Tree of Aeons Treeple-agents

Treeple-agents

Year 200

It wasnt very hard to identify the demon-infested kingdoms, since, with the recent events, they declared themselves quite publicly. The demons as a whole was not a functional kingdom, since the citizens, comprised of possessed demons.

They, sadly, cleverly used the population as a at shield. The population all had demonic larva in them that were not fully infested, such that these populations could still interact and talk like normal, though, with so ntal controls. Those who struggled or resisted the demonic control were quickly fully infested, or killed.

When I started offensively expanding my trees into these demonic-parasite kingdoms, I noticed a glaring weakness.

The demons could not detect my presence. They had so sense of their own, but as parasites, they mostly leeched off the senses of their hosts. And if their hosts did not notice , they didnt either.

That ant, with Stella and void mages, I could observe the demons without outside intervention!

First thing I noticed was how absolutely ordinary so of these villages were, except for a few villagers who clearly had demonic appendages throughout their body. No one reacted to it, even those we could still detect the presence of a soul.

Even as a dormant or larva form, the demons were clearly able to alter or change minds. There was no other reason why these people, who clearly retained so of their own cognitive abilities, accepted these demons so easily.

I therefore classify the demons into three categories, though the line between the infested stage and transford stage is very thin

The larva possession stage. Demon is embedded within a living person, and the demon parasite controls the host via so kind of mind control. At this stage, they are able to use skills, and they can still be saved. Multiple larva can actually be inside the sa body, so the larva possession stage can still infect othersThe infested stage, where the demons have killed the host soul and the body started to breed other larvas. At this stage, they are essentially demons, but with the appearance of regular people.The transford stage, where the demonic presence can be visibly seen.

On top of these three stages, we have the demon champions, who are at the larva-possession stage, but are able to either steal, or mind-control and simultaneously rge it with their own demon champion abilities.

Those who were still in the larva possession stage continued to live relatively normal lives, though they focused on eating. Now that they did not have to keep up any semblance of a society, they abandoned things like paperwork and trade. The demonic parasites reorganised their society such that the larva-possessed collected food centrally.

That said, they continued to produce weapons and equipnt, which these demons used.

These demons were able to use equipnt, including magical equipnt. Could they use hero items? As we continued to observe, we noticed the transford demons taking charge. We kept spreading our trees, and noticed even more cities infested with demons, and finally found the prey we wanted.

A champion.

No. There were two of them.

We knew they were champions, because the transford demons deferred to them. The way all these humanoid demons obeyed their commands.

Both the human King and Queen had a champion in them, and if we strained our magical sensors a little, we could pick up their masked magical powers. Their strength was self-evident, it rippled outwards in little motions.

These human bodies are so fragile. The possessed King said to the Queen.

Would you rather possess a lizard, then?

If it is a big one, yes. The King laughed, strangely human. How did they speak? Or are you referring to the Lizardfolk?

The Queen did not respond.

No matter. Let us wait for the True King.

We knew, with certainty, that these champions could not possess . I saw how the champions were torched by Ednas soul. I wanted to capture these demon champions, and so I asked Stella and the void mages to rest for two days. I needed them at their best when I pushed my powers through their portals.

It wasnt hard to find them after the two days. The two champions were incredibly confident. They walked about their kingdom with no guards, no defenders. Not necessary, when the demons as a whole respected and obeyed their inherent hierarchy.

I initially tested the concept on the demon parasites, the lesser larva to the effects of my mana. It killed them. They were just fragile to most things when not in a host. But I had a feeling it would work on the champions.

Alright, be ready, because Im going to attack a demon champion. I told Stella. I had my labs and everything on standby.

Ready. Stella understood my plans to study the demon champions, though she didnt quite agree with having a war of the parasites.

The two champions were apart. One was with so of the possessed, and the Queen was with a small battalion of demonic knights. These knights were no longer human, though they looked every bit like it.

I readied my artificial minds, and went for it.

Sowhere nearby, I imdiately created two [Giant Attendant Trees]. These helped amplify my aura and power. Then, at the sa ti, roots shot out from the ground, and imdiately wrapped the two of them. They reacted quickly, but their response was to attack my roots.

The two demon champions both released a huge burst of fla that burnt the entire city, taking down a huge number of other demons with it, but it failed to burn through my trees.

Heroes? The King yelled as it transford, and the demonic appendages fought the hundreds of vines and roots that spawned from the ground.

It was like two masses of snakes or eels with different colors wrestling in shallow waters. They were no match for . Not with my current levels of power.

They struggled hard, and they resisted. But I didnt an to kill them.

I flooded them with my mana.

The eyes of the possessed King widened in fear. -no!

It was ti for the corruptor to be corrupted.

Its ti for reverse wololo~

Stella struggled, but she worked with a team of Void mages to stabilise the portals as huge amounts of mana was pumped through the portals. A few fainted, and they had to swap. But now, her school of void mages numbered in the hundreds, and this was within the sa world.

My mana flooded the demon champions, and in the end, one of them decided to self-destruct, than to submit to my influence. The body of the King splattered into mush.

