Tree of Aeons

360

Hoyia landed on the Aivan world and felt the world shift. Traveling via void portals, especially how she had to make so many hops through different worlds, was a drain physically. There was something about being flung through a small void tunnel through the void sea that was nauseating and exhausting.

She very much preferred the gentle comforts of Aeon's teleportation. Point to point teleportation was truly amazing, but alas, good things could not be everywhere, because they required too much to happen.

She could picture a future where the node trees act as the hubs for movement between worlds, and a map of the realms segregated into ‘regions’, each centered around a particular node. Stella and the earthling heroes described how it sounded similar to a kind of hub-and-spoke model used by flying transportation machines, but instead, Aeon’s node trees, with their significantly higher capacity and speed, serves as the hubs, while the local travel are handled by void portals and rift gates. 

The Aivan Core World hummed with activity, filled with the Aivan god's believers. She could feel the rules of the world attempt to assert itself over her, but her domain shrugged them off easily. Her eyes were drawn to the flying harpies and garudas dotting the skies, guards, patrolmen of the Aivan faith. 

Then, in front of her, the Grand Temple of Aiva. A sight that was a little too familiar.

She'd been here a little too often, and Aiva's golden form was so glaring that she often found herself reactively covering her eyes. Unfortunately, the glow of a god like Aiva pierced even the blind. 

Even the blind felt the glow, and saw divine light where there was none. What else could the weak do than to believe? Fortunately for her, that sort of soul imprint did not apply to her. 

"You are here on time." Aiva’s voice sounded airy. Full of fluff. She wondered whether it was intentional. 

He gave her a golden object, shaped like it was meant to be attached to something else. 

Far smaller than the [Realm Egg], but this wasn't meant to last forever.

[Worldly Mask - An artifact meant to hide an entire world from the detection of demons. Does not work if the demons are already aware or have visited a world before. Can be attached to the Realm Egg to be activated together]

"The void densities within the barrier will erode even divine abilities. This object will last no more than thirty years once activated."

"Unless replenished or replaced?" Hoyia clarified. After the discovery of the heretics, and the presence of the Erasian dwarves, one of our backup plans was a massive evacuation. From what we observed, these Descendants did not really value the life of the Erasians and merely considered them as nothing more than 'faith cattle'. 

So, once things escalate, we believe there would be large-scale slaughter. We were also deep in the depths of the true demonlands, and there were multiple demonic comets that they could easily turn towards the Erasian worlds. At that kind of distance, we were not sure we could even stop them.

So, a way to evacuate the dwarves was needed. Node trees could work, but they were fairly vulnerable. A hidden world with one of my node trees or even a clone? That was a better safety valve. Void mages could easily move the short distances between the five core Erasian worlds and the newly spawned world, and from there, they would have a somewhat safe place to be transported to safer, dwarven majority worlds, such as the Darkgardian worlds. 

Which necessitated Hoyia’s return to Aiva, for something to shroud the realm from the demons, at least temporarily. It was not a tall order for someone like Aiva. Especially when it was related to a new world unseen before. However, Aiva previously stated that if it was a known world, the cost to hide it was exponentially higher. 

It was easier to prevent void connections when they were fewer, but much harder when there were already many previous connections. 

"Yes." Aiva answered my Matreearch's question. 

"Then it is good enough." Hoyia said. "We will find a way to make it work."

"I know. The discovery of the Erasians complicated things."

The woman did not want to answer that, and thanked the god for the object. "Thank you, I shall take my leave." 

***

Valley of the Unrotten, Treehome

The soul of the Descendant Kha-ha was fascinating. The Descendant flailed in the endlessly regenerating tub that is my [Biolab] and linked to it, my [Soul Forge] began my long awaited dissection of the Descendant's internal structure. 

What were these people?

If regular souls were a gigantic lake that represented mana, with a spring at its heart. The lake took the shape of the person. The edges of that lake, where the lake's mana or waters met the shore, represented the point where mana interacted with the flesh. ＲА𝐍ǑꞖËS

The old demons, the creatures that we increasingly believe were just a kind of soulless, magical automatons, had dried, cracked lakes, like a drained lake during a drought, where the soils had cracked. In those demons, the shape of their 'souls', or what was left of it, was filled with 'oil sludge'. The 'oil sludge' was the demonic mana. When that mana was ignited or activated, it created a 'fire' in their hollow, demonic shells of a soul. 

The void mages, their souls were also normal shaped, but unlike the others with their clear waters and clear springs, the void mages had dark waters. Waters that were as black as ink, and the stones of the soul spring replaced by jet black stones. 

Thus, as my powers easily ripped through the defenses of Kha-ha's spirit, I saw the corruption within.

The soul spring of most people stood at the heart, slightly above the lake that was around it all. The domain holders too, would have a platform of marble underneath the land and soil around it all.

