Chapter 222: In Wood Faith

Year 222 (continued) 

“Arbiter Raph, we’re here. Welcome to Treehome.” His companion seemed unsure as they stepped through the portal, and onto the world of Treehome. 

He emerged in a special platform in the tower of the void mages, with Stella and Lumoof leading the way. Stella nodded briefly, and then vanished in the poof of blackness. Lumoof smiled at Raph, and guided the guests out of the tower. 

“Welcome to Freshka, the Root of the Central Continent.” Lumoof nodded. “Some would say the Heart, of course.” Freshka’s sprawling towers of trees seemed to stretch till the horizon, and the three angels didn’t know what to say. “It is here that our Guardian, Aeon, made his stand. The earth is his, and he is the earth.”

Raph nodded, and instead, looked above, past the leaves and canopies. “Your skies are empty.” 

Lumoof wasn’t sure what he was talking about, and looked up to see stars and skies. It is, without the paths of the demons.

“The demons. What have you done to their path?”

Lumoof paused, suddenly understanding what he meant. “You could see the starpaths?”

“Every angel can. It has been our ability since birth.” Raph answered. “With practice, the humans can too. Those born with many wings, like me, can see it easily.”

“Is that not an astral or void power?” Lumoof asked.

“It is. But we are linked to the heavens, and the heavens grant us the ability to observe the skies.” Raph laughed, and I was so tempted to capture one of these angels and put them in the biolab for analysis. Perhaps some other time. 

“I see.” Lumoof nodded, as they were led to a gigantic beetle with a carriage, stairs and really comfy seats. A tour bus, essentially, with protective screens. 

“Actually, before that, I would like to fly up to the sky, and see the city for myself.” Raph suggested. “May I?”

Lumoof paused, and shrugged. “You will attract a lot of attention.”

“Ah. Nothing an illusion can’t hide.” He activated some kind of illusion ability that turned himself almost invisible, but we could still sense his presence. The illusion glowed brightly to my spiritual eyes. In fact, all the angels glowed brightly in my spiritual eyes. They have robust souls, and Raph’s glow was very much like a creature attuned to the spiritual realm. 

He took to the skies, invisible to almost all regular folks, except those skilled enough to see him. Lumoof immediately issued a warning to the Valthorns, to notify that there was a friendly flier in the air. It wouldn’t be nice to shoot down our guest.

My roots lifted Lumoof up to the skies, where he stood next to Raph. 

“Interesting way of coming with me.” Raph said.

“I couldn’t leave my guest alone, could I?” Lumoof said. The two other angels were on the ground, surrounded by other Valthorn members. 

“Very interesting city you have, but are all cities like this?” 

“No. This city is unique, due to its founder’s presence.” Lumoof said. “You wish to see the cities beyond?”

“I feel a very strong presence coming from there-.” Raph pointed in the general direction of the Valley. “What is-”

“Aeon.”

“Ah. Then I’d like to see him, for the horror that he is.”

“Oh?” Lumoof smirked. 

Raph landed back down. “I’d like to meet your... Guardian.” 

“You can meet him through me.” Lumoof said. 

“That’s not the real-” My avatar activated, and my presence was felt through Lumoof. “...I misspoke.”

“Greetings, Raph. Welcome to Treehome.” I said through Lumoof, his eyes glowed, and the air rippled as my presence washed through Freshka. I could control it quite well, but even then, each level I gained, I had to work harder to hide my domain.  “I shall not stay long. My presence... is not for the faint of heart.”

The world bent around me. 

“My apologies for assuming incorrectly.” Raph said. He wasn’t pale, but I could feel his nerves tensing, his body straining to bear the weight of being in the same space. “I shall speak to Lumoof instead.” 

“Thank you for your understanding.” Lumoof’s eyes returned to normal and he grinned.

“I am Aeon’s avatar.” My priest repeated. 

Raph relaxed, and nodded. “Did your kind once believe in gods?”

Lumoof paused, as they sat on the giant beetle. The beetle would carry them throughout the city, and then to the outskirts. “Yes, and many still do. The other continents are home to those who believe in the four gods, Aiva, Hawa, Gaya and Neira.” 

“And your kind don’t.” Raph remarked as they took in the view. 

“Many once did, but now we are Aeon’s faithful. He is, in many ways, a growing god. Unlike the other four who are further, much further away. There is nothing quite like standing in front of a real god, even with my own power.”