The champion that inhabited the Queen was not so lucky. My roots and vines penetrated the body, and found the champions true body. A large hairy worm-like creature lived in the husk, and my mana flooded it.

The champion struggled, and I sensed its panicked flailing. It killed its host at that mont, but the body was still alive. Shit.

Was it going to run?

A chrysalis of wooden vines and roots erged around the captured body, a vessel for the conversion. The demons in the surrounding area and the nation, who were not destroyed by the demonic flas, went wild, and they ran towards our location at full speed.

I spawned beetles by the hundreds and thousands, and blocked them off. Horns went through, and helped lead the defense of the wooden shell.

The demons rushed by the thousands, and the beetles fought off the demonic hordes from the surrounding nations for hours. My artificial minds supported the battle, as I focused on capturing the demon champion..

It took hours, as my mana gradually worked its way through the demon champions real body.

Strangely, no demon champion ca. Not even from the nearest kingdom, which hosted more demon champions. Just more regular stuff.

The demonic larva attempted to infiltrate the beetles, and so succeeded. But the beetles had extrely strong, demonic-resistant carapaces, and it was easy to tell which beetle was infected, since we would lose control of the beetle.

Horns, for example, couldnt be infested, simply because my artificial minds were all linked to at a fundantal level. My domain powers maintained the link with them, and that linked burned any attempted infestations.

The battle lasted for two days, and Stella was exhausted. She didnt sleep for two days, as my own trees and vines back ho supported her.

The demon champion finally caved.

[Natural Mana Overwhelming has converted a Demonic Infestor Champion]

[You converted the demon into an Aeonic Infestor Champion.]

[The Skill Natural Mana Overwhelming has been upgraded]

The wooden chrysalis opened, and revealed that sa human queen, but different. Her eyes were green, and her voice ethereal. She retained so of her-demonly features, but there were parts where it was clearly wooden. Her skin now had a greenish tone, instead of the original dark-red of the demons.

The infestor kept the host, though the host changed as a result.

Stella was already at her breaking point, it was only my own energies that kept her awake. Since it was done, I allowed her to rest. Another group of void mages then took over, and opened a portal to let the converted Champion through.

The champion seed to understand instinctively, and stepped through the void portal. It was now in Freshka.

The infestor looked around, and the void mages stared. They were visibly afraid. Two of my Valthorns were there, ready for any eventuality. Roons bow and arrow glowed, ready to fire.

I felt it was safe, as Patreecks psychic power descended on the infestor. Nothing.

It bowed and knelt. Greetings, Aeon. I am your humble slave.

Roon stared, still worried. Stand, and speak. Who are you?

I am... I am naless, Aeon, but this vessel was once nad Queen Ally Ardiasan of Erat. I was once an infestor champion from the Demon World of the Infestors, spawned from the powers of the Infestor King. I felt my mana perate the converted demon.

So Ally, then.

If you so will, I will be Ally. The forr demon answered, and at that mont, I had more questions than ever.

Do you rember where you ca from?

Not much. We are created by the Infestor King, or what the people of this refer to as the Demon King. The Demon King created us as lesser versions in his image, with his powers to corrupt and to control.

What is the Infestor King?

Ally stood, unsure how to reply. I know little of its power, save that it has corruption and the ability to control others through its tendrils.

What do you know, then?

We are here to infest, spread our kind far and wind, we are to use the knowledge of the people against itself, prepare for the Kings descent and kill the Puppets.

The Puppets. I repeated.

Yes. Heroes. Puppets. Sa thing. Ally answered. Roon and Johann stared at the infestor.

Aeon, this is not a demon?

No. Its... a converted demon.

Its possible to convert demons? Roon asked. Ive forgotten most of them have not seen my attempts to convert the demons.

Yes. Hytreerion was made from the shell of a demon walker. I added. It was quite strange that Ally didnt need any of that, despite being a demonic champion. Or wait. Ally, are you able to infest anyone or use your powers?

Ally wanted to, and then stopped.

[Aeonic Infestor Champion requires a power source. You may attach a Titan Soul or an artificial soul to power it. It is currently relying on residual energies stored within its body, and will need to rest near a tree to recharge. While in this low-power mode it is unable to infest anyone.]

Oh. Darn. The Infestor Champion had a mory box and thought unit, but still needed a power source. Now that I robbed it of its original power source, it needed sothing from . This sucked, since it ant I couldnt scale this operation.

But I realised this infestor champion essentially was a spys greatest weapon. I could deploy Ally to other worlds and help gather information that I could not gather myself. In a way, Allys even better than Lumoof, since, well, Ally could seamlessly blend into the existing folk.

Ally, do you kill your hosts?

Do you want to, master? As infestors, we have two modes, possession and infestation. Infestation kills the host.

The only problem was, I couldnt see what Ally was doing.

Tell more about how you steal powers?

