Chapter 94: Tangled Webs

Year 111

 

“I didn’t think that the great protector of New Freeka lived.” Harris said, as he arrived at the edges of my restored valley. He came with a group one hundred strong.  “The rumors of the survivors are true after all. Good decision, Commander.”

 

A commander bowed next to him. They saw the field of normal green trees. “Indeed. I wonder where they have hidden the past twenty years.”

 

“Perhaps they were biding their time.”

 

“Alright, let’s stop, we’re in their territory now.” Harris said. 

 

“Yes, your Highness.” They nodded, and the group of hundred moved nimbly, they were clearly well trained and of a decent level. They didn’t look like guards, and they were armed with clearly magical star mana-enchanted weapons. 

 

Jura went to meet them. Jura, along with one hundred other survivors. 

 

“Stop. Who goes there.” Jura and all were well-armed, but their equipment paled in comparison. In a straight fight, they would’ve lost easily. Still, they were alerted to these visitors, and they moved quickly.

 

“This is the entourage of his Holiness, the Emperor Harris the First, Slayer of the Demon King, Supreme Ruler of the Harisan Empire, and you stand before the Emperor himself. It would be wise to kneel, peasant.” One of the men said, he leaped ahead with his armor gleaming. Clearly showing off his enchanted gear. 

 

Jura shrugged. He hasn’t lost his distaste for royals. “Greetings, Emperor Harris. You walk on the blessed lands of Aeon the Ageless, the great Tree Spirit and Defender of the Valley. We, the believers of the true spirit of the land, kneel before no King or Royal.”  

 

The man was quickly offended and wanted to attack, but then Harris stepped in. “Greetings. Pardon my entourage, their zeal to glorify my name is but a minor crime. Truly, does Aeon still live?”

 

Jura shrugged. “We’ve never doubted him. But it seemed that the outsiders have.”

 

Harris laughed. He’s no longer a child now, a man in his late thirties, yet the glow of his heroic presence was unmistakable. He was equipped, from head to toe for war, every item he wielded radiated enormous amounts of star mana. It would not be out of place, if anyone assumed he was preparing to face the demon king.

 

“What brings you here, Emperor?” 

 

“Watch your words.” One of Harris’s lackeys interrupted.

 

Jura ignored it. Harris took a step forward. “I stayed very briefly in New Freeka, before my fateful battle with the demon king. I still remember the great tree spirit’s massive wooden shields that blocked out the demon’s attack. In hindsight, I should’ve predicted that the Tree Spirit lived. I still have his familiar, after all.”

 

Some of the lackeys were like, woah and wow. Goodness, the hero surrounded himself with sycophants? 

 

“Anyway, may I speak to the Tree Spirit? I have much to discuss with a being of such great power.”

 

Jura paused, but I think he knew he wanted me to tell him what to do. I mentally agreed, and Jura looked at Harris. “Certainly, but the Tree Spirit would not have all of you armed, and only you alone.”

 

The lackeys were about to say something ridiculous again. “If there are any accommodations or rest stops for my group to rest, that will be sufficient. Perhaps a hotel, if such institutions survived. It’s fine for me to meet the Tree Spirit myself.”

 

 “Unfortunately, 20 years without customers has been extremely hard on our hotels, so none of them remained.” Jura joked. “Let’s come this way.” 

 

Jura led them into one of the tunnels, and from there, they arrived in the submerged valley. They looked quite surprised to see a massive tree with a burning top that’s hidden underneath. 

 

“How did we miss this?” Harris said quietly. But before the sycophants could answer, he cut them off. “Rhetorical question.”

 

Jura and the survivors watched the group carefully, and soon, they saw the beetles. But right before one of the sycophants wanted to attack the beetle, Harris stopped it. 

 

“Idiot. Can you use your brain and think why is there a beetle here? It must be the Tree’s servants. I see they haven’t changed much.”

 

“Oh?” Jura asked. “You’ve seen them?”

 

“Yes. I have. Twenty over years ago.” He said. “So... where can I meet the Tree?”

 

“Ah, right this way. Could you request your men to wait over at that area?” Jura pointed to a resting area that’s made last year. There’s a lot of wooden furniture, a small blossoming collection of fruit juice stalls, and some barbeque stalls that roast the local meats, kind of like an al-fresco foodcourt. 

 

Harris nodded, and the men obeyed. Only Jura and Harris walked to one of the larger Giant Attendant Trees, that’s been converted to a meeting room. He sat alone inside. 

