Gated Gardens

Gated Gardens

Year 145

The Eastern Continents war against the demons increased in intensity. The heroes returned, and with it, they brought superior, star-mana powered firepower. The heroes could take on large flights of drakes, and that meant the war was starting to shift in favor of the natives.

We know this, because the temples propaganda machine is in full swing, boasting of the heroes success in defeating the demons. So, the powers of the 3 heroes were now public knowledge. Kei essentially was a mobile flak fortress. Alvin, was a mobile missile site and he fired magic missiles by the thousands. Hans was the mobile beam weapons and drones person. Strange that the Gods opted for ground based anti-air powers, instead of giving the heroes flight and ability to fight midair.

With their powers, the drakes were not a challenge. They just could not be everywhere at the same time. There were too many fronts, too many cities and towns under the attack of the drakes.

The drakes have multiplied tremendously over the past few years, and swarms of 50 to 300 giant drakes were now common sight. Lausanne described them as mobile flying fortresses, and were quite like dragons that shed seen in her many dreams. I was expecting the war to end soon. The heroes would win, I think.

-

In the Central continent, the ruling class generally believed the demon king was a goner. They didnt think the heroes would fail the 2nd time, even if they were the 2nd batch. Personally, I think they would succeed, simply because the demon king must be in a weaker state, perhaps due to damage from the earlier battles with the first batch of heroes.

So, our focus was mainly on restoring the trade connections thatve been lost over the past decade of war, and it was getting easier. In particular, a few of the island nations, there were some volcanic island nations located nearer to the center of the oceans, that were keen to support us and essentially become our intermediaries.

Unlike the continental kingdoms where the temples influence is strong, these volcanic islands had a lot more to gain, and honestly, not much to lose.

That said, since most of our ships disguised themselves as pirate ships, privateers all, they had multiple sea battles with the navies of those continental kingdoms. We lost quite many ships, but it was fine.

On the Northern continent, often referred to as the Northern Isles, a few independent kingdoms went as far as permitting our merchant ships to dock, without a need to change our flags. Overall, a good sign, that trade and global relations were somewhat thawing. I really dont see the point of pointless battles.

Solving the demon king in the long run was a bigger problem.

-

The Central Continent is big, and even though almost all of the kingdoms and nations in the continent are now allied to my, either formally or indirectly, there are still places where my root network and trees only have a little coverage.

Since many of these new kingdoms are relatively new to my growing federation, we had focused our subsidiary trees in the habited zones. This was in line with our support of the Treeological priests social and charity work. It would be quite similar to a network of expressways linking all the large habited zones, since I also needed the network of trees to break through the shattered Rottedlands, and also to act as beacons for the beetle-truckers.

Therefore, in spite of my vast network, there are still gaps. And where there are gaps, there are mysteries to be explained, and monsters I have yet to meet.

So, in the northern areas of the Central continent, in a forest I recently just expanded to, we heard a creature calling out to us. I sense a spirit in our midst. A large giant wolf spoke, it looked every park like a regular giant wolf-animal, but the very fact that it spoke meant it was not ordinary at all.

It seemed to be having a conversation with something, or someone.

You are right, perhaps it can hear us. The wolf somehow said. So, spirit, show yourself.

I thought about this for a moment, and decided to telepathically speak. There was something strange about his form as a wolf, perhaps it is not really a wolf. Greetings.

The wolf paused, and it looked around. I see. A spirit of the land?

I am Aeon, a Tree Spirit.

Akrenaf, Wolf of the Hunt. I had no idea what that was.

It seems you speak the common tongue?

Ah, I am both wolf and man, and there are two of us in our body as we speak. My spiritual vision seemed to clear up, and then I saw a wolf... and something like a man? But its not really separated. The man in me is Varik the Brave, a human shaman who died a century ago.

I see.

You are... it paused, and then it seemed puzzled. Where is your body?

Far, far away.

So... strange.

Not as strange as two souls in a single body. I dont recall that is possible. One soul should have purged the other. I focused my energies, my roots linked to more trees. The trees around them all added to my spiritual sense.

Ah, we are not really two souls. Our souls fused, and we are one, but we are of two minds. Ah split personality. Thats a lot easy to digest.

How?

Varik the [Shaman] has a unique ritual skill called [Living Memory]. It made his soul into a memory able to latch onto anything, or in this instance, me. Akrenaf said. I, the wolf killed him a century ago. I was but a normal wolf then. The memory changed the wolf, and it gained levels since then. It is now far stronger than before, and yet, it refused to leave its forest.

Ah.

I am dominant, but his memories, voices, magic and thoughts remain in me. He lives through me.

Fascinating. Well met, Akrenaf, Wolf of the Hunt.

It howled.

