Tangled Webs

Tangled Webs

Year 111

I didnt think that the great protector of New Freeka lived. Harris said, as he arrived at the edges of my restored valley. He came with a group one hundred strong. The rumors of the survivors are true after all. Good decision, Commander.

A commander bowed next to him. They saw the field of normal green trees. Indeed. I wonder where they have hidden the past twenty years.Visitt novelbin(.)co/m for the latest updates

Perhaps they were biding their time.

Alright, lets stop, were in their territory now. Harris said.

Yes, your Highness. They nodded, and the group of hundred moved nimbly, they were clearly well trained and of a decent level. They didnt look like guards, and they were armed with clearly magical star mana-enchanted weapons.

Jura went to meet them. Jura, along with one hundred other survivors.

Stop. Who goes there. Jura and all were well-armed, but their equipment paled in comparison. In a straight fight, they wouldve lost easily. Still, they were alerted to these visitors, and they moved quickly.

This is the entourage of his Holiness, the Emperor Harris the First, Slayer of the Demon King, Supreme Ruler of the Harisan Empire, and you stand before the Emperor himself. It would be wise to kneel, peasant. One of the men said, he leaped ahead with his armor gleaming. Clearly showing off his enchanted gear.

Jura shrugged. He hasnt lost his distaste for royals. Greetings, Emperor Harris. You walk on the blessed lands of Aeon the Ageless, the great Tree Spirit and Defender of the Valley. We, the believers of the true spirit of the land, kneel before no King or Royal.

The man was quickly offended and wanted to attack, but then Harris stepped in. Greetings. Pardon my entourage, their zeal to glorify my name is but a minor crime. Truly, does Aeon still live?

Jura shrugged. Weve never doubted him. But it seemed that the outsiders have.

Harris laughed. Hes no longer a child now, a man in his late thirties, yet the glow of his heroic presence was unmistakable. He was equipped, from head to toe for war, every item he wielded radiated enormous amounts of star mana. It would not be out of place, if anyone assumed he was preparing to face the demon king.

What brings you here, Emperor?

Watch your words. One of Harriss lackeys interrupted.

Jura ignored it. Harris took a step forward. I stayed very briefly in New Freeka, before my fateful battle with the demon king. I still remember the great tree spirits massive wooden shields that blocked out the demons attack. In hindsight, I shouldve predicted that the Tree Spirit lived. I still have his familiar, after all.

Some of the lackeys were like, woah and wow. Goodness, the hero surrounded himself with sycophants?

Anyway, may I speak to the Tree Spirit? I have much to discuss with a being of such great power.

Jura paused, but I think he knew he wanted me to tell him what to do. I mentally agreed, and Jura looked at Harris. Certainly, but the Tree Spirit would not have all of you armed, and only you alone.

The lackeys were about to say something ridiculous again. If there are any accommodations or rest stops for my group to rest, that will be sufficient. Perhaps a hotel, if such institutions survived. Its fine for me to meet the Tree Spirit myself.

Unfortunately, 20 years without customers has been extremely hard on our hotels, so none of them remained. Jura joked. Lets come this way.

Jura led them into one of the tunnels, and from there, they arrived in the submerged valley. They looked quite surprised to see a massive tree with a burning top thats hidden underneath.

How did we miss this? Harris said quietly. But before the sycophants could answer, he cut them off. Rhetorical question.

Jura and the survivors watched the group carefully, and soon, they saw the beetles. But right before one of the sycophants wanted to attack the beetle, Harris stopped it.

Idiot. Can you use your brain and think why is there a beetle here? It must be the Trees servants. I see they havent changed much.

Oh? Jura asked. Youve seen them?

Yes. I have. Twenty over years ago. He said. So... where can I meet the Tree?

Ah, right this way. Could you request your men to wait over at that area? Jura pointed to a resting area thats made last year. Theres a lot of wooden furniture, a small blossoming collection of fruit juice stalls, and some barbeque stalls that roast the local meats, kind of like an al-fresco foodcourt.

Harris nodded, and the men obeyed. Only Jura and Harris walked to one of the larger Giant Attendant Trees, thats been converted to a meeting room. He sat alone inside.

Aeon will speak to you here. Jura nodded, and he shut the door. Inside the Giant Attendant Tree, theres only him.

He looked around, as if he was waiting for something. Hmmm...

Hello, Harris. I said.

Ah. Makes sense that a tree spirit is telepathic. The last time we met, all I got was a notification about the familiar, when Lady Mika spoke. Greetings, Aeon. Much has changed.

I was told you sought us out, once you found out of our existence.

Indeed. Harris sat. Let me cut to the chase, Aeon. We are four years away from the next demon king, maybe five years if we are lucky. Im trying to gather a force to defeat the next demon king as soon as it spawns, and your defensive abilities are something thats quite firmly etched in my mind. Would you help me?

Interesting offer, but I suppose you did not forget that Im an immobile tree?

Thats true. But, we could make artifacts that could temporarily store some of your abilities, as a single use skill. With a bit of star mana, and some special crystals, we could create a spell-matrix that could store some of your shields. In fact, Id also like to store that demonic suppression aura of yours. It would prove incredibly helpful in a battle against the demon king, at least it would help to weaken the lackeys for the rest of us.

Hmmm. Well, it seemed all the survivors are making plans for the demon king, so thats an encouraging sign. Certainly it is aligned to my own goals, so in this case, I should cooperate.

