Tree of Aeons

235. Hedges at the Dark

Year 237

It began with a challenge.

Aeon wouldnt actually do it. Some of the nobles said. A statement echoed by many throughout the world. Those older, and have seen the more violent era were wise enough to know I would, and they tried their best to persuade those sitting on the fences. 

Its one of those cases where there really was a generation gap in thinking. Those who grew up during the first few decades of my rule would remember me doing what I needed to do. Those who grew up in the post-Freshka dominion would not, and so they highly doubt my resolve. Partly because a lot of the duties and battles became things that occurred without much fanfare. 

The wars were fought by Valthorns and the elites, using means that most young nobles would not see. 

Would Aeon actually do it? Some younger nobles met with Matreearch Hoyia after a regular sermon. The threat of capturing all the leaders.

Her wrinkled eyes seemed to smile. A priest does not doubt her Gods words. 

But- The nobles protested her answer, she nodded and began to walk away. 

Again. A priest does not doubt ones god. If Aeon does not act, it is because Aeon chooses to do so.

How would Aeon do it? How is it even-

The old matriarch just smiled. Look around the continent, young one.

***

It seems the nobles love to bother you, Hoyia. 

Hoyia smiled at the other old man, also dressed in the same robes. One of the fellow decarches of the Treeology, Patriarch Walfad. I hear youve been bothered just as much.

Do you remember the last time Aeon issued such a public threat? 

Hoyia laughed. No.

This is an entirely predicted response. 

To some extent, it worked. For a while. In the few months following the threats, the propaganda quieted down, and all the participants in the war seemed to just take the precautions. The war between the guilds and the Holy Empires of the four continents seemed to take more of a conventional approach. 

But it didnt last, and soon the participants all returned to their old ways. I repeated the threats again, and this time, had my void mages deliver little messages right to their doorstep. 

This spooked them, and I needed stronger deterrence. 

So, I escalated my response. I hauled up the propaganda masters of the empires, and also the warring merchant guilds with a contingent of void mages, where they came face to face with my main body directly. 

Where I then deployed the age old tactic of intimidation by sheer power. The weight of my presence deployed on these level 50s to 60s [Rumourmakers], [Plotters], [Spies] and [Rabble Rousers]. 

It made almost all of them pee in their pants. I was fairly impressed with those that could hold their own.

Do you know why you do what you do? I asked the few that could still stand. Even together, the level gap was so large that they couldnt. Some of them brought out their weapons, their items. They failed before my shields. 

Its interesting that ones soul was a weapon. The weight of our presence was a tangible thing that we could control. 

Weaponized. 

-I didnt know youre real. 

Its just sometimes horrifyingly annoying that people dont believe what they dont see. No, even when they see it, they just think youre not real.  

Really? Even those with Aeonic classes?

Those classes... they are super rare in the continental states! Thats not true. I could sense their presence. Those who believe in me, and thus gain the Aeonic classes are scattered on all the kingdoms, and even in the Mountainworld. 

I was silent, and the crowd of inciters shuffled uncomfortably. This power, to find and pick up the masterminds all over the world is something that tyrants would kill to have. All because of an army of artificial minds and trees monitoring and tracking everyone of any value. 

A power unimaginable to our world, but possible here. 

Power and magic shapes societies in different ways, magic and power adds power and tools for a tyrant to rule. A world like this, with this sort of system, is pretty much designed for tyrants. 

Every god is a tyrant. Every god imposes their will. 

The inciters were uncomfortable, and then, one of my spymasters emerged. Spymaster Varida had served us for decades, and he grinned at those present. 

Some of them recognised him. You! Youre that merchant!

Oh. I am a merchant in service of the great Aeon, tasked to haul you fools here. We are here to remind you, to play within the bounds set out for you.

Many knelt for forgiveness. Some fainted, again.

A tyrant flexing his strength on the weak. I felt disgusted at myself for doing so, but I remembered Lillies words.

Mortals need pain to remember. This was only normal. 

You will be released this time. But next time-

A portal opened, and the Lavaworld was clear for all to see. 

We intend to send those who break the rules of engagement to the demonworlds. And we mean it.

One of them stood, a priest of Gaya. Youre a demon god! You have the power to access the demonworlds!

Varida laughed. It seems you fail to see our perspective. Let us provide you with some... dreams.

The priest looked horrified. Mental reeducation. Perspective. I wish it didnt have to do so. But these folks escalated the conflict, and brought about the threats of a wider scale war. 

