Tree of Aeons

351

Stella, Lumoof, and Edna decided to head back into the demon's barrier once more. This time, it was a kidnapping mission. We would capture as many living 'true' or 'new' demons and send them back for experiments, and also, a few samples to the old gods to prove our point. 

However, it seemed our return this time was slightly different.

Our first attack on that one true demonworld seemed to have rearranged the placement of the worlds within the barrier, and the world we landed on felt very much like a fortified world. 

There were still the 'new' regular demons. They walked about and moved around the world normally as if they were just part of the natural environment. There were also strange plant-beast hybrids, and they seemed to react to our presence with outright hostility. They attacked us fairly immediately once we dropped our invisibility spells. 

We captured a few anyway and sent them through Lumoof's teleportation ability back to Treehome where they were thoroughly studied. 

We wanted to understand our foes, and now with full, living samples, we could have a look at their overall makeup, not just analyze the flesh and corpses. We collected a few of every type of demon we encountered, and annoyingly on these true demonworlds, there were many, many variants.

The sheer variety of demons on a single 'true' world was equal to about six to ten previously explored demonworlds. 

Under the hood, my [soul forge] realized that these true demons possessed a soul of some kind. 

Unlike the dry, parched desert that often exemplified the lesser demon's souls, these were filled with a kind of black blood as if they were pumping out black oil from their springs. The land also didn't look like what I expected them to be.

Their soul springs were not surrounded by land and soil like all normal beings.

Instead, they were surrounded by flesh. Demonic flesh. 

In a way, these demons were truly distant from the rest of us. If the old demons were attempts to construct demons using materials already available, then these demons were built from the ground up altogether, with not a single bit resembling our normal souls. 

It also meant some of our regular anti-demonic abilities no longer worked. They were able to deceive some demon-sensing spells, and with our combat tests,  we were able to isolate the effects of their inherent strength and reveal that they also were not affected by the usual demonic damage boosts. 

But it did not matter.

They traded weakness as demonkind, for the regular weaknesses of the flesh. They could be crushed. They could be killed. They could be destroyed with enough force, even if some of our abilities didn't work.

They did not respond to poisons or toxins. They also did not respond to certain types of mana-draining abilities, because what they possessed was an upgraded form of demonic mana, and more alien. More 'natural'. But hostile all the same. It was almost at the point where my mages wanted to give it an entirely different category, rather than just mana.

***

Hoyia and Alka received and studied these demons on Treehome, and once we were ready, we brought one specimen of these new demons to the old gods.

Aiva was first to receive it as our void mages transported the creature to one of his outer core worlds.

"Interesting." Aiva said as the true demon was encased in a glowing divine light. He, in the glowing form of a winged angel,  levitated the trapped demon and poked at it. "They resemble our ancient foes, more than these new demons. Recall the tale of the Ravenous God?"

"This is an attempt to return to that?" Hoyia asked, curious. 

"Not exactly. It is different, and it contains aspects that do not match the old ravenous. It is as if the demons are attempting to mix and retain the benefits of both the normal mortals and the old ravenous. The old ravenous creatures did not have this unusual type of soul. But no matter, I will have an army outfitted to deal with these. Conventional weapons will do just fine." Ɽ𝘼ℕＯ฿ЕŜ

"How long do you need?"

"Five." 

***

Hawa did not like us bringing demons to their territory, so the Golden Knight sliced through them the moment he laid eyes on it. 

The creature burned in holy light, and yet, Hoyia saw the god seemingly learn about the creature through the very act of destruction. 

"A painful foe. This is your idea?"

"Aiva suggested we bring some back for studies."

"We will be ready."

***

Gaya burned the creature, and chased us off. The god said nothing, and merely through divine will, sent us off world.

***

Neira the dragon god looked at the floating demon and laughed. The laughter shook the entire blue world that the dragon called its home. 

We didn't find it funny. But Hoyia, as my messenger, was clearly outmatched by the dragon god. The dragon's presence was so thick that in the blue world, she had to borrow some of my strength to resist.

"The demons underestimate us greatly if they believe our core worlds will fall to such things."

