Trees of the Abyss
Year 215
I am now in possession of two sets of bones from legendary creatures. One, the dragon bones, which I recovered from the moon before I withdrew the clone, and now, the bones of the Zaratan.
Both of which were now safely stored in my [secret hideout], in their own little section. Thanks to the effect of my preservation abilities, they were untouched, almost the sa as if they were on the moon, and in the depth of the sea.
Since I wanted to now see what happened to the Zaratan, I figured I might as well check the dragons bones as well.
I moved a large piece of the Zaratans skull from one part of my secret hideout, right to the biolab located within my body. The skull itself was large enough to be a truck, but this broken piece was about the size of a large door.
It pulsed montarily, as my biolab began its work. Ethereal vines from my soul forge-biolab entered the bones, and I began to see images and little bursts of thoughts. Emotions.
A lake, and then, a sensation of moving. A black sun, then abruptly snapping. Forced off the path! Another lake but then its dried out. How? Then demons, large demons. Champions.
Running. Flee, and conjured water around itself. The champions latch on, and then, the sensation of moving again. Its unstable, demons on its back.
Ocean. A struggle. Pain. Sinking-
The mories ended there, and I realised this zaratan had probably been yanked out of its path across the stars. The demons could do that, or at least, that black sun could.
I feel that black sun is the key to everything, and I proposed the idea of destroying or capturing the black sun to the domainholders. They generally concurred that it may work, if its the only one.
I wanted to speak to Aiva again, ask them whether theyve ever tried assaulting the black sun. If that would work?
I tried a few more zaratan bones, but the mories of its last monts were similar. So, I used the bones of the dragon from the moon that Ive kept for so long.
Its a bad habit. I would keep things, and only check on them when I rember them. Patreeck gives regular reminders, but I find it hard to focus until it really draws . Anyway, I focused on the dragons bones now.
Its mories were far more hazy than the zaratan. The images I saw were faded, but I saw-
Flight. Run! Fear!
The sky. The stars, and then a really intense sensation of emptiness. Then the moon. The dragon looked back, and saw a world afla. A roar, and then, a long period of waiting. Hope. Hoping for others to join it.
No one ca. No one was strong enough.
I needed so ti to process my thoughts. These were the last monts of these great creatures.
Both bones had power, and as I studied them, I felt I gained a better understanding of their nature. The study of their bones led to additional titan options.
[Titan option unlocked : Dragon Replicant. A creature with the flight, combat and magical prowess of a lesser dragon.]
[Titan option unlocked : Zaratan Replicant. A creature created based on the Zaratans of the void sea. Possessed ability to move between worlds, if there is an existing path. Cos with void mana as default and can use so void magic.]
I have one titan soul left, but I looked at the six heroes allied to , and realised, I wasnt in a rush. Not if this arrangent worked.
I would get more fragnts, sure, I was so close to 100 fragnts, but, thats really a consolation prize if I could direct the heros actions.
These dragons, and Zaratans were so powerful, surely they would have achieved a domain? What stopped them from stopping the demons? Or, that was the wrong question. The dragons stopped the demons many tis, as seen from the mories in so of the ancient tree, but they were eventually overwheld. If so, what can we do to avoid their mistakes?
If two or three demon kings invaded us at the sa ti, we would fall, just like the dragons. Even today, we dont really know whether thats a rule, or just a convenience of the demons. It is entirely possible that they assigned 1-to-1 worlds just to maximise the number of invaded worlds, but could easily focus on a single world.
We needed to test this. Was there a physical or magical barrier that prevented simultaneous invasions? Its possible that a demon kings presence emitted sothing that interfered with the astral paths, thus preventing multiple invasions.
Since we now had a demon kings core replica, we also needed to figure out how to confuse their targeting system.
We had seen the astral paths wobble when daemolite was removed from Treeho, and so, weve seen that the creation of stable astral paths required core mana.
Thus, I directed my attention to one of my potential sources of core mana. The core fragnt of the anti mana world.
Unlike the shard of the cotworld, the rousing presence from a few years ago was still dormant. It was as if it slept. When I touched it again, this ti, the presence was quite similar to the sensation from the cotworld.
The presence was still collecting itself, and its core mana, however few it was, seed to resist . Without actually convincing that presence within the core to give its mana, the core mana was far more bound to its presence.