Raph thought about it for a moment, and then laughed. “It is an incredibly tragic thought that we, the angels without a god to serve, are here, visiting a world where a god lives with them.”

“...they said you were the closest to god.”

“Bah. Closest to a god that mostly ignores us and sends us ‘heroes’.” Raph answered. “What is angelic fervor without a goal? Our god neither gives us commandments nor guidance, our existence and structure an illusion constructed by our predecessors to delude the lesser angels and mortals. Our wings of faith cannot bear the thought that our god cares not for us. In its place, we built a society of rules, and imposed our version of order on the world, because we cannot exist without it.”

“I see we are not that different.” Lumoof smirked. “In the chaos of this world, we find our own ways to survive, with what we have. We do what we must to live.”

“And dispense with what we don’t.”

The beetle led them through the outer areas, farmlands, and smaller villages. Not unlike the outskirts of the Angelworld.

“It is strangely... orderly.” Raph was fairly impressed. 

“If you wish to see something less manicured, we shall take you to the places where Aeon does not exert his rule.”

Raph was puzzled. “There are places spared of Aeon’s rule? Why?”

“Why not?”

“That is dereliction of divine duty. In the presence of a god, what choices do mortals have other than to submit?”

“It is a choice a mortal makes, whether he serves or not. Aeon does not require submission, and our focus lies in the long arc of life and civilization.”

Raph didn’t seem quite satisfied with the answer. “Then, let me see the world without the touch of proper guidance.”

A void archmage teleported in and a portal opened in front of them. The group was sent to the Eastern Continent. They toured what was a small village, their presence masked by illusions or in Lumoof’s case, a skill. 

Raph was not pleased with what he saw. We saw the villages of the Eastern Continent, where there were people who starved. We saw the cities in various stages of war, even here, where Aiva’s rule was quite strong, blood was shed almost every week. 

Death and war was the natural state, and seeing it for himself seemed to affect Raph quite strongly. “Are all the other worlds you visited like this?”

“Most, yes. This is the natural state without the presence of an overwhelming will. The nature of mortals and the system is to compete, and from competition it escalates into conflict. Those who win, gain levels and gain control, and those who lose, have nothing. Even in Aeon’s land, conflict is part and parcel of our society.” 

“It is something we resist strongly.” Raph said. The archangel stared at the sights of death and suffering, and Lumoof felt a strong, swirling presence in him. A deep dissatisfaction.

“For them, their reprieve usually comes when a strong hero emerges and establishes a nation. But heroes die to the demon kings, and after some time, that order fails to keep things together, and the nation disintegrates and reverts back to this state.” 

“So this is what a world without the presence of true Order. I see there is a case that my kind has been too complacent.” Raph said. 

“Complacent?” Lumoof paused, as I too, digested the implication of that statement. 

Raph looked. “I’ve seen enough of this part of the world. The others are like this? Can I see more?”

The void mage teleported them to a large port on the Eastern Coast, the seat of the Aivan temple. 

“This feels very much like us. I never realized how... disturbing it is, now that I am sitting here listening to the same words, used to praise another god.” Raph said as he observed the temples. He walked in one of the largest temples disguised and listened to a talk by the Aivan priest glorifying Aiva. He watched the priests praise a god that was rarely present, even if Aiva granted his priests powers through the system. “Are all the temples similar?”

Lumoof shrugged. “It is not right for the man of one faith to disparage another. All I can do is take you to visit the rest.”

And they did. They visited all the three other temples, and the other continents.

More villages, more places. Large cities, but not necessarily good cities. Each time, Raph seemed more angry, more frustrated. 

“Your god leaves them be?” Raph asked Lumoof. “Your cities are clearly better, and yet, you do not seek to apply your rule and improve their situation?”

“Aeon strongly believes that those who want a better life are given fair opportunity and chance, and then allowed to work for it. Once Aeon secured the Central Continent, it was no longer necessary to invade the other continents.”

“Then this suffering is allowed to happen?”

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“Aeon does not attempt to save everyone.” Lumoof said. “As a creature of the world, Aeon strongly believes in letting nature find its own level. It is this competition that creates excellence.”

Raph’s face darkened. “You see worlds like this everywhere, and make no attempt to improve their lives, because of ‘competition’, and because of creating ‘winners’?”

