Chapter 269: 261. Dendropolemics

Year 260

“This is it.” Alka looked around. Stella was located on Lavaworld, waiting to open the void portals. There was a force there, waiting to strike. The surface team’s goal was simple. 

There were already existing cracks in the comet, left by the Demon King Multipus. Most of the demon comet’s mana was occupied by my constant intrusions. So, that prevented these cracks from healing. The surface team would spread out with large quantities of bombs, and set up the bombs. 

The other half of the force would be from my clone. That force would reach out for the nodes, capture or destroy them, and then also plant more bombs. 

The last force was the heroes and my domain holders. The heroes would attempt to engage in battle with Demon King Multipus, and also destroy the demonic presence around the Comet’s Core, simultaneously with my clone’s intrusions. The domain holders would split into groups. Edna, Alka and Lumoof would rush to the core, and attempt to destroy the demonic presence in the core, while Roon and Johann would assist the heroes. 

That was the rough plan. 

We didn’t know it’ll work. There was no time to simulate and test it out more. Alka’s computation had no conclusive answers. It was an outcome that wasn’t good enough, but our window of opportunity was slipping away. 

We needed the lavaworld intersection. Just as a means of escape, if our attack goes to hell.

I’ve seen Multipus’s offensive abilities and am fairly sure my clone would be able to hold out against it. Ultimately, the real risk is if Multipus decides to destroy everything around my clone, thus denying my access to the wider comet. 

***

Ken was alive. I made sure he still was. Colette knew I was doing something to him, and for reasons she understood. 

I also knew she didn’t agree with me, but at the same time, she also understood her friend, Chung, well enough that I had to. So, after a few harsh words from her, she did not protest much beyond that. Prabu and her were the more understanding ones. Adrian, Kelly and Khefri didn’t care all that much for Ken. 

Given the situation, I had to just work with the cards I have. Maybe it was my lack of will. 

Colette sat next to Ken, one day, before all of this, and spoke to him.

“Hang in there. He’ll let you go. Aeon will let you pass.”

“If there’s one, there will be again. I hate it.”

“You’re old enough to know that we often have to give up on some of our values, in order to achieve far greater things. This is Aeon’s compromise.”

“Fuck that.”

He cursed, as we prepared for the invasion. 

“You want me to watch this.” Ken said, coughing. There was a bit of mana spent to supply vision and share what I see with him, and an entire army of other advisors. Live advisors. It was one of the ways we augment the assault team with advice and instructions from a group of support staff. 

My artificial minds coordinated the vision sharing, through [Dream Academy]. 

“Yes. Chung and the heroes are going there because you live.” 

I spoke to the other heroes. They understood why I kept Ken alive despite his wishes. I needed the heroes to still work together, and Chung, as much as I hated him, still needed to do his part. The heroes, to some extent, understood this attack, on the spectrum of things, was quite suicidal. 

If the core exposes itself and releases its rivers of mana towards the heroes, the heroes would be in trouble. The only way I know, at the moment,  the heroes could engage Multipus with a reasonable margin of safety was with my roots constantly poking the core. 

It was so conditional. Everyone knew it.

“You keep me alive, so that I can watch my friends die.”

“Friends who want you to live, Ken.” I answered. 

“Will you let me die if this works?”

“Yes.”

***

Multipus left lasting damage to various parts of the Comet over the year, and the Core continued to remain on the defensive. It was wary of my constant poking. 

“Intruder!”

It spoke, and only confused Multipus. 

In a case of the boy who cried wolf, all Multipus saw was more demonic mana, and I had somehow conned it into not-responding to the Core’s constant yapping.

“Help!”

I wasn’t sure who was asking. It didn’t matter. I was going to break this Comet apart. I need a window to act. To force myself through the Core’s defenses while Multipus engaged the heroes. 

***

“Alright. Stella, we’re on your notice.” The rest of the domain holders were camped on the clone. 

“What do you mean, on my notice?” Stella responded through our shared communication. The surface team was ready.

The Comet was visible on Lavaworld. Within range. 

“But fine. It’s within range. Get ready!” She sent out a ping to the army, two thousand strong. Each squad of ten comprised usually two void mage, two regular mage, and about six combat units. Each of them would be tasked to destroy demons they encounter, and head to the specified locations with their payload of bombs. 

Another three thousand Valthorns waited within my clone.

The heroes have not teleported in. The heroes, with their tremendous star mana, would shine like beacons in the night sky. Multipus would be drawn to them immediately. 

They would need to find a place to engage somewhat distant from my clone. 

The group of three thousand could then charge out towards their own targets, and also plan their own set of bombs. They would follow the various tunnels, holes or chasms we made over the last few years. Many of these chasms and cracks in the comet were left by the demon king over the last year. 