"Our findings suggest that these are only meant for the peripheral worlds."

"No matter. You will deal with it."

"And if we do not?"

"Then we will."

***

Meanwhile, Lumoof, Stella, and Edna tried to use the opportunity to explore more of the true demon worlds. 

Stella led them to more worlds to find them all undergoing the same sort of demonic evolution. They were all just regular armies, but in our minds, we wondered what were the trump cards. 

What did the true demons have that could stand toe to toe with the heroes and give them a run for their money?

What would break the long stalemate of the peripheral worlds that constantly edged on full destruction and heroic comebacks?

Not all peripheral worlds we encountered were in terrible shape. Some had a streak of heavenly luck. A hero from the past left powerful weapons that gave them an edge. Or a powerful hero survived the first demon king and managed to take on the second. And a third. 

Such worlds could build up their military arsenal and overall strength to face a harsh demonic winter. 

So, we looked.

***

"I don't know if it is just me." Edna said. "But I think I can feel body language from these demons. They seem to sense our presence, and they are tense." 

"If they have souls and are made from 'natural' materials, it is likely they have some semblance of emotions. Even if it is not something we could understand." Lumoof answered. Back home, there was a philosophical debate whether these demons could be considered living beings, and by most measures they fit, even if all the internal parts were swapped for something else. 

We saw 'pregnant' demons. We saw demonic eggs. We saw demons that multiplied by separation or cloning themselves. Each different demonic world constructed an entirely new ecosystem built up from demonic flesh, demonic spawning pools, demonic insects, and demonic predators. There were some things that resembled plants, but we soon realized all these demons were feeding from the demonic energy supplied by such a corrupted world.

But our goal was to find the apex predator. Something at the demon king level. 

We didn't find it, but we noticed, just like our first world, there was another of those corrupted Wadran spawns that seemed to transport the mature demons somewhere. 

Our instincts were to follow them and see where that took us. 

***

"You know something strange about these inner worlds?" Stella said as she studied the arrangement of the worlds. 

"What?"

"The void sea here is flattened. Everything is located on a single narrow band disc shape, and everywhere else it is as if they don't exist. They are pushed. When I try to move a [void explorer] through these parts of the void sea, they are pulled back onto these discs."

The six Sun-Rings fired six massive beams of void mana towards the heart of this group of worlds, but only two of these beams, one at the top and one at the bottom, took a straight line. The other four were curved by the void sea, and it was as if the rest of the worlds were curved along that same disc. 

"Do you think if we crack the void barrier, these things will change with it?" 

"I don't know. It might. Right now, if I am reading the flow of the void sea right, like I said before, all the worlds are pushed onto the disc. But once we crack the void barrier and if the Sun-Rings go offline, the pressure on these realms will vanish, and this disc will inflate like a flattened rubber ball. It should push all these existing worlds back and cause them to all be further away from each other."

"Is that a good thing?"

"I don't know. They are clearly using this mechanism to move demons between the worlds." 

"For what?"

***

Then in the middle worlds, we found our answer.

The middle worlds were slightly different from the outer group of demon worlds. Here, we saw massive demonic arenas, connected to each other by pathways, and millions of these freshly arrived demons were then poured into these arenas.

It was quite like watching a pool of water overflowing with fish that their bodies touched. We watched with great curiosity when large groups of demons were placed into these large arenas. At first, they all seemed to do nothing, most were just busy doing their own thing, mostly nothing, since there was not much space.

Then, a weird, unusual energy flooded the arena, and all the demons glowed in an alien red color.

What followed was a slaughterfest. 

Demons killing demons. 

It was a massive no-holds barrel fight between demons of the same tier.

Then as invisible observers, we realized what was happening. The survivors were getting stronger.

"They are leveling." Lumoof and Edna could see it. Through Lumoof, I could see the weight of their monstrous souls grow.

"You cannot be serious." Stella answered mentally.

When each arena only had less than twenty demons left, that unusual energy vanished and was replaced with some other kind of energy. All the twenty remaining demons stopped their bloodthirsty ways and went back to their usual idle self. 

