Tree of Aeons

348

True demonworld

The first world we landed on the other side of the barrier was filled with demons, just as we had expected. The physical planet itself felt foul the moment we landed, and I felt a throbbing, rotting sensation emanate from below the moment Lumoof's feet touched the ground. 

The rest of the three domain holders felt it too. 

"Well. I suppose this is what a true demon world is like." Stella said while wearing a clearly uncomfortable frown. Our magic and presence was firmly rejected here, in a way that even the divine core worlds of the gods hadn’t. 

The lands were made with a material not of rock or stone, but of the demonic material itself. The vegetation and creatures that roamed here no longer resembled anything normal, but were all made of purely demonic materials. 

They were not even the demonic hybrids we found on our world. These things, they were more demonic. Somehow. In a way I struggled to describe. 

I felt disgusted. 

Almost every bit of me felt the urge to purge this from the wider world. 

I felt an urge to just burn the entire realm to the ground with purifying fire. 

I hated it. 

I hated all of this.

Their flesh pumped with a strange, bloody ichor. The things that resembled trees drew in energies from the world around, and made it into more demonic spawns. Here, on these true demonworlds, we saw more variants of demons than any of the invaded worlds we've seen. There were demonic creatures that resembled animals, plants, birds, lizards, and even people. 

But they had none of the characteristics that made them 'normal'. 

There was something different about the demons here. They were tougher, even if they still died to our attacks. 

We felt a strong, corrosive rejection. Both Stella and Edna could feel it too, and they did not hesitate to cut through everything. 

"There are hundreds and thousands of these worlds." Stella cursed, her void magic burned through the demonic creatures. They were surprisingly tolerant of void magic, while it was significantly easier for Edna and Lumoof to get through these 'true' demons. 

Lumoof picked up one of these struggling demons and used [Inspect].

[ Demonspawn ]

[ A naturally occurring and generated demonic spawn on a world where the demons have fully assimilated and warped the world's laws, such that the world itself only produces various types of demonspawns. Capable of reproducing organically or through various other means such as parasitism, absorption of prey, and direct multiplication.] 

"Aeons." Lumoof cursed as he crushed the creature with his roots. "These things are natural."

The crushed creature's corpse splattered all over the floor, and turned into smaller demonic worms. Lumoof's roots turned into a wall of tiny spiky thorns and pierced all of them. This time, all of them died. ʀ₳ℕꝋ𐌱ĚṦ

"Natural." 

The word took a minute to sink in.

Edna and Stella picked up a demon spawn and activated the same skill, just to be sure what exactly Lumoof saw. 

"So what causes a world to become like this, instead of the usual demon worlds that we saw?" Stella mulled the question aloud. It was on all our minds, and we searched the rest of the world.

Everywhere we saw everything in demonic form. Gigantic structures that resembled cities, but functioned as massive demonic spawning pools, and in here, there were surprisingly no rift gates.

Instead, we noticed armies of these demons marching towards a particular direction. 

Here, on these true demon-owned worlds, we felt the world itself resist us, and this impaired our senses in many ways. I couldn't feel the ground like normal, because the ground wasn't earth. It was demonic flesh. Even the air felt tainted with demonic presence, so much so that most conventional senses felt distorted by them. 

We had to move and search normally, and soon found a giant bluish demonic mass that somehow consumed the rest of the demons. It felt different from everything we'd seen so far, and it throbbed and thrummed with void mana.

"[Inspect] it." Stella said. "You'll hate it."

Lumoof focused and activated it too.

[ Corrupted Wadran-Demonic Spawn ] 

[ A massive Wadran spawn once capable of much more, but mutated by the demons to serve as a void pathway. It now takes the form of a gigantic blob with nothing of its original features. ]

"Oh. Where are they sending these demons?" 

Stella attempted to sense the void magic flows of the area. "The place is flooded with so much void mana that I can't see anything. Would you like to help me remove these things?"

Edna and Lumoof naturally welcomed the chance to fight, and so we ravaged through the masses of these demonspawns. Our regular weapons still worked on these somewhat tougher demons. 

"They'd need someone around level 20 to 30 to defeat one on one. If the wider world has more of these types of demons, it would be quite difficult for worlds without domain-level guardians." That made them harder and tougher than the usual demonic creeps like the demonic hellhounds and lesser demonic warriors we've seen on the other worlds.

It was highly likely because they were now 'naturally' spawned and were made with far more robustness than the rest.

Edna summoned her magical knights, and Lumoof too summoned our own creatures such as beetles and spiders to help clear the perimeter and keep them away.