 

“Aeon will speak to you here.” Jura nodded, and he shut the door. Inside the Giant Attendant Tree, there’s only him. 

 

He looked around, as if he was waiting for something. “Hmmm...” 

 

“Hello, Harris.” I said. 

 

“Ah. Makes sense that a tree spirit is telepathic. The last time we met, all I got was a notification about the familiar, when Lady Mika spoke. Greetings, Aeon. Much has changed.”

 

“I was told you sought us out, once you found out of our existence.” 

 

“Indeed.” Harris sat. “Let me cut to the chase, Aeon. We are four years away from the next demon king, maybe five years if we are lucky. I’m trying to gather a force to defeat the next demon king as soon as it spawns, and your defensive abilities are something that’s quite firmly etched in my mind. Would you help me?”

 

“Interesting offer, but I suppose you did not forget that I’m an immobile tree?”

 

“That’s true. But, we could make artifacts that could temporarily store some of your abilities, as a single use skill. With a bit of star mana, and some special crystals, we could create a spell-matrix that could store some of your shields. In fact, I’d also like to store that demonic suppression aura of yours. It would prove incredibly helpful in a battle against the demon king, at least it would help to weaken the lackeys for the rest of us.” 

 

Hmmm. Well, it seemed all the survivors are making plans for the demon king, so that’s an encouraging sign. Certainly it is aligned to my own goals, so in this case, I should cooperate. 

 

“Agreed. But I will demand some of those spell-matrices for my own use.”

 

Harris laughed. “That’s quick. I expected a Tree to take a longer time to deliberate such things. There’s also another matter...”

 

“Oh?”

 

“Twenty over years ago, New Freeka played host to many... refugees. Royalty of many families. And you might remember many kingdoms were destroyed, essentially beheaded, because the demons possessed powerful ranged weapons.” 

 

“And?” 

 

“Well... may I ask you to offer the same protection to my offsprings?”

 

“I find that hard to believe, hero. You have star mana and the ability to create powerful magical defenses. Certainly your capital has been enchanted many times to prepare for such an event.”

 

“Yes it has. But the children are fools. They squabble with each other over petty goals, and trigger their star mana artifacts too easily, exhausting them. Artifacts meant for greater dangers.” He said, sighing. 

 

A cup of tea appeared next to him. 

 

He sipped. “And damn, I missed this tea so much.”  He drank another sip. “Seriously. This damned world is trying to kill us.” 

 

“Huh?” Who? 

 

“They got Becky. Ah. It’s the tea that makes me feel upset.” Harris sighed. “The demons. They killed her a few years ago. Even though we fought together. Well, maybe except Gerrard who’s too busy getting drunk and hiding in strange places throughout the world.” 

 

The human hero looked sad, confused, and tired all at the same time. I wonder whether the tea was alcoholic, because I was damn sure it wasn’t. It’s just a bit of hospitality. 

 

“Fuck the gods, y’know. This fucking game is just engineered to kill us. We’re leader-heroes. We have armies of magical summons, and the gods just fucking turn it around and spawn super-demons where our army of magical summons are just fodder, and wide swathes of my army-boosting abilities are just absolutely useless. They made this game and tie one of our hands right behind our backs.”

 

Why is he ranting?

 

“Ah. It’s just so nostalgic to come back to the first place where we were saved. Dammit. I suddenly feel like I’m a young teen again.” 

 

I checked whether any of my [Tree of Prayers] or [psychedelics] were active. Nope. I think he’s just having all these things pent up. 

 

“Fuck it. I mean.” He took a deep breath. “I mean... yeah. Stupid kids. Would you protect them? They’re still my children, but damn if they are not idiots. I don’t remember being so idiotic as a young teenager.”

 

“When you look back, every generation has always thought the younger generation were idiots.”

 

Harris paused. “Well. Yeah. But still, they are MY idiots. And that annoys me. This fucking world is out to kill us. Me, Mirei, Gerrard. Just three of us left. I just hope my stupid kids don’t get involved.” 

 

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“How many kids do you have?” 

 

“Uh...” I think he blushed. “I think about twenty six. The youngest one is... one. Two of my wives are pregnant.”

 

I didn’t know what to say about that. Wait. He’s only in his thirties, maybe he’s just going to turn 40 soon. Doesn’t that mean he has at least one baby a year? 