[Dream Academy]. 

The inciters were all subjected to a dream, where they saw the demonworlds, and the various conflicts with the demon king. 

Dreams of death and destruction. 

Blood. Suffering. Pain.

There will be no clean hands in the path I pursue.

I value choice. I value freedom. But with choice and freedom, comes consequences. 

This path to end the cycle requires me to make some sacrifices, and for the rest of the world, they will have to suffer under my laws. 

Every ruler imposes their will or lack thereof. Their power shapes the world. 

There are laws. You may not agree with it. Varida answered after the session. The inciters were all shaken. It was one thing to incite conflict and flee before suffering the consequences, it was another to directly experience suffering. But until you are powerful enough to overturn Aeons laws, you are subject to it.

There was not a whimper of protest. 

Remind your Emperors and Kings, that it will be their turn soon enough. You are free to go.

They all knelt in gratitude. 

I felt disgusted again, but this is the steps I must take. 

This is the blood on my hands. 

I accept them.

***

The propaganda shifted once these inciters were returned. A few were so mentally distraught they were unable to perform their duties any more. 

Regardless, a message was sent.

I could reach them all, and the Emperors truly feared my reach. The merchant kings were horrified to see what was done to their chief strategists, and the letters in their rooms made it clear they were next. If they were not paranoid before, now they were. Trees were chopped down and uprooted. Not a single plant in their chambers and castles. Even plant art or flower motifs were removed and outlawed, those who drew plant art were now suspects to be my worshippers. It was the greatest anti-plant movement, even if they dared not publicly arrest them.

One emperor even decreed that he shall have no vegetables or grain on his meals, demanding to consume only meat, fish and bread. 

But these days my trees can see a lot further, and my roots are a lot more discreet. My vines can sneak through the gaps in their stone castles easily, even those made with skill and enchantments. 

Enchanted castle walls. Enchanted floor panels. What was their skill and ability before the weight of my domain?

It was no more than a paper wall before a bulldozer.

I broke through them easily, and I did so publicly. 

It was an event unseen to the larger public, but the nobility all learned not to throw stones. 

The vassal wars continued, but this time, without the attempts to test my limits, and the scopes of engagement were now properly respected. To reinforce the laws of engagement, I commanded the Valtrians to set up branches in each of the continents, so that the continental kingdoms could benefit from the same protections afforded to the merchants. 

***

Its probably the least bad option. Prabu said as he ate. The heroes had their own preparations, mainly for the next demon invasion on Mountainworld, and according to Zhaanpu, they also needed to prepare for the demon king two years after that on the Threeworlds. Mountainworld already had rifts opening, and a few of the void mages there were deployed to perform scouting.

Kens age really was showing. His hair was now all white and some were falling off. He had the best medical and healing abilities we could offer, so despite his age, he could walk and move just fine. But age was the slow decay of the soul blueprint. A person aged both in body, and soul. It is why when the body is healed magically, it recreates or regenerates to the aged body, instead of the body from a long time ago. 

Least bad? Aeon could do much more. Take away the tools of war.

You know thats not practical. The archmage hero said. 

Ken smiled. I wouldve forced them to sign a treaty. Have some kind of Geneva Convention.

As if such a convention has teeth.

Eh, if it somehow gets absorbed into the system, it would.

Thats quite a fascinating idea. Prabu actually took the idea seriously. Since the system does respond to changes, and has the ability to create new classes, there must be a way to influence the system.

Youre going into wildly theoretical realms here. Ken laughed. But honestly, I think you heroes are unlikely to be able to affect the system. Its likely that domainholders who get such privilege.

Mountainworld was invaded by a type of harpy-demons, which highly suggested a flying type demon. Not the worst type of enemy to deal with, since we had a wide array of anti-air equipment. 

Thats a little heavy handed coming from the man that thought this was a religious fascist empire. Prabu smirked. All the heroes except Khefri were in the Mountainworld. Khefri instead returned to Threehome to prepare for their own set of demonic invasions. 

Ken choked on his drink, and then laughed. The hell with you.

The void mages had triangulated the location, so the strategy was the same as the last time. The heroes punched through the spawned demons to claim the arrival spot, and began to rig the place with bombs. 

In order to encourage the leveling of the level 130s and 140s and get their domains, all the domain holders did not participate in the preparation or the combat. Instead, the preparation was significantly performed by the 130s and 140s. 

But Roon, Johann and Alka were not far away, just in case. 

