Tree of Aeons

357

A part of me was irritated that I once again pushed back the use of the [Hawan Shieldbreaker]. But that was inevitable, wasn't it?

As an organization, I had an obsession with information. I needed to know, and now that we knew that there were living dwarves on the other side of the barrier, even if they were deep within, I couldn't use it so quickly.

Hawa assured me that it would destroy the demonic void barrier. But the breaking of the barrier would certainly trigger a response from the demons, whether it was these Descendants or whatever that was nursing its strength in the Demon's Prison.

So, freeing and evacuating the citizens of the Erasian worlds, felt like a natural first step.

Alka, despite being a dwarf, claimed that the demons might be intentionally holding these worlds as ransom, if not as some kind of human shield. That made so much sense, but also for the righteous amongst the Order, of which there were many, it was a shackle and chain.

I wanted to save these guys.

Thus, our exploration of the five Erasian Core Worlds so far led us to form three objectives.

Firstly, we needed to figure out how the Descendants controlled the demons or what role they played in the demon's entire organizational structure. Were they beneficiaries of the demons, and what sort of connection did they have to the Black Sun and the Demon's Prison? We could feel, even from these Erasian Core Worlds, the presence of a powerful creature somewhere closer to the Demon's Prison, and we could vaguely sense some magical links between these Erasian worlds and the Demon's Prison.

Secondly, I wanted to free the Dwarves. These were billions of largely innocent, if heavily brainwashed and misguided dwarves, and on this front, we contemplated a few strategies, but personally, I wanted to just perform a surgical strike and take out the Descendants' domainholders. Just from their levels, it was likely that I was stronger than the High Lords of the Five Core Worlds, but they still had about forty to fifty domain holders spread across the worlds, and from our reports, most of them were mage-type domain holders around Level 150 to 200, with only about five or six at Level 200 and above.

In overall strength, thanks to my current Level 270 and also my other domain abilities, I felt strong enough to take them on. If we could pick them off individually or hit them when they were isolated, that would be to our utmost advantage.

So far, we managed to kill one because of their ignorance, but once they realized that someone was able to kill their domain holders, it was likely they would significantly improve their security. My ideal setup would be to attack them when they were gathered together, somehow.

I would have to create an incident of some sort. Something sufficiently threatening to trigger the Descendants to group up and respond as a whole.

If a battle occurred, though, it was likely there would be a lot of collateral damage. Battles between domain holders were not too different from battles with demon kings. The levels of power involved could level cities, and because so much of the Erasian Core worlds were dense, overbuilt cities, we were looking at a lot of innocent deaths.

The dwarves were located deep within demonic territory, and it would be horribly difficult to defend it if it was attacked from all sides from nearby demonic worlds.

One of the ways we could strike them was to abuse Roon's overpowered sniper ability, [Shot From the Stars]. We could launch attacks that they couldn't foresee.

If there was a sufficient concentration of domain holders within a location, then Alka's [Always a Bomb] could massively even out the odds. However, we were dealing with domain holders, and they must have had domain-tier abilities that could counter ours. If any of them possessed something like Edna's [Duty Beyond Life and Death], they could push us into a stalemate.

So, on this front, we needed to figure out what the domain holder's abilities were, and how we could best counter them. From what we could tell, they did not seem to possess advanced forms of surveillance abilities, so that was a weakness we could exploit.

Thirdly, there were a few areas where we could heavily cripple the demon's operations. The riftgates were manufactured in specific locations within the Forge of Eras with the use of powerful divine-tier manufacturing tools. Without riftgates, demons would find it much harder to invade new worlds, and that would 'stem' the tide of the demons. At least, for the newer wave of demons. We noticed that the rift gates 'vanished' into the void once they were made, as if consumed. This made me suspect that the demons had some way of sending their 'inventory' of new rift gates to their newly developed Demon Kings.

The Bestiary of Eras was also where the Descendants sent some of their high leveled 'true demons', where they were turned into target practice for high-leveled Descendants. Destroying the Descendants before they ascended to their domains would also slow down the rate of their increase.