 

“Well. Ahm.” He finished the tea. “Can I have more?” 

 

A small vine produced hot water, and another added crumpled, dried powder into the cup. “You’ve been productive.”

 

“Ah. Yes. So uh...”

 

“You’re asking me to offer protection to a very, very large number of people.” 

 

Harris frowned. “Yes...”

 

“I still don’t get it. You don’t trust your own magic, and you prefer to trust me?” I was skeptical. Extremely. This sounds like a royal asking for protection again. 

 

“I thought long and hard about it. So long as I live, I am certain my family will survive. My star mana, my heroic powers means I will still be able to protect them with my powers. I’ve tried my best, to store my powers in spell-matrices and all that, but artifacts able to store hero-grade powers are few and far between, and very often, usable only once, sometimes twice. Unlike other generations of heroes, our powers are mostly summons, and creatures, and that doesn’t extend to grand magical formations. We could still do them to a far lesser degree, but it's not the same as what a ritual-focused hero or what a pure enchanter hero could achieve. When we level, our hero grade skills are given, and it’s not like we can force those skills into something they are not. For example, Mirei has extremely powerful lightning abilities, but none of those are a usable shield of any kind. Strange to say this, we are constrained by the scope of our gifts. Our talents for skills outside our designated hero class is ordinary, and if we want more, we have to trade our hero levels for them.”

 

He paused.

 

“And so, if something falls outside our rather specialised scope, we have to then turn to native experts for aid. My life is unfortunately fragile, weak, and I am a marked man, hunted by future demon kings. I will fail eventually.” 

 

“Before that, tell me how did you survive two demon kings?”

 

“Oh. The first one... Astra.” Harris took a deep breath. “He did a cursed ritual, melding blood magic, star mana and the magic of the land. And whatever he did, well, it blew up the demon king. When the second demon king came along, he tried the same thing, but something happened and he died. That meant me, Becky, Mirei and Gerrard gathered together to face the demon king when we found out it was headed  towards the Northern Isles. And although Astra died, whatever it used weakened that 2nd demon king significantly. Yet, we still lost Becky.”

 

Ah. So whatever that hero did worked. Only, the price was too high to pay for it to be done more than once?

 

“The next demon king, we won’t be so lucky.”

 

Harris seemed to be waiting for a response from me, but I didn’t reply.

 

“So, my family. My luck will run out eventually. I intend to still protect them, and existences like yourselves is an insurance I hope I never have to use.”

 

“Decades ago, though to me it feels just days ago, I told the royals then that they are free to seek refuge in my lands. I intend to maintain that principle, and so, your offsprings are free to seek refuge in my land. But like then, no special privileges.” 

 

Is this the fate of people like me, repeating the same sentences over and over again? I feel like a broken record, and it should fucking annoy me. I should outsource it to an artificial soul, or train a bunch of people to repeat my principles. Kinda like a call center, or a visitor center that repeat the rules to a bunch of unruly tourists. It’ll be even better if they get to do it with the same lack of enthusiasm and boredness. 

 

Yeah. 

 

I should outsource and automate it. It’ll be the first treetree service and call center. Or maybe an artificial mind, tasked to repeat the same responses many, many times. 

 

“Hmm... not what I hoped it’ll be, but that will do.” Harris frowned. “So... where have you been hiding for the past 2 decades?”

 

Me? “I was asleep.”

 

He laughed. “Ah. And the survivors, they somehow made do in this... sunken valley?” 

 

“Yes.” 

 

“Never mind. Back to what I initially came for, once I return I will begin commissioning the construction of the spell-storage gems, and I will have them delivered. Let me know once you’ve finished infusing your skills in them.”

 

“How?” I mean, I’ve never seen such an item, I doubt they come with easily-understood manuals, and even if they did, they are usually made for humanoids, not trees. 

 

“Good point. I’ll come over with it.” 

 

At this point, I remember the two heroes that are trapped. I pondered whether to let Harris know about them, and I considered the consequences, whether he would doubt or suspect that I have anything to do with it. Then I decided, it was probably best if I told him anyway. Maybe heroes get special rewards for freeing their friends’ souls. “Harris. When I was asleep, I saw your friends.”

 

“My friends?”

 

“Simone and Victor. Their souls were captured by the demon king, and they are being corrupted.”

 

Harris’s face paled instantly. “What?! Where? How? How do you know?”