***
Stella was back on the Mountainworld after the Zaratan incident, and back to her magical research. She seed to quite enjoy branchhold, and with our enhanced abilities, we noticed that Mountainworld was linked to two other worlds. One of those two worlds was a little further away, and we would likely need to redeploy so daemolite to reach it.
It was strange how each worlds astral path was different, and how each world sees the void forest differently.
This made think that even the demons starmaps may not be all that reliable, since they probably had their own fra of reference, or these maps were collected from their jumps.
Even the souls, on their path to reincarnation, travelled to this void forest, where they would move and wobble their way to other worlds.
I attempted to access that view again, even with my soul forge, but Ive yet to succeed. Maybe I needed the right levels, but I also consulted my fellow domain holders on whether theyve seen such things.
Lilies, for one, had no clue. This was way beyond their experience.
Over ti, I realised the process of learning is very often just repeatedly throwing sothing at a problem and seeing what sticks.
I wonder whether the gods got to their current solution through the sa process.
***
Counting down to the invasion? Ken asked the heroes when they t. They didnt et that often, but they still made it a point to et every other month. Everyone had their own things to do, so of the heroes had their own projects, like Chung and Hafiz, and the mountainworld heroes, Adrian and Kelly, also found their own passions and hobbies.
They did say they felt lost after the defeat of the demon king, but eventually they found sothing to do and occupy their ti.
Prabu nodded. Kinda, but not really. Were just working on our own thing for now, while waiting for the cue.
Snek, the little snake spirit was the most eager of them all, which ant Ken had a little more stake in this project than the heroes. Snek wanted this invasion to succeed, for all the obvious reasons.
After the zaratans warning, I wonder whether this invasion may be the wrong move. What if I drew their attention, and beco marked by the demons?
What if we invited greater scrutiny? These were my worries, and so, for now, the best I could do was over prepare. If necessary, Id cover them and pull the rest of them back to Treeho.
***
Weve finally drained the waters of the pit, and I finally got a glimpse of what was within those pits. It was similar to what we saw in the anti-mana world, the demon mother, around a core. The parasite worlds core was smaller, and filled with holes, quite a bit like a ball-shaped swiss cheese.
The area around the core itself had been hollowed out, and instead, there was this giant octopus creature with multiple tentacles. Those tentacles weaved through the holes of the core, and tied itself to it.
[Inspection] didnt work, but I reckon it was the sa type of creature.
From what I could tell, it even had approximately the sa level of strength as the demon mother, and I quickly shared my observations with the planned assault force.
We do have a clear path that leads all the way to the core. We could guide a lot of bombs to the core and flush out the demon mother, but that ca at the risk of destroying the core, which is so tied up with the demon mother. So, we needed a surgical approach.
Send Lumoof. Capture the demon mother. Edna said, and Lumoof gave Edna the stink-eye.
Oh co on, dont kick into the pits.
Im not kicking you in. Im asking you to go in with the heroes. Heroes weaken that creature, and then Aeon captures it.
Pause for a mont. Chung asked. Can you clarify what that was?
Aeon captures demons by flooding them with mana. Dont you know that already? Prabu said. Theyve attempted to capture the demon king too.
I know, but can it work on the demon mother?
Edna shrugged. It should. Weve been prepping Lumoof for that possibility.
Can we supply you with star mana to do so? Chung wondered. Could star mana do the sa thing?
Actually, I never thought of it. That star mana was so toxic to demons that they die from exposure, but that was when we tested it against regular-type demons. Weve never attempted to infect a demon king with star mana, though I didnt think itll be a good idea, since they did have void mana within them and that was normally an explosive reaction.
But it was worth trying. If one of the heroes functioned as a battery, I could channel the star mana through Lumoof and inject it into the demon.
So, do we want to try it out with this demon within the core?
No. I wasnt sure why, but I felt that using star mana to capture the demon mother in the core would not go well, especially if it interacted with the void mana within the demon mother. Just a normal attack will do. Our goal is to free the core and gain access to the core mana. Not crack the planet in the process.
I wasnt sure scorched planet even worked as a defense policy. Destroyed worlds did not form a wall that prevented travel. If it did, it may be worthwhile to look into destroying uninhabited planets to form interstellar barriers.