We didn't know what sort of movement abilities these Descendants possessed, but we heavily suspected that once we launched an attack on the six barrier worlds of the Demon's Prison, they would come to the Prison’s aid. 𝙍Áℕo͍BЕ𝙎

So, it was in our interest to take these domainholders out early, one way or another.

An easy way, of course, was to use the [Hawan Shieldbreaker] and kill all these worlds. That would unfortunately kill way too many innocent people, and potentially, also kill Eras if Eras still lived.

That would be fine, if Eras was not friendly. But if Eras was a potential ally, I did not want to resort to that move. That, as far as I'm concerned, was only something I would do if I had no other choice, and we were backed to a corner.

We had some time, even if now we knew we were racing against these Descendant's attempts to revive some god or perhaps, cause one of their domain holders to ascend to a god.

***

"Do you think the Erasian worlds are corrupted?" We decided that it was worthwhile to dig underground just to answer this question.

All of the outer rim of True Demonworlds were fleshworlds, and yet these Erasian Worlds were so incredibly normal.

Was it really normal, or was there something more sinister hidden underneath it all?

We needed to know, and so Lumoof dug deep underground.

We started in the depths of the ancient tunnels. Well, it was really just Lumoof using his roots to excavate and move through the ground.

There were many, many layers of ancient Erasian constructions even under the already ancient tunnels. As we dug, though, we quickly noticed and uncovered far more ancient structures and chambers.

It made for a relatively easier dig, since we would hit another layer of civilization where there were new sets of tunnels and ancient buildings that we could explore.

Lumoof looked at the different construction methods. Jorkun once said that Eras loved to build and rebuild constantly, and so whenever he had a new conceptual understanding or idea, he would just use his powers to cover up the old areas and build new buildings on top of them.

It was amusing to me that even gods fell into the trap of starting new projects rather than modifying or completing old ones. Maybe Eras was just the kind of mercurial genius that hyperfixated on a specific project until some other one took his attention.

Though, Eras did finish the six massive Sun-Rings and the demon's prison, so I suppose at least Eras had the ability to push things to completion. Or maybe, Eras needed Wadra's potential death as a way to spur the god to actually get serious.

There were many, many layers of ancient cities and constructions. Most of them were fairly normal. Just cities with unusual designs, patterns. Some were like labyrinths, some were windowless tubes.

It was a fascinating thing to find, but unfortunately, we couldn't spare the time to engage in exploration of these ancient ruins.

We dug and looked for the Core of the World.

It took us almost two months to reach the Core, and what we found at the center of the world was a fully preserved and untouched core.

It was untainted, undamaged.

The demons did not even attempt to dig here, and that was puzzling to me. Maybe they had other plans for these worlds.

Still, there was memory within the Core.

Roots emerged out of my avatar and reached out. What was the truth of the world?

***

Visions.

A world of builders, constructors. There were many of them here, dwarves, humans, and lizardfolk.

Things were built. Cities made, remade, and remade again.

A god towered over it all. His thoughts colored the world and the core itself. The Core remembered that god.

Eras. A glowing presence. A golden man surrounded by machines and tools, and he walked with gigantic mechanical legs. He held in his hands a gigantic book, on his back, two floating magical scrolls and an army of automatons at his back.

Golems that resembled Gorkun and Jorkun, but different. These were builders, not warriors. They constructed buildings, homes, machines, and more.

Eras made and remade things on a whim, but each act was carved into the memory of the Core.

The Core remembered.

The Core knew Eras.

The Core served Eras.

The memories of Eras's acts continued, and then, the later part came.

The arrival of the nomads. The Wadrans. We saw Wadrans as they once were, they were creatures with strange wings. Tentacles that twisted the void and the world, to create eddies of void currents. They swam through the void sea.

The Wadrans took many shapes, but somehow, the Core remembered them as if they were like jellyfish. They floated, and they carried the memories of their old God.

Then Wadra. Wadra in the shape of a gigantic jellyfish. It shone in a way Eras did not. It shone with a silver and black light. The void twisted itself around Wadra and bent the space between worlds.

