grey goo, in demon form. Any spiritual imprint or form it took, was something produced by the demon mother in combination with the core of the planet. 

But once the demon king’s power was below the halfway mark, I gave the sign and the process began.

It started by keeping the creature in check. Edna activated a series of ten massive glass spears and slammed into parts of the demon king. It kept the demon king locked in place. 

Lumoof went next, as he activated my spiritual shadow. [Aeon’s Spirit]. My massive tree appeared right next to the demon king and my roots pierced the beast easily.

I found the demon core in an instant and started the process. 

I flooded the creature with my mana. The sheer amount of mana flooding through my body and into the demon king made the weakened demon king whimper and struggle in surprise as my natural mana began to overwrite its inbuilt demonic commands.

The [Stem Masses] appeared right next to me and they helped. 

The demon king struggled some more, as the entirety of the demon king’s flesh melted away. Or tried to. 

The domain holders each immediately grabbed hold of the demon king and prevented it from shrinking. 

My mana continued to flood the core and its immediate vicinity, and I saw the core start to change color. A sheen of green started to emerge.

I couldn’t do this with the defeated demon king cores. Once the demon king was defeated, the cores turned into objects, instead of the vessel of the artificial soul.

The green on its soul started to grow. Through my mana and my roots, I gazed into its’ artificial-ish soul. My mana flowed into the dried lands and began to turn it into something else. 

Greenery began to spread, as fields of grass started to replace the demon king’s dried, barren wastelands. Just a bit more.

The demon wriggled in shock, and then, a secondary defensive mechanism activated. I attempted to interrupt it, but unfortunately it was a step faster. It refused to let itself submit to my power in time. 

With nothing more than just a whimper, the demon king’s core shattered in half. It was quite anticlimactic. 

I cursed. “We were so close!!”

The rest of the flesh fell onto the ground as if they were a ragdoll. The demon king was defeated, a celebration everywhere. For me and my artificial minds, I had more work to do. 

[You’ve gained two levels. You are now Level 270]

[Natural Mana Overwhelming’s conversion effects upgraded.]

[New Domain Skill Unlocked : Soul’s Expropriation.]

[When a target is sufficiently weakened or close to death, you are now able to extend your spiritual influence to control the target’s soul, reinforce the targeted soul, interrupt or disrupt any skill or curses within the target soul, and/or remove any other external influences from target soul]

Though we’ve achieved a fairly easy victory, I still did not achieve the goal of converting a demon king. 

I wondered whether the demon’s sun could sense it. Because at that moment, there was a subtle wobble in the riftgate’s path across all the worlds.