Those who Fight For Tree

Those who Fight For Tree

Year 155

The rifts opened again, this time, they went back to their earlier strategy of multiple rifts across the central continent.

But we were getting better. My studies into the void mana and the daemolite had produced some useful information.The daemolite has a certain range of resonance with the rifts, that is mostly invisible, except when one has void mana. The daemolites ability to store void mana is actually quite good, compared to almost everything weve seen.

The next point, really, is why?

The daemolite left by the demon king on this world, does it serve a purpose beyond just a store of void mana? Or does the demon king need that void mana batteries to travel to this world? Or is there some other purpose?

But anyway, our research into void mana and these void batteries made us more sensitive to the rifts, and so, I had about 4-5 hours notice that a rift was happening, and also their location. Its just a lot easier to find something when you know exactly what you are looking for.

The Valthorns, Hytreerion and all engaged in combat over the next few months, the rifts now popping in and out. They barely stay open for more than a week, and would close as soon as my forces get near. If this isnt proof of demonic intelligence, I dont know what else is. They clearly have some way of transmitting information back to the homeworld, and are able to act on it. Thankfully, the type of demons remain the same. Its still the quasi-undead demons. Is there like some kind of facility in their home world that decides on the demonic themes?

As the year went on, its increasingly clear that something big was going to happen. My sensors were going wild, and I knew exactly where it was going to happen. Of course, we had to be tuned in to that specific magical resonance to detect it. Im betting my money on this being the demon king, and he will appear in the Central Continent. Im quite sure of it.

Immediately, I had that area where we detected the magical fluctuations cleared, emptied of all people, and loaded with all the magical traps and weapons. If a demon kings gonna appear on our continent, Im gonna hammer it with everything. I also started to flood the area with my [Giant attendant trees].

This was my chance to test how long I can hold out against the demon king.

Kei was on the way back from the other continent. The other two heroes agreed to come as well. It seemed to me that they are compelled to fight demon kings, even if they disagree with me, and have no love for the central continent.

Perhaps, it is a requirement of the [hero] class, that they must challenge the demon king.

-

Of course, my actions were not missed by the common folk, or the elite. I decided it was just right to be forthcoming about it, so I informed everyone that the demon king will be on the central continent.

Once again, panic.

-

Schadenfreude. Thats the feeling from the other continents and the temples. They delight in the fact that I will have to face the demon king. Damn them. Not that they can do anything to help.

-

I called on the kingdoms of the central continent to share their hero items. Many of them have a few, legacy of their founding heroes, or gifts from visiting heroes. We built bombardment stations, built around the hero items. We can prepare for this, and so we will. The hero items were all supported with massive arrays of mana-storing potatoes.

If one doesnt hurt the demon king, maybe a few of them together can. Together with the heroes, Id hope to make this battle a swift one. After all, apes together strong.

I even equipped Hytreerion, my massive tree walker with that Cannon of Alantara I stole from the temples. Hytreerions massive mana pool meant he could support one hero item on his own, and to bolster his mana capacity, we also started research of mana-storage beetles. Mobile-mana batteries meant to augment Hytreerions large mana pool.

These mobile mana-storage beetles started off as beetles with a large mana-potato grafted on their back. Over time, the biolabs made improvements to the bond between these mana-potatoes and the beetles.

Eventually, I even got them to explode if triggered in a certain way. Its a roundabout way of getting back to Beetle-banelings.

Point is, I needed mana-storage, since the point is to create huge bursts of energy output. Weve also planted the entire area with modified potatoes, and charged them up with all the mana I could get.

If a demon kings coming, I was going to blow it up as much as I can.

Seriously, this is... really just camping at the spawn point, isnt it? What if the demon king doesnt spawn here? Kei admired my work when she arrived at the location. Weve built multiple fortresses around the demon kings spawn point.

My rift attuned sensors did not detect any unusual changes. For now, all of them point here.

But, sure.

Can you help? I spoke to Kei. Your array of guns, are you able to place them as fixed objects? Since I was quite certain where the demon king will appear, it is entirely possible to really break this.

But is killing the demon king the answer? Kei asked. We did that last time, and all it did was lead to this point here.

If youre not willing to help me kill the demon king, then help me immobilise it to a significant degree, such that we can repeat what happened.

Kei thought for a moment and then agreed. This is pretty much trying to injure a pokemon so that you can catch it, but not too much that its dead.

