Seeing heroes, and interlude 3: Demon King Battle

Seeing heroes, and interlude 3: Demon King Battle

Eventually, the heroes came to a compromise. Meelas argument sort of won.

Here goes. Meela dips in. The rest of the heroes look on, some with a rather concerned expression.

Alexis and the fan lady activate some kind of magical ability, and Meela glows somewhat.

Insurance. Anything unnatural, we go in. The mage explains, and I deduce its some kind of magical short-range teleportation ability.

Max shakes his head, If this Tree saved Meelas life, and Meela has done this before, I really do not see why such precautions are necessary.

Hendry puts his hand on Max. Yes. Yes he did. But our gift, our burden must be carefully guarded, and not put under the knife, or risk getting stolen. Precautions are necessary.

I sigh These reincarnators are a pain, but whatever. Im not stealing it. Im just having a look at it.

Meela shakes her head. You guys, stop being paranoid. I want to do this, and we voted. Ill be fine. I can dip in a pool.

One of the heroes poke in. I dont see the issue too. Our ability comes from the gods, and I highly doubt it can be easily stolen or copied or whatever. Just because you can see the schematics does not mean you have the tools and materials to create a machine.

Well, he has a very good point.

Meelas fully submerged, and the roots and vines attach itself to her. And I could sense the data flowing into me, so I start to peek into her body.

What is most immediately obvious, is that the two waterfalls from the aether that once pour normal clear water into the lake of her soul, is now pouring a sparkly liquid, and it sparkles with starlight. I think this is what they refer to as, star mana.

The black whirlpool also disappeared, and so the water that flows down into the rest of her body is strong, thick like that of a raging river. That starlight water pours and feeds every part of her body, and enhances her bodys strength even more than before. Its kinda like those athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, really, only the change in muscle strength and texture is permanent.

The star-mana is the fuel that powers their tremendous destructive ability, and their exceptionally large and powerful soul is the engine, and the body is the vehicle.

Comparing Jura, Laufen to Meela, it is obvious to me that in every where, Meelas soul is just huge, and as a result, their displayed potential is just absurd.

Is it done yet? Hendry asks, its about an hour in. They seem really anxious, but perhaps they are unaware how long medical procedures actually take. But I think its enough for me to gather all the data I need.

Yes. The hatch opens, and Meela steps out. She shakes her body abit, and yawns.

That was a very pleasant nap. I felt like your healing energies were all inside me! Meela laughs, and she looks at her worried teammates, See. I am fine!

Alexis and Max both casts some kind of spell and then nod. Yeah, shes fine.

Max then looks up to the Tree, Apologies for our reservations. Hope you keep whatever you discovered a secret.

Honestly, all I discovered is your souls are exceptionally large, you have huge amounts of star mana pouring into your body, and the huge natural mana from your soul and the star mana changes your body into anti-demon superhumans.

All the heroes pause.

Really, thats it.

Star mana? Alexis pauses, and then she blinks. Hmm that makes sense.

What? The others turn and look at Alexis, the groups wizard.

I mean, it explains why we have such success against demons. Star mana is rare, known to be naturally effective against demons who are extraterrestrial in nature and yet our body overflows with it. It, it never occured to me that the special mana that we all get access to is just star mana. it should have been obvious, how our recent abilities have star-like names.

Alexis then sits in one of the many root-benches in the lab.

Did you see our gifts?

Hmm, I cant identify which one is a gift without comparing to another body. Its from your differences that I know what is what, else I have to assume all that is the same is the norm for everyone.

Hmm. That is true. You need a control or reference to interpret the results. Alexis rubs her chin.

Alexis? Hendry walks over.

Hmm.. nothing. Alexis then walks out of the lab, and eventually all the heroes follow.

Once they are out, I turn my attention towards digesting the new data I possess, now stored like a medical record.

Indeed, I am not lying when I do not know where the divine gift is, and comparing two reincarnators with different gifts would be one of the easier ways to find them, since one would naturally expect different gifts to appear and manifest differently in ones soul.

The heroes, went back to their camp. Using some kind of magic they create a magical transportable inn that allows them to live in comfort, even whilst travelling. Ah, such a magic would put hotels and inns everywhere out of business, but the hospitality business can count on their lucky stars, as such magic is so far exclusive to heroes.

Later that night, Meela came over again.

Hey Tree Spirit. I, I just want to apologise for my teams behavior. We, we tend to behave like that, its all about us, and not anyone else. Everything just to further our own aims of beating the demons.

If I could nod I would. On hindsight, the heroes are pretty asshole-ish.

You saved my life, our lives, and helped us alot. So I think we owe it to you, and I am really unhappy with what my team did. Even Hendry and Alexis are suspicious, and I.. I dont know why.

Meela pauses and sits on one of my many roots. Some of them are flat on top now, to serve as tables and benches.

Can I make a deal with you? Once we beat the demon king, Ill come back and help you, even if I am not as magically clever as Alexis.

Hmmm, Im not sure whether that sort of help is useful, but if I had to ask...

Tree Spirit, do you have any requests?

Hmm, Accept my familiar. I gain experience if they die, so in many ways that helps me. In fact, ask everyone to take a familiar, thatll be enough. These heroes are going to fight more demons in the days after this, might as well profit out of it.

Meela nods, Oh that is fine. Give me one first, and I can ask the rest.

I activate the familiar contract, and Meela accepts. She grins. Ooh it's like a summon.