From almost ten thousand, only twenty stood, and already we could feel that these twenty had the strength of champions. They grew larger and more monstrous than before. Some of them looked at us as if they could detect something of a presence. 

"How confident are you in our invisibility spells?" Edna asked, as she was the most sensitive to their bloodlust. 

"I think we've sent samples back home a little too early." Lumoof admitted. 

But we watched. Thousands of arenas throughout these worlds then guided the twenty survivors into a new arena. Almost a thousand gathered in this arena of new demonic champions. We knew something was up because we could feel the incredible strength of the arena's design. The walls were made of regenerating flesh resistant to magic and physical attacks. 

"They're going to repeat it, aren’t they?" Edna watched with both a mix of awe and horror.

Then, that same magical energy triggered again, and the thousand demons burst forth with incredible fury. Their powers raged against each other, and we witnessed carnage. 

A thousand champions brought their fury against each other. The battle lasted for days, and the three domain holders could not stop watching. 

This arena had breaks, and there were moments when that energy stopped. 

The survivors would rest, and we witnessed their form mutate. The rest period was nothing more than a window to allow each of these surviving demons to consolidate their gains and grow stronger. 

"They are trying to exploit the souls to turn mortals’ strength into their own." 

Some grew monstrous with incredible armor. Some grew powerful with weapons that burned with intense elemental energies. Their powers were all varied, and already, we felt their power levels grew massively.

The arena's foul energy flared once more, and we witnessed the demons attack each other with renewed fury. Their new powers made them monstrous.

From a thousand, they were now down to twenty once more. 

But this was not the end. These surviving twenty went through another five rounds of thorough slaughter and filtering, with each subsequent arena reinforced to a far greater level just to withstand the heightened power.

Some things though did not change. The pace of leveling slowed down, and even if the surviving demons grew, they grew slower. 

If we estimated the first round to be approximately Level 70, the second round only pushed them to about level 90. Then the third only to level 85, and the fourth to 90. 

It was only at the end of the seventh round of filtering that they were about level 110 to 120 or so. It was hard to be specific, since we were not sure whether their power levels mapped nicely to our own. The weight of these demons that survived their brutal slaughter were strong, and the whole process took about six months.

We watched one of these seventh round slaughterfest, in a far larger arena, and noticed that there were periods of consolidation for these demons. The energy stopped, and we felt the surviving twenty's demonic energies change. They grew some more, and turned into something more than champions. 

Their energy levels were about level 120, and we were on high alert, wondering whether these creatures would reach a power level comparable to us. But thankfully for us, we did not sense the twisting of the fabric of reality. 

They did not have a [domain].

Or maybe, they didn't have a path to a domain.

Or maybe, their souls lacked the components necessary to form a domain. But in my mind, I wondered what made our souls special? What if the demons could compel the [system] to allow them to gain some kind of domain-equivalent?

"Can you win?" Stella asked.

"Yes." Edna said. "I can. The three of us all can, I bet our peers too. But it will be harder for everyone else."

In our minds, we thought about the Order. I didn’t see any of my domain holders or even level 140s face a challenge. But enough of these level 110s and 120s demons still could kill a few level 140s, or maybe one of my newer domainholders, since numbers was less of a problem. 

"Should we just nuke these middle worlds instead of blowing up the barrier?" Stella counterproposed. 

"You're too hasty." Lumoof said. "This is not the end of the line for them. They are moving somewhere. Let's follow it."

These surviving twenty powerful demonic survivors did not fight any more. Instead, they were moved once more. There was another of these Wadran Corrupted Spawns, and these demons were sent offworld.

We traced the path and realized they were moved closer to the inner worlds. 

Stella was almost about to follow, but she stopped. 

"This next move might be risky."

"Why?"

"I feel a tremendous presence in these inner worlds. As if something emits a world-covering energy field that wants me to poke at it. There is malice in it as if I was dealing with a hostile mind."

"If we do enter, are we declaring our presence?"

"I believe so."

Lumoof didn't quite understand.

"Before we crack the barrier, we should plan a way to simultaneously take out most of the key defenses on these outer and middle demonworlds." Stella said. "I think Edna would agree?"

