Chapter 250: 244. Outgrowth

Year 246 (continued)

“Well? What are we waiting for?” Alka said. “We need to gain levels.”

“Are there better ways to do this?” Lumoof looked at the demon mother. “Surely there are alternatives to luring it, just to gain levels.”

“The demon mother isn’t as strong as the demon king. In the scheme of things, we should be capable of taking it on without much assistance.” Alka repeated. “We either go hunt for demon kings to fight, or we go for these things.”

In truth, they were venting. They knew this was one of the best ways. The dungeons no longer gave enough experience for domain holders to gain levels. Still, we didn’t have that much ordnance placed on the surface. Edna and Lumoof shared a glance, before both headed for the core of the planet of the Demonic Houndworld

Lumoof activated his avatar mode, and through it, my vines spread through the core. 

I hated how this was becoming a familiar experience. The first time I did this was the anti-magic world. Then during the battle to reclaim the Parasiteworld. Stella’s void mages was on the surface, ready with the void weapons. If the black sun reappeared, we were going to shatter that droplet. 

Repetition.

It still felt fresh and different to my domain holders. For Alka, this was his first battle, even if his role was just to nuke himself. 

For Lumoof, I could sense he shared my exhaustion. We were just so tired of all this shit, but we had to soldier on. 

I was tired.

Exhaustion. 

I need a thousand years of no-demon kings to really properly rest, but the demons wouldn’t let that. And it’s unfair to the thousands of worlds out there that faced the demon kings. Like the Ularans. Like all the other habited worlds.

My vines rushed into all the various holes throughout the planetary core and flooded them. The demon mother’s energies met my own, and it turned back. It reoiled from contact, and at that moment, I knew quite surely I was stronger than the demon mother. 

I would like to capture a demon mother. I imagine the demon mother to just be a supersized version of the demon rod. It’s ability to tap into magical leylines should therefore be superior to most magic, since a demon mother was able to capture a planet’s core. Could it even capture a sun? 

My vines chased after the demon mother’s body, as it darted within. It’s tentacles battled my vines, and it lost every exchange. I was just stronger, even through Lumoof’s avatar. 

I felt it emit some kind of magical energy.

“Uh- something weird is happening.”

“It’s calling for help.” Stella said and immediately barked instructions to the team on the surface. “Surface team, prepare for possible black droplet!”

The team on the surface was armed, but with my vines everywhere, the demonic mother soon found itself with nowhere to go but outside. It tried to escape, but though it still had the tremendous ability of corrupting a planetary core, combat clearly wasn’t it’s strongest set of skills. 

My vines, guided by Lumoof, smashed into the demon’s own tentacles, and forced it out of the core.

“You know, if Aeon could do this to the demon mother, we should be able to start freeing worlds fairly easily.” Stella said, but quickly regretted it. “But I spoke too soon.”

Edna cursed as one of her spears slammed into the demon mother’s tentacles, and she tried to pull the demon mother back. The demon mother was still exceptionally fast and it shrunk dramatically as it realized it was under attack.

It released another warning, something within it’s body vibrated in a certain way, one that my surface level team also recorded with their array of magical sensors. My surface team was ready for the arrival of the Black Sun, the ‘teardrop’.

Alka separated from us, and took position along the shaft to the surface. The idea was to detonate once the demon approached. Weaken it significantly, and then kill it. 

“Alright.” Lumoof announced as my vines kept pushing the demon mother towards the shaft. “Alka, get in position?”

“Already am.” Alka said, as he floated alone somewhere in the middle of the long pit into the core. We didn’t want to detonate in the core. The risk of destroying the planet and the negative impacts from the planetary curse was something I didn’t want to risk. 

There were magical bombs along the way.

“Stella, teleport us out.” 

“Can’t. Core interference.” Stella cursed. The turbulent energies within the planet’s core was common with all the worlds we've been through. It made stable portals impossible. It was like trying to build something next to a swirling whirlpool with sand. “We’ll need to chase after it, once we get a bit out of range of the Core, I’ll teleport you guys out to the surface.”

“Got it!” Roon and Johann nodded and they all rushed ahead. Lumoof was the slowest of them all, mainly because my vines were all tangled up and had to be withdrawn from the core.

At that moment, I vaguely sensed a slowly rousing presence from the Core of the Houndworld. The demon magic from the demon mother wasn’t gone, though. It was still there, sticking around like oil and dirty grease. It’s clogged. 