Instead, there was a visible difference in the area around the creature's soul spring. What was regular soil, at a small area closer to the spring, changed into a different colored, bright red soil. The spring itself was also made with this reddish stone, and there were smaller pools around their soul spring. They produced two types of mana, one black that represented their natural void tendencies and one natural. This aspect was not unusual, since even I or Lausanne, and many void mages could convert void mana to normal mana. They also had smaller pools that stored void mana and rivers that crossed segments of their soul, filled with void mana.

This was likely the nomadic Wadran's natural advantage, to be born with rivers of 'void mana' and 'normal mana'. We knew from Gorkun and the other records that the Wadrans were natural void users, and could seamlessly use both regular and void mana. 

But my attention was locked on the reddish material that formed these parts of the soul. Why was it differently colored?

My spiritual roots made cuts and extracted some of the soil, and some of the reddish stones from Kha-ha's soul. 

The red stones glowed when my spiritual roots picked it up, and with my soul forge, I forced my will into them. What are these things?

It felt like the soul forge shook. 

And my powers pressed against a sensation. A wall. Something trying to hide itself from me. I pushed. 

And pushed.

I drew on the weight of my domain, and then, the entire soul forge felt a jolt.

It felt as if I had placed something too heavy on a table, and the table began to bend. The body of Kha-ha flailed wildly, struggling out of sheer inherent resistance. His mind had long gone unconscious. 

I called on more of my power and felt it snap. Like a table that gave way. Like a chair that was overloaded and finally hit its tipping point.

Whatever that was hidden finally revealed itself to me.

[ Soul Fragment of the Ravenous Demons - A parasitic seed of ravenous soul planted inside a Wadran flesh and has since taken over the original Wadran body and replaced its heart and soul]

[ Skill Stone of Ravenous Origins - Abilities unknown ]

Revelation.

We put the pieces together. The origins of the Descendants, what they did so far, and how the demons were using Eras seemed to point to the obvious.

"The Descendants are reviving the Ravenous, or at least, trying to bring about the return of the Ravenous." 

If they couldn't, they would want to force one of the higher domain holders of the Descendants to ascend as the New Ravenous, one with Faith Powers at its side.

***

Deep underground

The heretics moved constantly and repositioned themselves closer to one of the large mind-alteration towers, filled with magical artifacts and formations that sent powerful mind-influencing magic throughout the Library of Eras.

According to Jorkun, some of the dwarves were naturally more resistant to the effects of these mind-influencing towers. Some [classes] too. But the overwhelming and constant mental attacks would weaken even the strongest, unless they were specifically awakened through exposure through relics. 

The touch of the Erasian truth could not be silenced by lies spoken to the mind. But it was a lot easier for the truth to be twisted. Turned into half truths.

"They must know we are coming for them." Edna said as she felt the presence of multiple elite forces above them. Not all of them were from the DoDA, so it suggested that the Erasians had other regular military forces.

"Heretics are a feature of the Erasian worlds for centuries, even before my reawakening." Jorkun stated. "From what Seva has said, many of these heretics would stumble upon some item or object from the lower layers, and because of a trace of divinity left within them, they would often glimpse a dream, a memory of a life without the lies. These people become the heretics, some of them smartly kept this truth to themselves, but many cannot help but speak of their revelations, and that attracts the attention of the heretic hunters sent by the DoDA." 

Seva looked embarrassed and looked at his palms as if they were stained in blood. "I thought they were possessed by evil. That they were corrupted by the evil thoughts sent by the gods from beyond the barrier." 

Jorkun merely tapped the dwarven warrior's shoulder. "It is not your fault, Seva." 

Seva nodded, and shook his palms as if trying to shake off something. "Yeah. Yes. The Erasian army is mostly designed to deal with naturally spawning monsters throughout the Library of Eras. There are still ancient dungeons since the Erasian times, old sewers, and even ancient tunnels that become spawning grounds for monsters, so that's the army's jurisdiction."

"I see." Edna nodded. 

They didn't feel that strong, but they could have treasures like the one used by the now deceased Commander Shai, and that would likely call the rest of the Descendants. 

So, Edna thought it felt like a trap. But even so, the heretics had to show the Descendants that they could walk into a trap and win. That would send them scrambling.

"Without destroying these things, we cannot free the rest of the Erasians from their influence." Zarkun stated. "Even if it is a trap, we must attack them."

The ten warriors and two golems prepared for an attack, and double checked their new equipment, funded from the armory of Treehome.

The structure itself, their target, was a large stone spire with crystal magical lines that funneled magical energies to the actual mind-influencing formations high above. The spire itself received external power , transported by six large magical tubes linked to magical generation artifacts further away. Without magical energy, they would not be able to activate the large-scale magical spell that affected the minds of so many Erasians.