The next morning, Meela shows off her new familiar abilities to the heroes, and about half of them do end up accepting a familiar from me. The other half have their reservations, though. Oh well, better than nothing. Six heroes with familiars, and five without.

They left that afternoon. Perhaps it is better that way.

Experience from the demon champion battle

[You are now level 110. (+6 levels)]

[Secret hideout : biolab upgraded.]

[Wood shield upgraded. Steelwood barrier obtained]

[Constrict significantly upgraded]

[Absorption significantly upgraded]

[Obtained Tree ability : Subsidiary Tree]

[Customisable branches options expanded]

---

The Heroes POV. (Alexis)

[Fireform]

My body of fire burns up the tiny rock needles. And a few other rocks that fly my way.

The other heroes have their own ways of protecting themselves. Freyas with her wind magic is able to surround herself with a constant layer of magically enchanted high-speed winds that shred the needles.

Help! I turn to look at our gunner. A massive tentacle is trying to crush him.

[Holy Thunderstrike] A thunder zaps the tentacle, paralysing it for a split second, but enough to let him escape.

Maxs sword glows with holy magic, and he slashes the tentacle. It explodes, and the demon kings blood get everywhere.

I thought they normally look like demons.

Well, thats what the record says. But this demon king has been doing strange things from the start, it has elemental hybrids!

Hendry creates a huge barrier, and we take this moment to enter our [starlight armor] form.

The demon king roars, its tentacles and legs flail repeatedly at the barrier. It cracks, and it cracks quickly.

Will we make it? I wonder as we chant, the cracks appearing throughout the barrier.

Hendry nods.

A flash of light. The armor is done, and the barrier explodes, and a white flame burns the tentacles close to the barrier. But still, the demon king looks relatively unharmed.

The demon kings spider-leg stab Max in the stomach. UGH!

MAX! Meelas light sword cuts the spider-leg off, but a stab is a stab. Hes hurt.

Maxs blood drips onto his sword, and he enters a frenzy. He climbs onto the demon kings spider leg and rushes forward.

WE should get on the body!

Good point. There might be a heart somewhere we can destroy!

The fan lady calls the rest of us to her, and she sweeps a fan. And a tunnel of wind appears, carrying us to the body of the demon king. The castle itself.

And the fortress is like a disneyland turned into a demonic playhouse. Tentacles everywhere, each house covered with eyes, and giant spiders roam the fortress.

Should we just blow up this entire structure?

We could.

And we start attacking everything. The floor, the buildings, everything we see. The tentacles and giant spiders try to attack us, but it doesnt do much.

We eventually bore a hole right into the fortress itself, and we found what we wanted. One of the many hearts of the demon king. Max, in his fury, slashes it, and it blows up, and tonnes of its black blood splash everywhere.

One.

An army of human-sized demon knight appears as we look for the next heart, easily a thousand of them, accompanied by spiders. They are strong, but in our starlight form we crush them easily.

We found the next heart in a tall spire, and it is our gunner who blows it up.

The third heart is hidden in one of the many buildings. The fourth in a corrupted church, and the fifth in a barracks.

Each time, more and more demons try to stop us.

How many hearts are there?

Nine?

We found the sixth and seventh hidden in another set of buildings.

The demon king starts to lose ability to fly, and starts to crash onto the ground. More demon knights and demon champions try to stop us, but we destroy them easily.

The eighth heart is in what looks like a market, and then, the ninth heart is in what appears to be a corrupted garden.

Thats it?

At this point, we are all drenched in blood and whatever gunk the demon king is made of.

The fortress crashes onto the ground, yet the tentacles are still attacking us. But unlike before, their attacks seems to be blind flailing.

Then, the entire thing starts to shake. All the remnants of the demon kings hearts start to float out of their remains to pool together into a black ball midair.

Meela laughs. This is like a video game. Its not even its final form!

The tentacles, the eyes, the legs, they all melt into a black liquid that merges with the black ball. We throw every ranged attack at it, and we manage to incinerate some of the black liquid away.

And then an eyeball appears on a black ball. An evil eye?

The next form is a massive eye. And it lets out a wave-ray of destruction.

Max and Hendry join together to put up a barrier, but that ray destroys it instantly. And then starts to burn us. Unlike before, its not a focused beam, but more of a shining light, and everything that is lit by that light burns.

Ahhhh. We attack it, and cuts appear in its body. Yet it seems to be a partial liquid form that seems to nullify our attacks.

Meela uses a special ability and manages to jump onto it. And she stabs it repeatedly with her two swords.

The eye closes, and tries to turn and twirl repeatedly, but the Meelas magical swords are deeply embedded into its body, and sticks even with its liquid forms. Still, it tries to shake her off, Meela flings around like a ragdoll.

Shes fine though, and she shouts.

Theres something hard deep inside. I think we need to get it!

That is the cue we needed, and our gunner takes out a special harpoon like weapon. It shoots a chained-harpoon and stabs into the eye. I wince a little at the imagery.

And he channels a kind of energy through the chain into the eye, and it blows up. Meela thankfully manages to jump away in time.

A round red crystal.

And it pulses.

And pulses.

And it starts to glow.

Oh fuck its going to explode.

All of us huddle together, and activate all the defensive and barrier spells we have at our disposal.

It then blows up with the strength of a huge hydrogen bomb.

[Demon King Andraas has been slain]