Tree of Aeons

Epilogue

End 1

The effects of the Leviathan's sealing rippled throughout the greater worlds with the strength of regular demons fading substantially. Creatures that fought way beyond what they were supposed to, lost their blessings, and the defenders capitalized on the weakness.

The tide turned. This time, the Valtrian Order was the tsunami. The armies and defenders of the many worlds fought back, and now, my Order operatives tore through the demonic hordes like they were no more than cattle. 

Our forces everywhere screamed in joy. Their exhaustion faded. Invigorated by our victory.

Everywhere, there was celebration. They felt the victory. They felt the disappearance of the demons’ strength. The great shadow that shrouded the worlds faded. 

"Victory has come!" 

I watched them all celebrate. 

I watched them cheer. 

This was a moment worth celebrating, so we did not interfere.

But my thoughts surveyed the worlds, and I asked myself the question.

Was this the start of the true victory?

It was a question on my mind and on the minds of my domain holders. 

I knew that the real victory was the structure that permitted a change of powers without massive annihilation. The real victory was one where we preserved the natural laws of the jungle that facilitated long term evolution and improvement, but not at the expense of long term health. So long as they add to the overall ecosystem.

In my mind, we had sealed the demon's source, now, we moved to ensure that what we had was real peace.

***

Year 348

Winning a war was one thing, keeping it a victory was another. 

The destruction of the Five Core Erasian Worlds was a massive blow, the billions of dwarves that died, either directly or indirectly after the fact, was a tragedy. 

While those who survived and escaped mourned the dead, my men focused on the living.

Food, sanitation, healthcare. Magic could do a lot. 

But scale was a problem even with magic, and there was so much destruction spread across the peripheral worlds.

Most of my combat-focused Valthorn operatives were also ill suited for the task of restoring and reconstruction. 

So even with hundreds of thousands of active Order personnel on the ground, the scale of hundreds of millions of refugees still meant some of these survivors died in the new world. 

I felt sad. 

Even with my new levels and new powers, death was inevitable. Even a god was only powerful where he could reach, and there was always someone left outside our reach. 

But unlike before, there was no reason to stop.

There was no greater evil that I had to carefully navigate around. Now, I could devote my full strength towards regeneration. Regeneration of populations in multiple peripheral worlds that suffered heavy losses. Regeneration of their societies and institutional structures.

Most importantly, a regeneration of their optimism for the future. 

No society could function without hope. The hope that things get better.

Regeneration did not happen overnight. 

Days and months passed, and together, we turned the tide. The order's planners quickly redistributed the areas to the respective teams and sent them to various peripheral worlds to serve as guardians. 

Slowly, food and necessities flowed through our growing logistic networks, establishing new routines for the survivors. 

Things would get better. I knew it would, because I would make it happen.

Year 349

The leviathan was sealed. I understood from Eras that creatures like the Ravenous are an endless existence. The system desires change and evolution, and introduced powers like the Ravenous to incite change. 

Even with the leviathan sealed, there were still many remnants. Demons hid in many worlds in the void sea, and even now I am certain there are pockets of demons that we have yet to find. But first, the magic that shrouded some of the demonic worlds vanished. Perhaps, the magical energies that hid these worlds ran out. 

In these newly revealed worlds, we saw what were the unused demonic comets floating about in small bubbles of reality. These were fields of destruction, and looked like what a shattered world would be like, if it wasn't consumed by the void. They turned wrecked planets into comet factories. 

My void archmages led small forces to pop these bubbles of reality and ensure these demonic comets would never be used again. 

This year, a large part of the Order focused great efforts to rehabilitate and terraform the Darkgardian and Delvegardian worlds to accommodate the large Erasian migrant population, and Eras himself slowly regained some of his faith energies. 

He blessed some of his followers to construct homes and structures quickly, and so, we had a great construction boom.

Still, the Erasians dreamt to return home, and Eras would construct new worlds for the Erasian some day in the future. He claimed it would be decades before he was eventually able to do so.

Year 350

The past two years, we tried to tie up loose ends. 

After the sealing of the demon's source, I sent mages and my surviving domain holders in search of stray demon kings on worlds further out, and there were many, many more demon kings that were dominant. 

But, with black sun's power thoroughly extinguished, all demon kings were now localized problems. They could not travel to other worlds and cause chaos there. Not without the void mana of the black sun.

The network that kept the demons coherent crumbled. We crushed them, and this time, there was no retaliation. No comet from nowhere. 

It felt like we were clearing out disease and trash, and now, the many cities and worlds began to resemble proper functioning societies.