Stella's senses could now work a little better. "They are sending them to one of the other realms. Not sure for what, though."

There was only the Corrupted Wadran-Demonic Spawn left, it stood alone. I wondered whether the demons knew if we were invaders, and if it did, could they tell that we were already able to get past their barrier and get inside. 

The gigantic blob of blue demonic mass thrummed with void magic, and as we approached, we all felt an attempt to attack us mentally.

[ Domain has blocked attempted mental intrusion ]

"Allow me." Edna took out a halberd, and charged with her magical abilities. In a single, powerful strike, the halberd emitted a ray of light that tore through the blob and burned it alive with her fury. 

The demonic mass struggled, but in its dying moments, it seemed relieved to be freed. I could see a trapped soul, now freed of the corruption that bound it forever. 

The soul floated, and then, rather than move elsewhere, it moved towards Lumoof, drawn to my avatar by my soul guiding abilities.

***

Soul Realm

I've seen my soul realms filled with creatures from many worlds, though most of them our own. Lumoof, as the avatar of a soul tree, still had the ability to draw in the souls of the dead, but I quickly realized that behind the veil of the demon's barrier, there was likely nowhere else for the souls to go.

I was still the best place it could go to, and so, I received the heavily damaged soul of what was once a Wadran creature. 

I could feel it attempting to communicate, and so, with my vast [Soul Forge] powers, I quickly mended the ancient, damaged soul and soon it was talking.

"Greetings, ancient one." The soul was shaped rather differently from what I've seen, yet I seemed to know exactly what to mend. I could only surmise it is a product of my [Soul Forge], and also my [Tree of Life]'s abilities. "I am thankful for the freedom you've given, I have been chained for years unknown, enslaved to the will of the corrupted."

"Who, and what happened in the past? What do you remember?"

The soul was heavily damaged, and I could tell what it remembered was likely just as unreliable. Such long spiritual damage often corrupted what memories it once had. 

"I am afraid I do not remember much as you must know. What I last recall was a gigantic pilgrimage of the Wadrans, as we sought a place to finally lay our dying god, Wadra, to rest. We came upon the god of the crafts, Eras, and Eras agreed to build a tomb for Wadra, together. It was to be the crown at the end of the journey, a long long path of us migrants to finally find a place to call an ending." 

"A tomb?" 

"Yes. Our final mission was to find a place to end together, us and our god. But alas there were traitors amongst us and also within the Erasian ranks. Corrupted by parties unknown, it used both of us and turned us into this foul thing."

"Do you know who and what they wanted to do?"

"I do not, but I know there must be senior Erasian craftsmen and the First Disciples of Wadra that lived. They must, and if you meet them, be wary. They must be the ones responsible! If you find their souls, Ancient One, torment them and make them speak!"

Traitors amongst their ranks? Why? 

A failure to ascend? A chance to do something that allowed one of the traitors to gain godly powers? 

There were no lies in the soul realm. 

Here, in this hallowed realm, I could compel any soul to speak the truth, and I knew that this spirit, this soul that would soon be sent back to the path of reincarnation, did not lie . It was the truth, and truly what it believed. 

I did not know what to do with this knowledge immediately, though my artificial minds were quick to summarize that there were likely many other such blobs throughout the demonic realms. Creatures that we could free and capture their souls. 

We could piece together a story, a narrative that we could then understand. 

***

The conversation about the Wadrans brought my attention back to one of the creatures we've met. 

Jorkun. 

From the Sun-Rings, I had a void mage bring the Erasian Sentinel Elite to Twinspace, where my clone stood at the heart of the new continent.

"It is very liberating to finally see cities and people on such a scale once more." The sentinel said. Here, my clone would be able to use [Soul Forge] and attempt to replicate the golem's unusual soul. 

The work of another god was something I was eager to see.

Hoyia, my other sub-domain, stood and escorted the sentinel close to my gigantic self. The sentinel looked up, and my tree towered over the entire city, region, maybe even the entire continent. Some mages who teleported and attempted to create 'satellite' stations on Twinspace claimed that they could see my clone tree from low-Twinspace orbit. 

"Make yourself comfortable. I was told it can be a fairly painful experience." Hoyia said as the two walked to one of my [Forge Trees]. A conduit, a connection to my soul forge. 

Jorkun walked in and immediately seemed to regret it. "It appears I am currently reexamining my earlier choices. This appears to be a far more thorough set up than I initially expected."

Hoyia smiled. "Are you reconsidering?"

"I am, but never mind. I have agreed to what I agreed, and it is unbecoming for a sentinel to forgo one's promise."

