Tree of Aeons (an Isekai Story)

334. Outside Rings

Year 309

A demon king. It’s something that hardly draws much attention these days. Not the fanfare or the anxiety or the intense planning from their earlier days. Everything was fairly standardized. There were pre-made packs of magical explosives, two boxes of magical sensors to confirm the demon king’s arrival location, and many more other tools meant to soften their foe.

The air shifted. 

Lausanne stood and she could feel, through Aeon, the warping of space. The road through the void sea, created by the demons to Three Ringed World, loomed overhead. 

Even though the Order had fulfilled its obligations to Hawa for the new divine weapon, the demon king remained a great source of experience, and hence, she remained to face it. Her spear thrummed with power, as star mana flowed through the weapon. It was strong and  could grow even stronger. She could hear its voice in her head, a sign of their bond. A living weapon, linked to her. 

She looked around. 

There were a few of her peers, some preparing, some just lazing about waiting for the moment.

“Are you seriously still holding onto your choices?” Lausanne said to Ebon. “Feels like you’re coming to this fight with one of your hands behind your back.”

“I am not beyond foolish behavior, milady.” Ebon smiled. “Allow me to indulge in such silliness.” 

Lausanne would’ve scolded him if he wasn’t a domainholder. But with Aeon’s resurrection ability, all he wasted really was time. His time. Ebon himself didn’t seem to think it was much of a waste. “Well, if you say so.” 

Edna, Lumoof and Stella were faraway on the various Sun-Rings, and that left the rest of the demon kings in their hands. There were no node trees on the Three Ringed World, and so the heroes couldn’t be here to help. 

But they were enough. They knew they were. 

The demon king emerged from the broken barriers of reality, where the two worlds are briefly tied together by a magical tube.

A wave of explosions quickly softened the demon king, and Lausanne’s star mana powered attacks were next. “Well, keep the demon king occupied.”

“Got it, got it.”

Her spear slammed into the demon king’s body like a powerful projectile, and the gigantic demon king staggered backwards. 

She felt nice. Her attacks visibly hurt the demon king and each of her strikes left a mark. Even her colleagues, like Roon and Johann who were higher leveled, didn’t hurt the demon king as much as she did.

The demon king died eventually. Even without Edna, Lumoof, or Stella, there were still too many domain holders against a demon king that was fairly average in terms of strength.

An uneventful death, and for most of them, one or two levels.

But they were increasing in power. Ebon could gain levels, even if he didn’t make a choice. Lausanne found that rather strange, but then again, the system sometimes awarded multiple levels at one go. There was no reason to lock them just because he didn’t make a choice. 

***

The Erasian Temple of the Sun-Rings VI was in the worst condition of any of the six. It was a massive crater ruined by tremendous explosions, and it was a surprising miracle that Erasian rift gates somehow survived. 

There were multiple battles here, the walls of these underground chambers still bore their ancient scars. Huge wrecks and then, the three domain holders felt the system’s notification, and in Stella’s case, she felt the swirl of void mana right above the wrecked temple.

Then, she even felt the [system]’s warning.

[Demon King Defender arriving]

A small demon king arrived, the size of a small, dwarven creature, and it smashed into Edna’s shields the moment it completed its warp. “Well, where did you come from?”

The small demon king seemed perfectly designed to counter humanoid heroes, and its dark axes were charged with void mana. Edna and the demon king exchanged blows a few times, before Lumoof and Stella quickly stepped in.

“No, you don’t.” Lumoof countered and a huge explosion of vines wrapped around the demon king. Edna’s own swords and spears slammed into the demon king, and three against one wasn’t a fair fight.

The creature attempted to struggle, but my vines were too strong for it. It shot multiple magical energy blasts that attacked the walls, or smashed into Edna’s shields.

I wasn’t prepared to convert it at this point, as I’d not made the preparations for one, so we decided to just crush it. The creature crumbled to dust once our vines wrapped around the demon king’s core and crushed it. 

The sixth Sun-Rings was in a fairly terrible state, and the underground chambers weren't completely underground. Instead, there were five large holes clearly caused by some catastrophic battle that linked the underground chambers to the surface of the Sun-Rings. 

The three continued to walk and survey the area, before a voice interrupted them.

“Survivors?” The voice came from a building. Edna’s senses were heightened, and she immediately turned the moment she heard it. 

“I heard something from that building.” The other two nodded and there, in a half-collapsed building, there was a suit of metal armor resting on a still glowing magical pattern. The handiwork of the shining metal armor was excellent, as if made by Eras himself.

