Tree of Aeons

364.75 - Curses and Hidden Worlds

“Do not look at the Ravenous.”

The dwarves who gazed up trembled. Their bodies were afflicted by the effects of the Primal Curses. But only the Golems were immune to two of the three effects. They were made by a god, and their flesh did not suffer from the same problems.

Those who were on the wrong side of the Core World that day suffered the consequences, while those who were asleep or at home managed to dodge the perils of gazing at the giant in the skies above.

"There is great sickness throughout the land! Those who approach the surface beware!" A dwarven man shouted as he stood at the corner of the dimly lit row of underground shops. They said as Lumoof walked through the vast Erasian cities under shade, various covered walkways and shelters. It was a good thing that many had wisely chosen not to look up, and perhaps visionary that the Erasian worlds were built layer upon layer over long periods of time, that there were still many functional underground sections of the world, and dwarves were not afraid of dark places and found thick, and heavy underground air to be rather pleasant. The effects of the Leviathan's presence only kicked in when one took a full look at the flesh, and for at least half of the world, they managed to dodge it. 

"This is the foul god that they promised you! Only Eras is the true god! The Reviver was a lie all along!" The rebels went all out on the propaganda, shouting on another street. Many of the dwarves found the chaos unnerving and stayed home,  and for those that didn't, the golems had to help them to their homes because the effects of the curse made them weak and freeze with fear outdoors. "That horrific creature is the Reviver that the Descendants' promised us! Your faith has been abused and misused to spawn that foul creature!" 

The Descendants and the increasingly isolated DoDA agents wanted to intervene, but here in the underground, they were heavily outnumbered and the presence of the Erasian Sentinels, decked out in Erasian Relics havingd power that the Descendants didn’t dare to confront. 

The dwarves took it as a sign of the Descendants’ frail, hollowing power, when their enemies could walk so brazenly on their worlds. Even on the surface, the Descendants themselves suffered the same curse when they went outdoors. Only mindless creatures like regular demons were unaffected, and those were non-existent in these Core Worlds

Even though many dwarves managed to dodge the effects of glancing at the Ravenous’s flesh, there were still tens of millions of dwarves afflicted by the curse. 

"Can you cure it?" Stella looked at a shivering dwarven man as Lumoof reached the destination. The shivering man was a rebel’s brother, and so they reached out to Lumoof for help. Interestingly, as long as they didn't see the actual body of the Ravenous, they didn't suffer the effects, so blind people, and those who used a large umbrella or covering, could avoid triggering the effects of the curse. 

Once indoors, millions of dwarves and Descendants alike tried to recover, but it was a stain on their soul.

"It's temporary." Lumoof said as he held the pale dwarven warrior's hand. He shivered and could not talk, as if horrified at what he saw.

"How serious is it? We may not be able to deploy most of our other Valthorns if this is the type of creature it is. Only domain holders could even stand. Or maybe we need to test out with those with curse-resistance skills." Stella said.

Interestingly, across the Order, there were multiple variants of curse-resistances, and we wanted to test it out. 

But first, Lumoof touched the dwarven man and held him. Our spiritual tendrils reached into the dwarf's soul and found his soul spring covered, flooded with a dark stain. The soul spring pumped, and there were growing white spots as if the curse was gradually being removed. 

"They will heal, eventually." Lumoof noted. "Might take a week though. Or more." 

The clear spot grew slowly in the cursed man's soul. He was fighting the curse. Lumoof's spiritual tendrils reached out and touched the black part. Our energies flowed through the man, and with our magical energies, thankfully, the curse burned like many other curses. 

"Hmm. I believe we can purge this curse with normal [priest] abilities. It's not as sticky as the void curse." It was a curse effective across a wide area. It was possible that the curse traded away specific potency for reach.

"But we can't purge it constantly." Stella said. "As long as you look at that thing, it'll keep inflicting a new curse on them.” 

"Or we can try some [curse] prevention abilities?" Lumoof frowned. "We need some countermeasures so the rest of our team can also help us during the battle. We won't be able to fight that thing effectively without the rest of the team."