***

The forge whirled to life as my tendrils wrapped around the giant golem. The golem was made of various materials, but these metals were not just any metals. They were part of the creature's spiritual being, and they were flesh at the same time as they were metal. 

It was surprisingly familiar and reminded me of the living weapon I'd made with Lausanne. 

With the immense magnification of the forge, I zoomed into the soul, and saw the creature's soul spring.

From the outside, it resembled a regular spring. The difference was that the stones that formed one's spring were instead replaced with metallic ore of all kinds. Iron. Copper. Mithril. The more exotic variants of metal such as green iron and a few more types of coppers we'd only seen on the other worlds. 

Yet this wasn't Jorkun's secret sauce. This was but the form of the levels and skills that Jorkun acquired or was 'given' since creation.

Still, since I promised to recreate Jorkun in another body, I quickly took a scan of the soul spring and noted down the details. I'd have to send the Order to gather the minerals and materials necessary after this, but there were no metals and irons outside my reach.

Now, I needed to look inside and underneath the soul spring and find the soul core. 

Thus, I drew on more power and mana from the rest of my network of trees and pushed a little harder. 

The soul resisted. Or attempted to.

But just like that, with a little push and adjustment to the type of spiritual vision, I could look into the spring. Underneath it all, I saw the beautiful rings that formed Jorkun's soul, linked by seven spheres of different colors.

Seven colors, blue, black, red, yellow, green, white, and purple. 

I mapped this to my soul forge and realized I was missing two of them.

White and Purple.

I reached out a little more, and wondered what created them.

[ Artificial inner soul sphere - White ]

[ Found close to the burning white suns, where the dead's souls melt away ] 

[ Artificial inner soul sphere - Purple ]

[ Found at the edges of the reality bubble, discarded by the souls of the dead where they finally meets and returns to the void ]

Just the very knowledge of what I was looking for unlocked a realm of possibilities, and interestingly, the system deemed fit to unlock new types of trees to harvest them. 

[ New Titan type unlocked - The Gate Tree at the Edge of the Void unlocked ]

[ A massive independent tree capable of collecting soul fragments while floating in the edges of the reality bubble. Can also function as a floating base  ]

[ New Titan type unlocked - The Burning Node unlocked ]

[ A massive independent tree capable to surviving the hottest of worlds, capable of turning heat and flames into energy, and also harvest soul fragments in such worlds ] 

I was not done yet.

I peeked and took a good look at every bit of Jorkun's soul, and knew I could replicate them. It was likely that given Jorkun's high level of strength, a replica of Jorkun would also require a Titan Frame or a power source of similar power. 

I wondered whether Eras or whoever created him left a trap within his soul, but from what I could see, there were none.

Still, I did not profess to know all the capabilities of a god like Eras, so Hoyia's suspicions were warranted.

***

"Done?" Jorkun emerged from the soul forge, a little surprised. "I felt as if someone cut open my body and looked at me."

"That is quite close." I spoke, and the giant golem knelt respectfully. 

"It thus feels somewhat familiar as if Eras itself had decided to mend me, though, I recall my god's ways were more of a fiery reconstruction."

"Each of us eventually achieves similar things, while walking on different paths." 

Hoyia sent Jorkun back to the Sun-Rings, and then, I sent my Order out to the world to search for the materials and also find the worlds that fulfilled such conditions. 

It didn't take long for me to find them at all. 

The edge of the void was everywhere, even in the world of Treehome. However, because of my tremendous presence on Treehome, there were no souls 'decaying' at the edge of the void. I thus had to obtain these 'decaying souls' on worlds without my clone presence.

Thus, on one of the large, habitable outer rings of Gyroworld, a world that we had left mostly alone, I deployed my newly discovered Titan.

A ring-shaped tree, where the roots faced inwards, while the branches emerged from the ring as if they were all independent trees. It floated and could adjust its position slightly, and we moved it closer to the edge of the world's bubble. 

There, I witnessed these tiny, tiny motes of dead souls, at that final moment, shed a bit of itself in order to swim in the wider void sea. That final part disintegrated, but doing so released this tiny, tiny bit of almost invisible energy.

So tiny.

So small.

And still, it powered my soul forge.

[ Soul Forge : Purple unlocked ]

[ Souls and artificial spirits can now be reinforced to better withstand the void turbulence and the erosion of reality by void forces. Souls enhanced by the Soul Forge can also gain limited [Void] and [Curse] type abilities. ]

[ Artificial Soul Level cap increased to 90. Titan base level increased to level 120. ]

Nice.

"Well. Let's go find where there is a burning white sun."