I got that reference, but I just continued. So, help?

Yes.

She spent about a month using her [heros forge] to set up multiple cannon arrays. But, her arrays are powered by her star mana, so for now, they are pretty much like single-use turrets that will expire once the star mana runs out. Still, with so many cannons, traps and weapons, Id hope to at least significantly weaken the demon king.

When are your two friends coming?

They said they will come once the demon king appears.

Ugh. So glued to their harem.

-

So this is what moms been up to. Arlisa said. She had snuck out after I asked Lausanne and many others to help with the preparations of the site. She stood at the edge of the cliff and looked at the vast area now cleared into a battleground. The entire area, and anywhere with 50 miles was evacuated where possible.

Overnight, towns and cities in the area were emptied, the people moved as far as they could. We had large convoys of beetles ferrying people from the towns and cities to large dedicated new-towns.

What are you doing here? Lausanne, of course, could sense her daughter from a distance away. It also helped that one of Arlisas bracelets are enchanted.

Arlisa jumped when Lausanne snuck out behind her, undoing her [Camouflage]. MOM! Arlisa was about to flip. Wait. Why didnt I sense you coming?

Your [Detection] abilities are probably too low. Lausanne patted her 14 year old daughters head. Shes a level 34 [Ranger], and its considered slow when Lausanne herself hit Level 60s at that age. But, of course, Arlisa was also taking life a lot easier, and did not have to fight as many monsters as Lausanne did. Naturally, her level would be lower.

Theres also a part of her rebelling by not following her mothers footsteps. When everyone expected her levels to soar, she resisted it. She claimed that she was still trying to figure out her life and didnt want to move so fast.

Now, you want to see what we are doing?

Is the demon king going to appear soon?

Aeon thinks itll be soon. This entire place is loaded with formations, which... he isnt sure will work or not.

Arlisa was worried, and her facial expression reflected that. Will you be fighting, mom?

No against the demon king. Hopefully not. Jura is. Along with those who received the seed. But the rest of us will be helping to control the other demons that appear. Aeon expects the demon king to be accompanied by a large army.

...I see.

-

The Valthorns went through the plans over and over. Kei, as the hero, was also involved. The moment the demon king appeared, we would activate all the weapons and traps against the demon king, and then only would Kei engage. One-on-one against the demon king is going to be tough, but the rest of us will play support.

Everyone was in their best equipment. We moved our best anti-demon artifacts to the fortresses around Ground Zero. The signals we detected were increasing, and getting stronger. The tension in the air was rising.

And yet the two heroes have not even left their continent.

How long do you think we can hold back the demon king?

Based on our calculations and data provided by past heroes, master... we should be able to suppress the demon king for at least a day. Our base case scenario varies, but the median is around 6 days. Patreeck modelled the potential battle, and 6 days wasnt great. The key is whether Kei can kill it. Based on our current data points, we should be able to take the demon king down by about 40-50%. Keis star mana would have to make up for the rest of the shortfall. Ne/w novel chapters are published at novelhall.com

Thats barring any cheap tricks.

-

I made progress with my various energy research. There was no progress for the blackstar gems, however. Still, the energy research did not unlock new color. At least, not yet. All it did was add more mana to the pool.

Its fine. It was loading the entire area with more mana anyway.

-

Jura, Lovis, Faris and Edna were all Level 125. It seemed there was a natural limit for experience seeds, and that limit was Level 125. All the experience seed did not work beyond that point.

Darn. I suppose you cant cheese your way to divinity through experience seeds. They had to earn their last 25 levels.

I also gave my 5th Soul Strengthening seed, this time to one of my Patreearchs, Priest Lumoof. He was a Level 85 [Aeonic Bishop]. Though he was old, he had a lot of support abilities, and I needed someone like that to support the first 4.

Now was not the time to save on experience seeds, so I also pushed him up to Level 125.

Year 156

The demon king didnt waste time. The rift was massive, so massive that it seemed like the sky itself twisted.

Its coming. Kei said from a distance away. We watched, as massive skeleton dragons and mammoths stepped out of the rifts. The champions of the demon king.

In its place, the three heads combined, turning into a single-head with three faces. The dragon, the snake and the mammoth. Was that some kind of symbolism? All three mouths opened, and it shot out huge red beams in all directions.

