Countree-Offensive

Countree-Offensive

Year 127

Activating the hero-item, the Holy Cannon of Alantara! The templars shouted. The hero item itself was a small item, but to power it, they had to build a massive array of crystals and mana-storage items. The array was ten times larger than the hero-item itself, and that single use broke most of the crystals.

The cannon was really just a small shotgun shaped item. Probably one of the heroes was a gunner or something when they made it.

The item glowed, and woosh a huge blast of energy shot out towards the walls.

I activated 5 [Steelwood Barrier]. Is this power stronger than the demonic supercannons long range attacks? It easily tore through my 5 barriers, and then defensive shields that were already there. Then, that entire section of reinforced wall exploded.

Wow. I was impressed. The heros item really made my wall look like cardboard. So, in short, the demons attacks had previously failed to break through my defenses because of my innate anti-demonic properties. Against the heros items, Im blocking it entirely based on stats and levels, and on that front, its still not enough.

Does this mean if Harris or Mirei tried to kill me, they could have succeeded? From this incident alone, I think the answer is yes. They could. They really could.

So, I decided I needed an insurance of some kind.

Like the grass that regularly regrows after fires scorched the lands, like the plants of the floodplains that respawn after every flood, I decided to extend my roots deep underground. As deep as I possibly could.

Then, I put my [Tree-heart] there. Even if they chop off my entire tree, as long as my [tree-heart] survived deep underground, I believe I can survive. I also added a big batch of [tuberous storage] around my tree-heart, like a seed, I have the nutrients and energy from the storage potatoes to respawn should I need to.

They wont be using that for a while. Edna said.

But we dont know what else they will use. Faris said, as the crusaders charged at the hole. The forces quickly retreated to the next defensive point. The temples have a lot of inherited items.

But each use is a waste. Edna frowned. Why didnt they use such items against the demons?

Im sure they did. They just have a lot of it.

Maybe since the heroes were around, they didnt see why they needed to use it, unless they were really desperate.

Since the strategy for this entire plan was to delay the enemy as long as possible, there were numerous layers of walls made.

Jura came and mentioned his concern. Since the temples are willing to use heroic items, its possible they may attempt to use an elite force, armed with heroic items to attack you directly.

I agree. Of course. There are probably heroic-grade teleportation items, or heroic-grade stealth items that they can use to attack me directly. The problem, of course, is that their users probably cant fully activate their abilities. Which is why the most heroic items are defensive in nature, because they needed large magical formations and runes to channel power to the heroic items.

Unless, there are heroic-grade batteries. Which makes a lot of sense.

> Already? I had hoped this war would last until the next demon king. <

> Surely the older races would remember. <

> It probably is. <

Lilies, again with odd commentaries. I dont recall whether there are any long wars in this world, not any more, at least. Unless, that war is invisible?

> Your long wars... is it the demons and the gods? <

Maybe? Thats a yes, dammit.

The Crusaders advanced a little.

My forces slowly moved into place. Ive had tunnels ready, and Ive secretly occupied various little forests near the port cities. Maybe they have a heroic item able to detect me? But still, I wanted to drag it out. See what exactly these temples are able to bring to the battlefield.

-

This sucks. Edna complained. I dont like being forced to retreat.

Her compatriots just rolled their eyes. The crusaders revealed another hero-grade item. A large bow. They brought an army of mages along to create a runic formation on the ground, and they shot it again.

This time, I used 10 [steelwood barriers]. It still tore through all of them, but at least, it didnt cause my walls to explode. All it did was blast a big hole in the wall.

So the magical number is around 10? Or maybe 20?

Unless you have a solution for the hero-grade items...

-

Master. Research on assassin beetles completed. We are working on the flying beetles now. Horns updated, and I quickly started transforming my beetles into their assassin forms. They are smaller, leaner, but with sharp limbs and spikes. They also have poison, and can shoot out a poison horn.

Great!

Another piece to the puzzle.

Eventually, the 2nd layer of walls fell, and the forces retreated. At this point, Jasmine quickly updated that morale was falling, and we needed a small victory to keep the stalemate going. So, the temple used the Holy Cannon of Alantara again, this time at a fort. It blasted the forts walls and a segment to smithereens.

But it was a ruse. Using [root tunnels], I had the army sneak around them, and then, with my new assassin beetles, rushed in for the kill. I would seize the Holy Cannon of Alantara for myself. There would be no survivors.