“Lumoof. Stay.” I commanded. “The core is reawakening. But it might take a while.”

Lumoof looked at his compatriots, Stella, Roon, Johann and Edna rushed towards the demon mother, and the demon mother, as expected, ran up the shaft. 

“Alka.” Edna notified, as they kept harassing the demon mother with attacks. The demon mother seemed to have eyes on it’s back, dodging our attacks. Even so, not all missed, as some of Roon and Johann’s abilities were homing, enemy-chasing projectiles. The demon mother seemed to recoil from every hit.

“You should’ve brought your dragon.” Roon teased his fellow bow-wielder. 

“It’s too small, and I don’t wanna risk it.”

“It can’t die!”

Yet, the demon mother was a demon king. Somehow, along the way of capturing a world, that energy was lost, or perhaps, converted? Or given to the next one as a seed? Or reclaimed, somehow? 

I haven’t actually seen how a demon king fully conquered a world. Did the demon king actually leave a shadow of itself, which became the demon mother, and it went on to attack other worlds? Or did it just somehow decay into this form?

Theoretical questions that weren't worth pondering now, as the rousing senses of the Houndworld connected with my own through Lumoof’s avatar ability. This wouldn’t be a permanent link, since I didn’t have a clone here.

Alka felt the demon mother head his way.

“Alright, it’s coming up. I’m going to explode.” 

At that moment, Roon, Johann, Stella and Edna looked at each other, and decided to stop chasing after the demon mother. They didn’t want to be too near. Stella immediately pinged. “Aeon, be ready to pull us back.”

“Yup.”

The demon mother surged towards Alka, unaware of the trap. It was already weakened from our repeated combat.

The surface team began to detect void mana and demonic mana in the air, a sign that the demon sun was coming-

Then right as the demon mother approached and almost ran past Alka, he exploded. This was the second time he used the ability, and like a nuclear bomb detonated underground, it sent a seismic shock throughout the entire surface, one that I could feel even through my vines in the core. 

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The entire chamber and shaft from the surface to the core was lit with a flash of light. An explosion. Freedom. The echoes and the vibration was deafening, as rocks began to collapse. 

In our world, it was impossible to have a chamber that led to the core. There’s molten magma and mantle. But in this world, in some worlds, quite a few planets were rock all the way through to the core, and the core itself was more like a magical dynamic than one made of molten rotating liquid iron. Gravity was magical. A form of magic drawn to the core.

The rocks began to fall.

The surface team was puzzled, as the void mana in the air dissipated. 

“Oh. It’s dead.” Alka cursed, as the demon mother was vaporised in the explosion. “I was expecting a harder fight.”

It never was stronger than the demon king. 

I didn’t gain a level. But Alka did. Just two levels, and no new skill. He cursed. 

***

I felt the magical grease and oil in the Houndworld suddenly seem less heavy. As if I could push them out. So, through Lumoof, my mana began to flow into the core of the Houndworld. 

I had a feeling this would be something I will be doing more often, once the war with the demons moved to another stage. The core’s consciousness was like a scattered foam, gradually but surely regrouping. 

It would take some time, just as the Tropicsworld did. Right now, I did what I could, and purged the demonic energies within the core. I drained them through my vines and roots, through Lumoof, and released them into potato storages back on the other worlds. 

Lumoof got better at dealing with such mana fluctuations. He practiced extensively, and gained some skills over the years that improved his tolerance to magical energies. He still wasn’t a fantastic spellcaster, but he had acceptable competence.

But he was a [domainholder], and expectations were different. It was a sore point, but my priest accepted it. It is nothing more than the demands of our struggle.

***

In a war against the demons, I’d be retaking worlds from the demons, and I would need help.

“Stella, so no news from your [void explorer]?”

“Did you know a space probe took about 12 years to get from Earth to Neptune.” Stella quipped as she rested on the surface of the houseworld. I suppose she meant to say that space was exceedingly large. “So yes, the void sea is this massive, massive ocean. It’s like we’re in this small paper boat, and we’re paddling very slowly through it. We’re moving, for sure, but there are also fluctuations in this sea.” 

“Can you see anything, at least?”

“I could. Other worlds. But I’m not near enough.” Stella waved her hand and a magical three dimensional projection of the void sea appeared. “This isn’t accurate, by the way. The void sea clearly exists in more than these dimensional forms, but this is the one I’m most comfortable with. Using the other types bends my mind and it’s hard for me to demonstrate it in a projection.” 

