Tree of Aeons

327

Year 298

“Alright, let’s review our options. Should we try and expand into these new worlds?” Lumoof placed the problem on the metaphorical table. Stella’s exploration brought about two more additional new worlds distant from the existing series of worlds that appeared to be under heavy demonic attack but were still largely surviving, and in addition, there were also the two Darkgard-linked worlds, Darkgard II and Darkgard III. 

Then, Olivia, the high priestess of Hawa, shared two more new peripheral worlds. Peripheral worlds 16th and 17th. 

All in, we had about six more worlds to explore. 

“We can sit around and wait for the time to tick. As it is, our forces and domain holders are stretched. Manpower on all our worlds is tight, and so the teams now extensively rely on local resources. Training of new operatives is going well, but it’ll take time. We can wait another 3 to 5 years, we should have more people to deploy then.” 

The Order, as of now, was a large, sprawling organization with over 5 million members and included many, many more under the auspices of the various Temples. But, the seemingly large 5 million was then spread out over multiple worlds and continents. About half of these 5 million were non-combatants. Crafters, mages, researchers, builders, academy teachers and combat trainers, priests and social workers who helped ensure that the Order was positively perceived by most of the population, and even bankers.

The Central Continent alone hosted about 1.5 million of these non combatants. Even the Valtrian Bank itself had about 200,000 employees spread over thousands of cities. Most of these were mid-leveled individuals. Those around the level 50 to 100 formed the mass of the Order’s bureaucracy, and they handled all the routine tasks. 

Arranging shipments, collecting data. Many of them worked together and were augmented by my artificial minds. In these new worlds, my artificial minds’ reach was limited. My node trees hampered the level of access and data trees could collect, and the connection between artificial minds and these faraway worlds was weak. For the bulk of my forces, quite unlike domain holders who shared a pantheon and thus gained direct access to my artificial minds, the rest of them formed the links to their mental assistants through familiars, and that connection just couldn’t carry as much data and was much less responsive.

It was the earth equivalent of my domain holders having a gigabit connection to a nearby datacenter, and the rest of my order operatives connecting through much lower quality connections. 

The Order operatives who had to make do with what little they had and as conditions improved, they would find themselves supported with more resources. 

Alternatively, if the need was high, then I could deploy a clone. It was quite like deploying a powerful data center in a previously unserved region. A huge commitment, but sadly, a limited one. My clone slots were limited. 

“The two peripheral worlds shave 3 years off the waiting time.” Johann suggested. “It’s hardly worth the effort. We can wait 3 years easily. It’s more of whether these worlds are worth the effort.”

“Then let’s just explore them and leave it at that. So, Darkgard II and Darkgard III-”

“I’ve done a simple survey of the two new worlds, which is why I brought it up. I suspect there may be more domain holders on them or at least, something more powerful, which is why they survived so far.”

“That sounds like they have it sorted out. We should leave it as it is.”

“If there’s something, we can at least lend a hand and move on.” Stella decided to add a title ‘Farworld’ to some of these faraway worlds to denote them as different from the Peripheral worlds. The two new worlds, Farworld Selestar and Farworld Kayeka.

“That sounds agreeable.” Edna said. “Go in, clean up the demons without taking a position-”

Hoyia disagreed. “We will encounter people who need help. People who need structure, order, and purpose amidst the chaos. Even in the best case scenario, we will have to maintain some presence, however miniscule. Once Twinspace clears up, I should have some priests to-”

“I think the zealots of Twinspace should be kept where they are.” Johann countered. Johann wasn’t a fan of the zealots, a position some people of the Order agreed with. Not everyone wanted to be associated with the zealous. 

“Zealots can be educated and changed, Johann.” Hoyia’s voice sounded a little annoyed. “It is not right to confine them to Twinspace when their fervor can be so helpful elsewhere. There are those zealots who can do great things. Passion and strong belief is only a problem when it is misguided.” 

Lumoof agreed. “We cannot avoid integration forever, especially if they need to work with the rest of the Order on the other worlds. Might as well start small. I trust Matriarch Hoyia’s ability to choose the right people for the job.” 

Johann relented with Lumoof’s support. “Very well.”

Within the Order, the Clone Worlds were all technically the primary worlds since moving between them was effortless, and my presence ensured that they could operate with most of the Order’s machinery within easy reach. The Node worlds were then the secondary ranked worlds, where it took a little more effort to deploy the Order’s machinery, and they had to make up for the lack of my Clone Tree’s abilities. 