Officially, the DoDA said that they were just large-scale information distribution towers, that they helped to power and maintain the voice and announcement transmission networks, but in their private records, the frequent presence of the [mindmage] domainholders suggested otherwise. 

Zarkun waited for the right moment, he watched the defenders' movements with their earth vibration sensors. The defenders moved from place to place, and this created moments where they were just a little too close, or a little too far from each other.

Perfect for a strike.

"Well. Let's go."

***

Earlier, within one of the Descendant's Compounds

I kept my roots and vines hidden and unassuming, and I listened. Like weeds, like moss, like lichen. I spread and covered the walls. I covered the floors.

And through them, I listened. 

One day, I struck gold, when one of the Descendant’s domain holders appeared. Identified within the DoDA records as Oracle Nama-na.

The details within the DoDA records described Nama-na as some kind of 'prescient' being, as if able to sense things before they occurred and often spoke of various disasters. Unfortunately, details of the exact domain were scarce. The Descendants saw no reason to reveal their powers to their dwarven servants. 

But here, within the depths of the Descendant Compounds, it was where they should be safe.

"[Oracle] Nama-na, you appear troubled." One of the other Descendants, recorded as Hunda-fa, a [warmage] spoke, as they walked. Their tentacles touched briefly, which was interpreted as a sign of reassurance. "Is it the recent attacks?"

"Very much so. One death, one disappearance." Nama-na's tentacles sagged and shook slightly, reflecting frustration. "My abilities are also strangely clouded, as if I cannot see far. As if so much is cloudy, so vague. For the visions that I could see, they appear far more incomplete than before. I see one of our Mindshaping Formations is under attack. More than one. Stolen."

"I will have the dwarves deploy security forces. The best that they have."

"It feels useless." Nama-na said, his words troubled. The Wadrans and Descendants, from DoDA records and also from Gorkun's own recollection, were hermaphrodites. They were both male and female simultaneously and could reproduce independently. In short, a single Descendant was needed to make more Descendants, though this process of laying the Descendant Egg often drains the life of them. 

The descendant eggs were then kept and nourished in void mana heavy environments, which meant in the Library of Eras, or any of the core worlds, they could just leave them out in the open. 

I made a note to steal these eggs later. 

Nama-na looked around. "The old golems are stronger than the dwarves, they were made by Eras. It would need us, those with a domain, to defeat them. But I fear they have access to something else, more powerful than just the golems. Shu-na should not have died to just a golem. Even two golems, or three, should not be able to slay Shu-Na so easily."

Hunda-fa shook his head, his tentacles swaying with the twisting head. 

“You suspect that Eras may have left them a powerful relic. Something that could slay us.” 

“What else could it be?” 

There was a sense of dread within the Descendants. As I observed them, they were haughty, arrogant, but they were also mortal. They had mortal emotions and thoughts. They felt fear and joy, even if they still truly believed in their inherent superiority over the dwarves and everyone else. 

They were as if the nobility had made itself into an actually different race that only bred with themselves. 

***

"Blow them up. Has never been wrong." Alka repeated his earlier statement. The domainholders gathered in a spiritual dream for our usual meeting of minds, and this time we have Blackmoore as the newest member of the Dominion.

"Insane. Alka. I for one absolutely oppose annihilating billions of dwarves, misguided as they are." Lausanne’s voice was a little louder than usual. Stern. Maybe a little angry. "I say we get in there, kill only the hundreds and thousands of Descendants and free them. Aeon is likely stronger than them all in a straight fight. So we would win. They are also scattered across five worlds, or more. We can pick them off from the edges."

“But we have more to deal with than just these Descendants.” Alka countered. “Best we hit it quickly and move on.”

Stella frowned. "I've surveyed the rest of the inner worlds. They are not home to these Descendants, but instead are just filled with the true demonflesh of high levels. There are also worlds that appear to serve as factories for the demon's comets."

Edna sat quietly. "The descendants are void-mana creatures of Wadran origin. Someone like Lausanne, with star mana, could easily be very dangerous against them. They may have more  domainholders, but only a few are level 200 and so. A surgical strike is preferred, especially since they are scattered, and we are united."

"How long can you keep up the ruse that it is the heretics that are killing the domain holders?" Roon asked, entirely curious. "From what I’ve seen, they are not stupid and they will figure it out eventually."

"Not if we upgrade them with our weaponry." Hoyia elaborated. "I have been testing a wide range of new tools with the Gorkun, and we intend to arm both Jorkun, Zarkun, and any other sentinels that we find, with our best tools and weapons. It should give them a respectable chance against weaker domainholders. Aeon should also be able to find more of these sentinels, especially once we start deploying nodes on the Bestiary, the Store, and the Crucible. With sufficient numbers, our simulations suggest that sentinels could overpower domainholders, especially how these Descendants appear to be biased towards mage-type domains. The anti-magic glass weapons should prove to be excellent mage killers."