***
As part of the preparations for the invasion, we significantly increased the number of trees on Branchhold and soon made connections to more magical ley lines. I spread my trees, discreetly where I could, and ramped up my total mana output.
Back on Treeho, we did the sa, I added more trees, and extended my trees further out to the various islands closer to the Central Continent.
Thanks to the skills earned before this, I was able to tunnel to so of the islands, and this ant I now had so influence over the seas around the Central Continent. My minds suggested creating artificial islands, a point which I eventually ca to agree to. The Valthorns quietly arranged for druids, earth mages and builders to comnce the construction of these artificial islands.
This was an incredibly lengthy process, as lifting sand and rock into a stable structure was actually quite difficult, and we honestly had to look for locations where the deep-sea monsters didnt appear too much.
Publicly, these artificial islands were to serve as my military ports, of course, with all that excuse of reducing piracy and facilitating trade. Its just a cover for my real intention to spread my roots across the ocean, and expand my total mana output.
My expansion on Mountainworld went relatively easier. Mountainworld as a whole only had one single ocean thats rather deep, fed by hundreds and thousands of rivers. That ant there were very little physical barriers to my expanding trees, and it was possible to go around any large habited areas.
The cold peaks of the Mountainworld didnt do much to stop roots that could tunnel through mountains, though in the process, I discovered that Mountainworld has very interesting subterranean life and culture. There are entire parts of the world that resembled parts of the Eastern Continent, where cities and entire nations lived within mountains, and within many mountains, there were massive caverns that contained things from an older era.
Many of these were in territories far from Branchhold, so Id probably need to cook up a plausible excuse to send my Valthorns to investigate, or probably just have them fake it as adventurers.
Yeah. Thatll be sothing to do. I could have an initiative to set up Branchhold-sponsored adventurers, and send them in that direction. But I could indirectly stir up a gold-rush if that leak ca from , since these guys would suspect I know sothing.
Anyway, as a result of my expansion on both my howorld and Mountainworld, my total mana output increased by approximately half, and my total mana storage by that sa amount. This was a massive increase, though most of that increase ca from greenfield expansion on the Mountainworld.
This wasnt enough, obviously, but then again, the demon mother might be weaker.
Ti to set it in motion, whatever the consequences may be.
***
Weve been working on this plan for years. Stella said at the edge of my clone tree on the parasite world. She set up multiple observation posts, and a few more of her students, other void mages, joined her. They would monitor the stars for any signs that sothing was wrong, or reinforcents were on their way.
Lumoof, my domainholders and the heroes stood at the edge of the pit. Lumoof made a repeat of the mission statent. Down there is the demon mother. Our goal is to capture it, or defeat it, and free the core of the parasiteworld. The reason to capture this is simple. We want to test whether it is possible to recapture a world from the demons, and gain access to core mana.
If its possible to free the world, it may an we can have a new population base, and more future heroes to rely on. With core mana, Stella and the void mages can start to establish stable astral paths through the void forest, and mount a counter invasion.
The heroes gulped at the term, counter invasion. Getting core mana was the equivalent of having the fuel needed to make the journey. The counterinvasion was a deep-strike, ant to target the real command center of the demons.
Any questions? Lumoof asked out of habit. It was just a procedure, they have discussed the issue at length over the years.
Everyone shook their heads. The pit had been heavily reinforced over the past year. I have four seeds. One on Branchhold, One on the Cotworld, One here in the Parasiteworld, and one more in store, still serving its cooldown.
Theres four more years to go. They thought of waiting, but then, I didnt feel like we needed to.
We had made extensive preparations, and they all had a variety of weapons, the ice blades of Aria, the death-staff of Lillies, Stellas void-weapons and their own hero items.
Check equipnt? Everyone took a minute to recheck their list, and nodded.
Lumoof nodded, and entered avatar mode. Vines branched out, and around him, the vines turned into a massive walking vine-creature. He looked at the pit, and thought of the many tis he made a journey into the core.
The pit itself was already filled with vines, and my beetles already patrolled the entire pit. The only area weve yet to claim was the large cavern around the core.
Lumoof made a prayer, and the heroes nodded.
Ti to claim the parasites core, and free this planet.
Spaizzer
I'd like to shoutout Ghost of the Truthseeker. If you like defiance of the fall, or other similar fictions, GotT is supposedly similar. (Yes I /series/543086/ghost-of-the-truthseeker/
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