Dunia Perifer Neiran XI Daratan runtuh. Dindingnya pun runtuh. Kolam-kolam pemijahan terkuras. Dunia demi dunia iblis merasakan amukan para pemegang domain dan Ordo. Api perang dan pembantaian iblis seharusnya membuat para iblis terhuyung ketakutan. Namun lawan mereka tidak mengenal rasa takut. Itu adalah kata yang tidak mereka pahami, meskipun mereka menggunakannya secara berlebihan dalam metode mereka sendiri. Mereka adalah monster yang diciptakan untuk kehancuran dengan sedikit emosi palsu. Konsumsi dunia mendorong mereka untuk berkembang, dan apa yang berhasil diperbaiki, sehingga lebih efektif di dunia berikutnya. Perbaikan bertahap yang terus-menerus pada lemari peralatan perang iblis ini telah membuat mereka terlalu efektif melawan dunia-dunia pinggiran, sehingga mereka pun runtuh.Sampai sekarang. Lebih dari lima puluh dunia kini menyanyikan lagu-lagu penyelamat mereka, pujian yang disampaikan dapat memenuhi buku dan jilid buku. Di seberang dunia pinggiran, Lausanne merasakan Ordo membalikkan keadaan perang dan menghargai pujian tersebut. Ia memandang para prajuritnya, mereka yang mendukungnya, dan tahu mereka membutuhkannya. Perang telah merenggut mereka dari rumah. Mereka tidak perlu berada di sini, tetapi entah bagaimana, mereka terdorong oleh dorongan batin untuk berjuang.Hanya sedikit yang mampu berjuang dalam jangka waktu lama tanpa pengakuan. Namun, berjuang selamanya tidaklah sulit jika ada pengakuan, dukungan, dan tim yang konstan. Ketika seluruh perjuangan terasa seperti tujuan yang adil dengan imbalan yang adil, pasukan dapat bertempur selamanya. Prajurit elf itu tahu bahwa mengharapkan pengecualian adalah tindakan bodoh. Hanya satu dari seribu yang mampu terus berjuang bahkan ketika dunia meninggalkan mereka. Memang benar bahwa mereka adalah pahlawan sejati. Tekad dan semangat merekalah yang mengubah gelombang pertempuran, dan terkadang perang.Namun, kampanye melawan dewa iblis yang tersebar di ribuan dunia tidak dapat bergantung pada kekuatan dan tekad dari kasus-kasus luar biasa yang jarang terjadi ini. Hal ini perlu menjadi urusan institusional. Ordo perlu menjadi sebuah institusi yang diarahkan untuk mendorong dan menghargai perjuangan tanpa henti melawan iblis, dan kini, Lausanne dapat dengan yakin mengatakan bahwa ordo tersebut tepat sasaran. Para pejuang termotivasi. Mereka diberi insentif dan dipilih bagi mereka yang merasa dihargai ketika menerima ucapan terima kasih dari orang-orang yang mereka selamatkan. Hal ini memperkuat siklus umpan balik, di mana mereka merasakan pencapaian karena menjadi penyelamat dan pahlawan, dan mendorong mereka untuk mengejar tujuan dengan penuh semangat. Ia melihat sekeliling, dan sementara para prajurit dan pejuang garis depan bermandikan kegembiraan dan rasa syukur, ia juga bisa merasakan kehadiran para operator Ordo yang lebih “tersembunyi”. Orang-orang yang menyelinap dan melakukan pengumpulan data. Studi. Rencana. Mereka tidak diberi imbalan secara langsung, dan tipe kepribadian yang cocok untuk peran tersebut juga berbeda dengan mereka yang pergi ke garis depan.
A few came to greet her, and she talked with them for a bit. Many helped her in the background. Sometimes they arranged resources to arrive at the right time. Sometimes they found a demon’s location for a hit. On other occasions, they arranged for another force to fend off another group of demons.
A well lubricated machine that clearly had experience.
But Lausanne also knew something very clearly.
In the years she lived amongst the people of Freshka, she knew that warriors like herself would struggle to re-acclimatize to society. They built their entire strength on combat, with most of their skills geared towards power and violence.
In a society, there couldn’t be too many like the Order’s elites. The qualities that made people like Lausanne and the high ranked Valthorns exceptional were rather toxic when left undirected. In civilian life, there was no clear direction, no clear grand objective. For these high leveled individuals, it could feel frustrating to have all these capabilities, but unable to direct it coherently at something. This was especially jarring for military personnel that spent long periods away from civilian life.
So, the Order tried its best to ensure most of the Order’s members were familiar and regularly existed as a part of the social order.
More than that, the work of fighting demons needed to be just one aspect of the Order’s life, even if they devoted long hours and minds at this goal.
It was a contradiction.
A difficult one.
To wholeheartedly pursue power, and at the same time, remain a part of society.
It was never more true for those who were level 125 to 149. They were the closest to the levels of power that they felt so strongly compelled to pursue power the entire time, and yet the Order insisted that they took breaks, maintain relationships, and make connections with their family, friends, and acquaintances.
These were also a group that was hardest to control, simply because of how powerful they were individually.
Lausanne spoke to a few of them. Nothing in this peripheral world could threaten them, except the demon king. If some wanted, they could go wild and cause untold death and destruction.
