Tree of Aeons

296. Braided branches

296.

Treehome

“It is damned good to be back.” 

Kafa was happy to be back in Freshka. He took a shower, followed by a long, long dip in a slimy tub filled with fragrances that most humans would find appalling. But lizardfolks enjoyed certain types of scents, scents that reminded them of the village, or city they came from. The rivers they played in. Non-lizardfolks visiting their homes often have to use some scent-nullification artifact, to mitigate the nausea it tends to create.

It was time to hit Gigantadragon soon, and Johann’s party also took a short break.

The domain holders decided it was a good idea to meet up to discuss strategy and tactics. 

“Well, I think given it’s stronger magical nature, it should be somewhat vulnerable to anti-magical attacks. At least, the stronger anti-magical weapons could disrupt the ley lines enough to temporarily weaken the demon king.” 

“We could test it out.” Edna said. They would have to draw up a revised list of equipment and inventory for the coming battle. “But taking that many anti-magic weapons will drain our store.”

“We’ve been using them a lot.” Ezar noted. “Production’s not keeping up.”

“Access to that world is seasonal. We don’t have a clone or a node on it.” Johann quickly looked up some reports. “You think, I think we should put a node there, at least.”

The five domain holders looked at each other. “Yeah. Let’s do that.” 

Roon frowned, and then looked at Kafa. “I think our thinking about these sets of worlds need to be adjusted. I think the anti-magic sand worlds needs to be turned into one of our Core Worlds.”

“It has no population. If the entire idea is to strip mine that world for the anti-magic sands, a node tree will be sufficient.” Kafa countered. “I’d rather put a clone on this dragon-world. Or that heavily populated world.”

“Does Aeon want to place a clone on this dragon world?” Johann asked. “We seem to be encountering a streak of dragon-type worlds.”

“That’s good for you, isn’t it?” Kafa countered cheerfully, in a much better mood. He had a glass of his favorite juice. 

“In some convoluted way, not really. My dragon seems easily jealous, and I’m not exactly sure how it’ll react to it.”

“There should be some kind of group-benefit from controlling all the dragon-drake worlds together.” Edna countered. “The drakefruits of Capra could be used to help the drakes of Gigantadragon. This mutual assistance could result in a powerful force.”

“Does he want the dragonlings?” 

Kafa shrugged. “I think all the differences between the world and their special qualities is just a distraction. I think it’s all a little silly in the end.”

“Why?” That made Roon and Johann turned. 

“In the end, there’s only three things that really matter, at least when we try to fit them in the way we work. Domainholders, crystals, and the craftsmen that produce the equipment and items tos support us. Worlds that can create domainholders, worlds that help produce crystals so we can blow the demons up, and the worlds that can create all the craftsmen we need, so that we can turn resources into weapons.”

“That relies on the assumption that our bombs continue to work on demon kings. There will be demon kings resistant to bombs.”

“Resistant, but not immune.” Kafa countered, and took a big sip of his juice. “Now, really, if we look at the bigger picture, creating domain holders is really a game of numbers. If the odds of finding someone who can be a domain holder is one in a billion, then we need to get billions on our side. Aeon should therefore claim the worlds that have the highest populations, convert them to our side, and from this large pool, there will be some talents.”

That made Edna shift a little uncomfortably. “I don’t generally view it as a game of numbers. Domainholders can emerge from anywhere, and what matters more is the institution designed to support that growth.” Edna, in her heart, believed that the ability to reach the domain is actually a lot more common, but it is the institutions around them that encourage that sort of excellence. 

“But they must have the talent. The special thing that pushes them beyond that last step.” Kafa said. “We have it, somehow. But, we need more domain holders, and I say it is not something that can be manufactured. Yes, the infrastructure is important, but we are ultimately looking for gems in a wheatfield.” 

Edna and Kafa glanced at each other. “So you advocate for the heavily populated worlds?”

“Yes.” Kafa stated. “There will be talent. They can be trained into craftsmen. I would choose worlds with large existing populations which can be redirected into other causes. Either as potential domain holders, or as the craftsmen and all that needed for the rest of us. Gimmicks like drakes are unnecessary. I don’t see how they can contribute against the demon king, even if they were stronger. They’d have to be domain holders to even have the right to stand up there with us.”

The rest of the four waited for him to continue.

“So, if it was up to me, I’d take Delvegard, Magisar, Twin-Continents as my three clone locations. Delvegard because it fits with the second and third goal of supplying equipment. Magisar because it also provides a supply of craftsmen and Twin-Continents because it has the numbers to create domainholders and also craftsmen. The rest can be nodes.”

“We don’t even have enough nodes.” Edna countered. “Let me flip the question around. Which world would you give up on?”

“How many do we need to give up on?” 