Faris was too near! Still, he kept attacking the demon king, his attacks made small, tiny cracks on the large three-faced creature.

One of the mouth turned to face Faris and shot a red beam. It happened so, so quickly, and he was too near. Faris was caught in the red beam. He was vaporised instantly.

[Faris has died.]

FUCK!

Retreat! I screamed mentally, but it was too late, really. The red beam was crazy powerful. My shields were nothing more than paper before a flood. This power was above and beyond whatever data I got from Harris. When we simulated the past demon kings, my shields still managed to weaken the power of the attack, but this was easily three to four times stronger.

Jura shook his head. No. Were this near, and were this close. Its either we win, or theres nothing left for us. He threw a magical spear. It hit the demon kings face and caused a tiny crack.

Keis star mana blast managed to hit and it knocked a big chunk off the demon kings three faces.

It traded defense and hit-points for power. Patreeck commented in my head, quickly summarising that its defensive stats are probably not that high. Its also a relative thing. To Kei, yes, its totally a glass cannon, to us, its still impossibly tough. Its a glass cannon.

With 10 lives. Not exactly a glass cannon. Still, my eyes were locked on Jura and Lovis, both attempted to get closer. Lovis threw a few magical spears at the demon king from her location, and it did just tiny bits of damage too.

Not anymore. Theres only two red-crystals on its mammoth-face.

The demons energy beam and the beam from Keis array had a clash of powers normally seen in anime. The two energies met and had a short tug of war but eventually, Keis purple-white beam lost. The demons power pushed through and Keis array was destroyed in another big explosion. The beam was so strong it even burned a straight line for about 10 miles, I felt like a line of trees just vanished from my network.

Kei was alive. She managed to dodge sideways but she had lost an entire limb. Blood streamed out of the charred parts. But she stood. Alive and defiant.

I immediately sent vines to surround her, and attempted to heal her. At this distance, my root strikes would be weak, but whatever. I unleashed all I could, and summoned multiple giant attendant trees again.

The Demon King roared and black flames instantly torched my root strikes. One of them hit the demon king and caused a little more cracks.

...not yet. Kei said, my vines now wrapped around her entire body. Her arm was lost but my vines quickly applied healing energies to suppress the wound. She lifted her other hand, and her body glowed.

Her lifeforce and soul was flickering. I could sense her entire soul spring cracking and crumbling, even the marbled hero-blocks.

Ten magical large projectiles, they resembled armor-piercing rounds appeared in the air, made of star mana. This was it, as all of her mana left her body. Her body now felt like an empty shell. If this didnt work, the demon king would win. A flick of her finger, and all ten massive magical rounds flew towards the three-faced demon king. The demon king roared, its three-faces unfurled like a book and took the attack head on.

The projectiles exploded on impact, each explosion was small, but they were dense with star mana. Each shot resembled a mini-nuke on its own.

There was a short moment of suspense as we watched the dust settle.

It was not enough.

When the dust settled, there was still one face. The mammoth face was still there, cracked and weakened, there was no crystal left on its head. This was its last life too.

If only the other two heroes were here.

Kei... fainted. Her life force flickered and faded, she was weak and dying, even if I managed to suppress the bleeding. I called on my mana to heal Kei and supported her, but I could sense her soul spring crumbling...

The demon kings movements were sluggish. Its face were filled with thousands of cracks and it roared.

Keis anti-fear aura faded away.

I froze. I had flashbacks of that very first time when I met that demon king, and I remembered how it chopped off my trunk. It felt like old wounds had suddenly reappeared, their wounds that I thought had fully healed just flared up. Old pains and wounds just burned suddenly, things I didnt even know I had.

What do I-

Master! My artificial souls voice broke me out of my flashbacks.

Then, I saw Lovis and Jura both charged at the demon king. Somehow they were unaffected. They were equipped with anti-demon spears and launched an attack together. Their weapons glowed as they used everything they had at the demon king.

What are you guys doing?

We have a clear shot. Both of them mentally responded, even though I sensed and shared their fear. I didnt know what compelled them to even try for the demon king. Their spears crash into the demon kings skeletal face. The cracks on its face glowed. Its a familiar look. Things Ive seen in dreams.

It was going to blow. Flames shot out in all directions.

Why do they always blow up.

Fuck get the shit out of there!