A few more Order folks came by. They were level 130s and 140s, and high up in the skies above was the gigantic beetle carrier, the 2nd one named after a venus flytrap, the Dionaea.
“We have three days before we’re leaving for the next world, you can kick back for the next two, but on the last day we are leaving.” The commanding officer declared to the Order operatives on that rescued human city. “Some of you are on your home trip, so keep that in mind. I know I’ve said this a few times every year, but I must remind you that if you brought any souvenirs, please ensure that they are checked by the magical research division for safety before you take them out of our premises.”
Lausanne overheard them talk. About a quarter would be rotated back to their home worlds, while a fresh team would come on board to take their place. The rostering was frustrating to some, but in the end it was what worked for most people. Many looked forward to it.
Family. Some of these warriors came from other peripheral worlds that were still under heavy reconstruction, and so they had large families waiting for them back home.
“I’m going to try the local booze.” One of the dwarven agents from Darkgard declared. The dwarven warrior was likely in the level 80s. As of now, the strongest Darkgardian Dwarf was only around Level 120, even though they’d been part of the Order for two to three good decades.
The peripheral world was filled with humans with medieval magics and weaponry. It was surprisingly plain, though the people were industrious and hardy. The human agents of the Order found it fairly easy to infiltrate their ranks.
One of them approached her. “Lady Lausanne, would you deign to join us?”
And she did.
She thought of Magisar as she sampled some of the local’s best remaining drinks and food. This peripheral world did not have much luxuries to offer.
Not yet.
She was certain it would happen soon. It took just about half a year to a year for luxury food and beverages to emerge, mainly because the locals found it a good idea to sell higher end goods to the visiting Order officials and operatives.
Even on Magisar, the investments into high-end goods happened quite quickly once the demons were liberated.
The economies of the various peripheral worlds, in peacetime, were geared towards the fulfillment of the various needs and wants of the elite. It was a natural rebound, only this time, the elite class also included the Order.
In most magical societies, power and wealth were concentrated in the very few, and so most services and businesses had no choice but to target the only segment able to sustain them as a business.
The local brewer came by to greet them and claimed how their beer was the only thing keeping the people sane during the years when they were under siege.
The surviving local militia also came back to mingle with the Order. Many of them would need to find themselves again.
One Landasian elf nodded, contrasted their world with Landas, and explained their experience with reconstruction. “Landas was in a far worse state than this, and I cannot help but feel that our survival is a miracle. But the reconstruction is just as important. The war was won, but our society was so badly damaged that we had to fight a different war. A war about what type of world we wanted to build.”
The humans listened. Their world wasn’t as badly damaged, so most of them expected it to revert back to what it once was many many centuries ago. A world filled with various kingdoms and empires.
The same half-drunk Darkgardian then warned. “Once we leave, when the agreed-upon ceasefire is over and with the demons gone, there will be a large power vacuum. The powerful and crafty amongst you will use this opportunity to seize power and use the opportunity to build their own rule. Expect bloodshed, and war with each other.”
Some of the humans asked for them to remain, and on some level, Lausanne saw the merits to it. The Order operative negotiated for a ceasefire with the various surviving cities and leaders for reconstruction.
But would everyone respect it? The Order implied that if there was a threat that they would return to enforce the ceasefire. Some would see this chaos as the best moment to change the pecking order and the risk was worth it.
“Can you and your people drop by once every year?”
“A year.” Lausanne answered, if they had ten teams visiting a world every month, they could theoretically get through a hundred peripheral worlds once a year. “It still is more than enough time for your people to fight and slaughter each other.”
Truthfully, she also knew it was not the military that was the bottleneck. The military is merely a weapon. An enforcement tool.
A Valthorn force that arrived once a year might not know who or what happened in that world. A year was a lot of history, and the nations’ political structures could have changed.
Collecting intelligence and figuring out what is the right thing to do was what consumed far, far more manpower and resources. This was a conundrum faced by the Order throughout the peripheral worlds, and unfortunately, as of now, the Order did not have the resources to maintain a continuous presence on so many worlds.
The Order needed at least ten to twenty individuals to have a basic, functional office in a single city just to get decent quality information and monitor the major political players in that city. In just one of these peripheral worlds with tens to hundreds of nations, there was a need for a large intelligence force in the thousands just to keep track of all the various political players. Scale that to a hundred worlds, this number was now in the millions.
But, it was not a hard limit. The Order could reach that level through recruitment, after all. Lausanne looked at the pleading eyes of the locals and knew they really wanted them to stay.
At the heart of it, was a matter of direction.
Lausanne, of all people, knew that contradiction innately. Did they, the domain holders steering the ship, want the Order to be that sort of organization where they kept track of all these 100 worlds?
Did they want such an outsized influence on the lives and governance of so many?
Her gut veered on yes, but maintaining an information network and all that was going to be painful.
The locals prodded and begged.
They all could feel the brewing chaos. The power struggle slithering and waiting in the darkness, waiting for the Order to leave.
It was not uncommon, and Lausanne saw enough worlds to know that the Order’s absence would cause them harm. Many of these worlds were, and still remained largely lawless, the institutions that once maintained order crumbled under the attacks of the demons.
Lausanne remembered the founding of New Freeka and Freshka and knew that these worlds needed powerful, dependable institutions. The Order could facilitate that, but it was also important to find good people.