It was chaos. Perhaps, a slaughter too. 50,000 assassin beetles appeared from the ground, together with the Valthorns and the regular armies. A proper counter-attack.

The enemy died, and now, I have the Cannon. In the chaos, the commander was able to send a distress signal.

This is Commander of the Vanguard force, were being attacked by new beetle types! The Cannon is lost. The cannon is lost! A root strike dismembered him.

-

The General was a day away, and he got the message. Hmmm. New beetle types. I have an ominous feeling.

Well, you should, mister General. Youre stretching out your supply lines, spreading your men thinner, and when I strike, you wont be able to rush back and save your port cities.

Letting the crusaders push further in was an intentional plot to spread out their men and their elite forces. Even if it seemed like we were losing, only Jura was aware that something was up.

When is Aeon going to bring out his superweapon? The war council asked. The new beetles, are those the superweapons?

Jura nodded. I believe thats the first of the many weapons Aeon plans to unleash.

The next weapon are the spiders. I wanted assassin spiders to take control of the cities. The first time the enemy would see it, would be when I attack the cities.

Jasmine noted that our morale quickly improved as we have secured the hero-item.

The Generals gathered his advisors. A priest was present, and he read out the statement. The temple has authorised use of more hero-items. Ah. Looks like the temple is really going for it, but the fact that their ability to power the hero items relies on large arrays means they are so obvious when they are about to be used.

Could a small assassin group really sneak in with it? Unless they build the array on site... or use an existing array.

But I didnt want to drag it too long. I have been observing them when they used the hero-items, and now that I have claimed their hero item, I turned it against them. My mastery of runes meant I too, can quickly set up an array, and activated the Holy Cannon of Alantara against the enemy force.

One blast, it drained all the runes, and broke some of the stones and ground that channeled the power. The enemy retreated. That one attack killed probably a few thousand, and its not even its full power.

I decided to try channelling my existing star mana into it. The hero-item drained all my star mana easily, and its so greedy! After it used up all my star mana, it wanted more, and the item easily used up my normal mana too!

Did the heroes always have so much star mana? Howd they keep their weapons working?

Master, based on my surveillance of the heroes, they have approximately 500,000 to 800,000 star mana each. Jasmine commented, she pulled on her past records of conversations between Harris, Mirei and Gerrard.

I have 300. No wonder the hero-items just drained my star mana like I had nothing. They must be using at least 1,000-2,000 star mana to power the hero items each time. The weapon was now partially charged, and I used it on one of the crusading armies. The explosion was massive, far larger than what it was when powered by regular mana, and still it wiped a quarter of that army. Probably 10 to 20 thousand just died instantly. The enemy panicked and then quickly retreated.

Im sorry, but death is what it is. I even felt their souls enter my main tree.

But I only regenerate star mana by a pitiful amount every day. That meant I couldnt even use the heros item if I wanted to. My full 300 star mana takes an entire 2 months to regenerate, so the weapon can be used once every two months to this level of strength. So its not as if I could just use the cannon like a machine gun.

Despite the enormous destruction caused by the hero-Cannon, Im fairly certain this wasnt its full strength. Also, the hero-items used by the temples, and all the various nobles are inferior to pure hero items, in the sense that they have been made to also work with regular mana. True hero-items can only be operated with star mana, and are useless to everyone else. Those pure star-mana hero items are superior in output and strength.

-

The army regained a bit of our lost ground, and we managed to retake the outermost walls of the Freshlands.

How long more till we research the next upgrade for the assassin beetles?

A month, master. The assassin beetles have not been revealed to our enemies, yet. At least, I hoped that they were not detected.

The tunnels and my bases next to the 6 port cities continue to expand. Ive researched tunneler beetles, and have also commenced research on more types of spiders. The beetles made additional tunnels into the port cities, and I wonder whether the enemy realised it by now. I could tell some of them felt something, at least.

The mayor of one of the port towns kept sending miners to dig the ground. He said he felt theres an infestation or something, but he wasnt sure. I had to order the beetles to hastily collapse the tunnels before they were detected.

Surely, that mayor couldnt be the only one that possessed such skills. In fact, some of the military leaders we observed clearly had the skill, but they just didnt react to it.