I quickly extended my vines and attempted to drag both of them out of there, and used my vines to latch onto the exploding demon king. If I could drain some of its energy, the explosion may not be so big.

I wrapped my vines and roots around Kei, she was too weak to move in her half-dead state, and used my vines to haul her away.

Jura and Lovis ran as fast as they could, I made layers after layers of wooden shields. Everything. I made Giant Attendant Trees too, by the hundreds.

I pulled and tried to drain as much energy out of the demon king as I could. My vines wrapped around the demon kings cracked faces many many times, and my entire body was temporarily flooded with the demon kings mana, but it wasnt enough. The mammoth-face still detonated, and instantly, there was an explosion just as big as my traps. Black, blue and red light cut through my vines and all my shields, and it was as if the void itself was here.

What could I do? Wait. Teleport! My Star-mana Ropeway! I wanted to activate my teleportation ability to save them, but I had used all my star mana. The explosion was too quick, and my subsidiary tree was charred before it even completely spawned.

The black-ish energies exploded and caught Lovis, Kei and Jura. I tried to shield them, but the energies attacked my roots too, and it incinerated them instantly. The energy felt like a shockwave of radiation, and it interfered with my roots, vines and trees ability to regenerate.

Fuck!!!!! I was far away, but if I had a human heart, it was like watching a tragedy unfold before my very eyes. I felt it sink. I wanted to deny this reality. No.

Jura was closest to the demon king, and the impact of the blast was strongest on him. Even with all the shields and power I could muster, it was nothing before that King. His entire body was pierced by the light, and charred by the explosion, and he collapsed.

Jura!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He died, even though my vines tried to reach him. I tried and tried to create shields, and I saw Jura activated his familiar to shield himself too. But the explosion was too strong, too dense.

The notification I dreaded came in.

[Jura has died.]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK! I mentally yelled.

Lovis managed to escape a little further, but it wasnt enough at all. Just like Jura, the demonic rays pierced through and charred her body, and she died within seconds.

[Lovis has died. Aeons Demonslayer class was released.]

Kei was much further away when the radioactive shockwave hit. It tore through the layers of wooden vines, and I felt the rays pierce through the wounds. But at the same time, I thought I felt a strange flow push back at the demonic radiation. Something equally powerful, if not stronger.

Yet, I got a strange notification. [Kei has died. You have received a fragment and a Titan Soul.]

Then I looked at her again, her body had fused with all the vines. Her heart is beating, my vines had entered her body through her destroyed arm, to keep her alive. She was no longer human. Only her face was left intact, but her body had... melted into this strange part-crystalline, part-treevines structure. There was a heart in there that was still beating, I could sense it with my vines.

It was no longer a normal heart. It was... a crystal? The crystal collapsed instantly and formed a cocoon made of crystal and a huge tangle of roots within.

What happened? I asked, then one of the artificial minds flooded my mind. I saw the explosion rip through Keis body, but then, she glowed. A part of it crumbled away, and a part of it remained that pushed back against the wave, like how a magnetosphere deflected a solar flare. In that process, the shockwave caused her body to shift and change.

[Demon King Tigash has been destroyed]

[Due to your excessive contribution in the fight against the demon king as a non-hero, you have been granted a special experience multiplier. You gained 27 Levels. You are now Level 197]

[Jura has bequeathed the skill - Warlords Barrage. Skill absorbed into Root Field. Root Fields upgraded to Fields of Death]

[Lovis has bequeathed the skill - Spear of Destruction. Skill modified and changed to Roots of Destruction]

[Faris has bequeathed the skill - Vine Control. The following skills have been merged. Healing Vines, Constrict, and Absorption to Root & Vine Mastery]

I... I couldnt. I couldnt check the rest of the skills. I had to pause for a moment and consider what had just happened.

So I didnt. Ill get back to the skills the next time.

-

Oh. I died. Juras spirit appeared in my soul realm the next day. So did Lovis and Faris. I figured that would happen. Ill disappear in a few months, right?

It was a strange feeling to see him there. ...Im sorry. I shouldnt have put them through that. But against the demon king, could I even think of holding back my best fighters? No.

Jura shrugged. Im glad I did it. To fight a demon king and managed to land a hit to finish it off? If thats not going out with a bang, what else is?

Lovis agreed.

Thank you both.

Jura smiled. Im glad we still have these few months to say my goodbyes.