“Three. We have fifteen.” Edna said. “Three clone slots, and ten node trees. Two of them are already on Delvegard and Landas, but we can count the one deployed on Landas as something we can move around. If we deploy a node on the anti-magic sand world to boost our anti-magical weaponry, we’d be down to nine nodes, so, we have to leave four worlds.” 

“Deadworld’s a clear choice for the first world to give up on.” Kafa continued, but he hesitated with the remaining two. “Maybe- Maybe Landas.”

“What.” That made Roon squirm. “I thought Landas was a good world. Elves!”

Kafa stretched, his views colored by his little stint on Delvegard. He wasn’t impressed by the giant colossus fielded by the Delvegardian Dwarves. In his mind, he could crush them single handedly. What use were these things before the demon kings? “The huge mountains we have to climb to repopulate it means it wouldn’t be useful to us so soon. Elves also take a lot longer to reproduce compared to the other races. In a game of numbers, we must churn through recruits to find the gems.”

So, even lesser dragons, Or unique types of races. Sure, they have some value, but in the end, it is the domain holders that make the difference.

Edna shook her head slightly, as she remembered their own talks much earlier. The domain holders had to advocate for their worlds, and this was Kafa doing his part.

“Talking about Delvegard is a good point.” Johann touched his chin. “Does Aeon intend to keep one of his nodes as a spare? Nodes can be thrown across the void sea, and that has some value. Let’s assume Aeon keeps one as a spare. So there will be five worlds where we wouldn’t have Aeon’s direct presence, and our presence there will depend on the void mages.” 

The knight stated her view then. “These five worlds without Aeon’s presence should be those that are still the strongest. Worlds that are in least need of our assistance. They can somewhat fend for themselves.” 

“That means the Three-Ringed World and the hero-sword world of Caval?” Kafa thought. “Maybe this new Gigantadragon world too, once we slay the demon king.”

“The rest of them are in pretty bad shape.” Edna said. There were pockets of resistance in all worlds, but there were not many structural factors in their favor. Only Caval with all their scattered anti-demon hero-swords, the Three Ringed World with their Purple Darkness, and maybe Shasan, the flooded world had some natural anti-demon advantages. 

Roon then asked. “The world of Twin-Continents appears to be stable.” 

“For now.” The lizardfolk countered. “To achieve Hawa’s objective, we still have to free up the demon continent. I doubt they actually have the strength to do anything if the demon king lands on their continent, instead of where it currently is.”

“We need a full dossier on the strength of these worlds.” Johann said. “Something we can only conclude once the rest of the Valthorns enter them and start gathering information.” 

“I quite like Delvegard, and I do agree with Kafa’s assessment partially. Our goal for doing this really is to build strength quickly, and yes, numbers help. But we don’t have to ‘dominate’ worlds like the Twin-Continents. If what we need is resources and talent, that can be through a strong recruitment presence.”

“I think a clone is a damned good statement to their population.” Kafa said.

Roon shook his head. “We are not sure if that’s what impresses them. A large show of force may be counterproductive. Some races are like that.”

That made Kafa pause. “I guess that is fair.” 

“But the Three-Ringed world is unique. Maybe Aeon would unlock something unique through his presence there?” Ezar suddenly asked. “He does get unique blessings and [soul forge] abilities when he has access to unique worlds.”

The other four domain holders looked at each other. “I kinda forgot he got that.” 

“It happens so rarely.” Edna laughed as  recalling some old facts. “But yes. Aeon also needs a clone presence on a particular world, to get hero fragments when their heroes die.” 

“So if we want fragments, then Aeon must place a clone on Gigantadragon.” 

“Snek’s also petitioning for a node to be placed on Ulara.” Ezar added.

“So six worlds without Aeon’s presence.” Edna said. “Can our void mages support that much troop movements?”

“People, probably. Resources, no. Our forces there will have to source a lot of native resources. I’ll need to get Central to do the numbers.” Roon clarified as it dawned on the five domain holders that they would all be working with fairly limited resources. Void mages spend days to recharge their void mana, and opening portals through the void sea from one world to another consumes a large amount. “By my guess, we’d have to deploy almost all our void mages if we want to maintain near-constant communication and troop movement.”

“That’ll be hard.” 

“Do we have information on their demon king’s invasion frequency?” Edna asked. “I think that should also be something we need to consider for our next battle. We’ve known for a while that it’s exceptionally hard to move large quantities of weaponry through void magic alone. Our experiences on the Demon’s Comet-”

“Fifteen world’s demonic invasion frequency- I thought we were supposed to collect htat somewhere!”

“On everyone. Again, suitable for a recruitment-type presence where we don’t have to exert control or continuous presence.” Roon said, while rubbing his head. “Alright, alright. Maybe we stop this for a bit and prepare for our next trip.”