As infestors, we attach to the Soul Springs of our hosts, and hijack it. We are all innately able to confuse the soul spring, into thinking our commands are the souls commands. We exist on two levels, at a physical level, and at a soul level, we can inject ourselves into the soul. This injection process, of course, drains a lot of magical power, but, we also simultaneously steal power from the soul springs of our host. When we kill our hosts, we grab hold of the pieces of their soul spring, and attach them to our own. But, it doesnt always succeed, and using these powers require mana like normal.

Wait. Get into the biolab.

Ally nodded, and got into the biolab as commanded.

I saw a constantly shapeshifting, bloblike creature that resembled a jellyfish. It was hollow in the middle, like it was waiting for a power unit, or a soul spring to power it. There were smaller rocks that floated in between the multiple blobby tentacles of the Infestor Champions, and realised these were the stolen skills.

Skills taken from the Queen.

I couldnt see how it interacted and inserted into another soul, because, in its current state, it lacked the ans to do so.

The tentacles and the blobs moved constantly, and there was no permanent form to the body. This was unlike how the others had a defined shape to the lake of their soul.

I doubt the shape was what gave it the ability to possess another, and I probably would have to insert a Titan Soul in order to fully understand what these demon champions could do. That, of course, sounded like a waste of a titan soul.

Well, maybe not, because from what I observed, Titans are most useful in a utility role. Patreecks usefulness has exceeded Hytreerion by a lot, so to use Titans for combat roles was frankly a waste of ti.

In that case, would using the Titan Soul on Ally, an infestor, be a waste? Do I have other, better uses for the Titans?

anwhile, the kingdom which the champions once ruled turned into a frenzy, like a zerg swarm without their cerebrates. Wild, primal, and they rushed towards us.

This was strange behavior, as each parasite is able to so degree of thought and self-regulation. Surely, they did not require a champion to function. But it did.

-

While the war against the parasites continued, Lumoof was still in Threeworlds.

Sir Lumoof, this way. A rchant led him to a large room that displayed one of the largest, most detailed maps of the Threeworlds. Lumoof had a sense sothing was off, but he wasnt worried. No. If anything, he wanted them to bite. It was sothing he had planned for a while.

The three rchants gathered and started explaining the map, and Lumoof looked at it intently. This was helpful, at least, to strategize where to plant my [clones]. There were dungeons, magical ley lines marked, to the best of their knowledge.

It was a commission that took the past two years, and a lot of our treasures. Lumoof nodded, as the rchants started to furl up the map. It was made with so kind of magical cloth, and with shrinking spells such that it shrunk to the size of a regular scroll.

The rchant passed it to Lumoof. Paynt, Sir Lumoof.

Lumoof nodded, and withdrew a magical sword from his pouch. The other rchants all stared, so seed to be mouthwatering.

The goods exchanged hands, and the rchants stared at the magical sword. They used so inspection abilities, and so kind of rchant-valuation ability. Yet, at that sa mont, the doors slamd open, and about forty mages walked into the room.

Lumoof quickly held the map, and in an instant, it vanished, sent back to Freshka. The rchants looked around, and they were all clearly puzzled at the mages. They stared at each other.

Whats happening?

Weve known sothing was up, especially when we detected a few failed [Inspection] type skills. Lumoof had a cloak that confused such skills, but it wasnt perfect. So, it was a matter of ti before the Maelas priests sensed sothing was up.

In fact, I was surprised that they took so long to even attempt to arrest us. Heres an old man walking about asking for information, learning spells and so on. The mages were ard, and one pointed his staff at Lumoof. Lumoof, on the orders of the council of High Priests of Maelas, you are to be detained on the suspicion of espionage.

Lumoof lifted his arms. We were ready for this, and we would go along with the capture. The mages used a kind of crystal shackle, and shackled Lumoof.

But all that happened was...

[...detecting attempted skill-control. Domain overriding.]

The crystal shackle shone, and then, like a whimper, it crumbled. The mages stared at each other. One of the high mage-priests imdiately walked over, and took out another shackle.

The second shackle crumbled too.

Thats... not supposed to happen.

Lumoof smiled. Anyway, gents, its fine, co, lead .

The mages stared at each other, unnerved at how easy Lumoof went along with the capture. No, we wanted to be captured, because it was a convenient excuse. From what we know, the High priests questioned their suspects within the depths of the Crystal Mountain, where they keep their strange artefacts, and that was sowhere we wanted to go anyway.

The mage-priests were shocked, of course, because it now seed like they were escorting Lumoof, rather than capturing him. Dont worry, I have no intention of resisting.

Eventually, we entered a cave, high up on the Crystal Mountain. Here, we took a look, and it was beautiful.

Can I just appreciate the view for a mont? Lumoof paused.

The mage priests looked at each other uncomfortably, and then glanced towards the high-priest for guidance. The high priest nodded. No more than two minutes.

Lumoof nodded, and just looked at the view. It really was beautiful to see the entire city of Maelga, with crystals everywhere. It was part-crystal mine, part-magic academy, and the glowing magical crystal lights paired with the faint fog and haze from the dusts only gave it an eerie, mystical aura.

Alright, lets go.

Lumoof nodded, and we went into the mountains.

Spaizzer

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PAY MONIES. I POOR.