Lumoof’s spiritual eyes could see a spirit living within the armor, and so he squatted in front of the metal armor. “I know you’re in there. I can see spirits lingering within.”

The helmet’s visor snapped open to reveal just a glowing eye. “You can see me?”

“Yes. I said I can, didn’t I?” Lumoof smiled as his eyes continued to investigate the magical formations that kept the magical armor charged. It likely didn’t generate much magical energy, since the entire area was flooded with void mana. “What are you, and what happened here?” 

“I am Rukhran, an Erasian Sentinel Rank Three. There was a battle here against the invading demons.” 

“The demons invaded this place? Was it always like this?”

“No. My records cannot be accessed  at this moment, and I was asleep for an unknown amount of time. The spiritual formations were only barely enough to keep me alive, and so I-”

“A mana potion?” Edna offered, suspecting the lack of magical energy prevented full recollection of its memories. 

The suit of armor grabbed the mana potion, and extended a finger into the glass container. Once it touched the mana-dense liquids, it somehow drained it through touch. The entire suit of armor was immediately rejuvenated, and so it stood up. “My apologies, and thank you. I have not had a full charge in a long time.”

Lumoof saw the creature’s spirit expand to fill the entirety of the armor. “Well, would you come with us and tell us what happened? What is the history of this place?”

“I am a creation of Eras, our almighty lord.” Rukhran answered. “We and my many brothers were placed here, on Sun-Rings Alpha, for deployment to the rest of the Sun-Rings. But alas, a great shadow emerged while we were all asleep. When that shadow faded and we awoke to find the entirety of the Inner Chambers dead. We attempted to make contact with the rest of the Erasian worlds but were unable to do so. Then, those demonic creatures attacked us.”

“Your brothers?” 

“There are many suits of armor like me, and ten of them are far stronger than me. They are the Sentinel Elites, and they can fight toe to toe with even the strongest of those demons. It is their battle with these foul creatures that left the entire chamber in its current state.” Rukhran answered as they stepped outside. “I was on hibernation to recharge myself after the battles.” 

Most of the inner chambers were destroyed. The battles were clearly furious because there was not a single untouched building. 

“Who is Eras?”

“Eras is my creator. He is my god, and if you want further information you must visit the Crucible of Eras or the Library of Eras. It is there we retain most of the Erasian Lores.”

“If it remains.”

“It must remain.” Rukhran answered. 

“How many years were you left here?”

“I estimate between ten to fifteen thousand years.” Rukhran answered. “I was in a long period of hibernation.”

“Fine, fine. Ten to fifteen thousand years and no one attempted to make contact with the Sun Rings. That is not a good sign.” Stella concluded and then as we reached the far end of the inner chambers, we stopped as we felt something coming from one of the gigantic holes in the wall. 

The three glanced at each other, and then we walked further inside to find a wrecked suit of armor far larger than Rukhran. It still retained a faint divine presence.

“Brother Jorkun. Are you there?” Rukhran walked to the wrecked suit of armor and immediately touched it. The three felt an immediate transfer of magical energies between Rukhran and the wrecked suit of armor. 

The stone shook momentarily, as the pieces of the wrecked suit of armor began to float and reconstituted themselves into a far larger suit of armor.

“Do you mind sharing more mana potions?” Rukhran asked. “Brother Jorkun needs a lot more mana.”

Edna checked her magical pouch and tossed three more over. The bottles of mana were emptied just by touch, and now there were two of them.

“I am Jorkun, Erasian Sentinel Elite.” The newly reconstituted giant war armor was far larger, and already Edna could see what caused the huge battle. The faint divine energies in the armor somehow regained their divinity, and the spiritual fragment that was once a small, tiny flicker now covered the entire armor. “I thank you for the magical replenishments. Has the intruder been dealt with?”

“Yup.” Edna answered. 

“Are you three from the outer Erasian Worlds? Your features appear to be human and should only be found in the outer worlds.” Jorkun asked, as the war armor began to walk. “My magical scanners are unable to fully read your strength and there appears to be the presence of the other gods. Are you three divine representatives?”

“Sort of, sort of. Now more importantly, what happened here, I believe we can help each other.”

“Brother Jorkun is great for helping! He has far more stored memories of the Erasian Worlds and records about Erasian ways!” Rukhran answered enthusiastically.

Lumoof’s spiritual senses continued to inspect the two and we realized they were not artificial souls, even if they spoke strangely. They were both complete souls, even if their forms were slightly different. The more we looked at it, the more we felt that both of them were likely made by Eras by hand. 

