Tree of Aeons (an Isekai Story)

259. Tree heart-to-heart

Year 259 

11 Years to Impact

Some of the heroes wanted to let Ken go, but ultimately, I saw Ken as leverage. It was pathetic, and sad, but I could not afford the heroes to fracture at this time. I needed the heroes to help me get through my Comet problem. Chung absolutely refused to let him die, and insisted that I keep him alive.

He threatened to quit from all combat engagements if I allowed Ken to die. 

I’ve always had a rather tense relationship with the archer hero, but this sort of blackmail only confirmed my feelings. Khefri, the woman that Chung had a crush on, found his threat so repulsive that the two had an argument. 

“You’re a dickhead.” Khefri cursed. “Why do I only attract people that either want my power, or just outright horrible people.”

Chung tried his best to downplay the severity of the threat. “Khefri, come on, I’m just asking Aeon to keep Ken alive.”

“I’ve had idiots on Threeworlds trying to sabotage the demon king preparations, and here you are flinging threats like this around, threatening Aeon not to participate in battles against the demon king. What does that make me? I’m an idiot for thinking this hero-league thing could work, if it’s composed of selfish assholes like you. You immature foolish prick.”

“Khefri-”

The scorpionoid lady refused to talk to him, and went back to Threeworlds to continue the preparations. 

After thinking about it, I decided I was in no position to refuse Chung’s request, and it only made Ken mad as hell. He understood, but he was mad.

“You’re a horrible person, Aeon.” Ken cursed. “You said you’d like to let me die.”

I felt a little shit doing this to him, but at this point, I’d rather offend Ken than the heroes. “I will. Later.”

He understood, of course. He wasn’t stupid and saw the writing on the wall. “You just want them to help you destroy the Comet.”

My non-response was all the confirmation he needed.

“To think that at this point, I’m fucking leverage. I hate you, Aeon. Don’t do this to me.”

“There are sacrifices I need to make, to achieve the goals. Goals that your friends agree with. I will throw you under the bus, if I have to. Unfortunately, your friend has forced me to do so.” 

“The demonic mana’s gotten to you.” Ken cursed. I know it didn’t, but it didn’t change that some people would think that way.

***

Demons. What is a demon? I believe I am at the point where it is important to differentiate between being a demon, and being made from demonic stuff. 

Or is this me trying to defend my own decisions? Has using demonic mana influenced me already?

I asked Patreeck, and my artificial minds to give myself a scan, and wondered whether it was even possible to duplicate a copy of my thought process, such that I could remember who I was. THey could copy my memories, but my thought process was very much linked to my soul, and essentially, I’d have to duplicate my soul. 

Not possible.

Demons. What are they? 

It’s actually quite hard to answer the question, but we know that they seek to assimilate worlds, and have captured gods to do so. Or at least, their divine energy. They have advanced portal and void technologies, and have the capability to construct superstructures to make the most of them. 

It seems to me that the demons themselves can’t really answer that question, because my roots, made of demonic-energy and materials, moved unobstructed through the Comet.

My beetle moved unharmed. 

We walked and moved among demons, and they did not react to our presence. We don’t know how long this would last, but we have to move quickly. 

Before the demons figure out there is a pretender among them. 

Digging deeper, and deeper, while the time continues to tick. Next year, the Comet will briefly approach Lavaworld. 

If there’s an opportunity to launch an attack, that’s one of my best chances. I could simultaneously attack from the surface, and from my clone, while trying to sneak some demonic-mana beetles, trees and roots into the very depths of the Comet. 

My roots were naturally sensitive to the rocky-crystalline structure around us, and it was easiest for my roots to push deeper through the gaps, where different types of rock-crystals meet. I had presumed that the rock-structure would get more coherent as we went deeper, but the presence of imperfections in the comet’s structure reinforced our earlier theory that this rock was a cobbled mess. 

***

“Just assume for a moment. What if you could have your own demon swarm? One that you controlled?” The repulsive idea came from Alka. Despite his own reservations about the demonic mana earlier, as time went on, he somehow came out with a wild idea.

It was the magical equivalent of creating a mutant supervirus, one where I already have the cure, and have a built in kill switch. The dangers of such a weapon was so off the charts that I couldn’t even contemplate the outcome should it out-evolve its inbuilt kill switches. 

“If we could reliably control it, it’s no different from your swarm of beetles.” 

“But we can’t.” I had no confidence we could control our own swarm. I wasn’t so conceited as the Terrans to think we could manipulate our own autonomous swarm. The beasts we seek to control could consume gods, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it could some day turn against me. “I wouldn’t even-”

The hunger within the demon kings, that intent to corrupt and consume from the Comet was enough evidence that demonic creatures have an inbuilt bias towards consumption and assimilation.

But my chief scientist was not one to shy away from dangerous thoughts. It was because of his crazy, outright dangerous thoughts that he could design outlandish massive bombs. There are times, especially with Alka, that the line between genius and madness is incredibly, incredibly thin and so porous. 

Just a bit too far, and we’d be making our own demons-

“You’re already created your first demon, Aeon.” My beetles cracked through the last of the layers, We dug for an entire year, and eventually cracked through one of the deepest layers of the Comet.

There, we found the heart of the Comet, wrapped in a tangle of demonic sludge and tentacles, and its many guardians. 

I witnessed, through my demonic roots, the full glory of the Demon Comet’s Core, and felt the presence of power. 

One, a demon king, that took the form of a rocky octopus with way more than eight tentacles. Perhaps a multipus would be more appropriate. It didn’t take much for me to realize this demon king was strong, because I could feel it’s throbbing aura pressing around it. 

Then, a core. 

An actual planetary core covered in demonic structures and materials. 

I looked at this section again, through my magical vision and noticed the flow of demonic mana. The core was already mostly corrupted by the demons such that it generated large quantities of demonic mana.