Year 355

The years pass by with fewer enemies, though my Order flagged concerns and prospects of a war between the gods, now that the single unifying factor was gone. It was a risk, but against the gods, I have seen enough to know that only domain holders could stand a chance, and we would need new ways of training domain holders. 

But now, I initiated a gradual transition plan for my domain holders, and it was time for me to fulfill my promises to the various domain holders that had agreed to fight with us. 

Lumoof was thoroughly busy with the restoration of the various peripheral worlds and helping the hundreds of millions of Erasians survive that these few years was filled with work. Our combined powers could bless and accelerate plants and ensure that there was sufficient food. I used my network of beetles who could walk through difficult terrain to move the food to all the various populations.

But there was also the issue of organization. Hundreds of millions of refugees were sorted into smaller 'new towns', each home to 10,000 to 100,000, and work was assigned to each of them. 

Erasians needed work. 

Generally, Erasians were a race who needed to feel like they'd done work and then celebrated their work by ending the week with a drink at the tavern for their own social batteries. So, those amongst them built their own tools and machines, their own distilleries and taverns and perhaps led to the single largest expansion of liquor production in known history. 

The poor transportation network on these refugee worlds also meant the Erasians quickly developed their own regional variations of their own needs. 

I watched these changes and felt that some of the Erasians would grow old missing these can-do days. Days of unrestrained experimentation and development. 

It was only after five over years of constant construction, supported by the Order's planning divisions, that Lumoof finally could take a rest. The peripheral worlds were coming together. 

***

Hoyia, my zealot, now served as my second divine ambassador, and she visited the various gods in my stead. She gained some levels from the battle, but ultimately, the path was still much longer and further for her. 

She had a far greater challenge back in her new homeworld of Twinspace, which now had a large, fervent religious group insanely loyal, but very few outlets to unleash this energy. So, Hoyia, as well as my second divine ambassador, advocated for an expansionary, 'pioneer' movement. 

There were many worlds for these settlers to inhabit, but this time, I decided to play a much smaller part. I directed these religious folks to set up new societies in new worlds. 

On the religious front, I also had to coherently reshape the narrative. We needed to reshape the priesthood into one of growth and creation, rather than the pursuit of a divine war. Creatures of war would only create destruction if their energies were not released elsewhere. 

I needed to slowly bend the thoughts and intentions of my faithful to pursue more productive means, and together with Hoyia, we frequently intervened with the actions of those with more extreme beliefs and radical ideas. We didn't want our own people to start fighting each other. 

***

Roon and Johann both left to other worlds, they both decided independently that they wanted to travel, though Johann decided to return to Capra and start a project of bringing dragons back to the living world. The Golden Dragon that he revived through his domain tier ability would breed with the Capra drakes and slowly, the dragon's qualities would return to the drakes. 

***

Ebon, interestingly, had a unique modification to his domain after the sealing of the Ravenous. 

A unique domain choice appeared for him. 

[ Domain Choice :  Divine Warden of the Gods and Monsters ] 

It was a strange choice, but Ebon thought the role fascinating, even if it doomed him to a life as a warden of a monstrous beast. He accepted it, and the Aeonic-Erasian Cell resonated with Ebon's choice, and Ebon became one of the few who could walk on the surface of the cell. 

The three of us, myself, Eras, and Ebon, worked together to keep the Ravenous in check, until the day we are ready to fully kill it.

"Are you sure of it?" I asked Ebon before he accepted his role.

He thought for a moment and brought up some history. "Remember that time when one of the heroes could have just kept a demon king under permanent stasis, but instead the powers of the gods forced them to kill the weakened, suppressed demon king anyway?"

"Oh." 

"Perhaps, this Ravenous Reborn would be one such instance. By keeping it alive and constrained, the system would not cause it to spawn another elsewhere. I would willingly put myself up for the task, to be the one tasked with watching the prisoner." 

"You fear that something could compel us to kill the Ravenous early?'

"Perhaps not you, Aeon, but the jail is one made with Eras as well as your power. Someone has to be there to break the stalemate, and I'd rather be someone who has the patience and indecision to delay a decision indefinitely." Ebon said with a casual, self-deprecating tone. 

"Sounds like an advantage, then."

"I do not know if we can trust Eras, after all, it has only been a few years since we knew him. More of us should be around to ensure that we really can hold the Ravenous down." Ebon said. "Even if Eras turns on us, or if we discover that Eras is corrupt in some way, then we could destroy them both."