Then, there were the true ‘faraway worlds’. Worlds linked only by portals and portals alone. 

Alka then spoke up on behalf of Darkgard. “The dwarves want to set off for Darkgard II and Darkgard III. The Delvegardians somehow view these other dwarven-origin worlds as something of a kindred spirit and would like to ‘help’ them. Deploying the dwarves of Delvegard to expand to these worlds would help them buy into their story.”

The dwarves were fascinated that there were people who shared their blood across the stars.

***

Administratively, the domain holders could provide input on their subjects through my mental connection. Even if there was a need to fight demon kings, I could rely on my pantheon and familiar abilities to pull them back instantly. 

“If the sealed god is that of a dwarven god, this track of exploration could lead us to figure out what happened. Not all demon worlds thoroughly eradicate their native population. We should still be able to find old ruins left behind to understand what happened.” Alka advocated expansion to Darkgard II and III. “I would like to lead this exploration.”

The domain holders chatted with each other briefly, but I was in agreement. Understanding how the demon’s prison came to be, could help us figure out how to properly unravel it. It was a wild shot, but the fact that this world was on the other side of the demonic patch of space was also a big plus point.

This could lead us very much closer to the other gods. 

In the end, the domain holders all agreed with some reluctance to do a sweep of these new worlds. 

***

Year 299

Treehome remained largely peaceful. Small wars and conflicts remained throughout the world, but this recent era of peace had significantly boosted trade and the overall wealth of the world. Alas, most of that remained concentrated within the Central Continent. 

The Order tried to share some of that prosperity with the rest of the continent, but it seemed that the local populace took their religion as some kind of shield. A large group seemed adamant to live in their own enclaves and areas and with the help of some power hungry Lord, set up their own areas in the Southern Continent. 

They took advantage of Emperor Erranuel’s absence to separate from the Holy Empire and went as far as claiming Emperor Erranuel’s actions as heretical and contrary to the teachings of Hawa. That Emperor Erranuel was a heretical god.

Naturally, the proper Hawa church denounced these claims, that Emperor Erranuel communed with Hawa himself on Hawa’s worlds and thus is not a heretic. But with the Emperor focused on Shasan and the rest of the Holy Empire weak and fractured, they were in no state to wage a new war against these separatist factions. 

This led to a schism in the Hawa church. The royalists Hawa followers and the anti-monarchist Hawa Followers. 

***

Threehome was also home to two other domainholders. Aria and Aispeng and Lillies seemed quite content where they were, though I did notice they were digging deeper into the ground. They naturally prepared for a retaliation that even I could not handle. 

Lillies was really, really old, and they believed that even the dragons of old, with their immense might could fall. It meant that even my current strength could fall. 

Aria, on the other hand, was just happy to use my [avatar] to explore some of the new worlds, and live in our large cities.

***

Threeworlds was doing well. 

We were recruiting talents from all three of the Threeworld factions. The scorpionoids and centaurs were both capable warriors in different ways, and though we still had some suspicions of their loyalties, in the end we considered them to be a net positive for the entire Order. 

The centaur society did not fully embrace us, but there were few centaur clans that had formed alliances with the Order and regularly sent their warriors to participate in training. 

Zhaanpu remained an ally and we spoke regularly. I sometimes updated him on the things we met across the other worlds, and it seemed that Zhaanpu would love to meet the Osroids one day. Both Zhaanpu and Osroids relied on something similar to death magic, though from my gut assessment, the Osroids were stronger than Zhaanpu by quite a margin, especially without Zhaanpu’s magical pyramid. 

The Crystal King, still imprisoned by my magical tree, had stopped struggling. Instead, it withdrew and turned reclusive. 

Threeworld’s military and industrial output ticked up bit by bit every year, as they had a large previously untapped population, and over the past three to four decades we’d steadily transformed parts of the human-lands and parts of the far north of my Clone Tree into a heavily industrialised area. 

These areas mainly produced high quality basic to mid-tier equipment, rations, and tools and also mid-tier to advanced magical equipment for use throughout the Order’s operations. 

The human lands and Maelga specifically became home to the magical academies for the Order. The Order quickly took control of a few of the prominent academies and used these mage training institutions to feed the Order’s constant need for mage recruits. Magic related to crystals, a resource commonly found on Maelga and some of the surrounding areas, was already an area that the human mages of Maelga excelled in.

The long existing histories of Maelga’s mage academies actually gave them an older heritage than most of Treehome’s magic schools.

Right now, the Order’s magical schools were mainly established on four worlds.