Institutions, Aeon once said, were centered around finding and giving the right type of power, to the right type of personalities, and supported by the right type of arms to enforce rules. Even if it was hard, and there were not enough tree nodes to ensure all these worlds maintained a direct connection to Treehome, these worlds needed them to stay.
She nodded at the locals. “I’ll see what I can do to keep some of us around.”
Treehome, Threeworlds, Mountainworld, and many others prospered in Aeon’s presence. It is time to spread that prosperity to many more worlds.
***
Lausanne needed to make the case, before bringing the matter to Aeon. She knew that Aeon watched where it could, but Aeon’s ability to watch what happened in the faraway worlds, like the peripheral worlds, was fairly limited.
She didn’t feel Aeon’s presence there, in most of those faraway worlds. Sometimes, she missed that familiar watchfulness that loomed over everything.
Twinspace, on the other hand, felt very much like Treehome.
“Matriarch Hoyia.” Twinspace was familiar and had become Hoyia’s de-facto center of operations, just like how Darkgard became Alka’s new homeworld. There was already chatter within the zealots to rename Twinspace to something more benefiting their status.
A name fairly popular floating about was Newhaven. The new promised land for the faithful. Her office was located right around the heart of the capital city at the heart of the continent, even if Expedition’s Landing was still larger in terms of population and overall economic activity. Expedition’s Landing was the primary immigration hub where those hopeful, traveling from the old continent, arrived.
It was a tall but simple structure, made from one of Aeon’s Giant Attendant Trees. Its inner chambers were converted into multiple floors of offices. There was always a need for paper pushers, even in a world of magic. Someone to look after contracts, agreements, new rules, taxes, and payments. One of the larger divisions that employed many people was the Valtrian Bank, and that bank took up two full Giant Attendant Trees, all for the explicit purpose of maintaining and reviewing accounting ledgers.
“I hear you wanted my views on some things.” Hoyia offered the elven woman a seat. There were a few advisors around Hoyia, other members of the Treeology faith. “What can I do for you?”
“If I listened to the summary reports correctly, Twinspace now has over three hundred thousand operatives?”
Hoyia squinted as her body leaned forward. “Yes. That’s correct. Do you wish to borrow some of them for the peripheral worlds?”
“Yes. In truth, I believe that the Order has a responsibility to maintain a presence on the various peripheral worlds, at least up till they’ve survived and recovered from their long destruction. Currently, outside of the Hawan peripheral worlds, Aeon maintains no permanent presence on the Neiran and Aivan side. That should change.”
“A clone or a node has been-“
“No. I want to go beyond that. I want the Order to be in and on every peripheral world, and right now, Twinspace’s massive growth means it is the perfect place to supply the necessary manpower. For a persistent intelligence and deterrence force to ensure that these peripheral worlds don’t slaughter themselves in their own crazed fight for survival. These forces will nurture and protect what’s left and get them to recover. It will also prevent massive political and social upheaval by acting as a safety valve to ensure a reasonable political process of their worlds is properly followed.”
Hoyia looked at the priests and back at Lausanne. “This is your opinion? This is a far larger expansion, and I recall much earlier you were one of those reluctant to stretch the Order.”
“I changed my mind. I’ve seen these worlds, and they need Aeon to be there.” Lausanne admitted. She was initially rather surprised that the Order would expand its operating scope so quickly. “We have an opportunity to save many, many lives from the cruelties of their fellow warriors.”
Hoyia leaned back, and stood. There were windows in her floor, the Giant Tree’s bark and walls reshaped themselves into almost circular shapes. They had a beautiful view of the mostly untouched landscape. She walked to take a look at them, but her mind was elsewhere.
Thinking.
The city was still fairly small, but it was growing quickly.
“You must have a story, Lady Lausanne.” Hoyia countered. “You must find a tale, a narrative to sell to the denizens of these peripheral worlds and also to those tasked to watch over them. That story must also encapsulate what you want to achieve. If you have a good tale, a mythos can be made, and you will find it much easier to get the Order’s support. I believe those aspiring for the domain are also looking for a mythos.”
The elven warrior got up from her seat to join Hoyia at the side of the window.
“Do I have your support?”
“If you have a story worth selling, Lady Lausanne, you will have all of ours.”
***
Mythos.
It is a goal and a dream turned into a story. Hoyia’s Promised Land whipped her people into a frenzy. Alka’s War of the Gods brought the dwarves into his fold.
Not all domains needed a story. Namun Lausanne, Sang [Juara Tak Terpilih], berjalan di kota baru itu dan pikirannya berpikir. Dunia-dunia pinggiran ini merupakan kumpulan dunia-dunia yang rusak. Ia ingat Lumoof pernah berkata bahwa inti Ordo bercita-cita menjadi seorang Penjaga. Seorang penjaga dan penopang keseimbangan kekuatan saat ini. Para iblis adalah pengaruh luar yang sangat besar yang mengganggu tatanan alam. Tapi dia tidak mengerti. Kisah mereka sudah meyakinkan! Itu adalah tujuan yang adil dan mulia!Mereka adalah penyelamat bagi mereka yang ditinggalkan oleh para dewa yang memudar! Mereka adalah mereka yang mengulurkan tangan untuk membela mereka yang terabaikan! “Tapi buatlah lebih banyak lagi. Bagaimana dengan mereka yang telah kau selamatkan? Apakah mereka gadis-gadis yang sedang dalam kesulitan dan tidak bisa berbuat apa-apa sendiri?” Kata-kata Hoyia terngiang di benaknya. Lalu langkah selanjutnya juga jelas. Mereka mungkin ditinggalkan. Mereka mungkin bukan orang-orang pilihan. Namun, sama seperti dirinya, mereka juga, dengan sedikit bantuan, dapat bangkit dan menjadi pasukan yang benar-benar menyelesaikan apa yang telah lama ditinggalkan para dewa. Dari abu dunia-dunia yang terabaikan ini, sebuah pasukan yang terabaikan. Sebuah [Pasukan yang Tak Terpilih]. “Lumayan juga,” Hoyia bertepuk tangan saat menyampaikan cerita itu kembali kepada Matriarch. “Sekarang, ayo kita jual ke pemegang domain lainnya dan dapatkan dukungan mereka.”