She pointed to a glowing red arrow flying, at the tip of a long spear-like part of the projection.

“This is my explorer. As you can see. I’m going super-super far. Ulara was far, but I’m now even further.” 

I paused. 

“How far do you think the gods are?”

“I’m pretty sure they are not clumped together. If they were- that does seem to suggest some kind of network effect, or perhaps a creation-event.” Stella mused. “But I did recall you explaining what Aiva said. That the gods are far away from each other too.”

If the gods were separated, the demons essentially could pick off one god at a time. I wonder, momentarily, if the demons have slain gods, and if so, how many have they slain? They have one in the demon sun. So-  each sun contained one god? 

“In any case, we can only try our luck.” Stella said. “I hope to reach something. Somewhere.” 

“Rather than keep searching with the void explorer, would it be better to stop on one of these worlds, and try hoping using conventional astral paths? After all, their paths may be linked to some other worlds?” It was the equivalent of stopping the use of wormholes or warp space, and using space-lanes to visit their astral neighbors. 

“I thought of that.” Stella said. “I’m going to stop then. Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing.”

 

Year 247

This was a relatively quiet year, as everyone moved to do their part. Quiet, for me, of course, because there were wars raging on every world. On Threeworlds, Zhaanpu and the Sandpeople waged a terrible war against the Crystal King’s golems. 

I had inadvertently caused an escalation in the type of weapons used in the war, as both sides unleashed stronger units against the others. Even the Centaurs of Hoofhall felt this war was the most horrific in recent memories, as the magical golems of the Crystal King fought against the sandstone constructs. 

On Treehome, the vassal wars continued. The guilds did not stop invading and trying to claim land, and the defenders didn’t relent or give up. The Emperors were strong, and with their enhanced abilities they were able to somewhat offset the technological advantages in areas where the Emperor’s claim was strong. 

The royal classes, as strange as it was, were somewhat linked to loyalty. The greater the loyalty of its ruled populace, the stronger the effects of the Emperor’s power. A soldier’s benefit from its king's blessing was very much linked to the faith, trust and loyalty that soldier had to its royal institution. Not the King, even if it’s often seen interchangeably, but the actual mechanics of it was actually linked to the royalty as an institution. Each member of royalty’s actions and abilities fed into a ‘royal institution’ modifier in the System, and also the distance of a person to its king and royalty.

This was unlike a General, where the benefit of a General’s power was linked to a soldier’s position in the army controlled by the General. A member of an army benefited from every skill a general had that affected his army.

Royalty’s power is more subtle, wider, more pervasive but also, can be resisted. 

These findings emerged from decades of observation of the royal families in Treehome, because we noticed there wasn’t much change even when a King passes on. A King’s blessings and powers lingers on after his death. 

A kingdom doesn’t collapse immediately, but a timer starts ticking in the system, and with each passing day, the dead king’s blessings weaken, replaced by the powers of the new king, or, if there are no new kings, nothing. Ceremonies affect this sort of timer. A powerful ceremony attended by many members of society affects how quickly a new king’s powers and classes ripple through the nation.  

Nations that did not have kingdoms, instead, contributed to a body of rulers regardless. The high council, or parliament, or members of the city-states, membership in that body then gained the powers similar to a king, but one that is collective and shared. The constitution, if there is one, gains quasi-king-like powers, but it does so very slowly. 

In a world where justice and rule of law is strictly obeyed, I speculate that their constitution, through decades and centuries of political investment, grows into a demigod of law. That opportunity was curtailed on Treehome, because gods and religion exist. The way faith is so intertwined with the political structure meant a constitution was tied to faith. 

It was for this reason that most non-royal institutions don’t last that long, and this whole damned world is stuck in the feudal fantasy era. 

All this, tied into the powers of the vassal wars. Ultimately, with me and the Valthorns cleanly out of the picture, it is a contest between the financial, sociodemographic and technological of the trading-guild-nations, against the faith-empowered theocratic empires of defending nations. I designated areas where the forces of the four continents are allowed free landing zones on the Central continent, so that the forces of the theocratic nations could attack the guild-nations at their home. 

It was much to the silent annoyance of the guilds and their backing nobility, but the guilds quickly reinforced those locations. 

Internally, the Valthorns understood our ambitions were beginning to outgrow the Central Continent. We were becoming a multi-world organization, and we needed to exist above and beyond. We had duty to our home worlds, but we had to shed the shackles that tied us. 

Trees are often repotted once they outgrow their pots. 

 

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