I cant help shake off this feeling that were all walking into a big trap. A commander said to a fellow captain. Its a feeling thats been nagging at me since I landed in this city.

Seasickness.

I feel like its my skill.

Youve had it since the day you landed, and its been a good three months since then.

Its funny that one of the ways to beat such alarm skills, is to keep scaring them until they stop treating it seriously. Kinda like training ones body to ignore their daily morning alarm.

If its something, it shouldve happened. The other captain just shrugged. Were doing okay. The heretics are not making progress.

That was just one of the many captains that was eventually lulled into a sense of complacency. For the rest of the year, there were smaller battles, but I was still waiting for more beetle upgrades. I wanted my conquest of the six port cities to be simultaneous and decisive. I wanted to break the crusaders once, and end it.

Aeon, there should be another 400,000 soldiers arriving on our continent. Kavio and the war council reported. Ah, this was in addition to the 500,000 to 600,000 soldiers that were already deployed across the entire battlefront?

I wondered why the war doctrine in this world still insisted on throwing numbers at an enemy at first, but eventually I got it. In terms of actual combat, sure, an army of high leveled individuals can do way more damage than an army of lower leveled conscripts, but I increasingly believe the temples are intentionally hoping that from a large pool of low levelled individuals, some gems emerge. Its an interesting tactic, to sieve the gems from the scrap, they send these large numbers to their possible deaths.

The Freshlands own defensive army is about 300,000 strong, conscripted from the massive population of the Freshlands. Yet, that excluded my million-strong beetle and spider army. There are various smaller city-states that decided to side with me, and they volunteered in total, another 60,000 fighters.

And so, they send more to their doom.

They would outnumber us 3-to-1 once they land. I believe they may try a decisive strike once they land, to minimise the load on their logistics. One of the hired [Generals] advised. Its funny and rather strange to have [generals] on my side now, but Im not complaining. They would try this path, I believe. The general pointed to one of the entrances into the Freshlands. Or force a way through this segment of the Rottedlands.

Its a large army, and may end up in a lot of bloodshed. A situation Id like to avoid, if I can.

I wondered whether I should pull my attack at the moment when they land, or after? What is their supply situation? Is their food and accommodation going to arrive before the actual army of 400,000?

If they could keep themselves calm and hold the entire force together, theyd survive.

Their generals, startled awake by the sudden onslaught of messages and calls, actively tried to reassess the situation. All our port cities have been captured? The supplies have been stolen? It wasnt hard for beetles to haul away goods. Thats part of their regular peace-time duties. Well be out of food in a week with the ports out of commission.

We must rush back to retake one of the ports! Furious discussions broke out. Some pushing to retreat to the ports, others recommending a push against Freshlands.

The paths have been cut off.

Im a tree. Terraforming terrain isnt exactly difficult. I could easily add trees to a path, and populate them with hostile vegetation. Then add beetles! Instant-terrain difficulty +1!

Trevor and my artificial minds have been planning for months on how to knock out all their transport routes overnight, and leave only smaller, less useful paths. Even vast plains had tunnels collapsed in order to create a cliff.

How? That was a word that gave me joy. I felt like a master strategist who finally revealed his trump card, and the generals were my victims.

Monster-trees? Monstree. Thats a bad pun.

In a period of about a week, the balance of power switched. Their entire logistics network and supply chain crippled. The general could probably beat the Freshland force in a straight fight, but I would never fight them that way. I always wanted a subtle way.

There was a saying, if one is to remove weeds, they must also remove the roots. I think these ports are the roots.

I was going to drag it out until they starved, and even if the general was a good one, a starving army still represented a significant weakness. No amount of [skill] would suppress widespread hunger. Maybe a level 100 [general] could, but I think the enemy [general] was in their level 60s only.

Meanwhile, the Freshland army finally got their marching orders, and they soon encountered the deserters and those who fled from my army of beetles and spiders. No army was going to hold itself together when food and water ran out.

Some segments of the two crusading forces broke off and they marched towards the nearest city in hopes of securing some supplies. But morale dropped quickly as they encountered terrible, unforgiving terrain that was never there previous, and the two large armies fractured, as each force wanted to seek out their own sources of food.

The generals and lords, priests tried to hold the army together, but ultimately, they were a coalition army.