347
Year 321
Peripheral worlds. I sometimes wondered what happened there, because my vision in these worlds was limited. I could see bits and pieces through some of the familiars, through my avatar, and through my clones and nodes. I also could see bits in dreams and in images carried by dying souls, a feature of my presence as a Soul Tree.
But for the vast majority of these peripheral worlds, they were still coated in a fog-of-war. But whenever we visited, it surprised me how quickly these worlds changed.
My knowledge of these worlds were snapshots in time, refreshed whenever my avatar reached them and took a new snapshot.
They were big changes. A year of peace meant huge reconstructions, larger populations, and more farmland and orchards.
Orchards and farmland were a fairly ubiquitous feature across so many worlds. Some elven populations on the Neiran peripheral survived on large fruit-growing plants, an unusual symbiotic adaptation between the elves and their orchards.
Most of the time, what I paid attention to were small things. Plantations and unusual plant adaptations. New types of monsters were collected and collated by my druids for study.
My domain holders and the Order tore through the demons that infested the peripheral worlds like a firestorm. A purifying flame that burned through these worlds like a wildfire whipped by a storm.
But eventually, the demon’s rot would return, and we didn’t have enough void mages to wage a counterattack on their linked demon worlds. Lausanne, owing to her experience on these peripheral worlds, set up a new project for the Order. The Frontier 500. A goal of raising 5 level 100 from 100 different worlds, to form the frontiers foremost champions and guardians. An army of the abandoned, for the abandoned.
She chose one of the most politically fragile worlds on the Neiran periphery, a world named by their people as Makhana, though the main reason was its central location at the heart of the Neiran peripheral worlds. It was two hops away from most of the peripheral worlds and three hops from a few others. Makhana was populated by a mixture of humans, elves, and lizardfolk. So, it was also very familiar to her and the Order.
It also happened to be at the verge of self-destruction as somehow, even though they’d slain the demons that plagued the peripheral worlds, the local races decided it was apt to slaughter each other next.
Lausanne didn’t want to let that happen, and so with the beetle carrier Dionaea, a force of mages and the order, the leadership of these three races were rounded up and sent to the Lavaworld for some solitary time, quiet contemplation, and reflection.
It was not hard to stop wars, but Hoyia warned her that it did not make the peace permanent.
“It is perhaps presumptuous, but we are like parents? These people are our children squabbling with each other. It is tempting for us to step in each time when they fight with each other. When they have conflicts. We send them to ’the naughty corner’ for them to reflect on their decisions; and then there is the generational trauma to unpack from these races. You can stop this war now, and you can stop the war the next few times it happens if you are here. But you need to fix the root causes.”
Lausanne cursed, of course. A part of her felt terrible that she repeated the mistake on Magisar, where she shocked them with power. The prisoners would be similarly spooked by their time on Lavaworld.
Perspective was often painful, and miserable.
But, she viewed it differently. “Generational trauma persists when no one tackles it. Fighting it out and slaughtering each other is not a good way to relieve that ancient trauma. As much as I hate it, it is on us to do what they cannot do themselves.”
For gods to come in, and force ancient squabbling parties to play nice. It reminded me of our own expansion on Threeworlds.
Was this her attempt to make her mark on the world? That each domain holder sought out a world that they could carve in their own imagination and ideals?
On Makhana, she ordered the survivors to build a city together and named it Rezura, after a local term for resurrection. There, she commanded that all disputes between the three races would now be mediated by the Order’s panel of judges.
She envisioned a peacekeeping panel across worlds with impartial judges from entirely different worlds to sit on matters and the use of Patreeck’s limited form of mind-reading to reveal the truth in more extreme cases.
It was an unusual use case for spies and diplomats to now step into the role of racial arbitrators. Even on Treehome, this growing need meant we needed to build a curriculum, experience, and educational material to reliably train new judges.
In cases where the right or wrong were not so clear cut and the odds are fairly equal, she set up a combat arena for trials by combat, where each cause elected their own racial champions to fight on their behalf.
It was interesting that Lausanne’s plan somewhat paralleled the angels of Angelworld, but in the wider multiverse where there were so many might-worshipping worlds, where the system itself encouraged violence, constrained, limited violence was the best of the worst outcomes.
***
Year 322
“How many years left?” Lumoof looked at Aiva’s apparition. The [Realm Egg] was perhaps one of the few things I wanted to have, before we cracked the void barrier.
Even if Stella could take us through to the other side, a large part of me knew I needed more power and I needed the levels. So, I had to.