***

Kafa set out to uplift his fellow lizardfolks further, and inspired by Hoyia's expansionary movement, also sought to find a swampworld suited to be a lizardfolk dominant world. It wasn't hard to find one, or in my case, it wasn't hard to terraform an uninhabited world such that it was covered in swamps. 

It was a tall call, but Kafa wanted his fellow lizardfolks to have a world of their own. One that truly belonged to the lizardfolk, complete with their own kingdoms and empires and all the complications that involved. 

Perhaps, all domain holders had dreams of their own, and I saw no reason to deny him his quest. 

I created various enclaves for specific races, because the biological needs of each race were different. The lizardfolk that were loyal to me deserved their own too.

***

Ezar retired. 

He decided he had enough punching powerful monsters and demons for a lifetime and decided to start a big family. He had all the money, and now he had all the time. 

He would start a farm in a beautiful valley somewhere on the Central Continent, find a woman from one of these serene villages and have many kids together.

It was a beautiful dream, and I wished him well.

***

I built new bodies for the heroes that wanted to return. Not all heroes wanted to return. Many of them, even if they lived comfortable lives here, longed for the life they never managed to live. So, I watched them return. I watched their souls drift back into the great void sea, and vanish. 

The System would send them back to their worlds, in the moments frozen in time. 

But Colette, and Prabu, to my surprise, wanted to stay. They both received new flesh bodies, housed within compatible golems. It seemed that their promise to their daughter was so strong that they wanted to be there for her.

"This is home, Aeon." Colette said. "It was not before, but after all the years of building it up, it is home now. Besides, the promise of returning to that old life never faded. The System will send me back, even if I spend thousands of years here."

Prabu nodded. “After all of this, we finally get our chance to have our cake, and eat it too. So why not? I can have two homes. This one that we built, and the one that awaits us after we return.”

Home.

I looked around. My senses across my clones brought me news from everywhere my trees reached. 

Home. Yes, this was home.

The sentiment that this was home resonated with me. After all we'd done to rebuild the myriad worlds, I felt I had invested more than enough to call all of this my home. 

***

Now that victory was achieved, it was time for me to help the various domain holders affiliated to me, and for me to repay old debts. 

For Zhaanpu, I found three desert peripheral worlds that were mostly uninhabited and helped his sandpeople transition to their new world. The aridity and dryness of the new world was different to the deserts of the Threeworlds, and I had to use my own abilities to tweak their sandpeople's adaptation to their new world. 

The burst of novelty seemed to inspire the old mummy, and so, he busied himself with the task of building a new world for his people.

The White Statue took some time to travel the many peripheral worlds and a part of me sensed growing discontent with the world.

The White Statue had some similarities with the angels I've met long ago. He too, had a particular vision of the world. A world of order and purpose, and the entirety of the peripheral world was anything but. 

Perhaps they would make good friends, if I introduced them to each other, but I decided that would happen when they are both ready. They were bound to meet eventually. 

***

Lilies was more than happy for things to stay peaceful, and for the hive mind, it was as if nothing had ever changed. 

***

Edna initially planned to set up a knight school on many worlds, travel the many worlds as a traveling trainer, and spread the ways of the knightly orders. 

Like the White Statue, her [Domain] as a knight spoke to her strongly, and she wanted to be there for those who needed it. So, she became a wandering knight. Moving from place to place where her powers could do some good. 

The wars and battles she fights were smaller, but the leisurely pace and the slow travel was worth it. 

***

Year 360

More years passed, and gradually, the peripheral worlds started behaving and functioning like regular states. Administration and governance structures destroyed by war were rebuilt, and now they all seemed like normal states again.

For now, the Order functioned as the primary peacekeeper for the worlds, but internally, I set a 50 to 100 year timeline for the Order to withdraw from such a role and to instead function as an emergency event response team. We would deal with existential threats to these worlds, but largely allow them to deal with security issues on their own, supported by a small force of Order operatives. 

At least, that was the plan.

But training peacekeepers and law enforcers on worlds where the laws were being written at the same time was going to be an iterative process with constant trial and error. 

Hoyia, in her divinely inspired wisdom, set up a heavenly court appeal system, where crimes and cases could be escalated up and be heard in the presence of my powerful Clone Trees and my mind-reading abilities. 

She called it the Aeonic Court. I thought it was rather clever.

A part of me initially resisted this, but in worlds where believers of my faith were many, there really was no greater authority that my subjects believed in.

So, the Aeonic Court emerged as the new supreme, divine court of all the worlds where our influence is dominant.

Year 378

The time needed to rebuild my three domain holders' souls and flesh was longer than I expected, and it seemed all three of them chose the same time to wake up, even though I felt Lausanne was already ready. Alka, Stella, and Lausanne emerged fresh and with new levels. 