Even if the domain holders took the front, someone had to resupply weapons, and evacuate the Erasians. 

"I suppose if we think positively, this sounds like a great way to train curse resistance." Edna said.

Edna and Stella looked at each other. Stella glared uncomfortably. 

"Did I remind you of when you were trying to learn void magic?" Edna laughed as she realized what her suggestion was similar to. Stella rolled her eyes in response. "I'm sorry!"

"We should test out a range of responses."

Some curse resistances worked, some didn't. 

Even those that worked only weakened the strength of the curse, but not total negation like our [domain]. However, when we strung a few different abilities and tools together, we could reduce the Ravenous Curse's effectiveness to only a sliver, that it was no more than a minor annoyance.  Рᴀ𝐍ốβЁṨ

But once we knew that the curse could be weakened by [priest] abilities, we could then get the golems to round up the local dwarven priests on the Library of Eras and teach them abilities to resist the effects. 

Interestingly enough, the golems thus became transport for the priests to help out the dwarves affiliated with the Ravenous Curse. 

***

"We must free the rest of my people." Jorkun declared to Lumoof, while the local priests helped to remove the curse. These dwarven priests, who used to believe in the Lord Reviver and Eras as a pair, were surprisingly quick to change their beliefs and refocus on Eras. 

The golems had memories of Eras's glory days, and with some help from Lumoof, we were able to show them and remind them what the Erasian faith used to be.

For these priests, finally knowing the true faith was a huge improvement. They began to gain levels in their [priest] class, when they used to be almost stagnant, simply because their faith was no longer 'wrong'. 

It was a phenomenon that also made my Treeology priests and clergymen quite confused, because we didn't realize that learning the wrong faith could impair level gains in their faith. 

Lumoof personally theorized that it was not that the faith was wrong, but that there was a conflict between what their god truly was and what they believed. As the Erasian Priests did not truly understand their god's true form, they were always unable to gain levels. While the Descendants, who understood and knew the truth, were able to gain levels without such issues, and so the Descendant Priests outleveled the dwarven priests by a longshot.

In short, the system didn't prevent anyone from gaining [priest] levels in evil faiths, but slowed it down significantly when there was a conflict in their knowledge of the faith and their god's truth. 

Inconsistency was the problem, not evil.

"Let us help. More." The golem said. "We've only been able to free the Library, but those other worlds must be freed too. Once we clear up the faith, our divine lord Eras's strength will return."

"Will it be enough to break through the prison?" I asked through Lumoof. "Or are we just feeding that extra strength to the leviathan?"

The golem had no answer. 

"If there is one thing I know for certain." Lumoof said. "Convince your people to leave. The days to come will be bloody, and that leviathan is too large. It must be something designed to destroy worlds, and once it awakens, it will be the Five Core Worlds that dies. Preserve your people, golem. Evacuate them to the Sun-Rings or further."

The destruction of the void barrier, however, left significant damage to the six Sun-Rings. The violent collapse led to massive cracks and broken segments along the Sun-Rings, some of which shattered to the point where it would take significant work to repair. 

***

Then, as the thick void mana of the demon realms began to spread out, it also revealed new worlds to us.

"There are hidden worlds." Stella cursed.

Three new worlds appeared, and we wondered whether there were even more hidden by the thick coat of void mana.

"Well, maybe that's why we couldn't find Wadra's corpse anywhere, even though it was supposed to be on one of the moons."

"You think it's hidden in this void sea?"

"I would think so. It's quite fitting for a god of the void to be hidden and buried within the void." Lumoof said. 

Stella paused and looked. She would continue her search later. Some of these newly discovered hidden worlds did not have a sun, which helped them hide from our eyes, but somehow maintained a small reality bubble. In other words, they were exactly like my Cometworld. 

There were multiple strangely familiar magical presences on these worlds, and it felt like a good opportunity for us to gain levels. 

So, my voidmage created a bubble of void and traveled with Lumoof and Edna. Once we entered this hidden world's reality bubble, we saw a gigantic field of asteroids, and at the center of this small reality bubble, was a shattered world.