Destroying the barrier, even if it was with Hawa’s weapon, should net us a big level up.
“Another 8 years. Just hang in there! You’re doing great!” Aiva gave an unnaturally cheery reaction, and we felt as if we were speaking to a child. Thus, we decided not to bother him more and returned to our usual exploration
***
Stella, Edna and Lumoof didn’t find another god. What we found were just more populated worlds that worshiped the usual gods.
From the last Sun-Rings, it was just more and more peripheral-like worlds. More worlds for Lausanne and the roaming Order to free from the demons and re-establish some kind of structure.
We did notice that there were now more dwarven, lizardfolk, treefolk worlds, and even more unusual races. There was a world that resembled the snake-people of Ulara, and there was another where the ‘cities’ were just masses of walking corals on low-tide seas. Then there was another that was filled with tortoise-shelled warriors.
But no sign of another god that we had not met, even if the denizens of these worlds clearly worshipped the usual few.
These worlds were further away from the demons, and the frequency of the demon king attacks showed. They faced invasions at less regular intervals. 30, 50, some even 200 years. Demons, to them, were alien and horrific, not a daily reality.
Here, the heroes still arrived in time to save them from the demons, and the sheer rarity of the event meant they were thus respected as heroes.
It felt thoroughly familiar.
They were still relatively stable and safe, and here, the Order didn’t have much to do. Lausanne and the rest of the domain holders would establish a smaller operation here focused solely on recruiting the elites, but outside of that, there was no need for us to maintain an overwhelming presence when it is not needed.
***
Year 323
Lausanne stood at the edges of the fortress, there were about three hundred warriors collected from the many worlds behind her.
“Welcome to lavaworld. Here, we fight demons. In the old days, every few years, the Order used to cull these demons to keep their population manageable. These days, we use them as practice.”
There were several noticeable gulps, but many of these warriors were survivors of the demonic war on their respective worlds. They were familiar with fighting demons.
They would fight. They would fight hard and get pushed until they could not go any further.
Then they would rest. They would be graded by a panel of observing Order veterans for their judgment, for their actions in battle, and for how well they utilized their abilities. It was subjective, but combat was subjective.
Of the three hundred, only about a hundred passed.
Many were reckless. Many were too cowardly. Many fought and relied on instinct. Many didn’t work well with others.
They would be returned home.
And more would be recruited to take their place.
***
“How was your recruitment?” Hoyia smiled as the two met once more, a few weeks after the Lavaworld tour, but this time, in a city hidden deep underground.
Dungeonworld was ready for training, and the Order’s elites were now preparing for the dungeon delve. Both domain holders did not need to be here, but they still came partly out of curiosity and partly to get away from whatever they were doing.
It was a fairly cold and clammy environment, even though Dungeonworld was innately a cold realm. The world’s magical core did not radiate much natural heat or magical energies that drove certain geological activities. On many worlds, ley lines indirectly act as lines that stimulated volcanic activity, mountain formation, and all that.
“Decent.” Lausanne said.
“Decent? That’s all you have to say about them?” Hoyia grinned as she sat on the really simple but very well built chair. Everything in this small but definitely growing underground city was imported, shipped from Treehome. They had water, though for Hoyia, she could touch water and it would turn into tea.
She didn’t even have to touch the water, all she needed was for her finger to touch a cup.
It was a minor ability named [Spirituality begins with Tea], but endlessly amusing to heroes and many others.
It could also be made into horribly bitter tea, something Hoyia used offensively when she wanted to annoy someone.
Lausanne sighed as she looked at a few of her peers passing through the doors. Alka, Kafa, and Ezar came and sat with the two.
“Well, been a while since I saw you three. What’ve you been up to?”
“Gaining levels.” Kafa and Ezar chorused. “Have to keep up with you blazing through the outer Neiran worlds.”
Lausanne found it amusing and noticed Hoyia gently touch Ezar’s cup of water. It didn’t change color, but Ezar noticed.
“Thanks for the tea.”
“You shouldn’t thank her until you drink it.” Kafa commented.
The domainholders had split the regions among themselves, Alka, Kafa, and Ezar took hold of the outer Gayan peripheral worlds and also the Darkgard-linked dwarven worlds. Roon and Johann took the Aivan worlds, while Lausanne and Ebon provided coverage to the Neiran worlds.
Hoyia, given her skillset, took a more backseat approach, providing support to the recovering Hawan periphery, though she did pop in to help with battles where she could.
Stella, Lumoof, and Edna were still far away, deep into the faraway worlds of the Sun-Rings VI, though they still occasionally teleported back to Treehome or any of the clone worlds to meet with friends and attend important events. It was much easier to move when Stella could place [Void Explorers] as ‘anchors’, so she didn’t have to retrace her steps.
They had seven years.
Internally, we had a timer. Once we had the realm egg, we were going to crack the demon’s void barrier. So, the domain holders had been exceptionally busy, visiting more and more peripheral worlds.
They were soon joined by a few void archmages. They were all quite high leveled, in their level 140s. Such as the void archmage Veter, one of the earliest void archmages. They were fairly familiar with combat, though they often played a supporting role. But dungeoneering and facing powerful creatures were necessary for them to be full domain holders.
Each group of domain holders worked with void mages closely, because they heavily relied on the void mages to move around.