"Well, we're all awake." Stella said. "Tell us everything."

The domain holders gathered, and we shared stories. They laughed, and I could feel the lightness in their hearts.

We have managed to pull off a miracle. 

Year 400

Lausanne joined Edna on her travels as a knight, and they would spend half a year in every world, before visiting the next. They would take disciples and squires, teach them for a few months and then go on 

Stella, on the other hand, felt lost.

"I'm lost. What should I do?"

"You come with us until you figure it out." Edna said.

"No. That's a life of more fighting, and I am tired of that." Stella said. "I'd like to grow things for a change."

"Go back to school."

Stella actually hated the suggestion. "No. It reminds me too much of my first life."

But Stella had the support and financial resources of the Order, and so, she began a life of experimentation, only to eventually go back to art. Art as a means to express her deep confusion about her place in the world. Travelling didn't appeal to her either. Life on the road was not something she enjoyed.

Year 500

The first century of true peace came for the myriad worlds, and a new norm emerged. By now, all the worlds had reasonably recovered from the scars of the demonic wars. 

So, I began a gradual dismantling of the larger Order apparatus, splitting them into independent operations scattered on many worlds. Military forces shrunk to smaller sizes with only a small elite that mainly trained to fight the monsters within my superpowerful dungeons. 

Only the void mages remained strictly under our control. I still didn't want the means of spreading war and harm to spread to the general public, and I wanted each world to develop independently. Allowing freedom of movement between worlds would result in stronger, more powerful worlds forcing their way and oppressing smaller, less developed worlds. 

So, I trained and supported fewer void mages each year. Training void mages continued to be a curse-heavy process that was difficult for others to safely learn, so it was one of the areas where I still had some monopoly control, even if some of the other domain holders like the White Statue and Zhaanpu were also trying to replicate it in some degree.

A part of the Order also secretly prepared for war against the Old Gods, even though they were further and further away. Thankfully, the Old Gods were not interested in war. The drift of the void sea was noticeable over those 100 years, my void mages could measure them in units of void mana spent over pairs of worlds. 

In actual values, small. But over eons, they would only drift further. 

Hoyia regularly made diplomatic visits to Aiva, Hawa and Neira, all of whom were happy to just focus on their core worlds and redirect all their surplus faith points towards growing their core worlds even more.

As strange as it sounded, the drifting worlds meant there was always enough space for the old gods to expand without running into each other. 

Eras also finally managed to recover some semblance of his strength, and finally, a hundred years after his freedom, rebuilt the first Erasian Core World.

Year 600

I took a long nap, and emerged into a multiverse of great prosperity. The second century was uneventful, and mostly peaceful. 

Conflicts that emerged began to be more 'internal' in nature, between former colleagues and compatriots. As we only maintained a small Order apparatus, I slept through these conflicts. But thankfully, nothing much. 

Movement between worlds was entirely organized through modified rift gates, powered by void crystals. The heavy use of rift gates between worlds also seemed to slowly alter the void sea itself, as pairs of worlds that experienced heavy traffic moved in sync. 

The void webway slowly took shape, as the worlds themselves began to reorganize and accept the new world order. 

One without my domineering presence in most of the worlds, except for a few of my Core worlds. I retreated from most of the peripheral worlds, transforming the Order into a social organization with some military protection to ensure that some good remains in the world, and a smaller military force meant to enforce a few of my key red lines. The worlds had their wars, and conflicts, but the days of planetary scale destruction are over. Wars over the past centuries were smaller and with more sophisticated tools. 

Year 800

The prison held, and the trio of us continued to watch the Ravenous churn within the prison. 

"Keep it held forever." Ebon said. "Remember, we must not repeat the mistakes of our past. Destruction leads to rebirth." 

"We cannot avoid it forever." 

"But as long as we can." Ebon insisted. "Let us give the wider multiverse a true aeon of peace."

Years passed

Peace.

It was so fragile. 

But it was worth it, for each of these worlds to learn how to fight productively. It was natural to have conflict, but to have them in a way that respected the cycles of renewal. 

Our war against the demons was over, and the Order transformed into Wardens. Some day, I knew this structure too will become obsolete, and it was our turn to face renewal. 

But for now, the worlds heralded the new Aeon of Order.

An Aeon of widespread prosperity.

An Aeon of respectful growth and conflict.

An Aeon of managed and shared development. 

A Golden Era for both creatures and plants. 

A Golden Aeon for all.

[ the end ]

[ Thank you for reading ]