Eras built a gigantic pool for Wadra. It was constructed in the depths of the Library, the collective efforts of thousands of dwarven masters and divine tools. Then the pool was stored on a hidden underground lake, not on the Library of Eras, but on one of the moons of the Library.

Where Wadra's body slumbered. Perhaps death, perhaps not.

All, while Eras worked, and Eras built the giant objects.

But amongst the Wadrans, there were traitors. It remembered them as tiny red seeds hidden within the Jellyfish people.

One day, the Jellyfish people screamed, as those red seeds exploded.

One day, it all came together, and Eras vanished.

***

Lumoof staggered backwards as the Core cut off our connection. It had told us what it wanted to say.

"We should contact all the Cores. We could piece together a true history of the events, at least from how the Cores remembered them."

"Yeah."

***

Lumoof and Stella then visited the other four worlds, and found somewhere to dig into the ground. We visited all the other four Cores over the span of 2 years, and within this time, we formed a rough idea from their collective memories.

The four cores remembered Eras, and they also served Eras. Eras was their master, their controller.

The Cores remembered the construction of the Sun-Rings and the Demon's Prison. Large chunks of the Sun-Rings were built on the Forge of Eras. Steels and metals were magically brought from far away, collected and designed in the Library. Huge chunks of hedron-shaped crystal-formations were constructed and stored on the Store of Eras, while gigantic Golems on the Bestiary worked to piece them together.

They all also remembered the Wadrans, also as floating extradimensional jellyfish. They lived in spaces near the sea, near the lakes, and for a time, seemed content to build.

Then there was a great massacre. A genocide of the Wadrans from within. The same red seed spawned within a corrupted bunch, tainted by something foul. Their death was so numerous that it carved a painful memory into the Cores.

On the Bestiary, that world's Core remembered and witnessed great cruelty. The Wadrans fought amongst themselves, and some were injected with foul beasts from beyond. It turned them into monsters, as the Core vividly felt the imprint of souls forcibly modified.

These jellyfish Wadrans screamed. Their voices were like the shrieks of a banshee, the foul noise of metal scratching and rubbing against once another. The pain was monstrous.

What emerged were creatures that vaguely resembled the blobs we saw on the outer rim of the True Demonflesh.

"At least we know that the Descendants are culprits, and we should be destroying them."

"But the Cores do not remember anything about the demons. That part is so strange."

"The demons were never here." Lumoof said. "The Descendants have a way of dealing with the demons or controlling them."

"So. Let's capture and interrogate the descendants."

"You have a candidate?"

"Not yet."

Crucible of Eras

Lumoof stood, disguised. As a dwarf, he looked like an old hermit, his hair was long and white. It was a good thing that the Erasian worlds were all extremely densely populated worlds. I theorized that just like Hawa, Aiva, and so on, these Descendants might be trying to create some kind of new 'faith'.

The question was then, had they already succeeded?

I didn't think so, simply because if they had, I believed I would sense it.

So, why did they fail? I needed to know because I wanted them to continue failing. I'd also wanted to capture some of these Descendants, if only to thoroughly subject them to tests.

"Let's kidnap a few. Not here, in this world of the Library of Eras, though. It'll put too much risk on the heretics. The Crucible might be a good target, you mentioned that in some reports, some lesser descendants also function as priests and should be fairly easy to pick them off when they are alone." Edna suggested to both Lumoof and Stella. The three of them would have to work together, just in case, but if the Descendants did not possess a domain, it would be highly, highly vulnerable to my powers. That would likely lead us closer to the answers we so wanted.

Each of the five worlds were filled with billions of dwarves, and the Descendants traveled, lived and moved amongst them like a special class of nobility. They were protected by other dwarves, of course, and also lower-ranked Descendants.

The crowded cities served as an easy background for someone like Lumoof. He slipped in between the crowds and moved without restriction. It didn't even take long for him to walk up to one of the dwarven priests, knock the guy out, and then take his outfit for studies. Then, we replicated a few copies of that outfit for Lumoof.