Where my roots could fit, I made [Root Tunnels] for the Valthorns to walk through, but with most of my demonic mana focused on the Core and Clone, they’d have to make the last mile themselves. It wouldn’t be comfortable terrain. 

“Alright- surface squad ready. We’re going in.” Stella said, as we instantly felt the twisting of space. Void portals emerged on the surface of the Comet, and it immediately roused Multipus’s interest.

Edna, Alka, and Lumoof were next. They journeyed as close as possible to the core. 

“The surface team is starting their part. Let’s go. Heroes will arrive last to lure the Demon King away from us.” Roon and Johann said, as the doors to my clone opened.

To give my forces an opening, I intensified my intrusion on the Core’s mana shield. This forced the Core to draw more mana inward. I’ve gotten better at understanding the nature of the Core’s mana shield over the last year, it was rather similar to the way the demon’s rift gates were modulated by some kind of mana frequency. 

“Leave.”

I poked deeper. I didn’t do it before, because I wondered whether Multipus would eventually find out. But now, with the heroes coming to provide a distraction-

“Stop.” I said to it. “Turn back.”

“Must do as commanded.”

I pushed further. My roots was quite far from my clone, but once Lumoof got closer, I would try to push a lot more.

***

The heroes were next. They prepped for transport. The heroes didn’t say much.

“Let’s go skewer a giant octopus.” Chung said. “Make some takoyaki.”

“It’s got way more than eight legs. An Octopus is incorrect.”

“Octopi.”

“-and you don’t want to eat this dude’s meat. It looks like a stone-tentacle monster.” Colette retorted. 

“Whatever. Let’s go.”

“Well. Let’s go kick some comet ass, and buy our friends some space.”

Ken looked at one of the Valthorn attendants. “It’s all for this moment. I’m alive for this. Go. Get this shit over with.” 

The heroes were pulled through my body to my clone, and the mere presence of the heroes in my clone caused the entire comet to shiver. Multipus already sensed them. 

“Well, our greetings are on the way.” The heroes blasted out of the clone tree like superheroes leaving their base. Multipus flared up, and seemed to fly. 

***

“Okay okay okay! Let’s go!” Lumoof ran as fast as he could towards the core, activating magical teleports to get as close as possible. The core emitted a pulse of magic that shredded teleportation spells, but close range teleports, where the magic itself is reinforced, was still possible. 

Edna laughed. “You’re awfully enthusiastic on this day.”

“This is a great day!” Lumoof countered. “We’ve waited for this for decades!” 

Throughout the Comet, whatever residual mana swirling within the crystals all awakened from their slumber, and transformed into demons. Golems. 

More golems. 

The entire Comet itself was probably a golem, linked through the energies of Core. 

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And the entire comet transformed into a battlefield.

***

“Surface team, report in.” Stella said as she opened void portals. The crystal bombs they’ve made were deployed, ready to be triggered. 

“We’ve set the bomb.” One by one each of the teams reported that they’ve deployed the bomb. 

The bomb would go off once a magical pulse blasted outward. In theory, a magical pulse of the right frequency should cause all the bombs throughout 

But the presence of the heroes reawakened the sleeping demons. “Enemies inbound!” 

The golems were an irritant. The self destructing demons too. My Valthorns essentially had to play dodge, and luckily, they were good at that game. 

***

The Demon King Multipus found the heroes, and engaged. Their attacks began to cause tremors throughout the Comet. It was still too large to crumble or shatter. 

But the already existing cracks widened. 

***

With the demon king occupied, Lumoof managed to reach the very edge of the Comet’s Core. Through Lumoof, I felt the presence of the Comet’s swirling will, as if multiple waves were trying to exist in a single body. 

“The Core itself is stitched together.” Alka said, as he landed next to him. “I could blow myself up here- should break up the power supply of this giant golem.” 

“Let’s try something else, first?” Lumoof said, as my [avatar] form descended right next to the core. In my avatar form, I linked with the existing demonic roots, and pushed against the defenses of the Comet’s Core.

It was distracted. Bothered.

It’s mana was affected by the presence of heroes on the world, and it couldn’t help but be drawn to it. This meant there were gaps. Fluctuations in its shield of demonic mana. 

Alka looked at the golem while my roots and vines spread, pushing deeper into the comet’s will. If there were different parts of it, I want to talk to them all. 

My roots pushed against the cracks in the core, widening them. The cracks spread, as my roots kept forcing through the gaps. 

“Intruder!”

It said the same thing. 

My roots pushed deeper into the core. I’ve known from my roots that spread around the core that certain parts of it seemed different. Those gaps were weaknesses.