Is this the fate of people like me, repeating the same sentences over and over again? I feel like a broken record, and it should fucking annoy me. I should outsource it to an artificial soul, or train a bunch of people to repeat my principles. Kinda like a call center, or a visitor center that repeat the rules to a bunch of unruly tourists. Itll be even better if they get to do it with the same lack of enthusiasm and boredness.

Yeah.

I should outsource and automate it. Itll be the first treetree service and call center. Or maybe an artificial mind, tasked to repeat the same responses many, many times.

Hmm... not what I hoped itll be, but that will do. Harris frowned. So... where have you been hiding for the past 2 decades?

Me? I was asleep.

He laughed. Ah. And the survivors, they somehow made do in this... sunken valley?

Yes.

Never mind. Back to what I initially came for, once I return I will begin commissioning the construction of the spell-storage gems, and I will have them delivered. Let me know once youve finished infusing your skills in them.

How? I mean, Ive never seen such an item, I doubt they come with easily-understood manuals, and even if they did, they are usually made for humanoids, not trees.

Good point. Ill come over with it.

At this point, I remember the two heroes that are trapped. I pondered whether to let Harris know about them, and I considered the consequences, whether he would doubt or suspect that I have anything to do with it. Then I decided, it was probably best if I told him anyway. Maybe heroes get special rewards for freeing their friends souls. Harris. When I was asleep, I saw your friends.

My friends?

Simone and Victor. Their souls were captured by the demon king, and they are being corrupted.

Harriss face paled instantly. What?! Where? How? How do you know?

I dont know much, and I saw it in... a dream, but they are likely to be near where you all fought the demon king. Look for a red crystal, and break it.

He paused, and he paced the room in circles. I swore we cleared out the field in an attempt to clean up the corruption, but then again... it could be hidden underground. I must let Mirei and Gerrard know if this is true. It explains the weird dreams weve been having. They must have been trying to speak to us but couldnt get through.

Outside, Harriss entourage was getting restless. Its been almost two hours.

Im not able to free them, but maybe you could. Honestly, there really was no way I could reach the demon kings site, with all the sludge and corruption between us and them.

Harris nodded. On this matter, I will handle it. I will be in touch.

And with that, Harris and his entourage left. There wasnt much he could do about the [message] systems failure in this area, because the magical interference came from the vast fields of sludge, and the hero with the communication tower ability died a few years ago.

Theoretically, if I clear out enough of the sludge, magical interference and decay will drop and the [messaging] system will restore itself. I suppose on top of behaving like a polluting oil, it also emits some kind of magical wave that causes magic to break down over time. Very similar to hex, really.

He was here before, TreeTree? Jura asked.

Yeah. You dont recognise him?

He said he was mostly with Lady Mika, so he didnt really particularly stick in my mind. Jura said. Its hard to recognise people Ive met twenty years ago. He doesnt even look the same.

He looks largely the same to my spirit vision. But his glow is larger than before, I suppose its the levels. Hes not exactly hiding his presence. Or maybe he cant, he doesnt have the right skills.

Ah well. Thankfully his entourage were well behaved once he was out of sight. Theyre just putting up a show when he is around. Interestingly, they dont like each other all that much. I think they all work for different people.

His different wives, perhaps. I mentally chuckled. Is this the logical outcome of a harem? I mean, sure, the harem can get along, but once everyone has their own children with the same father, its just a source of conflict isnt it? Every mother wants to protect her own offspring, and so they compete for attention. Human nature makes it so that it is hard to be fair, and be seen and perceived as fair. Even if he acted fairly, it may appear as favoritism.

Jura laughed too. Well, thats why Im single. I spend too much time practicing.

-

My efforts to mix normal mana and star mana did help to improve its efficiency, but I still havent gotten a skill for it. Thanks to that, weve managed to expand the forest to cover a long strip of land that leads to one of the nearby towns. Ive decided to still leave a large patch of unconverted sludge between my forest and the town, just as a moat, but this entire process meant they only had to travel about 1 month through the sludge, and theyll arrive at the edges of that long forest.

Viewed from above, its like the forest extended one long ass vine to reach for the town.

Meanwhile, my research on the demonic hybrids also made some progress. Ive gained some more understanding of their nature, such as their bodies actually absorb ambient energies and convert it to their demonic mana. In a way, its... air-powered. They dont need sunlight, but they do need some water, and they absorb it from the air, which is why they can exist in multiple forms and colors. They also have like some kind of water-vision, which means they will often target non-native animals, like elves or humans, or even ordinary wildlife which has far higher water content than the demonic hybrids.

Are these demons like... some kind of reimagination of animals in a post-water scarcity world? Mars in its dying days?

Ive yet to connect to the wider network of these hybrid trees, fearing that they may overwhelm me. So far, all my attempted connections have been with standalone hybrid trees that have been isolated. They respond well to demonic mana, but when flooded with my normal mana they just freeze and enter hibernation. Still, I persisted, and I carved a segment where I experiment more on them.

Maybe these hybrid trees can act as a first line of filter, such that they weaken the demonic energys pressure at the edges. Something like an absorbent or suspension, having a transitory species of trees that can act as a medium between the two varying ecologies. Maybe I can engineer something.

A new plant species that straddle the two worlds. At that very thought, I felt a huge repulsion, of disgust from the rest of my network of trees. These feelings, they come from the native trees, and they despised that thought.

Hah! Natives. Im a foreigner, outworlder too! Why do you not reject me then?

Besides, plants certainly evolve in my world, these hybrids are clearly an adaptation, an evolution in this world. Why exclude these newcomers?

Spaizzer

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoy the chapter :)