"The Outer circle of worlds seem to be mostly low to mid level opponents, the Wadran Corrupted Spawns are the only strong opponents that the rest of our forces have to be wary about. But these middle worlds can field these powerful near-domain creatures by the hundreds if not thousands." Edna spoke her thoughts aloud, and spoke cautiously. "But, we don't know whether the inner worlds could easily reinforce these middle worlds. If the inner worlds are home to [Defender Demon Kings] and even more powerful variants of these things, we do have a problem."

"It isn't so easy to reach the domain tier. We saw how their strength plateaued even though they fought powerful versions of other demons. I believe there will be very few opponents we have to fear." Stella countered. Our own paths told us all we needed to know about the demons. 

"By we, you mean only three of us. The rest of our friends will be slaughtered." Lumoof clarified. "But if the inner worlds are stockpiling these powerful warriors, the demons must be planning a single large flood of demons to overwhelm the usual defenses." 

Back home, the Order made models based on our latest findings, and it was fairly grim.

My mages theorized that the demons must have been building their strength for a very, very long time. If they were able to field a thousand of these level 110-120 demons to each of the peripheral worlds, the sombre reading was that we would lose at least two third of our current covered worlds, and the Order would have to regroup and be highly selective of where we wanted to defend. 

If we could field a clone, it was likely my clones would be able to withstand this flood. Even five thousand level 100s would not get past my clone. Each of my clones were too tough and regenerated far too quickly. But my clone was a massive rarity, and Lumoof could not be everywhere. 

***

Year 326.

Stella spent the entire year surveying all we could about the outer and middle worlds. Her [Void Inheritor] massively increased her range, and she could make jumps we could not do before.

There were about a thousand and five hundred outer demon worlds that served as the true demon farms. Feeder worlds.

Each of these outer worlds produced anywhere around a million to ten million fresh demons per year for the twenty or so middle realm worlds. 

There, in these twenty middle realms, these millions of demons were left to fight each other to feed their super champions, and by our estimate, each of these twenty middle realms produced about fifty or so level 110 to 120 demons. So, about a thousand per year.

We named these the true demon champions. 

If they have been at this for at least the past thousand to ten thousand years, we calculated that there were easily a few million of such creatures.

Edna, on the other hand, didn't think it was that much of a big deal.. They had to sacrifice 50 to push 1 up a few levels. 

If we assume that each of these arenas processed 50 sacrifices for every 1 demon to gain 5 levels, then the next level would require 2500 sacrifices for 10 levels, 125,000 for 15 levels, and 6,250,000 for a total of 20 levels. 

So, with a few hundred millions, once we whittled down the odds, we could be looking at maybe 10 or so potentially domain-tier demons?

That was a credible, dangerous threat for sure, and we were not exactly sure what skills these demons had. We were also not sure what sort of powers domain-tier equivalent true demons possessed. 

"Something feels wrong. Ten million level 100s or 120s demons would be a far greater threat to the wider world than 10 domain holders." Stella said. "The wider worlds have no way to resist that kind of flood." Stella thought. 

"Unless the gods have some way to destroy non-domain holders easily. Remember, our domains protect us from many, many things." Edna countered. "If the demons want domain tier protection, that must imply some countermeasures only the gods have. It makes sense to me, because we have existed for not very long, if we consider the demon and god's war to be something that occurred over tens of thousands of years. Their countermeasure is focused on something the gods were doing or have done before. They have never considered us to be a problem."

Lumoof thought about the powers we’ve seen from the gods so far, and truly, a weapon like the [Hawan Shieldbreaker] could easily level billions of level 100s if they were in the wrong place. 

So Edna was right. Quantity didn’t matter when the gods’ faith enabled them to crush the weaklings. The demons needed quality. Something to match the gods? 

"Or they want the domain for some other purpose." Lumoof looked. "Maybe, a way to access the World Faith System?"

Spaizzer

I have a book launch next week. Book 7 of Tree of Aeons. If you have Amazon Kindle Unlimited, please do add it to your library! (I'll make another post next week)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DH7ZYLRZ?