Was this how demons generate even more demonic mana? 

They could infest a core and make it do something else?

Like a virus?

They could repurpose planet cores into a womb for the demon king. They could repurpose planet cores to produce demonic mana. What else could they do with it?

But-

There was a weakness we immediately spotted. 

“Can we blow up the core?” 

This was our initial plan. Fracture the core, or disrupt the energy flows such that the magic that held such a large structure together crumbled.

My domain holders rushed to make the computations. It took days, but we all gathered once more to go through the data. We met in a hall decorated with old, dried timber products.

“May not be enough.” Alka frowned. “And we don’t have a way to move such a large number of things without the demons noticing. It’s likely that some of the bombs may trigger-”

Alka had a strange epiphany, as he looked at the cracked shapes in some of the older wood.

“-Unless we could create fault lines in the core.”

“Aeon- do you think the beetle could excavate bits and pieces of the Core without the demons noticing? Create points of weaknesses along the core that would trigger a full fracture once we blow it up.”

“Possible.” It was the equivalent of termites biting away at a building’s foundation for centuries- and then, all it took was a sudden shockwave to cause it all come crashing down.

***

My demonic beetles set out to work, the demons did not notice our presence, and they even snuck around the Demon King Multipus without raising its’ attention. It didn’t seem awake, or alert, as if it was hibernating. 

We’ve reengineered demonic beetles such that they were designed for digging and removing dirt, and set out to dig. We approached the demon-possessed core, and got to work.

The core did not resist. Nor did it seem to mind beetles slowly moving bits and pieces of their hard rock. The Core was made of the same materials as the one I possessed from Cometworld, and also the other samples from Houndworld and Tropicsworld. 

Just that this one had a far larger ratio of demonic energy.

We tweaked the materials a little, so that my beetles found it easier to dig. 

The Demon King continued to sleep, and my roots began to touch it-

I immediately felt the presence of something within the Core. “Shit.” I’ve known that each Core contains a Will. 

“-You are not these things. You come from another world.” The Demon Comet’s core spoke. “Yet- you are coated in their energies. What are you?”

I wasn’t sure whether I should be honest, or should lie. If it was hostile and subservient to the demons, I’d immediately lose my cover. If it was friendly, then I could help it.

I wasn’t sure how to answer, and immediately sought out help. I tried to contact the Will of Treehome, and the Will of Tropicsworld-

Whether they could see-

Nothing.

I got nothing. 

I went to my domain holders, and at this point, it could go either way. I’m not sure if waiting too long would-

“Let’s go with honesty.” Lumoof suggested in the end.

So, I transmitted my response through my demonic root. “Someone trying to stop this rock from crashing into our world.”

“-Invaders.” I felt my heart drop. Shit. 

Immediately, I could feel contamination. The voice I was speaking with was laced with demonic energy. The entire demonic Comet’s Core shook, as I felt the Demon King Multipus rouse from its slumber. Things have not been going well for me this time. 

There was really no point to hold back, at this time, so I spawned even more beetles-

Here, in the depth of the Comet’s Core, the mana from the core was extremely dense, but clearly, the demons have no way of separating demons from each other. 

“What the fuck.” I cursed, as I watched the awakened Demon King crush their own demons as well as my demonic beetles. It didn’t care. It began to destroy everything. Tentacles the size of buildings slammed into the ground with such force that the rocks cracked. 

“This could be a strategy!” Lumoof shouted. “It can’t identify friend or foe. So it can only attack everything that isn’t itself.”

I realized that was true, and my demonic roots expanded as fast as I could push them. I drew even more demonic mana from ever larger demonic Giant Attendant Tree farms. 

I know I shouldn’t.

But there was no choice. “Watch me and stop me  if I do anything strange.” I pulled even more demonic mana,  felt a strange sensation nagging in my mind, and forces pushing back against it. 

Patreeck voiced his concern immediately. “Master, we need more minds to watch for unusual behavior from the demonic mana. You’re pulling too much mana from Lavaworld-”

I spawned more. But I needed more demonic mana to sustain my expanded roots, as the demon king’s gigantic tentacles smashed into the ground around us. 

The core itself was unharmed-

“Could we confuse the demon king?” Lumoof entered avatar mode, and I felt some of his thoughts . “Make it seem as if the Core is part of us?”

“We- we could try.” 

I injected my demonic mana into the rocks and stones- my roots and vines constantly trying to spread further and deeper into the core, and I felt more of the Core’s will make contact with mine.

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[Domain has blocked attempted intrusion]

[...]

I felt my domain block intrusions repeatedly, but at this point, all I could do was flood more demonic mana into the demon’s core. The gigantic tentacle king slammed it’s massive limbs on the core structure, and more of them cracked.

It did so repeatedly, but the demon’s core somehow caught on to my plot, as the core suddenly began to emit a constant wave of demonic mana, and it formed a shield around itself. I tried to inject my demonic mana through that barrier of demonic mana, and it didn’t get through. 

My advance deeper into the core was halted. For now. I immediately tried to mimic the core’s demonic mana signatures. It was still subtly different, but somehow, it seemed to have fooled the demon king.

The demon king continued to smash everywhere for a bit more, and then it stopped. 

It just sat motionless for a few days, as if trying to pay attention to the mana flows around it. It was all demonic mana. Mine, and the demon comet’s cores. 

But the damage was done. The demon comet’s core was now littered with huge cracks from the demon king. 

I took that time to observe my surroundings. I’ve gotten quite good at blending my demonic mana with that of the surroundings.

“Intruder.”

But I had also gotten quite deep into the core.

“-destroy you.” 

“-help me.” The voice that got through was distorted. A whisper. Is there a will underneath that, despite the control of the demon king?

***