Akrenaf was a wolf that guarded this forest, and as a wolf, he is, in many ways, a monster like me. Yet, it had memory of the world, and thought, and so it gained levels. As my roots spread throughout the forest... This was a young forest. It was not older than 50 years.

This forest, it was destroyed before?

Kei sat up. Fuck the gods. Fuck em, and fuck my two brainwashed friends who cant seem the mindcontrol for the life of me. My answer is simple. Aeon, I need your help. I believe in the whole wide world right now, only you can help me. Even if I die in the end. Another cup. Next one, I want a proper fight with the demon king.

Then she screamed in pain.

And...

Youre a tree, a magical tree, and as far as I can tell, one of the strongest beings to exist in this world. If I give you all the star mana I have, including my soul if you need it, can you..."

She couldn't say it, as she dropped down on the floor and struggled. It seemed like her head was in immense pain and she pulled her hair.

This was too much for me to take and if I was a human Id be panicking. Thankfully, a tree does not panic. She struggled for a good one hour, and when she recovered, her eyes were blank, her face deathly pale.

She just sat there, and finished her pot of tea. Then she asked for the journal, but I didnt say too much to her. She seemed out of it.

She stared at the journal for hours, then finally she added some additional notes into it. She slept in that room that day, then spent the subsequent few weeks, making more star-mana weapons.

-

Despite Keis obsession and frustrations about slaying a weakened demon king, I think she was actually trying to tell me something else, without fully triggering the gods increasingly overreaching mental influences.

By not going all the way and making me think for myself what she couldnt say, did she just... figure out how to cheat the gods?

Her statement about a weakened, disarmed demon king opened my mind to a world of possibilities.

Seal the demon king. And probably the heroes too. A seal that could last a century. Maybe more.

Its strange to think that this entire problem could be solved in such a simple method. Seal the demon king, lock it up, keep it alive but harmless. Essentially, it would jam a metal wrench into the cog. Its a lot easier to deal with the other demons, without the demon king.

Peace. Sort of.

But how?

It was a proposal in the right intent, but we are lacking the tools. If this is to be done, it would need a few decades of preparation, and far more levels than what we have now.

I gathered my artificial minds.

The hero Kei was almost in the right direction. If we can somehow figure out how to disable both the hero and the demon king, we can delay the cycle as long as they are both disabled. Failure is unfortunately death, since if either one turns on us, our ability to survive them right now is low.

It can be done if the hero is on our side. By our calculations and our present abilities, I think we have an extremely slim chance this would succeed. I recommend significantly more preparation. Patreeck commented, and naturally I agreed. This was going against heaven and hell at the same time.

To seal a demon king and also a hero would require a spell far more powerful than anything we have, perhaps at an even higher tier than the superhexbomb.

But not impossible, and as the hero implied, a 100 years of peace may be worth it, and it would allow us all the time we need to prepare for the eventual failure of the seal. We are the only ones that can stop this. Only us, with the benefit of our long lives. Perhaps, us and Lilies. Together.

Silence from my artificial minds.

We would have to convince Lilies to support this endeavour, it is risky, since the heroes will turn on us as our plans involve sealing both sides. We also dont know how far the gods mind-warping abilities can go. Should any of the heroes rebel so publicly, would the gods be able to turn their powers on overdrive, and turn her into their puppet outright?

I believe it is certain that the gods wont let me seal the demon king. Why else did they load up the heroes minds with so much mental alterations? I believe the gods can make them puppets if they so desire, perhaps at a great cost.

If so, master, conflict with the heroes...

Inevitable.

I recalled Keis words. When she saw the demon king, she was swamped with an intense bloodlust. The heroes that supported and worked with us may betray us at that crucial moment, and that could go really bad, very quickly. We would need very specific countermeasures for the heroes then.

The war with the temples would take a far nastier turn, if that happened.

Still, I wanted to thank Kei. She sparked a thought, a chance, of how this entire conflict could end. A perpetual truce.

Maybe it would not succeed in her lifetime, but I have the time to prepare. Ill need all the time to prepare on this path that will make the gods and demons my enemies.

Master. Patreeck spoke. It may be tempting to consider Keis suggestion as something achievable, but at the same time, it is possible that you can gain sufficient power to alter the divine arrangement yourself, without a need to directly seal both of the combatants in this conflict.

Hmmm?

I mean... the heroes and the demons are beings from another world, right? If you could... seal this world away, hide the world from their sight, would they still come?

Oh?

Its like the powers of the ancient vanishing forest, taking it to the next level. A vanishing world, away from the meddling gazes of the demons and the gods. A global shroud generator.

Another option. Go all out on the path of divinity, then run away, and take this entire world with it. There are other options that may emerge the higher up I go, as I better understand the powers of the divine.

Options. Suddenly I felt like there is a path out of this stupid game.

You are right. We must try what we can.

Spaizzer

Happy new year peeps. Thanks for reading.