***

12th World, Gigantadragon

Stella’s void portals brought both Lumoof and Stella to the furthest end of the gigantic dragon’s tail. There were areas that experienced massive magical interference, which Stella soon concluded to be related to the magical ley lines that flowed through this odd shaped world.

The ley line took the form of a massive demonic spire, and it thrummed loudly, as if it was a mountain-sized demonic factory, churning out demons by the hundreds. Each of the demons that appeared were large demonic creatures, some resembling regular demons, some looked as if they were cobbled together from a pile of unwanted designs. 

“Well.” Lumoof’s spiritual eyes zoomed into the mountain, and we saw the way magic of the ley lines were entangled with the demonic energies seen throughout the mountain. At the very heart of the artificial demonic mountain, there was a glowing fragment that we knew immediately what it was.

A fragment of the demon king, in both flesh and spirit. 

Lumoof glanced at Stella, and shook his head. “The demon king left a part of him here to tap into the ley line.”

“Well, then let’s destroy it.”

Lumoof nodded, and he activated avatar mode. Power surged through him, as his [Fury] brought a torrent of magically empowered roots through the mountain. I felt it as the roots he summoned slammed through the demonic spires, it crushed everything in it’s path, and then abruptly slammed into something hard.

We focused and saw a gigantic floating scale of a dragon, but with demonic features. It was charged with demonic energy, similar to that of the demon king.

“We got company.” Stella said. “Look up.”

The skies above us seemed as if it was torn apart by the void, and within it, the head of the twin-headed demon king popped out. 

“Teleportation. The ley lines are also markers.” Stella laughed. “It seems the demons are learning from us.”

Lumoof rolled his eyes, as the demon king’s two heads charged with magical energy. “A coincidence. Think we should bail?”

Stella nodded. “We should hit the demons with numbers. The demon king certainly can’t be everywhere.”

The demon king’s energy blast poured out of its two mouths like water from a powerful fountain. It slammed right into a wall of wood, and like a powerful jet of water, it cut through the wall of wood. But the wall of wood was much thicker, and regenerated. 

“Well, get us out of here?” Lumoof said, as his energies charged his shields. 

The demon king’s second energy blast also slammed into the shields. We were fairly certain that this demon king’s power was up there, because of it’s energy draining mechanic. Once weakened, it’s likely fairly weak. 

Stella shook her head. “Think we’ll have to run. The demon king’s presence is bending void space.”

“Was that supposed to happen?” Lumoof looked at the void domain holder, even though there were two magical jets of energy slamming into the shield.

“Well, the demon king’s distortion of the void wasn’t that pronounced normally. I’m guessing it’s simply because this demon king has a higher power level. I can manage short ranged teleportation, though. Think this is the strongest demon king we’ve seen on the peripheral worlds so far.”

“A part of me actually wants to see how much stronger it could get, if it has control of even more ley lines.” Lumoof mused idly. A little of my tendency to consider wild outcomes infected my avatar. 

“Well, can you push back with your shields, and we’ll buy some room to run? Once we’re back with the cavalry, we can hit it with a multi-pronged attack.” 

“What makes you think it doesn’t have countermeasures?” Lumoof laughed, as he channeled more of his mana into the multiple layers of [wooden shields]. The wooden shields regenerated rapidly, and then, the floating wooden shields pushed in the direction of the demon king’s two jets of power. 

Stella shrugged at his question, but she charged up a large spear imbued with void energies anyway. “I’ll hit it with this, and then we run, got it?”

“Sure.”

The two-headed demon king landed on the ground, and Lumoof began to sweat. “It’s been a while since we had a workout.”

“You’re doing great! Now push that attack back and let me stun it for a bit.” 

“Got it.” Lumoof called on the full power of the avatar, and amplified by the [fury of the avatar] state. The shields grew massively, even as the demon king’s two heads poured its magical power into the blast. 

Bit by bit, the wall of wood pushed back.

A small moment of vulnerability opened, and Stella’s spear of void energies flew towards the demon king like a reality distorting bullet. It slammed into the body of the demon king, its explosion sent a messy mix of void energies through the demon king’s body. For a moment, the demon king staggered from the blow.

Lumoof followed with his own attack, as gigantic roots just as large as the demon king appeared from the ground and wrapped around the demon king. It wouldn’t be enough to hold the demon king for long, but the few seconds was enough for the two domain holders to flee far enough and activate a portal.

***

“We knew that didn’t work.” Wira and Rajah listened as we updated them on our attempt to attack the ley line. “The demon king has some kind of teleportation or beacon ability that allows it to move to its captured ley lines.”

“Oh. Then we will have to split up and attack together?” The heroes were now in a much better state of health, and in the small moment of peace, they worked to repair the hero items scattered throughout Gigantadragon’s defensive lines.

“Well, yes. But let’s wait for the cavalry.” Lumoof said. 

“Cavalry?”