The locals had never seen so many high leveled individuals in one place, since many of these Valthorns were frequently never seen in public. They would either be fighting in dungeons, or working in some secret location, or battling it out on the Lavaworld. 

The heroes didnt mind. They were essentially the superheroes, and we were the supporting cast. Rigging the battlefield was our strength. 

***

White the preparation was on the way, a group of void mages snuck through the rifts to visit the world of the Harpy-demons. 

It was a world filled with soaring cliffs, covered in demon spawning pools. The demons had somehow adapted, their spawning pools in the form of large bird nests. These spawning pools on these cliffs then had bird-like eggs that hatched these harpy-demons. 

Harpy demons were the most common type of demons in this world, but they also had giant demonic birds that could manipulate fire and lightning, and giant demonic goats that could leap really high and with magical horns. The few champion types we encountered were larger variants of these three demonic types. 

The void mages raided a few of their rift gates, found their pit, placed a few listening devices, and then got out. 

We ruled out engaging the demon king on their home planet until we found out what exactly the countermeasures were. 

***

Some of Ednas knights on Mountainworld came equipped with specialized Anti-air swords. Edna, during the years since she gained her [knights quest] ability, consistently attempted the quests monsters to unlock all sorts of different weapons.

And so they had an assortment of strange, unusual swords, such as these Feather-buster Swords. She left them in her Knight Orders care, for use at their discretion. 

Along with that, the crafters and blacksmiths also built large ballistas, rapid fire arrow-machines, net throwers, harpoons.

The heroes didnt complain about our spawn camp strategy. 

It was also a good thing that the site of the invasion was already attacked by demons, so there were very few commoners and regular folks to notice the large amount of items and preparations we made. 

***

Snek had given up on the Ularans back on Ulara. His focus, for now, was the small group of young Ularans that went through training. About two hundred went through the whole rigmarole of training to be Valthorn tier, and honestly, of the two hundred, we found almost three quarters of them to be inadequate.

Only fifty matched the usual markers for progress to the level 60 to 80 range. 

It was a tough message for Snek to swallow, but eventually he understood that it was a game of numbers. 

If you hoped to create one hero, and the odds of that hero was one in a million, you really had to have a large pool to pick from.

The Ularans refused to respond to Sneks other proposals, at least, until he had something to show for it. 

All entirely valid points, and I was not keen on moving Ularans to other worlds, since I absolutely did not understand them as a society. At least the Canari lived on Treehome for long periods of time and I understood the forces and factors that mattered in their culture. 

I could, of course, use my ability to level up any single Ularan to level 60. But I was rather sure it would backfire. A poor, unfamiliar level 60 would only send the message that high levels didnt matter.

The Ularans must at least be able to slay their local demon champions on their own. Only then we could have a conversation on what and where they wanted to go with their civilization.

***

My worldhopping trio spent some time on another demon world that was filled with more regular demons. I dubbed it Regular Demonworld 2. 

Stella began noticing that the void portals she used to hop to nearby worlds consumed a lot more void mana than before. So they had to spend some time resting and recuperating, before they were ready to make another hop. 

The sensation on this next demonworld was unmistakable. 

They instantly felt as if they were bombarded with waves. It was like being on the beach when a storm was raging, the violent waves crashing onto the shore. 

The reason was simple. 

There was a burning wall of darkness, occupying the skies above and beyond this worlds sun. 

A wall in the void sea itself. 

I wondered whether this was a barrier meant to prevent incursions. 

Despite the wall, Stellas vision could see clearly and noticed something moving very slowly in the void sea, though it remained out of range. 

I need more time to observe whats happening here. Stella said as she immediately got to work. A wide array of monitoring equipment immediately emerged. I need to get a team here with me. Theres way too many things to understand here. 

Lumoof looked around. Alright, Ill get in touch with those back home, and get started on the accommodations. The barrier emitted a constant wave of energy that made life on the surface incredibly uncomfortable, and so Lumoof activated his avatars ability, and then constructed underground dwellings. 

There were various pre-made templates stored in their various spatial pouches. 

Edna shrugged. Ill handle defenses, then. Let me just go check out what sort of demons inhabit this place.

As it turned out, only champions. The presence of the void waves meant any lesser creature without adequate protection was boiled out of existence. 

Our attempts to discover whats happening encountered another wall. But we now know we are headed in the right path. 

Spaizzer

You might have noticed my first few chapters are gone. Well. I'm headed to Amazon on 28 of March 2023. First 41 chapters will be edited and published as book 1 :)