“We do not profess to be ‘saviors’ or ‘uplifters’, Arbiter Raph.” My priest clarified. “Our goal, Aeon’s goal, is the existential threat of life, the demons. The steps we take with our developments and improvements are all meant to achieve the means to protect ourselves and eventually, defeat that existential threat. Mortals will fight each other, as is normal in nature. A lion will prey on the gazelle, it is not our goal to uplift the lion, or empower the gazelle. Our goal is to protect the lion and the gazelle, from the outside forces that disrupt this arrangement.”

“But your actions change the balance of power, by your sheer presence.”

“Yes it does, and it is unfortunate. Where we can, we try to have a light touch, a small footprint. We aspire to be wardens, not nannies.”

Raph had a look on his face that could kill. The other two angels wasn’t sure why, either. 

“I had seen enough of this intentional disorderliness. May I see... the demonworlds?”

They teleported back to Treehome, and then, Lumoof guided them to a wooden platform close to the valley. A place connected to my roots. I sent them to the Lavaworld, still swarming with demons, but with it’s astral paths destroyed. 

***

Raph and the angels stared at them, in the area around my clone. He looked at my clone, an island of peace in the chaos of the demonic lavaworld. Most of my Valthorns retreated from the lavaworld, so the demons have naturally reclaimed the land. 

I maintained a small area of control, around my clone tree, where my Valthorns could come here regularly for demon-killing practice and gain levels.

The archangel stared at them, and looked at Lumoof briefly. Then back at the demons. He flew, and glowed brightly, and two burning tridents of fire emerged in his two hands. His eight wings flickered, and combusted in a golden flame. “If you don’t mind, I have some frustrations to work through.”

Lumoof shrugged. “Oh go ahead. I’ve killed more than enough.”

The eight-winged angel zoomed right into the center of the flood of demons.

“Fools!” He shouted as he flung his golden flaming trident at the demons. It detonated in an explosion, vaporizing the demons. He surged into the masses of demons, and slaughtered them like a furious archangel. 

Lumoof just shrugged, and turned to the other two angels. “Is Raph normally like that?”

The two angels were starstruck, and ignored his question. “We have never seen him unleash his fury in centuries!” 

Lumoof sighed. These two angels were just groupies, but after a while, as Raph indulged himself in a feast of slaughter, one of them turned to Lumoof. “He is normally more reserved. It has been said that the fire in him had died, but it seems that it is back, now.” 

He had a burning halo on his head, when there was once just a golden ring.

Raph was having a good time fighting the hellworld demons. Maybe stupid system shenanigan even meant these two factions were natural enemies, and the demon champions emerged, trying to hold Raph back.

My level 125-149s could defeat Raph. We didn’t have much problems with the hellworld’s mobs after all.

He fought for two days, and as he returned, he was covered in gunk and residue. Dust covered his eight wings. 

“My apologies, Patriarch Lumoof. That was something I sorely needed.” Raph said. “They say that people often gain clarity in the intense moments of combat.”

Lumoof nodded, the battle was over and they retreated to the clone tree to rest. Raph initiated the conversation.

“Your people consider choice and life as the core tenets that guide your decision. Mine considers law and order as the only single tenet. Yours are content to let men be, so long as they live, correct?” 

“Fair. We do intervene occasionally.”

“But the law must be consistent.” Raph said. “I admire your world and your civilization, for achieving what it did, but more than that, it reminded me of our failings.”

“How so?”

Raph walked to the two angels, and then declared to his two countrymen. “I once believed that our world displayed the flaws of overextended orderliness. But here, in these other worlds, there is none. Given a choice between order and chaos, Order should be the default. Law must hold, as far as we can.”

The two angels listened. 

“Once we return, we must expand and join this crusade against the demons and uplift the mortals from their suffering. We will bring order to the worlds beyond ours.”

My priest listened. The two angels immediately stepped in. “Arbiter Raph, that is a decision of the-”

“I will not be denied. Our society has lived in those ivory towers for too long. We, angels created by gods long past and abandoned, were meant to wage war and bring progress! They may have forgotten us, but I now realize what our purpose is as a people. Our wings and spears were meant to send us across the stars! Instead, we turn it on ourselves. It is time for our obsession with Order to be directed outwards. To uplift the faithless, to guide the faithful, to impose a structure in the chaos and to smite the unholy.  ”

The two angels cowered as his passion leaked.

“Patriarch Lumoof, I must thank you for this incredible trip. It has been enlightening to see the suffering that goes unfettered throughout the worlds beyond our own. It is great to be reminded how much rot and failure is in the natural state without guidance of their betters. Order shall spread!”