I found the thought that we were arming insurgents and supporting a 'rogue' cell highly amusing. I suppose all respectable intelligence forces eventually ended up funding the enemies of their enemies. 

***

The ground beneath the transmission towers shook violently, as Zarkun and Gorkun both slammed their magical golem fists into the supporting pillars of the tower. 

The entire tower trembled, as their attacks made quick work of the steel and crystal alloys that formed the foundation. There were screams, as people above them started running out of the tower. 

The guards scrambled, and chased everyone out. The tower was sparsely inhabited, there were mainly magical devices and formations. "The tower is collapsing!"

"Someone is underground! Call the Descendants!"

A few of the lower leveled Descendants were also around, and Lumoof felt his domain blocked their area search spell. These Descendants were mind mages, and there were multiple enthralled dwarves working for them.

But the tower wasn't holding. The two sentinels attacked the magical tubes that supplied magical energy to the tower, and once broken, we could feel a stop to the hammering of magical attacks on our minds.

The skies blurred, as two void portals appeared above. Two of their domain holders stepped through, both warmages. Hana-dia, some kind of earth mage, and Munda-sha, a fire mage of some kind. 

A blast of magical energies tore through the ground and broke through three layers of ancient earth. 

Zarkun rushed out and sliced through the mage's magical blasts. "Right here, usurpers!" 

"He's not working alone." Hana-dia said. "I can feel many others underground." 

He activated some kind of magical ability, and the earth itself twisted. Jorkun, still deep underground, felt the ground melt and turn into a puddle, and wrap around their feet. 

"No good, no good. The rest of you evacuate into the tunnels!" Jorkun commanded. He kicked violently, and broke free from the animated puddle's grip.

"We can't!" Seva countered, as the earth itself twisted to block off and seal the tunnels. More of the soil turned into monstrous puddles, and transformed into demonic earth-dogs. "They've got us sealed off."

Jorkun looked around. "We need evacuation! Zarkun, occupy the earth mage!"

"Got it!" Zarkun held up two gauntlets made of anti-magic materials, and rushed towards the earth mage. The materials clearly surprised the domain holder, as Zarkun easily punched through the magically reinforced earth walls, each punch breaking through the walls as if they were just loose soil.

"What monstrous gauntlet is that!" Hana-dia reacted as Zarkun got uncomfortably close. But the Descendants melted into a puddle of mud, and reappeared a distance away. 

The tower crumbled, as the last of the pillars finally could not hold the tower together anymore. At that moment, Zarkun began to spontaneously burn, as if hit by an invisible fire. "Overconfident hunk of steel."

The fire was incredibly powerful, but Zarkun was made by a god. It would take a while to get through.

"Evacuate!" Jorkun screamed the order, as the rest of them ran for their lives.

The two Descendants were prepared to give chase.

Then, Stella's void portals emerged, much to both the Descendant domainholders’ surprise. The golems and the heretics all vanished through them, and now, we'd planted the seeds of doubts.

The magical transmission tower was now a mountain of rubble. The Descendants and their allies looked around. The two domainholders looked at each other. 

"That was a void portal. The dwarves should not have the ability to use void portals."

Munda-sha's jellyfish tentacles wobbled, something which was often described as a frown for others. "Could it be that some of the original Wadran survived?"

Hana-dia frowned. “Or some kind of ancient Wadran artifact.”

But there was that last bit. A little bit that gnawed at their heart.

"Or a traitor."

***

"This fire is amazing." Lumoof said as I expanded my domain and enveloped Zarkun's steel frame. The fire was a domain tier ability. 

It kept burning, and could not be put out with water or any other way. It would just burn and burn perpetually, and slowly, even Zarkun’s divine-tier armor began to melt. I could feel the magic of the fire, and how it was tied. There was a strand, a thread that connected the fire to that Descendant far away. It felt just like the magical soul strands of the White Statue, or that beast god Bitu. This fire was a fragment of Munda-sha’s domain. 

A tracing fire. The fact that they did not chase us immediately suggested that they hoped to find the heretics at a base of some sort. 

"Once I put it out, we must move. It is linked to the domainholder, and allows him to sense our location.”

"Alright. Put it out, and then we move."

My spiritual energies wrapped around the fire and felt its domain nature. A domain holder's will, encapsulated within a fire. It would burn forever, without materials or fuel, as long as their lord commanded it to be so.

But domain abilities were contests of wills. The stronger domain can overpower the weaker one.

As I reached and wrapped around the fire, it even felt somewhat similar. Like the demonic fires that once burned my stump. 

My domain transformed into a vine, a root. I wrapped around the fire, and snuffed it out. 

Somewhere far away, Munda-sha's tentacles wobbled in shock.

"Impossible."