The temples cobbled the force together from the armies of various kingdoms. There was never true unity or proper discipline.. Once they fractured, it was a lot easier for the Freshland army and my beetles to pick off the smaller forces. Many surrendered. Many soldiers did not have a personal stake in this conflict, and were not blind zealots.

Within a month from that day, both of the armies leaders decided to surrender, while the 300,000 or so soldiers that were unable to dock had to forcefully redirect themselves to further ports, with whatever little supply they carried. There, their crusade stopped.

The First Crusade Against Aeon had ended. I lost about 200,000 beetles from the 1,000,000 deployed across the 6 cities and various smaller targets. Horns and my new artificial minds all leveled up quite significantly from the battles.

[You gained a level. You are level 169]

[Subsidiary trees limit increased to 1,500,000]

Of course, this sudden upheaval made my war council angry, frustrated. Aeon had planned to take the six port cities all along. The general said. We were the distraction from the main attack.

And it didnt tell us because we might leak it to the temples, so Aeon just let us drag the war out.

Jura earned a bit of sounding, but Jura himself had very little knowledge of the actual plan, other than there is one. In fact, he knew of the plan to attack all six port cities at the same time I announced it to the Valthorns.

A victory.

But the crusade was not over, not yet.

The temples remained formally at war, so this was pretty much just the First Crusade. I made sure research continued into more types of beetles and spiders. I would want to add flying beetles, and bomber beetles. Id like to bomb the ships once they got in range of the shore.

Theres also the political complexity of assimilating the six port cities into the Freshlands administration, and the negotiations with the nations and kingdoms in between. Those that had chosen to side with the temples, quickly switched sides, when they watched the port cities fall. All of them also fortified their walls and reinforced their foundations, to make it harder for tunnelling.

Politically, the six port cities are now a part of Freshka. I declared that since they declared war on me, I have, by the norms of this world, properly conquered the port cities. Something none of the kingdoms dare oppose, even if they privately mentioned their worries. Some of them got so paranoid that they chopped all the trees from their cities. Treeless cities.

Enemies. I declared cities without trees as enemies of the Freshlands. The few small city states that made such a decision surrendered in fear.

All in, by the end of the year, we had conquered six port cities, and eight other kingdoms. Many expressed their regrets for siding with the temples.

I had initially considered being more ironfisted and considered executing their leaders, but decided to demand resources, gems and various other treasures as compensation. Throughout the new kingdoms that now come under my influence or indirect control, I thought of expelling those who sided with the temples, but instead opted for a widespread conversion programme.

Like a forest reclaiming urban lands, I can convert them. I would try.

Wololo.

Most priests in this world are not specific to a god, though some do specialise, and in doing so, gain special classes for that god. But in most part, the priests of the world are generally polytheistic, and its a mishmash of the pantheon and whatever local animistic belief that existed in a particular location.

It was this tolerance of various beliefs that allowed me to recruit some of my earlier batch of priests. The world had spirits after all, and unlike home, the priests of this world acknowledge that each god has a focused scope, and at times, local spirits will reign over the wills of the gods.

In a way, it is strange that the gods outright declared a crusade against me. Why? Theyve shared the world with so many others, so whats wrong with just letting me rise?

Why a crusade?

Why send an army and so many lives to waste when there are demons to prepare for?

Why?

Whats this insanity?

-

Its my first time seeing the ocean. Edna said. She had lived inland. The Freshlands itself is landlocked, after all, the corruption bomb happened in the middle of the continent. Little did I imagine for my first time, Id be part of a covert army conquering a port city.

Fate is strange, Edna. A fellow Valthorn nodded. There were a few deaths. I couldnt save everyone, but a few deaths are still infinitely better than many. The losses on the opponent side is far larger, and the beetles gathered the surrendered soldiers into groups.

More of the regular army and cavalry had marched all the way from the Freshlands to reinforce the Valthorn strike team including various local nobles and captains. They had a lot to do, like stripping the surrendered soldiers of all their weapons, briefings, taking over the military administration.

There would also be officials from the Freshlands Federal Authority. They had to set up offices to integrate these new cities into the Freshlands.

Formally the six cities were declared to be the Freshland Six Ports, and they would have a sub-authority known as the Six Ports Administration. It made sense that all six ports were administered together, even if all six were previously independent states. Quite a few of the existing administration surrendered, and Kavio recommended that we assimilate them into the existing structure, once they passed some loyalty test. A suggestion I agreed.