The [Aivan Worldstone] did mean that Roon and Johann had a little more flexibility with the use of void mages, but ultimately, we still needed the void mages for the demigods to reach into the demon worlds and attack the demon mothers.
We hoped that the next domain holder would be a void archmage, so that we’d have a few more options and flexibility when moving around.
***
Stella, Lumoof and Edna eventually decided to take a break from exploring even more worlds and redirected their attention to the giant, now vulnerable wall. They stood at the outer side of the Sun-Rings, and the demon’s void barrier covered the entire sky.
They looked the same to me. They looked the same to Edna and Lumoof.
“Let’s go.”
The three were wrapped in multiple thick layers of void energy, and then, they vanished from the surface of the Sun Rings.
Inside the cocoon for three, we felt the layers constantly churn. We knew we were getting close to the barrier, as we felt a shift, a tremor throughout the many layers.
Stella winced slightly, but her magic was already at work. The layers churned to match the barrier’s magical signatures, adjusting them and folding them. Momentarily, our ability to see beyond the small sphere that protected us vanished. It was just a sea of endless churning darkness.
The void inheritor’ powers swirled and the barrier itself seemed to flow in strange, unusual ways. It was once a constant flow of mana that pushed us away, pushed us out.
But now, no more.
We were floating within a ball, and now, we were sinking into the ocean. The ocean presumed the ball to be one of them and accepted us in. We sank through the demon’s barrier, in a move Stella described not dissimilar to the adjustments needed to align to the magical resonances of the riftgates.
Then, we were through.
[ New Title Awarded : First Into The New Demon’s Realm ]
It was as if we emerged from a dark, dingy tunnel, and now we could see once more.
Hundreds and thousands of worlds emerged in our view, hidden away from our usual view. Hundreds of demon’s comets, all moving slowly through space.
We could see blots of strange, void clouds that seemed like space itself was torn apart and other structures floating throughout the space. Planet-sized fortresses and worlds that looked like they were cut apart.
There were many destroyed worlds here that were still somehow not yet consumed by the void.
Then, most importantly, at the center of it all.
A giant black sun, accompanied by the prison. There was a second layer of defenses. A layer of magical shielding that resembled conventional magical protections, only on the scale of an entire realm.
There were six worlds close to and around that black sun. Together they formed the six points of an octahedron, each emitting such a powerful magical signature that we could feel it even this far away.
At the heart of the shape was that black sun and the accompanying prison.
A prison and our target.
348
True demonworld
The first world we landed on the other side of the barrier was filled with demons, just as we had expected. The physical planet itself felt foul the moment we landed, and I felt a throbbing, rotting sensation emanate from below the moment Lumoof’s feet touched the ground.
The rest of the three domain holders felt it too.
“Well. I suppose this is what a true demon world is like.” Stella said while wearing a clearly uncomfortable frown. Our magic and presence was firmly rejected here, in a way that even the divine core worlds of the gods hadn’t.
The lands were made with a material not of rock or stone, but of the demonic material itself. The vegetation and creatures that roamed here no longer resembled anything normal, but were all made of purely demonic materials.
They were not even the demonic hybrids we found on our world. These things, they were more demonic. Somehow. In a way I struggled to describe.
I felt disgusted.
Almost every bit of me felt the urge to purge this from the wider world.
I felt an urge to just burn the entire realm to the ground with purifying fire.
I hated it.
I hated all of this.
Their flesh pumped with a strange, bloody ichor. The things that resembled trees drew in energies from the world around, and made it into more demonic spawns. Here, on these true demonworlds, we saw more variants of demons than any of the invaded worlds we’ve seen. There were demonic creatures that resembled animals, plants, birds, lizards, and even people.
But they had none of the characteristics that made them ‘normal’.
There was something different about the demons here. They were tougher, even if they still died to our attacks.
We felt a strong, corrosive rejection. Both Stella and Edna could feel it too, and they did not hesitate to cut through everything.
“There are hundreds and thousands of these worlds.” Stella cursed, her void magic burned through the demonic creatures. They were surprisingly tolerant of void magic, while it was significantly easier for Edna and Lumoof to get through these ‘true’ demons.
Lumoof picked up one of these struggling demons and used [Inspect].
[ Demonspawn ]
[ A naturally occurring and generated demonic spawn on a world where the demons have fully assimilated and warped the world’s laws, such that the world itself only produces various types of demonspawns. Capable of reproducing organically or through various other means such as parasitism, absorption of prey, and direct multiplication.]
“Aeons.” Lumoof cursed as he crushed the creature with his roots. “These things are natural.”
The crushed creature’s corpse splattered all over the floor, and turned into smaller demonic worms. Lumoof’s roots turned into a wall of tiny spiky thorns and pierced all of them. This time, all of them died.
“Natural.”
The word took a minute to sink in.
Edna and Stella picked up a demon spawn and activated the same skill, just to be sure what exactly Lumoof saw.
“So what causes a world to become like this, instead of the usual demon worlds that we saw?” Stella mulled the question aloud. It was on all our minds, and we searched the rest of the world.
Everywhere we saw everything in demonic form. Gigantic structures that resembled cities, but functioned as massive demonic spawning pools, and in here, there were surprisingly no rift gates.
Instead, we noticed armies of these demons marching towards a particular direction.