“Jorkun, why were you sent here?” 

“An unknown number of years ago, I estimate between 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, Eras felt that there was a need for stronger defenses on the Six Great Solar Rings, and so created us, the ten Sentinel Elites and the two thousand Sentinels Rank One to Three, for deployment on each of the Six Great Solar Rings.”

“What is the purpose of Solar Rings?” Stella asked. 

“They are gigantic mana generators to create a huge void mana sun. Eras and the wandering God Wadra intended to restore the connection between the gods, and do so with a network of Erasian Gates to be placed on all the different worlds. Wadra’s creatures and nomadic believers would take the Erasian Gates with them, and with the void sun at its heart, rebuild the long lost connection between the various worlds.” 

The three domain holders stared at each other. “So the black sun is a gigantic battery to power the Erasian Gates?”

“Yes. The Solar Rings would feed the void sun and also act as great beacons for each of the Erasian Gates’ internal coordinates.” 

“Do you believe that there is a possibility that Eras created the demons?”

“My patron and creator would do no such thing.” Jorkun answered firmly. “The demons have been around for a long time.”

“But at this moment, the demons have somehow supplanted the void sun and have now used the void sun to spread the demons.” Lumoof said, while our senses continued to probe the thing. Jorkun appears to be unfazed. “Just like the demon king that now intrudes on the solar rings.”

Jorkun started to speak, but then it stopped. It stopped and looked around. Then later, it glanced upwards at the great Sun-Rings. “It appears, then, that we have been misled.”

“Misled?” 

“We were told that the demons were a plague that was spreading across the worlds, and our lord creator Eras believed it. But if you claim that the void sun is now used to power the demons’ spread, then I can only say that the Wadra’s faithful are behind this, because only their god and that god’s closest aides are familiar with the ways of the Solar Rings and the grand magical void latticework.” 

“We have never heard of the Wadrans before this.” Lumoof countered.

“They are a fading band. I can only theorize that they have used us to arrest their fading powers.” 

The three domain holders shared a look, and we wondered how trustworthy this Jorkun was. “Then who created the demons? Wadra?”

“Demons have existed since the first gods. This form that uses the void sun’s power to spread,  are not these original demons. You managed to come to the Solar Rings, are you able to travel to the others? I wish to see more of these demons, and verify my conjectures.”

Stella looked at the suit of armor, and then at Lumoof. “Should we?”

“No harm. Is there a demon world nearby? There should be one.” 

“Yup.” Stella nodded, and so a portal of void opened, connecting their present location to the nearest planet. It was a demon infested world. The three domain holders and the two suits of armor landed on it.

“Rukhran, stand down.” Jorkun commanded. “Non-combat mode. We are here to scout and verify. If we are the last two Sentinels remaining, then we must survive to bring news back to Eras.”

“So Eras lives?”

“I am a creation of Eras, and if I live, Eras must as well.” Jorkun answered as he moved quickly to tear apart a few of the demons. But it did so as if trying to investigate their structures. “It seems my conjecture is incomplete. My current conjecture still believes that the Wadrans started this, but these demons do not contain any Wadran influence in them. If anything, it is likely that the Wadrans lost control over the demonic horde.” 

“A runaway creation of a god.” Lumoof frowned. 

“Wadra, as far as I knew, did not seek to destroy the world. If I extrapolate their past behavior, at most, they seek to rule it. The destructive tendencies of these demons do not support Wadran control.” 

“Well, nothing’s changed then. But so, the Void Sun. Is that where your god is stored? Would you know how to break this barrier?”

Jorkun glanced upward from the surface of the demonic world, and the void barrier was a large black sheet that made a portion of the sky pitch black. 

A portion of the sky, starless and dark. 

“No. But the Erasian worlds are behind them. I can feel them there. We must reach them.”

***

“Do you think we can believe it?” Lumoof asked me through our connection.

“I don’t know. But it doesn’t change what we need to do. We must reach the black sun and end the demonic scourge that plagues so many worlds. We can let it remain on these Sun-Rings while we venture further.”

With the six Sun-Rings explored, now our attention shifted to the worlds around these five other Sun-Rings. From Sun-Rings IV, we were able to reach a part of the void sea that was further away from us. 

A world inhabited by the believers of Gaya, and behind that world, many more Gayan worlds.

“Well, let’s go make contact with a god.” Stella said. “I hope it’s friendly.”