But a lot of new people had to be parachuted over. Its kind of like when a company forcefully acquired another company. Some of the employees would remain, but usually the heads of department would change. There would be a lot of system changes and migrations. Laws and processes need to be modified to comply with the new acquiring holding company.

Youll get sick of the ocean soon enough, Lady Edna. A soldier said. The Valthorns are a sub-nobility, so they are often referred to as Lady or Lord, even if they do not formally carry the title.

Indeed. Edna nodded. She was in the southernmost port. But for now Ill enjoy it. There were wreckages to clean up. Holes to patch up.

Most of the civilians had private complaints about the new [Giant attendant tree] that now dominated their city, but they soon accepted that they lost, and the Tree is there to remind them that we will watch over them.

The Valthorns would be stationed there for at least a few years as a peacekeeping force, with regular rotations back to the Freshlands. A long range beetle-transport service was set up, and the kingdoms in between happily gave permission. Its not as if they dared oppose me at this point.

-

Most of the nations swayed with the wind, and changed allegiances. Like new converts, they compensated for their foolish past by insulting their temples with vigor and vitriol.

Its fine. Geopolitics is disgusting, but ultimately necessary. There is no way I can populate the land without people, and people naturally give rise to politics.

After the battle, I created more artificial minds. I had to. My lands and dominion had increased so much more, and Jasmine and the existing artificial minds could not handle the monitoring of so many new citizens. I also didnt expel those who believed in the four warring temples, I only demanded that they do not support any war effort against me. But that required my artificial minds to observe so many of these cities and kingdoms.

Intense monitoring and surveillance is required.

Why not kill them? My artificial minds suggested. After all, we have killed so many.

I didnt want to, though. But I felt comforted too. This is a part of nature. In nature, death is perpetual. Do we weep for the millions of ants who died in their wars with each other? Do the ant queens cry when the super ant-colonies wage planetary warfare?

No.

[Grand Mind Tree has blocked influence from trees.]

Override.

Death on a personal level is a tragedy.

But in the wars I fight, they are but a statistic. A number.

A score at the end of the game.

A tree in its life would create thousands, even millions of seeds. All potential lives. It does not weep when mortals eat the seeds. It is part of a greater calculation. That some will survive, and as a whole, we will all prosper and grow.

Pain and death is but a step-

Wait. Im going too far. No. I paused and pulled myself together. Indeed, but they surrendered. As such, I must abide by the norms of those who surrendered, that they are not overly punished.

I cannot go too deep at that end. I would become a pest, a locust. A tree of nature must never let itself turn into plague that destabilised the ecology.

But they may well go against you, master.

I must mold the narrative correctly. I seek to change and prepare, but I must look to be constructive, not overly destructive. Even if I do use tools which are destructive.

A risk, but a calculated one. Only by displaying mercy and the willingness to assimilate these people, these heathens that they once were, can we convince the world that we are here to stay. If one of every two converts to our cause, we are stronger as a whole. The risk is worth it, to build a stronger tree, we must sometimes accept some risks.

The artificial minds mentally agreed. They would agree anyway.

So, we watch. Fifty new artificial minds. My second [grand mind tree] will take 18 months to be completed. The various surrendering kingdoms gladly volunteered the materials for its construction. They didnt know, of course. I merely asked for the materials, and the losers gladly coughed it out.

It will be long. Those who lost will nurse unhappy feelings.

I only hope that we pick them up before those unhappy feelings lead to more war and conflict. The temples started a war, but I have no intention of letting this crusade last for centuries, even if I am very much suited for a long war.

> Relatively. <

Lilies had not participated in the war. In fact, Lilies city didnt send soldiers out at all, even though their city was home to many followers of these temples.

Hah. Was that a pep talk from Lilies?

> If only it wasnt so. <

> So it is. <

Spaizzer

I'm probably sounding like a broken record by now, but I'm still crazy busy with work, so I've not been able to work on side stories. That said, the regular chapters are still on a normal schedule. I had hoped to find some pockets of time and grow the gap between patreons and regular chapters, or create new tiers, but that'll have to wait :S

Anyway, this public chapter is one of my longest chapter to date at 7,300 words. I hope you like it. I edited it a few times to grow the Valthorn's role in the battle.

Thanks for reading, and just to shill a little, my patreon's 3 chapters ahead :)