Lumoof just shrugged. “A mortal’s struggle is what leads to levels. Would you be keen to carry out that under our auspices?”

Raph shook his head. “Your world and your people hardly need one more, but my world, my beloved angelworld, more than ever, would require my perspective. My kind had slept through our purpose, and when I return, there will be revolution.”

I wasn’t sure why I didn’t feel that excited to hear that. It felt like I had just awakened a more zealous, more... extreme version of our own expansion. Uplifting worlds and orderliness has colonialist vibes written all over it.

“If there are many worlds just like this, then it is our failure. We had been complacent, confident in our success to prevent the demons from coming to our world. If there are worlds that suffer regular demonic attacks, it is our duty to assist them. We are giants in our little pond, but now we discover that there is an ocean out there for us to liberate. The people of the multiple worlds are misguided, and they need to be improved. It is our duty, as angels, to do so. Why else are we granted a connection to the stars, if not to go there?”

Lumoof felt my concern. “I highly recommend caution and a light touch. What you do, is very much what an invader does.”

Raph nodded. “Your concern is noted, Patriarch Lumoof, but we are angels, and we will do better.”

I felt like I would regret our collective decision to introduce the demonworlds to the angels. Those who sought to impose their will, for the benefit of others, were not much better. 

“Our first task, once we return, is to discover a method, to channel our own connection to the heavens, and open these gates.” Raph declared with fervor. The two angels didn’t dare oppose him.

Lumoof looked at the other Valthorns accompanying him, and sighed. We occasionally see zealots, but they were always our own. 

Raph was not.

He might be a force for good. There are worlds that might accept him. No, I could easily see worlds that would accept the angels as the messengers of their gods. His kind, if spread throughout the stars, would help many worlds from the fury of the demons, but I could also see the great destruction and the dictatorial order that they would inflict on worlds. 

The perfectly manicured version of their homeworld, copy pasted across many others. 

He would be the burning fury of ancient angels, imposing their laws. 

A part of me wondered, do I let him go, or do I stop him here? 

Was he that different from me? I impose my will on the worlds I touched, for all I claim to have a light touch. Is he all that different? Was he better for the greater world in the long run? Or would they, some day in the far future, be something else entirely?

Raph looked at the two angels. “I had seen enough. Let us return to our world, and call for a great council. Action, and then, revolution.”

“If it is something you want to achieve, then let us work together.” Lumoof proposed, trying to see whether Raph could be absorbed into our structure.

Raph shook his head. “Once again, I thank you for the offer. What I have in mind must be done through the angels. Our kind finally has a worthy purpose, and I must return to them to deliver it. But we shall be friends, I shall see to it.”

Lumoof sighed, as he sensed my discomfort. “Maybe this idea of a multiverse alliance may not be a great idea. I sometimes forget creatures of other worlds have different core values.”

Raph had done us no harm, and his goals aligned with mine in the long run, even if we had slightly different visions of that end. 

He could set up a concurrent entity, a force that supports us where we can’t. We wanted to defeat the demons.  The demons were the true enemy. They wanted to impose order, and the demons’ destruction was tangentially related.

They were not the enemy, even if I saw the seeds of disagreement. Just as I left the crystal king be, I shall leave them alone, for now.

“We have to steer this rabid dog in a direction that would not harm us.” Lumoof spoke via our mental link. “Engagement is the only way to manage them. They are passionate, but perhaps, misguided.”

“Killing him would end the problem here and now.” A part of me wondered. It would make him a martyr, an enemy of their world. Yet, until the deed is done, I strongly did not want to pass preemptive judgment.

I know from experience that arguments with zealots did not go well. Those who sought to expand, would expand constantly. It is a need, a craving. A desire for more power, more land. This was, in a way, a demon-like behavior. I wasn’t sure Raph would be that sort of zealot.  

As Stella stood at the edge, Raph bowed politely to her. “This has been an enlightening experience, Lady Stella. I now see that my kind’s failing. Once I return, I will guide my people to step out.” 

“Don’t sell yourself short. Your kind has done great things for your world.” Stella said, oblivious to the exchange between my priest and Raph. 

Stella opened the void portal and sent him back.

He stepped through, and I felt like roots tangled in my soul. We may have an ‘ally’ in the war against the demons, after all. We had given them perspective. 

I just hope I didn’t regret it.