Treehome’s Central Continent was the location of a few hundred magical schools, Threeworld’s Maelga and a few nearby cities was also home to about twenty magical schools, Mountainworld’s Branchhold was where we had a fairly large magical school, and Magisar where the Hero Towers now also hosted about fifteen magic schools. 

We did have smaller institutions on Tropicsworld and a few of the newer peripheral worlds, but these worlds were not in the position to add to the Order’s strength yet.

Maybe one day, we would be able to add Delvegard’s various crafting institutions to our fold as well, but for now, we were content with just draining their brains by offering a much better deal behind the official ruler’s backs. 

***

Branchhold was the largest, most prosperous city of Mountainworld, and over the past few decades, the Order used our neutral position and extensive power to indirectly control the various nations. 

Through a combination of espionage, trade, and corruption, we’d maneuvered politicians and leaders favorable to our cause into positions of power. After the first Level 100 Mountainworld Order operatives a few decades ago, we’d since seen multiple other individuals reach level 100. 

Our current statistics estimated that it took about 50 to 60 years for someone to go from level 1 to Level 100 under the Order’s current training system, so it’d be a few more years when we would start seeing the first Level 100 Threeworlds native. It’d be even later for those from the faraway peripheral worlds.

***

Faraway Worlds - Selestar

Edna, Stella, and Roon stepped out of the portal and arrived in a land inundated by heavy storms. The skies rippled with lightning bolts of different colors, and the rain poured from the heavens relentlessly. 

“So what did you find that brought us here?” Edna said. 

“I don’t really know. My explorer arrived and I faintly detected the presence of something resembling a domain holder, but without being here ourselves, I didn’t want to risk it. There’s also too much of everything else for me to be very sure.” 

Edna looked around, and then back at Roon. “See anything?”

“Nope.” Roon answered and went back to looking. The storm clouds were thick, and seemed to go up much higher than most. And they were also partly magical. The land was muddy, and the vegetation looked as if they were close to buckling from the strong winds and also the weight of the rainwater. 

The clouds were filled with intense magic, as if the leylines of the world found itself in the skies.

Then, a flash of light. Lightning slammed down from one of those thunderclouds. 

Edna’s magical shield buzzed with residual static even as the lightning faded. “Well, death by lightning strike wasn’t in my list of things to watch out for.” 

“Not as strange as that world of storms. But my senses are kinda messed up.” Stella said. Edna realized that her own magical senses were filled with other things. Random bursts of magic. The land would rumble and shake every ten to twenty minutes, as if there were a tremor in some faraway part of the world. “The earth seems to shake all the time.”

“I thought you’d surveyed the place.”

“Just roughly. But I feel like there’s a lot of places that could use a proper exploration force, with some power to back me up.”

“Oh.” Edna grinned. “Well then, Princess, this knight shall escort you and keep you safe, wherever you go.”

Roon rolled his eyes. “Ladies.”

“Yes yes.” Edna said. “So-”

“A bit more.”

Stella led them to a gigantic mountain. It had a strange soil, not because of the soil itself, but because of the tremendous magical energies that flowed out of it. 

The soil was energized and its surface constantly formed into magical golems. These golems would walk for a bit, and then a stray lightning bolt would come down from the constant thunderstorms above and turn the golem into regular soil once more. 

The mountain also had a gigantic cave that had golden crystal walls. It created this path that glowed inwards.

“Well. That’s an entrance.” Edna blinked.

“I know. I stared at it, and I’m like, no. I can’t go in alone.” 

“A wise choice.” Edna teased. “Let’s see-”

Roon stared. “I can’t see a thing in there.”

The trio walked into the cave of golden crystals. There were, surprisingly, no defenders. They walked until they reached a single golden door that opened when they pushed. 

They felt a gust of divine wind when the door opened, and inside, was a golden chamber, filled with multiple items, all radiating divine energy. 

The door closed behind them, and they felt the divine energy rippling outward from the main divine item at the heart of the golden chamber. 

A golden flower. It levitated on top of a pedestal and emitted a golden glow that lit up the entire chamber. 

“Well- a treasury with divine relics.” Edna said. “I expected more defenders.” 

A spirit emerged from the golden flower, and it took the form of a little human boy. “Greetings, visitors, to the tomb of the dead God Zafar.”

“A tomb of a dead god.” Edna looked around. “I do not see a corpse.”

“You are on it, but this is where the last of its divine will faded away.”

“Oh. When did Zafar die?”