Now, Lumoof took the form of a dwarven priest. His holy aura and holy skills made it that no one doubted that the priest they saw was not from the faith they preached. He hid easily amongst the dwarven priests, who worshipped the Reviver.

He sat down with the rest of the dwarven priests. The Descendant was naturally late. He had ten guards, all of a very high level. The rest of the priests were studying and looking through scripture. The same one that Lumoof pocketed from the unfortunate dwarven priest. He finished a complete reading of the clearly inconsistent scripture. It made little sense, especially when under scrutiny.

"You're a new priest. From the Grand Study?" One of the priests said.

Lumoof nodded. "Yes. Call me Lumo."

"You must be quite advanced in your priestly studies. Level 30?" The priest asked.

"About there." The false priest Lumo smiled. "I was told I'd share a stage with one of the Descendants and found it an honor I could not refuse."

"Strange, though." The priest said. "They'd normally send a letter or something."

Lumoof thought that felt like a slip, but somehow the priests didn't actually feel like they were suspicious. If anything, they looked amused. "Oh. I wasn't aware of that."

"Eh, never mind. Sometimes the administration department is not aware of what are the plans of the clergy. Not the first time such things are messed up."

At that point, one of the other priests asked. "Hey, did anyone see Ridli? Is he late?"

"Send someone to look for him. Strange that he is late." One of the head priests answered.

Lumoof, at this point, noticed all their levels felt fairly low. Level 30s at most. He wondered whether this was due to their distorted faith.

Levels were gained from combat, but for priests who served their god, it was from acts of service, providing aid to their believers, and performing various religious duties. If done correctly, level gains were not supposed to be that slow.

A few priests went out, and then, the door opened.

Ten guards walked in, all heavily armed. They were easily in the level 70s to 80s, and they looked at the rest of the priests with disregard.

The priesthood quickly made space and stood close to the walls.

One of the guards then called out. "The Descendant Priest Lord Nayi-ra."

Nayi-ra walked in, and his aura felt weak. At most, level 120? Lumoof activated his [inspect].

[Descendant. A faithful believer of the Reviver]

Lumoof stood at the corner, and Nayi-ra looked at the rest of them. He could feel that person's overwhelming sense of superiority, as if he was one and above all of them. The creature regarded the rest of the dwarvenkind as nothing more than a tool.

He wasn't going to fall for it like Edna. He would wait.

Kidnapping a domain holder was difficult, since Aeon's teleportation could be resisted. Domains protected them from certain abilities, and teleportation was one of them.

A lower ranked Descendant was thus the ideal candidate. Close enough to the powers, but weak enough that he could easily force the creature through Aeon's teleportation ability.

Lumoof waited. There was a sermon, and there were many other ceremonies. Nayi-ra was a passionate speaker and clearly exalted the Reviver during every sentence. The Descendant's body was strange, especially up close. We felt the man's intense void mana, a feature of the Wadrans, and its body looked like a twisted mess.

Unfortunately, Lumoof's constant observation of the Descendant seemed to have triggered some reaction. It wasn't something that arose from the use of skills, but instead, it was just the Descendant being unfriendly.

"Why is this man constantly looking at me? Do you not know it is not polite to stare at the Descendants?" Nayi-ra barked, and then the dwarven guards quickly intervened. They approached Lumoof and held his hand.

"Sorry, priest. The Descendants do not like you staring, come." They escorted Lumoof out of the room. He honestly expected the guards to beat him up next, but one of them just sighed. "Look, Descendants are nobility, we don't stare at them, alright? This also means we can't allow you to come to future sermons after this. Well, until everyone forgets that is."

The other guard nodded. "Just lay low for a bit, hide up somewhere. It'll be fine. Just look at the Descendants on the magical screens. You can stare there all you want."

Lumoof sighed. It sucked when the guards were reasonable people. We decided that we needed to infiltrate the dwarven temples that supported and championed this entire Reviver-Eras faith, even if that brought us very close to the domain-tier Descendants. Only through our meddling from within, could we effectively uncover, and trap some of the lesser Descendants.

Spaizzer