Cobbled. 

And the person best to exploit those weaknesses was now here. “Edna. Use that rock crushing weapon.” Her shining rock-crushing blade shone with magic. Magic that came from the system. It smashed into the core, and the weaknesses cracked.

She frowned, held up the sword again.

And swung again. 

And again.

Each time, the cracks got far wider, and deeper.

“iNt-ru-deR-!”

“HeLp-uS”

The words became a jumbled mess, and the erratic mana of the core scrambled to react. But Edna’s blade cut through the rocks as if they were paper. 

At the same time, my roots also pushed through the other gaps, and my own mana began to mix in the core mana of the Comet’s Core.

As Edna’s rock-slashing blade kept hacking away, I began to notice polarities in the core mana. There were areas of the Core that had higher concentrations, and each of them were subtly different. 

They were normally mixed together. It’s like a mixing bowl with multiple taps pouring slightly different colored water into it. They would normally mix together, but because the bowl of water was getting emptied quickly, we could see the slight variations in the different taps. 

We cut, and my roots pushed against the different parts of the stone-

 

***

The heroes battled the demon king through the various tunnels and chasms. In a way, it was an odd battle, because the heroes had to create their own paths, a task that fell mostly to Khefri and Adrian. 

I tried to support them, through a group of demonic trees, but with most of my mana and energies concentrated on the core, my ability was mostly useless. 

Yet, it was what I was doing in the core that caused Multipus to pause. As I pushed deeper into the core, attempting to reach those different parts of the Will, Multipus stopped attacking, and started to retreat. 

“Aeon!” The heroes roared as Multipus suddenly stopped and darted away. “Multipus is retreating! Watch out!”

Edna and Lumoof panicked. “Fuck. We don’t have much time if it’s headed this way.”

Alka grinned. “On the contrary, I believe this is exactly what we need to do. Edna. Keep digging. We need to get deeper into the core.”

Edna’s constant attacks dug a fairly deep hole into the core, one that my roots quickly infested and reinforced. Edna stared at the dwarf, as a realization got into her. Her rock-slasher blade glowed. “Well, I suppose that is one way to take out a giant golem.” 

We all felt the comet shaking violently.

***

“Aeon!” Stella said. “The cracks and gaps in the structure of the comet! They are the areas where the giant golem is supposed to separate itself!”

Like a transforming robot, the comet was essentially one giant golem that was curled up. If it survived impact, it would unfurl itself like a rock transforming into a robot. The gaps were not weaknesses, they were there because they were meant to be!

Alka naturally understood the implications. “Wait- doesn’t that mean we’re just putting bombs at the surface?”

Edna laughed. “Well, I suppose amateur mistakes happen to even the best of us. Let’s just hit this core as deep as we can. If we can take out the central power source-”

The dwarf nodded. “There is no choice, then.” 

***

“Try to hold Multipus back.” I commanded the heroes, and they tried. Multipus was trying to flee towards the core. 

Chung fired a magical arrow with a chain made of magic, like a harpoon, and the arrow pierced into Multipus’s limb. 

The mages cast spells of ice. I tried to use my own roots and assist in entangling the demon king. But it was strong. 

It punched through the spells, and it sacrificed a limb. The limb broke apart, while it’s main body continued to rush towards the core. 

“Fuck.” Chung cursed, as he still rushed ahead. He fired a few more arrows that pierced Multipus throughout its’ body, and through that magic, yanked the gigantic demon king backwards. “Help!”

Roon and Johann too, launched attacks at the demon king, and also harpoons of their own. They needed to pin the demon king down. 

The heroes quickly came to Chung’s aid as they helped pull those chains.

 

***

“Is this enough?” Edna asked, but she kept cutting. She was in the zone, hacking like a machine. The three domain holders were quite deep now.

“HeLp- InTrUdERRRR!” The Will of the Comet roared. I was fairly certain this Will of the World was mostly corrupted by the demons. I could feel Multipus struggling against the heroes. 

My mind instantly felt the hammering, as the Comet’s Core assaulted me with it’s presence. Lumoof winced, as he too shared my burden of facing the Comet’s Will. 

“We need to keep going.” Lumoof repeated. “We must be doing something right.

***

Multipus twisted its tentacles, and doing so, dragged the heroes along. It blasted attacks their way, and it spread demonic magic into the crystals around it. Each time it does so, more of the Comet’s network of tunnels collapsed and crumbled.

Each of the demon king’s attack, a creature made of tremendous demonic mana, and in Multipus’s case, also void and core mana, began to leave tangible ripples in the Comet’s bubble of space. 

The Comet, an object traveling through the sea of void, started to experience turbulence.  

The Comet’s reality began to tear apart.

***

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