The spirit stared, and spoke with borrowed divinity. “I know not how much time passed elsewhere. But here, two hundred and sixty two thousand years.”

“Why did it die?”

“The loss of faith.” The spirit answered. “A foul plot, coupled with the relentless tide of the demons. Zafar’s believers were stolen away, and what was left of Zafar’s true believers were destroyed. The friend that was supposed to come to its rescue did not.”

“How does one plot against a god?” Roon said, amused.

The spirit did not answer. Edna looked around. “So, this world, it is what’s left of Zafar?”

“Yes. Zafar fused with the world in hope to stem off the last of its losses, but it was too late. The loss of its other worlds was too much, and so, unable to maintain its divinity, here it spent the last of its divinity cursing the world to its eternal storm.”

Edna blinked. “Then who made you?”

“I am the last of Zafar’s high prophets and avatars, and here I collected my patron’s last relics and made it his final resting ground. I felt my patron’s fading divinity here, in this very room. Upon his death, I sacrificed myself to create the tomb in his honor.”

“This world used to have people like you?”

“Yes. But they should all be dead. My god’s wrath and anger was too much.”

Edna nodded. “I see. Let’s leave.”

“Wait. Who betrayed your god?” Roon asked, a little curious. 

“Eras.”

Did it? If Eras was imprisoned, was Eras a traitor? Or was the prison not really a prison, but instead a trap? A lure for the other gods to attempt to save Eras, only to be fooled by Eras himself, the real mastermind of the entire demonic scheme? 

Or, was Eras a victim of their own machinations, where the demons outsmarted their creator? 

***

Darkgard II

A demon world was often similar to others, and the immediate sense one got as they stepped across the rift gate and landed on Darkgard II wasn’t a demon world.

Fire and brimstone, the skies filled with thick, blackened smog. There was no visibility for those seeing with regular eyes, and Alka had to immediately rely on magical vision to see through the smog. The grounds were bare and rough and covered in a thick layer of black ash. 

The air itself tasted like ash, with a hint of metal. 

Here, we witnessed a new type of demon. 

These demons were small, smaller than a human, but stronger, beefier. Its skin was black as if covered in decades of soot and smog. In short, they looked like dwarves, imagined as if they were half-demons. 

Lumoof’s wooden roots pierced one, and then we realized that these bodies were not purely demonic, but instead, they were like shells. Because the real mind of these smaller demons was a parasite within them.

No. They were not a new type of demon. Instead, they were bodies bred to serve as vessels of demons.

“Burn them to hell.” Alka cursed as he tore apart one of these demons just to see what’s inside. A parasite wriggling within, thoroughly integrated to the outer shell as if it was one. 

We tore through multiple of these demons, and Lumoof tried to specifically target the demonic parasite. Killing the parasite left these bodies nothing more than just mindless biological automatons. 

“This is a parasite world that infested a world of dwarves.” 

Then we discovered the breeding pools where the demons cloned these dwarven bodies by the thousands. Large industrial-like facilities filled with hundreds if not thousands of liquid-filled sacs, each growing a body made of part metal and part flesh, supplied with resources from the terrain. 

Dwarven physical bodies turned into templates for parasitic hosts. These demon-possessed dwarves spoke to each other normally, somehow capable of speech. There were variations to these demonic dwarven husks, but at this point, it just repulsed us.

They were all demons.

The demons themselves were separately bred in their own demonic spawning pools, but the demonic parasite and their bodies were later introduced to each other. There were hundreds of them as we kept exploring the world.

Everywhere we went we saw layers of soot and a world drained of all semblance of life, all to fuel the demonic army. They used real weapons, spawned from the metallic chambers, and it didn’t take much to figure out that they were preparing for an invasion of another world. 

“I had not imagined a total puppet state.” Lumoof said. “This is something else.”

Alka shook his head as he too struggled to contain his anger. He spent enough time with the Delvegardians to share in their respect for the dwarven way. “I can only imagine the Delvegardian’s wish to raze this world to the ground.”

Lumoof nodded along. “I guess there are times where Aeon’s phrase, ‘nuke it from orbit’ is appropriate.”

Darkgard II was fairly uniform throughout its surface. The demonic parasites turned the entire world into a massive body factory, and they prepared to send this to wage war on other worlds. 

“Enough.” Alka said, holding back his deep anger. There was something so perverse about parasites pretending to be dwarves that made his blood boil, and the world resonated with the domain holder’s rightful anger. “We will deal with this. Later.”

My avatar tapped the dwarf on the shoulder. “Let’s go see the other world.”

***

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