Here, on these true demon-owned worlds, we felt the world itself resist us, and this impaired our senses in many ways. I couldn’t feel the ground like normal, because the ground wasn’t earth. It was demonic flesh. Even the air felt tainted with demonic presence, so much so that most conventional senses felt distorted by them.
We had to move and search normally, and soon found a giant bluish demonic mass that somehow consumed the rest of the demons. It felt different from everything we’d seen so far, and it throbbed and thrummed with void mana.
“[Inspect] it.” Stella said. “You’ll hate it.”
Lumoof focused and activated it too.
[ Corrupted Wadran-Demonic Spawn ]
[ A massive Wadran spawn once capable of much more, but mutated by the demons to serve as a void pathway. It now takes the form of a gigantic blob with nothing of its original features. ]
“Oh. Where are they sending these demons?”
Stella attempted to sense the void magic flows of the area. “The place is flooded with so much void mana that I can’t see anything. Would you like to help me remove these things?”
Edna and Lumoof naturally welcomed the chance to fight, and so we ravaged through the masses of these demonspawns. Our regular weapons still worked on these somewhat tougher demons.
“They’d need someone around level 20 to 30 to defeat one on one. If the wider world has more of these types of demons, it would be quite difficult for worlds without domain-level guardians.” That made them harder and tougher than the usual demonic creeps like the demonic hellhounds and lesser demonic warriors we’ve seen on the other worlds.
It was highly likely because they were now ‘naturally’ spawned and were made with far more robustness than the rest.
Edna summoned her magical knights, and Lumoof too summoned our own creatures such as beetles and spiders to help clear the perimeter and keep them away.
Stella’s senses could now work a little better. “They are sending them to one of the other realms. Not sure for what, though.”
There was only the Corrupted Wadran-Demonic Spawn left, it stood alone. I wondered whether the demons knew if we were invaders, and if it did, could they tell that we were already able to get past their barrier and get inside.
The gigantic blob of blue demonic mass thrummed with void magic, and as we approached, we all felt an attempt to attack us mentally.
[ Domain has blocked attempted mental intrusion ]
“Allow me.” Edna took out a halberd, and charged with her magical abilities. In a single, powerful strike, the halberd emitted a ray of light that tore through the blob and burned it alive with her fury.
The demonic mass struggled, but in its dying moments, it seemed relieved to be freed. I could see a trapped soul, now freed of the corruption that bound it forever.
The soul floated, and then, rather than move elsewhere, it moved towards Lumoof, drawn to my avatar by my soul guiding abilities.
***
Soul Realm
I’ve seen my soul realms filled with creatures from many worlds, though most of them our own. Lumoof, as the avatar of a soul tree, still had the ability to draw in the souls of the dead, but I quickly realized that behind the veil of the demon’s barrier, there was likely nowhere else for the souls to go.
I was still the best place it could go to, and so, I received the heavily damaged soul of what was once a Wadran creature.
I could feel it attempting to communicate, and so, with my vast [Soul Forge] powers, I quickly mended the ancient, damaged soul and soon it was talking.
“Greetings, ancient one.” The soul was shaped rather differently from what I’ve seen, yet I seemed to know exactly what to mend. I could only surmise it is a product of my [Soul Forge], and also my [Tree of Life]’s abilities. “I am thankful for the freedom you’ve given, I have been chained for years unknown, enslaved to the will of the corrupted.”
“Who, and what happened in the past? What do you remember?”
The soul was heavily damaged, and I could tell what it remembered was likely just as unreliable. Such long spiritual damage often corrupted what memories it once had.
“I am afraid I do not remember much as you must know. What I last recall was a gigantic pilgrimage of the Wadrans, as we sought a place to finally lay our dying god, Wadra, to rest. We came upon the god of the crafts, Eras, and Eras agreed to build a tomb for Wadra, together. It was to be the crown at the end of the journey, a long long path of us migrants to finally find a place to call an ending.”
“A tomb?”
“Yes. Our final mission was to find a place to end together, us and our god. But alas there were traitors amongst us and also within the Erasian ranks. Corrupted by parties unknown, it used both of us and turned us into this foul thing.”
“Do you know who and what they wanted to do?”
“I do not, but I know there must be senior Erasian craftsmen and the First Disciples of Wadra that lived. They must, and if you meet them, be wary. They must be the ones responsible! If you find their souls, Ancient One, torment them and make them speak!”
Traitors amongst their ranks? Why?
A failure to ascend? A chance to do something that allowed one of the traitors to gain godly powers?
There were no lies in the soul realm.
Here, in this hallowed realm, I could compel any soul to speak the truth, and I knew that this spirit, this soul that would soon be sent back to the path of reincarnation, did not lie . It was the truth, and truly what it believed.
I did not know what to do with this knowledge immediately, though my artificial minds were quick to summarize that there were likely many other such blobs throughout the demonic realms. Creatures that we could free and capture their souls.
We could piece together a story, a narrative that we could then understand.
***
The conversation about the Wadrans brought my attention back to one of the creatures we’ve met.
Jorkun.
From the Sun-Rings, I had a void mage bring the Erasian Sentinel Elite to Twinspace, where my clone stood at the heart of the new continent.
“It is very liberating to finally see cities and people on such a scale once more.” The sentinel said. Here, my clone would be able to use [Soul Forge] and attempt to replicate the golem’s unusual soul.
The work of another god was something I was eager to see.