 

“I don’t know much, and I saw it in... a dream, but they are likely to be near where you all fought the demon king. Look for a red crystal, and break it.” 

 

He paused, and he paced the room in circles. “I swore we cleared out the field in an attempt to clean up the corruption, but then again... it could be hidden underground. I must let Mirei and Gerrard know if this is true. It explains the weird dreams we’ve been having. They must have been trying to speak to us but couldn’t get through.” 

 

Outside, Harris’s entourage was getting restless. It’s been almost two hours. 

 

“I’m not able to free them, but maybe you could.” Honestly, there really was no way I could reach the demon king’s site, with all the sludge and corruption between us and them. 

 

Harris nodded. “On this matter, I will handle it. I will be in touch.”

 

And with that, Harris and his entourage left. There wasn’t much he could do about the [message] system’s failure in this area, because the magical interference came from the vast fields of sludge, and the hero with the communication tower ability died a few years ago.

 

Theoretically, if I clear out enough of the sludge, magical interference and decay will drop and the [messaging] system will restore itself. I suppose on top of behaving like a polluting oil, it also emits some kind of magical wave that causes magic to break down over time. Very similar to hex, really. 

 

“He was here before, TreeTree?” Jura asked. 

 

“Yeah. You don’t recognise him?”

 

“He said he was mostly with Lady Mika, so he didn’t really particularly stick in my mind.” Jura said. “It’s hard to recognise people I’ve met twenty years ago. He doesn’t even look the same.”

 

“He looks largely the same to my spirit vision. But his glow is larger than before, I suppose it’s the levels. He’s not exactly hiding his presence. Or maybe he can’t, he doesn’t have the right skills.”

 

“Ah well. Thankfully his entourage were well behaved once he was out of sight. They’re just putting up a show when he is around. Interestingly, they don’t like each other all that much. I think they all work for different people.”

 

“His different wives, perhaps.” I mentally chuckled. Is this the logical outcome of a harem? I mean, sure, the harem can get along, but once everyone has their own children with the same father, it’s just a source of conflict isn’t it? Every mother wants to protect her own offspring, and so they compete for attention. Human nature makes it so that it is hard to be fair, and be seen and perceived as fair. Even if he acted fairly, it may appear as favoritism. 

 

Jura laughed too. “Well, that’s why I’m single. I spend too much time practicing.”

 

-

 

My efforts to mix normal mana and star mana did help to improve its efficiency, but I still haven’t gotten a skill for it. Thanks to that, we’ve managed to expand the forest to cover a long strip of land that leads to one of the nearby towns. I’ve decided to still leave a large patch of unconverted sludge between my forest and the town, just as a moat, but this entire process meant they only had to travel about 1 month through the sludge, and they’ll arrive at the edges of that long forest.

 

Viewed from above, it’s like the forest extended one long ass vine to reach for the town. 

 

Meanwhile, my research on the demonic hybrids also made some progress. I’ve gained some more understanding of their nature, such as their bodies actually absorb ambient energies and convert it to their demonic mana. In a way, it’s... air-powered. They don’t need sunlight, but they do need some water, and they absorb it from the air, which is why they can exist in multiple forms and colors. They also have like some kind of water-vision, which means they will often target non-native animals, like elves or humans, or even ordinary wildlife which has far higher water content than the demonic hybrids. 

 

Are these demons like... some kind of reimagination of animals in a post-water scarcity world? Mars in it’s dying days?

 

I’ve yet to connect to the wider network of these hybrid trees, fearing that they may overwhelm me. So far, all my attempted connections have been with standalone hybrid trees that have been isolated. They respond well to demonic mana, but when flooded with my normal mana they just freeze and enter hibernation. Still, I persisted, and I carved a segment where I experiment more on them. 

 

Maybe these hybrid trees can act as a first line of filter, such that they ‘weaken’ the demonic energy’s pressure at the edges. Something like an absorbent or suspension, having a transitory species of trees that can act as a medium between the two varying ecologies. Maybe I can engineer something.

 

A new plant species that straddle the two worlds. At that very thought, I felt a huge repulsion, of disgust from the rest of my network of trees. These feelings, they come from the native trees, and they despised that thought. 

 

Hah! Natives. I’m a foreigner, outworlder too! Why do you not reject me then? 

 

Besides, plants certainly evolve in my world, these hybrids are clearly an adaptation, an evolution in this world. Why exclude these newcomers?