The demons had turned it into a special spawning pool for demons. Stella approached one of these comets and detected a gigantic infestation that had grown so large that it now covered the entirety of the comet.

"So. Do you think the Descendants made this?"

"I don't think so." Lumoof said. "My conviction is that the Descendants are nothing more than a tool to harvest faith. They will be abandoned and consumed by the Ravenous once it wakes up."

"They deserve it." Edna said. 

Stella smiled. "Which is why we should use it against them. They must know that their own god would just consume them once they' have outlived their usefulness. Even if they don't know, they must suspect it."

"Great idea. When are you going to do it?" The knight said. "Now let's land on that shattered world and see what we find."

The entire realm shook when the three domain holders landed, as if the realm sensed an invader. Then, a group of three [Defender Demon Kings] appeared. 

Not through teleportation, but they crawled out of the ground itself. 

"Well." Edna smiled as her spear glowed. "I've been itching for a fight anyway."

These shattered Demonworlds were used to create [Defender Demon Kings]. Or at least, hidden there. 

What followed was a fairly simple beatdown. Edna and Lumoof, especially now that my [Aeon's Spirit] reflected my significantly increased strength, easily overwhelmed these Defenders. 

Roots from my [Aeon's Spirit] quickly spread through the demonic ground, my roots were now weapons.

"You know, you can spawn Aeon's Spirit anywhere hard. Do you think you can spawn one on a demon?" Stella asked. She didn't have to do much fighting, since Edna, Lumoof, and my Aeon's Spirit made these once challenging foes into nothing more than a mob. 

More defender demon kings roused from the depth, and we found seven more hidden underground. 

But seven mobs were only seven mobs. 

We killed them. Easily.

I was now Level 291. These monsters, maybe level 150 to 200 in strength, could not match me. Their claws could not hurt my bark. Their magical blasts were easily absorbed by my numerous defensive shields. 

All seven demon kings could throw everything they had at me at the same time, and my Aeon's Spirit would just soak it up. 

I felt as if I had overleveled myself and went to a weaker dungeon. 

Lumoof and Edna both gained levels.

"Well, that was 5 levels for me! Though I feel like I was merely helping Aeon's Spirit." Edna said, after we crushed the last of the defender demon kings. These defenders didn't self-detonate. Unlike the other demon kings, not one of them had an inbuilt detonation ability, and I managed to rip out three of the defender demon king's cores. Stella and my mages would have a look at them later, and see how we could make them 

Power was a strange thing. 

The Shattered Demonworld shook, and we soon found what was once the Core of the world. My roots ripped the Core out of the demonic infestation. Once we did, the entire reality bubble began to shake. 

After it collapsed, we repeated the attacks on the other two hidden shattered worlds over the next few weeks. Three worlds and a grand total of 30 slain defender demon kings later, we all gained a bit of levels.

Edna now reached Level 218 and Lumoof just two levels behind at Level 216, while Stella was further behind at Level 205.

As for me, I only gained one level.

[You've gained one level. You are now Level 292.]

The destruction of the Three Shattered Demonworlds did not cause the Descendants to react. However, we noticed that one of Ravenous Reborn's eyes shone in that direction, as if aware. 

But it found nothing. 

It only increased my suspicions that the Ravenous itself hid certain parts of their plan from the Descendants.

So, the natural next step was to use the Descendants against itself, while we prepared for our attack on the Ravenous Reborn. 

Spaizzer

I felt a real great sense of accomplishment over the last few days.  I wrote the first cut of the final battle for tree of aeons, and it should be out over the next 4-6 weeks for patreons ( so +1 month so for RR/SH will be 2-2.5 months left). I'll head back in to amend the wordings and pacing, but I'm glad to have a skeleton of an end. 

I'm glad to wrap this up, even if it is not perfect. 

If you wish to give me monies, uh, keep in mind that things are ending, tho u are free to indulge in almost 10+ patreon exclusive side stories.