Hoyia, my other sub-domain, stood and escorted the sentinel close to my gigantic self. The sentinel looked up, and my tree towered over the entire city, region, maybe even the entire continent. Some mages who teleported and attempted to create ‘satellite’ stations on Twinspace claimed that they could see my clone tree from low-Twinspace orbit.
“Make yourself comfortable. I was told it can be a fairly painful experience.” Hoyia said as the two walked to one of my [Forge Trees]. A conduit, a connection to my soul forge.
Jorkun walked in and immediately seemed to regret it. “It appears I am currently reexamining my earlier choices. This appears to be a far more thorough set up than I initially expected.”
Hoyia smiled. “Are you reconsidering?”
“I am, but never mind. I have agreed to what I agreed, and it is unbecoming for a sentinel to forgo one’s promise.”
***
The forge whirled to life as my tendrils wrapped around the giant golem. The golem was made of various materials, but these metals were not just any metals. They were part of the creature’s spiritual being, and they were flesh at the same time as they were metal.
It was surprisingly familiar and reminded me of the living weapon I’d made with Lausanne.
With the immense magnification of the forge, I zoomed into the soul, and saw the creature’s soul spring.
From the outside, it resembled a regular spring. The difference was that the stones that formed one’s spring were instead replaced with metallic ore of all kinds. Iron. Copper. Mithril. The more exotic variants of metal such as green iron and a few more types of coppers we’d only seen on the other worlds.
Yet this wasn’t Jorkun’s secret sauce. This was but the form of the levels and skills that Jorkun acquired or was ‘given’ since creation.
Still, since I promised to recreate Jorkun in another body, I quickly took a scan of the soul spring and noted down the details. I’d have to send the Order to gather the minerals and materials necessary after this, but there were no metals and irons outside my reach.
Now, I needed to look inside and underneath the soul spring and find the soul core.
Thus, I drew on more power and mana from the rest of my network of trees and pushed a little harder.
The soul resisted. Or attempted to.
But just like that, with a little push and adjustment to the type of spiritual vision, I could look into the spring. Underneath it all, I saw the beautiful rings that formed Jorkun’s soul, linked by seven spheres of different colors.
Seven colors, blue, black, red, yellow, green, white, and purple.
I mapped this to my soul forge and realized I was missing two of them.
White and Purple.
I reached out a little more, and wondered what created them.
[ Artificial inner soul sphere – White ]
[ Found close to the burning white suns, where the dead’s souls melt away ]
[ Artificial inner soul sphere – Purple ]
[ Found at the edges of the reality bubble, discarded by the souls of the dead where they finally meets and returns to the void ]
Just the very knowledge of what I was looking for unlocked a realm of possibilities, and interestingly, the system deemed fit to unlock new types of trees to harvest them.
[ New Titan type unlocked – The Gate Tree at the Edge of the Void unlocked ]
[ A massive independent tree capable of collecting soul fragments while floating in the edges of the reality bubble. Can also function as a floating base ]
[ New Titan type unlocked – The Burning Node unlocked ]
[ A massive independent tree capable to surviving the hottest of worlds, capable of turning heat and flames into energy, and also harvest soul fragments in such worlds ]
I was not done yet.
I peeked and took a good look at every bit of Jorkun’s soul, and knew I could replicate them. It was likely that given Jorkun’s high level of strength, a replica of Jorkun would also require a Titan Frame or a power source of similar power.
I wondered whether Eras or whoever created him left a trap within his soul, but from what I could see, there were none.
Still, I did not profess to know all the capabilities of a god like Eras, so Hoyia’s suspicions were warranted.
***
“Done?” Jorkun emerged from the soul forge, a little surprised. “I felt as if someone cut open my body and looked at me.”
“That is quite close.” I spoke, and the giant golem knelt respectfully.
“It thus feels somewhat familiar as if Eras itself had decided to mend me, though, I recall my god’s ways were more of a fiery reconstruction.”
“Each of us eventually achieves similar things, while walking on different paths.”
Hoyia sent Jorkun back to the Sun-Rings, and then, I sent my Order out to the world to search for the materials and also find the worlds that fulfilled such conditions.
It didn’t take long for me to find them at all.
The edge of the void was everywhere, even in the world of Treehome. However, because of my tremendous presence on Treehome, there were no souls ‘decaying’ at the edge of the void. I thus had to obtain these ‘decaying souls’ on worlds without my clone presence.
Thus, on one of the large, habitable outer rings of Gyroworld, a world that we had left mostly alone, I deployed my newly discovered Titan.
A ring-shaped tree, where the roots faced inwards, while the branches emerged from the ring as if they were all independent trees. It floated and could adjust its position slightly, and we moved it closer to the edge of the world’s bubble.
There, I witnessed these tiny, tiny motes of dead souls, at that final moment, shed a bit of itself in order to swim in the wider void sea. That final part disintegrated, but doing so released this tiny, tiny bit of almost invisible energy.
So tiny.
So small.
And still, it powered my soul forge.
[ Soul Forge : Purple unlocked ]
[ Souls and artificial spirits can now be reinforced to better withstand the void turbulence and the erosion of reality by void forces. Souls enhanced by the Soul Forge can also gain limited [Void] and [Curse] type abilities. ]
[ Artificial Soul Level cap increased to 90. Titan base level increased to level 120. ]
Nice.
“Well. Let’s go find where there is a burning white sun.”
